_ volume 2 newsletl'er of the optometric historical, society february 1971 nov () r. !c'" . . ''? number 1 11let us praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us." --ecclesiasticus i would like to start th~ first issue of the newsletter with a tribute to harry anthony jankiewicz (1908-1970). professor jankiewicz was a 'stickler' for detail and accuracy. undoubtedly he would, were he still with us, have reprimanded me fo~ b2ing so late with the newslettero it should have been 'out' in january. he would also have forgiven me. i first met him prior to his taking up an appointment as professor of anatomy at th8 university of houston, college of optometry, in 1963. before going to houston he had demonstrated how superb a teacher he was at los angel8s · college of optometry (1937-1963). harry jankiewicz receivad his a.b. at the university of california, los angeles in 1929. during the period 1932-1935 he was employed at los angeles county livestock parasitological research. after completing his ph.d. at the univer­ sity of southern california he became an instructor at the university for the next two years. but his long association with laco stemmed back to 1937, when he had commenced being an instructor in anatomy and physiology. he ultimately became professor of anatomy and physiology at that institution. over the years he published on diverse aspects of vision, a particularly important area being concerned with genetical1y determined pathological conditions. his course on the genetics of visual anomalies was one of the first to be offered to students in the united states. equally sough~ after by students was his course on experimental embryology and ocular development. dr. jankiewicz w~s aw~rded the doctor, of ocular science, in 1963, by los angeles college of optometry, as a tribute to his brilhant­ teaching extending over one quarter of a century. th9 iowa optom~tric association selected him for the john e. martin award, in 1167. the non-academic side to dr. jankiewicz was no less intriguing. he was coach to the tennis team, sang bass in the chopin choir and was faculty ping-pong champion. ' it is perhaps most fitting to conclude this brief tribute by quoting th3 obituary in the optometric ·~jorld (april, 1970) where he is described as an "outstanding scholar, scientist, superb teacher, and above all a gentle man." pax. allied oetometric organizations in the last newsletter, we noted an historical chronology of allied optometric associations. by way of further interest i am giving a little historical information on some of the organizations: .. -2· international association of boards of examiners in optometrr (1919) formerly international ooard of boards, the iab was proposed in 1913 at the aoa congress in rochester, new york. at that time there were various state boards of examiners in optometry and even existed an association that can be said to have been the predecessor of all boards of examiners. this association was created in 1910 at the aoa congress in cedar point, ohio. d. m. boney, 2nd vice president of aoa was made president of this organization which per­ haps was influential in the creation of the iab. yet only in 1919, . after several years of recurrent attempts to set a national organiza­ tion, the iab finally was established and a constitution and by-laws were drawn. american academy of optometer (1922) the academy was created in st. louis, at the planters hotel on january 11, 1922. dr. carel c. koch was elected secretary-treasurer. to this day his name is so interwoven with that of the academy that both are almost undiscernible. the main objective of the academy is the improvement of the ethical and scientific standing of optometry. the academy publishes the "american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry. 11 the academy journal is edited by monroe j. hirsch. dr. hirsch is professor at the university of california school of optometry, at berkeley. the associate editor is grace weiner, visual science librarian at the university of alabama school of optometry, at birmingham, alabama • dues: this is a reminder that it's dues time for members who have been in the society for 1 year. oral history maria dablemont, librarian at the aoa, tells me that the oral history program, organized by the library of the aoa, is flourishing. essentially, oral history is the product of a taped interview. maria tells me that she already has several fascinating tapes of great optometric historical importance. presidential return your president has now returned from his world tour, and we eagerly look forward to reading of his various exciting experiences. he will resume the editorship for the forthcoming issues. j. r. levene, editor 1971-02-01-001 1971-02-01-002 newsletter of 'ille optometric historical society nov 18 1975 (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. 63119) volume 6 october 1975 ~umber 4 ophthalmic landmarks for 1976: shortly to be celebrated: bicentenaries, tercentenaries, sesqui­ centenials and other anniversaries. ~ andre ~ anagnostakis (1826-97) is particularly known for popularizing, in france, circa 1854, the clinical use of the newly invented ophthalmoscope. richard banister (1570-1626) in 1622 was probably the first person to clearly recognise absolute glaucoma. banister was an itinerant oculist. he was the author of a breviary appended to jacques guillemau's maladies de l'oeil. gottfried r. treviranus (1776-1837) is primarily remembered for his rediscovery (earlier in 1722 by the dutchman leeuwenhoek) in 1834 of the existence of rods and cones. petrus uispanus (1226-1277), oculist, was born in lisbon and studied at montpellier and paris. he is remembered for his liber de oculis, the abbreviation for his brevarium magistri petri hyspani de egritudinibus oculorum et curis. i shall be writing in more detail about each of these distin~uished people during the coming months. historical papers of particular interest include the followin~: f. rintelen, "history of keratoplasty" (in german) in klin. mbl. augenheilk, 1974, 165 (2) 214-222. de quengsy, in 1789, suggeste_d_ replacement of the opaque cornea with glass, and zirm in 1905 performed the first successful human keratoplasty. h.j. lauer (also in german) gives an account of leber's classical experiments relative to the formation and outflow of the aqueous. for which, see "theodore leber's fundamental teaching on the circulation of the aqueous celebrates its century," in klin. mbl. augenheilk, 1974, 164 (4), 570-571. who were olsa mashkovtseba, eugenia dikanskaya and julia kuyatkorskaya? you're right on all three counts. they're russian: 19th century ophthalmologists. you don't have to take my word for it, but can read an account, given by s.g. ma~ilnitsky, in the oftal. zh., 1974, 29, 73-76. the title of the article "the first homan ophthalmologists in the south of russia iri the 19th century" (in hussian). -50s.l. knutson and m.l. sears have written an intrip,uing account crediting boerhaave with the first description of aqueous veins. "herman boerhaave and the history of vessels carrying aqueous humour from the eye", amer • .:[:_ ophthal., nov. 1973, 76, 648-654. i might add that boerhaave was the most famous physician in his day, famous enough that his address could be written merely as "boerhaave, europe" and there was no difficulty in his mail reaching him. how curious that letters, with complete and correct address, sent to me from fifty miles away fail to reach me! an anonymously written article appears .in the irish faculty of ophtha1moloaista yearbook l.ill, 7, p. 29, relating to sir hilliam wilde a great irish ophthalmologist and father of one of the greatest playwrights, oscar wilde. in the american journal of ophthalmology, ~ october 1973, 494499, d.m. albert and w.h. miller have given an account entitled "jan purkinje and the ophthalmoscope", describing purkinje's use of a concave lens and candle light in order to examine the fundus. currently on exhibit at the indiana university optometry school museum is a recently acquired gift from dr. jack beiman, of indianapolis, a set of 3 very early soft contact lenses, made in czechoslovakia, and appropriately called wichterle lenses, after the inventor of the original geltakt soft contact lens. the term originates from 1963, when wichterle, a czechoslovakian academician, firat developed them. readers may not perhaps know, that was early in 1827. john f.w. herschel, when considering corneal astip,matism and corneal deformation generally, made the statement: should any very bad cases of irregular cornea be found, it is worthy of consideration whether at least a temporary distinct vision could not be procured, by applying in contact with the surface of the eye some transparent animal jelly contained in a spherical capsule of glass; or whether an actual mould of the cornea might not be taken, and impressed on some transparent medium. the operation would, of course, be delicate, but certainly less so than that of cutting open a living eye, and taking out its contents. herschel's comments lay dormant for almost 150 years, before their realization in 1963. the development of hard lenses, of course, made steady progress and were successfully fitted and worn as early as 1887. antiquaria optometries: augmenting the indiana university fall optometry meeting has been a book exhibit entitled "antiquaria optometries". the books are from the private collections of dr. daniel gerstman, of indiana university, and myself. there is an interesting selection, ranging from -51geometric optics, ocular surgery, and anatomy to spectacles. included among the collection were works by hulke (1851) (1st award winnin~ jacksonian prize on the newly invented ophthalmoscope); st. yves (1722) (first description of the crystalline lens removed en masse); a work by quengzy (1789). this is a profusely illustrated surgery book and includes the first illustrated account of a corneal transplant; b~ewster (1858) on the history and use of the stereoscope. call for ideas: --..;;;..;;;=;;;.. i would be pleased to hear from membess of the o.h.s. of ideas for the society's celebration of the bicentennial. a meeting would seem appropriate. the question is where? so far, suggestions have been made for a meeting to be held in one of the two youngest states, alaska or hawaii. more convenient would be the annual aoa convention which is to be held in las vegas in 1976. what i would personally like to see is a meeting in which one day could be devoted to papers of pertinent interest, with the papers being gathered, edited and produced as a commemorative issue. instead of the usual newsletter format, somethinr, glossy and professionally produced. what a headachel -readers may be interested in a paper that has just been published on sir george airy, f.r.s., and the symptomatology of migraine. i've been interested in both airy and migraine for several years. i promised the late sir harold hartley that i would be happy to p,ive him an accotint. sir harold was editor of notes and records of the royal society of london, a journal primarily related to fellows of the royal society. the years rolled by (12 in fact) before my paper materialized. airy, who was an independent discoverer of ocular astigmatism, is known by historians for having used a cylindrical lens to correct his astigmatism. this *as in 1825. interestingly, the independent discovery was made in america by chauncey goodrich, at approximately the same time. airy's lenses were con•tructed by fuller, a lens maker from ipswich, in england. we are not sure who made goodrich's lenses, although incorrectly attributed to mcallister of philadelphia. mcallister certainly supplied lenses, wlich were made in france. to return to airy's account of migraine, i have essentially given him credit for the printed illus­ tration ·of the scintillating zig-zag scotoma. airy's description of migraine would be recognizable to the modem clinical practitioner, as a classic case. for further details readers are referred to notes and records of !h! royal society, vol. 30,no. 1, 1 july, 1975. j.r. levene, editor 1975-06-04-001 1975-06-04-002 1975-06-04-003 volume l newsletter of the optometric histoiucal society november 1970 jan 1 :~; : 1/: number 4 h. w. hofstetter, president of the society is absent from indiana university, while on sabbatical. in a letter to me, in september, he mentions an unexpected visit to the rizaliana museum at fort santiago, in manila. dr. jose rizal was an ophthalmologist, though better known as a national hero in the phillipines. he practiced for a while as an ophthalmic surgeon, in hong kong. in the museum is an award winning oil painting showing him examining the eyes of his mother, on whom he had performed cataract surgery. the painting shows him doing retinoscopy. ode to a monocle ---=;;...;...;= the editor received a delightful contribution on the monocle, from mr. james foulis hay, a city gent, and accountant, practicing in london. ver,y apparently he was stimulated by mr comments in the last issue, that there were several ailments which necessitated the use of a monocle, i.e. being english was one of them. but read on:-in england men aspiring to elegance sartorial no longer wear a frockcoat or fawn spats, but up in london city, far from country life arboreal, dress quietly in dark suits and bowler hats. and what is quite essential for each smart distinguished fella is the c4rr.yin&1 like a rapier, of a tightly-rolled umbrella. amonc these well-dressed exquisites some sport a single eyeglass-­ to foreigners a constant source of fun-there are several kinds of ailment that necessitate a spy-glass so it's clear that being english must be one these english feel with monocles an impression they're creating they keep them firmly in the eye at all times even mating. but alas some gents monocular are uncertain of security and they fix on to the glass a silken cord in case that glass should fall. "let's consign them to obscurity!" one day a tall guards colonel loudly roared "the charge for fixing cord on and ensuring that it fits should be payment for a week at least for dinner at the ritz." and if you think him prejudiced that's just one of those things-­ but monocles, unlike fiddles, should be quite devoid of strings. delightful. mr. hay, not only contributed his own poetry, but provided me with several quotations. who said:-"you speak with a monocle in your throat." of course, oscar levant in "memoirs or an amnesiac" commentir..g on the composer vernon duke. and the immortal tennrson wrote of an englishman with a monocle--23"and curving a contumelious-lip gorgonised me from head to foot with a stony british stare." allied optometric organizations--~ historical chronology: 1919 international association of boards of examiners in optometry 1922 american academy of optometry 1927 distinguished service foundation of optometry 1927 women's auxiliary to the american optometric association 1928 optometric extension program 1930 council on education of the american optometric .4.ssociation 1940 association of schools and colleges of optometry 1947 american optometric foundation 1950 society of optometric association executives 19$1 national board of examiners in optometry 1955 foundation of education & research in vision 1957 association of optometric editors 1961 vision institute of america 1964 american optometric institute 1965 optometric progress fund 196$ fund for vision 1968 american optometric association retirement plan new members we welcome the following new members to the o. h. s.: day, robert e., o.d. 3034 broadway garland, texas 75040 debolt, m. l., o.d. box 605 winona, minnesota 55987 dupuis, sylvio, o.d. 434 hevey street yanchester, new hampshire 03102 fair, ron g., o.d. 105 bridge street brighton, colorado 80601 glosser, william (mr.) 5863 village plaza so. dr. indianapolis, indiana 46219 hinkle, norman wayne, o.d. 116 west first avenue owasso, oklahoma 74055 -24hopping, richard l., o.d. davue building, suite 120 2661 salem avenue dayton, ohio 45406 hussey, lester r., o.d. suite 222, rookery building spokane, washington 99201 koch, russell m., o.d. 116 north jefferson street elk city, oklahoma 73644 koetting, felix a., o.d. 2730 watson road st. louis, mo. 63139 mahlman, h.e., deputy director aoa washington office 1026 17th street, n.w., suite 205 washington, d.c. 20036 pacheco, antonio, dr. p. o. box 10223 santurce, puerto rico 00908 seger, charles e., o.d. 1407 garden street san luis obispo, california 93401 staiman, jacob, o.d. 101 w. monument street, #6-k baltimore, maryland 21201 tumblin, j.c., o.n. 5319 broadway, n.e. knoxville, tennessee 37918 wolfberg, malvin d., o.n. 98 n. broad street selinsgrove, pennsylvania 17870 new books of historical interest recommended for your b.ookshelves is an anthology.£! ophthalmic classics, edited with comments, biographicar-notes, and portrait illustrations, by james e. lebensohn. publishers: williams & wilkins company, baltimore. this really is an excellent selection of classics, in fourteen sections. of particular interest are the sections on the blind spot of mariette; thomas young, on the machanism of accommodation; von helmholtz' description of an ophthalmoscope; snellen on test types; bjerrum on the field of vision; franklin on bifocals; prentice on num­ bering and measuring prisms. these are just a few of the seventy or more extracts from the classics. the book is beautifully produced and well -2.5worth having. recently published is an account by harry h. mark, in ~rchives £! ophthalmology (october, 1970) on the history of the ophthalmoscope. mark entitles his article "the first ophthalmoscope? adolf kussmaul 184.5". kussmaul evidently considered his own instrument the first, despite its shortcomings, for he mentions that ·~y ophthalmoscope was the best in the world for there existed only one--mine, its only disadvanta.ge wss that one could not see with it". mark makes reference to purkinje's earlier qontribution (1823) and helmholtz's work at the mid-century. mark claims that kussmaul was the first to research systematically for a way toward viewing the fundus of the living eye, and the first to build an instrument for the purpose. yet the present editor makes a plea for the cambridge physicist, charles babbage (1792-1871), who also invented an ophthalmoscope in 1847. he showed it to the eminent ophthalmic surgeon, wharton jone~who was not encouraging about its potential. when von helmholtz, however, in 18.51 introduced his own ophthalmoscope, wharton jones, with all due respect made public babbage's contribution--alas, rather late. american optometric association's history committee maria dablemont, has sent me the planning sheet of the proposed work envisaged by the american optometric association's history committee. the program can only command admiration for the people involved in the task ahead. let me list their ambitious objectives: l. 2. 3· 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. planning of a series of single biographies of the great leaders of optometry. publication of textbooks on history to be used at opto­ metric schools. compilation of the early works of the profession's renowned scientists. preparation of statistics, surveys, and data on optometry's economical and professional growth. publication of quarterly pamphlets of miscellaneous news covering past historical events and present archival and museum activities. management and editorship of a serial publication consisting of a short biography of each president of aoa, from the first to the current, which would provide a continuity of history. restoration of old out-of-print rare books. supervision of the archives and museum. that is, purchase of equipment for both, salar,r of personnel, book acquisitions, a continuous search for new items in the years and years to come, compilation of collectors, swapping of duplicate collection items,e management of seminars and lectures on optometric history. (the medical library association has a section composed only of medical histor,r librarians with annual business and educational meetings to further their library techniques and knowledge of the history of medicine.) encouragement to student optometrists to write papers (prizes should be offered for this) on the history of optometry. j. r. levenej sditor 1970-01-04-001 1970-01-04-002 1970-01-04-003 1970-01-04-004 hindsight / /~-' newsletter of the ind\f>.n~ un\\it.rs\1'1' may '9 2qod op10m£.\r~ ubrf\r'f optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume31 januazy 2000 number1 2000 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the year 2000 ohs executive board members and officers, and the year of each member's term of expiration. president.......................... walter chase (2002) vice president.................. theodore grosvenor (2001) secretary-treasurer ......... bridget kowalczyk (2000) trustees........................... jack bennett (2002) call for nominations: chuck haine (2000) doug penisten (2003) alfred rosenbloom (2001) it is time for you to send in your nominations for the two positions on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the members whose terms will expire are chuck haine and bridget kowalczyk. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. please send nominations by june 15, 2000 to: david a goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 usa. ohs now has website: the optometric historical society now has a page on the world wide web http://www.indiana.edu/hndsight/index.htm. (in case you are wondering about the spelling, hndsight is correct. the first i was omitted from hindsight intentionally to limit it to eight characters.) the website contains the purposes of ohs as stated in the by-laws, information on how to join ohs, and a sample issue of hindsight. persons who might enjoy ohs membership can be referred to the website. web page design and coding was done by terri greene, web administrator for the indiana university school 31/1 of optometry. we would encourage ohs members who have web pages to add links to the ohs web page. comments and suggestions for improvement or additions to the web page can be directed to the hindsight editor david goss. da.g. hindsight now on acid-free paper: it has sometimes been noted that history never gets out of date. for that reason, hindsight is now being printed on acid-free paper. the increase in cost has been minimal. index for volumes 21 to 30: the index for volumes 21 to 30 of hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society has been completed through the efforts of henry hofstetter. an index for volumes 1 to 10 and an index for volumes 11 to 20 were published previously. chronology of charles prentice's life: m. the approximately 24th annual meeting of the optometric historical society held december 13, 1997, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry in san antonio, texas, jerry christensen made a presentation on charles prentice. the chronology of charles prentice's life below is taken from the handout prepared by jerry christensen for that meeting. june 24, 1854 1859 april, 1870 fall, 1871 born in brooklyn, new york raised as an only child; seven brothers and sisters didn't survive infancy; father, james prentice; mother, henrietta marschutz spent boyhood on staten island; attended methfessel's institute ( a private german grammar school) sent to germany for an education, entered gymnasium at lahr in baden, his mother's birthplace entered the royal polytechnikum at karlsruhe, also in baden 31/2 june, 1874 fall, 1874 1874 1875 1884 1886 1888 1888 1889 1889 december, 1892 1895 1895 february 8, 1896 graduated from the royal polytechnikum (his mother died 20 days earlier) returned to america from europe worked as an engineer in shipyards went to work for his father developed a class model for demonstrating refraction and accommodation of the eye in its different states of refraction prentice wrote and illustrated ophthalmic lenses published by james prentice and son, opticians father died, charles assumed the optical business prentice firm published dioptric formulae for combined superimposed cylindrical lenses prentice had the title "opticist" registered as a trade mark by the u.s. patent office published "a metric system of numbering and measuring prisms" in archives of ophthalmology (prentice's law of decentration) noyes wrote prentice about his charging a fee for the examination of the eyes published "why strong contrageneric lenses of equal power fail to neutralize each other" dr. roosa asked the new york medical society to reject anyone who sent patients to prentice and declared he would have the medical practice act amended as to prevent men of prentice's "cult" from meddling with ophthalmology new york optical society organized with prentice elected president 31/3 spring, 1896 june, 1896 fall, 1896 january, 1897 march, 1897 june, 1897 october, 1897 1900 1908 1908 ~909 1910 bill empowered the optical society to regulate the practice of opticians introduced; at the bill's hearing, prentice read his paper "defense of the optician"; bill was not reported out of committee first annual meeting of the optical society in syracuse; prentice presiding prentice drafted first optometry bill; subsequently amended by the society bill was introduced in the legislature and later failed to pass by three votes prentice wrote a letter of appeal to the medical societies society to meet in rochester; prentice absent due to illness cross elected president of the new york optical society prentice formed the american opticist company and offered to grant licenses for the commercial use of the title to acceptably qualified individuals new york obtains an optometry law; 13th state to do so prentice was the first president of the new york state board of optometry moved practice to the second floor of the singer building at 149 broadway optometry department established at columbia university (course was in the extension teaching department and offered only a certificate of attendance) 31/4 1912 1912-1920 1913 1918 1921 1926 1946 sutton's heritage corner: controversy over prentice's proposal that all future optometrists should be graduate physicians prentice contributed to the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology resigned from the new york optical society resigned from the new york state board of examiners in optometry retired and sold his practice to his assistant, perry hanauer his autobiographical book, legalized optometry and the memoirs of its founder, was published. in the author's preface, his address is listed as nelson, b.c., canada prentice died july 2, at st. mary's hospital in west palm beach, florida after a long illness. he had just celebrated his 93rd birthday dr. albert a sutton has a regular column entitled "heritage corner" in midwest news, midwest region newsletter of the college of optometrists in vision development. the following is from one of his recent columns. as a craft, optometry is as old as the invention of spectacles, an event which occurred over 700 years ago. the development of optometric science was a world-wide occurrence, though the development as a craft was primarily a european phenomenon. however, the development of optometry as a legalized profession was, mainly, an american contribution. during the phenomenal growth and development of the optometric profession, the course of study increased from two weeks in the late 1890s to one year, then two years and so on to the present. this rapid development and growth was created by the needs of the people. there were no laws or organizations regulating those activities. j.c. bloom recorded that colorado was the first state to introduce legislation (1889) and the first to form an association (1892). the american optical association was formed october 10, 1898, in new york. it represented 31 states and canada and it included refracting and dispensing opticians, 3115 manufacturers and anyone who carried optical goods. the first optometric law was passed in 1901. in 1914, the bureau of medical licensure of pennsylvania proposed to amend the medical code to include the practice of refraction. the medical bureau collected fees from optometrists for registration. these actions were fought in the courts. the battle cry was: "a lens is not a pill." the pennsylvania battles were led by albert fitch. the pennsylvania optometry law was passed in 1917. the american optical association adopted resolutions of which the following is only one of many: "the arbitrary legal classification of optometry as a branch of medicine demanded by the bureau of medical licensure in pennsylvania is in apparent antagonism to the legal recognition and state regulation of it as a non-medical, distinct, physical science in 33 other states." these resolutions were used in the courts and did much to help optometry's cause. the decision rendered by the lower court, and later upheld by the pennsylvania supreme court, stated clearly that optometrists do not practice medicine or use drugs for the diagnosis or treatment of disease. the result was that the medical bureau of licensure had no authority over optometry. thus, optometry was established as an independent, non-medical profession in the united states. centennial celebration of the koa: the kansas optometric association has announced their centennial celebration to be held april 26-29, 2000 in topeka. a post card announcing the meeting has on its picture side a composite of photographs of men who, based on the appearances of the photographs, seem to have been early presidents of the kansas optometric association. names are shown below five of the six photographs. a banner above the photographs reads: "past presidents of the kansas association of optometrists." the names by the individual pictures are: thos. cowenlock, clay center, ks; f. w. hunt, burlingame, ks; h. s. zinn, hutchinson, ks; j. c. haupt, peabody, ks; and w. j. lewis, topeka, ks. d.a.g. the 2"d lord charnwood: in the july-september issue (volume 7, number 3, page 91) of british journal of optometry & dispensing, there is a historical note entitled "the 2"d lord charnwood (1901-55), a distinguished optometrist." that article is reproduced here in its entirety with the permission of rishi agarwal, author of the article and editor-in-chief of that journal. 31/6 the rt. hon. john roby benson, the second baron charnwood of castle donington in the county of leicester was born in sussex in 1901. educated at eton and balliol college, oxford, he was commissioned in the bedfordshire yeomanry in 1929 and served in the royal artillery in 193945. he served the coast and anti-artillery experimental establishment, becoming second in command and reaching the rank of major. lord charnwood was already. an accomplished mechanical engineer, reaching the rank of chief engineer at bamford and martin, the makers of aston martin motor cars. a member of the veteran car club he participated in many of its rallies. he also studied music. having travelled widely he established himself as a journalist writing about the different countries he had visited, and for a period of time also covering the field of music. a keen sailor, he attempted to sail round the world and starting from falmouth had reached peru, when he was recalled because of the war and had to abandon his mission. it was during the second world war at dunkirk that he became interested in stereopsis and binocular vision. his search for literature on the subject led him to find "a manual of practical orthoptics" (hatton press, 1938) written by george giles who was an accomplished optometrist, researcher and educator of the period. lord charnwood met george giles and at his suggestion attended northampton polytechnic, the predecessor of the present day city university, and qualified as an optometrist. he published many papers on binocular vision and aniseikonia; he was known as an inventor, inter alia, of a set of stereograms. he was a recipient of the boa research medal and the smc master's prize for his thesis on binocular vision. he was active both as a clinician and in the management of the former london refraction hospital, now the institute of optometry. on many occasions he spoke for the optometric profession in the house of lords. a member of several scientific and learned societies he was a fellow of the royal microscopical society and also an honorary fellow of the royal society of medicine. almost half a century ago the british chapter of the american academy of optometry received its charter, which was brought to the uk by the second baron the rt. hon. john r. benson (the last lord charnwood) together with the late optometrist eric bateman. 3117 interestingly, john benson's father, the first lord charnwood, was an accomplished author, also with an american link since his writings had included biographies of abraham lincoln and theodore roosevelt. following the formation of the british chapter, the second lord charnwood was elected as its first president. he died in 1955, leaving the barony extinct because there were no children from his marriage. as a tribute to the second lord charnwood, the british chapter founded the prestigious lord charnwood memorial lecture which is now delivered every 2-3 years. these lectures are recognized by the college of optometrists, incorporated by a royal charter, as part of the continuing education and training in optometry. the past lecturers have all been distinguished academics and clinicians, both british and american, from ophthalmology, optometry, and related fields. continuing with this tradition the next lord charnwood memorial lecture is to be delivered in september 1999 at the british chapter's international clinical conference at oxford by professor jerome sherman, the distinguished teaching professor from the college of optometry, state university of new york. *** managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (postal address: school of optometry, indiana university, 800 east atwater avenue, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; telephone: (812) 855-5379; email address: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, 1001 north grand avenue, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 3]}8 2000-31-01-001 2000-31-01-002 2000-31-01-003 2000-31-01-004 2000-31-01-005 2000-31-01-006 2000-31-01-007 2000-31-01-008 volume31 hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa july 2000 number3 book review -a natural history of vision: a natural history of vision, by nicholas j. wade, the mit press, cambridge, ma, 1998, 397 pages + bibliography + name index + subject index. this book consists mainly of quotations from natural philosophers and scientists writing on various aspects of vision. these quotations are used to illustrate the development of various ideas and theories. the quotations begin with the ancient greeks and extend to 1840. the author chose 1840 as the time when vision science became an experimental science conducted in the laboratory rather than in nature, as instruments were constructed for the purpose of studying vision. the author stated that his intention was ..... to treat vision as an observational discipline in its own right." the author has extensive previous publications on the history of vision science. the nine chapters in the book are: chapter 1. introduction indiana universlly chapter 2. light and the eye chapter 3. color oct 0 2 2000 chapter 4. subjective visual phenomen~ptometry libraffndmn~ h'-.!,'11"~~. y chapter 5. motion ·. · · · chapter 6. binocularity sf 1.1 :! j 2000 chapter 7. space chapter 8. illusions chapter 9. conclusion chapters other than the introduction and conclusion are divided into topical sections, with the number of sections varying from seven to twelve. for example, in the longest chapter, light and the eye, the sections are: optics, eye and camera, accommodation, errors of refraction and their correction, astigmatism, anatomy of the eye, retina, blind spot, and visual pathways. the second longest chapter, binocularity, has the following sections: binocular vision, binocular single vision, binocular double vision, binocular contour rivalry, eye dominance, monocular compared with binocular vision, strabismus (squint), stereoscopic vision, retinal disparity, and panum's limiting case. each section begins with an overview by the author followed by selected 31/19 quotations in chronological order. those quoted include many well-known thinkers and natural philosophers, such as aristotle, descartes, euclid, ibn ai-haytham (aihazen), kepler, leonardo da vinci, newton, ptolemy, and young; scientists readily recognizable to students of vision, such as brewster, moiier, purkinje, and wheatstone; as well as many lesser known writers. along with the quotations there are many black-and-white illustrations. for example, there are twenty cross-sectional diagrams of the anatomy of the eye, ranging from a diagram of the eye based on the description by democritus (ca. 400 b.c.) to alhazen to vesalius to platter to scheiner to descartes to thomas young, as well as others. one remarkable aspect of this book is that the margins of most of the pages are graced with black-and-white portrayals of the faces of the persons who are quoted. birth and death years are given along with these images. it must have taken considerable effort on wade's part to assemble all of the quotations and images in this book. it is enlightening to read descriptions o vision and visual phenomena in the actual words of the original writers (or those of the translators). the book is somewhat difficult to read from front to back because of the differing and archaic writing and translation styles, but the perspective gained from the chronological presentation of ideas is worth the effort. among the quotations that one can read are: kepler's 1604 description of retinal image formation (p. 9): vno;:.----~\··,,,, ' .. .... h ... v 1"'•v a0;~:;_tv' th~s. vision is. brought about by a picture of the thing seen being formed' on the concave surface of the retina. that ,w,t\~h is to the right outside is depicted on the left on the retina, that to the left on the right, that above below, and that below above. green is depicted green, and in general things are depicted by whatever colour they have .... the greater the acuity of vision of a given person, the finer will be the picture formed in his eye. scheiner's 1619 demonstration of the existence of accommodation (p. 39): make a number of perforations with a small needle in a piece of pasteboard, not more distant from one another than the diameter of the pupil of the eye .. .if it is held close to one eye, whil~ the other is shut, as many images of a distant object will be seen as there are holes in the pasteboard ... at a certain distance, objects will not appear multiplied when they are viewed in this manner. purkinje's 1823 description of the images of a candle reflected from the refracting surfaces of the eye (p.47): 31/20 if we place the candlelight about six inches from someone's eye in order that we can see the flame on the cornea when we are sitting to the side of the visual axis of the eye, within the circle of the pupil nearer the periphery, we will see in the back of the pupil a blinking flame, still smaller in its diameter but reversed and of feeble illumination, which we can easily judge, by comparing it with the one on the artificial lens, that it is reflected from the posterior wall of the lens. the front surface of the lens, and partly its inner matter, under the conditions of full transparency we can make accessible for observation if, by looking into the pupil from the side and placing the light on the opposite side of the eye, the straight lines from the eye to the observer and from the light of the candle shining into the pupil form an obtuse angle. here one will see an elongated image of the flame, which, because it is straight, shows that it is reflected from the convex surface of the lens .... both of these methods for the observation of the surfaces of the lens will not be without use, i think, in therapeutic investigation, especially where one wants to differentiate precisely whether only the capsule of the lens is involved, the lens itself, its posterior surface, or the vitreous humor. from the exact measurements of the flame reflections on the lens of a living human subject one can determine with considerable labor its shape and its relation to the acuity of vision. aristotle talking about myopia and presbyopia in about 330 b.c. (p. 52): why is it that though both a short-sighted and an old man are affected by weakness of the eyes, the former places an object, if he wishes to see it, near the eye, while the latter hold it at a distance? is it because they are afflicted with different forms of the weakness? for the old man cannot see the object; he therefore removes the object at which he is looking to the point at which the vision of his two eyes meets, expecting them to be able to see it best in this position; and this point is at a distance. the short-sighted man, on the other hand, can see the object but cannot proceed to distinguish which parts of the thing at which he is looking are concave and which convex, but he is deceived on these points. now concavity and convexity are distinguished by means of the light which they reflect; so that at a distance the short-sighted man cannot discern how the light falls on the object seen; but near at hand the incidence of light can be more easily perceived. 31/21 thomas young describing his astigmatism in 1801 (p. 63): when i look at a minute lucid point, such as the image of a candle in a small concave speculum, it appears as a radiated star, as a cross, or as an unequal line, and never as a perfect point, unless i apply a concave lens inclined at a proper angle, to correct the unequal refraction of my eye. and george siddell airy describing his own astigmatism in 1827 (pp. 63-64): i observed that the image formed by a bright point (as a distant lamp or a star) in my left eye was not circular, as it is in the eye which has no other defect than that of being near sighted, but elliptical, the major axis marking an angle of 35 degrees with the vertical, and its higher extremity being inclined to the right. upon putting on concave spectacles, by the assistance of which i saw objects distinctly with my right eye, i found that to my left eye a distant lucid point had the appearance of a well-defined line, corresponding in direction and nearly in length to the major axis of the ellipse above-mentioned. i found also that if i drew upon a paper two black lines crossing each other at right angles, and placed the paper in a proper position, and at a certain distance from the eye, one line was seen perfectly distinct, while the other was barely visible. upon bringing the paper nearer to the eye, the line which was distinct now disappeared, and the other was seen very welldefined .... my object was now to form a lens which should refract more powerfully in one certain plane, than those in the plane at right angles to it; and the first idea was to employ one whose surfaces should be cylindrical and concave, the axis of the cylinders crossing each other at right angles, and their radii being different. " this book should have considerable value as a reference book. it is highly recommended to the serious student of the history of vision science. da.g. 31/22 who is buried in royal tomb ii at yergina. greece? a research paper in the april 21, 2000, issue of science magazine (bartsiokas a. the eye injury of king philip ii and the skeletal evidence from royal tomb ii at vergina. science 2000; 288: 511-514) and an accompanying news item (koenig r. is alexander the great's father missing, too? science 2000; 288: 411) question whether the male occupant of royal tomb ii in vergina in northern greece us actually alexander the great's father, king philip ii of macedon, as was originally thought. this tomb was discovered by greek archeologists in 1977. the supposition that philip ii was buried there was based on archeological evidence suggesting a date of about 336 b.c., the date of the assassination of philip ii. however, additional archeological evidence points to a later date closer to 317 b.c. this would suggest that the occupant of the tomb would be king philip ill arrhidaeus, son of king philip ii and half­ brother of alexander the great. philip ill arrhidaeus was assassinated in 317 b.c. bartsiokas examined the skeletal remains to try to make a correct identification. philip ii was known to have been a warrior, but philip ill arrhidaeus was not. historical records note that philip ii had many wounds, including a broke right clavicle, an injury to the right femur, and a broken arm. there is no evidence of any of these injuries on the skeletal remains in the tomb. this paper dealt specifically with potential evidence for orbital damage that would be consistent with the arrow wound that blinded philip ll's right eye at the seige of methone in 354 b.c. bartsiokas used macrophotography to study the orbital structure of the skeleton from the royal tomb. this was of particular interest because it was suggested based on an examination some 15 years ago that the skull showed signs of damage around the orbit. the study was complicated by the fact that the skeleton had undergone partial cremation. bartsiokas argues that tbere is no evidence of orbital injury, but that the asymmetries between the right and left sides of the skull were due to poor reconstruction. so bartsiokas suggests that the occupant of the royal tomb was philip ill arrhidaeus. he further speculated that some of the artifacts in the tomb may have been inherited by philip ill arrhidaeus from his half-brother alexander the great. alexander died in 323 b.c., and was buried in a now unknown location in egypt. d.a.g. 31/23 history of australian journal noted: in a guest editorial in the january-february, 2000, issue of clinical and experimental optometry (volume 83, number 1, pages 1-3), its editorial board chair, barry l. cole, discussed the journal's history and future directions. clinical and experimental optometry is published by optometrists association australia. cole traced the origins of the journal to a 1913 publication of new south wales optometrists which they initially called the journal. (the history page at the website of clinical and experimental optometry, www.optometrists.asn.au/ceo/history.html, states that the journal dates back to a publication entitled optical news started in 1911 by the new south wales institute of ophthalmic opticians) subsequent titles of the journal have been the optometrist of nsw(1914), the commonwealth optometrist (1919), the australasian journal of optometry (1929), australian journal of optometry (1959), and clinical and experimental optometry (1986). cole acknowledged the editors of the journal: charles kidman (1913-1920), w. g. kett (1920-1962), j. lloyd hewett (1962-1980), alan johnston (1980-1985), dan o'leary (1985-1986), brian brown (1986-1990), peter swann (1992-1994), and h. barry collin (1994-present). commenting on the mure of the journal, cole stated that it will be "continuing as a journal of scholarship reporting original research" and that, in addition, "its content will be diversified to increase its value for practising optometrists and to strengthen its role as a journal of archival record." cole's statement in the editorial that the journal would soon "have a presence on the lnternef' has been realized at www.optometrists.asn.au/ceo/. da.g. jerry abrams honored: long-time ohs member jerry abrams was honored by an executive order from indianapolis mayor bart peterson proclaiming january 20, 2000 to be "jerome j. abrams day" in the city of indianapolis. the proclamation noted that january 19, 2000 was the fiftieth anniversary of his optometric practice on the west side of indianapolis. the proclamation cited some of his many significant professional and community volunteer activities and contributions. *** managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (postal address: school of optometry, indiana university, 800 east atwater avenue, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; telephone: (812) 855-5379; email address: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, 1001 north grand avenue, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 31/24 2000-31-03-001 2000-31-03-002 2000-31-03-003 2000-31-03-004 2000-31-03-005 2000-31-03-006 volume 29 hindsight lndli\na unmrsjn aug ti 1998 newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri july 1998 '' ' 63141, us¥brary number 3 the fire within the eye: ;· jg 7 1998 clomeiry library the fire within the eye: a historical essay on the nature and meaning of light (isbn 0-691-04332-9) is a book that will be of interest to many ohs. members. it was published in 1997 by princeton university press (41 william street, princeton, new jersey 08540). the author is david park, emeritus professor of physics at williams college. parks emphasizes that the book is a history of thought about light as opposed to a history of experimentation on light. this frees him to write extensively about the theories of light and vision of the ancient greeks. the extramission theory, that the eye emits a visual ray, dates back to empedocles in about 450 b.c. about that same time, leucippus proposed that vision occurred because eidola, or bits of matter, emanate from all objects. aristotle thought that the air around us was filled with images or energeia of objects that are projected toward our eyes. the title of the book derives from plato's belief that of the elements of fire, water, earth, and air, it was fire that resided within the eye. park credits alhazen and ptolemy with being the first to do experiments, as we think of them, on light and vision. he then chronologically presents new developments in optics and vision. parks discusses many different aspects of light and vision, but the major themes that he returns to throughout the book are light as a metaphor for life and good; the particle-wave nature of light; the relationship of the eye to vision, color, astronomy and astrology; and optical instruments. park notes that knowledge of refraction existed long before the use of spectacle lenses developed: " ... aristophanes tells us that in his time the corner drugstore in athens carried burning lenses. ptolemy and alhazen and witelo mention them as devices that use refraction, but none of these writers give them any serious attention. euclid did not mention them; they lay in the kitchen drawer among the sieves and spoons. "in the west, robert grosseteste [c. 1170-1253] was among the first to think about lenses. qualitatively, he understood how a flask of water brings light to focus: a ray is refracted at each surface of the glass .... " (p. 121) 29/14 "roger bacon experimented with lenses to improve vision, but he does not seem to have thought of putting them next to the eye. that was done by some lens-maker, probably in the neighborhood of pisa, in about 1285 . . . . " (p. 124) another interesting passage deals with a discussion of accommodation and refractive error from kepler's dioptrics (is kepler the first to associate near work with myopia?): " ... [kepler] suggests that a normal eye adjusts its focus to near and distant objects by changing the shape of the eyeball or perhaps even changing the density of the fluid inside it, but he does not guess the principal mechanism: it does it by muscles that change the shape of the crystalline lens. this does not prevent him from giving a correct theory of eyeglasses to correct nearand farsightedness, and before rushing on he has time ... for profiles of people who will need them: a life spent sitting indoors, bent over a book or a fine manual task, leads to nearsightedness; whereas the person who drinks and sleeps too much, who is given to idleness and daydreams, who ignores what lies before his feet or under his hand, whose gaze is usually directed into the distance, will find that he can no longer see clearly what is close to his face." (pp. 167-168) this 377-page book is enjoyable reading. park includes interesting biographical information about the various experimenters and theorists, and projects an appreciation for their work. he puts discoveries into the context of the available information and prevailing ideas of the time. good use is made of illustrations to explain various optical principles. the book includes bibliography and references, and an index, as well as a short glossary section. a formal review of the book will be published in an upcoming issue of optometry and vision science. d.a.g. john dalton's color vision: john dalton (1766-1844) is primarily known for his work in chemistry and his atomic theory. he also made extensive meteorological observations over a period of many years, and is credited with publishing the first description of congenital color vision deficiency-that of his own color vision defect. in 1997, a 738-page book entitled john dalton's colour vision legacy was pub.lished by taylor and francis ltd. it was edited by christine dickinson, lan murray, and david carden of the umist department of optometry and vision sciences in manchester, england. it consists of selected proceedings of an international color vision conference held in 1994, 200 years after dalton's presentation on his color vision deficiency. the first section of the book is devoted to dalton and his color v1s1on deficiency. there is a brief one-page biographical sketch of dalton, and a letter he wrote to his cousin. the letter was written a few months after he arrived at new college, manchester, england, to teach mathematics. he talks of his work and his 29/15 daily activities. educators will be amused by his statement that, "my official department of tutor only requires my attendance upon the students 21 hours in the week: but i find it expedient to prepare my lectures previously." after talking about the large library and the meeting house in manchester and his meteorological studies, he mentions: "i am at present engaged in a very curious investigation: i discovered last summer with certainty, that colours appear different to me to what they do to others: the flowers of most of the cranes bills appear to me in the day, almost exactly sky blue, whilst others call them deep pink; but happening once to look at one in the night by candle light i found it of a colour as different as possible from day light; it seemed then very near yellow, but with a tincture of red; whilst no body else said it differed from the daylight appearance, my brother excepted, who seems to see as i do .... " next is a paper entitled extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours: with observations by mr. john dalton read by dalton in 1 794 and published in the memoirs of the manchester literary and philosophical society. in the introductory portion of the paper he states: "in the course of my application to the sciences, that of optics necessarily claimed attention; and i became pretty well acquainted with the theory of light and colours before i was apprized of any peculiarity in my vision. i had not, however, attended much to the practical discrimination of colours, owing in some degree, to what i conceived to be a perplexity in their nomenclature. since the year 1790, the occasional study of botany obliged me to attend more to colours than before. with respect to colours that were white, yellow, or green, i readily assented to the appropriate term. blue, purple, pink, and crimson appeared rather less distinguishable; being, according to my idea, all referable to blue. i have often seriously asked a person whether a flower was blue or pink, but was generally considered to be in jest. notwithstanding this, i was never convinced of a peculiarity in my vision, till i accidently observed the colour of the flower of the geranium zonale by candle-light in the autumn of 1792. the flower was pink, but it appeared to me almost an exact sky-blue by day; in candle-light, however, it was astonishingly changed, not having then any blue in it, but being what i called red, a colour which forms a striking contrast to blue. not then doubting but that the change of colour would be equal to all, i requested some of my friends to observe the phenomenon; when i was surprised to find they all agreed, that the colour was not materially different from what it was by day-light, except my brother who saw it in the same light as myself. this observation clearly proved, that my vision was not like that of other persons; and, at the same time, that the difference between day-light and candle-light, on some colours, was indefinitely more perceptible to me than to others. it was nearly two years after that time, when i entered upon an investigation of the subject, having procured the assistance of a friend, who, to his acquaintance with the theory of colours, joins a practical knowledge of their names and constitutions. i shall now proceed to state the facts ascertained under the three following heads: i. an account of my own vision. ii. an account of others whose vision has been found similar to mine. iii. observations on the probable cause of our anomalous vision." most of the account of his own vision was related to color vision, but he also noted: 29/16 "it may be proper to observe, that i am short-sighted. concave glasses of about five-inches focus suit me best. i can see distinctly at a proper distance; and am seldom hurt by too much or too little light; nor yet with long application." the theory that dalton proposed for his color deficiency was that his vitreous humor had a bluish color. dalton remained convinced of this for the rest of his life, and gave instructions that his eyes should be examined after his death to confirm the existence of his bluish vitreous. of course, the dissection did not confirm it. the last item in the dalton section of the book is a modern analysis of dalton's color vision deficiency. remarkably, dalton's eye tissue had been preserved. analysis of his dna indicated the gene sequences of deuteranopia. the authors also reanalyzed the color perception observations made by dalton, and reported them to be consistent with deuteranopia. d.a.g. first century sight testing: through the minister of my church i have learned of some documentation of sight testing in the first century a.d. in egypt. in the first chapter of the book the historical jesus: the life of a mediterranean jewish peasant (harper collins publishers, new york, 1991 ), author john dominic crossan sketches what life may have been like for a peasant in the middle east in the first century a.d. he notes that the climatic conditions and the sands of egypt have resulted in the preservation of tens of thousands of papyrus documents of early egyptian bureaucrats. the documents have been excavated from various locations, including town rubbish dumps, ancient buildings, and tombs. crossan was able to reconstruct details of the life of tryphon, son of dionysius, of the city of oxyrhynchus. this information came from documents excavated from a rubbish heap for oxyrhynchus (now el bah nasa), located on the west bank of the nile about 120 miles south of cairo. the first documentation concerning tryphon came from a census record of 11-12 a.d., in which he was listed as being three years old. the documentation uncovered included some of his tax receipts, his divorce from his. first wife, a pre-nuptial agreement of sorts with his second wife, notation of his two children with his second wife and his son joining him in his work, his taking on an apprentice, his purchase of a loom and a house, and records of loans. from tax receipts and other documents, it is known that tryphon was a weaver of wool. of interest to us is that discovered in the trash pile were two copies of a document from 52 a.d. that exempted tryphon from future military service: 29/17 "release from service was granted by general vergilius capito, prefect of upper and lower egypt, to tryphon, son of dionysius, weaver, suffering from cataract and shortness of sight, of the metropolis of oxyrhynchus. examination was made in alexandria." his vision problems were apparently not so severe that he was not able to continue to work, or at least to oversee an apprentice, in his later years. it would be of interest to know what examination methods were used to arrive at a diagnosis of cataract and shortness of sight. d.a.g. memories of skeffington: the march, 1 998, issue of midwest news, the midwest region newsletter of the college of optometrists in vision development (covd) had an interesting item in its heritage corner column. it is reproduced here in its entirety with permission of its author dr. albert a. sutton and of the covd midwest regional director, dr. michael frier: "in the early 1900's, opportunities for continuing optometric education were limited to apprenticeship, or through short, two-week classes at places like needles institute in kansas city. the first optometric continuing education program was formed by dr. e.b. alexander, the secretary of the oklahoma extension program. he organized many study groups in oklahoma and surrounding states. in 1924, he planned a regional meeting in denver, colorado, and invited dr. a.c. augustine, the aoa president, as the speaker. two days before the meeting, dr. augustine was hospitalized for appendicitis. a telegram was sent to dr. a.m. skeffington, a young optometrist in kearney, nebraska, asking him to be a substitute speaker. "dr. skeffington was creating a furor at optometric meetings because of his constant questioning of accepted optometric practices. this manner derived from his experiences as a seminary student, when he asked questions regarding accepted religious practices. his seminary teachers required acceptance and resignation, and so he withdrew before graduation. there would be no such withdrawal from optometry. he was active at optometric meetings, and constantly wrote letters to the editors of publications. dr. skeffington accepted the telegram invitation from dr. alexander. using his seminary training on how to establish the attention of the audience, he appeared at the denver meeting in a white suit with a stiff white collar, white spats covering his white shoes, white homburg hat and a tall, white, silver headed cane. on stage, he stood erect with a smile and waited until there was audience silence before he uttered a word. he started his presentation with questions of the audience, employing socratic guidance enabling the attending optometrists to think. "the success of that meeting resulted in dr. alexander's invitation to travel to other optometric meetings and to write articles about clinical practices. in 1928, drs. e.b. alexander and a.m. skeffington organized the optometric extension program as a state association educ<~.tion program. starting with 51 members, it ultimately grew to an international organization, attesting to the need it filled in the development of the profession." · 29/18 the gesell institute: the gesell institute is the title of an article by john streff in the spring 1 998 issue of the journal of optometric vision development, vol. 29, no. 11, pp. 13-22. it includes considerable historical commentary on the involvement of optometrists streff and richard apell, pediatricians arnold gesell and frances llg, psychologist louis bates ames, and educator janet learned in the gesell institute of child development. the institute was established in 1950 as an interprofessional research and clinical center when gesell retired from yale university. it occupied two houses at the edge of the yale campus. the research theme was the role of behavioral environment in vision development as theorized by gesell. one of the projects in which optometrists participated at length was the cheshire study in conjunction with the cheshire public school. in addition to research reports, clinical residencies for optometrists, and seminars-yearly new haven conferences were held under dr. apell's guidance from 1962 to 1997. h.w h. * * * managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.). contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (1050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 1998-29-03-001 1998-29-03-002 1998-29-03-003 1998-29-03-004 1998-29-03-005 1998-29-03-006 newsletter -of the volume 1 ~ptohetric historical fioi~~~~q january 1970 ~~ · number 1 indian.~ university / 'j·· -:> f welcome: libraries bloomington here it is, the first issue, a modest beginning, but an exciting venture! our little three paragraph releas~ to the optometric press, dated october 31, brought in 33 five dollar membership checks early enough to give us a solid beginning, and a $100.00 contribution. here are the 33 founding members, already paid up for 1970 membership: abrams, j. j., o.d., 4516 west washington street, indianapolis, indiana lf6241. alexander, e. b., o.d., optometric extension program foundation, inc., duncan, oklahoma 73533. bennett, irving, o.d., 1316 sixth avenue, beaver falls, pennsylvania 15010. berman, ~~vin r., o.d., p.o. box 15, dover, delawate 19901. brewer, bruce j., o.d., eigenmann hall 1171, bloomington, indiana 47401. caplan, lester, o.d., 6660 security boulevard, baltimore, maryland 21207. dablemont, maria (mrs.), 5535 waterman avenue, st. louis, hissouri 63112. ewalt, h. ward, o.d., 8002 jenkins arcade, pittsburgh, pennsylvania 15222. gathercole, f. h., o.d., 403 hain street, fitchburg, hassachusetts 01420. hillard, j. r., o.d., 2613 kings highway, louisville, kentucky 40205. hoare, arthur e., o.d., p.o. box 1055, costa hesa, california. hoefert, k~rl 0., o.d., 110 e. florence boulevard, casagrande, arizona 85222. hofstetter, h. w., indiana university, optometry building, bloomington, indiana 47401. hunt, earl j., o.d., 226 ohio street, johnstmvn, pennsylvania 15902. kiekenapp, ernest h., o.d., 6800 chapel lane, hinneapolis, hinnesota 55424. knoll, henry a. , ph.d., c/o bausch c. lomb, inc., rochester, new york 14602. lahborn, robert s. , 0. d. , 3920 e. broad>·my, tucson, arizona 85 711. leeds, ja.'1es p., 0. d., 3454c meadow drive, indianapolis, indiana !•6205. levene, john r., d.phil., indiana university, division of optometry, bloomington, indiana 47401. mcmaster, robert w., 7 columbus avenue, southbridge, massachusetts 01550. miller, ha.,'{hell, o.d., 407 w. market street, pottsville, pennsylvania 17905. hyers, ranrmm, evermann apartm.ents, bloomington, indiana 47401. -2oppenheimer, s.m., 147 stonewall hill, memphis, tennessee 38104. paul, albert l., o.d., laurel shopping center, laurel, maryland 20810. rosser, h. h., o.d., 25 e. king street, york, pennsylvania 17401. ryer, e. leroy, o.d., 397 fort washington avenue, hawthorne, new york 10532. tannebaum, sol, o.d., 5 plaza-medical arts building, park forest, illinois 60466. torrence, m. d., o.d., 314 north main, hutchinson, kansas 67501. watkins, bernard, o.d., culver lake, branchville, new jersey 07826. weber, j. m., o.d,, 1420 greenwood avenue, trenton, new jersey 08609. weiner, grace (mrs.), 1608 alameda avenue, burbank, california 91506. weinstein, minerva h., o.d., 1504 sheridan avenue, bronx, new york 10457. welch, lester d,, o.d., 39201 state street, fremont, california 94538. about the newsletter: hopefully, i shall edit this and the april issue. as i plan to be out of the country from june to january, i shall have to prevail on someone else to take over for the subsequent two issues in 1970 and for at least the first issue in 1971. any volunteers? the contents of the newsletter will reflect the correspondence received, plus any brief tidbits of historical interest that may be submitted, and occasional gems gleaned elsewhere. 01,1r publication expectations are not ambitious. we do not plan to include articles of historical value which should appear more appropriately in established periodicals with wide general readership. in fact if we can stimulate more historical writing in other areas a major part of our mission will be accomplished. it is hoped, too, that, cumulatively, the newsletter will serve as a resource to persons interested in leads to items of historical interest. by-laws of the optometric historical society: article i. wu~e the name of this society shall be the optometric historical society. article ii. object the purposes of this society are to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who have participated in the development of optometry, to encourage and -3assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of this society. article iii. members section 1. membership in the society shall be open to any person interested in the purposes of the society. section 2. fellowship in the society shall be open to any member who, upon maj~rity election by the executive board, has made significant contribution toward the goals of the society by means of publication, collection, administration, gifts, or equivalent actions. section 3, honorary membership, requiring no payment of dues, shall be open to any person who, upon majority, and annually reconsidered, election by the executive board, deserves special recognition or consideration. section 4. the dues in this society shall be $5.00 per calendar year, payable annually in advance. section 5. members and fellows whose dues are paid for the current year, and honorary members, have full membership voting privileges in the election of members of the executive board, and on such issues and items of business as shall be submitted to them by the executive board or by petition of at least five members or fellows. the majority of those voting on any issue or ballot shall prevail as the governing decision except that the executive board may act in the role of governing body on all matters not otherwise provided for herein and not in a manner contrary to duly processed decisions of the membership. section 6. membership and fellowship shall be canceled auto­ matically for nonpayment of dues. section 7. election to the executive board shall automatically qualify the member for fellowship. article iv. executive roard section 1. the executive board shall consist of five members, each to be elected by the membership for a five year term. vacancies of unexpired terms shall be filled by the election of a replacement by a majority of the remaining members of the executive board. membership on the board shall be terminated automatically with delinquency in society membership dues. section 2. election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three -4members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot. election shall be by mail ballot, and, when more than two nominees are on the ballot, the voting members should rank their choices so that the winner may be determined by the har.e system in terms of the majority of members voting. section 3. the election shall be held early in november of each year and the ballots counted early in december. section 4. the executive board shall elect from among themselves a president, a vice president, and a secretary-treasurer, and the remaining members of the executive board shall be designated trustees. section 5. the executive board shall adopt regulatory procedures suitable for the conduct of its business. article v. meetings meetings of the society shall be at the discretion of the executive board or upon vote of the membership as provided for in article iii, section 5, by mail ballot unless otherwise provided for by prior action. article vi. comhittees the creation and appointment of committees shall be by action of the executive board unless otherwise provided for by voting actions of the membership. article vii. pap~iahentary authority the rules and guidelines contained in robert's rules of order shall govern the society in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with the by-laws or the special rules of order of this society. article viii. amendments the by-laws may be amended by a majority vote of members responding in a mail ballot as provided for in article iii, section 5. article ix. fiscal matters the society may engage in \vhatevcr business activities it deems to be appropriate to its purposes and in compliance with federal and state la\vs relating to nnt-for-profit organization eligible for tax exemptions and for the receiving of contributions and gifts which the donors may declare as deductible for income tax purposes. article x. these by-laws are hereby adopted by the undersigned who vjill assume mutually approved initial membership on the executive board for the periods indicated: 1970 -5·~ for term expiring december 31, 1970, marin dablemont december 31, 1971, arthur e. hoare december 31, 1972' sol tannebaum december 31, 1973, john r. levene december 31, 1974, henry w. hofstetter officers: in november the new board elected the follm-jing officers for 1970: president: h. w. hofstetter vice-president: j. r. levene secretary-treasurer: mrs. maria dablemont extracted from o.h.s. correspondence: bernard watkins, o.d.: "i have several items to contribute." "world l-1ar i (combat). columbia 1 24. retired from staff, veterans administration hospital, albany, new york. one of the first, if not the first, optometrists appointed full time w·i th veterans administration." f. h. gathercole, o.d.: "it was my privilege to become associated with the practice of optometry in 1906 in the state of new hampshire. i am still in active daily practice." stephen h. oppenheimer: "i have been quite interested in the collecting and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry. i have been trying to generate interest here in memphis at s.c.o., where i am a senior student, in establishing a museum in our new building. my frame collection dates back to 1780." robert w. mcmaster: "as a collector of antique spectacles i have become greatly interested in gathering information about their history. i am a lens process engineer with the american optical corporation and i know much of the past history in this area covering the a.o. and the many other firms which have existed here from time to time since 1833." albert l. paul, o.d.: "my graduate degree is in history. my graduate thesis was in medical history. i would be happy to participate in any projects you undertake." minerva h. \\einstein, o.d.: "the first woman registered by examination." jack m. l-leber, o.d.: "this is a most ¥rorth¥7hile idea. count me in!" -6j. j. abrams, o.d.: "very proud to be a founding member. i think its purposes are very necessary and worthwhile." maria dablemont: "as the creation of a.o.a. was a turning point to organized optometry, i have no doubts hhatsoever that the creation of the optometric historical society \vill be equally important to the profession." ernest h. kiekenapp, o.d.: "much of our early history has already been lost." sol tannebaum, o.d.: "you have embarked on a noble and much needed venture." maxwell hiller, o.d.: "i am preparing a detailed documented paper on the mcallisters 1 contribution to optometry in this country." james r. gregg, o.d.: "sounds like an interesting idea. count me in." e. leroy ryer, o.d. (retired): "i am enclosing a list of subjects i am trying to cover,--a big enough assignment for this old handicapped guy in his 90th year." earl j. hunt, o.d.: "the idea of how the heritage of our great profession could be preserved has been running through my mind ever since i visited the headquarters of the american optometric association last july 25 and vie\ved the optometric i terns of the past that were displayed on the second floor. · i am enclosing a check for $100.00 as a contribution in memory of my mother, mrs. idella hae hunt, who also was proud of the profession of optometry. (the check \vas dated on his mother's birthday, december 8, and, perhaps not fortuitously, it was serially num~ered 1776, and written in pennsylvania, the state (or, rather, commomvealth) that has staked its claim as the birthplace of optometry.) arthur e. hoare, o.d. (retired): "this morning something happened in my life, the like of which has not happened before,--at least in my safari in optometry. the optometric historical society documents you sent to me gave me a feeling of finally having arrived in the 'legend of optometry'." (dr. hoare sent his congratulations by telegrmn!) where are our archives? there are two major types of repositories for items of historical value. one is the institutional type such as is nurtured and mai11tained by organizations for various reasons ranging from the organization's ad hoc dedication to prestige acquisition, or even as an outright investment. such repositories are usually called museums and may include community museums, the museums of professional org<:n'.izations, -7the special collections of industrial firms, the nuseums of schools, colleges, and universities, and various specially endowed museums. the other major type of repository is ,.,hat i hould identify as the individual collection. it is conceivable that the greatest share of preservation of historical items is accomplished by the thousands of individuals "\o!ho save the things which are dear to them. such items receive tender care during the life of the individual owner, even better care than in the typical museum storage rooms. unfortunately they are less accessible to historians, and, more unfortunately, they are likely to be disposed of as trash upon the o"\omer' s demise. so, it is probable that the large share of items of optometric historical interest are in the files, cabinets, and bookshelves of individuals, and are being well preserved. the ohs will be making a valuable contribution if it can bring these collections to light and prevail on the owners to take in~ediate steps to insure the transfer of their collections to appropriate repositories at the time of the owner's death or retirement, it is not sufficient merely to write the request in one's v1ill. the collections should be clearly labeled and marked hell in advance for their desired posthumous disposition. in future issues of the newsletter we hope to list archives, museums, and collections of optometric historical interest. readers and ohs members are asked to call our attention to museums, archives, and collections which should be so listed. my good friend jim leeds read the ohs news release and wrote me, asking, "henry, do you recommend that i join this, too?" i answered, "jim, you probably have the most complete collection of old and rare optometry books in the country, if not in the world. you are con­ tributing to the goals of ohs whether you join or not. i can think of no reason why i should make a recommendation to you." he joined. ohs gives _its first blessing. a letter has been directed to the california optometric association taking cognizance of the fact that the c.o.a. will sponsor another dedicatory ceremony at the andrm.;r jay cross memorial tree in muir woods in february. the first dedicatory pilgrimage was held in 1926. details will be reported in the california optometrist. we are proud of haria on august 22 our secretary-treasurer maria dablemont received a university of denver certificate of successful completion of the require­ ments for the annual institute of archival administration. replete with ribbon and seals of the university of denver and the state of colorado, the certificates also bears the signatures of the state -8archivist and the governor of colorado and of the chancellor and the heads of the department of history and the school of librarianship of the university of denver. information wanted: i am the mvner of several old optometric instruments and desire information about them. the pieces include: 1. 1917 patent genothalmic refractor 2. 1909 patent de zeng phoroptor 3. 1910 patent ski-optometer (hoolf instrument corp.) 4. a hand held retinoscopy aid with a control lens set for 26" distance. it has two banks of lenses with additional space for cylinder. the instrument has no markings except for lens powers. 5. a slide with a +7.25 diopter lens mounted as an ocular (stationary) and a movable flat metal "target" with the inscription: "count the dots". there are ten "dots" which become progressively smaller below the inscription. the rod upon which the paddle shaped target is mounted is 12" long. it is calibrated concave and convex from 3 to 100, then a line, then 100, 60, 54, etc. dmvn to 7. it was suggested that this is a prinz rule, however, we are not sure. any information about these pieces in the way of descriptions, photocopies of articles, or original documents would be greatly appreciated. i am also interested in information on early opticians and frames manufactured by them. noted elsewhere: steve oppenheimer, senior student southern college of optometry p.o. box 4205 memphis, tennessee 38104 from optical journal and review of optometry, december 15, and rare foci, november 25: james f. dickson, jr., o.d., box 928, lindsay, california 93247 wishes to contact other collectors of optometric antiques. he has over 1,000 antique items, some of which are showtl in gregg's story of optometry. presently he is seeking wooden mailing boxes used by optical laboratories in the early 1900's. from the tri-state trader, knightstown, indiana, october 11: a feature write-up of the early spectacle and spectacle case collection of j. j. abrams, o.d., with illustrations. the article mentions that his collection "will eventually go to indiana.university"., from the optician, july 26, 1963, the following, taken from the chemist-qetician, 1908: -9"by any other name ••. " in 1903 the british optical association sent out inquiries through their nomenclature committee for suggestions for a title that could be designated men of the profession. they announced that judging would be on the six following factors: (1) that the word could be pronounced at first sight by the man in the street. (2) that it was easily spelt from its first sound. (3) that is was not humorous or lacking in dignity. (4) that it had no double meaning. (5) that it emphasised sight-testing, and not medical or manu­ facturing connections. (6) that it did not savour of quackery. the follovdng was the list submitted: consulting optician dioptrician dioprist doctor of refraction eidometrician expert in optics eye refracter eye refractionist eyeist eyesight and spectacle specialist eyesight specialist graduate in optics lensman lenticulist licentiate in optics oculist optician oculists' optician ophthalmic optician ophthalmic surgeon opthalmist optical expert optical specialist optical technist opticalist optician optician specialist opticist opticmatrician optist optologist optometrician optometrist qual-optist refractician refracting optician refractionist sight refracter sight refractionist sight specialist sight tester sight testing optician spectacle expert · spectacle frame specialist spectacle optician spectacle specialist surgeon's optician visometrician viso metric optician visual optician the committee recom_rnended, on june 11, 1903, that "optology", "optological", and "cptologist 11 ~.;rere the most suitable. j. h. witt, f.s.m.c. -10from the ophthalmic optician, september 1964: in a fascinating article entitled "the florentine legend", walter casson argues that the name of the actual inventor of spectacles is still unknown. he variously labels the salvino d'armati claim as a "fraud", a "hoax", and "spurious". in 1856, sir david brewster (1781-1868) wrote a very comprehensive paper entitled "the sight, and hoh to sec" in the no:rth british rcvievj, vol. 26, edinburgh, november 1856, pp. 145-184 (american edition, vol. 21, new york, 1857, pp. 78-99) and concluded with the follmving prescient passage: "in the ordinary diseases to which the eye, like other parts of the body is subject, we may safely confide in the skill of the experienced physician; but in the diseases to which it is liable as an optical instrument, where optical science can alone direct us, we regret that professional assistance is difficult to be found. guided by practice, the skilful oculist may dexterously extract the crystalline lens, or make an artificial pupil; but all the refinements of optical science are requisite in the practitioner to whom we commit the care of our sight; and we trust the time is not distant when men will be expressly educated for this branch of the healing art, and will exhaust in their practice the rich resour-ces with which science can supply them." the same passage was quoted in the preface of entoptics, with its uses i~ physiology and medicine, by james jago, m.d., john churchill & sons, london, 1864, with the introductory comment, "a writer in physiological optics, who is not of the medical profession, says of us:" h. w. hofstetter, editor p.s. with the compliments of the indiana university division of optometry we are enclosing a copy of the catalog of items in the i.u. optometry museum. h. w. h. 1970-01-01-001 1970-01-01-002 1970-01-01-003 1970-01-01-004 1970-01-01-005 1970-01-01-006 1970-01-01-007 1970-01-01-008 1970-01-01-009 1970-01-01-010 hindsight apr 0 3 1996 ~t'lmhrv ub!\::;ry 243 north a newsletter of the optometric historical societ¥ lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, m:kssbh!:-1 ~ '6'3;t41.t •'ij~ • • · • fru:nan.a university • volume 23 october 1992 • number 4! the cohen collection: another unique holiday greeting card with an ophthalmic theme in 1991 was that of gilbert b. cohen, o.d., featuring several pairs of 17th and 18th century spectacles and cases overlaid on a photograph of the painting conspicilla by johannes stradanus, given to gilbert by pierre marly. in a separate memo we learn that the cohen collection is the result of 22 years of his acquiring items from europe and the orient relating especially to spectacles without temples. his main interest is in the chinese items, as the chinese used the most interesting materials in the making of their spectacles. he reminds us that such items are now almost impossible to acquire at reasonable prices. to illustrate his interests and some of his collection, he prepared a video for presentation at the annual meeting of the ocular heritage society a couple of years ago. a copy of the video can be found at ilamo for anyone interested in viewing it. the videotape, together with dr. cohen's very homey comments, fascinatingly portrays not only a good number of his prized acquisitions but also a dedicated collector's difficulties and gratification. we learn, for example, that a few items were archaeologically found in the accumulated settings of dutch canals and outdoor privies with occasional helpful dating by discarded pieces of delftware or other contemporary artifacts of known period. who owns zeiss? a gift from florence gaynes from the collection of her late husband ernest gaynes, o.d. is an unusual 280 page, 24 x 18 ern. hard-cover book entitled, "the zeiss works and the carl zeiss 23/40 foundation in jena" by prof. felix auerbach, translated into english from the 5th german edition by r. kanthack, published in london but printed in germany. the precise date of publication is not shown, but several entries are dated 1924 and one of the 255 illustrations is a 1926 folded, paste-in aerial view of the huge plant. a subtitle explains that the text deals with "their scientific, technical and sociological development and importance popularly described." it is pointed out in the foreword that, in addition to its appealing to "those interested in the manufacture and development of optical instruments and their uses, " the extensive detail of abbe's scheme "for the solution of the eternal problem of capital and labour . . will interest a much larger circle of readers." the author's philosophical springboard is his division of practical optical history into three undulatory periods, scientific, unscientific, and scientific, identified approximately with, (1) the moors and early western opticians, (2) the rule-of­ thumb era of optical craftsmen, and (3) the age of scientific research as exemplified by fraunhofer (1787-1826). then arrived zeiss (1816-1888), the optical businessman, abbe (1840-1905), the optical scientist and technologist, and schott (1851-?), the optical glassmaker, successively joining the jena complex as a team. almost two-thirds of the book describes the key personalities and the well explained technical and developmental details of 150 or more zeiss, optical and ophthalmic instruments and products including their application and utilization in laboratories, industry, and the military. most of the remainder relates to the industrial philosophy, functions, and involvements of the relatively unique organization operating under the zeiss rubric. the sequence of ownership may be cursorily described as follows: 1846-1875, carl zeiss was the sole owner; 1875-1881, zeiss and abbe were joint owners; 1881-1888, carl zeiss and his son roderick and abbe were in partnership; in 1888 carl died and roderick retired leaving abbe as the "captain" or sole owner; in 1891 abbe created the "carl zeiss foundation" and deeded the total assets of the company over to it. he personally authored the provisions of the charter in such thorough detail as to win him an honorary doctor of laws degree from a university faculty of law (plus'" some criticism that he had deprived his widowed wife and daughter of a share of his estate) . the charter was officially approved by the grand-duke of saxony in 1896. one of the many conditions of operation in the charter was a directive that no employee, chief or otherwise, may receive a salary greater than 10 times the average annual wages of employees over 24 years of age with three or more years of seniority. other provisions covered problems of work administration, piece work pay, work week length, welfare, pensions, patent rights, etc. financial beneficiaries of the foundation included the university of jena, the optometry school, numerous local institutions, and municipal projects. the university and municipality both had advisory 23/41 representation in the foundation's administration, as did the employees. the foundation owned the zeiss works lock, stock, and barrel, but who owned the foundation? who appointed the governing board? the author devoted dozens of pages trying to answer these questions but, if he did, i missed it. yet it was no minor issue in german industry. for the firm had a peak of 9,300 employees in 1916. readers of this newsletter may recall that, briefly reviewed in the january 1973 issue, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 7-9, was a celebrated federal court case attempting to resolve the question inasmuch as there are presently two zeiss firms, one in east germany and one in west germany, and both claimed rights to the name zeiss! zeiss reunited: an interesting editorial commentary on zeiss developments following world war ii and through realignment after the tearing down of the berlin wall appears on the editor's page of the february 1992 issue of american laboratory, vol. 24, no. 4, news edition, p. 4, entitled "when the wall came down" by gabor b. levy. his comments were prompted by a recent visit to germany. it included the optical works in jena, the carl zeiss company, which had been one of the leading firms of the former communist world. he reviews much of the 150 years of development of the con­ glomerate as has been covered to some extent in earlier issues of this newsletter. he adds that the east german component became the "leading instrument supplier to the entire eastern block, . . . a bloated, centrally managed behemoth with plants in 25 major locations and some 69, 000 employees." under reunification the german government transferred majority ownership of zeiss-jena to the western zeiss in oberkochen. the author describes some of the drastic measures taken to integrate the two previously independent but largely parallel companies into complementary units. it is projected that the readjustment will be complete by 1996 and "that it will be a world leader in optical and electronic scientific instruments under the sole ownership of the foundation set up by the visionary ernst abbe." the baltimore myopia fiasco: ohs member edward goodlaw sent me a november 1971 issue of the optometric world, vel. 58, no. 11, on page 6 of which is an obituary of arthur e. hoare (1890-1971). on pages 8, 10, 14, and 18 there appears his presumably last publication entitled "the baltimore myopia control project: the aborted confrontation between the aoa-oep and ophthalmology." dr. goodlaw referred to dr. hoare as one of the "stalwarts" of optometry, with which most of us old-timers would surely agree. among other involvements dr. hoare was an associate editor of the optometric world and an enthusiastic founding member of the board of directors of the optometric historical society. 23/42 the baltimore project was a joint ·undertaking by the optometric extension program (oep) and the public health bureau of the american optometric association (aoa) as proponents of the postulate that myopia was controllable by visual training, and by the johns hopkins .wilmer institute of ophthalmology as the challengers of the postulate. subsidizing the project were mr. and mrs. gould, editors of the ladies home journal, whose myopic daughter cecily had previously received visual training from george a. crow, o.d., with great satisfaction. the "confrontation," according to hoare, took place in 1944 with dr. crow as one of the several clinical participants for optom~try. the official report of the project was made by the public health bureau to the aoa at the annual meeting of the house of delegates on june 26, 1945. separate technical reports by each of the two parties, optometry and ophthalmology, appeared respectively in the journal of the american optometric association and the journal of the american medical association. some years later dr. crow was prevailed upon, probably by dr. hoare, to record his memories of the project on audiotape. this tape is presently available from vision extension, inc., 2912 south daimler street, suite 100, santa ana, california 92705-5811, as tape #5 of series a of heritage tapes. to appreciate dr. crow's disappointment in the way the project was managed, or mismanaged, one needs to hear the tape itself, but the verbal essence is well covered in dr. hoare's article. , dr. hoare concluded that the project "was foredoomed from the start," and "as having been a classical display of professional obfuscation on the one hand, and at the clinical level; and as a masterly display of professional naivete on the other hand." as an appendix to this article dr. hoare lists 22 staff members representing the optometric and visual training interests in the project, 15 optometrists and seven others. two additional optometrists are identified in the text of dr. crow's reminiscing. none of the involved ophthalmologists are individually identified. also, as an addendum to the tape dr. crow reminisced his participation in what were familiarly called the "renshaw surmner sessions" on the ohio state university campus in the 1940's and into the early 1950's. many of the concepts of visual training were developed and/or debated at these rather exclusive sessions att~nded by invited visual scientists and designated optometric guests of the o.e.p. is the role of visual training in myopia control now a dead issue? perhaps not, say joseph n. trachtman and vincent giambalvo in an article entitled, "the baltimore study, 40 years later" in a 1991 issue of the journal of behavioral optometry, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 47-50. they review and re-analyze the data reported by both the optometrists and the ophthalmologists and conclude that the two parties did not use the same sets of data! h.w h. 23/43 a man and his mission: sent to us by executive director robert k. williams of the optometric extension program foundation are two serial reprints entitled the skeffington saga, parts one and two, the man and the mission, which had appeared in the may and july, 1966, issues of the optometric world. they were written by the late arthur hoare, o.d., a career-long contemporary of a.m. skeffington, o.d. dr. hoare regarded himself "a relentless critic of skeff" but undertook to write these reviews in a kindly frame of mind to reveal for the historical records the human trails of a personage who, though perhaps t~ best known optometric leader of his era, to many was something of an enigma, certainly controversial, often regarded as a zealot or at least a dedicated missionary, and occasionally as a bit of a showman. to extract the very personal information dr. hoare prevailed on dr. skeffington and his devoted wife mary jane skeffington, m.d., each to answer numerous persistent questions and supplemented his resources by invitations of comments from several other national figures among skeffington's wide circle of acquaintances. from this we learn about his english father, a seaman, his danish multilingual mother, his dropping out of high school, his early drifting involvement in a variety of menial jobs in the "go west, young man" spirit, a subsequent period of theological studies leading to ordination, his graduation from the needles institute of optometry in kansas city in 1917, his immediate enlistment in the u.s. army tank corps ending with an end-of-war discharge in 1918 before serving overseas, eleven years of private practice in kearney, nebraska, his participation as a clinical demonstrator at the 1924 american optometric association congress (where he and hoare met) in kansas city, and his chartering of the graduate clinic foundation, inc., in 1926 (somewhat obscured by e.b. alexander's more aggressive optometric extension program, originally the oklahoma extension program, beginning in 1928) . it was also brought up that he and mary jane were childhood sweethearts and that she studied medicine after they were married. their home life was quiet and plain, as was much of his traveling life living out of an ordinary suitcase. exemplary of his philosophy was his oft remark that "yesterday ended at midnight," in line with which he refused to keep files, records, or dates. though lacking any formal scientific training he avidly pored over the science literature in search of explanations of visual mysteries. the "skeffington era" approximated the second quarter of this century. the newly enacted optometric registration laws had legalized a host of thousands of "grandfather clause" licensees most of whose training consisted of "hands-on" spectacle-fitting experience supplemented by private study and/or several weeks or months of attendance of one or another of the many privately owned teaching facilities offering optometry courses. skeffington vigorously introduced to these optometrists a clinical procedure concept to counterbalance the more sophisticated clinical 23/44 procedures being taught to students of accredited institutions of higher education undertaking to fulfill the new optometric licensing standards. his indoctrination included the "21 points," "check, chain, and typing," "syndrome analysis," and numerous other concepts and labels which provided significant technological competence and a conceptual matrix befitting the more professional desires especially of those academically lacking the more scientific infrastructure. he seemed to recognize the need clearly, and filled it well. h.w h. the duncan diary: the simple designation, "duncan, oklahoma," without a street name, house number, zip code, or post office box number, was perhaps the best known postal address in american optometry during a period encompassing most of the middle third of this century. it was the address of the optometric .extension program, more familiarly called the o.e.p. its members were commonly labeled "o.e.p.ers." they were by no means a majority of optometrists but, in my opinion, the most expressive and aggressive contingent dedicated to advancing optometry's professional status. in contrast, the town of duncan was a little known, oilwell-sustained community of several thousand people in the semiarid great plains, not even a crossroads of beaten intercity paths. then, as now, the reader of this paragraph probably would not know its geographic location, only the postal address, duncan, oklahoma. in duncan lived and practiced one e.b. alexander, o.d., the organizer and promoter of the o.e.p., and, in effect, its owner until he eventually had it incorporated as a nonprofit foundation with an autonomous governing board of directors. many details about the program and the involved personnel are given in a series of three papers aptly entitled "the duncan diary," parts i, ii, and iii, by arthur e. hoare in the may, july, and august 1967 issues of the optometric world, vol. 54, nos. 5, 7, and 9, pp. 10 ff., 10 ff., and 12 ff., respectively. part i deals with "the first forty years" and provides many biographical details of e.b. alexander himself, a 1920 graduate of the needles institute of optometry after a world war i stint in the u.s. marine corps. initially chairing a southwest oklahoma study group he nurtured its expansion intci> the oklahoma extension program in 1928 and finally the nationwide optometric extension program in 1931. part ii covers "the team" of co-workers surrounding alexander, which included such nationally familiar names as a.m. skeffington, jewel young, martha stem, george crow, harry fuog, and sol k. lesser. part iii describes the organizational growth of the o.e.p. between 1928 and 1968 and in limited detail its closely integrated educational and political involvement with the american optometric association during the o.e.p.'s first decade. 23/45 altogether the three documents may well be presumed accurate and informative and written with a friendly pen. dr. hoare's elegant style of writing makes them delightful reading though he omits any reference to the fact that, while subscribers to the o.e.p. were a devoted lot, there also existed a significant number of other well-meaning optometrists who took sometimes vehement exceptions to its teachings and political maneuvers. it was an exciting era. h.w h. linda casser the third: when linda casser was elected president-elect of the indiana optometric association to serve as president in 1992-93, she checked on the probability that she was a first. indeed not. preceding her were miss margaret j. erisman of lafayette, who served in 1913-15, and miss clara m. sweitzer of richmond in 192023. erisman was a 1900 graduate of the chicago college of ophthalmology and did some post-graduate work in st. louis. sweitzer was a 1907 graduate of the rochester school of optometry and a member of beta sigma kappa. dr. casser received her b.s. and o.d. degrees from indiana university in 1976 and 1978, respectively, and is presently an associate professor of optometry there. do any ohs members know whether other state optometric associations had female presidents as early in their history as the indiana optometric association? ophthalmoscopes: gesnerus [an acronym?] , previously titled publications of the swiss society for the history of medicine and natural science, supplement 41, is a 1990 paperbound 22.5 x 15.5 x 0. 5 em booklet of 82 pages entitled "vern helmholtz-augenspiegel zur funduskamera," authored by alfred schett, and published by verlag sauerlander, aarau, switzerland. the author, a volunteer co-worker at the zurich museum of medical history 1 is a learned electrical engineer and longtime collector of surgical instruments who, after retirement, specialized more and more in the history of ophthalmoscopes. in 1981 he started to inventory, classify, and annotate, among other things, the ophthalmoscopes and related items at the museum. each of several dozen ophthalmoscopes are illustrated in photo-offset and identified with their designers, users, or makers beginning with the helmholtz model demonstrated in 1850 and publicized in 1851. subsequent instruments include models enabling the user to make estimates of the refractive error, schematic eyes for retinoscopic proficiency development, multi-viewing models for demonstrative teaching purposes, electrically adapted models, 23/46 table-supported ophthalmoscopes, and a 1925 nordenson fundus camera. in addition to the verbal descriptions of each instrument and its carrying case or etui and a few helpful comments about the inventor or user, more than a hundred footnotes provide background or resource information. no cane. no glasses: what appears to be an excerpt from biographical notes by choreographer agnes de mille is a boxed item of four paragraphs about the late choreographer martha graham entitled "aging eyesight" in the march 1992 issue of the journal of optometric vision development. the item reports her death in 1991 at the age of 91 (at arithmetic variance with two other references identifying her birth in 1894) . she is reported as having suffered both painful arthritis and grossly deteriorating eyesight in her later years but refused to use either a cane or glasses. she is described as having on one occasion told a pink scarf on a chair, "you needn't wait any longer, mary." she had difficulty judging stage lights, resulting in overbright and even garish lighting in her later years, as she demanded. the costumes similarly became bolder and more glitzy. editor: managing editor: cont~ibuting editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1992-23-04-001 1992-23-04-002 1992-23-04-003 1992-23-04-004 1992-23-04-005 1992-23-04-006 1992-23-04-007 1992-23-04-008 volume 28 indsi g ht 111~:~., { e fno,· • • • • • • newsletter of the o · ana university •: optometric historical society : n 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missqhri 63mt 18sa.1fli7 : 0 • january 1997 • 1 · '.:, numberf • ••••• 1997 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the 1 997 ohs executive board members and officers, and the year of each member's term expiration. president ............ . vice president ........ . secretary-treasurer ..... . trustees ............ . call for nominations: walter chase (1998) david goss ( 1 997) bridget kowalczyk (2000) patricia carlson ( 1 999) chuck haine (2000) morris mckee ( 1 998) alfred rosenbloom ( 1997) •ijiana univer~. jun 11 1997 optomerry library it is time for you to send in your nominations for the two positions on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the members whose terms will expire are alfred rosenbloom and david goss. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. please send nominations to the ohs secretary-treasurer by june 25, 1997: bridget kowalczyk, ilamo, 243 n. lindbergh blvd., st. louis, mo 63141 usa. early american optometric history: the history of optometry in america: information waiting to be found douglas k. penisten presented at the annual ohs meeting december 8, 1990 • nashville, tennessee, usa during the 1890s and the early portion of this century, optqmetry in america experienced phenomenal changes. the profession had become recognized and regulated through state licensing boards. optometrists had professional organizations in which they could belong, and with these organizations came the spokesmen and professional leaders to represent them. optometry had truly become an organized professional force. it is not surprising then that today many optometrists believe that optometry was "born" at the tum of the century. if being "born" means becoming regulated and organized and if it also refers to the creation and adoption of the word optometry, then, yes, optometry was "born" 28/2 approximately 100 years ago. but, if by saying that optometry was "born" at the tum of the century one means that the professional practice of optometry (that is, the manufacturing of eyewear, the dispensing of eyewear, and sight testingtdid not exist prior to the 1890s, then this is quite simply not true. over the past several years i have developed a keen interest in the history of the practice of '. optometry in american before it was called optometry. in particular, i am interested in how colonial and postcolonial americans went about obtaining their visual aids. this includes any information on such aspects as the social sentiments regarding eyeglasses, where average citizens obtained their eyeglasses, and who were the people making and dispensing the eyewear. thanks to several histories of the profession of optometry, we do know portions of the story of optometry in early america but, indeed, not all of the story. in the course of several years of perusing library and bookstore material, i have developed what might be referred to as an optometric magnet. by that i mean, i have sensitized myself to be on the lookout for any reference, no matter how small, to the profession of optometry. this so-called sensitization did not actually occur from a predetermined desire to find this history, rather it carne with time. i began realizing that the occasional accidental run-ins i was having with these tidbits of information were, when accumulated, amounting to a significant story. just as important was the realization that these pieces of history were, in most cases, buried in the books, diaries, and manuscripts which the searcher for optometric history would never have dreamed of consulting. it is with this background that i would like tonight to relate and read to you several of these references ~lticq. i find particularly interesting. determining what individuals living long ago felt about the small things in life, like eyeglasses, is not an easy task. although we know vision and eyeglasses are not small, unimportant aspects of life, i am referring to the fact that you will not find words such as eyeglasses, spectacles, vision, or optical in even the most complete index of the largest texts on american social history. william maclay of pennsylvania served as a senator in the first u.s. congress from 1789-1791. this congress met behind closed doors and maclay's journal provides the best historic information on this congress. the following excerpt from his journal of 1789 describes the senators traveling to president washington's residence to present him with the senate's reply to president washington's recent inaugural address. it reveals very rarely found insights concerning social manners and eyeglasses. monday 18th. senate met. the address (to the president) was read over, and we proceeded in carriages to the president's to present it. having no part to act but that of a mute, i bad nothing to embarrass me. we were received in an antechamber. had some little difficulty about seats, as there were several wanting; from whence may be inferred that the president's mo.jor domo is not the most provident, as our numbers were well enough known. we bad not been seated more than three minutes, when it was signified to us to wait on the president in his ~ levee room. our president [the president of the senate, vice president john adams] went foremost, and the senators followed, without any particular order. we made our bows as we entered; and our president [adams], having made a bow, began to read an address. he was much confused. the paper trembled in his hand, though he had the aid of both by resting it on his hat, which he held in his left hand. he read very badly all that was on the front pages. the turning of the page seemed to restore him, and he read the rest with more proprietary. this agitation was the more remarkable as there were but twenty-two persons present, and none of them strangers. the president took his reply out of his pocket. he had his spectacles in his jacket pocket; having his hat in his left hand and the paper in his right. he bad too many objects in his hands. he shifted his hat between his forearm and the left side of his breast. but taking his spectacles from his case embarrassed him. he got rid of his small distress by laying the spectacle case on the chimney-piece. colonel humphreys stood on his right, mr. lear on his left. having adjusted 28/3 his spectacles, which was not very easy, considering the engagements on his hands, he read the reply with tolerable exactness, and without much emotion. i thought he should have received us with his spectacles on, which would have saved the making of some uncouth motions. yet, on the whole, he did nearly as well as anybody else could have done the same motions. could the laws of etiquette have permitted him to have been disencumbered of his hat, it would have relieved him much. 1 it is obvious from his writings that maclay was not impressed by the pomp and trappings of the young republic's office holders. samuel goodrich, the one-time famous author of children's books, grew up at the beginning of the nineteenth century in a small connecticut town. his memoirs paint a full picture of a self-sufficing household and the social texture of a new england town circa 1800. in the following 1856 quote, goodrich provides a short, but fascinating glimpse of "how good things used to be. " the amusements were then much the same as at the present, though some striking differences may be noted. books and newspapers, which are now diffused even among the country towns, so as to be in the hands of all, young and old, were then scarce and were read respectfully and as if they were grave matters, demanding thought and attention. they were not toys and pastimes, taken up every day, and by everybody, in the short intervals of labor, and then hastily dismissed, like waste paper. the aged sat down when they read, and drew forth their spectacles, and put them deliberately and reverently upon the nose. these instruments were not, as now, little tortoise-shell hoops attached to a ribbon and put off and on with a jerk; but they were of silver or steel, substantially made and calculated to hold on with a firm and steady grasp, showing the gravity of the uses to which they were devoted. even the young approached a book with reverence and a newspaper with awe. how the world has changed!2 in today's world if you want to know what a specific job or profession entails, you merely consult one of the many available occupational guides. if only they had published such guides in the last century, what information they would give. -they were published a century ago! in 1837 american author edward hazan wrote a 320-page book entitled the panorafiul of professions and trades. this detailed guide of 70 trades and professions was written primarily to assist the reader, and in particular the parent, in properly choosing the appropriate calling for a young person. each of the occupational descriptions included several pages of detailed text and also an engraved picture depicting a person performing the job. the occupational titles included: the miller, the baker, the hunter, the merchant, the tavern-keeper, the physician, the silversmith, the glass-blower, the dentist, and, yes, the optician. the engraving accompanying "the optician" chapter illustrated a very busy shop. at the center was a large counter where a seated woman and standing child, both with their backs to the viewer, were being attended to by a gentleman who surely was the optician. he had laid upon the counter several pairs of spectacles, one of which his was presently holding up and inspecting towards the window to the viewer's left. further to the left, and immediately adjacent to the strong light of the window sat an assistant, or perhaps apprentice, optician hunched over a bench and busily working on a grinding wheel. a second employee stood to the right, tightening the metal brace which held the optical tube of a refracting telescope to its tripod-based pier stand. in the background were numerous shelves full of instruments including: a survey transit, a magic lantern, and a camera obscura. the six-page optician chapter was composed of 39 seq~entially numbered paragraphs. these numbers were referred to in the back of the book where one found a series of questions for the reader to answer. the first paragraph defmed the occupation of opticianry, the next eight detailed basic optical principles, the following ten discussed optics as it related to the eye (including the refractive errors of "myopy" and "presbyopy"), 28/4 the next six paragraphs described various optical instruments, and the last fourteen paragraphs highlighted episodes in the history of optics. it is enlightening and fascinating to note that in the early 1800s in america, opticianry was clearly considered to include: an appreciation of history, the physics of light and lenses, the anatomy and optics of the eye, spectacle making and dispensing, and a thorough knowledge of optical instrumentation. the following quotes are paragraphs 1, 14, and 18. 1. the word optician is applicable to persons who are particularly skilled in the science of vision; but especially to those who devote their attention to the manufacture of optical instruments; such as-the spectacles, the camera obscura, the magic lantern, the telescope, the microscope, and the quadrant. 14. optical instruments. the art of constructing optical instruments is founded upon the anatomical structure, and physiological action of the eye, and on the laws of light. they are designed to increase the powers of the eye, or to remedy some defect in its structure. in the cursory view which we may give of a few of the many optical instruments which have been invented, we will begin with the sj)cctacles; since they are best known, and withal the most simple. 18. the opticians have their spectacles numbered to suit different periods of life; but as the short-sighted and long-sighted conditions exist in a thousand different degrees, each person should select for himself such as will enable him to read without effort at the usual distance. 13 there are, no doubt, buried in the recesses of archives, stored in the attics of homes, or even lying in an unsuspecting magazine or book, pieces of the story that is optometry's history. the primary purpose of the quarterly newsletter of the optometric historical society [hindsight] is to collect, for everyone's reference, these assorted facts and details. as managing editor of the newsletter, i would encourage you to keep an eye out for any reference on the history of optometry, no matter. how small, and jot it down on a piece of paper and mail it off tome or my co-editor dr. henry hofstetter. in that way we can continue adding to the growing pile of information. believe me, for the future writer or historian of the profession of optometry, every little bit will be valuable. it is perhaps appropriate that i conclude by mentioning a man, and a genius, that is so closely associated to the history of optometry-benjamin franklin. the following anecdote was printed in the 1805 english book entitled encyclopedia of wit. when he was in england, doctor franklin was walking in the ·london streets with his spectacles on his nose. one of his friends asked why he did not take them off. "0," said the philosopher, "they often help me see." a moment later, they met a porter and franklin bumped 6 against him. the porter, taking three steps back, cursed: "the devil take your spectacles!" and franklin said to his friend: "you see? i told you my spectacles helped me. without them, he would have damned my eyes. "4 references 1. maclay, william. sketches of debate in the first senate of the united states, in 1789-90-91. edited by george w. harris, quoted in griffin, bulkley. offbeat history. the world publishing co., 1967, p. 4-5. 2. goodrich, samuel g. recollections of a lifetime. quoted in ~ommager hs, nevins a (eds.). the heritage of america. little, brown, and company, boston, 1939, p. 359. · 3. hazen, edward. the panorama of professions and trades. uriah hunt, philadelphia, 1837. reprinted as the encyclopedia of early american trades. century house, watkins glen, ny, 1970. 28/5 4. zall, pm. ben franklin laughing, anecdotes from original sources by and about benjamin franklin. university of california press, berkeley, 1980, p. 129. an ootometrist as soldier: a very large share of the optometrists serving in world war ii did so in completely nonoptometric roles. one such instance is that of our famous william m. lyle, o.d., ph.d., the long-time editor of optometry's most distinguished journal, optometry and vision science, and professor emeritus of optometry at the university of waterloo, canada. born and reared in canada, he included some cadet training in the high school from which he graduated in 1932. surviving a few years of the depression by doing farm work he later enrolled in the college of optometry of ontario, completing the course with honors in 1938. he entered and completed a two-year residency program in winnipeg and continued to practice there. aware of canada's increasing involvement in wwii he simultaneously enrolled in the canadian officer's training course (cotc) at the university of manitoba. upon completion of the cotc he joined the reserve battalion of the royal winnipeg rifles as a second lieutenant. almost immediately he was offered the optometry post at the christie street military hospital in toronto with the rank of sergeant-major, which he turned down because it was beneath his already earned military status. within a few months his battalion was called to active duty. continuing his military training into 1 943 he was next sent overseas for further training in england into 1 944, then sent fighting in france, belgium, and holland into 1945, and occupying germany in 1946. from his copious notes and phenomenal memory of these six years of military participation, dr. lyle assembled a 160-page volume of anecdotes, comments, photographs, and maps which he had entitled "as i remember." none of it pertains in any way to optometry. it is a chapter completely set aside from his optometric career, to which he returned in 1946 in winnipeg. he does not even include the fact that a few years later he reentered academia to earn a ph.d. degree in physiological optics. subsequently he accepted a professorship in optometry at the university of waterloo, and finally assumed the role of editor. he and his family underwrote the cost of only a hundred printed and bound copies of the book to distribute to a few friends, relatives, and archival libraries, including the ilamo. it was felt that otherwise a fine, intelligent, understandable documentary of the war would be lost forever. it is a fascinating and revealing contribution by an optometrist outside of his field of publicly renowned accomplishment. h.w h. 28/6 history of the trade: in 1994 the optical laboratories association (ola) celebrated its centennial anniversary, identifying its origin with one of its predecessors, the american association of wholesale opticians (aa wo) organized in 1894. there followed a sequence of competing and ultimately merging organizations, the independent optical wholesalers association (iowa), the american optical wholesalers association (aowa), the optical wholesalers national association (owna), the association of independent optical wholesalers (aiow), and the optical wholesalers association (owa). highlighting the celebration was the commissioning of joseph l. bruneni to write a history of the ophthalmic industry as it evolved in america. the result was a beautiful hardcover 28x22 em volume of 232 pages of illustrations and text entitled "looking back," a publication of the ola in 1994 at $68.00. it is indeed an unusual document. the author's own career has long been in the employ of the optical industry as an eyewear information authority. in addition, his father was a 1916 optometry school graduate. the advantageous result was his personal oral history familiarity with numerous events and personnel of the twentieth century as well as acquaintance with many memorable details of the late nineteenth century. he had direct access also to a wealth of documentary material that had been collected earlier by lionel topaz ( 1 895-1 942) of the professional press in hopes of writing the history of the optical industry. the text is very anecdotal in style and supplemented by nearly 400 illustrations from a variety of archival sources, easy to read by anyone. it starts with a synopsis of the general history of optics and brief coverage of optometry, ophthalmology, and opticianry as the professions being served by the industry .. the next four chapters are biographical accounts of three optical pioneers, the growth of three major manufacturers around the turn of the century, brief reviews of the many early laboratories that thrived before being absorbed by major manufacturers, and the evolvement of optical trade associations emerging as the ola. the numerous subsequent chapters cover the history of lenses, frames, machinery, contacts, and incidentals, and the evolving roles of the various more recent manufacturers of specialty items. noteworthy are the factual descriptions of federal and legal involvement relating to the laboratory network, retail price controls, and rebating. joseph zentmayer is credited with being the first optician to limit his business to fitting spectacles from ophthalmologists' prescriptions. a review of this book by my co-editor david goss appeared in the july 1995 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 66, pp. 449-450. he noted that one of his favorite chapters consisted of the verbatim remembrances of 19th-century optometrist thomas m. heard. heard at the age of 20 was discharged from the grand army of the republic in 1865. with a copy of danders' book as his bible he emerged as a leading optometric author and lecturer. goss points out also that much of the whole book has historical significance for optometry because spectacle fabrication and vision care were still dichotomizing slowly during much of the current century. i recall well that in my own early years in the '30s local 28/7 optometric society monthly educational meetings were quite routinely attended by one or more optical company representatives. altogether the book is replete with such bits of information as otherwise defy location in the ophthalmic literature. it is interesting, authoritative, documentary, and informative. h.w h. a note from ray myers: i had the opportunity to read your tribute to maria dablemont in the october 1995 hindsight, which i thought to be quite illustrative of a life of tremendous accomplishment in behalf of the aoa and optometric history. i had contacted sandy smith and helen stahle to convey the news on the death of maria's son edward on april 13, 1996. he died of an apparent heart attack at about age 46, having known of his heart ailment for approximately two years. his three children and maria's grandchildren are in rio d'janiero (not the sao paulo area) with maria's sister avany, a situation that is likely to be permanent. edward had been divorced from his wife for more than two years. maria had provided for edward and his children an estate and trust which i have been administering. the funds will revert to avany who will utilize it for the children to include their eventual advanced education. i have passed the tribute along to a vany as well as her good friends dr. rodrigo and aparacida spinola, who were both responsible for the adoption of our son and were good friends with edward. compatibility and purooses: our past president j .j. abrams rec~ntly emerged as past president of the "other" ohs, the ocular heritage society, a truly unique accomplishment, at least until now. we are reminded that in both organizations the suggestion of merger has been made, but apparently not really pursued or even argued. several persons, perhaps a half dozen, belong to and participate in both. in hindsight, for example, we routinely call attention to activities of the "heritage" group as a matter of optometric historical interest. a somewhat similar interrelationship includes the london-based ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club with several members belonging to all three societies. none of the three has membership restrictions or qualification requirements of any kind other than the payment of nominal annual dues to cover postage and the like. in spite of the apparent similarities attributable to the common role of history there have been differences of emphasis and subject matter. our ohs has dwelt purposefully on the origins and evolvements of optometry and visual science. the 28/8 other ohs is more clearly identified with the broad ophthalmological care of the eye, as conveyed by the term "ocular." the o.a.i.c.c. emphasis is clearly on the collection of ophthalmic antiques. . . none of these points of emphasis excludes those of the other two. what else is to be said? anyone who reads this is most welcome to express his or her views for inclusion herein. h.wh. in central america: on page 1 0 of the spring 1993 issue of lnteroptics, no. 1 00, under the caption of "honduran history" is a report by j.p. handel, o.d., president of the honduran optometry association, to the international optometric and optical league. according to the report there was no eye refraction in honduras prior to 1925, a very small population and extremely primitive conditions. in 1925 two medical physicians, dr. t.c. pounds from the u.s.a. and dr. g. lovo from nicaragua, arrived and practiced both optometry and medicine in two different cities in honduras. pounds died in 1949 and lovo some years later. today honduras has more than 40 ophthalmologists and about 20 optometrists. managing editor and contributing editor: contributing editors: * * * david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 u.s.a. henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47408 u.s.a. douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 u.s.a. h.w h. 1997-28-01-001 1997-28-01-002 1997-28-01-003 1997-28-01-004 1997-28-01-005 1997-28-01-006 1997-28-01-007 1997-28-01-008 optometry ti~fgfj vertical jfu@ -~ newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. volume 3 october 1972 first reminisce-in~ success: number 4 thirty members and friends of the optometric historical society met in st. louis on june 20 for a two-hour reminisce-in. seventeen of those present gave brief but revealing and fascinating anecdotal accounts of generally unknown events and incidents in the history of optometry. all of the remarks were taped for preservation in the a.o.a. oral history archives and in the library of the southern college of optometry. these recordings are accessible to bona fide researchers of optometric history. selected portions may be released for public use with appropriate authorization. the breadth of interest in optometric history was reflected in the fact that the 30 participants came from 18 different states. their ages ranged from approximately 20 to 80 years, with several from each decade. eight of the participants were women. first committees created: founded in 1969, the optometric historical society this year reorganized some of the previous functions of its officers and trustees to share some of the increased functions and responsibilities with standing committees. the following society members have been notified of their appointment as committee chairmen and members for the current year: a. committee on membership (chm) maxwell miller, o.d., 407 w. market st., pottsville, pa 17905 raymond myers, o.d., 7002 nottingham, apt. 108, st. louis, mo 63119 sol tannebaum, o.d., 5 plaza medical arts bldg., park forest, il 60466 b. committee on public and professional relations (chm) h. ward ewalt, o.d., 8002 jenkins arcade bldg., pittsburgh, pa 15221 charles e. seger, o.d., 1407 garden st., san luis obispo, ca 93401 j. c. tumblin, o.d., 5319 broadway, n.e., knoxville, te 37918 c. committee on meetings (including planning and direction of reminisce-ins) (chm) spurgeon b. eure, o.d., southern college of optometry, 1246 madison ave., memphis, tn 38104 earl j. hunt, o.d., 226 ohio st., johnstown, pa 15902 ernest h. kiekenapp, o.d., 6800 chapel lane, minneapolis, mn 55424 d. committee on nominations and elections (chm) mrs. joseph m. (lucille) babcock, 3130 south rochester rd., columbus, oh 43221 -cont'd-34james r. gregg, o.d., 5930 south croft ave., los angeles, ca 90056 lester r. hussey, o.d., suite 222, rookery bldg., spokane, wa 99201 our treasury is growing: as of august 31 our secretary-treasurer reported the total monetary assets of o.h.s. at$603.84. of this she has $456.81 in a savings account collecting interest, $115.03 in the checking account, and $32.00 in petty cash. our present annual income from membership dues is now approximately $300.00. our membership continues to grow, so that in a year or two we may have a treasury of close to $1,000.00, as our expenses are quite nominal. once we attain this level we can entertain some project activities. our new committees may well be dreaming up projects already. new members from puerto rico: luis garcia-margarida, o.d. box 9533 santurce, puerto rico 00908 ralph mcconnie, o.d. concordia esquina jobos ponce, puerto rico 00732 paul melendez, o.d. san esteban 1708 urbanizacion san ignacio rio piedras, puerto rico 00927 ramon pacheco, o.d. de diego avenue 365 parada 22 santurce, puerto rico 00909 these four new ones give puerto rico a total of five, a membership exceeded numerically by only the great states of new york and pennsylvania, each with six members, and matched only by california. by any other criterion, e.g., per cent of population, per cent of optometrists, or even mileage, puerto rico's membership rating is absolutely number one. doesn't this suggest a charming site for our first o.h.s. assembly in, say, about 1975? add belgium, france, and italy: a letter from mr. jean thiriart, president of the societe d'optomltrie d'europe (s.o.e.), and a check for one year's dues for six new members, adds the following new members to our role: jean thiriart 52 avenue louise 1050 bruxelles, belgium joseph kerff 40 rue de la montagne eupen, belgium , aime kockelbergh, ph.d. 22 kardinaal mercier plein sint nikklaas, belgium rudy francioli 10 avenue de lausanne 1800 vevey, switzerland ugo frescura, f.a.a.o. 225 corso alfieri 14100 asti, italy -35ge'rard roosen institut et centre d'optometrie 134 route de chartres f 91-440 bures-sur-yvette france obviously mr. thiriart has been doing some proselyting, for which we are grateful. we hope we can sustain the interest of our overseas members and attract occasional contributions of historical information from them as well. after all, they are in an area where optometry had much of its early history, and where some fascinating optometric developments are presencly unfolding. history, like science, has no political boundaries. immediately after sending us this letter mr. thiriart sent us a second one advising that he is contributing a bound volume of all of the 1971 issues of photons, the optometric journal of the s.o.e. this is just one more indication of the role of the o.h.s. in encouraging the truly international documentation of optometry's development. membership directory: the next issue of the newsletter will include an alphabetized o.h.s. membership list, with addresses. listed will be all who have paid their dues for 1972. if your address has changed or is otherwise incorrectly entered in our records, please notify us. nordic council of opticians: according to a translation, by vigo h. nielsen, nf a speech delivered at the 25th anniversary meeting of the nordic council of opticians by its president svein hommerstad published in nordisk tidsskrift for optikere, no. 2, april 1972, pp. 23-24, the council was founded in johan solberg hansen's home in bergen by johan thiele and waldemar friang of denmark, bror biese and a. a. kreander of finland, thorleif viig and alf h. lie of norway, and stig henning and halvard sjogren of sweden. the council serves as "the focal point of the scandinavian opticians/optometr:f.sts" and as a medium of communication and exchange between the optometrical/opticians of the four countries. "in 1963 the council drew up ethical rules for the optical/optometric profes­ sion in scandinavia. these are the first and still the only rules for the profession in the western european continent." th~ littlefield system: recently received from lt. col. fred van nus, o.n., u.s. army, is a hardbound volume, approximately 7 3/4" x 11 1/2" x 1" entitled the littlefield system of eye and nerve measurements. it appears to be a rebinding of an originally paper covered series entitled optometry, copyrighted 1905 by dr. j. e. littlefield. printed only on one side of each sheet, each page is labeled a "lecture" and numbered from "lecture no. 1" to "lecture no. 101," even though -36the text is continuous throughout. for example, lecture no. 20 ends with the beginning of a new sentence, "the phoro-", hypen included, and lecture no. 21 starts with "meter showed four degrees of esophoria. because this publication is identified throughout as a mail course, one can guess that the subscriber received one lecture (page, sheet) at a time in the mail. optometric suspense, indeed! the inside title page shows a fine portrait of dr. littlefield and identifies him as "graduate of five colleges. president of the kansas school of optics (chartered). organizer of the kansas association of opticians. secretary of the international optical association." intermingled with the 101 "lectures" are a number of full page anatomical charts and illustrations, some in color, but without pagination. following the 101 "lectures" are several pages of questions called "quizzes," numbered from 1 to 323. an index follows, and then several pages of "answers to quizzes." apparently one dedicated to give his money's worth, for the price of the course was $50.00, dr. littlefield added an extra 19 pages of "supplements" consisting of state board questions and answers. some of these state board questions are identified as having their origin in minnesota and kansas, which is a bit puzzling, as kansas did not have an optometry law in 1905. perhaps the course extended over several years so that the supplement came out after 1909. or perhaps kansas had a voluntary registration program prior to its law. these are pure conjectures on my part. the text reads like a classroom lecture, replete with homely illustrations, witty phrasing, occasional exaggerations for emphasis, and frequent dogmatic assertions. an example, "man is about eleven­ tenths hog, on the question of stuffing." another example, "people living on the shady side of a street are more subject to disease than those living on the sunny side." his informal style belies the fact that the coverage is really very comprehensive and the explanations are quite sophisticated. on optometric pedigrees: o.h.s. member pacheco writes further to remind us that his compu­ tation of 133 "family years in optometric service" is based on the aumber of licensed professional life years, not total biological life years. not content with this apparent, or at least so far unchallenged, world record, he smugly tells us that if he included two maternally connected first cousins and another to whom he himself is a first-cousin-once-removed, he could add another 76 professional life years, making a total of 209! in a year or two he and his living optometric relatives will total seven, so that they can score seven more professional life years in each calendar year. says tony, "we should exceed 400 years of legal optometric life in three generations." i do not predict that the pacheco record can be beaten in the states, but i wonder if there might not be some well documented optical pedigrees in china. perhaps o.h.s. member t. c. chang in hong kong is already digging through some genealogies. ii -37the ..!!!l mcallister, 0. d. : "everybody's dying off and i'm not getting new people," said john wardale mcallister. "i don't suppose i'll be in business much longer." with these simple, poignant words, the 78-year-old bachelor forecast the professional demise of five generations of mcallisters, one of the most distinguished and remarkable families in the american history of optometry. so said feature writer earl arnett in the lead story on page bl of the the sun, baltimore, maryland, on august 9, 1972. the five generations were named john, john jr., william young, frank wardale, and john wardale, all bearing the surname mcallister. pictures of all five are included in the article, a clipping of which was thoughtfully forwarded to us by o.h.s. member lester caplan, o.d. more on dr. lubin: mention was made in our previous issue, page 31, of the involvement of sigmund lubin, a philadelphia optometrist, in the production and showing of early motion pictures. our o.h.s. secretary-treasurer has unearthed several more references to his contributions. one is an article entitled motion pictures, philadelphia's contribution to, by joseph jackson in the encyclopedia of philadelphia, vol. 3, harrisburg, (pennsylvania), national historical association, c 1932, pp. 904-907. another is an article entitled "philadelphia and the genesis of the motion picture" by m. j. mccosker of the atwater kent museum in the pennsylvania magazine of history & biography, vol. 65, no. 4, oct. 1941, pp. 401-419. more than two full pages of this article deal with the man, his activities, and even his personality. the third is a letter from the corresponding secretary of the (pennsylvania) state board of optometrical examiners with a photocopy of lubin's application for optometric licensure dated 1917. dr. lubin gave 21 south 8th street, philadelphi~as his address, his birthplace as berlin, germany, and his date of birth april 20, 1854. he reported having been in the practice of optometry 45 years, 40 in pennsylvania. during the two years prior he personally examined and fitted only "about two hundred" cases with glasses because he had "been giving great attention to my new invention of cameras, projecting machine, and many others." his instruments were "test box and opthalmometer." his last listing was in the 1922 blue book of optometrists. before 1300 a.d.: ---"preoptometry" is what abraham bromberg calls the period which we of european indoctrination ordinarily think of as pre-renaissance. he describes it in an article entitled aztec and maya public health and preoptometry in mexico in the july 1972 issue, vol. 49, no. 7, of the american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of q£tometry, (this has to be history's bulkiest journal title!), pp. 603-606. -38"the aztecs knew and used transparent materials like glass but it was not used to correct eye defects. instead different herbs and other 'curative' materials were used." "for the mayans it was considered attractive to have a convergent stabismus." an optical millenary: alhazen (965-1039 a.d.), known in the east as ibn al-haitham, was a muslim physicist, astronomer, mathematician, and physician. his greatest work, the kitabul manazir, on optics, contained the first correct exposition of the theory of vision. known throughout the world as the father of optics he has also been called the father of physiological and geometrical optics. to celebrate the 100 anniversary of ibn al-haitham the hamdard national foundation, pakistan, sponsored a seminar from november 1 through november 10, 1969 in five cities, for which national and international scholars and scientists were requested to make available articles on ibn al-haitham and other muslim scientists. the more than 50 contributions, all in english, have been published in a single 350 page volume under the title ibn al-haitham, edited by hakim mohammed said, published by the hamdard academy, and printed by the times press, sadar, karachi, pakistan ($10.40). the book includes numerous trans­ lations of arabic treatises by ibn al-haitham. this is a truly remarkable assemblage of personal and scientific details and interpretations of alhazen's life and works. what is more, it makes delightful reading. first registered optometrist: in a recent letter leo a. meyer, o.d., advised that according to the original minutes of the minnesota board of optometry the first group of optometrists, 65 of them, were licensed at the second meeting of the board on june 11, 1901. the first name on the list was that of joseph w. grainger, rochester, minnesota, "the first president of the board of optometry". just as almost every historical "fact" lends itself to a bit of challenge, however, so does this one. in the july 1901 issue of the optical journal, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 608-609, is a letter from the----­ minnesota board dated may 28, 1901, stating, "the board of optometry have only had one meeting so far, on which occasion they elected officers for one year, as follows: alex sveningsen, of moorehead, president; ••• ''. according to the letter, registration had not yet been accomplished. could it be that sveningsen resigned almost immediately in deference to grainger? that grainger was a person of considerable prominence is suggested by a write-up of him in the june 1901 issue of the optical journal, vol. 8, no. 6, p. 536. he was born in yorkshire, england, and his father was in the spectacle business. he came to america in 1868. in -391890 the mayor of rochester, minnesota, presented him with a certificate of qualified optician. he took a course at the "northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, graduated doctor of optics". later the same school gave him the degree of "bachelor of ophthalmology." w. rentzsch heard from: in the july issue, p. 29, i reported that i hoped to make contact with the viennese author of the visual science chronology. i was successful. mr. werner rentzsch turns to be a graduate of the jena optometry school where he studied under prof. dr. hermann pistor in 1934-36. he credits dr. pistor with sparking his early interest in the history of visual science. since his student days he has continued his reading and writing in visual science history as a hobby. perhaps a bit whimsically he connnented (translated from german), "historical articles are not printed in our optical journals with great enthusiasm, understandably because few of their readers are interested." incidentally, the author's address is herr w. rentzsch, wabringerstr. 127, a-1180, wien, (austria). venezuelan optometry: a letter from antonio barcelo'of caracas, venezuela, dated 24-9-71, arrived in mid-july 1972 in response to our broadside news release of august 24, 1971, to editors of optometric journals almost everywhere requesting information and leads on the names of optometrists who have been memorialized in one or another formal manner. managing editor barcelo'apparently had no memorials to report, but he listed 13, including six deceased, as "names of members who deserve to be memorialized by their colleagues as pioneers of the optometric profession in venezuela." the letterhead reads "colegio de optometristas de venezuela" and the organization's coat-of-arms shows the date "21 de mayo de 1949", presumably the date of founding. the address is apartado del este no. 10.613-sabana grande, caracas, venezuela. we also received a copy of their first edition of refraccion, 1951, several 1966, 1967, 1969, and 1971 issues of el optometrists and a copy of "apuntes sobre optometria" by amador bricen'5' belisario. these have been placed in the american optometric association library. having reported next to nothing about venezuelan optometry in 1948 in my book optometry, i checked my venezuela folder for bits of information accumulated since then. there i found the quotation, "while optometry here is not an organized profession, there are optometrists in caracas eager for the profession to occupy its proper place," from a letter from f. h. lytton-joseph of venezuela published in the optometric extension program news, vol. 12, no. 10, june 1949, p. 1, under the caption "venezuela is now represented in oep." in the august 1, 1949, issue of the optical journal and review of qptometry, vol. 86, no. 15, p. 57, appeared a three paragraph comment -40on the establishment of the "venezuela optometric association" by "its 40 practitioners". "until march 28, 1949, membership was open to anyone who had completed an optometric course in any other part of the world." the information was supplied by dr. alberto behrens belisario (now deceased), who also reported that his uncle manuel behrens b. established the first optometric practice in caracas. in the september 1, 1955 issue of the same journal, vol. 92, no. 17, p. 36, appeared a report of approximately 200 optometrists in venezuela, 60 of them in caracas. in 1957 julio moros g. of caracas sent me a copy of the bill that was to be introduced before the congress of the republic to obtain legal recognition of optometry and to establish a school of optometry in the universidad central de venezuela. in march, 1972, appeared the announcement "new school of optometry in venezuela" in the american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of optometry, vol. 49, no. 3, p. 266. this chronology reminds me that someone once said that the normal time between the conception and the establishment of an optometry school is rarely less than a decade. unconscionable puffs: last year one of my students, timothy a. feehan, undertook to learn what visual care services, if any, were offered in his home town of martinsville, indiana, a hundred years earlier when it had a population of about 1,200 in a county with a total population of about 18,000. to this end he perused the microfilm copies of the 1871 morgan county republican (vol. 1, no. 20 tb vol. 2, no. 19) at the offices of the martinsville daily reporter. he also consulted the peoples's guide, a business, political and religious directory of morgan county, edited by cline and mchaffie, indianapolis printing and publishing house, indianapolis, 1874. the directory netted no information at all, but the newspaper advertisements included "a. beatty, m.d., oculist and aurist" with the assurance that "he respectfully offers his services in the general practice of medicine. he devotes his attention to diseases of the eye and ear and all chronic diseases, particularly those peculiar to females. for testimonials he refers to his posted cards." also throughout the year appeared the advertisement of a. r. chase, a "veteran tinner" who traded in copper, stoves, lightning rods, coal oil and spectacles. his spectacles advertisements read, "george staples' celebrated spectacles, gold, silver, or steel rimmed, at chases' • these spectacles are acknowledged to be the best in the world. they are the same as the moses spectacles of indianapolis, and they will be sold at 25 per cent lower than indianapolis prices." the martinsville newspaper also included advertisements of indianapolis jewelry stores which included "spectacles" with their stock of watches, diamonds cuttery, and clocks. indianapolis is 30 miles north of martinsville. -41a chicago mail order service at "43 s. illinois st., south of palmer house" advertised, "spectacles, magnifiers, opera and spy glasses and microscopes at the lowest prices. all kinds of repairing done to order. persons living at a distance may forward spectacles for repairs by mail or express. send number of glass you use and receive spectacles by return mail". in a february issue appeared a news item (paid?) announcing that "dr. boyd of indianapolis will be in martinsville on tuesday and wednesday, the 14th and 15th of february, where he can be consulted by those who are afflicted with chronic diseases, especially diseases of the eye and ear." the article quoted the sentinal (indianapolis) as having witnessed at least one of his miraculous cures. the result of his martinsville visit? here is the newspaper account which appeared in the next week's issue: "dr. j. t. boyd, an eminent physician, according to his own representations, which we have no authority for denying, paid our town a visit one day last week, but because he was not met and welcomed by crowds of the afflicted with well filled purses and open palms, and because the local papers charged living rates for unconscionable puffs he was filled with disgust, stigmatized our city as a backwoods town, and returned to indianapolis on the next train." (the phrases "living rates" and "unconscionable puffs" puzzle me, too, but i am enjoying my guesses -h.w.h.) where is it now? ---the following is a copy of a typed memorandum, dated "sept. 1947" in a longhand annotation, recently sent to me by robert e. bannon, who is now at american optical, buffalo, n.y. "columbia university has received from the dartmouth eye institute, hanover, new hampshire, a valuable gift consisting of the bibliography section of the institute's library. this work, begun in 1929 under the direction of adelbert ames, jr., consists of three main items. "one part consists of a 50,000 card index file of important papers in the field of physiological optics appearing during the past twenty years in the regularly obtainable ophthalmological, optometrical, optical, and psychological journals published in this country and abroad. although abstracts are not included on the cards, copious cross-indexing according to authors and numerous subject matters were made. "the second part consists of a file of several hundred reprints received from various authors during the past twenty years by the dartmouth eye institute. the material covered is related primarily to investigations in the field of binocular vision since the work of the dartmouth eye institute concerned itself with research in that field. "the third and most valuable part is about 300 translations of important german publications relating to binocular vision, space -42perception, refraction, visual acuity, and allied subjects in physiological optics. the translations include standard works by a. tschermak, f. b. hofmann, panum, hillebrand, etc. "the gift of the dartmouth bibliography files to columbia university was made possible by the intercession of clifford l. treleaven, associate professor of optometry at columbia, who was familiar with the material, and also robert e. bannon, formerly of the dartmouth eye institute staff and now a member of the optometry faculty at columbia. the dartmouth eye institute, affiliated with the dartmouth medical school and supported largely by the rockefeller foundation, carried out many important investigations in the field of physiological optics during the past twenty years but was forced to terminate its work in june 1947 because of lack of funds. "the dartmouth bibliography material now at columbia in the general science section of the low memorial library should be of interest and service to ophthalmologists, optometrists, physicists, psychologists, artists, optical engineers, and other scientists interested in physio­ logical optics." dr. bannon suggests that this collection may now be at the optometric center of new york, or that a complete set may also be at the baker library at dartmouth, or at the dartmouth medical school library. the first panoptic? a recent visitor was mrs. ruth hammon sheppard, daughter of james h. hammon, o.d., (1876-1944), about whom i wrote a few paragraphs in the april issue, p. 14. she showed us an old (1918) six page legal doccument headed, "united states district court, district of indiana, kryptok company, plaintiff,-against-hammon optical machine manufacturing company and james h. hammon, defendents, in equity no. 254." according to the document a prior document designated "answers to interrogatories of plaintiff" filed by defendant hammon "on or about the 25th day of october, 1918" was "ordered" to be "treated and considered as a bill of particulars filed by defendants in compliance [about three words obliterated] of plaintiff." the rest of the six page document lists the interrogatories but not the answers. the interrogatories, however, are specific requests for various types of evidence such as "any original bifocal lenses embodying the invention of the patent in suit, which the defendant •.. claims to have made prior to january 23, 1904" and "whether or not there was a sale or public use of bifocal lenses embodying the convention of the patent in suit, more than two years prior to january 23, 1904." * * * * * * h. w. hofstetter, editor 1972-03-04-001 1972-03-04-002 1972-03-04-003 1972-03-04-004 1972-03-04-005 1972-03-04-006 1972-03-04-007 1972-03-04-008 1972-03-04-009 1972-03-04-010 newsletter of the 1\uf' .• r, 1071 optometric historical socie'i'y ~ "' ; ", ! (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missq) .. q::t.,"u • .,s.~ a,.."' .. j> .. 3119) ~~·.l i:;·-~~~it l_:~:\:~ ~-r~-,-~: -~ i volume 4 july 1973 number 3 election again: our by-laws state "election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot." the board member whose term expires this year, dec. 31, 1973, is john r. levene. nominations for his replacement or continuation for a five year term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot. election ballots will go out with the october issue of the newsletter. ernest herbert kiekenapp (1889-1973): the loss of dr. kiekenapp, a founding member of our society, is without question more keenly felt by us than by any other group. most of his retirement years were devoted to reconstructing optometric history, of which he was the personification. he kept almost feverishly busy recording facts, experiences, and memories which he alone possessed. with all that he had contributed to optometry's development prior to his retirement he might easily have leaned back in a comfortable chair to watch his crop grow, but this he would not do. it will take years to assemble a good collection of the facts that portray his role in the development of optometry. he was personally involved in almost every major event. the optometric historical society is only one of the monuments on which his name is forever inscribed. appreciation: the following note was received from dr. kiekenapp's daughter: "dear society members"many thanks for the gorgeous pink glads, roses, mums, and porn pons that were sent for my father's services. they were a beautiful addition and we have enjoyed them at the house since the ceremonies. "sincerely, "kiki rice" (mrs. william rice 9 walnut street boston, massachusetts 02108) -30colonial optics in .1776: o.h.s. member henry a. knoll has sent us a copy of a letter dated march 15, 1973 from silvio a. bedini, deputy director, smithsonian institution, washington, d.c. says mr. bedini: '~hank you for your letter of february 26 relating to the history of optics in colonial america. there is little infor­ mation on the subject and none in published form. most of the optical instruments used in colonial america were imported chiefly from england and there was very little if any production here. this was due primarily to the unavailability of optical glass and of skilled craftsmen. for example, no scientific glass was produced in america pri.or to about 1784. occasional endeavors were made by such men of science as david rittenhouse to produce instruments with lenses generally imported from overseas. there were, of course, spectacle makers working in america during this period and the best source of information concerning them are the advertisements in contemporary news­ papers. there has been no organized effort to collect and compile these advertisements, however, and it remains a project for the individual researcher. "i have devoted a substantial amount of space to the subject in my forthcoming book now in press, thinkers and tinkers (the early american men of science) to be published by scribner's. i hasten to add that i have not in this work considered the spectacle makers nor do i know whether there exists a literature on the subject in journals of optometry, etc. i regret that i cannot be more helpful." more on 1776 ophthalmics: the following paragraphs are taken from a letter dated march 29, 1973 to o.h.s. member henry knoll from librarian charles snyder of the lucien howe library of ophthalmology, 243 charles street, boston 14, massachusetts: "you ask for information concerning eye care and eye appliances in the u.s. prior to the declaration of independence. the blunt truth is that there was not much, and what was did not amount to much. "to get a good picture of the times i suggest you get hold of a copy of: guerra, francisco: american medical bibliography, 1639-1783. new york, lathrop c. harper, 1962, 785 p. according to the author all the printed literature of the period newspapers, magazines, broadsides, almanacs, and books were scrutinized and any and all medical references were then indexed in this volume. check the index in the back of the volume for references specific to the eye. there are several, but you will come away disappointed. -31"it should be pointed out that there were no medical journals published in the colonies. many of tne medical books published were re-prints of english works. the colonies were largely dependent on england for their medical literature as well as their medical training. "one excellent book of the times, written by an englishman, enjoyed a degree of popularity in the colonies. it was: priestly, joseph: the history and present state of discoveries relating to vision, light, and colours. london, johnson, 1772, 812 p. the book is a pleasure to read. you should also look at: porterfield, william: treatise on the eye. the manner and phenomenon of vision. edinburgh, hamilton, 1759, 2 vola. "these books deal with the non-clinical aspects of oph­ thalmology. in england there were only a few first-rate books on clinical ophthalmology, although the french and germans had a better record. generally speaking, the information on diseases of the eye that was available to the english language reader was buried in textbooks of general medicine and surgery. this means that the average colonial doctor could not have had available to him a very large amount of ophthalmic literature. verification of this can be found by consulting sections of: james, r. r.: studies in the history of ophthalmology in england prior to the year 1800. cambridge, university press, 1933, p. 89-131. "if you want to explore another area you could look into that of popular medicine. read such books as the one john wesley prepared for the planters of georgia. and then there are always those studies that have been made on medicine in the colonies. i am not sure, but at one time or the other someone must have written a book on science and scientists in the colonies. it might be worth looking into. i have a vague impression that rittenhouse of philadelphia did some work on optics and lenses. i may be wrong. "two things emerge from this letterfirst: medicine was a poor thing in the colonies and ophthalmology was its poorest child; and second: to my knowledge no one has ever done a study on eye care available at the time. "so, good luck with your research. "p.s. i would like to see your manuscript on the history of b&l. as for its being published that would of course depend on its nature." miss berger responds: at the time of writing the commentary on "optics and optometry ca. 1930" in the previous issue of the newsletter (p. 24) i sent an inquiry to -32simmons college, miss ivy berger's alma mater, as to her whereabouts. the college forwarded my inquiry to her, and she, herself, wrote me. her address is 2045 commonwealth avenue, brighton, massachusetts 02135. with her permission i quote from her letter of march 24. "i've never written or researched in your field since my thesis although i've continued to read and to write extensively. presently i am writing condensed book reviews (fiction and non­ fiction) in my spare time. "my choice of subject happened like this: since i was a young teacher of shorthand and typewriting, i wanted to research and write something that would help teachers of business education. i had already written mountains of term papers based on library research. "my thesis adviser refused permission and insisted that i do a study on the coal industry. i've forgotten the name of my adviser, and i can't imagine why he chose that subject. as a fellow academician, you may wonder why, too. as a compromise between shorthand and coal, we chose eyeglasses! "i had a relative who was an optician; i knew of enormous price differentials that existed at the retail level; i wore eyeglasses. did i need a better reason? in my youth and naivete, i thought i would simply read all there was in the library and perhaps do a little field research and satisfymy thesis requirements. '~ou see, i had decided at age 6 that i would be a teacher, and i needed a master's degree and two years of substitute teacher experience to take those boston teaching examinations. i needed that degree, and no little thesis was going to interfere!! soon, much to my dismay, i discovered that little or nothing was available in the library. by then, it was a matter of pride to do enough field research to get the thesis written anyhow. it did not help to be told by certain officials of a large optical manufac­ turing concern that, far from helping me, they would try to put every possible obstacle in my way to prevent my writing this thesis. profit motive?? "it mattered then; but by now, i've forgotten what i wrote. i'm glad you found it interesting. "i got my degree (with honors) and have been happily teaching shorthand and typing ever since.i've taught most of the time at the boston business school. it is a post-high school business school with a unique passing mark of 90%. we train secretaries, book­ keepers, and accountants. it is satisfying work. "is there much written nowadays on eyeglasses? i'd be pleased to see a current bibliography if one exists. do you have a museum collection in indiana? are there collections elsewhere? -33"since i could only afford the two copies of my thesis (one for boston university and one for the library of congress) it would be interesting to learn where your carbon came from -­ via the deceased optometrist. historical societies find these questions interesting, do they not? "it has been pleasant 'pen-chatting' with you. perhaps one day we will meet. i wish you every success with your interest in the history of optometry. perhaps more is written these days than seemed to be available then." oenological optics: america's first regional homemade wine competition under a new federal ruling was scheduled to be held at treaty line wine cellars near liberty, indiana, on april 7, according to an article in the april 6 indianapolis star. the winery is in a large barn built in 1840 on the banks of the whitewater river. the name is derived from the greenville indian treaty line on which the winery is located. president of the winery is donald l. macdaniel, o.d., of connersville and holder of indiana winery permit no. 1. this interesting bit of news serves as a reminder that optometrists are creatively involved in many important community developments. the frequent recognition awards and honors bestowed on individual optometrists attests to their extensive participation in community affairs. it takes very little inquiry to learn that among our colleagues we have numerous accomplished musicians and painters, political leaders, civic developers, and policy makers. such facts also add to our awareness of the total optometric contribution to society. let us try to get more of this information on record. it gives us a more complete notion of the char~cter of the profession. early specs and instruments: recently i received a copy of a letter from l. d. bronson, o.d., associate editor of optometric world, 1200 south central ave., glendale, california 19204, to bernell corp. soliciting "any help you can give us in the form of photographs and illustrated catalogues, books and any form of written material" for an article on "old and/or antique refracting instruments and equipment." appropriate credits, care, and prompt return of loaned materials were assured. following my request for more details, dr. bronson wrote: "thank you for your response to my inquiry regarding early refracting instruments and equipment, in which you question the extent of our proposed investigation and subsequent article. i hope this letter will serve to clarify our intent. "i have in my possession a book-length manuscript which i wrote and which i call, early american specs. it is yet to be -34published. in my research for the subject-matter contained in this book, i invariably encountered material germane to ophthalmic instruments. and, as with the 'specs', i became fascinated by the history and lore surrounding their metamorphosis. this prompted me to include these in my collection. "both the optometric world and myself are interested in preparing an article of some 5,000 words for publication. this is to be concerned, in the main, with refracting equipment and connected devices such as orthoptic, tonometric, v.a. charts, and the like. "i have collected already some instruments, pamphlets and books circa 1895. i am attempting to obtain information prior to that date." 16th century symbol of deceit: a woman wearing a mask and holding forth a pair of spectacles in her right hand as her merchandise offering is one of seven human figures in a copperplate engraving by the dutch artist martin heemskerk, nee martin van veen, (1498-1547). the seven figures are allegorically labeled, in latin: fortuna, labor, diligentia, parsimonia, fraus, mendacium, and vis. fraus, meaning deceit or fraud, is a spectacle saleslady! an interesting interpretation of the symbolism of fraus is made by prof. dr. h. 0. kroner in an article entitled "die brillenverkauferin von heemskerk" in the september 1972 issue of augenspiegel, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 444-447. the engraving itself is reproduced in the article, and reference is also given to an earlier discussion of it by prof. dr. greeff in a series of articles entitled, "die brillenverkaufer in alter zeit" in deutschen optischen wochenschrift, 1931, nr. 49, seite 588£. the original engraving is presently catalogued as nr. 64 of the kroner collection in the optischen museum der zeiss-werke, oberkochen, west germany. in the same issue of augenspiegel, pp. 438-448, is an article about the above-mentioned museum entitled, "das optische museum in oberkochen/ wurttemberg" by thilo von haugwitz. another thrilling first: o.h.s. member minerva h. weinstein, 1504 sheridan ave., bronx, new york 10457, recently sent her state board examination papers, and her answers, to secretary maria dablemont for the archives. she reports herself "the first woman registered by examination," the "only woman optometrist in bronx county, "a charter member of the bronx county optometrical society," and "many other firsts." her examination took place in june 1914 in the grand central palace in new york city, and she was the only woman taking the exam. she comments, "the grand central palace is gone, but i, and optometry, are still here!" -35leeds on maybee: o.h.s. member jim leeds writes, "just read the o.h.s. newsletter and was intrigued by ted fisher's mention of w. a. maybee. i have some paper pamphlets he wrote on 'optometry in theory and practice' (lectures 2-7, 9-11), which were some undated pamphlets (circa 1915), probably printed in winnipeg. they're nothing great, but still i am glad to have them." variable and progressive power lenses: this is the title of a series of five articles by a. g. bennett in manufacturing optics international (vol. 25, no. 17, dec. 1972, pp. 759-762 and vol. 26, nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, jan., feb., mar., and apr. 1973, pp. 42-45, 88-91, 137-141, and 199-204). in his typically meticulous style mr. bennett traces attempts, developments, and patents from the 18th century to the very recent. the article is thoroughly documented and illustrated. history of spectacles: the series of articles by dr. emil-heinz schmitz mentioned in our january 1973 issue, vol. 4, no. 1, p. 8 was concluded with installment no. 40 in the january 15, 1973 issue of suddeutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 61-68. pepys' eye problems: this is the title of a brief article by s.c. and w.e. hardy in the april 26, 1973 issue of the optometric weekly, vol. 64, no. 17, pp. 32-33. "the diary compiled by samuel pepys . . . between 1660 and 1669 now ranks . • • as an interesting source of information about the available treatment of sight defects ... ", say they. herschel's contact lens: if you are planning to write or talk about the history of contact lenses you first should read a.g. bennett's "j.f.w. herschel on contact lenses" in the april 14, 1973 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 13, no. 8, pp. 423-424. mr. bennett is of the opinion that the protecting of the cornea from a diseased lid is an erroneous version of herschel's interest in contact lenses. he documents his opinion well. kepler's retinal image: reconnnended reading is "kepler's discovery of the retinal image" by ronald s. fishman, m.d., in the january 1973 issue of archives of ophthalmology, vol. 89, no. 1, pp. 59-61. for a reprint write to dr. fishman, 106 irving st., n.w., suite 420, physicians office bldg., washington hospital center, washington, d.c. quite irrelevant to the above, but worth a good old-fashioned belly laugh, which i guarantee, is the entry for johannes kepler in world who's who in science, first edition, 1968. -36more historical articles: "visual aids-history, legend and fact" by w. gasson, "a history of the synoptophores" by m. j. revell, "the heritage of applied optics" by d. a. sheard, and "optometry in canada -the first 70 years" by e. j. fisher comprise almost a twelfth of the 1972 publication of the british optical association entitled transactions of the international ophthalmic optical congress 1970, london, (approx. $12.00). two of the four authors, revell and fisher, are o.h.s. members. memorial to j. earl hunt: earl j. hunt, o.d., has donated $100.00 to the optometric historical society again, this time as a gift in memory of his father, mr. j. earl hunt, who passed away on march 14, 1973. dr. hunt's earlier donation, in 1969, was in memory of his mother and was duly reported in the newsletter. the canceled check is on display in the a.o.a. museum, and we hope to get the present check, when it is canceled, to display with the first one. dr. hunt, a founding o.h.s. member, suggests that this contribution be applied toward the expansion of the optometric museum at the american optometric association headquarters. his suggestion will be followed. incidentally, these are the only two monetary contributions received by the society. none has been solicited, primarily because it is not our objective to compete with other optometric museum projects; rather, we aim to encourage meritorious preservational efforts wherever they may be aided. in this instance it will be the a.o.a. museum that will be helped. nevertheless, we recognize that dedicated historical societies often serve a primary role in processing the desires of those who would make personal supporting contributions. to enable the o.h.s. to fulfill this role, not-for-profit incorporation papers have been filed and a compliance statement is being submitted to the internal revenue service for registration as a society to which contributions are deductible on income tax returns. though the o.h.s. was intentionally designed for eligibility from the beginning, we had not submitted formal registration papers. in the future, however, we will be prepared to advise any prospective donor that his gift is deductable. the possibilites are exciting. more memorials: the april 1973 publication of the british optical association entitled "report of the council to the members for the year ended 22nd october 1972," pp. 10-11, mentions several prizes and scholarships memorializing optometrists not previously listed in the o.h.s. newsletter as follows: -37the george william colebrook prize the h. w. gibson prize thew. j. porter prize the barker scholarship the sutcliffe scholarships also listed are two memorials to friends of the profession: the peter madden prize the w. d. wright scholarship a letter to the editor of the 0etometric weekly, vol. 64, no. 14, april 5, 1973, p. 329, describes the establishment of the david e. martin memorial scholarshie fund by the west suburban optometric society-of the illinois optometric association. contributors: following are the names of those who have donated books, periodicals, museum items and archival materials to the aoa library, archives and museum of optometry during the period of june 1972 through may· 1973: mrs. marylyn bradley, carle clinic association cecil h. cantrell, o.d. john d. costabile, o.d. miss grace cox william r. dale, o.d. rudy francioli (switzerland) abel rodriguez garcia (spain) reuben greenspoon, o.d. mrs. a· c. haughton w. jerome heather, o.d. henry w. hofstetter, o.d., ph.d. william c. karber, o.d. m. j. kennebeck, o.d. carel c. koch, o.d. mrs. harold kahn dr. & mrs. charles k. kraft john r. levene, d. phil. george a. lucas, o.d. j. joe marsh, jr., o.d. m. d. monaghan, o.d. fumio marry (japan) max j. palicki, o.d. antonio pacheco, o.d. (puerto rico) l. s. p~eger, o.d. e. leroy ryer, o.d. (this donation was sent to the library by mrs. ruth hedderman, his daughter, after the death of dr. ryer.) r. e. spafford, o.d. jacob staimen, o.d. jean thiriart (belgium) -cont'dheritage and pride: -38james c. tumblin, o.d. mrs william m. weir charles s. whitaker, o.d. because one person, o.h.s. member tony pacheco, seems to make a hobby of ferreting out historical facts, statistics, and documents, puerto rican optometry may well have the best information on record as to its heritage, and this information is being filed in all the right places for permanent reference. would that there were one such history buff in every state! optometric history in puerto rico: the may 30, 1973, issue of the puerto rican optometric newsletter entitled a todos los optometras de puerto rico, vol. 4, no. 8, is a chronology of the legal development of optometry in the 75 year period 1898-1973. a supplementary chart, in english, shows 23 optometrists licensed between 1903 and 1930 under the medical acts when the board consisted of five physicians; 50 more licensed between 1930 and 1964 under the optometric acts which provided for a board consisting of three optometrists and two physicians; and nine more licensed between 1964 and 1973 during which period the board consisted of four optometrists and one physician. this year, 1973, the law was amended to provide a board consisting exclusively of five optometrists. april showers: the month of april brought us six new members from puerto rico, two brothers, two nephews, and a son of our frequent correspondent and member antonio pacheco, o.d., and dr. ricardo e. alegria, executive director of the puerto rican institute of culture. the five relatives of tony are all pachecos, three named sixto, one ramon, and another antonio. surely the first major conference on optometric history will have to take place in puerto rico! honorary member mrs. giles: in january the o.h.s. executive board unanimously endorsed the nomination of mrs. g. h. giles (formerly miss ivy parnum), 189 watford rd., harrow, middlesex, england, for honorary membership. our feb. 2 letter of notification to her inadvertently went surface mail and did not reach her until april 151 but she responded immediately, and now we look forward to an occasional historical note from her for the newsletter. it seems impossible that there could be a member of the o.h.s. who does not know about mrs. giles, but in case there is one, let me tell him or her that ivy is now retired from her long secretarial and administrative career with the british optical association and the -39international optometric and optical league. she is probably the best known woman in the ophthalmic world, and certainly the most favorite. her most recent service was that of collecting contributions of well over $100,000 for the g. h. giles memorial auditorium at the london refraction hospital. we are proud that she accepted. new regular members: on june 21 sandy smith in secretary dablemont's office sent me a list of the members added to the optometric historical society in the last six months, with her connnent, "this list will be incomplete tomorrow!" anyway, here are the newest members: charles a. abel, o.d. 605 villa monte monterey park, ca 91754 morton l. abram county court judge broward county courthouse fort lauderdale, florida 33301 dr. ricardo e. alegria, director ejecutivo instituto de cultura puertorriquena apartado 4184 san juan, puerto rico 00905 dr. antonio arteaga country club shopping plaza country club carolina, puerto rico 00630 dr. william r. baldwin, president massachusetts college of optometry 424 beacon street boston, massachusetts 02115 stanley burgess, o.d. 44 e. shirley street mount union, pennsylvania 17066 r. g. bursua, o.d. 300 n. market street suite no. 2 marion, illinois 62959 david cline, o.d. 4943 calderon road woodland hills, ca 91364 -cont'd-. jack daubs, o.d., m.p.h. 173 central avenue milton, massachusetts 02187 mrs. elizabeth egan 600 s. woodlawn avenue bloomington, in 47401 professor e. j. fisher, director university of waterloo school of optometry faculty of science waterloo, ontario, canada jorge gorbea, o.d. p.o. box 695 san juan, puerto rico 00902 r. l. guenveur, o.d. 310 south 5th street mt. horeb, wisconsin 53572 william j. heather, o.d. 105 george muck drive kerrville south, texas 78028 dr. roberto hernandez 1207 rafael arcelay street urbanizaci6n club manor r{o piedras, puerto rico 00924 monroe j. hirsch, ph.d. p.o. box 8 ojai, ca 93023 j. d. howard, o.d. 18771 south cicero avenue -40country club hills, illinois 60477 r. j. hubartt, jr., o.d. 1750 east commercial blvd. suite /15 fort lauderdale, florida 33308 edmund g. janies, o.d. 126 north locust centralia, illinois 62801 r. n. kleinstein, o.d. 844 gooding drive albany, california 94708 -cont'dcarel c. koch, o.d. 500 foshay tower -.41minneapolis, minnesota 55402 charles b. kraft, o.d. box 1 norton, kansas 67654 elwin marg, ph.d. university of california school of optometry berkeley, ca 94705 m. c. mauney, o.d. southern college of optometry 1245 madison avenue memphis, tennessee 38104 edward g. miner library university of rochester medical center 260 crittenden blvd. rochester, new york 14620 dr. porfirio morales pharmacist and optometrist box 1224 mayaguez, puerto rico 00708 bernard a. mbrewitz, o.d. 130 30th street, vision bldg. newport news, virginia 23607 michael j. obremskey, o.d. heritage mall professional center 7893 heritage drive annandale, virginia 22003 the ohio state university libraries serial division 1858 neil avenue columbus, ohio 43210 olee j. olsen, o.d. 6042 the plaza charlotte, n.c. 28205 luis a. ortiz, o.d. box 128 bayamon, puerto rico mr. antonio pacheco, jr. l-16 villa caparra, puerto rico 00619 -cont'dmr. ram6n pacheco lopez landron street 1550 santurce, puerto rico 00909 mr. sixto pacheco -42pennsylvania college of optometry 1200 west godfrey avenue philadelphia, pennsylvania 19141 dr. sixto pacheco ponce de leon avenue 1012 rio piedras, puerto rico 00925 mr. sixto pacheco, jr. p.o. box 4424 san juan, puerto rico 00905 dr. e. l. padman 47 brisbane street launceston, tasmania, australia 7250 richard parnigoni, o.d. professional arts bldg. 85 washington street barre, vermont 05641 william p. schumann, o.d. 735 pear street vineland, new jersey 08360 david a. vito, o.d. 91 weybosset street providence, rhode lsland 02903 bernard e. vodnoy, o.d. 316 south eddy street sout~ bend, in 46617 iffy certificates excite three: to date i have received three reactions to the idea that perhaps the society should issue a five-years-of-continuous-membership certificate. one member suggested that a certificate of membership should be issued to each member when he joins. a second responded simply, "save the money." a third said, "i need it like i need more taxes." n.s.p.b. 65 years old: founded in 1908, the national society for the prevention this year celebrates its 65th anniversary, and with no expectations of going into retirement. the n,s.p.b. proudly declares itself to be "the -43oldest voluntary health agency nationally engaged in the prevention of blindness." surely there must be some fascinating history buried deep in its archives. who ..£!!!. date spectacles? from time to time we receive inquiries as to the date of manufacture of an old pair of spectacles. when such inquiries come to me i routinely refer them to o.h.s. vice president john r. levene, and he obligingly attaches a date, usually prefaced with a "circa". so far as i know his judgement has not been challenged, but i am sure he would invite a challenge. if any readers feel competent to make reliable estimates, or have the experience or resources which would enable them to do so, or know someone else who can be considered authoritative, i would be pleased to have the information. art and opticianry: "the lissac empire", an oil painting by anthony green, is currently displayed in the royal academy of arts, piccadilly, london, england, (museum catalog #879) and priced at~l,ooo (approximately $2,580). isoceles shaped, approximately 1 1/2 meters wide at_ the bottom with an apical height of about 2 1/2 meters, it protrays mr. maurice lissac holding a pair of spectacles, with composite views of his optical retail establishment as background. i requested and received two photographic copies of the painting and have forwarded one to the archives of the american optometric association. amulets and talismans, ltd. this is the name of a jewelry company (33 christopher street, new york, new york 10014) which has chosen the eye of ra as its symbol. according to their white print on black paper catalog, "he was the son of osiris and iris, and is often depicted in hieroglypics as a man with the head of a bird. egyptian legend explains that ra became a bird in order to journey to the sun. for his flight he was given a special eye, called udjat, so that he could look at the sun without becoming blind." among the jewelry offerings is an eye of ra ring in silver or gold and an eye of ra pendant. invite your friends to join: we have printed up a brief message of invitation on several hundred 3" x 6" (8 x 16 em) slips of paper which we have found very convenient to insert with correspondence going out to persons who might appreciate knowing about the optometric historical society. the number of new -44members this little invitation has attracted is really surprizing. if you wish a supply of these you may obtain them free of charge merely for the asking. your friends will appreciate your thinking of them as history buffs. h. w. hofstetter, editor 1973-04-03-001 1973-04-03-002 1973-04-03-003 1973-04-03-004 1973-04-03-005 1973-04-03-006 1973-04-03-007 1973-04-03-008 1973-04-03-009 1973-04-03-010 1973-04-03-011 1973-04-03-012 1973-04-03-013 1973-04-03-014 1973-04-03-015 1973-04-03-016 ***********~****!*** · indiana un1vers1ty * * jun 10 1998 ! jiindsight .. ioianauntvtr:>irv ,_., : library * ******************** , newsletter of the j un 1 5 1998 optometric historical society ""'tf'll\!f.[.pv, ,,~~~,....,· 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa ... , ' ' volume 29 january 1998 number 1 1998 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the 1998 ohs executive board members and officers, and the year of each member's term of expiration. president . . . . . . . . . . . walter chase (1998) vice president . . . . . . . alfred rosenbloom (2001) secretary-treasurer . . . . bridget kowalczyk (2000) trustees . . . . . . . . . . . patricia carlson ( 1 999) call for nominations: theodore grosvenor (2001) chuck haine (2000) morris mckee (1998) it is time for you to send in your nominations for the two positions on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the members whose terms will expire are walter chase and morris mckee. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. please send nominations to the ohs secretary-treasurer by june 20, 1998: bridget kowalczyk, ilamo, 243 n. lindbergh blvd., st. louis, mo 63141 usa. notes from a collectors' newsletter: in the october 1997 issue of ophthalmic antiques, pp. 6-7, udo timm reviews the optical career of moritz von rohr, 1868-1940, who was partly responsible for starting the optical antiques collection at the zeiss museum in jena, germany, in the first quarter of the 20th century. he was born in the village of longin near posen, germany. he majored in mathematics, physics, and geography at the friedrich wilhelm university in berlin. after working briefly at the meteorological institute in berlin he was invited by abbe to come to the zeiss works in jena. a contact with allvar gullstrand in 1902 brought von rohr's attention to the fact that the spectacle lens had to differ from the camera lens. this led to his design of the punktal lenses. following his 1911 publication of "die brille als optisches instrument" he called for 29/2 the establishment of the school of optics in jena. he was appointed professor there in 1913:i1many of his more than 500 publications were on the history of spectacles and other ophthalmic items. his optical historical collection was one of the largest in germany.· · on pages 8 and 9 colin fryer gives a human interest account of the experimental undertakings of voltaire and his mistress in optical phenomena. on pages 10 and 11 in an article entitled "turlington, the great spectacle­ maker," hugh orr describes the affiliation of london opticians with the worshipful company of brewers prior to forming their own guild in 1629. mr. turlington was the master. after the great fire in september 1666 samuel pepys wrote of his contact with turlington in his diary. in a second article in the same issue, pages 12 and 13, colin fryer provides a historical summary entitled "contact lensesthe early years." h.w h. almost simultaneous: many of us have presumed that the first magazine developed to deal with optometric practice and business management was optometric management, and that irving bennett, o.d., was the originator. not quite so on either count says bennett himself. he reports that on october 1 964 an issue of the magazine optometric practice management (vol. 1, no. 1) was developed as a monthly publication by john dickey, o.d., in knightstown, indiana, as editor and publisher. only a single issue appeared. it had a declared circulation of 26,000 to optometrists and optical suppliers. quite separately at about the same time the editor and publisher of dental management had decided to do a similar journal for optometry after reading an editorial by bennett in the journal of the american optometric association expressing the need for such a publication. bennett and several other optometrists were asked to serve as consulting editors of the magazine called optometric management, the first issue of which appeared under the date of january 1965, shortly after the single optometric practice management issue. h.w h. jewel lenses: in the july 1997 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 60, p. 11, arthur frank describes sorting through some "optical junk" in an old practice he had taken over in edinburgh, scotland, and discovering a number of tiny colored lenses mounted in brass coin-size disks. he remembered that sir david brewster had pointed out that some jewels, like garnets, sapphires, and diamonds could produce better images than glass when uses as lenses. for a few years around 1825 jewel lenses did in fact provide the ultimate in microscopy. h.w h. 29/3 "classics in ophthalmology" available: ohs member charles letocha writes: "gryphon editions publishes a series called classics in ophthalmology! these are facsimile editions of some famous books in ophthalmic history. i have quite a few and they really are nicely produced. my hunch would be that not many ohs members are aware of this opportunity .... " he enclosed information from gryphon editions noting that the books are printed on acid-free paper and are leather bound. the price per volume is us $79.00 plus $5.45 shipping and handling. in the uk, the price is £54. the address and customer service telephone number are: gryphon editions, p.o. box 6003, delran, nj 08075, usa, (800) 633-8911. the available titles include the following: george adams julius boldt arthur edmonston jonas s. friedenwald ernst fuchs george james guthrie lucien howe ali ibn lsa squier littel, jr. hugh neill edward moore noble h. pagenstecher and c. genth an essay on vision, 1789 trachoma, 1 904 a treatise of the varieties and consequences of ophthalmis, 1 806 the pathology of the eye, 1929 text-book of ophthalmology, 1 892 lectures on operative surgery of the eye, 1 823 the muscles of the eye, 2 vols., 1907-1908 memorandum book of a tenth century oculist, 1 936 a manual of the diseases of the eye, 1 837 on the cure of cataract, 1 848 a treatise on opthalmy, 1 800 atlas of the pathological anatomy of the eyeball, 1875 more notes from the o.a.i.c.c.: as usual, several items of historical optometric interest appear in the current issue, no. 62, january 1998, of ophthalmic antiques, especially concerning spectacle collections. abstracted from an 1894 london publication entitled "your eyes" by john browning are comments on "the use and value of coloured glasses" by j. william rosenthal. on pages 6-9 alan leach describes the availability of patent information around the world. he points out that the first patent for spectacles, no. 1 ,359, was registered in london in 1783 by addison smith of richmond. on page 12 editor macgregor reports on a gravestone at kirkliston near edinburgh, scotland, the top corners of which form two human heads wearing spectacles with ring-end temples. the date on the stone is 1727. on pages 14-1 6 colin fryer describes in detail a variety of "mechanical peepshows" popular a century ago. h.w h. 29/4 sheard's books for sale: a note from ohs member charles letocha to ilamo has recently been forwarded to us. he notes a conversation with a california book dealer named harold diamond. diamond has dozens of books from the library of charles sheard, all with sheard's name in them and many inscribed by the authors. most are optometry books from the first three decades of the 20th century. diamond's address and telephone number are: box 1193, burbank, ca 91507, usa, (818) 846-0342. d.a.g. from the other o.h.s.: the november 1 997 newsletter of the ocular heritage society includes several previously unpublished historical items of optometric interest. one is an article by john w. tull on the history of canes with optical devices. another is a discussion by joseph rumage of impressionism in art in relation to the ophthalmic science embraced by helmholtz. a third one is j. william rosenthal's report of his discovery of a 1645 pamphlet "written by jacques bourgeous, master glassmaker, lensmaker to the king (paris), 1645" which "describes what we know as meniscus lenses." h.w h. current emanations: prompted by the paragraph in the october 1997 issue of hindsight, vol. 28, no. 4, p. 30, entitled "extramission theory persists" ohs president walt chase tells us of his own collection of "about 20 slides from modern art and advertisements showing rays which can be interpreted as being emitted from the eye." he now suspects that they are intended to be so interpreted. h.w h. * * * managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (1050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 1998-29-01-001 1998-29-01-002 1998-29-01-003 1998-29-01-004 hews letter r~nv 2 ( 1~s9 r of the :optometric historical society : li~l!ihy :c 243 north lindbergh boulevard ........................... ........ st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) volume 20 october 1989 ohs annual meeting: president t. david williams writes: optometry libf r. number 4 nov 2 71989 the annual meeting of the optometric historical society will be held in new orleans on saturday, december 9th, 1989 in the burgundy croom of the hyatt regency hotel at 6:15 pm. the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry will be held in conjunction with the ohs annual meeting. our invited speaker will be dr. j. william rose~thal, a new orleans ophthalmologist, collector of antique spectacles, and member of the ocular heritage society. dr. rosenthal will be discussing his collection of scissors glasses and pince nez glasses. the optometric historical society will also be celebrating its 20th anniversary at this annual meeting. ophthalmoscope invention: a brief commentary by roger l. klingaman in the july 1989 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 60, no. 7, p. 548 under the title "who really did invent the ophthalmoscope?" highlights the well-known confusion. the author cit~s only two sources of information, both secondary, and draws the prevailing conclusion that charles babbage was first but that helmholtz quite independently invented it again a few years later. he also states that because both donders and von graefe reported early observations of the fundus, "many other clinicians apparently assumed that they (donders and von graefe) had" invented it. the alleged assumptions are not cited. a big search: in response to my suggestion that much ophthalmic optical history could be obtained by perusing old patents, eric p. muth reports, "regarding patents, i have a box full of numbers relating to everything optical. someone must visit the patent library or send an order for a specific number. i think i'll save this project for my old age." 36 incidentally, there are additional patent repositories in at least chicago and cincinnati, and perhaps elsewhere in microprint form, and subject indices are available. the patents in microprint form are really more maneuverable and more speedily accessible than the originals or even paper printouts, the only disadvantage being the need to read them by means of a magnifying viewer. i daresay dr. muth would be pleased to learn that someone would beat him to this undertaking! h.w h. another memorializing medal: the frederick hebbard medal for achievement in the field of optometry is sponsored by the ohio state university college of optometry. pre-world war i fees: the only surviving daily ledger, 1911-1917, of harry k. engleman (1879-1963), a general medical practitioner in the village of georgetown in southern indiana, usa, showed charges of less -than thirty-five cents for removing a foreign object from the eye, the same as for cauterizing a dog bite, lancing a tonsil,.or bandaging a leg, a few cents more than for swabbing a throat, extracting a tooth, lancing a carbuncle, treating a toe, or cauterizing a baby's foot. this is reported by gerald o. haffner in "a hoosier country doctor," indiana magazine of history, val. '85, no. 2, pp. 151-161, june 1989. helmholtz ignored a century ago: a casual scan of the table of contents of the 1889 issue of zeitschrift fur instrumentenkunde (journal of instrument technology) disclosed a brief review entitled "ein neues praktisches ophthalmometer" (a new practical ophthalmometer) • it appeared on p. 374 of the october issue, val. 9. it is a review of a si'\nilarly titled article which had appeared in a french physics journal by two french authors. the review describes the purpose and optical theory of the "new" instrument but rather pointedly takes the authors to task for failing to recognize or even mention the prior ophthalmometric contributions of helmholtz (1821-94). clinical optometric instruments: the publication of f.c. blodi's translation of j. hirschberg's 37 history of ophthalmology is quite evidently complete with the 1986 appearance of vol. xi, part 2, j.p. wayenborgh verlag, bonn. in previous issues of this newsletter i have commented on vols. i, iii, and iv, and, eventually hope to report my observations on the whole magnificent series. part 2 of vol. xi is in fact a volume in itself covering two major topics. one, pages a1-a185, is "the history of optical instruments for the examination of the eye" by thilo von haugwitz, m.d., translated by blodi. the other, pages b1-b296, is "the eye, vision and ophthalmology on postage stamps" authored by blodi himself. the optical instrumentation history includes 458 pictorial illustrations, about 240 literature references and an index to personal names dealt with in the text, serving excellently as an historical atlas of testing and measurement devices. under the chapter heading optometry are 17 categories of instrumentation. other chapter headings cover the ophthalmoscope, the light sense, the anterior segment, binocular vision, etc. that there is essentially nothing on eyeglasses or spectacle fabrication equipment beyond trial lenses for examination purposes, quite obviously reflects the fact that these aspects were not a part of ophthalmological history until the last century, and then somewhat exclusively in the new world. the philatelic history includes full color reproductions of over 700 stamps plus biographic and explanatory details about the artists and the commemorated persons, objects, events, or incidents--a truly impressive, fascinating, and informative compendium. h.w h. a 20th-century optometric lazarus: those of us old enough to have learned from the widely used text "visual optics and sight testing" will enjoy reading ohs member edward j. fisher's article in the july 1989 issue of optometry and vision science, vol. 66, no. 7, pp. 484, entitled "lionel laurance--a pioneer teacher." born in 1856, the youngest of eight children of moses lazarus, in exeter, england, and reared and schooled in london, lionel as a young man traveled extensively in spain, portugal, south africa, south america, the orient, and eventually into toronto, canada, near the turn of the century. there he was exposed to optics through his brother barney in the wholesale optical trade. acquiring several optical texts he quickly developed his skill in optics and ophthalmic clinical testing techniques and then 38 taught others as well, shortly thereafter returning to england. in 1888 he took the first examinations of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, and in 1904 the first examinations in sight testing at the age of 42. he entered promptly and vigorously in ophthalmo-politics for the advancement of the profession and the improvement of optometric education, publishing numerous articles and five books, and inventing several testing aids and techniques. in 1921 he made a return lecture tour to north america including three lectures to the american optometric association congress in 1921 where he was made an honorary member in recognition of his many contributions to the profession. he retired in 1929 but maintained a lively interest in ophthalmic optics until his death in 1936. dr. fisher documents his review with several references. collectible optical posters: j.c. teunissen of the netherlands enclosed photocopies of two 1939 posters from his collection of "all literature about spectacles." of the two illustrated below, the original of the one on the left is 82 x 122 em. and that of the one on the right is 45 x 65 em. 39 for want of a lens: the late noah a. bixler, o.d., (1884-1959}, made many tangible contributions of optometricana to indiana university in the early years of the school especially to provide historical background and character. besides hundreds of out-of-print books, several old instruments, and the like, he included dozens of photographic copies of paintings and portraits relating to our heritage. among these is a photographic copy of an oil painting labeled as "schlacht bei liitzen" (battle of liitzen), artist unidentified, depicting the gory scene of a cavalry engagement in the commune of liitzen, about 10 kilometers southwest of leipzig in saxony, prussia. on the back of the photograph dr. bixler wrote (translated from his german), "his antipathy for glasses would be the cause of death of gustav adolph in the battle of liitzen on 16 november 1632. his shortsightedness, as reported by the chronicler, led him too close to the foe and he was shot to death by a hostile sharpshooter." myopia might well have been a serious handicap in the depicted, virtually hand-to-hand, combat, and king adolph may have been known to have a royal aversion to wearing glasses, but in retrospect the assumption of his antipathy as the fatal cause seems a bit far-fetched. consider also the optically flat concave spectacle lenses in 1632, the contemporary primitiveness of spectacle supports on the head, the need fo~ helmets in battle, the wobbliness of horseback riding, and the turbulence of dust and grime on the battlefield. surely even the most opticophilic myope would have left his glasses elsewhere. contact lenses had yet to be practical. nevertheless, the correction of the king' s alleged myopia could have saved his life, so, to paraphrase george herbert (15931633) of the same era who pointed out that a war was lost "for want of a nail," we may well moralize that for want of a lens a life was lost. optometry or ophthalmology? this is the title of an article, subtitled "a historical review of early literature", by sol tannebaum in the september 1989 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 60, no. 9, pp. 690-693. the theme of the paper is that a great share of optometry's heritage is reported in literature that describes visual science and optical contributions from a medical point of view. in clarification of his theme, dr. tannebaum comments, "imagine a history of the united states written only from an american indian's viewpoint, or the history of the american revolutionary war written by an englishman." 40 will buy. sell, or exchange: the following is a photocopy of a letter from ohs member j.c. teunissen, staringstraat 20, 5615 hd eindhoven, the netherlands, telephone 040-447581. his collecting interests are spectacles and their literature including history, catalogs-, anecdotes, etc., "but not diseases of the eye or theory of optics." he invites our correspondence. as a collector of spectacles and related objects i am allways interested in everything concerning optics.because it is very hard to find litterature and books ,i made some fotocopies of the most interesting books and catalogues on spectacles.(only 10 ex.). all books were copied,than washed and cleaned and rebound as the original was.it is a very interesting collection of optical books. i am still interesting in original books and catalogues for my own collection,also to buy, to sell or to change. books : u.s.$ 1. katalog einer bilderausstellung zur geschichte der brille 110 pag., illustrated,1929.german. 40 2. bie brille und ihre geschichte.dr e.bock 1903,ill.,62 p. 60 3. edward duncker geschichte seines wirkens k.albrecht 1928 25 4. lehrbuch der formen und fassungen der augenglaser. prof. dr. greef 1925 ,300 p.,ill., 90 5. die lehrlingausbildung des augenop~ikers w.lieberkind 1933, 270 p., ill.,interesting. 65 6. de geschiedenis van de bepaling van de gezichtsscherpte dr.k.t.a.halbertsma ,1947 ,70 p., ill., 25 7. verhandeling aangaande uitvinding,gebruik en misbruik brillen w.mensert 1831 not 111.,96 p., 30 8. sieben jahrhunderte brillen g.kuhn 1968 ,ill.,91 p. 25 9. brille und bilnis h.reetz 1957 ,90 p., ill., 40 10.praktische handleiding voor den opticien s.polak 1941,ill.150 p. 40 11.forschungen zur geschichte der optik m. von rohr 1936,ill.,58 p. 25 12.die sehhilfe im wandel der jahrhunderte e.schmitz 140 p.,i11.,1961 30 13.beitrage zur geschichte der brille 1958 250 p.,ill.,zeiss so20 14.the eye-its opticaldefects f.shaw 1890 24p.,ill. 15.nog iets over bril1en,wees tech voorzichtig met de oogen, beschrijving der ooggebreken 1840,not ill., 65 16.0n the development of spectacles in london from the end of the 17 century 22p. 1928 ill., m.v.rohr 17.farbige insbesondere grune glaser a.v.pflugk 22p.,4 taf. 1938 25 a very nice collection of trade-catalogues also reprinted(only 10 of each) all very well illustrated and dated befor 1940: 1 .catalogue anglo-amerian 280 p.,1905 80 2 .catalogue d.v.brown philadelphia 1910 190 p. 80 3 .catalogue curry & paxton london 1930 ,32 p. 25 4 .catalogue e.n.o.t. amsterdam 1917 14 p. 20 5 .catalogue e.n.o.t. amsterdam 1920 40 p. 25 6 .der konig der klemmer stegman & seeger 1912 68 p. 40 7 .catalogue lichttransper~te (optcal signs) 32 p. rare! 35. 8 .catalogue lizon & cie marez 25p + 25 p pricelist 35 9 .hauptkatalog nitsche &gunther nur brillen 299.-p. ca 1908 90 10 .hauptkatalog nitsche & gunther komplett,rathenow,ca 900p.,1908 220 11. ~eatelag.optco utrecht 1939 (dutch) 40 p. 40 12 .catalogue occhiali g.ratti 1920 15 p. 20 13 .catalogue societe des lunetiers paris 1901 ,170 p. 85 14 .catalogue of eye instruments 1925 50 p. 25 15 .catalogue g.stamm & co den haag ca 1925 55 p. 35 16 .catalogue rodenstock munchen 1911,256 p. 80 17 .catalogue franz rapsch rathenow 1928 150 p.,very nice copie 90 18 .catalogue voir laronde 1937 40 p. 35 19 .hauptkatalog e.wurz pforzheim,1910 264 p. 80 20 .catalogue of all optical instruments w.gowlland 1914, 150 p. 80 there are some original doubles of these catalogues and books in my private collection(also other original books and catalogues not on this list). there are also original prospects,publicity and posters in doubles. i prefer to change them to othet interesting objects from your collection. i am also interesting in the very early 17 th and 18 th centyry spectacles and cases.even in the extreme butterfly masks of the sixties. u.s.$ 41 early canadian optometry: following is the presentation made by professor emeritus e.j. fisher, curator of the museum of visual science and optometry, waterloo, ontario, canada, at the ohs reminisce-in on december 13, 1986, at the hilton harbour castle hotel in toronto, ontario, canada. long before the name "optometry" or the professional designation "optometrist" was in use in either the united states or canada, there must have been some type of optical services rendered. for some time, i have been attempting to determine dates and persons who might have been involved in the provision of the earliest optical services which were available here in canada, but have not been entirely successful. i suspect there must have been some opticians here in early new france, either in quebec or montreal and perhaps also in halifax, but records are hard to locate. however, i can affirm that there was an optician here in toronto in 1838; and i would like to tell you about him and other early pioneer opticians, and then give some idea of the beginnings of canadian optometry. some of our development has been similar to that of the united states but a great deal has also been drawn from our british connection. we are meeting now in the yonge r~om, and if you go out to see some of toronto, you will go north on yonge street. this was the main north-south thoroughfare and, before by-passes and modern highways were installed you could go north for 400 miles and the street was still yonge street! about one mile north of here, you will come to front street but some 50 yards before you get there you will cross the area which would mark the original shore line of lake ontario. the area around this hotel is all reclaimed land. three blocks north of front street is king street and there, just one block east on the south side is where toronto's first jeweller-optician established his shop in 1838. his name was judah g. joseph, and he was born in exeter, england, in 1798. when he was 22 he emigrated to cincinnati where he set up a jeweller-optician business. in 1837, someone swindled him out of a large sum of money, so he left cincinnati and came to canada to start afresh at the age of 40. now in those days there were no optical suppliers as we know them today, so judah made his own frames and ground the lenses, which of course, were mainly spherical. his training for this had been in england. , in our museum at the university, we have a pair of spectacles stamped with his name on the temple. the frames are sterling silver with sliding 42 extension temples and convex spherical lenses. not only was he active as an optician and jeweller, but he was the founder of what has become one of toronto's prestigious synagogues, holy blossom temple. along with nordheimer, noted for his fine pianos around the world, joseph purchased the plot of ground for the first jewish cemetery on pape avenue. sadly, about a year later, his ten year old son was buried there. judah joseph died in 1855. i'd like to tell you about two other early opticians in toronto. william hearn and charles potter established an optician and instrument making shop in 1853. the chief partner, hearn, also came from exeter, england, and was somewhat older than potter, who came from london where he was 20. their location was also on king street east on yonge, on the site of today's king edward hotel. the partnership only continued for four years. charles potter then opened his own established a 9 king street east. he became noted as a fine instrument maker, specializing in telescopes, compasses, barometers and sextants for the great lakes sailing vessels. he also made surveying instruments which were in big demand in pioneer life. he sold charts and navigation maps for the great lakes. in later years the demand for these instruments decreased and he emphasized his work as an optician. before his grand-daughter died two years ago, she recounted how as a little girl, she used to visit grandpa's shop and use the brass curlings from the lathe cuttings as play curls in her hair. some of potter's instruments are still around and are highly regarded as antiques. charles potter was quite successful and became very wealthy for those days. he was largely self­ educated, moved in the upper social circles in early toronto, and was highly regarded as a successful business man and quite well-educated person. he was a founder of the first toronto telephone company and installed a telephone in his home. now in those days telephones were "regarded as the devil' s apparatus. once a large mob protesting against its use surrounded his fine home, threw some rocks and broke several windows before being dispe.rsed. the practice of potter the optician continues to the present time, although the name "potter the optician" was dropped due to restrictions in our legislation. succeeding potter about 1900 were allen and charles petry, who in turn were succeeded by dr. harry landon about 1950, then by dr. jack young about 1960. it is now conducted by two young ladies almost 155 years of continuous optometrical service. the man who is known as the father of canadian optometry is wellington graham maybee. he was born in 43 cannington, a small town 100 miles north east of toronto in 1866. he studied at the detroit optical institute and about 1893 established a practice in st. catherines, just south of us now across lake ontario. on a clear day it can be seen from the top of our cn tower. eleven years later he went to winnipeg, heeding the 1851 advice of john b. soule of the terre haute, indiana, express "go west, young man." there in 1904, he established the winnipeg optical company as a retail outlet and the western optical company as a supplier of optical material for opticians and jewellers. he also lectured widely across western canada and gave courses on optometry, partially at least to increase outlets for his optical products. in january, 1909, he organized the half dozen winnipeg optometrists into the manitoba optometric society and spearheaded the passing of the first optometry act in canada, tied with quebec almost to the day. the manitoba act became law in march, 1909. maybee was appointed the first chairman of the board and had license #1. in 1913, maybee sold his business enterprises, went to california, passed the board examinations there and was going to establish a small part-time retirement practice when the first world war broke.out in 1914. he returned to toronto, opening an office in the lumsden building on the north east corner of yonge and king streets. optometric affairs in ontario were in a sad state at the time with warring factions and rampant commercialism. maybe undertook to change this but during the war not much attention was paid to civilian affairs. he was finally successful in having an ontario act passed in 1919 and again was appointed chairman of a canadian board with license #1. under contract with our federal government he trained some 150 returning veterans. he conducted courses from coast to coast in canada, established and edited our first journal the canadian optometrist and optician -and also conducted a high class practice for those days. he was active in the affairs of the aoa, and in 1919 was made an honorary life member. in 1920 he wrote one of the courses in the educational series published by the aoa under the chairmanship of dr. william todd. he was highly acclaimed in the optometric press for a series of lectures at a new england congress in 1923. he was instrumental in establishing an undergraduate training program for optometrists at the toronto technical school, now known as central technical school. later he helped to establish the college of optometry of canada, the immediate fore-runner of our program at the university of waterloo. when one considers the difficulties of transportation and communication in those early days of our profession, one 44 cannot help but admire the stamina, foresight, and dedication of such men to the cause of optometry. we are indeed debtors to our fore-runners in optometry. wellington graham maybee died in 1929 and is buried in oakville, 30 miles west of here. time permits only a sketchy account of optometric education in canada. one indication of our optometrical connection with great britain is reflected in the educational development. the first known educator was lionel laurance, who came from england in 1893 and established two optical companies, one in montreal and one in toronto. in order to increase the outlets for his products he also established two training institutions the dominion optical school in montreal and the optical institute of canada at 60 yonge street, toronto. his brother, barney laurance became president of the dominion optical company at 63 yonge street. after 1898, lionel returned to london where along with oscar wood he conducted the school of optics on guilford place, not far from the british museum. laurance is well known for two books, the grosvenor or borish texts of that day. these books were used in many optometry schools as late as the mid thirties, going through several editions. he also developed some instruments, notably an indirect ophthalmoscope made by the culver company in london. we have two of these in our museum. another early canadian educator was l.g. amsden, whose father was an officer sent to winnipeg with colonel wolseley on the red river expedition in 1870 to quell the first riel rebellion. amsden senior took up a section of land near winnipeg following the skirmishes, but after five years he brought his family back to toronto where his son, lionel g. amsden, became associated with the cohen brothers, a firm of distributors for jewellery and ophthalmic supplies. lionel amsden convinced the cohens to expand the optical part of the business and in order to increase the demand for optical products, he started the canadian ophthalmic college. we have a diploma issued by this institution in 1899 and signed by amsden. cohan brothers later became consolidated optical company, which included laurance's montreal optical company, his dominion optical company in toronto, and maybee's western optical company in winnipeg. the consolidated optical company is now known as american optical company, canada. our present school at the university of waterloo had its origin in 1921 as a course at the toronto technical school, now known as the central technical school on harbord street here in toronto. in 1925 the board of examiners in optometry for the province of 45 ontario established the college of optometry of canada, later known as the college of optometry of ontario. this arrangement of having the board of examiners conduct the training program became part of the provincial university system, after negotiations between the board of examiners, the provincial government, and the university of waterloo. the story of the quebec school is a separate issue with a very interesting history, but it would take too long to elaborate for you just now. it started as a private school offering part-time courses to young apprentice optometrists in the first decade of this century. it gradually developed through the stages of an independent school, affiliation with the university of montreal and finally to its present situation as a full department of the university. it has an excellent program with instruction given in the french language. optometric legislation in canada parallels that of the united states. our first acts were passed in manitoba and quebec in 1909, just 8 years after that of minnesota. there were at the time some 17 american state laws. the last canadian province obtained its act in 1925, the same year as your dc law was passed. a great many legislative revisions have been made since that time. at present half of the provinces have legislation allowing dpa's. this has been a brief attempt to acquaint you with some of our professional background in canada. the material could be expanded at considerable length as it applies to each of the other provinces and to our sister school in montreal, quebec. in point of fact, one could build a full semester course on the available material, so this brief summary is only a teaser. we are fortunate that much of the material has. been recorded, but there are many gaps. it is . my hope that much of our optometrical history will be .available in book form in two to three years. licensed by exemption: historically the "grandfather clause" had a politically ugly identification with a provision included in the constitutions of some of the southern states of the usa after the war between the north and south. it exempted from newly adopted literacy and property qualifications for voting those persons entitled to vote before 1867 and their lineal descendants, thus effectively disenfranchising blacks. 46 a similar tactic but with nobler connotations occurred later for optometry. with the subsequent enactment of licensure and registration laws for professional practitioners in the various states, those already in practice were issued licenses by exemption on the democratic principle that no one should be legislated out of a legitimate livelihood. in optometry in north america this occurred between 1901 in minnesota and 1925 in ontario, canada. the same principle prevailed in each instance and is routinely identified as an application of "the grandfather clause", hopefully without the original ignominious implications. further, the same principle has been exercised repeatedly with subsequent amendments of the laws which provided for higher and higher licensure standards. it, therefore, seems very probable that most of today' s practitioners have not met current licensure requirements specified for new applicants. prior licenses are quite automatically continued each year with the payment of annual renewal fees and, in many states, mere evidence of having attended certain hours of exposure to educational programs. in a purely technical sense they are in effect being renewed "by exemption" but without being so demeaningly labeled. the principle is, in my op1n1on, very defensible. it merely recognizes that the very immeasurable criteria of reputation, experience, public acceptance, and achievement may easily match, if not outweigh, the classroom exercises, text-reading, clinical demonstrations, and multiple-choice selection skills statutorily required of the neophyte. it also acknowledges the common law fact that accepted professions have full legal standing quite independent of statutory registration and that such standing itself is a form of licensure. why then, this commentary about an already familiar historical detail? does it have any significance in terms of current or future optometric developments? indeed it does. as one who has long been observant of optometric licensure trends in numerous countries i can say that a serious deterrent to optometric progress in some nations is the fear among established practitioners that the grandfather clause may not apply or might at least be compromised. in many a conference i have tried to stamp out such anxiety by citing dozens and dozens of historical examples and the lack of any exceptions. a few. weeks ago, however, in attendance at an informal conference, i heard a prominent optometric leader make a casual but nevertheless firm assertion that the original american certificates of licensure issued in missouri and other states without qualifying examination were conspicuously labeled "by exemption". i was startled. though i surely had seen a hundred or more licensure certificates, as they normally have to be conspicuously posted where patients could see them, i did not recall ever having seen one that was so labeled. after all, the great majority of optometrists during my early years had practiced optometry quite legally prior to statutory registration and were therefore of the 47 so-called "exempted" category. a request to the archivist at ilamo brought the response that "none of the licensure certificates in our collection shows by exemption. " she consul ted the legal counsel of the american optometric association and he advised her that he had never heard of such labeling. her forwarding of my request to the secretary of the international association of boards of examiners elicited a single copy of a very impressive looking 1909 certificate of licensure from north carolina which includes in the detailed small script text of compliances and privileges the three innocuous words "without an examination." i say innocuous because even the most critical interpretation of the total phraseology does not suggest anything less than full qualification, indeed even hinting that the qualifications were so obvious as to justify no formal examination. because missouri was cited as one of the offending states, the aoa counsel contacted the son of an early st. louis optometrist and obtained a photocopy of a 1921 missouri license, number 427. it was not labeled by exemption but it was conspicuously identified, in bold type, as having been issued by limited examination rather than simply by examination or by having met the statutory requirements. the missouri law was enacted in 1921. a significant number of the nations of the world still have not attained statutory optometric registration even though many optometrists already practice in those areas with all of the legal privileges and responsibilities enjoyed by.those who are formally "licensed." if this brief review is valid it should provide assurance that with the enactment of optometric registration requirements such optometrists should not fear being downgraded to second-class professionals by any demeaning identification such as "licensed by exemption." h.w h. optical manufacturing history: "a history of american manufacturing opticians" is the title of an article by john w. young in the july/august 1989 issue of optical world, vol. 18, no. 121, pp. 18-20 and 22, an essex, england, periodical incorporating mol manufacturing optics international. (the pagination is slightly in error in that the text sequence is actually 18-20-19and 22.) in his opening paragraph the author mentions in passing that marco polo (c. 1254-1324) reported spectacles in use in china in 1220 and that he "may have been responsible for bringing the concept to italy" where "alessandro della spina is credited as the first in the western world to fabricate spectacles in 1313." (spina died in 1313.) he then develops the theme that "having several pair of glasses was only made possible through the 48 inventive minds of early manufacturers", stating the price to have been $200 per pair in 1750 and $6.50 to $12.00 per gross (144 pair) a hundred years later. next he asserts that the american history for the optician began in 1769 when david rittenhouse designed and built his. own telescope and began grinding lenses from imported glass in 1780 and fabricated a pair of spectacles for george washington in 1783. he describes the early optical involvement of john mcallister, thomas whitney, and numerous others. he quite incidentally adds that "benjamin franklin was advertising spectacles in 1738" and that he "included them in his general merchandise trade." he credits the firm of john mcallister and son with having a "register of gold spectacles," dated 1815 to 1837, showing "a list of some 2,984 pairs sold to affluent americans nationally." mentioned incidentally as available in 1825 are "chamblant's glasses, on the new construction of cylindrical surfaces." these are identified parenthetically as "poukon's philadelphia, sept. 1825" and described as "cross cylinder lenses with the net result of spherical power" whose purpose "was to reduce aberrations, not to correct astigmatism." , the author develops another theme that out of the general concept of optician there emerged three specialties, the "prescription optician", who did the complete refraction and the dispensing of lenses purchased from "jobbers" the "artisan optician 11 or 11 jobber" , and the "manufacturing optician 11 • it is the third category, the manufacturing optician, which emerges as the big companies of american optical, bausch & lomb, and others. their historical roles are described at some length. ten information sources are given in a reference list but it is not indicated to which ones the various assertions are attributable. of five quoted passages in the text of the article none is adequately locateable in, or clearly identified with, a listed reference. editors: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1989-20-04-001 1989-20-04-002 1989-20-04-003 1989-20-04-004 1989-20-04-005 1989-20-04-006 1989-20-04-007 1989-20-04-008 1989-20-04-009 1989-20-04-010 1989-20-04-011 1989-20-04-012 1989-20-04-013 1989-20-04-014 newsletter of thhl (.; ,·' , ,. i i ' opi'omh:tric historical society """"'"" j .i :i (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u4s.a. 63119) u g 1 7 1973 volume 4 april 1973 obitual documentation: p;m~hril m:r·w,..,,,~,~umber 2 ••-•••i~.n '-fr·•·'·n~iti\ ~ ,, \hfj..a .. .;.'-j,_'j ~ the occasional local newspaper obituary of a deceased optometrist almost invariably reveals facets of the life of the deceased quite unknown to his colleagues even a few miles away. if he happens to have been active in state or national optometric affairs there is a modest chance that a resum~ of his contributions to society will be published in either a state or national optometric periodical. otherwise, such information may remain in the relatively inaccessible microfilm records of local community historical archives, or be forever lost. our failure to place the life works of each of our deceased colleagues into full perspective may well be illustrated in the february, 1973, issue of the journal of the texas optometric association (vol. 29, no.2). in this issue, one 61 year old deceased member is featured with his portrait on the front cover and a fine full-page memorial statement prepared by weston a. pettey, o.d. on page 5. dr. pettey, geographically separated from his subject by 400 miles, wrote only of those contributions which the deceased had made to optometry. apparently he derived his information from texas optometric association files and his own personal contacts with the man in organizational work. one can only speculate on the role of the deceased in his own community and in non-optometric society. on the last page of the same issue is an extremely brief, anonymously written obituary of another deceased texas optometric association member, age 52. it provides a few vital statistics and references to the fact that the deceased had been president of a rotary club and a capt~in in world war ii, nothing more. as i was not personally acquainted with either of these deceased men i am not prepared to judge whether there was justification for the apparent differences in printed recognition accorded them. that is not at issue in these remarks. it is a fair guess that each obituary represented simply all of the copy made available to the editor, for which the editor deserves our compliments, not our criticism. as widely distributed as we optometrists are in society, there is relatively little opportunity for us to know many of our colleagues except in professional meetings and congress hospitality rooms. when­ ever i meet a stranger from erewhon, u.s.a., i invariably ask him if he knows an optometrist there, as i may know him too. if thus we discover a mutual acquaintance the ensuing conversation typically reveals personal information about the optometrist and his contributions to his community otherwise quite unbeknownst to me. these little tete-a-tetes are the most gratifying socia.l exercises i know, if only because they remind me of what fine colleagues i have. though such ordinary conversation-spurring -16tactics are in no sense obitual paradigms, they do share some of the same biographical features. would that we had a custom whereby, say, upon the death,of a colleague three fellow optometrists who knew him best would be designated to prepare a memorial statement for publication in an appropriate opto­ metric journal. however simple the format, if it contained accurate information as to place and date of birth and death, identification of his survivors, and information on his education and career, his affili­ ations, and contributions to his profession, his country, and his community, not only would many of us be inspired, but his survivors would know that he was apprecia~ed in his profession. at the moment, i cannot think of an optometric colleague who would not be deserving of this. texas' oldest o.d. honored: an article entitled, "texas optometry honors its most senior full-time practicing optometrist" (journal of the texas optometric association, vol. 29, no. 1, jan. 1973, pp. 5-6) describes a visit with dr. john c. graves, of kilgore, texas. dr. graves was born in 1895. his father was also an optometrist. "dr. john" attended bradley polytechnic institute in peoria prior to 1918 and later in the 20's took a six months course with bill needles. he is the holder of a 40 year continuous membership card in the oep. optometrist in poland: o.h.s. member bernard mrozinski, skrytka pocztowa 35, 85-950 bydgoszcz, poland, wrote to explain his long silence by his extreme overload of "patients for refractions, spectacles, contact lenses, and other consultations .•• from morning to evening every day. the office was always full." in june he gave a two-hour lecture on refraction to a state congress of ophthalmologists, and was invited to attend every future congress. in november he lectured at the ophthalmic opticians' congress in leipzig, east germany, on the moulding and fitting of haptic lenses, for which he prepared 50 slides. then in january of this year he was presented the citizen of honor award by the council of the city of bydgoszcz in an official ceremony in the town hall. that's not all. in response to an inquiry from me he is collecting documents and biographical information about vitellius, and a copy of an old portrait of vitellius. he reports that vitellius wrote ten volumes on optics. before the last war there was a copy of his works in the town of lwtw, now under russian jurisdiction, but he is not sure where it is now. he will try to find out. he suggests that the original may be in the vatican library. he included some photographs of his office, showing rather impressive optometric equipment, much of which he built himself. he reminds us that this year is the 500th anniversary of the birth of nicolaus copernicus (1473-1543) the polish astronomer who "stopped the sun and moved the earth." -17dzieje okulistyki: this is the title of a startingly unusual and impressive book, in polish, by wladyslaw henryk melanowski, published by panstwowy zaklad wydawnictw lekarskich, warsaw, 1972. it is a biographical and historical account of ophthalmological developments through the centuries and throughout the world. it includes 158 illustrations of historical ophthalmic interest and 372 portraits of ophthalmic and ophthalmological personalities, accompanied by biographical notes. i must confess that i had never before seen the great majority of photos contained in this single volume of 404 pages, priced at 50 zloty (ca. $12.00). symbolic of the contents of the book is an artistic apotropaion on the jacket and on the title page .• my copy is a gift from the aforementioned mr. mrozinski. new international newsletter: interoptics, bulletin of the international optometric and optical league, made its first appearance in an undated issue sometime during the fall of 1972. the no. 2, winter 1973, issue arrived here in february. printed in four-page newsletter style, it is edited by i.o.o.l. president g. a. wheatcroft and secretary p. a. smith, offices at 65 brook street, london wly 2dt, england. the first two issues include optometric and ophthalmic news items from england, germany, belgium, ethiopia, chile, italy, south africa, scotland, norway, australia, new zealand, denmark, france, spain, canada, luxembourg, and the u.s.a. this new publication brings to mind a monthly periodical entitled infocus compiled and published monthly for almost four years by c. s. flick, an internationally known london, england, ophthalmic optician. for mr. flick international aspects of optometry were long a major hobby. issue no. 1 appeared in february 1960 and no. 46 in december 1963. the latter appears to have been the last one. this series, in the indiana university optometry library, contains a wealth of information which is virtually unattainable elsewhere. dr. heather writes: a letter from w. j. heather, o.d. (l05.george muck drive, kerrville south, texas 78028), known fondly to many of us who have known him for years as 11 jere", gives some interesting insight into optometry•s heritage. jere turned 78 years on september 17, 1972, at which time he decided to create his own intimate rogues• gallery. he writes (excerpted): "for a great many of my later years i came to the conclusion that several men had greatly and favorably influenced my life. it narrowed down to nine. i sought high and low until i got their photos, mounted them •.• (they now are displayed in his homej. "i 1 ll tell you in brief who they are. "1. charles cozzens (deceased), president of a .0 .co. who in 1939 prevailed on his friend bill needles to release me to become a.o.•s -cont•d-18director of prof. relations at a time when, as you remember, optometry was in grave trouble. "i helped formulate the american plan and right there in stage layout the form of the prof. advancement program to be later turned over to pres. adams of the aoa along with financial help to hold that great meeting in detroit--for me it was optometry's renaissance and always will be. "2. walter stewart (deceased), a.o. vice pres. under his inspiration i had set up and effectively activated an elaborate training course for a.o.'s 10,000 employees continent wide. 11 3. leroy ryer, o.d. (deceased) who was the one man in the us that adams and i considered the unequivocal cnoice as natl. director general of the pap. later he honored me with his ms. entitled 'one man's work' (journal of the american optometric association, vol. 39, no. 11, november 1968, pp.l0181023) describing my life from age 29 thru 70. 11 4. henry burnett, my pride and joy whom i selected as my assistant and who still calls himself my 'no. 1 student' • i managed to help get him his degree at oberlin at the expense of a.o.co. "5. zygmunt bowske, a warm polish friend of mine for 40 years who jumped in to help me get my book 'off the ground'. "6. andy fischer, od, a ••• friend of 50 years who worked with me on the american plan and the pap. much of that work was hammered out in his apt. kitchen in phila. and in my kitchen in conn. 11 7. hal bailey, exec. dir. of the a.o.a. who has put our profession securely on its feet •••• a great man! "8. fred heather (deceased), my father, a poor but proud man who gave me an example of courage, honesty, and right living. "9. dan inoyue (u.s. senator from hawaii)." two new zealand optometric memorials: to our growing list of memorials to optometrists we can now add the henry searle gilberd memorial medal and the george e. cox memorial lectures, both under the auspices of the new zealand optometrical association. the following account of these two memorials were prepared and submitted by optometrist bromley m. bennett of napier, new zealand (p.o. box 79), possibly the only detailed account of these now in print: -cont'd-19. "henry searle gilberd died 5th february 1948. born in 1881 and educated at the napier boys' high school, he went to a mr. a. levi in wellington to commence his optical training. in 1900 he went to england and scotland where he spent seven years, qualifying for the f.s.m.c. examination before returning to new zealand. he was one of the founders of n. z. optical association formed in 1912. during that body's short life he attended all meetings and was a member of the first parlimentary committee, the purpose of which was legislation for the registration of opticians. in 1921 steps were taken to revive interest by the formation of another body of practicing opticians, and mr. gilberd, by convening a meeting in wellington early showed his capacity for organization. one march lst 1922 he was elected as the first president of the institute of optometrists of new zealand, incorporated. he served as president from 1922 to 1928. it can truly be said that but for mr. gilberd's tact, sound grasp of his duties as chairman, competent handling of dissentients to the policy of the institute and his outstanding personality, the institute would not have maintained continuity of progress nor would the efforts to obtain legislation have reached success as early as 1928. "he served on the opticians board from 1928 until the time of his death. "when the new education scheme for the foundation of a school of optics was approved by the institute, mr. gilberd traveled the country (1944-45) raising the sum of£5,000 for this purpose. "in every way mr. gilberd was a big man, big in stature and in ideas but modest in everything that he did. "at the general executive meeting of the institute of opticians of n. z. (later the n. z. optometrical assn.), september 1951, it was 'resolved ••• , that a commemorative medal be struck in the memory of the late h. s. gilberd, to be awarded for meritorious service to optometry'. "conditions. l. the award shall be made for outstanding service rendered to optometry. 2. the award shall be made at infrequent intervals. 3. a standing assessment committee shall recommend the making of an award, which action shall be confirmed by the central executive committee. 4. the recommendation shall be presented in the form of a prepared statement. 5. the standing assessment committee shall consist of the president and the two immediate past-presidents with the president as convenor. "recipients of the h. s. gilberd medals: r. brook-taylor, 1954; g. e. cox, 1958; h. atkinson and a. h. t. rose, 1963; and dr. t. grosvenor, 1969. "i cannot find anything about the early days of george e. cox, but he was 59 years of age when he died in july 1968. he commenced -cont 'd-20his optomet.ric education in n. z. and then traveled to the united kingdom, where he qualified f.b.o.a. (hons) f.s.m.c. (hons) the certificate of the london refraction hospital. he practiced in london and south wales before returning to new zealand in 1931. "when he received the h. s. gilberd memorial medal in 1958 his service to optometry was cited thus: founder and editor of the institute news 1938-53. vice-president institute of opticians of n. z. 1938-47 and 1955-1957. president 1957-1958. officer in charge of optometrical services for army, navy and air force; member of the military training optometrical committee; examiner for the opticians board of new zealand. in 1964 he was elected a life member. he traveled n. z. collecting donations for the university education fund. it was this fund that was the basis for the establishment of our university course in optometry. "george e. cox memorial lectures were given by dr. monroe hirsch in 1969 and dr. darrell carter in 1972." george~ giles (1904-1965): a delightfully informal account of the offical opening ceremonies for the giles memorial theatre in the reconstructed london refraction hospital, 58-62 newington causeway, london s.e.l, appears in the october 13, 1972 issue of the optician, vol. 164, no. 4250, pp. 10-12. the reminiscing over giles' activities is indeed a chapter in the history of british ophthalmic opticianry. more than half of the seats in the 122 person capacity theatre are named to commemorate great persons, past and present, in ophthalmic optics, and individuals and organizations making major financial contributions. that the commemorative plaque h . "g. h g. l " . ~mas eorge • ~ es, ~.e., the day i met george, in of curious interest to me is the fact and all other references to giles identify only the initial "h." for his middle name. 1954, he informed me that his middle name than one letter to me "george henry". was henry, and he signed more the eric culver memorial lecture: detailed background information on the memorial to another optometrist came in a letter dated 16th february 1973 from alan ray, f.s.m.c., (address: pendower, 1, haddon court avenue, cockfosters, hertfordshire, great britain), president of the north london association of opticians, as follows: "your request to professor bob fletcher of the city university for background information on the above lecture has been forwarded to me. no doubt you will have received the copy of the ophthalmic optician which gave a full report of the 1972 lecture, when sir ronald bodley scott, k.c.v.o., spoke on 'the eye and the haematologist.' "eric culver was a distinguished past president of the north london association of opticians, who took an extremely active -cont'd-21interest in the professional advancement of ophthalmic opticians. the name of culver has been synonymous with manufacturing opticians for very many years. following his demobilization as a commissioned officer in the royal flying corps at the end of the first world war, it was here, in the field of manufacturing optics, that eric culver started his career. he qualified as a fellow of the worshipful company of spectaclemakers in 1930, and eventually practiced in barnet. his great interest in the profession carried him to the highest national offices. he became national chairman of the association of optical practitioners in 1958. "the north london association of opticians has always felt closely related to the city university (formerly northampton polytechnic) because this great teaching institution lies within our territorial boundary. although the students were always welcomed to our meetings, it had long been felt that a closer relationship should be sought and encouraged. in 1970 the north london association committee decided to hold one of their monthly meetings at the city university as a joint meeting with the optical students society. this meeting, which was well supported, was addressed by dr. marcia wilkinson, frcp., principal of the newly founded barts-city migraine clinic. "the following year, 1971, saw the actual inauguration of the eric culver memorial lecture, when dr. joseph blau, md., mrcp., spoke on 'headache and the optician.' this proved to be a most useful lecture and the theatre was filled to capacity. the meeting ended with the presentation of a commemorative certificate to dr. blau by mrs. lily culver, widow of the late eric culver. full reports of this lecture were published in the ophthalmic optician and the optician in nov/dec. 1971. 11the success of this lecture inspired north london association to continue to make this an annual event. for the 1972 lecture, it was a great honor to welcome sir ronald ·bodley scott, who is the physician to h. m. the queen. there were many distinguished visitors to this lecture and the evening was made even more delightful by being able to entertain the speaker to dinner in the vice-chancellor's dining room at the city university. "the 1973 lecture will take place on tuesday, 13th november, but the speaker has yet to be arranged. i had been making tentative arrangements for the lecture to be delivered bylord rosenheim, president of the royal college of physicians, but his untimely death has rendered the country very much poorer; and alas, north london association must now consider another speaker. "the object of the lecture is to foster good relations between the students and staff of the city university and the practicing members of the profession; to provide a lecture of the highest calibre associated with our work as ophthalmic opticians that is over and above the recognized syllabus; to emphasize that the ophthalmic optician has a part to play in the prevention of ocular and systemic tragedy; to reinforce our knowledge and help us to play the fullest possible part in the welfare of our individual -cont' d-22patients; and to strive for an improvement in the quality of living for future generations. "the lecture is therefore dedicated to the memory of eric culver in an endeavour to continue and extend his good work." some historical tidbits: "i have just received and read all of the newsletters of the optometric historical association. they are very interesting for history buffs and i hope they will continue. i have two small items which may interest you. 11 1. our historical book collection includes 'the legislative manual of the state of minnesota compiled for the legislature of 1903.' on page 371 there appears among a list of government committees. board of examiners in optometry alexander sweningsen moorhead j. w. grainger rochester f. a. upham st. paul h. m. hitchcock redwood falls c. a. snell minneapolis "2. in regard to awards named after optometrists, the ontario association of optometrists established thew. g. maybee memorial fund in 1948. it was collected from optometrists and had the purpose of assisting veterans to become established in practice, provide loans to needy students, give grants towards research and further optometrical education. it is still available and has been used here quite extensively. "w. g. maybee was a pioneer canadian optometrist. he was apprenticed before 1900 in the town of st. catherines, ontario. about 1904 he went to winnipeg and was instrumental in having one of canada's first optometry acts passed in 1907. the other early act in canada was in quebec in 1907, also. following this, about 1912, he returned east to toronto where he opened a professional office on the 6th floor of the lumsden building. in ontario, he was active in association affairs and influenced the enactment of the ontario optometry act in 1919. following the war he conducted a number of three month training courses for returning veterans. mr. maybee was on the first board of examiners in ontario and was chairman of the board from 1922-1925 when he died. his practice was taken over by the late ivan s. nott who also made his contribution to optometrical knowledge through the development of optometrical techniques. both maybee and nott were teachers in the first publicly supported optometry programme in canada given at the central technical school, toronto from 1921-1925. "ivan nott, incidentally, wrote a. portion of the aoa home study course offered in those days, and served for many years as editor of the canadian optometrist, which ceased publication in -cont'd-231936.. ivan died about four or five years ago. "yours very truly, "e. j. fisher, professor" (director, school of optometry university of waterloo waterloo, ontario, canada.) about prentice and bausch: "herewith a.n interesting association between bausch and lomb and charles prentice. "attached you will find a. patent, number 61,099, [jan. 8, 1867) granted to james prentice of new york. it turns out that james prentice was charles prentice's father. the second enclosure is a. copy of the title page of charles prentice's book, "ophthalmic lenses". note the publisher: james prentice & son. note also the address: 178 broadway. the next enclosure is a. title page of a price list published in 1869 by the vulca.nite optical instrument company, whose business address is 182 broadway. not many people know that our company was known by this name in the ten year period between 1866 and 1876. the next enclosure is a. copy of page ten of said price list and there you will find no. 34, the frame invented by james prentice. notice also the price: $9.00 per dozen! i hasten to add that this price did not include lenses. the addition of lenses increased the price $1.00 per dozen!! "another association took place when the optical society of the state of new york was formed in february of 1896. charles prentice was the president and george r. bausch was the vice president. george r. bausch was our founder's nephew. when our founder, john jacob bausch, went out of the retail business he sold it to his brother, e. e. bausch. george r. bausch was his son. "g. robert bausch, o.d., is practicing in rochester today. he is carrying on the tradition of his great grandfather, e. e. bausch. one of these days i will make a point of getting together with him to collect as much information as i can about that branch of the family. 11henry a. knoll, ph.d. senior scientist" (bausch & lomb rochester, new york) vision care in 1776? the following is taken from another letter from o.h.s. founding member honry a. knoll. -cont'd-24"it occurred to me that since the country is approaching its two hundredth anniversary, it might be interesting to ask members to send in historical notes concerning the state of vision care to hundred years ago. i would personally appreciate hearing from anyone who had any kind of historical information relating to the state of the art on the north american continent during the decade of 1770 1 s." optics and optometry ~· 1930: among some items bequeathed to the indiana university optometry library was a carbon copy of a 1935 thesis by ivy berger in partial fulfillment of the master of commercial science degree requirements at boston university college of business administration. "the manufacturing and marketing of eyeglass frames and lenses 11 is the modest title, but it is really much more. its approximately 140 typewritten pages includes thirteen chapters covering introductory, historical, and background information, and such topics as manufacturing processes, the spectacle market, some trade practices, trade journals, outstanding associations, advertising, distribution set-up, estimated mark-up, and a summary of legal and educational requirements of optometry. the index lists 24 figures, but none was included with this copy. otherwise this copy appears to be complete. the opening sentence reads, "the purpose of this thesis is to present, in language intelligible to the layman, all the facts that it was possible to gather, in the time at my disposal, concerning the marketing and manufacture of eyeglass frames and lenses." interestingly she described her difficulties as well as her successes in getting information, and these difficulties were sometimes more revealing than the facts. the facts, however, may represent the most comprehensive document available for that period in our history. but who is, or was, ivy berger? she received the b.s. degree from simmons college in 1930. leading her list of persons interviewed is "berger, c. g. (dr.), altantic, massachusetts • 11 i have a hunch he was her uncle or brother, as there was a chas. g. berger, m.d., of quincy, massachusetts, listed in several issues of the red book of eye, ear, nose, and throat specialists until 1959. his year of birth was 1889 and his specialty was 11e11 , meaning "eye or ear. 11 letter from puerto rico: "february 16, 1973 "querido amigo henry, "i am enclosing a photocopy of the original of the most valuable historico-legal document of our profession in puerto rico and which has been preserved for sixty four (64) years, 1909 to 1973. this document is the first optometric examination given in puerto rico by the board of medical examiners in the year 1909. this examination was conducted in spanish but i made an english translation. the answers are in spanish and no translation was made of them to keep -cont•d-25the·historical value intact. the only and first applicant was my uncle, doctor antonio pacheco, in december of 1908. he was submitted to written and practical examinations in april of 1909, which he approved, and he was legally authorized to practice in april 15 of 1909. legal evidence to prove this is included. "this event of april 15 of 1909, marked the beginning of our profession in puerto rico and planted the seed which produced a crop of eight (8) pacheco optometrists in three (3) generations with a total, to date, of 214 years of legal optometric life. the pacheco optometric family should exceed the 400 years of legal optometric life in three (3) generations. "the medical act of 1903, which was the legal authority by which my uncle antonio was submitted to an examination, did not mention the word optometry. it was in 1911 that a medical act was approved, in which for the first time in our history, the optometrists were included. i am enclosing a photocopy of this valuable law, which is medical act 79 of 1911. the second application for an optometric license was made in the year 1913, and in this same year the second optometric license was issued by the board of medical examiners •. the .first optometric law was approved in puerto rico in the year 1930. "now, amigo henry, do you know of any other optometrists in the world who have preserved for 64 years the first examination given by an examining board and the answers in the own handwriting of the applicant? take your time to answer this question, and in the meanwhile, i remain "tu amigo, tony" (antonio pacheco, o.d. p.o. box 10223 santurce, puerto rico 00908) puerto rican optometric chronology: ano iv, numero vi of a todos los optometras de puerto rico, march 5, 1973, except for the title, is the first puerto rican newsletter in english. it consists of a chronology of 18 separate historical events between 1898 and 1973 in puerto rican optometry. though the first optometric license was issued in 1909, the first optometry board was not established until 1931. the first appointment of three members was made by governor theodore roosevelt, jr., eldest son of president theodore roosevelt. ophthalmic genealo5y, kinship, and pedigrees: previous mentioning of substantial optometric service pedigrees in the newsletter (vol. 3, no. 3, july 1972, p. 24; no. 4, october 1972, p. 36; and vol. 4, no. 1, january 1973, p. 9) has resulted in a flurry -cont 1 d-26of oorrespondenc~, usually with carbon copies to me. i suspect that there is a hope that i, or the optometric historical society, will enter into a kind of judgeship to determine which family holds the record. were it .a simple matter, i might be lured into undertaking this, but it takes only a little thinking to make one realize that certain ground rules would have to be adopted. for example, how would one count career years prior to statutory licensure? should the first year of public representation of oneself as an optometrist, or in the employ of an optometrist, be considered equivalent of the year of licensure? also, what is a relative? should aunts, uncles, and in-laws be included? how about other relatives? should retirement years be counted? what about those holding licenses but not engaged in optometric practice? for historical purposes, such decisions need not be made. for contest purposes, the rules could probably be designed quite legitimately to provide for different categories of winners. optics in~ 1795 dictionary: "humours, juices and apples of the eye" by john cole in the december 15, 1972, issue of the optician (vol. 164, no. 4259, pp. 4, 6, & 10) is the result of the perusal of the 17th edition of thomas dyche's english dictionary, london, 1795, for optical terms. discovered were the words ophthalmoscopy, ophthalmy, eye, jris (for iris), cornea, retina, crystalline humour, oculist, optics, optic glasses, glaucoma, cataract, squint, and wall eye. most of the definitions and_"desor)..ptions were, at best, quaint and charming. zeiss correction: in the "dear abbe!" article in the preceding issue, p. 8, i erroneously reported that both editions of jena review were mailed directly from the same address. i had presumed this from the published statements, but subsequent inspection of the mailing envelopes shows otherwise. the envelope for the "aus jena" edition shows the return address "ddr 69 jena, carl-zeiss-strasse 1," but the envelope for the "zeiss jena" edition shows the return address "deutscher buch-export und -import gmbh, ddr 1004 berlin, strasse der partser kommune 5-4." the layard lens re-examined: "the oldest lens in the world" is the title of an article by walter gasson in the december 9, 1972, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 12, no. 24, pp. 1267 passim. sometimes called the "ninevah lens", it was quite evidently excavated at nimrud, some 20 miles south of ninevah, although assyriologist sir henry austen layard thought the site was ninevah. the lens, or lentoid, is slightly oval in shape, 35 x 41 mm., plano-convex, with a center thickness of 6 mm., of slightly cloudy rook crystal, and probably shaped by a lapidary. its purpose was quite evidently ornamental rather than optical, though its spherometrio measurements would give it a total power of four diopters in one meridian and eight diopters in the other meridian at approximately right angles. the lens is in the british museum and is dated circa 900-700 b.c. -27nomenclature history: the development and adoption of the terms ophthalmic optician, optical appliance, and sight-testing in britain are described briefly in an article entitled "the mati'elr of terms" by s. c. hardy and w. el. hardy in the january 11, 1973, issue of the optometric weekly, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 35-36. according to the authors the equivalent terms optometry and ophthalmic optics were independently adopted by the united states and britain respectively as new designations at about the same time, around the turn of the century. subsequent legislative and contractual developments in both countries have established their respectively adopted terms so firmly as to make further changes difficult. "it is quite wrong to infer that british opticians, either individually or collectively, dislike the designation 'optometrist'" say messrs. hardy. i doubt that we who routinely identify ourselves as optometrists can be said to reciprocate so understandingly. antwerp opticianry in 1625: in the august 1972 issue of photons, no. 65, p. 29, there is reproduced a painting by sevastian vrancx (1573-1647), a student of a. van noort, which features a spectacle vendor. the picture is a street scene at the antwerp harbor. the vendor has a one-legged basket-like tray in which is displayed his merchandise, and he is holding a pair of glasses without temples in his right hand, apparently offering to sell them, though conceiveably he is offering to loan them to a prospective customer to use to examine the merchandise in the tray. it is not obvious whether the merchandise in the tray is an assortment of spectacles or of miscellaneous trinkets. mr. jean thiriart, editor of photons, recently gave me the negative of a photograph of the painting, from which i have had several prints made. the original painting hangs in the massey museum in tarbes, france. ! 1952 opinion survey: recently discovered in my file is an august 1, 1952, publication of the vision conservation institute authored by lawrence h. foster, o.d. included in the report are statistics on prevalence and duration of glasses wearing, professional origin of the prescriptions, basis for choosing type of practitioners, and familiarity with the terms oculist, ophthalmologist, optician, and optometrist. the survey was made by interview and planned by west-marquis, inc., facts consolidated, and vol officers. the four page publication has been forwarded to the american optometric association archives for permanent reference. visic responds: a simple search request to the visual science information research center, school of optometry, university of california, berkeley, -cont'd-28california 94720, for publication references on 11 0ptometric, ophthalmic, and optical history" brought a startlingly fast response in the form of a list of 84 publications dated 1970 or later. though 38 (45fo) of the listed publications originated in the u.s.a., a total of 12 countries were included. publications of german origin totaled 22, british 12, hungarian, italian, and polish two each, and australian, brazilian, canadian, chilean, czech, and swedish one each. of optometric or ophthalmic-optical origin there were 38, of ophthalmological origin 32, and 14 others. leading the list of authors was our own sol tannebaum with six articles. german ~uthor werner rentzsch, mentioned in a previous issue of the newsletter, scored four, and tying with him were the co-authors heinrich honegger and herbert hessler of the heidelberg university eye clinic. membership recognition certificates? it has not seemed necessary for the optometric historical society to issue membership certificates or cards, or at least no one has suggested that we do so. however, this is our fifth year of existence, and several have supported the society by their continuous membership since its inception in 1969. perhaps an inexpensive five-year continuous membership plaque or certificate suitable for displaying in the office, study, or den would be a welcome gesture of appreciation. comments would be appreciated. h. w. hofstetter, editor 1973-04-02-001 1973-04-02-002 1973-04-02-003 1973-04-02-004 1973-04-02-005 1973-04-02-006 1973-04-02-007 1973-04-02-008 1973-04-02-009 1973-04-02-010 1973-04-02-011 1973-04-02-012 1973-04-02-013 1973-04-02-014 't' hindsi ghtnd=~~v:~'r(() f ne~sle:ter c;>f the optometry library optometr1c h1stor1cal society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 31 october 2000 number 4 optometric historical society meeting: the optometric historical society will be holding its annual meeting at the american academy of optometry meeting on friday, december 8, 2000, from 6:00 to 7:00pm in the europe a-dolphin meeting room. dr. arol augsburger, dean of the university of alabama birmingham school of optometry, will talk about the "evolution and early development of the celebrity eyewear collection." dr. augsburger started this collection at the ohio state university when he was a faculty member there. a short business meeting will follow. book review: a history of color: robert a. crone. a history of color: the evolution of theories of lights and color. documenta ophthalmologica 1999; 96 (1-3): 1-282. dordrecht, the netherlands: kluwer academic publishers, 1999. 252 pages of text plus 30 pages of bibliographical notes, references, and index. in the words of the author, "this book gives a survey of color theories between 500 bc and 2000 ad. naturally it cannot provide more than a broad outline." {p. 1) believing that color theory history is best understood in the context of the development of the· underlying sciences, crone also discusses theories of light and vision and studies on the structure and function of the eye. this book is an adaptation of the author's licht-kieur-ruimte (light-color-space) which was published in dutch in1992. the text of this book is organized as follows: preface (pages 1-2) chapter i. color theory in the ancient world (pages 3-16) chapter ii. the middle ages (pages 17-34) chapter ill. the renaissance (pages 35-49) chapter iv. light, color and vision during the scientific revolution (pages 50-76) chapter v. newton (pages 77 -87) chapter vi. from newton to young (pages 88-111) chapter vii. classical-romantic color theory in germany (pages 112-125) chapter viii. disorders of color vision (pages 126-132) chapter ix. the mixing of colors (pages 133-140) chapter x. the trichromatic theory (pages 141-164) chapter xi. hering's four-color theoryzone theories (pages 165-174) chapter xii. anatomy and physiology of the visual system between 1600 and 1900 {pages 175-190) chapter xiii. the twentieth century (pages 191-246) appendix and synopsis; what is color? (pages 247-252) crone identifies empedocles (490-435 bc) as the first greek philosopher to write on color. empedocles believed thatthere were four elementsfire, water, air, and earth. similarly he believed that there were four colors black, white, red, and yellowish green. empedocles thought that the eyes sent out fire which then interacted with something which moved in the direction of the eyes from the object being viewed. the resulting interaction produced color. the theories·of democritus (460-370 bc) were preserved in the writings of his follower epicurus (341-270 bc) and of the roman titus lucretius carus (95-52 bc). in the democritus theory of vision, images of objects in the visual field came to the eye as eidola, " a sort of minimalized flying outer skins of obejcts." (p. 6) democritus did not believe in the four elements of empedocles. rather everything is composed of minute indivisible seeds or atoms. democritus accepted empedocles' four colors, but he thought the four colorsblack, white, red, and yellowish green were associated with four different atoms. democritus appears to be the first to suggest that sensory knowledge was "second quality'' knowledge or an interpretation of objects colors are not present in the objects themselves, but rather color atoms from an object become color when they act on the atoms of the person viewing the object. carried to its extreme, this idea was adopted by plato ( 428-34 7 bc) to suggest that sensory experience is illusory while everlasting truth is present in mathematics and ideas. aristotle (384-322 bc) viewed white and black as the extreme qualities of light and darkness. he thought of other colors as intermediary qualities, mixtures of light and darkness. aristotle believed that the transparent media of the eye are actualized by light to allow colors to affect the eye. aristotle had a significant influence on scientific thought. his approach was more in terms of forms and qualities as opposed to the more abstract mathematical approach of plato. the greek astronomer claudius ptolemy (c. 150 ad) wrote a book on optics. he continued the work in geometrical optics of euclid (c. 300 bc), who sketched image formation by light rays. ptolemy studied reflection and refraction, as well as various aspects of vision, such as binocularity and color. crone credits ptolemy as being " ... the first to describe how colors can be mixed, not only on the artist's palette but also 'optically' in the eye. ptolemy painted colors on a wheelprobably a potter's wheelwhich he rotated rapidly .... lt was also possible to mix individual colors 'optically' in another way: by looking at them at a distance." (p. 14) the arab scholar ibn ai-haytham (ai hazen) (c. 1000 ad) is notable for his arguments against extramission theories of vision. included in his extensive writings on optics and vision is some work on color. like ptolemy, he studied color mixing by rotating a wheel 31/26 with sectors of different colors. crone credits ai hazen as being the first to describe colored shadows. the author identifies robert grosseteste (1168-1253), the first chancellor of oxford university, as being a "transitional figure" in optics. with regard to color, grosseteste "examined the colors which occur on refraction in prisms and in glass globes filled with water. he thought that the colors produced were caused by differential refraction and by different degrees of darkness, colors being produced by weakening of white light." (pp. 29-30) in about 1304, theodoric of freiberg (c. 1250-131 0) wrote aboutthe formation of rainbows by refractions and reflections in rain drops. the arab kamal al-oin ai-farisi (died c. 1320) wrote an independent correct optical description of the formation of rainbows at about the same time. theodoric, witelo (vitellio) (1220-1270), and roger bacon (12141292) elaborated on the optics work of alhazen. witelo suggested that the colors produced by a prism were formed by differential refraction, but then he also talked about aristotle's theory of colors being produced by the mixing of light and darkness, in the case of a prism due to opacities in the prism. crone notes that there were no significant advances in color science during the renaissance. i found his mention of "lens-grinders" in his discussion of the changes in natural science during the renaissance to be interesting: "the renaissance, the transitional period between the middle ages and the new era, is the period in which natural science ... begins to loosen its bands with the church and aristotelian scholasticism. there are various reasons forth is change. in the first place, the rise of a new class of non-ecclesiastical professionals, usually non-academic, full of self­ confidence and unhampered by rigid traditions. they are architects, lens-grinders, artists, cartographers. a representative of this group is the florentine artist and technician leonardo da vinci. a seond circumstance which contributes to the secularization of science is the invention of printing, which made the rapid of new ideas possible. in addition, there is the rise of humanism, closely connected with the fall of the east-roman empire. byzantine scholars came to italy and bring with them the works of ancient authors; plato's work and his high regard for mathematics are found fascinating." (p. 35) a continuing question over the years was the number of primary colors as well as whether there were "types" of colors. leonardo da vinci (1452-1519) identified six simple colors white, yellow, green, blue, red, and black although he did note that some philosophers did not consider white and black to be colors, white being the origin of all colors and black being the absence of colors. aguilonius (1567-1617), in a noted book on optics illustrated by his friend peter paul rubens, suggested that there were three types of colors: (1) true colorsthe colors of colored objects, (2) apparent colorsfor example, the colors of the rainbow and peacock's feathers, and (3) intentional colors -"invisible colors in light, which only become visible when light falls on an object. thus a ray of sunlight, filtered through blue 31/27 stained glass in a cathedral, can by means of an invisible ray throw a patch of blue light on a bishop's grave." (p. 38) the development of color vision theory was hampered somewhat by the lack of a correct theory of vision. the physician galen (130-200 ad) thought that it was the crystalline lens that was the light sensitive element in the eye. crone suggested that the development of spectacle lenses and the camera obscura had important effects on optics in the renaissance. leonardo da vinci likened the eye to the camera obscura, and suggested that the crystalline lens must have an optical function (like a spectacle lens), that of making the ocular image upright. it was thought that if the ocular image was not upright we would see everything upside down. leonardo thought that the crystalline lens formed an upright image on the optic nerve head, which he thought to be the sensitive part of the eye. crone portrays johannes kepler (1571-1630) as" .. . one ofthe most important initiators of a movement which disposed of the whole range of medieval science ... the scientific revolution." (p. 49) kepler's work on vision followed from his astronomy studies. kepler showed that the retinal image was indeed upside down. kepler then asked whether we see with the eyes or with the brain, the latter possibility then showing that an upside down ocular image could still result in properly oriented vision. crone suggests that kepler helped set up future advances in color vision in that he "indicated the organ in which color takes place." (p. 47) a discovery with important implications for color science was the discovery of diffraction by francesco maria grimaldi (1628-1663). it was described in his book on light, color, and rainbow which was published posthumously in 1665. as a result of his discovery of diffraction, "grimaldi asks himself whether light consists of waves; he compares the light which can bend round an obstacle with the movement of waves in water: there too a movement can continue round an obstacle. grimaldi thinks that colors are different sorts of light waves ... grimaldi's discovery that colors can arise from light without the intervention of any device such as a prism (sine mutatione medii), is essential to the theory of color. color is property, or at least a modification of light itself. the distinction between true and false colors is therefore, according to grimaldi, unnecessary." (pp. 60-61) robert hooke (1635-1703) described studies of colors produced in thin layers and, like grimaldi, suggested a sort of wave theory of light. hooke thoughtthat red and blue were the two primary colors. hooke introduced the concept of wave fronts, which was elaborated bychristiaan huygens (1629-1695). in 1664, robert boyle (1627-1691) called red, yellow, and blue the primary colors, anticipating the trichromatic theory. experiments by isaac newton (1642-1727) showed that color resulted from properties of light itself rather than a property of objects or a modification of light by a device such as a prism. he split white light into the spectrum of colors with a prism and then recombined the spectrum into white light with another prism. he also discovered that red and yellow combined to make an orange that could not be distinguished from monochromatic 31/28 orange. newton proposed that light was composed of particles conducted by vibrations in the ether. in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were attempts to classify colors. this was important to persons such as painters, engravers, cartographers, entomologists, and printers. crone credits richard waller (1686), secretary of the royal society, as being one of the first to make a practical scheme of color naming, starting with three simple colorsred, yellow, and blue. the german mathematician and astronomer johann heinrich lambert (17281777) found that if red, yellow, and blue were mixed in the right proportions the result was black. he also noted that nothing was seen if one tried to look through a red, a yellow, and a blue filter, all at the same time. crone notes that lambert was thus the discoverer of the principle of subtractive color mixing, which is usually attributed to helmholtz. in a paper published in 1786 in french, george palmer (17 40-1795) suggested that colorblindness originates through loss of retinal elements sensitive to color. crone gives thomas young (1773-1829) the credit for being the first to recognize ''that it was not light, but · the retina, that was trichromatic." young proposed the wave theory of light, and offered his double slit interference experiment as evidence. newton had argued against a wave theory of light by suggesting that it was incompatible with rectilinear propagation of light. augustin jean fresnel (1788-1827) showed mathematically that rectilinear propagation could occur with waves because secondary waves would cancel each other out. it appears that the first published account of defective color vision was that of two brothers published in 1777 by joseph huddart. in 1778, john dalton (1766-1844) published the first scientific description of defective color vision when he wrote about his own color anomaly. crone credits hermann von helmholtz (1821-1894) as being the first ''to perform flawless experiments on the mixing of spectral colors." (p. 138) he was thus able to distinguish additive color mixing from subtractive color mixing. james clerk maxwell (1831-1879} founded colorimetry when he assembled an apparatus for making color comparisons with spectral colors. he found that a color blind individual showed dichromatism rather than trichromatism. experiments by helmholtz and maxwell were important in confirming young's trichromatic theory. ewald hering (1834-1918), who succeeded purkinje as professor of physiology at prague, suggested a four color opponent theory in which the principal colors were red, yellow, green, and blue. the young-maxwell-helmholtz trichromatic theory and the hering opponent colors theory both described some color phenomena well, so it became clear that color vision was more complicated than either theory alone would suggest. in 1889 hering stated that" ... the opponent-colors theory and the young-helmholtz three color theory could with some modification very well exist side by side if one strictly distinguished between the 31/29 process of excitation and the process of sensation, and used the three-color theory for the former and my theory for the latter." (p. 172) johannes von kries ( 1853-1928) was correct in his zone theory (1882) in that the trichromatic system was chemical at the retina, while the opponent system was due to a neural recoding system. studies on the anatomy and physiology of the visual system conducted in the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries were important in the development of color theory. such discoveries in this time period included the different functions of rods and cones, neural structure of the retina, anatomy of visual pathways, visual pigments, the purkinje shift, and dark adpatation. the longest chapter in the book is on color science in the twentieth century. it starts with quantum theory. the chapter talks about further development of color theory and discoveries made possible by increased sophistication in experimental methods, such as electron microscopy, retinal densitometry, and electrophysiological recording. the book concludes with a short and sketchy "appendix and synopsis" which briefly summarizes the history of color theory and makes some closing remarks. this book, published as a special issue of the journal documenta ophthalmo/ogica, provides an interesting history of our understanding of color. the author does a good job showing how new developments in thought on color were influenced by previous color theory and how the development of color science was dependent upon knowledge of the nature of light and of the structure and function of the eye and visual system. the book is recommended to persons interested in the history of vision science. d.a.g. changes in optometry in the twentieth century: we are all well aware that what could readily be recognized as optometry has been practiced for several centuries. non-medical practitioners which have gone by different names over the years have been prescribing lenses to improve vision for hundreds of years. the history of optometry is a long and proud one extending back for centuries before the first american state licensure laws were passed early in the twentieth century and before the use of the term optometrist became common at about the same time. .. as with many professions and many areas of science, the twentieth century was a time of rapid change and significant development. in a guest editorial in the journal optometry and vision science (volume 77, number 4, april, 2000, pages 165-167), alden n. haffner outlined the major twentieth century changes in optometry. the first state optometry licensure law was passed in minnesota in 1901. by 1924, all48 states and the district of columbia had laws which regulated optometry licensure 31/30 and scope of practice. haffner noted that "the scope of professional responsibility, as defined at the beginning of the century in minnesota, was not significantly altered for the first seven decades after its establishment." haffner suggest that "the major progenitor of change" in optometry in the twentieth century was "the establishment and enhancement of the structured system of formal professional and scientific education of the optometrist." one of the most obvious byproducts has been the uniformity of the terminal academic degree. by the 1960s, all optometry schools awarded the o.d. degree at the successful completion of the professional program. haffner identifies three phases of change in the profession associated with the incorporation of pharmaceutical agents into the scope of practice: (1) introduction of diagnostic pharmaceutical agents (dpas) into the scope of practice, (2) introduction of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents (tpas) into the scope of practice, and {3) cultural and behavioral changes in the profession. in haffner's words, "i join with my colleagues in sociology to assert that the third phase, currently well underway, is the institutionalization of the culture, habits, practice models, and professional environment of optometry resulting from both dpa authority and tpa authority. the third change probably will proceed for yet another generation, although it can already be measured in social and behavioral terms. indeed, its fundamental importance should not be diminished. moreover, a body of understanding, reflected in the optometric literature, remains to be constructed." other changes in optometry in the twentieth century noted in the editorial are: upsurge of optometric publications, both books and journals; increase in vision science research; limited use of surgical procedures; new technology; public health efforts in optometry; and development of institutional optometry, such as in the department of veterans affairs, the military, and the indian health service. d.a.g. ocular heritage society meeting: optometric historical society member jerry abrams, who is also president of the ocular heritage society, announces thatthe 2001 annual meeting ofthe ocular heritage society will be held april2-11 in italy. the major cities to be visited are venice, treviso, and florence. some of the highlights of the trip are stops at the luxottica museum and factory at agordo, the safilo museum in padua, the university of padua, and florence's museum of the history of science, which includes a special section devoted to galilee. a few spaces are still available for the trip. to reserve a space, send a $50.00 non-refundable check made out to the ocular heritage society to: val tull, treasurer, ocular heritage society, 467 w. market street, york, pa 17 404, usa. for questions, contact j. j. abrams at 317-241-8315 (telephone) or 317-241-2385 (fax). 31/31 optometrist makes eyeglasses worn in the patriot the tuesday, july 25,2000, issue of the indianapolis starnewspaperfeatures an article about shelbyville, indiana optometrist ronald mcdaniel. about ten years ago, mcdaniel started the hobby of hand making spectacles of the type worn in early america. the tedious work required to complete one pair of spectacles takes about 12 to 15 hours, using small hand tools. through revolutionary war re-enactors, mcdaniel's hobby came to the attention of the property masters for the movie the patriot, about the involvement of an american family in the revolutionary war. mcdaniel was recommended due to the authenticity of his work. the star of the movie mel gibson can be seen wearing the spectacles to read letters. d.a.g. *** managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (postal address: school of optometry, indiana university, 800 east atwater avenue, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; telephone: (812) 855-5379; email address: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, 1001 north grand ~avenue, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 31/32 i l' ~ i i ! 1 2000-31-04-001 2000-31-04-002 2000-31-04-003 2000-31-04-004 2000-31-04-005 2000-31-04-006 2000-31-04-007 2000-31-04-008 /'~ / \.. . ' 0piolllet,.... nornmnn\r 'mn ~ ny e~t -.y lt'lti. u~ ....... ~··" _ ......... . 1caj.· v~a .. . f'.. ..,. "'j.e newsletter sep 1 1 • 1919 of the (243 north optometric historical society indiana utllversliv lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. 63141) volume 9 july 1978 number 3 please notice address change: the above-shown address for the optometric historical society is new. it is the office address of mrs. maria dablemont, our secretary-tresurer. it is also the new address for ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. the st. louis post-office will undoubtedly forward incorrectly addressed mail to the new address for a year, but play it safe by using the new address now. current o.h.s. members: except that a few of us have not yet paid our 1978 dues, which are payable anytime during the calendar year, the following is our membership list as of june 1, 1978: larry aasen better vision institute, inc. 230 park avenue new york, ny 10017 th. abegglen, principal schweizerische hoehere fachschule fuer augenoptik frohheimschulhaus, 4600 olten ch-switzerland don abernethy, o.d. 202 no. locust st. p.o. box 790 grand island, ne 68801 j.j. abrams, o.d. 45.6 w. washington st. indianapolis, in 46241 kevin l. alexander, o.d. 4679 greentree ct., apt. b columbus, oh 43220 11 -cont'd11 louis h. allgeyer, o.d. box 160 owatonna, mn 55060 maria i. arista, o.d. 490 w. commercial ave. lowell, in 46356 h.c. armstrong, o.d. 511 robeson bldg. champaign, il 61820 henry atkinson, fboa (hons.) 53 birkenhead avenue birkenhead 10 new zealand mrs. joseph m. babcock 3130 s. dorchester rd. columbus, oh 43221 joseph m. babcock, jr., o.d. 720 6th street portsmouth, oh 45662 george w. bailey, o.d. 417 elizabeth street ogdensburg, ny 13669 (may 15 to oct. 15) neal j. bailey, o.d. 32 east 15th avenue columbus, oh 43201 william r. baldwin, o.d., pres. new england col. of optometry 424 beacon st. boston, ma 02115 felix m. barker ii, o.d. 10400 sandpiper #277 houston, tx 77096 mr. william f. beegle 3847 12th court, south birmingham, al 35222 irving bennett, o.d. 1316 sixth ave. beaver falls, pa 15010 serials department the general library univ. of calif., berkeley berkeley, ca 94720 marvin r. berman, o.d. p.o. box 15, foxwood dover, de 19901 harold d. blustin, o.d. 222 west first street duluth, mn 55802 warren s. boggs, o.d. 1051 elm ridge drive glencoe, il 60022 l.d. bronson, o.d. 4838 van nuys blvd. sherman oaks, ca 91403 john j. brown, o.d. r.d. no. 1, box 2051 englishtown, nj 07726 lester caplan, o.d. 6660 security blvd. baltimore, md 21207 -36robert l. carter, o.d. route #2, box 21 big rapids, mi 49307 pearl castle 226 33rd east seattle, wa 98112 mr. t.c. chang 1701 asian house 1 hennessy rd. hong kong walter wm. chase, o.d. southern calif. college of opt. 2001 associated road fullerton, ca 92631 claro m. cinco, o.d. osvel bldg. jones ave. cebu city, philippines donald w. conner, sr., o.d. 206 merchants nat•l. bank bldg. terre haute, in 47801 eric j. crundall 40 bowling green lane london eci r/one england penn c. crum, o.d. 1008 juniper alamogordo, nm 88310 mr. earl dablemont 1435 wells avenue st. louis, mo 63119 mrs. maria dablemont international library, archives & museum of optometry 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mi 63141 jack daubs, o.d. 173 central ave. milton, ma 02186 mrs. luella de grave 1540 san marino ct. punta gorda, fl 33950 11 -cont•d11 james f. dickson, jr., o.d. p.o. box 909 lindsay, ca 93247 margaret dowaliby, o.d. 9465 wilshire blvd. #325 beverly hills, ca 90212 sylvia dupuis, o.d. 451 coolidge avenue manchester, nh 03102 israel dvorine, o.d. 7901 liberty road baltimore, md 21207 ecole superieur d'optometrie 134 route de chartes 91440 bures sur yvette france elizabeth egan 620 s. woodlawn ave. bloomington, in 47401 spurgeon b. eure, o.d. so. college of opt. 1245 madison ave. memphis, tn 38104 h. ward ewalt, o.d. 8002 jenkins arcade bldg. pittsburgh, pa 15222 prof. e.j. fisher waterloo u-sch. of opt. faculty of science waterloo, ont., canada peter p. ford, a.s.t.c. 333 king st. newtown 2042 nsw, australia ugo frescura, f.a.a.o. 225 corso alfieri 14100 asti italy colin b. fryer 11, queenscourt road west derby, liverpool merseyside l12 8rh england -37"-cont'd-" luis garcia-margarida, o.d. box 13188 santurce, pr 00908 ga optometric assn p.o. box 18815 atlanta, ga 30326 madison gilbert, o.d. 120 n. hickory owosso, mi 48867 mrs. i.n. giles hotel eden luz, apt. 301 parque san fernando puerto de la cruz teneriffe, canary islands david a. goss, o.d. 800 n. smith road #3l bloomington, in 47401 roderick p. grant, o.d. 1520 portage trail cuyahoga falls, oh 44223 james r. gregg, o.d. so. calif. col. of opt. 2001 associated road fullerton, ca 92631 john r. griffin, o.d. southern calif. college of opt. 2001 associated road fullerton, ca 92631 sidney groffman, o.d. 29 reckless place red bank, nj 07701 theodore grosvenor, o.d. illinois college of optometry 3241 s. michigan avenue chicago, illinois 60616 arthurs. grove, jr., m.d. 76 mt. vernon street boston, ma 02108 r.l. guenveur, o.d. p.o. box 25 mt. horeb, wi 53572 charles l. haine, o.d. indiana university school of optometry 800 east atwater bloomington, in 47401 j.r. hale, o.d. 515 sixth st. sunnyside, wa 98944 frederick w. hebbard, o.d. 2100 haverford road columbus, oh 43221 hernando henao r., o.d. clinica barraquer-div. opt. apartado aereo no. 11357 bogota, colombia south america homer hendrickson, o.d. 5825 n-. temple city blvd. temple city, ca 91780 john t. high, o.d. 140 n. franklin st. rocky mount, nc 27801 monroe j. hirsch, o.d., dean univ. of calif. school of optometry berkeley, ca 94720 karl 0. hoefert, 0.0. 110 e. florence blvd. casa grande, az 85222 william n. hoffmann, 0.0. 2101 n. edward st. decatur, il 62526 h.w. hofstetter, o.d. indiana university school of optometry 800 e. atwater bloomington, in 47401 richard l. hopping, o.d., pres. so. calif. col. of optometry 2001 associated road fullerton, ca 92631 11 -cont'd11 -38univ. of houston libraries attn. central serials rec. cullen blvd. houston, tx 77004 d.g. hummel, o.d. 7029 royalton rd. no. royalton, oh 44133 earl j. hunt, o.d. 226 ohio st. johnstown, pa 15902 lester r. hussey, o.d. 321-323 rookery bldg. spokane, wa 99201 horace h. jenner, o.d. 53 east walnut st. frankfort, in 46041 antonio joson, jr., o.d. rm. 202 pilar tan bldg. 718a r. hidalgo, quiapo manila, philippines paul b. kernel, o.d. 8944 e. 42nd st., #100 indianapolis, in 46226 henry a. knoll, ph.d. bausch & lomb rochester, ny 14602 felix koetting, 0.0. american optometric assoc. 7000 chippewa street st. louis, mo 63119 robert a. koetting, 0.0. university club tower 1034 s. brentwood blvd. st. louis, mo 63117 mrs. harold kohn 130 w. 42nd street new york, ny 10036 james p. leeds, o.d. 2470 east ll6th st. carmel, in 46032 richard r. lehr, o.d. 363 e. lancaster ave. downingtown, pa 19335 john r. levene, o.d., ph.d. , dean of the faculty southern col. of opt. 1245 madison avenue memphis, tn 38104 alvin levin, o.d. 120 s. hanover st., box g carlisle, pa 17013 prof. alfred lit rt. 1, box 164-a murphysboro, il 62966 morris c. mckee, o.d. box 2022, usahc-h apo san francisco, ca 96343 elwin marg, o.d., ph.d. un i v. of ca 1 i f. school of opt. berkeley, ca 94720 john e. martin, o.d. box 487 carroll, ia 51401 garland melton, o.d. 230 n. block st. fayetteville, ar 72701 angelo d. meneghini, o.d. 524 ohio st. terre haute, in 47807 edward g. miner library univ. of rochester med. ctr. 260 crittenden blvd. rochester, ny 14620 dr. abdulsultan h. mohamed box 90582 mombasa, kenya east africa mrs. susan mohme hills bros: coffee, inc. 535 r1ver road edgewater, nj 07020 -39"-con•t-" bernard a. morewitz, o.d. vision bldg. 130 30th street newport news, va 23607 meredith w. morgan, o.d., ph.d. 1217 skycrest dr. #4 walnut creek, ca 94595 fumio morie, o.d., pre. kikuchi optometric co., ltd. 2-5-5izumi hagashi-ku nagoya, japan b. mrozinski optometrysta bydgoszcz 1, al 1-go maj a 11 , poland raymond myers, o.d. 8 dartmouth park road london mw5 15y england dr. jagjit nagpal c/o sh. des raj driver h. no. 1411/11 kumhar st. near rani tal nahan-173 001 {distt. sirmur) himachal pradesh, india nederlandse unie van opticians honthorststraat 12 amsterdam 7 netherlands library suny-state college of optom. 100 east 24th street new york, ny 10010 michael j. obremskey, o.d. heritage mall prof. ctr. 7893 heritage drive annandale, va 22003 luis a. ortiz, o.d. box 128 bayamon, pr 00619 louis h. orzack, ph.d. 7 bunny circle newton, ma 02158 ii kur;t e. ostlund svardsjogatan 3 791 00 falun sweden antonio pacheco, o.d. p.o. box 10223 santurce, pr 00908 mr. antonio pacheco, jr. p.o. box 10223 santurce, pr 00908 ramon pacheco, o.d. dediego ave. 365 parada 22 santurce, pr 00909 dr. e. s. padman 47 brisbane st. launceston, tasmania australia 7250 b . b . parks , 0. d. 904 pendleton st. greenville, sc 29601 dr. julio ramirex perez calle iris uu-12 b a. de borinquen gardens rio piedras, pr 00926 library pa col. of optometry 1200 w. godfrey ave. philadelphia, pa 19141 chester h. pheiffer, o.d., ph.d. 4702 rockwood drive houston, tx 77004 duane e. polzien, o.d. 7824 s. sycamore drive lincoln, ne 68520 ray prenavo c/o jenkins optical co. box 13132 18 kirkham ind. dr. st. louis, mo 63119 serials librarian, 11 g11 block queensland inst. of tech. george street brisbane, queensland australia 4000 11 -con•t11 -40d r. reed, o.d. 912 michigan ave. la porte, in 46350 prof. lynn a. ress 3235 cambridge ave., apt. 4a bronx, ny 10463 mr. m. j. revell brandon hall-fen lane bulphan upminster essex england daisy rampolla medina, o.d. 1606 fernadex juncos ave. santurce, pr 00909 jose a. rivera santiago, o.d. box 2837 bayamon, pr 00619 evelyn b. robinson, o.d. 310 w. ft. william sylacauga, al 35150 j. kelley robinson, o.d. 310 w. ft. william sylacauga, al 35150 leighton e. roy, o.d. 13555 s. w. 22nd beaverton, or 97005 robert von sandor syninformation kungsgatan 33/5 111 56 stockholm, sweden a.a. schmidt, o.d. ' 5135 dover center road north olmstead, oh 44070 felix sanchez velez, o.d. centro de lentes de contacto de diego #328, eq. ponce de le6n pda. 22 santurce, pr 00909 john n. schoen, o.d. 118 north oak street owatonna, mn 55060 richard e. schugar, o.d. 9511 gwyndale drive silver spring, md 20910 r.d. sedgwick, o.d. 14 central drive glen head, ny 11545 charles e. seger, o.d. 1407 garden st. san luis obispo, ca 93401 elias shaneson, o.d. 2016 genesee st. buffalo, ny 14211 joseph l. shapiro, o.d. 112 east 11th st., #c new york city, ny 10003 c. wayne shearer, o.d. 306 ashland terrace chattanooga, tn 37415 n.b. shetty, o.d. 7-e gunbow street fort bombay, india 400 001 -41dr. damien p. smith, exec. dir. australian optometrical assn. suite 1, 611 st. kilda road melbourne, victoria, 3004 austraila s. african optometric assn. 624 pretorium bldg. 267 church street pretoria, south africa library southern calif. col. of opt. 2001 associated rd. fullerton, ca 92631 library southern college of opt. 1245 madison avenue memphis, tn 38104 jacob staiman, o.d. 15 w. mount vernon place baltimore, md 21201 dr. selwyn super p. 0 .. box 15 johannesburg 2000 south africa 11 -con•t11 t.m. swinger, o.d. loth & ward avenue caruthersville, mo 63830 sol tannebaum, o.d. olympia fields prof. bldg. 2555 w. lincoln hwy101 olympia fields, il 60461 miss jennifer taylor, librarian british optical assn. 65 brooks street london wly 2dt england sterrett s. titus, o.d. 1710 west o'brien, #305 lee's summit, mo 64063 j.c. tumblin, o.d. 5319 broadway ne knoxville, tn 37918 univ. de montreal biblio-periodiques c.p. 6128 montreal 101 canada prof. sergio villani piazza della liberta, 17 50059 vinci florence, italy david a. vito, o.d. 760 north main st. providence, ri 02904 bernard e. vodnoy, o.d. 316 s. eddy street south bend, in 46617 bernard watkins, o.d. culver lake, box 223 branchville, nj 07826 j.m. weber, o.d. 8900 washington blvd., apt. 508 pembroke pines, fl 33025 mrs. grace weiner 1258 deerpark dr. #127 fullerton, ca 92631 g.a. wheatcroft 11sungates 11 20 belvidere parade bridlington, y015 3lx england george e. white 6236 n. broad street apt. 307 philadelphia, pa 19141 ralph wick, o.d. 810 mt. view road rapid city, sd t. david williams, o.d., ph.d. 269 union boulevard kitchener, ontario, n2m 2s9 canada melvin d. wolfberg, o.d. 100 west pine street selinsgrove, pa 17870 q.e.i. (which was to be found out): -42g. woo, o.d., ph.d. faculty of sci.-sch. of opt. university of waterloo waterloo, ontario, n2l 3gl canada peg wood, o.d. woollanis pharmacy 30 queen street auckland, i, new zealand charles f. wright 196 belaire road hawthorn 5062 south australia alan york, o.d. one main street east hampton, ny 11937 joel n. zaba, o.d. 1232 w. little creek rd. norfolk, va 23505 the request of professor e.j. fisher of waterloo, ontario, canada, in the october 1977 issue of this newsletter for information on three early instruments prompted ohs member d.c. davidson of east sussex, england, to refer the matter to mr. i.d.c. pain, a member of the board of directors of keeler instruments ltd., london. following some preliminary exchanges of correspondence between davidson, pain, fisher, and me, mr. pain wrote me as follows: i had the great pleasure, last week, of meeting professor fisher when he came to london; i hope that i gave him the information he required and that he enjoyed his visit to the keeler museum. in answer to your wanting information about the keeler museum, may i just tell you that for the last forty years i have been somewhat of a magpie. lt has always been a part time activity of mine and at long last the place seems to be getting organised. i am having a showcase constructed where all the instruments will be on display with their corresponding dates. i do hope that if you come to london, in the future, that you will come and visit it and that i will have the pleasure of meeting you. mr. pain•s address is 21-27 marylebone lane, london wim 60s, england. -43friendly comments from professor e.j. fisher: every issue of the ohs newsletter brings out some new curious aspects of optometry's history to interest optometry historians. your reference to molyneux recalls the delightful short paper given by h.b. morton at the dublin international optical congress in 1965. you were there and gave a paper. as you know molyneux was an irish philosopher and educated at trinity college, dublin, the site of the congress. the paper has 10 references including a couple by g. berkeley, also an irishman. as a follow-up to the appeal of mine which appeared in the october 1977 (8,4) issue in regard to the decagon "ophthalmoscope", i received from keeler a copy of the manual for the instrument, the patent, and found an article by conrad berens and charles k. mclaughlin which appeared in the american journal of ophthalmology, vol. 17, no. 5 pp. 402-414. the instrument was an early measuring ophthalmoscope containing a measuring grid to determine the extend of the disc and lesions, and as well an objective optometer designed to measure ametropia in several meridians. i had the pleasure of visiting mr. i.d. pain and seeing the keeler collection of early ophthalmoscopes recently. the collection contains two of the decagon instruments. also there are many prototype and production instruments made by keeler through this century. there are specimens of other makes of ophthalmoscopes and several other instruments as well as some books. the collection is cramped for space, but mr. pain has indicated that changes are being planned. for any visitors to london, a visit to the keeler library and museum, 21-27 marylebone lane, is well worth while. finally, your reference to the new issue of swaziland stamps prompts the suggestion that an optometric phil­ atelic group might be formed as a part of o.h.s. in addition to alan york, o.d. there is robert c. coleman, o.d. 1718 camina de 'la costa, apt. #6, redondo beach, california, who compiled an excellent listing of stamps commemorating "blindness prevention", world health day, "eyes on stamps", etc. i'm working on a display now for our museum and would 1 ike to obtai.n 1 i stings of "famous people wearing spectacles". there was a series commemorating galilee and the telescope as well but i have not located this yet. so much for history and now back to work. (signed "ted") -44letter from professor l.a. ress: dear dr. hofstetter, the result of further correspondence, this time with the united states department of justice immigration and naturalization service in washington, d.c., is such that it brings to light additional information which i would like to take this opportunity to share with the readers of the ohs newsletter regarding the ophthalmic situation at the "island of tears", also known as ellis island. you will recall that in the previous installment, in the april issue {pp. 28-29), of what now appears to be an ongoing series devoted to the subject of the nature of the eye examinations given to alien immigrants at ellis island, it was reported that provision was made for the hiring of "civil surgeons" {immigration and nationality act, sec. 234) in the event of the unavailability of medical officers of the united states public health service. now, on the basis of information contained in the operations instructions of the immigration and naturalization service, part 34.2 which sets forth certain pertinent definitions, i can pass on to you the definition of a "medical officer", as set forth in paragraph {e). namely, "a physician of the public health service assigned or detailed by the surgeon general of the public health service to make mental and physical examinations of aliens." before, we knew only the qualifications of the supplementary personnel. now, the professional identity of the regular examining staff has been ascertained. before adding further enlightenment in the form of some statistics regarding the pathology situation and resultant deportation, i would like to bring to your attention certain points regarding the literacy requirement. a literacy requirement, as opposed to being able to read the eye chart as a means of disproving blindness to any degree, first went into effect with the 5 february 1917 congressional enactment of the immigration and nationality act. section 212 {a) in the form updated as of 6 february 1973 reads " ••• the following classes of aliens shall be ineligible to receive visas and shall be excluded from admission to the united states:" section 212 {a) 25 refers specifically to "aliens ... over sixteen years of age, physically capable of read­ ing, who cannot read and understand some language or dialect; ... " {updated as of 1 december 1976.) -45we are now left with two questions to be answered with reference to these two citations of law. for the former quotation, the question that comes to mind in view of the fact that reading scores in the schools are decreasing quite definitely and that the general public simply doesn't read any more, is a query as to the nature of the applicable loophole so that there was and still is an opportunity to enter this country and yet bypass the literacy requirement. the puzzle with regard to the latter citation is merely to ascertain precisely what the literacy test actually consists of. you see, there is already a built-in loophole contained within the phrase "read and understand some language or dialect;" as the reader will immediately realize, not a word is spoken of reading ability being limited to english, although the assumption is that if one had been able to master, and i use this term advisedly, one language, then "mastery" of another language to the same level of competency would not be asking too much. one is led to wonder as to what went wrong. this is especially true when we read the two following portions of the immigration and nationality act and learn that the law is quite lenient, or perhaps un­ restrained would be a better description, in these matters. section 212 (b) updated as of the 12 january 1977 informs us that "the provisions of paragraph 25 of subsection (a) shall not be applicable to any alien who (1) is the parent, grandparent, spouse, daughter, or son of an admissible alien .•. " all a family group needs is one reader and the whole group can be admitted as far as the literacy requirement is concerned. as we will now see, the requirement, as far as the nature of the reading matter is concerned, is not all that much either. section 212 (b) continues at quite some length "for the purpose of ascertaining whether an alien can read under paragraph 25 of subsection (a), the consular officers and immi­ gration officers shall be furnished with slips of uniform size, prepared under direction of the attorney general, each containing not less than thirty nor forty words in ordinary use, printed in plainly legible type, in one of the various languages or dialects of immigrants. each immigrant may designate the particular language or dialect in which he desires the examination to be made and shall be required to read and understand the words printed on the slip in such language or dialect." so now you know, dear readers, those of you who have a large number of foreign born patients in your practices and clinics, why keeping some foreign language periodi·cals at hand in 1 ieu of the standard reading cards is not always enough. also, when the ellis island facility was at its "height of popularity" in the early years of this century, sometimes as many as 5,000 individuals were examined in one day alone. at best, the testing was cursory. however, let us not make the mistake of thinking that the inspection job was not done. our main interest lies with the function of the second medical officer of whom it has been said that "he inspected the eyes of the immigrants, being especially on the lookout for signs of trachoma." -46this brings us to some statistics regarding the presence of pathology in the eyes of the immigrants and their consequential deportation, whether they could read or not. in the previous installment figures were given for deportations as a result of illiteracy. now i can present to you some figures based on medical reasons for deportations. of course only eye­ related conditions will be cited. the years covered run from 1894 through 1904 inclusive. the medical and surgical report of the united states immigration service, port of new york uses the fiscal year ending 30 june as the basis of its reckoning. 1894 of a total of 162 total deportations for medical reasons; there were one each for conjunctivitis, keratitis (vascular), ulcer of cornea, myopia, and amaurosis. 1895 one deportation for chronic granular conjunctivitis, (my copy of taber•s cyclopedic medical dictionary lists this condition as synonymous with trachoma. therefore we are on the right track.) the trachoma and related condition figures will shortly climb in a most dramatic fashion and so will the deportations. 1896 one deportation for each of the following: conjunctivitis (chronic), optic nerve (atrophy), cataract (hard, double), and ptosis. 1897 of a total of 115 medical deportations there were one each for trachoma, keratitis, staphaloma (sic), retinitis pigmentosa, and amaurosis (sic). 1898 one deportation each for keratitis and opacity of cornea, two cases of conjunctivitis (acute), and 110 deportations for conjunctivitis (granular). also recorded is one case of keratitis who deserted from ellis island. (figures on desertion are included in the tables only for the years 1898 and 1899. the total number of deserters was minute, as will soon become apparent to the reader. as far as what is meant by 11 deserted, 11 i can only assume it means leaving ellis island, in new york harbor, without permission, which, for medical reasons, was not going to be granted, and swimming to manhattan island, thereby gaining entry, although illegally, to the promised land, america. of course, the probability of drowning in the process, is quite high, but desperation serves to explain many ill-conceived acts.) the other medical-related deserters that year were one who was diagnosed with .. tubercle of lung 11 , and two cases of favus, a contagious skin disease which tabor•s cyclopedic medical dictionary relates to crusted ringworm, certainly an undesirable ailment to be allowed free entry to our shores. as is now evident, for 1898, the eye-related, medical­ deserters accounted for 25 percent of all medically-related 11 escapes 11 from ellis island. 1899 one deportation each for blind (o.u.), abscess (lachrymal sac), and ulcer of cornea. glaucoma was found to be present in two deportees. (incidentally, this is the only mention of this particular condition which i found in checking through the figures for both deportation and treatment during the years 1894 through 1904, inclusive. also, the reader should bear in mind that the facilities of the united states public health service at ellis island were used not only to detect anomalies and thereby bar entry to this country, but also to treat those who would respond favorably to medication, better -47hygiene, or whatever and then admit them. the united states public health service operated, along about 1913 (a few years hence from the period currently under discussion), both a general hospital and a separate communicable disease hospital which were located on ellis island and served immigrant needs. in all fairness, it must be stated that the function of the medical staff was examination. it was not the function of the medical staff to exclude an alien or to participate in the legal determination of admissibility. however, one should never underestimate the power of a medical report.) to continue, a case of 11 increasing blindness .. was admitted to the united states by the board instead of being deported in 1899. just one example, and there were others, not necessarily eye-related, of compassionate, nonruthless, and nonheartless carrying-out of respective duties. in 1899 there were also 298 deportations for conjunctivitis (granular) besides two deserters with this condition. for this year, these two anonymous individuals account for 100 per­ cent of all medical-related desertion cases. it appears that security was very tight. 1900 the total number of deportees for medical reasons climbed to 353. of these, 262 were diagnosed as conjunctivitis (granular). no other eye-related medical deportations are listed for that year. 1901 there were two deportations for keratitis along with 192 for conjunctivitis (granular). 1902 of a total of 1,064 medical deportations, one resulted from keratitis (chronic}, two from blindness, five from cataracts, eighteen from defective vision, and 488 as a consequence of trachoma. 1903 conjunctivitis and ectropion were responsible for two deportations each, defective vision and loss of eye accounted for three each, blindness and opacity of cornea for five each, eight were deported because of cataracts, while 748 cases of trachoma merited deportation. 1904 cataracts resulted in four deportations, conjunctivitis (chronic) in six, defective vision in eleven, and conjunctivitis (granular) in 812. in going over the list of anomalies, the predominant involvement of cornea and conjunctiva is overwhelming. the potential of such an appliance as contact lenses in such a situation with its mandatory requirement for fastidious hygienic habits boggles the mind in so far as how much further damage would have been done. of course, in some cases, the use of the lenses might have alleviated some suffering, loss of vision, and unnecessary discomfort. the philatelic item on p. 31 (april 1978) prompted me to dig out a pakistani postage stamp which was issued as part of a 11 prevention of blindness 11 campaign. i have another for my own collection, so after you peruse this one you are most welcome to cede it to the ilamo collection.* if the museum does not, as yet, have a specific philatelic collection, perhaps now would be the time to organize one. i must apologize for not being able to give any specific infor­ mation about the date of issuance of the stamp. all i can tell you is that i came across it at the interphil exhibition held in may 1976 at philadelphia, pa. -48on the assumption that you are still awake after having made your way through all of this, i do want you to know that, as in the past, you have my full permission to use the contents hereinabove for pub­ lication in the ohs newsletter as you see fit. with best wishes for a productive summer, *the 20p stamp has been forwarded to ilamo---hwh. on clinical use of color: dan g. hummel, o.d., of north royalton, ohio wrote, 11 leed's letter regarding 'scientific tests of colored glass for optical purposes' brought to mind that in the 1930-1940 period many optometrists were treating ailments with colored glass. i no longer have my list of these. 11 0ne, more scientific, was ryer and hotaling's use of color to reduce cataracts. if you have not read it, you may find it inter­ esting and unusual ... rummaging retrievals: 11 rummaging .. may not be the best choice of words, but according to my webster it has a rather wide variety of meanings, at least one of which must describe the staff activity in the headquarters of the indiana optometric association in indianapolis which disclosed a small stack of old documents of such disheveled, faded, and long unused appearance as to invite any person addicted to orderliness to toss it into a waste basket with the utter confidence that it would never be missed. for­ tunately, a sense of archival responsibility prompted the i.o.a. admin­ istrative director ron wuensch to take steps to insure further preser­ vation of this collection. therefore he carefully packaged the material and forwarded it to me with a memorandum that suggested that it be placed somewhere where its retention will be safeguarded. the collection includes what seems to be a complete set of minutes, some in longhand, some typed, of the indiana optometric association from 1901 to 1936, inclusive. also included are a notebook containing lists of attendants of many early successive conventions, a list of 1903 contributions to a legislative fund, several typewritten history papers of a few pages each reviewing the decade prior to the 1907 enactment of the indiana optometry law, a 6-page typewritten history paper detailing the period from 1907 to world war i, some 1935 correspondence between dr. vanosdol, probably the author of the above papers, and drs. charles w. conner and i.m. rowe, relative to the 1907 enactment, and several odds and ends of programs, notes, and letters. all of this is now permanantly housed in ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. -49the udjat eye: the udjat eye is highlighted twice in the beautifully assembled book by i.e.s. edwards, tutankhamun: his tomb and its treasures, published by metropolitan museum of art and alfred a. knopf, 1977, 250 pp., $35. one; on page 146, is part of bracelet found on the mummy•s right arm. the other, on page 171, is part of a pendant. other engravings of the udjat eye or the eye of ra may be seen on an alabaster chalice, p. 26, on a chariot, p. 46, on a wood chest, p. 65, on an alabaster casket, p. 71, on the coffin, pp. 128-129, and on another pendant, p. 156. additionally, a pair of udjat eyes on a pair of blinkers used on a bridle made of bark and overlaid with gold are shown in a promotional illu­ stration for the book, according to reviewer ann stuart anderson on page 05 of the louisville, kentucky, courier journal and times of july 17, 1977. the word 11 udjat 11 itself is said to mean 11 sound, healthy 11 • additional legendary interpretation is suggested in the text. of eie-bright, fenel seeds, and more: published, or in fact faithfully republished, in 1975 by walter j. johnson, inc. of norwood, new jersey, and theatrum orbis terrarum, ltd., of amsterdam, the netherlands, is a very small, 10 x 15 em, book of less than 70 pages with hard cover and the updated title two treatises concerning eie-sight by walter bailey (joh. fernelius and joh. riolanus). the booklet includes the title page of the original 1616, oxford, edition which reads as follows: 11 two treatises concerning the preservation of eie-sight. the first written by doctor bailey sometimes of oxford: the other collected out of those two famous phisicions fernelius and riolanus. 11 --of the wide variety of medicines, both internal and topical, of great help in the preservation of sight, we are assured, the two especially favored were, first, the herb eie-bright, also spelled eyebright (of the genus euphrasia), and second, fenel (also spelled fennel) seeds. the value of eiebright, mixed with various foods and drinks, including wines and beers, was documented with authoritative testimonial. with proper diet and the inclusion of the recommended herbs a bishop in ireland whose vision started to 11 wax dimme, about his age of fifty yeares ... did live to the age of 80 years, with good integrity of sight 11 • -50correcting the evil eye: the hindi cartoon reproduced here is from the december 1977 issue of optometry today, a quarterly journal published in new delhi, india. the translation made by the editor, dr. narendra kumar, has the lady saying, 11 i want spectacles for him (the child); he is suffering from the evil omen of the woman next door! 11 obviously she has read the sign on the wall which, translated, says, 11 glasses for eyesight available here ... it happens that the hindi word for eyesight, 11 n-a-j.,..a-r 11 , also means evil omen. first decade of o.e.p.: a chronology of events and accomplishments within the optometric extension program from 1929 to 1938 is outlined in the february 1978 issue of optometric extension program news, vol. 50, no. 5, pp. 2-3. the first issue, vol. 1, no. 1 of the printed o.e.p. news appeared in september 1936 with ralph barstow as editor. prior to that time there was a monthly newsletter edited by dr. e.b. alexander. making history now: in the history of the world the current decade will certainly be identified with the changing role of women, exploration of space, and the emerging of israel as a nation of major international significance. embodying all three developments simultaneously is none other than 28 year old judith resnik, daughter of a native israeli optometrist, holder of a degree in engineering and a science doctorate, and one of six women recently chosen by the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa) for training as an astronaut. judith 1s father, marvin resnik, o.d., who practices in akron, ohio, was born in palestine and immigrated to the u.s.a. as a teen-ager. in the caption of the news report sent to us by ohs member jacob staiman, o.d., of baltimore, maryland, judith's father is referred to as a sabra. in my dictionary a sabra is said to be a native-born israeli, apparently an adoption of the hebrew word saber, meaning 11 prickly pear 11 , a plant widespread in the desert regions of southern israel. -51danders, darwin, and bell: according to f.c. danders, sir charles bell (1774-1842) reported in a paper on the nerves of the orbit which he read before the royal society on the 19th of june, 1823, 11 that pressure of the eye-lids protects the eyes against the injurious influence of determination of blood, in violent or continued expiratory action. 11 (examples: coughing and sneezing). danders also quoted the theory at greater length from bell's subsequent publication, 11 the nervous system .. , etc., london, 1830, p. 209. then, in the autumn of 1870, accompanied by his friend william bowman, danders paid a visit to the celebrated charles darwin, at which time darwin asked danders his opinion of bell's statement. darwin attached great importance to the question, as he was then engaged in the subject of physiognomy. danders agreed to undertake an analysis of the plausibility of bell's statement. his extensive reply, which included the above information, appeared in the neder­ landich archief voor genees en natuurkunde of december 5, 1870. the english translation of the same article by william daniel moore, m.d., who had previously translated danders' manuscript for his classic book, was published in beale's archives of medicine, vol. 5, 1870, pp. 20-38. this is a rare volume, perhaps the only copy of which is in the national library of medicine, 8600 rockville pike, bethesda, maryland 20014. danders' analysis, incidentally, is truly thorough and comprehensive. to the best of my knowledge it may well be even now the most up-to-date evaluation of the function of the orbicularis muscle available. it may also be the most unfamiliar of danders' publications! it offers convincing scientific support to bell's theory. sir charles bell expounded on his theory in several articles, one of which is entitled 11 the anatomy and philosophy of expression .. published in london in 1877 by george bell and sons. a previous issue by bell under the same title was published in 1844 in london by j. murray, and his 11 essays on the anatomy of expressions in painting 11 was published in 1806. charles robert darwin's discussions of the role of the lid muscles are included in 11 the expression of the emotions in man and animals .. published in london in 1872 by john murray, and again by philosophical library, new york, in 1955. also darwin's m notebook and n notebook, supplements of darwin on man, by howard e. gruber and paul h. barrett, published in 1974 in new york by e.p. dutton include discussions of the role of the orbicularis muscle on pages 226297 and 329-351. of what historical significance is this? perhaps much more than we think, says richard mcclintock, a doctoral candidate at the university of california, san diego. he has formulated a fascinating hypothesis that the forces of contraction of the orbicularis oculi and other facial muscles which occur as responses to sociological, psychological, and environmental circumstances may cause myopia. it was he who called my attention to the involvement of danders, darwin, and bell in this routinely ignored ocular activity. .,' -52would that we could challenge physicists! o.h.s. president henry knoll submitted a copy of the editorial entitled 11 remembering ourselves .. by spencer weart which appeared in the march 1978 issue of physics today, vol. 31, no. 3, page 120. the following is the opening paragraph: one of the things which makes the physics community unique is our attitude towards our own history. there is no group of scientists, perhaps no profession any­ where, that takes as much interest in its own history as american physicists. imagine a group without history-­ imagine people without a memory. amnesiacs, knowing nothing of their past, also have no identity in the present; and by not understanding how they once succeeded or failed they are helpless before the future. a community bereft of its history will be precisely as aimless and incapacitated as an amnesiac. in modern america a number of groups seem to be near this state, owning either no history at all, or worse, a grab-bag of distorted myths. fortunately the physics community stands a better chance than most of preserving its collective memory. much hi story: to many of us a history of contact lenses might well begin at about 1932 with only a brief paragraph or two to cover the prior develop~nts. not so. a 9,000 word article was published in 1932 in the archiv fur augenheilkunde, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 390-414, as a mere 11 historical introduction 11 to contact lenses: nober haftgl~ser, 1, geschichtliches 11 , by dr. vikto much. the list of cited references alone totaled 159! an original copy of the journal is located in the john crerar library in chicago, illinois. john griffin, o.d., of the southern california college of optometry sent me a copy of the english translation, which i shall place in the indiana university optometry library. dr. much erroneously gave credit to j.f. herschel for the original idea of a small, closely mounted, spherically curved prosthesis of transpar.ent material to serve as an artificial cornea. he was of course unaware of the then undiscovered notations in mirrored writing in the margin of a page in one of leonardo da vinci's notebooks in which the tiny spherical corneal contact lens was explicitly described. another optometrist memorialized: the james cobean memorial award (reference: the ontario association of optometrists, canada). h.w. hofstetter, editor 1978-09-03-001 1978-09-03-002 1978-09-03-003 1978-09-03-004 1978-09-03-005 1978-09-03-006 1978-09-03-007 1978-09-03-008 1978-09-03-009 1978-09-03-010 1978-09-03-011 1978-09-03-012 1978-09-03-013 1978-09-03-014 1978-09-03-015 1978-09-03-016 1978-09-03-017 1978-09-03-018 optometry ubrary newsletter optometric h~~tb~ical societ~ay 3 0 1979 (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, miss1~di~ u.s.a. 63119) volume 9 april 1978 l na university 1978 o.h.s. officers: number 2 immediately following the election of james p. leeds, o.d., 2470 east !16th street, carmel, indiana 46033, u.s.a., as the newest member of the executive board for a five year term, the board balloted among themselves for duties as officers, but a few days too late to be announced in the january issue of this newsletter. elected and serving for the calendar year 1978 are: president: henry a. knoll vice-president: grace weiner secretary-treasurer: maria oablemont directors: james p. leeds john r. levene hometown recogn'iti on: our most recently elected ohs executive board member james leeds was given a three-page celebrity write-up in a very locally published periodical called the hamiltonian, a monthly magazine for and about people of hamilton county, in which dr. leeds' town of carmel, indiana, is located. the article, "in the off hours," by glenn kerfoot in the november 1977 issue, vol. 2, no. 11, pp. 7-9, includes two smiling photographs of jim with a small part of his extensive book collection in the background. virtually all of his more than 2,000 early books are related to the eye, vision, and optics. dr. leeds' oldest book is "an inquiry into the human mind on the principles of common sense" by thomas reed, d.o., printed in edinburgh, scotland, in 1764. it describes all the senses but the emphasis is on sight. this issue of the hamiltonian is being sent to ilamo, the inter­ national library, archives, and museum of optometry. james leeds' qua-rterly ~istle: 11 ready for my quarterly letter on your letter? the thing that intrigued me was about early color glass. e. e. shreiner wrote a book in 1919 titled, 'colored glass' ('scientific tests of colored glass for optical purposes including a short history of glass & glass terms'). it was published by mccoy & stillwell, dispensing opticians, new york. he lists all available tinted lenses of that day, plus a sort of optical dictionary. , :·. ·. ,'\ \',t ; -18'.' 11 i also have a book by pleas~r;toton concerning blue glass. my copy was written in 1877. l\qidn~f·look··through it in the past few days, but i recall reading some place ·elsewhere that a lot of homes in philadelphia (where he lived) had blue window panes to let in the blue light. it was mentioned that _a blue \'iindow pane could still be seen in some old homes. perhaps one of our philadelphia members might recall seeing the blue window pane. incidentally, his book was written on blue paper with black ink, hardly helpful to a presbyope. 11 when the academy met in philadelphia a few years ago, i made my usual bookstore trek. i saw about a half-dozen copies of pleasanton's book. apparently they never got out of philly. that compares to the two or three i have seen or heard of in all my other years of collecting. i have seen a number of references to this book, so it must have had quite an effect in its day. 11 there was also a book on the effects of red light written by dr. pancoast about the same time, but so far it has escaped my clutches. so has the next famous one of that era, 'the principles of light and color' by edwin d. babbitt, new york, 1878. an edition edited and annotated by faber birren, printed by university books, new hyde park, ny, 1967, is in my library, but he omitted some of the 'outdated and unacceptable' chapters . 11 earliest exclusive optometric periodical? in an article entitled, 11 retrospect of 42 years in optics 11 in the april 13, 1922, issue of the optical journal and review, vol. 49, no. 15, pp. 55-57, the author, 11 dr. j. r~ilton johnston, a.m., .. gives an account of ..... the launching of the first exclusively optical journal. .. a similar account appeared in the december 1908 issue of the optical journal, vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 115-117. the author was associated with the johnston optical co., a firm founded by his brother george, which sponsored publication of the journal. the chronological details are not stated perfectly clearly, but it is evident that dr. johnston authored a series of optometric lessons entitled ~studies. this was the caption of a series of articles in a new periodical called the johnston eye-echo. the first issue was the january-february 1886 number.--the paper survived for some years. in 1891 the title was changed to the eye-light. in 1893 johnston published an optical periodical entitled our--­ vision, which perhaps was merely another change of title of the same serial publication. the statement that he ..... started an optical school .. in 1895 suggests that our vision was then discontinued. the eye studies series was revised and published in book form in 1892. dr. johnston was born in 1844. after service in the civtl war he attended adrian college in michigan and later northwestern university in -19illinois. it was after nine years in the methodist ministry that he joined his brother george in the optical business. in 1905 he moved to portage, wisconsin, where he succeeded to the optometric practice of a dr. sandatein. he died in 1930. his obituary and portrait ap­ peared in the march 7, 1930, issue of the optical ~ournal and review, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 45-56. the johnston eye-echo: hardly an hour after my proof-reading of the initial typewritten copy of the immediately preceding paragraphs who should drop in for his approximately once-every-five-years visit but ohs member j. j. abrams, o.d., with an old, substantially beaten-up, embossed, stiff-cover cumulative binder containing 20 very brittle and yellowed issues of the johnston eye-echo. the earliest was the september-october 1887 issue, volume 2, no. 5. then followed the bimonthly 1888 issue numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 of volume 3, all six bimonthly issues of volume 4 for 1889, and all six issues of volume 5 for 1890. three additional unnumbered issues, all different but identically subtitled 11 extra 1, 188811 quite evidentally replaced portions of missing regular issues. they were explained simply as 11 reissues of exhausted numbers. 11 apparently the demand in at least these instances exceeded the supply of originals. these 11 extras 11 were therefore issued to enable subscribers to get complete sets of the serially numbered technical articles entitled 11 eye studies 11 , quite obviously the most popular feature of the johnston eye-echo. the regular issues and these 11 extra 11 issues in this collection together provide nos. i-iv and x-xxviii of the 11 eye studies 11 columns. these articles, incidentally, are well written and contain a great deal of contemporary technical information and terminology related to vision and spectacles. all of these issues should be microfilmed or otherwise reproduced in usable form for scholarly research, as they are too brittle to handle safely in their presently preserved form. each regular issue consists of four pages, approximately 35 x 26 em (14 11 x 10 11 ). the publisher, the johnston optical company, was located in detroit, michigan. the printing style is quite elegant and well edited, and the subscription rates suggest that it was strictly a self-supporting enterprise rather than a complimentary company promotion­ al scheme. dr. 11 jerry11 abrams purchased the collection from a rare book dealer and has donated it to ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., in st. louis, missouri. -20genealogy of the review of optometry: in june 1882, or in january 1886, both of which dates have been asserted in print, a special optical department was established in the jewelers• circu­ lar, apparently the first ophthalmic optical literature to be provided system­ atically in an established periodical in the united states. the department was edited by c.a. bucklin, m.d. at about this time, at the age of 16 or perhaps a bit older, mr. frederick boger (1866-1936) was gaining his first journal experience as an employee of the publisher. on december 31, 1890, mr. boger entered the optician, a monthly, at the new york post office as second-class matter. the issue was number 1 of volume 1 dated january 1891. variously published historical notes in the optical journal and review of optometry (vol. 49, no. 15, april 13, 1922, page 46, and vol. 73, no. 15, august 1, 1936, page 31) show a mere title change of the optician to the optical journal in 1895, but a notation in the catalog file of the interna­ tional library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo), shows the optician suspended at the close of 1894 and resumed again, still as a monthly, in march, 1895, under the title the optical journal, volume 1, number 1. mr. boger continued as editor and proprietor of the newly named periodical. while the optical journal continued, another periodical, the focus, was started early in 1901 by george a. rogers and published by him for several months until he joined the professional staff of the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology. at that time, the focus became the property of drs. j. b. and g. w. mcfatrich. it was specially issued as the daily focus, a daily bulletin, during the 1901 (chicago) convention of the american association of opticians (now the american optometric association). around may, 1902, the mcfatrichs sold the focus to frederick boger, which seems to have terminated its publication-under its own title except that it was again issued as a daily bulletin as the daily focus at the august 1902 convention in boston. ilamo catalog notations indicate volume 5 of the optical journal was not published, presumably just a skip in numbering. actually 11 volume 511 was issued separately during 1899 as the optical journal supplement, a roonthly magazine for students, simultaneously with the last one or two issues of volume 4 and most of the issues of volume 6 of the optical journal. the optical journal became a weekly in march 1904, perhaps temporarily, and in 1906 it, or rather mr. boger, acquired the optical instrument monthly which had started its own volume 1, number 1 in june, 1905, and had continued at least until issue no. 5 in october, 1905. on april 15, 1907, there appeared issue number 1 of volume 1 of another new periodical, the optical review, derived from the above-mentioned 11 0ptical department .. section of the jewelers• circular, later consolidated with the jewelers• weekly and called the jewelers• circular-weekly. the optical review continued publication through may, 1910, volume 4, number 2, and in june, 1910, combined with the optical journal to form the optical journal and -21review of optometry. as of may, 1977 the title was reduced to review of optometry. unfortunately, with the reduced title the current publisher, the chilton company, has indicated its ownership by including with the title the possessive word "chilton's" on the cover. librarians being as meticulous as they must be, this periodical listing also appears now in some serial catalogs as chilton's review of optometry, alphabetically under "c" instead of "r"! well, the above information, generously supplied to me by the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, has many missing details indeed, but it may be the most complete account available anywhere. if you have on your shelves, in your basement, in your attic, or otherwise in cold storage a clipping or an early issue of one or more of the publications mentioned, please send it to us, or at least a xerographic copy of it, so we can enter another detail or two in the pedigree. !l livjng legend for g_half century: "make 'em see" is the title of a tribute to herbert mccracken dixon, o.d., attractively printed in the form of a 19~ x 19~ em booklet of 24 pages by the southern california college of optometry. dr. dixon, born in 1892, completed the optometry course of the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry, now the southern california college of optometry, in 1923, passed the nevada state board examinations the same year, and immediately started practicing optometry in association with ward e. taylor, o.d., in reno. recently retired from practice at age 85, but very much alive, he has established the herbert mccracken dixon and minnie~ dixon family trust, all the residue and remainder of which will be left to his optometric alma mater. the booklet gives a homey account of dr. dixon's life and philosophy derived from an interview with dr. dixon and the recollections of three of his optometric prot~g~s. drs. leonard w. carpi, samuel m. davis, and robert e. robinson. the anecdotes in particular provide much historical background of early optometry in the far west of the u.s.a. very tastefully laid out and superbly illustrated with numerous candid photographs of dr. dixon, the booklet allows only one discon­ certing detail, -the spelling of the root syllables "ophthalm" in ophthalmology, ophthalmoscope, etc., twice correct, but five times incorrect. sterrett s. titus, 0.0., memoirs: dr. titus of leawood, kansas, an ohs member who has contributed much more than his share to his profession, has responded to the suggestion of several of his optometric colleagues that he put into writing some of his early memoirs. here are a few excerpts from his paper entitled two generations in optometry which he dutifully submitted to our ohs secretary with the humble request, "let me know in which basket you throw this." -22once upon a time about 1880 a boy named john titus was taken to an 11 eye-man 11 in cincinnati, ohio, to get some glasses. his eyes were alike and a pair of -1.75 spheres helped him somewhat but did not clear his vision. he struggled along until about 1890 in chicago when a doctor he had become acquainted with called him one day and asked him to come over to his office after work, because he had some new lenses and he thought they were what johnny needed. so for the first time john titus got a pair of -3.50 cyls. x 1800 and could really see. he was so impressed that as soon as possible he enrolled in the international school of optics in london, ontario. in 1894 he came to kansas city, t·1i ssouri, and commenced to practice. at that date he was a refracting optician. the words optometry and optometrist were not in use then. i 1m not sure they had been invented then, but one of my early memories of the optical business was of arguments over using the new-fangled words. i was born in 1896, and i think it was about 1903 that my father moved into a new office and used both on the window (street level store): 11 john titus, optometrist and optician ... you will note that i left out 11 dr. 11 that also came into use later and helped to teach the public that dr. john titus, optometrist, was indeed a member of an honorable profession. even in the 1920s there was still some doubt among the older refracting opticians as to whether they would ever be, or ever wanted to be, professionals. one of the things i remember clearly is the very gradual transition as my father learned to call his customers patients. before his death in 1930 it still called for great care to keep him from occasion­ ally saying 11 customer. 11 along with this there began to be an urge for the professionally minded to move 11 upstairs.·u in this case upstairs didn•t refer so much to the distance above the sidewalk as it did to the elimination of show-windows full of barometers and ther­ mometers with lorgnettes and chains, and show-cases full inside. in other words, the store to office transition was hard. in 1921 hardly anyone had managed to change the emphasis from glasses to services, and i might say that in 1971 there were still men who had not done it, even in an office that looked professional in every respect. i began to practice in 1919 and always had a professional attitude. it was very shortly after that that the struggle began to make a separate charge for examination. at first we tried to charge two dollars and later three and then five. during the late 1920s i experimented with some patients by asking, 11 if you are going to pay thirty dollars for your services and your glasses altogether, waul d you rather pay five dollars for the services and twenty-five for the glasses, or would you rather pay fifteen dollars for the services and fifteen dollars for the glasses? 11 almost without exception the answer was the first way. even when i explained that the glasses would be the same, the answer would be unchanged. -23it was hard to educate the public, but it was harder to educate the optometrist. turning back to 1894, complete equipment in those days was a trial frame, a trial case of lenses, plus and minus spheres, 0.12 to 20.00, plus and minus cylinders, 0.12 to 6.00, some­ times a card board chart that included an astigmatic dial, a ruler, a chair for the patient, and usually a stool for the optician. most were taught to use the fogging technique, which approached an acceptable rx from too much plus or too little minus until maximum clarity was obtained. in those days few men used weak cylinders, and as a youngster i saw one or two trial cases that didn't have any. in examination technique the next forward step came with the retinoscope around the turn of the century. i don't know who the father of the retinoscope was, but in the central part of the united states a man named lagrange was a good teacher. john titus learned from him how to use a concave mirror about two inches in diameter with a small hole in the center mounted on a handle three or four inches long which would reflect the light from a spotlight above the patient's head into the pupil of the patient's eye. there was also one with a plane mirror instead of the -1.00 concave mirror. the only difference was that the reflected light from the patient's pupil moved in the opposite direc­ tion with one from what it did with the other. whether the motion was "with" or "against" it could be neutralized with lenses and the first truly objective test had been born. in a short time all scopes were made with plane mir­ rors so there was no more confusion. the spotlight above the head was a coal oil lamp in some offices, but my first one was an electric light bulb in a housing with an iris diaphragm so that the light could be made brighter or less so for different patients. my trial frame at this time, 1919, was commonly called a wells head. it had three lens cells, a maddox rod, and risley prisms, and was made to hang on a wall bracket which could be swung in front of the face, relieving him of the weight he formerly had to carry on his nose and ears. it was about this time that emphasis was put on a real twenty foot test distance, even in a ten foot room. so we put a reversed chart above the patient's head and had him view it in a mirror ten feet away. even the finest plate glass mirror gave a slightly double edge to lines and letters so we had to have mirrors silvered on the front surface to correct that difficulty. the chart showed only one row of letters at a time and worked on a roller principle controlled by a cord by the patient's chair. -24it was also in 1919 that we got our second objective test, the general optical co. shuron ophthalmometer. my father.had owned another called the chambers-inskeep, or ci, about 1903 but had never been able to get any useful information from it. we began to study the javal rule for interpretation of its findings and it helped greatly by speeding up our scoping and subjective findings. i should say here that i had 11 puttered 11 around with optometry on saturdays and holidays since 1914. i finished my course at needles institute and got my o.d. in 1919. some of what i did in practice in the next year or so i had learned in school and some at 11 my father's knee ... of course, in missouri, anyone could practice until the optometry law was passed in 1921. i might say that john titus was one of the original members of the board of examiners, serving from 1921 to 1926. near the turn of the century a very few men were giving some attention to pairs of eyes that didn't work together. dr. wells was among the early ones and he adopted the principle of the stereoscope, took it off of the table in the front parlor, devised a set of cards with double pictures set at various widths apart which could be viewed in the stereoscope and by that means make the eyes turn in or out somewhat from their natural position in order to see the picture as it really was.· these pictures or charts, as they could be called, involved the three degrees of fusion and could be used to give muscle exercises. he also devised the wells head mentioned previously, put a little bracket on the front of it four inches in front of the eyes, put +10.00 d spheres in the lens cells, and had a stereoscope with risley prisms, and could really make a pair of eyes do tricks. in 1949 the late ralph barstow wrote me and asked me a question to which i replied. . • in 1962 he returned that letter with the following comment: 11 you may look upon your letter of 1949 with amazement, but i wanted you to have it as evidence of how much i've used it. in fact my last year's series for the women's auxiliary was built entirely on it, which shows that you have not lived in vain ... the full report, 13 typewritten pages, including the correspondence be­ tween titus and barstow, are on file in the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. derek .f. davidson writes: we are delighted to include mr. davidson, northall cottage, east chilting­ ton, nr. lewes, e. sussex, england, among our members. he wrote last sep­ tember as follows: -25i have just heard of the "optometric historical society" through the british opticians journal and hasten to apply for membership, having been a collector for some 40 years. there are between 300 and 400 items in my collection from "eyeglasses to spyglasses" from 1700 to 1900 and a similar number of 20th century spectacles, and am at present preparing a book on the subject. the enclosed photocopies of some articles which i have written recently are for your information. the four one-page articles, with illustrations are from the june 10, june 24, july 22, and september 16 issues of the optician, val. 173, nos. 4488 and 4490, and vol. 174, nos. 4494 and 4502, on pages 22, 16, 25, and 27, respectively. the respective titles are "the long-handled lorgnette,., "early optician's cards," "protective eyewear," and "the silvered brass spectacle." mr. davidson writes in an easy but authentic style. how helmholtz invented the ophthalmoscope: on october 3, 1893, the year before his death, professor hermann v. helmholtz delivered the opening lecture of professor h. knapp's ophthalmic clinic at the college of physicians and surgeons, in new york. the title of his lecture was "the history of the discovery of the ophthalmoscope," and it was reported under the same title in the decem­ ber 16, 1893, issue of medical record, new york, vol. 44, no. 25, whole no. 1206, pages 769-772. present on the occasion were mr. alexander graham bell, president seth low, and professor knapp, who introduced helmholtz with some historical remarks on the development of ophthal­ mology with special reference to the contributions of helmholtz. the introduction was considerably longer than helmholtz's talk. following are a few especially interesting excerpts from helmholtz's talk: gentlemen, professor knapp asked me to tell you the story of the invention of the ophthalmoscope. in complying with his request i must beg your pardon, first, for being obliged to speak of myself; secondly, for my insufficient command of the english language. at the time when i devised the ophthalmoscope i was profes­ sor of physiology and general pathology in the university of koenigsberg. my career before had been somewhat erratic. when at school my ardent desire had been to study physics, but physics at that time was a branch of science that did not promise its followers a good livelihood. it is different nowadays. my father told me that he did not see how it was possible -26to maintain me in the study of physics or inorganic natural science alone, but if i would also take up the biological department, or practical medicine, he could help me, so i went to become a medical man. i think that no physiologist doubted, until the end of the last century, that the eyes of cats, dogs, oxen, and other mammals, and of birds, developed light of their own which shone forth at night. it seemed to them to be the same process as was observed in the luminosity of insects in the water, etc. about 1846 the english oculist, dr. william cumming, discovered that the experiment which had succeeded on the luminous eyes of mammalia could also be performed on the living human eye, and everybody•s eyes could be made luminous. it is an entertaining experiment in a social gathering, and students have applied it to frighten young ladies. in my lectures i had to give an account of these experiments, and to try to give an explanation of the phenomena. i was obliged, therefore, to seek for an explanation myself, and i may say that it was not difficult to find at least for a man who had occupied his time with reading physics and chemistry, and in making experi­ ments, as far as his scanty means would allow. being acquainted with the principles of optics as far as they were then known, i proceeded to analyze the course of the rays of light in the exper­ iment just alluded to, and thus reached an explanation of the phenomena, the correctness of which was afterward confirmed by the aphtha 1 mometer. we have seen how it is possible to illuminate the eye by a light which is outside of the eye. the eye to be observed having been rendered luminous, there is only a second condition to be fulfilled, namely, to make it possible for the eye of the observer to accommodate itself to the focal distance of the one to be observed. that was easily done~ it being only necessary to choose a lens of the proper focal distance. by placing it behind the glass­ plate, the observer no longer sees a diffuse illumination of the pupil of the other person, but a picture of his retina in all its anatomical details. all that was original with me in the mat:ter was that i went to ask how the optic images could be produced by the light coming back from the illuminated eye. all my predecessors had failed to put this question to themselves. they had stopped in the middle of their way instead of going on to the end. as soon as i had answered that question i saw also how an ophthalmoscope could be constructed, and it took me only two days to do it and successfully to experiment with the new instrument. having followed the chain up, link by link, to its end; having traced the rays of light on their course from the flame into the eye of the observed, and shown what becomes of them -27when reflected, and how they can, by the interposition of proper lenses, be united on the retina of the observer and thus give him a distinct view of the background of the eye observed; that was the solution of the problem; and with that, gentlemen, my story is told. concerning w. ~· needles: a folded, printed, and somewhat yellowed announcement, 22 x 28 em, found by professor charles l. haine, o.d., in a 1908 book, is entitled 11 0utline stud.v of fogging system .. by w. b. needles. n.d., identified as president of the needles institute of optometry, kansas city, missouri. under the heading 11 accomodation 11 (sic!) are listed 10 sub­ topics or brief assertions. under a second caption, 11 the fogging principle .. , are listed 20 more subtopics or phrases. finally is shown a 11 quiz 11 consisting of 12 questions ranging from 11 give one reason why we do not believe nature intended the hyperopic eye to correct its own error ... to 11 what kind of vision would you expect to find where the prescription calls for minus .25s, minus .25 cyl axis 180?11 there are sti 11 many of us who remember 11 bi 11 11 needles, or at 1 east met him. a number of his little books and teaching manuals may be found in optometry libraries. his operational influence on optometric educa­ tion may well be argued to have been the most persistently dominating in the first half of this century. quite certainly for almost 40 years he personally made the decisions as to what subjects the largest plurality of students in the united states were taught. who was he? the 1912 blue book of optometrists and opticians listed dr. needles as having done postgraduate work at the mccormick medical college in 1905, and that he was president of the kansas city optometric society and a member of the missouri optometric society and of the american optometric association. the statement concerning the needles institute of optometry in the same volume indicates that needles began his career as a tutor in optometry in 1906 when he received occasional students for instruction in his private office. in the spring of 1907, the account goes on, he was engaged as principal of the kansas city school of optometry and continued in this capacity until july, 1909, when he organized and char­ tered the institute. shortly thereafter the needles institute purchased the kansas city school of optometry outright. all of this, probably written by needles himself, was just the beginning of a long and flam­ boyant institutional career. what were his true attributes and fundamental nature of his character? was he an enigma, and if so, must he remain so? where is his biography, or his biographer? what was his 11 n.d. 11 degree? doctor of naturopathy perhaps? he seems rarely to be mentioned in the annals of optometric history, yet his almost ubiquitous presence was surely a force, however inscrutable. -28more about ellis island: following up the "island of tears" comments in the october issue (page 68) and the response from professor ress in the january issue (page 2), ohs member l. a. ress has written us further to tell us what he has learned, as follows: just as i was about to give up hope of ever receiving a reply from the ellis island facility, it came in the mail. according to section 234 of the immigration and nationality act, the medical officers of the united states public health service conduct all medical examinations. in the event of their unavailability, "civil surgeons of not less than four years• pro­ fession a 1 experience may be emp 1 oyed . . . " so much for the dream that an optometrist was present. as for the visual acuity testing that was done, eye charts were available in the roman alphabet as well as others, such as hebrew. the purpose of the specific examination depicted and referred to in bond (submitted to you by william h. gentz) was to examine the conjunctiva for the presence of such ••eye trouble" as trachoma which was responsible for more than half of the medical detentions. (when i first read the previous ohs newsletter, my immediate guess was trachoma, but i didn't want to commit myself until i had firm evidence.) incidentally, a japanese immigrant by the name of hideyo noguchi (1876-1928) in 1927 discovered the cure for trachoma. he cultivated the bacterium granulosis from trachoma. as far as the examination for pathology, hygienic provisions, and apparatus used the upper eyelid was "swiftly snapped back ... over a small instrument (actually a hook for buttoning old fashioned gloves)." those who didn't pass had an "e" for eyes chalked on their coat fronts. the hygienic provisions consisted of a bowl of disinfectant into which the hook was dipped between inspections and a towel. one final item, .which should be of current practical interest to ohs newsletter readers is that according to the immigration and naturalization service 1969 annual report, since 1951 only five individuals over the age of 16 years have been found unable to read and therefore barred from entry to the united states. specifically 2 in 1954, and one each year in the years 1955, 1956, and 1958. · of course, from 1908 (the first year for which figures are available) to 1950 is another story entirely with a total of 16,756 adult illiterates barred. one reason for the large difference -29in figures is that after 1950 most alien exam1n1ng was done in their native country. these figures represent actual deportations. the largest group of illiterates (8,329) were deported between 1931 and 1940. i wonder whether this was a case of the wrong eye chart being used or the actual presence of patho 1 ogy? with best wishes for a successful 1978. sheard on dezeng and sonter: a january 3 communication from professor e. j. fisher of the school of optometry at the university of waterloo, canada, mentions what may be a unique find, another booklet by charles sheard. the letter reads as fo 11 ows : since you are the ''co-ordinator" for items of historical interest, i would mention that i have recently come across a booklet by charles sheard entitled, "a third of a century of de zeng instrumentation," 1923, published by the dezeng standard company of camden, n.j. perhaps it is old stuff to many of the members of o.h.s. but it is interesting in its account of dezeng's contribution to instrumentation. it is a 47 page booklet giving some details of dezeng's many contri­ butions to the field of optometry. while it has an obvious bias towards the contributions of henry l. dezeng, it does provide an useful history of his work on ophthalmoscopes, retinoscopes, photometers, corneal micro­ scopes, transilluminators, perimeters, otoscopes and contri­ butions to the literature. it includes a reference to senter's tonometer which was new to me. the pictures were useful in dating some of the material in our museum. earlier fundus photography: ohs member charles l. haine, 0.0., whose office is just a short dis­ tance down the hall from mine, tells me that his reference list includes a report of fundus photography almost 20 years earlier than the one i suggested as the first on page 15 of the january issue of the newsletter. he cites jackman, w. t., and j.d. webster, "on photographing the retina of the living human eye" in the june 5, 1886, issue of the philadelphia photographer, vol. 23, page 275. he says that the illustrated photograph shows only very gross detail, that it is difficult to ascertain that it is actually the ocular fundus. the reflex of the light obscures most of the photograph. the major vessels are visible but hazy. -30[3], (vi), [4], 280; [1], 281-455, blank, 171, (xiii) pp: if this is gobbledygook to you, as it was, and still is, to me, then you, and i, are not sop his ti cated in the code of bibliographic description. these numbers, letters, brackets, and parentheses tell the well prepared librarian, buyer, or seller of rare books a lot about the paging of a set of books entitled 11 a compleat system of opticks in four books, viz. a popular, a mathematical, a mechanical, and a phi 1 osophi cal treatise .. by robert smith, printed for the author in 1738. the set, in two volumes, with 83 engraved folding plates, is listed for sale by bennett and marshall, booksellers, 8214 melrose avenue, los angeles, california 90046, at $635.00. the listing includes further interesting description derived largely from the dictionary of national biography, as follows: first edition. robert smith (1689-1768}, mathematician and founder of smith•s prizes at cambridge, was the cousin and liter­ ary executor of roger cotes. on his cousin•s death he was elected to fill his post as plumian professor of astronomy; and after the death of richard bentley, he was appointed headmaster of trinity college. in the present work, thte first of his two published original works, smith produced the first general exposition of optics from the newtonian point of view, treating the properties of light, the eye, reflection and refraction, and methods of grinding and polishing lenses. this became the standard work of its time on optics, (gaining the author the nickname of •old focus•), and the information provided in the work allowed sir william herschel to construct his great telescope. a very scarce work. a most useful contribution: due to problems of space th:e research center library of the american optical corporation southbridge, massachusetts, has had to consider the placement of parts of its ever-growing collection elsewhere. with foresight and appreciation of national archival needs, the librarian, mrs. aileen a. carlson, after consultation with key research center personnel, selected ilamo, the international library. archives, and museum of optometry, as the most appropriate and conveniently located recipient institution for their bound collection of the optical journal, the early predecessor of the current review of optometry. prentice•s watch and ring recovered: in 1970 the american optometric association library, now incorporated into ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, received a donation of charles f. prentice memorabilia which included a watch and a ring from his granddaughter, mrs. geraldine prentice craven of rye, new -31york. geraldine•s father, the son of charles f. prentice, died in 1968. the ilamo staff has maintained occasional contact with mrs. craven, now widowed, and in recent telephone conversation, has learned that she will donate another personally owned item or two left to the family by her grandfather prentice. molyneux•s problem of 1690: in 1690 the famous irish philosopher and mathematician molyneux wrote to the comparably famous philosopher john locke, 11 suppose a man ·born blind and now-adult, and taught by his touch to distinguish between a cube and a sphere, so as to tell when he felt one and the other, which is the cube and which is the sphere. suppose then the cube and the sphere be placed on a table and the blind man made to see, will he be able to tell by sight which is the globe and which is the cube? 11 molyneux and locke were both of the opinion that the answer was no. in the october 15, 1977, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 17, no. 20, pp. 754 & 758, mr. e. lienberger, a prominant swiss ophthalmic optician, gives clinical confirmation to molyneux•s conclusion from interviews with four blind patients who had been operated on with good results by professor strampelli of rome. a bit of german latin: 11 the term •dyslexia,• was introduced in 1877 by a stuttgart ophthal­ mologist, randolph berlin, .. reports yvonne eaton, a staff writer, in the sunday, january 29, 1978 issue of the courier-journal (louisville, kentucky), vol. 246, no. 29, page g1, in an article headlined .. interest wanes, but dyslexia still persists ... one might wonder what the romans called it! prevention from blindness commemorative stamps: ohs member alan york, 0.0., sent us a newspaper clipping calling attention to a series of four postage stamps released on june 15 by swaziland in support of the prevention of blindness campaign. a 5-cent stamp shows a victim of blindness from malnutrition. a 10¢ stamp shows an inverted ocular fundus interior with a silhouetted image of a child and the supplementary legend, 11 0peration prevents blindness ... the 20¢ stamp provides a symbolic portrayal of an eye blinded by trachoma. the 25¢ stamp illustrates a syringe, a medicine dropper bottle, a tube of eye ointment, and the words 11 medicine and rehabilitation ... -32early philippine optometry: seymour kuntz, 0.0. of san diego, california, was written up in the april 1977 issue of the oap newsletter, monthly publication of the optome­ tric association of the phillipines, no. 107, 3-5, for his contributions to the development of optometry in the philippines, especially during the 11 mopping up 11 phases of world war ii. one of his contributions was the preparation of a 31 category test which could be employed by the philippine army to determine qualifications of enlisted medical personnel as optometrists. the test is included in the article. sign of the time: a news item in the may 25, 1922 issue of the optical journal .and review of optometry, vol. 49, no. 21, p. 41, states that 11 ethelred curtis, the well-known optometrist, of laporte, indiana, combines chiropractic treat­ ment with his optometric services. 11 included is a comment on a picture of his building into which he announced removal of his dual practice, 11 0n a street post, in front, are two arms, from one of which suspends a sign, optometrist, and a pair of eyeglasses, while from the other is a chiro­ practic sign and a representation of a spine. 11 newton and gauss commemorated~ east germans: on april 4 the research center of the jena optical works, the chamber of technology, and the optics trade association of the east german physical society jointly sponsored an optics colloquium in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the death of isaac newton and the 200th anniversary of c. f. gauss. this was reported in the june 1977 issue of jena review, vol. 22, page 263. history of maryland optometry: maryland was the 32nd state to enact a registration law for optometrists, but not without considerable frustration and compromise. israel dvorine, 0.0., describes some of the details in 11 the early history of optometry in maryl and 11 in the december 1976 issue of the journal of the american optome­ tric association, vol. 47, no. 12, pp. 1558-1567. he derived some of his information from the 1904 and subsequent baltimore telephone directories, certainly a candid technique for ascertaining the profession's image of itse 1 f even today. he briefly recounts organizational activities, legislative efforts, characteristics of early practices, and bootstrap educational efforts. -33first american ophthalmology textbook: fascinating reading is a 1977 reprint of the 1823 edition of "a treatise on the diseases of the eye" by george frick, m.d., originally published by fielding lucas, baltimore. the present printing is distributed by dabor science publications, oceanside, new york 11572, with an introduction by lawrence a. may, m.d. "george frick, author of the first american textbook on ophthal­ mology, has gained recognition as the father of american ophthalmology,.~ says dr. may. he "earned his place in medical history as surgeon, teacher and writer." any notion that there might have been some "good ole 1 days" in the treatment of ocular conditions a century and a half ago is quickly dis­ pelled by a reading of a few pages of this volume. inversely, the spelling in the 318 pages of the frick text seems completely free of error while the root syllable "ophthalm" is misspelled eleven times in less than five pages of the introduction by dr. may. contact lens history: in an article captioned "memoire laureats du travail de belgique 1977: section optique contactologie" mr. 0. a. kever gives a chronology of developments in contact lenses. it appears on pages 145-148 of the november 1977 issue of l1 0ptician belge/de belgische optician, no. 243, in french. president jackson 1 s spectacles: the spectacles of andrew jackson (1767-1845}, seventh president of the united states, are on display at his home, the heritage, now a national shrine a few miles outside of nashville, tennessee. also on display are those of his wife rachel, who died shortly after he was elected, but before he moved into the white house. winfield~brown, o.d., 1888-1976: born may 12, 1888, dr. brown as recently as june 1969 expected "to live to at least 110" with "my exercise bike continuing to keep me in trim." at that time he was working feverishly to gather and record the "his tory of optometry in new hampshire" and met with severa 1 of us that year at the aoa congress in philadelphia to help him pursue his objective. at that time he was retired from practice and lived in the masonic home in manchester, new hampshire, where he was very active in the home activities and ran the home 1 s canteen until his death on august 21, 1976, at the age of 88 years. -34huygens birthday, april li= christiaan huygens was born on april 14, 1629. several activities to celebrate the 350th anniversary of his birth are being planned by a specially formed committee huygens 1629-1979, c/o dr. h. j. m. bos, mathematical insti­ tute, budapestlaan 6, utrecht, the netherlands. science history departments of dutch universities, the boerhaave museum, and several scientific societies will cooperate. plans include an exhibition, an international conference, and a publication. this bit of information was obtained from a page of the history of science society newsletter, vol. vi, no. 4, october 1977, edited by professor r. h. stuewer at the university of minnesota. the clipping was sent to me by professor l. a. ress of bronx, new york. evo 1 uti onary his tory of the ~: francois jacob is a professor of cellular genetics at the college de france in paris. he shared the nobel prize in physiology and medicine in 1965. the following two paragraphs are excerpted from an article entitled 11 darwinism reconsidered 11 which appeared in the january 1978 issue of atlas world press review, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 20-22, based in turn on translations of lectures by professor jacob which appeared in the paris daily le monde. unlike an engineer, a tinker attacking a problem has an excel­ lent chance of arriving at a variety of solutions. the same is true of evolution, as evidenced by the diversity of eyes in the living world. given their importance, the variety of photoreceptors in the living world is amazing. the most sophisticated of them sup­ ply information bearing not only on the intensity of light but also on the shape, color, position, motion, velocity, and distance of the objects generating light. structures such as eyes are necessarily complex and can develop only in organisms which already are complex. one would think there would be only one way of producing such a structure. but no. through evolution the eye has made its appear­ ance a great number of times, exploiting three different physical principles: the pinhole, the lens, and multiple pipes. the lens eye (e.g., the human eye) was created at least twice in evolution; it exists in certain mollusca as well as in the vertebrates. nothing resembles our eye as much as that of the octopus. they function in almost exactly the same manner. yet they did not evolve the same way. in the mollusca the photorecptor cells follow the direction of the light; in the vertebrates they point in the opposite direction. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1978-09-02-001 1978-09-02-002 1978-09-02-003 1978-09-02-004 1978-09-02-005 1978-09-02-006 1978-09-02-007 1978-09-02-008 1978-09-02-009 1978-09-02-010 1978-09-02-011 1978-09-02-012 1978-09-02-013 1978-09-02-014 1978-09-02-015 1978-09-02-016 1978-09-02-017 1978-09-02-018 volume31 indian;\ un:vers!ty may 1 9 2000 ?l -'-n optofvihry library ~ ,, h)ndsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa april2000 number2 1999 ohs meeting and presentation by jay enoch: ohs president walter chase reported the following about the annual ohs meeting held in seattle on friday, december 10, 1999, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry: the meeting was in the cedar room of the sheraton seattle hotel and towers. light refreshments were served, and the attendees were treated to an excellent two-projector presentation by dr. jay enoch, ph.d., d. sc., professor of the graduate school and dean emeritus at the school of optometry, university of california at berkeley. the title of his presentation was: "new finding on ancient egyptian lenses dating from 4600 years ago, including a demonstration of the 'eye following illusion' model." enoch's paper was published in cogan ophthalmic history society, volume 1, june 18-20, 1999 under the title "first known lenses originating in egypt about 4600 years ago!" with the subtitle "incredible/unique optical properties of these lenses and time line" (pages 57-71). the text of the article is reprinted here with permission: abstract the first known lenses (ca. vth dynasties of the old kingdom of egypt. these lenses are found in the louvre museum in paris and the egyptian museum in cairo. they were components of extraordinary eye constructs in statues which had unique qualities. namely, the "eyes" appear to follow the viewer as he/she rotates about these statues in any direction. this effect can be photographed and reproduced 2620-2400 b.c., 4620-4400 before present=b.p.) appeared mainly during the ivth and optically. this effect has been modeled here. the lenses were ground from high quality (!) rock crystal (a form of quartz, n 1.46). each had a convex and highly polished front "corneal" surface. thus, in a sense, these were multifocal lenses. the iris aperture may or may not have been open to a substantial posterior "vitreous" cavity formed largely by curved copper plates which extended forward to create the lid structures of these eyes. were these a form of schematic eyes? could such fine quality and complex (sophisticated) lenses be the first lenses? clearly, the observer was intended to look at these eyes and follow their apparent movements. the total structure of these eyes indicated an advanced understanding of ocular anatomy and a surprising knowledge of optics. there are many questions. 31/9 introduction the first known lenses, which were fabricated primarily between ca. 2620-2400 b.c., first appeared at the very end of the egyptian early kingdom period (dynasty ill) and mainly during the beginning of the old kingdom period (during dynasties wand v).1-7 add 2000 years to 2600 b.c. and this is 4600 years ago or b.p. (before the present time). all existing examples of these lenses are found in the louvre museum in paris and the egyptian museum in cairo.1•2·4-7 these lenses were components of eye constructs in elegant statues and had unique qualities. in particular, the "eyes" appear to follow the viewer as he/she rotates about the statues in any direction. clearly, this was an intended perceptual effect which can be readily photographed (and duplicated and understood optically). the early lenses considered here were ground from very high quality (!) rock crystal (a form of quartz). these lenses had a convex and highly polished front surface. on the approximately flat or "plano" rear lens surface an "iris" was painted. centered in the dark-appearing pupil zone was a small approximately hemispheric negative ground, high power, concave lens surface. thus, these earliest known lenses were multifocals with two different optical areas (iris area and pupil area) and, in part, dual optical surfaces in the pupillary zone! it is this dual optical zone which results in the apparent observer following action by the eyes of these statues. for added detailed information about these statues, please consult references 1 ,2,4; see also references 5-7. the pupil aperture may or may not have been open to a sizable posterior cavity in these "eyes" created largely by curved copper plates.1-7 these plates extended forward from the rear of the eye to form the lid structures of these eye structures. figure b is modified from a small drawing which appeared in bouquillon and quere.5 while fig. b may not be quite correct, an attempt has been made to correct some observed apparent errors in the referenced published drawing. 5 that is, the location of the sclera-equivalent component relative to the lens, the aperture treatment, the attachment of the lens unit to a substrate are not correct as shown in their diagram. the sclera is visible on both top and bottom of the lens unit on these statues, the edge of the lens is readily seen, some of the apertures are open or partially so,1•4 and the lens is supported structurally. the optical unit was apparently attached to the "sclera-equivalent" by a resinous substance. the pupillary aperture was open in some eyes, partly occluded by resin in others, and occluded by resin in some but the hollow of the concave lens element on the rear of the lens elements had to be open in order to achieve the optical apparent movement of effects associated with these statues. in some statues, the scleral portions were made of white marble which had fine red-veined impurities which simulated conjunctival capillaries, and were over­ painted with added delicate vessels. 5 were these entire units designed as schematic 31/10 eyes?s-7 the total structure of these "eyes" indicates at a minimum (for that time) a very advanced understanding of ocular anatomy.6•7 how and from whence did the necessary technologies emerge? could such fine and complex optical elements be the first lenses? how did it happen that they disappeared in the vlth egyptian dynasty, then re-appear briefly in the xlllth dynasty (ca. 1700 b.c. or 3700 b.p.), then disappeared again permanently?2•7 a fine lens then appeared at the little palace of knossos in crete during the minoan period, but the design was different (ca. 1550-1500 b.c. or 3550~3500 b.p.), and this lens and its si~nificance are also of special interest (for shape of the minoan lens, see fig. a). -14 egypt: a brief pertinent time line to better understand the sequence of events, it is necessary to place key aspects of these arguments in time-line sequence. 3 there are several books addressing time-line comparisons and these need to be cross-referenced. pre-dynastic egypt: intermittent trade was established between egypt and mesopotamia, turkey, syria and the levant, palestine, lebanon, and possibly other locations. this trade originated prior to recorded history. for example, hard stones (obsidian and flint for weapons and scrapers), jewelry, etc., were traded. writing and cylinder seals came into use in sumer (ca. 3500-3000 b.c., or 5500-5000 b.p.) which is located in modern lraq.3•15·16 na'armer united upper and lower (nile delta area) egypt. mining of hard stones was begun in the desert of eastern egypt. working of hard stones is significant, because development of lenses, which occurred at a later time, depended upon utilization of related technologies. trade and wars enhanced technological interactions between populations. question: did later lens developments have origin in egypt, per se, or was this an important art/science which built upon local skills learned in fabrication of hard stone materials?17 early dynastic period: dynasties 1-111 (ca. 2920-2575 b.c.): technologies for mining, grinding, and fabricating hard stone objects (not statues) were developed to an advanced state during dynasties i and ii. however, work with rock crystal (a form of quartz later used for lenses, #7 on the mohs hardness scale) was limited (e.g., see reference 18; for mid-eastern locations other than egypt, see collon 15). 31111 a. comparing egyptian and minoan lens styles figure a. here are compared the designs of lenses found in egypt (and associated with the unique statues and eye structures described) and those found in crete (minoan civilization). the minoan design (convex-plano) was used over long time periods in greece and later in many roman and other lenses. "ka" statues were developed as funerary substitutes for the deceased (dynasty ill onward). they served rather like representations of the individual's soul or "essence." they were intended to be long-lasting, and some technology associated with working hard stone materials was associated with ka statue development.19 king djoser (dynasty ill) built the distinctive step-pyramid at saqqara or sakkara. a number of statues containing the special lens/eye constructs (fig. b) were located in mastaba burial chambers at saqqara (these were constructed later), and some of the lens/eye constructs were ka statues.19•20 b. schematic: egyptian lens/eye structure .. figure b. this is an assumed schematic cut through the lens/eye structures found in the egyptian statues. these eye structures were manufactured by teams of artisans and were inserted en bloc in the statues, many of which were approximately the same size. the author has no information about the extent of the copper plates at the rear of the eye structures, nor the details of the "scleral" support structure for the lens, i.e., one only sees the exposed scleral surface. the resin ''tag" in the pupillary aperture is symbolic of the material seen in some statues. the author assumes that the volume posterior to the pupillary aperture simulates the vitreous and retina of the eye. eye physicians were then already using couching techniques for cataract displacement.27 31/12 the king djoser statue, now at the egyptian museum (a copy is at saqqara), has peg holes for eye inserts,20 and evidence of copper rimming of the lids. however, the eye sockets were too small for the later elegant lens/eye units. there is another lllrd dynasty statue (one of three women in a group) at the egyptian museum with copper eye rims. 21 old kingdom, dynasties iv-viii (2575-2134 b.c.): between roughly 2620-2400 b.c., the lens/eye constructs now displayed at the egyptian museum and the louvre were created. statues of ra.hotep and nofert are dated ca. 2620 b.c.2 were these the first statues containing the unique eye and lens structures? apparently peak production of lens/eye units occurred ca. 2475 b.c. (deduced from dates listed with each statue at the two museums). during dynasty v (ca. 2453-2325 b.c.), the statue of the funerary priest kaemked was created (ca. 2400 b.c.?). this statue had the eye structures, but not the rock crystal lenses. obsidian, a black and opaque volcanic glass, had been substituted.2 thus, the first period of lens use in the egyptian special eye structures was in decline. by the time of the reign of king pepi i (ca. 2281-2241 b.c.) during dynasty vi, a different eye structure was being employed in statues. limestone and obsidian were used.2 middle kingdom: dynasties xi-xiii (ca. 2040-1640 b.c.): this time-line is resumed during dynasty xii (ca. 1991-1783 b.c.). then, an odd set of occurrences were recorded. the lady khnumet was buried in ca. 1895 b.c. at dahshur in the nile delta; she was called "the lady from crete".17'18 on a pendant of one of her necklaces a figure of a bull is found (this item was not on display in the jewelry room at the egyptian museum during enoch's visit, 1998). the design of this piece of jewelry was covered with rock crystal. 18 was this rock crystal component a convex-plano lens? such lens formats were found later in crete and greece (fig. a).9-12•22 included in this jewelry were fine gold granulations which had already been in use in mesopotamia for ca. 500 years.18 khnumet may not have been from crete; the appellation, lady from crete, was given to her, because the bull pattern was religious symbol in the minoan civilization in crete.17'21 however, khnumet did come from the greek islands. is it possible that lenses were reintroduced into egypt through items brought there by her or others? during dynaszy xiii one encounters the remarkable ka-statue of king auib-re hor (ca. 1700 b.c.).2 in this ka figure, there was reappearance of lens/eye structures seen in the ivnth egyptian dynasties. how did the reappearance of the earlier egyptian design lens/eye construct occur after more than a half-millennium of apparent non-use (i.e., from ca. 2400-1700 b.c.)? in king hor's ka figure, the eye was rimmed with bronze (not copper), the lenses were of rock crystal and the sclera-equivalent utilized white quartz.1 the eye following effect was readily observed in this statue by one correspondent19 and by direct observation by enoch, 1998. 31/13 in the collections at the louvre in paris and the egyptian museum in cairo, there are located a separate complete or near-complete lens/eye unit construct (not part of a statue).1 thus, a model for the eyes may have been present in the artisans' work areas. again the egyptian lens design was different in design from the minoan lens (fig. a). after the appearance of the king hor statue, there is no evidence of comparable lens/eye structures in egypt, nor, to the author's knowledge, other lenses prior to a discovery made at tanis in the nile delta by the distinguished british archeologist flinders petrie23 of two large convex-plano minoan or greek style lenses (fig. a). these probable magnifying lenses (greenish rock crystal, imperfect) were found in the home of an artist. these magnifiers had origin in about 50 a.d., and are now located in the british museum. 24 separately, an elegant hellenistic/roman-style bronze of a head (ca. 27 b.c.14 a.d.), fabricated in alexandria, egypt, was found in meroe, the sudan. the eyes in this bronze head incorporate greek-style lenses (fig. a) covering a brightly painted iris and dark pupil;25 this item is located at the british museum. the minoan civilization in crete: a brief time line pre-palace period (2600-2000 b.c.): bronze-working, art objects, pottery, stone carving, other metalwork, gold-work, and fine seal engraving were developed. fine work with rock crystal was found in jewelry. there was an enhancement of society and culture in general.12 old palace period (2000-1700 b.c.): the earliest minoan palace was built at knossos, crete, possibly by king minos. extensive trade was developed with egypt, the levant, lebanon, the cyclades, and israel/palestine. the golden age of crete. the new palace period (1700-1450 b.c.): the bull's head rhyton was created between 1550-1500 b.c., or ca. 3550-3500 b.p. it was found at the little palace of knossos by arthur evans. this libation vessel had a right eye with a rock crystal lens. it was convex-plano and was painted with a (white or cream color) human face in silhouette on the plano side. this was backed with a blood red "pupil" surrounded by a black "iris". the left eye is a replica. minoan palaces were destroyed by the eruption of the volcano at thera (santorini), ca. 1450 b.c. about 400 b.c: magnifying lenses appeared in greece, later rome. they were used in jewelry and in decorative settings. also, lenses were placed in a number of eyes of statues (from 400 b.c. onward). these lenses had convex-plano design (fig. a)22 (also see statues in the archaeological museum in athens, delos, etc.). 31/14 the author has discussed the minoan lens in the bull's head rhyton and its unique r.roperties in detail elsewhere, and refers the interested reader to those sources "14 and to an additional paper by enoch in press. this is an equally fascinating matter. the egyptian lenses the main optical features of the egyptian lenses and the "eye following action" of these lenses have been modeled by the author. to achieve this, a metal washer was placed on a sheet of white paper to simulate the iris/pupil plane. note: in the model, no distinction was made between the iris and pupillary zones of the construct. a strong negative or concave lens (a -20 diopter spherical trial case lens) was used as the rear lens element, and a moderate plus or convex lens was used for the front lens element (simulating the corneal front surface of the egyptian lens). as in the statues, the plus lens had a less positive power than the negative lens had minus power. about a +8 diopter spherical lens was used. the higher power minus lens was separated from the washer by a hollow plastic tube, and the positive lens was further separated from the washer and the negative lens. essentially the two lenses · and washer, separated, were formed into a concentric stack. the primary focal plane of the negative lens lay behind the washer plane, and the secondary focal point of the plus was also located behind the plane of the washer. the image of the washer was seen as magnified through the whole construct. as one rotated about the construct in any direction, the image of the washer clearly followed (moved with) the observer. adjusting the height of the plus or minus lenses a bit (or their curvatures or powers), varies the speed of the apparent rate of movement of the "pupil" with observer rotation in the model. the author has observed in the magnificent egyptian statue "le scribe accroupi" (the seated scribe), found at saqqara (near memphis) and now at the louvre in paris) that the pupil translations are not quite equal as one rotates in front of the statue. this is probably due to modest differences in the powers of the lens elements. in the egyptian originals, differences are probably greatest in depth of grind and curvature of the rear or negative power lens elements, because they are the more optically powerful of the two lens surfaces. if this argument is true, one surmises this lens surface would be the one most difficult to control during fabrication. also, in order to optimize this combined lens structure, one assumes that more than one model had to be fabricated (at least initially). this argument suggests that the lenses used in the eye constructs in these statues were not the first/initial lenses constructed. this is a complex multiple lens structure with truly unique optical properties! even the quality of the rock crystal chosen for the lenses, and fine polish of the product speak against these being first lens constructs. and the apparent perceived movement of the pupillary aperture was a desired or intended effect created by the artisans fabricating the lenses. the artisan designer or designers were certainly brilliant individuals! 31/15 one can only infer the significance of the design of the lens and eye structures. these constructs were incredibly advanced for their time. these are remarkable achievements taken individually or as a group. as asked above, did the egyptian lenses build upon the hard rock technology of the early kingdom, or was the design and technology imported from abroad through trade or war or was there a bit of both? what was used to grind and polish the lenses? p. hunt at stanford26 describes early carborundum mines in naxos in the greek cyclades. was this connection made? clearly, there are many unanswered questions. one can only express awe at this level of sophistication 4600 years ago! the writer knows of no modern lens design which utilizes this unique and ancient apparent following movement feature. acknowledgments this paper was written in cooperation with very able ophthalmological historians in france [robert heitz, jean royer], a number of distinguished archaeologists and egyptologists in egypt and the united states [patrick hunt (stanford u.), carol redmount (u.c. berkeley), kathleen keller (u.c. berkeley), mohammed saleh (egyptian museum), my trad and her associate hanna (egyptian museum), r. parkinson (british museum)], and individuals associated with either enoch's lab [eiisabetta strada (u. bologna), stacey choi (u. auckland), vasudevan lakshminarayanan (umsl)] or the ophthalmological research institute of giza [zenab osman, tareq youssef]. the author expresses his very considerable appreciation to all of these individuals as well as others. comments this paper overlaps to some degree with a paper presented as the h. leibowitz festschrift held in state college, pa, in june, 1999. that paper will appear in a special festschrift volume published by and for the american psychological association/springer-verlag. in that paper, the more perceptual aspects (egyptian statue eye following/movement illusion) of this discussion were emphasized. leibowitz is well known for his distinguished work on a number of vision-related topics, including ocular illusions. another, but much briefer (two page abstract) version of this work will appear in the proceedings of the international commission on optics meeting xviii, san francisco, ca, august, 1999. the latter will be published by the spie. in that presentation, the more optical aspects of the issues at hand will be emphasized. these are quite different audiences. references in order to conserve space, this list is limited and annotated. some references, identified with an *, have extensive literature citations. the reader is referred to two museum catalogues.1•2 31/16 1. saleh m, surouzian h. official catalogue of the egyptian museum cairo. cairo: organization of egyptian antiquities; and mainz, germany: verlag philipp von zabem, 1987.* 2. ziegler, c. catalogue louvre: les statues egyptiennes de l'ancien empire (in french). paris: editions de ia reunion des musees nationaux, 1997. to place developments in proper sequence, the reader should reference "time-line" books pertinent to these ancient time periods and regions. an example is given in reference 3: 3. richman r, ed. the age of the god-kings: time-frame 3000-1500 b.c. alexandria, va: time-life books, 1987. 4. lucas a, harris jr. ancient egyptian materials and industries, 4th ed. london: edward arnold, 1962.* (there are several meaningful and relevant chapters in this book. they deal with inlaid eyes, resins, glazes, glass, precious and semi-precious stones, etc.) 5. bouquillon a, quere g. le regard du scribe (in french). pour le science feb 1997; (232):27. 6. royer j. les ocularistes de ia statuaire egyptienne. bulletin societe francophone d'histoire de i'ophtalmologie 1997; 4: 49-52. 7. enoch jm. ancient lenses in art and sculpture and the objects viewed through them (dating back 4500 years). in: rogowitz b, pappas t, eds. human vision and electronic imaging ill. san jose, ca: proceedings of the spie. jan 26-29, 1998; 424-430.* 8. andronicos m. herakleion museum and archaeological sites of crete (fig. 32). athens: ekdotike athenon, sa, 1981. 9. enoch jm. it is proposed that the cornea of the eye of the bull's head rhyton from the little palace of knossos (artifact dated 1550-1500 bc) is a true lens. in: fiorentini a, guyton dl, siegel 1m, eds. advances in diagnostic visual optics. new york: springer-verlag, 1987: 15-18. 10. enoch jm. early lens use: lenses found in context with their original optics. optom vis sci 1996; 73: 707-715.* 11. enoch jm. the cover design: the enigma of early lens use. technology and culture april 1998; 39 (2): 273-291. * 12. higgins r. minoan and mycenaen art, revised ed. london: thames and hudson, 1981: 161, 162, etc. 13. papapostolou ja. crete. athens: clio editions, 1981. 14. sakellarakis ja. herakleion museum. athens: ekdotike athenon, sa, 1983: 34. 15. collen c. ancient near eastern art. london: british museum press, 1995: 7-127.* (a good summary of early trade and parallel developments in the non-egyptian middle east) 16. kramer sn. history begins at sumer. philadelphia: falcon press, 1956. 17. trad m. personal communication, october, 1998. 18. andrews c. ancient egyptian jewelry. new york: harry n. abrams, inc., 1991: 37-39, 202-203.* (a fine discussion of technology, methods of manufacture, and khnumet) 19. redmount c. personal communications, 1998. 20. keller k. personal communications, 1998. 21. hanna. personal communication, october, 1998. 22. williams d, ogden j. greek gold: jewellery of the classical world. london: british museum press, 1994. 23. flinders petrie wm, tanis. part i. london: (no publishergiven),1889: 49. 24. parkinson r. personal communication, 1997. 25. caleca a, goseffi gl, mellini gl, collobi lr. british museum london. in: ragghianti cl, series ed. great museums of the world. new york: simon and schuster, inc., 1967: 115. 26. hunt p. personal communication, december, 1998. 27. osman z. personal communication, october, 1998. 31/17 ilamo to be a priority for planned giving: an article in the february 14, 2000 issue of the american optometric association news states that the international library, archives and museum of optometry (ilamo), housed at the american optometric association headquarters in st. louis, will be a priority of planned giving to the american optometric association. the article notes that ilamo is home to many historically significant items. some of the examples mentioned are wichterle's original prototype for spin-cast manufacture of the first flexible contact lenses and a scleral contact lens fitting set designed by william feinbloom. funds for the planned giving campaign will be targeted toward storage space for ilamo. information on the american optometric association planned giving program can be obtained from renee brauns at 800-365-2219, ext. 133. d.a.g. *** managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (postal address: school of optometry, indiana university, 800 east atwater avenue, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; telephone: (812) 855-5379; email address: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, 1001 north grand avenue, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 31118 two figures were inadvertently omitted from page 12 of the april, 2000 (volume 31) issue of hindsight. enclosed please find pages 31/11 and 31/12 to replace those in the copy of the april issue that you previously received. we apologize for any inconvenience. indfana university ocr 02 • optometry library eyes?s-7 the total structure of these ''eyes" indicates at a minimum (for that time) a very advanced understanding of ocular anatomy.6•7 how and from whence did the necessary technologies emerge? could such fine and complex optical elements be the first lenses? how did it happen that they disappeared in the vlth egyptian dynasty, then re-appear briefly in the xlllth dynasty (ca. 1700 b.c. or 3700 b.p.), then disappeared again permanently?2•7 a fine lens then appeared at the little palace of knossos in crete during the minoan period, but the design was different (ca. 1550-1500 b.c. or 3550-3500 b.p.), and this lens and its si~nificance are also of special interest (for shape of the minoan lens, see fig. a). ·14 egypt: a brief pertinent time line ..... · ~; · tc>"'~tt~r understand the sequence of events, it is necessary to place key aspects of these arguments in time-line sequence.3 there are several books addressing time-ij~e comparisons and these need to be cross-referenced. ·• . . ' . pre-dynastic egypt: intermittent trade was established between egypt and mesopotamia, turkey, syria and the levant, palestine, lebanon, and possibly other locations. this trade originated prior to recorded history. for example, hard stones (obsidian and flint for weapons and scrapers), jewelry, etc., were traded. writing and cylinder seals came into use in sumer (ca. 3500-3000 b.c., or 5500-5000 b.p.) which is located in modern lraq.3•15•16 na'armer united upper and lower (nile delta area) egypt. mining of hard stones was begun in the desert of eastern egypt. working of hard stones is significant, because development of lenses, which occurred at a later time, depended upon utilization of related technologies. trade and wars enhanced technological interactions between populations. question: did later lens developments have origin in egypt, per se, or was this an important art/science which built upon local skills learned in fabrication of hard stone materials?17 ~ early dynastic period: dynasties 1-111 (ca. 2920-2575 b.c.): technologies for mining, grinding, and fabricating hard stone objects (not statues) were developed to an advanced state during dynasties i and ii. however, work with rock crystal (a form of quartz later used for lenses, #7 on the mohs hardness scale) was limited (e.g., see reference 18; for mid-eastern locations other than egypt, see collon15). 3]/11 a. comparing egyptian and minoan lens styles eoypiwi minoan -bp :wobp figure a. here are compared the designs of lenses found in egypt (and associated with the unique statues and eye structures described) and those found in crete (minoan civilization). the minoan design (convex-plano) was used over long time periods in greece and later in many roman and other lenses. "ka" statues were developed as funerary substitutes for the deceased (dynasty ill onward). they served rather like representations of the individual's soul or "essence." they were intended to be long-lasting, and some technology associated with working hard stone materials was associated with ka statue development.19 king djoser (dynasty ill) built the distinctive step-pyramid at saqqara or sakkara. a number of statues containing the special lens/eye constructs (fig. b) were located in mastaba burial chambers at saqqara (these were constructed later), and some of the lens/eye constructs were ka statues.19•20 b. schematic: egyptian lens/eye structure .i -ka11 figure b. this is an assumed schematic cut through the lens/eye structures found in the egyptian statues. these eye structures were manufactured by teams of artisans and were inserted en bloc in the statues, many of which were approximately the same size. the author has no information about the extent of the copper plates at the rear of the eye structures, nor the details of the "scleral" support structure for the lens, i.e., one only sees the exposed scleral surface. the resin "tag" in the pupillary aperture is symbolic of the material seen in some statues. the author assumes that the volume posterior to the pupillary aperture simulates the vitreous and retina of the eye. eye physicians were then already using couching techniques for cataract displacement.27 31/12 2000-31-02-001 2000-31-02-002 2000-31-02-003 2000-31-02-004 2000-31-02-005 2000-31-02-006 2000-31-02-007 2000-31-02-008 2000-31-02-009 2000-31-02-010 2000-31-02-011 2000-31-02-012 2000-31-02-013 hindsight ~ newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 borth lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri volume 23 july 1992 1992 ohs board members and officers: 63141, usa listed below are the 1992 ohs executive board members and officers. also listed is the year of each member's term expiration. president vice-president secretary treasurer trustees 1992 ohs annual meeting: meredith morgan (1994) dave goss (1993) walter chase (1994) chuck haine (1992) doug penisten (1992) al rosenbloom (1993) patricia carlson (1995) ·' , ' as is done every year, the ohs will have its annual gathering during the american academy of optometry meeting, but this year will be a little different. instead of conflicting with the myriad of other events running on the saturday evening, we have decided to try another time slot in the hopes of allowing more people to attend. this year the ohs meeting will be held on sunday december 13, 8:00 8:50 am, cambridge room, buena vista palace hotel, orlando, plorida. ms. amarilis noriega, library director of the inter american university school of optometry, puerto rico, has accepted the invitation to address our group. she will discuss her work in the development of the optometry library and museum at inter american. hofstetter to be honored: colleagues, students, and friends of henry w hofstetter will present papers during a symposium named in his honor on monday morning, december 14 at the american academy of optometry annual meeting in orlando, florida. this symposium was organized as a special tribute to dr. hofstetter with the particular intent of recognizing his many and diverse contributions to the profession of optometry. the following people will be speaking during this symposium: meredith morgan, alden haffner, david goss, theodore grosvenor, douglas penisten, george woo, william baldwin, irvin barish, william lyle, and edwin marshall. to further honor this event, a reception will be held for dr. hofstetter during the indiana university school of optometry alumni gathering on saturday evening, december 12, 7:00 8:30. the room for this reception has not yet been designated, so be sure to check 23~4 the published event schedule upon your arrival in orlando to confirm the time and place. see you all there. d.k.p. call for nominations: it is time for you to send in your nominations, or renominations, for the two positions on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the members whose terms will expire are chuck baine and doug penisten. by all means do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. the members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board, will have their names placed on the ballot which will be mailed with the next issue of hindsight. please send your nominations to: henry w hofstetter, 2615 windermere woods drive, bloomington, in 47401. 1991 ohs annual meeting: ohs secretary walter· chase submitted the following report describing the 1991 ohs annual meeting. this is an account of the meeting of the optometric historical society, held on december 14 during the 1991 annual meeting of the american academy of optometry. the meeting took place in the cerritos room on the first floor of the sierra tower at the disneyland hotel in anaheim, california. the meeting was called to order by president meredith morgan at about 7:00 p.m. attendance at the meeting was disappointing (toes were not required for counting heads) apparently because of competition from scheduled academy events and meetings. attendance was also variable from minute to minute due to the indiana university reception across the hall. we had water, but they had chips and flavored water of some kind (so i was told). president morgan determined that a quorum was apparently not going to be present at any time during the meeting, so no official business could be conducted. there was some discussion about potential merits and disadvantages of merging the ohs with another historical society having nearly identical interests. there seemed to be a general agreement that this would be worth exploring with the membership. the scheduled speaker was dr. henry b. peters, dean emeritus, school of optometry at the medical center, university of alabama at birmingham. dr. peters handily delivered his address entitled "five optometric pioneers in the establishment of the university of california school of optometry", to the ohs, after which he received a standing 23,.25 ovation. it was suggested, with unanimous assent, to recommend to the editors of the society's newsletter that this address be published in the newsletter. the assemblage was then reminded of dr. douglas penis ten • s excellent presentation at last year's society meeting. it was suggested, again followed by unanimous assent, to recommend that this work also be published in the society's newsletter. the meeting was then adjourned by president morgan. if anyone in attendance at the meeting has additions or corrections for this account, the secretary would appreciate a note to that affect. henry peters presentation: the following paper was presented by dr. henry peters at the 1991 ohs annual meeting held on december 14 at the disneyland hotel, anaheim, california. "five optometric pioneers in the establishment of the university of california school of optometry" i guess it's a sign of age, but as i approached retirement i found myself looking back. i spent several days with maria dablemont and her staff at the international library, archives and museum of optometry at aoa in st. louis. what fun, what a resource. i quickly found that there was so much information that i had to restrict my search. since i was preparing this presentation for the peters memorial lecture (1986) at the meeting of the berkeley alumni association, i decided to confine myself to the individuals who were principally responsible for the beginnings of the school of optometry of the university of california at berkeley: schneider, minor, mason, stoddard and tom peters. i know i will leave out some important persons in this, and i make no attempt to provide a detailed history of events, but i want to share with you my perceptions of these five men. optometry was indeed fortunate that they were contemporaries, fervently shared their belief in the importance of education, and were so mutually supporting. it was in 1907, five years after the enactment of the first optometry practice act in california that charles h. wood, an oakland optometrist, spoke to the alameda county society of optometrists on the importance of having a chair in optometry at the university of california. george schneider was the secretary of the society, organized just nine months before, and he was instructed to write all local societies to support his request. the state association endorsed this proposal in 1908. 23/26 george l. schneider is the first giant i wish to present. he is the only one of the five i do not personally remember. but he is a man you should remember. he was a giant. some of us tend to imagine that our predecessors of the 18th and 19th century were either itinerant spectacle peddlers or small shopkeepers. this image has been nurtured by the pictures bausch and lomb circulated among optometrists for years. nothing could be further from the truth. the optician-optometrists were affluent, prominent members of their communities and politically powerful. george schneider was all of these. born in 1874 he died in 1928 at the age of 54. my first reference to him is 1901, as "one of the prime movers in the organization of the california state association of opticians (1897); in fact it was due to his untiring efforts that that association was formed." he served as secretary until 1901. at that time he was with the firm of charles haas & son in stockton, california. but he came to berkeley around the turn of the century where he established a highly successful practice, and, as i said, was secretary of the local society. he was also an amateur entomologist and had many friends on the berkeley campus. it was natural that he should chair the committee that met several times with president benjamin ide wheeler to request the establishment of a chair in optometry. "president wheeler signified his willingness that a chair in optometry may be established. after further consideration of the subject ••• we bumped against the suggestion of dr. wheeler that he would consult his oculist friends and have one or two of them outline the studies. that was an immediate warning to us. it was fully evident that there was at least a possibility of losing control of the thing at the very beginning." it wasn't until 1915 that a program was established in the extension system of the university a program of evening lectures at a cost of $5.00 for each course of 15 lectures, for practicing optometrists {33 attended the first course, 42 the second). by 1910 the california group was dissatisfied with the control of the american optical association by the "eastern block" (principally new york and pennsylvania) and in 1911 descended on the national convention in salt lake city. here, with george schneider as their leader, they completely rewrote the constitution, establishing the representative voting system that persists to this day, and elected george scheider as president. he served 2 years as president, the first westerner, and perfected the reorganization of the association, and later changing its name to the american optometric association. dues were then increased from 50 cents per year to 1 dollar per year. i in 1918 he was the founding president of the optometric research society to support research to further the advancement of the profession. also in 1918, he resigned from the aoa executive council and optometry endowment fund commission (which supported 23,47 state activities to legalize optometry). his letter of resignation includes the following: said: after declaring his dedication to the programs of the aoa he "i, however, am in the condition of the fellow who had the bear by the tail he couldn't let go without being bitten only, in my case, i will have to stand for the •bite" because i am actually overwhelmed by demands for time. besides aoa work, two municipal commissions, vice president of the red cross chapter and subcommittee head in local war work, i am suddenly favored with three new jobs. the university of california has asked my help in arranging "extension" lectures in optometry in chief cities of california; the state officers want my help in a membership drive: and thirdly, i am asked to help guide certain optometry legislation at sacramento." this gives you some idea of the magnitude of the contributions of this one man. in 1923, berkeley suffered a great fire (shades of 1991). schneider organized the local optometrists to provide free optometric services to the needy victims. together with ralph minor they established a program in optometry in the extension system of the university in 1915. he hailed this as a great victory and the result of persistent effort. more about minor's role in this later. but the program was well attended and its success encouraged both the optometrists and the university to further explore the possibility of a regular curriculum in optometry. george schneider participated actively in all this and called on his friendship with university administrators to further the endeavor. james p. southall of columbia contributed to the extension program in the summer of 1917 with a course in optics. in 1922 the regents tentatively approved a two-year curriculum in optometry for students who had completed a prescribed two-year lower division program. they approved an a.b. degree for the 4 years and assigned the program to the physics department. the optometrists contributed $9,000 to cover the first-year costs and passed legislation to increase the license renewal fee from $2 to $10 with the $8 to go to the university for support of the program. the finance committee of the regents thought this would "provide sufficient funds to carry on the courses in the future". ralph minor was asked to direct the new curriculum and george schneider was appointed lecturer in optometry. two students were admitted (as juniors) in september 1923 graduating in 1925. dr. fred mason was recruited in 1924, and things were off and running. reluctantly we leave george l. schneider and turn our attention to our second giant, ralph s. minor. thank you george. i only add that at the annual convention of the california optometric association in 1949 the delegates established the george l. schneider memorial scholarship fund with a gift to the 23~8 university of $4,287.77 gratefully acknowledged by president robert gordon sproul. ralph s. minor was born in 1876 in deposit, new york, and died in 1961 at the age of 85. he attended hamilton college where he was a root fellow in science, graduating in 1898. he received his ph.d. in physics from the university of gottingen in germany in 1902. in 1903 he joined the faculty of the university of california at berkeley where he was solely responsible for establishing the undergraduate program in physics. he took three years leave from berkeley to establish the physics department at the university of nevada. back in berkeley, he became acquainted with optometry but let him tell this part of the story in his own words: teaching is responsible for my acquaintance with optometry and optometrists. one evening forty years ago (about 1905), i had a visit from the alameda county association of optometrists. in response to my question as to what i could possibly do for them, they asked me if i would deliver a lecture to their group on the radiometer. did they want anything in the lecture about lenses? no, just the radiometer. would they care for experiments? oh yes, that would be fine. so they named the place and date. the radiometer, as you know, is a little vertical axle carrying two cross arms and ending in small squares of mica, or isinglass, as we used to call it. one side of each little square had been blackened. the axle is inside a small bulb from which most of the air has been removed. • • • after the explanation (of why the vanes revolve), i took up my crude lens of ice and held it near the radiometer, and put the hot poker still further away. the poker did not glow. i asked to have the lights put out and then i noticed the men crowding up to the radiometer. i was conscious of a suppressed excitement. after a couple of minutes i took the poker away and called for the lights. there was a loud exclamation for the little vane was spinning its head off. then i was informed. the downstairs men ••• had an argument with the upstairs men. one group said the thing ran because of light. the other group said it ran because of heat ••• i had been asked to talk on the radiometer to settle the bet. dr. minor was asked to return to talk on lenses and refraction and became convinced of the sincerity of the optometrists. it was he who arranged for the first lecture series through the extension system and became convinced of the need for an optometry curriculum. through his good efforts and reputation within the university, as well as the efforts of george schneider and his association committee that the optometry program was approved by the regents in 1922. dr. minor accepted the responsibility for directing this program within the physics department of the university, awarding an ab degree. he engineered the development of this program from a physics major (physics optometry) to separate department of optometry in 1940 and finally in 1941 established the school of optometry. he became its first dean. when the school was established it was authorized to award the b.s. degree in optometry and there was a promise to expand the curriculum to five years and award an m opt. degree. the war intervened and he had retired (1946) before this took place in 1948. the doctor of optometry degree, with further expansion of the curriculum, was not authorized until 1962. there are so many accomplishments of this giant of a man that this whole talk could be usefully devoted to him. i will mention only three, and leave others to fill in the details. first, his close relations with southall and woll of columbia encouraged him to recruit frederick l. mason as lecturer in optometry in 1924. southall had been helpful to minor in negotiations with the university. more about mason later. the second item of importance was minor's role in the development of the optometry building, now named after him. he played a leading role in this and, with my father, thomas h. peters, developed the support of the california optometric association. i could not find a reference when this was first proposed, but i do know that it was the centerpiece of the administration of my father during his terms as president of the california optometric association in 1939 and 1940. there was great mutual respect and love between ralph minor and tom peters. more about tom peters later, but he, ralph minor and herman davis of sacramento toured the state promoting the building fund. optometrists were asked to pledge $200 each, payable over five years, to this fund. this was unheard of in those days, but they raised $85, 000 in cash and pledges. in the meantime they negotiated with dr. robert gordon sproul and obtained his approval. world war ii intervened and when the war was over, building costs had escalated to the point that the funds available were woefully inadequate. the committee, this time headed by tom peters, went to the state legislature. it is remarkable that the state had not funded a single capital construction project since 1941. in 1947 the legislature provided a grant of $300,000 for the school of optometry, the first and only such grant in that year. in 1948 the "new" optometry building was dedicated. the personal effort of dr. minor throughout this eight-year effort was simply magnificent. the delays and disappointments would have discouraged a less dedicated soul. the third item is of importance, too. dr. minor was an amateur typographer of note, operating his own press, setting his own type in the basement of his home. every year, from 1933 through 1954 (8 years after his retirement) he printed and distributed the "directory of the optometry alumni" all at his own 23/jo expense. he kept track of weddings, children and other important information, all carefully annotated in the directory. an ardent scholar, he took up our fight and gave us leadership, always a kind and gentle mentor, ralph minor was a giant to whom we owe much. he deserves to remembered. frederick l. mason was recruited by dr. minor as the first full time lecturer in optometry in 1924. dr. mason, as he liked to be addressed, was born in 1887 in upstate new york and died in 1954 at the age of 67. he received a bachelors degree form syracuse university, served as an officer in the navy in world war i, and received a certificate in optometry from columbia university and an ma degree from the university of california. probably no single individual made more of an impression on a whole generation of optometry students (from 1924 to 1953). his original textbook "principles of optometry" was our bible. his stern demeanor and no-nonsense conduct in class and clinic scared the hell out of us, but his devotion to precise definitions and logical problem solving set a standard we came to greatly appreciate and admire. my favorite story about mason was told by monroe hirsch. mason graded an examination blue book where hirsch had misspelled accommodation consistently. on page one he marked it 11-1, sp", on page three he marked it "-2, spelling", on page four he wrote 11 -5 i see you still haven't learned to spell accommodation" in big red letters, and on page seven he wrote "i give up f". what i have learned in my limited research is a whole other side to this complex man. he spent many hours lecturing optometrists all over the state on topics related to optics and optometry. there are so many references to his appearing on the programs of local societies that we have to wonder at his stamina and his dedication. he represented the optometry program at berkeley in national meetings of the aoa and later at meetings of the association of schools and colleges of optometry. when the alameda county association recognized the severe need for vision care by needy children during the great depression, they organized a volunteer clinic in donated space in downtown oakland. that was in 1932. fred mason assumed the role of chief clinician, donating his time. this clinic provided free services to needy children for nearly 5 years. tom peters was a dedicated participant in this volunteer service. dr. frederick l. mason was a giant of a man who left an indelible impression on a generation of optometry students. he, too, deserves to be remembered. kenneth berkeley stoddard was born in newport, rhode island in 1904 and died in 1970 at the age of 66. he attended school at newport and los angeles, graduating from los angeles high school in 1923. he attended ucla receiving his ab degree in 1928. he attended graduate school at stanford university receiving his ma in 1930 and his ph.d. in physics in 1931. 23/31 dr. stoddard served as an assistant in physics at stanford in 1928 and as an instructor in 1930 and 1931. he then became an assistant professor of physics at arizona state college 1931-32 when he returned to stanford for three years. in 1935 he became a student in optometry at the university of california at berkeley, receiving the certificate in optometry in 1937. after a brief experience in private practice, dr. minor recruited dr. stoddard to join the faculty of the school of optometry as a lecturer in 1938 where he was promptly promoted to assistant professor (the first such promotion in a university school of optometry). he was subsequently promoted to associate professor in 1943 and professor in 1948. he spent the summers of 1939 and 1940 at dartmouth eye institute where he qualified as an aniseikonia clinician, establishing a long-time interest in this subject. during world war ii he served as a physicist at the lawrence radiation laboratory, a service that was to have a marked effect on this life. he worked in a mass spectrograph separating u-238 for the first atom bombs. there was little personal protection and precious little perception of the need for such. later, as some of his colleagues died of cancer and radiation poisoning, he lived in constant fear that he, too, would be affected by radiation damage. he became dean of the school of optometry in 1946 on the retirement of dr. minor, a position he held until his retirement due to illness in 1961. dr. stoddard had been an excellent gymnast in college and for a period toured the orpheum circuit as an acrobat to earn money to continue his education. his hobby was photography and he never lost his "down east" manner of speech, nor his love of the sea. dr. stoddard implemented the five-year curriculum and the master of optometry degree and even more importantly initiated the graduate program in physiological optics, awarding the ms and ph.d. degrees. dr. stoddard was an honorary life member of the american academy of optometry and served on the executive council. he was president for two years of the association of schools and colleges of optometry (1950-52). he presided at berkeley during a period of expansion: the new building was dedicated in 1948 but not completely occupied until 1950. there was an opportunity to add new faculty to serve the graduate program and the five-year curriculum. to his credit he chose that faculty extremely well setting the stage for academic leadership in optometry. i don't know if he was the first to invent the now highly touted "management by walking around" but he certainly practiced it. he seemed to be everywhere, all the time, and knew intimately 23/32 the research he fostered in his faculty as well as the details of the clinical program in which he participated. stoddard's influence is still on the halls of the school of optometry. he was a giant. finally i bring you my beloved father, thomas h. peters, in whose honor this memorial lecture has been given for 30 years. i started with a practitioner, george schneider: presented three academic giants, ralph minor, frederick mason and kenneth stoddard: so it seems fitting to conclude with a practitioner, thomas peters. he was not an alumnus, nor did he ever serve on the faculty, but a man more dedicated to the development of the school of optometry is not to be found in its history. born in oakland of irish immigrant parents he started his career as an apprentice manufacturing jeweler with shreves in san francisco. he told great tales of the earthquake and fire of 1906. he married my beloved mother, eleanor, in 1909 and studied optometry at night at the california college of optometry (successor to benson • s) in san francisco. he graduated in 1916 and with a family now grown to include three children, he started practice in oakland. he moved to san jose for two years and returned permanently to oakland in 1920. in the early days things were tough. tom and eleanor had five children, one of whom died in the flu epidemic of 1917, but he always found time to participate in organized optometry. he was completely dedicated to the ideals of professional practice. before the days of a paid executive secretary and staff, tom served as director of legislative affairs for the coa for five years conducting much of the business of the coa out of an attic room in our home or on the sacramento shortline train to the state capital. many a night i have awakened to hear the tat-tat-tat of his typewriter in the wee small hours. he served as president of the coa two terms in 1938 and 1939. on top of all this he participated in the extension classes in optometry provided by ralph minor and george schneider. to those of you involved in physical fitness programs, he played tennis every morning at 6 am when it wasn't raining at lakeside park in oakland. most important to the school of optometry he negotiated with presid~nt robert gordon sproul for the development of a building to house the optometry program. i • ve already told you how he made the building fund the centerpiece of his years as president of the coa and how he served to raise the funds for its construction. at the time of his death in 1956 at the age of 70 the journal of the california optometric association published a "tribute to thomas h. peters" testifying to his many contributions to the profession and to the esteem with which he was held by his many friends and colleagues. ken stoddard concluded his comments with the quotation 11he left this a better world for having lived in it". 23/33 i cannot leave this part of my talk without acknowledging my personal sense of gratitude for the man whom i was fortunate to have as my father. he practiced standards of integrity, of service and accomplishment that have been a challenge to me all my life, and he did it with a gentleness and humor i have never been able to achieve. he was a giant. i end this now with the fervent prayer that some of you will be stimulated to study further the history of the giants whose leadership and dedication made our present achievements possible at your institution. i know i have left out many, some living and some dead, who deserve to be appropriately chronicled. but we leave that to another day and perhaps other historians. i have had a wonderful time preparing this talk and i thank you for the opportunity. abrams on abe: ohs member dr. jerry abrams truly has the historical "bug"! like several other members of this organization, jerry makes it a point to attend the annual meetings of both the optometric historical society and the other ohs, the ocular heritage society. (for a description of this organization see hindsight, val. 23, no. 2, april 1992, p.14.) at the may 1992 meeting of the ocular heritage society jerry presented the paper "abe's eyes." he kindly sent us a copy to be published in hindsight. five months before he received the republican nomination for the presidency, abraham lincoln wrote, at the request of a campaign worker, an autobiographical sketch. in a few hundred words, not one of them superfluous, he told of his birth and birthplace, of his parents, of the migrations of his family, and of his schooling. he ended the sketch with a description of himself: "i am, in height 6 feet, 4 inches, nearly lean in flesh, on an average 180 pounds, dark complexion with coarse dark hair, and grey eyes--no other marks or brands recollected." lincoln wrote of himself as he saw himself. he wrote of his eyes being grey. they were, but they were more than just another pair of grey eyes. they were, and he could not have been aware of it, one of the most outstanding "marks or brands" on his face--or so those who have made themselves authorities on lincoln's physiognomy have concluded. some have reported that lincoln may have had marfan•s syndrome--a genetic disorder marked by tall stature, with long and large hands--usually marked by a subluxated lens--many argue that lincoln did not suffer from this disorder. on the anniversary of his birth in 1976, the library of congress opened a box of the president's belongings from the 23/j4 night he was shot. included in the personal effects were two pairs of eyeglasses which were examined and determined to be +1.75 ~nd +2.00 power, respectively. these would be ordinary reading glasses for a man lincoln's age, showing the absence of myopia and less likelihood of marfan's syndrome. here are some of the observations on lincoln's eyes gleaned from the literature. some of the observations have a ring of truth and some are certainly touched with fancy. first, it has been recorded that lincoln's eyes were small, grey and deeply set. abe could see nothing to admire in flowers, so one authority took this to mean that lincoln was color-blind. another authority said that lincoln's eye looked queer at times, that it would suddenly get "crossed" and turn upward. lincoln's face was more or less accentuated by the peculiarity of the left eye, whose pupil had a tendency to turn or roll slightly toward the upper lid, while the right eye maintained a normal position. when lincoln was engaged in the important lincoln-douglas debates, newspapermen wrote of his wildly rolling eye. an eye doctor of the old school has expressed the view that lincoln was the victim of hyperphoria or hypertropia, and this uncorrected condition was directly responsible for lincoln's melancholy nature. in 1914, two ophthalmologists examined a portrait of lincoln and then made the following statements: that lincoln had a heterophoria and it was obvious when any good full-face photograph of him was studied; that it was amazing to discover that a real effort was necessary to look at honest abe "straight in the eye". lincoln's gaze was returned by the right eye of the photograph only, while the left eye was directed upward 8 to 10 degrees. closer examination showed that his left eye was actually set higher than his right eye. also, that his left eyebrow was usually more elevated than the right. this tendency of the left eye to turn upward left uncovered more of the white surface of the sclera below the iris and gave a slightly staring effect on that side in strange disharmony with the appearance of the right eye. support substantiating this anomaly comes from the story that when lincoln was ten years old, he was kicked in the head by a~horse, knocked unconscious for many hours, and was thought for a time to be dead. lincoln recovered without medical assistance and seemed to have no apparent serious after effects. modern-day doctors, however, say that this traumatic blow to the eye can readily cause damage to the superior oblique eye muscle and could easily have been a cause for lincoln's left eye hypertropia. from many of these observations the following conclusion has been drawn by some: lincoln's right eye was dominant and was always used for general vision and no doubt entirely for 23/js reading. the tendency of the left eye to turn upward and outward produced more or less of an overlapping of visual images. the upward deviation of the left eye was certainly great enough to produce lack of fusion of its image with that of the right eye. lincoln seems to have followed the pattern set by most with a similar condition, he reacted attentively to the image of the right eye and suppressed or ignored that of the left eye. lincoln himself reports his own awareness of his troublesome eyes, that in 1860 just having been elected, was well tired out and went home to rest, throwing himself upon a lounge in his room. opposite to where he lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it; and looking into the glass, he saw himself reflected nearly at full length, but his face he noticed had two separate and distinct images, the top of the eye of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. he was a little bothered and got up and looked into the glass, but the illusion vanished. on lying down again, he saw it a second time. this time he noticed that one of the faces was a little paler than the other. he got up and the thing mel ted away. the above-mentioned phenomenon, of course, can readily be explained today but at that time there was no one around to define this double imagery. this episode would spring up from time to time but apparently did not worry lincoln too much. today•s modern eye men could have given lincoln a rational explanation of these episodes of diplopia, and lincoln being an intelligent man, would have accepted the explanation. but in 1860 there were no eye doctors in springfield. therefore, it was necessary for lincoln to provide his own explanation. being a self-educated man, as in so many self-educated, there were wide areas of knowledge of which he was ignorant. one of these areas was that of the physiology of vision. being sensitive, patient, compassionate, simple of heart, and humble, he sought for and found support he needed from his wife, mary. he took the simple episodes of double vision he had experienced and turned them into a sign of divine approval of the course he knew it was his lot to take. although he was a deeply religious man, lincoln never affiliated himself with an established faith. he and his wife believed that lincoln had destiny, blessed by the divine and that this destiny would lead him to the presidency. the hour of the successful election came and god gave to abraham a sign. lincoln saw his face and then he saw his face again, paler the second time. as with the prophets of old, god had clearly blessed lincoln and had shown him the path he must follow. lincoln was to serve one term as president; then he was elected for a second term, but his divinely approved task was to be finished before the end of that second term. 23/.36 death would then come. so it was that abraham and mary lincoln explained abe's illusion, his ghost, his episodes of diplopia. yes, a visit to an eye doctor would have given abe the correct scientific explanation of his illusion. but his own explanation, derived from his own peculiar, simple genius, allowed him to round out the framework of his personality with those elements of faith in himself that he so sorely needed. his "vision" needed no further correction. silver celebration at waterloo: the school of optometry, university of waterloo, canada, is celebrating during 1992 the 25th anniversary of its establishment. to mark the event a celebration including a reception and a continuing education program will be held on november 13 and 14. a glossy flyer describing this event and also containing pictures of the first optometry clinic and faculty was sent to us by the organizing chairman and ohs member george woo. american indians and eyes: my co-editor doug penisten has authored a chapter on the "eye and vision in north american indian cultures: historical perspective on traditional medicine" in a 1990 book, pp. 186-190, entitled "eye and vision conditions in the american indian". the book is edited by david a. goss and linda l. edmondson and published by pueblo publishing press, yukon,ok, u.s.a. the chapter cites 19 references on such topics as visual aids, smoke as an environmental eye hazard, medicinal treatments, the nature of indian legends and myths, and the indian concept of an "evil eye". penisten gives special credit to his wife alphie for directing him to much of the source material. she is collecting indian lore material for a book to be published in afrikaans. h.w h. instrumental art forms: gracing the front cover of the fall 1991 issue of american heritage qt inventions~ technology, vol. 7, no. 2, is a close-up view of a portion of a 1910 keratometer manufactured by the f.a. hardy company of chicago. featured in an article by thomas h. garver' entitled "the engineer's art" on pages 20-26 is a one-and-a­ half page profile view of the same instrument in brassy color-tone. the theme of the article is the historically aesthetic attribute of "art" inherent in many instruments, devices, and machines "not only in their craftsmanship but also in their broader quality of judgment and rightness, balance, and completeness." as a historian of art and a collector of scientific and technological devices the author explains, "this is art insofar as it is about obsession, about building an instrument in the best possible manner, with integrity and respect for its use. n other early 23/j7 instruments and machines beautifully illustrated in the article include a 1950 locomotive, a 1900 generator, 2 early photometers, a 1911 electric meter, a 1940 barograph, a 1911 potentiometer, and a 1930 analytical balance. a point that may come to the mind of the reader is that this may be a disappearing art form, for such craftsmanship is not only being de-emphasized by automation but also being hidden under plastic housings with only dials, buttons, and digitals exposed. asco's 50th: in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its first official meeting the association of schools and colleges of optometry has published a historical review in the form of an attractive 16 page brochure. the first page, a citation from albert fitch's book, reminds us that representatives of the optometry schools and colleges in the u.s. and canada actually met annually for over 20 years earlier but did not organize formally until june 2, 1941. most of the information is derived from the asco minutes and from interviews with three "old-timers", drs. irvin berish, e.j. fisher, and henry hofstetter. photographs of all the presidents, present and past, are included. the text was written by jerry l. christensen during his term as asco president, 1989-1991, with editorial and technical assistance from several associates. the printing was done at the university of missouri-st. louis, but distribution presumably is by the association. a happy message: again, the holiday greeting card of the year arr~v~ng in my mailbox is the one from ohs member charles letocha, m.d. this time it is a front view photograph of a pair of 17th-18th century leather spectacles, the rarest in his collection, contrasted on a dark blue background and focussed to show even the scratches in the lenses. h.w h. a rare gift: early in 1992 we received a copy of a 14 page progress report to the curator of the division of medical sciences of the national museum of american history, the smithsonian institution, from dr. eric p. muth, the curator's optician consultant. the first 11 pages summarized his activities under what he called phase i, which seems to have had its beginning circa 1982 and mileposted at the end of 1990. this period encompassed ten objectives which included photographing the collection of vision aids; sorting out unwanted items; raising funds for cataloguing and computerizing details; soliciting and acquiring additional items; enlisting help of international experts for identification 23/.38 of unknowns; gathering related historical documents and patents; compiling information on other collections; developing a curator's reference manual of related materials; listing of persons and institutions undertaking like collections; and assembling a biographical roster of theme-related persons and their life spans for historical association purposes. phase ii, wh~ch of course began in january 1, 1991, is essentially the preparation of a comprehensive document of an anticipated 1, 000 pages entitled "vision aids in history", the completion of which involves continuing data gathering and collating along the lines of phase i. he has already placed preliminary copies of this document in several archival institutions for reference use and intends to make available a phase ii update in 1996. it should be mentioned that, except for one or two extremely nominal grants for travel expenses, this undertaking has been totally the contribution of dr. muth, truly a labor of love, an expensive one, and one which elicits rare applause. thank you, eric, thank you,-·thank you! *** contributing editor: managing editor: " henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1992-23-03-001 1992-23-03-002 1992-23-03-003 1992-23-03-004 1992-23-03-005 1992-23-03-006 1992-23-03-007 1992-23-03-008 1992-23-03-009 1992-23-03-010 1992-23-03-011 1992-23-03-012 1992-23-03-013 1992-23-03-014 1992-23-03-015 1992-23-03-016 •****'***'**•************••••····· ..... . . ! indiana university : • • .. ~ • • ~ oec l 6 :jc.,_; ~ newsletter . ~ : library ; of the ~ **************"'n ........ *******:j?ptometric historical society /:7<243 north lindbergh boulevard stlouis, missouri 63141, usa> vol.l7 october 1986 number 4 optometry library dec 18 1966 0/1 the optometric historical society regularly holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry which this year is to be in toronto, canada. the 1986 ohs annual meeting will begin at 6:15p.m. on saturday december 13 in the yonge room of the toronto hilton harbour castle hotel. ohs president jerry abrams will preside and guest speaker dr. e.j. fisher, curator of the museum of visual scie~ce and optometry, school of optometry, univeristy of waterloo, will present, "canada is optometrical history." even without making a statistical study of the optometric serial publications of various countries one need only scan the literature briefly to become firmly aware of the much greater interest in ophthalmic history in certain countries. a single just received magazine from east germany prompted this reminder. the may/june 1986 issue of eyggngettk, vol. 103, no. 3, received by surface mail in august, has an attractive front cover showing most of a page of an incunabulum with part of it magnified by an early "lesestein'' <literally: reading rock>. in the text of the same journal itself are three articles of historical interest. the first is "die entwicklung der nahsehhilfe" <the development of specatcles for near> by g. ueberschaar, pages 66-71. with technological sophistication dr. ueberschaar traces the near vision aids from adaptations of burning lenses and ptolemy's water-filled glass spheres through the evidences in fourteenth century portraits, the inventions of multifocals, flexifocal designs, fresnel zone plates, alvarez principle, and the varifocals. documentation includes 17 illustrations, mostly diagrammatic and numerous mathematical analyses. the second article is a historical column by c. kuhn, pages 81-83, with commentary on tha categorical distinctions to be made in the use of the overlapping terms "spectacles" and "visual aids". also included are -50several photographic illustrations from the author's own collection of antiques. further, he comments on the contributions of christian scheiner, daca de valdes, pistor, von rohr, johann duncker, king friedrich wilhelm iii, gullstrand, benjamin franklin, george adams, and numerous others. the third ~rt't~lr~·,:"6n:,.;page 83, is a reprint of an article by h. ketteniss in. ~g~g~_qe~ikgcjq~[nsl_ <pforzheim, west germany> 3/1986, p;. 14~ 'entitled "alteste nietbrille in freiburg gefunden'' <the ol~~$~.r~v~~'~ spectacles discovered in· freiburg>. it report.!. ·ehe f'inding of spectacle fragments during excavation for an underground garage in 1982 in freiburg in west germany. for a long time the riveted spectacles were known only from artists' illustrations of the early 14th centruy. from the other objects in the immediate surround it appears that the freiburg spectacles may date back to almost 1278. the fragments are on display in the freiburg museum of prehistoric and ancient history. one may well ask whether the awareness of such historical details has a value to the profession and the individual optometrist. the cultural value can hardly be denied even by the least sophisticated among us, but is there a tangible, practical, merit as well? surely in a profession that leans so heavily on the efficacy of a wide variety of visual aids and an understanding of their functional limitations and clinical effects there must be an advantage to the individual optometrist who appreciates the related efforts, theories, experiments, discoveries, and inventions of some of the most brilliant minds in the history of civilization. the ordinary half diopter lens of today is no lucky accident. the history of its development could fill a book with fascinating chapters. it is not irrelevant to this point that the most prestigious ophthalmic periodical on the european continent in its monthly issues of the past couple years published all of the chapters ~f a new geometric optics textbook in serial form. this was surely not merely for cultural edification. indeed it would be hard to identify another single branch of knowledge that might have greater practical value than intelligent history. besides, it is so interesting. -51~~~tng_nt§iq~~-nq~~qc~ ohs president jerome j. abrams, 0.0., and our ohs imm~diate past president james p. leeds, 0.0. are both in leadership roles in the current drive to raise two million dollars to support the establishment of a school of optometry at tel aviv university in israel. according to a news release received in august from the american friends of tel aviv university, inc., the school, scheduled to be opened in 1987, will be the first of its kind in israel and in the middle east. a half page of the forty-fifth annu~l report of the victorian college of optometry, australia, is devoted to "the archives" and the fact that two "honorary archivists", michael aitken and brian flynn, have for many years collected, catalogued, and preserved documents~ books, spectacle frames, and ophthalmic equipment. each year they put part of the collection on display in the conference room of the college. for the 50th anniversary of registration of optometrists in victoria they displayed letters, documents, photographs, and records of examination results relating to the original registration in 1935. in the june-august 1986 issue of ib.~_§qyitl8f~i.£!hl qq~qm~~~t~i, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 69-71, editor david reynolds reprinted the following two-page article for a 1929 johannesburg weekly paper called ib~_§j~ffiqq~· a sjambok, incidentally, is a whip of dried hide for flogging. the significance of the article is considerably enhanced by the realization that in 1929 optometrists were not registered in south africa and were then known as opticians or ophthalmic opticians. dr. reynolds explained merely that the "fascinating publication turned up on my desk the other day." -52editorial and ijusiii"'is i)ffic'rs: 'phonr central 2r107. 23, sadftnon'a bldta.. pnsldut street, jobannesbarg. saiimi'ipllon ralel, iss. post free. ovetwas, s7l ld. all sulou.rij!ii<•nr. """.''''' '"' •••nt t" c.li:.a. dil:ftt. ft>r .. !'f!-''":~i""~'~"' lloll..,., nol;l~. rtoain""" t.!'!'.!'!f.."!: a weeklr critical paper lor ute spreadlag of ute 'lnatb.. j~ly 26th, 1929 the great londo11 eye specialist amusing scene at hatfield house eyewash for the hawk-eyed despite the fact that the reputable of this town has ceased to ac­ advertieements for the south· '-"'·•ru:an eye and ear institute, the london optometrists," mr. gainsborough ud mr. arthur continue to operate gaily in shabby consulting rooms at ihlitfiejd house, and we have no but to revert to tm sllbject of se!!-jauded operations, in th"!! of persuading them to abandoj. attempts at. eye wasbintr johan1 nesbll~rg. their impudence . truly js arthur gainsborough, " the loadon specialist." was work­ an optician'a (or oculists's) as­ in this very town under his lril~t1'ul name of abraham ginsberg, months before he ftooded with bout1ul publicity. he to bave praetiaed as a chemist while id dtu·bu; but his eon­ for the intelliaenee of a city odce claimed to posse "mos!. te the equare yard," can o>nly as amazing and idsultin¥. arthur lewis, on the other in bot water o'\lerseaa only further back, for on january bud" ·devoted over half a to him under these headings:sunlight clinics: grave . warning. quacks under. the ray. at the top left-band corner of th~ expose, \\'os the accompanying pic.uu.u lewis, a mladoa .. lick, wbo ........ ......... ,.. cllajc ia a......,. ture. exactly as now reproduced by us, caption and ail · some of the statements made by "john bull" \\'ere withheld from last week's article pending further investigations. but now we discover that a certain similarity exists between the methods of the "sun-ray" clinic and the south african eye and ear lnstitute. john bull said:" the value of efficient sun-ray treatment is not. be disputed, but, as we have hnd cause to remark on many occasions, it is essential that be carried out under· the most de pendable medical supervision. "in spite of the new· era :suj~·ltayi clinic's contention that it 'perfected treatment.' we there are grave grounds 'for doubt in mauer. .. . ··one gentleman. ~ho called .for a sultation, was received 1101 by a man, as might be expected, 6ut by a goldman. "when he expressed surprise a reluctance to proceed qualified doctor, mr. goldman plained g"lat while be himself amined patients and pj"'!!icribecc course of treatment, everythillg subsequenuy carried out under medical man's sllperviaiod.~ ambitious object. .. as the enquirer was not amoured of this top8j'-tui'w&' .,..,,...n ... -.j ment of the unqualified man precedence over the qualfiied tioner he did not pjioceell treatment. "we think be was wise, for quiries that we have mue i'el~llin:gf the new era sun-ray clinic do inspire confidence. "in the first place it. was ·lisbed only as recenuy as no'wl!lll1ber -53the sjambok jut. add. in spite of its claim that its premises at 1 .... ,..,,...0£" have been equipped without regard to coat, we that only .£2 of its authorised £600 capital has l;ep.n up! .. even with the full £600 behind it, it could not hove to get vuy far, for its objects are 'to carry on the! b.usijlc!sf of iiul-ray add ultra-violet ray clinics, or institutions, anr. buy, sell, hire or manufacture apparatus nnd instrl:used in connection with such business." but that is not all. in february of this year au a:i­ vertisement appeared in a glasgow paper calling nttention to "iii&j"\·ellou.s cures" efl'ecled by the "glasacow sun-11.3:. centre." [and then followed the statements publishe:l by us last week.] now to get at the truth we asked a lady to accompany our artist last friday to the south african eye and en•· institute. for the purpose of finding out if .mr. abraham gillaberjr and mr. arthur lewis did themselves exnmine the patienta and otherwi11e operate. before going there, the "patients," who have perfect sight, were shown the "john bull" portrait of mr. arthur lewis. our artiat, after leaving, sketched one of the " optometrists " who ran the business and who declared they were . "the bosses." here is the drawing. no doubt whatever, is there! the mr. arthur ~ exposed as a quack in " jotu. bull," ia the mr. arthw' lewis whoa:: na1ne bad dot trans­ pired in comection with the south afri· can eye and ear ln­ &ti!.ute • • • until the: ~:jambok published it :-...-...;.;..._.;.;...~--.~;.....----: iut·weelt. now to the " optomr. anllar iawb, u .utclaed •r ea.r metrics" that 10 o!l artist. at hatfield house. .let the lady henelf describe what took place. , a nice little c..eocly-farce. "we decided jwo tem to be·hushend and wife, and had a preliminary rehearsal ••. the worst of rehearsals ia that the absent people of the play don't say the things they should say ••• ! however, we reached the eye and ear ln11titute. there •·as a girl -ted at the de~k. i want to 11ee the bus," my newly-acquired husband :· .;,;,!d her, in hi!\ nr.wl_v.a''lluired boer accent. a niiui appeared from the inner room. "i am the mr. gainsborough.'' " because i want my wife to see the best man." "yea, yes, don't worry.'' he took ua into a darkened room. i was seateocl at a table and looked into the honest hom-rimmed spectacle~ of mr. gainsborough. together we told him a ssd tale of connubial bliss ma'ted by my headaches. the last three months i hat! been troubled with shooting pains and !lubes of lij!'ht in my '!yea, things blurred before me . . . then we had seen an advertisrnent ia the sunday times. something must be wrodi' with dij' eyes! i sewed a great deal ... the glare oj'i. the diamond diggings .•• our words trailed away. "ye.c;. ye~, i quite follow. 1 am mr. gainabo•-lth.' xow mrs. van der llerwe look at this pencil." •lrodsced it betwee!n his nose and mine. "ah ••• yea. ~··'' see it '.louble." i hadn"t time to see an)·tlling. {. minute he had diagnosed asti~ of the lett e)' ,, .. •i hnvp i" wear glaiises r• he said decidedly. •• cut i "ant my wife to be teste.!, like you write ~.h .. r.apo·r:;.:· thl' '"::j"c!:!t optometrillt" jumped. lip i~ t"t'ally not a ve1-y good showftuln and had h·u :lllllbuul hi:< im1>ressive mnchine. howevc!r, he 1;1' hi>< l."n'or. "'of cou111e, 1 shad apply ute test." he a)!,tin ini.(• my eyl's. and then horror! ..• "l"ou /lave .4 squint." 0. :otr. gainsborough! you did for you1'self with it·•·: thou:htic!ics words. in )·our next establishment t•.:ll women they squint. lt"s tactless.. especiady_ .... .,~_. ... ~ tion"l i don't. not any more than i suft"er aochcs or shooting pains or from making my a-.-~ .... ,.h.1 nevc!r touch n needle exe!ept to take out a •v•uno~e&, han• bet•n to the di:~nond diggings, nor am llursting with inward laughter i u.t at the ketralton~~etu .j when i had sat we discussed the gla.sses. a 11ej71 kind would cost .£3 3s.; but it would be mrceh better lo hn\"c! the real ct"ooke's vat·ic!ty! these consisted of a derful tint<.>d gia.'is to absorb the rays of. the .sun. would cost but a paltry guinea more! · i demurred, but my husband, with true bo-er ltederaait~hl insisted on nothing but the best. l:le was \"el'7 get his two sketches! so when i was undergoing t:ltll.lllination in another room where i read letters loard, the areat mr. arthur lewis, whoee c:laaaie fa~tujresl v.·e had seen hitherto only in the columns of .. ·was produced in ot-der to calm the eood dutchma.n'•l suspicions. i don't quite know what the test was about, but i covered that of the two eyes, my right was the the truth is-may i whisper-there is aothinc with my eyes at all. i don't squint, and i haven't an tigma. yet i have 110111ething (it isn't p-een) that any doctor worth, his salt co!jid bel\ for it is jnc,..rebj,el sceptidsm.·... . · ~ but now the seance was ovc!r ••• at least tt_,..,.. i forgettinc the eurt.'lin. mr. arthur gainsborouah, abraham ginsberg, came forward. "a depoait is the thine.'' he murmunld •.• on the blind aide of me. but husband" and i had the intelligent foresight to leave money at home. we ftecl dr. art.llar caldabohagla, llae 1ru1 ia••specie :!st. a•za acna llae jl[ual-eler ... -54our recent attention was called to the september/october 1964 issue of ib~_bg~~~f~l!~~-!n~~i~~~~-b~~!~~' vel. 2, no. 5, on pages 1-7 of which appeared an address entitled, "physics, biophysics, and the st~dy of vision" by professor haldan keffer hartline. the address was delivered in response to dr. hartline's receiving the annual albert a. michelson award at the case institute of technology, now a part of case western reserve· university, cleveland, ohio. michelson, incidentally, was america's first nobel laureate in the sciences. the award was given to hartline in recognition of his "noteworthy research on the sense organs and how they relate the behavior of animals to their physical environment and especially for classical discoveries in the physics and biology of visual perception." to the 800 persons attending the award dinner dr. hartline outlined his concept of the history of visual science, pointing out that, "optics, as its very name implies, arose from a curiosity as to how we see." he added that this question was one of the first to be examined by the emergent science of the renaissance. further, "kepler, taking time from his pioneering work in astronomy, applied his mathematical genius to the subject of vision. after him, optics as a branch of physical science fluorished-----and fluorishes today. with it, the lens­ maker's art developed into a robust technology, yielding a wealth of optical instruments for the benefit of all branches of science. physiological optics developed steadily after kepler and reached its culmination in the work of hermann von helmholtz." hartline then reviewed visual science evolvements in biophysics, psychophysics, visual photochemistry, psychology, neurophysiology, and a long string of other disciplines as intimately related to vision. that optometry continues to undergo changes in role as well as in technology seems obvious to many of us, especially to those of us curious about our historical developments. rare, however, is the finding of reliable contemporary descriptions of such trends, for it is difficult for one to describe trends of which he or she is a part. an exception is an article entitled, "a century in eye care", an interview of dr. adrian hill, chief optometrist at the oxford eye hospital, oxford, england, by janet voke, herself an optometrist with a family -55background rich in visual science. 5, 1986 issue of q~tgmgt~~-!99~~, 477-482. it appears in the july vol. 26, no. 14, pp. in this instance dr. hill has been on the staff of the hospital only eight years, having taken over the responsibility of his predecessor of 35 prior years. the hospital itself is celebrating its centenary. in response to janet voke's penetrating questions dr. hill describes the evolvement of the optometrist's role not merely in terms of the expanded areas of "optical correction of defective signs" but also in "the assessment of most aspects of visual dysfunctions." the latter includes ophthalmic electro-diagnosis, ocular ultrasound scans or biometry, special psychometric investigations such as dark adaptometry and spatial contrast sensitivity, involvement with facial prosthesis, color vision evaluation, low vision reading aid assessment, domestic lighting aid, orthoptic counseli~g, and consultation in preschool, industrial, and occupational visual screening. clearing out his accumulated files, a dutiful retirement pastime, ohs member, d.g. hummel, o.d. reports finding a memo to himself stating that the late arthur p. wheelock, o.d. was the last male lineal descendant of reverend wheelock, founder of dartmouth college, and that dr. wheelock's grandmother was a prentice. "where have all our records gone?" is the title of an article by emma cobb in the fall 1986 issue of emg~is~d ~g~it~gg_gf_!n~gnti9d§_~n9_!gsbn9l9s~~ vol. 2, no. 2, pp• 8-9. she reminds us that with our rapid technological developments much of the electronically recorded information of the world has already become inaccessible by reason of the dismantling, abandoning, or discarding of compatible retrieval systems. for example, a big batch of microfilm copies of every enemy document captured by u.s. forces during the vietnam war cannot be read by any instrument known to exist still today. similarly, the five thousand reels of magnetic tape records of the 1960 census became completely irretrievable by 1975 because the type of univac required no longer existed. says the u.s. committee on the records of government "the united states is in danger of losing its memory." -56can this happen in optomet~y? indeed, i can cite a pe~sonal expe~ience. about 25 yea~s ago i decided to study the ~elationship between d~ive~·s vision and highway accidents involving many thousand testing and inte~views ~eco~ds f~om a~ound the count~y. by the time i had gotten the va~iously supplied data t~ansc~ibed into pencil dots on a special compute~ fo~m the compute~ equipment at my unive~sity had been ~eplaced by a diffe~ent model which could not ~ead my fo~m. locating a compatible model at an institution about 100 miles away, i had to ship my ca~tons of data the~e fo~ t~ansfe~~ing to a tape which could be ~ead by ou~ newe~ model. f~om this i prepa~ed and published a repo~t based on the single factor of visual acuity. i then anticipated doing a whole se~ies of analysis of othe~ visual factors, but a couple of years ago i was info~med that my unive~sity has again changed its computer model. the tape is now collecting dust on my office shelf. the f~agility of early ~eco~ds and archival evidence has long been heavily felt by histo~ians. no~ is it seeming to change. h.w h. ohs membe~ jay m. enoch is convinced that the co~nea of the eye of a bull's head rhyton (d~inking ho~n> dated 1550-1500 bc was designed to function optically. the steatite (soapstone> artifact is located in case 51, no. 1368, at the he~akleion museum on the island of crete. it was b~ought originally f~om the little palace in the ancient city of knossos on the no~th coast of the island. d~. enoch p~esented the a~guments fo~ his conclusion in a pape~ ~ead at the inte~national symposium on visual optics, tir~enia, italy, may 2-4, 1986, the p~oceedings of which a~e being published by sp~inge~ verlag, heidelbe~g, west ge~many. a copy of d~. enoch's manusc~ipt is on file in the inte~national library, a~chives, and museum of optometry <ilamo> in st. louis, missou~i. reviewing fi~st the glass technology of the era, secondly the definitive att~ibutes of a lens, thi~dly the obse~vable optical t~aits of the bull's head co~nea in question, and fou~thly the ancient lite~a~y refe~ences to pupilla~y functions and imag~s and their cultural inte~p~etations, he concludes that, though also deco~ative, "this is the fi~st clea~ evidence of lens use." -57"a brief history of ophthalmic publications in america" by daniel m. albert, m.d., in the may 1986 issue of qebib~lmglgg~, vol. 93, no: s, pp. 699-708 is an excellent commentary on ophthalmology-related publications that have appeared, though not necessrily printed, in america. the author points out that, "if you go all the way back to colonial america, you will find that there were few american medical books and fewer formally trained physicians." he mentions as a prototype the manuscript by cotton mather <1663-1728) entitled "the angel of bethesda," reprinted in 1972 by the american antiquarian society, barre, massachusetts, "compiling all the medical knowledge available in the colonies." chapter 32 is said to be devoted to the eye and includes comments on "the use of spectacles." the first american textbook on ophthalmology was by dr. george frick in 1823. it included a section on refraction which "was merely a three page definition of myopia and presbyopia," though a portrait of dr. frick shows him wearing spectacles. dr. albert's only other reference to ophthalmic optical aspects of ophthalmic history is in the citing of the long title of an 1836 book on the eye by a new york oculist named william clay wallace which includes," ••• with remarks on the use of medicines as substitutes for spectacles." the 63 references are virtually all related to the medical and surgical aspects of ophthalmology, i.e., with almost nothing in visual science and ophthalmic optical science. such a fine bibliography of ophthalmological history could well provide a convenient opportunity for someone to trace the chronology of ophthalmological involvement with the basic visual and optical functions of the eye, including the many centuries of use of spectacles. is there a hobbyist who collects optical company publications? i have in mind catalogs, instrument manuals, instructional brochures, and perhaps even promotional leaflets, the very items that are normally presumed to have only highly transient value and are typically disposed of immediately upon their recognition. to suggest that they should be preserved would make most of us groan. storage space alone would be prohibitive. -58just dating each item would be a task, say nothing of setting up a workable system of filing and indexing for retrieval purposes, an archival nightmare. but fortunately many a hobbyist can enjoy the most time-consuming drudgery when it is in pursuit of his or her recreational objective. might there be merit in such a collection? surely most of us would smile a bit amusedly at any expression of assurance of its great value. but is not the lack of apparent merit true of the major share of the activity we undertake? indeed, think about that slowly. just thinking about it may be the most meritorious activity you have undertaken in days. but now i return to my question. much, but not all, of the information in optical company publications occurs in the advertisement section of professional journals. some, but not all, librarians remove and destroy the advertising pages of journals before permanently binding them, thus to save shelf space and literary bulkiness. a justification of such policy is the utter repetitiveness of the advertisment content. such practices and attitudes of course are what explain the rapid disappearance of company publications, whether in the form of journal advertising or commercial handouts. they are virtually never copyrighted, which would at least provide for their accumulation in a federal office. they are rarely dated, thus undermining their eventual documentary value. nevertheless, their technical content and descriptions are characteristically precise in spite of being a bit flowery,for a company must stand behind its claims if it wants to survive. they often include excellent photographic and schematic illustrations unavailable elsewhere. many a practitioner relies heavily, and perhaps sometimes solely, on the continuing education he derives from current optical company publications. what prompted these thoughts? some months ago i had come across the newsletter of a local medical historical society which bears the delightful title, §o~~~~ggt_&kt~~si· wondering if i could come up with an analogously clever title for the ~~q~tl~§~ i momentarily came up with in~_qg~el~-b~gbi_b~oe and then wondered how that had come into my historical consciou~ness. it seemed to me that when i was a very young optometry student i had heard an "old timer'' refer to "double aught lenses" as the prevailing choice of his era. -59i hastily wrote david cline of the dictionary of visual science knowing that in his very early years he had been employed by a spectacle firm. he vaguely remembered the term and eventually referred me to a 1912 american optical company catalog on page 204 of which are the detailed sizes of uncut and edged spectacle lenses and segments. the "00" eye size was the median of seven sizes, namely, 2,1,o,oo,ooo,oooo, and jumbo, ranging in bevel edge lenses from 26 x 35 mm to 37.4 x 45.4 mm respectively. numerous other size designations are also listed, but it appears that the "00" was the most common choice of the era. whether it was pronounced oh oh; double oh• double aught, double ought, double naught, double nought, or double zero, is not revealed, but perhaps a few of our older readers will try to recall and inform me. but again i have digressed form the issue of optical company literature. the 1912 american optical company book is a magnificently bound hard-cover volume of 350 pages of heavy glossy paper with a well edited 1833-1912 historical chapter profuse with excellent photographs. each category of ophthalmic optical products is introduced with sophisticated text material and technical explanation. like the best of textbooks a table of contents is included and an index of more than 400 entries ranging from "adjustable guards" to "zylonite rims". browsing further in the optometry library at indiana university i discovered another catalog entitled "ophthalmic lenses and accessories", a bausch 8< lomb optical co. catalog of "lenses, frames, magnifiers, and readers" dated 1916. also bound in hard cover with 150 pages of fine gloss paper, a historical chapter, several technological chapters with substantial commentary, photographs, charts, graphs, an extensive table of contents, and even item-by-item prices. both books are so fascinating that either might well be reprinted today for display as conversation pieces in optometrists' reception rooms. quite evidently these and other companies' catalogs of similar quality were distributed gratuitously en masse to the firms· thousands of optometric customers. but how many of these books remain? i would be surprised if even a hundred now exist in the whole world. yet these are impressive enough to grace any book shelf. comme~ally sponsored publications of less profesaional appearance have long since vanished, i fear. -60but if someone has made a hobby o~ collecting such items, what interesting historical concept might be derived therefrom other than the documentation of technological changes in eyewear? well, from my own personal background in optometric academics, i would find the comparative role of industry in professional education a theme worth exploring. surely others would discover other interesting theorems to pursue. h.w h. drs. robert f. heitz and jay m. enoch have co-authored a paper entitled "leonardo de vinci: an assessment of his discourse on image formatin in the eye" to appear in the proceedings of the international symposium on visual optics, tirrenia, italy, may 2-4, 1986, published by springer verlag, heidelberg, west germany. a copy of the manuscript is being placed in the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, st. louis, mo, usa. the authors have studied carefully leonardo's optical and ocular discussions in manuscript d. . they point out that he "struggled with the problem of imagery in the eye ••• and sought to better define the seat of visual excitation." in spite of his numerous optical diagrams, analogies with the camera obscura, and his suggested analysis involving the submergence of the observing eye in water, he never seems to have understood the optics. they add, "it was impossible, of course, for leonardo to know that the re-inversion of the image occurs in the brain." according to a recently received news release from the optometric extension program, the "21 point analytical sequence," more familiarly called the "21 points," was first presented to the profession by dr. a. m. skeffington as his recommended standard optometric procedure in 1929. in august of this year, 57 years later, pacific university college of optometry and the optometric extension program jointly sponsored a conference on theoretical and clinical optometry to reexamine the long~standing sequence and to initiate clinical research to determine its relevance today. the 40 attendees of the conference will gather data on the 21 points during the coming year and compare their results at a second conference next summer. -61in a very real sense, the 21 points have become an historical as well as a clinical phenomenon. an interesting byproduct of this study could well be an assemblage of facts and documentary details outlining how skeffington derived the sequence and its subsequent numerical modifications. would that the participants undertake that aspect, too. otherwise its genesis shall remain a bit mysterious. these are the first five words of tha beautiful epic poem evangeline, a tale of acadie, by henry wadsworth longfellow (1807-1882). the poem was a reading assignment in my early teens, some 57 years ago. the opening sentence was all i remembered, believably because i struggled with the meaning, spelling, and pronunciation of "primeval," a truly sophisticated adjective in my rural midwestern hometown. though reared in a community with a circumstantial lifestyle not greatly different from that of 18th century acadia, i really could not then appreciate the sentimental depth of the poem. perhaps that was because i was in my teens, whereas longfellow was almost 40 when he authored the tale. born in the acadian periphery of portland, maine, only 50 years after the actual historical event, he may have had a slight cultural advantage as well. so much for my rationalizatin. what prompted my very late interest in the poem was a recent vacation motoring tour through nova scotia, canada, the heart of former acadia, where many traces of the mass expulsion of a people remain. i bought the book and read the poem again, this time with incredible enjoyment and feeling. only one passage escaped my grasp, and surprisingly it related to a bit of visual folklore, as follows: "oft in the barns they <the children> climbed to the populous nests on the rafters, "seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, which the swallow "brings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight of its fledglings; "lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the swallow!" i hope that one of our readers may know the mystery of the wondrous stone and why finding it was lucky. -62the only other reference of special optometric interest, many pages later, is a clause in description of the children's father, as follows: " ••• and glasses with horn bows sat astride on his nose, with a look of wisdo~ supernal." one can wonder if the acadians of the mid-18th century really had glasses at all or if longfellow was reflecting his own mid19th century experience. h.w h. in 1912, cambridge university press printed a volume selected and arranged by sir joseph larmer and james thomson entitled ~g!!@~t@~_feq@~~-in_fb~~i~~--q~-~ngin@@~ing_e~-~-m@§ !bgm~go~ four hundred and eighty four pages in length and containing sixty eight papers on diverse physical subjects as fluid motion, elasticity and liquefaction, the collection served as a memorial to the long career of british physicist and engineer james thomson <1822-1892). older brother of the better remembered sir william thomson <lord kelvin 1824-1907>, james spent most of his career in the posts of professor of civil engineering at queen's college, belfast (1857-73) and later at glascow (1873-89) where he made new advances particularly in the field of fluid dynamics. from the biographical information in the book we learn that james thomson also introduced twenty­ eight terms into the scientific vocabulary including radian <1873), interface <1874) and ergometer (1876). his active career in academics came to a close in 1889. in the autumn, shortly before the time for returning to glasgow, a new calamity befel prof. thomson, the failure of his sight. the retina became detached in the middle, with the result that in a few days he could no longer see to read and could only write with difficulty, because the part of the page before him directly in the middle of the field of view seemed always to disappear, or to become so distorted, that the words written on the paper could not be distinguished. happily total blindness never came on; even to the end of his life he could see light and colours and could to a certain extent recognize the faces oi friends. when he became more used to the deprivation of clear sight, he learned to write with a blunt black pencil on large sheets of cartridge paper, or better still, with chalk on a large slate, for his wife or one of his daughters to -63copy. dictating always seemed to be difficult to him. by the aid of a magnifying glass and by directing his eyes a little above or below the thing he wanted to examine, he contrived sometimes to study a diagram or a formula which thus had its image on an uninjured part of the retina. the immediate result of his failure of sight was that he felt obliged to resign his professorship. under this affliciton his wonderful patience again asserted itself. he never complained nor was the sweetness of his disposition ruffled in the slightest degree. he still employed his mind with scientific work, even under all the inevitable disadvantages, and took relaxation in listening to the reading aloud o+ literature, and continued his interest in politics. <p.87) after james' death in 1892, his brother william submitted a paper to the royal society which contained notes on aspects of vision made by james. printed below is the full content of this paper as found on page 459 of said book. on certain appearances of beams of light seen as if emanating from candle or lamp flames about the end of last january, when my brother was fully occupied in writing his paper on the trade winds for the bakerian lecture, he called my attention to the well-known beams or ladders of light seen below or above a lamp flame viewed with partially-closed eyelids, and he gave me verbally an explanation of the phenomenon which surprised me very much. by some simple and interesting trials with my own eyes, which he explained to me how to make, i was perfectly convinced that his explanation was correct, and believing it, as i still believe it, to be new, i urged him to write a short paper on the.subject for the royal society, but not to let it interfere with his work for the bakerian lecture, and he undertook to do so as soon as might be after being freed from this work. we hoped,somewhat confidently, that he might be able to give the thus promised paper before the end of the present session of the royal society. that hope has not been fulfilled, and i had offered to the secretaries a communication describing my recollection of what my brother had told me, when his son found a memorandum of date 18th october, 1891, and a little book of notes of date 29th december, which tell the story better than i could have told it, and which, therefore, though not completed in proper form for -64publication, i now give in the unfinished form in which they have been found, with only a somewhat more clear drawing, and description of drawing, substituted for the rough sketch found in his note of date october 18, 1891. proposed probable paper for the <?> society, by j.t. on the nature and origin of certain appearances of beams of light as if emanating from candle or lamp flames. ' description of the drawing. <the drawing represents a vertical section of the eye, eyelids, and watery prismoids, through ff', the axis of the eye. the large number of parallel lines outside represent rays of light coming from a flame several feet or yards away in the direction off', to the eyelids, the prismoids, and the undisturbed outer suface of the cornea between the prismoids. the lines within the eye below ff' represent the convergence to f, the image of the flame, of those of the external rays from the flame which fall on the undisturbed portion of the surface of the cornea. the lines within the eye above ff' represent rays disturbed by the prismoid of the upper eyelid which, incident on the retin.a at bbb, give the perception as if of light coming from without in the direction of the dotted lines outside the eye. it is this perception that constitutes the appearance of the downward beams or ladders of light, due to the prismoid of the ·upper eyelid. ·the rays disturbed by the prismoid of the lower eyelid, in the position represented in the diagram, are all stopped by the lower part of the iris. looking now at the diagram, we understand perfectly that if, with the eyeball and flame unchanged, the upper eyelid be gradually raised a little, the uppermost of the rays coming inwards from the prismoid will fall on the upper part of the iris and will be stopped by this screen. thus, the length of bbb upwards form f is diminished, until all the beams from the prismoid are stopped by the iris, and the length of the apparent beams below the flame correspondingly diminishes to zero. when tbe.upper eyelid is wide open the flame is seen without any appearance of the beams below it. we also understand readily from the diagram how, if the lower eyelid is lifted a little without any change in the position of the upper eyelid, beams both -65above and below the flame are seen. we also conclude that if, with the eyelids fixed relatively to the head, the head is moved while the eyeball remains with its axis in the direction of the flame, we see beams of light above the flame when the head is turned upwards, and beams of light below the flame when the head is turned downwards. also that if the eyelids are partially closed, as in the diagram~ beams will be seen both above and below the flame when the head, carrying the eyelids with it, is turned slightly up from the position shown in the diagram. also that if the eyelids be wide open, instead of half closed as shown in the diagram, no beams, either above or below the flame, will be seen when the two eyelids are equidistant, or nearly equidistant, above and below the middle of the pupil. when the head, with the eyelids, is turned downwards, so as to bring the upper eyelid across the aperture of the pupil beams of light are seen below the flame; and when the head, with the eyelids, is turned upwards so as to bring the lower eyelid across the middle of the pupil, beams of light produced by the prismoid of the lower eyelid are seen above the flame.] -66notes on quasi-ray beams of light from candles, or other luminous spots. date of note, 29th decmeber, 1891. i have noticed decidedly this morning to the following effect: in some cases <the nature of which i intend to note further on> i found that, when seeing a small gas flame with apparent descending tail (or quasi beam of rays>, i could, by lowering the upper eyelid, cut off vision of the flame, while leaving the tail visible; and, by still further lowering the upper eyelid, i could cut off the upper part of the tail, leaving the lower part, the part remote from the flame, quite visible as before. the contrast between lowering the upper eyelid and lowering a screen <a card, for instance> in fron of the eye was very remarkable. in the lowering of the card or other screen, the tail vanishes before th eflame is eclipsed; but in lowering the eyelid the flame is eclipsed first. in some attitudes i could not bring out these phenomena. i did find them when awake in bed early in the morning, head on pillow and light coming down from a gas flame obliquely to the eye. point to which eye was directed seemed to do best when taken at an altitude <angular> somewhat above the gas flame. afterwards, this same morning, i found i could see the phenomenon when standing upright and looking at image of gas in mirror. ray from image ascending obliquely; eyesight directed above image in looking-glass. again, looking at a gas flame a little above the level of the eye, i stood erect and elevated my face, directing my eyesight to above the gas; then lowered the upper eyelid and saw the downward tail remaining when the gas flame was eclipsed by the eyelid. the theory of all this is clear to me, and in agreement with what i have previously devised. j.t. -67take notice that to get the phenomena above sketched out to show themselves, the edge of upper eyelid, where roots of eyelashes are situated, must not shadow the prismoid when the eyelid is lowered enough to cover the pupil from the direct rays of the candle or gas flame. after the candle is cut off from the pupil, the direct rays from the flame must still be reaching the prismoid. this, i think, tallies with the experimental conditions under which the tail was seen when the flame was eclipsed by eyelid. j.t. p.s. same day , 29th december. on a little further consideration i notice that the elevation of the face is of no importance. it is only the elevation of the line of special direction of the eyesight <axis of the eye> relatively to the line from flame to eye that is important. j.t. notes on quasi-light beams <for paper. > often i fail to see the apparently ascending beam above the candle or gas flame. but i find that by very nearly shutting the eye i can see the ascending beam going up very high and the descending one at same time. on bringing my open hand down from above as if to cut off the ascending beam i see the beam as if between my eye and my hand, and the flame begins to be eclipsed before the beam is cut off, or even dim{nished. note by the president of date june 16. i had psked many friends well acquainted with optical subjects whether they knew of this explanation of the luminous beams, and all said "no" until yesterday evening, at the soiree of the royal society, when professor silvanus thompson immediately answered by giving the explanation himself, and telling me that he had given it to his pupils in his lectures on optics, as an illustration of a concave cylindrical lens. he did not know of the explanation ever having been published otherwise than in his lectures. i have myself also looked in many standard books on optics, and could find no trace of intelligence on the subject. it seems quite probable, therefore, that, of all the millions of millions of men that have seen the phenomenon, none, within our three thousand years of sceintific history, had ever thought of the true explanation except professor silvanus thompson and my brother. -68further details on the conversations between silvanus thompson and lord kelvin are found in a footnote on p. 919 of b1i~_qf_bq~g~~@!y1q by silvanus thompson <macmillan and co., 191 0) • i cannot forbear adding here a note of an incident illustrative of lord kelvin's personality, though it concerns myself. at the conversazione of the royal society of june 15, 1892, lord and lady kelvin were receiving their guests at the head of the staircase, and it came to the turn of mrs. silvanus thompson and myself to be received. lord kelvin literally seized me, and hurriedly said to me, pointing to an electric glow-lamp hanging a few yards away, "look at th~t lamp• now half shut your eyesa tell me what you see..... i said, "i see irregular luminou~ streaks extending in somewhat oblique bundles above and below." "what are they due to?" he asked. uoh, i have always supposed them to be due to the film of moisture at the edge of the eyelids, acting as an irregular cylindrical lens." "who told you·that? where did you find that?" he asked excitedly~ but just then a hand was laid on his sleeve, and a gentle voice behind us said, "william, there are people waiting." later in the evening he resumed the subject, telling me how his brother, while lying in bed ill, had studied these apparent rays and given him this explanation; and he asked me whether i had written anything upon the phenomenon. had it not been for william thomson's comment that in all probability through all of history only his brother and silvanus thompson had deduced the casue of the optical phenomenon, i would have left this blurb stand as is, but that statement hit me as possibly a bit overstated. so i did a little literature searching, as did lord kelvin, in sources that would have been readily available to him. my first stop was helmholtz's i~~~~1§~_qq_eb~§i2l29i£~l-qe~is§ which surely william thomson would have been very familiar as he and helmholtz were extremely close friends. as to whether william read german well i have not·established except that in later life he used to tell how his father packed-up the family one summer and traveled to germany for the sole purpose of allowing the family to become fluent in the german language. apparently from william's story he never quite became a german scholar <life of lord kelvin, p.l7.) whether he did or not appears somewhat irrelevant as helmholtz does not refer in detail to the entoptic phenomena resulting -69from the tear layer. concerning beams of light or stripes he states only "the stripes are most pronounced near the edge of the eyelid when the lid arrives in front of the pupil, and are due to the thin concave film of moisture stretched from the cornea to the edge of the eyelid" (p.207 part 1, dover english edition 1962>. perhaps helmholtz felt the above statement was sufficient and left the rest to the reader? if so, william tomson missed 1·t ' if he read it at all. interestingly, another source on entoptic phenomena that would surely have been available to william thomson was authored in english by james jago m.d. and entitled 5otgetis~~-~itb_it~-y~~~-io_fb~~ig!gg~_so2_~~2isin~ <john churchill and sons, london, 1864.> this 188 page book with its seven chapters explains and illustrates entoptic phenomena better than any book i have ever seen. chapter3 entitled "apparitions from eyelashes, eyelids, and conjunctional fluids" contains a discussion of the beams of light associated with a candle flame and is complete with an explanation of the cause and four diagrams. after reading dr. jago's book there was no doubt that priority for the explanation of the beams of light associated with a flame did not rest with james thomson as his brother william had thought. at the end of chapter 3 dr. jago wrote a section called, "history of the entoptics of the eyelashes, eyelids, and conjuntional fluids", the last paragraph of which is found below. take particular note of the final sentence. helmholtz, in his article on physiological optics, extracts listing's observations without improving upon them. he records, however, that meyer (1853) has written on the stripes of light issuing from the tear-prism on the lids, without giving any hint of the purport of the communication, and allowing it to be inferred that he had not himself read it. i think it right to repeat helmholtz's reference, though i have not the means , from want of access to the paper, of knowing whether it contain anything deserving quotation. if it treats of the beams of light that shoot upwards and downwards when we wink towards a candle-flame, i may mention that i had accurately explained these, in ignorance of listing's writings, in 1848. hence, unless this historical sketch be defective, several interesting phenomena have been left to be first described and figured by the present writer. -70i would have left this story stand as is, but dr. jago's last sentence hit me as possibly a bit overstated ••••••• d.k.p. in this newsletter we try to record every known memorial fund, award~ medal·, lecture, honor, or other entity intended to prolong the memory of at least the name of an optometrist or friend of optometry. this effort is of course a catch-as-catch­ can procedure, as there exists no formal registry for such recognitions. several of you have alerted us to instances which otherwise would have escaped our attention, but surely we still miss some. the latest example was a press release calling attention to the b~!eb_~~~~sq~_lnt~~n~tign~!_e~~~g given each year at the san jose vision therapy conference, held under the auspices of the optometric extension program foundation. the late ralph barstow had devoted his career to advising optometrists on practice management and economics with a strong emphasis on professionalization. another memorial which we now record here almost three years late was the rededica~ion of the optometry building at the ohio state university as §!~nn_e~_ec~_tl2ll· though technically retired, professor fry is still very much alive and actively engaged in research and writing in his laboratory in the building named in his honor. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1986-17-04-001 1986-17-04-002 1986-17-04-003 1986-17-04-004 1986-17-04-005 1986-17-04-006 1986-17-04-007 1986-17-04-008 1986-17-04-009 1986-17-04-010 1986-17-04-011 1986-17-04-012 1986-17-04-013 1986-17-04-014 1986-17-04-015 1986-17-04-016 1986-17-04-017 1986-17-04-018 1986-17-04-019 1986-17-04-020 1986-17-04-021 1986-17-04-022 volume 3 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. july 1972 election again: number 3 our by-laws state "election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot." the board member whose term expires this year, dec. 31, 1972, is sol tannebaum. nominations for his replacement or continuation for a five year term are hereby requested. election ballots will go out with the october issue of the newsletter. how big ought~ be? in the latest annual report of the long established and venerable indiana historical society the executive secretary discussed what "the reasonable or optimum membership" should be. for years this very active society has averaged something under a quarter of one per cent of the adult population of the state. he suggests that "one in a hundred from the adult population" might be a more appropriate goal. the membership of o.h.s., less than three years old, is 55. this, for optometry, slightly betters the hoosier statistic, but about 170 would put us in the 1% bracket. indeed, we want members, not membership. we want to be sure to include every optometrist and every friend of optometry who has a "feet'for history, an awareness and an interest in the past as a significant factor in the present and future. he is easy to identify. he should be told about the o.h.s., not recruited. he should be told that joining is simple, that all that is necessary is his name and address and his five dollars. secretary-treasurer reports: as of may 26 o.h.s. had a total of $453.06 in funds, with an encumbrance of about $140.00_ for the printing of 1,000 adhesive labels and an undetermined amount for coffee, cookies, and incidentals for the reminisce-in held in st. louis on june 20. details on the very successful reminisce-in will be reported in our next issue. five samples of the adhesive labels are enclosed for your use. more are available on request. the purpose of the legend on the -22labels should be self-evident. merely apply one of these labels to each item of historical significance in your possession which should eventually be delivered to your favorite museum or archives. do it now. remember, time has only one attribute,--it runs out-.--­ te;pus fugit! the following are new members since the last issue of the o.h.s. newsletter: mr. earl r. dablemont, apt. 210, 7009 weil avenue, st. louis, missouri 63115 miss susan hofstetter, 2030 scott avenue, san francisco, california 9411jr library, state college of optometry, state university of new york, 122 east 25th street, new york, new york 10010 mr. m. j. revell, brandon hall, fen lane, bulphan, apminster, essex, england. ~ memorials: this quarter brought only two more memorials to our attention, one to an optometrist, dr. griffith, and the other to a friend of optometry, harold kohn, esq.: the clarence ceymour griffith, ii, binocular visual anomalies clinic (reference: optometric institute~clinics of detroit, inc., detroit, michigan). the harold kohn visual science library (reference: state college of optometry, state university of new york). amemorial down under: f1t4. the waterworth memorial lecture caught my eye in~optometry section the4nnual program of anzaas (australian and new zealand association for the advancement of science) last year. my query to mr. m. j. watson, __ e:~deral director of the australian optometrical association, brought the information that the funds for this annual memorial lecture are provided by his association. the following paragraphs from max watson's letter of may 24 tell the fascinating story: "your letter which was on my desk when i arrived, reminded me to contact waterworth in tasmania in order to find out whatever i could about -the history of newham waterworth, the man whose memory is honoured in the waterworth memorial lecture. in this way i have found ~~-· ~the following material which may be of interest to you. ~~ ~ ~ .,;"· '~newham waterworth was born in england around about 1870 and migrated with his parents, four brothers and a sister to australia in 1890. his father was a carpenter and his mother a chronic invalid • the family:were exceedingly impoverished, so much so that the children were only able to receive a very elementary education. it did not extend to specific education in any trade or profession. -23"the four brothers and sister as well as father, exhibited one characteristic however, and that was a characteristic of industry and determination. "newham waterworth managed to become an apprentice cutter in a tailor's establishment, and for some years made his living in this manner. quite by accident, he found that he was an accomplished if untaught, hypnotist, and being somewhat tired of the life as a tailor's cutter and its low income, set himself up in the city of brisbane as a hypnotist using hypnosis as a therapy in nervous disorders. in this way, waterworth made quite a name and reputa­ tion for himself in brisbane. "around about this time, he met and married a queensland school teacher. they honeymooned in tasmania, and the new mrs. waterworth fell in love with the city of hobart. waterworth and his wife never returned to brisbane from that honeymoon, but settled in hobart. "newham waterworth and his brother edward, managed to obtain some very rudimentary training in the field of optics. it is not now possible to say exactly where they receivedthis training, but it is thought most likely that it came at the hands of itinerant optometrists visiting tasmania from the australian mainland. armed with this somewhat rudimentary knowledge, newham set up in the practice of optometry in hobart, whilst brother edward established a practice in launceston. edward waterworth hardly seems to have ruffljf the surface of optometric history and no-one really knows any~1ng about him or his launceston practice. "newham on the other hand, rapidly built up a very large following in and around the city of hobart. he acquired by methods common in those days, an increasing level of optometric education, and perhaps was one of the first people in australian optics, to acquire the vision glorious of what may become the optometric profession. he also became somewhat irate at the activities of what he termed unscrupulous men from the mainland, who with about the same level of optometric education as he had, were exploiting the people of tasmania. newham waterworth in a very determined and characteristic manner, set out to see what could be done in order to stop these unscrupulous men and their activities. "he found that the only logical way to approach the situation was to persuade the parliament of tasmania, to pass an act of parliament regularising the practice of optometry. having reached this conclusion, he enlisted the support of other resident optometrists located in tasmania. with their efforts and a gr~at deal of personal involvement on the part of waterworth, the tasmanian government in 1913, passed the first optometry registration act in the british empire. "for 30 years after the passing of that act in 1913, waterworth acted as registrar of the tasmanian optometry board. he provided a great deal of the drive and energy that was necessary to ensure that the board appointed under the act, did a proper job. he is accredited with much of the responsibility for the forward thinking exhibited in -24the regulations of the tasmanian act whj_ch has controlled advertising and prevented the commercialisation of optometry in tasmania. "newham waterworth achieved his place in the australian optometry's hall of fame almost exclusively for the work he did firstly as the driving force in the enactment of the optometry regulations in tasmania, and secondly, in the capacity of registrar as the guiding hand for 30 years on optometric legislation. "i suppose ·it can be said that in the british empire at least, if not in the english speaking world as a whole, that newham waterworth started the ball rolling and set about a chain of events which has resulted in legal recognition and regulation of the practice of optometry. "i do hope hank that this material will be of interest and value to you. unfortunately we in australia and particularly in optometry, have not been very diligent about preserving our history. even waterworth's son seems to have but a very faded memory of what his father achieved in his lifetime. waterworth's son by the way is philip waterworth, f.b.o.a., f.s.m.c., who was registered in tasmania in 1930, and is currently the senior partner of a three man practice in the city of hobart." pacheco-neill feud: o.h.s. member antonio pacheco ttpuerto rico sent me copies of correspondence between him and dr. john c. neill of philadelphia in which they attempted to outdo each other in "total family years in optometric service." the pacheco family has racked up a total of 133 years in three generations involving tony, his father, an uncle, a brother, and a nephew. the neill family has accumulated 153 years in three generations involving jack, his father, and grandfather. however, jack is now alone adding only one year per annt,.m to the neill score, while the three living pachecos are now adding three years per annum. in fact, tony has both a son and a nephew studying optometry, so the pacheco rate of addition will soon be five years per annum! , jack reports that his own sons are not optometrists, but that one of his grandsons may carry the optometric flag. obviously, the race is not over! aside from the arithmetical aspects of this very vital contest the correspondence shows tremendous contributions by both families in their various roles in the organizational development of the profession. any optometric family that can beat thei~ records, or that may be in the race, is invited to submit the information for the newsletter. li hours of daylight: from 8,300 miles away by the great circle route came an application for o.h.s. membership from dr. n. b. shetty, 7-e, gunbow street, fort, bombay, india. his letterhead identifies him as optometrist and -25contact lens practitioner and as hon. gen. secretary of the all india contact lens practitioners association. with his membership we, too, can claim that the sun never sets on our society membership! optical philately: "the interesting field of topical stamp collecting" is the title of a brief article on stamps that portray optical science in its various phases. color reproduction of 35 stamps include not only famous people shown wearing glasses but microscopes, telescopes, and famous men who have contributed to optical science. says the anonymous author, "as yet, there are no great rarities among stamps devoted to optics, although some can cost as much as ten dollars each even now." the article appeared in bausch & lomb today, vol. 16, no.i) april 1972, pp. 22-25. for the record: ----~...;;..;;..= recently i came across some correspondence with herbert j. welch, an early hoosier optometrist who, were he still living, would have been 100 years old last april 14. he almost made it, having relinquished his license on his 90th birthday to enjoy a few years of retirement. he felt he had earned them on the basis of an estimated 100,000 refractions! the indiana optometric association records do not show that dr. welch was ever a member, nor is there apparent any special claim to fame or even intraprofessional stature. it may well be guessed that he was a rather ordinary representative of early pioneer optometry. hence two of his longhand letters, reproducted here in full detail, ·--serve·as an early inside.view completely unembellished by anyone's efforts to touch up the details. "h.w. hofstetter o.d. instructor in optics bloomington, 'ind. "dear mr. hofstetter "103 east pontiac st. ft. wayne, indiana march 26 57 "your letter of march 21 in regard to my letter was received last sat. yes, it is gratifying to an optometrist that has fitted a large number of glasses, that he has helped~ many to~ better what they have been required to do. no way of telling what amount of good he has done by his skill & labor"my father came.to the u.s. with his parents when about 12 years old and they settled near syracuse, n.y. salt had just been discovered x i ·. -26and father worked as a cooper making salt barrels for several years. later came west, located around logansport, and when pres. lincoln called for volenters father enlisted and went clear through the civil war. after his discharge in 1866 or 67 he bought an 80 acre farm (all prairie grass) 2 miles east of goodland, ind. {now one of the best improved farms.) and while he was very much machanical he spent most of his life on the farm. (no machanical jobs to be had at that time) he built a small house (later made larger, now a modern home) and got married and raised 3 sons of which i was no 2. all wer_e __ _ machanical. it was about that time they changed running the threshing machine from the old horse power to the steam engine. i became much taken up withthe steam engine. while about 13 from a book i had, i decided i could make one which i did at the age of 15 a druggist in goodland said he thought i was so machanical i would make a good watch -maker. i fell for the idea & went to parson's about the only school of that kind at that time after a course in watch work and hand engraving, i was told that most all glasses were sold through jewelry stores, and i should learn how to do that , also. when i came home i started a department in humsten's drug store in goodland march 16th 1892 a few years later i bought the jewelry store in remington and later 21 years in wabash with a store and in 1925 i moved to ft. wayne and have had an optical office ever since here. after i got my watch makers tools i made several nice models of steam engines. one (with a slide valve) that sets in a base 1/2 inch by 1 5/8 inches of a-;;; ddll design, i consider is the smallest steam engine ever built of its ·kind. "on my diploma is a nice picture of parsons school. however i am . still using it and it hangs in my office i could copy what it says for you or perhaps it could be photographed. it is signed 'j. r. parsons principal' and 'john w. lambert m.d. instructor in optical scicences' aphotograph 6 1/2 x 9 inches of 30 people most 'watch maker' students including mr. holms instructor in engraving. mr. hood instructor in watch work and my self when about 19 years old. (john lambert not in the picture, and i don't have his picture) howeve_r __ _ j. r. parsons at the end of the picutre which i could cut off and send to you as i don't need it, or perhaps the picture could be photographed for you i have 11 pages (8 x 12 inches) copy of the instructions given me by prof lambert, describing the eye and lenses & frames, and how to examine eyes and fit glasses etc, which i can do with out and you could have. it is written in ink and quite good condition (made in 1891) "i also have 2 small books about 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches that you could have also one practical optics for beginers illustrated 'by charles n. mccormick instructor in mccormick college chicage 1895' the other 'new methods in the science of the fitting of glasses by w.g. fay •. optician springfield, 0. 1896' one paragraph in the preface of fah's book reads thus-* 'science of fitting glasses and_to explain my ~ methods of measuring and correcting all errors of refraction from a distance .2f (14) fourteen inches instead of twenty feet.' also i believe he puts most stress on fay's optimeter' i remember i had & -27c used one but done away with the use of it years ago. little like this stand, has with figures on it with lens to move back & forth while person looks thru slot at hole at small print at other end. "i believe parsons in the beginning was a watch repair man who had a number of calls to teach young men the trade, that led him to start a school for that purpose. i believe it was only 1 or two years after i left the school say 1893 or 4 that mr parsons moved his school to peoria, ill. into an old watch factory building (i think they made the peoria or aoria watch) and discontinued.) he, i believe formed a partnership with 'miss ide' (who had money) and it became know as 'parsons ide & co watch maker's school.' later i believe mr parsons and a mr bradley took over and it became the 'bradley politectical school' '~ell this is all for now '~ith regard i am very truly herbert j. welch" "i am still using the old trial case of lenses i bought in the beginning with the plate glass lid, consisting of 33 pairs 33 ii 20 20 ii ii a number of prisoms etc. and have retinascope etc + spheres ii + cylinders ii "'dioptra' is also shown in inch systems the trial case made by f a hardy & co of chicagp later taken over py american opt. co." "103 east pontiac st. ft. wayne, ind. mar 16 1957 "dear doctor "will just mention it, as i think of the date. it was just 65 years ago to day that i started in business (for my self) i had just arrived home from attending 'parsons horological institute, at la porte, ind. "i had taken courses in watch work, hand engraving, and examining eyes and fitting glasses. my optical diploma is dated nov. 13 1891. -28"there were no optical schools at that time and no laws nor require­ ments. many pedlers traveled thru the country selling 'spects' to those that could see better by just trying them on. i have enjoyed my lifes' work and have helped many thousands of people to see better. "very truly "h. j. welch o.d." visual science history: the documentation of contributions of optometry to visual science was an assignment made recently to some of the staff of the american optometric association in compliance with a request coming out of one of the federal government agencies. maria dablemont, of course, did yeoman service gathering the information. an interesting little gem she picked up was the following quote from a. jay cross in a paper he gave at the meeting of the optical society of the state of new york on june 8, 1897. "next to plastic glass, or a jelly like refractive substance that would be practical for optical purposes, might come a material that would be the equal of our own present glass, only more durable, or less liable to crack or shatter. lenses could then be made thinner, lighter in weight and more inconspicuous, than those we now use. the specific gravity of glass being greater than that of some metals, possibly an improvement could be made in the form of lenses, so as to avoid the great weight now incident to those of high power." the title of his paper was, "individual research in theoretical and applied optics," in the optical journal, vol. 3, no. 6, august 1897, pp. 297-298. this little gem points up the utter elusiveness of credit identifi­ cation for contributions in science. in the military, where the actions of ~ach soldier are most methodically observed and recorded, a private may be respotisibl~"for execution of a crucial tactic, but the general wins the battle. in a football game, where the critical observers, analysts, and cameras outnumber the players, the single action of a lineman may be responsible for the success of a play, but the quarter­ back carries the ball over the goal line and the coach wins an extension of his contract. even in the field of education with its thorough system of grades, registrars, and transcripts, a teacher may be the lifelong inspiration of a pupil, but it is the pupil who becomes president. now, science simply does not have a bookkeeping system for keeping track of the ideas and concepts that emerge from endless discussions and seminars or even from the exchanges and sharing of observations and ideas in the laboratory. who knows who really invented spectacles? or who was initially responsible for a scientific advance­ ment announced by a major corporation? how many of us realize that the accommodation-convergence concepts attributed to donders were based on research by his student macgillavry? or what assistants macgillavry may have had? that emmert's law did not originate with emmert? that -29the pulfrich effect was never seen by pulfrich? that the panoptic bifocal was invented, and patented, by james hammon? that the adjustable hospital bed was designed by a machine shop employee rather than by the dean who held the patent? that a graph of clinical optometric data routinely credited to charles sheard was originally published by frank weymouth? and even that the oath of hippocrates probably was not written by hippocrates. in fact, most of the readers of this newsletter undoubtedly think that the formation of the optometric historical society was my idea. it was not. further, if i name the person who proposed the idea to me, she would undoubtedly declare that someone else gave her the idea, and perhaps correctly! so, how does one document optometry's contributions to visual science? like the searcher for the fountain of youth and for the holy grail the endeavor will long continue and the serendipitous discoveries en route will be the rewards. a visual science chronology: the april 15, 1969, issue of suddeutsche optikerzeitung, (vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 234 passim) began a remarkable series of articles under the title of "zur geschichte der sehlehre" by werner rentzsch of vienna. in the brief introduction recognition is given to the origins of visual science in physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and psychology, with examples. the last quarter of the 16th century is · · · described as the beginning of the mutually complementary roles of "optologie" and "ophthalmologie" in the subsequent developments of visual science. apparently for that reason the author began his chronology with year 1575, the date of publication of "photismi de lumine" by franciscus maurolycus. then follow the years 1583, 1597, 1600, 1601, etc. with brief descriptive entries of successive scientific contributions. installments follow in subsequent issues, with the series still continuing as of may 1972 (vol. 27, no. 5), which brings the chronology to year 1834. the citation references already total 2731 long live werner rentzschl unfortunately i have no information about him, but i hope to make contact with him through a friend in austria. earliest lenses? o.h.s. member earl j. hunt sent in a one-page clipping of an article from the bausch ~ lomb magazine, vol. 30, no. 1, september 1953, p. 21, entitled "lenses ••• 300 b.c." to quote, "near the north african city of tunis, in a white building on top of a gently sloped but commanding hill, several lenses believed to be the oldest in the world are on display." the hill, for many centuries known as the byrsa, is the original site of ancient carthage. the lenses, -30believed to date between 300 and 400 b.c., are in the lavigerie museum of the white fathers of the desert. eight of the lenses are glass. the other two are polished rock crystal, all roughly circular with definite convex surfaces. they range from about 1 1/4" to 3/4" in diameter. a photograph of the 10 lenses in true size is included in the article. getman "mileposts": in an article entitled "the mileposts to maturity," g. n. getman, o.d., has described personalities and incidents in his own career which relate to the evolution of "visual development philosophy." his "milepost ill" dates back to the middle 1930's. his "milepost 117" is identified largely with the 1960's. the article appeared in the april 6, 1972, issue of the optometric weekly, vol. 63, no. 14, pp. 321-331. it is and it was: o.h.s. trustee sol tannebaum wrote an interesting historical account in the april 1972 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 443-451 under the title of "the puzzle of our optometric past." the theme of his analysis is stated in what appears to be a typographically garbled sentence, as follows: "the pieces of our puzzle, then, clearly indicate the separate development of optics and optometry and parallel the development of medicine-as unique a discipline and as old as medicine itself." some time ago dr. meredith morgan, if my memory serves me correctly, 11!1"--------,.-"".a"''"''ased gertrudeste1ri oy sayingnoptometry -is--optometry is optometry is optometry ••• " in effect, dr. tannebaum now says, "optometry was optometry was optometry was optometry was optometry" all the time. advertising history: one of my students, mr. donald simpson, wrote a paper entitled "advertising and optometry" for my optometric history course. he chose for comparative purposes the optical advertisements in four one-week periods, august 24-31, in 1904, 1929, 1954, and 1971 editions of the indianapolis star. to him 1904 appeared to be "the golden age of cure-alls." the 1929 emphasis was on "glamour." the 1954 come-on was "price." the 1971 advertisements played up contact lenses, and fewer advertisers. the column-inch totals remained about the same for 1929, 1954, and 1971. about stereograms: the first random-dot texture stereogram was made in 1954 by claus m. aschenbrenner, a photogrammetrist, according to t. shipley in a -31letter to the editors of vision research, vol. 11, no. 12, december 1971, pp. 1491-1492. the principle and a technique of generating stereo~rams without meaningful monocular contours were well described by macb in 1866, dr. shipley also points out. motion-picture involvement: "in 1898 sigmund lubin, a philadelphia optician, started a studio for making motion pictures on the roof of a philadelphia business x building and a year later opened at seventh and market streets what x seems to have been the first motion-pi~e theatre in the united states. for a long while the lubin studios were a feature of philadelphia, until california beckoned them." so said struthers burt on page 154 of his 1945 book "philadelphia, holy experiment," rich & cowan, london. this little historical gem was picked up by mr. earl dablemont, maria's husband. maria hopes to get more details from the philadelphia state archives and historical society. sigmund lubin is listed as an optometrist in several early editions of the ~ ~ !?l 0_etometri~ts -~d ~~~~. optical aids to art: historically the use of magnifiers, drawing machines, cameras, and even spectacles has played a significant role for the artist, even to the point of influencing the character of his work. this was delightfully and informatively discussed a quarter of a century ago in an article entitled "the photographic eye" by a. hyatt mayor in the (new york, city) metropolitan museum of art bulletin, new series vol. 5, no. 1, summer 1946, pp. 15-26 • • strange places for visual science: while perusing a 1970 book intriguingly entitled oetic~l properties g_f tj}~~' by jerome williams and published by the u.s. naval institute, annapolis, i came across the term "gershun tube" in the discussion of photometry, and it was mentioned several times with the same casualness we optometrists employ when we say diopter or myopia. after a futile search via the library catalog and a couple of computer-processed information retrieval systems i wrote directly to the author. his delightfully informative reply took me to the -!,g,umaj. _!ll mathematf.cs -~d ~l!y_si<;§ (less than two blocks , away!) volume 18, t939, to an article entitled "the light field' by a. gershun, translated from the russian by parry moon and gregory timoshenko, pp. 51-151. the original russian book, apparently of the same title as the translated article, was published by svetovoe pole, moscow, in 1936. gershun, variously spelled gerschun, was a professor at state optical institute, leningrad. x -32the 100 page article is an extremely sophisticated and comprehensive analysis of the principles of illumination. the gershun tube, incidentally, is merely a long cylindrical tube of opaque material blackened on the inside so that as diffused light enters one end the amount of light emerging at the other end, where a photocell may be placed, is a function of length and diameter. woops again! "andrew" was misspelled "andress" on seventh line from the bottom of the page. correction on your copy you will have one the newsletter in existence. page 19 of the last issue, if you will merely ink the of the few perfect issues of at least the error proved to me that somebody reads this! -·-* * * * * * h. w. hofstetter, editor 1972-03-03-001 1972-03-03-002 1972-03-03-003 1972-03-03-004 1972-03-03-005 1972-03-03-006 1972-03-03-007 1972-03-03-008 1972-03-03-009 1972-03-03-010 1972-03-03-011 1972-03-03-012 op-r : .... iii··-···-··························· indiana university : newsletter of the may 2 2 f990 • • • • • ~ptometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) • • .. .. . library ; *li•••••l'i·····················"·· april 1990 number 2 a large envelope: the mailing containing this issue of the newsletter is undoubtedly the largest and heaviest ever done by the ohs. three items have been enclosed in each envelope: the april 1990 newsletter, a 1990 ohs dues statement, and a ten year index (volumes 11-20). readers should be informed that this invaluable index brings the ohs newsletter indexing up-to-date and that the writing, compiling and editing of this index was done single­ handedly by henry hofstetter. on behalf of all readers of the newsletter, present and future, i want to recognize and thank henry hofstetter for a fantastic job! a comment on the dues statement. since we are wanting to establish an accurate membership list, please respond to this statement. if your balance due includes years previous to 1990, we definitely need to hear from you. we don't want to drop any names from the list. quite simply, your membership and support is the ohs and we value it! thanks. d.k.p. 1990 ohs executive board officers: the ohs executive board members have elected the 1990 ohs officers from among themselves. listed below are the 1990 ohs executive board members with their respective off ice titles and the year of their term expiration. president: vice-president: secretary: treasurer: trustees: 1989 board meeting: t. david williams charles haine bridget kowalczyk douglas penisten david goss meredith morgan alfred roseribloom (1991) (1992) (1990) (1992) (1993) (1990) (1993) all seven members of the ohs board and your contributing editor met at 7:00 a.m. on december 12, 1989 in new orleans. treasurer penisten reported a moderate excess of 1989 dues over operating expenses and a net asset total of $5, 995. oo, most of 21/ 12 which is invested in certificates of deposit. the members include 194 from the u.s. and 36 elsewhere. it was reported also that the last three issues of the newsletter were mailed first class, which, after some discussion, the board recommended continuing. the board also voted not to join the optometric editors association for reasons of the very different role our newsletter plays among optometric serial publications. it was recommended, however, that complimentary copies of our newsletter be mailed to optometric editors expressing an interest. it was announced and approved that in future issues of the newsletter penisten will be identified as managing editor and hofstetter as contributing editor. also approved was president williams' proposal that the cumulative ohs executive file which was transferred to him be forwarded to the archives of ilamo, inc. discussed enthusiastically at some length was a suggestion that a two day historical retreat, perhaps in 1992, be planned totally separate from any other optometric meeting, and that its feature keynote and volunteer speakers and displays of collections and hobbies of historical optometric interest. a possible site might be a state park inn somewhat centrally located, perhaps near st. louis. it was generally agreed that with appropriate publicity such a retreatcould well attract 50 to 100 attendees. suggestions and comments are eagerly solicited from readers. h.w h. vision on the plantation: having editorialized several times on the significance of finding tidbits of historical information in early literature about eyes and vision i pursued such sleuthing in a 1773-1774 colonial diary. the title of the book is "journal and letters of philip vickers fithian", with editorial commentary by hunter dickenson fairish, university press of virginia, charlottesville, 1968. fithian was reared in new jersey, received a degree from princeton in 1772, was studying for the ministry, and took a job for the year 1773-1.77 4 as tutor for the seven children of the wealthy, distinguished, and prominent robert carter of colonial virginia. treated graciously as a family member he kept a detailed and highly personal diary obviously with no intent, or even thought, of publication, for its punctuation, spelling, and grammar were quite careless and casual, in contrast with the composition of his occasional well-written letters. 21/ 13 describing a december saturday night social gathering in the manor, he wrote: "when the candles were lighted we all repaired ..... into the dancing room; ...... half after eight we were rung in to supper; the room looked luminous and splendid; four very large candles burning on the table where we supp'd, three others in different parts of the room; a gay, sociable assembly, & four well instructed waiters!" on december 25, he wrote more than 700 words, closing with the note, "last night and to night, had large clear, & very elegant spermaceti candles sent into my room." on a sunday in february he wrote, "this day two negro fellows the gardiner & cooper, wrangled; & at last fought; it happened hard however for the cooper, who is likely to lose one of his eyes by that diabolical custom of gouging which is in common practise among those who fight here." the significance of daylighting in the colonial home is clearly brought out in the following excerpt from his march 18 description of the carters' 76 x 44 ft. two-story mansion: "on the south side, or front, in the upper story are four windows each having twenty-four lights of glass. in the lower story are two windows each having sixteen lights--at the east end the upper story has three windows each with eighteen lights; & below two windows both with eighteen lights & a door with nine--the north side i think is most beautiful of all; in the upper story is a row of seven windows with eighteen lights a piece; and below six windows, with the like number of lights; besides a large portico in the middle, at the sides of which are two windows each with eighteen lights.--at the west end are no windows---the numbers of lights in all is five hundred, & forty nine" it may well be visually significant that the word "light" is used instead of "pane". on a very warm sultry day in june, "mr. carter ....•• introduced, at coffee, a conversation on philosophy, on eclipses; the manner of viewing them, thence to telescopes, & the information which they afforded us of the solar system;" at a september saturday morning breakfast following an all night storm he cites mrs. carter reporting that, "the lightning, rain, & thunder, disturbed me, & kept me padding from room to room all night; i first had the girls beds removed as far as possible from the chimneys---then had lights placed in the passage; and then but without rest or pleasure, i wandered through the house silent & lonely like a disturbed ghost!" these, then, are the totality of my vision-related gleanings from an intelligently and diligently recorded 16 month diary of a young man and his daily experiences and observations in close 21/ 14 contact with a large and affluent family and their circle of acquaintances. not once were spectacles mentioned, though various illnesses, ailments, and remedial measures drew frequent comment. another needles document: another educationally related item from ohs member james leeds' collection is a brittle, black, staple-bound, heavy-paper covered, 21 1/2 x 29cm opus, exteriorly imprinted needles institute of optometry and labeled interiorly as a correspondence course. the lessons are as follows: nos. 1-9, nos. 10-12, nos. 13-19, nos. 20-24, nos. 25-31, nos. 32-34, final lesson, 34 pages, 12 pages, 24 pages, 16 pages, 22 pages, 7 pages, 4 pages, physical optics the eye subjective testing objective examinations ocular neuro-myology eye diseases clinical optometry the pages are printed, one side only, and labeled at the head of each lesson, "all rights reserved by w.b. needles", but not copyrighted or dated. though represented as a correspondence course there is no evidence, such as creases or penciled notes, suggesting that the sheets were originally delivered separately. nor are there test questions, mailing instructions, or addresses which usually typify correspondence courses. there is no pagination, but the numerous figures are numbered from 1 to 99 throughout the numbered lessons plus nos. i to iv in the final lesson. though clearly and quite correctly written, the course neither cites nor includes any references, which might have given a clue as to at least the latest date of publication. in terms of needles ' productive career and the years of existence of the institute it may be estimated that the date of printing was 1909 or soon thereafter. the lesson titles and their contents show considerable but not unreasonable variance from nomenclature of classic texts, indicative that needles was indeed the author as well as the reserver of rights. four historical tidbits: under the categorical heading "historisches", in the november/december, 1989, issue of augenoptik, vol. 106, no. 6, pp. 181-183, east german optometrist v. maxam of rostock has contributed four concise theses. the first traces the concepts of ocular radiation, the theory that the eye emits sensory rays to the object as expressed by pythagoras et al. several centuries b.c. and not completely abandoned until the early part of the 17th century by descartes (1596-1650 a.d.) and his contemporaries. the second deals with the prevailing concepts of cataracts as 21/ 15 described by the surgeon and medical writer paul of aegena of the early byzantine era in the first half of the seventh century. the third topic cites a passage from the german edition of umberto eco' s "the name of the rose" describing the 14th century monk william and his spectacles. the fourth, under the subtitle (translated) "were magnifying visual aids around in 1600?", cites passages from giambattista della porta ( 1538 1615), italian philosopher, physicist, and alchemist, in which are described the effects of concave and convex lenses and combinations to bring into focus and magnify the appearance of objects. jack-of-all-trades franklin: in a previous issue of this newsletter it was mentioned that ben franklin had advertised spectacles for sale. in disbelief that he was in any significant sense of the word in the spectacle spelling business i shared my doubts with ohs member letocha who promptly sent me a copy of the 17 3 8 advertisement l it was essentially a classified advertisement of an odd assortment of imported books and incidental office supplies which included quite incidentally "spectacles of several sorts". other listed items in his advertisement included "gilt paper" 1 "sealing wax" 1 "quilles" 1 "letter cases", "ink powder", "stationery ware", etc. further, dr. letocha provided a copy of page 45 of ronald clark's biography of franklin which included the following two paragraphs: more than a bookseller, newspaper publisher, printer and stationer, franklin also sold from his shop iron stoves and cakes of the crown soap that members of his family made in boston. "it was a shop which defies description, hard by the marketplace in high street," it has been claimed. "there were to be had imported books, legal blanks, paper and parchment, dutch quills and aleppo ink, perfumed soap, rhode island cheese, chapbooks such as the peddlers hawked, pamphlets such as the quakers read, live-geese feathers, bohea tea, coffee, very good sack, and cash for old rags." in addition, tucked in between franklin's other multifarious activities was his work as the poor man's moneylender. carefully marked down in his business books were loans as small as two shillings, others ranging up to pounds, and a loan of twenty-five shillings made to his brother-in-law john read. it should be obvious from this that merely to assert out of context that franklin sold or advertised spectacles can be very misleading. in 1783, franklin was only 22 years old, trying to 21/16 expand his printing enterprise and decades away from the presbyopia that prompted his design of bifocals. temporarily by exemption: responding to my october newsletter commenting about the impropriety of labeling the registration certification of pre­ enactment optometrists as by exemption, ohs member e. j. fisher describes a temporary exception that occurred in ontario, canada, until a legal opinion eliminated it. here is his detailed account: we had the grandfather situation here when the ontario optometry act was first passed near the end of november, 1919 just 70 years ago. the act was proclaimed about april, 1920, and established the board of examiners in optometry. all those who took an affidavit that they were in practice before the passage of the act were granted a license "by exemption". a number of those who applied were really jewellers or druggists who might have done a little over the counter self-selection dispensing, as was common in those days. the first registration netted about 900 optometrists who were granted a license "by exemption••, and such licenses were issued. we have a number of those early applications and certificates in our archives. there were a few who were refused licenses for various reasons. some were really wholesale laboratory personnel. late in 1920, the ontario board announced they would set examinations for any who wanted to obtain a certificate which indicated "by examination11 • about 100 took the first examination and those who passed were able to turn in their 11 exemption•• license for one which indicated "optometrist by examination11 • we have a photograph of this group, and i have been able to identify a few of the individuals. some of you would remember j. c. thompson, w. g. maybee, ed bind. later examinations were also given. so that about 250 ended up taking the examinations. we have copies of the first question papers, and while they were somewhat simplified, some of the questions were not unlike ·some optometry and optics papers today. photocopies of both types of certificate are enclosed. as a result of the two classes of optometrists, there was much friction and hard feeling. shortly, the optometrists who passed the examination were allowed to call themselves 11registered optometrists11 , while the exempt optometrists could not so designate themselves. a legal opinion was received on this matter. naturally this created further hard feelings. finally, by 1925, both phrases were dropped from the licenses, and all were designated uniformly as 11registered optometrists 11 • it 21/ 17 is also interesting to note that of the approximately 900 who were licensed initially, only about 700 retained their licenses until 1925. the rest dropped out because they really were not practicing at all, and were unaware that an annual license fee would be required. the fee was $15.00 at first, later reduced to $10.00 and then in a few years increased again. there was further political trouble here in 1936, and the optometry act was repealed. this was brought about because the board of examiners had been strictly enforcing certain clauses and had annoyed ritholtz. he came here and got the ear of certain politicians and we lost the act. for two weeks there was no optometry act at all. this was about the time of the infamous "readers digest" article which did optometry no good. then a new act was passed with considerably less power included for the board. the new act also included a grandfather clause, and again we "gained" a number of new optometrists about 200 who had not been licensed two weeks before. it took ontario optometrists more than a decade to have improvements made in the act and recover some stability for the profession. by 1960, many of the older, former "exempts" had disappeared from the scene. a reduced, approximately half-size, example is shown here. province of ontario ilnuril nfjexumhttr.aht ®ptnurerry -certificateto practb_ o~tdmotry la the pnwlnu of ontario l>ll' exemption from £xa/.linat~on by ;irtue o(the provisjons of an act of the legislative assembly of . the province of ontario known as the "optometry acf 1919" ~ .. --~·:·. : . }:: 1kto\llai-()~kalt5 . . : . ·-:· :.. . . ·. is hereby·· entitled to continue the ~ractice ·of optometry. giveu: under our hand and se~ this. fflrs_lday olilttalj--a.d. 19z.cl. ".' ' ' . . .... ~. .. .~:4-au.~ certificate no._2i)l._ ~~,a ---~~ dkzu:~ =y 21/ 18 zeiss memorialized in stamps: three colorful interconnecting postage stamps on the envelope of a recently received magazine from east germany commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the carl zeiss foundation at jena. one, a 50 pfennig stamp and another an 85 pfennig stamp each show a modern elaborate optical viewing instrument. the third, middle, stamp shows a portrait of zeiss but no denominational value. each of the three includes the words, "100 jahre carl-zeiss-stiftung jena." carl zeiss foundation anniversary: the inside front cover page of the july/august 1989 issue of augenoptik features commentary on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the carl-zeiss-stiftung on may 19, 1989. proposed by ernst abbe and supported by otto schott and the management and staff of the zeiss and schott firms and members of the jena (east germany) community and the friedrich schiller university, the foundation was named after carl zeiss, who had died on december 3, 1888. in its charter its purposes are very broadly stated in terms of public, professional, and commercial ideals. its benefits to the community include a university children's hospital, a museum, a planetarium, and a school of optometry. hirschberg's history: vol. ii of julius hirschberg's magnificent "history of ophthalmology", translated from german by frederick c. blodi, m.d., and published by j.p. wayenborgh verlag, bonn, west germany, 1982, covers two separately identified periods. part i, pp. 1-280, identifies with the middle ages and part ii, pp. 281-345, with the sixteenth and seventh centuries. the full page frontispiece, interestingly, is labeled "first printed illustration of spectacles" and credited "from schedel/libes chronicarum niirnberg 1493," without further comment. part i is presented in three chapters, the first of which, arabian ophthalmology, 240 pages, includes four pages on concepts of vision and optics according to ibn al-haythem (965-1038 a.d.). variously spelled alhazen and other ways, the great visual sicientist is credited with having reversed the earlier greek theory that perceptive rays were emitted from the eye to the object. the second chapter, european ophthalmology in the middle ages, is only 17 pages long! the third chapter, entitled the history of spectacles, adds another 17 pages and provides a delightful and thorough assembly of historical notes and clues relating to the invention of spectacles. part ii, pages 281-345, devotes four pages to anatomy of the visual organ, 19 to optics and physiology of the visual system, and 37 to practical ophthalmology, thus reflecting the limited advances 21/ 19 in medical ophthalmology during the 16th and 17th centuries. the absence of discussion of the relatively thriving spectacle industry of that era, or of the opticians' art of fitting glasses, illustrates the virtually complete diverging of ophthalmological and optometric roles of that era. as with all of hirschberg's historical writings and blodi's excellent translation and footnoting, this volume is another superb historical resource. in a previous issue of this newsletter it was suggested that the printing of the whole series was complete. the indiana university library has the complete set on order but to date only volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8a, 8b, and part ii of 11 have been delivered. volumes 9, 10, and part i of 11 have not yet arrived. j. hirschberg's vol. 5: as with previous commentary on vols. i, ii, iii, iv, and xi (part 2) of this emerging translation of a most magnificent ophthalmic history, this is an optometrically slanted mini-review of vol. v of julius hirschberg's "history of ophthalmology", bonn, 1985, translated by .frederick c. blodi. if one opens this volume without reference to volume 4 one will be confused by the subtitles of its contents. they show, first, "part three" of the renaissance of ophthalmology in the eighteenth century and, secondly, "part one" of the first half of the nineteenth century. apparently the bound volumes are simple chronological divisions to make the books of approximately equal physical size rather than representative of purely eral periods of categorical significance. the chapter subdivision on the other hand are more topically organized in terms of individual persons, processes, developments, and areas for easy comprehension. thus, the first 18 pages deal almost exclusively with the visual contributions and scholarly pursuits of thomas young. completing the 18th century are the next 23 pages on the history of perimetry and of 18th century concepts of the anatomy of the visual system. the remaining 340 pages are identified with the first half of the 19th century and include details of ophthalmological developments in austria and germany plus the period histories of intracapsular extractions, iritis care, ocular forceps, bloodletting for eye diseases, anesthesia, and blepharoplasty. while all of the material is fascinating to the visual science oriented reader, the more optometrically related portions of the volume are the thomas young and blepharoplasty sections for their visual science and strabismus coverage respectively. this fairly major absence of any details describing the relatively well established optician guilds, sight-testing 21/ 20 skills, spectacle fitting techniques, frame designs, and exploitation of eyewear fads and fashion of that era illustrates the then complete bifurcation of medical eye care and optometry. or will this aspect be dealt with in vol. 6? yet more on hirschberg's history: translated by f. c. blodi and published by j.p. wayenborgh verlag, bonn, 1986, volume 6 of the "history of ophthalmology" is labeled as part 2 of the first half of the 19th century in germany, an era in which, according to one citation, contemporary german ophthalmology "reached a height which exceeds that of all other nations or of any other medical specialty". this volume almost exclusively deals with the medical and surgical aspects of ophthalmology and their involvements at numerous german universities with virtually no coverage of visual science per se. the topical subdivisions in this part include diabetes, pupillary reaction, glaucoma, and staphyloma in great factual detail. volume 7, published in the same year and place, is part 3 of the same half century in france, an era which made its entree following the french revolution of 1792 with a law under which, according to a contemporary quotation, "all universities, faculties, medical schools and surgical colleges were disbanded without that any replacement was provided. ·complete anarchy reigned in education." whether the impact was favorable or unfavorable to ophthalmological advancement is variously interpreted. analogous to volume 6, the coverage of volume 7 relates quite entirely with the medical, surgical, educational, and personal aspects of ophthalmology and to a large extent with the german influence, especially that of dr. julius sichel (1802-1868). german born and educated, sichel went to paris at age 27 and there became "the greatest ophthalmologist in france" with "the largest private practice in the world." he published more than a hundred papers in french, only a very few of which dealt with refractive errors and which are regarded as "the weakest of his scientific papers." he "dedicated one day a week to refractive errors and <;:oncerned himself personally with glasses," though he practically never wore his own spectacles of about -2.50 diopters. his theories and advice generally contraindicated spectacles except as a very last resort. the four short paragraphs from which these citations are derived are essentially the visual science coverage of this volume. additionally, the text includes substantial but brief histories of eye bandages, cortical cataracts, scleritis, keratitis, and the influence of the italian school. about 30 pages are devoted categorically to the contributions of a group of parisian surgeons who were extremely hostile to the foreign ophthalmologists and who also opposed the division of general 21/ 21 surgery into various specialties. true and false issues: commenting on my october 1989 nohs review of an article by john young which appeared in the july/august 1989 optical world ohs member charles letocha writes, i get the impression that you doubt some of his statements in the article. some are true and some are false. marco polo never mentioned eyeglasses in his "travels". this is a widely held false notion; those who believe it should produce the evidence. of course, spina is not the first to fabricate glasses; we don't know who is. in 1804, john mcallister charged $6 for a pair of coin silver spectacles. the iron and brass ones of the 18th century were cheaper than that. i have a copy of benjamin franklin's 1738 ad aad he does indeed mention spectacles in it. the mcallister gold register is correct (it's in the hagley museum in delaware). the chamblant mcallister ad is also correct. john levene mentions it in his long discussion of the chamblant lens in his book. i also have a copy of the ad. in any case, i'd enjoy reading the entire article. i sent him a photocopy of young's article. h.w h. brewster's invention: it may come as a surprise to many that sir david brewster not only invented the kaleidoscope but also wrote a twenty-three chapter book about it entitled "the kaleidoscope, its history, theory, and construction." a further surprise may be that the 19th-century original was reprinted in 1987 by van cort publications, inc. of holyoke, massachusetts as a 194 page 12 x 19cm. leatherette bound volume with more than 50 figures. of special historical interest is the inclusion of an appendix consisting of opinions of "four of the most eminent mathematicians and natural philosophers" as to whether brewster's kaleidoscope was indeed original. among them mr. james watt (1738-1819) wrote, "it has been said here that you took the idea of the kaleidoscope from an old book on gardening. my friend, the rev. mr. corrie, has procured me a sight of the book. it is bradley's improvements of planting and gardening. london, 1731, part ii, chap. i. it consists of two pieces of looking-glass, of equal bigness, of the figure of a long square, five inches long, and four inches high, hinged together upon one of the narrow sides, so as to open and shut like the leaves of a book, which, being set upon their edges upon a drawing, will show it multiplied by repeated reflections. the instrument i have seen in my father's possession seventy years 21/ 22 ago, and frequently since, but what has become of it i know not. in my opinion, the application of the principle is very different from that of your kaleidoscope." the testimony of the other three similarly supported the opinion that brewster's invention was an original concept. the 1987 reprint, incidentally, is a gift of ohs member jack m. weber, o.d. in memory: the american optometric foundation awards william c. ezell. 0. d. . fellowshios to graduate students working toward advanced degrees with funds to support their thesis research. reviewing the mcallisters: because he had acquired several pair of mcallister spectacles for his collection, ohs member charles letocha became interested in the mcallisters themselves as they seemed to be the only makes known to antique dealers. gathering information from numerous sources he put together a talk with slides to give at the ocular heritage society meeting in st. louis in 1988. starting with the birth of john mcallister, sr., in glasgow in 1753 he traced the almost 200 years of ophthalmic optical involvement by the five consecutive generations of mcallisters up to and including the posthumous granting of the honorary doctor of science degree to the forerunner of the lineage, john mcallister, sr., by the pennsylvania college of optometry in 1976. the original draft of letocha's paper is in the archives of the ocular heritage society together with the slides. a copy of the draft is being filed also with ilamo. dr. letocha wishes to rewrite the paper in more publishable form to submit to a periodical with wider circulation than this newsletter can offer. blind editor bids adieu: the last issue of hoosier star-light, a four-page monthly tabloid in large print, appeared in december 1989 concurrent with the retirement of its all-time editor chet perkins. the periodical was sponsored and fully subsidized by the indianapolis star's fund for the blind beginning with its first issue in july, 1954. it was given its name by mr. perkins. funds for its support were derived from the proceeds of the annual indiana-kentucky all-star basketball game. the printing was by the presses of the indianapolis star, and the distribution was free to all identifiable blind people throughout the state plus others concerned with the blind. 21/ 23 while the discontinuation of the periodical was prompted by perkins's retirement, the decision involved awareness that in these 35 years broad improvements have been made in other avenues of communication with and among the blind through library services, radio, cassettes, talking machines, and low vision aids, for which hoosier star-light can undoubtedly take much of the credit. perkins was suddenly blinded during world war ii by a land mine explosion. he subsequently earned a degree in journalism and for a couple of years edited two community newspapers. in 1954, he took on the editorship of the hsl in addition to his full-time employment as public relations director of the american lung association of central indiana. a noble venture: a 24-page 13 x 19cm bulletin of the new york institute of optometry printed in 1909 gladly cost ohs member james leeds only $30.00 for his collection. he then kindly loaned it to us for commentary. according to the contents the school was organized as a one­ year course in 1907 and soon incorporated as the institute in new york. with the enactment of the new york state optometry law in 1909 it included a two academic year curriculum in compliance with the new state licensure requirements and was registered by the board of regents of the university of the state of new york under the administration of which the state board of optometric examiners functioned. listed in the bulletin are all of the 11 members of the board of regents, the commissioners of education, and the five examiners in optometry with charles f. prentice as president. on the faculty are listed a. j. cross as dean, e. leroy ryer as registrar, r.m. lockwood, e. e. hotaling, s .h. brooks, and frederic a. well, all of whom except lockwood plus a richard w. ryer being also listed as the board of trustees. the address is given as 38 east 23rd street, new york city. a three-page statement describing optometry as a career and another three pages describing the history of the institute are written in flowing terms resembling leroy ryer's style of authorship. offered are a two academic year curriculum for students wishing to meet the new york requirements and a one academic year curriculum for others. the courses include ' ~rigonometry, physics, anatomy, physiology, pathology, theoretic, physiologic, and practical optics, and theoretic and practical optometry. among the requirements for graduation is the attainment of the age of 21. entrance requirements for the two-year curriculum included two years of high school or the equivalent. tuition for the two years total $350.00. clinical and laboratory training facilities are declared to be complete and thorough. listed are 90 graduates, more than half from outside the state of new york. 21/ 24 from the printed word: if, in your meandering through a used-books store, you come across a copy of c.s. flick's "a gross of green spectacles", a 1951 publication of hatton press, london, buy it. it is a slender 12 1/2 x 19cm. green-bound 106+ix page book not yet rare but promising soon to become so. its contents are of interest to only a small audience. what's in it? it is an anthology of quotations from both the public and professional literature. they all relate to spectacles, dating chronologically from roger bacon's 1268 comment about the use of a lens for reading to a 1949 satire on the provision of spectacles through the british national health service by columnist "urbanus" in the church times. collator flick derived his selection almost entirely from english language sources and added commentary for clarification of the attending circumstances. the title of the book is taken from oliver goldsmith's 1766 novel "the vicar of wakefield", in which the vicar describes his son's selling their colt and buying "a gross of green spectacles with silver rims and shagreen cases." just as early paintings of subjects wearing glasses give us historical insight as to eral modes and acceptance, so do literary allusions reflect contemporary attitudes toward, and concepts of, visual aids. this booklet is only a modest attempt to prove this, and perhaps too early to have included ogden nash's "girls who are bespectacled never get their necks tickled". on spectacles: "die brille" is the title of a new book by frank rossi, a former jena (zeiss) curator, a history of visual aids with photography by ulrich windoffer 1 published by edition leipzig verlag fur kunst and wissenschaft, 7010 leipzig, postfach 30 1 east germany. ohs member dr. eric muth has received a copy, in which he is cited as a contributor. he reports that the book is being translated into english by dr. frederick blodi of iowa. hurry, hurry, hurry!: millions of volumes on bookshelves (and elsewhere) all across ~erica (and elsewhere} are in various stages of disintegration because the paper on which they are printed is gradually becoming brittle, crumbling from within, and turning to dust over the period of our own lifetime. residual acids introduced during manufacturing processes, which were originally developed in the mid-nineteenth century, and are still being used today 1 are the cause of the destruction. environmental factors are also involved. what can we as individuals do about it? for one thing we can check the storage conditions of the books and periodicals we own personally, or assign them to archival libraries that care. we can 21/ 25 also offer our financial support to archival institutions that are taking all possible measures to minimize the destruction. of most immediate importance is to help establish the awareness of the problem in the public mind. numismatic spectacles: the depiction of spectacles on coins, tokens, and medals traces back to the 16th century, according to ophthalmologist jay m. galst, whose hobby is collecting them and obtaining photographs from others' collections. a couple years ago dr. galst gave a presentation with slides at a meeting of the ocular heritage society. his paper not only described the items in detail but also included a bibliography of 15 sources of information. his commentary included considerable language translation, interpretation of the objectives and significance of the inclusion of spectacles, and conjectures of symbolism. such analyses certainly contribute meaningfully to our appreciation of the role of spectacles in earlier society. for supplementary reading: professor, librarian, and ohs member patricia t. carlson surprised us with seven southern california college of optometry quarterly database printouts of lists of current articles dealing with historical aspects of visual science as reviewed in periodicals received by her college library. the lists for the four quarters of 1988 and the first three of 1989 total 114 articles, an average of more than one item per week. requests for copies of the lists should be submitted to her at the southern california college of optometry, 2563 yorba linda blvd., fullerton, california 92631 u.s.a. to supplement her lists she also included printouts of three searches of "history of vision science" (1976-1982, 1982-1985, and 1986-1988) from the southern college of optometry databases which included a total of more than 300 articles. these are directly available from librarian nancy gatlin, southern college of optometry, 1245 madison ave., memphis, tennessee 38104. these marvelously developed lists are of course derived from the current acquisitions of the respective libraries and therefore do not include the library holdings of prior years. solex vs. p.c.l.: ohs member muth has sent us a copy of judge ben harrison's opinion in the case of solex laboratories, inc., plaintiff, vs. pacific contact laboratories, inc. et al., defendants, number 12460-y in the district court of the united states southern district of california central division filed sept. 14, 1951. the action involves the validity of patent no. 2,510,438 (a copy is 21/ 26 included) covering tuohy's contact lens invention and the defendants' use of the term "cornea" as unfair competition with the similar term "corneal" to identify the lens under adjudication. the rationale of the judge's opinion in favor of the plaintiff on both counts makes interesting reading. the copy will be forwarded to ilamo. contributing editor: managing editor: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1990-21-02-001 1990-21-02-002 1990-21-02-003 1990-21-02-004 1990-21-02-005 1990-21-02-006 1990-21-02-007 1990-21-02-008 1990-21-02-009 1990-21-02-010 1990-21-02-011 1990-21-02-012 1990-21-02-013 1990-21-02-014 1990-21-02-015 1990-21-02-016 optometr newsletter v . y brary of the ertlcal file (. ( optometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) vo 1. 11 october 1980 number 4 s ep l 6 1980 the contact lens centennial 1988 henry knoll writes that he is researching the early development of contact lenses. as with any chapter in history, there seems to be many blank pages. if you have any biographical information on adolf fick, eugene kalt, or august muller, please forward it to henry knoll, bausch & lomb, 1400 north goodman street, rochester, new york 14602. 11 the upcoming centennial of contact lens development calls forth a number of questions which have never been addressed in the contact lens literature. these questions involve the 11 climate 11 surrounding several stages of development. no answers are offered here -perhaps among our readers there is someone who can provide answers. 1. what was there about the state of the art and science of ophthalmology in the ninth decade of the last century that lead adolf fick (1852-1937) of zurich, eugene kalt (1861-1941) of paris, and august muller (1864-?) of kiel to independently develop and write about contact lenses? 2. is there any evidence that fick, kalt, or muller were aware of the writings of da vinci, descartes, thomas young, or john f.w. herschel? 3. references in the british and american literature do not appear until 40 years after the publications of fick, kalt, and muller! during those 40 years almost 200 contact lens papers were published. why did it take so long for the british and americans to get into the act? 4. why were three (3!) histories written in the 1930•s? much, 1932; haas, 1937; and mann, 1938. 5. is there any connection between 11 august muller, m.d., (see 1 above), leopold heine, m.d., and heinrich wohlk, all of kiel, germany? 11 armin tschermak was an esotrope: dr. armin tschermak von seysenegg (1870-1952) a famous austrian physiologist, one of several family members of s8ientific fame, reported osservations based on his own esotropia (about 9 ) and hypertropia (about 3 ). he was also an anisometropic myope (o.d. -5.25, o.s. -1.75). he could fixate with either eye at will, and he satisfied himself by means of the haidinger brush and maxwell spot tests that his fixations were foveal. he used both haploscopic and afterimage techniques for studying his anomalous correspondence, which showed both vertically and laterally displaced anomalous projections of the foveal image of the squinting eye. he also gave what may well be the most valid description in the literature of the monocular diplopia phenomenon manifested in circumstances when normal and anomalous correspondence function simultaneously. -56his report, 11 ueber anomale sehrichtungsgemeinschaft der netzhaute bei einem schielended 11 (concerning anomalous retinal correspondence of a strabismic) appeared in 1899 in albrecht von graefe•s archiv fuer ophthalmologie, vol. 47, pages 508-580. its thoroughness and sophisti­ cation lead one to wonder what more we have learned since then about the nature of squint and anomalous correspondence. the ca~ experiment the following paper by william crawford was mentioned in the january •so issue of the o.h.s. newsletter. due to its unusual content we felt it deserved the members• 11 historical attention ... the 11 cat experiment 11 of jean mery by william l. crawford including a translation of des mouvens de l•iris, et par occasion de la partie principale de l•organne de la vae jean mery (1704) historical background jean mery (1645-1722) was a celebrated anatomist, surgeon, and ophthalmologist, one of the predecessors of helmholtz in the field of ophthalmoscopy. he spent most of his life in paris, serving in a number of royal appointments, including assignments to portugal, spain, and eng­ land. in 1700 he accepted the post of surgeon-in-chief at the hotel dieu (hospital in paris), and devoted his remaining career2to strictly scientific work in surgery, anatomy, otology, and ophthalmology. an early indication of his dedication appeared during his student days at medical school: fontene 11 e writes of mery, 11 not content with his practice during the day, he would steal a cadavre when he could, carry it to his bed, and pass the night dissecting in great secrecy.n3 however, mery will be best remembered for his famous 11 cat experiment, .. in which he held a cat under water in order to study the effects of sus­ pended respiration on pupil size, and discovered that he could actually see the fundus oculi of the cat -the2e~t5ance of the optic nerve, and all the colors and vessels of the choroid. ' ' what follows is a translation of mery•s most famous paper (written in 1704) which includes his own account of the 11 cat experiment ... it also has some very interesting theories on the mechanism of iris movements and on which part of the eye is the .. essential portion of the organ of vision ... on the movements of the iris, and, incidentally on the essential portion of the organ of vision by jean mery (1704) translation by william l. crawford the iris is a membranous ring, placed at the front of the eye. it was r -57thus named because of the various colors which in man appear on its surface through the transparent cornea. this ring forms in its center a hole, to which was given the name "prunelle" (pupil), apparently because it appeared of the color black. this hole is absolutely necessary for vision, because if it had been closed by the iris which is opaque, the rays of light, without which vision is not possible, would not be able to pass into the eye. the pupil dilates in darkness and in water: it constricts in air, being exposed to the rays of light, apart from which one would think that the will was a consideration in these movements. when the pupil dilates, the fibers of the iris shorten; when it constricts, these fibers elongate. now, since one does not observe any circular fibers in the iris for narrowing the pupil, there is cause to believe that its dilation depends solely on the elasticity of the straight fibers of the iris, which all go to terminate at the internal circumference of this ring. but, even though it appears that the constriction of the pupil depends absolutely on rays of light, nevertheless these rays can by themselves neither lengthen the fibers of the iris nor constrict the pupil. all that they can do is but to give, by their entry into the eye, opportunity to the animal spirits to flow in the fibers of the iris more abundantly than they could in darkness; these are therefore the spirits which, in lengthening the iris fibers, are effectively the cause of the dilation (sic) of the pupil. from which it follows that this hole must grow or shrink, according as the light, being more or less strong, allows a greater or smaller quantity of spirits to flow in the iris fibers: but respiration must be a part of this effect; because when it starts to be lacking, the movement of the animal spirits stops, and the light becomes useless. the observation which i am going to report proves this hypothesis in all of its parts. when one plunges the head of a living cat into water, if one exposes its eyes to the rays of the sun, the pupil dilates instead of con­ stricting; on the other hand, exposed in air to the same rays of this star, the pupil constricts instead of dilating. in way of explanation of the first of these two phenomena which seem to destroy the hypothesis which i want to establish, i am going to demonstrate that the dilation of the pupil depends solely on the elasticity of the iris fibers. as for that of the second i will make known that the animal spirits are the immediate cause of its constriction, and that the light can only provide the opportunity for it. as for the first phenomenon, one must remark that when the cat•s head is plunged in the water, that animal can no longer breathe. now the movement of all the matter of the animal spirits depends on the circulating movement of the blood, and that'of the respiration; it is evident that when it starts to be lacking, the circulation of the blood and the movement of the animal spirits must cease soon after. one observes that in proportion to the amount that the movement of these spirits slows down, the pupil dilates, the animal spirits can therefore not be the cause of its enlargement. it must be necessary therefore that dilation depends solely on the elasticity of the fibers of the iris. -58with respect to the second phenomenon, if one pulls the cat back out of the water still living, and if one exposes its eyes to the rays of the sun, one sees the pupil constrict in proportion to the amount to which respiration is reestablished. thus the animal spirits which, such being the case, begin to flow in the iris fibers, are the immediate cause of the constriction of the pupil: one cannot attribute it to the rays of light; because in the eyes of this animal being plunged into the water, the pupils dilate, although much more light entered their globes than when they were exposed to these rays in air; the 1i ght can therefore only be the oppor­ tunity for the flowing of the animal spirits in the iris fibers: but it is not possible to take this opportunity if the animal does not breathe; from which it is easy to judge that the light does not stop producing this effect when the cat•s head is plunged in the water, that because the movement of the animal spirits is stopped at their source by the absence of respiration on which it depends totally, as well as that of the blood. that the dilation of the pupil depends solely on the elasticity of the iris fibers, its constriction immediately on the animal spirits, and by opportunity on the light; here are some very convincing proofs of it. first, when by the obstruction of the optic nerves the animal spirits can no longer flow in the eyes of man, the pupil dilates, it is thus apparent that its dilation does not depend on these spirits; but on the elasticity of the iris fibers, which causes these fibers to shorten in this illness. secondly, if during this obstruction of these nerves one exposes the eyes of the man to the greatest light, the pupils remain in the same dilation: the rays of the sun cannot thus be of themselves the cause of its constriction. thirdly, if one removes the obstruction of the optic nerves, and if one then exposes the eyes of this man to the rays of light, the pupil con­ stricts; it is therefore evident that the animal spirits, which in that moment begin to flow in the iris fibers which they lengthen, are the immediate cause of the constriction of the pupil, and that the light can only be the opportunity: from which it follows that the force of elasticity of the iris fibers being in equilibrium with the power of the animal spirits, the pupil must remain in a mid-dilation; but for that only a medium amount of light is necessary: because when it is too weak or too strong, the equilibrium is broken, and then the pupil dilates or constricts considerably. a weak light, such as it is in shadow, allowing a small amount of animal spirits to flow in the iris fibers, their elasticity gets the bet­ ter of these spirits·, and in this moment the pupil further enlarges. on the other hand a strong light allows the animal $pirits to flow more abundantly in the iris fibers, these spirits surmounting by their power the force of elasticity of these fibers, and then the pupil constricts much more. from thebe proofs supported by experiences so evident, one can finally conclude. 1. that the ani~al spirits are the immediate cause of the con­ striction of the pupil. 2. that the light can only give the opportunity to the spirits for flowing. 3. 0 that the will has no part in it at all. 4. 0 that the elasticity of the iris fibers is the only cause of the dilation of the pupil. -59in this system, although based on unquestionable observations, nevertheless, three considerable difficulties are presented to the mind, of which the first is: to know if less light enters the eyes when they are in air, than when they are in water exposed to the rays of the sun. now one can discern no parts contained in the eyes exposed in the air, (but) submerge so that they are in water: one sees them very distinctly, except the humors and the retina, which disappear in such a way that the inside of the globes of the eyes seems to be filled only with a luminous air. therefore many fewer rays of light enter the eyes exposed to air than submerged in water; this is arrived at by the reasons which i am going to report. as smooth as the exterior surface of the transparent cornea appears, it is established that it has many imperceptible imperfections, which, not being at all flat, reflect in the air a large number of rays of light which fall on this membrane. moreover, when the eyes are exposed in air to the rays of the sun, the pupil constricts considerably. it is thus possible in this state for only a very small number of its rays to pass into the eyes; that not being sufficient for lighting their globes, it is not unusual that one can discern none of the parts which are contained therein. however is it not also extraordinary to perceive them when the eyes are plunged into the water, because of the imperfections of the cornea being smoothed out by this liquid, and the pupil quite dilated, all the rays of the sun which fall on the transparent cornea pass through, and entering into the globes of the eyes, they light them so strongly, that one can then see very distinctly the extremity of the optic nerve, and the choroid with all of its colors and its vessels. but, dne can perceive neither the humors nor the retina at all; because, being transparent as water, they seem to have a similar composition ot it, which makes it such that one cannot distinguish them from water. that the surface of the cornea, as polished ~s it appears, is filled with imperfections which the water smooths out; herein is a very sensible proof. in amaurosis the pupil of man dilates completely, and his eyes being exposed to the greatest light, this hole cannot be constricted. now if the surface of the cornea was perfectly smooth, all of the rays of light which it received would have to pass into the eyes of the man exposed to air, as they are in those of the cat plunged into water, and one would discover the choroid equally well in the one and other. one cannot at all perceive this membrane in the eyes of the man, one does see it in those of the cat; it must therefore be that there are on the surface some imper­ ceptible imperfections which the air cannot smooth out, but which the water flattens. and it is for this reason that a man, if ever he has his eyes sub­ merged in water, perceives an object at the bottom of a river, which he can no longer see when he, out of the water uses his eyes at a minute distance from its surface. it is also by the same reason, life being extinguished, that the choroid of a cat that one sees in the water cannot be perceived in the air, although the pupil remains equally dilated in these two elements after the death of this animal. -60the smoothing out of the imperfections of the cornea by the water, is verified again by the example of glass. there always remain in the most polished (glass) some rough parts which reflect in the air, when they are exposed, a large part of the rays of light which arrive give themselves up at its surface; but when it is submerged in water, all these rays pass through; because of all the imperfections of the glass being flattened by this liquid, there are no longer reflections into the air of any part of the light. · it is therefore certain by all these experiences, firstly, that the imperfections of the cornea cannot be flattened by the air when it is exposed there: they must repulse the greatest part of the rays of light which come to strike this membrane; this is what allows such a small amount of light into the globe of the eye, that one cannot see the choroid, even when the pupil is completely dilated in broad daylight. secondly, that the imperfections of the cornea being smoothed out by the water, that all the rays of light which are received by this membrane must pass through, and in entering the globe of the eye render the choroid visible with all of its colors and vessels. the second difficulty consists in knowing if the rays of light which enter the globe of the eye by the pupil, actually cause the animal spirits to flow in the iris fibers, or if these rays penetrating the fibers do nothing but rarefy that which the fibers contain of the spirits; which can produce the same effect, that is to say, to lengthen the iris fibers, as the animal spirits can do by their effusion. · to respond to this difficulty, it is only necessary to examine if the substance of the animal spirits is exhaled from the iris fibers when the fibers• movement comes to the point of stopping. as it does not appear that it dissipates before death, it is easy to decide the question by the experience of the head of the cat which i have just reported. when the living eat's head is plunged into water, its eyes exposed to the sun, it is a fact that many more rays of that star enter into their globes than when they are in air exposed to its light. in the water the pupil dilates, and the movement of the animal spirits ceases. thus all the rays of the sun which enter into the eat's eyes are not capable by themselves of rarefying the matter of these spirits con­ tained in the iris fibers, since these fibers shorten in the water. on the other hand, if one pulls the head of the still-living cat from the water, and if one exposes its eyes to the rays of the sun, the animal spirits resume their flow, and then the pupil constricts. thus the small amount of light which enters into the globe of the eye actually gives rise to the animal spirits• flow in the iris fibers, since these fibers lengthen in air. someone will ask me perhaps how the rays of light can cause the flow of the animal spirits in the iris fibers. here is my conjecture. i have just remarked that it is not at all by rarefying the material of these spirits. one can thus think that at the same time that the light rays enter the globe of the eye, they penetrate into its nerves, and -61render the matter of the animal spirits more fluid than it is naturally, which causes the spirits to flow in the iris fibers more abundantly than they do in darkness. the third difficulty which presents itself to the mind against the hypothesis which i support, is that one has difficulty comprehending that the iris fibers can lengthen in proportion to the amount of animal spirits which they receive, because one is prejudiced, since all muscles shorten all the more when they are imbued with a greater amount, instead of which the iris fibers lengthen all the more when they receive more. in order to resolve this difficulty which appears the most embarrassing, i consider the structure of the iris fibers similar to that of the corpus cavernosum of the genitalia, which lengthens according to whether it receives more or less animal spirits. the iris fibers must therefore extend them­ selves according as they are more or less filled, if their structure is the same as that of the corpus cavernosum. what seems to further confirm this idea is that it is certain that the shortening of the iris fibers depends, as does the corpus cavernosum, on their elasticity. moreover, experience has taught me that the humors of the eye disappear when they are in water exposed to the rays of the sun, which furnishes me a sure means of resolving this problem; to know what is the essential portion of the organ of vision. one does not doubt that this portion is that on which is portrayed the image of objects. now the three humors of the eye allow passage to the light rays, it is a fact that the image of objects cannot be formed on any of these humors: none of them can therefore be the essential portion of the organ of vision. and because these same light rays which enter the globe of the eye also pass through the retina, it does not seem that this membrane can be the essential portion of this organ either at which one must report vision; since the image of objects can also not be formed on this membrane, which, as the humors, disappears in water being exposed to the rays of the sun; which con­ firms the observation of m. mariette. this learned academician remarked a long time ago that when the light rays reflected by objects fell on the extremity of the optic nerve where the choroid is pierced, one cannot perceive the object from which they originated; because these rays sink into the body of the optic nerve, where they are damped down and extinguished. now the retina being only a very superficial development of its tissue which the rays can pierce much more easily, cannot stop them; thus this membrane cannot be the essential portion of the organ of vision. besides, this same experience which disclosed to me that the light rays traverse the humors and the retina, also taught me that these same rays are finally stopped by the choroid which is opaque; it thus strongly seems that -62it is on the surface of this membrane rather than on the retina, which is transparent, where the image of objects is formed: the choroid is there­ fore the essential portion of the eye. this is the manner by which vision will be made easily understood. when the light coming directly from the luminous body strikes the choroid, its rays reflected by this membrane against the retina move the fibers of the latter, and give to the animal spirits, with which they are filled, a particular modification which produces in the mind the sensation of light. when on the other hand the light coming from the luminous body is carried to an object capable of reflection, and that by reflection it falls upon the choroid, its rays repulsed by this membrane also give to the animal spirits contained in the fibers of the retina; which they move on their return, a different modification which causes in the mind the sensation of color. and because the light in being reflected reveals the shape and the size of the body which sent it, that means that with the color one also perceives the shape and size of the object, and in that consists all of its image. against the function of the choroid which i have just established on sensible experiences, one could nevertheless make this objection to me. the manner by which you explain vision shows that it depends on the moving of the small nerve fibers of the retina, and on the modification of the animal spirits contained therein. that being the case, the light rays are thus capable, being reflected only by objects, of giving this particular movement which you say is necessary for sensation, to the fibers of the retina and to the animal spirits on first entering the eye. the retina is thus by your principles, the essential portion of the eye which serves vision, and not the choroid. in response to this argument, i say that if the 1 i ght rays reflected by objects were not reflected a second time by the choroid, we would not be able to see the objects. that is what experience shows us: because when the light rays modified only by the bodies which send them toward our eyes, fall on the center of the optic nerve where the choroid is pierced; we cannot, as was very well shown by m. mariotte, perceive the objects: we see them when these rays come to strike the choroid. it is therefore this membrane, which repulses the light rays against the retina for a second time, modifying the nerve fibers of the retina in a manner proper to cause light and objects to be sensed by the mind. the choroid is therefore, finally, the essential portion of the organ of vision. bibliography 1) mery, jean, 11 des mouvemens de l'iris, et par occasion de la partie principale de 1 'organne de la vue, 11 histoire de l'academie royale des sciences, annee mdcciv (1704), avec les memoires de mathematigue et de physique, pour la meme annee, tirez des registres de cette academie, 1704. 2) 3) 4) 5) -63shastid, t.h., history of ophthalmology, american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, vol. 10, pp. 7657-7659, 1917. fontanelle, bernard le bouvier de, "eloge de monsieur r~ery," oeuvresdefontanelle, tome vi, pp. 168-181, 1767. hofstetter, h.w, optometry -professional, economic, and legal aspects, the c.v. mosby co., st. louis, 1948. hoefer, le dr., nouvelle biographie generale, tome 35, pp. 134-5, m.t·1. firmin didot freres, 1861. 100 years of light bulbs: if you find a light bulb that can be dated back to before the turn of the century, or if it has other than the regular edison screw base, it may be old enough to have some value. presently with little or no cash value, however, are the thousands of still. extant light bulbs dating back only 50-60 years. a good reference, with illustrations of bulbs dating back to 1880 and suggestions for determining their age, is "old light bulbs treasures of the past?" by james jensen in the july 1980 issue of lighting design and application, vol. 10, no. 7 pp. 41-45. snappy ilamo service: praiseworthy indeed is the action of the staff of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry and certain friends in fulfillment of a rather unusual overseas request for a long out-of-print but not yet rare book. the book is philip pollack•s 1956 "the truth about eye exercise", hardly a classic but nevertheless occasionally cited. the july 9th request came to me (hofstetter) on july 15 from robert sandor, the head of syninformation in stockholm, in behalf of the university at lule8, sweden, about 100 kilometers from the arctic circle. yes, there is a single copy at indiana university, and i telephoned ilamo on july 15 and learned that it had only one copy also. one of these could be xeroxed, but ilamo librarian maria dablemont believed she could do better by running an appeal in the next optometric periodical to be issued. this happened to be the july 28-august 4 issue of affect/effect, an american optometric association newsletter previously unknown to me which apparently goes out to an inner circle clientele. on july 28 sandy smith, assistant librarian at ilamo, received a call from dean jack bennett of the ferris state college of optometry in big rapids, michigan, to say that he owned a copy which he was quite willing to relinquish. he promptly mailed it to ilamo in st. louis, and on august 1 sandy smith forwarded it par avion to stockholm. believe it or not, all of this happened almost between sunrise and sunset in lules! who was dennett? many an ophthalmic textbook identifies the centrad, symbolized by an inverted greek letter delta (v), as a term coined by dennett, to represent a hundredth of a radian, approximately 0.573°. but who was dennett, and when did he coin this term? -64the only clue i (hofstetter) have found in what may be called a somewhat superficial search through perhaps twenty books, cyclopedias, and directories is a brief notation in one book that it was introduced by 11 dr. dennett in 1891. 11 this was in ophthalmic lenses by h.h. emsley and wm. swaine, hatton press, london, 1951. in a footnote they added, 11 it was recommended by the american academy of optometry in 1941 that the centrad be the unit adopted for prisms and eye movements ... they gave no identification of dennett except that in the index of the book they show 11 dennett, w.s. 11 , indicating the page on which 11 dr. dennett 11 is mentioned. suspecting from the 11 dr. 11 title and the academy action that dennett might have been an american, i checked the 1923 red book of eye, ear, nose, and throat specialists to find listed in new york city a william s. dennett, an 1874 graduate of harvard university, identified as an 11 eye specialist ... i found nothing in the published report of the 1941 meeting of the american academy of optometry in the american journal of optometry to sug­ gest that the centrad was even under consideration, but the published report was extremely brief, hardly the official minutes of the meeting. any further clues or information will be most appreciated. from our australian historian: excerpts from a personal letter from charles wright of springfield (near adelaide), australia: 11 i am grateful to you for your offer to contact any of our people who are now working in the u.s. 11 i have been historian of the australian optometric association for, oh, i suppose 10 years now and have collected enough paper to fill five filing cabinets. i could spend all my time arranging all that paper, but i am writing some pieces now. 11 the waterworth memorial lecture which is what i was researching was duly delivered during our optometric participation in our association for the advancement of science. i believe it is to be printed in our australian journal of optometry this month (july). it may not seem very good to pro­ fessionals but it was the best i could do. 11 the louis b. marks memorial library a library of unusual visual science significance is the collection of hundreds and hundreds of volumes related to illumination belonging to the illuminating engineering society of north america, familiarly abbreviated i.e.s. the continuously growing collection is shelved at the i.e.s. headquarters in the office space made available to the illuminating en­ gineering research institute in the united engineering center at 345 east 47th street, new york, new york, 10017. it may well be the world's most frequently consulted resource on lighting during the present century. ... -65starting as mr. marks•s personal collection years before the turn of the century, and conveniently located in new york city, it was regularly used by many as an illumination reference source. shortly after the residence lighting forum of the new york section of the i.e.s. established a circulating library of some 75 volumes in 1938, mr. marks placed his entire library at the disposal of the forum, and arrangements were then made to place these volumes at i.e.s. headquarters and to provide suitable new facilities for shelving them. on display is a handsome bronze placque identifying the collection as the louis~marks memorial library. mr. marks (1869-1939) was one of the signers of a december 13, 1905, letter suggesting a meeting to discuss 11 the formation of a society to represent the art and science of illumination ... on january 10, 1906, he was elected first president of the illuminating engineering society. in­ ventor, designer, consultant, author, and organizer, he contributed ex­ tensively to the science and technology of lighting nationally and internationally. ~senior optometrist reminisces: some months ago george g. litsinger, o.d., of the park ridge suburb of chicago, illinois, contributed a copy of a .. round robin .. letter he had written for his daughters and other relatives so that they might know some­ thing of the wide range of episodes and contacts he, especially as an optometrist, had had with the world inside and outside of his office door over the years. the following are excerpts. the recollection i am most amused by goes back to toledo, ohio, in 1925. brother frederick had used his last penny to purchase an atwater-kent crystal radio, operated with several 6 volt wet-cell batteries, the acid of which ate the varnish off the floors. a huge horn amplified the sound, but if the station was too far away, or the sound too weak, one would use earphones. emma albertine gunter litsinger would listen nightly to an inmate at the indiana state prison sing: ... 11 if i had the wings of an angel, i 1 d fly over these tall prison walls ... tears would roll from her eyes. the inmate was harry snodgrass, and billed on radio as 11 king of the ivories ... twenty-one years later (7-17-1946) i examined the eyes, and furnished glasses for a mrs. (maryellen) albert degitis, of chicago. i learned that she was the former wife of harry snod­ grass! 1929 ... the first year of college optometry had ended, and i was about to shove off for burbank, california, to visit my parents. but i had reason first to seek a reference -book at the huge main chicago public library at michigan boulevard and randolph street. i was seated inside, at that very corner, when i heard gunfire coming from the underpass to the opposite side of michigan boulevard. -66i ran outside in time to see a policeman, with gun in hand, chasing a man east on randolph street. i followed close behind; both turned through an alley, then on to wabash avenue, where the assassin vanished into the crowd. he had gotten away. i returned to the underpass to see the body. leo brothers was arrested much later. it \'/as alleqed he murdered jake lingel, a tribune reporter who was passing information (for money) between two opposing gangs, capone•s and bugs moran. a movie, some years ago depicted this very scene. that was my closest approach to gangland activities in chicago! one of my first jobs as an optometrist (1931) was located in a jewelry store near the corner of cicero and 22nd street in cicero, il. al capone operated a night club across the street on 22nd, and his brother ralph had the same kind of a deal a mile west. his body guards were often pointed out to me, but i never saw the real capone. one of the henchmen, however, offered me $60.00 if i could make a pair of glasses that would magnify enormously the backside of a playing card. this, of course, was impossible. they were marked cards. in 1927 a news item appeared on the front page of the toledo blade 11 ••• fred litsinger and gang arrested for robbing a mail train in chicago ... we and our friends were duly shocked, because our fred was studying optometry in chicago at that time, and we had not had a recent letter. turned out that it was a virgil litsinger! there are several litsingers in chicago, and i wonder where they fit into the genealogy. one edward litsinger was defeated for mayor of chicago by 11 bi g11 bi 11 thompson, sometime near 1927. after this episode, my first trip to chicago was to convince my parents that our fred was not in jail. on the coach were two men singing and playing string instruments. the conductor told me they were 11 sam •n henry .. of radio fame. they were later known as 11 amos in andy. ii in 1931 i worked as an optometrist in peoria, il., and it was there that i met joseph correll, whose brother charles was the 11 andy 11 of radio. joe and i were both magicians and performed to­ gether at many gatherings. it ended a year later when i returned to chicago, and i have been here ever since. writing local history throughout the united states, local historical societies are springing up by the dozens, the hundreds. the newest directory published by the american association for state and local history lists something close to ten thousand historical groups. the form in which history is most effectively preserved for the ages is the written word. this requires work, dedication, time, and awareness of the potential sources of information. -67it is extremely unlikely that a local history undertaking in any given town or community will zero in on the history of optometric or vision care beyond naming the person or persons who may have offered the services. further, the volunteer persons researching and recording the local history, unless they are optometrists, are unable to interpret correctly the nature and quality of optometric services in any given time period or circumstance. if, then, optometry is to have its own history properly and comprehen­ sively recorded it is essential that there be at least a few optometrists who will undertake to research the history of optometry in their own communities. they will find it necessary, and exciting, to pore through old newspapers, interview old-timers (cautiously aware of pitfalls of recollec­ tion), explore the county courthouse through such documents as marriage licenses, abstracts of real estate deeds, tax records, sheriff's and police records, automobile license lists, etc. similarly the city hall as records, and at the federal level there are the census tables and special records relating to agriculture, commerce wpa-type projects, and the like. old scrapbooks, school annuals, and church bulletins may also reveal something of optometric interest. one may well learn that the local spectacle retailer in the middle 1800's was an itinerant german immigrant twice arrested for drunkenness, owner of an apple orchard, a member of the school board, husband of a physician's daughter, and local campaign manager for a. lincoln who im­ ported eyeglasses from germany and provided free glasses to persons approved for charity by the local ministers. what may be especially rewarding is the discovery that local persons \'lho become aware of one's effort want to help by calling to his or her attention bits of information, even old handbills, receipts, albums, and lens cleaners, which may add a revealing detail or two about the early nature of optometry in the town. to save or not to save: before the advent of mimeographing, carbon paper, xerography, electronic read-outs, and innumerable other document duplicating systems, and before the concepts of biodegradability and planned obsolescence were taken seriously, there were few needs to destroy documents and records. the world was a bit roomier then and, except in instances of desired secrecy, letters and other documents typically accumulated almost endlessly, or at least until someones' demise or an institution's termination occurred. in such circumstances documented history had a pretty favorable chance to evolve. today, however, the historian and archivist are faced with document­ gathering difficulties not unlike trying to seize a selected leaf in a windstorm. that this must be so is undeniably brought to our attention by a recent, quite disposable, uncopyrighted, four-page document entitled records retention timetable complimentarily inserted with a monthly mailing from the headquarters of a state optometric organization. directly under its title is the notation, "revised and printed by electric wastebasket corp., 1977", suggesting to me that this was to be a humorous exposition. it was not. a company with such a name is duly listed in thomas' register of american manufacturers. the significance of the document is made further evident by its coded identification as "vj #103 6/17/80", a fair indication that it is officially supported by the corporation. -68the timetable lists 119 types of records, such as "accounts payable invoices", "travel expense reports", "contracts", "health and safety bulletins", "photographs", "correspondence", and "employee case files", and the period of time each should be retained. almost exactly one­ third of the i terns are marked for "permanent .. retention. a very few are earmarked for variable retention periods depending on circumstances, such as when superseded or obsolete. the other 70 are given retention periods ranging from a half to 30 years, with a mean of four years and a median and mode of three years, before consigned for destruction in an "electric wastebasket .. or shredder. the logic or rationale of the various suggested retention periods is not immediately obvious. for example, "dividend checks" and "rough work papers" are to be retained two years, whereas "personnel attendance records" and "public information activity" are to be held for seven. presumably the determining factors are matters of security, legal compliance, insurance requirements, and the like. it is doubtful that archival considerations enter into the recommendations at all. what is the solution? certainly the indiscriminate preservation of records and documents is impossible. on the other hand their systematic and complete destruction in terms of nonarchival criteria. can well blot out the facts of significant developmental periods. what this points to is the need for more of us to acquire a highly sensitive appreciation of what to save and what not to save, an archival sense, not unlike the appreciation of good music, cleanliness, courtesy, and honesty. historical interest the following clip from the wall street journal (aug. 20, 1980) was forwarded by henry knoll. notable and quotable (robert penn warren, novelist and poet, in an interview with editors of u.s. news & world report:) one sign of our loss of humanity is the declining interest in history. history is the story of how man became man; it is the investigation of values that make man human. but history today is almost ceasing to be studied. the human story is not what people flock to. how many people coming out of college now know any american history? and if they know american history, do they know about the history of any other country? there•s an appalling ignorance and contempt for history. it is considered a dead subject. people are not interested in the past; they are not interested in understanding human nature. studying history is not just a question of having nice anecdotes to tell. thomas jefferson wasn•t studying history to tell stories by the fireside; he wanted to use it to understand human nature. he was a real politician. o.k. penisten h.w hofstetter, editors october 1, 1980 this is your ballot --two candidates were duly nominated for a full five-year term on the five-member executive board of the optometric historical society beginning january 1, 1981, as follows: jerome j. abrams -maria dablemont please make your choice and mail this ballot promptly to: h.w hofstetter school of optometry university of waterloo waterloo, ontario, canada n2l 3gl 1980-11-04-001 1980-11-04-002 1980-11-04-003 1980-11-04-004 1980-11-04-005 1980-11-04-006 1980-11-04-007 1980-11-04-008 1980-11-04-009 1980-11-04-010 1980-11-04-011 1980-11-04-012 1980-11-04-013 1980-11-04-014 1980-11-04-015 newsletter optometry librar1 of the vertical file {243 north vol. 12 ~ptometric historical society lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) october 1981 number 4 concerning dues and dollars: one of the editor•s duties is of course to prod the absent-minded members, probably less than a dozen, who have overlooked the paying of their 1981 dues. five dollars may be a very nominal item in our indi­ vidual personal budgets, but to the o.h.s. it is the lifeblood. it has been the policy of the ohs to send all newsletters by ordinary first class mail to expedite their delivery, which, in the u.s.a., means well within the week, but e,lsewhere may mean several weeks as surface mail. the mailing costs therefore absorb the main share of the $5.00. inasmuch as >-this is an international society there is no moral justification to ~harge higher dues to members who do not happen to reside in the country e:jin which the newsletter is published. ?~ because history remains eternally history, the delay is probably of ~o consequence except when a reader wou1d like to make comments to the ~ditor before the next issue goes to press. one overseas member•s ballot arrived weeks after our e 1 ecti on returns were counted, but in this ~nstance his vote was for the already declared winner. had the returns shown a narrow margin we certainly would have waited until even the most remote overseas ~mber had had time to vote. one member in england suggested that overseas members who would appreciate having their newsletters sent airmail should include with their dues payments several extra dollars to cover the added cost. the airmail rate is approximately five times the surface mail first class rate. (hwh) contributors to ilamo: a recent memorandum from the international library, archives, and museum of optometry lists 33 contributors during the one year period of june 12, 1980 to june 19, 1981, as follows: auxiliary to the aoa bausch & lomb soflens division .l. lester beacher,.o.d. jack w. bennett, o.d. charles c. bradley, o.d. albert a. bucar, o.d. colorado optometric association a.p. cullen, o.d., ph.d. earl dablemont earl b. elliott lowell d. glatt, o.d. james r. gregg, o.d. tole n. greenstein, o.d. john n. gunning, o.d. henry w hofstetter, o.d., ph.d. richard l. hopping, o.d. lester e. janoff, o.d. felix koetting, o.d. james f. koetting, o.d. davin j. lee e. joan miller ada ghormley owens, o.d. bernard paley, o.d. donald g. pitts, o.d., ph.d. darwin portman jack a. potter, o.d. joseph f. schmidt, o.d. elias shaneson, o.d. southern college of optometry jacob staiman, o.d. lois kent tweedle, m.d. wendell d. waldie, o.d. saul j. wiener, o.d. -62the various donations included books, audiovisuals, periodicals, mu­ seum items, and archival materials. of the 33 contributors, 11 were mem­ bers, or prompted by members, of the optometric historical society. another subsequent memorandum reports the donation of the darell boyd harmon collection by the late charles m. drain, o.d., with consent of the dbh resource center board. the center's donated holdings also contained many of the private papers and library materials of drs. sol lesser and a.m. skeffington. better light better sight: many of us older ones recall this phrase as one which occurred fre­ quently in educational-promotional printed matter, and may have wondered what its origin was. it is fully described in a letter to the editor in the november 1979 issue of ld&a (lighting design &~plication), vol. 9, no. 11, pages 4 and 55, entitled ·nlights out for blbs bureau" and signed by 11 ed campbe 11". edward a. campbell was manager of the better light better sight bureau from 1953 until july 31, 1979, at which time its parent, the edison electric institute (the association of electric companies) closed its doors at 90 park avenue, new york city, to establish its headquarters at 1111 19th street, n.w., washington, dc 20036. the bureau was formed on august 1, 1934, "to foster a better public understanding of the relationship of light and sight, and of the con­ tribution to better vision made by good light in schools, homes, offices and industry." blbs news (later called lighting magazine) was circulated bi-monthly for about 38 years to over 20,000 readers, mostly school administrators and teachers. the bureau printed and distributed several million dollars worth of educational materials. one of its most effective projects was the promotion of the blbs study lamp tag program, begun in 1956. the illuminating engineering research institute and illuminating engineering society office personnel developed the illumination requirements for the performance of such a study lamp. a million lamps were put in use by august, 1972. (hwh)_ optometry in the netherlands: .. the nederlandse unie van opticiens (nuvo) and its companion organizations have been seeking improvement of their legal status for several years.· in the nuvo journal oculus for september 1980, pages 9/5 9/23, appeared the lead article, hoofdartikel, by drs. w. van den ende, the administrative secretary of the association, in which is included an ex­ tensive history of the legal status of the profession. the article is, of course, in dutch, making it quite foreign to almost everybody. mr. van den ende has kindly translated into english the main part of the currently proposed opticians act, but not the historical review. i can supply a copy on request. -63the present interpretation of optometry's role in the health field, according to van den ende, is based on the 11 medical profession act 11 of 1865, amended in 1938, which reads as follows (translated): 11 practising medicine, by which the law understands providing medical, surgical, or obstetrical advice or assistance pro­ fessionally, is allowed only to those so qualified by law. by providing advice or assistance as referred to in the preceding is to be understood making it one's profession to examine organs or parts of the human body that are deficient in their functions or show any other defects, as well as making it one's profession to recommend means to meet such deficiencies or defects. providing spectacles and spectacle lenses exclusively on a physician's prescription or by selecting the required lenses with the aid of letter charts and trial case, inasmuch as such activities should be so regarded under the first and the second subsection of this section, shall not be deemed to be part of practising medicine. 11 the 1938 amendment involved only the last sentence. (hwh) a letter from dr. phei ffer: the so-called college of syntonic optometry :and!!.· riley spitler while reading on page 4 of the january, 1981, vol. 12, no. 1 issue of the newsletter of the optometric historical society, i encountered the phrases 11so-called college of syntonic optometry 11 and spitler having 11 identified himself as having a ph.d. 11 my reaction was one of indignation over an apparent 11 put down 11 of spitler. whether the author meant to imply a purported or dubious designation, or whether sarcasm was intended (webster) by the use of the term 11so-called, 11 or whether the term was used completely without an attempt to evaluate is not clear. al­ though the reference to spitler having identified himself as having a ph.d. seemed to support the former view, i think i was most disturbed by the failure to recognize that spitler had been active in optometric affairs for many years and may well have been responsible for the aoa being chartered in ohio. seilig b. kousnetz wrote a tribute to spitler in the optometric weekly, may 23, 1963. he pointed out that spitler practiced optometry from 1912 until november 11, 1961; was born in sydney, ohio, april 1, 1889; his 11 optometric education started with a textbook of the mccormick medical school, chicago; and he later studied under dr. sheard at ohio state university. 11 he also attended ohio northern at ada, ohio, and studied under bernarr mcfadden at battle creek, michigan. -64in his book, the syntonic principle its relationship to health and ocular problems, published in 1941, fie is listed as harry riley spitler, d.o.s., m.d., m.s., ph.d. it is intriguing to note that the only degree for which i find a date at this time is provided by kousnetz, 11 the ph.d. was received for his thesis on the syntonic principle in 1941, which is on file in the john crerar library in chicago ... on the title page of the syntonic principle it is noted that spitler was 11 formerly clinician, mcfadden sanitorium, battle creek, michigan; physician-in-charge, crab orchard sanitorium, crab orchard, kentucky; past president, state board of optometry, ohio; past fi rs·t vice president, american optometric association; accredited teacher of mechanotherapy and physical therapies since 1925 by ohio state medical board; past dean, department of mechanotherapy, metropolitan college; dean, central state college of physiatrics; fellow, american acadei11y of optometry; fe 11 ow, co 11 ege of syntonic optometry. 11 in the preface to his book, spitler showed full knowledge of the acceptance his work would probably receive when he stated 11the author is fully aware that there will be criticism of his material, perhaps his conclusions, and he will welcome constructive criticism by informed and qualified critics, yet in extenuation of his conclusions, he wishes to remind readers that the facts speak for themselves, regardless of his attempts at their explanation. 11 he also addressed the old and continuing problem of clinical re.. search as follows, 11 it has well been said that clinical results prove nothing. that is true. yet in all of the biological professions, the clinical test is the final test of effectivity. for that reason a clinical effectivity tabulation of over 3,000 cases has been included in the appendix. 11 in addition to the above noted positions held by spitler, he was secretary of the ohio state optometric association and then president. gregg, in his a history of a.o.a. lists spitler a$ having been a mem­ ber of the executive council of the a.o.a. in 1922-23 and 1924-25, second vice president, 1925-26, 1926-27 and first vice-president, 1927-28 (pp. 352-354). gregg also tells us that 110ne of the most spirited discussions and parliamentary tangles 11 of the 30th annual congress ( 1927) was caused by an amendment to the constitution to permit individual mem­ bership for states that were not affiliated with the a.o.a. president mayer 11 turned the gavel over to vice president spitler and urged pas­ sage of the original amendment, telling of his experience in some of the states. his words lead to the defeat of the armstrong substitute; but the original also lost, failing to get the necessary two-thirds. 11 (pg. 115} during this early period, the a.o.a. was constantly working at changing its constitution and often with such furor that solutions were not reached. the constitutional dilemma of the 1926 convention was resolved by selecting a committee to draw up a constitution for consideration by the 1927 convention thereby enabling adjournment sine die at 1:20 a.m., 11 ••• the late hours showing how difficult the problem had been ... one of the members of this committee was hq riley spitler. (pg. 109} -65the charter of the a.o.a. received considerable attention during the 1923 convention i·n chicago. the charter, held in ohio, required the a.o.a. to meet in ohio every year. since this had not been done there was some question as to whether the charter was valid. as gregg points out, " ••• the secretary of state could not even find a copy of the original charter." (pg. 93) this all lead to the securing of a charter in alabama by j.h. tinder (which is another human interest story in itself) and the endorsement of a new constitution. with the incorporation in alabama, w.c. nicum began the necessary steps to dissolve the 1918 ohio charter. "however, h. riley spitler of ohio had obtained a restraining order from a dayton court to prevent the charter dissolution." (pg. 101) the conflict was resolved on the advice of orvel johnson, a.o.a. attorney, and by president thomas martin who favored the ohio method. thus, the a.o.a. continued its charter in ohio even though it had adopted a constitution during the past year to fit the alabama charter and therein lies still another story. during these days when optometry is so engrossed in the question of drug legislation, it is interesting to note spitler's position on drugs. "though qua 1 i fi ed to use drugs, he preferred drugless.healing in his clinic and prescribed drugs on rare oc­ casions. dr. spitler was convinced optometry must remain a strictly drugless profession and could be a great help in the battle of preventing blindness." (kousnetz) it would seem reasonable to conclude that, today, spitler would be a strong proponent of holistic medicine. as for the "so-called" college of syntonic optometry, the 49th annual convention was held may 30-june 1,1981, in kansas city, missouri. both basic and advanced courses in the use of the syntonic principle were presented. so, to keep the record straight, the college of syntonic optometry exists today. spitler's material is being taught and it is relatively easy to find many optometrists, through the west and midwest at least, who still use the syntonic principles. 1926 eye fashion: chester h. phei ffer college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, oklahoma on october 19, 1926, two patent applications, serial nos. 19,412 and 19,414, were filed with the united states patent office for designs for lens frames for spectacles. the total descriptive legend for each consisted of the following: i i -66be it known that i, ernest e. emons, a citizen of the united states, residing at philadelphia, in the county of philadelphia and state of pennsylvania, have invented. a new, original, and ornamental design for a lens frame for spectacles, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part thereof. figure 1 is a front elevation of a lens frame for a spectacle showing my new design. figure 2 is an end edge view of the same. figure 3 is a top edge view thereof, what i claim is: the ornamental design for a lens frame for spectacles as shown. ernest e. emons #19,412 #19,414 .ftg.1 ... ~a. '"' "' crt::: 2"; -67both patents were granted on july 19, 1927, with the illustrations and abstracts published in the official gazette of the u.s. patent office, gpo, 1927, vol. 360, p. 589 as entry nos-. 73,075 and 73,076. one-half of the patent rights of each was assigned to robert w. hillier, akron, ohio. the 1926 blue book of optometrists & opticians and the immediately prior editions list emons as an optometrist in akron, ohio. the 1928 blue book and the subsequent editions show him at a philadelphia address corresponding to that of haussman & co. mr. hillier is not identifiable in the blue books of that period. on the same page of the above-cited gazette is shown the below­ illustrated "eyeglass frame" as entry no. 73,077 patented on the same day by john gaspari, new york, n.y., and assigned to de luxe optical co., inc., new york, n.y. the application for this one had been filed on april 6, 1927 as serial no. 21,495. neither gaspari's name nor that of the optical company appear in the blue books of that period. aside from the fact that these three designs were patented for their ornamental rather than structural and functional features and therefore are indicative of spectacle fashion trends of the day, there is the surprising absence of specifications and description to point up what features of the design were invented or newly conceived. (hwh) a gallery of phoropters? a telephone call from john geiser, o.d., of lacon, illinois, turned out to be a request for advice as to the value of an early dezeng phoropter as a collectible. it had been suggested to him by an optical company representative that it should be insured because it probably has a value of two or three thousand dollars as a rarity. -68for the most part the monetary value of a collectible is a function of competetive demand and bidding by two or more collectors. i could not name even one person who makes a determined hobby, or business, of de­ veloping a phoropter collection. nevertheless the idea is fascinating and, if carried out, could prove of historical, if not monetary, value. (hwh) the ghost of aronsfeld appears: charles r. steward, o.d., ph.d., of the university of houston school of optometry, wrote recently: 11 in doing some house cleaning i ran across the enclosed papers by henry aron~feld. i think you will recognize their significance. aronsfeld's practice was continued by max levy, who re­ cently retired and works for the college in one of our external clinics ... g. henry aronsfeld, o.d., d.d.s., of houston, texas, died on july 24, 1947, at the age of 62. a brief obituary appeared in the august 7, 1947, issue of the optometric weekly, vol. 38, no. 32, p. 1232, and an editorial accolade entitled 11aronsfeld of texas 11 and two lamenting let­ ters from readers appeared in the august 15, 1947, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 84, no. 16, pages 49-50. one of aronsfeldts numerous published articles and letters appeared posthumously in the latter journal. a picture of him, with other members of the texas state board, taken at his home, is in the october 21, 1927, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 60, no. 16, p. 38. aronsfeld was active and outspoken in professional affairs throughout his career, greatly enhanced by his very sharp and prolific pen. during augustine's first term in the american optometric association presidency in 1918-19 dr. aronsfeld served as 3rd vice president. in the early '20s he was a member of the truth-in-print corrvnittee, and he gave an educa­ tional lecture at the 1925 aoa congress. a long-time regular attender of national optometry conventions, he was one of the very vocal participants in the 1938 11 battle of richmond" convention where he obtained the privilege of the floor as a "credentialed delegate of new mexico 11 rather than of his own state of texas. the two very yellowed documents sent to me by dr. stewart, one a typewritten carbon copy and the other a typed mimeographed copy, were both 11 prepared for distribution to optometrists ( 1938). 11 apparently neither was published. it is very probable that he handed out copies at the memorable richmond convention. in any case they pointedly reflect from one point of view the most burning politico-professional issue of that era for american optometry. they are therefore both reprinted in full here, as follows. (hwh) let's consult the record in the optical journal on page 19 of the issue for june 1, 1938, in the editorial "false lssues, 11 the editor has epit­ omized the s i tua ti on con fran ti ng optometry in a few we 11 chosen words. there can be no dispute as to the accuracy of the statements made, nor can there be any doubt as to the correctness of the analysis or the soundness of the conclusion which the editor has reached. -69it had been my firm intention not to discuss the extension program any further, but very recently there have appeared in different magazines articles which are definitely in­ tended to confuse the reader and to becloud the very im­ portant issues with which optometry, optometrists, and, particularly, the a.o.a. are now faced. these issues cannot be avoided. they must be faced squarely, honestly and with finality. it seems to be the evident intention of those who see the much vaunted extension program as a vehicle for personal aggrandizement, optometric fascism, and the utter destruc­ tion of all reasonable and logical thought, to make the casual reader believe that they are carrying the fight against those who would plunge optometry into the field of limited medical practice. in other words, they ~~ould try to make us believe that the conflict is between extensionists, on the one hand, and expansionists, on the other. that the statement on this premise is as fallacious as the political and so called educational propaganda put out by the opto­ metric extension program, the writer of this article will attempt to prove. first, let me make my position absolutely plain. i stand for square dealing with optometrists and with mem­ bers of other professions. i believe, with every fibre of my being, that optometry must, should, and will ultimately have exclusive rights in the fields of refraction and orthoptics. i believe that these rights will be won by pre-eminence in these fields and that, eventually, they will be recognized by legislative en­ actment. i am unequivocally opposed to any excursions into the field of medical practice, irrespective of whether such methods are known by the name of syntoni cs, chrome-orthoptics, or limited medical privileges. they are, in most cases, honest and sincere, but i also believe that they are mistaken and misguided. this is my own opinion, humbly expressed, and must be taken as that, no more, no less. i definitely dispute the sincerity of the extension program political dictators and i believe that they realize that their waterloo is. at hand and, in an attempt to delay the fatal day, they are trying to make us believe that they want to save us from the expansionists. the first time that i ever heard dr. skeffington lecture he used a tongue depressor in a child's mouth and said, "these tonsils are bad". i asked him if he would have been able to tell about tonsils if they had looked n(}rmal to him but were, in fact, filled with pus which only the pressure of an instrument would have revealed. his answer was that he would not have gone that far. at -70the subsequent lecture, i heard him say, "only the optometrist can de a 1 with pos t-neuri tic atrophy." he is the author of the so-called slogan, "to optometry shall be allocated all eye diagnosis", and the merest tyro knows that this would throw us right into the field of ophthalmological practice. he was summoned before a member of the texas state board of examiners in optometry because he had said in an interview that, in the future, eyes would be treated with hypnotism and not with glasses. the certified copy of a court reporter's steno­ graphic notes are illuminating and informative as to many phases of his activities. he used the words, "treatment" and "diagnosis" to the point of nausea in his literature, and only a warning that the continuance of such law violations would make him subject to board action caused him to desist. his reply to those who were trying to keep optometrists within the legal)y and educationally accredited field of optometry was that they were destructive minded. i could go on citing incidents, for every one of which i have authentic documentary proof, but what i have written should suffice for any except those who are wedded, body and soul, to the progenitors of the new optometry at $34.00 each. the business head of the extension program was once arrested in texas and charged with a violation of the texas medical practice act, and the texas optometric association spent badly needed funds to have him released from the custody of a texas sheriff, as we could not have a violation of this kind published. and these are the men who now stano for optometry, pure and undefiled, and plead with us that they continue as our leaders in order to prevent our being taken over by the expansionists. the day has come for optometry to assert i tse 1 f. we have had enough of s 1 ogans , "education and legis 1 a ti on", "all opposition to us must be stilled", and "the rest of optometry can go to smash but the extension program must continue". at the 1934 convention of the texas optometric association, after alexander had made an impassioned speech (he was granted the floor, as a courtesy, on ll1y motion), the t.o.a. defeated a resolution which would have made it impossible for officials of organized optometry to have anything of any nature to sell to their brother optometrists. i had a similar resolution prepared for submission to the a.o.a. at toronto, but those who had promised it support found that they had to withdraw their promise. the reason for such withdrawal i leave to the thinking readers of this article. several of those who disagreed with ll1y views then have come out with definite statements that the principle of no fi­ nancial interest on the part of a.o.a. and state officials is the only honest, ethical, and proper principle and the one that must be adopted if optometry is to survive. the control or attempt to control the thoughts of men must be stopped. -71the tyranny which is being exercised over schools and state boards must be ended. optometric education is needed and needed badly but it must and will come from those who are qualified and, preferably, from those associated with optometric institutions of learning. i believe that the future will show that the expansionists are wrong. i know that no profession can survive under the conditions which have been forced upon it by the inane sophistries and the meaningless tautology of the mouthpieces of the extension program. to my brother and sister optometrists, i offer this final plea: do not be misled, because at this juncture of optometry's progress mistakes may be costly and irremediable. the fight is not between extensionists and expansionists. it is most decidedly between the extensionists and those who see in optometry something fine and something good and who wish to use it as a vehicle for the protection, conser­ vation, and improvement of human vision and not as a means of victimizing and fleecing their fellow practitioners or the public whom they serve. yes, let's consult the record and, remembering the great lesson of history that coming events cast their shadow before them, let us strike the shackles off the hands and feet of optometry and let our profession go forward, honestly, fearlessly, and ethically to her proper and ultimate destiny. i have in my heart bitterness toward no optometrist who does not happen to agree with me but the time is past for soft words and placating gestures. we need action, " ••• virile, constructirve and intelligent action,~· ••• and it is my sincere hope and fervent prayer that we may get it here at richmond. wanteda pilot. "god gives us men. a time 1 ike this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands! men whom the 1 us t of office does not k i 11, men whom the spoils of office cannot but, men who possess opinions and a will, men who love honor, men who cannot lie. j.g. hollandwanted." -72early this year, i lectured at the los angeles school of optometry and also at the university of california at berkeley, and one of it\y lectures was 11wanted a compass for optometry ... another optometrist suggested, as a title for a future address or paper, 11wanteda pilot 11 , and i am here trying to carry out that suggestion. during the course of it\y talk i mentioned the fact, in it\y opinion, •we have suffered from those who have given us an optometric ku klux klan because with it there ~has come the same inef­ ficient leadership which the ku klux klan gave to those sections where it had power. we should elect to optometric leadership only those who have the courage, ability, and integrity which leaders must have. only disaster can result when we vote for city, county, state or national officers on the basis of religion, social status, or any­ thing else except ability and integrity, and the same is true of optometry•. let us now analyze this statement and see what a close re­ semblance certain conditions, now existing in optometry, bear to conditions which existed in those sections of the country which suffered from the blighting influence of the klan after the great war. those who wear the square and compass and who have been taught, as kipling says, 11 to meet upon the level and to part upon the square 11 , know what internal dissension was brought about within the ranks of that order, and how, in many instances, disaffection and loss of influence resulted. it is a known fact that, from constable to u.s. senator, we had to suffer under a type of political office holders the like of which had not been seen since the days of the 11 carpet­ baggers11 after the civil war. the klan had a unique way of doing its work. they posed as the protectors of womanhood and, yet, one of their outstanding leaders in fact the second-in-command was sent to the penitentiary for violating the mann white slave act. it preached 100% americanism and yet denied large classes of americans the rights guaranteed to them under that immortal document, the constitution of the united states. it threatened wrong-doers with persecution unless they joined, and then it covered up misdeeds of its members. some of its leaders had been dismal failures in other walks of life but they waxed fat in fees and on commissions on regalia. in short, it was a disorganizing influence calculated to benefit only those who received hard earned cash for memberships, uniforms, and the like. and now let us see what has happened to optometry since we have had our optometric ku klux klan. professionalism has been shouted from the house-tops, and among the leaders in this movement we see employees of corporations -73conducting the most questionable kinds of practices and engaging in nauseating paeans of self praise in their paid advertisements. legislative campaigns have been hindered and crippled because those who were selling so-called education stressed the slogan, 11 al1 education but no legislation or litigation 11 • so offensive and intolerable did this condition become that the president of one of our 1 arges t state optometric associations was cofl1)e 11 ed to issue a vitriolic statement in which he showed exactly what was going on and exposed the nefarious work of those who were 11saving optometry .. (?) so that their own pockets might be lined with easy money obtained from optometrists and who made no secret of their creed that, 11 0ptometry can go to smash but our work must go on 11 • a campaign of vilification, slander, and abuse was directed and carried on against not only those who opposed but those who, acting well within their rights as american citizens, simply refused to participate in something which they could not, in conscience, support. another slogan coined, and frequently used in print, was 11 all opposition must be stilled11 , and this in the america of washington, jefferson, and lincoln, where free speech and a free press are guaranteed by the constitution! seeds of suspicion have been carefully and widely sown, and optometrist was arrayed against optometrist. susceptible and easy-going individuals were told that unless they joined this great 11 uplift movement 11 they would soon be unable to continue in profitable practice but if they did join t~ey would soon be classed amant the great ones of optometry. in one case a complaint was made to the president of a state board that the law was being violated in the office of a state board member, who was at that time in a hos­ pital and at death's door. the complainant stated, without shame, that this violation could have been overlooked if this board member had not been opposing the movement. how very much like the klan! unethical, improper, and reprehensible efforts were made to force colleges, schools, and universities to fall in line and some of them did. state board members and others were threatened with political extinction if they would not agree to bow meekly to the dictates and mandates of the higher-ups. at the rochester convention a committee, headed by one of the country's leading educators, was almost destroyed by the 11 leader 11 , of the movement, supported by proxies, because this committee wanted education to be in the hands of educators. certainly a heinous crime~!! fortunately, the a.o.a. directors had the courage and the good sense to over-ride the delegates and the commi ttee was kept a 1 i ve. -74and what has been the total result in terms of optometry? it is true that much expensive equipment has been soldthe supply house will testify to thatand it is also true that many men have been urged to study, but only that material which was sent to them. the use of modern instruments if such use is intelligent and proper can only result in good, but when study courses con­ sist of the reading of prepared papers, which neither the reader nor his listeners understand, then this falls far short of what normal individuals believe to be true education. also let us remember that some of those who started out as sincere students became hopelessly confused and thoroughly discouraged if not entirely disgusted and some of them began to believe that all education was of the same kind and that further efforts would prove to be equally useless and devoid of any benefit. some of those disillusioned individuals have decided that their old ways were best, and this is most unfortunate as much room for improvement existed and now exists and this could have been met by real education given by real educators. pontifical advice has been given about every phase of optometry by those who have never been able to make a success of optometric practice or of other endeavors. those who presumed to argue a point, now or then, even though they were graduates of some splendid university -were hushed by supercilious 11 leaders 11 who told them that they simply did not understand the 11 new optometry.. (?). many are there who have privately and secretly confessed that 11this thing works much better on paper than it does in the examination room 11 and yet some of those same men and women no doubt under pressure ~ have signed flowery testimonials as to the great good which they were experiencing and the lavish benefits which they were receiving. and now the greatest wrong of all is the servile leadership (?)which the optometric ku klux klan gave to optometry. men were selected only because of their affiliation and because of their wtttlngness to take orders and for no other reason. of course, there were exceptions, but they were few and far between, and mostly their selection was a political defeat for the self-styled 11 gang 11 • and what has been the net result? in many cases we have been an aimless drifting and in others we have seen vital, urgent, badly needed, and constructive activities side-tracked and neglected just because 11 the powers that be 11 wanted their own private and highly remunerative activity to remain the alpha and omega of american optometry! -75and now what should be the qualifications which should fit one for optometric leadership? let us carefully study them. to leadership in optometry we should select those and those ~who possess at least a majority of the following quatifications, and each and every leader should possess them: he or she should be old enough to be mature, and young enough to possess the boundless energy required; he should be well trained optometrically and academically and, if possible, he should be one who has made a success of his practice; he should be well balanced, mentally, and acceptable, socially, and should have the ability to think straight and to reason logically; he should be honest. to a fault and should be willing to forget and forgive the drab past in favor of the roseate future; · he should be the 11 captain of his own soul" and the master of his own opinions and have the courage of his convictions and the ability to voice them when optometry demands that he do so; he should be firm in his convictions, willing to listen to advice and able to judge its worthiness and should be neither stubborn nor vacillating; he should be sure of himself and convinced in his own mind that optometry is a profession which offers a broad and ample field of human service and which needs no appendages of a non-optometric nature; he should have nothing to sell to his brother optometrists and should be willing to give generously of himself and his knowledge; he should be a man of broad vision who looks beyond the expediency of the moment and considers the needs of the future. he should have neither friends to reward nor enemies to punish and should know the needs of optometry and how to meet them. god grant that we may find many such men (and women) because if we do we can say with kipling, when we need constructive leadership in our own councils or in meetings with other, and perhaps antagonistic, groups: 11 but there is neither east nor west, border, nor breed nor birth when two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth! 11 1915 optometry .q!!. di sp 1 ay: a replica of an optometry office of 1915 vintage is an exhibit feature at the new nine million dollar heritage center on the grounds of the state capitol at bismarck, north dakota. the heritage center serves as the home of the state historical society, museum, and archives. the display includes a life-size model of an optometrist and of a patient, both in period attire. the equipment and furnishings -76are those which were in use in 1915. the assembler and designer of the project was william austin, o.d., a past president of the north dakota optometric association who spent many days on the road to collect authentic material and ideas from his fellow optometrists. a full page description with illustrations is in the july 1, 1981 issue of the american optometric association news, vol. 20, no. 13, page 5. incidentally, word has it that dr. austin (box 876, bismarck, north dakota 58501, telephone 701-255-0186) is quite willing to present a slide show and oral repo~t on the project. a tribute to ilamo: on north dakota optometric association letterhead immediate past president william g. austin, 0.0., has written to ilamo archivist maria dablemont a glowing essay on the role of history, obviously prompted by his stimulating experience with the optometric period room in the herit­ age center on the north dakota capitol grounds. three paragraphs of the totally heartwarming ten-paragraph letter are as follows: this is the only optometric museum incorporated in a state museum in the united states, to my knowledge. when this $100,000 exhibit is turned over to the state of north dakota, it will be an important step in the general history of optometry. with the emphasis the last 15 years on education, third party care, government action and reaction, the various drug and legislative programs, and anticipating future challenges, it becomes easy to overlook the necessity to look back, place the history of optometry in proper perspective to learn from it, and to perpetuate and pre­ serve not only historical memorabilia, but today's history, for future generations to build upon. scant attention has been paid to ilamo, and the important role it was formed and created to fulfill. it is with this in mind that i want to thank you for the help you and ilamo have supplied us here in north dakota with, but to encourage you to continue, aggressively, to do more of this for other groups, states, and organizations. 75 years of lighting: 1981 is the 75th anniversary year of the illuminating engineering society of north america, the iesna, more familiarly known as the ies, known in turn to optometry students as a part of the title of the ies lighting handbook, now in its 6th edition. included in the august 1981 issue of loa (lighting design & application), an iesna publication, vol. 11, no.8, pp. 54-63, is an article entitled "guiding lightsthe ies past presidents, .. consisting of letters expressing the thoughts and remembrances of most of the living past presidents. the earliest is from julius daniels, president in 1931-32. supplementary to the article are photographs of 75 of the 76 presidents since the founding of the society. many of their names are well established in the field of visual science. -77more on der meissner: ____ .:...;..;;...;..,;~;.;:;..;._ in the april 1974 issue, page 22, i asked who meissner was, as someone named meissner had been suggested to me years earlier without explanation as the first optometrist in a letter from the late gordon l. walls. later in the october 1977 issue, pages 62-64, i had re­ ported researching the literature a bit methodically and satisfied fi\yself that 11 the meissner .. was a minstrel so identified as a resident of the german town of meissen who had made poetic reference to a simple hand held reading glass. i remarked that 11 english-writing authors ••• treat the noun meissner as though it were the surname." what i then did not ascertain was who initially and authori­ tatively presumed that meissner was the name of a person and there­ by lured subsequent english-writing authors, including walls and me, into the same error. i rather think now that i have identified the responsible party, a writer of considerable stature in the optical literature, none other than frank twyman, 11 f.r.s., managing director of adam hilger ltd. from 1904 to 1946 and past president of the optical society and of the british optical instrument manufacturers• association", and author of the entry entitled 11 lenses 11 in the four­ teenth edition of the encyclopaedia britannica, 1929. his statement in the 1929 article reads as follows: we must come to the end of the 13th century for the first authentic mention of the use of lenses, which appears to be that of meissner (1260-80) when he expressly states that old people derive advantage from spectacles (see e. bock, die brille u. ihre geschichte 1903). the precisely identical statement appears in twyman's 1952 edition of prism and lens making and in his 1955 edition of optical glassworking. it is of course possible that twyman derived the statement from a prior english-writing author, but his specific reference to bock suggests merely his grossly inaccurate reading of bock's german. (hwh) history of australian optometry: on page 18 of the january 1980 issue of this newsletter i very briefly called attention to an article in the june 1979 issue of the australian journal of optometry entitled 11sixty years of optometry .. by charles wright. -x letter of appreciation from historian charles made me aware that this was only one of a series of five installments, the last of the series in fact. because both penisten and i have been peripatetically inconvenienced this past year we were unable to get our hands on all of the installments, especially since the 1979 issues, vol. 62, were in the bindery at the time of one home visit. at last, however, the complete series can be listed as january, no. 1, pp. 20-23; march, no. 3, pp. 108-113; april, no. 4, pp. 158-160; may, no. 5, pp. 203-209; and june, no. 6, pp. 252-255. altogether the series, under one title, covers a wide range of phases, the publications, the politics, education, organizational development, and personalities, with numerous illustrations and documentation. (hwh) -78recalled about dean alpheus smith: following up howard haines• comments on alpheus smith in the last issue henry knoll wrote to mention one of his own remembrances of smith. while enrolled in graduate school at the ohio state university and work­ ing toward his ph.d. degree in physiological optics in the middle '40s, reports knoll, 11 i do remember one afternoon he and david volk came into the physiological optics lab with the intent of identifying the entoptic colors associated with professor smith's macular degeneration. that's as much as i can recall. i'm sure that professor smith understood the con­ sequences of his macular disease, but he was willing to add to our knowl­ edge -if that was possible ... yes, and i too am reminded that i may have been the first to record the deterioration of dr. smith's acuity in perhaps the fall of 1948 when he came to me to report the acuity loss which he suspected to be due to solar fixation damage from driving into the setting or rising sun on a just completed trip to california and back. then in the spring of 1949 after i had been dean at the los angeles college of optometry for only a few months he dropped in for a visit, probably the most important person in my career checking on my progress! as i showed him around the institution i was apparently a bit apologetic about my limited accomplishments to date. he then took me aside to advise that i should not try to measure my progress from day to day, month to month, or even from year to year, as it would be so discouraging. rather i should merely make note of the conditions upon my arrival, compare them years later with the condition upon my departure, and then take credit, or blame, for the changes! on another occasion, during his retirement, i, with glenn fry, visited him at his home in columbus, ohio. i asked him his views on some current controversy of whether or not a university should include vocational courses among its offerings. he replied simply that he saw no reason why the boy learning to cut meat and the girl enrolled in shakespeare shouldn't stroll down the 11 long walk 11 (on the o.s.u. campus) together and study in the same library. (hwh) pleasant reading: if you read german you will be delighted to read a cardback booklet entitled 11 konkav-konvex: zur geschichte der brille 11 (on the history of spectacles) recently loaned to me by my colleague clifford brooks who received it as a memento of the zeiss plant in oberkochen, west germany. only 80 pages, 188xll5x5 mm in size, illustrated with numerous classic­ seeming line cuts, authored by gunter doderlein, and imprinted by optisches museum, zeiss oberkochen, west germany, 1978, it treats the history of spectacles in a pleasantly light but reliably informative vein. for example, (translated) 11the spectacle peddler was soon some­ thing special, bringing forth the marvel that one could again read his song book. 11 -79in what may be the world's shortest preface, the author says (trans­ lated), "to want to set forth the history of spectacles in a small volume borders on frivolity. but sometirres even frivolity leads to fortune." the chapter headings themselves tell a story, as follows (translated): kaiser nero a spectacle wearer? concerning eyes and ·seeing "berille-parillen-brille" (evolution of the german word brille for spectacles from the early german word berille for beryl) at first the "nietbrille" (rivited joint spectacles) the discovery at wienhausen (near celle, west germany) the spectaclemaker the spectacle merchant spectacles and vanity then the "bligelbrille" (nose-bridge spectacles) an alchemist's glasses the "mutzenbrille" (headband supported glasses) spectacles and the plastic arts spectacles in the far east linked, hinged, and folding glasses the pi nce-nez goethe supported his glasses by a handle the monacle browband spectacles then over both ears concerning pince-nez or oxfords raging young men and the inquisition 'the zeiss optical museum at oberkochen (hwh) history of an australian ~hospital: the may 1976 issue of the australian journal of oehthalmology, vol. 4, no. 2, pages 116-121, carried an art1cle by s. gill1s, w. deane­ butcher, and e.j. donaldson entitled, "sydney eye hospital the wider view" tracing the history of the hospital back to the establishment of an ophthalmic department of sydney hospital in 1879. in 1882 it became a branch establishment at moorecliff in three attractive houses on the promontory of miller's point opposite balmain, a suburb of sydney. one of the three houses had been the residence of dr. william bland, "the first private practitioner in sydney and a pioneer in australia." the eye hospital is presently located in woolloomooloo in a building constructed in 1971. in connection with the eye hospital's early history the authors state, "this was a period of enormous developments in ophthalmology, which was emerging as a specialty in the nineteenth century from the .era, delineated by fabricius• recognition of the lens and kepler's advances in optics in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and brisseau•s discovery of the nature of cataract and daviel's in­ vention of cataract in the eighteenth". girolamo fabrici (ca. 1533-1619): the preceding reference to fabricius as the person responsible for -80establishing the position of the crystalline lens prompted the checking of his identity. girolamo fabrici, or fabricius ab aquapendente, or geronimo fabrizio, was born in aquapendente, near orvieto, about 60 mi1es (90 km) northwest of rome, italy. his interesting biography rates five full pages in the dictionary of scientific biography, 1971, in which he is identified with anatoll'\y, physiology, embryology, and surgery. (hwh) precision judgment: the passing of a benefit and accident insurance law in 1884, in germany, prompted the publication of a series of essays by hugo magnus, m.d., 1842-1907, professor of ophthalmology at the university of breslau, leading to his mathematical formulation of damages sustained in eye in­ juries. his efforts were contemporary with the formation of mathematical expressions for sustained visual efficiency by german authors groenouw, zehender, and heddaeus. the large circulation of magnus's 1894 manual, and its 1897 revision, induced an american ophthalmologist, h.v. wurdemann, m.d., of milwaukee, wisconsin, to translate and re-write the material in english to be published as a book in 1902 with the title 11 visual economics 11 by h. magnus and h.v. wurdemann, c. porth, milwaukee, wisconsin. the authors credited zehender with the concept of giving the intact eye twice the arithmetical weight of the lost or injured eye, whereby one-eyedness would represent two-thirds the visual faculty of two eyes, i.e., the loss of one eye would be equal to one-third total blindness in terms of the economic evaluation of earning power. they attributed to groenouv1 the inclusion of the loss of peripheral vision as a multiplicand in the formulation. to heddaeus they ascribed the suggestion that the loss of earning power is equal to the square of the loss of vision, where­ by a 25% loss of vision would be appraised as a 6.25% loss of earning power, a 50% loss of vision would be a 25% loss of earning power, etc. the magnus and wurdemann formulation then took the prize for co~ plexity. here it is, as published: in which e =earning ability c = the acuity factor to be obtained from a prepared table or formula which takes into account the snellen acuity before and after the injury and a numerical adjustment factor assigned by the authors to the injured person's vocation according to its presumed need for vision. c1 and c2 are the factors calculated for the two eyes separately, and cmax is the higher of the two. p =the visual field factor derived from a schematic diagram of a multizonal visual field in terms of the number of subdivisions affected. m = m1 m2 m3 m4 m5 small m represents ocular muscles. -81i i i i i i • h • h h m6 m1 m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 1n w 1c eac the motility function of one of the 12 extrax= 10, 7, or 5, to be selected by the examiner on the basis of several stated criteria involving the severity of impairment and the vocational classification of the injured person. the appendix includes 24 "tables for estimation of the different forms of damage to the visual earning ability" calculated to the nearest tenth of one per cent. in a footnote it is pointed out that in the german editions of magnus's work the calculations were carried out to the thousandths of a per cent! (hwh) numismatic optics: ohs member alan york, o.d., sent us a copy of an article entitled "farthings of opticians, jewellers and watchmakers in victorian england" which appeared on pages 20-21 of the january 1981 issue of coins and medals, a magazine published in london for numismatic buffs like dr. york. the author of the article is george berry, a leading expert on british trade tokens, fellow of the royal numismatic society, a graduate in history of london university, one-time senior lecturer in education at whitelands college, london, and now headmaster of elmhurst middle school, aylesbury, residing in beaconsfield, bucks county, about 40 kilometers northwest of london. assuring us that he has no qualifi­ cations in optometry he has graciously given us permission to reprint much of his interesting and well documented article here. the following are excerpted paragraphs, minus the illustrations, which deal with tokens and farthings issued by early opticians. opticians; jewellers and watchmakers of early victorian england had a great deal in common. they were all skilled craftsmen, ready to acc~pt the challenge of making small, sometimes minute, instruments of every kind, requiring precision of the highest order. opticians in those days really did make the actual spectacles themselves. r. campbell, writing a century earlier in 1747, observes of the spectaclemaker's trade, 'he grinds his convex glasses in a brass concave sphere, of a diameter large in proportion to the glass intended, and his concave glasses upon a convex sphere of the same metal. his plane-glasses he grinds upon a just plane, in the same manner as the common glass grinder. he grinds them all with sand and polishes them with emery and putty. the cases are made by different workmen, and he adjusts the glasses to them. it is a very ingenious and profitable business and employs but a few hands as masters ••• •. it is significant to note that there is no reference in campbell's notes to scientifically devised eye tests. what tests that were carried out would have been of the crudest nature. the term optician was not then invented. spectacles seem to have been a chinese invention. the first glasses were merely framed magni­ fying glasses, and appeared in tenth-century china. two hundred -82years later spectacles were introduced to europe. roger bacon records their use in italy in 1268. the first known portrait of a man wearing spectacles is that of hugh de provence by the italian da modena in 1352. domenico ghirlandaio painted saint jerome sit­ ting at a desk, from which dangled an eye-glass, and as a result saint jerome became the patron saint of the spectacle-makers guild. the wearing of glasses was still fairly uncommon in england, even by the seventeenth century. in fact only one optician's token is known throughout the massive seventeenth century series. it was issued at st. katherine's by the tower by john heaward, reading obverse: john heaward in s reverse: katrns spectele-maker i.m.h. and depicts a crude pair of spectacles. we may surmise, however, that the issue of the following london token of 1668 was also an optician, although he does not actually say so on his token. obverse: john radford at ye govlden pair of spectacles reverse: without temple barr 68 hi~ halfe penny l.l.r. by the nineteenth century the wearing of spectacles, especially by older people, was a fairly common sight. several farthing-size advertisement tokens of opticians are known, all appearing in the period circa 1840-70, including those of john cameron of liverpool, f. west of drury lane, london, james gargory of birmingham, john brown of chichester and philip of brighton. john cameron issued two brass farthings at the same address in liverpool. the first reads cameron 54 south castle street liverpool hiron birm (.in small letters) chronometer watch and nautical instrument manufacturer as is usual with quite a number of these pieces, the die sinker who, incidentally, has signed his name, succeeded in cramming in a sur­ prising amount of information about the issuer, considering the small fl an. the second farthing is similar, but the obverse contains cameron's initials, and the reverse described his trades in a slightly different way: optician, chronometer and watchmaker. searching through liverpool street directories i have found john r. cameron to be trading at 54 south castle street between the years 1851 and 1868. in 1851 he is described as a chronometer and nautical instrument maker. by 1868 his business embraces also the making of spectacles and an agency for swedish insurance societies. -83r.c. bell points out that south castle street was situated in the heart of dockland, known as sailortown, frequented by the multiracial crews of the celebrated clippers such as the lightning, marco polo or james baines. i was not surprised, therefore, to discover that john cameron resided far away from his dockland premises. a directory of 1868 mentions his private residence at 155 up parliament street. a rare london farthing advertises an optician's profession in these telling terms obverse: to all who value their sight spectacles on scientific principles reverse: made by f. west 17 russell court drury lane london a large pair of spectacles is featured on the obverse. unfor­ tunately i have been unable to glean any information about mr. west. james gargory, a birmingham optician, issued no less than three farthings during the early years of queen victoria's reign. the one ••• , albeit rather corroded, reads obverse: distinct vision (with a spectacle front on center) reverse: 41 bull street j. gargory birmingham a second token is very similar, whilst a third uses the word optician and puts his address as 5, bull streetstreet directories describe james gargory as a working optician and spectacle-maker and mathe­ matical instrument maker. from 1839 until at least 1842 he worked at 4 bull street. in 1850 his address has changed to 5 bull street, as on one of the tokens. either he moved next door, or the system of street numbering changed. he must have been trading at 41 bull street before 1839. thus the token i have illustrated was probably his first. it is strange that the only two known sussex farthing tokens of the period are both of opticians, one at chichester and the other at brighton. the chichester piece reads obverse: j.w. brown optician and jeweller chichester reverse: chichester cross 1840 bishop storey's cross is the chief feature of the reverse. the issuer is described in an 1839 directory as j.w. brown, silversmith of north street. an 1851 directory provides the clue to his initials. he appears as john williams brown, jeweller and agent to professional life office. neither directory refers to his spectacle-making ac­ tivities! it is interesting to note that this chichester optician, like his counterpart in liverpool, indulged in insurance work. the brighton token is described only briefly in r.c. bell's book but it -84is clear that the issuer named philip, practised no less than three crafts as watchmaker, optician and jeweller. i have not, so far, been able to trace him in contemporary street directories. the remainder of the article describes similar tokens issued by jewel­ lers and watchmakers who did not so declare themselves as opticians, which mr. berry summarizes by writing, 11we have seen that some opticians were also jewellers and that some jewellers were also watchmakers ... he gives as references r.c. bell, unofficial farthings 1820-1870 (1975) and r. campbell, the london tradesman (1747). another optometrist memorialized: a greenville south carolinapiedmo.nt chapter of the reserve officers association has honored b.b. parks, o.d., the executive director emeritus of the south carolina optometric association, by renaming itself the!·!· parks piedmont chapter no. ~· b.o.a. history: miss j. m. mi tche 11 ,. m.a., f. b .o.a., who served for many years as the librarian and curator of the british optical association as well as assistant director of examinations, has written 11a history of the british optical association .. covering the period from its foundation in 1895 to the formation of its successor, the british college of ophthalmic op­ ticians, in 1980. the price of the book is£ 7.50 and is available from the british optical association foundation, 10 knaresborough place, london sw5 otg. "god said, let newton be! and there was light": with a headline like that a reader would have had a hard time passing up a book review in the sunday times (london) 10, 1981. although a bit flamboyant, it worked. 11never at rest: a biography of isaac newton" by r.s. westfall (carrbridge j. 25, pp. 908) was favorably reviewed by simon schaffer. "westfall's biography, a work of twenty years• painstaking scholarship ••• expertly summarises and places each of newton's works ••• " the book covers newton's broad pursuits including optics. 11the well­ known report of his early experiments with prisms and coloured spectra is carefully scrutinised and newton's testimony questioned". although i have flipped through this massive book on a recent bookstore jaunt, i quickly replaced it on the shelf for fear of a compulsive bibliophilic attack. from what i saw, it will definitely provide excellent reading for a more lucrative date in the near future. richard westfall, incidentally, is professor of history and philosophy of science at indiana university, bloomington, indiana. (dkp) -85necrology: william albert hugh rushton (1901-1980), a name well-known to all involved with vision, died in june 1980. a full length article de­ tailing rushton's researches appeared in the january 17, 1981, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 52-53, and a shorter ac­ count appeared in the february 1981 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 58, no. 2, p. 186. dyslexia: "dyslexia •••• past, present and future" was the title of the 1980 eric culver memorial lecture given by d.a. gauntlett at the city uni­ versity, london on november 18, 1980. it's printing in the january 17, 1981, issue of the opthalmic optician, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 33, 35, and 36, was a worthwhile venture since this article presents a readable account of a very commonly misunderstood problem. particularly in­ teresting was the author's historical survey of writings on what is known today as dyslexia. he points out that "the history of dyslexia lies in aphasia, since it is only in recent years that there has been an alternative term to describe someone who has difficulty with written language, but who has not suffered brain damage". it is interesting to note some of the people mentioned in the "dyslexiapast" portion of the article, as follows: several outstanding personalities had difficulty with speech in the latter stages of terminal illnesses; these in­ cluded william harvey and thomas hobbs as well as dean swift. although morgani (1762) pointed out that patients who could not talk still retained the ability to understand language, ' and amassed considerable evidence in support of an associ­ ation of paralysis of one side of the body and the presence of disease in the opposite cerebral hemisphere, he failed to make any formal association between these observations. other cases were reported where the patient showed pro­ nounced memor,y impairment, which affected their ability to read although their vision was unimpaired. doctor samuel johnson's personal account of a language disturbance which followed his stroke in 1783 was vividly described in a letter to a friend where he recalled that when attempting to write 'i had some difficulty, my hand, i know not why, made the wrong letters. gradient index optics: an article with the above title by w.n. charman appeared in the january 31, 1981, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 21, no.3, pp. 72, 74, 75, 78, and 80-84. the article is illuminating because of its clear presentation of gradiant index optics especially with the possible uses in ophthalmic optics, but it also mentions his­ torical work on gradient index optics. the names maxwell and wood -86were prominent in the article. the many contributions to visual science by the 19th century physicist james clerk maxwell are well known, but wood was new to me. my scant article files revealed only that professor r.w. wood made significant contributions to the mechanics of producing diffraction gratings. the following entry in~ bio~raphical dictionar of scientists edited by trevor williams (a and black ltd., 1969 tells the rest. (dkp) wood, robert williams. born at concord, massachusetts, 2nd may 1868; died amityville, new york, 11th august 1955. noted experimenter in physical optics. after stuqying at harvard and berlin, wood taught physics at wisconsin from 1897 until 1901, when he was appointed profes­ sor of experimental physics at johns hopkins university, baltimore. here most of his notable work was done. wood became interested in the problems of diffraction and interference, and initiated production at baltimore of blazed echelette gratings for infra-red radiation. in spectroscopy, he observed the zeeman effect on band lines, and showed that atoms could give rise to continuous spectra. he obtai ned fluorescence and resonance spectra of sodium vapour at low pressures, and of iodine. he described experiments for ob­ serving anomalous dispersion; proved that high temperatures are not attained in vacuum discharge tubes; and helped to dis­ credit the imaginary 'n-rays' postulated by some. photographs taken of landscape and lunar subjects by both ultra-violet and infra-red light demonstrated strikingly the greater clarity resulting from use of the latter, and experi­ ments with a pinhole camera yielded interesting results. he introduced 'wood's filter' for ultra-violet work, cutting off most of the visible radiation. an experimenter of great ingenuity, wood introduced many instrumental improvements; originated an electrical method for thawing frozen water-pipes; and (while serving as a major in world war i) developed several secret signalling devices. wood was also a talented artist, musician, and writer. in addition to his physical optics, he produced a volume of satirical poetry. he travelled extensively and received many honours, including foreign membership of the royal society, whose rumford medal he was awarded in 1938. u.s. presidents: the lives of the u.s. presidents have always drawn wide interest as demonstrated by the warm reception of a recently published book presi­ dential anecdotes by historian paul f. boller jr. (oxford; 410 pages; $14.95). therefore, it might be worth your while to store the fol­ lowing information in the ole memory bank for conversation starters at your next party, reprinted from the secretary's page by john schoen in the april 1981 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics: i j l l i l l ! ! l ' -87the president's eyes reports indicate presidential v1s1on problems as follows: john adams (1797-1801) -probable hyperopia, weak, watery, red eyes. james madison (1809-1817) chronic blepharitis. zachary taylor (1849-1850) -divergent strabismus. james buchanan (1857-1861) antimetropia, and one eye placed higher in the head than the other. abraham lincoln (1861-1865) left hyperphoria (dkp) book collection: i must admit i had never taken the time to clarify for myself exactly who the finchams were; all i knew was that there were at least two, and possibly related. janet voke in her article "the walter fincham optical book collection" in the june 20, 1981, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 21, no. 13, pages 434 and 436, cleared it up for me. . · (dkp) the books were donated to the city university library (london) from the estate of walter h.a. fincham. l!l memory of ha ro 1 d kohn: the harold kohn vision science library and learning resources center of the state college of optometry, state university of new york (suny), 100 east 24th street, new york, new york 10010, is written up in detail in the spring 1981 issue of focus, vol. 3, no. 1, pages 1, 4-5, and 10, a publication of the optometr1c center of new york foundation. an accolade to the late harold kohn, who devoted the better part of his law career as a representative of the optometric profession, is included on page 5. optometric center of new york: a chronology entitled "the first fifteen years" listing the high­ lights of the optometric center of new york, 1956-1971, appeared on pages 6-7 of the above cited issue of focus. a footnote suggests that the next issue of focus will help us distinguish between what apparently are three different but interrelated organizations with identical or nearly identical addresses, namely, the state college of optometry, the university optometric center, and the optometric center of new york foundation. optometricana from staiman: member jacob staiman last june marked his 55th year since graduation from optometry school. he continues to donate items from his collection to ilamo as well as to the local municipal museum in baltimore. his most -88recent gifts to ilamo have included some of his college class notes and lessons as well as books and eyewear. origin of essel: the name essel came originally from the initials s.l., which stood for the soci~~ des lunetiers, one of the earliest workers' cooperatives, founded in 1849 by a group of spectacle makers. operating for a long time under the company name essel, in 1974 it merged with silor to form the parent company under the combination title essilor, best known to optome­ trists as the manufacturer of the varilux lenses. the branch company, essel optical company, thornbury, england, is presently celebrating "a hundred years of essel in the uk" according to an article by that title in the june/july, 1981, issue of mol (manufacturing optics international), vol. 34, no. 8, p. 40. accoi11tl0dation: there seems to have been a recent emphasis in optometric journals to publish refresher or continuing education articles. the benefits of these articles are obvious, but i was pleasantly surprised to run into the article "accommodation" by janet voke first published in the optician (date not given) and reprinted in the june 1981 issue of the south african optometrist, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 75, 76, 78, 80 ana-83. dr. voke 1s historical summary of the investigations into the accommodative theories makes clear what can often be a confusing subject for the student and reader. -her chronological presentation of accommodative theories includes lucid and concise descriptions of helmholtz's theory (1855), tscherning's theory (1896) and fincham's capsular theory (1925 and 1937). (dkp) appeal: since becoming a co-editor of this publication i have often pondered what the actual role of an editor includes. at times it encompasses everything from "censorship" to indexing, but mostly writing inclusions. don't get me wrong, i thoroughly enjoy this work; but my mind seems to wander a lot to you readers. i get a bit jealous knowing that you have literally thousands of stories, anecdotes, news items, and historical accounts that would be perfectly suited for this newsletter. so why don't you share this with everyone? all you need to do 1s to jot down your inclusion(s) in some type of narrative form and send it (them) to: h.w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 i give hank's address only because postage to indiana for most of you is a bit less than to south africa. hope to hear from you. (dkp) h.w hofstetter o.k. penisten, editors 1981-12-04-001 1981-12-04-002 1981-12-04-003 1981-12-04-004 1981-12-04-005 1981-12-04-006 1981-12-04-007 1981-12-04-008 1981-12-04-009 1981-12-04-010 1981-12-04-011 1981-12-04-012 1981-12-04-013 1981-12-04-014 1981-12-04-015 1981-12-04-016 1981-12-04-017 1981-12-04-018 1981-12-04-019 1981-12-04-020 1981-12-04-021 1981-12-04-022 1981-12-04-023 1981-12-04-024 1981-12-04-025 1981-12-04-026 1981-12-04-027 1981-12-04-028 c~/ olltoitiiv liiary )lewsletter mar 201987 volume 18 r of the ~tometric historical society ~243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) january 1987 chaired by president j. j. abrams, twenty some members of the optometric historical society and guests gathered on saturday, december 13, during a brief lull of the multi-faceted program of the american academy of optometry to hear ohs member e. j. fisher give a well­ researched account of the history of canadian optometry. unfortunately the "lull" was really nonexistent for many who faced other conflicting academy events, but those who were present gave enthusiastic reviews of the paper. fortunately, dr. fisher had his comments in manuscript form which secretary dablemont quickly snatched from him for the archives, and a copy of which we hope to review in a future issue. further, others of us have urged dr. fisher to publish the paper in the qan~gi~~-~q~rn~l of qe~qmetry or elsewhere. additional promotion of our efforts included supplies of three colorful sheets, a brief statement of the role of the society, a membership application form, and a gift membership form, displayed at the academy registration desk. many were picked up by the academy registrants, and we hope they will be used. election results after a week of no receipt of additional ballots i tabulated the 37 responses received during the preceding month with the following results. of the nine nominees, the three elected to the executive board are: meredith morgan, jerome abrams, and douglas penisten, in order of frequency of vote preferences. the same three were winners by the hare system and by the rank score total system of evaluating the ballots. the present board, therefore, consists of the following seven persons with their years of term expiration shown in parentheses: james p. leeds (1987) patrica carlson (1988) douglas penisten (1988) andrew e fischer (1989) jerome j abrams (1989) maria dablemont (1990) meredith morgan (1990) ~/ i -:·"' . .) ' ··~ -2·:'t. i . '· •. in ~d~ition, these board members have elected the 1987 ohs officers from among themselves. they are as follows: president: vice-pres: secretary: treasurer: j.j. abrams patricia carlson maria dablemont douglas penisten h.w h. ohs executive board member, andrew fischer, made every effort to attend the reminisce-in in toronto, but because we were so delayed in getting out the october issue of the newsletter he did not learn the date until too late. in brief, we can explain the delay in terms of a whole series of sequential difficulties. a detailed account would be boring, indeed. nor was there a simple solution, for we rely so much on volunteer services. dr. fischer should have been angry. but no, instead, he sent our secretary-treasurer a $100.00 check to provide membership gifts to eight optometrists and two years' renewal of his own membership. we editors are especially grateful for such charitableness. a suggestion to the board: as the recipient for the ballots cast by osh members for the 1987 executive board i became well aware of inadequacies in our procedure. these were made particularly apparent by the need to select and rank nine nominees for three slots. although the names of all nine have appeared from time to time in the newsletter, it was virtually impossible for most of us to make fair judgements of their respective talents and dedication to ohs objectives. i personally know and felt all nine to be very well qualified, but even i wondered briefly if my ninth-ranked choice should not have been ranked first! in other words, there are important factors in addition to talent and dedication that should be weighed in the choice, and these may be ascertained only by direct inquiry and interview. is the nominee willing to work, enthusiastic, effective, available for meetings, accessible to office facilities, readily available by telephone, administratively experienced, etc.? our by-laws provide merely that a nomination be supported by three members. in no way has this provision been abused in our 17 years. however, what might well be added is a provision for the appointment of a nominating committee of three members whose assignment would be to search and screen the membership for one or more nominees for each opening and to make specific recommendations -3of choice. such a committee should be appointed early in the year so that its members can do the appropriate interviewing and inquiring well in advance. the ballots would then include the committee's recommended candidates plus whatever additional candidates' names might be nominated by other groups of three or more wishing to sponsor their own favored candidates. a legitimate objection might well be raised that this gives the nominating committee considerable power. true. the safety factors would then be the appointment of committee members of highest integrity and the continued provision that any other three members can sponsor and campaign for competing candidates. h.w h. th~mqrton ~-2arv~~-q~nter_fqk_qorn~~-~nq_contact_~~ll§ r~~~h has been established by the university of california school of optometry. funds for the center are being derived from donations and from proceeds of a lecture series in the late dr. sarver's name. frank dickinson, 1906-1978: a 28 page 15 x 21 em booklet entitled "frank dickinson: contact lens pioneer" was published by the british college of ophthalmic opticians in 1981 to honor a member who contributed extensively to optometry for more than a half centruy. prepared by his son peter dickinson, it includes frank's portrait, a list of eighteen honors, a biographical summary, and a chronological bibliography of about· 300 published writings. his unusual collection of contact lenses, lens cases, books, typescripts of lectures, papers, and other historical materials were donated to the library of the british college of ophthalmic opticians in london. in 1980 the dolland and aitchison firm donated the frank dig~insqn_iutori~l_qlini£ to the university of manchester institute of science and technology for use by the department of ophthalmic optics. collectors come~~in~ ohs member charles letocha writes that it is getting more difficult each year to find old spectacles that he does not have already. he adds that "the prices have gone out of sight." ohs member j. d. teunissen writes: i read your article in nohs vol. 17, no. 4, with much interest. i collect all kinds of spectacles, books, articles, catalogs, prints, caricatures, and displays, and i write articles about them. i made about 10 copies of a 1901 s.l. catalog and a few of the nicura bible, circa 1900, 960 pages. i collect newspaper advertisements, the earliest 1753! -4are there already reprints of books or catalogs in the u.s.a.? if i can borrow an original, i can make copies. are there people interested? let me know. having sold my practice, i now work as an orator, stylist, and consultant in optics. presently, i am advising a group of 160 top opticians in holland. i made a traveling exposition of 200 years of spectacles. i am a free-lance worker and use my collection and knowledge as a source of ideas. mr. teunissen's address is staringstraat 20, 5615 hd eindhoven, the netherlands. (telephone 040-447581). two ohs members mailed in almost identical clippings from newspapers of october 27 in indianapolis, indiana, and louisville, kentucky, describing ohs member arol augsburger's museum display of the spectacles of presently living celebrities. as mentioned on page 68 of the july 1984 issue of this newsletter, dr. augsburger already has well over 50 pair of spectacles in his collection, which frequently includes respondent's comments and photographs. solicited celebrities include, for example, sophia loren, dean martin, george bush, gerald ford, phil donahue, george f. will, charles schulz, and billy graham. how yisiqn_beseargh, an international journal of visual science, got started with the first edition in june 1961, and how it has contributed to the field of visual sceince in the quarter century since, are the topics for the number 9, 1986, issue of volume 26. represented are approximately 400 pages for 19 articles by authors selected by editor robert boynton and who publish in this journal. each was asked to provide ;, a retrospective and personal review of an assigned area" of visual science. the result, to a large degree, is a panoramic view of the field of visual science as viewed from the pages of the journal itself. the invitations obviously prompted a wealth of personal comments about individual researchers, and these were supplemented by hundreds of candid camera spots of the scientists in a variety of settings. reference lists are huge. for those of us old enough to remember the modest status of visual science 50 years ago, this document is overwhelming. h. w h. -5the alignment of two lenses one behind the other to give greater magnification is believed to have been a fortuitous discovery which seems not to have been made until three hundred years after the use of lenses for eyeglasses. the earliest records of microscopic observations date from 1625 and 1630. these are records of investigations on the bee and the weevil by federico cesi (1585-1630) and francesco stelluti (1577-1652), founder members of the academy of the lynx in italy. the remarkably detailed sketches of the microscopic images of both insects were included in a 1630 book of stelluti's italian translations of the six latin satires of persius (34-62 a.d.). the story behind all this is delightfully told in an article entitled "the first record of microscopic observations" by biologist david bardell in the january 1983 issue of ~iosci~nc~, vol. 33, no. 1, pages 36-38, kindly called to our attention by ohs member duane e. polzien, o.d., of lincoln, nebraska. my co-editor douglas penisten, a real science history buff, puchased a 1986 book which in a sense is almost an instant rarity. it is a xerographically reduced print of a typewritten dissertation bound in heavy paper cover, as is common practice in some european universities, especially to meet the reques-ts of the typically few who want copies of dissertaitons in their original forms. the title is "die ~unchener optik in der geschichte: entstehung, unternehmungen, sternwarten, lokalitaten, ausbreitung" (the optics of munich in history: beginnings, enterprises, observations, involvements, and ramifications). the doctoral recipient and author, alto bracher, submitted it to the faculty for chemistry, biology, and geoscience at the munich technical university in partial fulfillment of his degree requirements. the book has 440 pages, 279 illustrations of maps, charts, portraits, diagrams, photographs, and paintings, and 223 references, in german of course. the history begins with an account of the eclipse of the sun by the planet venus on july 6, 1761, as observed at the rocker! observatory in munich. the phenomenon of course was seen as a black spot in the sun's disk, if one dared foolishly to look directly at it. the book deals with all aspects of optics, the technological, professional, scientific, industrial, commercial, institutional, and entrepreneurial, which were so effectively nurtured in the munich area from the 18th century on. -6as many of our readers well know, ophthalmic optics p.layed an alpha and omega role in the represented era. the. open,ing sentence of the foreword, for example, states that ev~~~one who at any time has been even remotely involved with optics is acquainted with the name of joseph fraunhofer (1767-1826). young fraunhofer was apprenticing in spectaclemaking in 1801 at the age of 14. in the closing paragraphs of the book, the role of the rodenstock firm is featured especially in terms of the optical involvement of three generations of the rodenstock family. it follows that even though the b,ook qeals with tpe m~ltiple aspects of general optics, today a field broadly extended outsiqe of ophthalmic optics or optometry, the thread of its historical existence seems virtually tied in with spectacles. it therefore can be a valuable source book for the optometric history scholar, providing, of course, that he or she can read qerman. in a 1986 publication of the iqdiana historical society entitled "the early architecture of madison, indiana," by john t. windle and robert m. taylor, jr., the name? of two optometrists appear as owners of historically identified buildings. anqe wilberding, the widow of herbert wilberqing, o.d., is the present owner of a middle 19th century cottage of federal style at 424 west street, illustrated on page 65. oscar bear, o.d., and his wife norma, are the owners of the bear building at 206 east main street, a three-story french empire style 1870s building. illustrated on page 172, its two first-floor store fronts bore the respective signs "oscar c. bear and son jeweler and optometrist" and "gifts . silver . china . crystal. " situated on the north bank of the ohio river, madisop began its existence in the early years of the 19th century as a poj:"t .of entry for interior indiana settlers and for some time prospered as indiana's leading metropolis. duripg its past century of little or no growth, however, the impressive remnant of buildings erected during madison's palmy days stood fast. the ~ecember 1986 issue of qe~ic§_news, vol. 12, no. 12, includes two brief historical items that give some insight into the personalities of benjamin franklin and sir david brewster. the one on franklin is by leo m. hurvich on page 4 entitled "the story goes that. in 1761, franklin e~plained to miss mary stevenson that a black dress would be much warmer in the sun than a white one, that similarly a wet black cloth would dry faster than a wet white cloth, and that a beer in a black mug before the fire would warm sooner than beer in a white one. he also described an experiment of placing little squares of variously colored broadcloth on the snow in the bright sunshine and observing later the different depths of melting underneath. .. 7on page 63, under identical title, w. l. hyde quotes from a letter written in 1818 by sir david brewster to his wife about his famous invention, the kaleidoscope, as follows, .(i am told) that had i managed my patent rightly, i would have made one hundred thousand pounds by it! this is the universal opinion, and therefore the mortification is very great. you can form no conception of the effect which the instrument excited in london; all that you have heard falls infinitely short of the reality. no book and no instrument in the memory of man ever produced such a singular effect. they are exhibited publicly on the streets for a penny, and i had the pleasure of paying this sum yesterday; these are about two feet long and a foot wide. infants are seen carrying them in their hands, the coachmen on their boxes are busy using them, and thousands of poor people make their bread by making and selling them." according to his daughter, he "never realized a farthing by it." it was not until twenty years later, when he was 57 that he finally received an appointment that gave him a decent income. the· spectacle stamp collection of mrs. richard hall mentioned in the january and july issues of m~q~q~, pages 12 and 44, has been acquired by ohs member william baldwin for the museum of the university of houston college of optometry. it is gratifying to realize that the placement of valuable historical items like this can be facilitated by this newsletter. linda draper, editor of yisionlin~, the ilamo newsletter, calls our attention to an excellent article by walter gasson entitled "roman ophthalmic science (743 b.c.-a.d. 476) in the third 1986 issue of qphtb~lm1£_~ng_fb~b1212bigal qptics, vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 255-267. reviewing in detail the medical and optical writings of celsus, seneca, pliny, rufus, galen, and others gasson concludes that in the more than 12 centuries of the roman state significant advances had been made in the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of ocular disorders and in knowledge of ocular anatomy. however, in spite of their possession of skills of a high order in some aspects of glass technology and their familiarity with various aspects of geometric optics, the romans never developed optical aids to overcome refractive defects. -8oculists (oculari) evolved as a branch of medicine but their courses of study and modes of practice are quite unknown. the magnifying effect of glass globe water lenses is mentioned more than once. it was common practice for a middle-aged presbyope to employ an educated slave to read for him. slaves of high refractive error were of less value. contemporary greek physicians were favorite targets for ridicule by latin poets. for example, one epigram relating to a greek oculist translates, "you are now a gladiator, formerly you were an oculist. as a medical man you did what you do now as a.gladiator." included are 10 illustrations and 30 references. recruiting history buffs: ohs member elias shaneson o.d., who contributed his collection of journals and other optometric memorabilia to ilamo before retirement, recently made a gift ohs membership to russell j. raye, o.d., of palm springs, florida. this is a gentle, thoughtful, and generous way to bring into membership persons who otherwise overlook the opportunity to participate in and enjoy the rounding up and recording of the facts and lore of optometric history. keep in mind that whenever any optometrically involved person interrupts his or her conversation with "remember whe~ .. ?" take it as a cue to suggest membership in ohs. recorded history takes various forms. one extreme is the factual chronological listing of persons, places, and things as components of events with each detail properly documented or referenced for authenticity, reliability, and validity. another extreme is the informal descriptive discourse by one who personally experienced or witnessed the occurrences and whose authenticity, integrity, and competence are taken for granted. each form is a contribution. an example of the latter is an article entitled "the 'service contract' debate" by neal j. bailey in the october 1986 issue of contact lens spectrum, vol. 1, no. 10, pp. 17-18 and 2021. from his own career-long professional involvement in the clinical contact lens milieu he recites easily the historical trends, issues, and strategies in what practitioners call "service contracts" and patients call "insurance". with virtually no recourse to citations, documents, dates, and the like he describes the historical and current involvement of insurance companies and individual practitioners in the replacement of patients' accidentally damaged or lost contact lenses at something less than their original cost. it has a fascinating h~story all its own, and perhaps it will never be recorded elsewhere except in the confinement of legal archives. -9ohs member charles letocha asks if any effort has been made to commemorate the septicentennial of the invention of eyeglasses. are we allowing another century of eyewear to slip by unnoticed? surely, some country must be issuing a commemorative postal stamp. after all, without spectacles the postal system, itself, would be hindered indeed! a fourth member of the optometric historical society has informed the secretary that he has amended his will to provide for a $1,000 legacy to the society, thereby gaining a free membership for the rest of his life. for good reasons we do not divulge the names of "legacy" members (unless they wish). the commentary on "illustrated history of early antique spectacles" on page 59 of the october, 1985, issue of this newsletter was without benefit of having seen the book itself. its subsequent arrival justifies further description. published in 1985 by the author himself it is a paper-backed 112 page book, 29 x 21 em. in size, and printed in heavy glossy paper. the foreword is by margaret mitchell, who, having worked closely with the author, tells us of mr. orr's extensive research, painstaking efforts, technical competence, and dedication. it is apparent that the book is entirely the creative undertaking of the author himself. it lacks much of the conventional format of books produced by trade book publishers with professional editorial staffs and formally adopted guidelines for such details as logical topical sequence and index, references, illustration numbering, aesthetic spacing, etc. rather, it is obviously assembled as mr. orr must have personally decided, and the text and legends are just as he felt like expressing himself. alas, the result is pure credibility, the refreshing impact of a witness whose account cannot be shaken by the most intense cross­ examination. perhaps this evaluation can be borne out briefly by listing the titles of just a few of the 25 chapters: "orators spectacles", "the rise and fall of benjamin martin 1704-1782", syllepsis spectacles of william storer", "the astig clip", "from samuel pepys diary about his vision", "early advertising by opticians", and "hallmarks on spectacles and abuses". -10the final page includes only the following: "and lastly-­ without serious collectors of antique spectacles and instruments, how much of our present knowledge would have been lost for ever? hugh orr" the book is a fine contribution to historical optometric literature. smoke in your~~~ a bit of lamp history is provided by professor robert l. smith of the university of illinois school of architecture in an article entitled "lighting technology: from darkness to opportunity." it appears in the november 1986 issue of architectural lighting, volume 1, november o (sic!), pages 5661. several of the in color illustrations are of very early lamps, a tinder box, and a "fat-catching" grid for collecting fat in the fireplace to use in fat-burning lamps. they include a clay lamp, a "double crusie," a "betty,", and a "rushlight", one from the author's own collection and the others from the early american museum in mahomet, illinois. the author suggests that the cave dwellers probably used burning fagots when away from the glow of a cooking fire. the oldest known lamp was discovered in a cave in france, a 20,000year-old sandstone bowl containing remnants of grease and a small piece of vegetable fiber that probably served as a wick. referring to the much more recent fish-oil-fueled lamps of only 24 centuries ago he quotes a greek writer as saying, "one could not enjoy the good things at the table until indulgence in the wine made the guests indifferent to the smoking lamps." the article then takes us through the eras o:f candles, gas and kerosene lighting, and the various electrically powered light sources. the article is well written and seemingly authoritative, though lacking reference citations. earl~~ss technolo~~ obsidian is a volcanic glass named after obsius, the discoverer, according to pliny. the fact that the edge of a newly chi~ped flake is sharper than surgical steel was only discovered in the 1970s, and it has led to the current use of obsidian blades in eye surgery, according to anthropologist terry stocker in an article entitled, "a technological mystery resolved" in the spring 1987 issue of american heritage of invention and technology, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 64. -11arthur stocker also suggests that the effective use of obsidian blades for swords and other cutting tools jewelry, and mirrors by the aztecs and mayas accounts for their lack of metallurgy. it was not until the late 1700s that steel completely replaced obsidian in mexican technology. natural phenomena of yore: "letters from honeyhill" consists of correspondence of cecilia henne! hendricks (1883-1969) between 1914 and 1931 compiled and edited by her daughter cecilia hendricks wahl and published by pruett publishing co., boulder, colorado, in 1986. on december 30, 1913, miss henne! left her english literature teaching positon at indiana university to marry an apiarist homesteader and live for 17 years in the lonely shoshone valley of northwestern wyoming, (circa 44°50'n and 108° 50'w). she wrote very frequently and in fine, detailed, and intimate literary style to her family back in indiana. before citing several of the natural visual observations she made, let me remind ourselves that in today's milieu the opportunities for uncontaminated natural sights are becoming rare. not only are our skies visibly affected by atmospheric factors in the daytime but at night there are fewer accessible places where one can escape the stray lighting of the sky by bright electric sources from remote towns and urban centers. even the ubiquitous automobile headlights and brilliantly illuminated windows of nearby households make it difficult to attain the level of dark adaptation allowing a truly sparkling view of the starlit heavens. astronauts have told us what we on earth are missing, but hardly with the simple clarity of mrs. hendricks's accounts from the then almost unpopulated state of wyoming. "you ought to see the view from here. in the daytime it is gorgeous. the mountains have the loveliest color. and the night! i never knew what a moonlight night was till tonight. i never saw such stars as we have out here. the strange thing is that they are the same stars i've always seen." remember, she came from the town of bloomington in which hoagy carmichael composed "stardust". "i must tell you about the mirage we saw saturday evening, one of the best i have ever seen. there had been a fall of snow the day before on the mountains and on the low slopes west of the flat. late saturday evening the sun was shining just right to give the whole western part of the flat the appearance of a great lake. i think the reflection of the snow and the sun was partly the cause, but we think the mirage was one of the big shoshone reservoir. looking with the naked eye you could see a lake that was immense in size with the sun shining on the water. we got out the field glass that joe has, thinking that would dispel! the illusion, and to our surprise we found that it not only did not -12dispel! it, but increased our view of it. with the glass we could see the spray dashing up and down and the waves washing on the lake. i could not believe my eyes. carrie looked first and when she reported that she could see the water dashing, i thought she had a pretty lively imagination. i looked then, very skeptically, and to my great surprise i saw great clouds of spray dash and change form. i could not believe at first that i was seeing right, but confirmed it by watching for quite a while. later joe saw the same thing when he looked through the glass. on january 7, 1917: "i wish you could be here tonight and see what wyoming moonlight and snow can do to the scenery. you would be sure it was daylight and not moonlight. now maybe you will think i am stretching it, but it is actually a fact that last night when·the men came home from the union meeting i could see the buggies when they were at werts and that is three quarters of a mile away. i am not a bit afraid to stay alone while john goes to a meeting when it is moonlight like this. on dark nights, it is a little different." march 10, 1918: "i wish you all could have been here the other night to see the northern lights display we saw. it is the most wonderful one i have ever seen. the main part of the display was in the east, not in the north. i think the reason was that there was a bank of clouds in the north, and the light was reflected around the cloud bank to the clear east. the whole east looked as if there were a great fire somewhere, only the light was a pink-red instead of a brick-red, and it was high up and did not come to the horizon. part of the time this red glow was massed solid across the east. then fingers of light stretched up from it, some of them pale and some of them deep red. across the whole north there was a queer yellow-white light against which the clouds stood out in relief. after a while, the clouds massed near the horizon and the fingers of light stretched up from them toward the zenith. across the west a great, long plume of white light stretched about half way between horizon and zenith, and in the south was another like it. it seems queer to me to see the light so far away from the north. it is as if a huge feather of lip;ht had been wafted away from the main body and was floating off on the atmosphere. the bright light in the east lasted for about an hour. then the light travelled north, as the clouds there banked lower on the horizon, and the red color, though not as bright or as far spread, appeared in the northeast: ·the rays shooting up from the north grew brighter, too, and as long as we watched them still shot up skyward. i do not know how long the whole a·ffair lasted, as we did not watch it more than about an hour and a half." april 24, 1922, another mirage: "powell is quite a city now with its new street electric lights. ordinarily, we can see the row of lights from the upstairs windows, very plainly and clearly­ --almost five miles away. but part of the time we can see them from the downstairs. isn't that queer and interesting? it is a matter of nightly interest to us now to see whether or not we can see the electric street lights of powell." -13letters in the attic: in the above-mentioned hendricks book, there are only three references to spectacles or eyes. in a letter dated july 25, 1917, mrs. hendricks jokingly quotes her husband, who said, " ... if edward will merely walk into the examining office without his glasses on, his examination will stop at the first-loo~~n the part of the medical examiner." quite evidently edward was a young lad of draft age for world war i, and probably highly myopic. in a letter of june 3, 1930, mrs. hendricks described a 73 year old farmer neighbor, named nauser, who "reads a lot" and had one eye removed a year earlier and was now ready for a glass eye. " ... the doctor fitted one in, and then told him it would never stay in unless mr. nauser had another operation to take up the slack in his eyelids. he said it had to be done. the doctor went to another room, and while he was gone the nurse came up to mr. nauser, put her arm around him, and told him not to believe the doctor, that all he wanted was mr. nauser's money." mr. nauser agreed and got a pair of dark glasses instead. on october 30, 1931, at which time mrs. hendricks was 48, she commented merely, "i had to have new spectacles," in explaining how she had spent some of the family's limited funds available during the great depression. it is, of course, probable that spectacles and eye problems were mentioned in her unpublished correspondence, which, according to her daughter editor, greatly exceeded the published letters in quantity. nevertheless, the three brief and almost cryptic inclusions tell us a good deal about eye care of the era. therein is a message. in the attics of our homes, or wherever else our family heirlooms accumulate, there may well be early letters containing dated comments about spectacles, visual problems, ocular conditions, eye doctors, opticians, and related topics that reveal even tiny bits about popular concepts, public knowledge, professional tactics, ophthalmic products, folklore, etc., that simply were not recorded in the published literature. published literature, after all, is highly screened information catering to editorial whims and public censure. not so with private correspondence. should you discover, for example, that your great-grandmother described her eye examination to your great-grandfather in a letter while they were still courting, do send us at least a photocopy of the letter together with any related facts. a few such tidbits could well help us fill in the huge gaps of reliable historical information, especially about optometry during the several centuries prior to this one. h. w h. -14lest we forget: for several years this newsletter has recorded the names ·of optometric and optometrically related persons who have been memorialized and formally honored in one way or another and who, therefore, may be considered key persons in ou·r past or developing history. in this sense, then, the newsletter is a kind of informal registry, however incomplete. such names then are quite automatically listed in the serial's index. the index for volumes 1 to 10 was included with the october 1979 issue. the cumulative index for volumes 11 to the .present is in file­ card form to be assembled and included with the last issue for 1989. apparently fascinated by this conceiveably useless undertaking, ohs member homer hendrickson, kindly sent us .a list of 37 memorials and named awards. he derived these f·rom the catalogs of the southern california college of optometry and pacific university college of optometry and from the files of the optometric extension program foundation, of which he is lmmedi·ate past president. a search of our past issues, via the index, revealed that 14 of these 37 had already been entered. here then are the other 23 in alphabetical order. the charles a. abel awards to outstanding students at the southern california college of optometry. the alvin appelbaum 'memorial scholarsh~ award to a deserving student at the southern california college .of optometry. the irvin m barish medal awarded annually by the american optomet.ric foundation to a graduating student at each school tfor an exce.ptional paper. the frederick w. brock memorial medal awa!i"deai annually ey the american optometric foundation to·.a ~aduating student at each accredited school for an exceptional ;pape.r. the donald a. bybee memorial award to an outstanding graduating student at the pacific university college of optometry. the reynaldo j. carreon, jr. scholarship awarded to a southern california college of optometry student of 'mexican lineage. " . the gaol;:~_!_. _de.2ne, jr. memorial leade·rship award by the california optometric association to a california resident student for outstanding leadership in the state's student · optometric organization. the al .qennis award to a graduating student of the southern california college of optometry in recognition of excellence in student organization activities. the william feinbloom award, the gift of a low-vision diagnostic kit by designs for vision, inc. to a final-year student at each accredited optometry school who has demonstrat.ed aptitude in low-vision studies. the tole n. greenstein memorial papers award by the optometric extension program foundation for optometric students in any accredited college for a paper on lens application to visual performance. -15the roy marks memorial awards by the california optical laboratories association to final year students presenting outstanding research papers at an annual symposium. the lora mcgr~~_award by the california vision therapist forum under auspices of the optometric extension program foundation, given to an optometric assistant for outstanding achievement and service. the nic~_meneaki~_memq±i~l-~~~rd by the southern california college of optometry class of 1978 to a final year student outstanding in ocular pharmacology. the homer a. nelson scholarsh~~rd to a deserving upper class student at the southern california college of optometry. the julius neumueller award by the american academy of optometry to a student for an outstanding paper in geometrical or physical optics. the howard preston memorial award by the south bay (california) optometric society to a second-year student for greatest improvement in academic performance. the bertram l. roberts memorial award to a southern california college of optometry student for excellence in ocular pathology studies. the carmen sandoval memorial fund by the auxiliary to the arizona optometric association to provide financial aid to students from arizona. the a.m. skeffington award by the college of optometrists in vision development to a pacific university student excelling in vision training studies: the harold a. snider memorial award to an upper class student at the southern california college of optometry for professionalism in clinical performance. the arthur y. sugino memorial award by the southern california japanese-american optometric society to a final year asian-american student excelling in clinical performance. the robert k. vinyard memorial award to provide financial aid to a deserving student at the southern california college of optometry. the william k. yamamoto memorial award by the southern california japanese-american optometric society to a final year asian-american student excelling in clinical performance. a funny m~stery: in september 1980 i received from g. maurice belanger, o.d., long time editor of the q~g~dian_jq~rnal qf_qetomet~~. a staple­ bound 44 page 22 x 28 em booklet of cartoons. the booklet included no text other thaq cartoon punch lines, no author, no publisher, no copyright, no address, and no date. it was produced on heavy paper, and the cartoons each took up a full page and were drawn in large bold strokes which would readily allow several times reduction for publication purposes. the front cover cartoon is shown here reduced to 27% of its original dimensions. the booklet was very shopworn from apparently frequent handling, perhaps in a reception room. -16dr. belanger did not know or recall the origin nor how he happened to have it. he gave it to me for my cartoon collection. from the cartooned styles of clothing, spectacle frames and auto~obiles, i would date the cartoons circa 1970 or a bit earlier. -~.ferences are made to "optometrist", "optician", "eye doctor", "contact lenses", "dishwasher", "dentist", "cbs" (network), "u.s. mail", and "psychiatrist". these identities ~~.~also support my circa 1970 or late 1960's estimate. ~ my further guess is that the author was a professional ·. · u.artoori.lst who may have assembled these as a booklet of samples '· ~ in hopes of selling his a creative services to an optometric publication, perhaps to dr. belanger. that the cartoonist did not include at least a signature, a pen-name, or initials on even one of the cartoons is puzzling. the cartoons are really very good. editors h. w h. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, the ocular heritage society will meet at the museum of the foundation of the american academy of ophthalmology, 655 beach st., san francisco, ca 94101, on april 17-18, 1987. president alan york, o.d., invites the attendance of all interested persons. further information may be had by calling secretary, susan cronenwett at the museum address, telephone 415-561-8500. 1987-18-01-001 1987-18-01-002 1987-18-01-003 1987-18-01-004 1987-18-01-005 1987-18-01-006 1987-18-01-007 1987-18-01-008 1987-18-01-009 1987-18-01-010 1987-18-01-011 1987-18-01-012 1987-18-01-013 1987-18-01-014 1987-18-01-015 1987-18-01-016 0ptolllet newsletter r; e:rtt::~ l1 bra:ry of the .j. li'l.le :,,, ,qptometric historical society (243 north lindber@l' boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.~,t.dr _11 vol. 12 january 1981 i981 number 1 with mixed emotions: mixed emotions were expressed by two of the voting members because both candidates, jerry abrams and maria dablemont, were such excellent nominees for membership on the executive board of the optometric historical society. the voting was extremely light this year, in fact only 26, which may have reflected the same frustration by others, or perhaps the disbelief that the address for your 11 scrutineer 11 (a bit british for ballot counter), namely i, was really waterloo, canada. or perhaps many of you did not know that postage to canada from the u.s.a. is the same as for domestic first class mail. whatever the explanation, r~aria dablemont won handily, though jerry received a significant number, which should encourage him to allow his name in nomination in a future year. the members of the npw executive board, with years of expiration in parentheses, are as follows: grace weiner (1981) james leeds (1982) james tumblin (1983) henry knoll (1984) maria dablemont (1985) a group of distinguished persons, indeed! the election of officers by the members of the board is taking place presently and will be announced in the next issue. about the next issue or two or three: both of your editors, functioning s:.utewhat alternately with recent issues, are substantially displaced from bloomington, indiana, for a good many moons. doug penisten has taken a faculty position at the university of the north in south africa, where his residence address is o.k. penisten, o.d., casa renard flats, flat 209, schoeman street, 0700 pietersburg, republic of south africa. he would appreciate any correspondence that we can spare, and he will try to contribute an occasional item or two for the newsletter during the coming year or more. i, henry hofstetter, editor of the moment,will be enroute to san juan, puerto rico, before this issue gets mailed, where i shall assume the role ;:.!,; of acting dean of the new school of optometry at the inter american university of puerto rico, g.p.o. box 3255, san juan, puerto rico 00936. i expect to remain there through september where my residence address will be la arboleda condominium, apt. 1203, guaynabo, puerto rico 00657, telephone 809-783-0774. however, all first class mail addressed to me at my permanent residence at 2615 windermere woods drive, bloomington, indiana 47401 will be forwarded to me by the post office. the mail addressed to me at the indiana university school of optometry, bloominqton, indiana 47405 will also be forwarded to me periodically. -2in some way or other, doug and i will attempt to prepare copy for the april, july, and october issues of this quarterly newsletter, but they may be quite limited in content unless you send us bits of material to digest or comment upon. another reminisce-in: a telephone call from o.h.s. secretary-treasurer maria dablemont provided a hasty enthusiastic report of the one-hour reminisce-in held in chicago in december at the time of the american academy of optometry. twenty five signed an attendance sheet. dr. henry knoll gave a brief preview of a contact lens history paper which he is preparing. mrs. dablemont described the financial status of the optometric historical society, with a balance of $2,285.20, a tidy sum considering the costs of mailing the newsletter to many overseas members. dr. james leeds reported his attempt to extract some of the history of optometry from literature resu~s in his collection of early and rare books. the following paragraphs are from his notes. the year book publishers of chicago have printed a yearly resum~ of the various specialties of medicine from 1901 to the present, possibly prior to 1901. the last one i checked, for 1977, listed 22 specialties, 21 medical and one for dentistry. what is printed is a resum~ of the important developments of that year to keep the practitioner up to date. there have been three titles for the eye, the first two almost the same. 1901-1933 it was called 11 the eye, ear, nose & throat 11 • 1934-1957 it was called 11 the eye, ear, nose & throat yearbook 11 • 1958-present it was called 11 yearbook of ophthalmology ... from 1901-1933, it was vol. iii of a series of 8-10 or so books, the others for various specialties. it has the title of 11 the practical medicine series of yearbooks, comprising 10 volumes (8 in 1930) of the year's progress in medicine & surqery, issued monthly. apparently eent came out in march. there have been very few editors over the years: 1901-1919 casey a. wood 1920-1924 casey a. wood and charles h. small 1925-1930 charles h. small 1931-1939 e.v.l. brown & louis bothman 1940-1948 louis bothman 1949-1958 derrick vail 1959-present william f. hughes -3i wanted to see how many references to optometry were in the books. i have a complete set (except for 1904, 1909 & 1972) from 1901-1977 and went through each yearly book. i checked only those sections where i felt such listings might be found. up to 1930, there were sections on: examination of the eye; color sense & color blindness; refraction; amblyopia & its treatment; hygiene of the eye; & new instruments (none ever invented by an o.d.). with the editorship of drs. brown and bothman in 1931, there was one section on 11 refraction & muscles. 11 in the 1950's it was 11 refraction & motili ti'. from 1969 on, there were two sections: 11 ~·1otility 11 & 11 vision, refraction & contact lenses 11 • of course there were sections on pathology--cornea, iris, etc.--that i did not check. for all practical purposes, to the year book publishers, optometry does not exist. where there was an occasional reference, never was that individual identified as an optometrist. possibly i missed some, such as the mckay-marg tonometer under a glaucoma section, but i restricted myself to those sections i mentioned. it is regrettable that genuine optometric contributions to ophthalmic science have been ignored. there is no mention of subnormal vision, much less william feinbloom. there is no mention of any optometrist in the development of contact lenses. i have heard ophthalmologists praise the robinson cohen slide. perhaps they wouldn't be so effusive if they knew it was developed by an optometrist. the list is endless. being realistic, i found what i thought i would find. i was hoping for something better. too bad i did not find it. dr. leeds's little survey illustrates well the need for optometry to search out and document its own history. that is a primary reason for the existence of this society. a bit of amusing musing: temporarily occupying the office of professor w.s. long of the university of waterloo while he was on sabbatical leave and i a visiting professor there, i rummaged a bit furtively through his bookshelf and spotted an old small book which, i believe, i had never seen before. it is entitled 11 squint, its etiology, diagnosis and treatment 11 by t1organ c. davies, b.sc. in applied optics, instructor in applied optics, the ohio state university, columbus, ohio, copyright 1926 by american optometric association, inc. a page entitled editor's note is authored by h. riley spitler, editor, in which he stated, 11 it has been several years since dr. todd compiled the original set of a.o.a. study courses 11 • he further added, 11this little volume, concise and yet complete, is an effort to deliver to optometrists a text on one of the subjects for which a demand has -4been demonstrated 11 • in his explanation of the selection of morgan c. davies to prepare the text he gave as one factor 11 his connections with the university, even back to the time when the illustrious sheard was head of the department of applied optics ... in the foreword author davies advised, 11 in this monograph, the writer has attempted to include all that is essential in the optometric treatment of squint ... he explained that 11 the standard texts have been freely consulted11 but that 11 most ••••• is the result of ten years• experience in clinical experimentation ... under 11 prisms 11 he declared, 11 prisms have no place in the treatment of concomitant squint ••• if the eyes have enough fusion to straighten when a nearly full prism is applied, there would have been no squint 11 • under 11 selection of cases 11 he reported, 11 true alternating squint cannot be cured ... and 11 divergent squint due to causes other than myopia require operation 11 • a blue ink inscription on the title page of the 34 page hard-cover book indicates that its one-time owner was 11 clifford a. taylor, u.e., d. sc., oph.d., f~a.a.o., f.a.a.a.sc., f.r.c.sc., 11 , and a penciled notation on the inside cover suggests that someone paid $3.50 for the book. why did i find this book so fascinating, aside from the fact that i did not recall ever having seen it before? it happens that i had met both dr. davies and dr. spitler on one or more occasions during the late '30's and early 40's while i was at the ohio state university, and i also had heard much about both of them through various colleagues. davies had entered medicine very shortly after writing this booklet and was practicing ophthalmology in columbus at the time i was at the university. spitler headed the so-called college of syntonic optometry at eaton, ohio, and, if my memory is clear, identified himself as having a ph.d. degree. i have a strange notion that therein is woven a tale indeed! about the waterloo collection: museums can have a stolid, heavy appearance or a touch of tasteful style. they can seem like determined attempts to give orderly geometric arrangement to unavoidably happenstance accumulations of historically surviving objects and specimens, or they can give a seemingly casual but nevertheless artfully arrayed appearance with only a subtly logical composition. the difference is not unlike that of the skillfully arranged flowers in a lovely home compared to the amassed display at a wholesale floral shop. among the various functions of a museum are the two very important ones of preserving the items of archival value and of cultivating a more meaningful appreciation among all of us as to the nature of our heritage. -5the museum that fails to have any impact whatsoever on the casual viewer or passerby, serving only the needs of the unswerving scholar, is culturally a bit sterile. these somewhat philosophical concepts came to mind last fall during my visiting semzster at the university of haterloo, school of optometry, in canada. in the great corridor of the magnificent optometry building are seven counter-height glass, approximately 60x60xl50 cm,display cases, and six glass-contained wall cabinets of comparable capacity on two of the walls. a hint of randomness in their placement and some relatively inconspicuous highlighting both seem to invite one to take a sidestep and at least a quick look each time he wanders through the corridor, relaxes or waits on a settee, or in traversing the lobby to enter or leave a classroom, the library, or one of the administrative or faculty offices, all on the same floor. during my four month visit, each of the seven glass cases contained items related to a separate single theme. these were early optometric education in ontario, period spectacles, ancient eyeglass cases and holders, early mechanica; acuity measuring apparatus, skiascopy equipment, ingenious old optometers, and early ophthalmometers. in the six wall cabinets were displayed documentary optometric certificates and pictures, the evolution of phoro-optometers, early ophthalmic books, ophthalmoscope history, a now rare replica of leonhart fuchs' 1538 chart of the diseases of the eye, both the latin and an english translation, and a collection of postage stamps featuring spectacle wearers or a visual theme. i know that achievements like this do not just happen, that they are not brought about by mere fiscal appropriation or requisition. they evolve only by someone's nurturing, dedication, and persistence. so naturally i asked several persons at hand who would have been the responsible person, though i had suspected correctly. the answers were all 11 ted, 11 dr. e.j. fisher. yes, this was just one of the many assignments he gave himself as a duty quite incidental to his administrative and professional career during his many early years as dean of cne former college of optometry of ontario and his more recent years as the academic architect and administrator of the school of optometry at the university of waterloo. this valuable educational and cultural contribution is another credit to someone who cared. about ted fisher: the frequent contributions of optometricana by professor e.j. fisher certainly justify our mentioning another role of his which is unknown even to many of his friends in optometry. for more than a dozen years he has served as organist and choirmaster at the prominent highland baptist church of kitchener, ontario, canada. earlier he had been organist at a toronto church while he was the dean of the college of optometry of ontario. -6on a sunday in october mrs. hofstetter and i had the pleasure of attending services at the kitchener church with dr. fisher at the console, at which he also did a feature performance with piano accompaniment. while these words may seem to be merely a personal acknowledgment of another of fisher's accomplishments, the fact has also some historical significance. it illustrates once again the high frequency of involvement of optometry's leaders in cultural and civic roles outside the pale of the profession. to express it in the popular vernacular, optometry has never been an island. commemorative coin for dr. zamenhof: poland's most recent commemorative silver coin honors the scholarly ophthalmologist who invented esperanto (see page 43 of vol. 8, january 1977). this is reported in what appears to be a clipping from the june 2, 1979 issue of world coin news sent to doug penisten by alan york. the article includes the advice that for full information readers may write pekao trading corp., 225 park avenue south, new york, n.y. 10003, which i did. apparently numismatists employ a lot of terms which escaped both webster and me, but i do believe the following interpretations are accurate even if not entirely understandable. the zamenhof coin comes in two forms, one called 11 legal tender 11 and the other 11 pattern (proba) 11 or 11 proof quality 11 , identified as 11 100 zloty 11 coins. 30,000 of the legal tender coins but only 3,000 of the 11 proof 11 or 11 pattern11 wins were minted, the former being offered at $22.00 each and the latter at $35.00 each. according to my webster a "proof11 is a coin struck from a highly­ polished die on a polished flanchette (a small wood board), not intended for circulation and may differ in metallic content from legal tender. in this instance the proof shows zamenhof's portrait in front view while the legal tender coin shows him in profile. the article reports that although this is the first time that zamenhof is being honored on a coin of a sovereign government, his portrait previously appeared on two international coins of his own suggestion, 11 the 1912 spesmilo and double spesmilo authorized by the international esperanto congress". the spesmilo was proposed as an international coin equal i.n value to u.s. 50 cents, france 2 l/2 francs, britain 2 shillin9s, germany 2 mark, russia 1 ruble, mexico 1 peso, etc. pinnock's popular optics: a delightful review of a 72 page, 14 x 9 em, booklet entitled "optics 11 and published as one of pinnock's catechisms in 1834 by whittaker and co., london, was made by e.j. fisher, o.d., in the august 1980 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 57, no.8, -7pp. 528-529. the 11 0ptics catechism .. was one of a long series of question­ and-answer booklets written for popular reading and study. who was pinnock? here are a few excerpts from the 11 dictionary of national biography from the earliest times to 1900 11 , reprinted at the oxford university press, 1937-38. william pinnock (1782-1843) was born of humble circumstances, baptised at alton, hampshire, england, on 3 february 1782. he began his career as a schoolmaster at alton and subsequently became a bookseller, author, editor, and publisher. he and his partner samuel maunder published the literarh gazette and a couple of books, in london, with modest success, whereupon t ey entered into the publication of a series of low priced, pocket sized, educational works called 11 catechisms 11 • pinnock was represented as the author, but he did little of the literary work. the catechisms, 83 in all, were brief manuals of popular instruction, by means of question and answer, on almost every conceivable subject. more than a hundred editions of several of the titles were sold before 1858! though he made a for:une on these and several similarly popular publications, he had a mania for speculation and, due to lack of success in a series of unusual business ventures, was eventually obliged to part with most of his copyrights to messrs. whittaker and other publishers. he was always in financial distress. probably the most complete list of pinnock's catechisms is in the 11 british museum general catalog of printed books 11 , 1963, vol. 190. topics included a variety of histories, grammars for several languages numerous sciences, technologies, and disciplines, a number of the humanities, various aspects of religion, some games, and even one on 11 duties of children to parents 11 ! the progress of popular education owed much to his cheap publications. embryonic optometric journalism: september 1974 saw the first issue of a possibly unique serial publication entitled the university of waterloo school of optometrx contact lens journal, vol. 1, no. 1. the editorial board of five students and faculty members was headed by professor m.g. callender, o.d., m.sc. during the ensuing academic year a total of six issues appeared, in mimeographed form on ~~~ x 11 11 ( 22 x 28 em) paper, and copies were distributed to all students, teachers, and researchers at the school, plus others who expressed interest. the project continues, with no.6 of vol. 6 having appeared in march 1980, and a volume 7 issue is in progress at the time of this writing. professor callender, who teaches the contact lens course, is the perennial editorial head, with students and other staff members on the now ten­ member editorial board. -8only a few pages make up each issu~. the contents are articles by students and faculty, case reports, product reviews, and abstracts. no editorials or advertisements. though it has a circulation of only a few hundred it is in fact a "refereed" journal and it bears the printed stiff­ cover rubric, "published by the students and faculty of the university of waterloo school of optometry with cosponsorship by the federation of students". civil war optometry: . j.c. tumblin, o.d., 5319 broadway, n.e. {box 5147), knoxville, tennessee 37918, wants to correspond with, or receive clues from, anyone who may be interested in the health, ocular conditions, or vision problems of the 1860's, and in particular of robert e. lee, thomas j. ("stonewall") jackson, and jefferson davis. he reminds us that the medical records of the civil war were destroyed in the fire that occurred as the confederacy evacuated richmond. dr. tumblin has already accumulated a great deal of piecemeal information concerning jefferson davis. "for what it is worth", he says, "i have concluded that davis had recurrent keratitis {kerato­ conjunctivitis), possibly dating to 1830 ••• , then complicated by malarial keratitis and later by ocular manifestations of erysipelas. recurrent malaria and the avitaminosis and exposure that were part of his imprisonment made resistance to any of these conditions poor, no doubt. "several episodes of amaurosis may have resulted from iridocyclitis as a result of malaria and/or erisipelas, and the iritis and/or atropine used to dilate the pupil may have caused secondary glaucoma sometime after 1865. corneal ulceration and corneal scar may have resulted as early as the snowblindness episode {1830), but either malarial or erisipelas-related keratitis could have caused the scar mentioned first in 1865, as nearly as i can determine. "herpes zoster is a possible diagnosis, rather than erisipelas, but it seems to me less likely as it is much more severe. the intumescent cataract ("second eyesight 11 ) seems to have occurred only in advanced age and probably post-dated the supposed glaucoma ... astigmatism and microscopy in 1880: science, in its 207th volume and its 4,426th issue on january 4, 1980, commemorated its looth year by including an easily removable repri~t of its first issue, vol. 1, no. 1, july 3, 1880, at page 54. a copy was called to my attention by charles l. haine, o.d., chief of optometry at the veterans administration medical center in newington, connecticut. initially the publication science was owned by thomas a. edison, only to be abandoned in a couple of years for lack of support. it is interesting that four of the 12 advertisers in the first issue were joseph zentmayer, -9r. & j. beck, mcallister, and james w. queen & co., all with optical identification. all except one of the 12 advertisements were on the front cover page. the serial underwent two additionally successive starts during the immediately following years with other financial backers or owners before becoming firmly established. the american association for the advancement of science did not acquire ownership until 1944. further illustrating the significance of optics in early science is the article on 11 errors of refraction in the eyes of microscopists .. , one of the five major articles of scientific intent in the first issue. it was authored by john c. morgan, m.d., and is credited as having been reprinted from the american journal of microscopy. the complete article follows: it will, i think be at once admitted that the requirements in construction and adjustment of glasses, and the results of work done, must vary greatly with individualities of the workers' eyes. one of the most important, but least thought of, is astigmatism, a condition known to oculists as a common cause of occipitacervical headaches, sometimes so severe as to be considered due to grave hyperaemia of the brain, or to 11 brain-fag", etc. this defect consists in a diversity of curvature; hence, of refraction of one meridian of the cornea, as, for instance, the vertical, with another meridian (horizontal). one of these meridians may be 11 far-sighted", the other "nearsighted", or the difference may be more moderate. some slight degree of this is quite common, as many of your readers will discover on viewing a black line at a convenient distance in these and other positions. in one it will look black and sharp; in another, at a right angle, pale, ill defined, and as if the rays were cut off by a longitudinal slit in a diaphragm. such a slit, turned in various positions, has a curious effect, illustrating the influence of loss of the rays. astigmatism similarly affects vision; only, in this, dispersion is the immediate cause of loss. another and very simple test of astigmatism is "the point of light 11 --e.g. a gas flame, reduced to its smallest dimensions (of the yellow), when, to a normal eye, across a large room, it appears as a round point; but not so to astigmatic or to other abnormal eyes. dispersion of rays results from imperfect focussing; and the object seems larger in consequence (but less bright). if this dispersion be only in one meridian of the eye (astigmatism), the apparent enlargement will be exactly the same pesition, and the image will be long, not round, and thus the indiv1dual may note the precise angle in which a cylindroid lens must be worn, for "correction", and the restoration of the round image. if this meridian be short­ sighted, the cylindroid must be concave; if far-sighted convex. -10the experiment may be varied by using a dark card with a l/8 inch round hole in it; when placed before a window, strongly illuminated, the point of light appears, of course, and it is more accurate in shape than the flame. one point more. spasm of the focussing apparatus (called "spasm of accorrmodation") may derange the sphericity of the eye, and so affect vision. strained vision is liable to this. on the other hand, the same apparatus may be paralyzed, and ordinary vision deficient, whilst the focussing of the microscope entirely corrects it. a linear marking, long or short, on a diatom, or a scale, or a cell, must suffer the same variation in diverse po.sitions after the passage of the rays through the best glasses. some of the disputes as to these may be traced, doubtless, to this cause; and probably may be set at rest by the use of astigmatic spectacles with the microscope. these are merely lenses of prescribed cylindrical curvature, whose axis is placed in the position of the abnormal corneal meridian, whereby its curvature is corrected. the general effect is to render the whole cornea practically spherical in form. astigmatism has been an injury to painters, as turner, whose later pictures (the power of accorrmodation, or self correction, being lost with age} are discovered to be distorted in consequence; the tendency being to exaggerate the size of the paler dimension in painting it. on the contrary, in microscopic drawing, as with the camera lucida, the improperly, pale line will be perpetuated, and the per­ spective misrepresented; and distortion of dimensions generally may be perpetuated by the most careful observers, and endless disputes may thus arise. optometric history at berkeley: ms. carolyn katz, editor of optometry forum, a publication of the university of california optometry alumni association, has initiated a new column entitled "historical perspectives .. in the july/august 1980 issue, vol. 16, no.4. her first entry is the june 15, 1946, farewell message of their first optometry dean, ralph s. minor, professor of physics and optometry, on pages 18 and 19. interspersing his dry wit throughout, dr. minor reviewed his involve­ ment with the optometry school from the date. thirty years earlier, when " ••• it was my privilege to get acquainted with a group of men who had vision." he added, " ••• for they were not a learned group. the vision which they saw was based upon a sincere desire to improve the conditions of their ca 11 i ng and the service they were rendering." many of dr. minor•s comments provide insight into the personalities of several of his academic colleagues who are now known as early historical figures in optometric education. -11king olav v opens optometry museum the optometric museum of the tinius olsens tekniske skole in konqsberg, norway, about 80 km west-northwest of oslo, was opened recently by his majesty king olav v of norway. the event, with photographs, was featured in the december 1980 issue of intero~tics, the bulletin of the international optometric and optical league, no. 3 , front page. reported was an instrument of the early "thirties" said to be of particular historical interest to norwegian optometrists,--a thorner-busch refractometer, which for some unexplained reason is said to have led to the limitation of objective methods of refraction to physicians only. the article adds that this limitation still exists in norway. to some of us, such legal interpretation, if true, is nothing less than baffling and needs clarification, if only for its historical significance. a description of the thorner-busch refractometer would also be appreciated. "optical letters": this is the title of a 24 page, 22 x 14.4 em pamphlet "written and arranged by g.c. tait" and "published through the courtesy of the advertisers", sent to me by e.m. ("peg") wood, flat 6, 6670 victoria rd., devenport, auckland 9, new zealand, via my colleague professor rogers reading. the only clue to its date of publication is in one of its advertisements, that of "barr and stroud", which asks the reader to "send for our 1933 list". included are eight model letters, undated, such as to prospective and previously served "clients." sixteen "rules for letter writers", include, "never use two words when one is sufficient". "never use a comma when you can use a full stop", "always employ positive phrases in preference to negative phrases". "cut out the first sentence of your letter whenever possible" and "do not litter your letter with literature of proprietary lines. one circular to each letter is sufficient." almost all of the advertisers identify themselves as being in london. this booklet is being forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., in st. louis, missouri 63119. levenesgue suspense: in response to my notes about william s. dennett on page 64 of the october issue of this newsletter dr. john r. levene wrote, "there's really little mystery to williams. dennett. i'll give you just one clue, and also one correction, the latter because i dislike perpetuating historical errors. dennett was surgeon to the new york eye and ear infirmary. he suggested the 'centrad' in 1889, not 1891!" -12confirming my citation of emsley and swains as correct i wrote john asking for more details and documentation. his response? 11 i thought i would keep the mystery going by only giving a clue at a time. perhaps one of your other readers will catch on as i give more information with each newsletter. 11 but, john, isn't that perpetuating the alleged error? the serendipitous concave mirror skiascope: early textbooks on refraction typically include discussions of the relative merits of concave and plane mirror retinoscopes, with the plane mirror type quite consistently favored. in consideration of these opinions and the fact that a concave mirror is certainly more difficult to provide than a plane mirror, one must wonder why the concave mirror retinoscope was used at all. it was in fact the more commonly supplied type of retinoscope with the earlier trial lens sets, which some of us remember well. though several of the texts include brief histories of the retino­ scope, the documented clarification of this point has so far escaped me. edward jackson, m.d., in his third edition of skiascopy, 1898, philadelphia: the edwards & docker co., devoted severa 1 pages to the hi story, with references which i have not yet explored. evidently, the earliest observations of the skiascope reflex came with the fortuitous rotation of a concave mirror about an axis crossing its peephole. the concave mirror was the. ophthalmoscope of that era used in conjunction with a light source alongside and posterior to the patient's head. the concavity was of course essential to concentrate an adequate amount of light through the patient's pupil for ophthalmoscopy. it was not, however, the most generally convenient optics for judging the skiascopic reflex. it was not until the skiascopic technique acquired some popularity about a decade after its discovery that the advantages of plane mirror retinoscopy were explained. the explanation itself did not bring about an immediate acceptance, illustrating how resistant. we are to any change, even improvement. a number of textbook authors during the early part of this century bravely expressed their preference for the plane mirror but nevertheless gave equal discussion to each type of mirror. in 1912, for example, lionel laurance (visual optics and sight testin~, london) devoted more than four pages to a comparison of-rhe two. for t e purpose of discussion he divided the types of mirrors into three, the plane mirror, the concave mirror which placed the conjugate focus of the light source between the peephole and the observed eye, and the 11 0rthops 11 retinoscope mirror, a long-focus concave mirror which placed the conjugate focus of the light source behind the observed eye. the subsequent invention of the self-luminous retinoscope with the adjustable focus of the light source within the handle of the instrument has of course made the choice very simple for today's optometrist. meanwhile, the expressions, 11 plane mirror11 and 11 concave mirror11 retinoscopy, -13continue to be used to classify the instruments in terms of whether one adds 11 plus" or 11 minus" lenses to neutralize 11 with 11 motion, even though the optical reflecting surface in neither instance is concave. hewett honored: the australian optometrical association has established the j. lloyd hewett award to memorialize optometrist hewett upon his retirement from 20 years of editorship of the australian journal of optometry. the occasional but usually annual award is intended "to foster and encourage the work of young research workers or clinicians not yet established as authors or full-time academic optometrists. 11 the journal had had only one other editor, w.g. kett, during its existence. kett served in this role for 40 years prior to hewett's taking over the duties. apotropaic ophthalmology: not really, but dr. albert mintz potts, head of the department of ophthalmology of the university of louisville, louisville, kentucky, happens to be fascinated by man's ancient, almost mystical obsession vtith the gift of sight as implied in symbolic talismanic eyes. his full-length book, 11 the world's eye" is scheduled for publication in 1981 by the university press of kentucky. an erstwhile optometrist in uganda: late in 1959 i undertook to do a questionnaire survey of members of the then-called south african optical association. one of the responses came from a member named charles mitchell in jinja, uganda, east africa, who answered every one of the 36 questions and enclosed a long breezy letter. his questionnaire answers indicated that he was born in 1906 in england and still single, that he had attended the liverpool school of pharmacy four years and later the liverpool school of optics part-time, completing the latter in 1948, and that he started practicing optometry in northern rhodesia (now zambia) in 1949. at the time he responded to my questionnaire he was employed on salary at the hospitals in jinja, a community of 11 only 900 europeans 11 and an uncounted number of "non-europeans." during the prior 12 months he had done 11 ten only 11 sight tests or examinations for glasses, and these routinely included ophthalmoscopy, visual fields, and retinoscopy, frequently phorias, and seldom cycloplegic or mydriatic. most of his time was devoted to work as a pharmacist, with occasionally teaching. during his 1959 leave he had attended a couple of optometric lectures (presumably in south africa). he received the south african optometrist, dioptric news, and the optician, and owned approx1mately 12 volumes of professional books in optics, and another 12 in pharmacy. jinja had no other optical, optometric, or ophthalmic service. -14obviously concerned that his answers might be thought to lack credi­ bility, he typed out a lengthy explanation in rather free-style english. the letter is reprinted here, verbatim and untouched. "h.w. hofstetter, ph.d., esq., professor of optometry. "dear professor, "the hospitals, p.o. box 43, jinja uganda east africa "24th january, 1960. "your questionnaire reached me around new year's eve. i have filled in my answers one way or another and, i did write a long effusion by way of a covering note. well, i thought i'd better re-write and, there being quite a spate of work, i'm afraid it is only now that i've slipped a sheet into my type-writer and headed a letter to you. "you will understand the delay when i tell you that i do all my office typing at home. all the typists, bar the medical superintendent's personal clerk, are africans. they are not typing in their own language and, were it suddenly decided that i should be seconded to who headquarters at brazzeville, i guess i'd make more mistakes in french than do the africans in english! "i want you to believe that i have answered your questions with all sincerity and not attempt at either evasiveness or facetiousness. truth is-i've lived one of those lives! i have my 'nuisance value'. "to afford you an accurate (?} picture i'd better let you have the lot in chronological order. "19181923 education at the collegiate school, liverpool, england. "19231927 three and half years apprenticeship with messrs. boots, ltd., holylake branch. one of those places where messengers came and went and, in the interim the apprenticeship included floor-scrubbing and what-have-you. a part-time course was taken and, i passed by preliminary scientific examination before completing my articles. {aided by a month full-time at the liverpool school of pharmacy. "1927 1928 full-time at college. qualified m.p.s. "1928 1930 locums and managerships and, during this period i attended part-time tuition in optics. then a really good job was 'handed on a plate' but, it was away from the optical school. -1511 1931 1938 my mother bought me a practice on a seven years 1 ease. it appeared marvelous on paper. i closed down at the end of the lease. will extend on this anon. 11 19381939 locums. was at royal southern hospital, liverpool, when was declared war. i was told to find a suitable room in out­ patients and fit it as a pharmacy. out-patients dept. was on the docks and, in-patients was evacuated inland. 11 19391945 royal southern hospital, o.p.d. i did everything from x-rays, p.m.s to even the cooking! 11 1946 colonial overseas civil service 11 new to extend. 11 the business era. well, my premises were in a road where the butcher nextdoor went to the arms of his maker through the gas-oven, the proprietors of the chip & fish shop next-door-but-one did a moonlight flit, the chandler down the road just locked his doors on stock and all and disappeared and, my pal, the optician opposite moved down hill. 11 momentarily i lost everything. with no money to advertise i joined one or two local clubs. one was a semi-professional drama club. from the ground-floor i did scene-shifting, stage carpentry to walk-on parts -and so until i was playing lead! when not learning lines i kept up a sporadic reading of optics. 11 at the royal southern hospital i was able to keep in touch with optics. then i was accepted for the colonial service and, my first shock on arrival in northern rhodesia was to discover that my erstwhile apprentice in manchester was a senior officer! he was also government optician. he transferred to nigeria and, i took over the job. and i set myself a solid minimum of one hour's reading every night. 11 transferred to livingstone, a delightful town within sound of victoria falls, and an ophthalmologist from bulawayo was contracted to pay regular visits. he took me under his wing and, i'll for ever be grateful for what i learnt under dr. jack greenwood. i really got down to work, paid for a correspondence course but, it was hopeless -questions at the end of the lectures were not relevant to the lectures. i was sending my answers to the exercises by air-mail and the replies were coming surface-mail. in the end i wrote and requested the full set of papers and used them as a means for cross-referencing with my old notes and text-books. 11 1951, leave and a letter of introduction to the senior ophthalmologist at bootle general hospital and, in time for a cramming-course at the liverpool school of optics. "leave! holiday! i arrived in britain 27th august, was at my first clinic 28th, was introduced to the junior ophthalmologist who attended school clinics and, was at my first lecture 31st! i sat the f.n.a.o. in -16december and, sailed again january. and after twenty years i became one of four in a class of nearly thirty to qualify! and, due to the new national health services, it was the first optical examination to be invigilated by home office invigilators! 11 in the staff list i am here as a pharmacist, not recognized as an optician. government service included the all-embodying phrase: and any other duties. a few months ago there was an immigrant who wished to practice as an optician but, his qualification was from some central european state not recognized in britain. the immigration department requested the medical services to conduct a trade test. the junior ophthalmologist and i were detailed off for the job! uhobbies and interests. i have told you that i once was a member of a semi-professional club. the amateurs were the actors and, the profes­ sionals included authors, drama school proprietors and a theatre owner. it was due to the last that i had my first appearance on a professional stage. my pay just went into the till to swell the week's takings~ i'd turned pro! it became a haphazard addition to my livelihood! 11 coincidence is remarkable! i was taking a short-cut through a female ward at lusaka hospital when a patient called me across. 'i've seen you before somewhere.~ 'impossible, madam, i've only been in the country a month.' 'you're from the midlands.• • admitted! • 'just before the war i saw a play at the winter gardens theatre, new brighton. there was a law court scene and, if it wasn't you it was your twin one of the court officials.• 'clerk of the court in 11 unguarded hour" with wyndam goldie playing 1 ead. • 'there was another play i saw.• 'was it "evensong"? 'of course! so it was you! i wondered how you managed to keep a monocle glued to your eye for a whole scene!' 11 within a week i had a 'phone ca 11. the voice said, 'i 've heard rumors that once you were on the professional stage. well, we're thinking of staging something in aid of the mrs. churchill fund ••• ' i was known! 11a founder and life member of the livingstone amateur dramatic society (the lads), a life !~ember of the lusaka theatre club. lost my amateur status when i was one of the radio players of the central african broad­ casting services. and i hit uganda. -17"kampala to play the red king in 'alice in wonderland' and have an audition for news reader from radio kampala. then jinja to play lead in saloon bar in the only privately owned theatre in east africa. "success to success! then i was cut down to size! it was one of those highly characterized parts. slowly i was getting into the skin of the part and, the lines were coming as the character was building-up. at the seventh rehearsal the producer asked me when would i know my lines? i replied, 'on the very same day i have the character, dr. protheroe, exactly as i want him.• i was asked would i object were someone else tried? my answer was, 'you're the producer and, "the play goes on"'! "so, irrespective of the fact that more than half of the cast was still walking round with books, i went out on my ear! but was recalled to do the make-up! i was told later that the leading lady was becoming jittery. well, there was a short scene where she was partially hypnotized-i wonder whether she was scared that i'd do the job properly! "it tickled my peculiar, sardonic humour! the old pro. found not good enough for even an amateur company! as i entered the dressing-rooms with my make-up case i said to myself, 'this is where i came in!' "about thirty years ago p.j. maddocks, electrical architect, demonstrated at the wallasey playgoers the capacity of the new switch-board and staqe lighting. alf monks, an old busker assisted by shewing how make-up was effected by the lighting. working the switch-board was charlie mitchell. i travel a few thousand miles and through the years; then i'm a no-good, a wash-out. but i stage a come-back as make-up expert and -again -i was back on the switch-board! i'd arranged the lighting of the set and, i did the make-up accordingly! "my other hobby is writing. i have six short stories completed. when i have the full dozen i'll hunt out publishers. the wallasey playgoers also produced two of my one act plays. "whilst writing this a thought has struck me. there are many plays and films of the erstwhile star becoming down and out, having his final chance and staging a come-back. remember that glorious chaplin film where charlie and buster keaton have their chance? "but they all concern professionals. what about one where it is amateurs? how they work at their normal jobs during the day. the scratch teams being welded into a company, the rise of the stars, their fall and a phoenix act at the end! "this time next year i'll have reached maximum age with the colonial civil service and, i'll be on the way home for the last time. pharmacy, optics or journalism? still in my fifties and retired! but i'll have almost eight months leave on full pay. there are those short stories -­ also this nebulous castle i've just built. "hope i haven't bored you but, i said right at the beginning that i possessed a 'nuisance value• and, once i sit in front of my typewriter and the mood is with me this sort of thing usually happens. -1811 the above is no success story, my dear professor, but it's no .failure! the money i have in the bank is such that the manager smiles at me albeit he doesn't ask me into his office and open the vintage sherry. i have never wanted riches -just sufficient to live a comfortable life. others save up and see the world on their savings. i've lived by victoria falls and, from where i sit at this moment i can see through a window a white pylon; it commemorates the spot where john hanning speke discovered the source of the nile. he walked it. i came by train! passage paid! 11 so that's me and, where do i fit when you come to sectionalize the opticians of africa? physiological optics history: 11 sincerely yours, 11 c. mitchell, m.p.s., f.b.o.a., f.o.a. (s.a.}. and thrown-out actor. 11 professor l.s. mcclung calls our attention to a recent (1975) ph.d. thesis at london university, imperial college, by p. osborne titled 11 physiological optics in the 19th century .. , supervised by a.r. hall. this was noted in a recent issue of isis. two stamps of interest: dr. alan york sent us a newspaper clipping, his envelope postmarked november 18, which shows a republique tunisienne stamp featuring a symbolic eye. the news item reads as follows. a 100-millime stamp was released by tunisia oct. 26 promoting the 7th afro-asiatic congress of ophthalmology, reports the ministry of transport and communications, tunis, tunisia, amor ben mahmoud designed this issue which was printed in offset by joh. enschede en zonen with 100 subjects per sheet. coincidentally the postage on alan's envelope was a commemorative 15¢ usa stamp imprinted with the names helen keller and anne sullivan and a beautiful artist's illustration of miss sullivan teaching miss keller to read her hand. new but historical: . a new, annual, luxuriously e~egant periodical has been started by the opt1sche werke g. rodenstock, mun1ch, west germany, for international -19distribution. the german edition appeared in may 1979 under the title of sehen, and the english version appeared in october under the name of vision. it's aim is to inform the public about the subject of vision on a rather sophisticated level. it is intended that copies be placed in practitioners• reception rooms. the feature article in the october 1979 english editions is entitled 11 vision: the noblest sense? 11 it deals at length with the career and philoscopy of baruch de spinoza (1632-1677). 11 now spinoza, as a learned jew, knew very well from the old jewish teachings that in addition to one's studies one should also learn an act or a craft with which to nourish oneself. therefore, spinoza, before he turned to the tranquil life outside the city, learned glass grinding for reading glasses and other purposes ... the article itself is derived from 11 baruch de spinoza, samtliche werke 11 , felix meiner verlag, hamburg, 1977. from the archives: this is the title of an article by david h. reynolds, ph.d. on pages 147, 150, 153, 156, and 158 of the september 1980 issue of the south africa optometrist/die suid-afrikaanse oofkundige, vol. 39, no. 3. it consists largely_of reprints of the editoria and other entries, including several selected advertisements, from the first issue of the south african optometrist, which appeared in january 1934. the bul~f the first issue, says current editor reynolds, consisted of "a brief history of the south african optical association," reproduced in full in the present issue. the history includes names, places, and dates in remarkable detail. for example, 11 0n the 31st march, 1924, in the board room of the scientific and technical club, johannesburg, th1rteen opticians gathered to witness the birth of what is now known as the south african optical association, and of the thirteen, whether lucky or otherwise, the following still remain in action for the furtherance of the optical profession in south africa." inventor in hiding: a most thoroughly researched historical article is one in two parts by walter gassen in the july 5 and 19, 1980, issues of the orhthalmic o§tician, vol. 20, nos. 14 and 15, pages 490-492 and 538, 5~, 542, and 5 6, entitled ''the evolution of spectacles .. and subtitled 11 part 1, the chinese contribution" and 11 part 2, the beginnings of visual aids 11 • at the outset the author undertook to shed light on whether or not spectacles were introduced into feudal europe from the orient. his evidence did not support this theory. especially tantalizing was a passage near the close of part 2, as follows: "it is still quite possible for some future archivist to discover an old manuscript of the late thirteenth century divulging the name of the inventor of spectacles. for example, at the time of writing, -20in the vatican library alone, in its 25 miles of bookshelves, there are about half a million ancient volumes and about sixty thousand medieval manuscripts which have not all been examined and catalogued." the author's reference for this assertion is l. ambrosini and m. willis, "the secret archives of the vatican", eyre and spottiswoode, london, 1970. spectacle dating: the october 27, 1980, issue of medical world news, pages 69-70, featured dr. edward okun, clinical professor of ophthalmology at washington university, st. louis, under "names in the news" for his collection of antique spectacles. he maintains an exhibit of much of his collection in his office in barnes hospital. his oldest pair are dated back to around 1630. dr. okun is reported as using several techniques to date his spectacles. one is by finding matches in paintings of people wearing glasses and noting when the artist lived. another is in the glasogen katalog published by the nordiska museet in stockholm. he has also spotted some in old meyrowitz brothers eyeglass catalogues which were issued every few years as styles changed. h.w hofstetter o.k. penisten, editors 1981-12-01-001 1981-12-01-002 1981-12-01-003 1981-12-01-004 1981-12-01-005 1981-12-01-006 1981-12-01-007 1981-12-01-008 1981-12-01-009 1981-12-01-010 1981-12-01-011 1981-12-01-012 1981-12-01-013 1981-12-01-014 1981-12-01-015 1981-12-01-016 1981-12-01-017 1981-12-01-018 1981-12-01-019 1981-12-01-020 c,,,:l;ji·,:..,/,:.,.',c ~jujl,"tii"7 ji,er:tical file newsletter of the optometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri vol. 13 october 1982 uominatory unanimity: 63141, u.s.a.) nov 4 1982 number 4 unprecedented in this society was the number of written and mailed nominations in behalf of an encumbent. six members wrote letters in nomination of james leeds to run again for a five year term on the executive board. two others also did so in oral . conversation. none other was nominated. nevertheless, to exercise that ever tenuous privilege called democracy we enclose a ballot with a space for a write-in as well as for leeds's name. surely, any elected person is likely to work more vigorously if he or she knows that the choice was even a bit overwhelming. a faithful resppnder: following the distribution of almost every issue of the u.o.h.s. i look forward to a brief comment or two from member d.g. liummel, o.d., whose long memory gets prodded by one or another therein included item. this time he recalls that one of his bacteriology professors made a serum out of the pus of acne and re-injected it with good results, adding, 11 i can't recall his name or the lab partner he so well improved ... further, 11 re: the readers• digest reports. this was in the heyday of opticians referring patients to optometrists. we were really kept busy and did not worry about something we felt would die anyway. 11 [but he remembered!] then a p.s. on orthokeratology history: 11 uupuf of canton, ohio, reported all the characteristics of orthokeratology at the aao [american academy of optometry] meeting in toronto prior to 1950. at the time we were unfamiliar with the term ... an american optometrist in paris in 1900: on the following four pages is reproduced an interesting historical article from pages 2-5 of the now rare april 1933 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 4, no. 9, available at the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. inc. the reminiscing article was by j.c. bloom, o.d., who apparently was a very young man when he undertook to devote most of the year 190u to the management of an ophthalmic optical exhibit at the uorld's fair in paris. read it. you ~ti 11 enjoy it. 62 my trip to paris in 1900 and my impression and experience witi-i royalty by dr· j. c. bloom, secretary of the colorado state optometrical association colorado state board of examiners in optometry *~ lidi'tor's note:in the january 23rd, 1933;· iuue of 'the rocky mountain news of denver, colorado, we observed a cartoon by gus brajte, entitled, "didja know?" it gave some very interesting data regarding our fellow optome· trist, dr. j. c. bloom and his experiences refract· ing the eyes of many noted people: including the royalty of several countries in europe. also that dr. bloom w4s awarded two gold medals in france gt the paris exposition. december 29th, 1900. it occurred to the editor that an account given in the ji11t penon by dr. bloom himself would be of in· tercst to the reade11 of the journal and, at our requelt, dr. bloom furnished us with the cartoon ;and an account of his experience with the royalty during the paris exposition in 1900. we herewith present dr. bloom's own account of a memorable episode in his optometric career. x n 1898, i got the notion in my head that i would like to come in contact with some of the optical men of europe and learn their methods and get a line on the advances made over there, having heard of the many things done in the research fields on the other side; so, i got busy and made arrangements to take an exhibit to the world's fair to be held in paris, france, in 1900. i immediately got in touch with some of the manufacturers of optical goods in the east. none of them seemed to care to take the proposition on until i took the matter up with the bay state op· tical company of attleboro, massachusetts, and the american wire company of connecticut. both concerns were willing that i take displays for them to that exposition and, incidentally, place their lines in the european markets in a wholesale way. there was a wonderful chance to get in touch with the whole of continental europe and the rest of the world, as paris is "the playground of the world" (or it was at that time). we had inter· preters for every known language used by civili~ed nations, therefore we had no trouble to get along in doing business with any prospective customers and we were very successful in placing our lines with the dealers in the important points of the commercial world. we had the necessary equipment made up for our particular purpose and for the space that we had for our display and fitting rooms. we did 01,1r frame work and a great deal of our surfacing right on the grounds. after we arrived we discovered tijeir work in the matter of lenses was not the kind that we were accustomed to nor would it satisfy us nor our american patients, so we were prepared for the emergency. we had taken a large line of frames and sur• faced lenses and revolutioni:r.ed the field by having very large lenses, for the times. our lenses were 00 eye, and were considered "monsters" at that period, as we were still fitting one and 0 eye lenses in this country, while there nothing but one eye was used. we had also made the mistake of taking with us principally plus lenses, while the greatest part of our patients whom we fitted were myopes: so, it behooved us to grind the greater part of our lenses which we prescribed. we had always understood and had been told a number of times that the europeans gave us credit for excelling in the care of the eyes and the teeth and it was proven to us by the persons who came to us for attention. the building in which most of the american ex· hibits were displayed and in which space had been alloted to us, was on the river seine, in one of the suburbs called passy. the specific part of the grounds was known as des invalides. it was a very large building and accommodated a great many concerns who had large displays. we had a very prominent corner in this particular section and the building and location were regarded as among the most prominent on the grounds. on the aisle next to us was the exhibit of tiffany and company of new york and paris; adjoining them was the display of the gorham company; and. on the a_isle opposite to them was the exhibit of the internation· al silver company-all very large and prominent american concerns. we had very good company and lots of it. we had left for europe on january 20th, 1900 and had proceeded to london where we were very successful in establishing an agency for the bay state optical company. that was our starter. after having finished our work in england, we went on to our destination which was, of course, paris. here we found that the exposition was no· where near completion. we made a trip to the grounds each day and watched its progress. on one of these visits we had our first contact with royalty. one morning while i was in our allotted space in the building, a couple approached me and ask~d what we intended to exhibit. we informed them that we were going to exhibit a line of american optical mer~;handise which we were endeavoring to place in european markets and we were also pre· pared to prescribe glasses for the correction of vis· ual defects of persons presenting themselves for ex· ami nation. the lady spoke up and said, "lsn 't that fine! i have always wanted my eyes fitted by an american optician." i told her i would be glad to serve her after the exposition and our exhibit was opened. she then introduced herself to me as ma· dame countess ferdinand de rouge and introduad the gentleman as her husband, count ferdinand de rouge. she said she would like to have me talk to her in english and she would answer me in french and in that way we might both be bene· fitted in our knowledge of the languages. she said that if i cared to have her help me in the french language, we could help each other. this we agreed to and became well acquainted by the time the ex· position was ready to be opened. we had also done very well in our linguistic instructions. now came the time for the examination of the eyes of the countess and her husband, which seemed to 63 please them. they said that they would help me get in touch with some of the visitors and their royal friends, she and her husband belonging to former royalty of france. she was a very agreeable person and a wonderful "booster," she either bringing or directin& her friends and acquaintances to me-and there were many of them. my next experience in the way of getting in touch with royalty was through a spaniard who happened to visit with the countess and spoke to her about needing glasses and asked her advice. she immediately told him to visit our exhibit and consult us. he came to us for an examination and seemed greatly pleased with our service and brought with him, within the next few days, six or more of his family. he then told me that he had a son of sixteen years of age who had, through an injury, developed two cataracts which had been removed but since then he was unable to find any· one who could prescribe glasses that were ~atis· dioja k'now dr.j.c.bloom of denver. tfas fitted glasje"s to a large number of the crowned -heads of ttte w'jrz.d ...... _ . -­-----...... -... _ ...... ... "' ...... ,~~~~ 6~~ some of whic-+4 arequeen altxandr-a of "englandking lfopolo of belgium­ t<ing oscar of sweden -king'e man lje l o'f' italyi< in g c+ta~li:s of r.oumaniaking o"'f siam­ cr.own prince. of siambaron art+iljr. d"e ~ottfsctuld baron +ter.6ert 61smarci(.ano ot+fers oioja t<now that what you see ® is shown upsidedown in t-he. baci( of the eve@ and is ca-rrie-d by optic nerve @to the brain where­ it is righted ••••• the eye ball is hollow and 'fill'ed with a cielatinolj.l -fluid /d~. j. c. bloom wa5 awarded two gold medals in france at the paris 'exposition dec.., . 29, 1900 by tfie stjper.ior jury o'f awards for his ability as a refractionist and optometrist. factory. he then asked if i could do anything fur him. i explained that it would be impossible to say what i or anyone else could do for the boy until i had examined his eyes and knew the case and the conditions. he said that his name was senor morales and that he lived in barcelona, that he was going home and would bring the boy back with him for my attention. incidentally he said he had a friend by the name of marquis portugulite who was related to the king of spain and had a great deal of trouble with his eyes, that he lived in madrid and on the senor's trip home, he intended stopping in madrid to tell his friend about me and advise him to come to see me. he stated that this particular marquis had been to almost all of the lar:ge cities of europe seeking advice and treat· ment which would give him comfortable vision but that he had been unsuccessful in finding any relief from his distress. senor morales and son arrived and upon exam· ination found that we could be of service to the young man and we took care of him to the satis• faction of all concerned. 'the senor reported that he had seen his friend, the marquis, and that he was coming to paris to consult me. the day the marquis arrived, he informed me of the advice he had received from his friend and that because of the' service rendered to senor mor• ales and his family, i had been highly recommend· ed and that he too wished to receive this same service. he immediately asked if i could do any• thing for him. i told him, as i had told the oth· ers, that no man could tell what he could ac• complish until after he had made an examination. i made a preliminary examination and reported that i felt i could help him and fit him with glasses that would be of help to him. he then insisted that i proceed at once which i did not agree to. final• ly, after getting the preliminary arrangements made, i took up his case. with the glasses he was wear• ing when he came to me, he had 20·300 vision. after i finally fitted him with a minus 16.00 with a minus 13.00 axis 30 in the right eye and a minus 18.00 with a minus 14.00 axis 120 in the left eye, we gave him 20·60 vision. he was so well pleased with his correction that he purchased six pairs , of glasses with this correction. he then told me · he would be pleased to recommend me very highly and he then became a "live booster" and a good one. the first patient referred by him was ladv masse mainwaring of eflgland. she said that her husband was an m.p. (member of parliament). she was brought in on a wheelchair one evening about five· thirty and asked for dr. bloom. she informed me that the marquis had told her so much about my satisfactory services that she had hurried down im· mediately. she was a strange sort of person-she would not leave her wheelchair, not because of in· ability nor any affliction, but just eccentricity. she insisted upon being taken care of before she left the grounds that day and even after the lights were turned out. it was necessary for us to go outside of the building to complete the transaction as it was still quite light on the outside. she sent her husband and a number of others in the next few days immediately following her visit. the nezt person of note that came to us through the marquis was king emmanuel of italy. he was a stern sort of a fellow, very democratic and short in his conversation. his secretary who remained after the king and his body guard had left, ar· ranged for the balance of the tran~action. he said that his highne5s was pleased with the services received and asked if we delivered. when informed 64 that we did so, he requested that twelve pairs be made up and sent with our bill to the palais champs elysees, this being the palace where the royalty were entertained and remained during their visit in paris. no price was asked nor mentioned. when the glasses were ready, they were sent with the bill by a messenger who was paid without question. this was my first experien.::e of coming in contact with a king. my next contact was with king leupold of bel· gium who came through the building arm in arm with mr. thomas walsh, a colorado mining man and from my own state. tho i had never met him, i had heard of him and knew him to be a very wealthy man. he was very close to the king, in fact, they were associated in the congo in the rub· ber industry and in other enterprises. they were very democratic and· good fellows. the king did not have an ''army'' or "body guard" around him · -they went about their way as did any ordinary citizen. in this particular case, mr. walsh was a very good booster and did much to help the mat· ter along, although the king did not need any urging. he also ordered twelve pair of glasses sent to the palace. then came king charles of rou• mania who had his entire body guard with him. they never got very far away and he appeared to be very fidgety and nervous. he walked away when i started to talk about a suitable mounting­ he was not at all interested in that part of the tran• saction and it was his secretary who finally ordered twelve pair of glasses to be sent to the palace. then came another "army" headed direct for our exhibit. the spokesman of the party asked for me and when informed that i was the person he was looking for, he said that his highness wanted to be fitted with glasses as king leopold had told him about me. this party consisted of the king of siam and his son, the crown prince. they tran· sacted part of their own business and left the rest to their secretary, who, as in the other cases, or· dered twelve pair of glasses for each, same to be sent to the palais champs elysees which is located on boulevard bois de boulogne. as soon as they had made up their minds to depart, the "army" of guards that accompanied them, walked fore and aft and went of in a sort of military formation, surrounding their "chief." one day there appeared a group of women who, evidently from the final outcome, were headed for our exhibit. one of the ladies of the party asked for dr. bloom. she was informed that i was busy at the time and was asked to wait, which she con• sented to do. i was informed that a lady was wait· ing to see me and when i had completed the case i was on, i greeted the party and was told that her highness, princess alexandria of wales de· sired to have her eyes examined (she afterwards became queen alexandria of england). here i came in contact with a very fine lady, pleasant, agreeable and not at all as one ordinarily would suppose, that the royalty were above having any· thing to do with "the common folks," she was very unassuming and likeable. when we had fin· ished our examination, she arose and said, "very good, my dear doctor; i am well pleased." she then took her leave and, again the secretary was the ruling or contracting party and again requested that twelve pairs of glasses be delivered to the palace on boulevard bois de boulogne. we were given to understand that the marquis had spoken so highly and mentioned so often the satisfaction that he had received that the princess was detrrm· ined to see the man who had done so much for him. 65 my next, and one of the most pleasant experi· ences with royalty, was when a very 6ne appear• ing gentleman (about six feet two inches tall, well proportioned, with a very well groomed, long white beard, im,maculately dressed, accompanied by two other gentlemen-not a large crowd of body guards or other display) came to the exhibit and asked fur the doctor. i was called and the gentleman told me that he was king oscar of sweden and wanted to be 6tted with glasses. he incidentally mentioned that the princess had refern:d him to me. here i want to say that i met one of the most polished, democratic gentlemen that it has ever been my pleasure to meet in my entire life time. he spoke wonderful english, was very businesslike, enjoyed a joke as well as to tell one. he made you feel as though he was a member of your own family and he was ''just a regular fellow." he handled his own transaction and there were no questions asked about price nor when they would be ready. he gave his order for what he wanted, directed that they be delivered to the palais champs elysees when ready, and that the invoice be sent with the messenger. this gentleman gave me the thrill of my life and of my whole trip-it was more than a pleasure to have had the opportunity and privilel!e of coming in contact with such a very wonderful penon age. my next noted plitient was baron arthur de rothschild of the banking house of rothschild brothers. he was in charge of the paris bank and was a man whom i judge to weight about two hun~ dred 6fty pounds, not very tall, and not talkative. when he came to the exhibit, he asked for dr. bloom. he would not disclose his identity until the entire transaction was dosed. he ignored by in• quiries as to his name and all the information i could get from him was that he thought he needed glasses and would like to have me fit him with glasses if i thought that i could. after the ex· amination and after he had selected the style of frame he desired, he asked the price, which was immediately given him. he said, "very well, m41{e up twelve p4it and send them to the rot~schild bank. •• again i asked his name or a card. he took a card from his pocket, "pinched" a corner off of it, handed it to me-it read, baron arthur de rothschild, banker, and the address. he then told me that he had been referred to me by that polish· ed gentleman, king oscar of sweden. my next experience was when a gentleman of german descent came in. he had a very "soldier· like" appearance, wore a kaiser wilhelm mustache. he spoke german, which i understood. he told me he was baron herbert bismarck, that he had been referred to me by the marquis who told him how much i had done for him and how greatly pleased he was with the _glasses i had supplied. the baron said he thought he too needed glasses and hoped that i could do as well for him as i had done for the marquis. he requested immediate attention, . which i ga\·e him. he was apoarently ill at ease, he had very little patience and did not want to sit still for long. after due time, i 6nished with the examination. he ordered what he wanted and directed that· the glasses be delivered to the palais champs elysees. he was the son of the iron chan• cellor of germany. now, after having had so many persons order twelve p4irs of glasses, that being something quite out of the ordinary, i asked baron rothschild if he would mind my asking a personal question. he said, "why no, go right ahead." i put the question to him and added that if he did nut feel that he wanted to answer it or thought i was getting per• sonal, not to answer. i asked, "why is it that so many persons whom i have 6tted since i came to paris, ordered twdt·e paits of glasses?" he an· swered, "i do not know about any of the others, but in my case, you know that i am a very busy man and sometimes a delay of five minute~ might mean the loss of several million dollars in some deal; therefore, i cannot alford to have to look for my glasses, nor wait for the return of a messenger from my home where i might han left them: so, i have a pair on every desk that i use, sumt:' scat· tered here or there, and a pair in my pm·kct, so that i always have them handy." well, that ex· plained to me the reason for these orders. we might think that these europeans are slow-but we are greatly mistaken. during my stay in pari~. i had the plca~ure of serving six hundred seventy·two of the royalty, in addition to an "army" of laymen from every sec• tion of the world. it was an experience that one gets, perhaps once "in several lifetimes." i ha\•e been asked, "how does it feel tn serve royalty?" well, to me-<>ne person is as guod as another as long as they behave themselves. my ex· perience is that the5e people are only human be· ings. they have money to spend and they spend it. they act just as any other human beings would. there are some more pleasant than others-some more commonplace or congenial, but, as a whole, they 4re only hum4n. i left paris about december lst, 1900, and after stopping in new york a day or two, i proceeded to my home in denver, colorado. on december 29th, 1900, i received a cable announcing that i had been awarded a gold medal for my ability as an optician or refractionist. this was a complete surprise to me as i had no intimation about such a thing before i left paris for the united states. what made it more thrilling than ever-there were four hundred thirty-four opticians at this exposi· tion, yet, i was the only one recognized at that show. we had with us a surfacing plant for our lenses -not as complete as one would have in his home. shop, but enough to do most anything that we needed. we could also draw on the lens plants in paris. we had stones for edging, drill, lathe, pol· ishing equipment, wire drawing machines, stamps and dies for some kinds of frame work. this was a novelty to the majority and attracted much at• tention. we did most of our work before noon, as the exposition did not open until noon. the slogal) in france was "d4y nevet begins until noon, 4nd night never ends." when the exposition was about to close, some fellow from greece came to our exhibit and asked if we wanted to sell our machinery. we said we did, and we closed a deal with him. he had it packed and shipped it to athens, greece, where, i suppose, it is still doing service after thirty·three years. feat not th4t thy life sh411 come to 4n end, but r4ther fe4r th4t ir sh411 neva h4ve 4 beginning. -cardinal newman 66 on famous eyes: andrew gasson, in a very brief article entitled 11 the eyes of wilkie collins 11 tells us that the novelist (1824-1889} had some very serious eye problems, including severe myopia. the article appeared in the may 8, 1982, issue of the ophth~lmic optician, vol. 22, no. 10, p. 337. collins is best known for the woman in ~lhite which is currently being serialized on television, and the moonstone. blind or visually handicapped characters appear in several of collins's novels. 200 year old nascency? under the subheading 11 0ouble vision, 11 part of a feature article titled 11 an illustrated compendium of commonplace objects 11 on pages xiii-xiv of the alumni maaazine consortium section of the april 1982 issue of johns hopkins agazine, vol. 33, no. 2, is a brief account of the historical development of multifocals. credit is given to hertel for suggesting the idea in 1716 and to subsequent experimentation in london in 1760 followed by ben franklin's assemblage of two half pair of lenses for 11 the first pair of bifocals ... illustrated is a pair of 11 franklin-type bifocals, brass, ca. 182011 from the division of medical sciences, national museum of american history, smithsonian institution. 11 in the 1800s 11 states the article, "the lenses• popularity contributed to developing vision examination procedures in the nascent field of optometry ... apparently the smithsonian lacks a copy of daca de valdes• 1623 book on optometric procedure. stereopsis in the film industry: in his 1979 book, 11 heyday: an autobiography .. , little, brown & company, dore schary gives his appraisal of the role of 3-0 in movies in the following excerpts: p. 248 [early in 1952]: 11 ••• we had cut the average cost of a film from about $2,200,000 to $1,400,000 and were averaging forty films a year. but there were things blowing in the wind. they didn't reach us until 1953. they were cinema scope, 3-0, and television ... 11 unaware of the. havoc they would wreak, we went about our business and our diversions ... 67 p. 256: "as 1952 drew to a close and we gained some satisfaction from film grosses, there were signs of new events that would throw the industry into tunnoil." p. 257: "forces were being brought into play to combat the drain of movie grosses because of tv. the industry challenged television with cinerama, 3-d, cinema scope, a lessening of motion picture code restric­ tions, and a drift toward multistar pictures with higher risks ... p. 261: "the production of kiss me, kate came during the climax attendant to the introduction of 3-d. years before pete smith had narrated an mgm release of an independently made series of comedy shorts that introduced the red and green plastic glasses to audiences who would soon find themselves feeling walleyed from their use. the experiment died. however, because of the looming and ever-growing might of television, the picture business was grasping at any device that appeared to be the white knight who would slay the dragon. when bwana devil revived 3-d in its old fonn and was a hit, the stampede was on. "we made one picture, arena, which i loathed watching with the glasses. the damn things gave me a frightful eye ache and headache. when i went to my eye doctor, he said, 'if you people keep up that 3-d menace you will be sued for millions. it is a device of the devil to give eyestrain, pain, and upset stomachs. what i'm saying, dare, is you are a 11 crazy'. hhi 1 e i had not yet reached a 11 of those cone 1 us ions posed by dr. robert hare, i had determined that 3-d was a freak enter­ tainment, ••• and that it was marked for extinction." p. 264 [at a meeting on may 1, 1953]: "next i dealt with 3-d, which they knew i loathed. joe vogel, head of sales, had invested $500,000 in the purchase of the plastic eyeglasses. in summing up my arguments against 3-d, i said, 'we are opposed to 3-d except for a very special, a unique or freaky film.' "(during a rather heated discussion following my presentation, i foolheartedly predicted that before long we would be advertising pictures 'you can see without glasses.• lucky me. that's exactly what we did after first exhibiting kiss me, kate in 3-d, which succeeded in keeping audiences away in angry droves. we got them to come in by plugging the fact that the picture was not in 3-d. we had prepared for the contingency by making two screen dimensions during production. we were struck with a massive load of red and green eyeglasses, but we made up for it in final grosses.)" unfinished business: among the numerous optometricana received by the indiana university school of optometry following the death of john p. davey, o.d., more than 25 years ago was a small packet quite ignored until very recently. 68 it consists of a paper carton containing a stack of about 700 small, file size (7.6 x 12.7 em), cards printed as shown here. ii ill location ethics ability classification i·a·· 2 a 2-a·•·c 2 b cia••···········-· ............ oat•·--·-·--·············· employed by ................................................. . age ............... ass'n. status .......................... . 3 c 4 3 0 remarks~------~------------indiana chapter, american academy op" optometry the package had been mailed to dr. davey, 405 kahn bldg., indianapolis 4, indiana, by c.w. morris, o.d., 116 e. wayne st., fort wayne, indiana, at a time when it required only 12¢ postage, probably about the middle 1 40s. about 150 of the cards included in the upper left areas the addressographed names and addresses of indiana optometrists. perhaps the addressographing was done in the office of the indiana optometric association or even in the office of the indiana state board of optometry, both of which were con­ veniently accessible to davey, a very active member of both. the list certainly included less than half of the registered optometrists of the state of indiana, so it must have been selective in design. it is conceivable that these were nominated by someone, perhaps by davey himself, as potential candidates for academy fellowship. several cards, less than a dozen, were filled out, with certain numerals and letters circled. these were variously dated in june and july, 1946. also a good many of the cards had blue and/or red pencil checks and asterisks in the upper left corner, undoubtedly a code known only to the marker who preferred that his marginal ratings· not be public knowledge. folded and_jammed into the carton were three letter-size sheets of typewritten material. one was a carboned copy entitled instructions for survey classification card which read as follows: fill in the date (month and year), self-employed or uame of employer, approximate age. encircle the appropriate code number and small letter for each section and subsection as follows: 69 i-location 1-upstairs office. a-private office. b-shares space with another profession or business. 2-ethical downstairs office in a locality where ethical physicians and dentists have similar offices. 3-ethical downstairs office in a locality where ethical physicians and dentists do not have similar offices. (briefly describe office front under remarks). 4-commercial store, or associated with jewelry, drug, department store, etc. ii-ethics 1-ethical and professional--no violation of the following: 2-may need minor changes: a-stationery, calling cards, etc. not in good taste. b-extemal signs are large, blatant, illuminated, etc. c-office lacks professional dignity (posters, etc.) 3-may need greater changes: a-frames are displayed or laboratory is conspicuous. b-display advertising used in newspapers, telephone directory, road signs, handbills, etc. c-merchandising of optical accessories, earphones, etc. d-physical therapy, chiropractic, etc. are combined with optometric practice. 4-probably hopeless prospect: a-entire aspect of location is commercial. b-unlawful practice of medicine or ophthalmology. iii-ability 1-ably representative of the best in the profession. 2-little interested in new technique, education, etc. 3-inferior ability, or subjective refraction only. if the classifying circles all fall above a or b, then the prospect can immediately or with minor changes qualify for fellowship, and should be approached and urged to make application. notify the secretary if he desires an application and it will be forwarded. please return the cards to the secretary as soon as you have had opportunity to complete them properly. bear in mind that the sole purpose of these cards is to increase the indiana fellowship as rapidly as possible. the other two sheets were letterheads of the american academy of optometry, indiana chapter, on the back sides of which were typed, one original and the other a carboned copy, almost the identical legend, but in the format of explanatory rating sheets rather than as procedural instructions. the letterheads listed the executive council as dr. irvin m. borish, pres., kokomo; dr. r.w. tubesing, pres.-elect, richmond; dr. robert ledig, -cont'd70 v.-pres., indianapolis; dr. j.r. shreve, sec.-treas., indianapolis; dr. j.p. davey, indianapolis; and dr. n.a. bixler, decatur, all in indiana of course. it is my guess that some of our younger readers may wonder why this brief account of an unfinished project has historical significance. how do we older ones explain that it does? an educator-historian's view of optometry in 1957: uncovered in the recent cleaning-out of the 11attic 11 of ,the indiana university optometry building was a single copy of a mimeographed transcript of a talk by clanton ware williams, 1904-1975. the talk was given at atlanta, georgia, at the southern conference on optometric education and southeastern educational congress of.optometry, june 2, 1957. at that time dr. williams was president of the university of houston. he had advanced to that position from the academic ranks of the university's department of history, having previously qualified himself in history with an a.b. degree from davidson college, an a.m. from the university of alabama, and the ph.d. degree from vanderbilt university. subsequent to his services as president he successively held positions of national and international import, such as chief educational advisor, aid, india; .resident coordinator of the institute of international education, pakistan; and executive director of the alabama commission on higher education until retirement in 1973. he received numerous honors, commendations, and decorations for his historical and administrative contributions. · the following was his talk, apparently unpublished, under the title, education: key to a profession's future. when i began my career as an educator some thirty-five years ago, optometry was not a profession. why, the very term was only twenty years old. many optometrists had not even graduated from high school. most of them simply had gone to a trade school for a sixor eight-months 11quickie 11 course, after which they had begun to ply their trade on the human eye, one of god's grandest gifts to man. i remember when the father of a friend of mine, a jeweler, one day put out a sign calling himself a doctor. vast numbers of his acquaintances knew that he was no doctor, and so did his son, who was considerably embarrassed by this new money-making act on the part of his dad--this relatively uneducated jewelry salesman. needless to say, the highly respected eye, ear, nose and throat specialists in town were incensed at his hoax on the public. why, he hadn't been to college a day in his life! 71 thirty-five years have passed since then and many changes have occurred. the practice of optometry became legally regulated in every state in the union and d.c. by 1925. by 1936 it took four years of training beyond high school to earn an o.d. degree. by 1949 every college of optometry had gone to five years. but no university or college recognized by a regional accrediting association yet granted the doctor's degree in optometry. some granted the master's degree, but there simply was no such thing as a university-granted 0.0., certainly not in five years of study which did not even require a bachelor's degree as prerequisite. then in 1955 the accredited university of houston did grant the o.d. it was a fairly respectable degree, but it was still a five-year degree. it ranked about even with the five-year bachelor of architecture degree or the five-year bachelor of laws degree or perhaps the master of science degree. in the graduation exercises, of course, there was no hooding ceremony for the recipients of the o.d. as there was for those who received the seven-year ed.d. and the sevento eight-year ph.d. degree. dean stewart did not ask for the hooding ceremony, nor did he last year. nor would the university have granted such a request had his college had the audacity to make it. nor will there be any hooding ceremony this university commencement next tuesday, for the o.d. does not yet rate that dignity. not until the six-year program is culminated can the academic world recognize the o.d. as a fully respectable professional doctorate. and not until their degree is so recognized may our graduates go forth with heads high knowing that they fully deserve to be called doctor. uow i know that my remarks to this point have stirred some resentment among those of you who have not learned that i am your friend, fighting your battles for you and needing far more support from you than i am getting. · shortly after i assumed my duties [as president] at the university of houston in 1955, i sought answers to a series of the burning questions in my mind: 11 what in the world is this university doing in the business of training optometrists? this is vocational training, isn't it? this field belongs purely and simply to trade schools, doesn't it? aren't optometrists artisans pursuing a lucrative trade, passing themselves off as doctors in order to attract the gullible public? 11 then i met the faculty, as dedicated a group of educators as i ever met. and i looked to see what degrees these professors hold. here's what the 1956-57 catalog showed, and in exactly this order (and they will all be back next year): (1) b.s., m.s., ph.d.; {2) a.b., m.s., ph.d.; (3) b.a., m.ed., ph.d.; (4) b.a., m.b.a., ph.d., c.p.a.; (5) a.b., m.a., ph.d., o.d.; (6) b.s., o.d., a.b., m.s., ph.d.; (7) b.s., m.opt.; (8} b.s., ph.d.; (9) b.s., m.s., ph.d. there are also five other lecturers anrl technicians all highly qualified in their specialties. 72 could such a group of dedicated educators be party to a hoax on the public? could such people be engaged in turning out money-making artisans rather than well-educated professionals of highest ethical standards, determined to give the people of our southland the highly skilled eye care they deserved? could it be that my old impressions of optometry must be completely discarded? then i studied the catalog to see what the requirements for an 0.0. were. i found, of course, that the general university admission requirements must be met; then there was a two-year pre-optometry course which was basic to any b.s. degree. this course was taught in the college of arts and sciences, which has extremely high standards. no one would be permitted to attend the college of optometry who could not maintain at least a 11 c11 . average. in the college itself there were offered three tough years of professional study which so prepares the student that he can pass his state and national board examinations with flying colors. well and good, i concluded. but this is no more than what is required in those programs leading to the bachelor degrees in pharmacy, architecture, law, and engineering. and druggists, lawyers, architects, and engineers don•t call themselves doctor--not unless they pursue at least two years more of professional work and have that degree conferred by a fully accredited university. needless to state, the fine faculty of our college of optometry was well aware of this fact. they knew, too, that there was much more to be learned in the field of optometry than what they were able to teach in three years. for one thing, it was impossible to schedule enough clinical training in three years. our graduates must not only be well-educated doctors, they must be highly versed in practical things. but they also knew these facts: 1. the profession of optometry, which had started as a trade, for economic reasons primarily, had awarded its members the doctor•s title. in its growth from a trade to a profession it had deliberately violated ethical standards of various kinds, plus academic standards. 2. in that the doctor•s title had come into being for one reason or another, and the 0.0. degree was being awarded by private institutions, if then the university of houston were going to have students attending a high-class college of optometry, then it would have to award the 0.0. degree. it was either the 0.0. granted by a high-ranking university or not enough students to justify the college•s existence. 73 and they knew something else: if optometry ever were to get the horse before the cart, then some university with the guts to do it--with the determination to stick its neck out for the good of the profession and the millions of patients it serves--was going to have to take the lead. that lead was not going to come from anywhere else. late in 1955 the university of houston announced that it was going to a six-year program for the 0.0. degree. it would still continue the five-year program which satisfies current state licensing requirements, but this would not entitle the graduate to the 0.0. degree. at about this same time two of the other ten colleges of optometry were following suit. suddenly, in january 1956, i found myself the focal point of attack on the part of the committee of ophthalmo-optometric relations of the american medical association. they had helped to give the coup de grace to columbia university•s program. now here was a challenge from the south--this time a real challenge. could they scare me into backing down? well, we \'/ere a young university even though already the second largest in the south. and we were sorely pressed finan­ cially. from that latter standpoint we really had no business giving any kind or optometric program, much less an expensive six-year degree. but i did not scare easily. i wrote back as follows: as you know, i have raised some basic questions relative to the university•s program in optometric training, a program being undertaken at consi.derable financial sacrifice on our part. there are still more questions which need to be answered ••• before any final decision may be reached as to the future of our college of optometry. here are those questions: 1. does the medical profession want to see optometry as a whole abolished? · 2. if optometry is eliminated, will ophthalmologists undertake fitting lenses for the scores of millions of people who have no disease of the eye, but who need glasses to compensate for simple refractive conditions or because of age? 3. · if such is programmed, when may the pub 1 i c expect the numbe~ of ophthalmologists to be great enough to do this job? 4. in that it takes twelve expensive years to become an ophthalmologist, a. would not the work of fitting glasses for the masses involve a terrible squandering of professional talent and time? 74 b. would the public be able to pay for this service? and if not, what would be the results, both to the physical well-being of the public, and to the medical profession politically? if the answers to the above questions lead the medical profession to conclude that optometry simply may not be abolished (and those questions would be raised by all legislative committees ~ntertaining bills to abolish optometry), then another set of questions must be answered. 1. what must be done to raise professional and ethical standards of optometry, including the assurance that diseases may be discovered and the diseased sent to physicians for treatment? 2. who or what institutions may be expected to take the lead in raising those standards? 3. may that lead come from private colleges of optometry, some of which are operated in the manner of profit-making institutions? 4. or should that lead come from fully accredited univer­ sities, at least one of which is earnestly striving (a) to give its students the knowledge necessary to insure a recognition of disease when it is indicated, (b) to instill into them the active urge to send those who need medical treatment to physicians, and (c) to graduate only those who will actively champion highest ethical standards, including the rejection of the temptation to accept relatively high-salaried jobs with non-ethical firms. 5. and if the answer is the latter, of which the university of houston is one, then should the medical profession help or hamper such universities? should it deny to such high type institutions essential medical knowledge which may best be imparted by experienced m.d.'s? or should it share in furthering that cause? · those questions need answers--answers from the public and answers from the medical profession as a whole--not just answers from a few whose personal interests may blunt objectivity. there remains, of course, the question of whether or not the graduates of a high type university's college of _optometry should be awarded the o.d. degree. here i do not raise questions, rather i record what i believe to be facts. · 1. there was originally the ph.d. degree, still the highest ranking degree conferred. then came the m.d. after those came scores of other doctor's degrees. 75 2. as in the case of the m.d.'s, each of those which followed the ph.d. went through a period of relatively low academic prestige. many have not yet received high prestige and some probably never will. even within the past few years some american institutions granted the m.d. for five years of academic work. many holders of the ph.d. do not yet consider that the m.d. degree should be conferred until after internship. most holders of the ph.d. and even some who hold the m.d. abhor the granting of doctor's degrees to any who have done less than seven years of university work, plus the production of the results of high quality research. 3. the university of houston shares the view that a doctor's degree should comply with the highest concept of academic standards, but the facts of life are that one must crawl before he walks. 4. in that crawling stage it should be noted that it has been announced that next year six instead of five years will be required for the o.d. degree. at least two other institutions are following a similar program. the five-year program will prepare a man to pass the current licensing examinations, but does not carry the doctorate. 5. but this additional year is going to cost us students-­ students who will go to private colleges of optometry which grant the o.d. in five years. suddenly to step up to a full walk would kill off our student body and defeat the whole program, which because of our already stiff requirements is moving on very thin financial ice. 7. living with that fact, and in recognition of the further fact that a skilled optometrist (as contrasted with a dispensing optician) must have the capacity to do elementary diagnosing of disease (but not to treat), this university has undertaken to lead the way toward high professional and ethical standards. it is our full hope that the o.d. degree shall not be only a respectable doctorate, but one which is at least as difficult to acquire as is the d.d.s. but either of two things may lead to the university of houston's abandonment of the whole program: one, the logic of the answers which i hope our critics or ama as a whole will provide to all of the questions raised in this memorandum; the other is an inability 76 to carry the financial burden involved as we try to scale heights in competition with private colleges of optometry which will not or cannot raise their standards and with opposition of those medical agencies and individuals who might advisedly assist us in serving our fellowmen. , i won't bother you with the details of what followed. i shall only say that the answers that i received as a whole were evasive, or they were the type that indicated to me that the committee on ophthalmo-optometric relations hadn't even come to grips with the real problem. the conclusion reached, con­ sidering all factors--academic, sociological, economic and ethical--was that the university of houston should continue its college of optometry, not only as a high-class academic undertaking, but as a necessary lever in the raising of standards of optometry for the good of the millions of southerners who needed high-class eye care. shortly after this i put our case before the oklahoma optometric association at their 1956 convention in tulsa. they voted to assess each of their members $5 per year of practice to support the university of houston in its determination to give the leadership the profession wanted. unfortunately, their good intentions were not translated into follow-up action. a few months later in dallas the texas optometric association rose in unanimous endorsement of the university's program. already they had been giving the college of optometry $20,000 a year. they not only voted to continue this, but more. their ladies auxiliary, for instance, just completed a drive to gather old gold frames. these were melted down, the gold was sold, and the university of houston was richer by $1,000. dr. james f. loomis, in his invitation that i appear here tonight, informed me the ladies auxiliary of the florida optometric association has raised $500 for a scholarship program to send a student to the university of houston next year. i here offer our sincerest appreciation to all who have contributed. well, what happened to our enrollment this year? we knew we were taking a gamble, but we did not know just how critical were going to be the results. instead of the seventy-odd students we need and for whom we have provided expensive facilities--equipment and valuable space standing idle--ten students entered last fall; whereas the enrollment of at least one college of optometry skyrocketed. we did receive one graduate of that five-year private college who had failed to pass the state board exam. we have found him to be so poorly prepared that we have suggested that he ought to start all over with his clinical work. he, mind you, is a doctor. 77 instead of seventy students we received ten. th'ink of all that expensive equipment standing idle, to say nothing of the deep disap­ pointment of that superb faculty which is second to none, either at ohio state or the university of california, neither of which institu­ tion is granting the o.d. degree at all. if their optometry students want the doctorate, they must go for the ph.d. now i must give you some other sad figures: ., during the first five years, our college of optometry has cost the university $304,000 and there has been no extravagance anywhere. the gallant texas optometric association when it raised this year's pledged amount has contributed $100,000. this leaves $204,000 which has been paid out of funds which otherwise would have gone into professors' salaries. in other terms, our underpaid professors of history, english, physics, engineering and philosophy have each literally made a non-tax deductible contribution of about $150 per year to keep this college of optometry in being. can anyone here tell me what the average annual contribution of optometrists is to optometric education? ~·1y professors know that theirs is the only first-class university college of optometry in the south trying to produce first-class optometrists for the whole south, trying to raise the standards of your profession, and they have not once grumbled at the price they personally are paying keep this torch burning. but it is not fair. and i think you agree. something must be done about it. and you in this room have got to help decide what that something is. i know you are not men of wealth, but then neither are our history professors. now before closing let me tell you something good--two things: ten days ago governor daniel of texas signed into law an act which had received only three dissenting votes and which had been jointly sponsored by the texas opticians association, the texas optometric association, and the texas medical association. the act recognizes physicians and optometrists as professional groups whose prescriptions may be filled by opticians, but only in accordance with specific directions of the prescribing physician or optometrist. it also makes illegal any advertising which "tends to create a misleading impression, including statements or advertisements of bait, discount, premiums, prices, gifts or any statement or advertise­ ments of a similar nature, import or meaning." five days ago the texas supreme· court handed down a decision upholding the power of the texas state board of examiners in optometry to make rules "regulating" this "professional group," just as does the texas board of medical examiners in regulating its 11 professional group. 11 78 the import of these actions is that the state of texas recognizes opticians, optometrists, and ophthalmologists all as having a legal position in the varied business of eye care. even though ophthalmologists have working business arrangements with opticians which are of mutual advantage, even though costly to the patient, optometrists may not try to drive opticians out of business by unethical price advertising. on the other hand, neither may the ophthalmologist in collaboration with the optician try to drive the optometrist out of business by maintaining that optometry is not a respectable profession. indeed, despite the ophthalmologists' objections, optometry is given the right to regulate its own "professional group" and non-professional opticians must fill prescriptions under direction of either a professional ophthalmologist or a professional prescription­ writing optometrist. but, of course, it still stands as standard that only ophthalmologists may treat disease. thus texas has settled a long-running, three-cornered controversy and the people are the benefactor of a series of wise decisions. uhat is significant to us here is to point out that these things would not have been possible had not the optometrists in texas gained large stature. and these rhetorical questions follow: would these things have been possible without the concerted effort of the optometrists of texas to raise the standards of optometric education? would legislators and judges acknowledge optometry's claim to the word 5rofession if its educational requirements had not recentlyeen set on a professional plane by some leading institution of highest learning? would the ophthalmologists have been at least temporarily silenced and would the texas medical association have joined in concert with the texas optometric association had they not become convinced that optometrists were no longer unethical competitors bent upon perpetrating a hoax on the gullible public, but on the other hand were honorable professional men determined that their young followers should merit fully the term doctor? oh, the fight is by no means over. you have come a long way since the uneducated jeweler hung out his 11 doctor's 11 sign. you have made great strides. the day may be close at hand when graduates of colleges of optometry across the land may go forth with not one iota of shame in being called doctor. but i must say positively that if you want my university to carry that battle flag for you, then you must rally quickly about that battle flag. you must send to us ambitious, high­ class students in considerable volume. you should provide some of them with scholarships and provide our college of optometry with essential matching funds for all of them. you will take every possible measure, political and otherwise, to help this 79 non-tax-supported university--your university--the southland's university--as it struggles to keep this torch burning even brighter against the strong winds which even now are about to extinguish it. don't let it be extinguished, doctors. tell me you won't. show me you won't. bennett suggests lectures: the following is a letter from irving bennett, o.d., president of advisory enterprises, inc.: 11 reading the last issue of the fine newsletter of the optometric historical society, i recalled that i had planned to tell you last year that we have consistently scheduled in new york at optifair a lecture on 'collecting antique eyeglasses•. ohs member, alan york, has always been the leader of this seminar which has been only moderately attended--but those that have attended have had consider­ able interest. we are asking alan to do the same thing in 1983. 11 the thought occurred to me that this idea could be extended to the optifair midwest (chicago in june} and optifair west (anaheim in september). this would tie together a group of historical buffs who could form the nucleus of increased interest in the historical society. 11the seminars are of no financial import to optifair but they serve to round out the program. we have charged a regular fee for at­ tendance so that the attendees• names can be placed on a computer; the seminar was treated as a 'regular' seminar. in this way, we also pay the seminar instructor a lecture fee. what do you think of the idea? 11 quite predictably i told him the idea is great. indeed, with all the emphasis on variety in the hundreds of continuing education lectures being offered throughout the country, why not a few on optometric or visual science history? surely a lecture on the life of helmholtz, the origins of ophthalmometry, or the folklore of itinerant optometrists could be of as much clinical enlightenment and inspiration as slide shows on the reliability coefficients of recording optometers, the psycho­ physics of perimetry, or the ocular pharmacology of weight-reducing drugs. this is not to question the merits of the latter, but rather to emphasize the fundamentally educational value of relevant history. i suspect, for example, that the optometrist who is intimately familiar with the history of the development of the retinoscope may well do better retinoscopy. whether or not you agree, do tell irv bennett. 80 a nonoptometrist views our heritage: . (a highly qualified staff person who devotes much of her time to the archival section of a major library and who has thereby become thoroughly acquainted with the literature of visual science, and with many optometrists, expressed the following inspirational thoughts to me, but not for publication, back in 1974. for very legitimate reasons of her own she asked not to be given credit in print for these obser­ vations, though she has expressed these and similar views refreshingly and candidly to many of us in ordinary conversation. having saved these paragraphs now for more than eight years, and having reread them often, i share them here for their reflective value.) looking over the first ten years of optometry one can clearly see that there is hardly anything to justify the so often repeated expression "the humble origins of optometry." a serious study of the archives of optometry reveals just the opposite. the leaders of optometry were indeed powerful men within their com­ munity. the early optical houses where there were always refracting rooms, schools of refraction, and high caliber refractionists, were in many cases powerful institutions, economically and scientifically sp~aking. one certainly will not think that 50¢ membership would bring aoa to the degree of effectiveness and accomplishments of its formative years. it is also well to remember that because of early opticians the u.s. became self sufficient and soon began to export optical products, thus giving birth to the u.s. optical industry, definitely an economic asset to the young country. the tools of the chemist, their ancestry and american evolution, by earnest child, 1940, is an interesting book on early american chemical education. the book is a study of the development of chemical apparatus in the united states. opticians, helping the establishment of another profession, introduced these apparatus, also called "philosophical instruments", to the market and in many instances, as in the case of robert b. tolles, designed and patented apparatus. the early optical houses such as those of pike, spencer, and mcallister were places of rendezvous for scientists. the writings of the early optometric leaders indicate that they were conversant with their classes. their english is correct, style clear, and elegant. technical drawings such as those of prentice and eberhardt are masterpieces. in fact prentice illustrated (and this is the best in the book) a work of swan burnett, an ophthalmologist. charles sheard, the famous physicist of mayo clinic, confessed that he learned refraction from eberhardt. early opticians who as a rule immigrated to this country often sent their sons to europe to acquire an optical education. "optometric families" is quite a tradition. sometimes the young man was put in charge of the optometric office. 81 there was no meekness among these men. prentice defied the ophthalmologists with the pride of a scientist. one certainly does not think that a poor little man with a frayed suit left his office to propose before their legislators the optometric laws. very likely, he, the mayor, and the legislators were part of the town's clique of successful and wealthy men. just think of cook of tennessee, eberhardt of ohio, ellis of indiana, marshutz of new york and california, meyrowitz and spencer of new york, b.b. clark of rochester, ryer of new york. ryer and hotaling gave $1,000.00 to keep columbia school of optometry operating. when the empire state building was ready for occupancy an early leader opened an office there. ryer had oriental rugs and always the most up-to-date equipment at his office, some of his own invention. when the u.s. government classed optometry as "trade", including it in the optical code, ryer defied the government. something to think about: who were the clients of the early optometrists? well, several presidents of the united states, legislators, high dignitaries of church and state, and members of royalty. here is how an early optometrist answered the question, "how does it feel to serve royalty?" "well, to me, one person is as good as another as long as they behave themselves." the study of optics, mathematics, and physics, which were the foundation of optometry, made it possible for the early optician to join other disciplines. as highly skilled men, their interests were wide, and at times amazing. perhaps there would not be metro-goldwyn-mayer studios in america if it were not for the discoveries and technical skills of an optometrist, lubin, who was a member of the pennsylvania optometric (optical) association. the early optometrists were envolved in safety. they planned streets (zoning and traffic marking), were interested in aero­ nautics, mathematics, cinematography, astronomy, and physics. it is often forgotten that the early optometrists dealt with applied and scientific optics. they had technical competence. a craft or a vocation in which the business end was a necessity, to the group and to the client. the major requirement for professionalization is superior technical competence applicable to a particular field of knowledge and skill, from which derives the exercise of authority. having the essential attributes of professionals,_ they formed their professional organization, which is another require­ ment of professionalization. the pioneers dedicated the first ten 82 years of their organized work to professionalize optometry. although they possessed superior knowledge of optometry, they realized that a formal education was necessary for the optometrist of the future. none of the £haracteristics most commonly regarded as attributes of 11 learned professions 11 were overlooked. these people had the inner makeup of professionals, or they could not have done it. reading carr-saunders and other writers of the sociology of the professions, as well as works on the sociological approach to modern professional associations, one finds it amazing to compare these more recent theories with what perhaps by sheer foresight was accomplished in the first ten years of organized optometry. the following are excerpts from occupational careers, a sociological perspective by walter l. slocum, 1974: . 11the occupations at the professional end of the continuum • • • are characterized by possession of a greater degree of the following five attributes: 1. a system of theoretical knowledge which serves as the basis for the professional skill. 2. professional authority: the power to prescribe a course of action for a client because of superior knowledge, for example, doctor's orders. 3. approval of authority claims by the community. 4. a code of ethics designed to protect the client, provide service to the community, and provide a basis of elimination of unethical practitioners. 5, professional culture patterns consisting of values (for example, the conviction that the professional service is valuable to the community), norms which provide guides for behavior in professional practice, symbols of professional status such as the title 'doctor' and the concept of a professional career ... 11many writers on the professions have stressed service to clients and devotion to the welfare of the community as a distinguishing characteristic of the professions, contrasting this with the self-seeking approach alleged to be characteristic of the business ethic. because only the trained professionals in a particular field are presumed to have knowledge sufficient to evaluate the merit of the services rendered, special steps are required to keep out the unscrupulous and to keep others on the 'straight and narrow' path. this is the function of codes of ethics and licensing. the relevant code of ethics is administered exclusively by each professional association. licensing, although legally a governmental function, is actually in the hands of professional colleagues who are members of the licensing boards ... 83 the leaders of optometry realized that they should change their manner of work. many opened "professional" offices, and ran "pro­ fessional practices", charging a fee for professional services. "eyes examined free" became the slogan of "non-professionals." the distinction was therefore made between "professional", and "unprofessional" modes of practice, which unfortunately still re­ mains in the profession•s vocabulary. for anyone graduated from a recognized school of optometry, having passed board examinations, having a license to practice, and rendering optometric service is a "professional .. man inasmuch as he is a member of an established profession. this also applies to those who are unethical. to his dying day, he is, if he practices, a professional man. his pro­ fession is optometry. a catholic priest who breaks the rules of priesthood is never­ theless a priest if he exercises the ministry and performs the rituals of his church. he does not become "unsacerdote." he is one with feet of clay, to be sure, but still by virtue of his ordination, a sacerdote. even the angels remain "angels" after they sin. ~le get around this incongruency by calling them "fallen 11 angels. at this point we should reappraise our vocabularly and not refer to those in unethical practice as 11 unprofessional" optome­ trists. or better, teach the young people entering the profession their duties and privileges within the profession and the society at large, so there will be, someday, no need for the distinction. a few individual cases of deviants which always appear in any fully professionalized occupation will always exist in optometry, human nature being what it is. yet it will hardly affect a fully pro­ fessionalized profession. brazelton discovers ohs: the following paragraphs are excerpted from a recent letter from professor frank a. brazelton, o.d., of the southern california college of optometry: "i read with delight the recent piece in the april •a2• o.h.s. newsletter on typhlos, a term completely new to me. consulting my compact edition of the q.e.d., magnifier in hand, i found most references were to its connection with anomalies of the vermiform appendix and crevices between the rugae of the large intestine. do you suppose our gastroenterologist friends would cavil at optometry•s appropriating such a beautifully opaque yet erudite word? the possibilities are fascinating: low vision specialists could become "typhlometrists". ~~e mi9ht found a national society for the prevention of typhlosis (nspt) or start raising money for 84 the fight against typhlosis (fat) in which case our contributors could, appropriately, be called fat cats. carriers of the gene for r.p. could be called 11typhloid marys 11 • an epidemic of blindness would be a typhloon and a person with one blind eye would be typhlops. the mind reels. 11pat carlson, our lovely and thoughtful librarian here at scco, has generously provided me with an almost complete set of back copies of the newsletter which i am ·currently mining for more such ore. they are unfailingly interesting, frequently entertaining and, on occasion, horizon-expanding. i found the recent exchanges on the origins of the academy and certain relations between oep and ada particularly so. "all this has twinged my conscience, particularly so because i'm a closet history buff, and how i could have been unaware for so long of the only group devoted to the history of optometry is a mystery. at any rate i should like to rectify the omission, and so my check is enclosed. i have no idea what your dues are so if this is insufficient let me know and, if excessive, consider the balance a contribution to a most worthy effort. keep up the good work ... dr. brazelton's enclosure was for: $50.00, duly forwarded to our treasurer as a combination of dues payment and tax-deductible contribution. beware of the smelter: ohs member irv bennett called our attention to an interesting article entitled "collecting optical history 11 by eric p. muth in the august 1982 issue of optical index, vol. 57, no. 8, pp. 50-55. mr. muth is technical editor of the journal and owner of park lane opticians, inc., in milford, connecticut. he describes having organized an exhibition of early eyewear at the barnum museum in brideport, connecticut, which was displayed from february to august, 1982, and which elicited much public interest. describing his own brief involvement in collecting he comments, "recently i was honored with the ultimate experience that any optical antiquarian would have: a tour through the historical catacombs of the 149-year-old american optical co. in southbridge." he includes some technical pointers for collectors, several in­ geniously arranged illustrations, and the advice that, "the united states needs an opticians• museum, and the sooner the better since many of our most prized frames from long ago are being melted into history." 85 hirsch memorialized: much optometric history is contained in the memorial tributes to the late dr. monroe j. hirsch in the march/april 1982 issue of optometry forum, vol. 18, no. 2, pages 1-3, published by the university of california optometry alumni association. one is by professor emeritus meredith morgan and the other by michael jauregul, o.d. also listed in the same issue are the contributors to the monroe j. hirsch library fund established at the university of california, berkeley, in support of the extensive collection of books given to the library by dean hirsch. memorialized in trees: the illinois college of optometry alumni association announced the planting of five trees in israel to commemorate professor paul f. shulman, o.d., who died july 13, 1982. to be or not to be a proxy: each year when o.h.s. election ballots go out, two or three members, whom i know very well personally, return their ballots to me with a message like 11 dear hank, i give you my proxy to vote as you think best11 , or something similar. so far i have refrained from exercising this flattering privilege, but to no account, as no election has been close enough to let me untie the vote. now i really do not know what i would do if the opportunity to decide the winner by means of a proxy vote or two presented itself. i think it involves a question of ethics, but i am not sure whether it is more unethical to deny the kindly member's vote by refusing to vote my choice as his or hers, or to exercise my circumstantial advantage as the scrutineer or ballot counter. to be or not to be on leave: erstwhile co-editor doug penisten dropped by for a brief visit a few weeks ago. he was making a hasty visit home from his temporary teaching assignment at university of the north in south africa. he expressed his embarrassment over being listed as a co-editor, or even a co-editor-on-leave, during such a long sojourn in which he had virtually no opportunity to contribute anything to the nohs. therefore, in complian~e with his wishes his name does not appear below. h.w hofstetter, editor 86 the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard saint louis. missouri 63141 is your best friend an ohs memoer? 'l.' \~hy not!'! he or she probably does not know about the optometric historical society. most people don't. nut whether or not your friend is an optometrist, he or she may well be curious about your professional heritage. we all enjoy the history of other people, of strange creatures, and of odd things, of the kallikaks, centipedes, and grave markers, so why shouldn~t your friend be enlightened or amused by your otherwise hidden optometric roots. a copy of this newsletter left on the table in your reception room may well be the only document that your next visitor may peruse from cover to cover. think about that. anyone may belong! providing he or she, or you, can spare $5.00 per year. if one prefers to leave the five dollars in a money market fund, free membership for the rest of one's life is obtainable merely by amending one's will to provide for a $1,000 (or larger) legacy to the society and so informing our secretary-treasurer. think about that, too. incidentally contributions to the society are tax deductible in the u.s.a. 1982-13-04-001 1982-13-04-002 1982-13-04-003 1982-13-04-004 1982-13-04-005 1982-13-04-006 1982-13-04-007 1982-13-04-008 1982-13-04-009 1982-13-04-010 1982-13-04-011 1982-13-04-012 1982-13-04-013 1982-13-04-014 1982-13-04-015 1982-13-04-016 1982-13-04-017 1982-13-04-018 1982-13-04-019 1982-13-04-020 1982-13-04-021 1982-13-04-022 1982-13-04-023 1982-13-04-024 1982-13-04-025 1982-13-04-026 (243 north vol. 15 optometry lillrary jert1cal file newsletter of the optometric historical society ~~tflmhrv 1.18rary lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) april 1984 numbermay 14 1984 nolana univehsil y this is one of the shortest issues of nohs. it will therefore not be a burden to read. the explanation for its brevity is simple. when i pulled the o.h.s. folder out of my file i found that considerably less than the usual number of prepared items had accumulated during the last three months. because i include virtually every accumulated item of interest in each quarterly issue, some issues are long and some are short. i do not retain a backlog of prepared material for subsequent issues. therefore it is quite possible that the occasion may come when a single-page issue will result. the shortest to date is the first number of 1971, two pages. what determines the number of items that are accumulated? the answer to this is also simple. i have no production plan or prep­ aration schedule other than an assumed deadline a few days prior to the firsts of january, april, july, and october. the deadline may vary slightly when i am committed to an out-of-town engagement in the last week of december, march, june, or november. each accumulated item therefore is one prepared more or less immediately upon my receipt of a letter, document, tearsheet, clipping, announcement, picture, or other article of historical interest from someone like yourself, or upon my coming across a point of optometric historical significance in my own rather haphazard day-to-day exposure to periodicals, books, brochures, social contacts, exhibitions, displays, etc. mostly my findings are the result of a kind of continuous alertness, or history sensitivity, an attribute which is somewhat less finely tuned during basketball season and tax return preparation time. most such promptings are gratifying and stimulating. the frustrating ones are items with no clue whatsoever as to origin, date, circumstance, maker, or creditable source of reference. i do not give up easily. three libraries that i use frequently for documentation purposes and leads are the indiana university library system, our local monroe county public library, and the international library, archives, and ~1useum of optometry, inc. supplementary correspondence, interlibrary loans, and other forms of communication sometimes involve weeks or months of patience, which i do try to exercise. immediately, or eventually if there are necessary delays, i prepare, edit, or myself compose each newsletter entry in rough form in painful longhand. a day or two later a typist puts it into legible double-spaced, easily correctable, form. upon rereading it i typically make a few minor revisions and grammatical changes. if 32 it s~ill seems to be of historical significance and of possible interest to a historically minded person i file it in my o.h.s. folder and place it temporarily out of mind, even out of memory. • · ".'l· ;,',i''abbut a week before the next aforementioned quarterly deadline, usually on a friday, i take the o.h.s. folder home and pore through the accumulated items, especially to check occasional redundancies, revise uninterpretable expressions, and eliminate split infinitives, dangling participles, and my germanic excess of adverbs. once in a great while i discard an item at this stage as entirely too insignificant and dull. however, if i think even one reader will appreciate the item, it stays. then i select a lead item or, as in this instance, write one. next i identify two or three short entries which lack timeliness and arrange them at the end of the series to be held for a subsequent issue if the total paging comes out grossly uneven. the remaining items, the great majority, are then placed in essentially random sequence in between. i have not formulated any logical basis for their sequence, merely because i cannot think of any. the typist then types up the newsletter master sheet according to some style instructions which i prepared quite empirically many years ago. oh yes, i do reread the whole thing once again in what is almost invariably the final form. on one or two occasions i have indulged in some rearranging at this stage by cutting and pasting, mainly because two incidentally complementary items ought to have been nearer each other. the only pleasure i get at this editorial stage is the occasional discovery of a typographical error. if i find many typos it is not a pleasure. that is issue unless my immediate next issue. normally the last time i will read any part of each a month or more later a reader writes me about an entry. response is usually the preparation of an item for the that is how this serial continues. now you know. william jerome heather, 0.0., 1894-1984: known to thousands of optometrists by personal contact, the la,te "jere" heather will long remain a legend in the memories of even thousands more. his annual lectures to the graduating classes of every american optometry school for many years during the fifties were classic, remembered especially for his suitcase full of big wooden varicolored blocks which he used to portray certain principles of professional optometric economics. for several years he was a member of the optometric historical society, and his name is recorded at least six times in our annals. 33 ohs member andrew fischer suggested that memorial notice of jere's passing should be in this newsletter. indeed, it should, but one can hope that a detailed obituary will appear in a more broadly distributed journal in due time, as dr. heather's many faceted personality represented so much more than history. he was a symbol of the contemporary optometric era. what we can accomplish more effectively in terms of our ohs objectives is the inclusion of personally remembered experiences in future issues of the n.o.h.s. as they may have involved dr. heather. ohs members and other readers are invited to sit down immediately to pen a paragraph or two or more to relate what they (you!) remember as a heather contribution to, or involvement in, optometry's history. do so before you forget! john reuben levene, 192~-1983: a glowing obituary by dr. mark r. flora and a personal eulogy in the form of a letter to the editor by dr. philip a. la haye serve to memorialize the late john levene in the december 1983 issue of the american journal of optometric medicine, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 98-102 and 103-104 respectively. included is a picture of dr. levene, who is credited, among numerous other roles, as a prime figure in the optometric medicine movement. also announced as an editorial footnote is the establishment of the john r. levene memorial fund at the southern college of optometry where d~evene served as the dean of the faculty. a~ early correspondence course: the now presumably defunct philadelphia optical college flourished notoriously for several decades as a correspondence course leading to a mail-order doctorate degree. circumstantially gullible were many optometrists and would-be optometrists outside of the u.s.a. who could not know the long inadequate control of educational standards in variously chartered american institutions. thus, as illustrated in the example below, we find that even as recently as 1954, long after the demise of its founder, dr. 'c.h. brown, the "chartered" college was carrying on a grossly outmoded correspondence course for many an inter­ national subscriber. one such subscriber was alfredo horta coronel, a spanish-speaking optometrist in lima, peru. he kindly sent me copies of 12 of 26 lessons and examinations which he had diligently completed in english in 1954 and which were graded and returned to him with mostly a's and a few b's. mailed : l'):r\ .......... l'~~i .. ~...... . answf.il question~ in isk on tills siieet. ans\v.:r from m~:mory--ilo not copy from n:xt jiook 34 matriculation n~. peraonal extension course lesson no. x. numbering of lenses. examin~d and aj'provr•l ,l \0 ~·'· ~-:-. ~.-( +.. 0 0 0 0 averare "''" ......... ~ ........ ~ .........•••. ·the transition prriml in th.e nomenclature of the numhrring or" lenses i~ ewer. an<l we note the pas~ing of thr old inrh system, and the adoption of the newer· and hrttl'r di,,p. 'tric system. this adds tn the difficulty of the subject, hrcause the optometrist must have knowledge of both systems, and a clear understanding of the method of converting one into the other. the handling and prescribing of lcns<'s heing the optometrist's chief work. it i~ ju-t as essential for him to comprehend the syst<·m hy which they are j;:rnund anti tlu·ir rr· frac"tive power or focal distance measured, as it is to he familiar with their proper adjust· m~~ . 1efly • e'icamination paper no. 10 write plainly. .:~~~"':::1'<{y !&~.~~ua-, -£t~pon what d.:e::(z: ~l;c~ 7~ ~· ..acg6'j~~ . .to ,t:/~ !unci, ~ ~ f_t/uj:_. .ia ~uk-t., . vary? 35 lesson no. x is shown here, selected partly because it was the most legibly reproduced copy but also because it is implicitly dated by identification with the .. transition period in the nomenclature of the number of lenses, .. which had occurred at least three quarters of a century before 1954. the 12 lessons and examinations which dr. horta sent me are as follows: lesson i. anatomy of eye questions 1-25 lesson ii. mechanism of the eye questions 26-50 lesson iii. physiology of vision questions 51-75 lesson iv. dioptrics of the eye questions 76-100 lesson v. laws of light questions 101-125 lesson vi-vi i i. (missing) lesson ix. further study of lenses questions 201-225 lesson x. numbering of lenses questions 226-250 lesson xi. presbyopia questions 251-275 lesson xi i-xxi i. (missing) lesson xxii i. method of examination questions 551-575 lesson xxiv. the ophthalmometer questions 575-600 lesson xxv. theoretic optics questions 601-625 lesson xxvi. theoretic and practical questions 625-650 optometry in the prefatory remarks fo.r the lessons and examinations the only references specifically recommended were the two volumes of dr. c.h. brown's 11 0ptometrist~·. manual 11 or 11 0pticians' manual .. published at the turn of the century. otherwise it was occasionally suggested that the student consult .. standard books" on a given topic, or simply 11 0ther test books" and "cyclopedias". . 36 in spite of the abuses attributable to the later owners of the "chartered" college, it must be said that those who seriously followed through on the lessons and did indeed study brown's remarkably solid books of the day must have benefited. i daresay, for example, that there may be several practitioners today who would have considerable difficulty solving questions 234 and 235. or even "o mejor," as dr. horta inadvertently expressed himself in his own language in answer to no. 235. the lione~ topaz memorial library: lionel topaz (1875-1942) was born in russia, emigrated to england at the age of 22, and to america at the age of 28. he married in 1904, graduated from the northern illinois college of optometry in 1905, and started the optomet~~ weekly in 1910. he founded the professional press in 1919 to edit and publish several ophthalmological, optical, and optometric journals and books. upon his death in 1942 his children mae, oscar, and martin topaz made a substantial permanent endowment to the sheard foundation for education and research in vision of the ohio state university to assist in the development of.a visual science library, especially to recognize the close friendship which existed for many years between their father and charles sheard. the high regard in which lionel topaz was held by his contem­ poraries is documented by the pages of testimony from dozens of nationally prominent figures in the two issues of )he qptometric. wee~ll immediately following his death, vol. 33, nos. 25 and 26, july 30 and august 6, 1942, pp. 693-696 and 734-737. ~sigmund lubin, "o.d.": in at least four previous issues of this newsletter optometrist sigmund lubin has been mentioned as a prominent figure in the motion picture industry. a recently received flyer of the national museum of american jewish history includes a picture with the caption, "lubin's daylight studio in philadelphia was a flagship of his giant film company in 1912." also received was a press release headlined exhibition recreates lost world of filmmaker lubin which reads as follows: the early days of the motion picture industry will be the focus of a major exhibition, peddler of dreams: sigmund lubin and the creation of the motion picture industry, scheduled to open may 23 and to run through december, 1984, at the museum of american jewish history in the heart of historic philadelphia. 37 rare lubin film footage, posters, photographs, costumes and other artifacts, supplemented by the personal reminiscences of those who knew and worked with lubin, will be used to recreate the lost world of early filiiitiaking "when hollywood was in philadelphia," and to trace the career of film pioneer and movie mogul "pop" lubin. the museum is continuing to seek additional artifacts and information for this exhibition, and those with memories to share or artifacts to loan should contact deenah loeb, assistant curator, at the museum of american jewish history, independence mall east, 55 n. 5th st., philadelphia, pa 19106; (215) 923-3811. a young immigrant who came to america in 1876 to seek his fortune, lubin came to be known as "the rockefeller of the movies." at the start of his career, lubin was a skilled and highly successful optometrist who listed president grant among his clients. in 1896, he began to experiment with lenses of a different sort--with "life motion pictures" and projectors--and by 1904 had established one of the world's most extensive networks for the manufacture, distribution and exhibition of motion pictures. before world war i, the lubin studios at twentieth street and indiana avenue in philadelphia and at the betzwood estate near valley forge were among the largest, most technologically advanced in the world. thousands of films poured from these and other studios which lubin established in jacksonville, florida, phoenix, arizona, newport, rhode island and san diego and los angeles, california. among the still-remembered stars to appear in lubin films were comedian oliver hardy, marie dressler, the famed jacob adler and the notorious evelyn nesbit thaw. a tragic film vault explosion in 1914 destroyed all of lubin's films, and in the process, virtually burned the lubin studios from the pages of history. the exhibition at the museum of american jewish history is co-sponsored by the philadelphia free library's theatre collection, lubin archive, and is being developed by the museum in cooperation with lubin archivists and biographers joseph eckhardt and linda kowall. the planned honors for lubin were mentioned also in a news item of august 10, 1983, issue of variety, page 6, which included the following paragraphs: in a little known footnote to hollywood history, lubin became the man who saved the "squaw man" for cecil b. demille. after running into rain in phoenix, demille brought the production to the west coast where it became the first shot in hollywood. however, when the film was completed, demille and producers sam goldwyn and jesse lasky were shocked to see the images dancing crazily upon the screen. 38 goldwyn, then an upstart in the industry, took a reel of the film to the well-established lubin who quickly spotted the trouble and showed goldwyn how to fix it by pasting on new strips of perforations to match projector sprockets. n.s.p.b. diamond anniversary: the national society to prevent blindness dates its founding in the year 1908. it was started in new york city by louisa lee schuyler and f. park lewis, m.d .. the indiana society to prevent blindness celebrated the national organization's diamond jubilee with a gala dinner and a review of its own history as the first state affiliate. among the participating patrons were our own o.h.s. vice president j.j. abrams, o.d., and mrs. abrams. the indiana group was formed in 1950 and affiliated with the national organization as the "indiana committee of the national society for the prevention of blindness." among its founders were mrs. maude ward, mr. thomas c. hasbrook, and mrs. eugene c. pulliam. the first statewide meeting was on october 17, 1951. charter members included optometrists john davey and robert tubesing, with henry hofstetter added upon his arrival in indiana in 1952. in 1956 the committee was chartered as a chapter with the title indiana society for the prevention of blindness, later changed to indiana society to prevent blindness, its present title. · the indiana group takes significant credit for a wide variety of eye-saving projects throughout the state, including three additions to indiana state law. one is a mandatory visual test of all school children in certain grades. another is the visual test for an indiana driver's license, and a third was a requirement that eye glasses be made shatterproof. the i.s.p.b. offices are located at 1425 east 86th street, indianapolis, indiana 46240. jena, an ophthalmic optical birthplace.: by no means the earliest optometry school, but one which mcfy have had the greatest single international academic impact during optometry's emergence from handicraft status, is the optometry school founded in jena, germany (now east germany), in 1918. the city of jena itself, located on the saale river and nestled in the hills at the wooded fringe of the harz mountains, has a long optical history as the former world center for lens-making. it was, and still is, a major center for the manufacture of optical instru­ ments and glass. the first planetarium was built there, and some of 39 the greatest names in ophthalmic lens technology, abbe, zeiss, henker, and others, did their research here. the jena optical museum may be the world's most complete collection in ophthalmic optics. the long famous german student organization, burschenschaft, had its origin in jena in 1815 at the university founded there in 1588. the town still has remains of its original fortifications, an 11th century church, and a 14th century town hall, and is mentioned in 9th century records. jena was the scene of the famous victory of napoleon over prussian and saxon armies on october 14, 1806. probably the earliest sketch of the town is an engraving print in the deutschen staatsbibliothek zu berlin (east germany) which is recopied in miniature below. it is reduced from a new year's greeting card received from o.h.s. member dr. gunter ueberschaar, director of studies at the "fachschule fur augenoptik 'hermann pistor' jena" and his colleague oskar kiel, the administrative head. g~ the labeling of colors: the relative rarity of words designating colors in early and primitive languages is frequently noted. in that connection etymologist robert devereux of falls church, virginia, points out that we have at least borrowed words from the american indians to denote certain colors. the following is quoted from his article "more than just manitou" on pages 5-6 of the winter, 1984, issue of verbatim, the language quarterly, vol. 10, no. 3: "there are at least four amerind loanwords that denote color. the first is persimmon, an algonquian word, akin to cree pasiminon 'dried fruit,' and delaware pasimenon. the word is relatively well known as the name of a fruit, but it also denotes a moderate reddish-orange color that is yellower and duller than crab­ apple or flamingo, or a strong brown that is redder and deeper than average russet and duller than rust. the other three color terms are 40 tribal names that have been pressed into english service as color names: ca_tawba, a very dark to blackish red and, of textiles, a dark purplish red that is bluer and paler than dahlia purple and bluer and duller than pansy purple. mohawk, a tuscan brown. navaho, a strong to vivid orange that is redder and darker than orpiment orange and slightly redder and darker than big four yellow 11 who was captain chester knowles? in occasional reminiscing i have mentioned the fact that in about 1938 while i was an optometry student at the ohio state university a visiting lecturer who was introduced to my class as captain knowles gave a talk and 'demonstration of contact lenses. a few of us tried on a lens and were happy to remove it quickly. i can remember no more about the occasion except that we understood that captain knowles made similar presentations of the primitive state of the art in several optometry schools. recently o.h.s. member dan hummel told me that the captain's first name was chester and that he had studied under the guidance of dr. wm. feinbloom. he could not give me any further details about the man from memory though he hopes he may find something in his files. morris steinfeld, o.d., 1877-1964_: one who helped to organize the american academy of optometry and who initiated the first academy meeting was dr. morris steinfeld, a paducah, kentucky, optometrist. his picture and a few highlights of his career are published in the july 1983 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 60, no. 7, page 644, authored by o.h.s. president james p. leeds, o.d., with the assistance of steinfeld's son maurice, an optometrist too. je~ish involvement cited: o.h.s. member israel dvorine, o.d., authored a paper on 11 0ptometry 11 in the june 1983 issue of generation, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 41-47. generation is a semi-annual publication of the jewish historical society of maryland. dr. dvorine traces optometry's jewish connection back to the era of spinoza, the philosopher and lens grinder. 41 a biography entitled "joseph le conte, gentle prophet of evolution" by l.d. stephens, louisiana state university press, 1982, was reviewed by dr. jay m. enoch as a historical vignette in the december 1983 issue of the american journal of optometry ~nd physiological optics, vo 1. 60, no. 13, p. 1003. some of our readers will recall that le conte•s own 1881 book entitled "sight" was reviewed in the january 1973 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 4, no.1, pp. 67. dean enoch tells us that "each year, the graduating students of the school of optometry at the university of california, berkeley, line up on the steps of the entrance to the john and joseph le conte building on our campus for their class picture, before marching to the commencement exercise. this has been a tradition of the school, which had its origin in the attic of that building in 1923." optometrists in community leadership: much of the history of individual optometric personalities is recorded only in local newspapers, possibly because optometric practice is typically a service which by its nature tends almost exclusively to be local in its application. so, one repeatedly finds optometrists prominent in local community and civic affairs above and beyond their professional roles yet relatively unknown nationally or internationally. a recent example is an extensive write-up of d russell reed, o.d., by area editor marcia c. porter of the laporte (indiana) herald-argus, november 25, 1983, page 8, under the caption "people profile." according to the article dr. reed•s life history began with a family controversy over naming him, .which led to his given first name being a d without a period. then followed details of his early education, problems precipitated by the great depression, interim jobs, optometry school, marriage, military service, professional accomplishments, civic contributions, retirement, and current dedication. few persons of national prominence are really more noteworthy. for similar reasons, optometric history is largely recorded in local documents rather than in major archives. gullstrand accused: -in an article entitled "neue verfahren zur bestimmung des augenastigmatismus," in the october 1983 issue of deutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 26-27 & 30-31, prof. dr. josef reiner gives a brief historical review of the use of the stokes 42 variable cylinder lens and jackson's crossed cylinder lens for the subjective measurement of astigmatism. the more than a century's delay of acceptance of jackson's crossed cylinder technique in the germanic area of europe is attributed to the contrary expression of opinion by gullstrand, whose authority was so great as to make his word unchallenged. heritage displays available: the deutsche optikerzei~, postfach 104443, schloss-wolfsbrunnenweg 15, 6900 heidelberg, west germany, is offering reproductions of five copperplate and woodcut engravings of old masters hand-etched in copper or pewter, in leaded staioed glass, as printed facsimiles, or in greeting card form. the five are selected from the "historischen bildarchiv adolph kayser" for their ophthalmic history significance. the earliest is no. 107 by jost amman (1568) showing a spectaclemaker with calipers in hand and his affluent-appearing customer holding a pair of medially hinged lenses in front of his eyes. no. 62 by jan luyken (1711) shows an ophthalmologist inspecting the eye of a patient with an attendant holding the patient's head steady, an aide about to pour some fluid into a vial, and a dog underfoot. no. 67 of the same date and artist shows the spectacle peddler at the front of his shop helping an elderly scholar select a pair of glasses for reading. no. 207 by a. ostade (1743) shows the itinerant vendor with a display basket of spectacles offering his wares to a housewife at her doorway with two other members of her family looking on curiously, all portrayed in a very humble if not quite deprived setting. no. 239, undated, by j. stradamus, shows a central village market area with a spectacle seller's stall in the left foreground, a book printer's shop at the right, and a shoemaker's place immediately beyond, with village center buildings in the background and a number of shoplooking pedestrians here and there, several attracted by the spectacles. the prices are as follows. copper 23 x 29 em. mounted (aufgeblockt) .... . copper 32 x 42 em. mounted (aufgeblockt) .... . copper 24 x 30 em. framed border (im profilrahmen) pewter 23 x 29 em. mounted . . . . . . . . . . . . pewter 32 x 42 em. mounted ~ . . . . . . . . . . . pewter 24 x 30 em. framed border . . . . . . . . . leaded stained glass 23 x 29 em with linked chain. printed facsimiles, monochrome, 25 x 32 em. printed facsimiles, hand colored, 25 x 32 em. greeting cards, per hundred ........ . (extra charges for supplementary printing) 48 dm 72 dm 58 dm 52 dm 78 dm 64 dm 122.50 dm 28 dm 34 dm 120 dm the german mark (dm) at the time of this writing is bout $0.37. the pictures are illustrated in the october and november, 1983, and perhaps subsequent issues, of the deutsche optikerzeitung. 43 binocular refraction: who started it? this is the title of an article by deryck humphriss on page 712 of the november 5, 1983, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 23, no. 22. having asked the question in the title dr. humphriss then outlines what, with his limited access to archives in south africa, he believes may be a fair account of the invention of techniques to determine refractive errors monocularly during the patient's binocular fixation. perhaps technically the first, suggests humphriss, was l.a. swann's use of dynamic retinoscopy in the early 1930's. he mentions the aperture described by aldersley in the later thirties, and then turville's "infinity balance" technique published in 1946. other contributors mentioned for later years were cowen, lyons, erskine, and grolman, but without reference citations, as the article seems to have been written largely, and probably necessarily, from personal memory. in a recent letter humphriss expressed his disappointment that no one responded to his request for any added or corrective information that readers might be able to supply. this prompted me to go back to a master's thesis by my former student kathy t. lim entitled, "a comparison of the humphriss binocular technique with a similar monocular technique for the subjective determination of the spherical refractive error of the human eye," indiana university, bloomington, indiana. june 1967. in her historical introduction she quotes the following from william porterfield, a treatise on the eye, the manner and phenomena of vision, vol. 1, edinburgh, 1759, p. 421, as his description of the importance of binocular visi~n for purpose of getting valid results with his optometer: " ... the eye does frequently mistake the distance of the object seen thro• the slits; for when its distance lies betwixt the limits of distant vision, to which the eye can accommodate itself, it would never appear double did not the mind mistake its distance. and this is the reason why, when both eyes are open and directed to the object; it appears single at all distances within the limit of distant vision, by reason the eye is then accommodated to its distance;" j.h. lucas tells more: ----·-as a sequel to a previous bit of reminiscence mentioned in our last issue, page 9, ophthalmic optician lucas recalls his four year optometric stint in ceylon (now sri lanka) beginning january 1,. 1922. he had contracted to provide the optometric services for • 44 a well established optical firm in colombo with periodic services in other towns on the island. the enterprise served all of the various ethnic groups in the area. lucas•s report is in the january 21, 1984, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 44 & 46. spectacles out for bids: bonhams works of art department in knightsbridge, london, announced the auctioning of over 300 pairs of old spectacles and related optical items in their autumn bygones sale scheduled for last october 14. the collecting of spectacles is a rapidly expanding field. it was anticipated that some of the spectacles would bring as much as.fl50. more details were reported in the september 24 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 23, no. 19, p. 615. appreciated: o.h.s. member d.g. hummel, 0.0., of north royalton, ohio, writes, 11 i use these subscriptio~s as small gifts. they have been enthusiastically received. 11 he enclosed a check to cover membership dues for his friend j.e. fitzgerald, 0.0., of nearby parma, ohio. h. w hofstetter, editor 1984-15-02-001 1984-15-02-002 1984-15-02-003 1984-15-02-004 1984-15-02-005 1984-15-02-006 1984-15-02-007 1984-15-02-008 1984-15-02-009 1984-15-02-010 1984-15-02-011 1984-15-02-012 1984-15-02-013 1984-15-02-014 ul i uial ir' udmiu mar -2 1979 . ne~~l~~~er indiana university optometric historical society {243 north lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. 63141) volume 10 january 1979 r~umber 1 tumb 1 in in: j.c. tumblin, o.d., 5319 broadway, n.e., knoxville, tennessee 37918, was duly elected to membership on the executive board of the optometric historical society for the five year term 1979-1983. 11 jim 11 has been a popular servant to the profession for many years and a long time member of this society. his credentials are outstanding. it is interesting to note that although the society is now in its loth year of existence its five-member executive board, with each member elected to a five year term, has experienced a steady and wholesome turnover. only one member of the original board is still serving. by-laws amended: r i all but one returned ballot showed a favorable vote for the legacy member­ ship section. the one not marked in favor appeared to be an oversight, as it was not marked at all. one person who voted for the amendment added a qualifying 11 but without enthusiasm, 11 but gave no explanation. now, to qualify for legacy members.!!..!b_, and thereby be exempted from annual dues, you need only have your will revised, or supplemented by what lawyers call a codicil, to provide a legacy to the optometric historical society of a monetary amount of no less than $1,000. \~hen you have done this, simply inform the o.h.s. secretary-treasurer of your action. i have asked my attorney to revise my will accordingly, and, with a little luck and no procrastination on his part, i could be the first legacy member! speaking of monex: secretary-treasurer r~aria dablemont reports that as of december 7, 1978, the financial assets of the society have accumulated to $1 ,818.64. of this, $1,681.47 is in an interest-bearing savings account, $78.78 in a checking account, and $58.39 in petty cash. she also reported that the major expenses of the society are those of the printing and mailing of this newsletter, especially the par avion mailing to our many overseas members. this may well be the only optometric periodical delivered more or less simultaneously around the world. of this we should be proud, for the participation of our overseas members is a special asset in my opinion. ~ ,·. ;.. l. ' ~ .. -2the geo. g. ---ggljtsiftg£11.top picture, self-caricature of the student-artist drawing dr. w. jerome ( 11 jeri 11 ) heather and sketches of fellow students. lower left is professor ernest occhiena, 11 papa okey 11 • lower right is dr. wm. b. needles. all by george litsinger, o.d., during northern illinois college of optometry school year 1930-31. -3a maxwellian literary review: the following is a paper read by o.h.s. president henry a. knoll at the brief gathering of o.h.s. members and friends in the new england college of optometry library on saturday evening, december 9, 1978. james clerk t~axwell (1831 1879) nineteen seventy-nine is the centennial of the death of james clerk l~axwell one of the 19th century giants of physical science. his works include many contributions to the science of vision. for some unknown reason his name is missing from the histories of this field. this brief paper is my attempt to correct these omissions and i offer the suggestion that the optometric historica·l society declare 1981 the maxwellian year.* in this way i hope to encourage our members to seek out the several biographies of james clerk maxwell and his collected works and thereby discover the depth of the man who is often known only as the author of maxwell's equations. with four equations maxwell summarized, in concise mathematical form, the relations between electricity and magnetism. they constitute the starting point for the investigation of all electromagnetic phenomena. in spite of the paucity of references to the man, his name is often on our tongues. in our discussion and papers we often speak of maxwell's spot and maxwellian view optical arrangements in our experimental apparatus. i will speak here only of these two; it would take all too long to discuss his contributions to color vision, colorimetry, and stereoscopy. before discussing maxwell's spot and maxwellian view optical arrangements, i will take just a brief tangent into his work on color. had i been asked when the first color projection was exhibited i would have guessed sometime early in the present century. not so, james clerk maxwell gave a demonstration of trichromatic color reproduction at the royal institution in london on may 17, 1861! this event was celebrated by the maxwell colour centenary, a three day conference held at the imperial college of science in may of 1961. the conference was co­ sponsored by the colour group, the institute of physics, the physical society and the inter-·soci ety co 1 or co unci 1 of america. in maxwell's early work involving color vision he used a color top to explore color mixtures. later he designed and constructed a color mixing apparatus using monochromatic colors. as he viewed the spectrum colors he noticed a black band whenever his eye was directed to the blue portion of the spectrum. the band never appeared in any other part of the spectrum. he correctly ascribed the appearance of the band to the absorption characteristics of the macula pigment. maxwell also noted that haidinger's brushes are seen in connection with the spot, hence he concluded that this polarization phenomenon is also associated with the structure of the macula. *1981 will be the sesquicentennial of t-1axwell's birth. -4maxwell's spot has been the bane of colorimetrists and a boon to investigators of binocular vision. it is disturbing in color mixing experiments whenever mixtures involving the blue end of the spectrum are being explored. the resulting confusions were minimized by using a 2° field in the determinations of the trichro111atic characteristics of the so called standard observer. it is only in recent years that data are being collected for 10° color fields. i need not tell this group the usefulness of maxwell's spot in binocular color vision work. the color mixing apparatus used the sky as the light source. in order to utilize the available light most efficiently, maxwell imaged the slits of his apparatus upon the observer's pupil. this optical arrangement is widely used in microphotometry, spectrophotometry, telephotometry, and in vision experiments 1-jhere light levels are low or one wishes to eliminate the effects of pupil size changes. the optics of the retinoscope serve as one example wherein the retina of the patient's eye is focused in the observer's pupil. were these the only contributions made by ~1axwell to the science of vision, his name should stand with scheiner, bowman, gadal, brewster and others. yet his contributions go far beyond those which i have briefly described above. herewith the titles of a few of his vision papers to give you a taste of his accomplishments: "on the theory of colours in relation to colour-blindness 11 (1855), "on the unequal sensibility of the foramen centrale to light of different colours" (1856), "accounts of ex peri ements on the perception of co 1 our 11 ( 1857) , "on the theory of compound colours and the relations of the colours of the spectrum" (1860), "on the theory of three primary colours" (1861), "on the best arrangement for producing a pure pectrum on a screen" ( 1867), "the construction of stereograms of surfaces 11 (c. 1868), "on colour-vision at different points of the retina" (1870) and 11 hermann ludwig ferdinand helmholtz 11 • the last written about 1876, is a biographical sketch in recognition of helmholtz' fusion of physical and biological sciences. james clerk l·laxwell was born in edinburgh on the 13th of june 1831. he was descended from the clerks of midlothian, a well known scottish family whose history can be traced back to the 16th century. his father john adopted the surname of maxwell on succeeding to an estate which came into the clerk family through marriage with a miss maxwell. james was an only child whose parents were devoted to him, as he was to them. his mother died when he was 8 years old. fortunately his father was able to supply much of the love and devotion which was lost upon the death of ~lrs. clerk maxwell. his formal education was obtai ned at edinburgh university and cambridge university where he had the good fortune of having capable and inspiring professors. he obtained professional appointments at cambridge and at aberdeen. the crowning event of his productive life was being appointed the first cavendish professor of experimental physics. he not only taught in the cavendish laboratory, but designed it and supervised the construction and equipping of this famous scientific institution. -5in 1865 he had an attack of erysipelas from which he recovered. however, starting in 1877 his health declined and he died on november 5, 1879, at the age of 48. a measure of the esteem of his contemporaries is attested to by the appearance of a full length biography three years after his death and a two volume collection of his scientific papers published in 1890. references l. campbell, lewis and william garnett, the life of james clerk maxwell, macmillan and co., london, 1882. 2. niven, w.o., editor, the scientific papers of james clerk maxwell, cambridge university press, cambridge, 1890. some reminiscing correspondence: o.h.s. executive board member jim leeds sent me correspondence from another book accumulator, george 1221 n. lundergan ave., park ridge, illinois 60068. permission, here is one dated june 10, 1978. 11 0ear dr. leeds: some interesting gunter litsinger, 0.0., with dr. litsinger 1 s 11 i vjas more than delighted to receive your note, and amazed that you still have my 1930 mimeographed diagrams, and your huge collection of books on optics. this prompted me to take an inventory of the important books that i have on hand, and have enclosed the list. 11 the danders book could easily sell for $50.00, though i have marked in it many notations; i studied it many many times, until finally it resulted in hero worship. from about ll ,141 record cards, i constructed my own amplitude of accommodation table, and it corresponded quite closely to donders 1 , and he used only about 200 to 280 cases. 11 1 was age 21 in 1930, and we were told the toughest state board question was 1trace the blood from the heart to the eye, and back again 1 (i don 1 t think the question was ever asked). instruction on this was very poor in the class­ room, so i saw the need for a page by page diagram to make it clear. the book contained 50 pages, and was titled, 10cular anatomy 1 or 1 anatomical diagram of the human eye 1 • 11 1 didn 1 t know how to type (and still haven 1 t) but went out and paid $40.00 for a used underwood (and the same one i am using now). i had never cut a mimeograph stencil, and didn 1 t know there was 1 correction fluid 1 available, if i made a typing error. 11 100 were sold at n.i.c., on drexel blvd., chicago, for $1.50 each. -611 later on, at monroe college, dr. gilbert hicks (a dear friend) urged me to print about 400 more, for the students there. i imagine that is where you obtained it. 11 in 1929 at n.i.c. i tried another venture. those were the depression days, and i needed money. went to swift & co. with a one pint lard can, and $2.75 in my pocket to buy pig eyes. they were five cents each, and i plan ned to sell them to the other students for 50¢ each. • how many do you want, • he as ked. • oh, just fill up the lard can.• i figured the can couldn•t hold more than fifty eyes, and i had the $2.50 to cover it. i had to wait an hour. •o.k. here•s your lard bucket, there are 300 eyes in it!• wow!! $15.00! they were ready to shoot me on the spot. he started to count out 50 eyes, stopped on the fourth, turned to me and said, •give me your $2.50, take these 300 eyes, and get the hell out of here! • 11 1 was in my glory. one for every student to dissect at n.i.c. i sold three, and couldn•t even give the rest away. they wouldn•t touch the slimy things. 11 1 passed the state boards of illinois, ohio, and wisconsin, but never left illinois. vowed i would move as far away from chicago as possible, but spent most of my 48 years in it. august 1977, i moved my office into park ridge, illinois, and still busy as ever. i was hoping to have a bit of peace and quiet, because i am now 68. the blue book tells me you are 60, so you know what i mean. 11 again, nice to hear from you. 11 for those of you unfamiliar with american abbreviations let me explain that n.i.c. refers to the northern illinois college of optometry, and r~onroe college to monroe college of optometry, both of which were located in chicago. swift & co. was an abattoir or slaughterhouse. dr. litsinger•s inventory of books on 11 the human eye 11 includes well over 40 volumes, two pre-1900, ten from the first decade, seven from the next, six from the next, etc. prompted .q.t leeds: like anyone else who has been around long enough to get one•s name on a variety of mailing lists and who is reasonably faithful about answering his mail i regularly receive my pound or kilogram of mail each day. most of it is beautifully typed, attractively printed, or gorgeously assembled into illustrated brochures with variegated type size ostensibly to lure one into perusing it for messages or at least to scan it for gems of wisdom or nuggets of information, which, though surely more negotiable in ordinary textbooks and encyclopedias, temptingly seem analogous to freely distributed after-dinner mints. -7fascinatingly, however, in the daily postal delivery there is often an ordinary envelope addressed in longhand, sometimes in pencil, or with slightly blotched ink. it may even be slightly mangled in the process of hand-sealing with tongue-licking of the flaps. perhaps it was written by a seventh grader seeking help for his or her class project. whatever, it is the most exciting letter in the day's mail! if i don't open it first, it is only because i have in mind getting the other postal literature out of the way so i can enjoy this one leisurely. now it so happens that a few ohs members are personally uninhibited when it comes to writing a letter. they may whip out a very brief note to me during a ten minute break, or even a more deliberate commentary in the course of a relaxed evening, just for relaxation. with no special attention to literary elegance or the possibility of a dangling participle or split infinitive, they merely want to share spur-of-the-moment thoughts. then, to their surprise, they often find their spontaneous gems reproduced in this newsletter. the surprise is that i presume others may be interested. for example, dr. jim leeds, one of our most regular correspondents scribbled off a memo to tell me he recently picked up several books published in the 1950's as follows: la myopie hereditaire des medicis. les causes de l'epidemie de trachome en belgiques au xixeme siecle. la oftalmogia en tiempo do los roman~s. breve conspecto do la oftalmologia arabe. ibn al-haitham (alhazen). he also found two books by dr. max meyerhof, as follows: las operaciones de catarata de'ammar ibn ali al-mausili, 1937, in four languages ... spanish, english, french, and german. the book of the ten treatises on the eye ascribed to hunain ibn is­ haq (809-877 a.d.), 1928, cairo, in arabic and english. frankly i found the list fascinating. don't you? no pressure to buy them, to understand them, or to remember them. an unparalleled satisfaction for some may even come merely from one's freedom to ignore them. blindiana !1istor.z_: niza uslan, an attendee at our december 9 get-together, forwarded to me a copy of an article by kenneth a. stuckey, research librarian at the perkins school for the blind, watertown, massachusetts 02172, entitled samuel p. hayes research library: formerly the blindiana library. it appeared on pages 17-18 of the spring, 1977, issue of dikta, vol. 2, no. 1, a publication of the southern conference of librarians for the blind and physically handicapped. the entire article follows: -8the library was founded in the 188o•s by the second director of perk.ins school for the blind, michael.anagnos. during a visit to vienna, anagnos saw dr. mell 1 s outstanding library devoted to material to the blind. on his return to america, anagnos began his own collection of 11 blindiana ... in the coming years a number of books were obtained from the great collection in vienna. this proved to be very fortunate because mell •s collection was almost completely destroyed by the nazis during wwii leaving only a few copies of these precious books, most of them in the perkins col1 ection. some of the books in the perkins collection date back as far as the 15th and 16th century. from its small beginnings the library increased in size, providing many with the one of the few sources of information on blindness during the 19th century. with the development of training programs for teachers of the blind in the 192o•s, there was a need for even more complete sources of material. in 1966 the collection moved to a building which was designed to both preserve and display its treasures. also, with greater numbers in the teacher training programs provided by perkins, there was a need for more adequate studying accommodation for both students and the increasing number of researchers who use its resources. the library collects any print material about the non-medical aspects of blindness. (it does have a medical section on ophthal­ mology which is satisfactory for most educators but not extensive enough for doctors.) it is divided into three main sections: material about blindness, material about deaf-blindness, and the school archives. in addition, there is a museum on the history of the blind and deaf-blind and a historic collection of embossed books for the blind including the first book embossed for the blind by valentin hauy (paris, 1786) and the first book embossed in english (paris, 1818). maps for the blind and even a collection of postage stamps and letter seals have found a place in the library. over the years the library has built up a collection of over 18,000 books, serials in the field, magazine articles, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, fiction books with blind and deaf-blind charac­ ters, books written by blind and deaf blind authors, and photographs and pictures depicting the blind. every two months a list of new additions to the collection is compiled and distributed to the perkins staff. an annual accessions list is published with all items listed and cross-referenced under subjects. this accessions list can be obtained at a cost of $2.50 from the library, perkins school for the blind, watertown, massachusetts, 02172. at this time, a deaf-blind bibliography is being updated which will cover the years 1910-1977. the library is open, on a reference basis, to anyone interested in the field of blindness, monday through friday 8:30-5:00. it loans out material to student•s attending boston college•s special -9education programs, perkins staff, and to libraries on inter-library loan. over the years a number of authors have used the collection for books on the education of the blind and deaf~blind. the most notable addition to the library in recent years has been the collection of material about helen keller and her household (1920-1969) collected by her close friend and associate, nella brady henney. it is an old library. as the same time its aim is to be as updated as tomorrow. further conments of historical interest by miss isabella stevenson diamond and others on the occasion of the 1966 dedication ceremony appear on pages 3-17 of the december 1966 issue of the lantern, vol. 36, no. 2, published by perkins school for the blind. never to be outdone, or. james leeds did some browsing in cambridge to discover, and purchase, a 65 page 11 x 15 em booklet by edward e. allen entitled 11 the perkins institution for the blind, 11 privately printed at \~ater­ town, massachusetts, in 1924. history of~ optometry library building: the december 9, 1978, gathering of o.h.s. members and friends in the the beautiful and stately library of the new england college of optometry at 420 beacon street in boston, massachusetts, prompted many questions about the building itself. thereupon ms. eleanor warner, librarian, distributed copies of a brief history and description of the building which she had prepared for many an inquiring patron. here it is: the building was constructed in 1894 for miss emily sears, who lived here with her two unmarried brothers. one of the brothers, dr. henry sears, married rather late in life and continued to live here until the birth of his first child, then moved to 86 beacon street. this child, also named emily, is nm'l mrs. henry cabot lodge. coincidentally, 1894 is the year of the founding of the klein school of optics, which even­ tually became the new england college of optometry. the house was subsequently owned by mr. wellington, a merchant; the t~olbach family (related to mr. wellington); the vedanta society, which maintained a residence and worship center; mr. andrew maclachlin, who converted it to nine apartments; the chandler school for women; and the ~lassachusetts college of optometry, now the new england college of optometry. two of the wolbach sons still live in the boston area: william wellington wolbach, president and director of the boston company; and the astronomer for whom the john g. wolbach library of the harvard college observatory is named. -10 built on filled land near the center of what had once been a shallow bay (the back bay) and after boston's great fire, it is the first "fireproof" house in boston. the supporting beams are steel, the interior walls are masonry, and fire brick or steel is laid between floors and ceilings. (you may note, however, that the main staircase and the old elevator shaft both provide excellent avenues for the quick spread of fire.) each room has a fireplace, those on the first floor being framed with italian marble. before storrow drive was built (1951), the land in back extended down to the charles river. the small garden in front was planted by the r•1aclachlans and includes very fragrant, old-fashioned roses and a magnolia tree originally brought from china about 1800 and then transplanted here from the family home. the large anchor fixed to the front of the building was also added by the maclachlans. after anchoring their cabin cruiser over great fawn shoal off winthrop, mr. t~aclachlin and his brother were unable to raise anchor. they dragged to their mooring in hull, where the harbor master found that they had hooked through the ring of the old coaster anchor. entry because of the large scale of the building, the great size of the doors is not immediately obvious. they are five feet wide and nine feet high. the lace framing the inner door is hand made. the wrought iron gates between the security turnstiles were found in the coal bin and were once the back garden gates. they have been installed here in reverse: hinged sides in the center. the marble lined lavatory under the main staircase still has the origi­ nal sink with its unusual swing faucets. main floor the gold wall canvas in the oak panelled reception area was hand painted, quite possibly after the canvas was hung, as the pattern continues over the corner beads, while the canvas does not. the ceilings on this level are thirteen feet high. the carved marble above the fireplace in the front drawing room continues the pattern of cherubim decorating the exterior door frame and the reception area. the leaded casement windows are glazed with boston's famous lavender glass. the action of the sun on impurities in the glass caused it to change color. the dining room, now the library's audiovisual room, is panelled with rosewood. its wall covering above is hand tooled leather. our reference room was the family library. the wall covering above the shelves is also leather, but was probably machine embossed. traces of the original coloring may be seen at the left of the fireplace. as in the dining room, the huge windows, with built-in storm windows, are glazed with plate glass. -11the small room at the back of the audiovisual room was the butler's pantry and had a dumb waiter to the kitchen below. there was a loft in the back part of this room, with a wrought iron spiral staircase providing access. the door leading to the fire exit was cut through after the building ceased to be a private residence. basement excepting the boiler room (not open to the public), the lower level has been rearranged several times. now housing the library's bookstacks, it once contained the kitchen, laundry, and servant's commons. a gap in the ceiling, where a wall was removed, reveals the fire brick laid between the floors. second floor the riverside rooms were a suite with its own bathroom and dressing room, where there are still clothes hangers topping long poles, needed to hang clothes from rods near the eleven foot ceiling. french doors lead to a tilted deck over the butler's pantry. the rooms overlooking beacon street were separate bedrooms. a doorway was opened between them when the building was converted to apartment use. third floor there were tvjo bedrooms on the beacon street side (now study rooms) and a three-room suite on the river side (now the residence of a college employee). roof (not open to the public) in addition to the skylights, there is a 13' x 15' penthouse, wood panelled below a continuous strip of casement windows around three sides. the doors and a built-in cupboard are in the fourth side. while its original use is not known, one can envision summer dinners here, with the windows open to catch the breeze off the river, and a magnificent view of cambridge and boston. the wolbach boys made it theirs during summer vacations from boarding school. mighty, indeed! in reference to the wording of the memorial plaque to \jilliam bowman in st. james church, picadilly, london, (page 60 of the october issue) dan g. hummel writes, "if memory serves me right, having been raised among the 'leather-kneed r·1ethodists', those ·~1ighty voices three' were father, son, and holy ghost". then, when my secretary shari typed the preceding paragraph she asked her catho 1 i c-reared office associ ate pat what she thought the 11 f·1i ghty voices three .. were. she gave the same answer! finally, jerry abrams sent me a brief memo with the same advice. -12history of color theory: "it may be surprising, on the assumption that primitive man and modern man have similar colour vision, that there seems to be no appreciation of individual difference in the sensation of colour or of the concept of colour defect in ancient writings which describe colour vision". so stated stephen r. cobb of the department of psychology of the university of glasgow in an article entitled as i see colour in the octobei 14, 1978, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 18, no. 20, pp. 747-748, 751-753, 754, 756, and 761-763. (the inter­ mittency of pages is due to advertisements.) beginning with "the primitive life of paleolithic man ... 1', he then made a sophisticated and fascinating analysis of the history of our knowledge of color perception and of the philosophical relationship of color perception to other sensory phenomena. at least 65 references are listed. holmes stereoscopes available: a hand-crafted stereoscope said to be a handsome reproduction of the far.1ous instrument, "invented in 1859 by oliver 1 ~endell holmes", is advertised in a recent issue of the rotarian by stereo classics studios, 145 algonquin parkway, whippany, new jersey 07981. offered also are 62 3-d pictures taken between 1859 and 1920 and a 20-page illustrated booklet entitled "the story of the stereoscope". optical parlor books: editor john n. howard of applied optics, in his october 15, 1978 issue, vol. 17, no. 20, page a240, calls attention to three paper­ back reprints of early publications of visual or optical fascination, all presently offered by dover, as follows: the t1agic moving picture 300k by bliss, sands, and co. (dover, 32 pp., $1.75). first published in london in 1898, this book contains eighteen pictures of victorian scenes, plus a ruled acetate moir~ screen. when this screen is moved over the pictures they come to life: smoke pours from the stacks of the side-wheeler river boat, fires burn, wheels turn, volcanoes erupt. hand shadows by henry bursill (dover, 33 pp., $1 .25) is a republication of an 1858 victorian book: a picture book illustrating how to cast hand shadows of a rabbit, camel, goose, dog, and many other remarkable resemblances. topsys afw turvys by peter f~ewe 11 (dover, 72 pp., $2). each drawing in this 1893 book is actually two. turn to any page; the drav.jing you \vill see wil.l have a caption under it. then, turn the book upside down and another picture emerges from the page, and the tale-in-verse is completed by a new caption. -13early diopters magnified: the following is a verbatim copy of the description of a conversation piece illustrated in the 1978 happy holiday catalog of the adam york unique products company of hanover, pennsylvania: (c) the sun, the moon, the stars ... see them all just as galileo did in 1612 when he developed the original version of our florentine telescope. in a mere 16-inch instrument the great italian astronomer was able to produce a magnification of 33 diopters ~ more than enough to discover the planet jupiter, and to prove the copernican theory that the earth revolves around the sun and not, as had been believed, vice versa. marvelously detailed reproduction is cast of solid bronze, stands a foot-and-a-half high on antiqued wood base, and in every way permits you to duplicate the galilean achievement. (the telescope itself is easily dismounted from the base for outdoor star­ gazing.) converts a den, library or office into a more interesting 11 universe 11 • specifically prepared historical data pamphlet included. florentine telescope (#uh92ll63), $275.00. on a clear night i can see jupiter with two diopters! nspb beginnings: a brief note in the summer 1978 issue of prevent blindness news, vol. 4, no. 2, page l, explains that the origin of the national society for the prevention of blindness (nspb) was a small committee formed seven decades ago by louisa lee schuyler 11 to spread the knowledge that i nsti 11 i ng prophylactic drops in the eyes of the newborn is an almost certain way to prevent blindness from ophthalmia neonatorum.~~ schmidt centenary: march 30 of this year wi 11 be the l ooth birthday anniversary of the optician bernard valdemar schmidt whose name is familiar to every optical instrument designer. born on the tiny island of naissaar, also called nargen, in the gulf of finland about 17 kilometers off the north coast of estonia, schmidt attempted as a boy to make a concave mirror by grinding together the lower parts of bottles with sea-sand from the island beaches. while still in his early youth he lost his right arm in an accident. after studying engineering in sweden and germany, in about 1900, he began to make telescope mirrors of outstanding quality for amateur astronomers, and later he made a number of ingenious lenses, mountings, and drives for major astronomical installations. his crowning achievement was the invention and construction of 11 ein lichtstarkes komafreies spiegelsystem11 (a light-intense coma-free mirror system) now known as the schmidt camera. his descriptive paper, by the same above-quoted title, consisted of less than two pages, pages 25-26, in the january 17, 1931, issue of centralzeitung fur optik und mechanik, vol. 52, no. 2, with no figures, illustrations, or equations, apparently his only published article. -14especially fascinating are a few excerpts from volume xii of the dictionary of scientific biography, 1975, page 186: · 11 schmidt always was an odd man, who neither married nor was willing to lead a normal life. he once said that he got his best ideas on awaking slowly after some days of complete intoxication. drink was certainly the cause of his early death. 11 "schmidt ... did all of his work alone and unaided. he polished his mirrors by hand, using glass instead of metal disks." "schmidt spent the last year of his life in a mental hospital and died there. 11 (in hamburg, germany, december 1, 1935). where are our historical collections? in a recent, september 1978, issue of american society for microbiology, vol. 44, no. 9, pages 458-463, two very competent librarian authors, antonio r. raimo and helen j.g. mayo, gave a detailed account of 19 libraries in the baltimore-washington area with extraordinarily fine history of medicine and science collec­ tions. the list included such major resources as the national library of f~edicine, the national agricultural library, walter reed army medical center, national ~1useum of natural history, and the pan american health organization. the account provided addresses, telephone numbers, hours, names of contact persons, information on borrowing and use privileges, and identification of special collections. obviously a similar directory could be prepared of special optical, visual, optometric, and ophthalmic collections of archival and historical significance stashed away in many an institution and repository as well as in privately owned settings. i recall on one occasion receiving the interlibrary loan of a rare optometric publication from a lighthouse library, and on another occasion a similarly rare volume from a glass company museum. it seems probable that the personal library collections of some of our early predecessors were willed or otherwise assigned to the libraries of respective alma maters which otherwise may have little contact with the ophthalmic community. in fact, most such collections are unlikely to be identified as special or name collections. their existence as collections might only be detected by browsing through the library stacks in call-number areas that pertain to vision and discovering several books with ex libris identification of prior owners. armed with the name of a prior owner one may then go to the office of chief librarian and, with a little archival luck, ascertain the complete list of items acquired from the prior owner or his estate. if such discoveries are reported to the editor of this newsletter and duly published in subsequent issues another purpose is served, that of a cumulative registry of such collections. -15incandescent centennial, 1979: a year-long "centennial of light," an international celebration to commemorate the looth anniversary of thomas edison's invention of the incan­ descent lamp on october 21, 1879, was announced by ~jalker l. cisler, chairman and chief executive officer of the thomas alva edison foundation, headquartered in detroit, michigan. the inventor's first laboratory was removed board-by-board, nail-by-nail, and even the earth from the building's front yard, from its original site in menlo park in new jersey to greenfield village in dearborn, michigan. inquiries or requests for additional information may be addressed to the international committee for the centennial of light, thomas alva edison foundation, p.o. box 1310, greenwich, connecticut 06830. the toll-free telephone number is 800-243-8561. the original incandescent lamp, incidentally, does not exist. edison broke the bulb so that he could study its burned out filament. industrial growth~ optics: the following tidbits from the july-august, 1978 issue of the technical information center bimmonthly bulletin (soflens technical library) vol. 5, no. 4, pg. 3, illustrate in very personalized terms the development of one familiar component of the optical industry during the last century and a half. in 1835 john j. bausch opened a store in the balcony of the reynolds arcade to sell spectacles, thermometers, field glasses, telescopes, magnifiers, opera glasses, .microscopes and horn glasses. the rent for office space was $1.53 per week. in 1882 edward bausch, son of john j. bausch, was earning $1,400 per year. in 1866, bausch & lomb, located in a small room on water and andrews streets, employed 28 workers. in 1873 when the company moved to st. paul street, there were 71 employees. that was followed by a growth of 1,000 employees by 1900. forty years later, during world war ii, employment reached upwards of 11,000. the cited addresses are all in rochester, new york. 18th century croatian ophthalmics: "ophthalmological themes in baroque-iconography in northwest croatia" is the translated title of an illustrated article by v. dorn in the september, 1978 issue of klinische monatsblatter fur augenheilkunde, vol. 173, no. 3, pp. 427-435. illustrations include votive models of the eye in wax, silverplate engravings of frontal views of the eyes and eyebrows, and of spectacles, an oak woodcut of a blacksmith at the forge showing him wearing spectacles with temples, frescoes of st. lucia and st. vitus with eyeballs in hand, and of the healing of the blind man of jericho, and various biblical miracle scenes involving blindness or vision. included also are 24 supporting literature citations. from these the author has made a very sophisticated interpretation of the prevailing and popular ophthalmic knowledge in the area in the 17th to 19th centuries. the church or museum location of each example is provided. -16barnacles in 1628: --what was england like at the time king charles i granted a charter to the spectacle makers company of london? can you hear a couple of loud-voiced apprentices of master optician david ramsay hawking ready made .spectacles with such tantalizing cries as, 11 hhat d•ye lack your reverence ... the greek and hebrew will have harmed your reverence•s eyes---buy a pair of david ramsay•s barnacles. the king, god bless him, never reads without them! 11 ? such conversation was taken from walter scott•s fortunes of ~in which he portrayed a faithful picture of city life at that time. 11 barnacles, 11 incidentally was contemporary english dialect for 11 spectacles 11 • this and numerous other illustrations of the early 17th century state of the ophthalmic optical arts are privided in an article entitled 11 0ptics in merrie england .. by f.r. woodcock in the september 1978 issue of the south african optometrist, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 136, 138, 140, and 142. possibly~ first? the following appeared in the 11 administrative professional .. section of the classified advertisements in the november 1 issue of the bloomington, indiana, herald-telephone: wanted optometric assistant. full or part time. send resumeto box 2146, c/o the herald-telephone. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1979-10-01-001 1979-10-01-002 1979-10-01-003 1979-10-01-004 1979-10-01-005 1979-10-01-006 1979-10-01-007 1979-10-01-008 1979-10-01-009 1979-10-01-010 1979-10-01-011 1979-10-01-012 1979-10-01-013 1979-10-01-014 1979-10-01-015 1979-10-01-016 (243 ~orth volume 9 newsletter of the . jpptometric histor~cal so~iety. . l1ndbergh boulevard, sa1nt lou1s, m1ssour1, october 1978 election again: c. i u.s.a. 63141) number 4 three fine candidates have been duly nominated, each by three or more o.h.s. members, for membership on the executive board for a five year term to begin january 1, 1979. all three have made very significant contributions to optometry•s history. i could write glowing paragraphs about each but i shall refrain lest in doing so i inadvertently favor one over another. also on the ballot is a proposition to create a new category of membership, that of legacy membership. this proposal was briefly introduced and discussed at the o.h.s. meeting in birmingham, alabama, last december. subsequently it was submitted to the executive board for review and unanimously endorsed. in accordance with the provisions of the by-laws it will become effective if and when the majority of responding o.h.s. members vote in favor of it. o.h.s. gathering planned: on september 14 o.h.s. president hank knoll wrote: 11 1 have written to dr. vjilliam baldwin of the new england college of optometry to ask his cooperation in setting up a meeting of our society during the december academy meetings in boston. he graciously put me in touch with his senior librarian, eleanor warner, and we are in· the process of selecting a date and time for our meeting. the college library has a beautiful reading room which will be ideal for the meeting. 11 i welcome ideas for things to discuss at the meeting. i hope to be able to prepare a short paper on the life and contributions to visual science of james clerk maxwell. 1979 is the centennial of the death of this great scientist ... then, just as this issue was in its final draft dr. knoll called to report that the date will be saturday december 9, 1978, from 7:30 to 8:30p.m. in the library of the new england college of optometry, 424 beacon street, boston, massachusetts. those of us attending the meetings of the american academy of optometry will surely b~ in the same building just prior to that hour as the college is holding an open house from 6:00 to 8:00p.m. the same evening. do not forget: december~' 7:30 8:30 p.m. nonmembers are welcome, too. optometry ubrary nov 14 1978 . uidiana utllversh~v -54davidson is a member too: ~.;.........;~---i do not know whose fault it was, but lest it be mine i shall make no attempt to trace the error of omission. in fact, mr. davidson was not concerned by the omission but only by the possibility that his dues had not been paid! they were paid up all along. so here is his address: d.c. davidson northall cottage east chiltington nr. lewes, e. sussex bn7 3qs, england another history committee at work: harvey l. hougen, o.d., 222 court park, rhinelander, wisconsin 54501 wrote me as follows last july: something over a year ago you wrote me requesting a copy of the history of optometry in wisconsin. i am still working at the project of bringing it up to date and rewriting the old history which was written in about 1950. our state office sent you a copy of the old history which told about fifty years up to 1950. since you have been doing much work on optometric history, it would be a great help to me if i could borrow or buy a copy or two of what you consider a good and well written history or histories of optometry in other states. i have a great deal of material and have much written but would like to see how others may have done their histories. can you--or may i ask you to help in this respect? our history committee consists of drs. dan fast and a.n. abbott, and dr. newton lenz was a member until he passed away early last january. they asked me to help and finally tossed the job into my lap, feeling that, having been editor of the state optometric magazine for several years, and before becoming an optometrist, i was a high school teacher and principal for fifteen years, i should be able to do the job. we•ll , i want to do it right and can use some he 1 p. i am sure that you have been acquainted with my history committee. as all three have been active in aoa activities, especially state board and international board of boards. anything you can do to help me, dr. hofstetter, will be greatly appreciated. any material you care to send my will be returned whenever you want it or no later than the first of december 1978. -55ieri 34 years o1 d: the illuminating engineering research institute (ieri) is an independant, non-profit, science-oriented organization which, since 1944, has conducted fundamental studies of light and its relationship to seeing under a trust agreement with the illuminating engineering society (ies). the trust agreement delegates to the ieri the tasks of conducting research and of stimulating research by others 11 in illumination and related fields by qualified educational institutions, testing laboratories and other competent organizations. 11 the agreement further directs that such scientific research 11 shall be in furtherance of the public welfare and the good of mankind. 11 ·the ieri is administered by a ten-member board of trustees which makes institute policy through interpretation of the trust agreement, functions as the organization•s chief executive body 11 approving or disapproving all research projects, 11 and administers institute funds. members of the board of trustees are leaders in the professions, industry, research centers, and universities. they include professors, health profes­ sionals, physical scientists, architects, engineers, and businessmen. advising the board of trustees on technical subjects, on the progress of authorized work, and on scientific policy is the research executive committee, which also administers the program sanctioned by the board. programs deal essentially with the science rather than the application of lighting. the research executive committee, in turn, appoints technical advisory subcommittees composed of researchers and engineers in many specialty fields who indicate areas worthy of research and, with their technical expertise, assist in the supervision of research and in the consultative activities of the institute. since its founding the ieri has supported research at 15 universities, 12 in the u.s.a., two in canada, and one in england. the address is 345 east 47th street, new york, n.y. 10017. in charge of its administrative direction is the very well known illumination expert mr. c.l. crouch. collectors note: mr. norman wilcox, 156 yarmouth road, rochester, new york 14610 sent me a note dated july 31 saying that he would sell all of the following items as a group for $14.00, 11 all in very good condition 11 : shur-on eyeglasses post card, probably 1920 1 s or 1930 1 s. 11 styles and innovations in eyeglasses, 11 a 24 page booklet published by e. kirstein & sons co., rochester, n.y., not dated, probably from 1915-1935. folded advertising post card by e. kirstein. 11 eyeology, 11 a 20 page booklet by e. kirstein, not dated, probably from 1915-1935. interested collectors should write directly to mr. wilcox. -56early cartoons provide hi story too: illustrated below is the second-oldest 11 0ptometric 11 cartoon in my collection. ~--------------~--~~~~~==~~====~~~~-fig. 99: grandma. stifling a yawn with her reading glass. american cartoon by r. b. fuller, 1918 i started to accumulate cartoons in the early '40's, so those predating 1940 are very few. in the absence of xerography, and because of my ethical reluctance to remove cartoons from library and reception room periodicals, the collection process in my earlier years was quite constrained. if you come across early cartoons related to optometry, optics, or vision, i waul d appreciate a 1 oan, a xerographic copy, or even a reference citation so i can locate it in a library. pictures ga 1 ore! 11 the optometric extension program, a pictorial review of the first 50 years 11 is authored by martha s. stem in the june, 1978 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 607-612. the faces of well over 100 persons are identifiable, that is, if you know or knew them personally. they are dated in the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's. also illustrated is the front page of the first issue of the optometric extension program news which appeared in september, 1936. the oep, as the program is familiarly known, began as an activity within the oklahoma optometric association in the 1920's. -57john f. davey, o.d. (19381954): the late john davey is identified by many indiana optometrists as the "founding father" of the optometry school at indiana university. in the years that i knew him he was simply and indisputably "mr. indiana optometry." though relatively unknown outside of the hoosier state (indiana) he was the almost unanimously recognized architect of everything legislative, educational, organizational, and professional in indiana optometry for almost two decades. recently ohs member jerry abrams sent me an old eyeglasses case on the outside of which is inscribed "hugh j. davey, optometrist," and jerry•s excited comment was, "i believe.he was john•s dad!?" indeed, hugh was john•s dad, and he graduated from the old northern illinois college of optometry in 1906. john graduated from the same school in 1919, but he was not listed in the blue book of optometrists until the 1924 issue, at which time they practiced at 10 n. pennsylvania avenue, indianapolis, as "h.j. davey and son." prior to that, father hugh alone was listed at 25 n. illinois street, the address shown on the old spectacle case. sometime between 1926 and 1928 their address became 303 kresge bldg., but the 1930 listing shows them separated. the andrews optometric pedigree: in the little city of st. marys in the somewhat rural area of ontario, canada, approximately 180 kilometers straight west of niagara falls, is "the tower clock" and the name "andrews jeweller" atop a historic building at 135-137 queen street. identified with this functional monument are four generations of optometric heritage in the andrews family. the following are some excerpts from an article in the june 28, 1978, issue of the st. marys journa 1 argus, headlined "in st. marys si nee 1857, andrews family had vision." in 1857, at the age of 13, wm. andrews arrived in st. marys with his father henry, a stone mason who had come from torquay, england, two years earlier to find work in canada. william was educated under dr. j.a. mclennan and during the summer months worked with his father on many of the stonetown buildings and bridges. being of slight build he found the work heavy, and in 1864 he began his business career, apprenticing with charles vanguntin, a swiss watch maker and jeweller, on water street, south. in 1869 he bought this business, relocating in a frame building on the south side of queen street where dotzenroth•s store now stands. fifteen years later, in march 1884, construction was begun on the new store ..• opening day was saturday, november 22, 1884. the clock is a seth thomas no. 15 hour strike tower movement, with a 500 lb. bell, warranted at the time to be accurate for a period of five years if properly cared for. the 48 inch diameter glass dial, of best french plate, ground on both sides is 3/8 inch thick with painted numerals. the jewelry store on the street level has solid walnut show-cases, mirrors and tile floor which were imported from england. the burglar proof steel vault was supplied by goldie mcculloch co. of galt. -58although wm. andrews was primarily known as an importer of fine clocks and watches and a jeweller of repute, he was also a purveyor of spectacles and had a wide knowledge of optical lenses. in the late nineteenth century glasses were dispensed by the method of trial and error, but when his son wil 1 i am e. andrews was a young man the profession of optometry was evolving. william· e. andrews joined his father in the jewelry business at the age of 17 years and received his optometric training at the canadian ophthalmic college, graduating october 27, 1902. upon legislation of the first optometry act of ontario in 1919 he obtained his license and continued to practice in the rear half of the store until september 1945 when his elder son w. ross andrews returned to live in st. marys, and remodelled the upstairs office to suit the needs of his practice. ross had trained at the college of optometry of ontario in toronto graduating in 1937 as a registered optometrist. he subsequently earned his doctor of optometry degree following two years of post graduate study in 1958. another third generation member of the family, alan e. andrews, o.d., is an optometrist in cambridge, having graduated in 1942 from the college of optometry. since may 1977, the fourth generation of this family of vision, represented by dr. w. bruce andrews, elder son of ross, has been an associate in st. t1arys. bruce graduated from the university of waterloo after five years of study there in 1977. his younger brother, james r. is a georgian college graduate manufacturing optician, and will receive his ophthalmic dispenser•s certificate from ryerson p.t. institute in june 1978. he is presently working and living in toronto. the school of optometry moved from toronto to a splendid new building on the campus of university of waterloo ih 1967 and dr. w. ross andrews has been on the staff of clinical supervisors since its opening. bruce also began his teaching career in the same capacity in 1977. from the mid lboo•s to the present day the andrews building and family generations have provided complete vision care to the people of st. marys district and have seen the growth of both the town and the profession of optometry from their early beginnings. the above article was sent to me by ohs member e.j. fisher with the trans­ mittal comment, 11 another small item of some possible historical interest. i 1 m glad there is a central co-ordinator for such items ... from mrs. bausch•s corset: ---in his toast to the ladies and gentlement in attendance at the banquet of the 2nd annual convention of the american association of opticians, (now the american optometric association} in rochester, new york, august 15-17, 1899, mr. j.j. bausch reminisced considerably over his approximately 50 years of experience in the optical business. he described early years of difficulty finding steady work as an optician, his fruitless attempts -59to make a go of it in a 11wood-turning 11 shop for four years in buffalo, his return to rochester at age 22 where his privately-started official business floundered for several years, selling as few as two or three pair of glasses a week. then one day, seeing a piece of rubber from mrs. bausch•s corset, he realized that he could make an eyeglass frame out of it, which he did. soon he was making rubber eyeglass frames for the trade with rapid success. the later optical demands created by the war, and financial assistance from henry lomb, who soon became his partner, resulted in the continuing growth and expansion into the bausch and lomb company. the complete transcript of the toast may be found on pages 577-57.8 of the september 1899 issue of the optical journal, vol. 62, no. 7. the goethe reaction: that johann wolfgang von goethe was allergic to spectacle wearers was well described by his friend john peter eckermann in conversations with goethe, 1836, and further documented by entries in goethe•s diary on march 29, 1827, and june 22, 1831. according to eckermann, goethe said on various occasions, 11 lt may be a mere whim of mine, but i cannot overcome it. whenever a stranger steps up to me with spectacles on his nose, a discordant feeling comes over me, which i cannot master. it annoys me so much, that on the very threshold it takes away a great part of my benevolence, and so spoils my thoughts, that an unconstrained natural development of my own nature is altogether impossible. 11 · the fo 11 owing is one of the supporting comments taken from goethe • s diary, 11 dr. rose came to see me ... but because of his damned spectacles i was short with him, yet polite enough ... the above excerpts, called to my attention by ohs president henry knoll, are from a section entitled goethe 1 s dislike of spectacles on pages 44-46 of f-1r. c.s. flick•s book, a gross of green spectacles, published in 1951 by hatton press, london. olde tyme london opticians what appears to be the first of a continuing series is an article entitled, 11 some olde tyme london opticians and their achievements 111 by o.h.s. member colin b. fryer in the may 12, 1978 issue of jhe optician, no. 4535, vol. 175, pp. 35-38 and 40. mentioned with their accomplishments and their personality traits are richard reive or reeves (fl 1641-79) whose workmanship was praised by samuel pepys, john marshall (c 1663-1725) who was in business at the 11 sign of the gun 11 (changed about 1690 to 11 the archimides and two pairs of golden spectacles 11 }, john yarwell (c 1648-1712) who was master of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, in 1684, 1685, and 1693, edmund culpepper (fl 1686-1738), benjamin martin (1704-82}, edward scarlett (c 16771743}, optician to george ii, who in about 1728 brought out the first spectacles with side pieces, james ayscough (1719-62}, and john dolland (1706-61} and his son peter dolland (1730-1820), for the latter of whom there is some evidence that he was making split type bifocal spectacles to order before benjamin franklin is believed to have invented them. -60author fryer has included illustrations of shop prints, advertisements, and trade cards. the persons he mentioned won international reputations and the highest honors science can bestow. ohs member john n. schoen, o.d., secretary of the american academy of optometry, thoughtfully sent me his copy of the issue in which the article appeared. mighty voices three: received from professor e.j. fisher of the university of waterloo school of optometry is the following memorandum: 11 recently i was in london and doing a bit of sightseeing. as i am quite interested in pipe organs i dropped into st. james church, picadilly, where stokowski was organist for a few years around 1900-1910. 11 in the vestibule of the church i noted a plaque with wording as quoted below. in memory of william bowman physiologist and ophthalmic surgeon he worked at his profession for 49 years in this parish and as a worshipper in this church born a.d. 1816 died a.d. 1892 ye that have eyes and cannot see in darkness and in misery recall those mighty voices three 11 i thought this might be of some interest to o.h.s. 11 to what 11 those mighty voices three 11 refers is unknown to both ted fisher and me, but we are both very curious. isis and science history: if your history interests extend outside of optometry and into the virtually unlimited realms of science and culture pervaded by vision and optics you may well enjoy and profit from membership in the history of science society. the annual dues for individuals are $18.00 ($9.00 for students), which include a subscription to isis and the quarterly history of science newsletter. isis is the official journal of the society and appears five times each year, the annual may issue being the 11 critical bibliography of the history of science and its cultural influences. 11 this year's critical bibliography is a voluminous 184 pages of 2,636 citations of s~ience history and related articles from hundreds of different periodicals and 750 citations of reviews of similarly related books. further it includes an index to the authors and to the names of cited persons and institutions. -61inquiries concerning membership and subscriptions should be addressed to isis business office, science history publications, 156 fifth avenue, new york, new york 10010. lady o.d. memorialized: offhand i do not recall having listed the name·of a memorialized female optometrist among the names recorded in this unofficial but surely most complete registry. considering that the number of female optometrists in at least the united states is and has long been of the order of only about three per cent i find it reasonable that this rare occurrence merely reflects a statistically predictable probability based on the assumption that we of different sexes are really quite equal. honoring the late optometrist is the dr. geraldine jacobs sherman memorial scholarship fund recently established at the southern california college of optometry . .!.f.~ collect books: the following catalog numbers and descriptions are copied from a bulletin of books on the history of science, technology and the applied arts, a listing of books recently offered for sale by harriet wynter ltd., 352 king's road, london sw3 5uu, england: 6. art of preserving the sight unimpaired to an extreme old age; and of re-establishing and strengthening itself when it becomes weak: with instructions how to precede in accidental cases which do not require the assistance of professional men, and the mode of treatment proper for the eyes during, and immediately after, the small-pox. to which are added observations on the inconveniences and dangers arising from the use of common spectacles. by an experienced occulist. 8vo, 1 plate, uncut, original boards and paper label, worn. 12 page publisher's catalogue bound in .5th ed. augmented and improved, london, 1822. .120.00 15. bret~ster .(sir d.). letters on natural magic, addressed to sir walter scott, bart. 12mo, 79 cuts. an entertaining little book revealing the way in which many famous stage illusions of the day were performed, with special reference to optical illusions. lacks f.e.p. 's head of contents page torn, some loss of text, light browning throughout. 1/2 calf, worn. london , 1832. ~ 15. 00 16. brewster {d.). the· life of sir isaac newton. 12mo, portrait frontis­ piece, full calf, prize binding. an attractive ·copy of this early work by brewster on newton. first edition. london, 1831. ,:(25.00 -6253. farrar (j.). an experimental treatise 0~ optics, comprehending the leading principles of the science, and an explanation of the more important and curious optical instruments and optical phenomena ... 8vo, 6 folding plates, browned, moder cloth, ex inst. library, neat blind stamp on t.p., ·inked stamp on e.p., bookplate. cambridge, ~1ass. , 1826. .;tso. oo 142. rosenhain (w.). glass t1anufacture. 8vo, ills~ \'lith interesting section on optical glass. a good copy, london, 1908. d(lo.oo 172. wharton jones (t.). the principles and practise of ophthau1i c medicine and surgery. 8vo, 110 ills. library book plate, small stamp on t.p. original cloth, worn, second american edition. philadelphia, 1856. :138.00 182. corson (richard). fashions in eyeglasses. 1967. £8.50 the catalog was thoughtfully lent to me by my colleague l.s. mcclung, professor of t1icrobiology, who indulges in the history of microbiology much as i do in optometry. armaignac's optometric chart: occasional mention of the armaignac chart in the literature led me to a search for the original article. it appeared in bulletins et memoires de la socilte francaise d'ophthalmologie, vol. 23, 1906, pages 498-sll, under the length title 11 de la n?cessit€' d'adopter une echelle optometrique deeimale universelle. -presentation d'un type 11 (0n the need to adopt a universal optometric decimal scale, --presentation of a type). the author ~'las dr. h. armaignac (of bordeaux). the article has now been translated into english by david goss, o.d., a graduate student working toward his ph.d. degree in physiological optics. he did this in preparation for his foreign language proficiency requirement and presented me with a longhand but very legible manuscript copy of his initial draft. he hopes to touch up the translation a bit for possible publication, though this draft is really very readable. in the opening statement armaignac reminded us (in 1906!) that authors have concerned themselves with visual acuity and its measurement for almost 200 years. he added that the analysis of some of the extremely remarkable studies of this topic alone since that of george berkeley in 1709 could fill a volume. he then briefly described the chronological attempts to derive a scale which would reflect actual vision, or loss of vision, realistically, that is, in a more functionally appreciated relationship. having pointed out the shortcoming of each proposed scheme he then presented his own array of optotypes (not illustrated in the article) which he designed empirically in ten gradations of size from 7.3 to 73 mm for use at a testing distance of five meters. each size then was given a scalar value of acuity in decimal steps from l/10 to 10/70. almost as an afterthought he computed one smaller size for 11/10 acuity. his decimal fraction acuity values then corresponded to the following angular subtense values: -6311/10 ..... 4 minutes 5/10 ..... 20 minutes 10/10 ..... 5 minutes 4/10 ..... 26 minutes 9/10 ..... 6 minutes 3/10 ..... 33 minutes 8/10 ..... 8 minutes 2/10 ..... 41 minutes 7/10 ..... 11 minutes l/10 ..... 50 minutes 6/10 ..... 15 minutes armaignac objected to the identification of acuity measuring systems by the authors• names. he proposed in the interest of uniformity, and to encourage wider acceptance of one scale by all, that his system be adopted without attachment of his name! optometry course at columbia university columbia university started to offer a course in optometry in 1910. a remarkably detailed announcement of its offering was included in the first edition of the blue book of optometrists and opticians in 1912 and reprinted in full without alteration in the 1914 edition as follows: columbia university the columbia university is located in the city of new york. the optometry course is arranged in series of two years and is under the supervision of the administrative board of extensive teaching in connection with the department of physics, upon the special request of the state of new york, and in compliance with the law of the state (public health law, chapter 45 of the consolidated laws). there is no connection between these courses and the college of physicians and surgeons, the medical department of columbia university, and there is no attempt to give a medical training nor to provide a substitute for the same. ad~1ission students who have had at least a two years• high school course or have secured thirty regents counts algebra and geometry are admitted. the university does not offer a degree of diploma at the conclusion of the series, but will give a certificate for those students who have entered after a four years• high school training or its equivalent, or for those who have sixty academic counts with the new york state board of regents. registration students are required to register at the office of the registrar, 201 east hall, between september 19 and 26 inclusive. fees should be paid at the time of registration in the office of the bursar in the same building. -64fees registration fee ................................... $5.00 tuition fees (complete course)first year ....................................... $160.00 second year ...................................... $170.00 instructors andrew jay cross, william hallock, w.w. stifler, frederic a woll, louis r. welzmiller, m.d., frank j. mcmackin. the announcement in the 1916, 1918, and 1920 editions were considerably reduced to the following simple paragraph: columbia university located on t~orningside heights, new york, n.y. the optometry course is arranged in series of two years and is under the supervision of the administrative board of extensive teaching in connection with the department of physics. students who have had at least a two years'. high school course, or \'lho have secured thirty regents' counts in al e ra and geometry, are admitted by registration at the office of the registrar, 201 east hall, between september 19 and 26, inclusive, in each year. l • arc-en-ci e l : the great optical phenomenon of nature, the rainbow, is the title of an article by a doctor of engineering aldo de cola in the june 1978 issue of 1 'opticien belge/de belgisch opticien, no. 249, p~es 97-101. the title in french, as is also the article, is "les grands phenom~nes optiques de la nature l'arc-en-ciel." actually, this is the second part of a two part series, the first of which appeared in the may issue, no. 248, pages 66 and 68-70. the second part gives an account of early references to, and concepts of, the rainbow in antiquity, a review of the studies of the rainbow in the middle ages, and detailed reviews of the contributions of several renaissance and modern scientists. british optical association beginnings mr. w. rex wingate has written a brief article entitled our heritage in the may 13, 1978 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 18, no. 10, pp. 394 and 396. he was prompted to do this while perusing a copy of the 1914 official year book of the british optical association in his family library. the leather-bound volume of nearly 300 pages was compiled by j.h. sutcliffe and priced at five shillings (approximately a half u.s. dollar). -65in the book are described early efforts to form a society, to gain professional recognition, to provide certifying examinations, to support optometric education with scholarships, and to accomplish legislation to register ophthalmic opticians. reported also was the fact that sixteen women had passed the qualifying tests as ophthalmic opticians as compared to about 800 men. reference is also made to a case in the high court of justice before mr. justice ridley described in the december 23, 1910 issue of the dioptric bulletin. the author does some rem1n1scing about cliffords inn, of which cliffords hall was spared in the great fire of london, and where british ophthalmic optical activities were centered for many years. the now renowned british optical society library totaled seven books in 1901! the optical museum at_jena "das optische museum jena 11 is the title of an article by f. rossi in the may-june, 1978 issue of augenoptik, vol. 95, no. 3, pp. 67-70. it appears to be the first of a series of which this article is identified as teil 1 (part 1}. the opening sentence calls attention to the fact that the museum has been in a new location, carl-zeiss-platz 12, for a year. its previous location was am planetarium 7. the city of jena is in the ddr (east germany). dr. howard minchin: in the niels bohr library of the center for the history of physics, american institute of physics, 335 east 45th street, new york, ne\'1 york 10017, is a photocopy of the minutes of the first meeting held for the purpose of discussing plans for the formation of an optical society. this occurred on november 18, 1915, in rochester, new york, with nine opticists in attendance. among those present, mostly familiar names, was dr. howard minchin, who i presume may have been the same howard minchin who directed the optometry program at the ohio state university for a brief period when dr. charles sheard transferred to the american optical co. the optical society which they founded is now the prestigious optical society of america. quarterly letter from jim leeds: nothing like a small challenge to whet my curiosity. i read dan hummel's note on the clinical use of color to reduce cataract. i tried the new york optometric association yearbooks of the 1930's to check anything by ryer & hotaling and found nothing. then i checked the 44-year cumulative index of the academy and found three references by them. (there were also several other articles under the heading of 11 cataract, 11 but i don't recognize the authors. one specific one was on the use of calobar lenses.) there were also reports in the transactions of the -66academy volumes iv, vii, & x on papers given by ryer and hotaling on the s·ame subject, but again i'm not sure if these were included in the cu~ulative index. i also have two small books in my library on the same subject: "the prevention & treatment of cataract" by neville schuler, 0.0., 1938, from canada, and "the 'l~hy' of blue lenses in cataract cases" by withers bagnell, o.d., 1927, from south boston, va. i'm sure there are more, but these are what i found. as an aside, from the 1940's on there were some written on poor nutrition being a cause of cataract but that's another topic. ~oncerning volume 10: yes, the next issue starts volume 10, the tenth year of this newsletter. subject of course to the continuing will of our executive board i shall edit that volume also. the fourth and final issue of volume 10, a year from this issue, will include a comprehensive index to all ten volumes, 40 issues. the accumulating index is presently on 7.6 x 12.7 em (3" x 5") cards in a long, long file and encompasses the first eight volumes, \'lith the indexing of volume 9 in process. then what? during the next 12 months the executive board must decide the future of this ne\'/sletter, as volume 10 will complete the commitment i made to myself several years ago, concerning my editorship. it happens that my commitments to myself are considerably firmer than my commitments to others. you can be sure the executive board will welcome your suggestions. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1978-09-04-001 1978-09-04-002 1978-09-04-003 1978-09-04-004 1978-09-04-005 1978-09-04-006 1978-09-04-007 1978-09-04-008 1978-09-04-009 1978-09-04-010 1978-09-04-011 1978-09-04-012 1978-09-04-013 1978-09-04-014 243 north optometric historical so~iety --t~~y... lindbergh boulevard, st. louia,, 1jjt;~.;~sou~i:~.,~~c~3,\11, usa . '·.~· i)! j:-·,~s;:,~volume 23 april 19"92 iic f !number 2 "' f" 'r·,,...., ' ·:t optometry librf\ry the other "ohs": . " .·,.. " the ocular he:rl:i.'t~~e19~ociety was formed ·1~· .l984 ··with bylaws written and adopt~~~anu~~~~y nonprofit status from the internal revenue service ww""acquired in 1991. like the optometric historical society membership is open to anyone interested, and in fact several of us belong to both. there are some differences of emphasis , ours being in the quarterly newsletter and the other in an annual two-day meeting at which members give papers with copies available to members not in attendance. our annual dues are $10. oo and theirs $25.00. at the april 1991 meeting of the "ocular" group the program included papers on "javal 's blindness", "eye care reflected on trade cards", "stereotypes and stereographs", "cataract surgery", "the optical industry in modern times", and "lorgnettes". further information is available from valda j. tull, secretary-treasurer, 143 springdale road, york, pennsylvania 17403. more about schuler: prompted by the reference to schuler in the april issue of nohs, pp. 14-15, ohs member ted fisher combed his memory and submitted the following addenda: neville schuler was an optometrist who lived in georgetown, guyana. in late 1934 he emigrated to canada and was successful in obtaining an optometry license in ontario. he is listed in the ontario handbook each year from 1935 up to and including 1940. in the 1940 issue his address is given as georgetown, guyana. in early 1935 he opened a dignified ground floor office in new toronto, a western suburb of toronto on the shore of lake ontario. the area is now known as mississauga. schuler also opened a branch office in sarnia, ontario. he commuted some 250 miles regularly each week between the two offices in those days highways and cars were not as speedy as today. in 1937 he gave a lecture to the toronto study group on his ideas concerning the use of blue tinted lenses for patients showing early signs of cataract. he spoke with a noticeable german accent and, despite the lack of any scientific basis or arguments, he was very convincing. he had a very dignified bearing and was able to field questions adroitly. many local optometrists began to use "azurlite" (light blue tint) lenses as a result of his influence. 23/14 in early 1939 schuler employed dr. jack archer, a 1938 graduate of the college of optometry of ontario, in his practice. later that year upon the outbreak of the second world war schuler returned to guyana. in the early 1950's word reached here that schuler had entered a medical school in india. he would be at that time almost 55 years of age. whether he graduated or not is not known, but about 1960 word came that he had died. dr. jack archer purchased schuler's toronto practice in 1939. these were the early days of fitting plastic molded contact lenses, and the major supplier was obrig laboratories in new york. jack archer was quite inventive, so he began to develop a method of making contact lenses from eye impressions. this resulted in the formation of the dominion contact lens laboratory, the first such laboratory in canada. through this he developed a unique set of moulding shells which were much easier to use than previous types, and led to taking ocular impressions without the use of an anaesthetic. archer disposed of the company in 1945 to harold file, an engineer, and went to los angeles where he served for a time as an instructor in dispensing optics at the city university of los angeles. he also attended los angeles college of optometry to complete the requirements of the california optometry board. upon passing the board examinations archer opened an optometry practice in los angeles. i visited this office,and he showed me some equipment he had developed for the production of corneal contact lenses. archer died in 1989. just last year our museum obtained some of the presses and dyes archer used in making moulded scleral lenses from the dominion contact lens laboratory. to substantiate or not: one of our members, perhaps our most attentive reader, commented that it is "too bad we cannot substantiate colin robb's claims." he then added that, "i was a little surprised that you didn't mention that when you reported his article in the last nohs." (jan. 1991, pp.5-6) i consider this a compliment rather than a criticism insofar as, anyone might like to think of the historical contents of the nohs to be duly substantiated. indeed they rarely are! not only that, but i would caution all readers that, while we try very hard to cite the source of each item accurately and completely, we ordinarily do not question its validity unless we have some contrary evidence brought to our immediate attention. in the instance of the robb article our complimenting reader and i have both attempted to track down any documentation of robb's report that sir thomas molyneux of castle dillon in 1725 "invented rimless spectacles for officers". robb is deceased, but we now have contact with michael p. gilseman, an optician in armagh county, northern ireland, where castle dillon is located, and he 23/15 has sent us a lot of information about molyneux's home, statue, 600 acre estate, etc., but nothing as yet on rimless spectacles. we are also invited to visit mr. gilseman and stay at his home! with a lot of luck we may eventually substantiate mr. robb's assertion. h.w h. dr. majer's "contributions to optometry": (the following review is by jan hajnosz, o.d.) recently, a copy of a more than a century-old series of articles entitled przyczynki do optometry! reached my desk. it came through a long and somewhat tortuous route from the archives of the jagiellonian university in krakow, poland, to dr. boleslaw kedzia at the department of optometry, medical academy in poznan, poland, to dr. william baldwin at the university of houston college of optometry, then to dr. henry hofstetter at indiana university school of optometry, and finally to me in the green and misty state of washington. i read the articles with considerable interest. they were written by dr. j. majer, (prof. ora j. majera), an ophthalmologist, and published in july of 1863 in four consecutive issues of the weekly physician's review (przeqlad lekarski) in krakow, then, since poland as a state did not exist during the 19th century, a part of the so-called austrian partition. first, the title "contributions to optometry" seems common today; however, it is, so far as we know, the first time in poland that the word "optometry" appeared in print. at the outset, dr. majer explains the idea of "sight-measurers" or "optometers" that would measure the extent of clear vision and the amplitude of accommodation, and then goes on to propose several new devices of his own based on the principles of "optical-physiology (sic)". and "optical-physiology" it really is! thus one can find discussed here principles of a pinhole, parallax, depth of focus; concepts of the "ideal eye", myopia, emmetropia, hyperopia; and the well-known names of danders and helmholtz as well as the lesser known names of stempfer and scheiner which crop up throughout the text. and then there are the "optometers" themselves, mostly of the good old optical bench type, but carefully thought out and certainly ingenious. the contents of these four articles, served casually a century and a quarter ago in a weekly review to be read, perhaps, over an afternoon coffee along with the reports from the mineral sprinq resorts (which immediately follow), could well fill up many an afternoon of the physiological optics laboratory at any of our optometry schools today. rather impressive, isn't it? i found this series interesting in more than merely a technical sense, too. one is the writing style, which is clear, 23/16 concise, and yet elegant; considerably unlike much of today' s scientific gibberish that is anything but pleasant to read. another interesting thing is the date, 1863, a year of one of the most tragic national uprisings with which the last 200 years of polish history is so abundant. with the noise of the battlefields and casualty numbers in the background the study of "optometers" takes on a new light. the last thought is of a rather personal nature. my great­ great-grandfather and my great-grandfather, both ophthalmologists, were both practicing during the time the articles were published. it is reasonable to think that they both read these articles, and perhaps knew dr. majer personally. i cannot help wondering whether they could imagine that these copies of the review would end up in my hands so many years later and so far away. witelo said: in a 1984 issue of klinika oczna, 86:505-506, a polish ophthalmological journal, appears the following brief review in english by jerzy burchardt describing the visual process as understood by witelo(1237-1290): in the book "perspectiva" written in the years 1270-1272 in the papal curia in viterbo witelo "the son of thuringians and poles" born in silesia, then a part of poland, described his concept of the process of vision. visual forms come with the light from the seen object to the eye (visus) and enter it through the round hole in the uveal membrane (pupil). they reach the centre of the eye on the surface of the so called glacial liquid (humor crystallinus vel glacialis) forming a cone of vision with its peak in this centre and with its base on the surface of the seen objects. the vision is clear and distinct only in the line of the axis of vision (axis radialis) while the remaining beam lines are refracted in the transparent medium of the cornea (in medio diaphani corneae) and the distinctness of vision decreases with increasing distance from the axis. from the surface of the glacial sphere the visual forms are conveyed further in the excavation of the optic nerve between the vitreous liquid (humor vitreus) and the common nerve (nervus communis), through a transparent substance called the spirit of vision (spiritus visibiles), and from these the so called visibility spirits (spiritus visibilis) convey the visual sensation (sensus) to the optic chiasm in the anterior part of the brain, where the ultimate sensory centre (ultimum sentiens) receives and integrates the forms incoming from both eyes. the common sense (sensus communis) known already to aristotle realizes or rejects these forms comparing them with the general forms stored in the process of previously acquired knowledge collection. 23/17 in 1990 the karol marcinkowski academy of medicine in poznan, poland, declared witelo to be polish optometry's patriarch and cast a bronze commemorative medal in recognition. spectacle collector news: the july 1991 issue of ophthalmic antiaues international collectors club newsletter, no.36, announces plans for a flying trip from london to venice for the period may 26-31, 1992, to visit several spectacle museums and to do some sightseeing. in an article on pp. 2-3 sekiya shirayama discusses the evidence pertaining to the belief by some scholars that the chinese invented spectacles before they appeared in europe. he found no evidence to prove it. the late paul fairbanks, a lecturer at city university, london, was also a collector. his record cards, given to the club chairman, include the names, locations, apprentices, active years, vocational identities, and product-labeling initials of about 200 spectacle makers and are included in the newsletter. kees kortland, groeneveld brillen bv, slaak 120, 3061 cz rotterdam, holland, an optician-optometrist, describes on pages 8-9 his involvement as a collector of optical items. his collection soon led to eventual museum displays and the publication in 1990 of an atlas type of book, in dutch, entitled "het oog wil ook wat" (the eye wants something) which he is offering at $17.00 plus postage and packaging. listed also are about three dozen antiques events and fairs scheduled during july-october, 1991, in the u.k. which are likely to include optical items. 19th century ophthalmological trends: volume 9 of f.c. blodi's 1990 translation of julius hirschberg's history of ophthalmology introduces a new phase of special significance to optometry. it occurs largely in the second half of the 19th century as described in this volume mainly for the u.s.a., though the volume's coverage is also for the first half of the century, and separately for switzerland and belgium. the new phase is the ophthalmologists' increasing attention to visual science and the optometric concepts of eyecare late in the second half of the century. hirschberg mentions two interesting difficulties that he encountered in his study of 19th century american ophthalmology. one was "the complicated conditions of the american universities." the second was "the fact that ophthalmology developed during the first half of the 19th century only very slowly in the united states. after the middle of the century it developed more quickly, but only since the 70's has it acquired full stature." 23/18 the complexities of the universities were in terms of the meanings of "college" and "school" and the manner in which the medical programs, private, state, eclectic, and other, were affiliated and their relationship to the various academic degrees, very different from the european patterns. ophthalmology's professional development in the united states in the first half of the century lacked university connections, organizations, and journals. the limited advancement was accomplished by a few privately practicing eye physicians and the staff of a very few eye hospitals. optician mcallister's contribution in 1828 is almost the single identification of anything optometric. possibly, or probably, related to the appearance of danders• book in 1864 there emerged the first broad concern with refractive errors and their correction. interestingly this seemed to be less in terms of acuity or vision per se than in terms of asthenopia as a clinical entity. hirschberg actually devotes 32 pages to the topic of asthenopia as a historical phenomenon, including a partial list of over 200 related publications within three decades! the rapid ophthalmological development was further enhanced by the establishment of their first journal, a quarterly, in 1862, and the founding of their first association, the american ophthalmological society, in 1864. in concluding the american chapter hirschberg quotes h. friedenwald, who said in 1912, "if we follow the medical history in america, then we find that the most meritorious achievements in ophthalmology (were] the discovery that refractive errors can cause nervous symptoms, especially headaches (and] the finding of stevens who categorized the disturbances of muscle balance. these discoveries overshadow all the other numerous contributions to clinical ophthalmology and mark great and beneficial advances in our specialty." the much shorter sections on switzerland and belgium for the 19th century show no significant ophthalmological trends optometrically different from those of the other western european countries described in previous volumes of this series. notes from another club: " featured in the april 1991 issue of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club newsletter, no. 35, is a full page reproduction of the cover page of the first issue of the optician, subtitled "the organ of the optical, mathematical, philosophical, electrical, and photographic instrument industries; and review of the jewellery and allied trades", val. 1, no. 1, thursday, april 2, 1891. a little more than half of the cover consists of the boxed advertisements of four product providers, the most optometric of which is purdom & stokes optic works established 1845, birmingham, "manufacturers of every description of spectacles, gold, silver, 23/19 and steel. makers of pebble lenses of all kinds, also sphere­ cylinders, prisms, &c." the 1991 club meeting and auction was scheduled for sunday 19th may at 11:45 a.m. with committee meetings at 10:45 a.m., lunch at 1:00 p.m., and the auction following lunch. editor macgregor adds considerable commentary of interest to collectors of ophthalmic antiques. a two page article by sekiya shirayama is a careful attempt to ascertain the date of introduction of spectacles into japan. his resources are the appearance in japan of the word meaning "vision aids" in literature and the examination of the oldest eyeglasses still in existence in japan. his conclusion is that "the first spectacles to appear in japan were the ones presented to yoshitaka ohuchi in 155111 by francisco st.xavier (1506-1552). another two page article, by colin b. fryer, reviews the appearance of spectacles on postage stamps, "about 750 to 800 11 • the earliest appeared in 1904 on a colombian stamp depicting president marroquin. in april 1986 the deutsche bundespost issued a group of stamps commemorating eight early vocations registered under the handicraft ministry, of which augenoptik was one. javel's blindness: (a paper given by james leeds, o.o., at the 1991 meeting of the ocular heritage society in philadelphia.) louis emile javal, the famous french ophthalmologist, whose writings on astigmatism and strabismus did so much to advance the science of ophthalmic optics, was born may 5, 1839. in 1806 at the suggestion of napoleon, the jews of france changed their family names to more typical french names. javal's grandfather inscribed his name as jacob on the register. this was miscopied by the clerk as javal and became the family name thereafter. leopold, javal's father, was a rich financier and for fifteen years was a member of the national assembiy. emile javal inclined to a scientific career and could not be persuaded to follow in his father's footsteps. he originally preferred medicine, but due to family opposition compromised on mining and eventually was occupied in the coal mines controlled by his family. his interest in physiological optics was aroused by several circumstances. his father, sister, and two nephews all were strabismic. javal himself had one blue eye and one brown. also he was astigmatic, and close work gave rise to discomfort. the experts of the day could not help any of these conditions, so javal himself discovered that a cylindrical lens would improve his vision. 23/20 while still a m~n~nq enqineer, javal published the results of his tentative research on astiqmatism and binocular vision. these received such encouraqinq attention that javal abandoned mininq and enrolled in the study of medicine at the university of paris in 1865. he was a very industrious student. before he qraduated he had improved the optometer and contributed sixteen articles on astiqmatism and orthoptics to journals of ophthalmology. he was an exceptional linquist and in 1866-7 translated the works of danders and helmholtz into french. javal qraduated in 1868, and his thesis was on strabismus. he then visited the clinic of von graefe in berlin until the franco­ prussian war intervened. after servinq as a medical officer in the war he became absorbed in civic issues, education, and reform. he followed his father's lead in politics and for twenty-four years represented his canton and for five years was deputy of his department. in 1878 javal became the first director of a new ophthalmology laboratory connected with the sorbonne. one of his co-workers was schiotz, and in 1880 the two beqan work on the simplification of the ophthalmometer. tscherninq joined them in 1884. the laboratory soon achieved international recoqnition and had many well known ophthalmoloqists on its staff, includinq landolt and bull. javal had justified his leadership, and in 1884, at the aqe of 45, he was elected a member of the academy of medicine, a siqnal honor for an ophthalmoloqist. javal's enthusiasm for ophthalmology centered on optics. he was not interested in surqery and referred all pathology and operations to his colleaques. his practice was restriced mainly to refraction and squint and, since he was of independent means, his consultinq rooms were more for private study than as a source of income. once a month he visited the villaqes in his canton and qratuitously served the indiqent, a tradition that was continued by tscherninq. every phase of practical optics excited javal' s interest. his earnest support hastened the qeneral adoption of the dioptric enumeration proposed by monoyer. the translucent test chart used with a mirror was his device. it was his suqqestion that plus and minus ~ t~ial lenses be distinquished by silver and qold rims respectively, silver for the silver hair of presbyopia. in 1865 javal introduced his improved optometer, which made use of a clock chart for testinq astiqmatism. he also introduced a cylinder axis notation, which is still in use today. javal's younqer sister had the distinction of beinq probably the first person to rece1ve systematic orthoptic treatment. sichel, who saw her at the aqe of two, prescribed alternate occlusion. another tried prisms for six years without avail. when she was sixteen von graefe performed tenotomy, which likewise 23/21 failed to correct fully the squint. javal eventually succeeded by orthoptic training to obtain a perfect cure, which lasted all her life. he revived buff on's view that squint was an anomaly of binocular vision and rejected the prevalent idea that the ocular muscles were primarily at fault. he originally hoped that orthoptic training alone, together with functional training, would offer more chances of success. with the courage of his convictions, he had tenotomy performed on his sixteen-month old nephew. then the child wore a shield on one eye or the other for the next seven years. stereoscopic exercises were started at the age of nine and continued for three and a half years, with the ultimate reward of a normal appearance and stereoscopic vision. as for the ophthalmometer, helmholtz invented a similar instrument which depended for its actions on two glass plates. coccius had made an improvement by substituting for the plates a double refraction prism. javal retained the prism but improved the instrument greatly with the aid of schiotz. in addition to many articles he wrote several books. his "manuel du strabisme" was widely celebrated. this was followed by a book of higher character, the "memo ires d' ophthalmometrie". the third book will be described shortly. in his sixties javal began to go blind from chronic bilateral glaucoma, and soon he lost his sight completely. instead of disappearing from the world, he wanted to do all he could to relieve the lot of the blind. the results of his thoughts, considerations, and inventions are in a little volume entitled "entres aveugles", or, in the english translation, "on becoming blind". in his book he speaks of many things, mainly how dependent the blind are on the assistance of others. he tried to replace sight with other senses. the use of a long wand was better than a cane. there are many household occupations the blind can perform. some professions, such as music and teaching, are within their reach. neatness, hygiene, and health need assistance of others. an example is given of mud from a puddle splashed on the clothes. meals and eating are difficult. a watch without a crystal and a chime clock are of great help to tell the time. walking in both town and country presents many problems. exercise is important, and a tandem tricycle helped a lot. traveling is difficult but not impossible. it is hard to make new friends, and old friends often disappear. people frequently do not identify themselves on introduction: and they won't tell when they depart, leaving the blind person talking to empty space. then they won't inform him when they return. he had a trick, when sitting with someone on a couch, of holding slightly a fold of that person's clothes, so he could tell if that person got up and left. it is important to have someone read aloud newspapers, journals, and books. handwriting can be achieved by the use of several techniques. typewriting and phonography are certainly possible. the use of braille, though 23/22 slow, is a big aid. maps, plans, and sketches can be stamped in relief. music can give much pleasure. dominoes, checkers, cards, and other games can help pass the time. smoking a cigar creates problems on lighting, keeping it lit, and putting ashes in proper receptacles. memory is important. he felt that esperanto would help, but it never caught on. he did not feel that marriage was contraindicated except when the blindness was due to a hereditary disease, although there could be many social and economical problems. the sixth sense, or the "sense of obstacles", was possessed by many blind, wherein they could tell when an obstacle was in their paths. some blind can travel independently thanks to this sense. this little book was possibly the first written on the topic and in all probability gave comfort to the blind and compassion and understanding to the sighted. the book was published in 1903, and javal died january 19, 1907. bibliography: 1. "annotations" from "the optician", london, england, 1939, p. 20-22 2. the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, vol. ix, cleveland press, chicago, 1916, p. 6709-6713 3. e. javal 1 "memo ires d • ophthalmometrie", g. masson, paris, 1891 4. e. javal 1 "on becoming blind 11 , translated by c. e. edson, the macmillan company, new york, 1906 *** contributinq bdi t.or: hadaqinq bditor: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1992-23-02-001 1992-23-02-002 1992-23-02-003 1992-23-02-004 1992-23-02-005 1992-23-02-006 1992-23-02-007 1992-23-02-008 1992-23-02-009 1992-23-02-010 nlllsleti'er of the ~ric historical socie'iy novt~ 1~41orth lindbefgh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) october 1984 nunber 4 december's ohs meeting: ohs president janes leeds called to infonn all readers that at this years gathering of the optometric historical society at the american academy of optanetry meeting there will be a guest lecturer. christopher hcx:>lihan, rare book librarian at the library of the hashington university school of medicine, st. louis, will give a slide presentation on the bernard becker m.d. collection in ophthalrrology. this will take place on saturday december 8 at approximately 5:30. after your arrival please check the schedule for the exact time and *******************••;·····~ : indiana university : . .. • • : nov20iqp,4 : • • venue. ~ 1922-1952 ~study: ohs president leeds paid what he believes is a tax deductii?le dollar for a sanewhat yellowed envelon:, and its ~s v.hich;had . ~r~****************~~~••*i*~~~ been ma1led 34 years ago by an optanetr1st to a nat:uro.i::iciul udl11eu a. kaplin, n.d., 2038 college st., jacksonville, florida. it was hazily postmarked apr. 13, 1950, colwnbus, ohio, with the added advice build your fui'ure hisely safely u.s. savings idnds. on the enclosed letterhead of the same date the writer was identified as "dr. wilton ho.vard wilson, o.d. ,--eyes, 36 \lest gay street--suite. 310, 311, phone, main 6221, columbus 15, ohio," plus his residence address at 14 fast lakeview avenue and another telepoone nurrber, and further designation as "consulting reflexologist to the profession." he told dr. kaplan, arrong other things, that, "as a naturopath you are well qualified to specialize in eye work: and the public will welcane you into this new field: and it means enhanced prestige and increased incane." he further infonned dr. kaplan that the fee was $200.00 and that the course required "three days attendance in this office." accarpanying the typewritten and personally signed letter was a mimeographed sheet captioned "oculo-reflexoijjgy, the hilson concept." the first paragraph declared, "several investigations conducted in recent years, and published in media with a national coverage, have revealed that the public is getting 'too little eye service' and that what little it is getting is not effective quality." next were described the "c0l1!1dn neuro-muscular disorders" amblyopia, esophoria, and exophoria, and their diagncsis. under the head1r19 trfa'iment, "the ocular reflexes are evoked by concussion or vibration applied to specific nerve centers in the spine, reinforcing the reflexes with the aid of adjustment and colored light rays." the resronse is quite marvelously described as, "hatching the visual chart, the amblyope sees his vision improve before his eyes: watching the neuro-muscular chart, he sees either tension or exhaustion reduced or abolished in a few seconds or minutes" 70 .· ~· ' ~ . fees, numbers of treatments, and course costs are stated, and finally, "eouipment costs bet....veen $25.00 and $50.00. this incltrles, ... charts and testiiy;j instruments. the practitioner may use his own ·'. / vibrator, electric apparatus, or chrane generator." because i lived in columbus, ohio, within a half-hours j!1~1u¥fmu aj11uui' of dr. wilson's addresses fran septerti:ler, 1936, through decenber, 1948, and was very actively involved in local optanetric affairs throughout those years i should be able to recall sarething about dr. wilson or his offerings. i recall no detail whatsoever 1 this can hardly be a freudian lapse of mem:>ry, for i ....vell remenber other rankling deviances of that era which were embraced, or at least viewed naively, usually briefly, by one or another q;>tanetrist in the area. attanptiiy;j to trigger my rrercory i searched the biennially published :a1-ue. book ,qf, 9,>tatetrist.<s and found dr. wilson listed as 800 east 8ecol'lc:ljwenue!in;om.t:imu& in 1922, at 221 clinton street in 1924, and at 2501 surrmit street in; 1926, 1928, and 1930. in 1932 and 1934 his addhi!s's 'was'.'f28 s. main, akron, chio. then in the subsequent: nine issues he was listed as back in columbus at various addresses, .54 west ~.ew avenue:i,n 1936, 5 ea.st long street in 1942, 1491 'north high. ~n ·1944-,· 28 ·west i.oiy;jview in 1946 and 1948, 14 east lakeview avenue in 1950, anp 36 \lest gay street in 1952. he was not listed in any blue book p:r;ior to 1922, perhaps because the chio registration law for q;>taretrists was not enacted until 1919, nor in any after 1952. in the 1928, 1936, and 1938 blue book entries he variously identified his qualifications as a 1911 graduate of the northern illinois college of optanetry, with an o.d. and a "ph.g." degree, supplenentary instruction in "oculo­ reflexology" and physiotheraw, secretary of the "ohio league for the conservation of vision," "mender of council on cptanetry, chio federation of allied scientists," and director and chief of staff of the "~lilsonian institute." quotation marks identify tenns completely unfamiliar to me. this is the full extent of the infonnation i was able to glean with respect to dr. leed' s fascinating one dollar purdlase, which will be forwarded to the ilamj archives. ibes it have historical value? perhaps it does. how else can the otherwise uninfonned observer of this siiy;jle piece of old undestroyed mail gain at least sane grasp of a part of the intellectual and professional climate which prevailed earlier in this century. are thiiy;js really different in today' s highly technological milieu, or simply couched in newly concocted terminology? h. w h. 71 on framir¥j and preserving: the foll0hir¥j is the jlule 1984 install.mant of a series of articles on preservation hints 'flihich appeared in the indiana historical society newsletter 1 no. 671 written by conservators christine young and rarrona dlmcan: framing of a cherished or interest­ ing item for display is often con­ sidered desirable, but the framer should be aware of the risks to the item that are involved in the process. when an object is enclosed in a frame, an intimate micro-envi­ ronment is created where acids and other impurities that are trapped in­ side may accelerate the aging of the object framing may also cause the buildup of humidity within the micro­ environment, consequent con­ densation on the ~lass. and possible damage to the framed object care­ ful choice of the materials and meth­ ods used for framing will reduce these risks. first of all, one should select a frame which is larger than the object so that the edges of the item to be framed do not come in contact with the frame (wooden frames are espe­ cially acidic). only non-acidic papers and matboards should be used. ragboard is ~ecommended for all papers, textiles, and photographs. the less expensive buffered mat­ board (sometimes called con­ servation board) may be used for paper artifacts of lesser value, but it is always inappropriate for textiles and photographs. common matboard and nearly all types of cardboard will cause damage and should never be used in a frame. because the object is smaller than the frame, it must be made to "ftoat" within the frame. this is done by at­ taching it to a back mal rigid items may be held with "photo comers" made from good quality paper. other lte~ should be hinged or hung from the top by strips of japanese paper. starch paste or methyl cellulose paste should be used as the adhesive. objects should never be taped into position, and they should never be firmly attached at all four sides. to avoid problems from humidity, such as mold, it is important to create an airspace between the object and the glazing in the frame. this is espe­ cially important for photographs, which become sticky and adhesive when moist the airspace is com­ monly made by the use of a window mal it can also be done by the de­ sign or modification of the frame itself. glazing provides considerable pro­ tection for the framed object glass is used most commonly. non-glare glass should be avoided because it is designed for use in direct contact with the object and causes fuzziness when proper spacers are used. ughter weight acrylic glazing may be preferred for large items. because of the static charge that it produces, however, this plastic should not be used for pastel or charcoal drawings. some plastics are available with 81ters for ultraviolet light, and these are recommended for textiles, water­ colors, etc. anally, it must be clearly under­ stood that framing and display pre­ clude preservation. display subjects the object to long periods of ex­ posure to damaging light; hanging the object in direct sunlight or using "spotlighting" techniques compound the hazard. if the longevity of an ob­ ject is more important than the show­ ing of it, then storage, not display, is the proper path to choose. on the next page are selected excerpts fran previous installments of the series. the environmental conditions that promote preservation are cool tem­ peratures (70°f is maximum), low relative humidity (40-50%), and minimal exposure to light. it is also important to remember that keeping the levels of temperature and hu­ midity stable is as critical a consider­ ation as kee~them low: • everything that is in contact with or adjacent to the artifact constitutes its environment. materials of du­ bious quality should be eliminated. these include groundwood papers, metal items, self-adhering tapes and labels, rubber bands, and most plas­ tics. paper items should be housed in acid-free containers. folders and boxes appropriate for storage are available in a variety of iiles and for­ mats; tiw best approach for the preser­ vation of photographs is good stor­ age. place the photographs in sleeves or envelopes of high quality plastic (polyester, biacetate, or poly­ propylene) or of specially formulated neutral paper. avoid adhesives of any type. nearly all commercial photo albums use impure papers, plastics, and adhesives they can. not be recommended for the preser­ vation of photographs. shield photographs from light as much as possible. keep them in a cool and especially dry place. avoid the temptation to clean photographs. even plain water can destroy certain photographic emul­ sions and consequently ruin the images. · ·· protection for flat paper artifacts which are delicate may be safely ac­ complished by providing them with support. encapsulation is an archival term which describes a process that supplies an overall support for the original as a temporary archival mea­ sure, keeping very delicate papers from further loss through mishan­ dling. overall support entails enclos­ ing the original between two clear flat sheets, which are sealed to produce, in effect, an envelope. 72 materials required for encapsula­ tion are those which are free from acid or are inert chemically. a clear polyester film called mylar is the only material available that is recom­ mended as safe for use in encapsula­ tion. · until about 1840, western papers were made almost exclusively of re­ cycled rags; today the term "rag pa­ per'' refers to the use of new fibers of cotton or linen. because of their relative purity, rag papers have the greatest potential for longevity. pulp papers are made of fibers which have been ch.emicaljy derived from wood. these papers consist of poor­ er quality cellulose and may also re­ tain chemical residues from pulping and bleaching processes. while po­ tential longevity varies with the spe­ cific pulping process used, it is fair to say that the pulp papers as a group will not last as long as rag papers. lignified papers are made of me­ chanically derived pulp. often re­ ferred to as "ground-wood" papers, they contain all the organic acids, resins, and impurities found in wood. it is currently impossible to preserve these papers. newsprint and cardboards are common exam­ ples of ground-wood papers. papers can also be made of such diverse materials as straw and polyester. a variety of materials can be add­ ed to paper to alter its characteris­ tics. these may be fillers to increase density and stiffness or adhesives to make the surface non -absorbent; coated papers, used for book ulus­ trations, are given a thin veneer of clay. additives to paper alter its po­ tential life span as well as its physical characteristics; many cause active deterioration of the paper fibers. the addition of alkaline agents to pulp papers improves their longevity dra­ matically. alkaline papers may be la­ belled acid-free, buffered, or archi­ val. a wide variety of storage and displa_y_materials is_ now available in this type of paper; the use of these items is highly recommended for the preservation of paper artifacts. 73 ~ few biographical miscellanea: a brief note fran ohs prexy jim leeds tells us that he himself recalls the two incompletely identified teachers at the northern illinois college of optanetry m:mtioned in v. f. krin:j 1 s classroan notes in our last issue. jdmsen, whose name was misspelled jdmson in krin:j 1 s notes and therefore also in our previous issue, was the senior author of a 158 page rranual entitled, "<:ptical shop and counter" by alf henry johnsen, bertram a. heeks, and frederick h. heller, published in 1934 by 'ihe professional press, lliiccgo. it seems probable that johnsen was an optician, born in 1899 accordin:j to the book 1 s library catalog card, and may therefore still be livin:j. weeks is listed as a chicago optanetrist in the 1934 blue book of optometrists. heller rerrains unknovm. also unknovm is the significance of the 'word "counter" in the book 1 s title. "keef," suggests dr. leeds, was frank m. keefe, o.d., who practiced in oliccgo. "he taught us anatany. he was a big, florid, gregarious fellow, and a gcxxi teacher. he quit teachin:j before i graduated in 1940." leeds is surely correct, for dr. keefe is listed as a lliiccgo cptanetrist in the 1936 blue book of optametrists. the 1950 blue book shows him in antioch, illinois, with the degrees m.a., ph.d., d.a., and d.o.s., a graduate of sacred heart college, 1912: niagara university, 1914-16: catholic university, 1917: and northern illioois college of <:ptaretry, 1934, post-graduate study at national college of audianetry, 1947, a rranber of the arrerican <:ptaretric association, and fonrerly professor at n.r.c.o. anecdotal characterization of the farrous: in 1958 the r. piper & co. verlag of munich, \lest gennany, published a charmin:j little book by eduard stemplinger enti tied "von berlihmten arzten" (about farrous physicians), 187 anecdotes col­ lected fran merroirs and letters. included were the narres of three who are are well identified with visual science, muller, helrrholtz, and von graefe. the following are their related anecdotes, translated. johannes peter muller 1801-1858: he had the remarkable ability to set aside all annoyances whenever he was intensely preoccupied with a nore pressing rratter. so disciplined it \'las that it excluded even details of his awn merrory. thus is ha~ned that in a s\..l!t'iirer semester when a sttrlent requested a clarification of a difficult p:>int in ht.nnan anatany muller resp:>nded with, "i know that only in the winter semester." 74 johannes muller started one lecture with the words, "sirs! whence came we? what are we? \~t will becane of us? you will have to seek the answers to the first and third questions from our colleagues of the theological faculty. during the present hours we will concern ourselves with the second question, that of human physiology." hennann ludwig ferdinand helrmoltz 1821-1894: on one occasion helrmoltz was introduced to the grand d..lke of weimar. in such audiences his highness would be prarpted by his court martial with an appropriate key word or phrase to enable him to start a casual conversation. in this instance the court martial whispered the word "augenspiegel" (opht.halnoscope) to the prince to cue him to the learned guest's rrost i.mp.:>rtant invention. the grand duke misunderstood, hesitated a rronent, and then laughin:jly grabbed the professor by the shoulder and said, "ah, sieh da, eulenspiegel!" (oh, you rascal you!) concerning his experience with spontaneous in:~enioos ideas he said, "they often creep softly into one's realm of thooght wi tlnut their significance i.rrrrediately bein:j recognized. in my ovm experience they never came to me during mental fatigue or while at my desk. frequently they occurred upon awakening in the norning, as gauss too once remarked. but nore likely they errerged durin:~ pleasant hikes throogh wooda:i hills in sunny weather. the smallest drop of alcoholic beverage, l"lcmever, tends to suppress them." "in reference to the ophthalnoscope," related hel.nholtz, "a very farcous colleague and surgeon once told me he would never use the instrument, that it was too risky to let the glarin:j light enter diseased eyes. another one explained that the cphthalrroscope might be useful for a physician with poor eyes but that he himself had very g<x>d eyes and did oot require it." madam martius said of helrmoltz, "the genial scholar was the p::x:>rest imagineable teacher. i have witnessed an occasion in which at the beginning of the hour he took a readin:j off of a carplicated apparatus which he neglected to explain and immediately began to do calculations on the blackboard until it was carpletely covered with the rrost involved formulae. he finally announced, 'you see, sirs, that the result well agrees with the h}'lx)thesis,: and departed from the lecture roan. alrrost none of the :mercbers of the audience had any notion of what it was all abcut." 75 albrecht von grafe 1828-1870: at a palace ball in berlin an aristocratic lady asked her dancing partner grafe, "my dear von grafe! we hear in the highest circles aba.lt your fabulrus operations. is it true that you simply take out the eyeball, neatly cleanse it, and put it back in place again?" dr. von grafe resp.:>nded m:jst amiably, "indeed, my dear. the procedure is utterly sirrple. and if the old eye is badly yjorn out i replace it with a young rabbit eye." h. \l h. fdmund fuller richardson, o.d., 1899-1984: the passing of ed richardson on july 15 has reminded rrany of us that he was a colorful and dedicated optanetric leader. of special archival interest is the fact that during his extensive travels and lecture tours for the american optanetric association, the optaretric extension program, and other missions he indulged in the unusual hobby of capturing on color slides both posed and unposed photographs of praninent cptaretrically-related perscns with their spouses. he shcmea these on occasion at receptions in his heme, truly fascinating entertainment, for rrost of us had little if any acxiuaintance with the spouses of leaders whan w~ otherwise knew well. if these can be found and preserved they would serve as a better rrerrento of the man and his missions than even a p.:>rtrait in the gallery or a statue in the park. in honor of dr. richardson the optanetric extension program foundation had established the frlmund f. richardson educational menorial fund. ~re 9!!, captain kncmles: adding another clue to the identity of captain chester l<rlc:mles :roontioned on page 40 of the april issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 15, no. 2, chs rnenijer d.c. h\.jtilrel, o.d., penned a recollection, as follcyws: "i took a course in cleveland on subnonnal vision fran captain knonles. at no time did he speak on contact lenses. at that time feinbloan was about to start his courses in contact lenses. occasionally i still use knowles • distance chart with m.mbers fran 20/800 to 20/200" 76 elegant but ignored visual optics? in the january issue, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 22, i praniserl to describe ~t to me was the mysterioos m3.tthiessen book. it finally arrived on interlibrary loan from the university of virginia library. its title is grundriss der diopi'rik gesqhqiteter linsensysteme (basic dicptrics of compound lens systems), subtitled mathfmatische einlei'i'l.joo in die diopi'rik des mensclilichen auges (mathematical introdu::tion to the dicptrics of the human eye). the auth::>r is identifierl as dr. ludwig m3.tthiessen, ord. professor der physik an der universitat zu restock. '!he publisher is b.g. teubner, leipzig, 1877. especially notev.orthy is the bookbindin.:j elegance. the 276+ viii gilt-erlged pages are bound in hard, red cloth, cover with debosserl gilt-linerl lettering and geometric designs, hubbin.;j on the spine, and silk-linerl inside cover pages, perhaps the ioost elegantly assariblerl book in the field of visual optics. it rreasures 16.5 x 24.5 x 2.0 em in size and contains 73 line-drawn figures and hundred of mathana.tical formulas. the book 1 s edges and comers show considerable frictim bruise, as if from repeaterl shelf-stackin.;j, but virtually no direct signs of reader use. the library 1 s pasterl-in meek-out slip shows only the current due date of oct. 5, 1984, suggestin.;j that i may have been its only borrower. an ink stamp notation identifies the book as a february 9, 1955 gift. surprisin.;jly the book has no index, but it does have a very detailed table of contents of its 69 chapters with very descriptive titles. approx.irrately the first half of the book deals with the refraction of light in centererl systems of successive spherical surfaces. '!he other half deals entirely with the refraction of light in nonnal human, and sane aniroa.l eyes, subti tlerl "~hthalnoretrie." '!he text is very toorough in its treatmant of all aspects of geometric and visual optics, and in relatively easy to read gernan. '!he optics of the ocular media, their curvatures and indices of refraction, are treated rrost exhaustively with thorough recognition and acknowledgerrent of prior research. the optics of the crystalline lens are in greater detail than any other that i have seen. '!he references are uniquely listed as research chronologies in three categories as follows: i: m3.thematical dicptrics, from smith, 1738, to rsthig, 1876. ii. refractive indices of the ocular media, from fr. p. du petit, 1726, to aubert, 1876. iii. ophthalm::metrie, from fr. p. du petit, 1723, to m3.tthiessen, 1876. 77 the optical figures and formulae resemble most of the notation conventions of professor james p.c. scuthall's "lenses, mirrors, am prisms," but southall did not mention or make reference to matthiessen in either that book or in his "physiological optics" book. my onn prior unawareness of any of matthiessen • s publications, or even his name, and the fact that the name was cited so inadequately if not haphazardly by sheard, though rather extensively by helrrholtz, makes one 'womer why matthiessen seems to have been so ignored. was his book too expensive or of limited circulation? \las his writiixj too rrathematical to be urrlerstood by medically trained authors? might the political circlutistances of the "iron chancellor" years of gerrrany disrupted international scientific communication? in my opinion, his writings deserved much greater recognition than we have given than. h. \1 h. early optcmetric education in missouri: history of optcnetric education in the state of missouri is dealt with by pamela k. \larbinton, o.d., in the second quarter, 1980, issue of the journal of the missouri cptcmetric association, pages 21-22, under the title of "a forgotten optcmetry sdn:>l." though nentioning the fact that at least four optanetry schools in kansas city, missouri, preceded the present school in st. louis, missouri, she devoted the article almost totally to the needles institute of optanetry and the kansas city sc'oool of optcmetry, both owned by w.b. needles, o.d. she derived much of her infonnation fran personal correspondence with dr. needle's son richard a. nee:ues, o.d., and his nephew james h. grout, o.d. an issue for history: history of south african optanetry is virtually the tow there of the march/may 1984 issue of 'ihe scuth african optaretrist/die suid-afrikaanse oogkundige, vol. 43, no. 1, in recognition of 60 years since the fonnation of the transvaal optanetric association on march 31, 1924, which only t'wo months later dlanged its name to the south african optical association and eventually to the south african optcmetric association. 78 the feature article is 11 south african optanetry--\<jhere have you been and \\here are you going?.. by professor selwyn super of rand afrikaans university. he traces develqjrrent fran the establishlrent of the scldol of applied ~ics at the witwatersrand technical college on february 7, 1932, through the first qualifying examinaticns, the influences of british and atrerican visitors on curriculum design, and the relatively recent establishment of degree granting c:ptaretric curricula at the university of the t«>rth, the university of durban-\lestville, and rand afrikaans university, with expectaticns of a nelf/ program at the university of the witwatersrand in the near future. under the caption of 11a photographic record of 60 years of service .. are 12 pages of group pb:>tographs taken at conferences datin:j back to 1936. next on pages 51-63 is a reprinted article by deryck hurtphriss \\bich appeared originally in 1975 with the title 11the travelling sight jesters... the editor, david reynolds, filled six pages with tidbits fran the archives of the association and solicited re:niniscences fran pioneer optanetrists b.e.c. springer, p.e. willemse (in afrikaans), k.o. elgie, f. graham marrian, and mrs. g.g. banks. altogether this assarblage of rep:>rts, stories, and pictures provides an interesting panoramic view of optanetry's history in one coontry. the only conspicuously missing element was the lack of reference to the crucial 1931 court case of rex versus j.l. saks reviewed on pages 49-54 of the july 1980 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 11, no. 3. can this be the only issue of any optanetric journal featurin:j history as its there, excluding of course each issue of n.o.h.s.? m:>re about william mackenzie, (1791-1868): a book \\bich i requested on interlibrary loan so long ago i forgot what pranpted my curiosity is the life and times of dr. william mackenzie, founder of the glasgow eye infinnary, by a.m. wright thanson, glasgcw, 1973. it consists of only 132 pages, enabling me to read it in a.lnost a sin:jle setting. the aut.ror, a consultant ophthal.m::>logist at the glasgow eye infinnary and at several other hospitals, in effect had written itdre than a very personalized biography of a man. it is a candid accoui\t of cphthal.m::>logy itself in tenns of the milieu within which mackenzie acquired his knowledge and to which he devoted his career-long efforts to provide scientific organization. the first chapter is entitled 11 prelude: the eighteenth-century quacks, 11 an unabashed account of reccmrended treatrrent of ocular conditions, 79 including those provided by two persons successively appointed as oculists to queen anne, one a tailor and the other a tinker. 'llle prelude is intended to illustrate the prevailing status of ophthal­ rrological dogma \\hen mackenzie arrived on the scene. the folloning passage fran the last page of the book expresses the author• s theme and accanplishrrent well. 11this then is the story of a wee glasgon man who accepted the challenge of his day. when he was born, the art of healing was just beginning to throw off the shackles of mediaeval mysticism and false ideas. the time was ripe for intelligent man to bring scientific knowledge to bear on the subject. slowly thoughts were added to theories and the ne,r scientific age of medicine was born and grew. 'lllis knowledge, j:'lc:mever, had to be inr3.de to everybody and it was here that william mackenzie inr3.de his name ... is this a part of cptaretric history? surely not. &lt anyone who is even reasonably aware of optanetry• s long heritage and who pres1.11res that it shares canrron historical roots with that of cphthal­ rrology really should read this book. it is an eye opener. incidentally, a brief review of mackenzie • s 1833 book is on pages 15-17 of the january 1980 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 11, no. 1. h. w h. george nissel, 1913-1982: the professional life of george nissel is the theme of the first george nissel menorial lecture by professor m::>ntague ruben, frcs, published in the april 1984 issue of the journal of the british contact lens association, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 98, 100, and 102. nissel 1s described as an engineer who became interested in contact lenses when he watched his brother-in-law joseph dallos make glass scleral lenses in 1933. much of the phenarenal developrent of the total contact lens and ocular prosthetics industry durin;j nissel 1 s career is attributed to nissel• s role as a 11master lens maker.. of great repute. renaissance optics: \jhile visitin;j at eliot college, university of kent, canterb.lry, england, ohs merriber david cline, o.d., senior co-editor of the dicticnary of visual science, wrote us a brief letter in which he qooted a few lines fran italo cal vino • s book, .. if on a winter • s night a traveler, 11 as follows: 80 (page 162) "myairn is to reconstruct the museum assanblerl by the jesuit athanas ius kircher, autror of ars magna lucis et l.jnt>rae ( 1646) and inventory of the • p:>lydypt1c theater 1 , in which about sixty little mirrors linir¥j the inside of a large box transfonn a bough into a forest, a lead soldier into an anny, a booklet into a library." (page 165) "the arab geographers of the middle ages, in their descriptions of the harbor of alexandria, recall the column that stood on the island of pharos, surnounterl by a steel mirror in which, fran an .i.mroonse distance, the ships prcx::eedir¥3 off cyprus am constantinople and all the lands of the ranans can be seen. 11 calvina is an italian novelist who began his literary career inmediately after \lorld \jar ii. the above qooterl novel appeared originally in italian in 1979, arrl in erglish, translated by william weaver, in 1981. 'ihe citations are fran the eight pages captioned 11 in a network of lines that intersect, .. in which calvina less than adroitly suggests numerous kaleidoscopic applications of mirrors for bizarre purposes, which dr. cline quite aptly describerl as 11 tor¥jue-in-cheek." in the same eight pages calvina sprinkles rrany other optical v.ords such as spyglass, nearsighterl, reflecterl images, catoptric, lurninosi ty, illusory perspectives, radiation, and even a casual reference to sir david brewster, all in literary rather than technical contexts. he states parenthetically "i am at once a man who thinks and a rosiness rran, and a collector of optical instruments as well," and that he has been collectir¥3 kaleidoscopes since adolescence. in sending us these citations fran the novel dr. cline was not certain that calvina• s references to kircher (1602-1680) and the arab geographers are truly authentic, as he had no easy access to an ad9:1uate library. indeed, at least one copy of kircher•s 1646 publication of al.m:>st a thousand pages is in the vatican collection and another is in the lilly library in bloanington, indiana. the full title translated is, "the great art of light and shadcw, dividerl into ten books, in which the admirable powers and effects of light and shade are propounded in new and varied experirrents and in recondite ways, for the diverse uses of mankind." it appears that its greatest value was not that it offered new kncwledge but rather that it served as the encyclopedia of the optical infonnation of t::hclt era. 81 further, the kircher ian museum did exist during nost of kircher's lifetiroo. parts of the fanous collection continue to be accessible in various places, as described by p. conor reilly s.j. in olapter xii, pages 145-155, of studia kircheriana, band i: athanasius kircher, s.j., edizioni del r-bndo, uiesbaden-ran, 1974. '!he museum included kircher's magic lantern, beautifully illustraterl on page 768 of his "ars magna lucis • • . " and reproducerl on page 83 of joscelyn godwin's "athanasius kircher: a renaissance man and the quest for i.dst kncj.\7lerlge," thames and hudson, ltd., london 1979. novelist cal vino' s mention of the arab geojraphers of the middle ages does not identify his source, but it could well have been derived fran kircher, who "wrote about everything under the sun." calvina, an italian, would of course have easy access to kircher's latin texts in rate. calvino' s expression "polydyptic theatre" may have been in quotation marks because the translator could oot find a sui table english equivalent. etynologically, "poly" means many; "dyptic," according to the oxford erglish dictionary, is an absolute form of "dyptych" meaning hingerl or folderl or even double folderl; and "theatre" refers to a viewing chanber. all of this suggests a multimirrorerl kaleidosccpe, which fits calvino's description of what it does. hale starts history series: the first two installm:mts of dr. j.r. hale's history of hashington optaretry appearerl in the march/april and may/june, 1984, issues of washiilgton optanetry today, both page 2 of the respective issues, nos. 2 and 3, the fanner identifierl with vol. 2 and the latter with vol. 3. <xle of my favorite librarians describes the voltnne nunbering ccnfusicn a bit resignerlly as the journal "havin;} problems getting their vol'l.llre m.1rrbering nailed down." 'ihe journal gives dr. hale' s name the middle initial "r." in one issue and "e." in the other. dr. hale, l1<jviever, seems to have recorderl his historical findings nore diligently as acquirerl fran "the nja !!.am) library, old optanetry magazines, personal corresix>ndence, talking with colleagues, my own knowlerlge of optanetric history, and optanetric family references. for exai"rple, he recalls "a conversation with my grandfather, dr. c.w. young, who told how the medical profession's representatives offererl m.d. degrees to doctors of optaretry, if they would agree to accept and assist to end the profession in this state. the old timers had the fortitude to tell this particular group to 'buzz off'." 82 he rep:>rts the organizirg of the \lashirgton optanetric association at the masoo.ic hall in seattle in deceni:>er 7, 1899. in 1903 the association attanptoo tmsuccessfully to get a registration act through the legislature, rut was successful in 1909. in 1919 there were nine female optanetrists in the city of sp:>kane. he reminds us, too, that the late henry schumacher was mayor of vancouver. h. w h. opt.aretry scbx>l jti>ilee: die staatliche fachschule fiir optik und fototeclmik berlin, ('lbe berlin, west gennany, state institute for optics and photo­ technology), celebrates its 75th anniversary on october s-6, 1984, with a jubilee publication of scientific papers by members of the faculty. 'lbe school originatoo in mainz and was transferroo to berlin in 1912. · ~ 160 year nostrum: "dr. isaac thanpson 1 s celebratoo eye \later, 11 mentionoo on page 48 of the july 1982 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 13, no. 3, has been historically researchoo and written up in the may 1984 issue of ophthal.rrology, vol. 91, no. 5, pp. 528-537, by andrew p. ferry, md, and mercaies k. ferry, ba. 'lbe p:>pular collyrhrn was introducai in 1795 and rena.inoo ccntinuously available on the open market until 1955, the largest sale of any topical ophthalmic preparation in the 19th century. with the enactirent of the pure focrl and drugs act of jtme 30, 1906, its label for the first time disclosoo its ingredients as follows, "active irgredients opium 1 1/2 grains: alcorol 10%: zinc sulphate: rose water. 11 illustratoo in the article are four approxinately 94 x 65 mm chraroli thograph advertisirg trade cards representirg it as 11 a speooy and efficacious ranedy in all camon canplaints of the eye. 11 'lbe autlx::>rs discuss the advertisirg methods, certain aspects of packagin:j and bottlirg, the fooeral revenue stamp taxation method, and the secretive nature of the m:mufacturers with regard to roodicinal content. '!heir trorough search indicatoo that thanpj30n 1 s "dr. 11 title was self-best.c:jned. requests for reprints should be sent to andrew p. ferry, m.d., department of ~thal.rrology, medical college of virginia, u.s.a. 23298. 83 bring along your old glasses: optifair '85, new york, march 3-6, will again have a program on antique eyewear. presenting it this time will be jdm m. young, senior research engineer of the american optical corporation, who serves the non-profit american optical m..lseum as its director and curator. the course will feature at least 240 slides illustrating such items of historical interest as advertising, autarobile go:jgles, the first temples, prince-nez, oxfords, safety eyewear, bifocals, style, and sunglasses. a part of the saninar will be devoted to dating and awraising eye.near brought in by attendees. the archivist's lament: the follcwing is the reply fran the daughter of a recently deceased optometrist of national praninance: "i only wish i'd kno.rm about il.am) several years ago when we broke up mother an.d. dad's possessions, there '~~>jere so many fine pictures, but i'm afraid they are gone. dad was too ill at the time to call, and just said 'get rid of it all'--so we didl a \laterloo worth meetin;j: on a recent stay at a hotel in kithener, ontario, canada recently it was a delight to leaf through the surrrer '84 issue of a tourist prarotional serial entitled \laterloo r~ion magazine, vol. 6, no. 3, and find on page 41 a paragraph and a p1cture calling attention to the "museum of visual science and optometry" as a university of waterloo attraction. the curator is none other than ohs rnerrber and professor emeritus edward j. fisher, o.d. h. h h. australian founding father ronored: a portrait of the late ernest jaba.ra was unveiled by the chancellor of the university of melbourne at the 4200. annual ~ting of the victorian college of optanetry in dece!tu::>er, 1983. jaba.ra was the first chairnan of the college cotmcil and praninant arrong those who brought about the establishment of the college on december 29, 1939. the rortrait is a gift of mrs. jabara and is displayed in the college building. 84 the victorian colle:je of optanetry is a professional society affiliated to the university of meloourne arrl is resronsible for a number of professional, clinical, and researdh aspects cample­ irentary to the acadanic depart.roont of optaretry at the tmviversity. muth discontinues spectacle collectif9: ohs jlbt'ber eric p. muth, ph.d., whose spectacle collectirg interests have been mentioned in the o:::tober 1982 and o:::tober 1983 issues of the n.o.h.s., vol. 13, no. 4, p. 84, and vol. 14, no. 4, p. 94, recently announced the donation of his entire spectacle collection to the smithsonian institution in washington, d.c., arrl the new american academy of ophthalnolc:x;ry fotmdation museum in san francisco. the former received 550 items, the latter 100. the details of the donation are written up in the january 24, 1984 issue of the new haven register (connecticut). to have his collection appraised for tax deductions purposes he obtained the services of alain brieux of paris. brieux set the value at $120,000. lubinaria andrew f. fischer, o.d., has sent the ii..am:> ardhives tear­ sheets fran the jtme 1, 1984, philaj.elphia irquirer, pages 2-d, 8-d, and 42, in which are written up rrany deta1ls of the exhibition at the national museum of american jewish history canrrenoratirg the role of optaretrists siegmtmd lubin, nee lubszynski, in the creation of the rrotion picture industry. also supplied by andy is a six-page 29 x 22 an brodhure enti tied peddler of dreams depictirg lubin's career and entrepreneural involvements. mention is made of lubin's death in 1923 but not of his year of birth. he is described as having arrived in america from berlin in 1876 with a training backgrotmd "as an oculist and optician," building the largest empire in the film irrlustry, and in the disastrous final years of his life finding himself once again ''behind the counter of his optical shop where the whole amazing dream had be:jtm. " 85 bits of heather: dr. fischer reports ownership of an autogral*led copy of dr. \l.j. heather's spiral-bol.ll')j 81/2" x 11", 177 page ty.pewritten-offset book copyrighted in 1976 and. entitled "interaction: practical human relations." he plans to donate this to ii..nwl>, inc. he also advises that he is puttin:;j together recollections of his contacts and activities with jere. if my rnenory is correct dr. heather prepared this material for a course he was teaching after his retirerrent fran the anerican cpt.ical co. h. w h. progressive frustration: \jhat m::mentarily strikes me as a revealin:j chronology of the developnent of the prcxjressive addition lens is a tabulation in the april 28, 1984, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 24, no. 9, pp. 300-301, 304, & 306. .accordin:j to the table the "first prcxjressive palfler lens patented" was that of owen aves of europe in, j..907. fourteen subsequent dates with narres of individuals, canpanies, and· len& .. }>rand names are added, but with a frustratin:;j minimum of explanation·~:ill· ... canplete lack of specification of references. unfortunately the texb<:· of the article adds nothin:j to the historical detail, nor is it. obvicus · which of twelve listed references might help the reader who may be genuinely interested in pursuin:j the history rrore adequately. the author, john m. young, a "senior research engineer and product manager, american optical corporation, " credits an unidentified dr. jchn \linthrop for "the extensive work ••• in the preparation of this article." the title of the article is "the progress of progressives." '!he message that cares through, lolr.tever, is that the progressive addition lens, recent as it may seem, already has a substantial history of its own, and that it may well be a bit lost already. h. \l h. on improvin:; the newsletter: \jhile rrost ohs merribers could surely not care less, a response to a thoughtful and constructive suggestion by one manber could help portray quite undefensively the "shoestrin:;j" econany and philosophy of our newsletter operation. 86 the very da:licata:l member sujgests, "if the nohs were produca:l on 3-oole, standard-puncha:l paper, cq>ies could be kept conveniently in a ring binder." indea:l, and i too punch holes in my own ccpies and bind them in a three-ring notebook for rootine reference. hc:mever these are not the extra ccpies i save for eventual pennanent binding in hard cover with an encrnpassing index, as the roles \\ould "neaken the binding a bit • . :. · a check on our very low' cost duplicati~ service, available fran a university facility, reveals an adda:l punching charge of alnost one cent ~r page·,· a.:.c:ost increase of aboot 40%, increasing the material cost of each copy fran about $0.80 to aboot $1.12, an increasa:l cost of awro:ximately $80.00 per issue or $320.00 per year. further, for the 25% of our it\e!tbers locata:l ootside of the u.s.a., neither t~e ,paper size nor the "standard 3-hole punch" \\ould fit their biiidef!s • .. a~ philosophicalaspect however is tia:l in with all of this. ew~<iid.ded.,·techriical feature alrrost invariably represents an adda:l ~;-)!:~st~ be it ever 59· small. 'lhe question therefore becanes ·one j ' of~~~i:t~ur~s will best serve the interests of the society, and· how tji.e. ~n}f!rests are to be gauga:l. · .. ' . ~~~~. '<-:~1~~-~:~~;.-' ~~~hy for the new-sletter has been that one's interest ;t!~~ry is probably correlata:l neither with affluence nor the w£f1~l~c to pay another annual it\e!tbership fee • further 1 that thos\ ~:al'e, or can be made to be, interesta:l in optanetric history are.fo~ily concerna:l with accuracy, reliability, legibility, integrity, and accessibility for pennanent reference purposes. fbr example, the sincere history ruff can be as excita:l by a new-ly discovera:l inscription to a soldier by abraham lincoln on a scrap of paper as by a gilt-a:lga:l imprint of the gettysburg address. but philosophy or policy can change as ment>ers express their views. ca'rmimts and sujgestions are always 'nelcane, and often implementa:l. h. \-j h. h. \l hofstetter d.k. penisten, editors p.s. "just as "nere about to send this issue to the printers 'ne receiva:l the news of the death on septanber 12 of grace heiner. on decanber 12, 1983, the executive board of the o.h.s. signa:l a certificate of recognition to grace \ieiner for her significant contrirutions to the o.h.s. which includa:l past mercbership on the executive board of the o.h.s. 1984-15-04-001 1984-15-04-002 1984-15-04-003 1984-15-04-004 1984-15-04-005 1984-15-04-006 1984-15-04-007 1984-15-04-008 1984-15-04-009 1984-15-04-010 1984-15-04-011 1984-15-04-012 1984-15-04-013 1984-15-04-014 1984-15-04-015 1984-15-04-016 1984-15-04-017 1984-15-04-018 . ' ' ~ ... ' . ' ... ' . .. , ..... , ... .._ o/t . \ ~ a'jg 'j . • ,.,,}. i (, .:,., i~j~/i newsletter of the libichy ....... , .......................... : /.9ptometric historical society ~(243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) 1989 volume 20 april 1989 number 2 leeds presentation: at the december 1988 ohs annual meeting in columbus, ohio, ohs member james leeds gave a presentation on his years of book collecting. the following is a transcript of that talk. reminiscences of a book collector over 35 years ago an optometric friend told me of a 3-volume set of books he had by oatman, published in 1920 and consisting of a text and 2 volumes of stereoscopic paintings in color of various fundus abnormalities. he considered it priceless. then the subject changed, and i forgot about it. shortly afterwards someone gave me a set and i was happy to have it. about that time the school of optometry at indiana university began its courses, and i asked the dean, henry hofstetter, if he would like the oatman set for the library. he was pleased to have it, and i remember a feeling of loss when he left with my oatman set under his arm. (incidently, i have had a number of quotes on complete sets, the last one being in march 1988 for $93.00, scarcely a priceless item, but it is still an intriguing piece of work.) not long afterward in the middle of the night i dreamed about books and book collecting. i couldn't return to sleep, and the idea of collecting books relating to the eye and optics was born then and there. since then i have been an avid collector, and it has been a most engrossing hobby. i mentioned my idea of collecting books to dr. hofstetter, and he encouraged me and wondered if i wanted my oatman back. i told him i was sure i could find another set, which i indeed did. he said he'd send me a few books, and the seven or so books he sent started me on my way. i advertised in various optometric and collectors journals and haunted every old bookstore i could find. (i rapidly found out the difference between a "second­ hand" and an "antiquarian" bookseller. the latter charges several times or so more than the former for the 14 same title.) at first it was easy. i could use almost every title offered to me, and my collection grew rapidly. i was fortunate to meet george giles, the secretary of the british optical association from london, where there is a marvelous library and museum. (incidentally any of you going to london should put it on your "must" list. it is fantastic.) he offered to send me some of his duplicates, and many of them are still among my prized volumes. initially i decided to collect english language books published prior to 1940, or world war ii. i wasn't too fussy---anything remotely relating to the eye and optics---pathology, refraction, geometric optics, color vision, blindness, quackery, catalogs, iridiagnosis, reading, and so on. they were cheap, too. i rarely ever spent over $5.00 on a book, and that had to be a real find. i wanted quantity as much as quality. i used to say i'd rather have 100 books at $1.00 each than one gem for $100.00. now i get quotes of $10.00 or more for the most common books. probably the most common are: "sight without glasses" by harold peppard, a throw-away your glasses bible, and may's "diseases of the eye" which has had some 40 editions starting in 1901. they are literally worthless, but not in the hopes of the nice people who send me quotes. probably the strangest quoter i ever had was an optometrist who sold me his books at $2.00 per pound. i did a fine business with him, and that one was fun. i ended up paying him about what the books were then really worth. now i have over 3,200 volumes. no journals, just no room for them. my shelves are cluttered. i need another fifty feet of shelves but there are not walls on which to build them. i used to put my books in the vertical position in order for me to read the title. now, if they are a larger size i put them with the titles on the top, so i can stuff in more books above them. with the passage of time i now collect more recent books, so the publication data is of no importance. i will also buy foreign language books if available, and i have 200 or so. german is the most prominent, but i also have some in french, spanish, italian, dutch, danish, norwegian, swedish, polish, czech, yugoslav, russian, arabic, and japanese. at first i did not pay much attention to the edition number, but now i aim for the first and sometimes the last edition. last year i was pleased to get may's first edition from 1901, although it probably isn't worth much. i remember it cost $2.98. i will say that if on one of my forays i buy a book i already have, my day is ruined, regardless of the price, even $1.00. i guess i was toilet trained too young. 15 i might mention a few odds and ends of interesting thoughts and acquisitions, none earth-shaking but things that sort of stood out. i have a number of books on outright quackery. iridiagnosis is a study of the health of a person by charting his iris. a lot of books were written on the subject, and it is still being presented today. one book mentioned that people whose eyes are wide-set are honest and forthright and those whose eyes are close together are shifty and not to be trusted. well, i have a wide pupillary distance and my wife's is narrow. i'll say no more about that. there was a book i was dying to get: "midwives, chiropodists, and optometrists", a paper-back by louis reed, university of chicago press, 1932. it turned out to be a rather dull sociological study. on a new york trip i had gone back and forward across 4th avenue for several hours and was tired. there was one last little bookstore across the street. i forced myself to go there and in the tiny medical section of 10 books or so was "midwives, chiropodists, and optometrists" for $1.00. that one made my day. another made-day was when i was mailed "the pigeon eye" for $2.00. i found out that racing pigeons are judged by eye color, a rather underwhelming fact for the uninitiated perhaps, but still i'm glad to have it. there are also several novels concerning the eye that i am pleased to own. they have rightful places on the shelves. most of my books are 20th century, with about 500 or so in the 19th century, and several in the 18th. many are rare. that doesn't make them valuable, but i'm sure many are valuable, especially when i read the prices in current catalogs. while i will collect anything, i am more interested in the history of the eyecare professions and the pioneers who got us where we are today. what has all this done for me? while i am certainly no smarter than anyone else, i probably have a deeper sense of where we came from and an awareness of our history. i read recently of some technique or other that was being propounded as new that i saw written up close to 100 years ago by one of our pioneers. there has been a certain amount of prestige in a very small group of people, and i will get occasional calls from strangers who want to know something or other. as you know, i am a past~president of the optometric historical society and a past-chairman of the history committee of the american academy of optometry. i take pride in instigating the written history of the academy, which was published last year. many patients will look at my library and ask if i 16 have read all the books. the answer is of course no, but i have certainly looked at each one and listed it. for example, there must have been 50 books written between 1890 and 1910 entitled "diseases of the eye". reading all of them would have been redundant. my collection is like topsy: it just "growed". if i could have anticipated the end result, i would have kept better records in a card file instead of a hopelessly tattered and fragile ledger book. normally i am very methodical, but this one got away from me. i am asked if i have any specific "wants". the answer is anything i don't have, but they're getting harder to get. for one thing there are very few collectors, and there is no one to swap with. i can look back with regret at some of the things i should have acquired, but did not. i view with regret the passing of the old-time second-hand bookstore. the last time i was in new york city, i found only four. thirty years ago there were 20 or so in a small area on 4th avenue; now there are just two. rents and real estate values simply got too high. the same thing is true elsewhere. one doesn't have to be crazy to be a collector, but it helps. and with aggression comes some success. my former associate in practice used to comment how amazed he was when i would return from a fishing trip to the canadian bush with a box of old books. and with success come a few failures. to list a few: "color-blind" was a sociological study of race relations. "antique glasses and frames" was a beautiful book on 17th and 18th century wall mirrors. "the retina manual" which i grabbed off a bookstore shelf without even opening it was about the retina camera and its little sister, the retinette. three days were ruined on those purchases. i have been asked if i am afraid of my collection being stolen. i suppose it could be, but i doubt it. did you ever try to carry over 3,000 books? finally, what will happen to my collection? i really don't know. now that i have attained the biblical three-score and ten i think about it. at the moment it is willed to indiana university, but that could change. i would like the library to remain intact and be available to anyone who might want to use it. what will be, will be. i do know that it has been an important part of my life, and i feel i am a more complete person for having done this. that alone is enough for me, and i am pleased to have had the opportunity to have shared these thoughts with you. james p. leeds, o.o. 17 an appeal for help: ohs member eric p. muth, ph.d., 25 parkland place, milford, connecticut 06460, usa, is busily, very busily, working on "the history of vision aids." he also serves the smithsonian and the national museum of american history, the medical sciences division, in an ophthalmic and optical advisory role. he has recruited help and suggestions from a variety of cooperating persons including some optometrists, ophthalmologists, opticians, optical manufacturers, librarians, and others, but interested persons tend to be few and far between, as we ohs members well know. most difficult, he comments, is the getting of expert information from within the usa. any leads of related patents would be especially welcome. his telephone number is (203) 874-4595. remembered history: celebrating his 100th birthday on november 4, 1988, jack w. ragsdale, o.d., of brady, texas, recalled that as a child he accompanied his father, p. c. ragsdale, o.d., when he made his rounds in over 30 counties by horse and buggy to provide vision care. jack reported that his father was a graduate of the southwestern optometry school in kansas city, missouri. jack, in turn, graduated from the los angeles college of ophthalmology and optometry in 1913 and started practicing in 1914. he reported further that he holds texas license number 32 (presumably dated 1921 when the law was enacted). during his 57 years of practice, jack held a variety of posts and offices, including membership in masons and rotary, in brady, presently a town of about 6,000 people in central texas, from which he received the city's highest honor. now in retirement, he was made a birthday presentation of a certificate for 55 years of continuous membership in the texas optometric association. the details and a photograph are in the december 1988 issue of texas optometry, vol. 44, no. 12, pp. 1 and 3. approximavit sidera: "he brought the stars nearer", is the latin tribute on the tomb of joseph von fraunhofer (1787 1826) in munich. he was born in straubing, germany, the eleventh and last child of a glazier. he was orphaned at age 12, apprenticed by his guardian immediately to a mirror maker and glass polisher in munich for six years at no pay, and treated very badly by his master. at age 14 the master's workshop-house suddenly collapsed, burying joseph in the rubble from which rescuers barely rescued him, hurt but alive. among the visitors at the rescue scene were the ruling prince (later king) maximilian (1756 1825) of bavaria 18 and joseph utzschneider (1763 1840), a wealthy industrialist, both of whom kindly provided the boy with funds enabling him to train as an optician and acquire related books. advancing his skill and knowledge, fraunhofer effectively changed the making of lenses from an art to a science. because he lacked an academic degree he was ineligible for full membership in the bavarian academy of science. in 1823 king maximilian appointed him to a salaried professorship and in 1824 knighted him, making him "von fraunhofer". the university of erlangen awarded him a degree posthumously in 1828. these and other personal details are provided by e. scott barr in a biographic article in the november 1988 issue of optic news, vol. 14, no. 11, pp. 14-17. history in ceramics: among the charming gift suggestions available through the deutsche optikerzeitung (postfach 104443, 6900 heidelberg 1, west germany) last november was a delftware wall plate 21 em. in diameter, faintly bluish, depicting the classic der brillenmacher, the very touching scene being the front of a spectaclemaker•s stall where a scholarly looking gentleman is trying to read a book with one pair of glasses while the spectaclemaker has in hand another trial pair. visible in the background are a church, another building, and three pedestrians. only 200 plates were made and offered at the price of 98 german marks. carl zeiss commemorated: in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the death of carl zeiss the wurttemberg national library at stuttgart, west germany, featured an exhibit of the history of vision aids from october 10 to december 23, 1988. included were numerous items borrowed from the optical museum at oberkochen. the display featured early spectacles and related literature and artwork illustrating physiological knowledge of ocular function, physical research on the nature of light, and social factors affecting the development and use of eyeglasses from antiquity to the present. supplementing the exhibit was an 88 page richly illustrated catalog by dr. annemarie klotz available for 15 deutsche marks from the wiirttembergische landesbibliothek, postfach 105441, 7000 stuttgart 10, west germany. 19 a brief write-up appeared on page 50 of the november 20, 1988, issue of the deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 43, no. 11, under the title, "die brille im wandel der zeit". two centuries of frame manufacturing: a large two-page advertisement of l 'amy of france in the january 1989 issue of eyecare business, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 2-3, features the "cradle of framemaking" in the vallee des arcets above the town of morez, france. there a farmer and nail-maker named pierre-hyacinthe caseau applied the metals and equipment from his nail-making to fashion an eyeglass frame in 1796. the farm house still stands. the idea and craft spread mostly into cottage industries in the area. another of the early artisans was louis felix lamy who, by 1910, was selling his frames as far away as italy. the fifth and sixth generations of lamys still manage the l'amy firm, the largest of more than 50 family businesses in morez. shown in the advertisement is a 19th century machine for making curled-end temples presently in the morez eyewear museum. morez, a town of about 6,000 population in eastern france, is the home of l'ecole nationale d'optique. marly's new edition: in a recently received promotional flier pierre marly announces a new edition of his book entitled "spectacles and eyeglasses", 2,000 copies in french at 300 french francs each, and 1,000 copies in english at 315 french francs, postpaid. the book is described as cloth-bound with a headband and gilt edge, 160 pages, 60 in color, and 450 illustrations including 135 in four colors. upon request marly will autograph your copy. order directly from pierre marly, 25, rue royale, 75008-paris, france. 88 years of lighting: in 1963 the commission internationale de l'eclairage, abbreviated cie, or translated international commission on illumination, published a history of its official existence of 50 years plus the 13 years of its predecessor, the commission internationale de photometrie. designated cie-9, it was written by dr. j. w. t. walsh, a long time officer in the organization. to celebrate the 75th anniversary of cie dr. a. m. marsden wrote a supplementary history for the period 1963 1988. this appears in the september 1988 issue of the cie journal, vol. 7, no. 2 1 pp • 16-3 0 • 20 augenoptik history: the persistence and changes of the german augenoptiker are traced from the nurnberg guild of spectaclemakers in the 16th century to the present by prof. dr. josef reiner in an article entitled "zur fachlichen kompetenz der augenoptiker" in the october 1988 issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 43, no. 10, pp. 3741. the earliest use of the title, "augenoptiker", meaning ophthalmic optician, is credited to the strasburger optician gerhard kloth just prior to world war i. in 1917 kloth was appointed director of the newly established jena augenoptic school and died only two years later. his successor hermann pistor continued to promote the use of the title for the next 32 years even though it met with considerable objection from philologists on tautological grounds, namely, the redundancy of the connotations of "augen" and "optik", both referring to the eye. reiner's review is mostly from the latter period to the present in which he describes the influence of handicraft philosophy, administrative regulation, legislation, the augenoptik schools, court decisions, and international trends, including the recent therapeutic involvements in the united states. optometry in health care: the trend to identify optometric practice closer to the health field is the historical theme of an article entitled "optometry and its expanded role in health care delivery systems (1600 1987)" by morton w. silverman, o.d. in the january 1989 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 52-55. included in the review are matters of organization, publication, education, terminology, and litigation manifesting changes of professional mission. the evil eye in england: recently stranded by a half-hour appointment delay in an office on .the fourth floor of the university library i "cooled my heels" by nosing through the adjacent stacks which happened to be the folklore section. off the shelf i pulled several very old volumes of a fascinating london journal entitled notes and queries and scanned their indices under such key words as eye, glasses, optics, spectacles, and vision. volume 3 provided the charm, on page 133 of the february 22, 1851, issue, no. 69, as follows: "the evil eye: this superstition is still prevalent in this neighborhood (launceston). i have very recently been informed of the case of a young woman, in the village of 21 lifton, who is lying hopelessly ill of consumption, which her neighbors attribute to her having been •overlooked' (this is the local phrase by which they designate the baleful spell of the evil eye) . an old woman in this town is supposed to have the power of 'ill wishing' or bewitching her neighbors and their cattle, and is looked on with much awe in consequence. h.g.t." the easily overlooked(?) municipal borough of launceston is in cornwall county, the peninsular extension of england to the extreme southwest, and the village of lifton is very near launceston. h.w h. spectacles in literature: most of us are familiar with the fact that much of our historical knowledge of the design of eyeglasses derives from early paintings and photographs. similarly some of the symbolism, acceptance, and prevailing concepts of spectacles can be deduced from references to eyewear by novelists and other popular authors of any given era. an example of such a resource in the latter category is les miserables, the classic of more than 1,200 pages by victor hugo (1802 1885) published in 1862 and so expressively translated into english from the french by charles e. wilbour. the action period represented in the novel is the early decades of the 19th century. the era and site were personally familiar to the author and described in great detail with meticulous historical intent. if it is assumed that successful novelists willingly use contemporarily familiar similes, metaphors, and other tropes, the following excerpts, perhaps the only ones in the book, provide some teasing insight into the popular concepts associated with spectacles more than 150 years ago. on page 506, in description of a very hearty and hale nonagenarian of some social standing author hugo adds "he wore glasses only when reading". on page 538, referring to a nosey aunt curious about the frequent absences of her nephew marius, a very young man, hugo comments, "she imagined some more or less illicit affair of the heart, a woman in the shadow, a rendezvous, a mystery, and she would not have been sorry to thrust her spectacles into it." on page 563, in describing the moral looseness and freestyle behavior rampant in certain other countries, a jabbering and somewhat inebriated young man in a pub, character grantaire, says, "i add, as a completion, that i have seen an english girl dance with a crown of roses and blue spectacles." on page 733 the reader's attention is called to father mabeuf, an elderly and retiring scholar of diminishing means, with the comment, 11m. mabeuf 22 had begun to look through, reading by the way, with the help of his spectacles, two books which enchanted him, and in which he was even absorbed, a more serious thing at his age." enjoy your interpretations! artistic science: in an article about dynamic stereoscopy by m. sachsenweger in the november/december 1988 issue of augenoptik, vol. 105, no. 6, pp. 162-166, the early awareness of stereopsis is delightfully illustrated in a 1613 copperplate engraving by peter paul rubens showing a scholar with one eye closed demonstrating his loss of depth perception by his failure to place his finger on a short rod being held a short distance in front of him by one of three putti (young renaissance boys with wings). more about zeiss: the hundredth anniversary of the death of carl friedrich zeiss (1816 1888) is commemorated in a "historisches" article by m. jahne in the november/december 1988 issue of augenoptik, vol. 105, no. 6, pp. 183-185 plus illustrations on the inside front cover. in addition to an account of his life and career is a reproduction of a portrait of zeiss at age 65 and of numerous postage stamps and postmarks issued in recognition of zeiss and his contributions. the philatelic illustrations are from the private collection of the author, whose address is dr. med. j. jahne, chefarzt der augenklinik, bezirkskrankenhaus "ernst scheffler", aue, semmelweis siedlung 8, schlema, ddr9408 (east germany). the serious jest: the april 1988 issue of this newsletter, p. 26 of vol. 19, had a commentary on the mysterious full-face mask appearing in a korean journal. dr. charles letocha responded with copies of two articles in the september 1957 issue of zeiss werkzeitschrift, vol. 5, no. 25. the one on page 7 4 by theodor grossman is entitled, "the spectacles~on the grotesque helmet in the tower of london." the other on pages 75-76 by hans reetz is entitled "interpretations of a bespectacled jester's mask." grossman reports that the spectacles are part of a collection of gifts sent by the emperor maximilian i to henry viii. the emperor had them made in his court armory in innsbruck under the direction of the famous armor master konrad seusenhofer. they were delivered to henry viii in london in 1514 by konrad's brother hans seusenhofer. the spectacles and the grotesque helmet are mentioned in 1660 in the inventory of the tower collection according to which 23 the mask and spectacles were worn by will somers, court jester of henry viii. there is no evidence that the spectacle frame ever served to hold optically effective lenses. the article by reetz discusses the historical significance and symbolism of masks, helmets, spectacles, and court jesters. he comments, "the spectacles as an idea for the grotesque mask are like the dot on the i." further on he adds, "all along they have been the symbol of intellectual activity, not only an optical aid but an attribute of the scholar and intellectual person. however when, as with our grotesque helmet, the spectacles appear in conjunction with the subhuman, the demoniacal and satanic (the horns!), the intellectual is dragged into the subhuman." incidentally, dr. letocha has a color slide of the grotesque mask with the rivet spectacles. einstein and "magnifying glasses": in a letter reprinted from the princeton packet in the winter 1984 issue of the news bulletin of the wills eye hospital society, henry abrams, m.d., describes his delightfully friendly relationship with professor albert einstein following his assumption of the role of family physician to the einstein family in 1939. he comments, "to some extent, my discussions with professor einstein helped direct me to study ophthalmology, which was more exact than general practice." he comments further, "when i finished my yearly checkup of his eyes, i would tell him that his glasses could be improved 4 0 percent with a new prescription. his reply invariably, with a smile, would be, 'a friend in new york sends me these simple magnifying glasses as a gift each year,and if they do no real harm, henry, i prefer not to change them. i don't want to hurt his feelings. you don't mind if i continue, do you'" attention to this anecdote was called by ohs member charles letocha. would that we could complete the charm with information about the provider of the "magnifying glasses." oldest optometric journal? possibly the longest continuing serial publication in optics, primarily optometrically oriented, is augenoptik, an east german journal started in 1880. the title varied from time to time, but it always included the generic term optik. there was a three year interruption with world war ii. the varying titles reflected primarily split-offs of other types of subject matter into new journals, but the optical nucleus retained the continuing volume numbering. the present title augenoptik was adopted in 1964, 24 corresponding more precisely with the german concept of optometry. in the january/february 1989 issue, volume 109, no. 1, on the inside front cover is a commentary by editor v. maxam on the journal trends during its 40 years under the present regime of the deutschen demokratischen republik. he points out the increasing expansion of the contents of the journal to include several health­ related involvements of the profession not unlike the trends in the western world. to eliminate spectacles: at the may 1988 meeting of the ocular heritage society w. h. marshall, m.d., presented a paper entitled "spectacles rendered useless" in which he described "sight restorers," "intensive ciliary exercisers," "lax-optic pinhole glasses," "eye sharpeners," "normalizers" and other devices, systems, regimens, and advices that have appeared on the market for those who have sought to eliminate the need for glasses. his presentation included forty slide pairs. he informs us that copies of the original slides are on file at the museum of ophthalmology in san francisco and that he would be pleased to provide copies at cost to ilamo. his collection is on permanent display in his office at 716 east university avenue, gainesville, florida 32601, telephone (904) 373-2099, and he would welcome visits from ohs members. editors: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1989-20-02-001 1989-20-02-002 1989-20-02-003 1989-20-02-004 1989-20-02-005 1989-20-02-006 1989-20-02-007 1989-20-02-008 1989-20-02-009 1989-20-02-010 1989-20-02-011 1989-20-02-012 hindsightr nfcj:lm .. r op / newsletter of the ' ' '" ", injj,4n4/j.\l / optometric historical society d f c 7vlrs!1}' 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa ljjj. 1 5 19gg volume 30 october 1999 numbe~y ohs meeting at the american academy of optometry meeting: the optometric historical society will meet on friday, december 10, 1999, at 5:00 pm in the cedar room of the sheraton hotel in seattle during the american academy of optometry meetings. (when you arrive at the aao meeting, check the schedule to confirm the room location for the ohs meeting) ohs member jay enoch will make a presentation entitled "new findings on ancient egyptian lenses dating from 4600 years ago, including a demonstration of the 'eye following illusion' model." dr. enoch is, of course, well known for his contributions to optometric education and administration, his contributions to ophthalmic science in areas such as photoreceptor orientation, low vision, perimetry, and hyperacuity, as well as his work on the history of visual and optical science. dr. enoch is currently professor of the graduate school at university of california at berkeley and professor of physiological optics in ophthalmology at the university of california at san francisco. goldmann's perimeter: in the august, 1999, issue of optometry and vision science (volume 76, number 8, pages 599-604), ohs member t. david williams published a translation of "fundamentals of exact perimetry" by hans goldmann. the article was originally published in german in the journal ophthalmologica (1945; 109: 57-70). at the time goldmann was at the university eye clinic of bern, bern, germany. the paper was originally going to be delivered at the swiss ophthalmological conference in 1944, but the meeting was postponed indefinitely due to the circumstances of the war. the paper deals largely with the variables that affect visual fields and sensitivity of individual retinal points in testing with perimetry, as well as with the requirements for a useful perimeter. when david williams was asked for his thoughts on the historical significance of goldmann's paper, this is what he had to say: i have always admired goldmann for his many contributions to the ophthalmic field: the goldmann­ weekers dark adaptometer, the goldmann perimeter, the goldmann tonometer, and the three-mirror contact lens which also carries his name, to mention a few. i think that the perimeter that he described in his 1945 article is remarkable because it is still in use today, with only minor modifications. his efforts to find the equivalence between increased target area and increased target intensity bore fruit later on in what he called the 'stimulus value'. this is obtained by adding together the roman and arabic numerals for the test target: if these produce the same sum, the targets should yield the same isopter. to make this work, he arranged the intensity steps in 0.5 log intensity units and the target area steps in 0.6 log area units. one thing i wish i'd had a chance to ask goldmann about (he died in 1991) was his decision to have a target size designated '0' --zero. this was in sequence with his target sizes identified with roman numerals from i to v: the romans didn't use the numeral zero. another excellent feature of the goldmann perimeter: it was designed in the middle 1930s, is still in use today, and is fully y2k compliant! national optometry hall of fame selects four for this year's induction ceremony: the national optometry hall of fame held its induction ceremony on friday, october 15, 1999, at the cleveland, ohio, convention center in conjunction with the annual eastwest eye conference. the eastwest eye conference is organized by the ohio optometric association. this year's four inductees joined glenn fry and irvin barish in the hall of fame. the following excerpts the press release provided to hindsight by dr. robert newcomb: four outstanding visionary leaders in the profession of optometry were chosen for the national optometry hall of fame this year; they are charles f. prentice (posthumously), charles sheard (posthumously), meredith w. morgan (posthumously), and henry w hofstetter. charles f. prentice is the originator of the method now used to specify the power of prisms in ophthalmic prisms ("prentice's rule"). the first model to demonstrate static and dynamic refraction in the eye was produced by prentice, as well as an astigmatic eye model and optical principles which relate to sphere­ cylindrical lens prescriptions. but perhaps his greatest 30/22 contribution to the profession was the leadership he showed in the early part of the 20th century for legalizing the profession of optometry, and for differentiating the value of professional optometric services from the value of the ophthalmic materials used to treat refractive errors. charles sheard, who was a contemporary of prentice in the early 1900s, was the first person in optometry to publish a list of tests needed to examine the human eye at both distance and near. in 1917, his dynamic ocular tests included eighteen objective and subjective testing procedures that he considered essential for a thorough visual examination. before this, there was no such standardization of optometric testing. in addition, he founded and edited the original "american journal of optometry," which published some of the initial major scientific contributions in vision science. the famous "sheard's criterion" for determining a patient's binocular "zone of comfort" is familiar to every optometrist. meredith w. morgan helped to guide the school of optometry at the university of california, berkeley, through 67 of its 75 years. his research into the elements of binocular vision resulted in many scientific papers which established a scientific understanding of how the two eyes work in synchrony to focus and converge on near-point objects. in 1944, he published his now-famous mathematical analysis of expecteds for accommodative and convergence testing (referred to as "morgan's norms"). he was also a major contributor to landmark optometric textbooks dealing with the visual needs of children and the elderly. in 1967, he received the prestigious prentice medal from the american academy of optometry; and in 1998, he was honored by the uc berkeley school of optometry when it named the school's teaching and research clinic after him. henry w hofstetter, rudy professor emeritus in the school of optometry at indiana university, has served with distinction at three optometric educational institutions (the ohio state university, los angeles college of optometry-now the southern california college of optometry, and indiana university) during his career of over fifty years. he is the author of over 30/23 500 scientific papers and four textbooks on the subject of eye care and the optometric profession. he has received five honorary degrees, the prentice medal from the american academy of optometry, the apollo award from the american optometric association, and the international optometrist of the year award from the international optometric and optical league. in april of 1999, he received the first distinguished service award from the world council of optometry. the selection committee that chose this year's four honorees was composed of representatives from six major national organizations, which represent optometric practice, education, and research. the members were drs. richard hopping (aoa), bradford wild (aao), alan lewis (asco), clayton hicks (noa), w. c. maples (covd), and karla zadnik (arvo). other members included last year's recipient, dr. lrv barish, as well as dr. robert d. newcomb, who chaired the group and is a member of the eastwest eye conference executive planning committee. carol brown accepted the medal on behalf of charles prentice. his medal will be displayed in the ohio optometric association office in columbus. john schoessler, dean of the college of optometry at the ohio state university accepted on behalf of charles sheard. sheard's medal will be displayed in the ohio state university college of optometry. james sheedy, faculty member at university of california berkeley accepted on behalf of meredith morgan. his medal will be presented to dr. morgan's daughter, linda, who lives in the san francisco area. david goss accepted the medal for henry hofstetter and presented it to dr. hofstetter in bloomington, indiana a few days after the induction ceremony. dr. newcomb emphasized that the readers of hindsight should feel free to nominate persons for next year's induction. next year's selection committee will be chaired by dr. richard hill. nominations can be sent to dr. hill at: college of optometry, the ohio state university, 338 west tenth avenue, columbus, oh 43210. early middle age lenses: in the september, 1999, issue of optometry and vision science (volume 76, number 9, pages 624-630), olaf schmidt, karl-heinz wilms, and bernd lingelbach of aalen university of applied science and ophthalmic instruments rodenstock of germany discuss "the visby lenses." these lenses were found with viking 30/24 treasures placed in gotland in about the 11th or 12th centuries. some of the lenses had a silver mounting with a silver plate on the back side and were likely to have been used as jewelry. some of the lenses were unmounted and did not show any signs of being used as jewelry. most of the lenses had aspheric surfaces. the place of origin of these lenses is unknown. the authors studied the optics of the unmounted lenses by determining the ellipsoids which best fitted the surfaces of the lenses. they then computed the spherical aberration produced. they found that in some of the lenses spherical aberration was less than that of later spherical reading stones and was almost as good as spherical lenses produced today. schmidt et al. suggested that the middle age craftsmen who made the lenses "most certainly had an empiric knowledge about how a piece of rock crystal must be shaped to achieve a certain effect," even though they didn't have knowledge of the laws of refraction and reflection. the authors note that the optimization of the lenses may have been intended to improve the optical performance for nearpoint tasks or it could have been an unintended consequence of a nice design. d.a.g. history of dpa and tpa legislation efforts: in the march, 1999, issue of the journal of the american optometric association (volume 70, number 3, pages 145-170), ohs member melvin wolfberg recounts optometry's efforts to expand scope of practice to include diagnostic pharmaceutical agents (dpa) and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents (tpa). wolfberg used personal correspondence and other sources to describe the work of various individuals. he also highlighted the role of pennsylvania college of optometry from which he graduated in 1951 and for which he later served as president. wolfberg identifies albert fitch, founder and longtime president of pennsylvania (state) college of optometry, as the individual who first worked significantly for expansion of scope of practice in the first half of the twentieth century. although fitch was unsuccessful in attempts to expand the scope of practice in pennsylvania, he did make certain that the pennsylvania college of optometry curriculum was strong in the biomedical areas of anatomy, pathology, and pharmacology. the strong background in these areas led pennsylvania optometrists in 1961 to have a bill introduced into the state legislature. this bill was opposed by the american optometric association. the aoa position at that time was that such legislation would damage already tenuous relations with ophthalmology. the 1961 pennsylvania bill did not pass. 30/25 the first optometric dpa law in the united states was passed in rhode island in 1971. the article contains lists of the dates of enactment of opa and tpa laws in the fifty states, the district of columbia, and guam. the article discusses a number of optometric conferences on scope of practice and quotes letters and recollections of several individuals. having been pennsylvania optometric association president in 1961 and aoa president in 1969-70, wolfberg personally observed much debate and activity regarding optometric scope of practice, which he summarizes in this article. d.a.g. * * * managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.) contributing editors: henry w. hofstetter ( 1 050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 30/26 1999-30-04-001 1999-30-04-002 1999-30-04-003 1999-30-04-004 1999-30-04-005 1999-30-04-006 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. volume 6 april 1975 1975 o.h.s. officers: r:lf~l 1 a 1975 63119) number 2 john r. levene, d.phil., professor of optometry at indiana university, was elected president of the optometric historical society for the year 1975. he is a charter member of the society, a member of the executive board, and had served as vice president since its founding in 1969. newly elected as vice president is henry a. knoll, ph.d., senior scientist, bausch & lomb co., rochester, new york. dr. knoll is a charter member of the society and is also the most recently elected member of the executive board for a five year term. mrs. maria dablemont, librarian/archivist of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, was re-elected secretary-treasurer for the sixth consecutive year. she is also a charter member and a member of the executive board. james r. gregg, o.d., and sol tannebaum, o.d. are the other two members of the five-person executive board. dr. henry hofstetter, rudy professor of optometry at indiana university, has been re-appointed editor of the quarterly newsletter of the optometric historical society, which is now in its sixth year of publication. dr. hofstetter, a founding member, was president and a member of the executive board during the first five years of the society's existence. president john writes editor, me: "dear henry: "for historical purposes, you may wish to know that this will be my first communique as president of the society. it has a twofold purpose namely, a thank you followed by a request. "i am sure that i speak for all the members of the society in express­ ing sincerest thanks to you for editing the newsletter. an editor's work is never easy, and is frequently tedious. yet when reading the newsletter one is struck by the overall tenure of pleasure, perhaps joyfulness is not too strong a word that pervades each issue that appears to emanate from the editor's pen. i am perhaps putting it rather clumsily, but i believe you know what i mean. the newsletter never reads as though it had been a chore to edit or to write. i would like you to continue as editor, certainly for the coming year and unless i hear to the contrary from any member, please consider yourself appointed! i can appreciate that you have a sabbatical coming up and will be happy to stand in for the october issue. -20"i suspect that any use of the term connnuniqu~ has a certain too official ring about it, for what is really a simple letter. however, you must also appreciate that for the first month at least, i do not wear my presidential title lightly, and should be forgiven, temporarily, for literary grandeur or pedantry. "once again, thank you for having been editor, and i look forward to seeing many more years of editorship from you. gifts to o.h.s. are deductible: -"yours, (signed) "john levene" in a letter from the district director of internal revenue service dated february 26, 1975, we are informed that donors may deduct contribu­ tions to the optometric historical society for tax benefit purposes as provided in section 170 of the internal revenue code. as previously reported in this newsletter, the optomebpic historical society is incorporated as a not-for-profit society. application for tax exempt status was filed several months ago with the assistance of albert m. katz, c.p.a., and thomas e. eichhorst, j.d., who not on~-y did the complex paper work but also checked every legal and accounting operation to assure our compliance. what does this mean? certainly we do not propose to compete with other meritorious optometrically-oriented foundations for bequests, legacies, and gifts. on the other hand, the society should be a natural medium to handle donations clearly intended to support projects having primarily historical significance. for example, a substantial gift, legacy, or bequest to under­ write the cost of publishing a thousand copies of a fine historical document would be a tremendous stimulus to enlist greater interest in our heritage~ so, if you, or someone you know, could be interested in providing for a fine historical project in a will or by means of an outright endowment, remember that the optometric historical society is a logical and tax-exempt recipient for this purpose. arthur~ dittmer (1900-1939): "thars a gold mine of history in the ole patent office" is o.h.s. vice president henry knoll's introduction to the following connnents in a recent letter. "for 100 years the main plant of bausch & lomb, inc. has been located on st. paul street in rochester, new york. recently a decision was made to vacate the old buildings and move to a new location in the same city. -21during the process of sorting and packing in preparation for moving, several trial sets of scleral contact lenses came to light. the lenses, consisting of a glass optical portion and a plastic scleral flange, were made just prior to world war ii. for a number of reasons, including defense projects, the contact lens program was shelved. one of the people associated with this project was arthur f. dittmer, ph.d. "a man whose professional activities brought him in association with dr. leonard t. troland, dr. paul boeder, mr. fred w. jobe, and dr. william feinbloom, deserves mention in the archives of optometric history. his obituary written by fred w. jobe appeared in the journal of the optical society of america, volume 30, page 319, 1940. "dr. dittmer was born in ludington, michigan, august 11, 1900. he was graduated from the university of michigan in 1923 with an a.b. degree and received his doctorate degree from princeton in 1926. "following his graduation, dr. dittmer was a research physicist at nela research laboratories in cleveland, working on the characteristics of mercury arcs. after leaving cleveland he served for a year as instructor at the ohio state university and then became connected with the technicolor motion picture corporation in boston. leaving technicolor, dr. dittmer joined the staff of the dartmouth medical school where he was actively engaged in the development of the ikonic lens. in 1936 he became a member of the scientific bureau of the bausch & lomb optical co. where he worked on the development of contact lenses. in 1938 he left bausch & lomb to continue the same work with optical research inc. of new york city. "during his association with the technicolor motion picture corpora­ tion, dr. dittmer worked with dr. l.t. troland. when dr. paul boeder joined the dartmouth eye institute, he worked briefly with dr. dittmer and carried on his work after dr. dittmer's departure. his association with mr. jobe coincided with his employment at bausch & lomb. his brief tenure with optical research, inc. of new york city brought him into a close working relationship with dr. william feinbloom. "in my conversations with paul boeder, fred jobe, and bill feinbloom, i was told that dr. dittmer was a brilliant man. he was further charac­ terized as being independent and intense. unfortunately, the only published results of his labors are nine u.s. patents. the first patent, which relates to the design of iseikonic spectacles, was assigned to the dartmouth eye institute. the remaining eight patents were assigned to the bausch & lomb optical company. four of these patents were concerned with the design of otoscopes. one relates to the design of an acuity projector and the last one describes the design and construction of a spectacle mounted galilean telescope. this was marketed by bausch & lomb, inc. for a number of years as the cataract minifying lens. "one of the contact lenses patents involved the design of direct and indirect contact lens galilean optical systems for the correction of magni­ fication differences in cases of monocular aphakia. this approach has recently been described in several papers by dr. jay enoch. -22"for those who are interested, i also located two obituaries for dr. troland: journal of the optical society of america, 22, 509-511, 1932, portrait included, and american journal of optometry, 9, 425, 1932." thanks, dr. knoll, for calling our attention to two brilliant young gentlemen who made very significant contributions to optometric science and technology, and who, had they attained normal life spans, would unquestionably have become very familiary personalities among most of us living today. sight restoring, 1865: o.h.s. executive committee member james gregg received a photocopy of page 655 of the oct. 14, 1865, issue of harper's weekly, vol. 9, no. 459, from dale d. freeberg, o.d., 4445 west broadway, hawthorne, california 90250. dale inherited the civil war, 1861-1865, issues of the serial collected by his great grandfather. an advertisement on the cited page illustrates a simple looking tool which seems to consist of a knob handle at one end of an approximately cylindrical stem, at the opposite end of which is a concave surface which, presumably, one can press against the cornea. the legend, some in bold type reads, "restore your sight. use dr. j. stephens & co.'s patent cornea restorers •••• they will restore impaired sight, and preserve it to the latest period of life. spectacles rendered useless. "the most eminent physicians, oculists, divines, and the most prominent men of our country, recommend the use of the cornea restorers for presbyopia, or far or long-sightedness, or every person who wears spectacles from old age: dimness of vision, or blurring; overworked eyes; asthenopia, or weak eyes; epiphora, or watery eyes; pain in the eyeball; amaurosis, or obscurity of vision; photophobia, or intolerance of sight; weakness of the retina and optic nerve; myodesopia, or specks or moving bodies before the eyes; ophthalmia, or inflammation £f the eye and eyelids; cataract eyes; hemiopia, or partial blindness; sinking of the eyeball; strabismus, or squinting, &c. "they can be used by any one with a certainty of success, and without the least fear of injury to the eye. more than 5000 certificates of cures are exhibited at our office. cure guaranteed in every case when applied according to the directions inclosed in each box, or the money will be refunded. write for ~ circular -sent gratis. address "dr. j. stephens & co., oculists, no. 74 john street, new york "p.s. dr. j. stephens & co. have invented and patented a myopia, or cornea flattener, for the cure of near sightedness, which has proven a great success. write for a circular." ..;,;,._.::;...:..-"---commented dr. freeberg, "maybe they had ortho-keratology 109 years ago~" -23100 years before television: on the same page of the above-cited harper's weekly is another interesting advertisement, by a new york manufacturer of photographic materials. offered at both "wholesale and retail" are "stereoscopes and stereoscopic views. of these we have an immense assortment, including views of the war. obtained at great expense and forming a complete photographic history of the great union contest" listed as available are stereoscopic views of "bull run, yorktown,. . gettysburgh, fair oaks, savage station, fredericksburgh, fairfax, richmond, deep bottom, monitors, fort morgan, charleston, florida, dutch gap, pontoon trains, hanover junction, lookout mountain, chickahominy, city point, nashville, petersburgh, bello plain, chattanooga, atlanta, mobile, strawberry plains, &c, &c." louis braille (1809-1852): in 1952, one hundred years after braille's death, the american foundation for the blind, new york, published the reading fingers, life of louis braille, by jean roblin, translated from the french by ruth g. mandalian. it is a beautiful and moving biography. at the age of three louis accidentally pierced one of his eyes with a sharp cutting tool in his father's harness-making shop in the french village of coupvray, near paris. the onset of purulent ophthalmia and subsequent infection of the other eye left him totally blind. a local abb~ and a local teacher became aware of louis' unusual intelligence at an early age and got him admitted to the royal institution for the young blind, in paris in 1819, the same year that charles barbier, an artillery captain in louis xviii's army announced to the academy of science the "invention of a new machine which engraves a writing of secret combination without its being necessary to see the equipment, [i.e., in the dark]." an academy evaluation committee the following year reported~ "this process makes communication between the deaf and the blind possible." barbier used impressions of dots and dashes on thin cardboard, called "night writing." to extend its use beyond military maneuvers in darkness he devised a phonetic code for use by the blind, named the system sono­ graphy, and attempted to introduce it into the institution where young braille was a pupil, about 1820-1821. louis, then 12 years old, learned sonography, and suggested a great many possible improvements, but could not convince the then 55 year old barbier. so, louis undertook to devise a whole new system on his own, and by the time he was 15 he invented a whole new code of 63 combinations representing all of the alphabet, the accents, punctuation marks, and mathematical signs. it was braille's system which eventually won world-wide acceptance, though braille never failed to give barbier full credit for the concept. barbier died in 1841 at the age of 75. braille contracted tuberculosis and died in 1852, two days after his own 43rd birthday anniversary. he was buried in the same french village in which he was born. -24more leads from leeds: ---="-~.:.. book collector james leeds, o.d., checks his shelves for every old optometry book mentioned in this newsletter, almost invariably finding that he has it or a more valuable edition. so he reports that he has the second edition of bohne's "handbook for opticians," 1892, and three of "crusty dr. shastid's" books, "an outline of ophthalmology," published by the american optical co., southbridge, massachusetts, in 1927, "light, · the raw material of vision," published by george wahr, ann arbor, michigan, in 1936, and "ophthalmic jurisprudence" published by cleveland press, chicago, in 1916. he could not resist adding that he has vols. i and ii of thomas young's "natural philosophy," new edition, taylor & walton, london, 1845, and a copy of alex wood's "thomas young, natural philosopher," cambridge university press, england, 1954. as an aside he says he has a copy of james p.c. southall's "in the days of my youth," university of north carolina press, 1947, in which there is "not a word about geometrical optics!" with his chatty letter he enclosed two celluloid (i think) protrac­ tors which he found in a trial case purchased from the late roy denny, o.d. of indianapolis, indiana, who had started practicing optometry in 1917. the two protractors are shown below • . ·~ ·-~.. 1 . pftotftac:tor pupillary distance • t" 3111cm lllllllll~~lllllll~j~llljlll~~llljlll~j~llljll111111jlll~~~~~~llllf1111111~~~~~~~~~f111!111~j:iiiiiii~~~~~~~~~~~~~~iii~l~llljiii~iiiiiii~l -----· patented april 7'j:i1914 protractor millimeters ~~% forward ey4 : !ia !ia v.. back ·o/a:; a inches :1: u z -~-----. 1 pa.ramount optical co. indianapolis, ind. su.ictly wholwu pupillary distance t i" i iiich ·-·---~lt i ! ii 11111111 i 11,11 i !ttllllllll fll i t!ltllll ill i ~ii ii ii iiiii ill i ~ 111111 11111111 ~llltlttlllltllt ~i .-25though both of these are well over 50 years old, and were thoroughly finger-stained from use, they cleaned up readily with detergent and water. on the back of each are instructions for measuring "pupillary distance," "bridge height," and "position of crest." also on the back of the w.a. · jones optical co. protractor is a metric scale, an inches scale, and an inch-and-diopter conversion table. the paramount optical co. protractor includes the legend "patented april 7th, 1914" and, in extremely small print, "the whitehead & hoag co., newark, n.j. ii i wonder if anyone collects optical protractors and other ophthalmic measuring platens. such a collection would tell a story indeed. "bill mac" and barnstorming: the episode of the involvement of wm. p. maccracken, jr., in the 1932 probe of federal air-mail contracts is told by virginia van der veer hamilton in an article entitled "barnstorming the u.s. mail" in the august 1974 issue of american heritage, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 32-36 & 86-88. bill maccracken's role in the fiasco continuing into 1933 and 1934 is described as a headline-making opera bouffe when then senator hugo black offered a resolution directing mr. maccracken's arrest. the whole story included such other familiar persons as postmaster general james a. farley, captain eddie rickenbacker, lieutenant colonel henry h. "hap" arnold, general douglas macarthur, previous postmaster general walter f. brown, colonel charles a. lindbergh, representative hamilton fish, amelia earhart, harold ickes, and president franklin d. roosevelt. bill mac's side of the story, not really very different, is told in his biography, "mr. mac," by michael osborn and joseph riggs, with comments by charles lindbergh and mr. justioeblack, published by southern college of optometry, memphis, tennessee, 1970. in 1942 mr. maccracken was hired by the american optometric association as washington counsel and served in this role until his death in 1969. john mcallister, jr. (1786-1877): the second of five successive generations of mcallister optometrists was honored by the historical society of pennsylvania in a four page · "memorial notice of john mcallister, jr." by charles m. morris in the pennsylvania magazine of history ! biography, vol. 2, 1868, pp. 92-95. it was noted that he lived to "the venerable age of 91 years, 5 months, and 18 days," a life span that had been exceeded by only one other member of the society. he had graduated in science from the university of pennsylvania in 1803. subsequently he joined his father in the firm of "john mcallister & son" which "soon became respected through the whole country, and stood at the head of the department--one as much scientific -26as of trade--which embraces for its subjects, optical and mathematical instruments." he was a collector of ancient pamphlets, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts and so "was continually appealed to about men, things, and events of former days in philadelphia." he introduced "the admirable system of numbering houses according to the number of the streets~ schwimmer's luck: john kubler: the life and world of al capone, g.p. putnam's sons, new york, 1971 ($8.95) p. 243: among the seven murdered in the saint valentine's day massacre in chicago on february 14, 1929, was an optometrist named reinhardt h. schwimmer. all of the other six were heavily armed, and they carried cash in their pockets totalling about $5,000. wrote kubler, "schwimmer was an anomaly. in the gang but not of it, enjoying the company of criminals but not himself inclined to criminality, he had met ["bugs"] moran at the parkway hotel, where he, too, resided, and became his beglamored friend. he was an optometrist by profession, aged thirty. like parker henderson, he derived an excitement, a vicarious feeling of power from intimacy with gangsters. he had dropped into the warehouse, as he frequently did on his way to work, to see what the north siders were up to, and he had stayed to chat." in the photograph of the slaughtered o'banion gangsters, following p. 256, "the helpless optometrist, schwimmer, still wore his hat, • • " this massacre, " ••• left the caponeites masters of the chicago underworld." more about schwimmer: mr. howard browne, 11026 negley avenue, san diego, california, did a remarkable amount of research on dr. schwimmer for a film script pertaining to the valentine's day massacre. he reports that "reinie," the victim's nickname, was born december 1, 1899, in chicago, of german immigrant parents. he was twice married and divorced. handsome and well-bred, he had no real interest in optometry, having studied it only under his father's insistence. though he had no criminal record whatsoever, he became a gangster buff, dressing like them, patronizing their tailors and haberdashers, aping their mannerisms, etc. he was gunned down with eight machinegun bullets and a cluster of 12 buckshot only because he happened to be present when the killers walked in. death was instantaneous. 1934 contact lenses: a clipping from the feb. 16 issue of the chattanooga news free press features a mr. john s. clark who still has in their original case a pair of contact lenses made for him in 1934. it was reported that in 19 34 he made a trip to new york city "where two german specialists fitted him with heavy, glass contact lenses." he wore them almost two years, apparently every other day. then he submitted to surgery, a corneal transplant. -27the clipping was sent to me by c. wayne shearer, o.d., whereupon i wrote to mr. clark to suggest that he take steps to make sure that these lenses eventually get placed in a good museum. understandably, i recommended the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. "listed optometrists" in 1939: o.h.s. member james leeds, o.d., found an interesting pamphlet among the professional effects of the late roy e. denny, o.d., entitled association of listed optometrists, by j. fred andreae, o.d., secretary, baltimore, maryland, 1939. identified as a "confidential list, not for publication," it includes in the foreword, "the primary reason for the compilation of this list of names is to provide a means of knowing to whom to refer a patient who may move to another city." listed are approximately 200 names in the then 48 states, the district of columbia, five canadian provinces, and one in south africa. inserted in the pamphlet was a certificate signed by dr. andreae and dated dec. 1, 1939, with the declaration "be it known by virtue of qualification, ethical professional practice and environment roy e. denny is recommended as worthy of the full confidence of those requiring visual care." an additional insert requests the recipient to "please check this list carefully and advise whether there are any names included which do · not comply with requirements, i.e., practice being conducted in the same manner and similar location as the ethical dentists and physicians in the same locality." also, "please send in the names of those optome­ trists meeting the requirements and whose names have been omitted." this donation is being forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. ~louis saks (1899-1975): the death of "j.l." on february 3 brought to a close the personalized history of optometry in the republic of south africa. born in london, england, on february 14, 1899, he went to south africa with his parents at the age of six, returned to london in 1918 to study and qualify in pharmacy and optometry, and returned to pretoria, south africa, where he commenced the practice of optometry on his own in 1925. his successful defense in a crucial court decision in 1931 effectively established the professional status of optometry in south africa. his subsequent partici­ pation in every vital phase of organizational activity; educational, editorial, administrative, political, legislative, financial, interpro­ fessional, and fraternal, made him a living legend; truly the personifi­ cation of his profession. so it was with heavy heart that, upon learning of his death, i lifted the folder from my correspondence file labeled "saks, j.l." in order to transfer the contents to the ilamo (international library, -28archives, and museum of optometry). but first i carefully, if not indeed lovingly, arranged the well over 100 pieces of correspondence in chronological sequence. the first was an introductory letter dated 30th july, 1956 from j.l. saks & sons to dr. henry wm. hofstetter, and the last was a december 1974 letter to "j.l." from "hank." between these two is a veritable chronology of south african optometry interspersed with arguments, personal expressions of hope and distress, touching commentary on people and things, and some philosophy. it is not easy to separate one's self from such nostalgia-eliciting memoranda, but i do remind myself that the transfer of this file is not a separation; rather it is merely assuring history scholars and posterity that the information is now available for sharing. recollections of dr. leroy ryer: this is the title of a warm, friendly, and very touching account by harold m. fisher, o.d., who practiced for many years in association with dr. ryer. it appears in the december 1974 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 45, no. 12, pp. 1424-1428. allium sativum: so classified by linnaeus, the great eighteenth-century taxonomist, as a member of the lily family (along with the onion, the leek, and the shallot), garlic seems always to have been enlivened by myth. all of the oldest cultures -china, mesopotamia, egypt -invested garlic with a multiplicity of powers. there was even a warning against its use in the influential thirteenth-century "regimen sanitatis salernitanum" as "hurtful! for sight." this we are told by berton roueche in a profiles feature entitled "a friend in disguise" in the oct. 28, 1974, issue of the new yorker, vol. 50, no. 36, pp. 55-58 & 61-62. dark adaptation: though phenomena identifiable as night blindness were mentioned by the ancient greeks and arabians, and physical photometry was initiated by lambert in the 18th century, the quantitative measurement of the process of dark adaptation was not begun until the latter half of the 19th century, by richard foerster. thilo von haugwitz has authored a brief historical review of adaptometry in the july 1974 issue of augenspiegel, vol. 20, no. 7, pp. 318-328, with illustrations of instruments used by foerster, winger, nagel, piper, and several others in an article entitled, "zur geschichte der adaptometrie." f . . . . t:tf 7-:> it··. -29lacemaker's condenser: this expression is not in the current edition of the dictionary of visual science, but it is the name of an early visual aid. it is illustrated in use in plate number 3(a) facing page 32 of william t. o'dea's "social history of lighting," macmillan co., new york, 1958. i am told that an original lacemaker's condenser is on exhibit at the koehler house museum in sheboygan, wisconsin. this most notable invention was made at the beginning of the 17th century. it consisted of simply one or more glass spheres filled with water to concentrate the light .from a candle flame upon a small area of work. the above-mentioned lacemaker's condenser, as it came to be known, had a single candle and four spheres, thus concentrating the candle light into four areas for four different workers. the apparatus was also used by engravers, jewelers, cobblers, and others who worked at fine tasks at night, but there were not many of them. such extra­ vagance was rare. directory of current members: abernethy, don, o.d. 202 north locust street grand island, ne 68801 abrams, j.j., o.d. 4516 west washington st. indianapolis, in 46241 arista, maria i., o.d. 490 west commercial ave. lowell, in 46356 armstrong, h.c., o.d. 511 robeson bldg. champaign, il 61820 babcock, mrs. joseph m. 3130 south dorchester rd. columbus, oh 43221 bailey, george w., o.d. (june 1 to nov. 1) 417 elizabeth street ogdensburg, ny 13669 (nov. 1 to june 1) 2800 indian river blvd. vista harbor apt. 7-f vero beach, fl 32960 baldwin, dr. william r., president massachusetts college of optometry 424 beacon street boston, ma 02115 -cont'dbarker, felix m., ii, o.d. 1925 greenwyche avenue columbia, sc 29210 bennett, irving, o.d. 1316 sixth avenue beaver falls, pa 15010 berman, marvin r., o.d. p.o. box 15, foxwood dover, delaware 19901 borish, irvin m., o.d. indiana university division of optometry bloomington, in 47401 brewer, bruce j., o.d. 535 east 1st. south #8 salt lake city, utah 84102 brown, john j. o.d. r.d. no. 1, box 2051 englishtown, nj 07726 burgess, stanley, o.d. 44 e. shirley street mount union, pa 17066 r.g. bursua, o.d. 300 n. market street suite no. 2 marion, illinois 62959 caplan, lester, o.d. 6660 security blvd. baltimore, md 21207 chang, t.c. 1701 asian house 1 hennessy road hong kong cinco, claro m., o.d. osvel building jones avenue ceby city, philippines cline, david, o.d. 4943 calderon road woodland hills, ca 91364 crum, penn c., o.d. 6403 del monte, #43 houston, tx 77027 crundall, eric j. 40 bowling green lane london ecir one england dablemont, earl r. 1435 wells avenue st. louis, mo 63119 dablemont, maria, (mrs.) 1435 wells avenue st. louis, mo 63119 daubs, jack, o.d., m.p.h. 173 central avenue milton, ma 02187 day, robert e., o.d. 30 34 broadway garland, tx 75040 degrave, lue (mrs.) technical information center soflens division bausch & lomb, inc. 1400 north goodman street rochester, ny 14602 dickson, james f., jr., o.do p.o. box 928 lindsay, ca 93247 -30-cont'ddupuis, sylvia, o.d. 434 hevey street manchester, nh 03102 egan, elizabeth, (mrs.) 620 s. woodlawn avenue bloomington, in 47401 engelmann, otto r., o.d. apt. l-3 2800 indian river blvd. vero beach, fl 32960 eure, dr. spurgeon b., president southern college of optometry 1246 madison avenue memphis, tn 38104 ewalt, h. ward, o.d. 8002 jenkins arcade bldg. pittsburgh, pa 15221 ezell, w.c., o.d. 207 andrews building spartanburg, sc 29301 fisher, professor e.j. university of waterloo school of optometry faculty of science waterloo, ontario, canada flynn, brian, l.o.sc. 1145 glenhuntly road glenhuntly, victoria, australia 3163 frescura, ugo (faao) 225 corso alfieri 14100 asti, italy garcia-margarida, luis, o.d. box 9533 santurce, puerto rico 00908 georgia optometric association p.o. box 18815 atlanta, ga 30326 gilbert, madison, o.d. 120 n. hickory owosso, mi 48867 giles, mrs. g.h. 189 watford road harrow, middlesex, england grant, roderick p., o.d. 1520 portage trail cuyahoga falls, oh 44223 grattan, paul e., o.d. 60 third street waterford, ny 12188 gregg, james r., o.d. -31southern california college of optometry 2001 associated road fullerton, ca 92631 guenveur, r.l., o.d. 310 south 5th street mt. horeb, wi 53572 haffner, leon, o.d. 1015 fayette drive fort wayne, in 46806 hale, j.r., o.d. 515 6th street sunnyside, wa 98944 henao r., hernando, o.d. divisi6n of optometry clinica barraquer apartado a~reo no. 11357 bogot~, colombia, south america hirsch, monroe j., ph.d. university of california school of optometry berkeley, ca 94720 hoefert, karl 0., o.d. 110 e. florence blvd. ca.sa grande, az 85222 hoffmann, william n., o.d. 2101 n. edward street decatur, il 62526 hofstetter, h.w., o.d. indiana university division of optometry bloomington, in 47401 -cont'dhopping, richard l., o.d. southern california college of optometry 2001 associated road fullerton, ca 92631 howard, j.d., o.d. 18771 south cicero avenue country club hills, il 60477 hummel, d.g., o.d. 7029 royalton road north royalton, oh 44133 hunt, earl j., o.d. 226 ohio st. johnstown, pa 15902 hussey, lester r., o.d. suite 222, rookery building spokane, wa 99201 jenner, horace h., o.d. 53 east walnut street frankfort, in 46041 jordan, walter e., o.d. 359 e. green street martinsville, in 46151 kahn, howard d., o.d. 154 7 laskin road laskin road office center virginia beach, va 23451 ketchum, fred d., o.d. 154 baronne street new orleans, la 70112 knoll, henry a., ph.d. bausch & lomb rochester, new york 14602 koetting, felix a., o.d. 2730 watson road st. louis, mo 63139 kohn, mrs. harold 130 w. 42nd street new york, ny 10036 kraft, charles b., o.d. box 1 norton, ks 67654 leeds, james p., o.d. 2470 east 116th street carmel, in 46032 lehr, richard r., o.d. 363 e. lancaster avenue downingtown, pa 19335 levene, john r., d.phil. indiana university division of optometry bloomington, in 47401 levin, alvin, o.d. 120 s. hanover street carlisle, pa 17013 levinson, lewis s., o.d. general delivery macdill afb, fl 33608 mcconnie, ralph, o.d. concordia esquina jobos ponce, puerto rico 00732 marg, elwin, ph.d. university of california school of optometry berkeley, ca 94705 melton, garland, o.d. 230 n. block street fayetteville, ar 72701 meneghini, angelo d., o.d. 524 ohio street terre haute, in 47801 edward g. miner library -32university of rochester medical center 260 crittenden blvd. rochester, ny 14620 mohamed, dr. abdulsultan h. box 90582 mombasa, kenya east africa -cont'dmohamed, dr. alnoor hassanali box 2942, dares-salaam tanzania, east africa mohamed, dr. shahnawaz box 90582 mombasa, kenya, east africa mohme, susan (mrs.) 1024 zamora dr. pacifica, ca 94044 universite de montreal bibliotheques-periodiques c.p. 6128 montr~al 101, canada morales, dr. porfirio pharmacist and optometrist box 1224 mayaguez, puerto rico 00708 morgan, meredith w., ph.d. school of optometry university of california berkeley, ca 94720 morris, ruth p., o.d. 3539 glendale avenue toledo, oh 43614 mrozinski, b., optometrysta bydgoszcz 1, al 1-go maja 11 poland myers, raymond, o.d. bausch & lomb 635 st. paul street rochester, ny 14602 library state college of optometry state university of new york 122 east 25th street new york, ny 10010 obremskey, michael j., o.d. heritage mall professional center 7893 heritage drive annandale, va 22003 -33the ohio state university libraries serial division 1858 neil avenue columbus, oh 43210 olsen, olee j., o.d. 6042 the plaza charlotte, nc 28205 oppenheimer, stephen m., o.d. 1501 east 19lst street, #342-j euclid, oh 44117 ortiz, luis a., o.d. box 128 bayamon, puerto rico orzack, louis h., ph.d. 7 bunny circle newton, ma 02158 pacheco, antonio, o.d. p.o. box 10223 santurce, puerto rico 00908 pacheco, antonio, jr. box 10223 santurce, puerto rico pacheco, ramon 00908 lopez landron st. 1150 santurce, puerto rico 00909 pacheco, ramon, o.d. de diego avenue 365 parada 22 santurce, puerto rico 00909 padman, e.l. 47 brisbane street launceston, tasmania australia 7250 parks, b.b., o.d. 904 pendleton street greenville, sc 29601 paul, albert l., o.d. laurel shopping center laurel, md 20810 -cont'dlibrary pennsylvania college of optometry 6100 north twelfth street philadelphia, pa 19141 pheiffer, chester h., o.d., ph.d. 4702 rockwood drive houston, tx 77004 ratanasirintrawoot, premvadee, o.d. 925 mahachai road bangkok 2, thailand reed, dr., o.d. 912 michigan avenue la porte, in 46350 ress, prof. lynn a. apt. 4a 3235 cambridge avenue bronx, ny 10463 revell, m.j. brandon hall fen lane bulphan, upminster, essex england roosen, g~rard institut et centre d'optometrie 134 route de chartres f 91-440 bures-sur-yvette france rose, stephen b., o.d. 7 south 7th street esterville, ia 51334 rubin, jack 238 moore street princeton, nj 08540 ruskiewicz, joseph p., o.d. aoa washington office 1730 m street, n.w. washington, d.c. 20036 manuel sanchez velez, o.d. de diego 322 pda. 22 santurce, puerto rico 00908 schoen, john n., o.d. 115 west broadway owatonna, mn 55060 schugar, richard e., o.d. 9511 gwyndale drive silver spring, md 20910 schumann, william p., o.d. 735 pear street vineland, nj 08360 seger, charles e., o.d. 1407 garden street san luis obispo, ca 93401 shaneson, elias, o.d. 2016 genesee street buffalo, ny 14211 shearer, c. wayne, o.d. 306 ashland terrace chattanooga, tn 37415 shetty, dr. n.b. 7-e, gunbow street fort, bombay, india south african optometric ass'n. 624 pretorium bldg. 267 church street pretoria, south africa library southern college of optometry 1245 madison avenue memphis, tn 38104 staiman, jacob, o.d. 15 west mount vernon place baltimore, md 21201 studebaker, david m., o.d. 1674 n. limestone street springfield, oh 45503 super, selwyn p.o. box 15 johannesburg, south africa -34-cont'dtannebaum, sol, o.d. olympia fields professional bldg. suite 101 2555 west lincoln highway olympia fields, il 60461 taylor, miss jennifer, librarian british optical association 65 brook street london wly 2dt england terry, jack the ohio state university college of optometry 338 west loth avenue columbus, oh 43210 thiriart, jean 52 avenue louise 1050 bruxelles, belgium titus, sterrett s., o.d. 7721 state line road, suite 119 kansas city, mo 64114 tumblin, j.c., o.d. 5319 broadway, n.e. knoxville, tn 37918 torrence, m.d., o.d. 20 east 1st hutchinson, ks 67501 verma, satya b., o.d. 6013 n. 11th street, apt. b philadelphia, pa 19141 villani, prof. sergio istituto superiore de optometria vasco ronchi piazza della liberta, 17 55050 vinci florence, italy vito, david a., o.d. 91 weybosset street providence, rhode island 02903 vodnoy, bernard e., o.d. 316 south eddy street south bend, in 46617 -35wallis, norman e., o.d., ph.d. pennsylvania college of optometry 1200 west godfrey philadelphia, pa 19141 watkins, bernard, o.d. culver lake branchville, nj 07826 weber,.j.m., o.d. 1420 greenwood avenue trenton, nj 08609 weiner, mrs. grace 3220 quartz, apt. b-4 fullerton, ca 92631 welch, lester d., o.d. 3784 mowry avenue fremont, ca 94538 john j. wey, o.d. 305 parkdale drive venice, fl 33595 williams, frank j., o.d. 714 washington street waukegan, il 60085 wilson, kenneth r., o.d. 200 carbondale road waymart, pa 18472 wolfberg, melvin d., o.d. 98 n. broad street selinsgrove, pa 17870 g. woo, o.d., ph.d. faculty of science school of optometry university of waterloo waterloo, ontario, canada n2l 3gl wood, peg, f.s.m.c. optometrist c/o mr. nigel p. wood c/o new zealand gov. tourist bureau p.o. box 428 auckland c.i. new zealand h.w. hofstetter, editor 1974-06-02-001 1974-06-02-002 1974-06-02-003 1974-06-02-004 1974-06-02-005 1974-06-02-006 1974-06-02-007 1974-06-02-008 1974-06-02-009 1974-06-02-010 1974-06-02-011 1974-06-02-012 1974-06-02-013 1974-06-02-014 1974-06-02-015 1974-06-02-016 1974-06-02-017 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. volume 6 july 1975 election again: aug -l 1975 number 3 our by-laws state "election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot." the board member whose term expires this year, dec. 31, 1975, is maria dablemont. nomination~and/or her renomination, are hereby requested for placement on the ballot. you may nominate as many as you wish. send your nominations to the office of the secretary­ treasurer of the optometric historical society, att. sandra smith. election ballots will go out with the october issue of the newsletter. auf wiedersehen: our president, john r. levene, d. phil., has graciously volunteered to edit the october issue of the newsletter during my sabbatical leave. i will be in germany, mostly, from july 1 to january 1, 1976. possibly john can be lured into editing the january issue as well, but if he begs off, i may accumulate enough historical tidbits in europe to whip out the january issue a bit late in the month. long time 0. h. s. members will recall that professor levene edited three issues previously, the july and october 1970 and january 1971 issues. nothing quite like making our own history1 your contributions of commentary and historical discoveries may be sent directly to dr. levene, indiana university, school of optometry, bloomington, indiana 47401. very fresh history: in the preceding paragraph you may have noticed the term "school" instead of "division" in the indiana university address. that became official by action of the indiana commission for higher education the very day i am writing this sentence in longhand, yes, just five hours ago, friday, june 13, 1975. almost as fresh is the change of name from "ophthalmic optics" (!, / -38to "optometry" at uwist, cardiff, wales, england. this happened less than three or four months ago. i am writing this paragraph from mempry rather than from notes, and the master copy of this will be typed during my attendance at the american optometric association congress, for a week, so i cannot be more precise. in fact, i am not sure of the abbreviation uwist, but it seems correct, and i think it stands for university of wales institute of science and technology. if i am in error my english-born substitute editor will surely record the correction in the next issue. 338 optometrists in who's who: the publishers of the two volume who's who in america also publish numerous other categorical directories including four regional volumes identified as who's who in the east, who's who in the midwest, who's who in the west, and who's who in the south and southwest. o.h.s. member antonio pacheco, o.d., has undertaken to tally the number of optometrists listed in the 1974 blue book of optometrists whose biographies are included in the 1974-75 issues of four of the above mentioned five who's who titles and in the 1975-76 edition of who's who in the south and southwest. he came up with the remarkable total of 338. just how he accomplished this obviously arduous task was not reported. obviously his criterion would not necessarily include several prominent optometrists who have discontinued their registration for licensure as optometrists for any of various reasons. some have become completely identified with related fields of endeavour such as science, industry, administration, and education, in which licensure to practice is not a requirement and hence a mere financial nuisance. many optometrists in such careers find it necessary to transfer to states in which their licenses are not applicable and therefore elect to drop their registration. even among those who pursued full-length practicing careers are many of known prominence who discontinued their official registration with their retirement from practice. in addition there are • a number of prominent optometrists whose training, licensure, and registration as optometrists occurred in countries not included in the blue book of optometrists. for example, i looked up the names of five persons who might easily fall into one or another of these categories and found three of them listed in the 1970-71 edition of who's who in america, the latest edition conveniently accessible to me, but they were not on dr. pacheco's original list, though he promptly included them in his iinal report. my offhand guess, therefore, is that, as impressive as 338 may seem, and as thoroughly accurate as dr. pacheco's undertaking obviously was, the total for all graduates of optometry schools may well be greater. considering the fact that the criteria for inclusion in who's who are quite unrelated to the practice of optometry itself, one must interpret such data as a kind of measure of optometrist~ contributions -39in the broad spectrum of human endeavours. this supports the inter­ pretation one gains as he reads the biographical accounts of those whose names appear in optometric history. it is gratifying to realize that a fair share of our optometric pioneers and leaders were, and continue to be, devoted to a better society and not merely to the advancement of their own profession. further gratifying is the fact that publications like who's who can be included as additional documentary resources for the student of optometric history. i am confident that dr. pacheco would be pleased to send you a copy of his report. his address is p.o. box 10223, santurce, puerto rico 00908. the report includes all 338 names and their classification by school and state. 22 members in puerto rico: our most faithful correspondent and charter member, antonio pacheco, o.d., has recruited a number of new members, mostly optometrists, which, he advises, brings to a total of 22 the o.h.s. membership in puerto rico. surely columbus would have been proud to anticipate this when he dis­ covered puerto rico on november 19, 1493. he supplied the following membership tabulation based on the directory published in our april issue plus eighteen new puerto rican members recruited by tony before the april issue came out but too late for the publication deadline. country united states of america (29 states and dc) indiana 13 fla.-maryland-mo.-tenn.california 11 mass.sou. caro. texas pennsylvania 11 ari.-ken.-virg.-wash.new york 9 dela.-dc-ga.-iowa-mich.j ohio 8 minn.-neb.-new hamp.illinois 6 n. caro.-ri-utah-wisc. new jersey 5 puerto rico africa england canada australia italy belgi~colombia-france-hong kong india-new zealand-phillipine islands poland-~iland one each 16 countries ohs members 108 4 each 3 each 2 each 1 each 27 5 4 3 2 2 9 total 160 -40he also checked the names in who's who .and found ten of our members included there. fantasy·~ festival, '76? overheard recently were a couple of friends discussing a possible manner in which the optometric historical society might enter into the spirit of '76. suggested were a number of brief talks and displays to be given in philadelphia, a chartered train ride to boston the next day with box lunches and other refreshments en route and commentary on revolutionary sites in passing, an evening banquet in boston, more papers and displays the following day, etc., etc., etc. ~ contact lens history: a letter from mrs. maria dablemont to the international society of contact lens specialists brought the following interesting account dated may 15 from the secretary of the society, dr. frank dickinson, 35 the square, st. annes-ori~sea,. lancashire, england, fy8 lsb. "thank you for sending me some details about your library and its aims. i have pleasure in responding to your enquiry with a few details of this group, which was foundp.d 25 years ago by myself . and a german friend, w. p. soehnges. during a visit to his country house at chiemsee, about 60 miles south of munich, we agreed that if we could bring together some of our colleagues in other countries, and form a group for the exchange of information and experiences in contact lens work, and for the promotion of research, we could all benefit and the develop­ ment of the contact lens could be more broadly based. i suggested that we invite another mutual friend, john c. neill of philadelphia, to come over and meet us for discussions, and in the following year he did. we chose a name for our group and decided that membership would be on a basis of invitation, rather than application, so that ~e could ensure that each new member had something original to offer. "we fixed a maximum number of members so that roundtable talks would be possible on many aspects of our work, but later we found that 25 was too conservative, and now we have between 40 and 50 as you will see from the enclosed list. "from the beginning i have served as hon. secretary and treasurer, and jack neill as vice-president, with willy soehnges, who has been host to many of our meetings in his part of the world, as president. we are just shaping up a new constitution. we have held congresses in many parts of the world: the list is so long that i have hardly room for it, but there have been many unusual meetings, such as the one in greece, for which we chartered a cruising liner and toured some of the greek islands. we have been to mexico city, philadelphia, london, ' l -41copenhagen, munich, bermuda. our next congress will take place in austria. a technical program of lectures is combined with enjoyable social activities. we have no paid staff and no h.q. as such my optometric office is our h.q. and i deal with the correspondence. dr. theo gumpelmayer of linz, austria, plans the lecture programs, but we all 'chip in' with numerous tasks. you may have, in your files, a copy of contacto in which i outlined the history of the group: i can't recall the exact date of this number but it was five or more years ago. if i can help you with any further details i hope you will write, and i shall be glad to keep in touch." the list which dr dickinson enclosed shows 29 "full members" and 15 "associate members," a total of 44 from 15 different countries and five continents. the reference in contacto which he mentioned is in vol. 14, no. 1, march 1970, pp. 64-70, and is entitled "thirty years in contact lenses." 40 centimeters long: that is the length of a card file which indexes alphabetically all of the names, topics, and key terms in the o.h.s. newsletter from the first issue in january 1970 to the last one before the one you are now reading. the total number of entries is probably in excess of 1,500. it serves me very well. eventually i hope to make it avail~ able as a supplement, perhaps in 1980, at which time it can include 10 years of publication. 18th century optical instrument makers: london trade in scientific instruments in the 18th century was the topic of a seminar talk by gerard l'estrange turner at the indiana university school of optometry on may 16. turner, now president of the royal microscopical society, is a crystallographer and physicist who has studied the history of optical instruments most intensively. he is assistant curator at the museum of history of science, oxford. his talk was co-sponsored by the indiana university department of history & philosophy of science. an interesting point which he made, and supported with numerous slide illustrations, was the fact that 18th century london instrument makers, who typically were simultaneously identified as lens, spectacle, and clock makers, were highly respected in the then rapidly developing scientific community. in fact, many were honored by fellowship in the royal society. their microscopes, telescopes, and other optical products represented not only the finest of craftmanship but some of the most advanced applications of mathematics and of related sciences. -42@phthalmic museum in paris: a letter from pierre marly, optician, 85, faubourg saint-honor~, paris, france, informs us that he is a "collector of everything concerning the story of optics and opticians" and that the collection is in the form of a museum, numbering more than 4,000 pieces from the xivth century to the end of the xixth century. he has not yet made a count of the items dating after 1900. he says he is sending us "a draft issue of a high quality french review 'plaisir de france' showing a selection of some particularly rich pieces." a part of his collection "is presently exhibited in the main towns of japan." he just recently returned from japan where he gave lectures illustrated by lantern-slides in tokyo and osaka. his interest in the optometric historical society was prompted by o.h.s. member jean thiriart, who sent him a copy of the january 1975 issue which featured dr. preston's "spectacle time table." mr. marly detected three errors in the table. the models in figures 9 and 11 are from the second part of the xviiith century, 1760 at the earliest. the monocle in figure 14 dates from the middle of the xixth century. we welcome mr. marly's membership in the o.h.s. purkyn~, purkinje, ~· (1787-1869): "the correct spelling of our subject's name is purkyn~. it is pronounced poorkeynie or in french pourkini~. yet in the literature i found nine different ways of spelling his name." ..,so wrote henry j. john, m.d., in his book entitled jan evangelista purkyne published as vol. 29 of the memoirs of the american philosophical society, philadelphia, 1959. in the church records of the purkyn~ family from the village of libochovice the family name appears with three different spellings, all incorrect, aa burkine, burkynie, and burkyne. the german officials govern­ ing the area simply could not understand czech. following the teachings v of the german priest and teacher in his village, purkyne spelled his own name at the outset as purkinje and continued doing this all through his german seminary years and the three years of preparation for his entering the piarist order while he was teaching. he did not learn the proper spelling of his name until he attended the university of prague at the age of 20 in 1807. subsequently he used the correct spelling in his czech correspondence, but continued to spell it purkinje in his scientific writings to elicit the correct pronunciation by germans. only after 1850 .., did he spell it exclusively purkyne. listed as his works are 191 published articles. doctoral dissertations by his pupils total 26. one of the six completely translated articles in the book is "physiological examination of the organ of vision and the integumentary system." .., the village of libochovice, where purkyne was born is, or was, about 20 kilometers northwest of prague. he was buried in prague, where thousands -43upon thousands attended his funeral. "nearly all of prague took part. • • showing that the czech nation honored and shall always honor one of its most outstanding leaders." about drs. love and kuhlman: scholarship funds memorializing albert damon love and william j. kuhlman were listed in the january and october, 1974, issues of this newsletter, vol. 5, nos. 1 and 4, pp. 12 and 38, respectively without explanation. an inquiry to o.h.s. member chester h. pheiffer, dean of the college of optometry at the university of houstonjelicited the following response, both fascinating and reflective of optometry's recent history: "several months back we had some communication concerning student funds at this college. in ypur last letter you inquired concerning dr. love and dr. kuhlman with the result that i have obtained the following information. ''dr. albert damon love and dr. francis s. love are twin brothers who graduated from nico in 1949. they were originally from glenmora, louisi­ ana. albert d., mistakenly listed in blue books as albert 0., died in 1974. dr. francis love's mother has worked in the office for many years. dr. louis e. love, a graduate of houston, is a nephew of albert and francis. "i obtained the following information concerning dr. william j. kuhlman from dr. r. harold simpson, retired, of houston. dr. kuhlman was raised in cincinnati, ohio. it is believed that he obtained his optometric training at rochester. he traveled for a number of years before going into optometry. when they first started making time locks for banks he traveled the country and installed the time locks. eventually he tired of traveling and went into the jewelry business and into a jewelry optometry store in indianapolis, indiana, where he worked with a mr. clark. he talked clark into going to optometry school, in fact, sent him to the old los angeles college of optometry. after finishing the program, he, clark, came to houston in 1950. it seems that clark came to houston because the father of his girl friend had been transferred to texas city so he immedi­ ately found a location in houston. kuhlman later joined clark here. shortly before kuhlman retired, dr. r. l. simpson joined the practice. dr. simpson is the source of the information being presented here. "dr. kuhlman was a very dignified person who carried himself very straight and was strictly a gentleman. he was a very distinguished type of man who always wore a celluloid collar with a little tie on it. he was very 'sharp' and read almost everything that came along. 'he was an excellent optometrist. he could take a retinoscope and an ophtalmoscope and pick out high blood pressure like nobody's business.' "another source informed me that dr. kuhlman was a bachelor who never participated, never went to any kind of meeting. in answer to my question as to whether dr. kuhlman supported optometry or was active in optometric affairs, dr. simpson replied that dr. kuhlman 'was active -44supporting them, but by attending them, no, he didn't go. he had a terrific nose problem and could not go to meetings where people smoked so even though he belonged to all of the state and •. national associations and was most interested in the progress of optometry, he did not take an active part in any of the local doings because the smokers kept him away.' it seems that dr. kuhlman's nose blocked up every time he went into a room with a smoker. "when dr. kuhlman retired, he returned to ohio where he died. his sister, who went up to take care of him, died about a day after he did and they were both buried at the same time. "i have picked up several leads concerning more information about dr. kuhlman but have been unable to follow up on them. thought you might enjoy the few items i have collected." (it seems likely that the above is now the only published account of these two memorialized optometrists! h.w.h.) vision and optics in 1776: two impressive volumes which came to my attention within the past few weeks made it very evident that the scientific knowledge of optics and the eye 200 years ago was really much more advanced than the then available spectacles would suggest. one of the books was vol. ii of a treatise on the eye by william porterfield published in. 1757. the other was analytische dioptrik in zwey theilen (analytical dioptrics in two parts) by george simon klugel in 1778. the porterfield vol. ii had eluded me for so many years that i had begun to doubt its existence. i had the pleasure of seeing it, together with vol i, in edinburgh, scotland, in may at the international optometric and ophthalmic optical congress. one of the papers at the congress was by adrian r. hill, ph.d., a senior lecturer in the department of ophthalmic optics, glasgow college of technology, entitled, "william porterfield scotland's legacy to optometry." porterfield was born in ayrshire, educated in glasgow and then at rheims, france, where, in 1717, he received his medical degree. seven years later he was appointed professor of medicine at the university of edinburgh. he died in france in 1771. dr. hill has undertaken to replicate .several of porterfield's experiments. the two volumes which he displayed were borrowed from the library of the british optical association, london. the klugel book is a recent acquisition of the lilly rare books library at indiana university. klugel (1739-1812) was a professor of mathematics at helmstadt, and the book was published by johann friederich junius, leipzig. the 303 pages plus four leaves of plates of ray diagrams -45cover the mathematics of geometric optics generally and the detailed optical design of telescopes and microscopes. optical museum in stockholm: in cooperation with local optometrists and optical firms, a museum in stockholm, sweden, "nordiske museet," maintains a sect:f.on on ophthalmic history. according to felton h. gordon, who recently a»~anged a scandinavian tour for a group of american optometr1sts, this project was initiated in 1939. the museum, reports mr. gordon, is within a block of the palace, where the king of sweden resides. mr. gordon brought back with him a catalog of the museum's ophthalmic collection entitled synverktyg fran aldre tider, by otto ahlstrbm, published by stockholms forenade specialoptiker, 1943. the 168 page paperback book, 15 x21 em., includes 167 illustrations and descriptive specifications of 467 catalogued ophthalmic items. mr. gordon has donated the book to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. incidentally the book is in the swedish language. the freely translated title would be "visual aids of long ago," i think. membership directory supplement: the listing of o.h.s. members in the april issue produced a flurry of new and/or re-instated members, as follows: alegria, ricardo e., director office of cultural affairs commonwealth of puerto rico p.o. box s-4467 san juan, puerto rico arteaga, antonio, o.d. apartamento 4-a condominia costa azul taft st. 2 santurce, pr 00911 00905 barcelo, lcdo. antonio r., hijo legal counsellor puertorican academy of optometry p.o •. box 3968 san juan, pr 00904 calderon, jose r., o.d. columbia 260 university gardens rio piedras, pr 00927 enriquez de alemany, syra, o.d. abolicion 566 baldrich hato rey, pr 00918 gonzalez, lcdo. rafael, president puerto rico alumni association the ohio state university p.o. box 59 san juan, pr 00902 grove, arthur s., jr., m.d. department of ophthalmology massachusetts eye and ear infirmary 243 charles street boston, massachusetts 02114 hernandez, roberto, o.d. calle rafael arcelay 1207 club manor rio piedras, pr 00924 university of houston libraries attn: central serials record cullen blvd. houston, tx 77004 koetting, robert a., o.d. 324 lansdowne medical bldg. 6651 chippewa st. st. louis, mo 63109 nicole, luis j., o.d. box 323 ponce,pr 00731 otero, jose m., o.d. gpo box bc san juan, pr 00936 pacheco garcia, sixto r., o.d. calle cuchetti 1215 condado, santurce, pr 00907 ramirez perez, julio, o.d. calle iris u u 12-b alturas de borinquen gardens rio piedras, pr 00926 would like to read: -46rampolla medina, daisy, o.d. 1606 fernadez juncos ave. santurce, pr 00909 rivera santiago, jose a., o.d. dr. veve #63 2do. piso bayamon, pr 00619 rodriguez martinez, adalbert~, o.d. apartado 13311 santurce, pr 00908 rodriguez, rafael a., o.d. apartado 3206 mayaguez, pr 00708 sanchez velez, felix, dr. office 202 condominia san martin ponce de leon ave. 1605 santurce,pr 00910 tort, jose, o.d. calle mayor esq. sol edificio zamora ponce, pr 00731 vazquez, hector m., o.d. ave. ponce de leon #1000 rio piedras, pr 00925 periodic computer readouts from the visual science information center of current articles on "optometric, ophthalmic, and optical history" provide more references than i have time to review. here are a few which, unless the days get longer, i may never have the opportunity to peruse~ a.g. bennett, "brillenglaser mit verstellbarer und gleitender optischer wirkung. 1. teil" (spectacle lenses with moveable and sliding optical components), augenoptiker, vol. 28, no. 8, aug. 1, 1974, pp. 27, 29,31, & 33. l.d. bronson's monograph entitled "early american specs," published by occidental, glendale, california, 1974. -47hermann m. burian, "the dartmouth eye institute", survey of ophthalmology, vol. 19, no. 2, sept.-oct. 1974, pp. ·101-106. john cole's easy to read series entitled "heritage." i mentioned his first 13 installments last october. his 14th and 15th have appeared in the june 7 (vol. 167, no. 4334, pp. 4 & 6) and july 12 (vol. 168, no. 4339, pp. 628-9), 1974 issues of the optician. patricia lance, "orthoptics: past, present, and future," australian orthoptic journal., vol. 13, 1973-74, pp. 2-7. p. masingue, "genese de l'invention de la skiascopie,u bulletin des societies d'ophtalmologie de france, vol. 74, no. 4, april 1974, pp. 463-469. werner rent:z:sch, "augenlicht. 3. folge" (vision, part 3), stiddeutsche optikerzeituns, vol. 29, no. 8, august 15, 1974, pp. 562, 564, and 566-567. f. rintelen, "zur geschichte der keratoplastik" (history of keratoplasty), klinische monatsbl~tter fur ausenheilkunde und ausenarztliche fortbilduns, vol. 165, no. 2, august 1974, pp. 214-222. benjamin rones, "the wilmer institute: the early days," survey of ophthalmology, vol. 19, no. 3, november-december, 1974, pp. 169-178. montague ruben, ~'the evolution of the ophthalmic optics practitioner," parts 1 & 2, optician" vol. 168, no. 4346, august 30, 1974, pp. 4, 6, & 8, and no. 4347, september 6, 1974, pp. 4 & 6· emil-heinz schmitz, "licht lebt im glas. vom lavaglas sum laserstrahl", augenoptiker, vol. 29, no.4, april 1974, pp. 51-55,-and'no; 5, may 1974, pp. 29-39. charles snyder and harry e. braconier, "as it was in the beginning.· an informal history of the new england ophthalmological society," archives of ophthalmology, vol. 29, no. 2, september 1974, pp. 25q-253. frederick w. stocker, "the eye clinic of the university of zurich, 1923-1943: the era of alfred vogt," survey of ophthalmology, vol. 19, no. 1, julyaugust, 1974, pp. 31-37. frederick w. stocker and karin reichle, "theodor leber and the endotheiium of the cornea," american journal of ophthalmology, vol. 78, no. 6, december 1974, pp. 893-896. more memorialized optometrists: e.b. alexander fellowship (gesell institute of child development, new haven, connecticut). john davey memorial award (indiana chapter, american academy of optometry). -48jack raphael memorial meeting (annual) (israel optometric association). robert w. tubesing memorial award (indiana chapter, american academy of optometry). historical amblyopia: recently a student asked me why the term burns's amaurosis was included in the dictionary of visual science. schapero, cline, and hofstetter, 2nd ed., chilton co., 1968, inasmuch as it was not mentioned in textbooks, and it seemed a bit obscene as well, or at least absurd. not recalling our rationale, i wrote my dictionary co-editor, david cline, and learned from our editorial notes that we, too, were inclined to omit it, but one of our esteemed collaborators insisted from personal experience that the phenomenon is valid! the term also appears in c.w. taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary, 12th ed., davis co., 1973, but for a differeat reason, explained in an editorial note following the def!lnition, as follows: "there is no evidence that this is a disease entity. the entry is retained in this edition for historical reasons." john burns, 1774-1850, was a scottish obstetrician. burns' amaurosis, incidentally, is defined as loss of vision due to sexual excess and is identified as a synonym of "postmarital amblyopia." premarital and extramarital amblyopias apparently have never been reported. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1975-06-03-001 1975-06-03-002 1975-06-03-003 1975-06-03-004 1975-06-03-005 1975-06-03-006 1975-06-03-007 1975-06-03-008 1975-06-03-009 1975-06-03-010 1975-06-03-011 1975-06-03-012 newsletter of the optometric historical society optometry l1brar vertical fue l (7000 chippe~va street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a~ 63119) volume 2 april 1971 number 2 'tis good to be home: it is not easy to resume this editorial role in the recording of history when my locum tenens is an acknowledged, if not the, expert in historical matters related to optics, visual science, and optometry. on several occasions around th~s globe, even close to the antipode, i discovered the name of john levene to be almost as fruniliar as many a household word, especially in science history circles. my feelings were a bit like those one might imagine a practitioner might have if his locum tenens were dr. f. c. danders. the three issues dr. levene edited during my absence contain a wealth of information which, under ordinary circumstances, is hard to get. i sometimes wonder if the reason that optometric history is so infrequently a part of optometric conversation, or a speech topic, is merely the fact that there has not been a convenient source of reliable and accurate information. though i have been home only a few weeks, i discover that i have already had three occasions to get information from earlier issues o:( this newsletter. one was for a course lecture, one to answer an inquiry from a friend, and the third to refresh myself on a point that was discussed in a small social gathering. someday, surely, the accumulated issues will be indexed for easier reference as a sort of primary resource or as a lead to more extensive sources. your cooperation is necessary, of course. the society exists to enable you to contribute, so please pass on your little, or big, gems of information or observations, or inquiry, for inclusio~ in the newsletter. historical impact: historians must continuously weigh the significance of events to make their interpretations reliable and valid. an event that drastically influenced the direction of optometry was the now classic markham v. wood, abrahams case which was tried before mr. justice ridley and a special jury on october 24-26, 1910, in manchester, england, and retried before the lord chief.justice of england, with a special jury, on march 14-16, 1911. . this malpractice suit e.stablished the optometrist's responsibility to detect ocular pathology and to advise his patient accordingly. in the first trial the jury could not reach an agreement. in the second trial the jury decided in favor of the plaintiff (the patient). the details of the two trials, the extensive and confusing testimony, and editorial commentary are fascinatingly covered in three issues of the optician and photographic trade journal, as follows: -4october 28, 1910, vol. 40, no. 1022: "the optician's legal standing," pp. 101-102 "legal position of sight-testing opticians," pp. 103-118 march 17, 1911, vol. 41, no. 1041: "the legal position of optometrists," pp. 19-24 march 24, 1911, vol. 41, no. 1042: "the litigation and after," pp. 27-28 "optical rays and opinions," pp. 28-29 "voice of the trade," p. 29 "the legal position of optometrists," pp. 30-42 what was the impact? simply that optometry acquired a professional responsibil;i.ty by losing its first malpractice case! yes, the "sight­ testing opticians" of the day rallied in support of the firm of messrs. wood and abrahams and the firm's guilty refracting optician, mr. thomas, but to no avail. hiss markham won. thi.s crucial decision influenced the educational and professional patterns of optometry throughout the british empire and other english­ speaking nations. an optometric reminisce-in? like the appearance and disappearance of kilroy, the hyphenated attachment of the preposition "in" to a verb, as in "teach-in," to represent a group discussion that is apparently inadequately connoted otherwise, may not stay with us long, and future people may wonder what it meant. but, punningly, it is indeed an "in" term at the moment. so, why not an optometric reminisce-in? this could be a gathering of optometric history buffs and critics, perhaps with a few stimulating refreshments at hand, where each participant would be prepared to contribute a gem of optometric history, an incident he remembers, a story he was told, an observation he made, or even an item of optometric folklore. this could follow the day's business and education of a convention or congress as a delightful evening's pastime, whether attended by only .a half dozen, or a hundred. in fact, the notion is so fascinating to me that· i may try to initiate sgmething like this at the time of the a.o.a. congress in houston next june. let me know how this strikes you. lomonossov and optics: the lomonossov state university in moscow bears the name of a s'cientist who contributed significantly to . theory of light and color and to the building of optical instruments and the manufacture of .optical glass. -his name was michail wassiljewitsch lomonossov (1711-1765). .a very inte:r:~cing review of his optical contributions, with seven illus­ trations and eight references, is made by wilhelm schlitz of jena, east-germany, in jena review, vol. 15, no. 6, 1970, pp. 315-320. -5old settlers' remedies: the september issue of the canadian journal of optometry (vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 65-66) lists early remedies for 16 conditions related to the eyes and vision. among these conditions are "eyes bleared," "dull sight" and "clouds flying before the eye." the list was abstracted by optometrist r. a. rosere of dartmouth, nova scotia, from a compilation entitled "old settlers' remedies" by marion robertson for the cape sable historical society, barrington, nova scotia. the sources date back to the 16th century. "living" history: back in 1948 i published what i then thought was a note of historical interest because it referred to an event that occurred in 1931. it involved the court case of a south african optometrist named j. l. saks, the decision of which continues to be a legal cornerstone for south african optometry. today optometrist saks serves his colleagues ·in the vital, and vibrant, role of editor of the south african optometrist. fondly known as "j. l." by his friends around the world, he keeps this journal competitive with.the best. another museum? a 300-year-old pair of tortoise rim spectacles made in china, a 150-year-old pair of multifocals, a 50-year-old battery-run ophthalmoscope, an 1866 ophthalmic chair, and a 100-pair frame collection donated by c. c. tait, o.d., retired, are a .few of the items in the historical collection of the university of waterloo school of optometry. dr. e. j. fisher, director, hopes that someday these will be exhibited in a new optometry building. in the meantime, every precaution is being taken to preserve and add to the collection. a detailed write-up appeared in the february, 1971, issue of aoa news. so who was cho tso? when i wrote my comments on the.history'of spectacles in my book optometry (1948) i included the s.imple statement, "the old chinese opticians attributed the invention of spectacles to cho tso." now i have received a letter from mr. t. c. chang, a history buff employed at the hong kong optical co., ltd., 57 queen's road, c., hong kong. says mr. _chang, "last year, i read some excerpts from joseph needham's science and civilization in china wherein needham mentioned.cho tso too. i tried very hard to find out the o~iginal chinese name of cho tso, but of no avail. i still do not know who this man is--known to foreign scholars as cho tso." -6my source (or should i say, alibi?) was p~bert barnett on pages 85 ~nd 87 of the 1943 year book of optometry published by the new york state optometric association. from an acknowledgment at the close of barnett's article i suspect he may have derived this from personal correspo11dence with mr. 0. p. rasmussen. i checked needham's 1962 issue of science and civilization in china, vol. 4, part 1, cambridge, and found no reference to cho tso under "' "eye-glasses and spectacles." however, he makes a number of references which have substantial phonetic similarity to "cho tso." "milestones" or stumbling blocks? the abovementioned mr. chang also kindly put into writing; at my insistence, a couple of points that had amused. him in reading the familiar bausch & lomb book entitled "milestones in optic~l history," 1954. he says: "page 6: the picture. showing two men writing with feathers, one with right hand, other with left hand. ·firstly, the chinese people never used feathers for writing purpose. before the 'brush' (chinese pen) was invented by general moon-tien towards 220 b~ c., chinese characters were carved on bamboo (to keep historical records) and on tortoise-shell and animal-bones (for use as oracles). moon-tien used deer-hair and wood-rod to make the first 'brush' and since then, carving was replaced by writing. secondly, the chinese people never write with left hand. "page 7: the text. spectacles in ancient china. it is quite true that superstition and etiquette governed their use, and that glasses were worn to indicate position, possessions, professions, and intelligence, but not idiocy. as i told you, in old china, when a youngster paid a visit to an elder, he must remove his glasses, otherwise, it would mean disrespect; even insult. it is impossible that glasses were. in use during confucius time. it seemed that glasses were not invented by the chinese people, but were imported into china through .central asia, and became widely adopted-during the ming dynasty. that confucius relieved the eyes of a cobbler with glasses is a ludicrous error. confucius never wrote anything by hims·elf. his students took notes _of his . sayings, and compiled them into a book. as far as i . know, 'cobbler' was not mentioned in any chinese classical books, nat to say confucius book, for shoe-mending was considered a mean job, not worth mentioning in a respectable scholastic work. -7tortoise-shell frames are very expensive and easily broken. however, we here in hongkong still sell a lot of them, for some of the older people do believe that tortoise-shell brings long life. some people are wearing glasses at the advice of fortune-tellers, because glasses n<ay ~hange the facial appearqnce of the wearer, thereby bringing him good luck. ·rn old china, it was believed that crystal and quartz had a cooling effect being beneficial to the eyes (particularly brown-crystal, current prices in hongkong us $100.-to us $250.­ per pair), while optical lenses being made through a fire-process were deleterious to the eyes. the specialist advised people to use 'old' lenses, so as to let the fire inside the lenses die out." all of this merely continues to demonstrate that in the recording of history the criterion of plausibility is persistently more popular than validity and reliability. change of address: o.h.s. member stephen m. oppenheimer, formerly of memphis, tennessee, is now at 4272 canterbury drive, el paso, texas 79002. james f. dickson, jr., o.d., writes: dated "1-5-70," from p. 0. box 928, lindsay, california 93247, and stored in my o.h.s. file many months, is a letter from dr. dickson in which he says, "i have over 1,000 pairs of antique eye wear, and my last quest has unearthed 4-5 other o.d. 's and two other persons with similar interests." -~ "peekaboo, i almost see you": this is the title of an ogden nash poem dedicated to the incon­ veniences of two pair of glasses, "one for readin~ erle stanley gardner's perry mason and keats' 'endymon' with, and the other for walking around without saying hello to strange wymion with." the poem is in a collection of nash's poems entitled private dining room, published circa 1953 by little, brown and company, boston. it appears from the credits that all of the poems in the collection had appeared previously in periodicals, but where "peekaboo" first appeared i did not determine. new members are always welcome: no, the o.h.s. does not have an application form •. all that you need to tell an interested person is to send his name, address, and $5.00 to the optometric historical society, 7000 chippewa street, st. louis, missouri 63119. -8naturally, ';ole would also like to have him v7rite a letter about his interests or hobbies, especially so vle mi-ght excerpt a paragraph or two, or a sentence, or even a phrase, for the nehsletter. international optometric(al) association: in the january 6, 1921, issue of the optical journal and review of 9ptometry, page 54, appeared a brief commentary describing the contents of some correspondence between w. g. kett of sydney, australia, and w. s. todd of hartford, connecticut, then chairman of the american optometric association department of education. among other things dr. todd suggested to dr. kett the formation of an "international optometric association" and invited the australians to join in a move­ ment for a world's optical congress to be held in rochester, new york, in 1925. dr. kett reported back that he had just returned from the third interstate conference of the australian optometrical association where he "had no difficulty persuading the conference to affiliate with the american optometric associc:tion ... " he added, "hith regard to th2 name of the association the conference thought that a name such as the international optometrical association would be more fitting." dot,m under: "the development of optometric education in new zealand" is an m.a. thesis by p. r. de lacey, february, 1964, university of auckland, auckland, ne\v zealand. the author is an optometrist. the thesis is over 100 pages long. a microfilm copy has been ordered for the indiana university optometry library. "eye glasses of old" an 1811 x 24" poster in color, depicting early eyeglasses, suitable for framing, is available at $2.00 from better vision institute, inc., 230 park avenue, new york, new york 10017. the poster is entitled "eye glasses of old." donated: .d. r. reed, o.d., of laporte, indiana, recently donated 19 pairs of spectacles to the optometry museum collection of indiana university. from puerto rico: in august, 1970, o.h.s.·member antonio pacheco, o.d., p. 0. box 10223, santurce, puerto rico 00908, sent me an autographed copy of his booklet "desarrollo historico y legal.de la junta examinadora ·de optometras de puerto rico 1898 a 1970," published and copyrighted 1970. for the library he also included a copy of his own english translation, legal and historical development of the board of examiners of optometrists of.puerto rico, 1898-1970. -9in his letter of transmittal he comments, "in my history i suggest to the institute of culture of puerto rico, a government agency, to create an archive of the history of all the professions in puerto rico. they have accepted the idea and the executive director of the institute is going to appoint me his advisor." the booklet is both factual and fascinating. for example, it includes a table of "optometric sciences issued in puerto rico" showing 23 optometric licenses issued between 1903 and 1924 by the board of medical examiners. six of these licensees are still living. the first puerto rico optometric act was approved in 1930, and, to date, the board of examiners in optometry has issued ~5 additional licenses. dr. pacheco is one of a family of optometrists representing three generations. "these three generations" writes dr. pacheco, "add up to 127 years of optometric life." john c. eberhardt library £reserved: about a year ago dr. richard l. hopping, now president-elect of the american optometric association, wrote o.h.s. secretary dablemont as follows: "recently i obtain.ed from a retired optometrist the optometric library of his former associate, dr. john c. eberhardt. "dr. eberhardt, who practiced in dayton, ohio, was the sixth president (1903) of the a.o.a. it is my understanding that he is the person credited with coining the word 'optometry.' "enclosed please find a list of the books that i have in my possession. should you desire any of them for the a.o.a. library please let me know and i will be glad to forward them on. otherwise i will keep them for my personal library. they are in excellent conaition." dr. hopping added the following postscript: "also please find a list of some books from the library of george h. leland, a local inventor, who had patented the leland refractor which is written up in berens and zuckerman's book diagnostic examination of the eye." h. w. hofstetter, editor optoaetry library vertical file 1971-02-02-001 1971-02-02-002 1971-02-02-003 1971-02-02-004 1971-02-02-005 1971-02-02-006 1971-02-02-007 t'_.. .·. ·: _., ,;, ,_ j• ·, i l ' ~ , • na.taiia u , • • o o •• luversity • • ·» • • apr 0 3 1996 ~ : ~indsight ..... ~~b~~r:-,~~ j f newsletter of the • • ~ • optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 25 july 1994 number 3 do visual rays come or go? have you sometimes wondered, as have i, whether the interpreters of early greek, roman, and other ancient documents involving the science of seeing really were correct in translating early theory of vision as a process of rays emanating from the eye? if so, you may appreciate the article entitled "fourth century visual science" by hofstetter and stayskal in the january 1992 issue of optometky and vision science, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 76-79. it is the first english translation of a treatise on vision identified with heliodorus of larissa and his student damianus in the fourth century a.d. the original had been translated into latin and italian by ignace danti in 1573 and into german by richard schone in 1897, all of which were quite accessible to stayskal and me during our efforts to interpret the text correctly. the treatise is truly a very sophisticated dissertation and represents the most authoritative concept of vision through several centuries. h.w h. early use of o.d. title: the following paragraphs appeared as a news item on page 111 of the january 7, 1915, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 35, no. 2: an interesting development in the pennsylvania situation occurred last week. the state secretary, mr. van essen, was notified that the northampton county medical society, at a recent meeting, received a report from a committee instructed to bring about prosecutions against practitioners alleged to be violating the ordinance prohibiting the use of misleading advertisements. dr. v.s. messinger, easton, pa., chairman of the committee, reported that he had made formal complaint before acting mayor tonkin, easton, against horace l. lichty, an optometrist, for using the title "dr." before his name. mr. lichty, in a letter to mr. van essen, said that he is a graduate of the philadelphia optical college, chartered under the laws of the state, and that his advertising was in no way misleading, as he always uses the word optometrist in connection with his name when he uses the title "dr." he has used the same title in his present location for 17 years. 25/18 the officers of the pennsylvania optical society are in touch with mr. lichty and feel that any attempt to injure an optometrist in the keystone state is the concern of all. although the journal editor and apparently the pennsylvania optical society officers refer to lichty as "mr.," his "17 years" use of the "dr." title in advertisements indicate its legitima.te public use as early as 1898 or 1897. could this be the earliest? about guild medals: from p.h.m. aangenendt, strijpsestraat 190, nl-5616 gw, eindhoven, the netherlands, we learn that a few early guild or craft-union medals have been preserved that show spectacles on them. they are from middelburg and vlissingen in the province of zeeland in the south of the netherlands. because spectaclemakers were such a small group their organizational needs were accommodated by membership in the larger silk and textile guild. so, for example, the front face of one of the medals shows the interior of a textile shop while the other face illustrates various crafted products, including a pair of spectacles. medals were serially numbered and each member of the guild received one, thus to serve as a kind of identification or pass at functions requiring the member's attendance, for example, the funeral of an honoree. the earliest vlissingen medals date back to 1694. the extant middelburg medals dat.e variously between 1592 and 1705. mr. aangenendt further reminds us that the oldest known spectacle company or spectaclemakers guild was formed in venice, italy, between 1284 and 1317. from venice, with its worldwide commercial connections over land and sea in the 14th century, the craft was introduced to flanders, now a part of belgium, together with the city of antwerp, and the former region of brabant, now partly in both belgium and the netherlands. the skills subsequently spread to nurnberg, furth, and regensburg, germany. a significant date is 1478 when a jacob pfuhlmeier in nurnberg, germany, registered himself as a "parillenmacher" (spectaclemaker), the earliest one vocationally identified by name. in about 1580 the dutch city of middelburg had a prosperous glass industry which led to the needful capability of glass grinding. one of the contemporary spectaclemakers there was hans lipperhey (c.1570-c.1619), who discovered that a combination of separated lenses would produce the telescope, and another was zacharias janssen (1580-c.1638), who similarly assembled a combination of separated lenses to produce the microscope. it is very probable that they each had a guild medal. mr. aangenendt' s annual greeting card for 1987 included a front aqd back true-color reproduction of a 55 mm middelburg medal dated 1677 in his own collection. the brief explanatory legend is of course in dutch. the card is being forwarded to the ilamo. 25/19 ocular heritage society: the july 1992 newsletter of the "other" ohs reported on the may 1992 annual meeting in gainesville, florida, and included copies of the eight papers presented there, as follows: "abe's eyes," 4 pages, jerome j. abrams, o.d., an assemblage of observations on abraham lincoln's eyes as gleaned from the literature. "ophthalmology and vanity fair," 17 pages, andrew p. ferry, m.d., a commentary on three ophthalmologists, jonathan hutchinson, (1890), robert brudenell carter (1892), and george anderson critchett (1905) written up in vanity fair as men of the day. "carl zeiss and his associates," 7 pages, e.j. fisher, o.d., a biographical review of the optical contributions of carl zeiss, ernst abbe, otto schott, and m. von rohr. "the diagnosis of disease from ancient coins," 3 pages, jay galst, m.d., a commentary on the appearance of facial warts or nodules, bulging necks, protuberant jaws and eyebrows, fiaring nostrils, etc. on numismatic portraits indicative of diseases of the era. "no-stitch, 1 nun cataract surgery," 9 pages, charles letocha, m.d., a history of sutureless cataract surgery. · "steel spectacles and cases, " 3 pages, william rosenthal, m.d., on the use of steel in the design of temples, bridges, eyewires, and cases. "vision aids; an optical history, " 9 pages, martin b. singer 1 a history of the industry." "better eyesight without glasses," 6 pages, m.d., a survey of publications, systems, intended to avoid the need for glasses. in response to dr. dickson: john w. tull 1 and techniques ohs member eric muth takes exception to the "notes from a collector" commentary on pages 2 and 3 of the january 1992 issue of hindsight, as follows: dr. dickson writes that marco polo described chinese spectacles. though many other such statements have been made 1 the exact reference (polo's description) is elusive as none has quoted it. if it is in fact true all of us would greatly appreciate knowing more from marco et al. additionally we would like very much to see the prints mentioned from ca. 1392 25/20 which prove that the chinese were using spectacles at that time either with or without powers. the assertion that the alleged ca. ~392 spectacles' sidearms (normal temples, said dr. dickson) were hinged at the center in order to fold in on themselves leaves us thinking that mr. ayscough' s 18th century advertisement announcing "double jointed frames, an entirely new contrivance"· was either a blatant lie, a reinvention or, as suspected, not at all present in china until the late 18th to early 19th century. regarding the sidearms said to be shown on the cover (i regret i have not seen them) "which appear to be plastic or tortoise shell and curved to fit the contour of the sulci of the ears," this style is definitely known on paper in adams patent of 1797; however, we must all agree that the alleged 600-year-old date is as preposterous as it is when attributed to the front itself. some of us are collectors, some historians. we must be careful about crossing over into territory unknown to us in that we do great disservice to the world's interested peoples when we generate myths, untruths, and unknowns upon them under the guise of expertise. progressive addition lenses: "30 jahre gleitsichtglaser: wo stehen wir heute?" (thirty years of progressive lenses; where do we stand now?) is the title of a brief but well illustrated review of the development, trends, and future of progressive addition lenses for presbyopia in germany by dieter kalder in the may 20, 1992, issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 36-41. considered are not only the functional designs but also population age trends and utilization as a function of age and adds. hirschberg's volume 10: volume 10 of frederick blodi's english translation series of julius hirschberg's eleven volume history of ophthalmology appears to be the last volume authored by hirschberg himself. it deals with~nineteenth century ophthalmology in fourteen national areas of the globe not covered in previous volumes, namely, the netherlands, scandinavia, russia, poland, spain, hispano-america, portugal, brazil, greece, turkey, the balkans, canada, japan, and egypt. it is primarily a biographical directory of many hundred persons identifiable with ophthalmological activities and developments of the era and areas designated, including dozens of full-page portraits. of possible optometric interest are the biographical notes pertaining to numerous names that relate also to our academic 25/21 background, such as donders, gullstrand, helmholtz, holmgren, jager, landolt, nagel, snellen, tscherning, et al. their optometrically significant contributions are understandably treated as quite secondarily incidental to ophthalmology's evolving mission during especially the latter half of the century. the disproportionate shares of the text for each nation's size (e.g., the netherlands 44 pages, hispano-arnerica seven pages, greece six pages, etc.) quite evidently reflects merely the ready availability of information to hirschberg, but the wealth of information is impressive nevertheless. besides the biographical notes much information is provided on the establishment of ophthalmological programs and professorships in universities, mostly late in the century. prior to their development there were virtually no ophthalmologists as such but simply general physicians, e.g. donders, who included medical and surgical eyecare and emerged in time as full-scale eye physicians by dint of circumstances, interest, and reputations. until then ophthalmology seemed to have no organizational esprit de corps, guild-like affiliation, or other ad hoc identity as a professional rallying point. this unfortunately meant that the earlier countryside had been plagued with any number of freely self­ designated ophthalmological "experts" or quacks that could hardly enhance the status of the eventual but slow-corning specialty. with the entree into university settings the specialty quickly blossomed, with formalized curricula, research, serial publications, and international professional communications. at least one gains this broad impression with the perusal of this volume. thus, if this volume has any special historical significance for optometry it is in the analogy it provides for optometry's decades later participation in universities. this was a delay which i have theorized to have been attributable to the protective guild philosophy, a heritage still in effect in many areas. h.w h. emory hill's influence: appearing in three installments in the december 31, 1914, january 14, 1915, and january 28, 1915, issues of the optical journal and review, vol. 35, nos. 1,3, and 5, pages 37-38, 161-162, and 293-294 is an article by emory hill, m.d., entitled "some historical data concerning glasses," i, ii, and iii respectively. it was reprinted from ophthalmic record, vol. 23, 1914, pages 504515. it is in fact a much abridged version of dr. hill's article on "history of eyeglasses and spectacles" in the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, vol. 7, pp. 4894-4953, 1915, in which he gives credit to edwin c. bull for much help in its preparation. bull was a pasadena, california, optometrist who had accumulated an outstanding collection of early eyewear. it appears 25/22 that hill also obtained much of his historical information from j. hirschberg's voluminous german history of ophthalmology. hill's flowing literary style makes for easy reading so that it seems probable that the appearance of his relatively comprehensive articles in three different publications has dominated the prevailing concepts of eyewear history among americans during this century. actually hill was quite cautious in his assertions, as indicated by the great frequency of such introductory phrases as "it is said .... ", "there is a legend of ..... ", "if we may believe the story .... ", "it is possible that .... ", "one may say that .... ", etc. this, of course, is how much of history has to be written, but unfortunately the caution does not transfer easily to the reader. the armati saga, now well analyzed as a hoax, is the classic example in the ophthalmic field. punktal lens history: two articles in the april 20, 1992, issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 47, no. 4, deal with the technical, commercial, and professional history of the punktal lens. in the first article "seit 80 jahren richtungsweisend," pp. 8-10, editor dieter baust interviews scientist bernd j.l. kratzer of the carl zeiss corporation in aalen, germany, concerning the eighty years of related milestones experienced by the company. in the second article, "80 jahre punktal brillenglaser," pp. 14-15 and 18-19, dr. wolfgang pfeiffer of the same company briefly mentions the prior technical history and then describes the technical and professional developments after the introduction of the lens in 1912. pointed out are the roles of moritz von rohr, wolfgang roes, and others. a triple entree: dr. james leeds sent me a may 5, 1939, printed and folded program of the annual banquet tendered to the graduating class of 1939 by the class of 1940 of the school of optometry at columbia university. the program was carefully sealed in a plastic envelope and with it was a penned note from leeds requesting its hasty return because he had promised to give it to dr. a.n. haffner, apparently for the college archives at state university of new york~ the hand-lettered name of "mr. wilfred blackham" on a dotted line on the front suggests that it served also as a place card as well as a menu and attendance list. according to the 1938 blue book of optometrists blackham was a new jersey optometrist serving as a lecturer at columbia university. on the front inside is a randomly ordered list of 25 "guests of honor, " apparently all in administrative or academic roles. about a third of them are listed with professor or dr. titles and the others, including several well known optometrists of the era, with mr. (including one miss) titles. under march of events are 25/23 listed speeches, entertainment, awards, and introduction of class officers. the impressive menu on the inside back page includes main courses of chicken, lamb, and flounder {was the great depression over?). listed alphabetically on the outside back page are the 55 members of the class of 1939 and the 45 members of the class of 1940. what does all of this reveal? with such names as george pegram, j.p.c. southall, frederic woll, et al. on the guests of honor list, an assumption of prestige is apparent. also, the use of the doctorate title was still under resistance in 1939. what is gratifying is that blackham did not throw his place card away, that leeds rescued and preserved it, and that haffner wants it for the archives. h.w h. another optometric collector: a full tabloid-page feature in the march 9, 1992, antique week, vol. 24, no. 49, is an article by marlyn i. margulis entitled, "optometric detective finds eye wear fascinating." interviewed is jay de mesquita, o.d., of new jersey, about his hobby of investigating and collecting antique eyewear and his collection of over 500 items. besides describing the eral features of eyewear as influenced by styles, .customs, materials, technology, and clinical science dr. de mesquita points out the related historical involvement of optometry as well. he supplements his search by visiting libraries and museums to study old paintings for clues about the spectacles of centuries ago. even descriptions in early sears, roebuck and harrods catalogs sometimes spell out the purposes of special eyewear features. a fellow stickler writes: in response to a citation in the item entitled "old optometrists never die" on page 11 of the january 1992 issue of hindsight, vol. 23, no. 1, that "dr. worden graduated from the los angeles college of optometry in 1927," robert a. williams writes: in 1927 the institution now known as the southern california college of optometry was known as the los angeles school of optometry, not college. scco has had several names in its long and illustrious history. founded in 1904 as the los angeles school of ophthalmology and optometry, the first name change was to add the word "medical" in 1911 to lamsoo. it became laso in 1921 or so and "college" in 1948. all of this can be found in jim gregg's history and development of scco, 1984. 25/24 indeed, not only is williams correct, but the totality of facts as described by gregg make fascinating reading. gregg's 27page chapter 4 on "the era of university affiliation 1929-1933" alone adds much to the name-change saga and reveals a phase of optometry's history that is easily unappreciated. a.o.a. and i.o.o.l.: although the american optometric association was actively involved in the founding of the international optical league (now the international optometric and optical league) its membership lapsed in 1931. the following paragraph from the november 1932 issue of the dioptric review, pp. 233-234 describes the circumstances: the american opticians have never paid a subscription in accordance with the recognised scale, as the constitution of their association does not permit them to place a tax or assessment upon their members for this purpose. they therefore conceived the idea of obtaining subscriptions to the league by issuing to their members an i.o.l. certificate of membership for the sum of 1 dollar per year. the executive committee considered this matter very fully, and came to the conclusion that they could not approve of the certificate, not only because such a procedure was open to abuse, but also because the statutes of the league only permitted of the admission of associations or societies, and not individual members of the league. as a result of the executive' s request for the withdrawal of this certificate, the american optometric association resigned from the i.o.l. in june, 1931. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1994-25-03-001 1994-25-03-002 1994-25-03-003 1994-25-03-004 1994-25-03-005 1994-25-03-006 1994-25-03-007 1994-25-03-008 ~**********~***~!~~~ indiana umvers1ty ! jun 1 0 1998 ! library * s g ******************** ~~][~~ ][ ~~ volume 29 / newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa apri11998 an early system for visual acuity chart letter sizes: number 2 in the late 19th century and early 20th century various systems had been proposed and were being used for designating visual acuity and for the progression of letter sizes on visual acuity charts. around the turn of the century a system proposed by monoyer was in common use in france. in a 1906 paper the french ophthalmologist armaignac criticized monoyer's system and proposed a new one. the letter sizes suggested by armaignac based on his empirical derivation method are remarkably close to the letter sizes on the bailey-lovie chart which is based on a logarithmic progression of minimum angle of resolution. a translation of armaignac's· 1906 paper follows. a short commentary on armaignac and on his paper will appear in the may, 1998, issue of the journal of the american optometric association. translation of: armaignac h. de ia necessite d'adopter une echelle optometrique decimale universelle-presentation d'un type. bulletins et memoires de ia societe franc;;aise d'ophtalmologie 1906; 23:496-511. translated by david a. goss, indiana university, bloomington, in. translation reviewed by richard a. carr, professor of french and italian, indiana university, bloomington, in. on the necessity of adopting a universal optometric decimal scale­ presentation of a model by dr. h. armaignac (of bordeaux) for almost 200 years authors have been concerned with visual acuity and with the means of measuring it; some extremely remarkable studies have been done from the time of george berkeley, in 1709, up to our own day, and it would take a whole volume in order to analyze only the works which have been published on this subject. for a long time, in order to measure visual acuity one considered particularly minimum visible [visual acuity], and already in 1738 robert smith in his work compleat system of optics had found that an eye with good vision was able to distinguish a point subtending an arc of 40 seconds and of which the retinal image was about 3 microns wide. later research of scientists has only confirmed this assertion. 29/6 however the theory of minimum visible [visual acuity] was not exclusive, even at the beginning of the last century; because in the very same work of robert smith one finds intercalated very important work of j. jurin (pergens, annales d'oculistique, march-april, 1906), in which it is a question, with numerous details, of minimum separable [visual acuity] to which girard-teulon was to return with as much knowledge as authority 100 years later and which was to serve as the basis of most optometric scales which have been published for more than forty years. in 1752 and 1754 thobias mayer, in his two works nova methodus perficiendi instrumenta geometrica and novum instrumentum goniometricum et experimenta circa visus aciem, cites numerous experiments which he had done on visual acuity and in accordance either with the principle of minimum visible or that of minimum separable. the author had also studied the influence of lighting and contrast on visual acuity and had arrived at conclusions that modern science has merely confirmed. it would take too long to cite only the names of the renowned scientists who, in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, published important works on the study of vision; it is not within the parameters of my subject to undertake such a work, which moreover has been done with a great deal of erudition by pergens in the march and april issues of the annales d'oculistique; i myself published in the revue clinique d'oculistique under the title: "quelque mots sur 1 'acuite visuelle et les echelles optometriques, " a rather long critical study in which i develop a part of the subject which i shall have the honor of discussing with you today. i shall therefore speak only about optometric scales, and if, 26 years ago, i wrote in my aforementioned article the following lines: "since the majority of optometric scales are sufficiently different from one another it would be desirable to do for optotypes what has been done for refraction and to ask an international congress, for example, to make up universal optotypes, without the name of the author, which it would be easy to make by selection, simply by using what is good and original in those which already exist. in this way, besides the advantage of using a fixed unit everywhere and always, as we do in refraction, we would be able to compare different tests. each year we see new optotypes appearing and each oculist believes he is obliged to have his own scales, just as he has in his own ophthalmoscope"; today i fmd my former ideas truer and more appropriate than ever. permit me first of all a few words on the history of optometric scales. the first truly serious [scales] seem to be the work of henri kuchler and go back to 1835 or 1836. they were composed first of figures or figurines of animals, of customary objects, of farm instruments, etc., then of printed characters of ten different heights and perfectly graduated. decimal scales were already invented! a few years later, in 1843, kuchler published his optometric scale formed of words of 12 different regularly increasing heights. the largest were 21 millimeters in height and the smallest 1.5 mm. very likely these scales were made to serve only for near vision, because the author states that much larger characters are useless because the partially blind who are no longer able to read them are rarely cured; as for smaller characters, they are equally useless since those who can read them do not go to see an oculist. in 1854, and almost at the same time, stellwag von carion, smee, and ed. de jaeger constructed optometric tables but it is snellen who receives the glory of having expressed measured visual acuity by numbers. based on the research of the astronomer hooke and on his own personal experiments, snellen found that in order to be seen distinctly, a square capital letter, black on a white background, must subtend an angle of 5 minutes, and since most letters are formed by three black lines separated by two 29/7 white spaces of the same width, either vertical or horizontal, it follows that each black or white line shaft subtends an angle of 1 minute and forms an image about 0.004 mm wide on the retina, that is to say, a little larger than that of a retinal element which is about 0.003 mm in diameter. in successive editions snellen modified and perfected his scales which, at first calculated in feet and inches, were finally established in meters and centimeters. these scales had, and rightly so, a great impact and were universally adopted. then there arose from all directions, a number of imitations, that were more or less successful, more or less ingenious, some of which were undoubtedly not without merit, but they had the disadvantage of being too numerous; and the number has not ceased to increase each year. in snellen's scales, as in all the others, visual acuity was expressed by fracticms, at times ordinary [fractions], in other instances part decimal and part ordinary [fractions]. this led to a bit of confusion and to too much diversity in the expression of visual acuity and necessitated certain calculations in order to establish a comparison between the fractions furnished by different scales. it was then that monoyer, in 1874, had the idea to eliminate this drawback and he constructed a decimal scale, on which each line, beginning with the smallest, indicated successively 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 tenths of normal visual acuity. this was a considerable improvement and the new scale was an immediate success, a success that has not diminished since in spite of its serious imperfections of which i shall have something to say presently and which were pointed out two years ago by our distinguished colleague mr. sulzer in the remarkable paper which he presented to us on acuite visuelle dans l 'incapacite de travail. monoyer's scale has been adopted by insurance companies for work accidents, by large railroad companies, by government schools, by military recruitment offices, etc., etc., all of which suggests sufficiently the importance that it has at the present time, and it is precisely on account of this importance that i come before you today to point out to you once again its imperfections and to appeal to your great authority to try to bring a remedy to it, as long as there is still time, by getting rid of these imperfections by adopting definitively the principle of decimal division of visual acuity, if not the principle of the physical construction of-the scale. our colleague mr. sulzer had made a commendable effort two years ago, to have our congress adopt a new scale which he had constructed and which certainly had great merit, but also the error, as far as many of use were concerned, of being too revolutionary by substituting gradations for the former degrees. a few months later at the instigation of our society the question was asked again before the international congress of lucerne and there, again, after long and scholarly discussions they broke up without having adopted the world-wide international scale so long demanded by ophthalmologists. all they did was to name a commission to study the question anew. what is the cause of this failure? it is perhaps the fact that many persons have made optometric scales. each person has his touch of pride and agrees with difficulty to abandon that which he has invented, and that he thinks is good, in order to adopt the inventions of others. but, you will respond, you have also come, in turn, to bring us a new scale which you believe without doubt to be superior to those which already exist. be assured, i do not insist upon giving my name to a new scale; i restrict myself to pointing out to you the imperfections and defects of monoyer's and to indicate to you a way to eliminate them by 29/8 presenting to you an actual tangible type which accomplishes all the desiderata, while asking at the same time for your approval and your criticisms. what does one find wrong with monoyer's scale? a single thing: the enormous difference which exists between the various steps, an insignificant difference between the letters which indicate 10/10, 9/10, and 8/10, and the considerable difference between those which indicate 1/10 and 2/10. in constructing his scale monoyer began by assuming, like snellen and most modern authors, an angle of 1 minute for minimum separable and 5 minutes for an entire letter composed of five edges alternately black and white, which constitutes the unit of visual acuity. he used old-fashioned square capital letters which had these conditions, and since it was proven by calculation that the tangent of this angle of 5 minutes with [a test distance] of 5 meters had for a linear value 7.3 mm, he gave 7.3 mm (7 .5 mm in round numbers) for the height to the letters which represent normal vision as a distance of 5 meters, and 73 mm, or ten times more, to the letters which have to be viewed at the same distance by an eye whose visual acuity is ten times weaker, that is to say, equal to 1 i 10 of normal conventional visual acuity. now he had found the two extremes of the scale; he still had to place the eight steps representing successively 2/10, 3110, 4/10, 5/10, 6/10, 7/10, 8/10, 9/10. in order to calculate them, monoyer simply divided 73 by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and thereby obtained the eight intermediate gradations which then gave the complete series: 7311: 1110 = 73 millimeters 73/2: 2/10 = 36.5 73/3: 3110 = 24.30 (25 in round numbers) 73/4: 4/10 = 18.25 73/5: 5/10 = 14.6 (15 in round numbers) 73/6: 6/10 = 12.11 (12 in round numbers) 7317: 7/10 = 10.43 (10.50 in round numbers) 73/8: 8/10 = 9.12 (9.50 in round numbers) 73/9: 9/10 = 8.10 (8 in round numbers) 73/10: 10110 = 7.30 (7.50 in round numbers) as calculation and from a theoretical point of view, this is perfectly correct; but is it really the same from a practical point of view? one has only to glance at the scale in question to notice immediately the shocking irregularity of such a progression, which is neither arithmetic, nor geometric, nor regularly progressive: while the letter which represents 2/10 is two times smaller than that which represents 1110 (inverse relation), that which represents 10/10 differs from that which represents 9/10 by only 1116. it follows, as mr. sulzer has very clearly pointed out, and as i myself had the opportunity to observe thousands of times while examining railway agents, that it is not possible, in practice, to .. establish an appreciable difference between 10/10 acuity and 9/10 acuity. i might even add that sometimes with the difference in legibility between different letters, certain persons read the eighth line as badly as the ninth and tenth. fortunately, as i had already pointed out 26 years ago in my aforementioned work, the maximum unit of visual acuity admitted first by snellen, and then by monoyer, is very notably below that which exists in reality among all persons who have very good visual acuity; these persons, in effect, are able to read easily letters 4.5 or 5 millimeters in height at a distance of 5 meters and with good lighting, that is to say, letters 1/3 smaller than those of the size which serves to indicate the maximum normal acuity. it follows that the unit chosen by these writers is not the maximum of human vision, but only good average vision. i am, moreover, totally in favor of that average unit chosen by most authors of optometric scales, probably with purpose; it is essential to keep it. all that 29/9 one could do, if need be, and i have acted in that way in my personal practice, would be to add to the decimal scale an eleventh line called optional or supplementary, which one would assign a value of 11110. i have said in the course of this paper that the optometric scale published in 1843 by kuchler was regularly progressive from the first line to the last and presented to the eye a harmoniously increasing series, whereas monoyer's scale gives us considerable differences between the various steps. the latter were selected in an absolutely arbitrary way: much too close together for strong visual acuities, much too far apart for weak visual acuities. monoyer's major error, in my opinion, was to apply to the determination of all the steps of his scale the very principle of determining visual acuity according to the subtended angle, although that appears, at first sight, paradoxical. indeed, it is indisputable that an eye which sees, at the same distance and with the same lighting, only a test object 2, 3, 4, 5 times larger, will have a visual acuity 2, 3, 4, 5 times weaker, but one must not believe for that reason that the difference between each of these fractions is the same; this difference decreases in an extremely rapid fashion as one moves away from the unit, as one moves away from the unit, as one can judge by reducing these fractions to the same denominator: 1/1; 112; 113; 1/4; 1/5 = 720/720; 3601720; 240/720; 1801720; 144/720; the difference between each of these fractions is successively 3601720; 1201720; 601720; 361720, or in decimal form: 0.50; 0.17; 0.08; 0.05, and if, as in monoyer's scale each of these differences represents 1/10 visual acuity, one can see that these tenths have a curiously different value from one end of the scale to the other. under these conditions it is evident that if one has to assess injury to vision caused by accident, as was the case in the report of our colleague mr. sulzer, the same number of tenths of reduction, with monoyer's scale, will have a much different importance from the practical point of view, as the remaining visual acuity approaches one or the other ends of the scale. thus, an eye which has lost, for example, 6110, has undergone a loss of more than double the one that has lost 3/10; in effect, the difference of the first three steps is 0.04 of which the double is 0.08, whereas the difference between the first ten steps is 0.15, which is about two times more. since the mathematical principle of the measurement of visual acuity by subtended angle could not apply to the practical decimal division of the optometric scale, it was necessary to find another and, for that, one had only to return to the old-fashioned scale by kuchler or preferably to some of the more recent ones in which the authors tired to obtain a more or less regular gradation between the smallest and the largest letter in the scale. a certain number of them have been published, and some would even be excellent if each line, instead of being designated by an ordinary or decimal fraction, as a function of distance and with a variable denominator for each one of them, was simply numbered in tenths. having accepted an angle of 5 minutes as a maximum of average visual acuity, a square letter formed of three black elements or lines separated by two white elements of the same width has to have, as is known, 7.3 mm in height when it is placed at a distance of 5 meters. that is an excellent starting point, a unit that one could divide in any number of parts, but since the division into tenths is very convenient, perfectly adequate in practice, and has already been accepted for 32 years by ophthalmologists and a large number of administrations, it was entirely advisable to keep it. in order to have 1110 of this half one could take a letter ten times larger and one would then have the two ends of the scale; then the only problem would be to find the scale in which the differential value between the steps was, as much as possible, the same. all those who have tried to determine these scale steps mathematically so as to make them agree with a practical and rational value, have gone astray. not one progression whether arithmetic or 29/10 geometric gives a satisfying result, and i myself have for long months looked for the solution to the problem, without being more successful than my predecessors. based on the data which are used in printing for gradation of types, i had empirically constructed, judging by appearances, a series of 10 regularly increasing letters between 7.3 mm and 73 mm in height. since this scale appeared to me to be very regularly graduated, i decided to measure precisely the height of each letter and to write these values in a series. by studying these numbers carefully i finally realized that they form a regular progression of a very particular nature, the first term of which was 7.3, the last 73, and in which the ratio was formed by the common factor 1.46, having for successive coefficients the numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45; that is, that these coefficients themselves increase according to a regular arithmetic progression 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. i obtained, by this means, the following series: 10/10 = 7.3 = 7.3 9/10 = 7.3 + 1 (1.46) = 8.76 8/10 = 7.3 + 3 (1.46) = 11.68 7/10 = 7.3 + 6 (1.46) = 16.06 6/10 = 7.3 + 10 (1.46) = 21.90 5/10 = 7.3 + 15 (1.46) = 29;20 4/10 = 7.3 + 21 (1.46) = 37.96 3/10 = 7.3 + 28 (1.46) = 48.18 2/10 = 7.3 + 36 (1.46) = 59.86 1110 = 7.3 + 45 (1.46) = 73.00 by slightly rounding off a few figures indicating the height of the letters from 7.3 mm to 73 millimeters one obtains the following values: 7 .3; 9; 12; 16; 22; 29; 38; 48; 60; 73. but i have already said that the test letter of 7.3 mm in height correlates with average visual acuity; in order to measure a greater acuity a smaller test letter is needed and i have adopted 7.3 reduced by a factor of 1.46 which gives 5.84, or in round numbers, 5.50, a few tenths of a millimeter more or less hardly affecting the legibility of letters intended to be seen from a distance of 5 meters, since the legibility of different letters of the alphabet of the same size and in the same lighting vary in rather great proportions. the relation of 7.3 to 1.46 being 5, i was able to establish as follows the value of the visual angle corresponding to the different decimal fractions of visual acuity: " 10110 = 300" = 5' 9/10 = 300" + 60" = 360" = 6' 8/10 = 300" + 180" = 480" = 8' 7/10 = 300" + 360" = 660" = 11' 6/10 = 300" + 600" = 900" = 15' 5/10 = 300" + 900" = 1200" = 20' 4/10 = 300" + 1260" = 1560" = 26' 3/10 = 300" + 1680" = 1980" = 33' 2/10 = 300" + 2160" = 2460" = 41' 1/10 = 300" + 2700" = 3000" = 50' 29/11 and if i make the same calculation in order to have the optional 11/10, i obtain: 11110 = 300" 60" = 240" = 4' i feel that one should adopt for an optometric scale of letters large, square capital letters, similar to the letter e because they are formed, in general, of five parts or edges that are alternately black and white. it follows that the thickness of each horizontal or vertical edge subtends an arc of one minute, the average limit of minimum separable visual acuity. theoretically there might be interest in using only letters with the general form close to square and in eliminating the pointed letters a, v, y, and those which have only vertical stroke, i and j, and some others like f, l, t, and u, but, in practice, this move except for the letters i and j.is useless: first because the measurement of visual acuity is always, whatever one does, somewhat approximate, and secondly because of the fact that since letters can be confused, the difficulty of distinguishing one form the other without error remains the same. the use of the scale of which i have just spoken assumes that the subject being examined at least knows the letters, but a great number of illiterates still exist in france, as in all other countries, and for these persons we have had to adopt in place of letters a sign that is easy to recognize and to designate. among these signs, those which seemed to me to be the best are the round c, the u, and the e, which can be placed one after the other in such a way that the open portion appears successively on the right, on the left, up, and down. one can therefore simply tell the person being examined to indicate on each successive line the side of each sign on which the open part is found. if need be, for those who know the letters, one could measure their visual acuity by using successively two charts. as for the alphabetical scale, i would like several models to be constructed, models which have the same dimensions, but which are formed from different letters, so that it would not be possible to memorize them, as could easily be done with a single scale that is easy to obtain. finally i realized, like many other authors, moreover, that letters had almost their maximum legibility when they were separated from one another by an interval at least equal to their own width and lighted by about 30 candlepower placed at a distance of one meter and shielded by an opaque screen from the view of the subject. · the interval which separates the different lines of the scale has to be equal to approximately two or three times the height of the letters for the first five or six rows starting with the smallest, and equal to a little less than one times that same height for the last four. a larger spacing presents no advantage and has the disadvantage of lengthening the size of the scale and of making it more difficult to light it uniformly. as for the choice of letters for a universal international scale, one can easily understand that it must be subordinated to the necessities of each country since all the inhabitants who might be examined do not necessarily know the letters of the latin alphabet. one should choose for each country the letters that are generally used in printed works; the main thing is that the proportion of the letters remain the same as in the standard scale. one could even, if one wanted, merely adopt as a universal scale, the scale signs about which i spoke a little while ago and which can be used in all parts of the world as well by those who know how to read as by those who do not. not only is it important to measure visual acuity but it is often indispensable to recognize and measure astigmatism which is sometimes an important factor in amblyopia after trauma to the eye. for 29/12 this determination one does not always have an ophthalmometer at one's disposal, but one can make up for it easily by simply using a clock face divided in the form of a star into 24 sectors of 15 degrees each. it follows that each hour after 12:00 corresponds to 30 degrees and each half-hour to 15 degrees. since almost everyone knows how to read the hour on the clockdial or at least can distinguish the line or lines which appear blacker or more distinct than the others, it will suffice, in order to reveal astigmatism, that the subject being examined state that he sees on the clockdial certain lines which are blacker than the others. the hours marked at the ends of the corresponding lines each represent 30 degrees; if one tries test spectacles in which the horizontal axis 0-180 has been arranged with 0 to the left, one will be able, almost automatically and instantly without previous calculation, to place in the spectacle the axis of the cylindrical lens with the direction corresponding to the astigmatism. for example, if the subject claims to see as blacker or more distinct the line of the clockdial corresponding to 4:30, it will be necessary to place the axis of the cylinder in the 135 meridian (4:30: 4 x 30 + 15 = 135 degrees); for 2:00 this would be 60 degrees; for 5:00, 150 degrees, etc. i therefore believe that i should add to my plan for a universal scale a clockdial to be used for the determination and the easy and rapid measurement of astigmatism by danders' method. kryptok: a remarkable detailed account of the invention, development, promotion, and marketing of the kryptok bifocal appears on pages 8 and 10 of the march 1998 issue of lab talk, vol. 26, no. 10, authored by joe bruneni under the title "kryptok, the first brand name lens." included is a lot of information about the involvement of john l. borsch, sr.; john borsch, jr.; and almer coe. lack of documentary references suggests that the information derives from the author's personally accumulated files and his many years of participation in the optical industry. h.w h. * * * managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (1050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 1998-29-02-001 1998-29-02-002 1998-29-02-003 1998-29-02-004 1998-29-02-005 1998-29-02-006 1998-29-02-007 1998-29-02-008 newsletter of the optometric historical society optometr; library vertic'~ i", 18 (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) vol. 16 january 1985 number l new o.h.s. executive board member the waiting is over and the ballots have been tabulated. if you have ever doubted the saying "every vote counts," believe it! in an extremely close election andrew f. fischer was the winner and will serve a five-year term on the five-member executive board of the optometric historical society. listed below is the full executive board and expiration year of each member's term. the board members will elect officers for 1985 among themselves and the results will be announced in the next newsletter. o.h.s. meeting maria dablemont jerome j. abrams james p. leeds patricia carlson andrew f. fischer 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 forty-five people attended the annual optometric historical society meeting on december 8, 1984, in the daniel boone room, clarion hotel, st. louis, missouri. the normal business portion of the meeting was postponed for the next day so as to give time to the two guest speakers. president jim leeds introduced christopher hoolihan, rare book librarian at the library of the washington university school of medicine, st. louis. mr. hoolihan lectured and presented slides on the bernard becker m.d. collection in ophthalmology. the second speaker, william austin, o.d., presented a slide show which chronicled the establishment of the permanent exhibit of a turn of the century optometric examination room in the heritage center, bismark, north dakota. our thanks to president leeds for arranging these fascinating lectures. immediately following the speakers five individuals (one posthumously) were honored as recipients of the o.h.s. recognition certificate. the recipients were m~urice e. cox, james r. gregg, robert k. graham, israel dvorine, and john r. levene (posthumously). ohs members are urged to nominate others whose contributions to the knowledge of optometric history deserve recognition. every nomination will be carefull.y considered by the executive board. an o.h.s. membership bonus: by this time every member of the society sho1.jld have received a copy of dr. james r. gregg's "origin and development of the southern california college of optometry 1904-1984." these are distributed with the compliments of richard l. hopping, o.d., president of the college. the book, a handsome volume of almost 600 pages, is a 1984 2 publication of the col.lege, with the printing costs underwritten by s. howard bartley, the founder of bartley optical sales, west covina, california. the author is a member of the ohs and a former member of the executive board. ophthalmoscopic controversy: henry knoll writes, "boy did i get an aha! reaction when i read your last [october 1984] newsletter. while reading on page 74 that 'a very famous colleague and surgeon once told me (helmholtz) he would never use the instrument (ophthalmoscope)---' and then reading on page 78 about william mackenzie i put these together and came to the con­ clusion that helmholtz was referring to mackenzie." dr. knoll has substantiated his deduction by several comments in a.m. wright thomson's biography of mackenzie, page 102, in which thomson declared that mackenzie dismissed the use of the ophthalmoscope in a few sentences. in his own voluminous publication mackenzie had referred to examination of the eye by means of the reflection of the beam of light from an ophthalmoscope as possibly confirming an unfavorable prognosis already suspected but "not likely to be satisfactory or safe in the early and curable stages oe the disease." mackenzie was worried about the effect of light upon retinal inflam­ mation, to be used only on hopeless cases. however, he eventually did use the ophthalmoscope. thomson wrote in a december 2, 1983, letter to dr. knoll that, "we still have his (mackenzie's) ophthal­ moscope in the infirmary and it looks well worn, although it might have been used by his successors." russian optical apprentices circa 1900: many months ago ohs member louis h. orzack, professor of sociology at rutgers university, sent me a university of california press brochure advertising several sociology books. the cover illustration showed apprentices in a st. petersburg, russia, optical shop, busily at work grinding and mounting spectacle lenses under supervision, sometime close to the end of the tsarist regime. the illustration was from "roots of rebellion" by victoria e. bonnell, a book appearing very late in 1983. a scanning of bonnell's book upon its arrival revealed that the picture is illustration number two and that it came from a volume by i.n. bozherianov entitled "nevskii prospekt 1703-1903," st. petersburg, 1901-1903. i was then lucky to find a copy of the bozherianov book in the indiana university library, a volume so large as to necessitate stacking it in a corner of the library which has oversize book shelves. the book was published in several parts during 1901-1903, bound later by the library, and, of course, is entirely in russian. it appears to have been published in commemo­ ration of the founding of st. petersburg (now leningrad) two hundred 3 years earlier. it includes many excellent photographs of landmarks and establishments in the st. petersburg vicinity as well as advertise­ ments of numerous local firms. the reproduced photograph was one of four relating to optics, two each on plates numbered lxx and lxxi. for translation of the legend i enlisted the help of professor emeritus of optometry ingeborg schmidt, m.d., who learned russian while growing up in estonia. the legend at the top of each plate indicates that these are selected scenes of the fabrication of optical products and instruments in the st. petersburg mechanical optical firm of ivan jacob urlaub, which was established in 1877. the first scene is identified as a general view of the spectacle assembly teaching area. shown seated on stools around two work tables are six boys in the apparent age range of 10 to 18 years and two men in about their thirties, presumably instructors or supervisors. each apprentice or employee is working with one or another spectacle component and small hand tools. the second scene is of the laboratory in which lens grinding, cutting, chipping, and edging were taught. altogether 16 persons are discernible, four boys standing at work at edging stones, seven seated at a long table apparently chipping and cutting lenses, with an instructor leaning over one apprentice's shoulder to explain technique, and four facing away in the background, apparently doing lens surfacing. the boys' ages seem to range from perhaps as young as 8 or 10 years to the upper teens. this is the photograph reproduced in bonnell's book and on the cover of the publisher's promotional brochure. the third scene is a general view of seven young workers in the area in which the mechanical mastery of precision optical assembly was taught. an older man appears to be an instructor. the seven younger ones, possibly between 18 and 21 years of age, may all be apprentices working at table-mounted pedal-driven lathes. several unfinished telescopes are suspended from a centrally located rack. the fourth scene is of the department in which the grinding and polishing of precision optical components is taught. included are ten persons, at least one and perhaps two of whom are instructors and the rest apprentices or employees of apparent ages ranging upwards from about 10 years. most of them are seen working at shop tables with small pedal-driven polishing and grinding tools. in all of the photographs the workers appear warmly and comfortably dressed, healthy, with hair trimmed and combed, and attentively working, ostensibly unaware that a picture was being taken. each room had large windows at the far wall, overhead ceiling fixture lamps, and various charts, ophthalmic product displays, and supply shelves on the walls. h. w h. 4 the lens edger's plague: many an ol.der l iviny optometrist of today tends to think of the harlequin spectacle frames of 1939 as the introduction to the continuing era of colorful, bizarre, and glamorous eyewear. not exactly so. according to a news item on page 54 of the april 17, 1924, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, the "latest fashion fad in london and paris is that of jazz spectacles of colored tortoise shell rims to match milady's dresses. manu­ facturing opticians are now putting on the market glasses of extraordinary shapes, triangular, diamond and heart shape., with rims of brilliant colors." shown is a photograph of "miss dale winter wearing the first heart-shaped jazz spectacles to be seen in america," with lens shapes as pointed as the pips on a playing card. collection in need of a home: dr. james leeds forwarded to us a clipping from the september 15, 1983 american medical news with the headline "home sought for antique instruments." featured is a picture of arthur frank, o.d., a retired optometrist from jersey in the channel islands of great britain. it shows him sitting at his desk surrounded by ceiling­ high display shelves of early scientific optical instruments. he has thousands in his collection. he started collecting in 1945 upon inheriting his father's accumulation of telescopes, microscopes, and other scientific instruments. his father made and sold scientific instruments in glasgow. according to the article dr~ frank wants to place his collection in a museum. he would prefer a museum in england but, he reports, "our museum curators are not very scientific-minded." he has therefore written to about 20 museums in the united states for possible interest. a president's glasses: a pair of "bifocal" eyeglasses that you may never have seen even in pictures is worn by u.s. president andrew jackson in a photocfraph taken ca. 1845. a full page portrait is reproduced in the october 1984 issue of usair, vol. 6, no. 10, p. 49. the original was in an exhibition on "photographing the american presidency" at the george eastman house at 900 east avenue, rochester, new york, october 30, 1984 january 20, 1985. the exhibition will be at the lyndon baines johnson library and museum in austin, texas, february 22 april 21, 1985. all of the photographs in the show are from the eastman house collection. 5 in president jackson's spectacles the lenses for the near addition were mounted in separate wires and hinged at the endpieces to fold back parallel to the temples when not needed. to put them into use the wearer would have to remove his glasses and fold the extra lenses into positions parallel to and behind the distance lenses. again for distance vision the glasses would have to be removed to fold back the near adds. lubin saw with one eye only: the front page, in color, and pages 40 and 41 of the june 29, 1984, issue of jewish exponent, vol. 175, no. 26, are totally given to "siegmund 'pop' lubin: movie mogul." included are illustrations of show placards, a post card picture of siegmund and his wife annie in 1905, a studio warehouse scene of cans of movie film, a theatre front scene, a fan magazine cover, and a 1904 motion picture camera, all related to optometrist lubin's motion picture enterprise. the write-up, by exponent staff member michael elkin, includes many details of lubin's personality derived largely from press clippings. these painted him as "a colorful character and a good boss to his many employees" but that he "was not on everybody's guest list." "lubin had only one eye," said museum curator linda kowall, "but he could see more with one eye than most people could with two." this clipping was submitted by ohs member andrew fischer and is being forwarded to ilamo. andy fischer remembers heather: supplementing previously published reminiscences about the late w.j. heather, o.d., is a recent letter from o.h.s member andrew f. fischer, o.d. he reports that it was while he was a student at the pennsylvania state college of optometry (psco) that he first met heather in 1934, and that after graduation in 1937 he conferred with dr. heather regarding a position at the northern illinois college of optometry. instead, dr. fischer stayed at psco as director of public relations until drafted for military service. "through his famous colored blocks," reports andy, "jere sought to show o.d.'s of that era how to live by fees alone, not by mark-up profit on eyewear. his efforts did improve matters somewhat ... " "in connection with the american plan," [a philosophy of professional fee charging outlined in 1940 by c.o. cozzens of the american optical co.] adds andy, "i recall the following: l. lugging a typewriter from the college [psco] to my nearby apartment where, on the kitchen table, i worked with jere on details of the american plan. 2. spending time in southbridge [massachusetts] doing further work on the american plan with jere." 6 in connection with american optometric association activity andy recalls sessions with heather and james a. palmer, o.d., at the congress in rochester in 1.953 concerning the aoa long range planning committee chaired by palmpr. at that t'im(• fischer was tlw adminis­ trative director of the new jersey optome~ric association. heather, then director of the bureau of professional relations of the american optical co., hosted two three-day sessions in the bellevue stratford hotel in july and august of 1953 at which the three of them formulated a long range plan that palmer presented unsuccessfully, "practically hooted down!," at the 1954 aoa congress in seattle, washington. however, adds andy, "a log i kept shows that, in a number of succeeding years, every part of the plan was quietly--but alas--tardily implemented." says dr. fischer, "jere and i were very different persons. although opposites in many respects and ten years apart in age, we were attracted to each other by common interests in optometric affairs. i enjoyed .•. a friendship [with him] that spanned half a century." fitting a lion's eye: headlined as "the first case on record of an artificial eye being fitted into a live lion" is a detailed account of the two attempts and final success in the july 1903 issue of optical journal, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 112-113. the patient was one of the largest male lions in a menagerie of trained animals owned by frank c. bostock. it had lost one of its eyes in a ferocious fight with several other lions. the job was done by mr. i. mayer of the r. hoehn co., the firm that manufactured the gumbert human artifical eyes and the full back reform eye, sometimes called the dr. snellen eye, and occasionally eyes for living horses and dogs. mayer was assisted by mr. max kohler, an eye artist. ophthalmic optical reminiscences: under the title "the winds of change in optics," in the may 26, 1984, issue of the ophthalmic optician vol. 24, no. ll, pp. 402-403, j. b. addenbrooke phillips recalls some incidents dating back ~o the "bad old days" when he entered the profession nearly 50 years ago. these included examples of unscrupulous advertising and the low esteem in which he and his colleagues were held. he identified july 5, 1948, as "a landmark in the annals of our profession," the day when the national health service of great britain began underwriting free spectacles for all. another was the enactment of the optician's act in 1958, and a third was the later granting of university status to ophthalmic optical education. each of these had very favorable impact on the ophthalmic optician's prestige. 7 he closes with reference to currently proposed legislation which would "allow non-opticians to undertake optical dispensing." it is this threat that prompted him to write the article. vision care improving artistry: mr. kevin j. ryan, president of barnes-hind hydrocurve, inc., has undertaken an unusual if not unique history-oriented advertising program. eye care professionals are receiving a series of beautifully printed 22 x 29 em reproductions of paintings that will highlight the eye problems of selected famous artists of yesteryear and the resulting impact on their art. "today," says mr. ryan, "the state of the art provided by the vision care professional minimizes the effects of such problems ... " the first mailing is a reproduction of "young mother, daughter, and son" rendered by mary cassat (1845-1926) in pastel on paper in 1913, about one year before cataracts stopped her work. evolution of electric lightin~: "the history of the electric light fixture" was the keynote address at the illuminating engineering society annual conference in st. louis last year by viggo bech rambusch. it was featured in the august 1984 issue of lighting design & applications, vol. 14, no. 8, pp. 20-26, with 27 illustrations, some in color. the lamp history is described in four phases: the great invention (1879), the tungsten filament (1907), the coiled filament (1914), and the quartz halogen lamp (1960). details of the formation and growth of the industry's labor movement are cited as indicators of the evolution of the industry itself. the role of fixture style changes also is described. a different opinion: librarian roger beckman called our attention to a very brief but highly critical review of george gorin's "history of ophthalmology" on page 229 of documenta ophthalmologica, vol. 58, 1984, by h.e. henker. the referee alleges "a host of serious errors, omissions, etc." he adds, "in a book on history this is unforgiveable. this book is certainly not to be recommended." based of course on quite different criteria, this recommendation is precisely opposite the one on page 62 of the july 1984 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 15, no. 3. 8 theory vs. attempt: ohs member henry knoll has suggested in the july-august 1983 issue of the contact lens journal, vol. ll, no. 4, p. 17, that 1988 may well be the centennial year for the clinical application of contact lenses by virtue of their first placement on human eyes having been separately described in the literature in 1888 by a. eugen fick, eugene kalt, and august muller, all three from conti­ nental europe. he reminds us, however, that sir john herschel, the english astronomer, described the optics of a lens in contact with the cornea in 1827, that the same monograph appeared in the 1830 and 1845 editions of the encyclopaedia metropolitana, and that william mackenzie made reference to herschel's suggestions in the 1835, 1840, and 1854 editions of his widely used pathology text, ~s did j. nottingham in his 1854 book on conical corneas. dr. knoll asks, "did anyone in britain try herschel's sug­ gestion before 1888? if not, why not?" "jere's building blocks" and more: donated to the optometric historical society by lois b. bing, o.d. are the following items of heatheriana, all originating from the late dr. w. jerome heather: 1. black display case with handle containing 25 colored blocks, known as "jere's building blocks," used to support his talks on "economics in visual eye care," a facet of the american plan. case measures 43 x 61 x 15 em. excellent condition, rare item [circa 1950]. 2. color key. a cardboard display measuring 38 x 56 em. at left there are seven rectangles corresponding to the colors of the blocks, followed by large print titles of each subject repre­ sented by the color as follows: cost of ophthalmic material mark-up subsequent servicing verifying and fitting; re-evaluating consumption of ophthalmic materials examining, refracting, prescribing fee for professional services rendered 3. leaflet promoting the professional advancement program. four pages, illustrated. 4. legal chart of optometry as a profession by w. j. heather. reprint from the southern optometrist, vol. 7, no. 3 (nov. 1953.) with dr. bing's permission all of these are assigned to ilamo, inc., as the ohs does not maintain museum facilities. 9 archive additions: recently ohs member lois bing, o.d., donated two old photographs to ilamo. one is a panoramic view of the banquet at the 1940 american optometric association congress in cincinnati, ohio. the other is a photograph of the aoa display at the annual convention of the american personnel and guidance association, april 1-4, 1960. identified at the head table in the former are all except two. one of the two attendants in the latter is frank kitchell, o.d. multimillionaire milton l. rock, o.d., ph.d.: of historical interest to optometry is the trend of career pursuits by graduates of its schools. in recent years we are finding increased diversification of careers of optometry school graduates away from conventional private and/or solo practice, with increasing numbers becoming involved in such areas as administration, academics, research, sales, and management. only two or three decades ago hardly a member of a graduating class would even entertain a "job" opportunity other than in clinical practice. nor did many school administrators encourage it. a startling exception is the career of milton l. rock, o.d., ph.d., who, according to ohs member andrew fischer, is a graduate of the pennsylvania state college of optometry in the late '30's. he had matriculated as the winner of a psco scholarship. he has been listed regularly in the blue book of optometrists through 1980 as a registered pennsylvania optometrist in cheltenham, but apparently never engaged in practice. instead he elected to earn a ph.d. in industrial psychology at the university of rochester. in 1949 he was hired by hay associates, a management consulting firm, at a salary of $6,000 per year. in 1964 rock gained 100 percent control of the firm, though presently he retains only 30% of the stock, the largest share of any of a "thundering herd of partners" a very lengthy write-up in the business section (d) of the sunday, november 18, 1984, edition of the philadelphia inquirer reports that rock now stands to realize $30 million in the sale of the hay group to europe's largest advertising agency at a $100 million price. dr. rock plans to retire in the fall of 1986, when he will be 65. 10 eyeglasses in 1327: in a scary detective story of seven bizarre murders in a wealthy italian abbey in the year 1327 author umberto eco mentions eyeglasses several times and also alhazen's de aspectibus, salvinus of the armati, salvatore, and roger bacon. the title of the english translation of the book from the italian by william weaver is "the name of the rose,"copyright 1983. o.h.s. member earl dablemont kindly sent us a paperback copy with pages 82, 97, 200, 230, 329, and 379 marked for quick and easy location of some of these inclusions. described are lenses mounted in a "forked pin" to allow support by the nose, the difficulties of presbyopia, "oculi de vitro cum capsula," the cost of "glasses ab oculis ad legendum" in bolognese crowns, the recency of their invention, their importance to scholars, effects of emerald colored lenses making "parchments to seem meadows," and the justification for considering eyeglasses tools of the devil or of god. eyeglasses since 1300: the optical museum of the carl-zeiss-stiftung jena (carl zeiss foundation of jena) has published a full color 24 page 30 x 21 em booklet entitled "brillen" (eyeglasses). the coded date indicates that its printing was august 29, 1983. the front cover shows a page of a latin incunabulum partly overlaid by a "lesestein" (reading stone) so as to magnify a few of the words. the inside front cover commentary gives alhazen credit for the concepts of magnification which gave rise to the cutting of spherical segments of glass that the germans eventually called lesesteine. beautifully illustrated throughout the booklet are selected museum samples of early, mostly exotic, eyewear and artists' illustrations of early eyewear from many parts of the world. the publication appears to be intended as a conversation piece for reception rooms in public places, presumably underwritten by the east german zeiss firm, as the back cover illustrates a display room of the spectacle factory in dresden. with address, telephone number, and visiting hours, the museum invites the visitation of all interested persons. optical history from east germany: two articles on optical history appear in the july/august issue of augenoptik, vol. 101, no. 4, an east german serial for optometrists, ophthalmologists and vocational hygienists (arbeitshygieniker). the first, "wechselwirkung zwischen , glasentwicklung und optikentwicklung bis 1800" (the reciprocal 11 development of glass and optics prior to 1800) by c. hofmann, pages 106-109, begins with the discovery of glass and its optical traits as observed in antiquity. it chronologically reviews the subsequent inventions of lenses, eyeglasses, and optical instruments together with the related derivation of optical principles of refraction, chromatic dispersion, and optical design. the second article, "johann heinrich august duncker und seine bedeutung ftlr die entstehung der rathenower optischen industrie" (johann heinrich august duncker and his importance to the establish­ ment of the optical industry of rathenow), is by r. scheibner, pages 110-115. duncker (1767-1843), a clergyman, and christoph samuel wagener, an army chaplain, are credited with the beginnings of an early capitalistic venture in 1801 which was the start of the rathenow optical industry. many of their technical contributions in the design of eyewear, optical magnifiers, and multiple lens grinding apparatus are illustrated in graphic detail and supported by documentation from catalogs and contemporary publications. both articles are to be continued in future issues of augenoptik, and both authors are from jena, presumably affiliated with the carl zeiss firm there. optical glass 1800-1884: "wechselwirkung zwischen glasindustrie und optischen instrumentenbau zwischen 1800 und 1884" (interrelationship of the glass industry and optical instrument making between 1800 and 1884) is the title of a well documented review by christian hofman in the september-october, 1984, issue of augenoptik, vol. 101, no. 5, pp. 131-138. included are portraits of peter dolland (1730-1820), pierre louis guinand (1748-1824), joseph v. utzschneider (1763-1849), joseph v. frauhofer (1787-1826), and ernst abbe (1840-1905), and four charts showing various optical properties of numerous commercially available types of glass during the 19th century. in the same issue, pages 138-141, is part ii of an article by r. scheiber on the role of johann heinrich august duncker in the establishment of the rathenower optical industry between 1806 and his totally disabling mental illness at the age of 52 in 1819. the article provides many biographical details of duncker's contributions to spectacle design including the fact that in 1815 he wrote a booklet of instructions concerning the nature, selection, and use of eyeglasses. 12 optometric education under socialism: in the september-october 1984 issue of augenoptik, vol. 101, no. 5, p. 130, faculty members e. kluger, k. conrad, and w. pfaffendorf of the fachschule for augenoptik "hermann pistor" (the hermann pistor school of ophthalmic optics) in jena, east germany, describe developments of the curriculum during the 35 years since the formation of the deutschen demokratischen republik on october 7, 1949, under sponsorship of the u.s.s.r. during this period the curriculum was extended from one year to two years and provision was made for the students' direct clinical experience with patients. further, the school has provided optometric and optotechnical training for more than 100 foreign students, with 44 foreign students enrolled in the presently attending classes. strong emphasis is placed on the inculcation of the prevailing political idealism in terms of the augenoptiker's role in society. early optometric graduate study: in 1932 the american academy of optometry established a limited number of "fellowships for research" to graduates of accredited optometry schools who also had recognized baccalaureate degrees in arts or science and had enrolled for at least one year as graduate students in graduate schools of fully accredited universities in physiological optics, anatomy, physiology, physiological chemistry, pathology, psychology, or physics. the yearly stipends varied between $200.00 and $300.00 plus allowances for research equipment and attendance of the annual academy meetings. in charge of the fellow­ ship committee as the director of research was edwin forbes tait, ph.d. in his report in the report of the transactions of the 12th annual meeting of the american academy of optometry in december 1933, vol. 8, pp. 144-146, dr. tait explained and described the objectives of the program and pointed out that he had discovered eligible candidates at the university of pennsylvania, george washington university, syracuse university, university of minnesota, university of southern california, clark university, harvard university, johns hopkins university, detroit university, the university of michigan, and ~mple university. early ophthalmic science: in concisely written but pleasantly readable style walter gassen reviews "the early history of ophthalmic science" in the ophthalmic optician. part i appears in the september 15, 1984, issue, vol. 24, no. 18, pp. 637-638 and 640, and part ii in the september 29 issue, l3 vol. 24, no. 19, pp. 668, 670, and 674. he identifies the origins of the science with optical, visual, and medical observations, myths, folklore, and theories of antiquity derived from the middle east, egypt, greece, rome, and elsewhere, citing even the biblical account of a miraculous restoration of sight from mark 8:22-25. oep in australia: "a brief history of oep australia" is the ·title of an article by chris henderson of liverpool, new south wales, australia, in the november 1984 issue of curriculum ii (optometric extension program), vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 61-70. his history starts with class notes on the 21 point technique which he received as a final year optometry student at the university of new south wales in 1964. in 1965 he joined keith woodland in practice. in 1969 he was invited to an oep study group to ~eceive some oep papers given to the group by e.b. alexander during a visit to australia. later came visits by homer hendrickson, jerry getman, et al. henderson is now the national director of oepa and edits a quarterly bulletin for around 120 members. two reminiscent articles: the august 4, 1984, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 24, no. 16, includes two articles of nominal historical interest. on pages 570-580 editor gerald ward interviews reginald thomas pine, obe, on the eve of his retirement as the general secretary of the association of optical practitioners. mr. pine had served the profession for over 20 years, initially as assistant to the late george giles. on page 582 henri obstfeld gives a thumbnail review of "60 years of optometry in south africa." minimizing destructive lighting: the primary role of a museum is to preserve. another important museum function is to display, which means exposure to light. the significance of such incompatibility was made evident at the annual meeting of the united states national committee of the commission internationale de l'eclairage in gaithersburg, maryland, last october by the after-dinner speaker, edwin k. robinson, lighting engineer, national museum of american history, smithsonian institution. the title of his illustrated lecture was "minimizing the destructive effects of light on museum objects." funny fifty five years ago: close 801\i e"'es a~o rea.o me 1'he. 'top llfje. 14 r,..~:::=.ji!:::===-ioij hwzopqq5 hf'pl. m of.eki eibt rc ~ :.::--· fm~;· this paul fung cartoon of june 27, 1930, was discovered in an old book on the ilamo shelves. levene scholarships announced: the john r. levene memorial fund has been established at the southern college of optometry, memphis, tennessee, in memory of the school's late dean of the faculty to provide stipends to graduate optometrists awarded fellowships in geriatric and pathology areas. optometrist authors lions club history: weston a. petty, o.d., of lubbock, texas has authored "the big story, a history of the lubbock lions club, 1929-1982." it is published by eakin publications, austin, texas at $15.00 per copy, obtainable from the lubbock lions club, 1304 avenue 0, lubbock, texas 79401. 15 recent academic history: a recently received "fact sheet" on israel college of optometry letterhead provides a bit of history relating to the establishment of the new school in israel. the document is not dated, but it arrived prior to october 1984 and includes reference to the graduation of the school's first four-year class in 1983. the college was established in 1979, the only such institution in israel, and is located in tel aviv. it has 95 students, 25 of whom are women and eight of whom are arab students. it reports a cooperative arrangement with a "center for optical studies" and ''israel's associations of optometrists." a draft law for optometrists is reported to be under consideration by the knesset. the present college address is p.o.b. 2826, tel aviv 61,027, israel. optometry in rush county: the rush county (indiana, u.s.a.) historical society (rushville) has published a history of the county. chapter one, 1822-1982, the medical professions, edited by john n. hughes, a rushville attorney, includes a section on optometry written by steve r. sickbert, o.d. he derived his information about early rush county optometrists from various sources including the county clerk of courts records, old blue books of optometry, various historical curators, and several interviews with older optometrists. to die for fame: in response to our item on george nissel in the october nohs dr. neal bailey sent us a copy of a letter dated march 1972 from mr. nissel, on g. nissel & company limited letterhead, london, under the salutation, "dear practitioner," as follows: in january 1972, we received a telephone message from dr. j. dallas, that he would like to discuss the supply of soft lenses with me. i duly visited him at wimpole street, london, w.l. in a building which is due for demolition within twelve months. i entered a waiting room-cum-office, which was the partitioned part of a room about 15' x 15'. i thought that i was a tough businessman, but the tears almost obscured my vision. 16 since we parted company in 1946, i have seen dallas very seldom. last time we met was in june 1971 at the contact lens congress of ophthalmologists in london, where he did not read any papers or take part in any of the discussions. in fact, i cannot recollect any public appearance of his in the past 25 years, or for that matter, the past 35 years, and apart from an occasional article (the last one appeared in germany last year) , we have hardly known that he was still active. he is very much active, working 7 days a week, not because he enjoys it, but because he has to. at the time when i left hamblins in february 1946, i had ll technicians working with me, all of us making glass scleral lenses, both preformed and individually moulded. that number slowly dwindled by retirement, by passing away as well as the usual wastage problem. corneal lenses came with a vengeance, and laboratories thrived. but not dallas. he remained faithful to his glass scleral lenses. he was opposing corneal lenses even more than frederick ridley, f.r.c.s. (if that is at all possible). i assume it must have affected hamblin's business, and eventually he left them and set up his own consulting room in 1964. i estimate that from 1937 until 1964, he must have fitted 6-7000 patients with glass scleral lenses. in 1962, his friends from harley street and his former co-workers, were invited by mr. paul wingate to dinner and every visitor received a small memento. this is all the profession ever gave to dallas. . . joseph dallas was born in budapest, hungary, in january 1905, and qualified as a doctor in 1928 in budapest by obtaining the m.d. he did not specialise in ophthalmology, but became a member of the no.1. eye clinic even before he qualified, under prof.dr. emil de grosz. in 1928, there were only zeiss contact lenses commercially available, in addition to the blown glass lenses of muller of wiesbaden. dallas started to use both of these and by 1930 he proposed an improvement on the zeiss lenses, by introducing a third surface, between the corneal and scleral radii, with the purpose of reducing the size of the water lens (not to be confused with norman bier's transcurve, which came about 20 years afterwards) . zeiss duly acknowledged the improve­ ment and took out a patent in both dallas' and zeiss' name. dallas recognised that a heavy corneal touch cannot be tolerated, which was inevitable with myopes using plano zeiss lenses and relying on the water lens for its correction, and started to play with impression taking. between 1930 17 and 1933, he managed to develop a technique of impression­ taking with negokoll which was a swiss hydrokolloid, following some work by a. paller, who did not use this material as far as i know on the eye. in those days there were no moulding shells, so dallas filled a muller shell half full with negokoll and put it on the eye. the negokoll was luke warm when placed on the eye. when solidified, the shell was removed and was filled with hominit, which in turn was cast in plaster of paris. whereas the ophthalmic literature mentions a hungarian m.d., csapody, who in fact tried to take an impression of an eyeball before dallas, he did not succeeed to make use of it for the purpose of producing a contact lens. dallas's merit was not only the impression technique but also the development of a method of manufacture, with the help of opticians and dental technicians. the epoch-making article of the impression-taking was published in 1933 in the german 'klinische monatsbl~tter ftlr augenheilkunde', and dallas became famous overnight. in addition to the impression taking, dallas expanded his theory of contact lens fitting over 19 printed pages, and most of it still holds good today. in the last 30 years, we have heard such a lot about the sanctity of the metabolism of the cornea, that i feel i have to reproduce in german, what dallas has written nearly 40 years ago: "das kontaktglas ist optische augenprothese, die den optisch in einem refraktionsfehler sich manifestierenden anatomischen fehler des auges zu ersetzen hat, ohne dabei die tlbrigen lebensfunktionen desselben zu st~ren . . . "* dallas's fame spread and keratoconus patients from all over the world flocked to budapest. eventually, thanks to the soliciting of the london agent of the tokay wine merchants, a mr. paul falush persuaded the late mr. gerald henry wingate (hamblin) to send a deputation of ophthalmologists to budapest. in due course a team did go to budapest. if i remember correctly, they were: ida mann, williamson-noble, rugg-gunn and t.j. phillips. as a result, dallas and i came to london in 1937. *[the contact lens is an ophthalmic optical prosthesis which has replaced the optics of a refractive error due to an anatomical defect of the eye without disturbing the other vital functions thereof.) ill ironically, dalles used the moulding method less and less and he started to rely on a collection of shapes, which he has accumulated throughout the years. he did give demonstrations of his now famous technique, but we very seldom made use of the impressions, but fell back on the 'shapes', fitting sets. in all fairness, he was a difficult man to work with. he had inhuman energy and expected the same from everybody else. his demands for technical precision could not be satisfied. he would humiliate me in front of the patient for making a mistake in a flurry of fury, but would offer forgiveness just as quickly. he does not know the meaning of time, and would go on working around the clock. he never cared about money, and he never made any. judging by the consulting room of his, he is penniless, but i am equally sure that he does not owe anybody a penny . in 1938, he was appointed to the newly established contact lens department at moorfields and he stayed there until frederick ridley took over. during the war he had also a session at st. mary's and afterwards, i understand even today, he has a session at the western ophthalmic eye hospital. recently he called us in again to ask us to repair a surfacing machine used in the manufacture of glass scleral contact lenses. the complete glass manufacturing plant is also in his consulting room, behind a curtain, which includes a small furnace, brass casting implements for the moulds, glass moulding machine and several surfacing machines. he has one young lady receptionist, an ex-civil servant who enjoys assisting in the technical work. to a question of mine, how long does it take to make a glass scleral lens; came the answer, about 20 hours. and when in god's name have you forty hours to make a pair of lenses; during the weekend dalles replied . since dalles left hamblins in 1964, he went on fitting glass scleral lenses for all those patients whom he con­ sidered would benefit most with such lenses. it must have been hundreds. and as he could not have his lenses made elsewhere, and possibly even if he could have bought them, he would not have liked them, he decided to make his own. so in one room he has his office, his consulting room and his laboratory, which is probably the one and only place today where a patient can still be fitted and provided with glass scleral contact lenses. 19 i feel, and hope many others will feel likewise, that the world of ophthalmology owes a great deal to joseph dallas, and i trust that nobody wil turn to him and say what the director of the national gallery said to my friend nagy karoly, a painter and sculptor from whom the gallery in budapest has just bought ten carvings: "why don't you go home karoly and die, so that we can tell the world how famous you were ••.•. " ophthalmic appraisers needed: an increasingly frequent need is the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of persons who qualify as competent and reliable appraisers of the value of old ophthalmic books, antique eyeglasses, early ophthalmic instruments, and other historical appurtenances and collectors' items of the ophthalmic field. if you know of someone who does-occasional appraising in one or more of these categories we will be pleased to receive and share this information with our readers. the requests come from collectors who wish appraisals for insurance purposes, from donors who wish to know tax deductible values acceptable to the u.s. internal revenue service, and from buyers and sellers of such items. except for small items whose market values are easily established from catalogs, recipient curators and librarians are rarely willing to make monetary appraisals in behalf of their own donors, though, when possible, they may suggest the names of persons who do appraising. their unwillingness is a matter of professional ethics and often also of institutional policy. the u.s. department of the treasury, internal revenue service, provides a very informative 10 page document entitled "determining the value of donated property," publication 561, revised november 1983, for donors and appraisers. it is pointed out therein that "membership in professional appraisal or dealer organizations does not automatically establish the appraiser's competency. nor does the lack of certificates, memberships, etc., automatically disprove the competency of the appraiser." also, "an appraisal may be given critical scrutiny and little weight if the appraiser is associated with either the donor or the charitable organization. such an appraisal' might be highly inflated." unfortunately the demand for appraisal of the archival value of old optometrically related items is infrequent enough to make it virtually impossible for anyone to become truly expert through experience. the best we can hope for are individuals of recognized 20 integrity who are familiar with the degree of rarity of an item, the existence of potentially interested collectors, their financial resources, the significance of the item to optometric history, ar1 appreciation of its state of preservation, familiarity with internal revenue service guidelines and pertinent insurance company policies, and willingness to describe the basis for each evaluation. a third legacy reported: another ohs member has amended his will to provide for a $1,000 legacy to the optometric historical society. he will receive free membership for life. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1985-16-01-001 1985-16-01-002 1985-16-01-003 1985-16-01-004 1985-16-01-005 1985-16-01-006 1985-16-01-007 1985-16-01-008 1985-16-01-009 1985-16-01-010 1985-16-01-011 1985-16-01-012 1985-16-01-013 1985-16-01-014 1985-16-01-015 1985-16-01-016 1985-16-01-017 1985-16-01-018 1985-16-01-019 1985-16-01-020 ... ~· ~, t ..... ., ..... ,. ....... _ ··~·.,.··~···· ~ ........ aug ' tj 1989 newsletter . of the i : a:lptometric historical society : ............... ~~.~~~~~..... . #( 2 4 j north lindbergh boulevard · ""/st'. louis, missouri, 63141, usat optometry library volume 20 july 1989 s£1> 8 198t)umber 3 georgia rebecca waterman brineman, o.d.,: early american registration records show that the profession of optometry has regularly included a significant but very small share of women prior to the statistical growth of recent years. within this small group, about 3% in 1944, an occasional female optometrist had a leadership role, as happily identified in this newsletter, but, generally speaking, we really know little about the typical career pattern of the lady optometrist of yore. perhaps the following chronology will at least provide one valid "case history." born on july 11, 1889, in fort wayne, indiana, usa, was georgia rebecca waterman, daughter of george h. and rebecca (anderson) waterman. she graduated from fort wayne central high school, probably in 1907, and attended hammond (indiana) business college, chicago music conservatory, fort wayne international business college, and eventually the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology. there, on november 18, 1912, according to a handsome 26 x 33 em. certificate signed by the secretary and president of the college, g.w. and j.b.m. mcfatrich respectively, both m.d.'s, she was registered as a "member" of the college and "fellow of optics". on august a, 1913, she was awarded the degree of doctor of optics by the same institution, receiving an impressive 48 x 61 em. diploma signed by the two mcfatrich's and five others identified respectively as professors of anatomy and physiology of the eye and brain, optometry, dioptrics, ocular therapy, and refraction. on april 1, 1914, "g. r. waterman of hammond, county of lake" received here 43 x 36 em. certificate of registration as an "optometrist" from the indiana state board of registration and examination in optometry with five signatures, only one of which includes a degree designation, that of m.d. the 1914 biennial blue book of optometrists and opticians lists her at 603 home avenue, chicago, illinois, and the 1916 issue lists her in hammond, indiana, without a street address. she is not listed in the 1918 issue, but in the 1920 edition she is listed at 205 w. wayne, fort wayne, indiana. on may 1, 1920, she married john h. brineman (1889 1944) in bluffton, indiana, a few miles south of fort wayne. her husband also was an optometrist who, according to the 1912 and 1920 blue 26 book directories, practiced at 142 n. pennsylvania street, indianapolis. the 1922 blue book shows her (misspelled watterman) at 2 05 w. wayne, fort wayne, indiana, and him in two indiana locations, 255 w. fort wayne, fort wayne, and 212 s. michigan street, south bend. the 1924 and 1926 blue books list both under the brineman name with the h. h. rogers co. on w. wayne in fort wayne, but with her street address number 203 and his 205. in 1928 both john and georgia brineman are shown at 824 calhoun street, fort wayne. this, however, is her last optometric listing, probably representing her profe~sional retirement to raise their family, which had been started in 1925 with the birth of their eldest, don. the blue books for 1930 and 1932 show john practicing at 2409 s. calhoun, fort wayne, and 101 n. main, fort wayne, respectively. according to john's obituary, however, the family had moved to la grange, indiana, in about 1930 where john opened a practice at 118 s. detroit street and georgia served as his receptionist as well as his wife and mother of their three boys and two girls. their community prominence was reflected in a 14 column-inch obituary for john in a la grange newspaper on november 16, 1944 and in at least four obituaries for 99-year-old georgia in la grange, south bend, and bloomington, indiana newspapers on august 30, 1988. their optometric as well as general civic roles were well described. "dr. (john) brineman was one of the best-informed men to be found anywhere." dr. georgia brineman died on august 2 9, 1988. all of the documents, other than the blue books, mentioned in this summary were donated by their son, dean don r. brineman, university division, indiana university. a bit of recognition: not only one of the longest published optometric journals but possibly of widest international distribution and certainly one of the most attentive to historical details is the optician, published in london. it is especially remarkable because it is an independent publishing enterprise, that is, it is not sponsored, controlled, or officially guided by any membership organization. at least~these are impressions from a remote viewing distance. a weekly magazine, now well into its fifth thousand editions, two volumes per year, it includes frequent items of historical interest and many an illustration of archival significance on the front cover. in other words it provides a cultural component conspicuously rare in the professionally ad hoc publications, except, of course, the nohs. examples during this past year have been two sequences of occasional articles. one, in two installments entitled "history of spectacles", is by ohs member colin b. fryer, an ophthalmic optician in practice in liverpool, 27 with the successive subtitles "once upon a time ... " (vol. 196, no. 5170, oct. 14, pp. 20 & 22.) and "going back to our roots". (vol. 196, no. 5175, nov. 18, pp. 34 36.) together they deal with inventions, frame design, early lens power designation, trade cards, prices, and guilds. the other sequence in five installments is by the late frederick ralph woodcock, also an ophthalmic optician and formerly a director of bausch & lomb optical company. the successive installment titles are "milestones in the history of optometry" (vol. 195, no. 5149, may 20, pp. 17-18), "the medieval scientists" (vol. 195, no. 5153, june 17, pp. 34-35), "science in the italian renaissance" (vol. 196, no. 5160, aug. 5, pp. 15, 17, & 18), "the newtonian epoch" (vol. 196. no. 5168, sept. 30, pp. 23, 26, & 39), and "18th century physiological optics" (vol. 196, no. 5174, nov. 11, pp. 39-30). the other ohs: the following report was sent to us by ohs executive board member jerry abrams. report of the ocular heritage society annual meeting july 11, 1989 as a new member of the ocular heritage society i attended my first annual meeting this year on may 10-11 1.n waterloo, ontario, canada. the meeting was hosted by dr. e. j. fisher. some forty members, wives, and guests attended the meeting. we toured the magnificent museum in the optometry building. several papers were rendered. one being "actina, the electro chemical eyes restorer" by w. h. marshall, m.d. an ophthalmologist from new orleans gave a paper entitled "recent acquisitions of ancient chinese spectacles and cases". optometrist jim leeds gave a paper on "louis braille". this meeting was the ohs 6th annual meeting since they began. their membership roster consists of persons (most of which are collectors themselves) with a keen interest in such subjects as ocular books, old spectacles, one member collects eye cups, old instruments relating to the eye, 16th and 17th century antique eyeglasses, and other varied ocular interests. interesting note that all three eye professions, ophthalmology, optometry and opticianry are represented 28 as members with one purpose and goal in mind that of preserving our ocular heritage thru individuals, collectors, museums and other institutions. new york city will be the site of the 1990 meeting, may 11-12. early goggles persist: illustrated in many a text as historical comment are the eskimo snow goggles variously carved from wood or cut from heavy leather to block the light from entering the eye from every direction except through small apertures or slits located at the straightforward position of the lines of sight. that they are current as well as ancient is illustrated by a young eskimo wearing a pair in "the kotzebue basin," a 1981 issue of alaska geographic, vol. 8, no. 3, p. 36. the legend for the colorful photo reads, "ornate carving of these snow goggles identifies them as part of the eskimo cultural period known as ipiutak dating from 100 to 300 a.d." credit for the picture is given to robert belous, national park service. the fighting forties, fifties, and more: "recollections of 60 years of the history of optometry" is the title of a delightfully anecdotal account of american optometric politics and development in the may 1989 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 391-404. the story is told by gideon l. lang, jr., o.d. with the acknowledged help of numerous others to refresh his memory and confirm names, dates, places, and events. those of us who experienced the optometric era of mainly the '40s and '50s plus the introductory '30s and the more settling '60s remember dr. lang by his acquired nickname "mr. hr6000". hr6000 was the u.s. house of representatives bill to amend the social security act so as to include the provision, "in determining whether a person is blind, there shall be an examination by a physician skilled in diseases of the eye, or by an optometrist, whichever .. the individual may select." a diamond jubilee in seeing: the seeing eye, inc. of morristown, new jersey, is celebrating 60 years of service to blind americans by providing qualified individuals with seeing eye dogs. the nonprofit school was founded january 29, 1929, in nashville, tennessee, by dorothy harrison eustis and morris frank, both of whom were appreciative of the independence afforded by their seeing eye dogs. 29 a brief history of the organization was entered into the congressional record on page e1474 on may 2, 1989 by congressman dean a. gallo of new jersey. by way of explanation: some of you have asked how i find the numerous historical tidbits that i mention in this newsletter. it is really quite simple. with 19 years of editing i find myself mentally so selectively sensitized that the tidbits seem to jump off the page of whatever i happen to be reading. my material comes to me in at least three ways. one is the several dozen professionally related, some quite remotely, serials, notices, and releases, that are stuffed in my mailbox daily by the postman. why i am on some mailing lists puzzles me, for i pay virtually no one for them. they include numerous domestic and several overseas journals even though we reciprocate with none. you might guess them from the frequency of my citations. i scan at least the table of contents of each one. the second source is the reader, you, who either calls my attention to a news item, an observation, an article, or a book, or often sends me a clipping. these contributions are occasionally prompted by an item which appeared in a previous issue of the nohs. typically these are real gems and often have a bit of very human interest. however, they may sometimes drive me "off the wall" as i try desperately to track down the bibliographic or otherwise authoritative origin so i can include an adequate reference, identity, or address for the reader who may wish to follow it up for more details or personal contact. i am determined not to propagate purely hearsay statements without identifying at least the reporting source. at the moment i have two rather interesting magazine clippings and a 10 page photocopy which i received with no clue as to the date, volume, or issue from which each is taken. the two clippings are from the optician (london). i have leafed through at least 12 recent issues in the library with no luck! in the case of the photocopy i do not even know the name of the publication in which it appeared. i the third category of resources is simply the observations and encounters that i make quite serendipitously during travels, museum visitations, social gatherings, reading for pleasure, and including even the scanning of unfamiliar magazines in public reception rooms and the barber shop. what is the ulterior aim of the newsletter if not merely to be interesting and entertaining? why are so many dull details included? 30 first and foremost, the newsletter is intended to be a documentary record of every possible detail of optometrically related history, a record to bring together the scattered and piecemeal bits of information that defy gathering otherwise. in 1979 we indexed the first ten volumes of issues. at the end of 1989 we will include the index of the second ten volumes. from these two indices the scholar, the history buff, the librarian, or simply the curious should be able to trace a significant number of leads to whatever aspect of our heritage he or she may wish, be it the contributions of abbe o~ zurbaran, or such topics as aberrations or zones of comfort. indeed, to every reader a share of the contents is plainly dull reading. this may not be exactly true however if one thinks of it as a part of his or her professional heritage. there would be no way, for example, to make the description of an eye examination of henry viii dull reading for an optometrist. h.w h aspherical contact lenses: the early years of casting of a mold of the eye to provide a hard replica on which to shape a scleral or haptic contact lens quite incidentally produced lenses with posterior surfaces that were of course aspheric so as to match the eye. the technology for grinding and polishing a mathematically specified asphericity on a corneal lens however was a later development. its evolvement is historically traced by a. g. bennett in an article entitled, "aspherical and continuous curve contact lenses" in the november 5, 1988, issue of optometry today (london), vol. 28, no. 22, pp. 630-632 as a "tribute to pioneers". bennett credits optometrist daniel o. elliott, jr. of south bend, indiana, with "the first recorded production of a usable aspherical contact lens" which elliott reported in 1964. subsequent experimenters and producers included david volk, an optometrist and ophthalmologist who was attempting the design of aspherical spectacle lenses while still an optometry student at the ohio state university in 1939 and applied his knowledge to contact lenses much later. among others were theodore e. obrig, philip l. salvatori, eugen hirst, and john shennan. bennett describes their technical contributions as well as their personal involvements with the development of and production of aspherically curved contact lens surfaces. delayed references and more: in the october 1986 issue of the nohs, vol. 17, no. 4, on pages 56 and 60, two manuscripts submitted by jay m. enoch were 31 reviewed. the first was authored by enoch and carried the unusually long and unconventionally capitalized title, "it is proposed that the cornea of the eye of the bull's head rhyton from the little palace of knossos (artifact dated 1550 1500 b.c.) is a true lens". the second was co-authored by r. f. heitz and j. m. enoch with the title, "leonardo da vinci: an assessment of his discourses on image formation in the eye". since then both articles have appeared in print in the volume titled "advances in diagnostic visual optics", proceedings of the third international symposium, tirrenia, italy, may 1 4, 1986, under the editorship of a. fiorentini, d. l. guyton, and i. m. siegel and published by springer-verlag, berlin and elsewhere, in 1987, the former on pages 1518 and the latter on pages 1926. because this publication may well be totally unfamiliar to most of our readers, a bit of description may be appreciated. the first such symposium took place in japan in 1978 as a satellite meeting of the international congress of ophthalmology, proceedings of which seem not be have been published as a symposium volume. the second international symposium occurred in tucson, arizona, usa, on october 23 25, 1982, again as a satellite meeting of the international congress of ophthalmology but co-sponsored by the optical society of america and with support from 10 other organizations including the worshipful company of spectacle makers. the proceedings, titled as for the above-mentioned third symposium, were published in 1983 by springer-verlag. the third symposium, in which enoch's papers appeared, has two additional papers under the broad heading of history of optics. one is "binocular rivalries: conflfcts between pioneers of research on stereoscopic vision (cassini lecture)" by n. j. wade, pp. 2 10. the other is "between alhazen and kepler: the treatise •on sight' by fabricius ab aquapendente, venice 1600 11 by h. m. koelbing, pp. 11 14. wade's paper deals very analytically with the history of the concepts of stereopsis, the impact of wheatstone's mirror stereoscope, the bitter disputes of brewster and wheatstone and of brewster and bell, and the conceptual contributions of numerous others. the article is thoroughly referenced. koelbing's paper is largely a review of the book "de visione" by girolamo fabrici (ca. 15331619), a professor of anatomy and surgery at the university of padova. his latin name was hieronymous fabricius ab aquapendente, identifying him with his place of birth, acquapendente, now in central italy. the book was published in 1600 with the subdivisional titles anatomy of the eye, general physiology of the eye, or theory of vision, and special physiology of the eye, in which "fabricius discusses physiological or visual optics". koelbing describes the treatise as "an exhaustive account of the science of sight at the end of the 32 sixteenth century", and that in visual optics it follows faithfully and learnedly alhazen's "perspectiva", the authoritative text of the era. talking books: talking books may hardly seem to be within the domain of visual science but they do relate especially to people who have certain visual limitations and to some who have normal vision but physical inability to manipulate a printed book. in the sense that one must be familiar with the kinds of visual handicaps for which talking books are indicated, the related knowledge is a legitimate part of visual science. such rationalization justifies mentioning here a free 1988 publication of the national library service for the blind and physically handicapped, the library of congress, washington, dc 20542, entitled, "talking books: pioneering and beyond" by marilyn lundell majeska. the 108 + ix pages in 611 x 9" (15 x 23 em.) paperback is almost totally history, well written and informative, supplemented by two pages in prognosis of the future of the national library's talking book program. the library of congress has provided various library services for the blind since 1897. talking books, however, were first included in the service in. 1934. the author describes in detail the technological, legislative, administrative, and organizational developments leading up to and following their initial use. it is an excellent historical reference as well as an interesting document. the mystery of "blue": in the october 1983 issue of the nohs, vol. 14, no. 4, p. 97, "'blue plate' glass imported from holland" was mentioned without explanation in connection with a history of japanese eyeglasses. in the january 1988 issue, vol. 19, no. 1, p. 6, it was reported that jehan sadat mentioned blue painted doors on some current egyptian houses to ward off j inns (evil spirits) • possibly sensitized~by these comments, ohs member charles letocha noticed several very blue window panes on the second floor of a house in washing:ton, dc, on 16th street a couple miles north of the white house. to document his observation he submitted a front view photograph. the window glass is indeed blue. the house looks a bit old but probably of 20th century vintage. astigmatism tests: jay m. enoch, robert f. heitz, and vasudevan lakshminarayanan 33 remind us that the many tests and devices described in the 20th century literature for measuring astigmatism might lead us to believe that the basic principle of astigmatism measurement is quite recent in origin. not so. in an article in the july 1988 issue of ophthalmic and physiological optics, vol. 8, pp. 349 350, entitled "john frederick william herschel on testing for astigmatism in 1845 11 they observed that although herschel's article appeared in an 1845 edition of encyclopaedia metropolitana, the article itself was dated "december 12, 1827 11 and that it was published separately in 1828. herschel (1792 1872) in turn mentioned a prior paper by g. b. airy (1801 1892) read before the cambridge philosophical society in 1825 and published in 1827 describing his use of a crossline figure to detect and measure the astigmatism of his own left eye. also, in 1826, j. i. hawkins (1772 1855) suggested the use of printed music staves as a test target for astigmatism determination with an optometer. another memorial: the pennsylvania college of optometry has established a mil ton j. eger scholarship fund in memory of the late editor of the journal of the aoa. optometric developments in india: from narendra kumar, editor and publisher of optometry today in india, we received a copy of his paper presented at a workshop sponsored by the indian national society to prevent blindness, march 15-17, 1989, in new delhi. this was the first time that an optometrist was invited to participate, so dr. kumar took the opportunity to include a bit of history of his profession in india under the title of "role of paramedical personnel in npcb." the npcb is an abbreviation for national programme on control of blindness, the theme of the workshop. kumar's paper also appears in his journal, vol. 15, no. 2, 1989, pp. 31-32. he identifies the introduction of the term "optometry" with the opening of two-year diploma courses in optometry in several eye hospitals in 1958 with the expressed two-fold purpose of "lessening the burden of time-consuming refraction and orthoptic work on the already busy ophthalmologist; and saving the members of the public from exploitation in the matter of scientific dispensing of spectacles in the hands of the traditionally unqualified optician." he then reports slow progress until there were about a dozen such optometry schools in operation, and priorities had shifted toward two-year diploma courses in "clinical technology" in optometry and orthoptics as offered at aiims (full name not given; 34 apparently an academic institution of higher education). subsequently there appeared on the scene a three-year b.sc. (hons.) degree course in "ophthalmic techniques" in place of the two-year diploma course in clinical technology, apparently to produce ophthalmological assistants while the unimproved two-year diploma courses continued and are still continuing at optometry schools in eye hospitals "which resulted in the continued production of half­ baked optometrists". he adds, "the elite school of optometry at madras then emerged as a blessing in disguise, to run a comprehensive three-year degree course in optometry followed by a one year's internship." at a later point in his talk kumar parenthetically identifies ophthalmology as "the mother of optometry". this assertion suggests that kumar's historical grasp of optometry probably dates to his first involvement in the middle •sos. this coincides with the establishment of schools in india having optometric identity under ophthalmological conception. the analogous perceptive phenomenon occurs among many american optometrists who associate their professional origin with the introduction of the more recently adopted term optometry rather than with the prior centuries of our existence under the identification of opticians and other nomenclature. by no means is ophthalmology the mother of optometry; at best she is optically a prying maiden aunt. editors: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1989-20-03-001 1989-20-03-002 1989-20-03-003 1989-20-03-004 1989-20-03-005 1989-20-03-006 1989-20-03-007 1989-20-03-008 1989-20-03-009 1989-20-03-010 (243 north vol. 15 newsletter of the ;pptometric historical society lindbe~h boulevard, st. louis, missouri july 1984 annual call for nominations: optometry library lert1oal file 63141, u.s.a.) number 3 the board member whose five-year term will expire at the end,. •n''' of this calendar year is henry a. knoll. the other members and tug~ (j01t the expiration years of their five year terms are maria dablemont, 1985; jerome j. abrams, 1986; james p. leeds, 1987; and patri ci·~~~ii••~j& ~;li~hi~i.;.'\~f • ti carlson, 1988. ...j.,~ .. l~ .• [ht . .r .. h~tir nominations, or renominations, for the 1985-89 term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot in october. they may be submitted to henry hofstetter, 2615 windermere woods drive, bloomington, indiana 47401, u.s.a. by all means do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. remember, self-nominated volunteers founded the o.h.s., and unpaid volunteers have kept it going. ordinarily, merely the name of the person you are nominating will suffice, especially if he or she is already well known to o.h.s. members, but if you feel that a brief 11 pitch 11 should be made in your nominee•s behalf it will be most favorably considered for inclusion with the october issue of n.o.h.s. our co-editor returns: douglas k. penisten, o.d., who a few years ago shared the duties of assembling and editing the n.o.h.s., is back in indiana after a sojourn of teaching and administration in the optometry program at the university of the north, south africa. with a part-time teaching appointment at indiana university he is pursuing another objective, the ph.d. degree. he really has not yet had time to organize his new activities sufficiently to allo\'1 us to get together and discuss how we will divide our activities 1n behalf of this newsletter, but we will. indicative of his enthusiasm and desire to volunteer his assistance is the fact that, upon his very recent arrival, he hastened to put together three paragraphs about thomas edison to include in this issue, identifiable in this instance by the subscript 11 d.k.p. 11 having an aversion for the evasive use, and abuse, of the 11 editorial we, 11 i have consistently, i hope, used the first person singular to identify every point of view which originated with me. further, since my name usually has appeared alone at the close of this newsletter, the reader has had to presume, quite correctly, that i have exercised essentially sole responsibility for assembling 46 the contents. that holds for this issue, too. in future issues, however, i hope that doug and i can share and/or alternate the responsibility. at the same time i hope we can work out a simple technique whereby we can, in occasionally appropriate instances, identify our individually initiated contributions and express our personal comments in first person singular form. such are the privileges of volunteer workers. let the critic beware. from a student•s notebook: an occasional discomfort of a professor in his later years is the fondly recited memory of a former student as to something the professor once said in a lecture. so often it is something that the former student merely wanted to believe had been said by the professor. a bit helplessly the old professor can only insist in astonishment that he cannot believe he ever said that, a response which suggests that he may be suffering from alzheimer•s disease. on at least two recalled occasions, however, i have prevailed on a former student to prove his citation by showing me where he recorded my alleged pronouncement in his class notes. in each instance he discovered that his notes contradicted his memory. so, it was not without some special interest that i recently came across a loose-leaf bound set of class notes taken by v.f. kring, o.d., during his attendance at northern illinois college of optometry in october 1935. in several issues of the blue book of optometrists dr. kring listed himself as a 1923 recipient of a ph.g. degree from the ohio northern university college of pharmacy, a 1934 alumnus of the north pacific college of optometry; a 1936 graduate of the northern illinois college of optometry, a 1943 recipient of the b.s. degree, and a 1944 recipient of the m.d. degree, both of the last two from the mccormick medical college. he practiced in fort wayne, indiana, and held continuous membership in his local, state, and national associations, his last blue book listing being in the 1962 edition. his note book and other personal effects had been inherited and set aside in the indiana university school of optometry library for an unknown number of years awaiting an administrative decision as to their assignment or disposal. his notes, in very legible longhand, 104 20 x 26 em sheets, usually written on both sides, were taken during a fall semester from lecturers identified as keef, shepard, atkinson, heather, and alf johnson for courses either labeled or obviously identifiable as ethics, myology, bacteriology, clinical optometric procedure, and ophthalmic dispensing, respectively. 47 now for the pieces de resistance, selected very unfairly, no do~bt, by me to satisfy nothing but my amusement and fascination, to represent neither the tones of the lectures nor the student's note-taking capabilities. · attributed to keef: .. passion is the psychological motion induced by a feeling of love or hatred... 11 the optometrist himself must possess five cardinal virtues: 1. honesty 2. sincerity 3. ability 4. will power 5. decency.. ..explain astigmatism, don't use it as an open sesame to high prices ... attributed to shepard: 11 a child's best vision is when he or she is 15 years of age ... 11 a myope judges distance of an object by sharpness of focus. 11 11 prism should never be prescribed without exercise ... attributed to atkinson: 11 pneumonia never lasts long enough to immunize the person. 11 11 two men, one an austrian and the other oliver wendell holmes, noticed the germ of puerperal fever and found that .students and hospital interns \'/ere carryi'ng this germ from one patient to another. 11 11 the human and the monkey are the only animals susceptible to syphilis ... attributed to heather is a series of 70 numbered questions, such as: 11 what is the significance of the family history?.. 11 what is meant by physiologic exophoria and its indication?.. 11 how may you examine the media without an ophthalmoscope? .. attributed to johnson: 11 you can almost measure temple length by p.d. 11 11 univis caters to oculists. do not use them. they are not as good as panoptics. 11 11 the main thing in adjusting an oxford is to get the right tension on the nose ... dr. kring's notebook is being sent to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry for the permanent archives. the full name of three of his five instructors are quite certainly carl f. shepard, o.d., thomas george atkinson, m.d., and w. jerome heather, o.d. the names keef and alf johnson are not familiar to me. medica 1 adviser to ~ ~: the role of an eye physician, professor riccardo galeazzi-lisi, as the personal general physician of eugenio pacelli is described in "la popessa, 11 a 1983 book by paul i. murphy, published by warner books, new york. pacelli served as pope pius xii from 1936 to 1958, as the vatican secretary of state from 1930-1936, and as the official in charge of the vatican's foreign office for many years earlier. the book is identified as 11 the controversial biography of sister pascalina [nee josefine lehnart], the most powerful woman in vatican his tory. 11 she had devoted virtually a 11 of her 1 ong career as a nun in the highly personal and intimate service of father pacelli until his death as pope pius xii. 48 in the outspoken op1n1on of the nun dr. galeazzi 11was merely an eye-specialist and nothing more ... she reported that, early in his career in the vatican, the later to become pontiff 11 had been out walking and saw a gaudy sign with a huge painted eye dangling from a building, advertising galeazzi-lisi•s services, and was reminded that he needed new glasses and marched up the stairs to the doctor•s offices ... further, she reported that 11 dr. galeazzi-lisi was over­ whelmed by his important new patient; and when his medical training and experience failed, his flattery and fast talk succeeded ... pius would send for galeazzi-lisi for whatever health problem he had. he is quoted as saying, 11 i know only one doctor in rome. send for galeazzi. 11 upon pius•s death galeazzi insisted on official vatican permission to proceed with an untried embalming procedure which, he argued, was the pope•s explicit wish. it turned out to be a colossal blunder. he also is credited with attesting to the credibility of pius•s claim to have been visited by jesus christ. finally, quite without expla­ nation, the author reports that eventually dr. galeazzi-lisi was expelled from the italian medical profession and censured by the church. four friendly new members: ohs member andrew f. fischer, o.d., himself a long time contri­ butor to optometry•s history, quintupled his 1984 dues payment to include gift memberships to four of his pennsylvania friends, drs. bernard adler, martin hafter, bernard kushner, and arnold mazer. mindful of chain-letter theory, one can calculate that if every ohs member did the same, within the time it would take for three successive mail deliveries our membership would increase to 17,129! history knows flq bounds: dr. selwyn super, dean of the newly established school of optometry at rand afrikaans university, johannesburg, south africa, recently paid a visit to the international library, archives, and muse~m of optometry, inc. (ilamo). while there he paid his current ohs membership dues, having been a member since 1972. at the same time he made a gift of ohs membership to his friend professor charles b. margach, 0.0. at the southern california college of optometry, fullerton, california. this may well be the most remotely extended gift in optometric history! 49 colonel sheridan deceased: colonel john w. sheridan, o.d., a 1935 graduate of the ohio state university school of optometry, was the first to receive a commission as an optometrist in the army medical service corps following enactment of legislation in which optometry was included for commissioning. he became the first chief of the optometry section of the corps. many of us knew him as 11 jack, 11 but especially as the living symbol of optometry's success in perhaps the profession's biggest single political hurdle. he wore his badge humbly and was later granted the apollo award by the american optometric association. his death on may 2, 1984, at the age of 73 has closed another vital chapter of personal dedication in optometry's history. the 11 roaring twenties 11 : the strong undercurrents of philosophical controversies of another era are most difficult to perceive from either the ultimately compromised evolvements or from the contemporary columns of editorially tempered journals. the heated outbursts that expose the intensity of feelings are quite properly put out of memory as soon as possible, and above all they are kindly eliminated from the permanent record. unfortunately such human courtesy handicaps the eventual historian who tries to grasp the significance of events that may relate to an otherwise unfathomable trend or absence of trend. so he is pleased with every bit of uncensored discovery that may help to piece together the history of a critical period. such was the period in the 1920's in the united states when all of the states had accomplished the enactment of laws to regulate the practice of optometry. the newly appointed state boards were required to formulate the educational requirements to be met by optometry school graduates applying for licensure. for the first time, existing optometry schools were having to meet externally decided standards. among the old papers recently disposed of by the indiana state optometry board was a mimeographed document on the letterhead of the north carolina state board of examiners in optometry, office of the secretary, lumberton, n.c. entitled 11 a reply to dr. w.b. needles by dr. w.w. parker, secretary, north carolina state board of examiners in optometry. 11 it may be surmised that copies were distributed to many or all state board secretaries late in 1925. the article opened with the following parenthetical paragraph: 50 (the optometric weekly refused to publish this reply, g1v1ng as their excuse that it was too personal. however, in view of dr. needle•s unjust criticism and insinuations, the writer is of the opinion that the phraseology of his reply is justified, and takes this means of disseminating his view, to which the profession is entitled.) dr. walker•s paper refers to a lengthy article by dr. w.b. needles, president, needles institute of optometry and northern illinois college, in the august 27, 1925, issue of the optometric weekly and the optometrist ! optician, pp. 1083-1087. the polemic tone of dr. needles• article may be sensed from a few selected statements, as follow: 11 we are dying out because we are not recruiting man power at half the rate we are losing it. 11 11 the one thing that has stopped the increase in optometrists is obviously the restraining influence of state laws. 11 11 we procured our laws as a bulwark against being driven out of busi:ness ... 11 protection was our prime motive ... 11 0ptometry can never occupy a similar position to dentistry. the dentist has no competitors; no medical man envies him or desires any part of his practice ... 11 scores of general [medical] practitioners, dissatisfied with routine work, have taken up optometry as an easy road to speciali­ zation ... 11 how rigid can optometry make its requirements and continue to grow? .. 11 0nly the educators know how impossible it is to fill a course of two thousand hours without teaching extraneous subjects or •padding• ... 11 who are the men who prescribe these standards? they are chosen chiefly from the ranks of the state board examiners. none of them are school men ... 11 the courses now being taught at columbia and ohio state, and possibly california, are well organized, but in procuring for these courses teachers who are acceptable to the university and who know something of optometry, they have about exhausted the supply ... 11 the optometrist of today finds favor with the public largely because of the expert optical service which he can give ... 11 if we drift along at our present rate for another ten years our national conventions will look like a corporal•s guard. 11 equally articulate was dr. walker•s unpublished reply, as follows: in the optometric weekly of aug. 27th there appears a contribution by dr. w.b'. needles under the caption 11 must optometry zby stifled?.. it would be well for each subscriber to the weekly to reread this article, for it is a masterpiece of inconsistency and contradiction of the author•s former position. when one takes i~to consideration the great number of lectures dr. needles has delivered over the country, heralding professional optometry, his statements become ridiculously amusing. 51 the writer does not wish to enter into any controversy over the article in question, and would not make this reply except for the fact that the author has gone so far in his insinuations as to apparently think his remarks will be accepted without question, and if so, his ideas will prove a panacea for all of our optometric ills. of course, the main reason for the doctor's lengthy article was to 11 swat 11 the naughty fly that dared to sit on his prominent 11 knows. 11 in contradistinction to the gentlemen referred to, the writer desires it to be known at the outset, that he stands strictly for professional optometry and not the shopkeeping stuff commended in his 11 ideal 11 the new york city 11 optician. 11 the style in which an optometrist conducts his practice un­ questionably shows 11 where his heart is .. and you do not have to converse with him to know it. the fellow with a shop as we generally find him, is a merchant thinking in terms of sales rather than service. he may pretend otherwise, but investigate if you please his professional training and you will find little to his credit. the ring of the cash register has a far sweeter sound than ever did the voice of our eminent teachers. the pity of it, he is so blinded in the lack of self-preparation he does not appreciate that knowledge pays or is capable of raising him to a higher plane of usefulness. the writer is convinced, after having passed through many stages of our optometrical develop­ ment, that the shop keeping idea dr. needles would indicate, is one of the most pernicious evils with which we have to contend. it is preposterous to expect one to see and appreciate the wonderful organ of vision that it is, thinking in terms of optical merchandising. do we need laws to regulate such a grab-dollar proposition? probably so, to prevent such deficient practice. if we can not make a profession of optometry by compelling high school graduation and two years or eighteen months of optometric subjects, then let's be honest enough with ourselves to quit talking professionalism, and publishing pages of high sounding greek fraternity news, and see who can outrival the other fellow in the business of hornrims, gazing globes and all the other junk that goes to supply an 11 ideal 11 spectacle shop. anyone who has attained to real professionalism along studious and ethical lines knows that two years should be the minimum for the present, and that we should be scarcely worthy of statutory regulation with less preparation. give our students this amount of intensive training in optometry and ophthalmology, which of course includes such essential subjects as ocular hygiene, clinical pathology and diagnosis, and the public will be quick to recognize their superior ability. 52 dr. needles' scare-crow, the oculist, is only further evidence of the false doctrine he would have us accept without question. does he mean that we should confine our professional training and practices to trying to ape the oculist in his usual lack of knowledge of optometry? how absurd! how would we ever hope to establish the respectable profession on a basis with men who do not know even the fundamental science of optometry? we shall establish optometry by excelling and not by imitating him. certainly, this would be the only honest way, and should we fail in this, we shall still have the "ancient opticianry" as a solace. now, the writer is of the opinion that the whole trouble with dr. needles is, he has allowed himself to become a little peevish because the north carolina board deemed it to the best interest of the profession to rule out his two schools. natu­ rally, when you interfere with a man's "commercial" aspirations, you hit his pocketbook and he at once becomes excited, and in this state of mind he makes all sorts of inconsistent statements. long before the doctor burst forth into print, he wrote to the chairman of our board expressing his displeasure at the way his schools had been "discriminated" against, and insinuated that the secretary was a most unreasonable person for having brought this about. to this the writer desires to say that it does not matter who introduced the idea--the ruling was carried unanimously. this board, since its reorganization some two years ago, has not acted on the advice of anyone, as we have also been accused, but instead, have been governed entirely by our own judgment based on knowledge gained from candidates from the various schools, as well as the board members' attend­ ance at different schools. neither have we assumed any "holier than thou" attitude, except toward those schools which we refused to recognize. we are of the opinion that these should have had the "whip cracked" over them, because they failed to keep abreast of the profession. we were actuated by something higher than so much per student. we thought it both reasonable and fair that unless these schools complied more closely with the syllabus their heads subscribed to at st. louis in 1922, they should go, and the sooner the better. the writer has before him a copy of this syllabus containing 4 a .picture of dr. needles seated proudly at the council table. he indorsed this syllabus and thereby indicated to the world that he would adopt it as the standard for his schools. he failed to abide by his agreement, and now he slurs at the state board members of the country because the north carolina board has had the courage and initiative to refuse his students. he insinuates that we are all a bunch of ignoramuses, and incapable of sane judgment, because we "do not know the school business." the members of this board are willing to admit that they are not school teachers, but we have had association with 53 a goodly number who were, together with some who were not, and from these together with the knowledge before mentioned, have learned pretty well "who is who" in the "teaching business." then, too, this "inadequately infonned" secretary suspects that the learned doctor has never had, and never will avail himself of the comprehensive training in ophthalmology that has been his privilege. he has not contented himself with the parrot-like infonnation gleaned from text-books alone, as taught mostly at the needles schools, but instead has spared no time and money in acquiring knowledge as taught in the laboratories and clinics of the best optometrical and post-graduate medical schools. the writer holds certificates, by attendance, from four different schools of optometry and one in eye, ear, nose and throat surgery from a leading post-graduate medical school; having studied in one other of america•s largest eye, ear, nose and throat clinics. not to be a "near medical man" either, but to learn the essentials of an optometrical practice. in conclusion, to the prospective student or practitioner who would ask the question: does this amount of study pay? most assuredly it does. the fellow who would say that it does not is either untruthful, impractical, or has not had sufficient of this preparation to realize its value. we must remind ourselves that these brief and isolated excerpts from the certainly extensive expository contributions of both drs. walker and needles should not label either as wrong or right. these excerpts serve merely to illustrate the intensity of the controversy and the difficulty of analysis of the issues without our present knowledge of the outcome. from the fathomless forties: ---among discarded papers from the indiana state board of examiners in optometry is a typewritten article by g.f. kintner, o.d., wabash, indiana, entitled the main road or the back roads. it appears to have been written circa 1944 and probably was never published. the paper points up one of the critical issues of its era and expresses artic­ ulately the frustrations of those who reco~nized the needs. dr. kintner is presently in the nursing home of a retirement community in lacey, washington. he was born in lima, ohio, august 3, 1904, the eldest of eight, all of whom chose careers in the health care field, two in optometry, one in dietetics, one in dentistry, and four in medicine. when galen was five the family moved to north manchester, indiana, where his father took a position as professor of biology at manchester college. galen attended manchester college, later the university of akron while working for the goodyear tire and rubber co., 54 and finally enrolled at the northern illinois college of optometry. he taught there for two years before going into private practice in wabash, indiana. in 1949 he married peg, who kindly provided this information. shortly thereafter they moved to lynden, washington, where galen practiced until his retirement in 1973. he has given permission to include his circa 1944 paper here, as follows: whether we like them or not, we have nine schools turning out graduates in optometry. three of them are schools associated with recognized educational institutions. we have educational institutions that grade all the way from plain rackets right up to the highest type of schools. for instance, one school has only one man on its permanent faculty with a recognized degree and that in veterinary medicine. there is no need for our sticking our heads in the sand and saying that agencies outside the profession know nothing of our school situation. i have been told: 11 until you get your schools in shape, you can never be recognized. 11 officials in washington know more about our schools than you and i do and upon that knowledge, they deny optometry the recognition it desires. i have been told that it was not the commercial aspects of optometry that was preventing its recognition for: 11 we (medicine and optometry) have scoundrels and we will always have them; but optometry must clean up its schools, if it is to survive. ii for as long as i have been in the profession, every effort to raise the level of our educational attainments has been stymied by some of the following deterents: 1. bogey of turning optometrists into medical technicians. this is just plain silly, for medicine could not cancel the laws governing optometry in these forty eight states even if it wanted to. the fact that dentists and pharmacists take their first two years in the same classes as medical students did not change them over night into medical technicians. if optometry does not clean its educational house, medicine can and will educate its own refracting technicians, for it has already done it in the army and navy. 2. optometry must have private schools. this statement is based upon the misconception that private schools can be better controlled than university schools. this is largely the result of friendships, political log-rolling, emotional appeal and practice of all of the wiles of the smart salesmen. the fact that there still flourishes a private school which turns out graduates in twelve to fifteen months and advertises 55 that it does it in eighteen, is proof that the profession has no control of its private schools. this bogey is largely of our own making and is due to the fact that we fear the domination of medical education in the universities with which our schools may affiliate. or there is the alternate fear that certain types of education would be denied optometry students by the medical educators. it should be clear to everyone that recognition of optometry and participation and assistance in its educational program by educators of medicine must be preceded by a drastic and complete overhauling of its schools. no other alternative procedure is possible. 3. the philosophy that somehow we can muddle through. for five years now, with all the latitude they were given, the schools, themselves, have been unable to come to any common standard for entrance requirements, curriculum, standards for graduation, etc., etc. it is patent that some strong force must induce the schools to do the will of the profession in order to meet its needs. dr. sheard, who has as good a birds-eye-view of the profession as any man in it, says: 11 0ptometry 1 s dispensation to clean up its school is fast running out. 11 we are definitely faced with the need for courageous action. every recognized authority on professional education tells us that the proprietary, commercial, private (or whatever you want to call it) school must quit or become affiliated with a recognized institution and that as soon as practical. the only fact that we need to consider to assure ourselves of that is to compare the present status of private and university schools. picture the work that is being done at california by morgan and stoddard against the low estate that was mentioned previously. how the change to university affiliation can be done should be the only matter for discussion in the profession. this paper is not intended to elaborate on the changeover. when i was teaching at an optometry school, we were inspected and reinspected by the council and by the i.b.b. (international association of boards of examiners in optometry) until the inspectors were almost underfoot. the result (in spite of claims to the contrary) were exactly nil. i cannot believe some sort of divine power will change the picture with the present council on education. the i.b.b. has largely been shorn of its accrediting power and rightly so. however, the council on education must, with all the authoritative assistance it can muster, initiate the steps to be taken. there is only one power that can finally clean up our educational mess, and that is: the pitiless light of publicity concerning the status of schools teaching optometry. 56 those that can stand ~p under it will survive. those that can not survive the light of day will need to make changes or quit. we can learn from medicine•s experience which exactly paralled ours. we can call in some agency such as the carnegie foundation who will be listened to with respect, give them carte blanc to investigate our educational system--undergraduate and graduate--and then give their report the widest publicity. i understand that it will cost the profession in the neighbor­ hood of $3500 to $5000 to accomplish this. some people are going to be hurt (some of them are my very good friends) but the profession is bigger than any individual or group of individuals within it. if we do not recognize that fact, then we will have no profession. the association must courageously face the fact that such action may make temporary enemies. it may be threatened with litigation as the a.m.a. was. the gains it will make in friends, in raising itself above the cults into the fellowship or professions will out-weigh all of its temporary losses. this subject is one that is very important to me and all the other ordinary, fingerling optometrists. we have a longer way to go in our profession than the majority of optometrists and we want to travel that road in the company of and with the complete respect of other practitioners of the healing arts. we know that we must travel in their company, for the backroads we might take alone are not to our desire. it is worth noting that shortly after the above was written, dr. kintner co-authored a treatise with james a. palmer, o.d., and a. scott gibson, o.d., entitled 11 principles of ethics and economics for the optometrist, .. which was published by the department of ethics and economics of the american optometric association. edison overexposed: much has been written lately concerning the possible ocular hazards of artificial lighting, but there is nothing new about the caus9l relationship between lighting and 11 asthenopia 11 • the inventor of the first successful incandescent bulb was well aware of this fact. the following is an excerpt from thomas edison•s notebook for january 28, 1878, as reported by ronald clark in 11 edison, the man who made the future, .. g.p. putnam•s sons, 1977, p. 95: 11 0wing to the enormous power of the light (alloy of nickel) my eye commenced to pain after seven hours work and i had to quit. suffered the pains of hell with my eye last night from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. when i got to sleep with a big dose of morphine. eyes better, do not pain much at 4:00p.m. but i doze today ... 57 in all fairness i must state that at this time edison was working feverishly to find the ideal material for a bulb filament. the seven hours work consisted primarily of observing the nature of the bulb glow. in other words, staring directly at the filament at close range! d.k.p. leeds remembers heather: responding to the suggestion in the previous issue that those who knew dr. heather should whip out a few paragraphs for the n.o.h.s., james p. leeds, o.d., writes as follows: you ask what i remember about 11 jere 11 heather. he was in some executive capacity at northern illinois college of optometry when i first entered there in the fall of 1937. some time during that semester he left for the american optical co. he taught us a course on, i believe, 11 0ptometric orientation 11 • we all antici­ pated hearing him, as he was an original; and whoever followed him after he left suffered in comparison. he was a flamboyant person--egg bald, impeccably dressed with a boutonniere, pencil­ thin mustache, large physique. his vocal delivery could best be described as bombastic, and he held everyone's attention. he was a character, and he knew it and played it to the hilt. in the first class he asked why we were studying optometry. there were all sorts of answers such as benefiting mankind, etc. finally someone piped up that he thought he could make a good living from optometry. this is what he was looking for. he roared that we were in it for the 11 dough 11 and he hoped we would all make it. since [name deleted] was in the class, at least one got the message. the summer prior to enrolling i drove to chicago to view the school. since a new class building was being built, the old one didn't bother me. but the bernard hotel, which was being taken over as a dorm, did. there were to be three freshmen to a room, a small one, with a single and a double bed with a $3.00 weekly rent. having just left a nice fraternity at the university of michigan, i was, to say the least, underwhelmed. i wasn't rich, but i felt i could,afford something better. i went in to see him, for that is where i was directed, and i was overwhelmed. he put his arm around me and said he would not permit me to stay where he would not want his own son to be, and he told me not to worry. when i arrived there, i was put in one of the small rooms. i hastened to my good friend, dr. heather, who was then less effusive; but when he saw i was not going to back down he permitted me to be in a larger room with a bed all to myself. 58 my last recollection was when he spoke to the indiana optometric association with his wooden blocks and his economic message. everyone who had known him was there, and he was warmly received. he knew how to fire everyone up. i don't remember his message, but it sticks to me that he said when he was lecturing in college about "umbra & perumbra or some other damn thing," we all appreciated the diminished importance of umbra & perumbra in our daily lives now that we were in practice. he was an individual who, once known, was never forgotten. collecting gains: anything one collects has the potential of gaining in value. there may also be a time when one must sell it, for whatever reason. a truly valuable item may bring next to nothing if one does not have more than one potential buyer. and if one does get a good price, the internal revenue service may tax the profit as a long or short term capital gain, or even as ordinary profit if the seller is deemed to be in the antique business. these and other aspects of gaining a profit on items which you have collected or saved and may eventually sell are discussed in an article by d.w. howard and ralph roberts entitled "collector and capital gains: nothing more real than the irs" in the march 26, 1984, issue of antique week/tri-state trader. the authors urge the readers to write their congressmen to tell them that they support keeping tangible assets covered under long-term capital gains treatment. o.h.s. members from outside of the u.s.a. who are unfamiliar with the u.s. internal revenue service may find most of this discussion a bit of gobbledegook. indeed, we americans find it so, too! a lensmaker's success: ohs president james leeds sent me a 20 page 15 x 11 em pamphlet by michael randall entitled, "do you think that luck is against you?" repr1nted from the september 1922 issue of the american magazine, vol. 94, pp. 56-57 and 126-130. it is the career story of j.j. bausch. it was reprinted as a pamphlet by the bausch & lomb optical company, rochester, new york, following mr. bausch's death at the age of 96 in 1926. the story describes bausch as having fought failures and reverses for sixty years before he began to "get the breaks". he remained personally active in the business until his death. 59 thanks, mike: a note from ohs member michael obremskey, o.d., informs us that he is the person referred to by mrs. dor•othy sheard a 11 en as 11 my optometrist now" on page 13 of the january 1984 issue of n.o.h.s. 'tis gratifying to your editor that such details are noticed, for it means that the nohs is indeed being read by someone! historical tidings from east germany: two historical articles appear in the march/april 1984 issue of augenoptik, vol. 101, no. 2, the optometric journal of east germany. on page 34 is a brief account by g. ludvik entitled "100 jahre jenaer glaswerk .. (a century of the jena glassworks). it includes an artist's sketch of the plant in aerial view as it appears in 1884 and a portrait photograph of otto schott, who in 1882 founded a laboratory for glass technology and in 1884 the jena glassworks "schott und genossen 11 (schott and associates). among schott's associates were ernst abbe and carl and roderich zeiss. on pages 40-41 is an article by u. maxam entitled 11 200 jahre blindenbildung 11 (two centuries of education for the blind). ~e credits valentin hauy (1745-1822) with the founding of the first school for the blind in the year 1784 in paris. louis braille was born in the same year. a chronology of the establishment of schools for the blind in vienna, berlin, dresden, halle, weimar, hubertusburg, neukloster, leipzig, and elsewhere is included in the article together with recog­ nition of the disruption during the 11 faschistischeli regime (1933-1945), the subsequent reorganization of blind school programs, and the establishment of the blinden und sehschwachen verband der ddr (the blind and low vision association of east germany) in 1957. more recently evolved is the east german program to provide special training and education to visually handicapped children and tactile art education for the totally blind. 23 skiddoo! though still appearing in at least webster's third new inter­ national dictionary this imperative verb phrase to express unadulterated annoyance obviously dates anyone who uses it. it means scat, scram, out damned spot, begone, or simply that something must be done at once about the matter at hand. the matter at hand in this instance is a letter of invitation from the continuing education committee chairman of a major state optometric association to a body of potential lecturers whom he salutes as 11 dear colleague: ... the recipient is invited to submit 60 lectures to be considered for the association•s education program in any of 22 course categories ranging alphabetically from .. basic sciences .. to 11 visuo-motor, perceptual motor, visual integrative .. and including such other topical categories as 11 lens therapy, .. 11 hypnosis, 11 11 practice management, .. and .. specifically for doctor•s spouses ... indeed, it appears that the committee struggled to exhaust the topical terminology to accommodate every possible subject matter of any conceivable optometric relevance. to safe­ guard this total inclusiveness one of the 22 categories is labeled 11 miscellaneous. 11 not 11 0ther. 11 11 miscellaneous. 11 this is the only possible category in which a lecture or two on some significant phase of optometric history could be entered, however misfittingly. what, should we not ask, is so bad about optometric history that in a five day program for thousands of listeners it might only be offered legitimately under the category of 11 miscellaneous ... roget deems this term synonymous with mishmash, hodgepodge, and hash. to that committee•s list of 22, i say 23 skiddoo! more archival gems: recently barbara sargent of the indiana health professions service bureau thoughtfully forwarded to me a bundle of long-filed papers from the discarded holdings of the optometry licensing board to dispose of as i see fit. state board offices are becoming over­ crowded and find it necessary to discard or even shred records which no longer relate to board responsibilities. ms. sargent is keenly aware that among such documents are many, virtually secret, details of optometric history, details that rarely appeared candidly in print and are rapidly fading from living memory. the earliest dated item is a letter of october 19, 1926, from dr. william b. needles, president, northern illinois college of optometry to john h. ellis, president, and c.d. adair, secretary of the indiana state board. the printed letterhead identifies the college as 11 incorporated under the laws of illinois 11 and 11 a consoli­ dation of needles institute of optometry and northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology .. and the address as 11 710 capitol building, chicago, u.s.a ... dr. needles informs the board of a student from indianapolis who failed to graduate but who reports that he took the indiana board examinations and had everything 11 fixed. 11 other correspondence deals at length with changes of educational requirements for licensure and the effects of eligibility of upcoming graduates. on march 21, 1938, carl f. shepard, o.d., dean, monroe university, 207 s. wabash ave., chicago, ill. wrote dr. john p. davey, sec•y., indiana state board of examiners, in application for recognition of the 11 monroe university, school of optometry .. to enable its graduates 61 to take the indiana board examinations. related to this application are numerous items of correspondence from the international association of boards of examiners in optometry; wilbur f. pell of pell and pell, lawyers, shelbyville, indiana; richards. kaplan, attorney-at-law, gary, indiana; and harold kohn, counsel for the american optometric association, plus a copy of the indiana board•s decision of july 24, 1944, that ..... the requirements of the indiana educational rule and the requirements of monroe college are incompatible ... another portion of the packet relates to the acceptability of graduates of the northern illinois college of optometry and of the chicago college of optometry and a graduate of the two year course at columbia university during the late •4os and early •sos. during those years the indiana board was negotiating for the establishment of an optometry school at indiana university to meet its newly adopted educational requirements. i hesitate to discuss any of these more recent details in this brief commentary ~ecause several of the indi­ viduals in the controversy-filled scenario are still living and should not be identified in my very unsophisticated and easily biased review. what i can say without fear of contradiction, however, is that some of the correspondence clearly points to motives and intrigue that existed only as rumor in the public domain at the time (as i myself remember). prior to forwarding the whole packet to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., i made copies of two of the documents for possible inclusion in full in this or a subsequent issue of nohs. another optometrist memorialized: the homer hendrickson award was established in 1983 as an award of the optometric extension program foundation by david dzik, o.d., to recognize 11 optometrists who implement or participate in behaviorally­ oriented public service programs ... optics award to wichterle: professor otto wichterle of prague, czechoslovakia, born october 27, 1913, is the recipient of the 1984 r.w. wood prize of the optical society of america. the prize is intended to recognize an outstanding discovery, scientific or technological achievement, or invention in the field of optics. in this instance the recognition is of professor wichterle•s 11 contributions to the development of soft contact lenses ... biographic and technical details of the award are reported on page 17 of the march/april 1984 issue of optics news, vol. 10. no. 2. 62 two 11 history of ophthalmology~~ books: two books of this title arrived in my favorite library during the same week of april 1984. one is by george gorin, publish or perish, inc., wilmington, delaware 1982. the other is vol. l of frederick c. blodi's translation of julius hirschberg, verlag j.p. wayenborgh, bonn, west germany, 1982. [to readers who are not university affiliated i should explain that the acquisition of books by university libraries is a painfully slow process. the delays involve requisitioning, ordering, delivering, cataloguing, and shelf assignment, each a substantial decision-making procedure requiring, or at least consuming, time.] the gorin book is an almost encyclopedic chronology organized by eras in country by country and even state by state fashion. included are several hundred photographs of individual ophthalmolo­ gists, 299 references, and an index of approximately 3,000 entries. the text is largely biographical. the history of early ophthalmology, especially that prior to this century, is dealt with very candidly. visual science, per se, is scarcely touched upon; the terms eyeglasses, lenses, optician, optics, optometry, spectacles, and vision do not appear in the index and rarely in the text, though the history of glasses is briefly discussed in relation to the renaissance. the relatively recent entry of ophthalmologists into the field of refraction is dealt with quite factually. the opening sentence of a section entitled 11 0ptics and physiology of the eye 11 states, 11 the most important work was done by johannes kepler, who is the 'father of modern optics. ' 11 the book deserves a much more substantial review than these few comments, as it is certainly a fine reference, especially for information on individual ophthalmologists, including many still living. the hirschberg volume is the first of a series of eleven and deals only with ophthalmology in antiquity. in this instance antiquity corresponds with history prior to about the fifth century a.d. especially in the locales of egypt, india, tibet, china, japan, greece, and rome. the term ophthalmology comprehensively includes anything involving the eye and its functions. 'hirschberg (1843-1925) was not only a german ophthalmologist of stature who had read nearly all of his great many sources in their original language, except sanskrit, but had a competent background in mathematics and optics. his well disciplined philosophy is conveyed in the following translated comment about most other historical accounts: 11 ••• the study of the true sources is a difficult and time-consuming task and it has been replaced by the copying of quotations. these will contain more and more mistakes the more frequently they have been copied. 11 [i was careful to copy this correctly!--h.w h.] 63 the author•s etymological efforts to interpret precisely the meanings of the original authors of antiquity are superb. for example, his own version of emperor nero•s variously interpreted observation of fights of the gladiators in an emerald is that 11 nero sat in his stall in the circus and turned his back to the public while observing the fights in a beautiful green mirror ... this probably unique inter­ pretation was by no means a whim, for he supported it with extensive references to the existence of emerald, mirrors, and the sunny weather of nero•s day as well as the direct translation itself. he also tried exhaustively and unsuccessfully to resolve the etymological ambiguity of the terms hemeralopia and nyctalopia through their ancient origins. in his 29 page section on 11 the science of optics in ancient greece .. he flatly declared that claudius ptolemaeus (ca. 150 a.d.) was 11 the most important author on optics in antiquity ... this statement is reinforced by the delineations of much of ptolemaeus•s writing and experimentation in physiological as well as geometric optics. hirschberg•s extensive uncovering of numerous references to the perception of color in ancient writings leaves little doubt that human color vision existed in the earliest periods of recorded history about as it is now. his exposition of ancient references to normal, patho­ logical, traumatic, and anomalous conditions of the eye and their treatment or management by whatever kinds of practitioners is incredibly thorough. dr. blodi, the translater, expresses the opinion that no other medical specialty has such a history available. it must be true. roger bacon, ophthalmic scientist (1214-1294): this is the title of an article in the march 3, 1984, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 160-165, by walter gasson, whose historical writings have been cited frequently in this newsletter. gasson tells us of the conjectured place and date of bacon•s birth, his academic career and associations, his personality, involvements and controversies with the authorities and church, and episodes of his wealth, poverty, and imprisonment. the manuscripts of opus majus, opus tertium and opus minus were completed, in latin, in an 18 month period while bacon was in his early fifties, but not published until 1733, almost five centuries later. gasson derives most of his article material from r. belle-burke•s translation entitled .. roger bacon: opus majus .. russell & russell, new york 1962. gasson includes a few quotations from belle-burke•s translation, such as the following: 64 there are four main principal stumbling blocks to comprehending the truth, which hinder well nigh every scholar, the example of frail and unworthy authority, long established custom, the sense of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of one•s ignorance under the shadow of wisdom. another, of interest to the optometrist, is his elaboration on the importance of magnification especially for presbyopes by the use of a glass sphere placed on reading matter, as follows: if any man examine letters or other minute objects through the medium of crystal or glass or other transparent substance, if it be shaped like the lesser segment of a sphere, with the convex side towards the eye, and the eye being in the air, he will see the letters far better, and they will seem larger to him. it was this statement that gave rise to the speculation by some that bacon was the real inventor of spectacles. gasson gives us an excellent synopsis of part 5 of volume ii of opus majus, including several figures, in which bacon thoroughly discusses the general principles of visual science in all its branches. these branches include the psychological and metaphysical aspects of visual science, medieval ocular anatomy, the optical schematics of the eye, the optical properties of its anatomical components, perception of light and color, medieval acuity theory, ocular ray tracing theory, nine prerequisites for vision (light, object distance, object location, object size, contrast, media transparency, exposure time, eye health, and angular subtense), and numerous optical experiments and visual phenomena. in addition to the outline of bacon•s ophthalmic optical contributions gasson devotes several paragraphs to bacon•s final tragic years and some of the legendary traditions and inventions that have been attributed to him. thirteen references are given, as well as acknowledgement of help from others, including miss jennifer taylor, librarian of the british college of ophthalmic opticians. ~ lady o.d.s describe earlier days: there are indications that women have excluded from the profession of optometry. primarily because few elected to enter the the few there were some notable successes. never categorically been their numbers were small profession, but among the experiences in the careers of six who are still actively involved in optometry are highlighted in the april 1984 issue of 65 optometry times, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 8-9, as interviewed by barbara j. hammond under the caption 11 women in optometry 11 • included are dorothy be:gin~ o.d., a 1945 graduate of the los angeles college of optometry, lo1s b1ng, o.d., a 1948 graduate of the ohio state university, dorothy mccoy, o.d., a 1939 graduate of the southern college of optometry, libby sukoff, o.d., a 1955 graduate of columbia university, treasure wheeler, o.d., a 1968 graduate of pacific university, and elizabeth e. caloroso, o.d., a 1953 graduate of the university of california, berkeley. college history to be published: on may 20, 1984, james r. gregg, o.d., a charter member of ohs and a former member of the ohs executive board was named professor emeritus of the southern california college of optometry in recognition of his 37 years of service. in september, a new book, his thirteenth, 11 the origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984 11 will be released. henry knoll remembers heather: 11 upon my return from a brief vacation in denmark and sweden, i found volume 12 # 2 among the accumulated items of mail. i hasten to write you my recollections of jere heather. "the name jere heather brings forth an image of a ruddy face and a rotund body covered with sweat (jere was an earthy person, hence sweat, not perspiration!) enthusiastically expounding on his subject of professional optometric economics. his zeal was demonstrated by the removal of his coat after the first minute of each presentation. "i had the good fortune to hear him speak on several occasions and i enjoyed every one of his presentations. as dean of the los angeles college of optometry, i was privileged to visit with him in his hotel room after the gathering. after putting on a dry shirt he invited us all to enjoy some of his beloved applejack. i have yet to meet another applejack fancier. 11 0thers tried to fill jere • s shoes, but none were ab 1 e to pull it off. jere was one of a kind. a real optometric legend. 11 11 currie's packet 11 explained: the conjecture in the january issue of nohs, p. 23, that donald currie's packet was probably a boat is solidly confirmed by dr. d.h. reynolds, a tugboat buff, boat historian, and optometrist of johannesburg, south africa, in the following letter: 66 you refer to donald currie's packet, the name given to any one of donald currie's liners that sailed on a weekly basis from durban to southampton. we should not dismiss donald currie too quickly. he challenged the union line for supremacy on the south african coastline, and he did so so effectively that the union line had to bow to currie's pressure and amalgamate with him to form what became known as the union-castle line. currie's ships had always been known by the affix "castle". so strong was currie's influence that from that time on the union-castle liners all bore the affix "castle," such as "pendennis castle" and "windsor castle". the steamships left the route in 1978 to everyone's regret. donald currie also gave his name and some of his wealth to south africa's primary sporting trophys and to this day south . africans at cricket and rugby compete for the currie cup trophy. the camera obscura: this simplest of optical aids is hardly known today though at one time invaluable to astronomers, artists, and travellers, and popular as a dilettante's toy. a fifth century b.c. chinese philosopher mo ti is said to have been the first to record the creation of an inverted image with a pinhole in a screen. the subsequent centuries saw continuing technical improvements of application of the principle into the 19th century when the camera obscura reached the height of its popularity as a useful technical device and as an entertaining diversion. it has almost been forgotten in the twentieth century except as it is displayed in museums. also, on occasion the public is instructed via newspapers and television how to construct a camera obscura out of a pasteboard box for safe viewing of eclipses of the sun. such history is well covered in a 1981 book of 182 pages entitled 11 the camera obscura: a chronicle" by john h hammond and published by adam hilger ltd, techno house, redcliffe way, bristol, england bsl 6nx. more than 100 illustrations, a bibliography of at least 500 documents, and a substantial index make it an outstanding source of information as well as interesting reading. the author's collection of notes, references, and material on the camera obscura is now at the science museum library, south kensington, london. 67 litsinger on heather: o.h.s. member george g. litsinger, o.d., recalls an incident that portrays jere heather in typical form, as follows: regarding wm jerome heather: while i was still a student at n.i.c.o. 1929-1931. i asked dr. heather if he would care to lecture to our young peoples methodist group. he arrived through a pouring rain. when asked what i could pay him, he said 11 send me a book... unaware that he had reached 40, i sent him 11 life begins at forty ... when an article appeared in the opt.~· rev. optom., val 110 no. 12, june 15, 1973, i asked if he remembered that horrible sunday night. he replied by letter: july 5, 1973: dear george: greetings and hearty best wishes! your letter brought me great joy, and let loose a thousand great and pleasant memories. for that, i thank you from the bottom of my heart. silly boy ... do i remember you? sure i do, and my memory at the oak park, illinois, methodist meeting, i think in 1934. you will discover my memory surpasses yours, let that give you a jolt. i 1m glad there was no gratuity; why should there be! i was born and raised a methodist, and my brother fred is a retired methodist minister. after flying a million and a half air-miles in my work, what was a little rain! yes, your group presented me with a book with the title: 11 life begins at 40 11 • born in 1894, i was 40 on that occasion. when i opened the book, you had drawn a sketch of me, bald­ headed, flower in buttonhole, portly ... the works! i was at that time carefully brushing a few little wisps of hair, and 11 lightly 11 resented it. today~ i tell the story with zest. you are 63 and i am 78, so hang in and work for your fortune, but don•t be too sure it will be money. write me! · 105 george muck drive kerrville south, tx 78028 love, jere dr. litsinger•s letter reminds us that his pen and ink caricature of heather et al appeared on page 2 of the january 1979 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 10, no. 1. 68 fl note from historian hale: o.h.s. member j.r. hale, o.d., of sunnyside, washington, reports that he is preparing a series of historical articles about optometry in the pacific northwest to be published in washington optometry today. he will tell us what past governor of the state of washington was an optometrist, and who was the first lady president of a school of optometry. he also informs us that the son of one of the past leaders of the seattle college of optometry is retiring and has donated the official seal of the college to the state association. dr. hale advises us that he is the only living member of a family of seven doctors of optometry. appreciated: the doubling of our annual dues appears to have prompted the thought of contributing something extra. thus, for example, ohs members irving bennett and bert c. hersch added fifteen and ten extra dollars respectfully as tokens of appreciation when they paid their 1984 dues. collection now; history later: what may be a unique hobby is that of arol r. augsburger, o.d., clinical associate professor of optometry at the ohio state university, columbus, ohio. he collects the eyewear of contemporary celebrities, and photographs of them wearing glasses. he simply writes his request directly to each celebrity of interest asking the favor of donation of a no longer used pair of his or her glasses together with a photograph of the celebrity wearing them. dr. augsburger also is the curator of the optometry museum collection in the ohio state university college of optometry. obviously, his collection of the glasses of present day famous persuns, together with their many interesting and sometimes telltale responses to his requests, will soon, if not already, be of historical significance. his project is described on page 8 of the march 15, 1984, issue of the american optometric association news, vol. 23, no. 6. h. w hofstetter, editor 1984-15-03-001 1984-15-03-002 1984-15-03-003 1984-15-03-004 1984-15-03-005 1984-15-03-006 1984-15-03-007 1984-15-03-008 1984-15-03-009 1984-15-03-010 1984-15-03-011 1984-15-03-012 1984-15-03-013 1984-15-03-014 1984-15-03-015 1984-15-03-016 1984-15-03-017 1984-15-03-018 1984-15-03-019 1984-15-03-020 1984-15-03-021 1984-15-03-022 1984-15-03-023 1984-15-03-024 hinds i g ht;,;;ll~r:i;; .. : 7 • 0 // newsletter of the ! mar 1 9 1996 ! • optometric historical soc\~ty . • apr 0 3 1996 :it fry ubrn~y 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, ltfi.iiq'p'i,il1btfn41, usa• ""••9•_,..,_ • ,. •• 100 volume 26 january 1995 number 1 truman and his glasses: i was fascinated by the prominence of the very plain spectacles in the portrait of harry s. truman (1884-1972) on the wrapper of the massive 3~ lb. (1.6 kg.) thousand-page book truman by david mccullough, simon & schuster, 1992. it prompted me to note pages on which the author or citations made reference to truman's wearing of glasses as follows: p. 41 [1890] : it was mamma ... who hustled him off to kansas city for expensive eyeglasses. though he had been badly handicapped by poor eyesight all along"blind as a mole," in his words-no one seems to have noticed until the night of a july fourth fireworks when matt saw him responding more to the sound of the skyrockets than to the spectacle overhead. the kansas city optometrist diagnosed a rare malformation called "flat eyeballs" (hypermetropia, which means the boy was farsighted) and matt agreed to a pair of double-strength, wire-rimmed spectacles at a cost of $10. all at once the world was transformed for him, as if by magic. and as quickly he became a curiosity, small boys with eyeglasses being almost unknown in rural missouri. still more change followed in the summer of 1890, the summer of the eyeglasses, when mamma announced they were leaving the farm, moving to independence, so that harry could receive proper schooling. p. 42: for harry, whose world, through the new eyeglasses, had only just come into focus, the next few years were to be a time of great adjustment. p. 42 [1893] : by all surviving evidence he was an exceptionally alert, good little boy of sunny disposition who, with the glasses that so greatly magnified his blue eyes, looked as bright and interested as could be. p. 45: reminiscing long afterward, he spoke of the teasing he endured because of his glasses. "to tell the truth, i was kind of a sissy," he would say, using the hated word. he ran from fights, he admitted. yet his brother vivian had no memory of harry being teased about his glasses, and to judge by the recollections of several boyhood friends he wasn't considered a sissy exactly, only different, "serious," as one recalled. p. 61 [at high school age]: but the slender, straight-backed youth with the round eyeglasses who sat at the [piano] keyboard in the half-light of dawn every morning was in dead earnest. 26/2 p. 62: . people knew who he was and people liked him, and partly because of the music role and the eyeglasses. p. 65: harry had removed his glasses for the [high school class] picture. p. 67: [1901] : west point had turned him down because of his eyes. p. 72 [1905, in the national guard]: "they needed recruits," he also said later, in explanation of how, with his poor eyesight, he passed the physical exam. p. 91 [1913, in a self-effacing letter to bess]: just imagine a guy with spectacles and a girl mouth doing the sir lancelot. p. 94 [1914, when acquiring his· first car, a 1911 model stafford] : not since his first pair of eyeglasses had anything so changed his life, .... p. 102 [1917, upon rejoining the national guard]: his eyes were far below the standard requirements for any of the armed services. p. 105 [facing a regular army physical for the first time]: he was stripped, weighed, measured, examined for hernia, gonorrhea, piles, fallen arches, and defects of vision. he managed to pass the eye examination, according to his brother vivian, by memorizing the chart. (harry, vivian liked to say, couldn't see over the fence without his glasses.) the actual record of the examination shows that harry had uncorrected vision of20/50 in the right eye, 20/400 in the left eye, which theoretically meant he was blind in the left eye. p. 107 [anticipating departure for france]: faced with another physical exam and a doctor who twice refused to pass him because of his eyes, harry simply kept talking until the doctor relented. p. 108 [in admiration of his superior officer col. danford]: that danford was among the few officers who also wore eyeglasses must have provided still further reason to admire him. p. 110 [1918, on leave in new york before sailing]: " shopping on madison a venue, he was touched by the patriotic feelings of an optometrist who charged him just $17.50 for two pairs of aluminum-framed glasses, much less than he would have had to pay at home. to be on the safe side harry was going to france with six pairs of glasses, all pince-nez. pp. 110-111: "i imagine his vision with glasses is 20/20, but without the glasses he couldn't recognize his brother twenty feet away," another officer named harry vaughan would later explain. "so, he always has had several pair on hand in case . . . he would be so helpless without them, and he was advised that he could not wear the ordinary glasses with the side pieces over the ears in 26/3 action, because it would interfere with wearing your gas mask, you see. it would leave a hole in either side that you would be able to get gas through. so he brought . . . , believe he said, four or five of his lens prescriptions in pince-nez." p. 117 [1918, in france upon captain truman's taking over as a battery commander] : a private named vere leigh would recall "a rather short fellow, compact, serious face, wearing glasses. and we'd had all kinds of officers and this was just another one you know." to others harry looked, with the pince-nez spectacles, like a store clerk or a professor and totally out of his element. pp. 130-131 [at the front]: later that same night, as the battery moved on, harry was on horseback when he was hit in the face by a low-hanging branch and suddenly found himself without his glasses and unable to see. the horse kept moving with the column. harry turned frantically in the saddle to look behind, only to find the glasses sitting nicely on the horse's back. p. 144 [june 1919, his wedding]: the groom also wore a pair of his army pince-nez spectacles and appeared, as he stood in front of the church, to have arrived directly from the barbershop. p. 147 [november 1919, upon opening the "truman & jacobson" haberdashery] : harry, who called it "the shirt store" would stand poised for business between two of the showcases, an elbow on one countertop, a hand on the other, his shoes shined, tie straight, the overhead lights glinting in his thick glasses. p. 148 [1920] : harry joined the kansas city club, the triangle club, and the kansas city athletic club, where, with relentless determination, he taught himself to swim, using a strange, choppy, self-styled sidestroke, his head above water, so he could keep his glasses dry. p. 209 [1934, as a candidate for the senate]: he smiled constantly-a big politician's grin, his even, white teeth looking whiter than usual because of his tan, his eyes flashing behind the steel-rimmed glasses. p. 270 [1941, as chair of a senate committee]: "when he got down to business, the twinkle in his eyes would be replaced by a look of concentration. at such times, at close range the thick lenses of his glasses gave his eyes a fearsome, eerie stare so stem that it gave the weird illusion that one was confronting an entirely different person. " p. 326 [1944, compared to theodore roosevelt]: they could have talked books, army life, or the boyhood handicap of having to meet the world wearing thick spectacles. p. 334 [as vice-president, described by john gunther]: "the gray-framed spectacles magnified the gray-hazel eyes, but there was no grayness in the mind." 26/4 p. 347 [1945, being sworn in as president]: his "sharp features taut," as a reporter noted, truman looked straight ahead through his thick, round glasses. p. 352 [upon first occupying the president's desk and chair as reported by secretary daniels] : "it seemed to me, indeed almost roosevelt's sun which came in the wide south windows and touched truman's thick glasses." p. 371 [citing w. averill harriman]: truman had been reading steadily from the map room files, night after night, so much that he feared he might be seriously straining his eyes. p. 380 [white house head usher j.b. west's first close-up look at the new president] : west was struck by how large truman's glasses made his eyes appear. "i had the feeling he was looking at me, all around me, straight through me." p. 386 [using the swimming pool roosevelt had had built in the ground f 1 oor] : truman tried to do six or eight laps in his choppy, self-styled sidestroke, head up to keep his glasses dry . . . . p. 403 [describing truman's desk in the white house]: besides a large green blotter and telephone, there were several pairs of eyeglasses in separate cases, two small metal cases, two small metal ashtrays for visitors, a model cannon, a clock, two pen sets, pencils, date stamp, calendar, two magnifying glasses, glass inkwell, and a battered old ice-water vacuum pitcher, the one item from among fdr's personal effects that truman had asked to keep. p. 494 [1946, faced with labor strikes]: on the surface he was all restraint, unrattled, entirely his familiar, chipper self, the double­ breasted suits smoothly pressed, shoes shined, a spring to his step, a look of alert vitality behind the thick glasses. p. sol [striding into a special meeting of the cabinet]: the gray-blue eyes blazed behind his glasses. p. 709 [1948, responding to the cheers when dewey conceded the election] : "thank you, thank you, " truman kept saying, shaking hands, and behind the thick glasses there were tears in his eyes. p. 717 [in a lead story in life]: truman was now "the durable hero in shining spectacles," "one of the fightin'est men" who ever went through a campaign. p. 729 [1949, taking the oath of office]: he stood bareheaded in the wind, his right hand raised, a straight-backed, bespectacled figure with closely cropped gray hair, his expression deadly serious. 26/5 p. 735 [vacationing at key west]: . . . but he enjoyed a daily swim, or rather churning the turquoise water in his self-styled sidestroke, head up to keep his glasses dry . . . . p. 793 [1950, upon being advised by dulles to retire macarthur] : but that, replied truman, his blue-gray eyes large behind his glasses, was easier said than done. p. 859 [1951, in his seventh year as president]: only in the eyes, behind the thick glasses, could the fatigue sometimes be seen. p. 927 [1953, when returning to independence]: a cartoon in the saturday review showed a small boy with glasses and a book under his arm, a boy very like truman had been, walking beside a friend who said, "o.k., so you grow up to be president, and you even get reelected, that's still only eight years." p. 978 [1961, identifying himself as having been a kind of sissy boy] : wearing glasses, he said, "makes a kid lonely and he has to fight for everything he wants." p. 983 [1964, having tripped on a door sill]: he fell, cracking his head against the washbasin, his glasses shattering and cutting him badly over the right eye. p. 984 [after the fall]: he began losing weight, his face becoming drawn, the eyes behind the thick glasses appearing disproportionately large. h.w h. spectacles for fun: unique among the year's end greeting cards in 1992 was that of optician-optometrists p.h.m. and c.j.m aangenendt, strijpsestraat 190, 5616gw eindhoven, the netherlands. it consists of a greatly reduced photographic reproduction of a 19th century hand-colored game-board made in the vicinity of epinal, france. the original is in the aangenendt optometric collection because a pair of spectacles appears to be an integral part of the game. all of the identifying and instructional legend on the board is in both german and french, some of which is a bit illegible in this miniaturized version. centered on the board is an ornate wreath within which is painted father time in full regalia with his left hand on an engraved stone saying (in german), "everything depends on time and luck whose gradations extend to the grave." above the wreath is the title of the game (in french and german) , "the four seasons, a new family dice and coin game." 26/6 arranged at the periphery of the board are twelve colorful illustrations, three along each edge, like the numerals on a rectangular clock dial, and correspondingly numbered except for the top center one for which the apparently intended "12" may have been obliterated. presumably the upper three relate to winter, numbers 2-4 to spring, 5-7 to summer, and 8-10 to autumn. the twelve illustrations and their translated french and german legends, where legible, are as follows: 1. a pair of dice showing two sixes. "every player pays 6 marks." 2. a one-legged beggar. "a beggarman pleads for 1 mark from each (player} . " 3. a young lady strolling in the garden. "the virgin in springtime wins 3 marks." 4. a young lad behind bars in a jail cell. "remain here until released and pay 6 marks." 5. a couple embraced in dance. "with someone in high society." 6. a young man standing at the edge of a field of grain. "youth in summer, win 6 marks." 7. a pub entrance. "drink a toast and pay 4 marks." 8. a public building. "the pawnshop lends a pound." 9. a hiker with knapsack and cane. "the man in autumn wins 4 marks." 10. a pair of spectacles suspended on a hook. "wear the glasses until another (player} takes them." 11. a windmill. "start again and pay 1 mark." 12. a boy sitting near a bonfire warming his hands. "the grass in winter wins all." keeping in mind that the phraseology, even if accurately translated, may well incorporate contemporary idioms and dialect, one may not resolve the precise nature of the game, but it is apparent that dice and coins were involved. why it was named the four seasons is not obvious unless it was intended for year around amusement. the role of the spectacles is also not obvious, but perhaps the game was played by the household presbyopes and there was only one pair of plus spheres in the family! for your reference list: ~ ohs member charles letocha, m.d., 444 rathton road, york, pa 17403, kindly prepared a list of his catalogues and books that concern the history of spectacles. he explains that many are out of print, but if you contact him he would be happy to try to recall where he found some of them. the list follows: 1. corson r. fashions in eyeglasses. london, eng 1 and : peter owen ltd.; 1980. 26/7 2 . mann hh. augenglas und perspekti v. studien zur ikonographie zweier bildmotive. berlin, germany: gebr. mann; 1992. [in german; deals with representations of spectacles in art] 3. rathschuler f: la lente. genova, italy: comune di genova; 1988. [catalogue of the fritz rathschuler collection on display at the civic museum] 4. marly p. spectacles and spyglasses. paris, france: hoebeke. 1988. [available from the author] 5. kuisle a. brillen. munchen, germany: deutsches museum. 1985. 6. rossi f. accessoire. brill en. vom munchen, germany: leseglas zum modischen georg callwey; 1989. 7. schmitz eh. die sehhilfe im wandel der jahrhunderte. stuttgart, germany: suddeutsche optikerzeitung; 1961. 8. anon. occhiali da vedere. firenze, italy: istituto e museo di storia della scienza; 1985. [catalogue of the zeiss exhibit in florence in 1985] 9. anon. a spectacle of spectacles. leipsig, germany: carl zeiss stiftung; 1988. [catalogue of the similar zeiss exhibit in england in 1988] 10. borja jm. historia grafica de la optica. barcelona, spain: editorial jims; 1990. 11. poulet w. germany: atlas on the history of spectacles. bonn, wayenborgh; 1978. 12. anon. il museo dell'occhiale. pieve di cadore, italy: museo dell'occhiale; 1990. 13. kortland k. het oog wil ook wat. rotterdam, netherlands: i.g.s.; 1990. 14. orr h. illustrated history of early antique spectacles. luton, england: greenford press; 1985. 15. levene j. clinical refraction and visual science. london, england: butterworths; 1977. punktal lenses: "eighty years of ophthalmic optics and medical optics at zeiss-80 years of punktal spectacle lenses" is the title of a bipartite article in the bipartitely titled zeiss information with jena review, no. 1, 1992, pp. 28-31, published by the combined 26/8 zeiss firms at jena and oberkochen following the reuniting of former east and west germanies after 45 years of partition. the two predeceasing periodicals were zeiss information (1953-1992) and jena review (1956-1991) . the "80 years" interval identifies with the april 1, 1912, establishment of two departments at carl zeiss, jena, one for "opto-medical instruments" and the other for "spectacle lenses and frames." _the former is dealt with very briefly, with most of the article relating to the latter, namely, punktal lenses and their subsequent offshoots. johannes kepler in 1611 had described the merits of meniscus­ shape lenses. almost two centuries later w. h. wollaston again described their merits, calling them "periscopic." almost another century went by with some mathematical contributions by h. coddington, f. ostwald, m. tscherning, and gull strand. in 1908 the zeiss board of directors commissioned von rohr to do a thorough mathematical analysis leading to a design to minimize aberrations. the resulting punktal lens was patented in 1909. between 1911 and 1913 von rohr gave training courses to ophthalmologists and ophthalmic opticians to explain the value of the lens. subsequently otto henker organized training courses for ophthalmic opticians. emerging from these efforts was the chartering of the optometry school at jena in 1917. following this introduction, similar mathematical designs led to the supral, tangal, and duopal bifocals, the umbral smoke-gray tint, the uro-punktal bluish-green tint, and the katral cataract lenses. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1995-26-01-001 1995-26-01-002 1995-26-01-003 1995-26-01-004 1995-26-01-005 1995-26-01-006 1995-26-01-007 1995-26-01-008 ···~&·~· ·~~, ••••••• ~ indiana u~ : ~j]~~~~~t mar;ls1996 ~ optometric historical soc~·-~"' lbr.ary • ...,..,... fi 0 \j 0 (i <!t • e o •) ., ,_ .ljl.31 0 lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 631.41·, u:;,a apr 0 3 1996 243 north volume 26 april 1995 number 2 about w.b. needles: the following is a copy of a letter of november 28, 1979, written by james h. grout, o.d. to miss pam warbinton, then an optometry student at indiana university collecting information for a history paper. dr. grout is a nephew of dr. needles practicing in charlotte, north carolina. dear pam: i have your letter re: w.b. needles and the needles institute of optometry. my earliest recollection dates back to about 1921 when i was seven. i do not know when he first started the school. at that time w .b. operated the school at the new center building at 15th and troost [?] in kansas city, mo. he held classes there and also had a correspondence course. his sister lida needles operated the office and did the clerical work for the preparation and mailing of the correspondence lessons etc. w.b. was away a good part of the time attending conventions and lecturing. the reason i was familiar with this is that my mother (genevieve grout) another sister of w.b. worked part time there at the school assisting lida and she took me with her (which was more fun than a baby sitter.) · the classes held there were under the direction of prof. ernest occhiena. "occhie" as he was called was a faithful and devoted friend of w .b., and also of mine, and i can vividly recall looking up at this towering man (i was 7) and seeing him reach into his vest pocket and finding a coin (usually a dime) and saying "this is for you, big eyes". he once found nothing less than a quarter and a quarter was some more money! along with occhie (though i didn't know them then) were stanley mcguire, joseph little, and alfred eaton. this made up most of the faculty as far as i know. as a side note, i recall being there when a large package came. my aunt lida opened it and it was a large silver trophy cup. my uncle will (w.b.) had won the golf tournament at one of the conventions and at that tournament was helped a good bit by getting a "hole in one". well, the school prospered and in 1926 he bought the college of ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology from a dr. mcfatrich. mcfatrich was, i believe, one of the originators, or the originator, of murine. he moved his family to chicago along with lida, their sister lucy, and his mother. 26/10 he took prof. occhiena and later hired drs. mcguire, little, and eaton. the college was at 41st and drexel blvd. in 1937 he bought the bernard hotel at 42nd and drexel as a dormitory and then built a new college building directly behind the dormitory on 42nd st. i kept the books on the construction of the building. (i had gone to school there in 1936) and it was certainly the most complete and beautiful building ever to be built for optometry at that time. the building cost $225,000, and in 1937 that was a lot of money. it was a monumental tribute to optometry and even more to w.b. needles. i was in philadelphia visiting the pennsylvania state college of optometry to better evaluate our clinics when, while there, i was called to be told that w.b. was very low. when i got back to chicago the next morning, he had died. so in 1948 we lost what i believe to be the greatest man optometry ever had. please give my regards to dr. hofstetter. it's been years since i've seen him and i regard him most highly. i hope this will help in your paper. i will send your letter and a copy of this one to his son, dr. richard needles. he can certainly add to what i have written. very truly yours, james h. grout, o.d. more about w.b. needles: the following is a copy of a letter of december 5, 1979, written by richard a. needles, o.d., to pamela warbinton, an indiana university optometry student collecting information for a history paper. dr. needles is a son of w.b. needles practicing in hickory, north carolina. dear pamela: dr. james h. grout has forwarded your letter together with his reply to me for further additions to his material on dr. william b. needles and the needles institute of optometry. i find yours a fascinating request because i have been uncertain as to the place he is held in archives and memory among those teaching in optometry schools. surely at the illinois college of optometry, the second generation successor to the needles institute, material should be available in abundance, but i suppose it's quite possible much has been lost. no doubt you have inquired from them as to what is available. 26/11 another source of information you might use is the historical records department of the a.o.a. in st. louis, missouri. i know they have some because eight years ago on a visit i found myself in a large photo together with my family and attendees at the a.o.a. convention in st. louis in 1920. i am going to recount for you some things i remember and also risk sending to you (under pain of swift and terrible punishment if lost) some early printed matter i happen to have. dr. needles was born in sedalia, missouri, in 1879 and worked in a jewelry store there when probably a teenager for about a year or two. this may well have given him an interest in what was to become optometry following the turn of the century. in my early years our family traveled to sedalia from our home in kansas city and visited the jewelry store. he called my attention to the same display case with its glass top and sides and said it must have shrunk because in his time he had to keep the glass polished clean and it was at least a quarter of a mile long. i remember the grins on the faces of the original proprietors. he studied optometry in chicago, just where i am not sure, but i recall something about the "mccormick school" long since defunct. he returned to kansas city, married in 1905, i believe, and commenced practice. he had numerous talents, but surely his most noteworthy was his ability to explain in lucid detail anything that he understood well, a characteristic i have noticed in a few first rate teachers. note-beware of the teacher who can't or won't bring the loftiest of concepts down to simple, understandable levels-i hope your professors at indiana are all of the first category. he early found that many of the local refracting opticians, practicing optometry with licenses obtained under the grandfather clause, did not understand fully what or why they were doing what they were doing during the examination. in about 1908 he established some night classes helping these men and yes, even some women, to a better understanding of their work. this apparently appealed to him and so in 1910 he obtained whatever charters or credentials were necessary and began the needles institute of optometry. it seemed successful from the start and he soon had students attending from throughout the mid-continent states. these as i well recall remained friendly and loyal throughout his life. dr. grout mentioned professor ernest occhiena. "occhie" (the letters mean "eye" in italian, he once told me, and pronounced "oakey") had studied medicine in turin, italy, had a father of some political prominence, but for reasons only vaguely hinted at, fell out of political favor and occhie came to the united states and my father found him somehow in kansas city broke and destitute. he was taken in and given help of the necessary kind, studied the optometry course, at that time little more than a year in duration, took handwritten noted, said to stand in a stack three feet high, and remained as an instructor, right hand man, and finally dean of the needles institute and its successor, northern illinois college of optometry, until his death in 1946 or 1947. william b. needles was a convivial, gregarious person, well liked and friendly. he enjoyed life in all aspects. when he entered a room or the company of friends or strangers all eyes and ears tended to turn toward him. it wasn't long before he was describing something that seemed to sound terribly interesting and had everyone's attention. no wonder he was in demand as a speaker at state optometric meetings and seminars whenever he could get away. at age five years i accompanied him and my mother on a speaking tour that included denver, colorado; salt lake city, utah; spokane, washington; portland, oregon; and san francisco, staying at the palace hotel but traveling across the bay by ferry, accompanied by the seagulls, to berkeley and the university every day for a week (such a memory), then to los angeles. quite a trip on the train for 1916. 26/12 on one occasion about 1922 or 1923 he was asked to speak in denver, colorado. he wrote back that previous engagements prevented him from doing so but that he could recommend a smart, eager young graduate from kearney, nebraska, who might substitute if they wished. his name was arthur m. skeffington. they agreed and that began a career that made waves for over fifty years and still does since his death. (see the journal of the a.o.a. for june, 1978, for a better look, but don't believe all you read.) consult also with professor hofstetter. as you have no doubt learned, the state laws governing the practice of optometry were passed in the various legislatures during the first twenty or so years of this century. dr. needles was frequently asked to appear and testify before lawmakers in various states. in 1921 he purchased the charter for what was up to then known as the northern illinois college of ophthalmology, otology, and otolaryngology which since 1872 had trained physicians in e.e.n.t. but gradually had added more and more optometric students. this i believe was a course of two years or maybe even less for the optometrists after high school. no college credits were required. the name at that time was changed to northern illinois college of optometry, being confined to the teaching of optometry only. it was operated simultaneously with the needles institute until 1926 when the faculties and facilities were combined in the city of chicago. by this time the faculty was enlarging considerably, together with the student body. his efforts were confined chiefly toward administration and speaking here and there. the school had remained proprietary in its corporate structure until 1927 when chiefly for income tax purposes it became chartered as an eleemosynary institution-at least in form, though less so in practice. during the years of the depression, the enrollment actually enlarged and the tuition became fixed at $300.00 per year not including books which might cost another $10.00 to $15.00 per year. the physical plant became overcrowded and in 1936 plans were developed to build a thoroughly adequate school of optometry. dr. grout has mentioned that this was completed in 1937. his . figure of $225,000 is accurate and this combined with the hotel located adjacent to the new building and costing close to the same amount made the total of about $400,000. at today's costs for the same structures multiply by ten for an idea of the value. 1. this was the first building ever constructed for the teaching of optometry. all others rented existing buildings. the state universities usually relegated the teaching of optometry classes to the basement of the physics lab or some other such distinguished location. 2. this building was built entirely from private funds obtained from the tuition paid by students alone (still $300.00 per year). there were no federal or state grants available nor was there an endowment fund of any type, nor aid from any alumni. dr. needles' name and monies he could borrow were the only resources. 3. if you ponder this for a moment you will realize that this will no doubt be the only building ever built in such a manner for optometric teaching. today grants are available-happily-from many sources, state legislatures to begin with. it was dedicated in february, 1938, with fitting ceremony and festivities. one was a banquet at the stevens hotel in downtown chicago-now known as the conrad hilton. about 1,500 were present. a large photo was made and sold to many who were there. alas, i haven't seen one in years. it had every facility needed; classrooms, laboratories, assembly room, clinical spaces par excellence, etc., etc., even by today's standards. 26/~3 but with the declaration of war in 1941 it did not bring all the triumphs he might have wished. i stepped into his office on the morning of december 8, 1941, where a number of the faculty had gathered to hear franklin roosevelt's address on the radio to the congress and their affirmative vote for war, and i heard him remark, "well, i can only hope it won't close us down as it did in 1917." but close him it very nearly did. from an enrollment of about 700 students on that date, the number dwindled to about forty students in all classes combined-even with student deferments of approximately twenty-four months as i remember-in 1944. this was the low. dr. grout and i with others remained as a skeleton crew, teaching long hours generally. his financial creditors remained generally patient. some confided later they considered their money lost, but as the war neared its close, discharged g.i. 's came to study optometry and to realize its benefits. in the four to five years after the surrender hundreds upon hundreds of g.i. 's sought entrance. i suppose during that five year span 10,000 applications were received. every possible space was made available for as many as could be accepted. too many actually and this brought problems of an entirely different nature. however, dr. needles lived long enough to see all of the debts paid off. on june 5, 1948, he died. sincerely, richard a. needles, o.d. ps. an addendum: you might be interested in a glimpse from my earliest memories as to the humble nature of some of the first classrooms. i can recall our home on the 3rd floor of a red brick dwelling in kansas city, missouri, not too far from the downtown area of the city. the school occupied the lower two floors. to the right of the entrance hall as you entered was a fairly large parlor used as a classroom holding chairs for perhaps 15 students. i remember seeing my father standing before them as he spoke. i was three years old but can recall that one day i was playing outdoors and although i felt the need to go to the bathroom i delayed until the last possible minute. finally i came in .the front door, the class was in session, and as i started up the stairway directly behind the students but in full view of my father, nature insisted on having its way. i wet not only my pants but some of the / stairs as well. i can remember not only some laughter but my father quickly coming to my side i and hurrying me upstairs to my mother. of course something like that could happen today in a modem setting but it's not likely you will find a family household and teaching classrooms as close together again. gems in the trash pile: "the trash collector" is how ohs member eric p. muth modestly mislabels himself and his biographical article in the july ~992 issue of telicom, the journal of the international society for philosophical enquiry, pp. 30-35. he describes himself as one who for many of his 25 years as an optician had been sending his 26/14 periodic accumulations of discarded silver and gold spectacle frames and other items of precious metals to the smelter for their recovery value. one day he happened to discover among them numerous items of "beauty and workmanship unparalleled by today's standards. " having a bent for history he began to locate appropriate reference books and found few, and "they were riddled with inconsistencies, misstatements and even contained hoaxes .... " his collection quickly grew to 750 vision aids, most obtained by purchase of small collections and from flea· markets and international dealers. eventually, to lower his fever, he donated his collection and more to the national museum of american history, medical sciences division, smithsonian institution. the overflow of this collection was transferred to the american academy of ophthalmology foundation museum in san francisco. curator audrey davis of the smithsonian then appointed muth as a consultant and in that role he undertook to assemble information from experts, patents, trade cards, pictures, and visits to museum collections worldwide. in a book to serve as a museum catalog to be available to other major museums he comments, "literally thousands of undocumented, unknown, and widely dispersed facts have been unearthed, assembled and placed into our document." several are mentioned in the article. clever holiday spirit: dr. gilbert cohen's happy holidays greeting card for 1992 featured a photograph of a pair of very early, cord-retained, nose­ pinching spectacles displayed on the open page of oriental printing. under his name is the appeal, date these for me! dr. charles letocha's card featured a photograph of the small & sons engraved on the inside of the right temple of a pair of spectacles, meaning, of course, that they came from george small & sons, york hardware merchants, 1825-1833. letocha penned a postscript saying that they were probably made by mcallister. they are therefore a rare domestic product. seven generations of family management: the 175 year survival of an ophthalmic optical firm through a variety of political regimes in halle, germany, is described by editor dieter baust on pages 12-14 of the 20 august 1992 issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vel. 47, no. 8. on june 14, 1817, johann willhelm trothe, a machinist and optician, opened his place of business in halle to provide drafting instruments, compasses, pens, and all sorts of spectacles, frames, lorgnettes, binoculars, and barometers. in 1845 his son carl w. trothe took over, followed in 1884 by carl's son rudolf, both 26/15 trained as opticians. following rudolf's early death, carl brought in erich norgall, an optician, as manager in 1905. erich norgall took over sole proprietorship in 1928, later assisted by his daughter, also an optician, who died in 1947, and whose son dietrich kloevekorn-norgall, another optician, took over the firm in 1969. erich died in 1970. dietrich is presently in charge and his daughter is studying at the optometry school in aalen. the firm retains its original name, firma trothe-optik. eyebrow. eyelash. and eyelid: these three ocular features, though readily distinguishable at a glance, are clearly labeled in our english language. some romans quite clearly had easy labels for eyebrow (supercilium) and eyelid (palpebra) but struggled a bit with eyelash by calling it palpebrarumpilus, meaning "eyelids' hair." to complicate matters, other romans also used the plural of eyebrow (supercilia) to mean eyelashes. the term cilium meant "upper eyelid" to pliny the elder, but a few centuries later it referred ambiguously to eyebrow, eyelash, and eyelid. subsequently the latin confusion plagued the terminology in the french, italian, and portuguese languages. the details are described by robert a. fawkes in an article entitled "eyebrows and lowbrows" in the winter, 1993 issue of verbatim. the language quarterly, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 12-13. he also identifies the equivalents of the three terms in a dozen other languages, including greek. the crossed cylinders lens: in the may 1993 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 329-331, dr. kenneth brookman reviewed historically the clinical utilization of the crossed cylinders lens as introduced and promoted in america in the mid-19th century by ophthalmologist edward jackson. in the same issue, page 304, editor john potter, in response to a student showing lack of historical perspective, noted that, "we tend to look only at a brief period of time in our evaluation of how we are doing as a profession .... " iab history: under the heading "international association of boards of examiners in optometry-75 years of optometric history" in the spring 1994 issue of optometric education, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 7374, two of the iab's past presidents, drs .. mary freitag and donald gordon, give an extremely brief historical synopsis. 26/16 a welcome addition: what promises to be another internationally significant ophthalmic repository was established in 1993 as the eric muth library and museum by the opticians association of american foundation. the address is 10341 democracy lane, fairfax, virginia 22030. its holdings include the entire library of eric muth, ph.d., and a collection of vision aids donated by him, plus an assemblage of almost 12,000 photocopies of pages of illustrations of vision aids and of patents, materials, instruments, equipment, advertisements, and people of historical significance to vision aids. dr. muth anticipates that by 1996 he will have completed a 2500-page text entitled "vision aids in history," the first copy of which is committed to the smithsonian institution. another copy will go to the newly established eric muth library and museum, and additional copies will be supplied to a number of archival institutions around the world. friends and collectors are invited to send contributions of related museum and archival items as well as cash directly to the eric muth library and museum as tax deductible gifts. editor: managing editor: con~ributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1995-26-02-001 1995-26-02-002 1995-26-02-003 1995-26-02-004 1995-26-02-005 1995-26-02-006 1995-26-02-007 1995-26-02-008 hindsight ~ newsletter of the t r--c // optometric historical society 243 north· indbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 28 october 1997 8.. . ~ t: ., l""!jw:··.a uruvers1ty • . " . ohs presentation at academy meeting: • • • • nov 2 \l 1~97 • • • • ~ . jerry christensen will be making a presentation ~t the annyfrl-nujs get-together during the december 1 997 meeting of the american ~£a~91"r'f tjp e:>t>fd~ei:flin •san antonio. his talk, entitled "prentice's profession," will consider prentice's role in the development of optometry. his presentation will be at 5:00 p.m. on saturday (december 13) in room 9 at the marriott rivercenter. check the academy schedule when you arrive in san antonio to confirm the time and room. a french history of eyewear: histoire des lunettes is the title of a very rare book authored by le docteur p. pansier, d' avignon, and published in paris in 1901 by a. maloine, editor. the only copy i could track down through interlibrary loan service is one received in the library of the surgeon general's office in 1904. it is so brittle and fragile that when it was receive on loan for me at indiana university i was restricted to reading only under personal surveillance of the rare-book librarian and after several instructions on how to turn its pages without damaging it. because i read french with only extreme difficulty i was hopelessly deprived of any practical access. i therefore requested a photocopy for the optometry library, and eventually a microfilm copy was received. from this a normal size printout was made for my use on 8%" x 11" paper, providing essentially a 150-page volume that i could take home for perusal with a french dictionary. the book is as comprehensive as any i have ever seen on the history of eyewear. the text of 1 37 pages includes numerous footnote references and a supplementary bibliography. another four pages accommodate an addendum of the author's prefatory comments. nineteen figures and five plates document the text. the table of contents itself conveys the breadth and depth of the book's contents. i am including my translation of the table here. it consists of 18 untitled chapters subdivided into 48 titled topics, as follows: chapter i 1. 2. 3. 4. page anachronisms in artistry . . . . . . . . . . . 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • • • 1 lenses and magnifiers among the ancients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 • • • • • • 2 nero's emerald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 citations in evidence of the use of optical glass among the ancients . . . . . . . . . 7 chapter ii 5. 6. chapter m 7. 8. chapter iv -9. :to. .. 11. chapter v 12. 13. chapter vi 14. 15. chapter vii 16. 17. chapter vm 18. 19. 20. chapter ix 21. 22. 23. chapter x 24. 25. 26. 27. chapter xi 28. 29. 30. chapter xii 31. )2. chapter xiii 33. 34. 35. 36. chapter xiv 37. 38. 28/26 optics and the theories of vision in antiquity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . optics in the middle ages (alhazen, roger bacon, johannes pithsanus, vitellion) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . '. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the invention of spectacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the inventor of spectacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spectacles in the 14th and 15th centuries ........................ . origin of the word besicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spectacles in 14th and 15th century literature ..................... . spectacles for myopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . comment on the explanation of spectacle lens effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . refractive errors in antiquity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . refractive errors in the middle ages and into the close of the 16th century .... the discoveries of kepler: the various 17th century theories . . . . . . . . . . . . the application of spectacles according to daca de valdes ............. . spectacles for strabismus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spectacles after cataract surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the misapplication of spectacles and the ignorance of 16th and 17th century oculists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spectacle fabrication; famous spectacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spectacles on medallions and coats of arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spectaclemak:ers' guilds in france . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . refractive errors among those treated by 18th century oculists ........... . disorders of accommodation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . optometric determination of the lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lens quality; need and use of spectacles ......................... . counterindications in myopia and farsightedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fashion and spectacles in the 18th century ....................... . types of spectacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . protective lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . colored lenses ...................... '• .................. . english opticians in the 18th century: ramsden, pierce, dolland, adams .... spectacles among the myopes and the farsighted following english schooling at the close of the 18th century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . spectacles for cataracts; the spectacle mania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . frames in use. spectacles with diaphragms and colored lenses .......... . ocular dioptrics in the first half of the 19th century ................. . various spectacles, eye-glasses, lorgnettes or monocles, so-called franklin spectacles, spectacles with superimposed lenses, spectacles for dissection, stenopaic glasses, spectacles for driving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 12 19 22 25 27 27 29 30 34 36 39 42 51 54 55 58 62 62 65 67 68 70 71 72 73 74 76 80 81 84 85 87 98 chapter xv 39. 40. 41. chapter xvi 28/27 lenses in use in the 19th century, periscopic lenses, astigmatism and cylindrical lenses, achromatic lenses, prismatic lenses, hyperbolic lenses lens numeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lens fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 110 112 42. colored lenses and protective lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 43. therapy by colored lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 chapter xvit 44. therapy by lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 45. charlatans and charlatanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 chapter xvid 46. contact lenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 47. the artificial cornea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 48. surgical treatment of myopia and farsightedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 h.w h. licensing board viewpoints: john d. robinson, o.d., of north carolina sent me a copy of his keynote address at the 75th anniversary meeting of the international association of boards of examiners in optometry (the lab) in june 1 994. he had been in practice 40 years and had served 26 years on the north carolina state licensing board with 22 years as either an officer or trustee of the lab. his remarks included a somewhat rambling reminiscing account of optometric events that stood out in his memory during his years of involvement. it was of more than ordinary interest to me because the time period coincided with that of much of my own career experience in optometry. my viewing bias would of course be that of an educator while his would be that of a regulatory board member. he pointed out that early lab records dating back to 1919 showed "an intense interest among the delegates of the lab in both the scope and the quality of optometric education, in the preparation of ·optometric students in the area of diagnosing ocular disease, and moving toward a more uniform system of examinations." he said that the minutes display a consistent and deep concern that "by giving up their own written examinations [to a national board] they (the state boards) would be unable to weed out those individuals whom they considered as likely 'commercialist' or 'unethical' practitioners." then referring to issues and events during his own career and tenure, dr. robinson mentioned first the controversial resolution passed in seattle, washington, in 1 954 that stated in its first resolve "that it is the stated policy of the american optometric association in convention assembled that the field of visual care is the field of optometry and should be exclusively the field of optometry." he credits jimmy palmer as having "a big hand in getting the resolution passed," but noted that palmer did not advocate any use of drugs by optometrists. 28/28 robinson added parenthetically that the resolution was deleted in 1969. he mentioned, however, some of the interim hostilities precipitated by the 1954 american medical association resolution "declaring optometry a cult and declaring that the teaching by physicians of optometrists in schools and colleges was unethical." he also attempted to describe the emerging shift of attitude among optometrists as to the use of drugs for diagnostic and, later, therapeutic purposes. the 1959 aoa premise that "the treatment of pathological conditions and eye surgery is acknowledged by optometry to be the field of medicine" was "retired and archived at the aoa annual meeting in 1980 in denver, colorado." the several remaining pages of robinson's keynote address are devoted to the gradual emergence of the national board of examiners in optometry as a major entity in licensing. because the speech as a whole was obviously not prepared with publication in mind, nor as an historical theme, and it lacks the appropriate referencing and documentation of resources for an historical review, it is not being reproduced in hindsight. the copy at hand, however, will be forwarded to ilamo for the archives. h.w h. ophthalmology history: a 394-page book published in 1966 entitled "the history of ophthalmology" and edited by d.m. albert and d.o. edwards, was reviewed in the september, 1997 issue of optometry and vision science by o.h.s. member jay enoch. enoch notes that the primary emphasis of the book is the development of ophthalmology as a surgical and medical specialty. one of his favorite aspects of the book is the presentation of profiles of notable ophthalmic pathologists and ophthalmologists. an important contribution to the history of ophthalmology is coverage of important women in ophthalmology. enoch was disappointed in the book's chapter on optometry. on page 303 of the book it is stated that "optometry did not arise from a single mode of thought or invention, and it did not follow a single historical path to the present; thus a comprehensive story of the development of optometry is not considered here." d.a.g. on the nose: this is the key phrase of a 12-week (october 15, 1997 to january 11, 1998) exhibition of spectacles and other optical fashions at the new york historical society, 170 central park west, new york city. the display features five themes: (1) spectacle fashions, (2) the technology of frames and lenses, (3) "four-eyed" personalities and celebrities, (4) gender and eyewear fashion and acceptances, and (5) the optical trade in new york from the late 18th century to now. h.wh. 28/29 o.a.i.c.c. notes: the april 1997 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 59, though devoted mainly to the interests of collectors, includes a number of items of optometric historical significance. an article by j.s. pointer on pages 4-7 is entitled "the pound in your pocket and the glasses on your nose," subtitled "700 years of reading spectacle prices." on a graphical illustration of the population of england and wales and the daily wage of an adult male building craftsman from 1276 a.d. to 1996 a.d. he plots six examples of the contemporary retail price of reading spectacles in the years 1545, 1804, 1826, 1951, 1976, and 1996. the graphical conformity of the three sets of seemingly unrelated data is surprising. the author discusses the potential factors and circumstances involved and invites readers to submit any additional discoveries of historical spectacle costs they come across. on pages 8-9 derek davidson describes some interesting business details of several london opticians of the 1 7th century. editor macgregor reviews two books. one is the ophthalmoscope part 1 by alfred schett, 1996, and the other is the eye, vision and ophthalmology on postage· stamps by frederick blodi, 1986. both books are published by wayenborgh. on pages 12-13 in an article entitled "the oculists of myddfai" colin fryer calls attention to some of the legends of the 1 3th and earlier centuries of the village of myddfai in the ancient region of dyfed, now pembrokeshire, in southwest wales. among the numerous medical remedies, magical potions, and charms the most frequent formulae and treatments were for the eyes. h.w h. eyeglass iconography: a book with the punny title "a spectacle of spectacles" hardly suggests a theme or level of sophistication one would ordinarily expect from the carl zeiss foundation in jena (carl-zeiss stiftung, jena, east germany). the book's contents, to the contrary, reveal a thoroughly documented iconographic study of centuries of eyeglasses and their depiction as incidental details in the contemporary classic arts. the hardcover compendium is in fact a well illustrated 178-page catalogue of the exhibition of the same title first shown in the united kingdom at the national museums of scotland in edinburgh in 1988-89 (just prior to the dismantling of the berlin wall). reproduced are 77 graphic works dating from the 1 5th century, ea~h including one or more pairs of spectacles. shown in parallel chronology are 1 08 photographs of eyeglasses and spectacle cases, european and asian. catalogue details are provided in the index of exhibited items. edited by wolf winkler, the book is copyrighted 1988 as the "edition leipzig," a translation from german, and published by druckerei fortschritt erfurt. the 28/30 catalogue is complemented by a brief history of the zeiss foundation by joachim toppler of the optical museum in jena, a well documented history of "spectacles over seven hundred years" by g. l'e. turner of imperial college in london, england, and an essay entitled "eyeglasses and art" by claus baumann of leipzig. the theme of the exhibition, and therefore of the book, especially as explained in baumann's essay, is the complex and sometimes oxymoronic role of spectacles in the classic arts. they include the graphic, sculptural, performing, and even literary arts. anachronisms do occur, as, for example, the portrayal of moses with eyeglasses. not only may spectacles convey their utilitarian role as optical aids but may also be employed by the artist to symbolize fashion, social rank, wisdom, learning, personal importance, hilarity, malignity, vanity, shortsightedness, blindness, sight, terror, age, perspicacity, foolishness, etc. all of these functions are exclusive of the role that the classic arts have played in enabling us to formulate a history of spectacles themselves in that the artist would normally depict spectacles as contemporarily known to him or her. finally, and for the same reason, the artists' depictions illustrate the artwork in spectacle design. spectacle frames, and especially spectacle cases, due to their conspicuity as wearing apparel or personal accessories, have served as media for miniature decorative art from their beginning to today. the interpretations of such clues tell us much about the history of optometry as well, perhaps more than do any other resources. h.w h. plastic ophthalmic lenses: the emergence of plastic as a significant medium for ophthalmic lenses is described in the fascinating account of the origin and development of the armorlite company under the direction of optometrist robert graham as reported by joseph bruneni in the january 1 997 issue of frames lab talk, pages 18 and 20. h.w h. extramission theory persists: a brief editorial commentary on page 1 0 of the april 1 997 issue of the ohio state alumni magazine, vol. 88, no. 7, tells us that "at least a third of college students surveyed in a recent series of studies believed that something such as rays or waves emanates from the eyes during the act of seeing." in disbelief professor gerald winer conducted more than 20 studies using various techniques~ in response to a simple question about whether anything leaves the eye during vi$ion, 49% of first-graders, 70% of third-graders, 51% of fifth-graders, and 33% of college students gave the wrong answer. the extramission theory of vision dominated scientific thinking for many centuries prior to the renaissance but has been rejected and ignored by scientists for centuries since. h.w h. 28/31 pol pot and spectacles: "in cambodia, pol pot (leader of the communist khmer rouge forces) encouraged the persecution, torture, and murder of everyone who wore glasses," said author clive james on page 50 of the april 22, 1996, issue of the new yorker, vol. 72, no. 9, in a several-page article entitled "blaming the germans." the isolated assertion was unaccompanied by any indication of its source. the immediate context merely implied the whimsical nature of certain aspects of mass cruelties. i immediately wrote mr. james c/o the new yorker to request a reference or resource documenting his assertion of pol pot's apparent caprice. i received no response. a second request to the editorial office several months later netted merely a london address for mr. james. a third request directed to mr. james in london has elicited no response to date, seven more months later. was mr. james' assertion itself merely a whim? h.w h. lest we forget: "charles f. prentice, opticist" is the title of a well written article by joe bruneni in the july, 1997, issue of lab talk (a publication of frames data, inc.), pages 16-17, describing the personality and role of prentice in the professionalization of american optometry during the late years of the 19th century. no references are cited but the familiarity of many of the anecdotal details suggests that bruneni had access to prentice's "legalized optometry and memoirs," of which only 200 copies were published upon his retirement in 1926. bruneni may also have had access to the optical journal, which was founded in 1885, essentially the only serial optometric publication of that era in america. so, he tells a story that is relatively unfamiliar even to today's optometrists, but well worth reading. h.w h. aoa history: "the american optometric association's first century" is the title of an so­ page, glossy paper covered, magazine size (20.5 x 27.5 em) booklet dated june 11, 1997. copies were distributed to aoa members and presumably to countless other persons and organizations readily classified under the general rubric of "friends and colleagues." except for as much as 10% devoted to profession-related and congratulatory advertisements, the text, including a few photographs, provides a mass of historical information that otherwise is quite buried in organizational files, archives, minutes, memoranda, and memories of older individuals who happened to have participated in, or observed, historically relevant events. so it is significant that the principal author and editor of this document was robert a. koetting. he may well be the most directly informed living optometrist on aoa development, not only because 28/32 he and/or his father had almost daily touch with the aoa headquarters for most of this century's years, but also because they both assumed leadership roles throughout their consecutive careers. the 40 pages dealing specifically with aoa history shows evidence that koetting relied heavily on the resources of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo) for factual accuracy. the interpretations of their significance, however, suggest the koetting depth of optometric overview. the next 25 pages are brief summaries of three sections of the aoa and 25 national and regional organizations with optometrically related missions. these were written by designated representatives to identify briefly their complementary missions, roles, and historical contributions. the last several pages chronologically list the names of all past aoa presidents and winners of various aoa awards and recognitions to acknowledge their roles in developing the organization during the 20th century. the only disappointment i would express is that the format of the document is that of a slender booklet rather than a hardcover book, or even as a supplementary issue of the journal of the american optometric association. slender booklets tend to disappear rapidly and rarely get referenced, cited, catalogued, or indexed in a variety of directories as do the book and journal forms of publication. i trust that at least ilamo and the institutional libraries and archives will preserve copies for progeny. " managing editor and contributing editor: contributing editors: * * * david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 u.s.a. henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47408 u.s.a. douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 u.s.a. h.w h. 1997-28-04-001 1997-28-04-002 1997-28-04-003 1997-28-04-004 1997-28-04-005 1997-28-04-006 1997-28-04-007 1997-28-04-008 aug .. 3 19ls newsletter of the indiana utl!versitv (7000 chippewa volume 7 ,optometric historical society street, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. july 1976 .£!!.!. for nominations: 63119) number 3 our by-laws state, "election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot." the board member whose term will expire this year, december 31, 1976, is james r. gregg, o.d. nominations for his continuation or replacement for a five year term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot in october. by all means do not hesitate to nominate yourself as a candidate if such responsibility challenges you. remember, self-nominated volunteers founded the o.h.s., and unpaid volunteers kept it going. nominations should be submitted to mrs. maria dablemont, secretary­ treasurer. index to prentice book: the book entitled "legalized optometry and memoirs" by charles f. prentice, casperin fletcher press, seattle, washington, 1926, was .about people, namely and mainly personalities involved with optometry's history in the first quarter of this century. though prentice was formally educated as a mechanical engineer, this book includes virtually none of his many scientific and technological contributions. it really is two monographs with separate tables of contents, one on "legalized optometry" and the other on ''memoirs," but with continuous pagination. the latter table of contents is rather inconspicuously placed near the center of the book so that the ''memoirs" portion might well be overlooked if one merely scans the first table of contents and does not read through the book. the book does not include an index. obviously prentice did not intend it to be used as a reference source or text; rather he wrote it to be read like a novel or autobiography, and his expressive style invites this. today, however, the book has taken on substantial historical significance if only because prentice expressed his views about his wide circle of contemporary colleagues, friends, and enemies. therefore -28dr. henry a. knoll, o.h.s. vice-president, decided to index all the names of persons mentioned by prentice. he retained the original separation of "legalized optometry" and ''memoirs" by preparing two indices. librarians and owners of the very few extant copies of the book are invited to copy these indices and insert them in their prentice volumes. here they are: "legalized optometry" amici 49 anderson, mrs. 23 appleton, harry w. 98, 163 appleton, a.e. 93 40, 42, 96, arrington, edward e. 169, 174, 175 bausch, george r. 40, 41, 140, 163 bendel!, h. 151, 153 bissell, w.w. 40, 41, 42, 140, 163 boger, frederick 38, 40, 86, 96 born 71 boynton 71 brown, edward j. burnett, swan m. caruss, j.h. 93 chamblant 43 32, 33, 34, 37, 78 15, 31, 162 clairmont, j.j. 67 clark, b.b. 41, 49, 163 cooke 49 cross, andrew jay 33, 34, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 63, 72, 93, 133, 140, 141, 163 dezeng, h.l., jr. 72 dol land 49, 85 derby 94, 179 donders 43 ferguson, l.l. 72, 163 fitz 49 fraunhofer 49, 85 frost, mrs. 23 ganun 36 gauss 51 goldbacher, ernest 93 goode 43 gould, george m. 178, 183, 185 guinnand 49 guy, w.b. 40 hahn, geo. h. 93 hahn, j.w. 93 hays 43 helmholtz 15, 51 hodge, j. aspinwall, jr. 41 hopkins, e.h. 41 horton, g.s. 146 -cont'd-29hughes, charles e. 167 hunter, h.w. 93 jackson, ed. 122 kenney, m.e. 40, 41, 140, 141 king, julius 72 knapp, hermann 15, 51 knowles, r.h. 41, 72, 78 landolt 178 lembke, charles 36, 44 lerebours 49 lewis, f. park 94 mackeown 33, 36, 40, 93, 140, 163 mahler 49 mason, e.r. 40, 140 merz 49 meyrowitz, e.b. 36, 37, 38, 63, 65, 66, 93 mcallister, john 43, 44, 49 mccabe 82 mckinney 63 mundorf, j. 36 newing, judson s. 40 norton 71 norris 179 noyes, henry d. 14, 15, 19, 20, oertel, william d. 163 odell, benjamin b., jr. 165 oliver 179 palmer, briggs s. 41 pilger, charles l. 93 prentice, charles f. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 72, 73, 84, 94, 96, 113, 117, 123, 127, 135, 140, 141, 145, 163, 164, 165, 167, 14, 18, 19, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 42, 43, 62, 63, 102, 111, 112, 128, 133, 134, 151, 152, 162, 168, 169, 175 prentice, james 14, 15, 44 prentiss, chalmer 78 press, t. channon 36, 37, 39, 41, 63, 86 queen, j.w. 44 ramage 49 ramsden 49 reichenbach 49 reilly, charles 18 robbins, f.e. 40, 72, 163 von rohr 42 roosa, d.b. st. john 16, 17, 19, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 38, 59, 71, 94, 98, 154, 178 shaw, alexander 93 sheard, charles 179 short 49 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 38, 59, 71, spencer, charles a. 49 94, 179 -cont' d-30stevens 51, 59 webster 71 swart, frederick leland 163 widdefield 44 tolles 49, 85 wilcox, benjamin 146 tscherning, m. 180 wood, casey a. 15 watt 49 zentmeyer 49 ''memoirs" aeby, a.e. 370 ailman, john 242 appleton 376 arrington, edward e. 258, 259, 268, 270, 302, 303, 304, 305, 318, 325, 333, 334, 348, 349, 350, 351, barnum, p.t. 380 226, 256, 275, 286, 301, 306, 307, 314, 345, 346, 347, 353, 376. bausch, george r. 268, 334, 376 benedict, a.l. 314, 338 benedict, e.j. 268, 334 bestor, h.m. 268, 318, 334, 376 billings, josh 226 bissel, w.w. 258, 268, 274, 286, 287, 314, 318, 334, 347, 348, 376 blyth, alexander p. 369 brown 303 bryan, william jennings 202, 203, 204, 213, 214, 388, 390 buckle, henry thomas 309 burbank, luther 221 burnett, swan m. 242, 244, 245, 266, 295, 414 butler, nicholas murray 264, 275 chambers, d. 369 clark, b.b. 334, 376 255, 268, 318, coolidge, calvin 220 coudert, frederick r. 378 crane, frank 316 cross, andrew j. 226, 254, 257, 258, 265, 268, 269, 270, 277' 285, 286, 295, 308, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 370, 371, 375. davis, e.l. 354 dennett 245, 246 downing, augustus s. 260, 263, 264, 275, 277, 284, 294, 314, 315, 316, 364, 365 eberhardt, john c. 320 edser, edwin 276 226, 270, -cont'degbert, j.c. 264, 265, 266, 267, 275, 284, 293 ellis, william t. 225 emtage, w.t.a. 276 endriss, r.c. 369 ferguson 376 fielder, james f. 372 flexner, abraham 290 foss 324 fox, george r. 314, 337 258, 274, freeman, j.g. 365 george, david lloyd 214 glazebrook, r.t. 276 grant, ulysses 218 hallock, william 264, 275 hanauer, perry 263, 264, 365 heard, c.h. 369 henry, george 357 hill, david b. 384 hoover, herbert 220 hughes, charles e. 255, 260, 274, 310, 322, 328, 351 ingersoll, robert g. 242 jackson 245, 303 jessup, alonzo d. 369 kenney 376 -31ketchum, m. b. 369 knapp, hermann 242, 245, 246 knowles 376 kuttner, louis 369 landolt 266 lennox, richmond 244 lewis, f. park 314, 337, 338, 339, 340 lockwood, r.m. 317 marchant, f.b. 258, 274, 314 marschutz, henrietta 198, 229, 230, 234, 251, 370 marshutz, s.g. 367, 369 mason 376 mcadoo, william 220 mittendorf, william f. 243 morris, leonard 269 mundorf, j. 369 newing, egbert a. 314, 376 noyes, henry d. 245, 246 optiz 293 poffenberger, a.t., jr. 363 358, 360, prentice, henrietta see henrietta marschutz prentice, james 197, 198, 199, 213, 219, 226, 227, 234, 236, 238, 385, 409 prentice, mrs. 238, 246 -cont'droach, john 235 robbins 286 roosa, d.b. st. john 252, 345, 377, 379 schneider, g.l. 369 212, 228, shaw, george bernard 217 sheard, charles 357 simpson, russell 369 -32towle, john 235 tscherning, m. 266 van fleet, frank 377, 380 watts, h.w. 258, 314, 347 wells, david w. 244 welzmiller, louis r. 293 wilson, woodrow 217 wise, stephen s. 309 woll, frederick a. 265, 276 smith, w. lawrence 369 southall, james p.c. 393 stanley, thomas 366 stevens 266 292, 341, wood, casey a. 314, 342, 343, 344, 356, woodworth, fred 311, x, dr. 333, 347, 372 339, 341, 358, 382 312 terrell, r.a. 312, 325 y, dr. 270, 285, 294, 332, thompson, w.o. 314, 363, 364 372, 373 topaz, lionel 323 z, mr. 332 zeiss-werkzeitung: this is the title of an in-house serial published by the carl zeiss firm of jena. the copies which came to my attention included 17 issues between march 1929, vol. 4, no. 1, and august 1934, vol. 9, no. 3. it was apparently published a bit irregularly, with four to five issues per year, and several issues were obviously missing from the collection i saw. where did these come from? we are not sure. they were on our temporary storage shelves at the indiana university school of opto­ metry library awaiting processing and cataloguing or otherwise deter­ mining their disposition. they were undoubtedly part of a donation received before we had permanent quarters for the library. slowly, but methodically and surely, all of these early contributions are being processed for permanent filing here or elsewhere as may be appropriate. in this instance, the decision has been made to forward these copies to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo) because they are primarily of historical and archival value rather than of academic or scientific importance. -33having just returned a few months ago from a visit to jena, east germany, i could not resist leafing through these issues, especially because they included many fine photographs of pre-war jena and of personalities identified with the famous old zeiss firm, names like otto schott, ernst abbe, and pulfrich. but my perusal, initially promising to elicit a trace of historical nostalgia, for my memory includes those years, suddenly prompted memories of a grim and decadent era. one of the 1934 issues featured adolf hitler's january 30 reichstag speech, plus speeches by drs. frick and ley, all in full. photographs included hitler, frick, ley, goring, and other fascist principals, and numerous swastikas and crowds responding with the "heil, hitler!" salute. a disturbing photograph was of several young zeiss workers or boys identi­ fied proudly as the "ernst abbe" chapter or contingent of the hitler youth movement (abbe died in 1905!) the august 1934 issue was devoted almost entirely to mourning the death of general field marshall von hindenburg. more swastikas than flowers. new o.h.s. members: the latest list of eight new members represents seven countries, as follows: abegglen, th., principal schweizerische hoehere fachschule fuer augenoptik frohheimschulhaus 4600 olten ch-switzerland boggs, warrens., o.d. box 53 walter reed army medical center washington, dc 20012 u.s .a. ecole superieur d'optometrie 134 route de chartres 92440 bures sur yvette france fcyer, colin b. 11, queenscourt road west derby liverpool ll2 8rh merseyside, england hudson, loy l., o.d. 98 n. washington street hagerstown, indiana 47346 u.s.a. serials librarian "g" block queensland institute of technology george street brisbane, queensland australia 4000 shirayama, sekiya, mr. 5-6-8 wakabayashi setagaya-ku, tokyo japan williams, t. david, o.d., ph.d. 269 union boulevard kitchener, ontario n2m 2s9 canada -34earliest news item on contact lenses? according to john c. neill, o.d., of philadelphia, a column en­ titled "contact glasses" in the august 18, 1930, issue of time, vol. 16, no. 7, page 52 was "about the earliest news item ~ontact lenses" in a popular national publication. he recently sent his copy of the magazine to the pennsylvania college of optometry library. in turn, mrs. dolores h. taylor, librarian, sent me a photocopy of the article, which follows: "members of the optometrical society of the city of new york peered inquisitively last week at grace robin, 22, near-sighted brooklyn stenographer. pleasantly but glassily grace robin peered back. she did not appear to be wearing eyeglasses, yet she was, right against her eyeballs -con­ tact glasses, such as had never been seen by the new york society. "for years ophthalmologists have been placing glass shields on eyeballs to brace bulging corneas though not to correct vision. in 1889 dr. a. mueller of kiel, germany, succeeded in grinding a pair of shields to the curves needed to correct his own near-sightedness. lack of money made him drop further experiments. "last september dr. leopold heine of kiel reported to the international congress at amsterdam that for three years he had been prescribing contact glasses to correct sight defects. his report stimulated the new york demonstration last week. "dr. heine emphasized that contact glasses must be fitted only by highly experienced ophthalmologists, for the danger of an ill-trained man injuring his patient's eyes is great. for fitting such glasses 39 lenses are necessary. the only firm which grinds these highly exact lenses is the zeiss works at jena. the lenses must be curved on their inner (concave) side almost but not exactly to match the curve of the eyeballs. nor may their optical curve be exactly that of ordinary eyeglasses. contact lenses are held against the eyeballs by the capillary suction of tear water. thin though the layer of tears is it has an optical effect which the ophthalmologist must allow for in writing his prescription. "when correctly fitted, contact glasses are almost invi­ sible. because they follow every movement of the eyeball, they furnish a wider field of vision and a clearer image than do ordinary eyeglasses. "there are u.s. ophthalmologists sufficiently skilled to write such prescriptions. but none, so far as could be learned last week, owns a complete set of 39 test lenses (cost -35$25 a lens); and most consider contact glasses foolish, unnecessary. dr. heine's customers have been people with athletic or cosmetic reasons. miss robin's reason for wearing the lenses last week was to accommodate the new york opto~ etrists. she was in constant fear that the glasses might break on her eyes." obrig and contact lenses: following are a few paragraphs from a may 11 letter from o.h.s. vice-president henry a. knoll: "herewith is a copy of theo. e. obrig's obituary which appeared in the thursday, february 23, 1967 issue of the sarasota herald tribune. theo. e. obrig, william feinbloom, and john e. mullen would appear to have been the fathers of plastic contact lenses. notice that ernest mullen is mentioned in the obituary. i can only guess ernest is what the e. stands for. "this obituary was sent to me by mr. philip salvatori, co­ founder of obrig laboratories, inc. mr. salvatori, at age 75, is still active in the contact lens field. i can say this, since i visited with him on april 28, 1976. "note that theo. e. obrig was originally associated with gall and lembke in new york city. see guildcraft (march-april-may 1942) for 'a century of optical service,' a thumb-nail history of gall and lembke written by philip salvatori. "charles lembke was, as you know, the first president of the aoa. in 1901, two years before he died, he sold his share of gall and lembke to j.a. theodore obrig, theo's father. 'young' obrig came by his talents through his father's genes. "the obituary is wrong on one count -he is not listed in who's who (or who was who), but rather in the national cyclo­ pedia of american biography, volume 54, page 220, 1973. a fine photo is included. there is also a photo of theo. e. obrig in the october 1944 issue of optical world. "if the readers of the newsletter have any information con­ cerning the life of theo. e. obrig, i would appreciate hearing from them." the following is the above-mentioned obituary from the thursday february 23, 1967, issue of the sarasota (florida) herald tribune: "theo e. obrig, 72, of sarasota, recognized as a pioneer and dean of the contact lens field and co-founder of obrig lab­ oratories, inc., died wednesday at sarasota memorial hospital. -36"obrig entered the optical profession in 1914 with the firm of gall and lembke in new york city, but left shortly after to study medicine. at the outbreak of world war i, he left college to serve with the french army ambulance corps and later joined the medical department of the u.s. army as a bacteriologist and physiological chemist, returning once more to france. "in 1919, obrig re-joined the firm of gall and lembke. he patented the myodisc bifocal and the obrig wax polishing pad. his textbook, 'modern ophthalmic lenses and optical glass' was accepted by many of the leading universities in the united states and canada. "he was also the author of a book titled 'contact lenses.' "about 1929 he started his experiments and research in the contact lens field. "in 1939 obrig and ernest mullen designed and introduced to america the first successful all-plastic contact lens. in that same year, he and philip l. salvatori founded obrig laboratories and together developed the first successful method for taking molds of the human eye. "they were the first to discover the cobalt blue light and fluorescein method of observing the fit of a contact lens. the discovery brought the possibility of use of contact lenses to approximately 85 per cent of persons wearing spectacles. "obrig retired as president of obrig laboratories in 1952 and became a consultant. "a long-time resident of sarasota, he is survived by his widow, brigit costello obrig, 5311 winchester drive, and a brother, raymond, of summit, n.j., and a daughter, elizabeth davison, living in germany. "obrig was a licensed ham radio operator for more than 55 years. he was a graduate of columbia university and was listed in who's who. "funeral services will be held friday at 3 p.m. at shannon's whitfield chapel. burial will be at sarasota memorial park." the period after "theo" was consistently omitted three times in the obituary, once in the headline, once in the lead sentence, and again in the picture. dr. knoll faithfully included the period, as it is also included in at least three books authored or co-authored by obrig. the printed library cards for these books show his full name to be theodore ernst obrig. --37casually reviewed: law, frank w., "sir william bowman," survey of ophthalmology, vol. 19, no. 5, march/april 1975, pp. 302-307. bowman (1816-1892) was, among other things, an ophthalmic surgeon and a fine citizen. he, von graefe, and donders became acquainted early in their careers and maintained life-long close friendships. yes, you know him via his namesakes, bowman's membrane and bowman's muscle. law, frank w., "moorfields eye hospital, 1925-1940," survey of ophthalmology, vol. 20, no. 1, july/august 1975, pp. 59-69. writes dr. law, " ••• , the period between the two world wars has been ref~rred to as the 'doldrums of ophthalmology' in the united kingdom. although ungenerous, the statement has some truth. perhaps this article will do something to explain or, at least in part, refute it." his account is fascinating and pleasant reading. vos, t.a., "cataract surgery in the course of the centuries," ophthalmologica, vol. 171, no. 1, 1975, pp. 79-81. this is presented as a "bird's eye view of cataract surgery from earliest times." cataracts were known "before knowledge of the existence of the lens." the name cataracta stems from the 11th century, when constantinus africanus translated many arabic manuscripts into latin. a bit w~dly written, with a stated cryptic message which eluded me. biologist collects eyeglasses: mr. jerry irwin, a young staff member in the biology department of battelle's pacific northwest division in seattle, washington, started his hobby of collecting antique eyeglasses in 1963 when he discovered a dusty old cigar box with a dozen pair of old glasses in an optometrist's office. for the next 13 or more years he added to his collection by hunting through pawn and antique shops and goodwill and salvation army stores. he now has more than 200 carefully selected pair of antique glasses dating back to the seventeenth century. recently, in the april 9 or 16, 1976, issue of the greenie, an in-house publication for battelle staff members, mr. irwin and his col­ lection were given a full page write-up, sent to me by o.h.s. member j.r. hale, o.d. -38the leeds book collection: almost 25 years ago o.h.s. member james p. leeds, o.d., decided somewhat casually, not as a bibliophile, nor as a presumed scholar, to accumulate out-of-print books related to optometry. mostly he wanders into used-book stores and whenever he finds an old book related to optometry which he has not seen before, and which is nominally priced, he buys it and shelves it. he lets friends and colleagues know what he is doing, and encourages their cooperation. he does not compete with those who play the more expensive game of acquiring books classified as rare or as collector's items, though he con­ tinuously stays alert to such books which are being overlooked in ordinary second-hand book stores. today he has in his optometry office two complete walls of shelves, floor to ceil~ng, almost filled with books, approximately 1800, and not a single duplicate. when he finds a duplicate at a bargain he often buys it to give to a library or friend, or to exchange with another collector. he has a mental catalogue of virtually every item on the shelves, so he can tell you instantly whether or not he already has any boo~ he sees or which you may name. much to his own surprise, he has read many of the books, or at least perused them page by page to find interesting illustrations or passages not seen else­ where. he laughs when i tell him he has become a scholar in spite of himself, but he really is. his collection contains no incunabula, but a few were published in the late 18th century. an occasional early pamphlet or intriguing piece of apparatus has caught his fancy. he has few serials except as obtained in complete volumes. he has the collection modestly insured, realizing that this is merely to cover his investment and maintenance costs, for no insurance can replace the collection itself. dr. c.h. brown's scrapbook: approximately 30 x 22 x 4 em (1211 x 9" x 1 1/2") in size, this stiff­ cover bound album provides a meticulously kept record of advertisements by c.h. brown, m.d., in behalf of the philadelphia optical college and the philadelphia optical parlors. the album includes 492 separately clipped advertisements, usually dated, and pasted on the pages, often from edge to edge. also indicated in most instances are the publications in which they occurred. the album includes 18 clipped advertisements notpasted in or otherwise identified, 15 advertisement galley proofs, 11 miscellaneous clippings, apparently for ideas, two small note sheets, a philadelphia optical college form letter to solicit correspondence course prospects, and a columbia university reply card, an honest-to­ goodness "penny postcard." perhaps most remarkable is the fact that no two advertisements are identical, or at least i did not detect a completely identical pair. they range from full-page formats to two line classifieds. they typically -39contain much legend, some artwork, occasional pictures of alumni or instruments, and a sort of caption or headline. a few examples: to the ambitious optician are you a clam? to wide-awake opticians only instituted, 1889. incorporated, 1892. charter perpetual optical education by mail a square fact a progressive school with progressive methods for progressive men if wills hospital is crowded, come to our dispensary at 1 p.m. the advertisements for the philadelphia optical college are identi­ fied as appearing in druggist's circular, american druggist, national retail jeweler, keystone circular, items of interest (a dental publication), optical journal, dental brief, western druggist, dental digest, dental hints, and optometric weekly, between 1890 and 1934. advertisements for the "philadelphia optical parlors" seem to have been run only during 1899 in the germantown telegraph, commercial list, catholic standard times, item, press, and times. these advertisements, segregated from the others, are inserted on the last few pages of the album, numbered in pencil as pages 152-165. the "college" advertisements are on penciled pages 1-79. pages marked 80 to 151 are empty. the "parlors" advertisements identify c.h. brown, m.d., as "oculist and optician, examination free." the "college" advertisements identify c.h. brown, m.d., variously as being "in charge" or "chief instructor." the addresses of both are chronologically identical, all in philadelphia, pennsylvania, as follows: august 1890: 2012 norris street january 1891: 1820 diamond street may 1894: 1824 diamond street september 1898: 1435 chestnut street june 1899: 1022 walnut street may 1905: 400-402 perry building, 16th & chestnut street april 1934: colonial building -40some of the "college" advertisements include pictures and testi­ monials of successful alumni, occasional reference to an alumni association, the offering of such degrees as graduate and master optician and doctor of refraction, attendant courses ranging in length from one week to six months, and many paragraphs to extol the impor­ tance of education and learning to success and happiness in business and professional work. this truly unique collector's and museum item was acquired by james leeds, o.d., as mentioned in our april issue, and has since been donated and forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. first installment of another scrapbook: richard m. hall, o.d., 666 euclid avenue, cleveland, ohio 44114, sent me a part of his scrap-book collection "of optometric and medical memorabilia" last december, a total of 25 photocopies of miscellane­ ous items. the theme of his collection is not yet obvious to me, but the present items are interesting. perhaps most interesting is a copy of a letter of employment agreement dated "oct. 1901," in longhand, on letterhead of "the cleveland optical co., manufacturing opticians, importers and wholesalers, 404, 405, & 406 new england bldg., 129 & 131 euclid avenue." also printed on the letterhead are the words, "spectacles, eye glasses, opera glasses, field glasses, telescopes, artificial eyes, thermometers, hypodermic syringes, cases, etc." the legend, in longhand: "this will certify that theo miller of cleveland ohio has engaged to work for the cleveland optical co. in the capacity of an all around shop man beginning monday october 14th 1901 and continuing his services until june 30th 1902 for a salary of eleven dollars ($11.00) a week, and it is~urther agreed by and between the cleveland optical co. of the first part and theo miller of the second part that the said theo miller shall receive a salary of twelve dollars ($12.00) a week for one year beginning july 1st 1902 and continuing until june 30th 1903. if the said theo miller is unable to perform his duties as an all around shop man from sickness or other causes the salary of the said theo miller shall be discon­ tinued until such time as he may be able to perform the duties for which he is hired." following this is the rubber stamp notation "the cleveland optical co., per •••••• 1'with the signature (not very legible): "h a cambis presid" (?). then follows in what must be miller's handwriting, "approved by theo. miller," and "witnesses," "john a. becker" and "edwin r(?) white." also included in the collection is an undated advertisement of a "cornea restorer" by "dr. j. stephens & co., oculists," and an 1855 advertisement of "a. gedeon, the celebrated optician, from the improved ----41spectacle manufactory and berlin optical establishment, no. 107, frederick william street, berlin, established more than a century ago." "prof. gedeon, ••• , is now on a professional visit ••• and may be consulted at his office, no. 52 market street, 2d door from the square, nashville, tenn." included in this advertisement is a supporting testimonial by a.s. todd, m.d. a handwritten order for "curled hair enough to make a full leth of back curls of 28 inch or 30 inch hair" (plus other details) on letterhead of the "kansas city medical and surgical institute, no. 804 main street, kansas city, mo •••••• 187 " at the upper left corner of the letterhead are illustrated an eye and an ear with the legend, "at this institute all diseases of the eye and ear and all chronic diseases of whatever kind or nature, both males and and (sic) females, successfully treated. artificial eyes constantly on hand." a receipt dated 3/10 1903 from the julius king optical co., new york, to joseph schuster, cleveland, ohio, shows $60.00 paid for 1 1900 refractometer. more than odds & ends: --------about a year ago o.h.s. member d.r. reed, o.d., sent me a small packet of "odds & ends" which he found in the process of moving his library for office redecoration purposes. included were items which most people, in fact almost all people, would ordinarily toss into the waste-basket, but history-conscious "russ" could not be so thought­ less. these are now being forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., to be sorted out carefully for archival value by mrs. maria dablemont and her well-trained staff. lest you are curious as to what these are, here is a list: 1. proposed a.o.a. standards for the measurement of visual acuity with the best rx, submitted by the 1948-49 committee on standards, glenn a. fry, ph.d., chairman, carl f. shepard, o.d., and meredith w. morgan, jr., ph.d. this is a three-page legal size (34.6 x 21.6 em) mimeographed document which spells out the specifications, materials, and procedures in as practical detail as any of the many acuity standards proposed since then. 2. the program of the october 19, 1949 conference on reading, reported by dr. reed to be the first seminar sponsored by the indiana academy of optometrists. the four educational speakers on the program were the director of a child clinic, her assistant child psychologist, an associate professor of psychology, and a staff member of a psychological-reading clinic. stapled to the program sheet are five full-page tables of statistically analyzed reading test scores from the butler university reading clinic. -423. a play bill: the story of vision, or from darkness to light with the scientists, by florence h. stone and j. robert shreve, o.d., hotel severin, indianapolis, january 19, 1947, 7:30 p.m~, presented by central indiana optometric association, celebrating the golden jubilee of the indiana association of optometrists. seven episodes dating to greece and china in 1000 b.c., nero at the race track in 55 a.d., italy in 1285 a.d., the spec­ tacle peddler in america in 1880, the farmer and the opto­ metrist in 1896, and the present, included numerous opto­ metrists and their spouses and public relations officer florence stone. variously portrayed were cho tso, nero, mrs. nero, salvina d'armato, pietro bonaparte, allesendro del spina, and others. musical accompaniment by the gay time duo. 4. a nine-page mimeographed collection of reports, minutes, research plans, and reviews assembled during 1949 and 1950 by the society for strabismus research and the chicago college of optometry. interspersed in the text are many familiar optometric names such as thaddeus murroughs, z.b. schoen, lord charnwood, joseph shepherd, newton wesley, william smith, jens jensen, paul boeder, et al, et al, et al. 5. three leaves torn from the bausch ! lomb magazine, probably a winter or december issue, inasmuch as a santa claus is shown in one of the advertisements. the pages, probably pages 16, 17, and 22, consist of an article entitled over there in 1918 with america's first mobile optical unit, by e.f. wildermuth. because the article starts out "twenty-one years ago, ••• " this issue should be for 1939. the late mr. wildermuth included 12 photographs of more than 50 military persons associated with the unit, and identified each one. he also gave the then current addresses of almost all of them. 6. optometry, law and information, state of indiana, january 1, 1938, a 28 page pamphlet including the optometry law, state board membership and regulations, a list of accredited colleges of optometry, the aoa code of ethics, and an outline of a four-year course of study. the outlined curriculum is star­ tlingly modern! from about 1907: williams. palmer, o.d., of fort worth, texas, an optometrist now 81 years old, was prevailed upon by o.h.s. member chester pheiffer to write an account of his widely varied experiences in optometry and optics beginning more than 65 years ago. shortly after dr. palmer submitted the lengthy account in rough draft form for dean pheiffer to -43look over, mrs. palmer died suddenly "after fifty-two years of com­ panionship." thus, he did not have an opportunity to edit or revise the material, but gave us permission to do so. because there is something about dr. palmer's intimate and rambling style which might well be lost by major editing, we deleted not a word. we merely inserted punctuation marks here and there, but cautiously. he wrote this in two parts, the first being entirely autobiographical, and the second a few observations and thoughts he wished to emphasize. by request my effort is to acquaint those interested with historical facts as they pertain to all phases of optics as i participated in by experience and observation, so the best place to start is at the beginning. i saw my first light of day in tyler, texas in the year 1895. my parents were descendants of middle class pioneer farmers. my father's parents were from england, and my mother's parents were born in the united states. my maternal grandfather came from rome, georgia, and my maternal grandmother came from florida. they were not share croppers but middle class citizens, and had to work for a livelihood. at about my age of five or six we moved to houston, texas, where my father and his two brothers worked for the houston post, and all three worked at the newspaper business until their timely demise. at the time we moved to houston i was too young to enter public school and i was enrolled in a catholic school near the st. joseph hospital. i was not a good student and, because of some mischief i got into, a nun slapped me on my hand with a ruler. this incident perplexed my two older sisters and, consequently, with my buster brown suit and wicker lunch basket, i was removed from the catholic school to await the time of my entrance in what was then known as longfellow elementary school, and there i remained until about the fifth grade. i did not like school, and until i was about twelve years of age i worked after school delivering groceries. i also worked at a butcher shop and at a drug store jerking sodas and making deliveries on a bicycle. i had many part-time jobs. one was collecting for a hardware company, i think it was the f.w. heitman co., and i also worked part-time collecting for the houston post. that was when my father decided that i was not interested in public school, and i entered a business college to study book­ keeping, but that did not last long as i became more fascinated with the dot-dash system of the morse code than that of book­ keeping, so my father decided i should learn a trade. at that time there was an optical company in houston owned by j.g. eganhouse and the following proposition was made to me: that i would work to learn the art of grinding lenses, as we now -44know as surface grinding, for the sum of $2.00 per week. i thought i would like to learn the trade, but for $2.00 per week i declined, so my father made me a proposition that he would add each week an additional one half of my salary and i would be making $3.00 per week. i accepted this. i was so short of stature, and the single spindle a.o. co. or shuron surface machine was so high, that i had to stand on a box to feed the emery and rouge to grind and polish spherical lenses. my father continued his agreement until i was making the grand sum of six dollars per week and he decided that was enough for me, and so my supplemental in­ come came to a fast halt. i quit school and began to work full time in optical shops. i worked for the houston optical co. owned by willis chamberlain, and the optical company owned by, i believe, a man by the name of harry cohen. when i worked there j. howard clark also worked for him making eye examinations. lester cheatham and walter olin also worked for willis chamberlain at the same time i did. walter olin was a well experienced swede from minnesota and taught me a lot about shop work. however there was very little to learn because of the limited processes available. all lenses had to be cut and edged by hand and the only popular bifocals were the cement bifocal and the benjamin franklin two piece bifocal. there was no such thing as spherical meniscus or toric cylinder lenses. everything was p.c.x., periscopic convex, or p.c.c., periscopic concave, and flat sphero-cylinder, factory made, to be cut and edged. the flat spherical lenses had a standard base curve of -1.25, or concave lenses flat combined with 1.25 base curve. all lenses had to be cut with a hand-held diamond, and edged by hand, no automation machine, everything hand made. factories would supply ready ground uncut lens of about 44 mm square in size and bifocal segments of about 28 nnn in diameter with a base curve of 1.25. to make a pair of cement bifocals you would split the segment in half and use one half on each lens, place a drop of balsam on the lens, clean the segment thoroughly, and place it in the proper place on the carrier lens and heat both over an alcohol lamp. in another method we'would use a round piece of asbestos on a hot plate where we would do ten or more pair at one time. when the balsam was hot enough you would press with a match stick until all the bubbles were removed and let the lens cool, cut off the bottom edge of the segment, put a bevel on by hand, and then it was ready to be mounted in a frame. now in those days frame styles were limited to the what we know now as grandma specs made in about four sizes: 0 eye, 00 eye and then they came out with 000 1/2, and later 0000 eye with varied lengths of comfort cable temples, occasionally a -45straight temple. bridge sizes were in categories of m and n, now known as saddle bridge. sizes in m and n varied in depths of 1/2 1 1/2 2, the m being narrow and the n wide. in those days all optical companies shared their stores with either kodak or other camera supplies or with jeweler/ watchmakers, so with some spare time i learned something about kodak film finishing, which will come in handy later in my story. i do not remember exactly when the diamond drill was perfected, but at about the same time the rimless spectacle, consisting of saddle bridge and end pieces with temples,was placed on the market, along with the pince-nez glasses. the pince-nez was made with and without rims. shuron made one with celluloid rims that clamped to the nose piece, and also in spectacles, so improvements, and inventions were changing the procedure in shops. instead of having only one shape of lens, the oval, along came the round, and the octagonal, all edged by hand. the octagonal was not exactly octagonal, the sides would be a little off, maybe one side shorter than the other. then came the hair pin chain and ear chain. some who wanted rimless also wanted a hole drilled for the chain, which all added up to make a pair of glasses cost to the buyer, the customer, a tidy sum of from $10.00 to $15.00 including a fogging system eye examination. j. howard clark and lester cheatham were two who learned the skills of eye examination for glasses. in those days eganhouse made his own examination. those were the three major retail operations in houston at that time. the equipment consisted of a trial case with trial frames, card-board wall chart, a light with iris diaphram, and an indirect retinoscope. for an ophthalmoscope you would use a strong plus lens from the trial case to magnify the interior of the eye, for about the only thing diagnosed was cataract. and of course we also had a millimeter rule. i think most prescriptions were made from the spherical equivalent and the bifocal add according to age. we had a rule to go by, starting at age of 40 years and up to 60 years from plus 1.00 to plus 3.00 add. about 1912 the few factories supplying lenses came up with the 6 d. base curve meniscus spherical lenses and 6 d. base curve toric or sphere-cylinder lenses, also known as compound lenses. this change caused a change in the curves of our grinding laps as the curves had to be extended to laps or tools that would grind up to 20.00 diopter curves, both plus and minus. after grinding the surface of lenses with three grades of emery, #1 rough, #2 second, and #3 fine, emery, the surface was ready to polish. the polishing was accomplished by cementing heavy felt, or felt about the weight of pool table felt cemented to the surface of the lap or tool and apply red rouge and water until the surface contained no visible blemishes when looked at with an electric light reflecting upon the surface of the glass. to get the lens ready to surface we would mount it on an iron block with hot pitch. the block had a countersunk hole in -46the center where the pointed pin would hold the block and lens. to use the handle of the surface machine you would move it back and forward across the tool or lap until you had a finished lens. there were several types of calipers you would use to measure the four sides of the lens to keep from grinding prism on the lens. if you had one side thicker than the other you would have to equalize by grinding by hand to make the edges of equal thickness. the same process was used to make cement bifocals. then came the cylinder laps or tools so we could grind cylinder lens on the same machine. the block made of iron you would mount the lens on with hot pitch which had two pins that extended upward from the block. the pins would fit into a curved spring to keep the lens from revolving or spinning, except with the revolution of the lap. the pin through and secured to the handle with set screw would hold the spring to the iron block and the lens and lap would spin together and cause a cylinder to be formed and would run at high speed. you would have to be careful that the arms attached to the iron block did not slip loose at the high speed because you could be injured if the lens would fly off the grinding apparatus. i have seen them make a hole in a cement wall, but that was at the beginning of the surface grinding of cylinder lenses. along about this time came the fused bifocal known as the kryptok to revolutionize the bifocal business. the kryptok was a patented process and a copyrighted name and was made as follows: the carrier lens was of crown glass with refractive index of 1.57 or there about. the segment, or button as we called it, was of flint glass with refractive index of 1.62 approximately. to make a kryptok lens you would take a moulded blank and grind a concave curve at the edge of the blank for the curvature power desired, and then grind the flint button with convex curvature of the same curvature as the concave surface on the carrier blank. you would grind about four of these carrier blanks at one time by mounting them at an angle on the iron blocks, and the same way for the flint buttons. after grinding and polishing was completed it was necessary for an electric oven to be placed in a room free from dust. surfaces of both the carrier lens and seg or button had to be absolutely free from particles of dust. the carrier blank was placed on a car­ borundum smooth block made on the basis of a prism lens so that the countersunk portion of the carrier lens would sit flat on the carborundum block. a piece of zinc metal, very small, was placed at the lower edge of the carrier blank and the flint button was placed upon that section and then placed in the oven at about 1,700 degrees of heat, or maybe more. the reason for the metal piece of zinc was so that the flint button being an index of 1.62 would melt before the carrier blank of 1.57 index and as the top edge made the first contact with the carrier blank and the heat began to melt the flint glass it would --47gradually adhere from top of seg to the piece of zinc, and remove automatically all air bubbles, in most cases. if not, you had a defective lens. i remember well the first factory-made kryptok blank given to me to surface, grind, and make into an rx. remember if you will, that the rough kryptok blank was not a smooth surface on the convex side, as the segment was elevated above the carrier blank, so, you would have to grind off the raised segment part first. i mounted the blank on the iron surfacing block, waited for the black pitch to harden, placed the whole thing with the surface handle pin inserted in the countersunk part of the block and, using rough emery, i started grinding like i would grind a convex surface on any other lens. remember, this grinding lap was spinning at the rate of about four or five hundred revolutions per minute and i started feeding the rough emery and i kept grinding until i thought the surface was ready to proceed in the regular way with a finer emery stick, but, you know to my surprise, when i looked at the blank the segment was completely missing and all i had left was a moulded blank with a rough surface on the convex side. we all learn from experience, and in order to grind the convex side of a kryptok, it was necessary to rough in the convex surface by hand until it was the approximate curve as the carrier lens. then a slight bit of rough grinding, after which you would change pans from rough to a fine grade of emery and use a second emery until you got the seg the approximate size desired, say approximately 22 mm. now the more you would grind this surface the smaller the seg would become, so, some cleanliness was required so that you did not get a deep scratch in the surface through neglect. if you would get rough emery on your hand while using the finer grade of emery, then, to remove the scratched surface you would automatically reduce the size of the segment. next the surface was ready to polish with red rouge. after this precedure you would remove the lens from the iron block and mount the lens on a concave iron block and start grinding the concave side of the lens, to make your distance rx. for instance, the base curve of kryptok would be made in 6, 8, and 10.00 diopter convex side, so, if the blank had a convex base curve of 6.00 diopter and you wanted a plus 1.00 sphere for distance your concave or inside curve would be -5.00 diopter. later the factories made semi-finished blanks with 6, 8, and 10 base curve convex, and all the surface grinder had to do was grind the concave side to whatever rx desired. walter olin, as i mentioned previously, was a good all­ around optical mechanic and, like most of them, had a habit of chewing tobacco. the hand edging stone was about 2 or 3 feet -48in diameter and water would drip on the stone as it does today, but he found another use for it. instead of spitting in a cuspidor he would let his saliva shoot right on the edging stone. some surface grinders would use his procedure when they needed more moisture on the grinding lap. saturday was pay day and saturday night was the night to celebrate. a peculiar thing about shop men, in those days they had the idea they were all in voice, and after a few beers and the closing of saloons it was a stop at the street corner for quartet singing with harmony still unexplainable, but it was fun. g. henry aronsfeld was the educated genius in those days. his office was the galveston optical co. located, of course, on the galveston island. through his efforts a group got tegether and met at an oyster and beer garden just over the causeway. to the best of my memory, this was the first meeting of a group of men interested in optics, food, and beer, and probably the beginning of an association. topics of discussion i do not remember, but i do remember the beer and food was good. to the best of my memory those in attendance were aronsfeld, eganhouse, chamberlain, cohen, friedner, kruger, cohen, olin, cheatham, and others i do not recall. aronsfeld was a natural leader and he later sold his office in galveston to sol friedner and moved to houston, upstairs in an office building. he was the first optician to correct vertical diplopia with cement segs base up on one lens and base down on the other. after serving my apprentice time at the art of grinding and assembling lenses to frames i advanced to neutralization and transposing formula for base of prism at oblique degrees. i had the feeling that shop work was not my future and with the aid of my father and uncle we decided that i should make further advancement. in the year 1914 i entered the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, a long name for such a short course. my experience in mechanical work did help me in the one year college course and my diploma says i graduated june 15, 1915. dr. j.j. lewis was our educator and very humorous along with his intelligence. one of his favorite remarks was to tell the class if they were in doubt if the patient has a glass eye was to keep a small hammer near and tap on each eye and you could tell which was glass. dr. lewis compiled the lewis dictionary and i suppose one of the most comprehensive dictionaries at that time. the college was located on two floors of the masonic temple bldg. in chicago. -49dissecting bulls' eyes was interesting, but not very beneficial, but was a part of the course. indirect retinoscopy and the indirect method using the retinoscope, minus and strong plus lens, was the method taught for ophthalmoscopy, very crude by today's standards, but you could learn to see opacities and the veins and arteries of the fundus. about the only pathology you could be certain of was cataracts. as i recall, we had three books, diseases of the eye, by may; refraction; and the lewis dictionary. when i finished i had a diploma and that's about all. the fogging system was still with us, that is, what we call the subjective now. we used the clock dial for determining astigmatism. to prove overcorrection or undercorrection we would put the 20/200 eon the chart, and with a plus·l.so it was supposed to blur out the e. if it did and your correction was in hyperopia you would reduce by 1/4 diopter until the e was fairly blurred, and just the opposite if you prescription was myopia. after college i returned to houston and went to work again for eganhouse. some smart fellow came around and charged eganhouse $150.00 to teach him to use the same method to prove his underor overcorrection. i tould have told him for nothing, but i was a smart aleck kid fresh from college. i did not like the confinement so decided to go into the mili­ tary. i enlisted at ellington field as a buck private. it was a disgrace to be conscripted. now we call it the draft. because of my limited experience in photography, i was, after serving about three months at ellington, transferred to eastman school in rochester, new york to learn about aerial photography. this consumed about three months more, and with twenty-two men we were assigned to dorr field, arcadia, florida. i remained there for several months and made appli­ cation to central officers training camp at camp gordon, atlanta, georgia where i completed my tour of duty and received a commission as second lieutenant in infantry. this was about the first of november and the armistice was declared on november 11th and i was discharged. after my discharge from the military i returned to houston with the expectation of returning to my old job with.eganhouse doing eye fits. to my surprise, my job was filled by walter olin, who, as i told you in the beginning was a good mechanic, and that is about all you had to be in those days to fit specs. no state law and no educational requirements necessary, just trial and error until you found a lens from the trial case that would help the customer see. i was somewhat disillusioned to learn upon my return from the military that my job with eganhouse was not open to me, as promised, and there were not many jobs open for spec -sofitters, even with a diploma, so i decided to go on my own. i purchased a trial case, chart, and a few other items, enough to partially fit a pair of specs and decided to work some small towns on the i & g.n. railroad on my way to tyler, texas. there i rented an office on the north side of the square upstairs. that was another mistake. who could find me isolated from the traffic, upstairs. it did give me much time to think, and i decided that it was too slow for me. i also decided there must be more in the future for this art than at that time met the eye, so i gave up, returned to houston and, lo and behold, i had a job waiting for me. not to fit glasses but to travel selling kryptok bifocals. let me tell you that story. it seems that eganhouse and olin had obtained the formula for making kryptok bifocals, known then as bootleg kryptoks, so a grinding plant was set up in houston and i was the manager to oversee the grinding and do the selling. the traveling i liked and the selling i liked, but the quality was the downfall. less than 50% of the bifocals made by this method were passable, so the outfit went broke and i decided to enter the wholesale field. i would rather do it by the gross than be in an office upstairs wearing out the seat of my britches waiting for the buyer of one pair. i might say here, that for the graduate of today, the time has not yet arrived for you to start your practice hidden from the public in a high rise office building going through the starvation period. you differ from ophthalmologists in this respect. you will have very few referrals to start, whereas the ophthalmologists have the support of the medical practitioners and the optometrists. optometry has started many new ophthalmologists on the road to success. unfortunately, that is not the case for optometrists. even though it is more expensive to be on.the ground floor in a shopping center, the potential is much greater and the starvation period shorter i think. i decided to return to houston and get a job traveling for a wholesale optical supply house. my first contact was in dallas with f.a. hardy and company. a mr. rhodes was the general manager and he put me to work immediately. this was the year about 1920. my job was to solicit rx work from everyone that sold glasses, along with the limited supply of ophthalmic equip­ ment and surgical instruments to eye, ear, nose and throat m.d.'s. this was a fascinating and educational experience for me as new items were continually being placed on the market, and experience broadened by knowledge of the use of the more modern equipment. i had to acquaint myself with the product before becoming efficient in selling. -51this was the days before texas had an optometry law, but there did exist, and very little heard of, the texas optical association. the only convention was the jewelers optical convention, and you would have to be careful with matches as most of those present wore celluloid collars. the conventions were of very little educational value, mostly drinking, dining, and dancing and the by­ products thereof. the trade was still selling specs, one pair at a time; and me on my merry way a dozen or gross at one sale. the wholesaler then, as well as now, controlled the retail price of a pair of glasses. no one ever heard of a fee for professional service. it was just so much for a pair of glasses and that was it, and, believe it or not, some are still in the rut of fifty years ago, but not for long in this modern age as the time is slowly, but surely, coming when all in the profession of optometry will have to render an excellent visual service and receive a substantial fee in order to make a decent livelihood and build prestige in his or her community. a plus fifty sphere is the same today as it was from the beginning of lenses, but your edu­ cational skills have changed and a better visual service is rendered that same patient'whether the ultimate visual rx calls for lenses or no lens. now doesn't it make sense that a professional fee should be separated from the charge based on your cost for glasses? a spectacle rx has and is fast becoming a commercial item along with frames and the price of glasses, so flagrantly abused by commercial opticians that a small operator on a professional basis cannot compete, except that if you desire to dispense your own rx, then the fee for service should be fine and the price of material readjusted to allow cost plus some overhead, but don't try to kid the public and abuse your profession by having a one price deal that indicates to the public that your professional services have been discounted. tell them the truth and if you do, you will not have to remember what you say. now back to my experiences. i am still in the whole­ sale industry and had customers more varied in their methods than they are today -exclusive opticians in ground floor and in office building locations, jeweler opticians on the ground floor, house to house peddlers, persons with offices in several towns, mostly at hotels who would make the circuit once each three months, and then the master of all, the unscrupulous person who would do fake cataract operations. the procedure was simple; look in the eye and say the customer had a cataract. he had already found the power of lenses needed and would have in his pocket a small pebble about the size of the crystalline lens in the eye. with some slight of hand magic he would fumble around the eye and show the customer the rock and claim that was the cataract. before the fake operation he would put glasses on the person, but before doing so he would put his finger in his ear and get some ear wax -52and put it on the lens that covered the eye he was using for the fake removal, and, of course, the customer could not see through the lens. after the glasses had been cleaned the poor sucker could see. this group was finally rounded up and prosecuted. that is one reason for your optometry law carrying many sections that prohibit this conduct in the future and is a blessing to the public and the pro­ fession of optometry. the same year that the first optometry law was passed in texas i had the privilege of attending the first american optometric association to be held in new york city. dr. augustine was then the president and there was printed in the program remarks in quotation by dr. augustine as follows: "let's now raise the sum of $50,000.00 and help texas obtain a law equal to the model law of the state of kansas." the american optometric association convention was held at the waldorf-astoria hotel, june 1921. prior to that meeting i could not care less about a texas license, but to witness and experience the attitude of the leaders at that time, which was so different from the mass of spectacle fitters in texas, i honestly believe it was a turning point in my life, as far as the profession of optics was concerned. so i returned to texas, but remained with my employer in the wholesale industrry. after a hard battle texas did obtain an optometry law on the books in 1921, but it carried a grandfather clause. you had two years to prepare yourself for the state board examination which consisted of two types of examination, one the limited one, for those who had several years experience and were almost total exemptions, and another called the standard for those who had no experi­ ence in spec fitting. the grandfather clause expired in the end of 1923 but there remained on the books the apprentice clause, so after the law was passed in 1921 several tutoring schools started in texas. the men and boys with the celluloid collars and education that coincided really had their work cut out for them. dr. w.b. needles operated a school of optics in kansas city and he saw the lucrative possibilities in texas and, i am sure with some encouragement from the wholesalers, started a series of practical lectures on instrumentation and the use thereof. so the ophthalmic instruments could not be made fast enough to supply the demand. as i remember, the old time ophthalmometer was a must, and we sales repre­ sentatives never had it so good, but that was the beginning of what you have today to represent optometry. upon receiving a license to practice optometry in texas we were entitled to be called optometrists, but if you would tell a lay person you were an optometrist you would invariably get a reply "a who?" but if you would say you were an optician they immediately associated you as a person that sold glasses. -53some of you are still selling glasses, but let me tell you now, and now for sure as this is being written in 1975, that if you expect to receive a livelihood from your pro­ fessional connection you had better emphasize a fee for service far in excess of the charge for a pair of specs. you may use whatever subterfuge you desire, but unless you let your patient know that the fee for service is the most important part and make it the most important part you will be caught in the middle of a competitive squeeze and, after too little too late, you will find your livelihood will be so dramatically affected that the fellow optometrist who has seen the handwriting on the wall will be so far out in front in our profession i doubt if time will allow you to catch up. a new start will be mandatory, so start today to rebuild your practice around a fee for service. you have been told this by educators, economists, and leaders of our profession, so why don't you listen? do you want to go back to the early days of the optician or optometrist? to me education and fee for service are not something to be taken lightly. do your thing and charge a fee commensurate for service rendered. it may be a little difficult for you to change, but the person that accepts this graciously is your patient and i know from experience. make your living out of fee-for-service-rendered and let the others fight over a fee for glasses. i hope you will change today, tomorrow may be too late. i have been rambling all over outfield, but let's get down to the knitty-gritty of it all. what is all this about? first let's consider economics, a simple case of management. how much do you have left in the bank when all bills are paid for the previous month? is it sufficient to satisfy your needs or desires or should there be some change in your mode of practice? you yourself should be the best judge of this. if not refer to some written articles by economists, who should know. the next is education, i purposely put economics first, not that it is primary to education, but it is a question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg. education is the basic structure of all success in any endeavor and can breed success or failure depending on how it is used by each individual. some follow the leader, others try it alone and learn the sad way in a profession from experience even after all educational requirements are met. education breeds ethics in any profession. now, what is ethics or ethical? do you remember when you were kids and you had a playmate who would not play with you except on -54his own terms? that would be his code or rules of ethics. but ethics in a profession is represented in a person who practices his or her profession to the best of his ability with close scrutiny to integrity and honesty, and respect for all professional members of his pro­ fession. when you divorce yourself from the better­ than-thou attitude you have made a step in the right dir­ ection to obey the code of practice or code of ethics relating to any profession. professional jealousy will deter progress, whereas an open mind will induce higher types of education and ethics the same for all participants who are members of any profession. you know you can be so inhibited in what you think is ethical that sometimes you do not see the forest for the trees. let's look at some concrete examples within and without the profession of optometry. i remember back in the 1920's there was in austin, texas, an oculist i called on to solicit his rx business. he told me emphatically that he would no more consider delivering or buying a pair of glasses on rx from the wholesaler than he would mix a medical rx, and all of his patients took their rx's to an optician to be filled. all oculists used the same policy with the exception of those in very small towns with their office in drug stores or one flight upstairs. they would mail the rx orders to supply houses in the city in which i live. i think it was about the year 1928 when my employment as a traveling salesman ended and i was promoted to manage a branch office for the american optical co. at that time the supply houses were doing dispensing for the eye, ear, nose and throat m.d.'s, and they had a good thing going for them. the m.d.'s would write an rx for a patient and send the patient to the supply house, either the main office or a branch dispensing office in a medical building. the policy then was for the supply house to collect the regular retail fee for glasses, charge the m.d. the whole­ sale price plus $1.00 for frame fitting and delivering, and upon delivery collect the total retail fee from the patient, bill the m.d. the wholesale cost and credit his account with the collection. at the end of the month the wholesale supply house would send with a statement to the m.d. a check for the difference, this was considered a rebate and was frowned upon by the government, so in the early 1940's, about the time of world war ii, the govern­ ment decided this rebate practice had to be stopped. it was, as far as the supply houses were concerned, but what happened? the branch dispensing offices were sold -55to individuals, and as the m.d. was already charging a fee for service, the man in the retail dispensing office started making a lot of money. i know of one instance here in which the dispenser now has six offices located in the same building or adjacent thereto. as fast as a new building would be con­ structed for medicals you will find a dispensing optician and drug store somewhere in the building, mostly on the ground floor, and we holler because optometrists now are adjacent to or in close proximity to a dispensing optician. who is looking out for whom? don't hand me that hog wash about ethics. show me a better way to make a livelihood with more prestige by doing examinations with the skills required and charge a fee for service in accordance with services rendered. remember it makes no difference where you practice the learned skills with a god given right to use them, and advance with education. to me that is as ethical as you can be. i can go back to the time here in this city when a person with a license working for an optical company could earn as little as $30.00 per week and hardly more than $50.00 per week, and their income did not increase until in the 1930's when here in this city individual opticians with licenses to practice in texas opened individual offices and started advertising glasses for $9.90 per pair and the price for a man with a license advanced to a much higher degree financially. in 1948 came the chain price advertising, and the demand for a person with a license increased along with advances in salary. for example, from 30 to 50 per week to $10,000.00 yearly and in some instances extra commissions. but what happened to education? not much. all you needed was a quick retinoscopy or a quickie subjective, for a total of about five minutes. i know some who are still practicing that now, writing from 40 to 70 rx's per day. about 1929 another person and i formed a partnership and opened the texas optical co. we were both employees of american optical co., being in the wholesale for quite a period of time. from my past experience i thought we would do well in the wholesale rx supply business. little did we know that around the corner was the 1930 years of economic depression, but we did accomplish one thing. e.b. alexander took the oklahoma state board during that time and opened an office in duncan, oklahoma. with his skilled brain for recognizing the demand he could create for education, he got together with skeffington and sol lesser and put together the optometric extension program, a correspondence course it was, and, as i recall, the fee was about #36.00 per year. it was decided to give it a try in texas and my partner and i got in our cars and sold the first application for membership because no other wholesaler at that time would touch the deal. i was aware of the tremendous need for education in texas, and to me it was a natural, and it turned out to be that for a -56few years and still continues on a more limited basis of membership in texas, but old alec was and is still a smart cookie. but let's get back to the sad experience my partner and i had in the wholesale business. to be perfectly frank in 1932 we were going broke, and tom mitchell, who was at that time zone manager for riggs optical, now bausch and lomb, was a good friend and together we worked out a deal where riggs would take us over and pay our debts and allow us a job·and some small amount of money. this was in 1933. now getting back to the optometric extension program -it was arranged to have an educational seminar at the blackstone hotel here in 1934. it was a huge success. about 1,500 attended from several states and they bought equipment. i think i sold about fifteen complete refracting units besides much diagnostic equipment. it was a very successful meeting for riggs optical and a real educational start for optometry in texas. from this there started group study classes. unfortunately for some with limited education to start with, they almost went nuts trying to figure, out of the 21 points, highs and lows. you may call it what you want, but it was the first organized educational program for optometrists in texas, and the basic competence of our present law is a part of the extension program, especially the most practical part. the optometric extension program held yearly meetings here and i think they still do. the chairman of the yearly seminar was j. ralph ewing who started here with the optical department in the shaw jewelry co. the jewelry co. at one time gave a set of dishes with a pair of glasses, but later, with the law in hot pursuit, the optometrists had to give up their optical departments in commercial establishments. so j. herman thomas, who had his office in striplings department store, and ewing opened an office on camp bowie boulevard. thomas died of a heart attack and ewing is now retired. coming out of a commercial environment, they did not do too bad financially for themselves. i do not report this with any malace, for they were both fine gentlemen, but only to prove what a little education can do for those that desire the opportunity. i hope there are many more such examples in texas, and i feel sure.there were and are. in all of my sixty years i never aligned myself with any mercantile establishment except exclusive optical, my inherent right under the law. in 1943 i resigned from riggs or bausch and lomb and bought the practice of amos r. wood in big springs who wanted to move to california. there was a clause in our contract that if he decided to come back to big springs at the end of a two-year period he, under certain conditions, could do so, and he did. we worked out the financial arrangements, and i looked around for another location and decided to move back -57to ft. worth. by buying out an old retired jeweler optometrist i opened my office after making extensive repairs. it was a narrow office, but later i got the building next door and made my office twice the size. i had my own shop, and a man by the name of hotchkiss worked for me doing shop work and attended school so he could meet the requirements of optometry school. he was successful and ent~red optometry school. after graduation he returned to ft. worth and decided to travel to several small towns and fit specs. he had very little equipment so i loaned him what i had that he needed, and i am glad to say that as far as i know he has done well with his practice. over a period of time i employed several optometrists as they came out of college. most of them attended under the g.i. bill. i opened branch offices, one in decatur for dr. williamson, one in ft. worth for dr. dixon, one in arlington for dr. sander. the venture did not make me any money, but it did give these men an opportunity to be in for ·themselves. you know it is most peculiar that as long as i owned the branch offices they made no money, but after i sold them to the individuals, their practice seemed to increase. it is funny what you can accomplish on your own. the office i opened in arlington for dr. sanders is now the office of dr. spain, as dr. sanders became ill and had to retire and sold the office to spain. i am proud of each one of these men who worked with me, but like a lot of you they have their own biases and forget easily. in 1953 i developed a health problem and the doctor required that i take off from work for a period of time. working for me at the time was dr. vlasman, who is now practicing in durango, colorado. i did no active work for some time but with my health improved i finally went back to my office and dr. vlasman returned to colorado. sometime later i was on the lookout for an optometrist and dave anderson of the american optical co. recommended dr. bill mikesell, who had recently been discharged from the military. we made a deal and he was an excellent associate. he nor i · were members of any optometry association. i do not know if he ever was a member. i had been until about 1945, but the association and kangroo court tactics made up my mind and i have gotten along very well without being affiliated. after dr. mikesell had been with me a year or so i decided to sell my office. dr. mikesell and i talked about it for some time, and one day i made him a proposition and he bought the practice; he was still attending classes for the military and it seems the military was his bag. he paid for the practice in accordance with the terms over a five year period and i retired for a few months, but i was not ready for retirement. i worked here and there for about one and a half years doing relief work, mostly with t.s.o. then in 1959 i accepted a -58practice with lee optical, a contract with dr. ellis carp. i remained in that capacity until the law of 1969. shortly thereafter; in compliance with the law, the dr.'s office was separated from the optical part by a partition and separate entrance. i was totally on my own, obligated only to dr. c.t. shropshire by a mutually agreed contract. my experience in the past five years doing refraction only, and charging a fee for service performed, taught me, i think, the beginning of future optometry. i know there are some of you who are doubting thomases, but i only suggest that before you make up your feeble mind, try it for yourself, you might like it, if you have the guts. the few that now operate on the same basis i do throughout texas are paving the way for you doubtful ones that i know will pro­ duce a better optometry for the future. no use waiting for the magic year of 1979 as suggested by the president of t.o.a. i say every year is a magic year for optometrists, so why not now. don't you as an optometrist realize that your profession is head and shoulders above any other profession as far as rendering a better visual analysis for the public. the ophthalmologist never did have to advertise because the whole medical profession was on his referral list along with the optician downstairs and the optometrist referring many cases of pathology. i wish i had a hundred opticians on my referring list. the old days are gone, a new light is over the horizon, so get yourself ready today, tomorrow may be too late. i think i know from past experience what i am saying to you, but of course it is your prerogative to believe or disbelieve. · i had the good fortune to talk to an old friend a few months ago and the subject of the 1934 extension program educational convention in ft. worth was discussed. this man is a past president of this or that, very dedicated to optometry and character flawless, semi-retired in a beautiful office with two or three associates in the same building. i asked him why the educational process of the study groups had so materially diminished. his simple answer, "lack of education." he meant sufficient preparation in education to understand the correspondence course on paper. if you cannot pronounce the word it is more difficult to understand the meaning. in 1934 the educational interest was phenomenal, but by the years from 1945 to 1950 the drop-out rate was tremendous and consequently most parts of the program lost its interest to the average optometrist along with certain other indirect political involvements. then from 1946 to about 1950 after a lot of hard work on the part of a few, and financial pledges from many, a chair of optometry was accepted by the university of houston, which is now -59known as the university of houston, college of optometry, with the services of a great man, dean, dr. chester h. pheiffer. this to me is a great optometry college and has a record of outstanding educators. many students have graduated, but unfortunately not all from texas, but wherever they are, with some intern work for experience, they will be, and are now, leaders in their chosen profession. education is as old as the ages. it started when "god said, let there be light, and there was light." so much for the students who graduated and went on their merry in the past twenty years, how about those who graduated and had no opportunity to attend continuous education events for one reason or the other. this situation can and must be changed. optometrists need the advice and counsel of the educators of the university of houston college of optometry, and the college needs the financial assistance of the texas optometrists, and both should be granted without hesitation. learning is, or at least should be, a lifelong pursuit. everyday is a new day, with new requirements. therefore, every day calls for new qualifications, for that one reason all of us need continuing education. education in school provides tools of thought and guides of action. but there must be continuing study if one is to be the kind of optom­ etrist he should be. today we are surrounded with a succession of decisions, events, and changes. the fact remains, however, that the collection of facts is just one aspect of continuing education. some aspects of education are correctness and precision in the use of one's mother tongue, refined and gentle manners, the power and habit of reflection, the power of growth and efficiency and the power to do. other aspects have been added, such as a set of values and the courage to defend them, an understanding of society, and the ability to look squarely at the world and its problems. a long time ago a latin scholar said, "as long as you live, keep learning how to live." he spoke wisely. if you are a recent graduate of a college of optometry, with a pencil and paper, stop for a few moments and jot down the many valuable procedures that have come to the surface through research since you graduated and started to practice your chosen profession. you probably will find a few of interest. now compare your findings with the optometrists that have been in practice ten, twenty or thirty years and have not attended continual education seminars. aren't you really ashamed of your colleagues who have gone along ignoring the opportunity to better prepare themselves for the -60future? as sure as spec selling is a thing of the past, so will the practice of optometry go the same way for those who ignore the opportunity to progress. from the standpoint of progress with optometric education we should look at each other as licensed optometrists and work together for a wonderful unified profession. no holier-than-thou attitude, but an attitude of equality brought about by brotherly interest in all aspects of optometry. for those of you who know, work with those who do not and our profession will advance tremendously. if you are one of those like me, be big enough to admit your shortcomings. don't hide behind false pretenses. tell the truth and enhance your knowledge and you will receive great dividends in many ways. by the same token, there are many optometrists with years of experience who can be of great assistance to you young graduates for the reason they learned the hard and expensive way from a practical standpoint and can save you, with their practical advice, many dollars that you would have to learn from trial and error. yesterday i attended the funeral service of an optometrist whom i have known for many years, a fine religious man with many redeeming qualities. dr. t.s. higginbotham died at the the age of ninety-five and continued to practice on a part time basis past his ninetieth birthday, except for an automobile accident that injured one leg. up until that time, which was only a few years ago, he walked with authority, straight as a pin and a smile for every occasion. i first got acquainted with the good doctor when he had an office in abilene, texas. his specialty was the correction of strabismus with lenses. he also was a photographer and he has many pictures among his personal items showing a close view of the patients' eyes before and after. i have been promised some of his possessions which i want to present to the college of optometry, university of houston. if and when the promise is fulfilled i feel sure that historically they will be very interesting. i recall years ago there was an optometrist in ft. worth who was a mccormick student, the theory being to alleviate muscle disorders, such as crossed eyes with the use of lenses. i hope i may succeed in obtaining some of this information. i remember one other optometrist from the old theory that would have patients sit in his room for hours with a pair of strong plus lenses on, so that when he was ready to fit the specs their eyes would be in a state of rest. maybe there is something to an old saying, "it is better to look back before you move ahead." could be. -61"could be" reminds me of a physician whom i once knew. he was not a talkative soul. you could talk to him forever and about the only reply you would get would be, "could be." not very affirmative, but at least he would give the other fellow openly the benefit of doubt, and, you know some­ thing, that is what we need today, more benefit of doubt and follow-up with research, particularly to prove or disprove a point. i feel sure that i could have learned a lot from dr. higginbotham about straightening crossed eyes and from the other old doctor who used plus lens on his patient for hours to relax their accommodation or what have you. don't ask me why i do not know. about the only thing i know is that at the time i thought they were some kind of nut, just like i feel about some of us today, but i have come to the con­ clusion that you have to be some kind of nut to learn ideas of practical value. maybe fifty years ago if i had been some kind of a practical nut and put more effort into photography i might be a leader in visual training without a lot of gadgets, who knows? if you have had the patience to read this far take a few more minutes to read what i have composed in ten paragraphs, the title of which is, "over fifty years of observation and participation." i admit this is no masterpiece but it is food for thought today. maybe tomorrow the change will take place. let's all try and hope and pray. ~ fifty years of observations and participation: 1. as far back as i can remember the public bought a pair of "specs" from whomever. this was the supplier's source of income along with watch repair and jewelry. 2. in the early 1920's texas obtained an optometry law causing a hurried attempt to educate persons so they could qualify for a license to practice. the law was indeed a start and fortunately eliminated a lot of undesireables, but the word "optometrist" or its meaning was very slow to be understood by the public and more or less ignored by the licensed optometrists. consequently flagrant price advertising of glasses prevailed, and the person with a license found himself at the mercy of the optician, and the public was still buying "specs" and the licensed person was receiving no remuneration for professional services rendered by him, but a salary or commission for the use of his or her license that the law may be complied with. ----------623. fortunately in the 1930's there appeared on the surface an opportunity for the person with a license to enhance his or her education for the purpose of making and determining a better visual analysis for the public. this opportunity was offered by doctor alexander's optometric extension program. unfortunately the optometrist did not recognize the opportunity for him or her to become more professional and charge for services performed because they were still selling "specs." their manner had not changed and they continued to operate as merchants. 4. in the 1950's amendments were added to the 1921 state law and the burden was placed on the shoulders of the only optometric association in the state, which in their sincere effort said to the person with a license, if you do not divorce your activity with the druggist, jeweler, department store, or what have you, we will not have you as a member of our association. for the lack of proper education that would and could cause motivation, and proper leadership being at a premium, the membership of the one-state association started to decline to the point that no interest prevailed and the commercial interests still prevailed. 5. now let's turn to the 1960's, 1969 to be exact when the old optometry law became for the most part null and void and the state legislature, along with representatives of the state association, opticians, dispensers, medics and others, arrived at a decision to propose the present law and forced almost all to change their mode of practice, but i saw it was only the beginning for optometry. 6. for over twenty years i have predicted that the time will come when an optometrist will no longer receive sufficient income from the sale of a pair of glasses, and now the time is here, where his fees shall be only for professional service rendered, and this creates the necessity for increasing education and a more expanded visual analysis which consequently will auto­ matically give the public a more deserved service, and professional fees will increase commensurate to the professional services rendered, but i must add that time must be spent for additional education that these increased services may be rendered. 7. the quickie eye examination is now a thing of the past because the public is demanding more and should have it. it is ridiculous that a professional person should be required by law to render a patient a complete visual analysis with complete instrumentation when it is to his advantage, financially and morally to do so. 8. the university of houston, college of optometry has a moral obligation to the optometrists of texas and to their students to motivate the practicing optometrist through education, the value of learning and delivering all phases of a visual analysis. the expertise of their educators are invaluable to all members -63of the profession and if carried out will pay great dividends over a period of time for all concerned. although it is my feeling that the college of optometry is morally obligated, i also feel that every member of the optometry profession in texas is morally and financially obligated to our college of optometry. i hope it will be do~e now, before optometry in texas goes back to the days of long ago. 9. i would be the first to admit my optometric education is limited and i will not be here long enough to catch up, but my younger colleagues will, and for them i write this opinion. 10. we need educational seminars to include this proper procedure from case history to the final analysis for all optometrists, and, if and when, compulsory education becomes law in texas every optometrist should be prepared to accept the change education contributes to ethics. ettles memorial lecture: about a year ago our secretary-treasurer maria dablemont asked mr. eric j. crundall, the editor of the optician, the optical year ~' and manufacturing optics international, london, for some details on the ettles memorial lecture. his thorough response follows: "william ettles, m.d., m.s., f.r.c.s., who died in 1918 at the age of 49, was elected vice-president of the institute of ophthalmic opticians in 1910. his chosen profession was that of ophthalmic surgeon but his interests extended into many other fields. in his obituary the writer stated: 'it is very much to be doubted whether any ophthalmic surgeon was held in such high esteem by the opticians of this country • • • • no man more than himself foresaw that it was to the combined interest of the patient, the surgeon and the optician that the ophthalmic surgeon and optician should work together in friendly harmony.' 11ettles took a great interest in the work of the institute, lecturing to the members, contributing to the journal, and was always ready to pu~ his knowledge and experience at the disposal of the council. "he had many irons in the fire -he was president of the optical society, lecturer on the physiology of vision at the northampton institute (now the city university), and a member of the society of illuminating engineers. he was also a liveryman of the worshipful company of spectacle makers. -64"after his death the i.o.o. council decided to com­ memorate the name of a surgeon who, like dr. james forrest, had done so much to further what he described as 'the legiti­ mate aims of the sight-testing optician,' by instituting an annual lecture to be given by someone prominent in the fields of ophthalmology, ophthalmic optics, or the physiology of vision. "the first of these lectures was given in 1919 by lionel laurance on 'the true action of lenses in ametropia,' to be followed annually by lectures delivered by such authorities as h.g. critchley, w.d. wright, a.e. turville, e.f. fincham, h. hartridge, and h.h. emsley. "when the a.o.p. took over the functions of the institute and the j.c.q.o. in 1946 they became responsible for organ­ izing the ettles lectures, which were generally given at a northern or southern congress by men such as h.j.a. dartnall or r.j. smeed, though not at yearly intervals. some of the lectures have been published in the b.j.p.o." the abbreviations? f.r.c.s. = fellow of the royal college of surgeons i.o.o. = institute of ophthalmic opticians a.o.p. = association of optical practitioners j.c.q.o. = joint council of qualified opticians b.j.p.o. = british journal of physiological optics more optometrists memorialized: the knight-henry memorial award (optometric extension program foundation, inc., duncan, oklahoma 73533, u.s.a.). r. wayne knight, o.d., and w. robert henry, o.d. both were very actively involved in optometric extension program activities. the jack raphael memorial library at the israel optometric center in tel aviv (israel optometric association). raphael was the first president and founder member of the israel optometric association. the albert fitch memorial alumnus-of-the-year award (pennsyl­ vania college of optometry, philadelphia, pennsylvania). dr. fitch was the founder and first president of the pennsylvania college of optometry. the julius neumeuller award in optics (american academy of optometry). dr. neumueller was a prominent professor of optometry long active in the american academy of optometry. the frederick w. brock memorial awards (american optometric foundation, 1730 m street, n.w., washington, d.c. 20036). dr. brock was a prominent new york optometrist, researcher, and writer. -65the john ~ davey memorial award (the indiana chapter of the american academy of optometry). the roy ~ denny memorial award (the indiana chapter of the american academy of optometry). drs. davey and denny were prominent indianapolis, indiana optometrists. friend of optometry memorialized: the harold kohn award (american optometric foundation). mr. harold kohn, esq., served many years as legal counsel for the american optometric association and the new york state optometric association. he also donated his legal services to incorporate the american optometric foundation and as the foundation's legal advisor for many years until his death. a quadruple "boner": my webster dictionary defines a boner as "a stupid, often ridi­ culous, mistake or blunder." well, on pages 4-5 of the january 1975 issue of this newsletter, vol. 6, no. 1, i reviewed the third edition of an early book by william bohne and four times (!) misspelled his name with an "m" instead of an "n". the name is bohne, not bohme. recently o.h.s. vice-president henry knoll wrote to inform me that the bausch & lomb scientific library has a copy of the second edition, autographed by bohne, so that he is double sure of the spelling. the copy i had received is now back in st. louis at the i.l.a.m.o., so i really cannot argue or explain my error. my stubborn­ ness prevailed nevertheless right through my rechecking of mr. bohne's obituary in the optical journal. there, too, it is spelled bohne! woops, again! o.h.s. member james leeds did not mean to say that german author k. wick was the grandfather of ralph wick, o.d., as i reported on page 23 of the april issue (vol. 7, no. 2) of this newsletter. half jokingly he meant it as a speculative question, exploring a bit casually the possible linking of two prominent persons with each other. tal om optiken: this is the title of a 34 page pamphlet, 18.5 x 11 em, by carl lehnberg, an optician member of the royal academy of science of sweden, printed in stockholm in 1756. it appears to be a paper read before the academy on august 28, 1756, or at least a thesis. lacking ability to -66read swedish, and especially old swedish, i can only guess that the title translates into "speaking of optics" or something similar. the booklet is reviewed by magnus buve, a prominent swedish optometrist, in nordisk tidsskrift for optikere, no. 1, february 1976, pp. 9-10, also in swedish. a very frail copy of the booklet, perhaps one of only two or three known copies in existence, was presented to me by mr. robert v. sandor of stockholm, who is in charge of the public relations for the optometrists/opticians of sweden. this copy has been forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. a few of the names mentioned by lehmberg include ar.chimedes, de la hire, vitellio, alexander de spina, roger bacon, molyneux, smith, alhazen, porta, kepler, aristotle, snellius, newton, et al, et al, et al. also detected in the text were the words "dioptriken" and "dioptrik." moorfields eye hospital history: two volumes about this world famous institution have now been published under the title of "the history and traditions of the moorfields eye hospital." the first, dated 1929, was authored by edward treacher collins and covers "one hundred years of ophthalmic discovery and development." the second, dated 1975, is a continuation authored by frank w. law. the publisher of both is h.k. lewis & co., london. the two volumes are highly documentary in style, replete with tables, photographs, staff lists, minutes, fiscal data, and the like. ophthalmic opticianry (optometry) was, and apparently continues to be, of very minor consideration in the total hospital program, but it is mentioned. kind words! o.h.s. member h.c. armstrong, o.d., of champaign, illinois, boldly wrote the following comment at the bottom of his 1976 notice of payable membership dues: "i send this with more of a feeling that i am privileged to send it, than it is a bill i owe. i really enjoy it. ---h.c.a." h.w. hofstetter, editor 1976-07-03-001 1976-07-03-002 1976-07-03-003 1976-07-03-004 1976-07-03-005 1976-07-03-006 1976-07-03-007 1976-07-03-008 1976-07-03-009 1976-07-03-010 1976-07-03-011 1976-07-03-012 1976-07-03-013 1976-07-03-014 1976-07-03-015 1976-07-03-016 1976-07-03-017 1976-07-03-018 1976-07-03-019 1976-07-03-020 1976-07-03-021 1976-07-03-022 1976-07-03-023 1976-07-03-024 1976-07-03-025 1976-07-03-026 1976-07-03-027 1976-07-03-028 1976-07-03-029 1976-07-03-030 1976-07-03-031 1976-07-03-032 1976-07-03-033 1976-07-03-034 1976-07-03-035 1976-07-03-036 1976-07-03-037 1976-07-03-038 1976-07-03-039 1976-07-03-040 1!1ne~~~ht urx optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa ~ ............. ,, (' . .. . ..... ··--volume 28 april1997 t ln .. .nana uujvgre;i~uidder 2 0 6 • • ouiana univi:.t<~. : may 1 tj 19il : optometry at the frontier: o • jun 11 1997 ~ lt"b : rary on more than one occasif6promtftw\.~thted,• mtf'lt~h.tt•j'rtlep, -tlitat.<i\p.t:qiftetric services played hardly any role at all in the western frontier movement across the atlantic ocean and the north american continent. my logic was simply the belief that in the centuries involved, the 16th through the 19th, the commercially available spectacle lenses were almost exclusively simple plus spheres for presbyopes, and the frontier participants were comprised equally exclusively of able-bodied, fairly emmetropic, youths, mostly in their teens. recently i enjoyed reading stephen e. ambrose's "undaunted courage," a thoroughly documented and remarkably detailed account of the lewis and clark expedition opening up the american west during the years 1804 to 1806. the expedition platoon consisted of a nucleus of 31 volunteers supplemented in segments of the specially skilled local personnel. co-captains lewis and clark were in their early 30s and the rest of the party were younger, carefully selected, healthy volunteers submitting to military enlistment for the project. the 500-page book includes nary an optometric concept except the mentioning that one pro tern private, a halfbreed hired for his language skills, was "nearsighted in his only good eye." this comment was a mere conjecture in trying to place the blame for a misdirected rifle shot that injured captain lewis. another entry in captain lewis's journal notes stated "soar eyes is a common complaint among the party." for sore eyes he used a wash made up of two parts white vitriol (zinc sulphate) and one part sugar of lead (lead acetate). to impress the indians with their powers, lewis and clark would bring out their "magic show" which included, among other things, a magnifying glass that could start a fire by focusing the sun's rays on dry leaves and kindling, and a telescope (spyglass). among the trinkets, beads, and other "geegaws" serving as gifts to indians they included "looking glasses" (small mirrors) described by one shoshone warrior as "things like solid water, which were sometimes brilliant as the sun, and which sometimes showed us our faces." such items, plus a sextant, a chronometer, and certain other precision instruments with optical components needed for scientific observations, may well have been fabricated by east coast or european opticians, but they would hardly have constituted optometric involvement in terms of vision correction or care. it seems to me that the assertion in my opening sentence is well supported by the lewis and clark documents. h.w h. 28/10 early gullibility: charlatanism is the pretension of more knowledge or skill than is possessed. it is a particularly serious issue in the health care field for two reasons. one, the victims, members of the public, are typically unsophisticated in the science of health care, and two, it is socioeconomically awkward for the legitimate practitioners to initiate measures to restrict perpetrators of the quackery lest it be construed as restraint of competition. during the first half of this centllry an optometric case in point was the nthrow away your glassesn propaganda ini,tiateq ,j~r~~y ,by w .h. bates, m.d., and a variety of adherents who offered clinical services based mainly on bate's assertions and theories. the late jim leeds prompted my memory of this era by calling my attention to two interrelated books. one is the cure of imperfect sight by treatment without glasses authored by bates in 1920. the other is stories from the clinic authored by bates' nurse emily c. lierman in 1926. both were published by central fixation publishing co., new york city. they are respectable-looking cloth-bound books of several hundred pages with tables of contents, indices, prefaces; etc., giving a textbook resemblance. i recall having seen these or companion books in the university library a half century or so ago. at that time i scanned a dozen or two pages of each and returned the books to the shelves as worthless reading. i did not "pick up the cudgeln to battle the fraud. it may have seemed to me that any person with reasonable intelligence would recognize its lack of validity and dismiss it off hand. this time, spurred by dr. leeds' prompting, i decided to read through the two books with some deliberate care. after about thirty pages of each i began to resort to mere scanning page by page and sampling numerous paragraphs in which key words suggested potential validity concepts. i felt like i was slogging through a swamp, impelled to follow through by the awareness that these publications had once met with wide popular readership including a number of converts of recognized literacy stature. so that you who are reading this may share my experience, i quite blindly opened each book within approximately the middle third of its text and rome each pari of pages selected one or more paragraphs that seemed to me to exemplify the style and intellectual caliber of the book as a whole. here they are. from pages 11 0-111 of the chapter entitled "strain" in the bates book: two little girl patients arrived one after the other one day, and the first accused the second of having stopped at huyler's for an ice-cream soda, which she had been instructed not to do, being somewhat too much addicted to sweets. the second denied the charge, and the first, who had used the retinoscope and knew what it did to people who told lies, said: "do take the retinoscope and find out. " i followed the suggestion, and having thrown the light into the second child's eyes, i asked: "did you go to huyler's?" 28/].1. "yes," was the response, and the retinoscope indicated no error of refraction. "did you have an ice-cream soda?" "no," said the child; but the telltale shadow moved in a direction opposite to that of the mirror, showing that she had become myopic and was not telling the truth. the child blushed when i told her this and acknowledged that the retinoscope was right; for she had heard of ways of the uncanny instrument before and did not know what else it might do to her if she said anything more that was not true. so sensitive is this test that if the subject, whether his vision is ordinarily normal or not, pronounces the initials of his name correctly while looking at a blank surface without trying to see, there will be no error of refraction; bit if he miscalls one initial, even without any consciousness effort, and with full knowledge that he is deceiving no one, myopia will be produced. from pages 84-85 of the chapter entitled "experiences with school children" in the nurse's book: i wish everyone who contributed to our christmas fund could have been with us on the christmas of 1923. we had our first tree. not only did our clinic patients enjoy it, but our private patients as well. i fear, too, that on more than one occasion, a private patient was kept waiting much longer than he cared to wait, while dr. bates hovered around that christmas tree. dr. bates does not like to neglect his work, but that tree needed his attention, he thought, even though he was keeping his patients waiting. his orders were not to purchase anything cheap. the clinic family is precious to him and must have the best of everything. when it came time to distribute the toys and candies to the children, i saw him peeping in at the doorway, and this added pleasure of having a tree for them did him a world of good. the children all love him because he does so much for them. having read these we may smile with the satisfaction of knowing that this is now history. or is the game still going on? let us read the newspapers and magazines, watch television, listen to radio, and peruse the junk mail a bit more analytically. we may find that the pawns are of different shades and color, that the playing court is now an electric keyboard, and that other ailments replace imperfect sight. a knowledge of history can be our best antidote for gullibility. h.wh. thanks for the enemy: before the turn of the century american optometrists, then called opticians, made some relatively unenthusiastic overtures to state legislatures to enact optometric registration laws. they were primarily responding to veiled threats or rumors that the medical profession was initiating plans to accomplish this by regulation of optometry subordinately under the licensure provisions of the medical bureau. in the state of new york the optometrists' efforts had started in 1897. under prentice's urging. pennsylvania optometrists followed suit in 1898 without success. fifteen years later the pennsylvania law was amended to authorize the medical bureau to license "branch" medical practices. in 1914 the bureau declared its intent to so license optometrists. this met with mixed emotions among optometrists but the attitude quickly changed under the forceful and convincing leadership of a young philadelphia 28/12 optometrist named albert fitch. legal action was then initiated which led to the state supreme court decision that optometry is not a branch of medicine. the above is described in great detail in an editorial entitled "fitch's choice" by john g. classe in the april 1996 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 67, no. 4, pp. 186-187. in the next five pages in an article entitled "celebrating 75 years at the pennsylvania college of optometry," thomas l. lewis gives a fine historical account of albert fitch's role in the establishment of the pennsylvania college of optometry chartered in 1 919 and his stewardship as president until his death in 1960. lewis's article continues the developmental history of the college through its 75th anniversary in 1995. · h.w h. gems from ophthalmic antiques: the last several issues of ophthalmic antiques, the newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club, contain several interesting historical tidbits. the july 1994 issue, no. 48, mentions that "the seeing eye, eyeglass to spyglass" by arthur frank is a new 42-page booklet illustrating about 175 antique vision aids with comments on their history. it is available at £4 per copy from the ophthalmic antiques· international collectors' club. replica eyebaths are produced by summit art glass of ravenna, ohio, u.s.a. the u.k. opticians act of 1958 was so tightly drafted that a special clause had to be inserted to permit an antiques dealer legally to sell a. pair of antique spectacles. john dixon salt authors a 3-page article on "optical patron saints," pointing out their origins with the early days of christianity. most of the article deals with saint lucia of syracuse (a.d. 304). colin b. fryer authors a 3-page review of "ophthalmics in the reign of george ii," the years of 1727 to 1760, a surprisingly progressive 33 years. the october 1994 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 49, p. 3, includes an article entitled "the history of eyewear in mexico" by frank devlyn. the article actually deals more with the business aspects than with spectacles per se. it describes the increased involvement of optometrists, ophthalmologists, and manufacturers during the 19th and 20th centuries. on page 7 john dixon salt gives a number of biographical details of optical patron saint odilia (variously ottlia, othilia, or odile), c. 660-720. on page 8 colin fryer entertains us with nine "optical legends of old cathay," pure legend, of course. ronald j.s. macgregor, editor of ophthalmic antiques, has a knack for spotting bits of information that may be of interest to members of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club. quite understandably some of these have incidental significance to optometric history insofar as they illustrate or document our status and competence in various eras. in the january 1995 issue, no. 50-for example-he informs us of a new "musee de l'instrumentation optique" housed in le capitola, 28/13 place de ia mairie, f-686000 biesheim, france. biesheim is in northeastern france, not far from strasbourg. he also calls our attention to two new historical books, da guckste by helga beez and brillen des 20 jarhuderts by b. michael andressen. from pierre marly he learned that the letters nb stamped on the steel bridge of a pair of bow spectacles may be the initials of nicolas bion, 1652-1733, of paris. on pages 6 and 7 is an article by ida mann entitled "dr. josef dallos, contact lens pioneer." the april 1995 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 51, calls our attention to a half-page article in the saturday, december 31, 1994, issue of the london times entitled "for your eyes only." on pages 3-5 of the same newsletter frank davidson tells us about matthew william dunscombe (1848-19??), "the first great collector of antique spectacles." among other accomplishments he authored a booklet entitled "vision and spectacles" in 1875. on page 6 mr. salt describes the legend of optical patron saint herve (variously harvey), 6th century. on page 7 colin fryer describes "old chinese spectacles." the july 1995 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 52, features an article on pages 4-6 by charles letocha entitled "john mcallister, the first true optician in the u.s.a." on page 7 is a full reproduction of a mid-nineteenth century handbill distributed by optician" john solomon, licensed hawker, no. 4613, a. according to act of parliament." the handbill was contributed by hugh orr and is dedicated, "to all who value their sight which is so subject to debility." on page 8 colin fryer cites numerous examples of spectacles mentioned in medieval literature. on page 9 john salt describes another optical patron saint, saint audomarus (variously orner or otmar), d.c. 669. ronald macgregor, editor of the october 1995 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 53, describes in detail a netherlands tour of ophthalmic antiques collections by a group of 20 club members from several countries on august 24-27, 1 995. in another item he mentions that jonathan pointer has published a 17-page article on "age markings on antique spectacles, and presbyopia" in ophthalmic and physiological optics, vol. 15, no. 4, 1995. on pages 4 and 5 of the newsletter, colin fryer authors an article on the history of the solar microscope, an instrument equipped to utilize the sun for illuminating the specimen under view. it was developed around the beginning of the 18th century and continued to be made until the second half of the 19th. very briefly reviewed are three books as follows: theaterverrekijkers (opera glasses) by jean-marie devriendt, eyebaths-eyewash cups by willem banninga, and society and optical aids (a doctoral thesis on the history of vision aids, published in greek) by ann h. diamondopoulou-drummond. in the april1996 issue, no. 55, editor macgregor calls our attention to a 7-page report by judith stevenson in the london archaeologist, vol. 7, no. 12, 1995, entitled "a new type of late medieval spectacle frame from the city of london." the several pair of centrally riveted bone spectacle frames recovered there in 1974 and more recently are thought to be from the late 14th century or early 1 5th century. they are on display at the museum of london. both the stevenson article and 28/14 macgregor's review (pp. 3-6) include several photographs and fine-line drawings to show the design features. there is some doubt as to whether the frames are made from bone (bull metacarpal) or from horn. three pinholes in each of the shoulders of the frame extensions to the rivet suggest their purpose as supplementary vision aids as well as decorations, hence the "very first multifocals." on page 7-8 colin fryer describes ocular conditions and treatments that occurred in the military, medical, and nursing order of the knights hospitallers of st. john of jerusalem (and later knights of rhodes) founded in 1099 a.d. on page 9 john dixon salt describes the legend of the optical patron saint, saint govan (variously gobhan, gobban, gowan), ca. 586. his remains are said to lie in a 6th-century hermit's chapel "halfway down pembrokeshire cliff" in wales. he is celebrated on 26 march. in the july 1996 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 56, p. 1, editor macgregor amuses us with the information that the well known johnnie walker image on the labels of the world's best selling scotch whiskey has now been changed to a new version without the quizzing-glass. it seems that the market researchers found the old figure to be too "rakish," too "snobbish," and too "english." on pages 3-5 werner weismuller describes "two german trade cards" in his private collection, including a photocopy of each. one is that of optiker gottfried tauber of leipzig in 1 814, the optician who provided goethe with scissors spectacles for his five or six diopters of myopia. the other is that of josef kriegsmann, an optician in ansbach, bavaria, germany, from 1 825 to 1876. both trade cards illustrate engravings of a wide variety of visual aids and other optical instruments. on page 1 0 are brief reviews of four books of interest to collectors. one is eye and instruments by i. tonkelaar, h.e. henkes, and g.k. van leersum, published by batavian lion, amsterdam, 1996, 304 pp., hardback, a detailed catalog of 19th­ century ophthalmic instruments in the netherlands. another is binoculars by fred watson, shire publications ltd., 1995, 32 pp., paperback. it covers the basic history and optics of binocular, opera glasses, and field glasses. a third is in view, the telescopes of the luxottica museum, edited by marisa del vecchio, published by ~uxottica, 1995, 127 pp., hardback. the fourth is a spectacle of spectacles, 178 pp., hardback. this is a catalog of the jena exhibition in the u.k. in 1988/89. the ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club has a few copies for sale. the october 1 996 issue of the newsletter includes a detailed description of two pairs of very early spectacle frames made of beechwood and a wooden spectacle case found at freeburg, germany, in 1 982 during excavations for an underground car-park near the augustine monastery. "they were resting at the bottom of a closet." also described is a medal designed by dutch artist chris van der hoef (18751933) for the participants in the 13th international ophthalmological congress in 1929. a pair of old spectacles and a burning candle are represented on the face of 28/15 the medal. another medal by the same artist depicts the 16th-century gate of the old men's house in amsterdam faced with a carved stone depicting a pair of leather spectacles, the "domestic trade mark" of that institution. editor macgregor describes a weekend trip to sweden by nine members of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club which included a visit to the gertz collection in the optometry practice of lwan wessblad in uppsala and to the swedish museum of optical history in stockholm. valerie mellor describes her reaction to the "grotesque spectacled helmet" presented to king henry viii by the emperor maximilian in 1 514. it is being removed from the tower of london to the new royal armouries museum in leeds. the january 1997 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 58, calls attention to a newly-opened museum of spectacles in amsterdam founded by jan teunissen at gasthuismolensteig 7, 1026 am amsterdam, holland. on pages 4 and 5 under the title "golden memories," optometrist arthur frank describes his introduction to the profession in the mid 1 930s and his failures and successes in developing practices in glasgow and the islands of north and south uist, lslay, and barra in the hebrides. on pages 6 and 7 colin fryer retells goldsmith's gross of green spectacles as a christmas story. on pages 11 and 12 he describes 16th-century "peepshows and perspective boxes." these devices were derived from the portable camera obscura adapted by simple converging lenses to permit monocular viewing of an enclosed painted picture illuminated by both transmitted and reflected light. because the monocular viewing eliminated the binocular nondisparate fusion otherwise induced by the flat picture itself, it allowed the monocular depth clues of the painting, especially perspective, to predominate to give an enhanced appearance of depth in the painted scene. in a footnote fryer reminds us that these perspective boxes are not to be confused with a device of the same name later invented by robert hooke, 1635-1703. fryer also describes variations of design of the boxes, variously called peepshows, appearing during the 18th and 19th centuries. h.w h. the boxing method: leafing through the july 1996 issue of frames lab talk, i was a bit startled on page 12 by the industry profile column captioned "thomas p. lynch, creator of the box measurement." having spent the early years of my career in close association with the late glenn fry, i was very aware of glenn's extensive involvement with the "boxing system" of spectacle lens measurement and had presumed that he rather than mr. lynch was the "creator." yes and no. the lab talk profile identifies lynch's contribution with the authorship of a 1950 booklet entitled "lens and frame information" in which the boxing system is explained. however, i made a quick library search and discovered that dr. fry had described the same system in the june 12, 1947, issue of the 28/16 optometric weekly as a method which "makes use of the distances between vertical and horizontal tangent lines," geometrically a bit more precise than "box." in telephone conversation mr. lynch takes no credit for coining the "box" term itself, but he reports that his booklet sold over a quarter of a million copies worldwide and is credited with eliminating a frequent error in the mounting of spectacle lenses. h.w h. 17th-century notions: because descartes (1596-1650) theorized the separation of the mind from the body, must he have been curious about what goes on in the brain after the visual image is formed? elwin marg touches upon this in his review of descartes' error: emotion, reason, and the human brain by antonio r. damasio, 1994, in the november 1995 issue of optometry and vision science, vol. 72, no. 11, p. 847. h.w h. institutional history: in a 6-page editorial entitled "opportunity in adversity" in the june 1996 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 67, pp. 307-312, dr. alden n. haffner traces the history of the state college of ,optometry of the state university of new york back to its origins with the closure of the prior optometric program at columbia university. it also involved the interim operation of the optometric center of new york. " managing editor and contributing editor: contributing editors: * * * david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 u.s.a. henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47408 u.s.a. douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 u.s.a. h.w h. 1997-28-02-001 1997-28-02-002 1997-28-02-003 1997-28-02-004 1997-28-02-005 1997-28-02-006 1997-28-02-007 1997-28-02-008 optometry library ~jui&· 1987 volume 18 : ....... .. : ......... ... newsletter • lnd· •••••• of the f 'ana u,.,; ····:·······. __j)ptometric historical societ,;r ju vers,ty i /( 243 north lindbergh bouleva.jid l 2 19b? i st. louis, missouri, 63141, us,hj.. l 'b 1• : ,.,.,.,.,.,.,. 1 rar , : ......... ~ ... april 1987 number 2 " ....... ,.,.,.,. : ..... : earl~color aesthetics: virtually absent from the optometry curriculum has been the study of the aesthetics of color, the empirical guidelines employed by artists to effect the most favorable visual sensations. not until ohs member james leeds recently showed me an old book by m. e. chevreul, 1786-1889, did i realize that anyone had ever undertaken a scientific treatment of the topic. chevreul's original text was written in 1835 and published in 1838, in french. the book shown to me was published in 1906 as a reprinting of the third edition of the english translation of chevreul's book by charles martel under the title of "the principles of harmony and contrast of colours and their applications to the arts," london, george belland sons. according to the translator's prefatory comments the third english edition appeared in 1860 with the assurance that, "it is hoped that the book will now be found as perfect as it is possible to make it." chevreul was a renowned french chemist whose concern with the perception of colors originated with his appointment as superintendent of the dyeing department of the gobelin royal tapestry works. in his preliminary attempts to find explanations for perceptual color phenomena plaguing the tapestry makers he consulted the writings of hauy, buffon, scherffer, rumford, prieur de la c~te-d'or, et al. in his own endeavor to link together the phenomena he himself had observed, "so as to comprise them in one general expression in conformity with the writings i consulted. i was incessantly impelled ... by my friend m. ampere who ... constantly replied,' so long as th~ ~ult qf your qbs~~at1qna 1a no~ exp!:es§~g ~~law the~~!:~ y:~luelesa to~·'" the law of simultaneous contrast which chevreul ultimately derived to serve as the theme of the text is expressed in its simplest form as follows: "in the case where the eye sees at the same time two contiguous colours, they will appear as dissimilar as possible, both in their optical composition and in the height of their tone." tone is defined in terms of levels of grayness. in other words, the law states that two samples of different hue or of different luminosity will seem to differ more when viewed in juxtaposition than when viewed widely separated. 18 l~·:.;.: ~ r:,. p~ifi 'h the almost 500 pages of the 1906 book deal with a wide range of the author's experimental observations and of practical applications of the law in chiaroscuro, painting, tapestry, carpets, mosaic, colored glass windows, textile' ·· ··fabrics, calico-printing, paper staining, printing, maps, engravings, architecture, interior decoration, clothing and horticulture. included are 15 colored plates with remarkably well pr~served hues. the colors blue, red, and yellow are classified as "simple" or "primary", with orange, green, and violet as "compound" or "secondary". it is apparent that the several editions of the book were big sellers and served for many years as the bible for color aesthetics. h~k~eneca, et al: you may have heard that emperor nero (a.d. 37-68) used an emerald for viewing the gladiator combats and that his tutor and political consultant seneca (c.4 b.c.65 a.d.) made a few observations about prism optics. but you may not have learned much about their personalities. if interested, you will enjoy reading th~flam~~ of rome, a documentary novel by paul l. maier, doubleday and company, 1981. the author is a professor of ancient history. he developed a story to fit known individuals and recorded facts in the history of rome during the tumultuous two decades following a.d. 47. the book will not resolve the mystery of the smaragdus or emerald, but it will give you one very competent author's vivid appraisal and portrayal of the era, milieu, and personages. very interesting reading. earl~etical oddities: in the february 1981 issue of qetics new~, vol. 13, no. 2, pp 24-25, w. lewis hyde has briefly reviewed the new optics gallery which opened in the summer of 1986 at the science museum in south kensington, london. among his illustrations of displayed items is a replica of an ornate 1727 scottish gravestone for a 12 year old boy which includes two sculptured reliefs of skulls wearing spectacles. in a separate brief entitled "the story goes that. on page 47, mr. hyde tells of a human interest incident involving the optics book author, sir arthur schuster. in 1873, schuster had passed his oral doctoral exams at heidelberg and was awarded the degree without a dissertation upon making a $50 deposit to be forfeited if his dissertation was not submitted within one year. a week later the university librarian hopefully suggested to schuster that he not submit anything. it seems that such forfeitures were the only income of the library! 19 how the profession of optometry has fared in the communist countries remains largely an unknown for those of us elsewhere. what is apparent, however, is that the integrity of the profession in the communist world is most intact in east germany. this may well be due in significant degree to the leadership of one person, theo glaser of dresden, who celebrated his 75th birthday on december 26, 1986. an accolade to herr glaser by h. gunther appears on page 193 of the november/december 1986 issue of augenoptik, vol. 103, no. 6. from it we learn that the honoree is " ... zu den aktivsten kollegen in der geschichte der augenoptik ... " (among the most active colleagues in the history of ophthalmic optics). his career of well over a half century is marked with numerous leadership roles in a variety of professional organizational posts, boards, panels, and editorial assignments. he persistently proselytized the term "optometric", and from 1953 to 1978 headed an "optometric" study group or task force to improve the quality of clinical service. he is credited with 123 professional lectures and 431 publications of original scientific articles, translations, reviews, and reports, including a widely used book, "die phorien" (the phorias). he served two journals and an encyclopedia as editorial consultant. his topical interests included monocular testing techniques, clinical studies of binocularity functions, ophthalmic standards, and motorists vision. he designed several clinical instruments, presently in use. though he has been relatively confined to his country, his views and philosophy are truly international in spirit. would that he might now write his memoirs. such memoirs would be an invaluable documentation of optometric history in a period and in a locale otherwise all too hazy. the great lakes congress of optometry is an annual regional gathering of optometrists of the states of illinois, indiana, iowa, michigan, ohio, and wisconsin for continuing educational purposes under the auspices of the optometric extension program. the meetings scheduled for may 2-3, 1987 in chicago will be the 50th anniversary. an anniversary celebration feature will be the attendance by leo manas, o.d., a retired professor of the illinois college of optometry for many years, a special invitee for the occasion. 20 j.g. sivak reviewed "israel: a foreign born optometrist looks back on his american dream" by israel dvorine, o.d., scientific publishing, baltimore, 1986, in the february 1987 issue of the american journal of optometr~ and physiqlogical qpt_ic§., vol. 64, no. 2, p. 157. he concludes, "it should be included in the library of anyone interested in the history of optometry." dr. dvorine was born in czarist russia, studied optometry, engaged in private practice, published extensively, and developed a pseudo-isochromatic color blindness test. much of the book deals with dr. dvorine's interpretations of the struggles of the profession. qrr_th~_q~igin of spectacles: the teasing search for the origin of spectacles continues, and the conjectural identifications of their inventor remain elusive. one recent literary review is the article "spectacles: past, present, and future" by melvin l. rubin in the march-april 1986 issue of ~ur~of_qphthalmo~, vol. 30, no. 5 pp. 321-327. summarily reviewing the conventional notions of pre-spectacle visual aids in the ancient cultures he declares that "the first true spectacles were made about 1300." he then describes the subsequent development of spectacle design with several photographic illustrations from the american academy of ophthalmology foundation museum of ophthalmology. in the november-december 1986 issue of the same journal, no. 3, pp. 185-188, o.h.s. member charles e. letocha responds with some added details in a very erudite letter to editor rubin entitled "the origin of spectacles." among other resources of scholarly significance letocha cites, the only two original references to the invention of eyeglasses, the sermon by friar giordano da rivolta in 1305 and the late 14th century death notice of friar alessandro spina. he also cites the first mention of spectacles in a venetian glassworkers regulation of april, 1300. he'favors the suggestions of historical researccher e. rosen that, "most likely, the inventor was a lay person of pisa" and "the date of the inventions is most likely 1286." he expresses disappointment in our failure to have given recognition to ~he invention's septicentennial during 1986. for reprint request purposes the authors' addresses are melvin l. rubin, m.d., university of florida, college of medicine, department of ophthalmology, gainesville, fl 32601, and charles e. letocha, m.d., 444 rathton rd., york, pa 17403. 21 another optometrist memorialized: the international council of omega epsilon phi fraternity has established the dr~ philip_qqoper_~~morial_schol~~§hip to be awarded annually to a second or third year student member of 0 e phi fraternity. mr. j. i. hawkins, a civil engineer and the inventor and wearer of the first trifocals, was not very favorably impressed by the clinical skills and dedication of the practitioners of optometry of his day. in an article which appeared originally in 1826 in the rgpertory of patent inventions, vol. 3, pp. 347-353 and 385-392 he introduced his description of the marvels of bifocals with the following revealing paragraphs: but before going into the detail, i deem it proper strongly to impress on the mind of the reader the absolute necessity of his studying the subject for himself, if he would gain all the advantages that may be obtained from the use of spectacles for ... finally, it is a hundred to one against his finding a spectacle vender who is both able and willing to investigate the state of the eyes, and adapt, in every minute circumstance, the best means of affording the greatest perfection of vision. secondly, it is impossible that any person should communicate to an optician all his views and feelings, so that the optician shall have as lively a conception of them as the person himself possesses. thirdly, in order to ascertain the true state of the eyes, it may in some cases be necessary to pursue a·course of experiment occasionally for several days or even weeks together; so as to obtain correct knowledge of the various circumstances, without dwelling upon any one observation long enough to fatigue the eyes. in this pursuit no one can enter so warmly as the person who is to be benefited by the result. and, fourthly, the state of the eyes is subject to variation, and , therefore, the spectacles which may be very good now, may be imperfect a year or two hence. 22 in a few paragraphs later he capped his point with the following assertion: ... for it as almost as reasonable to expect that one person by eating should satisfy the hunger of another, as that an optician's transient view of the eyes of another should enable him to provide the best means of affording distinct, clear, durable, and comfortable vision. the rest of the article deals with judging focal distance, use of an optometer, a make-shift method, the dimensions of glasses, and other practical details that the potential wearer should take into account. the article was reprinted in april 1967 in manufacturing qeticigrr_lnt~~figtiqfigl, vol. 19 (new series), no. 10, pp. 539541 and 543-545, with some accompanying editorial notes by a. g. bennett, and called to our attention by o.h.s. member charles letocha. to rehabilitate the lighting, interior and exterior, of the 1920 colorada state office building, electrical engineer les yingling found himself involved with the colorado state historical society. the historians "didn't want the public to perceive the place as a 1920's structure that had been gutted and turned into a 1986 office building." to ensure the success of the undertaking the original or recreated luminaires had to be ingeniously adapted to preserve their original appearance characteristics but equipped with technologically modern lamp sources. the interesting story is told with numerous pictures in an aricle by architect charles linn entitled, "the best of both worlds: historic luminaires and modern illumination" in the march 1987 issue of ~~£hite£t~~gl_~ighting, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 20-25. the renowned albrecht von graefe had a famous ophthal~ological father, carl ferdinand von graefe. he was born 8 march 1787 in warschau (warsaw) and died of typhus on 4 july 1840 in hannover. his extensive surgical accomplishments and publications are described in an article by m. jahne in the january/february issue of ay~nopti~, vol. 104, no. 1, pp. 1819, with a portrait on the inside front cover. in the same issue, page 19, b. lutze gives a brief summary of the life and works of allvar gullstrand, 1862-1930, in recognition of the 125th anniversary of his birth. he, too, was the son of a physician. 23 ohs member charles letocha asks, "do you think the membership is generally aware of levene's book 'clinical refraction'? it's such a gold mine of informatin and the title is so misleading." how true! the full title is "clinical refraction and visual ~cience'', but misleading nevertheless. it is pure history from cover to cover, and in no sense does it deal with the current status of the terms in the title. upon first seeing the book, i asked john levene why this title was chosen. he explained that the publishers insisted that the book would not sell if it was identified as "history". fortunately, those thoroughly interested in the history of optometry seem largely aware of this fine resource. perhaps a few others have been serendipitously exposed to some history as a result. the book was published in 1977 by butterworths and company. h.w h. the ohs has maintained a remarkably constant membership count during its 17 years of existence. the count at the moment is 258, of whom 220 are in 35 of the 50 american states and in puerto rico and the district of columbia. the other 38 are in 17 different countries. two of these are island countries and the other 15 are on six continents. the turnover of membership is really quite small, as is the growth. dr. irvin m. borish, benedict professor of optometry at the university of houston adds his interesting comments on the origin of the optometric extension program "21 points", often att,ributed to a. m. skeffington, o.d. the following passages are excerpted from dr. borish's letter of march 10, 1987: i must apologize for not writing you sooner about the recent [october 1986, vol. 17, p. 60] society bulletin in which you mentioned the anniversary of the oep "21" points and asked for suggestions of their origin. 24 i have assumed that the 21 points were derived from sheard's original "18 tests" which he published in his book, dynamic ocular tests in 1917. (a reprint of this paper appears beginning on page 42 in the sheard volume visual and ophthalmic optics, published as a memorial to sheard in 1957.) although sheard did not use the same names for the tests which later became popular, he was covering the same areas. in a later paper entitled "considerations regarding the analysis and interpretation of data on ocular accommodation and convergence" (page 233) he proposes a new "20 test" routine and mentions his earlier shorter one. in this latter one, he uses the nomenclature which more closely approximates that used by skeffington, although he describes pretty much the same tests in both papers. he gives credit in his second list to the "additions" of others. sheard did not differentiate adduction from abduction, etc., in his original listing. he also did not separate the vertical phorias form the ductions as skeff did later. if you compare the routines listed by sheard and the skeffington "21 points", you note that sheard listed "history" as #1. this was not listed by skeffington at all, so that sheard's #2 becomes skeff's #1, sheard's #3 becomes skeff's #2, etc., with just a few exceptions. sheard first listed tests of amplitude of accommodation early in the routine, but later moved them back. he also originally included cyclophoria tests which skeff totally ignored. skeff introduced both "binocular" and "dissociated" cross-cylinder findings where sheard only used "monocular" cross-cylinders, and also added phoria tests of both values of the cross-cylinders. he also made two tests of the dynamic skiametry. this resulted in 21 "points" in skeff's routine. the order and even the numbering seem, once you drop "history", "cyclophoria" and also "objective measurements of the amplitude of accommodation" and consider where skeff inserted the added tests, almost too similar for just coincidence. of course, science is full of examples of several individuals independently coming up with identical concepts, and so it may be here. i may also be influenced by the fact that bill needles supplied me with a good deal of the early history of skeffington and i also spent some time with him myself early in my own career, and my inclination of the respective backgrounds and intellects, taking nothing away from skeff, would prejudice me towards favoring sheard as the likely originator. 25 the following article was originally printed in harper's new mqn1hl~_tl28~~ine, september 1873, (vol.47, no. 280). it is reprinted here in full: ........ ..::.. . : ::-~": ... r:a-::.: ~ ·(. ·~--~-.-.;~·;·;:r. : my blindness and albrecht von graefe. : .-<~:· .; ~--· --·----____ b'l' the rev. wjtj.uv b. :milburn. " . . . --.-•.. ----------:-------·----~-----·__;_ __ .. ,u h&~ i was five years ol<l an uniucky, salts,castor-oil,rhubarb,and "sparefaatthat ·.: . . f. unintended blow from the hand of a oft with gods doth diet." the patient must playmate inflicted a severe wound in my be reduced, to prepare him· for an operation~ . -lee& eye.-had the incident occurred a hunno operation-w~-really...necesaal'h-:1'oj:...iaa.._ .·4red miles from a doctor, and my mother aphealthy child a wound even in the eye, if let :,'pl~ed a wet bandage to the eye, i might have alone, will take care of itself. but ~bat is_ -.bee~!'&vedinoretbanfortyyearsoftwilight, a child to_a learned medical profe880r with ~-deepening do'wiliut~ernight;-besitlesa-eeor:e o~ privat-e-atudente;-an;d;-wit-hal,the­ ::~~'thousand ills which com& from dwelleditor of a revi~w f a aubj~ct, a capital sob.. wg in the darkness. but the accident befell ject1 for an operation. , . . . . . . . ; me in the polite city of phila<lelphia, famed so there was a day when the professor, _ ',~f its.medic~ schools aud their distinguish~ his, brother profepors, and 'their s~udents, a ~_eel ptofes8ors; and "of course one of these· room full of-them~ caoj& toget~.iluo)ua-_ ! _.nla¢rious persons wa8 instantly sent for: tber's bouse to see a beautiful operation­ :;::-jie was· a tan, rawboned man; of stately bnt beautiful en:oogli, i suppose, to him who per~~­ _.:~~d and forbitlding manners, supposed to be forms and to ~bose who look ~n; but what of :::"~ft:"leame~..:iu·hisart,· and withal an old the child 1-0h;-b&-~orly..a au~cct'. the :~ ~he.ior~as fit to care for a wounded child nitrate of silver waa deftly drawn oyer .tb~ ;-.aa.t.be king of brobdingno.g would have been cicatrix.. the cbjld's ~c?ther, ~idst the ap· t~ ~ediciue gulliver. i was put upon a plause of the spectators at the delicate and'-· :ft>gun~n. ofla.ncets, cups,ilnd leeches, epsombeautiful manipulation, wu com.manded by -26 596 harper's ~lw lio~'"thly magazi~""e;• ·the professor to keep the boy in a dark room, ! i spoiled a peck before i ever be~efitctlcmc r• and the eye constantly wet with this prej mine simply went into one of my profes11or's scriptionsolution of sugar of leadand pecks. i '"'onder how many pecks, bn!!hel!t, the professor would see the patient to-ruor-! and tons of human eyes the faculty have row. the days wore on. the fire in the! disposed of, say, within forty years f eye abated until it was quenched, grnclual-1 then there were two years of dnrlmes~ ·ly light was admitted into the room, and,j (larkness visible, intermitting with gha:;tly thanks to modern science and surgical skill, 1 flames, lurid fires, from two furnaces bt'at~tl a perfect cure bad been wrought. bnt stay; 1 seven times hotter; for the other eye had hecn there's a slight scar, tlnd it must be removed. ; kindled into a blaze of inflammation. what to be sure, it does not nffect t.be sight, and: a long angnish it wall for thfl c.'hild, ft-r hi~ if the natural secretions of the eye are al; mother and father! the voices of all '"ho lowed to go on, they "'ill absorb it; bnt then ; entered that room of suffering were low, there is the honor of science and the rcpn-1 their steps light and muffled, as if it wrro tation of a great medical professor at stake • the chawber of death. the chief noise that -:-the operation must be repeated._ _ i broke the silence was ttlade by the moaus · there was another clay when a· number of~ and sobs of tile child, to which there was an gentlemen, who looked like clergymen, exi echo in tlle stifled sobs and prayers of hi!i cept that they wore dress-coats, and when 1 parents. sometimes, when i think of the in deep thought held gold-beaded canes to j operation and it.s results, my frame grows their noses, as if there were pouncet-boxes ' rigid, my fists clinch, and i feel, had that or receptacles for disinfectants in the tops, or i child been mine, i should have brained tho as if the contact of gold with the delicate , cloctor before he could bate put the caust.ic nerve at· the end of the nose had a stimula-~· in. according to physiology my system bll.8 ~-ting effect upon the organs of memory, inandergone sixcomplete changes since then,---vention, and device-hermes's cadnceus, to : but my arms bear the marks of countless ··arouse wisdom and call the dead back to life 1 cut-s made by the lancet; for those were thu · .:_a day, i say, on which agroupofthese gen-: days of heroic medical trentment. i wmt · tlemen, attended each by his retainers, came i bled, cnppe~, _lee~hed _a_!le~l an_d _ d_lad.e to :-:-:logetlier to see tbe fire-king perform:-was 1 swallow enough nauseous, perilous stuff to ;-.-he going to swallow live coals, thrilst-his: start a respectable young druggist in tralle. -. -hand-into tbe-tlames,-or walk-int~a-heated ito-help-allay-and-snbdutribe xagiog :fires in : furnace f no; only to thrust a ~ving brand i the swollen, almost bursting, ·eyes, the so ln­ . mto a little child's eye, and then write a ! tion of sugar of lead was aguin applied, as if i.j~ed article_ for the ~ext number_ of the ! it was resolved that what the inflammation , ·medical review, for the encouragement of,. spared the lead wash should destroy. 1\'ben ·--eonntless ·smaller fire-kings in the rnral·rei was released from-my gloomy chamber; :1.,, -­ . · gions to inflict like tortures npon other help-' a captive from a dungeon where almost in­ less victims. it is said the ''burned chhd 1 quisitorial horrors had beenexperienced, _dre~~s_t}l~_fi_re~and_it_!la_p_be_ ea~uy_imag~ ~ l'hrnnken_well7nigh._ to_il.skeleton,_ it_ ~as ____ _ ined that, having had one touch ofthisnian's: fonnd that the sight of one eye bad depart­ quality, i should shrink from the second. ! ed forever, and that the lymph from the iu­ what could a child's cries, struggles, prayers ; flammation uniting with the residuum of the _a. vail f_ where were my father and mothl lead wa.s:u had formed opacities in the other, ___ er f why did not these gentlemen with the ii which in due time would darken the sun. white cravats and gold canes and the fine such was the beginning of my acquaint. young stndents interfere and save a fi ve-year-1 a nee with oculists and their practice. af!cr __ dlclboy from his torturer l --without an act: such an introduction-one-mightfancy tlilll __ _ of grace, a pat on the head, a caress, or word~ a larger and more intimate knowledge with of sympathy, the harsh man seized, fastened l the professors and their art would not be deme as in stocks between his knees, pressed i sired. bat hope makes us weak as well 88 --tnf-head-against-his-left-shonlde!j1md-reek-tstrong,-and-i-h~....-e-tberefore-performed-many--­ lessly thrust the caustic through the eye-. a pilgrimage, and made many visits to th~ . not a delicate operation, truly. but then his jsbrines of great and illustrious professors of brother professors most agree with him that i the healing art, and have not disdained to it was a shame such a beautiful operation 1 visit at least one very famous, very money-should be spoiled by thee unmannerly bemaking wonder-worker •. -as every one o_f. havior of tbat cnb. what right had he to my readers stands the chance of losing h18 ~:..make-such an nproar-aa if modern science sight, wholly or in part, and aa this pa~e ought to regarcl human agony t but that may be read by many of my brothers and sl&~as-mor&-than forty years ago~,i~ was the tel'8 iu infirmity.; i most need11 pause,aud.fol: __ ·.wont of a world-renowned american surgeon the benefit of all, aa well aa to gratify the : iil lecturing on the eye to the students to becuriosity of future ages, try to sketch dr. gin thus: "gentlemen, tlie eye is the most deloxtnrn, a celebrated peripatetic friend of icate organ of the body; you should be very i humanity, who devotes his days and nights cautious in beginning to treat it. i presume to the relief and cnro of impaired ears and 27 my blili'dl\'"ess and albrecht von graefe. 597 eyes for a very moderate compensation. perwept her eyes out in tw~ nlgllt;s-nnd-n .day haps i might be ashamed to coufe68 the when her husband died, who, in reply ·to . ___ acquaintance but that i happened to dine, your question whether she waa really bene-. nearly twenty ·years ago;·wtth mr. prescott, ·nted,-.answered, ~..auch_ a.~dai.§~.o»·-· the historian, who, aa all the wodd knows, vincing mll.nner, _ · _ , • · . · _ . · :-· was nearly blind. ·:·as the talk -:went onhe --f'l thinkiam ali~tle-:,indeed,l~ig~~~y __ _ .asked, : ____ ---·--' _.·: · • -· • . · · · ·. _;• , a great deal; the gracious daylight ~s eom"did you ever v18it dr. oxturn t" ._· ing ba~k to me after that bitter .vale of somewhat sensitive about my acquainttears." . . . .: ::: >ance with this illustrious humanitarian, i at last your tum comes. with becoming nnswered, in genuine-yankee fashion, awe and thankf9lness yo~ enter the great "did you f" . man's presence, take the chair opposite his, --liymedil1lemmed aml"h11wed,-and eemed ;rour-knee&-a.re-inclased..behveen his. t-o be enga.g~d in the solution of a knotty the light is good-he c81jts a rapid glance problem, but at length replied, at your worst eye. "it is hopeless." then ___ "j,tmp!j,_~y~s=~ha,·e---eeen him." . be looks for a few seconds at the other, and "with what result f" iasliod..-.----~--·bids-you-look up,-down,--to the tight,..to..tha_ "i beg your pardon," he rejoined, "but are left, this way, toward your nose, now this you in the same boat f" . ' way a little. _ af~e~.e_~~paring notes it was found that .4 'that's very good; you have some power we had a conimon--e:s:perienee~---asmy acin -that -eye-there's light--bere-bad . .eyc, __ quaintance wit-h dr. oxturn goes back a \"ery bad eye, but i think i can benefit yon; score of years, nnd ns the fees which he dehan saved much won;e eyes than that.my ri\"ed..from . .lir._prescott, -~ys~lf, -~~-d _ ~houtreatment is perfectly original. i ha\"e given sands of patients in all parts of the civilizediiiylife ·to ·the eyc-=have-saved thousands~f­ world have been scrupulously devoted---i.e., blind men, women, and children. i live to a part of them, aa be always told you-to do good, but of course ·i say nothing about benevolent and religious purposes, i suppose that-let my ..eorkl praise me •.. l.jl~~tand . that -110 delicate :feelings of pride ~aused:_ b.y you arc a minister-! am a member .of. the -­ the ho'\or of snch an acquaintance ought to. -chrinib. -~ i.love~theministryl --i-giv~·a large­ make me shy or ashamed in &\·owing to the portion-the largest of my incon1~to the public and to posterity my intimate relaspreadofthegospel; butisayuothingabout --tioilswit'h-liim:--·in ·his-.ublime-mission~fha.t--i.eharge .. you.no:tbiug.j..!>j:~.y.~~!!i.:_ relieving the ills to which our 1lesh is ht'ir, ination. .l.bave. exnmine4. h~jldreds of -be came· f1·om -his home . .across the .deep .io tho1;18~d:ds_ !l(.e_y~·--~~~ my fee f~r-·tres.t.:­ the new w orlu. the columns of the jourment will be two and a luilf' a· sitting: x-nals heralded the advent of dr. oxturn to think i can give you sight enough to read. the chief <;ity of that portion of the occiwhat a pity that a 1ine young minister d~nt.al hemisphere in which i waa then livshould not be able to pursue-his studies! ... illg, ehroti.icling at the same time the unpar-· truly the fields are-white .unto the..barv.est._ alleled mighty cures he had. wrought in enshall i begin with you now t i always take · rope nnd america, urging with naive and tenmy fee in advance." · der voice all sufferers f1'0m diseases of the eye it is needless to describe the treatment; .. and ear to t-isit the doctor's city of refuge. suffice it that the doct-or used most po\'\"erwith an army of sufterers drawn from all ful stimulants t-o excite what latent p9wcr ]l:uts of a ,·ast empire, i resorted to san lothere might be in the organ, thus seeming ret to, where miracles were performed. it to do good; bnt of course, when the,j"eaction­ was most edifying to see the crowd of human came on, you were in worse case than ever, creatures in the great man's anteroom, waitand quitted your loretto sllrine a sadder · · iug their turn, like children in the game and a wiser man, with a deeper shadow on ""here one is hot or enid a.s he is near or f:1r your path. i believe that dr. o:s:turn still from the ohject concealed, as planets apsheds blessings on his race. however this :proaching or receding from the liun. yon may be, i am sure that the affiicted public hacl to wait n. long time for your number to enjoys the service of ntauy of his disciples. be admitted to the presence of the grand iu due time i made n. pilgrimage to par--· panjandrum. -inflamed by that passion for is, but the renowned oculists of the french the good of the neighbor which animates tho school did me 110 good. after manifold e-x­ breast of humanity, overcoming your natural periences, each followed by disappointment, diffidence, you would eagerly question the and most of them by loss, i grew skeptical people around who were already under treatas to the wonderful stories~ h~d heard about rueut. deaf people wbose ears were coming the great advances ma.cle wttlun the last few back to them '""oulduot }lossess much interyears by some european pr~fc88ors as to the . f'st for a blind man. you 'vantcd to see knowlctlge of the eye and 1ts proper treat­ those whose sight was recoyercd, or in course ment. at length i became iufonncll con· of recovery. by mutual consent yon were ceming the ophthalmoscope, ~nd tllc revo~n­ rcfcrrel1 to :hll·s. tearly, a lovely widow who tion wrought by n1cn of gemus through 1ts 28 .. o9s . -·· ··il4.rper's newmo~"'tlily magazine. · ·· · aid •. dr. :frederick william holcomb, o~ days, and at thebeight of his fame .. tbis new york, is the person to whom i was inevent occurred when .albrecht was only debted for admission into this new world of twelve years of ~ge. .although of a bright wonder. he studiecl my eye t~rough the and joyous disposition, and rel'eliug in nil _light of this magical instrument, aud began kinds of boyish fun and innocent mischief. to inspire me with hopo once more that my study 'vas a passion with him from his earli: steps might be led to where i could see as est days. once, when acting the part of a well as feel the sun ; and my decision 'vas young lord in private theatricals, he turned madetovisitprofessorvon graefe,ofberlin. with ma.gisterial air to his own tutor, who __ . ori ~-delightful september. afternoon in waa cast in. the part of a valet, and ex1868 my room in paris was entered by my claimed, in a speech' not set down in tbe valued friend, dr. bliss, of new york, atplay," was ever such a blockhead of a serv­ tended by the man whom i had crossed the ant seen f'' and squared old scores by admin­ ocean to see, of whom i no'v propose to give istering a. sound cutr on the ear. he pur­ some accoun~premising that the acquaintsued his studies preparatory for the uuh·cr­ ance thus begnn ripened into friendship dursity in the gymnasium of the french colony ing the months of my sojonrri under the roof at berlin; and such were ilia ardor aml ot his hospital (klinik) in berlin. the world quickness that the six years' course was has had many benefactors in this century, concluded when he was only fifteen years bnt few deserve a higher pla~e in its lol'ing of age, and by reason or his yonth and the remembrance than he of whose brief bnt statute, he was compelled to wait a year be­ brilliant career i am now to speak._ for a fore entering the university. he devoted part· of the material of this sketch i am inthis year to mathematics and the physical debted to dr. warlmont, of brussels, and to sciences with such enthusiasm and method, -frienda:m berlin • ..:...a. little way -beyond· the nnder the guidance of his accomplished maa­ thiergarten, or pnulic park of berlin, there ter, goepel, thnt he completed his. university -·-stands "aiiobfe chatenti; suitonnded b)" a spacourse bi the first 'of these branches before ciour arid beautiful garden, which, as well aa his entrance, so that by the time he was six­ the royal residence nenr a.t hand, was called teen he had done the mathematics, which -:oylh-e-olaberlinen-bellevu'e:-·· t.li'e.cbateiii -few-meri-1iave-completed-nilde:i tht. age of --·was-a kingly present·from·frederick·willone•and-twentr>·his ·home··was· still at --iam-iii;; thehusband ~tbe-beantiful'-·but lovely·bellevne;and itttqniet·charm soothed ill-fated lonisa, and the father of emperor and cheered him after the heat of the lect' .. william, to his beloved friend, professor von ore:room and the competition of the clase­ ~_q_rii~fe_;_ t}le __ ijj~~t~ren_9'\yded. surge~~ a!!d_~ j,f_that -~~--)j~ call_~ .co.m:p-eti.tion __ 'w~erein . · ulist of gerinany in his day~a favorite at he distanced all his fellows. the nigbt1y .onceof the conrt and the people, and· the heavens pos8essed an unspeakable fascina. glory of berlin's great university. it wa.s tion for him, and it was· his pleasing but here that his still more brilliant and famous hurtful practice to lie stretched for hours _§!)jlfin;t_oaw_t.he_light, on the_22d_of may,_ np_ggjbe ~,_ ~it]l his __ ~y~~tijx~4. upon the 1828. as in the · old story:.books, all the moon and stars. when warned by t1is moth­ good fairies seemed to gather around this liter of the harm to his health which ""otlld tle child's cradle-all save one-:-to bestow come from this exposure. he removed to a. spa-upon. himtheir choicest. giftsone gave cions, unoccupied. apartment in the house, him beauty of person; another, a quick and and made his bed upon the door, the better fe~ile intellect; a third, sweetness of temto command through the wide windows the per;. the fourth, an inexhaustible taeulty for outlook of the starry firmament. entering -words;. andt~e-fifth, a benevolenceofna.the-university: o£ .berlin .at ..the age of. six­ ture which knew no bounds.the fairy that teen, he was graduated at nineteen, and 1'6did not come was she who gives firm health ceived bis license to practice medicine. his .. and a robust constitution. ·riches; honors, father had filled the chair of pathology and -geniue;-were-hitrbirtbrigbt;-aml-i~addm • ical-ltlrgery-from-iter-foundation ;-and..to his gifted and distinguished father, it was that fat.her's distinguished success in his his happiness to possess a mother o.a noble profession, and the son's reverent love of ·in character as she was in family-.a.ugnsta hia j,demory, no donbt gave the biu to his von .a.lten. : such was the goocl old kiug's life and decided the choice of his career. interest in the ~hild that he offered ~ be his student· life (lebrjahre). was . ended, ·his godfather, and dt~legated his· own son and at the instance of his beloved mother -albrecht to stand for him at the· baptismalhe started-uponhia travels (wanderjnhr~·) font in tbe l!"'rench church at berlin, wjjere hia private fortune enabled him to grat1fy ~ jdoliere;-·tbe-·elergymsn,gav& the--child--to all-lli& taste&· inforeipcountries aa well 38 . . god. i.~ _-the_ holy sacrament, and named him at home; bnt his strong love for his friends .. .albrecht.·, ... :;·: · · · · · _:-' '·-:":··:..ledhimtoprefercongenialcompanionshipto the first dark cloud to shadow his young .esthetic refinement or sensual luxury. he life wa.." the sudden and premature death of therefore invited two of his fellow-students his excellent father, in the very prime of his to share the pleasure and profit of his jour29 my blth'dness and albrecht von <;)raefe. 599 neys, and himself bore-all.tbe expense ofthe fession '\\'hich he _baa clio'bcri nuder the iii~ party. ·prague wae.his fil'llt stopping-place, 11uence of arlt three years before at prague-­ and here he enconu~red arl~, who :w~ purthe cure of the diseases of the human eye. _ _suing.jlil9.c~ist~!l~~n4_i~~9-.....:.~~~~!l~~~~is amp!4!fortnneenabled him.toestablitih a with such enthusiasm th~tyoung von kliriik, or privatell08p1tiil; it-o'ilcetbntno-·graefe f~ltthe_~ou~io~, a~d «j~i~~-~-d~:patients, were found to occupy the warda at vote. himself. to ·this specialty. it was at first; save rabbits.providing ll1ni8elfwith -­ this time that the fotmdations were laid of a oollection of these little_ animals; h~_·gave that brotherly attachment and love _between individuality to each by fastening tiny brass arlt and von graefe, which were arrested plates to their ears, on which their numbers only by the ]aitter's death. from prague be were inscribed; aud producing in their eyes proceeded to vienna, where be .made the the diseases to which man's organ is sub_acquaintance and became the o il of ai·ect, he then skillfully treated them by ap-. fred jaeger, celebrated for his oculistic_ skill plication or operation, and made as careful and knowledge .. _thence von graefe and a daily register of e~h case as though be his two frieo~ proceeded to paris, . , . were dealing "·ith f~atherless bipeds. · it ---in._l>..m-ia...the..sceptre .ni_oculistic.leaming . .was_~qt _lo~g, }j_q)vev:~ _l~~fore -~~m:ll!_ll~-­ anu skill was divided_ between two men, tients began to 1lock to him, and these were .. d~smarres and sichel ; indeed, their fame soon followed by students, medical men, and was not only eoropeau, bnt world-wide. professors, who came to bear him lecture . yon graefe.lleca.me_tbe_devoted..studcnt _of and_wi_ti)~ _'yl_u~.tfcl~~!!~~!:_ his _£per~ both, but he was especially drawn by the tions. . brilliant originality o( views, the wide medab yet, the wisest physiologists and most ical ]earning, and the ntarvelous dexterity experienced oculists knew comparatively in ·-operntion-for-which--desmarres--w-as:~ ittle.of-the-diseases..olthe...bnman eye...aud_ justly celebrated, and which gave him .the the proper methods ·for their treatment. largest and.best-appoinf;ed klinik and the the range of the most skillful observer was _ vastes~ p~ti~.lj.po~ ear~h~ _ h_is _t!i!l~ was_ li~ite_d to the mere surface of the living or­ so engrossed by_the practical ~uties .of his gao, and what-slight glimp8e'oftbe interior· profession--and -t~~m~nse ·n11mber -i)f-;his could -be~~ght -through--tbe~-impil --:ol patients that.desmarres had not-_the leisure_ .90~rsethe _eye of a dead man could be~ _ to follow out aud test the conclusions of_ sected, it~ auatomi_cal strnctnre · be etodied · . _many_q.f his owjlq!!g!nal sng~tions •.. bot and _understood, and some guess be made as among tb~ t~~l!g -~!:_s!~~le_!l~s~ho.gatbe totlie-fun-ction-sorthe-·varionsparts;-bnt-­ to hear .him lecto:r:e and jlee. him operate• the--wb-()le-irite_rior-of the-eye; and -many, il -­ there --.was ·a-modest: arid~beautiful·-_yonugnot -most--of the -dis_ea:ses ·to -w hieh it -is -subgerman, whose dark)>loe eyes responded to ject, were nearly a sealed book to the pro_ every suggestive .hint, and: .followed every fessio~al.ae well as to the ordinary observer. stroke .of the ·knife, while his broad,yich nathere is one -disease;· for example, -ealled ture..ieceiv.ed,..as.in.a.iertiluo_il, the_~~~~t:::. gl~n.c~j!i.jit_, _t~ __ '\!hj~!t-.~~j!s ·or ..ei>th sexes, ed conjectures and prognostications as seed of all ages and ranks in life, are subject, iind ~ grains droppe_d l)y desm~es, and where in from -which tens of thousands annually lost due ti~e they were;to ri_pen to a };larvest of their sight, and thenceforth remained in nn-.• blessing for the human race::von_ graefe's broken and hopeless gloom, for not oniy ·· profound knowledge of anatomy an« physiwas t.be disease beld to be incnrable, but its . ology, coupled with his habits ofgeneralizacause and conditions were hidden in the tion, enabled hi in to appreciate, even more deepest mystery. by rea &on of the new _. than desmarres himself, the value of many light thrown npon the delicate mechanism of the,-maeter's hints, -and to -see ~·hither of the eye, and the almost exhaustive knowl-__ · they led. not content with his present atedge of the maladies from which it suffers tainments, lte keenly pol'llned, while in pargained within the last twenty years, jaeger, is, his physiological researches 1\ith claude of viennn, has been able to construct a se­ bernard, and procemed to london to prosries of charts, showing the whole oft be inner ecute them still farther, especially in the dins well as the out.er parts of the eye under rection of the eye, under the guidance of the the action of .euch of the. one thous:md_dis­ great and then unequaled b_owman. it was eases-so enormous is the number-of here his happiness to become the fellow-stuwhich it is the prey. · . · . dent and intimate friend of one whose_ im_von graefe bad scarcely been engaged in mense learning and profound genius entitle the practice of his profe88ion a year when him to an immortality of renown-donders, o~e. of the world's greatest philosophers in­ of utrecht. vented an instrument which was destined after a brief visitto dublin and ed into accomplish as much for the eye ns -the burgh, von graefe returned to his native city telescope bas for the hea,·ens: the great in 1850; and when only .about twenty-two mathematician and physiologist, helruholtz, years of age, settled ltimself in berlin for t.he of heidelberg, sorely feeling the need of. a practice of that branch of the medical pro-. glass by_w_hich to_~e the e_ye's in:terio!, set . • 30 -· 600 ·-· ____ . ____ . h.a.rper's new mo~-rhly l\llgazthte. _·_·_·:..___his mathematics to work to demonstrate just where master a.ud pupils were rivals. lt --what was tieedell, aihl then· wrought the cnnwould be bard to convey to those who never ning mirror, and the ophthalmoscope was knew him an adequate and yet credible no­ given to the worlll. this year, 18517 forms tion of this man's tirelesa and almost super­ an era. in the history of human sorrow, and human labors. although slight of build the means for alleviating aud removing one narrow-chested, often gasping for.breath,l1~ of its great causes-blindness. · fortunate seemed to defy fatigue, and set at nau,...ht in his organization, his estate in life, his prethe limita.tions of work which hedge m~st para.tory studies, his friends, and his career, men's activity. he was usually up by sev­ 'v on graefe was now in a position to do more en, passed an hour or two in study, then -·-than-all meii before hiiiltogether had done read and answered his letters \vhile takin,...­ for the practical knowledgo of the eye and his coffee. nine was the hour for hislectur~ its ills, and for their relief . .oumed with this at the klinik, where students and physicians magic mirror, he pursued his investigations, from all parts of the globe were gathered. night and day, with the zeal and energy fleet as his horses were, he was usually be­ which men leud to the search for gold. dr. hind time. all impatience, however, was groesclien happily says, in speaking of the banished,-aa ·witli a quick step he entered, friendship h~t~veen von graefe, a.rlt, and breathless but smiling, and said, "i was to douders, whose love for each other was like be punctual to-day; well, that will be for .. that of.david and jonathan_: "they were to-morrow." a more beautiful man's face like the leaves of the clover, 'wilen helmthdn his has hardly been seen in modern . holtz and his discovery, joined to them, times •. who that has looked npon it can .. --imide. th~--foiir-leaved · cloyer-presrige of forge.fihe.high, broad l)ri:)\\rof the-noble · happy fortune.'' . head, the dark blne eyes,' and the exquisito .::.:_:.:..._in __ lb56,1ive.years aftex: the.. discovery _o( lipa,:where sat such mingled beauty and pow:.~--­ the ophthalmoscope, von graefe; a savau t of er f it seemed, indeed, only as a lovely trans­ :··twenty-seven· years, banished to the night parency. .through· which the light of a still ·.-·of the past the blindness fatally attached to more lovely ao~l was shining. his action was the glaucomatous eye; before him no man in quick and decided, yet graceful, his voice :-the hist.oryof the world had ever successful.; very-pleasant to-·th4f· ear;" his speech· easy-­ ~ly-grappled with this mighty evil; now, in and-afbuent.--hi&manher-h&d.-the simplic­ .....,..the-light of his genius,. and in the hands-of. ity and sporti-venes&.of.&-cbud!s, and-yet..yoll.--.. /his· disciples, none need ever loae his sight felt the dignity and authority of a master • . · from glaucoma. · in the-discovery of the nawholly unaji'ected, and-even unconscious, in . ture a.nd cure of this disease, and in the rev-· all he said and did, he yet breathed around ~oliitione1fecte0.--ielative-t0 -strabisniris ano: yoiithe-atirioapliere· oi8upfeiri.e-getiius:· it ·­ : .. strabotomy, there was enough to immortalwas strange to watch the love and rev~rence ize two men; and we are only at 1857. even which attended his steps. · the hour's lect­ by 1854 paris bad ceased to be the seat of the ure over, during which he had held the highest activity and success in this departgreat throng spell-bound and even breath­ ment of-scleiice and art.-theacknowfedgec:f less-oylii8 eloquence, tli6_ue_atll-litre8till-­ sceptre of authority and power had been ness broken now and t~en by irrepressible trnnsferredfromdesmarresand.sicbel to the applause, he proceeded on his daily visit _y..qjjtbfnl_haucls of their late. pupil,.but no..w through the_:wards. of. hi~_hospiw,...__))ay_by __ ··master, von graefe. in this year he added day hia-e i noticed the :flurried manner of to his klinik and lectureship a uew element nurses and attendants, their eagerness tern­ of power in the shape of a publication called pered by a kind of devout worship, the hnsh -~h~~4~~jr~~olophthalmology. _ from_ this ocexpectatioilv!'hich_wai,t_e!l_th~_ mjlst~~~­ time, at leait, the latin forms of oculistics coming-...;....arid, now you hear his :fteet, light aul} oculist make way for the greek ophst-e_ps;-which-keep his aids upon a ron. he tha.lmology·and ophthalmologist. the first is.-iu: your room, where darkness and pain volume of the archiru. appeued.. nnde · :v~iah.a.t.bia.dleeri:og aalntation.....the..bau.y.::._ own name, bnt from that time' forth under agee are removed in a trice. the examina.. the names of a.rlt, donders, an_d· von graefe, tion is made with rigid fidelity-there is no and is the treasnre-holl8e holding all the haste here; the bandages n.re replaced, and _ modern kno'\\·ledge conceriling the _eye and away he goes, with -loving words, which --ita treatment. · ···· '·_;.!_,.~ -_-,. • --·'--~-' leave sunshine behind him. ::.. ; · .. doring the ten years that·~~psed from . to~ klinik all wlio wished bi.8 care and . .:.:..1857 t-0.1867 various inestimable p!jpera were service, no matter. whattheirrank or for-:· ·published by von graefe in the ~rehiff.a. i tune, were obliged to come and take a bed. _:_willn.ot retracathe life he..led.durl.ng.theae hal.£ the patienta,.atlea8t,.wereso poor_tha~­ teu years, which were the most active and they could not pay the mastets fee, and were fruitful that providence accorded him. all even unable to defray the charge of their liv. those who ~t this timo attended his klinik ing: this came out of his generous bounty, have kept the remembrance of the zeal and and they received the same attention as th~­ efforts displayed in this arena of science, richest clients. after the 'risit to every pa­• 31 liy blindl\"ess and .albrecht von graefe. 601 tient, the operntions began. -·each case· bad his generous heart co old not resist the ap­ been thoroughly examined and _studie'd by peals of the unfortunate; and he held that one of his aids, nod then by the master hima holiday in which he wo.s obliged to work -self; -8o·t~at-he -knew -jnst w!tat-to--do;tnd only-eight -or ten -bou1'8.--ln·l85hle-attendbow to do tt. some days there were as many ed a congre88 of ophthalmologists in b~ ··as sixty persons to .00 operat-ed upon.---each sels; --whure-· his·· paper-on -the -theory--and . patient wae numbered, and the line was mar• treatment of glaucoma wae received 'with shaled by the aesistants and nurses. :one an outburst of rapturolia and long-contin. by one they quickly took their places on the ned applause by the. two· hundred distin­ table; while, seated 'in his chair, his instroguished men present. the idea of the con­ mente at hand, the master proceeded promptgross pleased him, and he at once convoked jy, but gently, to inflict the pain which wae a similar meeting of the leading men of his --to givethe-life..long-teh , · refession "-in-his-fatber-l&bd-at-heidelbefg.hundreds, of students standing by to witriebb from that time to 1868 he regularly attend­ the dextrous manipulation. scientific methed these meetings (except when hindered by od and military system reigned throughout, sickness), of which he wae the very centro · aud yet no exnct--programnurof details bound and soul;-and·for which_ile-reserved·the -an-·­ this man in chains ; he kept hiniself free to noun cement of the results ·of his profound meet whatever exigency might arise hour by studies, ae well as of his original and brill­ hour. ··· · :· ': ···'·'··< ·. ' ·. •. in.nt operations-thus sending away the -··· ··the -operations "'w'cre-o811ally-ended-by·5 throng ·of·his disciplesil~atbered ·from mn.ny·­ p..m., the hour at which be professed to dine; lands year aft-er year, with a precious freight but his swift horses rarely brought him to of new suggestions, knowledge, and power. his bouse much before six. at dinner his in 1861, while on his way from switzer· ·-buoyant sptritswouldoreakl'orth in charmandtoattend-isession of 1h1s coilgress-;ne­ ing talk, and all kinds of frolic and fun. had a sodden and violent seizure of pleurisy long before ·seven -o'clock :his· ant-erooms at :baden-baden, and for '!veeks his life bung were crowded ~y--patients.from-all-qnart-ers suspended -in tbe:.balance •.. ,indeed, it wae _ -~f _!~~ ~-~!ll~lllli. ~i_!!g _f~~~~.p!!_~~!!j~ g!_ven 0_1!~} ~ba!:_!':~-~~-~~~l'~n~ _!_be dow.!__ exanunatton. ·: ·t ese were hu.mttted one by :tlew like ightn1ng tw.vnguout europe, pro. one, each in his trirn, -to -the cabinet, "where ducing the deepest. grief. · admirable eul~ .. the master patiently and carefully explored gies upon him were pronouneed by many of --~ach -diseased-organ,-and -kindly-,yet honest. thefirst-~avants and-professors.of the .age, in­ ·-ly, told the snfferer:what he-bad. :to bope:or -which .were expressed jnst .estimates of-his--· fear. __ 'l'.hu$ ."'v~ be. occopied_j,ultiften.'~qr .ch~!o_rne~r_and ~lth~_j.v..yaluable _h~oj~fi_t~lj,e __ _ eleven at night, 'when the ·carriage was 'in had conferred upon the human race. ; upon waiting ·to bear him once more swiftly ·to returning to life, the joy of his delicate and the klinik, where be made a minute ~xamsensitive nature at reading these worthy and·:: ination of every patient operated on ·that beautiful tributes was mixed with pain to day·and ·the day-before._,n·mylonely-vignnd-that a few pf tbose·wbom-he'had deeply_--­ ils i used to bear his carriage bearing him loved and cherished bad exhibited ·an un-. n.way at between one and two 1n the momtimely resignation· at his supposed death; ·.·· ing. iii addition to this daily:ronnd,·how· and a ·disposition to ·undervalue his labors~ be found time for his private· studies, and and discoveries. thenceforth his manner the composition of his voluminous works, is among his associates and students was less more than i can tell; but time be did find frank and unconstrained than of yore. his . to nccomplisb, as student ·and· author, what resurrection from the dead, for such it seem.:··· would ltave made immortality for nny other ed, wa.s fitly celebrated by his friend dou... man, and at the same tiiii6 to achieve· srich deridn·a. glowing and eloquent dedication· practical" feats of skill, energy, and success to him of one of his great works .. · in 1862. as 'vould be the full measure for a prodigy. be was married to the coonte1:1s kneuth, a such was his life at berlin for ten months a danisl1 lady of great beauty of person and year, from 1850 to 18i0, save when interfered charm of manner, but still greater beauty "'i th by sickness. on the .1st of august in aud sweetness of character, w bo thenceforth . each year he set ·oi1t for switzerland, tore-:.devoted· her -life to his comfort and haj:ipi.: -· fresh himself among the mountains, wllich ness. such were the depth and strength of were to him as friends and consolers,in whose her .affection for her idolized husband, who hociety be gained new life and inspirntion. breathed his last in her arms, that she sur­ on the 1st of september be went to paris, 'vived him but a few months, dying, it is and by the 1st or 2d of october was nt home supposed, of a broken l1eart. there is a sto­ again, e::tact as the sun-dial two months ry told, i know not with what correctness, '"hich were meant for recreation could not that their acquaintance be~an in his .kli­ be released from the importunate hnnd of nik, where she was a patient. after exam­ suffering. the aftlicted from all climes_ folining her eyes, l1e told her that the operation lowed to his mountain home, and thronged might cost her her beauty. she mildly bnt ··his temporary balonb in the l"'rench capital. firmly requestcdnint to proceed, adding that 32 -60'2--·-· -. -·...... harper's 1-.'ew. monthly magazine •. _.:: _ ---··-····-· ___ . tbe beauty was of little consequence. the i" in forty minutes from this time i will bo acqnn.intanco thus begun ripened into love, at my klinik.'' tbe queen mnde ber np. mul they were \vedded. he \vas once re: peara.nce in fi'!e minutes; the operation wns quested by a brother physician to examiu_e performed; he returned to his hospital, a1ul a young lady brought to berlin foj! the purhad ten minutee to epare. ·.thus must roy. poae by her friend&, but who was so timid alty sometimes bow to genius. covetous that abe could not be induced to visit the of time, he was in all things els~ bountiful professor either at his house or the kliriik. as the dny. ·although the revenue drnwu .it was therefore arranged that the two doefrom hisprivate· clientage wna princel~, ~1'8 s'!:tou~c_! ___ s_!ll'p~~~-. her that evening at not\vitbsta.dding the ptice for operations ancl :a large party. separate«-troinhisfriend ·treatment ·waa fixed autl very moderate, it in the throng, tho profe88or encountered a was . absorbed by his benefactions to those . young indy with a slight blemish in her eye, sufferers \vbo were unable to pay, aud to o{ which it appeared she was in perfect igwhom he gave bed and board, as well as norancc. ·· suppoeiug her to be: the person light.-while simple in his tastes, and inex­ ,·.1vhom he ""u.in_quest of,_he drew do:wn the pensive in his personal habits, so munificent -~ lower lid of her ey,e, and after an instant's were his charities that not only was hie pro­ .-inspection said, pleasantly, ".oh, that ia a fe88ional income spent, but his private for­ . small matter, come to the · klinik in the tune trenched upon. aftliction and poverty ... morning, and i \vill attend to it.'' utterly never appealed to him in vain ; and even _:disconcerted for the moment by what seem~ time; which he hoarded ·aa ·a miser honrd~t ~£~-the_ md~ne~ of the stranger, _the maiden golcl, be used 88 a steward for miulkind. ,~·.inquired, as ho turned to leave her, ·~who i have ipoken· of his visit: to me in the ~.-_is that impudent fellow that takes such lib-1 september days_pf 1868.: he was in paris, . .:.:em~""'"at. this.inatant :v on..graet:e'a.friend.l. professedly...:.lot:_~t.:_~q~,d-' ~la~tip~u. but __ ';._found: _him, and conducted him· to the shy when i called upun him soon after, the aute­ ~~sel;:who· turned ont t-o be an altogether room. waa 1illed-. with patients,· aa. it waa jdi1ferent. person.:.~· in consequencethe proevery clay. among oth~m, there was a _-::,f811801' had· two young .lady patients at the .lovely young girl, whose beauty was deform­ ~ik··next morning:':= :--,..-;;=c~-:u,.::;:· t;.;:;i;.,">..ne: -eel by:-amost-ngly-swollen:eye;·from-whieh·· * sueh-,was: hisestimate ~of-the: value: of the-light :chadforever. doparted,while .the ~:time; and ·hi& delicate sense of-responsibilityotbe-waa in-great.; peril..~b~ . .father .had ;~to the crowd of patients who daily waitm brought her from the other aide of the world xupon his ministrations; that he eonld.hanlly to see the renowned -professor. : the next !~ ~.j!ldu~~,cj. · ~a_!te~~-~l, _<!:0~;_~.'! _!d~tter day. the· bad eye was out,. and . two weeks ?diow lilgh the rank,. save .in jii8 own li08aner:tjiidappy-jirrwu:-ou.honebaek· in -:<:pitat, tlie czarina of rtl8sia, thenat nice,. tbe.boia.: ..:, two years later i met her in her : -aent an imperial ·snmmons for him to wait distant home,_ with perfect sight in her . upon her there. he declined to go, on the remaining eye, and the other so. deftly re­ . ground of iujustice_~!~.-~!~nts. the placed that the closest scrutiny could bard.• czar wna obliged to seek the intercess1on o · lywscover tliillf"waa· not her own:n·-­ . xing william, the son of von graefe's godwould be impo88ible to calculate how mauy · father. at his urgent solicitation-the prohuman eyes von graefe has saved, and to _fe~.consented.to.make the journey, tranl~. h_p_~ m!'ny_h~ ]las_ ~~~~t!.~~.uigb!_~!_ ~h~-... : .ing by express. entering the imperial pre&world. , i doubt if it has been the prerogn­ ence, he made a brief examination of the tive of any man in modern times to confer .. ::czarina's eyes; assured her that the course such substantial happine88 as von graefu _:_pursued.. by_her. own·. physicia.n __ waa. quite. h-., .. ~to~ed.jtpo_q__~~~~j~-~l!~~~a~ds., __ i __ ·. cqrrect, and without an hour'e halt set ont entered his .klinik in november, and foumr · for berlin.. the quean-dowager of prnssia, him thin and . wasted, often.. ga!jping for :· who is said to have been a peculiar porsou, breath, while hia hair was blanched to sn­ ~nefe eboold-com ugh he hod reaclted fourscore. :·:potadam. he declined, on the gronnd that but the great soul still. shone through his . he could not spare the time, and suggested pallid face, and gave the eye an almost iu· that she should come to the klinik.. this elfable loveliness, and the unconquerable ·abe absolutely refused to d~, and king willwill held his bodily powers up to an amount ~.:.lam waa obliged to mediate once more.·: -at and quolityofwork which would have done ; .. ·his request t~e professor. promised to give credit to a giant. _.after a caref'ulstudy of -;:~.the-queen one hour.a royal vain wu.in .my eye,.canied.on. day .. by day.for_weeks_ ~y _ 'waiting at the station, which bore him and hia assistant, ewers, and himself, it came my -his attendants-with lightning speed. to. .potstum....t.o...occnp~-table....:..jtnom~jl~~at _ _.,.clam; where carriages were ready to carry the operation would be a painfol one, i h;ad .·:them· to. the palace. a lady in .waiting lnstipulated with him for the insensibility . formed the prof~:~asor that her majesty wna produced by chloroform•· .as i took my place --·not yet up,· but would receive him in an hesaid:... ---~-..:.:-t-.-'·:.:.·~·-·---····--hour. pulling out his watch, he answered, "i have watched you closely, nnd see that 33 ·my .bluidness and albrecht vo:n graefe. you are ··a man· of nerve.-' there 'is only a hig which time the livea of both had ~een _ -alight transparent spot' in the 'cornea iuto in jeopardy.· once more be came, bot with .. which i can cut; the merest muscular twitch, slow and languid step, and how ghastly pale -theiievi&tion -of the imife-by~tbe-tenth'jlart ~nd -weak -be -wast ~-bot ~here-wartbe"uld-:­ of a hair'&-brendtb,·will ruin the operation; pluck, the dauntless will rising auperior'to . -ehloroform.-ean :not llold -,-on ·aa ~teady<-as decay.-·he said that the ·indammation-.had ~ -yonr.will. ·::what-uy yon1 .·i ,h~ve :contimade such ravages' in ·my eye that the be~&-': deuce in your self-control" "':.-~''i"::.:,;::;.; :s:,;:..~~ . 'fit from the first operation.had been destroy:­ . · ·i answered, "go on wi thont . the · cllloroed, and the second would be out of the que&· fonn."· · ·' · ... · ··: · · -' '·· · .. .· tion. tliusligbt·and hope went out togetbthe eyelids were fastened back by springs, er. i bad been a coward indeed to sink down ~ and the cutting proceeded ... · ' · '. '· ·: :·-:: ': -. · in '118eless tepining and complaint, and lose ' ---f-ks~~inear-ieeision-wae-inad · eart-of~,..,..hen that wasted,-almostthe cornea or colorless part of the eye, and a spectral, man stood at my aide, speaking ' cut in the iris or colored part behind. deli-: auch calm, brave words .. · when my health. •· cate forceps were then introduced to draw was sufficiently recovered i left the klinik, ., the iris -ant 11o·as to line-tbe·new-made-open.;and· took ~up -my-quartel'lf'in .... -plea:&ante-r:; iug, and 'the· edges of the iris, clipped with ·part-of berlin:· some weeks after i went to .: scisson:~, were skillfully fastened to the surtake my leave of the profeasor. it was in face of the eye. time the operation for arthe evening, at his own bonae: i found him -tiflcial '}jnpil,-called -iridectomy;-reqnired·in wasted ·toblnha<low,-his-·hnud· feverishand­ this case about four minutes and a halfalmost transparent, his breathing short and . longer than usual, and it can be well imaglabored, and appearing eo far exhausted that .. · incd th:it the time seemed much longer to he could not last t!enty-fonr hours longer· · -rue.-the master hunseliappbed the dallaery sweet andliiliof. grace it was to s1t ' ages, and with cheery, loving words sent 'me once more in the radiant atmosphere of that_·, away in the care of attendants, while he man's pre8e!lce,·and hear the~igh soul, al-.:·: . rapidly--went ·.on•with-other -cases .. ; -that mostdieembodiedjuse the words of our mor~~ night,· :and :every night ·aud ·morning· for tal 8~h:. • on 'the morrow be· wa8 to leave-~-:fourteen days;lie was 'itmy dedsme;bi{og:for italy, 1-for paris. ;.~\i7elt ailn~tting 'go ·t in g. summer· sunshine· into the wintry darkthe hand of one· 'p888ing bebirid the veil. o( i :; ness of iny room.' all went -well for .twelve eternity.~; softly we uid good-by, and nev-_;: days; .. the~wound .was healing;-ana. -light-be-er·met~gai~i+-osnch :wae-tbe,mtm~~ondej.o::~ gan to .xeveautself; ~d -if -the promise .of ful-hold ori.life, -and -the· reinforcing· pov.·er ~: ·tb~ .t~l~~-_k~pt,-:j;h_e isec()g._d_·_operation .ofjlis_:will,-that in the:balmy.ji,ir~of.ltaly'he:s could be performed in a month, and thengained a new lease of existence, and came';.': te deum laod~mns.' ·my ftie]ld had;-80 to_. b&(lkto·berlin~th !he· bi~ and the tine·; say, o~ne~ .the windo~ -a~n~ter, and j1is weatb~r. :for another .-year, and more, :ih~;::; next' step' was· to 'reniov£dbe ·thick heavy shrunken skeleton "daily walked the waras ·. -t:nrtain within-:-the -opaque -cryatalline·lens -of 'his ~klin1k;'11.nd'iibe "day.'before-his :death-~ -'by what is ·called the peripberie ·. extraehe performed ten operations. ·: i~ the last.;,, tion of cataract, cutting half.:way round months of his life he composed and pub-~· . the eye~ and 'by'hooks 'or'pressilie witharaw; lislied ·a-·magiiificcrit ··arid 'exhaustive "tie&-,~ ing the tiriy sack of water _tarried to storie. tise on glaucoma; that fearful disease of the.· afterihe healing of the eye the second time eye which be waa.the· first to explore and~ a glass could ·be adapted to its service, and core. this work was the song of the swan .. thus glimpses;·u not the· full vision, of the writing to warlm-ont, at brussels, in jatin=-..-. worltl might be gained. on the thirteenth ary of this year, he ~aid, r~_ferr:ing t() -~lite~:~:: clay the· master began-to'sba'ke-b1s ·head; ary task," try to· send me proofs easy to~ . somethil:ig inexplicable wns · the _matter. vise, because i feel myself sick; and when ~·­ both be and i were conscious of a change i work more than ten hours a day i feel fur the worse, but neither could guess the it deeply." a very little while 'before his cause. two days after, however, we underdeath, writing to donders~ at utrecht, be stood it, when i was suddenly nnd violently said, "i am growing ~~!.!e:_...,.:_!.e~n~ n~t-' :atta·cked.by-c(ingestion-of the--chest-b;nd speak of iny health now; everyl1~~-r· ~~a~ ·. right lung; the inflammatory condition bad begins seems to be my last." ·~:o;: .. f; •··.~~·~.,~-~:·: · nt first assailed the weak and ailing organ. notwithstanding his laugnishina', nay, · were this the place, i should like to speak dying condition, the sublime dedication of . : of one who came in t.hese days and minishimself to the relief of human suffering and . tered onto me while i was sick and in the the energy of his inflexible will beld him np · prison of doubt .and pain, and 1to 'vhom 1 to the use of the ~nife and t~e pe~ uutil the am sure the word shall be b}loken, "forasvery last. possessed of an md?m1table and much ns thou bast done it nnto one of the deyouring zeal, be ended by bemg devoured .. _ least of these, thou hast done it unto me." himself. the end came on the 20th of july, ou the same day graefe took l1is bed, and 1870. "draw the cnrtnius," he e:xclaimed at for three weeks we did not meet again, durtho supreme moment;cl and let me look npon ·· 34 (j()4 ·-· harper's !i.'ew :mo.xthly magazi~""e .. __ the_ sun once more," and died with the calm of the sage und the peace of the christian. brief as had been his career, the measure of his greatness and his fame was full. most of the medical and scientific societies of the world had chosen him an honorary member; and many sovereigns had conferred upon him their decorations, among others the czar of russia, the "grand cordon of the order of . st. stanislaus t' th_e men of his own profes-: sion throughout the world held him as their prince or m:u;ter. he advanced the knowl­ edge of the eye and of its proper treatment under t.be manifold grievous ills to which it is subject, ftom the obscurity in which it bad rested from the foundation of the world to the light and certainty of a comprehen­ sive science, while the blessings of tens of thousands who were ready to perish were aft--er all his highest meed of honor. when one reflects that albrecht von graefe passed from __ earth at· a little more than forty-two years of age, and that his scientific and practical career lasted scarcely twenty years, his mau­ ._,ifold-aocl mighty:-works create an astonish­ . ment which beggars words. when graefe ~-oreathed his last, e11r0pe trembled under the .·-tread of.embattled hosts. father william vas going forth at the head of his armies to -:-·:engage1icthif death:.gmpple with his french -.--adversary.the fiower of gennany was with -him;-and-m:m~man-on-either side of-the :_fray showed himself a hero, but not one of '.'. ·:~: .•r,; •' • •' •" • them exhibited bighcr qualities, or ueser,·es a more lasting and illnatrious commcnwra­ tion, than be who was looking on the sun for the last time wheu the armed strife be­ gan. half the population of berlin escorted his coffin to the tomb, and buried it under roses and palms. the poor wept because their beocfactorwaa gone, and the great felt in grief that the brightest and most benefi­ cent light of modern science was qnencheu • i have thus sketched three men with whom my infirmity has brought me in contact. they are types. one hears much of utili­ tarians, quack!!, swindlers, and is sometimes half inclined to think they compose the world. _ but fuller knowledge yields consolation, and i am proud to live in an age blazoned with the deeds of such men as bowman, critchett, helmholtz, donders, arlt, and graefe; and i am glad to know that they have pupils and friends on this side of the water whose names are worthy to be men­ tioned with theirs-knapp and derby, of new york;-derby,.ofboston-; bolling pope, of new orleans, and not a few others. if any man is disposed to undervalue the sci­ ence and art to which the lives ofthese men have been given, let him remember the words of helmholtz; than whoof there· is no wiser living philosopher: "ophthalmology is to medical science what astronomy·· has long been to physical science-itl model." editors: . -_, : .. ~ . henry w hofstetter douglas k penisten 1987-18-02-001 1987-18-02-002 1987-18-02-003 1987-18-02-004 1987-18-02-005 1987-18-02-006 1987-18-02-007 1987-18-02-008 1987-18-02-009 1987-18-02-010 1987-18-02-011 1987-18-02-012 1987-18-02-013 1987-18-02-014 1987-18-02-015 1987-18-02-016 1987-18-02-017 1987-18-02-018 pindsigh·i·· :s~.,..~ ..::~ ... ., ... ij r na university : newsletter of the • apr 0 3 1996 ., ·ifvierry lisri\1':\' 243 north optometric historical ~ocietmar 1 s jqqh : lindbergh boulevard, st. louie, missouri ~41, wsa ~ $ volume 25 f) ubrary • april 1994 t~"' ~~.., • , c-.. , • " 8 ') "' .. :v~r 2 john hamer sutcliffe: "a great champion of ophthalmics" is the subtitle of an accolade to sutcliffe by w.e. hardy on pages 33-34 of the january 20, 1961, issue of the optician, vol. 141, no. 3642. according to hardy, "sutcliffe never practised ophthalmic optics in the formal way but he had most decided views on how it should be practised." his father took the initiative in forming the british optical association, shortly after which young john hamer became the secretary. though previously harboring strong interest in linguistics and music he soon "threw himself into the maelstrom of optical affairs." on the technical side he designed a one-position keratometer, a solid bifocal, a trial frame, and test charts, and also served as a technical consultant to a famous optical firm. he founded and edited the dioptric review and wrote many a column over the pen name of "opticus." he also founded the optical society and served twice as its president and for 15 years as its honorary librarian. he served for years as a volunteer soldier, attaining the rank of captain, and was later awarded the o.b.e. in 1929 he served as president of the international optical league. his approximate life span, derived from dates of these and many other activities described in the article, was ca. 1870-ca. 1940. included also is a photograph. reports from 1932 and 1962: seemingly unique is the governmental status of ophthalmic services in great britain. recently dorothy leason, secretary to the international optometric and optical league, sent me two documents, one of which describes ophthalmic services insurance in great britain in the great depression year of 1932 and the other in 1962. the first was a paper entitled "optical insurance in great britain" read by r.j. meller at the opening session of the international optical league conference in jena, germany, on friday, june 10, 1932, and printed in both english and german. the english version was published in the june 24, 1932, issue of the optician and scientific instrument maker, pp. 303-305. the author was not an optician but a member of parliament very familiar with the national health insurance scheme in which ophthalmic care was not included as a statutory benefit. however, he reported, "so claimant was the demand of the insured people for this urgent and necessary provision that at the first opportunity many (insurance) societies included ophthalmic treatment in their list of additional treatment benefits." 25/~0 the scheme required health insurance for all wage-earners over 16-years-old, except those in nonmanual occupations earning more than £250 a year, with funds derived from three sources, the insured persons, their employers, and the state. another category of insurees known as "voluntary contributors" paid both the employees' and employers' share. these sickness, disablement, maternity, and medical benefits were known as "statutory benefits." the system was implemented by "approved societies" operating under government surveillance. in instances where societies showed a net profit they were entitled to provide additional benefits which might include payments toward dental, ophthalmic, and other costs. of the £2~ million in additional benefits extended over a 10-year period by the approved societies, approximately 73% was dental and 12% ophthalmic optical. the author, the manager of an approved society that served a fourth of the british insured population, made a strong case for the total inclusion of the opticians in the statutory benefits category. the title of the second paper is "the development of the ophthalmic service" by george h. giles, an optometrist, a barrister-at-law, and, among his other offices, the president of the international optical league. it appeared in the royal society of health journal, vol. 82, no. 4, july-august, 1962, pp. 217-222. he points out that the first national health insurance acts (as described above by meller) were enacted in 191~ and prevailed accordingly until 5 july 1948 at which time the national health service act of 1946 was put into effect. under this new statute any patient was eligible to "have his eyes tested and be supplied with glasses where necessary through the supplementary ophthalmic services. patients requiring further investigation or treatment outside the scope of the supplementary service are referred to the hospital eye service." the supplementary ophthalmic services were those provided by medical refractionists (ca. 1,000), optometrists (ca. 7,000), and dispensing opticians (ca. ~,000). each person wishing to make use of the service had, on his or her first occasion only, to obtain a recommendation from a general medical practitioner. payment for the eye examination and the glasses was made by the executive council for the supplementary ophthalmic services. ~ the hospital eye service was administered through regional hospital boards and boards of governors and deal with diagnosis and treatment of ocular disease together with incidental refraction work. it was staffed by medical, optometric, and dispensing personnel. the establishment of these services and reimbursement provisions necessitated the formation of committees to ascertain the qualifications of providers of the various ophthalmic services. these are described in detail by giles as leading to the opticians act of 1958 primarily for registration of qualified personnel, a procedure which became effective in june 1961. such registration became the sole criterion for practice at all. the act created the 25/11 general optical council with majority representation by optometrists and dispensing opticians, plus ophthalmologists, other medical persons, educationists, and lay persons, to take over the control of opticians. a 1958 act to authorize the general optical council to register optometrists and dispensing opticians formally became operative in june 1961. giles describes some of the anomalies and administration difficulties as perceived at the time of his report (1962} . h.w h. the jena influence: on the friday evening of june 10, 1932, the opening speeches of the three-day congress of the international optical league at jena, thuringia, germany, included, besides a keynote address, the welcoming remarks of government counsellor stier of the thuringian ministry at weimar; dr. elsner, lord mayor of jena; professor dr. esau, rector of the university of·jena; and director henrichs of the carl zeiss firms. the comments of counsellor stier provide significant documentation of the purposeful philosophy and mission of the optometry school at jena, as follows: (from the july­ august, 1932, issue of the dioptric review, p. 172} in the name of the government ministry for education, i bid you welcome here in jena, the town with the biggest optical industry in the whole of germany. the firm of carl zeiss, who controls these works, comes within the purview of our administration. at the wish of one of the founders of the firm, professor ernest abbe, we have also concerned ourselves with the improvement of the status of the optician. according to his opinion, the provision of optical aids to the community is a matter of very great importance, and requires nowadays a good groundwork of scientific knowledge. we cannot refuse the demand for the acquiring of this requisite knowledge, because there are as yet no restrictions on industry in germany, including the profession of the optician, and anyone can sell spectacles and all kinds of optical and meteorological instruments. if, therefore, well educated opticians obtain this necessary scientific knowledge for the practice of their profession, there is no need to enforce any legal restraint upon their trade. we, therefore, in thuringia, established fourteen years ago the first optical educational centre in germany, the technical high school of opticians. its doors are equally open to german students and foreign. we are glad of the attendance of foreign students, because, whilst we teach german methods, german scientific knowledge and research, we also give them a good deal of information concerning the scientific productions of our country and our own optical industry. we are glad, representatives of representatives also therefore, that you, as official the english optical profession and of the international optical league, 25/12 have this year chosen jena as your meeting place. we regard your decision as an acknowledgment that in jena, in its factories and its school, some contribution is made to optical knowledge and research. we wish your congress every success and hope that your impressions of us will be the very best. with these words, i bid you the heartiest of welcomes. the evil eye: this is the name of a 1992 book by alan dundes (university of wisconsin press, madison) which is excellently reviewed by ohs member bill lyle in the august 1992 issue of optometry and vision science, page 664, of which prestigious journal he is editor. with typical lyle thoroughness, after pointing up dozens of fascinating (derived from latin fascinum for evil eye) details of "man's oldest superstition, " he closes his review with what may disappointedly be correct, "this book will not be of great interest to most optometrists." truly there is a challenge here. a prompt visit into the stacks of the university library not only revealed this book and its almost identical 1981 edition, but also two adjacently stacked books of earlier date with the same title by other authors. the earlier one is edited by clarence maloney and published by columbia university press, new york, in 1976. the later one is authored by lawrence distasi under the tripartite title of "mal occhio, [evil eye], the underside of vision" and published by north point press, san francisco, 1981. maloney's book consists of chapters entirely by anthropologists, a collection that grew out of a symposium on the evil eye belief held at the 1972 meeting of the american anthropological association. the common features in the descriptions of the belief in twelve world regions or ethnic groups include the following: "(1} power emanates from the eye (or mouth) and strikes some object or person; (2) the stricken object is of value, and its destruction or injury is sudden; (3) the one casting the evil eye may not know he has the power; (4) the one affected may not be able to identify the source of the power; (5) the evil eye can be deflected or its effects modified or cured by particular devices, rituals, and symbols; (6) the belief helps to explain or rationalize sickness, misfortune, or loss of possessions such as animals or crops; and ( 7) in at least some functioning of the belief everywhere, envy is a factor." the reporting is essentially anecdotal in wordy detail with hundreds of reference citations, a small number of accompanying illustrations, subjective interpretations of the thought processes of persons affected, and the related folklore and traditions. the distasi monograph is a puzzling biographical account of the role of mal occhio in the author's one-household family of year 1913 immigrant italian parents, a spinster aunt having mal occhio powers, and "children small and large, married and unmarried. " supplementing the accounts of the family's supernatural experiences 25/13 is a good deal of philosophical discussion of the related role and influence of italian traditions and the interpretation of attributed phenomena in terms of mythological and psychological analogies. the author's academic or disciplinary qualifications are nowhere divulged, but the sophisticated quality of the text and his numerous reference citations suggest a well educated person brought up from childhood to be conscious of his minority culture and particularly sensitive to the nondiscussibility of the day-to­ day influence of mal occhio. what the book makes almost excruciatingly clear is the ever-present seriousness of the superstition within an ordinary,· apparently wholesome, family, a superstition which in another family might be regarded like evil eye flugle with an amused smile. the dundes book, labeled as a casebook, is a compendium of selected essays on the evil eye which, except for one, have appeared during the current century in a variety of journals by authors in a wide range of disciplines, the earliest being 1889, the most recent 1976, and the median 1943. most of the essays are anecdotal reportings though several are aimed more toward the theoretical interpretation of the available facts. not included is any text by german ophthalmologist s. seligmann, whose two-volume publication in 1910 is still the most comprehensive coverage of the related literature, a survey of 2,100 bibliographical sources. in case you entertain the notion that the evil eye concept is by now merely a residual of the past please note that it still rests on the apex of the pyramid on the back side of the american one dollar bill. or, if you suspect that someone is "glaring" at you, be aware that you are indulging in the basic evil eye hypothesis that rays of intensive hostility are being directed toward you. even the common expression "casting one's eyes on something" implies the ocular emissions of radiant forces analogous to the visual beams theorized by top scientists of the 4th century. (see optometry and vision science, val. 69 no. 1, pp. 76-79, january 1992.} in recent years even the national science foundation has provided study grants for cross-cultural surveys of the phenomenon. it may well be that the superstition continues to be formally entertained only by persons with very limited background in modern science, but are not they the great majority? h.w h. optometric developments in spain: the following is a condensed chronology derived from the report of the spanish delegation to the international optometric and optical league at the june 6-10, 1992, meeting in granada, spain. legislative recognition from early times in spain the optician (optico) has functioned as today's optometrist but not until 29 september, 1934, did the 25/14 term "optometrist" appear in an official document, an order of the ministry of work, justice, and health, in which reference was made to "optician-optometrists." it was published in the madrid gazette on 4 october, 1934, but held in suspense by an official order of a ministry department on 29 october, 1934. the term was abolished later by order of the same ministry on 18 february, 1936, and so published in the madrid gazette on 20 february, 1936. in the above-mentioned order of 1934 measurement of ocular refractive errors was forbidden to be done by anyone who did not have a medical license, but the 1936 order removed that restriction and merely forbade the advertising of refractive services, not the service itself, by bonmedical personnel. on 19 july, 1947, the official state bulletin (the b.o.e.) published the government presidency order of 8 july, 1947, which included some regulations of verification and tolerance of spectacle lenses without identifying that anyone without special qualifications could do the work. a decree of 22 june, 1956, published in the 10 july, 1956, b.o.e. established the spectacle optician diploma, an academic and professional landmark, for with it was included a curriculum. several years later decree #1387/61 of 20 july, 1961, appeared in the b.o.e. of 7 august, 1961, as an order to regulate the opticians' professional practice. it provided that each optical establishment must have a qualified optician in charge whose functions and qualifications were described. a trade ministry order of 4 april, 1962, published in the b.o.e. on the 14th established some "buying and selling" regulations for optics and in so doing identified it as a "free business activity." this in effect ratified the provisions of decree #1387/61. in 1964 decree #356/64 of 12 february, published in the b.o.e. on the 18th, created the colegio nacional de opticos-optometristas (c.n.o.o.), a professional corporation with substantial administrative and judicial authority to represent the rights and legitimate interests of all qualified opticians under provisions of article 572 of the penal code. the colegio is governed by its members chaired by a dean. internal regime regulations were formulated in 1964 and adopted in 1965. a law enacted on 13 february, 1974, involving professional colegios was complemented by royal decree #1303/77 on 10 june, 1977, to place the c.n.o.o. under the supervision of the general health ministry beginning in 1979. on 13 july, 1992, the health insurance ministry published royal decree #2207, which approved the by-laws of the c.n .0.0. that had been adopted at the general meeting of the c.n.o.o. members on 9 april, 1984, and which are in force today. 25/15 educational advancement decree #2842/72 of 15 september, 1972, created the university school of optics at the complutence university in madrid. on 2 october, 1973, ·the curriculum was approved and published. on 7 october, 1977, the terrassa university school of optics at the barcelona polytechnical university was established by order of the education and science ministry. on 21 september, 1982, its curriculum was approved by the same ministry. royal decree #1855/85 mandated the alicante university school of optics on 9 october, 1985. by action of the universities council on 1 february, 1988, its curriculum leading to the title graduate in optics was approved. by decree #108/89 of 22 may, 1989, a similar graduation certification title was approved for the sciences faculty of granada university, and its curriculum was approved on 8 january, 1990. . by royal decree 1419/90 on 26 october, 1990, the combination title of graduate in optics and optometry was established together with a prescribed curriculum to fulfill it. in 1990 the regional government of galacia announced the establishment of the santiago de compostela university school of optics with a curriculum to meet the requirements of the new optician/optometrist professional title. practice rights throughout its existence spanish opticianry has suffered legal attacks from other professionals. the first formal court case was in 1984, a complaint against an optician for usurping ophthalmological privileges. the optician won. in 1989 the sociedad espanole de oftalmologia filed 30 complaints against 30 opticians throughout spain. every decision favored the opticians' right to perform the visual examination using the instruments they consider to be appropriate, with only the obligation to refer patients to ophthalmologists whenever anything pathological is detected during the examination. at present ophthalmologists are forbidden to exercise business relationships with individual optical firms, but they are not complying with the law. scarlett's spectacles: in a full-page article entitled "optical history" on page 10 of the march 1992 issue, no. 96, of interoptics retired optometrist and honorary curator of the british optical association foundation museum hugh orr has extracted entries from early minutes of the worshipful company of spectacle makers concerning edward scarlett, the name of at least two opticians, father and son. apparently just prior to the turn of the 18th century the elder edward 25/16 commenced his optical career at age 14 by apprenticing to christopher cock, a freeman of the worshipful company of turners. the craft of a turner included making tubes for telescopes and other instrument parts. in july 1716 the elder edward scarlett apprenticed his own son of the same name under the registration of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, of which the senior scarlett was master in 1720-172l. it is recorded that in 1728 the senior scarlett published a description of his newly invented spectacles to fasten behind the ears, but no trace of the booklet has been found. a pair of "spectacles with a looped side to grip the temples" is shown on his trade card now in the science museum collections. scarlett is also credited with marking the focal length in inches on spectacle frames. mr. orr has in his collection a pair of brass round-eye spectacles with short straight sides "suitable to wear with a wig" both embossed "e. s. " in scroll exactly the same as scarlett's signature in the wcsm minutes when he was master. the lenses are +3.00 spheres on one of which is etched "70," perhaps intended to be suitable for a 70-year-old. in an advertisement in the weekly journal of 23 may, 1724, mr. scarlett is identified as "optician to their royal highnesses." editor: managing editor: .. contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1994-25-02-001 1994-25-02-002 1994-25-02-003 1994-25-02-004 1994-25-02-005 1994-25-02-006 1994-25-02-007 1994-25-02-008 newsletter of the optometric historical society ff. 8 2 ~ 1976 (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. 63119) volume 7 january 1976 number 1 thanks, john: during my six months absence from the office, our o.h.s. president, john r. levene, substituted as editor, as you know. his was the october, 1975, issue, concluding our sixth consecutive year of publication. my return from europe on the 23rd hour of january 1, actually the 29th hour by the european clocks, combined with a three day "jet lag" (a term too new for most dictionaries), and an accumulation of a half year's mail stacked high in my office, easily explain the delay in getting this issue out. with a little luck it will still be posted in the month of january, in which case i can save my apology for more demanding circumstances. meanwhile, doctor levene took a new appointment, with another title, that of dean, at the southern college of optometry, 1245 madison avenue, memphis, tennessee 38104. ryer and the ilamo: in september mrs. maria dablemont, librarian/archivist of the inter­ national library, archives, & museum of optometry wrote a letter to an inquirer in which she described in vivid detail the growing ryer museum collection. the following passages deserve careful reading. "dr. e. leroy ryer died on october 22, 1972 at the age of ninety-two. the museum was named after him two years ago. the e. leroy ryer museum, joseph m. babcock archives and the ernest h. kiekenapp memorial library comprise the international library, archives and museum of optometry (ilamo). "in his later years dr. ryer became very attached to this institution. after having served aoa and optometry in many capacities, he officially came out of retirement to become history consultant to the library and to american optometric association's history committee. in his own thorough and uncompromising way, he went far beyond what was expected. he immediately donated to us his excellent library, private papers, museum objects, some of his own invention, patents, awards, and memora­ bilia. at our request he wrote his autobiography which to no one's surprise, tells very little of himself, but is full of the history of optometry. still, it is an autobiography in the true sense of the word, for optometry was his own life. likewise, he embodied the highest ideals of the profession. dr. ryer was a scholar. he loved the classics and delighted in quoting from them. very shy, extremely modest, he shunned public appearances. yet, he was an articulate and persuasive -2speaker, and could be an indomitable opponent when the cause of optometry was at stake. he was indeed optometry's fearless and faultless knight. his speech proposing an academy of optometry was a masterpiece. dr. ryer's audience was so moved by his eloquence that academies subsequently flourished in many locations across the nation. he himself founded the new york academy of optometry in 1912. an early officer of the american academy of optometry, he was awarded a life membership in 1959. "the ryer museum is small, but its contents invaluable and diverse, including collections of antique eyeglasses and early instruments, some invented and patented by optometrists. there are memorabilia associated with individual achievements and events that have shaped the history of optometry, the american optometric association, and other optometric organizations. "virtually all of the museum items have been donated by individuals,· optometric organizations, and friends of optometry. the holdings include several major collections: 1. the museum is the custodian of the american optometric association's collection of photographs, including official portraits of aoa presidents. 2. the awards collection is comprised of plaques, certificates, diplomas, licenses, and patents received by individual optometrists. included are honors received by the profession of optometry as well as those bestowed by the aoa and other optometric organizations. 3. particularly interesting is a display depicting the history of contact lenses. the major part of this collection was donated by dr. reuben greenspoon, himself a pioneer in the field. it serves to corroborate the key role of the optome­ trists in the early years of contact lens development. 4. the collection of early ophthalmic instruments includes pieces used by optometrists at the turn of the century. among them are the ryer retinoscope, and a leland refractor, of which only three are believed to have ever been produced. 5. the museum also exhibits personal possessions of charles prentice, the 'father of optometry' in the united states. noteworthy in the prentice collection are the original manuscript 'ten theorems essential for finesse in optometry' complete with diagrams; family photographs; and works by and about prentice. 6. the collection of eyeglasses includes rare types of eyewear, antique spectacles and other specimens of more recent vintage. also exhibited are glasses that have acquired historical value due to ownership, prescriber, etc. -37. perhaps our most coveted possession is the personal papers of john mcallister, jr., dating from 1822, which confirm his prescribing of cylindrical lenses for the correction of astigmatism at that time. the mcallister collection also includes photographs, family albums, and writing by and about the mcallisters. "the optometric historical society is a group dedicated to the preservation of the history of the optometric profession. this organization has brought about a new awareness of the importance of the optometric heritage. optometric institutions that until recently had a few museum items are diligently increasing their collections. private owners of historical materials either donate them to the society (and those are generally housed here) or make the donation to the institution of their choice. "the three entities that comprise the international library, archives, and museum of optometry need more extensive physical quarters. although plans for expansion are contained in our program for the continuing development of ilamo, present financial constraints preclude any significant growth in the near future. this, however, does not prevent us from accepting donations of books and other materials, even complete private collections." smc's 350th anniversary: the worshipful company of spectacle makers will celebrate its 350th year in 1979 with a four day series of lectures and social events. the dates will be may 14-17, 1979. the theme, "the changing demands on the human eye and the development of technology to cope with them" will give special emphasis to such aspect:;s as "occupation, environment and leisure." planned as the scientific feature will be "lectures by half-a-dozen men of international renown, supported by numerous subsidiary lectures, reporting on research done." resources of pertinent scientific knowledge will be tapped "not merely within the united kingdom but throughout the world." plans for this were set up in 1973, with "frank wiseman, upper warden of the company" as the "skipper of the team." further details may be found in the july 25, 1975, issue of the optician (london), vol. 170, no. 4392, page 3. because the worshipful company of spectacle makers is the oldest optometric organization in the world, and because it undoubtedly has the most outstanding record of continuing professional leadership, this event could well have unparalleled significance for optometrists and ophthalmic opticians everywhere. "from across the pond": this is the title of a monthly series in the second of which more than a full page of commentary was made in review of the optometric historical society and the o.h.s. newsletter. in the very easy style -4which i myself try to emulate here, the author, over the pen name "atlantis," most comprehensively and pleasantly tells his readers what he had read in the newsletter. it appeared in the august 22, 1975, issue of the optician (london), pp. 4 and 6. this is precisely the kind of interest that the o.h.s. wants to stimulate and encourage, that our heritage may be regarded as fascinating and delightful as well as revealing and informative. historian candidate: mrs. hilda g. kingslake, a fellow of the optical society of america, was born in london, educated at the imperial college of science and technology, and has published papers on the knife-edge test and the effects of aberrations on images. she spent some years at theodore hamblin ltd. designing optics for ophthalmic instruments. since corning to rochester, new york, she has been the co-author of several papers, and she researched and wrote the "fifty-year history of the optical society of america" for the 1966 anniversary. she managed the october 1966 national meeting of the optical society, and has served in every office of the rochester local section. as of this writing (july 1975) she is a candidate for director-at­ large of the optical society of america. the above notes are taken from the information sheet accompanying the ballot. philips and illumination: in 1891 gerard philips started an incandescent lamp factory in the town of eindhoven, the netherlands, with a staff of 10. philips was himself a scientist with a bent for applied research. his work made possible the large scale manufacture of homogeneous cellulose filaments for incandescent lamps. in 1903 he started using tungsten. the manufacturing technology pointed to the need for a full-scale research laboratory, formally organized as such in 1914. at present approximately 4,000 people, more than 1% of all employees, are engaged in research at philips, 25% of whom are graduates. about half of these are on the staff of the eindhoven laboratory, the other half in philips laboratories in the united kingdom, france, germany, and belgium. today "philips" is a household word in western europe, identified with a wide range of electronic products and highly respected in research. a very significant share of the research continues to involve vision and the eye, in terms of lighting design, color television, displays, and perceptive requirements. danish optometric history: on april 8, 1975, optometrist poul s. christensen of denmark (holbackvej 34, dk-4571 grevinge) prepared some remarks on optometric developments in denmark to read to a group of visiting american optom­ etrists on a european tour. the following paragraphs are the complete manuscript for his talk. -5"at the beginning of this century the optical profession was linked to two trades: optical instrument makers and watchmakers. denmark in that respect was in accord with the european tradition, which goes several hundred years back. "early in the twentieth century some opticians became aware of the increasing demands for proper sight-testing. several opticians returned home from studies in foreign countries, among them h. jacobsen, who after a ten years stay in the u.s.a. opened his practice in copenhagen in 1907. others undertook self-instruction with the aid of the available ophthalmic literature, such as the works of danders and tscherning. the awakened interest in optometry led to the formation of the danish optical association in 1910, which started mostly with members in copenhagen and the immediately surrounding area. "the association arranged lectures and organized study-circles for the members with the objective of establishing a professional level as a base for the development of an educational program. the war, 1914-18, delayed the activities of the association, so it was not until 1925 that the first real courses in optometry were established. they were arranged as two-year evening classes, headed by an ophthal­ mologist, dr. meisling, who dealt with the theoretical subjects and the refraction of the eye. two opticians worked as his teaching assistants in the more practical subjects. "there were no textbooks in danish. dr. meisling dictated his lectures, and the students wrote them down and so provided their own textbooks. the students were apprentices employed by the optical instrument makers and by the watchmakers, who were active in optics/optometry as well. due to age dr. meisling retired in 1934, and, as it was impossible to find a successor, the school was closed. · "in the ensuing discussion concerning the reopening of the school, two different points of view became evident among the members of the danish optical association. according to the law optometry was regarded as a supplementary subject for the two trades mentioned above. a group of members wanted optometry taken away from the t~o basic trades and they wanted a separate education program for the profession. this would mean an alteration of the law, which was a difficult task. it also would have a significant influence on the educational system and the structure of the school, for which the time was not ripe. "in 1940 there occurred a split in the association, when a minor group left and founded a new association: specialoptikernes landsfor­ ening. the danish optical association of 1910 reopened the school in 1942 under the name the danish optical school, based on the conditions according to the law. it was started as a full-time day-school with courses of six months duration. the admittance was only for students -6who had finished four years of training as apprentices under a master optician and had passed the journeyman's tests to certify their completion of basic training in the optical workshop and in dispensing. "the curriculum of the school was accordingly optometry. appointed as the head of the school was paul s. christensen, who was a student from the old school of dr. meisling, and who, as was customary in those days, had followed up the development in the profession by self study. "from the start the school established a good working relationship with the danish ophthalmological society. a committee was set up, headed by prof. dr. med. holger ehlers, dean for the ophthalmological faculty at the university of copenhagen, and in the committee was an equal number of ophthalmologists and opticians. an agreement was reached very soon, that the ophthalmological society should designate an eye-doctor to teach the subjects of histology, anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the eye. in the first half year dr. med. vraa jensen taught these subjects and subsequently they were taken over by an eye doctor named herluf wille, who carried on as lecturer at the school until 1955. dr. herluf wille also served as an examiner and member of the examination body during all his years at the school. "a part of the agreement with the ophthalmologists was, that all the students at the end of the six months course spend a day at the university eye clinic at rigshospitalet in copenhagen, where, in the morning, they attended the work at the refraction clinic. later the same day special lectures were given by prof. holger ehlers' assistants about all the instruments and equipment used for special investigations and treatments including orthoptics. finally a special lecture was given about pathology of the eye, with which a number of special prepar­ ations and color slides of the interior of the eye were shown. the main textbook was at first that of drs. walter mindt and edmund weiss, 'refraktionsbestirnmungen und brillenanpassung,' from germany, which was translated into danish in 1938. very soon a series of compendiu$s were written by dr. herluf wille and paul s. christensen as supplements to the translated german textbook. "in 1948 was issued the first danish textbook in optics by the two authors just mentioned. (paul s. christensen got half a year leave from the school and went to england to make preparatory studies). the book was in two volumes and served for some years as the basic reference. the main task for the school was to give education in optometry in every respect. objective and subjective methods were used for sight testing, and, in connection with .the lectures given by the eye doctor, training in use of the ophthalmoscope was included. from 1948 contact lens fitting was provided in the program as a supplementary course for students who had passed the final examination. the clinic at the school was open for contact lens fitting to patients referred by opticians in practice. i -7"in addition to the main courses the school provided many smaller courses in evening classes, two-week courses, and one-day-travel courses for opticians in practice. during the 13 years mentioned a total of 884 opticians attended these courses. "parallel to the activities at the school other activities took place. in 1930 a group of jutland opticians founded jydsk optiker­ forening. the organizers of this group were mr. j.h. nisted and mr. rother paludan in aarhus, mr. w. 0stergord in herning, and mr. scheel poulsen in randers. a german optician, franz plate, who became a danish citizen, and who in 1928 wrote some instructional material in optometry, worked for some years for the group in jutland giving courses and lectures. when the specialoptikernes landsforening was formed in 1940 the jutland group joined this association, which established a school with evening classes for the apprentices working with members of the association, to give them the theoretical background for the journeyman's qualification, which covered dispensing and workshop activities. "specialoptikernes landsforening has during the years worked for establishment of optometry as a profession on its own. they resolved that optometry had reached such a standard that further development could not be attained if optometry remained as a supplement to the previously mentioned trades. it is of significance to note that even the danish optical association of 1910 had decided that the time had come for a change. finally in 1954 the government decided to take optometry away from the old trades and established optometry as an independent profession with its own education program. "with this decision the basis for the work at the danish optical school was eliminated, and the school was transferred in 1955 to the whole profession. for several years it served as the basic school for the optical apprentices, as the system with training under a master optician was retained. poul s. christensen and dr. herluf wille then left the school. "in the formulation of the new educational program it was decided first to develop the school as a place for the basic education of the apprentices for the purpose of providing the theoretical education for the journeyman's qualification. this did not include sight testing. hence a group of optometrists headed by jorgen f. nielsen established an institute of optometry to give courses in optometry for students who had fulfilled the journeyman's qualifications. circumstances occurring late in the 'so's led to previously unknown possibilities for the development of optometry in denmark. very important it was that the phoroptor became available to the danish opticians. before the war it was almost unknown in the country, and during the war and the immediately subsequent years there was a serious retrogression in the development of the profession. improving conjunctures eventually gave the optometrists economic sources for the updating of their consulting room equipment. this made possible the effective use of the institute of optometry. in cooperation with -8the optical association a very comprehensive program with supple­ mentary courses for optometrists in practice, mainly concerning analysis techniques, made possible by the phoroptor, were arranged. at one time, in 1962-63, more than fifty per cent of all optometrists• in private practice took part in such supplementary and refresher courses. "in 1962 an amalgamation between the two optical associations took place and a united association was formed under the name danmarks optikerforening (the optical association for denmark). membership in the association is open to optometrists in private practice who can prove their qualifications. these qualifications may be either a passed examination after the ordinary training program established in 1954, or compliance with transition regulations for optometrists who joined the profession before 1954. danmarks optikerforening is represented in the national optical education committee, where the numbers of representatives are in parity with representatives from the association of employed optometrists. this committee, det faglige faellesudvalg, has the responsibility for all the professional education and is responsible to the government. "danmarks optikerforening is a member of nordisk optiker r£d (the nordic optical council), which sponsors a joint nordic optical journal, nordisk tidsskrift for optikere, and which works for a co-ordinated educational program for the four countries, denmark, finland, norway, and sweden. danmarks optikerforening is a member of the international optometric and optical league, in which denmark for many years had held a seat in the executive committee. it is always the president for the association who serves as a delegate. at present this role is filled by golf iversen, o.d., who is also chairman for the i.o.o.l. committee on ethics. "in 1966 the educational program was altered to include optometry as an integral part of the whole training program, covering a 4 1/2 year span. recently the system of preliminary apprenticeship under a master was eliminated. now the program consists of two periods of full time education at the school of 1 1/2 and 1 year duration each, alternated with two one-year periods in practice with a qualified optometrist. "it is estimated that the yearly inflow of optometrists should be 24. in the twenty years elapsed since 1954 about 500 opticians have passed the journeyman's probation, and about half of these have passed additional examinations in optometry. there is no optometry law in denmark, and there are no restrictions, so optometrists have the freedom to undertake all phases of optometry, though they may not use drugs, as this restriction is covered by a medical act. a government committee has worked for some years with a draft for a law for the optometric profession, and it is anticipated that it will be brought before the danish parliament within the next two years." mr. christensen, incidentally is the editor of nordisk tidsskrift for optikere an ophthalmic optical journal serving the entire nordic area. his town of grevinge is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of copenhagen. -9heinrich hertz (1857-1894): heinrich rudolph hertz, of electro-magnetic wave fame was professor of experimental physics at the university of technology, karlsruhe, germany, from 1885 to 1889. named in his memory is the campus apartment building for visiting lecturers and the university campus club, the gastdozentenhaus "heinrich hertz", where i was privileged to reside for six months. the "fridericiana", founded as a polytechnic institute in 1825, the oldest in germany, attained university status in 1865 and .. presently carries the title universitat fridericiana zu karlsruhe, with an enrollment of more than 10,000 students. it is the institution at which the american optometrist charles f. prentice acquired his training as a mechanical engineer in 1871 to 1874. the name hertz is familiar to workers in visual science as the cycles-per-second unit of frequency. though not concerned with vision per se, hertz clearly identified the visible spectrum as a mere portion of the total electromagnetic spectrum obeying the same laws. his widely heralded discovery was accomplished in a series of now famous experiments at karlsruhe at the youthful age of 28 to 31 years. in 1889 he published a summary of his work entitled, "tiber die beziehungen zwischen licht und elektrizit11t" (on the relationship between light and electricity). of further interest to visual scientists is the role played by helmholtz in hertz' career. helmholtz, 36 years older than hertz, provided hertz with his first real opportunity to do research in a labor­ atory facility in 1878 in berlin. prior to that hertz had completed his "abitur" (preparation for university admission) in hamburg, where he was born, then undertook training in construction engineering for a year at frankfurt-am-main, a summer of polytechnical study in dresden, a year of military service in berlin, and a year of polytechnical educa­ tion in munich. his principal academic mentors in berlin were professors kirchhoff and helmholtz, both of whom recognized young hertz' talents almost instantly. by early 1880, at age 23, he completed his doctorate degree with helmholtz as his chief advisor and kirchhoff on his committee. almost immediately helmholtz offered him an assistantship in his institute with an annual stipend of 1,110 marks (present value approximately $450) and including housing, heat, gas, and water! in 1883, three years later, hertz received a privatdozent offer from the physics faculty at kiel, a post which he accepted with some misgivings, for by this time helmholtz and hertz had developed a most stimulating research rapport with each other, and kirchhoff, too, considered hertz' leaving a serious loss. neither helmholtz nor kirchhoff, however, would stand in the way of a young man facing a potentially promising career opportunity. a little more than a year later helmholtz heard of a fine opening at karlsruhe and, without consulting hertz, recommended hertz as the best man for the professorship. in december 1884 hertz received overtures -10from karlsruhe and visited there to be interviewed. he literally fell in love with the city and the institution, accepted the offer, and on april 1, 1885, at the age of 28, he started work at the technische hochschule, as the university is still frequently referred to, "im institut den optischen schrank eingekramt" (rummaging through the optical cabinets). he started immediately on the design and construction of his famous experimental apparatus. his scientific correspondence with helmholtz was extensive and frequent, as were his papers. that helmholtz was thrilled is exemplified by a handwritten message from helmholtz to hertz on a postcard dated july 11, 1887, "manuskript erhalten. bravo! werde es donnerstag uberreichen zum druck. h. v~ htz." (manuscript received, bravo! will forward to the printer on thursday. h. v. htz.) by 1888 hertz was receiving accolades, honors, and awards from many parts of the scientific world for his discoveries. he received very enticing offers from the prestigious universities of bonn, ghttingen, and berlin. he even received an unusual offer from clark university in boston! the offer from bonn he found irresistible and accepted, going there in april 1889 at the age of 32. travel, lecture invitations, special appearances, and the many other demands of fame consumed much of his time and attention for the first two years. then serious health problems developed, involving his teeth, eyes, ears, throat, and mastoid. teeth extraction, repetitive surgery, high fever, massive swelling, and abscess kept him in almost continuous misery for almost two years, to which he succumbed on january 1, 1894, at not quite 37 years of age. his "hochverehrter herr geheimrat" (most revered privy councillor) helmholtz died later in the same year. though hertz had no special interest in v~s~on, his scientific and professional contacts in his short but brilliant career included such persons as bezold, pulfrich, kundt, kohlrausch, crookes, and even thomas edison, as well as helmholtz and kirchhoff, all contributors to the field. of vision. most of the above information, incidentally, comes from a book assembled by hertz' daughter dr. johanna hertz entitled heinrich hertz: erinnerungen, briefe, tagebucher, published by akademische verlagsgesell­ schaft, leipzig, 1927. railroad owner, o.d.: those of us who were personally acquainted with the late arthur p. wheelock, o.d., an optometrist of many contributions and a charming personality, will feel a bit of nostalgia from the following, excerpted from trains, the magazine of railroading, march 1957, p. 14: "abandoned: cahsville & exeter railway, missouri's most famous short line, has received i.c.c. consent to abandon its 5-mile route between cassville and a frisco connection at exeter. since the -11death in 1939 of dave dingler -who kept the road going for years, acted as president and locomotive engineer c & e had been slowly failing. originating traffic in strawberries, apples, and lumber disappeared. service was suspended for several months in 1949 and again in 1953. each time the road was reopened through the renewed efforts of local people -with help from such outsiders as james g. ashley, a lifelong short line man who once ran vermont's west river railroad, and dr. arthur ~ wheelock of des moines, ~ optometrist, financier, and railfan who~ also ~owner of fort dodge, des moines, & southern" (underlining mine h.w.h.) george did it: one can wonder if the symbolic expression, "let george do it", might have been derived from the fact tha~ his remark was more fact than legend for the quarter of a century during which george henry giles was at the helm of optometry, or ophthalmic opticianry as he preferred to call it, in london. the october 4, 1975, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 15, no. 19, features several commentaries, yea testimonials, on the career of this phenomenal personality. the several authors do so with warm heart, admiration, and truly intimate acquaintance with giles. anyone who had met george giles will read these with nostalgia. surely others too must gain from these reports a deeper appreciation for our heritage. joseph zentmayer (1826-1888): joseph zentmayer (27 march, 1826 28 march, 1888) proudly styled himself an optician, having completed his training as an apprentice under an optician in his native city of mannheim, baden, germany, and subsequently gaining experience in optical establishments in the german cities of karlsruhe, frankfort, munich, and hamburg. at the age of 22 he came to america and worked in optical establishments in baltimore, washington, and philadelphia. at the age of 27 he started his own making of mathematical and optical instruments in philadelphia at the corner of eighth and chestnut streets. his accomplishments in optics and his ingenuity and competence in optical design won for him a remarkable reputation and numerous awards, honors, and accolades from scientific and professional organizations. his obituary notice, read before the american philosophical society by charles a. oliver, m.d., almost seven pages long, plus a full page portrait, could well be one of the most glowing tributes ever printed. it was published in the december 15, 1893, issue of the proceedings of the american philosophical society, vol. 31, no. 142, pp. 358-364. r.c. augustine, o.d. (1873-1924): "reginald c. augustine, apostle of optometry," is the title of an article co-authored by five final year students at the southern college of optometry, rosalind overton, billie parks, becky rodgers, donna rodgers, -12and deborah walters, in the september 1975 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 46, no. 9, pp. 900-904. in addition to a primary role of leadership in the american optometric association, including two terms as president, dr. augustine is identified with many other accomplishments and contributions to his profession and community. his life, his personality, and his philosophy are well reviewed. bicentennial optometricana: almost 200 successive years of optometric practice in five successive generations of mcallisters is the theme of a well-written report by chris kelly, editor of the optical journal and review of optometry, in the july 1, 1975 issue, vol. 112, no. 13, pp. 10-17. woops: o.h.s. member dr. reed, o.d., has called attention to an error in the july 1975 issue of this newsletter. according to dr. reed, the indiana chapter of the american academy of optometry sponsors a roy ~ denny memorial award rather than a robert ~ tubesing memorial award. always confident of my sources, i checked with the iocal chapter secretary only to learn that dr. reed is correct and i was wrong. robert w. tubesing, o.d., and his brother richard h. tubesing, o.d., both of whom were outstanding indiana optometrists who met untimely death, are memorialized in the naming of an optometric operatory in their honor in the indiana university school of optometry building. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1976-07-01-001 1976-07-01-002 1976-07-01-003 1976-07-01-004 1976-07-01-005 1976-07-01-006 1976-07-01-007 1976-07-01-008 1976-07-01-009 1976-07-01-010 1976-07-01-011 1976-07-01-012 \hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society o()j indiana university mar 2 2 2001 optometry library 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume32 .january 2001 number1 welcome jay enoch: long-time ohs member jay enoch has taken on double duty with the ohs. he was elected by the ohs board to fill the remainder of jack bennett's term on the board (in accordance with the society's bylaws: "vacancies of unexpired terms shall be filled by the election of a replacement by a majority of the remaining members of the executive board."). he has also agreed to become a contributing editor for the newsletter and contribute a regular column. his first such column follows. seeking sources of our heritage in optics. optometry. and vision science. by jay m. enoch: dr. walter chase kindly invited me to write a regular column on issues of interest to the readers of hindsight. as my first contribution, i have chosen to report some studies by myself and related work of others participating at a meeting of the renaissance society of america in florence (firenze), italy, in march, 2000, at the palazzo strozzi. the papers presented in our three man mini-symposium in firenze will be reported in the italian journal, atti della fondatione giorgio ronchi. the three participants were professor vincent ilardi of the university of massachusetts (who has argued for some time that spectacles originated in firenze), the writer, and professor a. mark smith, of the university of missouri, columbia. my wife and i stayed at the hotel minerva, which is just a door or two away from st. maria novella church, where on february 23, 1306, dominican preacher giordano da pi sa declared to his audience (a first statement), "it is not twenty years since they discovered the art of making glasses which help you see well, that is one of the best and most necessary skills in the world, and it is only a short while that it has been discovered, a new skill which never existed before, and i saw the man who first invented and made them." (this quotation is taken from robert gibbs, see reference below) professor vincent ilardi, in the course of his studies of early florentine lenses came across a number of references to use of concave mirror devices for visual corrections of refraction, near vision correction, and as magnifiers. he provided me with the references, and asked me to try to explain how the mirror systems might have worked. frankly, i had never heard of concave mirror visual corrections employed for these purposes. we are all familiar with bathroom shaving and make-up mirrors and the left-right reversals associated with them. 32/2 in fact, it turns out that dual mirrors were used to achieve the necessary left-right and axial reversals encountered. these were either a concave mirror and a plane mirror or two concave mirrors. amazingly these devices may have been in use from at least roman times until well after the introduction of spectacles lenses. this is a period of time well over a millennium! hence, (with further verification) we must consider these mirror devices a part of our ophthalmic heritage. the first clear mention of mirror systems is included in the works of seneca, the younger, who lived in rome at roughly the time of christ. he cites the broad use of mirrors for magnifiers and purposes of visual enhancement. he alludes to the double mirror systems used by a man called h. quadra to add further excitement to his displays of (kindly put) x­ rated theatrical debauchery! of such history is made! i have tried it; the mirrors, not the debauchery exhibitions, and it works! the next reliable reference is to giovanni baptistae della porta who describes a concave mirror plus plane mirror system which was apparently in common use at a time somewhat after the introduction of spectacles. this too works. albertotti, writing atthe end of the 191h century, also describes concave mirror systems similar to those described by della porta in fact he advocates their use. robert gibbs, in his excellent book on tommaso da modena {tomasso painted the first representation of spectacles in a fresco in the st. nicolo chapter house in treviso, italy­ located north of venice) also displays/speaks of two different forms of mirror correction/magnifiers, and one of his subjects is shown using a magnifying glass. these frescos were painted in 1351-1352, which was just after the end of the black death plague in europe, and 65-70 years after the introduction of spectacle corrections. these several references are provided below. in discussion at lunch with professor a. mark smith, he pointed out that one could use a simple highly polished concave bowl of a spoon as an effective magnifier without the usual left-right image inversion. optically, this works differently from the seneca (and quadra), della porta, and albertotti arrangements (detailed in my paper). the experiment was conducted within minutes of the discussion, and indeed smith's spoon device does work! were spoons finished with sufficient polish and smoothness in early times, were other concave mirrors used in a similar manner? there is no documentary evidence of this to my knowledge, but that does not mean the approach was not utilized. at this point in time, there are many questions, but these mirror systems all do work, apparently a number were used, and they need to be studied further. a fascinating set of findings. amazing, perhaps a millennium of use! also at this meeting, ilardi presented a most interesting discussion of early spectacle economic issues, as well as an interesting analysis of the rapid increase in their utilization and distribution. he demonstrated (and i have long suspected) that there was employed a simple means of grading these spectacle lenses by power. a lack of a system of power grading would have greatly limited spectacle lens manufacture and distribution and increased ....... . . ........ . i d" • • • •' : n lana university •· • • 32/3 a. • • f1t:r 2 1 2001 ; ~ . • meaningfully the remarkable low price of these items-ev~~erily a~r.ru:tt introductici, into "~ ..... . the market. • references: 1. lucius annaeus seneca (circa 4 b.c. 65 a. d.): title of 1 0 volume book set: seneca with translation and notes by thomas h. corcoran [see volume vii of corcoran which contains volume i of naturales quaestiones by seneca; also see note 2 of the translation by corcoran. london and cambridge, ma: w. heinemann and harvard university press, 1971. 72. volume 7, introductory material+ pp. 1-297·. the latin text accompanies the english translation. this set is available at university of california berkeley, loeb classical library and in the main stacks #pa6156.s4 1971]. 2. giovanni baptistae (della) porta (1536-1615): magiae natura/is (natural magic}. {the author owns a 1651 post-mortum latin edition of this book. book 17, die catodioptricis, chapter 5. this material appears on page 586 in the author's copy.] english translation (probably from another edition) by derick j. price, new york, basic books, 1957. of strange glasses (same material) page 363. there is also a discussion by boring, page 257, and an english translation dated 1658 of chapter 17 (see bernard becker library, washington university medical school, st. louis, mo). 3. giuseppe albertotti: lettera intorno alia inventzione degli occhiali aii'onorevmo senatore lsodoro del lungo. in: occasione del vii centario della r. universita di padova. roma, tipographia delle scienze, 1922, 24 pages; pages 1 0-11 ; items number 22-23 address the issue of use of mirrors for refractive corrections. 4. rogert gibbs: tommaso da modena: painting in emilia and the march oftreviso, 13401380. cambridge, ny: cambridge university press, 1989. a fine source book on tommaso and his work, as well as the optical issues at hand (mirrors, magnifiers, spectacles). 5. vincent ilardi: the role of florence in the development and commerce of spectacles. atti della fondatione giorgi ronchi (in press). 6. jay m. enoch: concave mirrors used for visual corrections during the renaissance and earlier. atti della fondatione giorgi ronchi (in press). book review: eyeglass retrospective: eyeglass retrospectivewhere fashion meets science, by nancy n. schiffer, atglen, pa: schiffer publishing ltd., 2000, 190 pages plus 2 page index, hard cover, $39.95, isbn 0764310410. this book is a picture book of glasses through the years, with about 600 color photographs. each photograph has an accompanying description of markings on the 32/4 spectacle frames along with other information. text entries interspersed through the book discuss various trends in spectacle making, patents, and the like. the dust jacket describes the author nancy schiffer as being ''fascinated with objects that reflect their cultural background. her focus on eyewear here follows previous studies of popular arts, including furniture, ceramics, and jewelry." the book is organized into four main sections: earliest eyewear (1 0 pages), 18th century (10 pages), 19th century (42 pages), and 20th century (122 pages). the earliest eyewearsection features pictures of nuremberg magnifiers, leather frames, and 11h and 18th century chinese frames. in the 18th century portion of the book there are pictures of frames with the first use of temples, and of "scissors" glasses. in the 19th century section there are many kinds of glasses shown, including frames with folding temples, sliding temple frames, monocles, tortoiseshell and horn frames, wire frames, lorgnettes, pince-nez glasses, etc. this section of the book also has 11 pages on the mcallister optician family. the book identifies the working dates and addresses of mcallister opticians in philadelphia (1799 to sometime after 1905), new york city (1863-1900), and baltimore (1878-1971 ). shown are mcallister frames, eyeglass cases marked mcallister, advertising materials, markings on silver frames, and a photograph of the front of their shop in philadelphia in 1843. the section on the 20th century starts with pince-nez glasses, folding eyewear, and other early 20th century glasses and then proceeds through the decades to the late 1990s. most of the photographs for the late 20th century are of novelty frames. some of the pictures are of celebrities or models in unusual eyewear. photography in the book is excellent. most of the items photographed were from private collectors, from the american academy of ophthalmology museum of ophthalmology in san francisco, and from oliver goldsmith eyewear ltd. looking at pictures of older eyewear was interesting, and the photographs of novelty eyewear were entertaining. the book can be purchased from the publisher for $39.95 plus $3.95 for shipping. the publisher's address is: schiffer publishing ltd., 4880 lower valley road, atglen, pa 19310 u.s.a. contact with the publisher can also be made by phone (610-593;.1777), fax(610-5932002)," or email (schifferbk@aol.com). a website catalog is available at www.schifferbooks.com. d.a.g. 32/5 papers from the other o.h.s.: the ocular heritage society had its 2000 annual meeting in washington, d.c., and alexandria, virginia, on april 6-8. six manuscripts of talks given on april 8, 2000, were distributed to the organization's membership. "spectacles on ceramics" was the topic of a paper by j. william rosenthal, m.d., d.sc. he talked about ceramics dating from about the mid 18th century to the late 20th century, some from his own collection. he concluded that "ceramic figures wearing spectacles are not frequently found. they may be old or new, cheap or expensive, ordinary or educational. they all add spice to a collection that could otherwise be dull." alan mcbrayer wrote about "researching the american spectacle maker and dealer­ sources and methods." he gave a progress report on his research project identifying american spectacle makers in the 18th and 19th centuries. he has used city directories, newspapers, census records, patent records, advertising materials, articles in mechanics and arts journals, books, local histories, and watch papers. watch papers are circular papers placed in watch cases identifying the seller and repairman. books specifically mentioned by mcbrayer were "silver and gold spectacles of the nineteenth century," by jerome redfearn, and "spectacles and other vision aids," by william rosenthal. he also mentioned the value of using the internet to search catalogs of libraries or other catalogs such as the research libraries information network. mcbrayer has been able to identify some spectacle makers from markings on spectacle frames. lastly he wrote that he would appreciate help from collectors and others: "i would greatly appreciate from each of you a listing of markings that may be on silver or gold spectacles in your collections. also, copies of early advertisements or broadsides would be very helpful, as would any primary source information dating prior to 1870. i am always available to you to answer questions or help with identification of maker marksyou can contact me at my office (704-336-2503), my home (704-525-4525), or by email (mcbraar@ aol.com)." katherine ott, ph.d., curator of division of science, medicine, and society at the national museum of american history, smithsonian institution, gave a paper entitled, 'winkin', blinkin', and nod: the recent history of artificial eyes." she credited ambroise pare, in 1579, with being one of the first persons to make an artificial eye. this artificial eye consisted of a metal plate covered with chamois which had eye, lid, and lashes painted on it. this was held over the lid by a cord or bar that wrapped around the head. venice led the artificial eye market in the 18th century. the first enamel artificial eye was in made in about 1822 by the boissonneau family of paris. the manufacture of prosthetic eyes was led by germany in the 1879s and 1880s. there a double-walled eye, less prone to breakage, was developed. in the first part of the 20th century, most artificial eyes were glass eyes made in germany. the first acrylic eye was made by three american dentists in 1942, one of whom was named milton wirtz. they used 32/6 common denture-making materials and processes to make prosthetic eyes from a wax eye socket cast made by the ocularist. a paper entitled "dating of spectacles by daguerreotypes," was given by john w. tull, m.d. daguerreotypes are photographs produced on silver coated copper plates. daguerreotypes are named for louis daguerre, who, in 1839, announced his discovery of a fixative process for the preservation of photographic images. the daguerreotype process produced high resolution photographs, but was quite laborious. other photographic methods had largely replaced it by about 1860. the most important method of dating daguerreotypes is by identifying the mat style in daguerreotype cases. tull used this to date spectacles in daguerreotype images. "how to write a book," by nancy schiffer, briefly overviews some recommendations for potential authors on preparing a manuscript and working with a publisher. schiffer is both an author and a publisher. her book, "eyeglass retrospectivewhere fashion meets science," is reviewed in this issue of hindsight. jay m. galst, m.d, wrote about "george washington's opticianthe first united states mint director," david rittenhouse {1732-1796). rittenhouse was a leading 18th century american scientist and patriot, but he was overshadowed by benjamin franklin. before becoming the u.s. mint director late in life, rittenhouse had been a clockmaker, surveyor, mathematician, and astronomer. about 40 of the clocks he made still exist. after rittenhouse received a copy of newton's opticks as a gift, he built the first telescope and observatory in america in 1756. he also made a mechanical model of the solar system, made observations of venus and a solar eclipse, discovered a comet, and developed the use of natural spider webbing for a reticle cross-hair system in telescope transits and other position measuring instruments. he was a professor of astronomy at the university of pennsylvania. rittenhouse was a member of the 1776 pennsylvania constitutional convention, and was pennsylvania state treasurer from 1777to 1789. he served as an engineer during the american revolution. among his duties was supervising the casting of cannon and the manufacture of saltpeter, an ingredient in gunpowder. rittenhouse was a member of the american philosphical society from 1786 to his death, serving at various times as its curator, librarian, secretary, vice president, and president. in 1783, rittenhouse fabricated spectacles and reading glasses for george washington. in a letter of thanks to rittenhouse dated february 16, 1783, washington stated, "i have been honoured with your letter of the 7th, and beg you to accept my sincere thanks, for the favor conferred on me, in the glasses -which are very fine; but more particularly, for the flattering expressions which accompanied the present. 32/7 ''the spectacles suit my eyes extremely wellas i am persuaded the reading glasses also will, when i get more accustomed to the use of them. at present, i find some difficulty in coming at the proper focus; but when i obtain it, they magnify perfectly, and shew those letters very distinctly, which at first appear like a mistblended together and confused. with great esteem and respect, i am, sir, your most obedient and humble servant, "go. washington" galst cites five books as references, two of them on coins and three biographies/memoirs of rittenhouse. d.a.g. optometric history websites: if one runs an internet search on optometric history, there are only a few sites identified that deal extensively with the history of optometry. occasionally i will, in upcoming issues of hindsight, mention some sites that may be of interest to readers. a site that caught my attention recently was one that gave a brief history of a four generation optometry practice in new zealand (http://homepages.ihug.co.nzl-spsdickl/home2.htm). the following is the text of the history of that practice: "peter george dick qualified as an optician in london in 1915 and opened a combined jewellery and optical business in princes st., dunedin, nz. in 1930 his son peter norman dick took over the practice once he qualified and built up the optometry side of the business. in 1962 his son peter leslie dick joined him and together they expanded the optometry practice and eventually sold the jewellery business to the daniels. both peter n and peter l visited many parts of otago on a regular basis. peter norman retired in 1979 and died in 1994. in 1992 peter stewart dick joined his father and they opened the oamaru practice in combination with the dunedin practice. some patients have managed to see all four generations of the peter dicks!" the site also contains photographs and brief biographies of peter l. and peters. dick, a photograph of the front of the office in 1917, and what appears to be a newspaper advertisement for peter g. dick in 1921. another website of interest is "important dates in vision science" (http://aris.ss.uci.edu/cogsci/vision/yellot dates.htm). it appears to have been compiled by jack vallot qyellot@ aris.ss.uci.edu) of the university of california irvine. the following vision scientists are acknowledged for their contributions to the list: jim bellingham, institute of ophthalmology, london: ted cohn, university of california berkeley; hans lrtel, university of mannheim; bela julesz, rutgers; dan kersten, university of minnesota; leonard trejo, university of illinois at urbana-champaign; and frans verstraten, mcgill. the site is a listing of 133 significant vision research events occurring between 1600 and 1960. the author hopes that "such a list can be helpful in gaining a quick historical 32/8' perspective," and states that "the object here is not to contribute anything new to the history of vision research but rather simply to collate material already scattered throughout the literature ... " twenty-three references are given. the first few events in the chronological jist are as follows: 1604: kepler's ad vitel/ionem paralipomena: first explanation of the optics of the eye. 161 0: galileo publishes the siderial messenger. first scientific look at the sky through a telescope. 1611: kepler's dioptrice: first explanation of the optics of myopia. projection theory of stereoscopic vision. 1619: scheiner's oculus: first demonstration that accommodation is an active process. first use of fixatives to preserve the eye for anatomical study. first accurate diagram of the human eye. discovery of the pupillary "near reflex." 1621: snell's law. (kepler's optical analysis of the eye was based on a small angle, linear approximation to snell's law). 1625: scheiner: first direct observation of the retinal image. 1637: descartes' la dioptrique. corpuscular theory of light. first suggestion of point to point projection of retina onto brain (in his view, onto the walls of the ventricles). 1664: willis traces the optic nerve to the thalamus. 1665: grimaldi describes diffraction (posthumously). 1666: newton's prism experiments begin color science. 1675: roemer measures the speed of light. o.a.g. *** managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47401, u.s.a.); douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 2001-32-01-001 2001-32-01-002 2001-32-01-003 2001-32-01-004 2001-32-01-005 2001-32-01-006 2001-32-01-007 2001-32-01-008 newsletter optometric ~~s+~~rcal.pmmflftl library (243 north lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, missouri, volume 10 apri 1 1979 may 2 91979 number 2 officers elected: indiana university the last of five ballots finally was returned, ten weeks after they were mailed out. in fact the first came in two weeks, the second in four, the third in six, the fourth in eight, and the fifth in 10! one responder suggested that those were 11 hare 11 ballots coming in at a 11 tortoise's 11 pace. the results were no special surprise, namely, with henry knoll re-elected as president, r~ari a dabl emont re-elected as secretary-treasurer, and james leeds newly elected as vice-president. continuing as a director is grace weiner, with james tumblin as a newly elected director. one 1egacy member: our secretary has received a xerographic copy of a codicil to a member's last will which adds a new article to the document as follows: 11 i give and bequeath the sum of one thousand dollars ($1 ,000.00) to the optometric historical society, inc., 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, t~issouri 63141. 11 duly signed, witnessed, dated, and stapled to the will itself, this codicil now makes the o.h.s. member eligible for 11 legacy membership 11 status with full membership privileges without having to pay annual dues. in effect he lets his heirs pay his dues! it is hoped that before the next newsletter is issued, in july, several more members will elect this status. retired but attentive: o.h.s. member jacob staimen, o.d., one of our most active contributors of optometricana, recently wrote the production director of national broad­ casting company to call attention to an error in the choice of spectacles for the actress playing kate wright in the december 17 television special, 11 the winds of kitty hawk. 11 dr. staiman noticed that kate wright was wearing a ful-vue style of frame, on which the endpieces are several millimeters higher than the datum line, a design 11 which did not make its debut until the late 1920 is ii • dr. staiman suggested that in future productions of period teleplays such anachronisms could easily be avoided merely by consulting the optometric historical society or the international library, archives, & museum of optometry. -18quite quaint quotes: what happens when one runs a tiny classified advertisement, a want-ad, to tel~ the world of one's interest in buying old books on the eye and opt~cs? . the f~llo~ing is a reproduced sample response hand lettered w1th a graph1te pencil and supplemented by a self­ addressed stamped envelope with the penciled notation "if not interested or comments return sketch thanks": * l e:..., s ca.,., be:.. r~ ~ y !!!!:." f ojz..-c 1ea-r-tim~ , . . ~;vj s=-= .::::::~ .::":~"~" r11;;~ -?l::5 -:5 c.t.. l a p j ""' -r-• .., !!'"-'"\ t'" * r !z. " -r c> ' ~ • ·:5 c. e.e ""'y a oj ._,~"j,_,.,.,..,·r\) ea.~ d 2l e:r.:~.j) s : \ ·.:ra-~ yo~c.._ a/r· wa-~-tr av 'fo12.. o prrc... :s 12.( &/78 .. a lj~~ if!f s a m u t\ !..:) s l..? /-\'-'""' a-c1 ~, t=-l "~ -,; 7-~-r-1 «?.., e il-l c:::-, '-a-5.5 \"-'\' '""'..,..... c cr"1 v it' i. r?, lj ~ i.=.. 0 f c) ,. v i e..\...,/ i h t.'l "5 ta·mf! o t2cc> 1 tot c e? c.-~ &c..rr c>n ::>. f t? ss '!i'7. /+.!.3o c t.7v'o \'4-a-v e.. ~ e..e:.t"'\ us e:..o roll-ct-o~ e.. m a f' --=:)"i'-' :o 'f .. \ 6t ~i t -h-\ $ (?1 &c:..t!.. "f~e>~ a p f!:.il..~n v--i t+o 5;-~ i (.) l -f'c.-4~ e;::. 'f~ ~ ~e~il'-1~ w++o l-'~j!!:-p ,.,ro~ \-\ r ~ ~r /f-tf'ltp c:::: 0 'l.. e:.. c:... t i t> 'it'? ~ t ij ~ r i l-a--re:tdt"~.., c~1"'jj'vn.z· cov ~,., ro~s'i &l.7 'b e.c') ~,z.l"'1 a.,.-, i t--\ o ~ 4 e. t::.. ' 11 ~ ~ \ f yu-v c: a71 u 5 'f!::lt+l..s · p 1 t:::.c e;.. \ 1'-\. y.. c>-v r..~ c=> c.-'}::.. c..:· i i 0 ~ ( c;; fh1 ?f!e:.'-'-p~n-~z o 0~ f":c..:>s l-;9 'f c7?t.. f o., r 44 e. rt l "m.s ~/.ta-me:: e:, . . t lt"4n~ yv"v a. olsc.>l--\ .• . . i~~ f/-c.::>ic..h-i~...(s )t j a-1"7 f:, cs 'f"' w h 1 \-\c..~ yo ei::: f47o\ -19another response, handlettered by dick hyatt, box 1143, wharton, texas 77488, on ruled writing paper, includes an illustration of a pair of pince­ nez spectacles obtained by "rubbing" the paper on the face of a brass printing block. the message reads, "re: my list 12/18/78 the illust. above is from a very old brass printing block. should be able to find a spot on your desk, for it. prepaid $10.00. merry xmas, dick hyatt" a third one was a postal card imprinted as lane • s repository early prints, maps & books 107 bryn mawr drive, se albuquerque, n.m. 87106 with the following handlettered message dated 12/22/78: dear dr. leeds: we offer a set of (16) copper plate engraved sheets pub. for rees.cyclopedia entitled "optics." with numerous fine engravings. pub. ca. 1820. b & white occasional foxing. fine old set .... $26.50 cwo ppd. returnable 7 days if not satisfied. how old is what•s-his-name? -----prompted by the notion that next year, 1980, might be the year to celebrate snell •s birthday anniversary i checked the date of his birth in the prestigious and expensive dictionary of scientific biography. sure enough, there we are told that "willebrord snel (snellius or snel van royen)" was born in 1580. but the equally prestigious world who•s who in science tells us that "snell, willebrod van roijen (snell ius)" was born in 1591. on this date chambe~·s biographical dictionary agrees. all three list leiden, the nether­ lands, as his birthplace, and october 30, 1626, as his date of death. frequency of reproduction of an assertion being no measure of validity, which is to say that errors are as easy to copy as facts, we now need to await the results of a search by a good archivist. perhaps then too we can learn to spell his various names, willebrod or willebrord; snell, snel, or snell ius; van roijen or van royen, correctly. thematic optical history: o.h.s. member colin b. fryer writes enjoyably of history. he selects a theme which has some connection with optics and then describes in documented terms its origin and development. for example, in a series titled " ... from the pages of optical history" which appeared in the optician he took as his theme the variety of attempts to cope with both near and distant vision in presbyopia. five different approaches are described in the october 14, 1977, issue, vol. 174, no. 4506, pages 21-22. -20"the evolution of best form lenses" is his second topic in the series, in the november 25, 1977 issue, vol. 174, no. 4512, pages 33-34. he reminds us first that on the american side of the atlantic we are in the habit of saying "corrected curve" instead of "best form." he traces the idea back to johannes kepler in 1611, adding some comments about kepler's personality, as he is wont to do about each person mentioned. then in the january 27, 1978, issue, vol. 175, no. 4520, pages 15-16, his historical theme is "designating spectacle lens power." the earliest known method was that mentioned by franciscus maurolycus in 1554, the numbering of spectacle lenses according to the age for which they were intended to be worn. the dioptric system emerged very recently and slowly beginning with nagel's "metre lens" unit in 1866, followed by monoyer's naming it the "dioptre" almost 10 years later, and a still incomplete adoption of the term as late as 1915. (as recently as last week i chatted with a prominent physicist who still considers the diopter a clumsy concept!) "some olde tyme london opticians and their achievements," appeared in two parts in the issues of may 12, pages 35-38 & 40 and june 9, 1978, pages 22, 27, and 28, vol. 175, nos. 4535 and 4539. by no means obsessed with the frequent notion that history deals only with events which predate our memory, author fryer provided a two-part series entitled "optics in space" in the issues of november 17, 1978, pages 31, 38, and 39, vol. 176, numbers 4561 and 4562. included are such fascinating bits of information as that of the accidentally lost hasselblad camera which continues to orbit the earth, and that of the paradox of better visual acuity "from 100 or so miles up in space than it is from 10 on the ground." an encyclopedia entry: o.h.s. member alan york is the author of eyeglasses: fads and fashions in spectacles, in the "dogs to fishing tackle" volume of the encyclopedia of collectibles published by time-life books, inc., 1978, pages 84-93. the illustrations are especially well done. jena school 60th anniversary: the optometry school in jena, east germany, is believed by many to have had a greater international impact on ophthalmic optical training than any other institutions, at least prior to world war ii. it has been named the fachschule fu'r augenoptik "hermann pistor" (the hermann pistor professional school of ophthalmic optics) after its long time director. -21commentary on the 60 year history of the institution by its present director, dipl.-pad. e. kl~ger, is published in the november/december 1978 issue of augenohtik, vol. 95, no.6, pp. 162-163, with a photograph of the building on t e inside front cover. in the same issue is a detailed and illustrated description of the instructional laboratory program in 11 0ptologie 11 at the pistor school by the chief of professional teachers (fachgruppenleiter) dr. rer. nat. gunter ueberschaar in an article entitled 11 laborubungen optologie ein neuer lehrstoffkomplex an der fachschule fur augenoptik 'herman pistor' jena, .. pp. 163-169. experimental procedures are described for student instruction in stereopsis, dark adaptation, visual fields, acuity in ametropia, contrast, space and frequency effects in perception, color vision, colorimetry, learned and innate reflexes, ocular anatomy, ophthal­ moscopy, and fixation disparity. early personalities in visual science: the following is a paper prepared by douglas k. penisten, a final year student at the indiana university school of optometry, bloomington, indiana 47405. a compendium of trivia and facts concerning famous men in the history of optics and the visual sciences preface the purpose of this paper is to present ·1 i ttl e-known· facts and facets of some men we know by name and in many cases are quite familiar with their contributions to science. as would be expected in a work where extensive subjective commentaries and conclusions need not be drawn, the great majority of the context is taken directly from other sources. such is the case in this paper. therefore, for the benefit of the inquisitive, i have included a reference list. little time is spent elaborating on the subject's scientific work rather, i have tried to give interesting tidbits in order to bring out qualities of their personalities and habits. so relax and amuse yourself with this irreverent and incomplete collection of biographies. george biddell airy ( 1801--1892) george airy lived to a ripe age of 91. in that lifetime he published 518 articles and several books (one on the invasion of britain by the normans). his primary achievements were in astronomy, but he made major contributions in the area of technology and applications of science. -22airy was a great organizer of not only his own knowledge, but also with scientific record compilations. he modernized the greenwich observatory with new inventions, many of which were his own. although he brought greenwich to the level of the world•s best observatories, he still ran the institution like a petty tyrant, hiding little of his conceited and envious disposition. airy made every effort to solve all problems he confronted. this quality served him well in his engineering, 11 but in science it caused him to make mistakes through undertaking too much, often with dogmatic confidence ... he is remembered more for his failures. two examples being his rejection of faraday•s 11 lines of force, .. and his role as villain in the failure of j.c. adams and the discovery of neptune. despite these sour remembrances, he excelled as the seventh astronomer royal (1835--1881) bringing much prestige and organization to british astronomy. perhaps his greatest gift to mankind was the first spectacle correction for astigmatism, which he designed for himself in 1824. charles babbage (1792--1871) the obituary notice for charles babbage in the london times stated that he had lived to be almost 80 11 in spite of organ-grinding perse­ cutions ... although the remark was a bit cruel, it does bring to light the eccentric nature of babbage. among his many quirks, he hated street musicians so vehemently that he attempted to have them legally banned. the son of a wealthy banker, charles entered cambridge in 1810. there he became good friends with john herschel and george peacock. the three formed the analytical society and made an oath to 11 do their best to leave the world wiser than they found it. 11 each went on in his respective field and lived up to the oath. babbage•s life work sterrmed from a conversation with herschel in 1822, during which he complained of the errors humans had made while compiling math tables, 11 i wish to god these calculations had been executed by steam ... 11 it is quite possible, .. remarked herschel. for most of his remaining life babbage constructed huge and complicated calculating machines in hope of achieving his wish. unfortunately, before he would finish one machine he would get an idea and start building another. this habit of not finishing his work caused many to wonder about babbage•s credence, but thomas huxley remarked, 11 i knew mr. babbage, and am quite sure that he was not the man to say anything on the topic of calculating machines which he could not justify .... 11 -23charles did find time to invent other 11 0dd 11 things, including the cow-catcher on a train, the first speedometer, and skeleton keys. he also is known as the father of the 11 grant 11 for his extensive work in popularizing the concept of government funding of scientific work. perhaps his most interesting invention was the ophthalmoscope, which he made four years before helmholtz. he gave it to a physician friend who merely set it aside and did nothing more with it. babbage once said that he would gladly give up the remainder of his life if he could be allowed to live three days five hundred years hence and be provided with a scientific guide to explain the discoveries made since his death. for sure, during his lifetime babbage was viewed as a failure, but as he probably knew, the future scientists would judge him differently. and that they have. benjamin franklin (1706--1790) anyone associated with the visual sciences knows benjamin franklin is credited with being the inventor of the bifocal, but this is merely a drop in the bucket when one looks at his lifetime accomplishments. his achieve­ ments included works in politics, science, diplomacy, and the welfare of human rights. franklin was an extremely sociable man. besides reading, studying, and experimenting; he loved spending leisure time in the company of philosophic friends, 11 communicating to each other new discoveries, and proposing improve­ ments of old ones.'' the list of his firends and acquaintances is phenomenal. l~hy is it franklin has been ca 11 ed the 11 newton of el ectri ci ty 11 when it is well known that franklin's grasp of mathematics was quite limited? the answer lies in the ability franklin had for the experimental style. he had an uncanny eye for observation and following through with applicable experi­ ments in attempts of validating his hypotheses. an example can be seen with his work in the relationship of heat and color. he simply cut out pieces of cloth of varied colors and laid them in snow observing the relative depth each one sank as the snow melted. franklin's inventions were extensive. the more famous include the lightning rod, the franklin stove, and even a device to obtain books from the shelves without getting up. his inventions were mainly utilitarian in nature, but later expanded to basic scientific research. during franklin's time, the only use for electricity was shock therapy to help paralysis, of which franklin himself occasionally partook. it took a man like franklin to show there was more to electricity than this. although franklin worked tediously more than fifty years in the development of a new nation, he also took time to enjoy the 11 finer 11 aspects of life, being a nudist and also enjoying the company of many women. -24robert hooke (1635--1703) if ever there was a person in the history of science that deserves more credit, robert hooke gets my vote. hooke had a problem in that he was contemporary with newton. compounding the problem was the fact that newton and hooke did not get along, either professionally or personally. every physics student remembers hooke's name for his work on springs and the laws applying to them, but his other contributions are extremely numerous (he invented the iris diaphragm for one). hooke loved to jump from one research topic to another, but rarely did he totally finish his work. it usually took years before the impact of his original work was felt and then hooke rarely received his credit due. his greatest work was micrographia, in which he established himself as a great pioneer in microscopy. hooke's personality was complex. he was very hasty and impatient of fools. above all he was a very sensitive man. this added all together produced in many ways, an unhappy, defensive man who was attacked often by lesser men. the whole conflict with isaac newton resulted in a somewhat paranoid feeling in hooke concerning precedent on many of his own works in science. no portrait exists of hooke, ~hich is remarkable because in his own time, he was a highly respected scientist, being the curator of experiments at the royal society for 41 years. we do know, however, from contemporary descriptions that hooke was lean, bent and meanly ugly, with a wide, thin mouth and a sharp chin. he kept a diary meticulously, noting all aspects of his daily occurrences; indicating that he did have an active social life with his close friends. all through his life, hooke was plagued with chronic health problems. the list includes headaches, sinusitis, catarrah, indigestion, and insomnia. on march 3, 1703, after twelve months of being bedridden and almost blind, robert hooke died. eight months later isaac newton was elected president of the royal society. james clerk maxwell (1831--1879) james maxwell's childhood was a happy one. although his mother died when he was nine, james found comfort and companionship in his father. as with many child prodigies he was labeled "dafty" by his classmates. the nickname was constructed partiall,y due to the unusual clothes that his father designed for practicality ("hygienic" square­ toed shoes and lace-frilled tunics are examples.) at home the near­ sighted jamesie (another nickname) loved to ask unending "how and why" questions of his father. at the tender age of 15, james contributed an original work on the construction of ovals to the royal society of edinburgh. due to his age many refused to believe he had composed it. -25in 1850, maxwell entered cambridge. there his interests blossomed to many subjects--even the economy of sleep. 11 he would sleep from 5 in the afternoon to 9:30, read very hard from 10 to 2, exercise by running along the corridors and up and down the stairs from 2:00 to 2:30a.m. and sleep again from 2:30 to 7:00. the dormitory inhabitants were not pleased .... 11 (he also studied the phenomenon of cats always landing on their feet.) there is little argument that james maxwell was the greatest theoretical physicist of the nineteenth century. his works include: the proof that saturn•s rings are particles, the thermodynamics of gases, and of course his revolutionary formulations on electromagnetism. he also did great research in color perception; creating many novel inventions, one of which demonstrated a visual artifact particular to the macula which hence was known as 11 maxwell•s spot. 11 as a teacher he was not too great. his lectures were sparsely attended since he often filled the board with numbers and symbols as he flew off on some tangent. one of r~axwe 11 • s students described his 1 ectures as someone thinking outloud. despite this, he was respected and loved by his brighter students for his charm and unselfish giving of time. in the spring of 1877 t1axwell began to be troub~ed by pain in his throat. for two years he consulted no one although the conditions worsened. on november 5, 1879 he died (like his mother) of cancer. albert abraham michelson ( 1852--1931) tvlost of michelson•s life was spent perfecting instruments in order to establish the ultimate value of the speed of light--in fact, it was his passion. in doing so, he designed and constructed elaborate instruments (many of which were later used for other applications) with the intent of producing exact data. for his success, he became the first american to win the nobel prize {in science) in 1907. michelson is best known for the great experiment that 11 failed. 11 along with edward l~orley, michelson designed and perfected an apparatus to show whether the ether actually existed. obviously it was not found, but this experiment and michelson•s other work led to the second scientific revolution. despite this, it was michelson himself who stated in the late 1890 1 s that the field of physics was so firm that he predicted no other great advance­ ments would be made, merely perfection to the sixth decimal place of numbers already known. it is no wonder that michelson could never bring himself to accept relativity! albert michelson•s higher education resulted only after much tenacity. being unable to secure a position in the naval academy, he traveled from his home in nevada to washington, d.c. to seek the help of president grant. finding out when the president took his daily walks, michelson approached him and told his story. the rest is history. -26michelson•s personality was complicated. he hated administrative working preferring rather the solitude of the laboratory. (by the way, he was not a good teacher.) with respect to politics and business, he also had no interests. when national security was involved, michelson was a very active and opinionated man. after the sinking of the maine in 1898, he publicly announced that the u.s. should immediately declare war on spain. michelson•s last public appearance was on january 15, 1931, at a banquet in pasadena honoring dr. & mrs. einstein. it was at this time albert einstein thanked albert michelson for his earlier work, which laid the groundwork for the later development of the special theory of relativity. isaac newton ( 1642--1727) writing a short biographical essay on newton is almost a sin. during a year at his home in woolsthorpe (the plague forced him to leave cambridge), newton formulated the binomial theorem, discovered differential and integrated calculus, and developed his theory of co 1 ors. by the end of his 1 i fe, newton had opened the. rea 1 ms of universal mechanics. \ isaac newton was born posthumously ·and prematurely on december 25, 1642 (the same year galileo died). due to his size, no one expected hime to live. in his early childhood, he liked to tinker and daydream, but displayed little that give hint to his future intellectual productions. isaac•s blossoming achievement reportedly occurred only after he had beaten the school bully to a pulp. from then on he was tops. in 1660, after abandoning the hope of his ever becoming a farmer, isaac•s mother sent him to cambridge. there he remained for thirty years. as a professor, newton was the stereotype, absent-minded scholar apparently not even minding lecturing to empty classrooms. his appearance was often quite ragged and he kept irregular eating and sleeping habits. concerning women, he had no interests. newton•s personality was somewhat childlike and reclusive. he could not take criticism. more than once he threatened never to publish again and he even tried to resign from the royal society, but he was always mollified by his friend, who argued his points for him. he disliked distracti~ns, claiming that his works resulted only after much contemplation and continually thinking them through. in 1687 newton was elected to the parliament representing cambridge university. he served several years but never made a speech except once to address a hushed and captive house only to request that a window be shut. -27newton's later life was contrastingly unproductive. he spent much of his time secretively experimenting with alchemy and studying occult philosophies and religion. thomas young (1773--1829) thomas young made important contributions in almost every area he touched. it is not surprising that he was a child prodigy. at age two he could read, and by age 4 he had trudged through the bible twice. his knowledge of languages was gargantuous, having learned twelve languages fluently during his youth. while a student at cambridge he was known as phenomenal young; having received this title for consistently solving problems his classmates would present to him. many of those problems had previously never been solved! young always worked alone. unlike many of his contemporaries, his greatest works resulted from solitary thinking. in explaining his voluminous achievements, like newton and einstein, he credited persistence and perse­ verance. although he received his degree in medicine, dr. young actually practiced very little. thomas young is remembered most for his extraordinary work on light. his experiment with the double slits showed that light was definitely wave-like as opposed to the corpuscular theory which newton had supported. even with strong backing by wollaston, the new evidence was not widely accepted since newton (now a century old) was still 11 king. 11 other areas in which young made huge contributions were in the translation of egyptian hieroglyphics, ocular science, and the development of a color perception theory. he showed that accommodation was the result of lens change and that astigmatism resulted from corneal asphericity. unfortunately, young did not support the development of any calculating machines or the planning of organized scientific research. this had major drawbacks on the progress of british science. as for his own works, young would jump from one area to another without expressing his results in a manner that could be easily understood and utilized. this also probably explains why he is not remembered for the truly excellent work he accomplished. references asimov, isaac. isaac asimov•s biographical encyclopedia of science and technology. new york, new york. 1976. babbage, charles. charles babbage and his calculating machines. new york, new york. 1946. christianson, gale. this wild abyss. new york, new york. 1978. crane, verner. benjamin franklin. boston, massachussetts. 1954. -28crowther, j.g. scientific types. london, england. 1968 .. espinasse, margaret. robert hooke. berkeley, california. 1962. everitt, c.w.f. james clerk maxwell. new york, new york. 1975. jaffe, bernard. l11en of science in america. new york, new york. 1962. jaffe, bernard. michelson and the speed of light. new york, new york. 1960. scientific american books. lives in science. new york, new york. 1957. dr. henry~· knoll contributes an article: filling the hiatus recently written histories of contact lenses contain a time hiatus extending from the last decade of the 19th century to the opening of the third decade of the present century. this is unfortunate since many new ideas were discussed during those thirty years, ideas which have since been brought to the fore as though they had never been proposed, for example: plastic contact lenses, methods of measuring corneal and scleral shapes, a method of measuring corneal vault, devices to aid in the place­ ment and removal of contact lenses, a host of therapeutic indications, orthokeratology, and the use of fluorescein to check the fit. fortunately there are three fine historical papers to fill this hiatus, all published during the third decade of this century. the originals appeared in german, french and english. translations of the first two are available. as might be suspected the approach to the task is different in each case, hence the three histories supplement each other . . in 1932 viktor t·1uch, m.d. of kiel, published a review of the world contact lens 11terature written in chronological order with references numbering 162. there are no figures or tables. . dr. john griffin of the southern california college of optometry had the article translated into english-and a fine translation it is. copies of the original and the translation are also in the indiana university library and in the technical information center of the soflens division of bausch & lomb, inc. in 1937 emile haas, m.d. of p2ris, read his history before the societe d'ophthalmologie de paris. the paper is divided into four parts; optics, adherence (fitting), realizations (accomplishments) and case histories. it is in fact a mini text book. there are 21 figures, numerous tables and charts, and 182 references. among the figures are photos of the molding technique of prister, the sclera­ keratometer of helmbold and the hydrodiascope of siegrist. -29an excellent translation of the entire paper (including figures, tables, charts and references) was published in contacto.3 ida mann, m.d., london, published a contact lens history in 1938. 4 in her paper she traces the evolution of contact lens concepts relating to optical properties, tolerance and fit, and indications. the third section is divided in turn into three parts, optical, treatment, and research. there are no figures or tables. she notes that there are over 200 references in the literature, but she lists only the most important among them (including of course, the papers by much and haas). references ii 1. much, viktor, uber haftglaser, 1. 105, 390-414, 1932. ii geschichtliches, archiv fur augenheilkunde, 2. haas, emile, les verres de contact; rapport presente a la seance pleniere du 14 novembre 1937, bulletin de la societe d'ophthalmologie de paris, 1937. 3. contacto 11, 14-32, 39-72, sept. 1967 and]£, 38-47, 70-77, june 1968. 4. mann, ida, history of contact lenses, trans. ophth. soc. of u.k., 58, 109-136, 1938. biographical shorts available: pasco scientific, 1933 republic avenue, san leandro, california 94577, publishes free an occasional newsletter entitled better teaching by design in which they frequently include a brief biography by steven janke of colorado college with an artist's portrait of a physics scientist of renown. twenty of the biographies and portraits are available as a free booklet to anyone who will send pasco scientific a clever 11 puzzler. 11 naturally i sent in one i had heard very recently at a cocktail party, 11 why do spectacle wearers take off their glasses to see if the lenses are dirty? can't they tell while the lenses are in front of the eyes? 11 of course i sent the explanation too, but i would not insult the intelligence of o.h.s. readers by printing it here. the 20 biographies include galilee, kepler, newton, franklin, tyndall, and michelson. the portraits are also available in slides from the american association of physics teachers. huygens' 350th anniversary: -30christiaan huygens 1629-1695 was born 350 years ago this month. to mark this anniversary a committee of dutch scholars under auspices of the royal netherlands academy of sciences has organized an international symposium on his 1 i fe and work. papers wi 11 discuss his involvement with dutch culture, mathematics, music, mechanics, astronomy, instrument making, measurement of time and longitude, light, the concept of matter, cartesianism, and his influence on other scientists. the symposium will be held on august 22 to 25, 1979, in the conference rooms of the zoological gardens "artis" in amsterdam. the above illustration is the symbol for the event, imprinted on the letterhead, programs, announcements, and envelopes designed for the occasion. catalog browsing: my colleague l.s. mcclung, professor of microbiology, peruses many a catalog of old books for early publications related to his own field of study, which, of course, includes microscopes and microscopy. in so doing he frequently notices listings of books on optics which he correctly presumes to be of interest to me as an optometrist and then kindly lends me the catalogs in which these appear. now i personally am neither a buyer nor a collector, but i thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the existence of fine collections, and i utilize them unabashedly. especially revealing to me are the catalogs themselves with their very succinct description of each book and its contents. let me try to make my point merely by reproducing here a few of the entries in the harriet wynster ltd. catalogue of books: the history of science, technology, and the applied arts, 1978/3 (address: 352 kings road, chelsea, london sw3 500) as follows: 28 chevalier (j-g-a-). le conservateur de la vue, ... suivi du manual de 1 'ingenieur-opticien; cotenant 10. l'exposition de 1 'art de fabriquer les verres de lunettes et de microscopes, les ~1iroirs de telescopes et plusieurs autres instrumens -31d'optique, de physique et d'astronomie; la description des phenomenes de la fantasmagorie et des moyen de les produire; une instruction sur 1 'usage du cadran solaire horizontal et universal. 2°. une d~sertation sur le barometre, le thermometre, les divers instrumens, d'areome!trie, leur construction et leur usage. 3°. une notice sur le monument public, connu sous le nom de tour de l'horloge du palais; un dictionnaire a~lytique des termes de sciences employes dans l'ouvrage; le catalogue general des instrumens qui se fabriquent et se vendent chez 1 'auteur, avec leurs prix, ainsi qu'une table des matieres, 8vo, engraved title showing instruments, 17 plates, finely engraved, showing instruments, and two views of the author's shop. two items are appended, 11 extrait du journal royal ... au r{dacteur. observations physiques et meteoro­ logiques sur l'hiver 11 and 11 instruction sur l'hygrometre a cheveux ..... cont. boards, worn, joints cracked. a very good copy of the third edition of this valuable work which provides much useful information on the construction of the instruments made by chevalier, especially his microscopes, several of which are illustrated. paris, 1815. ~175.00 103 ophthalmic hospital reports and journal of the royal london ophthalmic hospital. vol. iii, 1860-61. ~calf, worn, generally a good clean copy. articles over a wide field by leading practitioners of the day. london, n.d. (1861). '125.00 126 skiascopy. a treatise on the shadow test in its practical application to the work of refraction ... 8vo, 68 figs and 4 plates. with an interesting illustrated chapter on skiascopic devices and inventions. a good copy. philadelphia, 1899. .{20.00 169 donders {f.c.). on the anomalies of accommmodation and refraction of the eye. with a preliminary essay on physiological dioptrics. 8vo, figs. in text, modern cloth. first edition. translated from the author's mss. by ~ld. moore, this book was never issued in dutch as were danders• other works. garrison-morton 5893 11 thi s work is of the highest importance in the field of physiological optics ... rare. new sydenham society, london, 1864. ;f 75.00 191 newton (i.). opticks: or, a treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light. 8vo, 11 folding plates. cont. calf, rebacked, chafed. a good clean copy of the fourth edition, the last revised by newton. an early impression with the typical darker typeface. london, 1730. a{l60.00 204 wright (l.) optical projection. a treatise on the use of the lantern in exhibition and scientific demonstration. 8vo, 232 ills, inc. many of instruments. very good copy. london, 1891. ;( 35.00 now wasn't that interesting? i daresay you read parts of it twice. in case the quoted prices add to your value judgement, let me remind the american reader that the pound (~) approximately equaled two dollars on the day i copied this. -32as perceived~~ management expert: dr. henry knoll calls attention to the following paragraph on page 180 of technology, management and society, a book· by peter f. drucker published in 1970 by harper and row (underlining by knoll): yet, until very late--1850 or thereabouts--there was no organized or predictable relationship between scientific knowledge and medical practice. the one major contribution to health care which the west made in the middle ages was the invention of spectacles. the generally accepted date is 1286; by 1290 the use of eyeglasses is fully documented. this invention was, almost certainly, based directly upon brandnew scientific knowledge, most probably on roger bacon's optical experiments. yet bacon was still alive when spectacles came in--he died in 1294. until the nineteenth century there is no other example of such all but instantaneous translation of new scientific knowledge into technology--least of all in medicine. yet galen's theory of vision, which ruled out any mechanical correction, was taught in the medical schools until 1700. drucker's international renown, incidentally, is well documented in who's l~ho in america and in numerous other biographical listings. contact lenses prior to 1937: entitled "the history of contact lenses" is a 1967 english translation of a french paper by emile haas, m.d., published in 1937 by the societe d'ophthalmologie de paris under the title "les verres de contact." the translation was published in contacto: international contact lens journal, the first install­ ment in vol. ll, no. 3, sept. 1967, pp. 13-32, 39-55, and 57-72, and the second in vol. 12, no. 2, june 1968, pp. 37-47 and 70~77. the article is in fact a review of the contemporary state of the contact lens art in 1937 with only a perfunctory coverage of its history per se. by 1967 of course the 1937 review was in effect history and presumably for that reason was then so titled. unlike the usual history article, therefore, it is written without the author's advantage of knowing subsequent developments. the article is subdivided into four parts, l, optical theory of contact lenses, 2, physical conditions of adherence, 3, reali­ zations, and 4, applications of contact lenses and their principles. the last part is an extensive series of variously published case reports. the references total 182! -33briefly noted biographies: 11 as i remember: edward vail lapham brown .. by benjamin milder appeared in the december 1975 issue of the eent t1onthly, vol. 54, no. 12, pages 465467. f·1ilder reports that long before the word 11 paramedical 11 found its way into our vocabulary, e.v.l. brown, m.d., (1867-1953) was engaged in the training of clinical technicians. it is also said of dr. brown that he insisted that every resident (at the university of chicago eye clinic) .. perform correctly 90 out of 100 consecutive retinoscopies within an accuracy of one-quarter diopter in each principal meridian .. before allowed to perform unsupervised retinoscopies. dr. brown did exhaustive studies of refractive errors in large populations. ii 11 uber daniel bernoulli .. (concerning daniel bernoulli) by f. rintelen appeared in the january 1976 issue of klinische monatsblatter fur augenheilkunde und augenarztliche fortbildung vol. 168, no l, pages 100-103. rintelen draws many parallels in bernoulli•s life, 1700-1782, to that of helmholtz more than a century later. known best to physicists, professor bernoulli nevertheless devoted a great share of his career to medical physics (iatrophysics). his contributions of optometric interest included a study of muscle contraction demonstrated on the external rectus muscle of the eye and a precise perimetric determination of the blind spot. bernoulli was born in the netherlands but spent the greater part of his life in basel, switzerland, where he died. incidentally, daniel bernoulli rated more than 10 double-column pages in the recently published dictionary of scientific biography. 11 julius hirschberg (1843-1925) als ophthalmologe und medizinhistoriker .. (julius hirschberg, ophthalmologist and medical historian) by h.m. koelbing appears in the same aforementioned iss.ue of klinische monatsbla'tter fu·r augenheilkunde und augenmrztliche fortbildung, pages 103-108. hirschberg is most appreciated for his nine volume, 4700 page, history of ophthalmology, 11 geschichte der augenheilkunde 11 published during 1899-1919, tracing ophthal­ mological developments from the ancient egyptians to 1900. his writings were greatly enhanced by his mastery of greek, latin, and arabic as well as several modern languages. especially familiar to us is hirschberg•s test to estimate a strabismic deviation by the displacement of the corneal reflex. and on and on and on: under a heading which i find a bit too figurative to translate literally, herr emil-heinz schmitz continues to unfold optical and spectacle history from time to time in the pages of augenoptiker, a prominent and popular german optometric journal. the heading is 11 licht lebt in glasvom lavaglas zum laserstrahl 11 (light lives in glass from molten rock to laser beam). the series is extremely well and profusely illustrated, and the reference citation numbers have now (as of december 1978) reached 848! i have been keeping track of the issue numbers and pages for several years, but, having almost lost my note sheet a few days ago, i decided to play safe by listing here the ones i have. if you can read german and enjoy looking at -34excellent illustrations, here they are: vol. 28, 1973, no. 9, pp. 35,37,39 & 41 no. 11 ' pp. 54-57 no. 12, pp. 43 & 45-48 vol. 29, 1974' no. 2, pp. 35,37,39,41 & 43 no. 4, pp. 51 ,53,55 & 87 no. 5, pp. 29,31 ,33,35,37 & 39 no. 6, pp. 45 & 47 no. 9, pp. 31 ,33, 35,37 & 39 no. 11' pp. 56,58,60,62,64 & 65 vo 1 . 30, 1975, no. 2, pp. 54,56,58 & 60 no. 3, pp. 64,66,68 & 70 no. 4, pp. 63,65,67,68 & 69 no. 8, pp. 40-45 no. 9, pp. 64-67 · no. 10, pp. 37,39,41 & 43 no. 11 ' pp. 39 ,41 ,43 & 45 vol. 31, 1976' no. 2 ' pp. 148-151 no. 6, pp. 606,608,610 & 612-615 no; 9, pp. 897,899,901 & 903 no. 10, pp. 1029,1031 ,1033,1035,1037 .& 1039 vo 1 . 32, 1977, no. 2, pp. 62,64,66,68,70 & 72 no. 3, pp. 62-64 r~o. 6, pp. 54-57 no. 8, pp. 49-51 no. 10' pp. 79-81 vol. 33, 1978, no. 2, pp. 57-59 l~o. 3, pp. 63,65,67 & 69 no. 4, pp. 55 & 57-59 no. 8, pp. 57-59 no. 9, pp. 46-47, 49 & 51 no. 11, pp. 55-57 & 59 no. 12, pp. 49,51 & 54-56 the usually intennittent pagination is due to the interposing of advertisements, not unlike our television commercials. without these, of course, this valuable documentary might never have been published. i presume, and hope, that eventually the series will appear in a separate offprinted volume. ~century of spectacle-making in italy: the deed of incorporation of the first italian venture in spectacle making in the 19th century is dated march 15, 1878. the factory was established by angelo frescura, a comb and spectacle peddler, and his brother leone frescura and giovanni lozza in calalzo di cadore. calalzo is in northeastern italy, about 120 kilometers {70 miles) north of venice and 40 kilometers {25 miles) from the austrian border, in the dolomite alps region. true, there had been thriving spectacle manu­ facturing in venice in the late 1600's and the first half of the 1700's, but competition from other countries subsequently eliminated it from italy for many decades, for almost a century. -35the history of this venture and of the subsequent growth of the ophthalmic optical industry in italy is told in a special supplement to issue no. 5, 1978, of vedere international entitled centenario dell 1 industria italiana dell.occhialeria 1878-1978. in recognition of the occasion the national association of ophthalmic optical manufacturers (associazione nazionale fabbricanti articoli da occhialeria, or a.n.f.a.o.) prepared a special exhibit for the annual italian optical fair called mido. this exhibit, much of which is reproduced in the vedere international supplement, is now on permanent display at calalzo. an archivist•s nightmare: mr. j. harold bailey, the retired administrative director of the american optometric association who served under 25 successive presidents, had this to say about one of the 25 who is presently confined to a nursing home: 11 (he) was a powerhouse in his day and was the president who insisted that i send him only •flimsies• in correspondence. he had a unique filing system. he read all his mail while sitting on the john and then flushed them when he was through. i told maria one time that one of the truly great archives in optometry was in the cesspool behind (his) 150 year old home in fostoria! 11 theological optics: seventy-five years ago mary baker eddy stated in her book, 11 science and health with key to the scriptures, .. p. 479, 11 an image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is all that the eye beholds ... so reports noel d. bryan-jones in his article 110f purer eyes 11 in the december 1978 issue of the christian science journal, vol. 69, no. 12, pp.634-635. he points out that the prophet habakkuk (1 :13), circa 600 b.c., in his old testament book of the same name, knew that god was 11 0f purer eyes than to behold evil 11 ; that isaiah (32:3), circa 765-800 b.c., stated the devine dictum that 11 the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, 11 and that moses, circa 1200 b.c., lived to the age of 120 years and 11 his eye was not dim 11 (deuteronomy 34:7). the bryan-jones article was thoughtfully sent to me by ohs member, j.j. abrams, o.d. l_'t!_ fee 1 s so good: how can a visually impaired person appreciate the contents of an art museum when the ubiquitous and indeed tactless signs say 11 00 not touch ... from this question the concept of tactile art was first explored during the 195o•s by allen h. eaton. the concept grew into a collection entitled objects of beauty for the sighted and the blind. a permanent mary duke biddle gallery of the north carolina museum of art was established with eaton•s help in 1966. -36then in 1978 miss sarah cooke, a young student at earlham college in richmond, indiana, decided to organize a tactile art show as a project for a course in art appreciation in which she was enrolled. rounding up help, support, and cooperation from well over two dozen local, state, and national agencies, donors, clubs, foundations, firms, artists, and even the american council of the blind of indiana, she opened the show at the mcguire art galleries in richmond during march and april, 1979. special guides were trained to assist not only visually impaired persons but also sighted persons who were willing to wear blindfolds during the tour. the excitement was something to behold. art objects included stone and plaster statuary, ceramics, sculpture in clay, rope, wire, wood, and leather, and variously composed fabric and manipulatable mechanical models. all this was very recent, but history it now is, and very touching. ·a series from east germany: another interesting historical series on spectacle history, 11 uber die geschichte der brille, 11 is appearing in irregular instal­ ments in augenoptik. part 1, subtitled 11 hat kaiser nero eine brille getragen? 11 (did emperor nero wear glasses?), appeared in issue no. 3 of vol. 91, pages 66-67, and part 2, subtitled 11 fruhe optische erkenntnisse weisen den weg 11 (early optical knowledge paves the way), appeared in issue no. 4 of vol. 91, pages 98-99, both in 1974. then during 1976 appeared part 3, 11 die brille wurde in italien erfunden 11 (spectacles must have been invented in italy), in issue no. 4 of vol. 93, pages 110-111 & 116, and part 4, 11 herstellung und bearbeitung des brillenglases 11 (production and processing of ophthalmic glass), in issue no.6 of vol. 93, pages 170-171. part 5, 11 die brille wurde allm~hlich bekannt 11 (gradually spectacles came to be acknowledged), was included in the january-february 1977 issue, vol. 94, no. 1, pages 19-20. none appeared during 1978. ii the author is dr. wolfgang munchow, the chief physician for the history of ophthalmological science collection at the eye clinic of the heinrich braun district hospital in zwickau, east germany, about 70 kilometers south of leipzig. another optometrist memorialized: the dr. geraldine j. sherman scholarship fund was recently established at the southern california college of optometry, fullerton, california. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1979-10-02-001 1979-10-02-002 1979-10-02-003 1979-10-02-004 1979-10-02-005 1979-10-02-006 1979-10-02-007 1979-10-02-008 1979-10-02-009 1979-10-02-010 1979-10-02-011 1979-10-02-012 1979-10-02-013 1979-10-02-014 1979-10-02-015 1979-10-02-016 1979-10-02-017 1979-10-02-018 1979-10-02-019 1979-10-02-020 apr 0 3 1996 hindsight ~ ~···~-~~ ·~~, ...... . f newsletter of the : indiana university : "tomefry libr;\pv optometric historical soci•ty • 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, !isso'jvt'dr 16~1ggg usa: volume 24 january 1993 ! number i o library ! ········$···~······ from the o.a.i.c.c.n.: the january 1992 issue of the ophthalmic antigues international collectors club newsletter, no. 38, reports the record prices received at christie's in london in october for a pair of ca. 1760 folding eyeglasses and their original papier-mache case at £2,905.50, and a ca. 1700 leather-framed reading glass at £1,565.25. the odd costs include auction charges. the buyer was a continental bidder on the telephone. also included on pages 5-6 is a very authoritative sounding article by j.m. devriendt of belgium on the history of spyglasses and opera glasses, the former being defined as "a pocket-sized galilean telescope." a footnote explains that the list of seven references submitted with the manuscript is available on request to editor ronald j.l. macgregor, 47 chapelwell st., saltcoats, ayrshire, ka21 5eb, u.k. more o.a.i.c.c. news: the april 1992 issue of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club newsletter, no. 39, celebrates the loth anniversary of existence and good health of the club, a london-headquartered group. the club started with a letter of invitation published in the may 28, 1982, issue of the optician and the prompt enrollment of about 75 collectors from about 18 countries. initially administered entirely by derek c. davidson it now functions under the direction of six officers, each with assigned duties. among other mentioned items is the news that opticians fritz rathschuler and leonardo del vecchio of italy have combined their antique collections to form the "rathschuler-luxottica collection" comprising 1,200 pieces. the feature item is a two page article entitled, "pierre marly--king of spectacles" based on translations from french publications made by mrs. valerie mellor, one of the club officers. the feature includes some very personal biographical information about the man and his famous collection. another three pages is a list of about 50 "trademarks and mould marks on eyebaths" collected by george sturrock. he includes detailed information on about half of them and seeks further information on the others. 24/2 apparently prompted by the aroused interest, the club arranged for a limited number of fine glazed ceramic floral eyebaths (eyecups to americans} with hand-painted decoration to be available to members only at £50 each. they are all sold and are now collectors' items! enclosed with the newsletter was a flier promoting the sale of a 56-page book entitled "collecting ophthalmic antiques" authored by ronald j.s. macgregor. it is published by the o.a.i.c.c. at 47 chapelwell street, saltcoats, ayrshire, ka21 5eb, united kingdom, at £3.75 per copy plus postage and packing. a centu~ of the optician: the november 29, 1991, centenary issue of optician, vol.202, no. 5329 reproduces on its front cover the tattered front of the april 2, 1891, issue, vol. 1, no. 1, of the optician, celebrating a hundred years of weekly publications except for one issue in 1941. the present issue includes 14 articles by as many authors reviewing quite anecdotally various aspects of ophthalmic developments in the century long interim. perhaps more revealing than the reviews and anecdotes is the cover itself insofar as it discloses the earlier breadth of technological coverage under the rubric of "optician." today' s editions subtitle the serial as "the weekly journal for optometrists and dispensing opticians." the 1891 issue identified it as "the organ of the optical, mathematical, philosophical, electrical, and photographic instrument industries and review of the jewellery and allied trades." four equal-sized boxed advertisements filling the major area of the cover announce that (1} dallmeyer's unrivalled lenses are used by all photographers of respect throughout the world, (2} h. joseph and co., manufacturing jewelers and silversmiths will send their catalogues free on application, (3} george basnett offers patented articles, match boxes, cigarette cases, and combination boxes as agent for the disposal of jewelers' surplus stock, and (4} purdom & stokes, optic works, manufactures every description of spectacles, frames gold, silver, and steel, makes pebble lens, optical sphere-cylinders, prism, etc. plus repairs of every kind, and spectacles to order -prescriptions filled by return post. indeed, this journal must be the world's most complete repository of a century of optometric history as it evolved in the english-speaking world. vision and reading: an audiologist acquaintance of mine once pointed out that in many universities clinical audiology, unlike optometry, was academically paired off with the speech discipline under the combined rubric of "speech and hearing, " and sometimes even 24/3 "speech, hearing, theatre, and drama." it was his theory that this was at least one factor that has hampered audiology's advancement as a distinct professional clinical entity. to enhance his point he suggested that the analogy for optometry would have been it's academic sharing of identity with another educational discipline under the rubric, say, of "reading and seeing." i was reminded of this comment by an article entitled "eyeglasses yesterday and today" authored by lucy latane gordon in the march 1992 issue of the wilson libraky bulletin, vol. 66, no. 7, pp. 40-44, and 125. her opening sentences are, "reading and writing books both depend on the eyes. and a very large percentage of eyes depend on eyeglasses." with that assertion she then traces eyeglass history from sir roger bacon's "reading stone with its plane side down," through the invention of spectacles, the role of guilds, religious concerns and suspicions, documentation by contemporary graphic artists, the slow emergence of modern spectacle temples, the influence of fashion, and the advancement of optical glass and lens technology. approximately half of the review provides very detailed and helpful information about several museums which she obviously visited in the united states and europe. she reminds us that we "have a choice of over seventy private collections and museums in the united states and europe." the article is impressively well written, with only two disappointments for me. one is her not mentioning ilamo, and the other is her reference to salvino d' armati without calling the reader's attention to the evidence that the inscription is a hoax. h.w h. spectaclemakers guilds: "contributions to the history of the worshipful company of spectaclemakers" is one of a series of three papers on the "court collection," co-authored by thomas h. court and moritz von rohr, and appearing in the transactions of the optical society (london) . though this paper is identified as the second of a series, the first and third papers had appeared earlier in volume 30, nos. 1 (pp. 1-21) and 5 (pp. 207-260), 1928-29, dealing with post­ seventeenth century spectacles and the development of the telescope respectively. the presently reviewed paper, the second, appears in volume 31, no. 2, 1929-30, pp. 54-90. it is not clear who mr. court was except that he had an outstanding collection of museum and archival items pertaining to optics, which are repeatedly referred to as the "court collection." the other author, von rohr, was in his early 60's at the time of the articles and widely known for his technological contributions at zeiss in jena. it appears that court provided the historical facts, documents, etc. while von rohr systematized the analysis and 24/4 interpreted the interrelationships, a truly complementary partnership. their resources included also the files of the worshipful company of spectaclemakers and the zeiss museum in jena, germany, as well as several listed published references. it seems that the wcs, chartered in 1629, was modeled after the much earlier spectaclemakers guilds on the continent, especially the antwerp, netherlands, center in the middle of the fourteenth century and the similar nurnberg and regensburg, germany, companies in the middle of the fifteenth century, as evidenced by analogous features in their by-laws and policies. except for the names of a few wcs members, little information survived the great fire of london in 1666. there are indications that the wcs had much less resistance to its being chartered than did most guilds, because lens grinding per se did not overlap the turf of any other established group. on the other hand, the apparent simplicity of the occupation made it difficult to substantiate any claim to being a skilled craft. the craft, incidentally, included watch-glass making (apparently a skill not claimed or contested by the clockmakers) . the article describes membership eligibility criteria, dues, fines, penalties, and quality enforcement procedures, with examples. such terms as master optician, journeyman, apprentice, master-artisan, spectaclemaker, shopkeeper, optical instrument maker, warden, master, and freeman permeate the article with presumed familiarity on the part of the reader, so that remoteness from london lingo is something of a handicap in the understanding of membership privileges, duties, and competitive advantages and disadvantages inside and outside the city walls. though the underlying theme of company membership was equality of privileges and products the influences of entrepreneurial factors were persistent. for example, one section of the article deals with the three ways to gain "company's freedom" (membership and licensure), namely, "servitude, patrimony, and redemption." servitude was of course the ideal, the on-the-job training period; patrimony was through family connection; and redemption was by simple payment without instruction. an interesting sidelight is the discussion of opticians' signs starting with that of john yarwell, ca. 1675, called "archimedes and crown" which showed archimedes looking through a long telescope and four pair of spectacles in the four corners. the signs served in lieu of house numbers and also were reproduced in design on owners' printed documents. the use of signs was done away with in london in about 1766 as their creaking noise swinging in the wind became an intolerable nuisance. "it seems that, about the middle of the eighteenth century, the political and civic rights and advantages that the freedom of the city afforded caused quite a number of people to become members 24/5 of city companies, including the spectaclemakers' company. they were admitted by redemption, viz. the payment of a small sum, and we cannot doubt that the value of its membership to the members of the optical handicraft was accordingly diminished." subsequently the wcs gradually divorced itself from the optical industry. toward the end of the 19th century it developed a diploma scheme for the ophthalmic optician which by the date of this article had received recognition by the government as a form of professional certification. supplementing the article are chronological and alphabetical lists of 250 of the more important members of the wcs and leading independent opticians, with many personal notes of their roles, qualifications, and involvements into the early part of the 19th century. crossed cylinders methods: in a serialized article entitled "die kreuzzylindermethode" beginning on page 25 of the february 20, 1992, issue of deutsche optiker zeiting, vel. 47, no. 2, egan weiler undertakes a thoroughly analytical and procedural exposition of the crossed cylinders methodology in refraction. what prompts our attention here is his brief historical commentary on its utilization in germany. the author credits american ophthalmologist edward jackson with the 1887 explanation of its use in the precise determination of subjective refraction. he further credits dr. jackson for furthering its use by pointing out in 1911 that it also can help in the precise determination of the cylinder axis. in germany the technique was for a long time treated in literature merely as a supplementary refractive technique and largely ignored, and therefore quite unused in practice. not until 1937-1939 was the jackson method considered seriously when dr. w. thiele and peter abel presented it as a basic component of an effective refractive procedure requiring only optotype or letters as visual criteria. then for the first time in march 1941 the procedure was incorporated into the curriculum of the school of optometry in berlin. today, says weiler, the crossed cylinders techniques supplant virtually all other astigmatism measurement methods (in germany) . london eyewear and telescopes: vol.30, 1928-29, of the transactions of the optical society (london) includes two well prepared articles on optical history by co-authors thomas h. court and moritz von rohr, in issue no. 1, pp. 1-21 and no. 2, pp. 207-260. the former is entitled "on the development of spectacles in london from the end of the seventeenth 24/6 century," and the latter "a history of the development of the telescope from about 1675 to 1830 based on documents in the court collections." both articles rely primarily on mr. court's london collection of optic·s-related documents but also on von rohr' s technical familiarity with the contents of the zeiss museum in jena, germany. english spectacles before 1666 are very imperfectly known because of the loss of records in the great fire. improvement of grinding and polishing techniques together with the development of temples as well as new frame materials subsequently made london very competitive during the 18th century. the 19th century provided a less favorable period for the master craftsmen of london because of the growth of large spectacle factories in rathenow, germany, and the united states. the technical details involved in these trends are thoroughly discussed and illustrated. the telescope paper similarly deals with developments that should be of unusual interest to telescope collectors because of its technical details. from a more purely optometric point of view the paper documents two historical features. one is the involvement of many spectaclemakers with the prestigious scientific community in their role as master opticians with fabrication skills. the other is the beginning of graphic documentation of the optical artisans' contributions to technological development along instrument lines as influenced by their academic connections, in contrast with the more traditionally and restrictively secret skill and knowledge transfer under the spectaclemakers guild pattern. in fact, the two articles themselves illustrate the then emerging dichotomy of the initially combined optical fields under the rubric of "optician." the one involved the correction of focal defects of the eye (optometry) and the other the magnification of the object to be viewed (instrument optics) . the salvino myth: on pages 27-30 of the july 1991 issue of the newsletter ohs member robert sandor of stockholm, sweden, chides us gently but firmly for our inclusion of entries about the name of salvinus d'armati as a part of optometric or spectacle history. what he neglected to give us credit for was the fact that in each of the three instances we included one or more phrases or memoranda calling attention to the lack of validity of the tombstone legend. in the first instance (vol. 21, pp. 4-5) we captioned the article, "a persistent historical hoax?" and added a paragraph referencing rosen's "exhaustive analysis and convincing challenge of the validity." in the second instance (vol. 21, p. 27) we reminded the readers that "historical scholarship has concluded that armati was not the true inventor of eyeglasses." in the third instance (vol. 22, p. 17) the brief report was captioned "a myth preserved in stone" and armati was identified as "an alleged 24/7 inventor of spectacles." attention was also called to the fact that sandor's article would appear in the subsequent issue. i have taken further precaution of including the word "myth" in the caption of this commentary. sandor's expression of concern raises a secondary issue of editorial policy. should the fact of non-acceptance of the validity of the tombstone legend justify exclusion of commentary about it? indeed, i think not. the long existence of a false allegation may not only be of historical significance on its own merits but it also, in this instance, tells us much about the importance of spectacles in the minds of prominent as well as ordinary people of a centuries-long era. in terms of the popular appreciation of the role of spectacles in the development of civilization the false legend on the stone really tells us more than if it had been true! h.w h. puerto rican optometry museum: puerto rican optometric history is being preserved through the dedication of amarilis noriega, the librarian at the school of optometry at interamerican university of puerto rico. having developed during its past decade a first-class optometry library to serve the students and the island, she is now turning to the next most important documentary need, an educational optometry museum. the remote geographic separation of puerto rico from the mainland collections, such as ilamo, emphasizes the archival importance of a museum not only for the presently isolated optometry students there but also for the promising growth of the profession throughout all of the heavily populated caribbean islands. puerto rico itself has a fine optometric tradition comparable to that of many american states, but the tangible and displayable evidence is mostly in the private hands of a very few appreciative collectors. this must be institutionally preserved to serve the future, to provide future students glimpses of their professional heritage, which, in the spanish tradition, can date back proudly to da9a de valdez in 1623. so, if you have something old, a letter, a lens cloth, a phorometer trial frame, a book, an advertising brochure, just anything either optometric or puerto rican, or both, that represents early optometry there or elsewhere, send it to ms. noriega at the school of optometry, interamerican university, post office box 1293, hate rey, puerto rico 00918. earliest dutch guild? wondering if it might be possible to find some details about the occasionally cited middle 14th century spectacle makers guild in antwerp (the netherlands), i challenged two optician24/8 optometrist collectors of antique spectacles in holland to make inquiry. say they, "the profession of optician was regulated in the 'gilde van de zijdelakenkopers.' this can be translated as guild of the merchants in silk textiles. this guild was situated in the town of middelburg. there is no information about an independent guild of opticians in the netherlands, and there is no further information about other guilds that may have incorporated opticians. the only known data are from middleburg." the two responding optician-optometrists are kees kortland (rotterdam) and paul aangenendt (eindhoven) . the latter has three coins stamped by the middelburg guild (1677, 1689, 1705). the optical members of the guild were called brillenmakers. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: h.w h. *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1993-24-01-001 1993-24-01-002 1993-24-01-003 1993-24-01-004 1993-24-01-005 1993-24-01-006 1993-24-01-007 1993-24-01-008 vol. 12 netvsletter of the ~ptometric historical society {243 ~orth lindbergh ,~:0~~ ~"r~~vw st. lou~s, missouri 631'4l'·,~·'fi··.u5l~al.!~u!n~~ ~ april 1981 '·1'"y 1 " 1981 .i d ..i.. t:, 1981 officers elected: number 2 the members of the executive board promptly re-elected james leeds as president with james tumblin as vice president and maria dablemont as secretary-treasurer. about our finances: our dedicated secretary-treasurer gives the following breakdown of mailing costs of the january newsletter. · 16 3 u . s . at 40¢ ................... $6 5 . 2 0 3 u.s. hand delivered ............ 0.00 9 puerto rico at 40¢ ............. 3.60 5 canada at 40¢ .................. 2.00 35 other countries at 53¢ ........ 18.55 total 215 total $89.35 the printing charges, an incredible bargain at $92.08j brought the total cost of one quarterly issue to $181.43, approximately one sixth of our total $5.00 membership income. multiplying this quarterly cost by four, the remainder comes to just over $300.00 for all other expenses. postage has gone up 20% since the january issue was posted, and the postal services are asking for more. the officers invite your comments, which should be ad­ dressed to maria dablemont, secretary-treasurer. incidentally, you may be curious as to the "other" coun­ tries represented among our members. they are australia, canada, canary islands, colombia, england, france, hong kong, india, ireland, italy, israel, japan, kenya, netherlands, new zealand, philippines, poland, south africa, sweden, and switzerlanj.. we are reminded that if we have not paid our 1981 dues yet, it will save the o.h.s. 18¢ postage and 4¢ for the envelope and paper, disregarding t~e extra labor cost, if we will send our $5.00 checks immediately. -22on contact lens history: though contact lenses are quite properly regarded as of recent development, they do in fact have a 500 year history, giving rise to increasingly frequent gestures to recite the history, usually with a minimum of research. occasionally a brief historical review of contact lens history is made by one who happens to be old enough to have been contempo­ rary with the developments that enabled contacts to become commonplace and who, therefore, like the blind person who observed the elephant, believes he witnessed the whole event. so it is of interest that miss rosemary bailey, the first woman president of the british contact lens associa­ tion, took as the theme of her 1980 presidential address on september 18 the history of contact lens theory and practice. says the unidentified reporter for the november 8, 1980, is~ue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 20, no. 22. page 788,: "this vast subject can seldom have been as well researched, or presented with a great·er wealth of illustrations". history of the window: during his long and close association with adolf hitler, albert speer served as the principle architect and later the minister of armaments for the third reich. in the fall of 1946 speer was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment by the nuremburg judges. feeling a great need to put his thoughts on paper and also to occupy the endless hours, speer devised a route by which he smuggled clandestive notes out of spandau prison to his family. after twenty years the papers accumulated to over 25,000 pieces. it was from these notes that he published two books after his release, inside the third reich (1970) and seandau the secret diaries (1976). in this latter boo< speer mentions in several entries that he fs actively researching a rather unique but historically interesting subject the history of the window. below is the diary entry for july l.5, 1965 •it.jsed the sunday to copy out a batch of notes on the cultural history of the window. even since a former associate now employed in the berlin central library has dis­ covered which books might be useful for this work of mine, she has been showering material on me. at the moment i am principally concerned with the comparative costs of glass and other building materials during the period from the middle ages to the high renaissance. "along with this, i want to find out, by comparing wages, what value a square meter of light had at different periods, measured in hours of labor. from home i have -23recently received word that already more than 600 pages of documentation have piled up." to my knowledge speer's work on the history of the window has not been published. (dkp) president kruge·r' s ocular problems: hans coetzee, psychologist on the faculty of the uni­ versity of the north, south africa, recently brought to my attention a book containing pharmaceutical prescriptions that were dispensed in the years 1897 to 1899 in adrugstore in pretoria. the book was found several months ago in what hans describes as "the dark, huge, creepy" cellars of the j. peacock pharmacy in church square, pretoria. by extrapolating backwards from the prescription number in this single volume, the drugstore has existed on this site since 1889. the fascinating part of this book are the names of south african history which it contains. many minor figures were pointed out by hans, but the real surprise was to find a prescription for stephanus johannes paulus kruger (18251904). kruger was president of the transvaal 1883-1900, but is mainly remembered worldwide for the park named after him, the kruger national park game reserve. further inter­ est was aroused when i notic:.e:i that the prescription con­ tained cocaine hydrochloride. since this prescription was in afrikaans, (only rx's for high afrikaans officials were in afrikaans, the rest in english~) joan lombard of the university of the north's department of ~harmacy translated for me. 26392 december 1898 kruger president rx zine supphate 1 grain glycerine 1 drahm distilled water up to (2 fluid ounces) eye drops: to be dropped (instilled) into the eyes three times a day. rx lotion mecuric perchloride 1 pint cocaine hydrochloride 10 grains manufacture lotion to bath the eyes now and then :-24the answers to my inevitable questions ~-11-.ere found in the library in a book entitled paul kruger-his ~ife and times by john fisher (1974-p. 12) "the victorians knew kruger for what he had become on the drawing boards of british cartoonis-ts: a coarse old peasant with fists like hams, a sullen expression, swollen eyelids (the lashes grew inwards and caused kruger intense discomfort), a scrubby beard, a barrel chest over which his frockcoat could scarcely be buttoned, a theatrical sash of office, baggy trousers, a reeking pipe and an incongruous top-hat". so the conclusion from this description and photos i've seen is entropion with trichiasis and blepharochalasis. in the year 1900 prof. snellen operated on both of kruger's eyes in utrecht, holland. i was unable to find out if this rectified the problem. it is interesting to note that kruger wore small gold rings in his ears, believing them to be an aid to his eyesight. (dkp) philatelic optics: two 1980 east germany stamps of optical interest ap­ peared on the christmas letter received from augenoptiker (optometrist) heinrich fleck of aue, d.d.r. one, of denom­ ination 25 marks, is a colorful illustration of the "mikroskop von magny, paris urn 1751". the other, of denom­ ination 70 marks, illustrated the ''mikroskop von zeiss, jena 1873". both identified the location of these micro­ scopes in the "optisches museum der carl-zeiss-stiftung jena''. tonometric history: many issues ago i expressed in this newsletter a bit of curiosity about an article in russian entitled "the 90th anniversary of makld<ov's atplanation tonometer". israel dvorine, o.d., responded t at he could read russian and would like to read the article, perhaps translate it. we, therefore, procured a photocopy of the article for doctor dvorine and he very promptly translated it. i told him that we would be pleased to print the trans­ lation in this newsletter, but that i thought it deserved wider readership for its educational as well as historical value. in dr. dvorine's behalf i submitted it to the journal of optometric education where it was rejected as inappropriate to the role of that publication. next we -25submitted it to the american journal of optometry and physiological optics. there, after favorable review by its referees, it was accepted but long delayed due to a backlog of articles with chronological priority. finally it appeared in the february 1981 issue , vol. 58, no. 2," pages 183-185. the russian author is professor m.r. vurgaft, depart­ ment of ophthalmology of kazonsky institute. perhaps his most interesting quotation is "it is difficult to explain why this tonometer has remained basically unknown in the western world". (hv.jh) optics and musical genius: j.b. addensrooke phillips has gathered some interestin?, bits of information >p~rta.ining to vision and t'he world of classical music in an article entitled optics and musical genius published in the ophthalmic o¥tician (vol. 20 no. 21. october 25, 1980). the assemblage o the famous includes the composers: sir henry wood, frederick delius, franz schubert, sir edward elgar, and the composers: arturo toscanini, luigi spontini and fritz reiner. always the skeptic, i question phillips' statement that tosconini conducted from memory because "his eyesight was so poor that he could not see his musical scores", but it does make ·for a nice story! (dkp) what is "optometric history':_?: having been intimately involved in the teaching of a one-credit-hour course in "history of optometry" at indiana university for several years, i was not surprised to find a one-credit-hour course entitled "optometric history"/ historial optometrico" in the projected curriculum of the new school of optometry/escuela de optometria at inter american university of puerto rico/universidad interameri­ cana de puert:j rico. in both curricula these courses were listed in the first semester of the third year. then, one day, i happened to read the description of the latter course. surprise, surprise·! here it is. "the role and significance of case history taking. method of obtaining c:.nd evaluating a patient's ocular and environmental complaints; patient and family medical and ocular history. vocational and avocational visual demands and patient evaluation". i do not want to believe it. (hwh) -26reciprocally awesome: a routine membership notice dated february 1979 for 1979 and or 1980 o.h.s. dues to felix sanchez velez, o.d., of santurce, puerto rico elicited the following spontaneous reply penned at the bottom of the notice: "dear historians: good show!! here's some $ to help with your very fine work. awefully yours, felix j. sanchez, 328 de diego, santurce, pr" he enclosed 5-ten dollar bills ($50). dickenson and neill memorialized: the late frank dickenson and john neill, optometrists, are now honored by the creation of the dickenson-neill memorial lecture by the international society of contact lens specialists. van gogh's vision: a very yellowish cover with a portrait of doctor gachet by vincent van gogh (1853-1890), an article about it by m.t, southgate on pages 657 and 688, and an article entitled "van gogh's vision", by t.c. lee on pages 727-729, are features of the february 20, 1981, issue of the journal of the american medical association, vol. 245, no. 7. author lee discusses the relationship between van gogh's fondness for the yellow and his painting of the digitalis leaf. a very sophisticated bit of speculation. almost lost in the postal shuffle: in the july 1980 issue, mention was made of the histor­ ical booklet published by the southern california college of optometry entitled looking backward-looking forward 19041974. immediately, dr. r.l. hopping, president of the college,wrote to tell us that any ohs member desiring a copy may obtain one by merely sending a request to him at 2001 associated road, fullerton, california 92631. his memorandum almost got lost between the peripatetic editors variously located in indiana, south africa, canada, and puerto rico. similarly, a copy of an april 24, 1980, letter from maria dablemont, librarian/archivist of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, to jacob staiman, o.d., got shunted around the globe a bit. the letter was -27an acknowledgement of dr. staiman's donation of 51 pair of spectacles and five spectacle cases variously identified with the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. a photograph of dr. staiman and part of his collection appeared in the september·l, 1978, issue of the aoa news, page 13 . (hwh) ophthalmic optics in japan: recently mr. yoshihiro fukuda, president of the japan· optometric and optical association, sent me two handsomely bound books. the larger one, of more than 180 pages, approximately 26 x 26 em, is entirely in japanese and in­ cludes dozens of photographs. according to mr. fukuda the book is a history of "30 years of osaka optical retailer association" and was published in may, 1978. one of the photographs, on page 88, shows a group of about 150 persons posed in academic robes on the broad front steps of an institutional type of building. at the bottom of the photograph appears the hand-lettered identi­ fication "students of the optometrical course given at osaka february 1926." on page 98 is a photograph which illustrates the 1918 issue of "the great american jewelry catalog" of the oskamp­ nolting co. cincinnati, ohio, u.s.a." and what appears to be another copy of the same catalog open to pages 676 and 677 showing "zylonite eyeglasses", "zilo and metal rims", ·"society folding eyeglass", and other types of eyewear for which the legend was too blurred to identify. on page 17 is a reproduction of a diploma of the "american optometrical college, shanghai, china" issued for attendance of a course in osaka in 1926. on the same page is a photograph of a person whom i presume to be of dr. d. desmond. mr. fukuda kindly provided a translation of much of the book, which follows (and of the other book as well, which will be reviewed in a subsequent issue of this newsletter). (h~ffi) history of spectacles in japan the old book tells us that spectacles came to japan in the civil war days in our country (1532-1555). in 1541 a portuguese ship was cast away on the coast of kyushu, the southern island of japan, and -28among the curiosities on board were "glasses which enable aged people to see clearly." it is not clear from this expression whether these "glasses" were actually a pair of spectacles or just loupes, but it can be easily imagined that they were convex lenses. the foreign ·missione.es · first put on spectacles. the people then.were said to be afraid of those missioneries as devils with four eyes. since then, many rare articles including spectacles have come to japan through china and philippines. among articles once belonging to shogun ieyasu tokugawa, and now kept in the nikko treasury near tokyo, are two pairs of spectacles. it was during the kanei era (1624-1643) that spec­ tacles began to be manufactured in our country, being stimulated by imported telescopes. the old i· book which listed all kinds of occupations existing at that period,referred, among others, to spectacle manufacturers, tortoiseshell 'li-70rkers and glass· i grinding men. in that period spectacles were sold ! freely without any prescriptions from oculists and ii the customers were very roughly classified according to their age; elderly, middle-aged and young. i the 8th tokug:a.wa shogun (1716-1735) reformed the i calendar whfch promoted greatly the development of • optical instruments. some osaka people succeeded in inventing an observation instrument which contri­ buted to the new calendar named the kansei calendar and later to the land survev of the whole of japan conducted in 1806 by tadataka inoo.in 1789, the first telescope was manufactured in our country. this·means that optical lenses, too, were manufactured in our country and that the lens processing technique was considerably improved. in the early 1800's, when japanese culture was at its full glory,many story books were published, which rapidly increased the demand for spectacles. it was during this period that spectacles became popular among ordinary people. it was mentioned in literature in 1690 that there was a spectacle manufacturer in osaka, and, in fact, the shopping guide book published in 1692 referred to several manufacturers in osaka. hikojiro kaji i, the sixth hikojiro kaji was the first president of the osaka optical trade union, our former organiza­ tion, started his business in i752. meiji and taisho eras (1868-1926) in 1870, there vrere five spectacle shops in osaka, seven in 1877, 12 in 1887, 19 in 1904 and 52 in 1911. the six leading shops formed a group named "six powers". -29together, they submitted their spectacles to various exhibitions and enjoyed a good reputation. these six powers played an important role in found­ ing the osaka optical trade union later. in those days, spectacle shops sold not only spec­ tacles but also thermometers, "'\later glasses·, etc. shops were usually~opened at seven or eight in the morning and closed at ten or eleven at night. from early morning till late at night they ~10rked hard at their business. no one complained that he worked too long or too hard. moreover, there were no advertisements and no fussing. shops were closed only three or four days a year. workers were not given wages every month; they were only given a small amount of pocket money at the end of the month. salaries were paid only twice a year, in summer and at the end of the year. on the last day of the year all shops, including spectacle shops, were very crowded with people with a bit of money; in fact, many shops remained open all that night. edging of lenses the edging of lenses needs a high technique, and in 19th century each shop had its own secret technique for edging. an iron plate was used then as a grinder. an iron plate of about 4 em in width was curved and put intoa pail filled with water. (see the pictures in page 15.) emery powder dissolved in water was poured into the iron groove. by moving a lens back and forth in the groove, the lens was edged. further edging was made using a willow plank. (see the pictures in page 15.) since all work was done by hand, edging required skill, and to get the knack of it, it took many years of experience. in the 1910's, the edging of lenses was done with a grindstone made of glass, which ~ms rotated by work­ ing a treadle. in 1889, an electric light was lighted in some homes in osaka but it had not yet spread throughout the city. then in 1909 and 1912, there were big fires in osaka and many houses were burnt down. this encouraged the spread ofelectric lighting throughout osaka, and spectacle shops, too, changed to electrical power. the osaka optical trade union is established in 1922 after the tokyo optical trade union ~7as established in 1914, osaka people desired to have their own union in osaka. the leaders were six people of the group, -30"six powers". in 1922 the osaka optical trade union . ' ·-was established. only one year later, there was a big earthquake in tokyo. as soon as the news reached osaka, the members of the osaka union gathered to discuss what help they could provide for tokyo. a lot of money was collected to give to the tokyo optical trade union. this was a remarkable social activity for the fledging osaka trade union to assume so soon. educational lectures given by dr. d. desmond in 1926 in 1926, dr. d. desmond visited japan and delivered a three-week educational lecture series, the first one japan had ever had, in osaka. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, many people listened to his lectures and stared in wonder at the latest optical equipment and instruments which they didn't know how to use at all. the lectures given by dr. desmond were not of ophthalmology but of optometry independent from ophthalmology. in his lectures, he warned and urged us to take responsibilities for public eye care and for improved cultural life of the nation. the lectures were attended by 250 people, including some from taiwan and korea. · dr. desmond, who was a chief technical staff and up-and-coming optometrist of the american optical company, impressed us greatly with his deep academic and practical knowledge. the 250 in attendance gained insight into the development of world optometry and understanding of what optometry was and should be. in addition, they gained confidence and hope for their future. this lecture series was really an epoch-making event for the modernization of our profession which consisted of only merchants and craftsmen. it·was also the most important activity of the osaka optical trade union in its early days. dr. desmond's lecture subjects were: 1. optics 8. eye tests and testing 2. lens processing instruments 3. eccentricity 9. eye diseases 4. lens finishing 10. correction by fogging 5. eye anatomy method 6. eyes and spectacles 11. tests of ocular muscles 7. eye tests 12. good salesmen -31the japan optometric association is establlshed ln 1926 on the final day of the lecture series by dr. desmond, those in attendance decided to establish the japan optometric association in order to exchange informa­ tion and to study optometry more deeply. but the association soon went out of existence, as the time was not quite ripe for it. it gave, however, useful suggestions as to the future course of the profession. taisho era and the early years of showa (1912-1930) these years were dark years when the economic condi­ tions were not good. during this period, some opti­ cians went to the states to study optometry, after being inspired by the lectures of dr. desmond. in optical store, modern instruments such as a holopter, ophthalmometer and a refractometer, began to be used. most of the frames were of metal, and some vjere imported from the american optical company, some lenses were also imported from carl zweiss and aoc. educational lectures in 1930's the osaka optical retailers union was established by optical retailers under the osaka optical trade union in the 1930 1·s in the 1930's, troubles began to occur with ophthal­ mologists in some areas concerning eye examinations. in osaka. however, troubles were not serious, since the osaka optical recailers union often held educa­ tional lectures with the cooperation of the ophthal­ mologists' association of osaka. in 1930, the first three-day lecture series was held. the lecturers were leading ophthalmologists of osaka. it was very successful and some 100 optical retailers attended. it became an annual event from the next year on and many people attended from various parts of japan. the war period (1940-1945) in 1940, the sumptuary law was established, prohibit­ ing luxurious spectacles. ~fuen national mobilization was instituted, many optical shops were managed by the old people and women left after young shop owners and salesmen went to war or tc the munitions industry. in 1941, just after entering into the world war ii, all japanese industries were reorganized and in 1943 -32the osaka optical trade union was obliged to be disbanded, too. the new organization, including watch retailers, was established instead. as the war continued, many optical shops were forced to close duetothe reorganization, a shortage of goods, the conscription to the war and the munitions industry and the evacuation to the local areas. in 1945, osaka was heavily bombed and when the war ended, osaka was just a wide stretch of burnt ruins. the osaka optical retailers association is re-established in 1947 after the war in 1947, the first general meeting was held, with 59 members. the most urgent task of the association was to increase the number of" its members. in 1949, the educational lecture courses, which had been suspended during the war, were resumed at osaka university. the first one resumed after the war was a long course of 17 days with 32 hours in total, attended by 175 persons, of whom 153 were given certificates. (in this translation, the osaka optical retailers association is referred to as the association.) the osaka eye health association is established in 1950 in 1950, the osaka eye health association was estab­ lished under the auspices of osaka prefecture and the osaka ophthalmologists' association. osaka prefecture was at that time suffering from various important problems-trachoma, school myopia, blindness, etc. and they thought that with the cooperation of ophthalmologists the new organization would serve to solve their problems. the osaka optical retailers association took the leadership. the association hadthought that now that their members had been educated and trained, it was unreasonable that there were no social and legal recognition for their technique and their status. they expected the new organization would serve to lead to such recognition. the eye health association sponsored educational lectures to raise the standard of opticians, and also designated "good optical shops" and later "gankyoshi" (qualified opticians) . it played a very important role in establishing an organization of qualified opticians and an optical school in osaka. i i ! ii i ! i -33"good optical shops" system in 1951, 58 shops were designated as "good optical shops" by the osaka eye health association. these shops passed the severe screening as to their facil­ ities, hygienic conditions and the standard of the opticians working for them. this system highly inspired the profession. eye day campaign october loth was set as eye day as early as in 1930, and since then the optical industry has conducted eye care campaign on that day. on october loth, 1950, the osaka ophthalmologists' association sponsored free eye screening at three spots in osaka, where the members of the association helped the ophthal­ mologists. on the day before, some mei:nbers~became blind for one day, patrolling the streets in order to campaign against blindness. in 1951, the ministry of health & welfare decided to make an eye day campaign nationwide on october loth every year. in 1950 the nopulation of osaka prefecture was 3.85 million-a~d that of osaka city 1.95 million. qualification tests for opticians started in 1955 since the end of the war, and the consequent stabili­ zation of japanese society, the osaka optical retailers association had been taking steady steps forward. it had already sponsored four educational courses with success. now it was time to consider a definite qualification of opticians. in 1955, after careful discussion for several years, the first qualification test for opticians was conducted by the osaka eye health association. the test was made for academic knowledge and practical skill, with ophthalmologists as judges. 50 opticians passed with excellen~ results. the osaka eye health association as well as the association were satisfied with the results. in the second test, the applicants were encouraged by the osaka governor, and 41 passed the test. spectacle fashion show is held in 1955 in 1955, a fashion show of spectacles was held in the osaka gymnasium under the joint auspices of the osaka optical lnholesalers association and about 6,000 people gathered at the show. the show tried to reevaluate spectacles as fashion goods. following -34the show there was an exhibition of the latest models and also seminar meetings were held. social activities the members visited old people's homes, where they conducted sight tests and fitted spectacles for them. the association presented spectacles to poor students and the elderly. the population of osaka perfecture in 1955 was 4.61 million and that of osaka city 2.54 million. japan opticians association is established in 1956 in 1956, 78 opticians who passed the qualification tests of the osaka eye health association gathered to establish the japan opticians association, so that they could improve their knowledge and skill through continuous education. professor y. uyama, president of the osaka eye health association, congratulated the organization at its outset, and encouraged the members to devote themselves to public eye care and to the development of the profession. the new organization born in osaka drew the atten­ tion of opticians all over japan, many of whom wanted to join and work together. the ministry of health & welfare asked us for a readily understandable description of "qualified opticians" and their organization. meanwhile there was an increase in requests from opticians in other areas than osaka to admit them to take a qualification test and to membership in the japan opticians association. the association and the japan opticians association decided to accept their request. thus the national unity of the profession entered upon a new phase by widening the membership all over japan. in this year, the book entitled basic knowledge fo!:_ opticians was published by the osaka eye health · association with the cooperation of ophthalmologists. since the economy had been so healthy, the sales of spectacles had increased considerably. the economic boom influenced even the advertisements of optical stores, which began to use the words "eye examinations" in their advertisements. ophthalmolo­ gists were irritated by this and they gave us a warning. the association discussed the matter and decided to refrain from using the words "eye examinations". i i i i i i -35all ja an 0 tical commercial and industrial federation is estab ished in this organization is a nationwide unified organiza­ tion covering all the fields of the optical industry. it was expected that the federation would nrovide a wide over:..view, as well as leadership i..n pi:-omoting the whole optical industry. a unified prescription form in 1957, the association issued a unified prescrip­ tion form and asked public hospitals to use this form for their patients. on the back side of the form, the names of "good optical shops" were printed, while on the envelope for the form, instructions for the daily use of spectacles were given. later, private eye clinics wanted to use the form for their patients, too. a contact lens study meeting is held in 1958 since interest was growing in contact lenses, which were advertised in a catch-phrase "good-bye to spectacles ~", many members felt it necessary to study about contact lenses. thus the ministry of health & welfare issued a notification concerning contact lenses this year. qualifications are set for a new membership in 1959 in 1959 sion to 1. 2. 3. necessary qualifications were set for admis­ a membership in the association. to have the facilities stipulated in the articles of the association. to have the facilities stipulated by the osaka eye health association as necessary for "good optical shops". the name of the shop should not be a "watch shop". ·· the new pharmaceutical law in 1961 the new pharmaceutical law was enforced in 1961. the new law provided that optical retailers had to register their business and that optical lenses were to be included in the medical goods to be controlled by the pharmaceutical law. the optical goods which were designated as medical goods were: -361. eye examination instruments 2. spectacles for sight correction 3. optical lenses (including contact lenses 4. test charts and color blindness test charts since, by the new law, we were closely connected with the ministry of health & welfare, it was expected that this would lead to the introduction of a law governing opticians. the movement toward the establishem.ent -or-an optlcal school became active in thi.s year, there grew a strong movement among the members to establish an optj_cal school in osaka. it \vas in line -vlith the trend of the times and became the most important issue for the associa­ tion to tackle. screening of weak-sighted children as one of the social activities of the association, screening was carried out for amblyopia of school children in 23 schools in total, for 23 days in 1961. dr. k. kozaki was a chief supervisor of this screening. the data obtained in the screening were referred to as highly important when the osaka children's center was to be established later. the eye bank movement the law concerning corneal transplantation was passed in 1958 and an eye bank opened in osaka ttniversity in the next vear. the members of tb.e association co-operated in the movement, by hanging the -plastic sign boards of the eye bank, delivering leaflets to their customers and preparing registration forms for donors. the first person to register with the osaka eye bank was the osaka governor. japan opti~al technicians association is established in 1965 it had been widely agreed that the japan opticians association should not remain as a private organiza­ tion, but should play more active role as a public corporation. in 1965, the ministry of health & welfare authorized the .japan opticians association as a public corpora­ tion, whereupon the organization changed its name to -37the japan optical technicians association and made a new start with a greater responsibility as an authorized body. on this occasion, the japan optical technicians association became completely independent from the association, though the latter would give continuous support to the former. japan optical technique school of osaka opens in 1968 when a supporters' organization for the school was formed, the association appealed to the members for subscription. ophthalmologists extended guidance and help to the school. in 1968, the lonp,-a~1aited japan optical technique school of osaka was opened. honorary professor of osaka university, dr. y. uyama, who is also an honorary member of japan ophthalmology academy, \tjas appointed dean of the school. a movement against standard retail _prices is provoj<ed i.n 1971 the association proposed to its upper organization, the japan optometric and optical association that no standard prices or desired prices should be put to us retailers by manufacturers. it was adopted as a proposal to be further discussed. our arguments against the indication of standard prices by manufacturers were that a retail price should be worked out on our own responsibility, since most of the goods we buy from manufacturers were not "perfect" without our treatment. we insisted that we should be more confident of our knowledge and skill which should be reflected in a retail price. the council of the three educational bodies starts in anticipation of legalization of opticians in 1971 in 1971, the ministry of health & welfare ordered the establishment of a council of the three educa­ tional bodies, namely, the tokyo and osaka optical schools and the optical education promotional association (established in 1967) . this was in anticipation of a coming law governing opticians. -38the quality indication becomes obligatory for sunglasses in 1974 a government order was issued in 1974, to make it obligatory to indicate the quality for sunglasses. president of the japan optical technicians association mr. t. takaoka is honored by the· government for his distinguished service lor eye care in 1975 dis·count stores increase nationwide and the association starts to investigate the actual state in 1976 the first discount store opened in the kyushu area around 1972 and by 1976 hhere were some 30 discount stores in osaka. they did advertise their discount by newspapers, radio,· t.v. and handhills. as the first step, the association, together with the osaka watch, jewel and spectacle retailers associa­ tion requested those discount stores to practice self-control. we pointed out that since standard retail prices were no more being indicated by manufacturers, there was no basis for 50% or 30% discount off the standard retail prices and such advertisement would be deceptive for customers. discount to cover up a lack of their skill would never lead to the elevation of their standards, but to a loss of dignity for the whole profession. a panel discussion is held entitled "let's consider problems concerning spectacles '" in 1977 the panelists were a representative of the consumers group, officials from the osaka office of the ministry of trade & industry and the hygiene depart­ ment of osaka prefecture, and an ophthalmologist. the association sent two representatives. the representative of the consumers presented follm..ring problems from the consumers' side: 1. price construction is unclear. 2. consumers need more sufficient explanation about prices and qualities of spectacles. 3. there should be complaint counters or the like regarding spectacles. 4. opticians should be recognized by the government. we explained about retail prices and also our attitude toward consumers. \.ve realized in this discussion that there should be more frequent dialogue with -39consumers, and the "good optical shops", on which consumers could rely for spectacles, should be more publicized. president an japanese opticians felt it necessary to develop the profession together with world optometry. two leaflets are published for better information for customers these were leaflets entitled "correct spectacles" (12 pages) and "family eye" (16 l)ages). 1,000 copies each were presented to the osaka consumers' center to be distributed to consumers. the leaflets pred how important it is to fit correct spectacles and that an eye examination by an ophthalmologist is indispensable for eye care. they also had instruc­ tions as to daily use and care of spectacles. 55 o tical retailers includin some of our members institute a suit against t e iscount store in 7 they appealed to the court that it is imposture to consumers to advertise a 50% discount off the price which is in fact a 50% discount off their own price of their own product. the suit absorbed much atten­ tion of the public as well as of the whole optical industry. "recognized optical stores and opticians" system starts in 1977 the all japan optical commercial and industrial feder­ ation (the top organization consisting of five inde­ pendent associations which represent five fields of the optical industry) made a final decision to adopt a "recognized optical stores and opticians" system. this is the system by which the all japan.optical commercial and industrial federation gives formal recognition to those stores and opticians that are up to a certain standard. this was a step to prepare ourselves for the coming law governing opticians. -40the first official meeting is held with the osaka ophthalmologists association in 1977 the meeting was quite successful and it was agreed by both parties that such meetings should be held regularly four times a year in order to exchange opinions. the present situation of: our op'j:'if:al professi0n and its p"poblems together with japan's economic revival, our optical retail business has been growing steadily. it has attained a high growth rate of 20% every year, sup­ ported by the increase in the demand. in 1976, spectacle wearers in our country reached 35 million, optical companies 20,000, and the business amounted to 350 billion yen. in the early seventies, however, various problems emerged: rriany moved into our profession from other fields; many discount stores were opened; in 1974, a quality indication became obligatory for sunglasses to protect consumers; in 1976, consumers rais·ed a question as to our business methods; a suit was raised against a discount store in 1977; the japan ophthalmoloeists association requested opticians to refrain from doing eye examinations, etc. let us explain major points of our profession and the future way we are going to take. discount stores and our counter-measures 50% discount stores appeared nationwide around 1970, only to be frowned on by reasonable optical retailers. discount stores adopt a small-profit and quick­ returns policy and they don't care about correct adjustment nor after-care. those who had bought cheap spectacles at discount stores complained about their defective spectacles. consump.rs requested us to indicate where they could buy reliable spectacles. every trade has price competition and even 50% dis­ count is not rare in various sales. but it should not be allowed for spectacles and optical lenses which are medical goods. in 1977, fifty five optical retailers raised a suit at tokyo local court against a discount store that their advertisement of 50% discount violates the law prohibiting an unfair competition. in osaka, too, the appeal was made to the fair trade committee to stop the unreasonable 50% discount advertisement. the suit created a nationwide sensation and newspaper, -41radio, t.v. and journals commented on the suit. the public showed a great concern about spectacles that year. in the first hearing, the discount store emphasized that they were selling at ha.lf the market prices and the advertisement of 50% discount was not fraudulent. they insisted that the wide margin of profit allowed for optical retailers forced up the price unreasonably, thus preventing a customer from buying new spectacles. they were trying to get rid of the restraint of a customer by a discount. they maintained that 500,000 out of 3,900,000 customers in tokyo supported them and that the suit interrupted the conduct of their business. the fact was that due to the lack of after-care on the part of discount stores only 5% of those who had bought spectacles at a discount store re-visited the same discount store. the case has not yet been decided by the court, but it urged us to reconsider our policy for the benefit of the public. in 1975-the leaders of the optical retail business began to consider instituting a. self-control, namely, an introduction of a "recognized optical stores and opticians" system. in the early '70s, so-called "outsiders", such as discount stores and those who came into the optical retail business from other fields caused trouble with consumers and we felt it our duty to inform customers of "stores where spect­ acles are fitted correctly". this system is for the members of the associations under the all japan optical commercial and industrial federation. the federation recognizes opticians who satisfy one of the following: 1. those who finished the 4th educational course by the japan optical technique promotional association and have had experience of more than three years ·· 2. those graduates from the tokyo and osaka optical schools with experience of more than one year 3. tl:cse who have a qualification equal to or higher than the one set by the federation and have had experience of more than seven years 4. those who pass a qualification test by the federation. optical stores with the above-recognized opticians apply f6r:recognition to the federation, stating the arrangement of their stores and equipment, the number and the name ,of the equipment they have, and the registration number under the pharmaceutical law; then they are recognized hy the federation. this system is the first step taken by the profes­ sion in anticipation of the law governing opticians. -42educational organizations for onticians since 1955, it had been discussed among the leaders of the profession that a nationwide educational organization should be established. in 1967, the japan optical technique promotional association was founded for this nurnose. educational courses held nationwide by this association were backed by the ministry of h~ealth c! helfare and lecturers were leading ophthalmologis~of various universities. the first educational course was attended by 15,000 opticians all over japan and just recently the fourth course has been completed, with the total number of the participants at over 30,000. in our osaka area, the first educational lecture series was held as early as in 1949 and since then many series had been held with more and more attend­ ants from nearby prefectures. in 1950, the osaka eye health association was founded under the auspices of the osaka prefecture and the osaka ophthalmologists association, which sponsored the educational lectures in osaka. later, the "good optical shops" system was introduced where those stores w•hich were up to a certain level were appointed as good optical shops by the osaka eye health association. examinations were given to the attendants when the educational series were finished to confirm that the contents of the lectures were fully understood. those who passed the examinations were given the title "gankyoshi" ("-1hich means qual­ ified opticians) and they later gathered to set up the japan opticians association which developed into the japan optical technicians association, a corpora­ tion authorized by the ministry of health & welfare. thejapan optical technicians association is now a nationwide organization with 1,725 members. in 1968, two optical schools opened in tokyo and in osaka and a systematic optical education was realized under the appropriate curriculum. all concerned have been making efforts to establish a 4-year university course. in 1977, these two schools were recognized as professional schools by the ministry of education. interchange with foreign countries in 1962, the japan optometric and optical association (the natiom-ride organization of prefectural optical retailers associations) joined the international optometric and optical league and stepped forward to arrange interchanges with world optometry. president, hr. y. horiuchi, served as a member of -43the finance committee, and mr. f. norie as a member of the futur'e planning comrni ttee of the league. in 1977, we also had an interchange ~·lith the american optometric association and attended the first pacific congress held in hawaii. some 30 japanese delegates were invited, including president,-mr. y. horiuchi, and vice-president, mr. y. fukuda, of the japan optometric and optical association. for the future of the orofession what should we do now? every member is well aware that our aim is to serve the cause of public eye care through our practice. nm.v is the time to call this aim to mind again and to consider modestly what we should do from now on to fulfill the aim. we may face many difficulties and often have to be patient. in difficulties we should be united, in order to overcome them. 1.-je should not insist on our own interests, but stand together with a spirit of tolerance and harmony. it's a \vell known fact in history that the weaker the unity is, the easier it gets corroded from inside and outside, until finally it will be destroyed by a "strong power". he have to bear in mind that unity is strength, espe­ cially in our profession, and that vjithout unity no bright future will be expected. brighter future of the profession we expect a brighter future for our profession. ~fuen we fulfill our social responsibilities sincerely through our practice, we believe a brighter future will come. we can imagine that, in future, the profession will be more important, v.rith greater responsibilities, accompanied by a higher reputation in the societv. optical equipment will be highly developed and spect­ acles themselves will have different functions and qualities. boundless development of human society will require our profession to uursue multi purposes in order to cope with the diversity of needs inthe future society. our way with world optometry \-je just started our activity as a member of the international optometric and optical league. we will co-operate with-· iool to fulfill its aim to aid the -44development of optometry in developing countries and to pursue its ultimate goal to serve eye care. we admit that our system shows much need for improve­ ment, as co~pared with the systems in western countries and in the process, v.7e will have various problems. he will be able to surmount these problems only by constant study and effort on ou:r: part. through spectacles we should try to widen our inter­ national view and make use of that to deeoen mutual understanding and friendship with foreign countries. lastly, we would like to urge you again to bear in mind that our profession is concerned with medical goods for eye care, and assumes full responsibility for such services. some people stress the importance of commercialism and pursue only profitable business, still others who are self-flattering, stress their skill. these people surely have no future, nor can they be international opticians. only steady and constant efforts towards a better tomorrow with lofty ideals can make the profession respected and relied upon by the public. this step we have just taken is a small step forward, but it is a significant step for our future. "tribal" cures: herbal medicine is currently enjoying much attention by the scientific community as evidenced by the invited lectures delivered by physicians from the peopl~republic of china at the recent meetings of the american association for the advancement of science. the lectures included topics like the ancient treatment of certain meningitis with-garlic. hith this in mind, my ears perked when a fourth-year opto­ metry student at the university of the morth, republic of south africa, moses ndlela, related a childhood experience. for several years up to the age of eight both moses and his father suffered from short annual bouts of ocular "in­ fection". on the advice of a wise neighbour a successful cure was found by rubbin~ the juice of peach tree leaves into the eyes. the only logical conclusion to this is to state that if you read in the future a new treatment for vernal con­ junctivitis has been found in the form of peach extract, you read it here first. (dkp) early indiana organization data: five volumes of early ledger records were recently received from the headquarters of the indiana optometric -45association. their variety of entries range from december 10, 1896 to february 15, 1944. the five entries dated december 10, 1896, are identified as initiation fees of five dollars each for i .m. rm,7e (indianapolis) , ed shipley (greencastle) , john \.jimmer (indianapolis), w.e. huston (greenfield), j.h. arnold (colombus), eugene 0. collins (franklin), g.m.c. bartmess (clinton), and chas. w. conner (indianapolis). during january, 1897, twenty-seven more paid in their five dollar initiation fees, and six more during february and march. there the treasury seemed to remain fixed until january 1,1901;. when $1.25 was spent on stamps. the treasurer during this period was i.m. rowe. on january 29, 1901, some renewal membership fees of $2.00 each were collected, as were some new-member initiation fees of $5.00. the beginning name of the organization was the indiana optical society. these records, written in longhand, are remarkably legible and contain many incidental bits of information, not exactly meaningful but nevertheless fascinating. they are being forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. accurate errors: the arrival of my copy of the january issue of this newsletter prompted several doubts in my mind as to whether some of the grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors were mine or simply the meticulously precise and deliberate reproduction of errors in quoted copy. in my almost pathet­ ically peripatetic existence in so-called retirement it is not possible for me merely to pull the original documents out of a near-at-hand file drawer and check. i am 2,000 miles from that. the errors that occur in sentences in paragraphs com­ posed by an editor himself may of course have occurred in his original composition and never have been corrected, or they may be typographical errors which went undetected by the editor in the proofreading. in either case the editor must be blamed, but his job is certainly made more difficult by periodic changes of typists, especially of typists of different cultural style, as i have found upon operating out of successive offices in south africa, canada, indiana, and puerto rico. it is not merely that some typists have difficulty differentiating my longhand n's and r's, but that some rely on hebscers, others on oxfords, and others on special manuals of less renown for their references. there are even indoctrinated differences, especiallv of punctuation, correlated with the age of the typist, · -46if only because different primers were used in different decades. i have a notion, for example, that i can judge whether a speaker is over or under 50 years of age by his placement of the accent in caribbean. \\that has all this to do with history? hell, it means that to grasp the tenor, calibre, import, and cultural credibility of a statement, paragraph, or a whole article or letter its replication must include every reproduceble nuance identifiable with the writer's era or cultural circums, tances. "a thousand and 40 days past" has a semmti·c con­ notation quite different from ''four score and seven years ago", though arithmetic equivalents. the errors in shakespeare are priceless gems which would fail today's eighth grader, an~ i suppose, vice versa. so during these monthsin which neither doug penisten nor i may be so firmly planted as to enable one of us to eliminate completely the incorrect errors and to preserve the correct ones through the several copyinf, steus of the redaction process, please read slowly to allow for the fact that some of the apparent errors are correct and can there­ fore enrich your appreciation of optometric history. (h\.-th) new journal: ophthalmic a~d physiological optics: as clearly indicated by the title, a new journal will soon begin publication three times a year in the united kingdom. an article in the ophthalmic optician (vol. 20, no. 21, october 25, 1980) details the format of the new journal which will replace the well known british journal of physiological optics. since the history of a journal is often a confusing problem to the researcher, i found the short, but complete, summary of the history of the bjpo very helpful. the intent of the new journal is not only to continue the excellent articles specific to academic interests, but also to present articles more annlicable to the practicing optometrist. as stated by the author of the article, w.n. chairman, department of ophthalmic optica, umist, "the promise of this new publishing venture, whose original material will complement the more tutorial and political articles of the ophthalmic optician, is a bright one''. h. w hofstetter d.k. penisten, editors 1981-12-02-001 1981-12-02-002 1981-12-02-003 1981-12-02-004 1981-12-02-005 1981-12-02-006 1981-12-02-007 1981-12-02-008 1981-12-02-009 1981-12-02-010 1981-12-02-011 1981-12-02-012 1981-12-02-013 1981-12-02-014 1981-12-02-015 1981-12-02-016 1981-12-02-017 1981-12-02-018 1981-12-02-019 1981-12-02-020 1981-12-02-021 1981-12-02-022 1981-12-02-023 1981-12-02-024 1981-12-02-025 1981-12-02-026 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. volume 2 july 1971 election: number 3 our by-laws state "election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot." due to my absence during the second half.of 1970, the election of a successor to mrs. maria dablemont was negligently overlooked, but as no one seemed to notice this oversight we persuaded her to stay on the job. the board member whose term expires this year, dec. 31, 1971, is arthur e. hoare. so, to bring our legitimacy back on schedule i now appeal for nominations for the replacement or continuation of both for five year terms. election ballots will go out with the october issue of the newsletter. wild-goose chases: o.h.s. member james p. leeds writes, "the main reason for this letter is that i just read vol. 2, no. 2 of the newsletter of the o.h.s. it reminded me of an amusing experience i had within the past year, and i wanted to share it with you. as you know, my main interest as a sideline is the collection of old eye books. i get a lot of pleasure from my collection of (now) some 1,600 volumes and am constantly trying to add to it. "thus it was with no little interest that when i was looking thru an advertisement from marboro books in new york, a remainder house (that several years ago had industrial vision by one h. w. hofstetter for $2.98--no comment), i saw listed antique looking glasses and frames, england, 1700-1800. i chortled with glee and quickly sent in my money and just as quickly received a beautiful volume describing all the wall mirrors in the castles, palaces, and manors in england--which interested me not at all. fortunately, marboro books has a money back guarantee, which they honored, so i swallowed my mortification and returned it. "such are the trials and tribulations of an old book collector." thanks, jim, for this amusing disappointment. i am reminded of two similar experiences of my own. one was a patient search for, and interlibrary loan of, an inadequately referenced ph.d. thesis on -12"the design of 17th century french spectacles", or similar title, which turned out to be a theatrical arts study of the design of pageants or exhibits which, in today's vernacular, we are more inclined to call "spectaculars." the other was a report on "color discrimination among tribal africans," or similar title, equally hard to find and obtain. it was a sociological study of racial prejudices based on skin color! in fact, and this is the other side of the coin, my aforementioned book, industrial vision, was purchased by a number of hopeful business entrepreneurs who thought it must deal with ways to succeed in industry! beginning with the ebers papyrus! a history of orthoptic techniques, a book of almost 300 pages en­ titled strabismus by m. j. revell, is in press for publication this year by barrie & jenkins limited, 2 clement's inn, london, w. c. 2. the material was originally written as a dissertation for the higher diploma of the british optical association. the page proofs, which i had the privilege of seeing, include 163 illustrations. kaleidoscope: though sir david brewster invented the kaleidoscope and displayed it to his colleagues of the royal society of edinburgh his decision to patent it was a bit late. one of his optician friends to whom he had shown the toy earlier had beat him to it. d. j. lovell tells about it in an article entitled "the kaleidoscope" in optical spectra, vol. 4, no. 3, march, 1970, pp. 90-91. about von graefe: four looth year memorial lectures on albrecht von graefe, his personality, his times, and his contributions to our knowledge of glaucoma, strabismus, and the visual fields are published in albrecht ' .. von graefe s archiv fur klinische und experimentelle ophthalmologie, vol. 181, no. 2, 1971, pp. 79-129. summaries are in english. from arthur hoare: "herewith my belated dues--! wish you to feel free to promote some other member to the position of trustee in my stead. i am very greatly honored, but content to move over for a man who deserves this honor more and who is younger." my response: "arthur, we shall continue looking for such a man, but i am not optimistic that we shall find himl" dr. hoare enclosed a delightful clipping from the march 1971 issue of today's health, page 71, entitled "shakespeare--with an eye to ophthalmology." the article identifies chicago ophthalmologist -13dr. theodore n. zekman as a shakespeare buff. also quoted are some convincing phrases showing the bard's skill as an observer of the "physiology and psychology of the eyes." lest i run out of entries for the newsletter, dr. hoare also supplied me with a number of paragraphs taken from c. s. flick's book, "a gross of green spectacles." the following paragraphs, credited to oliver goldsmith in "the vicar of wakefield," suggests where mr. flick obtained the intriguing title for his book. "'ay, moses', cried my wife, "but where is the horse?" "'i have sold him', cried moses, 'for three pounds five shillings and two pence ••• but i have brought back no money. i have laid it out in a bargain ••• here it is ••• a gross of green spectacles with silver rims and shagreen cases.'" philadelphia and the mcallisters: o.h.s. member maxwell miller has written a magnificent account of optometric entrepreneurship during the early years of the u. s. a. the article appeared in the march 1971 issue of the american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of optometry, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 270-280 under the title "the philadelphia story of optometry." featured in splendid detail is the role of john mcallister and the "veritable dynasty of optometrists" which he "sired." how the xxth century began: at the 1901 convention of the american association of opticians (now the a.o.a.) in chicago, president a. jay cross (the optical journal, vol. 8, no. 9, sept. 1901, pp. 849-852) had this to say: "although our calling is many centuries old, it is probably safe to say that we have made greater advancement, in this country at least, during the past decade or two than has been made in any previous period of our history, no matter what its length." the following were included in his address, too: " ••• i believe that our profession will be benefited by inducing the younger and brighter men to enter it. • •• the demand for high-class opticians vastly outnumbers the supply." noteworthy: "flaxseeds in ophthalmic folk medicine," by wm. humphrey, m.d., in the american journal of ophthalmology, vol. 70, no. 2, august 1970, pp. 289-290. op-art and el greco: in a new periodical univis digest, vol. 1, no. 2 (undated, but received in june, 1971), again appears the question, "was el greco -14astigmatic?" the three paragraph commentary apparently quotes, or perhaps paraphrases, the april 1971 issue of eye. ear, nose and throat monthly p. 66, review of a book by eye-surgeon patrick trevor-roper entitled the world through blunted sight, published by bobbs-merrill co. former home of b.o.a. in u.s.a.: in an all too brief conversation with o.h.s. honorary member j. margaret mitchell i learned recently that the british optical association was housed in clifford's inn hall, fleet street, london, from about 1918 to 1935, at the end of which period the venerable old building was purchased by an american (ford?) and brought to the u.s.a. (dearborn village?) my parenthetical queries are based on miss mitchell's recollection that the building was taken to detroit, or near there. incidentally, miss mitchell is now technically retired, but she works on and on in the b.o.a. library and museum. her current successor on the salaried job is mrs. sinclair. woopsl though we sent out news releases to the optometric press back in may of 1970 announcing the election of miss j. margaret mitchell to honorary membership in the optometric historical society, this fact was not recorded in our own newsletter! the honor recognized her many years of service as the librarian of the british optical association and as editor of the ophthalmic optician. the executive board of the o.h.s. credits her as responsible for what is probably "the finest historical collection of optometricana in the world." her address is that of the b.o.a., 65 brook st. w. 1, london, england. tannebaum contributes: in addition to contributing frequent historical notes to the journal of the american optometric association, o.h.s. member and trustee sol tannebaum also gives optometric history a plug in the journal of the illinois optometric association, of which he is the editor, 11a proud walk through optometric history" appeared in the may-june, 1970, issue, pp. 19-21. since september he has been teaching at the illinois college of optometry with a view to establishing a stronger optometry-history section to the department of history-science. he invites suggestions. malingering lenses: "an eighteen year old • • • girl was collecting insurance every week for about seven weeks because of 'blindness,' and her local physicians were filling out the insurance claim blanks. the agent finally brought her to me. after much struggling i found the first type of 'contact lens' i ever saw. she would cut out small pieces of oiled paper used around cigarette packs, and slip them under the lids giving the cornea a dirty-white appearance." -15this is excerpted from a delightful little book entitled we used what we had, by harvey b. searcy, m.d., an ophthalmologist born in 1884 who practiced in alabama most of the years of our century. the book was published by colonial press, northport, albama, in 1962 at $2.00, but it is out of print and unavailable in all of the used-book stores i have tried. i received my personal, widely circulated, well-worn copy ~rom a retired engineer who is on my current "pen-pal" list. helmholtz and optometric heritage: steven 0. davis, a third-year student in optometry at the university of waterloo, published a paper entitled "hermann von helmholtz: his contributions to the optometric profession" in the canadian journal of optometry, vol. 32, no. 3, december 1970, pp. 90-96. particularly gratifying to me was the fact that three students in my own orientation course called my attention to this article. vision of presidents: protruding from my file the other day was a folder labeled paul w. kearney which contained some 1960 correspondence and a manuscript prepared under the caption of eyeglasses of the presidents. mr. kearney, a free-lance writer, had written this on the assumption that, in any period, the president can afford the best, and hence the apparent ophthalmic trends identified with the presidents would provide a kind of reference standard. i do not know that his article ever got published, but it contains some interesting bits of information. i doubt that it would be cricket for me to quote at length from the article without mr. kearney's permission, but i am sure he would not object to my mentioning the names of the presidents whom he included in his commentary, as follows: washington, john adams, eisenhower, truman, hayes, theodore roosevelt, franklin roosevelt, wilson, coolidge, madison, jackson, jefferson, taylor, buchanan, lincoln, lyndon johnson, andrew johnson, grant, harding, garfield, arthur, harrison, mckinley, taft, and kennedy. he also included a comment on then vice-president nixon's glasses. this manuscript will remain in my file indefinitely. if anyone wants this information in detail i shall, of course, try to contact mr. kearney for permission to release it. cho tao, the chinese opticians' tso-sze? further correspondence from o.h.s. member t. c. chang, ritz building, 7th floor, 929 king's road, hong kong, dated march 31 reads as follows: dear hank, "very glad to hear from you at bloomington, and thank you so much for the most interesting and valuable reference papers you sent me about the so-called 'cho tso'. -16"it seems that rasmussen is the first author who wrote about cho tso. i read perchance some excerpts from needham's book wherein a very brief mention was made of cho tso as the inventor of spectacles in china. if i remember correctly, it was in the chapter about chinese medicine. anyway, needham's reference to cho tso was so brief that it doesn't warrant our further discussion of the topic. "i had tried hard to look for cho tso as an historical man but of no avail. i am therefore inclined to believe that he is just a legendary man, non-existant in regular history. "the other day, i had a talk with mr. woo about this problem. mr. woo came from soochow. for centuries soochow was the center of chinese optical 'industry'. it was not until modern methods of refraction and grinding was introduced into china that this center was shifted to shanghai. even now, soochow opticians are still the best in all china. both mr. woo of hong kong optical, and mr. fong of chinese optical, are soochowese. "in soochow, the opticians were concentrated along a lane known as tsuan-tsu hong. behind it is situated chow wong miao (emperor chow's temple). emperor chow was believed to be the tso-sze (initial master) of spectacle-lens-grinders and jade­ grinders. every year on the 13th day of the ninth moon, the opticians of soochow held a festival to celebrate the birthday of their tso-sze. on this occasion a dragon boat was taken out from the temple to show the tradesmen that their tso-sze had sailed to distant countries aboard a junk like this. nobody knows now whether it was meant that emperor chow, as the initial master of spectacle-makers, brought back the technique of opticianry from foreign countries. "in fact the title emperor chow is incongruous to his another title tso-sze, because one couldn't possibly be an emperor and a master-technician at the same time. it was possible only during the pre-historic times. for instance, an emperor was also the initial herbalist-doctor. but that's mythology, not history. "unfortunately, i can't read rasmussen's article in french. it appears that he, too, mentioned cho tso only as a mythological man. the illustration on page 519 with chinese inscription inside a spectacle case is of particular interest to me. the characters are hardly legible. roughly, it says that the shop was situated in soochow inside chong-meng gate, featuring glasses made of crystal lenses elaborately ground surpassing in quality those made by other opticians. "in old china, every trade had a tso-sze. the tradesmen worshipped their tso-sze, and every year on the birthday of their tso-sze, they held a festival to celebrate it. even now in hongkong, some of the trade quilds still hold yearly dinner to celebrate the birthday of their respective tso-sze. "i still hope that before long i can get a french-speaking friend to read rasmussen's article to me." * * * * h. w. hofstetter, editor 1971-02-03-001 1971-02-03-002 1971-02-03-003 1971-02-03-004 1971-02-03-005 1971-02-03-006 newsletter of the optometric historical society optometry ubfuj, may .. 6 nj16 indian;~ dnivers!ty (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. 63119) volume 7 april, 1976 number 2 1895 correspondence course: the first of a projected historical optometric series of limited­ edition books is dr. thomson's 1895 correspondence course in optics, with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch, published by professional press, chicago, illinois, 1975. it is a book that any optometrist who appreciates his professional heritage will love to own. to own it and show it will be an elegant and dig~ified way to convey one's pride in optometry's development. it also makes fascinating reading, not only the very extensive commentary by hirsch, which is a fine overview of the ophthalmic-optometric literature at the turn of this century, but also the 20 lessons, with 333 questions, and answers. dr. h.a. thomson was president of the south bend coll~ge of optics, south bend, indiana, where the same text was used by students in attendance. the tuition then was $50.00, the same as the price of the present volume. dr. brown's scrap book: o.h.s. member james p. leeds, o.d., wrote as follows on march 8: "just got in something i have to share with someone. i have what i think is the scrap-book of dr. c.h. brown (of the philadelphia optical college and the author of 'the optician's manual,' etc.). it has all the ads he ran for his school and clinic from 1890-1934, or so. he had classes, correspondence courses, and around 1899 something called the 'phila. optical parlor.' most interesting. "i'm not.sure what i should do with this, but i felt i had to let you know about it. any ideas?" i called jim promptly, and made tentative arrangements to see this within the next few months, so i can write up a few comments in the newsletter. we agreed it should go to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry in due time. poul christensen collection: my visit last november to the home, and office, of mr. poul christensen, whose report on danish optometry appeared in the january issue, was a most exciting experience. he owns an old danish homestead in the very pastoral -14community of grevinge, with the base structure of a very old windmill in his back yard. he has added a modern building with guest rooms and office space for his editorial work and for his extensive industrial vision testing program. not only is mr. christensen himself a walking history, but he has faithfully saved books, documents, and optometricana at every oppor­ tunity during his career. my hastily scribbled notes indicate, for example, that he has an almost complete set of optikeren, maanedsblad for optik, beginning with vol. 1, no. 1, december 1934, and ending with volume 28, no. 2, in 1962. one of the very early issues included a photograph of tscherning in his lab. to my surprise, i learned that tscherning was a dane! mr. christensen also has almost every issue of the keystone magazine of optometry from 1909 to 1921, and a number of early issues of the wellsworth merchandiser and of anoptico. another gem in his collection was a book, in danish, entitled lysets naturlaere af (by) c. holten, kj~benhaven, c.a. reitzels forlag, 1861. this is a volume of 348 pages, 292 figures, no preface, no table of contents, and no explanation of who holten was. it is easy to recognize the book as an extensive monograph on visual optics. danish optometry in 1931: "refraktionsbestemmelse og brilletilpasning" is the title of a 344 page highly technical volume published in copenhagen, denmark, in 1931 by the dansk uhrmanger-centralforening, in the danish language, of course. the authors are drs. walter mindt and edmund weiss, both of the school for optiks and phototechnique in berlin, germany. the translation into danish was made by c.l. skjoldbo. the publication was sponsored by danish watchmakers association, if my reading of danish is correct. as the title suggests, the book deals entirely with refractive analysis and techniques and the fitting of spectacles. included are 260 figures and an appendix of 113 problem questions and answers. the printing was limited to 2,000 numbered copies, the copy in hand being no. 1,852. now a rare book, and believed to be the first optometry book in the danish language, this volume was presented to me for the american optometric association library by the optikerfagets faellesudvalg, a joint committee of optometrists, and appropriately inscribed by the chairman and several members. statue of f.c. danders: ---~==;;;.. though i have traveled through the city of utrecht, the netherlands, three times, it always happened on a saturday, sunday, or after 17:00 hours, and my time was limited, so i could not find the famous statue of franz cornelis danders. finally, after i returned home, i wrote the utrecht tourist information office and learned that the statue is situated in janskerhof, and that the sculptor was toon dupuis. -15from the small street map sent to me i would say that the statue is less than 15 minutes walk, due east, from the utrecht central station (railroad). one should leave the east, principal, exit of the station and proceed north approximately the length of the station building itself. then proceed eastward across or over a highway complex to enter an eastward continuing sequence of streets successively named vredenburg, lange viestraat, potterstraat, and lange jansstraat, which enters a park or court area called janskerhof. the donders statue should be in view at this juncture. of course, if you arrive in utrecht on a week day during regular office hours you can get a iourist's map at the tourist's information office at the train station. the statue is mentioned in the brochure i received as one of about 25 things to see in a 2-hour hike in the inner city. obviously, a taxi driver could get you there easily. please send me copies of any photographs you take of the statue. i tried to find a picture postcard of the statue in the brief time i was at the station, changing trains, but without luck. about dr. emil-heinz schmitz: in the january 1973 issue of the o.h.s. newsletter (vol. 4, no. 1, p. 12) i commented on some of the fine historical writing by dr. schmitz. a year or so ago o.h.s. vice president henry knoll, mrs. knoll (pat), and their son chris spent an afternoon and evening visiting dr. schmitz in his new home in hagelberg, a small village northeast of lorrach, not far from basel, in the southwest corner of west germany. dr. schmitz does not speak english,· but mrs. schmitz speaks english quite well. between dr. knoll's american german and mrs. schmitz's german english, the knolls enjoyed the visit immensely. knoll reports that schmitz has a wide range of interests, among which optics has slipped into a low priority spot. he is by profession an optician, a physicist, and a lawyer. the written word has been among his hobbies since early youth. he has written poems, narratives, and novels. his political contributions were always associated with a clear conception of the world (weltanschauung) and a goal-directed plan. the theater is his second passion. this explains his partiality for full­ sounding language. dr. emil-heinz schmitz was born in westphalia (dortmund) in north­ west germany. as a result of his participation in sports (he was a successful light athlete and tennis player) and his many-sided professional interests he soon became familiar with all of germany as well as the adjacent countries. his bias for the south of germany is obvious. to be sure, his military experience as an infantryman was spent in the east. he has lived most of his later years in lorrach. the black forest has become for him a second home. -16hubert hamilton rosser, o.d. (1890-1972): among the items received by the international library, archives, and museum of optometry are the applications, permits, and related correspondence from the late dr. rosser's files showing that he applied for and was granted permission by the treasury department to procure "five wine gallons of alcohol per annum." this was in 1932! the permit authorized him to "withdraw and use alcohol for sterili­ zation, laboratory and other nonbeverage purposes in the professional practice of optometry." in longhand pencil in the margin of one of the permit forms is the scribblednotation, "old horsey $30.00 12 pts" the specified storage space was typed in, simply, "in office under lock and key." who was dr. rosser? the 1972 directory of the american optometric association shows him a 1915 graduate of philadelphia optical college, a member of aoa from 1920 on, a kiwanian, a mason, and a recipient of several organizational plaques for long service. he was in solo practice, general optometry, in york, pennsylvania. these papers and a number of other items which once belonged to dr. rosser were donated to the i.l.a.m.o. by lyle m. cruse, o.d., of the same city. of what significance are these papers to optometric history? i really do not have a clue, but i do know that bits and pieces of information like this often become the elements of historical docu­ mentation. besides, they prod my imagination. denny paid his debts promptly: a previous mention of the late roy e. denny, o.d. (vol. 6, no. 2, april 1975, p. 27) prompted o.h.s. member j.j. abrams, o.d., to send us two yellowed papers which he found among some of the materials he acquired from dr. denny's office effects. one is a letter dated march 14, 1927, from an indianapolis attorney to "mr. roy e. denny" stating briefly that he had an itemized list of damage costs resulting from an automobile collision on january 30 in anderson, indiana, in which, we may presume, dr. denny was at fault. the other paper is a legal statement of receipt of payment of $87 for "repair of car," $3 for "pulling in of car," and $5 for "doctor bill for injury to my wife," dated march 18, 1927. the simplicity of composition of the letter and of the receipt, and the promptness of payment not only speaks well for dr. denny, a model citizen, but also speaks well for the times. presidents' glasses: former presidents of the philippines ware the following prescriptions, according to claro m. cinco, o.d., osvel building, jones avenue, cebu city, philippines: -17president ramon magsaysay o.d. +1.25 sph o.s. +1.00 8 -0.25 x 155° single vision, for reading only president sergio osmena o.d. +1.00 8 -0.50 x goo o.s. +1.25 8 -0.75 x goo add: o.u. +2.25; white, kryptok president carlos p. garcia o.d. +2.25 8 -1.00 x goo o.s. +2. 75 8 -1.00 x 110° add: o.u. +2.50; flat-top, white dr. cinco, editor of the oap newsletter, has the above eyeglasses in his collection. oap, incidentally, is the abbreviation for the optometric association of the philippines. "midas" railroader wheelock: my comments on the late arthur p. wheelock, o.d., as a railroad owner, in our january issue, prompted the following letter from arthur's very close friend, d.g. hummel, o.d., of north royalton, ohio (written in longhand in spite of a recent hand injury). "during the last war, when at times it was difficult to get train space i had no difficulty. all i did was show my card, as 'visual consultant', for the cassville & exeter r.r. "incidentally, art showed me pictures of the r.r. at the time he bought it. the farmers had strung barbed wire across it and added the space to their own. to my know­ ledge art put the r.r. on its feet, sold it for more than he paid, and enjoyed the experience, -which led to his further r.r. experience, by request. "he was a remarkable man, the last male direct decendent of old reverend wheelock the founder of dartmouth. "the inventor of the project-o-chart and some optical lenses, this midas was a truly remarkable person. he has never, except from a few of us, received appreciation for his academy work. i believe art held the presidency, with one exception, the longest of anyone. "i am sure you know most of this, but it is my pleasure to write it." -18corneal contour studies: "an annotated bibliography on corneal contour" is the title of a 20 page monograph by lucia ronchi and simonetta stafanacci, no. 28 of a series published by fondazione "giorgio ronchi," florence, italy, 1975. the authors aim to produce "a view of the efforts made during the past two centuries to record the shape of the cornea." each of 86 chronologically listed references is abstracted in terms of what was accomplished in better understanding of the contour of the human cornea. the first reference is to scheiner in 1619, the second to ramsden in 1976, the third to young in 1801, the fourth to senff in 1846, the fifth to donders in 1864, and the sixth to helmholtz in 1867. the last three, all in 1974, are millodot and lamont, lotman and lotman, and guidarelli. the frequency of articles on the topic appears to have been increasing logarithmically, suggesting that during the next half century we can expect about 250 more publications on the corneal contour! fondazione giorgio ronchi: inside the front cover of each monograph published by the above­ named foundation is an explanation of the foundation's establishment, in italian. m.a. marvelli, o.d., of galesburg, illinois, kindly translated this statement from above cited monograph no. 28, as follows: "georgio ronchi" foundation (charter corporation) this is an educational institution created by the ronchi family to honor the memory of a thirteen year old youngster killed by a german grenade the evening of august 26, 1944 in the mountain pass of arcetri. the purpose of this institution is to foster and promote the· spread of knowledge in the discipline of optics, the history of optics, and allied sciences. also, to foster and synthesize information directly or indirectly related to the field of optics and the history of science. its seat is in florence-arcetri, largo enrico fermi, 1. (italy) currently it holds scientific meetings customarily the first and third tuesday of every month. a periodical is published called "writings from the foundation georgioronchi with contributions from the national institute of -19optics," with original papers predominately in the field of optics and its applications. it has been twenty-nine years from 1946 to 1974. 1934 contact lenses to ilamo: ----in the april 1975 issue of this newsletter, pp. 26-27, i mentioned a press clipping describing a pair of contact lenses made for john s. clark of lookout mountain, tennessee, in 1934. at the same time i wrote mr. clark urging him to make certain that these got placed in a good museum. nine months later i received a very gracious response from mr. clark stat~ng that he had decided to offer these lenses to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. i forwarded his letter to ilamo librarian/archivist maria dablemont, she formally called him by telephone, and now he is forwarding to her not only the lenses but also a bit of the history behind them, with photographs and newspaper articles! about 30 years of contact lenses: dr. henry a. knoll has done a little digging just for fun and came up with the following paragraphs in a recent letter: "dear hank: "being one who likes to deal in round numbers (like 30), i recently started to think about where the contact lens field was thirty years ago. as you may recall this was just before kevin tuohy introduced the corneal contact lens. in an address given in los angeles in 1952 (opt. jrl. and rev. optom., 90, #17, 43, september 1, 1953) he speaks of six years of wearing them himself. ·that tells us that he started wearing corneal contact lenses in 1946 -just thirty years ago. "i recall that it was just thirty years ago that i made my first visit to the ohio state university and met the optometry faculty. it was at that time that i met you and jane for the first time! the result of that visit was my enrollment in graduate studies in physiological optics and my introduction to the ophthalmic world. i have a very clear recollection of watching charlie bridgman wielding spatula and rubber mixing bowl in preparation for making corneal molds. (i have not seen a notice of charlie's passing. have you seen one?) vince ellerbrock and mat alpern were also involved in the contact lens work at that time. -20"looking at the 1946 volume of the american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of optometry i found that there were six original papers and six abstracts published relating to contact lenses. the authors familiar to me were john c. neill, clifford hall, arthur hoare,·william feinbloom, frank dickinson, and solon braff. names new to me were e.j. cain, samuel w. silverstein, robert j. roth, d. kadesky, and j.s. nupuf. "one of the abstracts, (d. kadesky, eye, ear, nose and throat monthly, 24, #11, 524-527, 1945) relates that of the 100 patients reported on, 'two patients were unable to wear the lenses: 12 patients could wear them but two hours at a time: 36 patients could wear them only four hours: 17 patients could wear them only five hours: 12 patients could wear them only six hours: 12 patients could wear them eight hours: six patients could wear them ten hours and three patients could wear them from 10 to 14 hours.' "the paper by robert roth dealt with the ph and osmotic pressure of contact lens solutions. as you recall there was a great deal of work going on trying to find the ideal solution to use with the sclerals. this subject got a lot of coverage in the period leading up to 1946. see for example the texts and manuals mentioned below. "the contact lens ads in the 1946 academy journal are of interest. five laboratories placed ads: feinbloom contact lenses, inc., new york, new york, obrig laboratories, inc., new york, new york, precision contacts, minneapolis, minnesota, freeman laboratories, inc., chicago, illinois, and solex laboratories, inc., los angeles, california. the solex ad offers a new name for the science of prescribing and adapting contact lenses: optepaphy, from the greek optikos meaning ocular, and epaphi meaning contact. "ads were also placed by obrig and precision contact in the archives of ophthalmology for 1946. in addition ads were also entered for two more laboratories: national contact lens corp., and contact lens service, inc., both giving a new york city address. "unfortunately the advertising portions of the 1946 american ·journal of ophthalmology are missing from our collection. checking the 1945 and 1947 volumes i find entries as in the case of the archives with the addition of the jenny optical company, boston, massachusetts. in the 1945 volume i came across one ad for 'contact lens solution, stable isotonic buffered,' tozer's pharmaceutical chemists, everett, washington. "there were no original articles in the two ophthalmological volumes for 1946. there were, however, six abstracts. three -21were from the european literature and three were from journals published in mexico. the authors were s. gyorffy, a. mihalyhegi, daniel silva, j. soto eciolaza and olivella casals, and maximiliano weiman. "what texts were available in 1946? i am not able to give you a complete list, but here are the titles from our collection·. contact lensee by theodore e. obrig, first edition, 1942. i believe a second edition appeared in 1946 (co-authored by philip l. salvatori), but we do not have this edition. we do have the third edition which appeared in 1957. techniques of fitting contact lenses by albert l. anderson (associate owner of precision contacts), 1944. contact lens technique by l. lester beacher, 1941. we also have the third edition, dated 1944. this edition was published by the new york contact lens research laboratories, new york, new york. the practice of fitting contact lenses, by william feinbloom, 1942. "while checking on the above i also came across a very interesting publication: proceedings, contact ~meeting, under the sponsorship of the society for the advancement of contact lens research, october 13, 1944, palmer house, chicago, illinois. this meeting was arranged by obrig laboratories, inc. at the conclusion of the meeting a steering committee was appointed which was charged with setting the guidelines for the society. i've not been able to find out whether the society ever met again. i'm in the process of making some inquiries to see what became of the society for the advancement of contact lens research. "the speakers at this one-day meeting were philip l. salvatori, hugh l. hunter, albert l. anderson, allan rossby, robert j. roth, harry hind, america oriani, ewing adams, theodore e. obrig, ralph lowry, edwardo amoretti (of argentina, paper read by philip dempsey), and william sneider. "as the old saying goes -a lot of water has gone under the bridge -we've come a long way. these days when you pick up a journal, there is a good chance that there will be a contact lens article between the covers. on the other hand we still have a lot to learn. i wonder what the next thirty years will bring. "sincerely yours, "hank" a professor charles s. bridgman obituary, which dr. knoll asked about, is in the april 3, 1975 issue of the optometric weekly, vol. 66. no. 11, p. 315. -22new information about lincoln's glasses: a news item picked up by earl dablemont in a february issue of newsweek informs us that in 1937 the now deceased granddaughter of abraham lincoln donated to the u.s. library of congress a sealed case containing the contents of lincoln's pockets after his assassi­ nation. the sealed case was discovered by current librarian daniel boorstin when he took office last november. at a lincoln's birthday ceremony in february, boorstin opened the case and revealed the contents. included in the collection were two pair of wire-rimmed spectacles. maria dablemont immediately called the library of congress and learned that the spectacle case included the name or names of district of columbia opticians. further details will be reported here as soon as mrs. dablemont can get them. newton reinforced: the front cover of the january 16, 1976, issue of science, vol. 191, no. 4223, is a full-page reproduction of the title page of the 1704 edition of isaac newton's opticks. prompting this front cover illustration is an article by marc h. bornstein, william kessen, and sally weiskopf, pp. 201-202, entitled "the categories of hue in infancy." they reported that "4-month-old infants respond to differences in wavelength as though they perceived categories of hue -­ blue, green, yellow, and red," which is what newton himself observed. in the leeds collection: -.;:;:..:;;..;;;....;;;;.:;;.. ===== james p. leeds, o.d., 2470 east !16th street, carmel, indiana, 46032, reports several intriguing titles in his book collection, as follows: burchardt, dr. max, praktische diagnostik der ~imulationen von gefllhlslmhmung, von schwerhorigkeit und von schwachsichtigkeit (practical diagnosis of simulation of loss of touch sense, deafness, and amblyopia), 1875. wick, k., uber simulation blindheit und schwachsichtigkeit und deren entlarvung (concerning the simulation of blindness and amblyopia and its detection), 1907. retina, g.h., der optikermeister (the master optician), berlin, 1928. schi~tz,,h.j., 0iets refraktionstilstande (i do not have a norwegian dictionary, but my wild guess is that this is ocular refraction tests). -23the first two being concerned with malingering suggest that malingering was a significant problem, perhaps in relation to military service, even in bismarck's day. author wick, according to dr. leeds, was the grandfather of ralph e. wick, o.d., of rapid city, south dakota. i wonder if author retina was ever mentioned in ripley's believe it .2!. ~ series. yes, dr. leeds, these are fascinating, and to me quite unfamiliar. i too, want to make a prolonged visit to your office to browse through your outstanding optometric book collection. another bicentennial bit: activities of ophthalmic opticians in the 18th century are described in considerable detail in an article entitled ''manchester optics" by hieronymous in the january 24 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 74-75. another bicentennial clue? a christmas and new year greeting card from dr. gunter ueberschaar, who teaches optometry at the jena, east germany, school, featured an early artist's illustration of a young man scratching his head as though puzzled and carrying a basket filled with what appear to be telescopes and other optical components. his right foot is up on a rock, and near his other foot are some pieces of wood that seem to be surveyor's or draftsman's tools or supports. a letter of inquiry to dr. ueberschaar brought the prompt reply that it is copied from a print on which the legend is "perspektivhandler. gezeichnet: j.c. brand. gestochen: c. schutz. 1755" {field glass peddler, sketched by j.c. brand, and cut by c. schutz, 1755). there appear to be many details in the picture which, if viewed in the original full size, might well tell us something about optics in the middle of the 18th century. reprints received: the newly appointed publications director (verlagsleiter) of the suddeutsche optikerzeitung (usually abbreviated soz), mr. harmut h. schaedel, sent me two monographs and seven photocopies of articles by kurt muller from soz, all concerned with optometric his'tory, as follows: -schmitz, emil-heinz, die sehhilfe im wandel der jahrhunderte (visual aids through the centuries), verlag sttddeutsche optikerzeitung, stuttgart, germany, 1961, 143 pages. kugn, gerhard, and wolfgang roos, sieben jahrhunderte brille (seven centuries of eyeglasses), deutsches museum abhandlungen und berichte, vol. 36, no. 3, 1968, 91 pages, verlag r. oldenbourg, munchen. -24muller, kurt: "joseph von fraunhofer als brillenfabrikant" (fraun­ hofer as a spectacle maker) soz, vol. 17, 1962, pp. 614-615. , "ein leseglas vor 3500 jahren" (a reading lens of 3500 years ago), soz, vol. 23, no. 1, january 15, 1968, p. 48. "sehpriifung vor 3000 jahren" (optometry 3,000 years ago), soz, vol. 23, 1968, p. 164. "die geschichte des zielfernrohrs" (history of tele­ scopic gunsights), soz, vol. 16, no. 10, october 15, 1961, pp. 518-524. "wie wurde die brille in alter und neuer zeit getragen?" (how were eyeglasses supported in ancient and modern times?), soz, vol. 19, no. 5, may 15, 1964, pp. 288 & 290. "hat es in niirnberg eine brillenmacherzunft gegeben?" (was there really a spectacle makers guild in nurnberg?), soz, vol. 16, no. 1, january 15, 1961, pp. 38-39. "die taucherbrillen des leonardo da vinci" (leonardo da vinci's diving glasses), soz, vol. 16, no. 8, august 15, 1961, pp. 442-443. also gratefully received: from o.h.s. member jack m. weber, o.d., a copy of "the conservation of vision and modern optometry," authored and published by the american optical company, southbridge, 1912 (15 pages). this, too, has been added to the holdings of the international library, archives, & museum of optometry. in the right places: next time you visit washington, d.c., and happen to spend a bit of time at the library of congress, you might enjoy checking the serials catalog for this newsletter. i do not know whether it is filed under "n" or "o", or both, but it should be there. our attentive ohs secretary/treasurer has sent a copy of every issue of the newsletter to the exchange and gift division of the library .of congress. early american specs: this is the title of a recently received book by l.d. bronson, o.d., published by the occidental publishing company, glendale, california 91204, 1974, 188 pages ($12.95). time has not permitted your editor the opportunity to review it for this issue. -25hermann pistor (1875-1951): in professional optometric/ophthalmic optical circles in the germanic countries and even in neighboring european countries the name of hermann pistor is as familiarly, fondly, and almost reverently, mentioned as are names like sheard or prentice in the u.s.a. or george giles in england. his looth birthday anniversary was accorded special ceremony last year in cologne, west germany, and in jena and sonneberg, east germany. a major higher level school in sonneberg bears his.name, as does also the augenoptik school in jena. the cologne augenoptik school considers its curricular design to be in compliance with pistor's concepts and honors him accordingly. his birthplace in sonneberg (september 6, 1875) bears a memorial plaque, and his portrait is displayed in many a former student's office as well as in several public places. his students honored him with the nickname "pius." the city of jena made him an honorary citizen on his 75th birthday, and celebrated the occasion with pomp and ceremony that continued for hours and hours into the night. in earlier years he had been given honorary membership in the british, netherlands, and belgian ophthalmic optical associations. through his publications, his lectures, his leadership, and administrative abilities he had become the guiding spirit of the jena school which he helped to staff when it was founded in 1918. he was appointed director a few months later and held that post until retirement. during these years the school acquired an international reputation unmatched by any other school before world war ii and perhaps never matched since. much of his philosophy of optometry as a science-based profession was dissipated in the changes in govern­ mental and educational structure which evolved on the continent during and immediately following the war years, but nostalgic memory still persists among not a few. indeed, his early influence may again be emerging as the profession in europe is beginning to recover from the set-backs of almost a third of a century. he died on october 1, 1951. his funeral on october 4 was accom­ panied by the je.na cultural orchestra, a parade of speakers, and the chimes of jena churches. much of the above information, and a great deal more, is included in a splendid centennial memorial article entitled "hermann pistor zum gedanken" by g. roher in augenoptik, vol. 93, no. 1, jan.-feb. 1976, pp. 3-4. jesse wolff, o.d. (1888-1975): the death of o.h.s. member jesse wolff brought an end to a long and productive career, as may be noted by a reading of his biographical entry in the 1972 directory of the american optometric association. his death notice in the st. petersburg (florida) times mentioned that he, -26"devised the cross-cylinder test, a means of exam1.n1.ng eyes at the reading distance. he was the first to use the test, and he designed the mechanical means of making the examination, which is used universally on all refraction." the above-cited directory also mentions an article he published on "cross cylinders in new tests." presumably the term "cross cylinders" in these instances refers to their use in measuring accommodation at near, not to be confused with the term "crossed cylinders" usually referring to the use of a single crossed-cylinders lens to determine astigmatic power and axis at distance. because dr. wolff's death occurred while i was out of the country, i have not seen his obituary in a professional journal, which might well confirm or contradict this tentative interpretation. dr. morgret heard from: while trying to wrap up the final copy for this issue i was somewhat simultaneously, but mostly intermittently, watching and listening to the television broadcasts of indiana university's national championship basketball game. my excitement over winning was capped by a surprise telephone call from a longtime friend dr. frank morgret to congratulate indiana through me, the only person he happened to know on this campus. not an optometrist, but formerly the admissions director at southern college of optometry and co-author of a widely used text for ophthalmic optics courses, dr. morgret is presently retired but very active in freelance writing. he says he is "busier than ever." his address, incidentally, is 257 palisade, memphis, tennessee 38111. o.h.s. election results: an occasional ballot still comes in, but the virtually instant responses, and even those that have come in a bit more leisurely, overwhelmingly, and so far unanimously, re-elect maria dablemont to a second five-year term on the five-person executive board. her term now extends to december 31, 1980. as soon as no possible doubt remained, our secretary-treasurer's assistant, sandra smith, processed ballots to the five members of the executive board, james r. gregg (1976), sol tannebaum (1977), john r. levene (1978), henry a. knoll (1979), and maria dablemont (1980), for the election of officers for 1976. they promptly re-elected the encumbents, as follows: levene as president, knoll as vice-president, and dablemont as secretary-treasurer. o.h.s. finances: the funds on hand as of december 31, 1975, included $1,448.41 in a savings account, $138.61 in a checking account, and $79.04 in petty cash, totaling $1,666.06. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1976-07-02-001 1976-07-02-002 1976-07-02-003 1976-07-02-004 1976-07-02-005 1976-07-02-006 1976-07-02-007 1976-07-02-008 1976-07-02-009 1976-07-02-010 1976-07-02-011 1976-07-02-012 1976-07-02-013 1976-07-02-014 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. volume 9 january 1978 number 1 election results: c\ this time we had two duly nominated candidates for the vacancy on the executive board created by the expiration of dr. sol tannebaum's term. lead­ ing by a very comfortable margin was james p. leeds, o.d., 2470 east 116th st., carmel, indiana 46032. this was jim's second try as a candidate. he had lost out last year to the internationally popular grace weiner. dr. leeds' five year term will expire on december 31, 1982. ballots have been sent out to all five members of the 1978 executive board to elect officers from among themselves. if all five ballots are returned prior to the final typing of the last paragraph of this issue i shall announce our 1978 officers at the end of this newsletter. otherwise they will be an­ nounced in the april issue. ohs gathering number iv: 31 persons gathered together in the reynolds historical library reading room of the listen hill library of the health sciences on the campus of the university of alabama in birmingham at 4:30 p.m. sunday december 11 as a bit of diversion from the more intensive academic pace of the american academy of optometry meetings of several days duration. o.h.s. officers and trustees present included president knoll, vice-president grace weiner, secretary­ treasurer maria dablemont, and newly elected trustee james leeds. following a very few routine official o.h.s. comments several "old-timers" were prevailed upon to give out with some of their early personal experiences and observations of historical optometric interest. examples of personalities mentioned were those of frederick a. woll, albert fitch, wm. needles, charles sheard, his brother shag sheard, clifford treleaven, ralph minor, and james p.c. southall. commentators included meredith morgan, fred lit, e.j. fisher, and theo gumpelmayer. optometry in 1819 encyclopedia: "the cyclopaedia, or universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature" by abraham.rees, "with the assistance of eminent gentlemen," was printed in london in 1819 "for longman, hurst, rees, orme, and brown." it consists of 39 volumes of text and six volumes of plates, truly almost a three-meter long shelf of large books with fine print. i found a complete set at the indiana university library, and mr. karl e. sterne, vice president and general manager of nelles griot, tells me that it is also at the university of california irvine library. -2the entry under spectacles, in volume 33, is a 7,500 word dissertation which starts with the definition, "spectacles, an optic machine, confifting of two lenfes fet in a frame, and applied on the nofe, to affift in defects of the organ of fight." the article includes the history of spectacles, their use, types, and num­ bering systems. its technological sophistication is well illustrated by the follow­ ing excerpted rule "for determining the concavity of a glafs that is best adapted for near-fighted perfons, to thofe who are unable, from diftance or any other caufe, to fuit themfelves at the fhop of an expert optician. the rule is this: multiply the diftance at which the pe~fon reads with eafe, (which in our author's cafe, with his left or beft eye, was -five inches,) by that at which he wifhes to read, which may be ftated at 12 inches; divide the product, 60, by 7, the differ­ ence between the two, and it leaves nearly 9 inches for the focus of the concave glafs that fhall produce the, defired effect. this glafs anfwers to ~hat fold under the name of n°6; and this is a double concave glafs, ground on a tool of 8 inches radius on one fide, and 11 inches on the other, the mean between which is very nearly 9 inches." volume 14 includes 37 pages, approximately 54,000 word~ on the subject of ~· volume 4 shows 19 plates on optics, with an average of about nine superbly drawn figures on each plate, a total of about 170 optical figures! the article on lens itself covers eight pages, about 12,000 words. another welcome contribution: the following is a recent letter from professor l.a. ress, apt. 4a, 3235 cambridge avenue, bronx, new york, 10463: "over the past few years i have become an avid reader of the ohs newsletter and i thought that the .enclosed items might be of use in some future issue. "as for your request that an ohs member look into the ellis island situa­ tion {p. 68 of vol. 8, no. 4), i can inform you that i visited ellis island in may of 1976, the first weekend that it was opened to visitors. the surround­ ings were not pleasant, to put it mildly. the high dust content of the at­ mosphere inside the buildings on the island was far removed from the proper environment minimally required for any sort of examination. and this is years after the facilities were used as a health station. i shudder to think what it was like with thousands being herded through the facility daily. i do re­ call seeing an eye chart propped up against the wall in a dark, dusty corner. however, i must caution you that there is a strong possibility that this had been placed haphazardly for the benefit of the tourists who were now supposed to be shepherded through the landmark. while the guides were courteous, they were not all that adept at answering technical questions with any degree of accuracy. the o.h.s. query falls into this category and therefore, instead of being able to give you an immediate answer, i shall have to await a written reply from the superintendent of the facility. i have already commenced in­ vestigation on this and hope to have an answer shortly which i shall be happy to share with you and the other members of ohs. -3"i can also tell you that there is a pair of metal rinuned spectacles on display in the american museum of ~igration on liberty island, to which you must go first in order to go to ellis island. a change of boats is necessary. "quite frankly, while the boat trip is nice on a sunny day, the answers to our questions are not on either of these islands, but in the files of the u.s. department of the interior, whose answer (i reiterate) i await. the likelihood of an optometrist, per se, being on duty is small as new york state did not license optometrists prior to 1908, .and by that time ellis island no longer served as an immigration station. chances are, the health inspectors were merely laymen, each trained for a specific task, but the immigrants didn't know that and to avoid trouble addressed everyone as doctor." professor ress, incidentally, is not only an historian with specialization in the history of science, he is also an ophthalmic dispenser, a master of ophthalmic optics, a fellow of the national academy of opticianry, a phi beta kappan and a phi alpha thetan ·(history). his faculty affiliations involve both history and ophthalmic dispensing. more about !?.!_. eugene wiseman: the following is a letter received from o.h.s. member richard e. schugar, o.d., of the optometric center of maryland: "the october issue of our newsletter mentioned eugene wiseman on page 66. i felt prompted to write this letter and relate to you the following account. "approximately six sununers ago i was visiting my parents in buffalo, new york. i was a 2nd or 3rd year student at pennsylvania college of optometry at the time. one afternoon i went antique hunting and came across three boxes of optometric equioment at one dealer's shop. i was told they had just acquired these goodies. "contained in the box was a 1908 dezeng phoropter, an ives visual acuity apparatus (exactly like the one in the pennsylvania college of optometry lobby), a number of old hand instruments, a 15" diameter wheel with plus and minus spheres, two amblyoscopes, parts to old instruments, an extrinsic ocular muscle model, a whole bunch of lantern slides, a sphygmomanometer, some wall charts, and other assorted 1 junque.' "also included was a series of four paperback books on effective speech­ making. these books were still in the original mailing container. the addressee was eugene wiseman!! "at that time i knew little of the man, so upon my return to school i proceeded to look through recent journals for the man's obituary and in old blue books for a biography. i was thrilled to learn i had acquired a very prestigious man's old equipment. -4'~r. wiseman graduated from pennsylvania college of optometry in 1905 and moved to buffalo two years later where he acquired the practice of dr. alexander martin. "during his professional career, dr. wiseman was president of the buffalo optometric society (1908), 3rd vice president of the american optometric associa­ tion in 1920, president of the american academy of optometry in 1923, chairman of publicity of the american optometric association in 1920, and held other posts in professional associations. · • •' · "among the books he wroee· . ..ter•"~'lililcling qptomet9 ·(1918), blood pressure in ocular work (1916), and ocul~~;t sympt:oiiatology ~1924'). ~ i }ill've a copy of this last book. , ' ,, .. •. )'' ~· · .·. _;.. ~ . .:. "dr. wiseman was a frequent contributor to the 'journal' in the period 19121916. his articles· advoca4:ing the tak~g of ~lood presaui'e ,h.y -c)ptometrists appar­ ently created great contpoversy. : · ' "dr. wiseman died iri 11968. 4't 'the age of 81. "one of the most interesting items i purchased that summer day was a collec­ tion of lantern slides. many were hand done depicting ocular anatomy. i gave these to dr. rybachok at the pennsylvania college of optometry. "i still possess eleven slides that must have been used for public relations work. they look as though they may have appeared in periodicals, but i never did the research to see if this was the case. "i have made photocopies of these slides. if you would like to inspect the slides, i will be happy to send them to you. "thank you for giving me the initiative to relate my story." the xerographic copies suggest that ten ofthe eleven slides are photographs of professionally prepared newsprint advertisements replete with eye-catching illustrations, headlines, double columns of explanatory legend with subheadings, and a closing advisory punch line in bold type. the compositions include no personal or organizational identification of sponsorship, the simplest form of institutional advertising. the ten headlines? here they are: how america's nerve-waste has been reduced ~ optometrists four headaches ~ of !.!y.!. ~ ~ science of optometrists three ~ of ~ workers need the science of optometrists 42 states safeguard their people's eyes kt legally registering optometrists before you subject your eyes !£_ either drugs ~ glasses, consult !:!!.. optometrist optometrists could ~ strengthened 45 years of huxley's wonderful brain-work -5optometrists have scientifically helped i million eyes optometrists ~ helping workers win promotions optometrists mtght have multiplied ~ literary genius of thomas carlyle surely you would give your children crutches if they needed them! why not .h!y!. ~ optometrist find whether they need glasses? beneath the large capitalized word optometris~in each display was the parenthetical phrase, in small type, "(pronounced op-tom-o-trists)." the eleventh slide is a photograph of a flow chart, a schematic diagram of the circumstances, activities, and attributes essential for the individual optometrist to gain success •. i seems likely that dr. wiseman used this with his lectures to colleagues. of glass legumes: a lens is a lentil, and a lentil is a small biconvex legume or seed, such as a bean or pea; transparent glass is crystalline, or just crystal. these simple facts give unusual historical significance, says v. ronchi, to the following passage written in 1589, at least three whole centuries after the invention of spectacles: various are the effects of a crystal lentil and it is opportune not to disregard them; because some are concaves, others are convexes and they have the same effect as the spectacles, something utmost useful to the man for his daily activities. nobody has related till today about their causes or their effects. it was written originally in latin by giovan battista della porta, known as 11 porta by his contemporaries, in his ''della magia naturale" (about the magic of nature), and 22 years later in italian. the translation into english is by professor vasco ronchi in an easy-to-read article entitled "giovan battista della porta, the lucky optician" in the may-june 1977 issue of atti della fondazione giorgio ronchi, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 545-551. ---professor ronchi has published substantial evidence that the history of the role of the scientific community with regard to lenses at the time spectacles were becoming popular was a "fantastic story" of suppression of information. "lenses to correct presbyopia were the inventions of simple workers. they discovered and made them popular without the assistance, or better, against the advices of the science of their time." why were the lenses so condemed? the simple and inflexible logic was, "the objects seen through the lenses are smaller or larger than those~~ the naked eye ~evidenced ~the touch, which grant !2!:, truth. the images seen throu8h the lenses ••• give false information about the world." the equally simple consequence was that" • scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, were convinced that lenses were ••• not a study for a man of culture." -6in his collecting of all the writings about spectacle lenses during the three centuries between their invention and i1 porta's publication ronchi has found "three short passages in xiv century, not a single one in xv century, and four mentions in xvi century, and every time to condemn the use of lenses and to confirm their deceptive character." il porta himself was regarded as neither a scientist nor a scholar. ronchi chooses to call il porta "the first optician", and closes his article with, "naples should do more to glorify the name of this son. no doubt he is one of the most vivid gems of her cultural and historical patrimony." re the "following gaze" you will recall this phenomenon discussed in the previous issue of this news­ letter. my most regular respondent, james leeds, o.d., points out, "there is a portrait of former u.s. president benjamin harrison (1833-1889) in his indianapolis home, now a museum, which has his eyes following the viewer. i have seen it written up several times in the indianapolis press, and i have visited the museum and observed it myself." the same phenomenon has been utilized effectively in movies, especially in stereoscopic moving pictures in which, for example, an oncoming train is perceived to be rushing precisely headlong and simultaneously toward every person in the theatre, -toward every viewer in the first row across the front of the theatre as well as toward everyone in the rear, in the balcony, and in the mezzanine loges. presidential book review: the following letter from o.h.s. president henry a. knoll is really a book review: just read a new addition to our library which links the availability of negative spectacle lenses with the invention of the telescope. from it i also learned that galileo was not the inventor of the galilean telescope! the story surrounding the invention is fascinating and complicated and the author is not able to establish priority with certainty. the three likely candidates were all dutchman; two of them were spectacle makers. the spectacle makers were hans lipperhey (lippensum, lippersein, laprey, lippensheim, lippershey) and sacharias janssen and the third, was jacob metius, an in­ strument maker. lipperhey applied for a patent before the states-general in the hague in september 1608. a peace conference between the dutch and the spanish was going on at the time and the hague was crowded with diplomats and their entourages from all over europe. word of the invention leaked out and news of the new invention spread through europe very quickly. "the device itself was for sale in the shops of spectacle makers in paris by april, 1609; in l -7may we find one in milan; in august the telescope had reached venice and naples." ~ invention ~ £!!!. telescope by albert van helden is published in the transactions of £!!!.american philosophical society, volume 67, part 4, 1977, $6.00. the first 27 pages are a very readable account of the story of the invention. the remaining 40 pages contain the documents referred to in the original and in translation. professor van helden mars this very complete and scholarly work by perpet­ uating the concept that myopia follows excessive near work (page 10). except for this blemish the monograph is a must for any serious student of the history of optics. a spectacle vending machine: winston c. may, o.d., of manassas, virginia, sent me a copy of u.s. patent no. 869,807, dated october 29, 1907, application filed december 1, 1906, serial no. 345,877, granted to arnold rosenfeld, of bel air, maryland, for a vejiding appara'ius. says the patent, "this invention relates to a combined eye testing or examining and coin-controlled eyeglass vending apparatus." further, "the main object of the invention is to provide an apparatus by which the intending purchaser of a pair of eyeglasses or spectacles may test his eyes before purchasing, and then, by the operation of suitable coin-controlled mechanism upon the insertion of a proper coin, obtain a pair of eyeglasses or spectacles of the nature required to suit the sight in accordance with the requirements shown by the test." more .2!!_ the headband support : "in 1797, dudley adams, son of george adams, of london, received a royal patent from the english government for a spectacle that 'would not hurt the nose or ears of the wearer'. the drawings show that the lenses were suspended from a flexible headband." so reported e.e. shreiner of new york city in an article entitled "blue glass history" in the may 25, 1922, issue of the optical journal and review, vol. 49, no. 21, page 41. about early colored glass: the above cited article by shreiner also includes some fascinating para­ graphs on the history of colored glass, several of which follow: owing to the present widespread interest and the many inquiries con­ cerning the therapeutic value of ''blue" glass in the treatment and cure -8of cataract cases, a few remarks in favor of this almost extinct color may be of general interest, especially when we recall that this is the 250th anniversary of the introduction of blue glass to the optical trade. the first authentic information of the use of any colored glass dates back to 1561 when jarius aucott, an english spectacle-maker, whose place of business was in lisle st., county of middlesex, made a public announcement, which is recorded as follows: "the construction and making of spectacles with green glass which i conceive are of great publick utility and benefit" (ency. londoniensis, ii-i-1799). one hundred and eleven years later, in the year 1672, just 2 1/2 cen­ turies ago, richard pierson, who had a "spectacle shoppe" in fleet st., london, sold spectacles with blue glasses, which were at that time considered quite superior to green glass. mr. pierson's shop was known by the sign of the "acorn," it being the custom then and for many years later to designate all prominent business houses with some such sign or emblem. jn 1767, almost a century after the appearance of blue glass, "gray" glass, now called smoke glass, came into use. geo. adams had an optical store at what is now 60 fleet st., and his trade-mark was a globe. i can not say definitely when the word smoke was first used but up to 1839, in philadelphia, pa., the term gray glass was still in common use. jn that year, james peters, a manufacturer of gold and silver spectacles, on 4th st., that city advertised in mceltinge's directory as follows: '~ite, blue, green and gray glasses to suite all eyes" jn 1800, sir john herschel (1738-1822), the noted english astronomer, made 219 experiments with colored glass. his report to the royal society, published march 17, 1800 covers 265 pages. he states that 'violet glass (blue violet) is peculiarly transparent to violet and ultra violet radia­ tions." now as to something blue glass will do. jn the year 1854, robert hunt, of england, magnetized a piece of steel for a compass needle, by pas$ing the sun's rays through a plano piece of blue glass and then through a convex lens. he experimented with other colors, but failed to get any results what­ ever. he considered the matter of so much importance that he submitted a paper on the subject to the royal society of london. jn 1871, general a.j. pleasanton, philadelphia, pa., startled the whole world by his blue glass theory. he demonstrated his claim that by the use of sun light, filtered through dark blue glass, both animal and vegetable life could be stimulated. he published a most interesting book "the influence of ~ blue ray of ~ sunlight in developing animal and vegetable life." the u.s. government granted him a patent no. 119,272, september 26, 1871. his experiments extended from 1861 to 1876. jn 1900. by the aid of blue violet glass smokeless powder can now be detected. no other colored glass will do this. l -9for many years, a curious german custom prevailed, of cauterizing sores, particularly boils on the neck, by burning them with the sun's rays passing through a blue convex lens. there is no record of the use of other colored lenses for a like purpose. optometry and~ university: a recently published book, volume iii of the indiana university/midwestern pioneer series, by historian thomas d. clark, devotes several pages to the establishment of the optometry program, no mean accomplishment under the circumstances. the story is told from the objective but understanding point of view of a professor of history at another university who was commissioned by indiana university to delve through its archives and write the university's history for all to read. the 678 page volume, entitled ''years of fulfillment" covers in fascinating detail the events, development, and personalities on the campus during the three decade period 1938-68. the establishment of the optometry program was, according· to professor clark's account, more than a mere political maneuver -it was a clear man­ ifestation of the university's evolving mission and commitment to the state of indiana. this book may well provide the only published interpretation of optometry's entry into a university system from the academicians' point of view. it is published by the indiana university press 1977, at $19.50. ~walter fincham collection: the walter fincham collection was donated to the city university library (london) from the estate of the late walter h.a. fincham who taught at north­ ampton polytechnic from 1904 to 1950. included in the collection are 15 tomes from the 19th century, 15 from the 18th, eight from the 17th, all related to vision, the eye, or optics, and one non-optical volume in latin dated 1592. the collection has been inventoried by librarian s.j. teague in a 24 page catalog, a copy of which was sent to me by professor robert fletcher of the city university department of optometry and visual science. professor fletcher quite incidentally included a letter informing me that the department has recently moved into a much more adequate building, the dame alice owen building, very near sadler's wells theatre. opening celebrations will include a symposium on april 13 and 14, 1978. ~ books .2[ historical significance: prompted by dr. leeds' list of historically relevant books in his own collection, in the october newsletter, one o.h.s. member called attention to four categorical omissions, as follows: -10directory of the american optometric association, first edition, american optometric association, st. louis, missouri, 1972. blue book of optometrists, chicago, 1912; 1914; 1916 ••• gregg, james r., the story of optometry, ronald press, new york, 1965. gregg, james r., a history of the aoa, american optometric association, st. louis, missouri, 1972. another optometrist memorialized: the h.b. collins research medal (australian optometrical association). the first recipient was dr. h. barry collins of melbourne, victoria, australia, for whom the medal is named. old books ~~investment: if you happen to have a rare book or manuscript in your possession you may wonder what its value is on the open market. an appraisal technique might be to compare it to old books and manuscripts being offered for sale by reputable bookdealers. recently, dr. william baldwin, better known to approximately 100% of those who have ever met him as "bill", sent me a list he received from the printers' devil, one claremont court, arlington, massachusetts 02174, specializing in med­ ical, scientific and sporting books. here is the list, rearranged in order of price and without description of their physical condition. henderson, frank laramore, notes on the eye, for the use of undergraduate students, 2nd edition, st. louis, mo., 1900 -------$ 7.50 arrington, george e., jr., a history of ophthalmology, n.y., 1959$ 7.50 pooley, thomas r., three cases of foreign bodies in the eye, n.y., 1875, pamphlet---------------------------------------------$10.00 luckiesh, m., color and its applications, n.y., 2nd edition, 1929$12.50 luckiesh, m., visual illusions, their causes, characteristics and applications, n.y., 1922 ----------------------------------------$12.50 luckiesh, m., ultraviolent radiation, n.y., 1922 ----------------$12.50 luckiesh, m., light and shade and their applications, n.y.,l916 $12.50 hartridge, gustavus, the refraction of the eye, 6th edition, philadelphia, 1894-----------------------------------------------$12.50 thorington, james, refraction and how to refract, 2nd edition, philadelphia, 1902 ----------------------------------------------$20.00 l -11phillips, r. (?) s. (?), spectacles and eyeglasses, 2nd edition revised, philadelphia, 1895 -----------------------$25.00 williams, henry w., a practical guide to the study of the diseases of the eye, 2nd edition, boston, 1867 ------------$25.00 noyes, henry d., a treatise on the diseases of the eye, n.y., 1881 ------------------------------------------------$30.00 maddox, ernest e., the clinical use of prisms, bristol, 1889-$35.00 sichel, jules, spectacles: their uses and abuses in long and short sightedness, translated by h.w. williams, boston, 1850, first edition in english ----------------------------$40.00 jefferies, b. joy, color-blindness, boston, 1879 ----------$40.00 williams, henry w., the diagnosis and treatment of the diseases of the eye, boston, 1882 --------------------------------$50.00 tiffany, flavel b., anomalies of refraction and of the muscles of the eye, kansas city, missouri, 1894 -------------------$50.00 danders, f.c., an essay on the nature and the consequences of anomalies of refraction, revised and edited by charles a. oliver, philadelphia, 1899 ----------------------------------------$65.00 sichel, jules, spectacles: their uses and abuses in long and short sightedness, translated by h.w. williams, boston, 1850 (inscribed by the translator) -----------------------------$65.00 mackenzie, william, a practical treatise on diseases of the eye, 3rd edition, london, 1840 ---------------------------$75.00 donders, f.c., on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye, 1st edition, london, 1864 --------------------$100.00 sichel, jules, traite de l'ophthalmie, la cataracte et l'amaurose, 1st edition, paris, 1837 ---------------------$125.00 himlay, karl, autograph manuscript, n.d. (early 19th century) ----------------------------------------------------$450.00 dr. baldwin also enclosed a copy of an announcement of the availability of "the rare first edition of (robert) boyle's experimental history of colours" (london, 1664) from bennett & marshall, rare books and manuscripts, 8214 melrose avenue, los angeles, california 90046, at $1,500.00 (i am told that it was purchased for a few hundred dollars at a recent auction.) the title of robert boyle's book is "experiments and considerations touch­ ing colors. first occasionally written, among some other essays, to a friend; -12and now suffer'd to. come abroad as the beginning of an experimental history of colours." london: fot: hent:y herringman, 1664. it is listed as first edition, number 57, in john farquhar fulton's bibliography, though quite authoritatively preceded-.by a preliminat:y tt:act -by boyle entitled "the history of colours begun" dated 1663, a copy of which is yet to be located. the unlocated tract is listed as entry no. 56 in fulton's bibliography. in case you have wondered how old books are priced, so have i.· · just for fun, because i like to plot things, i plotted the above listed book prices on the logarithmic ordinate of a simple 4-cycle semilog graph and the dates of publication on the linear abscissa scale. the result is statistically a relatively straight line, suggesting that the sale value of an old book mul­ tiplies itself about 10 times every century. winfield!· brown, o.d., 1888-1976: born may 12, 1888, dr. brown as recently as june 1969 expected "to live to at least 110" with ''my exercise bike continuing to keep me in trim." at that time he was working feverishly to gather and record the "history of optometry in new hampshire" and met with several of us that year at the aoa congress in philadelphia to help him pursue his objective. at that time he was retired from practice and lived in the masonic home in manchester, new hampshire, where he was very active in the home activities and ran the home's canteen until his death on august 21, 1976, at the age of 88 years. history of maryland optometry: maryland was the 32nd state to enact a registration law for optometrists, but not without considerable frustration and compromise. israel dvorine, o.d., describes some of the details in "the ea):'ly history of optometry in maryland" in the december 1976 issue of the journal of ~american optometric association, vol. 47, no. 12, pp. 1558-1567. he derived some of his information from the 1904 and subsequent baltimore telephone directories, ce~tainlyca candid technique for ascertaining the profession's ~ge of itself even .today. he briefly recounts organizational activities, legislative efforts, characteris­ tics of early practices, and bootstrap educational efforts. early philippine optometry: seymour kuntz, o.d. of san diego, california, was written up in the april 1977 issue of the .qg_ newsletter, monthly :.publication of the optometric association of the philippines, no. 107, 3-5, for nis~eontributions to the development of optometry in the philippines, especially during the ''mopping up" phases of world war ii. one of his contributions was the preparation of a 31 category test which could be employed by the philippine army to determine qualifications of enlisted medical personnel as optometrists. the test is included in the article. -13early optometry in sweden: the 50th anniversary meeting of the· international optometric and optical league, the iool, in dusseldorf, west germany, last may, brought together not only the usual delegates from many countries around the globe but also several of the original organizers and supporters of the league, then named the international optical league. among them was mr. oscar lange, nordostpassagen 69, s-413 11 gothenburg, (gbteborg), sweden, who speaks and writes excellent english. when i asked him to reminisce a bit and put his thoughts in writing, he promptly did so, and here are his paragraphs. my father was born at aabenraa, denmark, in 1852. in that city he went to school and there he also had commercial training. around 1870 he went to gothenburg where he managed to get a post in the textile trade. a few years later my father obtained another employment as a representative for an optical wholesale firm in hamburg, germany, where he worked as a sales traveler in sweden, norway and finland. thus he got an excellent opportunity to make some sort of a market investigation, to use today's language, and he soon discovered that this area constituted virgin soil for an enterprising young man. after a few years' practice as a traveler he resigned his post and started a wholesale optical firm on his own. the capital required, very modest indeed, he borrowed from relations and friends at aabenraa. at first my father employed just one young lady for a very small salary. his own income was meagre, to draw it mild. by a modern term, my father could be called a work addict, as a result of which his business soon flourished enabling him to expand. in 1889 he had made so much money that he could buy a house of his own suitably situated from a business point of view. i have been told that at the outset his sole aim was to run solely a wholesale business. however, as the largest retailers in gothenburg refused to buy from him, he made up his mind to set up a retail shop of his own for the sale of optical commodities. this happened around 1890. the development of the shop followed the european system. pure optometric activity did not yet exist. the working conditions of ophthalmic doctors of the old style were certainly most favourable indeed. what did the assortment of such a shop look like? first of all, of course spectacles with ready-cut lenses. no sort of individual testing of the customers' eyesight was made. most people wanting spectacles needed them for reading. the procedure for determining the right sort of spectacles was probably the same in the u.s.a. as here. to begin with, the age of the customer was estimated! then a testing frame was produced together with a reading chart. one started from no. 24. if this was not enough, one went on to no. 18, etc. after obtaining a tolerably good result ready­ made spectacles were shown. the frames were made of steel, nickel, aluminum, silver and 14 karat gold plaque. the three last-mentioned varieties were rarely asked for. a catalogue was made up. it contained an odd assortment, to say the least. lenses, frames and of course spectacle cases of all sorts of materials such as cardboard, leather, wood, metals, -14all in various designs. also pocket lenses, reading glasses, stereoscopes with pictures, kaleidoscopes, microscopes, field glasses, and opera glasses. at the turn of the century field glasses and opera glasses were much in demand. all ladies whose eyesight was bad at loiig distance refused to wear spectacles. in order to be able to see properly in the theatre they used opera glasses. needless to say, alsothose whose eyesight was good used these glasses. well, what more did this shop contain? lanterna magica, children's toys ••• then the other division carrying all sorts of instruments such as barometers, thermometers, measuring instruments, mathematical instruments, anemometers, weighing scales, chemical glass and chemical apparatus, photographical apparatus, several kinds of electrical articles. it was indeed a shop for sundries! unfortunately my father died already in 1900. during this relatively short period of time he had had such a success that he could leave a remunerative business and a large fortune judging by the standard of the turn of the century. after my father's daath my mother took over the whole business. she was a most dutiful woman but had no turn for commerce. in 1911 she took a business partner, and thus the firm was carried on. in 1917 my mother sold her house. the business premises were moved and the business split up. the optical retail division was moved to premises with the most favourable situation in all gothenburg. the wholesale and the remaining retail business to a rather small street. in other words, from now on one could speak of a purely optical shop. as for myself, i began to run around in my father's shop at three, being allowed to accompany my mother on her visits to the shop as i was her youngest. i just loved looking at all the wonderful objects exposed there and, of course, i was in everybody's way. i never lost interest in the business as i grew up. when i was in my early teens i learnt to cut lenses. after school i passed through the zeiss optical school at jena, germany. in 1924 i entered into my mother's firm. already two years later i found that i wanted to stand on my own legs. i left the family firm and set up a shop of my own.. i was in luck. premises were to let in the vicinity of the big hotels. i got marrie~, had a son who shared his father's interests. after a thorough professional training, both in sweden and in germany, my son entered into my firm and stayed there for quite a few years. he then followed his father's example and started on his own this time a lange shop was opened outside gothenburg, in a small town half an hour's journey from this city. i am glad to say that my son ·has been doing very well taking a keen interest in the optical profession. he rather specializes in contact lenses. by the way, last year my son went to an optical congress in the u.s.a. his children, one of whom is a boy, are often seen in his shop, especially on saturdays ••• but to return to old times. in the year before i left my father's firm my mother passed away. · after her death the busin~ss was split up into two companies, one for retail ~d bne'for wholesale buiiness. the enterprises -15started by my father and carried on by my mother are still well-known all over sweden. and here ends the tale of the lange optical firms. it is a fine profession and i still look back on my active years with nostalgia. in the name of helen keller: ----helen keller international incorporated, 22 west 17 street, new york, new york, 10011, has been in operation since 1915. its original programs for education and rehabilitation of the blind were augmented in 1972 with the new objective of eradicating preventable blindness. the agency, which is funded by private contributions and legacies, and more recently by government grants and international support, was aided in its earlier work by helen keller, who was a founder, trustee, and staff member until her death in 1968. recently the helen keller international gave its hki award for outstanding contributions in the field of blindness to henry r. labouisse, executive director of the united nations childrens fund (unicef). first ocular fundus photography? a report in the march 23, 1904, issue of the jewelers' circular-weekly, vol. 48, no. 8, pages 77-78, credits the first successful photography of the human eye to dr. walther thorner of the university clinic of the royal charity hospital in berlin, germany. his apparatus was constructed by the firm of schmidt & haensch, of berlin. the camera was first focused with the aid of the light of a petroleum lamp. then by means of a switch a spark from a storage battery ignited a "flashlight mixture" which illuminated the fundus with sufficient momentary brightness to record the image on a photographic plate. special care in developing was required to get excellent photography. johannes kepler (1571-1630): johannes kepler as astronomer, mathematician, and optician is the theme of an article entitled "johannes· kepler astronom, mathematiker und optiker" by heinrich fleck, an optometrist (augenoptiker) in aue, east germany, published in the july-august 1977 issue of augenoptik, vol. 94, no. 4, pages 99-102. a.k. banerjea (1895-1977): according to a recently received obituary received from the indian optometrical society, 2nd floor, 7/1-c, lindsay street, calcutta-16, india, professor banerjea was born in dacca, now in bangladesh, and educated in scottish church college, calcutta, and at the calcutta university where he attained the b.sc. degree. subsequently he studied visual optics and optometry in london and was -16awarded the f.b.o.a. and f.s.m.c. diplomas in 1928. he returned to practice optometry in calcutta. in 1932 in collaboration with several ophthalmologists he set up the indian optical institute and refraction hospital to train "doctors, opticians, orthoptists, and other specialists." he was also the founding president of the indian optometrical society and held that office until 1975. two of his sons are practicing optometrists, one in sweden. a century of optical manufacturing: the 100 year history of the rodenstock firm, die optischen werke g. rodenstock, is described in an article entitled "rodenstock unlimited" by lilo haasner in the september 15, 1977, issue of suddeutsche optikerzeitung, volume 32, no. 9, pages 30-37. the well known german firm was founded in 1877 by josef rodenstock (1846-1932) in wurzburg, about 150 miles (circa 250 kilometer) from the present site of the main plant in munich. the account actually goes into some of josef's optical activities prior to establishing the firm. the letter "g" in the company name was a sentimental tribute to his father georg. the operation was transferred to munich in 1885, partly for reason of munich's reputation in optics, especially due to some of the persons in optical science there. the next generation of rodenstock took on the management in 1905. the economic stresses of post-war germany following world war i, the subsequent governmental direction of the firm under the hitlerian third reich, and the destruction of the plant near the close of world war ii made the rodenstock history particularly dramatic. the perseverance of a family trait is presently manifested in professor dr. rolf rodenstock, great-grandson of georg, who manages the now greatly expanded optical manufacturing firm with 6,000 employees. vary the title? dean john levene, past-president of ohs, wrote an expression of enjoyment concerning our october newsletter and asked, "when does a newsletter become a journal? it would be nice." i do not know. however, inasmuch as "journal" etymologically means "diurnal", meaning "occurring daily", i find a lack of credibility in the title of "journal" for a quarterly, a monthly, a fortnightly, or even a weekly. further, ever since some librarian started publishing, a year or two or three ago, a periodical entitled title varies, any momentary thoughts i might have entertained to change the title of this publication have been completely suppressed. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1978-09-01-001 1978-09-01-002 1978-09-01-003 1978-09-01-004 1978-09-01-005 1978-09-01-006 1978-09-01-007 1978-09-01-008 1978-09-01-009 1978-09-01-010 1978-09-01-011 1978-09-01-012 1978-09-01-013 1978-09-01-014 1978-09-01-015 1978-09-01-016 newsletter of the optometric historical society .flqa i"ue (243 north vol. 14 lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) october 1983 no. 4 none volunteered: quite in contrast with the high count of eight nominations for jim leeds last year, no one this year volunteered or suggested a replacement for jim tumblin, whose term ends this year and who chooses not to run aga~n for reasons of increased personal involve­ ments and responsibilities heaped upon him otherwise. i at dr. leeds' ben.est i listed about 10 ohs members whom i knew to be genuinely i•nterested from their actions, letters, calls, and contributions. president leeds then went into caucus with other members of the ohs executive board to name a couple of candidates from which you are to select one, or write in your own nominee. the ballot 's enclosed. please vote. fl whim can be ~whammy: the following four paragraphs are taken verbatim from the august 1983 issue of the indiana history bulletin, vol. 56, no. 8, page 125: help is on the way to more than 81,000 political subdivisions in the united states struggling to protect vital local government records from the ravages of time, neglect and the elements~ the national historical publications and records com­ mission has awar4ed the american association for state and local history a $145,000 grant to assist local governments in preserving documents essential not only to the everyday work of governme~t itself, but also to the work of historians and other researchers. the financial burden of records management at the local level is staggering. the annual cost of state and local government paperwork in the united states may be as high as $500 per person. but only a handful of local governments have recognized that good records management can result in substantial savings. for example, using high-density records centers can cut the annual cost of merely storing the contents of one file cabinet by up to 90 percent. economic considerations pale in comparison to the threat current conditions pose to preserving government records. many essential government documents sit deteriorating in damp basements or scorching attics. many others have already been destroyed by fires and floods that struck poorly constructed and inadequately protected storage facilities. jlptom~1rv libran'l oct 2 3 1983 ~1mf\na univfrsll 1 86 government records have at least the protection of law against totally arbitrary destruction. this is not the case with the records of professional organizations. all too often, if not almost always, the disposal of old records and documents of optometric societies are at the whim of a single individual, a volunteer officer, an executive employee, or even a transient clerk. like the proverbial weak link in a chain,,a momentary whim can destroy forever records that may have been conscientiously preserved through a lifetime or longer. unlike the broken chain, an archival loss cannot be restored. obviously, this world is a bit too crowded to save everything. professional selection judgement is crucial to each decision. each of us, however, can play an important role by occasionally inquiring about policies and controls in effect among those currently responsible for the records and documents in the various optometric societies to which we belong. i recall quite painfully my shock of many years ago when, upon being elected to the presidency of a small but significant national organization of some twenty years prior existence, i wrote my predecessor to request that he forward his official organization files to me. his incredulous response was, 11 what files? 11 • he had not saved a single letter or memorandum, and he doubted that any of his predecessors had! now i wonder what my successor and his successors may have done with the files i forwarded. those records too may be victims of a whim. contact lens oral history: dr. henry a. knoll, senior scientist at bausch & lomb, rochester, new york, wrote us the following: having read your definition of oral history, i write at this time to enter in the newsletter two oral histories which i have recorded. on june 12, 1974 i recorded a conversation with gil sheldon. gil was a technician here at b&l who fabricated our first attempt at contact lenses just prior to world war ii. the scleral lenses had glass corneal portions and plastic scleral flanges. several trial sets were fabricated and sent out for testing. at the outbreak of war, the trial sets were recalled and never used. i have a set of the lenses in my office. l 87 on august 31, 1983 i recorded a conversation with leo waldert. leo is a local optician who fitted the first contact lenses in rochester. he is now 75 years old. his son bill carries on the business--third generation. the first lenses fitted were obtained from zeiss. one pair of lenses were destroyed enroute in the hindenburg disaster. as you may recall the zeppelin hindenburg burned during landing operations at lakehurst, new jersey on may 6, 1937. as time permits other oral histories will be recorded. will the society act as a depository for these tapes? i think this would be a useful service to present and future historians. the tapes would be an excellent research resource. i will be happy to contribute my tapes. i have informed dr. knoll that the optometric historical society itself does not serve as a repository for items of historical and archival interest. rather, it encourages the support of museums, libraries, and archives already established to do so. very highly recommended in the u.s.a. is ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., which has the facilities and professional staff to handle and preserve such items properly. items received by me for assignment are almost routinely forwarded to ilamo, occasionally to other archival centers which may seem more appropriate. fifty years of continuing education: fifty annual congresses, the first in greenville, south carolina, in 1924, and the fiftieth in atlanta, georgia, in 1973, provide the skeleton of a chronological account published circa 1973 by the southern council of optometrists. entitled 11 a triumph for profes­ sional pride: a history of the southern council of optometrists and its woman's auxiliary," it consists of 58 pages of text written in something of the style of concise minutes of meetings. in this very documentary form it identifies the key persons, activities, projects, events, and organizational and educational developments in the american states variously referred to as 11 the south, .. 11 dixie, 11 or 11 dixie land, .. approximating the area of the former confederate states of america. special credit is given to archie a. odom, o.d., (1888-1949) of greenville for conceiving the idea of an educational congress for the southeastern states, and to his associate adolph h. schade, o.d. (1865-1946). they each served the profession in several roles, and together they made the first congress an overwhelming success. among the numerous individuals given credit for assisting in the preparation of the material for the publication itself the late dr. wm. c. ezell and mrs. ezell clearly stand out. 88 collectors club very active: the ophthalmic antiques collectors club, described on pages 2 and 3 of the january 1983 issue of the nohs, vol. 14, no. 1, has issued its fourth quarterly newsletter, entitled the bulletin, dated july 1983. that issue included extracts of a letter from the ironbridge gorge museum requesting assistance in its construction of a "victorian chemists and optician's shop." the same issue included a history, by margaret mitchell, of spy or "prospect" glasses so popular from about 1750 to 1850. she listed and briefly described 14 spy glasses and the prices they fetched at a recent sale. techniques for restoring old spectacle cases are described in another article, and the invention of "pantoscopic" spectacles by george richard elkington in 1834 is detailed in still another. the organizer of the club, mr. d.c. davidson, northall cottage, east chiltington, nr. lewes bn7 3qs, england, invites interested persons to join. the local dues are ~ 3, overseas dues j 4. stellar astronomy: historical studies: this is the title of a paperback by michael hoskin published in bucks, england in 1982 by science history publications, ltd. it was reviewed in the july 1983 issue of ~and telescope, pp. 31-34, by george 0. abell of the university of california, los angeles. much of astronomical history is of course optical history. the following paragraph from abell's review must strike a specially resounding chord for ohs members: "the division for historical astronomy of the american astronomical society now has some 300 members. it is not because there are that many historians in the society, but because of the growing interest in the history of science within the astronomical community. and with this i concur. the more we study our history the less likely we are to lose our perspective and reinvent the astronomical wheel." fleeting fame: recently o.h.s. secretary-treasurer maria dablemont sent me photocopies of a series of three articles entitled "famous optical men whom i have met" by t. haines moore. she did not explain why, so i merely conjecture that she came across them quite serendipitously and wondered if i might find them as fascinating, or puzzling, as she did. i did. 89 eath article included a portrait photograph of moore himself and the subheading, 11 written exclusively for the optical journal and review of optometry, a 11 rights reserved.-.. -they appeared in the september 18, 25, and october 2, 1919, issues, vol. 44, nos. 13, 14, & 15, pp. 925-926, 1007-1008, and 1071-1072, respectively. the first dealt with ivan fox, who was born in 1852 in russia and came to the u.s.a. at age 19 and eventually opened an optical store in philadelphia. among other things, moore credited fox with the invention of the 11 fox offset guard, ... probably one of the greatest boons to the eyeglass wearing public that has ever been invented--this guard with pads and arms of different angles and lengths ... the second dealt with an optometrist named dudley l. tice who was born in westfield, massachusetts, in 1858, worked successively for several optical firms, including that of ivan fox, and eventually studied optometry at the philadelphia optical college. dr. tice's special fame lay in his skill of 11 frame adjusting and fitting ... at .. bridge-bending .. he was hailed by one authority as 11 the best man in that line that i have ever met. 11 the third subject of fame was anton wagner, who was born in munich, germany, in 1851 and arrived in america in 1883. he is credited with making the first toric lens ever made in the united states and for .. making their manufacture a practical and commercial proposition ... dr. moore, himself a philadelphia optometrist, wrote many short articles for the journal, almost one per week in some years, on a wide variety of topics, essentially as a columnist. in the 1918 blue book of optometrists he identified himself as an 1899 graduate of the philadelphia optical college and as having done postgraduate study in 11 the college of human knocks ... what his casually considered three journal items reveal are the separate impacts of a spectacle pad arm, of a toric lens, and of the art of bridge adjusting on the professional development of optometry. in a kind of way these three simple components of today's optometric armamentarium are quite analogous to frequently cited inventions, discoveries, and techniques in other fields. a few led to complete revamping of surgery, engineering, agriculture, and even pedagogy, for example. the hypodermic needle and the silicone chip had major impacts familiar to all of us, but hundreds of equally elementary designs gave rise to revisions of career styles that are now almost forgotten, as are their inventors and developers. who, for example, invented the once ubiquitous slide rule! 90 more on faraday: the following is a recent letter from d.c. davidson of the ophthalmic antiques collectors club: 11 i was interested to see reference to michael faraday in the april issue of the 'newsletter• just received as they supplement my meagre notes which are as follows-11son of a b 1 acksmith, apprenticed to a bookbinder. 11 was assistant to sir humphrey davey when in 1814 they used the bregens lens as a burning glass in an experiment to burn a diamond. 11 undertook experiments in 1824 on behalf of the royal society in conjunction with sir john herschel and g. dollond to improve the quality of glass for telescopes. is said to have remarked that the best way to improve glass would be to remove the tax on it. 11 michael faraday suffered an almost complete loss of memory and other more recent members of the family suffered from the same affliction. ..yours sincerely derek c. davidson 11 (a faraday cousin with a rather poor memory)!! 11 pre 1900 american optometry: in a review of the genealogy of the periodical now known as chilton's review of optometry in the april 1978 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 20-21, i mentioned jewelers' circular, the optician, and the optical journal as publications which to a significant extent served as american optometrists' principal mass corrrnunications for a few years prior to 1900. another such journal which was not part of the genealogy was the keystone. it was a monthly publication 11 devoted to the interests of the watch, jewelry, and optical trades ... ilamo has only the march 1892 issue (vol. 13, no. 3) and the january 1894 issue (vol. 15, no. 1). according to the 1965 union list of serials, the minnesota historical society library in st. paul has volumes 10 to 18, and the u.s. interstate commerce commission library has volumes 12 to 62. where might volumes 1 to 9 be? ,, 91 another serial serving a parallel role was jewelers' circular, briefly mentioned in the above cited pages of n.o.h.s. as carrying some optical news. according to the 1965 union list of serials it first appeared in 1869 and reached volume 105 at its termination date sixty-five years later in december 1934. the incongruence of the volume numbers and years is not explained, but it can reasonably be guessed that at least the first 31 volumes would have preceded the turn of the century. a notation on the ilamo holding card for jewelers' circular (weekly) "optical department,j' indicates that the feb. 6, 1901, issue was in volume 42. the union list of serials shows part of vol. 2 at the american antiquarian society, worcester, massachusetts; volume 9 and parts of volumes 5, 8, and 28 at the new york public library; volume 15 and parts of volumes 16, 17, 21, & 25 at yale university; and volumes 25+ at the u.s. library of congress. ilamo has no issues prior to 1903. a fourth late nineteenth century american periodical which included the voice of optometry was the optician and jeweler, published in new york from january 1891 to april 1892 as optician, may to september 1892 as optician and allied interests, and finally as optician and jeweler until sometime in 1894, altogether a total of 43 issues. according to the 1965 union list of serials the only known holdings are at the college of physicians of philadelphia, which has parts of vols. 1, 2, and 3 and all of 4 and 5. the aforementioned earliest issues of the current chilton's review of optometry, the ootical journal, started in march 1895. ilamo has complete holdings of the pre-1900 issues. without even trying to focus clearly on the apparent emergent pattern of serialized optometric literature one must realize from the above that the published communications of american optometry prior to about 1900 were quite incidental to those of the jewelry trade. yet we know that at the turn of the century there were twenty thousand optometrists of all adult ages in america ready to be registered when the appropriate laws were enacted. thousands also had formed organizations to demand exclusive registration laws when they perceived threats that they might be registered under medical board surveillance. in other words, optometrists were already here in numbers approximating today's optometric population in a total american population of much less than half our current population. what seems to be needed for a better understanding of our american optometric origins, recognizably different from those of the old world, is a scholarly search of the aforementioned jewelry­ related literature, widely strewn or abandoned as it may be. perhaps with microfilm and microfiche technology copies of the known holdings could be brought together in one center, such as 92 ilamo, for perusal at least by history buffs if not scholars. indeed, the history of american optometry prior to 1900 is presently something of a "dark age". plastic spectacle lenses: only twice has this newsletter made historical reference to plastic spectacle lenses (vol. 8, no. 3, july 1977, p. 44 and no. 4, october 1977, p. 72). nevertheless they have been around longer than many living optometrists. ohs member robert graham, o.d., now reminds us that "how it all started--the story of armorlite" by e.j. crundall appeared in the january 1980 issue of manufacturing optics international, vol 33, no. 1, pp. 32-33. to supplement these tidbits dr. graham has kindly prepared a brief history of his own involvement, as he was undoubtedly the key person in the successful development of plastic spectacle lenses. his account follows: from time to time i find the news media referring to me as the optometrist who developed hard plastic spectacle lenses. accordingly it might be appropriate for me to outline the development of these lenses. this is inevitably semi-biographical. at the time i was graduated from the ohio state university in applied optics, i was offered a position by the bausch & lomb optical company. since this involved additional training, with pay, i accepted. my three years with bausch & lomb gave me some background in optical manufacturing. the univis lens company had acquired the unbreakable lens company of america (tulca), which had attempted to make ophthalmic lenses of polymethylmethacrylate (pmma) under the lloyd patent. univis moved the tulca project from california to dayton and established a laboratory there to develop the techniques to the point where production would be commercially feasible. i was interested in the potentialities of the then new optical medium pmma and so visited the univis project, reporting in some detail to bausch & lomb. (at that time glass ophthalmic lenses were bausch & lomb's most profitable product from the standpoint of dollars earned. it is worth noting that in part because initially they ignored the new medium, they never caught up in the hard resin lens field and, lacking a complete line of lenses, some 40 years later practically ceased to become a supplier of ophthalmic lenses.) 93 a few months after my visit univis offered me a position as their western manager. this i accepted, being largely persuaded by my interest in the potentialities of their plastic lens project. some six years later univis was con­ fronted by a patent infringement suit filed by combined optical industries ltd. of slough, england, who manufactured igard lenses of pmma. the c.o.i.l. patents antedated the lloyd patent and univis decided to abandon their plastic lens project. they had employed injection molding, which necessitated the use of high chrome content steel molds so as to withstand extremes of heat and pressure. the mold cost was high and the mold life brief. furthermore, injection invites striae. univis never reached a point where they could enter the market with their product. i was by then sales manager of univis and when the company closed their plastic lens project i resigned and took with me to pasadena, california,all but one of univis• plastic lens research technicians. (they were, of course, out of a job in dayton.) we did not know how to manufacture a plastic lens successfully but we knew a great many things not to do. we were, for example, saved the expense of trying metal molds and injection molding. we, the plastic optics company (later to be known as armorlite, a name i subsequently devised),developed and patented a minimum-flow process in which we took discs of clear pmma, turned them on a lathe into the lens forms we wanted, and then polished them by pressing the blank between polished glass molds under moderate temperatures. as a con­ sequence, we had superb, strain free lenses with no problem of plastic memory or of striae. their major limitation was susceptibility to abrasion. nevertheless, since we were the only source of non-glass lenses in the nation, we developed a modestly successful enterprise. then, at the end of world war ii, a new and superior plastic monomer became commercially available. this was allyl diglycol carbonate (cr-39). within a year and a half after its availability armorlite had devised ways of producing marketable lenses of this new resin. by marketable i mean that the quality was good and the unit cost did not make the lenses prohibitively expensive. the chief problem in the manufacture of these lenses was the 14% shrinkage of the liquid monomer as it solidified between dies. this we accommodated by casting blanks with the appropriate front curvature and with a back curvature practically paralleling the front. this permitted uniform, distortion-free shrinkage during cure. we then ground and cold-polished on the back surface the curvature required to produce the desired power. from then on the use of plastic spectacle lenses accelerated, since the new product was some thirty times mo~e resistant to abrasion than its pmma predecessor. 94 in the course of years we introduced the first colorless ultraviolet-absorbing lenses (i dissolved american cyanamid•s uv-9 in the liquid monomer); uniform tints (accomplished by impregnation of the finished lenses with dyes in a hot bath) and an increasing range of powers, sizes, forms and con­ structions. technical and financial limitations held our growth to about 25% increase each year. this growth rate we maintained for many years. for about six years we had a world-wide monopoly as the sole producers of cr-39 lenses. then other manufacturers began to enter the field, thus confirming the significance of our development. the one major way in which allyl resin lenses were not equal to or superior to those of glass was in their abrasion resistance. even so, the use of resin lenses grew until it equaled, and in some countries exceeded, the use of glass. we constantly sought ways of improving the abrasion resistance and, through the years, tested and retested many approaches to improving the product. consistently, the surface treatment developed by the minnesota mining and manufacturing company (3m) proved superior to all others and i tried to license their process for use by armorlite. failing in that i tried to negotiate a license to manufacture the coating material itself. after years of negotiation, joint research and testing, 3m decided to acquire armorlite. this was accomplished in 1978. they then could bring to the market armorlite lenses with improved abrasion resistance. with that development direct optometric contribution to the field of hard resin ophthalmic lenses ended. received ql ilamo: following are the names of those who have donated books, audio-visuals, periodicals, museum items, and archival materials to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry during the period of june 1, 1982 through june 21, 1983: professor b. l. cole mr. robert h. collins m. w. coon, o.d. norman j. drew, o.d. kenneth c. edberg, o.d. h. ward ewalt, o.d. roberta lynn fitscher lyle e. hedrick henry w hofstetter, o.d., ph.d. -cont•dallan e. kosh harold e. magnan, jr., o.d. eric p. muth wade w. nyquist, o.d. b. b. parks, 0. d. donald pitts, o.d., ph.d. mrs. henry quick elias shaneson, o.d. boykin baird smith, o.d. 95 bernard c. jander, o.d. sidney b. katz, o.d. robert a. koetting, o.d. dorothy weitzner kornblut, o.d. early orthokeratology? societa italiana di optometria jacob staiman, o.d. john n. sugg, o.d. j. ottis white, o.d. the march 1983 issue of pharmaceutical historian, the newsletter of the british society for the history of pharmacy, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 2-3, has a well written and illustrated article entitled 11 sight improvers and eye massagers .. by w.a. jackson. we are told that a dr. ball first patented his 11 eye cups 11 in the u.s.a. in 1851. in use, some air was squeezed from a rubber ball which, upon release, provided negative air pressure in the cup applied to the eye (with the eyelid closed). the reduced air pressure was said to 11 cause a proper amount of b1ood to flow through the eye, and restore the diminished convexity of the cornea. 11 various refinements and model changes were patented in 1865, 1869, february, march, april, and may of 1899, 1911, and 1931, variously in the u.s.a., great britain, and canada, by inventors who included besides dr. ball a hydraulic engineer, a 11 mechano­ therapeutist,11 and others whose professions were not identified. the product names included 11 eye cups, 11 11 ideal sight restorer, .. 11 neu-vita eye masseur, .. and 11 new-vita oculizer, .. all illustrated in the article. some of the inventions also provided for the options of increased air pressure and massage. the author gives credit to the wellcome library (unknown to me) for the opportunity to examine the various instruments. he adds that he was sufficiently curious to use the 11 0culizer11 himself on one occasion and 11 suffered appreciable discomfort for some hours afterwards ... ohs president leeds, who sent me the article, reports that he has in his collection an 11 ideal sight restorer 11 with its accompanying manual, and another model of unknown make. for information on another variety of instrument for similar purposes see 11 sight restoring, 186511 in the april 1975 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 6, no. 2, p. 22 support from new jersey: thanks to norbert kastner, o.d., editor of the awards-winning newsletter focal points, for citing the n.o.h.s. in his june 1983 issue, page 9, in combination with a friendly plug. indeed, we want everyone with even a wisp of interest in optometry•s history to join us in our efforts. 96 history mills grind slowly too: in the september 20, 1920, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 46, no. 14, page 933, w.v. nicum, then secretary of the american optometric association, made a vigorous appeal to his co-workers. the following are three selected para­ graphs therefrom: the american optometric association has been in existence less than 24 years, with a membership of only about 7,000 out of thousands and thousands of optometrists in the united states and the great dominion of canada. this deplorable condition is all wrong and enough to make us hang our heads in shame. it seems to me in 24 years we should have aroused a greater proportion than only 30 per cent of the optometrists in the united states and canada, to realize their duty to their profession by supporting organized optometry. if the history of optometry during the last 24 years can be used as a fair criterion, we can reasonably expect to have a complete organization when the profession of optometry has gone over into the 21st century and the present day optometrists have been long dead and forgotten. but we are not going to permit such a calamity to happen, we are not going to permit optometry to record such a history. we are all going to get busy now, not tomorrow, but now, as one big family and lay plans, solid and sure, and begin now the round-up of this great majority of optometrists and get them into the organizations. ye gods! my fellow officers, let us begin now to build up organized optometry in this fiscal year 1920 and 1921, and not string it out through the remainder of this century. indeed, we are still stringing it out, with only 16 years left. japanese eyeglass industry history: professor tatsuzo ueda of the faculty of sociology of kansai university, osaka, japan, prepared a paper entitled 11 the development of the eyeglass industry in japan. 11 it was published by the united nations university in 1979 as a working paper 11 prepared within the framework and as part of the project on technology transfer, transformation, and development: the japanese experience of the united nations university•s human and social development programme. 11 a printed copy of the 50 page document is on file at ilamo. 97 the eyeglass industry in japan is classified as one of the eighty or more sundry goods industries so identified by seven or more characteristics. the author•s brief introductory commentary on the sundry goods industries deals with developments in the tokugawa period (1603-1867), the meiji restoration (1867-1912), and the post-meiji era. the eyeglass industry is declared to be .. a very typical sundry goods industry in that it has developed with most of the characteristics of such industries ..... statistics on eyeglass production, exports, and imports are included for the period 1958-1975 as derived from various agency sources. in 1975, for example, japan producedf73,572 million (ca. $300 million dollars) worth of eyeglass products, exported fl4,953 million worth, and imported tl2,518 million worth. during the almost tenfold production increase between 1965 and 1975 exports declined percentage-wise, and imports increased almost to parity. chapter iv deals specifically with the history of the japanese eyeglass industry, as follows: (1) pre-meiji period the first reported appearance of eyeglasses in japan is the presentation of a pair to yoshitake ohuchi by a roman catholic missionary sometime in the 1530 1 s during the reign of emperor gonara, and the oldest ones still in existence are the two pair on display at toshogu temple that belonged to ieyasu tokugawa. it was not until 1628, however, that the japanese learned how to manufacture them when yahee hamada of nagasaki passed on to a friend what he had been taught in this respect by a european. this manufacturing technique subsequently made its way from nagasaki to osaka and from there on to kyoto and as far as edo. it was hardly used, however, until the end of the tokugawa period because of the overwhelming advantage held by imported products. in those days the lenses made in japan were mostly crystal, glass lenses being made only by processing 11 blue plate 11 glass imported from holland. it was not until after the meiji restoration that eyeglass manufacturing in japan became an industry based on scientific technology. (2) background of establishment of the eyeglass industry in 1873 matsugoro asakura sailed to europe to attend the international exposition in vienna with the mission of learning what he could about the latest eyeglass manufacturing techniques, and the following year he returned to japan with some eyeglass manufacturing equipment. 98 in those days the grinding and polishing of lenses in tokyo, osaka, nagasaki, and elsewhere was done by hand, and it took 5-6 days to finish a single lens. moreover, it was difficult to achieve exactly the desired lens strength. with the equipment brought back by asakura, though, it became possible for one man to complete 52 pairs of lenses in a single day and with uniformity of lens strength, which represented a revolution in terms of both quality and price. unfortunately, however, this development came to nothing owing to the fact that asakura passed away suddenly two years later while building a factory in which he was to put to use the equipment in question and accessory tools that he had borrowed from the government. let us take a look now at how the lens manufacturing in the tajima area of ikuno ward, osaka, got started. in the meiji period the tajima area was a pure rural village in the settsu grain belt which also had long produced kawachi cotton, grown on one-third of its cultivated acreage. in fact, there had already developed a considerable amount of cultivation of market crops in many areas outside of osaka. unable to compete with imported foreign cotton, however, this local cotton began to be cultivated less about 1889, and by the end of the meiji period such cultivation disappeared entirely. earlier, at the end of the tokugawa period, there was a farmer in the tajima area by the name of tajiro ishida. not being able to engage in agriculture because of an injury to his right foot that he had suffered in his childhood, he began instead to manufacture eyeglasses locally after learning the necessary techniques. that was back in 1857, the date that marks the beginning of tajima eyeglass manufacturing. in those days eyeglass manufacturing techniques were very primitive, with lenses being ground and polished one by one in the bottom of a pot. furthermore, since there was not much demand for eyeglasses, there were still only two or three manufacturers as late as 1877. later on, however, with the waning of cotton cultivation, the tajima area developed a labor surplus, and it just so happened that the eyeglass manufacturing industry was begin­ ning to develop as demand at last began to grow and was therefore able to absorb this surplus labor as a means of increasing the scale of operations and bringing more cash income to the area. thus, by the end of the meiji period there were already ten-odd well-known eyeglass factories in 99 the area, some training their own workers and others hiring those who had already become skilled in eyeglass manufacturing techniques. many of them, however, were only side businesses of independent or tenant farmers that they ran at times of the year when agricultural work was slack, and even the more well­ known ones were no more than cottage industries under the control of osaka wholesalers. since the manufacturing techniques employed in those days were still rather primitive, the market for higher quality products was monopolised by imports from europe and particularly germany. as for the materials used, about 1877 the emery, colcothar, pitch, woollen cloth and some other necessary materials were produced at home, but the all-important glass was entirely imported as top-grade plate. this thick plate glass was too expensive to use directly, so lens makers were always looking for damaged plates that they could buy much cheaper. eyeglass lens plate glass began to be imported in 1888, after which it was used exclusively in lens manufacturing, and it was not until the taisho period, which began in 1912, that such glass came to be manufactured regularly in japan. (3) development of the industry during and after the first world war with the outbreak of the first world war, imports of eyeglass lenses and the glass for making such lenses were cut off, making it possible for japan's own eyeglass lens manufacturers to achieve rapid development and begin to produce rather superior products in technological terms. furthermore, around 1921 three lens glass manufacturing factories were set up in tajima-cho. in the meantime osaka city was gradually expanding to the east, and tajima, too, was incorporated into it in 1925. having then lost all of its farmland, the tajima area became increasingly one of people specializing in the manufacture of eyeglass lenses. by 1929 there were several hundred such manufacturers in and around tajima, producing a total of 250,000 dozen lenses annually and even exporting some of this production to india and china. with the introduction of electric motors in the 1920's, the traditional hand grinding gave way to grinding m~chines, which boosted production capacity enormously, and this resulted in a big increase in the percentage of production exported. in 1937 and 1938 60-70% of corrective lens production and more than half of sunglass production was exported to china, southeast asia, and the united states. 100 thus, before the second world war the japanese eyeglass lens manufacturing industry enjoyed a period of unprecedented prosperity, but as the international situation grew tense around 1941, lens glass came into short supply, and after the outbreak of war in the pacific and the cutting off of imports of good lens glass, this shortage became still more acute. there were plans to produce glass comparable to the german lens plate glass that had been imported up to then, but all sorts of constraints kept them from materialising. since, however, demand for eyeglass lenses did not decline very much, the only recourse was to use ordinary thick plate glass. as the war situation worsened, many eyeglass manufacturers went off to war, and with such additional difficulties as shortages of electricity and lens materials, many eyeglass factories had to close down. that is how things stood at the end of the war in august 1945. the other centre of lens manufacturing in osaka prefecture, kishiwada city, got started back when yasutaro morita settled down there after learning the necessary techniques of lens manufacturing from kametaro asakura, who carried on the enterprise his father was initiating in tokyo at the time of his death at the end of the meiji period. morita had 5-6 young apprentices from farm families in the shimomatsu-cho area of kishiwada, one of whom, sotaro iwabashi, set up his own lens factory in shimomatsu-cho around 1921. two or three years later this factory became bankrupt after the wholesaler that had been buying its lenses repeatedly returned inferior­ quality lots, but it was soon taken over by the isojiro kai store, an osaka eyeglass processing business, and production was resumed, this time with twenty journeymen, including sons of farmers in the area. in 1931 however, the business failed again and for the same reason. having lost their jobs, some of the journeymen went back to farming, but others remained in the eyeglass industry in osaka and nagoya. the nakano brothers and a certain nishita, both local men, started up a lens manufacturing business in shimomatsu-cho again around 1935, and before the war the shimomatsu area came to boast seven lens factories. these were the histories of the formation of local groups of lens manufacturers in the osaka area. in the tajima area lens manufacturing began in the meiji period as a part-time side business of farmers. later it developed as very small rural enterprises on the outskirts of osaka, and after the first world war it further developed into urban industries, although still small in scale, as the area became urbanized, largely on the basis of the cheap labour furnished by korean workers, who were available in large numbers. in the kishiwada area, on the other hand, lens manufacturing developed as family businesses at home that got started when farmers• sons learned the necessary techniques. 101 (4) since world war ii before the war, japanese lens production reached its peak about 1937, when there were 170-180 manufacturers of corrective lenses in the osaka area and about 40 in the tokyo area and japanese lens exports monopolized the east asian market, totalling 1.3 million dozen, for a value off3,240,000, in that year. although the corrective lens manufacturers in the osaka area suffered little war damage and most of their equipment and facilities were still intact, until about the middle of 1947 they were not able to produce at more than about half of their prewar level because most of their factories had been shut down during the war. domestic demand grew by the month, but exports had not even recovered to 40,000 dozen by 1948 because of the loss of the enormous market of the chinese mainland. furthermore, up till about 1949 there was only enough imported lens plate glass to meet domestic demand, particularly in view of the shortage of electricity. by 1950, however, the number of manufacturers reached its former level as demand increased in southeast asia, africa, and the united states, and thereafter exports increased year by year, reaching 580,000 dozen in 1952, 860,000 dozen in 1953, and 1.4 million dozen in 1954, or more than the prewar peak. exports continued to increase steadily in the following years, and the increase in demand attracted new entries into the industry. this resulted, however, in excessive competition, a fall in export unit prices, and a lowering of product quality. although no other country yet presented itself as a serious competitor to japanese lens exports, the downtrend in quality can be explained by the fact that it was necessary to "produce to the going price" as buyers in southeast asia and africa, where demand was naturally for cheap lenses, beat down prices still further whenever trans­ actions became regular. in order to cope with this situation, the japan association of eyeglass product exporting industries was organized in 1960 and began to restrict export quantities of corrective lenses in 1962 and of sunglasses in 1963, such restriction continuing until 1968. in 1964 a joint venture was started by the united states firm a.o.c. and a japanese watch manufacturer for the production of double focus lenses in osaka and three other areas. then in 1968 the first joint factory of the lens manufacturing industry in osaka was built in east osaka as a project for upgrading smaller enterprises that was undertaken jointly by the osaka prefectural government and the agency for the promotion .:. 102 of smaller enterprises. it became the premises of the japan eyeglass industry centre, a cooperative association of the industry. as for the situation with respect to supply and demand and exports since then, it has already been discussed in chapter 3. optometric ephemerae: miss elizabeth-ann colville, 10 steele's road, london nw3, 4se, england, a free lance journalist cited in our april nohs, writes, "i have a carte de visite on the reverse of which---:r5 'william heath of plymouth optition to the royal eye infirmary; opera glasses, telescopes etc. maker of nautical and mathematical instruments ... as well as employing mr. ballingham as photographer.' i also have three copies of our consumers' association publication 'which?', 1) 1969 feb. relating to spectacles, specifically to our national health service, the types then available (frames), costs, etc. 2) 1971 oct. contact lenses, 6 page article with a chart comparing a dozen opticians and two bar charts on the advantages and problems. 3) 1971 june contact lenses--five page article on types, problems, costs, after care, and summary, etc. any interest to any of your members?" she reports picking up things like these at the bazaars of the ephemera society in london every six weeks. a new member in mainland china: recently j. j. abrams, 0.0., member of the o.h.s. executive board, joined an optometric tour of the people's republic of china. among the receiving hosts was xie-can wu, m.d., of the eye department, the first affiliated hospital, zhejiang medical university, hangzhou, zhejiang (hangchow, province of chekiang). drs. abrams and wu seem to have struck up a warm friendship, which was then firmed up a bit more by a gift membership in the o.h.s. from dr. abrams to dr. wu. this then prompted a july 9 thank-you letter, in english, to dr. abrams from dr. wu, as follows: "i have received a letter and a copy of the ohs newsletter from mrs. ~1aria dablemont, the secretary of ohs. she told me that you have introduced me to be a member in the optometric historical society and subscribed the newsletter for me. thanks very much." 103 .. as you know i am a chinese eye doctor and know nothing about the optometric condition in your country. would you please tell me something about the ohs and let me know what•s the aim and the situation of this society? .. 11 i am the chairman of the zhejiang ophthalmologic association and the editor of 11 chinese journal of optometry... i hope you can write something for our journal. we will publish it as soon as possible ... .. thank you again for your kindness ... dr. wu•s identification with the chinese journal of 11 0ptometry 11 is doubtlessly a translation error, for dr. abrams points out that he 11 had never seen the word •optometry• in all of china... dr. wu must h~ve meant to say the chinese journal of ophthalmology. our attempt to track down that journal through conventional library resources elicited only the information that volume 1 of the chung-hua yen k1 o tsa chih (chinese journal of ophthalmology) appeared in 1951 but was suspended with volume 12, no. 4, in 1965. it had been published in peking, a thousand miles north of hangchow. other new ohs members: thomas eade, o.d. box 604 new castle, in 47362 stuart gelber, o.d. 601 riverside dr. hillside, nj 07205 robert h. honnors, o.d. 419 e. ramie lane salinas, ca 93901 mr. ronald g. jensen school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 thanks, claro: d. m. livingstone, o.d. box 1341 hato rey, puerto rico 00919 h. l. moore, o.d. 88 se first street linton, in 47441 mr. robert r. ruff 3411 tapp rd. bloomington, in 47401 dwayne young, o.d. 2430 w. third st., apt. 14 bloomington, in 47401 claro m. cinco, o.d., of cebu city, the philippines, included a $20.00 donation with his 1983 dues. 104 fick practiced ~south africa: henry knoll calls our attention to an unusually well documented article on the role of dr. adolf eugen fick (1852-1937) in the invention, or at least early application, of contact lenses. the article is by wilfried jurgen schmidt in the south african optometrist, vol. 42, no. 3, june 1983, pp. 77, 81, and 83. fick was born in germany, educated in medicine and ophthalmology, and had hoped for an appointment in physiology at the university of cordoba, argentina, in 1878. disappointed in that hope he decided "to emigrate to the boers in south africa," arriving in cape town by boat on july 25, 1879, where he was registered by the south african authorities as a physician, surgeon, and "verloskundige" (obstetrician). influenced by friends he made aboard ship he settled in the little town of richmond (population 996) in the arid tableland of southcentral south africa called the karroo. he hoped there also to cure his tuberculosis, which he apparently accomplished. his announcement of the opening of practice in the august 9, 1879, issue the era, britstown advertiser and government gazette for richmondandhanover divisions, read as follows, "dr. fick m.d. physician:-surgeon, accoucheur [male midwife] and oculist, (late assistant surgeon in the hospital for diseases of the eye in the university of breslau, germany) begs to inform the public, that he has commenced the practice of his profession in richmond. upon receipt of his luggage from port elizabeth containing his instruments, operations can be performed.--residence, market square, in the house lately occupied by dr. jones." in 1884 at the age of 32 years, he revisited germany to get married. in 1886, a much wealthier person as a result of a very lucrative practice, hp. and his wife and son returned to europe where he settled in zurich, switzerland, as an ophthalmologist. there he conducted his investigations into contact lenses and published his first findings in september 1887. among the numerous other details, author schmidt gives an account of the controversy that raged during fick's lifetime as to who invented the contacted lens. to be believed? on may 8 of 1956 ripley's believe it or not cartoon featured sir sandford fleming (1827-1915) as "the color-blind painter," identifying him as a "canadian engineer and artist" who "painted landscapes in glowing hues--yet he was totally color blind." 105 two encyclopediae that i consulted gave substantial write-ups of sir sandford•s accomplishments, but neither mentioned his paintings or his color vision. robert leroy ripley (1893-1949) could hardly have known him personally, so, apparently, the information must be recorded elsewhere in the literature. who ~ h· matthiessen? in the review of an article by john levene in the april 1983 issue of nohs, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 24, mention was made of l. matthiessen. levene had pointed out that, according to sheard, matthiesson (18301906) derived a simple, approximate formula for estimating the refractive index of the crystalline lens, as follows: nt t 1=2 -n1 where n1 represents the central refractive index and n? ~e~ersnto the peripheral refractive index. sheard called it matthie~sen•s law, but cited no reference. a personal inquiry to dr. levene and a routine search of several published biographical directories with the help of a reference librarian has netted no clue as to the identity of l. matthiessen. a contemporary physician-physicist-chemist of some renown, augustus matthiessen (1831-1870), is listed in several directories, and a detailed account of the circumstances of his suicide appeared in october 8, 1870, issue of the times (london), but without a hint that he may have been a brother of l. matthiessen. augustus also is identified with a matthiessen rule, but for electrical resistance. invention of the spectacle temple: approximately half a millennium transpired between the first placement of corrective lenses immediately in front of the eyes and their support by schafts extending back to and contoured to fit snuggly into the auricular sulci. this is the central theme of a well written but unfortunately unreferenced article, in german, by erich schutz, in bild der wissenschaft, no. 12, 1966, entitled 11 die geschichte der brille 11 (history of spectacles). the publication is a west german journal of natural science and technology. the author traces the development of spectacles from the presence of the material components evident before the ice age through the fabrication and use of hand-held magnifiers, the religious controversies surrounding the invention of spectacles, and the subsequent variety of devices to hold them in place until temp.les as we know them now were invented in the 18th century. schutz dates the temple invention in the second half of the 18th century, a bit later than the date of 1725 credited by dr. levene 106 to a mr. ayscough in the january 1972 issue of n.o.h.s., vol. 3, no. 1 , p. 9. the article includes 30 illustrations. theunissen writes: following the mention of the theunissen museum in our last issue (page 73) mr. j.c. theunissen, rechtestraat 61, 5611 gn eindhoven, the netherlands, wrote me as follows: 11 as an optician-optometrist i am very interested in historical optics. i have a private museum in my shop. everything with lenses and optics is exhibited in vitrjnes (microscopes, nautica, cameras, scientific instruments, and of course spectacles, etc.). but we are now specializing only in early and unusual spectacles and cases, and books and prints about history of spects, and looking for them everywhere. 11 0ur museum is rather unique. we have such a big collection that visitors can buy almost any item that we have. 11 perhaps you can bring me in contact with other collectors, dealers, importers, or factories in your country. perhaps you have books on history, or catalogues, or addresses of interested people. 11 you may correspond in english, french or german. 11 he added the postscript, 11 eindhoven is about one hour by train from amsterdam or bruxelles or dusseldorf. or one hour flying from london. 11 the committee on vision: quite serendipitously i came across a reprint of an article in the march 1963 issue of the~. ear, nose and throat monthly, vol. 42, pp. 39-42, by stanley s. ballard and milton a. whitcomb entitled, 11 the armed forces--national research council committee on vision, 11 which describes in personalized detail the first 18 years of the agency's history. it is much more knowledgeably done than my attempt in the july 1979 issue of nohs, vol. 10, no. 3, p. 49. the authors describe not only the committee-s-various title changes and sponsoring agencies but also its interdisciplinary membership composition, the varied pattern of its meetings and symposia, reports, and publications, and its administration. h. w hofstetter, editor 1983-14-04-001 1983-14-04-002 1983-14-04-003 1983-14-04-004 1983-14-04-005 1983-14-04-006 1983-14-04-007 1983-14-04-008 1983-14-04-009 1983-14-04-010 1983-14-04-011 1983-14-04-012 1983-14-04-013 1983-14-04-014 1983-14-04-015 1983-14-04-016 1983-14-04-017 1983-14-04-018 1983-14-04-019 1983-14-04-020 1983-14-04-021 1983-14-04-022 t f i~&jsl£l1er aug 7 19 81 (f the. ;itfq.i f,; f ... , optn·uric historical sociltv d•l:iitiiii r t.;.,,n·:·r··l u i c. i i ui" ~ (f;,:,;· : ~ (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) vol. 12 july, 1981 number 3 annual call for nominations: the board member whose term will expire this year, december 31. 1981. is a long time favorite with many o.h.s. members. nominations for her continuation or replacement for a five year term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot in october. by all means do not hesitate to nominate yourself as a volunteer candidate. keep in mind that self-nominated volunteers founded the o.h.s., and unpaid volunteers have kept it going. even the list of those who failed to be elected after nomination is almost a ~1o's who in optometry. m ore japanese ~phthalmic history: 1the previous issue of this newsletter included the translation of part of a history book covering 30 years of the 'osaka optical ret~ilers association." a second book sent to me by mr. yoshihiro fukuda, president of the japan optometric and optical association, has the translated title "20 years of japan optical technicllins assocja!i'ion (joa)", 125 pages handsomely bound, 18 x 26 em, wi.th numerous illustrations of places, persons, and things. it was published in may, 1976, in japanese. the following is a partial translation submitted by mr. fukuda. awakening of the optical profesj;ion in 1926 dr. d. desmond of the united states visited japan and held educational lectures in osaka. through his lectures japanese opticians realized that adjusting and fitting spectacles needed a high level of knowledge and skill.· though the main purpose of dr. desmond's visit to japan was to develop marketing of the optical equipment of his company, his: visit triggered the awakening of the japanese opticians from their comfortable slumber. they started to consider the future of the profession in japan and tried to absorb, at every possible opportunity, the advanced knowledge and skill of western countries. they even began themselves to hold educational lecture seri~s. though small in scale, in order to raise their own standards. -48the pharmaceutical law and educational lectures in 1961, the pharmaceutical law was revised and optical lenses were included in the items to be controlled by the law. this urged the necessity of education, and throughout the country educational lectures were held and attended by many ardent opticians. these educational lectures greatly raised the standards of the profession and through the education japanese opticians became aware of their profes­ sional responsibilities. introduction c•f the examination system the osaka optical retailers' association had long felt that academic knowledge and professional skill were closely con­ nected with each other just like two wheels. in 1950 it planned to give examinations to its members in order to test whether or not the education and the training given in the educational courses were fully acquired. this was the first trial in our country and accordingly met with strong resistance. nevertheless the plan was promoted. in the same year, the osaka eye health association "''as establi~hed with the cooperation of the health department of osaka prefecture, the ophthalmology classes of osaka university, osaka city university, osaka medil!al university and kansai medical university. the osaka optical retailers' association officiallyasked the newly established eye health association to conduct examinations as their own activity, instead of giving them by themselves. thus examinations conducted were rigid and free from any collusion. establishment of japan opticians associa~iqn t~e examination system had hppn successful; every year the number of "gankyoshi" (qualified opticians and the title given to those who passed the examinations) increased, which led to the level-up of the profession. another problem left to be solved was that of continuing education it wcs feared that without continuing education, even qualified opticians might fail to catch up with the rapid progress of the world and be left behind in world standards. it was felt that a certain guiding organization was neces­ sary to keep every.qualified optician up-to-date and to · improve his proficiency. for this purpose, the japan opticians association was established in 1956. -49establishment of japart_optical technicians' association (joa) as a corporation recogni:.ted by the ministry of healtih & welfare for ten years the japan opticians association exerted every effort to educate and guide its member opticians through educational courses 1 lectures and study meetings. [ts activities spread to varrous fields, from development of optical equipments to social welfare work such as services for the aged people in homes, or for the poor. these inconspicuous, yet important activities were recognized by the ministry of health & welfare and in april 1965 the ministry authorized the associition as a nonprofit corpora­ tion, the first one among the professional organizations in our country. since then we have been expected to assume full responsibility for a level-up of the standard of the standard of the professiun as well as of individual opticians. taking this opportunity, the association was reorganized into the japan optical techniciiirn association (joa) and opened to any optician who was willing to study and raise the standard of the profession as well as his own. the japan optical technicians association made a new start as a research and educational organization representing the whole profession. bits about spitler: writes mrs. pat carlson, librarian at southern california college of optometry: we, too, have a copy of squint, its etiology, dl1gr>osis and treatment, by morgan c. davies. on checking further i discovered the editor, h. riley spitler (born 1899), contributed a chapter (18 pages) in a book we have titled the principles and practice of ocular physical therapy for optometrists, by jack j kurtz, american journal of optometry, minneapolis, minn., 1930. the title of the chapter is "galvanism for optometrists." in addition, the library has a copy of the syntonic principle: its relation to health and ocular problems, authored by harry riley spitler, published by the college of syntonic optometry, eaton, ohio, in 1941. a few pages from this book are xeroxed and included here (title page, conclusions, and "syntonic effectivity"). i lccked for a possible ph.d. among his credits and found it along with a d.o.s., m.d., and m.s. (see title page). hoping this is of some interest. indeed! and so is the paragraph under his name on the title page, as follows: -50formerly clinician macfadden sanatorium, battle greek, mich.; physician-in-charge crab orchard sanatorium, crab orchard, ky.; past president state board of optometry, ohio; past first vice-president american optometric association; accredited teacher of mechanotherapy and physical therapies since 1925 by ohio state medical board; past dean depart­ ment of mechanotherapy metropolitan college; dean central states college of physiatrics; fellow american academy of optometry; fellow college of syntonic optometry. there must undoubtedly be a clinical classification of persons who sport such credentials. the conelusions, chapter xvi of the book, total 19, 16 of which begin with the words "there exists a relationship ••• " mostly between "light frequency" and various vaguely specified bodily functions such as "responses" of the eye, "rate of growth", "physical development", "mass body potentials", "development of the biotype", "action currents", "functioning power of the pituitary gland", "the reproductive cycle", "secretion of hormones", "nerve cell irritability", "the perception of pain", et cetera. the "syntonic effectivity" appendix is a statistical compilation of 13 categories of ocular anomalies, "3600 optometric departures from normal. .. found in 3076 individuals" of whom the "percentage of patients responding to syntonization" was 90.7%. the "3076 individuals received 23,993 syntonizations, averaging 7.79 (my calculator gets 7.8 hwh) per patient." the most dangerous thought of the day is that this kind of malarkey occurred only in history. history of history: "western historical societies tended to leap prematurely into the the world in the 1820's and 1830's and then be rewarded for their impertinence by widespread neglect and indifference. for reasons not easily discerned, this did not quite happen to the indiana historical society. it was, ,to be sure, neglected, and for the first fifty-six years of its history it usually seemed more dead than alive; but then every four or five years the society would rise from its deathbed, acquire a transfusion of new members, and make enthusiastic new plans before sinking back, a few months later, into itsusual torpor. though the society was no longer on the verge of death after 1886, it was small, modest, and virtually impoverished for many years to come". this is from the opening paragraph of a beautifully bound 383 page volume entitled "a history of the indiana historical society 1830-1980" by laan ruegamer, published by the society itself in indianapolis in 1980. -51in a couple of paragraphs later the author commented; "in its 150 year history, the indiana historical society has been somewhat anomalous: it did not die when expected, nor did it flourish when other later societies flourished." and, "and yet, anomaly or not, the indiana historical society has beeh an institution of real conse­ quence to indiana history during most of\ its one hundred and fifty years, and within the past fifty years it has made occasional note­ worthy contribution to the national historical community". today the society is an entirely independent organization after more than fifty years of partial dependence upon the state-supported indiana historical bureau. it is now distinguished by the size of its endowment, among the largest of private historical societies, totaling approximably $24 million, a large portion of which was a recent gift of the late eli lilly provided for in his will. remarkably, therefore, the annual membership dues are very nominal, only recently increased to $15. out of this one receives a monthly magazine, a monthly newsletter, occasional bulletins of special interest, and a book or monograph or two almost every year. the books are often sheer models of such cultural beauty as to make one want to keep them for their prestigious appearance even if the subject matter is outside of his immediate area of interest. is this brief account of interest to you an me? i think yes. it illustrates so well the frail concern about history among the great majority of us. in the whole world there must be two hundred thousand persons who are serving the optometric needs of the population, but our society membership 1 world-wide, during our first eleven years has remained f·airly constant at about 200. so we are only one in a thousand, and many of us 200 are merely curious or amused rather than concerned. but we are keeping our society a bit more alive than dead, and each year of survival gives the society a higher expectancy of permanence. we know we are written into at least one will for $1,00~ by virtue of which that member needs to pay no dues. only a few months ago i learned that a well known retired optometrist contributed more than a hundred thousand dollars in securi­ ties to the association of schools and colleges of optometry, inc., to be used for student loan purposes, a magnificent purpose. this reminds me that substantial gifts and legacies from optometrists themselves for their favorite optometric projects have begun to surface, and we should expect more in the future. when this society accumulates, say, a hundred thousand dollars in endowment, the resultant several thousand dollars annual income could indeed enable it to retain history scholars, researc~s, writers, lecturers, etc. to undertake a few of the projects that could result in books, exhibits, and other educational programs. membership in the society would then take on new meaning for many more who merely need occasional pleasant and exciting reminders that our history is indeed one of their great concerns. (hmi). -52a poke at tropical optics: the 9th edition of that classic book entitled optics by w.h.a. fincham and m. h. freeman has on page 1 the familiar statement "a poker, when cold, emits no radiation that we can detect." 1 a perfecly vivid concept to those of us who have stirred the embers in a fireplace or stove. but my puerto rican student was puzzled enough to have to ask me, "what is a poker, and why would a poker be cold?" the puerto rican combination of a tropical climate and totally prevalent use of electricity and gas do indeed make the poker an unfamiliar tool. this single little incident, the type of which i encountered daily in this predominantly spanish speaking connnunity in which e·nglish is reciprocally limited, illustrates almost amusingly the problems of interpretation of lesser known figures of speech and homey illustrations. the historian can have the same difficulty interpreting the precise connotation of a paragraph written only a single generation earlier. the hundred year old paragraph usually takes on a quaintness, and the four hundred year old paragraph requires scholarly analysis, all in nominally the same language. i am reminded that in my early attempts to read german i devoted the better part of an hour trying to resolve a statement which i finally interpreted to say, "but helmholtz stood the egg on its end", a figure of speech which in my own day might have been expressed, "but helmholtz hit the nail on its head". more recently i heard a young student connnent: "but helmholtz really zeroed in on it"! (hwh) archival tidbits: "from the archives" by david reynolds, innnediate past president of the south african optometric association, (the $outh~£rican optometrist/ die suid-afrikaanse oogkunde, december 1980) contains so many interest­ ing historical short stories that reprinting the whole article would be necessary for indexing purposes. so, here it is (dkp). optometry round the world has had a rich and varied history. take the case of mr.godfrey taylor, who in 1939 received a strange order from south africa requesting that he make several artificial eyes specially modelled with a hole behind each pupil. the 24-year old london 'glass-eye maker' duly provided the goods, little dreaming of what they were to be used for. the johannesburg star of july 12, 1939 provided the answer. the artificial eyes were used for stealing diamonds from the mines, plain and simple. "no one ever thought of asking a person to remove a glass eye during the diamond search." -53the individuals who wore the special appliances "made enougli to retire" within a short period. godfrey taylor's family had made artificial eyes for many years, including a special fitting for the duke of wellington. his mother was once visited by a solemn delegation from the east, who wished to obtain glass eyes for fitting to an idol in their far-off temple. his father made a glass eye for a lion at one stage. details of this particular fitting were, unfortunately, not divulged. just prior to world war ii italian warlords drew up a special list of blind volunteers for active service. they had carried out experiments in their naval forces, and had discovered that "blind men possess greater sensitivity of hearing than men with normal eyesight"and had trained the men;to serve with their anti-aircraft units in the fleet. the dioptric news of 1939 had a few words to say about hitler's glasses. according to the article, hitler had stated in mein kampf that his vision had "probably been weakened" by his being gassed in 1918, and that he had been temporarily blinded. hitler apparently did not find time to have his eyes or vision properly examined, but he did find that read­ ing the voluminous reports which reached him daily taxed his eyesight considerably. this was remedied in an unconventional manner when he was relaxing for a period at berchtesgaden. three sample pairs of spectacles were sent to him for trial. he chose one and returned the others with a note of thanks. mr. trygve tune, an engineer in the tanker south africa,had the misfortune to have his right eye pierced by a piece of flying steel in january 1939 when he was working in the engine room of the vessel which was some 2,000 kilometres south-west of sumatra. he clamped a magnet to his eye and immediately contacted his radio officer. the officer in turn got hold of the company's headquarters in oslo, who directed him to seek what aid there could be in the vicinity. eventually the desperate calls for assistance were received by the p. and 0. liner strathaird,which steamed at full speed towards the tanker. mr. tune was taken off the tanker and the liner was diverted to colombo, where an eye specialist removed the metal sliver. the vision in the eye was saved. there was a time when it was felt that the wearing of ear rings improved eye comfort. the daily express of august 20, 1937 told the story of a somerset-born individual who claimed that piercing of ears was a cure for all forms of malady, including poor vision. a.w. hounslow of middle­ sex clained in 1937 that repeated bouts of pink-eye were remedied by having a glowing wire stuck through his ear lobe. -54on each occasion the pink-eye was reduced and vanished. eventually it was decide to fit this individual with gold ear rings, and he claimed that at no time after the. fitting of the ear rings did he feel any visual dis­ comfort. when he grew older he was assailed by his friends for wearing ear rings, and was forced to pull them out. he confessed to putting them back in private to keep his eyes and vision "right." it is probably not widely known that the famed (and lost) aviatrix,amelia earhart, carried with her a considerable number of optical appliances on her famed round-the-world flight. included in her kit were a new bubble sextant, an experimental pair of lightweight binoculars, and nine pairs of absorptive lenses supplied by bausch and lomb. miss earhart, on an earlier flight, had observed that "due to the great variation in the intensity of sky illumination an absorptive lens which may have the correct density and absorption qualities for one set of conditions will not answer in another set." she carried a lightmeter to measure sky illumination in foot candles and attempted experimentally to determine the density and type of glass which could be worn comfortably with the intensities of light registered on the meter .. she had intended to tabulate the results of her experiments in an effort to provide data for determining the best types of filtered lenses for each set of differing flying conditons. the bubble sextant was revolutionary for the period in that it provided a self-contained artificial horizon in the form of a liquid bubble. the gadget was already in use by the united states navy but was being experimented with due to the fact that flyers found themselves seriously inconvenienced "during the long period between evening and morning twilight when stars are visible but the horizon is not." the binoculars she carried were described as possessing "exceptional light gathering power", were guaranteed waterproof, and were supposed to relieve the strain on the wrist which proved a painful and perplexing problem when conventional binoculars of the period were used for long unbroken periods. the island of tristan da cunha may have set up a record of sorts in the 1930s for a unique arrangement of providing care for the visually handicapped. when mr. e.f.d. owen visited the island in 1936 he made a special point of finding out how many islanders wore spectacles. his investigations revealed that there were only three pairs of glasses on the island, and these were rotated according to need. they belonged to everyone, and were distributed rent-free to the individual who had a particular temporary need for them. .;..55the tristan example was followed, unwittingly, by a group known as the young people's fellowship, of livingston, new jersey. ~fuen it was found that many pupils in the public grade schools were suffering from defective eyesight, the parents were approached to provide this care and the necessary appliances. they could not afford to do so, with the result that a "rotating eye­ glass fund" was established. each parent made a small contribution, the school nurse prioritized the list of needy children, and when the funds were sufficient, glasses were provided for the child at the top of the list. no such problem in the punjab. a wealthy local chief, whose funds were so unlimited that he lavished extraordinary amounts of money on trivial projects, ordered a pair of solid gold spectacles with diamond studded rims. rubies formed the keystones for each half circle and an emerald was used as a catch for closing. :honey was never a problem for the dionne quintuplets either. during the filming of "the country doctor" a special blue filter was used on the movie lights, giving "a softening quality and eliminating the irritating ultraviolet rays." shirley temple enjoyed the same obseqious attention to her vision. whenever she was photographed a specially developed gauze was employed to cover the bulb, to shield the eyes from glare and to protect against a possible bulb explosion. almost the same amount of attention to detail went into the first cataract operation performed on an orangoutang in a philadelphia hospital in 1935. ''all the facilities normally accorded to a human being" were provided for the captive, "as an operation of this kind has never been performed on a member of the monkey family before." "a new and unusual device" was tried out on new york taxi drivers in the late thirtees. anti-dazzle lenses were designed to slip under the eyelids of the drivers who claimpd to be tormented by the direct sunlight when driving eastwards in the early morning. cynics remarked that the device had no chance, and that "the best of all protections against a really blinding light is to shut the eyes slightly." the lenses proved excruciatd.ngly uncomfortable and the cabbies went back to tinted sun­ shields. strangely, the coming of the overhead railway solved many of their problems for good. the problem now in new york is to see the sun at all. michaelangelo is known to have suffered extensively for his famous painting efforts. on all saints' day, 1512, his masterpiece was complete. but he had been lying on his back for four years painting the ceiling of the -56sistine chapel, and when the work was complete, he was 37 and unable to use his eyes for reading unless the material was placed above him. the outline of arts indicates that he was old and worn by that stage, and that the painting pos1t1on he was forced to take influenced his posture for the rest of his life. philip morris, a nairobi ophthalmologist, had a problem directly in reverse. he was frequently seen bending over the aggravatingly frail electrical system of his land­ rover, which he used on his frequent bush safaries. in one day he performed ten cataract operations under a thorn tree near the shores of lake rudolph, screened over three hundred locals for pathology, removed a huge fishbone from the foot of the chief's daughter, and spent the greater part of the evening huddled with an accompanying optometrist repairing a faulty generator on his trusted steed. payment for his services he insisted on. he was prepared to ex­ change an operation for a couple of repulsive and inedible fish hastily dug out of the lake, and would load the 'payments' into a small cart (which he hauled behind the land-rover) with all the solemnity of a small-businessman adding up the day's takings. when he felt that he had travelled a safe distance from his temporary bush hospital, he would jettison the cargo with a sigh of relief. his selfless and varied career came to a tragic end when he was killed on the mombasa-nairobi road when his driver swerved to avoid an errant petrol tanker. dr. louis jacques told startled delegates to a seminar held by the ontario optometrical association that the eye afflicted by myopia was "much more beautiful than normal eyes." one patient in a south african town believed her eyes to be so beautiful that a frame of exquisite unusualness was required for them. she took over six months to select a frame, and her kindly but increasingly exasperated 'friendly' optometrist had to trot out no fewer than 800 frames for her selection. he ordered large numbers of frames which roughly corresponded with the magazine illustration she had produced, and recounted that she finally chose the first frame he had shown her on her first visit. one optometrist on the chicago near-north side had a rather special problem. he wished to bring his labrador blackie to work with him each day, but found thatthe chicago transit authority would not permit bus drivers to allow dogs inside their vehicles. the dog was considered necessary to protect the rear of the premises which opened onto a run-down lane, and in the middle of summer it was imperative to have the back door opened, purely for survival. the solution? put blackie in a large hemp sack and carry him aboard the bus. blackie got used to these indignities, and the bus drivers turned the proverbial blind eye to blackie's sack. ~57l. slator, a leeds optician, got himself into trouble when his credentials were queried in the leeds assizes in july, 1935. he used the letters q.b.e. after his name, and when compelled to reveal their meaning, raised his hand to brush away his hair and muttered inaudibly "qualified by experience." q.e.d. benvenuto cellini had the misfortune to have a splinter fly into the pupil of his right eye. he called upon a surgeon, maestro raffaello de pilli, who brought along a couple of live pigeons and ordered cellini to lie on his back. the surgeon opened a "a large vein they have beneath the wing" and allowed the blood to pour onto the wound. cellini noted "i felt immediately relieved, and in the space of two days the splinter came away, and i remained with eyesight greatly improved. against the feast of st. lucia, which came round in three days, i made a golden eye out of a french coin, and had it presented at her shrine by one of my six nieces, daughters of my sister liperata; the girl was ten years of age, and in her company i returned thanks to god and st. lucia." about alpheus w. smith: retired optometry professor howard haines, o.d., has suggested that some special historical attention should be paid to the late alpheus smith, professor of physics and erstwhile dean of the graduate school at the ohio state university, author of a widely used general physics textbook, a key figure and policy maker for many years on the ohio state university campus in a wide variety of roles, an immediate colleague of charles sheard in their early academic years, an honoree of the american academy of optometry, a star testifier on the optometry corps bill in the forties, my first employer after i received my optometry degree, and, in the minds of many a contemporary optometric leader, the "patron saint" of optometric education. he never taught an optometry course, nor did he have any personal or family tie with optometrists or optometry. he merely believed that the courses should be scientifically based and that faculty members should engage in research. he took administrative responsibility for guiding the acaqemic development of optometry in a circumstance when the program might wfll have been abandoned, and within a decade saw it as a model academic unit whose signal features were eventually aqopted by many optometry schools. few, if any, optometry students of even that era knew these things about alpheus smith. at most he was known, if at all, as a calm, slow, deliberate, preocupied professor who was a bit distinguishingly unkempt in appearance, and who seemed a bit frightening to challenge or even interrupt, though he spoke little and, to my knowledge, never said anything threatening, vindictive, or even unkind. (hwh) -58more costs revealed: our mentioning the costs of printing and mailing a single issue of this mighty periodical reminded our secretary-treasurer that she neglected to include $20 for envelopes. it is a reminder of an incident a few weeks ago in which the president of the optometric student council requested an analysis of the cost of xeroxing, especially to determine whether or not students were being charged too much. a complete analysis of every actual cost detail showed that not enough was being charged, and so the price was raised, much to the students' sorrow. there is little doubt that a thorough costanmysis of ohs activities would show that a very large share of its operation is subsidized by volunteers, organizations, institutions, and corporations by mere affiliation on such a casual and incidental scale as to make bookkeeping adjustments and compensation unjustifiable. there are, of course, some reciprocal benefits to these supporters but difficult to measure or even to identify. hi~}ory of an optometry school: "historical perspective" is the title of the first of a six-part series being contributed by student editor glenn hiura in the march/ april, 1981, issue of optometry forum, vol. 17, no. 2a publication of the university of california optometry alumni association, berkeley, california. the first instalment, on page 9, is a descriptive chronology of the school of optometry from its inception in 1923 to the present. separated se tenant stamps: responding to our mention of two east german postage stamps of historical optical interest in the april issue of this newsletter, page 24, alan york, o.d., mailed us a photocopy of a clipping showing that the two stamps had been separated from a museum se tenant issue of four stamps. the german democratic republic had issued 3.5 million sets of the four se tenant stamps on august 12, 1980, each showing a microscope from the optical museum of the carl zeiss foundation at jena. in case you are a philatelist you already know what se tenant means but you may wish to know that the quartet was designed by prof. gerhard voig-t of halle and printed in rotogravure by veb wertpapierdruckerei der ddr. the two not mentioned in the april issue of this newsletter were the 20 pfennig stamp depicting a 1740 huntley microscope of london and the 35pf. stamp showing an 1845 amici microscope of modena. the foursome in dr. york's clipping, of 150 pfennig or 1.50 mark total denomination, is singularly canceled by a berlin, east germany, postmark identified with the optisches museum der carl zeiss stiftung jena. -59se tenant, by the way, means "holding one another" and refers especially to postage stamps of different design joined together in the originally printed sheet. from oap, poda, and proa, to sop: most of us tend to consider history as that which is chronologically far enough behind us to be forgotten unless steps are taken to perserve the archival details. occasionally a special event advances the forget­ ting time so significantly as to make the event itself an historical landmark at virtually its moment of occurrence. such is certainly the case with the dissolution of three long­ established and usually rival optometric associations in the philippines in favor of a single new national organization called the samahan ng optometrist sa pilipinas (tagalog for society of optometrists of the philippines), abbreviated sop. that the newly integrated organization is functioning effectively is documented by its publication of the first issue of the sop newsletter, vol. 1, no. 1, for january-february 1981, in which was announced the fourth sop congress held on may 1-5. (actually the 34th philippine convention of national scope under dif­ ferent organization auspices.) the sop newsletter itself presumably replaces the prior serial publications of the three terminated associations. the significance of these landmark developments is reinforced by my own inability to recall the unabbreviated full titles of oap,poda, and proa, the three deceased organizations, though quite familiar to me only five years ago. the sop newsletter itself identified them only by their abbreviations, perhaps fearing their resurrection if addressed by full title. may steps be taken to preserve an adequate collection of pre-sop documents and memorabilia for the future scholars of history who would test whether or not optometric history will repeat itself. true gags: another clipping sent to us by dr. alan york form the february 1981 issue of the tams journal (token and medal society), vol. 21, no. 1, page 6, is an article about a classified advertisement of mr. b.c. true which appeared in the january 5, 1838, issue of the albany (n.y.) microscope. mr. true was a "die sinker", one who makes or engraves the dies or stamps used for amking coins, medals, tokens, etc. the first paragraph of his advertisement merely announced some of his various skillful services, but of special fascination was the -60second paragraph, as follows: "n.b. some stamps on hand, ready cut for ~mechanics, and plates for ~professors of music, optics, black­ leging, fancy house bullies, etc. which have on them "names of men so mean, that to be despised, need but be seen!" the tam journal editor parenthetically identified "gag mechanics" as professional gamblers (my dictionary says swindlers), and "fancy house bullies" as brothel strongmen. "gag professor of husic" and of "optics", are unexplained. clarifications are welcome. (hwh) absolutely free membership for you: announced but almost completely unexploited has been the prov1s1on by which you need only inform the optometric historical society that you have added a codicil to your will to bequeath $1,000 or more to the society, and henceforth your membership is free. this, of course, will cost your heirs a tidy sum, but it costs you nothing at all. $ contributions: quite unsolicited, two ohs members tacked on a few extra dollars with their 1981 membership dues. bill baldwin, o.d., ph.d., optometry dean at the university of houston, donated $20, and frieda visser, o.d., retired, middlefield, ohio, gave five dollars. time won: it was tim~, the march 16 issue, rather than the april issue of the ohs newslett~e that prompted professor james bailey of the southern california college of optometry to read the article about van gogh in the february 20, 1981, issue of the journal of the american medical association, and to write us about it. our apprecia­ tion nevertheless. time also gave a lengthier commentary than we allowed in our publication. h. w hofstetter d. k. penisten> editors 1981-12-03-001 1981-12-03-002 1981-12-03-003 1981-12-03-004 1981-12-03-005 1981-12-03-006 1981-12-03-007 1981-12-03-008 1981-12-03-009 1981-12-03-010 1981-12-03-011 1981-12-03-012 1981-12-03-013 1981-12-03-014 volume l henry ix newsletter of the optometry librarr, vertical file: optometric historical society july 1970 number 3 this is the first time i've edited a newsletter. the pleasant thing about it, is that being acting editor, i can please myself wr~t to include; i'm even immune from hofstetter, the president, (and editor) of the society, as he is somewhere across the ocean. now, having this newly found "power", i can take the opportunity to say a few words about the president& indeed, with your permission, gentle reader, i'm dedicating this issue of the newsletter to the president, dr. henry w. hofstetter. the reason for this is (a) that if he were the editor his modesty would forbid it, and he wouldn't think of it (b) this is a very opportune time, historically, to pay some sort of tribute to him. as you will no doubt have read in the optometric journals, as from june, 1970, hofstetter stepped down from being director of the division of optometry, indiana university, in order to devote "full time to teaching, research and writing" as a change from about a quarter of a century devoted primarily to administration. he of course remains on the faculty as professor. i shall not review his curriculum vitae (the publications of which alone run to 14 pages) but ;will merely cite some aspects of his career. h. w. h. "'as bom in ·~ndsor, ashtabula county, ohio, september 10, 1914. he was reared on a farm and attended western reserve,&kent state university. he received his optometry training at the ohio state university (b. sc., 1939) and proceeded tom. sc. in physiological optics (1940), being recipient of the first ph. d. in physiological optics (1942). as a somewhat cautious, persevering and "slow" type of academic, it took him all of six years.before he had climbed the academic professorial rungs at ohio state and became dean at los angeles college! he re­ mained at l. a., for three years, and was then appointed professor of optometry and director of indiana university's newly created divi­ sion of optometry. he has been a member, at one time or another, or over forty organizations, ranging from optometric societies to the american society of human genetics. a little delving revealed that he has received several honorary doctorates, and numerous other honors and awards. a brief glance through his file (i did say he was out of the country and hardly in a position to prevent me11) revealed that his lectures, chairmanships, presidencies, literally go into the hundreds. his publi­ cations (201 to date) vary from editorials, book reviews, papers, to monographs and books, including a dictionary. i am aware, that as an historian, i ought to be more specific and detailed. but why should i be, as editorl it's purely an historical tribute ending an era, and the last thing i want is for it to read like an obituary. it is not a case of "the king is dead; long live the king". the truth is henry the hofstetter is very much alive, and we wish him good luck in his future teaching, research and writing. history is to-day. • • hofstette~s eminently worthy successor is dr. gordon g. heath. his early optometric student days also stem back to los angeles, under hofstetter's reign. los angeles, followed by berkeley, and then indiana. los angeles to indiana, sounds like a familiar trail ••• perhaps we may conclude with an almost analogous historical poser: what professor, author of a book of optics, upon his resignation was succeeded by his former pupil, subsequently author of a great contribution to optics and vision? the answer goes back some 300 years. isaac barrow (1630-1677), author of optical lectures (1674), was followed by the great isaac newton (1642-1727), author of opticks (1704). both were professors of mathematics at cambridge uni­ versity. so, history can repeat itself ••• bookshelf the latest historical book relating to optometry, is james e. lebensohn (editor), an anthology of ophthalmic classics, (williams & wilkins co., 407 p.,~6.oo). -nominations, please unless i'm mistaken, it is nomination time. it is approaching the end of the first term of office for maria dablemont, our secretary­ treasurer. maria has done a splendid job, and, of course, i for one hope she is re-nominated to continue the good work. she gets my vote. richard liebreich and the earliest fundus atlas probably the first fundus atlas was that produced by richard liebreich, in 1863, although the first published illustration of the fundus appeared ten years earlier. twelve years had elapsed since von helmholtz's construction of the ophthalmoscope (1851) before the atlas made its appearance. it seems incredible after looking through the atlas, that comparatively so short a time prior to its publication, the interior pathology of the eye had remained a great unknown. con­ taining the vivid portrayal and description of conditions such as glau­ coma, retinitis pigmentosa, retinal detachment, hemmorhages, the optic disc in myopia, the appearance of the atlas must have seemed like an exciting new picture book! within about twenty years the book had passed through several editions, with subsequent editions in english, french, and spanish, the original (first) edition having been published in both the french and german languages. ii richard liebreich was born 30 june, 1830, at konigsberg. after completing his medical stu91es at berlin and halle, he proceeded to post graduate work with brucke in berlin and then with donders at utrecht. he was the first assistant in von graefe's clinic, his instructor in the art of ophthalmoscopy having been von helmholtz. after practicing for several years in berlin and paris, and for a period of seven years as ophthalmic surgeon at st. thomas's hospital, london, he returned to paris, where he remained for the rest of his life. how sophisticated, in retrospect, the modern fundus atlases must have appeared to him, towards the end of his life (1917), with their greater accuracy and detaill leibreich's creativity extended to -20other aspects of ophthalmology, for example, instrumentation and sur­ gical technique, to say nothing of his non-medical talents. for ophthalmology was only one facet of his various accomplishments. his obituary notice in the british medical journal, describes him as having been a 'distinguished ophthaimologist, painter, and sculptor ••• • and we could just add linguist. it was the fine arts that finally claimed his complete attention in his later years. apart from his paintings and sculptures, he was especially interested in the correlation of painting techniques and peculiarities of coloring, in paintings, by the various great masters, to the anomalies and changes in their visual apparatus. one of his detailed studies was embodied in an account of the works of turner and mulready. in 1917, he could sincerely look back on an active and full life, having duly distinguished himself as ophthalmologist, painter and sculp­ tor. • .he died in paris at the age of eighty-seven. ~ ~ honorary member miss margaret mitchell, m. a., f. b. 0. a., has been elected as the first honorary member of the society. miss mitchell, librarian and curator of the famous british optical association library and museum, in london, is also the assistant editor of the o~thalmic optician. i can report to our members that she was siii'cere delighted "at the great honour." miss mitchell has had a long and distinguished career with the b. o. a., and has also found time to write the occasional historical paper, in addition to having edited the british optical association librarz ~ museum catalogues. ! 1.5th century eye .2!!.!:! lynn thorndike, in his science ~ thought !!!, the 1.5th century (1929) recounts bistichius 1 eye treatment, as tollows:-"to cure films in the eyes of beasts, grind glass thoroughly and sift it well with a sieve and put it in the beasts 1 eyes, and within five days they will be cured. 11 great !!! !! vision• 1970 anniversaries bernards. albinus (1697-1770). his claim to our attention is in connection with the mechanism of accommodation; he proposed that changes in corneal curvature were responsible. richard banister (1.570•1626), an itinerant english oculist, who was one of the first people to recognize absolute glaucoma. he was the author of an historically important breviary• albrecht von graefe (1828-1870), wa.s the eminent berlin ophthal­ mic surgeon. -21a. tschermak (1870-?) was professor of physiology, prague, and is remembered particularly for his researches on binocular vision. the monocle an american is supposed to have commented that "some ailments necessitate the wearing of a monocle. being ar. englishman is one of them." i wonder if one of our readers could let the editor know who was the american that originated the comment? the editor is an english­ man, who does not wear a monocle, but admits to having fitted several monocles while in optometric practice. they were all fitted within the short period of some 18 months, the reason being that at this parti­ cular time, he was in pra.ctice near a famous military barracks, and the young officers found such plano lenses indispensible to complete their sartorial elegance, even if it did nothing for their visual acuity. the editor also remembers the occasion when one of his pa­ tients ordering a new cord for his monocle and although in person, he requested that it be gift-wrapped and "delivered" to him. the day after the patient received the cord, he returned to have the cord "fitted" to the monocle. i would be interested to know from members of the society, what they feel would have been their professional fee for threading the cord through the monocle, bearing in mind "the messing about" that had ensued in sending the cord etc. the editor would like to hear what the members consider (a) a reasonable fee, if any; and (b) an exhorbi tant fee. contributions, please since the president's opening paragraph of the last newsletter mentioned that someone else would be editor, correspondence from members has ceasedl intentional or not, your temporary editor would request that you not remain silent until the return of the president and editor. .after all, i do have to have 1news 1 for issues 4 and .51 j. r. levene, editor supplement to newsletter of the optometric historical society, volume l, number 3, july, 1970. bibliography of the history ~eyeglasses by john r. levene, d. phil. indiana university bloomington indiana 47401 the bibliography does not claim to be complete, but it does aim to list the main publications on the subject. it is a pleasure to thank my research assistant, mrs. leaanne bernstein, for her great help. j. r. l. agarwal, r. k. ahlstrom, o. albertotti, g. andrew, l. anon. anon. ayscough, j. further research on the origin of spectacles, optician, 149, (march 12, 1965), 244-246. new theory on the origin of spectacles, optician, 148, (november 1), 1964), 474-475. "the art or mistry": english spectacle makers of the 17th century, optician, 129, (march 18, 1955), 216-219. glasogon, stockholm, 1947. moticelle intorno agli occhiali (occhiali dipinto), padova, 191). also in ann. di. ottal., pavia, 191), xlii, 121-127. note critiche e bibliografiche riguardanti la storia degli occhiali, ann. di ottal., xliii, pavia, (1914), )28-350. -note sugli occhiali, atti. accad., )0, padova, (1913-14), )11. storia deglia occhiali, st. petersburg, 1914. u1teriori ricerche e studi intorno alla storia degli occhiali. societ~ italiana di oftalmologia, atti del congresso 1924, rome, (1925). zincotypia d'un portrait avec lunettes peint par thomas de m6dene en 1552, pr~aent~ au xe congr~s international d 1ophthalmologie, janus, 1!1 amst., (1904), 612-615. some notes on the history of spectacles, transactions of the lancashire and cheshire antiquarian society, 42, 1i9'8t, 4. the history of eyeglasses, polic1inico, 67, sez. prat., (it.), (1960), 1425-1426. invention of eyeglasses, varia, minerva med., tor., 48, (it.), (1957), 1648-165). a short account of the eye and nature of vision, london, i7ss:-! short account of the nature and use of spectacles, in which is recommended a kind of glass for spectacles "p'referable to any hithertomade use of for that purpose, london, 1750. -1barck, c. r · barduzzi, d. barnett, a. baudovin, m. beckman, l. blew, c. l. bock, e. boegehold, h. & hartinger, h. boudon, p. bourgeois, a. caesemaker, f. e. de carbonelli, g. cheinisse, l. chevallier, j. g. a. the history of spectacles, chicago, 1907. the history of spectacles, optician, 139, (may 13, 1960), 457-463. salvino degli armati non fur l'inventore deg1i occhia1i, riv. stor. crit. sci. med. e nat., silna, 12, (1921), 29-32. ----spectacles depicted by ancient artists, optician, 104, (1942), 264-285. saint j'r&me et son binocle, chron. med., xxiv, par., (1917), 219. the invention of spectacles, opt. j., 1, 1895-96, 126. the origin and history of 09hthalmic lenses and spectacles, diplomat, ~' (1942), 98-101. die brille und ihre geschichte, vienna, 1903. das brilleng1as ala optisches instrument, berlin, 1934. l1usage ~ lunettes, castres, 1662. saint j'r~me et son binocle, chron. m,d. par., xxv, (1916), 57-60. -recherches historique sur l'origine des lunettes, tran. acad. nat. reims, (1903), 113. ----les tapisseries de la cath,drale de reims et les ana­ chronisms dans l'histoire des lunettes, chron. m~d. par., xxiv, (1917), 35-47. -lea besicles de e£! ancastres, paris, 1923. quel est 1 1 inventein des lunettes?, chron. med. par., 30 (1923)' 195-199. aenmerl:tingen £!!.!. de brillen !.!!, dezelven gebruyk, ghent, 1841. documenti figurati per la stovia degli occhiali, rassegna 2!,clin. terap., xix, roma, (1920), 61-66. . quelques documents artistiques sur les lunettes, presse med., xxxii, par., (1924), 1319-1321. le conservateur de la vue. contenant en outre 1 1exposi­ tion ~ l'art de fabriquer les verres de tliiiettes, !! de microscopes. • • le catalogue general des instruments qui chevalier, c. cirincione, g. corson, r. court, t. h. & rohr, m. von crookes, w. danjon, a. & couder, a. daca de valdes, b. del guerra, g. del lungo dewaard, c. doesschate, g. dunscombe, m. w. eisenhart, m. h. & nelson, e. w. !! fabriquent et ~ vendent chez l 1auteur, ~ leur prix, paris, 1ei2. manuel des myopes, paris, 1941. l'invenzione degli occhiali e gloria italiana, ann. ottalm., 55, (1927), 930-932. fashions in eyeglasses from the 14th century to the present day, london, 19~ on the development of spectacles in london from the end of the seventeenth century, trans. opt. soc., 30, (192829)' 1-21. the preparation of eye preserving glass for spectacles, philos. trans., 214, (1914), 1-25; chern. news, 109, (1914), 265-267,-z70-280, 289-291; j. soc:-chem:-ind., lond., 33, (1914), 646; j. soc. glass tech., 7, (1923), 6-7. -lunettes et telescopes. theorie, conditions d1emploi, description, reglage, revue d'optique, paris, (1935). ~ de los antoios pira ~ genero ~ vista·s: ~ que se ensena a conocer os grados gui a cada unole faltan de ,!!!! vista, l los gue tienen §ua es.-:-: por el 1. benito daca de-vaides,-wotario de el anto oficio de ii ciuda ae-5evilla. dedicado a nueatra-5enora de 1a-fuensanta !!!, ~ ciudad de cordova, seville, 1623-;-alessandro della inventore o primo preparatore di occhiali, !!!.!.!. stor. crit. sci. med. ~~ 24, (1933). £h! l'inventore degli occhiali?, bologna, 1921. die uitvinding der verrekijkers, the hague, 19o6. some historical notes on spectacles and on beryllus, brit. ~ ophth., lq, (1946), 660-664. spectacles ~ beryllus, london, 1946. on the evolution of eyeglasses and spectacles, trans. opt. ~~ !l' (1911-13), 115-123. development and manufacture of optical glass in america, ~ ~' iq, (1940), 32j•j34o -3erggelet, h. esser, a. farrell, g. feldhaus, f. k. nick, c. s. fukushill&, g. gasson, w. glancy, a. e. glaze, f. w. go1esceano 1 c. gordon, b. l. greett, r. brillenlehre. "kurzes handbuch der ophthalmologie", berlin, 1932. a curious example of pseudo-spectacles, klin. monatsbl. augenh., 133, (september, 1958), 419-h23. snellen and the e chart, sight saving rev., 28, (summer, ly$8), 96-99. taucherbrillen und andere brillen bei leonardo da vinci (umisoo), ztschr. f. ophth. optik, ! 1 (1913), 148-151. ! gross of green spectacles, london, 19$1. the oxford--an historical survey, optical journal-review, lxxiii, (september ls, 1936), 22-23; (october 1, 1936), 19, 30; (oc~ober 151 1936), 30-32. spectacles as badges of rank and learning, vision, 3, (1949), 3.5-36. on presumably the oldest eyeglasses in japan, j. clin. ophth., tok7o1 ~~ (1962), 730-732. -the florentine legend, ophthalmic optician, 9, (september 6, 1969), 924•926, 933-935. ~ on the history of ophthalmic lenses, am. j. pgrsiol. optics, ~~ (192.5), 393-402. -history of optical glass production in the united states, am. ceramic soc. bull., 32, (19.53) 1 242-247, 281-284, 313-317. ----contribution l 11histoire des lunettes, clin. p:rat. m5d-chir. de path., x, paris, (1914), 2$, 49; 101 (1914), 28:a short history of spectacles, j. aed. soc., 48, (19.51), s. ----bruchstucke zur geschichte der brille, klin. monatsbl. ~ augenh., !!• (1913), 37, 221. ----daza de valdes: uso de los antojos, ztoo~ 2t (1918), 97-104. der beri1 des mittelhochdeutschen dichters albrecht (1270), ztoo, 11, (1923), 66-67. --die briefe des francesco redi uber die erfindung der bri1len, ~~ ~~ (1918), 1-11. der vergrossernde kr.ystale des konrad von wurzburg (c. 127.5), ztoo, !!1 (1923), 98-101. *for abbreviations, see page 16. -4die antange der eigentlichen brillen, zfoo, i, (1913), 11-17. . ---~ erfindung ~ ausenglaser. kulturgeschichtliche darstel1ung ~ urkundlichen quellen, berlin, 1921. die historische entwicke1ung der brillej eine au1eitung zum verstandnis der bril1enhaus ste11ung in dem heidel­ berger museum, ber. u. d. versammel. d. sphth. gesellsch., (heidelb.), wiesb., xxxii, (1913), 419-h 1. ·die meisterbrillen von nurnberg, zfoo, 2, (1914/1$), 7-1$. ---die nietbrille, ~~ ~~ (1919), heft 1. die veglia des carlo dati uber die erfindung der brillen, !f22, !• berlin, (1917), 6$-77. d. m. manni: deg1i occhiali da naso. ueber die nasen­ bri11en (1738), ~~ vii, berlin, (1919), 1~10. ein interessanter anachronismus, das jesuskind mit der brille, ~' !• (1913/14), heft 3. ein weiterer fund historischer alter bril1en, arch. !:. augenh., lxxii, wiesb., (1912), 206-212. eine bri1le von vor 1$00, !f!q, ! 1 (1913/lh), heft 2. eine falschung ans der geschichte der bri11e, ztoo, ,!!1 berlin, (1921), 9-12. eine venetianische bri1lenaacherordnung aus den jahren 1288 bis 1317, ~~ ~~ (1922), heft 32•34. eine zweite venetianische brillenmacherordnung vom jahre 1319·1330, dow, §, (1922), heft 43-$0. pruhe sehhi1fen {bril, glasz, pari1len), ztoo, 12, (1924), l-2. kritische betracbtungen uber funde von bri11eng1asern und lupen ans dem fruhen altertum, ztoo, iv, berlin, (1916), 142-146. kurze geschichte der brillen und des optikerbandwerks, weimar, 1938. lehrbuch der fomen und fassungen der augetf1aser und ihrer verwendung in dar praxis, jen8: staa • optr:­ kerschule, l925. --nich eine daterie meisterbrille, ~~ ix, berlin, (1921), 97. -sgrossmann, t. guadet, g. guerra, c. t. gunther, r. t. hallauer, o. hardy, w. e. haynes, c. k. henker, o. heymann, mme a. hill, e. horner, f. hubner, w. janson, p. nikolaus von cusas buch "de beryl1o.", zfoo, v, berlin, (1917), 42-44. spiegel und augenspiegel zum lesen. ein beitrag zur altesten brillen geschichte, ztschr. ~ augenh., lii, berlin, (1924), 311-320. rivet glasses on a grotesque helmet of henry viii, 1511, ~ mbl. augenhk., 129, (1956), 559-561. le plus ancien portrait connu de personnage portant lunettes (1352), rev. d'optique, 3, (1924), 105; j. soc. glass tech., §., (l924j,abs. 114. -benito daza de valdes--a seventeenth century optometrist, :!..:..~ opt.·ass., j.g_, (february, 1961), 541-545. early science in oxford, !' oxford, 1923, 271-272. die brille und ihre geschichte, int. congr. ophthal., lausanne, 1915.an outline history of british spectacle making from 1629 onwards, opt., 151, (1966), 677-684. spectacles--legendary and historical, a paper delivered may 18, 1931, before the new york-pennsylvania academy of optometry, am. ~ of opt., 2, (march, 1932), 8-26. intro. to the theorz of spectacles, trans. by r. kanthack, london, 1924: bericht des ausschusses zur schaffung von richmassen fur brillenglaser und bri1lenglasfassungen, dtsch. mech. ztg., (1917), 131; ~ soc. glass tech., £, (1918), abs. 159. lunettes et lorgnettes de jadis, paris, 1911. some historical data concerning glasses, ophthal. rec., 23, chicago, (1914), 504-515. eyeglasses and spectacles, history of. american encfclo~edia of ophthalmology, z, chicago, (1915), 489 -49 3. ueber brillen aus alter und neuer zeit, zurich, 1885. reprinted from~eujahrsblatt auf ~jahr 1885 zum beaten des waisenhauses in zurich". ueber die brille, reichsmed anz., 31, (19o6), 264. from spectacle to contact lens, materia ~ nordmark, 2' (1957), 139-142. -6jones, w. kessler, h. kirsch, h. kitchiner, w. kloth, h. landolt, m. landsberg, c. laufer, b. lebensohn, j. 3. lerebours libaude et bongard de roquigni lloyd, r. i. long, c. a. maccallan, a. f. magne, m. manni, d. m. manzini, c. a. spectacle·glasses, london, 1804. eine alte j:..insen·schleifbank und die zugehorigen rieri<zeuge, deut. opt. wochenschr., 11, (1925), 767-9, 771-2. goethe's attitude towards glasses, klin. monatsb. augenh., 115, (1949), 109-111. practical observations ~ telescopes, opera-glasses and spectacles. "ne damnent quae non intellegunt. '1, london, 1818. glasses from china, zfoo, 30, (1942), 99-106. qui fut 11inventem des lunettes?, l1hygiene, 3, paris, (august, 1912), 12·14. zur geschichte der evfindung der brille, zenztg. opt. mech., 11, (1890). zur geschichte der brille, mitte z. gesch. d. med. v. naturw., hamb., _!!, (1907), 379-3~. --benjamin franklin--bifocal specta.cles, classics of o~hthalmology, survey of ophthalmology, li, (1959)-;6 3-686. eyeglasses, encycl. ~~ 2, chicago, (1961), 113. instruction sur la maniere de nettoyer les verres de lunettes, paris, 1805. lunettes achromatiques, paris, 1775. history £f eyeglasses, new york, 1942. history of eyeglasses, guildcraft, 16, (1942), 34-50. s~ectacles: wnen ~ wear ~ how to use them, london, 1 55. the origin and development of spectacles, med. viorld, lond., ~' (1951), 167. lunettes, paris, 1851. degli occhiali da naso inventati da salvino armati, gentiluomo fiorentino, firenze, 1738. l'occhiale all 1occhio, bologna, 1660. -7martin, b. meli, r. monneret, j. & vinay, l. a. mueller, k. muller, c. nicolardot, p. neuburger, s. oliver, g. h. oppenheimer, e. h. ovio, g. papini, c. pansier, p. parliament, acts of pergens, e. an essay on visual glasses, vulgarly called spectacles, london, 17'56. notizia di un busto di profeta, con gli occhiali, scolpito in legro verso il 14~0, conservato nel museo nazionale di monaco in baviera, riv. di 3toria crit. o. sc. med. ! !!,!h, ix, falnza, (19ibt; 43o-g44. --verres et lunetterie. etude technique et pratique, besancon-and morez, 1911. the eyeglasses of the elector augustus of saxony (15261585), klin. mbl. augenheilk., 137, (li60), 104-7. das original der regensburger brillenmacherordnung, zfoo, !!' berlin, (1921), 129. nurnberger brillenmacherordnungen und ratserlasse, dow, (1921), 874-877, 895-897, 915-917. les premicus verres d1optique, le verre, 2, (1922), 29-32. -----die regensburger brillenmacherordnung, janus, 9, (1904), 94-102. 1e! history of the invention and discovery of spectacles, london, 1912. die erfindung der brillen, zenztg. opt. mech., 1908. sull' ingrandimento degli occhiali (a proposito di "el libro del lie. b. daza de valde's uso de los antojos y comentarios a proposito del mismo por el doctor manuel marquez"), ann. di ottal. e. clin. ocul., lii, roma, (1924), 352-360.chi la inventato gli occhiali?, arte e storia, j2, (1920), 120-121. ----histoire ~ lunettes, paris, 1901. (london) !!l act for granting ~ h. m. certain duties .2!! glass imported~ for altering the ~ of charging the duties on glass made in great britain, london, !7b7. --die geschichte der stenopaischen brille, zwnzg. abhandl. z. gesch. d. med. festschr ••• baas., hamb. u. leipz., \1908), 130-1~ ueber alte brillen, zfoo, !' berlin, (1913-14), 172-175. -8patella, g. peters, a. pichler, a. pflugk, a. von sull' invenzione degli occhiali, ann. med. ~ colon., z, (1901), 1, 825. chi l'inventore deg1i occhiali?, ~ med. ~ colon., ~, ( 1922), 2. altere urkunden zur bri1lengeschichte, zfoc, xii, berlin, (1924), 47, 107. beitrage zur brillengeschichte aus karnten, zfoo, ~, (1920), 39-42. aphasmatische ~ kleine brillenglaser, germany, 1936. beitrage zur geschichte der 3rille aus alten abbildungen, ~' 14, (1926), 138-45. beitrage zur geschichte der brille, zfoo, 14, (1927), 138. der biblische moses mit bri1le, dow, 2, (1920), heft 43-44. die meisterzeichen der nurnberger brillenmacher, arch. augenhk., 91, (1922), 341-360. die nurnberger brillenmacher am ausgang des 18. j ahrhun­ dents, arch. r. augenh., w1esb., lxxiii, (1913), 162-164. die ordnungen der nurnberger brillenmacher, forsch. gesch. opjik., 1, (1930), 203-222; j. soc. glass tech., i4, (1930 , abs: 458. . die plattmuhle und ihre musierwelle. ein wichtiges gerat zur brillenherstellung in nurnberg und furth, zfoo, 19, (1931), 139-143. ---ein beitrag zur geschichte des wettbewerbes der nurnberg­ regensburger brillenmacher um das jahr 1600, zfoo, 20, (1932), 164-169. ein beitrag zu unseren kenntnissen der meisterstucke der alten bri11enmacher, ~' jq, (1942), 16-21. geschichte ~ brillenerzeugung venedigs, berlin, 1929. "instructions sur 1 11nsage des lunettes on conserves" von thomin, marchand miroitier-lunettier paris 1746. ein beitrag zur geschichte des brillen--und optiker­ wesens im 18. jahrhundert, ~f. augenh. wiesb., ~, (1913), 98-103. lederbrillen, ~' !2' (1928), 2-10. -9pf'lugk, 4. von & rohr, m. von phillips, r. j. podesta prausnitz, g. prausnitz, p. h. rasmvessen, o. d. rasmussen, o. d. reed, j. l. reetz, h. redi, f. masterpieces of old lens makers, ~' 30, (1942), 16-21. nachtrag zu den schlitzbugelbrillen, zfoo, 19, (1931), 97-99. ---noch eine alte deutsche brillenmacherordnung, zschr. oohth. optik, 11, (1923), 33. uber eisenbahnbrillen, zschr. ophth. optik, 13, (1925), 103. ueber brillenmunzen und medaillen, arch. f. ophth., cv, ber., (1921), 688-707. -------zur geschichte der nurnberger brillenmacher 1m 18 und 19. jahrhundert. ~~ !_, berlin, (1913), 106-llo. beitrage zur entwicklung der kenntmis von der brille, ztschr. f. augenh., xl, berlin, (1918), 50-77. einige berichte uber die oberdeutschen brillenfabriken aus dem ende des 18. und dem anfang des 19. jahrhunderts, centr. ztg. opt. mech., 44, (1923), 123-124, 134-135. spectacles and eyeglass: their forms, mounting etc., london, 1907. goethe's attitude towards glasses, llin. monatsbl. augenh., 117, (1950), 304-307. ~ augenglas in bildern 2!! kirchlichen kunst ia xv und xvi jahrhundert, ("studien zur deutschen kunst­ gesciiichte", no. 180.), strassburg, neitz, 1915. fritted glass filter discs, f. industr. ~ chem., ~. (1924), 370; q!!! .!! aep&r., ~. (1924), lol:-historr of chinese spectacles, bangor, me., 1915. dr. barck's history or spectacles, optician, 139, (1960), 569-570. the history or spectacles: a note, optician, 143, (1962), 47. ~ chinese spectacles, tientsin, 1915. • • • valued at two shillings, a fourteenth-century bishop and his spectacles, vision, 2• (1952), 31-33· bildnis und brule, oberkochen/wurtt, 1957. lettera intorno all' invenzione degli occhiali ••• , firenze, 1678. -10reis, w. richardson, j. rohr, m. von ein literarisches bril1endokument aus dem artang des xiv jahrhunderts, folia ophthal. orient., i, (19321934), 399. invention of! machine, london, 1797. acht vorlesungen zur geschichte der brille, centr. fii~· .qeh mach., 41, (1920), 383-385, 393-396, 40s-il09, -421, 429-h~3~, 456-460, 472-475; und als sonderdruck: berlin, 1921. additions to our knowledge of old spectacles: a summary of papers published in 1923-24 relating to the subject of the thomas young oration of 1923, trans. {pt. soc., 26, (1924-25), 175-187; !!..:. soc. glass tech., 2_, 192.5j,abs:-362. aus dar geschichte der brille, berlin, 1928. aus der geschichte der brille mit besonderer berucksich­ tigung der auf der breefschen beruhenden, jenaischen sammlung, vdi-verlag, (1921), berlin. ausgewahlte lesestucke aus christoph scheiners augenbuch, zfoo, 11 (1919), 35-44. bausteine zur brillengeschichte, auch. augerihk., 91, (1922), 333-340. beitrag zur oeschichte der suddeutschen brillenfabriken, dtsch. mech.-ztg., (1917), 83. contributions to the history of english opticians in the first half of the nineteenth century (with special reference to spectacle history,) trans. ori• soc., 28, (1926-27), 117-148; j. soc. glass tech., , ti927);abs. 419. --das auge ~ die brille, leipzig, teubner, 1912. "der grosse streit bei der ei.nfuhrung der periskopischen brilleng1aser," centr. zt~a f. ohtb u. mech., 43, (1922), 439-41, 449-53, 459:62, -71, 7 -~, 488-91:development of spectacles, london, 1938. die brille !!! optisches instrument, berlin, 1921. die entwicklung der bri11e vi, naturwissenschaften, vii, berlin, (1919), 209-211. die nurnberger bril1enherstellung. ein versuch einer zusam­ menfassenden darste1lung, centr. ztg. opt. mach., 43, -11(1922), 185-187, 206 bis 208, 225-227. ein beitrag zur geschichte der brillenherstellung, zschr. ophth. optik, ~' (1924), 28. ein neuer beitrag zur gerchichte der brillenherstellung, ztoo, xii, berlin, (1924), 120-27. -ein versuch zur ermittelung der optischen kenntnisse der brillenhersteller um das jahr 1600, zfoo, x, berlin, (1922), l, 33· ---ein weiterer beitrag zur geschichte der brillenherstellung, zfoo, 1£, (1924), 128. eine deutsche schmuckbrille aus dem .18, jahrhundert, zfoo, ~~ (1938), 33-34. eine neu aufgetauchte form der stirnbrille, zfoo, 25, (1937), 158-160. ----~ and spectacles, london, n. d. gedanken zur geschichte der brillenherstellung, forsch. ~.!!!opt., ~~ (1937), 121-128. oeschichte ~ brillenherstellung, berlin, 1937. moritz ~ ~ ~ siebzigsten geburtstag, carl zeiss, nachr. sonderheft, april 4, 1938. nachweise und bemerkungen zur alteren brillengerchicte, !!2£, i' berlin, (1917), 1-12. on !spherical surfaces for spectacle 1enses, proc. opt. conv. lond., ~~ (1912), 108-115. optische bemerkungen zur regensburger brillenmacherordnung um 1600, ~~ ~~ ( 1920), 76-85, 97-103. the thomas young oration: "contributions to the history of the spectacle trade from the earliest times to thomas young's appearance," trans. sptt soc., £2, (1923-23), 41-72; !!.:_ ~ ~ tech., _, 192ii1', abs. 114. uber altere arbeiten zur feststellung des augenastig­ matismus. ein nachtrag, ztoo, !j, (1925), 111-115. uber altere forman von brillen und augenglasern, zfoo, 15, (1928), 11-16. ---uber brillenpreise aus alterer zeit, centr. ztg. opt. mech., 40, (1919), 209-211. -12. rohr, m. von & stegll&nll, k. rognetta, f. ronchi, v. rosen, e. uber die entwicklung der brille bis zum anfang des 19. jahrhunderts, centr. ztf• opt. mech., n_, (1916), 211-212, 227-228, 243-2 • ----ueber altere wandlunger der glaserformen. 1. brillen­ glaser fur achsensymmetrische augen, klin. monatsbl. ~ auganh., ~~ stuttg., {1914), 468-415. ueber bril1enpreise aus alterer zeit, centr. ztg. f • . opt. ~ ~~ .y£, (1925), 184-186. ueber neuerungen auf dem geb1ete der brillenoptik, ~~ !!1 berlin, (1916), 183-187. ueber neuerungen ~ ~ gebiete der ~enoptik, berlin, 1913-33· unser wiesen von den nurnberger und further bri1lenmachern, !!2q, !f, {1931), 33-58. weitere aufschlusse uber das engliscbe br11lenwesen, berlin, 1930. -zur brillenherste1lung vor 300 jahren, dow, 2, {1917), 1-5. --zur brillenversorgung deutschlands im 18. jahrhundert, ~. 1· {1915/16), 73-79. zur entwicklung d.er fernrohrbrille, ztoo, vi, berlin, (1918)' 2$-35· zur entwicklung des brillenglases mit besonderer beruck­ sichtigung der neuzeitlichen verbesserungen, zfoo, 27, (1939), s-12. zur oesc.bichte des brillenkastena, ztoo, 13, (192$), 107-110. . zur oeachichte und entwicklung des dunckerschen betriebes, zschr. ophth. optik, ~' (1931), 33· zur brillenversorgung dautschlands um die erste halfte des 19. jahrhunderts. ein nachtrag, ztoo, 12, (1924), 146-l$5. recherche• sur les lunettes, l1experience, 2' (1842), 14$. wh7 has the inventor of glasses not been discovered?, !y:.'!.! oftal., ! 1 (february, 1946), 140-144. carlo dati on the invention of eyeglasses, isis, 44, (1953), 4-5. rouyer, j. rucker, c. w. rudolf, a.. scalinci, n. schott, g. schutz, e. selva, l. sena, j. a. simon, j. m. singer, c. smee, a. smith, e. t. smith, j. snyder, c. did roger bacon invent eyeglasses?, arch. int. hist. ~~ z, (1954), 3-15. ---the invention of eyeglasses, j. hist. med., 11, (1956), 13-46, 183-218. coup d'oeil retrospectif ~ la lunetterie, paris, 1901. the invention of eyeglasses, proc. staff meetings mayo clinic, 12, (1960), 209-216.----wege zur bestimmung des scheitelbrechwerts von brillenglaseln; berlin, 192~ --a proposito di alessandro della spina e di storia della invenzione degli occhiali, riv. stor. crit. sci. med. nat., gk, (1933), 140. --magia universalis naturae !! ~' sive recondita naturalium et artificialium rerum scientia, herbipoli (wurzburg),1657-59. die geschichte der brille, bi1d der wissenschaft, 3, (1966)' 998-1009. esiosizione ~ communi ! nuove ~pezi di cannocchiali, te escopi, microscopi, venezia, 17 1. several thoughts on eyeglasses, rev. assoc. med. argent., ]l, (september, 1958), 367-371. notes ier a 11historia de les u11eres, barcelona, 1924-3 • -steps leading to the invention of the first optical apparatus (studies in ~ history and method of science, £, oxford,-rl917-2l), 399. vision .!,!! health and disease, ~ value of glasses £2! its restoration and the mischief caused ~ their abuse, london, 1"8'47 .the history of spectacles, med. j. aust., 15, (1928), 2. processes of polishing glass, ~mag., !2' (1831), 316-17. a bibliography of the history of ophthalmology, arch. ophth., 71, (1964), 267·283. -14societe optique et precision de levallois sorsby, a. spera, l. strebel, j. sulzer, m. taylor, g. l. taylor, h. l. thomin, m. thompson, c. j. s. trevor-roper, p. d. walker, e. watson, e. c. wehe, e. von wilde, h. e. willam, h. a. wirzenius, p. la lunetterie medicale en verre arme, rev. d1optique, l, (1922), 35; j. soc. glass tech., 6,-rl922), abs. 295. --a short history of ophthalmology, london, 1933. chi ha inventato gli occhiali?, il giornale d'ltalia, 11 (september 8, 1920). kunst~~~ stuttgart, 1937. die alteste brillendarstellung, stuttgart, 1936. les origines du prijuge contre les lunettes, ann. d1ocul. paris, cxxxlv, (1905), 32-39; rec. d'opbt• paris, xxvii, (l90s), 539-547. ---research background of the trifocal lens, ~ optom., lq, (1957), 21-23. canadian visual aids, birmingham, 1928. lunettes d1angleterre du meilleur artiste, !!_ ophthal. opt., 2, (1917), 79. traite d10ptique mechanique ~ lequel ~ donne les regles pour faire toutes sortes de lunettes, ~­ scopes ••• , paris, 1769. the origin and development of spectacles, connoisseur, 94, (october, 1934), 231-239. -spectacles and their origin, mad. ill., 6, (1952), 360. --on spectacles: particularly the periscopic, nichols. ~~ (1804), 291-294. the invention of spectacles, amer. ~ phys., 21, (1953), 556. speculi origine, frankfurt, 1615. geschichte ~ optik, berlin, 1838. die brille und ihre geschichte, aesth. med., 13, (1964), l-15. ----several chapters from the history of spectacles and a review of old spectacles preserved in our country, finska lak-sallsk. handl., ~~ helsingtors, (1914), 805-828. -15wood, c. a. opt. zfoo the first scientific work on spectacles, ann. m. history, l, new york, (1921), 150·155. key to abbreviations -•• deutsche optische wochenschrift. weimar. •• the optician. london. •• zeitschrift fur ophthalmo1ogische optik. berlin. -16addenda bourgeois, a. l'histoire ~ lunettes, naples, 1909. geschichte der brille--katalog einer bilderausstellung ~~ amsterdam 1 1929. oreeft, r. schutzbrillen, und augenschutzvorrichtungen in felde, leipzig, 1922. historische brillendaratellungen--6 kunstblatter a us der zei tschrift, weimar, 1922. -nagaoka, n. wi1lam, h. a. .!!!.! historz ~ eyeglasses ,!!! japan, japan, 1970 ( 'l). versuch einer eraten zuaammenste11ung von bril1ensamm­ " lvnsen in europa and ubersee 1 klinische monatsb1atter £!!: augenheilkunde, !2,21 no. 1, 1969. -17 1970-01-03-001 1970-01-03-002 1970-01-03-003 1970-01-03-004 1970-01-03-005 1970-01-03-006 1970-01-03-007 1970-01-03-008 1970-01-03-009 1970-01-03-010 1970-01-03-011 1970-01-03-012 1970-01-03-013 1970-01-03-014 1970-01-03-015 1970-01-03-016 1970-01-03-017 1970-01-03-018 1970-01-03-019 1970-01-03-020 1970-01-03-021 1970-01-03-022 • ~i ' •-·. jiindsight f newsletter of the "' 0 3 1996 optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 25 october 1994 number 4 duncker 1 s 1815 advice: in 1973 optometrie; zeitschrift fiir augenoptik und optometrie reprinted the title page and 13 text pages of an 1815 booklet entitled "belehrungen iiber brillen 1 die beschaffenheit i auswahl und anwendung derselben" (advice about spectacles, their nature, selection, and application) with the . subtitle, "ein noth-und hiilfsbiichlein fiir alle welche der brillen bediirfen" (a need and help booklet for all who need glasses) . included in the title page is its dedication by duncker to the benefit of orphans of soldiers. duncker is identified only by his surname and the phrase "prediger in rathenow" (preacher in rathenow) . introductory remarks by the editor of optometrie identify the author as johann heinrich august duncker (1767-1843). the first six pages appear on pages 52-53 of the 1973 issue no. 2, vol. 21, of optometrie, and the next eight pages appear on pages 177-179 of issue no. 5, same volume, with the to-be-continued notation. the continuation never evolved. after unsuccessful attempts to obtain duncker 1 s booklet through interlibrary loan, letters to the editor, etc., i finally sought the help of a language scholar friend in dusseldorf, germany 1 who indulged in a bit of sleuthing on his own. eventually he tracked down an 1820 second edition in the carl zeiss museum in jena (formerly east germany) and prevailed on the curator to send me a photocopy. whether photocopying there is primitive or the pages of the booklet are flimsy, the copies were most challenging, with the back-side letters showing through almost as clearly as the front­ side print! further, the 1820 print is old german, a challenge for me even when clear. if you have read this far you must surely desire to know about the contents. the title and subtitle of the 1820 booklet are the same as in the 1815 edition except for its further identification as an enlarged second edition plus a section describing an improved patented hearing aid. duncker is identified again as "prediger" but also as "inhaber" (proprietor) of the optical industrial establishment in rathenow. the printer is shown as johann friedrich flick under commission of "theod. christ. fr. enslin in berlin." the dimensions of the 80 page booklet are approximately 9 1/3 x 12 em of which 62 pages relate to spectacles and 15 to the hearing aid. the last three pages include a list of optical branches in 28 cities and towns where the lowest prices prevail. 25/26 the text is directed toward the lay reader, as an authority advising the uninitiated, with a complete absence of technical terms, diagrams, or photographs-truly a pocket book. after a brief prefatory justification duncker poses four basic questions to be answered, as follows: 1. what are faulty glasses? 2. what are good glasses? 3. how should we begin to get the right pair? 4. when must we get a change of glasses? under no. 1 he discusses flaws, bubbles, waves, and opacities and how they distort vision and produce eyestrain. under the topic of colored lenses he explains that the optician who recommends tinted lenses for ocular weaknesses is like an inferior medical tradesman who entices with a variety of colored medicines but fails to recognize a patient's true malady. several pages border on a bit of tirade over the low quality lenses being brought in from paris, london, and niirnberg and uncontrollably distributed by irresponsible merchants. they are variously unpolished or mass polished, molded, etc., and often given a superficial sheen that camouflages their flaws. their strength assortments are typically limited to 7, 14, 20, and 36 "zoll" (inch) focal lengths resulting usually in inadequate correction. anecdotal evidence is given for the resultant increased costs and the damage they do to our eyes. one anecdote involved a pair of 3 1/2 zoll focal length lenses ·furnished by a surgeon following cataract surgery. the patient should have gone directly to an experienced optician. to illustrate the kinds of factors that an optician must weigh when he selects a patient's glasses, duncker describes the weakest vision to be among persons with brown or black eyes. on question no. 2 he points out that the spectacles can be satisfactory only if the glass is clear and the workmanship good. besides describing possible flaws he lists six criteria. 1. uniformity of lens thickness. 2. true sphericity of concave and convex surfaces. 3. no burnished edges on facets. ~4. printed matter should appear sharp and black through both the middle and periphery of the lenses. 5. freedom from surface flaws. 6. no tint for the myope and greenish or bluish lenses for only the postcataract, weak, and farsighted eyes. following this is a brief hat"angue on business patterns versus professionalism, necessitating a buyer beware attitude, even in enlightened berlin where both competent opticians and unscrupulous vendors operate. 25/27 next he discusses frames. he warns against those that clamp on the nose because their distance from the eyes is unreliable and they irritate ,in various ways . temples are preferable, though costlier. he lists four frame criteria, as follows: 1. the lens aperture should not be too small. 2. the center-to-center distance should correspond with the interocular separation. 3. the bridge should put no pressure on the nose. 4. no pressure should be against the temple bones. he then gives a series of reasons why these criteria are important and how the correct choices of frame material can help solve problems. a footnote points out that the rathenow optical establishment provides a wide assortment of sizes, materials, and strengths to enable the conscientious optician to do a professional job. for question no. 3 he classifies ordinary vision in three categories-short, long, and weak sight. he then describes the functional symptoms of each and the circumstances of time of day, lighting combinations (windows and candles), types of work, health conditions, age, etc . , in which the symptoms emerge. when the need for glasses is apparent the reader should consult the well equipped optician and be prepared to report one's symptoms in detail. at about this stage one should be able to detect the optician' s competence. for example, occasionally the competent optician may even refer the reader to a physician because a health problem is indicated. testing may have to be done at different times of day. separate glasses may be indicated fqr lamp-light wear. differences of the two eyes may have to be accommodated. caution must be taken to prevent over-correction of myopia. selection by mail may be contra-indicated but advice is given on how best to do it if necessary. etc. question no. 4 is discussed in terms of subjective symptoms of which seven are listed as follows. 1. the need to hold objects further away. 2. distant objects blurring. 3. more light required. 4. small objects look hazy. 5. printed letters wiggle like ants. 6. eyes need frequent closing or refixation. 7. the sight weakens after many hours of awake time. considerable warning is given about the dangers of negligence and delay. following the main text a six-page postscript is given about the optical establishment in rathenow, its or1g1n, development, products, and philosophy. perhaps this was not in the 1815 edition. the photocopy of the 1820 edition will be filed with ilamo. h.w h. 25/28 nonoptical criteria in eyewear: collectors of antique eyewear, and probably dispensing opticians, seem to be much more sensitive to the role of aesthetics, style, and status symbolism in eyewear than are optometrists and ophthalmologists. indeed, the early history of spectacles is revealed not in the optical and visual science documents but in the graphic arts and classic literature and in the products of the artisans' handiwork. such continuing history is even unfolding today right before our eyes says henry allen, a staffwriter for the washington post, in the style section of the december 10, 1991, issue in an article filling most of pages d1 and d2. with front facial views of 13 well known glasses-wearing public figures such as douglas macarthur, george burns, benjamin franklin, and gloria steinern he interprets what their glasses do for them visually, not optically. similarly, when tornrnaso da modena painted a fresco showing hugh of provence wearing glasses in 1352 he provided a symbol of wisdom and prestige, hardly an optical correction. for henry kissinger the glasses became a trademark. around 1927 in america, "the psychic clout of eyeglasses was such that the press took note when calvin coolidge changed from black­ rimmed glasses-a trotsky or james joyce look that made him nervous, possibly-to a pince-nez, with more of a captain-of-industry look." the article is so succinctly comprehensive and well written as to suggest it as a pleasant but meaningful reading assignment somewhere in the optometry curriculum. help for would-be collectors: ronald macgregor has produced another manual for collectors of ophthalmic antiques. 56 paperbound pages, 15 x 21 ern, dated 1992, and titled "collecting ophthalmic antiques," it is published by the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club, 47 chapelwell street, saltcoats, ayrshire, ka 21 5 eb, u.k., at £3.75 plus postage and packing. a few of the 46 topics listed in the table of contents include commentary and helpful hints in collecting, antique dealers, prices, investment potential, display and storage, leading auction hou5es, museums, etc. the previous publication, "restoring ophthalmic antiques," 1990, is now sold out, though the british college of optometry may have a few in stock. het oog wil ook wat: previously mentioned in hindsight is an attractive booklet with the above title which, freely translated, means something like "the eye also needs help," or perhaps even more freely, "vision 25/29 aids are a necessity." it's subtitle optiek door de eeuwen heen may be expressed "optics through the centuries and since." being 20 x 21 em and having 30 pages of glossy paper in full colors, the 1990 copyrighted booklet displays dozens of items from the collection of its author kees kortland. the descriptive text is in dutch but the photo captions are all translated into english on page 29. the illustrations include a 1000 b.c. plano-convex lesestein (reading stone), a 1352 a.d. portrait with the subject wearing glasses, a 17th century picture of a spectacle maker, another of a spectacle seller, one of a lens-grinding machine, and a pair of leather nose-supported spectacles. later items include lorgnettes, tortoise-shell spectacles, and various refractive and surgical instruments. the author's address is nederlandse unie van optiekbedrijven, honthorststraat 12, postbus 75650, 1070 ab amsterdam, the netherlands. o.a.i.c.c. newsletter notes: the july 1992 issue, no. 40, of this antique collectors club newsletter is again primarily of interest to collectors, as intended, but nevertheless includes several items of broader historical significance. we learn, for example, that, under endowment by the thackray trust, a new museum of medical history is being developed in leeds, england, and that it seeks an ophthalmic advisor. at bonham's chelsea sale in june the b.o.a. foundation purchased an 1839 oil painting of "a gentleman wearing a pair of silver d-spectacles with smoke side-visors" at the "bargain price" of £400. one member sent the club a photocopy of the first issue (1880) of the first optical newspaper in germany, the central zeitung fur optik und mechanik. one page of 13 advertisements is reproduced. they offer a variety of optical and mechanical products among which brillen (spectacles) appear to be a very small share. the feature article is by colin fryer in which he describes the use of tradesman's cards, or trade cards, by opticians in 18th century london. supplementing this is a detailed commentary by derek c. davidson on the identifying signs hung at the fronts of shops in the same era. there being no place numbers at that time a shop sign could be identified by its miniature reproduction on a trade card. another feature is a one-page article on stanhope lenses by douglas jull. a stanhope lens is basically a short segment of a cylindrical glass rod flat at one end with a convex surface at the other end having a focal length equal to the length of the rod. it was invented by charles stanhope, the 3rd earl stanhope in the later part of the 18th century, to serve as a simple microscope. well into the 20th century a great variety of objects containing 25/30 'stanhopes' were manufactured from such materials as ivory, bone, wood, or metal. douglas jull's booklet "collecting stanhopes" can be obtained for £5.95 directly from the author at 7 cissbury drive, findon valley, worthing, west sussex, bn14 odt, england. optometrists organize: on page 191 of the august 1, 1907, issue of the optical journal, vol. 20, no. 5, is a directory of 66 representative optical organizations, four of them classified as national and interstate, 42 as state, and 20 as local. the dates of founding are shown parenthetically for so of the organizations, and these range from one in 1894 (new england association of opticians) to ~wo in 1907 (idaho and omaha). otherwise there were two or more societies organized in each of the 14 years with a maximum number of 11 in 1903. the gaussian statistical distribution suggests that a few more would be formed during the next immediate years. what prompted this relatively sudden movement? might a study of the early minutes of these organizations reveal a common stimulus that did not prevail previously? fifteen years later on another page of the same journal, then called the optical journal and review of optometky, vol. 49, no. 25, june 22, 1922, p. 43, appeared the following interesting item: "on december 10, 1896, a number of opticians from various parts of the state of indiana, who had a keen interest, not only in their individual work, but also in the advancement of the profession as a whole, came together for a meeting at the capital city, indianapolis. this meeting, which was held in a little room at the denison hotel, was called to order by john wimmer, of indianapolis, now deceased. a medical bill having been introduced into the indiana state legislature, which, upon investigation, proved to be adverse to the opticians, all of the men present felt the need of an organized and effective body to advance their profession and disseminate knowledge concerning it. after some discussion, a motion was carried to form an organization to be known as the indiana optical society, composed of the following charter members: ... " did the optometrists of other states have similar reasons for organizing? old and new: "a history of cataract treatment" is a featured article by robert augusteyn in pages 22-23 of the first issue of a new journal 25/31 entitled vision asia-pacific, vol. 1, nos. 1-2, march-june 1992. dr. augusteyn traces the treatment back many thousand years, both surgical and nonsurgical. from minutes of the guild: the following entries are selectively excerpted verbatim from the 1671-1833 minutes of the worshipful company of spectacle makers by mr. hugh orr, honorary curator of the british optical association foundation museum. at a court held on 3rd august 1671: mrs. elizabeth bagwell was found "glasses and frames not fit for sale" and by a jury were found bad and deceitful and by judgement was executed accordingly in cannon street on the remaining part of the london stone where the same was with a hammer broken all in pieces. at a court held on 20th january 1695, james mann of angal street, london, was fined for making and selling thirty one pairs of white spectacles ground only on one side, and five pairs of black spectacles, being unlawful and bad wears. in 1697 he was expelled and disowned as an assistant, for selling a great quantity of improper wears, viz frames without glasses to a person not a freeman of the company. in 1702 the court of the s.m.c. having rescinded their decision, it was ordered that frames without glasses may be sold without action being taken. mann was reinstated as an assistant of the company. a petition from mary bollen of 1, coppice court, st. dunstans hill, london, widow of george bollen, stated that her husband was made a freeman of this company on 7th october 1790 and who died in st. thomas hospital, london on the 12th october 1820. that she was left with two little children and nothing to support her but her own labour, and humbly prayed for any .relief that the court might be pleased to bestow. the court-having taken the same into consideration and seen the petitioner and finding that the deceased was a registered freeman in their books and had paid his quarterage nearly to his death-resolved that 10/be given for her present relief, and that she be placed on the pensioners list and at 5/per quarter. at a court meeting 28th june 1827, a communication from a mr dolland was read stating-that matha williams one of the pensioners of the company died in february last, and that he was induced to give the last donation of fl. to her finances, to adjust in defraying her funeral expenses, hoping at the same time it would be met with the sanction of the court. resolved that the said sum of £1 paid by mr. dollond for adjusting in defraying the funeral expenses of the deceased 25/32 meets the approbation and sanction of this court, and that mr. dollond be reimbursed with the £1 sum .. at a court meeting 3rd january 1833. a petition was read from irminor warder widow of the late robert warder a freeman of this company, stating herself to be very distressed circumstances, and that in march 1831 while spraying over london bridge, had the misfortune to fracture his leg, which has and is likely to render him incapable of obtaining a livelihood. under ·these circumstances humbly praying relief from this court. it appears that her late husband was admitted a freeman of the company in the year 1816 and that the quarterage was paid regularly to the time of his death. resolved-the sum of £1 be presented to her for the present relief and that the name be added to the list of pensioners of this company at £1 per quarterage. mr. orr reminds us that the london stone is still in cannon street, london, protected by an iron grid over it. also, that the worshipful company of spectacle makers (s.m. c.) was incorporated by royal charter in 1629. virtually all of the earliest records of the s.m.c. were destroyed in the great fire of london in 1666. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1994-25-04-001 1994-25-04-002 1994-25-04-003 1994-25-04-004 1994-25-04-005 1994-25-04-006 1994-25-04-007 1994-25-04-008 optomfit~!ltarmy ****. •••••••• ••••••••••••• : indiana univer;it~···· • ••••• of the ~m1e'il~ lfisttii8tal society -::"'/f243 ~2r_th lindbergh boulevard st. r..ou!m~•t~mit.~{:llql' 63141, usa) .. * apr 1 1988 • : vol umtithiry • .....•••....•...••.•.•..•.........•... : october 1987 number 4 another organization underway: in 1971 william f. billman, o.o., then a student, organized a series of informal meetings of a small group of optometry students and faculty members at indiana university for bible study. they dubbed themselves the fellowship of christian optometrists, or fco. in 1974 professor clifford brooks, o.o., served its campus affiliation as the group's faculty sponsor. aware of similar activities occurring at several optometry schools, dr. brooks, with lon s. eudaly, 0.0. of missouri, and michael goen, 0.0., of florida, undertook to formalize the movement as a world mission by preparing by-laws and registering a charter in the state of indiana as fco international, inc., and in 1987 with the u.s. internal revenue service as a not-for-profit corporation. its first publication, fco international, a four page 28 x 22 em. paper, appeared in the sumner of 1987 as vol. 1, no. 1. the above information was derived from an article therein by optometry student karen brown, president of the indiana university chapter (apparently the first) of fco international, inc. author of the discerning eye: as previously mentioned in this newsletter, vol. 14, no. 1, january 1983, p.7, sir arthur conan doyle (1859-1930) was quite unsuccessfully a physician and oculist. more recently in ophthalmic and physiological optics, vol. 7, no. 3, 1987, p. 335, further commentary elaborated briefly on this fact. doyle completed his medical training at edinburgh in 1881. "it was, perhaps, the relative leisure afforded by the quietness of his practice that gave doyle time to pursue his literary bent." this resulted in several books in the immediate few years. still determined to continue his career in medicine in 1891 he put up his plate in fashionable devonshire place as a "consulting oculist." alas, he reported, "every morning i walked from the lodgings in montague place, reached my consulting roams at ten and sat there until three or four, with never a ring to disturb my serenity." it was this lack of success and a severe attack of influenza that convinced him that he should commit himself to writing rather than medicine. german contributions in contact lenses: "die international bedeutung der deutschen kontaktlinsenoptik" (the international significance of german contact lens optics) is an historical article by heinz baron in the march 20, 1987, issue of the deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 110-112 and 114-116. 58 recognizing the one hundrethyit)h'ive~u¥~fl~~ adolf eugen fick of zurich in the archiv fur augenheilkunde, 9r. baj;on ~dentifies the three year period of 1887-1889 as the "pioneer period"'becaus~·of the simultaneous independent develo~ents of ~veral in z~rich~~~~r~~~.~~0~iel. he also g~ve~ appropnate credit to the pnor conhlbutions of leonardo da vinci, rene descartes, thomas young, john frederick, william herschel and others in providing early theoretical concepts and foundations. the intermediate years or ''middle ages" are then identified as 18891945, and the "modern times" are grouped from 1946 on. for each period he describes the technological and clinical advancements. in a separate section he describes the part played by the german ophthalmic optical industry. in a final section on related activities he concludes that german optometrists, ophthalmologists, and opticians have consistently played an important role in the very international development and application of contact lenses. seventeen original references are cited. in the immediately following april 20 issue of the same journal, vol. 42, no. 4, or. baron provides a guest editorial on "100 jahre kontaktlinsen und wie geht es weiter?" (a century of contact lenses -so what is next?) he also authors a chronology (pp. 112-113) entitled "100 jahre kontaktlinsen: ein geschichtlicher uberblick" (a century of contact lenses: an historical overview). the chronology follows the same outline as his earlier article but in year by year sequence and including major contributors in other countries. supplementing these in the same issue are a reprint (pp. 114, 116-119) of or. fick's original article in 1888 in the archiv fur augenheilkunde, vol. 18, i=p· 279-289 entitled "eine contactbrille" (a contact lens) aoo a reprint (j:p. 120-123) of part iii of the doctoral dissertation of august muller at the university of kiel (germany) in 1889. the dissertation was entitled "brillenglaser und hornhautlinsen" (eyeglasses and corneal lenses) of which part iii dealt with the latter. origins hard to find: the philippine association of optometrists is at least thirteen years older than we thought it was. the following paragraphs in a july 31, 1987, letter from ohs member claro cinco, o.o., of cebu city, the philippines, explains: i found from my files an old pamphlet, which obviously belonged to my late father, entitled "optometry lawenacted 1917, revised 1919". this could be the only available pamphlet saved. i never realized that this law was written in spanish. herewith is a copy for whatever it may be worth to you or the archives of the aoa. what could be the first organization of optometrists in the philippine was the philippine association of optometrists. the only available indication that this organization existed is from the above pamphlet which bears the credit "published by the philippine association of optometrists march, 1919." other than this piece of information, nothing much is known of this organization and no 59 mention of it or reference made in optometric literature in this country. it is amusing to note that the official english name of the present samahan ng optanetrist sa pilipinas is also "philippine association of optometrists." it was comnonly thought that the first optanetric organization in the philippines was the optanetric association of the philippines which was established in 1932, until the above discovery. the letter and the copy of the law will be forwarded to ilamo. iconographic spectacles: the science museum on exhibition road, london fm7 200, england, includes in its optics section an excellent display of spectacles derived mostly from the collection of m.w. ounscombe contributed in 1947. one of the exhibit legends explains that the word "asticjt~atism" was coined by william whewell, master of trinity college, who also invented the word "scientist." included in the wide variety of optical exhibits is a most realistic appearing fibre glass cast of a gravestone labeled as that of "margaret shields, scotland, ca. 1727." carved in the stone are two skulls, both wearing spectacles! legend on the stone includes the phrase "his age 12 years", in which the pronoun "his" seemed of the wrong gender for "margaret." a telephone inquiry to dr. jon darius, the curator in charge of the optics section, elicited the following response: i have pursued your inquiry by telephone concerning the gravestone of margaret shields. the phrase "his age 12 years" appears on the gravestone after the letters jb and jw (or tb and tw), and underneath them ab. so it is reasonable to surmise that these were her progeny or at least other ·members of the shields family. the phrase patently does not refer to margaret shields herself. although there are published articles on iconographic symbols (such as tools of trade) on tombstones, there is no published reference to my knowledge to the gravestone of margaret shields, found by chance by one of our museum curators in a churchyard at kirkliston, lothian, many years ago. it would be interesting to learn of the existence of any similar gravestones depicting spectacles. you might like to enquire through the medium of your newsletter of the gptometric historical society. smelting for gold: a clipping from the august 5, 1987, issue of the antique trader, vol. 31, no. 31, shows a half-front-page photograph of several pair of antique eyewear. the issue includes a two page article by marlyn l. mangoles entitled, "the eyes have it: collecting antique eyewear" with seven more photographs by norma milner. all illustrations are of early 60 1900 eyewear and apparently are derived from the collection of ohs member jay demesquita, 0.0., as he is mentioned several times in the article. he is credited with owning same 400 items of antique eyewear, including four pair of spectacles made in john mcallister's shop. an interesting point is made regarding the paucity of spectacle frames made of precious metals, of which there originally were millions and millions. they were melted down! for many years optometrists and opticians routinely kept a receptacle for old frames to be shipped periodically to the smelters for gold recovery. thanks to ohs member james leeds for the clipping. · louis emile javal (1839-1907): recently ohs member james leeds loaned me two old books which he felt deserved a few comnents in this newsletter. they are "entre aveugles" by emile java!, paris, 1903 and "on bec<ming blind", an english translation by carroll e. edson, new york, 1905. same years ago i had read thomas hall shastid's biographic report on or. javal in the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, which included a glowing review of this book and edson's translation. however, this is my first exposure to the books themselves. because i have worked very closely with an organization of blind persons for almost two decades and enjoy a circle of fine friends among them, and having extensive experience in visual science, i quite naturally have tried to be alert to any resources that would help me appreciate the blind person's world. much has been written by many, but so little by persons who had scientific minds and were also blind. javal was the rare exception. trained originally as an engineer, later in medicine and ophthalmology, an observing scientist and inventor, he had lost his sight quite suddenly at age 62 from chronic bilateral glaucoma. in the introduction to his book he modestly wrote, " i set forth in the pages which follow the results of my experience and researches; i ask the indulgence of competent persons, for i am only a parvenu in blindness" he added, "i write for the family of the blind." in spite of my own extensive association with blind persons and rny career-long visual science interest, javal's book was to me a chapter by chapter revelation. if i were again designing an optometry curriculum i would include the book as a required reading assignment on which i would then test each student for comprehension. much of the information in the book was of course already somewhat familiar to me, but so very much was not. the 27 chapters deal with phases of living that simply may not occur even to the most at.tentive typhlophile. described are the nature of dependence on others, the enhanced utility of other senses, capabilities around the house, capabilities in one's professional field, maintenance of neatness, hygiene, and health, coping with one's dwelling, handling meals, keeping track of time, taking walks, the merits of a tandem tricycle for transport, hints for blind travellers, holding a circle of friends, on being read to, handwriting skill, typing, voice recordings, braille, handling correspondence, use of maps, plans, and sketches, 61 the role of music, kinds of games, how to smoke, the use of mnemonics, the value of esperanto, should blind persons marry, is there a "sixth sense", the psychology of the blind, and useful public resources. the special beauty of the book is its casual and straightforward literary style with no pulling at heart strings, no appeals for sympathy, and no sense of bitterness or tones of anger or defeat. neither is there any indulgence in levity, but it provides such fascination in learning that the smoking of a cigar serves as a measure of elapsed time, that blind persons want to open their own mail, that the departure of a visitor without oral notice often leaves the blind person talking to no one, that it is easier to take walks at night than in the daytime, though carrying a lantern may help prevent collision with others, etc. the historical significance of this book is simply that a better one seems never to have been published. it deserves to be reprinted. h.w h. signs of ocelli: the comnentary on jules romains's "eyeless sight" in the july issue prompted past ohs president james leeds to describe his own fascination with the book and the theory it espoused. he had acquired and read the book almost 30 years ago. like all of us, he continues to be impressed by the apparent "obstacle sense" which keeps blind persons from colliding with objects which we normally consider only visually detectable. he illustrates the perplexity with the following personal observation. i knew a blind gentleman, now deceased, who was the husband of a patient. he had two enucleations from glaucoma. she was crippled, so he was her legs. she would drive him to a location (she ran a stenographing and duplicating service) and he would take her packages unerringly to the right location. once she brought same things to my home when my children were small, and i told them to watch him through the windows. he came up a flight of stairs and walked to the front door and rang the bell, delivered the packages, and returned to the car, going down the steps. then i told the children that he was blind, and they were amazed. at a later time, i told him of the book "eyeless sight", which interested him. his main comnent and the reason for all this writing, was that he said he could never wear a hat. (i had never noticed he was invariably hatless.) he said if he wore a hat, he would bump into everything. perhaps he had ocelli in his forehead! the search for historical clues: recently i attended a public lecture on the history of 16th century france by professor natalie zemon davis. she is a renowned history scholar whose interpretations of life in that era have led to substantial revisions of the history books, even in france itself. ~i i 62 of special interest to me was her statement that to rely more or less exclusively on the diaries and records of royalty and of principals of the church was largely to overlook the involvement of the illiterate masses. she reminded us that among them were intelligent but nonpublishing leaders, thinkers, and trendmakers. i was reminded that optometry too has over 500 years of unpublished but demographically significant and socially meaningful history buried, if not totally lost, in the secrecy and illiteracy of the spectacle-making guilds, however influential they may have been. what was professor davis's discovery? she found that so much could be found in the legal archives of france, the secretarial notes and records of complaints, allegations, and judgments involving the variety of infractions by iiie!idbers of the hoi polloi, whether street urchins, slaves, peasants, merchants, soldiers, housemaids, or grooms. thefts, vandalism, indebtedness, drunkenness, insolence, infidelity, divorce, etc., are not exclusive to any social category or caste. hence the archives of the magistrate can reveal much about the daily life and circumstances of common litigants, be they pickpockets, storekeepers, mothers, or, yes, even spectacle vendors. such details are not recorded without bias in the archives of royalty and the church. what prompts my brief essay? it so happens that because this newsletter is on the official list of serial optanetric publications we editors receive innllllerable routine news releases. obviously these are sent to us in the hopes that we will publish them or at least comment on them in our columns. surely 99.9% of these have no immediate historical significance, but we do scan each release in search of the possible 0.1%. one such item costing 90 cents for first class postage recently arrived from the center for judicial studies, clll\berland, virginia 23040. the letter of transmittal from its president james mcclellan addressing us as "dear colleague" identified his accompanying docll!lent as a constitutional impact statement, a study dated august 1987 by james bond, an adjunct scholar for the center "who is also dean of the university of puget sound school of law." the title of his study is "ophthalmic practice rules" and deals with the constitutional legality of the proposed trade regulation rule 50 fed. reg. 598 (january 4, 1985) eyeglasses ii 1 a 20 page opinion. as i perused it with great interest i was reminded of professor davis's comments. here is a document derived completely outside of the ophthalmic literary milieu dealing with a current issue which is keenly felt by every optanetrist. yet, among its 32 cited references, not one is in an optometric, ophthalmological, ophthalmic, or optical publication, nor likely to be even· vaguely familiar to more than perhaps a half dozen ophthalmic practitione:.:s. in this instance, because the document appears obviously to have been distributed to a hundred or more ophthalmic editors, it can be hoped that the professions will be appropriately alerted. in my more than 50 years as a student of optometric affairs, however, i find this an almost absolutely unique instance of deliberate sharing of knowledge from the field of law to the field of optometry. 63 what wealth of other hidden historical optometric tidbits must be in the legal realm of the world! one may of course ask, what does this document reveal that we do not already know, or care to know. perhaps very little in the practical sense of the moment. but when the optometric historians of the 21st century attempt to visualize and interpret trends of the present century, will they gain a clear understanding from the easily reviewed sources in the ordinary and narrowly collected optometric archives alone? indeed not. the document at hand makes the sophisticated argument that the proposed ophthalmic practice rules violate the federalism precepts of our united states constitution. it makes no point of the fairness or logic of the rules as we optometrists are wont to view them. such are the biases that will plague the 21st century or later historian who does not delve into every nook and cranny for clues and traces of the factors in today's developnents. surely, for example, in the courthouse basements and attics of even our american midwestern counties there may be the fading notes of an earlier century justice of the peace identifying the complaints of a local resident against an itinerant oculist, optician, optometrist, spectacle peddler, or eye surgeon. one can imagine a wide variety of comparable historical gems. they will hardly be found in the ophthannic literature or even in the church reco~s. the theme of my comments is simply that we who share even a casual interest in ophthalmic history need to be constantly alert to the potential that traces of optometry's heritage may lurk on the shelf of an abandoned train depot, in the messages carved on the wood beam of an old barn, in attics, basements, old photographs, archeological diggings, and elsewhere. to make a mission of pawing through various accumulations in hopes of a find is likely to be boring and disappointing, for the odds are overwhelmingly slim. but staying simply alert, as in noticing the first buds of spring, can give a richness to one's cultural appetite even in total failure. h. w h. 70th and 75th anniversaries: the ophthalmic optical anniversaries of two establishments were separately but almost simultaneously recognized in april in jena, east germany. one was the opening of the deparbnent of medical optical instrument manufacturing at the zeiss firm on april 1, 1912, under the direction of professor otto henker. the other was the founding of the optometry school on april 21, 1917, as the "grosserzoglich sachsische optikerschule" (saxon grand-ducal school of optics) now known as the "fachschule fur augenoptik hermann pistor" (hermann pistor academy of optometry). commemorating these two events are historical articles in the july-august 1987 issue of augenoptik, vol. 104, no. 4. 64 "70 jahre fachschule fur augenoptik hermann pistor" by w. horichs is on the inside front cover opposite page 105 and includes a few comments about events leading up to the opening. "75 jahre optisch-medizinischer geratebau in jena" by h. sanger is on pages 106-108 and includes portraits of alvar gullstrand, moritz von rohr, otto henker, and h. hartinger as well as illustrations of early models of the nordenson retinal camera, the gullstrand ophthalmoscope and slitlamp, the henker refractometer, an ophthadnameter, and the first sight-testing apparatus. on the front cover of the same magazine but quite unrelated to either of the above is a colorful 19th century east asian print of a lady with rice bowl, perhaps a decorative table cover, on which are placed a pair of rock crystal and a pair of srooked top:~z spectacles of presumably the sane period. unfortunately no clarification is provided. 59 years ago: what was a continuing optometric education lecture like in 1928? we now have a copy of an example. · a mimeographed document was found by a friend of o.h.s. member benjamin nerenberg, o.d., of los gatos, california, among many old papers held by a member of the santa clara county optometric society. at the top of this copy was a signature of the late dr. ed cochran who had practiced in san jose. the lecture, or lecture course, was by dr. eugene g. wiseman of buffalo, new york, to the members of the los angeles county association of optometrists on december 18-19, 1928, in science hall, the university of southern california, los angeles, at which time the los angeles school of optometry was on the university campus. dr. ernest a. hutchinson, then head of the los angeles school, introduced dr. wiseman as the author of three optometry books and explained that these lectures would be incorporated in a new book in preparation. the mimeographed document itself appears to be the recording of a stenographer, as a preliminary footnote explains that "the first part of this lecture course covering the evolution of the animal and of man has been omitted from these notes which beg in with the evolution of the visual sense." the stenographer's notes total 21 pages, over 14,000 words. the major subdivisions are "evolution of the visual apparatus", "influence of eyes upon mind and health", "the nerve", "the reflex arc", "the neuron", "physiology of nerve action", "the cell", "the muscle", and "practical application." were the lectures as dull as might be suspected from these subtitles? not really, for~wiseman gave almost every concept a light descriptive touch. for exanple, this paragraph: "the fish was a very useful progenitor of man. from it we got our vertebrae, our brain, our ears, our spinal cord, our cage of bones for the protection of internal organs. bones that are inside the body instead of outside shells". bearing in mind that these hours of lectures were attended by optometrists who typically had a minimum of collegiate education and that the date was less than a week before christmas, one must admire the prevailing determination of these very recent predecessors of ours. 65 the document is being forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. for lack of recorded evidence: the milepost book by ohs member claro m. cinco, 0. d., entitled optometry and related jurisprudence, filoptics industries, inc., cebu city, philippines, 1987, is not only a historically significant document in itself but it also includes a special preliminary account, pages ix-xv, of optometry's origins in the philippines. no doubt correctly, but perhaps too conclusively, or. cinco makes the opening statement that "at the turn of the century, there was no established record of optometry in the philippines." one might clearly interpret this to mean that optometrists did not then exist in the philippines even as sight-testing opticians or as spectacle-fitting retailers. cinco then points out that the first optometric office was established in manila in 1902, and that in 1917 the first philippine optometric association was organized. also in 1917 the first optometry law was enacted and more than a hundred optometrists became registered in the same year, with many more registering in 1919. the inference would seem to be that within less than two decades optometry emerged phenomenally from a single pioneer or two to a well organized and politically influential profession of well over one or two hundred established practitioners who acquired their licenses under the "grandfather" clause of the new law. i feel certain this is not the interpretation that dr. cinco intended to convey by his eminently correct statement that there was no "established record" of optometry in his country at the turn of the century. it seems probable that numerous optometrists under the identity of sight-testing opticians and spectacle retailers were already serving the public there as private entrepreneurs long before 1900, if only as part of the commercial and cultural impact of centuries of spanish rule. in other words, the lack of established records in the philippines, as in much of the rest of the world, may well be due to the nonpublishing pattern and guild-controlled secrecy of the first five centuries of spectaclemaking, a nevertheless thriving and respected enterprise. with or. cinco's bent for history and his talent for sleuthing we can hope that he may now search early church archives, museum collections, commercial documents, and elsewhere for traces of evidence that optometry was there in one form or another long, long, before 1900. h. w h. two new memorials: funded by silor optical, inc., the herbert l. moss memorial scholarship award was established at the pennsylvania college of optometry in memory of the late dr. moss, an alumnus, faculty member, and internationally known optametr i st. 66 the carol b. pratt scholarship fund has been established at the pacific university college of optometry in memory of the late professor pratt from donations received from numerous friends. in 1945 dr. pratt was a leader in the transfer of the north pacific college of optometry to pacific university. charles sheard humor: ohs member david cline, o.d., writes, "i was very interested in reading the acoount of sheard's 18 point exam and the later 21 point o.e.p. exam but i wish to add that i was fortunate in getting to know sheard when he was at the los angeles college of optometry and in our discussion he stated (and i think this is approximately verbatim) 'it is said that i am the father of the o.e.p. but if this is so l do not recognize my own child. ' " extracted from a 1902 novel: from his collection of rare ophthalmic books dr. james leeds loaned me a 1902 oopy of doctor bryson, a novel by frank h. spearman, published by charles scribner's sons, new york. in it doctor bryson is portrayed as the young surgeon-in-chief for the eye at the laflin college for the eye and ear in the heart of downtown chicago. written in very popular style, the plot deals with the romance between the oculist and a young wife of a separated but not divorced husband whose small child is dr. bryson's patient. the young wife and daughter and dr. bryson live in the same stately r~and-board residence home. the book is of present historical significance insofar as it may be presumed to reflect at least the author's, if not his readers', concepts of eye doctors of its era. the clinical and professional aspects are a very small part of the text, but they suggest that the author had informed himself quite well about both optometric and ophthalmological matters. for examples, doctor bryson mentions in appropriate context the use of finger counting for acuity, the need for glasses, the nature of hysterical amblyopia, the neutralizing of plus with minus cylinder, the lines on a letter acuity chart, 20/20, glaucoma, the ophthalmometer, the mirror retinoscope, the mirror ophtha~scope, the retina, the use of a magnet to remove a piece of steel, cataract lenses, and intraocular tension as well as numerous surgical techniques. not stated, but implied, is that the dispensing of glasses takes place in the eye clinic. discussing some office experiences with a friend on a lake superior vacation cruise, dr. bryson conments, "day before yesterday i sat in the office till noon. the clinic was pretty heavy and the strange thing is, those cases cane in groups. one day it is all one thing, myopia or astigmatism, or foreign bodies, and the next, perhaps, all old people with cataracts or mere presbyopia. day before yesterday there were seven cases, and bad ones, every one, of choroiditis. that's more choroiditis than the ordinary oculist runs against in a month." one must of course realize that the story was written as a popular novel rather than with any doc\ltlentation objective. nevertheless, to induce the reader's credulity the text must reasonably reflect the then prevailing concepts in the public minds. i personally found its portrayal of ophthabnic services to be at a substantially more sophisticated level than i believe them to have prevailed at the turn of the century. on the other hand "laflin college" was represented in the story as one of international fame. 67 according to who was who in america the author, frank hamilton spearman (1859-1937), attended lawrence college in appleton, wisconsin, published nt~~~erous popular books, short stories, and econan ic reviews between 1900 and 1925 and was awarded honorary degrees by notre dame university, santa clara university, and loyola. h. w h. newton memorialized in stanps: recent correspondence with o.h.s. member derek c. davidson, organizer of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club, has netted sanples of two optically commemorative british postage stamps. one is a colorful 34 pence stamp illustrating the earth with a solar battery in orbit together designated "the systems of the world" and subtitled "sir isaac newton (1642-1727) • " the other is a 31 pence stanp illustrating a spherical flask with colorful contents and the reflectively distorted words, "optiks or treatise of the refraction reflexions and colours of light" with the subtitle "sir isaac newton (16421727)." mr. davidson reports that six or seven newton stamps were issued in 1987. revealing an anonymous author: about two years ago my favorite challenger jim leeds loaned me an anonyrrously written book with the mere comment, "this will fascinate you." it did. a small book of over 300 pages, 16 x 10 x 2.3 an., handsomely bound in hard brown cover with the title light and vision embossed on the spine, it was published in 1836 and identified on the t1tle page as discoveries in light and vision with a short memoir containing discoveries in the mental faculties. it was not copyrighted, but following the title page is the statement that it had been "entered according to the act of congress of the united states of america, in the year eighteen-hundred and thirty-six, by g. & c. carvill & co., in the clerk's office of the southern district of new york." further identified are, "sca'ocherd & adams, printers, 38 gold street." the text was almost flawlessly edited with only 10 err~ta. the writing style is in first person and clearly intended to be easily understood by any intelligent reader with an appreciation of scientific method. simple references are made to familiar objects like window blinds, candles, a string and beads, etc., but plenty of more highly technical terms like muscae volitantes, hyaloid membrane, crystalline capsule, etc. are so routinely and correctly included in the phraseology as to make it evident that the author was a scientific master such as a professor of ophthalmic surgery or an anatomist. the spellings of flavour, colour, etc. suggest that the author was british rather than american. in the author's dedication he or she points out that the contained opinions are "so much at variance with the philosophy of the schools" that "it oould be indelicate to make use of" any scientists' nanes in dedication lest "they should lose caste by being associated with the work". the memoirs are therefore dedicated to the famous american poet william cullen bryant, who is identified as a trusted friend. 68 the more than two-thirds of the book under the topics of light and vision deal with 17 experimentally observed phenomena, some with surgically excised animal eyes, several as entoptic effects of pinhole experiments, various optical reflection and refraction effects of fluid drops, etc. altogether the reported observations seem quite valid but same of the theoretical interpretations are poorly conceived. perhaps the least excusable interpretation was the conclusion that the eye does not perceive an inverted image. the author had ct>served that a distant candle flame formed an inverted image in the retinal window of an excised animal eye, but if the retinal window of the animal eye was brought very close to the author's own eye, as one holds, for example, an opera glass, an object, such as a pin, held near the cornea of the excised eye was perceived upright. it was this upright image, according to the anonymous author, that is conveyed visually to the brain by an unexplained optic nerve process. this notion was of course completely at odds with that of the author's contemporary scientists, including sir david brewster, who is identifi~ repeatedly with considerable hostility. annoyance with brewster is expressed in various connections, including angry disagreement as to the roles of voluntarily induced vs. externally forced movements of the human eye on perceived movement of afterimages. at one point, p. 99, the anonymous author makes the only statement in the book that gives a possible clue as to his or her identity with the comnent, "this discovery i made known in sir david brewster's magazine". with piqued curiosity i then sequentially sought the help of history of medicine librarian christopher hoolihan at the university of rochester, the administrative office of the united states courts, the library of congress reference division, and the archives of the copyright office, with no clue as to the identity of the anonymous author. next i started a page-by-page search of the many issues of the edinburgh journal of science edited by brewster, some obtained by interlibrary loan, same on microfi~, and several at the university of toronto which i visited during the 1986 american academy of optometry meetings in canada. my first reward was a scathing commentary by brewster entitled "farther observations on the supposed optical and physiological discoveries of mr. charles bell," in the october 1826 issue, vol. 5, no. 2, w· 259-268. his reference was somewhat vaguely to a lecture by sir charles bell before the royal societies of london and edinburgh and to its being "printed in a periodical now at an end." the latter comment suggested the edinburgh philosophical journal, which had been edited by brewster and the title of which was terminated in 1826. at last, therein, vol. 12, no. 24, 1825, pp. 371-382, appeared an article by "charles bell, esq., f.r.s. &c. read before the royal society of edinburgh, march 21, 1825." indeed the text had a style, tone, and level of sophisticat~on startingly similar to, though a bit more formal in manner of expression than, the anonymously authored book. further, it expressed the same objections to brewster's criticisms and defended the very same theory of the effect of voluntary vs. externally forced eye movement on direction perception defended in the book. 69 i placed the two documents side by side, the article and the book, in hopes of finding some identical phrase to clinch my conclusion that the book's author was none other than the reoowned scottish surgeon and anatanist sir charles bell (1774-1842). i did find a few, none of which alone might serve as proof, but i can say that as i scanned back and forth from one to the other the similarity of style was so great that i repeatedly had difficulty reminding myself which text i was reading at the moment. even the sketched illustrations in both showed similarities of construction, line weights, and lettering. remarkably, my extensive but less than complete search of biographical information on bell uncovered no reference to the brewster-bell hostility or even to their acquaintanceship with each other. this search included the publication "letters of sir charles bell selected from his correspondence with his brother george joseph bell", london, 1871/j, which also included a chapter on "lady bell's recollections". in it i found absolutely nothing to suggest that sir charles wrote the mystery book or even gave thought to brewster. what is apparent, however, is that he had an extremely wide range of scientific and cultural interests, that be wrote prolifically of many, that he took on challenges readily, and he had the ability to write in popular as well as formal style. even brewster criticized bell for using this last skill and his fame to propagate unproven concerts. why would bell have published an anonymous book under the permissive guise of being a lay american author? whatever the reason, it seems to have had fair distribution, is listed in a number of bibliographies, and can be found in numerous libraries. according to one very knowledgeable librarian a copy in good condition would probably sell for $51/j.f/jf/j or more. attributable to sir charles bell, it can serve to illustrate vividly sane of the most sophisticated thinking in visual science a century and a half ago. h. w h. history of a flash. in 1882 the popular french writer jules verne published a novel entitled "le rayon vert" (the green ray) which was translated into several languages. it was a fascinating description of the journey of a young scottish girl to the west coast of scotland to gain a free view of the setting sun so she might . observe the elusive "green ray", believed to be a luck symbol or charm. verne offered no technical explanation of the phenomenon, suggesting rather, through the romantic girl's suitor, that it might be supernatural in nature. perhaps verne had been aware that the phenomenon traces back to ancient egyptian writing and thought it useful in the plot of his story. in 1922 professor dr.m.e. mulder, emeritus professor of ophthalmology, authored a 141 page paper-backed monograph entitled the "green ray" ~ "green flash" (rayon vert) at rising and setting of the sun, published in the hague, the netherlands, by n.v. boekhandel, w.p. van stockum & zoon. a copy is in chs member james leed's rare book collection. ·essentially the book is an historical account of dozens of variously reported observations of the phenanenon of numerous individuals. the book is in english but includes extensive citations in french and german, easy for the multilingual dutch. 70 insofar as professor mulder himself had apparently seen the phenomenon only once, some 15 years prior to writing his review, the book conveys the nnpression that the phenomenon is rare, and that many doubted its validity. further, there was lack of agreement among scientific minds as to the explanation, and there was even moderate variance as to the size, shape, duration, and precise color of the flare, flash, streak, segment, or ray. the text is reminiscent of the ufo or "flying saucer" reports of several recent decades, as dealt with by my late colleague j. allen hynek whose federally assigned role it was to asce!-~ain their plausibility. the cluster .of dates of the observations reviewed by mulder suggest that verne's book may have pranpted the nm~erous popular attempts to see the effect between 1882 and 1922. · today the green flash is defined in several dictionaries and is illustrated in color, presumably a photograph, in the 15th edition of the encyclopedia britannica, courtesy of the vatican observatory. therein it is said to be caused by refraction, absorption, and scattering of the sun's light in the earth's atmosphere and to last only a fr~ction·of a second. it appears at the upper edge of the rising or setting sun and may ~ seen with the unaided eye when the sky conditions are clear and in circumstances where the horizon is sharply defined. • ... ·. · · early zeiss instruments: the zeiss firm in jena, east germany (not the zeiss firm in west germany) celebrated the 75th year of the establisl'lnent of the deparbnent for optical and medical instruments with the publication of a supplement to the jenaer rundschau (jena review) entitled "75 jahre optische medizintechnik aus jena". the magazine-like supplement is a 24 page, 28 x 20 em, full color document with a couple dozen illustrations of instruments the firm has built starting with a 1911 electric hand ophthalmoscope designed prior to the establishment of the separate deparbnent on april 1, 1912. shown also are portraits of key technical personnel including carl zeiss (1816-1888), ernst abbe (1840-1905), moritz von rohr (1868-1940), allvar gullstrand (1862-1930), otto henker (18741926), and hans hartinger (1891-1960). the historical involvement of the hermann pistor optometry school founded in jena in 1917 is also described. because this publication can be useful as a sort of atlas for identifying certain clinical ophthalmic instruments it is being forwarded to ilamo. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1987-18-04-001 1987-18-04-002 1987-18-04-003 1987-18-04-004 1987-18-04-005 1987-18-04-006 1987-18-04-007 1987-18-04-008 1987-18-04-009 1987-18-04-010 1987-18-04-011 1987-18-04-012 1987-18-04-013 1987-18-04-014 i r 1 t 11 .1! ·, · .. ; ! ; 1 v 1. 11 ~,:;" . ~ewsletter. l ;:lli1•y : of the .......... ,. ...... ~ometric historical society, volume 21 (243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) january 1990 1990 ohs executive board: of'] 1\e crs ' 1 t)fo..z 7 v, l j number 1 -.j2. forty-four members responded by mailing in their completed ballots and "resoundingly" electe~david goss and alfred rosenbloom to the ohs executive board. list~~ below is the full executive board and the expiration year of eacb. member's term. the board members will elect officers for 1990 among themselves and the results will be announced in the next newsletter. optometry library david goss charles haine bridget kowalczyk meredith morgan douglas penisten alfred rosenbloom t. david williams 1993 1992 1990 1990 1992 1993 1991 2 8 feb libu indiana university the 1989 reminisce-in: squeezed into a single hour between, and in competition with, uncounted other activities occurring at the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry at the hyatt regency hotel at 6:15 p.m. december 9, in new orleans, some 40 persons gathered to hear j. william rosenthal, m.d., talk about antique scissors glasses and pince-nez. admitting that it was a difficult assignment with a number of long experienced optometrists in the audience, dr. rosenthal illustrated with his slides the developmental changes in design that began to occur approximately with george washington's dependency on spectacles and through much of the 19th century. his collection is recognized as one of the world's finest, and his interpretations of the utilization of visual aids are well thought out. his commentary covered frame material, use of springs, handles, rivets, and hinges, artistic craftsmanship, the need to control rotations of cylindrical lenses, fashions and fads, and even special occupational requirements. he also pointed up the limitations of discovery of antique eyewear such as represented by even the occasional find of rarities in the long undistrubed excrement of early "privies" or outdoor toilets. prior to the talk was a presentation of the hofstetter recognition award to professor e.j. fisher by ohs president t. david williams. to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the / ~' 21/2 society, a specially made cake was provided for all present to share. a meeting of the ohs board of directors was called for a 7:00 a.m. breakfast the following day, which all of the directors attended. ohs president t. david williams tells us: while we were at christchurch priory, which i thought might make a blurb for nohs. i noticed something here goes: in a side chapel behind the alter at christchurch priory in southern england are the tombs of sir john chidicock (d 1449) and his wife, lady katherine (d 1461). these are table tombs with reclining figures atop them, carved from alabaster. the facial details of both figures are nearly obliterated, and even portions of the heads have been smoothed away. according to john forster, a guide at the priory who has written notes on many of the fascinating features of the priory (including the miraculous beam), there was a legend which said that if you scrape some alabaster from the face of such figures and mix it with pure water, the resulting mixture would be an infallible cure for eye infections. a lot of people must have scraped away at these figures with pocket knives to reduce them to their present state, a mute testimony to the frequency of eye afflictions at the time. the curriculum in 1915: recently dean richard hill sent us a photocopy of the ohio state university bulletin, vol. xx, july, 1915, no. 2, entitled applied optics, 1915-1916. this is of historical interest because the ohio state university is the oldest continuous university degree program in optometry. its first optometry courses were offered there in 1914 as a two-year curriculum but expanded in 1915 into a four-year curriculum leading to the bachelor's degree. identified in the bulletin as professor and director is charles sheard and included is the information that his office was in 206 physics building, telephone 99324, and his residence at 367 west tenth ave., telephone 16109. ~ the foreword, quite evidently written by sheard, presumably reflects the concept of optometry of that era though neither the word optometrist not optician appears therein nor elsewhere in the course descriptions or in other parts of the 12 page publication'. the foreword reads as follows: the primary purpose of this curriculum is to properly and adequately prepare its students to enter the field of optics as applied to the detection and correction of the errors of refraction, accommodation and associated functions of the eye. to this end the curriculum embodies the following essential and allied 7-j/f'::') c· i· •\ v 21/3 branches of instruction: (1) general science and mathematics, ( 2) fundamentals of anatomy, histology, physiology and pathology of the human body, (3) special courses on the anatomy and the physiology of the eye, (4) instruction in the detection of pathological and diseased conditions of the eye, and (5) a thorough training in theoretical and practical optics and the applications of optical principles to the correction of visual errors, with an adequate provision for clinical practice in both the refractive and pathological fields. provision is also made for some elective courses, in order that the student may continue any line of instruction previously pursued or select courses which are germane to his work. the applied optics courses are all listed as being taught by "mr. sheard," "mr. sheard and assistants," or "mr. sheard and lecturers. " they are subtitled, theoretical optics, mechanical optics, theoretical applied optics, and clinical practice. other courses in the total curriculum included anatomy, chemistry, mechanical drawing, english, mathematics, pathology, physics, physiology, and psychology. the course descriptions throughout are quite conventional, even classic, with perhaps the exception of a single phrase in a sentence setting forth the coverage of lectures and demonstrations in theoretical applied optics in the final semester. the phrase reads, " • and the value of lenses as economic agencies in binocular vision." did this have real meaning in contemporary lingo, or was it a rhetorical ploy to clear the topic through an interdisciplinary university faculty committee? kingslake and optometry: professor and mrs. (hilda) randolph kingslake were honored for their contributions to optics by the establishment of an academic chair in their names at the university of rochester institute of optics. in a recent interview reported in the october 1989 issue of optics news, vol. 15, no. 10, pp. 4-5 & 32, professor kingslake includes a description of his involvement with optometric education. after studying lens design for two years at imperial college in london he was lured to america in 1929 by president rush rhees of the university of rochester, who had come to england seeking faculty for the new institute of optics. describing the early days of the institute, kingslake says, "at first we had only optometry students. there had been for many years a highly successful school of optometry in rochester, but new york state had recently passed a law requiring anyone practicing optometry to have a u~iversity degree. so in 1927, the rochester school of optometry joined the university so that its students could earn a bachelor's degree. this group constituted our first students in the new institute of optics. i taught geometrical optics and taylor taught physical optics. the optometry group ultimately grew to about 40 students21/4 --it is all in my wife's history of the institute of optics, written for the 50th anniversary in 1979. in 1936, for various reasons the university decided to abandon the optometry course, particularly as columbia university could easily handle our relatively small student body." world war ii and german ophthalmics: featured in the history columns of the september/october 1989 issue of augenoptik, vol. 106, no. 5, pp. 146-148, are descriptions of the impact of world war ii destruction and the initial recovery period through 1949 in relation to optometry, optometrists, and ophthalmic supplies in berlin, rathenow, and jena and to the publishing of the journal itself. leadership history: a full page of the september/october, 1989, issue of texas optometry, vol. 45, no. si p. 20, is devoted to a chronological year-by-year list of the successive presidents of the texas optometric association auxiliary (optometrists' spouses) from 1927 through 1989. also shown is each president's city of residence. one might wonder what value such a list could possibly have. it does, of course, convey the message that the auxiliary must have had continuing significance throughout its more than 60 years just to have existed so long. since a great majority of the listed wives must still be living, they may well be archival resources of optometric and american organizational history. it also indicates that somewhere there is a file of accumulated minutes and documents from which this list was derived by an unidentified author. where might it be? have steps been taken to assure its preservation? at least this list itself, by virtue of its publication, will be preserved in a few institutional libraries, and possibly nowhere else. the landmarks of history erode quickly and quietly. a persistent historical hoax? dean jay enoch writes us as follows: when i was in florence, italy, recently, i took the &opportunity to visit santa maria maggiore church. this church is very close to the florence cathedral. if one draws a line from the cathedral through the baptistery and goes down the main street, sm maggiore is the first church one encounters. the statement on the wall plaque dealing with salvino armati is slightly different than that listed in several books. i am enclosing a copy with this letter. as is stated correctly in many books, it is located at the back of a small chapel on the left hand side of the church. in fact, it is at the very back on the left wall of the chapel. 21/5 that which is of particular interest is that if one enters the priest's quarters which lie just behind this chapel, there are two rooms. these are used by the priest for robing and preparation of ceremonies. i communicated my interest in armati to what you might call the deacon or alicote. in the first of the two rooms, on the same wall of the church where the plaque lies, there is a broad cabinet on which there is a large centered crucifix. to the right of that crucifix is a small granite or marble bust. the alicote pointed out that that was a bust of armati. the wording on the plaque is as follows: qui diace salvino d'alvino d'armato delgi armati di firenze inventor degli occhialli dio gli perdoni le peccola anno d. mcccxvii an exhaustive analysis and convincing challenge of the validity of this famous display was made by edward rosen in a two­ part article entitled "the invention of eyeglasses'' in the journal of the -:.:.:.story of medicine, vol. 11, 1956, pp. 13-46 and 183-218 (available from ilamo). ina cramer deceased: a news item in the southern college of optometry newsletter, summer 1989, p. 16, informs us that mrs. ina b. cramer passed away on feb. 25, 1989. she and dr. w. r. cramer purchased the southern college of optometry from its founder, dr. j. j. horton in 1937. she served as secretary/treasurer until she retired in 1968. notes from muth: ohs member eric p. muth, ph.d., sent us a photocopy of j. h. hammon's patent #2,177,021 of oct. 24, 1939 for a fused multifocal ophthalmic lens, later to become well known as the panoptic. the detailed document consists of four pages of 26 line drawings plus eight pages of descriptive legend. this will be forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. he also tells us that he offers for sale a 75 piece quality vision aids collection for $16,000. his address is 25 parkland place, milford, connecticut 06460, usa, telephone 203-874-4595. further, he included a copy of his paper on thomas jefferson's reading glasses which appeared in the august, 1989, issue of the optical monthly of korea, pp. 57-60. 21/6 the rare books shelf: antiquarian science, medicine. and instruments, catalog 21, winter 1989 (p. o. box 367, dracut, mass. 01826, usa) includes the following rarities: 21. beer, georg joseph, pflege gesunder und geschwachter augen, 1800 ($1,000) 36. bohne, w., hand-book for opticians, 1892 ($150) 38. boscovich, roger joseph, dissertations quinque ad dioptricam pertientes, 1767 ($950) 49. brewster, david, a treatise on optics, 1833 ($100) 50. brewster, david, the stereoscope, 1856 ($275) 54. browne, edgar a., how ophthalmoscope, 1877 ($90) to use the 108. donders, f.c., on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye, 1864 ($225) 114. emerson, william, the elements of optics, 1768 ,. ($450) 183. lawrence, william, a treatise on diseases of the eye, 1834 ($400) 195. luckiesh, m., visual illusions, 1922 ($75) 226. czapski, siegfried, theorie der optischen instrumente nach abbe, 1893 ($150) 266. molyneux, william, dioptrica nova, 1709 ($975) 272. mueller, johannes, ueber die phantastischen gesichtserscheinungen, 1826 ($1,275) 324. prentice, charles f., a treatise on simple and compound ophthalmic lenses, 1866 ($125) 359. schweigger, carl, handbuch der speciellen augenheilkunde, 1871 ($225) 371. scriptores optici (edited by francis maseres and charles babbage), 1823 ($1,250) 430. wilde, emil, geschichte der optik, 1838-43 ($300) the catalog provides full details on each item listed. 21/7 the oval shape: ohs member eric muth provided a preliminary draft of a manuscript of this title which he plans eventually to submit for publication elsewhere. this is as it should be for it deserves direct availability to a wider spectrum of readers. the paper traces the evolution of spectacle lens shapes. the first known shapes were round and they dominated the scene for four centuries before cylindrical corrections and large lenses posed new problems. new frame materials, edging machinery, and styling were influential factors as well. the first evidence of a shape other than round is in a 1510 painting, the next evidence appearing in 1702. muth theorizes that the advent of temple spectacles prompted the demand for oval lenses to enable the presbyope to peer over the lenses more easily for distance viewing. filius thuringorum et polonorum: lacking a family name and possessing only his given name, witelo (ca. 1235 ca. 1290) identified his parental heritage with the above latin phrase meaning "son of a thuringian and a pole." his given name witelo has variously appeared in the literature as vitellio or vitello. apparently born in southwestern poland and dying in or near wroclaw, he considered poland his homeland. he studied in wroclaw and paris (france) , attaining the master of liberal arts degree. he taught at a church school in legnica, subsequently as a tutor to a duke, giving lectures in arts at the university of padua (italy), and later as a resident scholar at the papal court at viterbo near rome. in 1275 he was named canon of the wroclaw cathedral, working also as a diplomat in three successive royal courts. he probably spent the last years of his life in a monastery near wroclaw. besides teaching, he published extensively on nature and philosophy and corresponded internationally with scientists in silesia, prague, salzburg, and elsewhere. the subjects of his treatises included philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, physiology, and meteorology, copies of most of which have not survived. his opus of great fame, however, was the ten-volume peri optikes, perspectiva in 1273 which contains the whole knowledge of optics hitherto possessed by known scientists, greek, arab, and contemporary. it was recognized as the best and most comprehensive work of its kind by such intellectuals as leonardo da vinci, roger bacon, john peckham, and johannes kepler. twenty-three handwritten copies survive as well as copies of three editions printed in the 16th century. reflecting the broadly inclusive meaning of the word optics prior to this century, the work covered virtually every known facet of visual science, including the structure and function of the eye and even meteorological optics. perhaps fortuitously it served as the major if not the exclusive scientific reference basic to the 21/8 understanding of spectacle lenses, which appeared only a few years later. prompting this commentary is the fact that witelo is given a substantial write-up in a 1989 book in two languages, polish and english, entitled "polish contribution to medicine," authored by roman k. meissner and jan m. hasik and published by the medical academy in poznan in joint celebration of its 70th anniversary with the university of poznan, the academy of agriculture, and the academy of physical training. in this same anniversary year the academy is establishing a school of optometry. one of the creative thoughts being considered in this connection is the possibility of designing a medal to be identified with witelo as poland's optometric patriarch for possible use in recognition of major benefactors of the school. a tangled angle: "would brewster recognize today' s brewster angle?" is the title of an article by akhlesh lakhtakia in the june 1989 issue of optics news, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 14-17. referring to a pakistani postage stamp commemorating ibn al-haitham (ca. 965-1039), the author traces the earliest optical concepts to the arabian optician and makes the comment that "later opticians busied themselves with construction and improvements of optical instruments and did not bother about the nature of light." then through rene descartes (1596-1650), pierre de fermat (1601-1665), willebrord van snel van royen ( 1580-1626) , erasmus bartholinus ( 1625-1698) , christiaan huygens (1629-1695), sir isaac newton (1642-1727), and etienne­ louis malus (1775-1812), he leads into the polarizing experiments by sir david brewster (1781-1868) for which the law and angle were derived. next, the author extracts from numerous currently available texts the discussions of the brewster angle and finds two definitions emerging, one being the "zero-reflection angle, for which a parallel-polarized plane wave is totally transmitted," and the other being "that of a polarizing angle, for which an unpolarized plane wave is reflected as a linearly-polarized plane wave." g he appeals to the optical society of america to resolve the confusion. who was isaac barrow (1630-1677)? if you check webster's biographical dictionary (1983), you will read only of isaac barrow (1614-1680), a famous uncle. the dictionary of scientific biography on the other hand features a lengthy account of the nephew, about whom this commentary relates. a recent (1987) publication of the worshipful company of spectacle makers is helping to shed more light on the role of a widely 21/9 ignored contributor to the development of optical science, especially as related to vision. the book, a 29x21x2 mm. handsome paperback, is entitled "isaac barrow's optical lectures 1667," an english translation from the latin by a belfast teacher of classics very helpfully edited by a. g. bennett and d. f. edgar of the city university, london. the price is about~25. is it pleasantly readable? indeed it is, unless you happen to be so unfortunate as to have abhorred the study of 'geometric optics. the two optometric editors have rephrased all proofs in terms of current nomenclature, symbols, sign conventions, and mathematical notation and have redrawn or touched up as necessary the more than 200 optical diagrams as they should appear in a modern work. why has barrow been largely overlooked? contemporarily he was not. the more glamorous isaac newton (1642-1727) was in his audience and some years later succeeded him in the chair to expand further in optics. historically barrow became overshadowed as well by such other contemporary, or almost contemporary, optical giants as kepler (1571-1630), descartes (1596-1650), and huygens (16291695) and even on a broader scale by his uncle of the same name only 16 years older. finally, as the editors suggest, with the drifting away from latin as the language of science, the changes of optical conventions, and the lack of a good translation into english, the oblivion deepen~d. this book should re-establish barrow's rightful place in history, with the especially touching circumstance that he was born the year following the granting of the charter of the worshipful spectacle makers company by charles i in 1629. the editors have also included many interesting biographical details of barrow's life and career as well as annotations of the 18 lectures to clarify concepts in modern terms and to provide some pertinent comments about other contemporary or prior optical scientists whose concepts related significantly to those expressed by barrow. the text seems also to have captured an occasional tongue-in-cheek and pleasantly self-deprecating style which seems to fit barrow's personality as conveyed in the biographical notes. keratoconus care, 1888: a thoroughly documented paper by richard m. pearson entitled "kalt, keratoconus, and the contact lens" in the september 1989 issue of optometry and vision science, vol. 66, no. 9, pp. 643-646, includes the translation of an 1888 report by professor .photinos panas (1832-1903) of the work of his junior colleague dr. eugene kalt (1861-1941) on the use of contact shells in keratocdnus. in his incidental discussion of the report pearson not only cites numerous original sources and corrects several historical errors but he also provides much contemporarily re.lated background about the earliest ophthalmological observations and interpretations of the potential significance of contact lenses for whatever purposes as well as contemporary surgical attempts to manage or correct 21/1.0 keratoconus and the status of the lens fabricating technology of the day. for me the article was especially fascinating in relation to the fact that only a few years later, 1910, a landmark malpractice suit involving a case of keratoconus in manchester, england, served as a turning point in the professional role of optometrists (then called opticians) in the whole english speaking world. this was the case of markham vs. wood, abrahams, briefly described in this newsletter in april 1971, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 3-4 and january 1972, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 8. the contrast of the continental ophthalmological view of keratoconus as portrayed by author pearson's documentation with that expressed in testimony at the english trial reminds one that our historical concepts depend more on the historian than on the facts. pearson seems to have dug up the facts. h.w h the other ohs: the annual meeting of the ocular heritage society will be held on may 11 and 12th, 1990, in new york city at the barbizon hotel, 63rd and lexington. there will be two half-day papers sessions and tours of optical museums. contact dr. e. j. (ted) fisher for further details at: school of optometry, university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario n2l 3gl, canada. contributing editor: managing editor: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1990-21-01-001 1990-21-01-002 1990-21-01-003 1990-21-01-004 1990-21-01-005 1990-21-01-006 1990-21-01-007 1990-21-01-008 1990-21-01-009 1990-21-01-010 apr 0 3 1996 243 north volume 26 yi~~~~~!it optometric historical society lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri october 1995 for the record: 63141, usa number 4 maria j. dablemont, nee maria jose florence dias, was indeed the exclusive founding parent of the optometric historical society. how did this come about? she was appointed in 1964 by the american optometric association to organize the accumulated and accumulating documents of the so-called library created in 1902 by the physiological section of the association, a collection of publications which had been mostly stashed into broom closet areas, if not strayed. at almost my first personal acquaintance with her, probably the same year, she pointed up the need for an optometric historical society and suggested to me that i should initiate its founding. despite my informing her that i was in no sense a historian, history having been my poorest subject in school, she started literally hounding me personally, and perhaps others, to take steps to organize a group. in 1968, accompanied by a library assistant, she even made a visit to our home, a four hour's drive from st. louis, to emphasize the need. on that evening we whipped up a rough set of bylaws and decided on three other persons to enlist as fellow founders, three she had earlier prevailed upon to support the movement. on the same evening we prepared a three-paragraph statement to be released to the optometric press a year later, august of 1969, at which time my term as aoa president would be completed. the published release almost instantly brought in 33 five-dollar membership checks and a $100 contribution, enough to provide a functioning treasury to support a quarterly newsletter. maria served immediately as secretary-treasurer, a role which she filled until she begged off in 1987, a volunteer function which meant direct attention to every detail, including even the quarterly insertion of our newsletters into manila mailing envelopes addressed personally by her. but for maria all this was purely incidental and secondary to her assigned employment mission, the aoa library. under her stewardship was accomplished its expansion into the now world famous ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., with its own board of directors and a staff of at least a half dozen busy, full-time, trained experts, several endowments, a number of memorial collections, museum displays, and reciprocal working relationships with a host of other libraries locally, nationally, and internationally. who was this lady? a bit younger than i, i know, but her vigor, drive, and demeanor made her seem even more years younger. 26/26 she divulged her age only under strictest confidence, which i honor. she was born in alagoinhas, bahia, brazil, into an early renowned portuguese-brazilian family of well-known professionals, reared and educated in brazil with graduate education and advanced training in the rare combination of both library and archival science, with fluency in portuguese, english, spanish, and french, and competence in italian and latin. the topic of her graduate research thesis was "the baroque influence in brazilian literature." her summa cum laude degree qualified her as a teacher, a vocation which she pursued briefly. next she was appointed by the late brazilian president vargas as a federal librarian. on a part-time basis she worked also as a copywriter and proofreader for an advertising agency and as a free lance writer for a technical magazine. she arrived in the u.s.a. in 1955, a move which apparently had to do with her marrying the late earl dablemont of st. louis, her number one admirer, and with whom she bore their son edward. after several years of employment in the foreign departments of three import-export firms in st. louis she was discovered and employed by the aoa as noted above. what sort of person was she? above all other traits she was persuasive, unrelenting, and convincing, sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully, but always with an identity of having prepared her grounds thoroughly, accurately, and purposefully in the interest of the world at large, the profession as a part of that world, or, only incidentally, the one she would undertake to influence. never was there a trace of self-aggrandizement or self­ serving promotion. if one would give her credit for an accomplishment she would plead with the accuser to dismiss the notion. if she now knows what i am writing she will be angry! but never vindictive. she asked for and treated advice with care. she took advanced courses to improve her archival competence in her work. she studied and researched the history of optometry avidly and penetratingly. as treasurer of the ohs funds she guarded expenditures with utter frugality, often denying herself legitimate reimbursements of expenses incurred for ohs purposes. she was persistently creative in the development of the many service features of ilamo. in her study of optometric history she often came.. up with philosophical gems such as, "the disavowal of optometrists' image as providers of eyeglasses has led the profession to dismiss its fine heritage." with regard to optometrists' frequent reference to their "humble beginnings" she furiously declared, "there is nothing humble about your history. you have a glorious past." she often recited names of certain early optometrists as honorable patriarchs of the profession. she published articles on optometric history in several journals of international stature. she was truly admirable. 26/27 after her retirement and her husband's death she returned to brazil in july 1991 to be near her son, grandchildren, and other members of the family. she died on november 9, 1992. h.w h. optometry at waterloo: the period of 1967-1992 was the first quarter century of the school of optometry at the university of waterloo in waterloo, ontario, canada. the primary witness to the school's development was none other than dr. e.j. fisher, the founding director and professor, whose affiliations included another third of a century with the predecessor institution, the college of optometry of ontario. it is fortunate that he was prevailed upon to write the history of optometry at waterloo. the result is an unpretentious looking 23 x 17. 5 ern booklet of 26 pages and several photographs entitled simply as twenty five years and published under sponsorship of the school of optometry. unpretentious, yes, but chock-full of details that could only have been extracted from the mind of the author with his cautious awareness "that memory plays many tricks, even when using such props as minutes of meetings, students' yearbooks, journal news items, newspaper clippings, photographs, and conversation with others who were there." in his documentary preamble fisher briefly reviews optometry's emergence from several centuries of spectacle maker guilds, its 20th century adoption of the title "optometry, " and the early canadian apprenticeships and brief training offerings. the first legislative optometry bill in ontario was enacted in 1919 with the stipulation that the board of examiners in optometry should make arrangements to provide training for new entrants. the first course was offered at the central technical school, toronto. a parallel development occurred during the same era in the french­ speaking province of quebec. in 1925 the ontario board opened its own professional college in toronto as the "college of optometry of canada, " later renamed "college of optometry of ontario. " this was the institution that negotiated the transfer of its students, faculty, staff, equipment, records, and other units to the university of waterloo in 1967. these and many more details led up to the "beginnings" of the present university program. the merger was not as simple as one might presume, for a university is structured very differently from a traditional free­ standing professional school. the trials, tribulations, and frustrations are well described and really make reconunended reading for the optometry student. also described are the extracurricular student activities, enrollment trends, faculty and staff acquisitions, new clinical 26/28 programs, optometric specialty developments, lecture programs, research efforts, graduate study, departmental space problems, finances, continuing education, library resources, a museum, and interdisciplinary involvements. the text is so clear, so believable, that it should be recommended reading to anyone wishing to gain an appreciation of the philosophical differences between a university affiliated and a free-standing school. it also provides a clear picture of the growth of optometric education in canada, especially ontario. monroe b. levey: ohs member jerry abrams presented the following paper at the april 1993 meeting of the ocular heritage in mexico city. dr. abrams prefaces his paper by stating, "i wrote this paper with the main purpose in mind of giving recognition and paying tribute to a man who gave to our ophthalmic industry the concept of 'fashion eyewear.' he pioneered this concept 50 years ago." monroe b. levoy-optician monroe b. levoy was born in new york city in june 1901 and died october 1973. he was the second generation member of his family in the ophthalmic profession. for over 25 years he continued and expanded the firm of b.m. levoy, opticians, began by his father in the late 1800's. for many years they maintained and practiced fine quality opticianry on fifth avenue in new york city. monroe b. levy during these years conceived, developed, and introduced the concept of fashion eyewear as an accessory. he developed the idea that eyeglasses should have color. they should have design. they could be jeweled. they may have silver and gold. this new philosophy of his was to change the public's mind-set that eyeglasses should be fund and should make a fashion statement. he uniquely phrased eyeglasses as being eyewear. he believed that eyewear can be elegant. eyewear can be fashionable. eyewear can be stylish and eyewear can be beautiful. in the early 1940's mr. levoy formed the tura company and introduced a revolutionary lightweight aluminum that could be anodized into a rainbow of high fashion colors. colors before were never presented for eyeglasses as he now could produce them in colors of navy, olive green, pink, red, peach, and charcoal grey. this "tura" high quality frame was more than a frame. he said this was a "frame of mind," a fashion accessory that could be .. feminine, flattering, and fun to wear. this innovative approach and his pioneering idea was for a woman to have an entire wardrobe of eyewear to properly accessorize every outfit in her closet. secondly, he did not overlook the men. they, too, should be in that fashion limelight as well. the men's tura frame came later but did revolutionize the idea that eyeglasses for men also can be "eyewear" and be in fashion for mean as well as a handsome suit, shirt, and tie can be. the next step was that he added ornamentation to his frame. tura was the first to put jewelry on a spectacle frame. he put silver, gold, precious, and semi-precious stones in elegant designs on his eyewear collection. 26/29 in the 1960's mr. levoy bec~e the .first manufacturer to add a famous designer to his ophthalmic product. christian dior was his designer labeling his new optyl material and still keeping it in high fashion. he was the first in the industry to advertise eyewear in such publications as ·vogue, harper's bazaar, and town & country. fashion shows were held in hundreds of cities throughout the country. models wore designer clothing form leading department stores with, of course, matching eyewear by tura. this idea of eyewear with a fashion statement could best be sold to the ophthalmic professions by women, and mr. levoy felt so strongly about this point that his entire sales force across the country consisted of women. a first again in a field that was always dominated by men, now tura was represented by all women and to this day this holds true. as a result of tura's success in this area, today 65% of all frame manufacturer's sales reps are women. mr. levoy and his able staff held seminars for the professionals in the 1950's and the 1960's across the country telling his story and promoting tura and his concept that beautiful, high fashion, and colorful eyewear could spell success to the professionals who supported his ideas and his philosophy. in 1968 he authored a book entitled the art of positive dispensing. in its forward, mr. levoy says, "the dispensing methods that served twenty years ago are no longer adequate to meet the challenge of today's fashion conscious and price conscious patients. the successful practitioner must employ new skills, new arts, and these cannot be acquired by guesswork, intuition, or by trial and error. " in his book, his dispensing methods and techniques help the professional and the patient decide faster on the right eyewear, on multiple eyewear, and at a higher fee. he says that this positive approach has been proven over the years and, in every case, has led to a more effective, a more profitable way of dispensing with greater service to the patient. today, tura inc. carries on mr. levoy's ophthalmic tradition of style and elegance. the anodized aluminum frames of early days have changed to gold and silver metal and optyl plastics of the 1990's with spring hinged frames and other modem innovations to make eyewear enjoyable to wear. the fact remains that monroe b. levoy, optician extraordinaire, has left his mark in the ophthalmic industry. an innovator and pioneer, he made people aware of how important eyewear is to their appearance and that eyeglasses can be fun to wear, can be fashionable to wear, that they can make a statement, and that they can make a difference for 70 million people in america who wear them. afterimages: professor arthur b. evans in the department of romance languages at depauw university, greencastle, indiana 46135, edits a journal called science and fiction studies and wishes to track down any early or recent biological experiments, real, presumed, or mythical, which have generated the belief that bleached retinal images can be detectable after death. the belief has become a part of "common knowledge" and folklore, especially in detective novels and science fiction. all clues will be welcomed by him, and us. following are some of professor evans's examples of author's using the concept in their writings. in "at the end of the passage" in life's handicap: being stories of mine own people, ny: doubleday, doran & co., 1931, pp. 265-269, rudyard kipling provides 26/30 a discourse among several characters as to the feasibility of identifying the killer by looking into, or photographing, the open eyes of a dead body in a coffin. in a short story, "claire lenoir," in revue des lettres et des arts, oct. 13-dec. 1, 1867, later incorporated into his novel tribulat bonhomet, 1887, and subsequently translated by arthur symons as claire lenoir, ny, albert & chas. boni, 1925, novelist villiers de 1' isle-adam, writing in the first person, cites on page 42 a newspaper clipping crediting l'academie des sciences de paris with stating the authenticity of the claim that the eyes of sheep, horses, and cats conserve in their eyes the impression of the objects they have seen before they die. on pages 219-22, continuing in the first person, he describes the agonizing revelation of a detailed scene observed ophthalmoscopically in the eyes of a dead woman. in les freres kip, paris: hetzel, 1902, jules verne describes, in french, experiments "by certain ingenious scientists," showing "that the image of exterior objects imprinted upon the retina of the eye are conserved there indefinitely." other references to a photo in a dead person's eye include e.t.a. hoffman, "the sandman," 1817; edgar allan poe, "the cat," "ligeia," etc.; and many more in professor evans's collection. in the sample he provided, the most recent was in 1974, a biography by jacques-henry bornecque entitled villiers de l'isle-adam: creator et visionnaire, paris, nizet. professor evans has published some of his findings on this popular belief that the image of the last thing seen at the moment of death remained imprinted forever upon the retina of the eye. below are some comments which were adapted, or even lifted, from his article entitled "optograms and fiction" in science-fiction studies, #61, volume 20, part 3, november 1993, pp. 341-361. jules verne (1828-1905) not only incorporated the concept into his fictional plots but also "explained" the "scientific" basis for the "phenomenon" as a relatively well-known notion supported by scientific reports on optograms. indeed, in 1876 franz boll of the university of rome had discovered the bleaching of rod pigment in the frog retina. in 1877 professor willy kuhne at heidelberg took a picture, an optogram, of a barred window with a dark-adapted rabbit eye. the findings of both were quickly featured in various new~papers and journals. the concurrent rapid technological advances and popularity of photography enhanced the public awareness and understanding of the phenomenon. popular extrapolation suggested that "the final image viewed before death should remain fixed forever-like a photo-within the dead person's eyes." popular belief in these "facts" became so common that "some police departments began to take close-up photographs of the eyes of murder victims in the hope of identifying the murderers." by the same token, some murderers 26/31 destroyed the eyes of their victims to prevent identification of the killer. traces of the belief persist even today, supported no doubt by utilization of the optogram in the plots of literary works. by the 1920's, however, the public's unquestioning belief in optograms began to wane, perhaps because of their continuously unrealistic portrayal in literature and/or their lack of success in police murder investigations. however, at abou,t the same time there emerged the science fiction of the microscopic brain-scan transferring the location of the fascinating post-mortal images from the eyes to the brain. their apparent feasibility seems enhanced by the marvels of modern electronic developments making ordinary reasonableness an inadequate criticism of validity. an offprint of the article by professor evans has been deposited in ilamo. h.w h. optometry's legal status in germany: with the early onset of prepaid health care in germany reimbursement for glasses was interpreted as allowable only upon authorization by a medical physician. under this interpretation the long unchallenged pattern developed that ophthalmologists wrote the prescriptions and optometrists (augenoptiker) dispensed the glasses except in the instances that individual patients preferred to pay for their own and chose the prescriptions of the augenoptiker. in 1992 in the ophthalmological news magazine der augenarzt, vol. 26, pp. 170-172, there appeared an article entitled "optische rehabilitation-durch wen?" (optical rehabilitation, by whom?) which dealt quite possessively with many issues at the overlapping fringes between ophthalmologists and optometrists. in response the deutsche optiker zeitung invited the legal counsel of the zentral verband der augenoptiker, dr. york-friedrich von bremen-kuhne, to submit a historical account of the litigation that had taken place relative to optometrists' refractive rights. the account appeared in the october 20, 1992, issue of the doz, vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 6465. briefly, the issue had been precipitated by the refusal of a health insurance office in 1953 to reimburse the ophthalmic charges of a fully qualified augenoptikerin because the prescription was not signed by a physician. the date of the first court decision, in her favor, was february 2, 1957. then followed a series of appeals and related higher court actions ultimately involving the presidents of the two professional societies as plaintiff and defendant. on february 4, 1972, in the highest court it was determined that the determination of visual ability by a nonphysician was in no sense an exercise of medical care. 26/32 a mysterious black box: an inquiry from professor dr. h. remky of munich, germany, calls attention to a small advertisement of "the curtis motion target" that appeared with some resularity in the 1909 issues of the oj;?tical journal. the caption of the advertisement is no more atropine. the illustration shows what appears to be a black box on the front side of which is a series of transilluminated concentric rings. it was offered for sale by ethelred curtis of laporte, indiana, variously.at $10 and $8, and was claimed to relax the accommodation fully when fixated during retinoscopy. any information at all about this will be appreciated. thank you, mr. orr: a brief biographical account and photograph of mr. hugh orr appears in the january 14, 1994, issue of the opticians, no. 54, vol. 207, p. 11. when he retired from his group of five practices 20 years ago he decided to collect antique spectacles, frames, cases, and ophthalmic instruments with the help of mrs. orr, amassing over 2,000 pieces and a wealth of knowledge. in 1985 he published the "illustrated history of early antique spectacles" now in its fourth printing. in 1989 the british college of optometrists asked him to organize the british optical association foundation museum's huge spectacle collection. he devotes two to three days a week to preparing an acquisition account of each item and scouring the old records of the worshipful company of spectacle makers for its historical documentation. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss . school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1995-26-04-001 1995-26-04-002 1995-26-04-003 1995-26-04-004 1995-26-04-005 1995-26-04-006 1995-26-04-007 1995-26-04-008 hindsight 1 newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. lour.·$!r.,...ki~o.q+a. ... u&~.,\4~.,sa ; lndtan..j universitv ~ . volume 23 january 1992 i '·. , number ;1 a look back: f . -.: ~ . i q 4 1992 1., with this issue the 23rd volume ol•"'l!h*isu~~i~upu}pj..i tion takes on the title of hindsight. why? the old six-word title has been both clumsy and somewhat undistinguishing from the thousands of other newsletters on the horizon. neither was the abbreviation nohs a comfortable acronym. in fact the title as a whole was debatably oxymoronic in the sense that information is hardly 11 news 11 when it is already 11history11 • when we started the newsletter back in 1970 we attempted to select or coin a suitable title, but failed to find a satisfying term. the word hindsight simply eluded us until now. that is indeed its nature to do so. having found it, we hope you like it. our apologies to librarians who now must add another 11title varies" notation to their catalog entries. may our hindsight be lasting. the armati 11 tombstone" saga continues: it all began in the january 1990 issue of this newsletter (vol.21, no.1, pp.4-5). ohs member jay enoch described for us his visit to florence, italy, where he had an opportunity to see the bust of armati, the alleged inventor of spectacles. subsequent issues carried further items on this subject including jerry abrams' observations of his visit to the italian church (vol.22, no.2, p.17) and robert von sandor's letter in which he called into question the historical veracity of nearly everything associated with armati and his "tomb" (vol. 22, no.3, pp. 27-30). after reading robert von sandor's letter in the newsletter, both jerry abrams and jay enoch penned us a letter. they are reproduced below. no historian, or ohs member, or anyone else can take away the excitement and exhilaration that possessed me when i visited that little church in florence, italy when i was there two years ago and saw the apparent site of the tomb of armati, the "inventor of eyeglasses 11 • like believing in santa claus, the tooth fairy, and others when you were young i was thrilled to be in florence, italy and to re-trace fellow ohs member enoch's footsteps to the tomb site of armati. if this be fantasy, if this is a whimsical contrivance or notion so be it let me believe 23/2 there was an armati and let me believe that little church in florence, italy is his resting place ••• j.j. abrams (12/27/91) reading the july issue and the almost hysterical discussion of the armati case, i would like to go on record and state that i have never held a strong position on armati•s historical contribution to the invention of spectacles. rather, i pointed out the easy access to the plaque in its now well­ known resting place. that plaque in the wall of the church or convent is relatively new as has been reported before. my singular contribution to the discussion was an interchange i had with the gentleman who served to assist the priest with robing and was keeper of the religious articles of the church. while language was clearly limited, he pointed out to me that a bust seated in the room where the priests• surplices were stored was that of armati. he gave no indication of its origin, but rather simply indicated its identity. sadly, i suspect we will never know the true founder of spectacle lenses. rather, it is obvious that the skills necessary to produce such lenses were broadly distributed in the german/italian/austrian region at the time and someone with some special insight noted the convenience of an available element. that which i might find fascinating about the issue is the relative high state (no doubt some will think of low state) of certain aspects of optical science on the one hand and the fact that spectacle corrections seemed to arise from the trades or guilds on the other hand. this is not a unique finding, but rather a curious footnote to our history. i think perhaps it is time to forgive armati his sins and get on with it. notes from a collector: sincerely, jay m. enoch, dean (12/11/91) ~es f. dickson, jr., o.d., 325 kempton #762, spring valley, ca 92077, sent us a copy of his letter of september 10, 1990, addressed to the editorial staff of the national geographic society in response to a cover picture on the march 1980 issue of their magazine, vol. 157, no. 3, which he saw in a hospital reception room. the cover picture was of a "chinese gentleman" wearing a pair of "chinese spectacles." the following passages are excerpted from the letter: "the glasses worn by this chinese gentleman are definitely of the design, as agreed among us collectors, of about 600 years ago. they were described by marco polo and there are some prints etc. from that time." 23/ 3 "i think i can tell you this gentleman's profession. he was a doctor, a tea~ or one of very high intellectual plane. this type of glasses we e worn as a badge depicting his rank within the community. the g asses shown were about 1.5 inches in diameter, round, about 2 mm thick, flat, no power, ground quartz (natural), and could be clear or smoky. the brass fittings, bridge (nose), and temple would be riveted to the quartz lens. the screw would be large (twice that of modern designs). the normal temples (ear­ pieces) for this st le would be brass, hinged half way back and folding onto itself the ends of the temples would be disks of tortoise shel or brass circles. most of those with metal circle ends had a cut out of an inverse swastika. i had three pair with inverse swastikas and two with shell. "the temples on the pair shown on your cover, however, appear to be of plastic or tortoise shell, as though a modern pair of plastic temples had been adapted to them. they are curved to fit the contour of the sulci of the ears, which supports my suspicion. "i started collecting antique eyeglasses when i was about 10, which would be 62 years ago today. i started with 6 or 8 pair that my dad had collected. i gave my collection of over 1,000 pair to the ilamo. i favored collecting pre-1900 items but i never turned down any later ones. "i picked up my first pair of • chinese • in 1960 from an antique dealer in colorado springs. i paid $1. oo. they were korean, very similar to the pair in your cover except that the lenses had power and they had outer rims of turtle shell. i judged them to be about 300-400 years old. "my theory is that not all 'chinese• glasses are as old as we think they are, or that they were handed down through many generations." woops! on page 34 of the july issue the name of the late felix koetting was misspelled keating. my apologies to both the keatings and the koettings. h.w h. hunting and restoring: many an ophthalmic antique is discovered in neglected disrepair, corroded, and dirty. how should it be rescued? what preservative measures are acceptable and what are some of the useful techniques? the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club started as long ago as 1982 to publish helpful hints in its newsletter. in 1990 the information was assembled by ronald j.s. macgregor in a 40 page 21 x 14. 5 mm pamphlet entitled, "restoring ophthalmic antiques" and published by the club. 23/4 the instructions actually make the restoration seem as interesting as the collecting itself. twenty_brief chapters of a few paragraphs each cover every detail.~rom acetone to zylonite. in conclusion it is suggested that collectors should specialize and thereby become experts. twenty-six possible specialization areas are listed. fraternity history: back in the 1930 • s· there were several fraternities catering to the social and professional interests of optometry students in america. one of these was epsilon psi epsilon, with chapters at columbia university, the ohio state university, and perhaps elsewhere. the ohio state chapter started a periodical newsletter entitled the 0-eye-o, editions of which have appeared somewhat irregularly for well over 50 years for distribution to alumni and friends. the issue identified as vol. 43, no. 1, is dateq autumn 1991, suggesting publication lapses in some years or errors in volume numbering. contained in this issue on pages 12-15 is an article by gregory hicks, o.o., entitled "a historical review of 275 east fifteenth avenue, current home of epsilon psi epsilon, 1980-1990". the author describes the purchasing and financing of the present house in 1980 by the epsilon psi epsilon alumni association, inc., and renting it to the active fraternity chapter as residence quarters. previously the fraternity had owned two neighboring houses on east 12th avenue, columbus, ohio 43201. the remainder of the article describes the year by year alterations, furnishing, and maintenance of the domicile and the contingent finances. that the decade showed success is indicated by the 1980 purchase price of $126,000 and its 1990 appraised value of $260,000. a conversation piece: optometrist kees kortland, slaak 120, 3061 cz rotterdam, the netherlands, published in 1990 an attractive glossy-paper 20 x 21 mm booklet of 32 pages with dozens of illustrations of eye-related museum items in color from his famous collection. the explanatory text is in dutch but surprisingly almost understandable to the english reader. especially helpful is the informative index of photo-captions in english. tbe title of the booklet is het oog wil ook wat. james leeds, of course, has a copy in his library. history alive: 26 video cassettes of historical interviews were donated by bausch and lomb to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. they are identified as living history of contact lenses and feature key persons in the development of contact lenses. most of the recordings were made at the 1989 meeting of the american academy of optometry in new orleans. 23/5 cataracts historically: page 9 of the 1990 annual report of the national vision research institute, 386 cardigan street, carlton, victoria 3053, australia, provides a delightful synopsis of "cataracts through the ages". it concludes with the statement that, "except for diabetic cataracts, we know very little about the possible underlying mechanisms responsible for the cataracts". it is the aim of the nvri to make cataract study a new direction for their research efforts. a 4-generation dynasty: in 1860 a 14-year old joseph rodenstock was sent out on the road by his pecuniarily weak father with a tiny capital of 1. 5 german thalers to mould his future. by 1877 he had come to possess a capital of 30,000 german marks which he invested in his own instrument and eyewear establishment in wurzburg, germany, an enterprise prompted by his study of the german translation of donders' book. in 1886, following several successful technological ophthalmic innovations and patents, he expanded his firm and transferred to munich under the present title of optische werke g. rodenstock. later his son alexander joined the firm and in 1919 took over the management after having resisted the pressure to manufacture armaments and facing the ruinous post-war inflation. he again resisted the armaments pressure in world war ii. he died in 1953 at age 7 0 after having received many honors. his son professor dr. rolf rodenstock then took over. under his stewardship more expansion took place to include ophthalmic equipment as well as eyewear. rolf, too, gained great prominence in the manufacturers' fraternity and in civic and academic affairs. he is personally known to thousands of optometrists around the world. in 1983 his son randolf, a graduate physicist, joined rolf as a partner and is presently the head of the firm. it continues to maintain a highly cooperative working relationship with the ophthalmic professions. this "dedicated dynasty of rodenstock" is written up in considerable detail in the july-august 1991 issue of the indian optician, vol. 24, no. 127, pp. 18-19. zur farbenlehre: johann wolfgang von goethe (1749-1832), poet, dramatist, and novelist, wrote reams of material on color theory, perhaps more than anyone else. his experimental observations are still regarded as excellent. yet his concepts remain quite unknown in english­ speaking countries. in virtually every color course in the optometry curricula the name of goethe is unmentioned. in helmholtz's three volumes only a very few of goethe's observations are quite tangentially mentioned. 23/6 perhaps this disregard is attributable in part to goethe's very wordy style of writing and to the lack of integration of his numerous writings into an easy flowing sequence. perhaps, too, it was due to his writing in direct contradiction of the writings of newton {1642-1727) and of contemporary others of the elite physics and mathematics camp. in 1820 sir charles lock eastlake, painter and art critic, translated the "didactic part" of goethe's color theory into english. it was published in london in 1840. in 1970, professor rupprecht matthaei, physiologist and director of the goethe archives in weimar, germany, arranged and edited an edition of goethe's farbenlehre" in german. in 1971, this was further edited and translated into english by professor herb aach, an american artist, and published as "goethe's color theory" by van nostrand reinhold company, together with a complete facsimile of eastlake's 1820 translation. the matthaei-aach portion of the book includes some deletions and nominal revisions of the otherwise almost completely verbatim paragraphs of the westlake text plus some supplementary material from other goethe documents. the volume is beautifully but confusingly assembled, suspiciously reflecting goethe • s own pattern of writing! though probably out of print now, copies are surely available in hundreds of libraries. as a textbook for an undergraduate course it would be frustrating, but as a vehicle for a graduate-level seminar on color as perceived by a humanist it could be superb. as pointed out editorially, "to the physicist green and orange are almost infinitesimally different physical entities on the electromagnetic spectrum. to the humanist they are two totally and absolutely discrete sensations." an example of goethe's evaluation of physical scientists is the following: "it will be universally allowed that mathematics, one of the noblest auxiliaries which can be employed by man, has, in one point of view, been of the greatest use to the physical sciences: but that, by a false application of its methods, it has, in many respects, been prejudicial to them, is also not to be denied." more specifically for color he added, "the theory of colors, in particular, has suffered much, and its progress has been incalculably retarded by having been mixed up with optics generally, a science which cannot dispense with mathematics: whereas the theory of colors, in strictness, may be investigated quite independently of optics." with respect to the writings of newton of a century earlier he commented, "but besides this there was an additional evil. a great mathematician was possessed with an entirely false notion on the physical origin of colors: yet, owing to his great authority as a geometer, the mistakes which he committed as an experimentalist long became sanctioned in the eyes of a world ever fettered in prejudices." what significance might some exposure to goethe's theory have for optometrists? is not this a question that applies as well to the color hypotheses of others, or even to the mass of experimental 23/ 7 data and quantitative stimulusjresponse analyses already included in the visual science literature, the optometry curricula, and even national board examinations? the criterion in each instance is undoubtedly in part a matter of cultural value, but more practically it must relate to the presumption that the optometrist is the people's primary vision consultant. accordingly, should he or she not appreciate the concepts of color vision as grasped by the humanist, the artist, as well as interpreted by the technological scientist? perhaps this is a phase of optometry that historically has been overlooked. h.w h. the artists' color: following up my "zur farbenlehre" commentary on a book loaned to me by dr. leeds i perused another old volume from his collection, "pure colour", a 1948 publication authored by maria schindler and eleanor c. merry with extracts from goethe. the approximately half of the volume authored by schindler, 117 pages, is entitled "goethe's theory of colour applied" and is intended as a text-book for the art teacher. it draws largely from goethe's concepts. another 64 pages authored by art teacher merry are under the title of "painting and imagination" and conclude with the assertion that "the authors . . • have seen, over and over again, how dormant talents have come to life when the basis for art­ teaching is goethe's exposition of colour's laws". a third part, 87 pages, consists of merry's translations of extracts from goethe, including several documents making their first appearance in english. mindful of the fact that the book is well written, well illustrated, and a part of a london "new culture series", and that the authors were obviously competent scholars, one must realize that its contents, though quite beyond the grasp of the ordinary scientific mind, cannot be summarily disregarded by one professing to be a well-rounded visual scientist or practicing optometrist. as suggested in my above-mentioned commentary, the humanists' concept of color, especially as delineated by goethe, historically has been ignored in optometric studies, a good example of c.p. snow's "two cultures". h.w h. optical tidbits in classic literature: on several occasions i have expressed the theme that much optometric history must be buried piecemeal in the cultural literature of the world. unfortunately neither my high school, my college training, nor my family gave me much exposure to the literary classics. subsequently, my intensively busy career in optometric education provided little opportunity or stimulus to overcome my literary deficiency. so it came that in retirement, and in pursuit of historical details, i undertook the reading of 23/8 literary selections from the liberal arts arena. in doing so, however, i did not lose sight of my above-:-mentioned optometric history theme, as some readers of this newsletter may well have detected. the latest in my literaty excursions was none other than the canterbury tales by geoffrey chaucer (1340?-1400). to the literary purist i cheated a bit by eschewing the original early english version and indulging instead in the text "rendered into modern english" by j. u. nicolson in 1931. as i perused the delightfully earthy yet highly philosophical and vivid tales i was mindful of the fact that spectacles had been invented earlier in chaucer's century in italy but perhaps not yet well known in england. further, the popular demand for them had not yet been affected by the invention of the movable type printing press, nor perhaps, too, by the promotional efforts of the spectaclemakers guilds, both occurring in the subsequent century. nevertheless chaucer was a widely traveled and worldly informed person who, like shakespeare, incorporated an amazing variety of ordinary events and things in his poetry. indeed, he mentioned blindness, poor vision, the eyes, visual phenomena, etc. a good number of times. spectacles and optics? here is what i found: in the lawyer's tale he comments, "and near the castle dwelt of such men three. but one of them was blind and could not see, save with the inner optics of his mind, wherewith all men see after they go blind" later, in the tale of the wife of bath we read, "and poverty's an eye-glass, seems to me through which a man his loyal friends may see" and in the squire's tale, in discussing the optics of mirrors, he closes with, "and some much wondered on the mirror's power that had been borne up to the donjon tower, and how men in it such strange things could see. another answered, saying it might be quite natural, by angles oddly spaced, and sly reflections thus within it placed, and said, at rome was such a one, men know. they spoke of alhazen and vitello and aristotle, who wrote, in their lives, on mirrors strange and on perspectives" the appearance of such citations in the popular literature of the day certainly suggests that 14th century contemporaries were being fascinated by optical phenomena and that curiosity was perhaps being enhanced by the awareness of the existence of eyeglasses by either direct observation or hearsay. h.w h. 23/ 9 oral optometric history: under the topic "sights & sounds" the august 1991 issue of ilamo visionlink, vol. 9, no. 8, calls our attention to three newly acquired video tapes with titles suggesting their historical significance. they are programs of about 30 minutes each featuring margaret dowal iby, 0. d. , as the interviewer who prompts the interviewees to reminisce about various optometric developments during their careers. the tapes were produced at the southern california college of optometry during the latter part of 1990. in a real sense these are documentaries, but because they deal extensively with professional and academic developments during approximately the half century of 1940-1990 they are indeed historical records as viewed by period contemporaries. ilamo catalog number vt-221 is dowaliby' s interview with professor wayne hoeft, o.d., of s.c.c.o. in this dialogue they remind us of the phenomenal and expansive developments and research in the vision care of visually handicapped persons. not only are the names of pioneers mentioned but commentary is also made on the growth of the related optometric specialty, the curricular adaptations, civic and public support, technological improvements, engineering contributions, literature growth, the importance of rehabilitation services, and changes in professional attitude. analogously ilamo catalog number vt-222 is dowaliby's interview of professor siret jaanus, ph.d., who has devoted most of her career to teaching pharmacology to optometry students and practicing optometrists as well as publishing pharmacological texts and articles related to vision care. her career obviously reflects the professional trends in employment of diagnostic drugs, and more recently therapeutic drugs, occurring during the past two decades in american optometry. mentioned are the names of key persons in this movement as well as legislative maneuvers, the role of technological and instrumental developments, the changes of curricular emphasis, and literature expansions. in ilamo catalog number vt-223 dowaliby interviews two very close friends of the late monroe j. hirsch, o. d., ph. d., his widow winifred, and, the other, professor william brisbane. because dr. dowaliby also knew dr. hirsch well as a colleague, the three of them together recall the man in reverent detail as a scientist, teacher, clinician, editor, author, and friend. it becomes apparent that hirsch's career itself epitomized the academic transition of optometric education from the purely vocational training pattern before about 1920 to the presently sophisticated university curriculum with appropriate research accompaniment and literary infrastructure. hirsch is described as playing an integral and leadership role in every phase of this transition. mrs. hirsch contributes greatly to this review because she had served competently as her husband's highly talented amanuensis throughout his career. those of us who are old enough to have witnessed the era represented by these three videotapes will recognize both the merits and limitations of the oral interview approach to history. 23/10 history cannot be accurately reported by its contemporary participants because the view is limited largely to their personal contacts and tempered by their philosophical biases and eral indoctrination. neither can it be accurately analyzed by tomorrow's historians because most of the facts of the day are not preserved. that is why extensive archival collections are so important. memorial research grant: the skeffinqton/alexander research grant is offered by the optometric extension program foundation and provides up to $1000 for the development of a "bibliography of research and publications in the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury patients with a focus on optometric intervention." the memorialized optometrists are of course the late drs. a.m. skeffington and e.b. alexander of o.e.p. affiliation. optometric history gaining interest: two optometric periodicals in the same day's mail suggest increasing concern for our heritage. one item is a pitch by walter chase on page 5 of the july-august-september 1991 issue of the american academy of optometry newsletter entitled "living history videotapes available to members. " dr. chase reports that the academy's history committee "has turned its attention to vigorously reviving the relatively dormant living history program." the other periodical is the fall 1991 issue of optometric education, subtitled the journal of the association of schools and colleges of optometry, vol. 17, no. 1, which celebrates the association's 50th anniversary. included are jerry christensen's report on "asco's first fifty years", pp. 8-19, together with the minutes of the first meeting in 1941, and a review of the 20th century "professional trends in american optometry" by alden haffner, pp. 20-21. early glare: the first international symposium on glare, sponsored by the lighting research institute on october 24-25, 1991, in orlando, florida, included 18 papers and many more participants. why so recent, since surely the sun itself was a source of glare for the earliest humans? several of the symposium authors credit the earliest described research of glare to uhthoff in 1899 and depene in 1900. utoff is said to be cited by p.w. cobb in the american journal of physiology, vol. 6, pp. 76-99 (1911). r. depene is referenced in the monatsblat fur augeheilkunde, vol. 38, pp. 289, 390 (1900) with the title, "experimentelle untersuchungen uber den einfluss seitlicher blendung auf die zentrale sehscharfe." so it seems that research into glare evaluation did not occur before the incandescent lamps came into wide use. the early criteria were 23/11 measures of visual disabilities, especially acuity loss, associated with the introduction of glare. then in the 1920's two prominent figures, l.l. holladay in america and w.s. stiles in england, debated the issue of discomfort glare vs. disability glare. the introduction of the discomfort glare question subsequently led to extensive research by r.g. hopkinson in england, s.k. guth in america, and j.b. deboer in the netherlands. in several countries research was further undertaken to develop discomfort glare guidelines for use by lighting engineers, architects, et al. discrepancies and problems of definition among the several systems soon pointed to the need for the first international symposium. old optometrists never die: they just blur out! so it may seem at times, but a feature in the oct. 1, 1991, issue of the american optometric association news, vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 7 & 9, challenges that assertion. dr. samuel nelson of paterson, new jersey, is 106 years old, dr. james l. worden of pomona, california, is 91 and still practicing, and dr. john h. steinmeyer of st. louis, missouri is 105. dr. nelson graduated from columbia university and started practice in 1912, including examining services to employees of a local fabric mill and to children in a local school. dr. worden graduated from the los angeles college of optometry in 1927 and counted many optometric leaders among his friends. he recalls having as few as two patients a week during the great depression years. or. "jack" steinmeyer recalls taking his girlfriend to the 1904 st. louis world's fair. he graduated from the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and optometry in 1911. among his numerous awards and honors is a room dedicated to him at the missouri lions eye clinic in columbia, missouri. collector items: the october 1991 issue of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club newsletter, no. 37, makes fascinating and informative reading about ophthalmic antique. collecting especially in the london-centered part of the world. editor macgregor describes in anecdotal detail a pair of pre1800 leather nose-spectacles recently sold at christie's in london for £5587.50. ohs member eric muth is recognized for contributing to the british college of optometry a copy of his 600 page manuscript on the history of vision aids. henri obstfeld authors a historical article entitled "leather spectacle frames" with citations and a copy of a woodcut from a 1567 book by hans sachs entitled, "eygentliche beschreibung aller staende auff erde ••• " (true description of all ranks on earth . • • ) describing many of the crafts and occupations of that era. 23/12 obstfeld describes the processing of the spectacle leather and its application to lenses as well as incidental historical details. stuart eadon-allen gives a delightfully personal account of horatio nelson (1758-1805) and his use of his "dolland", a telescope purchased at dollond, london. "kojemaakarista optikoksi" (from spectacle-maker to optician) is the title of a history book authored by lasse raustela and published by the association of ophthalmic opticians of finland to commemorate the organization's 50th anniversary. the 240 page book actually covers the period 1921-1991 and contains more than 250 pictures of opticians, their premises, advertisements, etc. the price is 335 fmk, and it is available from suomen silmaoptikkojen liitto, mannerheimintie 76a, 00250 helsinki, finland. a diary of events lists 38 antique fairs during september, october, november, and december in great britain! another optometrist memorialized: in honor of its founder of 25 years earlier the annual distinguished optometric speaker seminar of the optometric extension program foundation was renamed the robert c. golden, behavioral vision seminar in 1990. any challengers? on page 23 of the may 1991 issue of chilton's review of optometry, vol. 128, no. 5, rodney d. fair, o.d., chairman of the colorado optometric association centennial committee reminds the editor that the c.o.a. was founded in 1892 by dr. j. c. bloom, three years before the 1895 founding of the optical society of new york, which the editor had believed to be the first in the u.s.a. *** contributinq editor: manaqinq editor: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1992-23-01-001 1992-23-01-002 1992-23-01-003 1992-23-01-004 1992-23-01-005 1992-23-01-006 1992-23-01-007 1992-23-01-008 1992-23-01-009 1992-23-01-010 1992-23-01-011 1992-23-01-012 \ff :·············-········•••*"**•• ·lo: £ indiana university ? ~ . . f sep 2 9 1987 i e new~~e~~~r ! librar e ~ptometric historical society "******************x***********:/ ( 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) volume 18 july 1987 the beginnings of· an historical development: optometry library sep 3 01987 number 3 it is often difficult to think of events of the last decade or two as history, mainly because we remember it. but personally remembered events are often not recorded except in casual correspondence, which today is so massive as to bury its own details. for the tangible record, then, here are some passages about a development in optometric education excerpted from a recent personal letter from claro m. cinco, o.d., of cebu city, philippines, to five of his overseas friends, as follows: forgive me for addressing you all in one letter. i am very much pressed of time, but i must share with you the good developments related to our project to update optometric education in the philippines. as you know, since 1970 i initiated a study to upgrade the training of our graduates by creating a committee to review our curriculum. this move was shelved on account of the declaration of martial law in 1972. with the establishment of the cebu doctors' college of optometry in 1980 i felt the need for organizing the council of deans of philippine colleges of optometry to serve as a forum and vehicle for communication among the deans of the eight colleges in the philippines. as there was a divergence of opinion on what we should adopt to arrive at a consensus, we held a symposium on optometric education in1982 and invited you to participate and share with us your ideas and suggestions. after this symposium, it became clear that our course in optometry needs to be increased to six years by adding a two-years preparatory optometry curriculum so that the regular four years course can be devoted to professional and visual science related subjects. the then ministry of education (now called department of education) was receptive to this pl'an, but upon consultation with the ministry of justice the latter ruled that it was necessary to amend the republic act 1998 (optometry law) in order to effect the proposed six years course since this law specifically provided that the optometry course shall be four years. immediately, we asked two members of parliament to draft a bill for this purpose. as the bill was about to be presented to parliament the february 1986 revolution took place, marcos 36 was toppled, and parliament was dissolved by president cory •i! ;•ytquirt~t.•i'!~j;• fortunately, the new secretary of education lourdes r. quisumbing is from cebu and a good friend of mine. i took the opportunity to discuss with her our project and she was very receptive. she asked the director of higher education and four others of the department to meet with us on march 6th who committed their support. the idea is that before the new congress will be elected in june this year we will take advantage of the executive powers of president aquino to amend the optometry law to allow the change of the cou_rse to si'x years. if we wait for the new congress to enact such an amendment we will be suffering from additional delays since the said new congress will have to tackle first the more urgent economic and social amelioration measures. • on april 22 the council of deans will meet again with the officials of the department of education, this time to be attended by the secretary herself, to finalize the draft of the executive order which will be presented by the secretary to president aquino for signature. barring further hitches, we will be able to adopt the proposed six years course. our plan is to make the new curriculum effective within two years from the promulgation of the executive order. we feel that we would need two years to finalize the details of the new curriculum, train the faculty to handle the new subjects aqded, and prepare the physical plant of our colleges. in this connection, we shall be in frequent touch with you to seek your advice so that we may be able to formulate a curriculum to meet the standards of quality optometric education. now, we are just one step away from the realization of this project. it took us 17 years to arrive at this point, and i hope that there will be no restraints to hurdle. after some amount of discouragements, disappointments and frustrations we are beginning to see the fruits of our labor. this would not have been possible without your personal involvement, advice and the unquantifiable inspiration which you gave us, and for these, please accept our deepest debt of gratitude. optqmet~history to pe published: ohs member brian layland informs us that the australian optometrical association has agreed to publish a history of optometry in australia as a contribution to the australian 37 bicentenary recognition in 1988. optometrist charles wright of adelaide has served as the association's very competent and interesting historian for several decades and for a number of years has been working on the book manuscript. as a member of the association's governing council layland has been receiving a copy of each chapter as the book progressed. he anticipates that the book will be well received by historians as well as by optometrists. those of us who have the pleasure of knowing charles wright surely agree. from 7 mirrabooks avenue, homebush 2140, australia, o.h.s. member brian layland wrote as follows to report the source of the mystery cartoons: i was sure that i had seen the cartoon contained in the january 1987 issue of the ~~!!§.l~~te_!: and was sure that i had a copy somewhere! during the easter holidays period i have been organizing for the iool meeting and whilst looking for papers in the depths of the international file i unearthed the book with the cartoon. it is probable that the matter has been resolved by now as the book of cartoons must have received wide distribution. the cartoon is contained in a book of cartoons titled "seeing is believing"; the author is nate (nathan) kvetny o.d.. it was published in 1967 and the illustrations were by howard r. miereanu. nate kvetny's address is given as 3917 virginia rd. los angeles, california 90008. your copy of the book lacks the cover; this is where the information is contained. looking at it, i realize that not only must the cover be missing, but also the first and second page plus the corresponding last two pages. the last page presents a message: "your vision ls your most important asset, and merits the finest regular professional care, available only from trained practitioners. this is the only way you can be assured that your eyes are functioning at their highest level of visual performance. ··. my copy has written on page 1: "with my compliments, nathan kvetny o.d." and was received by mail in 1968. the most recent blue book of optometrists shows dr. kve·tny' s address to be 20 fashion square, buff oms, la habra, california 90631. 38 the homer h. and marie hendrickson award goes to a fourth year student at the southern california college of optometry who demonstrates "outstanding comprehension, aptitude and promise in the area of vision therapy." the previously listed a. m. skeffin~ton memorial award on page 15 of the january 1987 issue, vol. 18, no. 1, was identified as one for pacific university students. in fact the sponsors, the college of optometrists in visual development, advise that these awards "for clinical competence in the field of vision therapy" are ·offered to students at each. school and college of optometry. in a recent letter from ohs member homer hendrickson, immediate past president of the optometric extension program foundation, we are informed that the college of optometrists in visual development also offers an annual a_._tl_._~keffingtqg tl~mo!:i~law~!:q to an optometrist for "excellence in optometric writing." a memorials regi§t~~ for fifteen years we have been including in these pages the identification of various forms of memorials established for optometrists or other persons who have served the profession in an appreciated role. during the past year we have received occasional inquiries as to whether or not given memorials had been included. each time this meant searching the indices of 18 volumes of the newsletter. this is especially time-consuming because the names of persons of prominence appear with high frequency in the indices whether or not they have been memorialized. so, we finally undertook to search the back issues page by page and assemble an alphabetized,card file of the names of memorialized persons herein recorded. it is a far-from-complete list, we are sure, but perhaps the best available. how many? one hundred thirty! to what are the memorialized names attached? included are awards, prlzes, medals, plaques, scholarships, fellowships, libraries, archives, museums, funds, trusts, lectures, courses, buildings, rooms, halls, classrooms, auditoriums, theaters, organizations, chapters, institutes, schools, centers, foundations, trees, clinics, meetings, and academic chairs. not in our cumulative list to date have been any statuary, portraits, or published memorial dedications. our criteria for inclusion are hardly'restrictive. essentially, any tangible gesture of apparent significance intended to prolong the memory of the person to.be honored has been included. 39 interestingly, a small number of the memorials are for persons still living. perhaps their demises are anticipated to be soon, or else there is a desire to show appreciation while the honorees can still enjoy it. qptometrists by necessit~ having been given both credit and blame for introducing the word optometrist to identify the refracting optician dr. john c. eberhardt responded in a letter to the editor of the q~ti~~l journal and review of optometr~ in the march 18, 1920, issue, vol. 45, no. 12, p. 844, as follows: ' first of all p~rmit me to say that i have never claimed the credit of h~vigg_£qiged the word optometrist. when ohio, during the winter of 1902, prepared for the introduction of an optometry measure, i served as chairman of the legislative committee. we found that in ohio, legislation could not be obtained for the regulation of optics which the courts had designated as a trade. our committee represented that optometry was the application of optical principles through technical devices and methods for ascertaining the visual status of the human eye and the adaptation of corrective lenses, making prerequisite an appreciation of the eye and its various associate functions, and a comprehensive knowledge of physics and mathematics so far as these entered into the optical aspect of human vision. as a result of the foregoing, we were advised to determine upon a word to designate the practitioner of optometry, as by us defined. optometrist seemed the logical derivative of the word optometry and this term was at that time submitted to a number of our representative men in optometry, also to various authorities as was considered proper and acceptable. 40 during the 1903 convention of the american optometric association held at atlantic city, the writer presented a resolution advocating the adoption of this word for reasons herein given. this resolution was passed without opposition. during the following year, the writer succeeded finally in interesting the publishers of webster's dictionarz in the words qetometk~ and optqm~trist and their definitions appeared in their revised edition published during the spring of 1904. thus necessitz was the father of the word optometrist, and the writer claims no credit other than he became the m~ns to an end. another memorial: the meredith morgan lecture series, sponsored by the university of california school of optometry, berkeley, is an annual program for optometrists. ohs reminisce-in: ohs president j. j. abrams informs us that the annual reminisce-in will be in denver, colorado, on saturday, december 5 at 6:15 p.m. this brief but popular gathering of all who may be interested in, or merely curious about, optometric history is sandwiched between the numerous busy events of the american academy of optometry, being preceded by the three days of ellerbrock continuing education courses and followed by three days of the academy papers programs. the tight squeeze will be due to the traditional "hofbrau" which in effect limits the reminisce-in to about an hour for most of us in attendance at the academy meetings. further details of hotel, room location, program, etc. will be announced later and of course available at the academy registration desk. everyone is welcome. p. r. value in history: a news brief in the march 1987 issue of the deutsche optiker ~~it~rrg, vol. 42, no. 3, p. 4, reports the results of a press conference .. on "a hundred years of contact lenses" at the annual congress of the zva (the national association of 41 optometrists). the interviewing of program lecturers by the attending media representatives resulted in reports in the major german newspapers and appearances on radio and television in which the history, current significance, and potentials of contact lenses were discussed. optometric residency history: optometric residencies are sufficiently recent to necessitate a brief definition for many of us. briefly, a residency is a salaried appointment in a combined clinical and academic setting in which an optometrist provides special professional services so organized as to combine his or her experience with research and advanced ·educational development. in a very real sense the clinical experiences of commissioned optometrists in military hospitals following world war ii often provided many of the features of residencies. officially, however, such appointments were not so recognized. the first to receive accreditation by the council on optometric education of the american optometric association was a hospital­ based optometry residency program at the kansas city veterans administration medical center in kansas city, missouri. it was initiated in 1975 as a cooperative venture of the center's department of ophthalmology and the illinois college of optometry. since then a significant growth in the number of programs and of positions has occurred. by june of 1986, 43 programs had been granted accreditation with positions for 65 graduates. the number of additional residencies yet to apply or being established is not known. these and other details are reported by john f. amos, o.d. in an article entitled "a brief history of optometric residency education" in the may 1987 issue of the journal of the american optometric association. recognition award commenta~ at the ohs executive board meeting in toronto in december the ohs recognition award was discussed with the suggestion that it be identified in the patriarchal name of someone whose role in optometry had unusual historical significance. by way of examples three names were brought up as possibilities for a choice, these being andrew jay cross, john c. eberhardt, and charles sheard, in both alphabetical and chronological order. (had i been present at that meeting i probably would have tossed in a few other names to emphasize the essence of critical review!) recognizing the care that should be taken in the selection of an eponym, ohs president j. j. abrams, o.d., says he would appreciate all possible input from the membership. he asks that we members write him at 4516 west washington street, 42 indianapolis, indiana 46241, u.s.a., (telephone 317 241 8315) to express our views in favor of or opposed to the idea, suggestion of others to be considered, or even just expressing a preference for one of the three already nominated. with our comments in hand he will put the matter on the agenda for further discussion at the next meeting of the executive board. it would finally be resolved by a mail ballot of all seven board members. dr. abrams also asked me to write up a few paragraphs about the present three nominees to help you refresh your memories, compare historical roles, and perhaps remind you of some other person whose name you would prefer to see identified with the award. in other words, should it be the cross recognition award, the eberhardt recognition award, the sheard recognition award, or in some other historical patriarch's name? · in response to jerry abrams's request i borrowed library packets on cross, eberhardt, and sheard from ilamo and attempted to condense the pertinent material. all three have been mentioned from time to time in this newsletter. needless to say i have my own preference, but hope i can conceal it (except when i write my personal note to abrams!) _!ndre~~~cross {1855-1925). his early studies in physics and kindred sciences together with his father's ~ork in horology and astronomy led him into optics. at age 21 he started as a jeweler-optician in visalia, california, later in walla walla, washington, and subsequently in philadelphia. at age 34, in 1889, he opened an exclusively optometric office in new york city, remaining in that city until his death. this location effectively placed him geographically and contemporarily.in the heart of the major organ~zational, political, and academic development of the profession in the u.s.a., for which he provided a vigorous and talented leadership. in 1900, after serving as an organizer and president of his local and state optical (optometric) societies he was elected the second president, the first optometrical president, of the american association of opticians (later a.o.a. ). with the introduction of optometry courses at columbia university in 1910 he was called upon to give the lectures in theoretic optometry and he continued in this role for 14 years. he published extensively, especially on his favorite topic of dynamic skiametry, a controversial topic of the era. he invented a successful monocentric multifocal lens and several other items. a popular lecturer and campaigner for professional, ethical, and scientific optometry, he won honorary membership in 32 state associations and was made an honorary member of the aoa in 1919, the year of the name change to the american optometric association. his popularity was documented by the frequent label "grand old man of optometry", and in 1926 by the memorial dedication of a giant sequoia tree in his name at muir woods 43 mount tamalpais state park, california, with the inscription "andrew j. cross, pioneer optometrist" on a bronze plaque. a man of unusual vitality, dr. cross died quite suddenly following a slight cold and contraction of pneumonia at age 69. his body was interred at massilon, ohio, the prior home of mrs. gross. jqhn_~~-eq~rharg1_(1857-1927) was a contemporary of cross but in a very contrasting milieu. eberhardt was born in muhlhausen, germany, and attended school there until the age of nine when his family emigrated to dayton, ohio, a small midwestern city in extensively rural surroundings. at age 16 he was gaining apprenticeship experience in a foot-powered optical shop while simultaneously continuing his schooling to become a civil engineer. subsequently followed two years as a civil engineer with the denver and rio grande railroad, two more years as a u.s. deputy surveyor in several western frontier states and territory and another year as a city engineer for pueblo, colorado. in 1882 he returned to dayton to accept a position with a jewelry firm where "selling and fitting of glasses fell largely to my lot." disturbed by the crude methods in vogue he took shortcourses in kansas city and cleveland, and studied "hartridge" and other publications, and eventually enrolled in, and completed, an n.i.c.o.o. correspondence course. he joined the a.o.a. in 1899, gave a paper on keratometry at the chicago convention in 1901, and there was elected chairman of the first board of regents. in the ensuing year he successfully proposed the establishment of the physiological section and was elected its first president. in that connection he was instrumental in the establishment of the associat.ion' s optometric library, ~hich eventually evolved into our present ilamo. a year later he was elected president of the aoa, at which time he had just completed a term as president of the ohio association. probably his most,popularly recognized single accomplishment for the profession was his proposing, promoting, and piloting the adoption of the terms "optometrist" and "optometry" as our professional identity. this was accomplished almost single-handedly by him through lectures, published articles, correspondence, resolutions, legislative efforts, and even prevailing on the publishers of webster's dictionary to include these new terms and their definitions. in so many ways dr. eberhardt was the role model of the pioneer professional optometrist. scholarly, forthright, scientific, and personable, he was widely accorded numerous optometric honors here and abroad. he contributed frequently and constructively to the technical and professional optometric literature of his era. a leading citizen in his home 44 community, he served as president of the dayton board of education, as an organizer and governor of the aero club of america, a 32nd degree mason, chairman of the ohio state board of optometry, and in numerous other roles. his death was preceded by five years of terminal illness, which he faced bravely and cheerfully. charles sheard 1!88~-196~ lived in an optometric era very different from, though chronologically a bit overlapping with, that of cross and eberhardt. many of us fondly and personally remember him. the practice of optometry was not his livelihood e~~~. but he was duly registered as an optometrist in more than one state, and his optometric research, teachings, and administrative involvement may well be unsurpassed. except for one year as interim dean of the los angeles college of optometry in 1952-53 his con~ection with optometric education was only the 1914-1919 period during which he founded and developed the optometry curriculum at the ohio state university in columbus, ohio. for another five years he was head of the division of ocular interests at the american optical company, southbridge massachusetts, which included the founding and editing of the american journal of physiological 0etics. in 1924 he joined the mayo foundation in biophysical research until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1949. throughout his career, and far into his retirement years, he retained his undying interest in the optometry profession's welfare and responded vigorously to every frequent invitation and opportunity to be of service on commissions, councils, and committees in a variety of advisory, academic, and organizational roles and as a frequent lecturer on optometric educational programs. he published often in the optometric literature as well as prolifically in the visual science area generally and including text books and major encyclopedia entries. his academic qualifications included a b.a. degree from st. lawrence university, and m.a. degree from dartmouth college, and a ph.d. degree form. princeton, all in physics. his teaching career started briefly at dartmouth and then at the ohio state university. while teaching physics at the latter he was quite fortuitously invited to give a talk on lens design at a local gathering~of optometrists, an occasion which led to further contacts re~ulting eventually in his undertaking to initiate the optometry program on the campus. optometry was his introduction to the whole field of physiological optics, in which he soon acquired an outstanding reputation nationally. not only eponymously identified with at least three widely used clinical optometric entities, he was accorded numerous special honors by a variety of institutions and organizations, including a foundation named in his honor, impressively listed in hd9~~~o and other directories. 45 his death in rochester, minnesota, was preceded by a long and debilitating illness, a sad ending to the brilliant career of truly a highest ranking patron of the profession of optometry. in closing this commentary let me add president abrams's request that readers not only give him views on the naming of the o.h.s. recognition award itself but also to nominate potential recipients of the award. the recipient may be any person who in some significant way has contributed to our knowledge, awareness, appreciation, or understanding of optometry's heritage. h. w h. treasures and curiosities: this is the headline of the june l, 1987, issue of the am~ric~g_q~tometric association news, vol. 25, no. 33, announcing the new exhibit on contact lens history at the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo) in st. louis, missouri. the special exhibit was prompted by a grant of the aoa contact lens section and the suggestion by one of the numerous donors of early equipment and other contact lens items. the article, with five illustrations, fills most of pages l, 6, and 7. the exhibit is attracting the attention of many visitors. protection from light: ''a century's development of tinted spectacle lenses" is the title of an article by a. h. degenhardt. in the january 31, 1987, issue of q.e.tometry today (london), vol. 27, no. 3, pp-67-69. it has also been reprinted in the march/april issue of the journal of the illinois o~tometric association, pp. 5-6 12-14, and 24. stating that the first rational research on the need for protection of the eyes.from solar radiation was almost exactly 100 years ago, the author illustrated the prior vagueness of information by quoting prior professional advices. the first scientific justification of green-yellow lenses was made by fieuzal in 1885 in terms of their cutting out ultra-violet rays. subsequent contributors to further developments included professor hallauer of basel, the rodenstock optical works, sir william crookes, g. henkel, and carl zeiss. later came the transparent anti-reflection coatings and their application to lens tinting, and more recently some successful developments of photochromic lens. both represented long known principles awaiting practical development. 46 the most recent development has been the design of tinted segment spectacle lenses for use with visual display units to minimize the repetitive adaptations to brightness differences of the screens and their surrounds. one of the most elegantly illustrated rare books is that of georg bartisch entitled "augendienst" (eye care) published in dresden, saxony (now east germany) in 1583. born in grafenhain bei konigsbruck (about 20 miles, 30km, north northeast of dresden), bartisch lived in a politically and culturally volatile era when in health care there were essentially three groups of practitioners. these were the academically trained doctors of medicine, the surgeons, barbers, .and injury healers, and the untrained medicine men. ophthalmic services involved all three plus itinerant qtarstechers (cataract removers). except for a few skills learned from his barber-surgeon father georg barti.sch was essentially self-taught. his "augendienst" was the first comprehensive ophthalmological text in german. his opinions on spectacles were almost entirely cautionary. they were to be used only during moments when it was absolutely necessary to see fine detail. however, at least one of his beautiful illustrations shows a scholar wearing a pair to read a book, with a second goggle like pair lying at his elbow. he expressed beliefs that squint was attributable to prenatal events, but he also illustrated face masks to be worn by exotropes and esotropes to force the eyes to straighten. more effective than spectacles were pills, purgatives, smelling salts, amulets, etc., all described in the book. a recent review of this book is by dr. phil. sabine fahrenbacn of karl marx university in leipzig under the title of "georg bartisch und sein 'augendienst'" in the march/april 1987 issue of augenoptik, vol. 104, no. 2, pp. 60-64, with 14 literature references and nine reproduced illustrations from the book. fahrenbach is at the karl-sudhoff institute for the history of medicine and natural science. his review includes much of the peripheral history of bartisch's countryside and era, especially to enable the reader to appreciate the significance of the book. " very brief references to bartisch have been made in two prior issues of this newsletter, those of january 1982 (vol. 13, p. 19) and july 1983 (vol. 14, pp 49 and 75). bn incr~dibl~scientific_.snblzsis_:_ recently ohs member james leeds brought to my attention another old book with which i had been completely unfamiliar. entitled ''eyeless sight, a study of extra-retinal vision and the paraoptic sense", by jules romains (pen name of louis 47 farigoule), it is an english version of the french edition of "vision extra-retinienne" translated by c. k. ogden and published in 1924 by g. p. putnam's sons, new york and london. jules remains (1885-1972) is variously identified in biographical directories and encyclopedias as a french poet, dramatist, scientist, novelist, a brilliant student of philosophy, and a celebrated author. this book itself is a literary masterpiece of exposition, though not mentioned as one of remains's contributions in the three encyclopedias i consulted. it was remains's theory that our skin, including the mucous membrane of our nostrils, contains microscopic ocellary structures or ocelli which are directionally sensitive to light with the potential of at least a crude level of "visual" acuity and, at some parts of our body, even of vision for several distinguishable colors including red, yellow, and blue. this latest sensory channel, however, required intense concentration and "awakening". the procedure is described as follows (p. 14 7): "the experimenter carefully bandages his own eyes, composes himself, places in front of his face, at a small distance, a very visible object--the cover of a book or of a magazine, a sheet of paper with any sort of signs, or a number in the frame, makes an intense effort of will to see the object, tries, if necessary, the gestures which are con~on to those gifted with paraoptic clairvoyance; above all takes up an attitude of extreme perceptive attention. summed up thus in a few words, the programme seems simple. it's application is singularly complex and arduous." this last assertion is documented in several subsequent pages of description of the development of remains's own paraoptic sense, from which the following few passages are extracted: "a dozen sittings; spread over about a month, none of which lasted an hour, passed without the faintest sign of vision appearing. these sittings were wearying, and disappointing, bul not fruitless." "after an interval of ·two days, i began my experiments again, devoting to them every day four, five, or even six hours." "a tenth sitting showed a sudden progress. (1) i had the impression of a more intense brightness. (2) i succeeded in discerning more numerous and more various objects, with a better defined shape and colour." ~'the subjective series is composed then of 31 sittings, representing a total of at least 150 hours of effective obser.vations and experiments. " 48 the book and the theory apparently created quite a public stir, including lecture and demonstration audiences with several prominent contemporary scientists. though the experimental requirement of hours of intense, dedicated, and unrewarding observation in pursuit of an incredible phenomenon must undoubtedly have eliminated the involvement of virtually every person of conventional sanity, the flourish of romains's ostensibly scientific analysis of his alleged results of his own extensive experimentation almost defies challenge. the 250 page book itself provides fascinating reading and ~ay well have been a widely sold one. possibly it is in your own public library. i did not undertake to try the experiment. h.w h. another skeffington memorial: in 1986 the optometric extension program foundation, inc. founded the a.m. skeffington memorial library and archives for behavioral 0etometr~ the july 1987 issue of contact lens seectrum, vol. 2, no. 7, is a special issue commemorating the so-called looth anniversary of contact lenses. included is a series of at least 31 separately identifiable articles, each with a heading or title but mostly without identification of authors, and totally, or almos·t totally, without reference citations of information sources. nevertheless they clearly contain much information about pioneers in the field and their respective contributions. the information seems quite reliable, at least for the developments that have occurred within living memory, but the earlier history is dealt with superficially and a bit distortedly, including, for example, a gross misrepresentation of leonardo da vinci's description of a contact lens. · identified authors include neal j. bailey, irving j. arons, patty sposato, joseph t. barr and carol l. herman. the issue includes qumerous illustrations of persons and things which give the publication archival value. last december ohs member john e. quinn, o.d., of salem, massachusetts, wrote us to say that one of his patients brought in an advertisment of h. stern jewellers, a firm of 170 stores worldwide, which stated, "the ancients believed that the citrine had the power to help failing eyesight. to achieve the cure, the stone was first immersed in wine and then rubbed on the eye." 49 dr. quinn's patient was curious as to whether the "ancients" really believed that, as was dr. quinn, and subsequently i. a letter of inquiry to the h. stern jewellers head office on january 6 and another on march 13 asking for their source of information elicited no response or even acknowledgment. just as there are today manufacturers of antiques perhaps there are also creators of new folklore. until someone informs me of the validity of the h. stern jewellers assertion i shall purchase my jewelry elsewhere. h. w h. more soft lens history: to supplement the historical comments of soft contact lenses in the april 1986 issue of this newsletter ohs member howard a. backman, o.d., of pierrefonds, quebec, canada, has added to our archives a copy of the january-february 1965 issue of optometri~ (montreal), vol. 35, no. 1, on pages 6-10 of which is the first hydrogel lens description published on the north american continent. dr. backman is the author of the article, which is entitled "hydrophilic plastic contact lenses." the journal is available at ilamo. his report was prompted by a british optical association lecture given at the royal society of health by mr. robert a. turner of g.t. optics limited of london at which backman witnessed one of the first demonstrations of the new soft plastic contact lens in london. credit for development of the lens is given to professors wichterle and dreifus at prague, czechoslovakia. a thorough account of the features and properties of the lens and its development and application makes the article a clear milestone. the state of colorado, traditionally considered a rather progressive state, was a bit slow in getting statutory regulation of optometry, the 30th state to do so in 1913. our special speaker at the.annual ohs reminisce-in on saturday, december 5, may provide some clues as to why the delay. he is ohs member ron fair, o.d. the gathering will take place at the marriott hotel in downtown denver during the week-end of the meetings of the american academy o·f optometry. the ohs reminisce-in is not an official part of the academy program but it is cooperatively scheduled so as not to interfere with any academy function. all interested persons are welcome and no charge is made for attendance. information on the specific room location at 6:15p.m. will be available at the academy registration desk. 50 it is very possible that you as a book lover have seen on the shelf of an institutional optometric or medical library, or even in a second-hand bookstore or in a private collection of vision-related books, a set of six volumes entitled biographic clinics, and, without taking the immediate time, wondered what they contained. you noticed their aging burgundy color, each about 20xl4x3.5 em, and you may even have noticed the name of gould as author and wondered momentarily if it might be the same george m. (milbry) gould, m.d. (1848-1922), author of well known medical dictionaries and of numerous articles in the medical literature. it is. the six volumes, 400-500 pages each, were published by p. blakiston's son and company in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1909 respectively. looking in webster's biographical dictionary and in who was who in america you will find that gould was a drummer boy for the 63rd ohio volunteers in 1861-62 and enlisted with the 14lst ohio volunteers in 1864-65 for civil war service. he later earned his a.b. degree from ohio wesleyan university, an a.m. degree from harvard divinity school, and an m.d. degree from jefferson medical college, all very respectable institutions of higher learning. he practiced ophthalmology in philadelphia, served as editor of several medical journals, and received the doyne medal at the ophthalmological congress at oxford, england. he was unquestionably talented, well educated, industrious, and devoted to the welfare of humanity. but he harbored a strange and persistent obsession, quite unbecoming of his brilliant literary and scientific aptitudes otherwise. stated all too succinctly his was the belief that an incredible host of health problems were due to inadequately corrected refractive errors, that the medical profession was grossly negligent in its management of refractive errors, and, concomitantly, that refracting opticians (optometrists) were without exception inherently incapable of doing so. " in support of his thesis he wrote detailed biographical accounts of the often life-long health. problems of well-known persons, pointing out specifics which he believed supported his theory. the biographees, for each a whole chapter, are thomas de quincey, thomas carlyle, charles darwin, thomas huxley, robert browning, george eliot (pen name of mary ann evans), george henry lewes, richard wagner, francis parkman, jane welsh carlyle (mrs. thomas carlyle), herbert spencer, john greenleaf whittier, sarah margaret fuller ossoli, friedrick wilhelm nietsche, ,john addington symonds, hippolyte adolphe taine, honore' de balzac, peter ilich tchaikovs~y. gustave flaubert, 51 lafcadio hearn, louis hector berlioz, and jonathan swift. other chapters deal with numerous health problems, the physiology of vision, refractive errors and eyestrain, and professional responsibilities. many of the chapters are reprints of his publications in a variety of medical journals. the intensity of his feelings about optometry is epitomized by the following statement on page 209 of volume i: "in his proper act and work the optician has usually been so backward, and in his impertinence and assumption so forward, that both have conspired to engender disappointment and disgust. few opticians can rightly do their legitimate work, the making and fitting of spectacles. and this is because they are striving to do the physician's duty. it should be as illegal and impossible for an optician to sell a pair of lenses without a physician's prescription as it is for a druggist to sell poison without medical warrant. the latter kills instantly, the other slowly." in an appendix tolvolume ii, gould listed 68 reasons why glasses may sometimes fail to give relief from "headache, sickheadache, biliousness, dyspepsia, neurasthenia, anemia, anorexia, chorea, epilepsy, and many other nervous, mental, cerebral, and denutritional disorders." reason number 4 reads "the glasses may have been prescribed by an optician, instead of by a physician. no optician ever prescribed a scientifically correct pair of lenses. there is no duty more incumbent upon the medical profession than to make illegal the prescription of glasses by opticians." most of the 68 reasons were described as faults of medical procedures and judgements and the remaining reasons were attributed to circumstances and dispensers. in volume iii (1905), chapter i, beginning on page 27, dr. gould made an interesting description of what he called "new" and "old" ophthalmology. "the 'old ophthalmology' was, and is concerned with inflammatory and surgical diseases alone, remaining ignorant of and indifferent to such relations as might exist between the eye and the general system, except as regards those minor and few diseases which arise in the body and then affect the eye." in contrast, "the new ophthalmology finds its objects of study and interest in ... systemic results of ocular conditions . which might better be called physiologically aberrant or variant. they do not originate in inflammatory or pathological conditions, but simply in optical ones." in volume iv (1906) on page 298 he expressed his view on the optician's role very precisely, as follows: 52 "there is needed in every city and village at least one optician who understands his business, is able to do it, and limits himself to doing it. in many places where there should be several or many the incompetence of all is so amazing that to get rightly made and fitted glasses is an utter impossibility. the occulist in such cases does not care, he is not a refractionist, and his optician, of course, is appealing to the legislature to be allowed to become an oculist." volume v, like volumes iii, iv, and vi is subtitled "influence of visual function upon health." in it is included a chapter by professor h. augustus wilson,· m.d., on "the ocular factors in the etiology of spinal curvature. " several. chapters include case reports of unidentified patients. chapter xx discusses "the ophthalmic sins of hospitals", and chapter xxi the "ten types of ophthalmic charlatans." under "eyestrain" the index lists 48 related ailments ranging alphabetically from "albinism" to "vomiting". the first chapter of the final volume, number vi (1909), is entitled "valediction", in which, on page 26, he identified it as "the last i shall write." he added, "to 'the gospel' i have given all the strength and money i could spare, and of both the expenditure has been great. that is nothing, however, compared to the burden of hatred and persecution which has been heaped upon me by my medical colleagues" the following excerpt from the last paragraph of the book, chapter xxii, pp 470-471, summarizes his thesis clearly and unrelentingly: "the larger number of aberrant physiologic processes are directly or indirectly due to slight imperfections of me~surement and shape of the eyeballs. eventually they phase thernselves·into those mysteries of medicine called migraine, headaches, sick headache, functional diseases of the digestive organs, lateral spinal curvature, kyphosis, nervous and mental diseases, such as insanity, much criminality, hysteria, neurasthenia, epilepsy, even suicide. there is an abundance and a growing mass of testimony that these diseases are very largely the consequences of morbid ocular function." h. w h. nigeria is a very large country which gained its independence from great britain in 1960. the colonial government did not get involved in any health care services until the 1920's but even then did not include optometry nor did the existing or prior christian missionaries. the first nigerian to study optometry was thomas king ekundayo phillips who took and passed the british optical association exam in london in 1912 and became the lone nigerian optometrist until 1943. in 1944 seventeen others joined him. 53 these and more details are reported by jokotoye babalola in an article entitle "history of optometry in nigeria" in the may 1987 issue of the jq~knal_qf_th~nig~ri~n_qetqm~tki£ association, vol. 3, no. 1, pp 3-7. it is reprinted from the december 1982 issue of qptometkic mqnth~ the article identifies several of the optometric pioneers and describes the gradual government involvement, contributions of voluntary agencies, the early acquisition of optometric education, the trends of working conditionns, manpower growth, and professional organization development. three-phase histo~ in an article entitled "moderne entwicklungstendenzen der kontaktlinse" (modern development trends in contact lenses) professor gunter forst of west berlin introduces his subject with an interesting representation of three historical phases based on the materials of which contact lenses have been made. the first was glass, the second was pmma (polymethyl methacrylate), and the third was hema (hydroxyethylmethacrylate). with each material he identifies respectively the key names and dates of, first, august muller (1887), secondly, theodore obrig (1938) and kevin touhy (1947), and, thirdly, otto wichterle (1962). to depict the exponential expansion of contact lens literature he includes a graph showing a single publication in 1887 and more than a thousand in 1987. the article appears in deut~ch~qeti~~k_zeit~ng. vol. 42, no. 5, may 1987, pp. 84-86 and 88-93. the front cover of the april 17 issue of jatla, the jqykn~l of the american medical association, vol. 257, no. 15, is graced by-rembrandt-peal~~;-~ubens p~;;i;;-with a geranium", the painting which holds the record purchase price of $4.07 million for an american painting at auction. on page 1996 of the same issue is a commentary by carol e hevner, who is writing a study of rembrandt peale's life and work. in the portrait, painted in 1801, 17 year old rubens peale is shown wearing a pair of glasses but also holding a pair in his hand in his lap. rubens's daughter mary jane peale had explained in her diary that rubens's 23 year old brother, rembrandt, had initially done the painting with the spectacle in rubens's hand but later painted a pair on the eyes without deleting the pair in hand. 54 picking up from this, ohs member charles letocha wrote a letter to the editor of jama, vol. 258, no. 4, july 24/31, p. 476, to point out how at 10 or 12 years of age rubens quite fortuitously discovered that his vision was correctable with a large burning glass. thereupon, rubens's father, the renowned charles william peale, took rubens to john mcallister, the optician, who made up a special pair of glasses with double convex lenses of about nine diopters. letocha also mentions the late john levene's conjecture that the two pair of glasses represented a pair for distance and a pair for near. , on the same page hevner responds to letocha's letter with further evidence of the correctness of rubens's daughter's explanation. he also mentioned the fact that the boys' father, charles william peale, himself had experimented with making spectacles. both writers identify additional sources of information which could well reveal more insight into optometry in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. an authentic lamp museum: a bit off the beaten path of routine travelers is a fine collection of historical forms of lighting, on south street (state route 44), chardon, ohio 44024, usa. the name of the place is the gilded cock tavern of chardon lakes inn. the tavern itself is a faithful replica of a stagecoach stop of 1830, and the lighting collection is in "the lamp room". · the room includes scores of devices from many parts of the world and earlier eras. in one corner is an example of the horn lantern which would have been lighted by one candle. the candle light showed through windows shielded from the wind by a thin layer of cow's horn, which supports the theory that the word "lantern" comes from "lant horn". in another corner is an example of ami argand's lamp patented in england in 1784, a cylindrical wick lamp used by many of our grandparents. in the other two corners are a replica of edison's first successful electric light bulb and a combination of a gas lamp and electric bulb. 55 a letter from ohs member homer hendrickson, a past president of the optometric extension program foundation, inc., provides some documentation to the theory of the origin of the "21 point" examination, as follows: from everything i can find i agree with ted fisher and irv borish (see vol. 18, no. 2, pp23-24) that the original "18 tests" came form sheard. page #2 of a 1933 course published by oep, copyrighted by e.b. alexander, lists "the minimum number of points (that) have been accepted," the 18 points. by the end of the course (the last page) he had included history and visual acuity (unnumbered) and added #13a, habitual near phoria; #14b, binocular crossed cylinder and #15b, the associated induced phoria; #16a and #l7a, the blur-out findings associated with #16 and #17, which then were renumbered as #16b and #17b; #19, the binocular amplitude of accommodation at 13 inches; #20 and #21, blur-out findings at near with minus and plus spheres respectively. later he added "after" phorias taken through the gross of #20 and #21, as well as monocular (od and os) amplitudes. thus he added eight numbered points (five of which were a sort of subtest) and four unnumbered, but the total grew to only 21. nothing that i can find in the oep courses by skeffington (1928 to 1976 when he died) states the why of numbering the findings. apparently it was done to save time in communicating his concepts and teachings, oral or written. he found it more convenient, faster, and precise to state how each test was to be made, what he termed "standard procedure," and to refer to them from then on by nurnper. skeff did originate, just before the 1920s, the syndrome approach for diagnosis and subsequent treatment of visual problems, much like that used by medicine. for example, physicians looked for a syndrome, a set of symptoms, observations and tests that occur together, such as unusual blood pressure, temperature, respiration rate, pulse or heart rate, pupil size, etc., and made a diagnosis and prescribed a treatment. 56 skeffington proposed as a syndrome, for example, that when: the "net" of ·oynamjc retinoscopy at 20 inches is high the true adduction (base-out to first blur at far), the adduction (base-in to break and recovery at far) and the negative fusional reserve {base-in to break and recovery at near) are low the patient is diagnosed as having an "intensified near problem" and "full plus reduced at far but full plus at near" is to be prescribed. using numbers to identify the sta-ndard procedure and each test, the above indented synqrome statement of optometric probes became: 5 9-11-178 and the person was diagnosed as a b type case, with a directive lens regimen of "cut plus at far, full plus at near." this doesn't completely solve the mystery of the 21 point genesis (see vol. 17, no. 4, p61) so i leave it to the researchers. annudl call for nominations: it's that time of year again for the ohs membership to send in tlwir nominations for a seat on the executive board. the exe~utive board member whose term expires at the end of this · ye~r is james leeds. nominations, or renominations for the four­ yedl t,:>rm are hereby requested for placement on the ballot which will be sent out with the october issue of the newsletter. submissions should be sent to ·douglas penisten, school of opt um,•t ry,_ 800 e a~•l'later, bloomington in 47405. by all means, do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. ordinarily, m~rely the name of the person you are nominating will suffice t~spt.:!ci.tlly if he or she is already well known to the ohs 10\·lnbt>rs, but if you feel that a brief "pitch" should be made in yuur num~nees behalf it will be most favorably considered for inclusion in the october issue of n.o.h.s •• please do it now, as the october issue will be out soon. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1987-18-03-001 1987-18-03-002 1987-18-03-003 1987-18-03-004 1987-18-03-005 1987-18-03-006 1987-18-03-007 1987-18-03-008 1987-18-03-009 1987-18-03-010 1987-18-03-011 1987-18-03-012 1987-18-03-013 1987-18-03-014 1987-18-03-015 1987-18-03-016 1987-18-03-017 1987-18-03-018 1987-18-03-019 1987-18-03-020 1987-18-03-021 1987-18-03-022 ~~~oiana univer!:il i fiec 0 4 1~s3 jiindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society indiana university nov 3 0 1998 ubrary 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 29 october 1998 number 4 o.h.s. meeting at american academy of optometry meetings: the optometric historical society will meet from 5:00 to 6:00p.m. on friday, december 11, at the american academy of optometry annual meeting '98 in san francisco, california. the meeting is tentatively assigned to union square room 19 in the academy meeting hotel; please confirm the location upon your arrival. ohs president walter chase has arranged for a presentation by joe bruneni. the presentation is: charles f. prentice, opticist, the man behind "prentice's rule." bruneni is a fellow of the national academy of opticianry and has more than forty years of experience in the ophthalmic eyewear industry. among his many consultant and service positions, he is director of training and education for the optical laboratories association and executive director of the polycarbonate lens council. he has been on the faculty at the southern california college of optometry since 1994, teaching courses in ophthalmic optics. in 1994 he published a book entitled looking back-history of the ophthalmic industry. book on the history of the illinois college of optometry: optometry in america: a history of the illinois college of optometry 1872-1997, by anistasia r. miller and jared m. brown, chicago: illinois college of optometry, 1996 (isbn 0-9652759-1-4), 128 pages of text and photographs plus 18 pages of appendices plus a 3-page index, $45. this book presents a history of the illinois college of optometry (ico) and its predecessor institutions. ico traces its origins to the chicago college of ophthalmology and otology started in 1872 by dr. henry olin. after olin's death in 1891, dr. james mcfatrich took over the school and changed its name to northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology. later james mcfatrich's brother george joined him as a partner in the school. in 1897, james mcfatrich started the murine eye remedy company. as he got more involved with his murine eyedrop company, james turned over most of the school's administrative duties to george. in 1898, the school started admitting persons without medical training. typically these were persons with some optical experience, including jewelers, refracting opticians, and dispensing opticians. around the turn of the century, a doctor of optics diploma could be earned through a four-week attendance program 29/20 or a six-week correspondence course. the tuition was $25. another two-week a,ttendance program or six-week correspondence course led to a bachelor of ophthalmology degree. other programs were the master of ophthalmology and the doctor of ophthalmology programs. another of ico's predecessor schools was the needles institute of optometry. william b. needles learned optometry at the mccormick optical college in chicago in 1899. he set up practice in kansas city, missouri, and taught at the kansas city school of optometry. in 1907 needles started the needles institute of optometry. by the early 1 920s, its matriculants could attend a two-thousand-clock-hour program over two years or a one-thousand-clock-hour program over one year. in 1 922 needles purchased the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology. in 1926, it and the needles institute merged to become the northern illinois college of optometry. the doctor of optometry degree for the students entering the school in 1933 constituted 3,312 clock hours of study over a three-year period, with an annual tuition of $300. that year marked the largest graduating class up to that point, 178 students. in the 1930s, the faculty included carl f. shepard, w.o. zoethout, thomas g. atkinson, and irvin m. barish. enrollment decreased during world war ii, so that there were only 60 students at northern illinois college of optometry in 1944. after the war, there was a dramatic increase in the number of students, with 2,100 students attending in 1947. many of these students, however, did not complete the program. in 1951, richard feinberg took over as president of northern illinois college of optometry from richard needles, son of william needles. feinberg had been dean of the pacific university college of optometry. another of ico's predecessor institutions was started by university of illinois medical school graduate reuben seid in 1936. initially calling it the midwestern college of optometry, seid changed its name to the monroe college of optometry in 1 937. that year he hired carl shepard as dean of his school. in the late 1 940s, the name of the school was changed to chicago college of optometry. faculty members included eugene freeman, ernest s. takahashi, richard tennant, and julius brodnax, the first african american optometrist to become a faculty member at an accredited american optometry school. in 1949, the chicago college of optometry initiated a five .. -year curriculum, with the first two years transferrable from colleges and universities with a standard liberal arts curriculum. in the early 1950s, the post-war boom in enrollments ended. northern illinois college of optometry entered 80 new students in the fall of 1950. meanwhile, the chicago college of optometry had a decline in the number of graduates from 480 in 1947 to 94 in 1954. this may have been the main factor that led to the merger of the two institutions in 1955. after the merger, the new institution became known as the illinois college of optometry. eugene strawn became the first president of the 29/21 illinois college of optometry, a position he held until his death in 1971. alfred rosenbloom became the president of ico in 1972 and held that post until 1981. academic requirements continued to increase in the 1960s and 1970s. by the 1960s, a third of beginning students had bachelor's degrees. in the 1970s, additions to the optometry curriculum included ophthalmic pharmacology, developmental psychology, developmental vision, public and community health optometry, and increased coverage of strabismus and amblyopia. this book was written by two lay persons. it contains numerous black-and­ white and some color photographs. the book is organized into six chapters. the first chapter gives an overview of some of the antecedents of eye and vision care prior to the mid-19th century. the second chapter starts the story of the schools that led up to the formation of the illinois college of optometry. the last chapter covers the activities of ico from the 1980s to the time of the writing of the book. appendices include a chronology, a listing of various officials, a listing of recipients of honorary degrees and alumni awards, and reference citations. d.a.g. optics in court: largely oblivious to the rank and file optometrists during the middle third of this centurywere three legal actions which shaped the optical industry. these are described in vivid detail by joe bruneni under the title "industry goliaths topple" in the july 1998 issue of lab talk, vol. 26, no. 24, pp. 22-23. the first was a federal action filed in 1 940 under the sherman antitrust act and clayton antitrust act charging that 1 3 manufacturers of eyeglass frames and mountings, et al., had conspired to fix prices and restrain trade in ophthalmic goods through the control of three major spectacle patents, the fuivue, numont, and rimway frames and mountings. in 1948, a consent decree stipulated a cancellation of the patents and related licenses and agreements. the second was a justice department complaint filed in 1946 against american optical and a list of individual medical doctors. the consent decree similarly affected bausch & lomb in ending the common practice of rebating to oculists who referred patients to dispensers for glasses or contact lenses. the final blow came from an almost overlooked complaint made by a wisconsin voter to his u.s. senator, alexander wiley, that b&l and american optical were conspiring to put his lab, madison optical, out of business. the justice department filed a complaint in 1 961 under the sherman act and settled it by a consent decree in 1 966 which spelled out various business restrictions for a twenty-year period 29/22 forcing the two manufacturers to operate wholesale laboratories on the same basis as independents. h.w h. a notable collection of articles: sol tannebaum recently donated a bound volume of his publications to the indiana university optometry library. of particular interest are over 50 articles on the history of optometry, ophthalmology, optics, and vision science published between 1964 and 1997 in the journal of the american optometric association. there are also seven articles from the journal of the illinois optometric association, and over 1 00 newspaper articles on wide ranging topics in optometry and vision care, published primarily in the park forest [illinois] star and the park forest reporter. tannebaum's optometry history articles were a regular feature in the journal of the american optometric association from 1964 to 1971 . a recurring theme of some of his articles in the journal of the american optometric association (particularly in: the puzzle of our optometric past. 1972; 43(4) :443-450; a case [of] history-the development of optometry. 1974; 45(1 0):1251-1255; and optometry or ophthalmol­ ogy? a historical review of our past. 1989; 60(9) :690-693) is how the contributions of a wide variety of individuals are part of the "puzzle" of the early development of optometry. in this regard, he noted bacon, maurolycus, daza de valdes, kepler, scheiner, molyneux, danders, prentice, and many others. he makes the point that our heritage can be traced back to ancient greece. d.a.g. o.a.i.c.c.: as usual, the october 1998 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 65, contains several historical items of optometric interest. on page 4, by paul aangenendt, is the story of, "odilio, patron saint of opticians," a mixture of fact and fiction. odilia (othilia, ottilie, odilie, odile) was born blind ca. 660 a.d. near strasbourg and was placed in a monastery. baptism miraculously restored her sight. on page 5, udo timm describes the contributions of richard greet (18621 938), a german ophthalmologist whose hobby was optical history and the collection of ophthalmic antiques. he published numerous articles on spectacles and donated his collection of antiques to the zeiss museum in jena. on pages 13-14, colin fryer authors "unorthodox ophthalmics; the lridiagnosis story," some biographical details of the life and claims of an obscure homeopathic physician named dr. ignatz von peczely ( 1826-?) . he published a book on iridiagnosis (iridology) in 1880 and a diagnostic chart of the iris in 1886. h.w h. 29/23 century old optometry practices: with the american optometric association having celebrated its 1 ooth anniversary recently, the june 15, 1998, issue of the aoa news (vol. 36, no. 14, p. 1 2f) had a feature on some optometry practices which can trace their roots back for over 100 years. the practice of aoa board member wesley e. pittman goes back to his great grandfather william david pittman who started a jewelry business in mexia, texas, in 1893, and learned optometry through apprenticeship and correspondence. like his father and grandfather, wesley e. pittman has served on the texas optometry board. the practice of saul polenberg and james g. cayea of poughkeepsie, new york, was started by c.h. perkins in 1892, and maintained for many years by atherton and henry marshall. terry h. wynne, ill, of griffin, georgia, can trace his practice back to his grandfather's practice started in 1889 in cochran, georgia. terry h. wynne, i, graduated from the department of optics of parson's horologicallnstitute in laporte, indiana. the practice of koetting associates in st. louis had its roots in the jewelry and optical departments of the general merchandise store opened by john koetting in st. genevieve, missouri, in 1887. brian kahn of atlanta is the fourth generation of his family to practice optometry. his great grandfather, samuel kahn, practiced in birmingham, alabama, from 1889 to 1929. brian kahn's grandfather and two great uncles practiced in atlanta. another long-standing family practice is located in kalamazoo, michigan. henry theodore prange opened his office there in 1899. all three of his sons as well as two of his grandsons became optometrists. the two grandsons, donald prange and harold t. prange, practice there today. the article includes photographs of the interior of the pittman practice in 1 922 and the store fronts where the wynne practice was located in griffin, georgia, in 1 904. there is also a picture of the exterior of the practice of optometrist richard ryer taken in 1885. how many other 1 00-year-old optometry practices are there? d.a.g. a book on a remarkable collection: in the september 1998 issue of optometry and vision science (vol. 75, no. 6, p. 634), jay enoch authored a review of a book of likely interest to ohs members. the book is the bernard becker collection in ophthalmology: an annotated catalogue, compiled by lilia wechsler, christopher hoolihan, and mark w. weimer, and published in 1996 by the bernard becker medical library, washington university school of medicine, st. louis. 29/24 enoch describes the book as being a " ... well illustrated list of historical books (ably and thoughtfully annotated as to content), reference sources, and rare prints (well reproduced, quite a number in color), and it is very well executed and indexed." the items described in the book cover several centuries. as a consequence, enoch feels that the book allows one " ... to follow easily the course of development of ophthalmic science in any of quite a number of subjects through the years, through different regional areas, and to obtain an excellent picture of the progress of developments and local interests in our science." d.a.g. a reminder: contributions to the newsletter and comments on material in the newsletter are welcome and encouraged. send your submissions or letters to david a. goss, managing editor, at the address below. * * * managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (1050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) ~ 1998-29-04-001 1998-29-04-002 1998-29-04-003 1998-29-04-004 1998-29-04-005 1998-29-04-006 optometry library vertical file · newsletter optnmitrv library apr ~ 0 1q74 .)ljtometric ~is~!ical society indiana uijjversjiy (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. 63119) volume 5 april 1974 number 2 john levene re-elected: almost half of the members sent in their votes, and all three candidates made a very respectable showing, with a substantial lead by dr. levene for a second term, this one for five years. presently the executive board is voting on its choices of officers. reminisce-in rescheduled: wednesday, june 19, 2:30-4:30 p.m., is the time scheduled for the second reminisce-in sponsored by the optometric historical society. the place is washington, d.c. at the american optometric association congress on the same day as family time, so there should be very little conflict with other events. dr. spurgeon eure, president of southern college of optometry, is in charge. everyone interested in hearing or telling about fascinating events in optometry's past is invited and welcome. how much history is taught? prompted by an o.h.s. member who was curious to know whether optometry's history is routinely included in today's curricula, i fired off the following letter to jerald strickland, o.d., secretary of the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco). "dear jerry, "interest has been expressed in the coverage of optometric history in the various optometry curricula. i know, of course, what is included in the course at indiana university, but i, personally, have never seen an outline for an optometry history course elsewhere. does such information, perchance, exist in any of the asco collections of materials from its member insti­ tutions? "essentially what we would li~e to know is, 'what topics does the term "optometric history" conjure up in the academic/ professional mind and what sort of resources are utilized by the student and teacher?' whatever handouts or course outlines or introductory statements instructors may use for history of optometry courses or for the historical parts of more comprehensive courses would be appreciated. -18"this is not a missionary ploy to enable someone to pass judgement on, or otherwise rate, optometry curricula or history courses. i would merely like to be able to make a reasonably accurate statement as to the coverage of optometric history in today's curricula." dr. strickland promptly distributed photocopies of my letter to all of the asco member institutions, 16 i believe, and i have already received responses from five. i hope to be able to prepare a summary in the next issue. 1776 optometry coming into focus: in my own course on history of optometry last fall, i asked each of my 66 students, all in their first year of optometry, to submit a short paper on a topic which would give me some insight as to the status of optometry, optics, visual science, etc. in the second half of the 18th century. impressed by many of the papers, i forwarded them to mr. roy p. stealey of the optometric weekly. mr. stealey hopes to publish about 15 of them as a series. i also made photocopies of all 66 papers and will place this collection in the indiana university optometry library for general reference purposes. an archivist's appeal: a few months ago i received a copy of a letter which maria dablemont, librarian/archivist, american optometric association, 7000 chippewa street, st. louis, missouri, 63119, wrote to an optometrist who had acquired ownership of a deceased optometrist's practice of many years' standing. though the letter was very informally written it illustrated so well the professional endeavours of a good archivist. the following few paragraphs deserve repeating here. "as we are not aware of what you received and what you wish to donate to our archives, we will give below an example of what we usually collect and add to individual archives and to the holdings of the library: "1) whenever possible, models of instruments invented by optometrists including drawings, patents and personal correspondence related to the invention. 2) personal papers -correspondence, autobiographies, pub­ lished and unpublished manuscripts. 3) memorabilia -photographs, slides and tapes, plaques, certificates, emblems, seals, medals, trophies, awards, and honors. 4) antique eyeglasses. 5) early instruments. 6) early optometric classics -textbooks, correspondence courses. 7) optometric school (current and discontinued) publications, bulletins, yearbooks, fraternity publications, etc. 8) early rosters, directories and listings of optometric bodies -199) early catalogs and serials published by firms and organizations of manufacturers and opticians such as optical developments. 10) blue books of optometrists prior to 1928. 11) any journal or newsletter published by optometric state organi­ zations prior to 1960. 12) any aoa publication prior to 1952. 13) any optometric periodicals published by "professional" press such as optical journal and review, optometric weekly, etc., prior to 1950. "thank you so much for the attention you may give to this letter." centenary sparsity: just out of curiosity and late in 1973 o.h.s. member john r. levene searched his notes for names of persons in the history of visual science who were born in '73, any century. he came up with alexis carrel (1873-1844) (anatomy, tissue culture) and john cunningham saunders (1773-1810) (early cataract surgery). these tidbits were too late for a 1973 issue of the newsletter, so dr. levene hastened to find some names for '74. he found two, as follows: c.p. von pirquet (1874-1929) (allergy) and benjamin gibson (1774-1812) (bacteriology). he also found one, arthur jacob, who died in '74 (1790-1874). the layer of rods and cones in the retina is known as jacob's membrane. o.d. lived to be 100: almost a year ago, o.h.s. member paul grattan sent me a clipping from the february 20, 1973, issue of the the times record of troy, new york, reporting that dr. john w. hamilton, optometrist, of still­ water, new york, would celebrate his looth birthday on march 2, 1973. his career included the operation of a jewelry store and eight years as town postmaster and several years as town clerk. he was still driving a car at 92. his last few years were in residence at the pleasant valley infirmary, argyle, new york. my recent, january 1974, note to dr. hamilton brought back the response that he is deceased. early. blind school aided £y rev. beecher: circumstances leading to the establishment of a school for the bllnd are described in a book by jane shaffer elsmere entitled "henry ward beecher, the indiana years, 1837-1847" and published by the indiana historical society, indianapolis, 1973, pp. 243-244, as follows: "the efforts of james m. ray and others to establish a school for the blind in indiana similar to that already in existence in kentucky likewise drew beecher's interest. ray was a leader in attempts to better the lot of the state's unfortunate citizens. he had helped organize the first sabbath school in indianapolis, been -20secretary of the first temperance society, and served as treasurer of the indianapolis benevolent society. beecher had known ray, a presbyterian, ever since coming to indianapolis. they decided it would be a good time to focus attention on the plight of indiana's sightless citizens when the state legislature convened in 1846. ray brought a blind educator, william h. churchman, and a group of the latter's pupils from the kentucky school for the blind to indianapolis. several lectures were delivered by churchman and others on behalf of the blind at the second presbyterian church. in addition to these speeches, the legislators and public saw examples of the work of the blind pupils who demonstrated their accomplishments and, in general, proved that blind people could learn useful skills and care for themselves. "the lectures were well attended by the public. that the problems involved in teaching the blind were imperfectly under­ stood, however, was made too clear in one instance when a member of the legislature attempted to help with a demonstration of the prowess of a blind pupil. to the amusement and emba~ra•ement of the audience the lawmaker wrote a problem, held the paper before the sightless eyes of the pupil, and then with his own finger traced the problem while exhorting the pupil to solve it. the incident did not discredit the efforts of ray; and may, indeed, have aided them by keeping the episode before the legislators as a subject for conversation. from this time until october 1, 1847, when indiana opened its own school for the blind on north street in indianapolis, henry ward beecher worked toward that goal." student and collector: o.h.s. member richard e. schugar, 6060 crescentville road, apartment east d-5, philadelphia, pennsylvania, 19120 writes us as follows: "i have been a history buff and antique collector for many years. since my enrollment at p.c.o., i have naturally added old optometric equipment and spectacles to my list of collectables. certainly there must be other members of the society with the same interest. if you are aware of anyone who is interested in exchanging information about particular pieces or perhaps trading old equipment or spectacles, i would be very appreciative if you could forward their names to me." sought but not found: mr. schugar, who is a student at pennsylvania college of optometry, wrote us further as follows: "after reading the january newsletter, i went to the pco library to try and find the last issue of the optical journal supplement. unfortunately, our library doesn't have any issues. our earliest issue of the optical journal is dated june 28, 1906 (vol, xviii, no. 1). there is no mention of the supplement in this volume, i'm sorry i couldn't be of more assistance." ') rubin receives response: responding to jack rubin's request in the january newsletter, o.h.s. member schugar wrote him as follows, with a copy to me: "i am also a collector of antique optometric instruments and read with interest your letter to dr. gregg which was reprinted in the newsletter of the optometric historical society. i too have one of the devices you describe and believe it is called an optometer. it was given to me by dr. theodore coleman, who practiced optometry in philadelphia from 1950 until his death in 1973. he also gave me a few smaller optometers which have only six lenses and no fixed distance for a reading card. he had received them over a period of years through the mail. "the larger one came from e.g. optical co., 20 east delaware place, chicago 5, illinois. the smaller optometers are from advance spectacle co., 537 south dearborn street, chicago 5, illinois. "since dr. coleman began practicing in 1950, the selling of prescription spectacles must have been legal in illinois after that date. perhaps someone from that state can give you the exact date. i hope i have been of some assistance to you. "i would be interested in knowing what other old instruments you have in your collection. i started acquiring old instruments and spectacles when i began optometry school four years ago. the majority of my collection dates after 1900. i shall look forward to hearing from you." reflections on archimedes: the science column of the november 26, 1973, issue of time, p. 60, describes a recent experiment conducted in athens, greece, to test the plausibility of archimedes' alleged "burning glass" that focused the sun's rays to set fire to roman ships besieging his home town of syracuse around 214 b.c. engineer ioannis sakkas decided that the "burning glass" of legend "was probably highly polished metalmost likely, the shields of syracuse's soldiers." so sakkas lined up 70 mirror-bearing sailors on a pier and directed them to reflect sunlight on a rowboat 160 ft. offshore. the improvised mirrors were 3 x 5 ft. sheets of polished copper. " ••. when they finally coordinated their efforts, the rowboat began smoking within two or three seconds. it was soon engulfed in flames." the !'lmc ~agazine article prompted a somewhat more sophisticated and impressively referenced response by klaus d. mielenz entitled "eureka t" in applied optics, vol. 13, no. 2, february 197 4, pp. a14al6. mielenz tells us that "the feasibility of archimedes' accom­ plishment had been demonstrated about 225 years ago by the french -22naturalist buffon (1707-1788)." buffon did his experiment with a rectangular array of 168 plane mirrors, each 8 inches by 10 inches in size and individually adjustable, so that their spots could all be superimposed on the target. altogether buffon performed about a dozen experiments, all successful. two additional letters to the editor in the same issue, pp. al6 and 452, include further interesting comments. who was meissner? in a letter to the late gordon l. walls, back in 1956, i suggested that daza de valdes was the "first optometrist." he responded promptly with "but, wouldn't the 'first optometrist' have had to be the first man who matched a particular strength of lens to someone's particular refractive error? wouldn't that have been meissner in 1260?" i immediately asked him for a reference, but i do not believe i ever received it. then i forgot about it. now i wonder who meissner was. a recent one-hour search in the library was not successful. ~ 50 year history: apparently published in late 1972, or very early 1973, is a 60 page 14 x 22 em booklet entitled a history of the southern council of optometrists and its woman's auxiliary. i received a copy from the present executive director mr. felton gordon, box 18617, atlanta, georgia, 30326. the 50th anniversary year was celebrated on february 2-6, 1973, in atlanta, georgia. the booklet is packed full of facts, names, places, and events. london refraction hospital: "so years of the lrh" is the title of an article in two parts by l.a. swann in the december 8 and 22, 1973, issues of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 13, nos. 24-25, pp. 1401-1403 and 1466-1468. the author had registered as student 21, ticket no. 15, a life students ticket of the london refraction hospital, on february 26, 1923, for which he had paid ten guineas. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1974-05-02-001 1974-05-02-002 1974-05-02-003 1974-05-02-004 1974-05-02-005 1974-05-02-006 newsletter of the idndsight ";// or jpjj 2 0'"'1"l'j'·'t.-f optometric historical society ( i jii.u ry usi-ut:(y 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 30 januacy 1999 number 1 1999 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the 1999 ohs executive board members and officers, and the year of each member's term of expiration. president . . . . . . . . . . . . . . walter chase (2002) vice president . . . . . . . . . . chuck haine (2000) secretary-treasurer . . . . . . . bridget kowalczyk (2000) trustees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jack bennett (2002) call for nominations: patricia carlson ( 1 999) theodore grosvenor (2001) alfred rosenbloom (2001) it is time for you to send in your nominations for the one position on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the member whose term will expire is patricia carlson. she has retired from southern california college of optometry and does not wish to be considered for another term of service on the ohs board. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. please send nominations to the ohs secretary­ treasurer by march 15, 1999: bridget kowalczyk, ilamo, 243 n. lindbergh blvd., st. louis, mo 63141 usa. talk by joe bruneni on prentice: at the optometric historical society meeting on saturday, december 12, 1998, at the american academy of optometry meetings in san francisco, california, joe bruneni gave a talk on charles prentice. the text of his talk follows. charles f. prentice, opticist the name "prentice" is an important term in ophthalmic optics. optometric and opticianry students spend hours learning "prentice's rule," a law of optics first defined by charles prentice. the rule he formulated is important to everyone involved with "ophthalmic lenses" (a term prentice coined). anyone who has ever decentered a stock lens to create prism or tried to calculate the amount of prism created by an incorrect p.d. uses prentice's rule to do so. charles prentice, however, enjoys another distinction. his strong feelings and direct actions paved the way for what became the third largest independent profession in the u.s. it's a fascinating story that's not as well known as it should be. charles was born in brooklyn, new york, in 1854. his father james was a well-known optician who had moved his dispensing business from london, england, to new york city in 1842. james could see that future opticians would need a thorough education but there were no optician's schools in this country. he chose to send his son charles to study mechanical engineering at the royal polytechnikum in karlsruhe, germany. returning to new york in 1882, charles joined the family firm which, by now, had become a lucrative retail optical business. taking over when his father died in 1888, charles gradually transformed his father's commercial store into a more professional establishment. in the meantime, he had been publishing original articles in leading ophthalmic journals in this country and europe and, over a period of time, had gained recognition among ophthalmologists of international fame such as helmholtz, knapp, and noyes. in a paper published in 1886, prentice applied the term "ophthalmic lenses" to lenses used for spectacles, the first time this term was ever used. in 1890, he published "a metric system of numbering and measuring prisms" in which he proposed a measurement he called "prism diopter. " the famous "prentice's rule" described the law of decentration, a basic rule of optics that is as important today as it was when he formulated it. shortly after publication, american optical switched over to prism diopters and before long every manufacturer in the world did the same. although still an optician, prentice had a solid scientific background and his prism diopter system had been recognized by leading ophthalmologists around the world. he was a proud man and believed his knowledge qualified him to test his customers' vision and this is what eventually got him into trouble. by the 1890s, opticians had drifted into two camps-those who refracted and those who did not. two noted new york physicians played important roles in this story. the first was henry d. noyes, a.m., m.d., author of a well-known textbook titled "diseases of the eye." dr. noyes was a founder of the american ophthalmological society and a professor in the bellevue hospital medical college. he served on the staff of new york eye and ear infirmary. although a nervous and abrupt type, dr. noyes was highly respected and widely regarded as an organizing genius. the other player in this drama was d.b. st. john roosa, a.m., ll.d., m.d. dr. roosa was a celebrated ophthalmologist who founded both the manhattan eye and ear hospital and the brooklyn eye and ear hospital. he had studied ophthalmology and otology in berlin and vienna. he was a professor of ophthalmology and otology at the university of new york. he had become a man of strong opinions who disliked being crossed. he even described himself as somewhat "sot in his ways." he did not believe in correcting weaker refractive errors for his patients. he was positive in every opinion and exceedingly ornery when contradicted. here we have two highly distinguished medical eye specialists and an exceptionally qualified optician who had become a world authority on laws of optics. one would hope they would each respect the other, but the three men were doomed to clash in a very spectacular manner. one day a lady named anderson visited mr. prentice. he refracted her and provided a pair of glasses. noting some inflammation in one eye, he referred her to dr. noyes. on december 16th, 1892, prentice received a letter from dr. noyes in which noyes stated that mrs. anderson, because of the inflammation, needed medical treatment, not glasses. 30/2 in his letter, dr. noyes added, "i know that you make examinations for fitting glasses as do many other opticians . . . . for your work in making [glasses] you have your compensation. i know of an instance in which you are said to have charged a fee for the examination as a separate item." dr. noyes seemed to consider this a grievous sin. dr. noyes went on to state that he had warned prentice before about charging for an eye examination. dr. noyes stated, "you place yourself in direct competition with reputable oculists without having their training and general education. i consider .an injustice is done the public by the fact that in charging a fee you assume that you have the qualifications which entitle you to a fee for advice. to this i strenuously object. " the very next day (the u.s. mail was evidently faster then), prentice answered dr. noyes' letter. he pointed out his extensive european training, the technical papers he had published, all of which, he wrote, had been to help secure referral work from the oculists. such referrals, for the most part, never happened. in effect, prentice told dr. noyes his training qualified him and lack of support from the medical community forced him to conduct eye examinations. two weeks later noyes wrote back and mentioned he had shown prentice's letter to roosa. noyes stated that prentice's lack of referrals was because he was located "downtown." he enclosed a letter from dr. roosa in which roosa insisted that "by charging a fee, he (prentice) was violating the law relative to the practice of medicine." prentice was incensed that noyes had shown his letter to roosa and told him so in a letter. he asked for an apology and enclosed an opinion from his lawyer that charging a fee for an eye exam did not constitute the practice of medicine. dr. noyes responded by letter, again urging prentice to stop charging for eye exams and telling him a lawyer's opinion didn't impress him at all. he ended by repeating again that he was acting in friendship. a flurry of letters continued, involving a few other ophthalmologists who were solidly in prentice's comer. things continued in this vein until february 1895 when one of prentice's friendly ophthalmologists informed him that roosa had appealed to the new york county medical society to eject any members who sent patients to opticians to have glasses fitted. things were heating up and this played right into the hands of an enterprising editor of the optical trade's only magazine. the editor's name was frederic boger and, in 1885, he had founded a publication called the journal. it contained material of interest to jewelers and opticians (often the same person). he renamed the magazine the optical journal in 1891. subscriptions cost $1 per year and were payable in advance. (today we know the optical journal as review of optometry.) boger had been closely following the prentice/roosa affair. he began urging his readers to form a national association of opticians. prentice, however, was not in favor of a national organization. he believed each state should organize first. boger held a planning meeting in his office on september 13th, 1895. prentice and eight other opticians were present. prentice was more interested in legislation than forming an association. an attorney was retained and, quietly, solicitation for support from new york opticians was sought. the group then decided they needed a few opinions from ophthalmologists. their choices to interview seem strange today. when they called on dr. noyes, he refused to be interviewed. dr. st. john roosa would have probably refused an interview, but got confused and thought the visitor was a patient. when he found out the purpose of the visit, he exploded. "i know who is at the bottom of this-that man prentice. he is foxy and i'm only waiting for the opportunity to put hint behind prison bars. i shall fight you in albany to the last ditch." roosa vowed he would have the medical practice act amended to prevent "men of prentice's cult from meddling with ophthalm;glana unmis\t1 30/3 jan 21 1999 iird&iv when this was reported at the next optician's meeting, the dispensing (non-refracting) opticians got up as a group and walked out. they were dependent on referrals from ophthalmologists and the situation was getting too hairy for them. a.j. cross and most of the other refracting opticians were in favor of increasing education for opticians and increasing membership, leaving the battle with ophthalmol­ ogy to be fought at a later date. prentice stood up and said, "that is like building a house on ground you do not own. in fact, we are momentarily in danger of being evicted. oculists don't care how much education we have. they seriously object to our being allowed to use it. in my opinion we must strike now." that statement effectively determined the future of optometry in the united states. the group formed the optical society of new york with charles f. prentice as president. one week later, a bill was introduced in the new york assembly. the interesting thing about that bill was that it required ophthalmologists to pass the same test of refracting abilities as optometrists, the name refracting opticians eventually adopted. the bill came within three votes of passage. had it passed, the relationship between optometry and ophthalmology would be far different than it is today. new york would not have an optometric law until 1908. an organizing meeting was held in 1897 at the planters hotel in st. louis where the decision to form a national group was confirmed. in 1997, the american optometric association celebrated its 1 ooth anniversary of that first convention, again meeting in st. louis. following the st. louis meeting, frederick boger continued his efforts to drum up membership for the new group. with the help of andrew j. cross and charles f. prentice, plans were laid for the first national convention for this new association. on october 10, 1898, they met at the famous broadway central hotel in new york city. one hundred and eighty-three members attended, representing 31 states and three canadian provinces. it was a rather hodgepodge group, being purveyors of "optical, philosophical, and photographic goods. ii they decided to call their new association "the american· optical association. " some of the members refracted and some did not. initially, "dispensing opticians" controlled the group, largely because the first president was a new york nonrefracting optician named charles lembke. however, he was succeeded in 1900 by andrew jay cross, a prominent new york refracting optician who would come to be known as "the father of optometry." eventually, the group would become exclusively optometric. roosa had been apoplectic over the idea of nonmedical persons charging the public for eye exams. his frantic efforts to stamp out refracting opticians actually provided the stimulus that helped create the new profession of optometry. mr. prentice, who lived a busy and productive life until 1946, never claimed the title of doctor. as late as 1900, he was still calling himself "opticist," the term he much preferred over "optometrist." part 11-continuing the story of charles prentice and his times ~ . refracting opticians had a great deal of difficulty in deciding what to call themselves. by 1904, many were calling themselves "optometrist" (meaning "one skilled in the practice of physiological optics"), a term proposed by john eberhardt. other suggested names included "optician," "sight-testing optician," and "opticist." the last name was the name coined by charles prentice, backed by the prestige of the internationally recognized prism dioptry system he had formulated. all these names were used interchangeably until 1919 when "optometry" and "optometrist" became the officially adopted names for the new profession. the fact that many ophthalmological publications and texts on refraction used the term "optometry" when referring to refraction added credence to that name. in 1904, at the · ·wganization's meeting in milwaukee, the members adopted the name "optometrists." it's interesting to 30/4 note that three years before in 1901, minnesota passed the first optometry law, using the word "optometrist." their association was founded under the name "american association of opticians and operated under that name until the 13th convention in 1910 when the name was changed to "american optical association." however, it wasn't until 1918 that the association changed its name to "american optometric association." in some states it was necessary to amend the laws to ensure the word "optom­ etrist" was used on business cards, stationery, etc. the honorific title of "doctor" was seldom used before 1922. the association was not necessarily the arbiter of optical matters since only a small percentage of retailers were members and some of these were disaffected with the early results attained by the association. during a convention of the new association in atlantic city, new jersey, in 1904, a to-the­ point question was addressed to the chair, "what do i get for my $1 annual dues? we think we are being gypped." education meanwhile, as fighting over a name continued, advances were being made in the field of education. optical correspondence courses had become popular, springing up all over the country. once tuition was paid and the few lessons completed, students received a diploma giving them the right to practice and, in many cases, the use ofthe title "doctor." dr. brown established his philadelphia optical college in 1892, and a mr. thomson started the south bend college of optics in indiana. in 1894, the largest ofthese schools was started in chicago by brothers j.b. and george mcfatrich. they called their school the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, which was shortened to northern illinois college of optometry in 1925. during the school's first 20 years, more than 7,000 graduated. in addition to a successful correspondence course, the school gave lectures. courses lasted one to six weeks, at a cost of $25 a course. around 1898 or 1900, the mccormick neurological school, later the mccormick medical school, was giving courses. in 1900, c.l. merry started a school in his building in kansas city to provide his growing laboratory with new customers. named the southwestern optical college, it was later turned over to dr. e.a. lane to operate. a jeweler could take a few lessons, buy a trial case, receive a prescription order book, and be ready to practice. this school became so profitable that competition sprang up. merry withdrew his support of dr. lane and encouraged dr. william b. needles, a young man who had just finished a course at the mccormick optical college, to start a new school in kansas city. the year was 1909 and the needles institute of optometry flourished in the years to come. educational standards gradually improved as the practice of optometry was legalized in every state. practitioners had to fulfill certain requirements in order to be licensed. it took 23 years to get an optometric law in every state. by 1924 when calvin coolidge put his signature to the last law (district of columbia), 20,000 optometrists were registered throughout the country. one of the more gratifying developments in the field of optometric education was the initiation of optometry courses by several large universities. in 1910, columbia university added optometry to its curriculum; ohio state university followed in 1914 and california in 1923 when optometrists of that state underwrote the course. a yearly registration fee of $10 for optometrists was established, $8 of which went to the university as an income for the optometry course. the university of rochester also conducted an optometry course for a while. 30/5 state licensing the american optometric association (aoa) promoted the concept of professionalism for its members and urged state laws demanding high qualifications for optometry. prospective optometrists, under the new rules, had to be approved by local boards. those who were already refracting were exempt from taking board examinations under a "grandfather clause." it would take a while for optometry to come out of the "dark ages." current thinking was, "how could an optometrist charge for a refraction when the oculist received only $5 for a medical refraction?" as it turned out, for many years optometrists who charged for eye examinations defied the medical field which was strongly opposed to nonmedical men charging for what they perceived to be professional medical services. yearly conventions held by the aoa helped firm up its concepts. an idea of the interest in group actions by american optometrists can be deduced by the attendance figures of the national conventions. in 1898, the first convention in new york city attracted 32; in 1899, 175 attended the second convention in rochester; in detroit, in 1900, there were 300; in 1906, in rochester, new york, 1,000 were in attendance with this figure climbing to 1,071 in providence, rhode island, in 1916. interprofessional competition optometry chose many ways to fight the fierce attempts by medical refractionists to eliminate its profession, including use of a rather obvious slogan no one could deny, "a lens is not a pill." in 1914, the medical profession in pennsylvania was able to pass a law which stated that optometry was a "minor branch" of medicine that should be supervised by the medical examining board. optometry successfully fought this law through the courts who, on appeal, reversed the law. the court agreed that optometry and medicine overlapped but decided optometry required a proper academic, educational background as well as competence in refracting-that its experience in refractive techniques often predated medical participation in this area. the conclusion was that optometry belonged to the world of science, rather than the profession of medicine, and was a function of physics. new york state had problems as well. the title of "doctor" was not officially authorized until the late 1950s (although it was in common usage). the new york state optometric association had its origins years before when a group of new york city and upstate opticians formed the optical society of the state of new york. founding members included prentice (the first president), cross (treasurer), boger (secretary), and george b. bausch, j.j. bausch's brother (vice-president). friction arose between prentice and cross. charles prentice, a partner with his famous optician father, james, used knowledge gained in studies in europe and with various leading american optical and scientific firms in 1874 to develop impressive new instruments and theories. andrew jay cross trained as a watchmaker while living in visalia, california, and walla walla in th~ soon-to-be state of washington. after traveling as a watch repairer, he became interested in optics, training with a philadelphia optical firm. he opened an upstairs practice in new york city in 1894, later moving downstairs but still maintaining a professional atmosphere. cross developed many instruments but was mainly known for discovering the principles of dynamic skiametry. defending opticianry the ensuing conflict involved medical opinion on both sides and continued in the new york state legislature. it was fiercely debated until, finally, the new york optometric law was enacted in 1908. in the course of this legislative fight, prentice introduced his famous "defense of the optician." in this treatise, prentice stated that medical doctors had little interest in eye refractions until the publication in 30/6 1864 of danders' "accommodation and refraction of the eye," and that oculists did not have full sets of trial lenses until the 1880s. opticians had carried out most eye refractions and chamblant of paris had prescribed for astigmatism in 1849 with mcallister of philadelphia doing so in 1854. prentice emphasized the work of opticians through the years, enumerating their developments and inventions, and accused medical men of becoming fascinated with "physico-mechanical jobs" because of the fees that could be charged. prentice, however, abstained from most of the legislative fight, except for continually circularizing legislators with his treatise. he had been replaced by cross as president of the new york state society in 1897. prentice had a goal to also establish regulation of new york state dispensing opticians but legislation accomplishing this would not pass until 1946. in 1929, there were legal skirmishes in pennsylvania on the basis that optometry was part of medicine just as dentistry had been until its breakaway. optometry stressed that it was an "optical science" and had never been part of medicine. optometrists stated that they "refracted better without drugs than oculists could with drugs." oculists argued that proper refractions could only be done with dilating drugs, such as atropine, which only medical doctors were permitted to use. the american plan many have forgotten the impact the american plan had on early optometry. this program had been developed by american optical (ao) during its heyday. this was not entirely an unselfish plan as ao had problems in many branches maintaining sales to optometrists since ao's prices were higher than those of many independent labs. optometrists, many struggling to make a living (the median income for optometry in 1945 was $2,500/year-in 1990 it was over $50,000), were eager to take advantage of lower priced independent labs, many of whom used lenses made by companies other than ao or b&l. so, ao put on a "dog & pony show" to promote professional optometry and the "american plan." optometrists were told to remember they were professional men. they were urged to move to upstairs professional offices, severely restrict their advertising, and charge a "fee for service." ao pointed out that if oculists could charge $5 for an examination, the optometrist could charge at least $2. ao further suggested that "materials" and "therapeutic devices" (i.e., lenses and frames-possibly the first reference to these products as "materials") be included in their total fee-based on double their cost. obviously, an ao lab's high price would command a higher fee when doubled-few took the time to figure out they could charge that higher price even if they bought lower cost "materials" from independents. the plan worked-to a degree. many optometrists who moved upstairs proceeded to starve to death economically, cut off from both street traffic and advertising. they donned white coats and started charging fees for all services and materials. they were aided, however, by the advent of world war ii when everything was in short supply and the public had more money to spend than ever before. those "upstairs" professional optometrists pioneered today's professional optometry. 30/7 optical physicists on bank notes: the december, 1998, issue of physics today features an article entitled "fiscal physicists" (volume 51, number 12, pages 38-40), in which lloyd kannenberg writes about physicists who have had their portraits on bank notes in various countries. some of those he listed are persons noted for their contributions to optics and vision. for example, the ancient greek philosopher democritus, who had a theory of vision, was on the 20 and 100 drachma notes issued in greece in 1955 and 1967. rene descartes was on the french 1 00 franc noted issued from 1 942 to 1 944. carl friedrich gauss was portrayed on the 1 0 mark note issued in germany in 1 989 and 1991. christiaan huygens was on the 25 gulden note from the netherlands (1955). isaac newton's portrait was on the 1 pound note in the united kingdom (1978 to 1982). ole re~mer, the danish physicist, astronomer, and statesman who studied the speed of light, was represented on 50 kroner notes issued in denmark from 1 950 to 1970. kannenberg also includes in his list the american bills on which benjamin franklin has appeared ($50, 1874; $10, 1879; $100, 1929 and 1996 to the present). d.a.g. * * * managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (1050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 30/8 1999-30-01-001 1999-30-01-002 1999-30-01-003 1999-30-01-004 1999-30-01-005 1999-30-01-006 1999-30-01-007 1999-30-01-008 newsleti'er of the qrl'ometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boufevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) vol. 16. april 1985 ntntber 2 optometry ubrar~ may 81985 those of you who read with interest the short piece on rudnii&na linivfr~ity optical apprentices in the january o.h.s. newsletter might have wondered what this subject had to do with president andrew jackson's spectacles. the answer is absolutely nothing. for the first time, and hopefully the last, an error was made at the printers and i missed it. specifically pages 3 and 4 were omitted. presumably all copies are deficient, so these two pages have been printed back to back and are included as a separate sheet inclusion with this issue. d.k.p. 1985 o.h.s. officers the five-member executive board has voted among themselves for the 1985 officers. they are as follows: president vice president secretary-treasurer trustees your vote counts jerome abrams pat carlson maria dablemont james leeds andrew fischer ~·***~****~**~*~~**~a*~i*~***~~**: ~ !ndiana univ:::rsity ~ * ~ : : ;~ may 3 1985 r * ~ ~ . ~ ~ * • li. library serials dept. ; :·· ·~·: i. 'f.• ****:ltt:·j:~':-~~ *'**t:f:1"1'f?. ~·'* ,, *1: ±-j: "ki: *~":~"\· .; you will find a second separate sheet with this issue of the newsletter. as you will see it requires your vote on two proposed changes of the o.h.s. by-laws. all o.h.s. members are requested to vote and return the sheet to maria dablemont as soon as possible. about our membership infonned of the addition of 12 new names on our o.h.s. membership roster we again checked our geographic distribution, sanething we have not done in several years. as of january 1 we had 250 members, so of whom were from 19 countries other than the u.s.a., representing all of the populated continents except south america. the 200 u.s.a. members showed a distribution roughly correlated with the population density, with double digit numbers in the more populated states of california 33, indiana 21, pennsylvania 16, ohio 15, and new york 14. thirty one states showed from one to nine members each, and 14 states, alaska, arkansas, idaho, kentucky, louisiana, montana, nevada, new mexico, north dakota, rhode island, utah, vennont, west virginia, and wyoming, showed none. seven members were listed for the commonwealth of puerto rico. 22 our above-mentionerl 12 new manbers include four who receiverl gift memberships from dr. andrew fischer, namely, drs. robert h. kraskin, j. eonald kra~z, earl h. ridgeway, and john r. wittekind. ms. valda strawbridge 'receiverl a gift membership from dr. charles letocha. the following persons joinerl on their own: drs. gibert b. cohen, dale d. freeburg,· billy c. greene, frerler ick t. heller, andrew m. hlusak, fiiward c. johnson, and richard e. talcott. a new museun the optical heritage museum, fonnerly called the american optical museum, is now a nonprofit organization separate from the american optical corporation, reports its director and curator, john m. young. located on route 131 in southbridge, massachusetts 01550, it has been rated amonj the top optical museum:s in the world. mr. young promises a brief description of its origin, aims, facilities, etc. as soon as possible. special interests new o.h.s. member edward c. johnson, o.d., p.o. box 1065, kingstree, south carolina 29556 expresses a particular interest in antique eyeglasses and their craftsmen. obviously other o.h.s. members have special historical interests, which we would be pleased to mention in this n~wsletter. your editor hofstetter, for example, happens to collect cartoons related to optometry, vision, optics, and the eye. for historical reasons he attempts to date each cartoon, at least by year, if at all possible. ophthalmic appraiser responds: o.h.s. member alan york, o.d., 1 main street, east hampton, new york 11937 (telephone 516-324-1024) infonns us: re your inquiry for appraisers in the field of antique spectacles, as well as ophthalmic instrumentation, appurtenances and memorabilia, please add my name to the list. i have done this before for same of the largest collections extant and i comply with all of the~new rules and regulations of the internal revenue service. optometer collectors: mr. sheldon bucher, r.r. 2, orangeville, pennsylvania 17859, u.s.a., telephone (717) 784-3237 offers for sale an optometer which he believes is about 100 years old. it consists of a square wooden rod about 25 em lof¥3 with scale nlltlbers 1 to 60 ranjif¥3 from a positive spherical lens in the apenture of a flat plate at one end to a sliding block with a letter fixation target moveable from the other end. the optometer is marked "made in u.s.a." 23 differences vs. snnilarities the fact that the refractive error of one eye may be 1.000 when the other is 1.250 is ordinarily regarded by an optometrist as a significant difference. an anthropametrist on the other hand may well regard it as a remarkable snnilarity. in an analogous way in a recent article the historical professionalization of optometry as it occurred separately in britain and in australia is viewed by two sociologists as contrastingly different, whereas many of us, such as i , have been nnpressed by the remarkable similarities of professional developnent in those two countries, especially as compared for example to developnents in optometry on the the continent and in the orient. the two sociologists are alan fielding and evan willis of monash university, clayton, victoria, australia. their paper is titled, "fran optician to optanetrist: the professionalization of the british and australian sight-testing occupations" in the septanber 1984 issue of the australian journal of optometry, vol. 67, no. 5, pp. 157-170. their analysis compares and contrasts the historical developnent of ophthalmic optics in britain and optometry in australia fran their earliest occupational identities to their present status as accredited professions. included in their comprehensive review are the professions' relationships with government, with other competing or otherwise concerned occupational groups, and with public and private welfare insuring agencies, as well as their educational and qualification provisions, their vocationally related literature, their institution of ethics codes, the formation of membership organizations, the variously emerging concepts of professional roles and identities, and the concurrent technological advances. much credit for the differences of development patterns is attributed to the fact that britain has a unitary political system of government while australia's is a federal one. in spite of the conclusion that in the two countries "professionalization was negotiated in different ways ••• within the context of different political systems and ideologies" the authors point out certain similarities in the professionalization of each. "both can be described as value-rational organizations committed to the service ideal of eye-care" and "both can be described as members of a bureaucratic profession." altogether, the article is a well formulated document with perhaps only one historical flaw, the repeated mention of optametry' s "conflict with medicine" instead of careful identification of its conflict with only one small segment of the very complex medical profession. in the same view the reader is not prevented fran harboring the popular notion that the british ophthalmic opticianry and australian optometry historically invaded a previously undisturbed field of medicine when in fact the inverse is true. one aspect that the authors do not attempt to evaluate is the role of leadership in the professionalization process, though they do occasionally identify an individual by name. is this not sociology, too? h.w h. 24 a decade of history: the vision educational foundation began operating in novanber of 1973 as a tax exempt, not-for-profit organization chartered by the state of tennessee and until june of 1976 was under the auspices of the southern college of optometry. during fiscal year 1983-84 the v.e.f. received contributions rqnging between $25 and $1,00@ from 473 optometrists and 31 optical finns~ it has undertaken a_variety of projects, all in support of excellence in optometric educational programs and student aid. a copy of the 1984 report, "our first decade of service" is available from v.e.f., ll north montgomery, memphis, tennessee 38104. curious ocular expressions: "a hog on ice and other curious expressiqns" is the title of a book by charles earle funk originally published by harper & row in 1948 and later as a paperback by warner books, inc. in september, 1972. dr. funk, a noted lexicographer, attempted to trace and describe the origins of more than four hundred picturesque phases that have added pungency and color to our language. at least five are eye-related, as follows: "the apple of one•s eye," "to cast sheep•s eyes at," "to pull the wool over one•s eyes," "a peeping tam," and "to cut one• s eye teeth." same are believed to date back to the ninth century. not included is "seeing eye to eye," and perhaps many other eye-related phrases that recrlers might well bring to our attention for mentioning in future issues of this newsletter. the five above listed expressions can be said all too succinctly and less pungently to mean a precious possession, to gaze upon amorously, to hoodwink, a pruriently prying person, and to acquire wisdom. a passing fancy: according to an item on page 89 of the may 31, 1905, issue of the jeweler• s circular-weekly an invention called a micro-photoscope "was recently described in miatt• s quarterly review." it consisted of a pair of spectacles with one or a number of minute photographs arranged along the upper rim or rims, as illustrated in the here reproduced sketch. an ingeniously made li!cro-photo:scope. 25 "the minute photographs are placed behind sui table magnifying glasses, and are so arranged that the eyes of the wearer may see either one or all of the photographs without moving the spectacles. they may be photographs of written or printed matter, maps, views, landscapes, or any group of objects from which a photograph may be taken." it is suggested that the micro-photoscope would be useful to lecturers, lawyers, clergymen, tourists, shopkeepers, doctors, musicians, detectives, and students. the cited journal, ~iatt's quarterly review, was started in 1901, apparently in new york city, and presumably short livoo, possibly terminating in 1902, as no later issues are listed in the union list of serials. the jewel young award: technically not an optometrist, but for 59 years in the service of optometry and optanetrists, jewel young has been manorialized by an annual award in her name to be made to an "optometric assistant/therapist who best exemplifies the role of assisting the optanetrist in the in-office practice of behavioral optometry." she started her career in dr. e.b. alexander's office in 1923, helped organize the optometric extension program in 1928 and headed its office staff until she retired in 1982. the award was established by marie and hamer hendrickson, o.d., in 1984 and is administered by the optometric extension program foundation, inc. the benjamin pikes: shortly after his arrival from england in 1804 benjamin pike (1777-1863) opened an optical shop at 147 pearl street in new york city. meyrowi tz, aitchison, and many others who became noted american opticians received their early training under pike. eventually he was joined by his sons benjamin jr. (1809-1864) and daniel (1815-1893) under the name of benjamin pike and sons, but in 1839 benjamin pike jr. established his own business at 166 broadway and later at 294 broadway to specialize in "optical, mathanatical, and philosophical instruments." benjamin jr's. catalog of 1848, issued in two volumes, was regarded as a set of veritable text-books containing detailed descriptions and "upwards of 750 engravings of apparatus for many sciences." in spite of his broad range of products and services pike seems never to have neglected his primary vocation--optics. modestly referring to himself in the third person he assures the reader of the catalog "that in regard to spectacles, eye glasses, and lenses for optical purposes of every description, his assortment is most authentic and complete. to this branch of his business he devotes special attention, furnishing glasses or pebbles that are truly ground and properly fitted to the eye." the above and other glowing details of the optical and optometric contributions of .the pikes are described in a 1940 book entitled "the tools of the chanist; their ancestry and american evolution" by ernest child, reinhold publishing co., new york, and in the september 1, 1941, issue of the aptical journal and review of aptametry, vol. 78, no. 17, pp. 23-24, under the title "benjamin pike, jr., pioneer in american optics" by otto l. bettmann, ph.d. 26 for itinerant spectacle peddler: item num~ 20r375 in the 1902 sears-roebuck mail order catalog was an optician's spectacle fitting outfit reports o.h.s. member john m. young, director and curator of the optical heritage museum in southbridge, massachusetts. the following is the catalog description: it is a well known fact that opticians make very large profits and it is perfectly right that they should do so, as the customer who buys a pair of spectacles not only pays for the goods that he actually receives, but he also pays for the labor and skill required in fitting the spectacles. with our outfit and special infoonation we furnish, spectacle fitting becomes a simple and easy matter. we include with our big opticians' outfit a complete book of instructions, giving special inside information on the testing of eyes and the fitting of spectacles. with our outfit and our special book of instructions the correct fitting of spectacles is an easy business to learn. no long and difficult study is required, everything is perfectly simple and easy. within forty-eight hours after receiving one of these outfits you will know more about .. the spectacle business than your local optician or jeweler, and you can start right into a pleasant and profitable profession. our opticians' outfit contains everything necessary for starting in the spectacle business. all the apparatus for testing eyes, including a set of extra quality trial lenses contained in a fine folding pocket case, a high grade optometer for testing the eyes, an assortment of test types and charts. in addition to the apparatus for testing the eyes we include a complete line of spectacle goods, such as spectacle frarres, eyeglass hooks, spectacle cases, etc. in short, everything you will need. the optical business is pleasant because you are independent. you are not subject to any individual company, corporation or camnunity. you have no boss or bosses; you conduct business to suit yourself. you travel in good style, stop in good hotels. everywhere you are respected and looked up to by the communities you visit, and are placed in an assured position, commercially and socially, with the best people with wham you cane in contact. the price was $27.85. emmetropic robots: the beginning of another historical evolvement has been.that of machine vision, the title of a report on pages 81-82 of the january 1985 issue of photonics spectra, vol. 19, no. 1. same of us have been familiar with it only in the foon of automatic money changers in a few public places. the machine vision business however is currently enjoying an annual growth rate of 50 per cent. the number of manufacturers of machine vision systems has grown from 30 to more than 150 over the past 27 four years alone, estimates one leading authority. examples of their specific visual tasks include monitoring of snack-food products for discoloration, shape, and breakage; inspection of fish fillets for bones and contaminants, and inspection of printed circuit boards for flaws. two gennan finns have even developerl a three-dimensional vision machine which can locate and identify the object in view and position an ann to grasp it. more about schwunmer: we were prompted by advice from ohs member duane polzien that james j. gardner, o.d. of chicago might recall same facts about optometrist reinhardt h. schwimmer who was gunned down in the st. valentine's day massacre of 1929. a few details had been given in the april 1975 issue of the n.o.h.s., vol. 6, no. 2, p. 26. replying to our inquiry, dr. gardner added, "sorry i cannot add much about dr. reinholdt schwirrmer. the only facts i can gather was that he was a bachelor with a small but selective practice on the near north side of chicago. he was a compulsive poker player and did not choose his company wisely. his demise came from associating with gcmblers of the underworld and was about to begin an all day session with the card sharks when the massacre took place. sorry but infonnation about more details seems too elusive." vision, personality, and behavior: my attention was called to an interesting and infonnative but undoubtedly out-of-print book that may nevertheless be available in your local library. it is by the noted ophthalmologist patrick trevor-roper and entitled "the world through blunted sight," published in 1970 and 1971 by thames and hudson, london. dr. trevor-roper undertook to describe the influence of various alterations, anomalies, and impainnents of vision on personalities and perfonnances, and especially of historical notables. most accurately he states in his preface, "it is always rash for a scientist to venture from the solid shores of his exact science into such speculative waters; and, if i have seemed to flounder among too many unrelated disciplines, let me plead that, by constantly retreating behind the theories and experiments of others, i have tried to let these speak for themselves, and only rarely presumed myself to arbitrate." approximately a third of his 196 cited references are primarily history oriented. almost all of the 29 color plates and 78 monochrome plates are illustrations of portraits and other classic pieces of art in which the visual conditions of the artists may have played roles. the text deals categorically and intelligently with the influences of such conditions as ametropia, presbyopia, color vision, squint, eye dominance, aniseikonia, media opacities, visual field losses, total blindness, and even recovery from total blindness. discussed incidentally are the 28 vision relaterl phenomena of synesthesia, behavioral resp:mses to color, color artistry in birds and mammals, color in dreams, and psychedelic art. though reference is made to spectacles as a personality factor, no mention is made of the impact of contact lenses. h.w.h. eponyms, preservatives of history: the dictionary of visual science includes hundrerls of eponyms ranging alphabetically fran abadie's sign to zuber effect, but it offers no biographical infonnation about than. steps are being taken, however, to do so in the fourth erli tion. the undertaking was recently volunteererl by our own o.h.s. co-erlitor douglas penisten, who is now setting up a file and a resource searching procerlure to track down the vi tal data of the eponymous donors. hardly had he begun when we receiverl the following most welcome letter from o.h.s. member charles b. margach, editor of the serial curriculum ii publisherl by the optometric extension program foundation: as you well know, much of the history of the the health care fields is encapsulaterl in the eponyms which stud our technical dictionaries and literature. it may be of interest to the optometric historical society that hamer hendrickson, o.d., is writing, for eventual publication in the curriculum ii papers of the optometric extension program foundation, a series of 12 chapters listing and discussing eponyms that are found in the literature of behavioral optometry. these papers will by no means be all-inclusive of optometric eponyms. rather, they will deal with a limiterl group of names, many of whom were instrumental in developing procerlures and instruments still in use in visual training regimens. this mano is providerl for your infonnation only. it may be that the hendrickson series will contain information which you dean to be of historical significance that o.h.s. might wish to be involverl in dissaninating it .more widely than it would otherwise be, or at least making certain that it is includerl in the historical docufnents which i am sure o.h.s. is collecting. the exact dates for the publication of the hendrickson material are not yet establisherl. we had hoperl that they would be the year from october 1985 through september 1986. however, it appears that this is too optimistic, but that it will rather be the o.e.p.f. 1986/1987 year. your comments, at your convenience will be appreciated. it happens that ohs member henry knoll also has undertaken to pull together some vital data about several of the eponymous dictionary entries. needless to say, dr. penisten and the dictionary editors welcome all the help they can get. h.w h. 29 21 years more of 21 points: ohs manber and professor of physiology gerald westheimer of university of california, berkely, writes: i would like to add a footnote to your january 1985 itan, "oep in australia" in which you report that final year optometry students at the university of new south wales received class notes on the 21 point technique in 1964. in our final year (that was in 1943) at the precursor institution, the sydney technical college, we pooled resources and hired a typist to copy several hundred pages of notes on the 21 point technique made available to us by an instructor, who himself was skeptical but felt that we might want to know other points of view. on the other harrl, we had to learn essentially everything in ensley• s "visual optics". i don• t believe that the intervening decades have oubnoded that approach to optometric education. ocular prosthesis history: 'l'he following is a brief note of interest from ind.iana university librarian emeritus elizabeth egan: william fitzhugh, 1741-1809, was a wealthy virginia planter. a portrait of him hangs in the robert e. lee boyhood home, a national museum, in alexandria, virginia. in the portrait one eye looks strange, supposedly because it was a glass eye. recently a visitor--an oculist or an optometrist-told the docent in charge that mr. fitzhugh could not have had a glass eye at the time, presumably because none was manufactured as yet. the visitor, however, was wrong, as glass eyes had been made in europe since the early 1700's. perhaps he was thinking of the u.s.; glass eyes were not manufactured in this country until 1851, when pierre (or peter) gougelman, a pupil of boissonneau in paris, started the manufacture of artificial eyes in new york. before that glass eyes would have to be imported, as were many other manufactured goods. for the historical record, william fitzhugh's daughter married george washington parke custis, the grandson of martha washington (arrl crlopted grarrlson of george washington). the daughter of this couple married robert e. lee. boissonneau was considered the outstanding eye-maker of france and of the continent. his understudy gougelman, a swiss, became interested in america through same americans who had cane to paris to have eyes made. he opened his business on van dam street in new york city. 30 an excellent review entitled "artificial eyes, the early history of ocular prostheses" by carey p. mccord is in the february 1965 issue of the journal of occupational medicine, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 61-68. it includes ten references. more artificial eye history: a brief historical commentary on artificial eyes appeared anonymously in the century of progress issue of the optical journal and review of aptometry, vol 70, no. 12, june 15, 1933, pages 99 & 141. no references 'i.\lere cited. following are some of the interesting but undocumented assertions: "artificial eyes were first made of enameled metal. this method, however, was unsatisfactory and the metal eyes were replaced by china ones. when advanced methods of glass making were introducerl , clear glass was substituterl for china." "the first artificial eyes were brought to this country about 75 years ago." "in 1898 snellen invented what is known as 'double-shell' eyes." "golf presents one of the heaviest casualty lists for eyesight losses." · the wills hospital and aptometry: james wills, jr., a bachelor and menber of the society of friends and the heir and grocery bqsiness associate of his father james wills, sr., died january 22, 1825, and bequeathed the bulk of his estate of over $ll6,00 "to the mayor and corporation of the city of philadelphia ••• to erect ••• suitable buildings and accommodations for a hospital or asylum, to be denominated -'the wills hospital for the relief of the indigent blind and lame'." contestants of the validity of the will delayed its implementation until a court decision on march 21, 1831, favorable to the city, thereby assuring the founding of the wills hospital. a hundred years later, 1931, the j.b. lippincott company published a 350 page book by william campbell posey, m.d., and samuel horton brown, m.d., entitled, "the wills hospital of philadelphia." in the· preface the authors infonn us that, "this hospital witnessed the birth of ophthalmology ••• " aoo that "as a school for opht.halmology, no other institution in america, perhaps, has been of so great influence in the education of physicians in that branch of medicine." because this book was written in the wake of the long and intense conflict between ophthalmology and optometry during the two decades of enacbment of optometry licensing laws and during the final phases of dichotomization of opticianry into optometric and dispensing categories, one could expect a biased treabment of the historical facts. this is not exactly true. only once in the book does the word optometrist occur, but in that era even among those licensed as optometrists the tenn was not utilized very persistently. the public then knew all of us more 31 familiarly by our earlier traditional identity as opticians. quite unexpectedly, therefore, we find chapter xiii, 29 pages in length, dealing with "refraction, the developnent of the correction of ametropia. optical department. opticians." in this chapter, and occasionally in other chapters, the various roles of numerous opticians (optanetrists) are described. names included all of the five generations of mcallisters, james matthews, james w. queen, walter b. dick, christopher huber, w. reed williams, henry huber, joseph zenbmayer, samuel l. fox, john g. gray, ivan fox, john l. borsch, charles f. wall, r. and j. beck, john w. sidle, john ochs, william l. wall, j. harry bowers, h.c. boden, williams. yarnall, herman bonschur, arthur hobnes, joseph c. ferguson, jr., daniel.e. weston, p.e. limeburner, joseph haines, frank muller, william f. rennold, charles meistu, thomas e. lander, john w. cleary, and others, all of the philadelphia area. in the later dichanotous evolution sane of these elected to pursue ophtha~ic dispensing or optical fabrication careers instead of optometry. the inclusion of refraction by ophthalmologists in the hospital did not occur until 1865 with a subsequently very slow annual increase of numbers of refractive cases to 185 in 1872 and a rapid climb beginning in the '80s reaching 10,054 in 1930. in 1924 the hospital established its own optical dispensing deparbment for the sale of glasses. the following are excerpted paragraphs concerning the second optometric generation of the mcallister line, john mcallister, jr.: john mcallister, jr., the son of john mcallister, sr., was born in philadelphia in 1786, while his father was still residing at the northeast corner of second and market streets. he received a good education being graduated in arts from the university of pennsylvania with honors in 1803. he always manifested great interest in his alma mater and made an eloquent address to the alumni in 1876, when ninety years of age. the records of this firm are interesting reading, showing that j. mcallister, jr. , had a deep interest in all kinds of research of a physical nature. tradition has it that george washington obtained his glasses of john mcallister, sr., while among the customers of the son were such notables as thomas jefferson (1806), chief justice tilghman (1815), count joseph bonaparte (1818), henry clay (1828), president andrew jackson (1841), et. al. john mcallister, jr., was of scholarly habits and very fond of collecting historical data. he was made a member of the historical society of pennsylvania in 1828, and read a number of papers before that body. he was elected manager of the wills hospital in 1848 am acted in that capacity until 1854, when he resigned, but served a second tnne from 1857 to 1859. his interest in optics, as well as his standing in the city, must have made him a most acceptable member of that body. it is probable in the early years of the life of the hospital that all patients needing glasses were sent to mcallister for than, the surgeons relying upon hnn to test the eyes of the patients as well as to grind the lenses. note has already been made of his 32 detecting and correcting the first case of astigmatism in america. the business was conducted at 48 chestnut street for thirty years, when renoval was made to 728 chestnut street. the firm partnersip was dissolved in this year, and its name changed to mcallister and brother. this partnership was also dissolved and in 1865 william y. mcallister continued the business alone until 1882, when he retired, his sons william m. and j.c. mcallister succeeding him. a third son, f.w. mcallister, had started an optical house in baltimore same years prior to his father's retirement. this business is still being carried on, by his son -an optometrist -a great-great~grandson of john mcallister. altogether, although the book deals almost entirely with ophthalmology and ophthalmologists, it may well be the best available published account of the status of optometry in nineteenth century u.s.a. abbe and schott: "the collaboration between ernst abbe (1840-1905) and otto schott (1851-1935) and its effects on optical glass development and optical instrument design in jena at the end of the 19th century" is the translated title of an article by c. hofmann in the november/december 1984 issue of augenoptik, vol. 101, no. 6, pp. 162-168. part 1 is a review of the image-forming quality of optical systems· prior to the formation of jenaer glaswerk in september 1884. jenaer glaswerk was a familiar short name for an enterprise entitled "glastechnisches laboratoriun von schott und genossen " (the schott and associates glass technology laboratory) incorporated by ernst abbe, otto schott, carl zeiss, and roderich zeiss with starting capital of 60,000 german marks. with the cooperation of several other german scientists, including helmholtz, and several industrial and governmental agencies another 60,000 marks were fortocaming in support of the project in 1884 and 1885. part ii describes the efforts by abbe to improve the color correction of microscope objectives prior to 1880. part iii is a review of the development of phosphate, borax, and barium glass by schott and abbe between 1880 and 1883. part iv provides an account of the founding of jenaer glaswerk and the resultant improvements of optical glass between 1884 and' 1886. part v is a sunmary of the effects of the newly developed jena optical glasses in the improvement of microscopic, telescopic, and photographic optics of the 19th century. included are five graphic charts of the optical properties of various types of glass and 30 bibliographic references. leonardo on the eye: this is the title of a 1979 book by donald sanderson strong published by garland publishing, inc., new york and london, as one of their outstanding dissertations in the fine arts. it is in fact dr~ strong's 1967 dissertation for the ph.d. degree in art history at the university of california, los angeles. 33 this book includes a reproduction of leonardo's manuscript d, abbreviaterl ms.d, also callerl codex d, the original of which is in biblioth~e nationale, paris. it was acquirerl by the institut de france in 1796 as a prize of the napoleonic wars. believed to have been written between 1505 and 1510, it apparently was in the possession of a succession of family heirs until sold circa 1620 and donaterl by the purchaser to the ambrosian library where it remainerl until napolean removed it to france. it is the briefest of leonardo's known codexes, 20 pages, 10 recto and 10 verso, 25 x 16 an. in size, with 61 drawings, an orderly canpilation of notes on optics, sanetimes referred to as a treatise on the eye. a translation into english had been made by nino ferrero years earlier and published in the april 1952 issue of the american journal of ophtha~ology, vol. 35, no.4, pp. 507-521, but, according to the journal editor's footnote, for the sake of clarity a few passages that were·. rerlundant or too obscure had been deleterl. this may explain the anission of ferrero's translation of the marginal notes concerning contact lenses on verso 7 which were later reported by hofstetter and graham in the january 1953 issue of the american journal of getametry and archives of american academy of optanetry, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 41-44 and again very recently by hofstetter in the december 1984 issue of contact lens forum, vol. 9, no. 12, pp. 15-17. without the little drawings of the contact lens the legend would indeed have seemerl obscure. strong's translation is not only complete in every detail, but he provides copious canmentary on leonardo's method of scientific investigation, the formal tradition of optics at the time, leonardo's accanpanying artistry, and the chronology of his manuscripts. strong points out that "leonardo's apparent lack of precision in his use of technical language has created ·same awkward problems for scholars in the translation of leonardo's notes on optics." the term "luce," for example, means light but sometimes seems to be synonymous with "pupilla," meaning pupil. "leonardo's almost indiscriminate use of the tenns spetie, similitudine, simulcra, and eidola for images has long :been a problem for leonardo scholars." strong's translation of the marginal contact lens notations on page 7 verso is a~ost identical to that of ferrero. on diligence, accuracy, and history: in a two volume set of books entitled "contact lenses, the ciao guide to basic science and clinical practice" erli ted by oliver h. dabezies and published by grune and stratton, 1984, $199.00, the first chapter of 18 pages is entitled "history of contact lenses" by robert f. heitz. an interesting erlitor's footnote crerlits dr. heitz for having "painstakingly researched this topic" and states that "there is every reason to believe that it is a correct interpretation of this topic. the chapter, however, does not represent an official position of the contact lens as~iation of ophthalmologists." an historical position indeed! 34 dr. heitz opens his chapter with, "the history of contact lenses is widely misconstrued, even by physicians who frequently fit contact lens." the remainder of the paragraph is in the nature of a reprimand of past authors for lack of thorough study of original material, relying instead on the writings of their predecessors. the tirade does not end there. the next section is boldly titled the alleged discoveries. in the first paragraph the author gives his own definition of "cosnetic" and "therapeutic" contact lenses and then adds "any historical reference to an optical system that does not conform to these definitions should not be considered part of the history of contact lenses." next he undertakes to discredit the interpretations of hofstetter and graham (american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of optometry, vol. 30, no. 1, january 1953, pp. 41~44) by declaring that they based their conclusions on leonardo's sketch of a face "plunged into a suspended spherical bowl filled with water." then, without providing direct translation of leonardo's notes he concludes, "these sketches thus concerned only image reversal and in no way suggested the concept of a contact lens." his accanpanying illustration consists of a reproduction of parts of two pages from leonardo folios but with a portion of the legend missing. the missing legend was that which included the three actual sketches of.contact lenses. other readers, like dr. heitz, have essentially ignored, so to speak, the small print, the brief notes in the margin of leonardo's folio 7v. for that reason, i recently isolated the original marginal script and, with a translation by a competent reader of old italian, published the script and the translation as a separate article in the december 1984 issue of contact lens forum, vol. 9, no. 12, pp. 15-17 under the title "leonardo's contact concept." i mailed a reprint of my article to dr. heitz. in a very prompt and courteous four-page reply he assures me that our contact lens interpretation is incorrect. i disagree. h.w h. two more hirschberg volumes: comments on volume i of the eleven volume series of frederick c. blodi's translations of julius hirschberg's "history of ophthalmology" appeared on page 15 of the july 1984 issue of this newsletter, vol. 15, no. 3. volumes iii and iv of the hirschberg series have now arrived, subtitled part i and part ii of the renaissance of ophthalmology in the 18th century. except for an occasional identifying reference to optical attributes of the eye as known variously by descarte, kepler, scheiner, helmholtz, javal, huygens, robert smith, porterfield, et al, volume iii is almost entirely concerned with surgery and medical treabnent. the only specifically optometric canmentary seems to be a reference on pages 67-68 to daza de valdes, who "wrote in 1623 the first book about the use of 35 spectacles and he was also the first to mention that all those patients who had their cataracts couched would need far distance vision convex lenses in a strength of 11-12. for near vision they need glasses of 20. these lenses will be necessary forever, but they hardly ever need to be changed." daza de valdes is identified as a "lawyer and notary" rather than as an ophthalmic optician or optometrist. his contributions are mentioned to support hirschberg's interesting assertion that, "we see here that the practical aspects preceded the theoretical explanations. before anybody knew what a cataract really was and what a cataract operation meant .the correct cataract glasses had been invented." volume iv similarly deals almost exclusively with surgery and medical treabnent with same emphasis on biographical notes concerning early ophthalmologists and their clinical methods. however, pages 29-37, including several early references, relate the history and literature of the artificial eye. also, pages 264-340 deal with the optical and visual science contributions of newton, huygens, bouguer, lambert, locke, de la hire, ott, pemberton, jurin, porterfield, haller, et al. in this connection hirschberg states that the great progress of physiological optics of the 18th century "were at first made not by practicing ophthalmologists but by mathematicians and physicists, ••• similar to that in the 17th century • • • " ~ distorted historical perspective: in a review of the book "rings: discoveries fran galileo to voyager," by james elliot arrl richard kerr, the mit press, 1985, in the february 1985 issue of scientific american, vol. 252, no. 2, p. 30, reviewer philip morrison makes the following analogy: "it was elliot who led the discovery of the rings of uranus. that find was made possible by the flowering of contemporary technology. just as galilee's first half-recognition rested on a powerful new development that was paramedical (spectaclemaking), so is our astronomy often paramilitary." reviewer morrison is indeed correct in identifying the early telescope with spectaclemaking but at least two and a half centuries off in presuming 16th and 17th century spectaclemaking to be "paramedical" by any criterion. gregg in russian executive board member jim leeds, o.d. has sent me two jewels from his vast book collection. the first book entitled colored glass by e.e. shreiner (mccoy & stilwell, 1919) has been mentioned in this newsletter (april, 1978vol. 9 no.2 p. 17). the second book is a russian translation of "experiments in visual sciences" by o.h.s. member james gregg o.d. printed in moscow in 1970. although i do not read russian it was interesting to make a page-by-page comparison of the two books. all thirty-nine experiments in the original english edition have been reproduced in the paperback russian copy but several of the photographs have been altered or omitted. alterations include changes in the letters 36 illustrating visual acuity charts. one particular omission fran the russian copy is the american flag shown in fig. 18-1, p.65, in the original english edition. the flag was one of several targets to be used in demonstrating after-linages. dr. gregg presented the russian copy to dr. leeds for his collection and stated, "i knew nothing about it lidtil the ophthalmologist who interpreted it into russian sent me two copies ••• i imagine they are the only two copies that exist in america." d.k.p. an anecdotal heatherism: ohs member dan humnel recalls dr. w.j. heather's advice, "when addressing a group and telling stories, stick to old ones. you will start a story and note in the audience people smiling and assuring others it's a good one. this helps the response! 11 dan also adds that, "jere used up the last of my applejack." with his note he enclosed a gift membership in o.h.s. for a. john rose, o.d., chardon, ohio, and a request for dr. galen kintner's address. history of color standards: "call to the colors: progress toward a chranatici ty standard" is the title of an article by ken miller of photo research, a division of kollmorgen corporation, in the february 1985 issue of photonics spectra, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 75-76, 78-80, and 82. included in the metric conversion act of 1975 is the recanmendation of adoption of standards which should bring sane thnely and highly practical benefits to the measurement of light and color. author miller traces the measurement of color to newton but he credits the first adoption of chromaticity and colorhnetry standards to the cie (commission international de l'eclairage) in 1931. subsequent adaptations were rec<mnended by k.l. kelly of the national bureau of standards in 1943 and 1955. proposals by d. macadam led to the 1960 cie unifonn chromaticity space (cie-usc) diagram. further refinements were variously proposed in 1976 wi~ increasing nunbers of disciplines becoming involved. the cie' s task is not yet complete. proprioceptive visual synesthesia: when i wrote my paper on "sane observations of phantom visual imagery, 11 which i presented at the december 1969 meeting of the american academy of optanetry and published in the may 1970 issue of the american journal of optanetry and archives of american academy of optanetry, vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 361-366, i was unable to find any prior mention of the phenomenon which i described. the phenomenon is that of perceiving shadowy images of parts of one's body under conditions for which there is no visual stimulus correlate, namely, in absolute darkness. i suggested that such phantom visual images were initiated by proprioceptive or 37 kinesthetic nnpulses not traversing the retinal pathways. in a recent perusal of an article entitled 110ddities of vision11 by sidney a. field in the april 27, 1899 issue of the optician and photographic trades review, vol. 17, pp. 280, 282, & 284 i came across the following statement, 11helmhol tz • • • was able to see the movement of his ann, in total darkness, by the light of his own eye. 11 field did not cite a specific reference except to say that this statement was made by 11professor tesla in a recent lecture. 11 my co-editor doug penisten then tracked down a book edited by leland i. anderson entitled nikola tesla, 1856-1943: leci'ures, patents, articles, and published by the nikola tesla museum, beograd, yugoslavia in 1956. we found field's very same words in a lecture delivered by tesla on two occasions, in february and march, 1893. tesla added, 11this is one of the most remarkable expernnents recorded in the history of science, and probably only few men could satisfactorily repeat it, for it is very likely, that the luminosity of the eyes is associated with uncanmon activity of the brain and great imaginative power. 11 but how did the famous tesla learn this from the even more famous helmholtz? it seems very likely that they had met, f()r in 1893 helmholtz visited the united states as an official representative of the german governnent at the chicago electrical congress, and during his three months stay he was feted and feasted everywhere. in this same year the power and lighting equipment using telsa's alternating current system was installed at the chicago world's fair. but did telsa, ary! electri<?al engineer .of phenomenal talent, <?ite helmholtz correctly? or, prec1sely what d1d helmholtz say, or wr1 te, or mean? a search of the southall translation of helmholtz's three-volume physiological optics elicited only a single conceivably relevant reference to the 11 appearance of familiar external objects • • • due apparently to a ••• transference of the state of excitation from the part of the brain that is active in the formation of ideas to the visual apparatus, 11 on page 12 of vol. ii. he added, 11certain individuals, for example, goethe and j. mueller, could indeed see similar phenanena at any tnne by snnply closing their eyes and remaining for a long tnne in darkness. 11 this translation is as valid as any i could make fran the original gennan publication. a teasing footnote on the same page gives reference to j. mueller, 11uber phantastische gesichtserscheinungen, 11 (concerning fantastic visual appearances), koblenz 1826, p. 20. the 1826 mueller book does not deal with the very easily induced phantom nnagery which i described in 1969. it deals instead with dreans, hallucination, delirium, clairvoyance, and comparable phantasies in hearing and other senses, with citations of same perceptual fantasy experiences of goethe, darwin, and others plus a german translation of a 10 page paper on the physiology of dreams by aristotle. dr. penisten ·and i searched through three other books of selected writings and popular lectures by helmholtz without success. i am still puzzled by telsa's statement that helmholtz was 11 able to see the movement of his ann in total darkness, 11 but i have found nothing else to convince me that helmholtz and i were observing the same phenanenon. visual 38 synesthesia may well be a legitlinate common classification of the various above mentioned phenomena, but the initiating nonvisual stimuli are quite evidently different. h. w h. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors why belong to the optometric historical society? well!! the plainest reason, of course, is that this is a way to get involved in optometry's history. there are other reasons, of course, like getting the quaj:"terly o.h.s. newsletter, names and addresses of other optometric history buffs, frequent bits of historical infonnation hard to came by otherwise, and -, hang it, if you need more reasons, just forget it, just like the 99% who really don't care. the society offers no rewards, prestige, or easily displayed status symbols, just simple membership at the nominal price of $10.00 per year. perhaps it should be less, or more. the members can vote to change this, almost the only special privilege offered. so, why not belong to the optometric historical society! if you are not already enjoying menbership just send your name and address and a ten dollar check, or amend your will to provide for a $1,000 legacy to the society and get free membership for the rest of your life. contributions to the society are tax deductible in the u.s.a. the optometric historical society dear member: 243 north lindbergh boulevard saint louis. missouri 63141 april l, 1985 this is a request for your vote on two proposed changes of our by-laws. the first would accommodate the various institutional and agency memberships by identifying each with its principal corresponding person. the second would ratify the 1985 increase of dues from $5.00. to $10.00 adopted by the executive board. l. in article iii, sect.ion l, add "whenever the dues are paid in the name of an agency, organization, or institution, a personal designee of the paying entity shall be identified as a member of the society." for against ----2. in article iii, section 4, substitute "$10.00" for "$5.00". for against ----please return this ballot to me at the above address. maria dablemont, secretary-treasurer p.s. the by-laws appeared in t.he january 1970 issue of the newsletter. a copy is available on request. 1985-16-02-001 1985-16-02-002 1985-16-02-003 1985-16-02-004 1985-16-02-005 1985-16-02-006 1985-16-02-007 1985-16-02-008 1985-16-02-009 1985-16-02-010 1985-16-02-011 1985-16-02-012 1985-16-02-013 1985-16-02-014 1985-16-02-015 1985-16-02-016 1985-16-02-017 1985-16-02-018 1985-16-02-019 ,•.l newslb'l''l'er op 'l'q ; : · . ., ~ :·'/"() ~p'l'ome'l'ric historical socib'l'y / __ (243 n~rth ~indbei"qh boul~~~!i,.· . st. lou1s 1 m1ssouri, 63~4~ 1• ,usa},,.~,., : t:.. ..... "" , .. , ... volume 22 october 1991qptometry library number 4 january 1992 newsletter: ind\,li,na university you may find yourself taking a second glance at the heading of the next issue of this newsletter. after twenty two years of being "the newsletter" it will have a new title hindsight. more on this in the next issue. past ohs award recipients: the following list of past ohs award recipients was compiled and submitted by ohs member and ilamo librarian bridget kowalczyk. recognition certificates william g. austin, o.d. martin topaz grace weiner maurice cox israel dvorine, o.d. robert graham, o.d. james r. gregg, o.d. john r. levene, ph.d.(posthumously) irving bennett, o.d. james f. dickson, o.d. jacob staiman, o.d. henry w hofstetter recognition award maria j. dablemont e.j. fisher, o.d. armati•s "tombstone" illustrated: 1982 1983 1983 1984 1984 1984 1984 1984 1985 1985 1985 1987 1989 in the last issue of the newsletter (vol. 22, no.3, p.27) we printed a letter from ohs member dr. robert von sandor in which he detailed his thoughts on the armati "tomb" in florence, italy. in his letter he made reference to the "tomb" design change which occurred when it was moved from the convent to the church. the illustrations below are those sent by dr. von sandor. since publishing dr. von sandor•s letter we have received follow-up responses from both dr. abrams and dr. enoch. these will be published in the next issue of the newsletter. this is becoming an armati serialization! who says history is boring. 22/42 this is the ··memor-ial" befor:-e the demolishinq of the convent. and this is the memorial in the church co day. i:-l l . . . ' . ·.~ ·.• q¥1 ciiac.i:· ;it ~_o:-:;:;:u.•..,•" i qtiyijrl'na ofcu or.'.gff.u i f ~ .. -cuoo-l.&~n . aioi'od>icc~ .. ~·.22/43 optometry at ohio state university: four pages in the march 1991 issue of the ohio state alumni magazine, vol. 82, no. 7, pp. 39-42, are devoted to a feature historical article captioned "can you read this clearly?" by free-lance writer sandra gurvis. supplemented by several early artists' depictions of wearers of contemporary visual aids it describes the museum of the college of optometry. the author interviews the curator arol augsburger at length on historical milestones in eyewear and optometry. the development of the optometry curriculum itself from its establishment in 1914 under sheard's direction and its later expansions under the administrations of deans fry and hebbard is also chronicled. it is written in very popular style but nevertheless quite accurately, not an easy accomplishment. the ocularscope in the collection of ohs member jim leeds is an ocularscope neatly preserved in its original 19 x 14 em mailing envelope addressed to a "john w. golden, box 73, dunbar, pennsylvania" from "grand rapids wholesale opticians, ledyard building, corner monroe and ottawa sts., grand rapids, michigan, u.s.a.", with a 4-cent stamp and an illegibly smudged postmark. the legend on the ocularscope declares it patented in the united states on december 18, 1903, and in canada on november 3, 1903. a typed letter of transmittal and order advice is dated 12/5/1908. accompanying the ocularscope is a packet of originally moist lens cleaners, a card offering the christmas gift of a free calendar with every order for spectacles or eye-glasses received before january 1, 1909, a printed sheet of testimonials from pleased customers, an express money order application form, two spectacle order forms, a paper chart for distance acuity, a 44 page catalogue of spectacles and eye-glasses copyrighted april 3, 1903, in which are listed also spectacle cases, reading glasses, a tripod microscope, magnifiers, hearing instruments, and artificial eyes. the ocularscope itself is a 33 x 5 em stiff laminated cardboard scale cloth-hinged at its midpoint to permit folding into the mailing envelope. it is similarly hinged at one end to a 5 x 5 em cardboard square with linen backing in the center of which is a 15 mm aperture containing a thin lens of about 10 diopters strength. a 7.7 mm square card with a wide slit for sliding along the long scale piece is imprinted with words in very small letters. the scale values consist of alphabet letters in black for old sight and in red for near sight. the customer is instructed to hold the lens end directly in front of one eye, the other eye closed, and to slide the square piece until the words are "clear and perfect". the letter on the scale at which the square piece rests is then entered on the question blank order form shown on the next page. 22/44 . g. r. wholesaii opticians ledyard bldg. cor. ll'oaroe & ottawa ste. grand rapids, micbigan no. receivt:d by ... . .. filled 81' do not wiu'l'b in aliovji spacics date-------------------------------.question blan}\ this bl.ank, carefully filled out, including remittance is all th:j.t is necessary to send. to us when ordenng glasses. grand rapids wholesale opticians: gentlemen-inclosed find $ _________ .; _____________ ...for. which please send me pair of glasses no·--------------------38 illustrated on page ____________________ of your catalog. write plainly name------------------------------·-------------------------( ~~ ~~j:;u~) ------------------------------:---------------tovrn-------------------------------------sta~---------------------a.ge? _________________ occupation? _________ . ______________ -----------------------·-----ever worn glasaes? _________________ if so how long?------------------------------------in testing your eyes with "0c11larscope," on what iet~r, or nearest what letter, c::u1 you see fine print on target the best? with right eye?------"'----------with left eye?:-----------bla.ck or red lettersr _______________ in t-esting your eyes with distant chart, + state the smallest line of letters you· clul sep. at from 15 to 18 fmt away. right eyef ______________ left eye? _____________ is your face large, medium or small? ______________ _ are your eyes wide apart, cl011e together, or about the average distance?----------------------------------------_: _____________ is _your nose between the eyes large, broad, bat, thiu. high, narrow or small? (describe aa near aa yo!l can. aa this is very elledtial)--------------------···.. . . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------do you wish giiisiies for itea.ding? _______ --------------------------------------------do you wish glasses for distance?---------------------------------------------------. do you wish bi-focai.s?-------------------------------------------------------------specbu~-----------------------~----------7---------------------------------+we can not fill your order for glasses unless" we have both reading a-11ld distant tfsr complete. 22/45 the oculometer: an apparent but slightly variant successor to the ocularscope is the oculometer of moore & evans, wholesale jewelers, 218 so. wabash avenue, chicago, ill. the one at hand is also in the leeds collection and had been received by an e.a. waller of stratford, iowa, in a 2-cents postage-due envelope on august 3, 1927. its difference from the tum-of-the-century ocularscope model is in minor construction detail, the test procedure being functionally identical. it, too, is labeled "patented". its accompanying literature and order form lack the apparent sophistication and finesse of the earlier gadget. worth mentioning again: someone has said quite correctly that if one gets nostalgic in a historical museum one is indeed getting old! the latest occasion for me is the perusal of the inventory of the optometry museum at the ohio state university college of optometry. the collection has been mentioned before in our july 1984 and january 1987 issues, on page 68 of volume 15 and page 4 of volume 18 respectively. in the 120-item inventory recently called to my attention are several items which were still in use or in storage there during my years as a student and later as a faculty member, consecutively between 1936 and 1948. several of the items i have never seen elsewhere. the wellsworth twentieth century test type cabinet was still in use when i was a student. it featured a wire mesh screen to prevent flies from leaving specks on the roll chart. the myoculator and kratoculator, a combined unit if my memory is correct, were useful for demonstrating the differential effects of helmholtz's, fick's, and listing's axes on ocular rotation, quite remote from their intended use. the amblyo­ syntonizer was a magnificently impressive instrument of many claims but no proof. the kratometer was the brain child of a south african ophthalmologist who reported marvelous cures of strabismus through its use. etc., etc., etc. the curator is professor arol augsburger, o.d., who would surely send you a copy of the inventory upon request. h.w h. oops! the or~g~n of 20/20 as "normal" visual acuity is described as an error in a brief historical note by antonio augusto velasco e cruz in the august 1990 issue of optometry and vision science, vol. 67, no. 8, p. 661. he reports that helmholtz had arrived at approximately one minute as the smallest visual angle of distinctness by using the combined subtense of a dark bar and a light bar of a grid as his criterion. inadvertently or otherwise, the 28 year old snellen adopted helmholtz's one minute as normal but used the subtense of only the stroke or gap of each block letter instead of the sum of stroke and gap. 22/46 tscherning is quoted as having pointed out this error in 1898. the author suggests that "it is time to believe him." s.l. kumar, 1926-1990: the late surinder lal kumar, a journalist entrepreneur, founded, edited, and published the indian optician in 1968, at which time it was the only journal in india serving the needs of both the industry and the profession. it had been preceded by a discontinued journal of the same name in the '50s. under formidable odds mr. kumar singlehandedly nurtured the journal into a successful venture with a fine reputation. it played a strong mediating role in the development of the trade and industry and in the encouragement of professional optometric development. his surviving family will continue the publication with their assurance that his guiding principles will be followed. much of the history of mr. kumar's personal life and efforts is described in the november/december 1990 issue of the journal, vol.23, no.l23, pp.l0-28. optical society of america: a chronology of key events in the history of the optical society of america appears on pages vii-viii of its 1990-91 membership directory. the chronology starts with its establishment by 30 charter members in 1916. membership reached 200 in 1920 and 400 in 1925, at which time it published the three-volume translation of helmholtz physiological optics. by 1988 the membership exceeded 10,000. promotional humor: among the professional effects of the late otis r. hale, o.d., of kokomo, indiana, was a large manila envelope with 51 sheets of 11 x 14 inch off-white art paper on each of which is a delightful cartoon (two examples shown below) resembling some of the old abe martin cartoons. next to each cartoon is a clever optometric message written in excellent longhand and undersigned otis r. hale, opt. d. they illustrate an optometrically creative promotional effort of a past era. the clothes of the portrayed characters suifgest the late twenties or the early thirties, at which time dr. hale had started practicing. his optometrist son born in 1932 had never seen or heard about the cartoons and could only guess that they appeared in a local newspaper. the collection will be donated to ilamo. .. ' '• • • ' • i ~ o '; ..... ·. f' '. ·. _.: ~: .. . ·: ~ .. ;~ . '. ,::i/{~!;,:;. ~:·~~··;.:::~~~·:;;: _:;·: 22/47 .... · ... :-· ·:,:-:··.:·· . : ....... · ••. to' •:•'• :.: .. ~ .... .•. ·: .. :-···: ..... ·~ . . . :"· ~. . . . ... ,. ; ~ 22/48 see and hear: the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., lists four newly acquired living history interview video cassette tapes as follows: (no. vt-185) (no. vt-186) (no. vt-187) (no. vt-188) dec. 5, 1989. jan. 23, 1990. jan. 29, 1990. feb. 13, 1990. guest: guest: guest: guest: dr. lynn gabriel. dr. robert graham. dr. solon braff. dr. morris applebaum. these were jointly donated to ilamo by dr. margaret dowaliby, the feature host, and the southern california college of optometry. the tapes are 1/2" vhs, about 30 minutes long, and available for loan from ilamo. myth or mirth: maurice belanger reports a patient asking him whether there is truth to the assertion that one-eyed pirates wore a heavy golden earring on the lobe of one ear to enhance and preserve the vision in the remaining eye. the patient also asked if there was any link between this belief and the use of acupuncture. it was further suggested that the shape of the human ear resembles the fetus in the womb, the lobe corresponding to the baby's head. spectacles for myopes: on august 25, 1451, a gentleman from ferrara, italy, wrote a letter to an optician in florence acknowledging receiving four pair of eyeglasses, one pair with broken lenses. he requested that these lenses be replaced with others for "near vision" because three of the four pair were for "distant vision." on october 21, 1462, a milan duke wrote his resident ambassador in florence, "because there are many who request of us eyeglasses that are made in florence • • • we ask you to send us three dozen pair, one dozen ••• for distant vision, that is for the young; another (dozen] ••• for near vision, that is for the elderly; and the third for normal vision." on november 4, 1462, the ambassador sent the glasses to the duke's secretary with the postscript, "these eyeglasses are of four types. let the lord choose those he wants, and let me know because i can send him as many as he likes." on november 20, 1462, the ambassador wrote the secretary that he was pleased to learn "that the duke and duchess had liked the spectacles and expressed greater pleasure at the revelation that they did not need eyeglasses for the elderly but used those for the young." (the duke was 61 and the duchess 37) on june 13, 1466, the son of the then deceased duke requested 200 pair of eyeglasses from the same florence ambassador with labels as follows: 15 pair for ages 30, 35, 40, 22/49 45, 50; 15 pair for ages 40, 45, so, 55, 60, 65, 70; 10 pair for medium vision for the young; and 10 pair for distant vision for the young. these five recently discovered documents provide convincing evidence that concave lenses for myopes date back to at least the middle of the fifteenth century, about a hundred years earlier than we thought. this conclusion and detailed discussion of the evidence and implications appear in an article by vincent ilardi entitled, "eyeglasses and concave lenses in fifteenth-century florence and milan: new documents" in the autumn 1976 issue of renaissance quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 341-360. ohs member charles letocha kindly sent us a copy. much of the article relates also to the evidence that florence had an early reputation for fine eyeglasses, that their manufacture was a major enterprise, and that spectacles were an important aspect of costume art. the author also includes some interesting hypothetical explanations of the dearth of written information about spectacles in the first three centuries following their discovery and the fact that telescopes were not developed until late in the sixteenth century even though the necessary lenses were long and plentifully at hand. a 44 page italian translation of this article with many new data by guido lopez was printed and distributed by metal lux, s.p.a., 20159 milano, italy, via paolo bassi, 9, in 1978. the title is "occhiali alla corte di francesco e galeazzo maria sforza." news from the u.k.: the october 1990 newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club, issue no. 23, reported the reopening of the british optical association foundation museum at 10 knaresborough place in london on september 4 after a two year period of redecoration and re-organization. the rare items on display included a pair of 18th century whalebone temple spectacles, letters from georqe bernard shaw to his optician, a prototype rotary trial case, and many unusual antique ophthalmoscopes. visiting hours, by appointment only, are monday to friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. also reported in the newsletter is a pair of scarlett-type spectacles in the kassel museum;of scientific history. they are signed "temme fecit kassel". ··t811.1de was optician to the court of hessen-kassel at the beginnidcj-o~ the 18th century. in the same issue is a review by c. richard keeler entitled, "early years of the ophthalmosqope", together with 12 illustrations from c. wilbur rucker's "history of the ophthalmoscope", 1971, previously mentioned in the newsletter of the o.h.s •• 22/50 it is quite apparent from their newsletter that the primary interest of the collector's club is in collections, as the name implies. other commentary includes reference to private collections, sotheby's, the clore gallery, the deutsches museum in munich, the wellcome museum of the history of science, and the dolland and aitchison museum. listed as well are eleven antique fairs occurring in the u.k. during october, november, and december. a light touch is provided by the text of an advertisement by john marshall of ludgate street, london, in the daily courant of 17th september 1720 which declares "that an abundance of persons sight is spoiled by using false spectacles sold by toymen and other ignorant persons." wantedhistory!: the following "classified" was passed on to us by ohs member bridget kowalczyk and is being published here at the request of the author, dr. fred brechler. wanted: persons interested in histories of schools and colleges of optometry and optometric education. fred brechler, ph.d., is studying the history of the formation of the school at the university of missouri-st. louis. he wishes to correspond with others to exchange ideas, etc. he's already been in touch with hank peters and henry hofstetter. contact fred at 904 fairway park blvd., ponte vedra beach, fl 32082, phone 904-285-1185. contributing editor: managing editor: *** henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1991-22-04-001 1991-22-04-002 1991-22-04-003 1991-22-04-004 1991-22-04-005 1991-22-04-006 1991-22-04-007 1991-22-04-008 1991-22-04-009 1991-22-04-010 volume 19 forlorn? !\ j .... " •• 'i .. ": .... ~ ., "" : .. lnrt!:w;l ur!l'.'er;i~~-. ·, · ' ubrarj : « .. , .. '11!...... "' .. newst.e'l'll'er. •.. : of the ~ptometric historical society ~(243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) january 1988 () ;j/1'· optometry library mt\r 1 o 1989 iau'ii~;ip "'iliff ' llc:itv number 1 yes, you are reading the first issue of the ohs newsletter of 19881 it was nice to see that many of you missed your quarterly issues. for reasons which would be a bit to rambling to detail, the newsletter material has been piling up over the past many months on the desk(s) of one of your editors, as he shuffled from here to there. during this period, the other editor (h.w h.) has remained patient, yet diligent, in reminding the mobile editor that the piles were still on his desk. so here they come. my apologies to all members. d.k.p. the refractive debut of ophthalmology: when did american ophthalmology begin to involve itself in optometry? in europe, danders' 1864 book is usually thought of as the historic milestone of ophthalmology's entree. according to alvin a. hubbell, m.d., ph.d., in his 1908 book "the development of ophthalmology in america, 1810 to 1870," the specialty's developments were not as rapid in america as in europe. does a page by page perusal of his very thorough historical and biographical text support his assertion in terms of ophthalmology's inclusion of optometric services? in other words, when did american ophthalmology involve itself in the aspects of ophthalmic science and technology more traditionally considered the milieu of optometry or ophthalmic opticianry? the frontispiece of hubbell's book is a portrait of dr. george frick (1793-1870) showing him wearing a pair of glasses, though not in a reading pose or in a stance suggesting his engagement in any visual task. the glasses seem to be part of his normal appearance. the caption labels frick "the father of american ophthalmology." my estimate of frick's age in the picture is about 35 years or younger, which would suggest the date of the portrait to have been about 1828. this was in an era when the medical profession was still highly suspicious of the justification of glasses for anything other than the occasional need to see something that could not otherwise be resolved. frick's willingness to pose with his glasses on seems hardly compatible with the then prevailing medical evaluation of glasses. there being no indications in his 2 biographical notes that he himself prescribed glasses, he must have patronized an optometrist or ophthalmic optician. in the biographical sketches of leading eye physicians and the commentaries on the founding of eye infirmaries, the establishment of ophthalmological teaching centers, and the literature during the 70 year period under review, dr. hubbell's coverage of clinical aspects is almost entirely on surgical accomplishments. the medicinal and therapeutic roles are scarcely mentioned though it is nevertheless clear from the phraseology that medicinal therapy was fully practiced. this may simply mean that few advancements were made in this respect. vision care, and therefore optometry, as a service role conceptually different from medical or surgical eye care appears in dr. hubbell's review to be almost completely foreign to american ophthalmological concern until the appearance of a small book by dr. william clay wallace in 1836. it carried the title, "a treatise on the eye, containing the discoveries of the cause of near and far sightedness, and of the affections of the retina, with remarks on the use of medicines as substitutes for spectacles." a third edition in 1841 varied the title to "wonders of the vision: a treatise on the eye.", and in 1850 dr. wallace authored a 36 page book entitled "the accommodation of the eye to distances", published by john wiley, new york. in 184 7 dr. james w. powell published a book on "the eye: its imperfections and their preventions" in which, according to hubbell, he "deals in the most meager manner with ... rules for the prevention, improvement and restoration of sight, with remarks on near sight and aged sight, on optics, and the uses and abuses of spectacles, with directions for their selection". in 1850 dr. henry w. williams translated and published a french book by j. sichel, m.d., entitled "spectacles: their uses and abuses in long and short sightedness and the pathologic conditions resulting from their irrational employment". in 1854 dr. isaac mentioned the 1828 correction of the rev. mr. goodrich's astigmatism by "skilled optician, mr. john mcallister" in his american edition of lawrence on "diseases of the eye". dr. henry o. noyes described the historical case again in 1872 in a medical journal". the broadly neglected visual theme in the medical journals during the period under dr. hubbell's historical review seems to have been otherwise punctuated only by a few isolated reports. mentioned are a 1813 report of an "inverted vision" case, and 1831 theory of accommodation by changes of pupil size, an 1840 report of a case of color vision deficiency, the 1849 coining of the term "neo-macropia" to identify children needing "convex spectacles which are suited to the eyes of persons from 65 to 70 years of age", the use of snellen test types in 1862, the 1865 introduction 3 of "ciliary gymnastics" (reading exercises) for hypermetropic asthenopia, and in 1866 an expression of concern about the quality of test-type illumination. in his brief penultimate chapter, "the new american ophthalmology", author hubbell makes his only hint of the eventual ophthalmological involvement in refractive care by reference to "the increased knowledge of refraction and physiologic optics." he apparently had in mind especially "donder's revelations •.• in 1859 to 1864" which he had mentioned in the introductory chapter. it seems evident from the review that by 1870 american ophthalmologists had not yet even begun to embrace even the optometric services already described so sophisticatedly in the spanish book by daza de valdez two hundred and fifty years earlier. h.w h. archives begin immediately: his files overcrowded, ohs member edward goodlaw, o.d., almost tossed out his folder of accumulated brochures, announcements, correspondence, etc. pertaining to his regional chairmanship of the 1977 campaign for minor hall. with his archival sense pricking his conscious he forwarded the packet to us as of possible historical interest. indeed, such items rarely are preserved. it so happens, however, that ilamo maintains archives for every optometry school, including whatever materials show up even for extinct ones. this packet will therefore be forwarded to the ilamo archives. the campaign for minor hall, incidentally, was a fund drive to raise almost a half million dollars in private funds to supplement the almost six million dollars of state appropriated funds to construct and equip the optometry addition to minor hall on the university of california campus in berkeley. the contents of the donated packet reveal much of the educational and professional philosophy, aspiration, and dedication that may well not even have been appreciated by many during the drive, and certainly by fewer now. athanasius kircher (1602-1680): according to an article by ohs member colin fryer on pages 27, 31, and 33-34 of the october 9, 1987, issue of optician (london), no. 5118, vol. 194, professor kircher was well educated in logic, languages, philosophy, astronomy, and optics and exercised his intellectual skills in such a variety of activities as to become known as "the doctor of a hundred arts." one of his numerous publications was ars magna lucias et umbrae, 1646, a copy of which is in the boa library, london. says fryer," ••• amongst his inaccuracies and fantasies there is some brilliance and enough learning to make it unjust to label him a charlatan. he had an 4 uncanny knack of making intuitive guesses that eventually proved correct". in the above cited book kircher described a couple of portable cameras obscura, various kinds of single lens microscopes, an instrument with about 100x magnification, a concave mirror magic lantern utilizing sunlight, and several projectors utilizing candles and transparent watercolor slides. apparently fryer derived his information from the british optical association library. he references only a biography by jerome langemantel written four years after kircher's death. english eyecare before 1800 a.d.: in 1933 the cambridge university press published a 255 page book by r. rutson james, an ophthalmic surgeon, for the british journal of ophthalmology entitled, "studies in the history of ophthalmology in england prior to the year 1800." though the book deals quite exclusively with the medical and surgical aspects of eyecare, such eye-related practices ought to give some hint as to the nature, acceptance, and significance of the early spectacle­ fitting services which had been initiated by the invention of spectacles in italy at the turn of the 14th century. dr. james finds no traces of information about the status of ophthalmic care in england prior to the roman occupation in the first century a. d. the only clues for the next four centuries are mostly the variously discovered metal stamps and their wax impressions of latin words identifying the medicinal offerings of ophthalmic healers or oculists. the fifth to eleventh centuries of the anglo-saxon era produced primarily an ophthalmology of leeches, herbs, "starcraft", and superstitious rituals catalogued for a variety of ailments including "dimness of eyes", "bleareye", "mistiness of eye", "bleared eyes", "blindness", and "nyctalopia". the three centuries following the norman conquest of 1066 a.d. saw the introduction of prayer and religious miracles to supplement other forms of cures. penal blinding, i.e., blinding as a penalty for crime in lieu of hanging, was included in the statutes and reached ~its acme under henry the first. in one literary publication tonsure is mentioned as a cure for a student's eyestrain. with the third of these three centuries dr. james identifies what he calls the founding of british optics, the teachings of robert grosseteste (c. 1175-1253), roger bacon (c. 1214-1294), and john de peckham (c. 1230-1294). he referred to them as "a great franciscan triad that introduced into england the scientific and mathematical concepts of optics, refraction, reflection, and related topics. all three were members of the franciscan order and attained high positions in the ministry. 5 the next three centuries, a.d. 1300 to a.d. 1600, are labeled as a "blank in ophthalmological history, broken only. . . by the small tract de cura oculorum of john of arderne". in it are described variously concocted collyria, the good effects of human urine as an eye wash, and numerous strange potions and lotions. applications of tutty (zinc oxide) were quite incidentally recommended to "clear the sight", "increase vision", and as a remedy for "visual defect." it seems a bit challenging to realize that these three ophthalmologically "blank" centuries were the first three centuries following the invention of spectacles. could the craft secrecy of the spectaclemakers guild have been a factor? the seventeenth century saw ophthalmology becoming "more practical and less indebted to astrology, spells and charms than previously." the most famous ophthalmic condition of the century was the blindness of john milton (1608-1674). samuel pepys (16331703) was another celebrated case of ophthalmic trouble, possibly refractive in origin. of the next century dr. james reports, "although the eighteenth century was the heyday of ophthalmic quackery, it saw the foundations laid of modern ophthalmology." included among those mentioned more favorably were william charles wells (17571817) for his essay on binocular vision and, very casually, william porterfield (1696-1771) whose books dealt with the manner and phenomenon of vision. dealt with less favorably and in great detail were several renowned quacks, the most glamorous being the chevalier john taylor (1703-1772). a quack, according to a definition attributed to samuel johnson (1709-1784), is "a boastful pretender to arts which he does not understand" and, medically "as one who proclaims his own medical abilities in public places." other similarly but less profusely described quacks of the eighteenth century included sir william read ( -1715), roger grant, william crosse, and taylor's son and grandson. the lengthy 115 page discourse on the three successive taylors is a reprint from the may 1915 issue of the royal london ophthalmic hospital reports, vol. 20. what is of specific optometric significance is the mere mention that "the chevalier" had an accurate knowledge of optics and refraction of the eye and its optical correction as represented in one of his numerous publications, an account of the mechanism of the eye dated 1721, a copy of which is in the british museum. there seems to be no evidence however, that he was in any manner involved with the fitting of glasses or even approved of them as clinical aids. in summary, although spectacles had completed five centuries of existence, had pervaded every corner of the civilized world, and 6 were broadly appreciated at all levels of society by the year 1800, they were remarkably excluded from the almost wildly encompassing armamentarium of medical and ophthalmological personnel, both the legitimate and the quacks. it prompts one to wonder if this exclusion might be attributable to the successfully monopolistic trade secrecy of the spectaclemakers. the question seems well worth exploring. the above comments are based on a reading of a borrowed copy of dr. james's book from the collection of ohs member james leeds. the evil eye still lurks: in a chapter entitled "life in the villages", jehan sadat, ph.d., widow of the assassinated egyptian president anwar sadat, describes how her late husband's relatives, neighbors, and friends lived in mit abul-kum, the village in which anwar was raised. it is identified merely as a community in the nile delta, a two hour drive from cairo. her observations were mostly in the 1950's and early 1960's. her book, an autobiography, is entitled "a woman of egypt", published by simon and schuster, new york, 1987. "deeply superstitious, many in the village painted their doors blue to ward off the j inns, the evil spirits described in the quran. for more insurance against the evil eye and the curses of the envious, villagers also dipped their hands into blue paint and placed their palmprints on the outside walls to evoke the protective symbol of fatima, the prophet's daughter" (p. 183). on page 191, referring to the widespread ophthalmia of many centuries, she comments, "before the clinic came to mit abul-kum, the villagers protected their babies' eyes by lining the lids with kohl, the black powder that egyptian women had been using for eye makeup since the days of cleopatra." on pages 195-196, in describing a wedding ceremony in the village, she reports, " ... as the bride's party passed ..• the women and i threw pinches of salt into the air to ward off the evil eye." on the next page she adds, "because boys were more valued than girls and therefore more susceptible to the evil eye, some parents even dre~sed their sons in girl's clothing for the first year." a sample of cross's lectures: a recent acquisition of ilamo, a gift from dr. james leeds, is a loose-leaf notebook of 33 typewritten pages entitled diseases of the eye the optometrist should recognize, by a. jay cross. that it is probably a student's classroom notebook rather than dr. cross's lecture notes is indicated by the frequent misspellings of ophthalmic terms and the lack of handling wear of the pages as 7 compared to the more extensive wear of the binder. it may be presumed that this student typed his notes in this very neat form after class, as a few of the more diligent students are wont to do. the binder itself is one flexibly designed for student use with ingeniously flattened rings to permit it to be flat on a desk when open. because the optometry course at columbia university started in 1910 and cross, who was born in 1855, died in 1925, these notes may be estimated to date early in the second decade of this century. the first entry is labeled as cohn's table of "frequent diseases of the eye, verified in 1895". it lists frequencies in per cents totaling 88% for 12 ocular parts ranging from 30% for the conjunctiva to 1/4% for the orbit plus 12% for "refraction." ocular inspection techniques are described and certain simple remedies are suggested for optomet'ric use together with advice on medical referral. under "diseases of the conjunctiva" is the statement that, "the use of so-called eye stones should be discouraged ... " under "trachoma" is the statement that, "trachoma is so contagious that immigrants who arrive with it are immediately deported, ... " concerning "hard and senile cataract" the optometry student is advised to "be careful not to explain fully to patient owing to great alarm often created in the minds of many which may lead to mental depression." further, "in the opinion of one writer the continued vision of an old person is not to be compared in importance with the improvement of vision of a young person whose life work and usefulness is ahead and not behind ... " with reference to skiametry the comment is made that "all medical writers have adhered to what we call the static method wherein they urge the use of a reliable cycloplegic, which practically admits that not all cycloplegics are reliable." added is the statement that, "it was in 1903 that prof. cross ... first gave to the world the principles of the dynamic method which is to the optometrist what cycloplegics are supposed to be to the ophthalmologist as regards the determination of latent errors and mastery of tonic and clonic spasms." the typographical fullness of the last page and the lack of any indication that the course was ended suggest that these notes do not cover the complete series of cross's lectures. the fact that the last ten pages deal entirely with skiametric procedure, theory, and interpretation could lead one to believe that eventually the series might have included other refractive and analytical aspects. nevertheless, the notes do give one quite unintentionally a direct view of the level of sophistication of optometric schooling in a university setting in the early part of this century. 8 the developing optical dichotomy: an interesting reflection on optical history is manifested in a parenthetical remark by paul roman in a rather detailed report on an international optics exhibition in madrid on pages 65-66 of the december 1987 issue of european science notes information bulletin, no. 87-02. presumably paul roman is an optical physicist. the reported event was the "6th expo/optica meeting in the field of optical and acoustical technology, optometry, and electro-optics ..• held in madrid, spain, at the modern premises of the madrid trade fair organization from 24 through 27 april 1987." the parenthetical remark mentioned underlined in the following sentence: exhibits were in the optometry and (disappointing for me, of course) ... " above is included and "the majority of the medical optics areas what his parenthetical remark appears to manifest is the fact that, whereas only about a century ago virtually all of optics was in effect a single comprehensive discipline, there is now a major dichotomy between those in the optometrically related areas and those in other technological phases of optics. the two groups are largely served by separate organizations, separate journals, and separate curricula. those in one group have difficulty even understanding the literature of the other group. they seem superficially related only by the root word optic, and, in the instance of the above reported exhibition, by the umbrella of commercial interests. the 1987 reminisce-in: a business meeting of the executive board of the optometric historical society was held on december 5, 1987, in denver, colorado, with a majority in attendance. a report from treasurer douglas penisten showed a total cash balance of $4910.55 with no outstanding debts. because there has been no membership increase in recent years, considerable discussion was made of possible recruitment tactics. vice-president pat carlson was appointed by president jerome abrams to chair membership development activities. secretary maria dablemont reported numerous activities of ilamo of special i~terest to ohs members because they illustrate how the two organizations complement each other. she also reported that she would not be available for re-election next year as secretary, but that the st. louis address of ohs could be retained by agreement of her staff to forward ohs-addressed mail regulary to the person elected as her successor. following the business meeting thirty or more persons joined the board for a reminisce-in featuring ron fair's delightful presentation of the history of optometry in the state of colorado. accompanied by a musical prelude and postlude from a tape-recorded 9 rendition of the unsinkable mollie brown as sung by debbie reynolds, dr. fair explained that colorado optometry was really "the bloom of optometric history". the bloom of course, was j.c. bloom, 0. d., born in 1867, who piloted colorado's optometry profession throughout a very long lifetime. documentation of dr. fair's account included slides and a display of photographs, news clippings, a medal, early correspondence, minutes of early meetings, scrapbooks, and court records found mainly in the cumulative files of the colorado optometric association with the help of its retired administrative director wm. o'rourke, who was also present. a few of the names of significantly involved persons in the history included a.m. skeffington, otto bebber, and edith gallup. dr. gallup was extremely active as early as 1912 in the encouragement of women· to enter the field. her efforts even included advice on how female optometrists should dress to appear professional. dr. fair's presentation met with resounding applause and long aftertalk by many in attendance who enjoyed the assorted supporting anecdotes. the various archival documents and the optometricana will be donated to ilamo. vision aids atlas planned: an undated letter postmarked december 1, 1987 from audrey b. davis, ph.d., curator, medical sciences division of the national museum of american history informs us that ohs member eric p. muth, ph.d., is a consultant to the division. in his role he is consultant-advisor of a new project, the preparation of an illustrated catalog of vision aids in the museum's collection of approximately 2,500 pairs of spectacles and several hundred diagnostic and therapeutic instruments. dr. muth is seeking funding, labor, technical input, and contributors for the catalog. the progressive phases of the plan include color photography, sorting, identifying, compiling, computerizing, manuscript preparation and publication. included in the museum's acquisitions is a large portion of the famed collection of optometrist bull. dr. muth's address is 25 parkland place, milford, connecticut 06460. his telephone numbers are (203) 878-8260 and {203) 8744595. help wanted: 10 il callotto resuscitate. caricature anna 1715 i recall having seen this cartoon long before i started my collection, but i do not recall where. recently it showed up again on the calling card of ohs member j.c. teunissen of the netherlands. part of its mystery is the interpretation of the words il callotto resuscitato. could it suggest that glasses might serve to heal the calloused buttocks of some legendary figure? i have sought the help of two italian otticas, a professor of italian, and mr. teunissen, with no gratifying succuss. opinions are welcome, indeed. h.w h. patent ivory and lignum vitae: what appears to be from the pages of a double column american magazine of about 1874 are two advertisements of "dr. j. ball & co.'s patent ivory and lignum vitae eye cups", in a poorly and incompletely reproduced photocopy received form louis ginsberg, box 1502, petersburg, va 23803. mr. ginsberg describes the original as being 8 1/2 x 22 inches, fragile, and offered at the price of $15.00 plus $1.50 postage. a request for further detalis brought no response. presumably he was successful in selling it earlier. the advertisements are headlined "certification of cures" performed by the application of the eye cups. the certificates are cited testimonials from a minister, a physician, and three other patients in kentucky, canada, illinois, georgia, and massachusetts. the successes included cures of blindness from inflamed sore eyes, squinting, the need for glasses, night blindness, and blindness from sunstroke. 11 another memorial in a surprise move the executive board of the ohs established the henry w. hofstetter recognition award to be given to persons who have made outstanding contributions toward the acquisition of better knowledge of optometry's heritage. the first recipient was maria j. dablemont, with the presentation made at the ohs reminisce-in in denver, colorado, on december 5, 1987. notes on estrada: november 28 is the birthday anniversary of gregorio g. estrada, o. d., a long time dean of the school of optometry of centro escolar university, manila, the philippines. claro m. cinco, o.d., gave the estrada memorial lecture on that date in 1987 in which he gave glowing credit to dr. estrada for the leadership and indoctrination in professional development that he provided in his country. according to cinco, estrada was originally trained as a pharmacist in the united states with no expectations of becoming an optometrist until after his return to the philippines. cinematic eye effects: a very unusual aspect of optometric history is that described by morton k. greenspoon, o.d., in memory of his late father, reuben greenspoon, o.d., in the december 1987 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 58, no. 12, pp 993-999. the article is entitled "optometry's contribution to the motion picture industry." while due credit is given to the earlier role of optometrist siegmund "pop" lubin in the development of the film industry itself, the author's father is subsequently credited with contributing his efforts and skill in producing special eye effects for actors and actresses by means of ingeniously adapted contact lenses. the elder greenspoon' s connection with the movie industry began in 1939 when he was invited to demonstrate the procedures of making eye molds and lenses for special eye effects in a short "popular science" series film by paramount entitled "the eyes have it", a copy of which is now in ilamo. as a result of a bit of publicity dr. greenspoon was called upon almost every year during the next three decades to create one or another type of eye effect such as a color change, an arcus senilis, blindness, esotropia, a pair of mirrored eyes, invisible eyes, a bleeding eye, and even animal-type eyes. his son, morton, joined in the optometry practice in 1951 and shared the involvement. in the latter half of the 'so's the demand grew from an average of one request per year to about a dozen per year into the 'so's. 127 motion pictures are chronologically listed in which special eye effects were accomplished by the father son greenspoons. 12 the american academy of optometry: in whose minds did the concept of an optometric academy originate? how was the american optometric association involved? where are the archival materials? what were the motives or intentions of the founders? who owned its journal? to what extent has the academy supported or underwritten research? has it represented the views of practitioners or educators? what have been its political involvements? is it merely a "mutual admiration society"? has the academy influenced modes of practice and professional ethics? what is it's role in specialization? has it been a force in continuing education? why did the federal trade commission investigate the academy? is there a chapter in your area? what is an academy section? was prentice a member? what kinds of awards does it give? if you have an undocumented opinion on any of these and other questions, or simply would like to learn the historical facts, be sure to read james r. gregg's "history of the american academy of ·optometry, 1922-1986", published by the american academy of optometry, 5530 wisconsin avenue, nw, suite 1149, washington, d.c. 20815. the source of a myth? rummaging through some of the office effects of the late roy e. denny, o.d., of indianapolis i found a letter of august 27, 1929, to dr. denny form dr. carel c. koch, chairman, american academy of optometry. koch was a charter member of the academy and its first secretary. the letter is an invitation to fellowship, well composed, flawlessly typed, and quite detailed. i was struck by the opening sentence in which koch identified the academy as "an organization formed in 1922 by educators for purely technical purposes." this is quite in contradiction to the detalis described and well documented th gregg's history of the academy. but why would koch have said that? the statement could hardly have represented an enticement to dr. denny or to most other practicing optometrists. conceivably dr. koch was impressed by a resolution adopted at the first conference to establish optometric standards which took place in 1922 in st. louis. it was a very impressive gathering of a number of educators and practitioners under sponsorship of the american optometric association department of education. the 68 page report was edited by william s. todd, o.d., and published as monograph by tha a.o.a. the pertinent resolution essentially called for the establishment of an academy. perhaps dr. koch felt that this was the essential trigger to get the academy underway and so prompted him to declare seven years later that it was initiated "in 1922 by educators for purely technical purposes." h.w h. 13 not much omitted: isaac barrow, 1630-1677, english mathematician, theologian, and respected geometer in his day, in 1667 delivered a series of 18 lectures on optics in latin at the university of cambridge. they were published in 1669, the year barrow resigned the professorial chair in favor of his pupil isaac newton. these have now been translated by h.c. fay, ph.d., and published by the worshipful company of spectacle makers, apothecaries' hall, black friars lane, london, england, 1987, under the editorship of a.g. bennett and d.f. edgar (243 pages, $25.00). the book is extensively reviewed by b. ralph chou and melanie c.w. campbell in the december 1987 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 64, no. 12, p. 952. barrow is quoted as telling his readers that his lectures are " ... lectures to undergraduates ... exacted by the necessity of my duty ... hastily delivered ... (to) a very ordinary bunch of students for whom it was better not to omit much ... " the reviewer adds that the text is very readable and an important contribution to the history of modern optics. the ideal sight restorer: "professor" charles a. tyrrell, m.d., (1843-1918), was extensively involved in the production and sale of the ideal sight restorer, a device intended to massage the eyes to cure various eye diseases and eliminate the need for spectacles and eye surgery. the invention has been briefly mentioned in the nohs, vol. 14, no. 4, oct. 1983, pp. 95 and vol. 5, no. 1, jan. 1984, pp. 24-26. a very comprehensive and well documented review of the instrument, dr. tyrrell's commercial shenanigans, his personal life, his books, his business identity as the ideal company, his other health products including an amusingly novel rectal syringe known as the j.b.l. (joy-beauty-life) cascade, and a j.b.l. antiseptic tonic, appeared in the september 1986 issue of ophthalmology, vo. 93, no. 9, pp. 1246-1257. the author is andrew p. ferry, m.d. the numerous cited references include several reports in jama, two in the new york times, advertisements in popular magazines, several of tyrrell's publications and various directories. · cyclopean history? on the 15th page of a sample undated, unnumbered, and unpaginated issue of zoobooks received on february 3, 1988, in which elephants are the exclusive feature is an artistically illustrated but obviously not documented theory that "the story of the cyclops was probably started by an elephant skull." the story is that there were one-eyed giants that liked to eat people. 14 the theory is that long ago some imaginative person who had never seen or heard about a live elephant probably came across an elephant skull. the elephant skull is of course very large with a bony nasal passageway seemingly centered just below the forehead, at "eye level" so to speak, whereas the true eye sockets are very laterally located and not even totally surrounded by bony rims. perhaps in the absence of the rest of the skeleton, or because the total skeleton was perceived as that of a gigantic anthropoid, the observer envisioned the bones as belonging to a one-eyed giant. because mythology provides embellishment that the cyclops was a people eater, this issue includes an artist's colorful depiction of a cyclops wielding an 18th century dagger hungrily in pursuit of several much smaller seamen in pantaloons attempting to escape into the sea to get back to their 16th centry sailboat. the artist supplemented this with a frontal view of an elephant skull and also a portrayal of a one-eyed anthropoidal countenance with a pair of protruding bicuspids. zoobooks are published by wildlife education, ltd. 930 west washington st., san diego, california 92103, as an educational medium for children. the other ohs: the ocular heritage society is an association of history­ minded persons in the same sense as the optometric historical society, but with a substantially different activities format. their activities center around an annual membership meeting where papers are presented and official society business is conducted. in contrast, our official business is conducted by a board of directors elected by mail ballot. our gatherings are informal affairs appended to the national meetings of the american optometric association or the american academy of optometry, wherever and whenever it seems possible to assemble a group who may be interesed in optometric history. the ocular heritage society originated in ophthalmological quarters whereas the optometric historical society is optometry oriented, but neither society is exclusive and several persons are members of both. ~ the principal medium of our society is this newsletter in which membership expressions, commentary, and observations are freely quoted and in which editorial mention and reviews of miscellaneous archival accomplishments and historical documents published elsewhere are featured. in this sense our newletter, the n.o.h.s., is becoming a kind of growing almanac or compendium of otherwise widely scattered tidbits of history, which, with its periodical index, serves as an information retrieval aid. the newsletter of the ocular heritage society on the other 15 hand is essentially an update of the society's business and membership activities with a listing of its members' contributed papers and information on their availability. both societies encourage the publication of historical articles in journals of wider circulation. the secretary /treasurer of the ocular heritage sociey is susan e. cronenwett, director, the museum of ophthalmology, foundation of the american academy of ophthalmology, 655 beach street, p.o. box 6988, san francisco, california 94101-6988, usa. actually susan is a member of two "ohs's". we welcome her as a new member of the optometric historical society. centenary comments on contacts: a favorite and frequent commentary in the ophthalmic literature during 1987 has been in recognition of a century of contact lenses. possibly the most recent was that of the east german optometrist v. maxam in an inside cover page editorial entitled "100 jahre kontaktlinsen" in the november/december 1987 issue of augenoptik, vol. 104, no. 6, opposite page 169. he properly recognizes the earlier preliminary contributions of leonardo de vinci ( 1452-1519) , rene descartes ( 1596-1630), thomas young (1773-1829), and john frederik william herschel (17921871), whose objectives were optical and visual but hardly of clinical utility. the pioneering centenary honor however, is given to glassblower f .a. muller of wiesbaden, who in 1887 made a centrally transparent glass shell to be worn directly on the eye to prevent tissue dessication following eyelid surgery. the balance of the article deals with subsequent developments, including especially the contributions of a good number of germans. more on southall: what had seemed to be a lack of published information about the personality of professor james p.c. southall is now offset by the finding of a 12 page dedication "by his pupils, fellow workers and optometric colleagues in america" in the february 1942 issue of the american journal of optometry, vol. 19, no. 2, 49-60. included is his portrait on page 50. the accolade is by charles sheard in which sheard reminisces freely about the status of the profession in the early part of the century and includes his own involvement with southall and such other personalities as john c. eberhardt, andrew jay cross, and charles f. prentice. altogether it is a glowing testimonial to southall as a scholar, teacher, and scientist, and as a stalwart friend of optometry. ives the inventor: in case you have seen, used, heard about, or own an ives 16 acuity meter, surely a collector's item now, you must have wondered who ives was. a delightful review of the accomplishments, inventions, and philosophy of frederic eugene ives (1856-1937) is published in the january 1988 issue of optics news, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 42-45. the article is entitled, "contemplating an invention? frederic ives would say 'go for it!'", and authored by elaine carol main. history of headaches: in his perennial search for new visual science terms for the fourth edition of the dictionary of visual science ohs member david cline came across a seven page chapter entitled "the history of headache" in the fourth edition of james w. lance's "mechanism and management of headache", butterworth, 1982. in a brief preface to this edition professor vance reminds us of the rapid advance in knowledge of pain mechanisms and explains that "so that art will not be overwhelmed by science, a chapter on the history of headache has been added to place our present conceptual struggle in perspective." believing it unlikely that animals suffer from severe headaches, he speculated that susceptibility may have developed with mankind's assumption of an upright posture. trepanned skulls among stone age patients prompt a suspician that headaches may have been their complaints. written reference to headaches date back several millennia b.c. in the sumerian, babylonian, and egyptian literatures. the chapter brings us forward to 1963, anything subsequent "forming the substance of this book." nineteen historical references are cited. another optometrist memorialized: city university, london, has named its contact lens clinic the gerald m. dunn clinic. in further commemoration of the late professor dunn the british chapter of the american academy of optometry donated an oil portrait of him to grace the clinic entranceway. another optometrist memorialized: the charles b. margach memorial fund was announced by the optometric extension program, in recognition of the late dr. margach's many contributions to the profession. henry w. hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1988-19-01-001 1988-19-01-002 1988-19-01-003 1988-19-01-004 1988-19-01-005 1988-19-01-006 1988-19-01-007 1988-19-01-008 1988-19-01-009 1988-19-01-010 1988-19-01-011 1988-19-01-012 1988-19-01-013 1988-19-01-014 1988-19-01-015 1988-19-01-016 hindsight;;"~~,;~-~ ..aa/i f) mar 1 c 1996 ! apr 0 3 1996 -romefry ubrt:)'' i newsletter of the 0 " ,. 243 north optometric historical sodiety wbr • lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, 9 mi.a&g~.1'f~41, us.( ·'~eeo~g• volume 24 october 1993 number 4 advice to a young optometrist: preserved in an early american optometrist's (optician's) old clinical record book the dr. james leeds collection are two personal letters in very legible but quite faded longhand from dr. c.h. brown of the philadelphia optical college to optician samuel richards of 6 pleasant street, south paris, maine. both letters are on rather ornate letterheads which include a complex bit of fine artwork showing a cross-section of the eye, an optical ray diagram, and a pair of pince-nez within each eyewire of which is shown a refractionist examining a patient. the printed legend at the head of the first letter reads as follows: address all letters to dr. c.h. brown 1820 diamond st. the philadelphia optical college a school for practical instruction in optics correspondence department incorporated and chartered the accurately typed version of the handwritten body of the letter reads as follows: s. richards, esq. dear sir, philadelphia, oct. 28, 1892 diploma was mailed to your address today and i hope you will receive it in good condition and find it satisfactory. enclosed find bill for the same. my intercourse with you has always been very pleasant and i regard you as one of our most valuable graduates. i know you are a conscientious painstaking man, and i am satisfied you are a well informed competent optician, and that you not only do credit to yourself but also to our college, of which we are proud to class you as one of the early graduates of our correspondence department. and you have my personal best wishes for the success which you so well deserve. i think i sent you one of our circulars, which contains your testimonial letter and also my portrait-did you receive the circular? if not, i will be glad to send you one. with warmest personal regards, yours truly, c.h. brown, m.d. 24/26 a few months later samuel richards apparently wrote to dr. brown for some professional advice. the reply came in longhand again in virtually identical letterhead except for the inclusion of a small portrait of dr. brown in the upper left corner, as follows: s. richards, esq. my dear sir, aug. 16, 1893 in difficult cases, and in cases where the symptoms are persistent, oculists generally use atropine, that is in the majority of cases. my custom is to instil the drug three times, at bed time, on rising the next morning, and then again an hour before the examination. i repeat the examination 3 or 4 times, and do not prescribe the glasses until the effects of the drug have worn off. homatropine is a perfectly safe drug for you to use. there is no quick way to detect the cases you speak of. i would suggest that when you meet with a case that promises to be difficult or troublesome, you should require two or three examinations on as many different days: in this way you are pretty sure to detect the cause of the trouble. give your patients and the public to understand that you are thoroughly competent to fit any case that can be fitted, but in some difficult cases you must have some time just as an oculist would require it. never give concave glasses unless you are positive the case is myopia. your experience must guide you. take into account the visual acuteness, the amount of improvement from glasses, the near point, and the effect the glasses have on the near point, and you can generally decide whether it is myopia or not. no i would not pay back the fee, but endeavor in every other way to give them satisfaction. you can't afford to pay back the money, neither can you afford to send your patients away dissatisfied. if the laws of your state do not prohibit it (every state has a different law) i would advise your to use the drug when your judgement tells you it is needed. i think i have answered all the points embraced in your letter. i was very much pleased to receive your photograph: quite a number of my students have favored me with their pictures, but i shall prize yours above others because i feel a personal acquaintance with you and because you were our first correspondence graduate. i shall make use of your letter in my october adv. in keystone. i have already sent in my copy for september number, and i may have a cut made from your portrait to use in that adv. in which case i will send you the cut after it is used, for your own use. very truly yours, c.h. brown, m.d. ~ optometrist samuel richards is listed in the earliest blue book of optometrists (1912) and in subsequent blue books through 1920 as a graduate of the philadelphia optical college in 1890 and of the chicago college of ophthalmology in 1891. he listed himself as a member of the maine, new england, and american optometric or optical associations. incidently, the maine optometry law was not enacted until 1909. in a separate item in this newsletter dr. richards' appointment book will be described. 24/27 beginning with cluants: in the april 1989 issue of this newsletter, page 39, we called attention to the availability of pierre marly's new book on "spectacles and spyglasses," whereupon dr. leeds promptly acquired a copy of the english version and loaned it to us for this commentary. it is a beauty, fascinating, readable, and authoritative. it deserves space on the library reference shelf. if placed in your reception room, it should be put under security lest it be stolen. supplementing the more than 400 illustrations, mostly from marly's museum collection, is a somewhat illustration-synchronized text consisting of two historical chapters on spectacles and spyglasses by marly, an extensive semeiological study of spectacle history by jean-claude margoten, and a philosophical analysis of spectacle wearing and wearers by paul bierent. altogether we learn that what we know about the history of spectacles and their use is derived piecemeal from a wide variety of sources quite independent of the few preserved old but rarely dated spectacles themselves. a single commentary by marly on the emergence of the french word "cluants" exemplifies the tone of the book, as follows: the nailing together of two "besicles" (individual crystal lenses retained in wood or horn rims) produced what the french called "besicles clousantes" (nailed spectacles), or "cluants" for short, the original spectacles. marly's brief chapter on spyglasses is in compliance with his objective to include only "portable visual aids" in his hobby. thus he very comfortably excludes that huge field of optics quite remote from vision per se. it is a book that lends itself either to easy enjoyment or to sophisticated study, rewarding in either case. from a clinical record book: hardly a "book," but physically resembling one, is a 204 page 20x25 em brown clothbound volume with a title page that identifies it as an opticians' record book by dr. c.h. brown, published by the philadelphia optical & watch co., 916 chestnut street, philadelphia, pa, and "copyrighted." the two pages immediately following the title page show double columns of ruled spaces numbered from 1 to 100 for writing in the names of patients. a fourth page has a single paragraph entitled "directions for using the optician's record book" in which the basic optometric examination procedure is outlined with advice on the entries to be made on one of the 100 subsequently paired facing right and left pages, a pair of which are reproduced here on the next two pages of this newsletter. 24/28 no ................................... . · date ............... ~ ..................................................... , .. _:z8 , name--··--········-··········-······························-······················----··--·-···········--···-···-.................... age ............................ ~·-···:···········-...... ·· residence ............................. : ....................................................................... . occupation ............................ : .......................... : ... . condition o.f. eyes! .................... : ..................................................................... , ............................ ................................. , ............. .: .................. .. "' ho'uj do eyes trouble you.~ ............................................................................................................................................. : ......... : ...... : ........... ;: .. •••••••ooooonoooooooooooooooooooooooooo•o•••oo•oooooooooooooooooooooooooo:ooooooooooooooooonooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"oooonooooooooooooooo~uoon•o••oooooon• oooooooooooooooooooooooo•••••-·---~-onoooooooo• ever-lzad any disease o.f eyes.'~ .............................. : ........................................................................................................... : .... : ......... : ... : .... ,. ever worn glasses.'! ............................................................... , .................................................................... : ........................................... : ............ " jj" so, wlzat n11mber and h.o'zij long.~ ................................................... ·-·······-···--:·····--··························· .. ·········································· any other retnarks ......................................... _ ............ : ........ :: ............................................................................................. : .... :; ...................... :. v ..................................................................... . r.e ........................................................ . l.e .................................... , .................... . rifractiotl ...................................... ........... . r. 1:.: ....................................................... . l.e ......................................................... . accomnzodation ·························-·-··-··-··-······················ ............ . 1z. p ......................... , ............ . . f.p ..................................... . wz'tlz ................................................................................. . n. p ........................... ·.............. . f. p ......................... ············· insufficiency astigmatism dista11ce, r. e. . .................................................................................................................................................................................................. . " l.e . ................................................................................................................. :·:····: ............................................................................ . readi11g, r. e . ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... " l. e. ophthalmoscopic appearances : r.e ................................................. , ................................................................................................................................................................. . l.e .................................................................................................. : .............................................................................................................. . 24/29 diagnosis .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. . suggestions .............................................................................................................................................................. .............................................. . report of case., .................... : ................................................................................................................................................................................... . i ~ ......::~ .. ~...... .j: .... ··• mp+------------------------------------------------_.~ frame pupif!ary distauce .................................................................................................................................................... .............................................. . deptk of bridge ............................................... , ..................................................................................................................................................... . inclination o/ bridge ._. ..... : ............................................................................................ ; ............................ ~ ..................................................... . r. e. l. e. sp.herical. cylinder. i axis. spherical. cylinder. axis, .. i distance······ • • i ___ ·. _i -· ! i constant· • •• • • i i i -·--·----' i i 'reading· • • • .• • ' ·' ·~. i i :··· 24/30 a few handwritten entries were made on only the first two pair of pages, numbered 1 and 2, the first for a 19-year-old pianist from bridgton, maine, on july 4, 1891, and the second for a 36year-old blacksmith of south paris, maine, on august 31, 1893 (two years later!). together with the scanty written notations in only a few of the spaces the entries suggest that the optometrist, samuel richards of south paris, made only two half-hearted attempts to use this record form and put the book back on the shelf. a third pair of pages, no. 3, has only the date september 14, 1893, with no further entries. from these it is quite impossible to derive any significant conclusions about richards' mode of practice other than that which is implied in another write-up involving richards in this same newsletter. quite interesting, however, are four lens power entries, sphere and cylinder, in diopters, and three designated in other numbers, namely, "60," "54," and "60." all snellen fractions are with numerators of 15, i.e. 15/30, 15/40, etc. the only recorded interpupillary distance is "2 6 i 16 inches. " for both patients some oblique astigmatism is noted, and for one eye of one patient "prism 1° base out" is included in the prescription. perhaps more revealing than these entries are two items very carefully inserted with scotch tape as extra pages just inside the front cover. the first is a page 152 taken from the march 30, 1899 edition (years after the handwritten entries!) of the optician and photographic trade review, an anonymously authored article entitled, "the dezeng refractometer-a substitute for the trial case." besides giving detailed instructions for determining the sphere, cylinder, and axis of each eye it includes a table of recommended adds for ages above 40. the second carefully inserted handwritten memorandum reads as follows: .. atropia gr5 aqua dist. zl (5 grains) (1 ounce) sig. 2 to 3 drops into each eye daily for 6 daysallow the eyes to recover. when the pupil has contracted to nearly normal size come over and we will try again with a prospect of better success. this treatment should be carried out under the supervision of a good physician. you probably have spasm of the function of accom­ modation and the object is to overcome the spasm. 24/31 on the next bound page, an otherwise blank page, is written the following: dr. isaac rounds recipe for paralyzing the accommodation in case of spasm of accommodation atropine gr 5 aqua dist. z 1 (1 oz) sig 2 to 3 drops into each eye daily for six days. allow the eyes to recover when the pupil has contracted to nearly normal size test the refraction by test types at a distance of 15 or 20 feet. the volume in which these notes were made is in the dr. james leeds collection. the franklin papers: not less than a dozen times, references to benjamin franklin (1706-1790) have been made in this newsletter in connection with such involvements as his invention of bifocals, his assertion of the benefits of spectacles, his experimentation on the light and heat absorption properties of variously colored materials, and a 1738 listing of spectacles among special items of merchandise available from him. in 1922 an american optometric association resolution honored him as "a patron saint of optometrists," and at the time of the aoa convention in philadelphia in 1969 the association president ceremoniously placed a wreath on his grave. were there other ways in which franklin may have been identified with the history of optometry during the colonial and early american era? have all evidences of his multifarious involvements come to light? read on. in 1954 yale university and the american philosophical society of philadelphia jointly announced the assembling of a team of editors to begin collating and editing the already accumulated photocopies of 29,000 sets of manuscript letters and documents and 2,200 published letters, a collection still growing at the rate of 100 documents per year and supplemented by 15, 000 related books and pamphlets. the initial edited volume of the resulting series appeared in 1959 with 29 additional volumes appearing in the subsequent 32 years, bringing the edited materials chronologically up to the year 1779. the remaining unedited materials of his last eleven years, the least explored of his career, are so numerous that another 15 to 20 volumes are anticipated to complete the project. within this huge collection may well be any number of comments further identifying franklin with optometrically related interests and waiting to be tapped by means of modern electronic indexing techniques. 24/32 naturally, the limiting problem is money. in spite of generous philanthropic grants from numerous foundations, individuals, institutions, and agencies, more funds are needed to maintain the pace to complete the undertaking in reasonable time. to this end the friends of franklin, inc., was organized in 1988 not only to seek donors of additionally needed funds but also to keep earlier editions in print and to make the volumes more available in libraries and more accessible to the public. information on the friends of franklin, from the franklin institute, philadelphia, pa inc., is available 19103-1194. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1993-24-04-001 1993-24-04-002 1993-24-04-003 1993-24-04-004 1993-24-04-005 1993-24-04-006 1993-24-04-007 1993-24-04-008 newsletter of the o,gtometry library fertical file optometric historical society volume 1 april 1970 number 2 prelimlnary and provisional: our vice-president, john r. levene, d.phil. (and optometrist, too) has graciously volunteered to edit the next three issues of the newsletter during my absence. these will be for july and october, 1970, and january 1971. with a doctorate in history of science, a major interest in the history of physiological optics, and a wide range of optometric experience, his performance may well threaten my resumption of this role when i return! another generous offer to edit these issues came from dr. jack hale of sunnyside, washington. jack's credentials and enthusiasm made my choice very difficult. i finally surrendered to convenience. dr. levene's office is in the same building as mine, we are served by the same sec­ retarial staff, and we have the same mailing address. founding floundering: relying heavily on the authority of the american heritage dictionary, which says to found is, among other meanings, to establish, we identified all who enrolled before january 1, 1970, "founding" members. it was because they joined that we became established. now then, the same au­ thority says a charter member is an original member of an organization. since our first official year of operation is 1970, those who come in during 1970 and want their dues applied to begin in this original year surely are eligible to be regarded "charter" members. since neither "founding" nor "charter" is capitalized in our usage, and neither is identified as a listed class of members in the o.h.s. by-laws, we are quite free to regard ourselves as we deem appropriate and c·onsistent. on the strength of this very flimsy argument, and of faith in the tremendous compatibility of the executive board, i am proposing that we continue to favor all of those listed in the january 1970 issue of the newsletter with the adjective "founding". due to an error, not attributable to anyone.in particular, a bit true of every historical incident, one additional member belongs in this proud category. he is hale, j. r., o.d., 515 6th street, sunnyside, washington 98944 now we have more new 1970 members who, by similar argument, can · claim "charter" membership. they are briscoe, mrs. laverne, 1220 north bascom avenue, apt. 4., san jose, california 95128 degrave, mrs. lue, librarian, bausch & lomb, inc., 635 paul street, rochester, new york 14602 12 foster, lawrence b., o.d., 1717 main street, fortuna, california 95540 foster, miss margaret vail, 840 b tenth street, fortuna, california 95540 gregg, james r., o.d., 5930 south croft avenue, los angeles, california 90057 hoi.jard, j. d. , 0. d. , 187 71 south cicero avenue, country club hills, illinois 60477 st. claire, h. l., o.d., 109 1/2 north brand boulevard, glendale, california 91203 shaneson, elias, o.d., 2016 genesee street, buffalo, new york 14211 shearer, c. wayne, o.b., 306 ashland terrace, chattapooga, tennessee 37415 this brings our total membership to 42. better late than never: one of the benefits of o.h.s. is its effect of highlighting historical gems. one such gem, pointed out to me by my colleague john levene, in our own library across the hall, is optometry in the state of washington, a history, by j. wolff, o.d., for the washington optometric association, and published by the w.o.a. in 1967. it is well edited, chock full of facts, statistics, and anecdotes, and, best of all of biographical accounts of dozens of optometrists and others of significance to optometry, including many photographs. a most commendable contribution! in dutch: a microfiche copy of the dissertation by th. (theodorus) h. (henricus) mac-gillavry _entitled onderzoekingen over de hoegrootheid der accommodatie is now on file in the indiana university optometry library. dr. mac-gillavry submitted this thesis for the "doctor in de geneeskunde" degree at the utreechtsche hooge school in 1858. he did his research under the direction of professor f. c. donders, m.d. dr. gordon heath acquired the microfiche from the university of utrecht archives during his recent sabbatical leave in holland. colorful observer a former student of mine, g. rex courtney, o.d., sent me a copy of the article by john dalton (1766-1844) entitled "extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours: with observations" (manchester literary and philosophical society, memoirs, vol. 5, pt. 1, 1798 pp. 28-45). dalton a chemist, became the namesal:e for daltonism and wrote a fasd.nating account of his perplexing observations. here are a few· excerpts. 13 "i was always of op1n1on, though i might not often mention it, that several colours were injudiciously named." "i became pretty well acquainted with the theory of light and colours before i was apprized of any peculiarity in my v1s1on. i had not, however, attended much to the practical discrimina­ tion of colours, owing, in some degree, to what i conceived to be a per­ plexity in their nomenclature." "i have often seriously asked a person whether a flower was blue or pink, but was generally considered to be in jest." "i found that persons in general distinguish six kinds of colour in the solar (prism) image; namely red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple'. to me it is quite othen1ise:--i see only two-or at most three distinction~. those i should call yellow and blue; or yellow, blue, and purple." "i take my standard idea (of green) from grass. this appears to me to be very little different from red." "it is remarkable that, out of twenty--five pupils i once had, two were found to agree with me; and on another similar occasion, one." "it is remarkable that i have not heard of one female subject to this peculiarity." blurred out: in the winter 1970 (vol. 1, no. 2) issue of image, a publication of .the university of rochester institute of optics, professor r. kingslake 1gives out with some nqtes on the history of the institute. the institute, 'according to dr. kingslake, was established in 1929 just after the uni­ ·versity had adopted the rochester school of optometry. the university's first class of optometry students was entering its senior year when dr. kingslake came on the scene. at first the institute staff taught only optometry students, 42 of whom passed through their hands. dr. kingslake taught geometrical optics. "the optometry division was discontinued with the class of 1936, partly because columbia university could easily handle this small number of additional students." appreciatively noted: william n. kemp, o.d., chairman of the historical committee of the texas optometric association, has called attention to the fact that one who played a key role in the passage of s.b. 50 in the 1921 texas legislature was representative samuel ealy johnson, the house leader. his son, lyndon baines johnson, was 13 years old at that time. the american optometric association congress will be in houston in 1971, the fiftieth anniversary of the enactment of the texas law regulating optometry. gute freunde the march 1970 issue of atlas carried a translated review of a book published by max born just before he died. he died on january 6, 1970. the book consists of 117 letters he had exchanged with his close friend, albert einstein, for four decades, 1916-1955. the title is albert einstein-hedwig und max born: briefwechsel 1916-1955, pubhshed by nymphcnburger verlagshandlung, munich. more documentation winfield s. brmvn, o.d., retired and prom1s1.ng to live to be 110, recently gave melvin d. wolfberg, o.d., president of the american optometric association, the first portion of his manuscript covering optometric develop­ ments in new england 1899 to 1916. dr. wolfberg has forwarded this to mrs. maria dablemont for the a.o.a. library and archives. dr. brown lives in the masonic home, 813 beech street, hanchester, new hampshire, 03104. "editor's last inch": such was the caption of an editorial commentary in the last page of the october 1969 issue of the journal of the optical society of america, a review of an article entitled "philosophy, science, technology", by professor vasco ronchi in atti della fondazione giorgio ronchi, vol. 24, no. 2, march-april 1969, pp. 168-182. the article is described as "a fascinating, highly personal essay (in english) on the history of science, particularly the history of optics, which he relates to his experience in establishing the institute nazionale di ottica". ronchi is quoted, "i have described the discovery of spectacle lenses, not only because it is typical but also because it was so completely buried by official science." from the optometric weekly "the illinois college of optometry museum has recently been enlarged by gifts of antique eye-wear, instruments and literature which were presented to the museum by dr. ben e. margulies of peoria, illinois, and major hark r. sutton,_o.d.,m.s.c., washington, d.c. "the museum display, which is housed in the carl f. shepard memorial library, establishes a bond with the historical development of our profession and clearly illustrates our heritage. "dr. e. w. strawn, president of !co urges all alumni and others to contribute to the museum 'l.vith any items of a historical or antique nature that they may have." hemorial in redwood arthur hoare has kept us well infonned on the february 20 re-dedicatory ceremony at the andrew jay cross hemorial tree in huir woods. the details will be published elsewhere. the following comments from one of dr. hoare's fascinating accounts are particularly interesting: "today (jan. 18, 1970) i arranged to have a floral tribute delivered to my good friend john haag, keeper of the 'boot jack trail' thatleads to the andrew jay cross tree. did you know that cross is the only 'commoner' to be so honored? there are but four trees so dedicated in muir woods: the first to hr. kent, the donor of the woods to the state of california; to governor pinchot, hassachusetts, famous naturalist and friend of hr. kent; to franklin delano roosevelt, by the united nation.::, quite recently; ·and to andrew jay cross. charles seger is delivering the dedicatory address, for which i am very pleased and proud. ! 15 "i will place a card on the ohs floral tribute, simply stating optometric historical society, 1970, with grateful pride. i shall send it to you. "it is a privilege for my barbara and for me to do this very ceremonial act on behalf of the ohs'and in memory of a great statesman and pioneer o o o ii from ohs member mcmaster: "my collection of old specs consists of about 150 items prior to 1920 of which the most interesting are those made by silversmiths and jewelers from 1790 to 1850 in the usa before companies v1ere organized to manufacture spectacles. "except for item /11, i have the following specs. name location approx date how marked macallister philadelphia c 1780 full name on temple j. anthony ii c 1790 jj .a.i on temple e. ackley alexandria, va c 1800 full name on temple hall & hewson albany ny c 1840 h & h. alvany on temple ammi down southbridge mass c 1840 full name on ii h. adams new york ny c 1830 ii ii ii ii scheidia ? ? ii ii ii ii p. fau ? ? ii ii ii ii "all of these have sliding or "turn pin" temples. the 1st 6 are . silver and the last two are brass. "any clues to the date and location of the last two items would be greatly appreciated. can any of our members add to this list?" first round-up: member grace weiner has written all of her colleagues in the association of visual science librarians urging them to join the optometric historical society. said she to them, "i joined the society when i read about it and received volume 1, number 1, of the newsletter. i found it fascinating and think some of you wh~ are history-minded may also." rucky glaee: believe it or not, mrs. weiner has acquired a copy of "the history of eyeglasses in japan" by dr. hiroo nagaoka. i spotted it on the shelf while visiting there recently. she now is trying to get a second copy for the university of alabama optometry library, and a third copy for our library at indiana university. 16 irving bennett suggests: 11may i make a suggestion for a future issue. persons interested in developing a collection of old glasses for museums or for themselves would be wise if they combined this selfish desire with some community service. 11 by heading a drive for the local optometric society in conjunction with the association for the lllind, for instance, they will be able to solicit large quantities of old eye glasses. these glasses can be sent to new eyes for the needy for use in mission work throughout the world. some of the glasses that will be collected will be real relics and these can be the reward for the effort. 110ur local did this several years ago using pharmacies as the collection agencies. you would be surprised what turned up! 11 ~~rosser, o.d~, writes: , 11 52 years in practice. secretary of pennsylvania association for six years. can give you a lot of early history,--in fact a.o.a. has a lot i sent them years ago." james ~·leeds, o.d., writes: 11naturally, as you know, my great interest is optometric books, in fact all books relative to optometry. i've collected some 1,500 of them, many very common, some very unusual--not necessarily valuable, just unusual. for example, eye training for health, beauty and power by r. natal, 1927, says that eyes set far apart indicate an artistic and poetic temperament and that eyes set close together indicate a deceitful person. i have a 69 pd. my wife has a 56 pd. · need i say more? i value an 1863 book from england entitled arcus senilis, and an italian book from the 1890's on ectropion. my latest real .. prize is a 2-volume well-preserved set of thomas young's natural philosophy from 1845, which i showed you in bloomington last fall. 11 some other odds and ends of interest have come my way, and these i wonrler about more than books, which fit neatly on a shelf. for example, a pass to· the wills eye hospital in philadelphia in 1887. i have a sales guide for the salesmen of the true-fit optical co., chicago, a depression era gem of how to sell spectacles door-to-door for $3.98 each. i have a barrett 11eye nonnalizer" of 1930 vintage which is wonderful for massaging eye balls. one of the causes of blindness given in the eighth annual report of the ophthalmic and aural institute, new york city, 1877 was "amblyopia ex masturbatione", for which i have yet to figure the proper comment, so i make none. "i could go on and on about a few other things. books i can cate~orize easily. a big question in mind is what to do about such ephemera as i have noted above. the real value is almost nil, yet much is irreplaceable. i'd like to pick some brains as to what might or should be done with these items. 11 0ne book that just came to mind is doctor bryson by frank h. spearman, charles scribner's sons, new york, 1906, which is a novel on the love-life of an ophthalmologist. it fooled me. i thought they were fighters and not lovers. it's an incredibly bad book, yet it has an uncertain value i'm sure. 17 "thanks again for the bulletin, and i'll be happy to get future issues. it did stimulate me to make these comments, which i guess are ego-satisfying. you may count upon me to do what i can within my specific sphere (cylinder?) of interest. my personal congratulations for taking the ball and getting this organization off the ground." "enclosed is a pamphlet which gives a fine detailed explanation of·. why the commonwealth of pennsylvania and philadelphia in particular, lays claim to the birthplace of american optometry. you might be able to use this material in one of your newsletters. "the optometric exhibit which is located in the william penn memorial museum, harrisburg, pennsylvania, was made possible by a grant of $5,000.00 by the pennsylvania optometric association. it was dedicated in april 1968 at an event planned by the vision conservation institute of pennsylvania." colorful history: "history of the munsell color system", an article by dorothy '.nickerson in color engineering, vol. 7, no.5, sept.-oct. 1969, pp. 4::5-51, .is an account of perhaps the most famous name in the color field, and of the development of the munsell foundation. it is also the story of many other color pioneers and their contributions to color technology and color communications. h. w. hofstetter, editor hwh:d.bolton p.s. don't forget that dr.· john r. levene is our editor for the next three issues. his address is: professor john r. levene indiana university division of optometry bloomington, indiana 47401 h. w. h. 1970-01-02-001 1970-01-02-002 1970-01-02-003 1970-01-02-004 1970-01-02-005 1970-01-02-006 1970-01-02-007 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missou~f9j~,~:~wwapf>·&1fl~9) "'"owu~l;i ij li:.l~o.i.!.';..u;,_.~ 1; volume 4 election report: in october the executive board for january 1973 aug j 7 797i rr_rr;_~ .. :~ f':_~_--1 :-r~;~·~~· _n7, o.h.s. members re-elected 'sv~l'~fiamn~w~'j'vo.d., the term to expire december 31, 1977. number 1 to the john r. levene (1973), henry w. hofstetter (1974), maria dablemont (1975), and james r. gregg (1976) are the other continuing executive board members. in december the executive board re-elected the following to serve as officers for 1973: president: h. w. hofstetter vice president: john r. levene secretary-treasurer: maria dablemont comments from the president: in december i sent a memorandum out to the members of the executive board recommending that someone else be elected to the presidency, and, to make it easier to comply, i offered to continue as editor. my reason was simply that it is important that the society not acquire the appearance of a one-man show. the other members of the executive board are not in disagreement with me on this point, but the opinion was expressed that next year would be more appropriate, thus to give the recently appointed committee on nominations and elections more time to seek out a successor. under these circumstances i hereby re-appoint for the year 1973 the members of the various committees announced in the previous issue of the newsletter. directory of current members: alexander, e. b., o.d. optometric extension program foundation, inc. duncan, oklahoma 73533 abrams, j. j., o.d. 4516 west washington st. indianapolis, indiana 46241 babcock, mrs. joseph m. 3130 south dorchester rd. columbus, ohio 43221 bennett, irving, o.d. 1316 sixth avenue beaver fallst pa 15010 -cont'dberman, marvin r., o.d. p. 0. box 15, foxwood dover, delaware 19901 brewer, bruce j., o.d. 535 east lst. south #8 salt lake city, utah 84102 caplan, lester, o.d. 6660 security blvd. baltimore, md 21207 chang, mr. t. c. 929/7 king's road hong kong, china dablemont, earl r. route 2, box 164aa rolla, mo 65401 dablemont, maria (mrs.) 7009 weil avenue apt. 210 st. louis, mo 63119 day, robert e., o.d. 3034 broadway garland, texas 75040 degrave, lue (mrs.) librarian bausch & lomb, inc. 635 st. paul street rochester, new york 14602 dupuis, sylvio, o.d. 434 hevey street manchester, new hampshire 03102 engelmann, otto r., o.d. apt. l-3 2800 indian river blvd. vero beach, florida 32960 eure, dr. spurgeon b., president southern college of optometry 1246 madison avenue memphis, tennessee 38104 ewalt, h. ward, o.d. 8002 jenkins arcade bldg. pittsburgh, pa 15221 -2fair, ron g., o.d. 105 bridge street brighton, colorado 80601 finkleman, e. m., o.d. kensington building 275 portage avenue winnipeg, manitoba, canada francioli, rudy 10 avenue de lausanne 1800 vevey, switzerland frescura, ugo (faao) 225 corso alfieri 14100 asti, italy garcia-margarida, luis, o.d. box 9533 santurce, puerto rico 00908 gathercole, f. h., o.d. 403 main street fitchburg, massachusetts 01420 gregg, james r. 5930 south croft avenue los angeles, california 90056 hale, j. r., o.d. 515 6th street sunnyside, washington 98944 hinkle, norman wayne, o.d. 116 west first avenue owasso, oklahoma 74055 hoefert, karl 0., o.d. 110 e. florence blvd. casa grande, arizona 85222 hoffmann, william n., o.d. 2101 n. edward street decatur, i1linois 62526 hofstetter, h. w. o.d. indiana university optometry bldg. bloomington, indiana 47401 hopping, richard l., o.d. davue building, suite 120 2661 salem avenue dayton, ohio 45406 -cont'dhunt, earl j., o.d. 226 ohio st. johntown, pa 15902 hussey, lester r., o.d. suite 222, rookerty bldg. spokane, washington 99201 jenner, horace h., o.d. 53 e. walnut street frankfort, in 46041 kahn, howard d., o.d. 1547 laskin road laskin road office center virginia beach, va 23451 kerff, joseph 40 rue de la montagne eupen, belgium kiekenapp, ernest h., o.d. 6800 chapel lane minneapolis, minnesota 55424 knoll, henry a., ph.d. bausch & lomb rochester, new york 14602 kockelbergh, aim~ (ph.d.) 22 kardinaal mercier plein sint nikklaas, belgium koetting, felix a., o.d. 2730 watson road st. louis, mo 63139 kohn, harold (mrs.) 130 w. 42nd street new york, new york 10036 leeds, james p., o.d. 3954 c meadows dr. indianapolis, in 46205 levene, john r., d.phil. indiana university division of optometry bloomington, in 47401 los angeles college of optometry library 950 w. jefferson blvd. los angeles, california 90007 -3mcconnie, ralph, o.d. concordia esquina jobos ponce, puerto rico 00732 mcmaster, robert w. 7 columbus avenue sou.thbridge, massachusetts 01550 melendez, raul, o.d. san esteban 1708 urbanizacion san ignacio rio piedras, puerto rico 00927 meneghini, angelo d., o.d. 524 ohio street terre haute, in 47801 miller, maxwell, o.d. 407 w. market street pottsville, pa 17905 mitchell, margaret (miss), librarian british optical association 65 brook street london wly 2dt, england mohme, susan (mrs.) 77 pacoma ave. #42 pacifica, california 94044 howard, j.d., o.d. 18771 south cicero avenue country club hills, il 60477 escole d'oftometrie 1 universite de montreal c.p. 6128, montr~al 101 canada morgan, meredith w., dean school of optometry university of california berkeley, california 94720 i mrozinski, b. optometrysta bydgoszcz 1, al 1-go maja 11 poland morris, ruth p., o.d. 3539 glendale avenue toledo, ohio 43614 -cont'd~ morris, warren g., o.d. 3539 glendale avenue toledo, ohio 43614 myers, raymond, o.d. 7002 nottingham, apt. 108 st. louis, mo 63119 library state college of optometry state university of new york 122 e. 25th street new york, new york 10010 oppenheimer, stephen m., o.d. 1501 e. 19lst st., #342-j euclid, ohio 44117 pacheco, antonio, dr. p.o. box 10223 santurce, puerto rico 00908 pacheco, ramon, o.d. de diego avenue 365 parada 22 santurce, puerto rico 00909 parks, b. b., o.d. 904 pendleton street greenville, s. carolina 29601 paul, albert l., o.d. laurel shopping center laurel, maryland 20810 library pennsylvania college of optometry 6100 n. twelfth st. philadelphia, pa 19141 reed, d r., o.d. 912 michigan ave. la porte, in 46350 revell, m. j. (mr.) brandon hall fen lane bulphan, apminster, essex england -4i roosen, gerard ins·titut et centre d'optometrie 134 route de chartres f 91-440 bures-sur-yvette france ryer, e. leroy, o.d. 347 fort washinton ave. hawthorne, n.y. 10532 schugar, richard e. (student) 6060 crescentville road apartment east d-5 philadelphia, pa 19120 seger, charles e., o.d. 1407 garden st. san luis obispo, california 93401 shaneson, elias, o.d. 2016 genesee st. buffalo, new york 14211 shearer, c. wayne, o.d. 306 ashland terrace chattanooga, tennessee 37415 shetty, dr. n. b. 7-e, gunbow st. fort, bombay india staiman, jacob, o.d. 101 w. monument st., #6-k baltimore, maryland 21201 studebaker, david m., o.d. 1674 limestone st. springfield, ohio 45503 super, selwyn, o.d. p.o. box 15 johannesburg, south africa tannebaum, sol, o.d. 5 plaza-medical arts bldg. park forest, il 60466 thiriart, jean 52 avenue louise 1050 bruxelles, belgium -cont'dtorrence, m. d., o.d. 20 east 1st hutchinson, kansas 67501 tumblin, j. c., o.d. 5319 broadway, n.e. knoxville, tennessee 37918 watkins, bernard, o.d. culver lake branchville, n.j. 07826 weber, j. m., o.d. 1420 greenwood ave. trenton, n.j. 08609 weiner, grace (mrs.) university of alabama in birmingham school of optometry/the medical center 1919 seventh ave., south birmingham, alabama 35233 stereoscope ~ charni~r~: -5weinstein, minerva h., o.d. 1504 sheridan ave. bronx, n.y. 10457 welch, lester d., o.d. 3784 mowry avenue fremont, california 94538 wolfberg, melvin d., o.d. 98 n. broad st. selinsgrove, pa 17870 wolff, j., o.d. s. 2623 arthur st. spokane, washington 99203 o.h.s. member m. j. revell has an article entitled "the history of the synoptophores" in the july 8, 1972, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 12, no. 14, pp. 640-646. nineteen figures add greatly to the reader's interest, as does the author's easy style of writing. the first figure shows three early examples of sir charles wheatstone's reflecting stereo­ scope. e. javal is given credit for redesigning it with hinges (~ charni~r~) so it could be adapted for various angles of squint. the developmental sequence of instruments prompts at least a wisp of amusement. the earliest, 1838, model by wheatstone consisted merely of two plain mirrors joined at right angles. the subsequent century saw a variety of complex and elaborate designs. the most recent design, in 1956, was "a single vertical mirror placed equidistant from the two adjacent walls of the consulting room • • which were used as the target carriers". theoretical history: in many disciplines the adjective "theoretical" is used to identify the branch of a science or discipline which deals with the laws, theory, and explanation of phenomena. familiar examples include "theoretical physics", "theoretical astronomy", and "theoretical chemistry". now, i have never heard anyone refer to "theoretical history", but it makes sense to me that it should be that aspect of the discipline of history which concerns itself primarily with theory and explanation, as distinct from descriptive and documentary accounts of historical incidents and developments. an example of good and sophisticated theoretical history, in my -6opinion, is ralph e. wick's "the evolution of a profession" in the july 1972 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 43, no. 7, pp. 726-738. history .£!. vfsual science in russia: "problems of physiological optics, volume 15, physiology of vision under normal and extremal conditions" is the title of a 1971 national aeronautics and space administration publication, 225 pages, (nasa tt f650) for sale by the national technical information service, springfield, virginia 22151 @ $3.00. it is a translation of a similarly titled 1969 publication of· the u.s.s.r. academy of sciences edited by v. g. samsonova et al. the volume includes all of the 36 previously unpublished papers read at the 5th conference on physiological optics held in october 1966 in moscow. the inaugural address to the conference by editor samsonova reviews the history of visual science in t;he soviet union. he reports that "only a few distinguished scientists worked in the field of physiological optics" in pre-revolutionary russia, naming three: m. i. averbakh, p. p. lazarev, and l. a. orbeli. centers of development of physiological optics were founded soon after the october revolution, the first one in leningrad in the state optical institute in 1923 "where the optics of the eye, its correction, and the problem of increasing the working efficiency of the visual system were studied". several new laboratories were founded in the prewar period and the publication of a physiological optics journal was begun. in 1943 the committee for physiological optics of the academy of science of the u.s.s.r. was organized, and "every year seven or eight scientific meetings were held •.. " in 1946 an all-union conference was organized. joseph le conte's sight: almost a hundred years ago joseph le conte, professor of geology and natural history at the university of california, berkeley, wrote a 275 page book entitled "sight: an exposition of the principles of monocular and binocular vision", d. appleton and company, new york, 1881. just recently i perused the book to determine once again whether it would now seem as well written as when i first saw it about 35 years ago. indeed it is a superbly written tome, one that i could heartily recommend for reprinting today even as a paperback for the many who enjoy reading sophisticated but understandable science publications. what seems to me a bit strange is that le conte is mentioned so rarely in the introductory paragraphs of visual science articles dealing with the same topics that he covered, and most elegantly. many a current scientific article begins with, "according to helmholtz ••• ", "in 1863 danders pointed out • • • ", etc., but no one ever seems to give le conte a nod of recognition. why did professor le conte write this book? he explained in his preface, "in writing this treatise i have tried to make a book that would be intelligible and interesting to the thoughtful general reader, and at -7the same time profitable to even the most advanced specialist in this department. i find justification for the attempt in the fact that there is not, to my knowledge, any work covering the same ground in the english language." he also commented, "as a means of scientific culture, the study of vision se.ems to me almost exeptional." who was le conte? joseph le conte, 1823-1901, is listed in who was who in america and in world who's who in science as a geologist and natural scientist. he was awarded the ll.d. degree by the university of georgia in 1879, and by princeton in 1896. during the civil war he served the confederacy as chemist of the medical laboratory and of nitre and mining operations. from 1869 to 1896 he was professor of geology at the university of california, berkeley. in addition to the book on sight his major publications included a textbook entitled elements of geology, and a course of sunday lectures entitled religion and science. for many years the optometry school at berkeley was housed in le conte hall. it seems probable that it was joseph le conte in whose honor the building was named. dyslexia history: a rather good and succinct historical review of concepts, definitions, and descriptions of dyslexia is included in a to-be-continued article entitled,"the problems of the dyslexia child" by m. v. elstein in the june 16, 1972, issue of the optician (london), vol. 163, no. 4234, pp. 10-13. history of the n.j.o.a.: enthusiastic o.h.s. member jack m. weber, o.d. is chairman of the new jersey optometric association committee on history. he informs us that his committee is embarking on a five-year pro'ject which will chronicle the history of his association, "-something like a smaller version of jim gregg's history of aoa." jack requests all the. help he can get. in particular he needs the loan of "any documents, anecdotes or other memorabilia which ••• could • • • help in the preparation of my manuscript." he is particularly interested in the period between 1900 and 1940. his address is 1420 greenwood avenue, newton, new jersey, 08609. dear abbe! ---jena review, a bimonthly publication with editorial headquarters in jena, ddr (east germany), is issued simultaneously in two english language editions so subtly different as to be differentiable only in a side-by­ side page-by-page comparison. both editions are printed in the german -8democratic republic under the same government "license no. 1447" and "index­ no. 32104". for several years the indiana university optometry library has been receiving the two editions through separate channels, one by subscription and the other as a gift, but the difference was not detected until the last 1971 issues arrived early in 1972. one of the 1971 editions has nos. 5 and 6 as separate issues, but the other has nos. 5-6 in one issue with its outside cover pictures identical to those of no. 6 in the former. the pagination in the former totals 371 and for the latter only 335. the combined nos. 5-6 issue in the latter edition include all of the articles in no. 6 of the former, but only a few from no. 5. excluded are a group of 13 separately authored articles relating to historical developments leading to the "!25th anniversary of carl zeiss jena". the outside front cover and the inside and outside back cover of no. 5 are also excluded from the combined issue. the year's issues prior to nos. 5 and 5-6 in the two editions have identical pagination. the other differences betwe~n the two editions all relate to the use of the word zeiss. the terms "veb carl zeiss jena" and minor variations are replaced by "aus jena", "jena optical works", "jean-made", etc. in the latter edition wherever the word zeiss would otherwise appear in article titles, on the cover page, or in the text. the single exception is in very small print in the publisher's statement where the editor's address is listed at "carl-zeiss-str. 1", the name of the street! the publisher's statement in the former edition shows distribution directly from the east berlin publisher, while the statement in the latter lists two distribution agencies in the u.s.a., one of which, interestingly, is "zena company". both editions are mailed directly from the same address. it would appear that the two editions are intended for two different groups of english-language readers, the sans-zeiss edition for the u.s.a. and the zeiss-identified edition for english-language readers elsewhere. the explanation? the restriction in the use of the word zeiss i.n the u.s.a. distribution is obviously due to a judicial interpretation in a u.s. district court on november 7, 1968 (293 federal supplement, 892), and a decision on march 12, 1969 (298 federal supplement, 1309-1318) followed by a u.s. court of appeals action argued may 5, 1970 and decided november 2, 1970 (433 f.2d federal reporter, 686-708). according to alona e. evans, "judicial decisions: carl zeiss stiftung v. v.e.b. carl zeiss, jena", american journal of international law, vol, 63, no. 3, july 1969, pp. 636-639, "an action for trademark infringement was brought by carl zeiss stiftung, a foundation located in the federal republic of germany, and zeiss ikon, a.g., a related west german corporation, against v.e.b. carl zeiss, jena, a corporation located in the german democratic republic, and related firms. both principals claimed to be legally identical with, and the successors to, the abbe foundation of jena, -9which had had exclusive use of the disputed zeiss trademarks and trade names until 1949, when the soviet military administration in east germany expropriated the commercial facilities and assets of the foundation, an act which purported to extend to all zeiss trademarks wherever located. after the expropriation, the official representatives of the original foundation transferred their organization to west germany a'nd carried on their business in the name of carl zeiss stiftung •. in 1951, the foundation known as v.e.b. carl zeiss, jena, was established in east germany and undertook to market photographic equipment using t~ademarks similar to or identical with those controlled by carl zeiss stiftung. judge mansfield held that carl zeiss stiftung was legally identical with and the successor to the foundation which had been expropriated in east germany, that this foundation and related corporations were entitled to sole and exclusive use of the trademarks and trade names in dispute in the united states, and v.e.b. carl zeiss, jena, had infringed upon their trademarks and trade names and had competed unfairly with the plaintiffs in the united states." incidentally, the east german jena review lists alternate titles in several languages, suggesting that separate editions are published in german, russian, french, and spanish also. the west german firm, in oberkochen, west germany, (about 40 miles east of stuttgart), publishes a periodical of roughly similar format, style, and size entitled zeiss information in several languages, namely, english, german, french, spanish and italian. recognition of the "125th anniversary" is boldly noted on the front covers of the 1971 publications of both the east and west german "zeiss" firms. hail hale! o.h.s. member jack r. hale, o.d., has put both the neill and pacheco optometric dynasties in the shade in a letter dated august 16 in which he reports himself as the grandson of optometrist clarence young who started a 48 year practice career in 1921. his grandfather, an aunt, three uncles, a first cousin, and he himself have accumulated 248 years of optometric practice! the details of this family were reported by jack hale in the march 15, 1966, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 103, no. 6, pp. 44-49, under the title "231 years in optometry-the story of a family." seventeen years were added to their score since the article was published, and, with two living members, a quarter of a millennium should be reached in 1974. the famiiy contributions included ownership and operation of the former washington school of optometry in spokane. as if to ward off further challengers, jack added the following p.s. "this is only close relatives. my son has indicated an interest in optometry"! bifocal history: "some pages of bifocal history" by a. g. bennett in the july 21, 1972, issue of the optician (london), vol. 164, no. 4239, pp. 6-11, covers some previously unpublished documentation of bifocal design, invention, and -10development in the early part of this century. the contributions and roles of messrs. e. l. parks, j. h. sutcliffe, a. h. emerson, malcolm bentzen, harry newbold, f. b. watson, edward culver, stanley emerson, and henry a. courmettes are interestingly described. franklin and bifocals: our vice-president john r. levene has broken out in print again, as he does frequently, with an article entitled "benjamin franklin, f.r.s., sir joshua reynolds, f.r.s., p.r.a., benjamin west, p.r.a., and the invention of bifocals" in notes. & records of the royal society of london, vol. 27, no. 1, august 1972, pp. 141-163. he has uncovered pieces of evidence that make the sole attribution of the invention of bifocals to franklin questionable. the abbreviations f.r.s. and p.r.a. in the title, incidentally, stand for fellow of the royal socie~and president of the royal academy. apotropaic eye symbols: what may well be the most unusual eye-related hobby of all is the collecting of amuletic and talismanic eye symbcls by riichi iwasaki, an ophthalmic optician whose address is ginza new central bldg., 9-14, 5chome, ginza, tokyo, japan. his collection, which he showed me proudly, includes one apotropaion dating back to 500-600 b.c., one to 700 b.c., and one to 1200 b.c., with dates officially certified. several are undated but also believed to be comparably old. in addition he has accumulated an album of personally photographed symbols obtained in visits to historical museums, all in full color. his four most prized possessions are beautifully illustrated in an ophthalmic promotional brochure of the japanese optical consultants association, a small association of solo optometric practitioners of which mr. iwasaki is chairman. the folding brochure is in japanese. a fascinating discussion of the function of apotropaic eye symbols is provided in the evil eye by edwards. gifford, jr., m.d., the macmillan company, new york, 1958. such representations of the eye, variously carved, painted, or sculptured on ornaments, murals, mummy cases, etc. as a protection against evil magic influence are typically grotesque, often impressionistic, and frequently hideous in design. the most frequent appearance of one such divine and magic eye in modern times is that which appears at the top of the thirteen-step pyramid on the back of any u.s. one-dollar bill. buddha teaching: "one can get fire if he holds a lense between the sun and some combustible, but where does the fire come from? the lense is an enormous distance from the sun; apparently there is no connection, but the fire -11certainly appears upon the combustible." so reads a passage from the teaching of buddha published by bukkyo dendo kyokai, tokyo, japan, 16th edition, 1972, p. 68, to illustrate by analogy how " ••• the light of buddha's wisdom is concentrated upon the human mind •.. " a passage on the next page includes a parable of a man who "looked into what he thought was the polished side of a mirror and not seeing his face became insane." another passage, p. 71, includes the classic story of the several blind men and their respective perceptions of an elephant. a mirror is mentioned again on page 73, and on page 109 is the admonition, "but it would be foolish for a man to put out his eyes just because he is fearful of being tempted by beautiful forms." buddha gautama, later known by his followers as sakyamuni, was born not later than 563 b.c. who was desmond? a leading japanese optometrist, fumio morrey, tells me that he and some of his colleagues obtained much of their early optometric education from a dr. desmond, an american optometrist who was in japan in about 1930 under the auspices of an american optical firm. out of curiosity i checked "desmond" in a series of old blue books of optometrists. the name l. d. desmond first appears in the 1924 issue listed in st. john, new brunswick, canada, without a street address, thus suggesting that he might have been a recent optometry graduate not yet in practice. the next issue, 1926, showed the same listing, still with no address, but also a d. desmond listed in shanghai, china, at 7 lovelane. the 1928 and 1930 issues no longer showed "l. d." in new brunswick, but continued to list d. desmond at the 7 lovelane address in shanghai. so ends another short optometric saga. optical genealogy: 202 years ago, in 1750, a little shop opened up for miscellaneous retail business at 24-12, 3 chome nishiki nakaku, in nagoya, japan. in about 1872 the store included spectacles among its wares. the same shop still operates as a very modern retail opticianry establishment in the same location. it is called tamamizuya optician co., ltd., and is managed by its president and owner, mr. shozaburo tsuda, a refracting optician, a prominent local citizen and rotarian. mr. tsuda is the seventh generation in the firm, and his son, in association with him, is the eighth. another son. is presently studying optometry at the southern california college of optometry, in los angeles. -12the spectacles, ey_ poe: the short story "the spectacles" by edgar allan poe (1809-1849) originally appeared in the dollar newspaper on march 27, 1844. the tale again appeared in the broadway journal sometime between october 15 and december 3, 1845, during which time poe was the journal's editor and publisher. though the tale may be found now in any of several variously published collections of poe's complete works, it seems not to have been a favorite of critics, nor of compilers of selected writings of poe. for example, arthur hobson quinn who wrote an extensive biography of poe and a preface for one of the complete collections said merely, " 'the spectacles' ••• is one of the most absurd of the grotesques. the story of mr. talbot (sic! the story is about a mr. simpson), who is so near­ sighted that he falls in love with his great-great-grandmother, defies criticism." another critic, edward shanks, commented, "i have an ineradicable suspicion that he (poe) thought rather highly of the nauseating buffooneries of such a tale as '·the spectacles. ' " i read the story. i am afraid i agree with poe rather than with his critics, it is thoroughly enjoyable. to arouse your curiosity, let me quote the last sentence of the tale: "in conclusion: i am done forever with the billet doux and am never to be met without spectacles." how did i become aware of this very literary testimonial to spectacles? i happened to see the title, "edgar allan poe und 'die augenghiser' " in the september 15, 1972, issue of sttddeutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 27, no. 9, pp. 666-672, in which dr. emil-heinz schmitz referred to one of his student experiences at the jena school when a professor chided him for being unaware of this very pertinent contribution of poe's. in due time he tracked down the story and retold most of it, in german, in the article cited. history££ spectacles: appearing several times a year in suddeutsche optikerzeitung is a series entitled "aus der geschichte des brillenglases" by dr. emil-heinz schmitz. the 38th installment of this series appeared in vol. 27, no. 9, september 15, 1972, pp. 684 ff. unfortunately the collection of this periodical convenient to me is quite incomplete, so i have not ascertained when the series started, but i did determine that the 23rd installment appeared early in 1969. i also note that in an advertisement in the current issue there is listed a book of 144 pages and 101 illustrations by e.-h. schmitz entitled "die sehhilfe im wandel der jahrhunderte" for sale by the abovementioned journal at 7 stuttgart, postfach 669, west germany, at d.m. 9.50 (approximately $3). i have requested acquisition of a copy by the indiana univaristy library and i shall report more about it and the author when it arrives. !=._leroy ryer, o.d. (1880-1972) to me the name of dr. ryer, like his fifth avenue address, had long symbolized a sort of socio-professional court into which one of my humble -13standing might never be invited, so, when in june 1948 i received a very informally written note addressing littl' ol' me as "dr. hofstetter" and signed simply "e. leroy ryer", asking for my opinion on a clinical procedure, i suddenly gained the revelation that he was not just famous but also a very genuine and human person. unfortunately for me, my contacts with dr. ryer were limited almost entirely to occasional correspondence, invariably on a professional or technical matter, but always very informal, yet never involving our personalities, family matters, friends, or hobbies. so, upon the death of this great optometric patriarch, pioneer, leader, and mentor i came to the shocking realization that i know much about the man but not really the man himself. i do know that within hours of his death he was still contributing to his profession, still trying to put together and submit a few more thoughts to help restructure the heritage of our profession, the spirit of which he was the embodiment. corporal engelmann, o.d.: dr. otto r. engelmann, a chicago optometrist known to almost every other optometrist, paid us a visit at indiana university on nov. 9 to give a talk on "fifty years of optometric progress". born in germany, he reports being the first to serve as an optometrist in the u.s. army, in world war i. knowing my interest, he presented me with his file copy of an eight­ page single-spaced typewritten letter which he wrote to the hon. paul mcnutt, director, manpower division, washington, d.c., on january 14, 1943. this masterpiece document, reports dr. engelmann, brought about the placement of the first optometrist to work as an optometrist in the u.s. army in world war ii. he also reports that the famous paul mcnutt happened to be a personal acquaintance of his. of special historical interest is the approximately one full page of the letter in which he described his own military optometric services 24 to 26 years earlier, as follows: "my work included the refraction of eyes and the writing of prescriptions for glasses, the fitting, servicing, doing minor repairs, and adjustments necessary for those who wear glasses. "i organized the mechanical setup and distribution of our force for mass eye examinations, such examinations revealing data regarding the health, visual acuity, muscular unbalances, stereopsis, and color vision. "i served as surgical assistant at all eye operations as the average hospital nurse is not familiar with eye operation routine. "during the absence of our commissioned eye physician, which lasted almost three weeks, i carried on the work of the department, diagnosing and treating eye diseases and performed minor surgical -14operations. even though my training as an optometrist did not qualify me for the practice of medicine, nevertheless, the results were entirely satisfactory and i was generously complimented for the services rendered. "every morning i distributed the incoming eye cases among the various departments, assigning patients for refraction, treatment or operation as the case indicated. this, in itself, required trained diagnostic ability. "in addition to this i made out all the requisitions for instruments, equipment, and supplies, made inventory reports, statistical reports and actually wrote the department's annual report to washington. "for a period of three months i conducted classes in refraction at the request of physicians who intended to do refraction after leaving the army. for all this the army named me "optician" at $36.00 per month with the rank of corporal. "when the commanding general of the 86th division came to us for glasses, our c.o. major jean, army ophthalmologist asked me to do the refracting stating that of the eye physicians in our department, none had any specialized training in refraction, most of them had picked it up after entering private practice. "when i volunteered and requested my transfer to a field hospital to accompany major jean to vladivostock, russia, lt. col. michie, base hospital c.o. refused my transfer stating that i was a key man in my department." british optometrists in w.w. ii: optometrist frank dickinson, 35 the square, st. annes-on-sea, lancashire, england, writes that although the profession is not recongized in the u.k. armed forces as well as in the u.s. military, "british optometrists were certainly used during the war but generally as assistants to ophthalmologists rather than in their own right. but we did get other ·recognition; i was asked to take charge of a newly created eye clinic in a huge ammunition factory (34,000 workers) during the early months of the war. i built up a team of optometrists and we ran a daily attendance at this clinic, which was part of the medical setup. we worked in close cooperation with the factory doctors. the senior medical officer was a lady ••• and she learned a lot about what optometry can offer!" h. w. hofstetter, editor 1973-04-01-001 1973-04-01-002 1973-04-01-003 1973-04-01-004 1973-04-01-005 1973-04-01-006 1973-04-01-007 1973-04-01-008 1973-04-01-009 1973-04-01-010 1973-04-01-011 1973-04-01-012 1973-04-01-013 1973-04-01-014 ~ewsletter of the ~tometric historical society (243 north lin~gh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) vol. 15-(7 january 1984-~g:, number 1 o.h.s. business matters: ' ,'f;fa~mv u8rarl although the o.h.s. has sponsored frequent gatherings of its ~ar 1 6 1984 members and other history-minded persons at convenient opportunities such as during meetings of the american academy of optometry and of the american optometric association, it has been quite impossible umiana iinivflfsijr to bring together all five members of the executive board at one sitting. hence virtually all business has been handled by correspondence and telephone. on december 12, however, four of the five board members plus your editor, were able to squeeze in a 7:00 a.m. breakfast business meeting in houston, texas, during the week of academy sessions. on this occasion the board accomplished the signing of recognition certificates for two previously voted recipients, martin topaz and grace weiner. aware that it was well behind schedule, so to speak, in its recognition of others who had contributed significantly to our awareness of optom~try•s heritage, the board approved the granting of recognition certificates to six additional nominees, as follows: maurice cox, israel dvorine, o.d., robert graham, o.d., james r. gregg, o.d., john r. levene, ph.d. (posthumously), and jacob staiman, o.d. . . considering the approximately doubled cost of postage and of preparation·of the newsletter since its first issue (january 1970), and presuming that any replacement of, or assistant to, the present gratuitous editor should receive at least a token honorarium, the executive board voted to double the dues from the long standing $5.00 per year to $10.00 per year effective january 1, 1984. california vs. canada: when to make the final count of ballots being returned from around the globe can mean waiting blo or more months if the results are close to a tie. this is the way this o.h.s. executive board election looked for the first two or three weeks as candidates dave williams and pat carlson took turns leading. i gained some impression that canadian and californian o.h.s. members were simply voting for their favorite son or daughter, respectively. (i •m trying to hide my otherwise enjoyab 1 e chauvinism). eventually, however, patricia carlson gained a lead that could not be offset by the few belated ballots that may still be arriving on the high seas. obviouslv each of the two candidates was favored by those who knew him or her well, but, regretfully, only one could be elected. opt re 95'1 ,1)&27 v, i~ -17 2 the resultant five members of the executive board then lost no .time electing officers for 1984, the same as for 1983. the new line-up is as follows, with years of termination on the board in parentheses: president: james p. leeds, o.d. (1987) vice-president: jerome j. abrams, o.d. (1986) secretary-treasurer: maria dablemont (1985) members: patricia carlson (1988) henry a. knoll, ph.d. (1984) two ohs members deceased: ~ews of the deaths of john r. levene, ph.d., and antonio pacheko, o.d., reached us just before this issue went to the printers. readers will recall that john, a british trained optometrist, was a founding member of the o.h.s. executive board, a president, several times editor of the newsletter, a frequent contributor to the newsletter, and earned his ph.d. degree at oxford university in science history. he was born in 1929. tony, a proud puerto rican who received his professional training at the pennsylvania college of optometry, probably recruited more ohs members than anyone else, frequently contributed items of facts and statistics to our newsletter, and made the unchallenged claim of having the numerically largest family name in optome~ry. he was born in 1923. · history interests all kinds:. a flurry of ten new o .. h.s. members immediately followed the mailing of the october issue of this newsletter. while no attempt is made in this newsletter to list all new, or even continuing members, the assortment in this instance reinforces the typical composition of our farflung and diverse membership. represented in the list, which follows, are three countries, six states and a commonwealth, two continents and an island, four professions, both sexes, and at least a 40 year age range. mr: collin eldridge apothecaries• hall black friars lane london, ecv4 6el england • barbara a. fink, 0.0. 1405 cond. townhouse rio piedras, pr 00923 tole n. greenstein, 0.0. 7831 s.e. lake road milwaukie, or 97222 mr. ron jensen indiana university school of optometry 800 east atwater bloomington, in 47405 w. m. lyle, ph.d. school of optometry university of waterloo waterloo, ontario canada n2l 3gl charles w. mcquarrie, o.d. 44847 loth st. west lancaster, ca 93534 jay messinger, o.d. 4117 bledsoe st. culver city, ca to save or not to save: --------3 john robinson, o.d. box 323 creston, ia 50801 gordon r. shaw, o.d. 2970 n. jasper st. decatur, il 62526 j. baxter swartwout, o.d. route 7 at park avenue latham, ny 12110 that is the question that we all face quite daily. it is the only barrier between a hand grasp and a waste basket within arm•s 1 ength. some of us avoid the multiple crises by tossing away everything that has no continuing utility. others of us manifest the pack-rat syndrome by saving everything, some even organizing the storage areas for retrieveability. in between is the somewhat less decisive group of us who make a conscientious effort to sort out the items which may have archival value or, more popularly, may become so-called collectors• items. within that in-between group are those of us who conscientiously become a bit frustrated when the decision to save may be regarded as totally silly and the decision not to save may be the utter destruction of the only clue to an answer of historical significance. the manner in which such decisions are finally consummated is not unlike that to dispose of a gum wrapper at the queen•s reception. perhaps the most admirable of all, however, are those of us who indulge in 11 buck-passinq 11 the difficult questions by simple donation of the items in question to a museum, collector, or archivist for final decision. so it is with a small carton of about 400 file cards placed on my desk recently by my colleague charles shick with the note, 11 bob corns asked that i give you this box full of old board tests. he thought that you might want them for the archives. if you don•t think they might be useful he said you should toss them ... hmmm! 4 each card has typed on it an indiana optometry state board question, usually with a suggested answer and its dates of utilization, all between 1947 and 1954. of what possible archival value could these be? well, it was only a few years ago that i was suggesting to a student that one way to answer his question on trends in optometric science would be to compare state board examination questions of different periods in our history. such questions were of course rarely if ever published. some were collected in exclusive fraternity files but not readily accessible to nonmembers. to the best of my knowledge the student•s project was abandoned. i recall once hearing a lecture by a retired chemistry professor who described some of the chemistry he was taught a half century earlier. it was a startling revelation of progress possible in a single lifetime.· needless to say, i am .. passing this buck .. to ilamo, together with a copy of this commentary. · on the apple of one ~-s eye: o.h.s. member david cline, o.d., who continually scans the literature for terms that should be included in the dictionary of visual science, of which he is a co-editor, wrote to tell us that in the preface of 11 little dorrit 11 by charles dickens, heritage club edition, 1956, dickens is quoted as having written to mrs. richard watson in 1855, 11 catherine tells me that you want to know the name of my new book. it will not be made public until the end of october, the title is--noboov•s fault--keep it as the apple of your eye--an expressive form of speech, though 1 have not the least idea qf what it means ... dr. cline reminds us that dickens did not have the benefit of the great oxford english.di.ctionary which tells us that the apple of the eye is 11 the puoil or circular aperture in the center of the eye through which the dark retina is seen, ·so ca 11 ed, because it was supposed to be a drcular body ... the q.e.d. states also that the term is 11 used as a symbol of that which is"'cherished with the greatest regard .. and traces its use back to a.d. 885 with subsequent citations dated in the years 1300, 1483, 1535, 1586, 1600, 1602, 1753, and 1816. the origin and rationale are nevertheless unexplained. webster•s third new international dictionary, unabridged, is much less informative. dickens•s comment may still be appropriate! 5 brief history of the c. i.e.: the commission internationale de l'eclairage (c.i.e.) in its present form began in 1913 with the restructuring of its predecessor, the international commission on photometry (cip), which was founded on september 3, 1900, at the paris meeting of the international gas congress. its formation was prompted especially by the need to study the problem of photometry of incandescent gas mr.ntles. the first cip session held in zurich in june 1901 was attended by 14 people. at the fourth session in berlin in 1913 the entire time was devoted to a discussion of the draft of new statutes to govern a much broadened organization, the c.i.e. in recent years the quadrennial international sessions have approached the 1,000 mark in attendance. the organizational history and some of the c.i.e. accomplishments are described by sylvester k. guth in the july 1983 issue of the cie-journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 2-5: dr. guth acknowledges that much of his article is based upon the detailed history of the cie by j.w.t. walsh, which covers the period from 1900 to 1962. to learn your heritage: one of the largest genealogical collections in the united states is in the allen county public library, 900 webster street, fort wayne, indiana 46802. its reynolds historical genealogy collection is rapidly approaching two hundred thousand volumes. included are family genealogies, community histories, indexes to births, deaths, marriages, cemetery inscri~tions, and wills, maps, flat books, heraldry references, census population schedules, boat passenger lists, city directories, military pension records, bib1iographies, etc. the reading room has numbered seating to accommodate eighty researchers. the department maintains a list of professional genealogists who can be contacted personally regarding their fe~s and research desired. complementing the department is the allen county genealogical society of indiana, p.o. box 12003, fort wayne, indiana 46862, which anyone may join. the annual dues are $9.00. beginning of the contact ~: the 60th anniversary of time was celebrated in the october 5, 1983, issue, vol. 122, no. 15, with 86 editorial pages of the magazine filled with brief accounts of major events and other significant happenings from 30 selected years of the 60. on page 51, devoted to the year 1930, under the caption of medicine is the following: 6 members of the optometrical society of the city of new york peered inquisitively last week at grace robin. 22, near-sighted brooklyn stenographer. pleasantly but glassily grace robin peered back. she did not appear to be wearing eyeglasses, yet she was, right against her eyeballs--contact glasses, such as had never been seen by the new york society. grace robin should now be 75. it would be fascinating to hear her account of the occasion. contact lenses from 1930 to 1950: ----~-11 the max schapero lecture: contact lens horizons 11 is the title of an article in the october 1983 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 60, no. 10, pp. 851-858, in which solon m. braff, 0.0., reminisces in con­ versational detail his awareness of developments as one who was himself intimately involved in almost every aspect. though reminiscing, he relies heavily on contemporary published accounts to enhance his memory. thought evaders: considerably mangled, perhaps by having been carried in a vast pocket and very frequently consulted, are the remains of a book of only 9 x 6 em page size, in dr. james leeds' collection. it was quite obviously used as .a mnemonic by an ophthalmic optician or perhaps by a student or apprentice preparing for his or her qualifying examination. the remaining pages are nos. 17,-28, 33-106, and 109-112 still loosely tied together by the bookbinding cord. pages 17-28 are mostly mnemonic phrases to help one remember anatomi ca 1 information, such as 11 !:_ow ~heres ~citing .p_ai n frequently need most careful refraction 11 = 11 lachrymal, supraorbital, ethmoid, palpebral, frontal, nasal, muscular, ciliary,-and retinae centralis 11 branches of the ophthalmic artery. the section on ocular affect! ons' pages 33-54' inc 1 udes' for ex amp 1 e' ii hi de i_ntbxicants ~fter !_en 11 for 11!i,yperaemia, l_nflammation, fl_trophy, and iumours 11 of the optic nerve. pages 53 and 92 advertise 11 lowings' orthoptic training charts 11 published by 11 j. & f. fleming, ltd. 11 at 11 146, clerkenwell road, london, e. c. 1 . 11 7 pages 55-62 cover mydriatics and cycloplegics, and pages 63-92 optical formulae. all subsequent pages provide standards for nomen­ clature recommended by 11 the ophthalmic optical standards committee and adopted by the institute of ophthalmic opticians and the association of wholesale and manufacturing opticians. 11 from the several illustrations of bridges and temples one can estimate that this was published very early in the present century. the worshipful company of spectacle makers:_ this is the title of a history of the oldest functioning optical (optometric) body in the world, chartered in 1629 by charles i. it is authored by frank w. law, who in turn credits mr. brian bevan with collecting the bulk of the material. published in 1979, quite evidently by the w.c.s.~1., it consists of 126 pages of detailed, well organized, and documented chronology of the functions, roles, rituals, challenges, and tribulations experienced in its 350 years of existence. the appendices include the citation of the original 1628 petition for a charter, the charter itself (8 pages!), the 1950 grant of arms, a chronological list of masters of the company since its incorporation with 20 or more marked as having 11 served the office of lord mayor of london, 11 the 1955 petition for a suoplemental charter by queen elizabeth, and a chronological list of the clerks of the company whose tenures ranged from one to 55 years. the address of the w.c.s.m. is apothecaries! hall, black friars lane, london ec4v 6el. the company now published a newsletter entitled from the master and wardens, with no. 7 of val. 1 appearing in may 1983,-rrtor private circulation to freeman of the worshipful company of spectacle makers. 11 historic microscope replicated: carl zeiss, inc. offers a limited-edition, working replica of a famous· zeiss microscope, the stativ vii, for museums and private .collectors. handcrafted in burnished brass, this exact replica of the original manufactured by ca __ r1 zeiss in the 1880 1 s is both a functioning instrument and an impressive display piece of historic interest. one thousand stativ vii replicas are being produced. the stativ vii was among the first microscopes to have optics that were produced according to mathematical principles developed by ernst abbe of carl zeiss, germany. abbe 1 s pioneering research into microscopic imaging revolutionized the manufacture of microscopes and made possible the large-scale production of quality instruments. the stativ vii gained wide use in laboratories throughout the world during the great age of discovery in the biological, chemical and physical sciences in the years following 1880. 8 one of these discoveries was that of the tubercle bacillus, made in 1882 by robert koch. zeiss decided to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of this milestone in medica 1 hi story by offering an exact reproduction of an instrument of that period. the stativ vii reproduction comes with a lox eyepiece a set of 3x, 8x, and 40x objectives. each replica is numbered and is housed in an attractive mahogany case, together with a set of specimen slides. for those who wish to duplicate the important tests by which abbe demonstrated his theory of microscope imaging, a diffraction kit and instructions are also included. the price, complete, is $1,750. information on availability can be obtained by contacting your nearest zeiss dealer or carl zeiss, inc., one zeiss drive, thornwood, ny 10594, (914) 747-1800. luminescent enlightenment: very incidental to visual science but increasingly relevant to optometry is luminescense and its many applications. its technological development is represented in an international organizing committee of 15 members from nine countries which supervises the international conferences on luminescence. the seventh congress, briefly icl 84, is scheduled for august 13-17, 1984, in madison, wisconsin, u.s.a., and is cosponsored by the university of wisconsin, the optical society of america, and the union of pure and applied physics in cooperation with several other organizations and with financial support from 32 industrial firms. its history? according to a brochure entitled first call for papers, 11 the conference on luminescence had its origin in warsaw (1936) and in oxford (1938), initially as a small symposium of researchers interested in the field of luminescence. these gatherings were revived after world war ii, when the first postwar meeting was ·held in england once again. since then, because of the growth of interest in and increa6ing technical importance of luminescence, th~conference has thrived in size and scope. the mechanisms and the structure needed to transform the conference into one of international standing were assembled in 1966 at the meeting in budapest; since then it has become known as the international conference on luminescence (icl). 11 9 seventy years ago: "early days in optics" by j.h. lucas in the october 8, 1983, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 23, no. 20, pp. 642-643, is a brief and personal account of the author's entree into his ophthalmic optical/optometric career. as a finishing "schoolboy" in 1913 he responded to an advertisement by a mr. crowther who practiced in wimbledon, england. his first pay was a "generous" 7s 6d per 50 hour work week, "to keep the place neat and tidy, then to make up spectacles and pince-nez from the dozens of little white boxes labeled with the power of the lenses and their size and shape." he also related his preparations for certification by studies under the supervision of mr. crowther and "a french gentleman who gave classes from his home in brixton." following service in world war i he continued course work at the london refraction hospital and "in the optics department of the university of london," eventually to be certified by the british optical association. he closes with, "i wonder whether the young men and women of the present generation experience the same wonder and joy in the gaining of their qualifica­ tions as we did in the early days." try me again, jim: ever to test the inflexible firmness .of our friendship o.h.s. president jim .leeds and i have been conducting a titillating vendetta concerning the series of three 1937 reader's digest "optometry on trial" articles on which i commented in the july 1983 issue of the n.o.h.s. feeling exactly as i do about the historical significance of these articles he repeatedly urged me to rerun them in the n.o.h.s., or else simply to include copies with one of our quarterly mailings. exercising my editorial independence i persistently declined to do so, each time stating one or more reasons such as i typically dredge up to suit the occasion. both of us a bit annoyed by the impasse, we agreed that i would comply if he would get the endorsement of the o.h.s. executive board and permission from the copyright holders of the magazine. aha, he thought he had me, and so he immediately contacted the reader's digest publishers. prompt response came from the editorial rights and permissions manager esther carr as follows, "we enjoyed reading your letter,' but i'm afraid we have to disappoint you. rights to the three articles by roger william riis are unclear and we cannot give reprint permission to anyone." however, let me mitigate jim's disappointment by again reminding our curiosity-driven readers that the original reader's digest articles (vol. 31, aug., sept., & oct.) are quite available in major public libraries. also, ilamo, inc., will provide single photocopies quite legally on request for a nominal copying and mailing charge. 10 i must agree with jim•s closing shot, 11 i still say there are a hell of a lot of people out there under 60 who know very little about the whole brouhaha ... about charles sheard, 1883-1963 on november 5 and 6, 1983, the college of optometry and the graduate school of the ohio state university sponsored the charles sheard centennial symposium on vision science. on this occasion sheard•s daughter, mrs. dorothy sheard allen, was invited to speak. in preparation for her remarks she wrote a paper entitled 11 some remembrances of my father, charles sheard, .. a 13 page document. dean frederick w. hebbard has made plenty of copies of that document for general distribution. for your complimentary copy write dr. hebbard at the o.s.u. college of optometry, 338 west loth avenue, columbus, ohio 43210. it provides an intimate glimpse of the personal and family life of the man. at the program itself mrs. allen spoke entirely from longhand notes which she prepared quite separately from the above-mentioned document. i prevailed on her to let me have these for the n.o.h.s. here they are: it is indeed a great pleasure for me to be with you as we honor my fatf.er during the centennial year of his birth and as we gather together to celebrate the joyous occasion qf the rededication and renaming of the college of optometry building for glenn fry. it would be presumptuous of me to pretend to you scientists that i truly understand all father•s scientific work. i do understand the philosophy which inspired it. father was a born and bred teacher and a bit of a preacher. he believed that each of us should give to the world the best one has to give. he chose to give his best through the art and science of vision which he said was ••the most precious gift we have been given ... father•s own words speak better for him than i can, so i shall quote without specific identification from • dynamic ocular tests written while he was professor of physics and applied optics here at ohio state; life giving light, one of the century of progress series; and the sheard volume, both written while he was at the mayo clinic and foundation. the first book is 11 dedicated to all men scientifically interested in ocular refraction .. and i justly presume that this means each one of you. 11 you will note that i chose not to quote from dynamic skiametry. i do not, however, deny that i know the basic principle invo1ved: that convergence and accommodation are accomplished best by testing both eyes together. skiametry may not be part of my every-day thinking about father, but dynamic is. father said, "things static can never have the same fascination as things dynamic." he equated dynamic with energy and believed that energy is present in every form of life, and that one form supports another. "science becomes dynamic by the continuous development of new and.fruitful concepts. only a trained mind can appreciate or understand the conceptual schema. a trained mind has three attributes: a deep-seated and insatiable curiosity; an unfethered, unrestrained and ruthless imagination~ and an unquenchable faith that there is law in the universe and harmony in nature." to put it in other words: "to define the indefinable, explain the inexplicable, and unscrew the inscrutable." "a trained mind thinks and thinks for itself." father compared scientists to detectives. he said that there are two methods of investigation, one the baconian and the other that described by descartes. in both methods, clues are investigated carefully. in the baconian method, a major clue is decided upon and pursued vigorously. in the method of descartes, a solution to a problem can be found only by thought, only by a trained mind as it sifts and evaluates clues. father quotes from james conant as follows: "science is to be regarded as a series of interconnected, conceptual schemes which arose originally from experimentation or careful observation and were fruitful of new experiments." father goes on to say that "without new concepts there will be no advance in practical arts" and "that only in constant development of pure science will develop constant advance in practical arts." they should be busy co-operating the one with the other. this thought is repeated in the song the children•s choir sang at jan masuryk•s funeral: "the wheel broke, we•11 have to strengthen the snoke." father also wrote that a brick no matter how perfect it is to look at is no good unless it is being used to build. in 1948, father, talking to a group of generally well informed people, said he felt somewhat uneasy away from the scientific laboratory, that environment "with its freedom of thought, its doubting thomas attitude, the search for some fragment of truth or some contribution to man•s knowledge." father made his contribution through his research in the field of vision. 12 "vision of men•s naked eye, keen and marvelous as it may he, has not been powerful enough either in its magnifying scope or resolving ability to bring the night with its many thousand eyes and the starry heavens nearer earth." "the wonders of today are triumphs of modern science over baffling intricacies of environment, time, and space ... "the application of new ideas and new tools developed by the physicist and chemist to the study of biological problems has been one of the most important and fruitful undertakings of the last three decades 11 --written in 1933 . .. it is important to blend the science of biology with the science of men. 11 i must now speak for myself, for my brother charles, who cannot b~ here bec~use of illness, and father•s seven grandchildre1 and six great grandchildren. when i read father•s bibliography and see the names of the men and women with whom he worked, i realize ane\'1 father•s dedication to the concept that the working together of various disciplines is vital to the general benefit of mankind. when i see the cbs ad for its new program in which they describe vision as 11 undertaking that which is not yet seen, 11 i think of father because i know that he had a foresight of things to come. i am sure he laid the ground­ work for future experimentation. i am glad that my children had the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of time with father. they constantly remind me of things i took as a matter of course. although they all remember going with father to his labo­ ratories, they remember also that father never brought his work home. they remember too that father never lay down to rest without a book in his hands. they also remember the lively arguments when they had to think why they thought as they did. i think how excited father would be by all the advance­ ments that have been made in the last twenty years. he • saw one of the earliest satellites, echo by name, in 1961 or 62, and he said to me that it was only the beginning of a program whose development would lead to then unbelievable heights. how excited he would be by pioneer. 13 i would be remiss were i not to thank glenn fry and dean hebbard for making it possible for me to be here for what is for me a very moving and thrilling time. i would be remiss too if i were not to say to you that i know that the speakers for the sheard centennial symposium were chosen with great care by the men mentioned above. it has been my good fortune to know some of them personally, all of them by reputation. robert graham and i watched osu defeat ucla at the rose bowl! i wish to thank all those who worked so hard to have what i call my essay ready for you to pick up today. it was a remarkable accomplishment because i am a foot dragger by nature. one of the privileges which has become mine through the years is that a few special people who have been friends of my parents have become friends of mine. among them are martha and glenn fry. i am doubly happy that glenn will give the first charles sheard memorial lecture on vision science this afternoon as we do honor to my father for his scientific contributions to v1s1on and to glenn fry for his continuing contributions to that same art. i hold in high regard each of you who is here because i feel that you would not be here were you not interested in and concerned about the future of vision. i am aware that my optometrist now examined my eyes as he did forty years ago when i first began to wear glasses, but that he has acquired additional tools since that time. i hope that my somewhat disconnected quotes from father•s works have given you an idea of his deep philosophic concept of vision. i know that the lectures to be given here will add to your knowledge of the skills which make concepts and ideas become realities. thank you. academic fiction: a few months ago i wrote dr~ melvin d. wolfberg, president of the pennsylvania college of optometry, to ask what he knew about the philadelphia optical college, whether it was still functioning, dormant, or terminated. he replied as follows: to my knowledge, the philadelphia optical college has not functioned for quite a few years. it is not listed in the current philadelphia telephone directory. 14 a source at the department of education of the common­ wealth of pennsylvania has informed us that in 1895 a law was passed that any institution chartered prior to that date had to fulfill certain qualifications. we are further informed that the philadelphia optical college never fulfilled any of the stipulated qualifications and, as a result, any degrees awarded after that date were considered bogus by the commonwealth of pennsylvania. historically, a technical institute styling itself 11 the philadelphia optical college 11 was chartered as early as 1892 by the court of common pleas of philadelphia for that purpose 11 0f establishing an institution to furnish a course of instruction in optics and in the fitting of glasses for defective vision with power and authority to confer appropriate deqrees 11 • although college files would indicate that degrees were conferred as late as 1960, it was not a school of optometry as the term was defined by an act of legislature in 1917. prior to this legislation, another venture, 11 pennsylvania college of opthalmetry 11 at reading, had been chartered (1904) by the court of common pleas of berks county for the 11 support and maintenance of an institution for teaching by correspondence or otherwise the science of opthalmetry or the correction of defective vision by aid of lenses. 11 this, however, appears to have expired at birth; for there is no evidence that the 11 college 11 opened its doors. quite separately i submitted a formal request to the common­ wealth of pennsylvania bureau of corporations for a search of their corporation records. the following reply, dated november 7, 1983, was received from wayne l. dietrich, director, corporation bureau, department of state, commonwealth of pennsylvania, harrisburg, pennsylvania. 11 in re: philadelphia optical college 11 in response to your recent request, an examination of the indices in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth, fails to disclose thereon a corporation either foreign or domestic, or a r~gistration under the provisions of the fictitious names act, or a limited partnership bearing the name(s) of the above captioned. 11 15 ~sociologist's view: o.h.s. member louis orzack, ph.d., a sociologist, calls our attention to a new book by gerald v. larkin, another sociologist, entitled occupational monopoly and moderh medicine, tavistock publications, london and new york, 1983 .:$29.95). professor orzack points out that it 11 contains an interesting account of the growth of the ophthalmic opticians• specialty in gi~eat britain through about 1960, thus covering the attainment of state registration and reviewing controversies relating to competing definitions of overlapping boundaries with medicine. it is a worthwhile account, deserving of citation within the ranks of those interested in the scholarly analysis of the specialty ... a book of slightly more than 200 pages, it deals with aspects of four relatively small professions which relate to attempts of medical hegemony. the four groups, ophth~lmic opticians, radiographers, physiotherapists, and chiropodists, were selected because each 11 in some way has a different relationship to medicine as a whole and to particular groups within it. 11 the .. ophthalmic opticians .. chapter, the largest of the four, is based almost exclusively on-information gleaned from british medical, ophthalmic optical, and government publications and personnel, with only two or three purely incidental citations from american or other­ nation references. this is not a criticism, for it would merely have added unnecessary complexity to the author's theme to have included optometric-medical interrelationships around the world where definitive patterns are so varied. the underlying issues of sociological interest are probably the same in other national models. three other chapters deal with .. perspectives on professional growth," 23 pages, 11 pressure for state registration, .. 23 pages, and 11 conclusion, .. 19 pages. altogether the book is well worth reading by anyone trying to gain a clearer perspective of optometric professional development in the sixty years following about the turn of the century. licensing board headaches, 1931-36: recently ronald w. wuensch, executive director of the indiana optometric association, sent us a packet of 11 some historical material i gleaned from a 'throw-away• box from the indiana state optometry board. 11 the contents were essentially items from the correpondence files of the secretary of the board for the period 1931-1936. they included letters from and to various optometrists, the board's attorney, american optometric association attorney harold kohn, indiana governor paul v. mcnutt, the attorney general of indiana, and others. included was an 16 indiana state association of optometrists resolution urging the aoa to recommend that "the transition from optical departments in stores and from store fronts to office fronts be made gradually and in an orderly fashion but with all possible dispatch. 11 the resolution had three "whereases" and five "resolveds." also included was a march, 1935, summons of state board secretary john davey to superior court of marion county, and various reports of attorneys and inspections. much of the correspondence related to complaints of modes of practice, types of advertising, or certain practitioners' lack of licenses. then there was also a case of an itinerant optometrist suing the prairie farmer for criticizing her and her husband and referring to them as unreliable. altogether the packet gives insight to at least the tenor of a short period of optometry's sociological development 50 years ago. the collection is being forwarded to ilamo, inc. for the archives, but, to share a bit of the material, the following three successive 1933 letters are reproduced here to illustrate a possibly amusing episode which at its time was still testing the very fibre of the registration law \'lhich had been.enacted 26 years earlier. mr. phillip lutz. atty. gen. indianapolis, ind. my dear mr. lutz: oakland city, inc. april 1, 1<133. through the advice of my attorney and some of the more prominent medical doctors of our community i am submitting my case to you for advice. your opinion will be highly appreciated and i will be guided by. and although you may not know me--l have met you and as a "neighbor" have the utmost confidence in you. here's the story: i was born here in oakland city 1871. at the age of 21 i had graduated from our high school at 17, and had taken 3 year course in college. at the age of 21 i entered bradly polytechnic school at peoria, ill and took course in watchmaking and optics. came home from peoria and went in business in partnership with another man and went to work at watch repairing and fitting glasses. the· year of 1907 the legislature passed the optometry law and gave licenses to all practicioners at the the time law was passed. as there was two of us in our store i did not apply for my exemption license and in the year of 1917 my partner moved to evansville. immediately the state board notified 17 me that i was unlicensed to sell glasses but i wrote them the circumstances and they said go ahead i was violating no law. in 1931 the optical schools got around our legislation and had an amendment added to the old law that no one who had not had a three year course could take the examination for optometrists license in the state. so now just last week the secy of the state board of optometry came down and ordered me to take down all my test types. quit fitting glasses, not even send broken lenses to optical houses for replacement, and not assemble lenses and frames. of course--after 40 years of actual practice, and with perfect satisfaction to my patients and the medical fraternity he had put me out of business at the age of 62. and you know that is not a very good age to start to learn a trade or profession. the wholesale optical houses inform me that several cases have come up in different counties in the state similar to mine. and the judges have ruled in every case that the law is unconsti­ tutional. but be that as it may i am out of business and have always been a law abiding citizen. so i intend to stay out until i can begin again legally. now what i want to know is your opinion of the legality of the law. and do you not think i am entitled to an exemption license? this at my age is of the utmost importance. i only have a good living and if they can law a fellow out of legitimate business at my age it don't seem hardly fair. your opinion in this matter will be highly appreciated and i shall abide by it. i was advised by some of your friends who happen to be my friends also to write you concerning this matter. the secy. of the state board of optometry says himself that i am entitled to an exemption license, but where i fell down was not applying for it at the right time. and he can-not let me pass the examination because the law says an applicant must have a 3 year course in some school of optometry. these legislatures sure do let the schools put it over on them some times. anyone with a common school education and a good balanced brain can learn all there is to the laws of refraction in 3 months, just as well as he can in 3 years. thanking you in advance for your infonnation i am very truly yours, john h. chappell mr. j.r. victor, 18 state of indiana office of attorney general indianapolis may 20, 1933 315 main street evansville, indiana. dear sir:i am writing you as secretary of the indiana state board of registration and examination of optometry. this office sometime ago received a letter from john h. chappell, which i am enclosing for your information. i have made some investigation into the statutes that have been enacted relating to the practice of optometry. i have been unable to find such requirement as that mentioned in mr. chappell•s letter, to-wit:a requirement that the applicant must have had a three year course in optometry before he should be allowed to take the examination for license. in this connection, section 13,812 burns revised statutes, 1926, which statute is still in force, says that the appli~ant 11 shall pass an examination before the state board of examiners. such examination shall be confined to such knowledge as is essential to the practice of optometry. * * * all persons succ~ssfully passing such examination shall be registered in a record which shall ·be kept by the secretary of said board as licensed to practice optometry, and shall also receive a certificate of such registration, to be signed by the president and secretary of said board ... the above statute contains no such requirement as is mentioned in mr. chappell•s letter and i have been unable to find such requirement in any other sections of the act as passed or amended. i presume then, that if there is such a requirement in existence, that it has been established by the board itself under the authority of section i (a), acts of 1929·, page 90. it seems to the writer that if such a requirement has been established by the board, and if the board had the authority to make such regulation, it likewise would have the authority to waive such requirement. 19 section 13816 burns revised statutes, 1926, provides that .. every person who has been engaged in the actual and continuous practice of optometry as defined by section 4, in the state of indiana, for three years immediately prior to the time of the passage of this act, shall, within ninety days thereafter, file affidavit in satisfactory proof thereof with said board, which shall make and keep a record of such persons, and shall, in consideration of the sum of five dollars, issue to him, a certif­ icate of registration". section 13;817, also provides: "all persons entitled to a certificate of registration under the provisions of section 7 (13,816 supra) shall be exempt from the provisions of section 3 (13,812 supra)". it seems clear that mr. chappelle, would be "entitled to a certificate of registration under the provisions of section 7, if we should ignore the provision to the effect that "he shall, within ninety days thereafter, file affidavit" etc. and since· the two sections referred to did not say that he shall not be entitled to a certificate unless he shall file his affidavit within ninety days, a serious question might arise as to whether, as a matter of law, he would not be entitled to a certificate upon the filing of the proper affidavit even now. of course this is a matter primarily for the consideration of your board and i am merely writing to you because of the letter which we received from mr. chappell. it does seem to me however, that mr. chappell is at least morally entitled to a license as an optometrist and that it would work a grave injustice upon him if he should be ousted from his profession at his advanced age after some 40 years of oractice. it also seems to me that the law on this subject is vague enough or at least elastic enough that his case can be taken care of. i trust that you will not accept this letter in any other spirit that that in which it is sent. i am sincerely interested in mr. chappell's case, if the facts which he sets forth in his letter are true, and would like to see some relief given him. yours very truly, ralph e. hanna, deputy attorney general. reh: ij ra 1 ph e. hanna, deputy attorney general, state house, indianapolis, ind. dear sir: 20 evansville, ind. may 23, 1933. in reply to your letter of may 20, regarding mr. john h. chappel of oakland city. several complaints came to this office in regard to mr. chappel, from ~n who were registered optometrists, consequently there was only one thing to do; investigate the situation. in my talk with mr. chappel, i assured him that i was convinced he should have been entitled to a certificate by exemption; however he really should have made an application for one back in 1907. but i told him that i certainly would lend my efforts to his support at the next bo~rd meeting and try to get a license for him. mr. chappel, in his letter to you does not adhere strictly to the truth. our talk was very friendly. i ordered him to do nothing. i suggested a few things to him for his own good, until after the next board meeting, at which time i felt i could convince the other board members that he was an exempt. personally, i have heard of him for years and know his case myself. in his letter to you he leads you to believe that he is only interested in optics, and that we are putting him out of bus.iness at his age. he has a jewelry store and watch repair shop which constitutes about 98% of his business. another statement he makes to you that is not so, is that in 1931 optical schools got around our legis­ lators and had them add an amendment that no one who did not have three years could not take an examination. you know that such a statement is preposperous. the schools had nothing to do with the increase in standards which incidentally were put into effect about eight months ago and then, merely for the benefit of the public. as you know both medicine and dentistry started with nothing and now require seven and five years respectively. as far as learning optometry in three months, the man is rather short sighted if he really feels that way. 21 i feel that if mr. chappel must write to you he should not write you a misleading letter as he did. here is the fly in mr. chappel•s ointment--he has told me that he did not fit the glasses at his place but that a mr. smith who works for him did this work and i am sure that mr. smith is not entitled to a license. also i feel that you should write mr. chappel advising him against allowing mr. smith to fit glasses after he, mr. chappel ·gets a certificate, i.e. confine the fitting of glasses to his own practice, for you certainly will bear with me that the state of indiana does not want to issue a license to every tom, dick and harry who by some hook or crook makes some one believe that he has practiced optometry prior to 1907. this has been done, i know from some of the records available in the secretary•s files. i will be in indianapolis june, 12, 13 and 14. at some period during this time i would like to have an appointment with you, as i believe we have a few mutual friends. very truly, j.r. victor, sec., indiana board of optometry v/w p.s. i had advised mr. chappel to supply me with affidavits to the affect that he had fitted glasses prior to 1907--which he has done. louis harold jaques (1888-1983) a father image to many an optometrist, and a popular speaker on any occasion, louis h. jaques, o.d., portrayed a long living example of american optometry•s metamorphosis following the turn of the century. a glimpse of this portrayal is revealed in the write-up entitled 11 scco alumnus •dad• jaques passes away 11 on pages 4-5 of the fall 1983 issue of the southern california college of optometry alumniscope. o.d., d.o., m.d.: a 53 year combined career in optometry and ophthalmology by an american of mexican ancestry, reynaldo j. carreon,_ jr., o.d., d.o., m.d., is described on pages 2-3 of the fall 1983 issue of the southern california college of optometry alumniscope. as a member of a minority ethnic group he has had professionally related experiences quite different from those of the rank and file optometrist or ophthalmologist. they provide yet another view of our 20th century history. 22 more on !:_. matthiessen and his law: ohs member gerald westheimer, professor in the department of physiology-anatomy, university of california, berkeley, answered the question, 11 who was l. matthiessen? 11 in the october, 1983 issue of n.o.h.s., p .. 105, by referring to gull strand vol. 1, pp. 334-350, of southall's english translation of helmholtz's physiological optics in which matthiessen is cited several times. the footnotes identify the above-described book* and an 1883 article entitled ''uber den schieferi durchgang unendlich dijnner strahlenb~ndel durch die kristallinse des anges 11 (concerning the oblique path of an infinitesimally thin bundle of rays through the crystalline lens of the eye) in pfluger's archiv fur die gesamte physiologie, vol. 32, p. 97. westheimer reports that he checked the latter article and adds, 11 judging.from the references in this article, he seems to have been a prolific contributor to this subject in the 1870's and 1880's ... from another source i learned that matthiessen's full name was heinrich friedrich ludwig matthiessen, 1830-1908. gullstrand, incidentally, stated t~atthiessen's law as, 11 the total index [of the crystalline] is just as much greater than the index at the centre of the lens as the latter is greater than that of the outside cortex, .. but disagreed with its validity for the human eye. sheard stated the law in mathematical form as n=2n0 -n1 in which n is the total index, n0 the index of the core or tenter, and n the index of the cortical or outer layer. (this formula was t}pographically mangled in the october issue of n.o.h.s.!) the world had remote corners: the following is one of several paragraphs under the caption of 11 more from the archives .. in the june 1983 issue of the south african optometrist, vol. 42, no. 2, p. 108. indications of the first presence of a workable lens laboratory comes from the natal mercury of march 10, 1894. •davidson and lazarus from the optical institute of london paid regular visits to natal and practiced at the natal drug store in west street. they informed eager readers that an establishment for making up spectacles had been set up at markhams building, cape town. the correction of astigmatism was then considered to be something of a secret remedy and davidson and lazarus employed special apparatus and obtained patents for doing so. it was alleged that up to that time south africans could only obtain adequate optometric services by travelling overseas in one of donald currie's packets for treatment. *correction: to be described in the next issue. 23 the natal mercury was undoubtedly published in durban, a thousand miles by boat from cape town, and thousands of miles from overseas england. "donald currie's packet" was probably a boat that carried mail, passengers, and goods regularly on a fixed route. to burn ~diamond: reference to the "bregens lens" in the october nohs, page 90, prompted an inquiry to derek davidson of the ophthalmic antiques collectors club who in turn responded with copy of an article by a.h. degenhardt entitled "transplanted in time, the museum of the history of science, florence" (instituto e museo di storia della scienza) in the october 22, 1976, issue of the optician, val. 172, no. 4456, pages 16, 18, and 20, from which the following two paragraphs are lifted: a scientific instrument of quite a different category which late in life acquired interesting british associations is the lens of benedict bregens made in dresden in 1690. there is on the face of it nothing remarkable about this lens apart from its 45 em diameter yet it kept reappearing, like a golden thread in a skein, until 1860 when it apparently came to its final resting ground in the museum. the lens has a focal length of 1.58 metres and is mounted in a gilt wooden frame on a mahogany support which carries at its other end a condensing lens and an elaborate iron place for holding objects at the focal point of the condenser. bregens gave it to cosima iii and from 1694 it was used by averani and targioni for experiments on combustion. in 1814 sir humphrey davy and his young assistant michael faraday obtained it on a visit to florence for experiments to determine the chemical nature of the diamond. faraday's report read: 'today we made the grand exoeriment of burning the diamond and certainly the phenomena presented were extremely beautiful and interesting. bregens' lens was used to apply heat to the diamond. previously mr. degenhardt had mentioned the lens in another article about the same museum in the january 17, 1969, issue of the optician, val. 157, no. 4059, pp. 68-69 entitled "florentine museum's optical treasures." the museum is in the palazzo castellene, a 12th century castle. 24 gradient-index lenses not so new: ---dr. douglas penisten sent us a copy of an interesting letter to the editor of~ and telescope in the july, 1976, issue, page 31, which reads as follows: sir: 11 lt was not mentioned in the news note on page 229 of the april issue that the human eye contains a lens with a gradient index of refraction. more than a century ago, the greatest figure in the field of human vision, hermann von helmholtz, devoted considerable effort to this property of the eye•s lens. (see pages 339 to 350 in vol. i of his physiological optics, dover, 1962.) 11 both amateur and professional astronomers should be aware that they already possess a matched pair of gradient­ index lenses. ocular massage: 11 roy l. bishop 11 acadia university 11 wolfville, n. s. bop lxo, canada .. prompted by the write-up entitled .. early orthokeratology .. in the october issue of the n.o.h.s., james leeds sent me a carton of some of his own collected items along the same line. these included a .. barrett eye normalizer, .. a similar instrument bearing only the label 11 natural eyesight system, .. and an 11 ideal sight restorer ... the first two consist of mechanical eye cups which when placed in contact with the closed eyelids can be made to rotate slowly and simultaneously so as to apply extorsional and intorsional force alternately on the orbital contents. the third one, roughly similar in appearance, was made to apply suctional pressure on the orbital contents, tho~gh the original rubber components are now inflexibly hard. all three provide for interocular separation adjustments. the collection included no literature for the .. natural eyesight system .. instrument, but quite a bit with the other two. the barrett device is explained by a 12 page pamphlet copyrighted in 1926 by dr. wesley m. barrett, who identified himself as a 11 nationally known physician .. at the barrett insti­ tute, 1932 w. 6th st., los angeles, california. a friendly referral card called a 11 courtesy complimentary treatment .. card 25 to refer a friend to the barrett institute and a letter to a prior recipient of barrett•s services indicate that barrett had a going practice. supplementing these was a mimeographed 8 1/2 11 x , .. (22 x 28 em) stapled pamphlet of several pages entitled 11 the barrett harmonic system for perfect eyesight without glasses .. by dr. barrett which outlines eye exercises and offers considerable rationalization of the procedures. this was accompanied by four identically titled pamphlets of 811 x 10 11 (20 x 25 em) size bearing the serial identities part one, part two, part three, and part five and with similar scientifically inane contents. a large paper sheet which when unfolded could serve on one side as a notice to be posted and on the other side as a more detailed schedule of events announced five free lectures to be given by dr. barrett on may 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, 1930, at 8:00p.m. at playhouse building, 940 so. figueroa, los angeles. the topic was 11 the new science, brain vibration, .. and each evening included fifteen minutes of musical entertainment at 7:45 p.m., usually a violin solo and sometimes a vocal solo or an indian dance. among the several items accompanying the ideal sight restorer was a two page blue-ink dittoed form letter dated june 6, 1917, and individually addressed to miss l. bearborn, tilton, n.h., in blue type. the letterhead is of the 11 ideal masseur company--successor to the ideal company--toronto, canada .. and gives the new york office as 1968 broadway. the letterhead includes an illustration of the instrument and a picture of only the ocular region of a person•s face labeled 11 the normal eyes ... above the picture is the printed name, 11 w.a. griffiths, phm. b. toronto univ. optical specialist ... the letter purports to be in response to an inquiry, refe.rs to an .. enclosed booklet, .. and with considerable promotional argument, solicits her order and advance payment of ten dollars. an enclosed trial order blank is in the nature of a signed contract to use the instrument 11 according to directions ten days .. with procedures for obtaining a refund if 11 the appliance is not entirely satisfactory ... also, the buyer is requested to complete a 27 question 11 record blank .. with such questions as 11 are your eyes large, medium or small? .. 11 do the eyes tire after slight use? .. 11 do you suffer from constipation?, .. etc. the order blank and questionnaire both show a stamped-in 11 new address 870-876 broad street, ~ewark, n.j.•• as does also a self-addressed envelope. the enclosed booklet referred to in the promotional letter is entitled 11 the eyes, their care, their ills, their relief ... consisting of fifty pages, 19.6 x 13.3 em, 36th edition, and dated 1904, its inside title page is captioned 11 the ideal eye masseur, formerly known as the ideal sight restorer ... much of the test is technologically acceptable material on ordinary ocular functions and diagrams. approximately half of the pamphlet consists of testimonials, one allegedly from ophthalmologists james and james of kalispell, montana. 26 another similar booklet of 90 pages length in leeds' collection is entitled, "the ideal sight restorer," ninth edition 1905. it is authored by the ideal company, 239 broadway, p.o. box 660, new york, and shows the ideal sight restorer patented in the u.s.a. feb. 7, 1899 and may 16, 1899; in great britain, april 10, 1899; and in canada mar. 12, 1900, with patents pending in germany and elsewhere. this booklet contains many more testimonials and some of the same technological material as the above-mentioned booklet, but with considerably more philosophical discussion and ·even some poetry about the eyes and vision. another small brochure, 15 pages, 15.2 x 8.8 em, entitled "more proofs" was published by the ideal company, 134 west 65th st., new york, without a date but with all of its testimonials dated in 1909 or 1910~ a tinker~ lens history: henry kno 11 ·was intrigued by an "eyeglass" patent by johann f. volle of scranton, mississippi, included in obrig's "contact lenses" book. the application had been filed on november 12, 1900, and claimed "an eyeqlass comprising a lens constructed in concave-convex shape so as to conform to the configurations of the ball of the eye when resting thereon and provided with a rearwardly-curved surrounding edge portion to engage the inner surface of the eyelids of the eye ... 11 rather than the term "contact lens," the expression "frameless eye lenses or glasses" was used to identify the clearly depicted contact lens. curious to know more about mr. volle, dr. knoll has done some sleuthing and found the town of scranton, which now has another name, and, through a local historical society, has gleaned some information on mr. volle himself. among other facts he learned that mr. volle was a tinsmith! we can expect a more complete story from knoll as soon as he can document a few more fascinating details. the national health service act "looking back at the nhs" is the title of an article by frank m wiseman on pages 28-29 of the autumn & winter 1983/84 issue of~ to~. a new quarterly serial published in london. it reviews the beginnings of the national health service act which came into force in great britain in 1948. 27 half hidden treasures: recently james leeds, o.d., showed me three british optical association year books which he had acquired for his collection, one for 1927, another for 1930, and another for 1938. the largest is that for 1927, over 500 pages. it includes the names of the b.o.a. council and its officers; the objects and history of the b.o.a.; alphabetical, topographical, and various other categorical listings of b.o.a. members; a history and catalogue of the b.o.a. library; a list of subscribers to the library fund; an eight page report of a 1926 visit to germany by a b.o.a. delegation to survey ophthalmic optical developments; regulations for examinations by the b.o.a. and 82 pages of examination questions utilized between 1922 and 1926; articles of constitutions and by-laws; financial statements; replicas of various certificates and forms; drafts of proposed charters and legislative petitions; and a history of clifford's inn. the 1930 edition of almost 500 pages is similarly composed with updated or revised directories and current drafts of reports and petitions. the 1938 edition of only about 250 pages was compiled by c.s. flick and includes the similarly updated membership listings and considerable documentation of current b.o.a. activities but no library catalogue and fewer drafts of petitions. when dr. leeds showed these to me, my first reaction was that i had seen them before, but i now realize that i had been thinking of the more recent opticians register, a year book published by the general optical council starting in 1960. another serial of similar title is the international optical year book and diary published in london for many years, the primary feature of which is the daily pages fo.r appointments. presumably a complete set of the b.o.a. year books may be found in the b.o.a. library or in the possession of the british college of ophthalmic opticians (optometrists), london, but apparently quite absent elsewhere. the world list of scientific periodicals, fourth edition, 1965, reports it as starting in 1914, with the 1914 and 1915 issues in the british museum, london, the 1930, 1938, and 1951 issues in the mitchell library, glasgow, and the 1930 and subsequent issues in the technical library of the manchester public libraries. the series is not listed in the union list of serials, in the union list of vision related serials, or in the serial holdings of ilamo. interestingly it is not mentioned in the b.o.a. library catalogue in any of the above-mentioned issues of the b.o.a. year book itself! surely hundreds of these year books must have been printed each year, but where are they? and when was the series discontinued? they are obviously a storehouse of historical information that deserve more accessible shelf space than they now seem to occupy.· 28 mementoes from graubert: abraham l. graubart, 0.0., is a 1921 graduate of the columbia university optometry school. born in 1896, he practiced in yonkers, new york, served numerous organizations in a variety of roles, published a number of articles, received several honors, and retired in about 1975. he recently had a severe stroke and is now in a home where he is considerably incapacitated, communi­ cating only through his wife helen, who remains at their residence at 150 bennett avenue, new york, n.y. 10040. my information comes through ohs president leeds from herman sager, 0.0., to whom abe graubart gave several documents of historical interest in 1975, including the following exchange of correspondence between graubart and southall. prof. james p.c. southall columbia university new york, new york dear prof. southall:greetings. jan 22nd 1938 the idea of a permanent optical and optometrical museum at the columbia university school of optometry has been on my mind for several years. at the last meeting of the c.u.o.a.a. held on jan 7th 1938, i brought up this question and by a unanimous vote, i was made chairman of a committee to find ways and means of getting a large glass case built in the school of optometry for the purpose of a nermanent museum. personally i will guarantee that if this case is built, it will contain an educational and interesting display of very old optical and optometrical instr.uments, eyeglasses, etc. i person­ ally have several instruments that i wish to loan or give to columbia. some of my exhibits are over 100 yrs. old. several of my friends have promised to loan to columbia for permanent use many old and valuable instruments. i am sure i can get others to loan interesting exhibits. i believe the educational value for optometry students for a museum of this sort is great. i shall appreciate your advice and help. with personal regards, i am, respectfully, a. l. graubart 29 the following is professor southall's reply: dr. a. l. graubart 501 west 183rd st. new york, n. y. dear dr. graubart 24 january 1938 in reply to your courteous note received today, i n.eed not tell you that i am gratified to know that the columbia university optometry alumni association has appointed you chair­ man of.a committee for establishing some kind of an optical museum in columbia university in connection with the professional courses in optometry. much as i should like to see this project brought to fruition and glad as i know we would be to have a really creditable exhibit of this kind, i must tell you frankly that i am at a loss to see how we could find room for it at present anywhere in the pupin laboratories. we ourselves are very much cramped for space on the eleventh floor and have absolutely no room for a single extra piece of furniture. under the circumstances i am afraid a historical museum is a luxury which we cannot afford until we have more commodious quarters for instruction in optometry. of ccurse i shall be glad to talk with you about your plans, and i am exceedingly reluctant to seem to be throwing cold water on them. with. kindest regards, sincerely yours james p. c. southall jpcs:eo southall's signature, incidentally, is not only in full, including periods, and highly legible, but in graceful style with a bit of flourish on the capitals. included also was the following typewritten report dated october 22, 1947, by graubart in his role as president of the optometric foundation: the optometric foundation is no doubt in its infancy, but it is a vigorous and rapidly growing baby, whose function it is to serve the professional and scientific needs of optometrists in a fashion which permits it to proceed free of political or financial· entanglements. its purpose is decidedly not to accumulate funds or money, and in a sense its basis is that it will be perennially poor in reserve funds but increasingly rich in laboratory technical and library facilities. 30 as i begin my third year as president of the optometric foundation, i should like to give a report of this organization ~. ince it was founded two years ago. over 400 hours of instruction, valued at about $15,000 has been contributed to the profession without charge by the members of the technical staff of the optometrical foundation .during its two years of existence. these figures are based on the average salary payments that would be made if this work was carried on as part of a university post-graduate program. the $15,000 only covers the value of actual instruction time, and does not include the value of the uncounted hours of research and administrative work contributed by the many optometrists who serve the optometric foundation. research-study sections in orthoptics and and contact lens work, each running 90 hours, were held in 1945-6 and 1946-7, and required·an average staff of seven. the \\'ork was done in space donated by the new york board of education, and participants paid only $100 for the instruction, to cover operating cost, a figure that would have been con­ siderably higher had salaries and rent been included. in 1946, the tech~ical st~ff gave the members of the optometric society of new jersey a 30-hour resume of the contact lens field. last winter, it presented a 15~hour review of the subnormal vision field, free to contributors and at a modest $10 fee to all others. the foundation is a non-profit agency, and its work is made possible by contributions, the most notable of which to date, has been the gift of $500.00 made by the optometric society of new jersey last summer. any optometrist who is in good standing with his local society may have a voice in the government of the foundation by donating $10 a year. no optometrist serving the foundation may receive remuneration for his work. the 1947-48 program, soon to be announced, will include sections in orthoptics and contact lenses, and at least two short lecture proqrams. headquarters for the foundation is at 1501 broadway, room 304, new york city, 18, n.y. h. w hofstetter, editor 1984-15-01-001 1984-15-01-002 1984-15-01-003 1984-15-01-004 1984-15-01-005 1984-15-01-006 1984-15-01-007 1984-15-01-008 1984-15-01-009 1984-15-01-010 1984-15-01-011 1984-15-01-012 1984-15-01-013 1984-15-01-014 1984-15-01-015 1984-15-01-016 1984-15-01-017 1984-15-01-018 1984-15-01-019 1984-15-01-020 1984-15-01-021 1984-15-01-022 1984-15-01-023 1984-15-01-024 1984-15-01-025 1984-15-01-026 1984-15-01-027 1984-15-01-028 1984-15-01-029 1984-15-01-030 ijindsight newsletter of the na u!•j!ht:nt:;<!t"{ india. ;·i\a v ,._nut 1 oct 0 ~ 2001 optometric historical society qptometp. ubpjljw 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume32 july 2001 number3 jay enoch's column: hands across time, charles f. prentice: a fine refractionist i had just graduated from "a course in optics and optometry'' at columbia university in the spring of 1950. after some weeks during which we took our state boards (in my case, new york and new jersey), i was ordered to active service with the national guard on the first day and among the first units called up for what was later termed "the korean war''. with the rapid re-expansion of the armed forces, there developed immediate dire shortages of physicians, dentists, and optometrists to screen, process and care for the once-again burgeoning military. as i was "already there", i was transferred almost immediately from the national guard unit to the u.s. army reserve, and received an early optometric commission in the medical services corps {#7, i was told). the commission was conditional upon my having passed one of the licensing exams i had taken. promptly, i went to see dr. manny nurock in trenton, new jersey, and he introduced me to dr. fischer. these tremendously kind gentlemen rushed evaluation of my examination and shortly thereafter indicated that i had qualified for optometric licensure in new jersey. new york followed within about a week. while this was going on, i was sent home temporarily from the army, pending resolution of the licensing issue, completion of paperwork, and reassignment to walter reed army hospital for training. during these few months in the summer and early fall of 1950, i went to work in the office of our family optometrist, dr. maurice hoenig. he proved to be a great teacher and refractionist. i learned many of the more practical aspects of our profession under his tutelage. one busy day in dr. hoenig's office, a tiny, thin, elderly african-american lady was assigned to me for examination. she was certainly perky and full of wit and charm. she literally jumped into the exam chair, and she was 1 02 years old! (my memory suggests that she had been a slave) i have never met anyone quite like her. at any rate, she had not had an eye exam since the early 1900s (she stated it was more than 40 years), and had not had any real eye/vision problems during the interim. on this occasion, she reported she was having some reading and sewing problems. i asked her who had last examined her, and she responded, "old doc prentice, of course!" really! 32/21 she then ''whipped out" her eye-glass case (with charles f. prentice's name and address embossed in gold on it). these were wire frames with small lenses in rather good shape. i refracted her, and then refracted her again, and couldn't find more than a +1-0.25 ds difference in her distance correction from prentice's earlier correction. she needed an add. i prescribed a distance and reading correction (i do not have my records for reasons which will become obvious shortly). she did not have a major refractive error, and her visual acuity was either a weak 20/20 or 20/25, there was no evident central cataract, nor obvious retinal or disc problems. i asked her if i could buy dr. prentice's lenses and case from her, and she said no, but she kindly gave them to me when she received her new correction. i never saw her after that exchange. after completing army service, i was in graduate school at ohio state university as a student of the late glenn a. fry. concurrently, i served as vincent ellerbrock's teaching assistant for two/three years. knowing of vince's great interest in the growing osu optometric museum, i gave the box to him containing the prentice case, the frame and lenses of this lively lady, and my records of the case to be added to the museum collection. he was most pleased by this donation! sadly, vince died (prematurely) within two weeks for lack of what we call today a heimlich maneuver. although i asked repeatedly of everyone in sight, the box and its contents were never located. in fact, at the recent optometric hisorical society meeting in december, 2000, in orlando, i asked provost arol augsburger (now at alabama) if he had seen this material during the time he had helped to develop the celebrity eyeware collection at osu. although he had helped move vince's papers and records on several occasions, he stated that he never encountered this gift. when the writer was still a young man, he was honored to receive the charles f. prentice medal of the american academy of optometry. on the several occasions i have been asked to stand at the time this award is given, often i have felt a special kinship with charles prentice. i have often wished this material had been located after vincent ellerbrock's death so that we all could appreciate and value this modest part of prentice's heritage and contributions to optometry. charles f. prentice's materials certainly would have qualified for the osu celebrity collection as a fine representation of our profession! j. m. e. 1938 monograph on the use of cycloplegia: ohs member irving bennett sent me a 30-page booklet entitled "an investigation as to the t-je~d for 'drops' of cycloplegics in eye examinations". it was report of the committee on refractive procedure of the minnesota academy of optometry. the members of the committee were not identified. the booklet was published by the american journal of optometry in 1938. bennett wrote that this document may have been an initiative responding to albert fitch's 1937 bill in the pennsylvania legislature to get the use of pharmaceuticals for optometrists. he also noted that it was the profession's argument against cycloplegics in refraction for several decades. the lack of experimentation on the use of cycloplegics is discussed in the opening 32/22 pages of the monograph. then divergent opinions from the literature from about twenty ophthalmological authorities were presented. these quotations were used to show that "among the leaders in the field of ophthalmology there is no agreement on the need for the use of a cycloplegic in ocular refractive work." (p. 13) next there was a discussion of a study by tait and sinn in which manifest retinoscopy was compared to the retinoscopy findings under homatropine cycloplegia. a point of emphasis in the booklet was that the difference varied from 0. 75 d jess plus with cycloplegia to 1 . 75 d more plus with cycloplegia. the authors wondered whether this variability was recognized by those who used the technique on a daily basis. the writers suggested that the limits of this variability were "so great as to make refractive work done within them of very doubtful character." (p. 21) later the authors state the findings under cycloplegia are of "such variable and unreliable character as to confuse rather than help the examiner." (p. 30) the authors do not mention the potential diagnostic significance of this variability in cycloplegic effect, but rather seem to be arguing against prescribing solely on the basis of the cycloplegic refraction. about the last third of the monograph consisted of published case reports which the authors used to suggest to "indicate (a) that the use of 'drops' makes refractive work more confusing, (b) that their use adds nothing to the value or the accuracy of refractive technique employed during an eye examination, (c) that refractive findings are more variable and therefore of less value when homatropine is used as a cycloplegic in eye examination work, and (d) that the claims of those oculists who suggest that only satisfactory examinations can be made by those using the 'drops' are unfounded." (p. 30) the last sentence of the monograph was the authors' conclusion ''that 'drops' or cycloplegics are therefore unnecessary in eye examining work and their use should be discontinued." (p. 30) d. a. g. an overview of the history of keratoscopy: the summer, 2000, issue of the indiana journal of optometry contained an article by me and daniel r. gerstman entitled "the optical science underlying the quantification of corneal contour: a short history of keratoscopy and indiana university contributions" (volume 3, number 1 , pages 13-16). we talk about the early developers of keratoscopy as well as recent developments. it is interesting to note that gullstrand had worked out all of the methodological and computational aspects of photokeratoscopy almost a hundred years ago, but he didn't have the computers to make it easily adaptable to the practitioner's office, and there wasn't the demand for it then that exists today because of refractive surgery and more detailed diagnostic capabilities. please write me if you would like a copy of the article. d. a. g. i. l ... ******fr~ : ·.,, ,. ~' d .... ,.. • . .. . "· •. photographs taken in italy by jerry abrams: ohs member jerry abrams sent in two photographs he took during his april, 2001, trip to italy. below are our black-and-white photocopied renditions of his pictures. one is a picture of the tombstone of salvino armati. its description of him as inventor of eyeglasses, though famous, is probably a hoax, as has been discussed in the pages of this newsletter a number of times over the years. it is located at a small church in downtown florence. the other is a photograph of one of the frescoes in the dominican convent of san nicolo of treviso dated 1352. the scribe depicted there is wearing eyeglasses. he is writing on a piece of paper on the table in front of him. on a shelf at about eye level to his right is an open book. this is thought to be the first painting of someone wearing spectacles. as noted by ohs member j. william rosenthal in his book, "spectacles and other vision aids: a history and guide to collecting," it portrays a person who lived before the invention of spectacles: "ironically, fourteenth through seventeenth-century artists portrayed moses, the apostles, and other biblical personalities wearing spectacles. artists modernized their subjects by surrounding them with the fashionable accessories of the time. the earliest of these protraits is that painted at treviso in 1352 by tommaso da modena. it portrays hugh of st. cher cardinal ugone wearing riveted spectacles on his nose and was done a century after his death. as with the biblical figures, the invention of spectacles came long after hugh's lifetime." popular science book on optics featuring photos of objects in the science museum. london: light, by david burnie, new york: dk publishing, 1999 (first published 1992 by dorling kindersley limited, london), 63 pages+ 1 page index, hardcover, $15.95, isbn 0-78944885-8. i found this book at, of all places, the local sam's club discount store. it is a nicely done popular science picture book produced in a 8.5 by 11 inch format. two facing pages are each devoted to a topic, including: sources of light, shadows, reflection, refraction, .lenses, the eye, telescopes, microscopes, photography, color, particle and wave nature of light, diffraction, interference, the electromagnetic spectrum, polarization, photosynthesis and solar energy, electric light, fiber optics, lasers, holograms, speed of light. the pages are graced by color photographs and nicely produced color diagrams. the text is clearly written, although in a few places some simplifications are somewhat misleading. each topic is developed from a historical standpoint. there are portraits of a number of notable persons in optics, as for example, newton, huygens, young, herschel, maxwell, fizeau, foucault, michelson, along with several others. each pair of facing pages uses some pictures and diagrams for explanation of various optical principles, and often includes some photos of items of historical interest. there are, for example, pictures of: a model eye made in france in about 1870, a replica of galilee's telescope, a replica of newton's reflecting telescope, a leeuwenhoek microscope, late nineteenth century projectors, and swan and edison electric lamps. many of the items pictured are objects from the science museum in london. d. a. g. updates on our list of repositories of items of optometric historical interest: in the april, 2001 issue of hindsight, we published a list of museums, archives, and libraries that held items of optometric historical interest and that had been mentioned in the first 30 volumes of hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society. we asked for updates and corrections from the readership and here are some of the responses we have received so far: jerry abrams wrote that he wanted to add the following to the list: "a. luxottica group's museum -a museum of optical instruments and frames in agordo, italy. the museum houses one of the fullest and oldest collections in the world, including more than 1 ,200 pieces. there are about 700 pairs of eyeglasses, the most valuable 32/25 dated around 1500, with china dn persia amongst the most interesting countries of origin. b. safilo optical museumgalleria guglielmo tabacchipadova, italy c. museo dell occhiale eye glass museum pieve di cadore, italy. an important collection of antique eyewear, trade signs, oil paintings, optical instruments. established 1986." keith lammers wrote the following by email: "i noticed in the april copy of hindsight, you referred to the albert fitch memorial library of the pennsylvania college of optometry as a possible source of historical material. while we have a rather modest historical collection, i am writing to inform you that we have moved our campus and changed the library's name. the information is contained in my signature file. keith lammers, director of library and learning resources, gerard cottet library, pennsylvania college of optometry, 8360 old york road, elkins park, pa 19027; phone: (215) 780-1260; fax: (215) 780-1263; email: keith@pco.edu." jerry abrams also passed along some information he received from charles letocha concerning museums of interest in paris. according to letocha, the marly museum is no longer in existence. it has been purchased by essilor, and he did not know of their plans for it. the louvre contains some paintings showing eyeglasses, and another painting showing spectacles is on display at the musee du moyen ages. letocha rates the universite rene descartes museum highly as a medical museum. it contains some cataract sets, some eye examining equipment, and some very old spectacles, including what may have been 18th century cataract glasses. your continuing input and updates on archives, museums, and libraries with material relating to the history of optometry will be appreciated. ~managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47401, u.s.a.); douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch @socrates.berkelev .edu) 32/26 2001-32-03-001 2001-32-03-002 2001-32-03-003 2001-32-03-004 2001-32-03-005 2001-32-03-006 ajndsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 33 january 2002 number 1 2002 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the year 2002 ohs executive board members and officers, and the year of expiration of each member• s term: call for nominations: president................... doug penisten (2003) vice president.......... jay enoch (2002) secretary-treasurer .. bndget kowalczyk (2004) trustees.................... jerry abrams (2005) walter chase (2002) chuck haine (2004) melvin wolfberg (2005) the terms of board members walter chase and jay enoch will expire at the end of this year. please submit your nominations for those two board positions by may 15, 2002 to: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 usa. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. jay enoch's column: hermon waldo farwell, a.b. (1902), a.m. (1906), dartmouth college department of physics, columbia university, 1906-1949 december 29,1879, keene, nh june 2, 1978, stamford, ct farwell was an advisor to pre-optometry and optometry students, and a highly principled teacher of physics and optics 33/1 hermon waldo farwell was "of the old school". optometry students were often intimidated by this stem man of high integrity. he was an extraordinary demonstrator of physics and optics. his reputation as a professor was somewhat like that of the late prof. frederick mason at the university of california at berkeley. this gentleman trained in physics at dartmouth college in his native new hampshire. farwell served as instructor of physics at dartmouth from 1904 -1906. while he served in that role, he also acted as undergraduate advisor to the then young charles sheard, who later founded the school of optometry at ohio state university. farwell accepted appointment at columbia university in 1906 (rising to full professor in 1929), and served there until his retirement at the end of june, 1949. when i was a pre-optometry student at columbia college (1946-1948), then an optometry student (1948-1949), prof. farwell served as advisor to me (also as advisor to james cogan, robert phillips and william pittman). we graduated optometry in 1950. thus, farwell advised sheard at the opening of his career, and our steadfast group of four were tutored by him at the very end of his career. this man influenced us, he frightened us, he taught us not only physics, but a great deal about personal ethics and morality, as well as common courtesy. farwell was a righteous man. in 1949, in the columbia optometry school there were ca. 136 of us in the first year class. on the first day of our course in physical optics, farwell stood at the entrance of his lecture theater, immaculately dressed in suit, starched shirt and tie, and welcomed us one by one. he offered us his hand, introduced himself as professor hermon waldo farwell, and expected us to give him our name in return. we then entered the lecture hall and sat down with an empty seat between each of us. we were not placed in order alphabetically in assigned seats. after seating us in this manner, he went around the room and called each of us correctly by our full name, without error or recourse to notes. at subsequent class meetings, he knew us by name, wherever we sat. when the bell was rung at the beginning of the class hour, the door was locked, and none might enter. there was no latitude, nor excuse for lack of punctuality. farwell prided himself upon giving the same examinations in his course, year after year. all papers were handed in, and each class had its mean and standard deviation determined. i vividly remember when he gave us our mid-term examination in physical optics. we did better than previous classes on this test. he called me and one other individual into his office. "mr. enoch your class was 14.6% (i made up this number as an example) above the established class average. this cannot occur by chance. who obtained the examination?" the truth is, someone did obtain a copy of the test, and most -all of us shared this document. i and the second individlrttl had no choice but to admit that a copy of the examination had been obtained. we did not know the source. farwell unleashed his full fury on us with instructions to share his opinions with the class which we did. this same gentleman could be most kind. one day, bruised by a frank anti-semitic incident which i had encountered, i came to him for advice. he was surprisingly gentle, but firm. he was a pragmatic man, stating clearly that such action was wrong, in fact, grossly unfair, but 33/2 that in a real world one had to toughen up and roll with the punches. he advised standing one's ground, but that i should not let such unfortunate incidents deter me from acting properly and meeting my own career requirements. he was an extraordinary demonstrator. virtually every optical and physical experiment in the textbook was performed by him, and they all worked (!). how many hours of preparation did this take? each form of optical interference was demonstrated, better than in the book, etc. i vividly remember his demonstration of an atomic chain reaction. he had (for 1948/9) the largest cathode ray tube i had ever seen up to that time, perhaps a 30 inch tube. he brought to the class uranium samples from the famous columbia cyclotron lab located just below us in pupin hall. each single splitting of an atom caused a brief baseline shift of the crt beam of ca. +16 or 8 inches from a baseline. he brought the uranium samples closer together. the once random firings started to increase; two, then four, then eight, then a literal cascade. we sat their grasping the arms of our desks (remember the atomic bombs were first detonated in 1945!). suddenly, four assistants ran into the room from all corners with big containers of water and the uranium materials were separated and the reaction brought under control. he made his point in a stunning manner! when we four pre-optometry students studied physics with professor farwell, his laboratory assistant was the later nobel laureate polycarp kusch who tried manfully to teach us the elements of pulleys and all variety of other devices and principles. towards the end of his physical optics course to optometry students in 1949, farwell invited charles sheard (then an elderly man) to address our class. after leaving ohio state university, sheard had served for many years as professor of biophysics at mayo clinic. sheard appeared with long flowing white-grey hair. he was a rather thin man with a rather pointed nose and chin, and prominent cheekbones. he spoke of the early days of optometry, and of ohio state's optometry program. he also discussed the sheard criterion, and more. we were deeply impressed! in later years, while i served as dean at berkeley, i had opportunities to discuss charles sheard with his daughter, then the wife of long-time ucla chancellor charles young. hermon waldo farwell·left an indelible mark upon all of us. this very special man instilled rigor and integrity, and a sense of self worth, while demanding our very best. optometry should remember this man who served us so well! j.m.e. 33/3 optics and the old masters by ohs member robert a. koetting: optics and the old masters robert a. koetting, o.d. noonan rockwell used photographs to plan his famous magazine covers, but did the great masters also cheat a little? you bet! and, optics have probably been part of the art scene for much longer than we've thought. in new york, last december, a two-day conference included a startling presentation by world-renowned artist david hackney, working in collaboration with university of arizona physicist charles falco. they claim that, as far back as the 1420s, master painters were deploying optical devices to render lifelike images of people and their surroundings. the conference, which opened with the american premiere screening of hackney's recent bbc documentary, brought together their principal supporters for the first airing of views before art historians, critics, scientists, and painters. most art historians believe that the majority of european painters since the renaissance deployed elaborate systems of mathematical perspective to achieve their effects. hackney and falco have been arguing, on the contrary, that many artists, going all the way back to bruges in the 1420s, were deploying a variety of optical devices, including concave mirrors, lenses, and cameras obscura. in effect they suggest that painters (van eyck through caravaggio, lotto, velazquez, venneer, chardin, ingres, etc.) were using precursors of photographic cameras for centuries before the invention of chemical fixatives in 1839. furthermore, it was only with the introduction of practical photography that european painters became disenchanted with the "optical look," and embraced impressionism, expressionism, cubism, and the rest of the modernist tradition. the suspicion probably first arose when hackney noted that sketches done by auguste­ dominique lngres about 1800, showed no signs of "groping." they were clear and precise from the very first strokes. like those of andy warhol, nearly two centuries later, they likely traced over a projection of some sort. in 1543, lorenzo lotto included blurred parts of a table cloth indicating that some sort of lens with a limited depth of field had been employed while painting the props used in a portrait. as early as 1430 artists had suddenly begun to record much more realistic detail, but why? lenses. or pinhole devices, projecting a traceable image on an inverted canvas, could have been responsible. distortion from a camera obscura might have been corrected by the reflection from a decorative convex mirror commonly in use (and even depicted in some paintings) at the time. further evidence of multiple projections can be found in a variety of 171h century pieces where different perspective "vanishing points" and relative size differences are common. a bizarre distortion in a vandyck of 1636 would have the seated subject about twelve feet tall if she had been standing. 33/4 a 1431 sketch of a cardinal by van eyck shows many small features identical to a painting made years later when the subject was not available. the later painting is 40% larger, proving that some sort of projection was undoubtedly involved. for the most part, art historians have long assumed that most of the old masters achieved their astonishing effects through preternaturally gifted "eyeballing," or following the italian renaissance, through elaborate mathematical perspectives. now an alternative seems a strong possibility. on charles sheard and carel koch: ohs member john n. schoen of owatonna, minnesota, wrote the following note concerning charles sheard and carel koch: thank you for the hindsight it is a fine publication, usually with fascinating articles. one recently was the remembrances of charles sheard by his daughter. you may know that dr. sheard taught in the medical school of the university of minnesota under dean (dr.) harold diehl. conforming to pressures within the ama at the time, diehl mandated that anyone teaching in the medical school have a m.d. degree. that degree was offered with the stipulation that each spend a year as medical students to both dr. sheard and his chosen assistant, carel c. koch, o.d. koch thought little of such an arrangement and spelled out the entire picture in a letter. this letter was in my possession, having succeeded carel as academy secretary i found it in his papers. when dr. koch died, the minnesota optometric association devoted most of its monthly publication to the man. i was asked to lend them the letter and did so with the firm stipulation that it be returned to me. it never was. efforts by association officers and the paid association secretary failed to locate it. i can only assume that the journalist who wrote the moa journal destroyed the letter. i regret being unable to back these assertions with the printed koch letter, but thought knowing this might be of some interest to you. it is evidence of the caliber of man that both sheard and koch were. a review of a book on the history of the mirror: the mirrora history, by sabine melchior-bonnet, translated from the french by katherine h. jewett, new york: routledge, 2001,273 pages plus bibliographical notes and an index, isbn 0-415-92447-2 (originally published in french in 1994 under the title histoire du miroir) 33/5 this book presents a cultural history of the mirror from its antecedents in ancient civilizations up to the 20th century. the book consists of three parts of almost equal lengths. the first part deals with the development of the manufacture of glass mirrors and the competition for preeminence in the industry. the second part considers a social history of the mirror and how the mirror has altered the perceptions of humans about themselves. the third part is mostly a contemplation of the representation and uses of the mirror in literature, art, and philosophy. i found the first part of the book to be the most interesting, and this review will concern itself primarily with that part. the book concerned itself primarily with europe, and with france in particular. melchior-bonnet suggests that humans have always had a fascination for viewing their own reflections: "man has been interested in his own image since prehistoric times, using all sorts of expedients from dark and shiny stones to pools of water in order to catch his reflection. the myths of narcissus, who is enchanted by his own image, and perseus, who makes medusa see herself in his shield, bear witness to this early curiosity toward reflecting surfaces .... he had to wait centuries, however, before he could obtain a bright, clear, and true image of himself." some ancient mediterranean civilizations, including mycenea, greece, etruria, rome, and egypt, made metal mirrors, using variously a copper and tin alloy, bronze, silver, and rarely, gold. greek mythology attributed the invention of the mirror to hephaistos, the greek god of fire and metal. some corinthian pottery from the 5th century b.c. include scenes of people gazing at themselves in metal mirrors attached to handles or footstands. these mirrors were convex or concave and were generally small five to eight inches in diameter. primitive glass mirrors have been uncovered from archeological digs of third century a.d. egypt, gaul, asia minor, and germany. they were only one to three inches in diameter. the first written reference to glass mirrors appears to have been by pliny the elder in first century a.d. rome. he credited their invention to the people of sidon (in present-day l..ebanon), "makers of glass." because of the difficulty in making early glass mirrors and their poor quality, metallic mirrors were preferred for many years. obstacles to producing good quality glass mirrors were the inability to produce flat, thin, and transparent clear glass, and the inability to apply a layer of metal to the glass without the heat of the metal breaking the glass. difficulty in producing clear uncolofed glass continued into the middle ages. a 12'h century monk named theophile described contemporary glassmaking in france. to make window panes, the molten glass was blown into a tray. small pieces were then cut out. however, glass windows remained small and rare into the 18th century. another early technique for sheets of glass was to blow a cylinder through a straw, then splice the cylinder and spread it over a flat area. 33/6 an early technique for reflective silvering of mirrors involved the application of hot lead to a sheet of glass. the resulting mirrors were small and had a bulging shape. in the 14th century, a technique was developed for applying lead without heat and then soon thereafter metals other than lead were being used. the mirrors of that time still often produced distorted images. in the early 16th century, the leaders in glass mirror making may have been in lorraine and venice, with the venetians establishing almost a monopoly as that century progressed. the venetians did well because they found the formula for silicate of potash and lime to mix with sand to make clear glass. the author relates tales of industrial espionage in the 17th century. in the mid 17th century, the elite of france were importing hundreds of cases of expensive venetian mirrors. king louis xiv "bought thousands of pounds worth of mirrors from the venetians in 1665." france covertly tried to entice venetian mirror makers to its factories to learn the venetian manufacturing secrets. venice, however, protected its superiority by giving significant benefits to its workers, as well as significant threats, such as prison for family members left behind if a worker did desert. eventually france did develop a strong mirror industry and by the late 17th century they were able to overcome the venetians because they developed the capability of producing larger mirrors than the venetians. mirrors were mainly purchased by the elite in the 17th century, but they became more commonplace in the 18th century. in about 1750, about two-thirds of the people living in paris had a mirror. most of these mirrors were still small in size only about a fourth of these mirrors were more than 20 inches in height. however, mirrors were less common outside of the cities of france.· in one area of the loire valley, there were only seven or eight mirrors in the inventories of 100 modest households conducted between 1735 and 1755. mirrors did not become common in rural homes in france until the early 20th century. much of the book deals with the cultural, psychological, literary, magical, philosophical, theological, and artistic symbolism of mirrors. the mirror could be viewed as fostering social bonds, but also as promoting vanity. it could aid introspection, but could also lead to prizing image over substance. the author gives many examples of the use of the mirror as a metaphor in literature, philosophy, and art. d.a.g. the importance of george washington's presbyopia in american history: ohs member jerry abrams sent me an interesting article published in the january, 2002 issue of archives of ophthalmology (volume 120, pages 65-66). it was authored by ronald s. fishman of the institute of the history of medicine at johns hopkins university. 3317 the article recounts a confrontation of george washington with his revolutionary war officers who hadn't been paid for almost five years. this occurred in march of 1783 when the peace negotiations were almost completed. the officers were conspiring to force the continental congress to give them what had been promised to them. washington saw the crucial importance to the new republic of avoiding having the military intimidate the congress. before meeting with the officers, washington prepared a speech. washington was 51 years old at the time and had just received his first pair of his own spectacles for presbyopia. but washington wrote out his speech in large script so that he could read it without his spectacles. when his "calm and reasonable" speech failed to sway the minds of the officers, washington decided to read a letter he had received from a member of congress. he was unable to read the smaller print, so he reached into his pocket for his spectacles. as he adjusted them, he said, "gentlemen, you must pardon me. i have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind." washington's admission of a physical weakness appealed immediately to the men's affection for him. this was a turning point, and the officers reassured washington that they would trust in the congress to provide them with their benefits, which were eventually forthcoming. the article's title, "presbyopia's finest hour," seems quite fitting. d.a.g. borish on the heritage and future of optometry: in the fall, 2001 issue of the indiana journal of optometry (volume 4, number 2, pages 23-31), irvin m. borish writes on the importance of an appreciation of the heritage of optometry for an informed consideration of its future. he discusses how optometry flourished in the area of refraction because medicine did not initially embrace the use of spectacles. he relates many of his experiences of 201h century developments in the optometric profession and optometric education. he cautions that optometry's present-day enthusiasm and emphasis on the use of pharmaceutical agents could leave a vacuum in the area of optometry's traditional strengths. it makes for some interesting reading and reminds us that we can learn important lessons from history. d.a.g . .. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dqoss@lndlana.edu) contributing editors: henry w. hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47401, u.s.a.); douglas k. penlsten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mall code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 9472o-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch @socrates.berkeley.edu) 33/8 indiana uf\1'vrf!.sity mar ?. 2 2002 library 2002-33-01-001 2002-33-01-002 2002-33-01-003 2002-33-01-004 2002-33-01-005 2002-33-01-006 2002-33-01-007 2002-33-01-008 ********************* * indiana university * * * * nov 19 2001 * * * :******::%;:;t******: hindsight --==-· newsletter of the optometric historical society indiana university nov 21 2001 optometry library 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 32 october 2001 number4 ohs meeting: the optometric historical society will meet on friday, december 7, 2001, in room 41 0 of the philadelphia marriott in conjunction with the american academy of optometry meeting. jay enoch will give another of his enlightening presentations. his talk is entitled: "use of concave mirrors as magnifiers and refractive corrections from at least roman times." members and interested friends are highly encouraged to come to this talk. in addition to hearing this presentation, the officers of the ohs would like you to exchange and share ideas on the future of the optometric historical society. your ideas and suggestions are very much wanted. dues statement and ballot enclosed: enclosed with this issue of hindsight is a dues statement for the 2002 calendar year. the dues remain unchanged at $10 per year. please send your dues payment along with the payment form to: bridget kowalczyk, secretary-treasurer optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63142 also enclosed is a ballot for the positions on the ohs board being vacated by ted grosvenor and alfred rosenbloom at the end of this year. please complete the ballot according to instructions on the ballot and mail it to: david a. goss editor, hindsight school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 32127 hofstetter-wolfberg correspondence concerning developments in scope of optometric practice: editor's note: the march, 1999 issue of the journal of the american optometric association featured an article by ohs member melvin wolfberg entitled, "a profession's commitment to increased public service: optometry's remarkable story'' (volume 70, number 3, pages 145-170). wolfberg's article was summarized in the october, 1999 issue of hindsight (volume 32, number 4, pages 25, 26). wolfberg used personal correspondence from a number of individuals along with other sources and his own personal remembrances to describe optometry's efforts to expand scope of practice to include the use of pharmaceutical agents. on the first page of his article, wolfberg mentions an interesting seven page letter he received from henry hofstetter in response to a request for information to be used in his article. thinking this correspondence to be of interest to ohs members, i (dag) requested a copy of it from melvin wolfberg, and it is reproduced below with the kind permission of both him and henry hofstetter. wolfberg letter to hofstetter, 1996: to: selected, highly respected colleagues from: mel wolfberg i have embarked on a project and i need your help. dramatic changes in our profession's scope of practice have taken place throughout our respective careers. some of the stories of this development have been told but in my opinion, most have not. my personal involvement at the pennsylvania college of optometry and participation in changing aoa's traditional posture on this subject during the 1960's include some fascinating experiences that would make interesting reading and contribute to a more complete history of optometry. to write this story from one perspective would be inappropriate, in my opinion. many leaders participated in the rapid changes in our scope of practice at the state and national association levels, within our educational community, at the legislative level in many ju'"risdictions and in many other roles. my awareness of your involvement initiates this request for your assistance. what i seek from you is the story of your participation based on your personal involvement in activities related to the scope of practice changes. copies of memos, letters and other documentation would be most helpful. i do not doubt that there are a wealth of events that took place, have never been reported and would contribute immeasurably to this story. 32128 it is my intention to submit the story for publication .... you have my personal thanks and appreciation for your consideration of this request. please don't hesitate to contact me for clarification or additional information. mel hofstetter letter to wolfberg, dated september 5, 1996: dear mel: your telephone call of august 7, delightful as it was, has frustrated me no end. you asked me to comment on "how it happened", referring to the development of optometry's current scope of practice, or, more specifically, the inclusion of services which have traditionally been exclusive to the medical professions. in your subsequent letter of august 22 you state that your proposed history would "begin with the scope of practice as defined in the original state laws and the rationale for those laws." my frustration is twofold, first, because the issue in my opinion, is sufficiently complex to justify a career-long study, and second, because the original state laws are anything but a logical starting point. somehow we have to trace the role of optometry from its conceptual origins and ascertain its dimensions in every possible era of human history as delineated in literature, art, folklore, specimens, artifacts, and archival records. in this sense a less risky starting point would be the date of invention of spectacles even though optical science had started developing much earlier in association with mathematics. also a few clumsy hand-held magnifying lenses were previously known. when, however, just before the turn of the 14th century, a clever artisan fashioned a riveted frame out of wood, bone, leather, or other available material to support a pair of thin biconvex lenses which he or she had ground and polished and tested by trial and error on the nose of a presbyopic scribe, optometry was born. it was definitively a service to improve sight. in consonance with the then beginning renaissance such skillful artisans served as well the correctable visual needs of clerics, artists, royalty, and the slowly increasing literate society. the artisans soon formed guilds to control quality, prices, and the training of apprentices, or they affiliated with other guilds sharing similar material, technical, or service interests, apparently none related to medicine, surgery, pharmacy, or other form of therapy. during this era there occurred such technological advancements as improvement of frames, temples, glass, tints, materials, cylinders, polishing techniques, power scales, age criteria, recognition and identity of anomalous types of vision, and fashion considerations, as is evident in museum collections. even the societal role of the optometrist, variously identified as spectacle maker, master optician, optiker, lens grinder, sight tester, et al., is depicted in artists' street scenes, 32129 literary productions, and other forms of art. it is quite evident from these that the archaic optometrists of these first several centuries were almost exclusively concerned with vision care, showing no involvement whatsoever in any form of medical service. the same interpretation of the optometrists' vocational mission is clearly described in daca de valdes' 1623 book on optometry in several languages in which the secondary, incidental, and separate role of the physician is quite casually portrayed. the same distinctive separation between optometric vision care and medical eye care is documented for another century or two going into the industrial revolution in the archives of the still existent worshipful company of spectacle makers, a guild chartered only six years after the appearance of daca de valdes' book. with the industrial revolution in europe the beginnings of prepaid and third party paid health care evolved. this soon included reimbursement for spectacles only when authorized by physicians. this has a creeping economic repercussion on the optometry profession as a result of which most optometrists were gradually putting primary emphasis on dispensing and less on prescribing. the effect of this development is still apparent in many european countries. in the american colonies, however, the story is different. it may be presumed that the colonial population influx consisted overwhelmingly of young able-bodied, emmetropic adults whose needs for optometric service would be minimal until decades later. a similar pattern of temporarily very limited need would prevail successively among those in the westward frontier movement. this need was initially met in the early established east coast harbor cities by shipments of ready-made glasses, mainly from england and germany, to be retailed with other household supplies by various entrepreneurs, including, for example, ben franklin and john mcallister, sr. as the population expanded and approached presbyopia the increasing demand for optometric services attracted a number of young apprenticeship-trained ophthalmic opticians from europe to the colonies. simultaneously throughout the sparsely settled western frontier young entrepreneurs with skills in watchmaking, jewelry fabrication, and similar fine handiwork were fitting glasses and indulging in sight-testing, unchallenged by any laws or medical competition. neither did such embryonic optometrists show any interest in offering any type of medical or surgical service or treatment, though they were free to use the wide variety of potions, pills, drops, and medicine being publicly sold for every ailment imaginable. this pattern of a maturing population and entrepreneurial expansion in the western-moving frontier continued well into the 19th century. tl'lroughout the prior five centuries the medical profession, including the eye physicians, had looked askance at the merits of spectacles and the well-established, uncontested, role of optometrists, then called opticians. the 19th century saw the beginning of large scale manufacturing of eyewear in america. the invention of the trial case in 1843 facilitated the determination of a lens prescription independent of the vending and dispensing of spectacles. with remarkable rapidity as the century progressed physicians in both europe and america were engaging in refraction, variously self-taught or trained by optometrists. in 1864 donders published his famous 32130 book. in 1865 the wills eye hospital first included refractions by ophthalmologists. sixty or more optometry schools, mostly short-term training programs, were started in america between 1872 and 1900, several by medical doctors, some offering doctoral titles, though optometrists were almost unanimously resisting the title until the 1920s. in 1892 mr. prentice was accused of practicing medicine for charging a refraction fee, which he had been doing for at least five years. his services were exclusively refracting and dispensing. during the 1890s numerous medical licensing boards in the united states were introducing measures to include the regulation of optometry under medical board authority. as these and similar overtures occurred optometrists in state after state sensed a threat of medical control and organized state-level societies to combat the trend and to sponsor the introduction of licensure laws under optometric administration. the latter met with strong medical, or at least ophthalmological, resistance and some resistance from opticians who chose to limit their careers to the fitting and dispensing of glasses prescribed by physicians. the opticians who continued to refract began to identify themselves increasingly as optometrists. several decades of battling in the legislative lobbies resulted in one common concession or compromise which seemed of negligible significance to the optometrist at the time, namely, the restriction "without the use of drugs." it again reflected optometry's six century old concept of serving visual needs, not medical needs. this restriction then provided the medical eye physicians with two promotional tactics to entice patients away from optometrists. one was to remind the public that optometrists were not legally qualified to prescribe medicine, and the other was to declare that optometrists were not "doctors". as a result, american optometrists' long resistance to the use of the doctor title made a complete reversal by 1920. the drug issue remained unresolved, but in accompaniment with the doctor title many an optometrist cultivated a medical office demeanor to minimize his or her identity as a nonmedical practitioner. this may well be regarded as the earliest trace or symptom of expansion of optometry's scope of practice into medical territory, strictly a defensive measure. in 1910-1911 a parallel but different event occurred in an english court that had an optometric impact on the whole english-speaking world, including america. prompted by an oculist, a miss markham with keratoconus had filed· a malpractice claim against an optometrist, a qualified sight-testing optician, for not referring her to a physician. though the defendant's position was supported by his colleagues it was opposed by the testimony of oculists, and the patient won. this, of course, meant that optometrists had a legal obligation to detect anomalous conditions and to advise appropriate medical attention. quite immediately optometric curricula began to include techniques of pathology detection, and increasing numbers of optometric practitioners added preliminary pathology inspection as part of their examination routine. 32131 with the legislated registration of optometrists in every state and the district of columbia by 1924 the oculists versus optometrists conflict reached a kind of detente­ like status with occasional lesser skirmishes involving state law amendments, establishment of new schools in universities, military commissions, etc. in 1954, however, whatever semblance of armistice seemed to prevail was suddenly shattered by the badly misinterpreted american optometric association resolution at the seattle congress which declared that ''the field of visual care is the field of optometry, and should be exclusively the field of optometry." almost immediately the american medical association reacted with a resolution declaring it unethical for a physician to consult with or lecture to optometrists. this, of course, meant that the daily thousands of referrals that optometrists normally make to physicians were hampered by the need to arrange circuitous channels to accomplish the objective without embarrassment. in such circumstances the conscientious optometrist naturally assumed an increasingly responsible role as a defensive measure. the a.o.a. in turn introduced resolutions to clarify its intent, including a carefully phrased official "premise" declaring that optometry would in no way invade the field of medicine. after about 15 years of the a.m.a. infliction its effect was finally neutralized by an opinion of the a.m.a. judicial council. in the interim more emphasis was being put on pathology in the optometric curricula, the schools were attracting a higher share of students with biological and medicine-oriented pre-professional academic majors, increasing numbers of optometry graduates were familiarizing themselves with ophthalmological clinical procedures in military hospitals, and the fitting of contact lenses was providing a sense for the palpability of the eye itself resembling a kind of medical touch. apparently these and other lesser developments had planted the medical urge among numerous individual optometrists quite contrary to the official assertions of the a.o.a. so, in 1975, while i was in europe on sabbatical leave, west virginia, with the help of certain optometric leaders elsewhere, prevailed on its legislature to enact a therapy provision for optometrists. the action came as a complete surprise to me. i know virtually none of the details, so i have no theory as to how it happened. however, there then seemed to go through the other states the philosophy that if west virginia can do it, so can we! with my retirement in 1979 i soon was out of touch with current developments. " i do believe, nevertheless, that our history shows that optometry's six century stance as applied vision science lost this identity during our most recent, or seventh, century, the 1900's, as a reaction to medical invasion of our field and not because of any clinical justification. mel, this is written without the conveniences and help of an office staff or the facilities for checking the accuracy of some of my assertions. i have relied heavily on 32/32 combing my feeble memory as a 25 year editor of hindsight. sincerely, hank wolfberg letter to hofstetter, dated september 14, 1996: hank: you make an excellent point about the logical starting point for the scope of practice story. although i have no idea what other information may be made available to me in the course of my research, it is likely that the information you have provided likely will be an integral part of the telling. my thanks to you for your cooperation and contribution. my apologies for causing you any frustration; however, i concur that the subject is a complex one and it could well justify a career-long study. the very fact that it hasn't been done is a part of my motivation to proceed .... warmest personal regards, mel jay enoch's column: shadows of the night one of the delights encountered when visiting italy is to come onto contact with the etruscan civilization which largely, but not wholly, preceded roman times. etruscan can be morphed into "tuscan". this group of people was centered in modem-day tuscany. etruscan influence stretched roughly from bologna (the etruscan community of felsina) in the north to rome in the south. the etruscan city-states appeared about 900 b.c. and ruled in central italy for about 500 years. in order to obtain a sense of these remarkable peoples, when in rome, one can visit the beautiful "villa julia" (villa is pronounced "valla" locally). villa julia is the former palace of pope julian, and is located on the periphery of the borghese gardens. you will discover the etruscans were skilled artists, sculptors, ceramicists, and metalworkers. at the villa julia you will see one of their masterpieces, a sarcophagus with a reclining couple on the lid. and they are smiling in their contentment. (a second similar sarcophagus may be found at the louvre in paris.) happiness and contentment are features of etruscan art. that is, they smile, they live life to the full, sex is not a dirty word. their art is quite different from that of the succeeding romans. incidently, 32133 the famous romulus and remus statue a symbol of rome is etruscan. there are maps of etruscan centers, digs, tombs, museums, etc. having spent a number of weeks, along with becky, going about this area, and enjoying and studying etruscan sites and artifacts. i can enthusiastically recommend such a pursuit. the country-side hotels, inns, restaurants, etc., also are a delight. in addition to the villa julia and the vatican collections in rome, there are fine etruscan museums, decorated tombs for viewing, etc., at tarquinia, veio, volterra, vulci, chiusi, cortona, etc. and larger collections are to be found in centers such as bologna and florence. there is a very interesting vision-related component to this activity. in most museums there are on display a modest number of vertical "stick-like" sculptures. they range in height from six inches to about two feet high or a bit taller. careful examination reveals that these are not nearly as primitive as one might imagine. unofficially, these sculptures are called "shadows of the nighf'. they depict people as if they are looking at their own extended shadows cast by the setting sun. the head is relatively small, the arms and hands are longer, and the legs and feet are extended quite a bit. interestingly, these statues rarely widen from top to bottom. rather, it is the increasing vertical distortion which is emphasized. these designs do not seem to have the precision of certain ancient and contemporary constructs. however, the intent of the designer{s) is never in doubt. stated another way, these sculptures do not have quite the mathematical precision of say, later perspective designs, or various egyptian and greek architectural constructs. were these a somewhat stylized form of folk artistic expression? particularly in their later years, etruscan artists and artisans were influenced quite a bit by greek culture. however, that influence is not particularly expressed in these statues. i purchased a replica of one of these statues at the archaeological museum in florence {firenza). since these figures are broadly distributed, the etruscans must have found pleasure in them. other implications are not known to the writer. " for those seeking to read about etruscans, i recommend the june, 1988 issue {volume 173, no. 6) of national geographic magazine. on page 734 of the article on the etruscans, there is a picture of a "shadow of the nighf' figure {although not so designated) from villa julia. this particular example does not have a supporting base. there is a fine book by maja sprenger and gilda bartoloni, "the etruscans, their history, art and architecture", harry abrams, inc., new york, 1983; this book treats etruscan art in depth. the book also has some discussion on their mirrors. 32/34 the national geographic article quoted a statement made by the famous author d.h. lawrence in the 1920s. this was made after he had spent some time touring etruscan sites, "italy today is far more etruscan in its pulse than roman; and will always be so." j.m.e. documenta ophthalmologica theme issue: the journal documenta ophthalmologica publishes articles of historical interest on occasion. volume 99, number 3 (1999} of that journal is a theme issue on the history of ophthalmology. the majority of the articles are biographical notes on various notable ophthalmologists and short histories of some surgical procedures. one of the articles is "first known lenses originating in egypt about 4600 years ago: the unique optical properties of these lenses in the context of the known technologies of the time" (pages 303-314} by ohs member jay enoch. jay gave a presentation on this at the 1999 ohs meeting and published an article on this topic in the april, 2000 issue of hindsight (volume 31, number 2, pages 9-17}. the following is the table of contents of this issue: reifler om. friedrich august von ammon (1799-1861}, pp. 199-213 baum j, helena b. fedukowicz: pioneer educator in ocular microbiology, pp. 215-218 daxecker f. three reading aids painted by tomaso da modena in the chapter house of san nicolo monastery in treviso, italy, pp. 219-223 flynn jt. werner ernst reichardt ph.d.: founder of modern computational visual neurophysiology and anti-nazi resistance fighter, pp. 225-236 truhlsen sm. harold gifford, sr., m.d.: omaha's premier turn of the century ophthalmologist, pp. 237-245 blanchard dl. george handel and his blindness, pp. 247-258 dellaporta an. retinal detachment surgery: historical notes, pp. 259-272 welch rb. julian john chisholm m.d.: confederate surgeon, ophthalmologist and hospital founder, pp. 273-284 jokl dh-k. robert koch's debt to ferdinand cohn, pp. 285-292 rehn no. eye surgery in stockholm at the beginning and at the end of the 20th century: a comparative study, pp. 293-301 enoch jm. first known lenses originating in egypt about 4600 years ago, pp. 303-314 documenta ophthalmologica is published by kluwer academic press in the netherlands. persons with access to the internet who wish to look for articles of historical interest in that journal can look at the kluwer website at www.kluweronline.nl. click on kluwer academic press and then on documenta ophthalmologica. clicking on an article title will lead to an abstract of the article. d.a.g. 32/35 frescoes depicting monks with reading aids painted by tomaso da modena in 1352: in the history theme issue of documenta ophthalmologica (volume 99, number 3) is an article describing frescoes showing monks with various reading aids (daxecker f. three reading aids painted by tomaso da modena in the chapter house of san nicolo monastery in treviso, italy. documenta ophthalmologica 1999; 99: 219-223). daxecker describes these frescoes as being found in the chapter house of san nicolo monastery in treviso, about 20 kilometers north of venice. one of the frescoes depicts a monk wearing riveted spectacles. that is the one reproduced in the previous issue of hindsight (july, 2001, volume 32, number 3, page 24) from a photograph by jerry abrams. daxecker mentions that the subject is generally thought to be cardinal hugh of provence (ugone di provenza), although some sources say that it depicts hugo of saint cher who died in 1264. another of the frescoes shows cardinal nicolo of rouen holding an open book with his left hand close to his eyes and holding a reading glass on a handle with his right hand. the reading glass was held close to his right eye. in the third frescoe fra lsnardo da vicenza sitting with an open book in front of him on his desk and holding another book. to his left is what appears to be a framed reading lens on a decorative stand. these frescoes were painted in 1352 and are among depictions of 37 monks reading and writing painted by tomaso da modena in the chapter house of san nicolo monastery. tomaso da modena was born sometime between march 9, 1325 and may 6, 1326 in modena, and died sometime before july 16, 1379, also in modena. the article also mentions some of the other work by tomaso and the desire for advancement to monastery superior general that motivated the prior to hire tomaso to paint the chapter house at san nicolo monastery. d.a.g. the blindaess of george frideric handel: the famous composer george frideric handel spent the last few years of his life totally blind. a biographical sketch and a discussion of the likely cause of handel's blindness is the topic of a paper by donald l. blanchard in documenta ophthalmologica (blanchard dl. george handel and his blindness. documenta ophthalmologica 1999; 99: 247-258). 32/36 handel was born in halle, germany in1685. while still a young man handel became known in italy and germany as a harpsichord and organ virtuoso and a composer of operas. but most of his adult life was spent in london. there he composed a wide variety of music, produced and directed performances, published and personally sold his works, and even sold tickets to the performances of his works out of his home. his financial condition had its ups and downs corresponding to how large production costs were in comparison to ticket sales, but he died a wealthy man. handel is, of course, best known for the oratorio "messiah". the article discusses handel's general medical history before going on to his ocular history. he is described as having "cyclothymic swings of moods" with "times of wan, dark melancholy and then periods of exuberance .... " handel was obese and sedentary, but largely healthy until 1737 when he had what was called a "paralytick disorder'', probably a stroke. he again had strokes in 1741 or 1742 and in 1743. he died in 1759. in early 1751 handel had an apparently fairly rapid loss of vision in his left eye. it appears that by mid or late 1752 handel also had lost vision in his right eye. he had to be led on to the stage for performances which were performed by memory or extemporaneously. there are no known examples of his handwriting after 1752, and he had a full time assistant for the remainder of his life. it is often assumed that handel had cataracts and that cataract "couching" surgery done in late 1752 had a bad outcome resulting in loss of vision. blanchard argues against cataract as the cause of handel's blindness. he discusses various retinal conditions and neuropathies as potential causes, and finally settles on nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. blanchard indicates his caution concerning this diagnosis in the last paragraph of the article: "making a diagnosis first hand on a patient before the examination is tempting but treacherous. making a diagnosis second hand on information supplied by non medical people is counseled against in the early days of medical school. making the diagnosis after the passage of approximately 250 years borders on foolhardy unless one takes it as an idle pastime of a medically trained, musically interested, dabbler in history, who promises not to be dogmatic with his conclusions. with that in mind, it is reasonable to change the history of handel from blind due to cataracts to blind from nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy." the article appears to be well researched and includes citations to over 40 references, most of them biographical material on handel. d.a.g. 32/37 indiana historical society seeks stereographs of indiana scenes and subjects: the following announcement, possibly of interest to ohs members, appeared on h-indiana, an e-maillistserve on indiana history: from: george hanlin [ghanlin@ indianahistory.orgl sent: tues., august 14, 2001 subject: ihs seeks stereographs for possible book the editors at the indiana historical society hope to publish a book on stereographs. their goal is to reproduce in the book facsimiles of approximately 150 to 200 stereographic cards featuring indiana scenes and subjects, and they plan to include a plastic hand-held viewing device to help readers see the images in three dimensions. the ihs houses in its library an extensive collection of stereographic cards, but the editors are extending their search in hopes of finding the best images from around the state. if you know of quality views from either private of public collections, please write george hanlin, indiana historical society, 450 w. ohio st., indianapolis, in 46202-3269; call (317) 233-3156; or e-mail ghanlin@ indianahistory.org. the editors may be interested in obtaining copies for use in the book and will consider all leads or submissions through the end of october. benjamin franklin as patron saint of optometrists: ohs member jerry abrams wrote the following note: finding the august, 1976 copy of the journal of the american optometric association in my library the other day the following is taken from a feature article on early american eyeglasses "by virtue of his contributions to visual science, helping to establish the desirability of using eyeglasses, experimental researches in illumination and color, and the design of bifocal lenses, the optometrists of the united states should reaffirm the homage paid to benjamin franklin at the indianapolis convention of the american optometric association when he was acclaimed the 'patron saint of optometrists'." managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dqoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w. hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47401, u.s.a.); douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 32/38 2001-32-04-001 2001-32-04-002 2001-32-04-003 2001-32-04-004 2001-32-04-005 2001-32-04-006 2001-32-04-007 2001-32-04-008 2001-32-04-009 2001-32-04-010 2001-32-04-011 2001-32-04-012 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. volume 3 april 1972 incorporated ~ will be: number 2 though our friendly but nevertheless official by-laws declare intent to comply with all laws relating to not-for-profit organizations eligible for tax exemption and for receiving income tax deductable gifts, we are advised that incorporation makes filing for tax exempt status easier and more orderly. in december we received the offer of the legal services of thomas e. eichhorst, esq., and the professional accounting services of albert m. katz, c.p.a., staff counsel and comptroller, respectively, to the american optometric association, to process the incorporation and the necessary filing of application papers for the optometric historical society. the executive board voted unanimously to accept these generous offers. optometric reminisce-in planned: a sharing of historical tidbits of optometric interest will be the theme of a two-hour reminisce-in planned for the 75th anniversary a.o.a. congress. the meeting is scheduled from 2;00 to 4:00 p.m. on tuesday, june 20 at the sheraton-jefferson hotel in st. louis. admission will be free and open to all who are interested. the reminisce-in is co-sponsored by the optometric historical society and the american optometric association committee on a.o.a. history. tape recordings will be made for the oral history archives of the a.o.a. the program will consist of a series of five-minute talks by volunteers selected to share with the group their accounts of generally unknown or otherwise inadequately described events or personalities of historical interest to optometrists. it is anticipated that these may range from the purely fascinating to the significantly documentary type of exposition, and from the seriously tragic to the hilariously funny episodes in optometry's past. some may relate to personal experiences, observations, gleanings from unusual or esoteric sources, intimate acquaintanceships, or exclusively held files of information. individuals wishing to volunteer their experiences in the reminisce-in are requested to notify dr. h. w. hofstetter, indiana university, division of optometry, bloomington, indiana 47401, in advance, merely stating in five or ten words what they wish to relate. -14"hannnon says:" dr. james h. hammon, (1876-1944) could easily have been the most colorful, and some would say the most flamboyant, optometrist in history. through the kindness of his daughter ruth, mrs. john w. shepard, a brilliant and vivacious person herself, we obtained a loan of five scrapbooks of more than 2,000 newspaper clippings written both by and about dr. hannnon during the period 1935 1942. approximately 500 pages of xerox copy were recently made and bound in a single volume entitled "scrapbooks of a hoosier optometrist" and placed in the indiana university library. as an almost daily advertisement in a vincennes, indiana, newspaper dr. hammon wrote pungent commentary on current events, personalities in the news, and political issues under the caption, "hammon says:" he was master of the clever phrase and ruthless in his choice of targets for attack, particularly in criticism of franklin d. roosevelt. he was variously identified as scholar, author, historian, inventor, adventurer, and community leader in newspaper articles. his "world's most completely equipped optical clinic and laboratory" was fully air­ conditioned as early as 1936. he indulged in such commercial adyentures as a price-cutting gasoline service station, tourist cabins, and a cafe. one new york newspaper gave him principal credit for helping to nab mr. joseph r. wei!, king of the con men, also called yellow kid, in 1939. he was listed in who's who and identified as inventor of the panoptic bifocal. it would be hard to find a residznt of vincennes of dr. hammon's time who would not have known him. i would gamble that even red skelton (a native of vincennes) was well acquainted with him! mcfatrich and murine: "murine company discovers documents" is the headline of a brief but fascinating report on some recent illinois college of optometry museum acquisitions relating to dr. james b. mcfatrich, founder of the north~rn illinois college of ophthalmology and otology in 1872 and of the murine'company in 1897. the report is in the ico newsletter, vol. xii, no. 3, january-february 1972, p. 9.--walter a. springborg, o.d. (1891-1971) "he used to go scouting around detroit for museum items, archival materials of all sorts, old books & journals. when he had a carload he would drive to st. louis with his goodies and give us lectures on each item. that was a joy!" so wrote our own o.h.s. secretary-treasurer maria dablemont and enclosed four pages from the michigan optometrist, vol. so, no. 7, july 1971, front cover and pp. 2-4, extolling his virtues and contribu­ tions to optometry and to numerous social causes. ·-15in expression of condolence and respect maria's husband , mr. earl dablemont, l1902 a jamison, st. louis, missouri 63109, made a cash contribution to the o.h.s. in dr. springborg's memory. the o.h.s. reciprocated by extending mr. dab lemont a complimenta1·y membership, especially when '"e learned that he; though not himself an optometrir;t, reads this newsletter a bit avidly. thanks, earl. more on sheard: in the previous issue of the newsl~~:ter some very convincing but nevertheless circumstantial evidence was cited to answer positively the question of whether dr. charles sheard was really an optometrist. now comes a quotation from an article by george t. lvarren, o.d., entitled "charles sheard: optometry's bright star", in the southern optometrist, vol. 7, no. 3, november 1953, pp. 19-21, which surely puts the matter to rest. said dr. harren, "we of hashington city are proud that dr. sheard holds a license to practice optometry in the dist: : ct of columbia and pays the renewal fee promptly each year. he is an honorary memler of several state societies anj provinces of canada and we believe he holds licenses in one or more states." hero chamberlin's father 2:!:!. _s>ptometr~~: on .june 4-6, 192 7, just two weeks af te:r lindbergh's famous flight, clarence d .. chamberlin made the headlines :)y piloting a plane from mineola, n.j., to eisleben, germany, for a new nonstop distance record. his ~;-.ras the first trans-atlantic passenger flight, his passenger being chas. a. levine. clarence was the son of elizie c. chamberlin, o.d., a denison, iowa, optometrist. l.visconsin history: marguerite eherl, 0, d. , chairman of the litis cons in optometric association historical committee, is collecting reports of their administrations from former presidents of the wisconsi.n optometric association. these will be published as received. the first of this series of reports is by marshall a. ha~rvelh, 0. d. , president in 1951-53. it appeared in the vol. 16, no. 1, jan.-feb., 1972 issue of the journal of the wisconsin optometric association, p. 7. "querida amigo: "i want to express my gratitude for the note published about my optometric history in the newsletter of april 1971. -16the newsletter gives me the opportunity to learn about the history of international optometry which was not available before its publication. keep up the good work and buena suerte. "in volume i (2) of april 1970 of the newsletter you mentioned the 'charter members ' and i will like to know if i belong 'in this proud category' as you express in the newsletter. for me it will be a great distinction as i will be the first optometrist in puerto rico to become a charter member of a national optometric society. i have the feeling that all the optometrists of puerto rico as well as the people of puerto rico should be proud to have its optometric flag flying through a charter member in a national optometric society. "best of luck to you and all the good friends in the o.h.s. and i remain. o.h.s. member leeds writes: "tu amigo, "dr. antonio pacheco p. 0. box 10223 santurce, puerto rico 00908" "enjoyed the last bulletin. i happen to own 'letters on natural magic' by brewster, the 1833 edition from london. cost me $7.00. if you'd like to see it, i'll send it down. also have 2 copies of his 'treatise on optics', but that's not as unusual. "also have 'bifocals' by bugbee, & that was harder to get than i had anticipated. enjoy your remarks, as always. "jim" dr. earl j. hunt writes: ---------"enclosed is my canceled check of the first contribution which was given to the optometric historical society as a memorial to my mother, mrs. !della mae hunt. the contribution was to be used by the society to further preserve and expand the existing museum at the american optometric association headquarters in st. louis. you had requested that it be returned for the archives." (the check will be framed for display with appropriate legend. h.w.h.) "i read with interest in the july 1971 newsletter where o.h.s. member dr. james p. leeds was intrigued by the title of a book, antique looking glasses and frames, england, 1700 1800. don't feel too bad, jim. the same thing happened to me as i perused a publishers central bureau booklist and decided to order english looking glasses, a study of the glass, frames and makers (1670-1820). looking glasses, i discovered, are mirrors." 1 -17-, [: dr. hunt's letter also included names of several memorials to optometrists and friends of optometry, reported elsewhere in this newsletter. ! gathering of giants: recently i had occasion to obtain an interlibrary loan of an 1863 publication under the title of congres periodique international d'ophthalmologie, a report of the second international ophthalmological congress held in paris in 1862. the volume was so brittle and fragile as to make one feel in violation of some kind of code just to open it. in fact there simply was no way to go through it page by page without causing tiny bits of damage here and there. what was even more guilt­ rendering was the need to separate some of the pages which had never been cut apart, obviously never before viewed by a human eye. these i separated gingerly with a very sharp blade, not sure that i had the right to do this. the list of congress participants was truly a "who's who" of the day. a few familiar examples: bowman, wells, jaeger, knapp, giraud-teulon, danders, snellen, von graefe, schweigger, hering, and sturm. the very informally assembled report included discussions of the constitution and by-laws, the selection of future meeting sites, ·references to the banquet, toasts, and messages from absentees. just to visualize the possibility that danders and jaeger, or snellen and von graefe, or bowman and sturm might have been seen chatting together, or even joshing one-another, in the hotel lobby, or in the bar, or perhaps sharing a ride in a taxi, or going shopping together, gives a startling intimacy to history. the human and everyday nature of famous individuals can hardly be conveyed by the formidable references to them in textbooks or by reverently written obituaries. for some strange reason their identity as normal individuals is often more effectively accomplished in the mere appearance of their names in alphabetical order or geographical categories in a simple list of "persons in attendance." oh yes, and among the listed names of participants from "hollande" was "gillavry (mac-)' a java. ii could it be that he was the mac-gillavry who did his thesis work on accommodation and convergence at utrecht, whose findings laid the groundwork for today's graphical analysis of optometric data? a reference to mac-gillavry's thesis may be found in the april 1970 issue of this newsletter, vol. 1, no. 2, p. 12. rubens and christmas: year after year i receive a charmingly designed christmas-new year's card from professor h. schober of the institut fur medezinische optik der universi~at munchen which cleverly involves the theme of visual science in a subtle but tasteful way. this year's card was fronted by a soft-tone reproduction of a copperplate engraving of a rubens (1613) painting captioned (in german) "vision with one and with both eyes". in it a robed scientist is crouching, on one knee, to observe from the -18edge of a large table along taut cords or wires extending from in front of his two eyes to a midline crossing point and also to two small circular, rather widely separated fixation targets on a vertical plane at the opposite edge of the table. the huge table legs are carved child-like winged cherubs. in addition two intensively alive cherubs are pointing out to the scientist where he should be looking, and a third has one hand on the scientist's shoulder, not unlike the old "coffee nerves" advertisement, trying to tell the scientist what he should see. truly inspirational! peter paul rubens, 1577-1640, was a flemish painter. etchings of some of his more famous paintings were usually done by other con­ temporary artists. van gogh had glaucoma? someone laid on my desk a recent (undated) newspaper clipping headlined "eye doctor believes artist had glaucoma" and captioned east orange, n.j. (upi)", in which dr. humbert m. gambacorta is credited with saying that the paintings of vincent van gogh indicate the great artist had glaucoma. cited as evidence are the halos, or haziness, around van gogh's lights and his moons in canvases painted when van gogh was in his late thirties. kepler ~ light and vision: kepler's optics: a study in the development of seventeenth­ century natural philosophy is 596 pages of ph.d. thesis by stephen mary straker submitted to the history and philosophy of science faculty of indiana university in november 1970. johannes kepler, an astronomer, contributed immensely to our understanding of the relation of light to vision. individually reproduced copies, bound in paper-back, may be­ ordered from university microfilms, ann arbor, michigan. a history of the ophthalmoscope: this is the title of a 1971 book by c. wilbur rucker, m.d., whiting printers & stationers, rochester, minnesota (128 pp., clothbound, $3.00). it is very readable and well documented. it can be purchased directly from the author, whose address is emeritus room, mayo clinic, rochester, minnesota 55901. leonardo da vinci anything written about leonardo (1452-1519) seems inherently to be beautiful. no exception to this is leonardo and the age of the eye, by peter ritchie-calder, simon and schuster, new york, 1970 ($12.95). chapter three, "the magnet of the mind", pp. 43-69, deals extensively with leonardo's concepts of the eye and sight. disappointingly, this author, like almost every other writer, ignored leonardo's marginal but nevertheless explicit description of the contact lens. the other chapters describe leonardo's many other interests, and much about his -19personality. well illustrated and with frequent quotes, the book.is difficult to put aside. reviewed elsewhere: goethe's color theory, arranged and edited by rupprecht matthaei, american edition translated and edited by herb aach, van nostrand reinhold company, new york, 1970, pp. 275, 23 x 29 em. $27.50. the history £f three-color photography, by e. j. wall, focal press, london and new york, 1970, pp. x + 747, $35.00. both of the above are reviewed in the march 1972 issue of the journal of the optical society of america, vol. 62, no. 3, p. 465. optometristas, olel in response to our broadside request for information on memorialized optometrists jose'vazquez cervantes, secretary executive of the asociacion de opti~os y optometristas de la republica mexicana, a.c., reports that on december 11, 1971, his association celebrated its 31st anniversary in a gathering of 300 optometrists to present special awards of merit to their past presidents and other optometrists "who have done the most for ..• optometry in the country of mexico", as follows: nicola; g~ez mayorga, ruben mazal, alberto de la mora g~ez, jorge salcedo ortega, frank j. devlyn, jr., marcelo chiquiar arias, victor chiquiar arias, and jorge taboada. all except the last two are past presidents. memorials j£ optometrists: the jose sanchez memorial eye clinic, previously the monroe county (florida) lions eye clinic (reference: florida optometric association). the albert fitch memorial library fund, the robert ~ decker memorial fund, and the shay ~ millis memorial fund (reference: pennsylvania college of optometry). the george ~ giles memorial fund, and the max wiseman memorial fund (reference: british optical association). the eugene ~ strawn memorial fund, and the albert ~ rodriguez memorial auditorium (reference: illinois college of optometry). the andress jay cross memorial prize (reference: omega epsilon phi fraternity, c/o illinois college of optometry). the george~ comstock scholarship foundation (reference: connecticut optometric society, inc.). the dr. e. c. nurock optometric research library, and the dr. leslie mi~z:scholarship foundation (reference: new jersey optometric association). -20the harry~ squarebriggs memorial lectures (reference: university of waterloo school of optometry, canada). the roy~ thorson award (reference: optometric association of the phillippines). the hermann pistor fachschule rur augenoptik (reference: fachschule fur augenoptik "hermann pis tor", jeti'a," east germany). memorials ~ friends of optometry: the frances e. kolb memorial fund (reference: pennsylvania college of optometry~ ---the william p. maccracken, jr., memorial library (reference: southern college of optometry). the harry ~ jankiewicz memorial fund (reference: university of houston college of optometry). puddled wrought iron frames: an exhibition of old-time spectacles, including several genuine puddled wrought iron spectacle frames, in the optical section of marshall field & company, chicago, circa 1935, apparently prompted an article entitled, "eyes of the world • • • wrought iron in spectacle making" in the reading puddle ball, vol. 4, no. 2, may 1935, pp. 1-5, a publication of the reading iron co., philadelphia. quoted is the last, may 31, 1669, entry in the secret diary ·in which samuel pepys pathetically resigned himself to approaching blindness. "pepys' oculist, the famous dr. tuberville, absolutely forbade the use of the proper convex lenses, on the mistaken theory that they were 'too old' for pepys' eyes!", wrote the unidentified author of the article. here are a few other quotes. "one pair of chinese spectacles, still in existence, has lead frames which bring the weight up to twelve pounds!" "it was wrought iron, largely, which first made it possible for the man of modest income to have spectacles which, in length of life at least, matched those of his wealthier brethren." "iron spectacles frames were in vogue in benjamin franklin's day." " ••• genuine puddled wrought iron in itself has a record of resistance to corrosion and vibration which no other ferrous metal can match." mrs. elizabeth egan, indiana university optometry librarian, brought this to my attention. puddling, by the way, is a process of converting pig iron into wrought iron by subjecting it to heat and frequent stirring in a reverberatory furnace in the presence of oxidizing substances. * * * * * * * * h. w. hofstetter, editor 1972-03-02-001 1972-03-02-002 1972-03-02-003 1972-03-02-004 1972-03-02-005 1972-03-02-006 1972-03-02-007 1972-03-02-008 apr 0 3 1996 'tomefry library 243 north volume 24 o-rkhindsight ... _ ... ii t. 1 j • • • • • • • ii newsletter of the ! 1101•hla university • optometric historical society ! lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, !isso'mjw? 16g1§$ usa! 8 • • libtary number ~ april 1993 the aoa in the iol: because i am a member of the historical committee of the iool (international optometric and optical league, originally iol, international optical league), a number of copies of interesting documents have come to me from several sources which delineate to some extent the early international involvement of the american optometric association. interestingly, the apparently official printed minutes of the july 3 & 4, 1928, founding meeting in cologne, germany, are in french, and a virtually verbatim german translation appears in the november 11, 1928, issue of deutsche optische wochenschrift, vol. 14, no. 86, pp. 634-641. both documents include photographs of all of the attenders and an appended paragraph stating that the expenditures were audited by mr. c. schmitt [paris] and professor frederic a. woll [new york city], and that the accounts were examined by both and found correct and were so certified by their signatures. presently there appears to be no english version of these minutes. that there originally was one is indicated by a footnote on page 190 of the 1929 year book of optomet6y published by the new york state optometric association in which the editor states, "we have also received a stenographic report of the procedure at the congress of foundation of the international optical league held at cologne, germany, july 3d, and 4th, 1928. but we could ill afford the space to reproduce it in the year book." inquiries to the american optometric association, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, the harold kahn vision science library at the state university of new york, and the new york state optometric association uncovered no copy. in the report of the july 23-27, 1928, aoa congress in grand rapids, michigan, published in the august 3, 1928, issue of the optical journal and review, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 25-26, is the following: frederic a. woll, as delegate of the association to the recent meeting of the international optical league in cologne, germany, gave a detailed description of the history and purpose of the league. he told of difficulties, due to differences in languages and customs, and the progress made in overcoming all obstacles. the refracting opticians comprise a large proportion of the membership and the organization is moving in the direction of promoting optometric purposes . 24/10 another meeting will be held next year in paris, but the intention is thereafter to have meetings every two years. dr. woll suggested that the organization donate $50 as the american share in meeting the organization expenses of the last year and about 25 cents for each optometrist of the organization for expenses of the coming year. after the league meets preliminary expenses, he said, 10 or 15 cents for each optometrist of the organization will probably be a sufficient contribution. e.e. arrington, rochester, spoke on the significance of the movement and said that it would prove, he hoped, a great step forward in making optometry a worldwide profession. the report went to the resolutions committee and later an appropriate resolution was adopted. the detailed german and french versions of the 1928 iol minutes show substantial participation by professor woll in the organizational discussion. dr. woll was not an optometrist. he was a member of the faculty of the college of the city of new york and taught hygiene and related courses in the optometry curriculum at columbia university. he was also a prominent advisory resource in the evolution of optometry schools for accreditation purposes. in a preface to the german minutes in the above-mentioned deutsche optische wochenschrift editor karl radicke states that the concept of an iol appeared as early as 1925 at a meeting in leipzig, germany. it seems reasonable to presume that major german optical conventions in germany, then as now, would have attracted attenders from several neighboring countries and that issues of international significance would naturally come up for discussion, such as, for example, the 1924 odin case in france. quite evidently the prime mover in the iol development was w. lohmann of berlin, who put forth his proposal quite formally at an international congress in oxford, england, in 1927, and was authorized to submi.t organization papers and to initiate invitations internationally to attend a founding meeting in cologne in 1928 as guests of the hauptverbandes der deutschen optiker­ vereinigungen (main alliance of german optical associations} . 1n preparation lohmann had mailed 127 letters of invitation and numerous thematic circulars and printed sheets in german, english, and french to associations and key persons on every continent. the 25 persons able to attend as official delegates from 11 responding organizations in eight countries were dr. woll from the aoa, 10 from four british organizations, four from france, one from holland, two from switzerland, two from czechoslovakia, one from hungary, and four from germany. in his organizational report mr. lohmann pointed out that, in effect, the 25 delegates were representing altogether more than 12, 000 members of their respective optical associations. over half of this number were the 24/11 7, 000 aoa members represented by woll. in addition to the 25 delegates officially sponsored by their respective organizations, six opticians from five additional countries--sweden, latvia, chile, luxembourg, and poland--attended as observers. the major item on the agenda was the debating and adoption of a constitution and by-laws, which was accomplished at the beginning of the second day of sessions. of interest is the adopted limitation of official membership to those countries in which opticians' associations were legally "registered," wherefore the official i.o.l. charter member countries were only england, france, u·.s.a., switzerland, holland, and germany. what did well, the aoa delegate, contribute? it is quite apparent that his comments carried much weight, not only because he personally was of relatively impressive academic stature, representing the largest membership constituency, and the only delegate from overseas, but also because the prior three decades of legislative enactments in america, our rapid change of professional title, and our advancement into institutions of higher education, must have fascinated the refracting opticians worldwide. so, for example, in his opening statement, the professor described the organizational segregation of american optics into such distinct groups as the optical society of america, the guild of dispensing opticians, and the american optometric association. he pointed out the necessity for the iol to define its refractive opticians role very clearly in order for the aoa to entertain membership, and that the issue would be on the aoa agenda at its forthcoming meeting later in the same month. he then described the professional role of the "optometrist" in terms of eye examining, refracting, ocular motility evaluation, and lens prescription application. next he expressed the pledge of the aoa to be cooperative and helpful and displayed a gold-sealed letter authorizing him to represent the aoa as signed by its president and secretary. later in the first day well delivered a gold-sealed invitation from aoa president leo m. mayer and secretary ernest kiekenapp to meet next in the u.s.a. as guests of the aoa congress. early on the second day wall described american optometric relations with ophthalmologists and dispensing opticians, the state board examination and licensing system, and the impact of accreditation on the optometry schools. near the close of the day he made an impassioned statement declaring this meeting spiritually the most gratifying in his 30-year career. h.w h. 24/12 an installation historical: when optometric association president-elects are inducted into the presidential chair it is rare that they use a bit of historical background to introduce their message. a delightful and informative exception was made by linda casser, o.d., when she was inducted into the presidency of the indiana optometric association on april 5, 1992, in the presence of several hundred members and guests. the following paragraphs, accompanied by a few momentary slides for atmosphere, are the opening paragraphs which constituted almost two-thirds of her attention-holding acceptance speech. on occasion colleagues have remarked to me that this will be the first year the ioa will have a woman president. the ioa actually had two female presidents earlier in this century, and i would like to take just a few minutes to introduce them to you. it will come as no surprise that help in gathering this information was the result of enthusiastic assistance from dr. henry hofstetter as well as barbara sargent from the health professions bureau. written accounts of meetings published in early volumes of the optical journal and review were extremely valuable resources. the first woman president was margaret j. erisman from lafayette, who graduated from the chicago college of optometry in 1900. she was elected nearly 80 years ago at the 18th annual winter meeting of the indiana state optical society here in indianapolis on january 6, 1913, before a meeting of 29 of her peers. it was a challenging legislative time for the society, for the profession of optometry was literally being formed and legislatively defined from the ranks of skilled tradesmen. in 1907, the year of the first indiana optometry act, miss erisman was serving as secretary of the society. an amendment to that law in 1913 provided for the establishment of the optometry board. to respond to these challenges, the society, at its january meeting, decided to expand its legislative committee to include 3 members. in reading the proceedings, it was clear that the challenges faced and the commitments made by individual members were many: " "mr. woodard then asked the society to relieve him of his position as chairman of the permanent legislative committee, saying that he had been under a great deal of expense, and had fought almost single handed for a number of years to have certain legislative matters 'put through.' the members of the society, however, refused to listen to the idea of having mr. woodard resign from his position. a motion was made and carried to the effect that $200 be placed at once to the credit of mr. woodard, so 24/13 that he would be without handicap in his fight for a better optometry law." in other proceedings a new constitution and bylaws were adopted, and the annual dues were raised from $2.50 to $3.00. miss clara sweitzer of richmond, later to become president herself, read a paper on "women in the optometry field." the summer, 1913, meeting under miss eri·sman' s presidency took place in elwood. in reading the accounts, this meeting · seems to have been a rather intense combination of business and collegial social activity. after the reading of papers, attendees were treated to an auto tour of the local tin factory, glass plant, and hospital. the excitement, if not the organization, of this meeting emanates from published vignettes included in the minutes: "three autos wandered from the course taken by the others and the occupants·came straggling into the glass factory just as the others were passing out." the summer meeting was concluded by a banquet, hosted by local citizens. the evening's program included several musical selections as well as "a few remarks by some live ones." "the first among the 'live ones' to be called on was miss clara sweitzer, richmond. she responded in a pleasing manner. she was followed by j.l. wolff, who was asked to tell why he took up the work of optometry. he told why in a humorous way that convulsed the audience." miss erisman was re-elected for a second term in 1914. at the january, 1915, meeting, it was unanimously voted to change the group' s name to the indiana state optometrical society. at the same meeting, miss erisman "absolutely refused" to be renominated for president. miss clara sweitzer became the 13th president and the second female president of the indiana association of optometrists in january, 1920. she was a 1907 graduate of the rochester school of optometry and past member of the association's membership committee. the headline of the account of this meeting in the optical journal and review read: "indiana optometrists in session; excellent program of papers; prosperous conditions." the association had grown from approximately 30 in 1913 to 200 members state wide. the commitment to continue recruiting new members was strong, as the association voted to bring mrs .. emily beatty, organizer of the aoa, to indiana to secure new members. clara sweitzer was re-elected president in indianapolis in 1922, which marked the silver jubilee of the indiana 24/14 association of optometrists. written accounts describe this meeting as "by far the most successful that has ever been held by the organization." it was attended by both the secretary and president of the aoa as well as by indiana's governor. 1922 also marked the silver jubilee of the aoa, which held its annual convention here in indianapolis in june of that year. then, of course, in 1935 came that optometry practice act with which we are all familiar. it took 30 days to enact sb #43; it was viewed as a landmark optometry act throughout the country. the law was immediately challenged by a lawsuit to prevent the optometry board from enacting and enforcing the new act. this prompted the call for a special meeting of the indiana association of optometrists here in indianapolis in march of that year. the main purpose of the meeting, as you note from the photograph of the journal cover, was to decide which of the following courses should be followed by the indiana association of optometrists: 1. petition the medical board to take over optometry 2. abandon optometry to commercial interests, (referring to unregulated and unscrupulous business practices) 3. defend and perpetuate optometry as a profession fortunately for us and for the citizens in indiana, our forefathers were united in making the appropriate choice from among these options. this 20-page document is a colorful compilation of recounts of the recent legislative success, as well as inspirational calls to action by association officers and aoa leaders. it also includes a copy of the recently enacted law. "if you wish to keep this splendid law which gives you a new status among your sister professions you must qualify for a guard of honor to protect it!" the theme of the importance of association membership rings loud and strong throughout this issue: "you men who have been shouting 'what has the association done for me?' -we dare you to say that again." "forget your petty differences . . . and join the association for the common good of all. perhaps the very man towards whom you carry a petty grievance was there at the state house plugging away for you." "with the successful enactment of the new law we hope we have forever silenced the old alibi that the 'association has not done anything. ' the association has done something big and we are proud of it." 24/15 "you must go out into the highways and byways and bring in new members, explain the aim and the purpose of your association, educate them and teach them to see the truth as you see it. where there are newly licensed optometrists you must see that they attend your meetings-give them a job-train them to carry on the work because it is only thru [sic] a strong organization united for a single purpose that we are going to be able to keep that which has just been won." dr. r.h. scofield, third vice-president of the indiana association of optometrists and chairman of the 1935 legislative committee wrote in this issue: "the attorney of the aoa tells us that we have a model optometry law-but . . . there are many things to be q.one before we can write "finis" to this chapter of our story-in fact, personally i believe we have only begun." how the eye sees: if you have sometimes wondered about the correctness of greek translators' interpretations of vision as rays emanating from rather than to the eye, do read the translation by hofstetter and stayskal entitled "fourth century visual science" in the january 1992 issue of optometry and vision science, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 7679. this is a translation of a summary of optics as formulated by heliodorus of larissa and his student damianus in or before the fourth century a.d. and variously copied by scribes. the first printing was in 1523, in three languages, greek, latin, and italian. the present translation appears to be the first in english. almost invariably: with tongue in cheek jack runninger quotes from a late 19th century catalog from his great-grandfather-in-law's jewelry store offering "almost invariably the right glasses" if the customer would simply answer a series of cleverly designed questions. from this little historic tidbit from within his own family connections dr. runninger as an editor of optometric economics makes a subtle editorial point in the february 1992 issue, vol. 2, no. 2, p. 5. they told us so: in a january 1913 article entitled "dentistry and optometry; a parallel" by william h. crisp, m.d. in the ophthalmic record vol. 22, no. 1, new series, pp. 3-11, the prediction is made that unless drastic steps are taken in ophthalmological training, optometry will eventually include medical aspects of eyecare analogous to those already being assumed by dentists. citing the fact the 27 states now have optometric licensing laws dr. crisp 24/16 quotes c. f. prentice' s recent change of opinion that, "i now unreservedly state my personal conviction that the public will receive the best eye service from practitioners who shall have in the future collegiately qualified in both optometry and medicine." dr. crisp reminds us that it was prentice who earlier had uttered the epigram that "a lens is not a pill" and had emphatically argued that "refraction could not be regarded as the practice of medicine." he further quotes prentice as having said more recently "it is my belief that optometrists in this state will follow the policy of . . . later raising the standard of education so as to include a partial if not full knowledge of medicine among future practitioners." supporting his concern, dr. crisp observes that to comply with the new laws optometry schools are expanding their curricula to two years, matching in length the training of many physicians still in practice. he predicts that the trend will continue and offers advice on how the field of medicine should cope with it, including the definition, identification, development, and certification of ophthalmology as a medical specialty. in a letter of response to this article appearing in the february issue, of the same journal from h.b. young (m.d.?), pp. 111-112, exception is taken to crisp's reference to the optometric threat as an argument for an ophthalmological degree or specialty certification. the writer agrees that "it can hardly be denied that the new title [ophthalmology] would be unsought if it was not to serve more or less as a counter attraction to the title 'optome­ trist.' nor is it easier to deny that the competition of the cult just named is the underlying cause of the new departure " he would prefer to see it advocated on its merits alone. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1993-24-02-001 1993-24-02-002 1993-24-02-003 1993-24-02-004 1993-24-02-005 1993-24-02-006 1993-24-02-007 1993-24-02-008 , i v i neiwsletter of the {243 north vol. 13 __optometric historical society lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri january 1982 63141, u.s.a.) number 1 : " ~ "i982 election returns: the 35 ballots received included no write-ins, g1v1ng a unanimous vote for jerome ("jerry 11 ) abrams, o.d., to serve a five year term on the executive board to succeed grace weiner. the ever gracious mrs. weiner had asked not to be renominated, for reasons of inability to serve as she was wont to do in earlier years. the board immediately re-elected the 1981 officers for 1982. the 1982 members of the executive board, with expiration years and addresses, are as fo 11 ows : president: james p. leeds, o.d., (1982), 2470 east 116th street, carmel, indiana 46032, u.s.a. vice-president: james c. tumblin, o.d. (1983), 5319 broadway n.e., box 5147, knoxville, tennessee 37918, u.s.a. secretary-treasurer: maria dablemont, (1985), 243 north lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a. executive board member: henry a. knoll, ph.d., (1984), bausch & lomb, inc.'· 1400 north goodman street, rochester, new york 14602, u.s.a. executive board member:· jerome j. abrams, o.d., (1986), 4516 west \~as hi ngton street, indianapolis, indiana 46241, u.s.a. co~editor on leave: co-editor doug penisten informs us that he is enroute from south africa to london, vienna, athens, and cairo during the southern hemisphere summer months, to return to his teaching duties in april, 1982, as senior lecturer in optometry at the university of the north, in pietersburg. he apologizes for being unable to contribute to this issue, which is ·of course quite understandable. his address is d.k. penisten, o.d., p.o. box 3234, pietersburg 0700, republic of south africa, where his mail will await his return. an editor•s dilemma: in the previous three issues of this newsletter i included items which i judged to have significant historical interest but which were interpreted by at least two readers as the casting of aspersions on certain now deceased individuals whom many of us hold in esteem. -2because the contents of the newsletter to date have included virtually everything received and confirmed as accurate and fully documented, it might be more precise to say that the aforementioned i terns were in fact 11 not ex­ cluded .. rather than simply 11 incl uded". however i may try to represent the circumstances , the judgements in these instances were mine and mine alone. even after receiving the ob­ jections i find myself believing that my decisions were reasonably de­ fensible in terms of the history-oriented purposes of the newsletter and the available facts. nevertheless i can agree that by means of tastefully worded disclaimers i could have allayed the unfortunate interpretations that the items were expressing my own views or those of the society. disclaimers, too, however carefully worded, themselves usually suggest controversy, disbelief, or doubt. indeed, when applied to selected items, they may even imply the editor's own bias, which he really may hope to sup­ press. a popular escape from apparent guilt, of course, is for the editor to use editorial referees. this, i contend, lends itself just as easily to abuse while rendering the offended person quite helpless to fix the blame. my preferred alternative is to accept the responsibility myself, seeking prior advice whenever i predict a possible misinterpretation, and to keep the newsletter open for publishable comments and criticisms from the readers. needless to say, when i do this badly i am sorry. i fear this may have been such an instance. december 1981 reminisce-in: thirty one or more persons assembled at the inconvenient hour of 5:30 p.m., (or was it 6:00p.m., or later?) at the sheraton twin towers hotel at the outskirts of orlando, florida to chat about optometric history under the friendly chairing of ohs president jim leeds. secretary-treasurer re­ ported the following finances: money market certificate------------$1,000.00 interest earne·d to date---------115.47 savings account--------------------883.12 checking account-------------------276.48 petty cash-------------------------3.39 $2,278.46 following a brief discussion of the suggested use of video tapes as a -historical recording technique, a report by henry hofstetter on the circum­ stances and establishment of the new school of optometry in puerto rico, and the announcement of the adoption of a recognition certificate to be awarded by the executive board to individuals 11whose dedication to the scholarly research, examination, interpretation, and disclosure of optometry's heritage has added signfficantly to the advancement of knowledge of its past and therefore adds to the wisdom which can mold the profession • s future 11 , preisdent leeds read the following paper in review of the early transactions of the american academy of optometry: i 1 -3i started to write a review of the 13 books printed by the academy of the fourth thru the eighteenth annual meetings en­ titl~d, report of the transactions of the annual meeting of the ~en can academy of optometry. the first was pub 1 i shed (probably) 1n 1927 and the last in 1940. i am not sure why publication was halted. it could have been wartime or the fact that most of the papers were printed in the journal anyway, or other reasons. i hope that some of those present will be able to enlighten us on these and other points as i proceed. i soon realized that these books contained a wealth of knowl­ edge about the early days of the academy; and since this group is a historical body, it is far more important to put the historical factors over the academic report of who gave what paper when, although some of these papers are of great interest. on a sepa­ rate sheet i have listed the number of fellows of the academy, how many attended the meetings and where and when they were held. when we observe the size of the present day meetings, we must pay . tribute to the foresight and tenacity of our founding fathers. at the time of the fourth annual meeting in buffalo in december 1925, the secretary, carel c. koch, minneapolis, whom many of us here knew and whose memory is held in reverence, gave a report of the years 1922 to 1925. the following is taken from his report: 1. two organizational meetings were held. the first was in st. louis, january 11, 1922, almost exactly 60 years ago, in­ stigated by dr. m. steinfeld, paducah, ky., with seven others. all were mid-western optometrists who were dissatisfied with the commercial state of the profession. the second was on june 29, 1922, in indianapolis with five of the original attendees, plus three more, including dr. koch. plans for a permanent organization were made. dr. steinfeld was elected chairman and dr. koch as secretary. a committee was formed to draw up a constitution and by-laws. thirteen men were made members with a $5.00 assess­ ment. 2. the third meeting of the year, the first actual academy meeting, was in st. louis, december 9-13, 1922. ten were present. several papers were read and the first round table dinner was held. twenty-nine were taken into fellowship, a total of 39 in all. yearly dues were $15.00 and fellowship fee $50.00. the constitution and by-laws were ratified. 3. the second academy meeting was held in rochester in december 10-ll, 1923. only five attended and no papers were read due to the small attendance, although some papers had been prepared. dr. e. wiseman of buffalo presented his code of ethics with the following provisions: a. all academy members must practice in a professional way. this means: x. must practice in an office, not a store. y. no advertising. z. must charge an examination fee of at least $3.00. -4b. all academy members must in some way be identified with some form of optometric research. this was passed and all present academy members were put on a probation for three years relative to display advertising, during which time they could make any necessary changes, and five years relative to changing from store to office. three more men were elected to fellowship. 4. the third annual meeting was held in kansas city june 1924 in conjunction with the aoa meeting. thirteen were present. one paper was presented on "industria 1 eye work". two more were e 1 ected to fe 1lowship, but three died and three resigned. 5. a december 1924 meeting in columbus, ohio, was cancelled due to poor attendance and postponed to december 1925 in buffalo. also at the same meeting in buffalo several papers were read, and there was a banquet. the chairman, dr. wiseman (surely a fortuitous name), gave an address which included some interesting rules, which i have had copied to be handed out. the succeeding meetings had pretty much the same format-papers, reports, luncheons and dinners. i noted a few things of particular interest. in vol. iii for the 7th annual meeting, reports of "dis­ cussions" following papers were introduced, some of which were moder­ ately heated, as well as some bibhographies. in this vol. iii, a truly historical paper on "zones of ocular comfort" by charles sheard was included. an equally important paper by e.f. tait on "a quantita­ tive system of dynamic skiametry" was given. on the other hand,.quite a few of the papers were rather rudimentary, and some, such as "iridology" were quite suspect. the first paper on "telescopic spectacles" by william feinbloom was given in 1929. also at this meeting recorrmenda­ tion for local academies (chapters) was made by the chairman, carel c. koch. by 1930 there were 7 chapters. also in 1930 a research fellow­ ship was established at columbia university for $2,000.00. ($3,500.00 was projected but could not be collected.) dr. william feinbloom was the recipient and did his work on "strabismus". he presented a paper on "contact lenses" at this meeting. at the 1931 meeting in philadelphia he gave a report on his research in strabismus. in 1935 the meeting was changed from december to the last week in august, so vol. ix included both the 1934 meeting in cleveland and the august 1935 new york meeting. thts volume, incidentally, had pictures of two banquets, so i brought it along. an interesting comparison can be made to the size of the present day meetings and banquets. also, those who have never seen the transactions can look at this volume. in 1937 the meetings were changed to june, to run 3 days before the aoa convention. in 1938 the first two physicians to present papers were on the program-drs. otis wolfe of marshalltown, iowa, and dr. marvin blaess of detroit. both spoke on cataracts. i looked thru the 1939 roster to see whose names i recognized as present day members, hoping that some of these might be sitting with us here today and filling in the vacant -5spots in this necessarily sketchy presentation. those names are: robert bannon, r.c. baxter, harold fisher, h. ward ewalt, william feinbloom, glenn fry, d.g. hummel, and richard m. hall. i could not determine the criteria for academy fellowship, other than practicing in a professional environment. in 1939 the chairman, dr. ron r. paine, topeka, kansas, proposed that effective june 1, 1940: 1.. a board of regents be established, composed of one fellow from each state to maintain communication with other fellows in that state, contact all applicants, and act as a committee of one in enforcement of standards. 2. as part of the entrance requirements, a board of examiners, composed of optometrists, before whom all applicants must prove their competency as optometric practitioners. this examination would take place on the day prior to the annual meeting. 3. all members would have the privilege to pass an achieve­ ment test before the academy board of examiners, but their con­ tinuing fellowship would not be contingent on this. i can only presume that present day qualifications for fellow­ ship descended from the above decree. finally, a word on the volumes themselves. vol. i concerned the fourth and fifth annual meetings. it was well printed and in a good binding. there were 100 copies of vo 1. ii printed in a poor binding. this is the rare one and the hardest to come by. while there ·is no great momentary value to it, i felt very fortunate to get one. all the other volumes look the same and have a good binding. from 125 to 200 copies of each were printed, and each fellow apparently received a copy. in a number of the volumes, mention was made that some copies of preceding volumes were still available, with the implied plea that they were occupying too much space and gathering dust. i do recall that in the 1950 1 s when i was just starting my book collection i bought the available ones from dr. koch and got about half of them. there is a real sense of living in the past reading these transactions, and i hope you have enjoyed reliving these years briefly with me. the following is an incomplete tabulation of meeting statistics: meeting .q!!! location organizational 1/11/22 st. loufs i ii iii -iv . v vi vii i viii ix x xi xii xiii xiv xv xvi xvii xviii • ·6/29/22 indianapolis 12/22 st. louis 12/23 rochester 6/24 kansas ci~ 12/25 buffalo 12/26 washington 12/27 new york 12/28 chicago 12/29 boston 12/30 onaha 12/31 philadelphia 12/32 chicago 12/33 baltimore 12/34 cleveland 8/35 new york 8/36 chicago 6/37 rochester 6/38 richmond 6/39 los angeles -6i present i fellows chairman 8 8 10 6 13 ? ? ? 25 41 30 33 31 35 27 40 43 60 38 42 13 40 43 45 39 34 (?) 57 (?) 74 108 134 122 118 125 131 (?) 116 143 157 160 176 m. steinfeld, paducah • • e. g. wiseman, buffalo • • • • carel c. koch, mi nneapo 11 s briggs s. palmer, boston walter i. brown, new bedford • o. j. melvin, olaha • robert n. walker, vi nston-sa 1 em • richard n. hall, cleveland • don rodney paine, topeka • secretary carel c. koch, minneapolis • • • • charles e. cox, rochester • j~ fred andreae, ba 1t f 1:10re • • • • • • • • • • • dr. wiseman's written & unwritten rules & policies to govern academy procedure. (1925) 1. the three basic requirements for membership in the academy are, (a) the candidate must practice in an office, (b) he must charge an examination fee of $3.00 or more, (c) he must not carry on what is known as display newspaper advertising, nor any of the less commend­ able forms, such as blotters, bill boards, handbills, etc. 2. memberships in the academy is by invitation only. 3. each candidate must have demonstrated satisfactorily to the execu­ tive council that he is sincerely desirous of raising optometric prac­ tice to the professional level and is thoroughly conversant with modern scientific procedure. -74. it is not permitted on the floor of the meeting to discuss subjects other than those relating to the scientific side of our work except during the period reserved for academy business. 5. all discussions should be characterized by forebearance and modesty, as by those seeking truth and not as by those determined to impose their beliefs upon others without offering satisfactory evidence of the inherent merits of those beliefs. 6. no campaigning for office of any kind is permitted. hope springs eternal: it is tempting to believe that weird concepts promoted in the ob­ livion of scientific evidence were more or less typical of only the past. perhaps they are comparably prevalent today but somewhat less noticed because, like the chimes of the living room clock, or the con­ spicuity of once prurient illustrations, their currently familiar tones or formats do not penetrate ordinary consciousness. so it may be the ·striking assertions in a 15 x 11 em advertisement in the december 8 issue of the indianapolis star that prompted new o.h.s. executive board member jerry abrams to send me a clipping of it with the comment "sounds like the old 'bates method' has come back to us in 1981". to quote parts of the advertisement, in varied bold types, we read, 11 do you wear eyeglasses or contact lenses? you may not have to! your unlimited mind has the power and ability to improve your eyesight •••• self-correction techniques include states of profound relaxation, guided imagery, insight exercises, hatha yoga eye exercises, and applied auto­ suggestion at alpha ... a two day "vision workshop" is offered with a tuition fee of $85. thanks again, dr. staiman: in the november 1981 issue of the review of optometr) (also identified in some library catalogs as chilton's review of optometry appeared a let­ ter to the editor from jacob staiman, o.d., of baltimore, maryland, sug­ gesting "that anyone who possesses early optical artifacts, books or memo­ rabilia pertaining to the history and progress of optometry should con­ tribute them to the society ... dr. staiman is perhaps the most frequent donor of the moment to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., ilamo, of which our secretary-treasurer is librarian and curator. as of november 9, for example, the ilamo received from him nine antique eyeglass cases, 2 pair of folding bifocal pince-nez, and a lorgnette. incidentally, the optometric historical society itself does not main­ tain a museum or a collection, as dr. staiman's letter implies, but, as stated in its articles of incorporation, one of its purposes is .. to en­ courage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry ... as one of the highly recommended repositories -8ilamo has been given most of the historical items received by the society. other donations of historical significance have been transferred to other museums and libraries. even well tended privately owned collections are not excluded from consideration. the society of course has other purposes to fulfill which are possible only with increased funding. therefore all gifts of money, shares, and sale­ able and income-producing property are received directly as additions to its financial assets •. oldest indiana practice featured: a full page of the saturday, april 11, 1981, issue of the hartford city, indiana, news-times under the section title "lifestyle" by bert monfort was devoted to p1ctures and commentary on the optometric practice of drs. r. lewis scott and richard l. windsor at 220 west main street. the occasion was the remodeling and redecorating of their offices around the historical theme based on this being the "oldest continuous practice in indiana". records indicate that the scott-windsor practice was founded in 1895 by dr. thomas bell, who practiced in the same location until his death in 1936. he held indiana license number 20. he was succeeded in the same location by dr. william h. hamilton, who died in 1958. dr. scott associ­ ated with dr. hamilton in 1957, and dr. windsor associated with dr. scott in 1973. featured in the office are an oil of an "eye doctor" examining presi­ dent lincoln, a stained glass window with apollo in the center, and dis­ plays of photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other docu­ ments depicting the history of the practice, early optometry, and early developments in visual science. relatively unheralded research history: ohs vice-president jim tumblin, also director of research of the optometric extension program foundation, inc., (oepf), recently provided us with a list of the recipients of funds under the oepf research grants program since the oepf moved to a more formal grant application pro­ cedure in 1975; as follows: researcher/institution: 1975-76 cycle robert kaplan, o.d. university of houston phillip kruger, o.d., m.s. state university of new york research project: an evaluation of left and right eye latency differences in the visual evoked response ( ver) for children reading below grade level the effects of problem solving on the luminance of the fundus reflex john w. streff, o.d. southern college of optometry j. floyd williams, o.d. university of houston 1976-77 cycle dennis a. bader, o.d., m.s. university of waterloo william v. padula, o.d. -9gesell institute of child development harold l. poynter, o.d. pacific university robert l. yolton, o.d., ph.d. pacific university 1977-78 cycle gordon w. mckee, o.d. university of houston john griffin, o.d., m.s. lorraine voorhees,-o.d. southern california college of optometry ivan d. hyde, dip. optom. pacific university phillip b. kruger, o.d., m.s. state university of new york caren lynn weisz, o.d., m.s. illinois college of optometry 19 79-80 cyc l.e phillip kruger, m.s., o.d. state university of new york robert l. yolton, o.d., ph.d. pacific university . kenneth e. brookman, 0.0., m.s. indiana university fixation and saccadic character­ istics of binocular amblyopia clinical vision development pro­ files of disabled learners the assessment of the effects of corrective lenses on mentally retarded persons near point acuity standardization in chi 1 dren (age 3-5) visual motor and cognitive aspects of reading disability application of biofeedback procedures to vision training visual characteristics of learning disabled vs. normally achieving young children an evaluation of the van orden star test modification of fixation disparity by instrumental conditioning with visual feedback changes in accommodation during cognitive processing lens prescriptions: clinical in­ dicators of the resting state of accommodation the effect of task demand on the resting state of accommodation phase 2-clinical application of biofeedback enhanced vision therapy phase 3-sensory training using ver biofeedback accommodation in the human infant louis g. hoffman, o.d., m.s. southern california college of optometry 1980-81 cycle martin h. birnbaum, o.d. state university of new york k.j. ciuffreda, o.d., ph.d. c. neary, b.sc., f.b.o.a. stanley g. goldrich, o.d., ph.d. phillip b. kruger, o.d., m.s. state university of new york -10the effect of accommodative deficien­ cies on the developmental level of perceptual skills relationships between oculomotor pos­ ture and cognitive/perceptual style experiments in nystagmus: fixation and reading accommodation in the developing eye during 1981-83 a two year moratorium on outside research funding is in effect to permit financial support of the newly established "skeffington­ alexander national optometry-education learning center" in lancaster, ohio, now in its second year of a longitudinal study on vision and learning. the above-mentioned "more formal grant application procedure" included the broadside invitation to qualified researchers to submit requests based on their own research interests, and the use of an advisory panel of re­ search consultants to judge the applications. actually, oepf support of research dates back to the 1940's, as reported in the june 1978 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 49, no. 6. says dr. tumblin, "i think it is true to say that since 1975, the oepf and the auxiliary [to the american optometric association] have been respon­ sible for over 75% of optometric funding of research." spectacle atlases available through dr. york: alan york, o.d., 1 main street, east hampton, new york 11937, reports that he has been appointed sales agent for richard corson: "fashions in eye glasses, from the 14th century to the present day", second updated edition, $60.00, and w. poulet: "atlas on the history of spectacles" (translated from the original german by f.c. blodi), published by j.p. wayenborgh, bad godesberg, west germany, in three volumes (english) at $140, $135, and $140, respectively. the first two volumes are reviewed in glowing detail in the january 18, 1980, issue of the optician, vol. 179, no. 3, page 36. the reviewer, initials lss, reports that volume i has over two thousand pictures which include every conceivable kind of eyewear from 1350 onwards, -and that every single item is indexed, described, and dated. volume ii is entitled, "art and spectacles through five centuries", and its illustrations include paintings, drawings, woodcuts, engravings, sketches, lithographs, medical pictures, and fashion plates, all indexed and dated. 11the superb quality of the reproduction ••• make it something anyone could treasure." the three volumes are also available in german and french editions. -11!l twist of the odyssey: the cartoon below was spotted by professor jerome harste of the indiana university school of education and promptly displayed to his optometry students in a reading course. it appeared on page 191 of the november 1981 issue of the journal of reading, vol. 25, no. 2, a publi­ cation of the international reading association. about francis west: the comment by numismatist george berry, on page 83 of the october issue, that he was unable to glean any information about mr. f. west, whose name appeared on a rare london farthing, prompted our ohs president jim leeds to check his early books collection. indeed, he found a 54 page 142 x 91 mm booklet printed in 1829 entitled to all who value their sight, a familiar treatise on the human eye containing practical rules that will enable all to judge hhat spectacles are best calculated to preserve their eyes to extreme old age, by francis west, successor to mr. adams, optician to his majesty, 83, fleet street, third edition, price sixpence. an infold illustrates quite correctly in vertical cross-section the optics of the emmetropic, hyperopic, and myopic eye. the nontechnical descriptions and the advice to those who can benefit from glasses are as -12correct as the contemporary scientific knowledge would permit. the book­ let also includes 11a catalogue of optical, mathematical, and philosophical instruments .. made and sold by francis west, some 200 items, with prices. more on .!:!.· riley spitler: dr. pheiffer•s letter concerning spitler in the october issue prompted ohs prexy jim leeds to add the following: 11he was an academy member from 1926 to at least 1929. at the 1930 meeting he gave a paper, •optical control of the central gray•. the same title was presented in 1932 as a •con­ tinuation• of the 1930 paper. in 1934 his papers were, 'some physiological effects of radiant energy stimulation in the visible light band' and •some circulatory changes caused by ocular fixation of selected light frequencies in the visible range'. in 1936 it was 'syntonic case history, methods and app 1 i cations. • .. first u.s. postal item to include braille: headlined in the july 27, 1981, issue of linn's stamp news, vol. 5, no. 2751, was the announcement that 11the u.s. postal service w1ll issue its first braille postage item with the release of an embossed, stamped envelope aug. 31 in honor of blinded veterans 11 in conjunction with the annual convention of the blinded veterans association at crystal city, arlington, virginia. about early refractors: responding to our october commentary entitled 11a gallery of phor.­ opters?11, alan york, o.d., wrote, 11 i've got seven (7) old refractors in my collection, including woolf, genophthalmic, several de zeng models, etc. i could have had more but had no place to store more. i'd be grateful to know the name of anyone willing to pay $3,000 each for them, as i have been picking them up for as much as $35 each! 11 he added, 11 i wish i could find the technical repair manuals for them! the de zengs, in their various models, seem to be more common than the rest, in my limited experience11 • d.g. hummel comments about alpheus smith: dan hummel adds a sidelight to the alpheus smith account by telling us of an incident while he was on the executive council of the american academy of optometry, as follows: 11the question was asked in the executive council of the aao, • how can we obtain better university recognition for our optometry schools?'. 11 my suggestion was that since the academy was to meet in columbus [ohio] that it would be valuable to honor dr. smith. and, he deserved it. 11 this was a forerunner of yearly honors for selected speakers. it has been a pride to me that a simple request has developed into inter­ national recognition by the quality of those we honor". -13~new bvi historical poster: ohs member larry aasen of the better vision institute, inc., 230 park avenue, new york, ny 10169 has written a personal note to me in a mailing tube with the enclosure of a colorful new bvi poster entitled 11 the hi story of eyeglasses. 11 41 x 61 em in size, it illustrates 17 styles of eyewear dating back to the 13th century, with accompanying legend and background illustrations of several historical personalities whose eyeglasses were part of their public image. the last bvi poster, called 11 eye glasses of old 11 , was first printed in 1937. says larry, 11 it had been ordered from all over the world during its 44 years of availability, and was considered by some to be a col­ lector's item 11 • the price of the new one is $5.00, postpaid. i am also informed by o.h.s. member alan york that the new poster features notable examples of antique eyewear from his private collection. more optometrists memoralized: memorializing drs. a.m. skeffington and e.b. alexander is the title of the skeffington-alexander national optometry education learning center (abbreviated s.-a. noel) in lancaster, ohio. the g.n. getman award, is an annual award since 1971 sponsored by the college-of optometrists in vision development (abbreviated covd). a second legacy consigned: it was more than a couple years ago that the o.h.s. executive com­ mittee enthusiastically instituted the provision whereby anyone can attain free life membership in the society by merely amending his/her will to provide a bequest for a thousand dollars or more. to date, however, only two have taken advantage of this opportunity to assure the o.h.s. of eventually greater support than many of us can afford to give while vivendi. it merely reduces the windfall for one's heirs! the attorney of the second of the two who now have included o.h.s. in their wills notified the secretary in september. may this prompt other members to do likewise. a postscript from dr. israel dvorine: added to dr. dvorine's ballot: harold kohn you might be interested a portrait of harold and sent it to library. 11 11 since you mentioned the name of to know that i recently sculptured the harold kohn vision science -14.!!l ~~~to paris: an inviting letter from o.h.s. member pierre marly, opticien, informs us that his outstanding and celebrated museum of ~lunettes et lorgnettes de jadis, .. a collection of several thousand items, has been moved into larger quarters at the following address: 2 avenue mozart, paris 16 erne, france (telephone 527-21-05). in 1975 i had the opportunity of seeing his collection briefly, at which time he had well over 1,000 pieces displayed in an elegantly ar­ ranged 3 x 6 m basement room. they included centuries old lorgnettes, spy glasses, hand fans and walking sticks with lenses, eskimaux goggles, and a 7 m long shelf of books, among them daza de valdes, j.g.a. chevalier, che:ubin d'orleans, and thomin: instruction sur l'usage des lunettes, p a r1 s , 17 46. lighting design awards history: prior to 1952 a few of the 57 sections of the illuminating engineering society of america, the i.e.s., held annual contests for 11 my most interesting lighting job... in 1952 the competition became a national lighting applica­ tion contest of considerable stature at the lighting service forum program of the i.e.s. annual conference with prizes of $100, $50, and $25. in 1956 a trophy was added by the late past-president charles goddard, and in 1965 fred and edwin guth, jr., set up a $100,000 endowment fund in memory of their father, edwin f. guth, to provide additional awards in the industrial/ commercial class. in 1966 the i.e.s. awards program was restructured as the applied lighting competition (alc). further revisions were made during 1971 and 1973, leading to the establishment of a very formalized lighting development awards (loa) program, which is in full operation at present with occasional procedural changes introduced in more recent years. the history of this program is detailed in 11 looking back -origins of the loa program .. in the october, 1981, issue of lifhting design! application, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 54 and 56, an issue devoted a most entirely to the 1981 awards. registration initiated in india: the following is excerpted from an editorial in optometry today, vol. 9, no. 2, 1981, pages 8-9: a milestone has been laid in the history of optometric profes­ sion in india. on oct. 1, 1980, the optometric register of india was established to work towards enlisting the names of optometrists/ orthoptists having a qualification from an accredited optometric in­ stitution in india or abroad. optometry as a profession was introduced in india in the year 1958 with the establishment of the first school of optometry at gandhi eye hospital, aligarh, under the joint auspices of the govern­ ment of india and u.p. state govt., and with u.p. state medical -15faculty as the examining body for the two-year diploma in re­ fraction and optometry (d.r. opt.) qualification. subsequent schools were opened at sitapur, hyderabad, bangalore, madras, trivandrum, new delhi, bombay, and indore. the professional organisation indian optometric association came into being in the year 1961. hectic efforts were made since then for the establishment of a council for the registration of optometrists. the move to establish the optometric register of india is a credit to the present advisory-board members of this new body, namely: naval p. baliwalla h.o. rastogi k.k. bhatt, and n. kumar. one can confidently say that awareness of the present day re­ quirement has prevailed--to the long term good of the profession. included with the above-mentioned publication is an inserted announce­ ment of the plan which includes the address of the or! and the price of the application form (rs. 6/-) and of the registration fee (rs. 60/-). another view of japanese optometric history: the historical accounts of ophthalmic developments in japan in the april and july, 1981, issues of this newsletter prompted .mr. fumio morie, president of the japan optometric association, to send us a copy of the paper which he read at the international forum of the american optometric association in june. the title of his paper is 11 history and present status of optometry in japan, 11 and he understandably interprets the historical events at some variance with the translator of the previously reprinted extracts. the following are the paragraphs from mr. marie's paper which deal with historical developments: at first i want to speak about the short history of optometry in japan. the history of opticians in japan started about a century ago, but the word 'optometry' was first introduced in japan at the time dr. daniel desmond came from america in 1926 and opened a one month course in optometry in osaka, japan. therefore it was fifty five years ago. since then some japanese opticians have shown their interest in optometry. about that time ~1r. morizo ogawa, an american doctor of op­ tometry, was taken back from america to japan by mr. shinpei goto, the then minister of home affairs, and opened an optometric clinic in tokyo. but dr. suda, an ophthalmologist, on behalf of all the members of the japan ophthalmology association started to oppose and interfere with the practice of dr. ogawa and the association insisted that dr. ogawa close his clinic, claiming that there was no optometric system in japan. therefore dr. ogawa could -16only continue his practice by operating his clinic with an ophthal­ mologist. dr. ogawa, by way of vision care, served many people in various fields, such as the political, financial and cultural worlds, until five years ago when he passed away. also mr. kenichi asami, who studied optometry in jena, germany opened a clinic in ginza, tokyo and had the same experience as dr. ogawa had, being opposed and disturbed by the ophthalmology association, and he reluctantly closed his clinic in tokyo and moved to chica where he was also disturbed by the japan ophthalmology association and passed away being discouraged, as he was honest and fainthearted. i observed these matters personally. since those days the japan ophthalmology association began plainly to oppose and disturb optometry. thus the history of the oppression of optometry in japan began. thereafter establishment of a school in tokyo was planned but it was not realized until thirteen years ago when the tokyo optical school was opened by a group with mr. shiroyama as the central figure. the school has a two-year-course whose curriculum and study hours are not sufficient to fulfill the requirements needed to study optometry. in 1960 when i visited dr. haffner in new york he was obliged to close the division of optometry at the columbia university by the political pressure of the then ophthalmology association in new york, and was educating students by establishing the new york center of optometry, transferring books and optical instruments from the school at columbia. he warned me that if i was intending to develop optometric education and planning to establish an optometric system in japan i should never look for agreement and cooperation from the ophthalmology association because it would be a waste of my time and energy as the ophthalmology association would strongly oppose and disturb my efforts. i am constantly reminded of his warning as it has became a matter-of-fact situation for the japan ophthalmology association to continue to disturb my school in various ways. when i attended the 1961 aoa congress in denver, i was surrounded , by many leading doctors and was asked by them about the status of optometry in japan. when i was asked how many optometric schools there were in japan at that time i replied 'nothing'. then the doctors told me that it was inexcusable and utterly irresponsible that there was no school for such an important profession. i was scolded and strongly suggested to make a four-year-school immediately. observing with my own eyes the status of the activities of the aoa i decided to make a four-year-school in japan. that was twenty one years ago. i continued to make every effort having various dif­ ficulties, the biggest one being the opposition from the ophthalmology association, but finally succeeded to establish a school in 1978. now we have two hundred thirteen students in the first, second, third and fourth years of study, the first graduates are expected to number sixty-two next year, in 1982. -17since before four years ago when i established a school i have been publishing through nationwide newspapers in the form of interviews with socially notable and leading people in order to introduce the profession of optometry. the japan ophthalmology association made three claims to the japan advertising review organization (jaro) that the organization should not allow us to have a word 'optometrist' published in newspapers as there was no system of optometry in japan and also the association claimed to the organization that the 'eye examination' was only performed by ophthalmologists and therefore we would not be allowed to use this word. however, the ophthalmology association did not let me have even a single word to say about this situation. the jaro, which has a fair and knowledgeable understanding of the society gave us their final decision on december 5, 1980 as follows: "the matter in which you (dr. fumio marie) are training optometrists in japan by establishing a school and devoting your efforts to developing the acts of optometry of japan is very appropriate." vision library to the world: this is the title of a three page i 11 us trated article by linda j. draper in the september 1981 issue of show-~4e libraries, vol. 32, no. 9, pp. 25-27, concerning ilamo, the internat1onal library, archives & museum of optometry, for which linda is head of technical services. among its illustrations is a photograph of the five-member staff and of the building in which it is housed. ilamo dates its origin back to 1902. for the benefit of readers unfamiliar with american nick-naming ways let me explain that the term "show me" pertains to the state of missouri, reflecting the.allegedly skeptical nature of its denizens. correlatively, to say, "i'm from missouri!" is effectively to ask for proof of validity. optometry in the military: h.e. "tony" mahlman, executive director of the armed forces optometric society, has prepared a brief information sheet entitled optometry in the military which consists largely of several paragraphs relating the history of military optometry in the u.s. very succinctly as follows: prior to world war ii, ophthalmologists rendered all eye care in the military with unofficial assistance by optometrists. during most of world war ii optometrists that served in that capacity in the army were in the enlisted status. many optometrists vol­ unteered for flight training and officer candidate school and be­ came commissioned officers but did not practice their profession while in the service. shortly after the outbreak of ~jorld war ii the navy started com­ missioning optometry officers in its hospital specialist corps and by the end of the war there were some 120 on active duty. -18in 1947, the senate and house of representatives passed legislation to establish an optometry ~orps in the army and navy, however presi­ dent truman vetoed the measure. he proposed instead that optometry sections be established in both the army and navy, which insured of­ ficer status for optometrists. the air force was formed by presi­ dential decree and the regulations and policies of the army were carried over into this new air force. at the end of the war, each of the services formed its own medical service corps with optometry sections. later the air force changed the corps name in which optometrists served to the biomedical sciences corps. the number of optometrists required by all of the services expanded rapidly with the onset of the korean war in 1950, stayed high during the "cold war" and increased again during the indo-china conflict. currently there are approximately 500 on active duty world-wide. although optometry does not have its own corps, each of the services have optometry sections with a chief who is a senior grade optometry officer. he is directly in charge of his optometry officers and an­ swers only to his corps chief and the surgeon general of his service. the st. frideswide legend: an article entitled oxford's big field in the october 1981 issue of the twa ambassador, vol. 14, no. 10, by miggs pomeroy describes port meadow, 11 nothing more than 440 acres of flat common land", as the oldest monument in the city of oxford, and conjures up images of the area's wide variety of occupancies and utilizations since the stone­ age. the final two paragraphs, page 34, cite an example of vision recovery, perhaps the earliest such allegation on record outside of biblical history, as follows: farther downstream, but still bordering the meadow, is the little village of binsey. there is a farm, a few cottages over­ looking the green, another excellent pub called the perch, and a tiny twelfth-century church on the site of a chapel said to have been built by frideswide, the patron saint of oxford. she was a saxon princess who lived between 680 and 735. when her suitor algar was too bold and importunate he was struck blind, but his sight was restored by her prayers and the water of the holy well in the churchyard. st. frideswide's tomb is now in oxford cathe­ dral, but over the centuries thousands of pilgrims who visited it also went to the well at binsey where, according to the leaf1 et in the church, prayers are answered and cures effected. whether the water from the well cures eyes, or whether, as an old woman told me, this is really the treacle well that alice heard about at the mad hatter's tea party, i don't know. it is all part of the magic emanating from port meadow for those who wish to find it. -19the 11 b 1 i nd pri nter 11 : 11 sketch of the life and times of john r. kerr, the blind printer11 by judge david d. banta appeared on page 12 of the february 17, 1884, issue of the indianapolis daily sentinel and was recently reprinted with copious footnotes on pages 246-267 of the september 1981 issue of the indiana magazine of history, vol. 77, no. 3, following a prefatory article on pages 231-245 by professor john v. bergen of western illinois university entitled "david d. banta's memorial to john r. kerr, blind printer and pioneer editor in johnson county, indiana ... john kerr was born in east tennessee in 1809. he left college at the age of 15, a respectable greek and latin scholar, and spent the next two or three years learning the printer's trade under benjamin lundy. then for several years as something of a roving printer he spent time in various parts of indiana and ohio. at age 22 he married and turned school master in his tennessee home town. in the immediately following few years he became aware that his eyesight was failing. in 1837 he spent a few months in cincinnati under treatment of the then celebrated dr. reuben d. mussey who finally told him that blindness was his ultimate fate. kerr then bought a print ship in franlkin, indiana, and undertook, in addition to his printing jobs, the intensive reading of every avail­ able book, mostly with his one remaining but also failing eye. he de­ liberately prepared himself to do without eyes. on january 4, 1844, not quite 35 years old, 11without pain, without an immediate warning of any kind the light went out for him, forever•i. less than two years later he established the franklin (indiana) examiner, the first newspaper ever printed in the county, with 350 subscribers at one dollar each, and continued its publication 11with commendable regularity .. for more than six years. by reason of the long continued illness of his wife he sold the examiner in 1852 and moved to gosport, indiana, where he and his cousin published the chronotype for three years, with no great success, until president franklin pierce appointed him local postmaster. he served in this position through buchanan's, lincoln's, johnson's, and part of grant's administrations. during the war he secured a bible in eight volumes printed in raised letters, which he read through three times before he died, in 1880. history in the foresight fund: the indiana university school of optometry, through the indiana university foundation, established the 11 foresight fund11 to receive con­ tributions of a sustaining nature. as tokens of appreciation to those who regularly contribute to this fund, soft tone copies of a woodcut from das ist augendienst by georg bartisch, dresden germany, 1583, from the collection of j.k. lilly, jr., lilly library, indiana university, have been provided, very suitable for framing. it shows a scholar wearing rigid frame glasses while reading, with a second pair of flexible leather-mounted glasses lying on the table at his elbow. -20only 25 years ~: the following is copied verbatim from mimeographed medical department circular no. 65 of 1956 issued by medical headquarters, p.o. box 30016, nairobi, kenya, on 30th november 1956: provision of glasses for presbyope$ (notes by the ophthalmic specialist) there is now an ever increasing demand by the aged literate african population for reading glasses. in order to meet this demand, it has been decided that medical officers in charge of provincial and district hospitals will be supplied with four pairs of reading glasses of +1.0, +1.50, +2.0 and +2.50 diopters respectively for testing purposes. these glasses will be clearly marked with their power, so there will be no difficulty over iden­ tification. 2. the method of testing is simple and works well in practice. the patient is asked to hold suitable reading matter at his normal reading distance. the test glasses are then tried on starting with the 11 plus ones 11 and working up until he finds the pair which suits him. gener­ ally speaking, patients under the age of forty should not require reading glasses whilst those who do usually have little difficulty in selecting a suitable pair. if there is some doubt, it is a wise precaution always to se 1 ect the weaker rather than the stronger pair. 3. reading glasses for patients can be ordered from any oculist or from messrs. v.m. brov1se ltd. p.o. box 1538, nairobi enclosing a cros­ sed pasta 1 order for sh 25/-. it is necessary only to state 11 one pair +1.0 reading glasses 11 etc. 4. indents for testing sets medical officers should indent forthwith for testing sets of glas­ ses from the chief pharmacist. 5. the set will include in addition to the four pairs of reading glas­ ses, one pair of cataract glasses (+ 10 d). these are easily recog­ nised by their thickness. they will enable post-operative cataract cases to be given a trial before purchasing their glasses (vide medical department circular no. 57/56 of 1st november 1956) optometric gossip~ 1895: [signature illegible] director of medical services. the following paragraphs are excerpted from the 11 gossip 11 column of the september 1895 issue of the optical journal, val. 1, no. 7, p. 202: -21newark, n.j.: w.w. townsend is the official eye examiner em­ ployed by the local trolley companies, to test the visions of ap­ plicants for positions. one of his tests is for color blindness. geneva, n.y.: henry l. dezeng, who is with w.l. young has invented what he calls a 11 refractometer, 11 which was made for him by bausch & lomb. his friends claim that this instrument will make both fame and fortune for the inventor. rochester, n.y.: robert bausch, who is with a.p. erker & bro., st. louis, was in rochester last month on a visit. in adding this mr. bausch to our subscription list we find thereon that the bausches are almost as plentiful as the smiths. no wonder about this, however, when you consider what the bausches have done and are doing for the opti ca 1 indus try. rochester, n.y.: w.j. hoye, with mcallaster & hamburgh, gave expression to an effective remark regarding an optician's association. he said that while plumbers, engineers and workers in other trades must take out licenses in order to ply their callings, 11 any d fool can become an optician... a century~: the following three paragraphs are excerpted from 11 reminiscenses of a shop man 11 by henry want in the may 13, 1915, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 35, no. 20, p. 1275. mr. want had arrived in chicago on march 3, 1832, to enter the employ of otto young & co. under f.a. hardy to work on general repairing. our lenses in the early days, and some years after, were imported, mostly by the albert berger co., and i contend they were the peer of any lens ever produced by anyone. they were fairly hard and as white as any pebble. in speaking of pebbles i will mention the late william tuttie, who undertook the task of grinding pebbles 30 years ago, and made a fair success in the matter of grinding them, but not a paying proposition. my late uncle, edwin want, when he took over mr. tuttie's business, found a large quantity of rough blocks of pebbles and they were estimated to be worth 60 cents per pound to bay. my first knowledge of the saddle bridge was some time in 1882. to some to whom they were first introduced they were considered ugly when looking at them, while in one's hand but they had a different appearance when put on the face. some time in the early 80's dr. h.m. martin established the chicago ophthalmic college, which was the means of giving quite a number of old and young a better knowledge of the ways and means of correcting defects of vision, and many have done \'/ell through the knowledge acquired in that college and the public at large -22have been the gainer to a greater extent than is generally known. it is not now a question of leaning over a jeweler's counter with 11 does this fit you or does this fit you, .. but a thorough scientific method of testing which has brought about a class of men and intro­ duced a knowledge of opthalmology known only to a very few 25 years ago, and the end is not yet. --------------------comments from vice-president j.c. tumblin: ---october 1981 edition of the newsletter, vol. 12, #4, contains a section entitled, 11 the ghost of aronsfeld appears .. {page 68ff), which discusses the so-called 11 battle of ri chmond 11 • the 11 battle 11 itself has been much misunderstood and any student of the period should under­ stand it in relation to the dynamics of the era. gregg (aoaa history, 1972) observed, 11 in fact the whole battle of richmond was over a sec­ ondary point that really never dealt directly with the problem. nothing was ever settled eitherbut there was certainly a lot of talk. 11 in­ terested students of optometric history will want to read gregg's ac­ count in chapter 11, page l55ff, for he reports the matter fairly and places it in context with its times. r.c. augustine had served the longest term ever served by an aoa president from 1918 to 1920 and had devoted much of his time and effort to building aoa membership. he had then been retained at $10,000 plus $2500 annual expenses to travel the nation and to talk to the profession and the public as the director of extension, a position he held from 1922 to 1924. he was dynamic and popular but many members felt the as­ sociation simply could not afford this major expense and the subject required much debate by the delegates to each convention before it was approved. fortunately the association dared to retain him for it has been observed that his efforts meant the survival of the association. by 1926, in spite of all these efforts, the aoa budget was $17,500 and the membership had reached 4,387 or 23.7% of the practicing optome­ trists and conditions worsened by 1929 with the stock market crash and the great depression. harry armstrong described the period at the 1972 11 reminisce in 11 in st. louis: 11 0ptometry had no patients to speak of, no dollars to speak of, and no dignity ... the depression was not over and it was only a few short years later that e.b. alexander, director of the department of organization of the aoa, reported to the 1933 convention that he had devoted eight of the past twelve months to the work, traveled 85,000 miles, and talked to 126 groups of optometrists in twenty-nine states. he was credited with increasing aoa membership from 3,404 to 7,319, its largest to that date. all of this organizational work was performed at no cost to aoa, having been financed by 11subvention 11 funding as we call i_t __ today--individual qptometri_?ts had subscribed to -~_?_eri_~s ... -23of lectures and home study material in sufficient numbers to fund the program. membership development was crucial, economic conditions were most difficult, the profession was 11 0n the ropes 11 • this method of conducting a campaign had been what is now called a 11win/win/win 11 project: aoa had more than do~bled its membership, oep had built a pro­ gram of 11 door step education 11 tas norman haffner once called it) unparalleled even to this date, and the optometrists who participated had been educated to serve patients• needs with techniques and instrumentation that were just emerging. harry armstrong observed that the entire program of membership growth and continuing education had given gras<:.·­ roots optometry a sense of dignity when it had little else in the depths of these depression years. as had been noted a decade earli2r, this too had meant 11 survival 11 for a young profession and its national organization--the aoa. optometry approached the 1938 annual meeting in richmond with this as its immediate past and the delegates were even more restless over other recent events--the social security act, which did not mention optometry, the acrimonious reader•s digest article, legis­ lative battles lost, and a few won, over the corporate practice acts, and more gathering war ~lauds over the world. then entered aronsfeld, a practitioner in texas, but interestingly enough a delegate from new mexico under unusual credentialing circumstances. your readers have aronsfeld 1 s 11 let•s consult the record 11 com­ ments. alexander•s many supporters rebutted them and the 11 battle of richmond 11 ended. gregg says (p. 157), 11 the battle was over, with no winners and no losers •••• e.b. alexander asked not to be ap­ pointed to the aoa department of organization in order to devote full time to oep. 11 the record speaks for itself. gregg does not mention aronsfeld again; but we read that sheard, bernays, heather and alexander (emphasis added) met with the aoa board in 1943 to plan for 11 overa11 discussion of optometry•s needs and formulation of program for the ensuing year 11 , and in 1946 e.b. alexander chaired the most important 11 commi ttee on post-war pl anni ng 11 • for many years he continued to be invited to the long-range planning events that required the knowledge and leadership skills typified by one of optometry•s real visionaries. as for aronsfeld 1s comment (nohs, vol. 12, #4, p. 70) that a.m. skeffington was reputed to have said, 11 ••• in the future, eyes would be treated with hypnotism and not with glasses ,11 i must state that i never heard him advocate hypnotism, although i attended his lec­ tures practically every year from my graduation in 1948 until his re­ tirement. if he had, it should have been considered in the context of other 11 state of the art 11 regimens during the 1920 1 s and 1930•s. serious students of the period should consult these references for other regimens then in use: ocular physical therapy (electro-therapy), 11 the principles and practices of ocular physical therapy for optometrists~~, ji kurtz, american journal of optometry publishers, minneapolis, 1930. -24psycho-therapy, 11 psycho-physiological and philosophical aspect of ocular application of physical therapy 11 , ji kurtz, trans­ actions of the american academy of optometry, vol. iv. mechano-therapy (the optospoon), rw bennett, 11 mechano-therapy .. , chapter xxv, in ji kurtz, op. cit., 1930. in looking back over my thirty years in the profession and to my undergraduate/professional years when perhaps one-half the faculty still held to 11 genetic immutability .. for the vision process, i was moved to comment in an article then in preparation upon the number of concepts we now hold 11 self-evident 11 largely as a result of a.m. skeffington's ability to synthesize them for optometry. those interested will find the article in the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 49, #6, june 1978 ( 11 0epf--a research arm for optometry 11 ). i arn ad­ mittedly biased, skeff was my mentor, as he was for many thousands of optometrists; but i can think of no other 11 philosophical stream .. de­ veloped and practiced by 20% or more of the profession that has had the impact on the profession or on the public's vision care than has the skeffington behavioral vision philosophy. let the historical record speak for itself, but we must continue to be wary of cursory looks at optometric history out of context. remember the harlequin? reported in the may 15, 1940, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 77, no. 10, p. 43: before 1,400 of new york's business and civic leaders at a 1 uncheon in the waldorf-as tori a hate 1 , apri 1 26, mrs. a lti na sanders of new york city, originator of the harlequin frame, was honored as one of the four winners of the 1939 american design awards sponsored by lord & taylor of new york and carrying a prize of $1,000. presentation ceremonies by walter hoving, president of lord & taylor, and by robert m. hutchins, president of the university of chicago, were broadcast over the n.b.c. blue network. __ t_he report inc 1 udes a photograph of mrs. sanders, but without glasses. . --·-------h.w hofstetter, editor o.k. penisten, editor-on-leave 1982-13-01-001 1982-13-01-002 1982-13-01-003 1982-13-01-004 1982-13-01-005 1982-13-01-006 1982-13-01-007 1982-13-01-008 1982-13-01-009 1982-13-01-010 1982-13-01-011 1982-13-01-012 1982-13-01-013 1982-13-01-014 1982-13-01-015 1982-13-01-016 1982-13-01-017 1982-13-01-018 1982-13-01-019 1982-13-01-020 1982-13-01-021 1982-13-01-022 1982-13-01-023 1982-13-01-024 optometry library jun 0 2 1986 newsletter ~~~u of the wnwn "'j'ht ··. ·' fi.jtometric historical society (243 north lindb~ boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a.) £ ~******************************• vol. 17 apri 1, 198~ indiana university· number 2 . • £ mat 1 9 1986 : : : 1986 o.h.s. executive board officers : librarv : • *'***************\'•• ft*********** .... the five-member executive board has voted among themselves for the 1986 officers. the results are as follows: o.h.s. by-law amendments: president jerome abrams vice president james leeds secretary-treasurermaria dablemont trustees pat carlson andrew fischer over fifty o.h.s. members responded to the ballot enclosed with the january newsletter. the first amendment was approved unanimously and the second w1th only one negative vote. the by-laws will now read as follows (deletions are in parentheses and additions are underlined): article iv, section 1: the executive board shall consist of seven {five) members, each to be elected by the membership for a four (five) year term except as here noted. three shall be elected in 198~ begin their terms on january 1, 1987, one to beg1n a term of four years to succeed the prev1ous board member whose term exp1res december 31, 1986, another to beg1n a term of three years, and the th1rd to beg1n a term of two years. thereafter the number to be elected each year for four-year terms shai i be the number necessary to replace the board member or board members whose term or terms are due to exp1re as def1ned at thelr respect1ve t1me or t1mes of elect1on. article iv, section 4: the executive board shall elect from among themselves a president, a vice president, {and a secretary-treasurer) a secretary, and a treasurer, and the remaining members of the executive~oard shal i be des1gnated trustees. fischer•s annual gifts: o.h.s. director andrew f. fischer, 0.0., made his 1986 membership gifts to don b. echols, 0.0., and four optometric journal editors, as follows: mr. jody stone of 20/20, mr. brian perry of optical index, mr. richard guerrin of chilton•s review of optometry, and ms. cathy chiaramonte of optometry times. if editors can be made to realize the significance of knowing our heritage they may well allow that realization to stimulate a greater history content in their publications. it is one of our major aims to encourage this. we want to preserve the role of catalyst, not of competitor, among serial publications. 16 hummel explains: ~ ... at the top of page 59 of the october 1985 issue of the nohs the ques.ti on .. ·~ · was raised, 11 !s it possible that optometry's role in industry was blooming nationwide in that era (the '20s} and perhaps got nipped by the great depression? .. in response, ohs member d. g. hummel, o.d., writes, 11 ! did industrial work from 1928 to 1933 with the betts optical co. and was very busy. optometric opposition killed this work. in-office examinations were subsequently done by. optometrists hall, higgins, and me ... . . . ·, he adds,· 11 !f there was op.hthalmological opposition i was unaware of it. jealousy and narrow thinking on the part of the optometric association killed this excellent opportunity. this in spite of one optometrist bringing his figures showing an increase in his practice with the advent of industrial screening." on unconventionality, mysticism, and validity: prior to october 1937, there appeared an undated 96 page paperback book, 21 x 14 em, in english entitled "prevention and cure of disease of the eye" by graf wiser, m.d., oculist at bad eilsen, germany, published by hanover (germany} bruno wilkens, and printed in germany by f. vieweg and son, brunswick [braunschweig]. no one having been credited with the english translation, it appears to have been so written by the author, who identified himself further as "geh. medizinalrat, 11 a title similar to medical privy councillor. bad eilsen is not listed in three atlases searched, suggesting it to be, or to have been, a small village or suburb. ohs member james p. leeds, 0.0., has a copy of the book in his collection. five chapters, 35 pages, deal e.xclusively with accommodation, its effects and management, and the correction of refractive troubles. or. wiser takes exception to the theories of the american oculist wm. h. bates, m.d., of "throw away your glasses .. fame, and presents his own equally bizarre theories involving the use of plus spherical lenses of the order of 25 (not 0.25) diopters and higher to cure myopia and numerous other ocular conditions. declaring that atropine will not relax a real "spasmus accommodationis 11 he first 11 examined the cornea with an ophthalmoscope to detect possible irregularities in the curvature .. and then undertook a vaguely but emphatically described refractive procedure with convex lenses intended to relax the accommodation. he explains, 11 !t is of great importance for the patient to wear the new convex glasses and prisms at once. the eyes must not be allowed to return ~o their former degree of accommodation. it is, therefore, necessary for the oculist to have an optician on the spot. the patient must be given, and must wear, the presented glasses at once. the optician must ••• be able to supply them in about ten minutes." in another paragraph it is stated, "relaxation of the ciliary muscle is greatly assisted by reading with a magnifying glass of +35.0 diopters. i also prescribe irrigations, or fomentations, to which i add varying medicinal ingredients to stimulate the circulation ... this is the only instance in which there is a hint that perhaps such high powered convex lenses may be used as hand-held rather than spectacle-mounted optics. in the october 1937 issue of the british journal o·f physiological optics, vol. xi, pp. 137-145, the book was extens1vely rev1ewed 1n an article 1 7 entitled 11 the work of graf wiser, m.d. 11 by 11 w.b.b. 11 , who undoubtedly was w. b. barker, an ophthalmic optician. the reviewer pointed out that 11 for several years, a few english opticians have had the opportunity of seeing english patients of geheimrat graf wiser, a german oculist, whose methods of treatment in individual instances have produced somewhat astounding results ... he added that he himself had 11 had the opportunity of seeing quite a number of dr. graf wiser's cases, and the results seem to merit serious consideration and wider publicity ... further, 11 the organized medical profession in germany regard his methods as unorthodox, but his success is so great that a large new clinic is being built at bad eilsen, and, each year, an increasing number of patients from all over the world attend for treatment... barker described the majority of such patients as 11 forlorn hopes .. and that every patient of wiser's that he had seen reported .. considerable improvement after treatment .. and spoke 11 with the highest enthusiasm of dr. wiser and his work ... barker described one of his referrals as hopelessly blind with a .. trifling'' refractive error, central choroiditis and partial cataract in each eye. 11 after two or three visits to the bad eilsen clinic in successive years, the patient was wearing for close work, at about three inches from the )res, convex lenses in the region of +28.00 diopters, with prisms of about 20 , and he now reads, on the average, two novels a week, as well as the daily paper and gets about in the traffic of a busy city without the slightest difficulty ... another patient with choroiditis and medial opacities was described by barker as having a myopia of about ten diopters in each eye with attainable acuity of the order of 9/60. wiser prescribed o.d. +1.00 sph, o.s. +3.75 sph. for distance and o.d. +28.00, o.s. +45.00 for reading. barker reported .. remarkable changes in visual acuity 11 and substantial reduction of myopia when he re-examined the patient by the usual routine methods. in the april 1939 issue of the british journal of physiological optics, vol. xiii, no. 1, pp. 21-32, shortly after or. w1ser's death, there appeared an article entitled 11 some observations on ocular refractive treatment with special reference to the graf wiser technique .. by the prominent ophthalmic optician h. b. marton. he reported his observations on about twenty patients who had been treated at the bad eilsen clinic over a period of some years. 11 in every case the patient received benefit from it ... marton himself also undertook the treatment of several cases 11 according to a modified wiser technique .. with results 11 sufficiently impressive to merit notice... after describing several of his cases and observations and discussing the claims of wiser and other unconventional theorists marton says he 11 wishes to make it clear that he has no desire to assume an unqualified advocacy of the methods here described ... indeed, the criteria for validity can be most elusive. attention, state journal editors: during most of the current century a variety of journals serving state optometric associations have come and gone. those of us who have long had the opportunity to peruse many of them often wonder what basic needs they fill. the march 1986 issue of texas optometry {vol. 42, no. 3), one of the few long-surviving state per1od1cals, rem1nded me of one very significant role that they can play with responsive readership, high documentary value, and uncontested interest. 18 i refer to the inclusion of well prepared obituaries for deceased members who have contributed to the development of the profession within the state. in this instance the obitua~, entitled "the passing of a legend", was for the late nelson greeman, sr., o.o., a most prominant texas optometrist who passed away on november 30, 1985. though the author was unfortunately not identified, the article contained much optometric history as well as an intimate portrayal of dr. greeman, supplemented by his picture on the front cover. he had practiced optometry in texas for 61 years. even those who might not have known dr. greeman will find the account int~resting. furthermore, because texas optometry is bound and preserved in several libraries the record of his accompl1shments are now effectively memorialized in perpetuity, more lasting than a portrait, statue, or headstone. state journal editors may respond by complaining that they cannot find persons to write the obituaries. actually this is not difficult, as i can attest from my own editing of a state optometric journal for several years. the procedure is simple. upon the death of a member an obituary committee should be appointed, two or three persons to include at least one from the deceased's home community who has access to local newspaper write-ups, and who can consult surviving members of the family, the mortician, and close friends. the appointment may be made by the editor or by the association president. the obituary can be published virtually anytime within a year or so after the occurrence of death. in a state that can support a monthly or quarterly journal there are typically enough optometrists to necessitate an obituary in virtually every issue. frankly, i can say that it will be the obituary that will be turned to first by the great majority of readers. not only will it satisfy our human interest hunger but it will help make us realize how greatly our colleagues contribute to society. finally, it will help in the documentation of our optometric history. h.w h. competing collectors escalate costs: ever alert ohs member irving bennett called our attention to a letter from ohs member d. c. davidson to the editor of the optician, another ohs member, published in the january 17, 1986 issue, vol. 191, no. 5029, page 10, in which it was reported that a pair of silver spectacles made in london in 1799 was recently auctioned at a record price of 3;2,200 ($3,000). mr. davidson is the president of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club. early optical giants: a brief commentary on the scientific support roles of carl snell, ernst abbe, carl zeiss, and otto schott is entitled "als das fenster zur mikrowelt geoffnet wurde" (upon opening the window to the micro-world) in the november-december 1985 issue of augenoptik, vol. 102, no. 6, p. 188. authored 19 by margit kasper, it describes the circumstances of their involvement in the design and manufacture of optical instruments which facilitated the improved viewing of microorganisms. ivy parnum giles: many who are familiar with international aspects of optometric history will remember ivy parnum giles, whose death on december 16, 1985, was brought to our attention by her sister mrs. jean guttman. the two sisters had been living together in retirement for nine years at hotel eden roc, puerto de la cruz, tenerife, canary islands, subsequent to the deaths of their husbands with a few months of each other. miss ivy parnum was employed by secretary j. h. sutcliffe of the british optical association in the 1920's .. in about 1927 when mr. sutcliffe was elected president of the newly established international optical league she was appointed secretary, but that was not until she had learned the german language as ordered to do by mr. sutcliffe to enable them to take part in i.o.l. meetings on the continent. she served both the b.o.a. and the i.o.l., (later i.o.o.l.) in a secretarial role, and often management role, throughout her half century career. for a time she served also on the whitley council (a british government department), and when the opticians act was put through parliament by sir ronald russell she attended the house of commons with george giles as an information resource during the debates. mr. giles had succeeded sutcliffe in both the b.o.a. and i.o.o.l. roles. ivy became a close friend of the giles family and in the early '60's she and the first mrs. giles visited numerous american friends in a pleasure tour of the u.s.a. subsequent to the first mrs. giles' death ivy and george were married. continuing in her organizational roles she thereafter became known to the later members of the optometric world as ivy giles. upon george's death she was asked to manage the drive for funds for the g. h. giles memorial auditorium at the london refraction hospital, which resulted in donations exceeding $100,000. in a brief outline of the history of the international optometric and optical league written by the long time delegate peter abel of germany in 1977 the secretarial role of ivy giles, nee parnum, was specifically mentioned as a major contribution in the league's half century of development and success. when ivy retired she was made an honorary fellow of the british optical association, a rarely bestowed honor. she was made an honorary member of the optometric historical society in january 1971. she was buried in the english cemetery in tenerife. those of us who had the pleasure of knowing her remember her with deep fondness, a thoughtful, understanding, brilliant lady of queenly demeanor with phenomenal secretarial capabilities coupled with charm and a sweet sense of humor, attributes that can mean the survival of even an international organization in floundering moments. she placed many a milestone in optometric history. h.w h. 20 our optometric movie mogul: the almost forgotten pioneer of the moving picture industry, optometrist­ optician sigmund 11 pop 11 lubin, ca. 1851-1923, has been authentically and comprehensively written up in a 25 page chapter, pp. 99-124, entitled 11 the movies• first mogul .. in 11jewish life in philadelphia 1830-194011 • the book is an institute for the study of human issues publication, philadelphia, edited by murray friedman. the chapter is by professor joseph eckhardt and freelance writer linda kowall, both specializing in theatrical and cinematic history. this account failed to meet my eye until it was brought to my attention by o.h.s. member andrew f. fischer, 0.0. the subject is dealt with in fascinating detail, supported by 90 referenced citations and several photographs. the book is one very likely to be in your local public library •. personalities involved with lubin's enterprises and career include such names as thomas edison, cecil b. demille, lillian gish, ronald colemen, oliver hardy, stan laurel, louis b. mayer, samuel goldwin, the warner brothers, and many others. they all had roles in his fabulous empire. regretfully, though frequent reference is made to lubin's optical sophistication and skills, his early training is minimally discussed. he is described as 11 a learned man who possessed considerable technical skills, an extensive knowledge of chemistry and optics, and a degree from heidelberg ... he was occasionally referred to as 11 professor11 and sometimes as 11 0octor11 • as thoroughly as the chapter authors have dealt with lubin's entrepreneurship, personality, and commercial maneuvers, especially in terms of the theme of the book as expressed in its title, it seems very probable that the authors must have accumulated extensive peripheral notes on lubin's ophthalmic career as well. one or both of the authors should really be invited to tell that part of the story to an optometric audience. lubin started his american life as an 11 0bscure philadelphia optician .. , 11 at the height of his career his empire was estimated to be worth $11 million .. , and 11 by the end of 1916 he was left with the family home in atlantic city and the old optical shop in philadelphia .. , spending 11 his last years in relative obscurity ... his formal protraits were all of his left profile 11 to avoid showing his blind right eye 11 • an 1881 front-view photograph of him suggests that his right eye was exotropic. like the few points mentioned here, the whole chapter makes very interesting reading. h.w h. the ocular heritage society: this society was founded in 1984 as an international organization of members who collect antique eyeglasses and other historical artifacts. its current president, j. william rosenthal, m.d., 3322 st. claude avenue, new orleans, louisiana 70117 u.s.a., credits its founding to audrey davis, ph.d., curator, medical sciences division, national museum of american history, smithsonian institution, washington d.c. 20560. the other elected officers of 21 the society are o.h.s. member alan york, o.d., and spencer sherman, m.n. dues are $25.00 per year, and membership is open to anyone having a scientific interest in the history of any or all ocular subjects. ' the society's 1984 meeting was held at the smithsonian institution, the 1985 meeting at the american optical company museum in southbridge, massachusetts, and this year's meeting at the jonas w. rosenthal ophthalmic museum in new orleans on april 11-13. the 1987 meeting is scheduled to be at the american academy of ophthalmology museum in san francisco in 1987. within living memory: in part 2 of "contact lenses 1986" ohs member neal bailey recalls the "lot 010159" wetting solution contamination scare of 1959j the "stone report" scare of 1966, and a subsequent series of publicity-arousing incidents which had remarkable impact on the contact lens field, not all bad. the artical appears on pages 29-30 and 12-33 of the february 1986 issue of contact lens spectrum, vo 1 • 1 , no • 2 • photography history: the history of photographic science and technology is the theme of a symposium to be held june 23-26, 1986, at the international museum of history at the george eastman house in rochester, new york. it is believed that this may be the first conference on photographic hi story. it is sponsored by the society of photographic scientists and engineers, 7003 kilworth lane, springfield, virginia 22151. while photography and optometry are hardly kin disciplines, they share many historical and technological parallels, and it does seem that many optometrists indulge in photographic hobbies at a rather sophisticated level. as gertrude stein might have said, a lens is a lens is a lens. a century and a half of stereo: featured on half of the front page of the january 22, 19~6, issue of the tabloid the antique trader weekly, vol. 30, no. 4, published in dubuque, iowa, is a photograph 1n color of s1x antique stereoscopes and assorted stereograms. they were popular parlor items during the "golden age" of stereo, circa 1855-1880, says herman c. carter in his article "the wonderland of stereo" filling pages 56 to 59, well illustrated with 15 photographs. he adds that there has probably never been a stronger interest in collecting stereo cameras, viewers, and view cards than we are experiencing today. he perceives the chronology of major developmental events beginning with the inventions of wheatstone in 1832 and brewster in 1844. james mascher in 1853 was the first american to patent a stereo viewer. in 1859 oliver wendell holmes designed the popular and familiar "holmes-type" hand-held viewer, calling it a "stereoscope" and the view cards "stereographs". it was later modified by joseph bates of boston so that some collectors now call the popular model the "holmes-bates" type. mr. carter gives a fascinating account of subsequent developments of stereoscopic viewers, cameras, processes, and photographs as well as 22 collecting hints, including a list of dedicated organizations, a~ong them the national stereoscopic association, p. o. box 14801, columbus, oh1o 43214, u.s.a. history in an obituary: mr. robert louis sutcliffe, who died on november 15, 1985, at the age of 72, was not related to robert and j. h. sutcliffe, founders of the british optical association, but optometrically prominent in his own right. he was ateacher, practitioner, inventor, lecturer, and author. his obituary and a letter-to-the-editor addendum in the necember 7, 1985, issue of optometry today (london), vol. 25, no. 24, p. b21, are largely historical deta1ls of his more than 50 year ophthalmic career. 11 it has a good eye 11 : this may mean something special to you if you are a breeder or fancier of carrier pigeons, according to a 1951 book of 63 pages by george f. twombly entitled the eye, published by the pigeon news, medford, massachusetts. a frontispiece illustrates 17 artist's drawings of external views of pigeons' eyes in color. much of the book discusses their appearance, with special emphasis on the colors, shadings, widths, etc. of the pupillary borders. the book includes a 11 study of the great families .. , said to be edited from a series of 11 0ld manuscripts on the eyes of each strain that make up our present homing pigeon ... altogether the book is more about pigeons than about eyes, and that which is about eyes is merely about their appearance. optometrically it is not very enlightening, though perhaps the pigeon fancier understands. sam, lyndon, and luci: ohs member frank brazelton, 0.0., sent us a copy of page 81 of 11 the years of lyndon johnson .. by robert a. caro, published by knopf, new york, in 1982, which included commentary about president johnson's father sam ealy johnson, as follows: sometimes he seemed almost to relish standing alone. he fought-­ against the powerful texas medical association--for the right of optometrists to practice in texas, and his son would later say that the fact that optometrists had .. little money and influence" and were 11 0pposed by a powerful enemy at the time my father took up their cause was--for me--a sufficient explanation of why he chose to stand beside them. those were the kinds of causes sam ealy johnson enjoyed. 11 dr. brazelton adds: "this is the excerpt i mentioned to you in atlanta concerning the role lyndon johnson's father played in the passage of the optometry practice act in texas. i do not know the specific date of the legislation but sam ealy 23 johnson served in the texas legislature from 1918-1924. he seems to have been, altogether, a much more admirable character than his son." "it is an intriguing speculation whether there is any connection between this incident and the later relationship between his [sam's] granddaughter, luci, and optometry. perhaps one of your correspondents or an o.h.s. member can shed some light on it." radiant therapy: responding to a comment on page 60 of the october issue of this newsletter, ohs member louis allgeyer, 0.0., reminds us that jack i. kurtz,o.o., had a fairly comprehensive chapter entitled, "light therapy: the effects of ultra violet and infrared upon the eye" in his 1930 book, "the principles and practice of ocular physical therapy for optometrists." dr. allgeyer tells us that kurtz for many years shared office space with carel koch, 0.0. allgeyer's copy of kurtz's book is inscribed by the author to his friend dr. guy duplessis, another frequent author of that era. dr. allgeyer recently donated this and more than 50 other books to ilamo. a welcome innovation: in the premier issue of contact lens spectrum, january 1986, the well known editor and ohs member neal j. 8a1ley, o.o., ph.d., authored two historical articles on contact lenses. one, entitled "contact lenses, 1986", pp. 29-31, describes events of the year 1985 involving the u.s. food and drug administration. the other, entitled "the contact lens primer: a brief history," pp. 68-69, highlights evolvements from leonardo da vinci (1508) to kevin tuohy (1948), including an assertion that dennis england, o.d., unsuccessfully applied for a corneal contact lens patent 25 months before tuohy. dr. bailey promises continuation of both articles in future issues of the new journal. omega epsilon phi history: irving e. levy, o.d., an optometry alumnus of the ohio state university who had served as the first president of the eta chapter of omega epsilon phi, thoughtfully sent me his copy of the fraternity's 30th anniversary directory edited by sidney b. katz and published in december 1949. a substantial book of about 100 pages, it includes photographs of the 1949-50 national officers and its 12 honorary members; three pages of history; the name, location, charter date, and names of charter members of each of its 10 chapters; an alphabetical list of about 2,000 graduate members with their affiliations, academic credentials, and addresses; chapter-by-chapter lists of undergraduate members; and a list of 28 deceased members. the fraternity was founded at columbia university in october 12, 1919, "in the executive room in earl hall" as "an organization which would transcend the bounds of race, color and creed". a constitution was drawn up and adopted may 6, 1920. on april 6, 1921, the trustees signed incorporation papers which 24 were legally recorded and filed with the state of new york on march 12, 1923. the chapter at columbia university thereby became the alpha chapter. it is not stated in this brief history how the greek letters omega epsilon phi were chosen as the national name. perhaps this information is in the initiation rituals. at a banquet sponsored in 1920 at the collegiate club in new york city the following six persons were elected to honorary membership: andrew j. cross, james p. c. southall, frederic a. wall, charles f. prentice, charles sheard, and e. leroy ryer. the last paragraph of the history leads off with the interesting statement, "amidst a turbulent world where friendships, ethics, and tolerance are rapidly vanishing, the fraternity as a stable unit can and must be a force in counteracting the disappearance of the qualities." whatever the eventual impact of fraternity activity may have been, its heyday corresponded well with the period of time represented in this publication. optometric fraternities, of which there have been several, were certainly on the fringe of the general academic fraternity milieu, but the pattern and spirit were at least imitative. the book, therefore, now has value for the archival scholar. some of its information may in fact be virtually unavailable elsewhere, such as bits of data about individual optometrists. the well preserved photography of james p. c. southall, for example, is the only one i recall ever having seen of him. for reasons like this the book belongs on the accessible shelves of the international library, archives and museum of optometry, where i shall send it. h.w h. 17th century solar energy use: perhaps on the fringe of optometric history but nevertheless fascinating to anyone familiar with optical mechanisms is the era of burning lenses and solar furnaces. a principal contributor to the design and manufacture of such instruments was the optician, mathematician, physicist, and philosopher count ehrenfried walther von tschirnhaus, 1651-1708. a review of the development and use of burning lenses appears in a two part article entitled 11 spiegelund linsensysteme im 17. und 18. jahrhundert zur nutzung der sonnenenergie11 (17th and 18th century mirror and lens systems for the utilization of solar energy) by k. schillinger in the march-april and september-october 1985 issues of augenoptik,~val. 102, nos. 2 and 5, pp. 56-57 and 151-154. illustrated are several models on tripods or wheels, including one with a 130 em diameter glass lens and another with a 158 em diameter mirror of polished metal. also shown is a french-made reflecting model consisting of 48 individually directed polished flat squares that appear to be about 5 x 5 em jn size. two of the illustrations show the front and back of an inscribed commemorative medal melted and cast with the aid of a tschirnhaus burning glass. seventy references are given. 25 an old book about arcus senilis: the beginning of super-specialization in the eyecare field may well be epitomized by an 1863 book entitled "on the arcus senilis, or fatty degeneration of the cornea" by edwin canton, london. the ?.40 page clothbound book has eight chapters, among them chapter iv on "the occasional non-occurrence of the arcus in old age" and chapter vi on "the formation of the arcus in the intemperate." while the occasional focus of the text is on the arcus senilis ("old man's bow"), the peripheral excursions into general medical factors predominate. for example, chapter iv deals almost exclusively with the broad issues of aging and longevity. a single illustration among many is the following quotation from bellefroid in an 1r39 belgian medical bulletin. "to lead a life which is to endure, one must be neither king, nor, beggar: have enough to satisfy the wants of nature, and, littl~ that is superfluous. he must be regulated by the rules, and, precepts of piety: possess but little imagination, and, as a consequence, be but little troubled with the passions, and, vices. he must not be a physician." the author seems eminently qualified, being then president of the medical society of london, surgeon to the british museum, lecturer in anatomy, and­ surgeon at two ophthalmic hospitals. his frequent citations show great familiarity with the medical literature, though there is not even a casual reference to ocular optics or visual effects, or even a dismissal of their relevance. the anecdotal style of writing is typical of the time. this is another volume on loan from the collection of o.h.s. member james leeds, o.d. early soft lens history: pierre rocher, o.d., of paris, france, believes that the first public information on hydrogel biological material may have appeared in nature in 1960 in an article by professor wichterle and d. lim. he believes also that the first ophthalmic reaction to the published article did not appear until the spring of 1963 in l'opticien belge. in may or june 1963 dr. rocher started a correspondence wh1ch led to his meeting with professor wichterle and or. max dreifus, an ophthalmologist, in czechoslovakia. these recollections and several subsequent developments in soft lens history are recorded in a letter from dr. rocher published in the february 1986 issue of contact lens forum, vol. 11, no. 2, p. 56. o.h.s. member pat carlson thoughtfully called this to our attention. the medieval eye: prompted by a note a year ago from ohs member and librarian pat carlson i withdrew a copy of bruce stansfield eastwood's monograph, "the elements of vision: the ~1icro-cosmology of galenic visual theory according to hunayn ibn is~ak", from the indiana university library. the 62 page book is in fact part 5 of volume 72 of the transactions of the american philosophical society, 1982. 26 hunayn, a.d. 808-873, was an iraqi physician, philosopher, theologian, and probably best known as a translator of greek. his scientific significance is well attested by a 20 page write-up in the 1978 dictionary of scientific biography, supplement 1, pp. 230-249. eastwood's principal resource, which he quoted extensively, was "the book of the ten treatises on the eye ascribed to hunain ibn is-haq "edited and translated by max meyerhof and published in cairo, government press, 1928. eastwood identifies three traditions in the history of medieval visual theories, the mathematical, medical, and physical-philosophical, each within a larger framework of assumptions. hunayn's theory is regarded in the medical tradition, quite evidently influenced by galen's writings of almost seven centuries earlier. needless, to say, those of us who are biased by current theory of vision reinforced by a half millenium of post-renaissance scientific research will find thi_s document difficult to read. it might well be easier for a mentally competent twelve year old with a tabula rasa mind not yet confronted with a complex network of scientific facts. th1s may be apparent from a single brief passage cited from hunayn, as follows, " ••• when one shuts one eye, the pupil of the other one becomes enlarged, and when the closed eye is opened the pupillary hole of the other eye returns to normal size. this is clear proof that this enlargement is caused by the uvea when it is distended by the filling up of the place behind and inside it." eastwood also comments at some length on hunayn's description of three alternative theories of the visual process, intromission, extramission, and the pneumatic medium. in the first the object sends signals to the eye. in the second the faculty of perception extends out from us to the object. the third theory, favored by hunayn, postulates a mysterious transmitting "pneumatic" medium in the space between the eye and the objects seen. these also illustrate the frustrating analyses that intelligent persons of the era had to resort to with the paucity of scientific data to guide them. unappreciative of the immensity of his factual limitations, however, hunayn described his "ten treatises" as "a book containing all the knowledge necessary for those who wish to treat the diseases occurring in the eye in a reasonable manner." h.w h. optometric examination trends: as the~1985 owen aves memorial lecturer professor g. m. dunn showed frequency distribution histograms of the duration of routine clinical examinations among united kingdom optometrists in 1954-55, 1964-65, 1974-75,and 1984-85. the first three show essentially normal distributions with the mean of each at about 43 minutes. the fourth and most recent one, however, shows a startlingly distinct bimodality with peaks at about 16 and 43 minutes and an overall mean near 38 minutes. supplementary analyses show comparable trends in percent of examined children under nine years of age and in per cent of domiciliary services, a significant drop in both in 1984-85. the 1 ecture is reproduced in the february 1, 1986, issue of optometry today {london), vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 64-66. 27 contact lens history: 11 an industry profile, father of the rgp lens 11 is an historical comentary by patty sposato describing the role of leonard seidner, 0.0., and his engineer brother joe seidner as contact lens manufacturing and design pioneers. theirs was the sixth contact lens laboratory in the u.s.a., started in the early 1950's. their research and development involved both rigid and soft gas permeable lenses. the article appeared in the march 1986 issue of contact lens spectrum, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 50-52. to now from 1629: does your professional vocabulary include such terms as livery, livery company, liverymen, freeman, freedom, court of assistants, masters, mastership, warden, upper warden, renter warden, sheriff, clerk, mace and company seals, insignia, and coats of arms? if so, it is probably because you are a freeman of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, usually abbreviated s.m.c., and enjoy at least a spiritual if not in fact an organizational tie with what is surely the longest unbroken ophthalmic optical continuum in the world. the rest of us may hear or read items about the s.m.c. and presume that knowledge of its inner functions, while not secret, is more or less to be regarded courteously as a bit privileged. i am reminded of an analagous experience of my own many years ago when, as a naive american guest, i was seated next to lady janner at a formal banquet in london. after considerable small talk and pleasantries i mustered enough courage to ask apologetically but desperately the audacious question, 11 would you mind explaining to simple me just how one becomes a lady? 11 11 not at all, .. she replied most graciously, 11 0ne merely marries a knight ... i had read frank law's history of the s.m.c., but it, too, is completely understandable only to persons who already are familiar with its internal mechanism and who know an upper warden from a liveryman, for example, which i do not. in the latter part of 1985 i received from an english ophthalmic optician who had retired in florida, u.s.a., a memo referring to an s.m.c. newsletter. the memo was accompanied by a sample page which included the statement that it was 11 published for private circulation to freemen of the worshipful company of spectacle makers... as editor of the n.o.h.s. i envisioned this as a possible pipeline to three and a half centuries of optometric history. i immediately checked the indiana university library, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, the union list of serial publications, the visual science union list, and national and international serials directories, all with no success. so, once again desperately,41udaciously, apologetically, and naively, i wrote to 11 the clerk 11 of the s.m.c. to ascertain how we of other lands might gain easier access to this source of cultural enrichment. a prompt reply from clerk colin j. eldridge informed me that he forwarded my letter to the editor of from the master and wardens, the title of the aforementioned newsletter, and that e1ther one or the other would be replying 28 in due time with more details. about two months later m.r. eldridge wrote me again to explain that the delay was due to consideration of my letter by the master and wardens at their recent meeting. for my information he enclosed the last two issues of from the master and ~ar4ens, no. 1, may 1985, and no. 2, november 1985, val. 2. the number1ng and dates suggest that the publication was started in 1984 and that it appears twice a year. the name of the ~ditor is not given. mr. eldridge explained that it "really is a newsy letter to keep our own members up to date" and that its historical significance is probably limited. the magazine is attractively printed on heavy glossy paper, about 20 pages in each issue and 30 x 21 em in size. included are several high quality photocopies of persons, places, events, and things as well as numerous obituaries, several biographical notes about persons past and present, and some unusual bits of historical information about spectacle makers tokens, artificial eyes, antique spectacles, relationships of the s.m.c. to other guilds, and familiar verbal expressions. other items include diaries of coming events, personal reminiscences, and even an editorial assertion that the " ••• livery includes ophthalmic surgeons, ophthalmic opticians or optometrists, dispensing opticians, members of the optical industry, scientists and businessmen, and a fair sprinkling of other professions". altogether from the master and wardens gives literary permanency to numerous optometric deta1is that by and large are neglected by other serials but which quickly if not immediately become of historical resource value. h.w h. james powell cooke southall, 1871-1962 for several decades the book "mirrors, prisms, and lenses" by southall represented to practically all american optometry students the first textbook introduction to the optometry curriculum. it was the bible for geometric optics not only in the opening course but also for the state board examinations following graduation. its extremely formal style combined with the almost total newness if not strangeness and hurdlesome nature of the topic in the curricular sequence hardly won for its author any feeling of brotherly intimacy on the part of the students, only awe and respect. the fact that his administrative assignments on the physics faculty of columbia university included the directing of its optometry courses for a quarter of a century seems merely to have reinforced this formally structured relationship. his translation of the helmholtz volumes of physiological optics and his numerous other hig"ly-technical contributions served to document optomet~'s scientific infrastructure most admirably, but it was adequately appreciated almost only by the very few students andticholars who devoted their attention primarily to the fundamental rather than to the clinically applied phases of our discipline. in other words, we routinely thought of him as an optical physicist rather than an optometrist. by the same token one can wonder if his physics colleagues identified him more with optometry than with physics. one more point worth making is the fact that southall lived for 22 years, a full generation, beyond his academic retirement and virtual separation from his optometry-related career. he outlived most of his contemporaries and became personally quite unknown to the younger group. for example, though i 29 was 48 years old when he died, i had never had the opportunity to meet him nor to have correspondence with him even though we had many consecutive career features in common. such circumstances must explain in part why his optometric obituary of only two brief paragraphs, five sentences, appeared five months after his death in the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 34, no. 7, february 1963, p. 581. an almost as br1ef ob1tuary appeared later in the february 1964 issue of the journal of the optical society of america, vol. 54, no. 2, p. 288. both were anonymously wr1tten. grat1fy1ngly more respectful of southall's role in society were the immediate news items in the august 25, 1962, issues of the new york times and the herald tribune, the former of eight column inches and the latter of seven and a half 1nches. other sources of information are the 1950-51 and numerous previous edi;iqns ~f who's who in america. these of course have the reliability of hav1ng been prepared by the biographee himself but they lack the personal touch that might have been provided by a friend, a colleague, or even a neighbor. so now most of us know little about southall's personality, his social tal~nts, his philosophy, his community involvements, and the like. was he witty, somber, polite, rude, considerate, generous, compassionate, supportive, demanding, etc., etc.? one can only guess such details, but the following condensed summary of his career does convey at least traces of his nature. born on april 4, 1871, in norfolk, virginia, he attended mcguire's school and richmond college in richmond, virginia, and later the university of virginia in charlottesville where he earned the b.a. (1891) and m.a. (1893) degrees. during 1890-91 he was a teacher at mcguire's school, and during 1891-93 he was a physics instructor at the university of virginia. during his time of graduate study he became a founding member of the tilka society, an honorary group dedicated to the ideals of the university. from 1893 to 1898 he was a professor of physics and mathematics at miller manual training school of albemarle, virginia. briefly in 1898 he was a fellow at johns hopkins university. for the period of 1899-1901 he was prendergast professor of physics at hobart college, geneva, new york, during which time he married miss jeannie oliver abbot. for the next 13 years he was professor of physics at alabama polytechnic institute, auburn, alabama. in 1914, at the age of 43, he took the position of assistant professor of physics at columbia university, new york city, where he was subsequently promoted through academic ranks to full professor in 1922. during all of his years at columbia he was in administrative charge of the courses in optometry. except for a summer at the university of california, berkeley, in 1917 he remai_ned at columbia until his retirement on september 30, 1940, to professor emeritus status. when his pursuit of optics began is not clear from the information now readily available to me. it does seem that it must have preceded his appointment at columbia university, for on what other basis would he have been put in charge of the optometry courses? the cumulative index of the first 40 volumes of the journal of the optical society of america show a list of 25 articles identif1ed w1th his name, start1ng with a "focal length" article in 1920 and ending with his review of a german optics book in 1931. these include his books on geometric and physiologic optics as well as his helmholtz translations. he served a term as president of the optical society of america. after retirement, in charlottesville, virginia, he wrote two books of memoirs, "in the days of my youth" and "the abbots of old bellevue". in his "who's who" entry he listed membership in numerous optical, scientific, 30 historical, and honorary societies, including the epsilon psi epsilon optometry fraternity. in retirement he donated many books and papers to the university of virginia library, including a bound volume of daily newspaper reports of the civil war. mrs. southall died in 1951 and professor southall died on august 23, 1962, in bronxville, new york, survived by a son abbot southall and three grandchildren. it is believed that mrs. abbot southall is presently living in bronxville, new york. h.w h. the archivist's dilemma: ··;1¥~·-:#''l.'.,·,:. ;~. ; . .i '·j "'. : . • destruction of records of potential research value is an· 'ext'f.l!m~1;/'~ ~ i; sensitive matter. no one can predict accurately the nature a;ndjjlform,ation needs of future researchers. such developments as machine-readable records can change the demands of future researchers. ··· . •. .. _,,. the archivist, whose obligation is to preserve and make available required documentation, not interpret it, must, in hits (meaning his or her) decision-making process, consider both the physical limitation of source material and the nature of research interest. in terms of the former, hit (he or she) must consider such factors as duplication elsewhere, completeness, adequacy of summaries, repetition patterns, the potential interest groups, the physical facilitation of the documentation, its organization, indexing, and confidentiality. in terms of the latter the archivist must have a grasp of the nature of relevant research interests, as may be gained by participating in academic, historical, genealogical, and other special groups which depend on archival documentation. hit must also follow trends of utilization of newly developed researchers' tools and record-scanning techniques. a critical aspect of archival decision making is what may be called sampling, a technique of selection of parts of the whole sufficient to permit inferences to be drawn concerning the nature of the whole. by inadequacy of sampling the archivist can inadvertently (or intentionally!) influence interpretation, professionally not hit's privilege. more critical is the likely error of the uninitiated owner of potentially archival material who attempts to dispose of "useless" items before donating hits holdings to a museum or archival center. only yesterday i saw a glass milk bottle in a neighbor's trash heap. less than a lifetime ago glass milk bottles outnumbered people. today it is difficult even to find one-in a museum to show one's grandchild. optometry, in the sense of "sight-testing, prescribing, and fitting," has been an important part of social culture for more than three and a half centuries, nearly seven centuries in terms of "spectaclemaking", but can we reconstruct a reasonably clear image of our presence before 1900? in fact, is not even the image of our profession prior to world war ii quite hazy? indeed, the archivist's role is critical to our accurate memory. h.w h. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1986-17-02-001 1986-17-02-002 1986-17-02-003 1986-17-02-004 1986-17-02-005 1986-17-02-006 1986-17-02-007 1986-17-02-008 1986-17-02-009 1986-17-02-010 1986-17-02-011 1986-17-02-012 1986-17-02-013 1986-17-02-014 1986-17-02-015 1986-17-02-016 hinds i g htf i.:.:.:"~~t;;; .. e i~ e fv'ar 1 1 • apr 0 3 1996 "t0iv1efry librf.:.py newsletter of the (j) 1 s 996 is ,. 243 north optometric his tori cal soci,ty vb _ . " lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, m!s••¥4~~~1;~~, usa : ~ 0 !1~-0~cjtt volume 24 july 1993 number 3 a message from sheard: the dedication of what may have been the first edifice designed and built to house an optometry school took place in june, 1950, on which occasion the founder of the school, charles sheard, sent the following message describing the first five years (19141919), a copy of which was provided by ohs member neal bailey: distinguished guests, beloved friends in optometry, associates and comrades in education and research in vision in the ohio state university: salutations and greetings. it is a source of much regret that mrs. sheard and i shall not be present with you on the occasion of the dedication of the building to house the school of optometry on the campus of the ohio state university. a commitment made. last fall to be a guest of honor and a speaker on the occasion of the first all canada congress in optometry in winnipeg on june 10-12 causes me to wish that some great magician would shorten, for the day, the time and space on monday, june 11, between columbus and winnipeg so that i might have the great pleasure and privilege of keeping my promise to your and my canadian friends and fellow practitioners and of being with you on this sunday in june on this most memorable occasion. the minor hardship of any shuttling back and forth is as nothing compared to the uncertainties of air travel on a schedule which, if not possible because of weather conditions, would cause me to have failed to keep my promise and to have failed to play my part by my presence and my words for the first time in nearly fifty years and hundreds of visits and lectures both here and abroad. i am sure you would desire that i keep my record perfect. for these reasons then i am unable to deliver myself in the body to you but i am delivering to you through the personage of our highly respected and much beloved professorial successor, dr. glenn fry, a message of good cheer; a message of rejoicing over the great progress that has been made in optometry specifically and in the broad field of vision in general since the fourth day of august 1914 when the course in optometry was established in the ohio state university and i became the first professor of any such course in any university in the whole world, insofar as i know; a message of continuing interest in and support to all men and all things that are concerned educationally and professionally with vision; a message of exhortation to all of you gathered 24/18 together on this momentous occasion that you and, insofar as such is possible, all men and women, whether they be ophthalmologists, optometrists or opticians, rededicate themselves to a continuation of reading, study, and critical examination and a greater resolve to attempt to think clearly and without confusion, as you dedicate a building to house one particular school of teaching and scientific approach to the problems of vision on that part of the campus of the ohio state university devoted to the recently dedicated health center, surrounded by schools and colleges of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and other arts and sciences pledged and consecrated to teachings, practices and researches looking toward the alleviation of suffering and pain, the eradication of disease, and the dissemination and inculcation of knowledge concerning the care of the human body-yes, if you please, the sanctity of the human body--that men may not only live but live the life more abundantly, with greater personal bodily and mental efficiency to better serve their fellow man to the glory of god as the embodiment of all that is good and true. if i were with you there is so much i could say about so many persons and things in some manner or other associated with the establishment of the course in optometry as the forerunner of the creation of the school. the warmth of my heart and the evidences of my energy and drive, coupled at times with the harshness of cold logic and the biting slash of sarcasm, cannot be conveyed in proper manner and just proportions through the medium of the written word. so, of necessity, i must refrain from much indulgence in the gentle and generally profitable (it is so to me) art of reminiscing. the shorthand recording of that which follows is very sketchy and spotty, leaving many of you who are here or who may read these words on a later occasion to fill in the details. first of all, i wish to pay tribute to the founding fathers. it is true that i am, from the academic or university viewpoint, the founder of the first university course. that educational undertaking could not have been accomplished without the helping hands and open pocketbooks of many men in ohio. no man lives unto himself; no group lives unto itself; no university or part of a university lives unto itself. any undertaking requires team-work, a variety of necessary avenues of assistance and support. the establishment of the two year course on august 4, 1914 (changed the following year to a four year course at my request and after a series of conferences of a committee appointed by president thompson to make recommendations) , was made possible by reason of the untiring efforts of such men as clark sloan of cleveland, then president of the ohio society; c.b. edgar of cleveland, c.n. mcdonnell, p.c. harris, dan hubbell and homer white of columbus; f.p. barr of lancaster; john eberhardt of dayton and emil klein of cincinnati. of course there are other names that should be mentioned and if i have failed them i am asking that i be pardoned for such 24/19 sins of omission, for i am writing these words at the midnight hour and into the early morning hours and have no access to exact references at the moment. i also wish to pay tribute to the first class of ten young men. i can call them by name, i can see each of their faces, i can remember the many conversations of one kind and another and concerning one beginning of a very important educational movement and there were many questions and queries, . nay even dire accusations, unfriendly comments, destructive criticism. yes, indeed: a young professor setting out on an uncharted and unknown course, he himself setting the course and guiding himself and the ten fine young chaps by the light of the star as he saw it, the courage of his convictions, and his bulldog tenacity. and if, as the years have come and gone, i have moved on into other and broader fields of education and research and have become more liberal and broader in my viewpoints and contacts with the result that the "ism" and the "ology" have become wholly of secondary importance and the search for and acquisition of the truth insofar as such is possible has become paramount and supreme, let it be remembered that i owe a debt of inexpressible gratitude to the kindly words, warm clasp of hands and wholesome smiles of such men as professor landacre, professor of anatomy, and secretary of the medicine school, dr. judson ferree, professor of ophthalmology, dr. eugene mccampbell, then appointed (1918) dean of the medical school, dr. arps ·(later dean of the college of education) and many others of the faculty, including my own colleagues and associates in the department of physics, not the least of whom was dr. alpheus w. smith, later dean of the graduate school. i remember, as though it were yesterday, visiting with professor landacre about the work in anatomy, particularly of the eye. said landacre to me: "sheard, these boys do not have more than a high school education; anatomy is a tough subject; what will happen if i have to flunk some of your ten boys?" "well," said i: "if you believe you should flunk them, flunk them." "yes," said he, "then you will not have any class. " "that's all right by me, " said i. "i would rather see them all flunked out and have to start the whole thing over another year than to have you pass them if they are not worthy." it always pays to stand by what is right because, in the end, that which is right and good and true will prevail. if that thesis is not correct and if weakness, incompetence, quackery, mysticism, rattle-trap doctrines and teachings are encouraged and permitted, then there is no hope. it is to wage war against such quackery, incompetence and questionable doctrines that such universities as the one in whose classic shades you now find yourselves establish such schools and build such quarters as have been dedicated today. to return to the anatomy course and the boys: they did not fail either professor landacre or me, although two of them 24/20 repeated some of the work. the point is: the course of instruction was sound; the professors had no favors to extend to anybody; it was a question of survival if there was anything that was fit to survive. our belief in the goodness of the right type of education in optometry and the development of adequate service to the public based on adequacy of training was justified. the four year course-­ first established in the ohio state university--did not succumb and finally became the accepted minimum standard on the part of all schools. optometry has now come of age and may be expected to take its place as the years come and go in the body politic of the arts and sciences concerned with healing, public health and individual efficiency, commonly referred to as the field of medicine but which, in the broader concept which i have advocated and preached these many years, is the field of applied biologic science of which medicine per se is the center of the hub. in closing i can but refer briefly to the development of clinics concerned with distinct, comfortable and efficient vision, the correlation of the functions of accommodation and convergence, and all things germane thereto. in most, if not all, instances, courses in optometry have come into the universities through the departments of physics. it was very natural that this should be the case, since the emphasis in 1914 and prior thereto was on ophthalmic optics-lenses, prisms, spectacles, frames--or the physical aspects. i think i can say with truthfulness and the right type of modesty that i was the first educator having anything to do with optometry who brought in and emphasized the physiological aspects and phases of the work and developed that which is usually referred to as dynamic ocular tests and which, in turn, have been so ably extended and amplified by fry, tait and morgan. today there appears to be a tendency on the part of optometry to introduce into the solution of clinical problems of vision the psychological aspects. mathematics and physical science are the corner-stone or base on which all else is reared. they are the only exact science we have. biology has many variables and variants and less exactness of laws and conclusions. psychology has still more variables and intangibles (to the points of inability to define, on occasion, with any degree of exactness) and must of necessity » be the least accurate of the three, the only degree of accuracy possible being based on the other two, although the viewpoints and methods of approach differ from the physical and physiological approaches and therefore are of value. too frequently are the contributions from the field of psychology as they relate to vision simply a jargon of words, with the use of catchy expressions and even the coinage of terms that when carefully analyzed, mean nothing and are literally figments of the minds of the authors. the academic field of psychology and psychiatry are, of necessity, somewhat nebulous and indefinite in verbiage and conclusions. it would be well for the nonmedically trained practitioner to leave all of 24/21 these things to the medical profession in general or, in particular, neurologists, psychiatrists and other adequately trained (with ph.d. degrees) specialists who may be associated with them. otherwise it is likely to resolve itself into pure and unadulterated quackery, of which i am sorry to say a considerable part of the american public seem, at the moment, to be fond and to which they are susceptible. optometky has a sphere of real service and usefulness and has enough to do if it will attend to its own practices which have been built on solid principles over these past fifty years. the faculty of the ohio state university and the many acquaintances and friends in the city of columbus, ohio, will always be close to my heart. i came to them as a cub instructor (the bottom of the list) in physics in 1907. in the spring of 1908 i went to cedar point to address a state meeting of optometrists and opticians. this was the beginning of the making of acquaintances and friendships which led, through devious pathways and sundry means, to the beginnings of an educational adventure which finds its culmination, in part at least and for the day and age in which we live, in the establishment of a school of optometry and a home in which to house it in dignity and with honor on the campus of the ohio state university. may the dedication of this building to the arts and sciences concerned with vision also carry with it a rededication of ourselves to the support of that which is true and good and lovely beyond all comparison. may god bless us and keep us and cause his face to shine upon us, giving us health and strength to labor on, and kindness and wisdom as we serve those who come to us for assistance and counsel, exemplifying at all times the spirit of the golden rule. this is the sincere wish and heart's desire of your friend charles sheard. optometky in zambia: accompanying a handwritten letter of february 25, 1992, to the secretary of the international optometric and optical league from dr. dixon konkola, p.o. box 32135, lusaka, zambia (formerly northern rhodesia) is a typewritten report entitled optometry or optics in zambia 1920-1991. it is not clear from the introductory paragraphs what konkola's nationality is but, if he was not born in what is now zambia, he has lived there most of his life, which, from the events he mentions, seems to date back to the '20's. for example, he mentions an epidemic of measles in the '30's and adds, "the following were the methods of eye care amongst the natives of northern rhodesia. they collected snails' backs and ground them before putting them into sore eyes. they also ground roots which they used smeared into face cuts as medicine. some leaves were ground and soaked as well as the hollow reeds which were used to wipe tears from the eyes. the lucky were cured but 24/22 the unlucky ones went blind. there were no spectacles but when traders who wore spectacles came the natives called them 'mondals' as were their shops and trade." the meaning of "mondals" is not explained. continuing, "in 1940 i began to feel that i should have glasses. i therefore got my first glasses in 1959 in elizabeth ville. i had tried to see dr. phillips who was the ophthalmologist or eye specialist at ndola government hospital. dr. phillips was well known for his glasses. when i began my apprenticeship with dr. fred buck, dr. phillips had gone to zimbabwe, after -zambia's independence." dr. buck was one of two opticians practicing in lusaka. dr. konkola bought the practice after seven years of apprenticeship. later he spent a year in clinical work with dr. freeman in london. subsequently zambia acquired an optician from sweden, another from india, and a lady optician from the philippines, plus two or three others from unidentified sources. the rest of the paper deals with current developments and problems in the ophthalmic field in zambia in which dr. konkola seems to play the leading role. fleeting technology: often we identify history with only the events that occurred prior to our living memory. in actual fact it must be identified with whatever happened when. in case this point seems a bit overemphasized, just read carefully the following opening paragraph in a draft supplement to the minutes of the february 24, 1992, meeting of the indiana university school of optometry faculty entitled "progress report for last 3-year plan (1989-92)": technological development of the school of optometry has been so rapid over the past three years that today it is difficult to envision the state of affairs described in the previous 3year plan (5/89). at that time only a few faculty or staff had access to microcomputers; today everyone has a personal workstation on his or her desk. in 1989 we had a "guerilla network" interconnecting a few research macintosh computers ~with a slow, unreliable localtalk network and a single, shared t-box which provided a tenuous link to the rest of the campus via sytek; today every computer in the school is on a high­ speed ethernet, which supports a local area network (lan) of some 70 macintosh and 20 ibm-class microcomputers, plus a high-speed fiber-optic link to the rest of the bloomington campus and from there to the greater internet. three years ago we longed for a way to share information with each other electronically; today we are served by two file servers, one dedicated to research and the other to general purposes, plus a convenient, heavily-used electronic mail system which puts every faculty, staff, associate, and graduate student in 24/23 immediate contact with each other. back then we wished for a network of printers, scanners, graphics workstations, and other tools needed to implement our mission; today we have all of these plus a device unique to iu departments, a film recorder for transferring color graphics and data to photographic film. in 1989 our clinic was struggling with a nearly useless computer system for managing patient records; today the clinic is served by a modern, reliable network of computers running state-of-the-art business-management software that is poised for distributed access to faculty, staff, and students for teaching and research purposes. back then we identified a need to connect our faculty, staff, and students with the optometry library; today our library is fully integrated into the optometry lan and electronic mail system, which supports such services as personalized scanning of current contents, and the entire iu library system is available at the desktop through the iu network. a heyday for stereopsis: probably out of print but likely to be available in many public libraries, and especially museum libraries, is a 1977 book authored and published by professor william c. darrah, gettysburg, pennsylvania, entitled "the world of stereographs." it deals with just about every aspect of stereography except the optics. the first 69 pages are devoted to a history which has considerable incidental interest for optometrists. the invention of the daguerreotype and later photographic processes together with the introduction of the holmes, brewster, and other easily handled models of the stereoscope led to a parlor pastime that rivaled in significance today' s television role in the home. the popularity era included the eight and a half decades between 1850 and 1935. one manufacturer boasted, "a stereoscope for every home." darrah personally identified the names and locations of many thousands of stereographers in north america alone and thousands more elsewhere. the total number of different stereographs produced probably exceeded five million. the eighty categories of subject matter identified by the author. range from "advertising" to "zoology." the earliest stereographs were made by simultaneous exposure of two cameras laterally separated, or with one camera laterally displaced between two successive exposures. the latter technique occasionally resulted in the appearance of a person, horse and buggy, or other moving object in one of the two pictures but not in the other. stereoscopic cameras were commercially manufactured in 1854 to meet the rapidly growing demand. the same demand led a number of optician-optometrists to manufacture and sell stereoscopes. were optometrists otherwise involved in the implementation of the pastime? because many of the stereographs rewarded the sharpest visual acuity for their maximum appreciation, correction 24/24 of refractive errors .. must have been paramount. the small but significant number of functionally monocular persons must also have expressed their puzzlement as to what phenomenal sensation binocular viewers were claiming. and then there were certainly .those patients with heterophoric imbalances that reported diplopia or simply fusional delays or even instrumentally induced headaches when engaging in stereoviewing. evidence that such clinical complaints occurred is not apparent, but perhaps we have not searched diligently. pouces and zelle: these terms in french and german respectively, and inches in english, were small units of length commonly used in specifying lens power in terms of radii and focal lengths in the latter half of the 19th century. eventually the reciprocal term diopter took over, and we now use it without our consciousness of the complexity of the related standardization process. similar but a considerably less complex evolvement of the term prism diopter occurred during a contemporary time period. the history of these developments is described by g.b.· friedman in an article entitled "diopter and prism diopter" in the february 1992 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vel. 63, no. 2, pp. 117-22 with 43 references! in spite of this obviously exhaustive search of .the literature the author did not mention da9a de valdez's use of the grad, a reciprocal unit very nearly equal to the diopter. that was in 1623, two and a half centuries earlier. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1993-24-03-001 1993-24-03-002 1993-24-03-003 1993-24-03-004 1993-24-03-005 1993-24-03-006 1993-24-03-007 1993-24-03-008 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. volume 8 january 1977 election results: v r~ s. a. 63119) number 1 this time we had three duly nominated candidates for the vacancy on the executive board created by the expiration of dr. james gregg's term. ballots continued to arrive almost daily for two months, but finally a whole week passed without a return. leading by a substantial margin was grace weiner, but each of the other two received almost a fourth of the votes. the present executive board consists of the following, with each member's year of expiration in parentheses: sol tannebaum (1977), john r. levene (1978), henry a. knoll (1979), maria dablemont (1980), and grace weiner (1981). late in december ballots were sent out to all five to elect officers for 1977 from among themselves. because all the ballots are not returned at the time of this writing (december 20) i cannot announce our 1977 officers in this issue. plateau was blind: joseph antoine ferdinand plateau, 1801-1883, of belgium was one of the best-known scientists of the nineteenth century. after he received a diploma in law in 1824 he studied for a doctorate degree in the physical sciences and mathematics which he completed in 1829. in the same year he undertook a physiological optics experiment involving direct fixation of the sun for 25 seconds, which blinded him for several days, but his sight returned partially. for the next 14 years his sight gradually deteriorated, and in 1843 he became permanently blind. this calamity did not interrupt his scientific activity. aided by his wife and son, and later by his son-in-law, he continued to the end of his life his research on vision, -­ directing the course of the experiments which they conducted for him, and interpreting their results. his namesakes include the talbot-plateau law and plateau's spiral. extracapsular extraction circa 800 b.c. a study of the original text "sushruta samhita, uttar tantra" suggests that sushruta 1 s method of cataract extraction was not couching but rather a method more directly allied to the extracapsular extraction of recent times. so report p.n. roy, k.s. mehra, and p.j. deshpande in a one page 2 article entitled "cataract surgery performed before 800 b.c.," british journal of ophthalmology, vol. ·59, no. 3, march 1975, p. 171. with this procedure no anesthetic was used. a needle was inserted into "the anterior chamber of the eye at the junction of the medial and lateral two-thirds of the outer portion of the white layer (sclera) of the eyeballs. if a sound was produced followed by the gushing of watery fluid, then the surgeon's needle was considered to be in the correct part of the eyeball, but if this puncture was followed by bleeding, it meant that it was misplaced." the needle was used to cut around the lens, and then the patient was asked to blow only down the nostril on the side of the afflicted eye. the postoperative care consisted of the application of a few indigenous medicines (roots and leaves) to the eye with a bandage and instructions to the patient to lie flat on his back for ten or more days. "adam" is identified: my comment on page 83 of the october issue of this newsletter, 11 the above-mentioned adam is new to me" brought two immediate responses, one from sidney groffman, o.d., p.o. box 855, red bank, new jersey 07701, and the other from alan york, o.d., one main street, east hampton, new york 11937. both assured me that "adam" had to be a misspelling of adams, namely george adams, who meets the identity of "optician to the prince of wales," etc. george adams' book was entitled an essay on vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye and the nature of vision, second edition, london, 1792. the book was completely reprinted in the 1941 yearbook of optometry, published by the new york state optometric association, new york, may 1, 1941, d.r. uttal, editor. festival of lights: an unusual greeting card arrived in october from dr. narendra kumar, editor of optometry today, with the wording "on the auspicious occasion of the festival of lights 'optometry today' wishes you all the best in every sphere of your life." never having heard of this festival i checked two encyclopedias and found the following. dewali, also spelled divali, the festival of the lights, is a five-day, autumn, october-november, festival in india honoring laksmi, also spelled lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. it ends the hindu year and is observed by orthodox hindus by the lighting of oil lamps. in burma the festival of the full moon in october is similarly a festival of lights which originated from dewali. also, there is an eight day jewish festival of lights beginning on the 25th of kislev and commemorating the victory of the maccabees over antiochus of syria and their rededication of the defiled temple of jerusalem. 3 this festival is known as hanukkah, also variously spelled hanukah, chanukah, and chanukkah. ! graphic confession: here are two startlingly similar graphs, indeed, in many respects so nearly identical as to make the differences seem intentional: 7 -• -i -j --• " -,!; l -• t t leld " -~-. • ' • i i lo-1 ~ i & •'' "•'' "•i" •' ., c:.. ................. . l ~ 5t-t--t--+-t-+-+§ 1 !)1-+-+-t'rl !it-+-+4 the upper one comes from an article by frank w. weymouth, paul r. brust, and franklin h. gobar entitled "ocular muscle balance at the reading distance and certain related factors," in the american journal of physiological optics, vol. 6, april 1925, pp. 184-205. at the time of publication charles sheard was editor of the journal in which the article appeared. the graph was represented as a plot of data obtained on 63 students by the three authors at the laboratory of physiology, stanford university. the lower one comes from an article by charles sheard entitled "zones of ocular comfort," in the american journal of optometry, vol. 7, no. 1, january 1930, pp. 9-25. a footnote to the article informs us that the paper was read before the american academy of optometry at chicago, ill., december, 1928. the same article appeared in vol. 3, report of the transactions of the seventh annual meeting of the american academy of optometry, held at chicago, ill., dec. 2-3-4, 1928. in this paper sheard had quoted the weymouth et al article on a related topic but gave no clew that his graph might have been derived therefrom. neither did he say that it was derived from his own research. i had been aware of both of these graphs for some years in connection with my own studies and had assumed they were duplicates. i also assumed it was mere oversight on sheard's part not to have given credit to weymouth. consequently, in later years when dr. sheard was editing the sheard volume, published by the chilton company, philadelphia, 1957, i took occasion to remind him personally that his memorial volume would provide him opportunity to correct this oversight. he responded to my suggestion in his typically gracious manner. later when i received the newly published volume i checked quickly to see if he had made the acknowledgement. the original article was reprinted in full; in the figure legend, on page 279, he had added parenthetically, "note: a chart of this same general character appeared in an article by weymouth, brust and gober in 1925." this impressed me as a disappointingly grudging credit line, and i never quite forgave dr. sheard, whom i had long regarded with the same high personal esteem and affection i held for frank weymouth. a month or two ago i decided to dig out contemporary publications of both sheard and weymouth to see which one really published the graph first. i found that both had published articles about the accommodation­ convergence relationship and clinical optometric tests during the decade prior, but neither had published the graph in an earlier paper. then came my surprise. i had the two volumes lying open on my desk with their two graphs side by side. they~ not identical! history of research ~ seeing: this is the title of chapter 1 of volume v of handbook of perception edited by edward c. carterette and morton p. friedman, academic press, 5 new york, 1975. this volume is entitled seeing, and chapter 1, pp. 3-23, is authored by yves legrand. the commentary is limited essentially to the earliest his·tory of knowlege of light and vision, dioptrics of the eye, the retina, the visual pathway, and the visual functions of form, space, and color. 34 references. tasmanian legislation, 1912: optometrist eric s. padman, 47 brisbane street, p.o. box 518, launceston, tasmania, australia 7250, sent us a photocopy of the original bill introduced to the tasmanian parliament in 1912 entitled, "a bill to secure the better training of opticians, to regulate their practice, and for other purposes." he will donate the original to the archives of the australian optometrical association. he also sent us a photocopy of a lengthy supporting statement prepared by newham waterworth, honorary secretary of the tasmanian optical associati~n. the following two paragraphs are of special historical interest: "in order that honorable members of the legislative council may have independent expert opinion as to the points at issue between opticians and medical men the following facts are stated "in 1903 the worshipful company of spectacle makers received a memorial signed by the late lord kelvin and many other scientific men, members of parliament and others, praying for an enquiry into the desirability or otherwise of sight-testing by non-medical practitioners. (up to this time the worshipful company had not held any examination in practical sight-testing). a committee of investigation was appointed consisting of the right hon. lord aldenham m.a.; sir marcus samuel; the right hon. sir wm. hart dyke, bart. m.a.; lieut. colonel sir horatio davies; and others. the conclusion of this committee based on elaborate expert evidence was to the effect that fitting spectacles and adapting lenses to correct mechanical defects of sight is an art or profession wholly distinct from those of medicine or surgery. the report stated that it was eminently desirable that the optician should test the vision and that a theoretical and practical examination affecting this part of his practice should be added to the company's examination scheme. this verdict was endorsed by sir william crookes, sir william abney, lord rosse, sir robert ball and other eminent scientific men. it was decided accordingly that an examination in sight-testing should be instituted, and the results of those examinations have been of vast benefit to the public." in another document on tasmanian optical association letterhead two columns are arranged, the left column consisting of paragraphs from "the medical association's case in opposition thereto.", and the right column consisting of corresponding paragraphs of "the optical association's reply." ----~----~ --6 two pair of paragraphs deal with the terms oculist,. optician; .and optome­ trist, as follows: objection "that the term 'oculist' should not be assumed by anyper~on who is not a legally qualified medical practitioner." reply the bill expressly prohibits opticians from using the title of 'oculist.' objection "that to obviate confusion in the public mind of the terms 'optician' and 'oculist' it would be advisable to omit the former altogether." reply why omit the older term in preference to the more recent? in any case this matter can be left to right itself seeing that the word "optometrist" is gradually taking the place of "optician." a personal comment by eric padman adds a familiar touch, as follows: "the interesting thing is that the bill was introduced to the house by mr. lyons who, at that stage, was a labor man and, i think, leader of the opposition. the premier at that time was a.e. solomon, who was my uncle by marriage. the handwritten notes on the document are those of my father who was working from launceston at this time, and the accompanying propaganda document put out by the tasmanian optical association, of which newham waterworth was the secretary. newham, of course, was phil's father. i suppose the whole operation was even more effective because at that time my father was courting my mother, and she was teaching on the staff of j.a. lyons at some primary school. j.a. lyons later crossed the house, changed to federal politics, and later became the u.a.p. prime minister of australia for some years in the mid to late 30's joseph aloysius (joe) lyons~" another item sent us by padman is a photocopy of a couple of printed pages of an old leaflet or pamphlet distributed by optometrists of his father's time, perhaps in the '30's. one of the illustrations is that of an early painting showing the use of spectacles, the investiture of friedrich of nuremburg with the brandenburg electorate, april 17, 1917. the credit line reads, "frqm a coloured picture of a contemporary manu­ script by ulrich richenthal, now in the university library at prague." 7 tabo or not tabo: in 1964 mr. c.s. flick, a director of the london course of optometry, editor of infocus, optometric internationalist, and a student of records, sent me the following explanation of the acronym tabo which i happened to see in print. "tabo is a made-up word from the initials of the german committee which first laid down this notation for cylinder axes. it is the notation which we in this country, and i think all american optometrists, regard as 'standard', i.e. reading counter-clockwise, as one faces the patient, both eyes the same, with zero (or 180) on the horizontal meridian. "it was ~riginally suggested in england by an optical society committee in 1904. an international ophthalmological congress in naples in 1909 complicated things by suggesting a hi-nasal notation, but it never caught on. in 1917 a committee was formed in germany called the technischer ausschuss fur brillenoptik. it could hardly be an international committee beca~se world war i was still on, but nevertheless it adopted the standard notation previously suggested by the british optical society and gave it the name tabo. after the war, in 1921, the british ophthalmological society accepted as standard officially for great britain the same tabo, which had been originally put forward by us and was in fact by that date in almost universal use here by ophthalmologists and optometrists and opticians. the relevant reference in the literature to this event is brit. jl. of ophthal., july 1921. "i hope this covers your points. an interesting 8-day fact-finding trip and east germany, the results of which print in due course." letter from alan york, o.d.: i am off next week on to hungary, czechoslovakia you will no doubt see in "a random note to let you know how much i look forward to receiving the newsletter of the o.h.s., and also to thank you for your continuing efforts as editor.--"a couple of points -on page 66 the item concerning ophthalmological coins and •• medals --, the classic article on the subject is a. pflugk, 'brillenmunzen und brillenmedaillen' (very rare) published in halle in 1921 as a reprint from an ophthalmological journal. it lists every known coin and medal portraying spectacles or someone wearing them, going back about 500 years, as well as tokens issued by opticians back to the 17th century. "i would very much like to have a sharp photocopy of the article on coins and medals for my reference library, as i collect these. "yes, the stars in the great dipper were used as an eye test in ancient asia minor. try it yourself some time. the second star from the end of the 8 'handle' in the big dipper is a 'double star.• you need almost 20/15 vision to see the separation between the two stars, which is what was'wanted for certain crack regiments of archers in the assyrian horde. "i am fascinated by the continuing references. to optometric history in german, norwegian, french, russian, etc. which appear in the newsletter. a suggestion -would it be possible to have translations made of them, to repose in the library? possibly some student, not necessarily an optometric student, could make a translation, so that photocopies could be made for the use of the members. it is really tantalizing to read these references and realize that translations are not available in our country. "again, many thanks!" santa lucia day, december 13: santa lucia, or saint lucy, has been variously identified as patroness of the eyes, optics, vision, and sight. who was she? she was born in siracusa (syracuse), sicily, in 283 a.d. of a noble greek family. she lived during the 284-305 reign of emperor diocletian, who inaugurated the last and most severe roman persecution of christians. when lucia declared her devotion to god and virginity her suitor became very indignant. in his anger he accused her before the governor of being a christian. when she remained resolute the judge commanded her to be exposed to prostitution in a brothel; but, as the story goes, god rendered her immovable, so the guards were not able to carry her thither. then an attempt was made to burn her, but this too was unsuccessful. at length she was martyrized with a sword thrust into her throat, on december 13, 305 a.d. possibly on account of her name, suggestive of light and lucidity, she was invoked during the middle ages by those who suffered from poor vision, and various legends grew up, e.g., that her eyes were put out by a tyrant, or that she herself tore them out to present them to an unwelcome suitor who was smitten by their beauty. by any account her eyes were miraculously restored to her, more beautiful than before. in italy santa lucia is the patron saint of ophthalmic optics. santa lucia day, december 13, is celebrated by the ottici (opticians/ optometrists) in very dramatic ways, including banquets, speeches, and honor ceremonies. according to a brief article in the november 1976 issue of lutheran brotherhood/bond, page 14, st. lucia day is celebrated by the high school girls' organizations at thabor lutheran church, wausa, nebraska, in a unique way to remind congregation members of their swedish heritage. the "thabor teens" make authentic costumes representing each district in sweden from which members of their church came. the costumes are worn by the girls on december 13. a young woman chosen to represent st. lucia 9 wears a white robe and is crowned at breakfast ceremonies with a wreath of huckleberries and seven lighted candles. the girls sing christmas and traditional swedish songs and, in the days following, they visit the elderly and shut-in members of the community. the same article provides a recipe for lucia buns, a special cardamom flavored treat to be enjoyed that day. from another source i learned that in stockholm, sweden, there was founded on december 14, 1939, what appears to be a rather exclusive membership organization which calls itself the sancta lucia gille. it seems to be a group dedicated to the preservation of some of the social traditions of the optical crafts, a kind of heritage guild. the 1974-75 list of 63 members showed 60 in sweden and one each in denmark, finland, and norway. only a very few members are initiated each year. more e.!!. carl lehnberg: robert v. sandor of stockholm read my comments on the 1756 pamphlet entitled tal om optiken in the july issue of this newsletter, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 65-66. he promptly sent me an english translation of a swedish review by magnus buve which appeared in the february 1976 issue of nordisk tiddssdrift for optikere, no. 1, pp. 9-10. the translated review follows: --a few years ago the swedish royal academy of science had occasion to dispose of excess copies of several old documents. mr. robert sandor learned that among these were several copies of two articles by carl lehnberg published by the academy. mr. sandor prevailed on mr. gosta blomkvist of swedish zeiss, ltd., to acquire the available copies of the lehnberg pamphlets, which was done. mr. rune fahlstram, manager of swedish zeiss, kindly made a copy available to me. i owe robert sandor thanks for additional information about lehnberg, that our own well known (optical) historian otto ahlstr~m mentioned lehnberg briefly as an understudy of klingenstierna in a paper about klingenstierna and dolland. ahlstrom's paper was published in the optician (london) a couple of years ago. as a matter of fact i have not heard of lehnberg in any other connection. nevertheless, a handwritten history of his life exists in the royal academy of science archives. this account was started in connection with lehnberg's selection to membership in the academy and completed after his death in 1768. lehnberg mentioned his mentor and employer samuel klingenstierna with deep respect, "it is mr. klingenstierna whom i must give respectful credit for my knowledge of elementary and fundamental optics and for whatever proficiency i have attained in lens­ grinding." 10 klingenstierna (1698-1765) is one of the best known names in natural science in 18th century sweden. he was primarily a mathematician but: as was frequent among scientists of that era his interests were diverse, and he showed a special interest in optics. among other things he was an ingenious self-taught lens grinder and made lenses of good quality for his own use. it is possible that he even made lenses for optical instruments for the well known technician daniel ekstrom. he was interested in the design of achromatic systems for telescopes by combining flint and crown glass, which the englishman dolland was working on also. the two scientists wrote letters to each other, and klingenstierna also corresponded with other english scientists while he, himself, was a member of the royal society and was submitting papers to the society. in his work with lens calculations and manufacture klingenstierna had a clever assistant in carl lehnberg. klingenstierna valued lehnberg highly and obtained for him a subsidy which made it possible for lehnberg to study lensmaking methods at the most famous optical laboratories abroad. he learned and observed techniques in germany, france, and england for several years, returning to sweden in 1751. he then received 3,000 coppers to enable him to start his own optical workshop where he could grind lenses. his lenses were certified in the reports of experts to be of higher quality than any available abroad. upon passing the examination of the royal academy of science carl lehnberg was granted the privilege of optical instrument maker and became a member of the academy. he made his inaugural address to the academy in 1762. his topic was the history of optics. an earlier speech was published with the title (translated) "speech about optics, made for the royal academy of science by carl lehnberg, upon his application for membership, the 28th of august 1756," it is, according to the author, (translated) "an unadorned story about the genesis and development of optical instruments." the story begins with archimedes' and euclid's parabolic mirrors and "anneal glass." we are informed by lehnberg that the vestal virgins lighted the holy fire with the help of "anneal glass." the story continues with seneca's quaestiones naturales with an explanation of the rainbow's genesis, the optical effe·ct of the water­ filled glass sphere, and the spherical mirrors that magnify and minify. vitello seems to have been the first to explain clearly the "anneal glass effect." then we are told about the invention of glasses by allessandro di spina and about the great scientists.in optics from the 13th to 18th centuries, bacon, molyneux, smigh, porta, kepler, snellius, huyghens, lippershay, galileo, hadley, newton, and cassegrain. telescope construction and improvement is dealt with at considerable length• lehnberg's later paper is a short speech entitled (translated), "speaking of optics and the modern development of refracting telescop-es, read before the royal swedish academy of science" when, on october 27, l i i l 'i l i j l i l j l 11 1762 he was "given notice of acceptance to membership." like the first speech, this was printed by lars salvius as an academy publication. in this latter speech lehnberg wrote about the dispute between newton and euler concerning the radiation of light, a dispute in which both dolland and klingenstierna took active part. he also discussed dolland's experiments with various kinds of glass and also his successful experiment with lenses of different refractive index, all related to the improvement of the image quality of the telescope objective. he reported, too, that the telescope at the royal observatory in stockholm was constructed or designed by dolland. it is conceiveable that either klingestierna or lehnberg was technologically involved. magnus buve in case you find two or three confusing points in this review let me hasten to explain that these may be attributable to difficulties of interpreting old swedish into current swedish, current swedish into continental english, and finally my editing of the latter to conform to american english. for example, i do not understand what "anneal glass" is, though i suspect it refers to molten glass cooled slowly to minimize optical flaws. from washington~ carter: paul c. gerber, editor of the aoa news authored a delightful commentary on the wearing of spectacles~28 of our 38 presidents and one president-elect. his article entitled, "the eyes of the presidents", appears in the october issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 1245-1260. illustrated wearing glasses are 15 presidents. fifteen of his 33 reference citations are derived.from '~r. president­ how is your health?" by karl c. wold, m.d., the bruce publishing company, st. paul, 1948. the thiele crossed~cylinder technique: herr professor dr. phil. werner thiele started teaching optics in the deutschen schule f~r optik und fototechnik, berlin, on march 1, 1935. in 1939 he started teaching the crossed cylinder technique for measuring the power and axis of astigmatism to the optometry students. in 1941 he gave the first formalized german course on the procedure for practicing optometrists (augenoptiker). many germans therefore presume him to have been the originator of the method, and it is very probable that he himself thought so as well. consequently it is not unusual for german augenoptiker to identify the procedure as the thiele technique. dr. thiele, a physicist~, was born august 28, 1908. he served as director of the fachschule fur optik und fototechnik from 1947 to 1962. 12 he died on july 14, 1976. his obituary appears in the august 15, 1976, issue of ~uddeutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 31, nn. 8, p. 66. wilfred, not william: dr. w.s. palmer, who authored the extensive commentary entitled "from about 190711 and "over fifty years of observations and participation" in the july 1976 issue of this newsletter, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 42-63, advises us that his first name is wilfred, not william. the latter is usually presumed, but incorrec.tly, because his familiar nickname is "bill." fraternal support: an attractive 6 x 10 em advertisement in behalf of the optometric historical society was included on the front page of the august 1976 issue of optist, vol. 35, no. 1, published by the omega epsilon phi international optometric fraternity. it is gratifying to receive such support. this gesture should remind us that the history of optometric frater­ nities is itself an aspect of our professional development which is ordinarily overlooked. undergraduate collegiate fraternities have long been looked upon by many with considerable suspicion and disdain. such circumstances, however, should not deter us from trying to get the records st.raight, to find out what influences the fraternities actually had on our heritage. just a chronology of their origins and durations together with their locations and affiliations would be a good start. there were at least 10. then if we could collect copies of their charters, by-laws, rituals, membership lists, publications, and other paraphernalia we might begin to get a clearer picture of the fraternity as a social phenomenon. more memorializing: the national vision research institute of australia, 374 cardigan street, carlton, victoria 3053, australia, has named two of its laboratories in honor of optometrists. one is the donald h. schultz laboratory and the other the ray swaby laborato;r. schult~is a distinguished optometr.ist and optical physicist in adelaide well known throughout australia. the late ray swaby was nominated for the honor by a group of his contributing colleagues in the southwestern district of victoria. maryland optometry: israel dvorine, o.d., has taken pen in hand and described some of the events in "the early history of optometry in maryland" beginning in 1904. the article appears in the december 1976 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 47, n.o. 12, pp. 15..58-1567. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1977-08-01-001 1977-08-01-002 1977-08-01-003 1977-08-01-004 1977-08-01-005 1977-08-01-006 1977-08-01-007 1977-08-01-008 1977-08-01-009 1977-08-01-010 1977-08-01-011 1977-08-01-012 ., .: . . ) newsletrer of the opta1etric his'rorical socie'iy (243 north lindbergh bool.evard, st. loois, missoori 63141, u.s.a.) vol. 16 october, optomhry ubrawf . ',. number 4 of public interest: dec 031985 ~~'"'llt\~111 (iuili'ci'll'l'l"!l that the history of s~ctacles is of po£.>ular iht:~i~ l.i&;<!learly indicated by a full page write-up in the march 9, 1982, issue of the :bridgeport post under the caption "focus/the arts." described is a 1982 spectacle display at the barnum museum in bridgeport, connecticut, coordinated by o.h.s. rreni>er eric p. muth, an cptician in milford, connectirut. the exhibit included frames from the last four centuries. aoo.lt 225 frames were loaned fran muth' s personal collection plus another 125 from the american optical corp. this was not called to our attention until recently because the article lay buried those several years in irving bennett's office. he is presently cleaning out his files and thoughtfully forwarded the copy to us. ostwald or ostwalt? two instances have been noted in recent publications where ostwald arx1 ostwalt have been confused. they were two different pecple, contenporaries but perhaps unknown to each other. both made significant contriootions to visual science. more faoous was friedrich wilhelm ostwald, 1853-1932, who earned 14 pages in the 1978 dictionary of scientific bi03raphy, vol. 15. born and reared in latvia, he spent oost of his career in leipzig, germany, in the field of physical chemistry, was named a nobel laureate, and did significant research in color science. said one of his students, tlle american physical chemist wilder bancroft, ''we can distinguish three groups of scientists. in the first and very small group we have those who discover furrlarrental relations. in the second groop we have those who do rot make tlle great discovery rut who see the importance and bearing of it, and who preach the gospal to the heathens. ostwald stands absolutely at the head of this groop. the last groop contains the rest of us, th:>se who have to have things explained to us." franz ostwalt, 1862-1937, on the other hand was a paris oculist. he rated freq_uent reference in cphthalmic lens design. a portion of the tscherning ellipse is identified as the ostwalt branch of the curve. the brewster-wheatstone rivalry: sir david brewster (1781-1868) and sir charles wheatstone (1802-1875) were the principal british visual scientists between about 1820 and 1860. brewster's academic background was in religious studies and wheatstone's in natural philosophy, but their scientific pursuits identify both primarily as physicists, brewster's mainly cptical and wheatstone's mainly electrical. both were knighted for their scientific contrirutioos. they did indeed 54 maintain a civil respect for each other, rut a bit of rivalry existed, with each seeming to manifest occasional resentment for the other's acoonplishments and cognitions, especially in visual matters. their papers on vision, especially binocular vision, shewed a similarity of investigated tcpics and frequent differences of interpretation. their involvenent in visual science was of ruch broader sccpe and significance than comnonly realized. so ooncluded nicholas j. wade of the departnent of psycholo:jy at the university of dundee in the ecorse of his reading some early studies on subjective visual phenonena. having drawn attention to this annng several of his colleagues he was urged to republish the pertinent brewster and wheatstone papers which he had collected. this was accanplished in a 1983 bc:x:k entitled "bre.4ster and wheatstone on vision" edited by him and published for the experinent.al psydlology society by academic press. the papers, or excerpts from papers, by each of the two scientists, are presented in chrooolq3ical order in three categories. "binocular vision and space perception," ten by bre.4ster, six by wheatstone: "inventions," two by eadl: arrl "subjective visual phenonena," foorteen identified with brewster and six with wheatstone. both autoors occasionally wrote aooij¥1do.lsly. brewster was by far the more prolific writer but wheatstone excelled in clarity and style. the reproduced articles total approximately 250 pages. aoother hurrlred pages include lengthy obituaries of h:>th, editor wade's sununary, his commentary on the brewster~eatstone controversies, same concluding remarks, a bibliography of alloclst 250 references, a foor-page irrlex of nanes, and a foorteen page subject index. included are several portraits of eadl of the t\0.0 subject authors, the runeroos original illustrations relevant to the reproduced articles, and a few annoyingly unidentified, inadequately credited or unrumbered, illustrations that are apparently presuned to be sufficiently self-explanatory. the boc::k has one serioos structural flaw, urrloobtedly attritutable to the publisher's staff editor. it is difficult on ioclst pages to kl'lcm which person, brewster, wheatstone, or wade, is the author of the paragrafils in view. brewster and wheatstone alloclst invariably wrote in the third person so that a monentary lapse of the reader's attention often necessitated turning back several pages to reestablish which autoor one was reading. the sccpe of brewster's and wheatstone's interests in visual science is so extensive as -to make it inadequate to outline the coverage here. an isolated point of interest, hcwever, is brewster's definition of "optics" as "the branch of kncwledge which treats of the prcperties of light and of vision, as perfoi'iood by the hurcan eye." this 19th century definition is inportant to keep in mind when we attenpt to conprehend the history of cptometry. more on brewster and wheatstone from the above review of wade's book one might presune that both brewster and wheatstone are today well remembered for their original contritutions to science. two recent articles indicate to the contrary. 55 in the june, 1984 issue of science 84 magazine (vol. 5, no. 5, p. 70) writer noel vietmeyer has reviewed wheatst_one's career in an article titled 'inventing charles wheatstone. ' perhaps vietmeyer' s most significant statements are "his [wheatstone's] discoveries guided us to the age of canmunication, rut we have forgotten his name," am ''wheatstone is essentially unkncwn today, except for the 'wheatstone bridge, ' something he did oot invent." along the same line, r. v. jones began his review of a recent book on david brewster in the new scientist (may 30, 1985) by stating, "the develc:pment of modern optical dev1ces, and particularly of the laser, has given widespread currency to the brewster angle that angle at which irx::ident light, plane polarized perpendicular to a plane refracting surface, will pass throogh it wi thoot suffering any loss by reflection. as for its discoverer, david brewster, most of those who exploit his angle probably know little more tjruan his surname. the book jones is reviewing is a collection of ten essays which were presented at a syrrposiurn at the royal scottish museum on november 21, 1981. the authors, rost of whom are historians of science and museum keepers, present an excellent account of brewster's varied careers which include scientist, editor, journalist, historian of science, administrator, educat_or and evangelist. in addition to the ten essays, numeroos appendices list brewster's published writings and also articles and books on brewster. appendix l(b) by george duncan, reader in biqilysics, university of east ahglia, details brewster's investigations on the ocular lens. by devising a careful diffraction experiment using a piece of cod lens capsule brewster was able to deronstrate tjhat the lens fibers did indeed interdigitate, settling once and for all a continuing delate aiiong anatomists. duncan summarizes brewster's work on the lens. in summary, the advances he may be said to have made are as follc:ws: he developed ooninvasive techniques (in tjhis case c:ptical diffractioo) to resolve a dispute of fact arrl artifact. he made quantitative (in this case from fraunhoefer' s wave theory, even thoogh he was a devoted advocate of newton's corpuscular theory) • he checked these calrula tions by sirulating his observations with a defined nodel system. he understood tjhat the patterns he obtained were more a property of the order of the biological system than of tjhe substance of the system, thus substantially prefiguring the philosc:phical and practical foorrlations on which modern x-ray crystallography is based. he also urderstood the practical and medical consequences of his observations and put forward suggestions concerning the nature and cure of cataract. that brewster has received scant recognition for laying this firm foondation would have surprised him oot at all and is prd:>a.bly due to the'aphakik' view of science engerrlered by successive educational systems rather than any lack of lustre in tjhe illumination of science emanating from our elders. this well illustrated bcok (including two photographs of brewster) is entitled 'martyr of science': sir david brewster 1781-1868, edited by a.d. ~rrison-i..od am j .r.r. christie and published by tjhe royal scottish museum, edinburgh, 1984. 56 abalt early pecple in cptics: d. j. lovell is an cptical engineer whose initial interest in cptics was famed while ~rking with arthur hardy • s researdl groop at the massadrusetts institute of technology during world war ii. it has been a career-lorv:j hobby of his to collect interesting insights about pecple and events in the history of man • s investigations of the nature of light. his collection was published in 1981 by the society of pooto-optical instrumentation engineers, bellingham, washington, in a 16 7 page paperback entitled optical anexdji'fs. sorted into 36 chapters called anecdotes, with graphic illustrations accaopanying alnost all of them, the contents provide fascinating accoonts quite chronologically from "optics in antigui ty" to "holography-the new phot.ogra}ily." included are glinpses into the lives and personalities of dozens of persons such as plato, ibn al-haitham, tydlo btahe, galileo, robert hooke, thaoas yoong, and david brewster, to :nane a few. exanples of interesting details are descartes • f:n>rd battle with a l::x:2t crew intending to slay him, lippershey • s observing two children playing wi t.h some lenses lined up in telesccpe fashion giving him the idea for his invention, napoleon • s involvement in the support of science, and euler • s letters to a german princess. a good irrlex and a valid biblicxjraphy give credence to t.he reliability of lovell's anecdotes. a bit of helmholtz wit: theo aronson, in his 1971 bock entitled "the kaisers," published by carsell, i.dooon, comments anusingly on princess victoria, daughter of england • s queen victoria and prince albert. in 1858 at age 17 after a two-year coortship, princess victoria married prince frederick of prussia, son of prince william who later became german kaiser william i, initiator of the second reich. she was somewhat nrlely ootspc:ken rut admittedly intelligent. aggressively honest, her frankness coold be enbarrassing. "think, think:, madam," professor helniloltz once advised her, "rut don't tell t.he entire ~rld what yoo are thinking!" norwegian cptometry history: if yoo ha~ to be able to read norwegian yoo will enjoy perusing the 1945 jubilee version of optikeren connnenorating the 40th anniversary of the fcallrling of norges optikerfor'&ilil, t.he norwegian cpt..ometric association. featured are articles on the history of the association itself, the educational develcpments including the tinius olsen sdlool in korv:jsberg, the develcpment of a public relaticns organization, the role of the cptical industry, and many pre-organizational details dating back to 1911. the rumeroos photcxjra{ils add timely interest. purkinje-sanson images in 1531 if you happen to be one of the ten million pecple per year who visit the shrine of our lady of guadalupe in mexico city to look at the life-sized, 57 full-length image of tlle virgin mary legendarily formed by the madonna herself on the cactus cloth cloak ( tilrra} of an .aztec peasant in 1531 a.d. you will enjoy the book "the image of guadalupe: myth or miracle?" by jody brant smith, a revised edition of which was published by image bocks, garden city, new york, in 1984. you will enjoy even more isabel fletcher de t~llez's review of the same book of slightly different title, "the guadalupe madonna: myth or miracle?" published by souvenir press, lorrlon, in 1983, in the may 11, 1985, issue of optonetry today, vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 328 and 330. if you are optometricaly soph1st1cated you will particularly enjoy, or at least be amused by, chapter vi of the bcx:k, "the right eye of the virgin", in which are detailed the interpret~tions of ocular reflections by several consulted ophthalmologists as purkinje-sanson images of persons in tlle madoma • s view. both issues of the book include several phobos of the right eye and one of the left, including a section computer-magnified 2,500 times. says reviewer de t~llez, "plates of these computerized magnifications ..• may reveal more about the onlooker than anything else, like rorschach ink blotsl" she adds, "certainly they require informed skills of interpretation and a willingness to be convinced," both of which she claims to lack. the autoor of the books is an associate professor of philosophy and religion at pensacola junior college in florida. the extensive research of the history of the image of guadalupe and of the original icon itself by author smith and his principal co-investigator, an entonologist and biophysicist, put both of them, say smith, "firmly in the ranks of toose who believe the image was created supernaturally." on witjlessing histo~: in about 1948 felix a. koetting (1893-1983} wrote a paper entitled "the history of optonetry in st. louis, missouri". it appears rot to have been published while he was living. it was fourrl in his file and published posthuiio.lsly in the 2nd quarter, 1984, issue of the journal of the missouri aptometric association, pp. 21-23. the article is truly documentary not only because dr. koetting was a meticulous writer rut also because he was personally involved in missouri optometric history throughout his 90 years. in early childhood he and his brothers and sisters v.orked in his father • s store, which included watches, jewelry, spectacles, and various customer services. this was in the small tcwn of st. genevieve, missouri, about 80 kilometers from st. la.lis. it seems reasonably certain that his fatller, john koetting, rust have included some incidental sight-testing, the primitive cptometric service of the time in the rural areas of that region of the coontry. felix • s fatller was born in germany in 1856 and came to missouri with his cwn father at age nine. young jolm soon became an artisan of several skills. his first savings were invested in a stock of jewelry to sell in his shoemaking shop. at the same time he sllh:;criberl to the keystone a watchmaker's trade journal and earliest of american pubhcahons to include articles of optometric interest. he opened his jewelry store in 1887 in st. genevieve, missouri, and advertised watches, clocks, and spect~cles. he had five children, the second oldest of whom was felix. 58 felix finished his study of optometry in 1912 and immediately took dharge of his father 1 s optical department in st. genevieve where he practiced optometry for several years before opening practice in st. la.lis, missoori. all of this points to the fact that felix was steeped in optonetry throughout his life, an indoctrination further enhanced by an optometrist brother and two opto~trist sons as well as his extensive involvement in a variety of optometric organizational projects. who could have written a history of st. la.lis 1 optometry nore authorit.ati vely? his published history labels pre-1900 optometry as 11prehistoric, .. the first decade of the 20th century as the 11birth of optometry .. , the second decade as the 11legislative period11 i 1922-1935 as the 11skeffington-kehl era .. , arrl 1936-1948 as t.he 11present era11 • today we can look quite legitimately at t.hese labels as the provincial views of one who sinply could oot obtain the oroader outlook possible with the passage of years arrl the accumulation of documents. there is nothing so easily misinterpreted as history in the making and at firsthand view. his am perceptions might well have dlanged in the 1 80s from those he described in tne 140s. a single exanple can clarify tnis. or. koetting credited the driv~ to obtain an optometry law in missoori to his assunption that, 110ptoretry became a\vare of its professional aspirations... obvioosly he was unaware of the fact that in iipst of the 46 states that preceeded missoori t.he cptometrists demanded a registration law to prevent possible registration under the previously established medical boards. the facts that dr. koetting reported speak for themselves and are undoobtedly accurate. this is what makes his paper a valuable document. his interpretations honever require the leavening of time for the broader view. history is oot an easy science. optometry in industry: on page 5 and 6 of the january 1983 issue of the nohs, vol. 14, no. 1, dr. goodlaw dated t.he 11 first optometric industrial vision program in los angeles: as 1922. in t.he files of the late felix koetting, o.d., was found a letter from insurers service corporation of st. lcuis, missouri, dated may 4, 1928, to eyesight surv~ corporation, 4196 mandlester ave., st. lcuis, missoori, thanking dr. koetting for a copy of a report of a screening survey of the f. burkharr manufacturioo 00. in the same file was an undated printed pronotional folder of the eyesight survey corporation entitled 11 industrial plants having adopted our service .. shoning 11general offices .. at the st. la.lis address and 11service offices .. at alton, illinois: wilmington, delaware: and newark, new jersey. it declares that 11the eyesight survey corporation places at your service a force of optometric practitioners and engineers, especially trained to care for the eyes of industry... over 400 caopanies in missoori, illinois, indiana, iona, maryland, new jersey, new york, ohio, west virginia, and georgia are listed. 59 its stage of develcpnent suggests that the organization may have been functioning several years prior to the date of the 1928 letter, which would rrake it quite contemporary with the los angeles program. is it possible that cptonetry' s role in industry was blooming nationwide in that era and perhaps got nipped b¥ the great depression? . .. w1ihelm peter sdhnges, 1905-1985: "leben and wirken einer personlichkeit" is the subtitle of a triblte to sb'hnges in the may 20, 1985, issue of de.ltsche oj?tikerzeitung, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 90-91, b¥ jurgen reinhard. sohnges' career 1s traced from his appointnent as a branch manager of the long established messter firm at age 21 follc:wed b¥ a brief study tour of great britain and north america, a long series of career episodes before and after world war ii, his appointnent at age 60 by the state of bavaria as a consulate for honduras, the vigoroos pursuit of his seafaring hobbies in later life, and the acceptance of nunerous hooors from varioos sources. antique and early: hugh orr, author and publisher of "illustrated history of early antique spectacles," has written to ask aboot nenbership in the o.h.s., and i resporrled promptly. he also enclosai an anna.mcenent of his book and a ccpy of a review of it in 'lhe sunaex telegra~h, and i have recommended its acquisition by the indiana un1 versi ty library. according to an enclosed list of prior recipients of the book, a copy is already available at the international library, archives, and museum of optonetry, st. louis, miss<xli'i. from the annooncement and review one learns that mr. orr is a british cptonetrist. his book contains over 200 pictures of i terns collected by him and his wife and is supplemented b¥ nunerous anecdotes of historical cptical personalities. says deborah stratton in her review, "hugh orr • s book has an amateurish charm aboot it that gives it a certain value of its own. i doobt, for instance, whether a professional publisher would have allc:wed the book title to bear the tautology 'early antique. • hc:wever, the autoor's researches, enlivened by ccpioos, usually dated, illustrations from his collection, spanning three centuries, are invaluable." the book is available from hugh orr, 106 hayes lane, beckenham, kent, br 3 2sp, england at the overseas price o£~7.00 (ca. $20.00). the date of its publication is oot stated. the horcpter is old: "frances de aguilon, s.j. i (1567-1617) i scientist and architect" is the title of a 151 page book by august ziggelaar, s.j., published in 1983 by institution historicum s.i., via dei penitenzieri 20, 00193 rome, italy, and reviewed by professor rogers reading in the septenber 1985 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiolo:;jical optics, vol. 62, no. 9, page 657. 60 aguilon is craii tai as the inventor of the horcpter concept arrl a contrirutor to our urrlerst..anding of space perception, color perception, and photanetry. dr. reading reconunends the bcx:>k as a valuable resource for th:>se of us interested in the historical background of our cptometric concepts and adds, "it is amazing how little has really been addai in the intervening 372 years." unorthodox eye therapy: recently ohs member james leeds, o.d., received an interesting letter from olgierd lindan, m.d., ph.d., 1404 dorsh road, cleveland, ohio 44121, u.s.a. (telephone 216-382-7113), whidh includes the following appeal: i presume you collect all types of books, including those dealing with "unorthodox" eye therapy. i know of the eye massaging devices, rut there is practically nothing aboot electro-therapy of the eye. the widely used violet-ray machines had some specially designed glass electrodes, to be applied over eyes (eye-lids i presume). the booklets on violet ray machines shows tlx>se eye electrodes, rut do not tell anything abcut the eye-problems to be treated. i would be grateful for any info on this subject. the healers of the past applied the faradic arrl galvanic currents to the deaf-ears. i have a couple of special devices used for this purpose. did you ever cane across the application of electric currents to the eyes? i imagine that pecple with advanced cataract coold have experiences of light flashes if the cptic nerve were stinulated by electrical impulses, applied by a bold healer across the tenples. i am seeking contacts with other collectors interestai in medical arts. it's very interesting and stinulating. dr. leais sent dr. lindan the names of foor lxxiks on the subject, rut he suggests that other o.h.s. meliibers may have other items to mention. collectors club internationalized: by means of a clipping from a recent issue of the optician (london), ohs member irving bennett informs us that the word "international" is now included as part of the title of the ophthalmic antique collectors club, which was formed in 1982. its manbership ncm totals nore than 125 from several oountries. further details are available fro1n richard bronn, treasurer, 18 albion street, dunstable, bedfordshire uj6 lhx, england. kepler's birthday johannes kepler (1571-1630) is a giant in the history of science, so to horor his 400th birthday synposia were held in eight cities across the globe in 1971. the proceaiings of these gatherings were published in 1975 by perganon press ltd. in a single volume entitled k~ler (vistas in astronomy volume 18). all of the papers published in the volume have been translated into english when needed and many have been condensed. the nunber of papers is a staggering 127. the sccpe of kepler's \\ork can be felt by scanning the chapter titles in which the papers have been conveniently categorized. the 61 follo.ving is a sampling: ch. 6 kepler and the ne.-~ astronomy, ch. 8 mysticism, astrology and alchemy, ch. 10 celestial mechanics, ch. 11 kepler as hathernatician and physicist. of particular interest is chapter 14 optics and crystallography in which nine papers on kepler's achievements in q>tics and vision are presented. paper 14.4 by vasco ronchi of the university of florence is titled "jchannes kepler, optician." in this paper ronchi emphasizes kepler's role in developing optics as we kno.v it today. the follo.ving excerpt from ronchi 's paper begins by referring to the book paralipomena ad vitellionem published by kepler in 1604. as indicated by the title, this work was intended as the continuation, or rather as an improvement of vitelo's ~rk, that is to say of the ~rk of the arab school. in reality this book is one of the nost marveloos masterpieces; it cont~ins scientific achievements of the greatest importance not only for the history of optics but also for the history of science in general, because in this ~rk are to be foond expam.ded for the first time concepts that still today form the foundations of entire branches of science. it is sufficient to recall that in it for the first time there is a description of the mechanism of vision which is even today considered to be correct; for the first time there is a construction of the retinal image; the explanation of the formation of images behind plane mirrors: the definition of the concept of optical images. the arabs had demolished visual rays; kepler demolishes also simulacra and gives birth to t.he optics of rays, that is to say, to present-day geometrical optics. it is one of the greatest contributions of a scholar to scientific progress. five years later, kepler intervened again in the history of optics with anot.her fundamental contrirution. he too, until 1610, had no faith in the "glass lentils" that had been on t.he market at an artisan level for three centuries, rut had been irrevocably condemned by all scientific circles as being deceptive and illusory tools. but in 1609 galileo stated his faith in the telescope, after having greatly improved it technically; now it appeared as a virtually ne,..r instrument canpared to the one that, in 1604, dutch artisans had attempted to put into circulation. galileo' s statement provoked a most violent reaction in the scientific ~rld, which was still convinced of the correctness of the classical ideas with regard to lenses. kepler -for a whole yearwas very skeptical, rut in august 1610, after having carried rut accurate ob3ervations with galileo's telescope, he was at once converted and wrote another great boc:k, even if not of the same great significance as his ~rk of 1604: in fact the dioptrice, published in january 1611, contains a complete geometrical theory of the lenses and of the galilean telescope, as well as a design of an astronomical telescope with a converging eyepiece. the concepts contained in this book are those on which modern geometrical optics is still based. kepler's work was not understood by his contemporaries and was not appreciated. soon it was completely forgotten. abcut half a century later the ideas which he had expounded in these two books silently reappeared and conquered the world of science. but their contriver remained unknown, so that even today it is rather rare to find a scientist who kno.vs that modern optics is substantially keplerian cptics. this has been the effect of a philosophical evolution from which cptics suffererl consequences not always in its favour. 62 it's a cat's world the follcwing has been taken verbatim from p. 637 of the optical joornal, january, 1899 (vol. iv, no. 11) • the "philadelphia times" is responsible for an article alleging tha.t a cat of that staid city new wears a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. lts cwner, noticing the feline's grcwing inability to catch mice, concluded that "thomas" was becoming mycpic, and up:m consultation with a local oculist, in view of the cat' s illiteracy, they hit upon the happy scheme of making an image of a ltlalse and placing it at varioos distances. "thomas's,. punctum remotum was estimated at the furthest distance he could recognize the rooent, and by this means alone was he fitted to glasses. very well illustrated: occasionally while perusing library stacks one finds an unexpected gem. such was the case several weeks ago as i roarood the physics section of indiana university's main library. in front of me appeared a huge and pristine set of volumes entitled handblch zur gesc:hic:hte der optik (harxlbook to the history of optics) by e. h. sdunitz. since my german is poor, to say the least, i woold have normally quickly slipped throogh the books enjoying what pictures coold be foond and calling it quits, b.it this was different. \'htt i foond was a six volume pictorial goldmine. the six volumes trace the history of optics from antiquity (the first chapter is titled, 'in the beginning there was glass' ) to the drcpping of the atomic banbl to describe in any detail the content, even in terms of chapter headings, woold ra:juire many pages, b.it suffice to say the sccpe is huge and includes many sections on the develcpment of spectacles and visual testing equipment, and even a small section on tne legislative origins of optometry in america. the total page nunber for the six volumes is 2,572 with 4,633 fcx:>twtes. the number of illustrations, portraits, and photocjra);ils wa.ild also be several tln.isand, b.it unfortunately i cannot be positive because they are rot numbered wr are they referenced to their original sources. this may all scund a bit tcx:> glcwing of a 'review' considering i can't read the text in detail, rut i guarantee the reader several hours of fascinating viewing. hcpefully the publisher (wayenl:x>rgh, bonn) will ccme out with an english translation rut don't hold yoor breath, the six volumes were only recently published between 1981 and 1984. d.k.p. scottish scientific instrument-makers 1600-1900: in 1972 the royal scottish museum (ediriturgh) published a l::xxjklet with tne abcne title aut..hored by d.j. bryden. the purpose of this report as described in the foreword was to make available information on the rich collection of early scientific instruments held in the museum and, in addition, provide some historical scholarship on the scientific instrument trade. so who were these instrument makers, what did they make, and for whom were they making tnese instruments? '!he first question concerning identity has been covered very well with a sixteen page alphabetical catalcgue listing 63 all knom scottish scientific instrunent makers during the period 1600-1900. each entry details kncwn street addresses, years of rosiness and what instruments they produced. concerning clientele, an essay on p. 7 titlerl 'the maker customer relationship' categorizes the instrument maker's customers into three groups. the market served by the scientific instrument-maker may be classified into three broad groups of customers or varieties of dellbbi: the 'scientific', the 'professional' and the 'dilett4nte'. serving the 'scientific' rustomer the instrument-makers• tedmical expertise was extended to satisfy an initially unique demand, or an existing skill was utilised in a way mt previously considered. the 'professional' user of scientific instruments, in contrast, required standard apparatus made to .. kncwn and accepted basic designs, or made to a new design using existing constructional techniques. within this secorrl group s a bedini has distinguished between the instruments and apparatus used for dem:nstration and teadling on the one hand, and the equipnent required by industry, connnerce and the nathenatical practitioners, an tlle other. for tlle third groop of customers, the 'dilettante', the instrument-maker was primarily supplying scientific toys with a modicum of educational value, and gincracks for customers wi tll at the worst no rore than a passing interest in and superficial knowledge of contercporary science. this classification into groupings of demand does not necessarily suppose rutually exclusive classes of rustomers, the individual might use the instrument-makers' services at all three levels. equally, certain makers served a particular section of the market, concentrating their efforts on attracting and satisfying specific interests and demands. many instrument-makers were more than simply competent artisans: technical expertise and mechanical prowess was, on occasions, backed by conprehension of the scientific principles underlying the work undertaken, thus assisting the interplay of ideas between the maker and his scientific and professional customers. as for what these instrument makers made which qualified tllem as scientific instrument makers is rnt so clear. this is illustrated by tlle guide to symbols which appears at the beginning of the directory list and is reproduced below. symb:>i.s im = instrunent-maker b = barometer-(maker) c = clock ch = chemical (instrument-maker) cr = chronometer m = mathenatical n = nautical 0 =optical 0p = optician ph = philoscphical w =watch other trades given in full an optical, mathematical or philosophical instrument-maker was often described as an • optician • • an entry op inplies a lack of infornatian as to whether the man was an instrunent-maker or solely an ophthalmic optician. craftsmen trading solely as ophthalmic opticians are mt included. 64 si11j>ly staterl, nany of the cphthalmic cpticians were instrunent makers, or vice versa if you like. the wares of the instrument maker were either directly oommdssioned or sold through general merchants. '!he advertisement s'hotm here originally appeared in the glasow courant september 22, 1755. john carlile, at his shop, the entry into bell's wynd above the crofs, glafgow, at the sign of the rose, fells wholcfale or retail, silver and china h:andled and other kinds of" table and defert knives and forks, with ~h:~.­ green c:afes for do. silver table spoons, te:1 spoons and tongs; silver shoc-buckks, stock-nuc~les, anj cl:lfps; silver c:~nors, and s:llu, corj!s :and gum· nicks, silver thimbles, do. with steel bottoms, silver spurs, silv<"r plated buckles and spurs; v:a· riety of l:ancet-cafes, in silver and green skin ; co­ ral beads ; shoe, stock, girdle, stsy, and iht buckles, ofstones fet in silver; bro:atchcts fet in gold and silver; sleeve bottons of various kinds: complete sets ofte:a-china, bre:akfa(l and afternoon cups and saucers, punch· bowls, sbb-bowls, suspr­ difhes, tc:a-pots, and milk-pots: fine violin,, germ:m and common flutes of all kinds, h:autboys, french-horns, violin-strings new imported, had­ ley's q.u.ldrants, and common q!!adrants, gunt<r's scales and compa{{'es, complete seu of mathemati­ cal :and surgeons lnllruments; jo:vcrard's, r.renjun'!, ond le:adbctter's rules, ivory foot rules, bradford's new-invented sliding-rules, alfo his ncw-inventej inllrument for preventing fr:~uds by counterfeit .. gold; ben london r.1zors, pen knives, l:mcets, and sciurs; lhckgammon·tables, \logul and )[ef­ fage cards, d:antzick and englifh gunpowder, ben shot, horn and lelthrr powder-f'l:lsks, :and shot­ bag!, london glove3, for men and women: va­ riety of neck bee!, pendlnts, :1nd -ear-rings of the newen plttcrns; ben spcdacl::s, reading-gia{{'es of oil kinds, telefcopes, microf~opes, and profpeds, thermometers; pom:atum in rolls and cjkes, soap­ b:alls, pllin :and fcented; hlir-l'owdcr, jelf:tmin­ oil in finall bottles; llung:try, l:avend:tr, hcnj:~­ min, and or:ange-fiowcr waters, lhlfcy's and goj­ fre)•'s elixirs, bdl sro11ghton, line room, 1-'ire :and candle screens, lind cane!, mounted anj unmoun­ ted, with vuiety of other staves; choice ofsiher, tortoife-fhcll, indented, enamel'd, and p:tpcr snuff­ boxes; ch~ins, springs, gb{{'cs, keys and llooks for watches, line politbcd steel c:mdlehicks and snuffc:rs, coffee and chocolate mills, nutmeg-gra­ ters, punch spoons, !':ilk llurfes, c.1ne and watch­ strings, gauze h:andkerchicfs, with vuicty of other goods, more puticuijrly mentioned in his rrintcd clltalogue. commiffions from the country will be carefully anfwered. although not intended to be a work on cphthalmic cpticians per se, this booklet shcms indeed that optonetry's heritage is long and rich. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1985-16-04-001 1985-16-04-002 1985-16-04-003 1985-16-04-004 1985-16-04-005 1985-16-04-006 1985-16-04-007 1985-16-04-008 1985-16-04-009 1985-16-04-010 1985-16-04-011 1985-16-04-012 newsletter of the optometric historical society ~. 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume33 .july 2002 number3 correction to the recently published article: isidore finkelstein. a tribute: professor finkelstein's daughter kindly called my attention to an error made in my tribute to this remarkable man. it is isidore, not isadore finkelstein. i apologize to the family and readers for this oversight. re-reading the article, i realize that i also failed to indicate properly the remarkable intellect of this man who was widely read, incisive in his comments and perceptions, and always kind and gracious. finally, it is my sad duty to report that william ludlam, one of finkelstein's students, and a fine academic in his own right, died on june 10, 2002. ludlam was an active participant in the optometric center of new york, suny college of optometry, and at the pacific university college of optometry. j.m.e. jay enoch's column: hans goldmann: scholar, clinician, friend a number of obituaries were written about hans goldmann. i sought to minimally reproduce these, and yet to bring together points of interest to our readers from these english documents. i was very fortunate to have had some very special teachers. one of these was my good friend, the very distinguished ophthalmologist, hans goldmann (november 21, 1899-november 19, 1991). at the time i knew him, i was a young academic associated with washington university in st. louis. strictly speaking, hans was never formally my teacher, but he might as well have been. our relationship had origin as a proposal made by dr. murray goldstein, of the then national institute of neurological disease and blindness or nindb (this was before the national eye institute was created). our government sought to link departments in academic institutions in the usa with developing world medical centers having comparable interests. goldstein thought it would be extremely valuable scientifically to link the department of ophthalmology at washington university in st. louis (bernard becker, chariman) with the university of berne department of ophthalmology (hans goldmann, chairman) in switzerland. these were the two of the main glaucoma research and clinical centers in the world! [a 33/21 comparable relationship was established between the department of ophthalmology at the university of iowa and the departments of physiology/ophthalmology at the university of uppsala, sweden.] when hans heard this proposal, he was not at all happy! he has been quoted to me as emphatically stating something like, "switzerland is not a developing world country!" i can just imagine him making such a response. of course he was correct. yet the advantages to the two groups were of great importance, and, in time, goldmann yielded. indiana universi1y aug 2 2 2002 ubrary hans goldmann in the middle years (kindly provided by prof. franz fankhauser, berne) ~for eight wonderful years, i was assigned by professor becker (a very kind action indeed!) to spend about a month each year as liaison between our two research groups. for a good portion of each of these visits to switzerland, i had opportunity to spend eight to ten hours or more a day with hans either at his lovely home in berne or at his country place(s) in brissago on lake maggiori (heaven!) in the swiss/italian lake dsitrict. we reviewed research at both institutions in detail. what an extraordinary opportunity this was for me! 33/22 and when hans stepped down as chair in berne, he chose to spend a year in st. louis and we (as well as others) spoke/conducted research daily. and there were many other occasions when we met or had opportunities to interact. goldmann was a renaissance man in every sense of the term. his knowledge and intellectual curiosity were seemingly limitless in a vast number of areas both within and outside of ophthalmic clinical science and physiological optics. for example, when relaxing, he loved to discuss history in general, history of science in particular, archaeology, auto and airplane racing, religion, political science, geography in detail, and so much more. in his home in berne, virtually all rooms were lined from floor to ceiling with bookcases holding rare first editions as well as texts and travel books. he could speak numerous languages well, e.g., he delivered his acceptance speech in latin when he became rector (chancellor) of the university of berne. sometimes, particularly in brissago, when we reviewed detailed data from the two institutions or critical papers, after about eight hours, he would say to me, "jay, i am tired after speaking so much english." in turn, his enquiring mind and penetrating questions would exhaust me, but i learned and learned well. this was an incredible academic experience. after such a session, his lovely wife, erna renter (known affectionately to him in the swiss-german dialect as "little mouse"), would cook us a wonderful, but light meal often with a fresh fruit tart for dessert. often the fruit was obtained from trees in their terraced garden located in the hills above brissago. as night fell, hans would start a small fire in one of the niches in his old roman hillside cottage, bring out an enormous straw-sheathed bottle of chianti wine which we would sample, and we would gaze out across laco maggiori at the twinkling lights on the opposite shore, as well as at the myriad of stars, and he would sing songs from his native prague. to me he was a kindly father figure. but at his clinic he was a typical german professor of his era. there he ruled! i remember vividly one day when three of his already distinguished associates were two or three minutes late for surgery, they could hardly speak in fear of a tongue-lashing from hans! shortly after the arrival of the late robert (bob) moses (probably best known to the reader for editing adler's physiology of the eye for many years) in berne for an extended visit as part of the same program, he went on rounds with professor goldmann. after hans had held forth on some aspect of a patient's condition, bob piped up, "but professor, had you considered x .... " the residents and fellows emitted a collective shocked gasp! no-one dared challenge or question the professor! (actually, he loved such interchanges.) when he retired in 1968, hans would make coffee for the lab assistants and could be infinitely charming (obviously the preferred mode). i am getting a bit ahead of myself. goldmann was born in komotau, bohemia, near prague, in then austro-hungary, now the czech republic. his intellectual capabilities emerged early. goldmann excelled in mathematics, the natural sciences, as well as philosophy, and languages. he was fascinated by astronomy and astrophysics. however, in the case of many individuals, he was urged to pursue a "practical" career. he chose to become' an ophthalmologist, and became a medical 33/23 student at the german charles university in prague (anton philip elschnig was then chair of ophthalmology). in the 1880s, the charles university had divided into two, one german, one slavic. among the distinguished early professors (and rectors) at the german charles university were johannes purkinje (physiology), ernst mach (physcis), and ewald hering (physiology). this was a remarkable tradition. during goldmann's stay at this university, his most notable teacher was prof. a. tschermak von seysenegg, director of the institute of physiology. tschermak was an effective teacher who had numerous outstanding students including hans goldmann, hermann burian (binocular vision), h. harms (micro-ophthalmic surgery and perimetry), arthur linksz (physiological optics), gerhard brescher (iris/pupil studies), and g. schubert. fankhauser points out that at the time, professors would sit together regularly with their students and assistants in the late afternoon at vienna-style coffee houses and discuss the "latest advances and revelations of science." in this environment, goldmann met and interacted with leading scholars such as phillip frank (theoretical physics), moritz schlick (philosophy of science), karl popper (theory of cognition), konrad lorenz (father of behavioral science), and others! early on, tschermak recognized the talents of his student goldmann, and made him a teaching assistant (this was an important recognition for him). one of his first tasks was to assemble a colorimeter (was it hering's?), a task which fascinated him. associated with this activity, he realized he was protanopicin fact, he became known locally and even in print as "the protanopic goldmann." during a visit by hans to st. louis, he learned that i was about to give a number of lectures on color deficiencies. he insisted that i bring a color-mixing apparatus to lecture, and he demonstrated to the residents his anomalous matches of basic hues. professor (dean) gloor provided me with a chronology demonstrating goldmann's depth and breadth of interests and contributions. i have added a bit to this assembly as wellobviously, no such brief list can be complete. in 1923 goldmann completed his doctoral thesis in prague, and in 1924 he moved to the university of berne as assistant to prof. a. siegrist. after climbing the academic ladder, he succeeded siegrist in 1935 as chair of ophthalmology and head of the eye hosptial at lnselspital in berne. 1933 new design of slit-lamp (first version) 1934 eye lens: glassblower's cataract; radiation cataract "goldmann versus vogf' 1941 volume of aqueous humor production; 1945 development of principles of exact/quantitative perimetry 1946 outflow of aqueous humor 1949 biomicroscopy; 3-mirror gonioscopy lens, macular gonioscopy~ other gonio-lens developments; studies of the vitreous body and fundus of the eye; research on acute posterior vitreous detachment as well as the anterior chamber angle 1950 new dark adaptometer 33/24 1952 retinopathy of prematurity, oxygen as the etiological cause; new/updated slit-lamp (second version); fluoro-photometer 1956 applanation tonometer 1950-1978 research on the production and outflow of the aqueous humor; tonography 1966 research on the cell count in the anterior chamber 1968 research on the ability to detect which eye was stimulated by light 1969 investigation of interferometric measurements of visual resolution 1980 studies of stereo-chronoscopy goldmann's career also included studies of uveitis, vision in animals, philosophical writings relating to the spirit, power, and limits of reasoning in medicine, immunology, and much more (fankhauser). that which brought him to special prominence early-on was a serious clash between this young scholar and the then famous professor alfred vogt, chairman of ophthalmology at zurich. this confrontation related to the etiology of radiation/glassblower's cataracts. goldmann, at least at the time (1930), won this critical debate! later, it was shown, each man was partially correct. many of us are most familiar with the wonderful instruments goldmann developed and are still broadly used in ophthalmic practice. not all were original concepts, rather a number were major improvements in existing technology. these itmes were produced in conjunction with haag-streit in switzerland. the goldmann kinetic and static perimeter remained the gold-standard in perimetry for many years, his slit lamps are magnificent, as are the gonio-mirros and the applanation tonometer. one should not overlook the goldmann-weekers dark adaptometer his interference acuity device, and more. i reproduced his ingenious interference acuity device and used for years it was one of the best of its kind. when i knew goldmann, his key interest was in glaucoma, its causes, its dynamics, how to treat and manage this disease and ways of detecting its presence early. he was concerned about differences between open angle glaucoma associated with intraocular tension, the then-termed low-tension glaucoma, and ocular hypertension without field loss. he wanted to know how the latter two differed from the chronic high-tension glaucoma, and whether ocular hypertension was an earlier of "silent period" form of high tension glaucoma. we often discussed this set of issues. he enjoyed clinical research, and was a clinician of distinction. no approach or detail escaped his notice. he felt a sincere obligation to serve his patients he had a great empathy for them. in a discussion at rounds in st. louis (see my obituary of goldmann), he revealed a great deal about his clinical philosophy in this example/exchange. no aspect of ocular haemodynamics, or any matter relating to aqueous humor production, flow, or elimination escaped his notice. he fully realized glaucoma was closely related to damage to the optic nerve and ganglion cells and other retinal cells, and forever he was looking for not only early changes, but also for functional manifestations, visual and otherwise, of the glaucomas. 33/25 he shared his many ideas freely, and he provided an unending stream of creative thought. arguments were floated, considered, dropped, or modified. in fact, as i noted in my obituary of hans, he engaged in a form of regular research rounds (i have never seen the equal of this)fankhauser describes a similar set of experiences in his obituary (p.139). amazing! each day goldmann would go from laboratory to laboratory, and with a twinkle in his eyes, ask what was new, what had been found, what new discovery the individual had made, or what progress there was to report. if you did not have something new to discuss, he would raise a question of his own for discussion! there were no holds barred in these discussions, and it was great fun. this resulted in a form of research frenzy in our several laboratories (all manner of topics). we had to have something new each dayit was a challenge which we sought to meet. as he approached our labs, we worked like mad persons trying to put the final touches on the day's developments. from this series of discussions, he and i entered into a research project asking whether an individual could detect which of the two eyes had been stimulated by light. there was a modest literature on this issue. the effect was classified as the utero­ ocular effect from the greek, "utero-"= one from two (as in uterus), or one of two (this application). today such studies are termed the uterocular effect. clearly, in the course of evolution, for survival, animals without binocular vision had to know which of their eyes had been stimulated by light, and the question was whether we retained this capability in modem times. a fascinating problem! we had to eliminate a large number of variables (not an easy task) and run up great volumes of data, and yes, we retain this capability. our research was published by us and my able post-doc roberto sunga. there are applications of this finding, e.g., eye movement phosphenes associated with the blind spot area (helmholtz, 2"d edition, volume 2), etc. as noted, goldmann loved speed, whether flying of driving. he came in second in the first round-europe air race! in mid-race he had to land his airplane in a field and wrap some wire around the propeller in order to hold it together before taking off again. one could go on for hours in this vein. during his visit to st. louis, i and bob moses invited him to participate in a passover seder at my home. bob, i, and our families used to take turns each year conducting the seder. i will not forget his arrival at our home, the tears streaming down his cheeks, as he had not attended a seder for 50 years (since his childhood). we were totally embarrassed, the prayer books we used were meant for young children! but hans, bless his heart, entered into the event with enthusiasm! in short, he was brilliant, enthusiastic, demanding sometimes, and a very human scholar, clinician, friend and teacher. references (alphabetical, in english): enoch jm. hans goldmann, m.d. necrology. optom vis sci 1992; 69(2):168-169. fankhauser f. remembrance of hans goldmann, 1899-1991. surv ophthalmol1992; 37(2):137-142~ gloor b. obituary, hans goldmann. br j ophthalmol1992; 37:1. j.m.e. 33/26 book reviewpicture book of 1950s and 1960s spectacles: specs appeal extravagant 1950s and 1960s eyewear, by leslie pina and donald­ brian johnson. schiffer publishing, 4880 lower valley road, atglen, pa 19310 usa; 2001; 173 pages plus one page bibliography and one page index, hardcover, $39.95, isbn 0-7643-1403-3. this book contains color photographs of spectacle frames with emphasis on the 1950s and 1960s. background text material is included. a current price for collectors is included in the descriptions of many of the pictures. schiffer publishes books on the collection of many objects. their previous book on spectacles, "eyeglass retrospective -where fashion meets science," was reviewed in the january, 2001 issue of hindsight (volume 32, number 1, pages 3-4). the book is organized into six chapters. chapter 1 discusses the evolution of spectacle frames from function to fashion and illustrates this with examples of spectacle advertisements and pictures of frames from various eras extending into the 1970s. promotional campaigns by bausch & lomb, "miss specs appeal" (1953) and "miss beauty in glasses" (1954, 1955), attempted to highlight the fashionable aspects of spectacles. in the 1950s, optical companies started emphasizing fashion and "one pair is not enough." chapter 2 includes photos of "frames that suggest the range of fashion available in the 1950s and 60s everyday and evening wear." frames from american optical, art­ craft, bausch & lomb, gandy, hasday, kono, swank, tura, trans-world, and victory are pictured. there are also some reproductions of pages from frame catalogs. chapter 3 deals with sunglasses. calobar, ray ban, foster grant, and many other sunglasses are shown. common types of sunglasses are pictured, as well as folding, flip-up, and various unusual styles. also presented are examples of magazine advertisements for sunglasses from 1950s and 60s. ads and flyers from american optical, foster grant, grantly, lugene, monaco, polaroid, and bausch & lomb are included. the topic of chapter 4, entitled "sight for sore eyes ~ a variety of vision helpers," is reading glasses. lorgnettes, "half eyes," "flip down lenses," and foldable frames from the 1920s to the 1970s are shown. in the 63 pages of chapters 5 and 6 there are novelty, unusual, and extravagant frames. many frames with rhinestones, "cat-eye" frames, and unusual "butterfly-wing" frames are pictured, along with numerous outlandish frames. headband glasses and earring glasses from the 1960s are among those shown in this chapter. 33/27 the dust jacket states that the book contains "450 color photos and vintage ads." the quality of the photographs is excellent, although there is a little too much use of styrofoam "heads" to show the frames. the publisher's web site catalog is available at www.schifferbooks.com. d.a.g. eye votives from croatian shrines: the journal documenta ophthalmologica recently had an article on eye votives (dugac z. eye votives from croatian shrines. doc ophthalmologica 2001 ; 1 02: 11-17). a votive is an object presented to a divinity as part of a request for relief from a health problem or as am expression of gratitude. votives have been used in europe from the time of the ancient greeks and romans up to the present. votives can depict various organs of the body. the author, zeljko dugac, is with the croatian academy of sciences and arts, institute of the history and philosophy of science, division of the history of medicine, zagreb. dugac studied the use of eye votives by examining votives in croatian shrines, where the votives were given to the churches of a particular patron saint. the votives found dated from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. all of them showed healthy eyes without malformations. in contrast, some ancient greek and roman votives showed the presence of malformations and diseases. most of the votives studied by dugac showed a pair of eyes; some showed one eye. some were made from silver and some from wax, reflecting the wealth of the user. d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss {school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w. hofstetter {2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47401, u.s.a.); douglas k. penisten {college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch {school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch @socrates.berkeley.edu) 33/28 2002-33-03-001 2002-33-03-002 2002-33-03-003 2002-33-03-004 2002-33-03-005 2002-33-03-006 2002-33-03-007 2002-33-03-008 hjndsight ~/ newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume33 april2002 number2 jay enoch's column: isadore finkelstein, o.d., ph .. d. (january 6, 1905 -march 13. 1965) optometric scientist and scholar. inspirational teacher. and stalwart of the profession a tribute! lt:::t,~~~~.,:/\ t .r..:,r::.",::: ~ -·: .. :. isadore s. finkelstein i met isadore finkelstein in a curious way. in the fall of 1948, i recently had been admitted to the department of optometry at columbia university, and i was attending a school dance with my date. as i danced by, i heard a professor/teacher saying to someone, "i will pay $1.00 per hour for experimental subjects for this research." wow, $1.00 per hour! i literally crashed my date into the gentleman (there 33/9 0 was no apparent damage to either party), and i volunteered on the spot. thus, totally without realization of future implications, i had just entered into academic optometry, and met one of the most influential individuals i was to encounter throughout my career, the late prof. isadore finkelstein. he was "lzzy'' to some, and he became known as "finky" to our group. he was indeed a very special person. as a young man, he had very much wanted to be a forester, but he was discouraged from this pursuit for economic reasons. many years later he took my wife and me on a drive from rochester, ny, via newark, ny, to see marvelous experimental gardens of the rose purveyor, jackson and perkins, and we then proceeded down along lake cayuga, where he led us to see hidden waterfalls, and more, until, later, we arrived in new york city. this was a memorable experienceall the more so because we were debating theories of color vision, the nature of retinal functions and more along with details of the local flora and fauna for fully 8 to 10 hours. finkelstein attended ccny where he met his wife, ethyl. he graduated from the columbia optometry program in 1926, and then served on its faculty continuously until it closed in june, 1956. thus, he served the department of optometry at columbia for fully thirty years and the profession for another decade. he established a highly professional private practice. his office was just above the marquee of the paramount theater on times square. i remember his equipment was rather sparse. he had an american optical corporation phorometer with a built in trial frame on a modest stand (i used the same model some years later). he died of a heart attack while serving his very loyal patients on march 13, 1965. when i met him, finkelstein was working on his phd dissertation in physiology. he had started his graduate studies on the main campus of columbia university under the tutelage of the renowned prof. selig hecht. after hecht's untimely death, finkelstein transferred his studies to the college of physicians and surgeons on the medical school campus. there, in the department of ophthalmology, he served as a student of prof. george smelser, a fine anatomist. across the hall or corridor was located the laboratory of prof. ludwig von sallmann, next down the hall was prof. zacharias diche, his laboratory was followed by that of dr. de roethe, etc. we subjects were "mothered" (the only applicable word!) by prof. smelser's long time assistant, "minnie", as in minnie mouse, whose real name was victoria ozanics. finky's able assistant (a lovely lady whose name, sadly, i forget) guided us effectively in order to achieve the quality result demanded by him. the group of subjects varied a bit with time, but was a loosely knit assembly of optometry students. in addition to myself, our group was composed of bradford wild and bart wild (identical twins), herbert korones, william (bill) ludlam, and the earlier student and sometimes participant, benjamin davis. ben was already in optometric practice in the western tier of upstate new york, but would visit finky and the lab on occasion. with the exception of bart wild who took over his father's successful practice in rhode island, and ben, the remainder of us entered academic optometry! some years later, i discovered ben was engaged in academic studies with his brother-in-law, ira hirsch, a highly-respected 33/10 auditory researcher in st. louis. the transformation of our group into academics and researchers was not an accident! one day we were working as a group on a tough problem which was frustrating us all. finky asked us to stop what we were doing, and told us that we were going on an outing. we piled into his ancient black car, and he drove us up to one of the reservoirs in westchester county. we found a place where they were making fresh apple cider, and a farm stand where they were selling freshly picked and roasted corn. we picnicked leisurely on the rim of the reservoir for a period of time. we then debated the problem for some hours until we resolved the issues, returned to the lab, and worked through the night until dawn when we had properly completed the job. this was science perhaps as it was meant to be. the extraordinarily rewarding experience of that day and additional special experiences led virtually all of us to seek careers in academic optometry and optics. subsequently, brad wild became dean first at pacific and later at alabama, i was dean at berkeley (after serving at washington u. in st. louis and u. florida), bill ludlam served as an optometric researcher in the field of binocular vision and perception at pacific (and earlier at the optometric center of new york), and herb korones became the director of research at wollensak optical corp. in rochester, ny. this is a fine record of inspiring others to seek academic pursuits. this achievement by finkelstein compares favorably with morgan and fry, particularly because it was achieved over a brief span of years. finkelstein, 1952, was studying the biophysics and to some extent the biochemistry of corneal physiology in an effort to resolve the clouding of the cornea associated with then employed "fluid" scleral contact lenses. the associated syndrome was known as "sattler's veil". that is, a scleral lens was filled with an artificial tear solution (various). finkelstein systematically varied the parameters controlling ph, osmotic pressure, and chemical content of these solutions. extremely good progress was made by finkelstein and smelser in their attempt to understand and address the issues associated with sattler's veil. the program was sponsored by the u.s. army. note, a second group was working on the same problem at harvard. that group was headed by drs. v. everett kinsey and d. donaldson. finky precisely measured the clouding of the cornea, the brightness of diffraction halos seen about lights (two halos having separate sources), and analyzed the different effects resulting from varying the fluid contents of the fitted contact lenses. finkelstein found that the clouding resulted from interference with normal corneal metabolism. this resulted from the combination of the scleral contact lens and the artificial insertion fluid. at first oxygen in the fluid provided metabolic support, then the stored glycogen in the cornea served to sustain corneal clarity. as a result of anaerobic metabolism, ·available glycogen in the cornea became exhausted, and characteristic corneal swelling resulted, corneal clouding occurred, and diffraction halos were seen. also studied were the associated systematic and repetitive patterns of folds in descemet's membrane, and changes in the flow occurring in aqueous veins while the scleral contact lenses were worn. the latter study was done in cooperation with ascher. animals were fitted with contact lenses and parallel studies were conducted on rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, etc. as a result, we 33/11 indiana subjects learned to fit contact lenses. and finkelstein and smelser used sealed goggles to allow selected flow of various gaseous contents across the corneas. included selectively were, normal air flow, and varying contents of oxygen, no oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water vapor, etc. these were employed in order to create defined environments for the cornea, and helped greatly to clarify the physiology. they could replicate the results obtained when wearing the contact lenses with a gaseous environment. in other experiments, the glycogen would be exhausted by a first wearing of the lens with fluid 1, then fluid 2 was inserted into the lens (the latter fluid usually had different properties). the goal was to alter corneal physiological response rapidly and effectively. the u.s. army's interest and support had origin in events occurring in world war ii. over one million men had been exempted for poor eyesight, and the army hoped to retain some added proportion of inductees in future conflicts if sattler's veil in contact lenses could be solved. in time, research on sattler's veil by smelser, finkelstein, kinsey and donaldson was overtaken by development of scleral-vented lenses (josep or joseph dallos [glass scleral contact lenses], norman bier and theodore obrig et al. [pmma vented scleral contact lenses]). these newer lens forms allowed continuous and (fresh) replacement tear flow under the lens. not much later, corneal pmma hard contact lenses were introduced (tuohy lenses) see goodlaw, 1978. none of these events diminished the value of advances made by these scientists on corneal physiology. during the korean war, the army moved this research program to the u.s. army medical research laboratory (amrl) in fort knox, ky. finkelstein's equipment was provided to the army for use in these studies. as the only knowledgeable (if junior) member of the original group in the army at the time, i was assigned to the project under the leadership of major james mcgraw (a graduate of the ophthalmology program at columbia university). later, jim served for many years as chairman of the department of ophthalmology at syracuse university in upstate new york. he died recently. our work complimented that of smelser and finkelstein. publications of our studies are referenced under mcgraw and enoch, and enoch and mcgraw, 1952-1954. finkelstein received his ph.d. in 1953. by then he had been appointed assistant professor of optometry. most readers will remember that shortly after finkelstein receiving his ph.d. events occurred which resulted in the closing of the department of optometry at columbia university. this sad story is told in some detail by harvey jolt in a most interesting dissertation written for submission at new york university in 1973. there have been other discussions of this set of issues as well (cited by jolt). on march 30, 1954, columbia university announced the scheduled closing of the department of optometry in 1956. no new students were admitted in 1954, and the columbia program was terminated on june 30, 1956. finkelstein was one of a number of individuals who rallied to the school, the profession of optometry, and to the needs of the community and state when this series of events transpired. in this brief treatment, it is not possible to reproduce in abstract the two volume treatment provided by jolt. 33/12 quoting both obituaries, 1965, of isadore finkelstein, "realizing the need of an institution that would serve the needs formerly provided by columbia's department of optometry, dr. finkelstein worked diligently and idealistically toward the goal of establishing the optometric center of new york (ocny). in the words of other co­ founders, 'dr. isadore finkelstein was signally (? singularly) responsible for the drive and direction of the initiatory committee (chaired by finkelstein who had been elected unanimously to fill this role) and relentlessly drove it towards its goal.' when the center opened, dr. finkelstein became its executive director, a post he held until he was succeeded by dr. alden n. haffner. finkelstein continued to serve on the research staff of the center until his death." quoting harvey a. jolt, 1973, volume i, page 138: " drs. ludlam and finkelstein visualized the creation of a center that would be for the time being a repository of optometric education and knowledge until a new school could be established to which could be transferred anything which the conceived center had been able to create. it was especially essential that the proposed institution continue the clinical, research, postgraduate educational, and library activities of columbia." towards this end, they obtained some portion of the department's laboratory and clinical equipment, the optometry library, and the patient records and addresses which had been held by the columbia program. and they felt it incumbent upon themselves to play a meaningful role in behalf of the needy in the area where they practiced, and also to serve as a referral resource for the optometric community. finkelstein could be truly eloquent, and as jolt noted, he was a master of the english language. he certainly could simplify concepts readily for the student or practitioner. he held himselfto a high standard, and he would never compromise on principle. there is a passage in jolt, 1973, volume i, page 167, which should be quoted. this statement ably characterizes isadore finkelstein! "dr. isadore finkelstein was a leader who seemed to be a complete stranger to exhaustion, and at the same time appeared to be quiet and unassuming. he was the ideal picture of a gentleman and his actions fitted his image. he spoke softly, seldom displayed his anger, was considerate of the feelings of the people he dealt with, and displayed a paternal feeling towards the staff of the center. he projected the image of a scientist taking on problems in the confines of the laboratory. patient care and the image of the desire to attain the ideal professional optometric setting were his only standards." i remember well one day, i was feeling poorly. finky became concerned, took my pulse, felt my forehead, then kissed my forehead to see if i had a fever, and shipped me off home with words of encouragement. paternal indeed! and, when at ease, he could be great fun. 33/13 i am indebted to this kind, gentle, and inspiring exemplar! acknowledgments: a number of friends of isadore finkelstein, as well as his daughter, ms. natalie markin, helped me gather the necessary background material to prepare this tribute. norman haffner was indeed forthcoming. others who helped me included harold solan, ernest giglio, ed bechtold, and tony adams. photograph of prof. isadore finklestein, courtesy of dr. harold solan, and the suny college of optometry, ny. note of condolence: dr. finkelstein's wife, ethyl, recently passed away. we offer condolences to the family. references: enoch jm, mcgraw jl. contact lenses: some aspects of visual acuity and photophobia. part i. am j optom arch am acad optom 1954; 31:1-27. enoch jm, mcgraw jl. contact lenses: some aspects of visual acuity and photophobia, part ii. am j optom arch am acad optom 1954; 31:78-87. finkelstein is. the biophysics of corneal scatter and diffraction of light induced by contact lenses. (presented dec. 8, 1951 at the american academy of optometry.) am j optom arch am acad optom 1952; 29(4):185-208; 29(5): 231-259. (this is the published form of the dissertation of isadore s. finkelstein which had been submitted to the faculty of pure science, columbia university. most but not all references are located at the end of part ii, including citations of the work of sattler, kinsey, etc.) goodlaw el. how corneal contacts were born. contact lens forum, september, 1978; pp.31-35. jolt ha. dissertation, the optometric center of new york: it's history, organization, developmenta case study of the impact of a leadership role and analysis of it's effects upon a segment of the health community. new york, graduate school of public administration, new york university, 1973, in 2 volumes. suny college of optometry library ra 982 n3j6 1973, vol. 1 and vol. .2. mcgraw jl, enoch jm. contact lenses: an evaluation study. report #99, army med. research labs., fort knox, kentucky, october 10, 1952. mcgraw jl, enoch jm. contact lenses -an evaluating study. trans am acad ophtha1mol otolaryngol 1954; 58:561-575. obituary, dr. isadore s. finkelstein. optical j review optom april 1, 1965; 102: 69. (note: this journal is sometimes referenced as the review of optometry. contained in the school of optometry library, uc berkeley. re 1. 0 7 v. 1 02). obituary, dr. isadore s. finkelstein. optom weekly april 22, 1965; 56(16):42. (note: contained in storage, uc berkeley library, re 1. 0 78 v. 56:no.13-35). j.m.e. 33/14 the lewis and clark expedition and rush's eye wash: william c. frayer of the department of ophthalmology, scheie eye institute, university of pennsylvania, philadelphia, contributed an interesting article entitled "doctor rush's eye water and the opening of the american west" to the september­ october, 2001 issue of survey of ophthalmology (volume 46, number 2, pages 185189). meriwether lewis and william clark set forth on their famous journey on may 14, 1804. frayer notes that lewis and clark had complimentary skills not only for expedition, but also in caring for the health of their men and of people they encountered on trip. lewis was an excellent botanist and zoologist and had learned about herbal remedies from his mother. clark was noted as "tirelessly attending" to the health needs of people along their journey. before departing, lewis met with three physicians in philadelphia for medical advice: benjamin rush, casper wistar, and benjamin smith barton. of the three, lewis spent the most time with benjamin rush, a personal friend and a signer of the declaration of independence. among the supplies and items that rush recommended that they take with them was the recipe for a lead acetate (sugar of lead) eye wash: one ounce of white vitriol and four scruple (one-sixth of an ounce) of sugar of lead infused in two quarts of spring water or melted snow. lewis and clark noted eye problems much more frequently on the western side of the rocky mountains than on the first part of their journey. most of the nez perce and flathead indians had "sore eyes," and blindness was common. the cause of the blindness is unknown, but rush's eye water provided a very popular relief for the sore eyes. frayer notes that it was so popular that "the explorers were able to make good use of it as diplomatic currency." d.a.g. evolution of optometric education in the united states: the december, 2001, issue of optometry, published by the american optometric association, included an article by christopher e. woodruff entitled "the evolution of optometric education in america" (volume 72, number 12, pages 779786). woodruff mentions that early training in optometry was by apprenticeship. then, as in other professions, proprietary schools arose. some of these proprietary schools developed into some of the present-day schools and colleges of optometry. the first university optometry program started in 1910 at columbia university. the oldest university optometry program still in operation began in 1914 at the ohio state university. woodruff briefly outlines the origins of each of the existing optometry schools. 33/15 the author then discusses development of educational standards for optometry schools. these developments included a 1922 conference held in st. louis to establish optometric standards, the appointment in 1934 of a council of education by the american optometric association to conduct a study of optometric education, and then the establishment of accreditation procedures. in the latter part of the paper the author gives an overview of the development of optometry school curricula. d.a.g. a 13th century medical eye book: the september, 2001, issue of documenta ophthalmologica contains an article entitled ''the eye book of master peter of spain a glimpse of diagnosis and treatment of eye disease in the middle ages" (volume 103, number 2, pages 119-153). the authors are walter j. daly and robert d. vee of the indiana university school of medicine in indianapolis. pages 119 to 124 provide backgound and infomration on master peter and his eye book. pages 124 to 145 are a translation of the book. this is the first english translation of this book. in a discussion starting on page 145, the authors interpret what some of peter's diagnostic terms might have meant and place the book in the context of the times. master peter was petrus hispanus, a person of some prominence in the 13th century. he was born in the early 13th century in either spain or portugal. he studied at the university of paris, and later wrote a noted book on logic. peter established himself as a physician and cleric, and became pope john xxi in september of 1276. he died in may of 1277. peter's eye book (de oculis) must have been a widely used book in its time. a catalogue of medieval and renaissance manuscripts complied in 1975 by lindberg lists 220 manuscripts, 36 of which are copies of peter's eye book. daly and vee's translation was based on 14th, 15th, and 16th century latin manuscripts and a 19th century german translation. the book was not a scholarly treatise, but rather a clinical manual for physicians. in the opening paragraphs peter noted that "the human body is naturally and originally subject to the planets and signs," and that as a "searcher for truth," he "assembled this book from many books, from reason, and from experience." he also observed that ''vision is the bridegroom of the soul coming from the eyes as from a candelabra," an apparent reference to an extromission theory of vision. he then describes the diseases of the eye, and following that he explains the medical treatment of these diseases with diverse concoctions of combinations of various herbal materials, animal parts, wine, powders, milks, urine, animal droppings, etc. various nutritional and behavioral suggestions were made, including an admonition against sleeping with 33/16 shoes on. there is no obvious mention of refractive conditions or optics, although there are the observations that "another passion is decreased fineness of vision in which the spirit of vision is lost with bright light and strengthened in the shadows," and later that "diminished vision whenever it occurs, is caused by weakness in the spirit of vision." a listing of things that are "harmful to the eyes" included ''to read for long times through new books." surgical treatments are not mentioned often. daly and vee suggest that this may have been due to a 1215 prohibition by the church of clerics from performing surgery. peter's learning was probably largely based on greek and arab writings, in which anatomical knowledge came from the study of animals. physicians in the middle ages were confined by limited knowledge of ocular anatomy and pathophysiology, by belief in astrology, and by dependence on the authority of ancient philosophers. daly and vee suggested that peter's eye book "reflects medieval medicine." d.a.g. donations to ilamo welcomed: ohs member robert koetting wrote in the february 25, 2002 issue of the american optometric association news ("preserving optometric heritage yields personal rewards," volume 40, number 16, page 19) about the fund raising efforts of the international library, archives and museum of optometry (ilamo) in st. louis. the american optometric association endowment fund advisory committee has identified ilamo as a recipient of funds in its future fund-raising programs. benefactors can contribute toward various naming and gifting opportunities depending upon the size of the donation and the wishes of the contributors. koetting talks about the services offered by ilamo and about hopes and plans for future development. he also mentions examples of the materials to be found in the e. leroy ryer memorial museum at ilamo: "they include early instruments, invented and patented by optometrists. there are memorabilia associated with individual achievements and events that have shaped the history of optometry, the aoa, and many other professional organizations .... "among [the early optometric instruments] are a ryer retinoscope and a leland refractor, of which only three are believed to have ever been produced. "the museum also houses the personal possessions of charles prentice, the american 'father of optometry,' and personal papers of john mcallister, jr., dating from 1822, which confirm his prescribing cylindrical lenses at that early date. "a prized collection of eyeglasses shows many rare types, antique spectacles, and some specimens of more recent vintage. the contact lens exhibit even includes prof. 33/17 otto wichterle's original spin-casting equipment, with which he made the world's first soft contact lens." d.a.g. new book on ocular optics incorporates history chapter: a new book, published by butterworth-heinemann, entitled "introduction to the optics of the eye," contains a chapter on related history. the authors of the book are david a. goss of indiana university (please forgive me for a little shameless self promotion) and roger w. west of northeastern state university in oklahoma. the title of the tenth and final chapter in the book is "developments in visual optics and some of the people who made them possible." the chapter consists of six sections, of one to eight pages each: image formation by the eye, spectacles, astigmatism, accommodation, optics of the eye and patient care, and biographical sketches. the persons discussed in the biographical sketches section are johannes kepler, christoph scheiner, thomas young, jan evangelista purkinje, hermann von helmholtz, frans cornelis donders, allvar gullstrand, and glenn ansel fry. the chapter includes previously unpublished photographs of commemorative medals from the collection of jay m. galst, depicting kepler, purkinje, helmholtz, donders, and gullstrand. each individual chapter in the book is prefaced by at least one topical historical epigram. d.a.g. historical marker for michigan optometry: on the internet (http://www.michmarkers.com/pages/l 1408.htm), i found that michigan has placed a historical marker in lansing commemorating the michigan optometric association. the short text on the web site reads as follows: ''the state's professional optometry association was founded as the michigan optical society in muskegon in 1896. benson w. hardy, jay w. gould, ernst elmer, nelson k. standart, emil h. arnold were its first directors. in 1904 the group was incorporated as the michigan society of optometrists. it became the michigan optometric association in 1945. the group moved its headquarters to detroit in 1944 and to lansing in 1956. ninety years after its founding, the association included 670 practitioners of optometry." d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dqoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w. hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47401, u.s.a.); douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 33/18 volume33 hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa april2002 addition to number 2 it is with sadness that we report the passing of dr. henry hofstetter in bloomington, indiana on friday, may 10. he died peacefully in his favorite chair in his apartment at meadowood retirement community with his daughters at his side. he was 87 years old. dr. hofstetter, of course, had a great fondness for the optometric historical society. he was one of the founders of the organization, and he served as the president of ohs for the first several years. he was variously sole editor, co-editor, and contributing editor for the entire life to date of the society's newsletter. he felt very strongly about the importance of knowing about the history of the profession, and he often expressed his disappointment with the ignorance of many optometrists concerning optometric history. in july, 1.a96 ~ssue of hindsight (volume 27, number 3, pages 17-18), he wrote about how he came to realize that he was "in a discipline with as noble and pervasive a heritage as any that i had learned about in my preoptometric cultural studies," and about how historical study shows "optometry's centuries-long existence and emergence from a prestigious and sophisticated handicraft to its present academic stature, a truly proud history which includes many prominent and accomplished personalities." in 1987, the executive board of the optometric historical society established the henry w hofstetter recognition award to be given to persons who have made outstanding contributions toward the acquisition of better knowledge of optometry's heritage. the following is from dr. hofstetter's obituary published in the bloomington hoosier times of sunday, may 12, 2002 (page b2): henry w hofstetter was born in windsor mills, ohio on september 10, 1914, to immigrant parents, kaspar hofstetter from switzerland, and augusta kresin hofstetter from germany. the eighth of eleven children raised on a farm near huntsburg, ohio, he attended western reserve university, kent state university, and the ohio state university. he obtained his b.s. in optometry as well as his m.s. and ph.d. from ohio state, and it was there that he met frances jane elder, whom he married on july 5, 1941. after two years at western reserve, and needing to earn money for his education, hofstetter got a job teaching all eight grades in a one-room school, with extra pay for janitor duties. it was there that he discovered the importance of student interaction, and the need to keep education personal. with only a few students in each grade, they had to help each other, reinforcing individual skills and sense of 33/19 responsibility. he lived with an older sister and her husband, a jeweler in middlefield, ohio, and it was they who encouraged him to look into optometry. his ph.d. in physiological optics was the first such granted in the united states. he began his university career at ohio state, where he taught almost all professional courses as the result of faculty shortages during wwii. in 1948 he was offered the position of dean of the los angeles college of optometry (now southern california college of optometry). given his background in optometry curriculum development, he was invited in 1952 to indiana university, to direct the new optometry program established as a division within the college of arts and sciences. under his guidance, the program expanded in 1955 to include the phd degree. in 1975 the division officially became the school of optometry. he was known by optometrists worldwide, as a result of his interest in international optometry, and his focus on optometric practice and education throughout much of the world. in 1991 he was recognized as the international optometrist of the year by the international optometric and optical league, for his "profound influence upon the visual welfare of mankind". in april 1999, at an international symposium held in his honor at iu, he received the distinguished service award from the world council of optometry. hofstetter himself considered his most sigflificant achievement to have been his influence on optometric curriculum, where he introduced much of his own personal philosophy into courses, including cultural and broad-based scientific background rather than a purely clinical approach. he authored four textbooks and over 500 papers, and co-authored the dictionary of visual science and related clinical terms, including the 5th edition published in 2000. he is a past president of the association of schools and colleges of optometry, the optometric historical society, and the american optometric association. he has received five honorary doctorates, the prentice medal, the apollo award, the aoa . distinguished service award, the indiana optometric association's distinguished service award, and the orion award, the highest award of the armed forces optometric society. one of his most cherished honors was his appointment in 1974 to the distinguished rank of rudy professor of optometry at iu. he served on the bloomington hospital board for six years, was a member of rotary international for more than 40 years, and past president of the bloomington rotary club. "dr. hofstetter was preceded in death by his beloved wife, jane. he is survived by his daughter ann delaney of san francisco; his daughter susan mohme and her husband bill, of slidell, la; two grandchildren, katherine delaney and christopher mohme; his brothers carl and edwin hofstetter, and sisters edna savoy and edith conway. memorial contributions may be made to the indiana university foundation, the american optometric foundation, the optometric historical society, the bloomington rotary foundation, or the parkinson's disease foundation. 33/20 2002-33-02-001 2002-33-02-002 2002-33-02-003 2002-33-02-004 2002-33-02-005 2002-33-02-006 2002-33-02-007 2002-33-02-008 2002-33-02-009 2002-33-02-010 2002-33-02-011 2002-33-02-012 hindsight 1/ newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 36 october 2005 number4 ohs meeting at the meeting of the american academy of optometry: the optometric historical society will meet on saturday, december 10, 2005, from 8:00 to 9:00p.m. in torrey 3 room at the marriott hotel and marina. the speaker for the meeting is dr. robert boynton. the topic of his presentation will be "optometry, the last 50 years, a view from the outside." bob boynton is distinguished professor emeritus at university of california, san diego, and authored an article in the last issue of hindsight. jay enoch's column: a jewel in the crown: the program in optometry at the university of rochester in new york; part ii. the termination of the program, 1936 in my previous contribution to hindsight, i spoke of the founding of the program in (or school of) optometry at the university of rochester in new york (first students admitted, 1926; formal initiation of the institute of optics and program in optometry, 1929; first graduating class, 1930; closure of the program in/school of optometry, 1936). in modern parlance, we speak of schools and colleges of optometry. and the u. of rochester four-year-program in optometry would have been termed a school. when it was first conceived, it was rather unique and had a number of distinguished faculty! in early records concerning the institute of optics, this educational unit was termed the "institute of applied optics" (p. 8, a jewel in the crown)). there is also a mention of a "school of optics"which referred to both design optics and optometry (e.g., p. 7). these two programs were interwoven vis-a-vis teaching and laboratory assignments of a number of the same faculty, but the two curricula were thought of as separate entities. it seems appropriate to refer here to a u. of rochester "program" in, or division of optometry. in this communication, i discuss the termination of this nascent, but most promising optometry program. once again, the details are recorded in the book, "the 36135 ··'diana univef:.31: . dec 0 8 i:~c) ,i, ~me"fry libhah, jewel in the crown", which was written as part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the institute of optics of the university of rochester, rochester, ny. the editor is prof. carlos r. stroud, jr. and the book is published by the meliora press (u. of rochester press), rochester, ny, 2004, isbn 1-58046-162-x. he kindly granted the writer permission to reproduce pertinent material for this document. note: figures, lists of faculty, and lists of student graduates associated with this discussion were presented with part. 1. they appeared in hindsight 36(3, july) pp. 36/20-28), 2005. the optometry program was both a part of the early optics program on the "old campus" on prince street in downtown rochester (eastman building), and, later, it was included in development of the relatively suburban "new campus". for those who know rochester, the new campus is located not far from the airport, pretty close to the erie canal, and to the university medical center. ernest petry's office and classrooms were located on the top floor (4th floor), east end, and the glass workshop was placed at the west end of the same floor of the bausch and lomb building (physics and optics). this building is located on the main campus quadrangle adjacent to rush rhees library. the combined optics programs rather quickly crowded available space. in 1933, important reports were written. one, presented to dr. rees by wilbur b. rayton of bausch and lomb (a key player in the formation of the institute of optics (pp.6-9, 19)), emphasized there was apparently only limited interest in geometric optics (design) in the nation, and he further emphasized the critical importance of this field both for the nation and the optics industry. a second report (also referring to the rayton report), by charles e. dalton, university field secretary, presented results of a survey relating to performance and manpower in the institute of optics program (p. 19). 10 of 19 students in the applied optics program were from outside of the city (rochester). dalton noted that students in the new optics programs were "markedly" superior to students (then) admitted to the general student population at u. of rochester. specifically referring to the optometry students, of the 31 students in the program, only 2 were from the city of rochester, and 7 were from outside of new york state. thus, "optometry was evidently a drawing power for students outside of "the city" for the university, and their level of achievement was "comparable to [that of] the eastman school of music" (p.20). this was high praise. but! here the writer quotes from a key paragraph taken from "a jewel in the crown" (p. 22, see alsop. 24). "following considerable discussion with the sponsoring companies, columbia university, and with the (ny) state department of education in albany, it was decided, judging by recent registrations at both columbia and rochester, one school of optometry in the state was apparently adequate to supply the need and this should be columbia. the closing of the optometry division in the institute of optics received considerable attention in the press." the program in applied optics was retained. 36/36 a third report was prepared by prof. t. russell wilkins. it was contained in a document submitted to the president of the university dated 1932-1933, and referred to changes proposed for academic year 1933-1934, in light of the recent decision by the trustees of the u. of rochester, i.e., the decision to discontinue the program in optometry. [wilkins had been appointed at u. of rochester as junior professor of physics in 1925-1926 (he had earned his ph.d. in physics as a student of r.a. millikan at u. of chicago). along with rayton, wilkins had served as one of those planning the institute of optics, and he was named the first acting director of the institute of optics (pp. 6,9,20,21 ).] thus, the program in optometry was terminated in 1936, although mr. wilder's (optical shop head) contract was maintained through to his retirement in 1938/9 (p. 35). the emphasis of the institute of optics would then be pure and applied optics, and lens design in all of its manifestations. always kind, hilda kingslake concludes her chapter which addresses the program in optometry in the book, "a jewel in the crown", with the statement, "several of our optometry alumni [total 40 graduates, listed in the prior article] have a fine record of service and contribution to the university of rochester." it is sad that so promising an optometric enterprise was not sustained in a satisfactory form. these changes were occurring in the years of the great depression. they also marked the prelude to the second world war. one gets the feeling there was more to be said. the closing of the optometry division or program was only briefly discussed. the writer senses the rochester program was dominated by a group within optics who had as their primary interest optical design and realization of skills which had been present earlier in europe, and which had been found to be deficient in the u.s.a. and u.k. apparently, at the same time, prof. j.p.c. southall, in particular, was interested in the development of the optometry program at columbia. in the 1930s, one could detect impending war clouds gathering over europe and in the far east. but surely a rather modest-size quality school or program in optometry would not have interfered with efforts to build an optics program in support of the co­ emerging optics industry. a not too narrowly drawn optometry program could have complimented the more classical optics program which developed at rochester. in fact, at a later time, prof. robert boynton, and his co-workers in the center for vision science at rochester, effectively provided such support. we should not forget that the long term director of the institute was prof. brian o'brien who had been recruited originally to teach physiological optics. while teaching loads in the optometry program were large, and relief was needed, that should not have been an insurmountable problem. it is a curious history. j.m.e. 36/37 reminiscences of glenn fry by gerald westheimer: editor's note: robert boynton's reminiscences in our last issue (hindsight july 2005; 36:17 -20) of beginning his graduate studies with lorrin riggs at brown university brought back memories in optometric historical society member gerald westheimer, boynton's contemporary, of his own experiences as glenn fry's graduate student at ohio state university school of optometry. westheimer is noted tor his many significant contributions to vision science, evidence of which is that he received the tillyer medal from the optical society of america in 1978, the proctor medal from the association tor research in vision and ophthalmology in 1979, and the prentice medal from the american academy of optometry in 1986. graduate studies with glenn fry at ohio state bob boynton's account of how in 1948 he came to start his graduate studies in vision with lorrin riggs at brown university made my mind go back to the same period and to what it was like to become glenn fry's graduate student. after finishing the optometry program at the sydney technical college in australia in 1943 and entering private optometric practice in 1945, i continued part-time studies in mathematics, physics and physiology, seeking a better understanding of vision and the eye. but it soon became apparent that sydney's resources in higher education in optometry and vision science were limited, and about 1949 i began to look abroad, specifically the united states. it had to be a bootstrap operation because no direct contacts with american optometry existed at the time. letters to the optometry schools at columbia and berkeley brought back discouraging answers. but the reply from dr. fry, director of the school of optometry at ohio state university, was more positive, saying in essence that it would be possible to be admitted to the graduate program if there were documentary evidence of my academic achievements and that a teaching assistantship, remunerated at $1,200 per annum, would be available. i was not an entirely unknown quantity, having just had a correspondence with osu graduate student mathew alpern in which i had pointed out a possibly inadmissibly approximation in his paper on the aca ratio with contact lenses, recently published in the american journal of optometry. this resulted in "further comment" by alpern in the same journal (27:238-241, 1950) containing the sentence: "professor glenn a. fry and, independently, mr. gerald westheimer, have raised the question " nor, of course, was fry, the scientist, an unknown quantity to me. i had read some of the papers he had published and was impressed with the range of his researches and scientific aims, though frankly i did not fully understand many of his arguments and the origin and scope of the equations. hence i accepted fry's offer and asked him, in turn, to send me the needed documentation to obtain a student visa from the american consulate in sydney. the plan was to leave sydney by boat in july 1951 36/38 to enter in the fall. in spite of reminder letter after reminder letter, there was complete silence from columbus. only later did i find out that fry rarely read his mail. finally he responded to a reply-paid telegram and the paperwork arrived at the last minute to obtain the visa and fly across the pacific in september 1951 . thus i arrived in columbus without the benefit of having previously met fry or of knowing what graduate studies with him would entail. when i reached columbus at 1 0 pm and, as he had instructed me by letter, phoned his home apologizing for the late hour, mrs. fry answered and in, what i later recognized to be a resigned tone, told me that dr. fry had gone back to the lab for the evening and i should phone him there. i did and he had me picked up by a fellow graduate student and driven to the school where i finally met the mentor to whom i had traveled half-way round the world. glenn was then 43, tall, balding, and always unfailingly courteous. first thing, i was shown around the building and made to admire the workshop and complicated mechanical devices that were being built there. returning to fry, who was sitting on a high stool at a big drawing board, i was asked by him what i thought of the place. i had no idea of what vision research facilities might look like, so i mumbled something about a surprising emphasis on experimental apparatusafter all i knew fry only from theoretical papers -to which i received the firm reply "here we believe in rolling up our sleeves and building things!" while this was certainly true, fry actually had an exceedingly wide-ranging interest in the whole subject of the eye and vision. the most important contact with him during the first year of graduate study was the advanced course in physiological optics course he taught for the whole year, covering the gamut from optics to color vision, perception and eye movements. the emphasis in the graduate program was indeed on construction of research apparatus, almost entirely in the form of metal devices fabricated in the department's shop, which featured a large collection of drill-presses, band-saws, lathes, milling machines and wood-working tools. fry had cabinets full of lenses and prisms, the keys to which he kept locked in his desk drawer. his was an extraordinary ability to visualize geometrical relationships in three dimensions and he enjoyed nothing more than latching onto some aspect of a student's research project and, in the spur of the moment, invent an elaborate solution involving highly complicated devices that would take years to complete. this should be contrasted with the style of fry's scientific publications. in almost all of his papers, the basis is a theoretical argument, usually presented in terms of formulas for which readers are inadequately prepared. mathematically, fry was an autodidact, not accustomed to the professional manner of presenting steps in sequence when proving a proposition. in spite of the "hands-on" attitude he fostered in his laboratory, his contributions feature theoretical considerations much more than new experimental findings. it was customary for fry to micromanage his graduate student's project, spending innumerable hours planning instrumentation and going over draft after draft of 36/39 dissertations, usually well into the night. it was simpler to get hold of him evenings, because during the day he carried a heavy teaching and administrative load. however, he and i developed a different relationship. when it had been established that my thesis research would be on eye movements, he allowed me to graft the project on the instrumentation used in his ph.d. by charles stewart, who had just left to become dean of the college of optometry at the university of houston. knowing that fry would use any technical problem as incentive to design and have me construct gadgetry, i gave him a wide berth and took mechanical and electrical queries to merrill allen, then an ·associate professor, who with a few strokes and simple tweaking would solve any technical problems in a quick and elegant manner. · after the data and analysis part of the thesis work was finished to my satisfaction, i went to fry with them one evening, aware of the painful experience of other graduate students in his demands for unending re-writing. the first thing that came up for criticism was the title. i had the "oculomotor responses to visual stimuli" in a tribute to my favorite book at the time, trimmer's "response of physical systems." after considerable discussion we agreed on a change to "the response of the oculomotor system to visual stimuli in the horizontal plane." to give the thesis a little extra literary touch, i had prefaced each chapter with what i thought was a cute quotation. for some reason that bothered glenn, and he and i argued extensively about the appropriateness of having mottos in general, and, in particular, about the propriety of the one from scriptures for pursuit eye movement "seek and ye shall find." (the frys regularly attended the indianola presbyterian church in columbus.) the argument went on till about midnight and then suddenly fry announced that he was tired and going home. this from someone who usually stayed on till4 am. in the end i thought it better to remove the quotations, but because fry had terminated the discussion without rescheduling a follow-up, regarded this as an affirmation that he had accepted the thesis. when it was finally prepared in the proper form, i took it to him for signature not without some concern that he might revert to form and demand re-writes. but glenn leafed through it, commented that he hadn't really read all of it, and signed it. though glenn's scientific training, attitude and style were different from mine, his full-time, life-long dedication to vision research remains an inspiration. he gave me a start, and throughout my days as his graduate student invariably acted in a gentlemanly manner and with personal kindness. gerald westheimer division of neurobiology university of california berkeley, ca 94720-3200 36/40 indiana university : :.· : 1 i00~1 more on fry and westheimer: library glenn fry had many students who would become well known in optometry and vision science. a list of his ph.d. students obtained from j.p. schoessler of the ohio state university in 1999 is as follows: henry hofstetter (1942), vincent ellerbrock (1947), merrill allen (1949), mathew alpern (1950), henry knoll (1950), charles r. stewart (1951 ), gerald westheimer (1953), neal j. bailey (1954), jay enoch (1956), theodore grosvenor (1956), bradford wild (1959), earl f. miller (1961 ), jess boyd eskridge (1964), vincent king (1971 ), john p. schoessler (1971 ), ronald jones (1972), william brown (1977), david loshin (1977), james e. sheedy (1977), william w. somers (1977), and kent m. daum (1979). those wishing to read more about dr. fry can consult: macneille sm. glenn a. fry: edgar d. tillyer medalist for 1961. j opt soc am 1961; 51:1045. enoch jm. glenn ansel fry: an 801h birthday celebration: introduction. optom vis sci 1990;67:577. anonymous. dr. fry's art, science transformed optometry. am optom assoc news jan 22, 1996;5-6. augsburger a. a celebration of the life of glenn ansel fry, september 10, 1908-january 5, 1996. optom vis sci 1996;73:223-224. after gerald westheimer completed his ph.d., he served on the optometry faculty at the university of houston in 1953-54 and then at the ohio state university for six years. in 1960, he moved to the university of california at berkeley where he is professor of the graduate school and division of neurobiology and clinical professor in the school of optometry. details of his life and career can be found in: wright cw. history of australian optometry. carlton, victoria: australian optometrical association, 1988:206-208. alpern m. on presentation of the proctor medal of the association for research in vision and ophthalmology to gerald westheimer. invest ophthalmol vis sci 1979;18:883-892. mckee sp. optics, physiology and vision: introduction. vision res 1990;30:1529-1530. mitchell de. professor gerald westheimer frs, australian optometry's pre-eminent vision scientist. clin exp optom 2001 ;84:296-300. d.a.g. 36/41 article on dartmouth eye institute: an article entitled "adelbert ames and the dartmouth eye institute" appeared in the journal of neuro-ophthalmology in 2003 (volume 23, number 4, pages 290-297). adelbert ames attended undergraduate school and law school at harvard. soon becoming disillusioned with law practice, he became an artist, which in turn interested him in visual perception. in 1914, ames began formal study of visual perception at cark university. after a period of time in the united states army, ames in 1919 started work with physics professor charles proctor at dartmouth. in 1921, ames and proctor published a paper entitled "dioptrics of the eye" in the journal of the optical society of america. the notoriety of that paper led to the formation of the department of physiological optics at dartmouth, which drew students such as gordon glidden and kenneth ogle. as a result of the work pursued by these and other investigators, the dartmouth eye institute (del) was established. noted optometrists such as robert bannon and well known ophthalmologists such as alfred bielschowsky, hermann burian, and walter lancaster were at the del for various periods of time. as a note related to jay enoch's two-part discussion of optometric education in rochester in this and the previous issue of hindsight, the article mentioned that del optometrist leo madigan had been a student of gordon glidden at the rochester school of optometry. collaborations of ophthalmologists, optometrists, and basic scientists resulted in a clinic which treated difficult patients and in numerous scientific papers, largely in the areas of binocular vision and aniseikonia. the del closed in 1947. the 15 photographs accompanying the paper include pictures of ames, madigan (behind an early version of an eikonometer), bielschowsky, burian, and lancaster, as well as a group picture of del members in 1941. other photographs include pictures of the del eye clinic, a pair of spectacles with iseikonic lenses, and the del leaf room. this article is recommended to persons wanting to read more about the dartmouth eye institute. also recommended is the much more detailed book eyes in the storm, president hopkins dilemma: the dartmouth eye institute, by david bisno, published by norwich press in 1994. d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 36142 2005-36-04-001 2005-36-04-002 2005-36-04-003 2005-36-04-004 2005-36-04-005 2005-36-04-006 2005-36-04-007 2005-36-04-008 apr 0 3 1996 243 north volume 25 o~'tf·tii>•:i•'• ~~:,.;)······· ~ lndmna university • • hindsigb~~ h $ , 1/ newsletter of thf libn~ry ! optometric historical se~~oo•$o·~~-~~~ lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa january 19 94 number 1 initial i.o.o.l. concerns: in a previous item i attempted to describe the participation of the american optometric association in the establishment of the international optical league as represented by delegate frederic a. woll at the founding meeting in cologne, germany, on july 3-4, 1928. now i should like to identify the primary concerns and topics dealt with at that same meeting as reflected in the german minutes published in the november 1928 issue of deutsche optische wochenschrift, vol. 14, no. 46, pp. 634-641 under the title of "die grundungsversammlung der internationalen optiker-liga." the eight items on the agenda included conventional categories of business, namely, (1) opening remarks and greetings, {2) election of chair (brennecke of berlin), (3) the report of organizer w. lohmann, (4) discussion of the basis of the i.o.l., (5) by-laws, headquarters, and election of officers, (6) time and place of the next meeting, (7) commentaries on announced topics, and (8) closing remarks by the presidents of the i.o.l. and the host organization (the national alliance of german optical societies) . the items of special historical interest here, however, are numbers 4 and 7, for they reveal what professional concerns were uppermost in the minds of the 26 participants representing their various constituents from the continent, great britain, and the united states. these concerns were clearly divulged in the individual reports of conditions, patterns, and needs in each reporting delegate's home country. some were a bit boastful, some slightly apologetic, and others hopeful. three issues predominated. one was the improvement of professional training. a second was the exclusive delivery of eyewear by opticians. the third was legislation relating to the practice of refraction by opticians. from these revelations emerged the eventual statement of purposes in the initial by-laws of the i.o.l. as adopted at the next meeting two years later and published on pages 728-730 of the 1930 edition of the same journal, vol. 16, no. 47, as follows: 1. the advancement of the status of the optician. 2. the gathering and dissemination of information about the practice of the optical profession with reference to the deli very of eyewear in different countries and especially regarding (a) the relationship between opticians and ophthalmologists. 25/2 (b) optical organizations. (c) optical education. (d) national and regional controls. (e) the relationship of opticians with health insurance agencies. 3. the establishment of an international advisory board for national optical organizations. 4. to provide assistance to national optical organizations in the protection of their members' interests. 5. the improvement of educational methods for opticians. 6. the holding of international optical conferences. 7. the furthering of research in the area of optics. 8. the interchange of methods for informing the public about the preservation and improvement of vision. while these concerns and objectives may seem a bit mundane to today's participant in organized optometric activities, they nevertheless take on a striking significance with the realization that not one of them was implemented or pursued internationally anywhere in the world prior to the formation of the i.o.l. a point that one has to keep in mind when reading the minutes and by-laws is the fact that the prevailing term of identification of the refracting nonmedical optical practitioner in europe was simply optician, optiker, or its etymological equivalent in any other language. the terms "optometrist" and "augenoptiker" were briefly mentioned and somewhat summarily recognized as regionally and recently introduced appellations with restrictive connotations to distinguish the eyewear-related practitioner from the emerging personnel involved with technical optics quite unrelated to visually corrective measures. in this connection there was considerable discussion to remove any doubts that, even with the broad generic meaning of the term optical or optician, it was to be clearly understood that membership in the i.o.l. (not yet the present i.o.o.l.) was for member organizations whose own members included refraction in their services. perhaps the most striking overall feature of the minutes is the commonality of concerns among the participants from many culturally different countries, speaking different languages, hitherto unacquainted with each other, and less than 10 years beyond the hostilities of world war i. and today we can also see that the commonality pervades another era more than two generations later. h.w h. trial sights, trial lenses? ohs member eric muth submitted to us a photocopy of page 66 of the 1873 catalog of "james w. queen & co., philadelphia and new york" on which was listed trial sights as stock item #1939. its descriptive paragraph reads as follows: "nachett' s complete series of trial sights, consisting of 32 pairs spherical convex and 32 25/3 pairs spherical concave lenses, from 2 to 72 inches focus; 19 pairs cylindrical convex and 19 pairs cylindrical concave lenses, from 6 to 60 inches focus; 9 prisms, angles from 2° to 10°, all mounted in handsome metallic frames; 4 colored glasses, 4 metal disks, 1 stenopaic instrument, and a graduated adjustable frame for holding the various lenses; the whole packed in a highly-polished mahogany, or morocco covered case." what is puzzling is that the weakest sphere in the case was about 1.8 diopters and the weakest cylinder was about 1.5 diopters. can one of our collectors offer some insight? detective use of glasses: richard austin freeman, 1862-1943, a fellow countryman and contemporary of arthur conan doyle, 1859-1930, was to many "the dean of scientific detective story writers" and especially popular among readers who appreciated the scientific touch of his favorite character dr. thorndyke. in the editorial commentary on page 339 of the december, 1933, issue of the dioptric review under the rubric of "split bifocals" appear the following paragraphs regarding one of freeman's novels of the same year: it is always amusing when reading a novel to come across allusions to spectacles and to note the mistakes that authors almost invariably make. recently i came across this interesting passage in "dr. thorndyke intervenes," by austin freeman:-". . . and he wore spectacles. " "what kind of spectacles?" thorndyke asked. "i dunno," replied bunter. "spectacles is spectacles. i ain't a optician." "some spectacles are large," said thorndyke," and some are small. some are round and some are oval, and some have a line across as if they had been cracked. would his fit any of these descriptions?" "why, yes, now you come to mention it. they was big, round spectacles with a sort of crack across them. but it couldn't have been a crack because it was the same in both eyes." i noticed that miller had cast a quick look at thorndyke, and was now eagerly writing down the description. evidently he "smelt a fox," and so did i. for, though thorndyke had not really put a "leading question," he had mentioned a very uncommon kind of spectacles--the old­ fashioned type of bifocal, which is hardly ever made now, having been superseded by the cemented or ground lunette. i had no doubt, nor, i think, had miller, that he was describing a particular pair of spectacles; and this suspicion was strengthened by his next questions. the author in this case is nearer the mark than most with the exception of one word, "lunette," which he uses. in modern times it would scarcely be considered as applying to spectacles except when writing in french. 25/4 part 1-a of hirschberg's vol. 11: this is a 1992 translation by f.c. blodi of another segment of julius hirschberg's eleven volume history of ophthalmology, this one bearing the intriguing subtitle of "the re.form of ophthalmology." it is a very weighty book of well over 300 hard glossy pages in 62 sections numbered from 1001 to 1062 with a puzzling sequence of titles, a few random examples being "anatomy of the visual system," "seebeck and the history of color blindness," "resistance against the ophthalmoscope," "the history of myqpia," and "graefe's private life." an "index of personal names" lists more than 800 persons ranging alphabetically from abarbanell to zwingli. (abarbanell was a general physician who reported in 1852 a feeble attempt to use the ophthalmoscope, "augenspiegel" in german. three hundred years earlier zwingli had used the word augenspiegel to mean spectacles.) it is interesting, and perhaps signif.icant, to note that in the index of names helmholtz is keyed to 82 pages, graefe to 78, and donders to 49, the three persons most frequently cited. the so-called period of reform is identified with the second half of the 19th century. this corresponds with the era during which eye physicians invaded optometry's (opticianry' s) prior private domain of more than a half-millennium, though hirschberg does not comment on this phase. it was an extremely well founded reform associated primarily with physiologist helmholtz's creative teachings in visual science and his invention and promotion of the ophthalmoscope; physiologist donders' researches on accommodation and refraction; and the contemporary contributions of numerous others of scientific bent from a variety of disciplines attracted to the study of how we see. it seems reasonable to believe that the simultaneous explosive emergence of the pertinent literature and of organized societies and meetings must have been enhanced by the improved communications and transportation facilities such as afforded by the establishment and rapid expansion of the steam­ powered railway system of that era. unlike hirschberg's earlier volumes, this one deals with a period that comes within his own living memory or within that of persons with whom he was acquainted. it is also evident that hi;schberg was an avid reader of the literature and made copious notes on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of passages, some direct quotes and many personal comments and interpretations, some technical and others of purely human interest. for example, he points out in one paragraph that purkinj e "studied the pressure phosphenes of the eye precisely for the first time, " and in another, "the faculty initially rejected purkinje because he had been born in bohemia." the text, then, instead of being a flowing account of a trend or development, is a reproduction of these notes and citations quite loosely classified under 62 headings. indeed, it includes a 25/5 wealth of otherwise quite inaccessible information but in hodgepodge form. perhaps unwittingly, hirschberg in no way realizes that in this book he has covered much of optometry's historical involvement in its own emergence from the long influential guild pattern. contributed by ralph e. wick: carved in granite why would a famous sculptor spend many hours of extra effort to carve glasses on one of his famous works? my first encounter with gutzon borglum the sculptor occurred on a trout stream in the black hills of south dakota. borglum was the carver of the likenesses of washington, jefferson, lincoln, and theodore roosevelt at mount rushmore, south dakota. the busts are carved in heroic proportion out of the uplifted eroded granite of the earth's crust. viewing these figures framed by the pines along the winding road one is impressed immediately by the realistic reproductions of these familiar figures. approaching from another direction three tunnels are so located as to frame the faces over a mile away. by the time one reaches the visitors center of the national monument one can anticipate a formal presentation of the history of these statesmen and why they were chosen. it is an emotional moment that every american should experience. it serves to remind us that as a nation we had great leaders during our developmental years; and that in spite of our present day politicians our democracy continues to exist because of the contributions of these great leaders. this meeting with the famous sculptor came when a friend of mine drove up with gutzon borglum. he had seen that i was landing a large rainbow trout. i tried to wash the fish odor from my hands before we exchanged greetings. however, borglum explained that this did not bother him. dry-fly fishing was one of his hobbies when he. was not "on the mountain" chiseling and blasting rock. borglum's personality was a bit overpowering; though, i did have the foresight to congratulate him on his work, especialiy the pince-nez glasses on teddy roosevelt. he responded that carving the glasses and giving a realism to the eyes were two of the hardest parts of his work. i said, "you know that roosevelt was extremely myopic and completely dependent on his glasses. " he acknowledged that he learned of this during the two years he spent researching a location for the monument and the lives of these presidents before he started any carving. like a true artist he wanted to express the inner personality of the men being immortalized in stone. young teddy was a sickly child. he had asthmatic attacks and a form of nervous diarrhea which the family called "cholera morbus." his father became concerned about the development of his 25/6 son. he told him that he had the mind but not the body; that if he wanted to develop his mind further he could not do it without the body. this greatly impressed young teddy, as he lived in a world of books often reading one or two a day. his father, whom he worshipped, set up a weight and exercise room--the young boy still remained awkward for any activities requiring distance vision. bird hunting was a popular sport among the family and their friends. teddy first began to question his own vision at about twelve years of age. he was puzzled by the fact the he could not hit anything with his gun. it bothered him even more that his friends, using his gun, seemed to be able to hit the invisible; when they shot into the sky, birds mysteriously dropped out of the blue. in his autobiography he mentioned that his friends read an advertisement on a large billboard. he was unable to see any of the letters on the sign. he mentioned this to his father and soon obtained his first pair of spectacles. as he put it, "they literally opened an entirely new world to me. i had no idea how beautiful the world was until i got those spectacles . . . . while much of my clumsiness and awkwardness was doubtlessly due to general characteristics. a good deal of it was due to the fact i could not see and yet was wholly ignorant that i was not seeing." one of the most prolific biographers of roosevelt, edmund morris, writing in his book, the rise of theodore roosevelt,· put it in beautiful prose, "it is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this event on the boy's maturing sensibilities. through the miraculous little windows that now gripped his nose, the world leaped into pristine focus, disclosing an infinity of detail, of color, of nuance, and of movement, just when the screen of his mind was at its most receptive. one of the best features of his adult descriptive writing--an unsurpassed joy in things seen dates back to this moment; while--his abnormal sensitivity to sound--is surely the legacy of the myopic years that came before." reviewing many photographs of roosevelt one finds that in his maturity he was almost never seen without his regular spectacles or his pince-nez. in the green years at harvard he obviously removed his spectacles for group photographs. vanity was as great in the 187-0's as for the modern teenager-except that one cannot help wonder if he was able to see the photographer! early in my optometric career i remember hearing that his myopia was about -lo.ood. i have never seen that verified, but in some museum there must be a pair of roosevelt's spectacles that one could neutralize. perhaps there is even a written copy of his refraction. are any of our historians aware of accurate information about the power of these career shapers? so, the importance of early optometric service has been recognized by one of the greatest sculptors of modern times. 25/7 and the glint in the eyes of these great leaders--how is this done? we have all seen sculptures whose blank staring eyes completely ruin the expression of the entire face; the corneal reflex is missing. borglum sensed this and worked years to achieve it in granite. here is how: the eye socket is about eleven feet wide and three feet high. it is cut back into the stone about three feet. this would leave a black pupil with no reflex. he solved this by leaving a one foot square piece of granite extending twenty-two inches out from the back of the eye socket. the reflection from the foot square smooth granite provides a reflex near the middle of the dark hole. this gives a reflection like the pupillary reflex in the human eye. it would be interesting to measure the inter-pupillary distance (p.d.) on the face. borglum also considered the differences in this among people. the appearance of a narrow or wide p.d. helps form the expression of a face. this is influenced not only by the actual p.d. but by the angle from which the eyes are viewed and the effect of shadows at different times of the day. so often we take for granted what we do in day-by-day refractions not realizing that an entire life can be changed by this procedure. perhaps it takes an inspired sculptor researching the reasons for greatness in a person to carve in granite one of the importance contributions to the direction of a human life. the glass illusion: upon receiving dr. wick's manuscript i asked him if the appearance of actual glass lenses was attributable to the way the granite was differentially polished. the answer was no, that he merely emphasized the border of each pince-nez lens by means of a slight outlining ridge, which then induces the illusion of glass lenses. h.w h. from the o.a.i.c.c.: on page 1 of the october 1992 issue of the ophthalmic antigues international collectors club newsletter, no. 41, editor macgregor describes his attendance of the big july 2 sale of scientific instruments at christie's in london which included 30 lots of spectacles and other items of ophthalmic interest. after describing several of the items which sold at three and four digit prices he advises, "if you have any rare spectacles to sell, now is the time!" an article on pages 3-8 is devoted totally to the topic of "real tortoiseshell," with contributions from r.j .s. macgregor, hugh orr, derek c. davidson, and stuart eadon-allen. dealt with in personally authoritative detail are the origin, source, and history of the hawksbill turtles, their capture, methods of killing them, .•,,.:.··. 25/8 the skillful processing of the shells for use in spectacle frames and trinkets, their commercialization, and their present classification as an endangered species with protective laws. this may well be the most informative document available on this phase of ophthalmic history. optometric fraternities: according to an epsilon psi epsilon pledge manual, undated but known to have been published in 1949, circa oct. 1, the fraternity's first chapter, alpha, was founded may 3, 1911, at columbia university and folded in 1924. however, its second, beta, chapter was established at the ohio state university on march 27, 1920, and continues to be active. the third, gamma, chapter was installed at the rochester school of optometry in rochester, new york, in early 1921 but was terminated in 1933 with the closing of the school. a table in the manual shows epsilon psi epsilon to have been the earliest optometric fraternity, followed in 1917 by omega delta, in 1919 by gamma omega phi and omega epsilon phi, and in 1920 by phi theta upsilon. in 1931 the beta chapter of epsilon psi epsilon at the ohio state university undertook the publication of an occasional two­ paged newsletter, later a multipaged printed magazine, which was eventually named the 0-eye-0 and distributed to members and alumni of all three chapters and to others with related interests. editor: managing editor: .. contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1994-25-01-001 1994-25-01-002 1994-25-01-003 1994-25-01-004 1994-25-01-005 1994-25-01-006 1994-25-01-007 1994-25-01-008 vr: ••• '· • ~ • •• , ~ ............ w ••••••••••• t • of! llloiihl(; ui!ivt'isil~ fjptomhry ubf;rjii i aug ~ ~~ 1s89 aug 2 3 1989 . newsletter : ubrar~ : of the f'·ll"ih~h\ maut~~nv ......................... £:. ~.'l'.q~:,etric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard t. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) volume 20 january 1989 number 1 1989 ohs officers: during the december 1988 ohs meeting at columbus, ohio, the executive board appointed two new members (charles raine and bridget kowalczyk) and reappointed another (douglas penisten) to their board. the terms of two members of the 1988 board (pat carlson and douglas penisten) expired on december 31, 1988 and another member (maria dablemont) requested resignation from the board. since this left three vacancies and since the newsletter mailing was behind, the board deemed it necessary not to wait and made the new appointments. soon afterwards by mail the executive board elected the ohs officers from among themselves. listed below are the 1989 ohs executive board members with their respective office titles and the year of their term expiration. president: vice-president: secretary: treasurer: trustees: call for nominations: t. david williams charles haine bridget kowalczyk douglas penisten jerry abrams andrew fischer meredith morgan (1991) (1992) (1990) (1992) (1989) (1989) (1990) future readers will look back at this issue of the newsletter and wonder why a call for nominations occurred in january! this would normally be a bit early for executive board terms that would not expire until december 31, 1989. in fact, it might even make the board members whose terms were expiring feel a bit uneasy but such is not the case. ohs members will be receiving this issue in august and therefore requests for nominations, or renominations to the executive board are now being requested. the executive board members whose terms will expire this year are jerry abrams and andrew fischer. by all means, do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. please send your nominations to: douglas penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464-7098. 2 1988 reminisce-in: in spite of the competition of saturday evening receptions and cocktail parties at the bewitching hour of 6:30 p.m. in the foreshortened schedule of events at the american academy of optometry meeting in columbus, ohio, on december 10 in the hyatt regency hotel, the annual ohs reminisce-in was attended by 37 history buffs. president jerry abrams had arranged for two 20 minute talks that together prompted 20 minutes of lively comment. one of the topics was the early history of the optometry curriculum at the ohio state university initiated by charles sheard in 1914. the speaker was professor gregory good of ohio state who was introduced by susan kroll, the osu optometry librarian. the other speaker was our own james leeds who gave a fascinating account of his career-long experiences originally as an unsophisticated accumulator and now a worldly known collector of optometry-related books, old and new. his paper will appear in a forthcoming issue of this newsletter. aughts for sale: ohs member george li ts inger, 0. d. , was prompted by the october 1986 nohs article on "aught lenses" to check his accumulated optometricana. he found a set of measuring rims for all aught lenses. now retired, he wonders if any collector would care to purchase them. if so, his address is 1221 n. lundergan avenue, park ridge, illinois 60068, telephone (312) 823-3404. stating that he is in poor health he asks if anyone with a small truck would transport his optometric effects to ilamo as a contribution. otherwise, says he, the trashman may get it all. ilamo has been advised. from a korean journal: the next two pages of this newsletter are reproductions of pages 134-135 of the july 1988 issue of optical monthly ankyoungkye, a publication of the opticians association of korea, seoul. though the 24 sketched illustrations are labeled in the untransla-ted korean language, it is quite obvious from their accompanying dates in arabic numerals that they are representations of eyewear in chronological order of their eras from the 13th to the early 20th centuries. from the numerous historical pictures of spectacles, vending scenes, optical machinery, equipment, tools, lens shops, early factories, etc. in the thirteen preceding pages, 120-133, the whole 15 pages may well be a single feature article. the illustrations clearly suggest that it is either adapted from, or a direct translation of, a european publication. 3 12901:1?1 i e!~?i isoo'd?i i 0/dfo// efc/i!f ~ ~?1 isoot.j?pf!.e{ i 8fi !!! ef/ph1 1600t.pf!.e{ i .'i!.~?i 173jtj!f!.e{ i efxfff0/~?1 1752'd!f!.e{/ 0/~'l,ic/i~?f(~f= £!?1) 179s'd?i i 7m~?1 1797jd?f 10/d}o// ¥f! ~?f 134 ll!hqw 198807 4 1800th1 i 0/8£!/c//e!s 182511?11 yc ~v?1 1830i::::e~ ~v?1 1840118 i ifi!.fef?1 184011lf!.£{ l.i!!.v?1 193211lf!.£{ i ~f!!0/1 ~§!of jlc -f!v?1 135 iuu5t?t: 198807 ~ <.: ~51.,., 5 bax's interpretation reinforced: in a previous issue of this newsletter {april 1988, p. 20) attention was called to bax' s interpretation of spectacles in bosch's paintings as symbolizing gullibility and deception in 15th century dutch culture. a supporting comment comes from henri obstfeld, lecturer in ophthalmic lenses and dispensing at the city university, london, who was born and reared in the netherlands. he adds that he recalled hearing a dutch saying occasionally expressed by his now 80 year old mother, a saying which he believes traces back at least to his grandmother, which used the cost of a pair of spectacles to convey a derogatory meaning. the rare book market: david goss calls attention to a periodical catalog entitled norman rare books news, a publication of jeremy norman & co., inc., 442 post street, san francisco, ca 94102-1579, usa. issue no. 2 was printed for the american academy of ophthalmologists in november 1987 and lists 234 rare publications related to the eye and optics with prices and very brief descriptions of their condition and in some instances significant comments relating to their value as collector's items. issue no. 5 dated summer 1988 similarly lists 204 "recent. acquisitions in medicine, science & miscellaneous fields", which include bacon's perspectiva at $4,500 and newton's optics at $9,500. the ophthalmological edition of the catalog includes numerous optometrically related items such as the 1932 british optical association library and museum catalogue at $250 and chevallier's 1810 and 1812 editions of "le conservateur de la vue" at $125 and $1,000 respectively. the latter, a deluxe edition, is signed by the author. we are told that "the chevallier dynasty of opticians were famous throughout the 18th and 19th centuries." a 1921 edition of gleichen & klein, a mechanical optics text "fur optiker, okulisten und zum gebrauch in optischen und mechanischen werkstatten" is offered at $60. "the clinical use of prisms" by maddox in 1893 lists at $40. surprisingly, one of only 200 original copies of prentice's 1926 "legalized optometry and the memoirs of its founder" is listed at only $75. tscherning's "physiologic optics", 1920, {which some of us older optometrists used as a school textbook) is available at $30. a carbon copy typescript of gordon walls' unpublished doctoral thesis, 1931, is priced at $450. these are merely a few of the interesting items. the catalogs themselves serve as a valuable guideline for appraising old books being considered as donations as well as for sale or purchase in so far as dealers' prices may be presumed to reflect the marketplace. 6 excellenz von helmholtz: quite legitimately the patriarch of visual science, hermann von helmholtz (1821 1894) had conferred upon him by the old german emperor wilhelm i (1797 1888) the title of excellehz. next to bismarck (1815 1898) and to the emperor himself, excellenz von helmholtz had become the most illustrious man in the german empire. so reported columbia university professor of electromechanics m. i. pupin (1858 1935) in "reminiscences of hermann von helmholtz" in the june 1922 issue of the journal of the optical society of america, vol. vi, pp. 336-342. the article is the synopsis of an address presented october 24, 1921, at the helmholtz memorial meeting in rochester, new york. pupin had gone to germany shortly after his graduation from columbia in 1883 to study with helmholtz for three years at the physical institute of the university of berlin. reminiscences of the man helmholtz, his manner, his benevolence, his lecture style, his social life, his colleagues and admirers, and his involvements with industrial, political, and scientific personages of the era make the article a touching biographical account. included are such anecdotal details as helmholtz's visitor crown prince frederick obediently throwing his cigar away when seeing the no smoking sign at the institute building entrance. pupin also put forth his own pet observation that helmholtz's countenance always reflected the mental image of the person speaking to him, ranging from signs of despair to sunrise sky radiance. ophthalmic industry history: optyl eyewear fashion international corporation recently donated $7,500 to the smithsonian institution for the development of a book on the evolution of the ophthalmic industry worldwide. it is intended that it be a major reference work for historians and collectors. ohs member eric p. muth is the coordinator of the project. when finished, the book will be sold through the smithsonian institution. colonial american optometry: • thanks to ohs member charles letocha, who discovers and shares many historical resources with us, we received copies of two well­ researched papers dealing with colonial optics, including spectacles, in the 19th and late 18th centuries. ohs member deborah jean warner, the author of one, gathered her evidence "from directories, census returns, advertisements, patents, credit ratings, death notices, and wills", and cited notes from 55 different sources. she is the curator, history of physical sciences, national museum of american history, smithsonian institution. her article is entitled "optics in philadelphia 7 during the nineteenth century" and appeared in 1985 in the proceedings of the american philosophical society, vol. 129, no. 3, pp. 291-299. in her search she uncovered the names of numerous opticians in early philadelphia, who in a generic sense were the optometrists of the era. she was able to derive well-documented inferences as to their skills, training, financial successes, inventiveness, scientific involvement, national origins, civic roles, academic efforts, optometric services, and professional philosophy. in fact this article, though dealing only with the philadelphia scene, may well be the most comprehensive view of colonial optometry in print. the other article, "antique spectacles", appeared in the december 1948 issue of antiques, pp. 429-431, by malcolm watkins, associate curator in cultural history at the national museum, washington, dc. he reported that spectacle collecting so far had been little explored but that "the quest becomes more challenging". he suggested that "the first indications of an american optician is an advertisement in the new york gazette or the weekly post-boy for may 21, 1735 in which "notice is hereby given that the widow of balthaser sommer, late from amsterdam, now lives next door to mr. laffert's on pot-baker's hill, in smith-street, new york, grinds all sorts of optic glasses to the greatest perfection, such as microscope glasses, spying glasses of all lengths, spectacles, reading glass, for near-sighted people or others;" comparable advertisements elsewhere in new york and in boston suggest similar patterns in the major colonial communities. occhiali italiani: this is the title of a solid black 144 page 21 x 25 x 1.5 em. hard cover book printed in february 1986 by artigrafiche silva, parma, italy, under sponsorship of anfao, the (italian) national association of eyewear products manufacturers. except for the title, meaning "italian spectacles", all of the text is in english with various chapters authored by seven different persons and translated by organizzazione target lingue, which suggests that perhaps the book appears in other languages as well. the bulk of the contents consists of high color illustrations of antique, early, and modern eyewear products artistically and aesthetically displayed. in the first chapter entitled "why this book" it is declared that "clothes, shoes, accessories, personal jewelry, house furniture, (and) beautiful things are a social tool for interpersonal relationships, a language to express our feelings. it is in this perspective that eyeglasses must find their place. this book has no other object." 8 perhaps so. whatever the motive, the various authors make some interesting assertions about the relevant history, assertions apparently derived from a summary bibliography of nine books ranging chronologically from a 1678 publication by f. redi to a 1985 institute of science report, most in italian. here are a few of the extracted declarations. "in the field of eyeglasses ... the italians have a six-century headstart, especially in venice." "march 15, 1878 marks the date of birth of the eyewear industry in italy. there is preserved by padua a notarized record of the initial contract for the first factory of this section of industry drafted in favor of angelo frescura." concerning the origin of eyeglasses, " ... there seems to be a consensus over the attribution of their invention to an anonymous italian, probably a venetian, around the middle of the xiiith century." "the oldest documents which explicitly refer to the art of making lenses for eyeglasses are the venetian capitularies of 1300. a paragraph, dated 15 june 1301, concerning the guild that grouped glaziers and rock crystal workers prescribes that those intending to manufacture vitreos ab oculis ad legendum be members of glazier guild, the cristalleri, and commit themselves not to divulge outside venice the trade secrets of this precious craftsmanship. harsh punishments were stipulated for offenders." the earliest figure to wear glasses was a dominican the bishop ugone da provenzaportrayed by tomaso da modena in 1252". concerning the phrase made in italy "do not be led into believing that it is a recent or emergent phenomenon. it goes back at least 2000 years .•. " alleging the deliberate denigration of eyeglasses "by those xixth century penpushing novelists who used to be paid so much per line," one of the book's authors, luca goldoni, deplores "their characters' use and abuse of them, putting them astride their nose, taking them off, putting them on again, wiping them clean, toying with them, reading secret wills with them, and forgetting them on the scene of the crime." "in the italian language the only adjective that conveys a disparaging meaning without the -accio desinence is precisely occhialuto, i.e. bespectacled." othe~ incidental historical details in the book include a table of annual foreign export amounts in lire for the period 1965 to 1984 showing a 79 times increase of spectacle frame sales, a description of the threefold growth of mido, the ophthalmic trade fair started in milan in 1970, and a statement of the origins and role of anfao, the acronym for the italian name of the sponsoring italian association. 9 european optometric history: the august 1988 issue of interoptics, bulletin of the international optometric and optical league, no. 83, includes two articles of historical interest. one, on page 3, is in celebration of the 80th birthday of iool vice president emeritus peter abel originally of berlin, germany, and presently retired in australia. his life and career are a living history of augenoptik. included with the article are two photographs taken of a group of former students of the berlin school of optics on a tour in london in 1937. mr. and mrs. abel were both in the group. the other article on page 7, is a landmark report of the new optometric regulations in norway by svein hommerstad. the new law was enacted in june 1988 and effectively transfers the profession from its long years in the handicraft ministry to that of health personnel. this appears to be the first such legislative action on the european continent. mr. hommerstad gives an interesting history of how this change was accomplished. optometric legislative review: "optometry: a legal history" is the title of an article by john g. classe' in the august 1988 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 59, no. 8. pp. 641-650. the article opens with a review of medical and ophthalmological licensing and organizational developments in america late in the 19th century and their threatening hegemonic effects on optometry. then follows an account of optometrist's efforts to retain their centuries-long vocational independence. much is derived from prentice's book, and apparently most of the balance from unidentified optometric periodicals of the past fifty years. nine figures are photographs of charles and james prentice, minnesota's first optometry board, albert fitch, fred baker, elwin marg, bernard grohlman, alden n. haffner, and leaders of the first diagnostic and first therapeutic drug bills. historical tidbits: in an updated supplement of the november 1988 issue of contact lens spectrum (vol. 3, no. 11) entitled "contact lenses & you" appear three anonymously authored items of historical interest. on page 2 is a photograph of the wiesbaden lens, a glass shell made by f. a. muller of germany in 1887 to be worn on the eye. the illustration is accompanied by four short paragraphs of historical comment. the source of the illustration and the present location of the lens are not given. 10 on the same page is a reproduction of a may 3, 1967, handwritten memo from "rr" (ronald reagan) to a dr. kaye relative to reagan's wearing of contact lenses. the supplementary comments are anonymously authored but credit for the memo reproduction is given to "william r. coleman, 0.0., past president of the manuscript society." on pages 10-11 is a colorfully illustrated article entitled "lights, camera, contacts!", subtitled "the story of contact lenses in the entertainment industry is a tale of beauties and beasts." an author is not named, but it does seem that morton k. greenspoon, 0.0., was the primary resource by reason of similarity with another article authored by him elsewhere. the magazine is intended to be a reception room information piece. helmet-mounted goggles: "hands-off night vision" is the title of a staff report on the development of helmet-mounted night-vision and sighting systems technology appearing on pages 121-122 of the august 1988 issue of photonics spectra, vol. 22, no. 8. the development is referred to as having a forty years' history of designing electro-optical systems that are mounted to helmets to allow free use of the wearer's hands. two "streams of development" are identified. one is the self-contained goggle system for night vision. the other is the helmet-mounted sight used to aim turreted or gimbal-mounted equipment. the objectives and inventive accomplishments are chronologically described item by item. the early 1970's ·saw the development of visually coupled systems providing the wearer with imagery of the external view through a helmet-mounted display. cressets, candlewood, and rushlights: the title illumination engineering with the subtitle "from edison's lamp to the laser" suggests an interesting historical resource; which it is and isn't. competently authored by joseph b. murdoch and published by macmillan publishing co. in 1985, the book of 541 pages is essentially a scientific and technical treatment of lighting per se. in other words the subtitle refers to the breadth of topical coverage rather than to any chronological sequence of technological developments except that the dates of isolated developments are incidentally identified in the very sophisticated text. nevertheless by way of introduction on the opening page the author indulges in a bit of reminding us that in medieval times 11 metal fire baskets called cressets were developed to hold glowing pine knots and were suspended from ceilings or wall brackets. pine wood use for light in colonial times was called candlewood. early settlers dried certain reeds or rushes and dipped them in grease or fat for portable lighting called rushlights. then, says he, there followed in chronological order, oil lamps, candles, gas lighting, and electric lamps. the "rise and fall" of each of the first three of these in various parts of the world are briefly covered in the first three pages. the early developments of the fourth, electric lights, are covered in three more pages. he identifies the first recorded man-made electric light as that of otto von guericke in 1650. it "consisted of a chain attached to a spinning sulfur ball. when he held his hand against the ball, sparks jumped from the chain." an explanation was not included. a hundred years ago: even as recently as a century ago so little was published under direct or exclusive optometric or ophthalmic optical sponsorship that most of our history has to be gleaned, indeed extracted, from others' journals. so it is not easy to indulge in the popular editorial pastime of perusing early serial publications for newsy tidbits to appear under the enticing caption of "a hundred years ago". but the urge is there, and so it was that i pulled off the library shelf the only 1888 journal potentially identifiable with optometry, a fragile and time-weathered bound volume 9 of centralzeitung fur optik und mechanik. it consists of 24 issues, a total of 288 two-column pages of rather small print with numerous illustrations, photographs, drawings, and tables. leafing through it at the rate of, perhaps, twenty seconds per page to scan the article titles and paragraph headings i found little optometric, though a great deal on prec1s1on optical instrumentation and technology. on page 60 is a succinctly detailed account of german patent no. 40305 of 28 january 1887 by george linke! in nurnberg for a combination lorgnette and pince­ nez with an easily removable and reattachable handle for lorgnette use and a readily detachable and reconnectable connector bar for removing half of the pince-nez. presumably it was intended to simplify the meeting of social demands for either a monocular lorgnette or a binocular pince-nez at a moment's notice. it was illustrated in sketch form. on pages 73-74 is a rather substantive article on artificial eyes of vulcanite and celluloid with considerable history and technical discussion of materials, applications, and suitableness by prof. dr. hermann cohn, an ophthalmologist in brezlau. on pages 12 256-259 dr. w. grosse of vegesack (near extensive discourse on the science of contributions of goethe, newton, helmholtz, et al. bremen) gave a rather color, reviewing the hering, young, maxwell, there may have been several other entries that i missed in this hasty scan, especially among the dozens and dozens of listings of patents. the conspicuous absence of any spectacle lens optics or sight-testing technology reinforces my theory that spectaclemakers guild secrecy was still a prevailing factor, especially in germany. it will be interesting to scan subsequent issues of this long-lived journal to observe when and how the guild influence subsided. h.w h. historical tidbits of popular interest: it is gratifying to find references to historical optometric landmarks in popular reading material. most recently such inclusions are found in a series of 12 brochures designed by the american optometric association as quarterly newsletters available to optometrists as mailing pieces of interest to their patients: entitled now see this, most of the twelve fliers include highlighted items or "did you know?" statements pointing up such historical details as the role of the moveable-type printing press in the demand for spectacles, contact lens invention, use of scleral contacts, first school for the blind, first eyeglasses in america, invention of spectacle temples, early use of quartz and crystal for lenses, the role of vanity in eyeglass usage, early chinese tinted lenses, the evolution of spectacle frames, and eyeglasses of various u.s. presidents. one important error is the statement that the profession of optometry was born in 1898! " editors: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1989-20-01-001 1989-20-01-002 1989-20-01-003 1989-20-01-004 1989-20-01-005 1989-20-01-006 1989-20-01-007 1989-20-01-008 1989-20-01-009 1989-20-01-010 1989-20-01-011 1989-20-01-012 volume 21 newsletter optometry 0 p-( of the 0 library _aptometric historical society i 4ug fiio ~243 north lindbergh boulevaito~n. st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) ~university july 1990 number 3 notes with the dues: processing the ohs members • annual dues is a straight forward, yet moderately tedious task. to my delight, some of you have lightened the task by inserting notes with your payments. it is great to hear from the membership whether it be comments on past newsletters, material for future issues or simply a greeting. ohs member dr. thomas eade wrote, "i recently located in california a near perfect morton ophthalmoscope vintage 1880 • s. these old instruments are out there but are rare and somewhat expensive when found. i enjoy the ohs newsletter!" keep those cards and letters coming! armati revisited: ohs member and past president dr. jerry abrams wrote on may 21, 1990, "reading in the ohs newsletter several issues back about jay enoch's visit to the old church in florence, italy finding the burial place of the inventor of eyeglasses, i retraced enoch • s steps and found this historic church and historic site." on may 29, jerry sent the following, "the enclosed are prints of the photos i snapped of armati's tombstone and bust that are inside a small church in the center of florence, italy ••• if your italian is good, you may translate. it reads, ••• armati of florence, inventor of eyeglasses god pardon his sins. year 1317 a.d." unfortunately, the copies of jerry • s two photographs did not reproduce well and could not be included. although historical scholarship has concluded that armati was not the true inventor of eyeglasses, such a tangible memorial to the invention of eyeglasses makes for a very fascinating and attractive place. as demonstrated in this newsletter, perhaps we are seeing a trend building a pilgrimage site for optometry! who knows the answers? ohs member dr. eric muth continues his historical sleuthing into the details of visual aid history. he writes: ' *******~********~***********' indtana umversity jul 31 1990 21/ 28 i have questions for the membership which answers can be given to you or sent to me directly, it's up to you, that is if you will do me this favor. 1. the earliest documented shallow octagon frame found thus far dates 1822 sweden. is there earlier evidence? 2. sliding (extension temples) sidearms are said to be a 1771 invention, however adams' 1797 patent makes no mention of them. are they of french origin? does anyone know the when and where? 3. does anyone have evidence of bifocal use or invention prior to benjamin franklin? 4. does anyone have evidence of sidearms (temples) earlier than 1728-30 scarlett's trade card? if this creates some interchange then perhaps one can try other questions. we hope this does create some interchange, and then some. correspondence may be sent via the ohs or directly to dr. eric muth, 25 parkland place, milford, connecticut 06460. oops our mistake: in the last newsletter (april 1990, vol. 21, no. 2, p. 25) you read about the availability of database printouts of lists of articles dealing with historical aspects of visual science. we made several errors in that article. our errors have been noted and kindly corrected by nancy gatlin, .library director at the southern college of optometry in memphis, tennessee. she writes: we have recently received requests for information on the historical aspects of vision science based on a section of the april, 1990, issue of the newsletter of the optometric historical society. on page 25 under "for supplementary reading", mrs. patricia carlson is noted as the supplier of lists of articles on this topic. the "marvelously developed lists" are not "derived from the current acquisitions of the respective libraries." these lists of articles are available to anyone who subscribes to the southern college of optometry's lion database quarterly update program. mrs. carlson's library has a subscription for the quarterly updates produced here at the southern college in memphis. our library has been indexing articles from many v1s1on science publications since 1975, and we now have a database of about 60,000 articles. i have indexed all of the articles in the base, and i am interested in 21/ 29 historical aspects of v1s1on science so our history file is fairly complete for the list of journals we have. we can provide individuals with literature searches on the historical aspects of any topic in vision science or with the comprehensive history of vision science which was noted in the newsletter article. since i had read and indexed all of the articles on the lists which were attributed to mrs. carlson, i felt that i had to respond to the data printed in the newsletter. line 2 of the first paragraph should read southern college of optometry not southern california college of optometry. unfortunately we are unable to provide these printouts free of charge since we serve optometrists and libraries in all fifty states and twelve foreign countries. curiously, the only individual (not librarian) who has ever subscribed to the "history" subject is an ophthalmologist. we just ran our spring quarterly update so i am enclosing it for your perusal. if you have any questions, please let us know, and we will be glad to help with any of your informational needs. for more information on these lists of articles you may write nancy gatlin, library director, southern college of optometry, 1245 madison avenue, memphis, tennessee 38104-2218. index recognized: in the last newsletter, i praised the achievement of henry hofstetter for producing the ten year (vol 11-2 0) index. ohs member dr. charles letocha agreed and upon receiving his copy wrote: "just wanted to congratulate and thank you for indexing the ohs newsletter. it makes it so much more valuable; there's a lot of useful information buried in these pages and it just gets lost without the index. thanks." d.k.p. bibliothecal evolvements: included under "sights and sounds" in the may 1990 issue of ilamo visionlink, val. a, no. 5, are four videotapes, each of which is entitled "a living history interview". catalog numbered vt-184, 185, 186, 187, and 188 they are interviews of drs. lynn gabriel, robert graham, solon braff, and morris applebaum respectively by margaret dowaliby, o. d. it is most gratifying that this very personalized type of resource is accumulating and available for those who would become familiar with optometry's heritage. 21/ 30 with the stockpiling of resources, unfortunately, there occurs a problem, namely, that of discoverability of pertinent items. like the innumerable volumes of unindexed optometric periodicals already on our library shelves, the accumulating wealth of information takes on the "needle in a hay stack" challenge. the same problem has long been building up in unpublished theses, dissertations, technical reports, government documents, and the like. partial solutions are accomplished by abstract services, key word indexing, bibliographical attempts, and computerization, making literature-searching itself a professional tool skill to be acquired only with special effort. the burden falls ever more on libraries such as ilamo and other institutional libraries serving collegiate and research roles in visual science. even a person who has an enviable private collection often finds it necessary to rely on institutional indexing facilities to utilize effectively that which is already privately owned! in the case of the above mentioned videotapes, for example, one needs to know, at least by key words, if not by abstracts, what topics the interviewees dealt with informatively. the alternative is hours of viewing and searching for those elusive "needles" as well as borrowing and returning each tape, unless, of course, one undertakes to view them just for fun, not a bad idea in itself. from clouants to lunettes: the french called the earliest nose-supported visual aids "bericle clouantes" or simply 11clouants", a pair of beryl lenses mounted in rims of various material nailed or riveted together to rest saddle-like on the nose. the subsequent successive dubbing of spectacles by the french included the terms vericle, bezigue, besicle, and eventually lunectes and now lunettes ("small moons"). the beautifully illustrated, analytically interpreted, and comprehensively documented archival treatment of this seven­ centuries evolution is a handsome golden cloth-bound 29 x 20.5 em book of 156 pages modestly entitled "spectacles & spyglasses". authored by pierre marly with text contributions by jean-claude margolin and paul bierent, it is translated into english by barry tulett from the 1980 french edition and published in 1988 by editions hoebeke, presumably in paris. the text divisions are entitled "towards a historical semeiology of spectacles" by margolin, 11 spectacles and spectacle wearers" by bierent, and "spectacles through the ages" and "from telescopes to spyglasses" by marly. approximately three fourths of the 436 illustrations are from the marly collection and the rest from 22 other archival sources. they include spectacles, cases, paintings, cartoons, illusions, instruments, early documentary reproductions, catalog pages, and in fact anything even semiotically related to eyeglasses history. many are in color. the chapter on spyglasses is very short and deals only with hand-held types of oculars in popular use. optics as a science is not included. 21/ 31 both the text material and the illustrations reflect the subject matter as known by the french. for example, of the 49 references in the bibliography, 33 are in french, eight in english, six in german, and two in italian. this bias actually enhances the historical value of the book for those of us accustomed to reading about the history of eyewear as viewed by the english-speaking world. a single excerpt from margolin's contribution illustrates both an isolated source of such bias and the semiological inference of a quoted 16th century verse, in french, as evidence of "the ironic profession of faith of the travelling spectacle vendor. the verse proclaims that everybody, scholars, madmen, old ladies and jealous husbands (not to mention bespectacled serpents and peacocks!), finds or should find a use for eyeglasses to suit his or her own particular case or needs". margolin also goes into the historical language of eyewear, the apparent meaning and import of the sense of sight, and the tampering with this god-given capability by using lenses, as evidenced by archival artifacts. bierent in turn takes up the anecdotal history of people who relied on glasses. marly gives a brief but fascinating history of the use of the long popular telescopes and opera glasses, especially as the thing to do in society. an interesting addendum to the book is a four-page list of "some names of spectacle makers and opticians up to the beginning of the 19th century". the book is truly an archival gem! texan optometry: "optometry in texas, 1900-1984 11 is the title of an attractively bound, hardcover, 23 x 16 em, 360 page book by weston a. pettey, o.d., published under the auspices of the texas optometric association by nortex press, austin, texas in 1985. the date of 1900 in the title identifies the founding of the texas optical association, but the author quite appropriately devotes the first of ten chapters to prior optometric developments in areas including other parts of the world. the book is essentially a history as seen through the eyes of a prominent and highly regarded 77 year old optometrist of optometric family heritage who served as a long time editor of the journal of the texas optometric association and held many association offices including the presidency. the fact that dr. pettey has known personally most of the people mentioned in the book is both a favorable and unfavorable consideration in the appraisal of its historical validity. · he writes glowingly of the profession of which he is clearly proud and which he dearly loves. as attributed to the famous will rogers, weston pettey seems never to have met anyone he did not like. quite obviously relying heavily on memory, he is not always precise in his identification of people, places, events and things, but he is thematically and on the whole very accurate. above all 21/ 32 he has searched through all obtainable and accessible original documents for the facts, making the book a highly documentary resource, especially regarding organizational, legislative, legal, and educational matters. almost totally untouched are the clinical and technological developments of the era. included are numerous photographs of persons and groups with almost every individual identified. the optometrist as a nonperson: a search for tidbits of· optometric history quite obviously necessitates the perusal of ophthalmological history as well. this prompted the borrowing, from dr. james leeds' collection, of a handsomely bound 1965 book entitled "a history of ophthalmology at the university of pennsylvania" authored by ophthalmologists daniel m. albert and harold g. scheie. the still intact book jacket teasingly states, "published in the same year that the university celebrates its two-hundredth anniversary, this inspiring survey traces the treatment of eye disorders from franklin's invention of the biofocal csic!l to the present." plate 1 is a full-page, full-color bausch and lomb sponsored portrait of franklin writing his bifocal memorandum. featured in the introduction are two paragraphs from franklin's 1785 letter of invention to george whatley. immediately following is the casual assertion that, "in 1785, however, there were no ophthalmologists to pass on the benefits of franklin's ingenious invention. the art of optical glassmaking was clothed in secrecy and passed on from father to son, and spectacles were sold by peddlers." in the chapter on "treatment of the eye in the mid-nineteenth century", pages 98 to 106 are devoted to the topic of "spectacles", approximately half of which space is occupied by three illustrations, one, a painting of "the eyeglass vendor", another, the painting "mail order spectacles", and, a third, a photograph of four contemporary types of eyewear in the mutter museum collection, all four really quite elegantly crafted. opticians mentioned were two mcallisters, joseph zentmayer, ivan fox, and james w. queen. cited are several medical and ophthalmological publications describing medical attitudes toward, and concepts of, the role of spectacles largely as bothersome or of questionable merit but admittedly of popular interest and wide acceptance. 6 with the university's eventual establishment of a department of ophthalmology in 1870, the invention of the trial case and skiascope, and the appearance of donders' book the incentives for refracting began to emerge among eye physicians. during the professorship of george de schweinitz, 1902-1924, "more than a thousand patients each year applied for glasses at the university eye dispensary". his curricular subjects included "functional testing of the eye", "methods of determining errors of refraction", and "physiological optics". 21/ 33 perhaps attributable to the american medical association policy in effect at the time of this book's appearance, which made it unethical for physicians to consort professionally with optometrists, the words optometry, optometric, and optometrist are completely excluded from the text. vision screening in schools: "optometry in the schools" is a very blue hardcover 14 x 20 em booklet by r.c. augustine, an~ optometrist who later served as president of the american optometric association. it is only 50 pages long, plus four pages of advertisements of other books by the same publisher, optometry publishing company, kansas city, missouri. though the book is not dated, two references in the text to f.g. alexander as the current president of the american optical association indicate the period to be 1915-16. in the title page augustine is identified, among other qualifications, as the president of the illinois association of optometrists. the conversational and anecdotal style of the text indicates that the book consists of lectures to optometrists, for which augustine had a fine reputation. he invites his colleagues to think creatively and recognize the opportunities in optometry to bring their services to all segments of the public and especially through the children in the school system. his sincerity is conveyed most effectively in the introduction citing his own childhood experiences and "lost years" as an undetected compound myopic astigmat of more than four diopters who received his first lens correction five years after leaving school under the reputation of an incorrigible "outlaw". in subsequent chapters he dwells on the importance of the optometrists' total involvement in the community at large and the school system, especially to use every opportunity to explain the nature of vision and its enhancement by proper optometric care. a six page appendix entitled examination of school children's eyes is authored by f.g. alexander. he describes his administrative procedure for conducting a vision screening program at the school, together with suggested forms on which to record the examiner's findings and to inform the child's parents and teacher. it is not clear what tests or techniques were used but apparently they included acuity, some questioning, and inspection. this may be the earliest published evidence of vision screening of children in school. other than that, the historical significance of this document is its valid representation of optometric thinking as voiced by an acknowledged spokesman of that era. the nominal theme of the title was merely another vehicle for augustine's sermon to his colleagues. this appeared at the height of the defensive two decades of legislative enactments to retain optometry's centuries­ old status and at the early stages of firming up its identity under the name "optometrist" instead of "optician". 21/ 34 cataracts in 1927: quite apparently written for optometrists is a 1927 brown paper covered pamphlet of 32 pages, 13 x 19.5 em, entitled the "why" of blue lenses in cataract cases, by withers bagwell, o.d., and published by rey publishing company, south boston, a small city in southern virginia. entries in the blue book of optometrists identify bagwell with the same town in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, but with no street address. a signature in the copy on loan from james leeds • book collection indicates its former ownership by a.a. kilton, a contemporary california optometrist. the lack of any institutional identity of the author and the fact that the copyright is in the author's name suggests the booklet to have been purely an entrepreneurial gesture. the tone of the author's brief preface reinforces the suspicion that the author merely had the urge to look into an unanswered question and to share his findings with his colleagues. the writing style is delightfully rhetorical, hardly befitting a staid journal. witness a sentence in his opening paragraph, "to paraphrase the bard of avon, some men are born with cataracts, some achieve cataracts and some have cataracts thrust upon them." the text's subdivision headings are by way.of greeting the subject; prying off the lid; who's who in cataracts; running our quarry to earth; sifting the evidence; finger-printing the victim; a corner of the laboratory; serving the warranty; and as the curtain falls. despite the capricious phraseology pervading the text, the presentation of the then available technology, science, and professional literature relating to lenses and cataracts is legitimate and valid. in his preface he observes the generally prevailing advice of the day that "medium blue lenses arrest cataract" but that the supporting information is only vaguely mentioned. following this he reviews the known facts of cataracts and especially the etiological role of spectral radiation as well as the transmission data for available lenses. from this he draws the conditional conclusion that green rather than blue grass should be favored. he cautiously closes with the comment, "as the field is still so largely unexplored and the whole matter yet in the experimental stage, it would seem a measure of prudence to make few promises regarding assured results." nevertheless, "if the protective glasses fail to prevent that [the cataract], the only harm that has been done is the expense to the patient of one pair of colored lenses." & optometry in antiquity: on november 30, 1989, the deutsches museum in munich reestablished its optical department, which had been demolished in world war ii. included in the 650 square meter display area is the history of optics as well as optical phenomena, old instruments, and appliances. the project represents an investment of about 3.2 mia. dm (almost two million u.s. dollars). 21/ 35 a feature of special optometric interest is a lifelike doll­ house reproduction of a street-side spectacle-selling scene of the middle ages. a full color photograph of this scene is on page 24 of the january 20, 1990, issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 45, no. 1. it is not evident from either the photograph or the text whether the models are life-size or miniature, but that the display is worth a visit is emphatically declared by the reporting author wolfgang fink. spectacle swap-fest: conceivably novel was the invitation of gerald c. elliott, o.d., of greencastle, indiana, to his optometric colleagues to bring with them to the annual state convention their duplicate antique eyeglasses for possible exchanges with some of the duplicates in his large collections. ocular calisthenics: "oculo-didactics or eye culture" is the title of a gray colored hardcover 14 x 19 em 72 page book copyrighted in 1915 by "optometry educational bureau" and published by "optometry publishing company", kansas city, missouri. the author is charles henry taylor, identified only by two photographs, one, a small photograph of postage stamp size labeled as the author in 1879, with a black beard and wearing a felt hat. the other, full page, is labeled, "photogravure from the fine steel engraving by clark in the history of south dakota 11 , this time with white hair and beard. whether or not the author was an optometrist or even represented himself as one is not clear though he occasionally refers to his "private practice". in discussing procedure he makes reference to himself as the "operator". in the introduction he quotes excerpts from eight anonymous "reliable men" allegedly culled from the testimonials of many crediting him with a highly successful clinical procedure. two of these seem to regard the author as an eye specialist or ophthalmologist, and none identifies him with optics or even sight-testing. on page 49 he describes his fee system as being occasionally "free" for "patients" unable to pay but usually beginning at five dollars and sometimes "ten, twenty-five, fifty or one hundred dollars" for those 11 ample able to pay". the blue books of optometrists during 1.912 through 1.936 variously list a charles h. taylor in waltham, massachusetts, as having graduated from northern illinois college in 1908 and from "private instruction" in 1906. however, that taylor was presumably not the author of this booklet. the author, for example, describes his system as having become "sufficiently encouraging" by 1900, at which time he therefore adopted a patient-numbering and record system and reached 33,359 within ten years. in 1910, he "abandoned much of his former activity on account of age". 21/ 36 in the title page the topic is declared to be "a system of eye training used for many years by the originator and founder in public schools, colleges and state institutions and private practice". by way of historical documentation in the preface the author states, "in 1707, antoine maitre-jan gave a description of complaints which he thought 'arose from the strain eye'"· additional attributions of theoretical support are· credited to a dr. w. kitchner (1824), willer (1832), sichel (1837), piorry (1850), and the author himself in 1867, but without any clue as to who these people were or where their statements may be found. absence of figures, tables, or data, together with a voluble style and a sparsity of facts, or even of definitive concepts, characterize the text throughout. the first chapter is titled "principles of oculo-didactics" and consists largely of analogies of this culture being to the eyes what physical training is to the bodily structure. chapters ii and iii are both labeled "oculo­ didactics in schools" and contribute many more inconsequential analogies. chapters iv, v, and vi are titles, "oculo-didactics in general practice" with hints as to how he .relates to patients' needs and expectations. they include numerous extremely scantily described cases of success involving such conditions as diplopia, tropia, amblyopia, extra-ocular palsy, hyperopia, migraine, stuttering, nervous tension, and tobacco addiction. they also include three terms presumably coined and defined by the author as follows: aoropia (subnormal refraction due to immaturity), copiopia (eye fatigue), and ophthalmagia (neuro-ocular pain). in chapter vii, procedures, he vaguely mentions the roles of eye movements and rotations, gentle pressures applied to the eye, incidental use of prism correction, monocular blinking, and accommodation. instructions for 10 specific exercises involving fixation, prolonged attention, tracking, lid movements, peripheral perception, etc. make up the final chapter, no. viii. how to interpret the significance of this book in terms of optometric history is difficult, and especially confusing because it was published by an optometrically labeled enterprise. to this interpreter (h.w h.) it may reflect the circumstances of frontier eyecare before adequate legislative control of the health professions, at which time and place cultists and a variety of self-designated and unbridled healers at all levels of sophistication and sincerity were quite rampant. that the author " of this book repeatedly identifies himself as an "operator" may well tell the whole story. " contributing editor: managing editor: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1990-21-03-001 1990-21-03-002 1990-21-03-003 1990-21-03-004 1990-21-03-005 1990-21-03-006 1990-21-03-007 1990-21-03-008 1990-21-03-009 1990-21-03-010 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. volume 4 october 1973 you, ~' .£.!!!_ be expert: -, j~h~, ~~~~];!.~~" " ..... ~;,· .~";~liuj~~e:1_;y4 nqv l ~ 111 ;"1 .. _ .. ~.' l.fi ,,.; i ( ~ .: .. ;~ w'>t. ·.~~· ~ i responding to my inquiry in the april issue of the newsletter regarding people competent to date early spectacles, o.h.s. member e.j. (ted) fisher called attention to two useful references, one of which is "fashions in eye glasses" by richard corson, published in 1967 by dufour editions, inc. chester springs, pennsylvania 19425. the other is the british optical association library and museum catalogue, compiled and edited by john h. sutcliffe, june 1932, london. now, when someone brings in an old pair of spectacles and asks how old they are, you can tell him most authoritatively merely by matching them with one of the hundreds of illustrations of eyewear in each of these veritable atlases. in many instances you will be able to date the eyewear to within a decade and provide pertinent information about the design, function, popularity, and place of manufacture. supplementing the illustrations of eyewear in corson's book, still in print at $25.00, are several chapters on modes, attitudes, inventions, and development of each historical period and reproductions of numerous paintings, caricatures, photographs, and cartoons showing eyewear usage. even the styles of the last decade are included. incidentally, professor fisher also called attention to a new series of articles by john cole entitled "heritage" appearing in the optician (london). the author delves into the formative past of ophthalmic optics by beginning with vol. 1, no. 1 of the optician dated april 2, 1891. the first two installments of his series appeared in the may 18 and june 1, 1973, issues, vol. 165, nos. 4280 and 4282, pp. 4 passim and 12-14, respectively. thanks, dr. staiman: o.h.s. member jacob staiman, o.d., is a retired optometrist who for years has diligently been helping to develop the american optometric association library and museum with donations of books, instruments, eyeglasses, and valuable bits of historical information. his overseas travels are truly "hunting" expeditions in behalf of our heritage. his letters are a thrill to read. in a recent letter to secretary maria he reiterates a promise to visit the aoa headquarters during his 70th year to help with classification of museum items. he even sent us a current news clipping about a fabulous contemporary optometrist dr. isaac taylor whom i shall comment on in a later issue. -46letter from poland: . -o.h.s. member b. mrozinski, optometryste, 85-950 bydgoszcz 1, skrytka pocztowa 35, poland, who has one of the most complete collections of optical publications i have ever seen, wrote to suggest that we "make in our o.h.s. a register of all very old optical books which already belong to history and are in the library of our colleagues" so that we can know where they are. to make his point he enclosed typewritten copies of the title pages of the two oldest optical books in his possession, which are reproduced herewith. la dioptrique oculaire 0 u la tjieorique la positive it la 1/leci:anique d e l' 0 c u la i r e d i 0 p t r q u e en toutes ses especj:s par le pere 0 i e r u b i n d' 0 r l e a n s, capucin • a paris chez { ti0140s jolly, au palais } simon ben:rd, xui s. jacques aux armes de iollande lil. • dc • lx.xi av e c p r i v i l e g e du r 0 t. -47oculus a r t i 7 i 0 i a l i s t e l e d i 0 p t r i c u s s iv i telescopiom ex abditis rerum naturalium & artifioialium principiis protraotum nov& aethodo, eaque tolid& explioatum aooomprimis• tr1pl1c1 fundamento piisioo ten natural!, ma!ieuatioo dioptrico ef michanico, ten pbactico stal»111tua opus ouriosum theor1oo-praot1oum magna rerum oarietate a4or.na~, omnibus artium nova~ studiosie perquim utile: ~o philoeophiae arque ~thes1 praeeertim mixtae,.neo non universo f!!~ hominum statui amplissimis adjumentis oonsulitur, nova plar abatrusa curiosa teahnasmata reolunduntur, iptaque ars telescp1atr1a faoillimj addisoenda, ao sumptibus non a44\e magnia 1.n pr&xin addu.oe.uta proponitu.r, adeoque telesoopiuitl ex tenebris in lueemasseritur. aut.iore joanne zain franco~carolopolitano saori & candidi ordinis prae•onatratensis canonico regular! nee non parthenonis cellae intorioris ejusdem ordinis prop• .lerbipolim praeposito edito seounda ~otior cum racultate super1erum norim:sergae sumpthua jo.!annis cjiris!op.iob.i locineri .bibl:lopolae typis jo!annis eriisti adelbolneri. anllo mdccii -48history in flames: a note from john w. barrett, o.d., of freeport, illinois, states, " • in april 1955, my office was completely burned out in a fire which practically destroyed the six story building in which my office was located. • • . my records were all consumed at that time. what hurt me badly was that i had in my office at that time a historical record that i had kept of the illinois optometric society since 1926. this was lost and could not be replaced. "i started practice here in freeport in 1926 and practiced with my father for eleven years." and heritage in flames: it has come to our attention that the contents of the files of a recently deceased optometrist were disposed of, actually burned, in spite of the fact that he had expressed the wish that these be donated to the archives of his favori.te optometric association. it happens that he had served his association in numerous official capacities during the past half century and hence his papers undoubtedly included a wealth of hi.storical detail now utterly lost forever. this is by no means the first time that this has occurred, for the simple reason that our family survivors are all too often obsessed with the urge to "clean out the old man's trash and put the house in respectable order before the funeral march begins." only a decade ago i wrote an editorial entitled "with heritage in hand" in the october 1964 issue of the indiana journal of optometry, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 15-16, which bears reprinting here, as follows: "a few days ago i read of the death of an 86 year old optometrist who, from the dimensions of the write-up, must have been relatively unknown among the currently practicing optome­ trists of his city. he undoubtedly had retired 15 or 20 years ago during which period the great majority of our presently active optometrists entered the profession. the newspaper write-up said that, "he had practiced optometry for more than 50 years." "this optometrist was already 22 years of age at the turn of the century. it seems reasonable that he was, for all practical purposes, an optometrist before a single state had statutory registration. had he made it an objective, he might have shaken hands with every president the a.o.a. has ever had. "there seems little doubt that, notwithstanding the impact of the invention of spectacles in the 13th century, the influence of the optical guilds in the 17th century, the blooming of visual science in the 19th century, to cite a fet; great land­ marks in optometric history, that the developments of our vision -49care profession in the first half of the present century will long be marked as one of the most important and ex­ citing eras for optometry. it was highlighted by legislative battles, socio-economic struggles, interand intra-professional feuds, the establishment of modern institutions for optometric education, the evolution of ethics codes, etc., etc., etc. yet, alas, the truly intimate and unedited facts of this very period are rapidly being buried or burned. this elderly optometrist who died just last week had personal memories of many details which some of us at best can only hope to glimpse dimly through intense study and critical evaluation. surely among his personal effects were some letters that he may have received in his earlier days from eberhardt, prentice, arrington, and conceivably even helmholtz, or chief justice hughes. perhaps he had saved the spectacle prescription of an early u.s. president. after all, he could well have examined the eyes of theodore roosevelt, whose spectacle prescription is now unknown. among his office effects might have been some class notes taken under a great optometric teacher, or a rare diploma from a now defunct optometry school, or a photograph of a graduating class, or of a local optometric society meeting. perhaps in his files were a few issues of local society or state association newsletters, or even an issue or two of the a.o.a. organizer, the predecessor of our present ~ournal of the a.o.a., which now seems to exist only as an historical note. "if he owned such rarities, they were undoubtedly tossed out within a day or two after his death, for not even the most thoughtful of survivors, lest they themselves be optometrists, could have a clue that such items are museum gems of optometricana. on numerous occasions i have contacted widows and survivors of deceased optometrists of advanced years as quickly as possible after hearing the sad news. so far i have had no acquisitional success whatsoever, for the reasons cited. "however, in instances when i have made a special personal effort to make contact with an optometrist while he still lived i have inherited a number of items which otherwise surely would have been destroyed or lost forever. "when these items can be snatched from the voracious trash collector, they can be placed with one's own effects for safe-keeping, at least for another career span. or they can be given to another optometrist whose hobby makes him a zealous guardian of things like this. or they might be given to one of the optometry schoolp that have museum programs. the important thing is the rescue; the disposition can be handled more leisurely and more delib­ erately. -50"this is not written as a appeal for committee action, nor for the creation of a task force, or of a salvage drive. it is merely a reminder, albeit a grim one, that the heritage of the most recent era of optometry is yet within our grasp, and that the modest efforts of ever so few of us can yet assure its proper illustration in the pages of history." the "invisible academy": o.h.s. secretary maria dablemont recently sent me a copy of an article by the late dr. leroy ryer entitled "a few odd books" which appeared in the october 1923 issue of optical age, pp. 37-38 in which he listed, and commented on, some of his optometric favorites in his own library, as follows: beare's "greek theories of elementary cognition" * t koenigsberger's "hermann von helmholtz" * newton's "opticks" (1730) * t smith's "a compleate system of opticks" (1738) * zander's "the ophthalmoscope" * burch's "physiological optics" sir oliver lodge's "ether of space" * thompson's "brain and personality" dander's "accommodation and refraction" * t landolt's "refraction and accommodation" * in characteristic ryerian style dr. ryer commented, "although not organized and chartered there is an 'invisible academy' in existence at the present moment. you and i who ramble along these less frequented lanes are active members ... " first lady in military optometry: carolyn g. toewe, o.d., was the first woman to be commissioned as an optometrist in military service. she was commissioned in the medical service corps of the u.s. air force in late 1951 or early 1952. this historical tidbit comes from the august 1973 optometry progress report of the department of the air force, usaf school of aerospace medicine (afsc), brooks air force base, texas 78235. ~tometric magic circa 1800: the program description of act i of the tales of hoffmann presented by the indiana university opera theatre, july august 1973, reads as follows: "hoffmann becomes the apprentice of spalanzani, an eccentric physicist and inventor. he falls in love with spalanzani's * now in the american optometric association library. t reprints currently available. -51'daughter' olympia, a clockwork doll fabricated by spalanzani and by coppelius, an optometrist specializing in the making of magic lenses. through a pair of glasses which hoffmann obtains from coppelius, the doll appears alive to him in spite of nicholas' warn~ngs. spalanzani pays coppelius for his partner­ ship in the doll's construction with a bad check. at a party, which spalanzani gives to present his doll, hoffmann convinces himself that olympia returns his love. coppelius swears to avenge himself for spalanzani's betrayal: while dancing with hoffmann, the doll spins out of control. hoffmann's magic glasses break and coppelius smashes the doll. hoffmann collapses in sorrow and shame." ernst theodor amadeus hoffmann, 1776-1822, was a german romantic poet and composer. a rare walls document: the visual acuities: factors, theories, problems, is the title of a typed unpublished manuscript by gordon l. walls, sc.d., in the bausch & lomb co. scientific library. though undated, it lists among its approximately 350 references at least one dated "1945, in press." at that time, dr. walls was affiliated with bausch & lomb. the first page is headed, "ophthalmological reviews, edited by dr. francis heed adler," followecl by the "index." the text fills-207 pages followed by-the very complete bibliography, 23 pages of footnotes, and 34 figures, each with extensive explanatory legend. it is a "ready to publish" document in every detail. why it was not published is undetermined. a xerox copy has been placed in the american optometric association library. more ~ "pop" lubin: following up comments on optometrist sigmund rubin in previous issues, vol. 3, nos. 3 and 4, july and october, 1972, pp. 31 and 37, o.h.s. member earl dablemont discovered four pages devoted to rubin's role in the success of a 1914 movie, the squaw man. the book is donald hayne's the autobiography of cecil b. demille, englewood cliffs, prentice-hall, inc., 1949. the pages are:s9-92. the following brief excerpt tells us demille's appraisal of lubin: "why did lubin do that kindness to three upstart rivals of the trust of which he was a part? he could have sealed our ruin by keeping the solution of my blunder to himself. did he see future business for his own photographic printing company in helping us? perhaps-though the trust generally saw no future whatever in feature plays. looking back on ':op' lubin, smiling -saat us, perhaps laughing at us just a little too, reassuring us, that fateful day in philadelphia, i think the explanation df his help is a very simple one, but is the one that a cynical view of human nature always looks for last. he was a good man. if we looked for that explanation of human conduct more often, we would be disappointed many times, yes; but we might also find, oftener than we imagine, that it is true." old books wanted: "i am a collector of old books on optics, ophthalmology, and refraction. would you please let my fellow ohs members know that i would like to buy any old texts that they might have for sale. "i would also like to let you know how much i enjoy reading the newsletter. cross memorial ~ revisited: sincerely, "james dember, o.d." (box 572 ft. gulick, canal zone apo ny 09837) o.h.s. member richard l. hopping, o.d., president of southern california college of optometry, fullerton, california, 92631, wrote mrs. dablemont as follows on july 18: "after the congress in san francisco, my family and i visited muir woods with the hope of locating the tree which had been dedicated to dr. andrew j. cross. "upon arrival at the national park, the first two persons i contacted were unaware of the tree or dr. cross. i located the senior ranger who directed me to the location. actually the tree site is not located within muir woods national monument. it is just over the boundary into mt. tamalpais state park which is the park that engulfs muir woods. "muir woods national monument was established on jan. 9, 1908, and is administered by the national park service, u.s. department of the interior. the senior naturalist related that they no longer permit the dedication of trees. within the 500 acres of muir woods, there are three memorial plaques. one is for congressman william kent who made the jift of the land to the federal government. another memorial is for a man named pinchot who, i believe, was a former governor of calif.rnia. the third plaque was dedicated to franklin delano roosevelt by a united nations conference committee who toured muir woods. dr. cross's memorial is the only other plaque in the entire area. "the plaque read: -.saandrew j. cross 1855 1925 pioneer in optometry "it appeared to be a bronze tablet , approximately 15x24 inches mounted on a large rock which was at least three feet across. it stands at the foot of a large (approximately 200 foot) redwood. "i took a number of colored photos which have not returned from the developer yet. the forest is so dense that little sunlight can get to the floor. i did not have a flash attach­ ment with me, so i am not too optimistic about the photos turning out. "in talking with the ranger, he related he would be interested in knowing more about dr. cross. if and when you get an opportunity, perhaps someone on your staff could assemble some material on dr. cross and send it to the park. since so many people visit this park, it would be great public rela­ tions if the park personnel had proper background information on the great dr. cross. "send whatever you can to: supt., muir woods national monument mill valley, california 94941 attn: mr. r. e. jordan "dr. gregg informs me that the coa has revisited the site on several occasions. they undoubtedly have more information and photographs should your files not have them." the pine normulator: ----standing in the corner of the equipment room of the indiana university division of optometry for several years was a black metal box about 13 x 21 x 28 em with knobs, dials, electrical connectors, and the nameplate on which was engraved "the pine normulator, manufactured by the wottring instrument co., amherst, ohio, model 7-b, serial no. 1511, patent no. 1840482." so what was it? an inquiry in our library brought forth a mimeographed manual of 37 pages entitled, "the pine normulator technic of mechano-therapy as applied to the eye" by dr. harry e. pine, f.a.a.o., d.o.s., copyright in 1937 by the wottring instrument co. the instrument provides a pulsation of alternate pressure and vacuum through flexible tubes the ends of which can be applied to the closed eyelids as a form of massage. -54six classifications of cases which could be aided by the normulator are listed in the manual, with treatment instructions. several pages deal with "the history and development of eye massage" in which credits and priorities are freely granted to the ancient chinese, hindoos, persians, greeks, romans, hippocrates, asclepiades, celsus, galen, sandwich island natives, maoris, natives of tonga island, paracelsus, swedish gymnasts, and numerous prominent physicians of later centuries. an inquiry sent to the u.s. patent office netted us a photocopy of patent no. 1,840,482 dated january 12, 1932, for a speed governing mechanism by inventor le roy wottring of lorain, ohio, and a request for remittance of 50¢. more archival acquisitions: mrs. ethel m. ("peg") wood, nee page, has contributed three documents of historical interest to the american optometric association archives. one is the central london ophthalmic hospital annual report for the year 1931, a 68 page booklet with numerous photographs, statistics dating back to 1844, names of contributors with amounts contributed and a detailed statement of income and expenditure for the year 1931. another is the 1903-04 prospectus of the philadelphia optical college, a 40 page booklet with photographs of personnel, facilities, diplomas, course descriptions, history of the school and a list of over 1,200 "matriculates and graduates." this was given to peg wood by an early new zealand optome­ trist named jean hislop, then mayor of devenport, new zealand, when peg went to new zealand with her husband. the third is a photocopy of an undated leaflet entitled "the 'dobson' concentrator" (pro. pat. 18102-33) which illustrates and describes the use of a binocular spectacle attachment which is adjustable for interpupillary distance and fits behind the lenses to block out all peripheral ambient light to minimize the "discomfort of 'dazzling' so often complained of by presbyopes, and those suffering from incipient cataract" and in the treatment of squint and amblyopia ex-anopsia. i wrote to the patent office, kent, england, for a copy of the original patent. their reply? " ... it is regretted that this number is 'abandoned', the serial number has not been utilized and there is no published specification bearing this number." peg was originally a nurse trained at the central london ophthalmic hospital in 1926. she elected later to attend the school of optics where lionel lawrence and oscar wood were lecturing. in 1972 she retired from the private practice of optometry in auckland, new zealand, to become a visiting clinical instructor at the indiana university division of optometry. this fall she accepted a similar appointment at the university of waterloo (canada) school of optometry. the original c.l.o. hospital became the institute of ophthalmology after world war ii, she tells us. -55optometric historical collection at the university of alabama in birmingham grace weiner* the library for the school of optometry at the university of alabama in birmingham is an integral part of the lister hill library of the health sciences. this library is a new building dedicated in 1971 and located next to the site of the new optometry building now under construction. in addition to optometry, the library serves medicine, dentistry, nursing, and all other allied health professions. the lister hill museum of the health sciences is located in the library. the optometry librarian is in the process of adding historical materials to the museum. many gifts have been received but two optome­ trists have made outstanding contributions. dr. herbert p. mcdonald, jr. of mobile, alabama donated a framed copy of the first optometric license issued in alabama. it was issued to his father on january 29, 1920. he also gave the museum the chair and retinoscope which his father used. dr. donald a. springer of anniston, alabama, who is on the faculty of the school of optometry, has also made notable contributions, one of which is a folding hand valise which was used by his father when traveling about the state of alabama prior to 1920. in ~valise were testing instruments, reading charts, trial lenses, and spectacles to be dispensed. it also contained a document filed in the probate judge's office in coosa county, alabama, december 21, 1920. this document identified the bearer as being of good moral character and qualified to practice optometry and was used by the practitioner to present to people who might question his qualifications. dr. springer says "i still see people in my office who recall my father coming to their homes and examining their parents' or grandparents' eyes." the collection includes a feinbloom scleral contact lens trial case given by dr. springer. dr. henry peters, dean of the school of optometry, donated a trial case which he purchased in amsterdam in 1971. other contributions include old spectacles, retinoscopes, and trial frames. any optometrist who has materials which he would like to donate should get in touch with me. i would also like to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to see the collection to visit the museum, as well as the school of optometry and the library. *mrs. grace weiner, visual science librarian lister hill library of the health sciences university station birmingham, alabama 35294 -56history of optic chiasma theory: "an historical review of the theories on the function of the optic chiasma" is the title of a sophisticated article by edward r. seefelt, o.d., in the april 1973 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 416-423. apotropaia and sonnets: riichi iwasaki, whose hobby of collecting amuletic and talismanic eye symbols was mentioned in our january issue, page 10, has published a paper entitled, "the precious eye" in the july 26, 1973, optometric weekly, vol. 64, no. 30, pp. 30-32. one part of the article reviews the role of the eye in egyptians legend; another part relates to the frequence of appearance of the word "eye" in shakespeare's sonnets, 90 times in 49 poems. berkeley (1685-1753) on vision: recently brought to my attention is a 1963 publication which presents in one volume george berkeley's three accounts of vision the essay, the account given in the fourth dialogue of alciphron, and visual language, plus his summary of the theory from his principles. the book also includes an extensive commentary and profuse footnoting by the editor, professor of philosophy colin murray turbayne. works on vision is published by bobbs-merrill company and is still in print at $6.00. i must confess that philosophical discussions of how we see, whether by berkeley or by those who interpret berkeley, try me for fatigue. devious and fragmented threads of argument quickly cool my senses and reduce me to a feeling of intellectual inadequacy. nevertheless, even a cursory perusal of this book induces a fascination for the frustrations and struggles of hard-thinking persons trying to interpret visual phenomena only 250 years ago. consider, for example, berkeley's statement, "now, for any object to contain several distinct parts, and at the same time to be a minimum visibile, is a manifest contradiction. " if this intrigues you, you will enjoy reading the book. electronic optometric history: audio-visual recording of interviews with older persons who have observed much of the development of the optometry profession in this century is being undertaken by faculty members of the university of california school of optometry, berkeley, california. faculty coor­ dinator for the project is professor anthony adams. so reports o.h.s. member carel c. koch in his monthly column in the may 1973 issue of the american journal of optometry ~ archives of american academy of optometry, vol. 50, no. 5, p. 432. such indications of the expanding interest in optometric history since the founding of the optometric historical society suggests that our efforts may at least have been partly responsible. whether we can take some of the credit or not, the trend is most gratifying. -57memorial list grows: doctor david.~ martin memorial fund (illinois college of optometry). dr. rudolph h. ehrenberg memorial classroom (illinois college of optometry) • the ernest ~ kiekenapp memorial library (american optometric association) • the john~ crozier memorial award (pennsylvania college of optometry). the george giles research trust in scotland. according to honorary o.h.s. member mrs. ivy n. giles, in a letter dated august 6, this memorial is presently being established "for an annual research grant to a scottish optician or a scottish optical student. we shall pass over a substantial sum of money to the trust which the trust, as a charity, will be able to invest to bring in the highest return, and thus, we hope will mean an annual research grant in perpetuity." the ~george nielsen memorial fund. on august 24 mr. william b. o'rourke, administrative director, colorado optometric association, sent us the following details: "organization of the c. george nielsen memorial fund, a non-profit educational and research fund, has been announced by the fund president, dr. steven gorden of denver. "the fund honors dr. c. george nie.lsen, a denver optometrist, who died may 23, 1972. at the time of his death dr. nielsen was a trustee of the colorado optometric association and director of the association department of continuing education. "the fund idea was developed because of dr. nielsen's long­ standing interest in optometric continuing education and a number of innovative changes developed by him for the staging of colorado optometric continuing education. "the current concept for the fund is one of endowing an annual lecture by a top educator or researcher in optometry. "lectures are to be presented annually in conjunction with the colorado association's annual contact lens seminar and are to be presented without charge. any licensed optometrist may attend. "funds for the endowment have come from gifts of money made by friends of dr. nielsen and the colorado optometric association. "dr. nielsen, who was 55 at the time of his death, was a highly popular leader in community as well as optometric affairs in colorado. -58"born in november, 1918, he graduated from the illinois college of optometry in 1949. he passed the colorado board in 1949 and entered practice that same year. at the time of his death he was associated in practice with dr. gorden. "office·rs and trustees of the fund, in addition to dr. gorden, are m. bernice nielsen, dr. wendell bryan, jr., dr. robert f. delamorton, and dr. claude s. slocum." the joseph~ babcock archives. initiated by a monetary contribution from the ohio optometric association in memory of joseph m. babcock, o.d., the babcock archives at the american optometric association headquarters are shaping up into one of the most complete period resources in optometry. the final shipment of cartons of filed papers was recently made by o.h.s. member mrs. babcock, lucille, who has been painstakingly putting the material into usable order and preparing a detailed inventory. this turned out to be a formidable task because the files were immersed in floodwaters. each sheet of paper had to be separated from the wet mass and dried in an oven. only lucille could do this intelligently, as she had been joe's secretary throughout his years of organizational participation in optometry at the local, state, and national level. if you ever had correspondence with joe babcock, you can be very sure your letter is now filed in the archives. otto engelmann memoirs: on november 18, 1963, o.h.s. member otto r. engelmann, o.d., wrote a nine-page double-spaced letter to the late dr. ernest kiekenapp describing a variety of incidents of his own personal involvement in optometry's early development in america. recently, on june 30, dr. engelmann sent me his file copy of the letter, as he is cleaning out his files in preparation for retirement in florida. my first impulse was to reprint the letter here in toto. after two or three readings, however, i decided merely to forward it to the american optometric association archives, thus making it permanently accessible to researchers in optometric history together with other documents dealing with the same half-century. editors make decisions like this and find it difficult to explain them. the letter touches on many incidents and personalities vivid and meaningful to optometrists of the period. examples include the use of the masonic temple in chicago as the first home of the northern illinois college of optometry; experiences in 1917-19 as the first to be placed as an optometrist in the army, at the u.s. army base hospital at camp grant, illinois; the resolution adopted by the illinois jewelers association in support of the bill to license optometrists in illinois in 1919; the "silver tongued orator" dr. augustine; 30 years as public relations chairman of the illinois optometric associatio~; the organi~ zation of the chicago (now the illinois) woman's auxiliary; battles with the optical manufacturers on advertising philosophy; his examination -59of a cross-eyed orangutan in lincoln park zoo, a publicity stunt which was photographed and written up in newspapers and magazines all over the u.s.a. and displayed in the hall of the museum of science and industry in chicago for many years; the last minute scuttling of an optometry exhibit prepared for the century of progress exhibition in 1933; the widely distributed "know your doctor" folder; the "optometry on trial" articles in the reader's digest; the aborted participation of optometrists in the grand opening of rogers park community hospital; anti-discrim­ ination battles with the illinois society for the prevention of blindness; and even the chicago gangsters' attempts to shake down optometrists in the early '30's. in the process of cleaning out his office files dr. engelmann thoughtfully has sent us bits arid pieces of documents, correspondence, and clippings which relate to the intensive, indeed often vicious, conflict between the medical and optometric contingents of the ophthalmic field in the '30's in the chicago area. surely, if a thoroughly analytical historian ever attempts to review the episode, these contributions will have tremendous documentary value. they are being forwarded to the american optometric association archives for safe keeping. upon completing the writing of the preceding paragraph i received another packet from otto, correspondence relating to the inflammatory august 15, 1963, issue of der ausenspiegel, zeitschrift fur den deutschen augenarzt, vol. 9, no. 8. most of this issue consisted of an editorial and two articles on optometry in the u.s.a. another packet from otto included a copy of officers, committees, boards and delegates for 1936, north shore post no. 21, the american legion, in which dr. engelmann is listed as the "optometrical officer" for rehabilitation. in an accompanying memorandum, he pointed out that his was the first and perhaps the only such appointment, as "all legion posts soon thereafter dropped the appointment of medical, dental, and optometric officers." he added, "in 1936 north shore post 1121 had over 1000 members." in the same organization roster dr. engelmann is listed also as a member of the school awards committee for americanism, of the committee for community affairs, and of the conmrl.ttee for legion uniforms. term papers due: following are the instructions to students enrolled in the optometric history course at indiana university during the fall semester of 1973-74: "each student will be required to submit a term report on some historical aspect of optometry relating to the second half of the 18th century, the period during which our nation was founded and which will be of special interest during our a~proaching bi-centenary celebration in 1976. this may relate to a person of historical -60significance, an invention, a concept, a custom, a fad, a trend, a policy, an event, spectacle design or styling, or any other topic of optometric interest. information may be gleaned from period publications, literature, photographs, paintings, statistics, correspondence, diaries, museums, historical archives, conference minutes, commercial documents, etc., but with all resources properly and fully identified, including their location. it is strongly recommended that the report be confined to an extremely specific topic of single detail. even a systematic search which fails to uncover positive evidence may be considered a contribution toward our appreciation of the state of optometric or preoptometric development circa 1776. "the paper may be written in the style of an article for publication, whence its length should be compatible with publication requirements, or it may be written in the form of a personal letter to an editor or to an official of an historical society." post bellum optometry: the following is a letter to the editor of the january 1900 issue of the optical journal, vol. 7, no. 1, p. 81: "entitled to a pension. "i am now 67 years old and have sold spectacles since i was 17 except while i was in the army of '61 to '65; have taken much pains and read up the best authors obtainable. have studied the eye so much that i can fit any normal eye by simply looking into same. i used to travel extensively over the country selling spectacles and eyeglasses, examining eyes, etc., so that now at my age and with such long experience i have become expert in my business and feel that the optical society of some of the eastern states ought to count me as an honorary member without any great expense, as i am a poor pensioner and much crippled. i like the optical journal very much and feel that i cannot get along without it, as it gives me much useful information on the subject in hand. i am amused at times to have parties drop in my office (or shop), pick up the hand optometer and try their own eyes in order to find the number so they can go to some ten cent counter hardware or drug store where is kept cheap spectacles and try to fit themselves by the inch measure, but they always get badly fooled, both in quality and fit, as my optometer is numbered in french and in such a manner that i figure therefrom when i don't use other tests. but such is life and opticians should always be careful to keep their tests a secret unless well paid for the same. "yours fraternally, "s. c. ferguson. "hay springs, ner." h. w. hofstetter, editor 1973-04-04-001 1973-04-04-002 1973-04-04-003 1973-04-04-004 1973-04-04-005 1973-04-04-006 1973-04-04-007 1973-04-04-008 1973-04-04-009 1973-04-04-010 1973-04-04-011 1973-04-04-012 1973-04-04-013 1973-04-04-014 1973-04-04-015 1973-04-04-016 op-~ lof:7e-tv" sr-·. '·-z~jr l ; , . . "-zoa.j. ~~~)&tier of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. n~¥~~ 1971 volume 2 october 1971 medieval perspectiva: by far the most popular of all medieval treatises on optics, perspectiva communis, by fr. john pecham (ca. 1235-1292, consecrated as archbishop of canterbury in 1279), became the standard elementary optical textbook of the late middle ages. although the original composition took place between about 1270 and 1273, extant manuscript copies are variously dated in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, truly a "best seller" (mercati maximi?). it appears to be largely a compendium of alhazen's longer and more abstruse perspectiva. the term perspectiva is the medieval latin equivalent of our term "optics." communis was used in titles of standard texts to imply "general" or "for everyone." so says david c. lindberg, translator, editor, and annotator of perspectiva communis in his 1970 book entitled john pecham and the science of optics, university of wisconsin press. the latin version is on the opposite odd-numbered pages. fascinatissimus! patron saint of opticians: st. jerome (331-420 a.d.) "held the chief place" among the several saints of the spectacle makers of france, according to author edward c. bull in an article entitled, "the patron saint of the opticians" in the optical journal and review of may 18, 1911, vol. 27, no. 21, p. 1160. a venetian optician in 1600 a.d. declared st. jerome "the inventor of eyeglasses," surely a bit over-enthusiastically. this bit of information was gleaned by someone in the a.o.a. library and forwarded to me. on several occasions over the years my attention has been called to names of other patron saints of optics, vision, light, etc. now i wish i had kept a log of thes~ names, for a study of their roles could give us greater appreciation of our heritage. try this on your librarian: "sir david brewster (1781 1868) and the clinical detection of corneal anomalies" is the title of an article by o.h.s. member and v.p. dr. john r. levene on pages 105-109 of a publication having all of the following legend in its title page: xiie congres international d'histoire des sciences, paris 1968, actes, tome viii, histoire des sciences naturelles et de la biologie, librairie scientifique et technique, albert blanchard, 9, rue de medicis, paris (6e), 1971. whoosh! -18anyway, sir david observed the corneal reflections of a candle to diagnose keratoconus, probably the earliest clinical method of examining conical cornea using a reflection method, concludes dr. levene. a bit facetiously, i am prompted to wonder if the unsteadiness of the candle flame had anything to do with calling ophthalmometer lights "mires" i living history: the opinions of 18 of the 21 living past presidents of the american optometric association are featured in the august 1971 issue of optometric world, vol. 58, no. 8, together with the inaugural address of the current president, richard l. hopping, o.d. their abbreviated comments reflect the issues of 37 years, dating back to the administration of walter i. brown, o.d., in 1934. they identify the pressing problems of their respective administrations, optometry's gains this past decade, and the problems of the profession in the near future. flavored by their personal and individual preoccupations and philosophy, their views nevertheless tell a very human story of the profession's recent struggles and aspirations. worthy of your library: a historical survey entitled "the nature of light" by vasco ronchi and translated by v. barocas makes delightful reading for visual science history buffs. published by heinemann educational books ltd., london, in 1970, in attractive hard cover, it provides 288 pages of easy reading with eight color plates and 96 black and white plates. chapter one deals with "optics in the graeco-roman age" and chapter eight, the last one, describes attempts to answer the question "what is light?". mathematical discussions are virtually absent, though visual and optical phenomena are well covered as manifestations of the behavior and character of light. buy it! conversation piece microscopes: when i visited the optometry office of peter waterhouse in.cambridge, new zealand, i was fascinated by a very old brass microscope which he had mounted on a shelf, purely as a conversation piece. a few days ago i saw a scribbled note tacked up on the bulletin board in a local (bloomington, indiana) lunch room offering "old microscope for sale," with an address of a student rooming house. just for fun i wandered over to the address and met with the student, who showed me a microscope of truly old vintage which he offered to sell for $75. though !,personally, don't spend $75 on collectors' items, i suggested to him that it might be worth more. together we went to the library and found a book entitled "the billings microscope collection of the medical museum armed forces institute of pathology" published by the american registry of pathology, washington, d.c., 1967. therein we found his microscpe illustrated and identified as "probably of french origin, circa 1875." i suggested that he advertise it in the aoa news or ama news at $100. -19henry's jumping jack: recently my colleague professor merrill j. allen gave me a copy of u.s. patent no. 1,610,517 issued dec. 14, 1926, to optometrist william j. henry of akron, ohio, for a "systemof fitting glasses and appartus for use in practicing the same". the appartus con­ sisted essentially of a "jumping jack" whose very unstable posture on a pivot was controlled by the patient at the distance of 20 feet by means of a squeeze bulb attached to a long rubber hose. compressing the bulb activated a pneumatic diaphragm which in turn hoisted the jumping jack. with practice and skill the patient could meet the challenge of making "jack" sit up on the pivot. the patient's attention was so engrossed as to make his fixation almost absolutely fixed during retinoscopy. it worked! i used it frequently while an optometry student at the ohio state university in the late thirties. though i never met dr. henry, i once heard from a native of akron, ohio, that dr. henry had a huge snellen chart painted on the side of a building a block or more away so that he could more closely approximate infinity. i have forwarded my copy of the patent to the aoa archives. frederic albert woll, ph.d. : from o.h.s. member arthur hoare i received a copy of a letter from the late isidore s. finkelstein to dr. hoare dated november 1, 1958, in which he pays glowing tribute to dr. woll as his former teacher both at the college of the city of new york and in the department of optometry at columbia university. dr. hoare added that dr. finkelstein, a distinguished optometrist and teacher, was the son of a distinguished rabbi in new york. dr. hoare also enclosed a copy of his own address of dedica­ tion to dr. woll, dated march 1, 1955. here are a few interesting extractions: "thirty five years ago i first met fred. he was con­ ducting classes for optometrists in los angeles. the announced subjects were ocular anatomy and dissection, together with lectures on 'hygiene the optometrist ought to know.'" "for twenty-five years or more fred made a trip west during the summer college recess. during those years we shared the closest friendship with ernest hutchinson and william kinney." "for ten years fred spent his summer months in my home." "it was enlightening and enlivening to hear him tell of some of the practices of some of the early 'leaders' •.. to learn that there was much color and no little humor in the early scene." -20"through fred i learned some intimate history concerning such men as charles prentice, emil arnold, harry covell, ernest eimer, john eberhart, ed arrington, and andrew jay cross , 'the old man. "' kentucky state college of optometry: on july 18, 1955, i wrote to a dr. a. w. tuttle of winchest~r, kentucky, whose listing in the blue book of optometrists showed him to be a graduate of the kentucky state college of optometry. in a letter dated july 21, 1955, he reported having completed his study there in june 1939 and quoted from his diploma the words, " ••• having successfully completed the prescribed course ••• , has been by the authority of the state of kentucky declared doctor of optometry." he suggested i contact dr. w. d. walden, mt. sterling, kentucky, as the "school's founder and president during its period of operation." on july 25 i wrote to dr. tuttle and on august 17, 1955, he responded on kentucky state college of optometry letterhead as follows: "the kentucky state college of ·optometry began in 1934, and ceased operation in 1945. the o.d. degree was granted to each graduate. "the college records are packed and stored in a warehouse, if there is any specific data you would like i will try to find it for you." on the letterhead were the imprinted names "william d. walden, b.s., opt.d., sc.d., president" and "henry l. jones, a.b., a.m., ph.d., dean". under the name of the college were the words "incor­ porated" and "chartered and accredited". enclosed were two unfilled transcript forms of rather conventional design but with the added information that, "by authority of the commonwealth of kentucky the following degrees may be conferred:" then followed the degrees "o.d. doctor of optometry," "b.s. bachelor of science", and "d.o.s. doctor of ophthalmic science", with explanations of the requirements of each, the last being described as an honorary degree. i have forwarded this correspondence to the aoa archives. early optometric research? a very respectable amount of optometric research was done on accommodation and convergence in the american expeditionary force (a.e.f.) laboratories at mineola, long island, new york, during and following world war i and published under the authorship of drs. w. h. wilmer and c. berens. someone, somewhere, a few years ago told me that there was an optometrist or two or three on the research staff. now that i recall in the wilmer and berens papers the liberal use of such terms as near point of convergence, near point of accom­ modation, ductions, etc. it strikes me that of course there must have been optometrists around, doing their share. -21the reference to the summarizing report is aviation medicine in the a.e.f., war department document no. 1004, february 1920, government printing office, washington d.c. chapter vi, "department of ophthalmology: the eye in aviation," pp. 165-240, was authored by col. w. h. wilmer and maj. conrad berens, jr. notes about prentice: a few years ago i had occasion to sort out a few notes about charles f. prentice in response to an inquiry from hilda g. kingslake for the history committee of the optical society of america. her inquiry was prompted by the fact that prentice was a charter member of the optical society, in 1916, but resigned in 1924. in response i related the following bits of information from his book legalized optometry and memoirs, casparin fletcher press, seattle, washington, 1926, which strike me as much more interesting now than they seemed at the time: charles f. prentice, m.e., born in brooklyn, n.y., june 24, 1854, the son of james prentice, of london, england, a noted optician (optometrist) established in new york in 1842. 1875-1878, followed the profession of mechanical draftsman and patent solicitor. 1882, became father's partner. 1888, succeeded his father in business which he later trans­ formed into a strictly professional practice. 1886, published a treatise entitled "ophthalmic lenses." published many technical articles in ophthalmological journals. 1921, ophthalmic lenses and prisms, vol. x of the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, chicago, ill. originated optical terms: prism-dioptry, contra-generic, dioptral, photostat, typoscope, chiasma! image, and contra-meniscus. honorary member of optical society of the state of new york, rochester optical club, american optical association, british columbia optometric association, texas optometric association, and the institute of ophthalmic opticians, london, england, 1925. member of first board of examiners in optometry, state of new york, 1908. 1886, copyrighted term "opticist". 1870-1871, attended the gymnasium at lahr, baden, germany. -22autumn 1871 to may or june 1874, student at royal polytechnicum, mechanical engineering department, at karlsruhe, baden, germany. 1896, first president of the optical society of the state of new york. incidentally, he published only 200 copies of the book. it is surely optometry's number one collector's item, and, what is more, it may well be the most delightful reading any optometrist has every enjoyed. to use a "then" rather than a "now" phrase, it is simply a scream! memorialized optometrists: almost two years ago announcement was made by the association of ophthalmic opticians, 11, harrington street, dublin, ireland, of the establishment of the standish mason memorial fund for a library to commemorate the late standish mason, a beloved teacher of irish ophthalmic opticians. this is a reminder that through the years many an admired contribu­ tor to optometric advancement has been memorialized by a special fund, the naming of a hall, a building, a collection, a society chapter, a publication, and even a redwood tree. what a rewarding hobby it would be for someone to gather information on such memorials! any volunteers? to get any such volunteer off to a good start we prepared a brief new release entitled, "wanted: information about memorialized optometrists". the release was mailed to the editors of all of the state optometric journals and to about the same number of optometric journals outside of the u.s.a. while we are awaiting responses from here and there, the following will serve as a start, or perhaps as additions to the andrew jay cross memorial tree in muir woods mentioned in our april 1970 issue, vol. 1, no. 2, pp-:-1'4-15,---a:ie emil arnold foundation (reference: the michigan optometric association), ~he robert~ tubesing chapter of the american academy of optometry, the john davey memorial fund (reference: indiana university foundation, bloomington, indiana), and the joseph morris babcock memorial archives (reference: american optometric association). from jack weber: "your idea for an optometric 'reminisce-in' sounds exciting and i would be delighted to attend such an event." * * * * h. w. hofstetter, editor 1971-02-04-001 1971-02-04-002 1971-02-04-003 1971-02-04-004 1971-02-04-005 1971-02-04-006 hindsight ,, ' newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 36 july 2005 number 3 haine will serve as ohs president for the remainder of 2005: due to an overwhelming schedule of speaking, writing, research, and teaching that would be more than enough for two or three mere mortals, jay enoch has found it necessary to resign his presidency of ohs. chuck haine, the duly elected vice­ president for 2005, will take over as president for the remainder of 2005. chuck is no stranger to leadership in ohs, having served as treasurer from 1991 to 1995 and as president in 1996. we have fortunately been able to convince jay to continue as an ohs board member and to continue his regular column in hindsight. bob boynton on lorrin riggs: editor's note: this is the first publication in hindsight by new ohs member bob boynton. he has had a long and distinguished career in vision research. he is distinguished professor emeritus at university of california san diego. he founded the center for visual science at the university of rochester. among the awards he has received are the lves award from the optical society of america and the prentice medal from the american academy of optometry. he is co-author of a highly regarded book, human color vision. lorrin riggs at brown in the early days: a student's recollections i am writing this mainly to reminisce about my early interactions with lorrin riggs, who has been a major contributor to visual science and a vital influence in my life. (lorrin celebrated his 93rd birthday on june 11, 2005.) in 1948, during my senior year at amherst college, i applied to four graduate programs in experimental psychology. the first response came from brown university when i was surprised to receive a telephone call from walter hunter, chairman of the psychology department. after saying "i have an offer that i want to discuss with you face to face," he invited me to visit. after more than fifty years i still recall the ride to providence by greyhound. was very excited, realizing that the next few hours could have a crucial bearing on the remainder of my life. i arrived around one o'clock on a spring afternoon, and after a 36/17 brief audience with hunter, he sent me to see lorrin riggs, whom hunter had described --very accurately as it turned out-as "a comer." riggs proved to be a heavy-set, red-headed, soft-spoken new englander. eventually i learned that he had been born in turkey of missionary parents. after graduating from dartmouth, he completed his graduate work at clark university as a 23year-old student of clarence graham (who had just turned 30). following a postdoctoral stint with keffer hartline, riggs was fortunate to find any kind of an academic job during the great depression. hired at the university of new hampshire, his teaching load was crushing and his research opportunities limited. he escaped during world war ii when he was recruited by brown university to study visual aspects of binocular range-finders for the military. after the war he joined the regular faculty and he was about to be promoted to associate professor at the time of my visit. shortly before the war, riggs had published an article describing a technique he had invented that allowed the recording of reproducible electrical signals from the human eye in response to flashes of light-the erg. the war delayed the exploitation of this new methodology but by 1948 e. parker johnson, riggs's first graduate student, had completed a dissertation describing his use of the riggs recording method, which revealed the scotopic nature of the b-wave component of the erg. in a letter to my parents dated march 12, 1948, i wrote: "riggs must be at least 35, but he doesn't look 30. [he was exactly 35.] the first thing he did was to show me around the lab, describing the facilities, and i absorbed what i could. he told me the terms of an offer, explaining that i was no. 1 in line for the job and it was mine when i gave the word. since his work is in the field of sensory psychology, and considering that i don't know much about it, i was very noncommittal at first. but by the time i left brown to return to amherst, almost all of my doubts had been resolved. i told riggs that i was almost sure to accept, but that i wanted to talk it over with allie [my wife] and amherst faculty." in 1948, significant government support of university research was a new concept, one pioneered by the office of naval research before the national institutes of health, the national science foundation, and other government agencies got into the business. riggs had applied for research funds from onr, and my support as his research assistant was contingent on the funding of his proposal, still under consideration. although i had not yet received feedback from any of the other programs to which i had applied, i accepted the brown offer. i soon learned that riggs had been funded by onr, so my research assistantship was secure. in september, after my wife allie and i had spent the summer with my parents in shaker heights, we took the train from cleveland to providence. i got off to a shaky start by canceling my first appointment in riggs's lab. on the afternoon of monday, october 4, i was scheduled to start learning my trade. however, this also turned out to be the very afternoon when the boston red sox and the cleveland indians would meet in a playoff game to decide the winner of the 1948 36/18 american league baseball championship. as a passionate indians fan since 1935, i was compelled to jeopardize my career rather than miss hearing that game (no tv). so i walked up to riggs's office, knocked at his open door, and announced "dr. riggs, i can't come to the lab this afternoon because i have to listen to a baseball game." perhaps it would have been smarter to feign illness, given that i didn't know lorrin very well yet, because an advisor of a different ilk might have told me to pack my bags and go home. but somehow, despite having no interest in baseball whatever, lorrin understood my plight and never held it against me. (during a talk i gave when i received the prentice award in 1997, i had occasion to describe this and other baseball­ related incidents that often distracted me from my work. since retirement in 1991, i have enjoyed baseball research with a clear conscience.) lorrin's modus operandi was to turn students loose. although he was always available for consultation, he did not snoop or dictate. he didn't provide any feedback, either, so my first year was an anxious one: i was doing fine but didn't know it. one day he remarked "nobody has studied the effect of stimulus area on the erg -­ maybe you'd like to do that." characteristically, he didn't dictate exactly how i should do it. i had to put all of the optics and some of the electronics together (what is now routine was anything but in those days) and i also designed the experiment. r was extremely fortunate that this research led to a discovery. i found that the erg response was just as large in response to foveal as to peripheral stimulation. since the rods had been shown by johnson to initiate the response, how could this be? lorrin was the one who suggested that there might be enough stray light in the eye to account for this, an idea that i resisted at first because i didn't want to believe that the eye's optics could be that bad. his idea was that most of the response from small peripheral stimuli might not arise from responses to receptors underlying the image of the stimulus, but rather from the low-level excitation by stray light of vast numbers of rods all over the retina. i mapped my pregnant wife's blind spot, along with those of a few other subjects, and found that the blind-spot b-wave was at least as large as that arising from a peripheral retinal area rich in rods. my first scientific talk, on april 21, 1950, was on this subject. although lorrin listed himself as first author, which was quite appropriate, my presentation went over very well and really launched my scientific career. a couple of things that stick in my memory that are illustrative of lorrin's character. some of us were having a bull session in his office one day when he said something to the effect that one must always be prepared to move in order to further one's career. (this from a man who stayed at brown through retirement and beyond) think it revealed a deep-seated ambition that he normally tried to play down. another time, when a couple of us were watching him shred the optic nerve of a horseshoe crab, he remarked "if a graduate student can't get up his own steam, there's nothing i can do about it." this was consistent with his "turn 'em loose and see what happens" philosophy. quite a few students didn't survive this treatment. those who did during my era included john armington, floyd ratliff, and tom cornsweet. armington was 36/19 examining a photopic component of the erg, while ratliff and cornsweet were pioneers, with lorrin, in examining vision with stabilized images using eye-movement recording techniques that lorrin had invented. also, while i was at brown, riggs was collaborating with ophthalmologists, studying retinitis pigmentosa patients using the erg -a precursor the routine use of ergs in clinical practice. above all, lorrin riggs is a very fine person and a real straight shooter. both from him and from my father, i learned that honesty is the best policy. also, lorrin set an example as a very hard worker who still managed to be a good family man. i have greatly valued his friendship and support throughout the years. robert m. boynton distinguished emeritus professor university of california, san diego 376 bellaire street del mar, ca 92014 rboynton@ ucsd.edu jay enoch's column: a jewel in the crown: the program in optometry at the university of rochester in new york; part i. the founding of the program introductory remarks: in 2004, the institute of optics at the university of rochester, in rochester, ny, celebrated its 75th anniversary. as a meaningful contribution to that event, a book was published which was written by faculty, former students, and colleagues of the institute. it is titled ·~jewel in the crown." the editor is prof. carlos r. stroud, jr. and the book is published by the meliora press (u. of rochester press), rochester, ny, 2004; isbn 1-58046-162-x. [professor stroud has kindly given me permission to describe/reproduce those portions of this fine document as it relates to the (now no longer existing) university of rochester program in optometry and the associated institute of optics, to reproduce related photos, and to list faculty of the school and to reproduce the list of graduates of the school during its existence (figures 7,8). a more complete treatment will be found in the original document.] the history of the optometry program at rochester is spread among the opening chapters of ·~jewel in the crown," some of which were written by the late dr. hilda (ne: conrady) kingslake. i had the pleasure of knowing both her and her husband, prof. 36/20 rudolph kingslake. in this part of this report, i review material concerning the origins and creation of the program in optometry. the early history of the institute of optics at rochester was closely intertwined with the optometric program and some names encountered will be familiar to our readers. in turn, this program was closely tied to development of optometric education in the united states, per se, and, in part, to development of the program in optometry at columbia university in new york city. [note: i graduated in 1950 in optometry as a member of the last undergraduate b.s. level class (degree awarded in optics and optometry) at the columbia university department of optometry. shortly afterward, during the korean war, i was appointed as one of the first commissioned optometrists in the u.s. army. after discharge, and with g. i. bill funding in hand, i started my graduate studies at the institute of optics at the u. of rochester in the spring semester of 1953. my graduate advisor was prof. brian o'brien, who was a distinguished and early faculty member at the institute of optics. later, he served as director of the institute of optics (throughout ww ii and afterwards). o'brien was originally recruited to the institute of optics at the age of 31 in 1929-1930 in order to develop a program in physiological optics (p.17), and in this role, he taught in the nascent u. of rochester program in optometry (figure 1 ). ll ...... , b figure 1. a photograph of professor brian o'brien in his mid-later years. prof. o'brien accepted appointment as vice-president for research at the american optical corporation (ao) in southbridge, ma. sadly, his departure occurred about two months after my arrival at rochester! it was o'brien who first kindled my interest in the stiles-crawford effects and the related optical properties of retinal receptors. i also had opportunity to hear a memorable debate on this general topic between prof. b. o'brien and prof. g. toraldo di francia at rochester. i left rochester (in the late summer of 1953) in order to continue my studies at ohio state university with prof. glenn a. fry. during my brief stay at rochester, i also met and had opportunity (in the spring of 1953) to take a class in vision science with a recently-arrived and very able faculty 36/21 member, prof. robert boynton. i also had opportunity to conduct research with him that spring and summer. we became close friends.] the origins of the institute of optics and the program in optometry: "it was no coincidence that the institute of optics was founded in rochester, nor that it was founded in the years following world war i. the rapid growth of optics­ related industry in the united states eye glasses, scientific, surveying, and military instruments, and more recently consumer photography made it intolerable to be dependent upon europe for the essential materials and trained technicians needed to support these industries." (quote from editor c. stroud?, p. 2). both george eastman (eastman kodak), and edward bausch (bausch and lomb), among others, played important roles in the development of this institution and academic resource. in its early days, the u. of rochester was located in downtown rochester at the prince street or "old campus." the optics and optometry programs, during planning and creation, were sited in the eastman building (figure 2). the major "new campus", known now as the river campus was dedicated in 1930. on that campus, both optics and optometry programs were housed along with physics in the bausch and lomb building located on the main quadrangle of the university. today, the institute of optics has expanded greatly on the rochester campus. figure 2. the eastman building on the university of rochester prince street campus. this was the original site of both the u. of r. institute of optics and the program in optometry. an important figure in the early development of optics and optometry in the united states was prof. james p.c. southall (figure 3) (p. 4,5, and see part ii of this document). he was to be the founder of the departmenvschool of optometry at columbia university in new york city during his tenure as professor of physics at columbia. in 1910, southall was professor at alabama polytechnic, at auburn, alabama. in that year, he wrote a special plea in the preface to his book, "principles 36/22 and methods of geometric optics." southall stated, "the great province of applied optics was almost exclusively german territory, so that nearly all the outstanding developments in modern times in both the theory and construction of optical instruments are of german origin." southall's timely argument and other urgent pleas (e.g., by nutting, etc.) apparently resonated among the nascent optics community in rochester and in the greater united states, and the (later-termed, and then just in formation) optical society of america. further, the need for development of non-german optical educational, research, and industrial resources was greatly spurred by major and multiple requirements arising during world war i (1914-1918). statements, such as the one quoted from southall, brought about development of optical resources in england, the united states, and elsewhere. figure 3. photograph of professor james p. c. southall. in great britain, the department of applied optics was opened at imperial college of science and technology in 1917. imperial college is located not far from the victoria and albert museum in london. prof. a. e. conrady was the first director, and his daughter hilda gertrude conrady and her husband rudolph kingslake, were among the first students in the program at imperial college. in turn, they both were early, distinguished and long participants in the institute of optics in rochester and in the associated program in optometry. [technically, hilda was not on the u. of rochester faculty, but rather filled all manner of roles within the program in optometry and institute and community; she was a fixture there!] [a number of optometrists will remember j.p.c. southall well from the very fine textbook he wrote on geometric optics titled: "mirrors, prisms, and lenses,"which was published in a number of editions by macmillan press. interestingly, the year i entered as a student into columbia's optometry school, 1948, about one-half (?) of these 36/23 geometric optics textbooks appeared with a volume of poetry substituted within the covers of this book. i wish i had received one of those copies! in the 1920s, southall also translated the three volume tome, "hermann von helmholtz's treatise on physiological optics, 3d german edition," into english at the behest of the optical society of america. the english translation contains interesting additional commentaries authored by von kreis, gullstrand (ophthalmologist, nobel laureate), and ladd-franklin. more recently, the same translation of helmholtz was reproduced by the dover press. note: helmholtz's second german edition of this masterwork is generally regarded as the finest of these now classical documents.] on february 16, 1918, the distinguished and long-serving president of the u. of rochester, benjamin rush rhees received a letter from george eastman speaking of letters received from a mr. dey and prof. southall raising a question as to whether rochester might be a place to locate a school of applied optics rather than new york [city]? apparently, augustus bausch was also involved in the exchanges of letters at that time. these gentlemen (less rhees) also were charter members of the then nascent optical society of america. eastman sought to arrange a meeting between dr. mees, then director of the research laboratory of eastman kodak co., mr. barnes, and mr. dey with president rhees. all wanted to establish a university department dedicated to teaching and research in optics (p. 5). eastman's letter, and one assumes the resultant meeting, evoked a meaningful response from president rhees within a remarkably short period of time! the process had begun for a "school of optical engineering" at the university of rochester. added early discussions had been held in 1916, or 1917 by both messrs. augustus busch and adolph lomb with president rhees. at this point, deliberations began as to how to achieve the defined program, e.g., how to organize this (then) quite unique entity. and it was necessary to decide who might direct it, to consider what type of faculty, curriculum, research, etc., would be included, as well as how to fund the program and associated physical resources and laboratories, etc. these matters take time. in 1926 or 1927, a subcommittee consisting of t.r. wilkins (who had been appointed as junior professor in physics at u. of rochester, and who later would serve as the first director of the institute of optics), l.a. jones, of eastman kodak, and w.b. rayton of bausch and lomb, was appointed "to outline courses to be offered in the proposed institute of applied optics ... " on june 3, 1927, they recommended two main lines of study, (a) "the training of students in the theory of optics and optical instruments ... to provide a supply of men versed in the theory and skilled in the design of optical instruments ... ," and (b) the training of optometrists (this writer's emphasis)." there was also a plan for later development of postgraduate programs. relative to the 'optical design group', the optometrists would receive less optical theory and added training in elementary anatomy and physiology, pathology of the eye, and optometric instruction and clinical practice. note, the 4 year optometry course was started in 1926 (p. 14-15), with first graduates in 1930 (p. 14-15). 36/24 it is important to point out that there was a second, non-university affiliated, optometry educational program located in rochester. it was called the rochester school of optometry (rso) which had been founded in 1911 or 1912. two faculty of the rochester school of optometry were engaged by the university for the new university-based program in optometry. they were the founder and self-appointed dean of rso, mr. ernest petry (figure 4), who was appointed lecturer on theoretical and practical optometry at the university, and apparently became the effective director of the nascent program in optometry at u. of rochester, and mr. herbert e. wilder of rso (figure 5) who was appointed as instructor of optometry, and served as optical shop instructor. petry also served for a period of time on the new york state board of examiners in optometry (p.18). figure 4. lecturer ernest petry. figure 5. herbert e. wilder, head of the optics shop. [it is interesting to note that another faculty member of rso was gordon h. gliddon who taught part-time at rso and worked part-time at eastman kodak. he apparently had a part-time appointment in physics at u. of rochester (p. 22), but he is not listed as a member of the early institute of optics faculty (p. 38). some years later, gliddon served as a colleague of adelbert ames and kenneth ogle at the dartmouth eye institute in hanover, nh.] actually, the situation became somewhat more complicated because of actions taken by the new york state legislature; those actions weakened the role of independent schools of optometry (such as rso) in n.y. state. in 1908, the state legislature passed a law, similar to laws passed in other jurisdictions, initiating regulation of the profession of optometry, "thereby placing small private optometry schools in considerable jeopardy" (p. 22). in 1923 the legislature passed another law stating that "on and after january 1930 all newly qualified optometrists in new york state had to be graduates b.s. or b.a. of a recognized university, and [to be] certified in 36/25 optometry." (p. 22). rso did not have university status, had 6 faculty and 100 students. because of related concerns, it was petry who first contacted president b. rhees of u. of rochester (p. 22). although some students in optometry started their education in 1926 (see above), formally, the institute of optics and u. of rochester program in optometry date their origin as academic bodies from 1929. subsequently, the optometry program was terminated in 1936 (this is the subject of the next column). at the time the program was discontinued, 40 students had graduated with a b.s. in optometry (about% of all students at the institute of optics during the first years of its tenure). there is a photograph of "members of the first class in optometry" (p. 23). it included 7 males and 1 female. however, only two individuals are listed as having graduated in 1930, 2 in 1931 , 4 in 1932, 9 in 1933, etc. thus, one assumes the caption of the photograph represented a larger group of individuals than indicated in the first graduating class (figures 6,7). alternatively, these might have been pooled members of the first graduating classes. dr. petry and mr. wilder can be identified in this photograph. figure 6. the "first class" in the optometry program. the students are shown seated (please see accompanying text). one assumes the individuals standing are all faculty. among the latter, both petry and wilder can be identified on the right. among the early students (figure 7), i knew dr. richard feinberg (later ph.d.) quite well. he became head of the northern illinois college of optometry in chicago, and afterwards served as a senior administrator at the national institute of neurological diseases and blindness, nih. he graduated with a b.s. in the class of 1933. also in the class of 1933, there was a very fine clinician and teacher, dr. elias margaretten. he was a long-time faculty member at the columbia university department of optometry. i came into contact with him quite often, but i was never assigned to his classes. 36/26 if readers have added information about this school, its faculty (figure 8), or its students, dr. goss, the editor, and i would appreciate recording these details as they relate to this early optometry program. and we would also both be pleased if errors encountered are corrected! this discussion will be continued in my next column, where the ensuing closure of this promising school will be addressed. on yet another occasion, it might be interesting to compare the reasons and conditions for the closure of the u. of rochester program in optometry and the later closing of the columbia u. department of optometry in the late-1950s. thank you. allen, arthur w., b.s.*, 1933 allyn, william g., b.s.*, 1934 armstrong, a. g., b.s.*, 1932 aronson, casper j., b.s., 1938; m.s., 1939 beel, william e., b.s.*, 1934 benford, james r., b.s., 1935 bergmann, cedric 0., b.s.*, 1932 bickel, edward e., b.s., 1939 bingham, w. j., b.s.*, 1934 burrage, r. r., b.s.*, 1930 chamberlin,]. c., b.s.*, 1931 craytor, russell e., b.s.*, 1935 denton, arthur h., b.s.*, 1936 eggleston,john n., b.s.*, 1930 elliott, theodore f., b.s.*, 1936 erckert, s. d., b.s.*, 1930 estes, cameron b., b.s., 1938 evans, john c., b.s., 1939 evans, preston g., b.s.*, 1932 feinberg, richard, b.s.*, 1933 fortmiller, louis j., b.s., 1938 gienke, e l., b.s.*, 1933 goldstein, david g., b.s., 1939 griswold, mack d., b.s., 1935 hart, james c., b.s.*, 1935 harvey, james e., b.s., 1939 hathaway, f. m., b.s.*, 1931 hildreth, l. e., b.s.*, 1933 hoadley, h. orio, b.s., 1935 hopkins, robert e., m.s., 1939; ph.d., 1945 hudak, robert j., b.s., 1939 hussong, harold e., b.s., 1935 hutchings, franklyn c., b.s.*, 1935 ingalls, arthur l., b.s., 1932 johnson, fred w., b.s., 1938 johnson, j. r., b.s.*, 1935 juengst, w. c., b.s.*, 1936 levy, s. h., b.s.*, 1933 lewis, c. p., b.s.*, 1934 litten, walter, b.s., 1936 london, mortimer a., b.s., 1937 margaretten, elias j., b.s.*, 1933 marshall, henrys., b.s.*, 1934 milligan, f. h., b.s., 1934 orden, alex, b.s., 1937 orser, w. d., b.s., 1934 perkins, r. f., b.s.*, 1936 porter, melbourne j., b.s.*, 1932 quick, h. e., b.s.*, 1935 rogers, howard f., b.s., 1936 schiller, a., b.s.*, 1933 strebel, gustave a., b.s.*, 1936 suter, walter j., b.s., 1934 tupper, j. l., b.s., 1933 veit, m. c., b.s.*, 1934 vermilya, e. b., b.s.*, 1933 warren, c. d., b.s.*, 1936 warren, franklin a., b.s.*, 1934 weinstein, jacob d., b.s.*, 1933 wersinger, r. e., b.s.*, 1935 west, cedric f., b.s.*, 1935 weston, frederick c., b.s.*, 1934 williams, david l., b.s., 1937 williams, j. c., b.s.*, 1934 figure 7. degrees awarded, 1930-1939, by the university of rochester institute of optics. asterisks designate the graduates of the program in optometry. 36/27 the institute of optics faculty 1929-1939 berry, william, 1929-33 campbell,]. stuart, 1935-40 clark, herbert a., 1938-43 dewey,jane, 1929-30 fairbanks, floyd c., 1929-30 fassin, gustave, 193d-40 greenwood, gilbert, 1929-30 hood,]. douglas, 1929-30 jones, uoyd a., 1929-43 kingslake, rudolf, i 929-2003 kurtz, henry, 1930-32, 1935-36 lowry, earl m., 1929-30 luckiesh, m., 193d-3l martin, l. c., 1936-38 mees, c. e. kenneth, 1929-43 moss, f. k., 1930-31 murlin, john r., 1929-32 nitchie, charles, 1934-35 o'brien, brian, 193d-55 petry, ernest, 1929-36 rayton, wilbur b., 1929-31 sedgwick, h. jobe, 193d-34 taylor, a. maurice, i 929-34 wilder, herbert e., 1929-39 wilkins, t. russell, 1929-39 figure 8. the u. of rochester institute of optics faculty, 1929-1939. most of these individuals participated as instructors (at least part-time) in the optometric teaching program. all figures are reproduced courtesy u. of rochester, and prof. carlos r. stroud, editor. these are reproduced with permission from the book, a jewel in the crown, meliora press, 2004. j.m.e. responses to last issue's portrayal of an optometrist in a perry mason novel: in the april, 2005, issue of hindsight, there was a presentation of the portrayal of "an optometrist, a jeweler and a watchmaker" from a 1950 perry mason novel. the following questions were posed to the readers: "a question for members who may have been in school or in practice in 1950: how accurate a portrayal is this of some of the older optometrists practicing in 1950? how many optometrists still identified themselves as optometrist, jeweler, and watchmaker in 1950?" responses were received from two ohs members, ted grosvenor and jerry abrams. the following response from ted grosvenor was received first: i was intrigued by your question regarding the perry mason novel about older optometrists in 1950. i was, of course, definitely a young optometrist at that time, but i had an interesting experience in briefly meeting a much older one. when i was ready to graduate from the osu college of optometry in 1946, dr. herb mote, who was in charge of assistance to graduates at that time, told me that the small town on franklin, in southwestern ohio between dayton and cincinnati, needed 36/28 an optometrist, and that there was an old optician in franklin, who was practicing under the "grandfather clause" in the ohio optometry law, who would be retiring soon. betty, my bride of one year, and i drove down to franklin, found vacant office space (as i recall, the rent was $40 per month) and a place to live, and decided to seek our fortune there. some folks with whom we became acquainted in franklin knew who the old optician was, and where he was. we were told that his "office" was on the second floor, above a grocery store. so i arranged to pay him a visit. after walking up the stairs, i wasn't surprised to enter what looked more like a "shop" than an office. various items of jewelry were on display, along with a microscope or two, and a display case of what looked like "ready-made" glasses. the old fellow didn'.t appear to be in good health, and seemed to be relieved that he would no longer have to climb up and down the stairs every day. he was working only part-time, and soon retired completely. like most older practitioners, he had apparently been taking care of the older folks who had been patronizing him for years. the perry mason novel also brought to mind the optician who had a store in cuyahoga falls, ohio, where i grew up. my dad was a general medical practitionera "country doctor" who spent almost as much time making house calls as seeing patients in his office. an oculist had an office in the same building as my dad. every time the oculist examined my eyes (starting at about age six) he gave me a prescription to take to the jeweler-optician next door. that shop was even more like the perry mason novel. not much evidence of spectacles or other optical stuff, mostly jewelry. i don't believe there was anyone in cuyahoga falls during the 1930s who called himself or herself an optometrist, but there may have been another jeweler-optician. the following was received from j.j. abrams: i am replying to your question in the newsletter in the "an optometrist in a perry mason novel." in 1950, i was practicing optometry in my first year of solo practice. i don't recall any optometrist, jeweler, and watchmaker; however, there were many optometrists who practiced in jewelry stores and department stores. in indianapolis, for instance, a very large optical department headed by dr. roland cox was on the mezzanine floor of l.s. ayres which was one of our finest department stores at that time. in the perry mason novel it was interesting to see they did address the optometrist as dr. carlton b. radcliffe. also his statement "information about a patient...l don't give out..." makes one think about hippa laws. in 1950, there was a strong optometric philosophy of ethical and professional optometry versus commercial optometry. the aoa and loa adopted a strict "code of ethics" that kept jewelry store and neon sign optometrists from membership. that "code of ethics" prevailed for many years. then in the 1970s many states began to 36/29 relax these rules and by 1980 all states were accepted optometrists no matter how and where they practiced. more on edward c. bull, spectacle collector: in the january, 2005, issue of hindsight (pages 4, 5), i wrote about information that david fleishman had been able to gather about optometrist and spectacle collector edward c. bull. i also included a summary of a few mentions of bull and his famous older brother ophthalmologist in earlier issues of hindsight. edward c. bull lived in pasadena, california in his later years and died in 1931. there was still much unknown about bull and i posed some questions to the readership. linda draper of ilamo emailed me a list of publications by and about e.c. bull from a file that ilamo had maintained on him. she then sent me copies of items from the list that i was not able to obtain in the indiana university optometry library. the following is the list of publications by and about edward c bull: bull ec. letter to the editor: edward c. bull established in paris. optical journal october, 1899;6(8):624. bull ec. interesting collection of ancient eyeglasses and prints showing how they were worn. optical journal may, 1902;9(5):399-402. bull ec. history of bifocals. optical journal april, 1903;11 (4):445-452. bull ec. the patron saint of the opticians. optical journal and review may 18, 1911 ;27(21 ):1160. bull ec. a vo~age into the history of spectacles. presented at the educational congress, 29t annual convention, american optometric association, san francisco, 1926. anonymous. exhibits at the a.o.a. convention. optical journal and review july 8, 1926;58(2):40. anonymous. exhibits. optometric weekly july 8, 1926;17(18):673. anonymous. dr. bull tells of evolution of spectacles. the reflex (los angeles school of optometry) february 10, 1927;7(7):5, 14. in the 1899 letter to optical journal editor frederick boger, bull tells of his move to paris. from the tone of the letter it appears that boger and bull must have been well acquainted. the following are some excerpts from bull's letter, first dealing with his getting established in paris and then relating to a book written by his brother: 36/30 " ... it is a very difficult thing to establish an american house in paris. the laws are very hard to put up with, and all seem made on purpose to annoy opticians. " ... i have opened the very model of optical stores. the situation is ideal, for rue scribe is the american street in paris. the chief steamship passenger offices are on it and monrow bank and several exchanges, and the chamber of commerce is next door. the grand boulevards are at one end of the block and the opera is at the other. the dining room of the grand hotel looks out directly on our shop, where they see a sign that they cannot help seeing. " ... 1 have seen three opticians from america since i arrived, and it did my heart good to talk with some one that could sympathize with me in the hard pull i was having to get established. mr. l.e. kirstein of lloyds of boston, and an optician of worcester, mass., have been here, and henry blattner of st. louis. mr. wells of southbridge also called on me and sort of gave his blessing to the establishment. " ... i know that you will be glad to publish this extract from dr. javal's preface to dr. bull's book on eye glasses and spectacles, which is just about published: '"the second edition of dr. bull's book shows the progress that has been made in the last ten years, which for the most part comes from america. i would point out especially the progress made in the adjustment of eye glasses and spectacles. from american also comes the news of an evolution in medical optics, which having become one of the fields of oculists tends to return to the hands of the opticians. it is plain, in fact, that in order to prescribe spectacle lenses it is not necessary to have made complete medical studies. also, however, well founded the objections to this may be the revolution i have pointed out is destined to gain ground.' "i am sure that you will be glad to see what the inventor of the ophthalmometer thinks of american opticians." bull's 1902 and 1903 publications indicate that he was then located in new york. the 1902 article includes a composite picture of 36 pairs of spectacles and reproductions of eight prints showing people wearing spectacles. bull used these pictures as illustrations of the changes in spectacles over the years. in discussing some of the spectacles he made comments indicating that they were from his collections. perhaps they all were. additional pairs of spectacles are pictured in his 1903 article. the booklet in which bull's presentation at the 1926 american optometric association was published gives his address as 510 s. madison st., pasadena, california. he also had an exhibit of his collection at that aoa meeting. the optometric weekly description of his exhibit said that "nearly every form of eyeglass that has been made was shown in this exhibit, which has taken a third of a century to amass, and has been collected from all corners of the globe. there was a line of pictures surrounding the room which also showed the development of eyeglasses ... " 36/31 we are still left with a number of questions about edward c. bull. what was his birth year? where did he receive his training? and perhaps most puzzling, david fleishman has a photo of bull's june, 1912 doctor of optometry diploma from southern california college of optometry and ophthalmology, but bull is not mentioned anywhere nor listed among the graduates in james gregg's book on the history of the southern california college of optometry. d.a.g. one hundred years ago: the following advertisements that appeared in the optical journal one hundred years ago may be of some interest to readers. the advertisement for rigid spring eyeglasses was on page 52 of the june 29, 1905 issue (volume 16, number 1 ); the notice from the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology was on page 44 of that same issue. the ad for auto-goggles was inside the front cover of the july 6, 1905 issue (volume 16, number 2). the list of state optical organizations on pages 197 and 198 of the july 6, 1905 issue of the optical journal includes 31 organizations in the united states and two from canadian provinces. the names of the organizations are mostly " ... optical association" or" ... optical society." only four them had optometry or optometrists in the name of the organization: california state association of optometrists, new mexico association of optometrists, rhode island society of optometry, and wisconsin association of optometrists. as a special summer feature let us help you push the sale of finch ~~~~~g eyeglasses (l they are most comfortable in warm weather and cannot be shaken off by wind or violent out-door exercise. (l we supply this advertising matter free: booklets, street-car signs, el<etrotypes, store signs, translucent window signs. cjhe meyrowitz manufacturing co., inc. wholesale manufacturing opticians 104 east twenty-third street new york 36/32 36/33 the opticai journal. . , cl 75he motorist . must have something to protect his eyes on the road .·'f.~: ··-~· ;;;_ f[ t~ere' s ~more "motoring" being done this year than ever before, and more autogoggles ~being sold in conse-.. qnence. f[ you are bou~d to .have c~lls tor these goods-especially if you display them. f[ we have in stock all forms of auto­ mobile goods, masks and goggles, as well as smoked goods and other eye­ protectors for tourists. send for list. distributing aglnts for tht new "mayer invisible" bifocal. circular on application. wholesale, importing, manufaduring optician d. v. brown.. 736, 738, 740, 742 sansom street philadelphia managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 36/34 2005-36-03-001 2005-36-03-002 2005-36-03-003 2005-36-03-004 2005-36-03-005 2005-36-03-006 2005-36-03-007 2005-36-03-008 2005-36-03-009 2005-36-03-010 2005-36-03-011 2005-36-03-012 2005-36-03-013 2005-36-03-014 2005-36-03-015 2005-36-03-016 2005-36-03-017 2005-36-03-018 or! volume 22 newsletter of the pptometric historical society ~243 north lindbergh boulevard .~t. louis, misspj.1.._~j,_~;r*~ilf1t1h~) · · £ lndiana university janu~ry 1$i~! 10 1991 .~ library optometry library f 5 ~ay ·jb91 indiana university number 1 **************"**• ballot enclosed: enclosed with this issue of the newsletter you will find your ballot for this year's executive board election. although we are running a bit behind, don't let that keep you from sending in your vote. let's make this tally a large one! member eulogy: one of our most faithful readers and society members has died. earl dablemont enjoyed reading each issue of this newsletter from front to back. over the years many of our readers have communicated and worked with earl's spouse maria. maria served for many years as this society's treasurer and secretary and also as the director of ilamo. earl will be missed. french eyecare circa 1800: louis orzack, a professor of sociology at rutgers university, writes us as follows: while preparing a book review for a scholarly journal in my field, i came across a number of statements regarding various aspects of ophthalmological and optometric behaviors and beliefs that i believe should be of interest and worthy of citations in the newsletter of the optometric historical society. the work is professional and popular medicine in france, 1770-1830: the social world of medical practice by matthew ramsey, published by cambridge university press, cambridge and new york, 1988. ramsey is an accomplished historian, educated both at harvard and in paris. his is a major work; i wrote a very positive review. the statements below are culled from his extensive coverage of the subject. p. 23: specialization is a relatively recent phenomenon in modern medicine; in paris, as late as 1845, all but 12 percent of physicians were still general practitioners. experts were not, however, specialists in the contemporary sense, practitioners who limit themselves to a single branch of medicine after completing the usual general training .••• they were essentially artisans who 22/ 2 applied highly developed mechanical skills to certain delicate operations. before the eighteenth century, .•. , conventional wisdom held that procedures such as couching cataracts were best left to itinerant operators who did little else. the fourteenth-century physician guy de chauliac, for example, whose major text on surgery was translated from· latin into french in 1592, made this recommendation for ocular surgery; so, in the seventeenth century, did lazare riviere, a professor of medicine at montpelier, at least for cases in which "a cataract cannot be dissolved by any medicine." p. 24: in paris, all the surgical specialists came under the nominal jurisdiction of the king's first surgeon: a 1776 directory listed 6 oculists, 14 hernia surgeons, and 36 dentists in the capital. the king himself appointed royal experts; in 1787 the royal household had 5 bonesetters. 2 oculists, ..• p. 25: ••• in 1770 the town of grenoble paid a certain dachino, a neapolitan ocular surgeon, for operating on the poor. the most fully developed specialty was ocular surgery, whose status was recognized in 1765 with the creation of a chair at the college of saint-come in paris; licensed oculists were thereafter master surgeons. practice in this field was never completely regularized, especially in the provinces. paul delaunay has sketched its history for one district, the region around le mans, in the eighteenth century. the only resident oculist was a certain bizieux of montdoubleau; the surgeon levasseur of le mans also operated on cataracts. but a series of itinerant practitioners, some of them foreign, also visited the region; they ranged from established specialists to full-blown mountebanks. louis beranger, who had been certified at saint come, passed through in 1749 and 1751. the lieutenant general of police allowed one oculist/empiric a six-week stay in 1733 and another enjoyed three months of toleration in 1764. some of these practitioners boasted of lofty connections in france and abroad -a practice widespread among, though not limited to, itinerant charlatans. the chevalier of tadiny, active in le mans in 1754, called himself a count palatine and oculist of the due d'orleans, first prince of the blood •... in 1785 the surgeons of le mans wrote a certificate for the councillor von hilmer, "pensioned oculist of the court of vienna in austria, and consulting oculist of his pruss ian majesty." and a certain gleize, when visited in 1786, called himself the oculist of the comte d'artois (the brother of louis xvi) and the due d'orleans-.•• a more obvious quack was mahe de maisonneux who styled himself "a physician who consults urines and a surgeon-oculist." 22/ 3 p. 87: the medical elite distrusted experts. well into the nineteenth century, specialization in the treatment of a single disease or disorders of a single part of the body was considered a distinguishing mark of the charlatan, like the "celebrated physician-oculist" dr. guenon de la chanterie, who advertised his services in paris cafes and restaurants during the restoration. some certified experts • • • survived from the old regime. in the nineteenth century, all types of traditional specialists and members of ancillary occupations continued to practice bonesetters, dentists, ocular surgeons, lithotomists, herniotomists, truss makers, pedicures, masseurs, •.. , joined by the growing tribe of "magnetizers" •••. as in the past, itinerant oculists (some, but not all, regularly qualified) continued to couch cataracts, such as dr. l'habitant, whose work in 1806 received the approval of the prefect of ille-et-vilaine. pp. 88-89: in the loire-inferieure, an italian oculist named rabiglia was ••• able to obtain authorization from various mayours, subprefects, and prefects; he claimed to have been received as surgeon in 1786. when the medical jury arrived, he moved on; finally, in 1837, when he was an old man, the jury (probably out of compassion) admitted him as a "consulting physician for eye diseases, " but forbade him to operate. and at bondy, near paris, an oculist claimed in 1848 to have been received eighteen years earlier as a specialized officier de sante, despite the medical corps's hostility to the "ophthalmological specialty." pp. 131-2: many surgical experts ••• traveled, ••• , because their skills (such as couching cataracts) could not be fully employed in any one place. even in the nineteenth century, the line between regulars and irregulars among the traveling specialists is particularly hard to draw. some were licensed doctors, like the oculist (ocular surgeon) forlenza, who received a number of official appointments (among them the post of oculist to the lycees of nancy, in 1806) •••••• in 1818 his complaint about inept rivals who followed in his wake triggered a more general investigation of illegal practice by the directeur de la police generale. others, like the oculist rabiglia, had more dubious credentials and dabbled in various forms of empirical medicine; some crossed over into frankly criminal activities like gosset, an ambulatory oculist from bourges, who was found guilty of "frauds" in angers and wound up in the house of detention at tours in 1796. pp. 136-137: [quoted by ramsey from charlatans' advertising handbills] the veritable grassy, italian, residing at moissac, in quercy, near montauban •••• he 22/ 4 cures different disorders of the eye, without applying anything, by means of a reflection from liquids that are held in the hand. [gosset; arrived at troyes in 1791, calling himself a botanist] . he cures all eye disorders in general, [and] cures cataracts in a short time by applying a new invention. he performs the operation by extraction. citizen morand, ••• ocular surgeon approved by the first physician of paris and by several colleges of medicine and surgery, announces to the public that he has arrived in this place .•• ; he has given particular attention ••• to finding new remedies to cure several disorders that are regarded as incurable, which have resisted the usual remedies, such as stone, retention of urine, scurvy, dropsy, effusion of milk, bile in the blood, all kinds of dartre, powdery and inflamed, [and] all other disorders of the skin. he ••• operates on cataracts by extraction, with knowledge and dexterity, using a single newly invented instrument, without hemorrhage or pain; this operation lasts only three minutes in order to restore vision. he performs all operations and cures all disorders which relate to this part [of the body] • he has also a sovereign water that cures spots and inflammation of the eyes •••• p. 138: citizen albertina drankler, living • • • near strasbourg •••• i heal all diseases of the eye, thus a person who has lost his sight for twelve to fifteen years because of grey cataract provided the eyeball is intact. p. 140: a few practitioners boasted of appointments as physicians to royalty and the great. the oculist hilmer said that he was a councillor of the king of prussia, had been appointed oculist of the republic of geneva, and was salaried by the queen. p. 179: a tanner from the perche region who moved to paris in the early 1780's to sell his eyewash -an ophthalmological panacea whose ingredients included dog dung, cuttlebone, alum, and green vitriol (iron sulfate) soon found his apartment crowded with clients, although according to disgusted correspondent of the societe royale de medicine, he had distributed the remedy in his native verneuil for years "without anyone at all going into raptures over it." pp. 184-5: at the end of the eighteenth century, ••• the town of dourdan in the ile-de-france possessed scrofula surgeons. half a century later, around allair and rieux (morbihan), an "ocular healer" used a horsehair to 22/ 5 operate on pterygium (a thickening of part of the conjunctiva) • p. 234: other rituals depend on sympathetic magic or magical transfer .••• in some cases the healer may have to obtain a remedy through a special ordeal, imbuing very ordinary objects with the power to cure. • •• in lower brittany, until the end of the nineteenth century, he might attempt to cure eye disease by tracing the sign of the cross nine times on each lid, using each of nine grains of wheat begged from as many different houses. p. 240: in some regions, old women treated cataract; a child with an eye disorder might be taken to sorcerer gyi lui dit la maille (literally, who tells his leucoma) •••• o. 242: commentators referred to users of magical healing formulae as "rebouteurs mystiques" and sometimes "charmers", .•• (in alsace, ••• jewish healers, consulted by jews and gentiles alike, ••• used charms to treat sprains and eye disorders.) my personal favorite is the ophthalmological panacea that includes dog dung, quoted from p. 179. i hope these may seem appropriate for citation in the newsletter. rimless, at least seemingly: with the compliments of jennifer taylor, librarian of the british college of optometrists, we reproduce the following item in toto from the february a, 1957, issue of the optician, val. 133, p. 90: a baronet optician did he invent rimless spectacles? the name of dr. samuel molyneux of castle dillon, co. armagh and dublin as one well versed in the science of optics is well known, but that of sir thomas molyneux, baronet, who was born in 1661 and became physician­ general to the army in ireland has passed to the limbo of the forgotten, though according to family muniments at castle dillon it was he who invented the first rimless spectacles. due to his interest in the medical world sir thomas made a special study of the eyes of many soldiers. he is claimed to have been the "father" of army optics and in 1725 he invented rimless spectacles for officers. in the 18th century spectacle frames were mostly cumbersome horn or tortoiseshell mountings and sir thomas's invention was indeed an innovation. each of the lenses of his spectacles had a groove ground in its edge 22/ 6 after the manner of a sheave wheel, we are told, and inbedded in this groove a gilded brass wire formed the invisible frame. the wire was bent sixfold to form the bridge on the nose. it was continued to form sides and extended with hook bends around the ears. for personal use the optical baronet had a gold frame made with an arched boss to serve as the bridge. he considered that this frameless type of spectacle was better than the goggle type for military use. a letter formerly in the family muniments refers to an improved lens but there are no details of this extant. sir thomas died in 1733. may we grant to him the honour of devising rimless glasses?­ c.j. robb. another centennial offering: "hundert jahre kontaktlinse" (a century of contact lenses) by a. brachner, 1988, is an attractive stiff-cover 23 x 21 em book of 120 pages with more than a hundred illustrations. it is published by the vereinigung deutscher contactlinsenspezialisten, blumenstr. 37, 8000 munich 2, west germany. its seemingly anachronistic subtitle, "lesestein zur kontaktlinse" (from reading lens to contacts) actually broadens the historical scope of the book to include a very wide range of vision-related developments beginning with the opening chapter evidences of handheld transparent magnifying stones (lesesteine) between 3000 b.c. and 1300 a.d. the second period, intermezzo 1300-1650, includes the contributions of philippe de la hire, rene descartes, and leonardo da vinci. unfortunately, as persists erroneously in the contact lens literature, the incorrect identification of da vinci's contact lens concept is made with the "fishbowl" experiment instead of with his marginal notations and minute drawings describing the making of a contact lens from a tiny spherical glass ampule. subsequent era 1 s are numerically encompassed by the years 1650-1850, 1850-1880, 1880-1889, 1889-1945, and 1945-1988. the book • s centennial theme is identified with adolf eugen fick • s publication of his doctoral thesis "eine contactbrille 11 in the march 1888 issue of archiv fur augenheilkunde, vol. 18, pp. 279289. most of the text is devoted to the events and developments in op'hthalmic optics pertinent to contemporary contact lens background and to advancements in instrumentation, lens optics, chemistry, anatomy, manufacturing, patents, statistics, professional organization, biographical details, research, and professional schools, primarily though not exclusively as occurring in germanic europe. included is an extensive bibliography but no index, though the table of contents is very detailed. the book is a convenient historical resource for one who reads german. 22/ 7 from the other side: the recent death of mrs. sophia lois suckling (1893-1990), the first woman in new zealand to qualify and to practice as an optometrist, reminded professor theodore grosvenor to call our attention to a 1980 book in his library entitled the "history of the new zealand optometrical association, 1930-1980. 11 the blue cloth-covered 198 pages were compiled by the late frank owen davis (1912-1979) and put into final form by his wife cath as a jubilee publication of the association. very briefly the optometrist author summarizes the pre-1900 years by pointing out that, because the early settlers were generally young and manually occupied, the visual demands were few and largely met by the spectacle-assembling skills of jewelers and goldsmiths. a biography of mr. a. levi is cited to show his setting up business in wellington in 1897 "as a consulting and manufacturing optician" in a "single storey wooden building of 600 square feet with a beautiful room equipped with all the latest appliances in sight testing etc." at a meeting on feb. 1, 1912, the new zealand optical association was formed, and on march 27-28, 1913, a national conference was held in christchurch. the organization continued to survive somewhat stagnantly until replacement by the institute of optometrists of new zealand, inc., in 1922, a voluntary membership organization with a qualifying examination program and a regular annual conference. on october 6, 1928, the new zealand parliament passed the "opticians act" which, strangely, identified the optometrists as "opticians" and effectively made the designation optometrist "redundant and illegal", a legislative concession to medical opposition. in response, the previously incorporated institute was liquidated and the institute of opticians of new zealand, inc., was formed to operate from january 1, 1930. it is this date with which the 1980 jubilee of the book is identified. not until 1951-52 was the reversion to the earlier identity of optometrist seriously debated, leading eventually to the adoption of a motion in 1959 in favor of changing the name of the institute to the new zealand optometrical association. it was not until 1976, however, that parliament was prevailed upon to amend the law to make the title optometrist again legitimate. the above chronology of events was a bit laboriously extracted from at least a thousand bits of history told in a very rambling and anecdotal style. they apparently were gleaned from a combination of organizational minutes, documents, committee reports, periodicals, correspondence, memoranda, and, of course, personal memory. the author was quite evidently more intent on including every available detail than on developing or tracing trends or themes, though his twelve chapters deal with several different eras and broad topical categories such as the war years, supply houses, the opticians board, biographical synopses, contact lenses, etc. very remarkable is the inclusion of seven panoramic 22/ 8 group pictures of conference attendants between 1925 and 1970 with everyone identified by name. especially impressive is the optometrists' apparently persistent and dedicated organizational concern for education, ethics, and professional obligations. this impression is clearly not induced by the author's style of writing but rather by the very casual and unadorned accounts of efforts and activities involving publications, contests, exhibitions, school vision, refresher courses, research support, low vision care, drug policy, ophthalmic material quality, military service, social functions, and more. it is especially obvious that the author wrote the book for the edification of his new zealand colleagues rather than as a public relations piece. it is an excellent documentary resource except that it lacks a very seriously needed index. sichel on refraction in a commentary on page 20 of the april issue of this newsletter, vol. 21, no. 2, attention was called to jules sichel (1802-1868), a physician born and educated in germany who emigrated to france at the age of 27 and became one of france's most outstanding ophthalmologists. it was further pointed out that he "dedicated one day a week to refraction errors." in 1848 sichel published a book in french which was translated into english by dr. henry w. williams and published in 1850 in boston under the title spectacles: their uses and abuses in long and short sightedness; and the pathological conditions resulting from their irrational employment. a copy was given to the indiana university library by the indiana optometric association library in 1958 and is now in the rare books collection. it is cloth bound, 202 pages, 24 x 16 em, and in fair shape. sichel's preface, and in fact the whole text, is clearly and respectfully addressed to both physicians and opticians. in that vein he declared, "the latter have it in their power, yet more than the former, to diminish the number of these maladies by judicious advice, or to augment it by the unseasonable concession of too powerful glasses. " the identified maladies include "presbytic amblyopia", muscae volitantes, various amauroses, undue accommodative deficiencies, and myopic increases. the style of writing is grossly expository, heavily anecdotal, and rather redundant but very easy to follow, there being no figures, tables, graphs, or diagrams. he describes accommodation, myopia, presbyopia, and effects of convex and concave lenses functionally and phenomenally rather than analytically, mathematically, or graphically. almost an exception is his explanation that lens numbering in continental europe was based on the radius of the surface curvature of a biconvex or biconcave lens, that of 48 french inches being numbered 48, the higher numbered lenses, e. g., 72, so, and 96 being weaker, and the lower numbered lenses, e. g., 36 and 24, being stronger, whether 22/ 9 concave or convex. he points out that the english and american system was reciprocal, the 48 being no. 1, the 36 no. 2, etc. he discusses other forms of lenses and lens sizes, periscopic, meniscus, etc., in terms of wearing desirability, mounting distance, types of frames, alignment, etc. as though he might have had some dispensing experience or at least a collegial relationship with opticians. he adds that he has not yet made up his mind about the efficacy of cylindrical lenses. apparently quite deviant from the typical concerns of other eye physicians of that era he discusses occupational vision problems, proper lighting and lamps, the use of colored lenses, correct reading distances, etc. he identifies the need for auxiliary lenses occuring at about the age of 40, "that age when the critical changes in the constitution of the two sexes begin to operate." his underlying theme is that lenses should be regarded as a last resort, that the weakest possible lens, whether concave or convex, should be prescribed, and that the patient should use the spectacles sparingly. as prior treatment to alleviate presbyopia, for example, he suggests applications of certain liniments and collyria. however, he cautions against myotomies, such as section of the inferior oblique, as a treatment for presbytic amblyopia. in numerous instances he describes vision in terms of distances at which large and small print may be seen, but in no way does he express acuity quantitatively. he discusses myopia at some length but the condition seems to baffle him. he is puzzled by the observation that the need for concave lenses are typically at higher powers than the need for convex lenses. he does not mention myopia increase as a preadult phenomenon. dr. sichel's style of writing is nicely exemplified by the following paragraphs: in march, 1844, i was consulted by a law student aged 21, moderately myope from birth. there was no suspicion of acquired myopia. no species of convex glasses ameliorated his vision. without spectacles he could prolong his studies as much as he wished, without experiencing any fatigue. concave glasses from no. 24 to 18, prolonged his visual focus a little. however, neither these glasses held further from the eyes, nor others of a stronger focus, gave any appreciable increase of clearness to his sight. but he presented this singularity: when he held these same glasses, no. 24 to 18, 'obliquely before his eyes, almost parallel to the surface of the ground, he saw distant objects much more clearly. i was unable to notice any other peculiarity in his eyes, except that they were small and a little soft. when, by the medium of his half-closed eyelids, a gentle pressure was exercised upon the globe, the pupils were deformed as in commencing hydrophthalmia, as we have decribed in s xxviii. the iris was blue. 22/ 10 i could give no other advice to this patient than to counsel him not to employ concave glasses below no. 22 to 18, and to incline them obliquely the least, and the most seldom possible; to exercise his sight in looking at a distance without glasses, and to work with the naked eye, with short interruptions, and at the longest distance which he found to be possible. was this a particular species of myopia? was there a complication with a certain degree of hydrophthalmia or synchisis? it is easily seen that optical glasses no longer produce their normal effect, when they form an angle with the vertical axis of the eyes, and we recommend to all those who wear them to place them parallel to the plane of the iris. but how can we explain, according to physical laws, this extraordinary effect of the oblique position of the spectacles? coins and medallions: a noteworthy collection of early coins and medallions featuring spectacles is that of the zeiss museum in jena, germany. some of them date back to the 15th century, with the greatest number dated in the 16th and 17th centuries. the symbolism of the spectacles varies from portraying the wisdom of the owl to the transitoriness of the skull and hourglass, or even as a token of derision. a brief column in the july/august 1990 issue of augenoptik, vol. 107, no. 4, p. 128, by h. beez mentions several examples with historical details. included is a photograph of 1572 "geusenpfennig" on display at the museum. more on exemption licensure: the discussion of licensure by exemption in the october 1989 issue of this newsletter, vol.20, no.4, pp.45-47, may well have prompted your curiosity as to how such a politically delicate procedure might have been carried out. a part of the answer was found by sandra smith of ilamo in the october 1908 issue of the optical review, vol.2, no.7. pp.55, reproduced on the page following this. ~ the details of information and documentation requested of the applicant are particularly interesting as one might wonder which ones were essential for establishing legal eligibility and which ones were designed to deter applicants. of significant interest, too, is the stipulation that the applicant had to include evidence of prior engagement in the practice of optometry as of may 21, 1906, (a monday) even though the registration was not enacted until 1908. perhaps the 1906 date was the date of introduction or initiation of the legislation. 22/ 11 the optical review text of application for cert:i&ate of exemption £or optometrists · _ in the state of new york. · .xew york state education depart­ ment, university of tqe state of new york. • · application for certific~te to practice optometry without examination. i hereby apply for certificate of ex­ emption to practice optometry in the state of new york under the laws of 1893, chapter 661 as amended by the laws ·of l!jtj8, chapter 460, section 209d. and submit the following proofs and fee as required. (i) certificates of 'moral character. 1:!) photograph certified to before a notary pubiic, and duplicate thereof. (3) evidence of practice. 1 4) certified check, post office order, or express money order for $5. make checks, drafts, etc., payable to new york education department. competency and qualifications (statement of applicant) : l 1) full name. 1 2) date of birth. ( 3) general preliminary education. < 4) special education for the prac­ tice oi optometry. ( .j) l am engaged in the practice of measuring the static refraction of the eye, including differentiation of astigmia, and of measuring the amplitude of ac· commodation, in connection with their respectively associated proportions of visual acuteness and have been contin­ uously engaged in such practice of op­ tometry in the state of new york, as follows: [dates and towns or cities are to be given here.] .. -\nd i am at present engaged in such practice at [street and city to be givenj. ( 6) give name and present address of at least three persons that employed you • professionally in each place of practice mentioned. ( i) is it your custom to preserve rec­ ords of the formulas for glasses for per­ sons upon whom you have practised op· tometry? (8) do you conduct any other busi­ ness upon the premises where you are engaged in the practice of optometry? give particulars. . (9) do yqu practice optometry. in any other place than the one mentioned abo,·e, as your principal office? on the reverse of the application is !o"? of affidavit, in which the applican~ bemg duly ~worn says h~ is the person referred to m the foregomg application for license to practise optometry in the state of new york. that the state­ ments therein contained are in his own handwriting and are strictly true in every respect. that the attached photo­ graph and the accompanying duplicate are a true likeness of himself, and were. taken not more than two years prior to the date of this application. that he has complied with all requirementsof law and that he has react and understands this affidavit." fhen comes the o\·al for the photograph, as follows : · i \ \ //~--~ photograph to be the size of diagram and to be attached within same. \ t: nmounted dupli­ cate to be of · same size, but­ unattached. \ the certificates of good moral' character then follow. they must be signed by not less· than two optometrists in good standing. or licensed physicians. each signer certifies that he has been personally acquainted with the applicant for a specified period of time and con­ tinues: "tiiat i know he was in active . practice on may 21. 1906, in the state of new york and that he has been coo· tinuously engaged ·in practice in said state since that date; that i believe him to be of good moral character and i hereby recommend him ·to the regents . of the -university as entirely worthy to be licensed to practise-.optometry in the state of new york, pursuant to law." 55 ... ,..... .. ...~ ....... 22/ 12 refer cautiously: a reprinting of an editorial of 100 years earlier appears in the may 9, 1990, issue of jama, vol. 263, no. 18, page 2517. it deals with ocular muscle over-exertion as a cause of certain functional nervous diseases, a theory espoused by several prominent eye physicians of that era. the theory had been supported by the observation of higher frequencies of hyperopia and muscular imbalance among cases of epilepsy, chorea, and hysteria. the editorial cited the more cautious interpretations by drs. d. b. st. john roosa and c. s. bull, who pointed out the comparably high · frequencies of hyperopia and muscular imbalance among persons not suffering these diseases or even having ocular difficulty. the resulting editorial advice was that, "··· in the present state of our knowledge, it would be better not to send the patients to an enthusiast on the subject of graduated tenotomies." a triple optical whammy: enthusiastic comment on "isaac barrow's optical lectures 1667", recently translated and published by the worshipful company of spectacle makers, was made in the january 1990 issue of this newsletter, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 8-9. two years earlier, vol. 19, no. 1, p.13, your attention was called to its review by b. ralph chou and melanie c.w. campbell in the december 1987 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 64, no. 12, p. 952, very different but equally ferv~nt. more recently dr. chou published another hearty review of the same book in the may 1990 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, concluding with, "this book well deserves a place in the collections of all who are interested in the history or study of optics." contributing editor: managing editor: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1991-22-01-001 1991-22-01-002 1991-22-01-003 1991-22-01-004 1991-22-01-005 1991-22-01-006 1991-22-01-007 1991-22-01-008 1991-22-01-009 1991-22-01-010 1991-22-01-011 1991-22-01-012 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 from the editor 2016| page 4 from the editor authors wanted! n 1969, maria dablemont and henry hofstetter plotted the formation of the optometric historical society. in august of that year, hofstetter sent a letter to ten persons of his “acquaintance who have been concerned very actively and obviously with optometric history as a subject of avid interest.”1 in that letter were the by-laws for the ohs that hofstetter and dablemont had drafted and a request to indicate willingness to serve on the executive board to help organize the society. the initial ohs executive board consisted of hofstetter (president), john levene (vice-president), dablemont (secretary-treasurer), arthur hoare, and sol tannebaum. in october, 1969, a press release was sent to various optometric periodicals inviting membership in ohs by remitting a dues payment of $5. by january 1, 1970, there were 33 founding members who had paid their dues. among the purposes of ohs outlined in its initial by-laws were “to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry” and “to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who have participated in the development of optometry.”2 the quarterly publication of the ohs has been attempting to support those purposes ever since the first issue of the newsletter of the optometric historical society was mailed to members in january, 1970. the name of the ohs quarterly publication was changed to hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society starting with volume 23 in 1992 and to hindsight: journal of optometry history starting with volume 38 in 2007. in 2013, back issues of the ohs publications were made available on the indiana university digital repository iuscholarworks.i starting with this issue, current issues of hindsight will be among the journals found on iuscholarworks. with the publication of this issue, hindsight and its predecessor newsletter have now accumulated more than 3,000 pages. this represents a significant compendium of optometry history. in 1996, hofstetter noted that hindsight had helped to “document optometry’s centuries-long existence and emergence from a prestigious and sophisticated handicraft to its present academic stature, a truly proud history which includes many prominent and accomplished personalities.”3 we have continued to try to live up to that goal, but there is one way that we could do better. in the twenty issues from 2011 through 2015, we had just 28 different authors. i believe we could have many more. have you witnessed or led an important event in optometry history? did you have an optometry school instructor or a mentor or a colleague that you admired or you found particularly memorable? do you have a collection of eyeglasses or other visual aids? do you have a collection of optometric equipment, books, or memorabilia? did you have interesting experiences practicing optometry in the armed forces? have you had experiences in optometry that give you a unique perspective on its contributions or its heritage? do you know of museums or libraries that have good collections of ophthalmic materials? do you come from a family of several generations of optometrists? are you in a practice that has been in existence for a long period of time? did your state association recently have a centennial celebration? are you a member of another optometric organization that recently had a historical milestone? do you have knowledge of the i https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 from the editor 2016| page 5 development of a particular optometric testing technique, treatment method, or piece of equipment? are you interested in the history of optics or vision science? are you knowledgeable about the history of the manufacture of lenses or optical equipment? have you done or would you like to do research on some aspect of optometry history? if you can answer yes to any of those questions, we would like you to write for hindsight. submission of your article on the hindsight website on iuscholarworks is preferred, but you can also send a word document to the editor at dgoss@indiana.edu. instructions to authors can be found in recent issues and on the website. david a. goss editor, hindsight: journal of optometry history references 1. hofstetter hw. how and when we began. newsletter optom hist soc 1977;8:55-57. 2. by-laws of the optometric historical society. newsletter optom hist soc 1970;1:2-5. 3. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight 1996;27:17-18. i https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/index mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive .,,d'~"il\ pll.l"'frs'tv ll'i i}wu'"\ ~d~t14ll.l uehi1ries bloomington optometry library vertical file 0""\ ...... ,,.rmy ~.~iulih:m ubrary jan 2 o 1y75 jews letter of the ~;ptometric historical society ltldiana utllv£rs1tv (7000 chippewa 1h:reet, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. 63119) volume 6<"' c{ january 1975--7 7 nurn:ber 1 election report: in october, with ballots arriving mostly in november, and one or two early in december, we elected henry a. knoll, ph.d., to the executive board for the term to expire december 31, 1979. the other continuing members are maria dablemont (1975), james r. gregg (1976), sol tannebaum (1977), and john r. levene (1978). the ballots for the election of officers were sent out early in december to the members of the executive board, but one of the five has not responded as of the deadline for this issue, a holiday season delay no doubt. you may have to await the april issue to find out who our 1975 officers are, or read about it as a news item in another periodical. sorry. bicentennial preparations: our newly elected member of the executive board of o.h.s., dr. henry knoll, has a letter to the editor in the october 15, 1974, issue of suddeutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 29, no. 10, p. 702. he asks the german readers for information and leads which they may be able to provide concerning the export of spectacles from germany to the american colonies circa 1776. historical review: "a case history--the development of optometry" by o.h.s~ member sol tannebaum, o.d., is a brief overview of optometry's origins~ dr. tannebaum, who also serves on the o.h.s. board of directors, presented this paper at the 7th international congress of optometry in copenhagen, denmark, in november 1973 and published it in the october 1974 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 45, no. 10, pp. 1251-1255. spectacles, 1285-1973: the illustrntions of spectacles on the next pnge and the.lr 1dpntlf i cat fo11 ln time on the subsequent pa!je represent the work of richard a. preston, m.d., at 520 west seventeenth street, santa ana, california 92706. dr. preston exhibited some of his antique spectacles at a recent pacific coast ophthalmological convention in san diego, california, and prepared the illustrations and chronology sheets as handouts. j"· < /~/ , l/l.;:. y.lo -8 -2. l ' _ .. · --· 40 b~e ~ 7 ,; r ·~ .-: ,. ~ '· vv; · tl a 0 ; • ~\ .i ' ' \, \) "'i ,,1 1 2 3 o1 fi 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 le 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 2fi 27 28 29 30 :51 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 l::!~b 1362 1404-1500 15,9~-1658 170'' 1728 17 175 17 1750 1753 (lii:?o-p.;~.) 1765-1840 (1890-f. '!.) 1'184 182.0 (l750p.h.) 1840 1850 1860 (h.p.) 1863 1867 1873-75 1880 1880 1883 1890 (?.h.) 1893 1894 1903 1910 1913 1923 1933 1943 1953 1963 1973 -3spf.ctacle time table compiled by h. a. prf.ston, m.d. aw.lati of r'lohf.ncf., single lf:ns, wood or bone frame f'eo~i uil portrait by thomas de ;\iqd.i!:na, thevesio, italy, riveted metal frj\.l.!e u:atiffir bot>.~ duudu~ !lorn for si'ping action sprp/(; l!ohn l~~at1ie:r ( ffi!-:ncn) hi!~g ;d t·:ova.~le (to 1790 tlitt i!erbert) tf:l!.pl.f. of cord with weight hingsd revjo~rsible :~t;izzer (si'lgle lens f'or a fop) s','jl\"f.i. t~:mple for ~figs :··if.tal i:~seft, 3-0 lens, rayo!ie'l'te temple s·:;uarf: t.!e'l'al insert, bayo!jette tehple ~r~nja.\hn fr.a~1klin, two ph:ce bifocals (from his patent) korean, foh r~ldehs ovr~h 40 in good standing (chinese p.h.) '•!oi~qcle !t'l'lanci':, introdttc~;d by napolf.on :~etal in!>ert. iiexagii!j~.l u:t;s, gold frame lop.offitte-fhench, sti'~rling 'f.et~l hiseiit, p.r~ctai!gulap • open tip for cord v\r~tal insert, hexagonal, open tip. on line templf.s oblong. english yellow metal. open tip temple, 3-0 ),jbtal insert, on line, 3-0, saddle t:osjo: piece, straight te.'mpi.e r!'.e-.pincf. nez, 'iap.d hu3bf.r phe-~'ince nez, stjo;el, double spruig action :.·letal inseht. 3-0, bayuliet tehples metal insert, enclllsii, double lens for distance and close "pince ;.;ez" steel, adjustable bar, s.pp.ing eye, glass ~lith stationary glaf.ds blue i.!etal insert, 3-0 on luie k bridge, open tif. laiwf:r oval lens steel. extha r'ho!it for p.eadi ng addition r'y.e-pince nez with ear piece loj.gtl:tte, tortoisr: sm~ll, cahved gold insert with hook eah piece tel•iiple gold finger piece (?inc:;; nez) ri:.u.ess, downset lens jo'o~ reading only jltu.ess on line, 3-0, eap hook temple tortoise s''f.ll or dap.y. coi!position, saddle bridge (harold lloyd) p.ii.!le:ls, gold filled wiiite gold, sf.:· i-hi tet.lple. octagon dpop ~tal n;sert, flll v'je hibo . ri'o!less mill edge '!.onacc • fl-' j'~,[e 7r~ance ~hct:f.y li!x, fi'a'.le fpnce -4optometry museum inventory: recently arriving at my desk is an updated list of antiquarian acquisitions of the indiana university division of optometry catalogued and classified by professor john r. levene. the list comprises: (1) small items such as eyeglasses, spectacles (numbered consecutively from number 1). (2) small instruments, e.g. ophthalmoscopes (numbered from 500). (3) large instruments, e.g. lens centering machine, perimeters, (numbered from 800). (4) miscellaneous, e.g. printed plates (broken lens duplicated), (numbered from 1000). altogether the list now totals 650 numbered entries in 35 typewritten pages. many of the entries represent more than single items, som~ being small collections or sets which are more properly described in single entries. when known, the name of each donor is included in each entry. copies of the list are available upon request from dr. levene pebbles, inches, tears, etc.: william bohme (1827-1906), a new orleans, louisiana, optician, authored · and published a hand-book for opticians in 1888, a second edition in 1892, and a third edition in 1895. a copy of the third edition is presently in the rare books collection of the international library, archives & museum of optometry, 7000 chippewa street, st. louis, missouri 63ll9. the almost 300 pages of meticulously written material are divided into 29 chapters and include numerous illustrations, dates, and tables. not only a stickler for precision and accuracy, mr. bohme carefully gives the historical development of terms and concepts, the etymology of key words, and the technical evidence for many of the conventional procedures employed in optical practice. his first chapter, for example, is entitled "inch and metric systems," and in it he lists the metric lengths of the paris, english, austrian, and prussian or rhenish inch, four different lengths. chapter iii, "merits and defects of pebbles" may well be the most extensive account of this natural glass ever written. bohme himself says, "i have frequently tried to find some information about pebbles; but being unable to discover any book or pamphlet treating this subject, either here or in europe, i concluded to search for myself, ••• " in chapt. viii he says of interpupillary distances, "the average pupil distance of a grown person is 2 3/8 or 2 1/2 inches, and these are the standard sizes the manufactories use for most spectacles they make." -5unusual, but appropriately discussed, are the topic of "tears" as chapt. xxiv and the topic of "facial expressions" as chapt. xxv. chapt. xxvi is entitled "history of the invention of spectacles, and the gradual development of the optical trade," with a section on the different names of spectacles in 17 languages. chapt. xxvii entitled "prominent opticians, scientists and inventors" gives capsule biographies of 114 contributors to optical history from airy to zentmayer. this is indeed a remarkable book and a fine historical resource. mr. bohme was born and educated in germany and became a teacher in 1848. four years later he moved to new orleans where he learned the watchmaking trade, but in 1868 he began to devote his entire time to optics. he was one of the earlier contributors to the optical journal, in the december 27, 1906 issue of which his obituary appears, vol. 18, no. 27, p. 1470. apotropaism at ~ price: puzzled i am that i should continue to be on the mailing list of the firm amulets & talismans ltd., 33 christopher street, new york, ny 10014, for i have yet to buy any of their fascinating jewelry. their most recent "catalog" consists of a packet of about 50 12.7 x 20 em (5" x 8") stiff­ card full-color glossy lithographed illustrations of hundreds of pendants, rings, bracelets, clasps, pins, chains, necklaces, etc. they are, to say the least, variously unusual, uniqu~ exquisite, charming, authentic, precious, and beautiful. prices range up and down the scale from $10 to $6,000 per item. why do i mention this? simply because so many of the illustrated designs and adornments feature or at least symbolize the eye. the eye is found both in ancient replicas and in modern compositions of metal, stone, and other materials. the illustrations are said to represent "only a sampling of the exceptional designs we have to offer." included is an invitation "to visit our gallery in new york." a heart-warming response: my letter of september 1 to optometrists born before 1905 brought the following letter from my long-time friend johns. wellington (sr.), o.d., 116 west washington, goshen, indiana 46526. "dear hank, "to begin with, i thank you for your letter of september 1st. i like the manner in which it was written and i assure you that it will not be thrown away. it is receiving my attention. -6"i have many things that i will give to the optometric historical society •. some of which are, notes on lectures by drs. zoethout, trowbridge, ealy, brown and others, many books, old glasses, one. 1899 ophthalmometer (sold by f.a. hardy co. chicago), an old trial case with test frame, one box of double 00 eye flat lens, a pair of hand made bifocals, an omega delta picture, and certificate, an early indiana license, and a northern illinois college diploma. there are other things that i will think of later. "miriam and i will be passing thru st. louis on november 20th. we will be staying over.nite at some travel trailer court. we will be towing our. 27' trailer on our way to texas and it will not be convenient for us to unhitch so, it would help if we could be supplied with the name and phone number to call to have some person to pick up the 'blood sweat and tears' relics of the often thot of past. "maybe if i should hold these things and add more to them, . it would be better. please let me know. "as ever, "john, sr." the "good ole days":. · the 1902 edition of the sears-roebuck co. catalogue had an "optical· department." among the mail-order offerings was a complete "optician's outfit," a "big money maker," at $27.85. the kit included 48 trial lenses, trial frame, acuity charts, an optometer, 54 frames, 72 assorted spectacle lenses, 60 leather cases, three bottles of "dr. walter's famous eye water," an optical textbook, an optical screwdriver, pliers, and numerous other small items to enable the novice to engage in sight testing and the providing of· eyeglasses. so we are told in a fascinating account by h. gerald ingle; o.d., in "eye care1902 style," in the june 1973 issue of the canadian journal of optometry, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 17-20. norm hays writes: norman b. hays, o.d., president of the american optometric association in 1955-56, personally typed out a letter to me in october 1974 on some 1956-57 a.o.a. letterhead, to say a few words about harold kohn, as follows. "dear hank: "this letter concerns the recognition that is, or may be, given to the contributions that harold kohn made to the professional·advancement of optometry. it is written (hunt and peck) while at home temporarily sidelined by a touch of lumbago. '-7"harold; as you know, was counsel for the new york state society of optometrists before he became national counsel. those were turbulent times and the division between the commercial element and those of us who were striving to raise the status of optometry, was sharp. in fact we had two societies in the state at one time -new york city seceded. this was understandable when you consider that it was practically impossible for a young optometrist to open an upstairs office in the big city and succeed. harold worked toward the professionalization program and helped to carry the torch throughout the aoa. "harold wrote the 'glazed goods law' inadvertently using the phrases 'or corporation' in it which was to plague us in our attempts to outlaw corporate practice. the late dr. arthur germany of buffalo was our legislative chairman and got this passed in 1925 or 1926. unfortunately not many states have this law but they all benefit from the anti-discrimination law that harold wrote at my instigation and that arthur germany shepherded thru the n.y. legislature. this law is the building block on which the other states have passed similar legislation and which curbs the power of prejudiced school nurses, welfare officials,and other medically dominated public officials. "harold, for at least three decades, was the most continuous source of assistance to the pilots of the a.o.a., with his prodigous memory, he. kept the board advised of shoals and landmarks but leaving the board to set the course and objectives. "i do not know what has been recorded of harold's life and works but i feel that they deserve a place of honor. "as harold would say, "very best regards (s) "norm hays" ladd-franklin reprinted: christine ladd-franklin (1847-1930) introduced her theory of color vision in 1892 and in the course of a long and belligerent career published many vigorous articles on the subject. in 1929 these articles were published in a single volume entitled "colour and colour theories" by christine ladd-franklin with an "introductory" by professor woodworth and supplementary articles by three other authors. in 1973 arno press inc., new york, published a reprint edition from a copy in the princeton university library as one of a long series of reprints entitled classics in psychology. only the color plates and their explanations were omitted. the price is $15.00 -8.;. . christine ladd-franklin was born in connecticut and received her a.b. from.vassar college in 1869 and studied thereafter at johns hopkinst berlin, and gottingen universities. she taught at johns hopkins and columbia. "opti", 1758: optometry student richard c. mercer, class of 1978, indiana university, division of optometry, bloomington, indiana 47401, browsing through the chicago, illinois, public library, discovered an art print of a painting by jacques de lajoue entitled, "le cabinet physique de m. bonnier de la mosson" dated 1758. it was in a collection entitled "eighteenth century art" edited by bart, 1968. mr. mercer described it as follows: "in the picture a man is sitting alone, appearing to be intoxicated with ecstacy, as rays of light from outside the studio shine upon his face in heavenly splendor. about him is strewn a great magnitude of scientific paraphernalia, almost artistic in character. the many sculptures, lofty ceilings, raccoco architecture, and even a noble greyhound dog, contribute to effect a sense of awe. "what catches the viewer's immediate attention are the huge cabinets full of scientific apparatus, one is labeled 'opti.' the bottom shelf contains large lenses and mirrors which, from the scale of the painting, are about three feet in diameter. there is also a system of three lenses which appears to have been used for magnification. other optical devices are present. mounted prisms, a crystal-like sphere, and a possible projector at the top of the cabinet, are a few examples. the man was obviously very wealthy, if not learned, to have such an array of equipment. another point of interest is that, aside from a telescope in the room, there is an enormous telescope in view of the scenery outside the studio. it towers above the buildings and appears to be tilted along the polar axis of the earth, as our modern-day telescope. "the meaning of all this lies in the scientist of that day. science was popularly considered a gentleman's hobby. because of the coffee houses and salons of europe, as well as the medium of print, knowledge began to circulate, and scientific societies multiplied. this point in time marked a great rise in the popularity of science as well as the technological boom occurring today." mr. mercer searched further and found the same picture reproduced in full color in a large beautiful book edited by alfred cobban entitled "the eighteenth century, europe in the age of enlightenment", mcgraw-hill, new york, 1969. dr. august sonnefeld (1886-1974): optical and ophthalmic scientists b~~ind the iron curtain rarely get l.t ~-. ~ . . . recognized in the western world. such was the circumstances of dr. sonnefeld, mathematician and physicist, who for 50 years was a scientific associate and head of a department at the jena optical works, jena, east germany. he joined the office of dr. moritz von rohr in 1911 and subse­ quently became head of the computation department for astrooptics. his -9contributions included optical computations for analysis instruments, precision measuring instruments, surveying instruments, spectacle lenses, apochromats, telescope objectives, and numerous other design problems. a full page obituary with a photograph appears in the nov. 3/1974 issue of jena review, 19th year, p. 203, by prof. dr. -ing. karl-heinz muller, in english. early academy planning: in an article entitled "the academy's role in optometry's professional growth" john zettel, jr., o.d., includes a long personal letter which he received from the late dr. carel koch shortly before dr. koch's death. the early efforts and motives in the formulation of the american academy of optometry are recounted in the letter, as dr. koch remembered them. the article appeared in the november 7, 1974 issue of the optometric weekly, vol. 65, no. 38, pp. 1046-1050. rx circa 1776: first year optometry student stephen s. jennings, indiana university, wrote the following paragraphs as a contribution to our knowledge of the optometric state of affairs in american colonial days. "a typical example of an order was sent to me by barbara c. dean, assistant research librarian of the colonial williamsburg foundation, upon my ~equest for information concerninp,_optometry in virginia during the last half of the eighteenth century. since there were no prescription glasses at that time, spectacles were ordered hit or miss. this particular order was sent by robert carter in 1771, and it was probably a typical order of that time: "invoice to edwd. hunt & sons, merchants in london "a pair of best visual concave spectacles in temple-frames for eyes of 43 years old. note. the convex spectacles marked no 16, which you sent to me some time ago do not suit my eyes, but many persons about my age commend them, saying the objects seen through the said spectacles, appear larger & distincter, than with out them. hence i conjecture that my eyes are not formed as eyes commonly are-­ therefore desire to try a pair of concave spectacles as mentioned above. "born of virginian aristocracy, robert carter of nomini hall was a wealthy tobacco planter. the vast plantation lands were located in westmoreland county on the potomac river. -10"carter was acquainted and associated with many of the more identifiable names in virginia and american history; however, he was not politically oriented and did not become deeply involved in the political struggles of the american revolution. he was a planter concerned with the management of his own estate. "edward hunt and sons was one of the merchant firms that carter sent his tobacco to for marketing. there is no indication that the london company dealt specifically with spectacles although spectacles could have been a part of their general merchandise. carter probably just entrusted the firm to carry out certain business transactions for him in london." the immediately following article is derived from a 1747 publication, photocopies of which were supplied to me by steve jennings also. in feventeen forty feven: if you can sort out the f's which today are printed as s's you can get a glimpse of the early spectacle-maker from the following description taken from pp. 253-254 of the london tradesman, published in 1747 in london, as a "compendious view of all the trades, professions, arts, both liberal and mechanic, now practifed in the cities of london and wefttriinfter" and "calculated for the information of parents, and inftruction of youth in the choice of business". chap. lv. of the mathematical and optical inftrument, and spectacle-maker. sect. 1. of the mathematical inftrument-maker. his bufinefs, and genius. the mathematical-inftrument-maker makes all kind of inftruments conftructed upon mathematical principles, and ufed in philofophical experiments: he makes globes, orrerys, scales, quadrants, sectors, sun-dials of all sorts and dimenfions, air-pumps, and the whole apparatus belonging to experimental philofophy. he ought to have a mathematically turned head, and be acquainted with the theory and principles upon which his feveral inftruments are conftructed, as well as with the practical ufe of them. he employs feveral different hands, who are mere mechanics, and know no more of the ufe or defign of the work they make, than the engines with which the greateft part of them are executed; therefore the mafter muft be a thorough judge of work in general. sect. 2. of the optical-inftrument and spectacle maker. the optical-inftrument-maker is employed in making the various forts of telefcopes, microfcopes of different structures, spectacles, and all other inftruments invented for the help or prefervation of the sight, and in which glaffes are ufed. he himfelf executes very little of the work, except the grinding the glaffes: he grinds his convex -11glaffes in a brafs concave sphere, of a diameter large in proportion to the glafs intended, and his concave-glaffes upon a convex sphere of the fame metal: his plane-glaffes he grinds upon a juft plane, in the fame manner as the common glafs-grinder, mentioned chap. xxxii, sect. 4. he grinds them all with sand and polifhes them with emery and putty. the cafes and machinery of his inftruments are made by different workmen, according to their nature, and he adjufts the glaffes to them. wages. it is a very ingenious and profitable bufinefs, and employs but a few hands as mafters. the journeymen earn a guinea a week, and fome more, according as they are accurate in their trade. such a tradefman defigned for a mafter ought to have a pretty good education, and a penetrating judgment, to apprehend the theory of the feveral inftruments he is obliged to make, and muft be a thorough judge of fuch work as he employs others to execute. a youth may be bound to either of thefe trades any time between thirteen and fifteen years of age, and does not require much strength. abraham lincoln's glasses: in a letter to the editor of the optometric weekly, vol. 65, no. 25, july 11, 1974, p. 52, dr. e.c. tobiasz described a pair of lincoln's reading glasses in the collection of the chicago historical society. lincoln purchased these glasses on may 26, 1856, for 37 1/2 cents, at which time he would have been about 47 years old. the power of each lens was +6.50 diopters. in a subsequent letter in the october 10 issue of the optometric weekly, vol. 65, no. 35, p. 54, dr. george litsinger suggests that the lenses may not have been lincoln's, for if lincoln had a refractive error of several diopters he should have had a convergent squint without them. dr. litsinger also commented that in a previous article in the weekly some years back it was reported that lincoln purchased a pair of glasses at the age of 44 for 37 cents in a hardware store in burlington, illinois. thomas young (1773-1829): an excellent commentary on young and his contributions to visual science, together with pictures of his birthplace, the place where he practiced medicine, his optometer, and a portrait of him by sir thomas lawrence, are authored by gerald fonda, m.d., in an article entitled "bicentenary of the birth of thomas young" in the british journal of ophthalmology, vol. 57, no. 11, november 1973, pp. 803-808. -12herman boerhaave (1668-1738): early in the 18th century herman boerhaave saw and described the episcleral vessels of the human eye using an ordinary magnifying glass. authors s.l. knutson and m.l. sears describe and discuss the validity of his observations in terms of present knowledge in an article entitled "herman boerhaave and the history of vessels carrying aqueous humor from the eye" in the november 1973 issue of the american journal of ophthalmology, vol. 76, no. 5, pp. 648-654. the first lady optometry officer: in september o.h.s. member earl j. hunt wrote me as follows: "in the october 1973 newsletter of the optometric historical society was an item on page 50 about the first lady in military optometry. i had recalled reading about her commisssion in one of the professional optometric journals (probably the review of optometry or maybe the optometric weekly). i had known dr. carolyn g. toewe from college days at the pennsylvania state college of optometry. i had also known dr. john kulba who had taken over her father's practice (dr. william r. toewe in east stroudsburg, pennsylvania). so i wrote to john asking him for any information he might have. he gave me dr. carolyn t. stonskas' address and i wrote to her. "her letter is most interesting, so i am enclosing it for you to read (please return to me ...;._ you might want to make photostatic copies for the ohs and aoa records). it seems that aboutamonth or so ago i read or heard where the first lady in the air force became a pilot. this could be questioned (the word pilot may make the difference)?" here is dr. stonskas' letter to dr. hunt, dated 13 may 1974. "i want to apologize for the delay in responding to your letter of april 18. we were on vacation for three weeks and i am just now answering the mail which has piled up on the desk. "upon graduating from psco, i went into practice with my dad. as time went on i realized that two optometrists in one office left something to be desired, especially when the optometrists were father and daughter. i was young and very intelligent, i thought, (having just graduated from college) and just didn't progress as fast as i thought i should. nevertheless, i still greatly enjoyed flying on weekends with my dad in his piper cub. i subsequently put the two together and decided to join the air force as an optometrist where i could be my own 'boss' and still fly around the country. "yes, it was a first. my serial number was preceeded by the two letters ae as opposed to other men whose numbers were preceeded by ao (air officer) or the nurses an (air nurse). i never found out for what those letters stood and i was soon to find out that they weren't sure as to who my immediate superior was to be. -13"i reported to lowry afb, denver, colorado in july of 1951. i began refracting in the optometric clinic. however, in a matter of two da:ys the flight surgeon discovered i was not dilating the pupils. the discussion began quite calmly as i presented my views. he listened and then informed me in no uncertain terms that resembled a direct order, that i would dilate the pupils under his direction. i refused. as i left the office, leon marks (a graduate of my class) walked into the department. he was on a temporary tour and i'll never forget to this day how glad i was to see him. he was the only ally i had in the world. he calmed me and dried my tears and three days later i was transferred to wichita afb in kansas. "wichita was then in the stage of development. there was one small make-shift wooden building that served as a hospital. all other structures were tents. i shared a tent with the flight surgeon who was also a new graduate and never interfered with my work. we dropped a flap down the middle of the tent and half of it was finally my own office, and i loved every inch of it. i requisitioned my own equipment and supplies. now, i don't think there have bee~ too many optometrists who have refracted in a wool top coat, muffler and gloves and knee high rubber boots. when it rains in kansas, it is a sea of mud and when it snows it rivals pennsylvania. the only cement laid was in . runways. the following spring we moved across the field to new quarters which were beautiful. dr. mcleod, the flight surgeon, wangled a · separate office for me and this time i even got my own desk. i stayed here until september of 1953 when i married a pilot. "a problem did arise as to my immediate superior. i preferred to report directly to the flight surgeon, who had become a good friend• i learned a lot of medicine and physiology from him and he began to recognize visual refractive symptoms of pilots. so we worked well together. but the chief nurse, who outranked me considerably, thought she should have another lieutenant under her wing. i wasn't about to take orders from a nurse, so there was a constant running squabble, to the amusement of the entire medical group. i'm sure there must be some remarks on my military records as to being uncooperative!!! "i was also the first woman to fly in a b-47, regardless of what some newspaper woman claims. i sat on the flight line at the old 'tent city' until they got tired of seeing me. at first i was absolutely refused access to the 'big birds'. but one day the co rel~nted, told me to get outfitted and off i went. next to acquiring half of that tent, it was the biggest thrill of my life. i continued to fly anywhere they were going at any time i could. my husband wa·s an instructor in the b-47's at wichita and is now an airline captain for twa. so we are still flying around the world. "upon moving to california after we were married, i applied for permission to take california state boards. i was refused on the grounds that i did not have analytical geometry. i talked to the dt'atl at usc und the only way to receive proper credit was to attend -14usc on campus. since i had one child and another on the way, i decided to wait till they were older. when they were older, i decided it was more important for me to fight the school system. now, 25 years have past and i'm afraid optometry is out of reach for me. however, my interest has never waned and i would not trade my military experience for anything. there is no greater melting pot in the world. i learned more about people in 2 1/2 years than some people learn in a lifetime. "it seems i've rambled on and on, but i've enjoyed sharing my experiences with another psco optometrist, because only he or she can appreciate some of the problems encountered with the medical profession. i hope things have changed somewhat in our favor, because i feel there is no greater or more satisfying profession than optometry." when i wrote dr. stonskas for permission to publish the above letter, she responded as follows on september 22: "you have my permission to print all or any part of· the letter which i wrote to dr. earl j. hunt on may 13. "i am most honored to be able to contribute so little to the history of a great profession, of which i am proud to be a part. "i had to smile when i read your paragraphs pertaining to the 'prominent o.h.s. member, who prefers to remain anonymous'. if i may be permitted, i would like to add my vote to his. i've sought out optometrists in every country i have visited and the progress and social stature of these men in india, israel, and egypt, as well as europe, makes you proud that you are a part of the same profession. we may be more advanced, but no prouder than they. tramping to failure: "sincerely, "carolyn t. stonskas, o.d." (3652 hayvenhurst avenue encino, california 91314) this is the title of an autobiography.by thomas hall shastid (1866-1947) published in 1937 by george wahr, publisher to the university of michigan, ann arbor, michigan. his second autobiography, entitled my second life, was published in 1944, also by george wahr. the former exceeded 500 pages and the latter over 1,000, with relatively little duplication of material and both profusely illustrated with early photographs. shastid, a.b., a.m., m.d., ll.b., sed., f.a.c.s., f.a.c.p., etc., was an ophthalmologist, son of a physician, a midwestern pioneer, author of over 3,000 articles, including novels, translations from german, french, latin, and greek, history, biography, jurisprudence, and civic issues, and -15a free-speaking commentator on any phase of american life that happened to strike his wide-ranging fancy. his vie~s variously expressed anger, indignation, love of humanity, and humor, candid, salty, and homespun are his anecdotal accounts of incidents which occurred during his life. his writing provides exposure to facets of early midwestern culture and national events which rarely are apparent in history textbooks. his criticisms and appraisal of medical practice are priceless, possibly a bit exaggerated for purposes of readability, but convincingly correct and documented. even his re-telling of the local legend of paul bunyan's spectacles helps to portray the spirit of the times. though much of the writing in these two books deals with medical practice, dr. shastid also included incidentally much that relates to all types of practitioners of his almost century long era, including optometrists. in fact he treated optometry a bit more kindly than he did his own profession. i am tempted to quote a few passages by way of illustration, but i am afraid they would lose their essence when read out of the context of the chapters in which they appear. he mentioned, "with pride", his long standing friendship and voluminous correspondence with charles f. prentice. he listed charles sheard as one of his favorite editors. i am surprised that some publisher of paperback books has not discovered these two books and made reprints of them available for popular reading. they would surely be even more interesting to us now than they may have been then. "center and surround" an editorial under this caption, authored by gerald westheimer, an australian trained optometrist who subsequently gained the ph.d. degree in physiological optics at the ohio state university, appears in the april 1974 issue of investigative ophthalmology, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 242243. writing in delightful literary style, dr. westheimer points up the remarkable appreciation physiologist ewald hering showed a hundred years ago for the influence of the visual surround on the perception of centrally fixated stimuli. westheimer likens-the contributions of hering, in prague, to the peripheral surround for which the center "was berlin, where helmholtz was the star of the establishment." he also cleverly brings into the analogy the efforts of ernst mach, a physicist and colleague of hering in prague. his final paragraph touches charmingly on the political, social, and academic involvements of all three greats in the realm of visual science. such accounts of the human side of visual science give character to our history. remember the ilamo: the december 1, 1974, issue of the american optometric association news, vol. 13, no. 19, p. 8, gave a full page (42 x 29 em) spread to the now incorporated "international library, archives, and museum of optometry." this is a long, long name, which suggests that it may be more easily remembered by the acronym ilamo. housed in an attractive -16building adjacent to the aoa headquarters in st. louis, it includes the . ernest h. kiekenapp library, the joseph m. babcock archives, .and. the· e. leroy ryer museum. the ilamo holds tax exempt status from the u~s. internal revenue service, allowing each of us to make tax deductible contributions. the library has been the recipient of educational grants from the federal government. the spread includes five delightful photographs charmingly graced by librarian and archivist maria dablemont and three other staff members, kitty clark, debby vassalli, and linda draper. · pacheco a first: a memorandum from o.h.s. member ricardo e. alegr{a informs us that o.h. s. member antonio pacheco, o.d., will be listed in· forthcoming editions of who's who in america, the first puerto rican optometrist to receive this distinction. congratulations, tony! try as we might we shall never pay ample tribute to herb mote, who for 40 years served as the heart and soul of the optometry schooi at the ohio state university. two of the many tributes to herb that will have been printed or nostalgically voiced before this century erids appeared in the autumn 1974 issue of the 0-eye-0, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 1-3. in the same issue it is reported that two-memorials have been established at the ohio state university, one the herbert g. mote memorial conference room in the starling-loving wing of the college of optometry, and the other the herbert g. mote distinguished faculty award. two more memorialized: when the visual science research section of the illinois college of optometry was dedicated in october the late dr. carel c. koch was memorialized with the unveiling of a bronze case plaque inscribed as follows: carel c. koch, o.d., d.o.s. 1897 1973 pioneer and leader in optometric education and visual science research editor, humanitarian and exemplary citizen member, i.c.o. board of trustees i.c.o. board of trustees october, 197!~ in 1973 the dr. julie anne semokaitis memorial fund was established at the indiana university, division of optometry. a 1972 o.d. graduate of indiana university, brilliant, popular, lovely, and charming 26-year­ old julie died in an automobile crash in may of 1973. she was a first-17year member of the faculty of the southern college of optometry at the time. her friends and classmates have given the new 30 volume edition of the encyclopedia britannica to the i.u. optometry library in her name. urim ~ thunnnim: o.h.s. member henry a. knoll wrote to call attention to an account -~ntitled "die brille der mormonen" on pages 102-104 of the book die sehhilfe im wandel der jahrhunderte by emil-heinz schmitz, verlag;­ suddeutsche optikerzeitung, stuttgart, germany, 1961. in this tale author schmitz quotes a kurt muller at length about joseph smith, founder of the mormon religion. in one of the stories joseph smith mentioned a pair of glasses in connection with the revelation of the gold plates inscribed in old egyptian. whether the glasses were found in the chart itself or previously obtained by smith is variously implied, but they had the property of making the gold plate scriptures interpretable to him. through them the old egyptian became modern egyptian, an optical process not easily described in terms of current modulation transfer function formulas. the two polished crystal pieces, mounted in silver, bore the inscribed name of the maker "schneider, zurich." further, they were so big that both eyes could look through the same lens. the two crystals were named urim and thummim. the quoted kurt muller concluded that joseph smith was obviously a fraud, but that the perpetrated legend is a part of the history of visual aids. inasmuch as joseph smith was an english speaking american, it seems likely that the above interpretations may include distortions of translations into german. i hope that this may prompt a reader to pursue the accounts as they appear in the original english and give us a fully documented version. dr. knoll has written author schmitz for his references and says he would appreciate any information we can track down. dr. arthur rose dr. this is the name on an old statement form recently sent to me by o.h.s. member jerry abrams which he "found in some old optical equipment i came across." the statement form included a telephone number (circle 0868) and a space for writing in the date, as follows, 192_, indicating that it was printed in the '20s. under the name with the redundant dr.'s was the word optometrist, and under that, in parentheses, (with wilson & co.) and the address: main floor, traction terminal bldg., 114 n. illinois street, indianapolis, ind. also, imprinted in the form was a portrait photograph, presumably of dr. rose, whoever he was. i checked all of the optometry blue books of the 1920's and found no arthur rose listed, neither in indianapolis nor elsewhere. this rose, by any other name, is • • • ! -18beware of those barbers! eye diseases have been prevalent in egypt since ancient times. ophthalmological treatment constituted an early art in the nile valley, with an international reputation dating back 4,000 years. so reported laverne kuhnke in an article entitled "early nineteenth century ophthalmological clinics in egypt" in the september 1972 issue of clio medica, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 209-214. three ophthalmological clinics existed simultaneously in cairo in the late 1840's. statistics of eye disorders treated were occasionally published in the egyptian gazette. reported kuhnke, "during the three months from 17 february through 16 may, 1847, for example, the salibiya clinic admitted 1,335 patients, ••• all patients were cured of their ailments except some who had undergone treatment or surgery for trichiasis at the hands of unskilled barbers and had suffered permanent injury. it urged government officials to warn those suffering this affliction to avoid ignorant barbers and to come to cairo for treatment by trained oculists." mcallister biographies: substantial biographical accounts of john mcallister, sr. (1753-1830) and john mcallister, jr. (1786-1877), together with a portrait of each, are included in a 1907 book entitled an history catalogue of the st. andrew's society of philadelphia with biographical sketches of deceased members, vol. 1:1749-1907, philadelphia. the library of congress catalogue lists two volumes, 1907 & 1913. the duke university library has vol. 1. these two mcallisters were the first and second of five generations of mcallisters in optometry. message from puerto rico: o.h.s. member l. garcia margarida, o.d., of santurce writes, "keep up the good work. it makes very interesting reading, -all the optometric information which otherwise we would never know about." appreciated! h.w. hofstetter, editor 1974-06-01-001 1974-06-01-002 1974-06-01-003 1974-06-01-004 1974-06-01-005 1974-06-01-006 1974-06-01-007 1974-06-01-008 1974-06-01-009 1974-06-01-010 1974-06-01-011 1974-06-01-012 1974-06-01-013 1974-06-01-014 1974-06-01-015 1974-06-01-016 1974-06-01-017 1974-06-01-018 c. 1 optometry t:t· ... .• jrary newsletter vertical file of the optometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. 63141feb 011980 volume 11 january 1980 number 1 start of the seco~d decade: this is the first issue number of volume 11. it is being edited jointly by henry hofstetter and douglas penisten, both of us at the same address, the indiana university school of optometry, bloomington, indiana 47405. the april issue will be edited by dr. penisten alone as hofstetter will be on a commission assignment in south africa from january 15 to april 15. subsequent issues will be edited by one or both of us by succ0ssive arrangement. henry knoll re-elected to board though each pulled a significant number of votes, the other two nominees faced an overwhelmingly popular winner in dr. henry a. knoll, who now will serve a five-year term on the ohs executive board. the other four members of the executive board for 1980 are: 1976-1980: 1977-1981: 1978-1982: 1979-1983: maria dab 1 emont grace weiner james p. leeds j.c. tumblin dr. jacob staiman, one of the other two nominees, was relieved, for he had forgotten that he had allowed his name to be included about a year ago. with his ballot he reminded us that he is now almost three-quarters of a century old and not really very able to engage in any strenuous activity. however he is packing up another shipment of books and antique glasses for ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. the ballot, incidentally, provided space for write-ins, who will be considered nominations for next year. they are: lester hussey, o.d., loren pace, o.d., james gregg, o.d., james leeds, o.d. (already on the board!) and j.j. abrams, o.d., a fine crop. another successful reminisce-in: in spite of numerous competitive attractions and obligations, and minimum, almost no, publicity, the december 8 o.h.s. reminisce-in was attended by 24 persons. dr. james gregg surprised your editor of 10 years (decadent?) with a presentation of a beautifully bound tome of volumes 1-10 of this newsletter complete with the index, a gift from the society. then followed an hour and a half of reminiscing of several of those present describing the circumstances of their entry into optometry or optometry-related careers. it turned out that two-thirds of those present were not optometrists, but nevertheless interested in optometry's history. we were guests of librarian pat carlson of the m.b. ketchum library of the -2southern california college of optometry. we devoted at least another half hour to looking at her display of early optometric instruments and books. each of us was given a copy of a list of the 79 earliest books in the library. additional copies of the list are available on request to ms. carlson at the college, 2001 associated road, fullerton, california 92631. h. w.h. annual reminisce-in (other side of the fence) for several hours prior to the southern california college of optometry•s open house on dec. 8, approximately twenty people gathered in them. b. ketchum memorial library for the optometric historical society•s annual reminisce-in. buses provided transporta­ tion to scco from the disneyland hotel where the american academy of optometry was holding it•s annual meetings. dr. henry hofstetter presided over the o.h.s. gathering which included a financial report by secretary-treasurer maria dablemont. dated december 6, 1979, the report shows the society holds $1,769.02 in savings, $666.70 in a checking account, and $61.39 in petty cash for total assets of $2,497 .11. the time passed all too quickly as individuals volunteered, or were forced by henry hofstetter, to relate how they became involved in optometry. the group was also fortunate to have several librarians share their stories of the development of optometric libraries. although the tour of the scco campus was delightful and informative, the highlight of the o.h.s. meeting was the presentation of a bound collection of the o.h.s. newsletter to dr. henry w hofstetter. in behalf of the o.h.s., dr. james gregg presented the gold titled volume and expressed everyone•s heartfelt appreciation for the ten years work dr. hofstetter has performed as editor of the newsletter. for the many people unable to attend i wi 11 now add, 11 thank you henry! .. d. k. p. old books for sale: the following visual-science-related publications are listed in the 1979/2 catalogue of harriet wynter ltd, 352 kings rd., london sw3 5uu, england, telephone 01-352-6494: 18. browning (john}. our eyes and how to preserve them from infancy to old age. with special information about spectacles. 8vo, 70 ills, orig. cloth, worn, hinges weak. 3rd. ed. london, 1890. j12.00 82. henker (prof. otto). introduction to the theory of spectacles. 8vo, 339 ills, and a photogravure. very good copy of 1st ed. jena, 1924. j2o.oo 110. littel (s.}. a manual of the diseases of the eye: or treatise on ophthalmology, 8vo, orig. cloth, faded and worn, library stamp on t.p., contents good. scarce, london, 1838. ]40.00 -3135. nettelship (e.). the student's guide to diseases of the eye. 8vo, ills in text, orig. cloth, worn, 3rd ed. london, 1884. :17.00 166. soelberg wells (j.). a treatise on the diseases of the eye. 8vo, pp. 797, ills, hinges cracked, cloth worn, contents clean. 2nd edition. london, 1870. 555.00 215. arlt (dr. ferd.) die pflege der augen im gesunden und kranken zustande nebst einem anhange uber augenglasser. 8vo black letter, orig. wrappers, shaken, 1st ed., prag, 1846. fw.oo 216. arlt (dr. ferd.) die pflege der augen im gesunden und kranken ...... 8vo, 1 plate, coloured, good copy of 3rd, ed, in original wrappers, worn. prag, 1865. }10.00 220. bielschowsky (a) die motilitatsstorungen der augen nach dem stande der neuesten forschungen. 8vo, 3 vols, 59 figs, 22 plages. orig. printed wrappers, worn, from the handbuch der gesamten augenheilkunde series, 2nd ed. (see g.m. 5944) leipzig, 1907-10. ,~5.00 221. bernheit~er (st.) atiologie und pathologische anatgr~ie der augenmuskellahmungen. 8vo, ills, orig. printed wrappers, 1 ovjer cover loose. from the handbuch der gesamten _ augenheilkunde series, 2nd ed. leipzig, 1902 ]10.00 242. neal (h.v.) the morphology of the eye-muscle nerves. 8vo, 9 plates, orig. printed wrapper with inst. stamp. reprinted from the journal of morphology. good copy._ tufts college, mass., 1914. ylo.oo terson (dr.a.) traite des plaies de l'oeil. 8vo, orig, printed wrapper, torn, a report presented to the societe francaise d'ophtalmologie congres of 1908. paris, 1908. f 8.00 255. thomson (sir j.j.) the structure of light. the fison memorial lecture 1925. sml. 4to, portrait·f.p., diags. in text, original wrappers, scarce. good copy, cambridge, 1925. }16.00 2iii0. wright (lewis) light. a course of experinental optics chiefly with lanterns. 8vo, col. f.p., 7 plates, 190 ills, orig. cloth, spine discoloured, good copy, london, 1?82 }-16.00 261. adams (george) an essay on vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye and the nature of vision; intended for the service of those whose eyes are weak or impaired; enabling them to form an accurate idea of the true state of their sight, the means of preserving it, together with proper rules for ascertaining when spectacles are necessary, and how to choose them without injuring the sight. 8vo, 1 folding plate, a few contemporary notes in ·margins, 14 pp. -4instrument catalogue. orig. boards, rebacked, good copy of this scarce work. london, 1789. j200.00 for sale: listed in catalogue 158, fall 1979, of f. thomas heller, 308 east 79th street, new york, n.y. 10021 is the following: 11 114 helmholtz (hermann von) handbuch der physiologischen optik. hamburg & leipzig, voss, 1896. roy. 8 vo. half cloth. xix, 1008 pp. with 8 plates, one folded and colored, and 254 figures in text. some foxing, and penciled scoring and annotations; else nice copy. $245. 11 collectibles: catalogue 100, history of medicine, of the chatham bookseller, 8 green village road, madison, new jersey 07940, u.s.a., lists three items of visual science interest, as follows: #17. armstrong, david ~1alet, 11 berkeley•s theory of vision: a critical examination of bishop berkeley•s •essay towards a new theory of vision, • 11 r~e 1 bourne university press, 1960, 106 pages, $12.50 #185. graham, elsie challand, 11 0ptics and vision: the background of the metaphysics of berkeley, 11 1929, a ph.d. dissertation at columbia university, $8.50 #214. herbert ives•s copy of helmholtz, hermann ludwig ferdinand von, 11 handbuch zur physiologischen optik 11 vol. 1, 1909; vol. 2, 1911; vol. 3, 1910, $250.00 of interest to medal collectors: tom atwood, 2828 rockhaven ave., louisville, k2ntucky 40220, has \ajri tten to jim leeds to report a meda 11 ion, a 11 bausch & lomb honorary science award 11 showing a 11 draped female holding a \'lreath in one hand and a lens in the other. 11 the medal appears to be made of bronze and is engraved 11 lawrence porterfield 1938~ 11 on the back. its dimensions are approximately 50 x 65 x 5 mm. he offers it at $15.00. for calendar collectors: in longhand, on a postcard, mr. ray bishop, 75 summer street, lisbon falls, f·1aine 04252 offers a 4~11 x 911 calendar (year not stated) with the legend promoting the patronage of optometrist charles j. libby and with a picture showing a little girl trying on her grandmother•s glasses. his price is $7.50. -5another spectacles collector: jay de mesquita, o.d., of pennsauken, new jersey, has collected 400 pieces in only five years of pursuit of his hobby. so writes ~~arl yn l. r·1a rgul is in an a rti c 1 e en tit 1 ed "an optometric detective: in search of anti que eye\>jear" in the december 1979 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 50, no. 12, pp. 1337-1342, with 22 photographs. suddenly ~ buff: recently thomas eade, o.d. 320 s. main street, new castle, indiana 47362, was presented with the opportunity to purchase the personal collection of ophthalmic oddities and antiques accumulated by bill glosser, a retiring sales representative for duffens optical company for ten years, and for many earlier years business manager for the herron school of art in indianapolis. dr. eade, tom, boutht it on sight and now is engaged in trying to sort out, classify, and identify each item, of which there are hundreds. though bill glosser had long been an ardent collector of antiques and uniques, tom eade is really not, or should we say has not been. but addiction is clearly setting in as tom makes inquiry about reference atlases and names of experts. ~searching request the following is a letter out of the blue from robert c. coleman, o.d., 2615 voorhees, no. 2, redondo beach, california 90278, to "members of the optometric historical society": "i would like to learn more about the activities of your group. i enjoy history and optometric memorables and feel your goals coincide to oine. one aspect of my interest. i would enjoy sharing relates to eye health as pictured on world postage stamps. too bad there is no optometry related stamp but dozens on blindness prevention, braille, ophthalmology and eye disease prevention. would you be interested in doing an article on this topic in the near future?" indeed. who was t~r. james ware? on more than one occasion i have noted a reference to one or another opinion expressed by r~r. ware. recently i tracked down one such reference as "iv. observations relative to the near and distant sight of different persons" by james ware, esq. f.r.s., in philosophical transactions of the royal society of london, vol. 103, part 1, 1813, pages 31-50. in this article mr. ware makes such statements as: "near sightedness usually comes on between the ages of ten and eighteen." and, "it affects the -6higher classes of society more than the lower. 11 in the same publication, pages 110-113, sir charles blagden, f.r.s., responded with a paper entitled, 11 xiv. an appendix to mr. ware 1 s paper on vision 11 to give testimony based on his own recollection of beginning myopia at the age of nine or ten for which he was able to compensate for a year or so by means of a meniscus watch-glass. as a secondary visual observation he described a stereoscopic effect which he indulged in as a child which consisted of looking at the multiple vertical fluting on an eye level block of a marble chimney piece and changing its apparent distance by varying the convergence of his eyes. if i recall correctly, helmholtz made essentially the same observa­ tion on checkered wallpaper years later, and most of us have observed the same effect on floors of small tile pieces. but who were blagden and ware? it is not evident from their articles that either was an optician or oculist, and yet their comments indicated considerable familiarity with the eye and lenses. certainly, 'because they were botr. fellows of the royal society, their biographies are quite available, but i hope a reader of this ne\ojsletter might offer some time­ saving help. joseph dallas, m.d., 1905-1979: henry knoll \'/rites, 11 g:::orge nissel of england has given me permission to reproduce the following biographical sketch of joseph dallas who passed av1ay on june 27, 1979. his death follows closely the passing of john neill and frank dickinson. no doubt they have joined obrig, touhy and others and are arguing the merits of steep vs. flat, 1 arge vs. small, front toric vs. back toric, corneal vs. scleral, hard vs. soft lenses and having a grand time of it all! 11 joseph (jozsef) was born in budapest, hungary on the 5th january 1905, of hungarian parents. his father alexander (sandor) was a secondary school teacher, later headmaster. he finished his education in record time, entered university and qualified as an m.d. in 1928 at the very early age of 25. joseph entered no. 2 eye clinic, v1here prof. emil de grosz reigned supreme and joseph worked under assistant prof. horay. within a very short time joseph took up contact lenses and, as there were only zeiss lenses in existence, he began working \'lith them. very soon he realised the limitations of the rigid geometrical construction of these lenses and suggested an improvement on the design of the lenticular lenses, which zeiss duly patented in association with joseph. joseph set himself the task of creating a new type of contact lens and to build a new manufacturing process to go 1-jith it. and it is here where his true pioneering work began. he had to search for a suitable material to take impressions of the living eye and even­ tually he adopted the negocoll and hominite process. he took up the study of moulding glass into shape and the subsequent grinding of it. -7at the beginning he worked with incredibly primitive tools, nevertheless producing outstanding results. a distant relative of his, a dental technician by the name of istvan rakes was his first technician, working in a box room behind the kitchen of his apartment. there it was that i met him in 1933. not only did i observe the technical process but i also watched the fitting of a gypsy musician, who had high myopia and nystagmus and who, when the fitting was completed, not only did not pay, but actually received payment and a good meal from joseph for offering himself to be fitted. this illustrates the man's dedication and his eagerness to learn. and then followed a few years which could be described as the golden era of his profes~; ion a l career. in 1935 appeared his famous article in a german ophthalmological journal on his method of taking impressions of the eye, which method was used less and less later on, and he relied on several fitting sets of his own design. patients and ophthalmologists were coming to budapest from all parts of the globe and joseph worked day and night to improve his method. he never cared about money and was extremely generous on all occasions. he was only happy working, begrudging himself a holiday year after year. one of his early supporters was prof. sattler from konigsberg, germany. he came to budapest himself and later on he sent one of his assistants to joseph who stayed for several months. ophthalmologists from argentina, brazil, holland, united states and many other countries came to watch him at work. in one of these groups from the states was theodore obrig, who saw how an impression was taken. joseph collaborated with the mullers of wiesbaden who came regularly to budapest to provide glass scleral cosmetic blown lenses to his patients. in this period joseph reached the equivalent status of a senior registrar at the university clinic and could count many royalty amongst his patients. following a visit from four british ophthalmologists, rugg-gunn, ~~illiamson-noble, t.j. phillips, and ida mann, joseph was invited to come to london by gerald henry wingate of theodore hamblin ltd. this was in 1936. he came to london in may 1937 and started working at no. 9 wigmore street, adjacent to the main hamblin showroom, having been duly installed by richard smellie. reflecting on the years which followed, i have the feeling that joseph was not cut out for a commerical career. joseph had an appointment at moorfields eye hospital for a few years as a contact lens specialist. he contributed to the war effort by fitting scores of servicemen with glass haptic lenses and fitted many first war mustard gas sufferers. soon after he settled in england joseph was asked to hold a lecture at oxford on contact lenses. he disliked publicity and very seldom did he attend any social functions. he was a member of the ophthalmological contact lens society, but he very seldom spoke at their meetings. he was honorary member of several contact lens associations. a few years after the death of gerald henry wingate in the 1950's, joseph established his own consulting room and attached to this was a small laboratory where he continued to make glass contact lenses. he -8progressed with time and was prescribing almost every type of contact lens available. an article by joseph in the optical press describing his method of asepticising hydrophilic lenses has become standard procedure. he called it pasteurising. as the number of technicians who were able to assist him with the manufacture of glass contact lenses waned, the work of making an occasional lens fell back on him and he would sacrifice all his spare time to make a pair of lenses, regardless of cost. whereas he worked for the past twenty years or so at several medical eye centres, he regretted having given up proper ophthalmological work. nevertheless, he spent his entire 1 i fe in the service of mankind with complete disregard for his own personal material well being. he passed away peacefully on 27th june 1979. many ophthalmologists who watched joseph will remember his work, and th~re were a few assistants who worked with him, like stephen gordon, bob turner, anne silk, ted f'1eredith, and shaw, who will no doubt carry on to emulate their former master. unfortunately, there is very little literature for further study. dr. joseph dallas leaves behind his widow, dr. vera dallas, t~rcp., consultant at whipps cross hospital. also his first wife dolly (nee nissel), and son david, ~1edical technician, royal free hospital, and thousands and thousands of satisfied patients. richard kelly (1910-1977) known as one of the first professionals to practice lighting design consulting, and a designer of over 300 major projects for over 80 prominent architects, richard kelly was awarded the 1979 gold t~edal of the illuminating engineering society posthumously. 11 a personal t·1emento 11 , reciting numerous legendary incidents and events to portray kelly•s philosophy and impact, is an article by der scutt in the october 1979 issue of lighting design and application, vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 56-58. !'{. g_. hardy writes of owen aves: the contributions of many a person are knwon only to his contemporaries, and unless at least one of the contemporaries bothers to record the contri­ butions in print or on a monument or in the form of a memorial, the grateful memories fade very quickly. even more serious .is the resultant loss of explanation and full description of historical developments and related social trends, leaving great gaps in our understanding of why things happened the way they did. consequently, much of what we presume to be history is mere conjecture by imaginative writers who fill these gaps with plausible fiction. mr. w. e. hardy has eliminated one such gap by means of an article entitled 11 0wetj aves (1991-1929); marking the half century 11 in the september -91979 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 19, no. 17, pp. 653-654. mr. aves' career ended prematurely 50 years ago, but mr. hardy remembered him as 11 a natural publicist; a sound judge of men; a doughty fighter in any cause he believed to be right or just; and a hurrier. 11 he tells us that aves had been a prime mover in launching the first attempt at organized research in ophthalmic optics. several declared that the london refraction hospital would never have been successfully established without his initiative, drive, and organizing capacity. these and numerous other contributions, an almost incredible number for such a brief career, give us a much better grasp of the status of optometry in great britain during the first three decades of this century. braff, graham, and greenspoon: three early developers of the contact lens are drs. solon braff, robert graham, and reuben greenspoon, all residing presently in southern california, where they have devoted most or all of their career time. respectively 64, 73, and 30 years old, they continue to be optometrically involved, according to an article in the october 1979 issue of the california optometrist, pages 15 and 17. supplementing these personality and historical write-ups is an interesting review of "early contact lens fitting techniques 11 on page 18. i was given zerographic copies of only these three pages so i do not know whether these are parts of a more extensive historical article, or who the author is. of pride and prejudice: the reference to kevin touhy on page 71 of volume 10 (incorrectly indexed as page 19 of volume 7!) prompted dan hummel to divulge an early experience of his, probably in the early 1950's~ in connection with the american academy of optometry, in which dr. hummel was himself a most prominent and influential figure. he writes: 11 at my invitation touhy came to an aao meeting in chicago. after considerable discussion i suggested that he make application for fellowship in the aao. 11 he \'jas turned down in no uncertain terms. for my part i received some terrific criticisms and silent treatment, about the same as my bringing the first black into the aao. "times and membership requirements have really changed. touhy was a gentleman and deserved better treatment." another optometrist memorialized this one is the dr. leslie w. scown award, established by the southern california college of optometry alumni association. dr. scown taught clinical optometry for 33 years beginning in 1921. -10early standard candle and specifications: possibly the earliest official standardization of the candle for the purpose of measuring illumination is that published in the january 8, 1894, issue of american gas light journal, vol. 60, page 41. the title of the article is 11 the 1'1etropolitan gas referees in the candles to be used in testing the lighting value of london gas 11 and is re­ produced here in full, as follows: the ~~letropolitan gas referees have issued the following notification respecting the candles to be employed in testing the lighting value of the gas supplied by the companies over which they have juri sdi cti on: the candles to be used for testing the illuminat­ ing power of gas are defined by the ~~etropolitan gas acts as 11 sperm candles of 6 to the pound, each burning 120 grains an hour. 11 but whereas candles coming within this definition, but differing in other particulars, differ greatly in the light they give; and whereas a controversy has arisen between the london county council and the gas companies as to the candles which should be used in testing; and whereas the chief gas examiner has disallowed a return of the illuminating power of gas on the ground that 11 candles of different manufacture, possibly of different illuminating pov/er from those usually employed in the testing places, and which had not been prescribed nor certified by the gas referees, were employed in the tests against which the company have appealed; 11 and whereas the london county council have called upon the gas referees to prescribe and certify the candles to be used in the testing-places; and whereas it is the duty of the gas referees (gaslight and coke company act, 1876, sec. 34) from time to time to prescribe and certify the apparatus and materials in the testing-places for testing the illuminating power of gas, and of the company to pro vi de such apparatus and materia 1 s accordingly; and whereas sperm candles are the materials by which the illuminating power of gas is tested; we do therefore herebly prescribe as follows: (1) all candles to be used in the testing-places shall be made with the materials hereinafter prescribed, and shall, when made, be examined and certified by the gas referees. (2) the wicks shall be made of three strands of cotton plaited together, each strand consisting of 18 threads. the strands shall be plaited with such closeness that, when the wick is laid upon a rule, and extended by a pull just sufficient to straighten it, the numoer of plaits in 4 inches shall not exceed 34, nor fall short of 32. each wick shall be of suitable length, and looped ready for fixing in the mould. after having been bleached in the -11usual manner and thoroughly washed (see aopendix), the wicks shall be steeped in a liquid made by dissolving one ounce of crystallized boracic acid in a gallon of distilled water, and adding two ounces of liquid ammonia. they are then to be gently wrung or pressed till most of the liquid has been removed, and dried at a moderate heat. twelve inches of a ~'lick t''"lus made and treated shall not weigh more than 6.5, nor less than 6 grains. the v1ei ght of the ash remaining after the burning of ten wicks which have not been steeped in boracic acid, or from which the boracic acid has been washed out, shall not be more than 0.025 grain. wicks made in accordance with this prescription shall be sent to the office of the gas referees, by whom they will be examined and certified. the wicks so certified are to be used by the candlemaker in the condition in which they are returned to him. (3) the spermaceti of which the candles are made shall be genuine spermaceti, extracted in the united kingd~n from crude sperm oil, the produce of the sperm \-jhale (pf1yseter magrocephalus). it shall be so refined as to have a melting-point lying between 112° and 115° f. an account of the method by which the melting-point of the spermaceti is to be determined is given in the appendix. since candles made with spermaceti alone are brittle, and the cup which they form in burning has an uneven edge, it is necessary to add a small propttrtion of beeswax or paraffine to remedy these defects. we therefore prescribe that the best air-bleached beeswax, melting at or about 144° f., and no other !1latt!y'ial, shall be used for this purpose, and that the proportion of beeswax to spermaceti shall not be less than 3 p2r cent., nor more than 4~ per cent. (4) the candles mad~ with the materials above prescribed shall each weigh, as nearly as may be, one sixth of a pound, and will be found to answer to the following test: immerse a candle, taper end dm-1nwards, in water of 600 f., with a brass weight of 40 grains attached to the wick by a small piece of thread. \~hen a further weight of 2 grains is laid on the butt end of the candle, it will still float; but with a weight of 4 grains it will sink. as the rate of burning of a candle is affected by the force with which the wick is pulled vjhen it is set in the mould, the strain commonly applied by an ex~erienced maker of candles has been measured, and is found to be about 24 oz. the candles shall be accomp~nied by a specimen of the spermaceti (unmixed with beeswax) which was used in making them. packets of candles ap1jroved by the gas referees will be sealed by them, and certified for use in the testing-places. -12(5) the candles are to be used by the gas examiners as heretofore, in accordance with the half-yearly "noti fica ti ons" of the gas referees. the results are to be corrected as usual, on the assumption that for small variations the light of a candle varies directly with its consumption; and if any candle in a packet certified by the gas referees is found by a gas examiner to burn at a rate exceeding 126, or falling short of 114 grains per hour, the testings made with that candle are to be rejected. appendix method of determining the melting-point of the spermaceti. as various methods are used by different refiners of spermaceti for determining the melting-point, which lead to different results, it must be noted that the temperatures here given as the limits within wich the melting-point of a sample of refined spermaceti should fall --viz., 112° and 1150 f. -have been found by the following method, which is knwon as the capillary tube method: a small portion of the spermaceti is melted by being placed in a short-test-tube, the lower end of which is then plunged in hot water. a glass tube drawn out at one end downwards, into the liquid spermaceti, so that, when the tube is withdrawn, 2 or 3 mm. of its length are filled with spermaceti, which immediately solidifies. the corresponding part of the exterior of the tube is also coated with spermaceti, which must be removed. the narrow part of the tube is then ~immersed in a large vessel of water of a temperature not exceeding 100° f. the lower end of the tube which contains the spermaceti should be 3 or four inches be 1 ow the surface, and close to the bulb of a thermometer. the upper end of the tube must be above the surface; and the interior of the tube must contain no water. h1e water is then slowly heated; being at the s-ame· time briskly stirred, so that the temperature of the whole mass is as uniform as possible. when the plug of spermaceti in the tube melts.it will be forced up the tube by the pressure of the water. the temperature at the moment when this movement is observed is the melting-point. the electric lamp: featured on the front cover and on pages 32-38 of the october 1979 issue of physics today, vol. 32, no. 10, is a history of the 100 year old electric lamp by john m. anderson and john s. saby. the title is "the electric lamp: 100 years of applied physics." -13institute of optics 1929-1979: this is the title, subtitled "a brie! commemorative," of a report by hilda g. kingslake in the october f/79 issue of applied optics, vol. 18, no. 19, pp. 3222-3229, on the institute of optics of the university of rochester. the author, herself an opticist, is the wife of one of the two original faculty members. the first five years of the institute were jointly sponsored by the university, the bausch & lomb optical company, and the eastman kodak company. the first students were from the rochester school of optometry which, together with its two chief instructors, ernest petry and herbert wilder, had been taken over by the university. forty students were graduated in optometry up to 1936 when the optometry courses were discontinued. altogether the institute has conferred some 270 b.s., 340 m.s., and 111 ph.d. degrees. the introduction of spectacles into china: this is the title of a 1936 article by kaiming chiu in the harvard journal of asiatic studies, vol. 1, pages 186-193 recently brought to my attention by my student viven chan. chiu reminds us that berthold laufer, a german, provided the earliest systematic discussion by a westerner on the introduction of spectacles into china. this article appeared in 1907 ans was used by george sarton, with some reservations, as the principal source for his 1931 account of the introduction of spectacles into china. prompted by sarton's suggestion chiu delved deeper and deeper into the subject until he found all of the chin~se sources used by laufer, and thereby found that laufer had made quite a few mistakes. among these was the suggestion that spectacles were mentioned c. 1260, during the sung dynasty (960-1279 a.d.) chiu concluded that "it is clear that spectacles were introduced into china from the western regions during the latter part of the yuan dynasty, that is the 14th century." chiu also discussed the origin of the term ai-tai for spectacles drring the ming dynasty (1368-1644). he believed this to se-a transliteration of some foreign vjord, possibly the arabic word uwainat, rather than an original chinese term, especially because the chinese accounts pointed repeatedly to malacca as the source of spectacles. malacca was an early oceanic trade center on the southwest coast of the malay peninsula. the more modern chinese term for spectacles, ~-ching, probably dates back to the beginning of the 16th century rather than the 18th century, concludes chiu. -14contrast of credibility two attractively bound cloth-covered books of almost identical size, approximately 61 x 24 x 1.5 em identically priced at $6.95, and about 100 pages each were called to my attention by reason of the subtitle of one as 11 the story of visions aids, 11 and, the catalog summary of the other as .. traces the his tory of spectacles over seven hundred years ... 11 • the former is 11 lenses, spectacles, eyeglasses, and contacts 11 by alberta kelley, published in 1978 by thomas nelson, inc., nashville, tennessee. the 1 atter is 11 look how many people wear glasses 11 by ruth bri ndze, published in 1975 by atheneum, new york. both are obviously intended for popular reading at about the junior high school (ages 13-15) level of difficulty, and both are nicely intersp~rsed with illustrations which suggest an appropriate degree of sophistication and documentation. there the similarities ended. whether due to the two styles of writing or my own limited, if not substantially biased, knowledge of ophthalmic history, i judged the two books to have a great difference of credibility. that the young naive reader might not detect this waul be re~arded by many as being of no consequence. why, one might ask, should history, or even science, for the casual reader be so correctly stated. in the same way that artists distort shapes and colors to induce 11 truer 11 impressions, why, others might ask, should not a his­ torian indulge in moderate twists of phrases such as, for example, 11 experts believe 11 or 11 specialists think 11 to give a hypothesis or theory something nearer factual appearance? i do not happen to agree that such license is justifia~le. lt1 the kelley book one can gain the notion that the information was obtained largely by interviewing persons without checking into their knowledge of history. if ophthalmic history is indeed as the author describes it i shall have to start all over again. a bibliography of 15 mainly popular publications is appended, but citations are not specific, and most of the illustrations lack explanations or source credits. the brindze book on the other hand, while of easy and casual style, seems quite free of inaccuracies and distortions. some of the concepts and descriptions are oversimplified but not so as to mislead the reader. reasonably specific resources are cited so that the more curious reader can pursue any detail more thoroughly elsewhere. the historical aspects are far too few, however, to justify the catalog card summary that it 11 traces the history of spectacles over seven hundred years ... 11 i daresay that a sales promotion artist rather than the author wrote t:1e sumr,1ary statement for the catalog card. the elusive sensory core: 11 ln the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the majority of theories of visual perception were built upon the view that during the process of -15vision there occur two conscious states with quite different phenomenal properties. the first state is a mental representation of the two dimensional retinal image. the second is our experience of the •visual world• of objects distributed in depth.•• so stated gary c. hatfield and william epstein in an article entitled 11 the sensory core and the f4edieval foundations of early modern perceptual theory .. in the september 1979 issue of isis, volume 70, number 253, pp. 363-384. the first abovementioned state, which they call 11 the sensory core 11 would be the a.wareness, however fleeting, of a circle as an ellipse when it is viewed obliquely so as to form an elliptical image on the retina. the second state would be its ordinary perception as a circle however obliquely it may be viewed. hatfield, of the department of history of science, and epstein, of the department of psychology, both at the university of wisconsin, madison, wisconsin, discuss at great length the centuries-long failure to grasp the camp lexi ty of t:.e vi sua 1 stimulus, especially the binocularly processed stimulus, which enables the visual system to interpret the elliptical retinal image as a circle tilted in the third dimension. their paper explores in a very understandable way, though cumbersomely replete with enormous footnotes, the theoretical and historical context within which the notion of a sensory core deve 1 oped. r~y attention to this article was called by our ever alert secretary­ treasurer maria dablemont. an early classic~ ophthalmology reprinted in 1979 is the 1833 edition of an almost 400,000 \>jord book entitled 11 treatise on the eye .. by william mackenzie ( 1891-1868). mackenzie ranked with the most influential ophthalmologists in the united kingdom. he was the founder of the famed glasgow eye infirmary and, in 1838, was named surgeon-oculist to queen victoria. this treatise, his masterpiece, had four english editions and was translated into german, french, and italian. ophthalmologists of that era were still several decades short of including optometric care among their offerings, even though the use of spectacles was \'ji despread and aphtha 1 mi c opticians were we 11 estab 1 i shed with a heritage of several centuries. nevertheless, mackenzie did include a number of pages of commentary on certain aspects of ocular refraction which he considered to be of interest to physicians. specifically he devoted about a thousand words to .. cataract-glasses, .. about six thousand to .. myopia, or near-sightedness, .. and about three thousand to .. presbyopia, or far-sightedness, .. totalling approximately one fortieth of the book. though written in very sophisticated style the text of the book is almost totally anecdotal, and the 11 0ptical 11 portions are no exception. by meticulously cited references it is apparent that mackenzie relied primarily on others as his resources on ophthalmic optical matters. the follm>jing excerpts are indicative of the limited involvement of eye physicians of that -16era in ophthalmic optical matters: 11 these glasses are employed for the purpose of rendering the vision of those who have been operated on for cataract, as distinct and perfect as possible; for there is a distinction, perhaps not a very accurately expressed one, admitted by opticians between distinct and perfect vision. 11 11 the too hasty employment of cataract-glasses after the most successful operation, may soon bring the eye to a state of weakness which will render it unfit even for those employ­ ments which require but a moderate degree of sight. no cataract-glasses ought to be given to a patient so long as his vision appears to be improving without this use. this generally continues to be the case for at least ~:o months after the operati un. 11 11 there is a certain distance from the eye, called the point of distinct vision, at which objects are perceive __ d __ better than at any other distance. this point, however, is different in different individuals, or even in the two eyes of the same person. it averages from about 15 to 20 inches. the least distance at which objects can be seen with any ordinary degree of distinctness by common eyes, is about seven or eight inches. 11 11 mr. ware ... observes that most of the nearsighted persons with whom he has conversed, had the right more affected than the left, and he thinks it not improbable the differences had arisen from the habit of using a single concave hand-glass, which, being commonly applied to the right eye, contribute to render it more shortsighted than the other. 11 11 when persons in the higher ranks.~. discover that their discernment of distant objects is less quick or less correct than that of others, though the difference may be very sli ht, influenced perhaps by fashion more than by necessity, they immediately have recourse to a concave glass; the natural consequence of which is that their eyes in a short time become so confirmedly myopic, that the recovery of distant vision is difficult, if not impossible. 11 11 it is but rarely the case that the medical practitioner has an opportunity of advising those in whom myopia is not yet confirmed, to that source of treatment, which might remove the incipient symptoms of this very serious imperfection of sight. 11 ~~ ... the cure [for myopia] would probably be found in ... refraining also from the use of concave glasses ... 11 11 if, instead of such a plan of treatment, recourse be had to the employment of concave glasses, and the frequent -17and long-continued observations of near objects be persisted in, the disease [myopia] becomes not on~y confirmed, but sometimes greatly aggravated. 11 11 when a near-sighted person wishes to be fitted with glasses, the simplest and surest plan is to try each eye with a series of th~m, at an optician's shop. 11 11 the following are the foci in inches of the concave glasses usually kept in the [opticians'] shops. no. 1-----48 2-----36 3-----24 4-----18 no. 5-----14 6-----14 7------9 8------7 no. 9-----5 10-----4 11-----3 12-----2~11 it is advisable that near-sighted persons should not wear spectacles constantly, but only on occasions when they more particularly require such assistance. 11 11 the assistance, which the presbyopic eye derives from a double convex-glass, ought neither to be too soon had recourse to, nor too long delayed. 11 mackenzie took cognizance of the fact that individuals 11 in the country 11 who do not have access to opticians' shops may have to write for their glasses, so, he carefully included procedures \llhich might be followed to determine appropriate focal lengths. for myopes' distant corrections the focal lengths corresponded to the far points of distinct vision, and for near corrections for a 12 inch reading distance the lens wcs the same with a 3.33 diopter addition. the near corrections for presbyopia for a 12 inch reading distance represented a lens which required simply that the wearer utilize his full amplitude of accommodation. these mathematical interpretations are quite derivable from the described procedures. for presbyopia in subjects much under the age of forty years cases are cited in which 11 cure was accomplished by the application of leeches to the temples, and the use of purgative medicines. 11 in on1? case the cure w~s not complete, 11 partly on account of her not ha,jing abstained from the use of her spectacles with equal steadiness. 11 · the 1979 book is published by the robert e. krieger publishing company, inc., 645 new york avenue, huntington, new york 11743. sne 11' s law not only is there c;uestion as to the correct spelling of willebrord snell's (1580-1626) name, there is question as to who has priority to the discovery of what we now commonly refer to as snell's law of refraction. the actual manuscript on which snell wrote his geometrical proportion -18(not using sines) has disappeared, but from eyewitness accounts and from an index of the manuscript in amsterdam, the actual working is known. there is little doubt sne11•s results came after many experiments of his own in conjunction with kepler•s previous work on refraction. although he never published his work, snell 1 s work was known to his students and peers. the date 1621 is given as the year snell formulated his proportion of refraction. the story gets a bit complicated with the entrance of rene descartes (1597-1659). in 1637 he published dioptric in which he derived his law of refraction using the sines of incident and refracted light. never having experimented with refraction (he did after he derived the equation) descartes made theoretical assumptions concerning the nature of light which lead to his derivation. only after his death were grave accusations of plagiarism made against descartes. from records of his correspondence it is believed that in 1626 or 1627 he ••discovered 11 the sine law and it wasn•t until 1632 that he heard of snell•s previous work. there is still controversy concerning the originality of descartes• work. f~o story of 17th century science is complete without mention of an englishman and this is not an exception. the mathematician thomas harriot (1560-1621) made geometrical constructions in 1601 of refraction at a plane surface which would indicate his understanding of refraction. for further detailed reference the following are excellent reading: a.i. sabra. theories of light, vasco ronchi, the nature of light., and levene and gerstman, 11 a comparative analysis of optical constructions for refraction at a plane surface from thomas harriot (1601) to thomas young (1807) 11 atti della foundazione giorgio ronchi. sept. -oct., pp. 741744' ( 1975}: demon of t~odern physics 1979 marked not only the looth anniversary of albert einstein•s birth but also the death of james clark maxwell in november of the same year. to commemorate this event the english weekly new scientist presented in its november 1, 1979 issue an eight page article on maxwell•s life and scientific work which laid the foundation of modern physics. the illustrated article includes mention of his important work in the field of colour vision. sixty years of optometry this is the title of ~n article in the june 1979 issue of the australian journal of optometry, vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 252-255, by charles wright, historian of the australian optometrical association. accurate, documentary, and personalized corrmentary make it .a valuable historical contribution, but withal it is a thesis on the role of publications in the development of a profession. in fact the article is essentially a history of published australian journals and newsletters before and after the formation of the australian optometrical association. h. w hofstetter d. k. penisten, editors 1980-11-01-001 1980-11-01-002 1980-11-01-003 1980-11-01-004 1980-11-01-005 1980-11-01-006 1980-11-01-007 1980-11-01-008 1980-11-01-009 1980-11-01-010 1980-11-01-011 1980-11-01-012 1980-11-01-013 1980-11-01-014 1980-11-01-015 1980-11-01-016 1980-11-01-017 1980-11-01-018 ·~~·~·· .... ··~··~~· : lndw\a university : hindsigb'tan281~ ~ (; 4) : i newsletter of the : library • optometric historical socie._,..• • e ~ ~ • • i) • • " ~~ <') iii 11 ~ ,., • 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 27 july 1996 number 3 the ohs mission: "it is depressingly clear that we americans are largely ignorant of our history," says robert mcc. adams, secretary of the smithsonian institution, in the lead editorial of the february 1994 issue of smithsonian, vol. 24, no. 11, p. 8. similarly, i find the circumstances at least as depressing in american optometry. what is more depressing than merely the lack of clear images of optometry's past is the prevailing unawareness of the ignorance itself. many an erroneous assertion in prominent published optometric papers and reports is made as though the author has some historical insight when in fact it is a cold presumption, if not merely a popular misconception. much of this circumstance may well be a freudian desire to envisage current concepts, trends, and technologies as "new" developments, the interpretation that any change is a sign of progress. my own career experiences enable me to appreciate the significance of this commentary. in high school and in my first two college years i ranked history as my academic subject of least interest. during my next three years as an elementary school teacher of eight grades in a rural one-room school, i taught the history lessons coldly from a textbook. on weekends i worked part-time for a retail hardware firm and was at the same time exploring other more promising fields of endeavor, including the suggestion of optometry. this was in the great depression era. from the college catalogs i received, the strolls down retail business streets, and the newspaper advertisements of eyewear i gained the impression that optometry was a relatively "new" field, an interesting retail business involving a technology which seemed to be of fairly recent development. there was no hint that spectacles had been invented more than 600 years earlier! quite naively, in september of 1936, without even submitting a letter of application for admission, i rode the train 1 50 miles to columbus, ohio, and enrolled in the curriculum of beginning courses outlined in the bulletin of applied optics of the ohio state university, having been told by someone that this was in fact optometry. in the ensuing three years of professional courses i slowly began to realize that the underlying sciences pertaining to optometry, the visual sciences, were of classic origin, that early optics and philosophy were intermingled, that the visual arts and laws of perception preceded the birth of christ, etc. nevertheless i continued to 27/18 ·t"\arbor the misconception that optometry itself was "new," that it was created in the early twentieth century by statutory registration, and that the change of academic identity from applied optics to optometry confirmed it. by way of contrast, nary a hint was dropped to alert me to the fact that by the beginning of the fourteenth century spectaclemakers were already widely consulted by the innumerable presbyopic scribes whose vision was crucial to the preservation and dissemination of science and literature throughout the civilized world. three more years of post-professional graduate study in physiological optics with haploscopic research in the accommodation and convergence relationships gradually impressed me with the illustrious contributions of vision scientists early in the renaissance period. it was beginning to dawn on me that i was in a discipline with as noble and pervasive a heritage as any that i had learned about in my .. preoptometric cultural studies. mine was a discipline relatively free of the quackery, charlatanism, fakery, etc. that plagued especially the various components of the healing arts. still not an historian at heart i had, right up to that point in my career, failed to realize that i was still mentally excluding clinical optometry from any historical perspective. then suddenly came my awakening. in the fall of 1 942 i was appointed to the ohio state university optometry faculty and was assigned, among other duties, the teaching of a ·new course in optometric history and orientation. lacking a syllabus or textbook i truly had to scrape and scurry for tidbits of optometric history from journals, newsletters, commercial documents, and various other library references. fortunately the university library and the optometry school files had accumulated a variety of resources, even old correspondence. what i discovered, especially from british and german periodicals and books, was that clinical optometry did indeed· have an honorable heritage, albeit under the rubrics of ophthalmic optician, sight-testing, spectaclemaker, and other identities. the history of spectaclemakers guilds, the role of spectacle styling, the appearance of spectacles in classic oil paintings, reference to spectacles in early literature, the long-prevailing opposition to optical correction by medical authorities, the involvement of religious scruples, ophthalmic instrument inventions, apprenticeships, optical schools, and dozens of other bits of optometricana clearly document optometry's centuries-long existence and emergence from a prest~gious and sophisticated handicraft to its present academic stature, a truly proud history which includes many prominent and accomplished personalities. that very few of us recognized this was the concern of the late maria dablemont, archivist for the american optometric association. she was the prime mover to create the optometric hist9rical society in 1969. like the smithsonian, hindsight's role is to try to dispel our depressing ignorance of optometric history. h.w h. 27/19 early optical science: when you and i did our laboratory exercises in geometric optics as first-year optometry students, we had several categories of clues as to what to expect in the way of experimental results of, for example, prism refraction. we had a printed instruction sheet, ready-made prisms, an optical bench, a controllable light source, a prior related lecture or two, a pertinent reading assignment from a textbook, and considerable background from a preoptometry physics course. the optician isaac newton (1642-1726) had not one of these guidelines beyond the greeks' mathematical evaluation of surface reflections and their puzzling observations of several refractive phenomena occurring in nature. in the opening sentence of his first publication, the letter of 6 february 1672 to the secretary of the royal society of london, newton stated, "to perform my late promise to you, i shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of the year 1 666 (at which time i applied my self to the grinding of optick glasses of other figures than spherical), i procured me a triangular glass-prisme, to try therewith the celebrated phaenomena of colours." he then proceeded to describe his experimental procedures with narrow beams of sunlight entering a darkened room through a glass prism. how did newton's thought processes differ from yours and mine as he observed and measured the chromatic dispersion while. he varied the incidence angle? after all, he is "most widely held to be the master of all masters of modern discovery." insight into this question is the mission of a 1993 book by dennis l. sepper entitled newton's optical writings, a guided study, rutgers university press, new brunswick, new jersey. reproducing selected text and illustrations with a careful minimum of typographical alteration, and providing explanatory and philosophical commentary for the nontechnical reader, professor sepper not only invites an appreciation of the intellectual contributions of the early "natural philosophers" (now called scientists) but also offers you and me better understanding of optics than we might have gained in our geometric optics course with all of its modern advantages. h.w h. a firsthand review of osu optometry: ohs member arol augsburger, recognizing the significant contributions of harold w. oyster to optometry, asked dr. oyster to record his recollections of the development of the optometry program at the ohio state university. on september 20, 1991, dr. oyster was honored by the ohio state university college of optometry and optometric educators inc., an organization of full-time faculty members of the college, for his very significant contributions to the success 27/20 of optometry at osu. he was granted the frederick w. hebbard medal in optometry. dr. oyster was also recognized by the ohio optometric association in may of 1991 for his outstanding career accomplishments. prior to that, dr. oyster's contributions to the optometric profession were recognized by the american optometric association which presented him the apollo award in 1967. dr. augsburger submitted the following paper by dr. oyster for publication in hindsight. optometry at the ohio state university-1946-1969 harold w. oyster, o.d. in 1946 i was elected president of the ohio optometric association (ooa) and reelected in 1947. i had been elected president in 1943 but resigned after six months when i began active duty as a line officer in the navy. a fund-raising program with a goal of $100,000 for an optometry building at the ohio state university (osu) had been initiated prior to world war ii. a fund-raising firm had directed the campaign, but it was discontinued when the united states entered the war. about $50,000 had been raised and was held by the osu development fund. since the optometry program was inadequately housed in mendenhall laboratory, the ooa made it the prime objective in 1946 and 1947 to complete raising the $100,000 and use it as a bargaining lever with the osu administration to obtain precedence on the university's list of capital improvement proposals. as president of the ooa, i met with optometrists throughout ohio to urge contributions to the building fund. many ooa members assisted me, but none more than the late dr. herbert g. mote, who in 1948 succeeded me as president. the fund drive ended with a: total of $108,000 and influenced the osu administration to successfully ask for an additional $250,000 of legislative appropriations. these two amounts enabled the construction of the first phase of what is now the glenn a. fry building. after the legislative approximation had been made, there was considerable discussion as to where on the campus the building should be located. some optometrists felt that it would be better to have the building located in an area devoted primarily to social sciences. others felt that optometry was a part of health care, and therefore the building should be located in the area which included medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. i believe that it is fortunatethat the latter point of view prevailed. · the first phase of the building was occupied in 1951, but it soon became evident that a larger facility was needed. in the legislative session of 1956, dr. glenn a. fry, the director of the optometry program, requested $600,000 for an addition with the additional space to be used primarily for the clinical phase of the educational program. the request was not included in the osu legislative program of capital improvements which was submitted to the general assembly. however, dr. fry was told that he was free to make whatever independent effort he could to obtain the desired appropriation. at that time l was serving my fourth term as state representative from washington county and was chairman of the health committee and a member of the finance committee of the house. the timing for me to make some attempt to obtain the $600,000 was exactly right. two years earlier the political situation was not favorable for me as a republican state representative with a democrat, frank lausche, as governor. two years later the same political situation occurred with democrat michael disalle as governor. in 1957, however, republican governor c. william o'neil was my immediate predecessor as washington county's state representative, ~d we had been friends and political allies since he was first elected state representative in 1938. in addition to that, the director of finance in the governor's cabinet was my long-time personal friend from marietta-john skipton. also, the chairman of the senate finance committee, c. stanley mechem, was my own state senator for whom i had served as his washington county campaign chairman. so i was able to get skipton to include the $600,000 for an addition to the 27/21 optometry building in the governor's bill for capital improvements. i saw to it that it stayed in the bill in the house, senator mechem kept it in the senate, and governor o'neil approved the bill. by 1963 a different situation was in place. optometry was originally a part of the physics department of the college of arts and sciences. incidentally, the long-time chairman of the physics department, dr. alpheus w. smith, was most helpful in promoting the progress of optometry within osu. now in 1963, optometry was a separate school under the college of arts and sciences whose dean, dr. j. osborn fuller, was also interest in optometry's advancement. prior to this time, the degree awarded to graduates in optometry was that of bachelor of science in optometry. this was also the degree awarded to the graduates of the other publicly supported universities which included optometry in their curriculums. however, the private colleges of optometry all awarded the preferred 0 .d. (doctor of optometry) degree. after the proposal of the o.d. was approved by the ohio state university college of arts and sciences and by the faculty senate, it was then sent to the board of trustees where it was strongly supported by osu president novice g. fawcett. up until september 1963, all the approval required for a new degree proposal was favorable action by the trustees. but a new state agency came into existence in september 1963-the board of regents. after that, all new degrees and new degree programs at all state-assisted institutions of higher education required approval by the board of regents in order to become operative. in 1963 i was serving my seventh, and last, term as state representative and was one of the principal legislative supporters of the bill to establish the board of regents. governor james a. rhodes appointed me as one of the nine regents, and at the initial meeting of the board held in his cabinet room, the governor urged my election as chairman of the board. the board was not able to obtain a chancellor until july 1964, so as chairman (an unpaid position), i spent two or three days each week in columbus putting together the nucleus of a paid staff, arranging for office space, developing procedures of the board, begi_nning studies leading to a master plan for higher education in ohio, and holding numerous conferences with university and college people, members of the administration, legislators, and news media-all to the detriment of my partnership practice of optometry. the request for the o.d. degree was the first one to come to the board of regents, and we had no established procedure or policy for handling such requests, so i appointed a committee of the board to consider the request and to make a recommendation to the board. the committee consisted of robert lazarus, president of the lazarus store; john marshall briley, senior vice president and general counsel of the owens-corning fiberglass co.; and j. ottis ford, president of a steel company in sandusky and vice-chairman of the board of regents. i took no part in the committee's consideration of the degree request and do not recall what was done by the committee, although i know they did go to the campus and meet with dr. fry. the committee recommended approval and the board on january 10, 1964, concurred without any opposition being voiced to the board. subsequent to the regent's favorable action, president fawcett told me that the degree request was vigorously opposed at the trustee level. he said that he had asked trustee john w. bricker, former governor and u.s. senator, to lend support and that bricker's assistance was decisive. fawcett also felt that the fact that an optometrist was chairman of the board of regents and in fawcett's words ii obviously a very strong chairman ii accounted for the lack of any opposition at the regents level. incidentally, osu was the first publicly supported university to adopt the professional doctorate degree for optometry. later all the others followed osu's leadership. 27/22 december 1964 brought abrupt change in my career: first, as of december 21 my practice of optometry ended. i sold my interest in the partnership practice (dr. joseph b. hutchinson had been my partner since 1943) and our office building to dr. don l. curtis. second, my seventh term as state representative ended as of december 31; i had not sought reelection. third, as of december 31, my resignation as a member and the chairman of the board of regents became effective. the resignation was necessitated by my acceptance of a newly created position at the university of akron-vice president for development. after two years at akron, i resigned to accept a similar vice presidency at the university of toledo. by 1969 the optometry program at osu was again in need of expanded facilities and an agreement had been made with the osu administration to transfer a substantial part of the old starling­ loving hospital to optometry. this building was just east of phase 1 of the optometry building and quite suitable for renovation to optometry's needs. the proposed remodeling and renovation was estimated to cost $1,000,000. again, the osu administration felt that other capital improvement requirements of the university had higher priorities and the million dollars for optometry was not included in the osu request to the legislature for appropriations. some time prior to 1969, the school of optometry had become the college of optometry, dr. fry had relinquished the top administrative position, and dr. frederick w. hebbard talked with me about the problem and wondered if there was any way in which i could be helpful in getting the needed funds for the renovation. at that time i had been out of the legislature for five years and was vice president of another state university (toledo) with a major responsibility of trying to get state funds for toledo. but as i reviewed the situation, it did not seem as bleak as at first glance. osu was the only university in ohio with a program in optometry and if funds could be obtained for optometry which would not otherwise have been available for any other state university, it would not impinge upon my responsibility to toledo. also, i still had some important political contacts. governor rhodes was in the third year of his second term as governor. we had not only been friends and political allies for twenty years, but he had also appointed me the two important positions (member and chairman of the board of regents in 1963 and member of the retirement study commission representing education in 1965). howard collier was the director of finance. as the chief fiscal officer for the governor, he originated the capital improvements bill for introduction in the legislature. he had been a friend of mine for many years. also, many leaders in both the senate and the house were people with whom i had served, including my closest personal friend in the house, ralph fisher of wooster, who was chairman of the house finance committee. in the course of our discussions about the need for the additional space, dean hebbard told me that the college was planning, in conjunction with the then columbus technical institute, a program for optometric technicians and some of the additional space would be required for this new program. i had this in mind when i made my first approach on the subject to finance director collier. this was the logical first move as the most decisive step was to get included in the capital improvements bill as the governor recommended it to the legislature. by long tradition, appropriation bills, whether general, speciaf purpose, or capital improvements, were introduced without change by the chairman of the house finance committee. of course, amendments could be made in committee or on the floor of the house or in the senate. collier proved to be sympathetic to my request and when i told him about the proposed optometric technicians program, he felt that would be the clincher for the governor since he was strongly in favor of promoting technical and vocational programs. collier suggested that we go together to discuss it with the governor. rhodes was willing to include the $1,000,000 in the bill if collier could make that amount available. when collier said that he could, the governor said, "all right, howard, be sure to take care of it." my contacts with the appropriate house and senate leaders were fruitful and the appropriation was enacted. two years later john gilligan, a democrat, was governor and i no longer had influence. but previously, the position i was in and the timing were right for the result we wanted. 27/23 early creative advertising: as has been mentioned from time to time in this newsletter, the history of optometry in the united states prior to 1900 was not well recorded outside of the major metropolitan centers of boston, philadelphia, and new york city. these seaport-dominated cities represented a very, very small percent of the total pioneering populace largely identified with rural settlements in small communities. the latter were scarcely represented in the nationally known press. at about the turn of the century there existed in north america only one or two rudimentary optometric periodicals newly undertaken as private journalistic enterprises. optometric organizations and societies were still virtually nonexistent or being formed as primarily defensive measures under threat of legislative assignment of optometry medical surveillance. the six prior centuries of relatively undisturbed complacency of the sight-testing spectacle providers meant simply that the individual optometric entrepreneurs or solo practitioners were left to their own devices to stimulate public demand for their services and thereby one would not rely on one's membership in a professional organization to provide promotional and public education to create popular demand for optometric services. how was it accomplished before 1 900? one very tangible clue is an 1 899 publication edited by charles austin bates and titled the optical book. it is a hard­ cover volume about 14x20x3 em printed and copyrighted by the charles austin bates syndicate, new york, and stitched so that the 200 or more individual leaves, printed on the front side only, can easily be removed to be given to the printer for reproduction as advertisements in a local newspaper. each of about a hundred unnumbered pages consists of an eye-catching cartoon-like drawing under which is a bold-letter caption of several words followed by a paragraph or two of about 50 words that relates in some, often vague, way to spectacles, vision, optics, style, etc. it is intended that the optician insert his or her name and address beneath the advertisement. each "ad" has an identifying number which can be used for ordering a "cut" (engraved plate) ready to be used by the newspaper printer. in addition to the ready-to-use ads with graphic illustrations the next several dozen pages include almost a hundred discrete paragraphs suitable as newspaper column fillers about vision, etc. it is suggested that they may be utilized with display ads to promote the optician's services. the introductory chapter, the only chapter, discusses the theme of how and why the opticians should advertise. the primary objective should be to create the demand for the optician's services and eyewear. "if all opticians were to advertise equally well, all would do much more business." it is not merely a matter of getting his competitor's business. the rare volume reviewed· here is in the collection of several thousand books donated by james leeds, o.d., to the indiana university optometry library. h.w h. 27/24 at a loss for words: the terms alexia, aphasia, dyslexia, agraphia, amusia, and word-blindness share in common a mysteriousness of identity, etiology, definition, and even credibility. they appear with considerable frequency in the visual science and optometric literature if only because an attribute of each clinical phenomenon is a visual. dysfunction without an apparent cause in the visual pathway per se. according to james hinshelwood, author of congenital word-blindness, h. k. lewis & co., london, 1917, the first description of blindness forwards as an isolated condition was that of kussmaul in "disturbances of speech," ziemssen's cyclopaedia, 1 877, val. xiv. sir william broadbent had described a case five years earlier in "cerebral mechanism of speech and thought," transactions of the royal medical and chirurgical society, val. 55, 1872, but the condition was accompanied by other speech disturbances. hinshelwood lists over 50 references, including 14 of his own, in the interval between 1872 and 1915. h.w h. academy journal history: with the change of editorship of optometry and vision science, retiring editor william m. lyle provides a succinct summary and chronology of the publication together with title changes and the names and roles of editorial personnel from the journal's origin as the northwest journal of optometry in 1924 to issue no.3 of vol. 73, march 1996, pp. 135-137. " managing editor and contributing editor: contributing editors: * * * david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 u.s.a henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47408 u.s.a. douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 u.s.a. h.wh. 1996-27-03-001 1996-27-03-002 1996-27-03-003 1996-27-03-004 1996-27-03-005 1996-27-03-006 1996-27-03-007 1996-27-03-008 .... nd1slettep of the optot1etric historic1'1 snr.rety optometry lt~rar,y verttcal file (243 t!orth lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, t'issouri, u.s.a. 63141) volume 10 july 1979 number 3 ofis president knoll ~<~rites: tvto of the triumvirate are ~one! john nei 11, frank dickinson, and hi 1 helm sohnqes are vtell known to the contact lens fraternity as the triumvirate that developen the micro­ corneal lens and founded the international society of contact lens special­ ists. john rleill died on decer'1ber 11, 1979 at the aqe of 76, and frank dickinson died on december 25, 1978 at the age of 72. 8oth here inspiring teachers; ljohn ~·!eill in the fonnal sense as a member of the pennsylvania college of optometry faculty, and frank dickinson as author and freauent speaker. both were excellent clinicians. roth were respected and loved. the people who kne-.·t them honor them in the folloi.•jinq: frank dickinson: ophthalmic optician, vol. 19, no. 2, january 20, 1979' ppl 50-51. john nei 11 : optician, vol. 177, no. 4568, january 5, 1979, p. 6. optician, vol. 177, no. 4569, january 12, 1~79, p. 37. american f1ptornetric f',ssociation ~!ews, vol. 18, no. 1, january 1, 1979, p. 9. ,journal of the /\merica.n optometric 1\ssociation, vol. 50, no. 3, t·~arch, 1979, p. 275. the deutsche optikerzeitung carried a hrief obituary notice for both men in its february 15, 1979, issue, vol. 34, no. 2, o. 111. !jickinson was honored further in the march 15 issue, vol. 34, no. 3, p. 106. polynomial expansion by knoll "dear hank: "i don't think there is any question about the date of birth of the originator of the law of refraction. i've consulted {1) websters unabridged (2nd ed.) (2) encyclopedia britannica (1973), {3) the !'.merican encyclopedia of ophthalmology {1919) and (4) t·~eyers kleines konversations-lexikon (1899) and they all give 1591 as his year of birth. when it comes to his name, things are auite different! here's ho~1. (1) snell or·snellius, hillebrord; (2) snell (van p.oigen), 1-!illebrord, commonly known as snellius; (3) snellius, hilebrord; (4) snell ius van roijen, t·'illebrord. optometry library jul 1 61979 indiana university -38"as you can see my half hour added t\'10 variations to your list, i.e. van roigen and hilebrord. "sincerely, (signed 'hank') ~~henry 1\. knoll, ph.n." nominations requested: the fact that our ohs constitution and by-laws require that candi­ dates for election to the executive board be nominated by three members may well deter many individuals from nominating anyone. if you person­ ally feel that an ohs member is being overlooked as a potential candi­ date, simply say so in a note to secretary-treasurer t1aria dablement, or to any other officer. an effort \'1/ill then be made to round up two more nominators. it will be helpful to know your reasons for nominating someone. by all means, if you yourself \•loul,d be ,.,illing, you should not hesitate to nominate yourself. it is well to have more than one name on the ballot. our greatest need: if someone, especially an affluent someone, were to confront me with the qucsti on, "\'.'hat is the qreatest ir.rnediate need to the devel­ opment of ·optometry's history?', t would have a very ready response. before i declare it, let me explain a bit. . !·'ithout a doubt the most evolutionary period in optometry's seven centuries since the invention of optical visual aid.s, or in the three and a half centuries since daca de valdez wrote his book on analytical procedure, has been the three-quarters of a century just behind 'i.ts. what is more, the remarkable details of this highly effervescent era are quite accurately recorded in several serial publications which served the communication needs of the profession well. ~~ore than a gross or two of these thick and heavy volumes, collected, bound, and shelved, are to be found in remarkably good condition in several well­ staffed libraries. the details include names of people, places, and dates, numbers and events, policies and opinions, illustrations and ad­ vertisements, anecdotes and vitae, in short, a veritable wealth of material which could enable even the less experienced historian or scholar to trace a theme, a mission, a trend, or an oriqin with high re 1 i ab i 1 i ty. the catch is that most, and the best, of these historical treasures are not indexed, or are so inadequately indexed, as to be virtually un­ indexed. to search a one-year volume of a single journal literally means leafing page-by-page throuqh a thousand or more brittle pages. the information could not be more effectively buried were it placed in ':;~~;cr¥pl;~;1,t1hi~~ly a wax candle for illumination~ -3~to be sure, we can point our finner of hlame toward the editors and publishers for neglecting to inrlex their annual volumes adenuately. i would prefer, hov1ever, to give them their due credit for having re­ corded the infonnation, \'thich otherwise could not be accessible ~.tall. it sir.1ply has not been customary for publishers of ne,,,s ma'!azines to prepare annual indices as do publishers of scientific journals. gut therin lie the details of our historv. the need, then,~ to .~the infonnation indexed. .. -the cost? perhaps a aood many thousands of dollars. i do not know. cut if an affluent inauirer, or an optometrist preparin~ his last will and testament, should sincerely ask me, i shall certainly exhaust every significant resource to oet him or her a reliahle estimate. the actual value of such an undertakinn to the profession at laroe 1.-jould be ouite immeasureable, hut certainly many times over the cost. the expense of errors of repetition attributable to historical ignor­ ance defies matching. resides, and perhaos even more importantly, it v10uld enrich our cultural appreciation of ontomet~y· s heritaqe .iust to knovt that a few key words in an infonnation retrieval system could lay open the presently dark recesses of our history. thanks: hhile it is not our objective to oain members merely to swell our membership list, \·te do vjish to include any and every oerson, optometrist or not, who enjoys learning all that can be mustered about our profession­ al heritage. he therefore appreciate the occasional "plua" , . ..,e receive in one or another medium which has the attention of a 0rouo to which we othen1ise do not have easy access. our thanks this time to the editor of i.!j.g keystoner, a ne·1sletter published by the pennsylvania 0ptometric f·.ssociation, for calling the attention of its readers to their elioibility to membership in the ohs in their f.oril 1979 issue. recently added ohs members: nell.' members as of t1ay 16 include the following.: w. e. cochran, 0.0. box 308 kosciusko, ms 39090 merton c. flam, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry university of california berkeley, ca 94720 wayne e. gordon, o.d. 12 5 h. t·1a i n st. clinton, il 61727 dr. narendra kumar, editor optometry today p.o. box 2812 ne\·j del hi 11060 indi/\ dennis m. kuwabara, o.n. 94-748 'h k1moe st. waipahu, hi 96797 flovd d. mizener, n.n. 1043 curtiss st. flovmers grove, il 60515 hi 11 i am c . !3 • payne , j r. south carolina optometric assn. 2730 devine st. columbia, sc 29205 verne e. petrie, o.d. optometric group inc. portage lakes 11ed. /\rts bldg. 3515 manchester rd. akron, oh 44319 a. john rose, o.d. 100 parker ct. chardon, oll 44024 /\ 11 geneva glasses .. cabinet: -40r. lewis scott, n.o. 230 \!est ~"ain st. hartford city, irl 47348 h. da v i d s u 11 i n s , j r. , 0 • d • p.o. box 666 /\thens, in 37303 stanley j. yamane, n.o. 94-748 hikimoe st. haipahy, hi 96797 a photograph of an early dravjer cabinet \.<~as sent to me for identi­ fication. approximately 60 em wide, 3(1 em deer, and 52 em hiqh (24 11 x 12" x 20"), it consists of 12 small dra,.<~ers stacked in t\·to columns of six each and one \~tide dra\ijer across the top. each dra\·rer has bto '.-lhite, apparently porcelain, knobs. the ton \ojide rlravjp.r is faced \'lith the t·tords geneva glasses in silver letters on blup-painted glass, and the small drawers are respectively facerl \'lith the silver numerals 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 on hlue qlass. 'lther't~ise the cahinet is of handsomely finished walnut. the drawers are divided into 57 x 57 mm (21;::;" x 2~") square compartnents of tongue-and-qroove constructi an. if you can provirle any information ahout t~is cabinet, r·1rs. t. r. nusbickel, 1206 e. glemjood /\venue, fullerton, california ~2631, would appreciate hearing from you . .'\lso, if you 1vill send me a copy of your letter to her i am likely to cite it in the next issue. subsequent to penning the above paragraphs i sent the photograph to my brother carl, a retired watchmaker, and received the follo1·jinq reply: ~~~le have a five-drawer crysta 1 ca!"li net '.ii hi ch '"'e used for years. every drav.ter is marked genevl\. /\11 their crystals for huntinq-case watches, t·jhi ch had a snap cover over tl1e thin crysta 1, ~·!ere nade over­ seas and had the \·jord gp!eva on each. t!'"pre is a possi'-1ility that they also made lenses for optical purposes, but i doubt it. if this ''jere so i believe i hould have seen one, or even have one from my preclecessor leon shute ... intromission versus extrar.ission: science historians seer1 often to d1·jell a rit excessivelv on histori­ cal controversies. perhaps one of the most celebrated has that of '·jheth­ er vision is intromissive or extrar1issive in nature. thp ouestion 1·1as, does the visual nrocess consist of t~e transfer of rathp.r indefina~le "eidola" or "simulacra" v1hich leave the ohject and infrinqe on tl,e eye, or does it consist of some vague sort of visual ra.vs or cones of visual flux \·jhich, like sensitive ff'elers, extenrl fror1 the' eye to r1eet the' -41object bein~ viewed. sefore we r~alizerl that li~ht is somethina that travels and consumes measureahle time doinq so, rather than somethinn 11hich is instantaneously uhiouitous, li~e athouf'ji"lt or a hope, the · question of primary directionality of the visual rrocess was indeed a bit difficult. the fact that some animals can see in the dark was of no help either. if this and other philosophical eniqmas faced by early visual scientists are of interest to you, you v.rill be absolutely and re,,,,ard­ ingly fascinated by "theories of vision from r,l-l~indi to l"epler" hy david c. lindberg, university of chicago press, 1976, 324 pages. "one string on 111y fiddle": russell l. stimson died on november 1, 1078. 8ut it •.-tas only last t~ay, 1979, that i unkno\'dnqly referred an inquirer to him to get an answer to an historical question ahout spectacles which perhans only he could have ansv~ered from. memory. if i recall correctly, mr. stimson once told me that early in his career he had been a member of the american optometric ,"'ssoci ati on, he­ fore membership ~·las limited to optometrists. he chose instead to qo the dispensing optician route. a vigorous entrepreneur, he headed the super­ ior optical co., a corporation with 2b dispensinq optical stores in southern ca 1 iforni a. lie authored several hooks and numerous articles, and played a strong leadershio role in optical dispensinc'i. he counted many optometric leaders amon~ his frienrls and \·tas reciorocally admired and respected by them as a technological as well as orqanizational con­ tributor. i have not vet come across an obituarv or other hioqranhical account of his life except for a very brief entry in one of his ~ooks and in the who•s who section of the british anrl international optical year book. in the latter, indicative of his nature, his hobbies are identified mere­ ly as "one string on my fiddle: optics." he was hath a proud and modest person, one vjhom i thoroughly enjoyed kno\'jing. advertising around the turn of the century: (the follovling is a brief observation reported by daniel r~. talley, a member of the class of 1980 at the indiana university school of optometry) just 1 ike at present, there "'as very much concern surrounding the advertising of optometric qoods and services around the turn of the century. this concern \'las preva 1 ent enough among optometrists, then called opticians, that several articles appeared in almost eve~y issue of the optical journal. the journal dates all the way back to 1898 and even included a regular section named "department of advertisinq".2the difference between the concern over advertisina in 1978 versus 1902 is that advertisin~ seemed to he accepted by all optometrists of that time. the concern of the optometrists then rpvolved around the type of advertising done. the f1ptical \journal and those optof'1ptrists \'lho "'rote articles for the journal '"!ere adar1ant ahout cduratinn the public through -42advertising as opposed to advertising prices and quality of materials. this seemed an important issue because all of the education received by the public up until this time was from traveling opticians who peddled the .. magic of glasses 11 • optometrists were encouraged to write articles about simple refractive problems to include in their advertisements. it was also stressed than no two people can wear the same pair of glasses, and that the fitting of frames was import­ ant. at this time, newspapers were generally thought to be the most effective form of advertising. questions arose, such as in which paper, the morning or evening paper, it was best to advertise. the whole family supposedly read the evening paper together, but the morning edition was believed to reach more outsiders.3 booklets and circulars were becoming popular around the turn of the century. the 11 department of advertising .. in the optical jour­ nal noted that good paper with good text was needed for booklets, and that the paper used for circulars for direct mailing should be of better quality than the paper for circulars intended for house to house distribution. many optometrists were sending these booklets and circulars to other doctors, and to lawyers and teachers. the optical journal explained that this class of people was hardest to impress, the masses being easier to impress and easier to reach. in 1902, a four page quarterly called modern optics was pub­ lished. this magazine had articles written by optometrists about the science of optometry intended to educate the public. advertise­ ments were in the magazine sponsored by optometrists. this type of advertising at this time was said to be of the highest class ever undertaken by retail opticians.5 references 1. pancoast, f.r., optical advertising, the optical journal, vol. x, no. 2, 1902, p. 202. 2. davis, r.a. department of advertising, the optical journal, vol. x, no. 3, 1902, p. 354. 3. davis, r.a., department of advertising, the optical jour­ nal, vol. x, no. 5, 1902, p. 586. 4. davis, r.a., department of advertising, the optical journal vol. x, no. 6, 1902, p. 744. 5. high class retail advertising, the optical journal, vol. x no. 6, 1902, p. 779-780. -43the 1920..~fess bill: (the following is a letter to the optometric historical society from dwayne d. young, a member of the class of 1980 of the indiana university school of optometry) i am writing this letter about an issue that occurred in 1920, early in organized optometry's history. this event is not of interest because of its uniqueness, but rather because it is typical of many problems that optometry has faced, and, i feel safe to say, will face again. this "crisis" involved an external threat to optometry. this perceived threat was the so-called fess physical education bill. house bill hr 12652, senate bill 3950, was submitted by congressman fess of ohio and senator capper of washington. the purpose of tbe bill was to upgrade and encourage the physical education of the nation's youth and to provide for the detection of physical diseases and abnormalities. the need for this was felt from the experience from world war i, when so many young men were unable to meet the armed forces physical requirements. the means of accomplishing this purpose was to be financed by appropriating from the national treasury one dollar for each child aged 6-18 years in the nation. the money was to be used for physical education instructors, in­ struction, and equipment, as well as for examination of the children. thus far, the bill seemed quite noble in its purpose, with which no good citizen would disagree. the threat came from the manner in which the bill was to be adminis­ tered. the provisions of the bill were to be jointly administered in the bureau of education by a newly formed subdepartment of physical education along with the surgeon general's office of the us public health service by a newly created assistant surgeon's office. the federal officials were to cooperate with the state education authorities and state health boards, along with the local education authorities and local health boards in implementing the programs of the bill. the bill, in referring to the "medical examination .. , specifically re­ ferred to "school nurses" and "medical examiners ... this was what most upset the optometrists. the optometrists had not had good experiences with school nurses, who generally made a point of trying to send the children to oculists, the medical practitioners, and not to the optometrists. the optometrists felt sure these "medical examiners" would counsel the child and his parents so as to help themselves or their medical brethren. it is important to get a persp~ctive of optometry in 1920. the pro­ fession was legally quite young. it had fought hard to get legislative status, in fact the profession was still not legislatively recognized in two states and had won the milestone baker case in texas only the year be­ fore. the fess bill was viewed, therefore, as an insidious attempt ~y the medical profession to gain a monopoly on the treatment of the nation s youth. you may be wondering what is my source of information about this bill -44and optometry's response. the source is the optical journal and review of o~tometry. a nearly complete collection of this journal is located in t e library of the school of optometry, indiana university. the opti­ cal journal and review of optometry (hereafter referred to as the journal) was a weekly publication at the time. it served as an important means of communication in the young profession. the first mention of the fess bill in the journal was in the may 27, 1920 issue. the article is written by p. scholler of hancock, michigan. the article is filled with inflammatory, exorbitant claims as to the ef­ fect of the bill. the editorial of the issue advises the reader to 11 hatch the fess educational bill". the first evidence of a response by the ameri­ can optometric association is a small item in the october 7 issue, making an urgent plea for money to help the fight against the bill. the item was written by stanley c. gray of toledo, ohio, the third vice-president of the ada. from this issue on through the end of the year the fess bill is the subject of at least one item, and often many, in each issue. the responses of the optometrists to the fess bill as appearing in the journal were of three general types. the first was a general protest of the bill, most often made by state and local societies. the other responses were to support the bill \'lith suitable amendments, and, lastly, to kill the bill. those wanting to fight to defeat the bill, among others, were mr. scholler and mr. aronsfelrl, the latter well known from texas. many state associations and local societies, especially those from the south, sup­ ported this position. the arqument to kill the bill was based on the feel­ ing the bill violated states rights, interfered with individual rights, and meddled in the family. it was called paternalistic, unamerican, autocratic, and even kaiser-like: if this measure is not defeated .•• we will be in the hands of state t1edicine, and'this is far more dan­ gerous than state religion .•• the war is over, and paternalistic, and autocratic measures should not be countenanced, whether under the heading of religion, finance, medicine, or education.! this group also had some extremists who grossly exaggerated the effect and purpose of the law, using the most inflated rhetoric: my closing prayer to our chosen leaders is: "lead us not into temptation to compromise on the fess or any other similar bill, but to deliver us, our children, and our children's children from the evils of a medical and any other kind of paternalistic, autocratic or bureaucratic government, and to you shall be given theirthanks, praise and glory by every liberty-loving citizen of our beloved country for ever and ever. amen!" -45may the 11 red, hhite, and blue 11 continue to float and waft in heaven-born breezes as the true emblem of freedom. and now, everybody, and all together, 11 kill the fess bil1. 11 2 those who chose the moderate response of modifying the bi 11 so as to make it noninjurious to optometry were j. e. eberhardt of ohio, among other well-respected optometrists, and the legislative committee of the aoa. the official aoa response was decided at an open meeting on november 6 in col­ umbus, ohio, called by stanley gray. resolutions were drafteg and passed stating support of the fess bill with appropriate amendments. frank l mulholland of cleveland was retained as attorney to represent the associ­ ation in congress, if the bill should come up during the special session starting in december. the legislative committee was given the job of ex­ panding the resolutions and preparing the amendments. the reasons for amending the fess bill, as opposed to killing it, \'/ere that its purposes were laudable, that it would most likely be enacted in one form or another eventually, and that other non-medical health profes­ sions, such as osteopathy and dentjstry, could be expected to join in such an attempt. the committee's amendments proposed to make the fess bill in­ nocuous to optometry by putting the administration of the program entirely under the bureau of education, rep 1 ac ~ r1g the term medica 1 examiner by phys i­ cal examiner, specifying that parents have the right to decide to what prac­ titioners to send their children, and penalizing discrimination in referrals made by the school nurses and physical examiners. the amending approach seemed to be the better, because the sponsors of the bill were more likely to be sympathetic to the profession's concerns if support were promised with amendment than if threatened with the attempt to defeat the bill. the hopes for modifying the bill were increased by reply letters from congressman fess and senator capper to constituent optometrists that were published in the journal.4,5 both were willing to have the bill amended so as to injure no profession or group. in the december 30 issue of the journal a draft of the entire revised fess bill as grawn up by the aoa legislative committee and frank mulholland was printed. the revised bill kept the original purpose of the bill intact while incorporating the chan­ ges mentioned above. ~!hat was the outcome? the fess bi 11 did not even come up before the education subcommittee during the short session. it was reintroduced in the next two congresses but never got out of committee. the value of examining this 11 crisis 11 in 1920 is that it shows op­ tometry's reaction to an external threat -undoubtedly like other threats that happened before 1920 and threats extending up to today. the first part of the reaction is detection followed by sounding the alarm to the rest of the profession. this is followed by a discussion of what optometry's response should be. finally, organized optometry, the aoa, and the state and local associations, using their members and resources, formulate and implement a well thought out response. a by-product of this reaction of optometry to an external threat is the unifying of the profession. -46i hope you have found this summary of the fess bill affair to be of some interest. all the cited references are from the optical journal a and revie\·1 of optometry, vo1.46 (1920), 1_, p. 1287; 2, pp. 1588-9; 1, pp. 1515-6; i, p. 1731; i' pp. 1883-4; and~' pp. 1879-81. where does he find them! dr. james leeds sent me three of his recent old book acquisitions to look at, just because they are something different. one is titled couronne olyt1pique du travail on the outside hard 1 i nen cover together with the roman numera 1 date mct~xxxv ii and the en­ graved gold impression of the face of the medal, la couronne olympioue du travail, awarded to john hamer sutcliffe in june 1937. the 81 page extensively assembled volume, compiled by c. s. flick, and published by the jaunt council of qualified opticians, is elegantly illustrated \ojith numerous photographs and dignified artv1ork. in addition to many biographical details about the recipient of the coveted cro\atn there are chapters on the history of the international optical league and of the belgian and french optical associations plus numerous hits of information about contemporary institutions. another is a 48 page pamphlet entitled the seventeenth annual re­ port of the manhattan eye and ear hospital hith throat and nervous departr1ents, 1886. included is an etched illustration of the five­ story hospital and a statement that "the hospital is designed for the indigent only, all others are excluded ... " for the 12 months of the report 9,134 patients representing 34 nationalities made 54,246 visits. types of eye affectations are classified, and names of donors of cash and articles are listed. among the more than 100 donated articles are such gifts as 7 pairs spectacles, 1 barrel of pears, 4 turkeys, 6 flan­ nel skirts, 2 dozen glasses of jelly, 1 bottle of jamaica rum and sugar, and 6 washers for faucets. the third is a hardbound 112 page volume entitled transactions of an optical convention marking the fiftieth anniversary of the first examination in visual optics by the horshipful c0t-1pany of spectacle hakers, 3rd and 4th november, 1948. it happens to be a complimentary copy once owned by the late c.s. flick, as indicated by his ink-stamped name and address and the legend on a pasted-in insert. the calibre of the meeting is well documented by the therein published lectures of sir hilliam champness, a. j. philpot, vi. swaine, .fl.. g. bennett, lord charn­ wood, h. d. wright, 11. c. cinstead, c. s. flick, h. hartridge, and h. s. stiles. one can wonder indeed whether we have added to the prestige of our profession during the subsequent few decades. -47the meaning of the adjective 11 blind 11 : t~y webster's 3rd new international unabridged dictionary identifies the derivation of the word 11 blind 11 through ~1iddle english, old english, nld high german, old norse, and gothic. etymologically it shares its origin vdth 11 blend'', meaning to mix. hebster's lists more than a dozen variations of meaning ranging in a visual sense from thp presently familiar 11 lackino the sense of sight 11 and 11 not having the faculty of dis'cernment 11 to its more archaic connotations of 11 lacking in sight or briqhtness 11 , 11 dark11 , 11 unl iqhted 11 , 11 dul1 11 , 11 lacking in lustre11 , and 11 0bscure11 • the equivalent, and in fact identical, german word 11 hlind 11 , pronounced blint, is translated in the ne1<1 cassell's german r)ictionary as 11 blind; false, sham; hidden; dim, tarnished, dull; blank; without judgment; daz­ zled. ii it is quite tempting to suspect that the ohoneme 11 b1 11 has a primordial onomatopoeic origin as vjell, as may he sugf}ested hy such farnil iar expressions as blurb, blab, blithering, and blah, all of which connote confusion, mix­ ture, and indistinctness, not necessarily a total sensory loss. in only an extreme sense does the adjective 11 bl ind" pertain exclusively to sightlessness or complete absence of any trace of vision. this explains why we resort to such expressions as stone-blind, totally hlind, and complete­ ly blind, for if blindness meant only the absence of any trace of vision these expressions would be inherently redundant. nn the contrarv \'le even have a number of classic terms like form blind, colorblind, night blind, day blind, and snow blind, vjhich identify categorical anomalies of visual capabilities in no sense complete losses of vision. further we employ rather conveniently definable and readily understood phrases like legal blindness, vocational blindness, economic blindness, and educational blindness, which suggest that for a variety of purposes visual capabilities which are markedly less than typical, average, or normal are not necessarily impairments or handicaps. in short, it is difficult to find a simpler and less unambiguous adjec­ tive or phrase which categorically and imprejudicially includes all levels and kinds of variances of visual capability from broadly accepted norms than the mi 11 eni ally persistent woi·d 11 b 1 in d. 11 earliest accreditation? a directory of 11 reputable nptical colleges 11 ""as published in the feb­ ruary 15, 1899, issue of the nptical journal supplement ( a magazine for students), vol. 5, no. 2, paqe 63. this serial publication was issued as volume 5 of the optical journal during the same year that the optical journal itself \</as numbered volume 6, to follow volume 4 of 189fl listed were 18 schools and colleges in the united states and t\-10 in canada. the 18 in the united states are included in a previous list pub­ lished in the april 1977 issue of this n~1sletter, pp. 19-20. the two cana­ dian schools were the optical institute of canada with dr. ~'. e. hamill in -4ncharge, and the canadian ophthalmic college, both in toronto. no criteria v1ere stated, nor was the authority for determininq their reputability identified. presumably the editor of the journal assumed full responsibility for this advice. optometric hara-kiri: in his report frof·1 jp,p/\n submitted to the international optometric and optical l:eague in t·~arch 1979, fumio r~orie, o.d., president of the japanese optometric association, gives his account of certain historical events and circumstances pertaining to the present status of optometry in japan, briefly as follows. 60 years ago baron shinpei goto, then ~-"inister for internal affairs in japan, made a visit to the united states where he learned 11 that there were optometric doctors other than ophthalmologists ... lie himself was examined by an optometrist and t·jas 11 amazed at the hiqh level .. of comne­ tence. he felt strongly the nped to introduce this profession to janan so he preva i 1 ed upon dr. ~lori zo nga\•ta to 1 eave the states and return to japan to open an optometry office in tokyo. (1\pparently nqawa tl/as horn in japan and studied optometry in the united states.) immediately the japanese ophthalmoloqical association opposed the new practice on the grounds that there existed no requlatorv provisions for optometry in japan. at first dr. oga\1/a considered returnino to the u.s.a. but he finally decided to remain and 90 into practice in associ­ ation \'lith a medical doctor. for almost a half century, 11 until five years before his death, .. he practiced optometry in this settin~ serving a good many very prominent persons in education, politics, business, anrl. the arts. his last optometric patient \'las the former prime mnister hayato ikeda. dr. marie continues, 11 the pince-nez 1t1orn by baron shinpei ~oto be­ came the symbo 1 of baron go to, and the same shape of the eyeglasses of the baron was called shinpei-glasses. it was in almost the same era that the glasses \·jorn by the actor harold lloyd were called llfwd­ glasses ... (i doubt that japanese would, or could, \1/ear oince-nez or that a japanese prime minister •·muld he titled baron. i suspect both of these choices of words to be spurious translations.) in 1926 dr. daniel desmond, an ftmerican optometrist, came to jaoan and gave a one-month course of lectures on optometry in nsaka. ahout 200 japanese opticians attended his lectures and ~ere amazed at the high level of optometry in .1\merica. they became very a\ftare of the np~d to establish the profession in japan. l!hen l)r. desmond left hp. chal­ lenged his audience to develop a viable ootometry profession in janan within 30 years. his challenoe was not met. in about 1931 r1r. kenichi l\sami enrolled in and rtraduated from the \>jell-known ophthalmic optical school in jena, germany (noltj fast c";err.~any). upon returning to japan he started practicinq optometry at ginza, tokyo, -49where he, like dr. ogawa, met with bitter ophthalmological opposition forcing his closure. he then moved to chiba, japan, and began practicing there, where he again met with opposition. then, 11 being disappointed he lost his health and regrettably passed away ... or. morie adds, 11 at my last meeting with him, he left his words to me representing his severe bitter feelings against the japan ophthalmologists' association. his words are still ringing in my ears. he must be still mortifying, under the ground, the fact that his ideas to serve people of the nation with the theory and technique which he learned \'las destroyed in cold blood ... the committee on vision: the national research council committee on vision, an instrument of the national academy of sciences, was first constituted in the early part of 1944 as the army-navy-osrd vision committee in response to national defense requirements for advice to the armed forces in areas of visual science. the osrd was the office of scientific research and development. the committee's recognized wartime usefulness in the coordination of basic science efforts with the needs of government agencies resulted in its con­ tinuation and sevelopment to its present status. at present the committee on vision is sponsored by the departments of the army, navy, and air force, and five agencies: the federal aviation administration (faa), the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa}, the national eye institute (nei), the national science foundation (nsf}, and the united states postal service (usps}. each of these p~esently contributes a fixed sum per year through a contract administered by the office of naval research (onr}. agencies also contract with the national academy of sciences for specific projects under the auspices of the committee. the committee's parent organization, the national research council (nrc), is the principal operating arm of the corporate institution, often known simply as 11 the academy .. , that includes the national lkademy of sciences, the national academy of engineering, and the institute of medicine. the origin of this complex '"'as an act of congress in 1863 incorporating the national academy of sciences as a private body to concern itself with science and technology and to advise federal agencies upon reouest. the national research council was created in 1916 to serve as the opera­ ting instrument of the academy. it has eight major operating elements, one of which is the assembly of behavioral an~ social sciences within which the committee on vision is a unit. please do not ask me to clarify this. i derived the above painstakingly from an undated 23 x 10 em, eight page pamphlet entitled .. committee on vision .. which i received in april, 1979, as an invitee to a symposium sponsored by the committee. throughout the years optometrists of academic, research, governmental, military, and clinical practice affiliation have variously been included on the committee as members, associates, and correspondents. -50about ~1ach: ernst haldfried joseph henzel ~1ach, 1838-1916, v.,ras born in chirlitz, moravia (now czechoslovakia). his physics and metaphysics became a recurrent influence on every turn-of the-century scholar from vladimir lenin to albert einstein. though he was profession­ ally a physicist, much of his work centered on the peculiarity in visual perception now knovm to us as ~1ach bands. his appointments variously included professorships in mathematics, physics, and philosophy, and for some time he served as rector of the universi­ ty of prague. these and many more biographical tidbits are included in an article entitled "sensation, shock \11aves, ancl ~ach" by steven janke in the march, 1978, issue number 34 of better teaching hy design, a newsletter published by pasco scientific. noted in passing: t\'10 articles of historical nature appeared in successive is­ sues of the journal of the american optometric association while i v.,ras out of the country in 1975 and were therefore overlooked by me until now. in the august issue, vo •. 46, no. 8, pages 831-834, t·1r. o.r.m. sebag-t·1ontefiore wrote quite authoritatively on "the development of the training and qualification of the nritish op­ tician." in the september issue, vol. 46, no. 9, pages 900-904, five third-year students at the southern co 11 ege of optometry, raes­ demoiselles rosalind overton, billie parks, becky rodgers, nonna rodgers, and deborah halter, co-authored "reginald c. auqustine: apostle of optometry." they listed 24 references. augustine, 1873-1924, was the president of the american ~pta­ metric association from 1919 to 1921. the article includes a areat deal of personal information about him but, as in so many other men­ tions of him, his middle name is not divulqed. intriguing. early honorary aoa members: mr. frederick boger, editor of the optical journal, appears to have been the first person to be named an honorary member of the ameri­ can association of opticians, the founding name of the american opto­ metric association. this was in 1910. that the honor was not without substance is indicated by the inclusion of a $100 check in apprecia~ tion of his past services (the e~uivalent of the combined annual dues of 50 members ! ) others v1ho v1ere named honorary members prior to 1916 included charles f. prentice, earl j. brown, frederick a. wall, and auaustus a. downing. i f l l l i l -51these bits of information 1:1ere uncovered in old journals in which minutes of meetings were published. this search was undertaken in recent months under the direction of the aoa judicial council as part of an as­ signment to review all prior policy declarations of the aoa. other early aoa actions: the same search uncovered some interestino expressions of optometric concern and policy prior to 1916, examples of 1~hich follm'l: 1903: ..... that it be recommended that such steps he taken throuqh our different boards that will disseminate this subject in all its details as we have discussed it through our optical journals and that also an effort be made to have our various optical puhlications carry prominently in some part of their publications a fac simile of opto-r~etrist with the definition under it and supply the electro plates to the opticians of the countrv at a price which will be a fair nrice to the opticians and yet will cover the ex­ pense of same. 11 1904: 11 the definition of 1 0ptonetrist 1 is '0ne skillec:i in the practice of physiolo!)ical optometry'". 1907 "resolved, that as the legitimate practice of optometry is beino gradually encroached upon by unscrupulous and incompetent persons hold ina fraudulent diplomas issued by disreputable correspondence schools, and the public wronged and injured by incompetent and unsatisfactory service, and the profession is injured and "hhereas, certain trade papers, knm-1ingly or unknm·linf)ly, and certain disreputable persons conducting such schools, by publishing their advertise­ ~ents; therefore, be it "resolved, .•• that we deplore this state of affairs, and appeal to the legislatures of the several states to enact such legislation as shall put a stop to the methods enployed by disreputable schools, and that \'/e further appeal to all optical trade papers to stop advertisinq such schools •.• " 1907: "be it resolved, that it is the sense of the a.a.o, that its members shoula not use the title 'doctor' unless they have obtained that degree from some recognized medical college". 1911: "resolved, it is the opinion of this association that medical societies would do themselves much greater credit by encouraginq columbia and other enterprising universities in their efforts for the advancement of science rather than by belittlinq these efforts through giving any fur­ ther publicity to the notoriously false claim that 'the practice of optometry is the practice of medicine.' .. 1915: "hhereas, r~any optical publications contain advertisements -52quoting specific prices vvhi ch may cause unnecessary annoyance to the optometrist in relation to his patrons; 11 resolved, that it is hereby recol!1fllended that this practice be discontinued. 11 ophthalmic opticians memorialized: the harrv t~arton l ibrarv has been created in the department of ophthalmic optics of the university of ~ 1anchester institute of science and technology (umist). the j. stephen dawson f1emori a 1 l\\·ja rds have been estab 1 i shed at the london refraction hospital. sutcliffe and the boa museum: --flargaret t·~itchell, the first honorary mer1ber of the nntometric historical society, has authored a report in a series intitled 11 the boa f1useum: its origin and development. 11 in the jl.ugust 29, 1975, issue of the optician, vol. 170, number 4397, pages 4, 6, and 7. she takes none of the credit for her m•m career-lonq years of 1 ibrarv and museum service to the goa (british optical assoc~a~ion). instead~ she attri­ butes the splendid grovtth of the institution largely to the persistent efforts and drive of j. h. sutcliffe, founder of the collection. then in a subseouent issue of the saplp volume, no. 4399, spptemher 12, pages 33-34, she describes in part ii some of the museum's hi~h­ lighted acquisitions. illustrated is the carved statuette of st. nctila from 15th century t,ermany, vjho •,.jas born h 1 inrl in 650 and becamp the ne1tron saint who gave protection against eye ciisease, and 1·1hose name-sake was the roman catholic optical guild of st. odila. part iii appears in the sentember 26 issue, no. ~-4~"1, ram~s 33 anrl 35, dealing especially with some amusing curios such as, for example, the 11 jealousy" spyglass, miniature spectacles for dolls, anrl a soectacle frame hewn out of toothbrush handles by an entomologist in a jananese prisoner-of-war camp. einstein on liqht: this being the centennial year of alberteinstein's birth, articles about him have been appearing in a great variety of science journals. perhaps the one closest to optometric interest is that which appeared in the i·jinter 1979 issue of qptics r!ews, vol. 5, no. 1, pages 24-39, by emil wolf. the title is 11 einstein's r.esearches on the nature of liqht." nr. half includes theories, researches, and photographs of numerous other opticists as well, in order to fit einstein's role into proper perspective. -53nore on g. h. giles ---11 the george giles story. outline of a remarkable career•• by claude lyons appears in the october 4, 1975, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 15, no. 19, pages 859-863, 868-870, and 874-875. supplementary reminiscent comments by six other close associates of giles follow on pages 875-880. candid photographs of george in action, recollections of some of his quips and philosophical gems, and personal accounts of many of his accomplishments make this a touching revie\'1 of his life only 10 years after his untimely death. the thousand or more american optometrists nho became acouainted with r1r. giles during his whirlwind tour of american optometry schools and colleges in 1954 would find much nostalgia in this article. local society history: the ~1idland optical society, representing the ophthalmic opticians of the central counties of england, the midlands, mainly birminqham and vicinity, v1as formed in the first decade of this century. the various society secretaries over the years recorded and maintained detailed in­ formation in the minutes book. roberts s. green has reviewed these min­ utes in an article entitled 11 t1idland flptics, with special reference to birmingham and district .. in the august 9, 1975, issue of ophthalmic optician, vol. 15, no. 16, pp. 733-734. a special historical value of local society minutes is their inclu­ sion of details and issues very unlikely to be considered in the larger policy-making organizations. such information, often very personalized and individualized, can permit greater understanding of the events and actions of the time in the same way that we can appreciate a tasty dish better if we know its ingredients. history of color description: ..... philologers have found out that, in their early stages of devel­ opment, all languages have a dearth of color names, .. said navid l. ~1acadam in his talk given in response to receiving the frederic ives medal from the optical society of ,l\.merica in 1974. he also suggested that the first color name occurs in chapter 25 of genesis, where esau is reported to have been born all red and hairy, and that blue, purple, and scarlet are first mentioned in exodus 26:30. (in my jerusalem bible, edited by alexander jones, purple, violet, red, and crimson are the colors mentioned in the cited passages.) r·1cadam's paper then takes us through the use of color terms and formu­ lations by homer, aristotle, et al, right up to herbert ives, son of fred­ eric and donor of the medal, who also did significant color research in the thirties. the talk was published in the f·1ay, 1975, issue of the journal of the optical society of america, vol. 65, no. 5, pp. 483-493, under the title of 11 color essays. 11 -54public health optometry in australia: australian optometrists became officially concerned with the pos­ sible influence of national health insurance legislation on their pro­ fession more than 50 years ago. brian layland describes developments, controversies, and manifestations of optometric interest during the half century in a detailed article entitled "optometry and national health" in the november 1975 issue of the /\ustralian journal of noto­ metry, vol. 58, no. 11, pp. 402-408. t\·lo organizations are mentioned frequently, one the ft.oa, v1hich is of course the australian optometrical association, and the other the bf'1a, obviously a medical association, but what does the "b" stand for? about turvi 11 e: professor g. v. ball of the university of aston, birmingham, remi­ nisces about the late t·1r. turville in "a. e. turville remembered" in the july 11, 1975, issue of the optician, vol. 170, ~!o. 4390, pages 31-32. he recalls their cooperation in the '30s to provide vision screeninq of freshmen at the university and their many discussions of the use of the "infinity balance" and other ingenious techniques as oarts of the test procedure. eleven supporting references are listed. tribute to feinbloom: "hilliam feinhloom: pioneer in plastic contacts" is a ':jell earned accolade by henry knoll in the jl.ugust 1977 issue of contact lens forum, vol. 2, no. 8, pp. 29 and 31-32. evaluations of the role feinbloorn was playing by such early contemporaries as th~ late carel koch and .james p. c. southall are included. t1uch of his oersonal character is rev~:~aled by this rather brief account. a toast to dear old maine: if my memory is correct it was harry pine who said that 1.·1hen opto­ metry is injured in t·1aine it bleeds in california. l!ell, the ~~aine optometric association has survived its injuries ouite well, for in 1976 it celebrated its 75th anniversary. it v1as on the last day of 1900, dec. 31, that a \1/arrant was issued to a justice of the peace whereby a meeting could be called for the purpose of organizing the maine association of opticians early in 1901. ten years later, on ~1arch 22, 1911, the organization renamed itself the t1aine association of optometrists. it assumed its present name on january 14, 1946. these and other details are reported anonymously as the "1'istory of the ~1aine optometric association" in the january 1976 issue of the nev1 england journal of optometry, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 12-13. -55a brief visual science chronology: a different way to make a point is undertaken hy r. e. tina of vienna in an article entitled "zeittafel der sehlehre" (a chronology of visual science) in the december 10, 1978 issue, of neues optikerjournal, vol. 20, no. 12, pages 17-19 & 21. !le lists in their order of occurrence 44 inventions, developments, discoveries, and contributions in visual science beqinning with helmholtz's ophthalmoscooe in 1850 and concluding vlith r~eynert • s study of the morpholoij.y of the visual cortex in 1868. each of the 44 entries is summarized in a sentence or a paraqraoh or so, as if to assume that the reader is already reasonably familiar with the scientific fact but might not know its place on a time scale. the effect is moderately startling, almost suqqestinq that the invention of the ophthalmoscope itself was the conception of an explosive era in visual science. wells a rebel? yes and no: --at the age of 18, in 1775, hilliam charles hells sailed from south carolina, his place of birth, to england, because he would not subscribe to the colonial movement that led to the har of independence. yet his whole personal life seemed to be a series of passionate and violent events fitting his impatient and impetuous nature. he acquired a medical education, but he is chiefly remembered for his 1792 publication of his essay on vision. t~any personal details about the man are fascinatingly described hy simon behrman in an article entitled, "hilliam charles hells, 1757-1817" in the february 1976 issue of the british journal of ophthalmolooy, vol. 60, no. 2, pages 79-83. gonioscopy and library tracer elements: starting with the etymology of the word oonioscopy and the mention of two clinical events that rendered it "an everyday office examination", a. dellaporta, m.d., then credits alexios trantas with the first examination of the angle of the anterior chamber in the living eye in 1899 in an article entitled "historical notes on gonioscopy" in the septeml:>er-flctober, 1975, issue of survey qf ophthalmology, vol. 20, ~!o. 2, paqes 137-149. the article is supported by 118 references, numerous illustrations, and interesting bio­ graphical commentary. an interesting sidelight to the author's search for biographical clues was his tracing of the bibliophilic adventures of one of his subjects, dr. otto barkan, through the cards attached to the inside hack covers of lane stanford library books on which were the dates and signatures of the persons who had checked them out! "father of american ophthalmology": such is the accolade given george frick, t·td., 1793-1870, who \'jrote the -56book entitled 11 a treatise on the.disease of the eye; includinq the doctrines and practice of the most eminent modern surgeons, and par­ ticularly those of professor beer, .. published in raltimore in 1823. the book is reviewed by james s. kelley, r1.d. in the january­ february 1975 issue of survey of ophthalmolog~, vol. 19, no. 4, pages 255-~60, under the title 11 a treatise on the d1seases of the eye: first amer1can ophthalmic textbook (1823) 11 of drs. hermann and arnold knapp: 11 the hermann knapp r·1enorial eye hospital .. is the title of an article by gordon m. bruce, m.d., in the january-february 1975 issue of survey jrf ophthalmology, vol. 19, no. 4, pages 240-247. dr. herman knapp died in 1907 and was succeeded by his son arnold as director of the new york ophthalmic and aural institute which later was renamed the hermann knapp memorial eye hospital. ~1uch of the article is a deliqhtfully reminiscent account of the related exper1ences of the author and of other persons who knew either or both of the knapps. the worshipful company of spectacle makers: this is the title of an historical article by colin j. eldridge in the april 1979 issue of the journal of the american optometric associ­ ation, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 481-483 and 485-487. the trio from jena: 11 wie kamder 'dreiklang zeiss-abbe-schott' in jena zustande? 11 (how the zeiss-abbe-schott triad of jena came about) is the title of an article by an anonymous colleague in east germany which apreared in neues optikerjournal, vol. 20, no. 11, november 10, 1978, pages 33, 35 and 36. it consists primarily of illustrated biographical accounts of dr. h. c. carl zeiss, ernst abbe, and dr. otto schott. 90 years of tonometry: oftal'mologicheskii zhurnal has an article in russian by m.e. vurgaft on (translated) the 90-year usage of applanation tonometry after t1aklakov, vol. 29, no. 8, 1974, pp. 620-622. the reference is listed by the visual science information center, 2155 hehster, san francisco, california 94115. if an ohs member, or any other volunteer, can read russian and give even a brief review of this article, the rest of us 1-'lill appreci­ ate it indeed. h. w. hofstetter, editor 1979-10-03-001 1979-10-03-002 1979-10-03-003 1979-10-03-004 1979-10-03-005 1979-10-03-006 1979-10-03-007 1979-10-03-008 1979-10-03-009 1979-10-03-010 1979-10-03-011 1979-10-03-012 1979-10-03-013 1979-10-03-014 1979-10-03-015 1979-10-03-016 1979-10-03-017 1979-10-03-018 1979-10-03-019 1979-10-03-020 volume 19 /) .. ---..... /jl:.j/ v/ / optometry librarv l!dfc!l)' newsletter ................................. o·p··the may 3 1 1989 ~gptometric historical soq~~~y /(243 north lindbergh boulevalftfi!iuiij:fll('fty st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) july 1988 number 3 nothing new under the sun: reading my comments on the green flash on pages 69-70 of the october issue, jon darius of the national museum of science and industry, london, called my attention to a 1958 book by d. j. k. 0' connell, s. j. , of the vatican observatory entitled "the green flash and other low sun phenomena". a bit abashedly i then discovered a complete photocopy of the 200 page volume in our own optometry library less than a one minute walk down two floors from my own office on the university campus. furthermore, an original copy is in the physics and astronomy library only two blocks away. the book is replete with photographs, 80 in color, of the green rim, the red rim, sunrise, sunset, the setting moon, a setting planet, and experimental variations of photographic techniques. a four-page history of prior observations and research starts with the archaeological evidence and references to the green color of the rising sun in ancient egyptian writings as indicative of the egyptians' early familiarity with the green flash so easily seen in the clear skies of egypt. the bibliography lists 313 references, excluding about 200 previously listed by other major writers on the topic but not cited here, or which merely mentioned observation of the green flash without helpful details. h.w h. the views of cotton mather (1663-1728): the early eighteenth century 410 page manuscript entitled "the angel of bethesda" by cotton mather seems to be the only large inclusive medical work of the entire american colonial period. long forgotten in the archives of the american antiquariam society, the manuscript was not published until 1972 by the society itself under mather's originally proposed title and the editorship of gordon w. jones, m.d. 28 '' ' . the reverend cotton mather was a brilliant member of a prominent boston family of several prolific authors. he was an intensely religio~s _and widely read person with a pronounced interest in science, which he helped to popularize in his extensive writings. though many clergymen of his time served also as physicians, mather, despite his great medical interest, did not practice any medicine. to the annoyance of some of the physicians, however, he often tried to influence the type of treatment that a doctor gave. the identity of bethesda in the title of the manuscript is certainly based on the biblical account (john 5, 2-5) of the angel who from time to time would come down and disturb the water in the pool at the bethesda building in jerusalem. the first of the waiting crowds of sick people to enter the disturbed water would then be cured of whatever ailment he or she had. one of the 66 capsulae or chapters, no. xxxii, is entitled the oculist. with the permission of the american antiquarian society it is totally reproduced here from its 1972 book, as follows: cap. xxxii. the oculist. considering, diseases of the eye, especially, blindness. the eye! an astonishing o,·gan.' can any thing in the vvorld be shown so curious? our excellent ray 1 verv trulv sais, sot the least cun'osity can be added unto it.' v\lhat a· just remark do all examiners of this o,·gan, as well as our derham.~ unavoidablv and immediately make upon it. l\"one less than an infinite god .could contrive and order and p1·ovide such a thing.' sturmiui could not imagine it possible for any y[an who survey'd the eye, to abandon himself unto speculative .dtheism. tis a most :equal sentence passed by dr cheine/ he ce1·tainly dese1·ves not to enjoy the blessings of his ey-sight, 'u'hose 11-find is so depraved, as not to ackno•u:ledge the bounty and 'lf?isdome of the .iuthor of his .yature, in the ravishing structu1·e of this noble organ. tis impossible for me to go any further without entreating my reader to join with me, that we may together lift up our eyes unto our god, with our acknowledgments. 0 thou glorious ~\faker of the eye: with 'u•hat astonishments is th~l po'u·er and wisdome and goodness to be adored/ certainly the god that made the eye must himself see me, and all the works of his hands. oh/ j.vlay i always behave myself as having his eye upon me/ the diseases whereto this tender organ is obnoxious, are, how many 1 and some of them, how very grievous/ you that have your eyes continued unto you, easy, and lively, be humbly thankful to the glorious god, and thankfully admire his mercy and his patience. and while you deprecate and escape a diseased eye, be sure as much to deprecate and avoid the 11-foral 29 156 the angel of bethesda diseases of the eye. reckon an envious eye, to be one that has the chrystallin humour in it, poisoned. reckon an haughty eye, to be a distorted one. reckon an unchast eye to be an inflamed one. an eye that covets what it sees, reckon that it has dirt thrown into it. an aim at low and base ends in what we do is a squinting eye. be studious of a pittiful eye, that shall affect your heart when miser­ able objects are before you; a bountiful eye, that shall be on the look-out for objects which you may do good unto. employ your eye on the book which will feed it well. have your eye in the season of it, on a christ at his table, evidently sett forth as crucified be­ fore it there. above all, make it your study to reach unto that attain­ ment; my eyes are ever towards the lord. but if you find any distempers beginning to fall into your eyes, now look bachcard, and with a son·owful reflection, mourn for the m o1·al diseases of the eye, which you may find yourself to have been guilty of. yea, the sins of the eye have been so many, that if our eye were a fountain of tears, and if rivers of lf7 ater should 1·un down our eyes, all were too little to bewayl them. here the first sin came in, she saw ;-and then !-alas, the rest. how many, and how heinous are the faults, \vhich the lust of the eye does involve us in! l\1an, lett thy distempe1·ed eyes lead thee to the bewayling of them. lo1·d, hou.: much have my eyes been the po1·tholes of lf7icked­ ness! how often has death gott into my soul by these windows/ man is furnished \vith tem·s above any animal. and many dis­ tempers of the eyes, are attended \vith, and productive of, an im­ moderate flowing of them. the occasion which our sins have given for our weeping bitte1·ly, are now to come into contemplation and operation with us. it was an ancient problem, cur deus oculos fletus esse lnstmmentum voluit? and the answer to it, was; ut quo sordes peccatorum hauriuntur, eodem per lacrymas deluantur. why must our eyes be a spring for our tears? the sins which de­ file us enter there. the tea1·s of repentance, which are of use in washing away the defilements, are properly to be expected there. i remember, tympius5 has an odd qurestion; why the eyes are the last things that are quickened with us, and the first things that are decayed? it is answered, ut quo majus est ipsorum periculum. eo minus sit nocendi spacium. it seems, our danger of hurt from our eyes, being so great, the time for them to do it, must be the less. my friend, it will be well, if distempers falling into thy eyes, may 30 the oculist i 57 pr::eserve thee, from the hurt, which those inletts of sin often bring in to the sinful children of men. there was a famous dispute before king alphonsus,s on that problem, what was the best thing to sharpen the sight. an humoursome gentleman maintained it, for envy. to employ, or to suffer, such a sharp sight, reader, thou wilt not be ambitious of it. spectacles !'-mankind is prodigiously inexcusable in that the n arne of the first inventor is entirely lost: that statues of corinthian brass8 have not immortalized it.-but indeed, it is fitt that none but the glorious god, should be considered in the grant of so vast a benefit. lord! what would have generally become of us after fifty (and many of us before!) if such glasses of a modern inven­ tion had not supplied our necessities? christian, very often, when thou art going to putt on thy spectacles (or use thy hand-glasses) lift up thine eyes unto the glorious god, and lett thy heart form some acknowledgement of this importance; great god, for this blessing to the world, i give thanks unto thee! or, 0 saviour of men, how graciously hast thou favou1·ed us. § pr::eservatives of the eyesight. § have you never seen a very common plant, call'd, eye­ b,·ight?0 it forever sais to the eye that looks upon it; make use of me, and i ~u:ill do thee good and not hurt, all the days of thy life. a plain eye-bright vvater constantly or frequently used, will continue to the eye-sight a brightness to be wondered at! inwardly, an eye-bright tea, has efficacy. man/ius was by a dream directed unto the use of eybright for a defluxion on his eyes, and found a cure by it. ~ask now the fouls 10 of the air, and they shall tell thee. the swallows will carry thee to the celandine. 11 feeble eyes, will not find a greater friend, in the whole vegetable kingdom. drop the juice of it into the eyes. it may be diluted with fair-water. 12 §a lye, made of the, vine-branches, has been by some counted the most noble and potent eye-water in the world. §take a little coperas13 and bole-armenicp4 finely powdered, and putt it into a convenient quantity of water. (if the mixture be too sharp for the eyes, increase the quantity of the water.) tis a notable eye-water. it preserves and strengthens the sight, unto ad­ miration. §take eye-bright, three drams; mace, 15 one dram; and make a fine powder. § m ontagnana16 sais, "i have seen decrepit old men, almost 31 rs8 the angel of bethesda blind1 which have been restored unto their entire sight, by the help of this powder." take half a spoonful before meals, in a glass of sack. §raw oystet·s eaten three or four every morning for some time, have a strange vertue, to restore an impaired eysight. some struck stone-blind, with the lightening have been strangely recov­ ered by this remedy. §this powder has done great cures, in dimness of sight, and rheums17 in the eyes. take powder of eye-bright, one ounce: fennel-seed18 in pow­ der, half an ounce: double-refined sugar, two ounces. these po\v­ ders1 well sifted, are to be mixed: (and kept in a dry place) are to be taken, as much as may ly on a shilling, as often as you please. §sir william temple 19 sais, betony often putt up the nostrils, has pneserved the eyes, to a great age. §a syrup of b etony-lf ater, and honey/ a spoonful taken two or three times a day, is a mighty strengthener of the ey-sight. § some very decay'd and aged eyes, have been strangely re­ covered, '''ith fenne!-wate1·. the internal use of the fennel at the same time, has added unto the efficacy of the colly1·ium.~0 § even cataracts in the eye have been cured, by the internal use of millipedes. § here's a famous eye-u•ate1·. my lady fitz-hardings.~1 take three spoonfuls of white rose jf7 ate1·/ as much eye-bright \vater; and as much sifted white sugar-candy, as may ly upon a three­ pence; and the same quantity of fine aloes sifted, and putt to the \vater, and shake them together. a few drops of this, at going to bed. § sometimes, a distemper of sore e'yes, even with painful and grievous inflammations, comes upon people; yea, becomes a little epidemical; or at least so, that very many together are troubled with it. in this case, there are several poultis's, which being applied unto the eyes, have had notable successes. a poultis of white-bread and m-ilk is one of them. a poultis of white-beans and milk, is another of them. a poultis, of a rotten apple is another. blisters drawn in the nape of the neck, have been of good consequence. but the best thing that i know, is a lotion, of saccharum sa­ turni/2 three or four grains, dissolved in an ounce or two of rose­ water. add, powder of tutty/3 the same quantity. if the inflamma­ tion be very violent, add three or four grains of camp hire. 32 the oculz"st the sad case of total blindness. !59 very grievous is the hand of an holy and righteous god, [0 sufferer, still confess him so!] upon those among the children of men, who are making these lamentations, the light of my eyes is gone from me. and, he hath brought me into darkness and not into light. and, lord, thou hast laid me in darkness. but, my friend in the dark, thou mayst see cause to be thank­ ful for the senses that are yett left unto thee. tis a remarkable in­ stance and effect of the divine compassion unto mankind. tho many have been born blind, and many have been born deaf, yett it was never known that any one was born both of these. they must soon ~1ve perished, if they had. tho' thou canst not see, still thou canst hear, and be thankful for that! one cannot well without astonishment consider; the strange performances of some that have been totally blind,especially, when they have been so from their _yativity. or their early i nfancyl how strangely what has been defective in one sense, has been supplied in another! the glorious god in such things takes pleasure to convince us, that he is the doer of all the good that is done by the children of j.11 en, and can do by whom he pleases.' blind men have been famous preachers, vea, famous writers, in the church of god. but tho' many have do~e wondrously this way, thou iviaster william jameson/i professor of history in the renowned university of glas­ gow, hast excelled them all! this wonderful man, tho' born blind, what books has he written, in the latin as well as the english tongue: books which none but one of a vast reading ever could have written: books which discover him an uncommon critic, in the oriental, as well as the latin and guecian languages; and a most i.ntimate acquaintance with antiquities; books wherein many mis­ takes of our greatest and most gigantic literators, are with a most nice erudition refuted and corrected !-every page of this my dear friends late, spicilegia antiquitatum, gives me an am2.zement in the perusal of it. since the world began, it has not been heard that any man that was born blind has performed such things as these! tis probable the person that has these things readd unto him, does not propose any such attainments and atchievements. however, i will show unto him am ore excellent way! my friend; thou mayst come to see him who is invisible, in thy realizing apprehensions of a glorious god. 33 r6o the angel of bethesda thou mayst come to have a deep insight into the myste1-;· of christ, and those things which the angels desi1·e to look into. thou mayst come to have a true sight of thy oru:n h ea1·t, and notably discover the myste1")' of iniquity working there. thou mayst come to see, the et~idence of things not seen, in thy faith of what is in the invisible lf7orld, and of the things 'u.~hich a1·e not seen and a1·e ete1·nal. thine eyes may be so opened, as to see wond1·ous things in the law of thy god. if thou dost arrive to such a sight as this, thou mayst esteem it an abundant compensation for thy \vant of that bodily sight, which might have been abused, if thou hadst en joyed it, so as to carry thee away from the best of objects. } .. {y blind f1·iend, what are the best objects which thou hast lost the sight of? the old pe1·sian physician who commonly is quoted as an ambian, under the name of razis/"':) (tho' his true name was m ehemmed, son of zekeriah) when he ''·as grown blind with old age, would not accept the operation of a quack, who pretended and offered a cure for him; and \yhen his friends urged it, he still re­ fused it, and gave this reason for his refusal; i have seen the jrorld so long_, that i desi1·e to see no more of it/ 0 chn"stian, le!t not ? .1\1 ahometan go beyond thee, in 1\.1 o1·tijication. cice1·o reports it. eyen of his brother-pagan, democritus: that he comforted himself, under the loss of his eysight, \;vith this; that if he was not able to distin­ guish black from fp hite, yett he could readily distinguish good from et•il, right from wrong. 0 c!zt·istian, thou hast yett g1·eater consolations. and thou mayst comfortably \'\"ait for that resur1·ection from the dead, wherein thou shalt see for thyself, and thine eyes behold, thy living redeemer. 34 the superscript numbers in the reproduced text refer to dr. jones's editorial notes in another part of the book not included here. the superscript 7 at spectacles, for example, refers to the editor's comments on the prior history of spectacles. the superscript 8 in the same paragraph refers to an explanation that corinthian brass was an alloy of gold, silver, and copper. mather's comment on spectacles for those "of us after fifty" suggests that he was over 50 at the time he wrote the paragraph. this would date the authorship between 1713 and 1728. the address of the american antiquarian society, incidentally, is 185 salisbury street, worcester, massachusetts, 01609-1634, u.s. a. the book is still in print and is available from the university press of virginia. the original manuscript resides in the society's department of manuscripts. membership in the society is by election, but all qualified readers have access to the sgciety's collections whether or not they are members. southall effects preserved: the following paragraphs of a letter of may 1, 1988, describe the permanent disposition of the remaining files and shelves of office material left by the late professor james p. c. southall. the letter is from mrs. abbot (roberta) southall, daughter-in-law of the professor, to mr. michael plunkett, curator of manuscripts, alberman library, university of virginia, charlottsville, virginia. when my son, thomas southall, who is curator of photographs at the amon carter museum in fort worth, texas, was with me last week, he talked by telephone with robert hull regarding the disposition of papers left by his grandfather, james p. c. southall, who graduated from the university of virginia in 1891 with a b.a. degree (m.a. 1893) and had a distinguished career in physics, retiring from columbia university in 1940 as professor emeritus. mr. hull said we should address all correspondence to you . .. i am delighted to know that the university will serve as repository for these papers. my children and i would impose no restrictions on their use other than to request that we retain disposal rights. copies of correspondence with professor henry w hofstetter, rudy professor emeritus of optometry at indiana university, are enclosed, including his letter to mrs. maria dab lemont at the international library archives and museum of optometry, inc., in st. louis. my son talked by phone with mrs. dab lemont, who is interested in the material. we would like mrs,.~dablemont 35 and other members of the international library to have full access to these materials and to receive either the originals or copies of all scientific-related materials. mrs. dablemont is retiring from the library on june 3. after that, the person to contact will be linda draper. i also enclose a rough inventory of the materials at hand and, in lieu of biographical notes on professor southall, copy of an article prepared by professor hofstetter in 1986 for the newsletter of the optometric historical society. as my son probably told mr. hull, i am in the process of selling my house, which is why this matter has come to a head at this time. if current negotiations go through, i shall be moving early in july and shall then arrange for the movers to pack and ship the materials to you. included with the papers will be books which professor southall either wrote himself or owned and annotated. of course if you can and wish to arrange for packing and shipment at an earlier date, that would be fine. i think this arrangement is exactly as professor southall would have wanted it and i thank you so much for making it possible. "history of australian optometry": this must surely be the optometric history book of the year, if not of all time. to me it comes as something of a surprise even though i had met author charles wright eighteen years ago and learned then that he was an ardent buff of optometric history. i also learned then that he was a very scientific and scholarly optometrist, a truly artistic and productive craftsman, an expressive and perceptive admirer of the accomplishments of his fellows, one who assumed fully his perennial responsibilities as a public citizen and professional councilor, and at the same time a person who in his personal modesty could delight his colleagues with his banquet-speech humor. how could he also have the inclination and time to write this outstanding tome of 245 large double-column pages plus xxiv prefatory pages, including 46 photographs mostly of early groups (with every individual identified!)? "pure and persistent devotion" is his wife dorothy's explanation. wrapped in a jacket that colorfully illustrates a turn-of-the­ century optometrist in action, the book could well grace any library or reception room as a conversation piece as well as entice one to open it. upon opening it one finds that the reading of virtually any paragraph.at random is as fascinating as a letter 36 from home. the author, charles wright, writes in first person and about people whose efforts and doings bore upon the events and trends of australian optometry, especially during the last 100 years. his discourse comfortably utilizes his direct personal acquaintance with so many of the mentioned historical personnel as well as conversations with older optometrists, including his own father, who could be induced to reminisce about their predecessors. further, through the~accumulated correspondence in his own and his ·father's files and the archives of the national library of the australian optometrical association he was able to document the chronology and tone of each reported skirmish, maneuver, progressive movement, or setback. though certainly biased by the fact that he himself is an optometrist and that his resources were mainly optometric, the author clearly exercises intense objectivity in his perceptions and even alerts his readers to comments that may be a bit partisan. except for parts of the first two of 27 chapters this is not a history book that merely rewrites other history books. these two brief chapters are entitled "our forerunners" and "forerunners of australian ophthalmology" and deal primarily with a few significant events in the united kingdom, australians' motherland, prior to the turn of this century. missing is any discussion of ophthalmic aspects of life during the first of the two centuries following the european settlement of australia in 1788. it seems likely that among the thousands of assigned personnel, settlers, and convicts of that era there were at least a few opticians, spectaclemakers, spectacle merchants, oculists, or the like who plied their ophthalmic trade in a fashion that may have had some, though probably negligible, impact on later optometric developments. such history, if recorded anywhere, would of course not be among the resources utilized by wright. the following few selected chapter titles provide a clue to the depth and breadth of coverage: dispensing; forming professional associations; itinerant and group practice; the first conference; journals; one man secretariat; national health victory; education for qualification; research institutes. the fact that the details are totally australian does not detract from the book's broad .. optometric significance. the scenario and milieu are so analagotis to those of other optometric nationalities as to suggest that "only the names of the players are different". to mark australia's bicenten;:\ry the book wa,:;; published in 1988 by the australian optometrical association, 204 drummond street, carlton, victoria 3053, australia, telephone (03) 663-6833. the price of the book is 55 australian dollars, post paid. h.w h. 37 creator of memorial jewels: charles wright, author of "history of australian optometry", . exercises his talented craftsmanship not only in restoration of vintage rolls-royce motor cars but also in the design and creation of jewels of office and honor. among them are personal bronze jewels for past national presidents of the australian optometrical association which are worn regularly at formal optometric functions. other specially designed pieces of art include the praeclarum h. barry collin research medal, a bronze portrait head of professor barry cole, and a jewel of honour for professor gerald westheimer. replicas of these and other memorializing creations by charles wright are on display in the "hall of fame" in the wright library of the australian optometrical association. kaleidoscopic facts and fantasies: perhaps you think of a kaleidoscope as a simple optical toy which brewster invented and patented unprofitably in 1816 and which soon acquired explosive popularity only to become merely a child's novelty with the subsequent advent of stereoscopes, movies, television, and other visual attractions. or perhaps it just reminds you of a graphic ray-tracing exercise in a geometric optics course. if so, you should get the colorful 144 page paperback book "through the kaleidoscope" by cozy baker, published in 1985 by beechcliff books, 100 severn ave., suite 605, annapolis, maryland 21403, u.s.a. ($16.50). it includes not only a touching biographical commentary on sir david brewster, together with his patent and excerpts of later (1873-1874) patents by charles g. bush, but also tidbits about numerous other designers, makers, and adapters who have created, and are still creating, kaleidoscopic modifications for fun and sales. an insert invites the reader to join the brewster society for "designers, collectors, and lovers of kaleidoscopes" at a $25.00 annual subscription rate. the address is the same as that of the publisher. today's kaleidoscopes vary in price from $5 to over $5,000, and dimensions range from pocket penlight size to an instrument of 500 lbs. over 6 ft. high and 10 ft. long. the book includes dozens of illustrations, a bibliography, an index, addresses of more than 50 shops and galleries, .a technical glossary, and numerous fantasies described by ardent viewers. in his patent brewster stated that the kaleidoscope would be useful "for exhibiting and treating beautiful forms and patterns, of great use in all the ornamental arts". indeed! 38 ultraviolet protection optics: an historical review of attempts to determine what radiant energy is needed or harmful is a major part of an article entitled "is ultraviolet light really harmful;" in the june 1988 issue of eyecare business, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 54 & 56-57. the author is john m. young, the head of an engineering consulting firm specializing in ophthalmics. the article leads to no firm conclusion, but it does make evident that the interpretation of ocular radiant effects also has a growing history. editors: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1988-19-03-001 1988-19-03-002 1988-19-03-003 1988-19-03-004 1988-19-03-005 1988-19-03-006 1988-19-03-007 1988-19-03-008 1988-19-03-009 1988-19-03-010 1988-19-03-011 1988-19-03-012 newsle'iter f\ u \?. '.:~ ?, \ <· ~) of the ~·'"'''· (243 north lindbe~p=::;;d~i~~~s~'~ri 63141, u.s.a.) vol 16 july, 1985 2 · •·. ,,.,,,,"·•··<,:, .-,,,, nunber 3 j lndi~na u-.:._·~:\·::··. a;._<:c·;.[ ~:· ltl vt:lsity : * -r. :~ ~: annual call for nominations: ff aug 1 6 i985 l the executive board member whose fiveh-:e!ibtcff~ilh~ewire ai the end of this year is maria dablenont. the other ~g,®f.::;>tlf$~~ vej board and the expiration dates of their five-year terms are as fo11(;l~t'"''d'erone j. abrams 1986, james p. leeds 1987, patricia carlsen 1988, and andrew f. fischer 1989. nominations, or renominations, for the 1986-90 term are hereby requested for placerent on the b3.llot which will be sent out with the october issue of this newsletter. submissions should be sent to da.lglas penisten, sdlool of optonetry, boo east atwater, bloomington, in 47405. by all neans do not hesitate to include yoorself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. renenber, self-nominated volunteers founded the o.h.s., and unpaid volunteers have kept it going. ordinarily, nerely the nane of the person you are nominating will suffice, especially if he or she is already well kncwn to o.h.s. rembers, rut if you feel that a brief "pitch" should be made in your nominee's behalf it will be rrost favorably considered for inclusion in the october issue of n.o.h.s. by-law changes approved: seventy-six o.h.s. renbers responded by sending in the ballot included with the april newsletter. both of the prcposed o.h.s. by-law manges were approved by a vote of 73 to 1 with 2 abstentions. for the record, the two by-law changes are: 1) in article iii, section 1, add ''whenever the dues are paid in the nare of an agency, organization, or institution, a personal designee of the paying entity shall be identified as a remer of the society." 2) in article iii, section 4, substitute "$10.00" for "$5.00." grace weiner (1907-1984): a beautiful and informative obituary of our past exerntive board renber, frequent contrirutor, and maker of nuch cptoretric history, the late grace weiner, was prepared by our present o.h.s. vice president patricia carlson and published in the spring 1985 issue of the southern california college of optoretry alunnisccpe, page 17. 40 an itinerant oculist 1 s journal: recently the irdiana historical society received the journal and acca.mt ~ of dr. j. a. newton, oculist, for the period 1864-1881. dr. newton was an itinerant oculist who practiced along the ohio river valley after the civil war. his door-to-dcx:>r, tcwn-to-tcwn cirrui t included small tcwns like madisonville, nebo, and ramsey in kentucky, and boonville, evansville, spring station, and folsumville in indiana. he finally settled his practice in boonville, indiana. dr. newton 11was probably typical of the oc.'ulists of the early nineteenth century. he undoubtedly had received some formal education in cphthalmlogy, if only an ag>renticeship, • • • .. he never mentioned an ophthalnoscq>e, or an internal oc.'ular problem, and he still used leeches to bleed patients. his advertised services as a 11surgeon oc.'ulist 11 in his boonville practice included 11arl'ificial eyes inserted withwt pain corresponding with the natural in size, shape, and color defying detection... eyeglasses were not nvmtioned. his broadside advertisement stated 11dr. newl'cn treats oothing rut diseases of the eye... in his journal he had scribbled the addresses of manufacturers who supplied artificial eyes, as well as references to lens grinders and opticians, rut he did not appear to dispense eyeglasses. it is unusual to fird the records of any type of itinerant practitioner, especially those of an oculist. the donor of this archival treasure apparently ac:quired it at an auction in boonville. 'llle acquisition was reported in the april, 1985 issue of snakeroot extract, no. 4, medical history newsletter of the indiana historical soc1ety. another ilamd gift: ohs rent>er dan hummel reports cwning two pair of double lens spectacle frares sudh as those of president jackson described on pages 4-5 of the january nohs, and that these will be donated to the international library, archives, and museum of optomatry, inc. ix>rothy nickerson ( 1900-1985) : one of the mst gl~ing tributes to a visual scientist is the obituary and remrial acca.mt of the career-long contrirution of ix>rothy nickerson to the science~of color. beautifully and authoritatively written by c. jares bartleson and joi turner luke it appeared sinultaneously in at least two serial publications, one, the june 1985 issue of optics news, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 5, 7, and 8, and the other, the june 1985 issue of usnc-cie newsletter, no. 14, pp. 1-4. her 11colorful11 career began with enploil'lent as a secretary and laboratory assistant at the munsell color conpany in 1921 foll~ed by a research post in the u.s. department of agriculture from 1927 until retirerent, and a series of organizational involvements with the coomdssion internationale de 1 1 eclairage, the optical society of america~ the inter society color ccllncil, the 41 illuminating engineering society of north america, and other color-related groups, with honors besta,..red on her from every direction. anycne who has done even a few hoors of serioos study of color science or tedmology can hardly fail to have becorre aware of her narre. the accoont of her career is in truth a history of the develcprrent of color as we kna,..r it today. new light on edison's light: this is the title of an article ~ robert friedel in the first issue of a new rragazine, american heritage of invention and tedmology, vol. 1, no. l, sumner 1985, pages 22-27. the article is a new accoont of the inventor and his invention of the incandescent lamp. the author is an associate professor of history at the university of maryland. he and paul b. israel are co-authoring edison's electric light: biography of an invention, a bock to be published later this year by rutgers university press. the present article and book are basoo on searches through the voluminous menlo park records, ootebooks, drawings, letters, patents, and other docurrents which few scholars have attempted to explore. most prior accoonts have been based on newspaper reports and the rorrantic recollections of old rren who knew the wizard of j.l.1enlo park. these gave two extrerre pictures of edison's involverrent in pursuit of a successful electric incandescent light. one was that of the rough-and-ready inventor in a dogged hunt for the right filarrent. the other was of a scientific-laboratory chief who drew up the design and left the technical details to a skilled, educated staff. the na,..r evident facts are that the develcprrent was considerably rrore corrplex and involved than either of the long pcpular notions. acconpanying the article is a full page artist's drawing on the cov'er page of the new year 's issue of puck in 1880 heralding the arrival of edison's lamp as an event of truly cosmic-significance ranking with a solar eclipse, the northern lights, the luminoos role of the noon, and the efforts of father time. from the greeks to the renaissance: this is the subtitle of "perspective on optics" by jchn m. hoods, jr., in the march 1985 issue of optics news, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 16-21. 'nle autoor points out that the greek philoscphers regarded cptics and vision as the sane thing, and that it was then, and continued to be, the central thread and bound natural philoscphy together. interestingly he reminds us that lenses of varioos form, including glass globes filled with water for magnification and focussing the sun's rays, had been around for centuries, rut "the greeks, ha,..rever, did rot include these prosaic rratters as key points of interest in their philosophies. these devices were simply representative of the skills of artisians people who were held in la,..r regard by such as aristotle. " the article leads us delightfully and understandingly through centuries of analytical struggle as to ha,..r we see and ha,..r lenses function. featuroo on the front cover of this magazine is a picture of christian huygens, "a superb crafter of lenses, " aboot whom and whose forebears the article is concerned. 42 an oolitic tear-jerker: ohs :nenber jim leeds sent us another of the fascinating letters he receives so often in the nail, this one dated march 26, 1985, and signed by mary brougham of "m.t. dairy bottles, p.o. box 373, readfield, maine 04355," as follads: we have two eye stones in the original drug store box. the box is 1 1/ 4" square and reads "ham • s drug store, 24 main street., li vernore falls, me. " and eye stone is writ ten in pen on the label. this store has been a family rosiness for over 100 years and is still in livermore falls. the eye stone was not used, i am told, after the turn of the century. the stone :neasures abcut 1/ 4" acrcss and was put urrler the lid near the nose and rolled to the outer edge to remove any foreign object. we are offering one eye stone and the box for $60.00 or the two stones and box for $75.00. if interested, please write to the above address or call us at 207-685-9544 and ask for mary. if you wish to dleck on us before nailing check, cur maine sales tax nurrber is 201688. dr. leeds forwarded the letter to us on april lst with the assurance that it was not an april fool's joke. with it he recalled once examining the painful eye of a female patient with a burton magnifying lamp and seeing what looked like a boolder pop out from under the eyelid when he applied a little pressure. it was a mustard seed which she had put under her lid to "draw out the pain." early state board doings: of slender spine with black lettering on a rich brown soft paper jacket, this 1930 book of just over 100 pages is· quite unooticeable on the book shelf. entitled "a manual of optcmetric jurisprjdence and suggested uniform standards" it was copyrighted and published as a first edition by the international association of boards of examiners in optometry at a price of one dollar. its only illustration is a full page group photograph of 22 of the nen attending the 1927 meeting of the "i .b. b." at hotel willard in washington d.c., plus a lady identified merely as "the reporter". each of the "drs." is identified by full name and state. the first sentence of the introduction by the editor, dr. laurence p. folsom, states, "to all who have tried in diverse ways to hinder and prevent the progress of optonetry we owe much." then ten varioosly authoroo. chapters provide statements of the aims and definitions of the professional; the history and role of the association; cptometry's status in canada; visual standards in schools, industry, aviation , and the highway; educational standards; the function of optonetry laws; a model optometry law; enforcenent; reciprocity; the "glazed goods" issue; state board examinations; relations with other state agencies; advice to state board secretaries and to newly appointed board :nembers; and a list of the 38 j.reiilber state l::oards and their 43 rrerrbers plus the rrenbers of the all canada advisory board representing eight provincial licensing boards. the here reviewed ccpy was donated by ohs rrenber jarres leeds, o.d., to be forwarded to ii.amj. included with the book was a ccpy of a form letter from dr. george j. erskine, secretary of the i.a.b.e.o., dated august 12, 1930, to its rrerrbers. in it he rrentions the then custorra.ry abbreviations of the association's title to i.b.b. for "international board of boards," and describes its role as a "clearing house for the interchange of ideas between boards." two rulings adopted by the i-tissouri state board in 1930 were cited as exarcples. one related to changing the examination subjects to conform to the i .b. b. syllarus. 'ihe other was a recomrrendation that board members include their abbreviated doctor titles as part of their signatures on official docurrents and certificates. also, state board secretaries were reminded to submit narres of all cptorretrists in their states who had "had their licenses revoked for unethical conduct of any kind or character' to be addei to the i .b. b. "disqualified practitioners file. " an incident in churchill's life: dean emeritus e.j. fisher of waterloo, ontario, canada, writes as follows: "i was just doing sorre lighter reading recently and came acrcss the following which rra.y be of some interest for the ohs newsletter. the source is a paperback book called "churchill the great 'ihe best stones." it was publishei by the daily mirror newspapers in 1962 and printed by fleetway publications ltd. , london. 'ihe book contains a number of anecdotes about churchill dating from his early days as a sdloolboy at harrow, his time as a boer war corresp:>rrlent, on through the world war, rep:>rting rra.ny of his escapades and quirks. one article follows verbatim." saved by his specs scatterei at strategic p:>ints throughout churchill's two homes, chartwell, in kent, and hyde park gate, in london, you coold find enough pairs of spectacles to equip six men. pairs for brc:msing through the norning papers. pairs for scanning in the evening papers. pairs for card-playing. pairs for speech-reading and endless spare sets of lenses. each pair woold be kept within easy readl so that churchill was never at a less without his glasses in an emergency. but panic reignei the day he was due to deliver an inportant speech on election tour in the midlands. churchill's chauffeur driven car was speeiing north from london, with a p:>lice escort following. 44 the old man funbled for his case containing his reading specs but it was enptyl his car squealed to a halt, and as the car behind screeched to a standstill, police tumbled from it and came rushing over. 11 i 've left my spectacles behind, and i need them for a speed1 at three fifteen p.m.," churdlill apologized. 11can i have them in tine? 11 they were nore than 30 miles from london -and there were barely 90 minutes to go before churchill took to the platform. the police swung into action and churchill's car drove on to where cr~ds had begun to gather to hear the speedles. patiently, the audience listened to the long winded introductions of the first speakers unaware of the drama being played rut behind the scenes. word had been whispered along the line of speakers on the platform that winston churchill needed a little tine before he was ready to rise and speak. meanwhile, the police had rushed to a phone box, and located the speeeh-reading spectacles after a hurried search. a dispatch rider, with the specs in his bag, was eating up the miles at frantic speed to deliver them. at 3:14 p.m. there was still no sign of the rider, and anxioos officials, who had all been briefed to play their part when he arrived, were biting their nails. the suddenly,· there was a flurry of novenent in the wings. a small object was passed from hand to hand anong the line of speakers until it reamed churchill. he snappej cpen his precioos spectacle case arrl before he began yet another fine speech, turned to one side and beaned his appreciation to the people who saved the day for him. 11this event occurred sonetine in the 1930's, and when one recalls the general probiems in comnunication, the way british roads were at that tine, the lines of traffic arourrl lcndon, the irrportance of personal awearances at election rallies before tv, the tcp hat worn on the election hustings, the cane and the 911 cigars, and black rimmed glasses near the end of churchill's nose, it is easy to inagine a lot of the drana of such an event ... 11hcpe yoo are all keeping well and as busy as yoo want to be. we manage to fill up the days and seem to have :nore ahead than we can possibly handle. working at further develcpnent of our museum, having just redone all the displays. several visiting grcups have cone thrrugh, including the rolls royce owners club ug>er canada division. it looked inpressive to see a line-up of those cars, some of early vintage, arranged in oor parking lot1 11 the museum to which dr. fisher refers is the cptonetry collection on display at the university of waterloo. 45 swedish optoretry history: the 50th anniversary of the sveriges legitimerade optikers riksforbund is featured in the jubilee issue of its journal, aktuell optik och optometri (may, 1985). included are a history of the s.o.r. (pages 6-10), and the developrent of 50 years of education, (pages 24-25 & 28) both by robert sandor. per s&ierberg gives a brief history of optometry in sweden on page 9, and an accamt of the development of the institute of optometry, a very successful school for continuing optometric education fcunded in 1973, on pages 32-33, both in english. also in english are three sh:::>rt historical mtes, one on syninfornation (the vision infornation cooncil) fourrled in 1967, (p.33), one on the optical museum established in 1939 (p. 36-37), and a third on the saint lucia guild, an invitational homr society organized in 1939 (p. 37). on page 21 is a brief review of the meetings of the international optical league meeting in stockholm on september 9-10, 1933, at which representatives from france, gernany, great britain, the netherlands, sweden, and switzerland were present. anong other topics was a discussion of a universal title for their constituent practitioners of varioos designations. "alnost every delegate preferred the title optometrist and this was the recommendation. " stockholm museum feted: on the evening of may 8th, during the week of annual meetings of the international optorretric and optical league, the i .o.o.l. delegates and their accompanying personnel were guests of the sveriges legitimerade optikers riksforbund (swedish national association of registered optometrists) in celebration of the s.o.r. 's 50th anniversary. the highlight of the event was a toor of the nuseum mentioned in the july 1975 issue of the n.o.h.s., vol. 6, no. 3, page 45. the museum was inaugurated on october 16, 1939, by the stockholm associated specialopticians in a building knc:wn as the boose of the leather-merchant seyfridt, at 18-20 stortorgat in the old tc:wn. the walls of the home date back to the middle ages, with other structural details and renovations dating to the 17th century. credit for initiating the museum and its facilities for coorse work and receptions is given to two stockholm opticians, otto ahlstrom and albert "abben" lundqvist. one of the nany rare items is a gold lorgnette graphically reproduced in the s.o.r. logo shown belc:w 46 a replica of the lorgnette also is used at the nadir link of the synbolic chain worn as a neckpiece by the president of s.o.r. during official and ceremonial functions. in charge of the nuseum is optanetrist barbre lurrlqvist, whose address is drottninggatan 29, 11151 stockholm, sweden. on blindness to the blind: eleanor gertrude bronn did her ph.d. research at colunbia university on the cause and effects of the blimness of john milton, 1608-1674. her thesis was published by colunbia university press in 1934 and reprinted by octagon ~s, inc., new york, in 1968. there may also be a itore recent reprint. in her preface she wrote, "blindness cane upon milton in adult life (totally blioo in 1652, at age 44), rut it has been a part of my life as far back as i can renent>er. yet for me, the meitory of the red-gold of the sun, the blue of the sky, the green of the grass, and the light of the firefly is still vivid. in the interpretation of milton's life and writings after the loss of sight, i add my k~ledge of blimness. " in her first chapter she described grimly the state of medicine and hygiene in milton's century. ''the apothecary was consulted in preference to the doctor. he supplied the drugs and the advice as to what drugs to use. surgery was performed by barbers while doctors looked on. in view of superstitions, norbific ioodes of living, and medical treatment, it is not surprising that milton went blind." pointing out that before the nineteenth century practically nothing was done to lift the blind from enforced helplessness, idleness, and ign:>rance, she added that " ••• only a few sightless men, in ancient and nodern times, ••• were held in reverence as prq:)hets, as soothsayers, or as minstrels, or because their deeds previrus to their loss of sight had given luster to their names. honer and tiresias, isaac, jacob, samson, the talnudist rabbi sheshet, and the 'father of the cabals' isaac sagi nahor-ben david, appius claudius, dandalo, and ziska are aitong the well-known blind characters of history." of special optonetric interest, and alnost the only relief from her description of the horrors of 17th century medical services, is a brief pa.ragraph on the meh earlier advent of spectacles and their increasing utilization, the cptical contrib.ltions of roger bacon and johannes kepler, and the c'hc}rtering of the spectacle makers' guild of 1629. in other chapters the autb:>r reviewed the evidence relating to the cause of milton's blindness and the sometimes alnnst ran:pant speculation of its etiology, including punishment by god, excessive reading, albinism, congenital sytililis, glaucoma, and myopic retinal detadlment. she had enlisted the cooperation of numerous of her well k~ american and english ophthalnnlogical contenporaries in the interpretation of synptoma.tic evidence, mjst of whom believed glaucoma the mjst likely culprit. most of the book deals with dr. brown's interpretations of citations from milton which can be related to his blindness and to its effects on his perceptions, concepts, and attitudes. he had written nnre prose and poetry 47 after his loss of sight than before. these included sonnets xix, xxii, and xxiii, paradise lost and three defences, samson agonistes, familiar letters, and psalms which he translated into verse in 1653, and nunerous panphlets. he had a reading knowledge of eight languages, and he dictated in itdst. leaving no stone unturned, dr. brown even devoted a scientific chapter to the question of authenticity of existing milton signatures. she concluded that 11the milton autographs belonging to the period of blindness may be his. 11 citations and references total over 300. janes leeds, o.d., who pronpted this review, has a 1934 edition of brown's book in which the title is included in braille. the indiana university library cq>y of the same edition does oot have this feature, so dr. leeds may indeed have a rare collectible in his possession. either edition is a treasure to read, for in addition to its historical merits it provides revealing insight into a blind person's sense of values, sudl as, for exanple, 11 i 'krlon of no blind person who wruld prefer deafness, 11 and there are many rrore. there is a good possibility that yrur local comnunity library has a ccpy. more on progressive add lenses: apparently a bit concerned that the rep:>rt on the history of progressive addition lenses which appeared on page 85 of the october 1984 issue of n.o.h.s. lacked conprehensiveness, ohs nenber irving bennett called it to the attent1on of bernard maitenez, president of essilor international, cr~teil cedex, france, for cc>il\nellt. the following is photocq:>ied directly from mr. maitenez 's response: in accordance with your request, my reply will concentrate on the history of the progressive lens. to begin, it is true that patents were filed before the first varilux lens appeared in 1959. but none of these was exploited because the lenses made on the basis of these patents could not be manufactured or could not be used. the problem was one of obtain­ ing "a workable progressive lens", as you indicate, and the varilux 1 was undeniably the first progressive lens to be cornmercialised. if we consider only the progressive lenses actually launched on the mar­ ket, events occurred in this order: 1956 first varilux 1 patented. 1959 beginning of commercialisation in france of varilux 1, a mineral lens made progressive by surfacing. 1965 omnifocal released in the united states; it was distributed for only a short while because its manufacturing process left serious astigmatisms on the lens. 1968 in france, the zoom, a mineral lens obtained by depression methods is commercialised 'by benoist-berthiot. 1972 first varilux 2 patents filed. these lenses' principal originality lies in the aspherical surfaces for distance and near vision. 48 1973 commercialisation of the varilux 2, a polished mineral lens, is begun in france. 1975 commercialisation of an organic varilux 2 is begun in france. 1976 the first varilux 1 patents enter the public domain. from this point on, the american progressive lenses began to appear but were sold only in europe. the first was the ao 7 or ultavue 25. its sales were very limited after a small initial success due to curiousity. the ao 7 was an organic lens. 19 78 younger commercialises the 10/30 as an organic lens. its structure is even harder than that of the ao 7. the 10/30 is in fact a bifocal with a very short passage from near vision to distance vision surfaces .. 1979 ao, faced with the ao 7's failure, commercialises the ao 40, or ultravue 28 as an organic lens with a harder structure than that of the ao 7. the varilux 2 had at that time been known and appreciated for 6 years but ao continued to believe that the solution lay in the largest possible distance and near vision spherical zones. 1979 (benoi~berthiot and guilbert-routit had merged under the name bb-gr and become a subsidiary of essilor.) essilor brought its subsidiary the surfacing technique used. to make progressive lenses but the varilux 2 patent~ remained its exclusive property. the nz thus did not infringe upon varilux 2 patent rights. 1980 univis commercialised the organic unison lens. for the first time, american manufacturers began to develop a softer-structured lens though continuing to accept an astigmatism along the merid­ ian, a mineral version of the unison was commercialised soon thereafter, 1980hattori commercialised the organic pi "regular". the lens structure continued to soften but because of the varilux 2 patents, the surfaces for near vision and distance vision remained spherical, 1981 -younger commercialised the cps as an organic lens. the soften­ ing of surface structures continued, 1981 rodenstock commercialised the progressiv r and ao the m3 or truvision, both mineral lenses. their lens structures were softer but the near vision and distance vision zones remained spherical. the varilux 2 patents played a restrictive role. 1982 -a large number of progressive lenses continued to appear, among which were the polycore progressive from polycore and the pl "mild" from hattori, 1983 zeiss launches the gradal hs in germany. this chronology clearly shows that in a first stage, progressive lens manufacturers, with the exception of essilor, were oriented towards lenses with hard structures. but, recognising the better acceptance of the varilux 2, they chose at a second stage to try to develop softer lens structures. but softening of the structure must obey certain rules and in this the varilux 2 is fundamentally different from the other progressive lenses. in the varilux 2, the surface is determined on the basis of physiological laws that we have grouped under the name "visual fidelity". proceeding by this method necessarily leads to development of aspherical surfaces in the near and distance zones . he refer to this as "optical modulation". since the other manufacturers were prohibited from using this approach by the varilux 2 patents, they were obliged to find surface polishing solutions based on physical or geometrical laws, which evidently have nothing to do with the physiological factors. 49 the mundorff mechanical eye: professor walter chase, o.d., of the southern california college of optonetry has published an appeal to readers of the spring 1985 issue of the s.c.c.o. alunnisccpe, page 25, for any infornation on the identity of a mr. or dr. mundorff, the inventor, designer, or manufacturer of the "mundorff mechanical eye, " which has been used for over 30 years in the visual science laboratory of the college as a teadhing aid. should he receive any infornative responses, we will be apprised of the details. from pepys' diary: an article about samuel pepys (1633-1703) of diary fane and his encounters with severe asthencpia, prcxjressive blindness, an cptonetrist, and an eye physician appears in the may 1985 issue of the journal of the american optonetric association, vol. 56, no. 5, pages 370-372. entitled "the sore eyes of samuel pepys" it is autrored by sidney groffman, o.d., and includes about twenty eye-related excerpts from the diary ranging from january 19, 1664, to may 31, 1669. four references are cited. a voice from south america: noting that we lack o.h.s. nenbership in south america, dr. d.g. humnel of ohio pronptly sent us a dheck for ten dollars for the gift nembership of his bogota, colonbia, friend hernando henao r., o.d., an apollo awardee and well knotm to nany of us. dr. henao should be able to contribute a bit of historical infornation on a personal basis as well, for not only was his father an cptonetrist but he himself has long been very active in professional optometric affairs. early history of modern lighting: should you ever have occasion to becone thoroughly inforned on the early history of artificial lighting, whether by electricity, gas, oil, or other illuminants, you could hardly do better than to avail ycurself of a ccpy of ''m::xiern metrods of artificial illumination," a course in six parts in the 1909 joornal of the royal society of arts (wndon) by leon gaster, one ccpy of wh1cli nay be foond at the university of illinois library at urbana--champaign. the series appeared in six successive weekly issues, nos. 2959 to 2964, vol. 57, august 6,13,20, and 27 and septenber 3 and 10, pages 757-772, 775-778, 795-810, 815-837, 842-861, and 867-889, with 93 figures. the author originally had presented the articles as a course of fcur "cantor lectures" on february 15 and 22 and march 1 and 8, 1909. in the annual report of the society it is stated that "perhaps no ccurse ever given before the society was so fully and elaborately illustrated. mr. gaster was able to secure typical exarrples of all of the various neth:>ds of lighting which he described, and in fact eadl lecture was a concen.trated exhibition of the best and jiost recent apparatus used for lighting by electricity, gas, and petroleum." 50 reprints of the series were made available in pamphlet form at two shillings each. '!he lectures were extensively abstracted in the october 21, 1909 issue of nature, no. 2086, vol. 81, pages 500-503. by way of an amusing illustration of the phenorenal changes in lighting that had taken place in only a few prior decades the author rentions the experience of a friend who had the curiosity to look up the word "illumination" in an encyclopedia. he was rewarded by the cryptic reference, "illumination see fireworks." mr. gaster covers not only the design and tedmology of every type and brand of lighting invention but also their costs, efficiency, spectral quality, maneuverability, appearance, and their utilization in industry, home, office, highways, playgrounds, schools, libraries, and elsewhere. the cantor lectures originated in 1983 with a bequest by dr. cantor. there were several cantor courses every session, and each coorse consisted generally of from two to six evening lectures. the 1908-1909 session ranged from mid-november through the follcwing june with a total of 17 "cantor lectures, " of which mr. gaster's were four. optics and social history: it is good to be occasionally reminded how scientific and technological advances have drastically altered everyday life and author peter mason has done just that. in his b<jd< the light fantastic (pelican books, 1982) mason discusses topics ranging from electr1f1cat1on to x-rays. although the title might have rrore apprcpriately been "the electromagnetic spectrum fantastic," six of the twelve chapters concern optics and light specifically. "the light fantastic is a patchnork story of the worrler and magic, the science and the technology of these brilliant optical inventions. they have changed the whole pattern of human life, and their influence upon the lives of ordinary pecple is indeed the thread that weaves the story together. as just cne example, the introduction of gas and electric lighting brought in its train a social liberatibn. cities sprang into life when darkness fell. pecple who coold afford this illumination in their hones found that new dimension had been added to their lives. the coal miners and the workers in the gas and electricity supply co:rrpanies, on the other hand, found their lot becoming intolerable and they joined the grcwing swell of industrial unrest." chapter 8 titled "the phoenix from the ashes" chronicles the fascinating history of the zeiss optical works in jena, germany. "in the late nineteenth century the microsccpe was brought close to perfection by a groop of craftsman and scientists in the small german town of jena. out of this group care the great optical conpany of carl zeiss. its greatness lay not sin'ply in the quality of its cptical products but equally in the care it took of its workers at a tire when exploitation and grinding poverty were the rule. the carl zeiss foundation survived the two world wars before it divided like an arroeba. there are now two quite independent and first-class optical companies, one in each of the east and west divisions of germany. both are called carl zeiss, and both are still operating essentially under the enlightened charter set up by the foondation in the nineteenth century." 51 'lhe grrup mason refers to in this introductory paragraph consists of carl zeiss, ernest abbe, and otto sdhott. iridial history: anyone who has taken the tirre to observe the hurran iris will be entranced by its beauty and delicate roverrents. it is not surprising then to find that many past physiologists have written extensively on this subject. a book published by hans huber publishers (1980) entitled '!he iris in eighteenth-century physiology is a iiu.lst for urrlerstanding the history of this remarkable tissue. author renato g. mazzolini explains the purpose of his book in the preface. "the eighteenth century was a period of great expansion and gronth in science. in recent years, several historical works have been published dealing with the relations between the republic of science and the changing demands of society, both before and after the frendh revolution. these studies have been rrainly concerned with the integration of science in the ancien regine and its influence upon the industrial revolution. relatively l1ttle work has been done on the growth of science itself, the logical and enpirical reasons for scientific dhange and the patterns of scientific diffusion during the eighteenth century. my book is rrainly concerned with these same problems, not viewed generally, rut approadled thrrugh the analysis of a very limited and specific topic, i.e. the explanation given during the eighteenth century for the reactions of the iris to light. though limited, this topic was, and is, a very conplex one, showing at one and the same tine the diffirulties and adhievenents of rrore general eighteenth-century anatomical and physiological research. 'lhe widespread interest in this tc:pic is testified by johann gottfried zinn's rerrark that no one who passed for a physiologist had ever rranaged to avoid tack ling it. the first aim of this book is to provide a historical analysis of the following statenent by albredht von haller: <<all the muscles are irritable ••• '!he iris, which you will be surprized at, has no irritability, when the cause of the irritation applied to it is nedl.anical, viz. a knife or the like ••• >>. there were three rrain questions to be tackled: 1) was haller's statement original? 2) to what extent did it change previoos conceptions of the iris? and 3) to what extent did it influence subsequent students of the subject? in order to answer these questions, i have studied all the specialized literature that i coold trace, written 50 years before and 50 years after haller's statement. thus, the original soorces i have studied are eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century anatomical and physiological l::xxi<s and papers. because of the relevance of first editions in the study of the history of science, my research has had to be extendoo to rrany eurc:pean libraries. the second aim of the book is to provide a case study of the diffusion (by which i rrean the circulation and reception) of scientific theories arrong the scientific community of anatomists and physiologists during the eighteenth century. i have thus had to extend my research also to reviews, unpublished sources and still extant anatomical collections. even if you don't have the tine to read the 200 page book it woold be worth yrur tirre to view the 37 illustrations, many of which are taken from 52 original eighteenth-century v.orks. '!he book is extrenely well referenced and indexed.. in fact, scanning the nane index one literally sees a who•s who of eighteenth century visual scientists: troxler, porterfield, petit, zinn and nany rrore. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors 1985-16-03-001 1985-16-03-002 1985-16-03-003 1985-16-03-004 1985-16-03-005 1985-16-03-006 1985-16-03-007 1985-16-03-008 1985-16-03-009 1985-16-03-010 1985-16-03-011 1985-16-03-012 1985-16-03-013 1985-16-03-014 uf newsletter optometric ~~si~~ical society optometry library (243 north lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. 63141) apr 111980 volume ii apri 1 1980 number 2 1ndiana university blagden & ware it never fai 1 s·. ·when someone asks who was so-and-so, the name begins popping up everywhere you turn. in regard to last month•s (jan. 1980) inquiry concerning charles blagden and james ware, neither remains in mystery any longer. charles blagden (1748-1820) although he received an m.d. in 1768, charles blagden is most remembered for his work in physical chemistry. his contributions included the effect of extreme temperatures on the body and the derivation of the law which describes how salt in a dissolved solution lowers the freezing point. blagden served as cavendish•s assistant (1782-1789) and also as secretary of the royal society. for his work in chemistry he was knighted in 1792. james ware (1756-1815) in refraction and accommodation, donders attributes ware with being the first person to recognize hypermetropia.. in the article 11 0bservations relative to the near and distant sight of different persons .. (philosophical transactions of the royal society of london 1813), ware describes, among other things, the problem of aphakic patients. as a london surgeon who devoted most of his time to ophthalmology, ware worked on ocular experiments with thomas young. as a result of ware•s article, charles blagden replied confirming that the use of concave lenses does indeed increase myopia as ware stated. he used himself as an example of the progression of myopia resulting from the use of lenses. besides refractive errors, ware contri­ buted two more articles to the philosophical transaction including one on·· the result of surgery on a congenital cataract patient. for a more extensive review of ware•s work see levene, john, clinical refraction and visual science, butterworths, 1977. the underwater cat experiment the 1704 report by jean mery 11 0n the movements of the iris, and, incidentally, on the essential portion of the organ of vision 11 upon inmersion of a cat in water has been translated by optometry student william l. crawford and summarized in the october 1979 issue of the american journal of o~tometry and physiological optics, vol 56, no. 10, pp. 658-660. his completengl1sh translation of this paper has been deposited with the national translation center, john crerar library, 35 west 33rd street, chicago, illinois 60616. such subjecting of an experimental animal to pain and distress would be in violation of federal regulations today, conments crawford. -20light and natural phenomena whether it is by reflection, refraction, dispersion, or diffrac­ tion, light plays an integral part in all aspects of everyday life. it is no wonder that philosophers and scientists have speculated and ex­ perimented for thousands of years in hopes of explaining the nature of light. special interest has always been paid in the literature to the natural phenomena of rainbows, mirages, bioluminescence, etc. fortu­ nately, for the researchers or the interested reader, there are books which have collected and explained these interactions of nature and light. for a complete library on optics or light here are three titles which are an absolute necessity. besides, they are fascinating reading. corliss, william (1977). handbook of unusual natural pheno­ mena. source book project, glen arm. m.d. harvey, e. newton (1957). a history of luminescence, american philosophical society, philadelphia. minnaert, m. (1954). the nature of light and color in the open air, dover, new york. historical entries the following short papers were but a few of the topics covered by the third year optometry class at indiana university as a requirement in optometric history. i have selected these particular essays due to their diversity. each provides an excellent collection of information (with references) about the respective topic covered. the astigmatic lens of george gabriel stokes kirk mackay astigmatism holds an important place in the history of vision care. astigmatism is the most prevalent refractive anomaly presented for correction (1). in addition, the discovery of regular astigmatism and of ways to correct it have been claimed to be major factors in the development of the science and technique of refraction (2). in the 1800's after the existence of regular astigmatism had been established, methods of measurement, methods of correction, and the nature of astigmatism itself began to be unravelled. cases of ir­ regular refraction, which probably were ·regular astigmatism, had been recorded earlier (3). the earliest method of correction was by the use of stenopaic slits. by the late 1700's, however, a relatively common, if we may infer from thomas young's record of his optician/friend william cary's comments, home remedy was to tilt spherical lenses to achieve relief (4). the major impetus for the use of cylindrical lenses to correct astigmatism most certainly was from airy's work in 1827 and on through the 19th century (5). the number of cases of astigmatism reported in the scientific -21literature remained small for a long time, however. as of danders' book (6) in 1864 only eleven cases had been reported. this undoubtedly was due to refractionists not knowing the etiology of astigmatism and not having adequate methods to detect and evaluate astigmatism. the general systematic methods of detection today include retinoscopy, dial charts, and the crossed­ cylinder. retinoscopy became a part of refraction in the early 1880's (7). the dial charts were not developed to any extent until the 1860's when both javal and green presented charts which they had developed (8). in addition, danders is credited with introducing cylinders to the trial lens set, and that introduction was not until the time of his monumental book. before 1849 optometers were used to evaluate the amount of the correct­ ing cylinder after the orientation of the two principal meridians had been determined by noting the direction in which the astigmatism of the eye had distorted the image of a point source. the optometer method was inadequate, however, because accommodation could not be controlled when refracting both meridians. in 1849, george gabriel stokes, a mathematician and physicist at cambridge university, published a short (circa 1000 words) paper (and that his one and only in physiological optics) in which he casually mentions the commonness of astigmatism despite the fact that fewer than eleven cases were on record. in the paper he described a device by which power caul d be determined while avoiding the problem of the lack of control of accommoda­ tion (9): 11 • • • the author has constructed an instrument for de ... termining the nature of the required lens, which is based on the following proposition ... if two plano-cylindrical lenses of equal radius, one concave and the other convex, be fixed, one in the lid and the other in the body of a small round wooden box, ... by merely turning the lid round, an astigmatic lens may be formed of a power varying of either lens. when a person who has the defect in question has turned the lid till the power suits his eye, an extremely simple numerical calculation .... enables him to calculate the curvature of the cylindrical surface of a lens for a pair of spectacles which will correct the defect of the eye. 11 this paper had a great impact even though the device had little real value. first, the mathematics was the first demonstration of how obliquely crossed cylindrical lenses could be resolved to a lens of a different cal­ culable power (10). the second impact was of great importance, however as the interest in this paper led many workers and writers to use, curse, change or simply chronicle the stokes' lens, as danders called it, a device claimed to have little value over that of an interesting toy (11). that last epi­ thet is only a slightly exaggerated curse as the device was of little value in refraction (12) though it did serve as a uni versa 1 cylinder for tri a.l lens sets (13). the most important value of the lens, however, was that it was the forerunner of the crossed-cylinder as it is used today. the lens itself was a variable crossed-cylinder. the use for which stokes intended it was as a cylinder. this meant that every change in cylinder had a change in sphere which had to be neutralized. in toto, it was no. better than a set of trial cylinders and could be worse if the power of the correcting cylinder were not very high. one of the last men to modify the stokes' lens was edward jackson. in his work with it, jackson came to the realization of -22how the crossed-cylinder could be used to determine power and axis in a way it had not been intended. the paper and device of stokes• are of interest for other reasons, too. first, writers have commented on stoke•s casual comment about the commonness of astigmatism (14). this comment has been taken to in­ dicate that the frequency of astigmatism as a refractive error was well known even though few articles had appeared in the literature. stokes, however, was a physicist and mathematician and would not usually be one thought to be aware of the frequency of refractive errors. it is known that stokes• paper had its inception out of discourse with his friends airy and goode, two other professors at cambridge who had published works on astigmatism (15) and who may have given him the impression of a wide­ spread knowledge of astigmatism and of a high frequency. a second point of interest about stokes• lens is why something re­ ferred to as little more than a toy would have created so much chronicling and interest. one aspect could be that stokes• paper is casual in its presentation of the frequency of astigmatism and in the presentation of the device which he describes as being so easy and useful to use. these factors could be a stimulus to readers to become up-to-date and study astigmatism and use the lens. stokes • reasons for his wording are not available, but, ironically, could be because he did not really know what he was saying; i.e., that he did not realize that so very few cases of astigmatism had been reported and that he did not realize that his tech­ nique was too insensitive for most cases of astigmatism. another reason for the interest in the stokes • lens must have been from the respect for and interest in a sophisticated, ingenious construction. certainly, too, stokes• stature in the scientific world must have had some impact (16). he became the lucasian professor at cambridge in 1849 and restored the luster of that chair to that of the day of newton. he produced a tremendous number of important papers in physics and mathematics in his role as a scientist, and he served as president of the cambridge philo­ sophical society and as both secretary and president of the royal society of london in his role as a leader in the scientific community. in 1889 he was knighted. references 1irvin m. borish, clinical refraction (3rd ed.; chicago: the pro­ fessional press, inc., 1970), p. 127. 2james r. gregg, the story of optometry (new york: the ronald press co., 1965), p. 99. 3albert barnett, 11 astigmatism: an historical review, .. the optician_, 101 (april, 1941), 160-162, 173-174. robert e. bannon and rita walsh, 11 0n astigmatism. part ihistorical survey, .. american journal of 0 tometr and archives of american academ of optometry, 22 march, 1945 , 101-111. 4john r. levene, clinical refraction and visual science (london: but­ terworths and co., ltd., 1977), p. 203. -235ibid., p. 223. 6f.c. danders, on the anomalies of acconmodation and refraction of the eye, trans. william daniel moore (unabridged republication, boston: milford house, 1972). 7bannon and walsh, lac. cit. 8ibid. 9george gabriel stokes, 11 0n a mode of measuring the astigmatism of a defective eye, 11 report of the british association for 1849, part ii, p. 10 (reprinted in, george gabriel stokes, mathematical and ph sical pa ers (4 vols; cambridge: cambridge university press, 1883, val. ii, p. 172-175). 10m. jalie, the principles of ophthalmic lenses (3rd ed.; london: the association of dispensing opticians, 1977), p. 290. llw.f. dennett, 11 stokes• lens for measuring astigmatism, 11 transactions of the american 0 hthalmolo ical societ, 4 (1998), 106. quoted in several locations. e.g., levene, lac. cit., p. 246). 12donders, lac. cit., p. 487-488. 13stuart e. wunsh, 11 the cross cylinder, 11 clinical ophthalmology, ed. thomas d. duane (5 vols; hagerstown, maryland: harper and row, publishers, 1978), val. 1, chap. 38, p. 1. 14levene, lac. cit. p. 241. 15levene, lac. cit., p. 245. 16 11 george gabriel stokes, 11 dictionar of scientific bio ra h , ed. charles coulston gillispie, val. xiii -24warding off the evil eye--amulets and talismans barbara ann fink the eye undoubtedly seizes more universal fascination than any other part of the body. due to the importance of vision for survival and the many emotions expressed by the eye, rituals and superstitions are obsessed with the omnipresent onlooking eye (1). there is virtually no culture without the evil eye concept (2). the oldest and most persistent of these beliefs is the fear that the eye commands the power to transmit any malignity of its owner and perpetuate afflication wherever its gaze happens to fall. men, therefore, would strive to combat the evil eye. with rites of religion and magic, supplications and sacrifices, he hoped to prevail. in trying to compel the gods or devils to comply with human wishes, symbols and emblems were used. properly defined, emblems represented some person or some attribute personified and expressed an idea, fact, or event distinctly, whereas the symbol merely suggested the idea to be imparted. since there was little discrimination between the symbol itself and the person or object it represented, though, reverence was shown for the symbols of protection (3). such symbols were amulets and talismans, an amulet is anything that was worn as a charm or preventive against evil, mischief, disease, or witchcraft. it could take the form of a stone, plant, piece of writing, or fabrication item (3). both could be made of rare or precious materials or whatever was available. beads, coins, diamonds and other gems, feathers, clase, grasses, animal skin, arrows, and many other substances were used. although the word talisman is now used synonymously with amulet, the former actually served a double purpose -11 to procure love, and to avert mischief from its possessor11 (3). in addition, both were sometimes displayed as ornaments with special purpose and adorned houses and sites of activity or gatherings. they were most useful against the evil eye when in full view so they could catch the poison of the first glance (1). some objects were chosen because, like the pig amulet, they represented animals very susceptible to the evil eye and should catch malignant looks intended for the wearer. others magically protected the wearer (1). the more hideous the amulet, the more effective it was at arresting the evil eye. the glance of the evil eye could be diverted by attracting its attention by exciting curiosity, mirth, or envy of the good fortune flaunted by the amulet (3). the eye itself was considered a patent amulet by many people. a great number of ancient compound amulets in the shape of marble reliefs, medals, and engraved gems have been found in which an eye is the central object, while grouped around it are various animals or other emblems of protecting divinities (j). the eye as a symbol had much significance in egyptian mythology, but the belief in the evil eye did not come about until conquests of egypt by assyrians, persians, greeks, and romans in the last millenium b.c. the explanation for this is that there was a faith in the favorable power of the divine eye, the eye of horus being the symbol of a savior•s sacrifice for the salvation of men (1). representa­ tions of the eye were carved on amulets, painted on walls, vases and mummy -25cases, and cut into gems. a large eye is over the door of the temple of denderah in egypt (3). since these people believed in a dark passage to a future life, they tried to carefully protect their dead with amulets against the evil eye. scarabs and the mystic eye were the most common symbols worn by both the living and the dead. the mystic eye was placed over the incision in the side of the dead body when embalmed and was used as the symbol of egypt (3). due to their belief that vision was caused by a process sent from the eye to the object, the feeling among the ancient greeks that a spirit within the eye, whether benevolent or evil, could affect those looked upon was enhanced (2). amulets were again used to avert the evil eye and thus protect the wearer. the carved heads of medusa are the first of the greek amulets to be known. they are significant not only because they are grotesque enough to capture the attention of the evil eye, but because medusa had the capability to turn men to stone if they looked upon her eye (1). the medusa myth was prevalent in other cultures as well, with some variation. the romans presented medusa as beautiful but with strange eyes. the fear of the evil eye was still connected with her, though. a carry-over from the death-dealing visage of the greek medusa and the start of the trend toward the mask of hideous faces to attract the evil eye were the grylli or chimerae (3). these amulets and talismans appeared early in the development of roman or etruscan art and were unnatural combinations of different animals into a misshapen monster (1). nevertheless, the romans used a symbol much more common than these. although the egyptians, etruscans,. and phoenicians had instituted the phallus as an amulet long before the romans, the best known amulet of the ancient romans against the evil eye was the phallus. roman infants had a coral phallus as a teething ring. boys wore a bulla, a heart-shaped box with .a phallus and other amulets, around his neck. at puberty, the bulla was hung over the heart except during times of danger (1). phalli were also found engraved on chariots and exteriors of buildings. a huge phallus was paraded down the streets during the spring festival of the fertility god liber and presented to the god fascinus to enlist their aid against the evil eye and in protecting the vestial virgins (3). the power to ward off evil in a display of strength, virility and defiance was given to the erect penis (1). the beginning christian church was influenced by other pagan rituals too. the use of bells in the early church came from the custom of driving out demons by bells in ancient pagan temples, the clapper again representing the male principle. looking at paintings of saints or appealing to other religious images could protect against the evil eye. amulets also came in the shapes of the rounded cross (to ward off the jettatura), ladders and rings. christians, hebrews, mohammedans, and ethiopians wore phylacteries, small containers with sacred or magical writing, such as abracadabra (1). with the increased power of reason due to science came a strange combination of logic and superstition in beliefs that controlled man•s -26everyday life. for example, a herbaceous plant called rue was used as a cure for eye disease and as a protection from the evil eye. as early as pliny in the first century a.d., eighty-four remedies connected with rue were listed. anglo-saxons used the leaves and roots for eye problems. greek surgeon paul of aegina (625 to 690 a.d.) advised its use in problems dealing with the lacrimal sac, and arabic physician hunain iba is-hag (809 to 877 a.d.) included it in his book on diseases of the eye. it was also prescribed for night blindness. furthermore, the magical powers of a wreath of rue were used to defend women and children and cure eyes that were sore due to sorcery (1). the cima di ruta means 11 sprig of rue 11 and is a compound amulet made of silver, the metal of the moon goddess diana, with three main branches. numerous amulets (such as a lotus flower, a key, a crescent moon in a curving snake, a heart, a cock, or fish) might be entwined in the branches, symbolizing earth, heaven, and hell (1). branches of other trees and shrubs that could serve as amulets included those of laurel, fleabane, dandelion, mugwort, vervain, misteltoe, mandragora, dill, elder, hound•s tongue, mulberry, rowan, and willow (1). hence, amulets and talismans have taken many forms and have been created from a variety of materials. they all share the common purpose of protecting the wearer from the evil eye. this fear of the evil eye seems to be universal, and even today many of our symbols and customs are prodections of ancient belieft concerning the evil eye. the popularity of the apotropaic eye symbol has also presisted into modern times, rein­ forced by the association with the protecting eye of god. the eye -­ complex, a~some, and delicate -continues to command man•s fascination and interest. references lgifford, edwards., jr., m.d.: the evil e~e -studies in the folklore of vision., new york: the macmillan company,958. 2meerloo, joost, a.m.: intuition and the evil e e -the natural history of a superstition, net er ands: serv1ce wassenaar, 1971. 3elworthy, frederick thomas: the evil eye -an account of this ancient and widespread sup.erstition., london: john murray, 1895. a case of a retinal image being used in the conviction of a murderer stephen a. remsbecker for a long time, man has compared the human eye to a camera. after all, the fundamental design of the camera is based on that of the eye. in the late l800 1 s and early 1900 1 s, this comparison seems to have been carried out to the utmost. numerous cases were reported in the early l920 1 s of the use of retinal images as a means of identifying murders. supposedly, the last image seen by the victim remained fixed in his eyes. these fixed retinal -27images were then photographed to be used as evidence against the murderers since, presumably, the killer would be the last thing seen by the victim's eye. in germany on december 7, 1924, a man named angerstein was convicted of murder on this type of evidence. evidently, he had murdered a number of people, but in examining one of his victims who hadn't closed his eyes, someone noticed a picture in the dead man's eye. supposedly, this picture clearly showed angerstein ap~· preaching the victim with an axe raised over his head. professor bohue of cologne university, commenting on the angerstein case, had this to say, " ••• it is not actually a photo~ graph that remains in the dead man's eye, but under certain nerve~ shocking conditions the nerve center of the eye, mirroring the terror~creating object, loses power to form another reflection and remains fixed. the result is like a photographic plate"(l). the new york times ran an article on the angerstein case on december 8, 1924, and the next day's issue carried an editorial comment on the subject. the writer of the editorial seemed skeptical about the whole idea. he stated that, "what forms on the retina is not a picture at all, though, focused there by the lens in front of it, but is a diversified chemical stimulation of certain micro~ scopic rods and cones, and this almost necessarily is transitory, ending with the end of the stimulation"(2)o so how could you honestly convict a man on the basis of a retinal image? i imagine that there were many skeptics; and those who did believe that it was possible, were still weary of how you could for certain convict a murder on these grounds. some four years previous to the angerstein case, in july of 1920, dr. charles norris, the chief medical examiner of new york city, commented on a case he had in june of the same year. it seems that he was criticized for not having photographed the retina of a murder victim's eye. he countered by explaining that if a retina is cut out and placed before a window, and then, after some time, is put into 4% alum solution; a non~distinct inverted image of the window is obtained. he stresses that this is a very crude method, and most importantly, that even if a perfect picture could be obtained, could you be sure that the last person seen by the victim is always the murderer? it may very well be a nurse, for example, or some other innocent bystander (3). so it appears that there are several reasons why we don't hear as much about the use of retinal images in murder cases today. if possible at all, it's impractical in most cases. any picture that might be obtained will be fairly indistinct. this picture would have to be made using a technique similar to the one that dr. norris describes. the thought of the examiner in the angerstein case actually seeing the picture of the murderer in the victim's eye seems totally absurd, unless of course, the examiner himself was the murderer and was seeing his own reflection in victim's cornea. -28the last object that a person sees before he is killed may not even be a person, but if it is, who's to say that, that person is actually the murderer? adding to the impracticality, is the obvious fact that it can only be used if the murderer is at close range and in full view from the victim's standpoint. so, at least for the time-being, we'll have to continue to rely on fingerprints, lie-detectors, and the like for bringing our murderers to justice. 111 report man's image in dead victim's eye, 11 the new york times, vol. 74, no. 24, 425: dec. 8, 1924, p. 2. 2pictures in dead man's eyes, .. the new york times, vol. 74, no. 24, 426: dec. 9, 1924, p. 24. 3norris, charles m.d., 11 images on the retina, .. the new york times, vol. 69, no. 22, 804: july 1, 1920, p. 12. lenses in prehistory? robert m. fornili the study of the ancient egyptians and their culture inevitably leaves one in awe of the spectacle and achievements of their civilizationo many fascinating facts and even more mysteries unfold for example in such thorough and exhaustive volumes as peter tompkins' secrets of the great pyramido in this erudite approach, a curious reference is made regarding the origins of the egyptian culture and to archeological finds that may predate the dynasties that produced the great pyramids. tompkin5 refers to a 1969 book by peter kolosimo entitled terra senza tempo (timeless earth) in which russian archeological finds have been brought to light that include precise crystal lenses of optical quality. as kolosmio puts it, 11 the full results of their (russians') investigations in the nile valley in the early 60's have not been published, but from advance reports it is clear that egyptian civilization is in fact much older than was previously suspected •••• objects so far brought to light have been shown, by radiocarbon dating, not to be older than some 6,200 years (about 4000 b.c.). but there are other tombs and objects buried deep beneath the sands at saqqara, abydos and helwan, and it is on these predynastic finds that the soviet conclusions are based •• o••• among the finds are spherical crystal lenses of the utmost precision, used no doubt for astronomical observation. similar lenses, it is interesting to note, have been discovered in iraq and also in central australia (presumably by soviet archeologists); today they can be manufactured only by means of a special abrasive based on cerium oxide ... these finds, among other evidence of egyptian knowle~ge of astronomy, have placed in question (by some) our notions of the time span of human historical development. had the ancient library at alexandria remained intact, much more than inference could be drawn about the age and advancement of the egyptian culture. unfortunate too is the vague reference and inaccessibility of the soviet research and of the material finds themselves. -29the egyptians• need for astronomical observation seems far less in doubt than the ability of lenses of some vague description to ful­ fill that need. of course, with adequate optical precision, and proper alignment, it is conceivable that a useful astronomical telescope could have been constructed. however, the mere existence of a precise optical instrument, regardless of its intended use, is significant in itselfo the reference is vague also regarding how (or by whom) the inference about cerium oxide was madeo presumably the precision of the optical surfaces led the russian archeologists to this conclusion. according to f. twyman in optical glassworkings, cerium oxide is a finer grained polishing compound than tne·mare commonly used rouge (ferric oxide) and was introduced for commercial sale in the early 40's. it is a cleaner, faster-working abrasive that is generally considered to produce a·more perfect polish. a few comments about the credibility of the two primary references are in order. firstly, both are principally writers. tomplins• interest in pyramids dates to 1941 and his documentary ability and care to detail surpass any apparent lack of creden­ tials. the book itself is entertaining as well as scientifically erudite. its approximalety 400 pages are amply illustrated and documented, and contain a considerable appendix. on mathematical relationships by livia catullo stecchini, who holds a phd in ancient history from harvard and is now a professor of ancient history. mr. kolosimo, a modern p-hilologist from milans has written a book in a somewhat more sensational vein; as such it must of necessity be regarded with substantial caution. his suggestions about prehistory and the origins of man are slightly more con~ servative than other such authors as erich vondaniken*, nevertheless the multitude of 11 facts" and references are often cloaked in rhetoric and are difficult to verify or substantiate. his theories are not impossibilities, yet the evidence (russian finds) is remote. we are left in childlike wonder that these remarkable specimens may someday unfold further forgotten chapters of our past. *erich vondaniken is a dutch author who has authored chariots of the gods and other related works that suggest, on even more elusive evidence, that man's technology and intellect owe to visitation from extraterrestrial space travelers. pbs has recently aired a useful refutation of his exposition in its nova series, entitled 11ancient astronauts." references kolosimo, peter timeless earth, bantam books, new york, 1975 (translated by paul stevenson from terra senza tempo, milan, 1968). tompkins, peter, secrets of the great pyramid, harper and row, new york, 1971. twyman, f., optical glassworking, heliger and watts, ltd., london, 1955. -30the invention and early history of retinoscopy gerry adams most inventions appear and are developed in answer to a need. the development of retinoscopy was no exception. before the 1800's optometrists• (or opticians') role was simply the selling of eyeglasses. the purchaser of spectacles pretty much just picked out glasses that suited them. there were no optometrists as we know them today. it wasn't until 1843 that the trial case was invented and its use described. also in that same year the first use of a numbering system for designating acuity was proposed (1). by the first decade of the twentieth century, however, optometrists were pushing for legal recognition of their profession. thus a great deal happened in the development and dissemination of information on refraction in those years. this included the discovery and development of retinoscopy. the first discussion of the phenomenon of retinoscopy came in 1862. in that year bowman described a method of rotating the ophthalmoscope mirror to determine irregular astigmatism (2). eleven years later, in 1873, a frenchman named cuignet described the use of retinoscopy for determining the presence of and measuring every kind of ammetropia including hyperopia, myopia and astigmatism. cuignet is commonly given the credit for the invention of retinoscopyo he gave the procedure the name 11 keratoscopie 11 , because he mistakenly believed the phenomenon was due to the cornea (3). it wasn't until 1882 that charnly gave the full optical explanation (4). in the ensuing twenty years the subject was discussed and written on by many authors and given many nameso it was variously referred to as 11 dioptroscopy, the fundus reflex test, keratoscopie, fantoscopy, pupil1 oscopy, reti nophtoscopy, ski as copy, skimaetry, umbrascopy, etc. 11 ( 5) 0 in 1897 james thorington published a book titled retinoscopy which is the term by which the procedure is commonly known today. even then its value in refracting children, the mentally retarded, amblyopes, and other poor responders was known and appreciated-(5). numerous sources listed its advantages as objectivity, speed, and inexpensiveness. as is the case now, it was recommended by thorington as a starting point in a typical refraction, and not the complete determination in itself. retinoscopy at the turn of the century bore summary resemblance to that practiced today. typically the retinoscope was not self-illuminated, depending on light from an acetylene, gasolene, kerosene or calcium carbide lamp of high intensity. the 11 de zeng 11 luminous retinoscope was one of the first to have a self-contained power source and was available around the turn of the century (7). both static and dynamic retinoscopy had been described. by 1900, when optometry was making its move toward becoming legally recognized as a profession, retinoscopy was a well-developed technique, done, with the exception of a few refinements, much as we use it today. no doubt its use contributed greatly to the appropriate determination of refractive prescription and no doubt it added legitimacy to the struggling new profession's claims. -311optometry, h. w hofstetter; c.v. mosby co., st. louis, mo.; 1948, pp. 30-31. 2the royal london op~1thalmic hospital reports," vol. ii, p. 157 as c i ted i n ( 7) • 3"rec. d1 0phthalmology," 1873, pp. 14 anri 316; as cited in (7). 4"london ophthalmic hospital reports, x,3, p. 344; as cited in (7). 5retinoscoly, thorington, p. blackiston, son and col; 1012 walnut st., philade phia, pa, 1898. 6as in (5). 7a system of ocular skiametry, cross, frederick bader publishing co., 36 madison lane, ny, ny; 1903, pp. 27-37. 8skiascopy, jackson, herrick book and stationery co., denver, colorado, 1905. 9refraction and how to refract, thorington, p. blackiston, son and co., 1012 walnut st., philadelphia, pa, 1907. (see also a centenary of retinoscopy, millodot, jaoa, vol. 44, no. 10, p. 1057 ed.) glasses should never be worn marcia fruehling eye exercises, massage, and eye baths can be done religiously and eventually no one will need glasses. this is what bernarr macfadden believed and wrote about in his book strong eyes. his book was copy­ righted in 1901 and furnished information on how to "save thousands of sufferers from the necessity of wearing glasses" (p. 2). one belief at the turn of the century was that the entire eye should be considered, (i.e.) the optical system as well as the eyeball. another belief was that in order for one•s eyes to be beautiful a person must have perfect digestion, a healthy and energetic circulation of the blood, and a delicate nervous poise (p. 14). therefore the prescription for weak eyes was a constitutional one, for this was considered the only sure treatment for weakness and defects of the eyes. such treat­ ment would bring about proper adjustment of the nervous system of which the visual system is an important part. but to the despair of bernarr macfadden the "specialist" reconmended the use of "local correctives", the final effect of which mr. macfadden believed would permanently impair if not absolutely destroy the organ subject to such treatment (p. 23). the eyes were to be considered asthe thermometer of health to the oculist. the first step of diagnosis of every case submitted for treatment was to be a careful investigation of the patient•s general physical condition (p. 32). following such an investigation the pre-32scription was to be a 11 simple nutritious and abstemious diet, fresh air and exercise ... 11 {p. 32). next to physical weakness, overwork was considered a chief cause of weak eyes. the following is an example of how glasses were considerd to lead to the further detriment of the eyes. for years a mother sews by a dim inadequate light. she does not rest when they feel fatigued. at length her eyes give out. she consults an oculist, who prescribes and furnishes spectacles and she considers herself cured. little does she realize that she has but made use of a crutch for the eyes. for the time being they enable the eyes to continue their work with less effort, but at the same time the very condition they were prescribed to relieve is made chronic. the crutch has become a permanent necessity and like the man who acquires the habit of using stimulants, the mag­ nifying power of the glasses must be made gradually greater to accommodate the consistantly increasing demand made upon them. the ultimate effect of all this in many cases is permanent weakness of the eyes and not infrequently total blindness is ultimately induced. (p. 36) therefore bernarr macfadden believed that the defect that was to be remedied was either made worse or chronic by the false theory of treatment (glasses). now to look at the constitutional treatment recommended to cure the eyes. first one was to adopt for a short time a diet of only one or two meals per day, such that beneficial results would be realized more quickly. exercise or long walks were considered good for a person. also baths were to be taken daily or at least two or three times per week. now for therapy more specifically applied to the eye. the theory of eye exercises was that they. draw blood to the muscles and this secures a better quality of nourishment. one was to be careful while doing these ex­ ercises for the first time and they were not to be overdone. they should be done once a day followed by slight massage and an eye bath (p. 83). 1. look far to the right then far to the left 2. close eyes as tight as possible several times 3. turn eyes obliquely upward to the right and then obliquely downward to the left -orroll eyes in a wide circle to the right. 4. look far upward then far downward 5. turn eyes from obliquely upward at left to obliquely downward to right -orroll eyes in a wide circle to the left 6. look straight forward and try to clearly distinguish the smallest details of objects at a distance (p. 90) -33next an eye massage was to be done. massaging of the eyes caused acceleration of the venous blood and assisted the system in the elimination of impurities that would have a deleterious effect if allowed to remain (p. 78). the following is a description on how to do an eye massage: "press finger and thumb around socket, pressing as lightly as possible on eye-ball, endeavoring to massage the eye muscles" (p. 81). after the massage was attempte'd an eye bath was to be prepared. "fill an ordinary bowl half full of water and then stir in one heaping tablespoonful of salt until thoroughly dissolved" (p. 91). the face was to be placed in the water as long as one could hold his breath. with their face immersed the person was to open and close the eyes two or three times. the whole process was to be repeated two or three times. all of the above treatments of reduced or improved diet, exercise, as well as eye exercises, eye massages, and eye baths were to be considered very beneficial to every individual. but for those who had acquired glasses, the above treatments were considered so beneficial that they could some day discard their glasses. strong eyes how weak eyes may be strengthened and spectacles discarded by bernarr macfadden copyrighted 1901 by bernarr macfadden, physical culture publishing, co. color and painting at the turn of the twentieth century a school of art known as the nee-impressionists was very prominent. the influence of preceding artists and the works in physiological optics on the nee-impressionists is the subject of an article by faber birren in color (vol. 4, no. 4, winter 1979). special emphasis is given to men like the scientist ogden n. rood (1931-1902) who had a direct influence on artists by his writings on color and color perception. rood's modern chromatics (1879) was con­ sidered "the bible" to artists like george seurat. known for his pointillistic style, seurat carried modern chromatics everywhere he went. ironically, rood disliked the nee-impressionist movement and once said "if that is all i have done for art, i wish i had never written that book." the article provides not only excellent illustrations but also gives biographical sketches of less well known men like charles henry (18591926) and m.e. chevreul (1786-1889). advertising history the october 1979 issue of optometric management gave the o.h.s. a nice blurb in the "you and the news" column. it read: -3411 if you are a history buff, or one who wants to support the work of colleagues who are, join the optometric historical society. the small group publishes a well­ written newsletter and works to gather optometric and optical memorabilia and information so as to record fully the professions's history. to join, just send $5 to the society, 243 north lindbergh blvd., st. louis, mo 63141. ii what goes on behind the eye in tracing the history of investigations in v1s1on and ocular function johannes kepler achieved a milestone. kepler was the first to describe with accuracy the retinal image and the contributions of the optical components in forming the image. after long calculations and deliberations, kepler was forced to conclude that the retinal image was indeed inverted. to exp 1 a in how we saw the world as we do, kep 1 er divided the ocular sys fern into two parts. the first part he had successfully described. the second part begins with the retina and what occurs back to the brain. in ad vitellionem paralipomena kepler sets the stage for the development of the visual sciences we now call psychophysics and neurology. i say that vision occurs when the image of the whole hemisphere of the world that is before the eye ... is fixed on the reddish white concave surface of the retina. how the image or picture is composed by the visual spirits that reside in the retina and the (optic) nerve, and whether it is made to appear before the soul or the tribunal of the visual faculty by a spirit within the hollows of the brain, or whether the visual faculty, like a magistrate sent by the soul, goes forth from the administrative chamber of the brain into the optic nerve and the retina to meet this image, as though descending to a lower court(all) this i leave to be disputed by the physicists. for the armament of opticians does not take them beyond this first opaque wall encountered within the eye. (lindberg, david, theories of vision from al-kindi to kepler, p. 203) a.o.e. history: though less than 10 years old the association of optometric educators, founded in 1970, of course has a history. but the details of an organiza­ tion of such modest size could easily be lost. i recall taking over the presidency of the then 13 year old association of schools and colleges of optometry in 1973 and asking my predecessor to send me the association's files as soon as possible. his response was 11 what files? .. ! the same, however, appears not to have happened with deborah adler­ grinberg, the new president of a.o.e. she has reviewed the founding and development of the a.o.e. in historical perspective in the summer 1979 issue of the journal of optometric education, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 14-15. h. w h. -35editor's note although my association with the optometric historical society is young, the ultimate pleasure has been meeting the members. any interesting historical information readers find and forward to me will be gratefully received. it also affords me the· opportunity to meet more of you! officers elected save the best for last! well, not actually. due to a slight confusion on my part, the election of officers was delayed. fortunately the last tallies were received just in time to be added. the new officers for the calendar year of 1980 are as follows: president------------james leeds vice-president-------james tumblin secretary-treasurer--maria dablemont directors------------grace weiner and henry knoll d.k. penisten, editor 1980-11-02-001 1980-11-02-002 1980-11-02-003 1980-11-02-004 1980-11-02-005 1980-11-02-006 1980-11-02-007 1980-11-02-008 1980-11-02-009 1980-11-02-010 1980-11-02-011 1980-11-02-012 1980-11-02-013 1980-11-02-014 1980-11-02-015 1980-11-02-016 1980-11-02-017 hindsight: journal of optometry history 103 the american optometric student association in the early 1980s david w. nelson, od drdavidwnelson@ eyecontactmadison.com the founding and early years of the american optometric student association (aosa) are documented in this issue of hindsight by ray myers and ron ferrucci. this author became involved in asoa in february, 1981 as a trustee-elect from indiana university and was elected its seventeenth president in january, 1984 at the aosa congress held at that time in anaheim, california. this author’s following years of involvement in organized optometry resulted in his election to serve as president of the wisconsin optometric association, as the youngest trustee of the american optometric association (aoa) in 1994 and eventually the youngest elected aoa president in its history in 2001, which still holds today. by 1984, aosa had evolved into a well-developed organization representing well over 80% of the nation’s optometry students in seventeen schools and colleges of optometry in the united states, canada and puerto rico. by that time, the aosa president was responsible for the aosa board meetings, the annual aosa congress meeting and for appointing liaisons to many of the national collegial associations. appointed by the aosa president in 1984 were liaisons to the american academy of optometry (aao), american college of physicians (acop), american public health association (apha), american optometric association political action committee (aoa/pac), the college of optometrists in vision development (covd), the national board of examiners in optometry (nbeo), the international association of board of examiners in optometry (iab), and the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco). in addition, the aosa president personally addressed the house of delegates at the american optometric association’s annual congress meeting on behalf of aosa, held in 1984 in hawaii.1 the early 1980’s saw a change from the more radical years of student activism in the 1970’s. by 1984, the economy of the united states was improving, and with the anticipation of los angeles hosting the 1984 olympics – the first time the olympics had been held in the us in more than 50 years – there was a new sense of patriotism. the now famous 1984 apple commercial aired during the super bowl, introduced the new macintosh, the first mass-produced apple personal computer. the addition of a permanent aosa executive director in 1981, housed in the american optometric association’s main headquarters in st louis, helped legitimize and mainstream aosa in a number of organizations in optometry. carol freihaut went on to serve the american optometric student association as its executive director for over twenty-five years and is largely responsible continuing and growing the presence of aosa. she maintained a continuing bridge of knowledge for the revolving student leaders who had at most two or three years to learn the ropes while representing students across many optometric organizations. it is impossible to give her enough credit for the ultimate success of aosa which continues today. my involvement in aosa began as a trustee-elect from indiana university school of optometry, mentored by article david w. nelson, od aosa president (iu, 1984) & aoa president (2002) david w. nelson was the first aosa president to become an aoa president (photo courtesy of aosa). 104 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 article david w. nelson, od the newly elected aosa president, jim rowe. jim was elected aosa president in 1982 by the aosa trustees and he turned to his trustee-elect, dick (richard) brown, to continue as the indiana trustee. professor ed bennett at indiana university was a significant factor in my admission to the school. he is as much a mentor and friend to me today as he was then. he comments to his current students now at the university of missouri st. louis school of optometry that they should set goals and objectives for their career. he uses the example of a former student at indiana university he knew well who identified during his first year of optometry school his interest in serving as aosa president and later as aoa president. that person he refers to was me. i had forgotten i discussed my goals with him until years later when dr. bennett reminded me of our discussions while jogging.2 dr. bennett headed an informal group of students called “running optometrists” who ran two to five miles, twice each week, and it was there that i shared my goals and objectives for my involvement in aosa and aoa. as trustee-elect, i assumed the trustee responsibilities from dick brown when he became president of aosa the following year. in running for the presidency in 1984, my concern was that having had two presidents from indiana in a row, the trustees might decide to rotate the position regardless of the candidates’ credentials. the trustees at the time however, decided that a hat-trick of three in a row indiana trustees becoming aosa president would be just fine. the position of aosa president by this time was formalized and garnered respect from many organizations in optometry. the aosa president would be invited to serve in the “aoa structure” of committees appointed by the aoa president and as such, was invited to the aoa planning meeting, annual congress and fall planning meetings held around the country. at the annual aoa congress held at the fiscal year end for aoa, the aosa president would address the house of delegates in a speech. the aosa president also served as a student member of the national board of examiners in optometry board and the association of state examining boards. in addition to the aosa trustee meetings held twice each year representing the schools, the aosa president presided over the annual aosa congress held in january each year, hosted by a school selected by the aosa trustees in the previous year. the competition for a school hosting the aosa congress was typically very heated between two schools wanting to showcase their campus. there was a development of state examining boards requiring approval of state continuing education through a review for fee credentialing process called council on optometric practitioner education (cope). this certified that a course given for continuing education in a state meeting met educational and ethical standards, a system which continues to this day. when i took over as aosa president, the national issues of the time for aoa were eyeglass prescription release rules being issued by the federal trade commission (ftc). in rules called “eyeglasses i and ii”, the ftc mandated prescription release by optometrists following eye examinations that included a refraction. knowing that the mandated prescription release would affect the business practice of optometry greatly and also because of the continued exclusion of optometric services in medicare, many states were starting to increase scope of practice to allow diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents. optometric academic institutions had already changed greatly to provide the academic background necessary for these initiatives, yet there was still concern and confusion regarding the direction of the profession of optometry. there were many practicing optometrists around the country in each state who felt optometric services should be mainly visual/refractive and not involve the treatment and management of ocular disease. “detect and refer” was the mainstay of optometric thought for the future for many long-practicing optometrists in the field. this change was apparent to me as the new aosa president entering a national stage in 1984 – i sensed division in the aoa board of trustees at that time, as well as change of direction for the national board responsible for developing entry level testing for the profession. in addition, there were changes in the state boards to become more open to entering graduates, a standardization of tests for state licensure, and a willingness to accept a national test in place of local state entry examinations. as aosa president, many organizations would ask for the support, however symbolic, of student opinions and concerns, typically asking for a statement of endorsement. on one of these issues, there was a small confrontation between the students represented by me at aosa and the national board over the increasing costs of a three-part board test during the last years of optometric study. the national board wanted me to endorse the new test they had developed and as aosa president, promote it in advertisements, encouraging students to support the new testing program. i declined after hindsight: journal of optometry history 105 article david w. nelson, od great pressure from norm wallis, the national board executive at the time in 1985, to endorse the new test as aosa president. the nbeo moved forward with the new concept practical exams regardless. gaining a sense of the national optometric landscape was eyeopening for me as a young student and new president of aosa. aosa had their own programs for members; from membership continuation, budgetary concerns, the development and reporting of various aosa board activities, the annual aosa congress and liaisons to the aforementioned affiliate organizations. aosa activities for the year are best documented in the quarterly publication, foresight. the april foresight publication in 1984 highlighted the activities of that year for aosa.3 according to my president’s column, the goals and objectives for the 1984-1985 year were to: 1) computerize the main office in st louis, 2) improve the communication ability of each local trustee with the main office ‘possibly’ by electronic mail, 3) provide practice management and finance benefits to third or fourth year students, and 4) help the aoa/ aosa computerized placement service in serving providers and seekers of optometric practice. the publication also included articles from liaisons to the various organizations such as a volunteer optometric services to humanity (vosh) trip to the philippines by illinois college of optometry students, an article about the apha convention and the relatively newly-created vision care section, an aoa-pac article, an article announcing the establishment of a memorial scholarship in the name of dr. john levene, who had passed suddenly the previous winter, an article covering a research paper given in vienna, austria by a northeastern oklahoma state university optometry student, dan bintz, and an engagement announcement of two leaders in aosa from ohio, tim staarman and michelle lesko, who met at the ohio state university. the final foresight publication before my term ended featured the upcoming aosa congress in st. louis, including a private reception for aosa students at the gateway arch in st. louis. the president’s column covered the year’s activities which included the regionalization of the nbeo and the proposed ‘practical’ third portion, an aoa fellowship proposal for a master’s program in business in conjunction with the aoa and the school in st louis, the development of referral centers in optometry such as the omni referral centers, and a comprehensive list of post-graduate residencies – the feature of the november publication that year.4 there were at that time, many residencies available as an option for students in the areas of pediatric, geriatric, contact lens, low vision, va hospital, primary care, vision therapy and referral center residencies. in reviewing the documents from my time of serving as aosa president, i came across names of those previously involved such as drs. ferrucci and myers. i also noticed names of individuals involved in aosa that went on to serve on the aoa staff, such as beth kneib, some who have served in educational roles in various schools – one of which became a recent dean of an optometry school, kelley nichols, some who have served in their state associations (too many to name), some that serve in industry, some serving in the military and public health organizations, and even some who have gone on to serve in their state legislatures and congress! it demonstrates that aosa is an extremely important and valuable organization for the profession of optometry. it is a place for those who want to contribute, foremost a vehicle for productive maturation for individuals to gain experience in leadership. the following january would mark the end of my term as aosa president during the st louis aosa congress and would feature an important milestone in aosa history – the election of the first female aosa president, beth kneib. in fact, the entire executive committee would be all female for the first time in the history of the organization! references 1. aosa name and address list for trustees and liaisons, 1984-85. 2. ed bennett email to the author, june 11, 2017. 3. nelson d. president’s column. aosa foresight, april, 1984;14(2). 4. nelson d. president’s column. aosa foresight, november, 1984;14(4). note aosa published a newsletter distributed to all student members called foresight, which was renamed from the american optometric student review during the late 1970’s. two of its issues served as references 3 and 4 for this paper. hindsight_48_4_final 21 hindsight_48_4_final 22 hindsight_48_4_final 23 (243 north volume 10 newsletter of the )fptometric historical society lindbergh boulevard, saint louis, missouri, october 1979 a decade of historical notes: nov 2 91979 number 4 this issue completes ten years of this newsletter, a total of 40 numbers. to give the full set an added value all 40 issues have been indexed together. the index is a supplement to this issue. history~ international: while new o.h.s. members are always very special to us, the two newest ones are especially special, from lands very far apart. one is the israel opticians and optometrists association, p.o.b. 2826, tel aviv, israel, and the other is roy brown, o.d., president of the canadian association of optometrists, p.o. box 190, virden, manitoba rom 2co, canada. those fascinating irides: the iris is fascinating not only because its plural is irides (rhymes with eye-lid-ease) and because it derives from the greek word meaning rain­ bow, but also because it functions in a manner that challenges physiologists, anatomists, photometrists, artists, and poets alike, to name a few. but more. almost exactly a century ago, in 1880 or 1881, a hungarian physician, dr. ignatz von peczely, born either in 1822 or 1826, and died in 1911, pub­ lished what may have been his only book, an alleged method of diagnosis of bodily ills and defects by examination of the patient•s iris and comparison with a detailed chart of the iris. each section of the iris was said to correlate with an organ, a component or region of the body, or a function. the methodology has been variously called 11 irisdiagnosis 11 , 11 iridiagnosis 11 , 11 iridodiagnosis 11 , 11 iridology 11 , and 11 diagnosis from the eye 11 by subsequent authors and practitioners of the cult, almost all of whom identify dr. peczely as the 11 discoverer 11 • the practice appears to have been introduced to the english speaking world by henry edward lane in a book entitled 11 diagnosis from the eye 11 pub­ lished simultaneously in chicago by kosmos publishing co. and in london by l. n. fowler & co. in 1904. a subsequent author and long time proponent of the art, j. haskel kritzer, ~1.d., whose fifth edition of 11text-book of iridiagnosis 11 was published by the author in 1924 in los angeles, according to a sticker insert, but printed in chicago and copyrighted in 1921, and whose seventh edition was published in los angeles in 1948 by the kritzer educational foundation, credited the introduction of the system into the u.s. to henry e. lahn, m.d., whose book had the same title and date as that of henry edward lane. kritzer also states that l:lenry lindlahr, m.d., lahn's pupil, published the book 11 iridiagnosis 11 in 1917. the sixth edition of lindlahr's book was published by the lindlahr publishing co, chicago, in 1924. in 1916 a two volume bofrk by nils liljequist, a homeopathic physician in stockholm,entitled 11 the diagnosis from the eye 11 and translated by j. d. larson, was published by the iridology publishing company in rockford, illinois. the translator called liljequist the 11 discoverer of the dia·g­ nosis from the eye", but liljequist himself, in words presumably translated by larson, credited the discovery to peczel.j:! in 1962 and in 1968 theodore kriege ptlblished the first and second editions, respectively, of his 11 fundamental basis of irisdiagnosis 11 in german, the second edition of which was tr.anslated into eng·l ish and pub­ lished in london by l. n. fowler a-nd co. in 1969, with a revised edition in 1975. kriege's book lists 14 other authors of iridodiagnosis publications and a periodical griskorrespondenz for the years 1931-37, all in german. why do i bother to mention a11 of these details, the credibility of much of which i cannot vouch for even though i derived it from printed pages? i do so merely because it is ophthalmic history, apparently not in­ volving optometrists themselves but certainly brought to individual op­ tometrists' attention quite perennially. i recall somewhat excruciatingly having attended a dinner meeting in los angeles in about 1950 at which dr. kritzer spoke. using dr. kritzer's colorful chart of the iris my dinner companion diagnosed me as having a defectiv:e organ which has yet to give me any trouble. i conclude that all of this may well ~ evidence for the mythical assertion that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow .. a time for culture: ---the reproduction at the right is from a report of the aoa (then the american associ­ ation of opticians) convention of 1908 in philadelphia which appeared in the august 20 issue of the optical journal, vol. 22, no. 8, p. 348. \vedxesday, at:g. 12, 2.30 p. m. :;pf.cial program, egyptian hall, john waxa:i!.\ker'5.· :\ir. \villi am bourke sulli \:an, basso­ cantante; lliss r!jt:a silberstein, ·pian­ ist; dr. ). lewis browne, organist. i. organ-introduction to act. iii and brid~tl chorus ,;lohcngrin," (\vag­ ncr), dr. drowne. 2. songs with piano-( a) "thy beam­ i;lgeyes" (:\jacdo,,·ell), (b) '"had a ht,rsc" (korba,·). :\!iss silberstein. j. cone.erto icr ·piano in c minor, op. 37 (lketho\·cn), "\ lkgro co•1 trio, :\[iss silberstt•in: ~ nn:h,·st ra ,.core in rclluc-· tion for urgan). 4.soul!, with piano-"'fhis earth \\"ere ht:t\'cn'' (browne), new; tirst timr. 5(a) · ga,·ottc. irom ".:mignon" ~ 1 homas) ; (b) i ntcrmezzo geutile (.new), ( browne), dr. brow.ne. 6. ~rttion pictun~s--(a.) "atlantic voyage"; (b) ;.paul rcyere." -59fundus photography history: librarian r. hurtes wrote the 22 page chapter entitled ''evolution of ophthalmic photography" in the summer 1976 issue of international ophthal­ mology clinics, vol. 16, no. 2. this issue is entitled ophthalmic photo­ graphy and is edited by johnny justice, jr., as a hard cover book. the author describes early attempts to record fundus appearances by the artistic painting of ophthalmoscopic observations on canvas and identifies a 1907 publication by dimmer as the first textbook of fundus photographs. the first human fundus photograph is said to have been made by jackman and webster in 1886. fifty nine references are listed. the expansion of the art is clearly evidenced by the founding of the ophthalmic photographers' society in 1969 with a current membership in excess of 250 members. a letter from damien smith: in the july 1979 (vol. 10, no. 3) issue of the newsletter of the optometric historical societl, you referred {page 54) to a layland articre-in the australian journa of optometry which mentioned the aoa and the bma. you asked the origin of the 11 b11 • bma was, and still is, the british medical association. around 1879, medical practitioners in the various states of australia constituted themselves as branches of the british medical association, coming together to form a feder a 1 counci 1 of the bma in australia. it was not until 1962 that an autonomous australian medical association, with state branches, was formed. consequently, the body representing organised medicine in australia, and with whom organised optometry (australian optometrical association, established 1918) fought, was the british medical association. the formation of the bma in australia was from circumstances not different to those from which most professional associations have emerged. for instance, fn victoria, a port phillip medical association was formed in 1846, to become the victorian medical association in 1852 and the ~·1edical society of victoria in 1861. a statute to control medical practice was passed in 1856. in the early 1870's a handful of medical practitioners became disgruntled with the medical society of victoria over such issues as 11quackery" by medical practitioners licensed through a grandfather clause in the 1856 statute, advertising of miracle cures by prominent members of the society and disputes over the editorship of a local medical journal. one of the dissidents travelled to london and returned with a written message from the president of bma inviting the establishment of australian branches of bma. this proved timely as there was a growing realisation of 'scientific medicine' and the need for international links. thus, in 1879 the medical profession in the various states of australia came together as branches of the bma, and to remain so constituted for over 80 years. while this explanation may not excite you, it \'jill prove that the newsletter not only reaches the antipodes, but is actually read. my congratulations on a fine newsletter. damien p. smith, executive director australian optometri~al association three 1867 advertisements: mrs. rev. henry ward beecher, of brooklyn, after using the ivory eye-cups, orders a pair for the wife of rev. charles beecher, of georgetown, mass. stereopticons and magic lanterns, with the latest improvements and best lenses, snit­ e.])le for schools, public exhibitions, and parlor en­ tertainments. priced catalogue, with list of over 2000 artistically colored photographic views, sent cree by mall. t. h. :!ileal listen, opttcian, 49 nassau st., n.y. restore your sight ! spectacles and surgical operations rendered uselesii!t the inestimable blessing of sight fs made perpetual by the use of the new patent dl.1 proved ivory eye cui's. : many of our most eminent pkyflfeiam, omdibts, stwl.entll, and divines have had their sight restored , and permanently cured of: '1 1. impaired vision. 2. presbyopia; or, far sightedness. ' 3. asthenopia; or, weak_eyes. 4. epiphora-~unning or watery eyes. i' 5. sore eyes. g. weaknessoftheretina,oroj>ticncrve.; b. photophobia; or, intolerance of light. ---------------::-:--::-:: 1. ophthalmia; or, injlammatlon ol' the eye. 'i 9. ptotis; or, falling of the eyelids. 10. myodesopia, moving specks before the eyes. old eyes made 11. amaurosis; or, obscunty of vision. new eabt1y and with-f.---~ 12. cataracts, and worst disorders. of the eye. out doctor or medi-~~ '\ any one can use the ivory eye-cups without cines. sent postpaid the aid of doctor or medicine so as to receive on receipt of-10 cents. ( ayia'iihith sptctacles. immediate beneficial results, and never wear spectacles; foote or, if using now, to lay them aside /<never. over 5000 dr. e. b. • '----' certificates of cases where a cure was previously guar· 1130 broadway, n.y. anteed, may be seen at our o:ftice. we fi'u13:aqo(ae a. cure m every case where the directions are followed, or we will refund the nwney. for sale by drugg~ts and oculists. to receive our treatise on the eye by return mail free, send your full address to da. j. ball & co., box 101, p. 0. 128 nassau st.,new york. l'!r for the worst cases of myopia, or near­ sightedness, use our new myopic attach­ ments, easily adjusted and apijlied to the ivory eye­ cups. send for a pamphlet. the above three advertisements appeared among several others on a tearsheet said to have been removed 11 frrom an 1867 harper's monthly magazine. 11 -61an interview with dr. chester irion: --(the following is a december 1978 report by paul piekarczyk, o.d., a 1979 graduate of the indiana university school of optometry) the main part of this report deals roughly with the years 1910-1935 in dr. irion's life. he was born in august of 1903 in louisville, kentucky. he now is retired and resides in clarksville, indiana. it is said optometry started in the jewelry store. dr~ irion is living proof of that statement. he first began practicing in 1925 in jeffersonville and stayed in this city until the great depression of 1929. he practiced in a separate room in a jewelry store owned by his father, who was a combination jeweler, watch repairer, and diamond setter. his office, so to speak, con­ sisted of a single room measuring about 8 by 15 feet (2.5 x 4.5 m) and the only access to it was through the jewelry store itself. to say he practiced only optometry from 1925-1929 would be misleading. rather, ninety-five percent of his working time was spent dealing with the jewelry business where he waited on customers, sold jewelry, and repaired watches. he himself admits to being a fairly good watch repairer. the main reason for spending such a small amount of time on optometry was the number of patients he had. if he saw one to two patients per day he con­ sidered himself lucky. at this time there was also another optometrist, will j. morris, and an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in the town. in 1930 he moved and opened an office in corydon, indiana. from then on it was to be strictly optometry. his practice became successful in this city and he found he could make more money as a full-time optometrist than as a part-time jeweler. he was the only vision care person in all of cory­ don. in dr. irion's first ten years of practice he very seldom examined a child. vision care for school children as a definite goal was simply non­ existent. in his grade school days he could not recall any of h~s fellow classmates wearing glasses and in high school only a fe\·j wore them. it was unheard of for a grade school to have the vision of its students tested. in his wife's 1921 high school graduation yearbook only five out of ninety­ five students had glasses on. in the 1910's and 1920's glasses were pri~ marily for adults. around 1935 he first started seeing a few children. before the mid-thirties his patients were about half men and half women, whose ages usually ranged between 40 to 70 and whose visual errors were mainly presbyopia and a few with myopia. today of course optometrists have a wide variety of frames for one to choose from. when dr. irion first began the opposite was true. selection and color choice was quite limited. eight out of ten of his patients ended up before 1929 with a 40 mm completely round saddle bridge lens with a black shell metal rim around it. another popular type was a templeless pair of glasses which had a spring device in the bridge which clamped onto the nose. he recalls that 11 they were like hell to adjust but surprisingly would stay on a person even if he ran." the entire cost for glasses ranged from eight to twelve dollars with bifocals costing about fifteen dollars. -62· some cost eighteen dollars but these were considered to be very expensive. yet, in general, glasses were considered as an expensive item and this discouraged some people from obtaining them. also, generally speaking, people didn•t want to wear glasses and shied away from them unless they really needed them. indiana required in 1922 nine months of specialized schooling to become an optometrist. at the same time right across the border in kentucky only three months were required. in the fall of 1922 dr. irion first started at northern illinois college of optometry. it was located in a building at state and randolph in chicago, across the street from marshall fields, and consisted of from four to six rooms on the seventh floor. there were forty other students attending \'lhile he was there. although he can•t recall the tuition cost because his father took care of it, he does remember that he roomed in chicago for five dollars a month. acceptance to 11 i 11 i noi s 11 was no prob 1 em and in fact was rather easy. there never was a question of being accepted. but a high school diploma was required. the college was not highly structured in that dr. irion would go to school for a few months, come home for a few months, and repeat this cycle. he was in no rush to graduate because a person had to be twenty-one to take the state board tests. the concept of pure professionalism in optometry can provide a good lesson from some events in dr, irion•s early life. in new albany, indiana, there was a woman optometrist by the name of nellie connors. she was practicing strictly optometry in a very professional manner in a separate office with no ties whatsoever to the jewelry business during the 1910 1 s when dr. irion was in grade school and high school. he recalls she had a large number of patients, and he has a very high regard for her to this day. she died in 1946 or 1947. the most im~ortant fact was that even though she was a woman and an optometrist she was strictly referred to as doctor connors and not miss connors. when dr. irion first practiced in his father•s jewelry shop he was referred to as mr. irion. but once he began his office in corydon in 1930 exclusively as an optometrist he was referred to as doctor. the conclusion stands out that if a person expects to be called a health professional he must act like one. words alone won•t do it. during his first ten years of practice dr. irion recalls that the difference between optometry and the medical profession was great. the word ophthalmologist was not used but rather eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist (e.e.n.t. specialist). m.d.•s would have very little to do with an optometrist and didn•t like optometry at all. in general the medical profession wanted to create with the public the idea that an optometrist was not the person to go to in any way, shape, or form for an eye problem because he wasn•t qualified to detect eye diseases. they didn•t want to make optometry a part of their pr9fession but instead wanted to limit it. most m.d. 1 s sent a patient who needed eye care to an e.e.n.t. specialist with very few referrals to an optometrist. the e.e.n.t. -63doctor would say the optometrist was not qualified. yet dr. irion is quick to point out that at that time any m.d. could set himself up as an e.e.n.t. practitioner with little or no extra training. dr. irion's office in 1935 when he opened a part-time practice in new albany was across the street from a dr. edwards, an e.e.n.t. specialist. socially he was on fairly friendly terms with dr. edwards and visited him occasionally. but their talk was never on a professional basis, strictly social. any patients dr. irion referred to dr. edwards he seldom got back. dr. edwards considered him as a rival. but dr. irion did have some good friends who were general medical practitioners who sent him patients. when he first started out, one big name in indiana optometry was jim hammond of vincennes. he was highly regarded throughout the state and was a brilliant optometrist. whatever dr. hammond said most indiana optometrists believed. a couple of other old timers were dr. wolfe from franklin and dr. grubs from frankfort. throughout his beginning years in practice the newspaper was considered as a good means of advertising. he and other optometrists would place ads in the newspaper. no one thought anything about it. it was just normal. his ad was in the form of a business card stating his name, address, and the word 11 0ptometrist. 11 most other optometrists did it this way also. dr. irion remembers that around 1935 or so the a.o.a. first started frowning on news­ paper advertising. also, during this time he heard very little if any talk about charging a separate examination fee plus a separate charge for the glasses themselves. the patient was charged just one lump sum which covered everything. around 1940 he first started charging a separate fee for his exam. dr. irion attended the 1925 a.o.a. convention in louisville. since 1925 he has been very active in the indiana state and local optometric associations especially. in 1968, due to an eye disorder, he was forced to give up his practice for good. he is now retired. for 11 four eyes" or 11 fore eyes 11 : in the september 30, 1978, issue of the ophthalmic qptician there appeared an advertisement with the slogan 11 they used to call him four eyes 11 , accompanying a picture of a young spectacle wearer. according to a letter to the editor from brian d. scott of glasgow, scotland, in the january 20, 1979, issue, vol. 19, no. 2, p. 42, the expression should have been 11 fore eyes" rather than 11 four eyes 11 • he explains that, 11 this is an expression which is usually spoken and not written, the result of which is a misinter­ pretation of the expression. 11 he adds: 11 having researched various languages for the equivalent of our term 'spectacles' i finally discovered that the italian 'anti-oculari' means 'before the eyes'; so this is what the expression 'four eyes' really means 11 -64/or did he really mean 11 fore eyes 11 ?7 a few weeks later, in the april 28 issue, no. 9, p. 317, his brother thomas scott of burnley, england, added a further letter to the possible origin of the term 11 four eyes'' /or did he too really mean to write 11 fore eyes .. j]as follows: 11 as a keen student of golf history, it may be of interest to mention the case of a mr. angus spoone of lundin links golf course, fife /scotland/, who was notoriously myopic. in the early eighteenth century, hisfellow­ club members, for their own protection, devised the warning cry 'fore eyes' whenever mr. spoone prepared to drive ... now, both scotts are presumably scots, and seemingly we 11 versed in scottish lexicography, but their suggestions are not supported in oxford and webster editions. the oxford english dictionary lists 11 four eyes 11 , but not 11 fore eyes 11 , and cites an 1874 slang dictionary, 11 four eyes. a man or woman who habitaully wears spectacles... webster's third international dictionary 1ists 11 four-eyes 11 , but not 11 fore eyes 11 , with the definition, 11 a person who wears glasses ... eric partridge, in his dictionary of slang and unconventional english, lists 11 four-eyes 11 , but not 11 fore eyes 11 , as 11 a bespectacled person: uncultured colloquialism from circa 1870 11 , citing j. c. hatten, the slang dictionary, 5th edition. obviously this is an instance when hindsight has not proven to be much better than foresight. a half century of bvi: 11 a pictorial history of the better vision institute 11 is the title of a 12 page 8~11 by 11 11 (21.5 x 28 em) brochure celebrating the 50th anniversary of the b.v.i. illustrated celebrities who have helped disseminate b.v.i. messages include helen keller, amelia earhart, jessica dragonette, floyd gibbons, emily post, hoagy carmichael, dave garroway, bill stern, eric sevareid, steve allen, billie jean king, bob hope, and muhammed ali. early photos of boards of directors show many leaders in the ophthalmic field. william lester cheatham, jr., o.d. 1913-1979: (the following was submitted by professor chester h. pheiffer, o.d., ph.d.,of the university of houston) the ~1ayor of tomball, texas, w. l. cheatham, jr. died thursday, february 15, 1979 in the tomball community hospital. mayor cheatham had served on the tomball city council for four ye!ars and had been mayor for three years. he also served on the tomball school board, was a member and past president of the tomball rotary club, a member of the arabia shrine temple, houston, a member of the reagan masonic lodge and the tomball masonic lodge. t>1ayor cheatham had practiced optometry in tomba 11 for 23 years. in 1973, he was honored by the harris county optometric society as the optometrist of the decade. -65dr. cheatham is considered to be a co-founder, with dr. bernard mazow, of the university of houston college of optometry. dr. cheatham, a graduate of southern college of optometry, class of 1936, went into practice with his father on the eighth floor of the shell building on the corner of fannin and texas in downtown houston in july, 1937. dr. cheatham•s delay in entering practice resulted from having failed his first attempt at the state board. he returned to southern college of optometry until the next board meeting. it is interesting to note that thirteen candidates took the state board when dr. cheatham made his first attempt. taking the board were graduates from columbia, massa­ chusetts, northern illinois, ohio state, and southern college. according to dr. cheatham, 11 and that state board only one man passed. this man was not a graduate of an optometry college. he was taking the examination under what was then the apprentice rule, 11 where you could work in an optometrist•s office for two years and then take the board. 11 so all of the college men failed and the one apprentice passed. 11 * practicing on the second floor of the shell building was a dr. bernard r~azow, a graduate of columbia university. it is intriguing to note that both drs. cheatham and mazow succumbed to cancer. both served as faculty during the early days of the university of houston college of optometry. dr. mazow was one of the outstanding contact lens practitioners in the world at that time. he contributed greatly to the contact lens program. during the latter part of the 1950 1s, dr. mazow let it be known that he intended to practice in the place where he intended to retire. he knew that he had leukemia, but kept the information from his family, which knew that he had leukemia, but kept the information from him. so, (ca. 1961) he moved his family to coral gables, florida. as was to be expected. drs. cheatham and mazow, being in the same building, were back and forth between each other•s offices frequently dis­ cussing cases and sharing ideas. dr. ~1azow was quite interested in starting a college of optometry in this part of the country. even though no one paid much attention to him, he continued to explore every angle he could. one day he ran into dr. cheatham•s office exclaiming that he had just made a good contact. he had a patient who was a mathematics professor at the university of houston, a professor howard daniels. dr. mazow apprised dr. ·daniels how good it would be if they could start a college of optometry at the university of houston, and dr. daniels agreed that it was a good idea and agreed to look into it from the university•s point of view and report back to dr. mazow. approximately a week later, dr. mazow again ran into dr. cheatham•s office stating that he had met with professor daniels, who had talked with the president of the university, dr. w.w. kemmerer. dr. kemmerer had stated that he would be most happy to look into it, that the university of houston was organized to help people and to broaden learning. and, if the college of optometry would help enough students, they would be willing to look into it. arrangements were then made for drs. mazow and cheatham to have an interview with dr. kemmerer. they found dr. kemmerer to be most interested, ent~usistic and very cordial. he had an assistant who was primarily a money raiser who sat in on the meeting and who immediately began to see dollars that he could raise from optometrists and other inter­ ested people to help start the college. during the meeting, kemmerer -66proceeded to set forth a series of guidelines of things which cheatham and mazow would have to do and bring back to him before they could pro­ ceed any further. their discussion apparently encompassed the various optometric organizations in that kemmerer asked them to determine whether the harris county optometric society was agreeable and was willing to lend all possible help. they were also to obtain the approval of the texas optometric association. if both hcos and toa were interested, then the proper backing of the ada was to be obtained. as president of the harris county society, cheatham obtained its approval and pledge of support rather quickly. being a second vice-president of the toa, he called all of the board members prior to the next board meeting and was able to obtain quick approval at the meeting for the proposed college. they then reported back to kemmerer. kemmerer then arranged for a meeting with the deans and department chairpersons to determine whether there was any objection to the estab1 i shment of a co 11 ege of optometry or whether there was any interest. if there was interest, they were to determine which departments might supply teaching personnel for courses such as geometrical optics. professor daniels was very helpful to them in this meeting as he had been in previous meetings and would continue to be until the program was established. professor daniels was an outstanding individual and texas optometry as well as the university of houston were deeply grieved when he and his family were killed in an automobile accident between houston and dallas (ca. 1962). with daniels·• help, mazow and cheatham came away from the meeting with the approval of the department heads. the issue of the new school was now ready for presentation to the board of regents. it v1as anticipated that there might be some difficulty obtaining approval by the board of regents in that there was an ophthalmologist on the board. dr. cheatham commented on the problem as follows, 11 0ne of the regents was an ophthalmologist that was probably one of the worst enemies that optometry ever had. she was the type that attended every board of regents meeting and voiced her opinion on all the subjects. we knew that this would be a hurdle. an interesting thing to me and to our group at the time was that even though there was practically no rapport between ophthalmologists and optometrists in houston, on an organized basis, there were some personal friendships. my father had been a friend of a very well known and respected ophthalmologist, dr. e. l. gore. dr. gore was really the dean of the ophthalmologists in houston, texas and a good part of the united states for many years. i happened to run into dr. gore in a restaurant one noon and, after exchanging pleasantries, i broached him with our project, told him all about it, and asked if he would help us by interceding with dr. ray k. dailey, who was the lady who would oppose us. dr. gore agreed that he would intercede, but not in an official capacity; that when he would see her in the hall, on the street, in the hospital, or the like, he would point out to her that it might be a good idea to approve the college. that he would not necessarily go out of his way to help us, but he certainly would not hurt us and would encourage us to go ahead. 11 * when the issue appeared before the board of regents, it was not opposed. -67now, our founders encountered a real problem, that of selling the school to the aoa. dr. cheatham tells it this way, 11 the1·e \vas d bi~j ~woblem in selling the aoa on this thing because, number one, the leaders of the aoa at that particular time were not sure that they wanted another college of optometry. they were not sure that we had enough qualified teaching per­ sonnel. they were not sure that way down in texas, where the indians still roamed, and some of those people still believe that, they had never heard of the university of houston, and just did not want to be a part of starting any kind of an optometry college in a second rate little school or teachers college or whatever it might be. so they gave us a little static and it was necessary to make trips to various conventions and meetings and conferences to really sell these guys. we took pictures and dr. kemmerer even went with us on several occasions to present our case. eventually we were able to get them to send dr. h. ward ewalt, who is still active in optometric educa­ tional circles, down here to view the facilities of the university and to check it out so to speak. and i assure you that he went away impressed. he received the royal treatment and he went back and told the people from aoa that we had a going jessie** here, an established university, at that time well financed, and that it would certainly be a credit to optometry to have a college here. following approval by the board of regents and the obtaining of ap~ proval by the aoa, the university let it be known in a very firm way that it would take considerable money to start the college and it was up to the profession to raise enough money to make the project worthwhile. in response, the optometrists of texas pledged $20,000.000 for each of the first six years of the program, or $120,000.00 total. the tremendous work of men like dr. ira woods and dr. nelson greeman, sr. in raising this money is a well known story in the state of texas. dr. nelson greeman, sr., during certain lean years, borrowed the money in his own name when collections were short. there was great dedication to the college by both the structural and functional oriented optometrists. the college responded by establishing the philosophy of teaching ~'the all 11 of optometry. this philosophy has endured and demon­ strably produced outstanding doctors of optometry. as reverend frank boutwell said during the final services, dr. cheatham was an unassuming man who made things happen. he was a facilitator who responded to the needs of people and of his community. *from oral history collection, university of houston college of optometry library. **apparently 11 a going jessie 11 is a colloquialism meaning 11 a successfully functioning program, .. comparable to 11 a rising star 11 or 11 a winner 11 • h.w.h. -68op-to~meet•-rist and 1842 asthenopia: richard m. hall, o.d. formerly of cleveland, now retired and presently living in orlando, florida, sent me two old tear-sheets which say something about our optometric heritage. the first is a page 22, the virginia section, of what may be deduced to be the august 1940 issue of the associated journal of optometry. the date deduction is based on a same page reference to a july 23rd, 1940, incident and an alert to a september 1, 1940 deadline. here is the paragraph captioned 11 ~1ore about the his tory of optometry .. : dr. john buchanan tells the editor that he attended a meeting of the american optical association in either 1901 or 1902 at which time there were two divisions of it, the physiological section and the dispensing section. at this meeting it was moved that the members start calling themselves optometrists; pronounced op-to-meet-rists, accent on the meet. this had to lay over for one year. dr. buchanan says that upon his return to his office in virginia he had the word optometrist put on his door and he believes he is the first one in the country to do so. he is certain that he is the first in virginia. the other tear-sheet is page 38 of the november 15, 1944, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry on which were reprinted several paragraphs from an article 11 the story of asthenopia: important part played by philadelphia what of the present and the future?11 by walter b. lancaster, m.d., in the august 1943 issue of archives of oph­ thalmology. the reprinted paragraphs were captioned, 11 how great­ grandfather came to america, 11 as follows: in 1842, if one•s great-grandfather, then living in england, had suffered from asthenopia, what would have been his fate? he would have consulted one of the leading ophthalmic surgeons, perhaps mackenzie of lawrence or adams. the physician, after examining and questioning the patient, would have noted certain facts which he regarded as impor~ tant. the patient was, say 18 years old and a student at oxford; with good general health and a good family history. the eyes showed no signs of inflammation, present or past, and slight photophobia. there was a tendency to frown. vision was very good for distant objects and was good for near for a short period. in reading, the print soon became blurred. a few months before, shortly after under­ taking some special work involving study of old manuscripts, much of the time by candlelight, the patient noticed the blurring of vision. at first it appeared toward the end of the week after several days of steady use of the eyes. resting the eyes over the week-end restored the sight. by degrees the blurring came on earlier in the week. a few weeks before, the patient could read for over an hour, but lately the sight failed in a few minutes, so that he found it impossible to study. -69probably no record would be made of ocular discomfort, headache or other symptoms, local or general, except loss of sight, because at that time such symptoms were not regarded as a part of the picture of asthenopia. the important questions which the physician tried to answer were, what brought on this serious condition, and what should be done about it? he found that the occur>ation, study of old manuscripts, was the immediate cause. but many stu­ dents were able to do this work; there must be some under­ lying cause and some contributing factors. there had been no acute illness to cause debility; no previous attacks of ophthalmia, especially no scrofulous inflammations of the eyes, and no cerebral symptoms (convulsions). the physician therefore fell back on the explanation commonly given in such cases, that the debility behind the ocular weakness was due to masturbation and spermatorrhea. the prognosis given was the probable development of am­ blyopia and even amaurosis. the treatment advised was 1) cauterization of the urethra (to which mackenzie devoteq considerable space in his textbook, 2) giving up of all use of the eyes for near work and 3) opera­ tion, which was mentioned as advocated by some surgeons but was not urged. spectacles were not advised. some days later, while the patient was te 11 i ng a friend about his sad affliction, his friend interrupted him: i know just such a case. a young woman, a seamstress who worked for my aunt, lady t., became so blind that she could not see to thread her needle or do her sewing. she went to lenz, the optician, who sold her some glasses, and now she is working as well as ever. you must see the optician at once. i have no doubt he can cure you. so the patient went to the optician and was sold a pair of convex lenses, with which he found to his amazement that he could read all he wanted without the horrible blurring coming on. he resumed his work at the university with a pro­ found feeling of relief. a few months later, not having his glasses with him, he started to do some reading and found that he could not see a word! in a panic he went at once to the physician. the lat­ ter told him that what had happened was just what was to be expected. wearing convex lenses inevitably led to just that loss of sight which he had suffered. it was a sure road to amblyopia. he should give up the glasses and take a prolonged rest in the country or, better still, emigrate to australia or canada and take up sheep raising or lumbering. his sight might then be restored. and so it was that one•s great­ grandfather came to america • -70t.ribute to ernst engelking (1886): 11 die bedeutung von ernst engelking fur die sinnes-physiologisch ophthalmologisch forschung 11 (ernst engelking's contributions to sensory physiological ophthalmological research), is the title of an article by ophthalmologist w. jaeger of the university of heidelberg in the ncvember 1975 issue of klinische monatsbl§tter fur augenheilkunde und augen~rzt­ liche fortbildung, vol. 167, no. 5, pages 745-752. engelking is said to have contributed to a better appreciation of the nature of color vision during the decades when the helmholtz-hering color theory controversy raged hottest. thirty-three of his publications are listed. i presume that dr. engelking is still living. brief histories of intraocular lenses: three talks about lens implants together give a somewhat better than cursory history of this rather recent development in ophthalmology and op­ tics. they all appear as parts of a symposium in the january/february 1976 issue of the transactions of the american academy of ophthalmology and oto­ laryngology, vol. 81, no. 1 the first is an invited paper entitled 11 the origin and objectives of intraocular lenticular implants 11 by harold ridley, the originator of this ophthalmological development, on pages op65-0p77, in which he credits his undertaking as a response to a student's question in 1948. the second is entitled 11 the history of intraocular lenses 11 by m. j. roper-hall on pages op67-0p69, in which it is pointed out that the idea itself dates back to the time of the first intracapsular extractions, and that unsuccessful attempts were made some 200 years ago. the author traces the problems and successes of several types of implants and includes a diagrammatic chart showing the evolution of the posterior chamber, angle supported, and iris supported types. the third, entitled 11 advantages and disadvantages of the types of intraocular lens available, 11 is by henry hirschman on pages op890p92. in spite of the title, the article is in effect a brief history simply because the recency of implants makes any accounting of their current development a recitation of history. lotze's theory of spatial perception: though a professor of philosophy at gottinger university for 35 y.ears, rudolph hermann lotze, (1817-1881) is best known to us for his theory of spatial perception, usually called local sign theory. the theory itself is quite simple to grasp or describe, but what is more profound is the role this one fertile idea served in the development of broader concepts. it had its impact on both empiricists and nativists. wi 11 i am r. woodhard describes lotze's theory, its origins, and its transformation at the hands of psychologists of various theoretical per­ suasions in an article entitled, 11 from association to gestalt: the fate of hermann lotze's theory of spatial perception, 1846-1920 11 appearing in the december 1978 issue of isis, vol. 69, no. 249, pp. 572-582. t -71i ; honorary shelf space: in many an organization certain members lend themselves generously to elective offices and serve their fellow members at great length without pay and of course with ever-present criticism as well as perfunctory applause. following completion of the process of 11 going through the chairs 11 or otherwise terminating a long period of service and ceremoniously re­ ceiving a billfold, lapel pin, cuff-links, or other memento of appreciation, a feeling of abandonment often sets in. this feeling may be labeled jokingly as a 11withdrawal symptom 11 , a need for commiseration with a fellow victim. to fill this need a number of slightly unreal fraternities have come and gone, with humorous rituals, sham ceremonies, 11 secret11 pledges, absurd codes of conduct, ridiculous penalties, and even membership privi­ lege cards. optometry has of course had its share. recently, dan hummel sent me a copy of a 11membership 11 card received in 1950 from the late h. e. pine, o.d., which reads as follows: royal order of gql\ts life member v!t. v. g. hummel. having served his sentence as an ordinary goat in his optometric association.is hereby granted the privileges of a member in the royal order and may now enjoy the fellowship of his brothers who served with little thanks and no pay. vee. 18th1950 h. e. p.in.e chief goat herder about 1'4r. touhy o.h.s. president henry knoll published a brief rem1n1scing account of the late kevin touhy's involvement with contact lenses and his 1946 invention of the corneal lens in the november 1976 issue of contact lens forum, vol. 1, no. 7, pages 11-13. dr. knoll conferred with three other contemporaries to supplement his own memory. a 1930 manual for board members: a book which i do not recall ever having seen before came to my attention a few weeks ago. it is a very dignified-appearing, brown, soft-paper bound, 22 x 15 x 1 em volume entitled 11 a manual of optometric jurisprudence and sug­ gested uniform standards .. , first edition, 1930, published by the international -72association of boards of examiners in optometry and edited by dr. laurence p. folsom of south royalton, vermont, in which state the book was printed. included is a photographically excellent group picture of 22 identified optometrists and a reporter attending the 1927 meeting of the international association of boards of examiners in optometry, them abbreviated 11 i.b.b. 11 (for 11 international board of boards 11 ), at hotel willard in washington, d.c. the publication, originally distributed to every state optometry board member, state governor, and state attorney general in the u.s., and sold at one dollar each to anyone who wanted it, has 15 very well edited chap­ ters virtually free of split infinitives, dangling participles, and other inelegant grammatical errors. included among the topics are such matters as visual standards in aviation, optometry curricula, optometry laws in canada, a model optometry law, an exemplary set of examination questions, advice to state board secretaries and to newly appointed members, reci­ procity, 11 gl a zed goods 11, and enforcement procedures. an interesting statistic was a quotation from page 116 of the 25th annual report of the 11 university of state of new york, .. (state dept. of education), as follows: 110ut of 100 complaints made to me as optometry inspector, fifty were on improper advertising. although 90% of these were settled without court action, it was deemed necessary by the attorney general to bring before the board all future complaints on illegal advertising ••• ~~ most perspicacious of all was editor folsom's opening sentence in the introduction: 11 to. all who have tried in divers ways to hinder and prevent the progress of optometry we owe much... · three old manuscripts offered: (the following is a letter received by james p. leeds, o.d., in july. dr. leeds does not collect this type of item.) i have noticed with interest your advertisement in the book-mart for things dealing with the eye and optics. i have three items that might be of interest to you. they are as follows. three original, unpublished handwritten essays, done in the 1850's by medical doctors, on the subject of 11 0phthalmia. 11 these manuscripts are quite readable, written in ink on legal size paper. the three essays bear evidence of disbinding on the left-hand margin and are separate from each other. they are: 1) thesis of assistant surgeon dr. william g. hay, 11 pages on blue paper. written in 1858. 2) thesis of dr. d. bloodgood, written at 11 the naval asylum, philadelphia, march 19, 1856. 11 3 pages on white paper. 3) thesis of dr. stewart kennedy and 11submitted to the medical examining board of the u.s. navy ... 2 pages on gray paper. 1858. -73in each essay the doctors define the disease, g1v1ng its characteristics, status, and treatments. the essays are quite interesting and, i have no doubt, to an optometrist like your­ self, would prove fascinating reading. they are excellent rep­ resentatives of the state of medical knowledge in this field on the eve of the american civil war. the three are priced at $25.00 postpaid ••• that is, $25 for· the three together. check with your order please, and the items returnable within three days of receipt for any reason if unsat­ isfactory. i think you would like these items. we have never offered them for sale before and got them out thinking about listing them in our fall catalog, but on seeing your ad today, i thought i would drop you a line and see if you wished to have them. i believe you would be pleased with them. slit-lamp microscopy history: terry alford p .0. box 1151 springfield, va 22151 11 0n slit-lamp microscopy, a history of the development of the slit-lamp microscope 11 by theodora. f. schmidt appears in the november 21, 1975, issue of documenta ophthalmologica, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 117-153. the article, with 23 illustrations, is based primarily on the more detailed chapter on focal illumination (fokale beleuchtung) by h. goldmann in a book by wolfgang straub entitled 11 die ophthalmologischen untersuchungsmethoden, 11 enge, stuttgart, 1970. seven centuries of spectacle making: this is my free translation of l'occhiole si diffonde dal '700' 11 , an anonymously written article in the november 1978 issue of ottica ltaliana, vol. 20, no. 11, pages 78-79, 81, 84-86, and 88-90, with 19 illustrations, all but two of artists' period paintings showing subjects with spectacles. the other two are schematic representations of spectacle design evolution since their invention. concerning color theory: a few historical comments on color theory from newton to the present are presented all too briefly in a report entitled 11 some demonstrations on colour 11 by hood, c., and w. a. h. rushton in the proceedings of the physio­ logical society section of the december 1976 issue of the journal of physi­ ology, vol. 263, no. 1, pages 58p59p. -74collyria history: a pharmaco-historical study of collyria and their components during roman antiquity consists of well over a hundred pages of highly detailed information under the title "ancient ophthalmological agents" by harald nielsen, translated from the danish by lars mc.bride and published by odense university press, denmark, in 1974 as vol. 31 of acta historica scientiarum naturalium et medicinalium edidit bibliotheca universitatis hauni ens is. the author concludes, among other things, "that eye diseases must have been very widespread in roman times." john~· bausch (1830-1926): a handsome 28 page pamphlet entitled "j. j. bausch (1830-1926) american pioneer" by m. herbert eisenhart was published in new york in 1948 by the american branch of the newcomen society of england. one copy was hardboard bound, catalogued, and shelved in the indiana university library. it consists of the newcomen address given by mr. eisenhart at the april 15 "1948 rochester dinner" of the society in rochester, new york, at which mr. eisenhart, then president of bausch & lomb optical company, was guest of honor. the address includes many details of the early development of bausch & lomb, inc. reciprocal innervation not new: kenneth j. ciuffreda and lawrence stark give a thorough and well documented review of descartes' concept of reciprocal innervation of the extraocular muscles in the october 1975 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 52, no. 10, pp. 663-673. although a bit erroneously based on hydraulic theory, his theoretical analysis is found to be in agreement with current observations and experiments. the authors entitled their article "descartes 1 law of reciprocal innervation." they included numerous drawings and 23 references. h. w hofstetter, editor postscript: if you attend the meetings of the american academy of optometry in anaheim in december, or live or otherwise happen to be in the fullerton, california, area on december 8, be ~ure to come to the southern california college of optometry from 3:30 to 5:30p.m. the date is on a saturday, and all traffic on the lovely campus at those hours will be headed toward the annual reminisce-in of the optometric historical society. everything at the reminisce-in is special, unpredictable, fascinating, and cultural. if you have the courage to divulge a bit of optometric history yourself, something you remember, or discovered, or learned from a reliable source, you will have the opportunity there to share it with other history buffs. 1979-10-04-001 1979-10-04-002 1979-10-04-003 1979-10-04-004 1979-10-04-005 1979-10-04-006 1979-10-04-007 1979-10-04-008 1979-10-04-009 1979-10-04-010 1979-10-04-011 1979-10-04-012 1979-10-04-013 1979-10-04-014 1979-10-04-015 1979-10-04-016 1979-10-04-017 1979-10-04-018 optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume33 october 2002 number4 annual ohs meeting and ohs board meeting: the annual meeting of the optometric historical society will be held on saturday, december 14, 2002, from 1 0:00 to 11 :00 am in the columbia 3 room at the san diego marriott where the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry is being held. dr. walter chase will be speaking on, ''the american academy of optometry's living history history." dr. chase has been working on the living history project for several years. the ohs board will meet on saturday, december 14, 2002, from 7:00 to 8:00 am. the location of the meeting will be determined on site at the meeting of the american academy of optometry. please contact walter chase for the location of the board meeting. all ohs members are welcome to attend the board meeting. important 20th century ophthalmic books: physicians h. stanley thompson and donald l. blanchard wrote in the may, 2001 issue of archives of ophthalmology about "one hundred important 20th-century ophthalmic books" (volume 119, number 5, pages 761-763). they provided a list of the 1 00 books they considered to be the most important, in that the books made significant contributions to ophthalmic knowledge or practice. they included some books published in the last part of the nineteenth century if they had a very high impact on twentieth century ophthalmic practice. thompson and blanchard noted that they "had to make some coin-toss decisions about rounding out the collection to exactly 1 00 titles," and they recognized that ''the mere act of providing such a list is to ask for dissent and disparagement." the authors stated that they received some input from other persons, but that the list was their own personal list, tilted toward their american experience. by my count, nine of the books were published in german, three in french, one in spanish, and the remainder in english. thompson and blanchard divided the list into eleven ophthalmological subspecialty areas. these areas and the number of books listed under each are as follows: ,. 33/29 general ophthalmology, 13 books cataract surgery, 6 books cornea and external disease, 8 books glaucoma, 9 books neuro-ophthalmology, 11 books optics and refraction, 5 books pediatric ophthalmology, 7 books hereditary ocular disease, 5 books retina and vitreous, 9 books oculoplastic surgery, 14 books ocular anatomy and pathology, 13 books listed under optics and refraction were the following five books: jackson e. skiascopy and its practical applications. 1895. gullstrand a. monochromatische aberrationen. 1900. obrig t. contact lenses. 1942. mandell r. contact lens practice. 1965. milder b, rubin m. the fine art of prescribing glasses without making a spectacle of yourself. 1979. the following were the seven books listed under pediatric ophthalmology: maddox e. tests and studies of ocular muscles. 1898. worth c. squint. 1903. howe l. the muscles of the eye. 1907-1908. peter lc. the extra-ocular muscles. 1927. bielschowsky a. lectures on motor anomalies. 1940. scobee r. the oculorotary muscles. 1947. burian h, von noorden g. binocular vision and ocular motility. 1974. thompson and blanchard have placed a 34-page document with the list of the 1 00 books and some comments about each of them on the internet (http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/dept/20thcenturvbooks/100books.htm). for example, this entry for jackson's famous book on retinoscopy can be found on pages 20 to 21: jackson, edward. skiascopy and its practical application. philadelphia, the edwards & docker co. 1895. "this book was a deliberate (and successful) effort to popularize the test that had been called 'the shadow test' (cuignet, 1875) and is now called 'retinoscopy' (thorington, 1897). the book was frequently reprinted in the first decades of the century. this technique used the doctor's observations rather than the patient's responses and it became an almost universal first step in estimating refractive error. jackson encouraged full correction of ametropia. in 1887 jackson had recommended a cross cylinder for estimating cylinder strength and only later did he realize how quickly and effectively the cross cylinder could be used to determine cylinder axis. in 1907 at the colorado ophthalmological society, jackson began to give instruction on the use of the cross cylinder, a handy test that made it possible, in the course of a simple 33/30 examination, to measure the power and the axis of the total astigmatism both corneal and lenticular. in some clinics automated refractometers are beginning to replace retinoscopy as a way to find a starting place for a refraction." spurred by thompson and blanchard's effort, doug penisten and i are hoping to compile a list of the most important 20th century optometry books. we would like your input and suggestions. please take time to complete the enclosed survey and return to me at the address or fax number on the form. we will share the results of the survey in a future issue of hindsight. d.a.g. jay enoch's column: the international biography and bibliography of ophthalmologists and vision scientists, ibbo, by jean-paul wayenborgh, with the cooperation of saiichi mishima and c. richard keeler. a part of the hirschberg history of ophthalmology series: the monographs, volume vii, 2001: in three parts (really volumes): part i, a-k (2001); part 2, l-z (2002); part 3, a-z (to be published in 2004, includes omissions, a-z). j.p. wayenborgh, publisher, postbus 96, b-8400 oostende-3, belgium. (the writer finds no isbn number) important additions to the ophthalmic history literature were recently published by jean-paul wayenborgh of belgium. wayenborgh creates his own acronym, ibbo, for the international biography and bibliography of ophthalmologists and vision scientists. in many cases, these tomes contain not readily obtained information about those listed as actively participating in ophthalmic science and ophthalmology. included are relatively brief but generally carefully prepared summaries of careers, and details of notable contributions made by those listed in both areas selected for treatment, ophthalmology and vision science. references to important papers are particularly valuable if one seeks added insights as to the person and his/her career. the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology is a major source of the bio-sketches. not surprisingly in so massive a work, there are omissions and a number of rather uneven treatments. as examples, bernard becker is not included (he has contributed important research on glaucoma and ocular transport and made many meaningful contributions to ophthalmology and its history). his predecessors in st. louis, the post family, are quite well represented. robert shaffer, another glaucoma great, is omitted. and, there is a rather short treatment of hans goldmann (and a poor photograph of him). goldmann was a giant in twentieth century ophthalmology (a brief report on him was recently presented in this column). also missing are goldmann's distinguished students franz fankhauser (berne, known for his creation on the octopus perimeter system and laser therapy for secondary cataract quite commonly encountered following ecce) and baldur gloor (who served as dean of the medical school and chair of ophthalmology at both basel and zurichhe contributed j. 33/31 meaningfully to studies of vitreous, glaucoma and perimetry). bruno bagolini, inventor of the lens of the same name, and former chair of ophthalmology at modena and at the vatican medical school is omitted, as is his student (and mine) emilio campos, a distinguished strabismologist and chair at the university of bologna. professors william rushton, giles brindley, horace barlow, fergus campbell, and others of the stellar vision research group at cambridge are not listed, as well as walter stanley stiles and brian crawford of the national physical laboratory in teddington (uk). because of such lapses and inconsistencies, ibbo, part 3 is to be added in 2004. a modest number of optometric scholars are written up in these volumes. they include mat alpern, jay enoch, irving fatt, edgar fincham, tom freddo, brien holden, gerald westheimer, and no doubt a number of others. an exhaustive search was not attempted. a number of added optometric participants are mentioned in these individual biographical sketches. once again, one finds omissions of biographies, for example, glenn fry and meredith morgan are not listed nor the second fincham brother, nor charles prentice and so forth. while one can be highly critical of this feature, this is not a review of optometry, per se. where a listing exists, optometry entries are treated fairly and in no way in a lesser manner than other entries in this set of volumes. reading my own entry, some items are not correctly stated/ordered, there is a misspelling, and some major contributions are omitted. however, this was clearly not intentional, and sincere effort was made in the treatment. it is pity that for the listed living, prior review was not sought (as is done by who's who ... ). the writer's perception is that these books are a very valuable resource for those performing ophthalmic history research and, at least, they should be added to pertinent libraries in the field. these volumes serve as a good starting point in analyses and investigations. j.m.e. more on wayenborgh books: ohs member jean-paul wayenborgh is the publisher of a number of other ophthalmology history books in addition to those reviewed here by jay enoch. on the j.p.wayenborgh publishing website there is a short biographical sketch of wayenborgh written by norman b. medow and originally published in the march 15, 2000 issue of ophthalmology times. wayenborgh was born in france, raised in belgium, and learned the antiquarian book business in germany. in 1961, he began an antique business, and in the 1970s he started in the publishing business with the periodical historia ophthalmologica lnternationalis. in 1978, wayenborgh publishing produced the three-volume work atlas on the history of spectacles, written by wayenborgh under the pseudonym w. poulet. among the ophthalmology history items published by j.p.wayenborgh publishing is the approximately 21-volume set the history of ophthalmology, by julius hirschberg 33/32 and translated into english by fred blodi. a listing of and details on these and other books from j.p. wayenborgh publishing can be found on the world wide web at www. history-ophthalmology.com/index. html. additional information about the international biography and bibliography of ophthalmologists and vision scientists (ibbo) set of books can be found at www.history-ophthalmology.com/ibbow.html. the submission of material for possible inclusion in part 3 of ibbo is welcomed. information can be submitted at the web site above or at www.optiker.at/wayenborgh/formular_w.htm. d.a.g. book featuring telescopes in the luxottica museum: in view: the telescopes of the luxottica museum, edited by marisa del vecchio, translated from the italian by rodney de souza, milan: luxottica, 1995, 125 pages, hardcover, oversize (91/2 x 13"). ohs irving bennett sent me this book for review in hindsight. it is arranged into six sections: (1) preface, (2) a brief history of the telescope, (3) the collection­ centuries xviixviii, (4) anthology, (5) the collectioncenturies xviiixx, and (6) appendixthe instruments and their makers. text is printed in both italian and english. the preface discusses the development of the collection in the luxottica museum. luxottica started purchasing items in 1980, and in 1991 opened their museum, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the company. in the late 1980s they made their largest purchasea collection of some 1200 items from genoese optician fritz rathschuuler. rathschuuler was born in graz, austria, in 1902. he moved to italy in 1921 and he started an optical company in genoa in 1927. his collection included spectacles and various optical instruments. all of the telescopes described in this book were from rathschuuler's collection. the second section is a brief history of the telescope. the true inventor of the telescope is not known for certain. most accepted as the inventor is the dutch optician hans lippershey. this is based on documentation that lippershey applied on october 2, 1608 to the dutch government for the sole right to make new instruments ''to see from a distance." two days later a government committee examined the instrument and on the 6th they paid lippershey 900 florins for his invention. in 1609 upon hearing of this invention, galileo galilei constructed a telescope of his own and turned it toward the heavens. in 1610, galileo presented some of his first observations in his book side reus nuncius (the starry messenger). in 1611 johannes kepler correctly described the workings of a telescope, and proposed a different combination of lenses than in the galilean telescope. 33/33 several persons are notable for building telescopes and improving their quality in the 1 ih and 18th centuries. these included francesco fontana (1590-1656), johannes wiesel (1583-1662), christian huygens (1629-1695), johannes hevelius (1611-1687), geminiano monanari (1633-1687), eustachio divini (1610-1685), giuseppe campini (1635-1715), william gascoigne (1612-1644), cornelio malvasia (1603-1664), adrien auzout (1640-1691), john dollond (1706-1761), peter dollond (1731-1820), and jesse ramsden ( 1735-1800). a scotsman, james gregory (1638-1675), was apparently the first person to suggest using a mirror instead of a lens to reduce aberration effects. in 1668, isaac newton (1642-1727) constructed a telescope containing two mirrors. an achromatic lens system was introduced into the telescope in 1758 by english optician john dollond. because of this lens system, his son, peter dollond, was the dominant telescope manufacturer in the late 18th century. "buyers of his telescopes include captain cook, leopold mozartfather of wolfgang amadeus, thomas jefferson, the president of the united states, the king of poland, the novelist horace walpole, and admiral nelson, who at trafalgar, sighted the enemy fleet through dollond's achromatic lenses." jesse ramsden, the noted 18th century scientific instrument maker, went into association with dollond, married dollond's younger sister, and incorporated dollond's achromatic lens systems in his telescopes. in the early 19th century improvements in glass making by pierre-louis guinand in association with joseph von utzschneider, joseph von fraunhofer, and georg friedrich von reichenbach led to significant improvement in the quality of telescopes. fraunhofer's student, georg merz, took over their factory when utzschneider died in 1839 (fraunhofer havng died earlier in 1826). in 1846, carl zeiss set up shop in jena, and was assisted by the glassmaking studies of colleagues ernst abbe and otto schott. notable 19th century italian telescope makers were giovan battista amici, an engineer, mathematician, astronomer, and optician, who died in 1863, lgnazio porro, angelo salmoiraghi. porro's contributions "include the 'anallattic' telescope a system of lenses with varying focal lengths (the modern zoom), and a system of prisms to correct images in telescopes and binoculars, which is still known as the 'porro vehicle'." the third section of the book consists of photographs of 1 ih and 18th century telescopes from the luxottica collection. fifteen telescopes are pictured, with two facing pages being devoted to most of the photographs. most of these telescopes were manufactured in italy, with telescopes from england, france, and china also being represented. most of the telescopes are of paperboard construction decorated with inscribed leather or paper covering. some were made by the noted manufacturer giuseppe campini. the fourth section is an anthology of four writings illustrating the excitement and fascination for images viewed through a telescope. the first of these is a letter from galileo to antonio de' medici dated january 7, 1610. in the letter galileo describes the observations he made when he trained his telescope on the face of the moon. the second selection is from the 19th century spanish novel la regenta written by leopoldo 33/34 alas under the pseudonym clarin. this novel's main character climbs up the cathedral bell tower and looks over the town with a telescope. the third selection, from the novel the illuminated windows by austrian writer heimito von doderer, is about a bureaucrat who looks over the city of vienna with his telescope at night. the fourth and final selection in the anthology portion of the book is from one hundred years of solitude by gabriel garcia marquez. this story tells of the visits of a band of gypsies to a village where they bartered magnets, allowed people to view through a telescope (for a price), and demonstrated a magnifying glass. to sell looks through the telescope, one of the gypsies announced, "science has eliminated distance. in a short time, man will be able to see what is happening in any place in the world without leaving his own house." the fifth section of the book presents photographs of 18th to 20th century telescopes from the luxottica collection. most of these are from the 18th century. two of the telescopes pictured here were wood and brass telescopes made in london by dollond, one from the late 18th century and one from the early 19th century. the one 20th century telescope shown was a metal telescope covered in leather made in milan by salmoiraghi. nineteen telescopes are pictured in this section, again with most of them shown on two facing pages. photography is excellent. the final section of the book consists of five pages of technical notes on eleven of the telescopes which were pictured in the book and three pages of short biographical notes on some of the persons involved in telescope development and manufacture. the book is enjoyable to read and visually appealing. d.a.g. query from john schoen: in a letter dated august 24, 2002, ohs member john n. schoen wrote: "a colleague recently sent me a pair of glasses which were bifocals such as i've never seen before. ''the segment compared to a univis 8, about 9 mm vertically by 24 mm horizontally, but was a countersunk 'seg.' the frame of these glasses was, in my estimation, about 75 years old. "can you shed any light on the dates such segs were used? and who made them? and any other information that you may be able to provide. ''the colleague, who is dr. charles schoen of belvidere, illinoisand i will be grateful for any light you can shed on this mysterious segment construction." can any of our readers answer this query? d.a.g. 33/35 more on votives: ohs member jerry abrams wrote: "to add to the 'votive' article in the last issue of hindsight, john and val tull gave out to each member of the ocular heritage society at a recent meeting small metal votives." jerry enclosed a copy of a paragraph from the tulls that accompanied these votives: "milagros are tiny metal votive offerings found in churches in mexico and latin america. they are pinned on wooden statues of saints, the virgin mary or of christ. milagros can be found in a myriad of shapes, including eyes, arms, legs and other body parts. they are left to remind the saints of the person's prayers. also, they can be left by faithful petitioners in thanks for answered prayers." d.a.g. membership directory: it has been some time since we published an optometric historical society membership list. such a list follows. corrections and address changes should be directed to: bridget kowalczyk, ohs secretary-treasurer, international library, archives, and museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141 . please inform possibly interested persons not on this list about ohs or consider giving them a gift membership to ohs. annual dues, $10 payable to the optometric historical society, should be sent to the secretary-treasurer at the address above. j. j. abrams 4516 w. washington st. indianapolis, in 46241 william r. baldwin p.o. box 67 wilbraham, ma 01095 .. irving bennett 1520 pelican point drive ba252 sarasota, fl 34231 walter wm. chase southern california college of optometry 2575 yorba linda blvd. fullerton, ca 92831 t eri l. alpert 28601 marguerite pkwy, #3 mission viejo, ca 92692 felix m. barker, ii 600 mulford road wyncote, pa 19095 tony chahine 550 starlight crest drive la canada, ca 91011 gilbert b. cohen ashford professional building 909 dairy ashford, no. 112 houston, tx 77079 33/36 arol r. augsburger university of alabama at birmingham 1530 3rd avenue, ste. 1 064ab birmingham, al 35294-0110 jenny benjamin museum of vision 655 beach street san francisco, ca 941 09-1336 lester caplan 4001 old court rd. apt 407 baltimore, md 21208 donald w. conner, jr. 5665 e. rosehill avenue terre haute, in 47805 margaret dowaliby jay m. enoch barbara a. fink 8787 shoreham dr., school of optometry college of optometry condo 103 (m.c. 2020) the ohio state university west hollywood, ca 90069 univ.of california-berkeley 338 west 1 01h avenue berkeley, ca 94720-2020 p.o. box 182342 columbus, oh 43218 merton c. flom stuart j. gelber georgia optometric association 38317 s. lakecrest drive 601 riverside drive 1000 corporate center dr., ste. 240 tucson, az 85739 hillside, nj 07205 morrow, ga 30260 edward goodlaw david a. goss morton k. greenspoon 1136 s. plymouth blvd. iu school of optometry 14607 ventura boulevard los angeles, ca 90019-6825 800 east atwater avenue sherman oaks, ca 91403 bloomington, in 47405 theodore grosvenor r. l. guenveur alden n. haffner 5673 correll drive p.o. box322 state college of optometry ferndale, wa 98248 mt. horeb, wl53572-0322 state university of new york 33 west 241h street new york, ny 10036-8003 charles l. haine j.r. hale harold kohn vision science library 53 mclean blvd. p.o. box780 suny college of optometry memphis, tn 381 04 sunnyside, wa 98944 33 west 24tli street new york, ny 10036-8003 frederick t. heller richard l. hopping vincent ilardi 162 middlesex avenue 27 41 anacapa place 238 north main street wilmington, ma 01887 fullerton, ca 92835 sunderland, ma 01375 indiana university libraries antonio joson, jr. walter kaplan serials department 1428 san marcelino street 20 south summit 1320 e. 1oth street ermita, manila 1000 gaithersburg, md 20877 bloomington, in 47405 philippines robert a. koetting bridget t. kowalczyk dennis m. kuwabara 900 south hanley 11 c ilamo 94-748 hikimoe street st. louis, mo 631 05-2638 243 north lindbergh blvd. waipahu, hi 96797 st. louis, mo 63141 richard r. lehr charles e. letocha alvin levin 361a east lancaster ave. 444 rathton road 1 0050 mountainview lake rd. #38 downington, pa 19335 york, pa 17403 scottsdale, az 85258 morris mckee benjamin nerenberg byron y. newman 19903 park bluff 16480 farley road 2501 e. chapman ave., suite 105 san antonio, tx 78259 los gatos, ca 95032-3518 orange, ca 92869 optometric association of douglas k. penisten duane polzien australia college of optometry elegant optics, p.c. p.o. box 185 northeastern state university meridian park 6900 "0" street carlton south tahlequah, ok 74464 lincoln, ne 68510-2460 victoria 3053 australia 33/37 diane e. reddin north fork vision center, llc 21 0 e. bridge street p.o. box658 hotchkiss, co 81419 j. wm. rosenthal 1320 valence street new orleans, la 70115-3934 joseph ruckiewicz 130 king street pottstown, pa 19464 serials records section national library of medicine 8600 rockville pike bethesda, md 20894 c. wayne shearer 122 valleybrook road hixson, tn 37343 m.j. revell brandon hall fen lane, bulphan upminister, essex rm 14 3rl england ralph rosere 152 ochterloney street dartmouth, n.s. b2y 1 e1 canada nancy n. schiffer 4880 lower valley road atglen, pa 19310 serials librarian pao yue-ko!'lg library the hong kong polytechnic university hung hom, kowloon hong kong sekiya shirayama 6-8 wakabayashi, 5-chrome setagaya-ku, tokyo japan southern california college steven stanek of optometry 449 crownpoint circle m.b. ketchum memorial library vacaville, ca 95687-5545 2575 yorba linda boulevard fullerton, ca 92831-1699 charles r. stewart 203 lone star drive georgetown, tx 78628 wellcome library acquisitions librarian 183 euston road london nw1 2be england " . t. david williams university of waterloo school of optometry 200 university of waterloo waterloo, ontario canada n2l 3g1 stanley j. yamane vice president, prof. affairs vistakon, inc. p.o. box 10157 jacksonville, fl 32247 john and val tull 143 springdale road york, pa 17403 gerald westheimer 582 santa barbara road berkeley, ca 94707 melvin wolfberg 3095 buckinghammock trl. vero beach, fl 32960-4968 alan york one main street east hampton, ny 11937 33/38 alfred a. rosenbloom 910 n. lake shore dr., apt. 1819 chicago, il 60611 richard s. roush 1 06 west main street albion, in 46701 john n. schoen 353 lemond rd. apt. 113 owatonna, mn 55060-2877 joseph shapiro 430 magnolia street #1 a highland park, nj 08904 david l. snyder 22 south chapel avenue alhambra, ca 91801 gregory l. stephens university of houston college of optometry 505 j. david armistead bldg. houston, tx 77204-2020 university of houston library serials department 114 university libraries houston, tx 77204-2000 robert a. williams oep foundation 1921 e. carnegie ave., ste. 3l santa ana, ca 92705 george woo hong kong polytechnic university dept. of optometry and radiography hung hom, kowloon hong kong john vaughn library northeastern state university 711 n. grand tahlequah, ok 74464-2399 papers from the other ohs: the ocular heritage society met in sturbridge, massachusetts, in may of 2002. the meeting included some paper presentations, and photocopied print versions of these papers were distributed to the society's membership. the following are summaries of these papers. medallic remembrances of von helmholtz, by jay m. galst: galst reviews medals received by helmholtz, medallic portraits of helmholtz, and some medals named for helmholtz. the great physicist and physiologist hermann von helmholtz (1821-1894) was noted, among other things, for his researches and books on vision and the invention of the ophthalmoscope. helmholtz received the first von graefe gold medal from the heidelberg ophthalmological society in 1886. this prestigious award is given out every ten years. the presentation to helmholtz was made by f. c. donders on august 9, 1886. in 1894, the commemorative medal of the sixty-sixth congress of german naturalists and physicians was created in helmholtz's memory and featured a portrait bust of him. he was scheduled to speak at the meeting but died suddenly before it. a bust of helmholtz was also on a 1907 bronze medal produced for the vllth international physiology congress held in heidelberg. busts of helmholtz and albrecht von graefe were on a souvenir badge medal from the xxth international congress of ophthalmology held in munich in 1966. in 1968 the european ophthalmological society started awarding the von helmholtz medal to european ophthalmologists who had done the most for their society and profession. additional medals depicting helmholtz are a 1972 medal created by the medical heritage society as part of a "great men of science" series; a commemorative medal from deutsches museum, a science museum in munich, issued in the 1970s; a von graefe prize medal established in east germany in 1975; a medal for the 125th anniversary of the german ophthalmological society in 1982; and a medal from the cogan ophthalmic history society symposium held on the 150th anniversary of the ophthalmoscope. galst noted that the ''finest style art work seems to have occurred at the end of the 19th century. the style of the later pieces is cruder and not of the same quality as in the earlier pieces." chronology of american optical history, by dick whitney: distributed to the membership was a two-page single-spaced fine print chronological listing of significant events in the history of the american optical company. it begins with events in antecedent companies (william beecher, r. h. cole) in the early 19th century and extends to the closing of ao's southbridge warehouse in 2001 and the consolidation of ao and sola distribution centers in 2001. the american optical company was formed on february 26, 1869. by 1886, it had sold over 1 .3 million pairs of spectacles. by 1907, ao had 2000 employees with a payroll of a million dollars. kryptok bifocals were first manufactured in 191 0. in 1943, ao provided 14 million prescription eyeglasses to the armed forces while still filling civilian orders. in 1952, the glass executive bifocal was introduced. in 1983, the ao museum opened in southbridge with john young as curator. 33/39 leather spectacles, by charles letocha: the first reference to leather spectacles is said to have been in 1420. leather spectacles were depicted in a portrait painted in 1562/3. daza de valdes described leather spectacles as "agreeable to wear'' in 1623. the book of trades by hans sachs, published in 1568, includes an illustration of a spectacle maker working with leather. letocha states that production of leather spectacles appears to have ended by the last quarter of the 18th century. the material for leather spectacles was probably either raw hide or tanned leather, almost always from cattle. after tanning or processing, the leather was soaked in water to make it pliable for cutting into shape. the lenses were then inserted, and after the leather dried, it was waxed, varnished, or lacquered. thomas colledge, by james g. ravin (ravin jg. thomas colledge -a pioneering british eye surgeon in china. arch ophthalmol2001; 119:1530-1532): thomas richardson colledge (1796-1879) was an english physician who served as a medical missionary on the island of macao (off the south coast of mainland china) from 1827 to 1838. he established the first institution to offer western medical care in macao. most of his effort was devoted to eye care. very few surgical procedures were done in china at the time. cataract surgery by couching was one of the most common surgeries performed by missionary physicians. life as a missionary was difficult and unhealthy. four of colledge's five children died in china. colledge returned to england in 1838, and for most of the rest of his life practiced medicine in cheltenham, england. american temple spectacles of the nineteenth century, by alan mcbrayer: temple spectacles were spectacles with short temples that ended at rested upon the temples of the wearer. temple spectacle frames were usually metal and the temples often ended in rings that increased the surface area in contact with the temple area of the wearer. advertisements for temple spectacles were common in the last half of the eighteenth century. mcbrayer noted that, "american inventors revived the idea of the temple spectacle with a series of patents during the last half of the nineteenth century. the primary impetus behind most of these patents was the desire to design a compact style of spectacles that could be carried in the vest or watch pocket." mcbrayer discusses american patents on temple spectacles extending from 1859 to 1889. they included features such as a folding bridge, a spring steel bridge, a spiral coil in the temple wire, spring steel near the joints of the frame, rubber bulbs at the ends of the temples, combination pince-nez/temple spectacle construction, a bridge hinge that would fold either way, short curved spring temples, springs to press the temples in against the head, and curved temples ending in a flange with replaceable pads. mcbrayer observed that, "none of the patents discussed above had widespread use or popularity, and most were probably not commercially manufactured. a person desiring a compact pair of glasses could choose from a myriad of folding pince-nez, and it is probable that this factor more than any other limited the appeal of the temple spectacle designs." southbridge and its origins, by margaret morrissey: southbridge, massachusetts was incorporated in 1815. the industry most associated with the town has been optical 33/40 manufacturing. the author noted that the wells family, which ran the american optical company for many years, " ... has played an important role in the life of this community: during the 1930s, the town was cushioned from the effects of the depression due to the careful planning of the local company all the workers were offered employment providing enough for families to live on. to this day the wells foundation supports many local non-profit organizations ... " the badianus manuscript, by andrew p. ferry: the bad ian us manuscript is a book on herbal treatment of disease completed in 1552 by two aztec indians, martinus de ia cruz, a native physician, and juannes badinanus, the translator into latin. of the 118 plates in the book, seven deal with ocular disease and the plants used for treatment. it is perhaps the first book written in north america with the inclusion of ocular disease treatment. kaleidoscopes historical to contemporary, by john w. tu/1: credit for invention of the kaleidoscope goes to sir david brewster, who was born in scotland in 1781 and who was remarkable scholar and a prodigious writer. among brewster's scientific studies were optics and the development of scientific instruments. books he published include a book on the stereoscope and one on the kaleidoscope. others before brewster used mirrors and reflective materials to view fascinating images, but it was brewster who first enclosed the mirrors within a cylinder and mounted colorful pieces of material in a casing next to the mirrors. he gave the name kaleidoscope to the device. brewster's book on kaleidoscopes was published in 1816, and in 1817 he patented his kaleidoscope. the earliest known kaleidoscope made in the united states dates back to 1818. a patent for a kaleidoscope was issued to charles bush of providence, rhode island, in 1873. it was this kaleidoscope that popularized kaleidoscopes in the united states. in the construction of a kaleidoscope, front-surface mirrors must be used and the mirrors must be placed at exactly the same angles. there are different types of kaleidoscopes, featuring differences in the numbers of mirrors, differences in the tumbling objects, and differences in the object cells which hold the tumbling objects. during the victorian era, kaleidoscopes were popular among adults as a parlor entertainment. in the mid-twentieth century, kaleidoscopes were largely considered children's toys. perhaps the leading maker of kaleidoscopes during this time was the steven manufacturing company, a toy company begun in 1946. in the late twentieth century there seemed to be resurgence of interest in kaleidoscopes. the smithsonian magazine published an article on kaleidoscopes in 1982. the brewster society, an organization of kaleidoscope collectors and artists who make them, was formed in the late twentieth century. edward w. d. norton and the mary & edward norton library, by reva hurtes: edward w. d. norton (1922-1994) was the first administrator of the bascom palmer eye institute at the university of miami medical school. the mary & edward norton library 33/41 is the bascom palmer eye institute library and is a branch of the university of miami school of medicine library. in 1962, the ophthalmological holdings of the medical library were moved to the eye institute. at that time, the author was hired by norton with the mandate " ... to make this collection the finest in the world, as well as a repository for all ophthalmological literature." norton's passion for this library is described in this paper. norton actively solicited funds for the library, searched used book stores for acquisitions for the library, and purchased some large private book collections. in 1987, the library was formally dedicated as the mary & edward norton library. d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 9472q-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 33/42 2002-33-04-001 2002-33-04-002 2002-33-04-003 2002-33-04-004 2002-33-04-005 2002-33-04-006 2002-33-04-007 2002-33-04-008 2002-33-04-009 2002-33-04-010 2002-33-04-011 2002-33-04-012 2002-33-04-013 2002-33-04-014 "****~<*****************~ ,a1a1 '.d. u ruversny ~ nov 21 1990 i library i ~*********************** volume 21 newsletter of the ~ptometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) optomn october 1990 ry library 2 b n . {j v ib01i/ ohs annual meeting: indiana university number 4 the 1990 annual meeting of the optometric historical society will be held in nashville, tennessee, on saturday, december 8, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in the centennial broom of the opryland hotel. this annual event is held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry and provides an opportunity for ohs members and friends to meet, discuss matters of common interest, and hear an historical presentation. this year's speaker will be ohs newsletter managing editor doug penisten. he will give a talk concerning the large variety of untapped sources on the history of optometry in america entitled, "the history of optometry in america: information waiting to be found." be sure you reserve this time to come and join us. in fact, bring a friend. we'll show them that history can be contagious! call for nominations: it is time for you to send in your nominations, or renominations, for the two positions on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the two members whose term will expire are bridget kowalczyk and meredith morgan. by all means, do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. please send your nominations to: doug penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464-7098. final reminder: this will be the last issue mailed to ohs members who have not paid their annual dues. an updated membership list will be included in the january 1991 newsletter. optometry and world history: elsewhere in this newsletter appear two passages from "the columbia history of the world" published in 1972 (reprinted 1986) by harper and row under the editorship of john a. garraty and peter gay. these excerpts were my total findings in any way related to the eye, vision, or optometry. in the 1,257 pages brilliantly authored by forty prominent historians tracing the history of human development and civilization such mundane topics as spectacles, eyeglasses, and optics are quite totally ignored. 21/ 38 in my perusal i was repeatedly impressed by the youngness of so many of the early movers of society, well under the presbyopic threshold of forty years. today's movers, in contrast, whether in the senate chamber, the corporate board room, or at military headquarters, are already wearing bifocals or carrying them in their most accessible pockets. in other words, before the renaissance the fate of society seemed largely in the hands of youth, e.g. christ, nero, et. al., whereas today it is most common even for sixty and seventy year olds to run for high political office. their optometric visual aids are surely their primary preservers of competence. should not such facts be weighed in our interpretations of historical developments? our opinion polls repeatedly demonstrate significant differences of judgement at different age levels. it seems to me likely, therefore, that the invention of spectacles, and indeed the total contributions of optometry, have had impacts on society at least comparable to many a famous political coup or military victory. the role of technological developments of all kinds-­ whether railroads, rubber tires, barbed wire, pharmaceuticals, electricity, textiles, or paper, ad infinitum--each has greatly affected social movements, political decisions, migratory trends, and moral philosophy just as retinoscopy, cylindrical lens power, ophthalmoscopy, plastic lenses, contacts, and many other ophthalmic developments have dictated significant changes of modes of optometric practice. historically, these can be identified with the sight-testing spectacle peddlers beginning in the 14th century, evolving into the guild pattern in the 16th century, through the daza de valdez modernity style of the 17th century, the frontier jeweler-opticians of the 19th century, and the necessitated university-level qualifications of the 20th century. each of these phases can be attributed as logically to contemporary technological developments as to any other single category of influences. surely every other social order is comparably influenced by technological and, of course, environmental changes. that this may be true does not seem to be very obvious to the forty contributors to this opus, probably a manifestation of what c.p. snow called the two cultures. in contrast, i happen to be convinced that optometry, even in its most primitive stages, has played a significant and identifiable role in the history of the world. h.w h. antiques bought and sold: an unsolicited airmail envelope addressed correctly to me (h. w h.) at my home but without a return address contains an attractive folder advertising "optische antiquitaten, 1650-1950 11 from gotz & hannelore remus, affentorplatz 18, 6 frankfurt 70 (west germany), tel. 069/617324. categorically listed are spectacles, lorgnettes, opera glasses, telescopes, loupes, microscopes, ophthalmic instruments, trial lens sets, and other original pieces 21/ 39 with optical motifs. the recipient is invited to call or write to consult on starting or expanding an optical collection. an attached sticker indicates a scheduled display at the weltmesse der augenoptik (optometric world fair) in cologne on april 21-24, 1990. also on the back of the folder is a very legibly inscribed note in english. "if you want to buy or to sell antiaue optical items, please inform me. best regards. [signature illegible.]" also included in the envelope is a self-addressed postcard on which one can express an interest in any of 21 categories of ophthalmic antiques merely by circling or checking the listed items. early industrial optometry: the august 1929 issue of the executive's magazine, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 25-26, 40-41, includes an editor's interview of the late felix a. koetting, o.d., in a feature article entitled, "can the medical profession profitably adopt commercial methods?" in support of his views dr. koetting quotes the remarkes of then secretary of the interior ray wilbur indicting the healing professions, including optometry, for their unjustifiable and inefficient business management. as president of the eyesight survey corporation dr. koetting offers an answer to wilbur's criticisms by describing the carefully planned services of his corporation. he points out that in two years the corporation's optometric staff had surveyed 45,000 employees in 285 industrial plants in and near the st. louis area. they found 39.4% of the workers with some degree of defective vision and not wearing glasses. another 10% were wearing obsolete or imporper spectacle corrections. it is not clear how the program was paid for but an actuarial approach is implied by the statements that "the worker is free to accept or reject the recommendation" and that, "about 23 percent accept and the volume of work thus created is sufficient to pay for our staff of ten specialists, carry our overhead, and make it worthwhile for us to continue in business." various benefits are described in terms of productivity, safety, and liability. dr. koetting also described his concept of how an analogous system could be applied comprehensively to all areas of health services. who owns zeiss? a gift from florence gaynes from the collection of her late husband ernest gaynes, o.d. is an unusual 280 page, 24 x 18 em. hard-cover book entitled, "the zeiss works and the carl zeiss foundation in jena" by prof. felix auerbach, translated into english from the 5th german edition by r. kanthack, published in 21/ 40 london but printed in germany. the precise date of publication is not shown, but several entries are dated 1924 and one of the 255 illustrations is a 1926 folded, paste-in aerial view of the huge plant. a subtitle explains that the text deals with "their scientific, technical and sociological development and importance popularly described." it is pointed out in the foreword that, in addition to its appealing to "those interested in the manufacture and development of optical instruments and their uses" , the extensive detail of abbe's scheme "for the solution of the eternal problem of capital and labour. . will interest a much larger circle of readers". the author's philosophical springboard is his division of practical optical history into three undulatory periods, scientific, unscientific, and scientific, identified approximately with, (1) the moors and early western opticians, (2) the rule-of­ thumb era of optical craftsmen, and (3) the age of scientific research as exemplified by fraunhofer (1787-1826). then arrived zeiss (1816-1888), the optical businessman, abbe (1840-1905), the optical scientist and technologist, and schott (1851-?), the optical glassmaker, successively joining the jena complex as a team. almost two-thirds of the book describes the key personalities and the well explained technical and developmental details of 150 or more zeiss, optical and ophthalmic instruments and products including their application and utilization in laboratories, industry, and the military. most of the remainder relates to the industrial philosophy, functions, and involvements of the relatively unique organization operating under the zeiss rubric. the sequence of ownership may be cursorily described as follows: 1846-1875, carl zeiss was the sole owner; 1875-1881, zeiss and abbe were joint owners; 1881-1888, carl zeiss and his son roderick and abbe were in partnership; in 1888 carl died and roderick retired leaving abbe as the "captain" or sole owner; in 1891 abbe created the "carl zeiss foundation" and deeded the total assets of the company over to it. he personally authored the provisions of the charter in such thorough detail as to win him an honorary doctor of laws degree from a university faculty of law (plus some criticism that he had deprived his widowed wife and d~ughter of a share of his estate). the charter was officially approved by the grand-duke of saxony in 1896. one of the many conditions of operation in the charter was a directive that no employee, chief or otherwise, may receive a salary greater than 10 times the average annual wages of employees over 24 years of age with three or more years of seniority. other provisions covered problems of work administration, piecework pay, work week length, welfare, pensions, patent rights, etc. financial beneficiaries of the foundation included the university of jena, the optometry school, numerous local institutions, and municipal projects. the university and municipality both had advisory 21/ 41 representation in the foundation's administration, as did the employees. the foundation owned the zeiss works lock, stock, and barrel, but who owned the foundation? who appointed the governing board? the author devoted dozens of pages trying to answer these questions but, if he did, i missed it. yet it was no minor issue in german industry, for the firm had a peak of 9,300 employees in 1916. readers of this newsletter may recall that, briefly reviewed in the january 1973 issue, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 7-9, was a celebrated federal court case attempting to resolve the question inasmuch as there are presently two zeiss firms, one in east germany and one in west germany, and both claimed rights to the name zeiss! h. w h. perspective history: in the chapter entitled, "renaissance art" of "the columbia history of the world," 1986, professor eugene f. rice, jr. comments on perspective primarily as an invention and only metaphorically as a functional perceptual attribute as follows: the most distinctive artistic invention of the renaissance was perspective. it distinguishes renaissance painting from medieval painting. but not only that. exact geometrical perspective is uniquely found in western art between the early fifteenth and the early twentieth centuries. wall painting and mosaics from pompeii suggest that an approximation of it was known to hellenistic and roman artists. many chinese and japanese landscape painters were able, by empirical means, to achieve breathtaking illusions of distance. however, exact perspective construction--and more important the wish itself to depict objects in a unified space--was invented in florence about 142 0, remained perhaps the most important single characteristic of western art until the post-impressionists, was unknown to any previous culture, and is absent from the art of all non-western civilizations. the invention of perspective threw open a window on the world. "i describe a rectangle of whatever size i please," wrote alberti, "and i imagine it to be an open window through which i view whatever is to be depicted there. " in the renaissance the painting surface lost its opacity and became a clear pane through which we look into a world of rationally related solids, where the objects represented seem to have the same sizes, shapes, and positions relative to each other that the actual objects located in actual space would have if seen from a single viewpoint. using a geometry of converging visual rays, perspective projects the illusion of a 21/ 42 unified, continuous, and infinite three-dimensional space upon a two-dimensional plane. probably invented by the architect brunelleschi, with the sculptor donatello and the painter masaccio one of the seminal trio who founded the renaissance style in florence, and in italy, and first described by alberti, its principles and methods were fully worked out during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries by painter-theorists like piero della francesca, leonardo, and albrecht durer. the earliest surviving work of art that uses the new technique is masaccio•s fresco of the trinity in the church of santa maria novella in florence, painted about 1427. there is a suggestive parallel between the discovery of perspective in art and the renewed sense of historical distance which enabled renaissance scholars and artists to understand antiquity more exactly and objectively. medieval men had very little perspective on antiquity because no chronological line divided it from their own age. they knew only two great periods, one of light and one of darkness, before christ and after christ • . this bit of historical commentary reminds me of a psychological study in south africa brought to my attention about thirty years ago showing a high dependency of perspective appreciation on literacy. the experiment showed that illiterates were unable to judge two-dimensional portrayal of distances by the relative size of trees, people, etc. whereas literate control subjects had no difficulty. i had some misgivings about their experimental results, but in the light of professor rice's commentary, i now wonder if perspective is not a bit more complex than ordinarily implied by our conventional geometric explanation. h.w h. ancient near east: in the chapter entitled "mesopotamia" in "the columbia history of the world," 1986, professor elias j. bickerman comments on the laws of hammurabi (ca. 18th century b.c.) as follows: in pre-hammurabi laws a bodily injury was compensated by the payment of damages; 60 shekels for a lost eye, and so on. in the laws of hammurabi the system remained the same for a mushkenum, a free man of lesser degree, but if a "gentleman" blinded an eye of another "gentleman" the principle of exact retaliation was applied: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. hammurabi does not say anything about the bodily injury inflicted on a "gentleman" by a mushkenum, but we can be sure it brought dire consequences. hammurabi's point of view was pragmatic. the bodily integrity of a rich man was worth more than that of a poor man, and conversely a rich man could afford bigger medical expenses. thus, the legal 21/ 43 fee for an eye operation on a "gentleman" was twice as much as the fee to be paid by a mushkenum. the principle that social status determined one's rights and obligations also applied to slaves and women. the slave's function was to work for his owner. a citizen who blinded the eye of a slave paid a half of the latter's value to the owner. book review: spectacles, lorgnettes and monocles. d.c. davidson. 1989, shire publications, cromwell house, church street, princes risborough, bucks, england hp17 9aj. 32 pp. 47 figs. (ca. $3.50). this is a well written summation of the history and development of eyewear through the centuries. while there will be little that is new for any serious student of the topic, the excellent arrangement of material, splendid photographic illustrations and typography make this an interesting handbook. it is written in simple, clear language which any lay person can understand. an attractively printed coloured cover makes this an appealing and useful booklet to own. mr. davidson, the president of the ophthalmic antiques collectors club, is highly qualified to produce such a fine booklet. he is a fellow of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, and has practiced as an ophthalmic optician in england for many years. mr. davidson has an extensive collection of early spectacles. his book makes a worthy addition to the growing literature on the history of eyewear. every optometrist would find this an attractive and educational addition for his waiting room. its low cost makes it possible to give it to any who show an interest or to casual friends. i'd suggest you order two or three to have them on hand. e.j. fisher "restoring ophthalmic antiques": this is the title of what must be a unique booklet of friendly advice and instruction by ronald j.s. macgregor, the new editor of the newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club, 47 chapelwell street, saltcoats, ayrshire, ka21 5eb, u.k. it consists of a 40-page, paper-covered 14 x 21 em. easy-to-read manual of procedures and helpful hints on cleaning, repairing, gluing, gilding, electroplating, and otherwise restoring and preserving almost every conceivable material of which ophthalmic antiques have been made. collectible ophthalmic items include lenses, metals, shell, documents, leather, shagreen, eye baths, cases, and instruments. the booklet is a 1990 publication of the club on a nonprofit basis and is available from mr. macgregor at £2.50 plus £0.68 (surface) or £1.70 (air) in u.s.a. 21/ 44 collectors meet: mr. ronald j.s. macgregor, 47 chapelwell street, saltcoats, ayrshire, ka21 seb, scotland, u.k., sent us a copy of the july 1990 issue of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club newsletter, no. 32. he is the new editor, replacing derek davidson of eight years tenure. he informs us that he has practiced optometry for 34 years, is the son of an ophthalmic optician, has two optometric sons, and has become a collector of ophthalmic antiques. the newsletter includes an article entitled "antique collector's dream" by octogenarian hugh orr, honorary curator of the b.o.a. foundation museum in london. in the article he reports finding a pair of spectacles made by edward scarlett in about 1730. he describes them in meticulous detail together with substantial information about mr. scarlett, optician to his majesty king george the second and master of the s.m.c. (1720-1721). another item in the newsletter relates to a trip made by five club members in a three-day visit to the optisches museum in oberkochen and to the private collections of udo timm in hannover, west germany. the listing of several publications about antique spectacles plus the minutes of the annual general meeting of 20 may 1990 rounded out the newsletter. according to the minutes, sixteen were in attendance (membership totals 102), officers were elected for 1990-1991, and the traditional annual auction brought the vendors a total of £1,439. the newsletter will be forwarded to ilamo, inc. e.j. fisher writes: in browsing through some early trade papers, i came across something which might be of interest to the newsletter. the trader and canadian jeweller was published first in 1879 and appeared as a monthly publication. in august 1890, an "optical department" was added. the material for this in its earliest days was provided by dr. john s. owen, president of the detroit optical institute at 142 west high street, detroit, michigan. owen is ... l1sted as an m.d. and by 1900 had moved to 23 east adams avenue. this was even before the days when ford made detroit such a motor metropolis! in the february, 1900 issue, there appears an article "the care of the human eye" and it is indicated that this was a paper given to the new york state optical society by b.t. clark. although not indicated, this must have been presented late in 1899, or in january, 1900. the new york state optical society was only a few years old at that time. while i enclose a copy of the entire 21/ 45 paper, there are a few quotations from the paper which may be of some interest. "it is at this point that those who practice optometry are called upon for assistance and relief." (the word •optometry' was relatively new in february, 1900!) "were we to treat each case, young or old, in the same way, with that theoretical application which we are taught and which we acquire by habit, without looking for or considering the causes leading up to the present condition as we find it, we shall soon fall into error and perhaps defeat, for no one can successfully practice this branch of ophthalmology with any fair degree of success without first making a diagnosis which goes back to the apparent or manifest trouble, and to do this we need to be as familiar along certain lines of pathology, as we are with errors of refraction and the use of the most approved instruments for the detection and correction of these errors." (some of our optometrical ancestors were really "with it". note too the use of 'ophthalmology'.) "i will add that it. has been said very recently by an occulist (sic) of prominence 1n this country, that this branch of ophthalmology is just as separate and far removed from the practice of medicine as dentistry or pharmacy." (quite advanced thinking for 1900.) for appearance sake: theodore grosvenor adds a human touch to the story of how the optometry curriculum at the university of auckland came about by writing as follows: one of the most interesting aspects of the history of new zealand is that henry atkinson (a practitioner with british qualifications who was a very busy man in the nzoa) and harry scott (university of auckland psychology department chairman) just happened to be neighbors in titirangi, and had some conversations, over the back fence, about optometry and psychology. psychology at that time was very much into "sensation and perception", and particularly into vision, so scott was quite willing to have his department take on optometry. when scott was killed in a climbing accident on mt. cook, before the deal was consummated, the nzoa national education committee (i have been told) worked very hard to make sure that the new psychology chairman would be someone who would take on optometry. thus, barney sampson, who was at canterbury university in christchurch at the time, got the job. and as albert rose said many years ago, barney liked optometry in his department because he wanted psychology to be looked upon as a science, and having optometry in the department made psychology look scientific. 21/ 46 ewalt honored: the h. ward ewalt medal for service to optometry is the third medal established by optometric educators, inc. to recognize contributions to the profession in the area of service. the first recipient is dr. ewalt himself with the presentation scheduled at the september alumni banquet of the ohio state university college of optometry. historical lecture: "contact lenses: from da vinci to disposables" was the title of the ninth annual john e. neill memorial lecture by sheldon wechsler, o.d., before a gathering of pennsylvania college of optometry alumni on may 6 in philadelphia. the theme was the historic connection between the knowledge derived from both research and technical development. emendations: the ever meticulous a.g. bennett calls attention to a number of misstatements that crop up now and again in historical commentary. his article is entitled."a commentary on the 'history of spectacles'" and appears in the november 10, 1989, issue of the optician, vol. 198, no. 5225, pp. 11-13. involved are the design of wollaston's periscopic lenses, the identity of fuller of ipswich, j.t. hawkins• role in the construction of the trifocals he invented, the identity of the french optician biette (not beetle) of lyon, the details of the solid upcurve bifocal invented by schnaitman (not schnaitain), details of the crossed cylindrical lenses of marie-nicolas-joseph chamblant, the range of dioptric lens powers expressed in reciprocals of inches of focal length as proposed by burow, f. monoyer•s role in the adoption of the metric diopter unit, and de valdes• unit of lens power, the grado. in referring to daza de valdes• 1623 spanish book bennett is obviously unaware that a manuscript of an english translation is on file at ilamo. a "spectacular" greeting: possibly our most responsive reader, charles letocha, m. d., sent us a colorful greeting card from england which he purchased at the museum of the british college of optometrists, the british optical association foundation. on the picture side are shown two pair of late 18th century silver spectacles with hinged folding sides. printed on the message side is the explanation that these were designed to fit over a wig, with loop ends for cords and the tortoiseshell insets on the lenses of one pair was the invention of benjamin martin, optician (1704-1782). clever! 21/ 47 wisconsin chronology: a 364-page, soft-cover book entitled "wisconsin optometric association, a chronology" by raymond l. guenveur, o.o., gives us minute details of the optometric organizational activities for the hundred year period 1890-1990 as they relate to wisconsin. to the mild annoyance of this reviewer (h.w h) the author states, "like the early history of medicine, optometry came from modest beginnings." also he dates optometry's beginnings in the jewelry store "as far back as 1890." modesty is not documented in the wealth of organizational details in the book, nor is any recognition given for the relatively sophisticated status of sight­ testing for the better part of four centuries in europe. with the exception of these casual assertions, however, the book is truly a contribution to optometry's archival literature. the author's resources are mainly the files of the wisconsin optometric association, early issues of the optical journal and review of optometry, almost six decades of woa periodicals, and ilamo, inc. as indicated by the title the contents are quite chronological in 17 chapters identified often as eras. in the earliest chapter the point is made that before 1900 optometry in america was serially covered only in jewelers' periodicals. the first decade of this century in wisconsin was almost exclusively concerned with the formation of a professional association. in 1906 potential members were supplied with a list of 100 questions (all included in the book) from which ten would be randomly selected for each applicant to answer. no. 1 was, "what is refraction, reflection, diffraction?" no. 100 was "define trichiasis, distichiasis, and entropion." in 1909 the decision was made to seek the enactment of a law to register optometrists, resulting in passage of an act in 1915. the trials, tribulations, and maneuvers are reported in well documented detail, including the complex processing of exemption licenses for existing practitioners by a special examination "limited to practical optics." subsequent history describes battles with medicine and ophthalmology, optometrists' use of the doctor title, impact of the great depression, contributions of e. b. alexander, a.m. sheffington, and ralph barstow of the optometric extension program, the shock of the infamous 1937 reader's digest article, the commendable educational programs for practicing optometrists, the drive to eliminate corporate practice, the influence of the aoa professional advancement program, the agenda of the world war ii years, reactions to federal regulations, the effects of american medical association policy, the drive to bring graduates into associate professional practice, and dozens of other issues. in a real sense the book is a detailed current century history of american optometry from the point of view of a leading wisconsin optometrist and as implemented by the wisconsin optometric ' 21/ 48 association. the role of every participating individual is carefully identified. it is only unfortunate that an index was not included. the 1990 edition is available from the wisconsin optometric association, 5721 odana rd., madison, wi 53719-1288 at $35.00. spectacle iconography: a gift from gunter ueberschaar of jena is a 1988 cloth cover, 180 page, glossy paper, 20 x 23 em., book entitled "a spectacle of spectacles". in english, published by edition leipzig of east germany, and edited by wolf winkler, it is a catalogue of a 1988-89 exhibition in scotland of an historic collection of eyeglasses and graphic art works in which they are depicted. the total project was sponsored by the carl zeiss foundation jena. the text includes a three page history of the carl-zeiss­ stiftung jena by joachim toppler of the jena optical museum, an excellent eight page review of the 100 year history of spectacles by g. l'e. turner of london, and a very sophisticated nine page discussion of "eyeglasses and art" in which claus baumann of leipzig reviews and interprets the graphic iconography of spectacles in classic wor~s of art. most of the volume consists of 108 fully identified illustrations of eyeglasses and 77 examples of artwork in which the eyeglasses are seen. for the information of your librarian or bookseller the isbn number is 3-361-00250-8. contributing editor: managing editor: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1990-21-04-001 1990-21-04-002 1990-21-04-003 1990-21-04-004 1990-21-04-005 1990-21-04-006 1990-21-04-007 1990-21-04-008 1990-21-04-009 1990-21-04-010 1990-21-04-011 1990-21-04-012 volume 27 october 1996 • e 0 j.at>j 2 8 1997 numqer 4 • comparison of educational models: ; library : •••*•e••••8•~~9ee*• the following paper was prepared by henry hofstetter as background material for the conferees of the second world conference on optometric education, april 5-7, 1993, in hong kong and distributed in the conferees' notebooks but never otherwise published. because of its historical significance, it seems appropriate to reproduce it in hindsight. comparison of optometric educational models henry w hofstetter it helps to understand the evolvement of our educational models by reminding ourselves that the earliest formalized training of optometrists was under the guidance, if not fairly firm control, of vocationally oriented guilds. their members were variously identified as spectaclemakers, opticians, or equivalent titles in different languages and, because of their paucity in many communities, were often joined in guildship with other crafts to attain recognition, charters, and governing strength. this led to optometric education's emergence from a crafts philosophy rather than from the more academic philosophy enjoyed by the so-called "learned professions" of theology, law, and medicine. there then emerged what i perceive as three somewhat different current patterns of training in different parts of the globe. these three patterns are not sharply distinguishable but are sufficiently categorical to lend themselves to convenient comparison. for convenience of labeling these three i would call one the "english" pattern; another, the "continental" or "european" pattern; and the third, the "eastern" or "oriental" pattern. in doing so i am apologetically mindful that gross geographic exceptions are apparent, but that these labels are convenient verbal "handles." the english pattern of education is found primarily in the parts of the world in which english is the home language and which were culturally influenced under the former british empire. several specific cfrcumstances influenced its evolvement. perhaps earliest was a guild in england, the worshipful company of spectacle makers chartered in 1629, with substantial governing powers. it adopted rather formalized training requirements, the technical aspects of which were eventually farmed out to polytechnical vocational schools. some of these schools later became technical institutes and finally emerged as government-authorized universities with all the trappings of degree granting institutions, and with optometry included. another specific influence, indeed impact, on optometry of the english-speaking world was the markham v. wood, abrahams court case1 in manchester, england, a malpractice suit which was tried in 1910 and retried in 1911. over the organized opposition of the ophthalmic opticians (optometrists) 1 described in a series of reports in the oct. 28, 1910, and mar. 17 & 24, 1911, issues of the optician and photographic trade journal, nos. 1022, 1041, & 1 042. 27/26 of the time, the jury decided that the optometrist had a responsibility to detect and refer ocular pathology. this, of course, quickly put pathology detection firmly into every english language optometry curriculum. in what had been the far-flung rural-dominated colonies of the british empire, such as in north america, australia, and new zealand, the guilds were nonexistent, but degree-granting charters were rather easily obtained by local education promoters. these included numerous privately chartered optometry schools, most of which were eventually discredited or otherwise discontinued. some, however, were merged or taken over by well established universities or they eventually acquired nominal university equivalence status through a complex accreditation program that served the similar needs of several professions. the continental or european patter is best exemplified in the german-speaking countries, though also quite prevalent in surrounding european countries. in the absence of any legal requirement to detect pathology, the earlier guild pattern easily came under the supervision of the highly organized handicraft ministries which assigned the training to vocational schools with the more technical crafts. with the later advent of legislated health care payment provisions and the requirement of medical authorization of lens prescriptions for reimbursement, the pronounced reduction of optometric refractions tended temporarily to reinforce optometry's technical rather than clinical role as a craft. the eastern or oriental pattern of optometric education is probably the most inadequately identified or labeled. essentially it has been dominated by the eyewear manufacturing industry. the pattern, sometimes in quite formally established programs of a year or two duration and in other instances on-the-job training at company headquarters, is influenced by the objective to produce qualified refractionists to implement the companies' eyewear sales. the technical optical core of the typical curriculum in each of the three broad patterns is usually much the same, reflecting significant portions of the minimum syllabus of the international optometric and optical league. the quality of teaching in each can range form good to poor, depending on a variety of personnel and economic, political, and other local circumstances. we must remind ourselves, too, that there are mixed patterns, that the above-described three are for analysis purposes only. from these we can say with some confidence that the english pattern tends to generate university-type training, the continental or european pattern favors the craft mode, and the eastern or oriental pattern accommodates the aims of the industry. how, then, do they differ? university education differs form other categories of higher education in two major respects. one is its assumption of responsibility and support for research to advance the knowledge of given fields or of society in general. every faculty member is expected to engage in research and to publish findings. secondly, the students are expected to engage as well in culturally broadening subjects and activities, to prepare themselves for social, technological, and civic roles beyond competence in one's chosen career. the technical, vocational, or purely professional school on the other hand is dedicated primarily to teaching and applying the known science and technology of the day. the faculty members are judged quite exclusively on their teaching skills, and the students are judged quite solely on their performance skills. supplementary training through apprenticeships with established practitioners is typically required. the nature of company-owned programs is self-evident, depending largely on the philosophy, reputation, and dedication of the firms involved. they may vary from emphasis on salesmanship on the one hand to involvement in product development and technology improvement on the other. 27/27 with these rather simple, if not overly simple, criteria one can quite easily and quite reliably categorize almost any of the existing educational programs into university-type, vocational-type, or industrial-type institutions, or even as an intermediate type, by careful observation and interviewing of the administrative personnel, faculty, students, and graduates. it should be kept in mind that such categorization itself is not a quality judgment, for each type can best fulfill the role of optometric education in certain circumstances. marquez's contribution to optics: during the departure of banquet guests at the december 1 992 meetings of the american academy of optometry, dr. ana m. rueda of madrid, spain, introduced herself to me and hastily gave me a spanish paperback book entitled lecciones de refraccion ocular by professor manuel marquez. inserted was a slip of paper which i had momentarily presumed might explain her intentions but it included only her name and address, which enabled me to write a note of thanks. my spanish being limited quite entirely to highway signs, loan words, and resemblances to english, i am unable to do justice to the gift, but because it has historical significance i shall describe it, however cursorily. it is an edition of 1,900 copies, of which this is number 1 ,695. it has over 200 pages of text which include 390 figures, almost all line drawings. on the front cover is a green-tone reproduction of an early etching, perhaps 1 6th century, of the open front of an optician's shop with spectacle trays. in the picture is a cleric-like customer trying different spectacles while consulting with the optician calipering lenses at his worktable. on the back outside cover of the book is a symbolic emblem of the refracting optician's craft apparently adapted from dac;a de valdes' 1623 optometry book, though not so credited. on an unnumbered page is an autographed portrait of dr. manuel marquez rodriguez ( 14 march 1872 to 12 june 1961) followed by three unnumbered pages of biography authored by dr. narciso pascual jover, secretary general of the marquez foundation, and dated 1981. from this we learn that marquez studied medicine early in life, advanced rapidly to a professorship in medicine, and soon specialized in ophthalmology. in 1926 he edited a series entitled lecciones de oftalmologia clinica, numbers 13 to 21 of which are the text of this book. later he spent 18 years in mexico during which time he participated in numerous pan-american congresses. in 1957 the fundacion cientifica dr. marquez was established in his honor . . ··' a three-page prologue by professor julian garcia sanchez follows next as a commentary on marq'uez's theories of refraction and an explanation of the involvement of the spanish society of ophthalmology at its 57th national congress. the publication of the book was funded by essilor espana. 27/28 the nine chapters or "lecciones" are numbered from 13 to 21 and deal successively with the optical properties of the normal eye and presbyopia, spherical ametropia, astigmatic ametropia, subjective refractive procedures, objective refractive procedures, objective ophthalmoscopy (skiascopy), ophthalmometry, cylinder combinations, and clinical practice of refraction and prescription of eyewear. altogether it is a truly optometric text from cover to cover but written .by an ophthalmologist early in this century. h.w h. early optometrist charles potter: ohs member e.j. fisher sent us a photocopy of an article entitled, "a new ophthalmoscope for photographing the posterior internal surface of the living eye; with an outline of the theory of the ordinary ophthalmoscope" by a.m. rosebrugh, m.d., which appeared in the march 1864 issue of the canadian journal, new series, vol. 9, no. 50, pp. 81-92. this journal, according to union list of serials, went through several title variations during its existence identifying its interests with science, literature, history, industry, and art, and serving as the medium for the royal canadian institute before which this paper was read on january 16, 1864. professor fisher comments on the article in terms of the role played by charles potter as follows: i just received a copy of the enclosed from a friend in the royal ontario museum. it is very interesting to me on several counts, and may be of interest to you or ilamo. (my friend knows of my interest in early ophthalmic people and sends items from time to time when he runs across them.) 1. in 1864 this paper describes a special type of ophthalmoscope, just 13 years after helmholtz described his. but this one is a canadian-made combination of a projection and photographic instrument. when one considers the technology of the time i find this to be almost incredible. note-kerosene or gas mantle illumination, no semi-silvering on the beam splitter, glass colloidal plates for the photography. to me a development of this type in 1864 is quite exceptional. this was written three years before canadian confederation. ~ 2. the instrument was made by charles potter. note reference to his name and also the name on the drawing of the instrument in two places. potter came to toronto from england in 1853. he worked with a man by name of hearn as an instrument maker for four years and then started on his own. his brother also came over and started a separate instrument-making company in toronto. charles became noted as a maker of instruments for great lakes steamers-compasses, sextants, barometers, etc. he also made surveying instruments, and later "magic" lanterns and glass lantern slides. for almost 100 years the business was the major supplier of navigational charts for the great lakes. one of our graduates whose father was a tugboat operator, recalls being sent there in the '40s to obtain some charts. potter also formed the first toronto telephone company which had about 150 subscribers at its peak and was then sold to the present bell telephone company. of course, people in those days were skeptical about talking 27/29 over a wire. when potter installed a telephone in his own home, a mob gathered, threw rocks breaking a few windows. eventually the police came to disperse the crowd. charles potter moved among the leading social class in his day, and there is a splendid oil painting of him by a noted local artist. "po~r the optician," the name of the business, was continued by a successor, charles petrie whose son continued the practice untill951 when it was taken over by one of our graduates dr. harry landon. landon dropped the potter name as it was no longer legal under our revised legislation. he retired about 1959 and then the practice was continued by dr.jack young. shortly after young died t;m' practice was taken over by two 1981 optometry graduates of the university of waterloo, drs. carolyn jarrot and cindy pope. theirs is an ongoing establishment with a century and a half tradition. our museum has 3 or 4 pairs of century-old spectacles which came in cases marked with the potter name. 3. on p. 83, note the experiment outlined starting with paragraph 4. this ranks with some of the much earlier experiments dealing with the elimination of corneal power and has a place in early contact lens history. 4. finally note the refexence to dr. noyes on p. 91. as you know, noyes was prentice's nemesis. if it is the ~ame person, the work referenced here must have been early in his career, and his altercation with prentice when he was close to retirement, since there are some 30 years between the events. i wonder who made the noyes instrument. i am trying to obtain information about the author of this article, a.m. rosebrugh, but so far no success. h.w h. about w. jerome heather: the following is a copy of a handwritten letter of may 29, 1984, from maurice e. cox, already long retired from the editorship of the optical journal and review of optometry, to andrew f. fischer, 0.0., in response to a note that w. jerome heather, 0.0., had died: · may 29, 1984 dear andy: ,,•" it was good to hear from you, although the news of jere heather's death added a sad note. however, he was rich in years and, knowing jere as we did, he was sure to live and enjoy the fullness of them. my memory of jere goes back to his days as head of the clinic at n.i.c.o. [northern illinois college of optometry]. i'm sure you knew him there before that. our paths used to cross more often, and he became the professional relations man for american optical co. he was highly gifted for that role, ·~'we all recognized. somehow he always showed me a certain deference and i think i poss~ly knew why. when i was consistently beating the drum for public relations as a full-time activity for optometry, the economic aspects of such a program were not neglected. i felt optometrists would continue their usual service of refraction and dispensing, but could enlarge the service with orthoptics, subnormal vision work, and other nonmedical offerings. and the nature sf.tije overall service could be dramatized by spelling out 27/30 the individual parts.and so justify an adequate, rather a more substantial, professional fee. the price of the optical correction, where required, would be incidental. thus the o.d. would have a stronger case to present and that would enhance his professional status. on one of my periodic visits with harry ray, then ao [american optical co.] advertising manager for many years, we were joined by charlie cozzens, v-p [vice-president] for sales. i think it was before charles' brief tenure as ao president. they were an attentive audience for my views. it wasn't long before charlie's quick mind got working and ao announced its "american plan," for which jere heather became the active promoter before optometric gatherings the country over. jere used his colored wooden blocks to illustrate how the story of optometric service could be told by emphasizing the component parts of the structure. you know the rest of the story. shortly before i retired in 1968, henry hofstetter told me of the contemplated founding of the optometric historical society. he felt i should belong and spoke of an honorary membership, as i remember. but i was still active with the journal-review and declined membership as i felt there might be a conflict of interests and loyalties, as the society would be sponsored2 by the aoa, which was somewhat competitive in the publishing field. doctor hofstetter appreciated my position. very likely the aoa journal, "newsletter" of the ohs, or other publications will give jere heather his just due. i liked jere very much and admired his ability and i wouldn't want his good work to suffer in the least from what i have written here. i'm sure you or any number of o.d. 's or optical men who knew him well can add lustre to jere's memory. i thank you, old friend, for thinking of me. keep well and happy, maurice h.w h. 1 00 years ago: in the july 1896 issue of the optical journal, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 153-156, the lead article was "practical skiascopy" by a. jay cross, a paper delivered before the optical society of the state of new york, syracuse, june 2, 1896. said he, "i do so in the hope that it may awaken more of an interest in this valuable means of determining errors of ocular refraction, than now seems to be given it by 'refractionists' in general, whether opticians or oculists." the august issue, p. 228, included the following resolution adopted by the ohio state board of medical examiners: resolved, that the act of prescribing or adjusting glasses in uncomplicated cases of visual defects shall not be held as practicing medicine within the meaning of this law, but that the act of prescribing glasses or of adjusting the same without the order of a physician in any case in which the vision cannot be brought up to the normal, and in which, in addition to visual defects, there 2this was an incorrect presumption. h.w h. 27/31 exists any inflammatory condition, organic change or disease of either the constituent or auxiliary structure of the eye, shall be held as practicing medicine within the meaning of the law. under the caption "news of the month" the september issue, p. 281, reported that "several focusing glasses in o.m. campbell's display window, petaluma, cal., ignited a velvet curtain, but the flame was extinguished before any damage was done." h.w h. anti puffs and quackery: identifying himself merely as one who "freely availed myself of facts and observations with which i have become familiar in the course of my own experience and connexion with an establishment of more than one hundred years standing, and, at the same time, to condense in one publication the essence of many voluminous treatises," george cox at s, barbican, london, published in 1 838 a 72-page booklet entitled "spectacle secrets." a second edition appeared in 1844 showing cox's address at 128, holborn hill. a copy of the first edition is at the u.s. patent office library and a copy of the second at the yale historical library. the title pages each list three london addresses at which the booklet was sold, with the notation, "and by all booksellers and opticians." facing the title page of each edition is a plate of eight diagrams, two of the cross section of the eye with and without a spectacle lens in place, one of an "anti pressure solid blue steel" pair of spectacles, and five cross sections of lenses showing combinations of concave, convex, and plano surfaces. in his preface to the first edition the author states, "my object has been to provide the public with a compendium of sound and standard information on this most interesting and essential subject, in order that, ... they may no longer be the victims of ignorant, designing, and knavish speculators, who so mercilessly practise on their credulity." the eight chapters do indeed convey the tone of his purpose by warning the buyer of the schemes of unscrupulous itinerant peddlers, false advertising, scare tactics, outrageous prices, shoddy merchandise, pseudoscientific claims, fraudulent testimonials, untrue allegations of royal patronage, misrepresentations of pebble lenses, etc. the safeguard is to become familiar with the author's technical guidelines and to patronize only reputable opticians. he deplores the lack of any regulations to identify opticians who are qualified. he defends the importance of his book with a quote from abbott (unidentified), "the subject is of universal importance, since every man, woman, and child in the empire will probably require optical assistance." he portrays the eye in simple terms and describes lenses, whether of pebble or glass, as simple technical artifacts of long standing .not to be described in "new-fangled terms coined to entrap the uninitiated." 1996-27-04-001 1996-27-04-002 1996-27-04-003 1996-27-04-004 1996-27-04-005 1996-27-04-006 1996-27-04-007 volume 22 newsletter of the optometric historical society //t243 north lindbergh boulevard f.t. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) april -~·~~xkxwx~wx••****** 199~ indiana university ! number 2 ! jul21991 ! election results: ! library ! ********************* ohs members responded in a record number by returning sixty ballots for the ohs executive board election. it was a close vote. the two members of the board elected by you are walter chase and meredith morgan. the board members will now elect the 1991 ohs offic~rs from among themselves and the results will be reported in the next newsletter. membership list: appended to this issue of the newsletter, you will find an updated membership list. make sure your friends and acquaintances who have even a passing interest in optometric history are listed. if not, why not tell them about the ohs and ask them to join? a mayan beauty: associated with the mayan civilization at the western edge of the caribbean during the latter part of the 15th century is the concept of cross-eyedness as a thing of beauty. in his most recent novel entitled "caribbean" james a. michener describes one young lady of age 14 who was especially beautiful by mayan standards in that her mother had carefully trained her to be conspicuously cross-eyed. "when she was four days old i kept a feather dangling before her eyes on a length of grass, and as she stared at it, day after day, her eyes began to cross rather nicely. then, when she was older, i asked her father to get us a piece of bright shell, and this was hung so that light from the sun reflected into her eyes, and this too helped to train them inward, the way a mother wants them. finally, when she would walk, i would stand before her and bring my finger from way back here straight to the point of her nose, and in time her eyes locked properly, the way you see them today." cataracts in 1927: quite apparently written for optometrists is a 1927 brown paper covered pamphlet of 32 pages, 13 x 19.5 em, entitled the "why" of blue lenses in cataract cases, by withers bagwell, o.d., and published by rey publishing company, south boston, a small city in southern virginia. entries in the blue book of optometrists identify bagwell with the same town in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, but with no street address. a signature in the copy on loan from james leeds' book collection indicates its former ownership by a.a. i 22/14 kilton, a contemporary california optometrist. the lack of any institutional identity of the author and the fact that the copyright is in the author's name suggests the booklet to have been purely an entrepreneurial gesture. the tone of the author's brief preface reinforces the suspicion that the author merely had the urge to look into an unanswered question and to share his findings with his colleagues. the writing style is delightfully rhetorical, hardly befitting a staid journal. witness a sentence in his opening paragraph, "to paraphrase the bard of avon, some men are born with cataracts, some achieve cataracts and some have cataracts thrust upon them." the text's subdivision headings are by way of greeting the subject; prying off the lid; who's who in cataracts; running our quarry to earth; sifting the evidence; finger-printing the victim; a corner of the laboratory; serving the warranty i and as the curtain falls. '! despite the capricious phraseology pervading the text, the presentation of the then available technology, science, and professional literature relating to lenses and cataracts is legitimate and valid. in his preface he observes the generally prevailing advice of the day that "medium blue lenses arrest cataract" but that the supporting information is only vaguely mentioned. following this he reviews the known facts of cataracts and especially the etiological role of spectral radiation as well as the transmission data for available lenses. from this he draws the conditional conclusion that green rather than blue glass should be favored. he cautiously closes with the comment, "as the field is still so largely unexplored and the whole matter yet in the experimental stage, it would seem a measure of prudence to make few promises regarding assured results. " nevertheless, "if the protective glasses fail to prevent that [the cataract], the only harm that has been done is the expense to the patient of one pair of colored lenses." cataracts in 1938: another publication that helps to convey the status of cataracts in the public mind only a half century ago is a small 1938 hard-cover book of about 80 pages authored, copyrighted, and published by an "optometrist and orthoptist" named neville schuler under the title "the prevention and treatment of cataract." declared to be "intended primarily for optometrists," it emphasizes the importance of early detection, a theme reinforced in the foreword by marvin j. blaess, an ophthalmic surgeon, as well as by several appended testimonial letters from physicians and surgeons in british guiana (now guyana) where the author had practiced optometry for a number of years before his establishment of the schuler eye clinic in toronto, canada. according to the author's preface, patients showing early stages of cataract do not consult the optometrist for that reason but rather "for some trivial loss of near vision, or far vision, or just eyestrain and headache." he adds " ... but unwittingly the patient is usually given a refractive correction which happily turns out to be the 22/15 correct procedure for the application of the first and foremost measure in cataract prevention and therapy. " he credits the medical refractionist with even less alertness. the contents include chapters on etiology, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment (optical and surgical), and aphakia. they make very obvious the fact that the optometrist's role then was really quite different from his or her role today because of the kind of care, preventive and corrective, to be provided during the seemingly interminable pre-surgical stages and the optical problems of post-surgical correction of that era. while the booklet is clearly the expression of the author's very personal view of the roles of optometric and medical eye doctors, which may or may not be that of the majority of either practitioner group, it is nevertheless a significantly valid exposition in terms of historical documentation. the present copy was borrowed from the james leeds collection. cataracts in 1945: one of the ways to evaluate the common emotional reaction to an ordinary word in any given era is to note the exploitation of the word by contemporary promoters of products and services. remindful of this axiom is a 1945 gray-colored, soft-card covered, 48 page, 13 x 19 em booklet boldly imprinted in red ink "how to conquer cataract" and "price $1.00 11 on the front cover. published by health publications at a los angeles, california, address it is authored by "j.h. maassen, dietitian and hygienist", with credit for assistance given to "dr. allen c. holland, optometrist, past president of the california state ass•n. of optometrists." (a bias may show through this commentary because dr. holland and i held each other's professional views in extremely low regard during a several years period of frequent hostility. h.w h.) folded and inserted in the booklet, obtained from the collection of ohs member james leeds, is an undated memo "to the optometric profession" on the publisher 1 s letterhead explaining that the brochure "is written and intended for use by cataractous persons • . . under your observation • • • " appended is a schedule of price discounts for quantity purchases. on page 10 in a paragraph under the caption "grave optometrist problem" the author describes very accurately the caution that an optometrist would exercise in the choice of terminology when an incipient cataract is present, preferring such phrases as "cloudy lens, hazy lens, or deposits of foreign material in the lens" and avoiding the term "cataract" lest the patient react as to the word "cancer". the author's recommended "dietetical cataract treatment" is reported as being based on a seven years• collaboration with dr. holland in which it was found that among the patients following the regimen for about four years "the opacifications did not recur; 22/16 that not only the vision gained was retained, but the improvement of general health, also." his theory of cataract formation involves primarily the alleged role of calcium, explaining, "due to faulty diet • • • the absence of [certain chemicals] permitted the calcium to be converted into the carbonate • • • , which is insoluble." described in detail is a strict dietary regimen with supplements of vitamins, minerals, ocular calisthenics combined with breathing exercises, enemas, and frequent bathing. avoided is any promise that the treatment will cure cataract but that it "can benefit not only the cataractous condition, but general health also; and the treatment contains nothing that can harm the body." included on the last page is an advertisement of a $15 "mediascope (patented)" for "detecting and visualizing your own cataracts or opacities". the instrument seems obviously to have been a device for introducing an over-focused or under-focused beam of light in the eye by which media opacities are seen entoptically shadowed. the description of its function leaves doubt that the advertiser understood the optics. what the book does demonstrate is the author's assumption that to its rank and file reader of those days a cataract was still a very severely feared eye condition and that its surgical correction was feared even more. optometry in victoria, australia: in 1911 optometrists of victoria, australia, organized the victorian optical association and started a tutorial program of evening classes to be followed by examinations for fellowship after two, and later three, years of study. prior to 1911 optometrists had either trained in england or had been privately tutored or had no formal training. the tutorial educational provisions prevailed for three decades until on 29 december 1939 five optometrists signed the official memorandum of association of the australian college of optometry. in immediate response the victorian optical association elected six optometrists by ballot to serve as councillors of the college and petitioned for its incorporation, which was certified on 5 february 1940. at the first meeting of the college councillors on 11 march 1940 they elected officers and invited the honorable judge stretton to serve as the first president of the college. the first service of the new college was to take over the tutorial training of those studying for v.o.a. fellowship, completing that phase in 1943. at the same time it developed an in-residence curriculum of four years length of which at least one and a half years were science courses at the neighboring university of melbourne. all of this is just the beginning of the developmental details of today•s world-famous optometric educational and research center in melbourne, australia. further details of the tripartite program, the college, the clinic, and the university department are impressively described in an attractive brochure entitled 11 1989 22/17 annual reports" available from professor b. l. cole, department of optometry, university of melbourne, parksville, victoria 3052, australia. it is also undoubtedly available at ilamo. hirschberg's vols. sa and sb: this is commentary on volumes sa and sb of julius hirschberg's "history of ophthalmology" as translated by frederick c. blodi. the original german issues were completed just prior to world war i, and these two translated volumes were published in 19s7 and 19ss respectively by j.p. wayenborgh verlag. both volumes cover a wealth of ophthalmological history but nothing at all of optometric history. vol. sa is "part four of the first half of the nineteenth century" in great britain. slightly more than half of vol. sb is "part five" of the same, and the remainder is on ophthalmology in italy during the same era. the overwhelming bulk of both books consists of remarkably informative biographical accounts of individual ophthalmologists, their accomplishments, reputations, contributions, and personalities, together with numerous portraits. incidentally covered are the histories of numerous eye hospitals and a wide variety of surgical and bloodletting techniques but relatively little on other forms of medical treatment or on ophthalmoscopy. the names of thomas young and william porterfield are mentioned in passing, but visual science, visual physiology, optics, refraction, and eyewear are virtually unmentioned anywhere in either text except for one or two comments to the effect that they were simply not a part of the ophthalmological realm in the first half of the nineteenth century. topically anomalous for the text and anachronistic by three centuries is the frontispiece of volume sa, a full-page reproduction of a beautiful copper etching of a 16th century spectacle merchant! · a myth preserved in stone: prompted by jay enoch's report in the january 1990 issue of this newsletter, vol. 21, pp. 4-5, on the still standing granite or marble bust of an alleged inventor of spectacles, j. j. abrams included a visit to the same church and took photographs of the bust and the engraved legend. it reads insignificantly different from that cited in enoch's report, but, in case you enjoy being persnickety, here it is in original capital letter form (unless this gets typographically mangled): qvi diace salvino d'armato degli armati di firenze inventor delgi occhiali dio gli perdoni le peccata anno d•mcccxvii more information on this tomb will be given in the next issue of the newsletter from ohs member dr. robert v. sander. 22/18 a li~e o~ optometry: "ein leben fiir die optometrie: peter abel und seine zeit" is a biography of peter abel (1908) and more. it is authored and published by hans-ulrich geyer, a young optometrist, pfarre-sturm­ str. 5, d-7012 fellbach, west germany, 1988. the handsome clothbound book has 302 pages and 78 illustrations. although written in the third person, the text often gives to those of us who know abel the feeling that he himself is speaking. together with the forewords by optometrists thomas nosch and wolfgang cagnolati the biographer clearly conveys peter abel's traits of being creative, farseeing, imaginative, unselfish, outgoing, determined, industrious, a champion for modern optometry, and appreciative of the career-long assistance of his wife elizabeth. his oft expressed motto was "performance precedes success." nosch added, "no other german optometrist is internationally as well known, loved, and honored." the general organization of the book really makes it a documentary that tells us much about optometry's history in germany, and to some extent the world, during the past 60 years. the introductory sections deal philosophically with such questions as the aims of a career, who can profit from reading the book, the ethics and mission of the optometrist, and the biographer's explanation of his sources of information, including much from herr abel, who is now retired in australia. part 2 covers his childhood, youth, early involvement with optics, his life during the hitlerian years, eventual attendance of an optical school in berlin, early learning of english, appointment to the optometry school teaching staff at age 26, his wide travels, being drafted in wwii into the military where he served as a telecommunications officer and photographer, his post-war search for his evacuated wife and two children, and the miseries of reestablishment in berlin. part 3 is essentially an informative album of persons who played significant roles in abel's career. they include karl hermes, a.e. turville, waldemar friang, otto marzock, karl schultze, rolf weinschenk, willi sohnges, clifford hall, frank dickenson, geo. f. kapernik, eduard raskop, and willi kaue. parts 4-10 respectively treat peter abel as entrepreneur, optometrist, contact lens specialist, worldwide diplomatic traveler, teacher-lecturer, organization leader, and career role mpdel. the appendices include a chronology, a publications list, a glossary of technical terms, credits, and index. image technology: a very personalized review entitled "forty years of image technology and vision research" by donald h. kelly appears in the july 1990 issue of optics and photonics news, vol. 1, no. 7, 22/19 pp. 24-30. it deals almost exclusively with scientific developments and personnel at the university of rochester institute of optics during the author's career. goethe's aversion to spectacles: johann wolfgang von goethe (1749-1832), prolific poet, dramatist, novelist, and freely expressive observer of almost anything that struck his fancy, gave vent to his aversion for spectacles time and again. in the bicentennial commemoration of goethe's birth optometrist kurt muller of plauen, east germany, gave a paper entitled "goethe und die brille" which appeared in the august 15, 1949 issue of the deutsche optische wochenschrift, no. 16. the paper has recently been reprinted in the march/april, 1990 issue of auqenoptik, vol. 107, no. 2, pp. 48-49, with five illustrations on the inside front cover and editorial notations by k. radicke. that goethe was myopic was the author's interpretation from the two items of eyewear in the goethe museum in weimar so confirmed by goethe • s grandson. one is a hornrimmed lorgnette holding a pair of two diopter concave lenses and on one arm of which is stamped "tauber" and on the other "leipzig". the tauber firm was founded in 1800, suggesting that goethe was at least 50 and probably 60 years old when he obtained the lorgnette. the other eyeglass is a short-handled golden monocle stamped "nr. 6011 and having a lens diameter of 30 mm, but the author does not mention its power or whether it is concave or convex. in the illustrations it resembles a simple magnifying lens. there are indications that goethe was myopic in his youth, including an account in a letter he wrote at age 18 in which he describes his difficulty identifying someone he was trying to find in the theatre and having to borrow theatre-goer's glasses rather that returning home for his own 11glas11 • even then he expressed his antipathy for any visual aid by commenting that he accomplished more by willpower than by the lens. numerous other indications support the op1n1on that he was myopic, including his letter to a dresden optician requesting at age 85 a new lorgnette of the same concave power as his present one and the comment of a friend that at age 80 he was seen reading without any glasses. the author describes at some length goethe 1 s enchanting exophthalmic and almost black eyes as evidenced in portraits and in comments of those who had met him. most fascinating however was his emotional aversion for glasses as documented frequently in his writings and correspondence, including a 20-line epigram "feindseliger blick" (malignant outlook) • it was not merely an annoyance with eyewear per se but more emphatically an instant and unavoidable feeling of hostility toward anyone wearing glasses in his presence. even at age 81 he described to a friend the impact he would feel when a stranger approached him with spectacles on--he could not even be civil to the stranger. he philosophized that 22/20 glasses contribute nothing to our cultural and moral senses, that they distort our views and make the wearer feel smarter than he really is, and that, by all means, we should avoid becoming addicted to them, merely to use them for emergencies. he made a single exception in behalf of his closest friend who wore glasses constantly. bibliothecal evolvements: included under "sights and sounds" in the may 1990 issue of ilamo visionlink, vol.8, no. 5, are four videotapes, each of which is entitled "a living history interview". catalog numbered vt-184, 185, 186, 187, and 188 they are interviews of drs. lynn gabriel, robert graham, solon braff, and morris applebaum respectively by margaret dowaliby, 0. d. it is most gratifying that this very personalized type of resource is accumulating and available for those who would become familiar with optometry's heritage. with the stockpiling of resources, unfortunately, there occurs a problem, namely, that of discoverability of pertinent items. like the innumerable volumes of unindexed optometric periodicals already on our library shelves, the accumulating wealth of information takes on the "needle in a hay stack" challenge. the same problem has long been building up in unpublished theses, dissertations, technical reports, government documents, and the like. partial solutions are accomplished by abstract services, key word indexing, bibliographical attempts, and computerization, making literature-searching itself a professional tool skill to be acquired only with special effort. the burden falls ever more on libraries such as ilamo and other institutional libraries serving collegiate and research roles in visual science. even a person who has an enviable private collection often finds it necessary to rely on institutional indexing facilities to utilize effectively that which is already privately owned! in the case of the above mentioned videotapes, for example, one needs to know, at least by key words, if not by abstracts, what topics the interviewees dealt with informatively. the alternative is hours of viewing and searching for those elusive "needles" as well as borrowing and returning each tape, unless, of course, one undertakes to view them just for fun, not a bad idea in itself. co~tributing editor: managing editor: *** henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa in"i'ernational members: australian optometric assoc. p.o. box 185 carlton south victoria 3053 austraija dr. howard a backman pierrefonds medical centre 12774 gouin boulevard west montreal, quebec h8z 1ws canada dr. c. w. bobier 18 orchard park cres kitchner, ontario n2m 2y3 canada the british college of optometrists 10 knaresborough place london sws otg england dr. claro m. cinco diaz bldg., capitol site cebu city 6000 phiuppines e. j. fisher school of optometry university of waterloo waterloo, ontario n2l 3g1 canada fondazoine "giorgio ronchi" via s. felice a ema 20 50125 firenze italy antonio joson, jr. 1440 taft avenue manila phiuppines dr. akio kanai fuji optical service international oktemachi bldg., 1f otemachi 1-6-1 chiyoda-ku tokyo, japan f100 dr. brian layland 7 mirrabooka avenue homebush nsw 2140 sydney austraija 22/21 library wellcome institute for the history of medicine 183 euston road london nw1 2bn england gemot lindner schottstrasse 56 7000 stuttgart 1 west germany dr. william m. lyle university of waterloo school of optometry waterloo, ontario n2l 3g1 canada ronald macgregor 47 chapelwell st. saltcoats, ayrshire ka215eb united kingdom dr. k. issei mori kikuchi college of optometry 2 5 5 izumi higashiku nagoya japan dr. gerald mulrooney 6454 quinpool road halifax, nova scotia b3l 1a9 canada mr. kurt e. ostlund ostlunds optik-synsam h~lmgatan 17 79153 falun sweden felip cid i rafael fundacio-museu d'historia de ia medicina passatge mercader, 11 08008-barcelona, spain mr. m. j. revell brandon hall fen lane, bulphan upminister, essex england sekiya shirayama 6-8 wakabayashi, 5-chrome setagaya-ku, tokyo japan dr. gunther ueberschaar ddr 6900 jena professor-ibrahim-strasse 1 postschliess fach 135 easf germany universite de montreal bibliotheques-acquisitions (periodiques) cp 6128 succ "a" montreal, quebec h3c 3j7 canada visus sdf di roncagli vittorio e.c. vjale parini 9 48015 cervia italy mr. robert von sandor klippuddsstigen 2 s-181 62 lidingo sweden boris wainer foa p.o. box 46229 orange grove, johannesburg 2119 repubuc of soutii africa j.p. wayenborgh p.o. box 215 edinburgh eh6 7pe scotland, great britain dr. t. david williams 269 union boulevard kitchner, ontario n2m 2s9 canada dr. george woo school of optometry university of waterloo waterloo, ontario n2l 3g1 canada miss amanda wilson 1 willow street lugarno, nsw, 2210 sydney austraija mr. charles f wright 3 meadowvale road springfield sa 5062 soutii austraija u.s.a. members: dr. j. j. abrams 4516 west washington street indianapolis, in 46241 dr. teri l. alpert 28601 marguerite parkway, #3 mission viejo, ca 92692 22/22 dr. arol r. augsburger dr. jerry l. christensen dr. menon c. flom ohio state university ~ school of optometry college of optometry college of optometry 8001 natural bridge road univ of houston 320 w. tenth avenue st. louis, mo 63121 houston, tx 77204-6052 columbus, oh 43210 dr. gilben b. cohen dr. luis garcia-margarida dr. joseph m. babock jr. alief health center box 13188 720 6th street 7474 south kirkwood santurce portsmouth, oh 45662 houston, tx 77072 pueno rico 00908 dr. neal j. bailey dr. donald w. conner, sr. dr. stuan j. gelber 32 east 15th avenue rural route 52, box 114 601 riverside drive columbus, oh 43201 terre haute, in 47805 hillside, nj 07205 dr. william r. baldwin dr. roben b. coppelman georgia optometric association university of houston 3660 fox grove place 4289 memorial drive, suite j college of optometry san diego, ca 92130 decatur, ga 30032 houston, tx 77204-6052 dr. samuel cutler dr. edward goodlaw dr. felix m. barker, ll 8226 cadwalader ave. 4055 wilshire boulevard, 600 mulford road elkins park, pa 19117 suite 406 wyncote, pa 19095 los angeles, ca 90010 ms. maria dablemont dr. frieda barnes 1435 wells avenue dr. david a. goss c/o chardon quality care st. louis, mo 63119 nonheastem state university nursing center college of optometry 620 water street dr. william d. dellande tahlequah, ok 74464 chardon, oh 44024 111 east broadway, suite 310 columbia, mo 65203 dr. roben k graham dr. cunis baxstrom 2141 palomar airpon road 4653 e. norwich dr. margaret dowaliby suite 300 fresno, ca 93726 8787 shoreham drive carlsbad, ca 92009 condo 103 dr. irving bennett west hollywood, ca 90069 dr. roderick p. grant 3307 seventh avenue 2858 lakeland pkwy. beaver falls, pa 15010 dr. thomas eade cuyahoga falls, oh 44224 p. 0. box 604 dr. jack w. bennett new castle, in 47362 dr. monon k greenspoon i. u. school of optometry 14607 ventura boulevard 800 east atwater dr. jay m. enoch sherman oaks, ca 91403 bloomington, in 47405 school of optometry univ. of california-berkeley dr. james r. gregg biomedical library berkeley, ca 94720 · 412 south rolling hills place center for the health sciences anaheim, ca 92807 university of california dr. h. ward ewalt los angeles, ca 90024 1160 bower hill road #ph4b dr. r. l. guenveur pittsburgh, pa 15243 p.o. box25 dr. irvin m. borish mt. horeb, wi 53572-0025 211 wildwood circle dr. ron g. fair deerfield beach, fl 33442 1 os bridge street richard l. guerrein brighton, co 80601 review of optometry dr. lester caplan chilton way univ. of ala at birmingham dr. barbara a. fink radnor, pa 19089 school of optometry 1301 oakland avenue uab sfation columbus, oh 43212 dr. alden n. haffner birmingham, al 35294 state college of optometry dr. andrew f. fischer state university new york dr. samuel clay chapman 2104 kennedy house 100 east 24th street 15 west franklin street philadelphia, pa new york, ny 10010 liberty, mo 64068 19103-1546 dr. leon w. haffner dr. walter wm. chase dr. joseph e. fitzgerald 7400 gary street southern ca college of opt 15299 forest park boulevard fon wayne, in 46816 2575 yorba linda boulevard cleveland, oh 44136 fullenon, ca 92631 brance e. hagood 1051 oakmont place, apt. 4 memphis, tn 38107 dr. charles l. haine 2553 rue bienville danville, il 61832 dr. j. r. hale p. 0. box 780 sunnyside, wa 98944 dr. frederick t. heller 162 middlesex avenue wj.imington, ma 01887 dr. paul l. heller 12908 lorain avenue cleveland, oh 44111 dr. bert c. hersch 1 00 thorndale drive #271 san rafael, ca 94903 dr. karl 0. hoefert 110 east florence boulevard casa grande, az 85222 dr. henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 dr. richard l. hopping southern ca college of optometry 2575 yorba linda boulevard fullerton, ca 92631 dr. john l. howlette 206 east clay street richmond, va 23219 dr. d. g. hummel 7029 royalton road north royalton, oh 44133 dr. earl j. hunt 226 ohio street johnstown, pa 15902-2643 prof. vincent llardi 238 north main street sunderland, ma 01375 indiana university libraries serials department indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dr. horace h. jenner 555 harvard terrace frankfort, in 46041 dr. douglas kiessling group health association eye care 1990 m street ne 2nd floor washington, dc 20036 22/23 dr. robert a. koetting university club tower #333 1034 south brentwood boulevard st. louis, mo 63117-1261 ms. bridget kowalczyk ilamo 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 dr. robert h. kraskin 4600 massachusetts avenue nw washington, dc 20016 dr. dennis m. kuwabara 94-748 hikimoe street waipahu, m 96797 dr. james p. leeds 2470 east 116th street carmel, in 46032 dr. richard r. lehr 363 east lancaster avenue p. 0. box238 downingtown, pa 19335 dr. charles e. letocha 444 rathton road york, pa 17403 dr. alvin levin 3625 n. 16th street, #119 phoenix, az 85016-6446 dr. irving e. levy 16406 fernway road shaker heights, oh 44120-3368 li!jrary-s ca college of optometry 2575 yorba linda blvd fullerton, ca 92631-1699 professor alfred lit route 6 box 351 murphysboro, il 62966 dr. george g. litsinger 1221 north lundergan avenue park ridge, il 60068 dr. d. m. livingstone box 1341 hato rey, pr 00919 dr. morris c. mckee 3006 albin san antonio, tx 78209 dr. w. h. marshall 708 east university avenue gainesville, fl 32601 dr. m.a. marvelli 214 blackfoot trail dcbe granbury, tx 76048 dr. angelo d. meneghini 524 ohio street terre haute, in 47807 dr. bert 0. miller 5525 west 12th street little rock, ar 72204 dr. susan mohme 2025 old river road slidell, la 70461 dr. h. l. moore 88 1st street se linton, in 47441 dr. meredith w. morgan 1217 skycrest drive #4 walnut creek, ca 94595 dr. eric p. muth 25 parkland place milford, ct 06460 dr. raymond i. myers 208 beverly lane collinsville, il 62234 national library of medicine tsd serials 8600 rockville pike bethesda, md 20209 dr. benjamin nerenberg 233 n santa cruz ave los gatos, ca 95030 dr.michaelj.obremskey annandale professional center 7540 little river turnpike annandale, va 22003 dr. luis a. ortiz box128 bayamon, puerto rico 00619 dr. louis h. orzack 7 bunny circle newton, ma 02158 dr. d. k penisten northeastern state university college of optometry tahlequah, ok 74464 pennsylvania college of optometry library of optometry 1200 west godfrey avenue phdadelphia, pa 19141-3399 dr. henry b. peters univ. of alabama sch of opt university station bkullngham,al 35294 dr. marshall h. petersen 238 east wentworth west st. paul, mn 55118 dr. duane e. polzien 7824 south sycamore drive lincoln, ne 68506 mrs. henry quick p. 0. box 297 chwego, ~ 13827 l.a.ress 3235 cambridge avenue, #4a bronx, ~ 10463-3648 dr. j. h. robinson box 323 creston, la 50801 dr. alfred a. rosenbloom 5499 south hyde park boulevard chicago, il 60615 dr. j. wm. rosenthal 3322 st. claude avenue new orleans, la 70117 dr. joseph ruckiewicz 130 king st. pottstown, pa 19464 dr. herman sager 40 brand drive huntinton, ny 11743 dr. a. a. schmidt 28511 willet circle north olmstead, oh 44070 dr. john n. schoen rr 1 box 261-c medford, mn 55049 dr. r. d. sedgwick 14 central drive glen head, ny 11545 mrs. nadine ingram see 2117 cleveland place st. louis, mo 63110 serials department the library u;iv of ca, berkeley berkeley, ca 94720 serials department e john vaughan library northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 dr. elias shaneson 3614a willa way lake worth, fl 33467 22/24 dr. joseph l. shapiro 12 winterberry court east brunswick, nj 08816 dr. c. wayne shearer 3928 dayton boulevard chattanooga, 1n 37415 dr. r. l. shoemaker 6214 north broadway indianapolis, in 46220 dr. david l. snyder 22 south chapel avenue alhambra, ca 91801 south carolina optometric ass'n 2730 devine street columbia, sc 29205 dr. gregory l. stephens college of optometry university of houston houston, tx 77204-6052 dr. charles r. stewart box 7657 waco, tx 76714 s~ college of optometry harold kohn vis sci library 100 east 24th street new york, ny 10010-3677 dr. j. baxter swartout 400 troy-schenectady rd. latham, ny 12110 dr. sol tannebaum 2555 w. lincoln hwy, ste 101 olympia fields, ll 60461 dr. and mrs. john tull 143 springdale avenue york, pa 17403 dr. j. c. tumblin 5319 broadway ne knoxville, tn 37918 university of houston libraries central serials record 4800 calhoun boulevard houston, tx 77004 vision educational foundation, inc. joyce d. ardrey 4200 w. memorial rd., ste. #906 oklahoma city, ok 73120-8305 dr. david t. wakabayashi 12914 harbor boulevard garden grove, ca 92640 dr. j. m. weber 35 hub drive melville, ny 11747-3500 dr. max s. weinstein 439 palm river boulevard naples, fl 33942 ucla wells the museum of ophthalmology the foundation of the aao 655 beach street san francisco, ca 94101-6988 dr. newton k. wesley 601 driftwood lane northbrook, il 60062 dr. gerald westheimer 582 santa barbara road berkeley, ca 94707 dr. ralph e. wick 15866 avenue vlilaha #73 san diego, ca 92128 mr. robert williams oep foundation, inc. 2912 south daimler santa ana, ca 92705 mr. william j. wilson director of public relations better vision institute 1800 n. kent st., suite 1210 rosslyn, va 22209 dr. melvin wolfberg 2852 s.e. pine valley st. port st. lucie, fl 34952 dr. stanley j. yamane 94-748 hikimoe street waipahu, hi 96797 dr. alan york one main street east hampton, ny 11937 dr. joel n. zaba 1232 west little creek road norfolk, va 23505 dr. steven g. zantos 53 selbome chase fairport, ny 14450 dr. christian zeichner 20 woodside drive york, pa 17403 1991-22-02-001 1991-22-02-002 1991-22-02-003 1991-22-02-004 1991-22-02-005 1991-22-02-006 1991-22-02-007 1991-22-02-008 1991-22-02-009 1991-22-02-010 1991-22-02-011 1991-22-02-012 e_,f yli~ewsletter of the opt0~1etric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. lou;':~:nn~f.tmi1)~~~~vl, u.s.a.) ' . ~ . ' ., ' .. '~ vol. 13 april 1982 number 2 apr 1 ~ 1982 new 1982 members: during the first several years of ~~~~~~#!,ufiw~f'wjvy seventies, we included annually in this newsletter a list of the names and addresses of our members, partly to encourage intercommunication among us, and partly to illustrate the worldwide diversity of those interested in optometry's heritage. the membership grows slowly indeed, but steadily, as we add several names each year and lose fewer, the latter mostly by the morbid process of human attrition. · to illustrate the current growing process, here are the 1982 ad­ ditions, i.e., up to and including most of march, thirteen altogether, three from two widely separated canadian provinces and ten from eight widely dispersed states of the u.s.a.: harvey aftel, o.d. 741 shirley avenue norfolk, va 23517 arol r. augsburger, o.d. 611 morning street worthington, oh 43085 ms. nellie j.r. bastedo h1s library university of waterloo ontario, canada n2l 3gl ms. beth bazin 7622 n. sunset drive st. louis, mo 63142 clair w. bobier, o.d. school of optometry faculty of science waterloo, ontario canada n2l 3gl stanley l. jason, o.d. 515 butterworth street norfolk, va 23505 robert madden, o.d. 259 meridian avenue, #6 san jose, ca 95126 m.a. marvelli, o.d. 1172 monroe street galesburg, il 61401 gerald ~1ulrooney, o.d. 6454 quinpool road halifax, nova scotia canada b3l 1a9 serials department-e john vaughan library northeastern oklahoma university tahlequah, ok 74464 richard stein, o.d. 171 new providence road mountainside, nj 07092 larry b. wallace, o.d. 202 east court street ithaca, ny 14850 dr. steven g. zantos 580 surrey hill way rochester, ny 14623 -26thanks! quite unsolicited, not even hinted at but delightfully welcome, were four recent contributions to the o.h.s. over and above membership dues, from the following: professor e.j. fisher, ten dollars; thomas ~1. funk, a student, five dollars; r.c. van hoven, 0.0., five dollars; and an anony­ mous donor contributing in memory of professor monroe j. hirsch, ten dol­ lars. it is remarkable how rewarding this is for those of us who have the responsibility of keeping the ohs ftjnctioning. two outstanding ohs members die: fumi o morry, i nternati ona lly renowned and the acknowledged leader of professional and educational optometric development in japan, and monroe j. hirsch, prominent american educator, researcher, and editor, both were members of the o.h.s. and made significant contributions to our knowledge of optometric history. at the time of this writing, news of their recent deaths have not appeared in any of the major journals, but because of their important roles throughout their productive careers we can anticipate detailed obituaries to appear soon. bound to be different: some months ago ohs president and rare book collector james leeds, 0.0., was offered three bound sets of 1905-1907 optometric case records at the price of $150.00 by mr. a. david paulhus of wells bookstore and gallery, route one, ~~ells, t·1aine 04090. a bit reluctantly, but curiously, jim advised that he would have to see them before saying no, or yes, as his hobby involves only 11 published 11 books and he had never considered collecting old case records. after receiving the three bound sets on loan and communicating fur­ ther with bookdealer paulhus, jim was quoted the 11 irreducible price of $85.00. fascinated by the obvious rarity of the three books but deciding that they were outside of his personally affordable interest jim called ohs secretary-treasurer maria dablemont, near-at-hand executive board member jerome abrams, o.d., and me for advice. the upshot of our dis­ cussion was the decision to purchase the three volumes with ohs funds and contribute them to ilat~o, the international library, archives, and t1useum of optometry, inc. to enable me to tell you about the case records dr. leeds sent them to me first, to be forwarded 1 ater to il~10. each volume measures 31x26x3.8 em externally, with slightly smaller page size, in burgundy-and-black half leather ledger binding with the words ophthalmic case book and the beginning case number (201, 701, or 1201) in gold letters on the spine. the earliest volume includes the 500 numerically imprinted, front and back, pages 201-700, on which are recorded the case records of 500 chronologically examined optometric patients between march 8, 1905 and april 3, 1906. preceding the nu­ merically imprinted pages are 13 pages of two columns each, with each -27column headed by one of the letters of the alphabet. in each column are listed the patients whose names begin with the column's letter, and fol­ lowing each name is the number of the page containing that patient's record. obviously the volume was purchased by the optometrist in bound book form, and handwritten entries were made directly in the book at the time each patient was examined. the next volume, with imprinted pages 701-1200, included case records from april 4, 1906, to february 3, 1907, and the third, pages 1201-1700, from february 6, 1907, to october 16, 1907. these indicate a practice growth rate of about 25% per annum and an average of 573 new patients per annum during the almost three year period. all of the records are in the same handwriting, that of the optometrist himself. the illustra­ tion below is a reduced photocopy, approximately half the original ·size, of a representative case, that of a 22 year old mrs. dixon. 19• ciui, no.1619 ... -28the printed record form is actually in three colors, dark blue, light blue, and orange rulings, with black printed legend and figures on white paper. the recorded history in this reproduced instance reads, 11 eye infirmary of roxbury mass. gave two months ago 00 +1.25 os 0 + 0.50 dc go o.s. +1.25 os 0 + 0.50 dc goo complaines of vision bluring with present lenses at destance. 11 corneal as. o.d. is recorded as 11 0.50 d goon and o.s. as 11 1.00 d 105°. 11 at the top of the middle area vision, o.d. is recorded as 11 1.0: c + 0.50 os = 1.0 11 and o.s. as 11 0.7: c + 0.50 os~ + 0.37 dc 105° = 1.0 11 which seem to say that for the right eye the un­ corrected acuity was 1.0, its correction +0.50 sphere, and the corrected acuity was 1.0, and for the left eye the uncorrected acuity was 0.7, its correction +0.50 sphere ~+0.37 cylinder axis at 105°, giving a corrected acuity of 1.0. in the lower portion of the middle area are seen 11 6°+ 11 and 11 6°+ 11 next to each of two of four p.a.'s, which seem to represent the abduction and adduction findings at the near testing distance (the punctum appropinquum?). near the bottom of the same area are the sursumduction entries of o.d. 11 311 and o.s. 11 311 • in the diagnosis space is the abbreviated entry 11 h + ast. 11 , meaning hyperopia combined with astigmatism. also shown at the right edge of this space is 11 pd $4.00 11 • in the treatment and memorandum area in the lower third of the page are the lens prescription and the spectacle frame speci fi cations. other case records show considerable variance of entries, notes on repeat visits, and occasionally an attached letter from the patient, a relative of the patient, or a physician who referred the patient or to whom a patient was referred. a statistical sampling of 100 successive patients in the third, 1go7, volume shows 62 females and 38 males, with an age range from 7 to 6g years and a slightly bimodal frequency distribution with maxima at 25 and 55 years, remarkably similar to the age distribution which i reported for a 1g47 ohio optometry practice (hofstetter: optm1etry, lg48). who was the optometrist? his signature sho\ijs up nowhere in the records, but the several copies of correspondence identify him unques­ tionably as herbert i. reed of dover, new hampshire. the first blue book of optometrists and opticians, 1g12, lists reed at 430 central avenue, as having qualified himself by 11 private instruction lg02-3 11 , and as a member of the granite state optometric association and the a.o.a. he is similarly listed in successive blue books through 1g5o with only an address change to 47 concord avenue in the 1g4o and sub­ sequent editions. the first of the three volumes included an adhesive label on the front cover inside which reads, ''in ordering a new book refer to order no. a8210 mar. 6 1g05 11 ; a similar sticker in the second volume says 11 a8654 feb. 7 lg06 11 ;-and the third or most recent one savs 11 ag120 jan. 7 1907 11 • so perhaps there are 50 or more additional volumes of these meticulously maintained records shelved somewhere! in none of these three is the printer of the forms identified. -29"insight"~· "hindsight": colin b. fryer of west derby, liverpool, england, has written the following letter to the editor of the ophthalmic optician (january 30, 1982) in response to a previous letter in the december 5, 1982, issue from someone identified as "insight": "sir'insight' is in error when he states that the word 'meniscus' was coined by nitsche and gunther of rathenow. in fact it was first used by johannes kepler in his 'dioptrice' (1611) to describe the convexo-concave lenses he had recently devised, although they were not actually made until some years 1 ater." strangely, four different dictionaries consulted by me consistently credit the origin of the word to the greek meniskos, meaning crescent, diminutive of the greek mene, the moon. early desmond lectures commemorated: to commemorate the series of lectures on optometry given by optome­ trist daniel desmond in osaka, japan, in february 1926, the osaka gankyo­ senmon kouri kyodo kumiai (the osaka ophthalmic opticians association) sponsored their republication in a handsome cloth-bound volume of 282 pages dated august 10, 1981, and edited by yoshihiro fukuda. though desmond lectured in english, the book (19xl3xl.8 em) is entirely in japanese. mr. terryoshi kugimiya, a third year optometry student at indiana university, the son of prominent optometrist parents in beppu, on the large southern island of kyushu, japan, provided the essential translation for this review. the japanese printing is of course in columns instead of rows, and the pagination is from right to left. beginning, then, at what we in the western world would call the back of the book, are 22 unnumbered pages which include some prefatory remarks, several photographs, and some optical advertisements (presumably helping to offset publishing costs). one of the photographs is of a group of about 200 persons including desmond, posed on the steps at the main entrance to an academic-like edifice. at least 10, and perhaps as many as 20, appear to be women. another illustration is a photographic copy of a tear sheet from a diary or pocket calendar on which was inscribed, apparently in desmond's own longhand, "d. desmond, f.s.~1.c. d.b.o.a. r.o. diploma of the british optical association, fellow of the spectacle makers company, registered optometrist." this suggests that he may have been of british rather than american origin as reported by the late fumio marry (variously spelled ~1ori and r1orie) in the n.o.h.s., july 1979, vol. 10, no. 3, p. 48. shown on the apposing page is a photographic portrait of desmond. -30following the 22 unnumbered pages are 145 numbered pages, from right to left and including a good many optical diagrams, which are the translated transcriptions of desmond's lectures as edited by hikobe kaji and distributed to those in attendance by the osaka gankyo shako kumiai (the osaka optical commerce and industry as­ sociation) on june 1, 1926. these were republished a few days later, june 10, 1926, in book form, with some advertisements, to be sold to anyone interested. advertisements appear in the next five unnumbered pages. then follow 42 numbered pages, i.e. 1 to 42, originally edited by tokunoske iyo and published on march 31, 1927, as a translation of desmond's supplementary lectures on practice development and man­ agement. these are followed by 14 more unnumbered pages of advertise­ ments and editorial comments, and then 31 numbered pages of fairly technical material in concise form which may be a translation of pre­ pared text material rather than a transcription of lectures. the last 22 pages, also unnumbered, include miscellaneous remi­ niscent commentary from old-timers who remember the occasion. included in these pages are four informal photographs of small groups, possibly members of the arrangement committee, in each of which desmond is in­ cluded. one shows them in a chauffeured touring car of about 1926 vintage with the top down, another in front of a palace-like structure, a third on a bridge or walk-way, all wearing heavy overcoats and felt hats, and a fourth in which they are relaxed, sitting on the floor, enjoying refreshments with very ornately attired geishas in attendance. a full page illustrates a diploma or certificate of attendance which reads as follows: 11 american optometrical college, registered at the american consulate general, shanghai, china. this certifies that kojiro nishimura has attended a course of lectures in optometry given at osaka, japan, february, 1926. in testimony whereof the undersigned have affixed their signatures and the seal of the college at shanghai, china, this 30th day of march 1926. certificate no. 12 [signed] h.e. heacock, president, m.c. clark, secretary, d. desmond, f.s.m.c., d.b.o.a., principal ... a metallic seal at the lower left corner reads: a~1erican optdr~etric college, registered november 192[last numeral indistinct]. the titles of desmond's individual optometry lectures were as fol­ lows: optics, lens fabrication, decentration, dispensing, ocular anatomy, spectacle assembly, sight testing, visual acuity, instrumen­ tation, ocular pathology, the fogging method, and motility testing. the supplementary lectures were on sales tactics, an optometrist's qualifications, and examination room management. 250 from all over japan attended the lectures. every aspect of optometry was covered. included, for example, were retinoscopy, ophthal­ moscopy, and ocular motility. in addition desmond undertook to instill -31the spirit of professionalism, emphasizing the importance of adequate scientific knowledge, honesty, and hard work. altogether he made an impression, the impact of which many japanese ophthalmic opticians and optometrists are still most appreciative of today. the cited commemorative volume, incidentally, was forwarded to me by ernest s. takahashi, 0.0., of oakland, california. i, in turn, will forward it to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. ~mysterious optometric unit: it seems likely that many of our readers have seen old optometers which resemble the two illustrated in fig. 1 bel~1. these two happen to be in the optometry museum collection at indiana university with no record of their origins. they had been donated by persons who themselves could provide no historical information beyond the fact that they were among the remaining effects of two deceased optometrists who themselves had inherited them from predecessors. fig. 1 i am quite certain that i have seen essentially identical optometers in historical collections elsewhere in years past, frequently enough to make the present two look very familiar. each has the essential components of an optometer, namely, a rod having a numbered scale, a lens mounted at one end, and a target of letters and/or dots which can be slid along the full length of the scaled bar. the obvious and probably correct pre­ sumption is that the early sight tester or his examinee simply held the lens end of the bar close to the eye being tested while the target was moved slowly along the scale to its greatest distance of clear vision. the scale value would then indicate the power of the lens to be prescribed for distance. a close examination of the scale of one of the optometers revealed to me quite surprisingly that the highest values were in the middle of the range and the lowest values at both ends, i.e., with values ranging from the closest number "3" to the mid-range number of "100", and then -32from a second mid-range number "100" to the farthest number "7". iden­ tified with the nearer scale is the word "concave" imprinted by means of a metal stamp on the vertical side of the bar, and similarly with the farther scale the word "convex". the scale is shown in fig. 2 with the "convex" portion between a pair of ordinary 6 em rules. extending to the left of these two rules is the "concave" scale. even in these poor re­ productions it is apparent that the scales are nonlinear. fig. 2 in spite of the striking overall similarity of the two instruments, a close inspection reveals that they are not identical in most respects. both are made of chromium plated brass, and it seems possible that the two were made by the same machinist, but none of the parts of one is interchangeable with its superficially similar part of the other. not even the screws have the same thread. the stamp imprinted letters and numerals are not identical in size, and their alignment is conspicuously better on one than on the other. the eyecup of one is black-enameled and that of the other is chromium plated. there is no trademark or maker's identification. the threaded lens retainers in the eye cups are not interchangeable. the lens of one is missing and that of the other is a seven diopter spherical meniscus lens of a curvature which suggests that it may be a spectacle lens replacement. the two rods are of just slightly different length, each about 29 em. practically identical however, differing only by random workmanship error, are the two scales, the units of \-jhich are numbered but not labeled. to try to make sense out of them and to derive the power of the missing lens i measured the distance of each numeral from the lens plane and plotted the results graphically. these scale values are shm-jn as dots in fig. 3. the two "100" scale values, one at 9 em and the other at 9.6 fig. 3 100 80 lli ::> __j ~so ::> lli __j 40 <( u en 20 •• 0 0 • • • o calculated • imprinted 0 p 4 6 b 10 12 14 16 18 20 distance from lens to test target (em.) -33em clearly indicate that the two curves approach infinity asymptotically between 9 and 9.6 em, though the more distant 11 100 11 mark appears slightly misplaced in terms of fitting a smooth curve. i quite empirically decided that the missing lens must have been approximately 10.5 diopters, a rounded out reciprocal of a distance between .09 and .096 meters. obviously the seven diopter lens in the one of the two instruments is a misfit by someone who had less understanding of the scale than i do. the reciprocal shapes of the curves suggest that the scale values are simply the focal lengths of spectacle lenses which would correct the refractive error as measured on the optometer. a few calculations quickly proved that they represented neither centimeters nor inches. i even ex­ plored the possibility of austrian, parisian, and prussian inches, which differ slightly from the english inch. finally, after a series of simul­ taneous solutions of equations from arbitrarily paired points on the graph to confirm my choice of 10.5 diopters as reasonable, i successively divided the calculated focal lengths of the indicated spectacle lenses by different constants to make them fit the curves better. the plotted circles in fig. 3 show the results when the constant divisor is 2.0. i think i might have gotten an even better fit by varying the 10.5 diopter lens by a tenth of a diopter and/or varying the divisor by a tenth of a unit, but i am confident that these are the limits. in fact my measurements are not significant to any greater accuracy. this, then, means that the scale values for the focal lengths of the spectacle lens indicated by these optometers are in terms of a unit ap­ proximately 2 em in length. thus, a one diopter lens would have a focal length of about 50 such units, a two diopter lens about 25 units, and a ten diopter lens about five such units. was there once such a unit in use? subsequent to my writing the above my attention was called to two more superficially identical optometers among the accumulated items in the collection. the lens of one of the additional two optometers was missing, and the lens of the other was a four diopter plano-convex sphere! the back side of the sliding target piece of the latter had the imprint 11 n.a. bixler 11 in different size letters than the other im­ printed letters and numerals, suggesting that dr. bixler probably added this himself, as he indulged in a number of mechanical hobbies. many of his optometrically-related effects were contributed to our collection at indiana university. further, each of the additional two optometers in the collection differed in various unimportant details from each other and from the first two described above. in other words the four superficially iden­ tical appearing optometers were certainly individually manufactured by a machinist, or by different machinists copying a model. -34a decade of local society minutes: donated by walter e. marshall, o.d., of indianapolis, indiana, who in turn received them from wm. d. elson, o.d., retired, of indianapolis, and who in his turn found them among the office effects of a predecessor, are a bundle of 34 x 21 em. tear sheets, pre-numbered pages 1-18 and 2596, of the handwritten constitution and code of ethics of the optometrical society of indianapolis, indiana, and the recorded minutes of the monthly and a few special meetings held during the years 1919-1928. it is quite evident that meetings were not held every month. also, no minutes were recorded in this notebook in 1923. the minutes of april 13, june 9, and august 3, 1921, were separately typed on 11 h.m. cantwel1 11 letterhead, sug­ gesting that the book of minutes was temporarily unavailable. three contemporary pieces of correspondence, an invoice marked 11 paid 11 , and a printed one-page flier extolling the virtues of optometry are in­ cluded in the donation, which is now being forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo). the minutes represent the recordings of seven successive society sec­ retaries, h.r. easterday in 1919 and 1920; h.m. cantwell, secretary pro tern briefly in 1921; d.o. terrell in 1921 and 1922; g.r. ledig in 1924; w.l. van osdol in 1925 and 1926; august e. dryer in 1927; and roy e. denny in 1928. matters for discussion identified in the minutes included state op­ tometric legislation, spectacle retailing by wholesalers, a 11 fess bill 11 in the u.s. congress in the fall of 1920, enforcement of the indiana optometry law, advertising policy, membership dues, publicity and public relations, optometrists' fees, office hours, opticians' rebates to oculists, discriminatory referrals by school nurses, and state fair op­ tometry exhibits. occasionally mentioned were the optometric lectures and musical recitals as parts of the meeting programs. it is interesting to note that the secretaries prior to van osdol in 1925 favored the use of the 11 mr. 11 instead of the 11 dr. 11 title in their identification of in­ dividual optometrists in the minutes. the greeks had the good word: the greeks had the word typhlos (tu<pa.os) to mean 11 blind 11 or 11 lacking vision 11 • in the greek literature typhlos and its various derivatives were employed to connote dimness, darkness, nonperceptiveness, frustration, • closure, bafflement, and the like. it also sometimes carried the conno­ tation of physical closure, as in reference to a closed channel, the cecum, or a cul-de-sac, in the same sense as we use the word blind in 11 blind alley 11 • dorland's medical dictionary, 1965, lists 11 typhlosis 11 as blindness, and webster's third international dictionary, 1963, lists 11 typhlology 11 as 11 the scientific study of blindness, its causes, effects, and control; a branch of science that deals with blindness ... the random house college dictionary, 1975, defines it similarly. all three editions of the dic­ tionary of visual science include both of these terms plus 11 typhloid. pertaining to or having defective vision 11 , and 11 typhlolexia. word -35blindness 11 • the report on the european conference on technical aids for the visually handicapped, 1974, bromma, sweden, includes as essentially self-explanatory such related terms as 11 typhlodidactic 11 , 11 typhlonaut 11 , 11 typhlotechnical 11 , and 11 typhlopaedic 11 in referring to instruction of the blind, a blind traveler, aids related to blindness, and blind children, respectively. all of these etymological derivatives of typhlos seem to have been quite avoided, or at least routinely overlooked, in the literature of the ophthalmic field. instead we have struggled with a variety of per­ tinent terms like blindness, lo\</ vision, subnormal vision, partially sighted, near-blind, visually handicapped, visually disabled, and sight­ saving. these are often not only clumsy as two-word terms but have un­ pleasant or deprecatory connotations analogous to words like crippled, disfigured, and invalid. why have we not utilized the very precise, unadulterated, and rather sophisticated greek root typhlos in our nomenclature to identify those ophthalmic aspects that relate to visual limitations that require special optometric attention? for example, would it really be coining a totally new term to com­ bine typhlos and optikos into 11 typhloptic 11 , analogous to 11 bioptic11 and 11 entoptic11 , to pertain to the optics of blindness? the plural form 11 typhloptics 11 would then be analogous to 11 0rthoptics 11 and 11 pleoptics 11 , to identify the related corrective and rehabilitative procedures in op­ tometric use. terminology having such exclusive and narrow definition should not easily acquire the distorted connotations of terms derived from ordinarily used words of broader meaning. an instance of this important distinction was the public identification of 11 infantile paralysis 11 by the less stig­ matizing term 11 poliomyelitis 11 some decades ago. other familiar instances of the general adoption of more refined and less objectionable terminology were 11 encephalitis 11 for 11 sleepi.ng sickness 11 , and 11 tuberculosis 11 for 11 con­ sumption11. extension of the word typhloptic to typhlopticist, analogous to opticist or physicist, could of course identify the provider or prac­ titioner of typhloptics, though this designation might soon be shortened to typhloptist, analogous to orthoptist or even optist. some will recall reading that prentice once proposed the designation optist in preference to optometrist. the more prevalent use of the greek root typhlos in our nomenclature could undoubtedly lead to numerous easily compounded words in addition to those already cited above, quite impossible with our more typically used expressions. in fact a brief search in other lexicons uncovered 11 typhlo­ phile: one benevolent to the blind 11 in the second edition, 1959, of webster's new international dictionary, and 11 typhlograph: an apparatus for assisting the blind to write evenly 11 , and 11 typhlope: a blind worm11 , in the oxford english dictionary, 1971. according to the latter dictionary the typhlograph was described in 1896 as 11 a neat slope of hard wood with grooves on the surface .. to guide the blind writer's hand. all of the consulted lexicons, incidentially, give the vowel pro­ nunciation of the y in the 11 typhlo 11 root the short i sound as in 11 physics 11 or 11 syntax11 rather than the long i sound as in 11 typhoid 11 or 11 python 11 • -36who was frederick booth? -henry knoll writes: while browsing through our library, i came across never seen before, and it seems to me a lost gem. of the members of the historical society can tell author. a book which i'd perhaps some us about the the book, radiant energy and the ophthalmic lens, was written by frederick booth and published by p. blakiston 1s son and co., philadelphia, 1921. the author gives the following addresses at the end of his preface; la porte, south bend, and ~1ichigan city, all of indiana. a brief introduction was written by l~hitefield bowers, a.b., f'1.d., fonnerly f·1ajor, ~·1.c., u.s.a. of michigan city, indiana. in the introduction frederick booth is referred to as ~·1r. booth. in his preface ~·1r. booth inc 1 udes the fo 11 owing: "i drew heavily upon the textbooks of the la porte public library. the pleasant influence of this really efficient institution did much to lessen the drudgery involved in book writing. "f.r. warren, m.d. of michigan city, indiana, placed at my disposal his library which proved to be of much value, and for which i am very grateful. "the f.a. hardy co., chicago, illinois, have been kind enough to lend some of their pictures. also descriptive material for the ophthalmometer and their instructions for taking spectacle measure­ ments, for which i am truely thankful." figure 178 on page 167 is a photo of a "geneva combined retinoscope and ophthalmoscope". i've never seen or heard of this interesting looking instrument. the book is written in the style of an encyclopedic dictionary, but not in alphabetical order. the material is arranged according to topics as follows: anatomy of the eye, radiant energy, vision, refraction of the eye, accommodation, convergence, cycloplegic, visual acuity and subjective test, retinoscopy, ophthalmoscopy, transposition, fitting frames and mountings and writing prescrip­ tions, and mathematics. the book has 211 pages and an index of 13 pages. there are 210 figures and 3 black and white plates. the plates illustrate a normal fundus, a myopic crescent and an annular staphyloma. the contents of the book give no direct clues concerning the pro­ fession of the author, but i would judge that he practiced op­ tometry. it would appear that he had medical friends. it would seem that the book vjas useful for teaching purposes; however, this use is not mentioned. -37if any readers have information concerning frederick booth, please send it to dr. hofstetter so that it can be recorded in the newsletter. struck with curiosity myself i checked the 1916 to 1922 editions of the blue book of optometrists and found no frederick booth listed. a bit more revealing was donald e. thompson's 11 indiana authors and their books, 1917-196611 , 1974, page 63, which credits its information to the indiana historical society and says, 11 frederick booth was born in hamilton county, ind., on oct. 16, 1882. he was educated in the public schools of indiana and attended earlham college. a farmer until 1906, booth later engaged in various jobs including bookselling, carpentry, concrete and steel construction, and newspaper and advertising work. there is some question that he is the author of the book ••• but no other information was found. booth died in 1948. 11 the index card catalog of our university library then led me to 11 the best short stories of 1922 11 , edited by edward j. o'brien, in which a story by booth, 11 the helpless ones 11 was reprinted on pages 49-69 from the december 1921 issue of broom with a three-star rating, together with some biographical information supplementing that quoted above. added to the identical voca­ tional activities statement is the phrase, 11 ••• coincident with unceasing but slow creative effort, under material and psychic difficulties. 11 , and 11 has a novel in preparation. lives in nev1 york city. 11 a brief search of several other annual editions of best short stories revealed that booth had authored a three-star rated short story, 11 supers 11 , in the december 1916 issue of seven arts, reprinted in 11 the best short stories of 1916 11 , pages 52-58, with a critic's commentary on page 375. the three-star rating connoted 11 highest distinction 11 and a story 11 0f somewhat permanent literary value 11 • the 1917 edition of best short stories gave a two-star rating to his story 11 the cloud-ring 11 , which appea-red in the april 1917 issue of seven arts, and the 1920 edition gave a one-star rating to his 11 duel 11 which ap­ peared in the april 1920 issue of ainslee's magazine. the california optometric association, zenganrenme, et ~: in april of 1974 ernest s. takahashi, o.d., of oakland, california, at one time dean at the monroe college of optometry subsequent to a period of wartime internment in a japanese-american relocation center, gave lec­ tures on optometry to refracting opticians in tokyo and nagoya, japan, as a guest of fumio morry and the ajoc (all japan optometric consortium). upon second invitation he lectured in japan again in october 1976 in tokyo, oita city, hiroshima, and nagoya. in february 1977 he and others lectured to about 25 japanese refracting opticians who attended the california optometric association pacific congress in hawaii, an occasion now referred to as the first coa-japan bilingual optometry seminar. -38asked to come to japan again in april 1978 as a consultant in op­ tometry, and at almost the same time appointed to serve on the coa inter­ national relations committee and to help organize a second cooperative venture with the japanese, dr. takahashi, with his colleagues, managed the second coa-japan bilingual optometry seminar at the annual coa con­ vention in reno, nevada, february 20-23, 1979, with a japanese delegation of more than 40. at the 1980 and 1981 coa conventions delegations of two japanese optometric associations were in attendance and met with the coa inter­ national relations committee and other key personnel to plan future co­ operative educational programs. then, on october 6-9, 1981, zenganrenme (variously translated as all japan optometric and optical association, all japan refracting opticians association, and all japan optical federation) launched what was called the first us-japan international visual science seminar in tokyo, kyoto, and osaka. invitations were extended to all persons in the japanese op­ tical and optometric community. over 600 persons attended the six hour educational seminar. lecturers included faculty members of the university of california school of optometry, the southern california college of optometry, the japan optical academy of tokyo, and two japanese op­ tometrists who graduated from american schools. this new continuous practical education program is reported to be in conjunction with the iiird. coa-japan bilingual optometry seminar in anaheim, california, february 17-20, 1982, with 116 japanese ophthalmic opticians in attendance. it is planned that future seminars will be triennial. this account of an unusual international development in optometry is derived entirely from accumulated correspondence and documents more or less continuously suppled to me during the past nine years, a three centimeter thick file, by dr. takahashi. history of black women ~optometry: the pioneers: a history of black women in optometry is the title of a paper prepared by one of my third year optometry students, gloria a. christopher, in a history of optometry course in november 1978. she graduated in 1980 and is now a member of the faculty of the indiana univ­ ersity school of optometry as gloria christopher jennings, 0.0. in her paper she described the efforts of her mother, now anita christopher, 0.0., of tulsa, oklahoma, to seek out a suitable profession for herself when she was a 16 year old senior at booker t. washington high school in tulsa in 1945. at that age her mother's name was still anita myrtle williams. the alpha chi omega chapter of alpha kappa alpha, a black sorority, had sponsored a vocational guidance project on "the choice of a career•• in which the winner of an essay contest would receive a one hundred dollar scholarship. anita won. today she is in practice with her husband, charles e. christopher, 0.0. she is the third black female optometrist to be licensed in the united states, and the first in oklahoma. -39daughter gloria's paper included a few bits of vital information on the first six black women licensed to practice optometry in the united states, in chronological order, as follows: 1. isabelle king, o.d., northern illinois college of optometry, practiced in chicago, deceased in 1974. her father was an optometrist and her grandfather an ophthalmologist. 2. alma swinger, o.d., t1onroe college of optometry, deceased. 3. anita williams christopher, o.d., northern illinois college of optometry. 4. ruth peoples, o.d., illinois college of optometry, practicing in chicago. 5. velda pandy, o.d., illinois college of optometry, practicing in chicago. 6. betty robinson, o.d., monroe college of optometry, practicing with her husband in minnesota. gloria credits much of her information to amos c. brown, 0.0., of chicago, illinois, who has been compiling information on the history of blacks in optometry for the national optometric association for eventual pub 1 i cation. she a 1 so borrowed the ori gina 1 contest-\vi nni ng essay from her mother to shovj me, whereupon i prevailed on her to let me forward it to the international library, archives, and ~·1useum of optometry, inc. for permanent safekeeping. the essay is a 50 page document, the appendix of which consists of 20 of the responses she received from 26 of the 39 institutions and of­ fices in the united states and canada to which she had written. she had asked for information concerning opportunities for a young woman in the field of optometry and catalogs and application forms. her bibliography included five pamphlets and three journals. she also credited much of her information to conversations with local optometrists, physicians, and friends. her closing paragraph, a single short sentence, was, "optometry, then, is my chosen profession". earliest double monocular diplopia report: the first report of double monocular diplopia as a sensory manifesta­ tion of anomalous retinal correspondence in postsurgical strabismus appears to have been that of d.m. purdy in the journal of general psychology, vol. 11, no.2, octobet~ 1934, pp. 311-327. h1s own search of the literature suggested that javal may have been the first to describe monocular diplopia, in 1865, as a manifestation of anomalous correspondence, but that none had described the double phenomenon, i.e., the appearance of two "falsely" projected images in addition to the two "normally" projected images of bm dissimilar bright objects presented separately but simultaneously to the two eyes. -40the subject was a university student with a convergent squint. he had been operated on twice in childhood and had vision correctable to 20/15 in each eye. the report covered a wide variety of experimental details in­ cluding many haploscopic observations and much theoretical analysis, cer­ tainly a classic worthy of study by anyone interested in the sensory phe­ nomena of anomalous correspondence. because i, myself, had encountered an instance of double monocular diplopia in the haploscopic investigation of a postsurgical squinter early in my career and described it to one or more colleagues i was advised, probably by glenn a. fry, that professor purdy had already described it. i was able to contact dr. purdy to get the above reference. professor dona 1 d ~1clean purdy was born on march 29, 1900 and ob­ tained his a.b. degree at cornell and his a.m. and ph.d. degrees at harvard. according to the 1944 edition of american men of science his academic services variously included physics, astronomy, and psychology at cornell, princeton, and harvard universities, at the universities of kansas, t1aine, and hashington (seattle), and at mills college. he was a guggenheim fellow in 1936-37. his postcard response to me came from 11 medical rehabilitation, v.a., wadsworth, kansas 11 on august 9, 1947. his american men of science entry identified his scientific interests as theoretical psychology and visual perception. he is not listed in the 1949 and 1956 editions nor in the most recent edition of american men and women of science. another of dr. purdy's contributions to visual science was his 39 page chapter entitled 11 the functions of the receptors 11 in a book entitled 11 comparative psychology 11 by edward l. thorndike and 11 others, edited by f.a. moss, 1934, and published by prentice-hall. t·1ost of the chapter in­ volved vision, including color and space perception, with 68 references, but none to himself. he v1as not included as an author in the 1942 revised edition of the same book. christiaan huygens (1629-1695) reprinted: arthur g. bennett reports glowingly in the january 2, 1982 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 22, no.1, pp. 8-10, that the 22 volumes of huygens 1 collected works have recently been reprinted. the complete set is priced at 4,425 dutch guilders (ca. $1,800), with individual vol­ umes at 200 guilders (ca. $80) each, available from swets publishing service, heereweg 347b, 2161 ca lisse, netherlands. most of the work is in french, a fair amount in latin, and other languages are included in some of his correspondence. volume 13, entitled dioptrica, is over a thousand pages long and includes all of his writings on optical topics except for his traite de la lumiere. bennett cites several examples of visual optics from huygens' dioptrica to illustrate how comprehensively huygens covered the optics of the eye. these included the optics of a reduced eye, a schematic· eye, and a real eye, and the derivation of a thin lens formula. -41early coast-to-coast influence: another historical gem has been published in the september/december 1981 issue of optometry forum (university of california school of op­ tometry), vol. 17, no.5, page 5 under the caption 11 historical perspective.~~ it is a long and persuasive letter dated july 24, 1917, from professor james p.c. southall, then in charge of the optometry curriculum at columbia university, to dr. benjamin ide wheeler, president of the university of california, urging the establishment of a similar curriculum at berkeley. he pointed out that the courses at columbia 11 were inaugurated in 1910 at the special solicitation of the department of education of the state of new york and in compliance with the optometry law of the state which was passed in 1909 11 • he described in candid detail the oculist/optometrist controversy and the grossly inadequate training of both, stating that the need for better training had been recognized in germany and to some extent also in britain. it is interesting that he made this reference to germany less than a month after our first world war i troops had landed in europe to fight the germans. he seems to have been in berkeley that summer, for he added, 11 i thought it possible you might wish to consult me in regard to this matter before i. leave berkeley next week. 11 stereoscopic history: the national stereoscopic association, inc., p.o. box 14801, columbus, ohio 43214, was founded in 1974, especially for those interested in history as recorded by the stereo photographer, or in uses of stereoscopy and in stereographic technology. ~1embership includes museums, libraries, and institutions as well as individuals. the association publishes a bimonthly magazine, stereo ~~orl d, a copy of which was sent to me by ohs member benjamin nerenberg, o.d., of los gatos, california 95031, p.o. box 760. it also sponsors the oliver wendell holmes stereoscope research library at the canton art institute in canton, ohio. somewhat affiliated with the association is 11 the stereoscopic society, american branch 11 founded in 1893 as an association of amateur stereo photo­ graphers to further the art of stereoscopic photography. the society edits a page or two in each issue of stereo world. the illustrations in the magazine certainly will remind the optometrist of many a stereogram in his orthoptics and visual training armamentarium. advertisers offer such stereograms as collectors• items at prices ranging from $1.25 to $70.00 in the issue i have. other advertisers offer to buy. 100 years of german optics: die deutschen gesellschaft fur t•1echanik und optik (the german mechanical and optical society) was founded in 1881, prompting a 100 year jubilee cele­ bration by the verband der deutschen feinmechanischen und optischen industrie e.v. (the german optical and instrument industrial alliance, inc.) on september -4230, 1981, with festivities at the state library in berlin and a senatorial reception in the german parliament. the keynote speaker was the president of the bundesverbandes der deutschen industrie (federal association of german industries), prof. dr. dr. rolf rodenstock, the distinguished head of the optical firm of the same family name founded by his father and uncle. professor rodenstock gave an account of the development of the german optical industry, all of which is included in a report of the an­ niversary in the november 20, 1981, issue of deutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 36, no. 11, pp. 64-68. an exciting leave! co-editor douglas penisten, enjoying a southern hemisphere summer leave from teaching, and from editing, wrote the following on january 10 on a picture postcard of kilimanjaro-tanzania, 5896 meters above sea level: "greetings from tanzania! trip going very well. spent time in serengeti, ngorongoro crater, and olduvai gorge. eight of us completed a 3~ day climb to top of africa (kili). beautiful seeing the new year sunrise from there despite a cold numb hand'. we are off next to rwanda and zaire, which will be three weeks of bad road! hope you are keeping well. give my b~st to everyone at the school. --doug" on porcine eyes and thighs: prosciuto, pronounced pro shoo~ to, rhyming with no-shoe' -toe, is a delicately spiced ham, carefully dried, perhaps by a suction process as the translation of the term suggests, treasured by gourmets. only two groups of producers in italy are presently granted a special seal of recognition by the italian government, one in parma and the other in friuli, but now three other groups, in norcia, modena, and venice, demand the coveted seal on the strength of their o\'tn long traditions in the secret-formula preparation of prosciuto. the norcia prosciuto consortium claim that their tradition was initiated centuries ago by celebrated cataract surgeons who practiced their surgical skills on pig bodies. the history of the controversy is described in an illustrated article in the november 9, 1981, issue of the italian magazine europeo, pages 30-32. not a reader of italian, i asked marshall marvelli, o.d., of galesburg, illinois, to explain the involvement of the eye surgeons. he responded as follows: the magazine article is very interesting. i now have a good understanding of the production of italian prosciutto. the part played by the italian eye surgeons from the years 500 to 700 a.d. involved the use of the pigs in practicing cataract extraction and other types of surgery. in the process they developed a special way of dissecting the hind legs of the pig. this shank of the pig took the shape of a cello, which today is characteristic of prosciutto from ~1odena, italy. they claim that their prosciutto is more savory, tender and also leaner than that of parma or venice. they believe their ham should get the government seal of approval. this method of production, along with the spices etc.,is a secret which has been handed down from father to son for the last 1200 years. -43by the way, prosciutto and eggs baked together in an oven is very delicious. ~~e discovered this one day in orvieto when we asked for ham and eggs. the above is what the waitress brought to the table. the petitioners from modena trace their tradition to 1500, and those from venice claim to date back to the venetian republic of the same era, but the parma group retorts 11 0ur prosciutto was named by cicero. 11 sureau•s optometer skiascope: 11 dr. sureau has recently presented to the scientific world a most ingenious apparatus designed for ascertaining in a positive manner the nature and the degree of the different anomalies exhibited by the eye, 11 states an article entitled the optometer skiascope in the september 29, 1894, issue of scientific american, vol. 71, no. 13, page 196. illustrated is an optical bench-mounted mechanism about a meter long with a chin rest and triple-disc lens wheels at one end and knobs, dials, and scales near the other end connected by rods and cables along the two-rail bench. thus the skiascopist could remotely control from his seeping distance the lens power and cylinder axis inclinations in front of the eye being measured. the unnamed author cone 1 udes, 11 ••• it is to be hoped that it wi 11 soon be utilized by the ministers of war and of the navy, in both of which branches of the service it will render surgeons great services through a great saving in time. 11 the article gives no further identification of the inventor than the name 11 dr. sureau 11 , and the cited source of the article is simply 11 la natureu with no date or issue specification. arachnids at war: how mrs. nan songer of near redlands, california, coaxed her spiders to spin the silky web filament of less than .0025 mm diameter for use in the defense industry manufacture of camera view finders, surveying instru­ ments, range finders, and target sights, is briefly described in the october 1941 issue of science digest, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 93-94 under the column captions of 11 patents, processes, inventions 11 as a condensation of a previous article by t1ax k. gilstrap in the christian science t1onitor. how the spiders were manipulated in england and their threads made into graticules for optical instruments is described in the october 1944 issue of science digest, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 93-94 under the same column captions as excerpts of an article in discovery (london) as told by frank elliott 11 in a recent british broadcast. 11 l4oops! on page 5 of the last issue 11 ron r. paine 11 should have been 11 don r. paine 11 , advises meticulous reader dan hummel. -44and quite serendipitously and very late i myself (hwh) just discovered that the volume number for the april 1980 issue of n.o.h.s. was shown as ii instead of 11. obviously the romans are still invading our territory. h.w hofstetter, editor d.k. penisten, editor-on-leave 1982-13-02-001 1982-13-02-002 1982-13-02-003 1982-13-02-004 1982-13-02-005 1982-13-02-006 1982-13-02-007 1982-13-02-008 1982-13-02-009 1982-13-02-010 1982-13-02-011 1982-13-02-012 1982-13-02-013 1982-13-02-014 1982-13-02-015 1982-13-02-016 1982-13-02-017 1982-13-02-018 1982-13-02-019 1982-13-02-020 ~,ug 8 1974 diana university newsletter of the optometric historical society optometry library vertical file (7000 chippewa st;eet, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. 63119) volume 5 july 1974 number 3 election again: our by-laws state "election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot." the board member whose term expires this year, dec. 31, 1974, is henry w. hofstetter. nominations for his replacement for a five year term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot. you may nominate as many as you wish. send your nominations to mrs. maria dablemont, secretary-treasurer. election ballots will go out with the october issue of the newsletter. you may be curious as to why i have decided not to run for re-election, a decision which i made a year dr two ago and so informed the other board members. my reasoning is simple, but, i believe, sound. the society is now well established and can benefit from new executive direction. it is important that its identity not be associated exclusively with the personality and philosophy of one individual, or even of two or three. further, i should like to continue my role as editor of the o•li•i• newsletter and shall volunteer my services accordingly to the next executive board. the editor ·need not be a member of the executive board. i am convinced that an editor can do a much more effective job when he is not on his own governing board. needless to add, the board would be under no obligation to re-appoint me as editor. incidentally, the executive board re-elected the same officers for 1974, hofstetter as president, levene as vice-president, and dablemont as secretary-treasurer. the other two members of the executive board are gregg and tannebaum. secretary-treasurer reports: as of june 15, 1974, the financial assets of the society totaled $1,189.57 with no outstanding debts. the society has increased its membership to 140, a 30% increase over a year ago. we have members in 29 american states and puerto rico, three canadian provinces, and 13 other countries. the following new members were added since publication of the membership list in the january 1974 newsletter: -24claro m. cinco, o.d. brian flynn, l. 0. sc. richard r. lehr, o.d. alvin levin, o.d. lewis s. levinson, o.d. prof. lynn a. rees jack rubin the society is now incorporated as a not-for-profit society in the state of missouri. application is being filed with the office of internal revenue for full tax-exempt status. a quarter century of grace: a personal note from o.h.s. member grace weiner a few weeks ago let me know that she is retiring from her librarianship at university of alabama in birmingham to take up residence in fullerton, california. her new address is not yet determined, but i daresay a letter will reach her via the southern california college of optometry, fullerton, where, i also daresay, she will continue to make herself valuable and busy in the library which someday, though not soon i hope, should bear her name. if we optometrists have become more bibliophilistic these past 25 years, and i would hope we have, it would be difficult to assign as much credit to anyone else as i would assign to mrs. weiner. the library she nurtured at the formerly called los angeles college of optometry, now at fullerton, became nationally recognized within a few years after she took charge. when she started, in about 1948, the few hundred volumes she found stacked on the floor of the two small adjoining rooms in the college's then new stucco-covered barracks-type structure were the complete holdings. indeed, they had simply accumulated over several decades, that is, those that had not disappeared as books normally do. she was the college's first librarian, employed on a part-time basis with virtually no job instruction other than "to help out" as she thought best. with initially no formal library budget, and confronted with a rather general lack of awareness of the benefits of a library, if not indeed some doubt as to its necessity, grace began to scrounge around for books, journals, pamphlets, bulletins, reprints, cash, and almost any form of donation, and eventually budget provisions, which would enable her to add to the collection. having no prior experience in optometry or visual science she enlisted technical assistance and advice from students and faculty and anyone else who might lend himself to becoming interested. reciprocal and interlibrary loan arrangements were soon worked out with other librarians in the· los angeles metropolis. hers became recognized as a specialty library, and patronage increased. optometrists, visual science researchers, authors, and others were soon seeking grace's help. indeed there were bigger and more comprehensive visual science libraries in the world, hut there was something both personal and professional about this one that was different. -25soon she was consulted by journal editors, by other visual science librarians, by visual science book publishers, by the american academy of optometry, and by deans of optometry schools. she organized, promoted, exhorted, and served at every opportunity, always winning a larger group of admirers, friends, and supporters. the name grace weiner is a magic word wherever an optometry library is under discussion, yet she is so genuinely modest as to believe that she is outclassed by many who now hold comparable library posts at other institutions. if her opinion is correct, and it usually is, it would be because she used her influence to prevail on other institutions to acquire the most competent persons possible. it is not in my heart to wish grace a well deserved period of relaxation and freedom from commitment. continued exploitation of her time and talent makes more sense to me, and i hope i will not be alone in exercising it. grace will not mind, i am sure. optometric history courses: on february 18, through the courtesy of the office of the secretary of the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco), i invited all of the asco member institutions to send me information on the coverage of optometric history in their current curricula. to date, responses have been received from 11 of the 16 member institutions, 10 of the 12 in the u.s. and one from the school in bogota, colombia. copies of all of the responses are being supplied to the asco secretary and to the archives of the american optometric association. the responses clearly showed that optometric history is dealt with variously in both of two ways at most schools. one way is to provide the historical background of each topic in the curriculum as the topic is undertaken. thus, when retinoscopy is taught, with it is included its own history. the other way is to teach optometric history as a topic in it­ self, i.e., as a course so entitled or as part of a course in orientation, socio-optometry, or some similar title. a theoretically third way would be to inject optometry's historical development into a general history course taught as a social science, but there is no suggestion that this occurs, or that it is likely to occur, even in the schools affiliated with universities having history departments. since the present information was not intended to offer any clew as to the adequacy of history teaching in individual schools i will simply number the responses randomly and abstract each as follows. 1. the "history of optometry" course includes formal lectures and preparation of papers by students. topics include glass, spectacles, optics, optometry, and professional aspects. -262. "history of optometry" course is offered in the second semester of the third year. lectures derived from gregg,l hirsch and wick,2 gregg,3 and washington scope. 4 students submit papers or oral history tapes which are placed in the library. 3. "professional orientation" course is about one-third history, hence about eight lectures. principal history references are gregg,l hirsch and wick,2 gregg, 3 and hofstetter.s 4. approximately 25% of a four credit hour* course in "social optometry" throughout the first year deals with optometric history. more recent history is covered as part of a final year course on social optometry. principle reference books are hofstetter~5 several papers by john levene and by ryer and hotaling, cox,6 and gregg.~ 5. approximately one-third of a one credit hour* "survey of optometry" course covers history in the first quarter of the first year. 6. a 2-quarter hour* "history of optometry" course in the first year covers the history of optometry and visual science from antiquity to the present. a term paper is exgected of each student. principal references are bailey and singer,7 cox, 0 gregg,3 and hofstetter.s 7. a 2 unit* "history of optometry" course the first quarter of the first year. principal text is hirsch and wick.2 b. optometric history is included in an "optometric orientation" course in the first year and further reinforced in "optometric practice development and practice administration" co~rses in the third and foyrth year. principal references are hirsch and wick, gregg,3 and hofstetter. 5 9. in a one lecture per week course entitled "optometry--the profession and science" throughout the first year one session is devoted to the history of optometry and most of the other sessions of the first quarter include the history of the topic of the day. the course consists of a series of presentations by invited lecturers. 10. a one quarter-hour* "history and orientation" course, but with "very little class time on the history of optometry." several lecturers participate. some attempt is made, however, to inject appropriate historical coverage in other courses1 and substantial reading assignments are made in hirsch and wick, 2 gregg, and gregg.3 11. a one semester credit hour* course entitled "optometric ~istory" is taught in the first year, with the reading assignments in gregg and hofstetter.s this course is exclusively history, as there are other courses on "orientation" and other socio-optometric topics. students are required to submit term papers on topics of their choice. references 1. gregg, j.r., story of optometry, ronald press, new york, 1965. -272. hirsch, m.j., and r.e. wick, the optometric profession, chilton books, philadelphia, 1968. 3. gregg, j.r., the american optometric association, a history, optometric development enterprises, st. louis, 1972. 4. washington scope, american optometric association, washington office, washington, d.c. 5. hofstetter, h.w., optometry: profession, economic and legal aspects, american optometric association, st. louis, 1964. 6. cox, maurice e., optometry, the profession, chilton co., philadelphia, 1957. 7. bailey, edwin 0., and curtis l. singer, the public welfare and the profession of optometry, american optometric association, st. louis; 1964. *a "quarter" or "semester" hour· credit or unit represents one lecture of an hour or less per week throughout a "quarter" (11-12 weeks) or a "semester" (16-18 weeks) respectively. anythins but humble! a prominent o.h.s. member, who prefers to remain anonymous, has sent me a note of protest against the oft used expression, "the humble origins of optometry." in support of the protest numerous documents are cited to show that, in fact, the opposite is true, t.hat optometry emerged from among persons of remarkable stature, ability, influence, and affluence in industry, technology, science, the arts, the humanities, education, and ci~ic enterprise. i agree! as one who has traveled extensively in areas of the globe where optometry is still "originating" or "emerging" i can testify that even today such movements are being led by persons of great social strength and stamina. true, they may not always fit our currently conceived mold of a professionalized "optometrist-of-the-year", but in their social and cultural settings they are indeed community giants. my contacts with such individuals have given me routine entr'e to their own natioas' institutions and inner circles at least as privileged as that enjoyed by many an official ambassador with portfolio. i hope this stirs up comment--proud, not humble, comments. service to the community: mrs. elma stevenson, widow of the late harry stevenson, o.d., (1878-1961) of bloomington, indiana, was honored on june 5 for her , -2870 years as a poll worker, voter, and just "good citizen" at an ice cream party at her house at 203 s. union street. julie nixon eisenhower phoned mrs. stevenson, and president nixon, indiana governor otis bowen, california governor ronald reagan, two u.s. senators, and six u.s. congressmen sent her letters of congratulations. though a staunch republican, she says she "votes for the man" and li$ts democrat harry truman right·behind teddy roosevelt as "my favorite president." she is 91. ~1en i came to bloomington in 1952 her optometrist husband harry kindly opened his office files to me for a longitudinal study of changes in refractive error with age, which was later published. he had been in professional practice 50 years and had a good many records of patients whom he had examined many times in succession. light, o'dea: "from fifteen or more millenia before christ to a.d. 1782 there was practically no improvement in lighting at all," says william t. o'dea in his 1958 book entitled the social history of lighting, published by routledge and kegan paul, london. i would be tempted to delete "improvement in" from author o'dea's modest statement. the date 1782 is identified with the development of the wick oil lamp by ami argand of geneva whence "carne a tenfold increase in the light obtainable from a single wick." amply supplemented by anecdotes, literary quotes, cartoons, sketches, maps, pictures, a chronology, a bibliography, and an index, this book itself provides a form of enlightenment never brought to my attention in a history course. successive fascinating chapters deal with light for the horne and for travel, work, worship, theatre, harbor, and sports. subsections cover such easily forgotten needs as lighting for the carriage, traffic signals, ships, mines, surgery, war, shops, timekeeping, and art galleries, to name a few • .. . the book is no longer listed in books in print, so, if you find a copy in a used-book store, buy it. you will treasure these more than 250 pages of conversation-stimulating information quite unavailable elsewhere. light and vision: as easily overlooked by us as the above mentioned book by o'dea is a report by leonard t. troland which may well be the most historically comprehensive bibliographic survey of the effect of light on vision ever undertaken. nodestly entitled "an analysis of the literature concerning the dependency of visual functions upon illumination intensity", it appeared in the february 1931 issue of the transactions of the illu,!!!:: inating engineering society, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 107-196. an editorial -29by j.w. baker entitled "light and vision" on pages 93-94 of the same issue adds informative comments. the survey was in fact a report prepared for the committee on industrial lighting of the national research council. dr. troland selected, categorized, and fully identified, like a good writer should, almost 900 actual references and provided helpful comments. he made his selection from approximately 9,000 titles in vision, just about everything published about vision at any time prior to 1926. he planned to do the same for successive decades, but he met with an untimely death shortly thereafter. archimedes, archimedes! "more on that burning glass of archimedes" is a follow-up commentary by d.l. timms in the may 1974 issue of applied optics, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. al4-al6. says timms, "i believe modern man discounts the ancient claim because it is historically unlikely, scientifically impracticable, and militarily ineffective." more .2.!!. roy a. thorson: in a recent visit to the philippines i heard two of the currently prominent optometrists reminisce with nostalgia over the role of the american optometrist roy a. thorson as one who played a key role in the development of optometry in the philippines. some time ago in this newsletter i mentioned the roy.,a;; thorson award as a memorial. an article in the optometric weekly of feb. 16, 1950, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 251-253 describes dr. thorson's role in the third annual conven­ tion of the optometric association of the philippines, december 10-11, 1949, as follows: "'optometric education, fraternity and protection' was used as the title of an address by dr. roy a. thorson who dealt with the purposes for which the association was formed and how the members could apply themselves to effect these purposes. he stressed the importance of closer cooperation between the old, established practitioners and the newly graduated students as each could benefit from the learning and experience of the other; that the practitioner while learning and understanding more of the new theories and optometric techniques from the student, could, through his experience, so guide the student as to avoid the costly mistakes in which he might otherwise become involved." at the same congress dr. thorson was elected one of the nine members of the board of directors of the o.a.p. for 1950. antonio joson, jr., o.d., now practicing in manila, is still using the ophthalmometer once owned and used by dr. thorson. i should like to know more about dr. thorson. -30optics.££ alhazen: a talk on the paradigm and methodology in the optics of alhazen was given at indiana university on april 18 by professor a.i. sabra of harvard university under co-sponsorship of the i.u. departments of history & philosophy of science, near eastern languages and literatures, and the division of optometry. though attendance was shockingly small, perhaps 12 or 15 persons, the talk was both fascinating and sophisticated. alhazen, also known as ibn al-haytham, whose 1,000 birth anniversary was celebrated recently, served well to accomplish a synthesis, or at least a degree of compatibility, of two doctrines relating to vision. one was the physicists' concept of a form-to-form relationship between the tangible object and the perceived image; the other was the mathematician's concept of rays-between-the-eye-and-the-object. whether these prior concepts existed as conflicting theories or simply as independent operational descriptions is itself a somewhat controversial question today. professor sabra is presently engaged in translating, and indeed interpreting, alhazen's books into english and german. another private collection: o.h.s. member irving bennett, o.d., calls attention to a report entitled "newspaper notes doloff collection" on page 31 of the alumni bulletin £i the pennsylvania college £f optometry, vol. 27, no. 1, feb. 1974. bertram doloff, o.d. 341 jefferson ave., scranton, pennsylvania, 18510, was featured in a recent sunday issue of the scrantonion for his collection of old eyeglasses and ophthalmic instruments. aoa adopts bicentennial resolution: at the june 1974 congress of the american optometric association in washington, d.c., the following resolution was adopted by the house of delegates: whereas, whereas, whereas, the bicentennial of the founding of the united states of america will be observed during 1976, and the goal for the american revolution bicentennial admini­ stration is to forge a new national commitment and a new spirit for '76--a spirit in which, as we celebrate our beginnings, we re-examine founding principles and apply them to our future, and the bicentennial observance challenges every american to make a personal commitment toward improving the quality of life in america which will have a positive, lasting effect on the future, and whereas, -31the bicentennial observance offers the profession of optometry, having served the majority of americans with professional vision care services for more than three quarters of a century, an opportunity to become involved collectively and individually in bicentennial observances at national, state and community levels in fulfilling the role of a professional in american society, now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association pledges its organizational and volunteer support of the goal and spirit of the nationwide observance of the 1976 bicentennial. second reminisce-in held: on june 19 the second reminisce-in sponsored by the society was held in the franklin room of the sheraton park hotel in washington, d.c. spurgeon eure, o.d., presided, with approximately 25 persons in attendance. as in the previous reminisce-in in 1972, the conversation was taped for the oral history file. several of the oral accounts were identified as confidential and will be treated accordingly, to be made available only to bona fide history scholars. o.h.s. member mrs. harold (gladys) kohn brought with her numerous old photographs dating back about 40 years. among those present it was possible to identify almost every person in each photograph. the photograph• will be added to the american optometric association archives. raymond tibaut (1883-1973) l'institut d 10ptique raymond tibaut, belgium, was so named in memory of raymond tibaut (sept. 10, 1883 nov. 29, 1973) in 1955 by l'association professionnelle des opticiens de belgique. tibaut was awarded a diploma as "sight testing optician" by the worshipful company of spectacle makers of london in 1915 and by the institute of ophthalmic opticians in 1916. testimonials to his long and illustrious career as a teacher and leader in optometry are published in l'opticien belge de belgische opticien, no. 206, december 1973, pp. 450-455. other memorials: dr. justo gonzalez memorial awards (reference: optometric association of the philippines). dr. gregorio q. estrada memorial awards (reference: optometric association of the philippines). charlotte potter memorial fund (reference: illinois college of optometry). charlotte was the wife of american optometric association secretary-treasurer jack a. potter, o.d. -32optical memories forgotten: undoubtedly the greeks had a word for it, or the romans a phrase, or the french a unique expression, which aptly describes the chagrin of finding out that what one anticipated is really something else completely, and even ludicrously, unrelated• examples of such exper­ iences include o.h.s. member jim leeds' purchase of "antique looking glasses and frames", my tracking down "the design of 17th century french spectacles" and "color discrimination among tribal africans", and an industrialist purchasing my book "industrial vision." these were commented on in the july 1971 issue of the newsletter, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 11-12. my most recent one was entitled "optical memories", a featured article in optical spectra, june 1974. i turned to it with historian's anticipation only to become suddenly aware that the article dealt with optical memory technology in storage capabilities of computing systems! witelo portrait to aoa: on june 21, before the house of delegates of the american optometric association, o.h.s. member bernard mrozinski formally presented an oil portrait of witelo (vitellius) to aoa president robert day, o.d., as an expression of friendship from poland. the 40 x 50 em painting was done this year by k. borucki, the retired director of the museum of art of bydgoszcz, poland, from an illustration in a rare old book in the museum. the whereabouts of the old portrait from which the illustration was copied is unknown. hence the new portrait is a "second original." the portrait shows witelo holding a pair of spectacles in his right hand, graphically emphasizing his contributions to ophthalmic science. he was born in silesia circa 1225 and died at witow, poland. south african optometry: the march 1974 issue of the south african optometrist, vol. 33, no. 1, is the souvenir issue marking the 50th anniversary of the south african optometric association. in the lead editorial it is reported that the profession's records show that there were 11 opticians holding boa and smc qualifications in 10 south african cities between 1896 and 1910. reproduced are the minutes of the inaugural meeting of the association in march 1924. another article reviews the commencement of an educational program as the school of applied optics in 1931. an article by an 84 year old optometrist is entitled "reminiscences of over 70 years." a 1931 court case is republished. several articles are devoted to various other historical aspects, and numerous early photographs and documents are included. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1974-05-03-001 1974-05-03-002 1974-05-03-003 1974-05-03-004 1974-05-03-005 1974-05-03-006 1974-05-03-007 1974-05-03-008 1974-05-03-009 1974-05-03-010 243 north ¥indsi g h1j--!:a uru~:c:1;;• •: newsletter of the ~ : optometric historical society! mar 1 q 199fl • lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mis~uri 6314~, u~a ! '\ ll . · . apr 0 3 1996 e · librarv • july 1995 "'• • ~ • • "(i~> :wytfpber .. i~ \1): volume 26 21 points and sheard: on pages 60-61 of the october 1986 issue of this newsletter, vol. 17, no. 4, the challenge was made to ascertain the historical details of the "21 points" of the optometric extension program. the first response carne in 1992, six years later, from george g. litsinger, o.d. he reminds us that charles sheard was the first to identify certain optometric tests by numbers and that these were subsequently revised a bit by a.m. skeffington into the o.e.p. 21 points. litsinger cites a 1917 publication entitled dynamic ocular tests by charles sheard, ph.d., published by the lawrence press co., columbus, ohio, which was later reprinted on pages 41-121 of the sheard volume published by chilton company, philadelphia, in 1957. indeed, on page 43 of the latter, there is an "outline of the routine" of a recommended clinical optometric procedure in steps numbered from one to 18. there is clearly a similarity of sequence with that of the traditional o.e.p. 21 points. on the other hand there are also substantial differences of identity and description. of possible significance is the fact that in the 80 pages of discussion of the various tests sheard refers to none of them by number, thus suggesting that the numbers were purely a matter of tabulation rather than nomenclature. inasmuch as sheard himself was not formally trained as an optometrist, and therefore leaned heavily on the tutoring and advice of local optometrists such as john c. eberhardt, he may well have developed the sequence as a lesson plan for classroom purposes. in other words there must already have evolved among the more progressive optometrists a fairly common pattern of testing which both sheard and skeffington may have adapted to their teaching needs quite independently. this interpretation is further born out on pages 220-221 of the same 1957 volume in which is illustrated a sample of a record card of sheard's own design dated 1919 in which a series of 13 clinical tests are sequentially numbered at some variance from his 1917 list. further, in his discussions he describes various clinical cases with numbered data entries often at sequential variance with either previously outlined routine. in the early '30s sheard published several papers which included a clinical routine of 20 numbers with several alphabetically ordered sub-tests quite closely resembling the o.e.p. 21 points, which, by then, had been well popularized by skeffington. sheard's 20 points are in the 1957 sheard volume, pp. 26/18 · .. •· 'i 233-266. o.e.p. authors s.k. lesser and a.m. skeffington of 1'21' point" authority are both in the chapter's reference list! h.w h. the hirschberg series: part 1-b and part 1-c of vol. xi are two of 15 separately bound books in julius hirschberg's history of ophthalmology series translated by frederick c. blodi, m.d. altogether they are numbered i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viiia, viiib, ix, x, xi part 1-a, xi part 1-b, xi part 1-c, and xi part 2. with this present commentary on the two last-received tomes, all 15 books will have been mentioned in hindsight or its predecessor newsletter in terms of their contributions to optometric history. · parts 1-b and 1-c of vol. xi continue with the "reform of ophthalmology" theme of part 1-a which hirschberg had identified with the leadership and era of helmholt·z, donders, and albrecht von graefe. parts 1-b and 1-c include 15 additional contributors to the reform, none of whom may be considered as having made a strong impact on optometric development. among the dozens and dozens, if not several hundred, other second-half nineteenth century european physicians participating in the reformed emergence of ophthalmology are a few names incidentally identified with physiological optics such as e. hering, albrecht nagel, edmund landolt, and e. javal. a brief one page biographical note is devoted to ferdinand cuignet {1823-1890) for the discovery of the retinoscopic principle. in his final comments hirschberg lists and describes the roles of eight last-quarter nineteenth century developments that contributed to ophthalmology's "period of reform." number iv of these is "diagnostic methods have been further developed, especially the objective determination of refractive errors" {referring to retinoscopy and ophthalmometry) . the other seven were improvement of general surgical techniques, the establishment of bacteriological science, advances in the area of anatomy and physiology of the visual system, improved microscopy, advances in the surgical aspects of asepsis and local anesthesia, improvements of medical treatment, and the evolvement of general hygienic and prophylactic practices. " while the hirschberg series is clearly not a history of optometry it illustrates many parallels of involvement of the world at large while pointing up pronounced differences not obvious in casual observance. h.w h. behavioral optomet:r:y publications: the term behavioral optomet:r:y seems to have emerged into fairly common use in recent decades, long enough to justify 26/19 publication of a historical perspective by martin b. birnbaum in the april 1994 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 255-264, with 125 references. he identifies two major schools or approaches to behavioral optometry, one, the physiologically based or more traditional patterns, and the other, which emphasizes the influence of environment and visually related experience. he does not make clear what constitutes "nonbehavioral" optometry, nor does he use that term in the article. the numerous optometric procedures and functions described as examples of each of the two "schools or approaches", however, do not include any medicinal or pharmaceutical services. neither does he include in his bibliography any reference to such medically oriented services by optometrists. this suggests that the latter may be the "nonbehavioral" optometrists. the author identifies a.m. skeffington as the "father of behavioral optometry" and describes as well the historic roles of several others whose names are associated with the optometric extension program foundation. an optometrist who was recognized as an influential "thinker and innovator" in this concept was the late lawrence w. macdonald, o.d. (1928-1979). his collected works have now been compiled and edited by ira schwartz, o.d., in two volumes available from the oep foundation, 2912 south daimler, santa ana, ca 92705, at $18 each. brewster in forbes: ohs member neal bailey called our attention to a feature in the december 7, 1992, issue of forbes magazine, pp. 232 and 234, entitled "a rather strange object" by manjeet kripalani. it describes the scientific toy which was invented by sir david brewster in the early 1800s, the kaleidoscope, and which continues to exert its charms. illustrated in color are several kaleidoscopic patterns and several kaleidoscopes that have attained great value as collector's items. "in 1990 erik van cort, one of america's finest contemporary kaleidoscope makers, and himself a collector," offered $55,000 for one made by w. leigh newton circa 1830, but the owner held firm at· $75,000. the world's leading collector of kaleidoscopes is cozy baker of bethesda, maryland, nearly a thousand. however, she confides, "i never pay more than $10, 000 for any kaleidoscope." in the margin of the tear sheet dr. bailey penned in, "i rarely do, either." ocular heritage society: the o.h.s. newsletter for june 1993 includes the minutes of the annual meeting on april 15-18 in mexico city, a current list of 26/20 members, and photocopies of six of the papers delivered at the historical sessions, as follows: martin b. singer, vision aids: the history of the optical professions and industry. j. wm. rosenthal, ancient chinese eyeglass cases. james leeds, milton's blindness and eleanor g. brown. j.j. abrams, monroe b. levoy-optician. w.h. marshall, the auto doctor. john w. tull, a survey of spectacle cases. at the 1994 annual meeting of the "other" o.h.s. held april 21-23 in bloomington, indiana, the following participants gave talks and presented historical papers that are now available from the society archives: john w. tull, joseph l. bruneni, gordon g. heath, j. william rosenthal, jay m. galst, and henry w hofstetter. tull reported on the life of charles stanhope (1753-1816) and his invention of the "stanhope lens", a small but very powerful magnifying lens that came into popular use for well over a century. bruneni reviewed the origins and development of optical laboratories in america. heath gave an account of the recent emergence of the irlen method for the treatment of dyslexia together with an analysis of the claims made for it. rosenthal described the design, circumstances, and uses of small lorgnettes or telescopes quite inconspicuously constructed in ladies' fans in the 1700's. galst' s paper on "optician's tokens hoosier and elsewhere" provided an early history dating from their appearance in 17th century great britain to a significant number in indiana even in recent decades. hofstetter reported on a recent translation of a classic greek document on 4th-century visual science as authored by heliodorus. the knowledge of vision is presented in terms of 14 points which, among other concepts, make it clear that vision was believed to be accomplished by the projection of rays from the eye to the subject viewed. from the o.a.i.c.c.: from the april 1993 ophthalmic antigyes international collectors club newsletter, no. 43, we learn that pierre marly's museum of 3000 optical items has been moved to a floor above street level at his new premises at 380 rue saint honore, paris, exactly midway between the rue royale and the place vendome. the nearest metro stations are tuileries, madeleine, and concorde. 26/21 in the same issue colin b. fryer gives an historical account of the order of knights hospitallers of st. john of jerusalem, which was established in 1099 a.d. and still exists. it was one of the most important developments of the crusades (1096-1291 a.d.). early in the 14th century the order introduced the newly invented spectacles for scribes with "old aged sight." fryer describes the spectacles of that era. an article by editor r.j.s. macgregor describes the making of whalebone spectacles. on page 7 is a translation by valerie mellor of a 1746 list of optical merchandise available at the burning mirror, which lay between st. benoit's fountain and dr. plessis' school in the rue st. jacques, paris. the owner, monsieur thoman, was the author of a 1746 booklet entitled instruction sur l'usage des lunettes ou conserves, pour toutes sortes de vues, paris. the booklet is in marly's museum. another o.a.i.c.c. newsletter: the july 1993· issue of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club newsletter, issue number 44, again includes several tidbits of information of historical optometric interest. one is that there are now three major museums of spectacles in the belluno region in the north of italy. the new one is in the headquarters of the safilo group at pieve di cadore. another item is the information that ohs member charles letocha is conducting a survey of the eye sizes of leather spectacles. so far, in 19 specimens, he finds an average diameter of 32 mm. if you have any leather spectacles send the dimensions to him at 444 rathton road, york, pennsylvania 17403, u.s.a. her majesty the queen arrived at the commonwealth institute in london on 11 may, 1993, without her spectacles. her seven-page speech was kindly read by prince philip. this made front-page news in the u.k. editor ronald macgregor provides an interesting account of the 29 may to 2 june, 1993, excursion of six club members from london to hannover, wienhausen, rathenow, jena, and magdeburg, germany, visiting ophthalmic museums at every stopover. on pages 5-9 spencer sherman, m.d., gives a succinct history of the ophthalmoscope with illustrations of 12 models dating between helmholtz's in 1851 and juler' s in 1886 photocopied from "a history of the ophthalmoscope" by c. wilbur rucker, 1971. sherman gives earliest credit to purkinje for the construction of an 1823 model which "went by the wayside," perhaps because "his dissertation was in latin." no mention is made of charles babbage's invention. 26/22 derek davidson comments on the publicized ninetieth anniversary of the firm of barry and beale in new zealand. the firm was established in 1902 by samuel barry in auckland upon returning from training in the u.s.a. and england "fully qualified and experienced in both sight testing and workshop practice." he founded one of the first solely optometric practices in new zealand. he was joined by james beale in 1905. they became well known as suppliers of "far-nears," a registered name for bifocals at that time. the annual club meeting was held at the british college of optometrists on 23 may, 1993, with 27 present. the annual club auction of 38 lots totalled £1,113. an especially interesting part of the newsletter is an "incomplete" list of 92 current members, 57 in the u.k, nine in germany, nine in the u.s.a., and the rest in 10 other countries. upon being asked to check every "special interest" area from among 20 listed possibilities, 51 checked "spectacles," 19 checked "instruments," 12 checked "general optical," and 12 checked "eye baths." it is quite evident from these and the other choices that the members are largely collection oriented. only one checked "documents" and eight checked "history." the other choices were all collectibles. it is indeed a collectors club. jefferson's "spects": in an article entitled "jefferson's reading spectacles" in the november/december 1989 issue of atti della fondazione giorgio ronchi, vol. 44, no. 6, pp. 1115-1122, eric p. muth describes the involvement of president thomas jefferson (1743-1826) with john mcallister, sr., in the design of spectacles with lenses of very small vertical dimension for near work only. reproduced correspondence between jefferson and mcallister shows that at age 63 jefferson requested first the reshaping of an oval eyewire frame into a horizontally oblong form. finding the upper part of the eyewire a bit of a nuisance to peer over he then requested the franklin bifocal design in very small lenses which mcallister found very difficult to fabricate. muth credits jefferson's idea, the "first oblong eyewire shape," as "the grandfather of half glasses," which he also calls "half eyes." in the jefferson-mcallister correspondence the latter sometimes abbreviates spectacles as "spect" or "spects." because the communication is entirely by mail the correspondence included considerable discussion of lens centering and interpupillary distance for near. at one point mcallister wrote, "wishing to making them to please and recollecting the president has but a small head i wish them examined again." 26/23 a decade of legislative effort: at the ninth asian-pacific optometric congress in hong kong, april 8-12, 1993, one of the papers delivered in cantonese was that of professor joseph c.k. lee, ph.d., of the hong kong polytechnic on the topic "legislation of optometry." i was completely unable to follow his verbal discourse except that at intervals he would spotlight the following printed chronology (in english) on the projection screen: 11 jun 1984 first meeting advisory committee on optometry definitions 8 nov 1984 the purpose of defining an optometrist in the ordinance is merely to ensure that those who practise that profession shall be under an obligation to be registered. 25 apr 1985 postal survey conducted by m&hd qualifications for entry categories of optometrists provisional registration assessment and examination 7 apr 1986 12th meeting advisory committee on optometry 17 oct 1986 first meeting optometrists board code of practice regulations disciplinary action use of drugs 29 apr 1988 drugs evaluation committee 30 jul1991 code of practice completed regulations 12 feb 1993 21st meeting of the optometrists board h.w h. 26/24 oh say. can they see? this is the caption of what seems to be a well researched article on the optometric needs and corrections sustained by many of america's presidents. it appeared on page 7 of the november 1, 1992, issue of aoa news, vol. 31, no. 9, as a reprinting of a slightly revised 1976 aoa news release. recommended books: two books that have been mentioned in past issues of hindsight are very favorably reviewed by ohs member e.j. fisher on page 913 of the november 1992 issue of optometry and vision science. their titles are "restoring ophthalmic antiques" (1990) and "collecting ophthalmic antiques" (1992) . both are authored by ronald j. s. macgregor and published by the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club. honorary member deceased: the april 1994 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 47, p. 2, reports the death of margaret mitchell, m.a., on december 26, 1993. she had been librarian of the british optical association from 1928 until 1977, and had been an outstanding and genuinely interested resource on ophthalmic history. she served in numerous editorial and consultatory roles. in may of 1970 she was made an honorary member of the optometric historical society. editor: managing editor: contributing editor: *** douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47401 usa 1995-26-03-001 1995-26-03-002 1995-26-03-003 1995-26-03-004 1995-26-03-005 1995-26-03-006 1995-26-03-007 1995-26-03-008 volume 30 hindsight indiana unn~rt~1···· aug 0 5 ;;;9 ,d newsletter of the optometric historical society llrbij 11r 0 nt'y 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa july 1999 number3 history of university of california berkeley school of optometry chronicled: cal optometry: the first 75 years, edited by herbert kallman, hardcover, 17 4 pages. this is a history of the optometry program at the university of california berkeley. the editor, herbert kallman, is a 1941 graduate of the program. the book consists of several chapters and reminiscences written by current and former faculty members, administrators, and staff and by alumni. the publisher and the publication date of the book are not stated, but presumably it was published in-house by the optometry school in 1998. between 1908 and 1918 the california optometric association (coa) drafted resolutions supporting the establishment of an optometry school at the university of california. delegates from the coa met with university officials occasionally during this period of time. in 1920 a faculty committee chaired by m. w. haskell recommended the formation of an optometry school. california optometrists raised over $9,000 to help establish the school. an optometry curriculum was developed in the department of physics in the college of letters and science. two students were enrolled in august of 1923. ralph s. minor, a physics professor, served as director of the fledgling optometry school. ralph minor (1876-1961) graduated from hamilton college in 1898, and received a ph.d. degree in physics from the university of gottingen in germany in 1902. he lectured to optometrists in california before the formation of the school and worked with them in convincing the university to initiate the optometry program. minor had a printing press in his house, and used it to publish an annual directory of alumni until 1953, seven years after his retirement. he also printed a volume of poems written by his wife. another of minor's hobbies was growing olives. in 1970 the optometry building on the berkeley campus was renamed minor hall in his honor. george l. schneider ( 187 4-1928), an optometrist who had been president of the coa and the american optometric association and who had been on the coa committee promoting establishment of the school, was named a lecturer when the school began. schneider had been active in the formation of the california state association of opticians (later the california optometric association) in 1897. he practiced in stockton until about the turn of the century when he moved to berkeley. along with his active professional life, schneider was an amateur entomologist. schneider continued as a faculty member until 1928. student enrollments were low in the first few years, with less than 50 graduates in the first ten years. initially graduates completed an a. b. degree in physics and a certificate in optometry. in 1940 the department of optometry in the college of letters and science was formed, with graduates receiving a b.s. degree. in 1941 the optometry program became the school of optometry. the first dean was ralph minor who had been director of the program since its beginning. in 1948 the optometry curriculum became five years long. students received a b.s. degree at the end of the fourth year, and those meeting graduate division requirements received an m.opt. degree at the end of the fifth year. in 1966 the curriculum became four years with a minimum of two years pre-optometry university work. the first students to complete that curriculum graduated in 1970, and received the doctor of optometry degree. soon after this the pre-optometry requirement became a minimum of three years. in 1946 dean ralph minor retired. kenneth b. stoddard ( 1904-1970) succeeded him as dean. stoddard received an a.b. degree in physics from ucla in 1928, and m.a. from stanford in 1930, and a ph.d. in physics from stanford in 1931. he completed optometry school at the university of california in 1937 and joined the faculty in 1938. he spent the summers of 1939 and 1940 at the dartmouth eye institute qualifying as an aniseikonia clinician. during world war ii he worked as a physicist at lawrence radiation laboratory. stoddard retired due to illness in 1960. at that time meredith morgan became dean, a position he would hold until 1973. frederick l. mason (1887-1954), a columbia optometry graduate, served on the faculty from 1924 to 1953. he was described as stem and precise. jack hobson, a practicing optometrist who also had an engineering degree, was added to the faculty in 1937 and taught until 1961. gordon walls, who had worked for bausch & lomb during world war ii developing range finders for the navy, joined the faculty in 1947. walls was noted as a great synthesizer of knowledge and a productive writer. he died of a heart attack in 1962 while still serving on the faculty. some of the faculty added in 1950s were elwin marg, morton sarver, merton flam, and kermit kors. additions from 1960 to 1973 included gerald westheimer, robert mand~ll, horace barlow, lawrence stark, anthony adams, ralph freeman, theodore cohn, david grisham, michael harris, and kenneth poise. before 1951 the dean also acted as the clinic director. in 1951 dean kenneth stoddard appointed robert harrigan as clinic director. henry peters became clinic director in 1961when harrington went into private practice. in 1969 peters resigned to become dean of the new optometry program at the university of alabama birmingham. some of the clinic instructors in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s were roy brandreth, james crosby, ferd elvin, allan fried, robert harrington, jack hobson, frank johnson, kenton kerr, kermit kors, robert lester, leonard osias, and morton sarver. 30/16 during world war ii there were only seven optometry students. by 1946 enrollments increased again and reached the previous typical class size of about 50. in the late 1950s and early 1960s enrollment dropped again. in 1960, the entire school enrollment was 78 optometry students and three physiological optics graduate students. in 1970-71, there were 193 optometry students and 10 physiological optics graduate students. in 1946 the establishment of a physiological optics graduate program leading to m.s. and ph.d. degrees was approved by the graduate council of the university. elwin marg was the first graduate of the program, receiving his ph.d. in 1950. the'next ph.d. was awarded in 1953 to darrell carter, who held an optometry degree from southern california college of optometry and a psychology degree from ucla. other graduate students in the 1950s who went on long careers in academic optometry included frederick hebbard, merton flam, gordon heath, niles roth, and richard hill. the total number of m.s. and ph.d. degrees granted at the time of the writing of this book was 133. meredith morgan ( 1912-1999) was dean of the school from 1960 to 1973. he was a 1934 university of california optometry graduate. he had joined the faculty as an instructor in 1942 after completing his ph.d. in physiology in 1941. he was made a full professor in 1954. during morgan's years as dean both the student enrollment and the number of full-time equivalent faculty more than doubled. state financial support of the program also more than doubled. morgan continued to serve the university in a variety of capacities, such as chairing committees, for more than 20 years after his retirement. morgan was recognized by many awards, including the american optometric association apollo award and four honorary degrees. the school's optometry clinic was renamed the meredith w. morgan university eye center in 1998. in his remarks at the dedication ceremeny, the chancellor of the university noted how beloved and respected morgan was, and stated that, " ... he has been dedicated to the school of optometry, his profession, and the ucb campus for 65 years! he appears to have no detractors, and he is still cited as a model of academic optometry by many young career academics in optometry." starting in the 1960s, space became a problem for the school. a temporary solution was the installation of two large trailers behind the optometry building. in later decades additions to the building were completed. monroe hirsch became dean in 1973, and served in that capacity until1977. he lectured at the school on a part-time basis starting in 1955 and joined the faculty full-time in 1970 after many years in private practice. in 1970 hirsch was appointed director of clinics and emphasized operating the clinics more like a private practice. as dean hirsch presided over the planning for a much needed addition to the optometry building and the hiring of optometry faculty such as tan bailey, richard van sluyters, sheldon miller, and clifton schor. the school was led by acting deans from 1977 to 1980: robert mandell in 1977-78, irving fatt in 1978-79, and mandell again in 1979-80. 30/17 university of california school of optometry started an affiliation residency program in 1978. its first on-site residency started in 1983. from 1983 to 1998, 32 optometrists have completed on-site residencies. jay enoch served as dean from 1980 to 1992. some of the faculty recruited during this time were martin banks, gunilla haegerstrom-portnoy, russell devalois, karen devalois, stanley klein, joseph bonanno, and thomas wiley. in the 1980s, the proportion of female students increased from about 25% to about 60%, the out-of-state students increased to about 25%, and the number of asian students increased to become the school's largest group. during enoch's time as dean, two new floors were added to minor hall. the deanship of anthony adams followed that of jay enoch. the 1990s have been marked by clinical education improvments, significant research accomplishment, facility upgrades, curriculum revision, and several outreach efforts. endowed chairs have been established for ajumni solon braff and morton sarver. "fests" have been held for lawrence stark, jay enoch, and robert mandell. the book also contains a variety of other information, including a list of the m.s. and ph.d. graduates, the 1946 retirement speech of ralph minor, a listing of administrative officers and faculty in a few selected years, a listing of alumni association presidents and award winners, a listing of residents, and class pictures of almost all optometry classes from 1931 to 2001 . the book is well illustrated with black-and-white photographs. there are no reference citations and no index. d.a.g. best idea of the millenium? for their april 18, 1999 issue, the new york times magazine had a number of notable authors express their thoughts on the best of the millenium. novelist richard powers proposed that abu ali ai-hasan ibn ai-haytham (ai hazen) had the best idea of the millenium. alhazen was born in about 965 in basra, located in what is now iraq. in alhazen's time the debate still raged whether light traveled from objects to the eye or whether the eye sent out a visual ray to sense the objects being viewed. alhazen showed the former to be true by experimentation. one of his experiments would never be apprqved by today's human subjects committees: he found that the sun burned the eyes of subjects who stared at it. ptolemy, aristotle, and others used mathematics, reason, or argument to try to convince readers of the correctness of one or the other theory. powers notes that alhazen " ... demolished a whole mountain of systematic theory with a single appeal to data." powers argues that the introduction of experimentation by alhazen was the best idea of the millenium: " ... it lies beyond all reasonable doubt that no single idea has had a more profound or ubiquitous impact on what the human race has become, or what it has worked upon the face of the planet, than the vesting of authority in experiment." 30/18 ai hazen's work was translated into latin in the late 1 ih century, making it accessible to a wider audience. francis bacon was influenced by alhazen and emphasized the importance of experimentation in his writings. for example, bacon wrote in 1267, "argument does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless. it finds it by the method of experiment." powers notes some of the advances in optics that followed ai hazen's studies, such as the development of the telescope and microscope and kepler's work. the article ends with a cautionary note: "the greatest idea of the last 1,000 years has granted us ascendance over matter by asking not how things ought to be but how things are. we have given ourselves to finding out not what we should do with the world, but what we can make the world do. the greatest idea of the next thousand years must make up the difference, returning subtlety and•richness and morals and lightness of spirit to the long human experiment, if any part of it is to survive. light falls into the eye, reflected from the object under observation. but something else, too, must go out from the eye to the thing we observe." d.a.g. ophthalmic antiques newsletter: the april, 1999 issue of ophthalmic antiques newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club contains some articles of potential interest to o.h.s. members. hugh orr tells of "the stormy life of thomas mann ( 1660-1730)." james mann started an apprenticeship to a spectacle and instrument maker in london in 167 4. mann opened his own shop in london in 1693. mann had a stormy relationship with his colleagues in the spectacle makers' company. he got into trouble for a variety of offences, including non-attendance at meetings, refusing to take up the livery, using reviling words, selling bad wares, and not attending the corpse of a liveryman to the grave. his son, james mann ii, also became a spectacle maker, and had two notable apprentices, james ayscough who invented double-hinged folding spectacle-sides, and john cuff who developed a kind of microscope. "more about english combination nose-spectacles and another matter," by r.j.s. macgregor, is a follow-up to an earlier article. a particular pair of spectacles engraved "july 1735" is described. in "flynn of the north," willem banninga tells of father frank flynn, an eye specialist, architect, and priest in the northern territory of australia. flynn spent many years treating trachoma. in 1964 flynn developed a painful dry eye problem. he patented a device that attached to his spectacles and delivered lubricating solution into the comers of his eyes. in an article entitled "contact lenses: the evolution of new concepts," colin fryer relates the history of contact lenses from the developed of scleral fenestrated lenses by 30/19 dalles and bier and the introduction of corneal lenses by tuohy to the development of hydrophilic lenses. r.j.s. macgregor also writes about the inscriptions on antique chinese spectacle cases. many of the cases are inscribed with an archaic script not readable by many present-day chinese. macgregor concludes that the inscriptions made the spectacle cases suitable for gifts. some of the inscriptions he reported are: "the bright moon lights the woods." "with this handy gift comes a wish for peace and p~enty." "wealth, honors and prosperity always. be safe and sound." only a few sets left: d.a.g. i received a letter dated may 3, 1999, from wayenborgh publications saying that only six complete sets remain of the 15-volume german language handbuch zur geschichte der optik (treatise on the history of optics) by e.-h. schmitz. the cost for a complete set is om 3950 (approximately us$ 2200) plus postage. single volumes are om 295 (about us$ 165). postage is us$ 23 per volume by surface mail. the publisher's address is jean-paul wayenborgh, postbus 196, b-8400 ostend, belgium. the email address is jp.wayenborgh@asvalvas.be. wayenborgh is the publisher of hirschberg's the history of ophthalmology and poulet's spectacles. *** managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.) d.a.g. contriby.ting editors: henry w hofstetter (1050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a.) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) 30/20 1999-30-03-001 1999-30-03-002 1999-30-03-003 1999-30-03-004 1999-30-03-005 1999-30-03-006 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 34 did t. r. procter bring modern optometry to new zealand and australia? an investigation through archival newspapers barry l. cole, ao, phd, mappsc, bsc, losc, faao honorary archivist, kett optometry museum, australian college of optometry, professor emeritus, department of optometry and vision sciences, university of melbourne, bcole@aco.org.au abstract thomas robert procter (1826-1905) immigrated to australia in 1849 and in the course of a chequered career as a metalworker, gold prospector, silversmith and jeweler, became a well-known sight-testing optician in australia and new zealand, although he is not well remembered today. interest in him was piqued recently through the acquisition by the kett optometry museum of a classy spectacle case bearing his name and the location of his practice in melbourne, australia. we were able to date the case as being made about 1890. initial research using two contemporaneous biographies and a 20 page promotional ‘treatise’ written by procter suggested that he was well-versed in the techniques and the science of modern optometry that had emerged during the second half of the 19th century. he returned to england in 1857 reportedly to study “diseases of the eye”. he left england in 1861, this time arriving in new zealand, where he made a name for himself as an optician before returning to australia in 1888. more exhaustive research confirms the view that he was the first sight testing and manufacturing optician in new zealand, and among the first when he came again to australia in 1888. he mentored two new zealand opticians who migrated to australia in the 1880s who had a significant impact on the emergence of professional optometry in australia. however, it was also found that thomas procter cannot be given sole credit for being the first to practice ‘modern’ optometry in new zealand. a good deal of the credit must be accorded to william pugh, a london trained optician who came to new zealand about 1875 and was employed by procter. he may have also been the person who taught procter about ‘modern’ optometry and who trained the two new zealanders who came to australia. the kett optometry museum bought an elegant spectacle case in december 2014 to add to its collection, it is a lozenge shaped snap spectacle case, 120 x 55 mm, made of wood covered in black leatherette, with gold edging and gold stamped with the british coat of arms above a cartouche enclosing the name of the supplying optometrist, t. r. procter of melbourne (figure 1). the case can be dated about 1890 because we know procter (figure 2) had emigrated from new zealand to australia in 18881 to set up as an optician in melbourne and that he died in 1905.2 the spectacle case is just a spectacle case, albeit a classy one dating from the late 19th century, but it turns out it has a story. it is possible that procter was the man who hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 35 brought ‘modern’ optometry to new zealand and was among the first in australia. this article explores that possibility. procter describes himself on the spectacle case as an oculist optician. not too much should be read into that: there is no evidence that procter had medical qualifications and it was not uncommon in 19th century australia for opticians to claim to be oculists, sometimes with an apostrophe (oculists’ optician) suggesting they dispensed oculists prescriptions, but often without the apostrophe suggesting something else entirely.3 procter uses the designation ‘oculist’ without the possessive, so we can sense that procter wanted it known that he was more than a spectacle maker or seller. figure 1. spectacle case of t. r. procter, oculist and optician of melbourne, australia c 1890. kett optometry museum. cat no. 2773. this becomes abundantly clear on looking at a promotional ‘treatise’ written by him titled “optical diseases of the eye and their results”,4 a copy of which is held by the kett optometry museum. the front cover proclaims the author is an “oculist, optician and scientific ophthalmologist”, an even more grandiloquent characterization of his occupation. of course, the nomenclature of the ophthalmic professions was not settled in the 19th century, but procter seems very intent on claiming the widest scope of expertise. figure 2. thomas r. procter, oculist, optician and scientific ophthalmologist of melbourne, australia, about 1890. sourced from cyclopedia of victoria 1904. (photo: johnstone o’shannessy and co.) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 36 procter’s treatise the treatise is undated, but it was printed in 1888, the year procter moved to melbourne since he was advertising its availability in february of that year5 (figure 3). there was a precursor, a pamphlet, published in 1883,6 and a 16-page treatise7 was published in 1886 when procter was in new zealand. the 1888 edition held by the kett optometry museum records it was printed in melbourne and it bears procter’s melbourne address so it is an edition especially published on his arrival in australia. figure 3. t. r. procter advertised his treatise in the star (ballarat, australia) on february 8 1888, the year he returned to australia to set up practice as an oculist optician in melbourne, australia. what does this treatise tell us about procter? it is quite a substantial work for a promotional booklet. it is 20 pages of tightly packed text within paper covers and has 20 illustrations throughout the text. it is promotional with testimonials and favorable newspaper articles reproduced on the inside pages of the covers. an advertisement for t. r. procter oculists’ optician on the back cover states “the author of this work may be consulted on all cases of impaired vision, inflammation of the eyes, or granular lids and for the proper adjustment of spectacles”, yet another claim for a wide scope of expertise. the emphasis in the treatise is on refractive errors and their correction, but later he expanded his scope of practice to include supplying an eye ointment, advertised as “procter’s universal eye ointment, a salve to cure blight, sore and inflamed eyes, granular lids and ulceration of the eyeball”.8 the booklet is well written and is basically sound except for the claim that deafness is associated with astigmatism (p 6) and inflated claims that not wearing appropriate spectacles can cause blindness (p 9). it cove rs the basic anatomy of the eye and orbit, and ocular accommodation. it gives a good account of the refractive errors including astigmatism and presbyopia. it dwells on the inadequacy of purchasing ready-made spectacles and the need to measure refractive errors for each eye separately. it touches on eye muscle disorders, strabismus hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 37 and nystagmus. the use of prism to correct eye muscle defects is mentioned. the closing pages deal with the making of spectacle lenses and the qualities of good spectacle lenses including the importance of correctly locating the optical centers of the lenses. photophobia, tinted lenses, and side shields are discussed and alternative types of spectacles and other visual aids are described and illustrated. there is no specific account of his methods of sight testing or of the equipment he used but the astigmatism fan test is illustrated and described (p 6), as is the snellen letter chart. procter may have been in no hurry to reveal all his secrets by detailing his test methods. what impresses is that he refers to the writings of noted authorities of his time, quoting from some and even giving the page numbers of the quotes. he alludes to william mckenzie’s a practical treatise on the diseases of the eye (4th edition 1854) and to soelberg wells on long, short, and weak sight, and their treatment by the scientific use of spectacles of 1862, a well-received book that anticipated much of what donders would write in his seminal book of 1864, to which procter also refers. how did procter acquire his knowledge of modern optometry? the knowledge and techniques underpinning modern optometry were well established by 1888 when procter wrote his treatise: astigmatism had been measured and corrected in 1825, the ophthalmoscope was invented in 1851, snellen devised his letter chart in 1862, donders published his seminal book in 1864, the astigmatism fan and clock test was devised in 1868 and the retinoscope was in use by 1880. von graefe, chavasse, stevens, worth, and maddox were beginning to unravel strabismus and heterophoria. in the 1880s all this new knowledge began to filter to the business of sight testing and providing spectacles tailor-made to meet the visual needs of individual patients. the first ‘modern optometry’ books began to be published at that time, in particular the books of gustavus hartridge (1884), charles prentice (1886), william bohne (1888) and c. h. brown (1901). procter’s treatise, published in 1888 with earlier versions in 1883 and 1886, suggests he was an early adopter of the new knowledge of ophthalmic science in its application to prescribing and making spectacles. how did he acquire his knowledge of modern optometry when living in new zealand, a colonial outpost of britain with a population of 80,000 people, that was a very long way from everywhere else? he may have been self-taught. his references to key books in his treatise suggest he may have been a reader and he also alludes in his treatise (p 10) to learning systematically, by arrangement, with unnamed ‘parties’. however, he says that he was the only “practical optician in new zealand”, and if this is so, it is not clear who might have been his tutors. it may have been a london trained optician whom procter employed, but more of that later in this article. in his 1888 treatise procter claims (p 10) to have had 30 years of experience “in the optical business” during which time he has made “the adaptation of spectacles an especial study” and says he had examined the eyes of thousands of people. he makes the same claim of 30 years’ experience in an advertisement published 10 years earlier in 18789 (see figure 4). hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 38 his claim of 30 years-experience is doubtful. thirty years takes us back to 1848 from the date the claim was first made. he was on his way to australia from england in that year. he departed cornwall in england for australia in 1848, arriving at adelaide, in the british colony of south australia, on january 6 1849, with his widowed mother and three siblings.10 he was 21 years of age. he was not an optician then. his intent in coming to australia was to get employment in the copper mining industry. he had an engineering background having been taught mechanical skills and metallurgical assaying by his grandfather, robert malachy, a mining agent, and having worked in pope’s dockyard in plymouth.11 cornwall was long famed for the mining of its rich mineral resources but the industry was in decline in the middle of the 19th century causing many cornish miners to emigrate to mining districts overseas where their skills were in demand. the procter family journeyed to the colony of south australia where copper mining was booming: by 1850, south australia was the third largest copper producer in the world.12 however, another kind of mining soon caught the attention of young thomas procter. gold was discovered in the neighboring colony of victoria in july 1851 and procter promptly travelled there in search of his fortune. he had some success in his quest for gold1, 11 but he turned to business as a goldsmith, jeweler and watchmaker in june 1853 in the goldfields township of ballarat.13 his business was in a tent on bakery hill marked out by a red flag, which was not uncommon accommodation for traders on the gold fields at that time. his claim to be a silversmith and jeweler seems well founded enough. he is reported to have been commissioned to make some fine silver pieces during his time in ballarat, including a gold cup for the gold diggers to present to a friendly gold commissioner, gilbert amos in 1854, and a gold mounted whip as a racing trophy.1 his advertisements back in the mid-1850s make no mention of supplying glasses or examining eyes. he was a prolific advertiser of his businesses, and was often in the news for one reason or another, but he is invariably identified as a jeweler and watchmaker, and sometimes as a silversmith or goldsmith. on the other hand, an article entitled “an eminent oculist and optician. personal reminiscences” published in table talk in 1905 reports that he had practiced as an optician in the bakery hill business11 but this article would have relied on procter’s recollections in the last year of his life, and in the absence of corroborative evidence this particular recollection is unlikely to be true. he advertised sight testing and made to order spectacles for the first time in january 1877, by which time he was in new zealand. in this advertisement he invited the public to “take the opportunity of calling on t. r. p. where they can have their sight gauged” and alludes to having dr. ackland’s optometer for this purpose14, 15 (figure 4). these first advertisements for sight testing were still under the banner of “watchmaker & jeweller” but within a few months he began advertising what he called the spectacle branch of his business.16 in the following year he advertised himself as an optician for the first time9 (figure 5). in the 1880s procter begins to advertise himself variously as oculists’ optician, oculist’s optician and oculist optician.17 it seems he was an optician from 1877. when procter came to melbourne in 1888, a claim of 10 years-experience as an optician would have been more reasonable than 30 years. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 39 did procter study the “optical diseases of the eye” in london? procter returned to england in 1857 and lived in london for four years. he may have learned about modern optometry during that time. it is reported in his biographies1,11 this is what he did but confirmation is necessary because these sources would have relied on procter as the sole source of the information. procter advertised his ballarat business for sale in 1856,18 saying the reason for its sale was his intention to return to england. the year he actually left australia is uncertain but is probably 1857. however, he was certainly in london in 1861. according to the 1861 uk census he was living in upper charles street, clerkenwell, london, married, with a 10-year old son, john. procter’s occupation is given as goldsmith.19 the declared purpose of his journey to england in his biographies was to “engage in a course of medical studies to extend his knowledge of diseases of the eye.”1, 11 he may have done so since clerkenwell was a center of the optical trades, as well as for jewelry and watchmaking, and the already famous moorfields eye hospital was, at the time, only a short walk from the center of clerkenwell. there were also a number of eminent opticians in london from whom he could have obtained tuition and training as an optician, most notably dollonds, a highly regarded firm of opticians and instrument makers founded in 1750 that numbered the crowned heads of europe among its clients. while there were opportunities for thomas procter to embark on his planned studies, there were no optometry courses: they did not come into being until the late 1880s and 1890s. procter’s time in london is shrouded in mystery. one of his biographies reports that he had opened a business in london for the manufacture of jewelry and scientific instruments, especially the manufacture of optical appliances, but why then did he give his occupation in the 1861 uk census as goldsmith rather than optician or instrument maker? another curious event is that he travelled back to australia in may 1859 without his family and returned to london in december.20 this interlude would have taken him from any business he was running in london for the better part of 12 months, including 6 months at sea, not a journey to be undertaken lightly. however, as testament to his entrepreneurial character, just prior to leaving australia in december 1859 to return to england he advertised that he was a practical engineer and was taking orders on commission for “all kinds of equipment and mining plant” that he would source in england.21 he was a man of many parts, seemingly always with an eye to the next opportunity. no evidence has been uncovered to show that procter did undertake studies in optics or diseases of the eye while he was in london. none of his advertisements, nor his treatise and biographies, make specific comment about the nature of any london studies, and he was not a man to hide his light under a bushel. had he completed studies or received tutelage from anyone of note, we would have been told of it. procter left england for australia in 1861 but finished up in new zealand. had he trained as an optician in london, it might be expected he would commence practice as such on his arrival in new zealand. for 16 years his advertising in zealand was as a jeweler and watchmaker. he did not claim he was an optician until 1878.9 it seems unlikely that he trained as an optician while he was in london, as he claimed. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 40 figure 4. t. r. procter advertised spectacles with made to order lenses and sight testing for the first time in 1877. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker and jeweler. west coast times (new zealand). january 2 1877. figure 5. t. r. procter identifies himself personally as an optician for the first time in 1878. timaru herald (new zealand), december 4 1878] hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 41 procter returns to the antipodes procter left england for the australia on october 1 1861, arriving in melbourne on december 22.22 there he must have learned of the gold rush in the province of otago in the south island of new zealand. it had burst on the scene late in 1861. he set sail for port otago, near dunedin, arriving in march 1862.23 it seems that he was again in the pursuit of fortune as a gold prospector or as a merchant trading with the miners, as he did in the 1850s when he was in australia. he was soon back in business as a watchmaker and jeweler, firstly in dunedin in 1862,23 and later setting up business in queenstown on lake wakatipu in may 1863.24 his advertisements rarely make mention of spectacles.25 in a burst of advertisements in 1863 he states that he has available “spectacles for all ages” but there is no further mention of spectacles until the appearance of a few advertisements in february 1875 for “real brazilian pebble spectacles”. it seems he is not yet a sight-testing optician or even a regular spectacle seller. he nonetheless kept himself busy for the next 15 years. he opened and closed shops in various new zealand towns before settling his main place of business in christchurch in october 1873.26 he continued to travel to other towns, some quite far afield despite the arduous nature and hazards of such journeys. in 1876, the patea mail reported that t. r. procter, jeweler of christchurch, fell from his horse when travelling to opunake dislocating his shoulder and requiring the attendance of a dr. walker so he could continue his journey.27 news and advertisements in local newspapers tell us that procter also had an eye for the business of gold mining. he advertised his services for gold smelting and refining. he took up a lease for gold mining in 1864, called for tenders to sink a mine shaft, another to remove a boiler and he bought a pump and winding gear from a discontinued mine. he applied for a patent for a gold washing cradle and then endeavored to sell the rights to it. he was also a lively figure in society providing a demonstration of magnetism and electricity after a concert and some years later he held public exhibitions of a camera obscura. in 1867 he ran an art union raffle of 1000 tickets at £1 each, with most of the prizes drawn from his own merchandise. he joined the united grand lodge of english freemasons in 1871. he was in the news because of the transit of venus of 1874, which could be observed in new zealand. his biographies have him engaged in the adjustment and repair of the instruments of the official observing party in christchurch that included major henry palmer, the head of the observation party, and captain charles darwin, the son of the famous evolutionist.1, 11 newspaper reports paint a different picture.28 procter accommodated an unofficial observation in his backyard in the town hokitika, on the west coast of new zealand, for which he supplied the chronometers and was one of the timekeepers. his unofficial site was blessed with good weather and a clear view of the transit, while the official observations elsewhere in new zealand failed because of poor weather. it is not certain whether procter’s unofficial party provided observations of any value. the newspaper report suggests that procter had not set his chronometers with sufficient accuracy. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 42 procter becomes an optician procter advertised spectacles and sight testing for the first time in january 1877 (figure 4). the same advertisement also tells us that procter had secured “the services of a first class and thoroughly qualified optician (late of dollond’s london) and the only practical optician in new zealand”. he also advises that he has a dr. ackland’s optometer for “gauging the sight.”15 procter was ahead of australia in his acquisition of an optometer. the first advertisement in australia for sight testing using an optometer appeared in 1882,29 a claim that was advertised by australian opticians with increasing frequency over the next decade. not that the optometer was a recent invention: porterfield invented it in 1738. in a later advertisement in 1881 procter advises he has “various mechanical contrivances and instruments, which suit what is known as donders’ system”30 suggesting that he has added to his sight testing armamentarium. in 1877, procter had established a workshop for grinding and polishing lenses and fitting them to spectacle frames, no doubt made possible by the “thoroughly qualified optician” he had employed. he invited the press to visit the new workshop and an article about it appeared in a local newspaper in october 1877.31 the article reports that procter showed the journalist his optometer and gave an account of its virtues and then showed his marble jewelry before introducing “the optician”. the optician remains anonymous, but took the journalist through the processes of grinding lenses to their desired optical power and fitting them to spectacle frames. the optician is described as “a most communicative and agreeable gentleman” but that is all we learn about him until later. the lens grinding workshop and the optometer enabled procter to provide madeto-measure glasses. in the article in the press he asserts he is the only person in new zealand able to do so.31 a year and bit later, procter is advertising himself as an optician9 (figure 4). within another two years, in 1881, he advertises correction of astigmatism with cylindrical lenses.32 his workshop could now grind cylindrical lenses and was presumably able to fit the lenses to a spectacle frame with the axis of the cylindrical lens at the correct orientation. this time he is not ahead of australia: he was narrowly beaten by charles sawtell, practical optician in adelaide, south australia, who advertised astigmatic spectacles a year earlier, in 1880.33 not that astigmatic spectacles were new. thomas young measured his own astigmatism in 1793 and the british astronomer royal, george airy, measured his astigmatism and had a lens made to correct it in 1825. a number of lens makers in britain, usa and france were making cylindrical lenses soon after.3 what was new was bringing made-to-measure spectacles to the market place that could precisely correct refractive errors. this occurred through a convergence of advances in the science of optics in the 18th century, in ophthalmic science in the 19th century, and in the slow evolution of the craft spectacle lens making over the 600 years since spectacles were first devised in the late 13th century. procter and his anonymous ‘optician’ were pioneers in bringing made-to-measure spectacles to the market place in new zealand, as others were doing at much the same time in many other parts of the world. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 43 who was procter’s optician? the identity of the anonymous optician was revealed in two newspaper reports of the camera obscura that procter was exhibiting around new zealand during 1879 and 1880. the lens of the camera obscura is reported as the handiwork of a mr. pugh, an optician who was employed as an “operator” in mr. procter’s workshop in christchurch.34,35 a search of newspapers and official records reveals a little bit about william pugh. he was a londoner, born in 1824, who like procter decided to try his luck in australia. he arrived in australia in january 1849, as did procter, but disembarked in melbourne rather than adelaide. he was accompanied by his wife and six-month old daughter and the passenger list gives his occupation as optician.36 australia did not suit the pugh family and they returned to london in 1852 where the 1861 census records his occupation as an ‘optical instrument maker’ and as ‘optical glass worker’ in the 1871 census, suggesting he was an optical lens maker rather than a sight-testing optician. a few years later, pugh left london for new zealand and was followed by his family, his wife and four children, who arrived at timaru, new zealand in november 1875.37 the reason for this second go at emigration has not been uncovered. perhaps procter got to know pugh when they were both in australia in the 1850s, or perhaps they met when they were in london in the 1860s and if so procter may have invited him to work with him in christchurch. however, we do know william pugh was employed by procter in 1877, possibly earlier, as his lens maker. we do not know if he did sight testing or if that was left to procter. in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the latter is the more likely. procter was always the front man. we also know that pugh’s training as an optician and optical glass worker, said to be with the famous london firm of dollond’s, enabled procter to supply made-to-measure glasses because pugh could make lenses to the optical powers ordered for individual clients. this included cylindrical lenses for correction of astigmatism. what remains a moot question is whether pugh taught procter about refractive errors and their correction, and perhaps provided the optometer. it is entirely possible that pugh passed on his knowledge gained from his training at dollond’s to procter. equally possible is that procter, the entrepreneur, taught himself about sight testing once pugh had set up a laboratory to make lenses to suit the needs of individual clients. was procter the first new zealand sight-testing optician? procter was not the first in new zealand to style himself as an optician. james henry marriott (1799-1885) was the first person to advertise as an optician in new zealand newspapers. he was identified as an optician as early as 184738 and first advertised as such on june 9 1849.39 he advertised as an optician and mathematical turner who made and repaired telescopes and sextants. his infrequent advertising ceased in 1872 and while he sometimes offered “spectacles to suit all sights” he never offered to test eyesight. at first blush the honor of being a sight-testing optician in new zealand might go hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 44 to mr. a. j. solomon, who advertised as an optician and sometimes as an oculist optician from 1872, five years before procter did so. solomon advertised40 that he “gauges sight with marvelous accuracy by an optometrical apparatus” of his own discovery, which he claimed to be better than von graefe’s. however, unlike procter he does not seem to offer made-to-measure spectacles but instead seems to have relied on a “regular supply (from london) of warranted pure brazilian pebble spectacles suitable to all sights.” he advertised prolifically and was often lionized by the press, 41 most likely as a reward for his advertising in the newspapers. it transpires, however, that solomon was a charlatan and his career as optician and oculist in new zealand was short. a warrant for his arrest was issued in april 1873 on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses. he had diagnosed an eye condition as extreme and offered treatment with ointments at a cost of £50 ($us 6,000 in today’s values). medical testimony said the ointments were useless and may have aggravated the condition. he was convicted on april 12 with damages of £20 awarded to the plaintiff, but mr. solomon had already fled christchurch, only to reappear the next month selling his same story in australia.42 the account of his downfall in the timaru herald ends by calling newspaper editors to account for giving testimonials to regular advertisers without due diligence.43 solomon might have been new zealand’s first sight testing optician in 1872, if in fact he tested eyes as he claimed, but he gone from new zealand within only ten months. william percival is another contender for the crown of being the first to style himself as an optician in new zealand and engage in sight testing and making spectacles to measure. percival was born in england in 1817 where his occupation was rule maker 44 and his father was an optician. he came to melbourne, australia, in 1861 where he set up business making and selling tape measures, rules, callipers and other measuring devices.45 he called himself an optician in his melbourne advertising although he did not advertise spectacles. he moved to new zealand in 1863 setting up business in dunedin. he advertised as an optician in 1864,46 some 13 years before procter did so. while he then advertised spectacles “to suit all sights” he also sold general merchandise, including umbrellas and parasols.47 in 1865 he adds spectacle maker to his professional title and says he can make “spectacles adapted to suit their sight.” no advertisement was found in which he offered sight testing or the use of an optometer, and none making claims that astigmatism could be corrected. the major part of his business was selling and buying scientific, optical and mathematical instruments. he also dabbled in real estate and this may have been a cause of his bankruptcy in 1890.48 while percival called himself an optician in the 1860s and sold spectacles there is no convincing evidence that he tested eyesight or ground lenses to suit. his role as a “spectacle maker” may have been to cut imported lenses to shape to fit them to spectacle frames. a history of new zealand optometry published in the commonwealth optometrist in 1927 briefly acknowledges some of new zealand’s 19th century opticians including procter, who is noted for “grinding and fitting cylinders and compounds as far back as the early 70s with remarkable success as some of his old patients still testify.”49 only two other names of 19th century new zealand optometrists are recalled in this article, a. levi and t. peacock. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 45 alfred levi was a “consulting and manufacturing optician” in wellington, new zealand. however, he post-dates procter: he was a much younger man and did not advertise as an optician in new zealand until in 1888, ten years after procter did so. his earliest advertisements offered “thorough testing of the eyes (with trial glasses)”50 and it was not until the 1890s that he advertised spectacles for astigmatism.51 and that he tests “the sight of each eye thoroughly (using) the most modern appliances.”52 mr. peacock advertised as an optician in the 1860s well before procter, but did so almost exclusively by publishing the weather conditions of the previous day, no doubt to promote the thermometers and barometers he sold. in 1871 he began advertising as an “optician, mathematical and nautical instrument maker” and his advertisements indicate that while he sold “spectacles in great variety” that were imported from overseas, the main part of his business was selling a considerable diversity of optical and nautical instruments.53 he also advertised sewing machines extensively between 1875 and 1880. peacock did not advertise correction of astigmatism or the use of an optometer or other sight testing methods until 1891 when he says he gives “special attention to astigmatism.”54 from 1892 he advertises that “eyes are tested separately and effectively by the most recent and improved instruments and methods brought by mr. peacock from england and the continent on his recent trip” and that “astigmatism and other defects of vision are corrected.”55 his adoption of modern optometry occurs over a decade later than procter’s. on the evidence gathered it seems that procter was the first sight-testing optician in new zealand in 1877 and was also the first to have his own lens-grinding laboratory. influence of t. r. procter in australia procter left new zealand for australia in 1888. he set up practice in melbourne at 7 burlington terrace at 388 albert street. this elegant set of two-story terrace houses still remains today, situated facing the imposing 19th century neo-gothic catholic cathedral and the grand sweep of the fitzroy gardens. it was a good address. most likely procter left new zealand for financial reasons. new zealand suffered an economic depression from 1885 to 1900 but before that procter was in financial trouble and was declared insolvent in february 1880.56 in contrast, “marvellous melbourne” was booming in the 1880s and may have seemed a good place to start again. did procter have an impact on the development of optometry in melbourne? probably not. it was too late: modern optometry in australia was emerging from other directions. the use of an optometer was being advertised by local australian optometrists from 1882 29 and correction of astigmatism from 1886.33 procter may have preceded these practitioners but that was when he was in new zealand. by 1888, when he arrived in melbourne a number of australian opticians had already caught up. other leadership figures had emerged. the most significant in melbourne was henry vanheems. vanheems (1831-1917) emigrated from london to melbourne in 1852 where he was employed by thomas gaunt and company, a reputable melbourne firm of jewelers and clockmakers founded in 1858, which from 1866 also advertised as opticians.57 vanheems learned the optical trade with gaunt’s and rose to become its managing director.58 he became a highly regarded private tutor in optometry. there was hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 46 no optometry course in melbourne until 1913. he trained a large number of melbourne optometrists who would be the profession’s leaders in the first decades of the 20th century, and even taught a few ophthalmologists. melbourne optometrists william j. aird and arthur jones may have been mentored or influenced by procter. william j. aird had worked for procter and continued the procter practice for two years after procter’s death.59 arthur jones advertised himself in 1909 as successor to the late t. r. procter, 60 but neither aird nor jones became optometric leaders. nevertheless, procter did have an influence on the early development of optometry in australia, but indirectly. he was as a pebble dropped in a new zealand pond from which ever-expanding ripples reached the shores of australia. he trained or was a mentor of some sight-testing opticians in new zealand who later came to australia. the first was charles pugh (1854-1902) a new zealand optician who came to australia about the same time as procter. he was certainly in business in melbourne as an optician in 1890.61 charles pugh was the son of william pugh, the ‘qualified optician’ who worked for procter, and would have trained his son. procter may have also been charles’ mentor or at least a role model. after his training in christchurch, new zealand, charles seems to have practiced optometry in dunedin although the evidence is slender.62 on migrating to melbourne he set up his business at 19 gertrude street, fitzroy,63 not far from melbourne’s central business district. he moved to no. 13 in 1898.64 the tiles of the entrance porch to these premises, now a café, still carry the sign “c. w. pugh optician”. charles pugh clearly brought his father’s lens making skills to melbourne. in the 1891 sands and mcdougall directory for melbourne 63 he styles himself as a ‘manufacturing ophthalmic optician’ who can make “every description of compound astigmatic spectacles and eye glasses made to order on the shortest notice; oculists prescriptions accurately made up.” later he claimed the patronage of the right honorable the lord brassey k.c.b., who was the governor of victoria from 1895 to 1900.64 pugh’s business was based on word of mouth reputation because there is no trail of newspaper advertising for his business. it is no more than a hypothesis but charles pugh may have come to melbourne at procter’s behest to be his lens maker but chose to operate independently of procter so he could supply lenses to other opticians as well as procter. this might explain pugh’s lack of advertising. procter by contrast was a prolific advertiser. on the other hand procter’s 1902 biography reports that he had brought with him his experienced staff and his complete plant from new zealand.1 his “experienced staff” could have been charles pugh, ensconced in gertrude street, fitzroy, but in procter’s personal reminiscences11 he says his extensive workshop was attached to his consulting rooms in albert street, east melbourne. his probate lists the value of his plant, tools and stock at £567, a not inconsiderable sum at the time ($us 60,000 in today’s values).65 charles pugh died in 1902 at the age of 49. his business was continued by his wife66 until it was purchased by ernest macfarlane in 1907.67 it is quite possible that macfarlane was the person employed to continue the practice after pugh’s death and that he was also trained by pugh. the evidence for that is twofold, albeit very indirect. macfarlane was the right age: he was 29 when he bought the practice, old enough to have completed an apprenticeship and to have managed the pugh hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 47 practice for 5 years and he was also exceptionally well-trained in lens making. the kett optometry museum has a remarkable bifocal lens made by ernest macfarlane in 1902 (kett cat no. 0109). it is an invisible bifocal made by sandwiching a 17 mm diameter high refractive index glass button, the near vision segment, between two larger lenses. it is contained in an envelope inscribed “1st invisible bi-focal lens made in melbourne by self = 1902 / ‘invisible’ but not fused”. the item was donated by ken macfarlane, ernest’s son. the lens is accompanied by a cutting from the optical journal dated 1902 explaining the optics of the invisible bifocal. if pugh was mcfarlane’s mentor, he did a good job of training him in lens making and setting the right attitudes toward his profession. macfarlane continued his learning: he obtained a doctor of optics degree by correspondence from the philadelphia optical college in 1910 and was elected a fellow of the uk institute of ophthalmic opticians in 1930.• the second way procter influenced optometry in australia was by training alfred percival greenfield to be an optician.† greenfield was a new zealander, born in dunedin in 1864, who after completing his training with procter in christchurch migrated to the economically greener pastures of australia in 1886,68 two years before procter returned to australia. greenfield settled in brisbane, queensland, where he established himself as an oculists’ optician in june 1887. he immediately claimed that he was the only practical oculists’ optician in queensland and invited the public to “call and get your eyes scientifically tested and measured”.69 he was entrepreneurial (like procter). within two months of establishing his practice he had arranged for a long promotional article to be published,70 which reports that greenfield tested for astigmatism and had a full scope workshop for grinding lenses and fitting them to spectacle frames, including cylindrical and prismatic lenses. the kett optometry museum holds a digital copy of a photograph of greenfield’s optical workshop taken about 1912, which has nine employees working in it (kett cat no. 2788). greenfield advertised prolifically often claiming to be the only “practical oculists’ optician in queensland.”71 he also claimed to be the person who introduced “practical sight testing” to queensland.72 the spirit of thomas procter and william pugh from christchurch, new zealand, had been relocated to brisbane, australia. greenfield was prominent in the emergence of organized optometry in australia. he would have been the foundation president of the queensland institute of ophthalmic opticians in 1908 had he attended the inaugural meeting.3 he was made president the following year. he was a foundation member of the opticians registration board of queensland in 1917 and represented queensland to the meeting in melbourne in 1918 that founded the australasian optometrical association that is now optometry australia. procter’s ripples in the pond kept expanding. h. a. barraclough became a partner with greenfield in brisbane (queensland) and in 1894 they established a practice in • the kett optometry museum holds the original certificates for his doctor of optics degree and his fellowship of the london institute of ophthalmic opticians. † reference 68 records greenfield’s teacher as j. r. procter. this would be john robert procter, the son of t. r. procter but this is most likely an error. john was an optician trained by his father and william pugh. he set up in business for himself in christchurch as jeweler and watchmaker about 1884 but john procter was only 12 years older than greenfield and did not advertise as an optician until 1889, by which time greenfield was in brisbane. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 48 sydney (new south wales),73 which barraclough continued under his own name when their partnership was dissolved. barraclough was no doubt inspired by greenfield. he was an innovator and an optometrist keen to push the boundaries. in 1898 he advertised that his practice had a de zeng refractometer, a wilson’s phorometer and a javal’s ophthalmometer.74 he was elected the president of the australasian optical association at its foundation meeting in 1904. his two sons became optometrists. thomas procter did not set out to be a sight testing optician and was never driven by any altruistic desire to bring optometry to the antipodes for the betterment of society. his career was defined by chasing opportunities that morphed into his becoming a sighttesting and manufacturing optician in 1877, the first in new zealand, albeit with a good deal of help from his employee, william pugh, a london trained optician. without him procter probably would most likely remained a jeweler. procter was energetic, a risk taker and self-confident man in search of his fortune. he did not make his fortune as his probate shows too clearly,65 but he did set the ball rolling in new zealand optometry as early as 1877, and two of those he trained in new zealand who migrated to australia in the late 1880s, had a significant influence on australian optometry. acknowledgements i am immensely grateful to margaret augusteyn and caroline moore who gave enthusiastic assistance searching for and evaluating archival records. they found many jigsaw pieces that i would have missed and have enabled a far more complete picture of this story to be assembled than would have been possible without their help. i am also grateful to margaret augusteyn for her comments on several drafts of this article and her meticulous proof reading. my thanks go also to my fellow archivists in the kett optometry museum for their helpful comments on an early draft of the article. references 1. smith j. the cyclopedia of victoria (illustrated): an historical and commercial review: descriptive and biographical, facts, figures and illustrations: an epitome of progress. melbourne; cyclopedia co: 1902. 2. birth, deaths and marriages, victoria. procter, thos robt, death, 1905, reg no. 6084. 3. cole bl. history of australian optometry: two hundred years of beating the tyranny of distance and fighting political battles and finding a new place in health care. melbourne; australian college of optometry: 2015 p 32. 4. procter tr. a treatise on the optical diseases of the eye and their results. the use of spectacles and mode of manufacture. anatomy and physiology of the eye. melbourne; w. smith and co: (undated but published 1888). 5. “weak eyes”: advertisement for t. r. procter: first of several advertisements that include promotion of procter’s treatise. the star (ballarat, australia) february 8, 1888. 6. advertisement for t. r. procter. evening post (wellington, new zealand) october 19, 1883 stating “pamphlet on the optical diseases of the eye. free on application or by post on receipt of a one penny postage.” 7. advertisement for t. r. procter announcing he has just issued a 16-page treatise on hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 49 the optical diseases of the eye and describes its content at length. he styles himself as optician and scientific ophthalmologist. auckland star (new zealand) february 1, 1886. 8. cured without operation. a specialist in all complaints. advertisement for t. r. procter, oculist optician and for his universal eye ointment. the australian october 6, 1900. 9. advertisement for t. r. procter, optician. timaru herald (new zealand) december 4, 1878. 10. shipping list for the william money, emigrant ship from england. south australian register. january 6, 1849. 11. an eminent oculist and optician. personal reminiscence. table talk. page 13. february 2, 1905. 12. bampton kf. copper mining and treatment in south australia. mesa journal 2003; 28: 38-44. 13. advertisement announcing the establishment of business by t. r. procter, gold smith, jeweller and watchmaker, late of geelong. the argus (melbourne) june 13, 1853. 14. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker and jeweller. west coast times (new zealand) january 2, 1877. 15. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker, jeweller and silversmith, headed “spectacles, spectacles, spectacles t. r. procter”. akaroa mail and banks peninsula advertiser (new zealand) february 20, 1877. 16. advertisement for t. r. procter. akaroa mail and banks peninsula advertiser (christchurch, new zealand) september 14, 1877. 17. advertisement for t. r. procter, oculist, optician and maker of spectacles. evening post (wellington, new zealand) february 7, 1882. 18. advertisement for sale of t. r. procter’s “well-known oldest established business in ballaarat” the argus (melbourne) june 10, 1856. 19. uk census online. the uk 1861 census of april 7, 1861 at url: http://www. ukcensusonline.com/census/1861.php, sighted august 10, 2016 20. index to passengers to interstate, uk, nz and foreign ports 1852-1923. public records office, victoria. thos r. procter, age 32, male, watchmaker, arrived as an unassisted passenger in melbourne may 3 1859 on the prince of the seas from liverpool in december. thomas r. procter, age 33, departs melbourne for london on the ship, essex. december 1859. 21. t. r. procter, practical engineer, advertises for orders on commission for mining equipment. the star (ballarat, australia) november 18, 1859. 22. inward overseas passenger lists (british ports). victoria, australia. 1852-1915. series vprs 7666. 23. index to outward passengers to interstate, uk, nz and foreign ports 1852-1923. public records office, victoria. the blue jacket left melbourne for port otago in march 1862 carrying a mr. and mrs. proctor (not procter with no first names and aged 31 and 30) and john proctor, aged 10, (procter’s son was john aged 11 at this time). the misspelling of his name and discrepancies in the ages of the procter family leave some doubt but procter was certainly in new zealand in 1862: he was advertising the sale of clocks, watches and jewelry in the otago times on august 12 1862 and later in december 1862 from an address in princes street, dunedin. 24. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker and jeweller. lake wakatipu mail may hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 50 2, 1863. 25. search for “procter and spectacles” in papers past (new zealand) 1862 to 1876. 26. advertisement for t. r. procter watchmaker, jeweller etc announcing commencement of business in high st christchurch press october 13, 1873. 27. news report of procter falling from his horse. patea mail october 18, 1876. 28. watching the transit. the transit of venus. the observations a failure. west coast times december 10, 1874. 29. h. miller, optician, advertises sight testing with an optometer. horsham times (vic, australia) april 18, 1882. 30. procter advertising cylindrical lenses for astigmatism, mechanical contrivances and instruments constructed to suit donders’ system. oamaru mail october 29, 1881. 31. as to spectacles. the press (christchurch, nz) october 12, 1877. 32. t. r. procter advertises cylindrical lenses to correct astigmatism. oamaru mail october 24, 1881 33. sawtell’s advertises astigmatic spectacles that are not available elsewhere. south australian register may 1, 1880. 34. exhibiting a monster camera obscura in oamaru. oamaru mail november 6, 1880. 35. camera obscura exhibition. evening post (new zealand) january 17, 1881. 36.state records nsw: kingswood nsw; persons on bounty ships arriving at port phillip (agents’ immigrant lists); series: 5318; reel 2144; item: [4/4816]. 37. immigrants by the duke of wellington. timaru herald november 3, 1875. william pugh is not listed as accompanying his family. he probably arrived earlier but a record of his arrival in new zealand has not been discovered. 38. list of all persons (and their occupations) qualified to serve as jurors in the district of port nicholson for the year 1847. new zealand spectator february 10, 1847. 39. advertisement for j. h. marriott. wellington independent (new zealand) june 9, 1849. 40. a. j. solomon & co, optician and mathematical turner. west coast times (new zealand) june 19, 1872. 41. article on the eye and mr solomon with quotes of “opinions of the press”. wellington independent (new zealand) october 16, 1872. 42. advertisement for mr solomon, “the qualified oculist and optician and sole inventor of the optometric apparatus” at 151 castlereagh st, sydney. evening news (sydney) may 8, 1873. 43. quack doctors. timaru herald (new zealand) april 16, 1873. 44. england & wales census 1851: pro ho 107; piece/folio: 2227/0; the national archives of the uk, kew, surrey. 45. advertisements for william percival, optician. the argus (melbourne) august 13, 16, and 19, 1862. 46. advertisements for william percival, optician. southland times (new zealand), january 4, december 1, 1864. 47. advertisement for william percival, optician, advertising general merchandise. otago daily times, (new zealand) 22 december 22, 1865. 48. meeting of creditors in the bankruptcy of william percival. evening star (new zealand) march 8, 1890. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 51 49. anon. optometry in new zealand. an historical record. comm optom 1927;9:477480. 50. advertisement for a. levi, optician. wanganui herald (new zealand) june 4, 1888. 51. advertisement by a. levi, optician, for supply of spectacles for astigmatism. otago times (new zealand) may 27, 1893. 52. advertisement by a. levi, optician stating the sight of each eye is thoroughly tested by the most modern appliances. evening post (new zealand) february 2, 1894. 53. advertisement for t. peacock, optician. new zealand herald july 23, 1870. 54. advertisement by mr. peacock, optician, of attention given to astigmatism. auckland star (new zealand) december 15, 1891. 55. advertisement by mr. peacock, optician, of new sight testing instruments and the correction of astigmatism. auckland star (new zealand) august 11, 1892. 56. insolvency notice. feb 7 1880, thomas robert procter. the press february 9, 1880. 57. thomas gaunt advertising as opticians. the argus (melbourne), september 25, 1866 58. gartner wf. william henry vanheems. clin exp optom 2006;89:100-101. 59. advertisement for w. j. aird. advocate (melbourne) june 4, 1910. 60. advertisement for arthur w jones, oculist optician, successor to the late t. r. procter. punch (melbourne) june 10, 1909. 61. mr. pugh optician of 19 gertrude street fitzroy advertises a large mirror for sale. the argus (melbourne) december 6, 1890. 62. advertisement for spectacles lost in st kilda road, melbourne, the case of which is marked “c. pugh manufacturing optician dunedin” the argus (melbourne) may 14, 1891. 63. sands and mcdougall melbourne directory. 1891. 64. sands and mcdougall melbourne directory. 1898. 65. will and application for probate dated april 14 1905 for thomas robert procter, oculist optician, of albert street. digitised records and online indexes public records office victoria at http://prov.vic.gov/au/provguide-23. sighted august 8, 2016. 66. advertisement by mrs. c. w. pugh advising that her husband’s practice is continuing. fitzroy city press (melbourne) august 28, 1903. 67. advertisement advising the purchase of mr. c. w. pugh’s business by mr. macfarlane. fitzroy city press (melbourne). march 15, 1907. 68. anon. well known australian optometrist passes. aust j optom 1930;13:16-17. 69. advertisement for a. p. greenfield, oculists’ optician. queensland figaro and punch august 6, 1887. 70. spectacles v. blindness. queensland figaro and punch august 20, 1887. 71. a. p. greenfield advertises that he is the only practical oculists’ optician in queensland. queensland figaro and punch august 6, 1887. 72. advertisement for a. p. greenfield in which he claims to have introduced practical sight testing to queensland. gympie times and mary river mining gazette (queensland) may 31, 1892. 73. announcement of the opening of the sydney practice of greenfield and barraclough and co. australian town and country journal (sydney nsw) september 15, 1894. p 25. 74. advertisement for h. a. barraclough, optician, george st, sydney which lists the then very latest equipment used in his practice. sydney morning herald august 11, 1898. newsletter of the ).pptometric historical society u.j>tolliet.r;, .... vert.:t library cal f.11e (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u.s.a. 63119) volume 8 july 1977 number 3 liug • 9 19n mdiama u1llv£rs!1v call for nominations: --.;.;.~'"'-=-~..;..;.;;;.. our by-laws state, "election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ballot." the board member whose term will expire this year, december 31, 1977, is sol tannebaum, o.d. nominations for his continuation or replacement for a five year term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot in october. by all means do not hesitate to nominate yourself as a candidate if such responsibility challenges you. remember, self-nominated volunteers founded the o:.h.s., and unpaid volunteers have kept it going. nominations should be submitted to mrs. maria dablemont, seqretary­ treasurer. book review ~ henry kno 11 : clinical refraction and visual science, john r. levene, butterworths, london, 1977. 346 p. illus., cloth, ($25.95) our immediate past president and executive board member john r. levene is the author of a recently published book. the historical nature of the book is not evident from its title, clinical refraction and visual science. for the most part the book deals with british contributions to clinical refraction and visual science in the period extending roughly from the american revolution to the civil war. having been taught history on this side of the atlantic ocean, i was under the false impression that british interests and energies were devoted solely to coping with the upstart colonials and napoleon during most of this period. nothing could be farther from the truth. one need only examine the life spans of some of the best known scientists whose·enerigies were often devoted to clinical refraction and visual science~ thomas young (1773-1829}, w.h. wollaston (1766-1829), and john issac hawkins (17721855). or: levene's book introduces us to many lesser known men of this period whose work in this field contributed significantly to im­ proved vision with optical aids. -28lest i give the impression that the author is tooting his british horn, let me point out that germany, france, italy, spain and the united states, among others, also have their day in court. dr. levene quotes from aristotle, for example, who made a distinction between myopia and presbyopia. dr. levene goes on to state in one of the book•s numerous notes (thankfully at the end of the chap.ters) that there is some question about the authorship of the passage. in true scholarly fashion, he leaves us hanging, providing a challenge for another history buff to take up the search for the facts. the book is divided into five sections, william porterfield, m.d. (1696-1771), •simple•ucular refractive errors, adjustment and aberration of the eye•s optical system, astigmatism, and neutralization of the cornea. the first and last sections consist of one chapter each, the middle section contains four chapt~rs and the remaining two sections contain three chapters each. one hundred years from now another historian will claim that the author was obsessed with symmetry! the observation would not be entirely correct since there are two appendices and an index following the last section. william porterfield is the author of a two volume work, 11 a treatise on the eye, the manner and phaenomena of vision, .. which in the words of dr. levene is 11 the most influential book on visual optics and visual psychology throughout the eighteenth century... he is best known for his invention of the optometer which was later improved upon by thomas young and provided accurate quantitatative data concerning the refractive state of the eye. in addition porterfield contributed to our knowledge of the pupillary reflexes, the eye•s resolving power, corneal transparency, and the circulation and regeneration of aqueous humor. the chapter contains much biographical information not previously available and places porterfield solidly in the position of eminence which he rightly deserves. section two deals with the detection, recognition and correction of •simple• (i.e. spherical) refractive errors. although the distinction between myopia and presbyopia goes back to the greeks, we learn that presbyopia and hyperopia were not recognized as different entities until the end of the eighteenth century. a chapter is here devoted to the development of best form and aspheric lenses. the middle section deals with the mechanism of accommodation, night myopia and the invention of bifocals and trifocals. let me speak briefly of the story of bifocals. all the world knows that benjamin franklin invented bifocals ~ but did he? in his often quoted letter franklin writes that he is 11 happy in the invention of double spectacles ... dr. levene presents evidence that two painters, sir joshua reynolds and benjamin west used bifocals in the same time period as did franklin. who learned from whom? a question not conclusively answerable. it does make a great deal of sense that a painter, be he myopic or hyperopic, would be an excellent candidate for bifocals. the story here is further traced to additional artists as well as thomas jefferson and john issac hawkins who invented trifocals. a bibliography of the writing of john -29issac hawkins is given in appendix 1. as the story is rather complicated, the interrelationships are graphically depicted by a chart on page 156. would that such a chart had been provided in the next section on astigmatism where the story is even more complicated. the chapter on night ~opia is very close to my interests and i feel this is one place where i can be critical. in this story i can fault the author only in so far as the ending which has come only within the last two years as written by herschel leibowitz and his students of the pennsylvania state university. professor leibowitz has conclusively shown the anomalous myopias, as he calls them, nocturnal, empty field and instrument myopia to be all of the same ilk. in each instance accommodative effort is of no avail to improve the retinal image quality, hence the accommodative mechanism settles to a "position of rest." in the case of instrument myopia this is true since the exit pupils of instruments are most often smaller than the pupil of the user's eye. this explanation of the anomalous myopias requires a mechanism for negative accommodation which has been discussed by a number of authors, meridith morgan among them. this concluding chapter in the history of nocturnal myopia was the subject of a session of the american academy of optometry at its annual meeting in columbus, ohio. i would have been happier if dr. levene had used the term "nocturnal" rather than "night 11 • the myopia is brought on, not by the time of day, but rather by the level of illuminance. the section on astigmatism, already alluded to above, is most interesting and introduces us to the contribution of airy (of airy disc fame} and a lesser known german investigator, g.h. gerson, whose dissertation was devoted to the shape of the cornea. a translation of this work (the original is in latin) is given in appendix 2. the final section 11 neutralization of the cornea .. is devoted mainly to the contributions of leonardo, descarte, and lahire. phillpe de lahire was a french mathematician whose life span bridged the second half of the 17th century. his treatment of a lens used to correct myopia 'may be regarded, in concept, as the most advanced contact lens design to have appeared in the contemporary as well as subsequent literature up to the actual invention of the first contact lens (1887}, approximately two centuries later ... the disclosure of this work points up once again how iffy historical precedence can be. who knows what disclosures will be revealed in the yet unexamined reams of catalogued and uncatalogued written word of mankind. to borrow an oft used simile, what we have before us is just the tip of the iceberg. dr. levene has provided us with new perspectives in the historical development of clinical refraction and visual science. we can only hope that he is not detracted from dusty manuscripts and fascinating threads of history by his administrative duties at the southern college of optometry. -30concerning the first aoa president: charles lembke, sr., was born in karlsruhe, germany, in 1835. he came to new york city at the age of 18 where he secured employment in the drug business briefly before deciding to learn the optical business under the tutelage of charles alt, one of the most prominent opticians in new york. in 1857 he embarked in the optical business on his own on park row, or at broadway and ann street, in the building once occupied by a p.t. barnum enterprise. about 9 or 10 years later the building was destroyed by fire. from this mr. lembke salvaged only a safe which he managed to pull out of the burning structure by means of a rope. he then started business anew in partnership with julius gall in downtown new york city. the partnership of gall & lembke continued until gall 1 s death in 1883 or 1893, following which mr. lembke was joined by his two sons, charles jr. and emil. in 1901 charles sr. sold his share to j.a. theodore obrig. mr. lembke died on september 1, 1903, survived by two sons and a daughter. among the patrons of the gall & lembke firm had been mrs. jefferson davis, mrs. ulysses s. grant, president james garfield, and president grover cleveland. mr. lembke•s prominence as an optician was complemented by his numerous other achievements. he had more than a local reputation as an astronomer. he was a member of the new york academy of science and of the astronomical society of brooklyn. he was one of the three men elected by the latter society to go to north carolina to compile scientific data concerning a total eclipse of the sun. he also perfected a sun dial, having devised a novel method of regulating and manufacturing them. for a number of years he was the only person manufacturing sun dials in new york. as the first president of the american association of opticians, now the american optometric association, lembke was elected to serve two successive one-year terms, 1898-1900. most of the above information is excerpted from two articles, one an obituary in the september 9, 1903, issue of the jewelers• circular-weekly, page 88, and the other a brief commentary on charles lembke reprinted from guildcraft in the july 1943 issue of the western optical world, vol. 30, no. 7, page 298. the obituary was written within less than a week after lembke•s death, and the other article included several inconsistencies, inviting considerable doubt as to their accuracy and documentation of details. of special interest is lembke•s annual presidential address in detroit, michigan, at the close of his second term of office in 1900. the following are a few excerpts from the complete address published in the september 1900 issue of the optical journal, volume 7, number 9, pages 783-786; "a year of prosperity has passed since i addressed you in rochester which as i learn from good authority was then the largest gathering of.opticians ever assembled either in this or any other country." "the proper and right direction [of optical education] would undoubtedly be a three years• course in a duly -31chartered college." "the study of the philosophy of optics requires the study of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and you may add electricity and magnetism, with these sciences as a fundamental basis combined with a knowledge of the construction and the workings of instruments used in ophthalmology, microscopy, photography, astronomy, spectroscopy, meteorology, etc., etc." "i am convinced a three year course in such a college will produce the millenium of the optician's perfection." "i believe we are a unit in our oppossition to the promiscuous issuance of diplomas by irresponsible schools, ... " "in the exhibition hall you will undoubtedly see many things you have never seen before and have the privilege of learning many new ideas." "the american association of opticians has been organ­ ized for the purpose of joining together or blending all parties in the optical calling, be they refracting or dispensing opticians, dealers, manufacturers or jobbers. i bid them all welcome to this annual gather­ ing, and invite all to join and strengthen our ranks." sesquicentennial tribute to fraunhofer: on june 15, 1976, 150 years and eight days after the death of joseph von fraunhofer, the attendants of a special colloquium at the zeiss plant in jena, east germany, paid tribute to the services which fraunhofer had rendered to the development of optics and optical glass. dr. j. wittig of the physics section of jena friedrich schiller university cited fraunhofer•s unceasing efforts as "a self-taught man to acquire despite adverse circumstances and unfavourable conditions a sound scientific education which enabled him to break britain's monopoly in optical instrument making ... " the above was reported by winfried g~rtner on page 50 of the first 1977 issue of jena review, vol. 22. an english summary of the contributions of two of the speakers is included on pages 9-11 of the same issue. according to the dictionary of scientific biography, published under the auspices of the american council of learned societies, fraunhofer "represents the highest order of the union of the craftsman and the theoretician". -32while .he was pursuing his goal to become a spectacle maker on july 21, 1801, at the age of 14, the workshop collapsed and he was pinned under the wreckage. elector maximillian joseph heard of the accident and presented him with the handsome sum of 18 ducats (circa $42.00?) with which he purchased a glass-working machine and books on optics. his private studies, combined with· his mastery of the optical crafts, ultimately won him recognition as 11 the master theoretical optician of europe ... he was born on march 6, 1787, in the truly charming bavarian. city of straubing, west germany. he died at the early age of 39 on june 7, 1826, in munich, where he was having considerable business success in lens manufacture. optometric legislative history in puerto rico: one of my students, jorge a. benavente, did a paper in my legal and professional aspects of optometry course on the history of enactments of puerto rican law to regulate the practice of optometry. here are a few of the historical bits which he included in his report. july 1, 1924: act 15 was passed to establish the first board of medical examiners. it provided for the regulation of the practice of of optometry as one of its functions. may 15, 1930: act 78 was passed to supersede part of act 15 in pro vi ding for a board of examiners of optometry under the med1i ca 1 board to regulate optometrists and opticians. it specified that the optometry board consist of the president and secretary of the medical board and three optometrists. june 26, 1964: act 80 was passed to take the re.gul ati on of optometry out of the medical board, to create a new board of examiners in optometry consisting of four optometrists and one ophthalmologist, and to stipulate that,the law apply to optometrists, ophthalmologists, and oculists! june 7, 1973: the law was amended to change the composition of the board of examiners in optometry to include five optometrists only. the law continues to apply to optometrists, ophthalmologists, and oculists whenever they practice optometry. june 30, 1975: act 121 was passed to require that every applicant for optometric licensure must first practice ore year in the government service at a site designated by the department of health to be in need of optometric service. early optometric cartoon: my hobby of collecting optometry-related cartoons was started in the early 1940's. although the collection has grown to inmense proportions, i have very few early ones. in the october 1976 issue of this newsletter, vol. 7, no. 4, pages 68-72 i included a large number of commercial cartoons which apparently date back to about the turn of the century. in this issue, on the next page, i am including the oldest cartoon in my private collection, one of the claribel series by williams, 1911. fl) e ~ . --~ ' l ' ' i ' ' -34colin~· fryer on plateau: the editor's thrill of the month was an april 17 letter from r~r. colin b. fryer, f.b.o.a., a very frequent writer of optometric history. his address is 11, queenscourt road, west derby, liverpool ll2 8rh, merseyside, england. here is his letter in full: dear professor, your note on the nineteenth century belgian scientist, joseph antoine ferdinand plateau, in the january issue of the o.h.s. newsletter was of particular interest, as at the time i was researching his contribution to our knowledge of visual persistence for a book i am writing. although, as you are aware, this phenomenon had been recorded by such diverse observers as lucretius (65 b.c.), ptolemy (130 a.d.), alhazen (loth. century, a.d.). and leonardo (15th. century), plateau's was one of the earliest scientific investigations. despite· the disastrous result of that experiment at the beginning of his studies which incidentally i fail to understand why he ever performed in the first place, as direct fixation of the sun was well known to be dangerous even to the ancients he went on to devise a simple piece of apparatus to demonstrate it. this consisted of a short series of static pictures usually different stages in an action sequence arranged around the edge of a slotted cardboard disc which gave an illusion of movement when viewed in a mirror through the slots as the disc was rapidly revolved. to produce the right effect the slots had to be narrow and equal in number to the pictures. plateau called his apparatus a phenakistascope (or 11 deceitful view 11 ) and towards the end of 1832 marketed it with little or no modification as an optical toy. about the same time an identical instru­ ment was invented, quite independently, by simon ritter von stampfer, professor of geometry at the vienna polytechnical institute, who called it a strobo­ scope (or 11 whirling view 11 ). other names it later acquired were fantascope, phantasmascope, magic disc, kaleidorama, and mclean's optical illusion. as the cinema has evolved from this little optical toy, i suppose plateau is entitled as much as anyone to be called the 11 father 11 of this modern form of mass instruction and entertainment in addition to his other achievements. with very best wishes, yours sincerely, (signed) colin b .. fryer, f.b.o.a. another optometric museum: the january, 1977, issue of optometric news (optometriese nuus in afrikaans) vol. 3, no. 1, contains an article with a familiar objective, as follows: optometric museum: during december i had the privilege of seeing the building which has been built to ho~se the optometric museum in johannesburg ..... and for me it was an ex­ citing and satisfying experience. the original shopfront of reynolds optometrists in eloff street, johannesburg, has been restored in all it's pristine glory, together with adjacent rooms (which now houses the diplomas, photos, equipment, and furniture of a physician at the turn of the century), on the campus of the institute for medical research. original eloff street signs and lamp standards are incorporated into the design, and the whole concept will ultimately provide a record of optometry as it used to be practised fifty years ago. donations of equipment through the years, as well as frames.etc., have already been received and must now be suitably identified, labeled and displayed. for those colleagues who might have felt that the •wrong• image of the profession might be projected. i say •moenie worry nie'. grandpa reynolds 'did not even have a 'shop window•. at this stage in time there are three vital ingredients missing. in order of priority these are:money: there is a shortfall of just on r3,000 for the erection of the museum. the manufacturers (a.o.m. & w.) have already donated half the costs, i.e. r3,750 ..... the profession has been conspicuous by it's lack o·f support ..... only rboo being received in cash. i'm convinced that even in these economic times, not one of my colleagues will be financially embarrassed if they send a donation of rlo each. may i once again appeal to the generosity of my friends in the profession throughout the republic. exhibits: to make this a truly interesting remembrance of our optometric past, the museum requires items of special interest like ferdie sutton of paarl's •quadruple' spectacles. i know of another colleague who has a pair of 'plus tens• which the patient mounted in an impala skin frame when the original zyl frame disintegrated after years of use •.... and there must be many more items of interest which can make this museum a living and interesting display of optometry in south africa. · manpower: dr. cyril adler, the curator, with all his enthusiasm and knowledge, needs a small committee to sort out and display the various exhibits. i would be prepared to convene a small committee to do this interesting work. please let me have your na~es and phone numbers if you are interested in assisting in this fashion. -36optometric news, edited by bill heath, is the newsletter of the south african optometric association, 624 kerkade centre, 267 church street, pretoria 0002, south africa. afrikaans, incidentally, is one of the two national languages of south africa, the other being english. it is quite similar to flemish. the expression "moeni e worry ni e" undoubtedly means "do not fret". in fact i suspect it is about one-third english! 101 years ~: recently ohs member james leeds, o.d., sent me a note he received from a mrs. lois mccarthy of pocatello, idaho, offering to sell for $3.00 a handwritten letter dated august 1, 1876, on eye and ear institute letterhead. he passed the note on to me and, wouldn't you know, i mailed the three dollars. the letter came, and i found it fascinating. just why i wish to describe it i do not know, but all ow me. the paper, 25 x 15 em, a good quality bond, is horizontally ruled with light blue lines. the upper one-fourth is totally occupied by legend and an etching of what appears to be a capitol building with a flag, trees, and clouds, and with horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians in front. all this is printed in brick-red ink. the legend is very artistically lettered and captions are embellished with strokes and curlicues, reading as follows: hughes' medical and surgical infirmary and eye and ear institute this institution is open at all seasons for the reception of patients -a-competent steward and matron in charge. boarding, lodging and ordinary attendance, $6.00 to $10.00 per week. reasonable charges for medical attention or surgical opera­ tions. artificial eyes inserted upon reasonable terms all letter of inquiry should be addressed to prof. j.c. hughes, md. keokuk, iowa keokuk, iowa ......... l87 .. . gracefully handwritten in jet black ink and with strokes which obviously indicate the use of a frequently dipped quill pen, is the following message: to \>jhom it may concern permit me to introduce to you l.c. ford, m.d. a young gnetleman who has been a student in my office for the last two years and who at the close of the last session of the college of physi­ cians and surgeons graduated with the highest honours. i take great pleasure in recommending -37him as a most worthy young man, and qualified in his profession to discharge any of the duties which may devolve upon him. ~responsive chord: yours j.c. hughes m.d. prof. of surgery and dean college of phy & surgeons keokuk a letter dated march 21 from o.h.s. member h. ward ewalt, o.d. to mrs. maria dablemont: dear maria: i am one of the trustees of the wildermuth founda­ tion and i was intrigued by item 5 on page 42 of the july 1976 newsletter of the optometric historical society. the title of the article 11 0ver there in 1918 with america's first mobile optical unit 11 by e.f. wildermuth. i would like very much to have.five copies for the trustee~. please bill me for the costs. with every good wish, cordially, (signed: ward} 1898 ~ cures: o.h.s. member james leeds, o.d., sent me a couple of clippings from the advertising section of munsey's magazine, vol. 18, no. 6, march 1898, which had been sent to him by a friend. both advertisements were very pro­ fessionally laid out with borders that look like filigree or embroidery and an illustration of an eye in one and photographic views of sanitarium and clinic buildings in the other. even without benefit of the several sizes of bold type in the two advertisements the legend conveys well some of the popular concepts of eye care of the day. here is one: blindness prevented. all diseases of the eye can be cured or relieved by dr. williams' absorption method of treating the eye and lids. no knife and no risk. consultation at office or by mail free. hundreds suc­ cessfully treated at their homes and at dr. williams' eye sanitarium. descriptive pamphlet mailed free to any address. dr. f.a. williams: eye sanitarium, west newton, mass,; boston offices, 200 columbus ave. -38here is the other: bemis eye sanitarium. the home of the original absorption treatment. established 1889. the largest and most successful institution in america. [illustration] office no. 1 and marion house. [illustration] the bemis place. blindness can be prevented. the absorption treatment a success. it is endorsed by representative people. rev. b.n. palmer, d.o., of new orleans, says: for example, if there is atrophy of the nerve, or any other of the several afflictions to which the eye is troubled, it is due to the fact that the eye has become sluggish and dormant. the theory is to wake up that s 1 uggi sh eye and make every pa.rt perform the functions which nature assigns to that part. 11 the treatment is to act directly upon the eye as an organ by various harmless agents applied to stimulate and to vitalize the eye: then the circu­ lation may be restored, the blood will be thrown back on all the parts where it is needed to nourish, so there need be no disease of the eyes which cannot be reached by this treatment, thus avoiding the knife and all risk. 11 i consulted dr. knapp, of new york, and dr. pope, of new orleans, who diagnosed my case as atrophy. after one year's treatment they pronounced my case hope­ less. in july, 1896, i consulted e.h. bemis, eye specialist, one eye being nearly sightless and the other only available with the aid of a strong magnify­ ing glass. i had nothing to lose and a great deal to gain. after treatment the strong magnifying glass was discarded and glasses used years ago enabled me to read. 11 an average of over 6,000 treatments given monthly at the bemis sanitarium, and hundreds suc­ cessfully treated at their homes by mail. pamphlet free, describing treatment. the bemis eye sanitarium, glens falls, n.y. we have no branch offices. i have read and re-read the above advertisements several times and have asked myself such questions as, 11 was this what was meant by freedom of speech? 11 11 00 we now lack the immunity to health claims which our great grandparents must have acquired to survive such cures? 11 and 11 0o today's television commercials convey the same messages, but more subtly? 11 if these thoughts puzzle you, read my questions again. -39eidola and simulacra: perhaps synonymous, and perhaps not, these two words were once used to identify the images, effluent material, films, or bodies which were presumed to be continually streaming off from the object in view, impinging on the eye of the observer, and conveying the nature of color and form which we perceive as attributes of the object. they of course helped express one of the theories of early philosophers as to how optical inform­ ation gets transferred from the externally viewed object to the observer• s mind, or at least to the eye. those who subscribed to this concept are classified as atomists by david c. lindberg in his 1976 book entitled 11 theories of vision from al-kindi to kepler 11 , university of chicago press, chicago and london, {$20.00). he classifies another broad category of guesses as the platonic or plato's theory of vision, according to which a stream of something issues from the observer's eye and either meets the objects and returns to the eye with its message or signal, or it meets something enroute that emanated from the object. perhaps the two emanations were presumed to have met somewhere in the intervening space to produce visual sensations. precisely what these brilliant thinkers of more than two millennia ago meant may always remain unresolved. this is not merely due to the difficulties of ordinary language interpretation but also to unidentifiable contemporary idioms, figures of speech, and timely changes in connotation. professor lindberg has attempted to take into account every possible interpretation of theory after theory. these included the vision theories of euclid, alhazen, leonardo, witelo, johannes kepler, and others. why al-kindi's name is in the title of the book i failed to ascertain. al-lindi lived in the ninth century a.d. among his some 260 writings on all branches of learning was a work on optics entitled de aspectibus. altogether the book is very readable and extensively documented. it gives the reader a fascinating insight into the struggle we face when we try to understand a phenomenon for which we have only the minutest trace of scientific information. do !!it eyes deceive me? 11 why, if eyeglasses were known as early as the 1280 • s, did it not occur to anybody before the end of the sixteenth century that two eyeglass lenses might be combined to produce a more powerful optical instrument? 11 ronchi regards the answer ... as quite obvious. no scientist placed one lens before another for three hundred years because lenses had been ostracized from science. and why were lenses ostracized from science? because they deceive. 11 these quotes from a paper by d.c. lindberg and nicolas h. steneck { 11 the sense of vision and the origins of modern science .. , in science, medicine and society in the renaissanceessay to honor walter pagel, -40edited by allen g. debus, neale watson academic publications, inc., new york, 1972, pages 29-45) are interpreted by vasco ronchi as a deliberate indulgence in levity. professor ronchi 's response is a delightful clarification and reprimand aptly entitled "a fascinating outline of the history of science" on pages 525-555 of the july-august 1975 issue of atti della fondazione giorgio ronchi ~ contributi dell • instituto nazionale ~ ottica, vol. 30, no. 4. ronchi provides a truly interesting, convincing, and well documented account of the 2000 year handicap or prejudice of "educated" persons which placed under suspicion any observation or inference based solely or primarily on vision. the uneducated, illiterate, and ignorant persons were not so perceptually handicapped. leonardo, for example, is classified as a member of the more fortunate category. he was "not an academic scholar", but rather "a self-taught man"! like the "man on the street", he trusted what he saw to be true. the contemporarily educated person waul d have preferred to rely on "reason" and other sense modalities. i personally am convinced that ronchi is right, if only because of a dramatic experience in my own career. while doing research for my ph.d. degree almost 40 years ago i had occasion to request the purchase of a macbeth photometer, an instrument in which the operator adjusts the brightness of an annulus of light until it matches the brightness of the surface being measured. my request was denied by the person in charge of the laboratory, a nationally distinguished physicist, author of a widely used physics test, chairman of the physics department at a "big ten" university, and later dean of the graduate school. his explanation for the denial was simply that a first-rate scientist should never rely on subjective visual judgments to measure light! because i had never questioned any other judgment, opinion, or decision he had ever made, either before or after this occasion, the absolutely declared rationale of his denial put to serious test all that i thought i knew. according to ronchi, i now realize, i was getting educated! ronchi 's article, incidentally, is in easy to understand english. jl.rt and heritage: any optometrist who spends a significant amount of time in germany or vjho othen-jise becomes well acquainted with the culture of the country soon becomes aware of the intimate involvement of our early heritage in various art forms, in figurines, carvings, stained and leaded glass, paintings, music, opera, cartoons, poetry, and the like. hardly of artistic bent, even i recently succumbed to buying a $40 leaded glass portrayal of a 16th century "der optiker" in a charming novelty store in nurnberg. a few weeks ago a thank-you note from an acquaintance in west germany was inserted in a folded card on which was reproduced a copperplate reproduction of "bri 11 enverkl!ufer im 16. jahrhundert" (spectacle merchants in the 16th century) by phillip galle after ioannes -41stradanus (1525-1605). then, at the international optometric and optical congress in dusseldorf in may, herr h. volz, the president of zentralverband der augenoptiker, presented to each of many of us a pair of serially numbered, limited edition, rare prints. one of the prints, in full color, is a "johannes schefflerius" illustration of a glamorous peddler of spectacles, brushes, scissors, tweezers, jewels, dice, etc., of presumably about 16th or 17th century vintage. the other is a detailed etching of the dusseldorf quay on the rhine, probably late 18th century, as a few of the boats are steam driven instead of wind driven. the ophthalmic significance, of course, was the fact that dusseldorf was the site of the 1977 ophthalmic-optical congress. the point i am trying to make is that optometry•s heritage thoroughly permeates every ordinary art form in germany, and of this the german augenoptiker is justifiably proud. no doubt many of my readers will hasten to remind me, quite correctly that this holds true in many other countries as well. we, however, in the so-called newer parts of the world, are not so routinely exposed to such historical reminders. on the contrary we tend to be conscious of a great lack of public awareness of our presence. we pay great sums of money to public relations personnel to accomplish exactly what the profession in many countries already enjoy. iool hi story briefly sketched: ._,.-.'""···· "kurzer abriss der geschichte der iool 11 (brief outline of the history of the international optometric and optical league) is the title of a review by peter abel in the program of the international q::httalrnic q:rt:iml congress, dusse-ldorf, 14th-19th may, 1977, pages 66-67; 70~71, 74-75, 78-79, and . 82-83. herr abel of west berlin served a part of 1965 as acting president following the death of george giles and until the election of_ giles• suc­ cessor, the late reginald goode. according to abel, the idea for a league originated in 1924 as a consequence of the ill-fated odin court case in paris, france. odin had been found guilty of practicing medicine by reason of his having used a skiascope to determine the refractive error. in 1927 mr. willi lohmann of berlin gave a lecture at the first international (optical) congress at oxford in which he described the need for an international organization. immediately following, mr. lohmann undertook to lay the groundwork for the first assembly of international representatives on the occasion of the german association meeting in cologne. represented at this founding meeting were germany, france, great britain, holland, s\>jitzerland, and the united states, wi.th sweden joining in a short time 1 ater. during the first year the new international organization was headquartered in berlin. ever since then the i.o.o.l. has been located in london with every successive president being english. they were -42j.h. sutcliffe, sir william champness, george giles, reginald goode, and now george wheatcroft. the iool lay dormant during the war years 1939-1947. herr abel describes some of the many philosophical, political, and professional issues which have plagued the league throughout most of its existence and how each and almost every issue was faced and usually resolved progressively. from my own limited knowledge of iool history i find abel •s evaluations very accurate. included in the article are photographs of the president and past presidents of the iool and the building in cologne in which the iool was born, das haus der kblner btlrgergesellschaft (home of the cologne civic association). the role of mrs. ivy giles, nee parnum, was specifically mentioned as a major contribution in the development and success of the iool. mrs. giles, an ohs member, served for many years as the secretary of the iool. in case you can read german or can get translatirrg services you may be able to get a copy of the attractively assembled and bound congress program by writing to zentralverband der augenoptiker, stresemannstrasse 12, 4000dtlsseldorf, west germany. eyeglasses invented circa 1286: certainly not before 1285 and quite evidently not after 1288 a.d. are my deduced limitations of the dates between which eyeglasses were invented. this is my interpretation of the profound and con­ vincing analysis of edward rosen in his exhaustively researched article entitled .. the invention of eyeglasses .. in the january and april 1956 issues of the journal of history of medicine, vol. 11, pp. 13-46 (part i) and pp. 183-218 (part ii). this means that in about nine years, more arbitrarily in 1986, we can celebrate the ·spectacle septicentennial. surely this calls for at least a commemorative postage stamp, especially a seven-cent stamp. rosen concludes that the city of pisa of leaning tower fame has a better claim on the in,ventor than any other locality. the tower, incidentally, was under construction at the time. the unidentified 11 inventor, a layman, declined to disclose his method because he wanted to profit by producing eyeglasses ... the account reads much like a detective story as the author carefully reviews and weighs each available shred of evidence and finally rejects the variously proposed theories that the inventor was a venetian, florentine, belgian, german, or englishman. the latin and italian terms for eyeglasses around the beginning of and during the 14th century included 11 0cularia ... , 11 0cularios vitri 11 , 11 0glarios de vitro .. , 11 0cchiali .. , 11 rodoli da ogli 11 , 11 vitreos ab oculis .. , 11 0cculis de vitro .. , 11 0cclalium11 and 11 roidi da ogli 11 • the last term, appearing in a supplementary rule, dated april 2, 1300, of the regulations of the venetian guild of crystal-workers, is the oldest known occurrence of a recorded term for eyeglasses, some 14 years after their invention. -43williams lantern information wanted: a 11 dr. c.h. williams lantern for testing color sense" is owned by steven and patti mirkovich, 2380 north sparks street, burbank, california 91504. they are collectors of "interesting things" and would appreciate any possible information about the lantern. they have already received a substantial amount of information from the staff at ilamo. an illustration was found in casey a. wood's american encyclopedia and dictionary of ophthalmology, vol. 4, chicago, cleveland press, 1914, pages 2410-2411. a biographical account of charles herbert williams by thomas hall shastid is on pages 14025-14026 of vol. 18, 1921, of the same encyclopedia. sir stewart duke-elder in his text-book of ophthalmology, vol. 1, c.v. mosby co., 1937, credited williams with introducing the 1 antem test to america at about the turn of the century. stamped on the inside of the oil lamp box of mi rkovi ch • s mode 1 is the notation "peter gray and sons, manufacturers, boston, r~assachusetts . 11 dr. esperanto was,. an ophthalmologist; the author and inventor of esperanto, the artificial international language, was an eye physician named l.l. zamenhof. in various referenees dr. zamenhof's first and middle given names are shown as lazarz, lazarus, ludwi k, ludovi c, and. ludwig. he was born on december 15, 1859, in bialystok (also spelled belostok, bielostok, or bialystock), poland, about 105 mi, 169 km, northeast of warsaw. at that time bialystok was part of. russia. ludwig's fatoer was a teacher of languages. young ludwig himself had learned russian, polish. yiddish, german, french, english, latin, greek, and hebrew. he studied medicine in moscow, vienna, and warsaw. dr. zamenhof's first publication, on july 26, 1887, a brochure describing the lingvo internacia, appeared under his pen name, dr. esperanto, (which meansrne who hopes). thus the language came to be known as esperanto. it quite completely supplanted its predecessor volapuk, another artifical international language which made its appearance only seven years earlier. dr. zamenhof died in warsaw, where he practiced ophthalmology, on april 14, 1917. w.h.a. fincham: even to american optometry students the word "fincham11 is a nickname for "geometric optics". his textbook is a classic, possibly used by more optometry students than was any other textbook on the same or any other topic, and probably over a longer period of years, including possibly three generations. walter fincham died suddenly on january 24 at his home in hornsey, england. that his long life was itself a personification of the most venerable and cherished aspects of optometric history is beautifully documented by three obituaries in the february 4 issue of the optician (london) vol. 173, no. 4470, by roland champness, h.j. stockwell, and robert fletcher. -44a hi story of cr39: this is the caption of an ostensibly author-less article in the march 1977 issue of the south african optometrist/die suid afrikaanse oogkundige, volume 36, no. 1, pp. 36 & 40. cr39, for which the chemical name is diallyl glycol carbonate, is the raw material of which plastic lenses are made. the early plastic lens materials 11 were first produced by the pittsburg plate glass co during the second world war, in their columbia laboratories where new resins were being developed. supposedly the 39th attempt resulted in a material having all the required properties and this was named columbia resin 39 11 • we are then told, 11 suprisingly, a use could not immediately be found for this new material, and it was some years before a french optical group headed by george lissac took up the reins to develop cr39 in the optical field ... in a subsequent paragraph we are told 11 ln 1959 orma·looo lenses were launched in france -and they became available in the uk in the early '60s ... 11 i am obliged to challenge the accuracy of at least the suggestion that the french company was responsible for the intial use of cr39 for plastic lenses. i happen to have some 1955 correspondence in my file attesting to the routine use of cr39 by the armorlite lens co., inc., then in pasadena, california, for the manufacture of plastic lenses. also, i was wearing a pair of armorlite plastic lenses in 1950. translations wanted? because this newsletter frequently makes reference to articles in languages other than english an occasional reader has asked if translations could be made available. those of us who have some ability in a second language are aware that it is one thing to read, write, speak, and understand the second language, but quite another matter to translate correctly into the first language, or vice versa. thus a bilingual person may 11 think 11 or express himself adequately in each of two languages but still lack the skill to translate directly from one to the other. this probably explains why those few who acquire the latter skill often prefer to call themselves interpreters rather than translaters. the most reliable translations are those made cooperatively by two persons, each of whom knows the other's primary language as his secondary language. recently i discovered a firm that is prepared to translate from a wide variety of languages into english. i tested the firm with a somewhat technical polish document and found them prompt, cooperative and relaible. the cost came to slightly over 3¢ per word. the english was virtually flawless. -45in case you cannot find such services listed in the 11yellow pages 11 of your local telephone directory i gladly recommend frank c. farnham, inc., scientific documentation services, 133 south 36th street, philadelphia, pennsylvania 19104 (telephone 215-382-3150). patented, but h i1 new? jacob staiman, o.d., of baltimore, maryland, has expressed his regrets that he would be unable to attend the o.h.s. meeting in toronto on july 5, but he supplied the following interesting bit of information. 11 the city of baltimore, 1 ike many others are doing, has launched a restoration project to rebuild an old house which was the residence of an early mayor of the town. a portrait painted by an artist around 1804 to 1808 shows the gentleman adorned in a brow band spectacle with lenses suspended (as shown in the enclosed photocopy). in connection with this, i have noticed the advertising campaign now currently running in some of the optical journals, promoting just such a style in modern styling. i wrote to the president of the company and his reply mentioned a patent granted in 1859 for such a device. now the main question is who fabricated the frame in those days and who prescribed the rx? the portrait is of mayor thorogood smith and is in the collection of the peale museum (municipal of baltimore) and the enclosed copy is for the archives of the international library, archives, & museum of optometry when you have finally availed yourself of the inform­ ation. the trustees of the peale museum restrict its use without permission. 11 the portrait which dr. staiman enclosed, and which i have forwarded to i.l.a.m.o., shows a headband-supported pair of spectacle lenses remarkably similar to a recently invented pair illustrated on page 16 of the april 1977 issue of texas optometry, vol. 33, no. 4. the latter, howevert are represented as the invention of max f. wichers, o.d., of topeka, kansas. according to the article on the same page entitled 11 an interview with m.f. wickers, o.d. 11 , dr. wickers was granted a patent in 197~for his wrap~around suspension. 11 his new concept was selected by popular science magazine in 1973, from over 600 inventions around the world, as one of the 13 most significant inventions. 11 optometric education circa 1891: very recently o.h.s. member dr. reed, o.d. of la porte, indiana, wrote me as follows: -4611 about 1950 to 1955 i took up an interest in the 'optometry' school in la porte and dis­ covered that a former 'student' from that school was still alive. i wrote to him and called him and finally got letters from him. i had made an arrangement to visit him while in fr. wayne on state association business. i was late to his office (10 minutes or so), so afterwards he would not correspond or talk to me on the phone. i then got someone else to intercede for me, and you re­ ceived the pictures and teaching or class. notes. the observations are noteworthy in the letters, so i am sending them to you for deposit in the op­ tometry museum, or wherever you think they should be preserved. 11 the 11 student 11 was herbert j. welch, o.d., born april 14, 1862. two of his letters of 1957 were included in the july 1972 issue of this newsletter, val. 3, no. 3, pp. 25-28. the two earlier letters to dr. reed are now reproduced in typewritten form here as faithfully as possible from the original longhand, including errors of spelling, etc. this deliberate inclusion of errorsis not intended to belittle the writer, for i am sure he simply dashed them off with no anticipation of their being preserved. besides he was in his nineties at the time. some of the presumed errors· may in fact be attributable to illegibility .and fading. for example, his periods and commas are not readily dif­ ferentiable. here they are: 103 east pontiac st. ft. wayne 5. ind. july 23 52 dr. d.r. reed la porte, ind. dear dr. reed, your letter of the 21st just received. i hardly believe that my experience will be of very much value to you. mr father, after serving in the civil war, bought a farm (just prairy grass) 2 miles east of goodland, ind. (about 1867) where i was raised and spent my boy hood days. he was quite machanical and had a shop in the barn with quite a lot of tools. so about that time the steam engine came into use for threshing and i wanted a toy engine. my parents did not think i needed it so i decided to try and make one, when i was about 15 i got my engine to work nicely, (the boiler was a gal .. paint can.) and i would set it on cook stove and watch it run. a druggist that i was quite machanically inclined and said if i would learn how to repair watches i ·could made $300 a day. i fell for the idea as that was so much better than pitching hay all day for a -47dollar. parsons horological institute 11 the first, oldest and best 11 } of laporte seemed to offer the best place to get my education, i was past 19 when i de­ cided to take up the work and started in school, fall of 1891 in 3 months i graduated as a watch-make and they told me a 11 watch maker11 should be an engraver so i took a 2 mo. course i.n that and i was one of the best in school. in the mean time they tal d me i should know how to fit glasses as 11 most of the glasses were so 1 d thru the-:)e"we 1 ery stores 11 • so in the city was a doctor, 11 dr. john w. lambert, ·m, 0. 11 ) .. instructor in oq.tical sceinence71who came to the watchmaker schoot and gave us a course of lectures etc. in examining eyes with the trial case & fitting spectacles. i took the course spent several week study, (i still have the notes i took down) however he seemed to be quite up to date as he taught us the dioptra system as well as the inch system in labeling also taught about astigmatism and muscle trouble etc. and some deceases. this course cost me as i remember $5. and my diploma is signed by 11 j.r. parsons .. , and 11 john w. lambert, r~.d. 11 dated 11 nov. 13 1891 11 ) and i came home to goodland and started in business 11 as watchmaker & optician 11 ina drug store mar. 16 1892 it was not many months before parson's school moved to peora, ill. and became 11 parsons, ide and co. 11 and later bradley politectcal school. in year of 1907 the indiana law was past and i was exempt from exam­ ination because i had fit glasses 3 years prior. i never knew 11 dr curtis 11 nor any other school there there was another watch maker. school 11 hutchens 11 started about that time. of course we were extra smart in those days because now one has to go to college 5 years in this state and cost hundreds of dollers instead of $500 to become an optometrist we were taught the use of trial lenses to get vision. i soon used the fogging method, some but don't know whether i got that from school or magazines later. i also used homoaptropine a short time. i still have a picture of group of watch-maker-studients with their names but dont think it records their address. and i can't recall the ones that also took the study to become 11 0pticians 11 of course i did not know too much when i first went into business but studied books and papers and now have 60 years of experience which all goes to­ gether to make efficiency, however i still use the trial lenses in my work, sometimes the retiscope, but have no refractometers & big showey machines. -48if you would like to have a list of those students (suppose most of them are now dead) i could send them as a copy of instruction i recorded from the lectures, i could send that also. i note nee dr. noah bixler 11 in cornner of your letter, i wonder, i thought he was an optometrist at decaur, ind or berne just s east of here. i thank you, very truly h.j. welch written 6/4 but held up for correction etc. 103 east pontiac st ft. wayne ind dear dr d.r. reed your letter of the 3rd was received this a.m. and i too was sorry to miss seeing you. however i telephoned dr morris•s office and they did not know any thing about you since l.p.m. i generally do not close my office unti 1 4 to 430 p.m. and i waited until 11 430 11 thurs eve before going home, i have a great deal of work to do around my home and had planned that evening to finish painting my house (which i did at 830 pm) if you had phoned me i would have gfadly waited longer. if i knew you were coming. i did find an old picture of j.r. parsons the owner of the watchmakers school together with 29 others; 2 or 3 instructiors and res~ students includ­ ing myself. i think all the students were there learning how to repair watches. how many of them besides my self attended the lectures and instructions given by dr john w. lambert on optics i don•t know, nor have i any separate picture of them nor list. i also gathered to gether some glasses mountings & frames of the early days to show you if interested; i have some of the old black 11 hard rubber 11 eye glasses to fit on nose i think, of b & l make who i believe were the first to make eye glasses in this country. they are spherical lenses marked by c·inch system11 also 11 finger piece 11 mount­ ings also 11 cement 11 bifocals little wafers cemented on, to form the reading part in use about the time i started in business 63 years ago. (march 16, 1892) some bi foca 1 s were ~ ~ . june ~ 55 9 -49thus .f) in two pieces (groove between) t1 and held together by frame (unsightly line between the two visions but no cement to get bad in reading parts like 11 cement bifocals 11 when i got home thurs eve. some one telephoned to my home stating they had the evening meal all prepared for you & dr. morris & waiting, but could not locate you folks. i also received your bulletin mailed here thurs. i just wondered about next to last paragraph, 11 at no time has there been m.t retreat from this stand. 11 if i remember right, our state law was pass in 1907 and opticians were changed to 11 0ptometrists 11 • later --i have just found a copy of 11 0ptometry law acts 190]11 on page 5 title 11 three years 1n practi ce-certi fi cate-fee. 11 sec 7 every person who has been engaged in the actual and continuous practice of optometry as defined by section 4 in the state of indiana, for three (3) years immediately prior to the time of the passage of this act. etc, & for sum of $500, issue to him a certificate of registration. (you will note no examination, also sec #6 there was, (if i remember) some objections about the law from the regular physicians & surgeons at that time hence they did not have to be examined and i believe no licence fee (and some knew but little about the eyes and nothing and nothing about the fitting of glasses (but the m.d. •s did not want to be let out nor ignored.) so it was, as i had been fitting glasses about 14 years before the law was past, i did not have to pass any examintion, just paid my $5 00. i also just found 11 0ptometric code of eth.ics. suplements copyright 194]11 also copy of optometry law under date 11 jan 1, 193811 in regard to something for the 11 museum11 i don•t know what is best. my diploma signed by 11 j.r. parsons-principal" and 11 john w. lambert. m.d. instructor in optical sciences 11 dated 11 nov 13th 1891 11 i have in a frame and hanging on wall of my office by my state certificate. in regard to 11 notes 11 i had kind of book made by fasting 6 double sheets of 11 fools cap 11 paper together that i started to use when in school taking 11 book keeping 11 the last half of the book i used at that time in taking notes, pictures of eyes, lenses, diagrams,and tables of 11 inch system compaired with 11 dioptra 11 etc. all in ink but was not properly taken care of -50& soiled & 63 years old and the 6 sheets written on both sides of the paper. i could copy it off but some task, you might know best. it might be best to be on one side of the sheet only. another thing about donations. i never felt it was just right to take $17 00 a year from me & all optometrists to help finance the school~ make more optometrists & competetion which has reduced my practice. all right perhaps to start with but now school should be self supporting. very truly. h.j. welch o.d. bits of early academia: robert a. williams, director of alumni at the southern california college of optometry, wrote as follows: 11 i read with great interest y.our listing of extinct schools and colleges of op­ tometry. 11 1 am responding to your request for omissions on that list. according to records here at scco, the danders school of optometry, which was founded in 1915 by ~r. harry fuog in los angeles, merged with the then los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry in 1920. ••also, according to our records the original name of this institution was the los angeles school of ophthalmology and optometry. the word medical was added when the school was incorporated in 1911. delaware ophthalmic college: the listing of names of discontinued schools and colleges of optometry in our 1 ast issue prompted ~1ari a dabl emont to send me the name of another, the delaware ophthalmic college, which she found virtually buried in a single-paragraph news item in the october 1899 issue of t_b_~ q_p_!_i_~_l ~ournal, vol. 6, no. 8. according to the news item a motion was made, seconded, and un­ animously carried at the annual meeting of the delaware optical association in dover on september 6 11 that all persons that graduate at the delaware ophthalmic college be entitled to membership in this association 11 • notes on early schools: a brief letter dated july 30, 1952, from noah a. bixler, o.d., (deceased) of decatur, indiana, to o.h.s. member d russell reed, o.d. of la porte, indiana, includes the following paragraph: 11 there was a watchmakers school in la porte before 1900 a mr. higganbotham was connected with this, who was a very fine workman (knew him person­ ally) they taught some optics. omar deselms from attica also had a school of some sort for watch­ makers and some optics. this was a corresponding course though there might have been some attendance. deselms was president of the association way back. you can get the date from the anniversary program of 1947. there was also a school in south bend, correspondence course and they furnished a trial case with this. 11 the name oeselms struck me as unfamiliar, unusual, and interesting, so i checked through each edition of the blue book of optometrists begin­ ning with the first, 1912. i also checked the 1947 issues of the indiana optometrist where i discovered a posthumously published article by a.c. anderson entitled 11 history of organized optometry in indiana 11 , chapter 1 in vol. 19, no.1, january 1947, pages 11,20-22, and chapter 2 in no. 3, march 1947, pages 18-23. omar c. deselms was accepted into membership infue indiana optometric association in 1907. in 1917 he was elected to the 1st. vice president of the association. the volumes at my disposal have missing issues for 1918, so i did not confirm his ascendency to the presidency. dr. deselms• entry in the 1912 blue book shows him in attica, indiana, as graduate of the 11 peoria optical college 11 • in the second edition, 1914, he is identified as an 1899 graduate of 11 brad. poly, ins. 11 the third edition, 1916, shows him an 1899 graduate of 11 bradley horological institute 11 and as having completed courses at 11 american optical call ege 11 in 1906 and 11 northern illinois college 11 in 1912. the next change of information appeared in the 1924 edition where his attendance included 11 n. i 11 . co 11 . of 0. & 0. , 1912•,• and 11 nor. ill. call 1923 11 • the 1926 and 1928 editions listed him in logansport, indiana, instead of attica. his name does not appear in subsequent editions. more notes on extinct schools: a letter from ohs member j.r. hale, o.d., of sunnyside, washington, informs us of three omissions in our lists of early optometry schools in our last issue, as follows: seattle college of optometry, seattle, washington trowbridge school of optometry, chicago, illinois los angeles school of optometry and ophthalmology. -52then dr. hale comments further: "f~any years ago the seattle college closed. the trowbridge school operated in the early 1900's and my great aunt (mrs. mae booth jones) attended there and graduated. "as previously noted, there was a school in spokane, the washington school of optometry. both my aunt and uncle graduated from trowbridge school and he died shortly thereafter. my aunt was one of the first enthusiastic supporters of optometry among women and attended many aoa annual conventions. she obtained licenses to practice in many states and later settled in spokane. she became an instructor at the washington school of optometry and married dr. a.e. jones as a fellow faculty member. later they purchased assets of the school and operated it for some years {in 1920's). "the school charter is maintained by a spokane optometrist, although the school is now inactive. "a spokane group waul d like to have a new school of optometry become affiliated with washington state university at pullman, washington. they would also like to have the washington school of optometry charter presented to wsu, if this "dream" ever becomes a reality. a new regional school covering eastern washington, western washington, idaho, montana, utah, colorado, etc. would be an interesting possibility. with the california schools and pacific university already with more application than they can admit, this new regional school has possibilities, but much more planning unfortunately needs to be completed." another extinct college: the optometry department of the american medical college, st. louis, missouri, is mentioned as having eighteen graduates who "received their diplomas at the college monda-y evening", in a news item in the june 19, 1913 issue of the optical journal and review of -~tomet~. vol. 31, no. 26, p. 1593. the names of the 18 recipients are listed. lest we forget: ~1rs. dablemont recently sent me a copy of a full column advertisement from the march 1896 issue of the optical journal, vol. 2, no. l, page 37, offering, in large letter headline,~ post-graduate -53course in refraction. said the announcement, 11 beginning february 1 and continuing indefinitely thereafter we have arranged to give advanced individual private instruction, to those who have been making a specialty of refraction and the mechanical adjustment of frames. 11 these courses will embrace instruction in the use of the ophthalmometer, retiniscope [sic!], ophthalmoscope, refractometer, prisms and kindred subjects. 11 students may select, at their option, any or all of these studies. 11 those desiring to avail themselves of this opportunity may make application at any time, as no regular classes will be formed. we have found individual attention to students much more satisfactory to them and to ourselves. 11 thorough and complete directions and actual practice in the use of test lenses will be given at any time to students who have had little or no experience in fitting eyes. 11 for further particulars address julius king optical co., 14 maiden lane, new york 11 birth of~ magazine: dr. damien p. smith, executive director of the australian optometrical association, sent me a reprint of an article in the february, 1977, issue of the australian journal of optometry, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 52-63, with the note, 11 i suspect th1s will titillate your historical taste buds. 11 it did. it was a transcript fromthe minutes of the first federal conference of the australian optometrical association, held in melbourne, december 1918, previously published in the december, 1918, issue of the commonwealth optometrist, vol. 1 .• no. 1, one of the earlier titles of the present australian monthly. the union list of serials shows australasian journal of optometry and optometrist of new-sdut~wales as other variations of titles. it also shows vol. 1 beginning in 1919, which arithmetically fits neither with the above noted december 1918 date for vol. 1. no. 1, nor with the fact that vol. 60, no. 1, appeared in january 1977. this merely supports my contention that there are more aberrations in our historical records than in the worst optics. hell, the topic under discussion was 11 commonweal th monthly optical publication••. mr. w.t. wenborn, who in the photograph of the eleven delegates from four states appears to have been one of the youngest, perhaps about 20, made the opening pitch around the theme, .. l ~that the development of -54optometry justifies the nee_ci for an optometrical publication based .q!!_ strictly optometrical_ lines." he then pointed out that three periodicals in the commonwealth were already serving optometry, but by no means exclusively. in victoria, for example, the jewellers• gazette, was said to have been "appointed as the official organ of the victorian optical association". similarly the commonwealth jeweller and watchmaker was the official organ of the institute of ophthalmists of queensland and of the south australian optical association. the optometrist of new south wales had been founded "two or three years" ago as a purely optometrical publication, by and for optometrists, but serving only new south wales. mr. w.g. kett, also quite young looking, apparently the editor of the new south wales periodical and destined to edit the new publication for the commonwealth for many years to come, then presented at length the argument that a commonwealth publication would serve to pull together the far flung fragments of the profession throughout australia. a mr. a.p. greenfield of queensland expressed regret that the matter had not been debated by his association, "because the agenda paper came along so late -in fact; it only arrived the day before i 1 eft to come down." (!) a few of his other comments are equally fascinating; "the first paper i recollect being published and devoted to optical work in australia was one published in sydney in 1893 or 1895. i think it terminated its life in 1897". "the optical journal of new york is bulky but it carries a lot of useful information, and a lot of trash". the actual birth of the commonwealth optometrist then was accomplished in a cautious series of successively introduced and carried motions, the first "that this conference adopt the idea of inaugurating a commonwealth optometrical publication". the next motion recommended the adoption of the optometrist of new south wales by each state association at no cost but with the expectation of a guarantee of a minimum number of subscribers. it passed unanimously. on the next day it was moved and passed that the name of the publication be the commonwealth optometrist. then it was moved and unanimously passed "that a sub-committee be appointed in each state to supply matter each month, this to be guaranteed by the individual states". this was fo 11 owed by a motion "that new south wa 1 es have a fr,ee hand in the publi:ation of the journal, at the same time guaranteeing that no state will be advertised prejudicially to the interests of others in so far as practicable". it carried, and finally a motion was introduced and carried recommending that the optometric associations in the various states terminate their respective official connections with the watchmaker and jeweler periodicals. mr. wenborn, incidentally, made all except one of the motions. we could use him today! the states of tasmania and western australia and the northern territory apparently had no delegates at the conference. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1977-08-03-001 1977-08-03-002 1977-08-03-003 1977-08-03-004 1977-08-03-005 1977-08-03-006 1977-08-03-007 1977-08-03-008 1977-08-03-009 1977-08-03-010 1977-08-03-011 1977-08-03-012 1977-08-03-013 1977-08-03-014 1977-08-03-015 1977-08-03-016 1977-08-03-017 1977-08-03-018 1977-08-03-019 1977-08-03-020 1977-08-03-021 1977-08-03-022 1977-08-03-023 1977-08-03-024 1977-08-03-025 1977-08-03-026 1977-08-03-027 1977-08-03-028 -· ---~~-~--~---------newsletter of the ~tometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, st. louis, missouri, u. s. a. volume 8 april 1977 two new o.h.s. officers: f!t~v "" 4 1!1'17 indmna unjv£rs1tv 63119) number 2 newly elected as president of the optometric historical society is henry a. knoll, ph.d., senior scientist at bausch & lomb, inc., rochester, new york. henry or "hank" has identified much of his career very intimately with optometry both as a teacher and as dean of an optometry college and in numerous other professional and scientific roles. readers of this newsletter are familiar with dr. knoll's frequent contributions. newly elected as vice-president is our newest member of the executive board, mrs. grace weiner, retired librarian of the optometry library at the university of alabama in birmingham, and for many years previous the librarian at the los angeles college of optometry. her many years of editorial work with the american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of optometry and her current role on the editorial staff of the optometric weekly make her name a "household" word in optometry and visual science. re-elected secretary-treasurer is our ohs mainstay mrs. maria dablemont, archivist and librarian at the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc.,and for the american optometric association. the other two members of the executive board are sol tannebaum, o.d., and john r. levene, ph.d. literary excellence: one occasionally comes across a bit of writing, even in the professional, technological, and scientific journals, which expresses a concept, or a cluster of interrelated concepts, so well and so clearly as to prompt him to go back and reread it from time to time. one such composition, in my opinion, is an editorial by charles hyatt-woolf, f.r.p.s., f.r.s.l. (november 29, 1863 -october 19, 1938) in the october 28, 1910 issue of the optician and photographic trade journal, vol. 40, no. 1022, pages 101-102. it apparently was the first published commentary on the history-making markham vs. wood, abraham, malpractice case, which i have mentioned in this newsletter on two previous occasions (vol 2, no. 2, april 1971, pp. 3-4, and vol. 3, no. 1 january 1972, p. 8). the complete editorial follows: -14the optician's legal standing need of trade guarantee funds to any member of the optical trade who reads thoughtfully the report of the law case which occupies so much of our space this week, it will not be necessary for us to apologize for omitting other matters of trade interest in order to be able to print a fairly full resume of the proceedings in question. as it is, we have had to omit much that was not essential to give a fair and sufficiently connected account ••• seeing that the proceedings in court, which commenced on monday, were not concluded until wednesday afternoon. we may mention incidentally that there was a large attendance of members of the trade throughout, as was to be expected from the importance of the issues raised alike to sight-testing opticians and prescription opticians the scope of whose businesses respectively was, in effect, one of the main issues disputed. had the verdict of the jury been that for which we hoped, we should have offered some pointed comments on the evidence of certain witnesses and the inferences that counsel sought to deduce from them. but this, of course, would be improper until it is known that the case is not to be retried. the summing up of mr. justice ridley was as fair as such judicial pronouncements usually are and crystallized what may be termed the common sense aspect of the rivalry between sight-testing opticians arid a militant section of the ophthalmic surgeons. after all, it must be admitted that judge-made law is mostly consistent with common sense, whatever we think of the vagaries and even absurdities of juries--including the jury that sits to decide issues of statute law at westminster in our court of public opinion. mr. justice ridley did not fail to point out, in the course of the present trial that, whatever opinions might be held as to the desirability of fastening special responsibilities upon opticians, it was not for a jury, sympathising with the unfortunate young lady in the case, to fasten upon a long established trade such new responsibilities which should be denied by the legislature if they are to be imposed at all. the judge's remarks lend additional emphasis to all that has been said and re-said so many times of the need for a sight-testing opticians act of parliament, framed to protect at the same time the welfare of the public and the legitimate interests of the trade. not that we may expect a statute to conserve trade interests, excepting only in such a way as to promote the larger public interest~ but surely this present litigation is eloquent of the harm that may, nay, must result if the tangled skein of responsibility as between the oculist and his patient, the optician and his customer, is allowed to remain in what would seem to be its present condition, or perhaps even become still more involved. we have enough to say about legislation however, upon other occasions; and the topic of the week -­ this regrettable litigation -conveys a warning and an appeal of yet more urgent nature. quite a number of opticians have contributed to support the case of mr. thomas, at the trial in which the jury have just disagreed. -----------------15but it is to be remembered that very influential and wealthly interests are in sympathy with the technical argu­ ments put forward by the other side. we do not wish, or per­ haps need, to labour this point at the moment. we will just say, as we have argued before, that we think a substantial guarantee fund should be constituted, to be available for having certain matters affecting trade "responsibility" well threshed out in all cases where opticians are placed on their defence concerning vital interests. mr. hyatt-woolf, though rarely mentioned in optometric history, obviously played a very significant role in the development of the profession. after all, he was the sole editor of a most important world ophthalmic journal for 48 years. he also authored a most widely used and highly regarded dictionary, the optical dictionary, published by p. blakiston's son & co. of philadelphia in 1904. he was involved in many ophthalmic developments and academic matters as well. his obituary appeared in the october 21, 1938 issue of the optician (london) , vol. 96, no. 2482, p. 200. the f.r.p.s. after his name stands for fellow of the royal photographic society. the f.r.s.l. stands either for fellow of the royal society of literature or fellow of the royal society, london. a jubilee history of the hfak.: the first 25 years of the aahere fachschule fur augenoptik in koln (higher professional school for optometry in cologne) are described in a 136 page book presently in press and being published by suddeutsche optikerzeitung, the official journal of the zentralverband der augenoptiker, the zva, (central council of optometrists) of west germany. the author is dr. josef reiner the present "direktor" of the school. the decision of the delegates of zva to found the school was made on september 16, 1951. the school opened in february 4, 1952, under the directorship of dr. karl schachtschabel, now deceased. announcement o_f the forthcoming book was made in an editorial by hartmut h. schaedel, editor of suddeutsche optikerzeitung in the february 15, 1977, issue, volume 32, page 3. our brewery forefathers: colin eldridge studied law at the university of bristol and worked for some time for the corporation of london before he became clerk and director of examinations of the worshipful company of spectacle makers. in the winter 1976-77 issue of quest, the journal of the city university london, no. 32, pages 21-23, he provides a truly fascinating account of the origin and development of surely the most elegant corporate matrix in our profession's heritage, ordinarily -16referred to simply and warmly as the spectacle makers company, the s.m.c., or just the company. the article, entitled "far-sighted forefathers" really should be reprinted in full in several optometric and ophthalmic optical periodicals so that all of us might not only enjoy it but also gain from it a revealing historical perspective. here are a few gems. ·" ••• a minor company such as ours ••• has provided twenty lord mayors from amongst its past masters." " ••• the first sellers of spectacles were the haberdashers." " ••• in 1628 ••• a group of citizens who were engaged in the art or mystery of making spectacles had decided to try to obtain a chapter of incorporation. most of this group of sixteen london citizens who were spectacle makers were in fact members of the brewers company." "what would· be more natural if you were a spectacle maker in the brewers company than wanting to establish your own livery company? thus on 22 july 1628 the court of common council received a petition 'exhibited to the king's majesty by robert alt on behalf of himself and other poor spectacle makers in and about the city of london.'" the charter, along with its huge wax impression of the privy seal of charles i, was about the only one of the company's historical records which escaped the great fire of london (1666). the charter dated the "sixteenth day of may in the fifth year of our reign" (1629), granted legal authorities still unmatched by most optometry laws. these included the right of search and the taking of defective wares into "canning street and there broken on the remayning parte of london stone", power to make "byelaws and ordinances", and power to make taxes, assessments, penalties, fines, and punishments, and to examine apprentices for certification in craftsmanship. the word optician firstappears in the company's minutes in 1756, at which time spectacles were still being sold largely by unskilled retailers such as haberdashers who "did the best they could according to their lights, by allowing customers to try on the glasses and select those they thouglt: suited them best.... during the next hundred years, however, methods of "testing sight" were developed by the opticians and the company was able to capitalize on its historic right to test and assess their skill. when william thornthwaite, a fellow of the royal academy of science, was appointed to the "council of the company" he initiated the granting of the fsmc diploma to qualified members of the optical profession in january 1898. in 1902 the court considered favorably the question of the adviseability of including sight testing in their examinations. to this day students who complete the company's examinations are offered the "freedom of the company." in the late 1890's the company encouraged the then northampton polytechnic, now the city university london, to run appropriate courses in optics and paid the salary of the first lecturer, lionel laurance. there is much mot"e to the article~ all equally interesting. -17laurance's book was still being used as a course text when i was an optometry student atthe ohio state university in the late thirties. i have a suggestion. facsimiles of the w.s.m.c. chapter should be made available for purchase by optometrists, ophthalmic opticians, libraries, clinics, etc. i have seen beautifully and faithfully reproduced copies of many rare documents, often hard to distinguish from the originals. i would love to have a true copy of this charter displayed on the wall of my office. history in the making: grace weiner, our newest executive board member, sent in the following paragraphs: the fifteenth volume of stewart duke-elder's system of ophthalmology has just been published. it is a summary of systemic ophthalmology and a comprehensive general index to all the volumes. the earlier text-book of ophthalmology has become a classic and is still used by scholars and researchers. volume one of this set was published in 1932. forty­ five years certainly history in the making! often overlooked is the fact that duke-elder (like another very good writer, gordon walls) likes to inter­ sperse nuggets of humor in very unexpected places. as an example, try looking up his review of the wilmer ophthal­ mological institute; the first fifty years, 1925-1975, by m.e. randolph and r.b. welch, which appeared in the october 1976 issue of the british journal of ophthalmology (vol. 60, no. 10, pages 728-729). william horatio bates, m.d. (1860-1931). few are the older myopes and few are the older optometrists who are not aware of dr. bates' teachings to "throw away your glasses," the theme of this best seller and most frequently stolen book entitled "the cure of imperfect sight by treatment without glasses", also known simply as "perfect sight without glasses" as appeared on the cover. it was originally published in 1920. who was he? the following bits of information are taken from a news item in the july 11, 1931, issue of the new york times, vol. 80, no. 26, 831, page 13, and from a recent write-up in myopia news, 4 q-1976, published by the international myopia prevention association, r.d. 3, box 317, ligonier, pennsylvania 15658. -18dr. bates, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist was born in 1860 irt newark, new jersey. he graduated from cornell university in 1881 and received his medical degree from the college of physicians and surgeons in 1885. he was a clinical assistant at manhattan eye and ear hospital and attending physician at both bellevue hospital and the new york eye infirmary. he taught ophthalmo.logy at the new york postgraduate medical school and hospital from 1886 to 1891. in 1902, when he was making his way rapidly in his profession and was at work on an important medical book, he vanished from the sight and knowledge of his friends. the day that he was last seen, on august 30, he had written an affectionate, characteristic letter to his wife, who was then visiting her mother in newport, and he had sent her books and instruments from his apartment in the lonsdale, 567 madison avenue. when he failed to return to the apartment for several days the janitor informed mrs. bates, his second wife, who hurried to the city and began the search for her husband. six weeks later she learned that he was working as an assistant in the charing cross hospital, london, englan~, to which he had been taken as a patient. mrs. bates went to london, where she found her husband in an exhausted, nervous state, with no recollection of recent events. she took him to the savoy hotel, where he rested for two days and then disappeared again. mrs. bates sought her husband on the continent and in the country in vain, tracing every clue that reached her. she died before he was heard of again. how he was discovered and induced to return to new york and resume his practice has never been revealed in detail. according to the best version, a fellow oculist, dr. j.e. kelly, found dr. bates, by accident in 1910, in grand forks, north dakota. a few months later the two doctors occupied offices together in new york city, and thereafter dr. bates worked as hard and as successfully as he had done before his original disappear­ ance. he served as attending physician at harlem hospital until 1922~ in medical circles his strange disappearances were regarded as the manifestation of a most remarkable instance of aphasia or loss of memory. dr. bates died on july 10, 1931, after a year's illness, at his residence, 210 madison avenue, new york city. he was survived by a widow, the former mrs. emily ackerman lierman, who had been his assistant and partner in experimental research for 17 years before their marriage in august 1928, and by a son of the first of two earlier marriages. dr. bates was twice a widower. in his obituary it is stated that "he discovered the drug suprarenal, which has been called almost as valuable as cocaine in optic surgery." 66 or more optometry schools: · in response to my connnents entitled "early schools?" in the october 1976 issue of this newsletter our secretary-treasurer maria dablemont sent me a list of names of united states optometry schools which, in the files -19of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., are classified as "extinct." some, of course, are extinct in name only, as they had merged with other schools, or in a few cases, merely changed titles. here is the list: american institute of optometry, new york, new york american ophthalmic institute, new york city, new york atlantic university, virginia beach, virginia. bates' school of optometry, new york, new york bradley polytechnic institute, peoria, illinois california college of optometry, san francisco, california chicago ophthalmic college, chicago, illinois chicago ophthalmic college and hospital, chicago, illinois chicago post graduate optical college, chicago, illinois columbia university, school of optometry, new york, new york de keyser institute of optometry, portland, oregon demars school of optometry, minneapolis, minnesota denver optical college, denver, colorado detroit optical institute, detroit, michigan j.c. eberhardt's optometry courses, new york, new york ferguson's school of optometry, new york, new york hutchinson's school for watchmakers, engravers, and opticians, laporte, indiana indiana state college of optics, south bend, indiana iowa college of optometry, des moines, iowa johnston optical institute, chicago, illinois johnston optical institute and college of ophthalmology, chicago, illinois kansas city optical college, kansas city, missouri kansas city school of optometry, kansas city, missouri kansas school of optometry, topeka, kansas kellam and moore's college of optics, atlanta, georgia kentucky state college of optometry, mt. sterling, kentucky king school of optics, new york, new york klein optical school, boston, massachusetts knowles' school of optometry, new york, new york leader optical college, topeka, kansas lincoln optical college, lincoln, nebraska los angeles optical college, inc., los angeles, california lowe's school of optometry, mcminnville, oregon manhattan school of optics of the city of new york, new york, new york maryland optical college, baltimore, maryland mccormick neurological college, chicago, illinois mccormick optical college, chicago, illinois missouri college of optometry, st. louis, missouri needles institute of optometry, kansas city, missouri new england optical institute, boston, massachusetts new york institute of optometry, new york, new york the new york preparatory school, new york, new york new york school of optometry, new york, new york new york university, school of optometry, new york, new york north pacific college of optometry northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology northwest college of optometry, seattle, washington oregon college of ocular science, portland, oregon philadelphia optical college, philadelphia, pennsylvania pennsylvania college of optometry, pittsburg, pennsylvania pennsylvania college of optics and ophthalmology, philadelphia, pennsylv.ania -cont 'd-20the physicians' and surgeons' optical college, denver, colorado rochester school of optometry, rochester, new york rowley ophthalmological college, st. louis, missouri st. louis college of optometry, st. louis, missouri st. louis college of physicians and surgeons, st. louis, missouri south bend college of optics, south bend, indiana southern california college of optometry and ophthalmology, los angeles, california southern california eye college, inc., los angeles, california southern school of optometry, nashville, tennessee southwestern college of optometry, kansas city, missouri spencer optical institute, new york, new york syracuse school of optics, syracuse, new york texas college of optometry, dallas, texas university of rochester institute of optics, rochester, new york washington school of optometry, spokane, washington mrs. dablemont reports that her staff has fairly good information on some of them. t:hey are continously inviting elderly people, faculty, alumni, and others to improve the list with dates, places, history, etc. they will appreciate pictures, letterheads, diplomas, advertise­ ments, memoranda, receipts, or any other clues, corrections, or additions which we can provide. information on optometry schools in other countries is also solicited. to start the ball rolling let me add a few names not on the above list, as follows: chicago college of optometry, chicago, illinois (merged with northern illinois college of optometry to become illinois college of optometry) los angeles [school] college of optometry, los ~geles, california (recently became southern california college of optometry, fullerton, california) massachusetts college of optometry, boston, massachusetts (recently changed name to new england college of optometry) monroe college of optometry, chicago,illinois (later became chicago college of optometry) university of illinois, urbana,. illinois university of southern california, los angeles, california (1928-ca. 1933) philadelphia optical college, philadelphia, pennsylvania may still be operating as a mail order diploma mill. daltonism: the following account of john dalton's discovery of his color blind­ ness is copied from the february 1977 issue of applied optics, vol. 16, -21no. 2, page 520, where it was reproduced from a random walk in science compiled by r.l. weber and published by the institute of physics, 1973. it appeared originally in memoirs of the manchester literary andphildsophical society 5, 28(1798)_: __ i was always of opinion, though i might not often mention it, that several colours were in­ judiciously named. the term pink, in reference to the flower of that name, seemed proper enough; but when the term red was'substituted for pink, i thought it highly improper; it should have been blue, in my apprehension, as pink and blue appear to me very nearly allied; whilst pink and red have scarcely any relation. in the course of my application to the sciences, that of optics necessarily claimed atten­ tion; and i became pretty well acquainted with the theory of light and colours before i was apprized of any peculiarity in my vision. i had not, how­ ever, attended much to the practical discrimination of colours, owing, in some degree, to what i con­ ceived to be a perplexity in their nomenclature. since the year 1790, the occasional study of botany obliged me to attend more to colours than before. with respect to colours that were white, yellow, or green, i readily assented to the appropriate term. blue, purple, pink, and crimson appeared rather less distinguishable; being according to my idea, all referable to blue. i have often seriously asked a person whether a flower was blue or pink, but was generally considered to be in jest. not­ withstanding this, i was never convinced of a peculiarity in my vision, till i accidentally ob­ served the colour of the flower of the geranium zonale by candle-light in the autumn ofl792. the flower was pink, but it appeared to me ~lmost an exact sky-blue by day; in candle-light, however, it was astonishingly changed, not having then any blue in it, but being what i called red, a colour which forms a striking contrast to blue. not then doubt­ ing but that the change of colour would be equal to all, i requested some of my friends to observe the phenomenon; when i was surprised to find they all agreed, that the colour was not materially different from what it was by day-light, except my brother, who saw it in the same light as myself. this ob­ servation clearly proved, that my vision was not like that of other persons. -22the cross-eyed maya: "they considered being cross-eyed as a mark of beauty; their mothers brought this about intentionally ••• " ·"many gods of the maya pantheon ••• are pictured as being cross-eyed." "the first spaniards encountered maya who squinted." one author has suggested the desire for double vision as the motive. another suggested cosmetic reasons. joseph n. trachtman, o.d., has cited five published references and two personal communications which support the theory that the maya cultivated cross-eyedness intentionally. the references range from 1566 to the june 1975 issue of national geographic. his report, under the caption "techniques, instruments, cases" (sic!) appeared in the december 1976 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol 53, no. 12, pp. 807-808. the maya, incidentally, are a group of people of yucatan, british honduras, northern guatemala, and the state of tabasco, mexico, a total land area of almost 300,000 km2 (c~ 100,000 sq. mi.) approximately 1,100 km (ca. 700 mi.) straight east of mexico city, mexico. an optical calendar: melles griot (formerly optical industries), 1770 kettering street, irvine, california 92714, has put out an "optics calendar", the first issue for the three months of january, february, and march, 1977, with subsequent quarterly issues to follow. pictorially illustrated are benjamin franklin, ga~ileo, and fraunhofer, with bifocals, telescope and spectroscope, respectively. entered on their birth dates are the names of 39 persons of accomplishment in optics, their years of birth and death, and their contributions to optical science. examples are ernst abbe, w.k. von haidinger, ernst mach, heinrich r. hertz, benjamin thompson (count rumford), and rene descartes. the second issue, for april, may, and june, arrived very recently, after i wrote the above two paragraphs. it shows portraits of huygens, jean-baptiste biot, max planck, and fresnel. birth dates and other information are given for euler, gauss, von graefe, donders, gullstrand, and dolland. melles griot, incidentally, is pronounced mell~ us gree~ oh. "top secret" these are the words stamped in small capital letters in the upper right corner of the front cover of. a 76 page 25 x 16.5 em booklet entitled "policy manual of the australian optometrical association", no. 1, -23december, 1975, compiled by o.h.s. member charles wright and jane ferguson, who hold the designations of national historian and assistant national historian, respectively, of the australian optometrical association. addressed to me personally by charles wright, but with no further indication of its secret nature, it prompted my immediate perusal. though of fascinating content, the booklet seemed to justify no special secrecy, but, then, of course, we here cannot presume to judge what issues are delicate and sensitive on the opposite side of the globe. i can only presume, therefore, that charles wright trusts that i will exercise some precautions in whatever comments i make. therefore i will say something about it only as a document of historical significance. the manual is a codification of policy resolutions adopted by the participants of the 27 australian optometrical association conferences since its founding in 1918 and by the national executive council at interim meetings. the table of contents provides for 48 subject headings. an alphabetized index occupies nine pages. each referenced resolution is dated, but the earliest ones cited are for 1925, the year of the 7th conference, suggesting a lack of earlier recorded information of adopted resolutions. what were the views on optometric issues in 1925? the records show a favorable attitude on reciprocity of licenses between states, an expression of appreciation to the university of adelaide for arranging a course in optometry, an invitation to professor woll of the u.s.a. to come to australia for educational purposes, a reconnnendation that each state association establish a public clinic, the adoption of criteria for qualification for reciprocity, the expression of appreciation to mr. w.g. kett for his untiring efforts as editor of the commonwealth optometrist, the encouragement of consultations between practicing optometrists, a note of thanks to the wholesalers for making the instrument display so successful, the initiation of steps to discourage wholesalers from doing retail business, the investigation of steps deemed necessary to protect the interests of optometry when a national insurance act is promulgated, the adoption of the capitation fee at 2 shillings, the formulation of a national publicity scheme, the adoption of a national publicity seal, the appointment of a publicity officer, the reaffirmation of resolutions adopted in 1924 relating to motorists' vision, and the protesting of discrimination in the forms issued by the department of public instruction in new south wales. spectacles oo coins: "uber brillenmedaillen und mlinzen" (concerning spectacle medals and coins) is the title of an article by prof. dr. albert v. -24pflugk of dresden which was called to my attention by dr. alan york in the january issue of this newsletter, pages 7-8. the article appeared in the albrecht von graefes archiv fur ophthalmologie, vol. 105, 1921, pages 688-707, plus four unnumbered. pages of four plates. the article, a classic, is concerned with the appearance of spectacles on early coins, medals, chips, and minted tokens, real and counterfeit. the author searched through major numismatic collections of 16th and 17th century coins and medals. besides commenting historically on coin after coin he identified the collection in which each coin is included, and the catalog or inventory member, and in most instances quoted pertinent sentences from numismatic lexicons. thirty-two coins, front and back impressions, are displayed in the four plates. thank you, dr. staiman: o.h.s. member jacob staiman, o.d., 15 w. mt. vernon place, baltimore, maryland 21201, recently donated five books to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, all five very familiar to those of us who have been around a half a century or more. the earliest is bernan~ macfadden, "strengthening the eyes; a system of scientific eye training," 1936. the others are troncoso, "a treatise on gonioscopy," 1948, arthur linksz, "physiology of the eye," volumes i and ii, 1950 and 1952, and bernard samuels and adalbert fuchs, "clinical pathology of the eye," 1952. that dr. staiman is truly of historic bent and a supporter of museums and archives is further documented by his biographical resume in the 1972 directory of the american optometric association. dickson collection donated to ilamo: o.h.s. member james f. dickson, jr., o.d., and his wife marjorie b., an r.n., p.o. box 909, lindsay, california 93247, have donated an outstanding and truly immense collection of optometricana to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. the collection includes well over 500 items of recognized'value including a wide variety of spectacles, mailing boxes, cases, cleaning cloths, tapestry, a gas mask, an eye massager, a linen tester, contact lenses, advertisements, bills, rece~pts, a screw driver, a spring clip, repair kits, cabinets, early state board questions, and many volumes of old journals. the donors have displayed parts of the collection in years gone by, such as in 1955 on panoramic pacific on the cbs network in los angeles, and in 1957 at the american optometric association congress in los angeles, and on kmj tv, fresno, california, and at the emporium in san fransisco on other occasions. many of the items in the collection trace back through dr. dickson's parents, both of whom were graduates of the old needles institute of optometry in kansas city. his father, dr. james f. dickson, sr., graduated in 1914 and practiced until about 1933 in anthony, kansas, and subsequently in wichita, kansas, briefly at 141 n. market, almost 10 years at 401 e. douglas, and almost 10 more in the brown building. his mother, inez m. dickson never took the board examinations. -25sixty minutes of pure history: o.h.s. president "hank" knoll has requested an historical gathering of all and anyone having even the faintest curiosity about optometry's heritage. o.h.s. secretary-treasurer maria dablemont has arranged a very convenient hour (4:00 to 5:00 p.m.) on a very convenient day (monday, july 5) at the headquarters hotel (hotel royal york) of the american optometric association congress in toronto, ontario, canada. the session will terminate just a convenient thirty minutes prior to the ceremonial opening of the exhibit hall. it will not be necessary for you or your friends to register or pay to attend this one hour gathering of optometric history buffs. the majority, and perhaps all, of the members of the o.h.s. executive board will be present to greet you. president knoll plans a snappy program of not more than three 10 minute commentaries by speakers to be selected, with the remaining time to be conducted in new england town meeting fashion. the topic, theme, and concern will be, of course, optometric history. about professor krawicz: "why he will always be remembered" is the title of an article about professor tadeusz krawicz, developer of the cryoextraction technique of cataract surgery. the author, jerzy zielinski, tells the story in popular reporting style but with remarkable technical detail. it appears on pages 6-7 and 23-25 of the december 1976 issue of poland, no. 12 (in english). professor krawicz is a polish ophthalmologist in the city of lublin. big optics in miniature country: "a candle-operated lamp with a navel-type lens" circa 1620, and a portrait of a subject holding a pair of eyeglasses by q~entin massys (1465/66-1530), from the collection of the princes of liechtenstein, are illustrated in the december 1976 issue of applied optics, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 2979-2982, and on the front cover. the article is entitled "optics in liechtenstein" by alfred thelan. the illustrations are introductory to a discussion of the founding of the balzers company in the nineteen forties in the principality of liechtenstein and commentary on its development and uniqueness. balzers is also the name of the village in which the company is located. o.e.p. "analytical": in the november 1976 mailing of the optometric extension program foundation is a paper by g.n. getman, o.d., entitled an incredible -26heritage in which is traced the origin of the o.e.p. analytical examination and procedure as organized and taught by the late dr. a.m. skeffington. the article is series 1 no. 2 under the series title "optometric analysis of visual performance". louis jaques in 1923: on january 29, 1923, dr. louis jaques wrote a letter to his fellow optometrists in which he discussed at some length the fee schedule in his office. he cited fees and views of several contemporary optometrists and presented arguments for putting more emphasis on the service fees and less on the materials. the letter was given to the archives committee of the southern california college of optometry and published in full in the winter 1977 issue of alumniscope, page 7. the accompanying editorial comment was, " ••• one is struck with the fact that the same issues that existed 53 years ago are still topics of controversary today." more memorials to optometrists: the e.b. alexander optometric fellowship (reference: the gesell institute of child development, new haven, connecticut). the herbert g. mote distinguished faculty award (reference: the ohio state university, college of optometry, columbus, ohio). h.w. hofstetter, editor 1977-08-02-001 1977-08-02-002 1977-08-02-003 1977-08-02-004 1977-08-02-005 1977-08-02-006 1977-08-02-007 1977-08-02-008 1977-08-02-009 1977-08-02-010 1977-08-02-011 1977-08-02-012 1977-08-02-013 1977-08-02-014 r· . hindsi g hj;ndtana iimveiisity // newsletter of the aug 0 5 optometric historical society 1999 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141~1¥ volume 30 april1999 number 2 history of the new england college of optometry documented: century of vision: the new england college of optometry-an anecdotal history of the first hundred years, by susan watson moline, boston: the new england college of optometry, 1994, 106 pages of text plus 19 pages of appendices. this book is a history of the new england college of optometry published in 1994 on the occasion of its centennial. in 1894 august andreas klein started the klein school of optics in boston. august klein was born in germany in 1846, and came to the united states with his mother when he was 16 years old. klein graduated from the boston university school of medicine in 1882. after studying ophthalmology in germany, klein opened an ophthalmology practice in boston and started the klein school of optics. klein lectured and served as president of the school until he died in 1936. initially the school offered a one-year program with courses in optics, dispensing, refraction, physics, mathematics, anatomy, and pathology. in the first few years, courses in ophthalmology, chemistry, and mechanical optics were added. the faculty initially was composed of seven persons including august klein, and three of his children, theodore f. klein, herman l. klein, and wilhelmina a svendsen. herman klein was an 1 897 graduate of the school. edwin p. wells, of the american optical company, started the mechanical optics program. in 1901 the name of the school was changed to the massachusetts school of optometry. the 1905-06 school catalog pointed out the advantages of a career in clinical optics: "an optician has an elegant, delicate, scientific profession, his patrons are mostly ladies, he has less drudgery to do than the physician, he does less worrying than the lawyer, and is more independent than the minister, and one of the greatest advantages is that his profession is not overcrowded. there are good chances for all scientific opticians." in 1909 the academic program was lengthened to two years. at this time theodore klein became director of the school with august klein continuing as president. theodore served as director of the school from 1909 until his death in 1946. he was also president of the school from 1936 to 1946, even though he was blind the last few years of his life. his three daughters worked in his office at various times, and helped him with daily tasks as his vision declined. theodore stopped teaching in 1 940. massachuse~ts established licensure of optometrists in 1912. the massachusetts school of optometry became a charter member of the international federation of optometry schools in 1920. in 1921 tuition was $175. in the early 1920s the first year courses were algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics, anatomy, practical optics, theoretic optometry, physiology, practical optometry, and clinics. the second year curriculum was theoretic optometry'· practical optometry, pathology, clinics, physiologic optics, theoretic optics, and hygiene. theodore f. sargent, who entered the school in 1922, noted in a 1979 interview that the school was " ... run by dedicated men who could see a future, and that future was refraction." albert sloane attended the school in the late 1920s. he recalled there being about 27 students in his class and that " ... for the most part, you could divide them into three categories. first were the students whose parents or friends owned jewelry stores. they were convinced there was future for them. i think fully a quarter of my class fell into this category. the next group were those who found optometry to be an inexpensive entree into a profession. economics drove many of us, like myself, who wanted to be in a profession but could not afford medical school . . . . the third group of students was a number of boys who came from relatively well-to-do families and had gone to private schools and failed. they were not medical school caliber, but their parents wanted them to keep on trying." the book contains many remembrances by graduates about faculty members at the school. some of those mentioned most often were ralph h. green, foster namias, otto hochstadt, and frank kozol. green graduated from the massachusetts school of optometry in 1 927, and joined the faculty in 1 930. he taught theoretical and applied optometry, and was dean of the school from 1 946 to 1 965. foster namias was the son of an optometrist and had worked for the american optical company. namias enrolled in the massachusetts school of optometry in 1930, and after graduation joined the faculty. he taught mainly in the areas of ophthalmic optics and fabrication, and was described as brilliant and very demanding. otto hochstadt was a physician from austria, who came to the united states in about 1939. hochstadt taught the biomedical sciences. he was recalled as generous, a fine teacher, and very loyal to optometry. frank kozol enrolled in the massachusetts school of optometry in 1 942. after an interruption of his education due to his service as a combat medic in world war ii, he graduated in 1948. kozol served on the faculty for over 40 years starting in 1 951 . " the program was increased from two years to three years in 1934. in the 1 930s and for many years thereafter most of the faculty were part-time faculty and were alumni of the school who were in practice. during world war ii there were only about four or five students per class. theodore klein died in 1946 at 68 years of age. the school became a non­ profit organization in 1946, with herman klein being elected president. herman klein was president until his death in 1 951 . the g .i. bill increased the number of students after the war, with 98 entering the school in 1946. 30/10 in 194:7, the american optometric association's council on education and professional guidance granted the school accreditation. in 1950, the name of the school was changed to the massachusetts college of optometry, and the massachusetts board of collegiate authority granted it the right to award the bachelor of science in optometry degree. the first doctor of optometry degree was conferred in 1953. in the mid 1960s class sizes were about 50. in 1 967, tuition was $1 ,000. the faculty continued to be mostly a part-time faculty in the 1 960s, with only three full­ time faculty in 1969. perhaps the most sweeping changes in the college came during the presidency of william r. baldwin (1969-1979). these changes included recruiting nationwide for faculty and students, adding alumni representative positions on the board of trustees, expanding the curriculum to put more emphasis on pharmacology and biomedical sciences, and increasing clinical training opportunities. in 1972 the accelerated two year o.d. program for students who held doctorate degrees in related fields was started with 12 students. the name of the school was changed to the new england college of optometry in 1976 to reflect its regional emphasis. f. dow smith was president of the college from 1979 to 1985. by 1985, the academic programs offered by the college included the four year o.d. program, the accelerated o.d. program, two year programs to train optometric technicians and optometric assistants, and a post-doctoral residency program. in 1985, the college had 30 full-time faculty, the tuition was $·1 0,650 per year, and the enrollment was about 350. the author of this book holds a degree in journalism and is described as "an editorial consultant to nearly 30 colleges, universities, and hospitals, mainly in the boston area." interspersed throughout the book are a number of black and white photographs, some of which are labeled and many of which are not labeled. the inclusion of the phrase "anecdotal history" in the subtitle apparently derives from the book being based largely on interviews and from the numerous quotations from various individuals throughout the book. the book includes a short foreword by joseph bickford, the college's chairman of the board, and short afterword by larry r. clausen, the college's president. the 19 pages of appendices consist of a listing of various officials, the mission statement of the college, and a time line of events. the book does not have an index or reference citations. d.a.g. babe ruth did not have amblyopia when he played baseball: readers of the journal optometry and vision science may recall seeing an article a couple years ago about the possibility that babe ruth had amblyopia (voisin a, elliott db, regan d. babe ruth: with vision like that, how could he hit the ball? optom vis sci 1997; 74:144-146). the authors reported contacting dr. gerald kara, who had practiced ophthalmology at the new york ear and eye infirmary and had examined 30/11 babe ruth in the spring or summer of 1946. kara diagnosed amblyopia after finding visual acuities of 6/6 od and 6/60 os. kara recalled that ruth's eyes appeared healthy, he did not have strabismus, and had equal refractive errors of + 1.00 din the two eyes. late in the summer of 1 946 ruth started having blinding headaches, pain over his left eye, toothaches, and a hoarse throat. in 1948 ruth died of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. voisin et al. suggested that it is possible that ruth's cancer may have affected his optic nerve at the time of kara' s examination enough to have reduced visual acuity, but not enough to have affected other ocular findi,ngs that would have indicated a pathological cause for the reduction in visual acuity. they also noted that amblyopia in the absence of strabismus or anisometropia would have been unlikely. babe ruth retired from baseball in 1935, at the age of 40, some years before the examination by dr. kara. henry hofstetter recently shared with me a correspondence he conducted with charles letocha between june 16, 1997 and april 10, 1998 concerning babe ruth's vision. their search for clarification culminated in a letter to letocha dated march 27, 1 998 from alfred lit, emeritus professor at southern illinois university. lit enclosed a copy of an e-mail message that he had sent on september 18, 1997 to some members of a binocular vision e-mail exchange group, who were also discussing the question. the following are some excerpts from that message: ". . . i believe that i am the unidentified new york city optometrist who examined babe ruth sometime between 1938 (upon receipt of my n.y. state license to practice optometry) and early july of 1 943 (when i was inducted into the armed services during ww ii). "during my examination, mr. ruth's only visual complaint was his inability to clearly see a golfball when teeing off, and to a lesser degree, when putting. this distressed him because he was about to leave for vacation or establish residency in florida ... but in either case he was looking forward to an active golf schedule. mr. ruth hoped that i could provide a pair of glasses that would improve his vision for objects located at nearby ground distances, thereby improving his golf score. "my optometric examination revealed near-emmetropia with about 20/20 va in each eye. also, no signs of ocular pathology were detected ophthalmoscopically and no binocular insufficiencies were noted. mr. ruth's visual problem was essentially a case of incipient presbyopia. if i had examined his eyes in, say, 1941, mr. ruth would have been about 46 years of age at that time. a diagnosis of monocular 'amblyopia' would be false, even an absurd diagnosis. mr. ruth was provided with a pair of golf/near vision lenses (about + 1.00 dptr, o.u.) as i remember it now, more than 55 years later. mr. ruth departed for florida and i received no negative feedback from him before i entered the armed services in 1943. "dr. gerald b. kara, an ophthalmologist at the n.y. eye and ear infirmary, had examined babe ruth in 1947, a year before he died of cancer of the larynx. in a letter 30/12 to argus in _july, 1990, dr. kara reported ruth's va for the right eye as 20/15 and a va of 20/200 for the left. his brief letter did not provide data to resolve the question of whether babe ruth's poor vision in the left eye was also present during his baseball playing years or whether the loss of vision occurred only in his late years in association with his bout with terminal cancer. "in conclusion, on the basis of the findings of my examination in the early' 40s, babe ruth was not an 'amblyope' during his baseball playing years. he more likely suffered a monocular loss of vision only in later life due to his cancer and/or another systemic disorder or disease." d.a.g. accomplishments of thomas young noted: i have always been amazed at the breadth of the accomplishments and the intellect of the english physician thomas young. a recent article documenting his achievements (gauger ge. the great mind of thomas young (1773-1829). documenta ophthalmologica 1 997; 94: 11 3-121) gave me even greater wonder for the breadth and depth of his abilities. thomas young was born of quaker parents on june 13, 1773, at milverton, somersetshire, england. he was very precocious and was said to have started reading at the age of two and had read the bible from front to back twice by the age of four. he studied medicine in london, edinburgh, and gottingen, and received the m.d. degree at cambridge in 1808. he completed a thesis in which he developed a phonetic alphabet, based on the analysis of the sounds produced in speech. he studied linguistics and languages extensively, and knew many languages, among them latin, greek, hebrew, french, german, italian, arabic, chaldean, aramaic, and persian. young's contributions to vision science are among the most important in the field, including his studies of the mechanism of accommodation in which he showed that the crystalline lens was responsible for accommodation, the first description of astigmatism, and the first description of a trichromatic theory of color vision. young published extensively in the area of clinical medicine. some of his writings were a comprehensive medical bibliography, a textbook on consumption, an analysis of motions of the heart and arteries, and various contributions to therapeutic methods, such as young's rule for pediatric doses. young is noted for his textbook on physics, entitled lectures in natural philosophy and the mechanical arts, first published in 1 807. it contained physical explanations and engineering principles for numerous machines, structures, and natural phenomena. some of the major contributions to science in the book were young's modulus of elasticity, his experiments on interference, and his development of a wave theory of light. 30/13 young made_ extensive contributions to encyclopedia britannica. he wrote essays on topics in physics, mathematics, languages, optics, engineering, economics, and geography. he also wrote 45 biographical pieces. around 1812 young became interested in the rosetta stone, the tablet discovered in egypt in 1799 that contained writing in greek, egyptian demotics, and egyptian hieroglyphics. by insight gained from his studies on the varying structures of languages he was able to provide the first translation of egyptian hieroglyphics. young published various writings on hieroglyphics, and was working on an egyptian dictionary when he died in may of 1829 a few weeks short of his 56th birthday. d.a.g. * * * . managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (1050 sassafras circle, bloomington, in 47408, u.s.a:) and douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.) " 30/14 1999-30-02-001 1999-30-02-002 1999-30-02-003 1999-30-02-004 1999-30-02-005 1999-30-02-006 newsletter of the (243 north l indberrs~~~!~~~d~i~~~r[~~~s :~;~fnv6f1h~~.!py.s .a.) \;.co •: t·.,r ... ,:·;,., ·; 2(;; :j ~~~:.;;;,;.:;~:i·.j !::•' ~ vol. 11 july 1980 number 3 jun 3 01980 call for nominations: jhl:"t':·'al!l r::~;'''l"fl:""'"''' our by-laws state, 11 election to membef~k~iw'~f}nu~f;~:tj~~~utive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least three members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ba 11 ot. .. c. ' the board member whose term will expire this year, december 31, 1980 is maria dablemont. nominations for her continuation or replacement for a five year term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot in october. by all means do not hesitate to nominate yourself as a candidate if such responsibility challenges you. remember, self-nominated volunteers founded the o.h.s., and unpaid volunteers have kept it going. nominations should be submitted to henry hofstetter or douglas penisten c/o indiana university school of optometry, bloomington, in 47405. the british college of ophthalmic opticians in the october 1977 issue of the newsletter it was announced that the formation of the college of ophthalmic opticians was soon forthcoming. the following bulletin has been distributed by the college to formally announce that as of march 1, 1980, the british college of ophthalmic op­ ticians officially exists. the ophthalmic optical profession is delighted to announce the advent of the british college of ophthalmic opticians which came into being on march 1st, 1980. the most important immediate advantage of the college is the formation of a single examining body for ophthalmic opticians in place of the three which existed formerly, namely, the british optical association, the scottish association of opticians and the worshipful company of spectacle makers. it is also anticipated that a single body speaking with one voice will have considerably more professional influence. objects of the college the objects of the college as laid down in the memorandum can be summarised as being •to act as a professional and educational body for the furtherance of the interests of ophthalmic optics and the wellbeing and welfare of patients•. -37structure of the college already the college has an academic committee, an executive committee, a finance committee and a professional standards committee. officers of the college the officers of the college are president, p.j. cole; vice-president, k.a. harwood; treasurer, r.b. thorpe; executive secretary, c.j. eldridge; academic secretary, p.a. smith; scottish secretary, j.c. neil the future in reverse: the program of the 53rd congress of the international optometric and optical league held in nagoya, japan, featured a two-hour session on 11 the future of optometry 11 on the closing date of may 30. the selected panel speakers were h. barry collin (australia}, thea gumpelmayer (austria), rudi arnold (west germany), theophilus kpabitey (ghana), k. marie (japan), per soderberg (sweden), gerald dunn (england), and ron fair (u.s.a.), with herbert l. moss (u.s.a.) presiding. approximately three hundred attended. t·1os t i nteres ti ng was the fact that virtually 99% of the discourse dealt with history! early indiana organization data: five volumes of early ledger records were recently received from the headquarters of the indiana optometric association. their variety of entries range from december 10, 1896 to february 15, 1944. the five entries dated december 10, 1896, are identified as initiation fees of five dollars each for i.m. rowe (indianapolis), ed shipley (greencastle), john wimmer (indianapolis). during january, 1897, twenty-seven more paid in their five dollar initiation fees, and six more during february and march. there the treasury seemed to remain fixed until january 1, 1901, when $1.25 was spent on stamps. the treasurer during this period was i.m. rowe. on january 29, 1901, some renewal membership fees of $2.00 each were collected, as were some new­ member initiation fees of $5.00. the beginning name of the organization was the indiana optical society. these records, written in longhand, are remarkably legible and contain many incidental bits of information, not exactly meaningful but nevertheless fascinating. they are being forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. -38two brief historical sketches: the march-april 1980 issue of the east german publication augenoptik, vol. 97, no. 2, features a historical note concerning isaac newton (16431727) on the inside front cover, including illustrations of newton's portrait and of an artist's conception of trinity college at cambridge, where newton enrolled as a student and later succeeded his mentor i. barrow. the note credits the poet alexander pope as saying (translated from the german) 11 nature and her laws lay concealed in darkness. then god spoke, 'let there be newton!', and all became clear. 11 the same issue, pages 40-45, includes an article 11 zur geschichte des ophthalmoskopischen geratebaus 11 (on the history of ophthalmoscopic instrument making) by peter wengler of jena. among the illustrated instruments are von graefe's version of helmholtz's ophthalmoscope, a 1911 gullstrand ophthalmoscope, a 1929 polyophthalmoscope for nine simultaneous observers, a 1901 retinal camera by dimmer, a 1925 nordenson retinal camera with arc lamp, and a 1930 para·llactic refractometer. correction and amplification: if history buffs have any single characteristic in common, it must be the urge to keep the record straight, and, to that end, to check each other for accuracy. so our attention was called, but most delightfully, to the erroneous assumption in the last paragraph of our january issue that the title of an article in the australian journal of optometry was 11sixty years of optometry ... it turns out, writes charles wright, the author, that this is the title of a continuing series of articles, and that the title for this fifth single installment, in less conspicuous type, is 11 journals and newsletters ... the previous installments, all in 1979, writes he, are as follows: 1. the origin and constitution of the australian optometrical association, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 20-23. 2. optometric education in australia, vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 108-113. 3. optometric legislation, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 158-160. 4. the national health act, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 203-209. inconveniently, the volume 62 issues have been removed from our library to be sent to the bindery just a few days before mr. wright's letter arrived, so a possible review of these will have to await the return of the bound volume, a process which takes interminably longer than can seem possible. -39in the same letter, however, our attention is called to an earlier article in the same journal entitled, "co-operation with ophthalmology in queensland 1910-1r in the june 1978 issue, vol. 61, no. 6, pages 209-214. of incidental interest in his article is a preliminary parenthetical comment to remind the reader that although 11 0ptometrist 11 and "ophthalmologist" are used throughout the article, the respectively synonymous terms in genera 1 use in 1910-17 were 11 0pti ci an" and 11 oculist". a large share of the information ~as derived from hansard, q~eensland parliament. punk ta 1 his tory "entwicklung der punktalbrillenglaser 11 (evolution of punktal ophthalmic lenses) is the title of an article by w. horichs of jena, east germany, in the january-february, 1980, issue of augenoptik, vol. 97, no. 1, pages 3-6. the author traces ophthalmic lens development from the origin of spectacles and identifies seven contributors to punktal technology, johann heinrich august dunker (1767-1843), moritz von rohr (1868-1940), allvar gullstrand (1862-1940), otto henker (1874-1926), hans boegehold (1876-1965), rudolf lincke (1883-1960), and hermann pistor (1875-1951), with a portrait of each. looking backward and forward looking backwardlooking forward 1904-1979 is the title of a richly assembled 64 page 18 x 28 em historical booklet published by the southern california college of optometry to commemorate its 75 years of existence. the institution was started as the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry in 1904 and underwent several subsequent name and location changes. the booklet is profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs for each of several separately described significant periods of the college•s history. magnifier lamp a news re 1 ease from an-be u-wi s associates, inc. , 120 !~. palisades blvd., palisades park, new jersey 07650, advertises their "big eye 11 , a high intensity floor model lamp with an attached 13 em magnifying lens for stamp and coin collectors, hobbyists, et al. -40ophthalmic museum an ophthalmic museum is the title of a three part article by anthony sabell of the department of ophthalmic optics at the university of aston in birmingham, england, which appeared in the contact lens journal. each article (jan., feb., march 1980) covers different items in the university of aston collection which chronologically relate to the development of contact lens fitting. plentiful photographs of turn-of-the-century ophthalmic instruments and contact lenses add much to the historical discussion. optometry~ puerto rico ramon pacheco ii and sixto pacheco iii have forwarded an historical summary of optometry in puerto rico written by antonio pacheco ii. it is especially valuable for its conciseness. legal and academic aspects of optometry in puerto rico 1493-1980 columbus discovered puerto rico for spain in 1493 and we had a spanish-puerto rican government for 405 years until 1898 when the usa-puerto rican government was established in puerto rico. optometry did not exist under the spanish­ puerto rican government and as of today, optometry does not exist in spain. the existence of optometry in puerto rico is due to our relationship vjith the united states of america since 1898 and all the optometrists authorized to practice in puerto rico by law since 1909 are graduates of usa optometric schools. the academic development of optometry in puerto rico is the same as in the united states of america in the last 82 years from 1898 to 1980. the treaty of paris ended the spanish-american war in december 10, 1898 by which puerto rico became part of the united states of america. the civil usa-puerto rican government was established in 1900 and this government approved a law creating the first medical board of examiners in march 12, 1903. the medical law of 1903 did not have any provision dispensing health professionals that were practicing in puerto rico without a license before the approval of the law in 1903 (grandfather clause). this law did contain a disposition dispensing the health professionals that had a license and were legally authorized to practice their profession in puerto rico by the spanish-puerto rican government before 1898. the first application to practice optometry in puerto rico was submitted to the board of medical examiners by doctor antonio pacheco i the 24th of november of 1908 and the first optometric license was issued in april 15, 1909 to doctor antonio pacheco i after meeting the following legal and academic requirements of section 3 of medical law of march 12, 1903: -41every person hereinafter wishing to practice medicine or surgery, or any of the branches thereof or midwifery in any of their departments in this island, shall apply to said board for a certificate or license so to do. applications from said candidates shall be in writing and accompanied by proof that the applicant is a graduate of a school or institution in good standing and legally organized, and duly approved by the said board of examiners; if the diploma is found genuine, which fact said board of examiners shall determine, and if the person presenting and claiming said diploma be the person to whom the same was originally granted, at a time and place designated by said board, or at a regular meeting of said board, said applicant shall be required to take an examination. the original examinations and the original answers of that first optometric examination to doctor antonio pacheco i in 1909 are carefully preserved in the optometric archives and historical museum of puerto rico. doctor antonio pacheco i · was also the first puerto rican optometrist to obtain a license to practice in the united states of america in the state of new york in 1926 after a previous written and practical examination. he practiced in new york city until his death in 1945. only one optometrist was legally authorized to practice in puerto rico from 1903 to 1911. the government of puerto rico conscious of the optometric profession, after the first optometric license was issued in 1909, and of future candidates to practice optometry, made an amendment to section 3 of ~1edi ca 1 law of march 12, 1903; quoted in the previous page, to include the optometrists by medical law 79 of march 9, 1911 as follows: be it enacted by the legislative assembly of puerto rico: section 1 that section 3 of an act entitled 11 an act providing for the organization of a board of medical examiners 11 approved march 12, 1903, be and is hereby amended so as to read as follows: every person hereafter wishing to practice medicine or surgery or any of the branches thereof or mid­ wifery in any of their departments in this island as well as osteopathy or optometry or any of the branches thereof shall apply to said board for a certificate or license so to do. -42the second optometric license was issued in puerto rico by the medical board in 1913 two years after the approval of law 79 of march 9, 1911 after a previous written and practical examination to the aspirant. all optometric licenses were issued by the medical board in the same manner until 1930, when the first board of examiners in optometry was created by law 78 of 1930. this law 78 of 1930 was repealed by optometric law 80 of 1964, and is the law in force in puerto rico now with its amendments. this law can be found in the blue book of optometrists. dr. antonio pacheco i introduced optometry in puerto rico in 1908 by being the first graduate of optometry in puerto rico. optometry was first recognized for the first time in puerto rico when he obtained the first optometric license in 1909 from the board of medical examiners. dr. sixto pacheco i was a member of the first board of examiners in optometry of puerto rico in 1930 by appointment of the governor of puerto rico, honorable theodore roosevelt. both brothers are dead; antonio died in 1945 and sixto in 1950. visual humor the following 1936 cartoon is from henry hofstetter•s extensive cartoon collection. . --------___________ .....,..... ___ . ."---·-r--·--·--------· ··--------l -43student papers the following papers are more writings from optometry students. these papers were written as a requirement for the course in optometric history at indiana university. public health legislation in wisconsin: 1925 by don kaiser optometry as an organized profession is one of relatively recent development. while the lens fitters and jewelers from whom the modern optometrist can trace his origins were active for several centuries, it has been only since the end of the last century and early part of the twentieth century that optometry became something of the profession as we know it today. to define and more firmly establish the profession in the health field, a necessary requirement was le9islation of some sort controlling the practice of optometry. considering the disagreement between health professionals around the turn of the century over who should in fact be able to practice optometry, it is not surprising that most, if not all, of the legislation controlling the profession was passed only after heavy debate and careful politickinq which would, i'm sure, rival the scenes today of the more­ heated sessions of our legislators at the state and national levels. of course laws controlling the practice of optometry were not all passed within a short time; it took several decades for all states in the united states to pass an optometry law. once passed, the practitioner was guaranteed nothing as many attempts were made at changing or modifying the law with amendments, or by passage of other regulatory statutes. i would like to discuss here the events surrounding one specific law in one state, n~ home state of wisconsin. it is an interesting example of what was going on in this country, as far as optometry goes, in the earlier years of this century. wisconsin was the 36th state in this country to pass an optometry law, on august 30, 1915. passage of this law was, like all others, a battle for the optometrists, or opticians as many still called themselves, of the day. passage of the optometry law regulating whc could and could not practice optometry did not end the battle between health professionals of the day and the basic science law of 1925 demonstrates the liveliness of the struggle. -44the basic science law was originally proposed in the early part of 1925 sponsored by the wisconsin state medical society. it would have required, in its original form, that all health professionals, doctors, optometrists, dentists, chiropractors, osteopaths, and the like be examined by a state basic science examining board before licensure. a five dollar licensing fee was also to be charged. it would require a high school education and courses beyond that in anatomy, physiology, pathology, and diagnosis. it•s goal was to provide the public with protection from deceit, fraud, and quackery. in its early form, this was about all the law said and opposition from optometry was light; what opposition was present was mostly against the five dollar fee. after optometry at about the same time proposed a change in the optometry law which would have prevented doctors accepted to practice after january l, 1926, from practicing optometry unless licensed by the state board of optometry, the basic science bill was amended and its intent became more clear. this prompted the headline below on a bulletin from the wisconsin optometric association: .. wisconsin basic science law declared dangerous to optometry--all optometrusts urged to oppose it--vigorous and prompt word needed ... it became more evident that the bill •s backers were attempting to subjugate optometry. furthermore, the state board of optometry felt that the implication of the bill was that the board, operating since passage of the initial optometry law, was not competently doing its job of controlling the professional standards and practice of optometry. a common feeling of optometrists was that passage of the bill would remove the moral right to practice in the state and many feared that this could quickly be followed by elimination of the legal right as well. optometry responded quickly, and in my opinion, cleverly as well, to the situation. to assure legislators that optometry was just as concerned with improving the professional standards of the practice of refraction, they proposed an amendment to the optometry law, bill 364a, which provided for stricter educational requirements for those involved in refraction. specifically it required those involved in refraction, including medical doctors, to have attended a regular optometrical school and have had 2000 hours of instruction before being licensed to pracitce. this amendment was acted on favorably by the committee on public welfare and sent to the assembly. the net effect of this was to give optometry some bargaining power in regards to the basic science law. initially, physicians strongly opposed the -45exemption of optometrists from the law, although dentists had been exempted with no problems. some publicity of the day reported optometry as the lone opposition to the basic science bill. this was simply not the case as other pro­ fessions, including chiropratic, also opposed it. dentistry supported it only because they had been assured of exemption. what finally resulted was a compromise wheregy optometry was excluded form the basic science law and physicians were excluded from bill 364a, the amendment to the optometry law. both bills in their revised forms were acted on favorably by the legislature and signed into law by governor blaine. optometry was able, by its careful maneuvering to still be exempted from the medical profession's regulatory statute as well as maintain its appearance in the public eye as concerned, dedicated health professionals that have truly been the backbone of optometry. it really comes down to a case of "fight fire with fire"; if they want to pass a law controlling us, we'll pass law controlling them, an interesting and effective technique in my opinion, well used by our forerunners in optometry to help make our profession what it is today. bibliography 1) gregg, j.r., american optometric association--a history 2) optical journal and review, (15) 4/2/25; p. 43 3) ibid, (15) 4/23/25; p. 56 4) ibid' ( 15) 5/28/25; p. 50 5) ibid, (15) 7/2/25; p. 44 the influence of the great depression on the practice of optometry in evansville, indiana by scott r. brizius it would seem that even before the subject of history was "invented", the originators of the discipline must have prepared the now well known response to the inevitable question of how one could profit from such ceaseless retrospection. ask any fifth grader and he will most probably answer that under­ standing the past will help us plan our future. apparently, man is rather lacking in imagination, and his ultimate course is quite predictable by studying that of his ancestors. for this reason, this paper concerns itself not with hindsight, but rather with foresight. this author, in addition to having a pessimistic opinion of the united states• economic stability, is planning on practicing optometry in evansville, indiana, and the following deals predominatly, therefore, on the effect of the great depression on the same. a general prespective of the effects of the great depression on the practice of optometry in the country as a whole would not, however, be out of order. the professional journals of the period, by their failure to hardly even take note of the general atmosphere of the day, would indicate that things couldn't have been too bad for the optometrist. a brief scanning of the -46optometric weekly during this time finds the majority of articles dealing with subjects such as education and organization, which by their very nature indicate an optimistic outlook on the profession. nowhere is there the slightest consideration given to the possible collapse of optometry. the want ads in one issue were not unusual in containing a ratio of eight jobs wanting optometrists to five optometrists wanting jobs. 1 one practice for sale advertised yearly earnings of eight to twelve thousand dollars.2 nevertheless, a few allusions that times were hard can still be found. for example, one author plainly said that business was slow and encouraged support of a 11 send the whole child to school 11 campaign as well as pretending to be busy to help the situation.3 furthermore, the aoa definitely felt the impact of the depression. 11 just eight months after the 1929 stock market crash and the beginning of the great depression, the aoa embarked on its most ambitious financial program by far, one intended to improve the profession's status manyfold. but money could not be raised and there were no spectacular results: the depression won. revenue from dues lagged, and the administrative branch of the aoa had a difficult time financially for several years. 11 4 in 1932, aoa revenues dropped sufficiently to require dipping into the emergency fund to pay the upcoming year's attorney expenses.5 all in all, it is difficult to draw a firm conclusion from this information. fortunately, first hand information is still available concerning the influence of the depression on the practice of optometry in evansville. at the american optical lab incoming jobs dropped considerably, but not drastically.b amazingly, through the course of the entire period, not a single employee was dropped.? the implication of this fact is as encouraging as it is obvious. an optometrist who practiced on evansville's ~1ain street during this time, however, is the most direct connection to the period: dr. j. royston victor removes any doubt that optometry in evansville survived the depression handily. although business definitely slowed, .. we came thru (sic) the depression very well. 11 8 it is not necessary to modify services or price structures, and there was no feeling of increased competition.~ in comparison to ophthalmologists and other doctors, 11 we always did our share ..... lo the depression, quite clearly, had little effect on the practice of optometry, and 11 dr. victor even writes, ..... i felt the depression in no way. 11 -47dr. victor believes, that, should the u.s. experience a similar collapse in the near future, the influence on optometry would be little different.l2 this, of course, is the issue at hand. one might conjecture that much of the present day optometrists• business is based on superfluous cosmetics, and patients could easily survive with less care. but this author doubts if even a depression could moderate the narcissism of the day. in conclusion, it would seem, even amid poor economic signals, the look ahead for optometry in evansville is promising--that view seen most clearly over the shoulder. bibliography 1. 11want ads 11 • the optometric weekly, oct. 1,1931, pp. 978-979. 2. ibid. 3. kimball, dr. walter f. 11 why nero fiddled ... the optometric weekly, sept. 3, 1931, p. 861. 4. gregg, james r., american optometric association-a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972. 5. ibid. 6. pfisterer, raymond m. personal interview. evansville, in, july 1978. 7. ibid. 8. victor, dr. j. royston. a letter to author, dated nov. 14, 1978, west palm beach. 9-12. ibid. iridology after seeing the october 1979 ohs newsletter report on iridology, jack weber wrote saying that the january/february issue of 20/20 would include an article he had authored on the present state of the practice of i ri do 1 ogy. he wri tes , according to legend, when von peczely (dr. ignatz von peczely) was a youngster of ten years, he accidentally broke one of the legs of his pet owl. soon after the accident, he. noticed the development of a black stripe in the lower region of the owl•s iris. eventually, as the leg healed, the black streak became a tiny dark spot, around which radiated white and gray-shaded lines~ as lore tells it, the incident made a lasting impression on the boy and, years later, while practicing medicine as a graduate physician, he recorded iris changes which occurred in conjunction with the various systemic disorders he treated. in this way, he was able to construct a chart in which each tiny area of the iris represents a different organ of the body. changes in these small areas, the doctor alleged, could portend the course of bodily disease in that area•s corresponsing organ. enclosed is a copy of a modern iridology chart as devised by bernard jensen, a chiro­ practor and naturopathic physician who is leading the resurgence of iridology as a discipline in america. interested ohs members can pick up the rest of the story in the january/february 1980 issue of 20/20 magazine. for the convenience of the readers who cannot gain access to 20/20, dr. jensen has given me permission to reproduce the following iridology chart. :::0 -c 0 r0 g') < n :i: )> ::0 -t q. al < ~ 0 l c" < c "'' . c h . m m ::o n z 0 m)> ., (1)::0 ~ no _ oc..mg') zm-<:z: oz ..... -en om oz 0 n r­ m 'ti ..... ::0 c/) -4~n :c > ::a -1 -1 = -::a -c1 0 r0 = < -49from court to court: in my 1948 book on optometry i mentioned the 1931 trial of optometrist j.l. saks, now deceased, of pretoria, south africa. originally i had read it as a mere news item and therefore could not ascertain its significance at the time. it was in fact a cornerstone of legal interpretation which enabled the profession in south africa to continue its already centuries old right to provide optometric services for gain in spite of a lower court decision that this constituted the practice of medicine. the essential argument in which the lower court magistrate had based his decision was that the 11 0ptician ... places himself in the same position as a medical practitioner who diagnoses and prescribes .. glasses .. ! i learned the 1 atter during a recent visit to pre tori a where i was given the opportunity to read the october 9, 1931, judgment by magistrate j.w. ord in the case of rex versus j.l. saks, as follows: the accused is charged on two counts under section 34 (a) of act 13 of 1928, in that on the 5th of june and again on the 22nd july, 1931, he did for gain test the eye sight of two different people, and that these acts specially appertain to the calling of a medical practitioner. the section of the act in question reads: 11 any person not registered as a medical practitioner who (a) for gain practises as a medical practitioner (whether or not purporting to be registered) or performs any act specially pertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner. the facts are barely disputed and the essential fact for the crown to prove is that the acts performed by the accused were such as specially appertain to the calling of a medical practitioner. the fact that he did the work for gain is admitted. the man ~'/hose eyes were tested for glasses went to accused•s place of business and the first stated that he wanted glasses the accused says he specifically named a certain make of glass -whilst the second man says in evidence that he went there to get his eyes tested as he was under the impression that he was going to buy a pair of spectacles. the second man was a police trap. -50the defence is that accused followed his usual procedure, viz: to ascertain what kind and strength of glasses (if any) the applicant needed, that he made records of such requirements, got out the frames and lenses etc. (but used no drugs), and that this work occupied him roughly a half hour in each case which was all part and parcel of his business in supplying the best and most suitable glasses. that thereafter when the applicants came back and notified him that they were not going on with the order for glasses he charged them for his services and time occupied up to that stage. the accused further shows that he is a qualified member of the british optical association of the worshipful company of spectacle makers and has taken a course of twelve months study exclusively in optics. in webster's standard dictionary an optician is described as one skilled in optics or one who makes or deals in optical glasses or instruments. although there is no legislation in south africa giving status to opticians, in new zealand the legislature has made provision for the registration of opticians and defines such work as "the employment of any methods for the estimation of errors of refraction of the human eye and to prescribe or adapt lenses to correct such errors," in south australia similar legislation has been in force since 1920, and therein optometry is described as "the employment of methods, other than the use of drugs, medicine or surgery, for the measurement of the powers of vision and the adaptation of lenses for the aid thereof". (for these references the court is indebted to colonel mentz appearing for accused). it will be seen from·the fore-going that the optician is well entrenched in these countries. to ascertain whether the work done by accused falls within that specially pertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner, it may be taken that these briefly are attendance, examination, diagnosis, and prescription (or treatment) of the patient. in the case of van os vs. rex (t.p.d. 1930 it was proved that apellant gave electrical treatment for gain and that was held to be not an act specially pertaining to a medical practitioner, but-rn that case van os did not examine the patients and say what they were suffering from. i have been unable to find a decided case on all fours with this, but if an optician can be placed in the same category as a dental mechanic then there are ample authorities: for the dentist is protected in a similar manner to the medical practitioner by section 35 of the same act. -51the primary object of the optician is to make and sell glasses, and in order to do so he tests the eyes of applicants and where eyesight is imperfect he is prepared to sell such glasses as will repair the imperf~ction, but if glasses are not purchased, by diagnosing the trouble and suggesting (or prescribing) glasses as a remedy and charging therefore an optician, it seems to me, places himself in the same position as a medical practitioner who diagnoses and prescribes but does not make and sell glasses. if the charge made by accused was a substantial part of the work in fitting and supplying the applicants with glas~es, then the accused charged for a service he never completed, there being no sales. if not then the fees were for testing the eyes and prescribing glasses for the applicants. the deduction from the facts forced the court irresistibly to the conclusion that the accused did perform certain acts specially appertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner and that the charge made by accused was in respect of such diagnosis and prescription and not for work or time employed in the selection of lenses or frames. accused has been perfectly open and bona fide about his business and in the circumstances a small penalty will meet the case. the accused is found guilty on both counts and a penalty of f2.10.0. on each will be imposed. mr. saks' arrest, incidentally, had made no less than 50 column inches (1.25 meter!) of news copy on pages 5 and 6 of the september 30, 1931, issue of the pretoria news with the four-tier headlines: "optician and doctor, allegation-or-trespass, local prosecution, public said to be endangered". then on october 7 the case was given about 16 column inches (40 em) on pa~e 5 of the johannesburg rand daily mail with the three-tier headlines "optician before magistrate, 'testing eyes for gain, • why 10/6 was charged." somewhat paradoxically in the adjacent column on the same page was an article on "impressions of the zionist congress" describing the reception of ua huge number of zionists" by "mr. and mrs. j. l. saks at the memoria 1 ha 11" and the fact that "the chief guest ... was welcomed by mr. saks. 11 again on october 9, judgment day for mr. saks, the pretoria news ran 24 column inches (60 em) on page 5 with the three-tiered headline "optician and oculist, the distinction, conviction in loca 1 prosecution." that there may have been more newspaper comment i did not ascertain, as i had access merely to the aforementioned three issues which mr. j.l. saks had stashed away quite casually, if not a bit carelessly, among many other accumulated items, but which are now in the safekeeping of his sons b.d. and s. j. saks in the offices of the very prestigious six-optometrist group practice under.the name of "j.l. saks & sons." -52at the time of the trial mr. j.l. saks was only about 32 years old. in 1924, just seven years before the trial, he had taken over the establishment of an ophthalmic optician named h.h. moulang, successor to t.h. moulang, at 269 market street, now paul kruger street, in pretoria. at the time of the trial, however, he was located on church street testimony in the trial was made by dr. s. de moor, and dr. t. wassenaar, both of whom were medical practitioners and eye specialists, a patient named w. van aswegen, a "professional trap" named j.w. chamber who had posed as a patient, a clerk named j. sturdy in charge of the registrar of the south african medical council, and of course mr. j.l. saks himself. the patient and the "trap" both testified that mr. saks had followed a professional sight-testing procedure. he had recommended glasses for patient aswegen who later was advised by someone that an oculist should be consulted. thereupon mr. aswegen canceled his order for glasses and paid mr. saks just for the "inspection of his eyes". the "trap," mr. chambers, testified that he was similarly examined by mr. saks and was advised that glasses would be helpful, but he chose not to get glasses immediately and instead paid mr. saks the examination fee of los. 6d. mr. saks testified that the examination fee would not have been separately charged had glasses been delivered, but that in any case when a person "wanted to know whether he needed glasses" he would be charged "for work done". altogether there was virtually no controversy concerning the facts of the case; the issue was entirely one of interpretation of whether or not mr. saks' optometric services were in violation of the medical law. there was no challenging of mr. saks' optometric qualifications as a member of the british optical association and of the worshipful company of spectacle makers. the decision was immediately appealed to the supreme court of south africa where the judges greenberg and maritz concurred in the following opinion: the apellant was charged with contravening sec. 34 (a) of act 13 of 1928, in that he "did wrongfully and unlawfully and for gain perform acts specially appertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner, inasmuch as he did then and there for reward test the eye-sight of" certain persons. two persons are mentioned in the charge­ sheet, and the apellant was found guilty on both charges. there is no material difference between the two cases and i propose to refer to only one. the evidence of the one person mentioned is that he had eye trouble and went to the appellant who has a shop in pretoria and carries on business as an optician. he told the appellant he wanted his eyes tested, as there was something wrong, and he wanted a pair of glasses. the appellant then tested his eyes by asking him to read out letters at different -53distances through different glasses. it is also part of the appellant's procedure that, in addition to this sub­ jective test, he has an objective test, which consists of looking tnto the patient's eyes and deciding from that examination the amount of correction that is required by means of glasses. it also appears from the evidence that the particular patient in this case, after arranging to come back for his glasses. was advised to see an oculist; he came back and told the appellant not to proceed with the matter, and the appellant then charged him los. 6d. for the work that he had done. whether there was a binding obligation on the patient to pay the los. 6d. is a question on which i express no opinion whatsoever. the question we are concerned with is whether the appellant contravened sec. 34 (a) of act 13 of 1928, whi~h makes it an offence for any person who is not registered as a medical practitioner to practise as a medical practitioner or to perform any act specially pertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner, for gain in either case. the element of gain is present in this case. the question we have to decide is whether, in terms of the charge, the appellant has performed any act specially pertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner. it is not without significance that sec. 35 (1) (a) provides that any person, not registered as a dentist, who, for gain, practises as a dentist or performs any ')ct specially pertaining to the practice of dentistry, shall be guilty of an offence, and then there is a further provision making it criminal to take impressions of the mouth. there is, therefore, in the section prohibiting the performance of acts specially pertaining to dentistry, a special provision prohibiting this particular act; and the absence of such a provision in the section relating to acts specially pertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner is a matter that is not wholly without significance. the attorney-general has contended that it is the object of this legislation to protect the public against unqualified people who attempt to do \'iork which requires a high degree of skill. no doubt this is so, but what we have to do is to construe the act and ask ourselves whether the conduct in this case amounts to doing an act specially pertaining to the calling of a medical practitioner, which is what is charged ag~inst the appellant. i do not propose to go into the matter in any detail, because it seems to me it is entirely covered by the case of rex v. van der heim ( 1914, t.p.d. 434). there were two counts in that case. the second count has no application to the present proceedings. but the first count was against an optician who examined the eyes of a patient, supplied a prescription and supplied her with glasses; and the court held that his conduct did not constitute an act specially belonging to the calling of i j l l i i -54a medical practitioner. those were the words of the act then in force, and i think they mean the same as the present act. not only has this case not been over-ruled, but it appears to have been referred to with approval in a later case of rex v. smith (1917, t.p.d. 206). uhether the decision affords the protection which may in fact be required is a matter with which we are not concerned. if it is considered desirable to prevent opticians from doing what was done in the present case, then the legislature must make it the subject of a special prohibition in the same way as there is a special prohibition against a person wno is not registered as a dentist taking impressions. it is significant that in spite of the decision in rex v. van der heim and in spite of the fact that it is notorious that opticians regularly test the eyesight, the legislature in passing the 1928 act did not incorporate a special provision prohibiting such conduct. the attorney-general also suggested that rex v. van der heim was wrongly decided, but that is not a point i am prepared to deal with in the present case. the position is, i think, that this case is covered by rex v. van der heim, and we are bound by that decision. this being so, we must hold that the appellant did not contravene the act. the appeal must be allowed and the convictions and sentences on both counts set aside. what is of additional historical interest in this supreme court action is the reference to two prior cases, one in 1914 and one in 1917. i have asked mr. martin potgieter of the legal staff if the south african optometric association to try to obtain copies of them for our review. h.w. hofstetter ernst abbe alan york has forwarded a clipping describing the commemorative 20 mark coin issued this year by the east german government in honor of the physicist ernst abbe. the german democratic republic, east germany, will release a proof version of the feuerback commemorative 10 mark; now taking stage center is the .625 fine silver 20 mark commemorating the 75 anniversary of the death of optical pioneer ernst abbe. a genius in the field of lenses, refraction and light, abbe brought discoveries into optics which made possible the telescopes and microscopes of today. the obverse presents a complex of light beams broken up, reconstructed and fragmented yet again through several abbe lenses. the reverse differs from the usual by presenting the state emblem in small size at upper left, national designation at center, value and date below. o.k. penisten h.w. hofstetter, editors 1980-11-03-001 1980-11-03-002 1980-11-03-003 1980-11-03-004 1980-11-03-005 1980-11-03-006 1980-11-03-007 1980-11-03-008 1980-11-03-009 1980-11-03-010 1980-11-03-011 1980-11-03-012 1980-11-03-013 1980-11-03-014 1980-11-03-015 1980-11-03-016 1980-11-03-017 1980-11-03-018 1980-11-03-019 optometry lib v " ra17 er·dcal file . newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. volume 5 october 1974 landmarks of science: ftptom£try library oct 10 1974 ihdjaha llllllrll'ijy 63119) iuiuwj number 4 this is the title of a microprint reproduction of "the collected scientific writings of more than 300 outstanding scientists as well as the significant work of more than 3,000 additional scientists," available from readex microprint corporation, 101 fifth avenue, new york, n.y. 10003, at the mere cost of $12,500.00. this makes it possible for major libraries to give virtually direct access to students of the history of science to centuries of published scientific documents. a brief scanning of authors listed includes many known students of optics and vision, names like bacon, dalton, descartes, franklin, fresnel, gauss, helmholtz, hooke, mach, mariotte, maxwell, newton, ostwald, sherrington, weber, wundt, and young, to name just a few. leonardo da vinci: after ten years of meticulous labor, the world-famous grottaferrata monks have completed the historic restoration of leonardo da vinci's codex atlanticus. because the codex itself has been withdrawn from public access, this new definitive facsimile will be the only source available for study and research. the edition is limited to 990 numbered sets for the entire world. a set consists of 12 volumes of 360 pages each. the prepublication price per set as of may 1, 1973, was $5,520.00. the publisher is c.e. giunti-barbera, via vincenzo gioberti 34, 50121, firenze, italy. vatican library microfilmed: manuscripta is the title of the serially produced microfilm of the rare and out-of-print books in the vatican library, copies of which may louis the be obtained by subscription to the pius xii memorial library, saint university, 3655 west pine boulevard, saint louis, missouri 63108. microfilming was started several years ago and is not yet complete. periodical lists of grouped topics in broad categories of subject areas are sent to subscribing libraries. for the student of history these lists can serve as an index from which the microfilm reel number for the desired book can be obtained. -34international milestones: .• , ... ;,;; i;' 1\q!'d~~ust 25, 1970, mrs. maria dablemont submitted application for '· :(,l'~ll.t!h\berl:thip of the american optometric association archives, museum, and library in the international council on archives, unesco, 2, place fontenoy, paris 7e, france. in her letter of application she pointed out· that "the archives of optometry were established in 1902, four years after the foundation of the american optometric association. subsequently, a supporting library was developed. both archives and library were created for the exclusive use of optometrists. after 1952, our services were opened to the public. in 1964 a museum was established." on october 1, 1971, she was notified that the application was presented to the executive committee in session in verona on september 20-22, 1971, and approved by the members of the council. the aoa archives, museum and library is now duly listed in the i.c.a. bulletin no. 2, may 1974, p. 36. a single example out of many international exchanges that are being implemented is the aoa contribution of a complete collection of the american journal of physiological optics (vols. 1-7, 1920-1926), an extra set, to the karolinska institutets bibliotek, fack, s-104 01, stockholm 60, sweden in march 1973. the acknowledgement of gift included the comment, "thank you very much! the journal is not to be found in any swedish university library, so it is a fine acquisition for our library." the editor of the journal, incidentally, was dr. charles sheard, founding head of the optometry school at the ohio state university. veterinary ophthalmology at alamo: optometry student allen l. cohen, indiana university class of 1976, visited the alamo mission fortress site at san antonio, texas, recently, and copied off the following from col. wm. barret travis' estate record on display in the chapel remains: "capt grumbles cure for blind or weak eyed horses. apply a cold wet cloth over the eye & then from the spout of a coffee pot or the neck of a gourd pour water from a well or spring or any other water of that temperature over & upon the eye so as to bathe it well. put a large teaspoon full of calomel in about an half pint or less of sweet oil if this cannot be had beans or foot oil or other thin oil, with this preparation grease the eye lid & with the soft end of a feather insert a little in the eye & this should be done at least once if not twice a day care should be taken that the horse is not fed upon corn, his legs well rubbed so as to reduce any fever there may be in him & kept in a dark stable." -35i hope that the sequence of copying by mr. cohen, by me, and finally by the typist, has not included errors other than those in the original. col. travis, only 26 at the time of the famous battle, 1836, was commander of the alamo and lost his life there as did every other defender. trends and objectives, 1898-1907: in response to a patron's request the american optometric associ­ ation library, now legally designated as the "international library, archives and museum of optometry," compiled 50 or more articles that dealt with american optometric association activities and personalities documentary of the "trends and objectives" of the new organization during its first 10 years. these have been photocopied and assembled in a binder together with a summary sheet listing the highlights for each of the 10 years. the resultant 77 page volume, captioned "aoa trends & objectives. the first ten years. 1898-1907," makes fascinating reading. it is available for loan. the sources tapped include the optical journal, the jewelers' circular-weekly, the optical journal and review of optometry, the optical review, the a.o.a. journal, the optometric weekly, and the joseph m. babcock archives. three score and ten: in response to a suggestion made at the recent o.h.s. reminisce-in last june, a suggestion which elicited overwhelming endorsement, i prepared the following letter on o.h.s. letterhead and mailed it to about 400 optometrists who are now three score and ten years old or older. "dear doctor, "please don't let it get thrown away! "this letter of appeal for your attention is going out to you and every other optometrist who was born before the year 1905. "among your personal possessions are numerous bits of early optometricana, completely irreplaceable or recoverable if you or your heirs allow the trash collector to take them to an incinerator. "like what'? 11 \.je mean correspondence, instrument models, patents, drawings, diaries, lecture notes, manuscripts, photographs, slides, plaques, certificates, diplomas, emblems, seals, medals, trophies, awards, -36books, pamphlets, correspondence courses, bulletins, yearbooks, fraternity publications, directories, rosters, catalogs, serial publications, newsletters, antique eyeglasses and instruments, scrapbooks, etc., etc. which may be a part of our optometric heritage. some of you even have memorabilia from your optometric predecessors. it may be regarded as 'junk' by most people, but for those of us who are trying to reconstruct and document optometry's heritage it may be priceless. "all we ask is that you personally take the necessary steps to make certain that these possessions are preserved, preferably in a museum of your choice. it may be a museum in your local community, in an optometric institution, at the american optometric association headquarters, or elsewhere. "it usually is not sufficient merely to express such wishes in a will, for wills may not be executed until long after the 'junk' is destroyed. each item or container must be clearly marked, such as by the enclosed sample adhesive label. more labels are available on request. "obviously this appeal requires no reply, no acknowledgement, nor money, just a little attention and enjoyable work, but right now. "heaven forbid, but tomorrow may be too late! "sincerely, "h.w. hofstetter, president" the letters went out early in september. though no direct response is called for, i will not be surprised to receive a few. the names and addresses were obtained from the computerized data from which the 1972 aoa directory of members was compiled. peripatetic optometrist: not ordinarily entered into optometric records are the very unusual extra-professional activities of optometrists. a number of such endeavours have been duly reported in previous issues of this newsletter. whether such information can have historical value may well be doubted, but who knows the substance of history before it is made? george knox, o.d., a practicing optometrist in columbus, ohio, who also has a ph.d. degree in psychology and for several years was -37a professor at the ohio state university school of optometry (now college), has won 22 ribbons in track sports. he holds records in hurling the heavy discus and the 6-pound shot, the 50 yard dash, the 600 meter run, the 1,200 meter run, the quarter-mile racewalk, and the half-mile race walk for competitors his age. he is 63! on his 63rd birthday he ran 15 3/4 miles. on another day he ran 25 miles in 3 hours, 47 minutes. a mild heart attack in 1966 prompted him to begin physical conditioning. these and other bits of data are reported by columnist dick otte in the august 18, 1974 issue of the dispatch, columbus, ohio, and in various offlijal track magazines. augenoptik education history: the first german "fachschule fur optiker" was opened on october 4, 1909, in mainz. later it was transferred to berlin where it opened on september 4, 1912. the school was temporarily discon­ tinued during world war i, during which the school in jena (now in east germany) was founded. the berlin school re-opened in 1919. the present augenoptic school in cologne was established in 1952 and the school in munich in 1965. the above information and historical details about personalities, circumstances, curricula, and other related german developments beginning in 1871 are discussed in an article by walter jachnow entitled "zur geschichte der fachschule fur optik und fototechnik berlin" in the december 1, 1973, issue of augenoptiker, vol. 28, no. 12, pp. 17, 19, and 21, and continued in the march 1974 issue, val. 29, no. 3, pp. 45, 47, and 49. early "optometrie": an early optometer described and/or designed by von graefe in 1863 is illustrated and discussed in "zur vorgeschichte des (phor) optometers in deutschland" by f. mehlhose in the december 1973 issue of augenspiegel, vol. 19, no. 12, pp. 620, 622, and 624. 25 years £f german optometry: "25 jahre entwicklung in der augenoptik" is the title of an article in sliddeutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 29, no. 2, feb. 15, 1974, pp. 66-74, by herbert schober of munich. -38german lens history: "tiber die geschichte der brille (teil 2)" is the title of part 2 of the history of lenses by dr. w. munchow of zwickau, east germany, in the july/august, 1974, issue of augenoptik, vol. 91, no. 4, pp. 98-99. included is a minnesong verse of the period 1270-1275 which refers to the magnification by a "krystallen stein." early lens information: optometrie; zeitschrift fur augenoptik und optometrie has started a series of somewhat miniaturized reproductions of pages of the 1815 book entitled "belehrungen uber brillen" by johann heinrich august duncker (1767-1843). the title page, the preface pages, and the first three pages, 5-7, of the text are in the first installment on pages 52-53 of vol. 20, no. 2, 1973, of the magazine. pages 8-15 of the book appear on pp. 178-179 of vol. 20, no. 5, 1973 of the magazine. continuing pages will be reproduced from time to time to enable the reader to accumulate the complete book. what an ingenious way to get the casual reader to sample a few tempting bits of heritage! three more memorialized: the following three memorials to optometrists have not been listed previously in this newsletter: the carel c. koch memorial medal (reference, american academy of optometry). the charles f. prentice memorial medal (reference, american academy of optometry). the william j. kuhlman scholarship fund (reference, university of houston, college of optometry). london refraction hospital: "50 years of the lrh part 2" in the dec. 22, 1973, ophthalmic optician, vol. 13, no. 25, pp. 1466-1468, concludes this rather anecdotal series started by l.a. swann to which i called your attention last january. an optician speaks ~z: paul hamblin, a registered medical practitioner who has not practiced medicine since 1946 when he took up optical dispensing in -39his family's firm, gives his view of the development of the optometry­ opticianry cleavage in an article, in french, entitled "le clivage de la profession vu par les yeux d 1 un opticien 'dispensing' anglais" in photons, no. 62, may, 1972, pp. 6-9 and 12-13. !2_ hundred years of retinoscopy: michel millodot, ph.d. reviews this rather refreshingly and includes some generally unknown facts in "a centenary of retinoscopy" in the october 1973 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 1057-1059. two more optometric pedigrees: "a remarkable family of opticians" by e.j. crundall is an account of four generations of the wingate family in ophthalmic opticianry, in england. beginning with george melson wingate, 1848-1901, a total of 14 have identified with the profession. "an optical tradition," ostensibly anonymously written but with little doubt by the same crundall is a similar story about the four generations of batemans in ophthalmics, also in england. the ophthalmic affiliation jn this instance started with john bateman (1831-1896) whose cousin thomas had five sons in ophthalmic optlcianry, now :111 deceased. four of these sons had a total of eight descendents in optometry, bringing the total bateman ophthalmic affiliates to 14. the two accounts appeared in the feb. 25, 1972 (vol. 163, no. 4218, pp. 13-14) and april 20, 1973 (vol. 165, no. 4276, pp. 9-18) issues, respectively, of the optician (london). so, the batemans and the wingates may be a challenge to the pachecos of puerto rico (see o.h.s. newsletter, vol. 3, no. 4, oct. 1972, p. 36). shades of prentice: recent correspondence with j. edward willenbrock, o.d., 2 cedar lane, new hyde park, long island, new york 10040, uncovered the fact that he purchased the practice of the venerable charles f. prentice back in the late 1940's. john cole's "heritage": in october 1973 i mentioned a new series of articles entitled "ht'ritage:l", "heritage:2", etc. by john cole in the optician. the may 24, 1974 lssue (vol. 167, no. 4332, pp. 4, 6, & 11) contained "her i. t;tgc: 13". and apparently the series will continue. mr. cole's style suggests that he personally witnessed all of the historical details, making it easy reading. -40in installment number 6 (vol. 166, no. 4291, aug. 3, 1973, pp. 14-15) he described the british optical association's army spectacle scheme of 1915 as the brainchild of j.h. sutcliffe, and the post world war i founding of the london refraction hospital largely as made possible by the efforts of owen aves. the hospital opened on feb. 22, 1923. in installment number 7 (vol. 166, no. 4294, aug. 24, 1973, pp. 4, 6, 8) he described the pressure put on dr. james forrest by the british medical association forcing him to discontinue teaching pathology detection to opticians. this was about 1925. in the eighth installment, in the september 28, 1973, issue, vol. 166, no. 4299, pp. 12-13, is a portrait photograph of mr. j.h. sutcliffe, a name very familiar to british ophthalmic opticians. the picture clearly shows a very exotropic right eye, though no mention is made of this in the text of the article. i wonder. history of acuity tests: easy reading and quite well documented is an article by arthur linksz entitled, "john green, the aos, and the reasonable notation of visual acuity measurement" in the transactions of the american ophthalmological society, vol. 70, 1972, pp. 314-327. the aos is the american ophthalmological society. history of eye surgery: "ocular surgery: yesterday, today, and tomorrow" is the title of the presidential lecture which was delivered at the 1973 annual meeting of the american society of contemporary ophthalmology by ramon castroviejo. a brief non-technical commentary, it appears in the january 1974 issue of annals of ophthalmology, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 73-77, 80-83. more on south african optometry: continuing the historical theme of the immediately previous issue, the june 1974 issue of the south african optometrist, vol. 33, no. 2, includes photographs taken at six prior congresses of the south african optometric association, a chronological list of the first 30 members, a few quotes from early meeting records, and a reproduction of the first page of issue no. 1 dated january 1934. optometry in oregon: two very factual historical accounts appeared in the summer 1974 issue of the oregon optometrist, vol. 41, no. 2. one "the oregon optometric association" on pages 10-11 & 20, is by the o.o.a. historian -41sam tyler, o.d. the other, "sam chambers tells it like it was" is the reminiscent "comments of dr. sam chambers, 91 years young ••• ," on page 15. chambers reports that his father was head of the chambers-inskeep company, inventors and manufacturers of c & i self-illuminated retina­ scopes, ophthalmoscopes, and ophthalmometers. i recall in the middle '30s a lecture on the design of the "c & i" ophthalmometer in which several students understood "c & i" to be "seein 1 eye" ophthalmometers! tyler's article starts with the first organized meeting of the oregon optometrists on october 24, 1899, 75 years ago, and traces names and events through 1950. history of venezuelan optometry: this is the caption of a story attributed to dr. eduardo a. briceno a graduate of the university of houston college of optometry and a faculty member of the new escuela superior de optometria de venezuela. according to dr. bricefio the first optometrist recorded in venezuela was william harry lobby, an optometrist from new york, who went to venezuela in the 1920's. he employed and trained dr. briceffo's great, great uncle manuel behrens who thus became the first venezuelan optometrist. a venezuelan association was formed in 1936 but lasted only four years. the venezuelan optometric association was re-established in 1949 and this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary. the article appears in the may, 1974, issue of the optist, p. 4 ophthalmoscope: purkinje, babbage, helmholtz? in 1823, decades before the dates of invention of the ophthalmoscope by babbage and later by helmholtz, purkinje performed ophthalmoscopy simply by reflecting the light of a candle into the eye with an ordinary lens through which he looked into the eye. this is thoroughly reviewed in an article entitled "jan purkinje and the ophthalmoscope" by daniel m. albert and william h. miller in the october 1973 issue of the american journal of ophthalmology, vol. 76, no. 4, pp. 494-499. they also report that a complete english translation of purkinje's "physiologic examination of the organ of vision" has been made by henry j. john. it appears in a publication authored by john entitled, "jan evangelista purkyne, czeck scientist and patriot, 1787-1869," as memoirs series vol. 49, 1959 ($3.00), the american philosophical society, io!f s. fifth street, philadelphia, pennsylvania 19106. -4250 year old paper: a very comprehensive paper entitled "telescopic spectacles and magni­ fiers as aids to poor vision" read before the section on ophthalmology of the american medical association in june 1924 by harry s. gradle and jules c. stein has been reprinted in the may-june 1973 issue of the transactions of the american academy of ophthalmology and otolaryngology, vol. 77, no. 3, op229-253. the article contains 26 illustrations. always allow for dyslexiacs: historians, librarians, readers, and writers, like other humans, can suffer from occasional dyslectic lapses, especially in reference listings. the most recent example called to my attention gives reference to professor santiago ramon y cajal (1852-1934, spanish histologist and nobel laureate) as "cajal, s.r." a library catalog search under "cajal" instead of "ramon y cajal" leads to nowhere unless the librarians thoughtfully provide a "cajal" card with the advice "see also under ramon y cajal." a good biologist of course would be likely to spot the error directly out of familiarity with the name of the illustrious ramon y cajal. the above-mentioned error appeared, ironically, in a 1973 book entitled "on writing, reading, and dyslexia"! h.w. hofstetter, editor 1974-05-04-001 1974-05-04-002 1974-05-04-003 1974-05-04-004 1974-05-04-005 1974-05-04-006 1974-05-04-007 1974-05-04-008 1974-05-04-009 1974-05-04-010 ..... *"' ''*** .. ., ·~· i-*·~~·: ·~·: \' · . .: ·.: .. ..;; il"il** -.:·::•• •k :; . « ; .., indiana uni·;ersity e > « > « > • t mar 6 1986 i. • • t • il!jl'l\\t-1!\ \11\ililf.lw!"il'll ! e . newsletter : library serials dept. : of the . .. • **********""""*"'"*"***+*"***"'--*~ _))ptometric historical society (243 north lindbe9jll boulevard, st. louis, missouri oft mar 7 1986 63141, u.s.a.) vol. 17 january, 1986 number 1 1986 o.h.s. executive board: viewing the member list of the 1986 o.h.s. executive board found below one might think an error had been made--no such thing. although the expiration dates are slightly different, the members are identical to the 1985 board. that is a long-winded way of stating that by a landslide maria dablemont was re-elected by the o.h.s. membership to another five-year term on the executive board. listed below is the full 1986 executive board and expiration year of each member•s term. jerome j. abrams 1986 james p. leeds 1987 patricia carlson 1988 andrew e. fischer 1989 maria dablemont 1990 the board members will elect officers for 1986 among themselves and the results ~ill be announced in the next newsletter. proposed o.h.s. by-law ammendments: enclosed with this newsletter you will find a separate sheet detailing proposed ammendments to the o.h.s. by-laws. please complete your ballot and mail it to maria dablemont at the address shown on the form. your vote is important. o.h.s. meeting: thirty-five people attended the optometric historical society annual meeting at the westin peachtree plaza hotel, atlanta, on december 7, 1985. president jerry abrams opened by introducing the invited speaker doug penisten who delivered a paper entitled, 11 helmholtz, phantom visual imagery, and the idioretinal light. 11 following the talk maria dablemont invited all in attendance to participate in a 11 reminisce-in 11 • for the next half hour individuals offered fascinating and little known accounts in optometric h·istory. maria dablemont then announced the names of three individuals honored as recipients of the o.h.s. recognition certificate. the recipients and their accolades follow. dr. james f. dickson, spring valley, ca all of us have dreams. by lack of action, they may become life illusions, quickly replaced throughout the years, when they lose the fight for credibi 1 i ty. . 2 others dream and do something about it. such is or. dickson. his dream is to see someday ilamo's optical museum become the best in the country. indeed his goal is to see it surpassing the smithsonian collection! his first step was to donate to ilamo his well known, valuable and unique collection. subsequently, he has obtained several private collections for ilamo and is now in the midst of a search to secure a donor for a much coveted collection whose price is beyond ilamo's financial reach. or. dixon is an authority on antique eyeglasses, has written for antiquarian publications, and is well known by dealers. he knows many private collectors and is a recognized appraiser of collections. his advice is sought by collectors and generously given, even when it requires quite a bit of correspondence and work. the ilamo staff often turns to him when they are confronted with items that are difficult to identify or classify properly. his modesty and kindness almost conflict with the relentless pursuit of his dream. or. jacob staiman, baltimore, md if culture, as powys says, is the ability to find the great in the infinitesimally small, or. staiman is a man of culture. he is also a scholar and historian, versed in judaism, the humanities, and optometry in all its aspects. once he had the title of ilamo's consultant when the committee on history of the aoa was created and ilamo's archives and museum were developed. he is to this day the staff mentor, and he takes history documentation very seriously. he is, of course, a member of the optometric historical society and has been a lecturer at our annual meetings. dr. staiman hibernates during the baltimore winter in his apartment literally taken over by books with hardly any walking space or clear surface left alone. come summer, led by his wanderlust and intellectual curiosity, he departs to the four corners of the earth. on his way back he stops at ilamo like a legendary figure, fierce, demanding, hasty, and, yet, amazingly patient. he unwraps quite solemnly exquisite eyeglasses, rare books, historical documents that. he finds in remote places like the margins of the seine, a bookstore in ireland, a dealer somewhere in the u.s. he brushes off gratitude with a pretense to gruffness: "let • s get to work," he says, and totally in his element, safe from the embarrassment of the magnanimous giver, he emerges in his role of teacher and consultant, totally unconcerned that the world out there is oblivious of his enormous contribution to the library and to the history of his profession. dr. irving bennett, beaver falls, pa how many friends and acquaintances of irving bennett ever thought of him as a behind-the-scene instrumental in acquiring and ~reserving historical records, artifacts, and memorabilia, utilizing different means and approaches in a lifetime dedication to the very neglected area of optometric history. . of course, everyone knows his obvious contribution to hi story, and h·aw he h1mse~f b:came a part of history as ~n accomplished journalist, writer, organ1zat1on man, lecturer and occasionally witty master of ceremonies at optometric functions. 3 now, for a few examples of the little known bennett: he has been a member of ohs since 1970 with a habit of forgetting or ignoring the exact amount of dues. his "dues" checks are always far above the correct amount. no one knows, or at least the ilamo staff claims innocence, where he finds, or which elbows he twists to grab, the optometricana he is always sending to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. bennett is a (charter) life member of the friends of ilamo. the friends' major concern is to preserve and to disseminate information on the scientific, historical-socio-economic aspects of optometry. a long way back he pulled one, that anyone who knew albert fitch well, will agree, must have been the greatest and trickiest behind-the-scene deal on behalf of history bennett has ever made. with the greatest skill and diplomacy he induced fitch to write one of the most revealing and fully documented works on early optometric hi story--"my 50 years in optometry." i leave you with this revelation of one more facet of the multifaceted personality of irving bennett, and take pride in presenting him the ohs award on behalf of the officers and members of the society. an academic rise and demise: in 1934, william dayton walden, born may 8, 1911, decided that the state of kentucky needed a school of optometry. in this end he founded the walden college of optometry and technology in his own community of mount sterling, presently a town of five thousand people in east-central kentucky. the college was chartered as a nonprofit corporation and enrolled its first students in 1935, initially as a two or three year course. on august 21, 1937, it was rechartered as the kentucky state college of optometry and by 1938 had expanded to a four year curriculum. it also announced a department of technology with three and six month courses for the training of optometric technicians. the college ceased operation in 1945 near the end of world war ii. during its few years of operation the college had graduated a total of 35 students, as best dr. walden now remembers. many of the records were lost in a catastrophic mount sterling fire a few years ago, and most of the stored archives were lost in a local flood. the few remnants consist of about fifty miscellaneous documents and items of correspondence that dr. walden has gleaned from his private practice files in response to a request from ohs member james leeds. most of the salvaged items are from the 1937-1939 period. the present commentary is based almost entirely on their perusal, a fascinating experience, plus a brief telephone conversation with dr. walden in october, 1985. dr. walden expressed very genuine regrets over the loss of the college records and especially his own inability to remember many details accurately. that the failure of the school to attain the objectives of its founders was perhaps the major disappointment of his career seens to be of no doubt. he now philosophizes simply that the classic odds were against it. a few words about dr. walden. his biographical entries in optometric directories show him as an alumnus of the university of kentucky and a 4 graduate of the southern college of optometry in memphis, tennessee. he maintained memberships and held offices in numerous local civic organizations, served six years in the military, a while as mayor and member of the council of mount sterling, and conducted a solo practice of optometry to support himself, his wife, and two children. he was obviously held in high regard by contemporary optometric leaders in kentucky as reflected in the correspondence. in a 11 to whom it may concern .. 1 etter of october 1, 1938, from a mr. s. c. sharp, secretary of the rotary club of mt. sterling, ky., dr. walden (then only 27 years old) is described as "one of our highest class citizens, a perfect gentleman in every respect and a man to command the respect of every man, woman and child in the community ... the letter's five paragraphs of near adulation close with, "if there is any question as to his standing in this community, would suggest that inquiry be made of any of our four banks, heads of our schools, any of our seven preachers, or any business house in this city." letters and printed documents authored by dr. walden show excellent command of english and logic. it is apparent from the salvaged correspondence that the state of kentucky had not been attracting enough applicants for optometric licensure and that many communities in the state were without optometric services. walden's school had the expressed endorsement and support of the offices of the kentucky association of optometrists, headed by starr e. steele, o.d., president, the kentucky board of examiners in optometry, headed by r. m. kendall, 0.0., chairman, and h. k. fulkerson, 0.0., the longtime editor of the kentucky optometrist, and others. it was also given a favorable evaluation~ professor freder1c a. wall, in march 1938 for the international association of boards of examiners in optometry, the national accrediting body of that era, on the basis of which the school was nationally accredited. problems, however, arose in the state of kentucky itself. the kentucky optometry law of that era placed the profession directly under the surveillance and administration of the kentucky state board of health. the kentucky board of examiners in optometry appears to have been merely an ad hoc appointment of optometric personnel to examine applicants for licensure and to serve in an unofficial advisory role to the state board of health, the legally designated licensing authority. the kentucky state health commissioner and secretary of the state board of health was a. t. mccormack, m.d., who appears to have been the key opponent to the establishment and accreditation of the then new optometry school. he is credited witb saying that the school 11could not get the approval and recognition of the department of health as they some years ago closed all of the medical colleges here and now have one at the university of louisville, it being the only one recognized in the state ... * in another letter** he is credited with unwillingness to recognize the school until it affiliated with a university, and that in that view he had spoken to dr. frank l. mcvey, president of the university of kentucky, in the school's behalf. apparently for this reason the two applicants from the first class of graduates were denied eligibility to take the kentucky examinations. their application checks of $25.00 each dated november 8, 1937, were returned to *letter of november 2, 1937, from r. m. kendall tow. d. walden. **letter of august 30, 1938, from h. k. fulkerson to w. d. walden. 5 dr. walden in may 16, 1938, by p. e. blackerby, m.d., assistant secretary in the office of the state department of he~lth of kentucky. apparently dr. walden then sought legal counsel, for in a letter of june 3, 1938 he wrote dr. mccormack, 11 in keeping with the instructions given me by judge prewitt and w. c. hamilton who had a conference with you yesterday relative to arranging privilege of examination to graduates of this college, i am sending you herewith the graduates• checks for their required fee ... in the same letter he added, 11 further in line with the conference i hope to have an interview with you as to the probability of having dr. mcvey make my college a unit of the kentucky university ... further, 11 i hope i shall be able to sell the prospect to dr. mcvey ... in a copy of a letter to dr. walden dated september 13, 1938, president mcvey wrote, 11 i find your letter of september 2 on my return from maine. i have not seen or. mccormack, and, so far as i know, he has not been by this way ... in what seems obviously to be or. walden•s handwritiang to himself on this copy of the letter is the comment, 11 this was the 3rd time or. mccormick lied about going to see mcvey to help get college accepted at the u. of k ... in a letter to or. walden dated october 29, 1938, frederic a. woll wrote, 11 0r. mccormack certainly seems to have gone out of his way to both embarrass and harass you. however, don•t for one minute let up on your efforts to procure and maintain your rights. i sincerely hope that you will win your suit. 11 these brief notes are derived from the packet of documents salvaged by or. walden and forwarded to or. leeds. unfortunately it leaves us a bit high and dry with regard to the remaining history of the college. nevertheless, it does give us a glimpse of the conflict that surrounded an enterprising effort during its early years, a project that appears to have been destined to defeat by the obstinacy of one or. mccormack and the occurrence of world war ii. the packet will be forwarded to ilamo, the international library archives and museum of optometry, to be accumulated with the many other documents that can help us reconstruct optometry•s fascinating history. supplement sans comment: the following is a copy of a bill submitted to or. walden on march 31, 1938, for or. woll 1 s accreditation inspection visit: expenses from new york city to mt. sterling, ky., and return. (inspection of kentucky state college of optometry) by frederick a. woll march 11th., 1938 fare to mt. sterling berth taxi to station lunch dinner $23.05 5.00 1.60 .90 1.70 . 6. march 12th., 1938 · fare to new york city berth dinner march 13th., 1938 breakfast taxie march 11th, 1938 to substitute for 3 afternoon classes you may be helpful: 23.05 5.00 1.50 .80 2.05 9.00 total expenses $73.65 ohs member james r. gregg, 0.0., 412 south rolling hills place, anaheim, california 92807, has been commissioned to write a history of the american academy of optometry. he tells us that he needs photographs, correspondence, programs, and other memorabilia as resources. he has discovered that the late carel koch, who served the academy in an official capacity for many years, did not believe in saving things. just an accumulation of his extensive correspondence would have been an archival gold mine, but it does not exist. so, if you own any correspondence that relates to the academy or to academy personnel, please do send it, or lend it, to or. gregg, or forward it to ilamo. a question of credit: ernest e. maddox, 1863-1933, is ordinarily given credit for clarifying binocular convergence into four components, namely, tonic, accommodative, voluntary (proximal or psychic), and reflex (fusional). this appears on page 106 of the second edition of his book "the clinical use of prisms' published in 1893, in bristol. it does not appear in the first edition published in 1889. in his 1893 edition on page 90 he makes reference to a lecture by hansen grut, who turns out to have been edmund hansen grut, m.d., professor of ophthalmology in the university of copenhagen. the lecture was a bowman lecture enti t1 ed "a contribution to the pathogeny of concomitant squinting (convergent and divergent}." it was delivered on friday, november 15, 1889, and published on pages 1-41 of vol. 10 of the transactions of the ophthalmological societi.es.of the united kingdom, 1890. the following single paragraph from the lecture illustrates succinctly grtjt's lucid concept of the three dynamic components, fusional, acconunodative and proximal convergence respectively: "the primary cause of the accurate associations presented by the eyes in their lateral movements is the desire for fusion of the images which they receive from the same objects. the movement of convergence, too, is regulated by fusion; but, in additio~, by accommodation and, though 1n a less degree, by the consc1ousness of the d1stance of the object which engages attention." 7 the fourth component, that of tonic convergence, is identified separately in the statement that 11 the tone is of course an involuntary innervation, and it is reasonable to assume that it represents the minimum innervation of the muscles, and is consequently a relative if not an absolute state of rest." the role and theoretical significance of each of the components are dealt with at length in the lecture, first in terms of normal functions and secondly in relation to concomitant squint. credit is given to numerous other authors for variously related contributions and concepts, but no one is identified with his classification of the convergence components. grut•s description of the relationship of the four components is overwhelmingly more lucid and comprehensive than that of maddox. it seems very possible, therefore, that the credit we have been giv·ing to maddox really belongs to grut. classics in leather: last september ohs member d. e. polzien, o.d., forwarded to us an undated but presumably recent letter he had received from plul henkind, m.d., ph.d., calling personal attention to the classics of ophthalmology library which dr. henkind serves as a member of its editorial advisory board. the objective of the library is "simply to create a 1 imi ted and registered set of the 1 andmark books in ophthalmology and optometry, bound in genuine leather, and made available exclusively to ophthalmologists and optometrists under a year-long repurchase guarantee ... . included was a .. charter enrollment form11 labeled "void after dec. 31st by means of which.~ne could enroll as a char~er member and receive danders• on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye at the special --­ introductory price of $27.50, plus postage and handl1ng, and the opportunity to purchase additional leather-bound classics in the library at the price of $55.00 each, plus postage and handling at the rate of approximately eight books per year. each volume in the collection is to be r.ublished in a 11 strictly limited edition of only 5,000 copies worldwide•. . other authors listed for forthcoming volumes include hermann von helmholtz, george bartisch, antonio scarpa, sir william bowman, and james wardrop, with 26 others under consideration. the publisher is identified as leslie b. adams, jr., 3100 independence drive, post office box 76108, birmingham, alabama 35253, telephone (205) 879-8380. coherent history: lasers have now been around long enough to have a substantial history. 11 lasers: the first 25 years .. is an article by anthony j. demaria in the october 1985 issue of optics news, vol. 11, no. 10, pp. 15-21. though the resonator concept and masers (microwave amplification of stimulated emission of radiation) date back to the-,ate 1940's and 19so•s, the operation-of the first ruby laser by maimon in the latter part of 1960 made available for the first time a visible light beam having characteristics previously associated only with radio and microwave radiation. . 8 laser history shows a rapid multidisciplinary involvement, expansive commercial development, and a wide variety of applications. the most serious challenge faced by this emerging technology giant, s~s author demaria, is the continuing shortage of electro-optical engineers necessary to meet the new and evolving product needs. four generations of rodenstock: "a history of the rodenstock dynasty" is the title of an article by a. h. degenhardt in th~ august 31, 1985, issue of optometry today, vol. 25, no. 17, pp. 560-564, with a foreward by professor or. rolf rodenstock. the four generations include the founder of the ophthalmic optical enterprise josef rodenstock (1846-1932) and his brother michael, josef's son alexander (1883-1953), alexander's son rolf, and rolf's son randolph, who became a financial partner of his father in the management of the optische werke g. rodenstock headquartered in munich, west germany, in 1983. from its beginning the firm has continuously beenclosely involved with optometry. even josef had his battles with ophthalmology because he included both subjective and objective refraction as a key part of the early service of his enterprise. collectors club internationalized: by means of a clipping from a recent issue of the optician (london) ohs member irving bennett informs us that the word "internabonal" is now included as part of the title of the ophthalmic antique collectors club, which was formed in 1982. its membership now totals more than 125 from several countries. further details are available from richard brown, treasurer, 18 albion street, dunstable, beds lu6 1hx, england. notes from ayscough and molyneux: in a letter to ohs member james leeds, ohs member charles e. letocha mentioned the fact that his most prized book is a 1754 copy of james ~scough, "a short account of the eye, and nature of vision", the third edition, london. he included a photocopy of the 28 page publication. he also asked where he might obtain a copy of val ume 1 of albert fitch's "my fifty years in optometry", a's he already has volume 2. letocha is mainly a collector of spectacles but has accumulated a number of ophthalmic books and instruments as well. on the title page of the ayscough book is the explanation that it is "chiefly designed to illustrate the use and advantage of spectacles wherein are laid down rules for choosing glasses proper for remedying all the different defects of sight. as also some reasons for preferring a particular kind of glass, fitter than any other made use of for that purpose." the text was intentionally written in popular style "as to be understood by people of all capacities." he described the structure of the eye and its optical functions, including a few rules of refraction of light, what is accomplished by spectacle lenses, and some of the "signs of the want of 9 spectacles ... he also gave arguments for using green and blue instead of white glass for spectacles. in favor of using an ophthalmic glass 11 0f a greenish cast .. he took to task 11 people of the trade .. who 11 acknowledged the properties of this glass, though they opposed it in publick giving it as a reason, that it would spoil the sale of spectacles made of rock crystal and brazil pebbles, which for some time had been much cried up for the1r extraordinary v1rtues, while, in reality, there is nothing to recommend them but their exorbitant price, and the no small gain which they brought to the craftsmen ... on the last ten pages is james ayscough's advertisement of his optical establishment 11 at the golden-spectacles and quadrant, in ludgate-street, london .. for 11 fi tti ng people of all ages 11---aifd where persons 11 from the country .. who follow directions in the book 11 can be fitted as well as if they wer.e on the spot ... he also mentioned his 11 frames, entirely of a new contrivance ... in support of his theme and his role as an optician ayscough included in the final pages of the text the beautifully expressed words of the famous irish philosopher and mathematician william molyneux, 1656-1698, as follows: (for lack of an old english 11 s 11 in our type font the very similar letter 11 f 11 is substituted to convey the early print style) were there no further ufe of dioptricks, than the invention of spectacles for the ufe of defective eyes; whether they be thofe of old men, or thofe of purblind men; i fhould think the advantage that mankind receives thereby, inferior to no other benefit whatfoever, not abfolutely requifite to the support of life. for as the sight is the moft noble and extenfive of all our senfes; and as we make the moft frequent and conftant ufe of our eyes in all the actions and concerns of human life; furely that inftrument that relieves the eyes when decayed, and fupplies their defects, rendering them ufeful, when otherwife almoft ufelefs, muft needs, of all others, be efteemed of the greateft advantage. in what a miferable condition do we count thofe, in whom it hath pleafed the great contriver of the eyes and sight to fhut thefe two little windows of the soul? and we may imagine, that they, in whom thefe lights are but partly obfcured, do in fame meafure partake of the miferies of the blind. how melancholy is the condition of him, who only enjoys the sight of what is immediately about him? with what difadvantage is he engaged in moft of the concerns of human life? reading is to him troublefome, war more than ordinary dangerous, trade and commerce toilfome and unpleafant: and fo likewife, on the other hand, how forlorn would the latter part of moft men's lives prove, unlefs spectacles were at hand to help our eyes, and a little formed piece of glafs fupplied the defects of nature? the curious mechanic, engaged in any minute words, could no 1 anger fall ow his trade than till the fiftieth or sixtieth year of his age; the scholar no longer converfe with his books, or with an abfent friend in a letter: all after would be melaancholy idlenefs, or he muft content himfelf to ufe another man's eyes for every line. thus forlorn was the state of moft old men, and many young, before this admirable invention; which, on this very account, can never be prized too highly. teunissen address change: in a recent letter j. c. teunissen (sometimes spelled theunissen) advised us of his change of address to staringstraat 20, 5615hd, eindhoven, the . 10 netherlands. he says he no longer has his museum but he still has his optical collection and is interested in exchanging, buying, and selling early spectacles and microscopes. he adds that in spectacles of the "fifties" he wants only extreme and extraordinary models. nohs readers may recall that teunissen•s hobby was mentioned in the july and uc~er 1983 issues, vol. 14, pp. 73 and 106. internationalizing ohs: yes, the optometric historical society has a very significant share of its membership and participation from five continents and elsewhere. after all, ophthalmic optics has early roots wherever peoples reside, and its history is fascinating but often difficult to extract. a most gratifying way to help resolve this difficulty is to get more ohs members from every populated area of the globe. our individual gratification comes from gift memberships to optometric pen pals of other nations and especially to professional acquaintances made in international travel. if you know an optometric counterpart in tombouctou, irkutsk, valparaiso, or easter island you will find him or her profusely grateful for the opportunity to share some of our pleasures. our secretary-treasurer will inform the new member that the membership is your gift. blindiana stamp exhibit the july 1985 issue of afb news reported an exhibit of postage stamps, covers, and other philatelic-rtems-commemorating persons and events relating to blindness. after the showing in new york through november it was scheduled to travel to the chicago, atlanta, dallas, san francisco, and washington, d.c. regional offices of the american foundation for the .blind. the first blindiana stamp was issued in 1916 by what is now yugoslavia, a semi-postal stamp depicting a blind soldier. a semi-postal stamp is one sold at a surcharge over postal value for charitable purposes. other countries represented in the collection include kenya, swaziland, barbados, panama, luxembourg, west germany, israel, botswana, grenada, singapore, ghana, brazil, u.s. a., and togo. themes include famous blind persons, bli~d persons at work, braille details, and dog guides. selective effective giving: ohs member and trustee andrew f. fischer, o.d., is determined to make certain that his history-oriented professional friends shall not overlook the pleasures and satisfaction of belonging to the ohs. this year he has selected john n. schoen, o.d., of owatonna, minnesota; norbert kastner, o.o., of iselin, new jersey; carmen a. perma, o.d., of philadelphia, pennsylvania; and r. c. eckert, o.d., of jasper, indiana, to receive his annual gift memberships. he has also asked our secretary-treasurer to check a list of nine other names from which he plans to select five names for gift memberships this coming year if they do not already belong. thank you, andy! ll ancient and recent history: in the winter, 1985, issue of berkeley optometry, vol. 21, no. 4, a ten page publication of the university of cal'lforma, berkeley, school of optometry, dean jay enoch discusses the 11 the dance of siva ... siva is the third god in the hindu trinity, and one of its forms is nataraja, lord of the cosmic dance. dr. enoch calls our attention to a third eye in the forehead of a siva statue and tells us that it .. represents an all-seeing aspect of this idol • 11 the siva statue was presented to enoch in his role in the dedication of the new elite school of optometry in madras, india, on september 18, 1985. the school was so named because its benefactor c. k. shah, who contributed 1 million rupies, is the president of the elite optical company in madras. details of the establishment of the school are described in a well illustrated article entitled 11 dean•s report 11 in the aforementioned publication. also in the same issue is a brief account of the twelve years of events leading up to the establishment of the optometry school at berkeley, california, in 1920. the article, pages 6-7, is entitled 11 their pledge our pledge .. by tom trutner. the complexity of pinkeye: willard r. espy writes about the oddities of word origins and usage. his books and magazine articles have playful titles, rhetorical twists, and a bit of personality. ohs member t. david williams submitted the following passage received from his optometry student cal vi n kettner as an excerpt from espy• s 11 have a word on me .. , simon and schuster, inc., new york, ny 1984, pages 231-232: 11 by the way, .. said beau brummel, 11 have you ever had pinkeye? .. i said, ... you are becoming ridiculous. yes, i suppose i had pinkeye in my childhood. why? 11 11 why do you think the disease is called pinkeye? .. 11 because the eye is inflamed, and so pink ... .. quite wrong. 'pink' is from the dutch pinck, 'small' (which is why your little finger is your 'pinky'), plus oog, •eye•. your eyelids were inflamed; your eyes were half-closed, ana-50 small. the color pink had nothing to do with it. 11 i do not have pinkeye, .. i said. espy does not cite evidence for this interesting etymological interpretation of pinkeye. it is not documented by webster's third new international dictionary nor dorland's medical dictionary. the oxford english dictionary cites several different early uses of the word unrelated to espy's analysis, such as .. a variety of potato .. (1795), 11 a contagious fever or influenza in the horse, so called from the colour of the inflamed conjunctha 11 12 (1883), "a contagious form of ophthalmia in man, marked by redness of the eyeball" (1897), and "an australian species of duck" (1896). the word "pinck", said by espy to be a dutch word, is not in cassell's english-dutch/dutch-english dictionary (1973) either in the dutch section or as a translation of "small" in the english section. from the cherokee indian nation: an interesting history of the northeastern state university and its college of optometry in tahlequah, oklahoma, is an article by w. c. maples, o.o., in the fall 1985 issue of the journal of optometric education, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 8-13. the university originated as a seminary in 1846. the first optometry students enrolled in 1979. tahlequah is the site of the capitol of the cherokee indian nation founded when the u. s. federal government decreed the movement of twelve thousand cherokees from the carolinas and georgia to the oklahoma part of the louisiana purchase. monet•s cataracts and his art: _ recently the french ophthalmological society acquired some letters that impressionist painter claude monet (1840-1926) had written to his ophthalmologist. the letters have been studied by or. james g. ravin, according to a new york times news service item appearing on page a1 of the november 9, 1985, issue of the courier-journal (louisville, kentucky). dr. ravin says that because monet•s style was deliberately based on a certain imprecision of detail his visual difficulties did not become apparent until, when he was in his 6o•s, forms began to vanish in his paintings of weeping willows and water lilies. in 1918 monet wrote that he "no longer perceived colors with the same intensity•• and 11 no longer painted light with the same accuracy.•• he described his "wasted" efforts: "what i painted was more and more like an •old picture,• and when the attempt was over and i compared it to former wor!{s, i would be seized by a frantic rage and slash all my canvasses with my penknife ... by 1922, before his cataract surgery, blues had disappeared from his paintings. after only one cataract was removed he saw. everything too yellow in one eye and too blue in the other. he eventually adapted his vision with tinted 1 enses ... another optic~l stamp collector: mrs. r. m. (martha) hall, 1200 holden avenue, #65, orlando, florida 32809, informs us that she has a collection of every united states stamp that depicts a visual aid, not only spectacles but also hand magnifiers, microscopes, sportswear lenses, and safety goggles. she had displayed it for years in the office of her late husband, r. m. hall, 0.0., of cleveland, ohio, and it prompted much conversation. the collection includes not only a mint copy of each of 72 stamps but also a canceled duplicate of· each. some are about 65 13 years old; .. not even the u. s. philatelic office in washington, d.c. has them, for they have not been printed for almost as many years 11 • her total stamp hobby is in much broader topical areas, including pictures of buildings ranging 11 from mud house to windsor palace11 • optometric journal history: jerry l. christensen, o.d., ph.d., gives a 11 history of the journal of the american optometric associ ati on 11 on pages 852-858 of the november 1985 1 ssue of that journal, vol. 56, no. 11, commemorating its 60th anniversary. the· journal regards its own origin to be that of the a.o.a. messenger of november 1925, continued as volume 1 of the a.o.a. orgnaizer in 1929, and with a change to its present title in 1930. front covers of 21 former issues are shown, as well as the portraits of its five successive editors. unfortunately the current j.a.o.a. editor allowed a misconception to slip into his supplementary editorial commentary on page 840 in stating that in 1925, 11 0ptometry was a small, struggling profession ... even the aristocratic design of the 1925 a.o.a. messenger and president kimball's message on its front cover belie thls false presumption. our historical biases are indeed hard to eliminate. history in caricature: a letter from mr. j. h. hadley of boca raton, florida, in october reads, 11 i qualified as an english ophthalmic optician in 1954 and was in practice there until three years ago, at which time i emigrated to the u.s. with my family, and no longer work in optics. i have supplied the optician with cartoons* for many years and recently proposed sketching a ser1es of 'historical optical oddities'. curiously i had already completed ones on the st. valentine's day massacre and 3d films and was currently preparing strips on ellis island and benjamin franklin, all of which subjects are strongly featured in your newsletters. obviously, i have to be selective, as my strips are intended to mildly entertain rather than educate, and i try to end with an i rani c twist ... he enclosed four of his cartoons still in the rough stage and not ready for publication, (i appropriated these to my private cartoon collection! h.w h.). they are very enjoyable and a bit more educative than he claims. he also enclosed a check for o.h.s. membership dues. *under the caption 11 mr. denbigh ... galileo vs. scheiner: an exposition of the enmity between galileo (1564-1642) and scheiner (1579?-1650) was included in a distinguished faculty research lecture entitled, 11 ga1ileo and the jesuits .. given in 1985 at indiana university by 14 distinguished professor of history and philosophy of science, richard s. westfall, ph.d. and printed as a 25 page booklet by the university's office of research and graduate development. the following passage is excerpted from the printed copy: "while the controversy on bodies in water was still in progress, galilee became involved in a second one, which did not address itself to the tuscan scene but nevertheless involved matters that bear on my topic. the opponent in the new controversy, which concerned sunspots, was a german who wrote under the pseudonym of apelles. their differences involved the interpretation of the spots seen on or in front of the sun, with manifold opportunities for sarcastic thrusts like those mentioned above; and they included as well the question of priority in the discovery, with all of the potential for bitterness that such questions seem usually to entail. galileo eventually learned that apelles was christopher scheiner, a jesuit whom the order called to its collegia romano in 1624. although scheiner does not seem initially to have looked upon galilee as an enemy, he was not one quietly to swallow ridicule, and when he did learn to hate galilee, he remained implacable until his death." another passage relates to a lecture by orazio grassi, a professor of mathematics at the collegio romano, as follows: "galilee had only one style of controversy. to grassi's lecture he replied with a discourse on comets. the discourse appeared over the name of mar1o gu1ducci; we know from the manuscript that it was galilee's composition, and at the time everyone received it as such. although the issue of comets had nothing to do with sun­ spots, galileo chose to open the discourse with a charge of plagia­ rism against scheiner, deliberately couched in the most insulting terms. scheiner calls himself apelles, galileo said, though he does not compare even with a mediocre painter. can we seriously wonder that scheiner became his inveterate enemy? .. professor westfall i.nforms us that he has in rough form an essay on .. galileo and sunspots .. in which scheiner shows up more prominently that in the above cited lecture. he is not sure when he will have time to put the rough sketch into final form. henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors the optometric historical society for all ohs members: 243 north lindbergh boulevard saint louis. missouri 63141 december 16, 1985 at a duly called meeting on december 8, 1985, the executive board members in attendance agreed that the by-laws should be amended to increase the size of the executive board to seven and to divide the presently combined office of secretary-treasurer into two offices, one of secretary and the other of treasurer. the argument in favor was essentially that these amendments would provide greater flexibility in the assignment and sharing of duties and responsibilities, all of which are on a non-salaried volunteer basis. the adoption of one of these proposed amendments would provide for the election of three trustees in 1986 to take office in 1987, another to be elected in 1987 to begin in 1988, and two to be elected each year thereafter except every fourth year when only one term expires. the other proposed amendment merely accomplishes the sharing of the bulk of official duties. in the proposed amendments deletions are in parentheses and additions are underlined, as follows: article iv, section 1: the executive board shall consist of seven {five) members, each to be elected by the membership for a four {five) year term--except as here noted. three shall be elected in 1986 to oegll1 their terms on january 1, 1987, o-n-e--to begtn-a· term of-four years-to--su-cceed fn-eprevious--boa-ra-·m-embe-rwno_s_e ___ _ re-rm -exptre-sdeceril-6-er-t3,1986~-a-riofn-er-~gin a term of ___ tnree-years~-an_d_ tfle ___ thi rd-ta··-begtna--fermof--twoyears.-·-therearter the number to be erected eac-h--yearto_r.tour-yeatle-rms-slialtte--ff1enurril)er necessary-to re-pta_c_e-·theboard member-·ar l)oa-rd members whose· term -or -terms are-duet()~easdefined._at ____ lll.~_;_r-r~s-p-ec-(~~ij:ime-or_ t~e!~~:oj e~i_e-ct!_o_n__:_ ----· article iv, section 4: the executive board shall elect from among themselves a president, a vice president, (and a secretary-treasurer) a secretary, and a treasurer, and the remaining members of the executive boa-rd-s-fialt_b_e-ae-s1gnated ·rr-u-stee-~--the fo 11 owing is your ballot to be checked and mailed to maria dablemont at the above address: article iv, section 1 : in favor opposed -·----. ---·-·-·-~ article iv, section 4: in favor opposed -·.. --··---------attention all collectors of antique eye-glasses, spectacles, optical instruments,and all those interested in ocular and optical history the ocular heritage society cordially invites all optometrists and other interested individuals, regardless of any professional affiliations to attend their third annual meeting to be held this year in new orleans at the royal orleans hotel and the tulane university optical museum, friday through sunday, april 11-12-13 1986. there will be three days of exhibitions, historical talks,show-tell-and sell sessions, as well as fabulous banquets and meals for which the city of new orleans is justly famous. nothing like this has been done by any organization in this country before. at our last year's meeting collectors and dealers from all over canada and the usa as well as england, netherlands,germany and france attended. this year, we expect an even wider turnout. if you would like to present a short historical presentation paper, please call our president,j. william rosenthajlj, m.d. ,2720 jefferson ave., new orleans, la. 70115, (504-947-3332). further details of th meetings can be obtained from our secretary spencer e. sherman, m.d., 166 east 63rd st., new york, ny 10021, 212-753-8300. substantial air travel discounts up to 35% are available to those traveling to our meeting. flights must be booked through the eastern airlines convention desk. the special phone number is 800-468-7022 (nationally) and 800-2820244 in the state of florida only. callers must identify themselves as going to the meeting of the ocular heritage society in new orleans and then give the operator this special easy access number 4-bp-76 as a special identification. travel can be on any airline, but the maximum discount will be for those who fly eastern. feel free to bring along anyone you wish who would appreciate our hobby. ours is a very relaxed, and warm group and we wish to share our interests with others .we look forward to your joining us. sincerely yours, /jil alan york, o.d. vice-president 516-324-1024 1986-17-01-001 1986-17-01-002 1986-17-01-003 1986-17-01-004 1986-17-01-005 1986-17-01-006 1986-17-01-007 1986-17-01-008 1986-17-01-009 1986-17-01-010 1986-17-01-011 1986-17-01-012 1986-17-01-013 1986-17-01-014 1986-17-01-015 1986-17-01-016 . . ~ ' ' \.··· ·" volume 19 optometr~ library may 311989 newsletter of the ~etometric historical society ~(243 north lindbergh boulevard /st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) april 1988 contact lens litigation history: u/t number 2 what may turn out to be the history of a brief lifetime of rigid gas permeable (rgp) contact lenses are an editorial and an article by neal j. bailey in the march 1988 issue of contact lens spectrum, vol. 3, no.3, ppp. 8 and 24-27 respectively. the article is entitled "judge copple's judgement" and subtitled "the sola ruling and what it means to the contact lens industry." in the editorial dr. bailey wonders if, as a result of a u.s. district court decision, much of the innovative spirit in contact lens design will now be stifled, whether the rgp lenses can now compete economically with soft lenses, and how the completely independent siliconejacrylate rgp button can survive. quoting directly from judge william copple's decision of november 2, 1987, bailey traces the litigation from dr. norman gaylord's original research for a rigid gas permeable lens in 1971 through a complex sequence of patent ownerships, company takeovers, allegations and denials of infringements, and even a filing for bankruptcy. artistic depiction of light: featured in the 1988 art calendar of the munich, germany, rodenstock firm is a series of reproductions of oil paintings in which lighting in art form is strangely depicted. seven of these are reproduced in the november 1987 issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 42, no. 11, pp. 60-61 in an article entitled "ausdruckestarke licht-bilder aus munchen." the pictures, selected from the gallery of the new pinakothck in munich, illustrate vividly the artists' effective rendition of festive candlelight, dramatic lighting effects, twilight impressions, outdoor and indoor lighting contrasts, high noon, and table and room localized lamplighting, all in oil color. the unidentified author of the article emphasized the fact that lighting is an integral part of optics and that the artistic rendition of lighting effects had its advent in the 19th century in parallel with so many other rich optical developments of the era. . ; 18 re will rogers et al.: will rogers (virtually unknown by his full name of william penn adair rogers, 1879-1935) is the title of a 1973 book about his life and times by richard m. ketchum, a senior editor of american heritage publishing co., inc., the publishers. in the book's many dozens of photographs of will rogers in action only a few show him wearing a pair of glasses, a pair of round-eye black-rim frames presumably with single vision lenses for near use only. these few include a snapshot of him sitting sideways in the front seat of his car with his feet out on the running board and his typewriter in his lap, several while reading a newspaper, and one in a bacon-frying kitchen scene from the movie "too busy to work." biographer ketcham writes, page 304: ... in his early fifties, will had begun to experience some difficulty in reading; the old "injun eyes" weren't quite as good as they once were. one day in the lambs' club in new york an actor friend saw him holding the newspaper at arm's length, offered his glasses, and will put them on and left the club with them in his pocket. he never bothered to have his eyes tested; betty [mrs. rogers] simply had the friend's prescription duplicated and ordered them by the dozen, since will was so hard on them. when reading, he wore them down on the end of his nose, but when he was talking to someone he would take them off and twirl them around in his hand or chew on the ear pieces until they were twisted and gnawed out of shape. the contents of his pockets in his clothing at the time of his death, only three or four years later, included a pair of eyeglasses and a magnifying glass. it seems likely that they, and perhaps other duplicate pairs, are presently at his memorial in claremore, oklahoma, with the collection of his other memorabilia. prior to describing the tragic deaths of will rogers and the contemporarily famous wiley post (1899-1935) in an airplane crash on the north coast of alaska ketcham also mentions the circumstances of post's familiar eye patch, as follows: l<. he wor~ed as a roughneck in the oil fields, took a job with a flying circus as a parachute jumper, acquired some flight training, and was back working on an oil rig when an accident occurred that made it possible for him to purchase his first plane. an iron chip from a sledgehammer lodged in his left eye, which became infected and had to be removed, and wiley was awarded $1,700 in compensation, with which he immediately bought a damaged canuck aircraft. having exchanged an eye for wings, he had to prove he was capable of 19 flying, and for months he worked on training his v1s1on, learning to calculate distances by guessing how far it was to a tree or building, then pacing it off to see how near right he was. author ketcham's insight into the nature of vision is also made evident in his historical discussion of early motion pictures, which happened to precede will rogers' early career. he informs the reader, page 156, that, ... the notion of making pictures move on a screen date back to the 1850's and earlier, when a shutter was added to the venerable magic lantern to make a series of drawings look like a figure in motion. the principle then and now of creating an illusion of motion was based on a phenomenon known as "the persistence of vision" by which the optic nerve "remembers" a still image for a fraction of a second. various experimenters among them the american eadweard muybridge, who had something he called a zoopraxiscope to display animals in motion in the 1880'shad produced workable motion picture projectors. he adds that muybridge exhibited these moving pictures in the zoopraxographical hall at the 1893 chicago world's fair, which young will may have seen. history of refraction: 11 350 jahre brechungsgesetz" (350th anniversary of the law of refraction) is the title of an interesting article by jurgen lowi tzki and michael schwalm of aalen, west germany, in the december 20, 1987 issue of the deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 42, no. 12, pp. 14-16 and 18-21. though the law was originally expressed in a manuscript by snell (1580-1626) in 1621 as the constant ratio of the cosecants of the angles of incidence and refraction for a given pair of media, it was not until 1637 that descartes (1596-1650) published the law independently as the ratio of the sines. the empirical phenomenon of refraction itself had long been recognized and described in antiquity by the egyptians, babylonians, and the greeks. commenting on the analyses by pythagoras (ca 580-500 b.c.) and euclid (fl. ca. 350 b.c.) as purely descriptive and theoretical, the authors credit hero of alexandria (fl. ca. 100 a.d.) with the first geometric expression of the equality of the angles of incidence and refraction but without any attempt to quantify the refractive angle. about a hundred years later claudius ptolemaeus did some experimental work with mirrors and with the image of a submerged coin in a fishbowl. from the latter experiments he derived a table of refractive angles in water ranging from 0° to 50° for incidence angles from 0° to 80°. he also first noted the angle of total reflection. 20 the subsequent contributions of the arabian alhazen (ca. 9651039), the polish witelo (ca. 1230-1275), and the german kepler (1571-1630) were rather minimal in terms of refraction though each was the optical authority of his era. each one tried unsuccessfully to formulate a mathematical expression for the ptolemeus data. following the descartes publication of the law of refraction, now called snell's law, fermat (1601-1665) formulated his "least time" rule, and from this derived the theorem that the ratio of the sines, the index of refraction, was in fact the ratio of speeds of light in the two media. for the first time, the fact that light traveled at a speed other than infinite was taken seriously. it also provided a basis for the spectral dispersion theory of newton (1642-1727). the authors cite eleven references for their review, the most extensive of which is lehne, "zur geschichte des brechungsgestezes" in sudhoffs archiv fur geschichte der medizin und der naturwissenschaften 47, pp 152-172, 1963. soectacle selling and sin: in several instances the often uninterpretable dutch painter hieronymus bosch (1450-1516) included spectacles on subjects with apparent symbolic intent. one interpreter, d. bax, wrote a book entitled "hieronymus bosch, his picture-writing deciphered" with translation by m.a. bax-botha, published by a.a. bulkema, rotterdam, the netherlands, 1979. referring to a monk in the painting of "fish-ship and duck­ ship, bird and boat" in the chapter on "temptation of st. anthony", author bax writes, p. 93: "he has spectacles on his nose. has he bought himself eye-glasses; i.e. has he been deceived or misled, namely by the evil one? to sell someone spectacles meant, already in the beginning of the 16th century: to deceive, mislead someone, to gull some-one, or to misrepresent something to him". in support of this potential interpretation bax cites examples from the woordenboek der nederlandsche taal, 1882. on page 398 bax comments further on bosch's symbolic use of spectacles by reference to a thesis by j.f.a. beins at the university of groningen and published in amsterdam in 1948, as follows: "that bosch's bespectacled devils have anything to do with misbirths in which the eyes are of abnormal size, be ins himself does not seem to believe. bosch's painting of spectacles is entirely realistic and they are perhaps meant to signify that sinful man, satirized in the devils, has been misled by the evil one." both paragraphs suggest that, at least in bosch's netherlands 21 and in bosch's era, there was a prevailing notion that anyone who bought a pair of spectacles had been duped or hoodwinked. this is a fascinatiea suspicion well worth investigation. y1 6. spectacles in early paintings: the history column of the january-february 1988 issue of the east german augenoptik, vol. 105, no. 1, pp. 24-27, features an article on early spectacle representations by the late wolfgang munchow {1923-1986). preceding the article is brief obituary of munchow by u.maxam. dr. munchow was the medical chief of an eye clinic in zwickau, ddr, and famous for his historical collection of spectacles representations in the painting art. his collections are now in the german museum of hygiene in dresden. the brief article, a commentary in the representations in art work, is accompanied by 14 illustrations of pictures and ophthalmic apparatus exhibited at the museum and photographed by maxam. another memorial: o.h.s. member gregory l. stephens informs us that the ohio state university college of optometry recently began awarding a glenn a. fry medal in physiological optics and that the award is at present being funded by optometric educators, inc., an organization of college of optometry faculty members. the first award was made to dr. fry and a more recent one to dr. elwin marg of the university of california at berkeley where he gave the first glenn a. fry award lecture on september 12, 1987. more on brewster: the front cover illustration of a view through a kaleidoscope and an article by e. scott barr on pages 8-12 of the april 1988 issue if optics news, vol. 14, no. 4, are featured in a biographical sketch of sir david brewster (1781-1868). at age 12 brewster was sent by his father to be a student at the university of edinburgh, 45 miles away, from where he walked home on foot during holidays. though he completed the course prescribed for a bachelor's degree, he did not take that degree, preferring to continue as a divinity student. he received an honorary m.a. in 1800 and in 1804 was licensed to preach in the church of scotland. he gave a very few sermons with great difficulty. because he could not memorize his sermons, he found that his fear of public failure and disgrace was a greater strain than he could bear, so was never ordained. these and numerous other anecdotal accounts of his life, 22 personality, and optical contributions are interestingly covered. astigmatism and cylindrical glasses: a couple of years ago the then librarian of the optometry branch of the indiana university library, roger beckman, called my attention to an interesting entry in the annual report of the lilly library of rare books, another branch, and one financially well endowed by the late eli lilly of pharmaceutical industrial fame. the entry was a listing of newly acquired works in the history of science. it included the original dutch edition of f.c. dander's astigmatisme en cilindrische glazen (utrecht, 1862), thus supplementing the copy of the german translation previously owned by mr. lilly himself and entitled astigmatismus und cylindrische glaeser (berlin, 1862). i finally found an afternoon free to examine them and to exercise my passable german-reading skill and perhaps even to detect the sense of some of the dutch text. entry to the lilly library is a public privilege, but an impressively formal one. first one asks the receptionist for the privilege and is given a pass card on which one enters his or her name, address, and patron category as faculty, staff, student, out­ of-towner, public, etc. the receptionist then releases the locked reading room door by pressing a button at her desk. upon entering, one gives the pass card to the librarian in charge who offers any help desired_. i of course then went right to the bank of catalogued cards and quickly found the call numbers for the two aforementioned donders books, entered these numbers and my name on two separate book request cards and handed them to the attending librarian. he promptly disappeared into the stacks in another room and in a very few minutes returned with the two books, the more fragile one in a specially constructed box to protect it. i was asked which one i wanted first. a bit surprised by this, and not knowing which one i wanted first, i pointed to the boxed one, which turned out to be the dutch edition. he then directed me to a table, placed a couple of "bean-bag" type cloth containers of pebbles on the table so that the book could lie partly open but not so flat as to strain its spine. he then handed me a foot-long but narrow cloth container of pebbies to lay gently on the open pages while reading then to minimize holding the pages with normally moist finger. he asked me to use lead pencil rather than an ink pen to take notes, offering me a pencil if i did not have one. in the quiet of the reading room, surrounded by shelves of various language dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, atlases, and other modern references above which were hung numerous handsomely framed portraits of famous authors of yo~ (all males, i believe!), i leafed gently through the brittle pages of the dutch edition, one by one. 23 the first four pages are donder's personal dedication of the book to albrecht von graefe {1828-1870) dated 8 april 1862. next is the author's foreword of two pages which includes reference to airy's astigmatic observations in 1827 and to comments by knapp while in heidelberg in september 1861. donders also included his estimate that at least 2% of his ophthalmological patients had magnitudes of astigmatism that significantly affected their visual acuity. the next 134 pages are in nine chapters beginning with a brief description of refractive anomalies and a final chapter of eight pages on the history of our knowledge of astigmatism. a number of simple illustrations show lens cross-sections, optical diagrams, and test patterns. these are followed by an appendix of two pates commenting on the availability of cylindrical lenses. optician loeb in amsterdam and optician steinheil in munich are mentioned as good sources. exchanging the dutch edition for the slightly less fragile german edition i similarly leafed through it, finding it essentially identical in content but with a few very minor variations, indicating that the translator, a dr. schweiger, was being monitored by donders. in the foreword, for example, the airy date was changed to 1836. also, a footnote to the translated foreword was added at donders's request to acknowledge the fine work of "herren optiker paetz & flohr (berlin, u. d. linden 13)" who provided various astigmatic lenses for donders's use. the german book did not include the appendix on the availability of cylindrical lenses. in the dedication of the book to von graefe donders really waxed a bit sentimental, obviously not only out of admiration but also because of von graefe's hospitality during the time that donders had spent in berlin. though i did not peruse the book thoroughly, i read enough to be impressed by its technological excellence. however, i did pick up the interesting and questionable donders opinion that astigmatism was largely inherited. he cited examples of clinical similarities in parents and their children. my special interest in his opinion was spurred by my own published data in 1953 (with rife) showing no correlation of astigmatism in a statistical sample of identical twins. donder's view, incidentally, was in accord with the general impression of many optometrists and ophthalmologists in subsequent years anecdotally reported or based on isolated genealogies. not until 1965 was this easily gained and long prevailing impression challenged in the ph. d. research of william lyle on a very large genealogical sample in which he found the hereditary evidence in corneal astigmatism almost negligible. donders's book on astigmatism was also published in french translation as a separate volume. the english translation however, 24 appeared essentially as chapter viii of the 1864 donders classic "on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye" which was translated by w.d. moore from donder's original dutch manuscript. the historical significance of all of this is in the fact that the thorough clinical evaluation of astigmatism and cylindrical lenses appeared only after more than a half millennium of spectacle-wearing! inasmuch as donders mentioned optical suppliers of cylindrical lenses in three different major cities, and of course airy had his made by an optician in another, one can wonder how much earlier spectacle makers were already fitting them without publishing any details, in line with the guild tradition of secrecy. h.w h. a decapitating blindshot: ohs member t. david williams writes as follows: the recent arrival of the ohs newsletter suggested to me that you might be interested in this little snippet regarding mariette. here it is. edme mariette (1620-1684) is rather close to my heart, as it was he who first demonstrated the presence of the blindspot. it was referred to for over a hundred years as the blindspot of mariotte. he had been doing a lot of anatomical work, and had a pretty good idea where the optic nerve entrance was, relative to the line of sight. his first demonstration was that (at a distance of 2 meters) the blindspot was large enough to obscure a human head. (taking a head as 17 em from ear to ear, it subtends 4.85 degrees at 2 meters). people were so astounded by this discovery that mariette was invited to repeat his experiment in 1668 for the royal society of london, in the presence of the king of england, his royal highness charles ii. ~ making a head disappear was rather grimly appropriate for charles ii, as his father, charles i, had been beheaded. this led to a number of apocryphal stories, one of which involved the king of france. mariette still managed to put his foot in it, however, when he announced that he thought the choroid was the seat of vision. this wasn't sorted out until helmholtz's time. mariette had a good reason for his error regarding the choroid: there is no choroid at the nerve head, and he thought this is why one doesn't see with this part of the eye. 25 ocular heritage society news: ohs member james leeds writes: i thought it would be of interest to our membership that i attended a meeting of another ohs --the ocular heritage society in st. louis, april 29-30, 1988. a group of 25 or so, comprehensive ophthalmologists, optometrists, opticians and others who were interested, including a few spouses. we had a very busy, engrossing and delightful two days. we started with a visit to the aoa museum and archives, hosted by maria dablemont in her last day before retirement! the only complaining made by some was that not enough time was allowed. after lunch we went to another museum and then heard three papers at washington university school of medicine. there was a group dinner afterwards. the second day consisted of a meeting with eight more papers and a visit to the bernard becker book collection, where many rare books were available j for inspection. the meeting closed with a banquet. some of the topics of the papers were: "the mcallister optical company", "some refractive techniques and instruments of the 'gay nineties'", "an eyecup collection", "eyes, books and birds casey a. wood", and "introduction to the bernard becker collection". i gave a short talk on my experiences in collecting books. there was one other optometrist in attendance -ted fisher of waterloo, ontario. he was elected vice-president and will host the next meeting in waterloo in may 1989. i certainly hope to attend, and i am sure any of our members would be most welcome. annual dues are $25.00, which makes our dues even more of a bargain. further information can be gotten from: ms. susan e. cronenwett, secretary-treasurer director of ophthalmic heritage foundation of the american academy of ophthalmology 655 beach street, p.o. box 6988 san francisco, ca 94101-6988 (415) 561-8500 eure memorial honor: the american optometric foundation gives an annual spurgeon eure, o.d. award established in 1972 to honor persons chosen by the editor of the southern journal of optometry. spurgeon eure is a past-president of the american optometric foundation. 26 pauci-lingual frustration: on page 88 of issue number 4 of a 1988 serial publication from korea which i presume can be called the journal of the opticians association of korea is a full page illustration featuring a bronze-colored metallic-tone full-face mask with spiral horns. mounted on the mask face is a pair of copper-colored early spectacles with center riveted pivot and no temple support. buried in the korean legend of several lines are several numerals including two four-digit numbers 1511 and 1600 which may be century dates. parenthetically in the legend are the phrases "tower collection" and "will somer" in western alphabet. on pages 118-124 is an obviously historical article with six reproductions of spectacle-related illustrations of early western origin. parenthetical inclusions in western alphabet are such names as cicero, hieronymos, snellius, et al. it seems probable that the article is merely a reprint or rehash of an already familiar historical article, but surely the korean editor may have added some korean comments that could be interesting. unfortunately i do not read korean! h.w h. editors: henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464-7098 usa 1988-19-02-001 1988-19-02-002 1988-19-02-003 1988-19-02-004 1988-19-02-005 1988-19-02-006 1988-19-02-007 1988-19-02-008 1988-19-02-009 1988-19-02-010 * • ~ ~ ~ f ~ • 1 ~ • . ·' .0 .... fi ~.i ; lndj.ana university ; ~ . 4 optometric historical society : r.uc 02 7996 ~ ~ 4 63jll, usa library : ········@···~3 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri w"'l!'~@l ~ volume 27 april 1996 number 2 late 17th century optometry: at about age 14 or 15 john marshall (? 1659-1723) of london began his seven­ year apprenticeship under the surveillance of the turners' company (instrument makers guild). he then entered the trade and soon attained a favorable reputation as a lens maker and won his freeman status in the guild in 1685. although most of the contemporary london opticians belonged to another guild, the well founded worshipful company of spectacle makers (the .. s.m.c ... ), marshall, for some undetermined reason, could not be persuaded to join it. his relationship with the s.m.c. was sometimes amicable, sometimes not. on one occasion its members were ordered not to patronize marshall, but the order was quite ineffective. his thriving establishment was on ludgate street, identified by the impressive sign of the archimedes and spectacles. at some time prior to 1693 marshall designed what he believed to be an original modification of the tools for grinding and polishing lenses. the precise details of the invention have not been firmly documented by the available records, but it is quite apparent that two features were (1) the use of very large convex and concave laps or tools on which several lenses could be cemented and surfaced simultaneously with identical curvatures, and (2) the laps were made of brass instead of iron. the results were less costly lenses of much higher quality and precision. in november 1693 his friend robert hooke (1635-1703) arranged for marshall to demonstrate a large telescope objective lens to the royal society (london). the records show that the members were duly impressed. a month later marshall was given the opportunity to testify before the society concerning his multiple spectacle lens grinding technique, whereupon the society authorized edmund halley (1656-1742) and hooke to witness the process and report back to the society. following this site visit marshall received the following letter: i have (by order of the royal society) seen and examined the method used by mr. john marshall, for grinding glasses; and find that he performs the said work with greater ease and certainty than hitherto has been practised; by means of an invention which i take to be his own, and new; and whereby he is enabled to make a great number of optick-glasses at one time, and all exactly alike; which having reported to the royal society, they were pleased to approve thereof, as an invention of great use; and highly to deserve encouragement. lond. jan. 18. 1693, 4. by the command of the royal society: edm. halley. 27/10 this is copied from a post-1707 issue of john marshall's handbill. grammatically it varies slightly but negligibly from the text appearing in j. houghton, a collection for the improvement of husbandry and trade, second series (london), no. 77, 19 january 1694. the title of houghton's publications reflects a strong mission of the royal society during that era, namely, the encouragement of technological advancement whether by scientists, artisans, or trades personnel. though neither having patented his invention nor having kept his technique a secret, marshall promptly exploited the society's approbation by citing the letter repeatedly in his advertising. the spectacle makers guild, the s.m.c., on the other hand filed a complaint to the royal society that marshall had misrepresented himself and that the procedure for which he claimed credit was neither new nor valuable. in response the royal society requested more documentation from marshall, which he seems to have supplied. as a result the society chose not to retract its approval. then followed some competition from another prominent provider of spectacles, john yarwell, an s.m.c. member, whose handbills and media advertisements stated that his lenses were made in compliance with methods approved by the royal society. he, too, located his place of business on ludgate street. marshall's advertising then claimed that only his methods were approved, that only he had received the soon famous letter. a bit later numerous other, especially younger, opticians entered the promotional foray with advertisements and handbills that cleverly implied royal society approval of their lenses. •some of the advertising copy would have done justice to squabbling fishwives, •• is the evaluation of authors d.j. bryden and d.l. simms in the january 1993 issue of annals of science, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 1-32, in a detailed article entitled ·spectacles improved to perfection and approved of by the royal society,•• from which the above account is derived. in addition to the above almost legendary abstraction of much of their thoroughly researched paper, authors bryden and simms provided a technical review of the history of lens grinding itself, apparently for the benefit of readers without optical background. the authors also generously provide a several-page commentary on the difficulties of documentation and interpretation. historically the tradesmen and artisans who knew the technology and crafts did not write, and the savants or learned people who wrote the documentation were unskilled in the crafts. "indeed robert smith, plumian professor of astronomy at cambridge, in his 1738 survey of grinding glasses for telescopes, openly admitted he had never seen the operations he described ... more recently, but similarly, d.j. de solla price in an evening address, international edison birthday foundation (detroit, 1968), adistinguished between scientists and engineers as the former writing, but not reading, while the latter reads, but does not write. • these observations certainly reenforce my own theory explaining the dearth of written documentation of optometry's history in the many centuries following the invention of spectacles. little is obtainable prior to optometry's emergence from its exclusively craft and guild status and its evolvement into a profession with academic infrastructure. h.wh. 27/11 spectral therapy: in the dr. james leeds collection of optometrically related books is one which he must have acquired under the impression that it was another in a series of publications on an ophthalmic theme that caught the attention of a number of optometrists in the late 1930s and early 1940s, namely, color therapy. this one is entitled •chromaray triorays manual, color energy .. on its green stiff-paper cover, and .. chromaray, the scientific way to health with the seven colors of the spectrum• on its title page. authored by e. ruscheweyh, r.n., and e.a. ernest it consists of 90 pages, 23.5 x 15.5 em., bound by a brass spiral and published by ernest distributing company in milwaukee, wisconsin, 1937. apparently ruscheweyh was a nurse (r.n.) and perhaps ernest was the designer of the subject equipment or instrumentation, the chromaray, the focoray attachment, and the three supplementary triorays. the chromaray consisted of a tripod-supported, somewhat barrel-shaped housing slightly larger than one's head and containing a 1 00 watt clear •spotlight• bulb (price $1.00) with a reflector and condenser system for projecting a diverging beam of light through any of seven dial-mounted colored filters directly onto a patient's exposed chest, back, or elsewhere. the focoray attachment would concentrate the beam onto a small area of choice on the patient's body. from the illustrations the triorays appear to have been separate hand-held converging lenses of several inches diameter, one green, one blue, and the third "penetrating. • they could be used for focusing colored light directly from the sun or an exposed bulb onto the area to be treated. variously referred to as chromo therapy, color therapy, or color healing, the recommended treatment durations range from five to 30 minutes. it is suggested .that for maximum affectivity the patient should be oriented in the "magnetic meridian.. during treatment, i.e., head to the north when lying down, or facing south when sitting up. further enhancement may be gained by means of •charged water• taken internally as a purgative or cathartic, the .. charged water• consisting of distilled water irradiated for one hour with the properly selected chromaray color. eighty-one pages of the manual consist of numerous tables and listings identifying the functional roles of each color and color combinations in terms of therapeutic effects, drug similarities, chemical element analogues, vitamin equivalents, and choices of colors to be applied for dozens, if not hundreds, of clinical aberrations ranging alphabetically from abortion to zoster. there is no suggestion that the manual was intended for optometrists, nor is it clear for what health practitioners it was written. its scientific integrity is reinforced with citations of such anonymous assertions as •facts of science do not change• and •the study of mankind is man.• the only cited reference is a book entitled •the principles of light and color" by edwin d. babbitt, 1877. do not smile. this was not long ago. h.wh. 27/12 notes from ophthalmic antiques: the january 1994 issue of the newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collector's club, no. 46, informs us that the worshipful company of spectacle makers displayed its history at the city antiques and fine art fair held in london on 28 october to 1 november, 1993. included were two showcases of optical items from the collection of hugh orr, the 9q-year-old honorary curator of the b.o.a. foundation museum. he, himself, spent several hours each day meeting the fair-goers, among whom was hrh the duchess of kent. derek c. davidson traces the involvement of the dixey family in ophthalmic opticianry from the enrollment of young edward dixey as an apprentice with "linnell the optician and instrument maker of 14 cow lane in the city of london• on august 19, 1771. in the earliest days of opening his own establishment some years later edward is reported as having •sold sweets at one counter, spectacles at another, and also kept a cow for milk to refresh his more thirsty customers. • by 1989 the dixey name became identified with two multiples, one, an eleven-branch chain with head office in london, and the other a group of six practices headquartered in brighton. editor macgregor questions the validity of an interpretation in the 1945 catalogue of the bibliotheque royale in brussels describing an artist's illustration of a dragon-like bird in a psalter (library number br5163-4) as a •dragon with spectacles." the psalter is identified as having come from ghent circa 1240, with another opinion in the 1260s, both of which dates are decades before the presently widely accepted date of the invention of spectacles. what were obviously presumed by the 1945 cataloguer to be spectacles were two circles on the face of the bird located only very approximately where the eyes might be. their possible interpretation as spectacles is the theme of a paper by judith s. neaman of the department of english, yeshiva university, new york, entitled •the mystery of the ghent bird and the invention of spectacles," viator medieval and renaissance studies, vol. 24 (1993), pp. 189-214, university of california press, berkeley, los angeles, usa. · another article in the newsletter is henri obstfeld's translation and annotation of a 1973 booklet entitled •der fund vom nonnenchor• (the discovery in the nuns' choir) published by the kloster (nunnery) at wienhausen, a village near celie in lower saxony, germany. archeological work which had commenced there in 1953 uncovered many artifacts prompting a 1958 article by horst appuhn entitled •ein gedenkwurdiger fund• (a noteworthy discovery) in zeiss werkzeitschrift, no. 27, pp. 2-8. inasmuch as the choir at wienhausen dates from about 1330 it is presumed that the wide variety of artifacts found there relate to the early 14th century. the publications report the inclusion of numerous pairs of spectacles. these spectacles may well be the earliest extant, for until this discovery the earliest evidence has been derived entirely from artists' ·paintings. hence it was not known whether the earliest spectacle frames were made of horn, bone, or metal. 27/13 the spectacle frames uncovered in wienhausen· are all of wood, reflecting the nwood culture• of the middle ages. the obstfeld article describes three types of frames, all of wood, with each pair of the two lens-holding halves centrally joined by a rivet. the presence of a wide assortment of handicraft tools suggest that the fabrication of the frames was done by nuns. h.wh. long time between blinks: nwinkn was a contest between two individual potawatomi indians who stood face­ to-face and stared at each other. the first individual to blink, or •wink," lost the contest. such staring matches attracted the attention of other indians and were surrounded with much good-natured joking and teasing. the pastime prompted artist george winter (1809-1876) to sketch a graphite and diluted ink watercolor on a 13.4 x 17.2 em slip of paper a scene of about 30 indians, a couple of horses, and a dog, all casually gathered to watch two manly-looking, high­ costumed indians in the foreground poised in a game of wink. at the youthful age of 28, george winter, an english immigrant, after a brief study in new york and a couple of years of studio work in cincinnati, ohio, decided to migrate to logansport, indiana, where he set up a studio next to a fur-trading post. he was lured there by his fascination with indian culture and the awareness that the potawatomi and miami indians in that area were being pushed westward under the indian removal act of 1830. he was a prolific artist as well as an observer who provided substantial documentary commentary. his drawings were very realistic and meticulously detailed whether of portraits or landscape, and always executed in excellent perspective. with regard to the indians' grasp of pictorial art and especially their lack of experience with perspective he wrote as follows: the indian is quick in his perception, and being without the civilized man's conventionalities and affectations, he was a model of 'good breeding' in his opinions upon so strange an art as painting. the indian applauded by his signs and gesticulations, the painted resemblance of natural objects though often puzzled over effects of color, and by landscape painting, by the distance and nearness of objects as perspectively. drawn and painted. i remember an indian in my studio once, going down upon his hands and knees to examine minutely a painting that was upon my easel-he gazed long upon it grunting out his approbation-he then went behind the canvas, under the impression that he could look through the atmosphere of the painted scene .. both sides of the canvas he imagined contained the same scene. the above excerpts are from a 1993 publication of the indiana historical society . entitled indians and a changing frontier, the art of george winter, a catalog of the george winter collection located at the tippecanoe county historical association, lafayette, indiana. it is perhaps one of the most intimate documentations 27/14 of the indian acculturation process during the westward movement. objectively detailed as it is, we may well infer that the complete lack of evidence of, or reference to, spectacles, even as recently as the early 1800s, suggest that glasses had not yet had any significant impact on either the indians or white pioneer traders of this region. the only two other mentions of anything optical or ocular in the whole 250-page book are a comment that chief 0-kah-maus was what the indians call po-ke-quek, or one-eyed (p. 79), and that chief francis godfroy (a •half-breed•) had eyes "larger than that of the general characteristic eye of the indian which is rather small, sharp, and piercing .. (p. 122). that there were visual limitations of that era which simply do not exist in today's civilization is lucidly conveyed by mr. winter's notation regarding a conversation with an african american who had identified himself with the miamis, married a squaw, and spoke their tongue fluently. •t told the negro interpreter to say that the sun was now low, and the light nearly gone, and that on the morrow, i would make my sketch of her.•• h.wh. 1 00 years ago: in the april1896 issue of the optical journal, vol. ii, no.2, the editorial deals with the state of new york assembly bill no. 727 entitled .. a bill to incorporate the optical society of new york." in opposing the bill the dispensing opticians declared, .. its real object is to legalize a limited class of imperfectly qualified men, who are really not members of the optical trade, but call themselves refractionists, to practice in a semi­ professional manner upon the public. a in the may 1896 issue the editor reports, "the only published lists of opticians are those contained in the jewelers' directories, but these are so incomplete and useless to the optical trade that we have determined to publish a directory ourselves, if enough support can be had ... the june 1896 issue included the following comment on the first state meeting of the optical society of the state of new york: uquite a lot of singing talent was developed on board the steamer coming down onondaga lake on wednesday night. a glee club of about twenty voices awoke the echoes over the lake, and continued on the trolley car trip home.• h.wh. wavelength cures: reminiscent of the earliest years of my own optometry career, the '30s, was a packet of publications in the dr. james leeds collection. they related in various ways to the briefly promoted faddistic notion that innumerable ills could be cured by exposure of the body or eyes to prescribed colors of light. in the packet were included a cloth­ bound collection of pamphlets under the title "handbook of specific light therapy, a fifth 27/15 edition, 1930, and an accopress-bound •course in specific light therapy• of redundantly similar content, sixth revised and renewed edition, 1939, both authored by dr. carl loeb and published by actino laboratories, chicago, illinois. the clinical procedure is called harmono chrome therapy and the instrument touted in both compendia is called the mountain sun. it is represented as having carbon electrodes as its light source with capabilities of producing a wide range of wavelengths from infrared to ultraviolet. enfolded in the latter were several documents, as follows: an undated mimeographed two-page sheet entitled • a five year plan for the american college of optometrists•; a one-page •dear doctor• form invitation on college letterhead to optometrists .. familiar with ... the use of selected spectral bands• such as contained in dr. william henning's book, •the practice of modern optometry .. ; a mimeographed five­ page nnational educational bulletin #1,'' dated 1939, listing the .. fundamental principles• and detailed instructions for a 21-point clinical procedure to be followed by college members; an undated seven-page pamphlet by wm. henning entitled •sensible food selection, .. courtesy of ''drs. henning & bursack, 411-414 black bldg., fargo, north dakota"; and a long personal letter dated aug. 31, 1936, from dr. henning to dr. reinke discussing a mechanical flaw in the syntonizer which reinke had purchased, a reference to a concern of dr. loeb about payments, and the procedure to be followed in a variety of mostly ocular clinical conditions. the two books authored by dr. loeb indicate that he was some sort of physician, perhaps naturopathic. the texts are clearly intended for physicians. henning identified himself as both a dr. of naturopathy and dr. of optometry. one of the letterheads suggests that bursack was a naturopath. various rubber stampings in the contents of the total packet clearly identify albert r. reinke as an optometrist, somewhat victimized perhaps. i personally knew dr. henning while he practiced in columbus, ohio, in the early '40s. he suddenly disappeared under threat of arrest for fraud. h.wh. helmholtz's contributions: "hermann von helmholtz, m.d. (1821-1894): father of the ophthalmoscope," is the title of a brief and succinct review of helmholtz's contributions to the eyecare professions by g. peter halberg, m.d., in the may/june 1994 issue of eyecare technology, vol. 4, no.3, pp. 35 and 104. h.wh. deju vu: not unlike the optometric efforts in the english speaking world beginning earlier this century to agree on a title or designation for the profession, the chinese are presently challenged to invent and adopt an appropriate set of chinese characters to identify more 27/16 accurately today's optometrist. it must be presumed that prior chinese terms or descriptive phrases have been in use for centuries to identify persons who did sight­ testing and spectacle .fitting but apparently no exclusive or functionally identifying appellation has emerged comparable to the english word •optometrist.• at the ninth asian pacific optometric congress george woo challenged the chinese delegates to invent a suitable set of characters to serve as the designation of the profession into the future. the delegation drew up six versions. after much discussion and debate a vote was taken. two versions showed greatest acceptance. it was agreed that these should be circulated for wider consideration before finalization. the six suggestions can be found in the june 1993 issue of vision asia-pacific, vol. 2, no.2, p. 8 h.wh. · refractometers: reminding us that in the strictest sense •objective refraction .. calls for no involvement of the patient's judgement, dr. gunter ueberschaar of jena, germany, does a historical review of three refractometers developed during the period 1922-1926. these were the thorner refractometer (busch, rathenow), the kohl prism refractometer (rodenstock, munich), and the henker parallax refractometer (zeiss, jena). he includes also the later hartinger coincidence refractometer (zeiss, jena). the title of the review is •ober die historie der augenrefraktometer• and it appears in the deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 47, no. 11, november 20, 1992, pp. 48-49. managing editor and contributing editor: contributing editors: * * * david a goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 u.s.a henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47408 u.s.a. douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 u.s.a 1996-27-02-001 1996-27-02-002 1996-27-02-003 1996-27-02-004 1996-27-02-005 1996-27-02-006 1996-27-02-007 1996-27-02-008 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 32 biographical sketches david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu andrew j. cross (1855-1925) a.j. cross was born in antwerp, new york in 1855 and started doing optometric work in visalia, california in 1876.1 after stops in several cities in the northwestern and then eastern united states, in 1889 he established an optometry practice in new york city. in 1898, cross was elected president of the new york state society of optometrists. he was instrumental in the effort to establish an optometry licensure law in new york state. in the 1929 book history of optometry, arrington devoted a four page chapter to cross in which he said that cross “came to be known as the grand old man of optometry, an appellation which he richly earned; for it will hardly be disputed that no single man gave of himself more fully and freely to the cause of optometry, and none had more valuable gifts to give.”1 in 1900-1901, cross was president of the american association of opticians, the organization that became the american optometric association.2 he was an instructor in the optometry school at columbia university from 1911 to 1924. he also worked on the invention of a monocentric bifocal lens.1 to quote arrington again, cross “had a genius for expounding optical theories and facts in a way that made them simple to grasp, and study under him was a pleasure.”1 a.j. cross is probably best known as being the primary developer of early dynamic retinoscopy procedures. he wrote two books on retinoscopy. the first, a system of ocular skiametry, (181 pages) was published in 1903. in the preface, cross acknowledged that ophthalmologists edward jackson and james thorington cycloplegic had written useful monographs on retinoscopy, but “nearly all medical writers having, naturally, written from the standpoint of physicians, that ‘the use of a reliable cycloplegic is always indicated,’ it has remained for opticians to devise ways and means for accurately applying the principles of this test without resorting to the use of local toxicants of any kind. this small volume has therefore been prepared for the purpose of pointing out new and better paths in practical optometry, as well as the re-blazing of old ones…”3 in the 1903 book, cross explained instrumentation and procedures for retinoscopy, optical principles, dynamic retinoscopy, and illustrative cases. he described the appearance of the retinoscopic reflex in spherical refractive errors and astigmatism, this being before the advent of streak retinoscopy. he also described the scissors figure 1. a.j. cross and the mirror used for retinoscopy with an attachment he developed with a fixation target for dynamic retinoscopy. (from cross aj. a system of ocular skiametry. new york: frederick boger publishing, 1903:41.) mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 33 movement sometimes seen on retinoscopy. figure 1 shows him doing retinoscopy with an attachment he developed for dynamic retinsocopy. cross published the first edition of dynamic skiametry in theory and practice in 1911 and a 218 page second edition in 1915. in the preface to the first edition, he suggested that: “the progress made in optometry during the past decade has perhaps been influenced by no one division more than it has by that of dynamic skiametry…”4 he was apparently motivated to produce the second edition due to a change in his thinking about accommodation and convergence. in the preface to the second edition he stated that “he now has reason to believe that the visual organs in their effort to meet individual figure 2. the recording form used by cross. (from cross aj. dynamic retinoscopy in theory and practice, 2nd ed. new york: a. jay cross optical company, 1915:145.) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 34 requirements adjust accommodation and convergence in a manner to give the fusion sense the greatest possible aid.”5 as an example, he noted that in exophoria there can be an accommodative excess that can cause some amount of hyperopia to be latent. the second edition of dynamic skiametry in theory and practice elaborates much of the same material as in the 1903 book, but goes into more detail on dynamic retinoscopy. figure 2 shows the record blank that cross presented in the second edition. there are blanks for retinoscopy at 6 meters, 1 meter, and 33 centimeters. in the illustrative cases section of the second edition, he listed dynamic retinoscopy findings done variously at 40 inches (1 m), 20 inches (50 cm), 16 inches (40 cm) and 13 inches (33 cm). hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 35 charles sheard (1883-1963) charles sheard was born in dolgeville, new york. he earned degrees in physics from st. lawrence university (a.b., 1903), dartmouth college (m.a., 1907), and princeton university (ph.d., 1912). from 1907 to 1919, he was on the physics faculty of the ohio state university.6 in 1914, he became the first director of ohio state’s applied optics program as its optometry school was then known. in 1919, sheard took a position as head of the division of ocular interests in charge of professional and scientific work at the american optical company in southbridge, massachusetts.7 while he was at american optical, he founded a short-lived but quality journal, american journal of physiological optics.8 from 1924 to 1949, sheard was professor of biophysics at the university of minnesota and director of physics and biophysical research at the mayo clinic in rochester, minnesota. after that he was a lecturer in physiological and ophthalmic optics in the department of ophthalmology at tulane university. in 1952-53, he was interim dean at the los angeles college of optometry. hofstetter9 observed that throughout his career, sheard “retained his undying interest in the optometry profession’s welfare and responded vigorously to every frequent invitation and opportunity to be of service on commissions, councils, and committees in a variety of advisory, academic, and organizational roles and as a frequent lecturer on optometric educational programs.” although sheard’s formal education was in physics, he became proficient enough in optometry to achieve licensure in more than one state.9 among his many contributions to optometry were his helping to found the american academy of optometry and a great deal of work to raise optometric educational standards.10,11 sheard’s work was recognized by awards from organizations from several different fields. among the awards he received were the distinguished service medal in optometry (1930), ward burdick medal from the american society of clinical pathologists (1947), honor award from the american academy of ophthalmology and otolaryngology (1951), figure 3. some of sheard’s most important journal and monograph publications were collected in the 1957 sheard volume. it was hardcover book of 467 pages, sponsored by committees of 10 ophthalmologists, 10 opticians, and 12 optometrists and more than 400 patrons and sponsors. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 36 beverly myers nelson award of the foundation for education in ophthalmic optics from the american board of opticianry (1951), honorary life member of the american academy of optometry (1953), and the tillyer medal from the optical society of america (1957).6,7 he also received honorary doctorate degrees from st. lawrence university (1930) and the los angeles college of optometry (1953). sheard published more than 250 papers.6 he wrote extensively about ocular accommodation and convergence, dynamic retinoscopy, optometric testing procedures, and ophthalmic optics. his name is associated with a guideline he recommended12 for assessing strain on fusional vergence, now known as sheard’s criterion. he also published papers on dark adaptation, effects of radiant energy, applications of spectrophotometry to biology and medicine, and the physiology of temperature regulation. sheard was the author of several books, including dynamic ocular tests (1917), physiological optics (1918), ocular accommodation (1920), dynamic skiametry and methods of testing the accommodation and convergence of the eyes (1920), transmission of radiant energy by ophthalmic glasses (1921), and life-giving light (1933). some of his most noted writings were collected in the sheard volume: selected writings in visual and ophthalmic optics (1957). in dynamic ocular tests (1917, 143 pages), sheard listed 18 tests as a routine battery of tests in a clinical vision examination. the tests included case history, ophthalmoscopy and external eye examination, keratometry, static and dynamic retinoscopy, amplitude of accommodation, visual acuity, subjective refraction, version tests, dissociated phorias, fusional vergence ranges, and relative accommodation.13 later sheard expanded the list to 20 tests.14 it appears that sheard’s list of 18 tests was modified to form the “21 point examination” emphasized throughout most of the twentieth century by the optometric extension program as a routine vision examination.15,16 sheard’s 1918 book physiological optics (513 pages) is a reprint of material sheard published in volume xiii of the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology. sheard characterized it as “a collection of the old and new scientific facts that have bearing upon the practical work of the refractionist and eye-practitioner.”17 he said that he followed helmholtz’s organization in handbuch der physiologischen optik in arranging the material “into three general portions – (1) the passage of light into the eye or the dioptrics of the eye, (2) the functions of the retina and (3) the interpretations and appreciation of the outer world through the sense of light.”18 sheard’s dynamic skiametry and methods of testing accommodation and converence (1920, 108 pages) was also a reprinting of material originally published in the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology. he discussed theory, procedure, and clinical application of dynamic retinoscopy. sheard contrasted his procedure for dynamic retinoscopy from that of a.j. cross. he noted that when cross observed a lag of accommodation as indicated by a with motion, he added plus lenses until the reflex reversed to an against motion. in contrast, sheard added plus lenses to the first neutral.19 thus sheard added plus to the low neutral point whereas cross added plus to the point just past high neutral. ocular accommodation (1920, 76 pages) was an “optometrical course of study” published by the department of education of the american optometric association. topics included mechanism of accommodation, determination of far point of accommodation (subjective refraction), determination of near point of accommodation hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 37 and amplitude of accommodation, testing procedures, symptoms, systemic conditions affecting accommodation, and accommodative anomalies. illustrative cases were presented. testing procedures discussed were amplitude of accommodation by push up and minus lens methods, cross cylinder tests, and dynamic retinoscopy. sheard also described a method for objective determination of amplitude of accommodation in which the examiner moves closer with the retinoscope and observes the retinoscopic reflex as a near target was pushed closer to the patient, as illustrated in figure 4. when the reflex switches from against motion to neutral the objective near point of accommodation is reached.20 sheard also noted that accommodative conditions will often improve when proper correction of refractive error is provided, but that dynamic retinoscopy and other tests will help to disclose whether additional lens treatment is needed to achieve normal near point function.21 sheard’s book life-giving light (1933, 174 pages) is a collection of eight popular science essays on light and life and their interrelations. the essay topics include artificial lighting, light sensitive cells and the sense of vision, the electromagnetic spectrum, radiant energy, microscopes and telescopes, sunlight and photosynthesis, sunlight and vitamins, and the mystery of the nature of life. figure 4. procedure for objective determination of the amplitude of accommodation. as a near point object is pushed up closer to the patient, the examiner observes where the retinoscopic reflex switches from against motion to neutral, at which point the objective near point of accommodation is reached. (from sheard c. ocular accommodation. hartford, ct: american optometric association department of education, 1920:58.) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 38 arthur marten skeffington (1890-1976) a.m. skeffington (figures 5 and 6) was born in kansas city, missouri. after attending nashotah theological seminary in nashotah, wisconsin, he enrolled in the needles institute of optometry in kansas city.22 after graduating from the needles institute in 1915, he entered optometry practice in kearney, nebraska.23 in 1926, he closed his office and associated with e.b. alexander in providing educational opportunities to practicing optometrists.24,25 that association led to the founding of the optometric extension program (oep) in 1928, with skeffington becoming its director of education and serving in that capacity until 1976. it appears that such a position was ideally suited to his desire to improve the information available to practicing optometrists.24 as oep director of education, skeffington traveled widely across the united states, lecturing to optometric groups and conferring with optometrists as well as with authorities from various disciplines such as psychology, education, neuroscience, and physiology. he used information gained from such interchanges to build a broad concept of vision in which vision was the dominant sense for acquiring information and directing movement. he emphasized that vision care was more than just care of the eyes because vision involved not only ocular function but also integration with the other senses as well as with neural and cognitive function. he stressed environmental influences on the development and adaptation of the visual system. because of these concepts and his fervent promotion of them through his lectures and his writings, he is frequently referred to as the father of behavioral optometry.26,27 hoare28 observed that skeffington did “impose upon optometry a sense of urgency in the upgrading of the practice patterns of the profession. skeffington’s sheer force, and his appeal to his audiences, marked him as a natural leader.” skeffington received honorary doctorate degrees from northern illinois college of optometry (1929) and pacific university (1958) and the apollo award from the american optometric association (1961).23 books authored by skeffington were procedure in ocular examination and differential diagnosis in ocular examination. in procedure in ocular examination (1928, 118 pages), skeffington discussed testing procedures for a routine vision examination. there was no coverage of alternative procedures or diagnosis. tests described included case history, direct ophthalmoscopy, keratometry, static and dynamic retinoscopy, subjective refraction, dissociated phorias, fusional vergence ranges, cross cylinder tests, visual fields, cyclophoria testing, and cover test. although the later oep 21 point examination had base-out vergence ranges performed before base-in ranges, at this time skeffington was advocating doing the base-in testing before base-out,29 as is generally taught today. figure 5. a.m. skeffington in about 1928. (from: skeffington am. procedure in ocular examination. chicago: a.j. cox, 1928) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 39 in differential diagnosis in ocular examination (1931, 200 pages), the emphasis was on diagnosis of accommodation and vergence conditions along with some background theory. the beginnings of the oep examination and analysis procedure can be seen here. here the examination consists of 18 tests rather than the later 21 points. the minus lens amplitude (#19) and the relative accommodation tests (#20 and #21) are not yet included, and the fusional vergence ranges include only break and recovery points.30 the addition of the blur points on the fusional vergence ranges is usually credited to louis jaques and george crow.24 an early version of the oep “check, chain, and type” analysis procedure is also presented in this book. skeffington wrote numerous serial publications for oep, which oep subsequently collected in several softcover monographs, including analytical optometry (1938-1951), practical applied optometry (1951-1958), introduction to clinical optometry (19641965), optometry in theory and practice (1964-1965), and the best of skeffington (1974). two of these were also edited and reissued after his death – introduction to clinical optometry (1988, 52 pages) and practical applied optometry (1991, 113 pages), which both dealt with clinical application of oep analysis of the results of the 21 point examination routine and related theoretical background. references 1. arrington ee. history of optometry. chicago: white, 1929:113-116.rollo 2. gregg jr. american optometric association – a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:11-15. 3. cross aj. a system of ocular skiametry, including such portions of optometry as are pertinent to the use of the “shadow test” with the plane mirror. new york: frederick boger publishing, 1903:[1]. 4. cross aj. dynamic retinoscopy in theory and practice, embracing its association with static retinoscopy and with those optometric methods wherein the correlation of accommodation and convergence must be considered, 2nd ed. new york: a. jay cross optical company, 1915:[3]. figure 6. a.m. skeffington doing near testing. (from: skeffington am. procedure in ocular examination. chicago: a.j. cox, 1928:100.) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 40 5. cross aj. dynamic retinoscopy in theory and practice, embracing its association with static retinoscopy and with those optometric methods wherein the correlation of accommodation and convergence must be considered, 2nd ed. new york: a. jay cross optical company, 1915:[5]. 6. sheard c. the sheard volume: selected writings in visual and ophthalmic optics. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:435-456. 7. koch cc. obituary: charles sheard 1883-1963. am j optom arch am acad optom 1963;40:757-758. 8. richards ow. charles sheard. edgar d. tillyer medalist for 1957. j opt soc am 1958;48:205-214. 9. hofstetter hw. charles sheard (1883-1963). newsletter optom hist soc 1987;18:4445. 10. koch cc. minnesota honors charles sheard. am j optom arch am acad optom 1963;40:102-105. 11. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:295-312. 12. sheard c. zones of ocular comfort. am j optom 1930;7:9-25. 13. sheard c. dynamic ocular tests. columbus, oh: lawrence press, 1917. reprinted in: sheard c. the sheard volume: selected writings in visual and ophthalmic optics. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:43. 14. sheard c. considerations regarding the analysis and interpretation of data on ocular accommodation and convergence. am j optom 1934;11:412-422, 448-460; 1935;12:5261. 15. borish im. 21 points. newsletter optom hist soc 1987;18:23-24. 16. hendrickson h. 21 points and more. newsletter optom hist soc 1987;18:55-56. 17. sheard c. physiological optics, being an essay contributed to the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology. chicago: cleveland press, 1918:foreword. 18. sheard c. physiological optics, being an essay contributed to the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology. chicago: cleveland press, 1918:7. 19. sheard c. dynamic skiametry and methods of testing the accommodation and convergence of the eyes. chicago: cleveland press, 1920:5-8. 20. sheard c. ocular accommodation. hartford, ct: american optometric association department of education, 1920:55-58. 21. sheard c. ocular accommodation. hartford, ct: american optometric association department of education, 1920:40. 22. skeffington am, hendrickson h. practical applied optometry. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program foundation, 1991. 23. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:326. 24. cox jl. a.m. skeffington, o.d. – the man. j behav optom 1997;8:3-6. 25. hoare ae. the skeffington saga – part 2. skeffington, the mission. optom world 1966;53(7):8,10,14,16,18,22,24. 26. birnbaum mh. behavioral optometry: a historical perspective. j am optom assoc 1994;65:255-264. 27. maples wc. a.m. skeffington: the father of behavioral optometry – his contributions. proc spie 1998;3579:17-23. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 biographical sketches 2016| page 41 28. hoare ae. the skeffington saga – part 1. skeffington, the man. optom world 1966;53(5):9,12,15,16,18. 29. skeffington am. procedure in ocular examination. chicago: a.j. cox, 1928:81-88. 30. skeffington am. differential diagnosis in ocular examination. chicago: a.j. cox, 1931:34,156-157. official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: john f. amos (2015), email address: eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: alden norm haffner (2014) secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) arol augsburger (2013) irving bennett (2016) jay m. enoch (2014) morton greenspoon (2015) alfred rosenbloom (2015) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: a photograph of an examining room in a 1913 optometry office, from optical journal and review of optometry, january 30, 1913, volume 31, number 6, page 348. for more information on this 1913 optometry office, see the article in this issue on optometry one hundred years ago starting on page 5. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 1 hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2013 volume 44, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents ohs news……………………………………………………………………………………….2 more on the cyrus bass lawsuit: correcting an error and adding more information, irving bennett……………………………………………………………………………………3 some notes on optometry one hundred years ago, david a. goss…………………….5 biographical notes on james p.c. southall, david a. goss……………………………….9 book review: the telescope: a short history. david a. goss………………………….13 instructions to authors…………………………………………………………………...……15 optometric historical society membership application……………………………………16 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 2 ohs news thirty-three ballots were submitted for election of members of the ohs board of trustees for terms beginning january, 2013 and ending december, 2016. irving bennett and chuck haine were re-elected to the board. the board members then voted among themselves, as outlined in ohs by-laws, for officer positions. the duly elected ohs officers for 2013 (with the year of expiration of their term on the board and their email addresses) are: president: john f. amos (2015), eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: alden norm haffner (2014), anhaffner@msn.com secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016), chaine@hainews.com trustees: jerry abrams (2013), abra2020@sbcglobal.net arol augsburger (2013), aaugsburger@ico.edu irving bennett (2016), irvbennett23@gmail.com jay m. enoch (2014), jmenoch@berkeley.edu morton greenspoon (2015), drmort@mac.com alfred rosenbloom (2015), aarlvpro@sbcglobal.net john amos becomes the 13th president of the optometric historical society. the previous presidents have been: henry w hofstetter, 1970-1974 john r. levene, 1975-1976 james p. leeds, 1980-1984 jerome j. abrams, 1985-1988 t. david williams, 1989-1990 meredith w. morgan, 1991-1995 charles haine, 1996 and 2005-2006 walter w. chase, 1997-2000 douglas k. penisten, 2001-2004 jay m. enoch, 2005 melvin wolfberg, 2007-2008 irving bennett, 2009-2012 hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 3 more on the cyrus bass lawsuit: correcting an error and adding more information irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive #4208, sarasota, fl 34238, irvbennett23@gmail.com more has probably been written in the past year about the lawsuit between optometrist cyrus bass versus the american medical association than was published when the suit was in progress. floyd mizener and i contacted several optometrists who knew dr. bass and received from them some salient comments of what went on in those tumultuous days. published remarks attributed to dr. al rosenbloom in the october, 2012 issue of hindsight1 were actually made by dr. al bucar, who was president of the illinois optometric association (ioa) in 1968-1969 at the time. here is what dr. bucar actually said: “i met with cyrus bass in 1968 at his office. he had many supporters that were members of ioa. i felt it was important to them and to maintain unity within ioa that i meet with him. after introducing ourselves he left the meeting briefly. i had the feeling he was taping our conversation so i was guarded in my comments during our meeting. i was hoping to convince him that he could be more effective within organized optometry than outside. he did join ioa for a year; however he never attended an ioa meeting or function during that time. he was very intelligent and egocentric with a messianic air that proclaimed that he had the answer to all of optometry's problems. we had a friendly, lively discussion for over an hour. “later, when i served on the aoa board as trustee and president, ellis lyons, who was general counsel to the aoa, was dismissive of bass' impact on the case citing aoa's activities quietly working with the justice department. i believe that the cyrus bass case was important in redefining optometry/medical relations by bringing the case to the forefront.”2 we hope that this sets the record straight. bass was not alone! these were his helpers it was conventional wisdom that optometrist cyrus bass acting alone in his history making lawsuit against the american medical association. previous reports on this have appeared in hindsight; no names of those who rose to support bass have thus far been published. presiding judge abraham l. marovitz agreed to turn the individual lawsuit into a class action suit against the ama provided other optometrists who had like grievances joined in the suit. to this end, five illinois self-employed practicing optometrists joined hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 4 dr. cyrus bass in the suit as plaintiffs. they were: dr. wayne t. bensman, dr. alexander horvath, dr. robert klein, dr. max linn, and dr. theodore t. sypniewski. the international association of boards of examiners in optometry (iab) tried to work with cyrus bass with the help of its general counsel richard a. billups, jr., jackson, mi. mr. billups wrote to judge marovitz in january 1966 presenting a request and petition to intervene in the bass case. those optometrists, all members of the iab, who were named as interveners were: dr. jack t. keith, akron, oh; dr. joseph t. abboud, rice lake, wi; dr. karl o. hoefert, casa grande, az; dr. n. eric muir, cleveland, mi; and dr. frank e. houston, lexington, mi. and while we are at it naming names, here are the names of the chicago area ophthalmologists named with the american medical association as defendants: dr. carl apple; dr. john g. bellows; dr. paul hurwitz; dr. perry ross; dr. theodore shapira; dr. paul sternberg; dr. robert g. taub; and dr. theodore n zekman. references 1. mizener fd, bennett i. the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama: more data and reader comments. hindsight: j optom hist 2012;43:75-81. 2. correspondence of al bucar with the author, november, 2012. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 5 some notes on optometry one hundred years ago david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu a leading optometry periodical one hundred years ago was optical journal and review of optometry. it was published weekly and contained news items, opinion pieces, and educational articles. to get an idea of what was going on in optometry one hundred years ago, i perused the 1,602 pages of volume 31, which included 26 issues from december 26, 1912, to june 19, 1913. the following is a sampling of items that caught my eye. licensure requirements the first american optometry licensure law was passed in 1901. by 1924, all states and the district of columbia had optometry licensure laws. the april 24, 1913, issue of optical journal and review of optometry listed 30 states that had by then achieved optometry laws.1 elsewhere there is a summary of the requirements for licensure in 28 states.2 fourteen states had no requirements for preliminary education, while in another fourteen states two years of high school or its equivalent were required. the requirements for professional training varied. thirteen states had no stated requirement for professional training. eight states required either three years of study in an optometrist’s office or graduation from a school of optometry, with one of those states specifying that the school had to be at least twelve months duration. two states required two years of experience as an assistant or graduation from a school of optometry. one state required two years of study, without obvious explanation of the nature of the study, or graduation from an optometry school. four states required graduation from an optometry school, with one of those states specifying that the school program be a two year course. the summary of licensure requirements also mentioned whether a licensing test was needed. for 20 states, it simply stated that an examination was required. in three states, an examination was given, but the examination could be waived if the applicant had been in practice at the time of passage of the licensure law. the length of practice required varied in those three states, from six months to two years to five years. two states had an examination or issued licenses to persons who had a license in another state with similar requirements. two states required either an examination or graduation from an acceptable optometry school. one state simply stated that they licensed “graduates from a regularly chartered optical school.” a 1913 optometry office one article headed “optometrist’s new and handsome store” noted that an optometrist named lee m. cox opened “finely appointed optical quarters…fitted throughout with the most modern equipment” in gloucester, massachusetts.3 two hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 6 photographs accompanied the article, which stated that: “the examining room contains a globe improved ophthalmic chair, reverse cabinet, ophthalmic table, one position c-i ophthalmometer, trial case and trial case stand. the trial case is one of the most improved on the market, and includes many novel features, such as square prism, lenses numbered on both sides of the handle, and dotted axis on cylinders. a number of optical charts are displayed on the wall. “the mechanical outfit includes a work bench fitted with gem frameless edging machine, lens cutter and drill, buff head, etc. in close proximity are the opto sectional cabinets and lloyd axometer, for determining the sizes and focus of all cylinder lenses.” it is also noted that the office had “a roll top desk with desk chair, side chairs and settee to match.” the article included a photograph of lee cox’s examination room (see figure 1). figure 1. a photograph of the 1913 optometry examining room of lee m. cox, from optical journal and review of optometry, january 30, 1913, volume 31, number 6, page 348. accommodation and binocular vision there were quite a few articles on topics such as measurement of phorias and prescription of prism. in one of them, j. gould of chicora, pennsylvania, presented some cases in which prisms were prescribed.4 in one of them, a 74 year old former soldier, who had been struck in the head with a shell fragment in the battle of gettysburg, complained of head pain and diplopia. gould prescribed base-out prisms which relieved the diplopia, and the old soldier subsequently referred many patients to gould. several articles addressed the topic of eyestrain. one of the articles was based on a presentation made by j.a. haustein of red wing, minnesota, at an alumni meeting of the northern illinois college.5 haustein described convergence exercises he used for hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 7 the relief of eyestrain. the training used base-out prisms, gradually increasing their power during a session and from session to session. haustein’s goal was to get patients up to 50 “degrees” of convergence and finally to be able to fuse their maximum amount of prism in one “jump.” haustein also described a case where a man could read for only a few minutes before falling asleep. the convergence work allowed him to be “able to read over an hour at a time without getting sleepy.” i found it interesting that one writer appeared to recognize what today we would call a high lag of accommodation. despite the fact that the “usual assumption” at that time was “that accommodation is exact within its limits.…dynamic tests, both subjective and objective, show that this is often not true….accommodation…may be less than it should be with consequent blurring, which is not completely overcome, the mind preferring the slight blur to the extra effort required to get an absolutely perfect focus.”6 the writer referred to it as sluggish accommodation, and said that it “should not be confounded with decreased amplitude of accommodation.”6 we could wonder whether the “dynamic tests” that the writer referred to included dynamic retinoscopy and what the subjective dynamic tests were. the writer suggested that glasses for near use could relieve eyestrain in such cases. optometry at columbia university the first students entered the optometry school at columbia university in 1910.7 this was a milestone for optometry as it was the first university optometry school. the second class of students to complete the two year program received certificates of completion in the spring of 1913. eight of the 21 graduates were from the state of new york; four were from massachusetts; two were from new jersey; and one each were from california, colorado, michigan, north carolina, pennsylvania, and rhode island. one was from england.8 one news item from columbia university listed the books used there in the optometry courses: principles of refraction in the human eye, by burnett; a system of ocular skiametry, by cross; ophthalmic lenses, by prentice; refractive and motor mechanisms of the eye, by souter; physics for college students, by carhart; practical exercises in light, by clay; light for students, by edser; the human body, by martin; medical dictionary, by gould; optical dictionary, by lewis; diseases of the eye, by may; and refraction and accommodation of the eye, by landolt.9 history of optical journal and review of optometry the january 16, 1913 issue was an anniversary issue, and it opened with a short recitation of the history of the journal.10 in january, 1891, the first issue of an american publication entitled the optician appeared. in march, 1895, its name was changed to the optical journal. a periodical named the focus started in 1900 or 1901 and merged with the optical journal in 1902. in march, 1904, the optical journal changed from a monthly to a weekly publication. another periodical, the optical instrument, which began operation in 1905, was taken over by the optical journal in 1906. in 1907, the jeweler’s circular-weekly, hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 8 which had started devoting space to optical matters in the early 1880s, initiated a publication named the optical review. this latter publication merged with the optical journal to form the optical journal and review of optometry, which had its first issue appear january 9, 1910. it was noted that from its beginning, the optical journal worked in the interest of optometry in promoting organizations and societies of optometrists and in supporting the movement toward optometry licensure laws. women in optometry an article by clara m. sweitzer, of richmond, indiana, discussed the work of women in optometry.11 she stated: “a year ago, a number of women responded to an invitation from the optical journal and review to express their opinions on [the position of women in optometry]. many ideas were advanced, good ones all of them, but one upon which all agreed was woman’s native talent for this particular line of endeavor, especially her adaptability in caring for the eyes of women and children.” most of sweitzer’s article concerned the care of children’s vision by women optometrists and observations of some of her own experiences. she closed the article as follows: “the woman optometrist has ‘made good’ and she has come to stay. as the years roll by she will be followed by an ever-increasing number of her efficient sisters, and we hope that some may one day hold positions of prominence, rightfully earned, as great as some of our leading men.” references 1. anonymous. years when optometry laws were passed in thirty states. opt j rev optom 1913;31:1060. 2. anonymous. digest of optometry laws (compiled by the new york state department of education). opt j rev optom 1913;31:840. 3. anonymous. optometrist’s new and handsome store. opt j rev optom 1913;31:348. 4. gould j. some experience with phorias and prisms. opt j rev optom 1913;31:207. 5. haustein ja. eye-strain and muscle exercise. opt j rev optom 1913;31:935937. 6. anonymous. sluggish accommodation. opt j rev optom 1913;31:358. 7. goss da. one hundred years ago: start of the optometry school at columbia university. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:129-132. 8. anonymous. columbia students complete the two years’ course and receive certificates. opt j rev optom 1913;31:1593. 9. anonymous. books used in columbia optometry course. opt j rev optom 1913;31:46. 10. anonymous. our anniversary greeting. opt j rev optom 1913;31:181-182. 11. sweitzer cm. women in the optometry field. opt j rev optom 1913;31:229230. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 9 biographical notes on james p.c. southall david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract james p.c. southall (1871-1962) was a physics professor at columbia university from 1914 to his retirement in 1940. throughout that time he was in administrative charge of the optometry school at columbia. this paper provides a biographical sketch of southall and brief descriptions of the optics books that he authored. key words: optometric education,optometry books, optometry history. james powell cocke southall was born april 4, 1871 in norfolk, virginia. he received b.a. and m.a. degrees from the university of virginia in 1891 and 1893, respectively.1 he taught physics and mathematics at miller manual training school in albemarle, virginia from 1893 to 1898. following a brief period of time as a fellow at johns hopkins university, he was prendergast professor of physics at hobart college in geneva, new york from 1899 to 1901. from 1901 to 1914 he taught physics at alabama polytechnic institute in auburn, alabama. in 1914, southall took a position as assistant professor of physics at columbia university. his academic advancement at columbia included promotion to full professor in 1922. from his initial appointment at columbia to his retirement in 1940, he was director of the optometry school at columbia. he also taught optics to optometry students. charles sheard characterized southall as “a true friend and supporter” of optometry.3 that conclusion can be evidenced by the statement that southall made in a letter to sheard about optometry that: “i believed in it from the beginning…”3 in a 1952 letter to a former student, southall wrote that: “optometry, as i regard it, is a noble profession, a high calling.”4 writing in 1986, a former student of southall’s recalled that: “his office was guarded by a rather formidable secretary; nevertheless, he was accessible to students… “he was somewhat tall, mostly grey and balding with small wrinkled eyes, and a peculiar habit of scratching his left ear with his right hand. i admired his easy walk and relaxed manners, to me, then, the epitome of a southern gentleman. his virginia accent was pronounced but not too heavy. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 10 “he seemed to keep aloof of administrative and clinical problems. these were relegated to his associate, professor clifford leroy treleaven and staff. i never remember him visiting laboratories, examination rooms, or clinics. his domain was the lecture podium in the classroom. his soft mellifluous voice belied the difficult subject he expounded. “i think of professor southall kindly. his vision of all professions, including optometry, as servants of mankind was lofty and ideal, and still to be completely realized.”5 robert bannon6 said that southall had a “kindly nature” and that he was “a true friend and advisor to his students.” sheard described southall as “a genuine scholar” and said that his writings showed “meticulous care and striving for accuracy which are the earmarks of the real scientist.”3 southall was president of the optical society of america in 1921 and for a while was associate editor of the journal of the optical society of america.2 he published at least 25 articles in that journal.1 southall was the editor of the english translation of the third german edition of helmholtz’s physiological optics. the english translation was published in 1924 by the optical society of america. southall received the distinguished service foundation medal in optometry in 1930.3 southall published three major optics books. the first of these was the principles and methods of geometrical optics, especially as applied to the theory of optical instruments. the first edition was published in 1910 and a second edition (626 pages) in 1913. its coverage of geometrical optics included refraction, reflection, prisms, lens systems, astigmatism, optical imagery, spherical aberration, color phenomena, chromatic aberration, field of view, illumination, and brightness. in the preface to the second edition, southall stated that he wrote it to supply an english language book containing discussion of modern developments in theory and construction of optical instruments and to rekindle “among the english-speaking nations interest in a study not only abundantly worthy for its own sake and undeserved neglected, but still capable, under good cultivation, of yielding results of far-reaching importance in nearly every field of scientific research.”7 the first edition of mirrors, prisms, and lenses: a text-book of geometrical optics was published in 1918 (579 pages). a review said that other geometrical optics books of the time lacked the completeness of southall.8 in the preface, southall noted that the book was an “outgrowth” of his optics lectures at columbia.9 a second edition was published in 1923 and a third edition in 1933. the third edition expanded to 806 pages with the addition of a chapter on the microscope and a chapter on physical and physiological optics. in a contemporary review, ryer and hotaling10 considered the latter chapter to be of “utmost significance” because of “the recognition of the need for and the inclusion of a connecting link between geometrical and physiological optics.” this book was known for its formal style.1 it was the most widely used geometrical optics textbook in the optometry schools of its time, and it was one of forty books hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 11 receiving multiple survey nominations for most important twentieth century optometry books.11 in 1937, southall published introduction to physiological optics. this book was also based on his lectures at columbia. a review said that this book “like all of his writings is done in the thorough fashion which characterizes his work.”12 topics included ocular structure and function, ocular optics, spectacle lens optics, refractive errors, eye movements, accommodation and convergence, stereopsis, stereoscopes, retinal function, dark adaptation, color vision, colorimetry, and temporal aspects of vision. a dover reprint of this book appeared in 1961, and a dover reprint of mirrors, prisms, and lenses was published in 1964. southall retired from columbia in 1940. he lived most of his retirement years in charlottesville, virginia. in 1947, southall wrote a one page introduction to the university of virginia’s catalog of the adolph lomb collection of optics books and journals. the catalog listed over a thousand items from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.13,14 henry lomb, adolph’s brother, had donated adolph’s collection to the university of virginia at southall’s suggestion.15 southall also donated books and papers to the university of virginia.1 southall wrote two books of memoirs in retirement, one entitled in the days of my youth, when i was a student in the university of virginia, 1888-1893, published in 1947, and another entitled memoirs of the abbots of old bellevue, published in 1955. southall died on august 23, 1962, in bronxville, new york. references 1. hofstetter hw. james powell cocke southall, 1871-1962. newsletter optom hist soc 1986;17:28-30. 2. anonymous. obituaries. physics today 1962;15(12):88. 3. sheard c. an appreciation of james p.c. southall, m.a. am j optom arch am acad optom 1942;19:49-60. 4. southall jpc. letter to elias shaneson, dated june 6, 1952. reprinted in: shaneson e. former southall student writes. newsletter optom hist soc 1986;17:37. 5. shaneson e. former southall student writes. newsletter optom hist soc 1986;17:37. 6. bannon re. book review: in the days of my youth. am j optom arch am acad optom 1947;24:581-582. 7. southall jpc. the principles and methods of geometrical optics, especially as applied to the theory of optical instruments, 2nd ed. new york: macmillan, 1913:v-vi. 8. fjelstad eo. book review: mirrors, prisms, and lenses. northwest j optom 1924;1:91. 9. southall jpc. mirrors, prisms, and lenses: a text-book of geometrical optics, 3rd ed. new york: macmillan, 1933:v. 10. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: mirrors, prisms, and lenses. j am optom assoc 1934;5(7):5. 11. goss da, penisten dk. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight 2004;35:36-40. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 12 12. koch cc. book review: introduction to physiological optics. am j optom 1937;14:440. 13. catalogue of the adolph lomb optical library of the university of virginia. charlottesville, va: university of virginia alderman library, 1947. 14. goss da. rare book library catalogs with significant eye and vision content. hindsight: j optom hist 2008;39:91-94. 15. hofstetter hw. the adolph lomb optical library. newsletter optom hist soc 1986;17:45-46. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 13 book review: the telescope: a short history the telescope: a short history. richard dunn. london, uk: conway, 2009. 192 pages. isbn: 9781844861477. hardcover, $17.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book presents the story of the telescope from its beginnings to its various forms in the present day, along with its technical and popular uses and its impact on scientific discovery. the book also examines the effect of the telescope on the “popular imagination” and how people thought about the universe. there is some emphasis on developments in england. the author’s educational background is in the history of science. he is located at the royal observatory, greenwich, and is the curator of the history of navigation at the national maritime museum. leading into the story of the telescope is a brief discussion of the development of lenses, mirrors, glass making and astronomy before the telescope. the book mentions the patent of hans lipperhey for a telescope in 1608, but suggests that the first telescope may have been made before that. the quality of the imagery of the first telescopes was limited by the quality of lenses made at the time. galileo was able to construct good telescopes by searching for the very best lenses available. many doubted his observations because they could not see what he saw with his better quality telescopes. as we might recall from our basic optics, a galilean telescope was made with one convex lens and one concave lens. a keplerian telescope was made with two convex lenses and had an inverted image. in the mid 17th century, schyrle added lenses between the two convex lenses in a keplerian telelscope so that the image wasn’t inverted. this came to be known as a terrestrial telescope. the earliest telescopes were refracting telescopes. among the pioneers in reflecting telescopes was isaac newton. in the late 18th century, herschel siblings william (1738-1822), caroline (1750-1848), and alexander (1745-1821) built large reflecting telescopes that allowed them to study not only the positions and motions of astronomical objects, but also, for the first time, their nature. william herschel also discovered the planet uranus. many 18th century english instrument makers were not only good craftsmen, but also understood the theoretical aspects of their work. the author gives john dollond (1707-1761) as an example. in 1752, john and his son peter (1731-1820) opened a shop called the golden spectacles and sea quadrant. dollond patented an achromatic lens and presented a paper to the royal society in 1758. telescopes were made with hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 14 the new lens. the dollonds’ company became well known for making hand-held telescopes for popular and military use. in 1854, léon foucault discovered a new method of adding silver to glass, increasing the amount of light reflected from telescope mirrors. binoculars came into more popular and military use after 1854, when ignazio porro patented a prismatic system that folded the light path, eliminating the need for draw tubes and allowing a good field of view. other nineteenth century developments included establishment of observatories around the world, construction of bigger and bigger telescopes, and application of photography and spectroscopy to the use of telescopes. examples of the impact of telescopes on culture and literary works include the martian “canals” suggested by percival lowell and the stories written by h.g. wells. in the 20th century, telescopes, binoculars, and similar optical devices became common in bird watching, amateur astronomy, surveillance, military applications, and other uses. technical improvements in the 20th century included larger mirror systems, various applications of computers, use of photo-electric cells, adaptive optics, radio astronomy, and launch of telescopes into space. the book includes more than 60 illustrations, a time line, a glossary, a further reading list, and an index. this little book gives a nice overview of the history of telescopes and their applications. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 15 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as ∆ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2013, volume 44, number 1, page 16 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: optometric historical society attn: emily stenberg archives and museum of optometry 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________________ address ______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares™ – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. ohsfrontcover44-1 hindsight44-1 indiana university jul 13 2001 optometric historical society optometry library 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume32 apri12001 number2 2001 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the year 2001 ohs executive board members and officers, and the year of expiration of each member's term: call for nominations: president......................... doug penisten (2003) vice president ................. chuck haine (2004) secretary-treasurer ........ bridget kowalczyk (2004) trustees .......................... walter chase (2002) jay enoch (2002) theodore grosvenor (2001) alfred rosenbloom (200 1) the terms of board members theodore grosvenor and alfred rosenbloom will expire at the end of this year. please submit your nominations for those two board positions by july 15, 2001 to: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 usa. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. repositories of items of optometric historical interest: i recently ran across the following item in the inaugural issue of the newsletter of the optometric historical society (volume 1, number 1, january, 1970, pages 6-7). i thought that it should be brought to the attention of the membership again, and it is reprinted in its entirety below: "there are two major types of repositories for items of historical value. one is the institutional type such as is nurtured and maintained by organizations for various reasons ranging from the organization's ad hoc dedication to prestige acquisition, or even as an outright investment. such repositories are usually called museums and may include community museums, the museums of professional organizations, the special collections 32/9 of industrial firms, the museums of schools, colleges, and universities, and various specially endowed museums. the other major type of repository is what i would identify as the individual collection. it is conceivable that the greatest share of preservation of historical items is accomplished by the thousands of individuals who save the things which are dear to them. such items receive tender care during the life of the individual owner, even better care than in the typical museum storage rooms. unfortunately they are less accessible to historians, and, more unfortunately, they are likely to be disposed of as trash upon the owner's demise. "so, it is probable that the large share of items of optometric historical interest are in the files, cabinets, and bookshelves of individuals, and are being well preserved. the ohs will be making a valuable contribution if it can bring these collections to light and prevail on the owners to take immediate steps to insure the transfer of their collections to appropriate repositories at the time of the owner's death or retirement. it is not sufficient merely to write the request in one's will. the collections should be clearly labeled and marked well in advance for their desired posthumous disposition. "in future issues of the newsletter we hope to list archives, museums, and collections of optometric historical interest. readers and ohs members are asked to call our attention to museums, archives, and collections which should be so listed." i was curious to find what had been reported to date in the pages of this newsletter since the publication of that item. i went to the three published indexes of the newsletter (volumes 1 to 30), and looked for entries for archives, library, and museum. below is a listing of the archives, libraries, and museums that may pertain in some way to optometric history. given with each one is the volume and page where it was mentioned. the addresses listed are the addresses that were given at the time of publication of the newsletter and may be out of date. readers are encouraged to write to the editor and make corrections and additions to this list, as well as to give descriptions of these and other repositories of items of optometric historical interest. if you have visited these or other like institutions, please write and let us know what can be found there. albert fitch memorial library, pennsylvania college of optometry, philadelphia, pennsylvania (3/19) american academy of ophthalmology foundation museum, san francisco {15/84; 18/16; 18/20; 20/24; 26/14) " a.m. skeffington memorial library and archives for behavioral optometry, optometric extension program foundation, santa ana, california (18/48; 19/42) bernard becker m.d. collection in ophthalmology, washington university school of medicine, st. louis (15/69; 16/1) british optical association foundation library and museum, london (1/20; 14/25; 20/14; 32/10 21/44; 26/32) carl f. shepard memorial library (3/11) carl zeiss company museum for optical instruments, oberkochen, germany (13/56) college of optometry, the ohio state university, columbus, ohio (22/43) deutsches museum optical department, munich (21/34) dr. e. c. nurock optometric research library (3/19) eric muth library and museum, opticians association of america foundation, 10341 democracy lane, fairfax, virginia 22030 (26/16) harold kohn vision science library, state university of new york (17/31) indiana university optometry library, 800 east atwater avenue, bloomington, indiana 47405 (4/8; 4/24) international library, archives, and museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141 (12/76; 14n; 18/43; 21/5; 21/12; 21/30; 22/20; 22/46; 22/48; 23/9; 25/18; 26/25) jan theunissen museum, eindhoven, holland (14n3) jena optical museum (15/39) lister hill museum of the health sciences, university of alabama birmingham, birmingham, alabama 35294 (4/55) louis b. marks memorial library, illuminating engineering research institute, united engineering center, 345 east 471h street, new york, new york 10017 (11/64-65) morez eyewear museum, morez, france (20/19) musee de l'instrumentation optique, la capitola, place de ia mairie, f-686000, biesheim, france (28/12-13) museum of the history of science, oxford (6/41) museum of visual science and optometry, school of optometry, university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada (12/4-5; 15/83; 17/48; 17/49; 20/41) ************~****~**t mutter museum (21/32) * indiana unlverslty * t jul 11 2001 t 32/11 * library * t******************** narciso p. cinco, sr., memorial libraryoptometry, college of optometry, cebu doctors' college, philippines (17/38-39) national museum of american history, medical sciences division, smithsonian institution (15/84; 19/9; 20/17; 26/14) nordiske museet (museum with a section on ophthalmic history), stockholm, sweden (6/45; 16/45) optical heritage museum (formerly called the american optical museum), route 131, southbridge, massachusetts 01550 (16/22; 16/26) optical museum of the cari-zeiss-stiftung jena (carl zeiss foundation of jena) (16/1 0) optometric museum of the tin ius olsens tekniske skole, kongsberg, norway (12/11) optometric period room, heritage center, north dakota capitol grounds, bismark, north dakota (12/75-76) pierre marly's museum, 380 rue saint honore, paris (13/14; 26/20) safilo group, pieve di cadore, italy (26/21) school of optometry, inter american university, post office box 1293, hato rey, puerto rico 00918 (contact: ms. amarilis noriego, librarian) (24/7) school of optometry library, university of alabama birmingham, birmingham, alabama (4/55) university of aston ophthalmic museum (11/40) william p. maccracken, jr., memorial library, southern college of optometry, memphis, tennessee (3/20) wright national library of the australian optometric association (7/80-81; 19/36; 19/37) d.a.g. 32/12 jay enoch's column: the austen layard lens found at nimrud, assyria: long a conundrum! jay m. enoch school of optometry university of california at berkeley jmenoch@ socrates.berkeley.edu some weeks ago, ophthalmologist chuck (charles) letocha of york, pa, kindly sent me a list of useful sites on the net addressing the history of early lenses a hobby of mine. one of these urls was the following: <http://www.farshore.force9.eo.uk/telesc.htm>. (1) this farshore, ancient mystery addressed a possible use of the austen layard lens. this artifact is located at the british museum. it seems that professor giovanni pettinato of the university of rome recently argued that this ancient lens may have been part of a telescope predating galileo. the argument rests on a report stating thatthe assyrians believed the planet saturn was a god surrounded by a ring of serpents. the rings of saturn are not visible to the naked human eye. the layard lens was found in the palace at nimrud, assyria (in modern iraq), in a room in the palace filled with fine artifacts. it was discovered in 184011850s ad by english archaeologist of the same name.(2,3,4) the lens is dated in the 6th century bc. in fairness, the url states that it is quite a leap from a single lens-like object to its being part of a telescope; but then how did the assyrians see the rings of saturn? lizuka (2) argued that the lens might have been used for reading and writing micro-cuneiform tablets in nimrud or other tigris-euphrates culture. he also argued that lenses were needed much earlier to add details to incised seals in those early civilizations. lizuka also raises the familiar myopia argument. there are interesting new data relative to cylinder seals described by m. sax, n. meeks, and d. collon of the british museum (reported by heller, 5). they found that the lapidary engraving wheel, which has been long thought to have been developed during the second half of the 4th millennium bc, was first used about a thousand years later. early cylinder seals of substances made of hard rock-crystal, etc., were worked by micro-flaking the rock with a flint or bronze tool. let us look at what we know about the layard lens. this is a polished, somewhat elliptical plano-convex lens-like object of fair size. lizuka gives a focal length of 11 em (2) or about +9 diopters. as a simple microscope, relative angular magnification at 25 em test or reference distance (traditional optical reference distance) would be 2.25x (25 em i 11 em). using the sloan criterion (40 em reference distance) this value would be 3.64x (40 em i 11 em). the lens has marked imperfections running right through the center of the lens. one must look at a sub-zone of the whole to use this lens-like unit. someone performed an mtf on this lens. obviously, this would have provided very poor results! yet this measurement has influenced many individuals as to the possible use(s) or application(s) of this lens. the lens was found in isolation from the objects which might have been used in context with the layard lens. my first encounter with this lens was perhaps 15-20 years ago. i saw it among the remarkable mesopotamian (including assyrian) collection in the basement of the british 32/13 museum. i used techniques learned long ago for hand neutralization of lenses to try to evaluate the nature, quality and power of the lens within the case. i inquired at the museum about the history of the lens, and one of the curators kindly met with me to discuss it. he pointed out, that one could not tell if this lens had been used as such, or had been used as an architectural embellishment, a piece of jewelry, or simply a decorative piece, rather than as a lens. some years later, the layard lens was displayed at the metropolitan museum in new york, where the card stated that this artifact, "formerly thought to be a lens," was found by layard at nimrud. i pointed out to the curators at the met, that no-one could say what had been the use of this artifact, since it had not been found with the object to be viewed through it. more recently (2 years ago?), i found this item isolated on a side wall at the british museum, upstairs, away from the main assyrian collection with a similar statement made as to its use. the url now states it has been moved back to the main assyrian collection and it is to be found in room 55, case 9, of the main basement mesopotamian collection. the key point is that we cannot describe the fate or role of any lens-like element without finding it coupled to the item with which it was used to view or magnify, or some written record of application of the device. the same can be said of many of the lens-like objects found in a number of eastern mediterranean basin museums. this entire matter has greatly influenced my search for ancient lenses. hence, i have sought to find lenses in their original context, i.e., the lens still associated with the object to be viewed through it. these lenses have included quite a variety of lens applications which i have reported previously. some final words about the layard lens. whether lens or otherwise, this discovery, and layard's assertion that it was a lens, led to interest in the early history of lenses by a number of scholars. and this is/was important! we may never know the use of this particular lens-artifact, nor how the assyrians were able to detect (assuming they did) the rings of saturn! references 1. http://www.farshore.force9.co.ukltelesc.htm farshore ancient mysteries;source, bbc news, by dr. david whitehouse, 2000. 2. lizuka, k.: engineering optics. springer-series in optical sciences #34, berlin, heidelberg, etc.: springer-verlag, 1984: 1-3. 3. fraser, cg: half-hours with great scientists; the story of physics. toronto: the university of toronto press, 1948. 4. enoch, jm: it is proposed that the cornea of the eye of the bull's head rhyton from the little palace of knossos (artifact dated 15501500 b.c.) is a true lens. in: fiorentini a, guyton dl, siegel im, ads. advances in diagnostic visual optics. heidelberg, berlin, etc.: spring'er-verlag, 1987: 15-18. 5. hellier, c: jewelers wheel secrets. archaeology september/october, 2000; 53(5): 18. a daughter's remembrances of charles sheard: ted grosvenor recently gave me a document entitled "some remembrances of my 32/14 father, charles sheard," by dorothy sheard allen. the cover page states that it was ufor presentation at the sheard centennial symposium on visual science at the ohio state university, november 5 and 6, 1983." sheard's parents were married in england and emigrated from england shortly before he was born. sheard was born may 27, 1883 in dolgeville, new york. he was one of the oldest (the oldest?) of eight children. sheard's father, charles sheard, jr., a methodist minister who wrote three books, died when sheard was sixteen years old. sheard came from an accomplished family. a brother of sheard's, samuel, was employed at american optical and was on the board of corning glass works. among sheard's other siblings were an elementary school teacher, a notable football player and hockey coach, and a nurse. a great uncle of sheard's, titus sheard, defeated teddy roosevelt ufor the elected position of speaker of the house for the new york state assembly, the only person to ever defeat roosevelt for an elected office." little information is given on sheard's childhood. after he received his b.a. degree from st. lawrence university, he taught at woodstock academy in woodstock, vermont. while there, he studied at dartmouth college in hanover, new hampshire. he received his m.a. from dartmouth in 1907. his future wife, blanche louise isabel amarel, was a hanover piano teacher, who had graduated from the new england conservatory of music in boston. they were married on december31, 1907, in hanover. sheard was an assistant professor of physics at the ohio state university from 1907 to 1913. he received his ph.d. from princeton in 1912. he became a full professor of physics and applied optics at ohio state in 1914. sheard's daughter dorothy, author of these remembrances, was born on march 12, 1910, at home in columbus, ohio. she raised four children. her husband was president of the university of washington and chancellor of the university of california at los angeles. sheard's son,·charles amaral sheard, was born on november 27, 1914, also at home in columbus, but at a different residence. sheard's son became an optician. in 1919, sheard took a position atthe american optical company to be head ofthe division of ocular interests and be ''in charge of general and professional scientific work." in 1924, sheard accepted a position with the mayo foundation in rochester, minnesota. dr. william mayo invited him to found the section of biophysics. while there, sheard was also a professor of physics at the university of minnesota. in minnesota, sheard did work on various areas in addition to optics. for example, he developed an artificial larynx or ''voice box." the author speculated that sheard's experiments showing the adverse effect of cigarette smoking on circulation may have been why he went form smoking two packs a day to being a non-smoker. during world war ii, sheard worked on vision problems of night flying for the navy. he retired from the mayo clinic in 1949 at 66 years of age. he was a professor at the university of minnesota until 1951. 32/15 sheard's daughter noted that he had many hobbies and activities away from work. sheard liked to entertain at dinner parties at his home, and he did landscaping work around his house. he liked fishing and gardening, collected stamps and coins, and enjoyed photography. he often took his grandchildren on trips to nearby places. sheard had an extensive collection of books on many topics in literature and science, including many books on vision. sheard died in 1963. this typescript pamphlet contains twelve pages of text, a photograph of sheard in his later years, a photograph of the author, and a listing of sheard's descendants. it gives a lot of detail of sheard's adult personal life and family, but little information on his relationship with optometry. d.a.g. william george kett: the september-october, 2000 issue of the australian journal clinical and experimental optometry (volume 83, number 5, pages 283-287) contained a profile of notable australian optometrist william george kett (1887 -1962) written by barry cole of the university of melbourne. kett was born in melbourne on july 31, 1887. he undertook private lessons in optometry with henri van heems because there was no formal optometry course in australia at the time. in 1909, kett started optometry practice in sydney. william kett's brother, cyril woodforde kelt, also was an optometrist. cyril was one of the signatories establishing the victorian college of optometry in 1939. cyril served on the council of that school from its beginning until his death in 1970. after practicing optometry in sydney for a few years, william kett sought further education in optometry and traveled to london to study for the examinations of the worshipful company of spectacle makers. among his tutors was lionel laurence, who was the author of some commonly used optics books. kett achieved fellowship in the company of spectacle makers in may of 1914. in about 1915 kett became director of education and chief examiner of the new south wales institute of optometrists. he established a two-year part-time course of study, which later became three years. cole noted that kett wrote challenging questions as evidenced by some of them which were published in the commonwealth optometrist. kett was ahead of his time in the use of equipment as shown by his 1926 publications on slit lamp biomicroscopy and gonioscopy. kett became editor of the commonwealth optometrist in 1920. he continued as editor until his death in 1962. cole noted that kett edited more than 500 issues ofthe journal and wrote many editorials and papers for it. under kelt's editorship the journal underwent two 32/16 title changes, becoming the australasian journal of optometry in 1929 and then the australian journal of optometry in 1959. in 1986, the journal became clinical and experimental optometry. kett held several organizational positions during his optometric career, including presidency of state and national optometric associations and member of the new south wales optometrists registration board for 20 years. he was a part-time optometry instructor and a member of the council of the university of new south wales. the article discusses some of his work in promoting registration and educ.ation of optometrists and in the politics of technical education. the article portrays kett as a "man of presence and talent." kett received a number of recognitions in his career. he received an honorary doctor of science degree in 1957 from the university of new south wales which he helped found, and he was made an honorary life member of the australian optometric association. he was also a life member of the american optometric association and of the institute of ophthalmic opticians in london. d.a.g. annual ocular heritage society meeting in italy: optometric historical society member and ocular heritage society president jerry abrams provided the following report on the 2001 annual meeting of the ocular heritage society held april 2-11 in italy: ten members of the ocular heritage society and sharon smith of travel deisgns traveled april2 from the newark, new jersey airport to venice, italy. attendees included dr. and mrs. j.j. abrams, dr. and mrs. william rosenthal, dr. and mrs. john tull, dr. and mrs. terry marshall, debbie shearer, and nancy schiffer. the tour leader sharon smith was well versed in italian and extremely knowledgeable of art and italian history. in venice the group had an evening welcome dinner, a walking tour the next morning, and a tour of the famous murano glass works. we observed the glass making artistry of a master technician. after sightseeing in venice, we went on by coach to agordo. there we visited the museo dell 'occhiale, a private museum belonging to the luxottica company. its founder was leonardo del vecchio. the museum contains a collection of valuable antique eyeware, paintings, and optical instruments. next day was to padova, a provinical center, where padova'as university is considered to be the "cradle" of modern medicine. among its graduates were william harvey and gabriele fallopio. this university is italy's second oldest, founded in 1222. the highlight of this tour was the famous "teatro anatomico" built in 1594. this anatomy theater was the first in europe. we also saw galileo galilei's ancient lecternsaid to have been built by his students for outdoor stargazing sessions. we reboarded our coach and traveled to the 32/17 outskirts of padova to the prestigious optical company, safilo, and the exceptional "galleria guglielmo tabacchi" where optical history is displayed in superb insight and taste. next we headed north to pieve di cadore where famous painter titian was born. this area is well known as eyeglasses have been made in the pieve di cadore valley since 1878. we visited the museum, il museo dell occhiale, or "the eye glass museum." an important collection of antique eyewear, trade signs, oil paintings, optical instruments, and other historic items, first assembled in 1986 by vittorio tabacchi. dr. bill rosenthal autographed his book, spectacles and other vision aids, and nancy schiffer presented her book, eyeglass retrospective, to the curator of the museum. then on to florence for three days of sightseeing. our first stop was a visit to the "history of science museum." this collection was begun by cosimi de medici (1389-1464). we spent the whole morning there exploring the enormous wealth of scientific instruments and equipment. the next day we toured the prestigious gallery of the academy of fine arts. we viewed michelangelo's awe-inspiring sculptures including the renowned "david" and the so­ called "prisoners." next stop we toured the galleria degli uffizi. we also visited the church of santa maria maggiore to view the tomb said to be that of salvino d' armati, a floretine who died in 1317 and whose tomb engraving probably falsely claimed him to be an inventor of eyeglasses. during the meeting the following educational papers were given: j. william rosenthal, m.d. ' nancy schiffer jerome abrams, o.d. john tull, m.d. val tull, optician w. h. marshall, m.d. debbie shearer, optician monoculars chinese eyewear in memoriam: dr. james p. leeds, collector eyecups la femme, optique internet collecting technology for 10 days of good food, pasta, and excellent wines, a good time was had by all. thanks to mrs. sharon smith of travel design for an incredible trip which ended april11 when we all flew back from milan to newark, new jersey and our connecting flights home. the next annual meeting of the ocular heritage society will be held in sturbridge, massachusetts in may, 2002. a tribcjte ·to james leeds: the title of jerry abrams's paper at the ocular heritage society meeting in italy in april, 2001 was "in memoriamdr. james p. leeds, collector, 1918-1995." he sent us a transcript of his talk, which follows: dr. james p. leeds collected books over a professional optometric career spanning 4 7 years, building a private professional library of more than 3600 books, covering the entire 32/18 history of optometry, ophthalmology, and opticianryof vision and related subjects. in 1992, dr. leeds contributed his entire collection to the library at the indiana university school of optometry, and dedicated it in memory of his late son kenneth s. leeds, a 1979 graduate of indiana university's school of optometry. dr. leeds mandated the school library that if duplicates were found they should be distributed in the following manner: duplicates would first go to libraries of schools of optometry in the united states. the second option for duplicates would then go to third world countries and european schools of optometry. the third option would then be distribution to students of the various schools of optometry. a small portion of his collection about 35 books dealt with eye care quackery or controversial theories on vision and the treatment thereof. some of these books are as follows: the popular 1920 book authored by w. h. bates entitled ''the cure of imperfect sight by treatment without glasses." preceding that was the 1904 book entitled "ideal sight restorer'' that had a small instrument that accompanied the book. patricia bragg's book "nature's healing system for better eyesight." margaret corbett's book entitled "how to improve your sight simple daily drills in relaxation." (1953) benjamin hauser's 1938 book "better eyes without glasses." emery c. lnghams's book "seeing without glasses." (1941) christopher markert's book "seeing well again without your glasses." according to markert, if your vision is fuzzy, your thinking is probably out of focus too and vice versa. in his radical book, he presents a way to improve your eyes without glasses. drawing on the principles of holistic medicine, markert asserts that poor eyesight is often a symptom of general problems within and outside of the whole person. he maintained that by changing your mental attitudes, physical environment, and overall health habits, you can activate your body's natural healing powers to clarify your eyesight as well as your inner "vision." he says that glasses actually weaken your eyes and distort your vision. dietary measures such as consuming more carrots and less coffee can sharpen your sight. theodore kriege's "fundamental basis of iris diagnosis." (1969) his report is the study of using the marks and color changes in the iris of the human eye to diagnose physical illness. this was developed from the original observations of lgnaz von peczely, a hungarian who published his findings in 1880, and then by others such as lilequist in sweden and schlegel and thiel in germany. soon this method of diagnosis was applied by homeopathic and chiropractic practitioners in both europe and america. oren o'neal's ''treatise of diseases ofthe eye and the o'neal dissolventtreatment." (1890) john ott. "light, radiation, and you. how to stay healthy." (1982) diana deimel's book entitled "vision victory via vitamins." (1975) and finally ralph macfayden's "see without glasses" on the correction of eye strain and the science of sight. (1948) dr. leeds lifetime of service was modeled from william h. taylor's philosophy that 32/19 "there is no greater joy under the sun than the joy of giving, giving of one's time, energy, talents, and money to help one's fellow man. in closing this memoriam to jim leeds, my friend and my mentor, i believe the following poem of unknown authorship, entitled ~~remember me," is most appropriate. to the living, i am gone. to the sorrowful, i will never return. to the angry, i was cheated. but to the happy, i am at peace. and to the faithful, i have never left. i cannot speak, but i can listen. i cannot be seen, but i can be heard. so as you stand upon a shore, gazing at the beautiful sea­ remember me. as you look in awe at a mighty forest and its grand majesty­ remember me. remember me in your heart, your thoughts, and your memories. of the times we loved, the times we cried. the times we fought, the times we laughed. for if you always think of me, i will never be gone. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: henry w hofstetter (2455 tamarack trail, bloomington, in 47401, u.s.a.); douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 32/20 2001-32-02-001 2001-32-02-002 2001-32-02-003 2001-32-02-004 2001-32-02-005 2001-32-02-006 2001-32-02-007 2001-32-02-008 2001-32-02-009 2001-32-02-010 2001-32-02-011 2001-32-02-012 hindsight journal of optometry history january, 2012 volume 43, number 1 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society for 2011 (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: irving bennett (2012), 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com vice-president: john f. amos (2015) secretary-treasurer: alden norm haffner (2014) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) arol augsburger (2013) jay m. enoch (2014) morton greenspoon (2015) chuck haine (2012) alfred rosenbloom (2015) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the o an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 1 hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2012 volume 43, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama, irving bennett……………….2 biographical notes on two writers on optometric case analysis: sol k. lesser and martin h. birnbaum, david a. goss……………….……………………………………..…..5 william cain ruffin, m.d., and some history of the ruffin family as it pertains to the american civil war, jay m. enoch………………………………………………………….10 miscellany…………………………………………………………………………………..….14 ohs membership application form…………………………………………………………16 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 2 the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com in the last issue of hindsight i discussed the american optometric association resolution no. 4 adopted in june 1954 in seattle that essentially stated that “the field of visual care is the field of optometry” and the american medical association’s response a year later. that response labeled optometry a “cult” and asked all medical doctors to no longer teach in optometry schools, etc.1 this article continues the discussion of this historical, but upsetting, time with the story of the lawsuit of cyrus bass versus the american medical association (ama). how will history label dr. cyrus bass? a hero? an idiot? perhaps a don quixote. it has been nearly a half century since the name bass became a “household name” among optometrists – well, not quite a “household name” since the optometric press was not too eager to carry the story and “offend” friends in optometry and in medicine. nonetheless, regardless how he may be labeled, cyrus bass, an author, a practicing optometrist and a practicing psychotherapist, was a daring young man who, with very little financial or other help, became the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the powerful and large ama.2 the case – one that dr. bass wanted to be a class action suit – was assigned to united states district court for the northern district of illinois, eastern division. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 3 the date was july 24, 1964, a little more than a decade after the american optometric association (aoa) had adopted resolution no. 4 that claimed the field of visual care to be optometry and those unlicensed as optometrists had no right to be practicing that profession. the response from the american medical association (ama) was rapid and strong. it canceled all efforts for improved inter-professional relations with optometry and declared it unethical for any physician to work with optometrists, their colleges and their organizations. initially the lay news media was infatuated with the lawsuit and most major newspapers and major radio and television networks reported on this activity. but as the case dwindled in the courts, and with no response by either the aoa or by ophthalmology, interest waned both within and outside the professions. optometry began to adjust to the new inter-professional playing field, and national and state optometric associations worked with “friendly” ophthalmologists toward some satisfactory accommodation. the virtual boycott of optometry by medicine probably affected the schools and colleges the most as medically-trained faculty resigned only to be replaced by trained non-m.d. teachers, grounded in medical subjects. at a local level most optometrists had arrangements with ophthalmologists for referral purposes. this report is not designed to cover the bass case completely, but some salient points and events stand out:  in addition to the ama, the lawsuit was filed against eight chicago ophthalmologists charging violation of the sherman act.  initially, most in the professions thought that bass was a “publicity-seeking crackpot” and the case would be thrown out of court before it saw the light of day. how wrong they were.  bass did have some legal training. his credentials included a two-year study of the law.  there were several motions filed by the ama to dismiss the case. all failed.  the court asked bass to file an “amended complaint” if he wanted the case to be a class action one. he did this in june, 1965 “in behalf of all licensed, selfemployed, practicing optometrists in the united states.” five fellow optometrists joined dr. bass in the amended complaint.  in february, 1966 three officers of the international association of boards of examiners in optometry (iab), together with two mississippi optometrists filed a petition as “interveners” on behalf of the plaintiffs. briefly, the court denied the motion of the interveners to participate and also the court, three months later, denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the class action provision of the complaint.  losing the motion to dismiss, the ama became concerned with the possible financial penalty that might have resulted if it went through with this lawsuit. the court gave medicine the way out: in denying the dismissal of the class action suit, the court “recommended that the case be settled amicably and suggested hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 4 that the plaintiffs file a bill of particulars of what they would consider grounds for a settlement.”  on june 28, 1966, the ama at its annual convention, which was held in chicago, modified its anti-optometry resolution (#77) by allowing medical doctors to teach at optometry schools. the modification of the resolution was, by implications, an admission of guilt.  the case did not die for two more years. much of what went on sounded like a real life soap opera. the iab, and its attorney billups, became more involved. the american optometric association took no public position but worked behind the scenes to see that the case was adjudicated properly. most optometrists were never fully aware of the bass case or its implications even though probably no case in the history of optometry or even medicine has so many bizarre aspects. on thursday, may 11, 1967 the lawsuit against the ama was concluded by stipulation between the plaintiffs and defendants based on a memorandum of opinion rendered by the court.3,4 the defendants (the ama) had agreed to stop discriminating against the profession of optometry and work towards better relationship and understanding between the two professions. it may be noted that during the 1960s, aoa counsel ellis lyons and others worked with the department of justice on the matter of an anti-trust action involving the american medical association. to my knowledge, nothing on this matter has heretofore been reported. bass, who had reached out to his optometric colleagues for financial help to carry the case forward, was not successful raising the substantial funds he felt he required. he said, after the agreement was developed, that he was forced to accept the settlement suggested by the court and he hoped that better days were ahead. there is one thing for sure and it is that the bass lawsuit and the settlement agreement ending it, along with the court’s summary of dismissal, deserves recognition in optometric history. references 1. bennett i. the 1954 american optometric association seattle resolution and medical reaction to it. hindsight: j optom hist 2011;42:102-105. 2. bass c. report to the optometric profession (brochure). 1966. 3. a special report: u.s. court stipulation order ends bass versus ama suit. optom weekly 1967;58(22);15-18. 4. editorial: some facts in the case of bass vs. the ama. optom weekly 1967;58(22):27-28. 5. john robinson, wallace, nc. personal correspondence with the author, 2010. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 5 biographical notes on two writers on optometric case analysis: sol k. lesser and martin h. birnbaum david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract this paper profiles two writers of commonly used books on accommodation and convergence case analysis: sol k. lesser (1905-1979) and martin birnbaum (19372002). their books are also discussed. key words: accommodation, convergence, optometric extension program, optometry books, optometry history. this paper presents brief profiles of two optometrists who wrote widely used material on accommodation and convergence analysis. they were from different generations and lived in different regions of the country. they are grouped here only because of the commonality of the topics they addressed in their writings. sol k. lesser (1905-1979) s.k. lesser graduated in 1926 from northern illinois college of optometry.1 he practiced in fort worth, texas, and was a member of the american optometric association (aoa) and the optometric extension program (oep) for decades.1 he received the texas optometric association optometrist of the year award in 1959 and the beta sigma kappa gold medal award in 1966. because of lesser’s work in oep, he was once described as “the right-hand man of dr. a.m. skeffington.”2 another author said that lesser “ably and devotedly assisted” skeffington.3 richard friedman, who graduated from northern illinois college of optometry in 1939 and set up practice in texas, said that lesser was well respected by texas optometrists and was seen as a mentor to young optometrists such as himself.4 in 1933, lesser published fundamentals of procedure and analysis in optometric examination. it apparently first appeared in a typewritten version in 1933 with the first published version appearing in 1933 as the second edition (110 pages).5 the third edition was published in 1934. part one of the second edition described the first 18 numbered tests in the 21 point examination which came to be associated with oep. in part ii, lesser presented a sample recording form, the “expecteds,” the remainder of the 21 tests, and the oep case typing and analysis procedure. a review of the book said that it was “simply written” and that it avoided “the ‘flowery language’ used by skeffington.”2 that review also stated that: “part one…can be understood by the most backward optometrist, and yet, much of interest will be found in part two by the advanced thinker…”2 hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 6 in my examination of a second edition of the book, i noticed, in addition to the material readily recognized as oep testing and analysis, a presentation and brief mention of an x,y coordinate graph of accommodation and convergence. lesser wrote: “the circular pattern in the center of the graph is the zone of comfortable vision in the average case. if the various quantities indicated by the findings and shown in the key to this brain-pattern chart…are plotted on this graph, the innervational problems of the case will at once become obvious.” (p. 108) he further noted that: “the application of such charting methods will help the optometrist to gain a more clear-cut picture as to the neurological problems existing….the writer is full aware of the fact that the application of this chart may be somewhat difficult, yet he offers it here in the hope that its presentation will in some way induce a further study of its applications.” (p. 110) it was in the late 1930s and early 1940s that fry and hofstetter were doing work on the application of x,y coordinate plotting of accommodation and convergence to the clinical analysis of test findings that would later frequently be referred to as “graphical analysis.”6,7 the inclusion of a clinical accommodation and convergence graph in a book devoted to oep analysis is somewhat surprising in that they were often portrayed as opposing schools of thought. hofstetter observed that the use of cartesian coordinates to show accommodation and convergence relationships dates back to donders and macgillavry in the mid nineteenth century, but that: “a suggestion that the graph be used by refractionists as a routine clinical aid appears to have been made initially by lesser in 1933. he included a somewhat unique design in his textbook for practitioners,…but it suffered from inadequate explanation.”8 lesser was also the author of numerous editions of introduction to modern analytical optometry, the oep “little black book,” a small booklet designed for easy access to a summary of the oep 21 point examination procedure and analysis. the editions in the 1930s through the early 1950s contained about 20 to 30 pages. the 1958 edition expanded to 64 pages with the inclusion of the glossary from leo manas’s book visual analysis. the 1965, 1969, and 1974 editions included revisions made by leonard emery. the last edition to credit lesser with authorship was the 1974 edition. because of its wide dissemination over decades of the mid twentieth century, introduction to modern analytical optometry received multiple nominations for one of the most important optometry books of the century.9 this booklet was reissued in 1980, 1984, and 1989 editions with the title the behavioral optometry approach to lens prescribing and with homer hendrickson listed as author. martin h. birnbaum (1937-2002) martin birnbaum attended bucknell university and received his doctor of optometry degree in 1959 from pennsylvania college of optometry.10 birnbaum was in private practice for a number of years, and in the 1960s, he was on the staff of the optometric center of new york, where he was head of the strabismus studies laboratory.10,11 then for many years he was a clinical professor at state college of optometry at state university of new york, where taught subjects related to binocular vision and supervised students in the vision therapy clinic. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 7 birnbaum published frequently in the journal of the american optometric association, american journal of optometry and physiological optics, and journal of behavioral optometry. topics of his publications included various aspects of accommodation, binocular vision, and myopia. he also published a paper on the history of behavioral optometry, citing 125 references and tracing its origins from the studies of donders and the strabismus orthoptics of javal.12 in a memorial appreciation of birnbaum, suchoff13 noted that birnbaum was one of the first optometrists to achieve fellowship in both the american academy of optometry and the college of optometrists in vision development. suchoff described birnbaum as “the strongest, most rational and convincing advocate of behavioral optometry i have known,” and observed that even though birnbaum was concerned that optometry’s move into disease treatment was resulting in a de-emphasis of vision therapy, he studied for and passed the testing requirements for therapeutic pharmaceutical agent privileges. birnbaum’s forceful advocacy for the importance of optometry retaining its expertise in visual function can be seen in his writings. for example, he wrote: “as an optometrist whose growth over the years has been towards a greater understanding of visual function, and of how disorders of visual function adversely impact human behavior and achievement, i feel increasingly marginalized in a profession that has chosen instead to emphasize ocular disease….i am concerned that optometry is not living up to its responsibility to provide adequate care so that children particularly, and adults as well, can achieve up to their potential….as a consequence of education and continuing education that emphasize ocular disease and trivialize vision, the public is badly underserved in those areas of optometric care that impact most on school achievement and vocational performance.”14 birnbaum amplified these points in a guest editorial in the journal of the american optometric association. he wrote: “it is a source of serious concern…that as the scope of optometric knowledge and practice has expanded, so many colleagues have neglected to provide functional and behavioral vision care at a level consistent with today’s standard’s. as a consequence, large numbers of patients struggle with untreated vision disorders that cause discomfort, school failure, and inefficiency in the workplace….in the rush to increase optometric responsibilities to detect and treat ocular disease, the importance of functional, behavioral vision care is frequently trivialized. a colleague of mine once commented, ‘there is no way you can convince me that an accommodative problem is as important as a retinal tear!’ in my view, to argue over which is more important is to miss the point. each anomaly is important, but on differing scales. an accommodative or vergence disorder poses little risk to sight or life, but may have major impact on an individual’s educational and vocational choices and achievements. a unilateral retinal tear, in contrast, poses significant danger to eye health, but is less likely to have major effect on an individual’s life achievement.”15 in closing the editorial, birnbaum mentioned various possible reasons to explain why functional vision problems have been trivialized, but he argued that ultimately individual hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 8 practitioners must continue to update and expand their knowledge of functional vision and seek to offer the best vision care possible.15 birnbaum’s 416 page book optometric management of nearpoint vision disorders was published by butterworth-heinemann in 1993. the first of four parts dealt with models of nearpoint stress. birnbaum discussed relation of vergence findings to nearpoint vision problems, skeffington theories of nearpoint stress, theories of the relation of myopia to near work, and potential relations of posture to vision problems. in part ii, birnbaum covered case analysis and nearpoint lens prescribing. here there was a review of literature on graphical analysis, fixation disparity, oep analysis, and effects of plus lens adds on myopia progression. in this part, birnbaum also presented some of his own views on prescribing nearpoint plus lenses using phoria, negative relative accommodation, and positive relative accommodation findings and dynamic retinoscopy. part iii covered various visual skills tests and examined some of the literature on the relation of vision and learning. among the tests considered in this part of the book were eye movement tests, accommodative facility, near point of convergence, stereopsis, and testing in stereoscopes. topics in part iv were models, general principles, procedures, and effectiveness of vision therapy for non-strabismic vision problems. one review of the book judged it “a very thoughtful, comprehensive and generally successful test which analyses the various theories and clinical approaches for optometric management of vision problems related to near visual task demands.”16 another reviewer said that the “extensive list of references” for each chapter “combined with the author’s obvious knowledge and understanding of the area of nearpoint disorders make this detailed and comprehensive book a useful addition to any optometrist’s library.”17 his book was one of forty receiving multiple nominations for the most important optometry books of the twentieth century.9 references 1. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:204. 2. koch cc. book review: fundamentals of practice and analysis in optometric examination. am j optom 1934;11:38-39. 3. hoare ae. the duncan diaries – part ii: the optometric extension program – the team. optom world 1967;54(7):10-11, 15-16. 4. friedman r, telephone conversation with the author, 2012. 5. worldcat online library catalog, newfirstsearch.oclc.org. 6. fry ga. fundamental variables in the relationship between accommodation and convergence. optom weekly 1943;34:153-155, 183-185. 7. hofstetter hw. the zone of clear single binocular vision. am j optom arch am acad optom 1945;22:301-333, 361-384. 8. hofstetter hw. graphical analysis. in: schor cm, ciuffreda kj, eds. vergence eye movements: basic and clinical aspects. boston: butterworths, 1983:439-464. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 9 9. goss da, penisten dk. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight 2004;35:36-40. 10. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:27. 11. birnbaum mh. adverse response to prism therapy in strabismus. j am optom assoc 1976;47:1195-1199. 12. birnbaum mh. behavioral optometry: a historical perspective. j am optom assoc 1994;65:255-264. 13. suchoff ib. martin h. birnbaum, od, faao, fcovd – 1937-2002. j behav optom 2002;13:81. 14. birnbaum mh. letter to the editor. visions newsletter coll optom vis dev 2000;30(4):2. 15. birnbaum mh. full-scope optometry: quality eye and vision care. j am optom assoc 1997;68:73-75. 16. leslie s. book review: optometric management of nearpoint vision disorders. clin exp optom 1994;77:238-239. 17. holterman ja. book review: optometric management of nearpoint vision disorders. optom vis sci 1994;71:542. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 10 william cain ruffin, m.d., and some history of the ruffin family as it pertains to the american civil war jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california, berkeley, ca 94720-2020; home: 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413; jmenoch@berkeley.edu abstract in the late 1970s, prof. herbert (“herb”) kaufman, m.d., a fine harvard-trained ophthalmologist who had both developed and chaired the department of ophthalmology, college of medicine, university of florida. gainesville, fl, chose to resign his appointment there. prof. kaufman had accepted the chair in ophthalmology at louisiana state u. in new orleans. the writer was a member of the department of ophthalmology faculty in gainesville, fl, at the time. following herb kaufman’s resignation, professor william cain ruffin, m.d., a psychiatrist with academic credentials, was assigned to serve as the interim chairman of the department of ophthalmology at gainesville for a few years by the then dean of the medical school at the u. of florida. this paper addresses some interesting facts regarding prof./dr. ruffin and his family history, particularly as that history relates to the american civil war. introduction after completing his residency training in ophthalmology at harvard, prof. herbert (“herb”) kaufman was recruited to found the department of ophthalmology at the then relatively new medical school of the university of florida at gainesville. kaufman also played a major role in the modern development of the association for research in vision and ophthalmology (arvo). he is indeed an outstanding ophthalmic surgeon and physician! during my years in gainesville, in addition to my research and lectures, and serving as head of the campus vision research group, i served in the eye clinic. in the latter role, among my other patients, i provided visual corrections for many members of herb kaufman’s very unique and often complex group of patients. that population was comprised mainly of individuals with problems associated with the anterior segment of one or both eyes. kaufman was particularly well-known for his development of a medical treatment regimen for the herpes simplex virus. this was truly a major breakthrough, as it proved to be an effective for this, a viral disease! some period of time later, prof. kaufman decided to leave gainesville, fl. that is, “herb” had accepted another academic post in new orleans, la. this occurred towards the end of the 1970s. as a result, there was a rather lengthy period of time with an interim chair of the department of ophthalmology at gainesville. professor william cain ruffin, m.d., a psychiatrist, was assigned to serve as the interim chairman of the department of ophthalmology. dr. ruffin has a fine sense of humor and with some visitors, he would sometimes adopt the role of “hayseed,” which he certainly was not! on one occasion, i remember hosting an ad hoc national eye institute, study section in gainesville, which had assembled there to review a proposed nei/nih grant application hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 11 of mine. dr. ruffin came into the room, and literally went around the room seeking graciously to welcome each member of this sub-committee. he used the local north florida vernacular, “hey, dr. reinecke,” “hey, dr. riggs,” “hey, dr. x,” etc. clearly these fine scientists did not quite know what to make of this introductory event. so saying, i am pleased to note, i received the grant award! prof./dr. ruffin managed to perform this none-too-easy role with some skill! a successor to prof. kaufman was sought, and finally, after a period of some time, an established senior ophthalmologist at the university of florida at gainesville, prof. melvin rubin, m.d., was selected. it is not my intent here to write a history of this interregnal period in gainesville. in candor, it was not the best of times. on the one hand, the dean of the medical school and dr. ruffin sought to hold together the very fine department of ophthalmology which prof. kaufman had assembled; on the other hand, slowly, but surely, during the interim period, most all of this fine faculty dispersed. rather, here i will call the reader’s attention to an interesting history of one member of the ruffin family, a true forebear of professor ruffin. this gentleman’s story seemed quite amazing indeed when we first heard this tale from him. in all truth, it was difficult to believe that story, but we later learned that the stated facts were quite true! these facts and more were verified both in the fine pbs civil war series of television programs and in related literature since seen/read by the writer. the first shots fired in the civil war there seems to be some competition (at least in existing print sources) as to who might have fired the first shot(s) of the american civil war.1-5 it is not quite clear as to exactly when “the civil war,” or “the war between the states,” actually started. in a substantial sense, the conflagration really started with the confederate attack on fort sumter. even so, earlier, on may 24, 1861, “the day after voters ratified the virginia’s state convention’s decision to secede from the union, col. elmer e. ellsworth and his troops crossed the potomac river and (this author’s clarification) they entered alexandria, va, to assist in the occupation of the city.”1 apparently, by then, a large, non-standard, 8’ by 14’ flag had already been flying in alexandria, va for some weeks. by using a telescope, that flag was clearly visible from the white house.1 col. elmer e. ellsworth of new york state was a good friend of president abraham lincoln; he was then staying as a guest at the white house. earlier, he had served as a clerk for lincoln in springfield, il. apparently, col. ellsworth and his troops crossed the potomac river to alexandria, va, for the purpose of removing this large flag! there, it was flying from an inn called the marshall house. col. ellsworth was killed at that site during the ensuing brief military encounter.1 apparently, this was/may have been the first death to be attributed to the then brewing civil war. a photograph of col. elmer e. ellsworth, dated about 1860, was included in a special exhibit on this gentleman which recently (2011) was presented at the national archives in washington, dc. the smithsonian magazine1 notes that upon learning of hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 12 the death of his friend col. ellsworth, president lincoln was quoted as saying, “my boy! my boy! was it necessary that this sacrifice should be made?” the first shots fired at fort sumter separately, there seems to be little doubt as to who fired the first cannon at fort sumter. apparently, it was none other than a true forebear of prof. ruffin, volunteer ensign edmund ruffin of the palmetto guard of south carolina (see page 268 in reference 3). we were told this story with great pride by his descendant! this information was later confirmed in the tv productions addressing the “civil war,” presented on public television. separately, earlier, the very same edmund ruffin, an ardent secessionist, had been a witness to the hanging of john brown.5 because edmund ruffin (“who might almost be called the father of secession”3) was considered to be the leader of the south carolina militia, he was given the opportunity to fire the first cannon at fort sumter, that is, against the union fortifications (see reference 5 and page in reference 3). this action is now considered to be the “first shot” of the actual civil war. it may be noted that on page 261 of reference 3, there is mention of another cannon being fired just before this one, but apparently it was fired by a mortar as “a signal” that firing by confederate soldiers should begin. not mentioned in these references, after this event, edmund ruffin was carried form the battlefield upon the shoulders of his then cheering men. apparently, the ensuing cannon and mortar barrage against fort sumter (from a number of sites) was very heavy and protracted. as the civil war drew to a close some years later, in 1865, the very same edmund ruffin was so distraught upon hearing the news of the surrender by general robert e. lee of the confederate army to general ulysses s. grant at appomattox court house (negotiated on april 9, 1865; the formal surrender occurred on april 12, 1865), that he shortly thereafter committed suicide on april 17, 1865! ruffin was quoted as stating the following in conjunction with his action, which succeeded on his second try: “i declare my unmitigated hatred of the malignant, perfidious, and vile yankee race”5 once gain this suicide was confirmed in the “civil war” tv series on public television. thus, our temporary chair of ophthalmology at the university of florida, gainesville, that is, after prof. kaufman’s resignation, was indeed a true son of the american south, and he was a member of a family which had been consequential during the war between the states/the american civil war. acknowledgements this paper is being presented at the 2012 meeting of the cogan ophthalmic history society. references 1. edwards o. lincoln’s loss: the first union officer killed in the civil war was a friend of the president’s. smithsonian 2011;42(1):28-30. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 13 2. simpson bd, sears sw, sheehan-dean a, eds. the civil war, the first year by those who lived it. new york: library of america, 2011. 3. holzer h, symonds cl, eds. the new york times complete civil war, 18611865. new york: black dog and leventhal publishers, 2010. 4. thomas em. the dogs of war, 1861. new york: oxford university press, 2011. 5. robertson j, kagan n. the untold civil war: exploring the human side of war. washington, dc: national geographic society, 2011. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 14 miscellany identification and/or information needed linda draper, heritage services specialist, at the archives and museum of optometry, located at the american optometric association headquarters in st. louis, wrote to ask the following: “recently we received this wonderful old set; it appears to be a small do-it-yourself trial frame with 11 lenses. it’s crude and very rusty and needs cleaning up, but it’s an interesting early example of the type. i know practically nothing about it and would welcome some help. wrapped around the little lenses was a printed brochure from the company, unfortunately it is in horrible shape, crumpled, torn, missing parts, fragile and full of rust. i was able to make out the company name: nu-sight spectacle company, on west jackson blvd. in chicago. that’s all i was able to read, and i’ve not been able to find out any further information about the company or the little device. anyone who can add to our information is encouraged to contact the archives & museum of optometry.” letter to the editor dr. john schoen, of owatonna, mn, wrote the following: “thank you for the article on northern illinois college of optometry and the people who made it up. “particularly, the bit on carl shepard. “did you know that one point, late in his career, he attracted national attention, such as a lengthy article in time, for denigrating the snellen chart? he devised a method of assessing acuity which corrected the faults of snellen. i do not remember the formula, but it was based on solid science. “carl taught my class at n.i.c. he often diverged to tell of his experiences. one that i remember was how when he established practice in hannibal, his father’s cronies hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 15 found his waiting room ideal for their kaffee klatsches. that wasn’t good p.r. for the young doctor, so carl told how he sawed off 3/8 of an inch from the front legs of the chairs in his reception area. in just a couple days the “cronies” looked for and found a better place to meet, whereupon carl sawed off 3/8 of an inch from the back legs. mission accomplished! “i want to thank you for your work on behalf of optometric history. i’m 93 and find most of the journal fascinating. thanks.” we appreciate this note from dr. schoen who is a long time member of ohs. his name can be found in a membership list as early as 1975.1 he has had a long record of service to optometry, including being first deputy secretary of the american academy of optometry from 1966 to 1974 and secretary-treasurer of the academy from 1974 to 1982.2 references 1. directory of current members. newsletter optom hist soc 1975;6:29-35. 2. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:181-182. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2012, volume 43, number 1, page 16 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: linda draper c/o optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, floor 1 st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________________ address ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares™ – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. ohsfrontcover43-1 hindsight43-1 newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. volume 3 january 1972 election report: in november the o.h.s. members re-elected mrs. maria dablemont and dr. arthur hoare to the executive board for terms to expire december 31, 1975 and 1976 respectively. to fiil the unexpired term almost immediately created by the death of dr. hoare the executive board elected james r. gregg, o.d. to succeed dr. hoare. dr. sol tannebaum (1972), john r. levene (1973), and henry w. hofstetter (1974) are the other continuing executive bo~rd members. in december the executive board re-elected the following to serve as officers for 1972: president: h. w. hofstetter vice president: john r. levene secretary-treasurer: maria pablemont secretary-treasurer reports: balance on hand 12/31/70 1971 dues (56 members) 1971 expenditures balance on hand 12/31/71 new members in 1971: -----$184.68 279.98 $464.66 -84 .• 35 $380.31 mr. t. c. chang, 929/7 king's road, hong kong morris l. galey, o.d., community bldg., tuscola, illinois 61953 william n. hoffman, o.d., 2101 n. edward st., decatur, ill. 62526 howard d. kahn, 1547 lasking road, lasking road office center, virginia beach, virginia 23451 miss margaret mitchell, librarian, british optical association, 65 brook street, london wly 2dt, england los angeles college of optometry library, 950 west jefferson boulevard, los angeles, california 90007 pennsylvania college of optometry library, 6100 north twelfth street, philadephia, pennsylvania 19141 b. b. parks, o.d., 904 pendleton street, greenville, south carolina 29601 j. wolff, o.d., so. 2623 arthur street, spokane, washington 99203 -2address changes: lester d. welch, o.d., 3784 mowry avenue, fremont, california 94538 mr. stephen m. oppenheimer, box 1044, el paso, texas 79946 raymond myers, o.d., 7002 nottingham, apt. 108, st. louis, mo. 63119 mrs. grace weiner, university of alabama in birmingham, school of optometry/the medical center, 1919 seventh ave., south, birmingham, alabama 35233 more memorialized optometrists: here are a few additions to the names of optometrists for whom their colleagues established name memorials in one form or another, a list that was started in our previous newsletter issue: the charles f. prentice medal and the vincent j. ellerbrock memorial continuing education courses (reference: american academy of optometry). the carl~ shepard memorial library (reference: illinois college of optometry). the thomas h. peters memorial lecture (reference: university of california school of optometry). the nathan~ springer memorial lecture (reference: university of alabama in birmingham, school of optometry). the nelson k. standart foundation (reference: michigan optometric association). honors in ireland: "regarding the plea of the society for information concerning memorialised optometrists who have been signally honoured by their colleagues, the following info~ation concerns those so honoured in this country. "james g. coleman, onetime hon. secretary of our association and currently, and for many years, registrar of the pharmaceutical society of ireland was the {irst to be so honoured some years ago. optometrist, pharmacist, and lawyer, mr. coleman was mainly instrumental in making our association a viable concern during a period when optometry in this country was at a very low ebb. later, a grateful association was happy to acknowledge this by appointing him an honorary vice-president for life. "in recent years, a similar honour was conferred on the late t. standish mason shortly after his retirement through ill-health from the active affairs of the association. he, with others, spearheaded a drive which ultimately resulted in the passing of en­ lightened optical legislation in this country. his intelligence, his wisdom, and his humanity produced the ideas and the practical approach which laid the foundation for our educational system as it now exists, and the same characteristics were equally evident in establishing professional standards which in turn has given optometrists the professional status which they now enjoy. there could be nobody who better deserved the honour conferred on him. it should also be mentioned that, shortly after his death in march 1969, a fund was -3opened for the purpose of creating a suitable memorial to mr. mason, and this will take the form of a library of optometric literature to be styled the standish mason memorial library which it is hoped will shortly be opened. "quite recently, an honorary vicepresidency of the association was conferred on patrick mcgivney-nolan who recently retired from his post as ron. treasurer. like mr. mason, he was a past-president, a post to which he had the signal honour of being appointed twice, and was a founder member of the association which he served so well. he is of the third generation of an optometric family, and his service to optometry might well be considered incalculable. at a recent dinner given in his honour by his former colleagues on the council of the association, his portrait in oils was presented to him, and this he has graciously presented to be hung in the offices of the association. "this represents the sum total of those thus honoured by my association an honour which is no,t lightly bestowed. doubtless there will be others in furture years. honored in england: "sincerely yours, laurence p. pelly,.hon. sec." assoc. of ophthalmic opticians 11 harrington street dublin, ireland "in reply to your letter in the ophthalmic optician of september 18th, vol. ii no. 18 1971 i would like to bring to your notice the following facts about my father which may well be relevant to your enquiry. "he was william boulton barker f.b.o.a.(hons.), sometime president of the british optical association born june 6th 1883, died august 8th 1950. there are the following memorials to him "i. a memorial plaque in the entrance hall of the optics building at the university of manchester institute of science and technology, england to commemorate his long service as lecturer in and head of the optics department. in fact he was one of the founders of that department. "2. a portrait painted by r. e. dugdale r.a. which was exhibited at the royal academy. this portrait was sub­ scribed for by members of the british optical association and now hangs in the headquarters of the british optical association at 65 brook street, london. the intention was to commemorate his long service to the association as a. member for 40 years and president 1923 to 1926. b. president of the joint council of qualified opticians. -4c. examiner to the association. d. chief negotiator.for the association with the ministry of health for the recognition and registration of the optical profession. 11 3. the barker-meadley scholarship in optical studies tenable at the university of manchester institute of science and technology. "4. the barker-meadley lecture to be given at the annual confer­ ence. "i should also mention that my father was the translator from the german of haab's atlas of ophthalmoscopy and the author of numerous papers in optical journals. "it may be that you will receive particulars of memorials to my father w. b. barker from other quarters. but you will understand that i feel it to be particularly my responsibility to send you this information in response to your request. other forms of recognition: "yours sincerely, dorothy boulton smith" m.sc.(tech), f.b.o.a.(hons). berleys, windsor rd. gerrards cross buckinghamshire, england from sandra smith, amanuensis to o.h.s. secretary maria dablemont, came a clipping about a recent bronze star medal award to captain ronald l. opland, o.d., suggesting that citations, like memorials, are also a form of recognition. obviously true. however, it seems con­ venient to maintain a somewhat arbitrary distinction between two types of recognition, namely, memorials and citations. the former relate to the person as a total personality, whereas the latter relate more specifically to one or more of his performances, contributions, or acts. my webster does not list citations and memorials as synonyms. so it seems that the collecting of information on citations, medals, and honors is another possible activity with archival significance. sub-categories could include, e.g., military, civic, artistic, and pro­ fessional citations. the frequency of news items about optometrists cited as community man of the year, outstanding citizen, boss of the year, and the like, is in itself a message about the role of the optometrists in society quite independent of their technological or clinical competence. as a teacher i can draw from this some reassurance that there are more obligations to be met in the optometry curriculum than just good clinical training. -5memorialized, ~~optometrists: the names of several memorials of optometric origin but named after persons who, in fact, were not optometrists but staunch friends and servants of the profession, have been sent to me, but i have arbitrarily excluded them from this listing. submitted to date have been the~~ ketchum memorial library, the lionel topaz memorial library, and the ~ harold bailex medal. in making this categorical distinction i anticipate protests from an o.h.s. member (his initials m. m.) who will say that in the historical sense they, too, were optometrists. facts and interpretations: an o.h.s. release went out to all state optometric association journals in the u.s.a. and to a long list of optometric journals outside of the u.s.a., announcing our interest in collecting the names of memorialized optometrists. the first response came from the editorial office of photons, (b-1000 bruxelles, rue aux laines 12, belgique). it consisted of two large envelopes of english language supplements and inserts of photons, a total of 22 documents, all authored by mr. jean thiriart. the material contains a great number of excerpts of correspondence, names of key personnel, dates of events of significance to optometry, and vital statistics. since mr. thiriart's writings are almost entirely argumentative, one must be extremely cautious about deriving history from them. the true historian must interpret as well as chronicle. to chronicle with bias can be more dangerous than to interpret erroneously. mr. thiriant writes extremely well, in a startlingly convincing style, and with a grasp of american optometry that is surely flat­ tering. that he, himself, is today making optometric history cannot be denied. but i, for one, shall resist the urge either to interpret or chronicle his activities in this newsletter, at least for the time being while i harbor a number of very prejudicial opinions about the issues he discusses. the 22 documents, therefore, are being appropriately, and most appreciatively, preserved. arthur hoare and oral history: though published obituaries and memorializing accounts in appropriate journals will, by the time this newsletter issue is out, say the socially proper, and indeed correct, things about our beloved "art", those of us who knew him even a wee bit intimately will remember him for characteristics, and character, which almost defy delineation. my difficulty in explaining what i mean reminds me of a similar difficulty expressed by the late professor paul harmon of indiana university, who, in turn, was trying to tell me -6of the forceful nature of the very venerable william lowe bryan, a long time president of indiana university. said dr. harmon, "trained as a preacher, he never used profanity. never. but on the golf course he would vent his anger by spitting, and, where president bryan spit, the grass never grew again!" similarly, though i cannot recall that arthur ever used profanity, his opinions and his convictions had startlingly memorable impact. he could not conceal the fact that he despised hypocrisy, that he re­ sented arrogance, and that he loved everyone who would work for a noble cause. indeed, the biographer of arthur hoare will find himself writing a thesis on the conscience of a profession. perhaps most revealing of all is a tape recording which he made for the ada oral history archives, in 1966, the first in this growing collection, and very early in the oral history movement receiving such recognition today in archival circles. vocal recording, the medium of oral history, for some strange reason is less inhibiting to most of us than graphic recording, even less inhibiting than the entering of memoirs in a private diary. so, in his own inimitable style of expression dr. hoare's tape reveals that only three months before he would have been ordained as a presbyterian foreign missionary he was called into world war i military service. his military experiences, including severe illness and a threatened foot amputation, affected his outlook on ethics and theology deeply, and he emerged with the philosophy that he could better reconcile doctrine with the idea of tangible service to people than with spiritual leadership. in 1920 he came to his brother harry, a medical doctor practicing in california, who was taking some coursework at dr. m. b. ketchum's. los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry. optometry struck arthur as an excellent avenue in which to exercise his new objective in life, so he enrolled immediately. his optometric colleague harry fuog is mentioned. soon arthur hoare joined with harry fuog as a teaching team of historical significance at ketchum's school, which eventually became today's los angeles college of optometry. this was only the beginning of an exciting and often personally turbulent career. arthur was a front line optometric soldier serving a full half century in the most glorious era of the profession's development. small wonder that he felt so keenly, even days before his death, that optometry's history is magnificent • .!!:!?.!!! ~ (barbara) hoare: "arthur's thoughts were ever foremost for his beloved profession. shortly before his death he wrote something which might be of interest. it was found among other papers on his desk afterwards. he had written, 'my life has been rich and strenuous. optometry is noble and deserves the best. my battle is over. god bless optometry'. --and that truly expresses his feelings for his profession over the 43 years of our life together." -7charles sheard, optometrist: a news release datelined sept. 7, 1916, from columbus, ohio, and published in the sept. 14, 1916, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 38, no. 12, p. 737, announced the opening of "optometric offices" by charles sheard, ph.d., professor of applied optics, at his residence, where he "will practice optometry, in addition to his duties at the university." he sent out announcement cards "to practise as a consulting eye refractionist and conservator of human vision." the release identifies him as a "practical optometrist, having examined the eyes of many hundreds of students and others at the clinics which have been conducted under his direction." however, because this news release also states that "dr. sheard is especially offering his services to other optometrists", an o.h.s. member cautiously asks, "can we safely say sheard was an optometrist?" the answer is nev~rtheless yes. ohio did not enact a law to register optometrists until 1919, to become effective in 1920, so sheard would have had no occasion to register in ohio before he moved to massachusetts. however, he listed himself as a columbus, ohio, optometrist in the 1918 blue book of optometrists. he subsequently listed himself at sturbridge, massachusetts, in the 1920 and 1922 issues of the blue book of optometrists though he parenthetically identified himself as holding a position at the american optical co. according to john e. quinn, o.d., secretary, massachusetts board of registration in optometry, "a search of optometric files, which go back to the year 1912, indicate that dr. charles sheard never held a license to practice in the commonwealth." and, according to mr. a. h. cole, executive sec­ retary of the ohio state board of optometry, "our files give no indication concerning dr. sheard, thus, it is apparent that he has never held an ohio license." so, it seems obvious that dr. sheard regarded himself as an optometrist, that he was so regarded by his colleagues, and that he engaged in private practice as well as the teaching of optometry. that he would have been eligible to register as an optometrist by exemption when the laws came in, or later by examination, there can be no doubt. with no expectation of practicing optometry after leaving the ohio state university it may not even have occurred to him to apply for licensure. vision~ long ago: an informed study by d. brewster in his letters ~ natural magic, new york, h~rper, 1839, foreshadowed our contemporary findings concerning the dominance of vision over touch. so reports william epstein of the university of wisconsin in an article entitled "david brewster's observations on perception when touch and vision conflict: a·historical note", perception! -8psychophysics, vol. 10, no. 2, august 1971, p. 97. brewster reported his experiment in a section dealing with the "conversion of cameos into intaglios, or elevations into depressions, and the reverse". curious that sir david would have published in new york, i did a bit of sleuthing and learned that the above-mentioned was a reprint of an earlier volume, no. 33 in the series entitled the family library, which appeared in 1832, published by john murray, london. interestingly, the full title of the volume was, "letters on natural magic addressed to sir walter scott"! markham .!!.!.. wood abrahams: in 1907 miss marjorie helena markham, a college student majoring in science, consulted a qualified sight-testing optician, mr. r. thomas, in business under the name of wood abrahams, at market street, manchester, england. she consulted the firm again in 1907, twice more in 1908, and again in 1909, as a result of which visits and tests she was supplied with two pairs of glasses, one for ordinary purposes and one for reading. eventually, as her condition continued to get worse, she consulted an oculist on her own volition and was told that she had conical cornea. she also was told that, had she been referred earlier, the condition could have been arrested. so, she filed suit for malpractice damages. the case went through two jury trials, as the jury for the first trail could not come to agreement. the first trial was in the court of mr. justice ridley. the second was before the lord chief justice of england. the parade of prominent witnesses giving testimony was most impressive. interestingly, quite a number of qualified opticians (optometrists) contributed to mr. thomas' defense, not wishing to see optometry burdened with the responsibility of determining the need for medical attention. mr. thomas lost the case. the jury believed that he had been negligent and that, as an optometrist, he had the professional obligation to discover the condition and to advise miss markham to seek medical attention. in a professional sense, the loss of this case by mr. thomas was a win for optometry, for it gave optometry a professional responsibility ordinarily not assigned to nonprofessionals. in fact, the markham case became a legal foundation stone which had much to do with the subsequent structural pattern of optometry in most of the english speaking world. detailed accounts and commentary are given in a series of articles in the optician and photographic trade journal as follows: oct. 28, 1910, p. 101, 11t~optician's legal standing"; and pp. 103-118, "legal position of sight-testing opticians"; march 17, 1911, pp. 19-24, "the legal position of optometrists", and continued under the same title in the march 24 issue; pp. 30-42. -9history of the temple: on august 30 our v.p. john r. levene, d. phil,, gave a fascinating talk at our weekly visual science seminar at indiana university on the history of the spectacle temple. to me it was a surprise to learn that the ears were not utilized in support of spectacles until several hundred years after spectacles were invented. john proved this with a series of dated artists' paintings. he even named a mr. ayscough, pronounced "ask you", as the inventor of spectacle temples in 1725. he will whip up a paper on this soon. incidentally, his illustrated presentation lasted only about 40 minutes, with touches of humor and interesting commentary on artistic license. more from kiekenapp: in a delightfully chatty letter dated october 30, o.h.s. member ernest h. kiekenapp describes a long ago dining car dinner with george majorkirk, a national league umpire from whom ernie received an autographed baseball; a calling out from the stand for a picture­ taking with hank gowdy, a new york giants catcher, to whom the stadium was being dedicated; and an exciting visit with drs. "charlie" sheard and "charlie" and "will" mayc;> in the mayo brothers trophy and gown room. ernie modestly points out, "it was because of my official position in optometry that i was granted these memorable experiences." and in an earlier letter, dated september 29, he recalls a day and a half on the witness stand for the ritholz hearings by the postal department; his first meeting with albert myer fitting glasses in a jewelry store; his moderating a spanish and cuban­ american dispute in havana and escaping the revolution just before batista took over; and his "welcome" to the aoa secretaryship at indianapolis in 1922 that terminated in explosive flames hospitalizing several and damaging the walls and ceiling of the banquet room. a hobby for heritage: there are so many delightful hobbies that serve to reconstruct our heritage as to defy ranking their importance, their significance, or just the excitment they can cause. the mentioning of henry's jumping jack in our last issue, however, prompted a suggestion that deserves intensive nurturing. this would be a hobby of collecting information on optometrically related inventions. this would involve tracking down photographs, patents, letters, notes, new items, advertisements, testimonials, affidavits, and even folklore and rumors. is it possible that someone is already doing this? to make it easier, if not more tempting, for optometric invention buffs to get with it, any clues that are sent to me will be duly -10reported in this newsletter, thus providing both documentation and clearing-house facilities. in fact, we might well go a step further to publicize the fa?t of someone's interest. just accumulating something is good, but not good enough. for example, about 30 years ago i started collecting optometrically significant cartoons. i showed slides of about 50 of them at several optometric meetings about two years after starting the collection. this quickly put me in touch with other collectors and elicited frequent contributions from supporting friends and even strangers who were fascinated. remarkably, most of the contributions came in neatly cut out so that it was often a struggle even to date them. to determine the dates often required carefuly and tedious examination of newsprint and legend on the back side in hopes of finding a clue as to the year of the publication. so, if you find an old patent, or a sample of the invented item, on your top shelf, do not throw away the envelope, or the wrapper, the carton in which it came, the invoice, or the instructional brochure. these bits may be the only clue as to its origin and date. oh yes, about my cartoon collection. i now have them assembled and preserved in over 30 albums, one album per year. some of the 1940 humor is now very elusive, but the history of optometry during the subsequent years is most candidly delineated. quick ~ dirty kryptok? a letter long reposed in my files is one dated feb. 28, 1922, from l. w. bugbee, factory manager of onepiece bifocal lens company, indianapolis, indiana, to mr. u. f. johnson, chicago, giving a simple, very understandable description of the astigmatic effect produced by tilting a spherical lens. in his introductory paragraph he wrote, "it would almost.mean writing a book to answer your questions but i am going to give you long-hand a kryptok example." the phrase "kryptok example" struck me as a possible optometric colloquialism of the day, comparable to today's expression "quick and dirty". it certainly carries a delightfully expressive connotation. i wonder if anyone collects these colloquialisms or attempts to trace their origins. they add color to history. i recall "scant quarter" from back in the forties which may be attributable to dr. a. m. sheffington. another was "7 and 4 and out the door" to identify what we now call "quickies". another was "heard around the salt pan" for backroom gossip. any others that are sent to me will be faithfully recorded in the newsletter. oh yes, i have forwarded the above-mentioned letter to the a.o.a. archives. -11incidentally, bugbee was the author of a widely distributed little book which i recall as being entitled "bifocals by bugbee". only the third edition, copyrighted 1923 and entitled simply "bifocals", is conveniently available to me. i have a notion that the addressee "mr. u. f. johnson" was the late ulla f. johnson listed for many years as an optometrist in fairfield, illinois. philatelically speaking: "eyeglasses on stamps" is an article by marjorie a. moulton in~ dispensing optician, may 1971, pp. 14 passim, a periodical published by the california association of dispensing opticians. she reports president wilson as the first eyeglasses wearer on united states stamps, appearing in 1925 and 1938 issues. prior to that, in 1922, austria honored a spectacled franz schubert on a stamp. others shown wearing glasses have included henrik ibsen (norway), king alexander (yugoslavia), king gustav v (sweden), henri pirenne (belgium), stanislavski (russia), r. s. dag (turkey), v. novak (czechoslovakia), and king baudouin (belgium). united states issues include patrick henry, robert taft, mahatma gandhi, horace greeley, john dulles, george eastman, james whitcomb riley, john dewey, and t. roosevelt. the same topic, but entitled "you too can enjoy a busman's holiday," was delightfully dealt with by mrs. harriette m. cluxton, former librarian of the carl f. shepard memorial library, in shuron/continental digest, first edition 1963, april 1963, pp. 25-30. she reported a theodore roosevelt stamp issued between 1922-25, with eyeglasses of course, and a variety of others not mentioned by aforementioned author moulton. she even offers helpful suggestions for developing a "specs 'n stamps" collection. santa lucia the following memorandum was submitted by dr. j. r. levene. "the national gallery of art (washington) has a beautiful painting of santa lucia, by francisco de zurbaran (1598-1664). in her left hand santa lucia is holding a plate upon which are a pair of eyes! ??the patron saint of light, sight and vision?" a day or two later dr. levene commented in another memorandum: "st. lucia: patron saint of ophthalmology: in the museo provincial, valencia, is a painting of st. lucy -­ attributed to rodrigo de osuna, fl. 1480. clue: st. lucy in remorseful state gouged out her eyes. god gave her two replacements which she holds on a pedestalled bowl, in her left hand." · -12will summers and henry .y!ll: another levene gleaning, "at the armoury in the white tower, of the tower of london, is preserved the armour of will summers, jester to king henry viii. the full armour also has metal eyeglass frames, and although they are no longer attached to the armour, are in a case beside the armour. they have no lenses, needless to say!" euclid's visual optics: likely to be a bit hidden from those only casually interested in the history of visual science is the only english translation of euclid's essay on optics, entitled "the optics of euclid", by h. e. burton, in the may 1945 issue of the journal of the optical society of america, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 356-372. euclid was a teacher of mathematics, so it is not surprising that his essay is on the mathematics, essentially geometry, of perception. his is considered "the earliest extant work on mathematical optics." in the classic style of mathematicians' writing he makes over 60 assertions or propositions, almost all of which are analyses of visual or perceptual phenomena, i.e., how we see things, and then proves or explains each one in remarkably understandable narrative. his proofs are accompanied by 58 sets of line drawings. we are not alone: _____ ..;;.;..;.;...;..;;.;;..;... mr. thomas g. paterson, a faculty member in the department of history, university of connecticut, writes the following in the august 1971 issue of business horizons, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 31-34. "businessmen seem unable or unwilling to help a scholar in his search for historical material. requests for information were made to more than one-hundred company officers; with a few exceptions, the responses were polite but evasive or negative. the refusals were based on company policy, failure to accumulate papers, business pressures, shifts in corporate leadership, or lack of interesting records." this little gem was sent to me by sandra smith of the a.o.a. library. gremlins, ugh! in the last issue of the newsletter, p. 19, the word apparatus was misspelled twice in the same paragraph, once in a quotation, where errors are unforgiveable. strangely, they evaded me in the original copy, but they really jumped out at me in the copy i received in the mail. i penalize students who misspell words that optometrists should know how to spell! * * * * * * * h. w. hofstetter, editor 1972-03-01-001 1972-03-01-002 1972-03-01-003 1972-03-01-004 1972-03-01-005 1972-03-01-006 1972-03-01-007 1972-03-01-008 1972-03-01-009 1972-03-01-010 1972-03-01-011 1972-03-01-012 jul '\ 19·r9 .. t. .. ubtary ' •• " * ,. .. 4o ' ~ • \ ...... "'. •'•. i> ~ ... li ...... ~ ~ ... " • volume 19 newsletter optometry !l~~qy of the .jul 1 c 11jd9 ~ptometric historical society . ' /'(243 north lindbergh boulevard ut.!o.i~\lp, '!miil~i)\!tv ·st. louis, missouri, 63141, usa) october 1988 number 4 award announcement: nominations are now being requested for the henry w hofstetter award of the optometric historical society. this award recognizes scholarly research, examination, interpretation, and disclosure of optometry's heritage which has added significantly to the advancement of knowledge of its past and therefore adds to the wisdom which can mold the profession's future. please send your nominations for this 1989 award to: dr. t. david williams university of waterloo school of optometry waterloo, ontario, canada n2l 3gl perimetry yesterday and today: "perimetrie gestern und heute" is the title of an article by dr. bernhard lachenmayr in the march 20, 1988, issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 13-14, 16-18, 20-21, 24-26, and 28-29. briefly mentioning the visual field concepts of euclid, ptolemy, damian, and numerous other early authorities, the author unfolds the concepts and principles of perimetry as well as the varieties of instrumentation developed up to modern times. included are 39 illustrations. many references are cited, but special credit for the historical details are given to h. lauber: "das gesichtsfeld untersuchungsgrundlagen, physiologie und pathologie", j. f. bergmann, munchen, springer-verlag, berlin und wien in der reihe, "augenheilkunde der gegenwart" bd. 3, 1944. this being a war-time publication it may not be widely available. folk art sculpture on page 15 of the may 1988 issue of usair, vol. 10, no. 5, is illustrated in color an optician's sign crafted in the 1880's. it is a large spectacle front cut from wood, reinforced with narrow curved metal strapping, and stained in straw color. dimensions are not stated but obviously it is large enough to be very visible when 40 suspended above the sidewalk in front of an optician's place of business. the illustration is in an article entitled, "an american sampler: folk art from the shelburne museum" on pages 12-17. the museum was founded in 1947 by folk art collector electra havermeyer webb on a 45 acre plat near burlington, vermont, usa, to house and preserve her eclectic collection of americana. history of ophthalmology: because many ophthalmologists today spend so much of their time practicing optometry one might expect a 1982 book having as its title the caption of this commentary to include a significant share of historical background pertaining to optometry. this ·is not the case in at least this instance. the book is authored by george gorin, m.d., and published by publish or perish, inc., wilmington, delaware, usa. a volume of 630 + xvi pages with dozens of photographs of early and some almost current ophthalmological personalities, 299 references, and an extensive index, it contains a massive amount of historical detail. written more in the style of a review of the literature the text is a seemingly endless series of factually choppy statements largely without interpretation of their significance or evidence of any relationship to the theme of the containing paragraph or the sectional subheading. its readability resembles somewhat that of a long shopping list or a crowded bulletin board, making it hard to winnow the wheat from the chaff. it is therefore primarily useful as a library resource leading to more comprehensive references rather than as a treatise to be studied or for pastime reading. nevertheless the author does undertake to develop some broad themes, especially apparent from his three major subdivisions, as follows: part i, antiquity to 1850 (116 pp); ii, 1850-1925 (188 pp.); and iii, 1925-1975 (266 pp.). part i includes people and events even remotely identifiable with ophthalmology, such as artificial eyes for statues and the evil eye superstitions, but virtua).ly nothing optical or optometric. outside of the four nontechnical and mainly anecdotal pages headed "history of glasses" the words "glasses" and "spectacles" appear less than three or four times in the whole book. the words "optical", "optometry", "refraction"; "lenses", and "vision" are not listed in the index. another subsection of four pages is entitled "physical optics in the 18th century", the contents of which have virtually no relationship to the physical properties of light or even to geometric optics. these are not to suggest that the book is intended to be an aggrandizement of ophthalmology. on the contrary, dr. gorin 41 portrays the seamy side as well. for example, he comments that, "ophthalmology had no standing in the medical profession during the renaissance. physicians did not want to practice it and sent their patients for eye surgery to the barber surgeons, who were often untrained and unscrupulous individuals". in several instances he reminds the reader that ophthalmologists before 1850 were persistently anti-spectacles. part ii is subtitled "struggle for independence" and "period of reform". it opens with the statement that "the second half of the 19th century brought about a turning point in the history of ophthalmology ... " one gains the clear impression that dr. gorin really thinks of the profession as a recent rebirth or functionally new. among its many changes he includes its invasion of optometry in the single sentence, "donders made a science of teaching refraction and took it out of the hands of the opticians." one optician is mentioned in toto as follows: "charles prentice (1854-1946) was an optician who became an authority on ophthalmic optics. in 1886 he wrote a treatise on ophthalmic lenses. in 1915 he proposed the prism-diopter system, which was accepted universally." eight pages are devoted to albrecht von graefe, six to helmholtz, and three to donders. part iii is labeled the era of scientific ophthalmology. it deals largely with biographical information about ophthalmologists whose lives were within living memory. origin of "accommodation": in an article entitled "a man of fire new words" in the spring 1988 issue of verbatim, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 5-7, richard lederer of st. paul's school in concord, new hampshire, listed fifty representative words that shakespeare seems to have been the first to have used in writing. first in the list was "accommodation"! in follow-up correspondence mr. lederer informs us that he gained this from the oxford english dictionary (oed) which gives the earliest citation in the year 1604 in shakespeare's othello, act 1, scene 2, line 239, in which othello requests for his wife "such accommodation and besort as levels with her breeding." further consultation of the oed reveals the next earliest citation to be from the 1611 edition of randle cotgrave's, "a dictionarie of the french and english tongues". a consultation of the latter reveals the total entry as simply "accommodation. b fitting. apting, applying. accommodating. furnishing." one might legitimately suspect from this that cotgrave had not seen shake­ speare's coinage and had seen the word elsewhere, perhaps earlier, or had coined it himself with a slightly different connotation. 42 it is a bit hard to believe that shakespeare's was the first written use of the word, by whatever connotation, of which the oed identifies many. in it the verb form "accommodate" is cited in numerous instances in 16th century literature preceding shakespeare's birth. the past tense,"accommodated" and the gerund "accommodating" both have frequent citations from the early part of the 17th century. all of the variations stem from the latin "accommodo are" (to fit) and its latin variants including "accommodatioonis" (an adjusting). the apparently earliest written use of the term to identify the familiar ocular function that we know in optometry may have been in 1833 in sir david brewster's "letters in natural magic" as cited by the oed. surely one must wonder what william porterfield, thomas young, and others may have called the function previously. this calls for another trip to the library. oep jubilee: the optometric extension program foundation (oep) this year celebrates its 60th anniversary. part of the recent ceremony included the dedication of the a. m. skeffington memorial library and archives for behavioral optometry at the oep headquarters in santa ana, california. approximately 60 persons attended the open house. a twist of terminology: more than 160 years ago in the small municipal borough of slough 20 miles west of london sir john frederick william herschel {1792-1871), a famous astronomer and a man of many other talents and missions, prepared an entry for the encyclopaedia metropolitana or universal dictionary of knowledge on the simple 5-letter topic of light. though completed on december 12, 1827, it seems not to have appeared in print until 1845, 18 years later, the data of publication of volume 4 of the encyclopedia. the length and coverage are overwhelming. one hundred forty seven large pages {pp. 341-586 & 824) of very small print, approxi~ately a quarter million words, with references to more than 200 figures apparently separate from volume 4, deal with just about every aspect of science one can associate with light. the opening one-sentence paragraph is the inviting summary, as follows: in this article we propose to give an account of the properties of light; of the physico-mathematical laws which regulate the direction, intensity, state of polarization, colours, and interferences of its rays; to state the theories which have been advanced for explaining the complicated and splendid phenomena of 43 optics; to explain the laws of v1s1on, and their application, by the combined ingenuity of the philosopher and the artist, to the improvement of our sight; and the examination and measurement of those objects and appearances which, from their remoteness, minuteness, or refinement, would otherwise elude our senses. the second paragraph is similarly irresistible reading, as follows: the sight is the most perfect of our senses; the most various and accurate in the information it affords us; and the most delightful in its exercise. apart from all considerations of utility, the mere perception of light is in itself a source of enjoyment. instances are not wanting of individuals debarred from infancy by a natural defect from the use of their eyes, whose highest enjoyment still consisted in that feeble glimmering a strong sunshine could excite in their obstructed organs; but when to this we join the exact perception of form and motion, the wonderous richness and variety of colour, and the ubiquity conferred upon us by just impressions of . situation and distance, we are lost in amazement and gratitude. his broad divisions of the subject are photometry, reflexion, refraction, the structure of the eye, vision, chromatics, theories of light, and affections of polarized light. it is under the topic of vision that he described how the astigmatism of the cornea could be corrected by a lens "having its surface next to the eye an exact intaglio fac-simile of the irregular cornea." illustrating his perceptive grasp of the contact lens concept is the following footnote, page 398: should any very bad cases of irregular cornea be found, it is worthy of consideration, whether at least a temporary distinct vision could not be procured, by applying in contact with the surface of the eye some transparent animal jelly contained in a spherical capsule of glass; or whether an actual mould of the cornea might not be taken, and impressed on some transparent medium. the operation would, of course, be delicate, but certainly less so than that of cutting open a living eye, and taking out its contents. what is historically remarkable about this highly authoritative and lucid document is its unlikelihood of ever being seen by current scholars and researchers in optics or visual science. old encyclopedias are quite rarely consulted, relatively inaccessible, and perhaps never reprinted even in paperback form. the same searchers are likely not to employ the key work "light" 44 in today's modern electronic information retrieval systems, nor is the document itself likely to be adequately keyed in the system. the words "optical" and "optic" appear infrequently in the body of the massive text, and the term "optics" is not included in its extensive index at all. what may superficially seem to be minor twists of terminology or modest changes of connotation can literally mask whole areas of knowledge, in this instance a contribution that is conceivably the longest and most comprehensive single document on the broad topic of light and its effects. a knight to remember: in october 1849 sir john bennett became a freeman of the worshipful company of spectaclemakers with premises in both cheapside, in the city of london, and in bond street, in the west end. to the world at large, however, he was better known as a goldsmith and clockmaker. the combination career of optics with clockmaking and goldsmithing was not unusual then, all three being prestigious callings. his nonoptical honors included appointment . as goldsmith to queen victoria and the making of the bennett clock which, until recent times, was the largest in the world and now graces the ford foundation at dearborn, michigan, usa. much to sir john's distress, his own son john disappointingly married beneath the family's noble class and was promptly dispatched to the remote colony of new zealand as a remittance man, presumably supported by his father so long as he remained away from english society. the nature of his career, if any, is little known though he is vaguely remembered by his living grandson bromley bennett, a now retired optometrist in napier, new zealand. john's son harold picked up the optometric lineage thread, first by qualifying as a pharmacist, a frequent co-career with optics at that time, and then with his wife traveled to england to study optometry. there, like his grandfather sir john, he gained his diploma and freedom of the worshipful company of spectaclemakers. harold and his wife then spent a year in florence, italy, before returning to new zealand in 1911 to practice optometry and to give birth to their son bromley. " bromley bennett, an inveterate world traveler, is known to many of us personally and had long maintained communication with numerous prominent optometric leaders internationally. immediately following high school, he studied optometry under the then existent apprenticeship curriculum in new zealand. he next went to london to gain his honours diplomas of both the british optical association and the worshipful company of spectaclemakers and, like his father harold, to serve an internship at the london refraction hospital. during the war he served as an officer optometrist in the royal new zealand army medical corps. subsequently, he took 45 over his parents' optometry practice in napier. the lineage continues. bromley's son quentin went to london in 1960 to study optometry and became the first third-generation student at the london refraction hospital and a fourth-generation recipient of the freedom of the worshipful company of spectaclemakers. now in charge of the bennett practice in napier he proudly informs us tha.t since its inception in 1911 it "has always been an upstairs, brass plate practice" of which his "egotistical great-great-grandfather sir john" would have been proud in spite of the intermittent marital malfeasance of his own son john remotely moored at the antipode. history derived from advertisements: the below illustrated symbolic pair of spectacles appeared in the december 31, 1758 issue of the pennsylvania gazette as part of an advertisement of hannah breintnall. it was accompanied by the legend shown below which has been copied in reasonable facsimile by means of a modern typewriter. to retain some of the original printing style, lower-case f's have been substituted for nonterminal s's to resemble the printing of colonial american days. ju!t imported in the ship myrtilla, captain belithe, from lon­ don, and to be fold by h a n n a h b r e i n t n a l l at the sign of the spectacles, in second-!treet, near black­ hor!e alley, a great variety of the fine!t christal spectacles, !et in temple, steel, leather or other frames. likewi!e true venetian green spectacles, for weak or watery eyes, of various sorts. al!o concave spectacles, for !~ort !ighted per­ !ons; magnifying and reading gla!~es; and an a!fortment of large and !mall spy-glaffes and bone microfcopes, with magni­ fying and multiplying glafs, &c. &c. pocket compaf!es of different sizes, &c. ii 10s. tbctf ii i, i i" i l 46 as reported on page 91 of the may 1987 issue of rittenhouse, journal of the american scientific instrument enterprise, vol. 1, no. 3, hannah breintnall (ca. 1707-1770) and her husband john were quakers and members of the philadelphia monthly meeting. john was a whalebone cutter. according to advertisements in the pennsylvania gazette he supplemented his income by selling a variety of imported glasses. after john's death in 1747 hannah continued the business at the sign of the spectacles, advertising new shipments whenever they arrived from london. on pages 61-63 of the same issue of rittenhouse is an article by peggy a. kidwell entitled "james prentice's rectangular protractor". james prentice {1812-1888) was the father of optometrist charles prentice. during the civil war james prentice had added a retail optical store to his business and in his advertisements began to identify himself as an optician. in 1867 he obtained a patent (#61,099) for a pince-nez self-adjustable "to any form of nose with less pressure than any other". he also invented a so-called "anatomical eye­ glass" which was made available in gold, shell, "zylonite" and hard rubber and produced by bausch & lomb and other manufacturers paying royalties to james prentice well into the 1880's. what an "anatomical eye-glass" was is not explained. in 1883 charles joined his father to form the firm of prentice & son. their catalog of that time listed a wide range of optical, meteorological, mathematical, engineering, and drawing instruments, some imported and some made in the prentices's shop. incidentally, author kidwell and rittenhouse editor deborah jean warner are both with the national museum of american history, smithsonian institution, washington, d.c. 20560. the journal publisher's address is p. o. box 367, dracut, massachusetts 01826. editors: " henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 · usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1988-19-04-001 1988-19-04-002 1988-19-04-003 1988-19-04-004 1988-19-04-005 1988-19-04-006 1988-19-04-007 1988-19-04-008 newsletter of the t"~. ~ ., , ...... l. oct 7 l9if1 ./ ~;ptometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. 63119) volume 7 october 1976 number 4 the historical value of your vote: history is made by those who vote. within the last few weeks i happened to have served on three different election committees. in each instance the apparent majority choice of candidate changed several times between the first flurry of ballots received and the finally received ballot. in each of two of the three elections the last received ballot decided the victors! true, this is a bit unusual, but not nearly as unusual as the apathetic nonvoter would like to have us believe. even the president of the united states is usually elected by less than one-fourth of those eligible to vote. from this it is simple arithmetic to derive the fact that he who voted for the winner exercised the equivalent voting strength of more than three citizens. enclosed is your ballot from which to select a member of the executive board of the optometric historical society for a five year term. each of the candidates has been mentioned from time to time in this newsletter. each has special qualifications of value to the society. the choice is yours. correction. the choice is that of those who vote. an ophthalmologist as ~: • in the july-august, 1976, issue of augenoptik, vol. 93, no. 4, pages 110-111 & 116, is an article entitled "uber die geschichte der brille: teil 3" (on the history of spectacles, part 3) by wolfgang munchow. the article is from the history of ophthalmology research collection in the eye clinic of the "heinrich braun" district hospital in zwickau, east germany, where dr. ~dnchow is the medical chief. in this installment munchow makes the case for the invention of spectacles in italy. he also devotes a fair share of the article to an account of the physician-ophthalmologist petrus hispanus of siena, italy, who became pope john xxi on september 15, 1276. his election to this office was based largely on his excellent health (year of birth unknown), as his three successively elected predecessors . . ·•./ had died in the same tragic year of 1276. pope john xxi died on may 20, 1277! -88while in medical practice in siena (about 50 km south of florence) he wrote a textbook on diseases of the eye. though this is "teil 3" (part three), i don't know when and if parts 1 and 2 were published in augenoptik. not in 1976. ophthalmological medals and coins: "ophthalmologische medailen und munzen" is the title of an article by t. gyoerffy of budapest in the january 1975 issue of klinische monatsblmtter fur augenheilkunde und augenarztliche fortbildung, vol. 166, no. 1, pp. 114-125. illustrated are 30 of the author's private collection of 91 medals and coins identified with ophthal­ mologists, or with physicists, physiologists, surgeons, opticians, and others who have made a name in the field of ophthalmology. a few familiar examples are abbe, bausch and lomb, dalton, danders (4), benjamin franklin, gullstrand, helmholtz (3), huygens, kepler, newton (3), pl~ssl, and purkinje (2). copyrighted cartoon advertisements: recently received by the international library, archives & museum of optometry was a thrice folded 35 x 56 em tabloid flier, hand-addressed and mailed to "e.f. sullivan, optometrist, hutchinson, kansas" from magic eye glass cleaners, potts mfg. co., camden, n.j. the paper is very brittle and yellowed with age, bearing a green one cent u.s. postage stamp with a profile view of george washington and a "camden" cancellation mark mostly illegible. the caption for the flier is "copyrighted advertisements for printing." one printed face of the fully opened flier includes 42 advertising blurbs of one to four paragraphs each. the other face includes 36 cartoons, each with accompanying legend. it is not apparent to me whether one could purchase a cut for a chosen blurb or cartoon to run in a local newspaper, or purchase eye glass cleaners @ $1.25 for 100 or $10 for 1,000 with a selected blurb or cartoon as an imprint. the best information we could get about the addressee dr. sullivan was that he was born in 1864 and died at age 89 years. he was listed in the first blue book of optometrists and opticians published in 1912 and in subsequent blue books for the next two decades, with membership indicated in the american optometric association and the kansas optometric association. it seems very likely that the advertisement dates back to about the turn of the century. for your own enjoyment i have rearranged the cartoons to appear in actual size on the next four pages. the blotches are due to old blots of spilled ink on the original document, some of which i was able to eliminate in the copy with opaque white correction fluid. r r bad records can be made by the mouth, but all bad records are not made this way poor sight creates an indolent, tend­ ency, to disobey, an mdination to do wrong, because it is easier we aid a person to see better· feel better, so they can do bette; why do we avoid such places? ~~'"--~u~el 1-~~=w~;. ~ ~=~ !'3 1 0,,.~ s-•o_:"''"("""· ~, trrr~m~m~~z-· (up~, ~nttoi~.;.,,.. ;,. m~m -'yi-r-"tm:j_;. ~ ~"~ ~.~ i b(,)/)e~a~~~~~~s~i-~f :~~~ ~~t4·-:, . i _, .1, , _,, '''i i• ., , 1~ j!" !1 ~~· • ::11 ~: "11 ., ,, i ,· ', ':i ~i:! :;:..."':" .....!:.-----· ...• ; .-...we ' _---;/-i -~-=._ -· _. ,-~ bet'ause they harbor microbes. and patronage means direct contamination. why do we avoid cheap eye glasses? because thev worrr us, causjng a wa~te of strength, and ntality, almo5t as bad as going without glasses. mak­ ing us spend money for medicine and not obtaining any lasting relief -69i .-\ littl~> l··~ j;, .. ,;11 haln t.<'. mahe good. so.ap, but it will nut hel'l to make $1.~ye glasses as lood as $5.· ones. for this reason we do not advertise $5.­ eye glasses tor $1.it is surprising how a few trifles will stir up a commotion; with some people. irntable nerves caused by defect· ire t'yes. \v e pre!'cribeeyeglasses tn obliriate, this irrit~hility. if many young ladies of this town had their choice, we know they would select the first, a pair of our gold mounted tottic l~nsu the joy and happiness is all yours, ~·ithout realizingextra r~spof, pility when equipped with o~ ere glasses. for they make tasks appear easy and heretofore arduous duties accomplished with less fatigue. ~ ~ . .the r~ising of dollars, is not difficult with those who can utilize ~pare moj~ents to improve by read­ mg! study~ng and_ reasoning. ~\hen slightly tired, and troubled \\'ith defertire rision, the goin11 to ~jeep tendency, di!'rourages ~nd rr••ilte•._ i _r:u_t't r)•l it fet'lin!!. tn d"lt•r th1~ llldl~l"•~ili"n, l'on~nlt n• there are two kinds of~~~ sickness both effect a person about the same way. we remedy the see sickness and the other can be avoided. when choosing coi"lpany, which would you prefer? please notice the difference is in sight. one see1., nearly everything, and is alert, the otl1~r doesn't see much and is dull. .. aslf'ore'• before consulti,,g an optician, will cause burning nes, headache, and · general dissatisfadion. for invariably the glasses will not be the proper focus, nor of corf•:rt adju::r.t. '1. -70ptof~und thought oft~n originates grand tdeas, that would materialize if not marred with contingencies. to gee & aroid minor continu:encies u~e our eye glasses. · . allow me to introduce a charm· mg: subj.ect; the possession of whtch bnn~s unspeakable joy. we refer particularly to our toric and inrisihle bifocal lens ..• .-\ ivertis~ill.!ilts for printing magic eye glass oleanen $1.25 per 100 $10.· per 1000 potts mfg. co. n.j. damp wt:ather effects eye glasses dirry handkerchiefs smear them ("his cleaner restores the ori~t­ •nal polish. we do our own grinding and can duplicate any broken lens on snort not1ce how .\.h~ \:'hu? hn w no yu 1· "'e j.; 1.? ~n easy street. is the expres­ sion of many of our customers try our eye glasess for the easy ~treet effect. · i j~. :-io j-~asl' 'j'o · i '/1' ,,, walk over difficulties when a person sees the war. when using our eye glasses. !,[loom and disappointment are not apparent; custonwrs seeing the rlear war. wohki~i; 0\'jo:h tdjjo:is not necessary. our eye glasses improve vision, which quickens perception, makes thinking ea~1er and leaves time for enjoyment. -71before usingour eye glasses after us.ing our eye glasses. : . /·1 f·' we ·are all chasing after it and throu£rh improved vision many are gettir!g more of them. please ca11. the u~ of eye ulasses often assures our wstomers a greater efficiency t:;/~ ~~~~'· l~ '6'""1!;· . . . . t;j l • i· , ! .:..-~-~~'i, .. o ~ !;, i:"";}.... \cj~ ' [.· i ' 'u' 'l· 'l\ ~i r.e; '·;.~ ·?;.~ .. :: ~ ~ !; , ., \:" 'c: r -~;!f. . . . ..t~l !,·, ,_j -==·~, -~-· j~. o·;.'•ij1j' t,.;_,p ~,.-jt~~~ the leading man is conspicuous on most occasions. using eye glasses show progressionand the sanng of vital force. so essential for success. which is preferable¥ one gallon of this? or a pair of our eye glasses. both same price. both same effect. this for one month, with a head­ ache between. drinks, or our eye glasses, which often last two years, and leave no re­ action; such as headache. llont stop and think jnin n.; <1nd hi_•ar the adr:111tao·p!' oi onr toric and invisible bifocal lens a !so our soeasy eye glasses o11 and off with oiil' hand · buerrything optical -72'j'o oet .\ •ii e.\j) is the ambition of all creation. there are various ways. we aid our customers to see the nice ways. confusion, causes mishaps in many and various ways'. the. better we see, the more we avoid, unpleasant occura:~.ces. for betttlr seeing, see. uiscardecl. xot ~atisfactorv. after finding relief by using are not our eye glasses. our rustomer~ realize, we . ..---. taking in a great profit on each sale. so every article sold is 1-ure to be worth the price. .\n opening for a uood man. come and s~e us, we can hell' to stay the ttme. the ine\"itallle \rill happpn. wp, 1or rip lnincr 1 hi· 1illlt'. . .. ~l ~ ..-.r .. , ¥ .'l f' l-,, ~-;;: ~.ll't,l•·.·.· ~~l.:.' a false step has caused the ma­ jority of accidents. we aid you to see. to get a head, better than a cabbage head, we !llust see well. seeing is the commencement of all things. to see weli helps to do well. to be :-;uited is the reason they come w ns for t•ye !,!la~ses . correct gla~ses .gnaranteetl. by degrees the public has leumt the advantage~ of using our eye glasses. :\:>surmg future patrons of the ~arne pro•t efficient serrir -73william d. zoethout, (1872-19??): o.h.s. vice-president henry a. knoll studied professor zoethout's book on physiological optics while a student in optics at the university of rochester. it was dr. knoll's introduction to the field of physio­ logical optics, in which he himself later obtained the ph.d. degree. so it is no surprise that he is now trying to find out more about zoethout. from an article entitled "honors to dr. zoethout" in the july 1944 issue of the bur, vol. 44, no. 2, pages 51-54, a publication of the alumni association of the chicago college of dental surgery, he learned that dr. zoethout was born in birdaard, holland, in 1872, and came to this country at the age of nine. he obtained his bachelor of arts degree from hope college at holland, michigan, in 1893. in 1898 he was granted the doctor of philosophy degree in physiology by the university of chicago. in 1912 he joined the faculty of the chicago college of dental surgery and remained there 32 years. on april 26, 1944, almost 300 guests attended a testimonial banquet at the lake shore club, chicago, in his honor on the occasion of his retirement. his "textbook of physiology" (3rd edition in 1928) was intended for students in dental, pharmacy, and normal schools. as the author he identified himself as "professor of physiology in the chicago college of dental surgery (loyola university) and in the chicago normal school of physical education." but he also wrote a book entitled "physiological optics," the fourth edition of which appeared in 1947. it was published by the professional press, chicago, as was also the 2nd edition in 1935, and presumably also the first and third editions, which i have not seen. in this book he did not identify his academic position, nor did he suggest that the book was intended primarily for optometry students, though i know he taught part-time for many years at the northern illinois college of optometry. all of the graduates of n.i.c.o. during more than a decade prior to world war ii learned their physiological optics from zoethout. how, asks dr. knoll, did dr. zoethout happen to become interested in physiological optics? he requests any information you may have or remember, especially if you were one of zoethout's students. one clue i have picked up comes from his preface to half of a book entitled "anatomy and physiology of the eye" by earl j. brown and wm. d. zoethout, published by hazlitt & walker, chicago, 1906. the second half of the book dealt with the physiology of the eye and was written by zoethout. said zoethout, "these lectures, ••• , were delivered before the chicago optical society." this makes it reasonably clear that his early interest in the eye was prompted by an invitation to give a course to a group of chicago optometrists! in the 1906 book he identified himself as "professor of physiology in the jenner medical college and at the bennet college of eclectic medicine, chicago." -74book review ex_ knoll: thinkers and tinkers: early american men of science, silvio a. bedini, charles scribner's sons, new york, 1975. 520 p. illus. cloth. $17.50. this is a delightfully written account of the "mathematical practi­ tioners" who played an important role in the settlement and development of this country. it covers the period of history while spectacles were still being imported from europe, so all you eyeglass buffs will find virtually nothing here about specs or glasses. on the other hand it sets the background for the introduction of optical manufacturing about the middle of the nineteenth century. more importantly it stands on its own as a fascinating story about a group of clever and energetic men who literally shaped this nation. map makers, surveyors, navigators, mathematical instrument makers, and teachers of science are the "mathematical practitioners" herein referred to. these men and their students swarmed all over this land and charted its islands, coasts, and waterways with instruments so crude that we might discard them as so much junk. among the 102 illustrations is a map drawn between 1585 and 1587 (almost 400 years ago!) of the atlantic coast from chesapeake bay to cape lookout. i happen to be the proud owner of a satellite photograph of this region and the 16th century map is astoundingly accurate in its detail. these men laid out our cities and established the familiar outlines of the eastern states; mason and dixon among them. surveyors often learned from navigators; some of them had been men of the sea. others learned by attending night school yes, night school! i never dreamed there were night schools before electricity. still others were self taught, studying such texts as "geodaesia, or the art of surveying and measuring of land made easie" get that made easie! published in 1688! this is not turning out to be a critical review but rather a rave notice. i must admit that i find it difficult to be objective about a book which is filled (for me at least) with surprises and colorful anecdotes about the basics of establishing a new country and a new culture. the author, silvio a. bedini, was born in connecticut, studied at columbia univeristy and now serves as the deputy director of the national museum of history and technology of the smithsonian institution in washington, d.c. the text is divided into four parts: settlement, development, revolution, and nationhood. approximately twenty-five illustrations precede each of the four parts showing examples of the "mathematical practitioners" art. also shown are portraits of the practitioners. the pages on which the illustrations appear are not numbered a minor irritation when trying to locate a desired illustration. -75navigators and map makers dominate the first part. surveyors come into their own during the development of the eastern colonies, as do the instrument makers. moving around in those days required a compass, and there was need for many pocket versions. because all of the practitioners were in short supply, new blood was added through apprenticeships and the aforementioned night schools. during the development period almanacs also became a very useful item and these were often compiled by these mathematically experienced practitioners. when war with england became inevitable, the colonists quickly recruited their own experts to help in the science and art of gunnery and the construction of fortifications. hand telescopes were also much needed by the officers and these were borrowed from the homes of colonists who had brought them to this country from europe principally england. after the war there was a renewed interest in things scientific and the colonists welcomed back their telescopes, bought new ones (still imported) and looked toward the next lecture on astronomy to be given at the church or town hall. expansion to the west absorbed the men who had been engaged in military matters to survey and map the new regions being settled. for the serious historian mr. bedini has included extensive reference notes. for the novice he has included a glossary. for example, dialing was one of the arts of the period. "dialing. art of constructing any instrument portable or fixed, which determines the divisions of the day by the shadow of some object or part upon which the sun's rays fall." the beautifully bound book is capped by an excellent index. try it you'll like it! henry a. knoll suitable for framing: two 18" x 24" (46 x 61 em) charts on matte paper and in antique­ appearing colors depict 600 years of eyeglasses. the chart entitled "eye glasses of old" shows 25 items with brief comments. the chart entitled, "through the ages ••• " shows 30 items, also with comments. both are available from better vision institute, inc., 230 park avenue, new york, ny 10017 at $2.00 each for members, or $4.00 each for non-members, of the better vision institute. -76ii • give me liberty, . . or give me death." said patrick henry (1736-1799} at about the time he was 39, approaching presbyopia. an oil-on-canvas portrait, copied from a miniature by thomas sully in 1815, suggests that mr. henry may have had second thoughts about this remark. his pensive look is accentuated by his spectacles pushed up well above his forehead. the portrait, from the colonial williamsburg collection, williamsburg, virginia, hangs in the capitol's joint committee room. picture postcard copies of the portrait are sold at colonial williamsburg, reports henry knoll. oh say, could they~: a special feature in the august 1976 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 47, no. 8, pp. 1017-1040,:is-a:d article entitled "the eyes of liberty" by sidney groffman. dr. groffman has brought together the portraits, quotes, legends, illustrations, paintings, and citations involving the eyes, vision, and spectacles of persons and personalities of the revolutionary era, circa 1776. franklin, paul revere, patrick henry, jefferson, washington, john adams, aaron burr, john marshall, charles peale, lord cornwallis, moses brown, gabriel ludlow, martha barnes, timothy matlock, james wilson, william ellery, john trumbull, benjamin rush, john cuff, and george adams are among those mentioned. it makes delightful reading and is thoroughly illustrated, with 34 references. science of seeing: o.h.s. member d.g. hummel, o.d., reports that he is gradually placing his "old" books in optometry college libraries, having already donated to four. coming across his copy of matthew luckiesh's 1922 edition of "visual illusions and their applications" he was prompted to comment, "i rarely see in print any appreciation of what had been done (by luckiesh} for optometry. luckiesh and moss, of my knowledge, pushed optometry to the point of interest and acceptance by other disciplines." dr. matthew luckiesh (1889-1967} was a physicist and electrical engineer long identified with the nela research laboratories of the general elective company, author of numerous books, and recipient of the gold medal of the distinguished service foundation of optometry among many other forms of recognition and honor. frank k. moss (1898-1943} was also identified with visual research at nela, author of numerous research publications, a member of the american academy of optometry, and a lieutenant commander in the u.s. navy at the time -77of his death. "luckiesh and moss" became a familiar byword in visual science circles. as a team they popularized the "science of seeing" concept and commanded the attention of scientists and practitioners from many disciplines. dr. hummel and several of his optometric colleagues in cleveland, ohio, were very cooperatively involved in the luckiesh and moss research activities in the late 30's and early 40's. i remember these details from the fortunate two or three weeks i spent in the associated optometric offices of drs. richard hall, eugene higgins, and daniel hummel shortly after i graduated from the ohio state university school of optometry in 1939. two brief biographies details of some of the work, interests, and activities of joseph priestley smith (1845-1933) and albert edward turville (1890-1965) were displayed in a small commemorative exhibition in the main building of the university of aston in birmingham, england, december 8th to 12th, 1975. to supplement the exhibition the university's department of ophthalmic optics published a booklet containing a photograph and brief biography of each. the smith biography was prepared by a.g. sabel!, and that of turville by g.v. ball. presumably a complimentary copy may be obtained merely by writing to professor g.v. ball, department of ophthalmic optics, the university of aston, gosta green, birmingham b4 7et, england. early schools? o.h.s. member elizabeth egan asks if we have a list of early schools of optometry or optics and their dates of operation. dr. charles sheard, in an article entitled "optometric education and professional advancement" reported 60, yes 60, schools in the u.s.a. during the period 1872-1901, 42 in the period 1901-1914, 36 in 1914-1922, and 30 in 1922-1926. this was in the november 5, 1942, issue of the optometric weekly, pp. 1085-1089. in a survey of 12,534 practicing optometrists in 1944 conducted under the auspices of the american optometric association the respondents named 21 schools from which they had graduated. the survey results were reported in an extremely limited number of copies entitled "graphic analysis of national optometric survey." the 21 schools are listed on page 296 of my 1948 book optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects, reprinted in 1964 by the american optometric association, st. louis. i now know it to be a very incomplete and inaccurate list. -78who's in who's who? o.h.s. member antonio pacheco, o.d., has distributed his sept­ ember 1, 1976, report of his search for optometrists and native puerto ricans in the 1976-77 bicentennial edition of who's who in america and in the 14th editions of the four regional who's who directories. out of the over 70,000 biographies in the bicentennial edition he found 63 puerto ricans and 16 optometrists. the number of opto­ metrist entries had increased by 33 1/3% over the number in the previous edition, 1974-75. the total number of optometrists in the four regional who's who directories was 329. knowles' encyclopedia-dictionary: our o.h.s. vice president henry a. knoll, ph.d., commented as follows in a letter to me last april. "while browsing through our collection of old books i came across the following, 'encyclopedia-dictionary and reference handbook of the ophthalmic sciences' by r.h. knowles, m.d., published by the jeweler's circular publishing co., new york city, 1903. "the volume first attracted my attention because of the author. i recognized r.h. knowles, m.d., as one of the medical men who supported the optometry bill here in the state of new york. charles prentice mentions his name several times (pp. 41, 72, 78, and 376). it is of special interest to note that among the brief biographies included in the encyclopedia­ dictionary one finds an entry for andrew jay cross, but none for charles f. prentice! "would this be the earliest dictionary of visual science? i am not aware of an earlier dictionary in this field. "there are many interesting items in the dictionary, e.g., 'optistone who is skilled in optometry.' opticist is not included. 'optometrythe science and art of employing the various methods for measuring the range of vision, as to color, static and dynamic refraction, form, the various positions assumed by the eyeball, the field and light. optometry is therefore divided under six headings. 1. chromoptometry, 2. dioptometry, 3. eidoptometry, 4. ophthalmortatometry (sic), 5. perioptometry, and 6. photoptometry.' i believe 4. should read ophthalmotropometry, which is defined in terms of 'the various directions the eye takes in making its several revolutions.' -79"note that nothing is said about prescribing, but then pre­ scribing is not mentioned under ophthalmology either. "finally let me mention 'scopistry a dark room employed for the purpose of making an examination of the eye.' i like that better than operatory!" joseph zentmayer, 1826-1888: joseph zentmayer was born in mannheim, baden, germany, and served his apprenticeship with an optician there. he later associated himself with optical establishments in karlsruhe, frankfurt, munich, and hamburg, germany. at the age of 22 he came to the united states and for "five years he nobly fought his battle of wage-earning in some of the best optical establishments in baltimore, washington, and philadelphia." his contribution of optical lens and instrumental design and manufacture won him almost innumerable awards, medals, and citations. throughout his years of fame he proudly styled himself simply as an "optician." his portrait and a seven page obituary notice, prepared by charles a. oliver, m.d., appear in the january 15, 1894, proceedings of the american philosophical society, vol. 31, no. 142, pp. 358-364. it would be difficult to find a more glowing tribute to anyone else anywhere. zentmayer died in 1888. wisconsin optometry, 1900-1950: an announcement in the may/june issue of the journal of the wisconsin optometric association, p. 6, mentioned a booklet compiled in 1950 by earle w. johnson covering fifty years of optometry in wisconsin. announced also were current plans to compile the history of the subsequent 25 years. an inquiry to harvey l. hougen, o.d. (retired), historian for the wisconsin optometric association, brought a prompt response plus, a little later, a copy of the 1950 booklet from the w.o.a. offices. the title of the 40 page, paper covered, 14 x 21 em booklet is "50 years of optometry in wisconsin." contributors of reminiscent chapters and historical accounts include drs. joseph scholler, m.w. haack, eldred h. jensen, a.n. abbott, a.a. lueck, harry j. bylan, d.b. fast, ray m. johnson, anita eberl, n.e.w. lenz, charles s. imig, peter 0. fox, m.c. cress, earle w. johnson, and mr. leo h. noh!. from the booklet we learn that the wisconsin optometric association was originally chartered as the "wisconsin state optical society," that margaret thomas "started an optometry school in milwaukee which proved very successful. •• ", and many other fascinating tidbits. -80the wright library: a speech of tribute to frederick wright (1882-1932) & charles wright (ca. 1912-) by arthur h. ley at the formal dedication of the wright library, 29th october, 1975, appeared in the november 1975 issue of the australian journal of optometry. an inquiry to damien p. smith, ph.d., executive director of the australian optometrical association, 611 st. kilda road, melbourne, victoria, 3004, australia, brought the following supplementary information in a letter dated 2nd. august, 1976: "for some time, there had been discussion amongst some of us that the contribution made by charles wright should be formally and permanently honoured. to some extent charles .has been a leadership 'bridesmaid', being passed over (by oversight really) for national presidency, a post that he considers the pinnacle of professional achievement and recognition. charles also speaks constantly of the contri­ bution made by his father frederick wright, and of the fact that frederick was prematurely killed by the rigours of the leadership role he played. "since my arrival at the australian optometrical association in 1973 i have gradually nurtured the nucleus of a small library. indeed, it was perhaps my favourite objective. i suggested to national council that it should honour charles and his father by naming the embryo library in their honour. the suggestion was taken up, and in october 1975, the wright library of the association was formally dedicated by sir mark oliphant, governor of south australia. arthur ley read a speech of tribute at the dedication ceremony, and i enclose a photocopy of that speech as it was published in the australian journal of optometry. "i do not envisage that the wright library will become a true library of visual science. currently it subscribes to the major optometrical and ophthalmological journals, and receives a host of professional, public health and govern­ ment bulletins. it has a minimal text book holding, and the majority of titles are annual reports and technical reports of australian and overseas government and non-government bodies. most of these deal with health insurance and health services and planning, education of optometrists and health professionals, and directories. you will appreciate that with the excellent library of the victorian college of optometry so close, it would be wasteful to attempt to build a similar holding. instead, i intend that it will provide a unique resource library for the proper administrative, political, educational and professional needs of the association. "as part of the programme, i am pleading with the profession to send in their old journals, bound or unbound, of any -81vintage or condition. i intend to compile these into bound holdings for the library, and to catalogue and store duplicates for donation to the libraries of new schools of optometry. i am pleased to be able to say that just yesterday the library was outfitted with new timber shelving. "i must also acknowledge the great generosity of the international library, archives and museum of optometry which has now provided me with boxes and boxes of its reserves of duplicates. unfortunately, many of these are incomplete sets; there is nothing more heartbreaking than a volume of a journal complete but for one number. nevertheless, i have been .able to fill gaps, to the extent that i have already bound the journal of the american optometric association from 1959 and the american journal of optometry and physiolo­ gical optics from 1961. "you asked for a brief account and i hope that the above is adequate. if i may plug the cause, i am continually on the lookout for fresh donations. thus, if any of your colleagues have texts of journals that are no longer needed, i will be thrilled to receive them. the association will meet the costs of freight by dispatching a bank draft to the value of the postage. "oddly, this 'historical' account has turned into a description of current aims and future needs!" having met mr. & mrs. charles wright on several occasions, including a visit to their home in adelaide, i cannot refrain from adding a personal note about this very charming as well as dedicated couple. whether philosophizing, giving a witty after dinner speech, preparing a sophisticated document on professional ethics, teaching a course in physiological optics, organizing the business of a conference, handpainting certificates of appreciation, indulging in award winning sculpture, handcrafting jewels of office, restoring another and another vintage rolls-royce car, tracking down an archival detail, or practicing classic optometry in perhaps the most professional setting in the world, charles wright, a man of pleasingly modest demeanour, is the pride of australian optometrists. another optometrist memorialized: persons who contribute $2,500 annually to the independence fund of the southern california college of optometry, 2001 associated road, fullerton, california 92631, are designated ernest a. hutchinson fellows. dr. hutchinson was for many years the dean and later the presi­ dent of the college, known during his time as, successively, the los angeles school of optometry and the los angeles college of optometry. the fact that raising funds for the school was one of dr. hutchinson's major problems and one of his major accomplishments makes this memorial identification particularly apt. -82serial sacrosanctity the 1976 issues of the east german periodical augenoptik are identified as volume 93. simple arithmetic suggests that vol. 1 therefore must have been published in 1884. this may be the reason that the origin of augenoptik in ulrich's international periodicals directory, 11th edition, 1975-76, is shown as 1884! in spite of the faith some of us would like to have in the volume numbering of journals, this reasoning is not correct. a routine search into various union lists of serial publications and into various directories of periodicals for the publication history of augenoptik, a rather good journal incidentally, can be most frustrating. it happens to be an east german publication, and so far as i can deter­ mine, no single "western" library has a complete set of the presumably 92 previous volumes plus the current issues of vol. 93. the various directory and union list entries of scattered holdings and title variations (at least eight) are at best the elements of a librarian's nightmare. but the numbering of the volumes through all of the title variations, mergers, and divisions remained sacred, except for a four year numerical lapse during the last years of and immediately following world war ii. here, then, is the chronology. vol. 1 of central-zeitung fur optik und mechanik, sometimes spelled zentral••• , was published in leipzig in 1880, and continued so through vol. 15 in 1894. from 1895, vol. 16, to february 11, 1934, starting vol. 55, it was published in berlin. on that date it was merged with the deutsche optische wochenschrift which was in its 20th volume~ the combined periodical was called deutsche optische wochenschrift und central-zeitung fur optik und mechanik and given the volume number of the older serial, vol. 55. at some time during 1943, perhaps at the end of the calendar year, during or at the completion of vol. 64, the serial combined further with at least two, and perhaps three, other journals (optische rundschau und photo-opt·iker, deutsche photo-zeitung, and deutsche optiker-zeitung) to form optik, published in weimar. i have not determined what volume numbering, if any, was applied to optik, but it evidently was not a continuation into vol. 65. a year or two later (ca. 1945-46) optik was retitled nachrichtenblatt fur das optiker-handwerk and continued so through 1947. in 1948 the deutsche optische wochenschrift und central­ zeitung fur optik und mechanik re-established itself as vol. 65, continuing the volume numbering where it had left off four years earlier! in 1952 the title was changed to monatschrift fur feinmechanik und optik, but the old serial numbering was continued as vol. 69, through vol. 80 in 1963. beginning with the january 1964 issue the monatschrift ••• split into two journals, uhren und schmuck and augenoptik, with the latter inheriting the volume number 81 and the former presumably starting numerically anew. as stated in my opening sentence, the augenoptik issues of the current year, 1976, are vol. 93. l ' -83surely it could have been serial numbering rather than the river that tennyson was speaking for when he wrote, "for men may come and men may go, but i go on for ever." origins of optometry "the evolution of the ophthalmic optics practitioner" is the title of a three part article in the optician (london), vol. 168, nos. 4346, 4347, and 4348, aug. 30 {pp. 4, 6, 8), sept. 6 {pp. 4, 6) and sept. 13 (pp. 15, 17, 22), 1974, by mr. montague ruben, f.r.c.s. of moorfield's eye hospital. it was originally delivered at the glasgow college of technology as the champness lecture organized by the "spectacle makers company" (which i presume to be the worshipful company of spectacle makers). a few passages will convey the interesting and delightful tenor of the paper, as follows: "the earliest optical practitioners in this country were often monks and associated workers. the english monk roger bacon (1214-1292) was often associated in the 17th and 18th centuries with optician shop signs and trade sales cards in the same way as were archimedes and isaac newton." "from this time (the 15th century) the spectacle makers and opticians were associated with grocers, apothecaries, cordwainers, goldsmiths, barbers, surgeons, and all crafts­ men held in high esteem by the community." "by act of parliament in 1858 certified apothecaries became doctors." "adam (18th century), optician to the prince of wales and mathematical instrument maker to h.m. george iii, was probably the first optician to write an authoritative scientific text on the eye, vision and its correction. it was, however, intended for the patient." " ••• world astronomers call two stars of the bear constellation alcor and mizar. but in persia the star alcor is called saideh (test) because the angle subtended by the two stars is 11 1 48" and could be used as a sight test. • •• those able to give the correct answer were recruited for the army" cordwainers, incidentally, are shoemakers, but the above-mentioned adam is new to me. any helpful lead from a reader will be appreciated. the ursa major acuity screening test impresses me as a bit incredible. presumably the persian army did its recruiting at night. -84isaac heilprin, 1827-1900: isaac heilprin prescribed glasses for abraham lincoln, andrew johnson, rutherford b. hayes, chester a. arthur, robert ingersoll, bret harte, walt whitman, james g. blaine, carl sumner, carl schurz, ambassador bryce, s.p. langley, grace greenwood, simon newcomb, champ clark, senator bayard, general grant, mckinley, senator thurman, grover cleveland, benjamin harrison, theodore roosevelt, tom reed, li hung chang, taft, bob evans, admiral dewey, admiral peary, justice field, admiral schley, general meade, general sampson, alexander graham bell, and many others of national and international fame. this information is in an article by f. romer entitled "when 'opticians' examined eyes with little equipment" in the june 15, 1933, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 70, no. 12, pp. 58-61. this 148 page issue, incidentally, connnemorated a "century of pro­ gress," as did the famous chicago exposition the same year. more than a dozen historical articles, and even the advertisements, provide many details about our heritage. the ophthalmoscope: german ophthalmologists credit the invention and design of the reflex-free ophthalmoscope and several other clinical ophthalmological instruments to walter thorner (1874-1948). memories of dr. thorner are recited in an article entitled "erinnerungen an walter thorner" by t. graff in augenspiegel, vol. 20, no. 10, oct. 1974, pp. 468-476. in the december issue of the same journal, no. 12, p. 515, is a com­ mentary on the article by h. sachtleben entitled, "nachtrag zu 'erin­ nerungen an walter thorner'" the history of arising of ophthalmoscopy is the translated title of an article by s.g. magilnitsky in oftal'mologicheskii zhurnal, vol. 29, no. 4, 1974, pp. 313-315. sorry, i have not read it, nor do i expect to do so. phoropters: "zur entwicklung des phoropters" (on the development of the phoropter) by t. von haugwitz and f. mehlhose, appeared in the november 1974 issue of augenspiegel, vol. 20, no. 11, pp. 558-566. about carl pulfrich (1858-1927): in a two page "historical note" authors michael j. morgan and peter thompson remind us that pulfrich was not the first to describe the stereophenomenon that bears his name, that he never could observe it, as he was blind in one eye, and that his brilliant attempt to -85apply the phenomenon in heterochromatic brightness matching is now generally regarded as erroneous. they also point out that pulfrich did not take credit for discovering or seeing the effect, but that he did indeed research it thoroughly. the commentary is an addendum to the authors' article entitled "apparent motion and the pulfrich effect" in perception, vol. 4, no. 1, 1975, pp. 3-18. another article similarly entitled "some historical notes on carl pulfrich" by susan christianson and h.w. hofstetter appeared in the november 1972 issue of the american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of optometry, vol. 49, no. 11, pp. 944-947. leonardo da vinci (1452-1519): "leonardo da vinci, ophthalmic scientist" is the title of a series of four articles which appear in four successive issues of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 16, nos. 9 -12, may 1, 15 & 29 and june 12, pp. 393-398, 447-452, 492-497, & 536-541. the personal interest of the author, walter gasson, in leonardo's contributions has extended over many years. this paper is an attempt to identify those items which are related to visual science. it is a follow-up of the thesis entitled "classical and medieval ophthalmic science" which the author completed in october, 1970. briefly reviewed: nordmann, jean, "the eye department of the medical school of the university of strasbourg, 1919-1945," survey of ophthalmology, vol. 19, no. 5, march/april, 1975, pp. 293-301. the author, chairman of the ophthalmology department from 1946 to 1969, reviews the post­ armistice (1919) history of the department in relation to the per­ sonalities and achievements of his three predecessors, camille duverger from 1919 to 1924, georges weill from 1924 to 1937, and edmond redslob from 1937 to 1946. recounting his own experiences as an interne under duverger the author reports, "but before having contact with the in-patients and before being admitted to the operating room, one had first to learn during many long months how to prescribe a proper pair of glasses. in my case this period of purgatory was reduced to five months, since i had spent a year in general surgery prior to joining the eye department as an assistant." fraser, ian c., "the oxford ophthalmological congress," survey of ophthalmology, vol. 19, no. 6, may/june, 1975, pp. 385-389. the annual congress started as an informal meeting in 1904, continued annually so, and was formally constituted in 1909. bangerter, alfred, "mein lieber freund curt clippers" (my dear friend curt cuppers), and sevrin, g., "20 jahre freundschaft durch -86die amblyopie und den strabismus" (a 20 year friendship through amblyopia and strabismus) are two successive articles on pages 153-155 and 155-157 respectively of klinische monatsblatten fur augenheilkunde und augen­ arztliche fortbildung, vol. 167, no. 2, august, 1975, in recognition of the 65th birthday anniversary of curt cuppers of orthoptic and pleoptic fame. smith, william, "the genesis of orthoptics as a basis for pro­ cedure," optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 112, no. 5, march 1, 1975, pages 11-14 & 16. this is essentially an account of the author's own career experiences in orthoptics. for example, "orthoptics, as a separate training procedure, did not reach the optometry school curriculum until the end of the 1930's. 'visual training' is even a later spin-off of this modality·." apparently smith never read the widely used optometry school text of the beginning of the century, c.h. brown's, "the optician's manual," vol. 2, 1902, philadelphia, or m. j. revell's "strabismus: a history of orthoptic techniques," british optical associ­ ation, london, 1971. i recall well that when i was an optometry student in 1937 there were some old orthoptic instruments in the clinic which were already museum pieces. to quote smith further, "paucity in citing sources of early investigations is one of the sins of which optometric writers are guilty. this applies not only to omitting biographical sources and references, but also to the depth to which it is carried out." he cites no references. rentsch, werner, "augenlicht" (eyesight, or vision), suddeutsche optikerzeitung, vol. 29, 1974, no. 3, march, pages 196, 198, & 200; no. 5, may, pages 348, 350, 351, & 354; no. 8, august, pages 562, 564, 566, & 567; no. 10, october, pages 736, 738, 740 & 744. this is another extensive historical series by rentsch with emphasis on visual science. many illustrations and references. wessing, a., "filmaufnahmen vom augenhintergrund und fluorescenz­ angiographie. i. historische tlbersicht" (cinematography of the ocular fundus and fluorescein angiography. i. historical review) albrecht ~ graefes archiv fur klinische und experimentelle ophthalmologie, vol. 192, no. 3, 1974, pages 227-233. deals with the young history of fundus cinematography from the early experiments reported by j.l. pavia in 1933 to fluorescein-angiography with high speed cinematography. 44 references. storey, j.k., "the ophthalmic optician and his tonometer," optician (london), vol. 169, no. 4379, april 25, 1975, pages 4, 6, & 8. the author finds that ophthalmic optician h.b. marton of manchester used an aneroid tonometer in 1932, but infrequently. he names "donders and hamer (1853)" as having introduced an indentation tonometer. the article ends with, "to be continued," but i was unable to locate a continuation in about 25 subsequent issues, so i cannot cite a reference to the donders and hamer article. i i i l i 1 l l l -87brailliart, j.p., "un bicentenaire meconnu: !'extraction totale (an overlooked 200th anniversary: the total cataract extraction), annales d'oculistique, vol. 208, no. 4, april 1975, pp. 297-300. roy, p.n., k.s. mehra, and p.j. deshpande, "cataract surgery performed before 800 b.c.," british journal pf pphthalmology, vol. 59, no. 3, march 1975, page 171. "the general belief that the technique of cataract extraction in india in the sushruta period (300 b.c.) was couching is no longer tenable. a study of the original text suggests that the method was more closely allied to the extracapsular extraction of recent times." sad but true: just how many people are there in this world who have even a passing interest in optometric history? the several of us who organized the optometric historical society believed the number was small, but we could not be sure how small. some of us already knew that articles of historical interest in optometric periodicals were not popular with the editors, who seemed to know that such articles were not popular with their readers. those of us who had tried to nurture optometric museum collections and archives also were aware of the generally prevailing apathy among the professional practitioners. we who teach in optometry schools are aware that history courses rank well below foreign language courses and the other social sciences and the humanities as elective choices. nevertheless, within a few months after this society was announced in a few optometric periodicals we acquired a membership of over a hundred. in the subsequent years this membership has not doupled, though the increasing representation from around the globe has been almost phenomenal. i like to believe that since our founding we have stimulated a higher frequency of historical articles in the various optometric periodicals and a greater concern for museum and archival collections of optometricana at numerous centers. but is the rank-and-file optometrist showing any greater interest in his professional heritage? over the past few years a few of us have kept a supply of little blue slips of paper inviting "anyone interested" to join the society. it reads as follows: "does optometry's history fascinate you? would you like to get involved in discovering optometry's heritage? does the o.h.s. newsletter sound interesting? do you wish the names and addresses of other optometric history buffs? are there any other reasons you would like to join us? ------------· ----88<. "if so, this is your invitation. anyone is eligible, and membership is only $5.00 per year. just send your name and address and a five dollar check to: "the optometric historical society 7000 chippewa street st. louis, missouri, u.s.a. 6311911 an occasional handing of one of these invitations to a friend or colleague, or inserting one with a letter that happened to be going to a friend who could be interested, brought in an occasional new member. in my own experience i would guess that i obtained close to a 20% response. i presumed, of course, that most of the favorable responses were due to the personal touch of this· technique. last april, however, i put the question to an impersonal kind of numerical test. a total of 500 copies of the invitation were printed on a brilliant orange colored paper and inserted with a monthly mailing of memoranda, news items, and communiques from the headquarters of the indiana optometric association to all of its members. it was the only orange colored sheet in the 12 sheet packet. these packets are perused quite carefully, we know, as many of the enclosed items are often of critical importance to the individual optometrist. the response? during the subsequent two and a half months the total number of new members obtained from this mailing was one. not two, not 10, not 100. only ~· this means that we still have "a long row to hoe." i do not believe we want to ask people to join out of courtesy or as a favor. what we want is a genuine interest in optometry's heritage and history •. it was santayana (1863-1952) who said, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." within the span of my own career i have observed several such self-condemnations by the optometry profession. must it always be so? h.w. hofstetter, editor 1976-07-04-001 1976-07-04-002 1976-07-04-003 1976-07-04-004 1976-07-04-005 1976-07-04-006 1976-07-04-007 1976-07-04-008 1976-07-04-009 1976-07-04-010 1976-07-04-011 1976-07-04-012 1976-07-04-013 1976-07-04-014 1976-07-04-015 1976-07-04-016 1976-07-04-017 1976-07-04-018 1976-07-04-019 1976-07-04-020 1976-07-04-021 1976-07-04-022 hindsight _,-', ... journal of optometry history january,2008 volume 39, number 1 official publication of the optometric historical society feb 2 6 l008 optometry ubrafiy hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and boa.rd of trustees of the optometric historical society: president: melvin wolfberg, 3095 buckinghammock trl., vero beach fl 32960-4968, ilovesylvan@bellsouth.net vice-president: jerome j. abrams secretary-treasurer: ·1.· bridget kowalczyk, american optometric association, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org j trustees: ~ l walter w. chase .~ jay m. enoch ~ chuck haine ·j douglas k. penisten ) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. ~ ~ \1 ·\ ·~ ~ j ~ ~ l on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an ~ elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s f a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. l the drawing artist was diane goss. l ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html ~~ hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2008 volume 39, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 7 4464, penisten@nsuok.edu. table of contents glenn a. fry medal acceptance, november 16, 2007, jay m. enoch ......................... 2 archives for the study of the history of health care: a literature review, david a. goss ............................................................................................................ 7 book review: kepler's witch: an astronomer's discovery of .cosmic order amid religious war, political intrigue, and the heresy trial of his mother, david a. goss .... 17 book review: an eye for painting, david a. goss ................................................ 19 miscellany, david a. goss .............................................................................. 21 instructions to authors ................................................................................... 24 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 1 feb 2 6 2008 optometry library glenn a. fry medal acceptance, november 16, 2007 jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, university of california at berkeley, school of optometry (mc 2020), berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu dean melvin shipp, members of the faculty, students, guests, ladies and gentlemen: thank you so very much for this very fine and distinguished recognition! indeed, glenn ansel fry played a major role both in my career in optometry and as an academic in vision science. and, without doubt, through his educational and research efforts, he greatly influenced our profession of optometry. this college remains his proud and enduring legacy. glenn fry tried very hard indeed, and in quite a number of ways, he succeeded admirably! so saying, very few individuals knew glenn well, and sadly, not too many of these people remain with us today. he was both a very bright man and a highly complex individual! to my surprise, i found he was self-taught in a number of fields, for example, in mathematics. today, i will comment on some of our interactions together, and i will share some aspects of events with which, i suspect, most of you are not familiar. perhaps a good place to start is a lunchtime conversation i had with mrs. martha fry, on the occasion of a visit to columbus by walter stanley stiles, f.r.s. i had received my ph.d. a year or so earlier, and martha turned to me with a pleasant smile and said, "jay, now you must call him glenn." please realize he was not the forbidding type, but he also was not, shall i say, warm and fuzzy. shortly thereafter, with urging from martha, i tried, glenn, glenn, glenn, it just wouldn't come out right, but i persisted. a few years later, as i was about to take up my duties as a junior faculty member in the department of ophthalmology at washington university in saint louis, glenn came up to me with a shy smile, a tilt of the head, and a bit of a wink, and asked whether i had encountered a certain secretary in the department. based on this and other comments, one might conclude the time period during which glenn was affiliated with washington university must have been among, shall i say, the halcyon years for this young scientist. after receiving his ph.d. at duke, glenn held a held a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at washington university. there, he worked within the departments of ophthalmology and neurology, both located in mcmillan hospital. this hospital is part of the then large, now enormous barnes & jewish hospital medical center in st. louis. in part, glenn worked with another very able post-doctoral fellow, s. howard bartley, ph.d. they performed some particularly meaningful erg studies together during the time they spent together. this research was similar to research later done by bob boynton when he was a student with lorrin riggs. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 2 at washington u., glenn's work was performed most probably under the supervision of percy cobb, m.d., an ophthalmologist known for psychophysical research on vision, visual acuity, and responses to different lighting conditions. he also worked with george h. bishop, a ph.d., who was both an electronics expert and a neuro-physiologist of considerable renown. he had worked for many years with future nobel laureates gasser and erlanger. around that same time period, the chair of the department of ophthalmology at washington university was harvey howard, who is remembered best for research leading to development of the howard-dolman test of stereo-acuity. interestingly, prof. gerald westheimer told me that fry originally sought a post­ doctoral fellowship with prof. leonard troland of harvard. sadly, at about that time, troland died in a terrible accident at age 43 on may 27, 1932. fry then turned to percy cobb. when i first arrived at washington u. in july, 1958, placed in my laboratory, i found a number of older research instruments, and pieces of equipment, with attached tags upon which the names of fry, bartley, cobb, bishop, and howard were appended. i don't know what happened to these items. i did use some of the fine lenses, filters, and other components from those instruments in my own apparatuses. when i received my ph.d. in 1956, i had quite a number of good job offers from industrial and military research laboratories, but none from optometric institutions. i decided to accept an offer to serve with dr. richard tousey at the naval research laboratory in washington, d.c. i was to conduct research on optical and visual studies associated with the then nascent space and rocket programs. at about the same time, glenn fry received a sizeable air force research contract. he very much needed help on this research program (others turned him down!), and he asked me to work with him on this research. i felt i owed him, and i withdrew from the kind offer made by tousey. a few days after this decision was made, glenn telephoned me and told me he was hiring an individual to assist me in our work on the air force research project. he sent her into me to be interviewed. this lady's name was mildred hindman. i encountered an aged woman, wearing (in lieu of a dress) a dull brown and none-too-clean khaki u.s. army overcoat liner. a torn slip hung down about 6 inches below the hem. she was obviously disheveled, she had no teeth, her hair apparently had not seen a comb in days, and frankly, she was "drunk as a skunk." i told her to wait a minute or two. i went charging into see fry, and said to him, "i know i am a junior here, but this is just ridiculous!" glenn giggled, and said, "jay, give her a chance; she has a good back­ ground." i gritted my teeth, but followed his advice. in fact, glenn was absolutely correct! aunt mil, as she was later called, proved to be an absolute jewel, we became fast friends, and she truly taught me a lot about science and just plain life! she was a full "bird" colonel in the regular army (in fact, she was one of very few women in the then regular army!). during world war ii, she hindsight: journal ofoptometiy history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 3 served on general eisenhower's staff, and headed photo-interpretation for the omaha and utah beach landings on 0-day. in time, i came to count on her in all things! i learned our research program was part of "the spy in the sky" satellite program which was initiated 50 years ago, about the time when sputnik was launched by the soviets. for our investigations, glenn mainly guided psychophysical studies involving a very broad range of visual detection tasks. the goal was to predict detection and recognition rates for a variety of targets under all manner of conditions. in fact, the task required was rather like some research glenn had done earlier at washington university with percy cobb. we varied test targets, their contrast, target and background luminance, size, etc. we controlled and introduced various forms and degrees of blur. not surprisingly, glenn designed multiple complex mechanical devices for this task, as well as devices for automatic recording of data. under my supervision, these instruments were used to gather test data 16 hours a day for years. i was ably assisted by aunt mil. although i played a meaningful role in that part of the program, i became interested in the photo-interpreter's need to search for, to recognize, and to recover targets of choice against the complex backgrounds of aerial photographs obtained from existing and developmental airborne cameras as well as transmission systems from our early satellites. camouflage of targets was an added factor considered. for these analyses, i modified used american optical company eye movement-tracking assessment devices. i broke the recorded trace into horizontal and vertical tracks for measurements, and later developed a modification which allowed mapping of observer fixation locations along with durations of fixation. we plotted the path taken when an observer viewed specified photographs. and, for this purpose, we also employed some fascinating experimentally derived aerial maps designed for radar and infra-red detection of targets. in addition, we asked, how does an individual scan a scene, either using photographs obtained with the camera perpendicular to the ground, versus pictures recorded at a slant-angle relative to the ground or horizon. searching such photographs was quite different than for those photographed perpendicularly. trained photo-interpreters were also used as subjects, and, in time, we developed tests which graded their skills, and informed us as to how these skilled individuals learned and performed their very complex tasks. with this information, we sought to determine which non-trained observers were best suited for this type of work. once a month, glenn and i had to attend meetings at rome air force base, ny (a strategic air command headquarters center), and we also attended special briefings elsewhere. many years later, on "9/11", i recognized on tv that the current president bush was being taken to a safe location at one of these sites. today, there are published books on "the spy in the sky" related-programs. for those interested in our very extensive work, a complete set of reports and papers is available in the o.s.u. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number l, page 4 library. over the years, this work was all declassified. before i sit down, i would like to direct a few words to current graduate students. we never really know where we end up in research! just consider the above discussion. the topics glenn and i addressed during those years were about as far as i could get from my future research on retinal receptor anatomy, directional sensitivity of the retina (i.e., the stiles-crawford effects of the first and second types), or waveguide transmission of radiant energy by photoreceptors. for that matter, our studies were also totally different from research i performed correcting neonatal vision and adding critical aphakic and aniseikonic corrections to infants. the latter made possible, or restored, binocularity in weeks-old children! these studies, in turn, also differed from research where i determined hyperacuity prior to surgery in order to assess post­ surgical prognosis in the eyes of people with dense opacities of their ocular media. none of these projects anticipated complex issues encountered in investigations of visual fields in patients with the very serious gilles de latourette syndrome. today, i am involved with studies of high myopia and traction upon, and translation of the retina and the choroid in a meaningful sample of cases onto the surface of the optic nerve head, and resultant maintenance of visual function upon the disc in these patients! there is no real difference between basic and clinical (or other applied) research, and neither one domain, nor the other, is more or less important. each is a part of a broad research continuum. at issue is only the significance of, and quality of the research question asked, and the result obtained! it is critical for you to seek breadth in your training as well as depth. i was extremely lucky to have had a number of great teachers in my scientific career. glenn fry was one of the major ones! at o.s.u., i also must include vince ellerbrock (i was his teaching assistant for years); and paul fitts, a fine scholar here who taught me and others principles of human engineering; and, of course, aunt mil! earlier, isidore finkelstein and george smelser at colombia taught me much about research, animal surgery, corneal clarity, contact lens fitting, and the academic life. similarly, i benefited from guidance provided by everett kinsey and david cogan at harvard. in saint louis, bernard becker assembled a remarkable group of scientists who worked together in ways i have never seen before or since! stanley stiles and brian crawford took me in hand, and taught me enhanced rigor in research, as well as optical design and advanced optical-alignment skills. and last, but not least, the several years i worked closely with hans goldmann, franz fankhauser, and the fine group at berne, switzerland, were a high point in my training. please realize our research training is "all of a piece", with inputs continuing throughout our entire career. also, please show me the teacher who has not learned from his very able students! the point here is not to tell you how important i am, but rather to indicate to you that breadth of acquaintances and contacts and knowledge of their ongoing research is a distinct asset to each one of you. learn techniques in use, or in development by others. be active! determine how you can stay current, and be a meaningful hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 5 participant in the larger enterprise! such connections pay off in the future both directly or indirectly. a fine local model is ohio state's fry professor, karla zadnik. walt whitman wrote, "now voyager, sail forth to seek and to find." i thank you all again for this very fine award, and for the opportunity to tell you a bit about a role played by glenn and me working together, which i suspect few of you knew! hindsight: journal of optometry histocy .... januacy, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 6 l archives for the study of the history of health care: a literature review oavid goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract this paper reviews literature pertinent to the preservation of archival material for the study of the history of health care. topics considered in the review are the importance of archives for the study of health care history, basic terminology used in archival work, types of material preserved in health care archives, aspects of characteristics of health care archives, and examples of archives devoted to health care. key words: archives, health care libraries, history of health care, history of optometry. studying the history of health care brings many benefits. it helps to reveal perennial problems, general trends, societal expectations, advances in knowledge, effectiveness of delivery systems, and the impact of disease. it can bring breadth to one's perspective, and can illuminate previously successful or unsuccessful approaches to continuing controversies and problems. it can clarify attribution for various concepts and ideas, thus ensuring proper recognition and respect for persons who contributed to the field. it has also been suggested that the knowledge of history of health care and how illness affects patients "can help counteract the dehumanizing atmosphere that technology brings to medicine."1 and, of course, studying history can be interesting in itself irrespective of any other considerations. interest in the history of health care can be readily shown by the proliferation of books and academic journals on the subject. a sampling of journals dedicated to the topic include bulletin of the history of medicine, canadian bulletin of medical history, journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences, medical history, pharmacy in history, and bulletin of the history of dentistry.2 necessary to historical study is the preservation of research material in archives. the purpose of this paper is to review the literature on archives in health care. importance of archives for the study of history in order to accurately portray and reasonably interpret the events of the past, the historian must have access to the records of the past. comprehensive collections of books and journals are important for the study of history, but also essential are the original records produced in connection with the events in question. while the former is the province of libraries, the latter are held by an archives. an archives is a repository of non-current records of continuing value selected mainly for future use in research and reference. archives may exist in various forms, such as a free-standing institution, a separate office within an organization, or a part of a library. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 7 an archives maintained by an institution is important as "the authentic historical record" of the work of that institution.3 such an archives provides documentary evidence of the growth of the institution and shows how it has contributed to public well­ being. it might also be viewed as an "information asset"3 in that it contains information generated and accumulated by an institution in the form of records. on a broader scale, a value of an archives for health care is that it may address general interests of the public or of health care workers. it also provides records needed to advance scholarship in the history of health care. an archives "can make history come alive for people."4 the use of archives can help historical researchers to dispel myths. hofstettef noted that "some ... popularly accepted myths have incurred significant damage to the profession [of optometry] and have interfered with its progress. myths without evidence need to be challenged, but the challenge is void without archival documentation." craig6 conducted a survey to investigate types of research tools used by historians of canadian medicine. the respondents were asked to report whether various materials (textual archives, books, journal articles, photographic archives, conference proceedings, etc.) were essential, very important, moderately important, or not important. the highest percentage of essential responses was obtained for textual archives. of the researchers polled in the study, 73% indicated that textual archives were "essential," and none of them suggested that textual archives were "not important." another highly ranked tool was journal articles. the percentage of researchers who considered journal articles to be essential was 69%. archival materials documenting health care may be used in ways completely unanticipated at present. they may also be used by persons with a remarkably broad range of reasons for interest in health care. a sampling of the possibly unexpected persons noted by jordan7 to have potential interest in health care archives includes "the historical novelist, who seeks to jearn how gunshot wounds were treated ... ; the political scientist, writing a history of municipal function ... ; the professor of home economics, preparing a study of the national diet. .. ; the student of veterinary science, studying the relationship between diseases of animals and men ... ; the sociologist, concerned with the socioeconomic condition of the american indian ... ; the biographer. . .for his hero was subject to the frailness of the human body ... ; the social worker ... for he knows only too well the relationship of poverty and maladjustment to health and disease .... " furthermore, jordan7 notes that "no historian can pen the history of a remote frontier post without reference to the work of the surgeon stationed there. the economist goes to medical sources to determine the effect of pandemics and plagues upon transportation. the writer of religious history, investigating the home missionary movement, finds time and time again mention of the part played by climate and disease in the formation or destruction of a congregation." suffice it to say, without citing more of jordan's examples, that health care pervades almost every aspect of human hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 8 existence, and documentation from an archives can help to reconstruct a picture of the human condition in the past. terminology before considering some specifics of archives for the study of the history of health care, some basic archival terms will be defined. appraisal is the process by which records are evaluated and their potential long term value is assessed in order to decide whether they should be preserved. in addition to the paramount issue of potential future use of the item, some of the numerous factors which are considered in appraisal decisions are uniqueness of the item, format, possible preservation difficulties, completeness and authenticity of the record, costs of preservation, importance of the creator of the document, completeness of coverage, time span covered by the record, and relationship of the document to the repository's collecting focus and scope. arrangement is the process of organizing archival material using established archival guidelines. principles used in these guidelines are the provenance and original order of the materials. provenance refers to the individual, the office, or the agency that produced the records. records groups are established on the basis of having a common provenance. hierarchical arrangement of records within the record group can be made into subgroups, series, file units, and then individual documents. within a records series, arrangement generally maintains the original order, the order in which the records were kept as they were originally created, used, and filed. description is the process of documenting information about archival records, such as their content, provenance, context, filing structure, format, and how they can be found. description is done within standardized forms and it helps to insure access to the records through the production of finding aids. archival finding aids can take many forms, including guides, inventories, registers, catalogs, indexes, and checklists. the literature on archives for health care does not seem to identify any issues unique to health care with regard to arrangement or description. however, appraisal was discussed in quite a few papers on health care archives, particularly within the context of the types of material that should be preserved. that is the subject of the next section of this paper. types of material preserved not all archives can preserve all types of material. pearson8 emphasized that there should be a coordinated effort "to keep representative samples" or different types of material, or else the preserved record of past health care will be a random collection of items. pearson8 used examples of historical events to show that historical research today is largely dependent upon the random collection of material in the past, the consequence of which is that definitive studies of some events cannot be achieved. sammis4 pointed out the importance of establishing a collection policy "to outline the goals and the limits to be placed on the types of materials and the subject matter that the archives will accept." hindsight: journal ofoptometly history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 9 personal papers of practitioners. the personal papers of practitioners could include items such as personal correspondence, unpublished reports, or miscellaneous items that could document the practitioner's career. the latter could include diaries, scrapbooks, clipping files, diplomas, or certificates.9 the value of a series of items depends on whether the time span is sufficient to cover the major part of the person's career and whether it provides documentation of important details. 9 but even seemingly insignificant items such as a "receipt for the ... tuition at a now defunct. .. school"5 could be a key piece of evidence for a researcher. jordan 7 noted the lack of objective criteria to evaluate the personal papers of practitioners. he also noted that practitioners at the time that he was writing (1960) were less likely to keep diaries or write personal letters than their predecessors and that such material has been of great value to historians. he suggested that as a result it is important to preserve other types of material as well as the personal material that does become available for preservation. it is often noted that health care practice is an art. as well as a science. practitioners may rely on their experience rather than following every detail of testing and analysis as set forth in a textbook. furthermore, it may take some time for the latest research findings to become standard practice. thus a complete and accurate representation of actual clinical practice may not be gained from printed material. blake 10 noted that the personal papers of practitioners, even some of the "inconspicuous" ones, are important to the historian to accurately portray health care practice. he did urge selectivity in acquiring collections so that individual archives would not be overwhelmed. he also suggested that local historical societies could be encouraged to preserve the papers of some of the practitioners in their area. patient records. another resource for studying how health care was actually practiced is patient records. it has also been noted that because some practitioners have been significant innovators, "the wholesale loss of such items to posterity would be a serious deficiency."11 more than one author has observed that when such records are preserved beyond the time of their active use it is generally random and due to accident rather than the result of a well-conceived coordinated plan.8•12 there are several reasons why patient records are rarely preserved for future use by historians.11 •13 clinics or practitioners' offices often have limited space for storage, and a standard practice is to discard records after some time of inactivity to make room for active charts. not only does storage of records require space, but it also incurs costs. the sheer enormity of records in clinics and offices is an obvious concern. and, of course, an overarching concern is the confidentiality of the records, and who should, or legally can, have access to the records. the vast majority of health care facility personnel responsible for managing patient records are undoubtedly unaware of the potential use of patient records in the future as historical documents. higgs and melling 11 noted that "an important factor in the slow crisis which is overtaking the preservation of modern medical records appears hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 10 to be some uncertainty within the health authorities as to their statutory obligations and the opportunities which exist for the preservation and deposit of records which are no longer in current use." higgs and melling 11 identified that major problems standing in the way of future historical use of patient records to be the enormous bulk of materials, identification and selection of appropriate material for preservation, where material should be deposited, when records can be accessed, and how ethical access can be managed. they recommended that the cooperation of historians, social scientists, health care professionals, and archivists will be necessary to formulate solutions to these problems. personal papers of scientists. examination of the personal papers of scientists can help to illuminate how the knowledge of health conditions and their treatments have developed. such documents may include correspondence, annotated manuscript drafts, unpublished reports, laboratory files, photographs, diaries, and other career documentation.9 such material illuminates the process of discovery, the false starts, and the winding path taken to research results, rather than the final conclusions and well defined end-points that are to be found in published journal articles.14 such documents show how discoveries happened, which usually is not obvious from formal publications.15 blake 10 pointed out that it may be difficult to decide which scientists should be singled out for preservation of their papers. in the case of political figures, the choices may be more obvious based on the office held by an individual. identification of scientists could be on the basis of honors, professional recognition, or position. personal papers of other persons playing important roles in health care. such persons could include politicians, philanthropists, patients, or administrators.10 historians may find the papers of congressmen who held important positions deciding health care issues to be very useful. for example, the lister hill library of health sciences at the university of alabama birmingham holds the personal papers of senator lister hill of alabama. hill served in congress for 46 years and for 15 years was a very powerful member of committees on health care matters.16 records of educational institutions. documentation concerning the education and training of health care practitioners is of potential interest not only for the study of the history of health care, but also in relation "to the entire educational system of a society."10 records useful in this regard include meeting agendas and minutes, committee reports, self-study documents, correspondence files, equipment purchase records, grant records, patent records, patient records, annual reports, photographs, memoranda, bulletins, and personnel records.4·9 records of governmental agencies. examples given by blake 10 are records of health departments, sanitation departments, and licensing boards, as well as legislative and judicial records dealing with health issues. hindsight: journal of optometry histocy ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page ii records of organizations and societies. every health care profession has numerous national organizations, often with hierarchies of regional, state, and local societies. there are also numerous societies which devote themselves to particular interests. such organizations have often played important roles in the shaping of health care policy and practice. records of such organizations can be of historical value. 10 records of health care industries. this area was not emphasized in the literature. however, with the increase in influence of pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, and equipment manufacturers, this area will likely be of interest to future historians. correspondence. correspondence is a subset of many of the sources of material already mentioned, but there may also be other sources of correspondence. annan 17 noted that "letters from eminent people, letters containing biographical or historical information should be considered of value." photographs. writing about an archives in a medical library, annan 17 emphasized the importance of getting portraits of institution personnel. writing about a hospital archives, cold smith and evitts 18 mentioned that photographs were among their most requested items. ephemera. calling cards, announcements, handbills, advertisements, and the like that were produced to be short term items may be of great interest to future historians because they illustrate daily routine activity and commerce. porter19 noted that it may be these items which are most at risk of being discarded as the "explosion of paper documentation" puts severe strains on repositories of information. annan 17 promoted "the survival of the odd bits and pieces scorned as 'ephemera' today, but possibly treasured by the collector tomorrow. these small relics of the past have served to illuminate for the historian the less formal aspects of a previous time." other characteristics of archives in health care anderson9 pointed out that the attributes of good archival collections include uniqueness, coverage, and accessibility. uniqueness refers to the fact that documents are most valuable for historical research when they are original and their content is not duplicated elsewhere. good coverage would be characterized by documentation of an entire career or of the time span of an entire organizational entity, as opposed to isolated achievements or events. issues relating to accessibility include restrictions on use, technological limitations, or fragility of material. writing about proper facilities, sammis4 mentioned that an archives should have closed stacks, proper climate control, appropriate shelving, protection from sunlight, security against unauthorized entry, and protection against fire. he also noted that processing of archival material requires more space than the processing of library material. the literature on archival preservation relating to health care was generally written in the context of the archives existing within a library. free-standing archival institutions whose sole mission is to document health care and whose personnel include hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 12 persons trained specifically as archivists appear to be rare or non-existent. writing more than 30 years apart, annan 17 and cold smith and evitts 18 noted that management of health care archives is usually done by persons originally trained as librarians rather than as archivists. developing an acquisitions plan mccall et al.20 have emphasized the importance of formulating a proactive plan tor acquiring useful archival material. they recommend a five part process in developing such a plan: ( 1) establish a philosophy to guide acquisition decisions based on the mission of the institution, the mission of the archives, and the envisioned long term development of the archival program; (2) delineate the intellectual scope of the material to be maintained based on the facilities, functions, administrative structure, and topics of specialization of the institution; (3) identify the types of materials to be acquired, with designations made for various types of paper-based material, objects, and machine dependent items; ( 4) establish standards for selection of material based on intellectual significance, physical stability, and long term ability to maintain technical function; and (5) make a projection of the ultimate scale of the collection and the rate of acquisition of material based on the capacities of housing, staff availability and technical resources. examples of health care archives a number of published papers have described specific archival repositories documenting health care and have discussed their contents. this cannot be considered anything even beginning to approach a comprehensive listing of archives, but brief summaries of these papers will be given to show some examples of health care archives. the medical college of pennsylvania has archives on women in medicine which includes the archives of the college dating back to 1850, papers of women physicians connected with the school, records of women's medical organizations, and records of now defunct medical schools and hospitals for women.21 the canadian medical association archives contains biographical information, reports and annual meeting material, oral interviews of past association presidents, photographs, meeting minutes, and other items.22 the archives of the canadian dermatology association holds files containing biographical information on some members, pamphlets, photographs, meeting tape recordings, historical articles on canadian dermatologists, historical articles on dermatology, and other material.23 the indiana university school of dentistry has an archival collection documenting the school and dentistry in the state of indiana and the united states.24 the cincinnati medical heritage center in the university of cincinnati medical center library system documents the history of medicine in cincinnati.25 the archives of the new york weill cornell medical center preserves records of the center and various predecessor hospitals and schools, as well as the papers of prominent persons associated with the center. 25 the holdings of the archives of the danish ophthalmological society include books of meeting minutes dating back to 1900, photographs, albums, correspondence, publications on the history of the society, financial records, and certificates. 26 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .janual)', 2008, volume 39, number i, page 13 a series of articles have described some of the holdings of the wellcome library in london. the archives of the strangeways research laboratory, an independent research laboratory, contains papers of scientists who worked there, diaries, and laboratory correspondence.27 the archives of the society of medical officers of health, also held at the wellcome library, extend from 1856 to 1997, and documents many aspects of public health in england.28 also there are the archives of the pioneer health centre, an experimental program in community public health which lasted from 1926 to 1950, with meeting minutes, photographs, annual reports, some surviving correspondence, publicity items, and various ephemera.;19 the wellcome foundation archive contains the business records of henry solomon wellcome (1853-1936) and his companies. the records of the wellcome foundation archive are primarily from the first half of the twentieth century, and its two thousand boxes contain record books, photographs, audio and video tapes, legal papers, marketin~ records, financial records, and personal papers of the founders and senior managers.3 the francis crick archive in the wellcome library contains correspondence, meeting notes, and other material from crick's work at cambridge from early in his postgraduate career to after his nobel prize winning work. 14 in addition to the archival collections at the wellcome library, other extensive health care archives in the united kingdom include archives at st. batholomew's hospital in london and the royal london hospital, the bethlem royal hospital archives and museum, the greater london record office, and the archives at the greater glasgow health board.31 archives for optometry my search of the literature did not find any in-depth articles devoted exclusively to the description of archives for optometry. however, some articles on the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo) at the american optometric association (aoa) headquarters in st. louis have made mention of some of the archival material there. ilamo traces its origins back to 1902 as a library for use of aoa members. 32 it was incorporated under the ilamo designation in 1973. the archives at ilamo include papers and documents relating to aoa history, personal papers of important figures in optometry history, photographs, and other material. 3 among the personal papers at ilamo are those of leroy ryer, a noted optometrist who died at the age of 92 in 1972, john mcallister, jr., whose papers date back to 1822, and charles prentice.33·34 it seems likely that there are various formal and informal archives collections at optometry school libraries and at universities which have optometry schools. closing comments an assertion pervading much of the literature reviewed is that adequate planning for preservation of potentially useful material is not being done. also common in the literature is the plea to preserve certain types of material. obviously not everything can be saved because of the massive bulk of print material. health care archives should develop clear coherent collection policies and appraisal guidelines. it may also be noted that an issue that was not addressed sufficiently in the literature on health care archives is how to deal with electronic records. hindsight: journal of optometry histocy ... .januacy, 2008, volume 39, number 1, page 14 porter, a medical historian at the wellcome trust centre for the history of medicine in london, wrote: "sensible preservation policies must depend upon the closest possible co-operation and communication between librarians, archivists, historians, and policy makers. future researchers will bless or blame us, depending upon how wisely we act now."19 references 1. mcclure lw. who needs history? academic med 1995;70:461-462. 2. zinn nw. special collections: history of health science collections, oral history, archives, and manuscripts. in: darling l, bishop d, colaianni la, eds. handbook of medical library practice, volume ill: health science librarianship and administration. chicago: medical library association, 1988:469-572. 3. blais r, lamont m. a hospital archives ... what's it all about. med ref services quart 2002;21 :71-78. 4. sammis sk. building an archives in a medical library. bull med lib assoc 1984;72:270-273. 5. hofstetter hw. archives, libraries, museums, and records centers. jam optom assoc 1972;43:186-187. 6. craig bl. what research tools do historians of canadian medicine currently use? what do they need and want for the future? report and analysis of a survey, 1995-96. can bull med hist 14:289-307. 7. jordan pd. the challenge of medical records. am archivist 1960;23:143-151. 8. pearson d. medical history for tomorrowpreserving the record of today. health info lib j 2001;18:139-143. 9. anderson pg. appraisal of the papers of biomedical scientists and physicians for a medical archives. bull med lib assoc 1985;73:338-344. 10. blake jb. medical records and history. am archivist 1964;27:229-235. 11. higgs e, melling j. chasing the ambulance. the emerging crisis in the preservation of modern health records. social hist med 1997;10:127-136. 12. weinberg dm. documenting nursing and health care history in the mid­ atlantic region. bull med lib assoc 1993;81 :29-37. 13. kynaston d. establishing standards for health care archives: a case study of the calgary regional health authority. can bull med hist 1999;16:155-161. 14. beckett c. for the record: the francis crick archive at the wellcome library. med hist 2004;48:245-260. 15. glass b. the preservation of historical materials in genetics. bull hist med 1983;57:98-1 05. 16. thompson ja, kronenfield mr. the papers of senator lister hill at the university of alabama in birmingham. bull med lib assoc 1978;66:466-467. 17. annan gl. archives in a medical library. bull med lib assoc 1958;46:313319. 18. goldsmith ee, evitts ba. the creation and maintenance of a hospital archives. med ref services quart 1991 ;1 0:35-48. 19. porter r. why historians of medicine need your help. health info lib j 2001 ;18:137-138. hindsight: journal ofoptometjy history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number 1, page 15 20. mccall n, mix la, ravanbakhsh ad. building relevant, well-focused, and coherent holdings. in: mccall n, mix la, eds. designing archival programs to advance knowledge in the health fileds. baltimore: john hopkins university press, 1995:111123. 21. chaff sl. archives and special collections on women in medicine at the medical college of pennsylvania. bull med lib assoc 1978;66:55-57. 22. radford tc. cma archives: keeping history alive. can med assoc j 1986;134:648-649. 23. jackson r. the archives of the canadian dermatology assocaition. can bull med hist 2000;17:257-267. 24. hook sa, rossok km. the indiana university school of dentistry archives: back to the future. bull med lib assoc 1998;86:416-419. 25. broaddus b, lerner a. alone together: managing history of medicine collections in non-historical environments (part ii). watermark: newsletter archivists librarians hist health sci 2000;23:65-72. 26. nom m. the society's archives. acta soc ophthalmol scand 2004; supplement 234:24-30. 27. hall la. the strangeways research laboratory: archives in the contemporary medical archives centre. med hist 1996;40:231-238. 28. engineer a. the society of medical officers of health: its history and its archive. med hist 2001 ;45:97 -114. 29. hall la. the archives of the pioneer health centre, peckham, in the wellcome library. soc hist med 2001 ;14:525-538. 30. doherty t, steel a. wellcome home to the wellcome foundation archive. med hist 2004;48:95-111. 31. moore w. priceless heritage. health serv j 1996;106(5533):28-31. 32. draper lj. vision library to the world. show-me libraries 1981 ;32(9):25-27. 33. dablemont m. ryer and the ilamo. newsletter optom hist soc 1976;7:1-3. 34. koetting r. preserving optometric heritage yields personal rewards. am optom assoc news 2002;49(16):19. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number 1, page 16 book review: kepler's witch: an astronomer's discovery of cosmic order amid religious war, political intrigue, and the heresy trial of his mother kepler's witch: an astronomer's discovery of cosmic order amid religious war, political intrigue, and the heresy trial of his mother. james a. connor. new york: harpercollins, 2005. xiv + 402 pages. isbn 0-06-075049-9. paperback, $14.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47 405, dogss@indiana.edu johannes kepler (1571-1630) is a fascinating historical figure. this is clearly expressed by the author on page 2 of the book when he explains why he decided to write about kepler: " ... in 1620 kepler's mother was being tried for witchcraft. germany was well into the thirty years' war. kepler had already lost his first wife and little boy to disease, and in the years following he lost three more children. in his life, he was chased out of one town after another by the counter-reformation. he was excommunicated by his own church. and yet, throughout most of these years he was writing a book called the harmony of the world. this .. .is a man worth knowing." he further notes on page 3 that "johannes kepler was one of the most powerful scientific minds of his centuryhe was an equal to galileo in almost every way, a precursor to newton, a man who had done the spadework for most of the important discoveries that defined science in the seventeenth century. and yet kepler was also great in the way gandhi and martin luther king, jr., are great. he was a man who fought for peace and reconciliation between the christian churches, even when it nearly cost him his life." this kepler biography emphasizes kepler's personal life, although it does also deal with his scientific work. each chapter is opened by one to three pages of letters written by kepler or other excerpts from his writings. the author, james a. connor, is a former jesuit priest who is now an english professor. the back cover of the book states that he holds degrees in geoscience, philosophy, theology, and creative writing, along with a doctorate in literature and science. kepler was deeply religious, and he refused to compromise his faith. he refused to convert from the lutheran church to the catholic church when many around him were doing so to advance or protect themselves. church authorities demanded obedience and conformity. in contrast, kepler believed that "one had a religious duty to reason through the complexities of the faith ... " (page 243). the author describes how kepler's "self-destructive honesty" and "amazing naivete" when dealing with church officials worked against him, to the point that he was finally excommunicated from his own church. kepler's "life as a scientist was as theological as it was scientific. he wanted to find out what god really intended." (page 82) kepler is best known for his laws of hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 17 planetary motion and for confirming the copernican view of the solar system. but he also established a foundation for newtonian physics. for example, he "set the stage for newton's law of gravitation, including the idea that the effect of the moving action decreased with distance." (page 82) the book contains a few mentions of kepler's work in optics. he is often recognized as the founder of modern optics. he wrote about optics in books entitled astronomiae pars optica and dioptrice. in them, he described the optics of telescopes, gave the first correct description of retinal image formation, discussed lens correction for myopia and hyperopia, explained magnification, and discussed binocular depth perception, among other topics. the book contains details of kepler's family life, his patrons (who often neglected to pay him), his struggles with the church, and his moves across germany to obtain employment and to avoid war, amidst plague and political turmoil. the book includes twelve pages of reference notes, a time line of kepler's life, a bibliography, and an index. it is highly recommended to anyone wishing to learn more about johannes kepler. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number 1, page 18 sook review: an eye for painting an eye for painting. philippe lanthony. paris: the munch-museum and essilor, 2006.191 pages. isbn: 2-7118-5100-1. hardcover. this book examines how the visual perception of painters has affected their works and how the visual perception of the admirers of paintings affects how the paintings are understood. the author is a parisian ophthalmologist who has designed color vision tests and has published extensively on color vision and the vision of painters. the book is appealingly produced in a fairly large format, 29 em by 25 em, and offers many full page reproductions of paintings as examples of the principles discussed. the first nine chapters deal with optics and visual physiology of various aspects of painted scenes and the ways in which visual function affects how scenes are depicted in paintings. examples of paintings and experimental data are used to illustrate various principles. in the first chapter, for example, data on the photometry of snow and the sky above are used to show how the depiction of snow in paintings is most often more like our expectations than about an .accurate reproduction of the brightness of snow and sky. chapter 2 examines colored shadows. chapter 3 looks at contrast, and in particular, the work of scientist and painter charles lapicque. the next three chapters examine the use of mirrors in paintings and the optical principles involved, the moon illusion, and entoptic images. chapter 7 discusses the appearance of the eyes of the painter in self portraits. the author notes that portraits of many famous artists do not exist, but observes that "failing an individual self-portrait, we can turn to a group portrait by a known artist. as the eyes of the artist who paints himself necessarily look at the spectator, all we need to do is look for the person in the group who is staring at us to be able to identify, with some probability, the author of the picture." (page 85) the author does acknowledge, however, that such attempts lead to "much contradictory speculation about artists' faces." it is mentioned that self portraits probably have a lateral mirror inversion because they were typically painted with the artist looking in a mirror. also discussed in this chapter are self portraits with spectacles and others showing a strabismus. in chapter 8, dealing with texture in painting, the author discusses several optical and perceptual principles, including contrast sensitivity and optical mixture of colors. examining color blindness in artists in chapter 9, the author concludes that" ... the commonly held, rather simplistic idea that color-blind artists use strange outlandish colors ... so that their works can be recognized at first glance is not borne out by the facts. experience shows, on the contrary, that a color-blind painter produces painting that is limited by his color deficiency, but that it is scarcely discernible from that done by a painter with normal color vision using the same type of limited palette. as a result, color-blind painters are difficult to detect in the history of art. we cannot diagnose the hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number 1, page 19 condition merely looking at paintings but must take the artist's general behavior into account." (page 143) the last three chapters discuss the eye and vision problems of three artists. they are illustrated with works of these artists. charles meryon was color deficient. it has been suggested that edgar degas was highly myopic. the author examined some pairs of spectacles worn by degas. the spectacles are all tinted. one contains "a slight correction for myopic astigmatism." another has spherical lenses of -1.50 d for each eye. degas had some condition which caused photophobia and a scotoma. in the last chapter, the examination of claude monet's cataract includes discussion of the effect of cataract on color vision and how the hues used by monet changed from no cataract to cataract to aphakia. in concluding this work, the author notes that " ... the visible world, that of our physical environment, is not the visual world, but the world as we perceive it, of which a painting offers us a reflection .... the painter's eye does not reconstruct a preexisting reality which is that of its visual perception." (page 185) this book is informative and very nicely illustrated. it includes a four page bibliography and an index. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number 1, page 20 miscellany oavid a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dogss@indiana.edu erratum: j. davis armistead's alma mater in the october, 2007 issue, i discussed an article detailing buddy holly's glasses.1 i incorrectly reported the optometry school which holly's optometrist, j. davis armistead, attended. richard hopping was kind enough to write the following to correct my error: "dr. j. davis armistead of lubbock, texas was a 1948 graduate of the los angeles school of optometry which became the los angeles college of optometry and then in 1972 became the southern california college of optometry." joseph dudley downing (1925-2007) dominick maino, professor at the illinois college of optometry, recently wrote seeking information concerning joseph dudley downing and wishing to contact persons who may have known downing. downing was a northern illinois college of optometry (nico) graduate and a famous artist. i tried my usual first step in answering historical inquiries i consulted the accumulated indexes for the first thirty volumes of hindsight. 1 found nothing there. i next tried a google search for information on downing. the following is summarized from a number of websites that i found from that search. downing was born november 15, 1925 in tompkinsville, kentucky, and died december 29, 2007 in the provence area of france. downing grew up on a farm near horse cave, kentucky, and graduated from high school in 1943. he served in france in world war ii as an artillery observer and earned a bronze star. following the war he studied art at western kentucky university for a short period of time and then attended nico. he graduated from nico in 1950. while at nico he attended some art classes at the chicago art institute. he may never have practiced optometry, because in 1950 he returned to france where he then resided and pursued his art interests. it is said that downing received encouragement from pablo picasso, who in 1952 proclaimed "well done" when viewing a display of downing's work. his art has been exhibited in numerous countries and in the permanent collections of museums in europe, north america, and australia, including the paris museum of modern art, the smithsonian institution, and the museum of modern art in new york city. downing invented the form of art which is known as stapleage, collages made by stapling together office supplies. he also published articles on art and two books of poetry. dom maino is wishing to contact persons who knew downing as a classmate, artist, or acquaintance. if you happen to have known downing, contact maino at dmaino@ico.edu. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 21 series of articles on contact lens pioneers in review of optometry the review of optometry published a series of three articles on contact lens pioneers in its july, august, and september issues.2-4 the first article contained profiles of five persons who were particularly important in the early development of contact lenses. the second article examined the contributions of various individuals and research groups in three areascharacterizing and addressing the need of the cornea for oxygen, developing lens materials and lens designs, and producing contact lens solutions. the emphasis of the third article was a discussion of the practitioners who had the first contact lens only practices. also briefly discussed in the third article were the cornea and contact lens section of the american academy of optometry, begun in 1947, and the contact lens and cornea section of the american optometric association, established in 1981. past chairs of those groups and various other persons identified by the authors as leaders in the field of contact lenses are listed in several tables. i thought that the first article was particularly noteworthy. the first of the contact lens notables that the authors profiled was william feinbloom (1904-1985). feinbloom graduated from the optometry school at columbia university in 1923. feinbloom was especially noted for his work in low vision. the authors identified feinbloom's main contributions in contact lenses to be developing a system for fitting scleral lenses, the formation of a contact lens company (frontier), and the first patent of a contact lens containing plastic. kevin tuohy (1921-1968) was a california optician who patented the first corneal contact lens in 1948. that lens was made of polymethyl methacrylate (pmma). pmma had been used in scleral lens designs at the time. newton k. wesley (born 1917) often receives credit for the development of the first contact lens to achieve commercial success. the authors observe that he is also known for his teaching skills. wesley and george jessen formed the plastic contact lens company, subsequently called wesley jessen visioncare, inc., and later, in 2001, purchased by ciba vision. wesley founded the national eye research foundation, an organization emphasizing work in contact lenses, orthokeratology, and keratoconus, in 1955. otto wichterle (1913-1998) was a polymer chemist in czechoslovakia who with drahoslav lim produced the first hydrogel material, hydroxyethyl methacrylate (hema), in 1954 while working on biocompatible materials. he later worked on developing that material into a contact lens. he was aided in that quest by several persons, including american optometrist robert morrison. wichterle received u.s. patents for his lenses in 1962 and 1965. wicheterle's lifetime coincided with times of political turmoil in czechoslovakia which sometimes hindered his work and limited his recognition for it. late in his life he was named president of the czech academy of sciences. robert morrison (born 1924) attended pennsylvania college of optometry after service in world war ii. after completing optometry school, he established a practice in harrisburg, pennsylvania, and later a part-time practice in new york city. morrison first met with otto wichterle in 1961. the article credits morrison with the foresight to hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 22 recognize the potential of hydrophilic material for contact lenses and the persistence to aid wichterle in the development of the material for that purpose. the authors also mentioned morrison becoming known as the optometrist for the "rich and famous." the first two articles of this series include 17 reference citations that could be used to obtain further historical information. on the history of binocular ophthalmoscopy ophthalmologist harry mark published an article entitled "on the evolution of binocular ophthalmoscopy'' in the june, 2007 issue of archives of ophthalmology.5 by the time of the invention of ophthalmoscope in 1851, charles wheatstone had already invented the mirror stereoscope (1838) and david brewster the prism stereoscope (1843). brewster published his book, the stereoscope, its history, theory and construction, with application to the fine and useful arts and to education, in 1856. in 1861, marc-antoine-louis felix giraud-teulon (1816-1887) announced the invention of a binocular ophthalmoscope that yielded a stereoscopic view. an improved version was introduced by john zachariah laurence (1830-1874) in 1862. however, due to methodological problems, these binocular ophthalmoscopes did not achieve lasting acceptance. the author credits charles schepens, who died in 2006, with reviving binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy in the 1950s. references 1. goss da. recent articles of historical interest. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38: 1 03-1 04. 2. schaeffer j, beiting j. contact lens pioneersthe early history of contact lenses. rev optom 2007;144(7):28-30,32,34. 3. schaeffer j, beiting j. contact lens pioneerskey developments in contact lens materials and design, 1975-2000. rev optom 2007;144(8):34-42. 4. schaeffer j, beiting j. contact lens pioneersleaders of yesterday, today and tomorrow. rev optom 2007;144(9):76-78,80,82. 5. mark hh. on the evolution of binocular ophthalmoscopy. arch ophthalmol 2007; 125:830-833. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .jilllulii)', 2008, volume 39, number 1, page 23 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. · material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as 1:1 for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed at the end of the article. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco {the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2008, volume 39, number i, page 24 2008-39-01-001 2008-39-01-002 2008-39-01-003 2008-39-01-004 2008-39-01-005 2008-39-01-006 2008-39-01-007 2008-39-01-008 2008-39-01-009 2008-39-01-010 2008-39-01-011 2008-39-01-012 2008-39-01-013 2008-39-01-014 2008-39-01-015 2008-39-01-016 2008-39-01-017 2008-39-01-018 2008-39-01-019 2008-39-01-020 2008-39-01-021 2008-39-01-022 2008-39-01-023 2008-39-01-024 2008-39-01-025 2008-39-01-026 4 volume 49, number 1, january 2018 correction the origins of the american optometric student association 1967-1972 raymond i. myers (hindsight: the journal of optometry history 48, 4, 90-95, october, 2016) on page 90, the author incorrectly states that the american optometric student association (aosa) became affiliated with the american optometric association (aoa) in 1974. the correct date for the aosa affiliation with the aoa was june 29, 1988. the motion to designate aosa as an affiliate was introduced by egon werthamer (md) and donald van arsdale (tn) and adopted at the 92nd aoa congress in chicago, illinois. in 1974, student delegates cast their first vote in the house of delegates. the vote was facilitated by a change to article ii of the 1973 aoa bylaws, which created a new category of delegates—“certain student members” (section 3, d)—and extended the vote to them on any matter coming before the house of delegates (section 5). call for papers hindsight: journal of optometry history celebrating the 50th anniversary of the optometric historical society 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the optometric historical society. hindsight: journal of optometry history, the quarterly journal of the ohs, will publish a theme issue in 2019 to commemorate this event. we welcome submissions to hindsight on topics such as the following: • remembrances of ohs co-founders maria dablemont and henry hofstetter • remembrances of personal involvement with the optometric historical society • personal experiences that demonstrate how knowledge of optometry history has influenced you and benefited your optometric work • essays on archives, museums, libraries, websites, or other resources which have been or may be helpful in conducting research on optometry history • essays on the importance of knowledge of optometry history as a guide for decision making and optometric directions in the future authors who wish to have their papers considered for inclusion in this theme issue should submit them by october 15, 2018. papers can be submitted on the journal website or by sending an email with a word document to the journal editor, david goss, dgoss@indiana.edu. ~ hinds i g hf' i~d~a·uni~;~i~ •• ~ i( newsletter of the : r, u g 0 2 1996 : optometric historical society : library : 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missourc lilw.f' 'wia • • • ,,. • & • " • if> volume 27 january1996 number 1 1996 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the 1996 ohs executive board members and officers. also listed is the year of each member's term expiration. presidentvice president­ secretary-treasurer­ trusteescall for nominations: chuck haine {1996) walter chase (1998) bridget kowalczyk (1996) alfred rosenbloom {1997) david goss (1997) morris mckee ( 1998) patricia carlson {1999) it is time for you to send in your nominations, or renominations, for the two positions on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the members whose terms will expire are chuck haine and bridget kowalczyk. the members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board, will have their names placed on an election ballot which will be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. please send your nominations to the ohs secretary-treasurer by august 15, 1996: bridget kowalczyk, ilamo, 243 n. lindbergh blvd., st. louis, mo 63141. membership dues: a dues statement has been enclosed with this issue of hindsight. please send your check for the amount noted payable to the optometric historical society with the lower part of the dues statement. your response to this invoice will be appreciated as only one dues statement is intended to be sent out. presentation by dr. j. william rosenthal: the optometric historical society met on saturday, december 9, 1995, in new orleans in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry. twenty-two members were treated to a presentation by ohs member j. william rosenthal on the history of spectacles. dr. rosenthal's talk was well illustrated with several colorful slides. dr. rosenthal is an avid collector and is the author of •spectacles 27/2 and other vision aids: a history and guide to collecting, n a 550-page book with 757 illustrations. after the talk, dr. rosenthal showed some of the group his display of antique ophthalmic items at the tulane medical school. the text of dr. rosenthal's presentation follows: history of spectacles j. wm. rosenthal, m.d., d.sc. well, i've written a book on the history of vision aids, and it took six hundred pages and seven hundred photographs to cover the subject. ab i only have a few minutes here, i'll give a brief overview of the most prominent factors that contributed to the development of spectacles as we know them today. since a wide array of influences are involved, including types of lenses, important discoveries and discoverers, etc., it would be logical to give them in chronological order. i'll be leaving out a lot of details, so you'll have to read the book to get them. one of the most frequently asked questions on this subject is, "when was the first lens invented?" actually, the first lens used for magnification purposes was discovered, not invented, several thousand years b.c. it was a clear piece of quartz that someone picked up in a stream bed, probably in iran or thereabouts. it had been "tumbled" by the water into a biconvex shape. it was great for magnification, but few people could read. it was used to light fires with the sun's rays, to cauterize wounds, and to melt wax on writing tablets so they could be used again. glass, a common material for spectacle lenses, was made as far back as 3300 b. c.-as glass beads and ornaments have been found in the tombs of the pharaohs of the fifth and sixth century dynasties. in 250 b.c., ptolemy drew up tables of reflection and refraction. going on to 60 ad., pliny, a roman historian, tells of nero viewing the gladiators through emerald. whether this emerald was used as a sun glass, a myopic correction, or a mirror to alert nero to attacks from behind, we do not know. although seneca noted in 70 ad. that small objects were enlarged when viewed through a water-filled glass globe, it took leonardo da vinci (c. 1500) to realize that the optical effect was not due solely to the water. in 80 ad. myopia was recognized by plutarch. the first treatise on optics was written by an arabian astronomer in cairo in 1025 ad. his name was alhazen . .. i'm sure you've heard the name roger bacon. well, he describes the use of a magnifying glass to enlarge objects and correct the vision of aged persons (present company included). this was in 1266 in his opus major. however, he stopped short of describing spectacles. well finally, in 1285, an unknown person in northern italy took the handles of two magnifying glasses, riveted the ends together, and hung them on his nose. these were truly the first eyeglasses. of course, there are contradictions to this, but they have been put to rest-like salvino degli arm.ati of florence; like the bird of ghent; like marco polo who stated that he saw 27/3 chinese wearing glasses on his first trip to china in 1275. possibly eskimo sun shades predated spectacles, but they only had stenopaic slits-no lenses. in 1420, spectacle frames were being made of gold with beryl or crystal (quartz) lenses, mainly for scholars and monks. these were followed by_ frames of hom and leather. with the invention of printing in 1440, the whole use of spectacles took on new meaning. books were in schools, churches, and on the street. no more were monasteries and royal libraries their only repositories. we went public! this, of course, created a great demand for spectacles. by 1495, spectacles were being made so cheaply, and in such quantity in nuremberg, that ordinances regulating their production had to be enacted. concave and convex lenses were being made at that time. even henry viii had myopic lenses riveted into his jousting helmet (if he could find a horse to support him). in 1623, benito da~a de valdez, a spanish priest of the inquisition, wrote the first book about spectacles. 1666 brought isaac newton's famous prism experiment-breaking up white light into its colors. later, in 1727, edward scarlett in london invented temple pieces. ben franklin invented bifocals in 1784. franklin now he was a renaissance man par excellence, and certainly worthy of elaborating on here. he was the son of a boston soap boiler and tallow chandler and was an importer of goods (including optical). as a businessman, he was also a printer (remember poor richard/s almanac?), and despite his marital status, he was somewhat of a roue. he was an intellectual, an ambassador to france, and an inventor. in the latter role, he dedicated his ideas to mankind, wherein others go rich. his bifocals were included in this arena and were just another way to make ·life easier for an old man. in 1804, wollaston came up with the meniscus lens. thomas young, in 1815, discovered astigmatism. he did this by experimenting with his own quite marked astigmatic error. in 1850, helmholtz invented the ophthalmoscope. frederick cornelius donders, m.d., wrote a book on refraction in 1864. he was a professor of physiology and ophthalmology at the university of utrecht and another pioneer who doesn't collect the approbations he should presently. he was kind of the rodney dangerfield of his time. he, for the first time, explained much of the theory of refraction that we use to this day. to quote his preface: "in the doctrine of the anomalies of refraction and accommodation, the connection between science and practice is more closely drawn together than in any part of medicine." in 1865, william bowman invented the retinoscope. monoyer first used diopters in 1866. morch, in 1888, came up with the cement bifocal. then in 1890, prentice originated the prism diopter. in conclusion, this varied list of discoveries, inventions, inventors, and contributors, very vaguely outlines the development at the turn of the twentieth century. and as you can see, onward and upward, we've come a long way, baby. 27/4 notes from the o.a.i.c.c.: under the new title ophthalmic antiques the october 1993 issue of the newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club, no. 43, takes on a more attractive format. editor macgregor comments that the august 19 sale of medical instruments, spectacles, etc., was the largest ever held at christie's (london). he counted nine other club members present. the large number of buyers resulted in high prices. a pair of ordinary blued steel spectacles (broken) with a tuck-flap case and a note saying that they had belonged to the duke of wellington (the iron duke) were bought by a buyer on the telephone for £838. a pair of leather nose-spectacles in fragile -condition together with a wooden dug-out case of later date brought £4,135. a raphael's patent opsiometer of wooden construction brought £559. • age markings on antique spectacles and lenses.. is an article by jonathan s. pointer, pp. 3-7, in which age markings on early lenses vs. their dioptric powers are compared with the 17th century lens power recommendations of daca de valdez and with the total dioptric corrections for near in a statistical sample from the author's optometric office records. the age marking data were obtained by soliciting the information from o.a.i.c.c. members. their age markings were mostly from late 18th and early 19th century spectacles. this is an on-going study with further data contributions requested from collectors. on pp. 9-10, dr. helga beez, curator of the museum of optics, jena, germany, authors • a few words about spectacles, • an historical description of spectacle design and use as represented in the permanent exhibitions at the museum. the more than a hundred years' existence of curry & paxton ltd, dispensing opticians, london, is briefly described by derek c. davidson on page 11. the firm was started by messrs. curry and pickard in 1876 and taken over by boots ltd in the late 1980s. h.wh. an optical industry founder: .. johann heinrich august duncker (1767-1843), the son of a minister in the fishing village of rathenow, who trained for the ministry with incidental studies in mathematics and physics, is recognized among german augenoptiker as the founder of germany's historical role in the optical industry. while assisting in his father's church he started in his spare time making microscopes in 1792. in 1800 he and a fellow minister demonstrated their invention of a multiple spindle, hand-crank, lens surfacing machine to king frederick william ill of prussia. on march 1 0, 1801 , they acquired a concession for an •optische lndustrieanstalt zu rathenow• (optical industrial plant at rathenow). 27/5 the immediately subsequent years saw the human and economic sufferings related to the napoleonic advances. in 1803 duncker's partner wagener withdrew from the enterprise, but duncker's determination, energy, and competence soon identified him at the recognition level of such names as huygens, fresnel, and thomas young. he is given the credit for establishing germany as the optical industry center of the world. duncker's persistent mission was to make the best possible eyewear available to all who could be helped, including the visually impaired and poor. in 1815 he authored a booklet of advice about spectacles, their nature, selection, and application, with a second edition in 1820. in 1972 the firm bearing. his name was expropriated by the east german government and identified simply as the rathenower optische werke. still standing in the city is a four-pillar memorial and a bust of duncker in honor of the city's most famous son. the above information is from the february 20, 1993, issue of deutsche optiker zeitung, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 24-26 under the title, • johann h.a. duncker: begronder der rathenower optischen industria. • h.wh. allan ramsay's •the spectaclesn: included in the january 1993 issue of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club newsletter, no. 42, p. 3, is a •plain english• transcription of a poem published in 1729 in edinburgh in volume ii of •poems by allan ramsay, • on pages 116117. according to the o.a.i.c.c. newsletter, ramsay (1685-1758) was a popular scottish poet whose style was similar to that adopted with greater success by robert bums some thirty or forty years later. unable to track down the original publication through our interlibrary loan facility, i requested a photocopy from editor ronald j.s. macgregor so we could read it in the difficult but quaint early style of printed letters among which some of the s's look a bit like f's. he responded promptly, so here we reprint the original. the spectacles . .ie day when jooe, the high director, was merry o'er a bowl of nectar, refolved a prefent to bejtow, on the inhabitants below. mom.us, wha likes his joke and wine, was jent frae heaven with the propine: fait throw the ./ether-fields he whirl' d his rapid car, and reach'd the warld: conveen' d mankind, and tald them jooe had jent a token of his love, confidering that they were jhort jighted, 27/6 that faut lhou' d pre/ently be righted. sync loos'd his wallet frae the pillions, and tols'd out spectacles by millions. there were enow, and ilk an chole, his pair and cock' d them on his nole: • and thankfully their knees they bended to heaven, that thus their sight had mended. streight momus hameward took his flight, laughing fou' loud, as well he might for ye maun ken, 'tis but o'er true, the gialles were lome red, lome blue, some black, lome white, lome brown, lome green, which made the jame thing different leem. now all was wrong, and all was right, for ilk believ' d his aided sight, and did the joys of truth partake, in the ablurdeit grols mi/take. two emerging collectibles: h.wh. two historically significant books about spectacles, both of limited edition, and both of aesthetic design as though for reception room attention, may well become collectors' items within a decade or two if not already so on the dealers' lists. both are in english, though one was published in 1988 in leipzig under the sponsorship of the formerly east german foundation called the cari-zeiss-stiftung, and the other in 1962 in the formerly west germany firm of carl zeiss oberkochen/wuerth as a •special booklovers' edition. • with the reunification of germany and of the two zeiss firms both books must be out-of­ print. the 1988 book, •a spectacle of spectacles,• edited by wolf winkler, includes 20 pages of introductory remarks about the sponsoring foundation, seven hundred years of spectacles, and eyeglasses and art. the remaining 150 pages are a well illustrated catalogue of european and asian spectacles and graphic works depicting various types of early eyewear, with full documentary details. the 1962 book, •ocular sketches, .. is a collection of four •excerpts from world classics• that involve vision aids in their plots. about three-fourths of the book is the story •the spectacles• by edgar allan poe (1809-1849). the next two are translated, short,~ multiple-couplet poems by christian morgenstern (1871-1914) entitled •the unseen• and •the spectacles. • the fourth is •the spectacular ruin, 11 a fairy tale by mark twain (samuel langhom clemens, 1835-1910). the poe story, incidentally, was reviewed on page 12 of the january 1973 issue of this newsletter, vol. 4, no. 1. h.wh. 27/7 o.a.i.c.c. newsletter excerpts: the april 1994 issue of ophthalmic antiques, no. 47, announces that a craftsman named peter butler has produced reproductions of rivet spectacles for sale to club members and is working on the reproduction of leather spectacles. club member arthur frank asks why the word "binoculars .. should end in .. s," since .. bi" already connotes two. on pages 3-7 derek davidson authors an article on the history of the london optical firm of r. archer & sons ltd. which was established in 1859. the text clearly describes the close relationship of early spectacle making to jewelry and goldsmithing. on pages 6-7, colin fryer describes "ophthalmics in the reign of henry vlll,u including the roles of the church and the guilds. at the age of 37 henry had ••purchased 10 pairs of spectacles from thomas bentall for 3 shillings and 4 pence.•• h.wh. hofstetter symposium papers published: the august 1993 issue (vol. 70, no.8) of optometry and vision science contained the papers presented at the hofstetter symposium held at the december 1992 meeting of the american academy of optometry. the meeting was held in the optometric education section of the academy to honor henry hofstetter's contributions to optometric education. some historical topics were included. the titles and authors of the published papers were: a biographical sketch of henry hofstetter, meredith w. morgan graduate education in optometry-what do we need?, alden n. haffner a history of m.s. and ph.d. programs offered by schools and colleges of optometry in north america, david a. goss who will be tomorrow's optometric educators?, theodore grosvenor optometric history-who cares?, douglas k. penisten international cooperative exchange programs in clinical optometry, george c. woo an international perspective on optometric education, william r. baldwin teaching the traditional optometry with the new optometry, irvin m. borish the optometric literature-an editor's perspective, william m. lyle the optometric educator's role in public health issues, edwin c. marshall on optometric eponyms: probably ranking third place behind abbreviations and acronyms among the plagues hampering the historian are the eponyms. all three give the reader a minimum of identity of the phenomenon or entity involved except that the eponym connects it with a person whose name and contributions may be familiar. the only other gimmick less revealing than any of these three may be the numerical or alphabetical tagging or 27/8 identification of each member of a series, often used to imply sequence, priority, or other criterion of rank or separation typically obvious within the immediate context. ostensibly •to glorify the many contributors to behavioral optometry,~· the late homer hendrickson undertook the preparation of a dictionary of •eponyms of behavioral optometr-y• published posthumously by the optometric extension program, santa ana, california, in 1993 .... for each' of the' 120 eponyms a paragraph or more describes the entity itself together with at least one reference. unfortunately, the cited references do not necessarily provide the clues as to the historical origin of the eponyms, but they provide avenues of approach for anyone wishing to track down their earliest appearances. h.wh. a noble gesture: eyewear is so ubiquitous and of such variety of design as to suggest that is a purely current phenprnenon. it prompts little thought of its long and elegant history. so, it is gratifyin9.¥.>,)'i~y~je,9eived a tastefully assembled booklet from the optical company sola simultane6usiy":c6mmemorating its own 20th anniversary and the prior centuries ,, of eyewear~history with a coiqrful and cleverly chronological series of artistic illustrations. it is especia.liy suitable as a reception room item to be seen by persons who otherwise might be quite unaware of ou·rophthalmic heritage. its copyright date is 1995 by sola optical usa. . .... " managing editor and contributing editor: contributing editors: * * * david a. goss school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 u.s.a henry w hofstetter 1050 sassafras circle bloomington, in 47408 u.s.a douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 u.s.a h.wh. 1996-27-01-001 1996-27-01-002 1996-27-01-003 1996-27-01-004 1996-27-01-005 1996-27-01-006 1996-27-01-007 1996-27-01-008 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 remembrance: larry j. alexander 2016| page 48 remembrance john f. amos, o.d., m.s. eyedoc@uab.edu larry j. alexander, o.d. (1947-2016) it was with great sadness the profession learned of dr. larry alexander’s sudden passing on april 16, 2016. it caused me to reflect on larry’s career and the many times our careers intersected. i first met larry in 1969 when he was a third year student at indiana university. this was in the very early years when the seeds were being sown for the evolution of the profession to expand its scope of practice. this notion took root during the years of the vietnam conflict when many graduating or young optometrists served as optometry officers in the military. it was apparent to me that even as a student larry possessed a keen desire to see the profession change. he was insightful and always anxious to learn more beyond the interests of others. following graduation from the school of optometry at indiana university in 1971 larry served as an optometry officer in the u. s. navy. on his discharge from the navy in june 1973, he practiced in elizabeth city, north carolina. during his time in north carolina, i received a call from larry expressing an interest in academic optometry. after the appropriate interviews, larry joined the uab school of optometry in 1975 as an assistant professor in the department of optometry. he was the first of many young faculty who helped transform the uab school of optometry into the outstanding clinical program it became. his interest and passion was in the area of ocular disease. needless to say, he was a talented educator whom both students and practitioners enjoyed. during his 20 years at uab he developed several courses, but his primary clinical interest was in diseases of the vitreous and retina. this eventually led to his writing a book entitled primary care of the posterior segment. for many years, and through three editions, this book served as the standard for the profession in this area of eye care. on a personal note, larry and i had the opportunity to travel together and serve the school and profession on many occasions. he was friendly, gregarious, funny, caring, possessed a quick smile, and a wonderful laugh. sometimes just one look sent us both into gales of laughter we could not control. after he left uab to practice in indiana and kentucky he retired in mckinney, texas but continued to serve the profession in a number of ways. our paths continued to cross but not as frequently. i will miss larry for many reasons but always remember our many good times together and his significant contributions to optometry. figure 1. larry j. alexander (from the birmingham news, april 24, 2016) mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 63141 toll free: 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 | fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org and are heritage services programs of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 74 our history in focus: the first 100 years of the ohio state university college of optometry by robert d. newcomb columbus: the ohio state university; 2014. 232 pages. there are very few optometry schools that can trace their origins back 100 years, and the ohio state university college of optometry is the only university based optometry school that can do so. this book chronicles those 100 years at ohio state. columbia university was the first university to operate an optometry school, starting in 1910, but it closed in 1956. charles sheard (1883-1963) joined the ohio state faculty as a physics professor in 1907. in 1908 he gave a lecture to the ohio state optical association. the optometrists in attendance were so impressed with sheard that they encouraged him to try to start an optometry school at ohio state. in 1914, sheard submitted a proposal for an optometry school to the university president and by september there were 12 students registered in the two year program in applied optics as the optometry school was first known. sheard was the first head of the optometry school. in the lower right area of the collage of pictures hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 75 on the front cover (see above) there is a picture of charles sheard. there were nine students who completed the applied optics curriculum in 1916. the optometry program soon expanded to a four year curriculum. in 1918, the first student to receive a bachelor of science in applied optics from the department of physics graduated. the next graduates were eight students receiving their b.s. degrees in 1920. sheard left ohio state in 1919 for a research position at american optical company in southbridge, massachusetts. howard minchin was head of the applied optics program at ohio state from 1920 to 1929. in 1935, glenn a. fry was recruited to ohio state to head the applied optics program. a photograph of glenn fry taken in 1983 is toward the left in the middle row of pictures on the front cover. in the group picture just below that, glenn fry and henry hofstetter are the first two persons standing on the left side of the bottom row. in 1937, it was announced that the optometry degree would be changed from a b.s. in applied optics to a b.s. in optometry. in the 1930s, ohio state started a graduate program in physiological optics. herbert mote and howard haines received the first m.s. degrees in 1938 and henry hofstetter received the first ph.d. in 1942. in 1964, ohio state approved a six-year curriculum leading to the doctor of optometry (o.d.) degree. in 1966, frederick w. hebbard succeeded glenn fry as the director of ohio state’s optometry school. subsequent deans have been richard hill, john p. schoessler, melvin d. shipp, and karla zadnik. at the time of the writing of this book, ohio state had graduated 3,628 students in applied optics and optometry and awarded 347 m.s. and ph.d. degrees in physiological optics and vision science. this book includes a hundred page chronological history of the optometry school examining curriculum, facilities, research, leadership, and related topics; a seventy-five page section of biographical sketches of most of the faculty members in the school’s history; and lists of endowments, graduates, award recipients, and persons featured in the celebrity eyewear collection created by arol augsburger. this book is a fitting tribute to the optometry school at ohio state and the many persons who have contributed to its success. the book is profusely illustrated with blackand-white and color photographs. the author is robert d. newcomb, a b.s. (1970) and o.d. (1971) graduate of ohio state and former ohio state faculty member (1997-2012). he also holds an m.p.h. degree from the university of alabama at birmingham (1975) and is a member of the optometric historical society. our history in focus: the first 100 years of the ohio state university college of optoemtry. robert d. newcomb. columbus: the ohio state university 2014, 2014. 232 pages. hardcover. 20160615_bookreview_hindsight47-2_final 3 20160615_bookreview_hindsight47-2_final 4 hindsight_55_1_final.pdf the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 63141 toll free: 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 | fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org and are heritage services programs of hindsight_56_1_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 9 illuminating the path of optics: insights from dick whitney abstract this article explores the significant contributions of dick whitney to the field of optics, focusing on his pivotal role in developing american national standards institute (ansi) standards, advancing optical technology and preserving optical history. through an in-depth interview, whitney shares his journey, from his early beginnings at american optical (ao) to his leadership in international standards. the narrative is a summary of the interview and captures key historical moments, professional milestones and whitney’s insights on the evolution of optics, offering a valuable perspective for researchers, practitioners and historians. keywords optical history, optical technology, optics. evangelina laboy, ldo, mhsc assistant professor of optometry and licensed optician new england college of optometry boston, massachusetts laboye@neco.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v56i1.41587 article evangelina laboy, ldo, mhsc introduction the world of optics has been shaped by visionaries who dedicated their lives to refining standards, advancing technology and preserving history. among them, dick whitney stands as a beacon, with a career spanning five decades at ao and zeiss.1 ao, based in southbridge, massachusetts, and later zeiss, where whitney worked until his retirement, were central to his contributions. in this interview, whitney discusses the historical evolution of ansi standards, his role in shaping the optical industry, and the efforts to document its rich history. this interview summary provides insight into the interplay between technological advancements and the preservation of optical heritage. the historical evolution of ansi standards whitney’s contributions to ansi standards trace back to his early career, influenced by his father’s involvement. he highlights the transition from mandatory manufacturing standards in the 1960s to today’s voluntary guidelines, which have become ansi standards that provide a framework for quality and consistency in manufacturing and product evaluation, emphasizing quality adaptability. whitney recounts milestones like the adoption of plastic lenses in the 1970s, which necessitated a rethinking of tolerances. “standards evolve to reflect both market needs and technological capabilities,” whitney explains.2 a particular highlight was his advocacy for practical standards, balancing precision with real-world applications, as seen in his leadership on committees such as the international organization for standardization (iso). professional milestones: a career shaped by innovation starting in ao’s test lab in 1974, whitney’s career trajectory mirrored the industry’s evolution. he played a crucial role in developing the ao compact lens, a breakthrough in progressive lens technology that set new benchmarks. whitney also authored internal manuals, including one for lensometers, underscoring his commitment to education and process improvement. an inspiring story involves whitney’s personal connection to the lensometer, a device that revolutionized optics. he recounts how his father and key figures like dr. edgar tiller and dr. estelle glancy, renowned scientists, and contributors to optical instrument dick whitney, executive director of the optical heritage museum 10 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 design, influenced his understanding of the device’s calibration and usage. “i feel honored that the people who designed and developed the lensometer taught him,” whitney shares, reflecting on the intergenerational legacy. technological advancements: freeform technology and beyond a significant turning point in whitney’s career was the advent of freeform technology. freeform lenses were first introduced in the late 1990s, marking a significant technological advancement in the optics field. while initially daunting, he embraced its potential to redefine lens design and manufacturing. “freeform lenses changed the game,” whitney notes, “but they still face the same fundamental challenges as any other lens—aberrations and quality control.” whitney’s foresight in incorporating emerging trends into standards, such as blue-light-filtering lenses and myopia control, highlights his adaptability. his efforts in defining spectral bands and addressing challenges in uv and blue-light specifications are exemplary of his forward-thinking approach. preserving optical history: the museum and legacy in addition to his professional achievements, whitney is deeply invested in preserving optical history. as a key figure at the optical heritage museum located in southbridge, massachusetts, he has curated artifacts and narratives that bridge the past and present.3,4 among the museum’s treasures are the first-ever lensometer from 1921 and calibration lenses from 1916. these artifacts, recognized by asme engineering as milestones, highlight the museum’s significance. hosting international delegations in 2017, whitney showcased the museum’s treasures to experts from 13 countries. ‘that was the highlight of my career,’ he recalls, emphasizing the importance of connecting global optical advancements with their historical roots. conclusion dick whitney’s legacy is a testament to the power of standards, innovation and history in shaping the field of optics. his journey offers invaluable lessons for future optometrists and researchers, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, collaboration and a deep respect for history. from technological breakthroughs to preserving optical heritage, whitney’s contributions illuminate the interconnectedness of past and future in the world of vision. acknowledgements thank you to dick whitney and the team at the optical heritage museum for the opportunity to conduct the interview summarized in this article. references 1. dick whitney, an industry mainstay, has retired from zeiss vision, vision monday. friday, october 13, 2023. available at: https://www.visionmonday.com/people/article/dick-whitneyan-industry-mainstay-has-retired-from-zeiss/. accessed november 18, 2024. 2. ansi history. available at: https://www.ansi.org/about/history. accessed november 15, 2024. 3. optical heritage museum. available at: https://www. opticalheritagemuseum.com/. accessed november 15, 2024. 4. meet the board optical heritage museum. available at: https://www.opticalheritagemuseum.com/see/board. accessed november 15, 2024. article evangelina laboy, ldo, mhsc microsoft word ohsfrontcover hindsight journal of optometry history january, 2011 volume 42, number 1 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: irving bennett (2012), 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com vice-president: douglas k. penisten (2011) secretary-treasurer: arol augsburger (2013) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) jay m. enoch (2014) alden norm haffner (2014) chuck haine (2012) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the o an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 1 hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2011 volume 42, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 947202020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents ohs news……………………………………………………………………………..2 the subcommittee on vision and its disorders, jay m. enoch………………….3 reflections on the ups and downs of optometry’s relationship with organized medicine and organized ophthalmology, alden n. haffner……………………..10 william bohne (1827-1906), author of handbook for opticians, first textbook by an american optometrist, david a. goss………………………………………………14 how soft contact lenses came to the usa, irving bennett……………………..17 some doctors of medicine who published optometry books and played significant roles in early twentieth century optometric education, david a. goss………20 covd: recapitulating 40 years of excellence, leonard j. press………………29 book review: a boy from missouri: my life story, david a. goss……………...37 instructions to authors………………………………………………………………..38 ohs membership application form…………………………………………………40 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. o p j d e a b t o b c t p c o t t h a ohs ne please note journal of o dues not each year. and instruct ballot to the change of the ohs based on th call for the board w position are change in b opportunity thank you f the photog held in octo alden n. ha hindsight: j ews e that there optometry h tice for 2 this volunt tions for su o amend in bylaws b executive heir meeting r nominat will expire a e requested bylaws, nom to make yo for your atte raph below ober, 2010. affner. journal of optom are three e history. th 2011. a du teer organi bmitting yo optomet by this ballo board from g of octobe tions to t t the end o d. and if the minations w our nomina ention to th w is of the o left to rig metry history…. enclosures hey are: es notice is zation grea our dues are tric histo ot will result m seven to n er, 2010. the exec f the 2011 c e number o will be neede tions for tho hese matter ohs board ht are: jay .january, 2011, v included w s always se atly apprecia e included o orical so t in an incre nine, as rec utive bo calendar ye of board me ed for those ose board rs and than members w enoch, ch volume 42, num with this issu ent with the ates your s on the dues ociety by ease in the commended ard. dou ear, so nom embers is in e two positi positions. k you for yo who attende huck haine, mber 1, page 2 ue of hinds first issue support. th s notice for ylaws. ap number of d by the ex ug penisten minations fo ncreased b ions. pleas our support ed the boa irving ben sight: of hindsigh he address rm. pproval of f members xisting boar n’s term on or that boar y the se take this t of ohs! rd meeting nnett, and ht rd rd s hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 3 the subcommittee on vision and its disorders jay m. enoch. o.d., ph.d., dr(s). sci. (h.c.) professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 94720-2020; home: 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, washington 98033-7413; jmenoch@berkeley.edu introduction here, i refer specifically to a transmittal letter dated november 1, 1966, and addressed to richard r. masland, m.d., then the director of the national institute of neurological diseases and blindness (nindb), national institutes of health (nih). i will call attention to other pertinent related documents and activities. the letter to which i refer here was signed by prof. bernard becker, chairman, subcommittee on vision and its disorders, and prof. jay m. enoch, the executive secretary of the subcommittee. enclosed with that letter to designated recipients, was the two volume report of the nindb subcommittee on vision and its disorders. the first volume addressed the essential problems then being faced relative to the organization of vision research and vision care in the usa, as well as a discussion of the then available financing of vision research during that time period. necessary arguments and data in support of the stated subcommittee proposals were provided. the second volume of the subcommittee report contained detailed descriptions of vision research then being conducted in the usa and elsewhere, additional experiments being proposed in each of several areas of eye and vision research in the usa, as well as data and arguments offered in support of the sub-committee report. the second volume was sufficiently voluminous to be divided into two printed sections (thus, resulting, in effect, in a three volume report). although not overtly stated, this subcommittee report provided the essential argument for, and much of the data used to support, the highly coordinated and concentrated (and ultimately successful) effort to create a national eye institute (nei) at the nih. both major ophthalmic professions, ophthalmology and optometry, supported this activity. while prof. becker and i remain available, sadly, most all other members of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders have passed on. i have been urged by a number of colleagues within ophthalmology and optometry to describe the events, the then existing conditions, etc., which led to this activity, and the results of this and other actions then being taken to create the now very dynamic, well-established, and distinguished national eye institute. at that time, there were three individuals associated with vision, eye-care, and vision rehabilitation of the visually impaired on the then constituted national advisory neurological diseases and blindness council of the nih. they were bernard becker, m.d., professor and chairman, department of ophthalmology, washington university in hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 4 saint louis school of medicine, saint louis, missouri; v. everett kinsey, ph.d., professor and assistant director of research, the kreske eye institute, wayne state univeristy, detroit, michigan; and father thomas j. carroll, s.j., boston's catholic guild for all the blind,* newton, massachusetts. the subcommittee on vision and its disorders was appointed by the nindb council. * the writer never had the pleasure of meeting the late father carroll, although he and prof. enoch used to chat often on the telephone. frankly, he was quite a lot of fun, and he certainly knew his topic (low vision care) very well indeed! in turn, "the subcommittee on vision and its disorders, nindb, nih," was composed of the following appointed members: 1. prof. bernard becker, m.d., chairman, department of ophthalmology, washington university medical school, st. louis, mo. he served as the chairman of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders, nindb, nih. 2. research assoc. prof. jay m. enoch, b.s. optics and optom.; ph.d., physiological optics; honorary degrees: (1) dr. sci. (h.c.), the regents of new york state; and (2) dr. sci. (h.c.), la universitat politècnica de catalunya (barcelona, catalunya, espagña). he was associated with the department of ophthalmology, washington university medical school, st. louis, mo., and executive secretary and member, of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders, nindb, nih. 3. prof. mathew alpern, mnas, o.d., ph.d., physiological optics, professor, department of ophthalmology, the u. of michigan, michigan medical center, ann arbor, mi. 4. prof. goodwin m. breinin, m.d., chairman, department of ophthalmology, new york university, school of medicine, new york, ny. 5. prof. v. everett kinsey, ph.d., assistant director of research, the kresge eye institute, wayne state university, detroit, mi. 6. prof. irving h. leopold, m.d., professor and director, the department of ophthalmology, the mount sinai hospital, new york, n.y. 7. prof. a. edward maumenee, m.d., chairman, department of ophthalmology, and director, the wilmer institute, the johns hopkins university, school of medicine, baltimore, md. 8. prof. frank w. newell, m.d., chairman, section on ophthalmology, university of chicago, chicago, il. 9. prof. george k. smelser, ph.d. anatomy, director, ophthalmic research, columbia university, college of physicians and surgeons, new york, ny. (note: enoch worked his way through columbia college, columbia university, and the columbia university school of optometry, as a laboratory assistant, test subject, etc., in the laboratory of prof. george smelser.) dr. smelser also arranged for enoch to work as a researcher at mass. eye and ear hospital in boston with profs./drs. david cogan and everett kinsey during the summer as an undergraduate student. the research groups at columbia and harvard worked on different phases of the same research program. 10. lorenz e. zimmerman, m.d., chief, ophthalmic pathology branch, armed forces institute of pathology, walter reed army medical center, washington, d.c. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 5 as a first task, enoch was asked to visit the individual offices, institutions, and organizations of the members of the sub-committee for 2-3 days each. the intent was to familiarize him with the individual members, with their hopes/expectations and interests as members of the sub-committee, and, in so doing, to familiarize him with the status of eye and vision research and eye care provision at that time in the united states of america. as will become evident, these members were selected to provide a breadth of interests in eye and vision care, and from enoch's point of view and assignment, for him to see the different existing research, eye-care, and organizational arrangements in the several institutions of the participating committee members. he also sought to obtain a feel for the current status of eye and vision research in the united states, including topics of study (and strengths and weaknesses in the existing programs), availability of facilities, training regimens, service regimens, etc. he also sought to determine the perceived needs of these able individuals in the conduct of their research programs. he was able to visit all of the offices and laboratories of the committee members except for that of dr. l. zimmerman. so saying, during the korean war, enoch had been assigned to walter reed army hospital for some period of time, and he was quite familiar with that organization (eye clinic and facility, artificial eye program, added special facilities/clinics), but not with the very distinguished armed forces institute of pathology (with which dr. zimmerman was affiliated) which was/is (still?) located on that military base (walter reed a.h.) in washington, d.c. this series of visits proved to be a very valuable experience, because enoch developed a close relationship with each of these very capable committee members. he was most interested in their views and perceived/suggested approaches to new research developments in eye-care, and to how they felt that our overall eye research programs could be strengthened. enoch was very much encouraged by their thoughts and individual proposals. in turn, he was assigned to take the lead in preparing the report of the subcommittee under the supervision of dr. becker and in consultation with assoc. director of the nindb, dr. eldon eagles. this proved to be a hard-working and very capable group of researchers! yes, there were differences in individual approaches proposed, but most all differences in approach were readily resolved, as we proceeded readily with our major reviews and developed and recommended proposals for future growth of eye and vision research. actually, the national institute for neurological diseases and blindness council had established two sub-committees working separately, but in parallel: (a) one on eye and vision care, and (b) one on human communication and its disorders (the latter group dealing with a number of topics including auditory care and hearing disorders). the second committee was chaired by prof. joseph ogura. he served as chairman of the ear, nose, and throat department at washington university in st. louis. joe ogura's program and bernie becker's group both shared mcmillan hospital located at the barnes and washington university medical center in st. louis. just as bernard becker was distinguished for his research program on glaucoma, ogura's practice and lab worked on major surgical procedures for cancer of the throat and neck. for the hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 6 record, i should state, joe ogura also provided for the enoch's family's ent needs at that time. at the time enoch was employed at the barnes/washington university in st. louis medical center, there was also space in mcmillan hospital for the distinguished washington university programs in neurology and neurosurgery (bishop and o'leary, etc.). while the two subcommittees, both becker's and ogura's were working in parallel, in fact, we did not interact a great deal. our program in eye and vision completed its work quite a bit earlier than the second group working on human communications and its disorders. the sub-committee's charge was quite straight-forward: 1. to review the (then) present status of knowledge in respect to vision and its disorders. 2. to review the present status of research and training in these fields. 3. on the basis of what was learned in (1) and (2), to present to the nindb council recommendations with respect to the further development of the institute's program in vision and its disorders. this ad hoc sub-committee was further instructed to answer the following questions: what are the major causes of blindness and visual disabilities? what are the best ways of attacking these problems? what should the nindb be doing in order to assist the scientific community in their research on these problems? the subsequent report issued (after about two years) by the sub-committee was printed in three bound volumes for limited distribution to selected individuals. the first volume included a brief summary of current research and the current status of knowledge in the fields of vision and eye care. also included were surveys of the causes of visual disorders and blindness, data on then current, past, and projected support of eye and vision research, and the subcommittee's recommendations for future program development. the second volume was presented as two separate bound documents (because of the lengths of the component chapters). it included surveys of the current status of research in each of the several areas of interest in the ophthalmic field/domain. while the report did not recommend development of a separate national eye institute(!), in fairness, one could not ignore this implied conclusion. support for a separate institute was unanimous among members of the sub-committee. to enoch's knowledge, this was not the originally planned conclusion of this set of endeavors. so saying, this proved to be an essentially inescapable recommended outcome of this massive effort. while we were working on our document, the somewhat similar report of the future proposed heart, lung, and cancer programs was released. it was very well written(!), and it provided the group with a good working model for organization and content of our report. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 7 the work load of the subcommittee grew and grew. two typists were employed full time typing and adapting the submitted material to the desired format. they amazed me with their prodigious output with an absolute minimum of typing errors. at roughly that stage of the process, it became evident that we needed capable editorial assistance to bring the several submissions into common format and style, to correct grammatical errors, and to give some polish to the document as a whole. enoch had conducted studies of retinal receptor properties on more than one occasion with prof. barry commoner in the department of biology located on the main campus of washington university. prof. commoner, and his capable associate, dr. townsend, proved to be very able researchers. barry also had a political side. i don't want to get into discussion of all of this here, but he also had two very able science writers in his employ, mr. sheldon novick, and mr. lynn mattison. importantly, they did not insinuate their own views upon those of their employers. so saying, they were quick to note errors in a stated argument, or to recognize when they were presented with an imperfect expression of ideas. at that time, barry commoner's political aspirations were somewhat on the wane, and his two able science writers were not being fully utilized. enoch employed them to correct the grammar/spelling on all of our voluminous material, to assist in bringing the several chapters into a more common format, and to help him, as needed, to research data on funding and research resources available to the eye and vision research scientific group. novick and mattison proved to be very able helpers. then available data on causes and prevalence of eye diseases and disorders at that time, one of our collective surprises/disappointments in preparing our arguments for the nindb was the frank sparseness of quality ophthalmic disease data then available in the usa, and the existence of only limited reliable data on the prevalence of a small sample of specific eye diseases in the united states. and, we found that many published estimates were based upon rather limited data samples, etc. fortunately, recently published and superior modern data on a broad range of eye conditions were then available in canada. while distribution of individuals by race, and other factors, was no doubt a bit different in canada, the way of life and the quality of life in the two nations, the usa and canada, were in many ways comparable. their published data at that time proved both to be timely and to be much better organized for thoughtful analyses. we made good use of this valuable resource. all nih financial and other data cited in this report were provided by the nindb through contact with dr. eldon eagles, associate director, nindb. as noted, he was enoch's designated contact at the nindb. he was very generous with his time and his advice, and he cooperated fully in all aspects of this endeavor! when requests for data were presented to him, he cooperated fully with those requests. thus, enoch was surprised when the nindb council limited distribution/publication of the document upon completion! all printed copies were numbered. recipients of the report were named and no exceptions were made. no copies were distributed to individuals not on the approved list. the nindb council accepted the document, but chose not to act on it! hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 8 one assumes this action may have been related to the inclusion of the not-overtly stated proposal for a new national eye institute. apparently, subsequently, one or more of those individuals on the distribution list, to whom a copy of the sub-committee report was submitted, arranged for the introduction/inclusion of the entire document in the congressional record. this happened more than once! enoch does not know who made this/these entries. there was no secret (nor deceptive action) associated with any stage of the preparation of the report of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders. i found this all to be very curious! in particular, the late prof. edward maumenee of johns hopkins university was very pleased with the finished document, and he stated to prof. enoch, "jay, how did you know how to write such a document?" [enoch really did not know how to so do! he simply did what seemed to be appropriate!] subsequently, after congressional action relative to creation of a national eye institute, a copy of this lengthy report was sent to the office of the director, national eye institute (both drs. carl kupfer (original director, nei) and paul sieving (current director, nei) have received original copies. as an interesting side-comment, when dr. carl kupfer wrote his history of the nei, he stated to enoch that he should have included data sources relating to the then current funding for eye research described/discussed in the subcommittee report. enoch could not understand this remark, as all sources had been carefully numbered and cited!(?) that is, enoch knew that on a page in volume 1, these important data sources were properly identified by number! those numbers corresponded to numbered references contained in the text in volume 1. enoch checked his records. he found that the page to which dr. kupfer referred was indeed included in the original final draft of this report! and it was this draft copy (enoch retains a copy) that was reproduced in the printed version of the report. enoch then checked his copy of the printed report, and found to his amazement that this particular page had not been included in the printed version! how-ever did this occur? there were no games being played! at this time, enoch can only apologize for this curious omission during printing of the final document. copies of the page of citations can now be found in the office of the director of the nei, and in a limited number of ophthalmic libraries, and can be obtained by writing enoch at his home (see introductory material). please include a mailing address. of course, dr. bernard becker has now received a copy as well. once again, virtually-all fiscal data cited in the report were received (some offered without request, some requested) from dr. eldon eagles, then associate director, nindb. some of these data sets were received from the then director of the nindb, dr. r. masland (as usual, though dr. eagles). for further discussion of this general set of topics, but not of the recently discovered missing page of references, the writer suggests the reader refer to his article hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 9 written some years ago in the summer, 1994 issue of the journal of optometric education, and please refer to letters to the editor in the referenced document.1 this letter was sent by enoch in response to that journal's discussion presented upon the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the national eye institute. reference 1. enoch jm. letter to the editor. j optom ed 1994;19:104-105. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 10 reflections on the ups and downs of optometry’s relationship with organized medicine and organized ophthalmology alden n. haffner, o.d., ph.d. president emeritus, state university of new york, state college of optometry, 33 west 42nd street, new york, ny 10036, anhaffner@msn.com in 1937, dr. albert fitch, then president of the pennsylvania college of optometry, sought legislation in the commonwealth of pennsylvania to authorize optometrists to use both diagnostic and therapeutic drugs. it was 34 years before the state of rhode island and 30 years before the state of west virginia enacted their statutes. fitch’s efforts were defeated by an amazing single vote. it certainly set the stage for epic battles in succeeding years. the court of common pleas in philadelphia in 1914 decided that a statute passed the prior year (1913) that amended the powers of the commonwealth’s bureau of medical education and licensure to include the regulation of branches of medicine, did not include optometrists because optometrists did not practice surgery or diagnose diseases which were necessary to qualify optometry as constituting a branch of medicine. the importance of this case was later recognized in ohio where efforts by the medical board of ohio to classify optometry as a “minor branch of medicine,” which decision was reversed when ohio’s optometrists brought suit, citing pennsylvania. the optometrists prevailed. other cases around the country cited the pennsylvania and ohio decisions. dr. john classé in his wonderful book, legal aspects of optometry, states: “…but optometry was to find these decisions judicially confining later in the century. for the courts, the word, ‘optometry’ was restricted to a surgery-less, drug-less, diagnosisless occupation that, for those reasons could not be considered a ‘branch’ of medicine or surgery.”1 martin vs. baldy et al. on monday, april 15, 1915, the supreme court of pennsylvania handed down a decision of historic importance. the supreme court of pennsylvania held conclusively that the optometrist has a priori right to examine eyes, prescribe and fit lenses and that optometry is not a branch of medicine. and it was ruled that optometry could not be regulated by the state board of medicine as a “minor branch” of medicine. cyrus bass case in 1964, dr. cyrus bass of chicago, not an american optometric association (aoa) member, brought legal action against the american medical association (ama) and nine practicing ophthalmologists, charging the making of a conspiracy to hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 11 monopolize the eye market of cases and the sale of ophthalmic eyewear and to restrain trade and commerce in the dispensing of eyeglasses. with much fanfare, dr. bass sought financial help from optometrists through the international association of boards of examiners in optometry (iab). an explosion of debate in organized optometry followed, but, in the end, dr. bass did not achieve the financial help he sought. with the bass case pending, in 1966 the house of delegates of the american medical association voted to rescind the anti-optometry resolution of 1955 – “the benefit of medical progress and existing opportunities for the prevention of blindness can be realized if there is no avoidable delay between the onset of abnormalities or their symptoms and the provision of medical care by qualified physicians. the improvement of educational standards of optometry is a laudable objective. doctors of medicine may, as teachers, participate in the education of optometrists within the legitimate scope of optometric practice.” the following year, 1967, the bass case was “settled” (not adjudicated) with the presiding judge noting the aforementioned ama resolution. the rhode island and west virginia advances in 1971, the first diagnostic drug bill was passed and signed into law in the state of rhode island. this legislative initiative was attacked bitterly in the courts as being unconstitutional. but the rhode island supreme court held that the ophthalmological filing on the case could not establish the injury necessary to bring such a legal challenge. the law was allowed to stand as it was enacted. in 1976, the legislature of west virginia enacted a statute authorizing drugs to be used by optometrists for therapeutic purposes. this was accomplished over the governor’s veto. this was the very first legislatively authorized right given to optometrists to treat diseases. the constitutionality of the west virginia statute was unsuccessfully challenged in the courts thus establishing ocular therapy as a legal part of optometric practice. dozens of legal skirmishes have taken place in the courts, both state and federal, since rhode island (diagnostic pharmaceutical agents) and west virginia (therapeutic pharmaceutical agents) and, while they are all important, overwhelmingly the courts have held for optometry and against ophthalmology and medicine as plaintiffs. tonometry and contact lenses in 1976, the food and drug administration (fda) classified contact lenses as a “drug,” thus asserting jurisdiction in the field. a case was brought by colorado ophthalmologists seeking to prohibit the fitting of a drug, “contact lenses.” in the same legal suit, the colorado ophthalmological establishment sought to have declared as illegal the use of tonometers by optometrists to test for ocular pressure and, thereby, glaucoma. optometry decidedly won both the tonometry issue and the contact lens fitting issue, no matter how classified. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 12 lee optical vs williamson the optometrists in oklahoma had been able to secure passage of a model law regulating the physical aspects of the practice of optometry. the statute was immediately assaulted by commercial optometrists and by opticians in the federal district court in tulsa. the decision of the court, upheld on appeal, favored commercial practice. in this case, ophthalmologists were defined as “pure professionals,” opticians were defined as “skilled artisans,” and optometrists were defined as “quasi-professional.” optometry never recovered from this professional classification stance by the federal courts giving ophthalmology an advantage. sb 230 in west virginia the year 2010 signals a major new chapter for optometry and for its legal and administrative relationships with ophthalmology/medicine. this is occasioned by the passage of “sb 230” in west virginia. it is my view that a new “landmark” for optometry has been achieved because of the new ground it breaks:  this statute – sb 230 – provides new administrative language outlining and upgrading the powers and duties of the west virginia state board of optometry.  it codifies surgical procedures including foreign body removal (both surface and imbedded), epilation of lashes, punctum plug procedures, etc.  it enables the use of an administrative law judge.  it codifies contact lenses that deliver pharmaceutical agents.  it gives the west virginia board of examiners rule making authority to add “requirements for an expanded scope of practice procedures taught in at least 50 percent of the accredited optometry schools”.  new drugs may be added to the formulary by approval of the board.  the statute adds laboratory tests to be ordered by optometrists to the scope of practice of optometry.  the statute adds epinephrine by injection as needed in anaphylaxis and such other drugs as the board may determine.  cpr training is required for injection authority.  the statute authorized the use of diagnostic lasers.  the executive secretary of the board may sign consent decrees and issue subpoenas.  it codifies the board’s use of reprimands, mandatory continuing education, supervised practice as necessary, that can be used for issues of discipline. with the enforcement of sb 230, medical and ophthalmological challenges will assuredly occur. surgery by optometrists a provocative article, “should ophthalmologists teach surgery to optometrists?” appeared in the october, 2008, issue of the archives of ophthalmology.2 it is an editorial authored by well-known ophthalmologists and medical ethicists samuel packer, david w. parke ii, and edmund d. pellegrino. the authors’ arguments center on moral, clinical and legal grounds. they rationalize several aspects of opposition. their hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 13 rationale is long, detailed and deliberative. in a concluding statement, they said, “the ethical permissibility and desirability of ophthalmologic surgical education of nonphysicians will depend on a careful assessment by the teacher (unbiased by considerations of personal gain) of the training and competence of the student audience with regard to the entire care process (preoperative, operative, and postoperative), the likely environment and manner in which the material will be used, and the likelihood of adverse individual outcomes arising from the teaching act.” the three authors did not state why they undertook this editorial exercise. no published optometric response has been forthcoming in the two years since publication. acknowledgements this article is based on a presentation made at the optometric historical society reminisce-in in october, 2010, in san francisco in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry. this presentation was delivered before the new kentucky law expanding optometric scope of practice was passed. references 1. classé jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989. 2. packer s, parke dw ii, pellegrino ed. should ophthalmologists teach surgery to optometrists? arch ophthalmol 2008;126:1458-1459. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 14 william bohne (1827-1906), author of handbook for opticians, first textbook by an american optometrist david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract william bohne (1827-1906) was a teacher in germany before emigrating to the united states in 1852. he worked as an optician (as optometrists were known at that time) in new orleans in the second half of the nineteenth century. his book, handbook for opticians, which went through three editions, appears to have been the first optical care textbook written by an american optometrist. this paper gives a brief biographical sketch of bohne and a description of the contents of the third edition of his book. key words: optometry books, optometry history. hand-book for opticians by william bohne appears to have been the first optical care textbook written by an american optometrist. the first edition appeared in 1888.1 a similar monograph, but likely for promotional purposes, was fitting glasses, published by james queen and company, also in 1888. william august bohne was born november 16, 1827, in melle, germany.2,3 he had a number of years of college work in germany, during which he studied languages, mathematics, physics, and other subjects. he then was a public school teacher in germany for four years. when he started having lung problems, it was recommended that he move to a warmer climate.4,5 in 1852, bohne emigrated to new orleans, where he learned watchmaking. he opened a store as “watch-maker and optician” in 1857, devoting himself mostly to optical work after 1868.5 in the 1870 and 1880 federal census for new orleans his occupation was listed as optician.2 in 1898, about a month before his seventy-first birthday, bohne was the first person elected to the office of second vice-president of the american association of opticians, the organization that was to become the american optometric association.6 bohne died december 19, 1906 in new orleans. bohne published the first edition of handbook for opticians, a 108 page book, in 1888. the 251 page second edition followed in 1892. the third edition, composed of 276 pages, was published in 1895. frederick boger3 said that bohne “…as a writer is above all things practical. whenever he writes he takes a subject that is useful, and discusses it in an able and intelligent manner. he never attempts to write upon any subject until he has made himself thoroughly familiar with it.” (p. 487) speaking of bohne’s handbook for opticians, boger said that bohne “talks to his readers in an hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 15 unconventional, naïve, frank and engaging way, that is very charming in its quaint simplicity and foreign tone.” (p. 488) i examined a copy of the third edition of handbook for opticians. the third edition is organized into 29 chapters plus an index. the first 14 chapters (pages 9-108) cover optics, characteristics of lens and of spectacle frames, and related topics. while theoretical background is provided, there is also practical technical information, such as determination of prism power, locating the optical centers of lenses, setting lenses in spectacle frames, and selecting frames. bohne did not often use the term bifocals, but described two types of such “double focus” lenses as double focus single lenses and split glasses. bohne used diopters as a unit in the book, noting that “all first-class opticians” had adopted that unit by 1875 (p. 11) to emphasize the usefulness of the metric diopter, he described the confusion with the previous inch system in that the paris inch (27.07 mm), the english inch (25.3 mm), the austrian inch (26.34 mm), and the prussian inch (26.15 mm) were all different lengths. chapters xv through xxiv (pages 109-178) dealt with characteristics of the eye and methods of examination and treatment. after a discussion of the anatomy of the eye in chapter xv, refractive conditions were covered in the next two chapters. the following chapters investigated topics such as the ophthalmoscope, “second sight” and cataract, emergency care for eye injuries (“till professional aid can be procured,” p. 155), artificial eyes, different light sources, and tears. bohne suggested that myopia was “artificially acquired”: “this defect of sight is not known among uncivilized nations, or in ancient times when people did not use their eyes on small objects, and in artificial light. it is more frequent since the invention of printing, and of improved lamps and lights.” (p. 127) he anticipated studies on the intermediate resting state of accommodation conducted in the second half of the twentieth century when he stated: “…let me correct the general error that the normal eye is in a state of absolute rest when it is adjusted to bring parallel rays to a focus on the retina. the far-point as well as the near one necessitates an effort of the accommodation, and the point of absolute rest lies consequently between the two.” (p. 133) however, bohne attributed the intermediate rest position of accommodation to opposing muscular forces in the ciliary muscle whereas today’s explanations are neural. the remainder of the book contains a variety of material. of particular note are chapters xxvi and xxvii (pages 184-243). the first of these two chapters presented a history of the invention of spectacles and of the development of the optical trade. chapter xxvii consists of short biographies of numerous “prominent opticians, scientists, and inventors.” most of the entries were for persons from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. a number of world renown scientists, such as newton, galileo, kepler, helmholtz, robert hooke, thomas young, etc., were included, plus many notable eighteenth and nineteenth century opticians/optometrists, such as john and peter dollond, j.m. johnston, john mcallister, james prentice, charles prentice, and hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 16 james queen. most of the 114 biographical entries were a quarter to a half of a page in length, but those for charles spencer (1813-1881), robert b. tolles (1823-1883), and joseph zentmayer (1826-1888) each extended for more than two pages. chapter xxviii (pages 244-258) was entitled “miscellanies,” an apt description of a collection of short notes on the relation of opticians and oculists, refractive errors, accommodation, neutralization of lenses, and the nature of light. chapter xxix was a glossary, which was followed by endmatter including a list of abbreviations and an index. it seems likely that bohne’s authoritative writing and the broad coverage of practical optical matters made this book an important resource in its time. references 1. worldcat online library catalog. 2. ancestry.com. 3. boger f. bird’s eye view of the optical business, evolution of an idea. optical j 1897;11:457-503. 4. anonymous. death of william bohne. optical j 1906;18:1470. 5. bohne w. hand-book for opticians: a treatise on the optical trade, and its mechanical manipulations, 3rd ed. new orleans; griswold, 1895:207-208. 6. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:9. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 17 how soft contact lenses came to the usa irving bennett, o.d. 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com many of us who have lived during the making history do not always recall the happenings exactly, or as accurately, as they had occurred. we all agree that it becomes very important to record happenings as close to when they occur. the events described in this article are a case in point. many of the optometrists living today were in practice when soft contact lenses debuted in the late 1960s. and most know that robert morrison, o.d., of harrisburg, pa, was instrumental in getting these lenses to market. most, however, do not know the intrigue and maneuvering that went on to get the soft lens material to bausch and lomb and eventually into optometric offices. most readers know that the gel material used in the development of soft contact lenses was developed by chemistry professor otto wichterle of prague, czechoslovakia in the late 1950s or early 1960s. what many readers do not know is how the patent for the material was transferred to bausch and lomb (b&l) in the united states. rumor has it that robert morrison, o.d., pioneer contact lens specialist and optometrist to european royalty (that story must wait for another day), was the one who sold the patent rights for the gel to b&l. not the case. harold stein, m.d., of toronto, canada, an internationally respected contact lens authority who has written extensively on the history of contact lenses, noted in a recently published paper that morrison was “not only an expert in contact lenses, but also he was an innovative, creative and astute observer who was among the first to recognize the importance of hydrogel materials to the development of soft contact lenses.”1 stein wrote on the beginning of dr. morrison’s efforts to get a material suitable for a soft contact lens that would absorb water rather than repel it: “while in czechoslovakia, an optical firm told him (morrison) about a new type of material that was being developed in prague,” noted stein. “he headed to prague to visit with chemist dr. wichterle who was then perfecting the hydrogel material. it was initially applied in the manufacturing of an artificial mandible, but dr. wichterle soon found that he could spin cast it into a contact lens he felt it had excellent properties for fitting a contact lens with hydrophilic properties, unlike other contact lens materials at that time which were hydrophobic.”1 this happened in early 1960s. morrison had a number of meetings with the czech professor who gave him a small sampling of the new product to take back to harrisburg, pa for testing. dr. morrison worked long and hard in his lab with the sample of the hema gel material; he knew that it was far away from a finished lens for patient use. he knew, hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 18 too, that one of the first hurdle was to get the material under a patent. dr. wichterle had promised, or at least inferred, that he (morrison) would be offered the opportunity to patent the invention. morrison was shocked, then, when he got a telephone call shortly after his trip to prague from martin pollock, a patent attorney with national patent company. according to the book man of vision: the story of robert morrison by rosanne knorr and kevin kremer, the conversation went like this2: pollock said, “i understand that dr. wichterle is going to assign the patents for his hema plastic to you.” “that’s my understanding, yes,” replied morrison. then pollock said “our company, national patent development, represents major names in business – westinghouse, ge – and we are experts on eastern european patent rights. i’d like to discuss how we might work with you.” the book goes on to explain that discussions between morrison and pollock went absolutely nowhere; there was a real impasse. soon morrison learned that there were others in the usa and some abroad also trying to get involved with professor wichterle. the professor did not know which way to go. a year or so later, before any agreement was signed with anyone, dr. morrison and dr. wichterle met at wichterle’s home in prague when wichterle said, “robert, i have decided that i must give patent rights to the gel to someone who can use them in the western hemisphere and, perhaps, in some other areas as well.”3 he then told dr. morrison that he was “one of my top choices.”4 as morrison learned later, a mr. sroneck of polytechna, representing the czech academy of science, really wanted two groups in on the sale contract in order to prevent a payment default. eventually the actual patents for the soft lens hema gel for the western hemisphere and a few other countries were signed by robert morrison and the national patent development corporation – 50:50 – as co-owners of the flexible contact lens co, formed for this purpose and registered in delaware. they were “hostile” partners and soon morrison sued national patent for millions. morrison offered to buy national patent’s half of the patent rights or he offered national patent the opportunity to buy his half. the negotiations that followed were hairy and eventually national patent agreed to buy the morrison share. getting the money to make the payments was something else; the payment schedule was often “nearly” violated.5 it took national patent a little over six months to make a deal with bausch and lomb for it to use the patent. as it turned out that deal provided the funds to pay off robert morrison. and, thus, soft contact lenses came to the american marketplace. references 1. stein h. the history of contact lenses. academy of ophthalmic education. eyecare review 2008;2(3):1-5. 2. knorr r, kremer k. man of vision: the story of dr. robert morrison. osprey, fl: u.s. publishing, 2006:44. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 19 3. knorr r, kremer k. man of vision: the story of dr. robert morrison. osprey, fl: u.s. publishing, 2006:45. 4. knorr r, kremer k. man of vision: the story of dr. robert morrison. osprey, fl: u.s. publishing, 2006:46. 5. knorr r, kremer k. man of vision: the story of dr. robert morrison. osprey, fl: u.s. publishing, 2006:79-80. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 20 some doctors of medicine who published optometry books and played significant roles in early twentieth century optometric education david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract this paper provides brief profiles of four doctors of medicine who wrote books for optometrists and who were faculty members in, and/or directors of, optometry schools in the early twentieth century. those studied were thomas g. atkinson (1870-1946), marshall b. ketchum (1856-1937), joseph i. pascal (1890-1955), and clarence w. talbot (1883-1958). the content of the books they wrote is also discussed. key words: oculists, ophthalmologists, optometric education, optometry books, optometry history. in the last issue of hindsight: journal of optometry history the life and work of christian henry brown (1857-1933) was discussed.1 brown earned an m.d. degree in 1878. he operated the philadelphia optical college from 1889 to his death in 1933. he wrote several books, most notably the optician’s manual, later re-titled optometrist’s manual. this paper looks at four other doctors of medicine who wrote books for optometrists and who had important roles in early twentieth century optometric education. thomas g. atkinson (1870-1946) atkinson was born in london, england, and received a b.s. degree from the university of london.2 he came to the united states in 1893, and received an m.d. degree from the school that was become known as loyola university.2 he taught physiology and neurology at the chicago college of medicine and surgery and at the chicago college of dental surgery. he also served on the faculty of the northern illinois college of optometry. an obituary in the journal of the american optometric association said that atkinson’s services as a lecturer “were much in demand by optometrists throughout the nation. his influence upon the profession and his contributions to its members across the country was keenly felt and appreciated. in 1944 he was honored when the distinguished service foundation of optometry bestowed upon him its silver medal…”2 a reviewer of one of his books said that atkinson was “well known to the optometric profession. he has appeared on the program at many optometric conventions and through the years has written much that is fine and of value to us all.”3 hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 21 atkinson published frequently in optometric weekly and wrote a number of books that were widely used by optometrists. the books he authored covered a broad range of topics. the first book atkinson wrote for optometrists was essentials of refraction. editions were published in 1906 (134 pages), 1907 (235 pages), and 1914 (238 pages).4 i examined a copy of the 1914 edition. in the preface atkinson said that the purpose of the book was to present the essentials of the practice of refraction. atkinson covered some basics of optics, ocular anatomy, and ocular optics; accommodation and convergence; retinoscopy; ophthalmosocopy; correction of hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism; examination procedures; strabismus; asthenopia; eye diseases; fitting glasses; and lighting. the emphasis of the book was practical instruction with a minimum of theoretical background. it appears that one of atkinson’s most widely used books was oculo-refractive cyclopedia and dictionary. editions were published in 1921 (432 pages), 1934 (384 pages, and 1944 (388 pages). i examined copies of each edition. in introductory matter in the 1921 edition, atkinson stated: “every applied science demands an encyclopedia and dictionary which crystallizes its subject-matter and standardizes its nomenclature. ocular refraction, which in the last twenty-five years has developed inot the fullness and dignity of an independent and applied science, had no such representation.” definitions in oculo-refractive cyclopedia and dictionary varied from one line to a number of pages. there were two entries by other contributors in the first edition. these were a 27 page entry on ophthalmometry by charles sheard and an eight page entry on frame fitting by robert d. pettet. the second and third editions included the material on ophthalmometry, but they did not have an entry for frame fitting. atkinson’s definition of optometry was “the science and art of measuring the refraction and muscular conditions of the eye” in the first edition and “the science and art of investigating all physiologico-optical defects of vision, including those of refraction and of the ocular muscle function, and correcting or aiding them by means of lenses, prisms, muscle training, and other physiologico-optical measures” in the second and third editions. some of the multiple page entries included accommodation, astigmatism, blood pressure, color, convergence, heterophoria, history of optics, myopia, perimetry, physiology of vision, prism, retinoscopy, and strabismus. an 18 page entry on instruments with many illustrations can be found in the first edition but not in the second and third editions. atkinson’s technic of refraction, trial case and refractive instruments (93 pages), published in 1922, explained how to perform various testing procedures. included are instructions on trial case refraction, retinoscopy, ophthalmoscopy, ophthalmometry, use of a phoropter, perimetry, color tests, and other tests. diagnosis of ocular diseases (118 pages) was published in 1926.it discussed the basics of pathological processes, infection, inflammation, degenerations, and neoplasms, followed by eye diseases, perimetry, and blood pressure. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 22 dynamic skiametry: its theory and practice (192 pages) appeared in 1928 with atkinson and frederick a. woll, ph.d., as authors. woll was an optometrist and faculty member at columbia university. on the first page of the first chapter the authors noted that they had discarded the older terms retinoscope and retinoscopy for the more modern terms skiascope and skiametry because the procedure does not view or examine the retina. the book looked at the optics and theory of skiametry, background considerations of accommodation and convergence, and theory and procedure of dynamic skiametry. discussion of “collateral tests” and illustrative cases closed out the book. atkinson’s next book was ocular muscles and fusion: physiology, diagnosis, technic (1933, 192 pages). in the introduction, atkinson stated that what was needed to help practitioners better understand this area of practice was a “physiological” approach rather than a “mechanical” or “mathematical” one. later in chapter iv, he suggested that “muscle effort” was a more important consideration in accommodation and convergence than “the dioptric result achieved by that effort.” in the first few chapters, atkinson wrote about muscle function; binocular fusion; accommodation and convergence theory, testing procedures, and analysis; and dynamic skiametry. next he observed that “biologic type,” endocrine function, mental status, and toxemias could affect function of the eye and ocular muscles. the last few chapters dealt with strabismus, “age-period groups of ocular defects,” and instrumentation for “eye exercises.” in 1935, the seven-fold stimulus-response manual: a manual of procedure in optometric diagnosis (213 pages) was published. the authors were carl shepard and atkinson. shepard was an optometrist and long time instructor at northern illinois college of optometry. they stated that all “visual stimulus-response reactions are for the purpose of satisfying one or other, or all, of four cardinal demands: fixation…focus…single vision…comfort.” the main emphasis of the book was description of routine tests, a routine analysis procedure, and treatment methods for accommodation and convergence. they discussed prescription of prism and use of “oculo calisthenics” and “visual training.” some of the terms they used are in common usage today, such as negative relative accommodation (nra), positive relative accommodation (pra), negative relative convergence (nrc), and positive relative convergence (prc). atkinson published a small booklet (48 pages) entitled essentials of visual psychology in 1936. it included an overview of visual sensation, attention, perception, conditioning, and mental dysfunctions. atkinson’s 1937 book oculo refractive procedure analysis treatment: a complete work of modern practice (160 pages) is similar to his first optometry book, essentials of refraction, in that it provided an overview of optometry practice methods and analysis with some theoretical background. the titles of this book’s nine chapters were physiological considerations; psychological considerations; accommodation and convergence; refractive errors; anomalies of coordination; visual field charting; hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 23 strabismus or squint; tests; and procedure, analysis, disposition. a review of the book in the american journal of optometry called it “a valuable contribution to modern ophthalmic literature” which “should find a welcome place in the office of any modern optometrist.”5 in 1941, visual field charting (128 pages) was published. atkinson covered background, indications for visual field testing, procedures, apparatus, types of field defects, diseases which affect visual fields, and interpretation of results. it included information on the brombach perimeter, the ferree-rand perimeter, and the stereocampimeter. atkinson also wrote a physiology book for medical students entitled functional diagnosis – the application of physiology to diagnosis. the first edition was published in 1909, with several subsequent editions following. marshall bidwell ketchum (1856-1937) m.b. ketchum was born in ontario, canada, and graduated from pharmacy school in 1880 in toronto.6 that same year he emigrated to the united states.7 in 1882, he received an medical degree from the cincinnati medical college. from 1896 to 1903 ketchum taught ophthalmology, otology, and pharmacy at the lincoln medical college in lincoln, nebraska, and he ran the lincoln optical college.6,8,9 in 1904, ketchum founded the los angeles school of ophthalmology and optometry, which after many name changes is today the southern california college of optometry.10 it appears that he may have been the sole instructor for a few years.11 m.b. ketchum served as president of the school until 1920, when he turned over the presidency to his nephew optometrist, william m. ketchum.12 william m. ketchum was a 1913 graduate of the school.13 m.b. ketchum was described by graduates of the school as “a very dignified gentleman, excellent in handling people and a capable teacher” and “truly dedicated to optometry.”14 an obituary notice in the journal of the american optometric association said that ketchum was a “friend of optometry…and a pioneer in our struggle to place optometry where it rightfully belongs.”6 ketchum’s lessons on the eye (89 pages) was published in 1920. on the title page ketchum gave a dedication “to the ‘world of optometry’ and especially to those who have sacrificed their time and energy to the end that the word ‘optometrist’ may be honored by all other professions.” about two-thirds of the book is devoted to ocular anatomy, with more than twenty illustrations. a variety of other topics are also briefly considered, including accommodation, common eye diseases, floaters, nystagmus, amblyopia, pupil anomalies, and common eye terms and prefixes. joseph irving pascal (1890-1955) joseph i. pascal was born in lithuania and came to the united states in 1901.15 he completed a b.s. degree from columbia university in 1912. two years later he finished optometry school at rochester school of optometry.15,16 pascal talked about hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 24 studying with andrew jay cross when he stated that “cross was an inspiring teacher and left his impress on me when i spent two years under his tutelage in the optometry department of columbia university.”17 the optometry school started at columbia in the fall of 1910,18 but pascal was not listed among the first two classes of students that started in the fall of 1910 and the fall of 1911.19,20 perhaps he studied independently with cross while pursuing his b.s. degree at columbia or later after he had finished school at the rochester school of optometry. pascal founded the american institute of optometry, which operated an optometry school, in 1914 and served as its director until 1927.21,22 the american institute of optometry was listed among optometry schools in the blue book of optometrists from 1914 to 1924. the 1914 blue book of optometrists said that its courses ranged from three months to three years.23 the 1924 blue book mentioned a standard one thousand hour course and a standard two year course and noted that the school had “clinical and laboratory facilities” and offered “personal instruction only.”24 he was a participant in the first conference to establish optometric educational standards held in the 1920s.25 pascal received an m.a. degree from columbia in 1927. he attended the college of physicians and surgeons at columbia from 1916 to 1919, and from 1927 to 1930 he continued studies in medicine at the university of vienna where he received a medical degree.15 in 1931, he became the chief of refraction at the beth israel hospital in boston and taught at the massachusetts college of optometry. later he practiced ophthalmology in new york and lectured at the new york polyclinic medical school.15 one obituary notice stated that due to “his contributions to the literature both here and abroad and his frequent lecture engagements, dr. pascal was known to optometrists in all parts of the world.”21 another said that he “achieved success in both medicine and optometry, and was internationally known as an author, lecturer, and teacher…”22 pascal developed or improved various examination instruments, one of which was the turville-pascal dynascope which was used in retinoscopy.26 he wrote and spoke several languages, including spanish, italian, french, and german. he wrote abstracts of the spanish ophthalmology literature for the american journal of ophthalmology.27 an obituary in archives of ophthalmology noted that “dr. pascal’s unique place in american ophthalmology was determined by the fact that he remained an optometrist as well as an ophthalmologist all his life, proving by his own example that loyalty to one group does not mean antagonism to the other. for many ophthalmologists he will remain the symbol of the perfect teacher. with kindness, humor, and perseverance, he put life into a subject which a great many of them disliked, or at least found lacking in interest.”27 pascal published three books, modern retinoscopy, studies in visual optics, and the optometrist’s handbook of eye diseases, the latter with harold g. noyes as co-author. modern retinoscopy (279 pages) was published in 1930. the opening chapters explained the principles and general technique of retinoscopy, along with a description of the movement of the retinoscopic reflex, and an optical explanation of hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 25 retinoscopy. the next chapters provided description of different static retinoscopy methods, effects of pupil size and aberrations in retinoscopy, and use of cylinders in retinoscopy. then several chapters were devoted to various dynamic retinoscopy procedures, with accompanying chapters on accommodation and convergence. on pages 129 to 131, pascal counted twelve uses of dynamic retinoscopy, which included finding and correcting “inefficiency of accommodative function…,” finding “the reading or working addition for presbyopia…,” finding “the absolute amplitude of accommodation of each eye…,” and testing for “speed or sluggishness of the accommodation.” the last chapters in modern retinoscopy dealt with what pascal called “velonoskiascopy, …one of the very latest methods for subjectively determining the refractive condition of an eye.” (p. 225) pascal suggested that it was similar to retinoscopy in that it involved observation of shadow phenomena and shadow movements by the patient while retinoscopy involved shadow movements observed by the examiner. some of the procedures he described employed scheiner’s disc or a thin wire moved across the area in front of the patient’s pupil while the patient was viewing a distant small spot of light. a review of the book in the american journal of optometry was very favorable, proclaiming that “the underlying principles are so clearly presented as to enable any practitioner to easily and quickly master their fundamentals.” the reviewer stated that in the section on dynamic retinoscopy “one finds a complete mastery of the subject.” the review closes with the evaluation that this book “is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive work on this subject yet produced and shows the results of diligent and successful research.”28 pascal’s studies in visual optics (1952, 800 pages) is a remarkable book for the breadth of coverage and the depth with which some of the topics are considered. some of the subjects examined are geometrical optics, ocular optics, ophthalmic optics, retinoscopy, refractive errors, stereoscopes, accommodation, convergence, cross cylinder tests, orthoptics, and extraocular muscle function tests. the book is also remarkable in that on the title page pascal listed both o.d. and m.d. among the degrees he held. and listed among his various credentials and positions below his name was “licentiate in optometry and in medicine.” pascal explained that the purpose of the book was “twofold: (1) to present some old material in a way which i have found is most easily grasped and absorbed by undergraduate and postgraduate students, and (2) to present in an orderly manner a number of new ideas, new methods, new applications, simplified formulas, memory aids for things easily forgotten, schematic and graphic presentation of things that are otherwise just nebulous ideas, and a host of other helpful hints which i have accumulated over the course of some forty years of teaching.” one passage that particular drew my attention was three pages on the history of dynamic retinoscopy. pascal stated that the first use of retinoscopy to examine accommodation was by r. greef in 1895 for the purpose of determining amplitude of accommodation of a young boy blind in one eye. (p. 175) others, such as jackson, axenfeld, heine, and hess used retinoscopy to look at accommodation, but “new and hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 26 powerful impetus to the development and spread of dynamic retinoscopy came with the work of andrew j. cross, an american optician (later optometrist).” (p. 176) pascal also noted that his own work in dynamic retinoscopy was acknowledged in atkinson and woll’s book on the subject. a review of studies in visual optics said that it was “a highly practical and functional book in which the various procedures for determining and interpreting the anomalies of vision are discussed concisely and clearly.”29 the optometrist’s handbook of eye diseases (300 pages) by pascal and noyes was published in 1954, the year before pascal’s death. they had previously published some of the material in various optometry journals. in the preface they noted that they had “been teaching diseases of the eye to optometrists for a great many years and have incorporated here the results of their experiences in the field.” they stated that the emphasis of the book was on recognition of pathological deviations from normal, with limited information on differential diagnosis, etiology, or treatment. a review of the book said that it “covers all of the diseases of the eye and orbit the optometrist is likely to see in his daily practice and is written in such terms as to meet his every requirement” and that it would be “a useful addition to your library on eye pathology.”30 clarence weill talbot (1883-1958) c.w. talbot was born in missouri.31 talbot completed medical school at university medical college of kansas city in 1906.32 according to the 1910 federal census, talbot was living in spokane, washington, and was an eye, ear, and nose surgeon.33 successive editions of the blue book of optometrists listed talbot as president of the washington school of optometry in spokane, washington, from 1914 to 1920. the washington school of optometry was in the blue book from 1914 to 1928, but talbot was not listed among its officers from 1922 to 1928. the 1914 blue book said that the washington school of optometry was “incorporated 1909” and that it “gives resident and attendant courses, making a specialty of teaching the talbot system.”34 the 1922 entry in the blue book for the washington school of optometry says: “attendance courses in the talbot system. the course consists of approximately 987 hours in the study of straight optics. dietetics, high blood pressure, urinalysis, and electro therapeutics are taken up in addition to the study of optometry. very latest clinical and laboratory facilities.a.e. jones, o.d.s.phy., president; mae both-jones, o.d.s.phy., secretary.”35 in 1910, talbot published diseases of the eye and how recognized (68 pages). the sub-title was a series of articles on the more common diseases with which the optician meets in his every-day work – the causes, symptoms, diagnosis and outlines of treatment. it was a compilation of articles, previously published in the optical journal, on diseases of the eyelids and anterior segment, glaucoma, and the eyes of school children. the book included drawings of ocular conditions and some photographs of examination methods. the publisher of the book was frederick boger, who published optical journal and a number of other books for optometrists. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 27 the first edition of talbot’s optometry quiz compend (236 pages) was published in 1914. i examined a copy of the second edition (1920, 275 pages), which offered over a thousand questions (with answers) on geometrical optics, ophthalmic optics, ocular anatomy, ocular optics, refractive errors, retinoscopy, subjective refraction procedures, presbyopia, heterophoria, phorometry, and ocular disease. it contained an appendix section with several tables, lists, and conversion factors. a publisher’s note in the second edition said that: “the first edition was speedily exhausted and the prohibitive price of printing and bookbinding accompanying the rise in prices of other commodities following the great war made it inadvisable to bring out a revised edition until this time.” references 1. goss da. christian henry brown (1857-1933) and the philadelphia optical college. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:114-121. 2. anonymous. thomas g. atkinson. j am optom assoc 1946;17:32. 3. koch cc. book review: oculo-refractive cyclopedia and dictionary. am j optom arch am acad optom 1945;22:198-199. 4. worldcat online library catalog. 5. kurtz ji. book review: oculo refractive procedure analysis treatment. am j optom 1937;14:79-80. 6. anonymous. dr. marshall b. ketchum. j am optom assoc 1937;8:389. 7. petition for naturalization, marshall bidwell ketchum, ancestry. com. 8. anonymous. m.b. ketchum, m.d. optical j 1906;18:1108. 9. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:6. 10. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:1,7. 11. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:7, 464. 12. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:31. 13. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:23. 14. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:21. 15. anonymous. j.i. pascal dead; eye specialist, 65. new york times april 23, 1955:19. 16. the fifth annual year book of the rochester school of optometry, 1921:135. 17. pascal ji. selected studies in visual optics. st. louis: mosby, 1952:177. 18. goss da. one hundred years ago: start of the optometry school at columbia university. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:129-132. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 28 19. anonymous. class of optometry students at columbia university organize an association and elect officers. optical j 1910;26:1229. 20. anonymous. names of members of the new class at columbia university. optical j 1911;28:874. 21. anonymous. dr. j.i. pascal dies in new york city. am j optom arch am acad optom 1955;32:273. 22. anonymous. joseph i. pascal. j am optom assoc 1955;26:648. 23. blue book of optometrists and opticians, 2nd ed. chicago: the optometrist and optician, 1914:23. 24. blue book of optometrists and opticians, 6th ed. chicago: professional press, 1922:21. 25. christensen jl. the first conference to establish optometric standards. optom vis sci 1996;73:428-434. 26. pascal ji. selected studies in visual optics. st. louis: mosby, 1952:187. 27. linksz a. obituaries: joseph i. pascal, m.d. 1890-1955. arch ophthalmolhttp://archopht.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/54/1/157.pdf. 28. koch cc. book review: modern retinoscopy. am j optom 1931;8:210-211. 29. bannon re. book review: selected studies in visual optics. am j optom arch am acad optom 1953;30:40. 30. hanson c. book review: the optometrist’s handbook of eye diseases. am j optom arch am acad optom 1954;31:341. 31. passport application (passport issued jan. 17, 1907), ancestry.com. 32. deaths. j am med assoc 1958;168:203-207. 33. ancestry. com. 34. blue book of optometrists and opticians, 2nd ed. chicago: the optometrist and optician, 1914:26. 35. blue book of optometrists and opticians, 6th ed. chicago: professional press, 1922:22. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 29 covd: recapitulating 40 years of excellence leonard j. press, o.d. family eyecare associates, p.c., 17-10 fair lawn avenue, fair lawn, nj 07410, pressvision@aol.com editor’s note: this paper is reprinted from optometry and vision development (2010, volume 41, number 3, pages 137-142), the quarterly journal of the college of optometrists in vision development, with permission of the author and of the journal editor, dominick maino. introduction this year during the week of october 11, covd will be celebrating our 40th year anniversary. it is fitting that our annual meeting this year in puerto rico provides an international flavor that attests to the global reach of our organization, mirroring our cancun experience in 2003. with this backdrop it is time to revisit key elements of our history, last updated in written form by covd’s first treasurer, and former president dr. robert wold.1 dr. wold’s paper elaborated the history of our organization, based on an article he previously co-authored with dr. martin kane.2 on august 6, 1965, a group of california optometrists met to form the national society for vision and perception training (nsvpt), with membership limited to optometrists undergoing a fellowship board certification process. two similar organizations, the national optometric society for developmental vision care (nosdvc) and the southwest developmental vision society (swdvs) were formed in 1969 under the guidance of drs. raymond lowry in minnesota, and nelson greeman, jr. in texas, respectively, though they were membership rather than fellowship organizations. in this age of social media it is difficult to conceive of the fact that these three organizations were autonomous and unaware of each other. that situation was rectified in 1970 when representatives of the three groups met several times to discuss a unified national optometric organization. they reached out for support to the institute of behavioral optometrists (ibo) in the washington, d.c. area, as well as to other prominent optometrists. the nsvpt was represented principally by drs. wold, donald getz and charles mcquarrie, jr. though many of our current members are familiar with the names of drs. getz and wold through their ongoing involvement in our organization, dr. mcquarrie is less of a household name though no less influential in our origins. he would go on to become president of the american optometric association. auspicious beginnings on the weekend of december 6, 1970, in san antonio, texas, representatives of the nsvpt, nosdvc, and swdvs met to select a unified governing board and hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 30 examination board. each board would have members who represented various regions of the united states: west, north central, southwest, midwest northeast, and southeast. the first president was dr. amorita treganza, aided by governing board members drs. raymond lowry, robert wold, joyce adema, nelson greeman jr., donald getz, jerome kollofski, eleanor reckrey, morton schomer, martin cohen, and harvey brown. the first chairman of the examination board was dr. ralph schrock, aided by drs. robert zwicky, forrest baber, conrad mazeski, sidney cohen, harvey t. brown, and stanley brown. covd was officially formed in march, 1971 when the board of directors met for the first time in irving, texas, and voted to hold its first meeting in october of that year in new orleans, louisiana. at the first meeting the board approved the annual presentation of the g.n. getman award and the a.m. skeffington award, named after two luminaries in the field. the first recipient of the getman award for outstanding performance in providing behavioral vision care to the public was dr. homer hendrickson, while the first recipient of the skeffington award, for outstanding writing, was dr. martin kane. the mission statement, as we would call it today, consisted of five ambitious goals for the nascent organization: 1. establishing a body of practitioners who are knowledgeable in functional and developmental concepts of vision, who will ensure that the public will receive continually improving visual care. 2. promoting, fostering and engaging in interdisciplinary cooperation. 3. enabling members to maintain the highest standards of professional knowledge and competency. 4. educating and encouraging optometrists to qualify for membership and fellowship in the college. 5. certifying optometrists as skilled in this optometric specialty. as you glance at these goals or purposes, you’ll note three current topics in the profession about which our founding covd leaders were prescient: a) board certification b) maintenance of competency c) functional and developmental vision as specialty care covd leaders were ahead of their time in other respects as well. one observation that stands out is the diversity of the original governing board. two of its executive members 40 years ago, dr. amoritatreganza serving as president and dr. joyce adema serving as treasurer, were females. after drs. lowry and davis served as the second and third presidents of the organization, dr. adema became covd’s fourth president in 1974. scholarly growth and organizational networking aside from fellowship certification, an early centerpiece of the organization was its journal. covd adopted the quarterly publication of the journal of optometric vision hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 31 therapy from the nsvpt. dr. robert wold served as the inaugural editor, and dr. martin kane assumed the role one year later. reflecting the broader mission of the organization, the name of the journal was changed to the journal of optometric vision development (jovd) in 1975. in 1976 jovd published its first annual review of the literature, which would serve as a highlight of the journal in ensuing years, updating readership on a variety of topic areas. subsequent to dr. kane, three editors have served the journal with distinction, dr. james bosse, dr. sidney groffman and dr. dominick maino. under dr. maino’s editorship, the name of the journal was changed to optometry and vision development (ovd) and issues beginning with the publication year 2004 are available online at www.covd.org. in 1981, to maintain and extend the scholarly component of the journal, news and other information was jettisoned to a separate publication, visions, published quarterly and containing the president’s message as well as heritage and practice management pieces. the journal continues to present its award for best article of the year at the annual meeting during the awards luncheon, a practice begun in 1989. in 1983, covd stopped producing brochures for public education, deferring this role to its allied behavioral optometric organization, the optometric extension program (oep). in the late 1980s covd began to promote funding for research projects. though not large in amount, these funds were instrumental in providing seed money for many research initiatives undertaken by optometric faculty in our field. around this time, an association of optometric educators in vision development, led by dr. ira bernstein, began to meet yearly at covd’s annual meeting. research presentations and posters were gradually phased into the annual meeting program under the direction of drs. donald getz, michael cron, and gary williams. in 1996 covd joined the partnership foundation of asco (association of schools and colleges of optometry) to help invest in the future of optometric education. under the leadership of drs. robert greenberg and robert wold, covd deepened its organizational connections. covd members held numerous appointments with the structure of the american optometric association, and our midyear board meetings were held at the site of the aoa’s annual meeting. the american academy of optometry’s diplomate program in binocular vision and perception was initiated in 1972, around the same time that covd evolved. select individuals were influential in the early phases of both programs, most notably drs. nathan flax, louis hoffman, william ludlam, and jack richman. covd established and maintained liaisons with oep and other sister organizations such as acbo (the australasian college of behavioral optometry), nora (neuro-optometric rehabilitation association) and cso (college of syntonic optometry. membership another lens, perhaps our most crucial one, through which the maturation of our organization can be viewed is our membership. the raison d’etre of our organization remains the conferring of fellowship. reflecting the increased interest in developmental vision abroad, as well as the emphasis on certification, the original name hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 32 of the national examining board (neb) was changed to the international examination and certification board (iecb). the mission of the international examination and certification board is to evaluate and certify the advanced competency of optometrists and vision therapists in providing developmental vision and vision therapy services. covd fellowship represents our profession’s first recognized board certification process. throughout our history, the ratio of associate members to fellows has remained about 3:1, with the fellow emeritus category recognizing retired fellows. as the governing board of covd has been the vehicle for advancement of our organization, the iecb has been its lifeline. to present for fellowship examination and certification, associate members must have at least 3 years of clinical practice experience in vision development and vision therapy and have been actively involved in the clinical diagnosis and management of vision therapy for at least two years. candidates must also submit evidence of 100 hours of continuing education in developmental/behavioral vision care before taking the written examination. graduates of accredited residency programs in pediatrics, vision therapy and rehabilitation meet the requirement for 100 hours of ce and one year of practice. iecb has evolved under the capable leadership of drs. carl gruning, carol marusich, john tassinari, wc maples, nancy torgerson and celia hinrichs. among other areas, the work done on our written examination in consultation with the nbeo helped our certification process gain wider recognition. significant strides were made in the 21st century in adding the category of fcovd-a, or academic, and most recently fcovd-i, or international. a unique and highly valued component of our organization is the membership represented by covts, our certified optometric vision therapists. the name change that this segment of our membership underwent in the late 1990s was more than semantics. originally designated as covtts, or therapy technicians, the esteem in which therapists are held was elevated by the work of diana ludlam, linda sanet and other influential therapists. covts are required to complete open book questions, a written examination, an oral interview, and are inducted yearly at our annual meeting banquet alongside fcovds. student membership represents another vital category in our organization. in recognition of the fact that students are our future endowment, covd offers a marge and robert wold safe fund to help defer costs of student travel to our annual meeting. with the implementation of our “tour d’optometry”, students are increasingly exposed to covd representatives and philosophy, stimulating them to join and come to our annual meeting. key affiliate members round out our membership categories. annual meeting the annual meeting remains our sole membership gathering, as it has been since the inception of the organization. the board has traditionally planned our meeting site to rotate between east coast, west coast and midwest regions of the united states and contiguous areas. the formula for the annual meeting has remained similar throughout the years, with board meetings and examinations conducted prior to the start of continuing education. an opening night practice management meeting jointly hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 33 sponsored with oep is followed by a social gathering, setting the tone for a large familylike gathering. a major change occurred in the late 1990s with the addition of applied concepts courses in vision therapy prior to the ce program, and the annual meeting itself was shortened by a day. a highlight of the annual meeting is the awards luncheon, emceed for many years by the inimitable dr. don getz, and more recently by dr. phil bugaiski. it has retained its flavor as the pinnacle of camaraderie in our profession. continuing education continues to be cutting edge, as dr. gary williams has maintained the high standards set by dr. getz. discussion groups and special interest meetings complement the more formal lecture hall presentations, as envisioned by our original meeting planners such as dr. arthur heinsen. the crown jewel of our annual meeting is our dinner banquet on saturday evening. nattily attired, our membership assembles for the presidential address, swearing in of officers, and induction ceremonies for new fcovds and covts, followed by dancing and lots of hugs and kisses. this is a formula unchanged over the last 40 years, and one likely to endure for the next 40. location and management covd literally began as a “mom and pop” operation in the garage of marge and bob wold in chula vista, california. and what a phenomenal mom and pop they were! as the organization grew, we hired dr. robert greenburg in 1990 to serve as the first executive director of covd, though the office remained in chula vista. dr. greenburg helped guide board deliberations, clarified the vision of the organization, and planned and conducted the annual meetings with aplomb. in a move to broaden inroads into the profession, covd hired dr. steven miller as our executive director, moving our office into the aoa building in st. louis as the century turned. dr. miller turned his attention to long-range planning, and served admirably during his tenure in that position. in the year 2006, covd marked another milestone in our development. recognizing the need to broaden our management structure yet at the same time increase our efficiency, covd hired pam happ and moved our offices to aurora, ohio. ms. happ together with her able assistant, jackie cencer, have excelled in facilitating our annual meeting to new levels of growth, and in administering our burgeoning fellowship process. through the years, various individuals have aided covd in public outreach. two key individuals deserving of mention for their pivotal roles include dr. lynn hellerstein and ms. toni bristol. with the collective community that comprises the college of optometrists in vision development, we are poised for another 40 years of excellence. references 1. wold rm. covd: the first 25 years. j optom vis dev 1995;26:177-189. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 34 2.kane m, wold rm. covd: 20 years of excellence. j optom vis devel 1990;21(4):3-9. appendix i – covd presidents oct.-oct. name 1971-72 amorita treganza, od, fcovd (deceased) 1972-73 raymond lowry, od, fcovd (deceased) 1973-74 morton davis, od, fcovd 1974-75 joyce adema, od, fcovd 1975-76 donald j. getz, od, fcovd 1976-77 donald heyden, od, fcovd 1977-78 ralph schrock, od, fcovd (deceased) 1978-79 joseph a. viviano, od, fcovd 1979-81 james a. blumenthal, od, fcovd 1981-82 f. robert ginsberg, od, fcovd 1982-84 robert m. greenberg, od, fcovd 1984-85 d. gary thomas, od, fcovd 1985-87 robert b. sanet, od, fcovd 1987-88 tom d. rose, od, fcovd 1988-89 glen t. steele, od, fcovd 1989-90 steven a. levin, od, fcovd 1990-91 gary etting, od, fcovd 1991-92 bruce may, od, fcovd 1992-93 neil w. draisin, od, fcovd 1993-95 gary j. williams, od, fcovd 1995-96 donald j. janiuk, od, fcovd 1996-98 w.c. maples, od, fcovd 1998-00 carl f. gruning, od, fcovd 2000-01 robert m. wold, od, fcovd (deceased) 2001-02 nancy g. torgerson, od, fcovd 2002-04 leonard j. press, od, fcovd 2004-05 lynn f. hellerstein, od, fcovd 2005-07 drusilla grant, od, fcovd 2007-08 dan fortenbacher, od, fcovd 2008-09 carol lea scott, od, fcovd 2009-10 bradley e. habermehl, od, fcovd hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 35 appendix ii – covd awards g.n. getman award recipients a.m. skeffington award recipients 1971 homer hendrickson, od 1971 martin kane, od 1972 charles mcquarrie, sr., od 1972 william lee, od 1973 robert kraskin, od 1973 tole greenstein, od 1974 george crow, od 1974 robert m. wold, od 1975 amorita treganza, od 1975 arthur heinsen, jr., od 1976 robert johnson, od 1976 amiel francke, od 1977 paul lewis, od 1977 william ludlam, od 1978 charles drain, od 1978 (not awarded) 1979 bernard saltysiak, od 1979 martin birnbaum, od 1980 harris prefontaine, od 1980 elliot forrest, od 1981 john streff, od 1981 lawrence macdonald, od 1982 richard apell, od 1982 nathan flax, od 1983 david dzik, od 1983 gerald getman, od 1984 lois bing, od 1984 robert kraskin, od 1985 tole greenstein, od 1985 israel greenwald, od 1986 elliott forrest, od 1986 amorita treganza, od 1987 harold weiner, od 1987 daniel wolff, od 1988 mary childress, od 1988 donald j. getz, od 1989 joyce adema, od 1989 albert a. sutton, od 1990 arthur c. heinse, jr., od 1990 harold solan, od 1991 george slade, od 1991 richard apell, od 1992 nathan flax, od 1992 leonard press, od 1993 william ludlam, od 1993 lou hoffman, od 1994 albert sutton, od 1994 harry wachs, od 1995 baxter swartwout, od 1995 sidney groffman, od 1996 sidneygroffman, od 1996 james bosse, od 1997 martin birnbaum, od 1997 john streff, od 1998 harry wachs, od 1998 jack richman, od 1999 robert b. sanet, od 1999 arnold sherman, od 2000 robert m. wold, od 2000 w.c. maples, od 2001 donald getz, od 2001 albert l. shankman, od 2002 paul lederer, od 2002 mitchell scheiman, od 2003 morton davis, od 2003 paul a. harris, od 2004 graham peachy, od 2004 eric borsting, od 2005 glen steele, od 2005 irwin suchoff, od 2006 w.c. maples, od 2006 david fitzgerald, od 2007 harold solan, od 2007 kenneth j. ciuffreda, od 2008 carl hillier, od 2008 susan cotter, od 2009 nancy torgerson, od 2009 dominick maino, od 2010 gary etting, od 2010 david a. goss, od hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 36 covt of the year award president’s award 2001 linda sanet 1975 amorita treganza, od 2002 diana eastburn ludlam 1976 emily lyons 2003 irene wahlmeier 1978 frank belgau 2004 barbara anderson 1980 morton davis, od 2005 leeann batten 1981 martin kane, od 2006 tom headline 1982 elliott forrest, od 2007 lyna dyson 1983 martin kane, od 2008 diann geisert 1984 robert m. wold, od 2009 kathleen a. rutland 1986 donald j. getz, od 2010 matthew privett donald heyden, od 1987 robert greenberg, od nathan flax, od journal article of the year 1988 ron bateman, od 1988 susan mencarini, od 1989 allen cohen, od 1989 ralph garzia, od 1990 robert b. sanet, od 1990 paul lederer, od 1991 steven a. levin, od 1991 nathan flax, od 1992 gary j. williams, od 1992 w.c. maples, od 1993 gary etting, od 1993 william ludlam, od 1994 carl f. gruning, od 1994 john streff, od 1995 w.c. maples, od 1995 israel greenwald, od nancy torgerson, od 1996 elise ciner, od 1996 carl f. gruning, od 1997 kelly frantz, od 1997 gary williams, od 1998 ralph garzia, od dominick maino, od 1999 harold solan, od 1998 marjie thompson, covt 2000 john searfoss, od parents active for vision education 2001 kelly frantz, od 1999 robert m. wold, od 2002 w.c. maples, od w.c. maples, od 2003 david goss, od 2000 carol marusich, od 2004 david goss, od 2001 michael cron, od 2005 garth christenson, od 2002 lynn hellerstein, od 2006 yi pang, od 2003 toni bristol 2007 john tassinari, od 2004 nancy torgerson, od 2008 john tassinari, od 2005 leonard press, od 2009 chris chase, od 2006 lynn hellerstein, od 2007 linda sanet, covt 2008 toni bristol 2009 lynn hellerstein, od hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 37 book review: a boy from missouri: my life story a boy from missouri: my life story. gerry haines. lincoln, ne: iuniverse, 2007. 209 pages. isbn: 978-0-595-43134-2. paperback, $17.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu a boy from missouri is the autobiography of optometrist gerry haines written after his retirement from practice. the author was born in 1940 on a farm in missouri near the iowa-missouri border, and he grew up there. he went to a very small high school with limited subject selection and took every course available except home economics. after graduation from high school as the valedictorian of his class at the age of 16, he went to live with an older brother in moline, illinois, and got a job at quad city optical. while working there, he attended moline community college part-time. in the fall of 1962, the author started school at illinois college of optometry (ico). he and his wife, whom he had met while working in the quad cities, lived in an apartment at illinois institute of technology, which provided housing for married students at ico. following graduation from optometry school, he associated with an optometrist in freeport, illinois. he built the practice into a four optometrist group with four locations. the book centers on the author’s family, hobbies, community activities, and travel, with little detail of his professional life. the last few chapters are short memoirs written by his wife and two daughters, one of whom also became an optometrist. while the book contains little information for the optometry historian, it does demonstrate that an intelligent, hard-working young man from humble beginnings can make a good living from optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 38 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 39 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2011, volume 42, number 1, page 40 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: shannon reynolds torbett, mhp c/o optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, floor 1 st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________________ address ______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. the board of directors of optometry’s cares – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html frontcover42-1 hindsight42-1.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 81 biographical sketches david a goss, od, phd darrell boyd harmon (1898-1975) david a. goss, od, phd emeritus professor of optometry indiana university dgoss@indiana.edu it is likely that many, if not most, of today’s optometrists know about the harmon distance, a recommendation for the appropriate working distance for nearpoint visually-centered tasks, but probably there are not many who know much about its originator, darrell boyd harmon (1898-1975).1,2 harmon was born in wisconsin, and received a.b. and m.a. degrees from colorado college and a ph.d. in experimental education from new york university.3,4 during his career he worked in teacher education, followed by serving as director of the division of school services for the texas state department of health (1937-1947), then as a consultant for school systems, manufacturing companies and architects, and later, as acting director of the department of environmental design at the university of wisconsin.3,4 during his time as director of the division of school services in texas, he received “screening surveys of the health and educational problems of some 160,000 elementary school children, and measurements of the physical aspects of over 4,000 classrooms in which these children were attending school.”5 data were collected by technical staff trained to recognize signs of “physiological, physiopathological, psychological, and educational significance.”6 the findings were checked in some groups of children by pediatricians, clinical psychologists, clinical educationists and social workers.6 harmon reported that visual and postural problems were often found together. he also correlated various visual, physical and educational problems with the characteristics of the classrooms and concluded that the most important factors leading to those problems were improper seating, improper lighting and improper placement of working meterials.5 based on that work and other studies, harmon drew up recommendations for a properly designed classroom and published them in 1949 and again in a revised version in 1951 in a 48-page booklet titled the co-ordinated classroom. he gave specific recommendations on design and arrangement of seating, windows, artificial lighting and chalkboards, and on reflectances of walls and surfaces. in the co-ordinated classroom harmon also specified proper posture and working distance for visually centered nearpoint tasks. he suggested that the proper nearpoint working distance, now known as the harmon distance, should be equal to the distance from the middle knuckle on the hand to the point of the elbow.7 in 1954, harmon published a book titled notes on a dynamic theory of vision. he published revisions in 1955, 1957 and 1958. the following summarizes aspects of that theory based on an examination of the third revision.8 harmon articulated the need for a dynamic, holistic theory of vision which included developmental processes, learning theories, human performance, adaptations and human behavior. the high prevalence of vision problems, which he observed in his studies in texas, adversely affected children’s educational achievement. many of the problems which appeared to be non-visual turned out to be related to visual tasks or the visual surroundings of the classroom. an example was poor posture. harmon noted that vision functioned in gathering and using information, in determining spatial frames of reference and in guiding movement. vestibular and proprioceptive inputs are significant for orientation, but not as important as vision. “because of the close linkage of the visual mechanisms determining spatial direction and direction of movement with other mechanisms figure 1: schematic diagram of harmon’s recommended posture for a sustained nearpoint visual task. the letter b represents the knuckle of the middle finger, and e represents the point of the elbow. the distance from the eyes, a, to the fixation point should be equal to the distance from b to e, the distance now commonly known as the harmon distance. (from harmon db. notes on a dynamic theory of vision, 3rd revision. austin, tx: the author, 1958, page a24) 82 volume 49, number 4, october 2018 determining posture, posture plays an important role in vision and in visual perception.”9 good body posture is achieved by minimal effort, while bad posture occurs from excess or improper effort. deviations of postural or visual orientation can have adverse effects on visual efficiency and school performance. harmon suggested that particular deviations of orientation of the head could be correlated with different refractive errors. he said children with astigmatism tend to tilt the head laterally, myopic children tend to tilt the head backward, hyperopic children to tilt the head forward, and children with anisometropia tend to rotate the head in the horizontal plane. these head tilts and rotations cause typical distortions in handwriting. he recommended a test he called the square test, sometimes known as harmon squares,10 in which children drew rows of squares. distortions in the drawings could demonstrate a relationship “between the combined forces of restraining seating equipment and improper distribution of light and functional visual difficulties, postural defects, or other health problems from which the children were suffering.”11 regarding optimal learning conditions for children, harmon recommended that sustained near visual tasks should conducted with the point of fixation being at a distance from the eyes equal to the distance from the knuckle of the middle finger to the point of the elbow (the harmon distance as noted above). he also said that proper posture for near work is more likely when the surface of the desk is inclined 20 degrees and the elbows and forearms rest on the desk.12 his work was embraced by behavioral optometrists.13-16 according to sutton,15 harmon became aware of optometric thinking in the 1930s through texas optometrists nelson greeman and sol lesser and later through a.m. skeffington. harmon made presentations at many optometric extension program regional seminars, some of them in the 1950s being based on his book notes on a dynamic theory of vision.8 at the time, harmon’s research work was somewhat controversial. hirsch,17 for example, was highly critical of his research methods. despite the criticism, harmon’s work has been highly influential in optometry and education. flax16 stated that “much of the current behavioral optometric treatment practiced by many clinicians is derived from his interaction with optometric extension program leaders.” sheldon rappaport, author of books such as how to teach your child to read and spell successfully and teacher effectiveness for children with learning disorders, described harmon as a “quiet, shy man,” and said that harmon “pioneered how the environment affects learning.”18 rappaport credited harmon with various innovative ideas adopted in schoolrooms, such as the slant-top desk, overhangs above windows and diffusers to yield more even illumination, and improved overhead lighting, and he praised harmon’s dynamic theory of vision which he used daily in “efforts to help educators help children.”18 references 1. hofstetter hw, griffin jr, berman ms, everson rw. dictionary of visual science and related clinical terms, 5th ed. boston: butterworth-heinemann, 2000:151. 2. hendrickson h. eponyms of behavioral optometry. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program, 1993:47. 3. harmon db. the co-ordinated classroom. grand rapids, mi: american seating company, 1951:inside front cover. 4. rappaport sr. a pioneer in vision and educational environments: salute to darrell boyd harmon. j learning disabilities 1975;8:332335. 5. harmon db. the co-ordinated classroom. grand rapids, mi: american seating company, 1951:1. 6. harmon db. some preliminary observations on the developmental problems of 160,000 elementary school biographical sketches david a goss, od, phd figure 2: photograph of a child in the balanced posture recommended by harmon for a sustained nearpoint visual activity. the slant of the desk was part of that recommendation. this photograph can be compared to the schematic diagram of the recommended balanced posture. (from harmon db. notes on a dynamic theory of vision, 3rd revision. austin, tx: the author, 1958, page a24) hindsight: journal of optometry history 83 children. medical woman’s j 1942;49(3):75-82. 7. harmon db. the co-ordinated classroom. grand rapids, mi: american seating company, 1951:7. 8. harmon db. notes on a dynamic theory of vision, 3rd revision. austin, tx: the author, 1958. 9. harmon db. notes on a dynamic theory of vision, 3rd revision. austin, tx: the author, 1958:87. 10. hendrickson h. eponyms of behavioral optometry. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program, 1993:50. 11. harmon db. notes on a dynamic theory of vision, 3rd revision. austin, tx: the author, 1958:a27. 12. harmon db. notes on a dynamic theory of vision, 3rd revision. austin, tx: the author, 1958:a21-a25. 13. birnbaum mh. optometric management of nearpoint vision disorders. boston: butterworthheinemann, 1993:73-86. 14. cobb s. harmon revisited. in: barber a, ed. visual demands of the workplace. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program, 1999:50-55. 15. sutton aa. our optometric heritage. st. louis: college of optometrists in vision development, 2005:10-14. 16. flax n. darrell boyd harmon as i understand some of his work. j behav optom 2008;19:31-35. 17. hirsch mj. a review of darrell boyd harmon’s experimental results. am j optom arch am acad optom 1960;17:121-137. 18. rappaport sr. a pioneer in vision and educational environments: salute to darrell boyd harmon. j learning disabilities 1975;8(5):7679. biographical sketches david a goss, od, phd thank you! together, we create a picture of outstanding eyecare. donate today at aoafoundation.org. you are an essential piece of the puzzle. hindsight_49_4_finalnobleed_ojs 11 hindsight_49_4_finalnobleed_ojs 12 hindsight_49_4_finalnobleed_ojs 13 46 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 ohs hosts “blast from the past” lecture at optometry’s meeting on june 25, 2021, the yearly blast from the past lecture was presented by w. howard mcalister od and jeffrey l weaver od. their lecture entitled “military optometry from world war i to present” was well attended by history buffs, afos members and active military optometrists. drs. weaver and mcalister cited the significant contributions made by military ods and their impact on contemporary optometry. five luminaries inducted into the national optometry hall of fame the american optometric association and optometry cares – the aoa foundation were pleased to induct the following doctors of optometry into the national optometry hall of fame during optometry’s meeting® on june 25, 2021: tony q. chan, o.d. (2020) robert a. koetting, o.d. (2020)* michael h. mittelman, o.d. (2019) marvin r. poston, o.d. (2021)* satya b. verma, o.d. (2020) pictured is marlene poston bell, who accepted the award on behalf of her late father, marvin poston, o.d. since 1998, the national optometry hall of fame has recognized and honored optometrists who are luminaries of the profession – those who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to the optometric field. *denotes posthumous inductee news doi: 10.14434/hindsight.v52i3.33943 marlene poston-bell accepting the award on behalf of her late father, marvin r. poston, o.d. w. howard mcalister, o.d. and jeffrey l. weaver, o.d. presenting during the "blast from the past" lecture at optometry's meeting 2021. tony q. chan, o.d. accepting his award. newsletter of the optometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri vol. 13 july 1982 annual call for nominations: . v ' ; 13·, 82 .. v \,..-~ '\.. 63t4l ,t · u •. s .. a. l , . number 3 our by-laws state, 11 election to membership on the executive board shall be preceded by the nomination of each candidate by at least tl1ree members and the willingness of each nominee to have his name placed on the ba 11 ot. 11 the board member whose first five-year term will expire this year, december 31, 1982 is james leeds, our current president. nominations for his continuation or replacement for a five year term are hereby re­ quested for placement on the ballot in october. nominations should be submitted to henry hofstetter, 2615 windermere woods drive, bloomington, in 47401. by all means do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility challenges you. remember, self-nominated volunteers founded the o.h.s., and unpaid volunteers have kept it going. the patenaude imprint: joseph oliva patenaude had a flourishing jewelry business in the town of nelson, british columbia, canada, which took him to many parts of the world in search of gems. he was also an optometrist, so listed in the blue books of optometrists from 1920 to 1950. near the close of world war i he had provided financial backing to a patented silver re­ fining process which met with infringement, a long legal battle in the highest canadian court, and heavy losses, following which he practiced optometry exclusively. an aggressive advocate of the introduction of the silver dollar into canadian currency, in 1935 he ordered a thousand of them and counterstamped each with his own initials, j.o.p., and dis­ tributed them as change in his practice. he continued to stamp his initials on silver dollars at least until 1949. he retired in 1950. this and more about patenaude is written up in the march 2, 1982, issue of numismatic courier, page 10, published biweekly at 330 bay street, suite 808, toronto, ontario, canada m5h 2s8, with a portrait of patenaude and two illustrations of the silver dollar imprint. the article, entitled 11 the j.o.p. counterstamp 11 , by larry gingras, describes patenaude as a 11 kindly 11 man, a bachelor, ..... impossible that [he] could have entertained one unkind thought during the eighty-five years in which he graced the earth 11 • though he persistently broke the law by 11 defacing our coinage 11 he 11 could not have understood his acts to be illegal ... he died may 9, 1956, and is buried in nelson. -46the article was sent to me by ohs member alan york, o.d., who comments, 11they [the j.o.p. dollars] are very expensive today, much in demand by cana­ dian collectors ... dr. york adds, 11 i just gave a lecture at optifair east on •collecting antique eyeglasses•. there is a great interest in this field. present at the seminar were collectors from england, mexico, and italy. i hope to do it again soon ... primitive autoinoculation for conjunctivitis: the following is excerpted from a recent letter written to me by a young african lady optometrist practicing in the town of otjiwarongo, namibia (south-west africa), centered in the scrub-covered plateau border­ ing the namib desert and almost exclusively populated by tribal africans at a sparsity of about two per square mile (less than 1 per square kilo­ meter): 11 i hope the bit which follows is not a bother. please get me the answer if you know someone well informed in immunology. 11a small child suffers from purulent conjunctivitis. at an· early stage of the disease the mother makes two or so incisions (marks) on both cheeks just below the eyes so that some of the pus gets caught into these openings and thus the bacteria will find their way into the blood ·stream. after a few days the purulent conjunctivitis just disappears. in terms of auto-immunology .and such things what could be the explanation? 11 i am sure you are wondering why i am asking this. it has been a custom, or whatever you may call it, among our people, (the africans) especially the owambus, to treat children who are having any sort of eye infection. and they really do· believe that it works. i went home last month and asked my mother about it, and. she was adamant that it really does work. but she also admits that the marks have to be made very early, otherwise they would have no effect if done late. she also told me that the pus must be allowed to come in contact with the mark, otherwise is it use­ less. 11 i have been wondering about this for some time, but my knowl­ edge of immunology and antibodies is very limited, so i failed to figure it out myself. perhaps unknown to themselves they have been practicing the principle of auto-immunology for centuries. i will be very thankful if you can obtain information on this for me. 11 si ncere ly, 11 m.m. uushona 11 • (p.o. box 85, otjiwarongo 9000, namibia, south-west africa) -47on the instancy of i 11 umi nation: those of us who were taught at the outset of our cartographic learn­ ing that the earth is spherical can easily be amused by the realization that some believe it to be flat. analogously, those of us who were in­ formed in early infancy that light 11 travels 11 from one place to another, and had this reinforced a virtually infinite number of times by the very vocabulary thereto appertaining, have often been amused by some of the ancient concepts of vision which suggested sensory extensions from the eye to the objects seen. having been so thoroughly indoctrinated, and faced with no apparent contradictions, we have difficulty appreciating the perplexity of the ancient hard-thinking philosopher who by no direct power of observation could 11 prove 11 that light was anything but an im­ mediately everywhere, instantaneously propagated, phenomenon. so it is that in the book of genesis we read that 11 god said 'let there-be light,' and there was light ... it did not ''arrive 11 , 11 come 11 , or "shine"-,-nor was it "sent 11 ,"""ii(felivered 11 , "beamed 11 , 11 dispersed" or "radiated". the occurrence of light was described only by conjugated forms of the verb "to be", just as for darkness. we of today were not taught that 11 dark­ ness" travels, so we continue to verbalize its occurrence and absence quite ambiguously in terms of direction or elapsed time, as did the ancients for both darkness and light. prompting this bit of commentary is an article by peter marshall entitled "nicole oresme on the nature, reflection, and speed of light 11 in the september 1981 issue of isis, vol. 72, no. 263, pages 357-374. according to marshall, oresme (ca:-1320"-1382) set out "to explain \'/hat light was and what it.meant for the medium to become instantly light­ bearing". then oresme attempted "to discuss the possible immediacy of illumination". 100 year old practice: on march 11 sam h. horner, jr., o.d., celebrated the establishment of his practice of optometry at 40 second street, nw, cleveland, tennessee, by his grandfather in 1882 by hosting an open house for friends and well­ wishers. · details of the event made the front page of the march 10 issue of the cleveland daily banner and were further written up in the may 1 issue of the american optometric association news, vol. 21, no.9, page 10. the anticipated fourth generation horner optometrist is presently a student at the pacific university college of optometry. did diogenes do worse with his? in 1875 danders devised a lantern to test for color vision defects. it was used by the dutch rail authority. prompted especially by the great expansion of railway systems a variety of lantern tests of color vision were subsequently designed by others to determine the fitness o.f people whose vocations required ability-to recognize signal colors. however, lantern tests are rarely to be found in clinical ophthalmic practice. names of such lanterns included those of edridge-green (1891), -48williams (1892), thomson (c. 1895), bot (board of trade) (1913}, martin (1939}, rcn (royal canadian navy.) (1943}, sam-ctt (school of aviation medicine color threshold test} (1943), giles-archer (c. 1940), farnsworth (1946), and holmes-wright (1974). barry cole and algis j. vingrys did a historical accounting of the origins of such lanterns and they analyzed the diagnostic validity of lantern-type tests of color vision in an extensive article entitled 11a survey and evaluation of lantern tests of color vision 11 in the april 1982 issue of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 346-374. genuine eyewash: our dictionaries tell us that eyewash is a slang word for nonsense, bunk, meaningless talk, drivel, or claptrap. how this connotation came about is apparent from the below-illustrated front and back of a card found by ohs president leeds in one of the old books in his collection. ' .. i c;r1) dp... i~ \ac thompson's ejte -~ejwaa~eb foit all complaints of the eyes. i .b,'1a..;/a bfllt/1 u slt•"'l'd tcjitj, iii.j ptllf'rutary sta~iiij. .vflne vtlur c;,.,,;,,, -----··-...... -·--· trb o.knuine eye water h cnfoh.led in an en~r ... vr,( envelope, on whil.b i1 the lik~uc:s& of _the ort"'i_nal i~· veotor db. is.da.o tiiuiji.psun, nkw l.onuon, conn,, wath a /•••_-m•ul< of his 'aianature: al:.o the 1i"naturc of johi'i l. tuum.r!ion, wath a note ot hand, sikned by john l. thomi'>on, 161 ltivcr succi, troy, n. v. not&e ull•er .,.,. .. o ..... ,.... . . thi1 well-knowo and thoroughly cffilicut rcmcjy h•~ aqu1rcd a w~rl_d-wu.le reputation, having been bc:fnrc the vullic for over _ea"hty_·live yean, a.utlat as are~ ujark..lble fact that its rc"'ut.ltion has been »u~touucd 111~1ply _ly thc mel"iu uf elm ji'mclioit&re, a1 lhc many lhousandli, ._.hu have used it, w1ll bc..~.r tcaumooy. jts merits stand unrivaled. lo con1tant u~e tance 179s· price ............ 26 cent• per bottle. john l. thompson. prop'r, troy, n. y. there is no certain way to date the card except that 11 dr. isaac thompson's eye water 11 is alleged in the legend to have been 11 in constant use since 1975 11 and to have been 11 before the public for over eighty-five years 11 • unless the legend itself is 11eyewash 11 the card must then be from 1880 or later. -49hirschberg's history in translation: the following is taken directly from page 9 of the april 1982 issue, no. 9, of the society for ancient medicine newsletter: frederick c. blodi, md~ is currently engaged in translating into english julius hirschberg's geschichte der augenheilkunde as the history of ophthalmology. originally published in 10 parts a--s-­ vols. 12-15 of the graefe-saemisch handbuch der gesamten augen­ heilkunde, 2nd ed. (leipzig, 1899-1918), the work will appear in english in about 11 volumes. volume i is currently in press and should be available in the autumn of 1982, with present plans to issue two or three volumes each year. the cost will be about $78.00 per volume, with the exception of vol. i which is priced at $98.00 (pre-publication price quotations). inquiries concerning the translation should be addressed to: frederick c. blodi, md department of ophthalmology university of iowa school of medicine iowa city, iowa 52240 usa pre-publication and subscription orders can be placed through: felix bloch, bookseller p.o. box 58 ch-1162 saint-prex shitzerland that unforgettable journalistic jolt: any optometrist who was practicing, or enrolled in an optometry school, as was i, in 1937, remembers vividly where he was standing, sitting, or lying down when he learned about the optometrically infa~. mous readers digest article, an experience as incredibly shattering to him as the bombing of pearl harbor or the assassination of president kennedy. in 1948 i devoted the following paragraph to the event on page 122 of my optometry book: late in 1937 the profession received an awakening blow from which it has not yet ceased to stagger. like a bolt out of the blue there appeared in a nationally popular magazine28 which at that time was riding the crest of its popularity and which had become almost a daily guide to millions of readers, an extremely defamatory article about the nation's optometrists. in a most effective and convincing manner, and allegedly supported by docu­ mented statements and statistics, the author of the article led the reader through a step by step, but purportedly fruitless, search for the slightest trace of honesty and capability in any 28. riis, roger hilliam: optometry on trial, reader's digest, vol. 31, august 1937, pp. 77-85; september 1937, pp. 102104; october 1937, pp. 84-96. -50optometrist anywhere. even today no optometrist who was in practice at that time has forgotten the ordeal he sustained in the glare of the public eye. the subsequent half-hearted attempts on the part of the author of the article to present the actual facts in an unbiased manner afforded small comfort. recently another optometrist of my vintage recalled the event, sug­ gesting that it might be of sufficient historical interest to younger per­ sons to reprint the original article in the n.o.h.s. or to distribute photo­ copies to the members. this i hesitate to do simply because the original is quite available in major public libraries. o.h.s. president leeds has all three issues of the readers digest ih his collection, and copies are on file in the indiana university optometry library, and at ilamo, from which duplicates may be requested. our global expansion: a new addition to our membership list is k. issei mori, m.d., dean, ajoc kikuchi college of optometry, 2-5-5 izumi higashiku, nagoya, japan. dr. issei mori is the son of the late fumio mory, who variously spelled the 11 westernized 11 version of his name as mori, morey, morry, or morie in attempts to elicit our most accurate phonetic equivalent of the japanese pronunciation. three other new members in almost the same mail are: michael d. cook, o.d. p.o. box 3234 0700 pietersburg republic of south africa l. pizza rdi 106 boyd street cabramatta, 2166 sydney, australia carl r. golightly, o~d. 815 washington street michigan city, in 46360 famous visual defectives: what did victorian prime minister benjamin disraeli, lord herbert morrison of lambeth, admiral horatio nelson, rudyard kipling, and artur rubenstein have in common? according to j.b. addenbrooke phillips they each had one or another visual shortcoming. what these involved and what difficulties were entailed are described in an article entitled 11 some famous eyes 11 in the february 27, 1982 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 22, no. 5, page 162. -51disraeli, he says, was myopic and embarrassed himself when the queen detected his peering at her through his manacle. lord morrison lost one eye i.n early infancy, was nicknamed "one eye" by classmates, and was precluded form many active games. nelson lost his left eye in a 1794 battle, and then in 1798 he thought he had lost the other eye in the battle of the nile, but it turned out to be a flap of flesh that had fallen over the right eye and temporarily blinded him. kipling's high myopia in early childhood allowed him to attack an apple tree thinking it was his grandmother, and his thick glasses earned him the nickname 11 giglamps 11 • rubenstein, a nonagenerian, suffered diplopia and macular degeneration leading to severe loss of vision during his last decade, necessitating special aids to enable him to continue giving recitals. to honor visual scientists: the edgar d. tillyer award was established by the optical society of america in 1953 with an endowment by the american optical corporation in recognition of edgar d. tillyer, d.sc. (1881-1970) for his work in vision. the award consists of a citation and medal i.n dr. ti1lyer•s name presented bienially at a meeting of the optical society of america to persons who have 11 performed distinguished work in the field of vision, including (but not limited to) the optics, physiology, anatomy, or psy­ chology of the visual system 11 • this year, 1982, the award is made to a well known husband and wife research team, leo m. hurvich arid dorothea m. jameson 11 in recognition of the excellence of their research into the phenomena of vision in compre­ hensive reference to color perception, and especially for their distin­ guished pioneering work toward the establishment of a firm mathematical and scientific base for the now broadly accepted opponent color vision theory 11 • following is a list of the prior recipients: 1954 edgar d. tillyer 1955 adelbert ames~ jr. 1957 charles sheard 1959 gertrude rand ferree 1961 glenn a. fry 1963 clarence h. graham 1965 ~~a 1 ter stan 1 ey sti 1 es 1967 kenneth neil ogle 1969 lorrin a. riggs 1971 louise l. sloan 1972 robert merrill boynton 1974 yves legrand 1976 floyd ratliff 1978 gerald westheimer 1980 fergus w. campbell -52perspectivist optics: 11 getting the big picture in perspectivist optics 11 is the title of an article by a. mark smith in the december 1981 issue of isis, vol. 72, no. 264, pages 568-589. the front cover of this issue features the diagram be­ low, identified as taken from gregor reisch, m~rg~rita philosophica (basel, 1508), x, ii, 22. the intracranial sketch of a three-chambered brain is described in the article somewhat as follows: the anterior cell contains the sensus communis and the imaginativa, which combines the images retained in the imaginativa for use by the cogitativa. the second cell contains the cogitativa and the estimativa. the third chamber is the memorativa. author smith identifies perspectivist optics with four thirteenth century tracts, the mid-century latin translation of alhazen entitled 11 de aspectibus 11 , roger bacon•s 1260 11 perspectiva 11 , witel0 1 s circa 1275 11 perspectiva•~ and john pecham•s circa 1278/1279 11 perspectiva comnunis 11 • -53the herbert ives centennial: anyone who is familiar with the literature and technology of color­ imetry~ photometry~ illumination~ visual acuity~ flicker phenomena~ color vision color photography~ phosphorescence, critical flicker frequency, photoelectric effects, television~ stereoscopy, or cinematography can hardly be unaware of contributions of herbert eugene ives (1882-1953), whose one hundredth birthday occurs this month, july 31. recognition of his role in ortics is given in issue no. l, 1982, of optics news, vol. 8, pp. 9-13, by richard hazelett under the title "the herbert ives centennial ... included are photographs of ives testing color television apparatus in 1929 and conversing with herbert hoover by television in 1927. students of vi sua 1 science readily identify the name ives \'lith the nouns acuity meter, colorimeter, gratings, test, and theory, for example, but few might realize that a majority of his well over 100 publications were significantly related to vision, as were several of his numerous patents. a very interesting and thorough account of his life and work by oliver e. buckley and karl h. darro\>j may be found in the national academy of sciences bi ographi ca 1 t~emoi rs, vo 1. 29, ( 1956), pages 145189. ives may well have been the world's number one contributor to visual science technology. first recognition certificate awarded: the first recipient of an optometric historical society recognition certificate, described in the january issue of this newsletter, page 2, was william g. austin, o.d. of bismarck, south dakota, whose accomplish­ ment was reported in the july 1, 1981, issue of the american optometric association news, vol. 20, no. 13, page 5. the presentation was made to dr. austin in behalf of the optometric historical society by james mcandrew, jr., o.d., president of the north dakota optometric association, at the an­ nual meeting of the association in april, 1982. members and readers are invited to nominate others whom they deem de­ serving of similar recognition for their contribution to our awareness of optometry's history. nominations should be accompanied by adequate and reliable documentation and description of the nominees' dedication. an ophthalmic optician memorialized: the owen aves medal was created by the yorkshire (england) optical society to memorialize owen aves, 1881-1929, whose constributions to the development of optometry were described by w.e. hardy in the september 1979 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 19, no. 17, pp. 653-654. -54memorial to walter 0. studt, o.d.: born in 1896 and graduated from the los angeles college of optometry in 1919, the late walter studt created an irrevocable trust to endow a series of institutes or practicums for selected undergraduates and recent graduates of his alma mater, now the southern california college of op­ tometry. trustees for the trust, now named the doctor walter 0. studt visual testing and therapy trust, are his son donald studt, 0.0., and homer hendrickson, o.d. other optometrists memorialized: the pennsylvania optometric association has established the~· ward ewalt, jr., o.d., lecture series. in 1975 the optometric extension program foundation created the knight-henry memorial awards for undergraduate studies in optometry and development in honor of r. wayne knight, o.d., and w. robert henry, o.d. making change: alan york, o.d., informs us that on july 29, 1981, the president of the republic of italy decreed the issuance of coins of 500 lira (approxi­ mately 40¢) denomination with the values imprinted in braille. this is believed to be a first for coins. he adds that for several years braille has been used on the paper money of israel. early knowledge of color: ~~~jhat the educated person knew about color a.d. 1700 11 is the title of an article by ·rolf g. kuehni in the winter, 1981, issue of color research and application, vol. 6, no. 4, pages 228-232. what was known at the end of the 17th century is discussed briefly and illustrated with a translation of chapter vii, 11 de lumine et colore 11 , and the brief eye and vision portions of chapter xiv dealing with the functions of the human body in a book on natural philosophy written by the danish anatomist and physician caspar thomeson bartholin (1655-1738). bartholin had finished writing the book in 1692 but it was not published until 1703. the plan of the book, advises kuehni, as well as the considerable amount of quotations from other authors, indicates that it is an abbrevi­ ated and encyclopedic view of the state of natural philosophy at the time of writing and that it, therefore, contains the knowledge of the educated person of its time (excepting, of course, a very few contemporaries like newton, boyle, descartes, de la chambre, vossius, and malebranche, who themselves were introducing a new level of understanding of color phenomena which had not yet pervaded the general science literature). -55kuehni supplements the translation of bartholin with a brief review of six then prevalent categories of schools of thought in the matter of color as outlined by boyle in 1665. 18th century assurances: prompted by the article 11 numismatic optics 11 in the december issue of nohs, pages 81-81, ohs member and historian d.c. davidson of sussex, england, wrote excerpted author george berry, with a copy to us, to pro­ vide a few notes about early farthing-issuing opticians radford, f. west, gargory, brown, and philip from the manuscript of his yet to be published book on 11 spectacles and their makers 11 • included is the information that the guildhall library in the city of london has john radford•s trade card, dated by the library c. 1770, which suggests that the business continued after the founder died. the card reads: the great golden spectacles over against the east end of newchurch in the strand, london. radford•s true ground spectacles upon brass recommended by the royal society and used by the royal academy at paris and the most learned artists in europe. the curious by their own judge­ ment may discover the perfection of his spectacles, and others may depend on being fitted according to the weakness of their· eyes; provided they avoid the shops of toymen, comb makers and such ignorant pretenders, who scandalously impose upon the word and their fake goods have ruined the eyes of thousands. his crystal spectacles and reading glasses are neatly set in leather, horn, tortoiseshell, steel, silver and gold after the newest fash­ ion. he has the greatest variety of tools to suit the sight of a 11 persons; and the short sighted he fits the utmost exactness •. his judgement in optics has been examined by authority and ap­ proved of. an atlas of early spectacles: volumes i and ii of the english edition of the three-volume series by w. poulet, mentioned on page 10 of the january issue of this newsletter (the n.o.h.s.), arrived just recently at my favorite library. entitled 11atlas on the history of spectacles .. , the two sky-blue hardbound volumes, 30x22 em, one 3.9 and the other 3.6 em thick, weigh well over· five pounds ·each, totaling 4.75 kilograms, giving them the hefty feel of two book-size stone slabs. translations of dr. wolfgang pfeiffer•s foreword, prof. dr •. med h.w. holtmann•s 11 a short history of spectacles 11 , dr. hans-~jalter roth•s 11a contribution to the history of contact lenses 11 , and the illustration captions and identities are by frederich c. blodi, m.d. the two volumes are dated 1978 and published by j.p. wayenborgh in bonn, west germany. the 396 + xxxv pages of vol. 1 and the 505 pages of vol. 2 are of very stiff glossy paper, the durable binding of which is quite impossible, demanding very gentle page turning, an extremely frequent necessity -56because the illustration legends are separately listed at the back of vol. 1 as the 11 index 11 , and at the back of vol. 2 as the 11table of contents 11 • in the vol. 1 foreword dr. pfeiffer reports that 11 carl zeiss company of oberkochen in west germany founded a museum for optical instruments in 1971 when the company celebrated its 125th anniversary 11 [its 125 years ob­ viously include its prior existence in jena, now under east german rule, where a separate 11 zeiss 11 firm now operates]. the oberkochen museum's core is the collection of otto and gustav kroner, two munich opticians. the museum is complemented by the collections of zeiss, zeiss-ikon and voigt­ lander plus the 11 collection of the viennese court optician, waldstein 11 • holtmann's history of spectacles in vol. 1 is a very disappointing account with frequent mention of unfamiliar and often esoteric names, places, and events without specific reference citation, grossly inadequate for the scho 1 arly reader and defyi,ng understanding by even an i nte 11 i gent neophyte. his broadside listing of nine somewhat inadequately identified publications at the end is not as useful as a list one might obtain from almost any appropriate infonnation-retrieving computer system. it i·s con­ ceivable that the scholarly value of the· article was lost in what appears to be a very literal rather than interpretative translation, as might ex­ plain, for example, the inappropriate use of the preposition 11 0n 11 instead of 11 0f 11 in the title of the atlas itself. roth's history of contact lenses, also in vol. 1, is much the better piece of literature, though paradoxically so, inasmuch as neither vol. 1 nor vol. 2, nor the atlas title itself, includes contact lenses. perhaps vol. 3 will do so. he obviously undertook his assignment more thoroughly, though perhaps a bit superficially. for examples, he completely miscon­ strued leonardo davinci's involvement in the concept of a contact lens resting directly on the eye, and he identified tuohy as an 11 american op­ tometrist11. his reference resources totaled 23, some rather inadequately specified or unduly abbreviated, but clearly identified with points made in the text. making up the bulk of vol. 1 are 2,009 illustrations,_ serially numbered for reference to the brief legends in the index, and prefixed with the letter b, m, or z to indicate their belonging to the collection of otto hallauer (berne), pierre marly (paris), or zeiss (oberkochen) respectively. each serial index number is further accompanied by a number in parentheses which presumably may be a filing number in the host collection. the serial se­ quence is essentially chronological by period with some subgrouping.i.n terms of design features. the photographs, roughly approximating real size in most instances, include spectacles, monocles, and spectacle containers, plus a few illustrations of guild and spectaclemaker insignia and escutch­ eons, caricatures, amulets, anatomical eye models, vignettes, portraits, engravings, paintings, correspondence, advertisements, and coins. illus­ trations numbered 1,916 to 2,009 are in color. vol. 2 carries the subtitle 11 the arts and spectacles over five cen­ turies11. it reproduces in black-and-white, in whole or in part, 264 paint­ ings, woodcuts, copper and steel engravings, and watercolors found in the most important art collections depicting various types of spectacles, with -57the apparently identical visual aids on the opposing pages whenever they could be found in the b, m, or z collections. listed inconveniently and often annoyingly abbreviated in the back of the book are 21 references from which dates are derived, and a 11 table of contents 11 identifying the illustrations but not their institutional locations. the 264 illustra­ tions are subgrouped under the following categories: nos. 1-23: 11 spectacles in paintings 11 nos. 24-35 and 37-48: 11anachronisms 11 no. 36 (a-p): (a draftsman's unexplained sketch of several early types of eyewear.) nos. 49-156: 11 general section .. nos. 157-212: 11 spectacles in caricature 11 nos. 213-235: 11 fashion and spectacles .. (showing the apparel of the fashionably dressed man or woman) nos. 236-264: 11 portraits 11 • together these two volumes are a fine and authoritative atlas, but little else. orthokeratology history taking shape: 11 0rthokeratology: part i, historical perspective .. is the title of an article by lynn j. ·coon, o.d., in the r~arch 1982 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 53, no. l, pp. 187-195. ninety­ five references are listed, the earliest of which is for january 1958 • .!_!1_ love with an optometrist: hardly dulcet, a bit harshly staccato, the word optometrist is not one that a lyricist would be expected to use iambically to convey charm, romance, or euphoria •. but twenty years ago it happened in the musical comedy she loves me which opened on broadway at the eugene o• nei 11 theater on april 23, 1963, with 302 performances following 38 prior try-outs which included the shubert theater in new haven and the forrest theater in phila­ delphia, plus subsequent performances in london. she loves r1e, music by jerry bock, lyric by sheldon harnick, had its origin in parfumerie, a romantic comedy by hungarian playwright miklos laszlo in 1937 which was produced in 17 countries and translated into 11 languages, including a translation by ernst lubitsch in 1940 and written by samson raphaelson for the mgm film play entitled the shop around the corner starring james stewart and margaret sullavan. the word 11 0ptome­ trist11, however, was introduced in the broadway version by lyricist sheldon harnick for the musical number 11 a trip to the library 11 to be sung by barbara baxley playing 11miss ritter 11 , a comely clerk, 30ish, who wants a husband and decides she must camouflage her illiteracy by getting a library card. the following is the lyric sung, and sharply enunciated, some parts belted, to a lilting melody, describing her visit to the library: -58and suddenly all of my confidence dribbled away with a pitiful flop my head was beginning to swim and my forehead was covered with cold perspiration. i started to reach for a book and my hand automatically came to a stop. i don't know how long i stood frozen, a victim of panic and mortification. oh, how i wanted to flee, when a kindly voice, a gentle voice, whispered, 11 pardon me 11 • and there was this dear, sweet, clearly respectable, thickly bespecta­ cled man who stood by my side and quietly said to me, 11ma'am, don't mean to intrude but, i was just wondering, are you in need of some help? 11 · i said 11 no, -y~s, i am ... the next thing i know i'm sipping hot chocolate and telling my troubles to paul, whose tender· brown eyes kept sending compassionate 1 oaks. a trip to the library has made a new girl of me, for suddenly i can see the magic of books. i have to admit that in back of my mind i was praying he wouldn't get fresh, and all of the while i was wondering why an illiterate girl should attract him. then all of a sudden he said that i couldn't go wrong with the way of all flesh. of course, it's a novel, but i didn't know, or i certainly wouldn't have smacked him. but he gave me a smile that i couldn't resist and i knew at once how much i liked this optometrist. you know what this dear, sweet, lightly bespectacled gentleman said to me next? he said he could solve this problem of mine. i said 11 how? 11 • he said if i'd like he'd willingly read to me some of his favorite things. i said, 11 when? 11 he said, 11 now ... his novel approach seemed highly suspicious and possibly dangerous, too. i told myself, 11 wait, think, dare you go up to his flat? what happens if things go wrong? 11 he read to me all night long. now, how about that! it's hard to believe how truly domestic and happily hopeful i feel. i picture my paul there reading aloud as i cook. as long as he's there to read there's quite a good chance indeed, a chance that i'll never need ·to open a book. unlike someone else, someone i dimly recall, i know he'll only have eyes for me, my optometrist paul. a personal handwritten note from mr. harnick, incidentally, assures us that he was responsible for inserting the word 11 0ptometrist 11 in the song. he adds, 11 by the way, when the show was done in london, i was told that the british don't use the word 'optometrist'. to the best of my recollection we solved the problem by substituting the phrase, 'my optician, my paul."' -59although initially released on the mgm records label, #e41180c-2, the album, she loves me, has been reissued on the drg label #ds215008. it is currently available through music stores or from drg records, inc., 200 w. 57th street, new york, ny 10019 at $9.99 plus $2.00 ship­ ping. my attention was called to this delightful musical by professor ronald everson, 0.0., who also made the recording, as well as some of the background information, available to me. van orden memento to i~amo: ohs member mrs. henry quick of owego, new york, recently donated to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry a twelve inch silver plate with the following inscription in the center, "presented to millard e. van orden by the south central optometric society in recog­ nition of faithful service to the profession of optometry. amicus humani generis october 16, 1961" (oneida silversmiths stamped on back of plate). the late dr. van orden practiced optometry in ithaca, new york. frederick booth became an optometrist: writes pat carlson, librarian, southern california college of optometry, u·upon receipt of the april ohs newsletter i couldn•t stop myself from checking our collection of blue books to locate frederick booth. he ap­ pears in each edition from 1932 1942, but none thereafter. only his name and address (113 sanborn st., michigan city, indiana) is given." mystery compounded: a perusal of the first issue of this newsletter, january 1970, dis­ closed the fact that dr. stephen m. oppenheimer, then a senior student at the southern college of optometry, had written this very new society about the mysterious optometer which was described in much detail on pages 31-33 of our april 1982 issue. his had a 7.5 diopter lens in it, thus making it differ just a bit from any of the three described! at the time of his writing he had suggested that it might be a prinz or prince rule, which, according to the dictionary of visual science, it is not. must its identification fade into complete oblivion? h.w hofstetter, editor o.k. penisten, editor-on-leave -60the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard saint louis. missouri 63141 why belong to the opt0t1etric historical society? we 11!! the plainest reason, of course, is that this is a way to get involved in optometry's history. there are other reasons, of course, like getting the quarterly o.h.s. newsletter, names and addresses of other optometric history buffs, frequent bits of historical information hard to come by othen~ise, and -, hang it, if you need more reasons, forget it, just like the 99% who really don't care. the society offers no rewards, prestige, or easily displayed status symbols, -just simple membership at the nominal price of $5.00 per year. perhaps it should be less, or more. the members can vote to change this, almost the only special privilege offered. so, hhy not belotm to the optometric historical society! if you are not already enjoying membership just send your name and address and a five dollar check, or amend your will to· provide for a $1,000 legacy to the society and get free membership for the rest of your life. contributions to the society are tax deductible in the u.s.a. 1982-13-03-001 1982-13-03-002 1982-13-03-003 1982-13-03-004 1982-13-03-005 1982-13-03-006 1982-13-03-007 1982-13-03-008 1982-13-03-009 1982-13-03-010 1982-13-03-011 1982-13-03-012 1982-13-03-013 1982-13-03-014 1982-13-03-015 1982-13-03-016 hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 36 apri12005 number2 jay enoch's column: .jul 2 ?.:: 200~ a remarkable and historic find: ...... · ...... ·'· · · the earliest evidence to date of a vertebrate retinal photoreceptorin an invertebrate brain! i call your special attention to an article that appeared in a recent issue of science magazine: arendt, detlev; tessmar-raible, kristin; snyman, heidi; dorresteijn, adriaan; wittbrodt, joachim. ciliary photoreceptors with a vertebrate-type opsin in an invertebrate brain. science (29 october 2004); 306: 869-871. with added commentary "worms light-sensing proteins suggest eye's single origin" by elizabeth pennisi in the same journal issue on pp. 796-797. quoting pennisi," ... , eyes come in just two models. the two vertebrates' photoreceptor cells, typified by rods and cones, are quite distinctive from the invertebrates' [photoreceptors]." but, their structures and opsins are different. for a long-time period, it has been asked, from where and when did vertebrate photoreceptors and the vertebrate eye emerge? it is well-known that invertebrates preceded vertebrates developmentally. these scientists appear to have made good progress in addressing this problem. again quoting pennisi, "arendt and wittbrodt jumped into the fray over eye-evolution after arendt noticed some odd cells in the brains of ragworms [piatynereis dumerilit], a relic marine [segmented] annelid species that has been relatively unchanged for the past 500 million years." this annelid worm has invertebrate-type eyes (rhabdomeric), and a brain. interestingly, in the more central median brain area of these marine worms, ciliated cells containing vertebrate-type opsins have been located. vertebrate photoreceptors are derived from ciliated cells. and these authors isolated separate genes mediating both the invertebrate and vertebrate types of opsin in this annelid worm species! it is also apparent that these cells function as sensory detectors. equally interesting, this median part of the brain in the platynereis apparently mediates circadian rhythms. hence, it is suggested that these early vertebrate-type receptors provided a response to a light-induced signal to the circadian or photo­ periodic response system. today, in many vertebrate species there is a median brain 36/9 area which is associated with a "third eye", or a residuum of such a structure, and/or is associated with the pineal body of the brain. photoreceptors such as found in vertebrate eyes are often located at this central site. for discussions of the third eye , one might reference writings of the late professor richard eakins (1910-1999) of u.c. berkeley. my friend, professor emeritus richard o'connor, of ucsf and and the proctor foundation recently gave a fine talk on "the third eye" at the cordes society meeting in san francisco (2005). in another recent discovery discussed in this paper, it was noted that human retinal ganglion cells have been shown to have important similarities to invertebrate photoreceptors! these authors suggest that the modern vertebrate eye and its associated visual system may descend from an effective merging of both the primitive evolving invertebrate and vertebrate receptive systems. the modeled cell-presented in the paper has the appearance of a vertebrate photoreceptor, but it is not clear whether they also served/functioned as fiber-optics elements or wave-guides? one suspects we will hear much more about this fascinating find. in a sense this is history in its very purest form. j.m.e. the ether dome -figure to accompany jay enoch's last column: the title of jay enoch's last column was "the ether dome," which referred to the surgical suite located at the top center of the bullfinch building of the massachusetts general hospital. jay provided a figure illustrating that building, but i, your managing editor, forgot to include it in the last issue. so here it is with my apologies: massa(~hthje'f11j general~ hosrrral 36110 addition to list of books on the history of optometry: bob williams, executive director of the optometric extension program, wrote to offer an addition to the list of books on the history of optometry that we published in the october, 2004 issue of hindsight. he mentioned a book entitled looking backwards, looking forward, which he described as a brief history of the southern california college of optometry (scco) published by scco in 1979 in conjunction with the celebration of the 751h anniversary of its founding. i found that book in the worldcat online library catalog. it says that the book is 63 pages in length. authorship is given as southern california college of optometry rather than an individual or individuals. a few years later in 1984, james gregg published the comprehensive book origin and development of the southern california college of optometry. bob williams also mentioned a series of articles published in optometric world by arthur e. hoare on the history of the optometric extension program. bob mentioned that the articles were published from about 1967 to 1971. the indiana university optometry library has a complete set of issues of optometric world published during that time frame. i looked through all issues from january, 1965 to december, 1972 to find hoare's articles on the history of oep. the articles that i found are listed below with detailed reference data in case any of our readers wishes to find these articles. the articles provide an extensive history of oep. there were four series of articles, the skeffington saga, the duncan diary, profiles in professionalism, and profiles in organization. all of the articles in those four series were authored by hoare. in addition, the december, 1968 issue had three articles on oep. hoare ae. the skeffington sagapart i, skeffington, the man, may, 1966, 53(5):9, 12, 15, 16, 18. hoare ae. the skeffington sagapart 2, skeffington, the mission, july, 1966, 53(7):8, 10, 14, 16, 18,22,24. hoare ae. the duncan diary, part i, may, 1967;54(5): 10, 12, 15,16,20,22 hoare a e. the duncan diary, part ii, july, 1967;54(7):1 0,11, 15,16 hoare ae. the duncan diary, part ill, august, 1967;54(8):12, 16,20,22 hoare ae. the duncan diary, part iv, march, 1968;55(3):5, 19,34 hoare ae. profiles in professionalismralph barstow. april, 1968;55(4):8, 10, 14,16,34,35 hoare ae. profiles in professionalismmartha s. stem. may, 1968;55(5):1 0,11 '14, 17,20 hoare ae. profiles in professionalism edmund f. richardson. july, 1968;55(7):6,8, 10,11 '14 hoare ae. profiles in professionalismdon frantz. september, 1968;55{9):4,6, 10,12 skeffington am. the optometric extension program. december, 1968;55(12):6,22 alexander a. the optometric extension program -in retrospect and prospect. december, 1968;55(12):8, 12,23 36111 hoare ae. the oep: the first forty yearsas history. december, 19681 55(12):16, 18,19,20 oep celebrates 40th anniversary. january, 1969;56(1 ):8, 12 hoare ae. profiles in organizationsol lesser. december, 1970;57(12):4,7,8, 10,14 hoare ae. profiles in organizationsol lesser. january, 1971 ;58(1 ):8, 12 hoare ae. profiles in organizationcaryl croisant. may, 1971 ;58(5):8, 10, 13,14 d.a.g. dr. samuel johnson's eye problems: "blinking sam -the ocular afflictions of dr. samuel johnson" is the title of an article that appeared in the september, 2004 issue of archives of ophthalmology (volume 122, number 9, pages 1370-1374). the authors are graham a. wilson, of nelson hospital, nelson, new zealand, and james g. ravin, of the medical college of ohio, toledo. the authors state that, "the poor health of samuel johnson ( 1709-1784) has fascinated the public for more than 200 years. the illnesses of few famous men, with the possible exception of napoleon, have attracted more speculation. johnson was an outstanding 18th century literary figure, an essayist, novelist, and poet, and is particularly famous as the creator of the important dictionary of the english language. his writings and those of his physicians and friends, particularly his biographer, james boswell, provide an intimate account of a cultural icon." in a brief introductory section, the authors discuss johnson's many general health problems. then they devote about a page to a biography of johnson. they noted that he studied languages, literature, ethics, and theology at the university of oxford, but left before completing a degree. the appellation "dr." applied to him came from honorary doctoral degrees awarded him by trinity college, dublin, in 1764, and university of oxford in 1775. employment early in his career included work as a schoolmaster, work for a publisher, and magazine writing. of johnson's publications, wilson and ravin singled out his medical dictionary(1743-1745), written for a general audience in collaboration with a physician, and, of course, his dictionary of the english language (1755). most of the remainder of the article deals with johnson's eye problems. johnson had very poor distance and read by holding books very close to him. johnson was myopic, but he did not wear glasses, even though he was aware of the properties of glasses and a friend of his wore them. wilson and ravin mention that "concave lenses for the correction of myopia were available in johnson's day, but cylinders were not, and we assume that he experimented with glasses but did not find them helpful." the authors note that johnson's visual impairment seems to have been more severe when he was a child than as an adult. johnson could read and could write 36/12 legibly up to the last days of his life. he apparently had poorer vision with his left eye than with his right. the authors speculate that johnson had a congenital left superior oblique palsy. they noted that several portraits of johnson show a head tilt to the right shoulder. wilson and ravin also hypothesize that johnson may have had phlyctenular keratoconjunctivitis as a child resulting in fine corneal scars, astigmatism, and reduced visual acuity. the authors note that many details of johnson's eye problems, including a definitive diagnosis, their severity, and their exact impact on his life are elusive. however, they do consider it "likely that his poor distance vision led him to concentrate on near work and influenced his career choices toward books and literature." d.a.g. myopic artists: "myopic artists" is the title of a short article by werner polland of sweden in the june, 2004 issue of acta ophthalmo/ogica scandinavica (volume 82, number 3, pages 325-326). the author notes the opinion of some that being myopic may be advantageous to a painter. the author reports that some painters prefer to have their myopia undercorrected, that "they want to see the entire picture, not to see too many details in long-range landscapes." polland noted that some of the impressionists, who "wanted to convey subjective sensory impressions," were myopic but did not wear glasses. examples mentioned were paul cezanne (1839-1906), august renoir (18411919), camillo pissaro (1830-1903), and edgard degas (1834-1917). in contrast, there was swedish painter ivan agueli (1869-1917), who "was concerned that [his myopia] was preventing him from properly transferring reality to the canvas." d.a.g. an optometrist in a perry mason novel: an old television series that i still enjoy watching occasionally in re-reruns is "perry mason," about a defense attorney. i also on occasion read the novels that inspired the series. they were written by earl stanley gardner, who was a lawyer in real life. readers may be interested in the portrayal of an optometrist in one of the books because it may illustrate a perception of optometrists at the time. "the curse of the one-eyed witness" was copyrighted in 1950. a pair of glasses prescribed by an optometrist become an important clue in the case. on page 154 of the 1955 ballantine books reprint of the book, the following dialog occurs between perry mason and his private investigator paul drake: 36/13 mason: "who's the optometrist?" drake: dr. carlton b. radcliffe. he has a little shop where he sells binoculars, optical goods, does fitting for glasses ... mason: "what sort of chap?" drake: "an oldish man, around seventy, i'd say. he lives up above his shop. apparently he knows his way around a quiet, patient man who's making a little living out of his shop .... " mason and drake go to see dr. radcliffe and on page 155, there is the following: " ... as mason and drake entered dr. radcliffe was seated at the counter, a ioupe over his eye, assembling the component parts of a watch. "'just a minute,' he called over his shoulder and went on with his work, carefully picking up a small jeweled wheel with a pair of tweezers, fitting it into position in the movement of the watch." on page 156, the following dialog occurs: radcliffe: "i am an old man; i have studied but few things. the world has moved rapidly and now there are many things i don't know." mason: "we want information about glasses." radcliffe: "now glasses are different. glasses and watches i know. those two things i have studied. i have studied them a lifetime and a lifetime has been too short. ... " and then farther down page 156: radcliffe: "information about a patient or a customer i don't give out. ... 1 am only an optometrist, a jeweler and a watchmaker." a question for members who may have been in school or in practice in 1950: how accurate a portrayal is this of some of the older optometrists practicing in 1950? how may optometrists still identified themselves as optometrist, jeweler and watchmaker in 1950? d.a.g. debate about whether rembrandt may have been strabismic: the possibility that rembrandt may have had strabismus was posited by margaret s. livingstone and bevil r. conway of the harvard medical school in correspondence published in the new england journal of medicine ("was rembrandt stereoblind?", september 16, 2004, volume 351, number 12, pages 1264-1265). they examined high resolution images of self-portraits of rembrandt. for each they plotted the horizontal position of the circumference of the iris within the ellipse formed by the palpebral aperture. they then judged whether the pupil was centered within the ellipse for each eye and superimposed the ellipses for the two eyes. by that technique, they judged that rembrandt portrayed his eyes as exotropic in 35 of 36 self-portraits (24 36114 paintings and 12 etchings). "in 23 of the 24 paintings, the eye on the right side of the painting tends to look straight ahead and the other eye deviates outward, whereas in all 12 etchings, this asymmetry is reversed." they then suggested that rembrandt had a unilateral strabismus: "because an etching is made by scratching lines on a metal plate that is used to make a print, what you see in the print is reversed, left to right, from what the artist drew on the plate. the fact that the eye that deviates outward in the etchings is the opposite eye from the one that deviates outward in most of the paintings suggests that rembrandt actually did have a unilateral strabismusotherwise the deviating eye would be random ... " that article prompted a letter to the editor from michael f. marmor, of the stanford university school of medicine, and saad shaikh, of central florida retinal consultants, published in the february 10, 2005 issue of the new england journal of medicine (volume 352, number 6, pages 631-632). they presented several reasons for caution in making such a diagnosis: 1 . no "controls," such as studies of portraits of other artists known to have normal vision, were offered. 2. several artists have taken liberties in representing facial and ocular characteristics. 3. the angle of deviation calculated by livingstone and conway was only about five degrees. 4. making the assumption that an artist might use a mirror two to three feet away for a self-portrait, the eyes make a visual angle of about three degrees. with shift in fixation from one eye to the other as one is painted and then the other, there would be a little more white of the eye visible on the nasal side of each eye. 5. a better way to judge ocular alignment would be by using corneal light reflexes. marmor and shaikh reported finding ten rembrandt self-portraits with good corneal reflections. eight of the ten showed identical placements of the corneal reflections in the two eyes. one of the ten would suggest an exo deviation and one would suggest an eso deviation. marmor and shaikh suggest that "the whites of the eyes in these paintings do vary in a way that suggests possible deviations, but we would argue that this is largely the result of artistic intent (and the factors mentioned above). the corneas tell us that rembrandt probably had straight eyes." in the authors' reply (page 632), livingstone and conway counter that four of the ten paintings examined by marmor and shaikh were not authentic rembrandt self­ portraits. they also argued that "a few rembrandt self-portraits do show aligned eyes, but more often, rembrandt depicted himself as significantly exotropic, by an average of 10 degrees and in some cases by up to 30 degrees." d.a.g. 36115 philosophies of vision therapy: i recently obtained a copy of the fourth edition of binocular anomalies: diagnosis and vision therapy, by john r. griffin and j. david grisham (published in 2002 by butterworth-heinemann). the ninth chapter has the title "philosophies and principles of binocular vision therapy," and is divided into a section on philosophies (pages 263268) and a section on principles (pages 268-277). three philosophies are identified: javal and the french school, worth and the english school, and optometric vision therapy. followers of javal included remy and cantonnet. chavasse was influenced by worth. noted among those who contributed to optometric vision therapy were sheard, fry, morgan, hofstetter, brock, vodnoy, and skeffington. the chapter includes photographs of louis emile javal (1839-1907), claud worth (1869-1936), and meredith morgan (1912-1999). · d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 36116 2005-36-02-001 2005-36-02-002 2005-36-02-003 2005-36-02-004 2005-36-02-005 2005-36-02-006 2005-36-02-007 2005-36-02-008 (243 llorth vo 1 . 14 fjehsletter of the optdr1etric historical society lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri apri 1 1983 a widely dispersed membership: 63141' in the early years of the o.h.s. we occasionally published a list of the names and addresses of all of our members. recently we considered doing it again, but when i received the long list of 213 me!i1bers as of february 16, 1983, it occurred to me that the several added pages to a single issue would increase the postage significantly and probably be of negligible interest to all except a half dozen or fewer readers. further, i am aware that there are some who do not wish their names and addresses to be on a widely distributed list that may lend itself to exploitation. therefore, i propose not to include the list as a part of a newsletter and to suggest that any member desiring the list for a legitimate and scholarly or friendly purpose may request it directly from the secretary-treasurer free of charge. what may be of interest to many, however, is a kind of statistical summary. for example, of the 213 members, almost 10% are not optorjetrists, consisting of librarians, opticians, historians, optometrists' widows, and students, and perhaps others whose professional ties are not readily identifiable. 79~ of the members are residents of the u.s.a. another 4% are residents of canada, 3% of australia, 3% of england, and the remaining 11% of the republic of south africa, flew zealand, india, ita 1 y, sweden, switzer 1 and, hong kong, the ph i1 i ppi nes, france, ireland, israel, japan, poland, the lletherlands, and east germany. ~jithin the u.s.a. the state of california has 25 members; indiana, hew york, and ohio each has 13 members; pennsylvania 12; missouri 9; illinois 7; florida, massachusetts, tennessee, texas, and puerto rico each 6; new jersey 5; maryland, minnesota, oklahoma, and virginia each 4; arizona and michigan each 3; colorado, georgia, hawaii, north carolina, south carolina, and \jashington each 2; and alabama, connecticut, delaware, iowa, kansas, thssissippi, nebraska, new hampshire, south dakota, wisconsin, and the district of columbia each one. this leaves 16 american states completely deprived of the benefits of o.h.s. mer11bershi p. the eight canadian members are scattered in four of the nine provinces, and the seven australian members in five of australia's six states. any member who has a personal friend in one of the ohs-deprived states, provinces, or countries may well do him 24 or her a favor by offering a year•s membership, and of course this hould further enhance our optometric history-gathering efforts. gifts and dues: first the good news. donations received mostly as supplements to our extremely modest annual dues included $45.00 from charles r. stewart, o.d., ph.d.; ~20.00 from irving bennett, o.d., $10.00 from o.k. penisten, o.d., and $5.00 from sterrett titus, o.d. retired. also, three persons were given memberships as christmas gifts. now the bad news. as of the 16th of february seventy three of our 1982 members had not yet paid their 1983 dues. this represents $365.00, the equivalent of approximately 40% of our newsletter publishing and mailing costs for the year. even in the circumstances of the times i venture the guess that by the time this issue is delivered the great majority of the 73 will have paid, but if not, let this be a reminder to the procrastinators to send the $5.00 in before they finish reading this, or immediately after. ocular refractive indices! as early as 1606 thomas harriott (1560-1621) used hollow glass prisms which he filled with various liquids, none of the ocular media, to determine their refractive indices. about a century later, in 1709 and 1710, francis hauksbee, the elder (ca. 1666-1713), reported experiments of similar design resulting in what, according to john r. levene, appears to have been the first attempt to estimate the refractive index of ocular media, in this instance the vitreous and crystalline humors of the ox eye. the next refractive index measurements for ocular media may not have been until very early in the 19th century by william wollaston (1766-1829). others who contributed historically, directly or indirectly, experimentally or theoretically, to our awareness of the refractive properties of the several ocular media include leonhard euler (1707-1783) and his son johann albrecht euler (1734-1800), jean francois gabriel de chossat de saint sulpice, usually abbreviated j.f.g. chossat, (1755-1841), thomas young (1773-1829), sir david brewster (1781-1868), l. matthiessen (1830-1906), and marius tscherning (1854-1939). the roles of the above-named are reviewed by john r. levene in ·volume 2 of historia ophthalmologica internationalis, 1982, pages 263-272 under the caption of foundations of modern ocular vegetative physiology, 1. refractive iudex of the ocular media, from which these notes are derived. 25 50 years of optic gumpelmayer: on june 11, 1932, after full qualification and several years experience with other augenoptiker, theodor gumpelmayer opened offices for the practice of optics and optometry in linz, austria. fifty years of growth and service were celebrated in 1982 with a handsome 50-page 21 x 21 em booklet entitled 11 die chronik des 'optikers in vereinshaus'. 11 (chronicle of the optician in society). though obviously a promotional public-relations document, it serves as an historical account with numerous' illustrations, including mr. gumpelmayer's february 4, 1926, certificate of qualification, newspaper clippings, working facilities, staff, official correspondence, street scenes, and the like. included are biographical notes on theodor gumpelmayer senior, and on his son and successor dr. theo f. gumpelmayer, who also has an impressive career of numerous major accomplishments. a curdling thought: miss m.m. uushona, our african optometrist friend in otjiwarongo, has come across another interesting home cure among the owambus of that part of flani bi a, south\lest africa. for treatment of a traumatized eye goat milk may be instilled a few drops at a time. she has no opinions as to its effectiveness, but it undoubtedly has a history in local folklore. book revi e\rv: ~~itchell, margaret, 11 history of the british optical association,'• 1895-1978, published by the british optical association and the british optical association foundation, 10 knaresborough place, london shs otg, 1982, 314 pp., 76 illustrations, 15 x 22 cm,~7.50 (ca. $11.60) the title could well have been 11 inside the b.o.a. 11 the author has been a career-long bibliothecal, academic, editorial, and administrative staff member of the british optical association. she presents her well documented and somewhat intimate, often glowing, interpretation of the b.o.a. as a corporate, humanitarian, intellectual, and political embodiment of a profession during its thorny emergence from a medieval craft in today's century. the 24 chapters deal with the early evolution of ophthalmic optics, the organizational and circumstantial events around and shortly following the turn of the century, the separately chronological accounts of progress in legislation, certification, education, research, conduct codes, discipline, inter-society liaison, organization management, the successive b.o.a. head­ quarters, the library, the museum, journals, books. secretaryships, staff, involvement of contemporary personalities, local societies, 26 international affairs, and the benevalent fund. the final chapter describes the campaign to merge the functions of the b.o.a., the 350 year old l~orship­ ful company of spectacle makers, and the scottish association of opti·cians into the now established british college of ophthalmic opticians (optometrists). discussed in the test are allegations of antiquated restrictions and regulations on the part of the worshipful company of spectacle makers due to an apathy more pointedly labeled "supineness"; the tribulations of adoption of "ophthalmic optician" as an identifying title, and its definition; the variously occurring forms of medical opposition which may be summarily described as resistance to any attempt to improve the status or capability of the ophthalmic optician (optometrist); the adoption and development of qualifying examinations for certification, initially as "optic grade" (optical science), "dioptric grade" (ophthalmic science), and "ophthalmometric grade" (clinical science), and later the inclusion of diplomates in orthoptics, contact lenses, and optometric use of drugs; the awareness that an estimated 20,000 people in great britain in about 1903 were calling themselves opticians when only 600 held certificates of qualification; the 1910 markham v. thomas court case which for the first time in the history of optometry placed a legal responsibility on the optometrist to refer a patient recognized to be in need of medical attention; the introduction of ophthalmic optical curricula in polytechnical institutes, which many years later became universities; the 1922 founding of the london refraction hospital upon the urging of an ophthalmologist that such a hospital be established to be staffed by opticians; the invasion by itinerant opticians with "slick advertising" after world war i, one being a t1aurice bloom, an american auctioneer of jewelry who eventually opened 40 spectacle-vending establishments; and numerous other incidents which now may seem purely anecdotal but which were crucial issues of the moment. not without a subtle message is ms. mitchell's quoting of j.h. sutcliffe as saying, "the true art of examination is rather to extract what knowledge a candidate may have than to seek to confuse him by 'catch' questions.•• she also cites an initial b.o.a. regulation stating that women should be eligible for membership but not for any office. she then reports that the first women to pass a qualifying n.o.a. examination responded to the question, "do spectacles make one look uglier?" with "are people usually ugly looking in the first place?" with only repeated and admiring high praise for the 40 years secretary mr. j.h. sutcliffe she mentions quite casually that his staff was female, "all clad in hi qhly-starched mauve overa 11 s [smocks] which were singularly unattractive, but that possibly was the purpose." what has been puzzling to many of us is the apparent plethora of rival societies with superficially parallel objectives that plagued britain's optometric development until recent years. the principal reason becomes quite apparent in this book. long without legislated registration, "20,000" self-styled opticians could not agree on standards for their own voluntary certification and quite defensively adhered to whatever organization seemed best to fit their qualifying circumstances. 27 of special interest to readers of this newsletter are the chapters on the magnificent b.o.a. library, which had its beginning with only seven books in 1901, and the outstanding sutcliffe museum, which had its first display in 1926. both retain their b.o.a. identity and continue to serve their patrons at the new location of 10 knaresborough place, london sw5 otg, england. quite disappointing is the physical quality and material composition of the book itself, actually a bit cheap looking. the inexcusable lack of a much needed index, the careless omission of page indications for the chapters listed in the table of contents, the absence of an imprinted publication or copyright date, and the excessive use of unfamiliar abbreviations all suggest a gross lack of editorial surveillance by the publisher. the text, however, is very well written, especially commendable for an author whose career had completely skirted the writing of history. it is a contribution to history that could well be emulated by a hundred other optometric organizations which now have survived the better part of a century and for which archival material may still abound. intraocular lens history: the first chapter of "intraocular lenses," a book by edwin olmos, f. hampton roy, and daljit singh, editor, praeger publishers, r~ew york, 1981, is devoted entirely to the history of intraocular lenses from the mentioning of the idea in cassanova's memoirs in the eighteenth century to the interim report of the u.s. food and drug administration in 1979. the details are well referenced in the book's 615 item bibliography. a lady o.d. in 1916: a set of "dittoed" handout sheets, ll7 typewritten pages, from an ocular anatomy course taught at the rochester school of optometry in or before 1916 was recently contributed to ilamo by elizabeth parker ruth of melbourne, florida, daughter of helen zimmerman parker, o.d., a 1916 graduate of the rochester school. helen was the daughter of george zimmerman, an optometrist and registered pharmacist in the city of rochester, new york, and practiced optometry in her father's pharmacy until her marriage to henry h. parker. much of her practice included the optometric care of deaf children, as she learned to communicate with them in sign language. the anatomy text is startingly detailed, due, apparently to lack of good diagrams and photographs. a sample paragraph lifted at random from the text illustrates the monotone: 28 11 the ciliary body is richly supplied with nervp.s from the lon0 and short ciliary nerves and bloodvessels, principally the extensions from the long ciliary arteries. on account of the extremely important vascular condition at this point, the region directly external to it on the ~clera is known as the danger zone because any affection or injury to this structure is marked by extreme tenderness in this region of the eye. the danger zone extends one quarter of one inch back from the limbus or sclero­ cornealjuilction. 11 helen was born july 11, 1895 in chicago, illinois, and died february 21, 1982 in melbourne, florida. she had a pair of soft contact lenses made for herself at the age of 82. michael faraday (1791-1867): coiner of such terms as anode, cathode, diamagnetic, dielectric, and electrolysis, and honored by the term farad, 11 faraday had an abiding interest in optics. for nearly 30 years he was the official scientific advisor on lighthouses. in 1831 he discussed the illusions of movement and showed how pictures of successive phases of motion could give the impression of continuous movement, ••. observations that inspired the much later inventions of the cinema and stroboscope. 11 so reported james e. lebensohn, editor of the section on 11 cl assi cs of ophthalmology 11 in the december 1958 issue of survey of ophthalmology, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 563-567, a copy of which was thoughtfully sent to me by william lyle, editor of the american journal of optometry and physiological optics with the note, 11 no doubt old stuff to you, 11 which it \1/as not. 11 faraday \1/as born near london and had but meager schooling. ~/hen 22 years old he left his employment as bookbinder, at which he had worked since the age of 10, to become the assistant to sir humphry davy at the royal institution. after an experi~ent on the liquification of chlorine, 13 glass fragments were removed from his eye, 11 reports lebensohn. he adds, 11 clerk maxwell credited faraday with the first conception of the electromagnetic theory of light. 11 reprinted in the same classics section is a complete article by faraday entitled 11 0n the ~1anufacture of glass for optical purposes 11 from the 1830 philosophical transactions of the royal society of london, vol. 120, pp. 1-57. said faraday by way of introduction, 11 perfect as is the ·manufacture of glass for all ordinary purposes •.• there is scarcely any artificial substance in which it is so difficult to unite what is required to satisfy the wants of science. 11 11 ••• these difficulties have induced some persons to labor hard and earnestly for years together •.• 11 11 guinand was one of these: and died engaged in it in the year 1823. fraunhofer labored hard until science was deprived of him also by death. 11 2g in his article faraday reported the scientific and techno­ logical advances accomplished in the "room and furnaces ••• built at the royal institution in september 1827," beginning with inquiries into the properties of flint and crown glass and following through with "the preparation and perfection of peculiar heavy and fusible glasses". lebensohn comments that although faraday's newly produced types of glass \'/ere a 1 a bora tory success and represented pioneer work of directive influence on all subsequent investigations, it remained for ernst abbe, otto schott, and others to implement the subsequent technology essential to their commercial development. on page 562, facing the classics article, is a full length portrait of faraday in what appears to be a lecturing stance in quite dressy attire. he is reported to have had an exceptional gift of popularizing science. comments lebensohn, "charles dickens, then editor of househo 1 d hords as ked for an account of his lectures on the breakfast table and of those addressed to children." the ies gold medal: established in 1g43 and first awarded in 1g44, this highly coveted honor of the illuminating engineering society of north america has been awarded every subsequent year except in 1951, 1953, and lg78. " ••• to be awarded from time to time as merited, but not more often than once a year," its purpose is to "afford the society an opportunity to give appropriate recognition to meritorious achievement which has conspicuously furthered the profession, art, or knowledge of illuminating engineering." candidates need not be members of the society. the nominee's achievement may "be in the field of engineering design, applied illumination, optics, ophthalmology, lighting research, education, or administration and management." inching our way to the diopter: recently, in his ever diligent search for published papers on myopia, professor david goss, o.d., ph.d., of northeastern state university, tahlequah, oklahoma, encountered such refractive designations as "+ l/5 c., axis at goon and "-1/30 c., axis 170°.'' these were represented as amounts of astigmatism by s.d. risley, m.d., of philadelphia in a patient examined in 1877. he reported this in an article entitled, "hypermetropic refraction, passing while under observation into myopia," in transactions of the american ophthalmological society, vol. 4, 1885, pages 102-106. in the same article risley reported on two additional patients whom he had examined in 1881, specifying their refractive errors as"+ 1 d. c., axis 180°, 11 "+.50s.~ -1.25 c., axis vert.," etc. (with one specification being "o.d. -1 d. c., axis 180:+1. d. c. axis goo"! 30 in the same volume number, but dated 1886, in an article entitled, "some remarks on asthenopia and changes in refraction" by \~illiam f. norris, m.d., also of philadelphia, pages 369-384, dr. goss found_grades of hypermetropia identified by such fractions as l/4.5, l/6, l/8, etc. on up to 1/72, 1/136, and l/144. in the printed discussion following dr. norris's paper a dr. harlan spoke of refractive errors of power "+1.5 d. cylinder," "1. d. spherical," and similar metric values. dr. goss also noted that in the two prior volumes, 2 and 3, of the same transactions for 1879 and 1883 there were two articles by hasket derby, m.d., of boston, in which all refractive designations were in "dioptrics" in quarter-diopter steps. in the earlier of the two articles (pp. 530-536) however, dr. derby pointed out that, "it is only since 1876 that metric glasses have been used ••• " in the same paragraph he accommodated the less progressive reader momentarily by the statement and a parenthetical inclusion, " •.• some investigators have not reckoned in a myopia of less than one dioptric (-1/36)." in the printed discussion following dr. derby's later paper a dr. gruening comments, "~je now have three different terms by which measurements are designated, dioptric, dioptrie, and dioptre." the explanation of the earlier fractional designations may be found in e. landolt's "the refraction and accommodation of the eye" translated by c.m. culver, edinburgh, 1886, pages 68-78. therein is described "the old system of numbering spectacle glasses" in which it is presumed that ophthalmic lenses are symmetrically bispherical (or bitoric or bicyclindrical), that the index of refraction of glass is approximately 1.5, and that therefore the focal length of the lens is equal to the radius of curvature of either surface or of the tool on which the surfaces were ground. why the refractive specifications were often recorded in their reciprocal form as fractions is not explained though the arithmetical additivity of the resultant power values may have been a factor. perhaps, too, the reciprocal fraction may have been employed during this era of transition and confusion to differentiate more conspicuously the old and new numbering systems. the expression of the radius of curvature and therefore the approxi­ mated focal length in inches provided another source of error, for, according to landolt, there were 30 or more different inch lengths. he reported, for examples, the english inch as 25.4, the prussian 26.15, the austrian 26.34, and the paris inch as 27.07 mm. to resolve this error he provided two tables, one showing the 32 numbered lens strengths or radii of the old system ranging from 2 to 72, their computed focal lengths -in english inches for an index of 1.53, and their millimeter and "dioptry" focal equivalents, the other table doing the same for paris inches. a further complication that landolt did not mention in his otherwise very comprehensive discussion is the reasonable certainty that refractionists in america and england were using english inches for routine distance measurements while the radii of curvature of the optical surfacing tools, according to prentice (p. 7407, american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, 1907), were ~easured in paris inches! h. ~.· i 31 according to charles n. mccormick, author of the book "practical optics for beginners," chicago, 1895, " ••• at an international congress of ophthalmologists some years ago a uniform standard of measurement and numbering was agreed upon. the standard is one metre .•• as a name for the unit of measurement, the word dioptre was chosen ••• " conversion to the metric-dioptric system was plagued not only by the variety of inches but also by the nomenclature of the new unit, which we now call diopter or dioptre. previously mentioned here are also the dioptric, the dioptrie, and the dioptry, not to mention, according to landolt, page 71, that nagel gave it the name of "meterlinse" (metre-lens). so, what dr. goss has not been able to resolve is whether dr. risley's astigmatism value of l/15 is the equivalent of 2.79 d. or 2.61 d., fortunately a negligible difference for his purpbses. more fascinating is the question of whether the lens fabricating opticians discarded or recut their inch-designated surfacing tools to correspond to the quarter and eighth diopter steps or merely redesignated their curvatures to the nearest usable dioptric values. similarly, were the lenses in the inch-designated trial cases replaced or merely renumbered to the nearest usable dioptric strengths? the reader who owns a dioptrically designated trial case dating back to the last quarter of the 19th century might well answer this question by measuring the dioptric powers of a dozen or more of the lenses. lend me your eye: in a folk tale collected by peter christen asbjornsen early in the 19th century in the gudbrandsdal district of south central norway we 1 earn of the remova b 1 e eye shared by severa 1 tro 11 s, those supernatural beings that inhabit the backwoods regions of scandinavia. initially published in 1845 by asbjornsen and his co-author jorgen moe as one of a collection of norwegian folk tales, and later illustrated by erik herenskiold to give us our present visual concept of the looks of a troll, the tale appeared in english in 1960 in norwegian folk tales translated by pat shaw and carl norman, dreyers forlag, oslo. entitled, "the boys who met the trolls in the hedal woods," the tale is about som~ adventures of two "half-grown" sons of a poor farm couple in vaga who got lost in a forest in one of their frequent wanderings about the countryside. shortly after lying down to sleep they heard the approach of three trolls who had smelled "the smell of christian blood." 32 the story continues: just then they saw the trolls come rushing, and they were so big and tall that their heads were level with the tops of·the fir trees. but they had only one eye among the three of them, and they took turns using it. each had a hole in his forehead to put it in, and guided it with his hands. the one who went ahead had to have it, and the others went behind him and held onto him. 11 take to your heels! 11 said the elder of the boys. 11 but don't run too far before you see how it goes. since they have the eye so high up, it'll be hard for them to see me when i come behind them. 11 ~jell, the brother ran ahead, with the trolls at his heels. in the meantime, the elder brother went behind them and chopped the hindmost troll in the ankle, so that he let out a horrible shriek. then the first troll became so frightened that he jumped, and dropped the eye, and the boy wasn't slow in grabbing it up. it was bigger than two pot lids put together, and it was so clear, that even though it was pitch black, the night became as light as day when he looked through it. when the trolls discovered that he had taken the eye from them, and that he had wounded one of them, they started threatening him with all the evil there was, if he didn't give them back the eye that very minute. 11 i'm not afraid of trolls or threats, .. said the boy. 11 novj i have three eyes to myself, and you don't have any. and still two of you have to carry the third. 11 11 if v-1e don't get our eye back this very minute, you'll be turned into sticks and stones! 11 shrieked the trolls. but the boy felt there wasn't any hurry; he was afraid of neither boasting nor magic, he said. if they didn't leave him alone, he would chop at all three of them so they would have to crawl along the hill like creeping, crawling worms. hhen the trolls heard this, they became frightened and started to sing another tune. they pleaded quite nicely that, if he gave them back the eye, he would get both gold and silver and everything he wanted. \~ell, the boy thought that was all very fine, but he wanted the gold and silver first. so he said that if one of them would go home and fetch so much gold and silver that he and his brother could fill their bags, and give him and his brother two good steel bows besides, they should get the eye. but until then he would keep it. 33 the trolls carried on and said that none of them could walk as long as he didn't have an eye to see with. but then one of them started yelling for the old woman, for they had one old woman among the three of them. after a while there was an answer in a mountain far to the north. so the trolls said that she was to come with two steel bows, and two pails full of gold and silver, and it wasn't long before she was there. when she saw what had happened, she started threatening with magic. but the trolls became still more frightened and bade her be careful of that little wasp. she couldn't be certain that he wouldn't take her eye, too. so she flung the buckets, and the gold and the silver, and the bows at them, and strode home to the mountains with the trolls. and since then, no one has ever heard that the trolls have been about in the hedal woods sniffing after christian blood. indubitably veracious: in the christmas issue of the optician, december 10, 1982, vol. 184, no. 4770, pages 16-18, ohs member colin b. fryer entertains the reader with several anecdotal eye-related tales of yore. they include a description of a millenia-old temple in mesopotamia in which a goddess was emblematically represented by a pair of staring eyes in copper repousse; a chinese scholar of the ~1ing dynasty (1368-1644 a.d.) who was described by contemporary chroniclers as having transparent flesh so that his skull, skeleton, and the internal organs of his body \'lere clearly visible; a blinded knight named rolf in york, england, ca. 1226, who, following weeks of prayer, found himself one day with a new pair of eyes, slightly smaller and of different color but sound enough to provide good vision for the rest of his life; the courtiers of philip ii of spain (1527-98), who wore big, thick-rimmed spectacles, often unglazed, for 11effection, prestige, and to indicate their noble rank, 11 with the fad continuing within the nobility into the early years of the 18th-century in spain, though considered quite objectionable in some other countries; the tyrolean villager who came upon a tiny glass-contained flea of a deceased naturalist which he saw through the lens of a simple microscope in the naturalist's laboratory and took it for 11 the devil 11 ; a turkish governor who was baffled by the camera obscura which traveller edward dodwell used to sketch the acropolis buildings at athens, greece, in 1805; and the hindu juggler who, before india's independence, demonstrated to an english army officer his ability to lift a basket containing a python by means of a thin rope attached to two hollow leaden cups placed over his eyes and retained by su.cti on. though mr. fryer did not cite his sources of information we can presume that he has done so in his book manuscript in preparation. 34 the obvious historical significance of such anecdotes pertains not to the descriptions themselves, which must have very restricted validity, but to the fact that the accounts were once recorded and then survived the ravishes of time. like beliefs, faiths, jokes, cartoons, la\'js, styles, games, and fads they reflect the states of mind both of the people \'jho gave rise to the tales and of those who preserved them. in this issue we pass them on with a touch of our own interpretation. do you have a spare set of helmholtz? professor gordon e. legge, ph.d., of the university of minnesota, department of psychology, 75 east river road, minneapolis, minnesota 55455 writes ilamo as follows: 11 for some time, i have been seeking a copy of helmholtz' treatise on physiological optics translated from the third german edition by james p.c. southall. this book was published in 1925 by the optical society of america as a three volume set. i managed to buy vol. 1 from a retiring optometrist. the book was republished by dover in 1962 as a two volume set. i would like to find either volumes two and three from the osa edition, or the entire dover set. i believe that petersmith publishers now own the rights and may someday reprint the book, but i have no idea when. because the treatise is such a classic, i would very much like to have a copy, both for historical and for research purposes. i would appreciate any information you may have. 11 a new year's eve document: herman sager, o.d., kindly sent o.h.s. president leeds a copy of the new york academy of optometry certificate of incorporation which was approved on the 31st day of december, 1912, by alfred r. page, justice of the supreme court of the state of r~ew york, and fi 1 ed and recorded in the state of new york office of the secretary of state on january 6, 1913, in the city of albany, n.y. the certificate states the object and purpose of the academy 11 to encourage optometric research and to promulgate by every means available information bearing on the conservation of vision, but it is not intended that the proposed corporations shall have the power to conduct a school or to give instruction relative to the profession or science of optometry ... the five undersigning applicants were robert minturn lockwood, elmer leroy ryer, elmer edward hotaling, james haile drakeford, and nelson young hull. attached was a copy of a notarized statement of december 30, 1912, of the attorney who prepared the certificate of incorporation to the effect that two previous applications for approval had been made in july 23, 1912, and on september 21, 1912, but that both were rejected by the secretary of state 11 for the reason that the objects of the proposed 35 corporation were so broad as to encroach upon the power of a ~orporation which might be formed under the state regents, pursuant to the education law." this may explain the unusual restrictions of intent quoted above. the copy of the certificate has been forwarded to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. dr. staiman remembers: concerning the blurb on the rochester school of optometry in the january issue jacob staiman, o.d., writes as follows: it was my good fortune to have matriculated into the three year course in 1923 as described in the "thentieth annual catalogue" which dr. leeds donated to ilamo. the faculty listed did not name the subjects which were taught by each of the instructors. besides dean petry who taught his course in lens effectivity and vertex powers, maurice wilder taught theoretic optics; his brother, herbert e. wilder, practical optics and shop practice; harry m. bestor lectured in practical optometry; clarence c. rodgers, mathematics; ralph e. dublin, ophthalmic anatomy and pathology; charles e. cox, clinical director; benjamin e. fickes, assistant to the dean and instructor in psychology and history of optics. finally dr. theodore h. t·1artens was an osteopath who taught human physiology and served as the health director for the students. one more faculty member, dr. gordon h. gliddon, was a professor of physiological optics. if you will refer to the dartmouth list on page 8 of the january newsletter, you have overlooked dr. gliddon who received his ph.d. in this field and was also a lens scientist for a major optical manufacturer of photographic lenses. dr. gliddon was a registered optometrist but devoted his time to the academe. in class he demonstrated a mechanical eye constructed on calculations of the human eye. the components reproduced both the size of the globe and the curvatures of all the media. when he left rochester he joined the staff of the dartmouth eye institute and used some of his data from studies with the student body of our school. the student body of our class had two female graduates in 1926. in closing, let me mention my appreciation of the opportunity to present my explanation of the "x" bridge to members in philadelphia, and it was a distinct pleasure to have met all of you. 36 ilamo starts new serial publication: visionlink is the title of a new monthly publication by the i~ternation­ al library, archives and museum of optometry, inc., 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, u.s.a. issue no. 1 of vol. no. 1 appeared in march 1983, edited by linda j. draper. the newsletter will keep its readers abreast of new acquisitions, services, and developments. the first issue included notes on recent contributions received, ilamo board actions, new books in the library, recently added audiovisuals, and featured the table of contents of the january 1983 issue of vision research. the remarkable annual subscription rate is only $3.00. early laser developments: nobel laureates nicolass bloembergen of harvard and arthur schawlow of stanford were featured speakers in a very informed panel session moderated by boris p. stoicheff of the university of toronto and which included several prominent questioners in the field of laser development. the theme \'las the history of lasers, and uppermost was reminiscing. the full conversation was transcribed and published in the march/april 1983 issue of optics news, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 13-16. spectacles in 17th century art: the murillo (1617-1672) exhibitions at the royal academy of art, piccadilly, london, revealed at least two bespectacled male subjects, reports elizabeth-ann colville in an illustrated report in the february 12, 1983, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 23, no. 4, p. 98. lorgnettes and opera glasses: 11 the history of the opera glass 11 by c.w. talbot in the january 12, 1911, issue of the optical journal and review, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 145-148, is largely descriptive of the private collection of ~1adam alfred heyman of paris, which wa~ exhibited at the paris exposition earlier. in the article the terms 11 lorgnette 11 and 11opera glass 11 are considered synonymous. the 21 illustrations are explained with dating commentary. much more recently, in the june 10, 1977, issue of the optician .(london), vol. 173, no. 4488, there appeared two one-page illustrated articles on lorgnettes of the spectacle-lens type. the one by d.c. davidson, p. 22, entitled 11 from my collection: the long-handled lorgnette 11 deals largely with its historical fashion role. the other by l.s. sasieni, p. 21, entitled 11a guide to lorgnettes, .. describes the styles currently available from firms in glasgow, london, and paris. h.w hofstetter, editor 1983-14-02-001 1983-14-02-002 1983-14-02-003 1983-14-02-004 1983-14-02-005 1983-14-02-006 1983-14-02-007 1983-14-02-008 1983-14-02-009 1983-14-02-010 1983-14-02-011 1983-14-02-012 1983-14-02-013 1983-14-02-014 microsoft word hindsight42-2 hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 41 hindsight: journal of optometry history april, 2011 volume 42, number 2 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents ohs news…………………………………………………………………………………..…42 expanding the scope of practice for optometry: albert fitch’s efforts in 1937, irving bennett………………………………………………………………………………………....43 joseph le conte, jay m. enoch………………………………………………………….…46 berkeley alumni create prepaid vision care, john fiorillo………………………………48 e. leroy ryer (1880-1972) and elmer e. hotaling (1887-1950), optometric leaders and authors, and partners in optometry practice, david a. goss………………………52 von arlt and medical refraction, sol tannebaum………………………………………...60 frederic a. woll (1874-1955), optometric practitioner, educator, and author, david a. goss……………………………………………………………………………………………63 instructions to authors……………………………………………………………………….67 ohs membership application form………………………………………………………..68 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 42 ohs news optometric historical society  affiliated with optometric cares – the aoa foundation 243 north lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 34231 tel: 800/365-2219, ext. 4102 your ohs is alive and, thanks to you, is doing quite well. this is a short update on what is transpiring. reminisce-in at academy meeting: we held our annual reminisce-in on november 19, 2010 in san francisco at the american academy of optometry’s annual meeting. the speaker was dr. alden n. haffner, former president of the suny college of optometry and currently a member of the ohs board of directors. his topic was “the ups and downs of optometry’s relationship with organized medicine and organized ophthalmology.” the audience appreciated the stimulating and informative presentation. a copy appears in the january 2011 issue of hindsight (volume 42, number 1). next reminisce-in to be held in boston: we have scheduled the next reminisce-in to be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry, boston, october 12-15 in the john b hynes veterans memorial convention center. the topic and the speaker will be announced soon. relationship with optometry cares: this is the second year that the optometric historical society has functioned under the aoa foundation – optometry cares. the administrative director of the foundation (shannon torbett) has resigned he position and the person now assigned to help ohs is ms. linda draper, archivist for the aoa museum and library. ms. draper has already straightened out our membership list and has collated our finances under a new account that will permit us to avoid the service charges we had formerly had. linda can be reached at the address and telephone number on this letterhead. historical gems on website: an arrangement has been made with the aoa to carry notices in its popular weekday e-letter “first look” about historical gems as they become available. the last gem was published in may. it dealt with the time fidel castro assumed power in cuba and the usa took in many cuban exiles including a substantial number of optometrists. if you did not read that story go to http:/bit.ly/k3mydh or contact our st. louis office for a copy. the gem was authored by dr. emanuel pushkin of florida. dr. pushkin was, more than any other american od, involved in this part of optometric history. future articles in the works: we are currently putting together a four part series of gems dealing with the aoa 1954 seattle congress resolutions that led to the actions by the american medical association that declared it unethical for medical doctors to lecture to or collaborate with optometrists, etc. the third article of this series will discuss the cyrus bass class action lawsuit against the ama; the final piece will report on the littleknown involvement by the aoa with the department of justice that occurred concurrently. vote on by-laws amendment to increase number of board members: the proposition to amend the by-laws (article iv, section 1) to increase the number of members on the executive board from seven to nine was approved by a 37-2 vote. a significant number of nominations for board positions to begin january, 2012, have been received. a ballot for those board positions will be mailed out with a future issue of hindsight. please encourage colleagues to join: your optometric historical society still needs members who are interested in gathering and preserving optometric history. we respectfully ask that you encourage those you know who are optometric history buffs to join. we would also like to increase the numbers of young members, so please encourage membership among who are still in practice or still working. please write to me with your suggestions at irvbennett23@gmail.com. irving bennett, o.d., ohs president hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 43 expanding the scope of practice for optometry: albert fitch’s efforts in 1937 irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett23@gmail.com the very first concerted attempt to increase the scope of practice of optometry by passing a state law that would permit optometrists to use both diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents occurred in 1937 in pennsylvania. yes, 1937, some 39 years before the state of west virginia passed its therapeutic pharmaceutical agent (tpa) law and 34 years before the state of rhode island passed its diagnostic pharmaceutical agent (dpa) legislation. it should be noted that the first successful efforts to get dpa and tpa laws for optometry were those adopted in rhode island and in west virginia. the effort to increase the profession’s scope of practice in 1937 was headed by albert fitch, the founder and first president of the pennsylvania state college of optometry, later named the pennsylvania college of optometry. fitch was a forceful, dynamic and enthusiastic advocate for extended privileges for optometrists and, according to many of his contemporaries, the most outstanding visionary for the profession of optometry. fitch’s efforts with getting house bill no. 1119 adopted by the pennsylvania legislature were chronicled in his autobiography.1 fitch had arranged to get the expanded privileges bill introduced by the administration, giving it a better chance for adoption. it was only through chicanery that the bill was defeated; the vote was 90 to 88, a margin of one vote. the salient features of the legislation and the virtues of it were that it increased the required education of optometric students (as termed in the bill “specialized education”) so that licensed optometrists would be fully trained to handle the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases and conditions. supporters of the legislation openly compared it with dentistry’s struggle to separate itself from medicine some hundred years before. as the path for adoption seemed clear, a last minute maneuver by the opposition did it in. in fitch’s words it went like this: “after hearing our talks and those of the medical side, the committee endorsed bill no. 1119 and recommended its passage. the bill passed its first two readings almost unanimously in spite of the opposition of the medical group. on the third reading, when it appeared certain that the bill was destined to pass, the medical group resorted to a reprehensible trick to cause the defeat of the bill. a physician, a member of the health and sanitation committee of the legislature, posing as its chairman, made a hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 44 sobbing appeal to have the bill referred to his committee. he asked that this be done as a favor because otherwise it would appear as if a reflection were being cast on his committee. he said that this bill should have come to his committee in the first place instead of to the committee on education where it had been sent originally. “he also said it would be different if his committee was opposed to the bill, but as a matter of fact this committee had been in favor of it from the very beginning. the physician made a solemn promise that if the bill was referred to his committee, it would be reported back the next day with a recommendation for its passage. he said all this knowing full well that his committee, which contained more physicians than any other committee in the legislature, was not in favor of the bill and that his promise would never be kept. “this whole procedure was highly unusual; the most seasoned legislators could not recall anything like this ever happening before. we were told that some of our best friends among the legislators would vote to have the bill referred to the health and sanitation committee because of the solemn promise of this physician member to report it back the following day. it so happened that this physician told a deliberate falsehood, as he really had no authority to speak for his committee. he was simply following orders of the medical lobby which would stoop to any dishonesty to defeat a bill which they oppose. “however, in spite of the sobbing appeal, the untruthful statements and the false promise, the vote was close, ninety in favor of referring the bill eighty-eight opposed. as the reader can well imagine, this bill never came back to the floor for a final vote. unfortunately, this was an administration bill, and since almost all such bills are sent to the floor for action late in the session, it was now too late for us to reintroduce the bill in this session of the legislature.” wolfberg2 reviewed optometry’s scope of practice expansion, and concerning fitch’s efforts, he noted that “this attempt to broaden the scope of optometric practice” continued after the defeat of the expanded scope of practice legislation. wolfberg wrote: “for the two decades after the defeat of hb 1119 in pennsylvania, fitch continued his commitment to optometric education by expanding and improving biomedical subjects such as anatomy, pathology, and pharmacology in the college’s curriculum, and leading the country’s academic community in lengthening the amount of time required to receive an o.d. degree. the success of those actions created a ripple effect; pco graduates became increasingly frustrated, since they were licensed under antiquated practice acts and could not render professional services they had been educated and trained to provide. the impact these graduates had in many states in subsequent years was great.” as an aside it took until june 1958 for the pennsylvania optometric association to vote in convention assembled to “institute the effort to amend the optometry act to permit the examination of the human eye without restriction as to method of procedure.” hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 45 references 1. fitch a. my fifty years in optometry. philadelphia: pennsylvania state college of optometry, 1959;2:337-355. 2. wolfberg md. a profession’s commitment to increased public service: optometry’s remarkable story. j am optom assoc 1999;70:145-170. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 46 joseph le conte jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020; home: 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413; jmenoch@berkeley.edu editor’s note: this article is reprinted from the december, 1983 issue of american journal of optometry and physiological optics (official publication of the american academy of optometry), volume 60, number 12, page 1003. it is reprinted here with the permission of tony adams, editor of optometry and vision science (present-day official publication of the american academy of optometry), and the publisher of optometry and vision science, wolters kluwer health / lippincott, williams & wilkins. each year, the graduating students of the school of optometry at the university of california, berkeley, line up on the steps of the entrance to the john and joseph le conte building on our campus for their class picture, before marching to the commencement exercise. this has been a tradition of the school, which had its origin in the attic of that building in 1923. a recent biography of joseph le conte has been written by lester stephens,1 who kindly sent a copy to me as dean of the school. this fascinating book deals in large measure with the trials and tribulations of the le conte family in the south through the years preceding and during the civil war, the movement west of two brothers, john and joseph le conte, and their active participation in the early formation and development of the university of california in berkeley. john le conte was a distinguished physicist who also served as an early president of the university. joseph le conte, a natural scientist and a staunch supporter of environmental protection, served the university in an outstanding manner in a variety of fields. he played an enormous role in the early days of the formation of the national and state parks in the region, particularly, yosemite national park. joseph le conte’s scholarly studies included not only the theory of evolution, but research and writing in the field of physiological optics. le conte was particularly interested in binocular vision and to some extent in visual perception. his biographer cites him as the author of the first book in english on physiological optics. in essence, it was contemporary with the work of helmholtz. joseph le conte’s book, titled “sight,”2 was considered the preeminent book in physiological optics in this nation from 1881, the time of its first edition, well into the early part of the 20th century. joseph le conte, through his dominant position in the university, and because of the interest in physiological optics he generated among faculty and students, may well have presaged the creation of our school of optometry and the large group of distinguished investigators in physiological optics that are active here. thus, it seems especially hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 47 fitting that we take our class pictures on the steps of the building that honors le conte not only because it was the cradle of the school, but because of his early contributions to the science of physiological optics, which after all is the basic science of optometry. references 1. stephens ld. joseph le conte, gentle prophet of evolution. baton rouge: louisiana state university press, 1982. 2. le conte j. sight: an explosion of the principles of monocular and binocular vision. new york: d. appleton and company, 1881. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 48 berkeley alumni create prepaid vision care john fiorillo university of california berkeley, berkeley, ca, jraf2_79@berkeley.edu editor’s note: this is excerpted from berkeley optometry – a history by john fiorillo, copyright the regents of the university of california, november, 2010. this material is chapter 24 in the book, found on pages 285-289. it is reprinted with permission of the author. it was a novel idea, or at least one we had never heard before, when dr. dick peters mentioned the notion of a group prepaid vision plan. -roy brandreth, 2007 in the early 1950s, richard peters (’40, 1918-2008), henry peters (’38, 19162000), bernhardt thal (’48, 1917-99), roy brandreth (’53, born 1922), and other bay area optometrists were intrigued by a new challenge – offering insurable vision care in a manner similar to healthcare plans such as blue cross and blue shield. as early as 1952, some of these optometrists began meeting regularly to design a viable prepaid plan. brandreth joined the contra costa counties optometric association upon his graduation in 1953, where he met the two peters brothers: “it was a novel idea, or at least one we had never heard before, when dr. dick peters mentioned the notion of a group prepaid vision plan. he pointed out that companies or unions could purchase group prepaid health plans for … [their] members at a cost much lower than an individual could for the same services. and that the same concept could be applied to a prepaid vision plan. it sparked an evening of excitement and conversation…. insurance companies had postulated that a prepaid vision plan involving optical products was not insurable but we thought the idea had great potential. it could also become a new source of patient referrals to the offices of society members…. “several members of the alameda contra costa counties optometric society were extremely active in the profession, and [they] were the next recipients of dick’s idea. we invited three of them, drs. nathaniel west [‘47], marvin poston [‘39] and harold mccartor, over the next three months, to subsequent meetings to discuss the idea…. we started leveraging our contacts in the profession, and two months later we had a larger group to discuss the proposal. dr. lester fourness [‘41], who was very active and prominent in the san francisco optometric society, … was asked to join our group…. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 49 “we got down to working through how we might go about introducing our plan to business, union and industrial leaders in the area. and we talked about the support we would need from local optical laboratories to supply their materials at a set price reduction for our business…. within weeks many in our group recommended bringing in dr. bernhardt ‘buzz’ thal, who agreed to help us with his close relationships with a local lab….661 thal, who had the required expertise with optical labs, products, and management, recalled the initial years of planning: “during the early days of formation and planning, the small group of us met so frequently that we half expected to find the door locks at our homes changed. instead, we found understanding spouses who were able to feed a group of seven or eight breakfast, lunch or dinner at odd hours. the support we received from our families carried right over to the doctors in our optometry society. they ponied up money to finance the project initially and continued to pay monthly dues, even though there was no program, only a paper organization. i would judge that seventy percent of the doctors in the alameda contra costa counties optometric society supported this vision.662 by 1954, they persuaded the alameda association to form a public relations program and a group insurance vision program. the association established the community vision services program for the former and the prepaid vision care committee for the latter, with thal as chair and roy brandreth, richard peters (association president in 1955), marvin poston, nathaniel west, and harold mccartor (a hayward optometrist) as members. philip breck (an oakland optometrist) served as consultant. by june 1955, they were ready to make a formal proposal for the alameda association to underwrite the plan. thal announced that a special meeting would be held ‘to discuss incorporation and steps necessary to inaugurate california vision services [cvs].’663 the optometrists convened at the emerson school in oakland on june 28, with seventeen members in attendance: “mechanics of the prepaid vision care program … were explained by henry peters and dr. bernhard[t] thal…. “the joint committee [joint council on vision care] of this association and community vision services, known as the prepaid vision care committee of the alameda contra costa counties optometric association, was given a vote of confidence, and authorized to proceed in the name of the association to make any agreements as may be deemed profitable to our body with reliable union groups.”664 at the august 1955 meeting, seven members met at the offices of henry peters to continue discussions: roy brandreth, allan colt (’48), richard peters, arthur emmes (alameda association president in 1956), george bradley (’50), and philip breck. they hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 50 agreed to make a presentation of the cvs plan before the metropolitan bay area coordination council.665 peters then informed the membership at the september meeting that ‘calif. vision services program [was] approved conditional with representation of coa on board of directors….’ brandreth followed with a report that ‘drs. les fourness and stan paulsen [had been] added to [the] board of directors for california vision services. also the plan to facilitate organization of california vision services to incorporate under section 9200 of [the business and] professional code initially with intent to eventually formulate under section 9201.666 on september 30, 1955, cvs filed articles of incorporation with the state of california. the original founders signing the articles were (alphabetically) roy h. brandreth, lester a. fourness, harold f. mccartor, henry b. peters, richard c. peters, marvin r. poston, stanley a. poulsen, bernhardt n. thal, and nathaniel s. west. that year, cvs opened for business in a shopping center in oakland. thal was elected founding president and chair of the board (serving four years, 1955-1959).667 initially, cvs courted union officials in an attempt to gain approval from organized labor and establish vision coverage as part of employee benefits programs. cvs also worked with management trust funds and school districts. progress was slow at first, as prepaid vision coverage was an untested idea. four years passed before thal saw what appeared to be his first cvs patient in his private practice in 1959, or so he thought – it turned out to be a misdirected referral for a young boy whose mother had brought him in for a circumcision! thal managed to produce cvs agreements with three local manufacturing plants introducing coverage for more than safety eyewear. one of these, tinsley laboratories, agreed to pay for refractions and either safety or dress eyewear.668 starting in 1957, the california optometric association agreed to loan cvs $20,000 annually for a maximum of three years. in other states, however, opposition to adopting cvs came from delegates who were not yet convinced of the viability or necessity of the plan. in 1958, the american optometric association rejected an offer from cvs to assume the plan’s ownership and administration. nevertheless, in april that same year, cvs managed to sign its first multistate contract with masters, mates and pilots local 90 union operating in the port cities of boston, new york, philadelphia, new orleans, galveston, portland, and seattle. by september 1965, cvs struck an agreement with the western conference for teamsters. substantial growth led, in 1968, to relocation from oakland to larger headquarters in sacramento, california. (cvs opened its own optical laboratory in 1972 and relocated its home office again in 1994 to rancho cordova, a suburb of sacramento.) cvs was renamed vision service plan (vsp) in 1976, and the following year it had its first contract with a health-maintenance organization, thus entering the managed-care market. by the 1980s, vsp membership had grown to around eight million members with a network of 5,000 participating doctors. regional offices opened up across the country as the organization developed into a national company. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 51 expansion continued during the 1990s with the acquisition of other service plans and the addition of subsidiaries (eyefinity and altair eyewear). by 2010, enrollment had reached 55 million members. the dream of prepaid vision care first proposed by richard peters, henry peters, roy brandreth, bernhardt thal, and others was realized far beyond their expectations. today, vsp has more than 4,000 employees and more than $2 billion in annual revenue. notes 661. roy brandreth, unpublished, undated (c. 2007) summary of personal history and career, typed page, archives. the optical lab cited by brandreth was the mann instrument and optical company in oakland, ca. thal worked there after his graduation from berkeley optometry in 1948 before he started his optometric practice in 1954. 662. lawrence thal, “optometry’s screaming eagles, part 4: vision service plan,” california optometry 31, no. 1 (january-february, 2004): 15. lawrence thal ’75 is quoting his father, bernhardt thal. 663. allan colt, secretary-treasurer, minutes of the alameda contra costa counties optometric association, june 1955, types minutes, on long-term loan from lawrence thal, archives. 664. minutes of the alameda contra costa counties optometric association, special june meeting, 1955, typed minutes, on long-term loan from lawrence thal ’75, archives. 665. minutes of the alameda contra costa counties optometric association, august 1955, typed minutes, on long-term loan from lawrence thal ’75, archives. 666. minutes of the alameda contra costa counties optometric association, september 1955, typed minutes, on long-term loan from lawrence thal ’75, archives. at this time, the aoa was also looking into a prepaid plan through a committee called social and health care trends. 667. before starting his optometry practice in berkeley in 1954 (retired 1983), bernhardt thal served in the military as a u.s. navy pilot (1941-45). he designed ophthalmic instruments for mann instrument and optical company in oakland and later was president of instrument company of america. he served as the first president of cvs from 1955-1959 and as a board member and actuary until 1970. although he was not the first to join the group of innovators proposing vision-care insurance, thal’s contributions and leadership were recognized officially in 1971 when both the coa and the aoa, by resolution of their houses of delegates, acknowledged him as the father of prepaid vision care. a few years later, he also served as president of the california state board of optometry (1973-75). in addition to receiving the oaauc alumnus of the year award in 1986, thal other honors included optometrist of the year from the alameda contra costa counties optometric society in 1968 and 1976, and optometrist of the year from the coa in 1982. 668. thal. “optometry’s screaming eagles” (see note 662), 14. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 52 e. leroy ryer (1880-1972) and elmer e. hotaling (1887-1950), optometric leaders and authors, and partners in optometry practice david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract e. leroy ryer and elmer e. hotaling were very prominent optometrists of the first half of the twentieth century and made numerous contributions to the profession. they were among the early pioneers of professional optometry practice. they published many articles in optometry journals, and did work in instrument design. they were charter members of the american academy of optometry in 1922, ryer having suggested such an organization in 1905. in the first decade of the twentieth century, they were briefly faculty members in a two-year optometry school, an unusual length of study for the time. this paper presents brief biographical sketches of each, along with discussion of the two books they coauthored, optometric procedure and ophthalmometry. the former book contained much of their views on how optometry should be practiced. key words: american academy of optometry, optometric historical society, optometry books, optometry history anyone doing much reading about optometry in the first half of the twentieth century is bound to run across the names ryer and hotaling. they made numerous contributions to optometry, and they authored many professional articles and two books. this paper presents biographical sketches of e. leroy ryer and elmer e. hotaling and discusses the contents of their books. e. leroy ryer (1880-1972) elmer leroy ryer recalled that his first playthings “were old lenses, discarded optical instruments, prisms, mirrors, a cherished kaleidoscope and not too much later, concave and convex mirrors, microscope, telescope, and best of all a small spectroscope and a total-reflecting prism.”1 both of his parents graduated from the spencer optometric institute, and his father was employed by the spencer optical company in new york as a salesman, office manager, and refractionist. ryer recalled that his father sometimes took him to work with him on saturdays and they often stopped to look at the window display of optical goods and drafting instruments in the window of the shop of james prentice and son, the son, of course, being charles prentice.2 one of the items on display was charles prentice’s model demonstrating refractive errors and accommodation. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 53 ryer was a voracious reader and in his early teen years, ryer prescribed for himself a rigorous reading program of literature, philosophy, history, science, etc. at age thirteen, he was studying brewster’s treatise on optics and carrying out some of brewster’s experiments.2 at age 15, most of his study was devoted to optics and refraction, and he graduated from spencer optometric institute in 1897. over the next months, he attended preparatory school, worked in the office of harry heath, who had been an instructor in the spencer optical institute, and learned retinoscopy from l.l. ferguson, a refractionist for the julius king optical company. then after working briefly for spencer optical company and for michael woolf, ryer established his own practice. ryer set up his own practice in 1898. he established it in a professional setting in an upstairs office rather than a street level store. in an unpublished autobiography, ryer chided revered optometric leaders such as charles prentice and andrew jay cross for still practicing in stores at the beginning of the twentieth century.2 he made the point repeatedly that when he set up he was practicing in an unusual way, optometry then being largely a mercantile rather than professional enterprise.2 many of his publications emphasized the importance of professional practice. koch said that ryer would be one of the potential answers to the question of “who developed the first wholly professional private optometric practice.”3 ryer was a frequent contributor to optometric periodicals. for example, in the first decade of the twentieth century, he contributed over 300 items to the jeweler’s circular optical department and to the optical review.2 with elmer e. hotaling, he was author of 20 papers published from 1928 to 1947 in the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry.4 for over 25 years, he was a book review editor for the journal of the american optometric association, contributing numerous book reviews. ryer was also an inventor. he received patents for devices improving retinoscopy (1900) and indirect ophthalmoscopy (1901) and for a rotatable astigmatism chart (1905), and he developed a type of optometer which was called a ryer astigmometer.2 ryer was editor of a short-lived publication, archives of optometry (1922-23). he thought that it did not survive because subscription fees were charged, whereas the competing american journal of physiological optics (1920-26) was distributed to optometrists at no charge by the american optical company.2 ryer also served as an associate editor for optical journal and review of optometry and for the american journal of optometry.5 from 1898 to about 1907, ryer gave private lessons in optometry at what he called the ryer private optometrical institute.2 the student attended until ryer thought the student “fit to practice.”6 ryer was then a faculty member in the new york institute of optometry (nyio). an advertisement for the nyio in the 1907 optical journal listed a. jay cross as president and e. leroy ryer as secretary.7 the advertisement said that the school had “an active faculty of six members, each of whom lectures from two to five times weekly.” in 1909, nyio was a two year school, when there were no hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 54 standards for length of study in optometry school and many schools were offering curricula of weeks or months in duration. the faculty were s.h. brooks, a.j. cross, e.e. hotaling, r.m. lockwood, e.l. ryer, and f.a. woll, most of whom were well known in optometric circles.8 in november of 1909, the closing of nyio was announced, the reason given being that some of the faculty found it difficult to maintain their private practices while teaching at the school.9 it appears that ended ryer’s involvement as a regular faculty member in an optometry school. beginning in 1906, ryer served for a few years as president as physiological section (later called the scientific section) of the american association of opticians, the forerunner of the american optometric association (aoa). it advocated increased educational standards for optometrists and arranged lecture programs at the aoa meeting until it was disbanded in 1919.10 in 1905, as president of the optical society of the city of new york, ryer proposed the idea of an american academy of optometry. his address was later published as an editorial in the optical journal and review of optometry. he explained the need and justification for such an organization and presented guidelines for establishing an academy.11 both hofstetter11 and gregg12 noted that ryer’s concepts for an academy were essentially those of the american academy of optometry decades later. in 1912-13, ryer along with r.m. lockwood, e.e. hotaling, n.y. hull, and j.h. drakeford founded the new york academy of optometry. membership requirements included passing an examination and adhering to a code of ethics, one aspect of which was the professional practice of optometry.13 when the american academy of optometry was founded in 1922, ryer became one of its charter members and one of its most active participants.14 in 1908, ryer published a paper entitled, “my new method of correcting convergent squint.”15 in that paper, he acknowledged donders as having shown that correction of hyperopia in preschool children can help to eliminate esotropia. ryer then suggested that treatment for esotropia at near should include bifocal lenses and that such treatment is appropriate not only in hyperopia, but also in emmetropia and myopia, and further that such treatment is to be used in school-age children as well as preschool children. ryer said: “my method consists of prescribing bifocals and eliminating both near and distance accommodations, instead of giving the usual distance correction only. [p. 21]…my plan is then to consider the use of bifocals in every case of convergent squint, no matter what the refractive condition may be and regardless of the age of the patient.” [p.22] separate sources give 1912 and 1914 as the year in which elmer e. hotaling joined ryer in practice.5,16 another source says that hotaling was in practice for 38 years with ryer, which would put the year at 1912.17 after hotaling died in 1950, ryer was joined in practice by harold m. fisher. ryer retired from optometry practice in 1959. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 55 fisher18 recalled that ryer did not have any hobbies; his only interests in life were his family, optometry, and books. ryer’s books contained a date (or dates) penciled in on the upper left hand corner of the inside of the front cover, signifying when he had finished reading each book.18 ryer’s extensive book collection included books such as newton’s opticks (1730), robert smith’s compleat system of opticks (1738), and “more than a hundred other books not likely to be found in other private optometric libraries.”19 ryer’s bookplate was designed and drawn by his associate e.e. hotaling. the bookplate design includes a seated figure staring off into space, which hotaling said was “meant to convey the truth about ryer – he built castles in the air but kept one foot on the ground.”20 evidence that ryer was totally absorbed in his work, comes from a pamphlet written by his wife, entitled the man who examined your eyes. she said: “for a number of years his average day’s work consisted of lecturing from 9 to 10, office hours 10:30 to 4:30 and from 6 to 8, lecturing again from 8:30 to 10, and writing or working in laboratory from 10:30 to 12 or 1:00 in the morning.”21 this undated pamphlet says that he had published over 450 optometry articles. this pamphlet is the only source where i have found mention of degrees he obtained. it says that he had a d.o.s. degree from the new york institute of optometry and an opt.d. from philadelphia optical college. maria dablemont, one of the founders of the optometric historical society and a long-time librarian and archivist for the american optometric association (aoa), noted that ryer “embodied the highest ideals of the profession…he loved the classics and delighted in quoting from them. very shy, extremely modest, he shunned public appearances. yet, he was an articulate and persuasive speaker, and could be an indomitable opponent when the cause of optometry was at stake….his speech proposing an academy of optometry was a masterpiece.”22 dablemont noted that when ryer became a history consultant to the aoa after his retirement, “in his own thorough and uncompromising way, he went far beyond what was expected.”22 he donated books, private papers, museum objects, patents, awards, and memorabilia to the aoa. elmer e. hotaling (1887-1950) one optometric author suggested that elmer e. hotaling may have gotten into optometry because his family was friends with ryer’s family.5 hotaling was a graduate of city college of new york.17,23 he studied optometry with ryer.2 after graduating from the new york institute of optometry in 1907, he became a member of its faculty.17,24 he graduated from philadelphia optical college in 1912.23-25 hotaling was a co-founder of the new york academy of optometry. he served several organizations as president, including the new york academy of optometry, the optometrical society of new york, and the national omega epsilon phi optometry fraternity. for 17 years, he was book review editor with ryer for the journal of the american optometric association. in 1944, hotaling and ryer received the gold medal of the distinguished service foundation of optometry.22,24 hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 56 hotaling was a charter member of the american academy of optometry and served on its executive council for several years.25 he also was a member of the editorial board of the american journal of optometry. in the early 1930s, he chaired an academy committee charged with studying the effects of calobar filters on the progression of age-related cataract.26 hotaling also did some work in instrument development.17,25 he and ryer worked on a visual acuity chart for general optical company.25 gregg27 credited ryer, hotaling, and r.m. peckham as being among the first optometrists to do work in orthoptics and vision training. two sources mentioned that ryer and hotaling developed the concept of “two men examining each case,”5,17 but i have not found a description of how they divided up or coordinated examination procedures. koch expressed the opinion that “hotaling’s character was distinguished by an unswerving devotion to professional and scientific optometric practice and he was never willing to compromise with less than the best optometric science could offer.”25 ryer and hotaling’s book optometric procedure ryer and hotaling published optometric procedure: basic and supplementary (x + 94 pages) in 1941. they stated that the purpose of the book was to set forth “the principles which it is believed should underlie the establishment and conduct of optometric practice.” (p. ix) they noted that competence in optometry involved “thorough knowledge of the refractive and muscular anomalies of the human binocular apparatus” and “mastery of instruments that insure precise measurements, dependable diagnosis, and rational corrective procedure.” (p. 11) they discussed the floor plan and furnishings of their office. the floor plan contained two examination rooms, an orthoptics and auxiliary tests room, a consultation room, a reception room, a dispensing room, a laboratory, and a storage closet. the authors emphasized the importance of ethics and professional practice. they also advocated knowing the history of the profession and having a good library: “not to know the history of our calling…, the struggles of our pioneers…, and “all that books can tell us,” will “deny ourselves encouragement and inspiration, and reduce immeasurably the chances of success.” (p. 28) they also espoused the consultation of books as a necessary accompaniment to practical experience: “to those optometrists, if there by any, who may be tempted to spurn book-mindedness in the face of practical experience, let us recommend osler’s kindly suggestion that a well-used library is one of the few correctives of the premature senility which is so apt to overcome all engaged in the daily round of practice.” (p.29) ryer and hotaling suggested that the necessary elements of an optometry practice were a secretary “to carry out all office detail,” an assistant who was optometrically trained “who relieves you of detail not a necessary part of your work,” and “complete equipment.” (p. 31) they felt that the ideal optometrist was “one who respects his calling; elicits and interprets essential symptoms; differentiates pathological hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 57 from functional phases; determines the distinctive nature of monocular and binocular anomalies; corrects or eliminates those anomalies by any means he has mastered; looks forward to ever-widening fields of usefulness; realizes that up to date he has mastered such subjects as geometric, mechanical, and physiological optics, ocular anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, ocular mycology and ocular refraction in the broadest sense…” (pp. 35-36) they expressed the opinion that optometrists should not only determine a spectacle prescription, but should also include the selection and adaptation of glasses in the services they provide. the book included examples of appointment forms, billing forms, reminder notices, and other forms. the authors summarized what they considered “adequate equipment” to be for an optometrist, “and in case he cannot procure it all at once, the order which should be followed in assembling it: a mastery of words; good english, clear thinking, careful phrasing and control; a comprehensive library and the habit of using it; an interpupillary gauge; a master additive-power trial case of highest quality and accuracy; a substantial and easily adjustable trial frame; an accurately calibrated and adequately illuminated test chart; a phorometer; an ophthalmoscope; a retinoscope; an ophthalmometer; a binocular loupe and transilluminator; a malingerer test; at least two tests for color blindness; a set of accurately marked cross-cylinders; a perimeter; a campimeter; a slitlamp and corneal microscope; a stereo-orthoptor or metronoscope-phorometer; an ophthalmograph; a dark adaptometer; and an ophthalmoeikonometer.” (pp. 58-59) they suggested that examinations be orderly and complete, but flexible. they also forcefully noted that dealing with nearpoint discomfort and binocular vision problems was as important as providing clear distance visual acuity: “it is to be feared that the prevailing abject submission to that false god v.a., who dominates distance-test procedure, frequently brings glasses, optometry and individual standing into disrepute, and will continue to do so until near-work problems, near-work diagnoses and near-work corrections cast off his influence.” (p. 78) a review of the book said: “for years ryer and hotaling have been leading forces in the effort to more fully develop all professional aspects of refractive work particularly as this refers to the practice of optometry. this small volume is full of interesting and practical information dealing with all phases of practice building.”28 ryer and hotaling’s book ophthalmometry ryer and hotaling published ophthalmometry (xiii + 141 pages) in 1945. it was updated edition of ryer’s 1925 book with the same title. in the introduction, the authors noted that the real worth of the ophthalmometer and ophthalmometry “has been invalidated as much by dogmatic overpraise as by misdirected adverse criticism. within well defined limits the ophthalmometer does its work superlatively well.” (p. 1) the book provides a comprehensive description of the use and principles of ophthalmometry in optometric practice, including scientific background in the design and use of the ophthalmometer, its use in refraction and applications to the investigation of various conditions, procedures for setting up and performing ophthalmometry, and operation of the micromatic ophthalmometer. in the discussion of the operation of the micromatic hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 58 ophthalmometer, the authors describe the procedure they developed of using colored mires to aid in more accurate alignment of the mires. they suggested that the predictive value of calculations such as javal’s rule could be improved by using neumueller’s tables adjusting for amount of spherical refractive error. they also suggested that improvements could be gained by considering patient age. they discussed the relation between ophthalmometer findings and subjective refraction in various conditions, such as amblyopia, aphakia, and cataract. they also noted the fact that it could be used to identify irregular astigmatism. the authors also present clinical data on various aspects of ophthalmometry. for instance, on pages 38-41, they discuss the relation of anisometropia and difference in ophthalmometer powers between the two eyes. they searched 4,318 cases for cases of anisometropia of 1.00 d or more. of 415 cases meeting that criterion, only 22 had an ophthalmometer difference which exceeded the amount of anisometropia. a review of the book said: “the work is well done and includes, of course, much that appeared in ryer’s splendid original book on ophthalmometry published in 1925. the more recent techniques are presented in clear detail, and the authors review every practical use of the instrument.”29 acknowledgments i thank linda draper, special collections librarian for the archives and museum of optometry at the american optometric association, for sending me copies of the ryer autobiography and pamphlet. references 1. ryer el. untitled undated typescript autobiography, from the collection of the american optometric association museum: 3-4. 2. ryer el. untitled undated typescript autobiography, from the collection of the american optometric association museum. 3. koch cc. e. leroy ryer. am j optom arch am acad optom 1973;50:342343. 4. forty-four year cumulative index. american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry, vol. 1 (1924)-vol. 44 (1967). chicago: professional press: 70. 5. doane hc. foreword. in: ryer el, hotaling ee. optometric procedure: basic and supplementary. new york: american optical, 1941:v-viii. 6. ryer el. untitled undated typescript autobiography, from the collection of the american optometric association museum: 69. 7. optical j 1907;20:624. 8. goss da. glimpses of american optometric education 100 years ago as revealed in the pages of the optical journal. hindsight: j optom hist 2009;40:117-128. 9. closing of the new york institute of optometry. optical j 1909;24:828. 10. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 59 11. hofstetter hw. errata: e. leroy ryer. am j optom arch am acad optom 1973;50:593-594. 12. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington: american academy of optometry, 1987:6. 13. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington: american academy of optometry, 1987:13. 14. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington: american academy of optometry, 1987:18-20,192. 15. ryer el. my new method of correcting convergent squint. optical rev 1908;2(8):19-23. 16. koch cc. obituary: elmer e. hotaling. am j optom arch am acad optom 1950;27:416-417. 17. anonymous. death of dr. e.e. hotaling. optical j rev optom 1950;87:64. 18. fisher hm. recollections of dr. leroy ryer. j am optom assoc 1974;45:1424-1428. 19. ryer el. untitled undated typescript autobiography, from the collection of the american optometric association museum: 7. 20. hofstetter hw. the drs. ryer and hotaling. newsletter optom hist soc 1977;8:58. 21. ryer ft. the man who examined your eyes, undated 16 page pamphlet. 22. dablemont m. ryer and the ilamo. newsletter optom hist soc 1976;7:1-3. 23. anonymous. dr. hotaling dies; optometry leader. new york times, july 23, 1950; 56. 24. anonymous. obituary: dr. elmer e. hotaling. optom weekly 1950; 41:1203. 25. koch cc. obituary: elmer e. hotaling. am j optom arch am acad optom 1950;27:416-417. 26. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington: american academy of optometry, 1987:29-30. 27. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:246-247. 28. koch cc. book review: optometric procedure. am j optom arch am acad optom 1942;19:127-128. 29. ehrenberg rh. book review: ophthalmometry. am j optom arch am acad optom 1946;23:325-326. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 60 von arlt and medical refraction sol tannebaum, o.d., m.h.s. 2620 oakwood drive, olympia fields, il 60461 editor’s note: this article is reprinted from the july, 1969 issue (volume 40, number 7, pages 741-742) of the journal of the american optometric association at the suggestion of the author and with the permission of the american optometric association. dr. tannebaum was a charter member of the optometric historical society in 1970 and contributed many articles on optometry history to the journal of the american optometric association and other publications. historical context and significance, with respect to optometry, of von arlt’s views on refraction may be gained from an excerpt from hofstetter’s 1948 book optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects: “it is obvious that the progress of the first half of the 19th century [in optics] had placed more and more responsibility upon the dispensing and refracting opticians. at the same time a number of oculists had taken an interest in refracting, and contrary to the more common attitude of the medical physicians of the time, were advocating the inclusion of refraction in the field of medicine. it was chiefly by the labors of the ophthalmologist ferdinand ritter von arlt (1812-1887) that the medical profession was induced to assume the correction of errors of refraction. in a volume published in prague in 1846 and revised in 1868 he called on the medical practitioner to fit spectacles and eye glasses themselves instead of leaving so important a matter to opticians [the term by which optometrists were known at that time]. the jealousies that were started then have yet to be outlived.” (page 31) additional information about von arlt can be found on pages 370-380 of the 1993 book men of vision: lives of notable figures in ophthalmology by daniel m. albert and paul henkind. “unfortunately, glasses receive just as little regard as did operations for cataract one hundred years ago,” wrote von arlt in 1846. “it is clear,” continued von arlt, “that non-physicians can only have an incomplete knowledge about those important and basic principles. and people who choose glasses without consulting a physician can never be sure if they do not violate just these principles.” dr. ferdinand ritter von arlt was one of the most distinguished oculists of his day. his profuse writings commanded world wide attention. those “basic and important principles” in professor von arlt’s writings referred to the use and abuse of glasses and other optical instruments. “these principles are based partly on the construction of these instruments and the translucent structures of the eye, and partly on the reactions of the eyes under healthy and abnormal conditions, which are more or less connected with the condition of the whole body.” dr. arlt’s lectures were inspirational. students eagerly listened to his remarks. scholarly and scientific, his enthusiasm encouraged a long succession of oculists to hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 61 emulate his ways. dr. arlt was undoubtedly one of the pathmakers of international ophthalmology. “the principles of the first part are derived from optics and dioptrics and should be familiar to the physicist and especially to the optician, as well as to the physician. the principles of the second part ask for a comprehensive medical knowledge.” dr. arlt was a leading professor of ophthalmology in vienna. he enjoyed a successful ophthalmic practice for over half a century. after reaching his forced retirement age under austrian law in 1883, he continued with ophthalmic authorship. in the meantime, in 1855 he became joint editor with donders on graefe’s archives of ophthalmology. “since physicians, who should have the best scientific and medical knowledge and skill seemed to be ashamed to perform these (cataract) operations, or at least did not accept them, this beautiful branch of the medical arts was left to roving ‘cataract surgeons,’ who were much more interested to fill their purse than to completely cure their patients.” the critical professor continued. “we admire the great artists who make various optical instruments, starting from a simple lens for glass up to the most complicated telescope. they are specialists for whom we have high respect. but if common laborers and tradesmen deal with various eye-glasses and optical instruments and travel from market place to market place, it is clear that they are only interested to sell as much as possible. thousands and thousands of people who need help for their eyes pick their glasses by chance.” arlt’s little volume of 146 pages entitled “the care of the eye under healthy and pathological conditions” was first published in 1846, revised in 1856 and again revised in prague in 1865. his plea for his medical colleagues to assume the correction for errors of refraction fell on very receptive ears. it was a time when greater responsibilities were placed upon the refracting and dispensing opticians of that day for prescribing corrective lenses. optometry was about to emerge as a separate scientific discipline apart from the optician and the ophthalmologist. the battle cry for ophthalmic refraction was heard around the world! “after what i said in the previous chapters, there should be no doubt that concern for correct glasses deserves to be placed on the same level with the strongest drugs. strong drugs are only dispensed in pharmacies and even there only with a prescription; but glasses can be sold by any tradesman, no matter if they are well or badly cut, no matter if they are suitable for the eye or not. thus, the most important sense-organ is carelessly treated and may unnecessarily lose its usefulness.” “but i hope,” wrote arlt during his period of influence, “that in the future scientifically trained men will look at the situation more seriously. physicians, especially those who call themselves eye-specialists, will have to learn more about glasses and their use. they will have to have a collection of lenses, made by a reliable optician and they will not only discuss the need for glasses but also decide the kind of lenses and the focal distance (strength, number, etc.). then they will send the patient to the optician hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 62 with a kind of prescription, containing exact specifications. they will also include individual instructions for the use of the glasses, since you cannot expect this kind of knowledge from even the best optician.” von arlt’s criticism did not aim solely at the tradesman in glasses. he pointed, “don’t we take a watch which needs repair to a watchmaker, and not to a turner’s shop or a blacksmith? but the care of the eyes is often given into the hands of a midwife, or a shoemaker, people who have little knowledge of the eyes. unfortunately, we are raised to believe in the unbelievable, to gaze at the incomprehensible, to search for secret powers in nature, things that cannot be explained. a recovery under the treatment (if i may call it that) of a layman is admired, but a recovery under the direction of an educated physician who does not hide his methods and remedies is just something normal. an adverse ending under the treatment of a layman is, with good reasons, kept secret; but if it happens under treatment of a physician, he will be blamed for it relentlessly.” he continued his attacks on thoughtlessness and ignorance about eye care. “in some parts of the country some really dangerous cures are practiced such as breathing vapor of chewed cloves into the infected eyes, or finely powdered sugar, or application of little pieces, with or without camphor or warm water, of baked apples or onions, etc. it is true that occasionally the eyes recover despite these practices, but we know that sometimes an infected eye can take a lot of abuse. from experience we know that unfortunately in too many cases the disease was aggravated or eyesight irretrievably lost by quackery. who wants to undergo treatments which reason rejects as ridiculous and risk the loss of such an important organ?” von arlt’s casualness and sincerity repeatedly promoted the merits and esteem of the physician. in effect, his writings resulted in one of medicine’s early public relations efforts. his advice on the care of the eyes of the newborn are as readable and appropriate today as the day they were written. his warnings against misinformation, thoughtlessness and ignorance also have validity. likewise the incompetent and unscrupulous have no place in the field of eye care. it would be interesting to speculate whether he would have welcomed a separate, learned discipline side by side today to eliminate the very evils he so ardently fought against. arlt’s “clinic studies on diseases of the eye” translated by lyman ware in 1885 was a fitting climax in a long and useful career by a remarkable viennese professor not easily to be forgotten. references all quotes in this article are translations for this writer from the original german work, “die pflege der augen im gesunden und kranken zustande,” by dr. ferd arlt, 3rd revised edition, prague, 1865. the table of contents describes five chapters, the last of which is a supplement about eyeglasses. for further reference, see american encyclopedia and dictionary of ophthalmology, vol. 1, 1913, by casey wood. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 63 frederic a. woll (1874-1955), optometric practitioner, educator, and author david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract frederic albert woll (1874-1955) had a distinguished career in optometry and as a member of the faculty in the department of hygiene at city college of new york. woll was an optometry instructor for many years at columbia university and wrote four books significant in optometry. he played a pivotal role in the establishment of standards in optometric education and in the evaluation of optometry schools in the 1920s and 1930s. key words: optometric education, optometry books, optometry history. frederic albert woll was born in new york city in 1874, and attended public schools there. he quit school at the age of twelve due to vision problems.1 at fifteen years of age, he went to work as an office boy in the optometry office of andrew jay cross. cross found that woll was highly myopic and prescribed his first spectacles. it was said that woll’s first spectacle correction “unfolded a new world for the young boy and interested him in the world of ocular refraction.”1 cross trained woll as an optician and then as an optometrist.2 by the time woll was 21 years old, he was doing refractions in cross’s office.1 woll returned to school as an adult, receiving a b.s. degree from columbia university in 1910 and an m.a. in 1911. in 1917, he completed a ph.d. degree from new york university.2,3 the title of his thesis at new york university was “physique in relation to success in life.”4 woll was a member of the faculty of the short-lived new york institute of optometry in 1909,5 and was one of the original instructors in the optometry school at columbia university when it opened in 1910.6 he was an associate in optometry at columbia university until 1944.1 he became an instructor in the department of hygiene at the city college of new york in 1913, progressing through the ranks to assistant professor in 1918, associate professor in 1920, and professor in 1927, until his retirement in 1944.1,7 he was chairman of the department of hygiene at city college of new york from 1927 to 1944. he served as chief marshal at city college of new york for many years, leading academic processions.3 some of the work for which woll was particularly well known in optometry was in drawing up detailed syllabuses of the subjects to be taught in optometry school courses and in evaluating optometry schools.8 the syllabi were first prepared in 1922 and later revised in 1935.9 in the mid-1920s, woll made inspection visits to all optometry schools in the united states and canada that were deemed worthy of investigation. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 64 woll volunteered to do these evaluations without pay, receiving only reimbursement for his expenses from the american optometric association.10 there were about 30 optometry schools in operation in the mid 1920s when those evaluations began. by 1936, the number of optometry schools had decreased to ten and the length of the optometry curriculum had increased to three years. a significant factor in the decreasing number of schools was the closure of poorer schools due to the evaluations and the elevation of standards. woll’s work thus served much of the same function for optometry as had the flexner report for medical education. woll was a member of the committee on education of the international association of boards of examiners in optometry from 1923 to 1942, serving as its chairman from 1932 to 1942.7 he was a member of the new york state board of examiners in optometry for over 25 years.7 woll received a number of awards and recognitions in optometry. he received the gold medal of the distinguished service foundation of optometry and an award of merit from the columbia university optometry association.8 he was the third person to receive honorary life fellowship in the american academy of optometry.1 woll has been credited with improvements in retinoscopy and methods of grinding lenses and with being the first to isolate the retina by dissection.1 woll published four books. the first of these was technique of eye dissections, published in 1914. a second edition was published in 1924 and a third edition in 1928. i examined a copy of the first edition (131 pages). in the preface, woll stated: “the aim of this booklet is to present to the eye-specialist, the teacher, the student, and others interested in the study of the anatomy and physiology of the eye, some definite methods to follow in the dissection of that organ.” instructions are given for the investigation of the sheep or beef eye, and of the ocular adnexa and extraocular muscles. the book includes 64 black and white photographs. woll’s second book was hygiene the optometrist ought to know, published in 1921 (208 pages). woll made the point that the optometrist should know something about hygiene because the function of the eye and visual system is inter-related with the function of other parts of the body. among the topics covered were cleanliness, nutrition, exercise, sleep, fresh air, accident prevention, and causes of disease. a last chapter, entitled hygiene for the optometrist, expounded on the importance of optometrists being well-kept and maintaining a professional appearance and healthy habits. having a clean, comfortable, safe office and examination room with wellmaintained equipment was also emphasized. in 1922, woll edited and wrote most of the first revision of optometrical syllabuses and standards, which was adopted at the first conference on standards in optometric education.10 a revised version was published in 1935. i examined the contents of the 1935 edition (71 pages). it included short reports and commentary from participants in the 1922 conference, including william s. todd, charles sheard, and hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 65 howard c. doane. seven pages were devoted to a 1934 classification of optometry schools and a description of the essentials of an acceptable optometry school. most of the monograph consisted of woll’s syllabuses. these were detailed lists of topics that should be taught in optometry schools, divided into the topical areas of anatomy and physiology of the eye, theoretical optometry, geometrical optics, practical optometry, mechanical optics, physiological optics, diseases of the eye, eyesight conservation ( which included lighting, nature of print materials, industrial vision, eye protection), and hygiene. some of the categories of topics in the theoretical optometry syllabus were history of optics and optometry, ophthalmic lenses, nomenclature of optometry, test charts, trial lenses, general use and theory of instruments, static and dynamic retinoscopy, theories and methods of correction of refractive errors, theory of muscular imbalances, and objective and subjective optometric measurements. in 1928, dynamic skiametry: its theory and practice (192 pages) was published by thomas g. atkinson11 and woll. the authors discussed the optics and theory of retinoscopy, provided background information on accommodation and convergence, and expounded on the theory and methods of dynamic retinoscopy. they also discussed some related tests and presented illustrative cases. frederic woll died in 1955. an obituary notice in the journal of the american optometric association said that he was “dedicated to optometry as a practitioner, a teacher, writer, and lecturer,” and that he was “well-loved and respected by all who were fortunate to know him.”8 references 1. transactions of the american academy of optometry: dr. frederic a. woll awarded honorary fellowship. am j optom arch am acad optom 1948;25:38-39. 2. newsday obits february 1955. www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/suffolk/newsdayfeb1955.html. accessed april 12, 2011. 3. anonymous. frederic a. woll, optometrist, dies. new york times,feb. 7, 1955:21. 4. email from new york university archives, april 12, 2011. 5. goss da. glimpses of optometric education 100 years ago as revealed in the pages of the optical journal of 1909. hindsight: j optom hist 2009;40:117-128. 6. goss da. one hundred years ago: start of the optometry school at columbia university. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:129-132. 7. transactions of the american academy of optometry: dr. frederic a. woll to retire. am j optom arch am acad optom 1944;21:70-71. 8. anonymous. frederick a. woll. j am optom assoc 1955;26:464. 9. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:67,298. 10. christensen jl. the first conference to establish optometric standards. optom vis sci 1996;73:428-434. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 66 11. goss da. some doctors of medicine who published optometry books and played significant roles in early twentieth century optometric education. hindsight: j optom hist 2011;42:20-28. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 67 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2011, volume 42, number 2, page 68 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: linda draper c/o optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, floor 1 st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________________ address ______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares™ – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: john f. amos (2015), email address: eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: alden norm haffner (2014) secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) arol augsburger (2013) irving bennett (2016) jay m. enoch (2014) morton greenspoon (2015) alfred rosenbloom (2015) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: this is a photograph of a historical advertisement that hangs in the office of ohs member gary williams. it advertises the services of fred hamilton, a turn of the twentieth century optometrist. in the advertisement hamilton referred to himself as an optician; the term optometrist wasn’t commonly used until about a decade into the twentieth century. excerpts from memoirs written by fred hamilton are included in this issue. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 17 hindsight: journal of optometry history april, 2013 volume 44, number 2 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents letter to the editor: j.p.c. southall and columbia university, a.n. haffner…………..18 late in life recollections of a turn of the twentieth century optometrist…………….19 a biographical note on bernard vodnoy (1914-2006), david a. goss…………………22 miscellany, david a. goss……………………………………………………………………25 some personal recollections related to the history of the defocus theory of myopia etiology, david a. goss……………………………………………………………………….28 ohs membership application form…………………………………………………………32 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 18 letter to the editor: j.p.c. southall and columbia university a.n. haffner, o.d., ph.d. 201 e. 36 street, apt. 6f, new york, new york 10016, anhaffner@msn.com just a missive to your excellent piece about professor southall (columbia university).1 the third week of january 1957, just three weeks after my appointment as executive director of the optometric center of new york, i received a call from a storage facility of columbia. the person who called said that he had "cleared out" most of the objects of the optometry department which closed in june 1956. but he had a painted portrait of southall which he was going to discard in the garbage. i asked him (pleaded is more accurate) not to throw it out and that i would be at his facility within an hour. after a hectic cab ride to morningside heights, i retrieved the southall portrait and also saw (and also rescued) a portrait of professor isidore finkelstein. is was alive and he literally cried when he saw his portrait. both paintings are still hanging in the building of the suny college of optometry (and i hope with reverence and pride). in 1964, i received a call from a young woman who asked about the southall portrait. she came by to see the painting and it turned out to be southall's granddaughter. i invited her to lunch and we took some photographs for her to take home. the closing of the columbia program was a bitter and sad period for our profession. reference 1. goss da. biographical notes on james p.c. southall. hindsight: j optom hist 2013;44:9-12. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 19 late in life recollections of a turn of the twentieth century optometrist editor’s note: the following contains some excerpts from a typescript document of the recollections of optometrist fred hamilton when he was 89 years old. it was provided by ohs member gary williams of owego, new york. the 1892 new york state census shows fred hamilton, an 18 year old watchmaker, living in the household of william lawrence, a 48 year old optician. the cover of this issue of hindsight shows an advertisement of fred hamilton’s services that hangs in dr. williams’ office. the date of the advertisement is unknown. in the memoirs document, hamilton said that he stayed in owego until he was 24 years old, so if he was 18 in 1892, the advertisement would have been before about 1898 or 1899. in the advertisement fred hamilton identified himself as an optician. the term optometrist wasn’t commonly used until about the first decade of the twentieth century. james gregg, in his book on the history of the american optometric association, stated that fred hamilton was one of the members of the first executive board of that organization in 1898 and he exhibited a new refractometer at its first convention (pages 10-11). also mentioned in gregg’s book is the fact that fred hamilton of providence, rhode island was the chairman of visual safety commission of the american optometric association in 1934 (page 134). according to hamilton’s memoir document, he practiced at various times in owego, new york, and providence, rhode island, and he taught in syracuse and new york city. if he was 89 when this memoir was written and if the age of 18 in the 1892 new york state census is correct, that would make it about 1963 when this was written. experience was my teacher. it is like fingerprints. no two exactly alike…how can you sleep at night when you sleep all day? my sister often asked. the answer is simple. i do not sleep all day. i close my eyes and live with my experience. i try to keep alive whatever i wish to recall. life is like a good show. it is enjoyable to review some of the performances. when i close my eyes at night or during the day i relive the high points of my eighty-nine years… the story begins in my home town, owego, new york, where i lived until i was twenty four years of age. my father was a contractor and builder mostly in churches. his work kept him away from home much of the time, but i spent my vacations with him. he took great care in teaching me how to use carpenter tools and stressed the importance of precision, however, he advised me not to be a carpenter. he was deeply interested that i should know all that he could teach me about business responsibilities. when i was twelve he gave me a pony and would send me to the bank to pick up the payroll. at that time he was building houses in east orange, orange mountains, mountclair, and newark. after the payroll was made up he sent me on the pony to pay the men…. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 20 my mother died when i was 13. after that i had little supervision. at 14 i decided to work taking an apprentice job with w.a. lawrence, a watchmaker, jeweler, and optician in owego. my salary the first year was board and lodging. he wanted me in his home because of illness acquired in the civil war would strike without warning in the middle of the night. i would run for the doctor, for almost no one had a telephone then. the next year he added 5 dollars a week. at that time jewelers were also opticians. they had pairs of glasses of sixty four different strengths to select from….the customer tried them on and the one he could see best with was it. if he purchased solid gold rimmed spectacles it became custom to remember some friend in his will. mr. lawrence decided to become a graduate optician. he went to dr. becklin’s school of optics in new york city, the first school to turn out graduate opticians. he was in the second class to be graduated. the term of the course was four weeks as compared to the present four years with college degree, but it was sufficient to make the difference between the sixty-four stock lenses and a possible several thousand corrections ground to individual requirements. mr. lawrence became one of but three such trial case operators between new york city and buffalo. it might take several appointments of trial and error before the final decision was reached and then he had to send to new york or philadelphia to have the lenses made. it usually took three or four weeks to get them. mr. lawrence continued to be absent from the store. when i was eighteen i was made a partner in the store. it was then lawrence and hamilton. shortly afterwards he passed on. i acquired the business, sold out the jewelry and moved to a two room office over the post office. the rent at that time was $7.00 per month. i went to new york and purchased new optical equipment from fox and stendike. mr. fox introduced me to doctor frank d. skeel, one of the learned oculists of the day and an inventor of optical equipment. when i returned home i spent my spare time learning to use the equipment, and soon became an expert. when optical salesmen learned what i was doing, they would tell their customers and i soon found that i had several students to teach these new methods of eye examinations. this was the beginning of my teaching career…. in the early days of professional optics, the only course of instruction was from several one-man so called graduate opticians. some schools gave a graduation certificate suitable for framing. i thought that i should have one and so made arrangements to go to the eastern school of optics. after three days the professor said, “you know more than i do. i have not had a vacation in two years. you take over.” when he returned he gave me my diploma, but i had to stay on for four weeks because it had been announced in the local papers that i would be away for a month for a post-graduate course. i never displayed that diploma. all went along well for some time. i purchased a place on the susquehanna about two miles from my office and decided that a farmer’s daughter i knew should be my wife and companion. we were married on october 1, 1896…later we became business partners. this was a fine arrangement for she always remembered people hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 21 and their names. i could remember only their ailments. she was a wonderful hostess for my office. she would care for the babies, entertain the children, learn their names, and at christmas time always send the little girls shell-rimmed glasses for their dolls….a woman once asked me, “who is the lady in your office.” when i answered, “my wife,” she “oh, no, if she were your wife she wouldn’t call you doctor hamilton. so you see my wife always knew the right thing to do and did it.” i became a charter member and a member of the first board of directors of the organization that has since become the american optometric association….now every state recognizes optometry as a profession and has a law covering its practice. my teaching had attracted the attention of a wholesale optical house in syracuse. they wanted me to come there and direct a syracuse school of optics. they would get their students from their optical customers. after a year and a half the call came from new york and i moved to the big city. my system of teaching proved to be a success. after five years of teaching…i arrived in providence… i was chairman of a committee for rhode island that established the visual accuracy necessary for safe driving in that state. this all came about when i had perfected a method of projecting images on a screen and showing just how visual defects affected the individual…for which i received a gold medal from the distinguished service foundation…. the symptoms of eyestrain from defective sight and from improper seeing conditions are the same. we found that when a person returned and thought their glasses must be wrong when they really were correct, that their seeing condition must be wrong – not enough light, too much light, glare, or improper decoration. with the aid of one of the best lighting experts, we developed a method of prescribing light and when we knew that our correction of glasses was right it was necessary to go to the home, office, or factory and inspect seeing conditions. a young lady bookkeeper kept returning and complaining that glasses were not right, so we went to her office and found that she had only 2 foot candles to see her type of work. a change of lighting was the answer. my next step was to inspect the seeing conditions in providence’s largest industry. the lighting was terrible. they did not know that paint on the walls made such a difference in seeing clearly….each patient was supplied with a report of how much light they should have for their type of work…. the hamiltons had a full life of experience and pleasures, and when we retired we moved to florida. my dear sister i am not sleeping all the time when my eyes are closed. i have time to travel and to collect memories and really see all that i wish… hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 22 a biographical note on bernard vodnoy (1914-2006) david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract bernard e. vodnoy (1914-2006) had a varied and productive career in optometry, serving as an educator, military optometrist, practitioner, lecturer, author, inventor, and equipment company owner. much of his work in optometry was achieved after he contracted polio. key words: bernell corporation, optometry books, optometry history, vision therapy equipment. bernard vodnoy served optometry as an educator, military optometrist, private practitioner, continuing education speaker, author, inventor, and supplier of optometric equipment. most of his contributions came after he contracted polio in his 30s. bernard eugene vodnoy was born on august 12, 1914, in chicago. in 1938, he graduated from northern illinois college of optometry (nico).1 he then taught at nico until 1941 when he joined the united states army.2 he served from 1941 to 1946 as an optometrist and training officer in the army in the united states and europe.3 vodnoy practiced optometry from 1946 to 1948 in michigan city, indiana, and from 1948 to 1979 in south bend, indiana.2 in 1949, vodnoy contracted polio. after an acute stage in which he was almost completely paralyzed, he was able to return to optometry practice using a wheelchair.2 after his military service, vodnoy started lecturing at various optometry meetings and appearing as a guest lecturer at optometry schools.3 he frequently spoke about vision training and found that meeting attendees often asked about the equipment that he used. this led him to found bernell corporation in 1954. the bern in the name of the company came from his first name and the ell came from his wife’s first name, elsye.2 bernell became a leading seller of vision therapy equipment and sold other optometric equipment as well. vodnoy invented much of the equipment sold by bernell. among the vision therapy items he developed were tranaglyphs, aperture rule trainer, the polachrome orthopter, and hand-held vectogram holder.3 he also invented a tonometer which he called the aplaton tonometer.3 in 1958, vodnoy self-published the practice of vision care.4 i have not seen a copy of his 1958 book, but i assume it is a precursor to his book the practice of vision care, orthoptics and corneal contact lens care. the latter book was first published in hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 23 1965 and went through several editions, with the sixth appearing in 1976. it was published by the bernell corporation in a comb binding and had six chapters. topics of the chapters were (1) orthoptics, (2) corneal contact lenses, (3) visual field testing and tonometry, (4) spectacle dispensing and low vision aids, (5) general examination, and (6) office forms for practice management and development. the practice of vision care, orthoptics and corneal contact lens fitting was not a typical textbook. it did not have standard pagination, but rather was a collection of writings on various subjects within the chapter topical areas. in the fourth edition, the chapter on orthoptics constituted about 200 pages which was over half of the book. many of the topics were detailed descriptions of how pieces of bernell equipment could be used in clinical practice. there were also vodnoy’s viewpoints on clinical practice, his thoughts on the importance of orthoptics, and numerous clinical tips. statistics and references were not often cited, but rather vodnoy presented his knowledge gained through experience. the first chapter of the book was also published as a separate book, the practice of orthoptics and related topics. a review of the second edition of the practice of vision care, orthoptics and corneal contact lens fitting said: “no optometrist will read this without gaining many useful tips which he can incorporate into his day-to-day practice of optometry….reading this book one gets the impression that vodnoy is a perceptive clinician.”5 a review of the third edition noted that the book was “hardly a model of textbook production, but that the practitioner who would read through the book could not help but pick up enough valuable clinical tips to make the purchase of this book worthwhile.”6 soon after retiring from practice, vodnoy sold bernell corporation to a nonoptometric group. after it later ran into financial difficulty, it was purchased by an optometric group in 1997. the company was rebuilt though the efforts of charles shearer and craig andrews, who were classmates in the indiana university school of optometry class of 1979. bernell is now once again a leader in the distribution of vision therapy equipment. throughout his optometric career, vodnoy maintained a busy lecture schedule, making presentations to optometric groups and optometry students in more than forty states and more than ten countries.3,7 in 1950, he received the honorary doctor of ocular science degree from northern illinois college of optometry, and in 1971, he received the distinguished service award from the indiana optometric association.1 late in his life he frequently lectured on nutrition and vision.2 vodnoy died at the age of 92 on november 16, 2006. references 1. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:363. 2. bernell catalog. 2004:75. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 24 3. professional biography of bernard e. vodnoy, o.d., d.o.s., f.a.a.o. in: vodnoy be. the practice of vision care, orthoptics and corneal contact lens fitting, 4th ed. modified. 1972. 4. worldcat online library catalog. http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org. accessed february 25, 2013. 5. hirsch mj. book review: the practice of vision care, orthoptics and corneal contact lens fitting. am j optom arch am acad optom 1967;44:604-606. 6. hirsch mj. the optometrists’ bookshelf. am j optom arch am acad optom 1969;46:960-963. 7. dr. bernard e. vodnoy obituary. south bend tribune. http://articles.southbend tribune.com/2006-11-19. accessed february 14, 2013. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 25 miscellany david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu illinois college of optometry’s predecessor schools and world war ii the spring, 2013 issue of ico matters has an article on some experiences of a few of their alumni in world war ii.1 the involvement of the united states in world war ii lasted from 1941 to the war’s end in 1945. illinois college of optometry was formed in 1955 from the merger of northern illinois college of optometry (nico) and chicago college of optometry (cco). before 1949, chicago college of optometry had been known as monroe college of optometry (mco). the enrollments of nico and of mco/cco were like those of many other optometry schools around world war ii – a drop during the war, an increase after the war as returning servicemen attended school on the g.i. bill, and then a decrease again as that wave of students declined. for example, the approximate enrollment at nico went from 700 in 1938 to only 60 in 1944 and then to 2,100 in 1947. but then nico enrolled only 80 new students in the fall of 1950. at mco, there hadn’t been a graduating class of more than 40 until after the war. in 1948, more than 500 students were attending mco on the g.i. bill. there were 480 graduates at mco in 1947, and that declined to 94 at cco in 1954. daniel nast, jr., who graduated from mco in 1942, enlisted in the army air corps in 1942. there was no classification of optometrists in the army at the time, but nast was able to get himself transferred to sheppard field station hospital in wichita falls, texas, where he served in a clinic with three other optometrists. their equipment consisted primarily of a retinoscope, a trial frame, and a trial case. later he served as the lone optometrist at los alamos, new mexico, where the manhattan project work on the atomic bomb was being done. floyd mizener (an ohs member!) was in the marines in world war ii. he said that he traveled 87,000 miles on the oceans and loaded big guns with 54 pound shells. he decided to be an optometrist after the war and attended mco on the g.i. bill, graduating in 1948. he said that he wasn’t able to save any money in the military, but because of the g.i. bill it cost his father only about $50 for him to become an optometrist. ben chikairishi was one month short of graduation from optometry school at university of california berkeley in 1942 when he reported with his family to an internment camp in arkansas for americans of japanese descent. chikairishi was hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 26 released in 1943 and finished optometry school at mco in 1944. also at that camp was roy teshima who graduated from nico in 1946. bradie hopper was a dental technician in the army’s 65th quartermaster battalion, an all-african american unit. he had completed three years of college at prairie view university in texas when he went into military service at 19 years of age. he was on an island in the pacific when the atomic bomb was dropped on hiroshima. he said that: “as a young man, 20 years of age, it was a relief. because that meant the war was ending, and that all the killing… would cease.” hopper graduated from cco in 1950. are there any hindsight readers who can offer recollections of that time in history? or do you know optometrists who can relate their experiences of that time? blindness of johann sebastian bach an article in acta ophthalmologica had some speculations about the blindness of composer johann sebastian bach (1685-1750).2 from 1723 to his death, bach was teacher and music director at st. thomas’ church in leipzig. among his duties was composing music for sunday services. at 64 years of age, he started having vision problems. friends persuaded him to have couching operations on his eyes by british traveling eye physician john taylor. taylor also operated on georg friedrich handel (1685-1759) who, like bach, was blinded. taylor operated on bach in late march of 1750 and again in early april. bach was blind and suffered great pain after the second operation. bach died in july of 1750. the author suggested that the cause of the blindness was intractable glaucoma due to pupillary block from the lens or perhaps phacoanaphylactic endophthalmitis. early history of keratoconus the march, 2013 issue clinical and experimental optometry contains a number of articles on keratoconus. one of the articles tries to sort out descriptions of keratoconus before john nottingham’s 1854 work on the subject.3 nottingham is often “cited as the first author to succinctly define keratoconus and its associations.” some of the confusion over precedents to nottingham’s description come from the fact that keratoconus was referred to by many different terms. benjamin duddell, who was born in 1695 and died sometime between 1759 and 1767, may have given the earliest written description of keratoconus in a 1736 treatise when he wrote about a 14 year old boy with corneas “like obtuse cones.” descemet’s membrane was earlier known as duddell’s membrane. john ‘chevalier’ taylor (1708-1772), the same taylor discussed above regarding the blindness of bach, gave a description of keratoconus in 1766. taylor was thought a hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 27 quack and charlatan by some of his contemporaries, but was thought to be a great ophthalmologist by others. burkard david mauchart (1696-1751) wrote papers on topics related to many fields of medicine. there is some controversy over whether his papers on corneal diseases include a description of what could be considered to be keratoconus. the paper also documents mentions of keratoconus in works in the first half of the nineteenth century by scarpa, wardrop, lyall, adams, mackenzie, lawrence, schmidt, pickford, and von ammon. of these latter writers, the authors discussed william mackenzie the most. mackenzie included four pages on keratoconus in his 1830 book practical treatise on the diseases of the eye, which “was the first major comprehensive textbook (831 pages) written in english” and which “became a standard international text in various editions and translations for the next 30 years.” references 1. engstrom e. ico & wwii. ico matters 12(1):7-12. 2. tarkkanen a. blindness of johann sebastian bach. acta ophthalmologica 2013;91:191-192. 3. grzybowski a, mcghee cnj. the early history of keratoconus prior to nottingham’s landmark 1854 treatise on conical cornea: a review. clin exp optom 2013;96:140-145. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 28 some personal recollections related to the history of the defocus theory of myopia etiology david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu throughout the years there have been numerous hypotheses proposed to explain the association of nearwork and myopia. perhaps most prominent today among the potential explanations for that association is the defocus theory, in which defocus of the retinal image is thought to provide a feedback signal for ocular growth and thus axial elongation of the eye. according to this theory, greater axial elongation and thus myopia would occur if a high lag of accommodation existed for long periods of reading.1 i attended optometry school at pacific university, graduating in 1974. pacific provided a strong background in binocular vision and functional aspects of vision. after optometry school, i worked briefly for two optometrists in northwestern iowa. their practice had been in existence for 27 years by the time i started working there. i saw many myopic patients that had been examined several times previously, and i observed the regular myopia progression from the records of their prior visits. that stimulated my interest in myopia, and i used records from that office and several others to try to characterize typical features of myopia progression.2-5 i started graduate school in physiological optics at indiana university in 1976. when i mentioned to rogers reading, the head of the graduate program, that one of my interests was myopia, i was told that henry hofstetter was interested in myopia and that i should talk to him about a potential project. i was fortunate enough to have him take me on as one of his thesis advisees. henry hofstetter was the first person that i heard hypothesize a connection of lag of accommodation to myopia etiology. that was in 1976. he had observed that juvenile myopes had large increases in their myopia, but juvenile hyperopes had fairly stable refractive error.6 he hypothesized that the factor that might be responsible for that difference is that hyperopes could always have a small lag of accommodation at all distances if they were uncorrected or undercorrected, but myopes would not have a lag of accommodation for at least part of the time. myopes would not have a lag at far if they were uncorrected, undercorrected, or even fully corrected. he hypothesized that a small lag might in some way provide feedback indicating that growth to elongate the eye was not needed. this was the hypothesis behind my ph.d. thesis research, which was completed in 1980 and published in 1984.7,8 in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were several reports of myopia resulting from obstruction of normal visual input into the eye.9-12 these reports and laboratory studies showed that visual input in some way directed emmetropization.13-15 hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 29 hofstetter’s hypothesis differed from the current concept of the defocus theory, which suggests that persons who do a lot of nearwork and have a high lag of accommodation at near have a tendency to develop myopia. when a high lag of accommodation exists during near viewing, the point of best focus is behind the retina. as a consequence of such a defocus, the eye could grow longer to move the retina closer to the point of best focus. an advantage of the theory is that it would also explain emmetropization. rather than suggesting that myopia is a deviation from emmetropization, myopia would essentially be an emmetropization for near. the first person that i heard postulate this defocus theory was my colleague at northeastern state university (nsu) college of optometry, gary wickham. gary earned an m.s. degree from colorado state university in fisheries science in 1967 and a ph.d. in zoology from washington state university in 1971. he held positions in ophthalmology departments at the university of florida and university of california at san diego before going to nsu when the optometry school started there in 1979. among his duties at nsu was teaching ocular anatomy and physiology to optometry students. i joined the faculty at nsu in 1980. gary and i had frequent informal discussions on myopia, and he posed the idea to me of myopia being a response to retinal image defocus during reading in the early to mid 1980s. raviola and wiesel16 were the first to my knowledge to present a defocus theory for myopia in print, in a paper in the new england journal of medicine in 1985. gary wickham published a more detailed description of a defocus theory in 1986 in an obscure publication of a symposium on theoretical and clinical optometry we held at nsu.17 wickham’s 1986 paper, which is written from a basic science standpoint, is to my knowledge, the first elaboration of how acceleration of posterior segment growth might result from a series of biochemical events initiated by retinal defocus. gary pointed out that accommodation is a short term strategy for near viewing while myopia could be seen as a long term strategy for near viewing if accommodation was inadequate. i published a detailed description of the defocus theory from a clinical standpoint in another obscure publication, that of a vision science symposium held in 1988 at indiana university.18 we also briefly discussed the defocus theory as part of a 1988 literature review on genetic factors in myopia.19 starting in the early 1990s, many authors elaborated a defocus theory for myopia in various books and journals.20-23 it seems likely that it is an idea that started occurring to lot of investigators independently at about the same time. in the mid 1990s, i worked on two extensive literature reviews discussing the defocus theory for myopia, one discussing the literature showing differences in accommodative function between myopes and non-myopes,24 and one with gary wickham discussing the possible mechanism and observations consistent with the hypothesis.15 there is now an extensive literature in laboratory and clinical studies that have examined the defocus theory, described observations consistent with it, or tried to identify the mechanisms by which it may drive refractive development.25-33 hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 30 if the defocus theory is someday proven to be the correct explanation for the association of nearwork with childhood myopia progression, it will be interesting to see who will be given credit for the theory. it will probably be the person who publishes the best experimental evidence in the most widely read journal. however, i will always feel that it was my friend gary wickham who had the idea first. references 1. goss da. nearwork and myopia. lancet 2000;356:1456-1457. 2. goss da, winkler rl. progression of myopia in youth: age of cessation. am j optom physiol opt 1983;60:651-658. 3. goss da, erickson p, cox vd. prevalence and pattern of adult myopia progression in a general optometric practice population. am j optom physiol opt 1985;62:470-477. 4. goss da, cox vd. trends in the change of clinical refractive error in myopes. j am optom assoc 1985;56:608-613. 5. goss da. variables related to the rate of childhood myopia progression. optom vis sci 1990;67:631-636. 6. hofstetter hw. some interrelationships of age, refraction, and rate of refractive change. am j optom arch am acad optom 1954;31:161-169. 7. goss da. the effect of overcorrection of myopia on its rate of increase in youth. ph.d. thesis, indiana university, 1980. 8. goss da. overcorrection as a means of slowing myopia progression. am j optom physiol opt 1984;61:85-93. 9. robb rm. refractive errors associated with hemangiomas of the eyelids and orbit in infancy. am j ophthalmol 1977;83:52-58. 10. o’leary dj,millodot m. eyelid closure causes myopia in humans. experientia 1979;35:1478-1479. 11. hoyt cs, stone rd, fromer c, billson fa. monocular axial myopia associated with neonatal eyelid closure in human infants. am j ophthalmol 1981;91:197-200. 12. rabin j, van sluyters rc, malach r. emmetropization: a vision-dependent phenomenon. invest ophthalmol vis sci 1981;20:561-564. 13. wallman j, turkel j, trachtman j. extreme myopia produced by modest change in early visual experience. science 1978;201:1249-1251. 14. wildsoet cf. active emmetropization – evidence for its existence and ramifications for clinical practice. ophthal physiol opt 1997;17:279-290. 15. goss da, wickham mg. retinal-image mediated ocular growth as a mechanism for juvenile onset myopia and for emmetropization – a literature review. documenta ophthalmologica 1995;90:341-375. 16. raviola e, wiesel tn. an animal model of myopia. new england j med 1985;312:1609-1615. 17. wickham mg. growth as a factor in the etiology of juvenile-onset myopia. in: goss da, edmondson ll, bezan dj, eds. proceedings of the 1986 northeastern state university symposium on theoretical and clinical optometry. tahlequah, ok: northeastern state university, 1986:117-137. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 31 18. goss da. retinal image-mediated ocular growth as a possible etiological factor in juvenile-onset myopia. in: vision science symposium: a tribute to gordon heath. bloomington: indiana university, 1988:165-183 (available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/9037), accessed march 21, 2013. 19. goss da, hampton mj, wickham mg. selected review on genetic factors in myopia. j am optom assoc 1988;59:875-884. 20. schaeffel f, troilo d, wallman j, howland hc. developing eyes that lack accommodation grow to compensate for imposed defocus. vis neurosci 1990;4:177183. 21. troilo d, wallman j. the regulation of eye growth and refractive state: an experimental study of emmetropization. vision res 1991;31:1237-1250. 22. gwiazda j, thorn f, bauer j, held r. myopic children show insufficient accommodative response to blur. invest ophthalmol vis sci 1993;34:690-694. 23. abbott ml, schmid kl, strang nc. differences in the accommodation stimulus response curves of adult myopes and emmetropes. ophthal physiol opt 1998;18:13-20. 24. goss da, zhai h. clinical and laboratory investigations of the relationship of accommodation function with refractive error – a literature review. documenta ophthalmologica 1994;86:349-380. 25. hung g, ciuffreda kj. model of human refractive error development. curr eye res 1999;19:41-52. 26. smith el iii, hung l-f, harwerth rs. developmental visual system anomalies and the limits of emmetropization. ophthal physiol opt 1999;19:90-102. 27. chen jc, schmid kl, brown b. the autonomic control of accommodation and implications for human myopia development: a review. ophthal physiol opt 2003;23:401-422. 28. morgan ig. the biological basis of myopic refractive error. clin exp optom 2003;86:276-288. 29. hung gk, ciuffreda kj. an incremental retinal-defocus theory of the development of myopia. comments theoret biol 2003;8:511-538. 30. wallman j, winawer j. homeostasis of eye growth and the question of myopia. neuron 2004;43:447-468. 31. harb e, thorn f, troilo d. characteristics of accommodative behavior during sustained reading in emmetropes and myopes. vision res 2006;46:2581-2592. 32. charman wn, radhakrishnan h. peripheral refraction and the development of refractive error: a review. ophthal physiol opt 2010;30:321-338. 33. charman wn. myopia, posture and the visual environment. ophthal physiol opt 2011;31:494-501. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2013, volume 44, number 2, page 32 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: optometric historical society attn: rebecca hildebrand american optometric association 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________________ address ______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares™ – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. ohsfrontcover44-2 hindsight44-2 hindsight_54_2_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 33 editorial david a. goss, od, phd from the editor david a. goss, o.d., phd emeritus professor of optometry, indiana university dgoss@indiana.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v54i2.37204 this issue of hindsight offers a sophisticated statistical analysis of the history of optometry journals, a history of tonometry, a look at efforts by alabama optometrists to establish a scholarship award, three papers by optometry students from the blast from the past program and two book reviews. we also have an article on three eye care history organizations–our own optometric historical society, plus the ophthalmic antiques international collectors’ club (oaicc) and the ocular heritage society. working on that article led me to look at some of the back issues of the oaicc’s quarterly periodical, ophthalmic antiques. the april 2019 issue of ophthalmic antiques had a fascinating article on establishing a uniform name for optometrists.1 in the 19th century there were many titles used by persons who provided optometric services. in great britain and in the united states the work toward licensure, certification, and establishment of educational programs in the late 19th century and early 20th century led to the recognition that achieving a uniform identity would require a common name for practitioners. among the 48 names submitted to the british optical association nomenclature committee in 1903 were dioptrician, lenticulist, opticalist, optologist, optometrician, refracting optician, refractionist, sight specialist, sight tester, spectaclist, and visiometrician. hofstetter, in his 1948 book optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects,2 also gave a listing of some of terms by which 19th century optometric practitioners identified themselves, such as eye specialist, lens fitter, vision specialist, qualified optician, eye consultant, and prescribing optician. the american association of opticians officially adopted the term optometrist at its 1904 convention following the urging of john c. eberhardt and other optometric leaders.3,4 however, it is interesting to note that it wouldn’t be until 1919 that the organization changed its name to the american optometric association. i wonder how many optometrists today know that if charles prentice had had his way, we would be calling ourselves opticists. references 1. baker d. the college of opsiologists? ophthalmic antiques 2019;147:12-13. 2. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis, mo: mosby, 1948:90. 3. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis, mo: american optometric association, 1972:22-27. 4. goss da. from spectacle making trade to scholarly profession: a history of optometry in the united states. forest grove, or: pacific university press, 2022:57-59. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. hindsight_54_2_final.pdf the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 63141 toll free: 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 | fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org and are heritage services programs of 36 volume 49, number 2, april 2018 how glasses caught a killer and other stories of how optics changed the world david a. goss, od, phd emeritus professor of optometry indiana university bloomington dgoss@indiana.edu how glasses caught a killer and other stories of how optics changed the world, second edition. david baker. united kingdom: feedaread.com publishing, 2016. this book offers a collection of short articles on events or stories that relate in some way to ophthalmic optics or vision science. the articles, which appeared originally in optician magazine, published in the united kingdom, are each three to five pages long, and are grouped into four categories: war and conflict (8 entries), art, culture and philosophy (10 entries), people and technology (23 entries), and sport and miscellany (8 entries). the title of the book comes from the story of a famous 1924 murder case in chicago in which one of the perpetrators was identified because a pair of his spectacles had been left at the crime scene. the investigators were able to identify the owner of the spectacles because they had an unusual hinge which was sold at only one chicago outlet. the book contains a wide variety of stories. one relates how the plastic resin used for various components of bombers in world war ii became the plastic material for cr39 plastic spectacle lenses. another entry tells about the sherlock holmes story “the adventure of the golden pince-nez,” written by sir arthur conan doyle, who was trained in ophthalmology but turned to writing instead. the author notes that one biographer of the famous philosopher baruch spinoza (1632-1677) felt that spinoza was more serious about lens making than many writers presume. spinoza made telescopes and microscopes and owned two books on glass cutting and optics. the author speculated that spinoza may have had a silicosis from many years of breathing glass dust which in turn may have contributed to his early demise from tuberculosis. one of the articles in the book discusses instances in which vision conditions or eye care practitioners were portrayed in movies or television. i learned that an optometrist is the hero of a 1993 tv movie, “four eyes and six guns.” i suspect that the movie may have been comedic from the description of the plot as the optometrist finds that wyatt earp is myopic. it was interesting to learn that alexander graham bell was ahead of his time in having four patents for a photophone using light to conduct sound. there are stories of many well-known persons in optics and science, such as thomas young, benjamin franklin, and michael faraday, but there are as many about obscure but interesting personalities. the author of this book is a british optometrist. the book makes for very interesting light reading. readers who might want to do some follow-up reading on some of the topics in the book may be disappointed by the infrequent use of references. there are no illustrations in the book but there must have been occasional images used in the original magazine articles because there are a few places in the book referring to them. these are trivial criticisms for an entertaining book. how glasses caught a killer and other stories of how optics changed the world, second edition. david baker. united kingdom: feedaread. com publishing, 2016. isbn 978-178610-324-6. 222 pages. softcover, $12.65. book review david a goss, od, phd hindsight_54_2_final.pdf 34 volume 54, number 2, fall 2023 editorial viktoria l. davis, o.d. guest editorial: the ohs blast from the past student challenge i have always believed that history is a living subject–one that gives us the very best teacher, experience. i traveled extensively throughout the united states with my family as a child, and my mom–a consummate teacher–adored history. she taught me that every readerboard deserved my time–“someone took the time to write it, and someone took the time and money to put it up, you should take the time to read it.” i’ve read thousands of books, pamphlets, informational signs, and attended hundreds of living history programs and tours. some would rebel against this upbringing. i instead embraced it and have passed this love on to my husband and children. it baffles me when i hear the comment “history is boring.” that’s why i was thrilled to join the optometric historical society committee, combining both history and optometry! this edition of hindsight includes papers from three optometry students who share my point of view. they are three of the outstanding submissions from the optometric historical society’s “blast from the past student challenge.” as a member of the ohs committee and a coordinator of this annual project, it has been my pleasure to read and review student submissions each year. requirements are intentionally broad: research and prepare information on a topic relevant to optometric history. students have proven themselves to be incredibly creative, with submissions ranging from infographics to research papers to videos. there is certainly much more information readily available than when i was a student! it is, of course, also a bit humbling when some of the “historic” topics are ones that i clearly remember as part of my optometric career; my 1999 graduation from pacific university couldn’t possibly mean something that happened during my career qualifies as “historic!” submissions are initially scored by members of the ohs committee based on how well the applicant explained the influential person, event or development in optometric history; if the entry was informative and engaging; presentation, grammar and spelling; creativity; and the wow factor. the top qualifiers are then invited to present to a broader group for prize money. this year, this final presentation was virtual at a special blast from the past zoom session attended by over 500 students and doctors. attendees were invited to vote to help make the final determination of first, second, third and honorable mention. this year’s first place winner was faye nie from southern california college of optometry for her excellent video on otto wichterle and soft contact lenses. i would encourage everyone to view at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=kxg8_1qxnc0 and see how much you learn! second place was trevor phillips from indiana university school of optometry with his paper “all eyes on her: celebrating women in low vision history” (found in this issue of hindsight). third place was awarded to karli clark of illinois college of optometry for her paper “dr. bess coleman, optometrist: kentuckian, chicagoan, and pioneer” (included in this issue of hindsight). honorable mention went to jared denton (arizona college of optometry) with his informative video on johannes kepler, found at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpkxvrigzgi. this issue of hindsight also includes the paper “the development of the infantsee program” by jessica palmer (indiana university school of optometry). congratulations to all and thank you for your submissions! i very much look forward to reading 2024 submissions. if you know of students or residents who would be interested in submitting, watch for the announcement coming in the winter and encourage them to take some time to apply. another pearl of wisdom came from my mom, incorporating a quote from historian david mccullough: “history is who we are and why we are the way we are. study it and you might learn something.” viktoria l. davis, o.d. viktoria l. davis, o.d. madelia optometric viktoria@davismn.net 10.14434/hindsight.v54i2.37205 hindsight_56_1_final.pdf i n f a n t s e e s o c i a l m e d i a grassroots advocat e program the goal of our infantsee & children’s vision grassroots advocate program is to gain an infantsee advocate in each state to bring awareness to the importance of comprehensive eye and vision care beginning at 6 months of age and to build increased awareness of the infantsee program throughout each state. advocates are responsible for working with their state affiliate to meet meeting quarterly deliverables to increase awareness of the infantsee program. learn more about our grassroots advocate program, including who represents your state, at infantsee.org under our public awareness tab. become a prov ider become an infantsee provider by scanning here: 20th ann iv e r sary infantsee, a program where aoa member optometrists give free eye assessments to infants between 6 and 12 months of age, is celebrating its 20th anniversary! keep an eye out on our website and social media as infantsee celebrates its 20th anniversary with special events throughout 2025. help us celebrate infantsee i n f a n t s e e s o c i a l m e d i a the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 63141 toll free: 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org and are heritage services programs of hindsight /j' newsletter of the lndiana university nov 11 2003 . optometric historical society ljbra.ry 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume34 july2003 number3 jay enoch's column: a recent challenging article: sennacherib, archimedes, and the water screw: the context of invention in the ancient world. stephanie dalley and john peter oleson. technology and culture, volume 44, number 1, january, 2003, pages 1-26. an interesting article is called to the attention of our readers. it does not deal either with vision or optics. rather, it calls attention to important recent publications and the production of a documentary for p.b.s. by the b. b.c. the two authors could not agree about who first invented or utilized certain technologicavscientific developments. at issue was the ''water screw", an important device with broad uses which helps promote irrigation and in transferring/distributing water within farming communities and gardens in a number of lands. the device remains in use in various forms to this day. could this discovery be attributed to king sennacherib (704-681 b.c.) of nineveh (and those working for himthe probably designers of his gardens and associated devices) for use in the famous "hanging gardens of babylon", or to somewhat later contributions by the famous greek scientist-scholar archimedes (287-212 b.c.), per se. authors dalley and oleson, who exhibited personal sensitivity and integrity (although agreeing to disagree), decided to address the problem together as part of the broader problem of attribution and discovery in the ancient world. the readers may or may not agree with all of the arguments of these two scientists, but they made an honest effort to define and discuss issues encountered. like every group, we, too, have a number of issues of first attribution and the need to sort out invention, or introduction, or utilization of given items some of which are the results of incremental development, and in some cases, were found, lost (or were they?), and apparently found again, etc. the great passions which have been encountered when asking "by whom", "where", and ''when" spectacles were invented, is but one of the comparable issues in our field. just a few weeks ago, at the ocular heritage society meeting held at the william connor museum at alcon corporation in fort worth, in march, 2003, dr. william rosenthal indicted that spectacles were invented in 1287 a.d., and he silenced potential opposition with the statement that he did not want any argument about this! his statement was made not defiantly, but in good humor! far be it for me to challenge my friend bill in this area. but this has been a contentious issue for decades. 34/23 the writer suspects he will disturb some individuals interested in the history of spectacles in what follows. this is not the intent! rather, the writer sought to make arguments comparable to those raised about the water screw as a means of conveying to the reader the sorts of questions which also need to be considered when seeking to understand historical matters of the past, and which are addressed in the references paper. today we are aware that the first known lenses can be traced to "ka" statues (designed to capture the essence of the individual) in egypt ca. 2625 b.c. (ivth dynasty of the egyptian old kingdom). this is at least three millennia plus before 1287 a.d. and these egyptian lenses were just too good, too well polished, too replicable, too complex in design, to be the first of anything! these remarkable lenses were no longer to be found after the vth dynasty of the egyptian old kingdom, except for a brief re­ appearance in the xllth dynasty of the egyptian middle kingdom. a new style of lens (convex/plano or double convex) spread quite rapidly throughout the levant (first origins?, perhaps minoan or greek?, other?). and among other civilizations, the same or different lens forms were developed. summary lists of early lenses used have presented variously by mills in a series of publications (mills, 1997-1998), by enoch (e.g., 1998, 2002), as well as others over the years. given the obvious need for magnification, presbyopic corrections, and refractive corrections, in general, by artisans and craftsmen; scribes; writers of micro-documents {various); encoders; jewelers; creators, users and readers of seals; the rich and powerful of the ancient world; etc., these early lenses must have been cherished items passed on from generation to generation (so stated to the writer by a distinguished archaeologist). the writer was impressed greatly by an article by d. collon {1990, also see enoch, 1998 for citation including illustration) discussing ancient cylinder seals. she called attention to one cylinder seal which had been in use over a time span of 800+ years. she documented fine dateable stylistic additions to the seal which had been made by at least two different users of this seal during the 800 year time period. as will be documented in a later column, use of mirrors can be traced back 8000 years! as noted before in this column, the first known lens stated as being used for magnification and refractive purposes can be traced to seneca, the younger, a roman born in cordova, spain (ca. 4-65 a.d.). seneca filled a glass "florence flask'' with water and found that it had superior image qualities relative to the image formed by his congave mirror system (apparently in broad use at that time in rome). he compared the optical quality of the flask lens and the mirror system and by inference realized that mirror and lens optics served common purposes. the latter observation may have been a first! was seneca the first to fill a flask with water and realize that it could magnify an image, or help a presbyope to see? one doubts this. such flasks had been around for a period of time, e.g., in frejus, france, in murano, italy, etc. the question that arises is what was discovered when spectacles were introduced? was it lenses? no. was it lenses employed for magnifying the fine work of craftsmen? no. was it lenses used to correct hyperopia or presbyopia? in one 34/24 sense, perhaps yes; in another sense, probably not prior use of lenses for these purposes by individuals over the intervening millennia cannot be ruled out. was it dual lenses mounted simultaneously for binocular vision? perhaps? were there a number of near parallel breakthroughs in availability of such items, provision of lens corrections at more reasonable cost, (i.e., the availability of cheaper glass lensesafter a period of use of more expensive rock crystal, quartz, or beryl lenses), was it the development of a classification scheme of some sort for lens powers critical for the orderly manufacture of a volume of such wares, was it the development of printing and the revival of learning and intellectual activities in the early renaissancei.e., creating a demand for fine vision? perhaps it was some combination of these factors? economic historian prof. vincent ilardi of the u. of massachusetts will argue that these latter factors played a major role in spectacle development and in their utilization. no doubt, ilardi would state the case somewhat differently. clearly, broad development of reasonable quality glass manufacturing at reasonable cost, and at least a reasonable and satisfactory means of mounting the lenses for monocular and binocular applications were important. one key point made in the dalley and oleson paper is that development of technologies and their attribution in ancient times is a complex matter. a number of conditions must pertain for success. in our case, in addition to discerning a need to create a lens or spectacles and its (their) applications, there had to be available a suitable transparent and homogeneous medium for the device to function (essential materials), suitable grinding compounds (both source and access to the appropriate materials) and grinding and polishing technologies must have evolved, there must have been developed skilled artisans to make the product, there must be the demand for the product, and/or the product must meet a perceived need(s), and there must be funding to support the associated venture(s). the argument by the two authors in this journal article leads to the same sorts of questions and discussions relative to the water screw. quoting the fine summary editorial in technology and culture, " ... we begin in ancient assyriain the "hanging gardens of babylon", to be precise. stephanie dalley and john peter oleson were involved in a 1999 b.b.c. production that examined a theory that the water screw was famously attributed to archimedes (287-212 b.c.). might the technology have been known much earlier? dalley, an assyriologist brought forward evidence that suggested that the archimedean screw might in fact have been used by king sennacherib (704681 b.c.) in the 7th century b.c. e. to help irrigate his palace garden at nineveh. oleson, a professor of greek and roman studies, made the case for archimedes. 'neither of us succeeded in convincing the other about the chronology of the water screw during the filming of the b. b.c. documentary. we subsequently decided to collaborate on this article, presenting the evidence in a more scholarly fashion and with a focus on the cultural context of invention and innovation in both periods.' the results are intriguing, not only for their bearing on the topic of innovation, of the history of mechanical devices, but also for the play of the argument." this writer concurs wholly with this editorial analysis. 34/25 a few quotes from this article (and there are many more which might be sampled): page 2: "the precise identification of the inventor of a device or procedure is problematic, since nearly every technological advance is the result of a long accumulation of human experience." page 2: " ... this problem is compounded for ancient technological innovations, because firsthand documentary records are rare, and historical texts, where they exist, can be unclear, mistaken, and tendentious." page 2: "fortunately, identification of a specific individual inventor is far less important or interesting than an understanding of the historical and cultural context that spawned the invention and fostered its reception." this is a lengthy and challenging article asking many questions and raising many issues/challenges. i encourage readers to seek it out as it offers a number of interesting and potentially important arguments and generalities to those seeking to understand our collective heritage! as stated, the writer does not agree wholly with some of the arguments presented by these authors (certainly, this is not a necessary requirement), e.g., i feel individual creativity or contributions is (are) important, and when appropriate, these need to be recognized -there are meaningful examples which can be cited. and in fairness, there needs also to be a thoughtful appreciation of the social, cultural, etc., climate for creative impulses as well as a credible potential for use of the device invented. references collon d. interpreting the past: near eastern seals. london: trustees of the museum, 1990:30 (fig. 17). dalley s, oleson jp. sennacherib, archimedes, and the water screw: the context of invention in the ancient world. technology and culture 203;44(1):1-26. enoch jm. cover design and the enigma of early lens use. what is a lens? how do we know that an apparent lens was used as a lens? technology and culture 1998;39(2):273-291. enoch jm. archaeological optics. chapter 27 in: guenther ah, ed. international trends in applied optics. volume v. international commission for optics. bellingham, wa: spie press, 2002:629-666. mills aa. single lens magnifiers (parts i-vi). bull scientific instrument society 1997;54:29-30; 1997;55:30-32; 1998;56:29-31; 1998;57:30-31; 1998;58:28-32; 1998;59:22-26. j.m.e. 34/26 ohio optometric association. 1902-2002: in 2002, the ohio optometric association published a document entitled "ohio optometric association perspectives: ohio optometric association celebrates one hundred years, 1902-2002." on pages 2 and 3 of this 24 page publication there is a list of the presidents of the ohio optometric association from 1902 to 2002. also listed are the six optometrists from ohio who served as presidents of the american optometric association: j.c. eberhardt (1903-04), c.m. mcdonnell (191 0-11 ), samuel brown (1954-55), richard hopping (1971-72), timothy a. kime (1984-85), and james r. scholles (1988-89). some excerpts from the timeline given on pages 4 and 5 are the following: 1902 thirty charter members form the ohio optical association 1903 the first convention of the ohio optical association 1906 name changed to ohio state optical association; code of ethics adopted 1914two-year course in applied optics established at ohio state university in the department of physics 1915 -four year degree in optics established at ohio state, with charles sheard named director of the program 1919optometry licensure law passed in ohio 1920 ohio state board of optometry established 1985ohio dpa law passed 1992 ohio tpa law passed 1998 national optometry hall of fame is formed at the eastwest eye conference in cleveland 2000 ooa moves to new office in worthington, ohio five american optometric association congresses have been held in ohio: 191 0 in cedar point, 1917 in columbus, 1932 in cleveland, and both 1940 and 1945 in cincinnati. pages 7 through 19 of the document contain half-page to one page biographies of some persons notable in ohio optometry: charles sheard, nelson e. abrahamsen, sr., herbert g. mote, glenn a. fry, henry hofstetter, jack t. keith, harold w. oyster, warren g. morris, ruth p. morris, neal bailey, lois b. bing, frederick w. hebbard, david studebaker, james r. scholles, timothy a. kime, arol r. augsburger, kevin l. alexander, and carol brown. the last few pages discuss and illustrate some documents from the ooa archives and some early twentieth century optometric instrumentation. among the items depicted from the archives is the page on which the members of the ohio optical association signed the constitution and by-laws of the organization in 1902. also shown is the following undated statement which presumably represents a summary of official discussions at an association meeting sometime between 1902 and 1915: ''the joint question whether the word optician should be used in the code instead of optometrist. it was finally decided to use optician, this holding out invitation to all interested in the optical business to become members. it was decided best to take in all the opticians and make optometrists of them after. nor was it deemed wise to borrow 34/27 titles or phrases, or pretend to be something which we are not, so the word patient was stricken out and patron inserted." this document is available on the world wide web at www.ooa.org/centennial­ final2.pdf. d.a.g. web site on adolf wilhelm mueller-welt: the contents of a web site (http://mueller-welt.comd discussing the contact lens contributions of adolf wilhelm mueller-welt (1904-1972) were written by his daughter mrs. brigette mueller-welt caffrey. it opens with the statement: "in 1927, in stuttgart, germany, adolf mueller-welt, my father, and scion of generations of artificial glass eye makers produced the first commercially viable and marketable hand-blown, fluidless, glass scleral contact lens." the author writes that "adolf was 24 at the time and did his work perfecting the lenses without the benefit of any formal education and without the financial support of his family who thought that his idea of blowing thin lenses that could have the necessary visual correction to improve eyesight was not practicable. fortunately, his wife, ruth raisig, believed in him and used her inheritance from her banker father to further adolf's dream and helped him become a true pioneer in the infancy of contact lenses." mueller-welt applied for a patent in 1928 and it was approved in 1932 (drp.nr. 553843). mueller-welt's company continues to operate today in stuttgart. the web site suggests that "most likely, it is the longest, continuous contact lens business in the world." there are several pages associated with this web site discussing various aspects of the work and family of mueller-welt. included is the english translation of a 1969 testimonial given in celebration of mueller-welt's 65th birthday by rolf weinschenk, a mueller-welt employee. this document gives a year by year summary of mueller-welt's work in developing and manufacturing contact lenses from 1924 to 1969. mueller-welt lived at various times in germany, canada, and the united states, beginning and ending his career in germany. mueller-welt received an honorary doctor of ocular science degree from the chicago college of optometry on september 22, 1950. d.a.g. early prints depicting eyeglasses: "early prints depicting eyeglasses" is the title of an article by charles e. letocha and john dreyfus in the november, 2002, issue of archives of ophthalmology (volume 120, number 11, pages 1577 -1580). the authors' abstract states: "much of the history 34/28 of eyeglasses has been gleaned from studies of paintings and prints that illustrate them. a few prints from the first century of printing include spectacles and are reproduced in this article. in addition to showing their form and method of use, these prints also illustrate their symbolic value." eleven such prints dating from 1475 to 1497 are illustrated and discussed in the article. at this time, spectacles were mostly used by presbyopes for reading, and at least ten of the eleven prints show glasses being used for near work. many of the prints are anachronistic in that some of the subjects depicted wearing spectacles lived before spectacles are thought to have been invented, with even biblical subjects shown wearing glasses. reprints of the article can be obtained by writing to author charles e. letocha, md, ophthalmology associates of york, 1945 queenswood dr., york, pa 17 403 (email: cm.letocha@ gte.net). d.a.g. history of the california optometric association: california optometry, the journal of the california optometric association, recently published the first part of a history of their association (optometry's screaming eagles, part 1, california optometry, may/june, 2003, volume 30, number 3, pages 1315). we have received permission to reproduce this fine article here verbatim as it appeared in their journal. the main text of the article, written by richard kendall, is introduced by four lead-in paragraphs (in bold on the following pages) by lawrence thai, president of the california optometric association. 34/29 on a warm summer day, dr. ren anelle stopped along side the ~oad to quench his thirst with cool lemonade. as he parked his car, he noticed the van next to him displayed a bumper sticker, "screaming eagles." under an umbrella sat an elderly gentleman also with lemonade. "were you a scream­ ing eagle?" ren asked. "yes i was," he replied somewhat per­ plexed, "how did you know?" "i saw your bumper sticker ana i just want to say thank you!" tears came to the eyes of this old man. no one had ever thanked him before; much less someone who could only have been an infant during world war ii. the 10 1st airborne division, the screaming eagles, teamed up with the 82nd airborne division and the british in normandy and holland. it was at bastogne that the 10 1st heroically staved off cold, hunger and the german army during the battle of the bulge. corregidor, leyte, anzio, salerno and bastogne, once strange sounding names, are remembered today for world war ii newscasts which told of the courage and the sacrifices of air­ borne troops on those distant battlefields. men like generals matthew ridgway, maxwell taylor, "slim jim" gavin and tony mcauliffe, who uttered the now-famous "nuts" to the ger­ mans at bastogne are but a few of the great airborne leaders whose names are indelibly inscribed on the rolls of these elite units. optometry has its own elite units with many unsung he­ roes, many of whom haven't heard the words ren said this warm, summer day, "thank you!" many of optometry's battlefields also seem quite distant, but these leaders of the past and their accomplishments need not be forgotten their names will be indelibly inscribed on the rolls of optometry's elite units. 34/30 this is the first part of a series, "optometry's screaming eagles." it chronicles the founding of the california optomet­ ric association. other parts will chronicle the founding of our two schools of optometry in california and vision service plan. the california state association of opticians (csao), later to become the california optometric association, had its birth on january 23, 1899 in san francisco at the fraternal hall in the alcazar building. a complete organization was formed and officers were elected: president, f. c. chinn, sacramento; first vice-president, s.g. marshutz, los angeles; second vice-president, i. a. beretta, oak­ land; and secretary and treasurer, g. l. schneider, berkeley. in the april 1899 issue of the optical journal g. l. schneider wrote to the editor, "i beg to thank you for the item regarding the first meeting of the california state association of opticians in the march journal all of the opticians in the state are very enthusiastic now, and i think we will have quite a large membership and prob­ ably a good representation at the next meeting, which will take place at the fraternal hall in san francisco. we have already had one legislative fight against a medical bill and came out victorious, mainly, however, through the unceasing endeavors of our president, f. c. chin, of sacramento." the legislation referred to a bill, supported by physicians, which only permitted mds to determine a patient's refractive error. california became the third state to pass legislation regulating the practice of optom­ etry (the first was minnesota on april 13, 1901 and second, north dakota on march 4, 1903). on march 26,1903, governor george pardee, md (an oculist) signed the california state optometric practice act. the governor's first appointees to the cali­ fornia state board of examiners in optom­ etry were h.s. cahn, san francisco; w.h. 34/31 hare; pacific grove; and f. c. chinn, sacramento. mr. cahn was elected president, and mr. chinn, secretary. in one section, the new optometric practice act stated, "every person before beginning to practice optometry in this state, after the passage of the act, shall pass an examination before said board of examiners." in another section, the comment was made, "every person who is actually engaged in the practice of optometry in the state of california, at the time of the passage of this act, shall, within six months thereafter, file an affidavit in proof thereof with saiq board, who shall make and keep record of such person, and shall, in the consideration of the sum of five dollars, issue to him a certificate of registration." at that time, persons who practiced op­ to-!jletry at least six months prior to passage of the act were not required to take an examination. the los angeles school of ophthalmology and optometry was formed in march of 1904. marshall b. ketchum, md, was the founder of the school, the sole proprietor and teacher. louis h. jaques was a graduate of the class of 1911 and served optometry for seven decades. he was known to many as "dad" jaques. 1\vo other lifetime supporters of optometry graduated in 1913. they were ernest a. hutchinson and william m. ketchum, both of whom were to have significant roles in the school's development over the next 40 years. the california state association of opticians experienced a ma­ jor catastrophe on april 18, 1906 at 5:12 a.m. that was the time of the san francisco earthquake and fire. all of the association's records were destroyed. that set back, but did not deter the asso­ ciation from moving forward. the association incorporated as the california state association of optometrists during the same year. the association. conducted its first congress with the delegates giv­ ing the authority to the board of directors to conduct the business of the association between congresses. this was made possible with the adoption of new bylaws. dr. a.]. cross, who practiced optometry in visalia during 1876, moved to new york where he became involved with organizing optometrists into a national association (eventually the aoa). he also served as an instructor in the department of optometry at columbia university in new york. in 1926, during the aoa con­ gress held in san francisco, dr. cross was recognized as the first 34/32 optometrist president of the aoa (1900) and for his leadership in establishing an appropriate educational curriculum for optometry. across the golden gate from san francisco, in the muir woods national monument, stands a redwood tree dedicated to a.j. cross, the first optometrist to be president of the american association of opticians. in 1911, dr. george l. schneider was the second california optometrist to become president of the american association of opticians (which, in 1919, became the american optometric as­ sociation (aoa)). he lived in berkeley and was very involved with the formation of organized optometry in california, having served as co.n.s first secretary and treasurer. the university of california; berkeley, established a school of optometry as a division of the department of physics in the col­ lege of letters and science. the curriculum in optometry was es­ tablished in august 1923 as a result of a permanent committee of the california state association of optometrists. the committee spent five years of continuous effort before achieving their goal. in 1925, the coa house of delegates mandated the establish­ ment of a presidents' council. this was the result of the outstand­ ing leadership in organized optometry of dr. harry e. goodman. ever since its creation, the presidents' council has provided an excellent vehicle for communication ·between local societies and the association's leadership. the first issue of the california optometrist, cons official maga­ zine (presently california optometry), was produced in june of1932. there have been twelve editors during the publication's lifetime. william g. lindsay, od and ernest a. hutchinson, od were the first. they were followed by drs. arthur e. hoare, rupert e. flower, herbert kallmann, richards. hubler, byron newman, harry charm, kenneth p. lee, joseph e. farrington, ernest k. takahashi and palmer n. lee. edmund f. richardson, od was the third california optom­ etrist (following drs. cross and schneider) to be honored by being elected president of the american optometric association in 1946. he was active with the optometric extension program foundation. the california association of optometrists in 1947, by ac­ tion of the house of delegates, adopted a change in its name. the new name became the california optometric association (coa). this action occurred in conjunction with a similar move by other states to promote uniformity among the names of state associations. 34/33 the coa organized the california optometric credit union (cocu) in 1951. the primary purpose for its development was to provide a mechanism for practicing optometrists to invest their money and support younger, newly licensed optometrists. the credit union provided a source for optometrists to borrow funds at a lower rate than banks or other financial institutions. the cocu board of directors was composed of optometrists. in 1996, cocu changed its name to vision one credit union. the credit union now serves optometrists in california and other states. the national association of optometrists (nao) was formed in 1951. the reason for the formation of this organization was the differences in opinion on how the practice of optometry should be managed. in general, it was a question of professional­ ism versus commercialism. the american optometric associa­ tion created very specific rules of practice which stated, "enforce­ ment of the provisions of the rules of practice shall be the duty of the various state associations. it is recommended that when a member is doubtful of the ethics or advisability of any action he contemplates, he shall submit a detailed statement to the proper committee of their state association for approval. this commit­ tee, if in doubt as to the point involved, shall in turn submit the question to the executive committee of the state association for final opinion. logically, the trustees of the american optomet­ ric association will give an opinion if asked by the state associa­ tion." these rules included: "i) no member shall display any sign containing other than name, profession and office hours; same to be used only on office windows or at entrance to their office. letters must not be luminous or illuminated, and must not be more than 4" in height for street level and 7" in height for offices above street level. 2) no member shall display eyeglass signs or painted or decalcomania eyes anywhere. 3) no member shall display his license, diplomas or cer­ tificates in such a manner as to be seen and read from outside his office." due to the restrictive language of many sec­ tions in the aoa rules of practice, many coa members joined the nao. in 1954, coa requested all local op­ tometric organizations change their name from "association" to "society." today, coa is composed of 25 local optometric societies and two student societies. one of the first organizations de­ signed to provide vision care services to union members was· the joint council 34/34 on vision care in california. a group of visionary optometrists formed california vision services (cvs) in 1955. in 1975, the name of cvs was changed to vision service plan (vsp). during 1986, the california optometric association gave up its owner­ ship interest in vsp in anticipation of a possible ruling by the fed­ eral department of justice. the concern was that coa, with its great number ofvsp optometrists, could in some way control the fee structure of vsp. rupert e. flower, od from visalia became the fourth califor­ nia optometrist to become president of the american optometric association in 1956. visalia is the only community in california to have had two aoa presidents, drs. fowler and cross. the california attorney general, in 1960, offered a legal opin­ ion permitting optometrists to perform tonometry. this action was one of the first events which started california optometry on a course towards its present levei of providing eye health care. the public vision league (pvl) was incorporated in 1962. it was originally formed to provide funds for legislative and legal ac­ tivities in california. due to changes in laws dealing with legisla­ tive contributions, it was necessary for coa to form a political organization in 197 4. it was at this time that cal-opac was estab­ lished. pvl has mandatory dues and the funds are used for legal activities that have an effect on optometrists. cal-opac funds are used for political activities. in 1964, charles e. seger, 0 d from san luis obispo was the fifth californian to become aoa president. dr~ seger was ao/\s forty-third president. at his inauguration, he observed that optom­ etry seemed to thrive on adversity and gain strength from it. he pointed out, however, that the profession now had many groups and organizations and that all must work toward common goals, taking care not to dilute each other's efforts. the future would bear out the importance of this admonition. unification occurred in 1964 between coa and nao after a great deal of deliberation. there were great leaders on both sides of the alliance. the final results of the combination of the two opto­ metric organizations proved beneficial to all optometry by creating uniformity in legislative activity and other programs. for many years, the coa office was located in sacramento at 926 j street. coa purchased an office with the california credit union in 1968.1twas located at 7120 east parkway in sacramento. after seven years of traveling back and forth from the office and the state capitol, coa sold the property in 1975 and moved back 34/35 downtown. the office was moved to the elk's building on the cor­ ner of 11th and j street. in 1991, the office relocated to 12th and h street. in 2000 coa purchased its current building at 2415 k street. richard l. hopping, od from dayton, ohio, was installed as the sixth californian to be president of aoa in 1971. in predicting what lay ahead dr. hopping stated, "to4ay we are in a transition from considering optometry as ap individual affair to understanding optometry as a community affair." soon after his tenure on the aoa board oftrustees he accepted the position of president of the southern california college of optometry. legislation enacted during 1975 permitted optometrists to hire ophthalmologists, as well as allowing ophthalmologists to hire optometrists. diagnostic pharmaceutical agents (dpa) legislation was adopted in california during 1976. the legislation permitted optometrists the use of specific mydriatics, cycloplegics and topical anesthetics. the seventh coa member to become president of aoa was charles w. mcquarrie, jr., od from lancaster. dr. mcquarrie commented during his inaugural address on july 9, 1977, "the strength of optometry lies in unity.'' the new president also em­ phasized the importance of communicating optometry's role to other professions and of achieving a better understanding of the role of other professions as they relate to better care of the patient. gerald j. easton, od was the eighth member of coa to be elected president of aoa. dr. easton, from coronado, was elected president in 1985. · vision west, inc. (vwi), "an ophthalmic management group," was incorporated in 1988 by the coa. this was accomplished af­ ter extended review of various types of buying groups. vwi has proved to be of tremendous financial benefit to coa and the op­ tometrists in california. 34/36 in 1989, mandatory optometry continuing education was es­ tablished by legislation. prior to 1989, the california state board of optometry had the legislative option to mandate continuing edu­ cation; however, the board elected not to enforce this option. the ninth president of aoa from california was l. edward elliott, 0 0. dr. elliott of modesto had been very active in legisla­ tive activities in california prior to being elected aoa president in 1991. california optometrists were granted the privileges to utilize therapeutic pharmaceutical agents in 1996. this was achieved by the efforts of many coa members. this initial therapeutic legisla­ tion did not include the scope of therapeutics that optometrists in the state desired. because of this, tpa legislative enhancement ac­ tivity has been an ongoing activity within california. on january 23, 2000, the california optometric association celebrated providing the members of the association "one hun­ dred years" of service. all of the past activities of the association have been the result of teamwork. there have been many leaders of the association over the years; however, a leader cannot be success­ ful unless there is a quality team of players. throughout the history of coa, there have been strong leaders, our "screaming eagles," and many members who have been strong players. when one looks back and learns what has occurred since january 23, 1899, at the fraternal hall, in the alcazar building in san francisco, one real­ izes the future is ours to create; it depends upon how we plan the next one hundred years. taken from dr. richard kendall's treatise, "the california op­ tometric association, 1899-2000. " 34/37 " ma,.glng edit9r anc:l contributing editor: david a. goss {school of optometry, indiana university, biooidinsjton, in 47406, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@lndlana.ecty> contributing editors: douglas k. penlsten (college of optometry, northeastern sw. university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u~s.a.);jaym. enoij:h (school of optometry, mall code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 947200-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.bei'keley .. du) 34/38 2003-34-03-001 2003-34-03-002 2003-34-03-003 2003-34-03-004 2003-34-03-005 2003-34-03-006 2003-34-03-007 2003-34-03-008 2003-34-03-009 2003-34-03-010 2003-34-03-011 2003-34-03-012 2003-34-03-013 2003-34-03-014 2003-34-03-015 2003-34-03-016 hindsight journal of optometry history october, 2010 volume 41, number 4 )! :·~c.' official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: irving bennett (2012), 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com vice-president: douglas k. penisten (2011) secretary-treasurer: arol augsburger (2013) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) jay m. enoch (2010) alden norm haffner (2014) chuck haine (2012) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2010 volume 41, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 947202020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents optometrist jailed for charging an exam fee, irving bennett.. ........................ ....... 1 06 some conversations held with the late reverend james l. farmer, jr., jay m. enoch ....................................................................................................... 109 christian henry brown (1857-1933) and the philadelphia optical college, david a. goss ... ..................................................................................................... 114 the first year long optometric residency education program, irwin suchoff ........ . 122 recollections of participation in the first year-long residency program, harvey estren ....................................................................................................... 126 one hundred years ago: start of the optometry school at columbia university, david a. goss ..................................................................................................... 129 ohs news ................................................................................................. 133 ohs membership application form ................................................................ 135 instructions to authors .................................................................................. 136 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 105 optometrist jailed for charging an exam fee irving bennett, o.d. 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com looking back it does not seem conceivable that an optometrist could be put in jail for charging a fee for an eye examination. but it did happen. the most likely person to stand up to those who considered optometry a cult was charles f. prentice of new york, considered by many as the "father of optometry." in the 1890s prentice worked hard trying to form an association of those who examined eyes and fit eyeglasses; they were generally called "opticians". that association eventually became our american optometric association. although prentice was threatened with legal action and a boycott by some oculists, he did not suffer the fate of fred r. baker of dallas, texas. baker, in 1919, was a prominent american optometric association (aoa) figure, who was arrested after he had fitted a pair of eyeglasses. he was charged with "practicing medicine without a license." he faced with a fine and time in jail! as it turned out baker spent but one day in jail. it was no simple matter to resolve this thorny issue and the optometric leadership was very much aware of what was at stake in this lawsuit. in 1919, texas was one of only six states that still did not have an optometry licensure law. however, that was not from lack of trying. they failed in attempts to obtain an optometry practice act and the texas attorney general held the opinion that optometry fell under the act regulating medical practice. 1 optometrists throughout the country realized that there could be dire consequences if the lawsuit was lost. optometrists were very worried that they would all lose their ability to practice optometry if the profession was regulated by the medical practice act. and there was substantial fear was that medicine might start to overturn optometry laws in other states. however, if optometry won the baker case and the court held that optometry was not regulated under the medical practice act, it appeared likely that an optometric licensure law could be passed. raising funds for the baker case at the july, 1919 aoa congress in rochester, new york, delegates were so concerned about the baker case that they made pledges on the convention floor for the baker case which nearly equaled the amount of money accumulated in the past four years for a sustaining membership fund.2 much "cheering and optometric flag waving" led to significant contributions. 3 it was said that a hat being passed around was filled with silver dollars. the $200 pledge of chinese native w.k.h. yen, who practiced optometry in china and was doing additional study in the united states, was received with such applause that he had to step on stage to shake hands with the officers.3 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 106 optometrists were able to raise a total of $40,000! think of that in today's perspective. the aoa dues in 1919 were $2; in 2010, the dues amount to $768. that is 384 times the 1919 amount. if the convention members in 1919 could come up with $40,000, it could be argued that in today's dollars that would be more than $15 million. gregg noted that: "the members felt a sense of cohesiveness as they had never done before. medicine, it turned out, had done optometry a great favor by attacking via the baker case. the aoa passed a motion to take over the baker case and to put every bit of its power and resources behind it."4 a calculated move by texas optometrists in actual fact, due to their frustration in not being able to get an optometry practice law passed, texas optometrists had decided to stage a test case. fred baker had volunteered to be arrested for unlawfully practicing medicine. baker examined a minister named f.f. mchenry on march 22, 1920. the examination was conducted in the presence of two other optometrists. within a week he was found guilty, charged with a $50 fine and sentenced to one day in jail. 1 optometrists made an immediate appeal to the texas court of criminal appeals. in many states, optometrists had made a compromise to get their practice laws passed. that compromise was that medical practitioners were not required to pass optometry licensure examinations in order to practice optometry. that fact was used against the texas optometrists in the court of criminal appeals. the texas state journal of medicine reported that the attorneys for the state argued that "in all those states wherein optometrists are regulated and licensed by statue, the medical practitioners are given the express right to practice optometry without further examination of license a clear admission that the practice of optometry comes within the field of the practice of medicine ... "5 unfortunately, the initial hearing before the court of criminal appeals resulted in a conviction. on june 1, 1921, baker was found guilty and ordered to pay the fine and serve the one day in jail. gregg observed that baker "was close to being a martyr to optometry, if there is such a thing .... baker's friends and patients read in the paper that he was a criminal. ... baker's practice dwindled away and his wife became i11."4 baker's wife died in august of 1921. as a result of newspaper editorials opposing the court's decision, public opinion favored the optometrists. this resulted in the texas legislature revisiting the issue of an optometry law. in august, 1921, an optometry licensure law was passed in texas, making it the last state to have an optometry law enacted. passage of an optometry law in the district of columbia in 1924 completed the establishment of optometry practice laws in the continental united states. in a rehearing, the texas court of criminal appeals ruled on february 22, 1922 that baker was exempt from punishment. baker retired in april of 1922. classe stated that the baker case "became a significant chapter in optometry's legal history, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 107 demonstrating medicine's determination to eradicate the profession and the profession's ability to muster the legislative and political strength to defeat such efforts."6 references 1. classe jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989:9. 2. gregg jr. american optometric associationa history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:65,79-80. 3. gregg jr. american optometric association -a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:79-80. 4. gregg jr. american optometric association -a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:80. 5. anonymous. editorial: the case of state of texas vs. fred r. baker (optometry). texas state j med 1920;16:147-151. 6. classe jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989:10. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 108 some conversations held with the late reverend james l. farmer, jr.; he was the founder and head for many years of the congress of racial equality (c.o.r.e.). [these talks took place in bethesda, md, while we served jointly on the national advisory eye council, nei, nih.] jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d, dr(s).sci.(h.c.) professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 94720-2020; home: 5537 106th avenue, ne, kirkland, wa 980337 413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu introduction each of us has had unique opportunities in life. i had the good fortune to be able to play a role in the founding of the national eye institute, nih, while serving as executive secretary of the "subcommittee on vision and its disorders" (chair, bernard becker, m.d.), of the national advisory neurological diseases and blindness council, nih. that role is not considered in this document. later, i served for two terms upon the national advisory eye council, national eye institute (nei), national institutes of health (nih). i was appointed to the latter role separately by presidents nixon and carter. my two terms of service were ( 1) feb. 25, 1975 to sept. 30, 1976; and (2) dec. 20, 1980 to oct. 31, 1984. these were still relatively early days after the creation of the national eye institute; i.e., after eye and vision care were separated by statute from the then "portfolio" of the national institute for neurological diseases and blindness (nindb) and placed into a newly-created institute at the nih. one can discuss many things about such experiences. here, i have chosen to discuss aspects of numerous conversations held with the late reverend james "jim" leonard farmer, jr. (born: jan. 12, 1920 died: july 9, 1999), then former long-serving founder and head of the congress of racial equality (core). he and the core organization were meaningful and very effective participants in the civil-rights movement which occurred during the later half of the 20th century. at the time when jim and i held overlapping terms on the national advisory eye council (he served on council from dec. 2, 1979 to oct. 31, 1983), he represented unions serving government employees (the coalition of american public employees, washington, dc). the national advisory eye council held three or four meetings per annum in bethesda, maryland, at the national institutes of health, department of health and human welfare. the ophthalmologist members on the council usually went off separately on the night before the nei council meeting. a few members came to the nih only on the day of the meeting. many council members arrived days-early in hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 109 bethesda in order to review/refresh their memories regarding the large number of grant applications which were to be considered during the (then current) council meeting. most often, mrs. norma f. krajczar, of the new jersey commission for the blind and visually impaired, newark, nj, as well as jim farmer, both also members of council, and i would meet on those evenings to spend a pleasant social evening together. [as a side-note, mrs. krajczar was nearly blind, or was totally blind. she had a truly remarkable seeing-eye dog (a black labrador) which accompanied her everywhere, including to nei council meetings. even in the longest of sessions, one never knew the animal was even present. this seeing-eye dog was incredibly well trained ... the writer has never seen the equal! note: norma and her husband played key roles in training seeing-eye dogs.] norma served on council from nov. 21, 1979 oct. 31, 1983. at that time, jim farmer was blind in one eye from glaucoma (and possibly from complications of diabetes?). he invariably wore a black patch over that eye. (please see fig. 1. note, he was not wearing the patch at the time this fine photograph was taken in 1964.) jim died of complications of diabetes. almost without exception, for the better part of two years of such meetings, jim would regale the two of us, well into the night, with descriptions of his experiences as the founder and head of core during the often turbulent civil rights movement in the 20th century. at its peak, core had over 80,000 members! mrs. krajczar and i sat there fascinated by his descriptions of his boyhood, his education, and by the ongoing and detailed description of the often tumultuous events of the civil rights movement, and his descriptions of the actions taken by him and others, and by the personalities of the other leaders within the larger civil rights movement! jim was then writing an autobiographical book describing his experiences as a key/major leader of the massive national movement seeking to grant greater freedoms to blacks, to enhance voting rights for all u.s. citizens, to ensure ready access for blacks and other minorities in/to all hotels and restaurants, to eliminate required separate seating in busses, trains, and in other venues, and to increase work and educational opportunities for this (these) population(s), etc.1-3 sadly, such restrictions still existed in a number of states during that era. the writer was witness to a number of such sad/unfortunate acts of discrimination. curiously, (apparently) none of the other fine leaders of this enormous political, social, and public movement wrote personal auto-biographical accounts of their activities for the historical record! included in the latter statement was the late reverend martin luther king (southern christian leadership conference). some other leaders of the civil rights movement at that time were roy wilkins (naacp), whitney young (urban league), etc.1-3 interestingly, i understood that two of the three civil-rights-workers slain in the freedom summer of 1964 in mississippi during one of the epic marches of that time period, were members of core the three individuals who were killed, apparently by klansmen, on that occasion (a black and two whites) were named michael schwerner,* james chaney,* and andrew goodman. the first two of these men(*) were early hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 110 core members. "these core workers were investigating a church burning, and promoting black voter registration."1-3 this proved to be a critical/seminal event in the lengthy history of the civil rights movement of that era. at that time, a major goal of the group was to address the issue of desegregation in interstate transportation. some conversations i am not sure how our informal conversations started? so saying, they became a regular part of our attendance at the nei council meetings, and both norma and i avidly looked forward to hearing succeeding episodes and discussions. it is possible that jim was trying out material on the two of us which was to be contained in his forthcoming autobiographical book.4 his discussions were always orderly and presented in a most cogent style. we were free to ask questions and to pursue issues raised. fears, beatings, violence! often, jim and his workers and supporters were subjected to threats, beatings and violence during the quite tumultuous period of their "freedom marches" particularly in the deep south. he/they were frequently concerned for their very lives in their interactions with the police, as well as the very vocal and active opponents encountered in the streets. they were particularly concerned about the police dogs often used to "control them", and by people accosting them in various situations! mr. farmer once said, "i was meant to die that night! they were kicking open doors, beating up blacks in the streets, interrogating them with cattle prods."1-4 and they were repeatedly jailed by local and state police for periods of time for various charged offenses. some trips to the jails were for more than token periods of time (on one occasion, i believe jim was held for 40 days for participating in a march). the jails were often not well kept, and they, too, sometimes presented additional threats to their personal welfare and safety. no matter what, these folks were dedicated ("we shall overcome!"), and they readily faced up to all obstacles placed before them in their quest for enhanced rights for blacks and other minority groups! farmer is quoted as saying, "evil societies always kill their consciences." he repeatedly stated to us that he favored m. gandhi's position of non­ violent direct action/opposition when faced with confrontations. an interesting omission a fascinating set of comments made by farmer to us on more than one occasion related to discussions of the late reverend martin luther king, jr. (in what follows, here, i did not sense that issues of jealousy or envy were involved.) obviously, farmer knew king well (as well as the other leaders of the civil rights movement). often, he pointed out that king was an exceptionally able individual, a truly fine leader, and a brilliant orator. also, by training, like king, james farmer was a reverend gentleman (as were both of their fathers), and a fine orator. importantly, jim noted that king was not the almost-saint-like person he has been portrayed in recent years. he was, in many ways, like most other people! he said this in a matter of fact manner, i.e., not with rancor! for discussion's sake, he raised this issue in terms of how he should treat discussions of dr. king in his forthcoming book. he noted, today, king is the only person singled out for name-recognition associated with a national holiday in this hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page ill nation. we no longer celebrate george washington's, or abraham lincoln's birthday, but we celebrate martin luther king day! nor for that matter do we celebrate benjamin franklin, thomas jefferson, john adams, nor any of a number of other distinguished americans of all races and religions. thus, jim asked us how we thought he should treat this set of issues in the book, or should he just let the matter lie? clearly, this was a decision he had to make. came away from these several conversations believing that he would introduce some such discussions in his book. when the book was completed, he kindly sent a copy to me.4 when i read the book, i remember looking through it in order to see how he dealt with these issues? assuming he had introduced such material into his text, his colleagues, and/or publishers, and editors might have argued against his taking such an approach. phrased another way, martin luther king remains a very special icon in the minds of us citizens, and, in particular, in the black community! to introduce such content, even assuming he was perfectly justified, may well have aroused considerable negative backlash. jim did not address this set of issues in this book. in closing mrs. krajczar and i found jim farmer to be an absolutely fascinating individual! he was the grandson of slaves, and an active and effective fighter for social welfare. we came back again and again for the many episodes he described to us, and for his characterizations of the "players and participants" in his very personal history of the events of the civil rights movement. simply stated, the description of these tumultuous events of this very special time in our nation's history, by this central figure in that history, was absolutely riveting! in a very real sense, we were witnesses to a remarkable oral documentary of a crucial era in our lifetimes! it was a pity that we did not have a recording of those sessions! this was indeed a fine and worthy man! references 1. severo r. james farmer, civil rights giant in the 50's and 60's is dead at 79; published in the new york times, july 10, 1999. appeared on the web at: http://www .nytimes.com/1999/07 /1 0/us/james-farmer-civil-rights-giant-in-the 50-s-and60-s-is-dead-at-79.htm?scp=1&sq=congress of racial equality,james farmer&st=cse &pagewa.... this citation may have been incorporated in wikipedia. 2. farmer jl jr. [some quotations cited]: "we, who are the living possess the past, tomorrow is for our martyrs." "evil societies always kill their consciences." " ... jail not bail!" "we shall overcome." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ybz1_nyti&nr=1 3. "civil rights leader james farmer dies" (http://highbeam.com/doc/1 p2661215.html). retrieved may 19, 2008. "james l/ farmer, 79, founder of the congress of racial equality and the moving force behind some of the most dramatic episodes of the civil rights era of the 1960s, died yesterday at a hospital in fredericksburg, va." 4. farmer jl jr. lay bare the heart: an autobiography of the civil rights movement. new york: penguin-plume, 1986, isbn 0-452-25803-0. 5. kupfer c, mcmanus e, with berlage n. history of the national eye institute, 1968-2000. 2009. there is no publisher listed in this book; the author assumes it was hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page i 12 published by the nih or by the u.s. government. for dates of service of cited individuals on the nei council, please see pp. 203-211. figure 1. this is a photograph of the late rev. james l. farmer, jr. taken on april15, 1964, at a meeting of the american society ofnewspaper editors. as best the writer can determine, as part of an agreement for transfer of this photograph to the library of congress, this photo-record was placed in the public domain. the writer hopes he has correctly interpreted the accompanying statement. this photograph has been reproduced from wikipedia. if this statement by the author is incorrect, he apologizes to the library of congress which apparently holds current title to the photograph! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 113 christian henry brown (1857-1933) and the philadelphia optical college david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract christian henry brown, m.d., (1857-1933) was an oculist who operated the philadelphia optical college for over forty years. this paper provides a brief biographical sketch of c. h. brown and a history of the philadelphia optical college. the philadelphia optical college offered attendance and correspondence courses in optometry, and claimed to have had several thousand graduates. it did not fare well in a rating of optometry schools in the mid-1920s. brown authored several significant textbooks, most notably optician's manual, later retitled optometrist's manual. key words: optometric education, optometry books, optometry history, optometry schools. christian henry brown, m.d., was the proprietor of an early optometry school and the author of several optometry books. he was born may 8, 1857, in lancaster, pennsr.lvania, the son of edwin h. brown (1830-1889) and susan (widmyer) brown(?1882). -3 his father was a bank employee in lancaster, pennsylvania. c.h. brown attended franklin and marshall college in lancaster, pennsylvania. he entered medical school at the university of pennsylvania in 1875, and completed the m.d. degree in 1878, at the 21 years of age. after medical school, he was resident physician in the philadelphia hospital, after which he was visiting physician at the lancaster county hospital and secretary of the lancaster city board of health. 1•2 while in lancaster, brown started specializing in diseases of the eye and ear.4 later he is identified as an oculist or as a physician specializing in diseases of the eye.1·5 he located in philadelphia in 1887. in 1889, brown was one of the co-founders of the philadelphia optical college. he continued to practice as an oculist as he operated the school. he served as president of the philadelphia optical college until his death on december 11, 1933. philadelphia optical college the philadelphia optical college was founded in 1889 by d.v. brown, w. reed williams, and c.h. brown.6 d.v. brown at that time was president of the philadelphia optical company and a prominent figure in the optical business. he died in about 1916. i have found no evidence of a family relation between d.v. brown and c. h. brown. w. reed williams was treasurer of the philadelphia optical company. c.h. brown was the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 114 initial instructor for the philadelphia optical college and was the major individual in its operation. it is unclear how long d.v. brown and w. reed williams were involved with the school after its founding. it appears that a significant number of persons attended the philadelphia optical college. remarks during a 1917 alumni banquet included the statement that over 2,000 persons had attended.7 otto haussmann, who graduated from the school in 1905 and joined its faculty in 1916,6 claimed the following in a memorial tribute to c.h. brown: "more than 5000 students enrolled in the philadelphia optical college and all of them received doctor brown's personal attention."8 hofstetter9 reported on a 1944 study of 12,534 practicing optometrists conducted by the american optometric association. of that number, 476 were graduates of the philadelphia optical college. only five schools had more graduates in practice at that time: northern illinois college of optometry (2,898), needles institute of optics (860), los angeles school of optometry (71 0), pennsylvania state college of optometry (678), and columbia university (524 ). persons who attended philadelphia optical college came from a variety of backgrounds. a news item in the 1908 optical journal said that some of their students had worked in dentistry, jewelry stores, watchmaking, and engraving.10 a 1915 news item noted that three of their enrollees were physicians. 11 an 1899 advertisement for the school proclaimed that "druggist and optician will prove a strong combination."12 philadelphia optical college advertised not only in optometric publications, such as optical journal and optometric weekly, but also in periodicals for druggists and dentists.12 news items in the optical journal from the philadelphia optical college frequently emphasized successes and leadership positions of graduates. for example, in 1914, graduates were elected to the presidency of the nebraska state association of optometrists, to officer positions in the florida state optometric association, and to the presidency of the iowa state board of optometry, and two graduates gave papers at the ohio optical association meeting.13-16 in 1915, a graduate named william v. nicum was added to the instructional staff of the new optometry school at the ohio state university, and he recommended the adoption of c. h. brown's optician's manual as a textbook there. 17 in 1916, it was reported that graduates schenmeyer and jarvis were vice-presidents of the american optical association and a graduate named jenkins was treasurer. 18 the indiana university optometry library holds a microfilm copy of a scrapbook of advertisements for philadelphia optical college placed in various periodicals. the items in the scrapbook are mostly from 1890 to 1914. the scrapbook is thought to have been compiled by c.h. brown.12 a december, 1893 advertisement said: "our correspondence course is all that is needed to make any man a skilled optician, after which our charter empowers us to award a diploma and confer a degree." in 1900, they advertised six month, three month, one month, special, and post-graduate attendance courses, as well as correspondence courses. the one month, special, and hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 115 post-graduate courses were for those "already engaged in optical pursuits." in 1903, the degrees awarded by philadelphia optical college included graduate in optometry, doctor of optics, doctor of optometry, and doctor of refraction. 12 in 1908, the school advertised one week, two week, one month, three month, or six month attendance courses, along with correspondence courses. by 1913, the attendance courses ranged from one month to two years in length. a 1914 advertisement said that the attendance courses were "as long or as short as will suffice for individual requirements."12 the philadelphia optical college did not fare well in the 1920s when optometry schools were rated by the education committee of the international board of boards, an organization of optometry boards of examiners. in 1922, a conference on standards in optometric education was held. one of the resolutions of the conference was that "no credits or diplomas for correspondence courses be given ... "19 a direct consequence of the conference was the rating of the existing optometry schools. they were evaluated on the basis of information the schools provided and on-site visits. criteria used in the evaluation included non-profit status, admission of at least high school graduates, adequacy of facilities and staff, curriculum of at least two years of 32 weeks or more each, and inclusion of the subjects in syllabi prepared by frederick wall, an instructor at columbia university.20 of the 30 schools providing optometry instruction in 1925, only 16 were judged worthy of having on-site visits for rating. the rating levels for the schools visited were a, b, and c. the schools which were judged as not reaching the c level based on the initial information submitted did not undergo site visits. 19 the philadelphia optical college was among those schools which were not rated high enough to be visited. despite the poor evaluation, the philadelphia optical college continued to operate for a number of years. the philadelphia optical college correspondence course ohs member charles letocha provided the author with copies of examination papers from the philadelphia optical college correspondence course. the course was taken in august and september of 1914 by an ernest w. dodd, a relative of one of dr. letocha's patients. included with the examination paper was a two page introduction to the course, headed "personal letter of adviceread carefully." at the top a blank after "matriculation no." was stamped with the number 2430. the letter of advice recommended that the student "cultivate habits of study" and "study, study." it was stated that the aim of the course was "to direct your studies and to systemize your knowledge." studies were expected to read and study textbooks, such as c. h. brown's optician's manual. one of the two volumes was provided free to students after payment of the enrollment fee. it was noted that all answers on the examination forms would be "critically examined by dr. brown." the letter of advice stated that the last lesson was no. 28, "student's practice eye." this was an optional lesson which students received if they purchased a $2 practice eye. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 116 ernest dodd completed lessons 1 through 27 in august and september of 1914. he received a letter dated october 13, 1914, stating that he was graduating as doctor of optics and that a diploma was being sent to him. the examination paper for each lesson consisted of 25 questions with space for answers. mr. dodd's answers were mostly one or two lines, but in some places he squeezed in a three or four line answer. the subjects of the 27 lessons were: i. anatomy of eye ii. mechanism of the eye ill. physiology of vision iv. dioptrics of the eye v. laws of light vi. principles of optics vii. institutes of refraction viii. lenses ix. further study of lenses x. numbering of lenses xi. presbyopia general principles xii. presbyopia treatment xiii. hypermetropiageneral principles xiv. hypermetropiatreatment xv. myopiageneral principles xvi. myopia treatment xvii. astigmatismgeneral principles xviii. astigmatism treatment xix. anomalies of ocular muscles xx. treatment of muscular anomalies xxi. the ophthalmoscope xxii. retinoscopy xxiii. method of examination xxiv. the ophthalmometer xxv. theoretic optics xxvi. asthenopia xxvii. practical points to illustrate the level of difficulty of the questions on the examination papers, some of the questions in the lesson on anomalies of ocular muscles were: 451. name extra ocular muscles that move the eye. 452. what is nerve supply of each of the four recti? 455. what is action of each of the obliques? 460. why do accomm., conv., and contraction pupil occur together? 461. what is punctum prox. of conv. and how determined? 463. how can the accomm. be lessened or increased? 464. how can convergence be lessened or increased? 468. upon what does diagnosis paralytic strabismus depend? hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 117 471. what is predominant cause of strabismus and how does it act? 475. what is the cover test? it appears that the philadelphia optical college continued to operate a correspondence course after c.h. brown's death late in 1933. it was listed among colleges in the blue book of optometrists as late as 1940. the description of the school in the 1936 blue book gave its location and stated simply: "established the correspondence system. offers personal extension course of home study which leads to a valid degree in the science of optometry."21 remarkably, at least as late as 1954 the philadelphia optical college was still offering a correspondence course.22 hofstette~2 expressed concern that it had been sold to "circumstantially gullible" optometrists outside the united states who were not knowledgeable about american educational institutions. hofstette~2 characterized the 1954 correspondence course as "grossly outmoded" based on the examination papers sent to him by an optometrist in peru, who had completed the course in 1954. the peru optometrist sent hofstetter examination papers for 12 of the 26 lessons. the subject headings for 11 of those 12 lessons were the same as those the course taken by ernest dodd in 1914. hofstette~2 referred to the preface for the examination paper for numbering of lenses, which stated: "the transition period in the nomenclature of the numbering of lenses is over, and we note the passing of the old inch system, and the adoption of the newer and better dioptric system. this adds to the difficulty of the subject, because the optometrist must have knowledge of both systems, and a clear understanding of the method of converting one into the other." this exact statement, as well as some of the same exact examination questions on the inch system, was in the 1914 course taken by ernest dodd. hofstette~2 observed that the transition period to the use of diopters "had occurred at least three quarters of a century before 1954." hofstette~2 also noted that: "in spite of the abuses attributable to the later owners of the 'chartered' college, it must be said that those who seriously followed through on the lessons and did indeed study brown's remarkably solid books of the day must have benefited." books written by christian henry brown the optician's manual. the opticians manual was first published by c.h. brown in 1897. it was a compilation of serial publications in the keystone begun in may, 1890. in 1899, supplement to the optician's manual appeared. starting in 1902, the optician's manual was sold in two volumes. the preface to the 1902 edition said that it was the fifth edition and that a volume ii was serving a "new role as a companion treatise to the optician's manual. it is interesting to note that the subtitle for the 1902 edition was a treatise on the science and practice of optics, whereas by the 1908 edition, the subtitle was a treatise on the science and practice of optometry, reflecting increasing acceptance of the term optometry in the opening years of the twentieth century. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 118 volume i of the 1908 edition consisted of 11 chapters: (1) introductory, (2) the eye anatomically, (3) the eye optically, (4) principles of optics, (5) lenses, (6) numbering of lenses, (7) transposition of lenses, (8) the use and value of glasses, (9) outfit required, (10) method of examination, and (11) presbyopia. according to chapter ix, the "outfit required" included optical education, books of reference, case of test lenses, complete set of test types, measuring stick, record book, ophthalmoscope, retinoscope, prisoptometer or refractometer, ophthalmometer, keratoscope, phorometer, optical bracket (a bracket attached to the wall or chair allowing a test lens holder or phorometer to be placed in front of the patient's eyes), perimeter, ophthalmic cabinet, and lens measure. concerning the inclusion of reference books, brown said: "one could easily write a lengthy essay, and present a beautiful argument on the necessity of books to the professional man, that would apply in great measure to the practicing optician, but lack of space forbids, and the truth of this statement will be admitted, universally, without an argument."23 after the eleven chapters, an appendix of symbols and abbreviations, a glossary, and an index brought volume i to a total of 459 pages. volume ii consisted of 405 pages in four chapters: hypermetropia, myopia, astigmatism, and anomalies of the ocular muscles. there was fairly comprehensive treatment of each of these conditions. for example, the chapter on anomalies of the ocular muscles included anatomy and actions of the extraocular muscles, types and diagnosis of strabismus, treatment of strabismus, types and treatment of esophoria, types and treatment of exophoria, use of prisms, hyperphoria, and tests for heterophoria. optometrist's manual. in 1921, volumes i and ii of the optician's manual was re-issued under the title optometrist's manual. changes in the text were minimal. at places in the text where the term optician had formerly appeared, the term optometrist was substituted for this edition. optometrist's manual got one nomination from 21 respondents to a survey requesting suggestions for the most important twentieth century optometry books.24 optician's record book. this book for recording patient history, test findings, diagnosis, frame data, and lens prescription was published in the late nineteenth century. there were two facing pages for each patient and sufficient forms for 100 patients. with regard to test findings, there were blanks for visual acuity, near point and far point of accommodation, "muscular insufficiency," astigmatism ("which lines are plainest" according to the brief instructions), refraction, reading lens, and ophthalmoscopy. clinics in optometry. this 254 page book was published in 1907. it is composed largely of case reports with corresponding discussion and explanation. it is divided into 36 "clinics" or chapters. each clinic illustrated a particular condition or demonstrated the importance of a particular test or procedure. various refractive, binocular vision, and pathological conditions are discussed. the presentation of some cases showed the value of retinoscopy, ophthalmoscopy, ophthalmometry, and the proper adjustment of spectacles. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 119 state board examinations: questions and answers. this book was published in 1919. it contained answers to one thousand questions which were selected from examinations given by state optometry boards. the questions and answers were classified under the headings theoretic optics, practical optics, theoretic optometry, practical optometry, pathological optometry, physiological optics, anatomy of the eye, ophthalmoscopy, retinoscopy, physiology of vision, and pathological conditions. in questions where calculations were required, the text usually explained the choice and application of the appropriate formulas. diagrams were often used. the section on retinoscopy, for example, included questions on the optics of retinoscopy, movement of the "shadow," plane vs. concave mirror retinoscopy, static vs. dynamic retinoscopy, use in prescribing, appearance in astigmatism, scissors movement, brightness and speed of the reflex, and numerical examples. the book was 347 pages in length. closing comments christian henry brown was an oculist who played an important role in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century optometry. the optometry textbooks he wrote were detailed and authoritative. the school where he was the primary instructor beginning in 1889, the philadelphia optical college, appears to have had a checkered history. its graduates included some optometrists who held leadership positions. however, it received poor ratings in the mid-1920s when the committee on education of the international board of [optometry] boards rated optometry schools and it continued to offer correspondence courses for more than a decade after a conference on standards in optometric education recommended that no credit or diplomas be given for correspondence courses. references 1. who was who in america, a companion volume to who's who in america, vol. 1. chicago: a.n. marquis co., 1942. 2. information sheets, christian henry brown biographical folder, alumni records collection, university of pennsylvania archives. 3. http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?31,478304.last accessed september 28, 2010. 4. walk jw. a sketch of the members of the class of 1878 medical department of the university of pa. read at the decennial reunion of the class, philadelphia, may 1, 1988;5. 5. 1920 united states federal census for philadelphia, pennsylvania. 6. anonymous. three new members added to the faculty of the philadelphia optical college. opt j rev optom 1916;37;1505. 7. anonymous. philadelphia alumni give notable banquetspeeches by dilworth, moore, hagerty, haussmann and others. opt j rev optom 1917;39:14191421. 8. haussman og. a tribute to the late dr. c. h. brown, pioneer educator in optometry. opt j rev optom 1934;71 (2):30. 9. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:296. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 120 10. anonymous. philadelphia optical college notes. opt j 1908;21 :261. 11. anonymous. philadelphia optical college personals. opt j rev optom 1915;35:852. 12. brown ch. [scrapbook containing clippings of advertisements and brochures for optometric courses and services, 1890-1931]. microfilm held by indiana university optometry library. 13. anonymous. philadelphia optical college personals. opt j rev optom 1914;33:1 058. 14. anonymous. philadelphia optical college personals. opt j rev optom 1914;34:117. 15. anonymous. philadelphia optical college notes. opt j rev optom 1914;34:584. 16. anonymous. philadelphia optical college personals. opt j rev optom 1914;34:943. 17. anonymous. philadelphia optical college notes. opt j rev optom 1915;35:1362. 18. anonymous. school notesphiladelphia optical college. opt j rev optom 1916;38:548. 19. christensen jl. the first conference to establish optometric standards. optom vis sci 1996;73:428-434. 20. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:298. 21. blue book of optometrists, 13th ed. chicago: professional press, 1936:32. 22. hofstetter hw. an early correspondence course. newsletter optom hist soc 1984;15:33-36. 23. brown ch. the optician's manual: a treatise on the science and practice of optometry, vol. i. philadelphia: keystone, 1908:195. 24. goss da, penisten ok. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight: newsletter optom hist soc 2004;35:36-40. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 121 the first yearlong optometric residency education program irwin suchoff, o.d., d.o.s. emeritus distinguished service professor, state university of new york, state college of optometry, new york, new york; 3201 chippewa run, kennesaw, ga 30152; idrga@aol.com three institutions were involved in the initiation of the first year-long optometric residency. the columbia university's optometry program had been in existence since 1910, but admitted its last class in 1953. its demise was the result of actions by the university's medical faculty and administration, with the support of organized medicine. a small group of optometrists and benefactors were unwilling to let the rich history of optometric education in new york cease. consequently, they founded the optometric center of new york (ocny) in 1956 as a non-profit health and educational institution. in 1957 dr. a.n. haffner was appointed executive director of the ocny. he was a 1952 graduate of the pennsylvania college of optometry (pco) and had completed service as an optometric army officer in 1955. over the next several years he identified and recruited a number of optometrists who formed the ocny's clinical staff. the uniqueness was that virtually all of the staff were in full time private practice, with the average time of service at ocny being one day per week. some spent the day in the general optometry clinic, while others staffed the emerging specialty clinics, such as: vision therapy, developmental vision, infants' vision, and contact lenses. suffice it to say that a significant number of optometric leaders came out of the ranks of the ocny staff. by the time i was appointed in 1964, the ocny was an established, vibrant entity serving the community with a dedicated and enthusiastic staff. a key action solidified the ocny's ability to conduct optometric educational programs. the board approved dr. haffner's recommendation to pursue the new york state board of regent's granting an educational charter for research, clinical care and teaching, and it was awarded in 1959. a number of educational programs soon followed. several ocny sponsored symposia were conducted. one of the first was on glaucoma. the presenters were several of the optometric staff, the institution's lone ophthalmologist, in addition to two ophthalmologists who were not staff. this was at a time when diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents were wishful dreams for n.y. optometry. more importantly, several other educational programs were conducted during the 1960s, two of which continued into the next decade. the institution had gained local and national recognition for providing excellent diagnostic and therapeutic care for anomalies of binocular vision and visual information processing. consequently, an agreement was signed with the pennsylvania college of optometry (pco). it specified that the ocny would provide an internship of eight weeks during the summer for rising hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 122 fourth year students. the program was tuition bearing and involved didactic and clinical components. the curriculum stressed vision therapy, but the other clinical services were included. the internship became quite popular, so that a number of other optometric institutions requested that it become available to their students. these particularly included the new england college of optometry, the pacific university college of optometry, the southern college of optometry and the southern california college of optometry. there was also a gradual increase in the number of students from belgium who participated in the internship, along with a sprinkling from other european countries. there were two programs that, while related to the internship, were conducted only once. a federal grant was awarded to the ocny to prepare exiled cuban optometrists for licensure in the u.s. there were similar didactic and clinical curricula for a group of recently graduated south african optometrists. all four of this group eventually obtained american 0.0. degrees, and three went on to attain advanced academic degrees. currently, two are deans at american optometric educational institutions, one is a researcher in visual science, and one has devoted his career to clinical practice in canada. over time, many of those who had completed the internship expressed the desire for a more concentrated program in developmental vision. on this basis, a tuition bearing "residency" was established. the clinical and didactic curricula focused on visual perception and visual information processing. this program was open to those optometrists who had previously completed the ocny's summer internship. in almost all instances, these individuals were those who had just graduated. this program was usually one month longer than the internship. because of the ocny's growing reputation as a community eye and vision care facility, and its successful educational programs, when the new york state legislature created the state university of new york, state college of optometry (suny or the college) in 1971, there was a seasoned clinical and clinically related didactic faculty in place. thus, it was logical that the ocny was absorbed as suny's clinical arm. i was appointed to the founding faculty at a part time basis, and then came on full time in 1973. in the interim dr. haffner designated me as coordinator of both the internship and "residency," in addition to clinical and didactic roles in the professional program. it was a very exciting and energizing time. the battle that dr. haffner led to establish the college had elevated the dedicated and enthusiastic ocny staff to a faculty with various professorial designations. the professional program was being developed and the internship and "residency" programs were running smoothly with an increasing number of applicants each year. over a period of several years many of those optometrists who completed the "residency" had, on exit interview, said that they would have wanted a more extensive program. i formed an ad hoc faculty committee on the "residency" and, at a meeting in the fall of 1973 raised the question of the feasibility of such an action. there was a unanimous vote to proceed. i informed dr. haffner of the recommendation and he was in hearty agreement. he started the process for the university's approval for a year-long residency in vision therapy, and a budget that accounted for four residents' salaries and institutional costs. i began hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 123 planning the recruitment process and the clinical and didactic curricula with the ad hoc committee. the application process required that candidates supply their academic records, their national board of examiners in optometry scores, and letters of recommendation from appropriate faculty. these were to be examined by a residency committee that voted on the candidate's status. during the early winter of 1974 we sent program announcements to the profession's academic institutions, and i made phone calls to faculty i knew at several of them. the announcement also stated that the "residency" would not be continued, but would be replaced by this year-long program (residency). the response exceeded our expectations. the cut off date for completed applications was in the late winter of 197 4, and the residency committee had more work than was anticipated. about 10 applicants were invited to continue to the selection process, and nine appeared for the clinical oral examination and interview in the early spring. the committee took its responsibility perhaps too seriously; some of the members were unwittingly intimidating to the candidates, all of whom had to travel to new york from various parts of the u.s., and didn't know exactly what to expect. the clinical oral examination and interview sub-committees met to vote on each candidate according to pre-arranged guidelines. the selection process was accomplished in a single day that lasted from early morning until late evening. the young optometrists who were invited and accepted to become the first class of the first year-long residency were: dr. stanley appelbaum from the illinois college of optometry dr. harvey estren from the pacific university college of optometry dr. kenneth koslowe from the pennsylvania college of optometry dr. robert sanet from the southern california college of optometry. each of these exceptional people has been a life long colleague and friend of mine. it is telling of the mindsets of some optometric leaders in 1974: when dr. haffner informed his colleagues at the association of schools and colleges of optometry of the establishment of the residency, a number of them expressed skepticism about the need for and feasibility of optometric residencies. they felt there were significant and unnecessary risks. the residency has continued uninterrupted since 197 4, and at this writing 138 optometrists have successfully completed the program, with four in the 2010-2011 cycle. the next year-long residency was established at the kansas city va facility in 1975. it received accreditation by the then council on optometric education (coe) in 1976, and the suny program was accredited in 1977. the impetus for accrediting residencies was at the behest of the va, once the kansas city program was established, and more va optometric residencies were on the planning table. indeed, the remarkable growth of va residencies during the 70s and 80s is a story in itself. the college became the affiliate for several va residencies during this time in addition to a hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 124 non-va hospital residency site, and sponsor for several other residencies. as a result i became what is now known as director of residency education programs, in addition to supervising the vision therapy residency. there was a paucity of residency administrators and i was increasingly asked to serve as consultant to coe teams accrediting residencies and institutions. by the late 1980s the number of the profession's residencies had burgeoned so that the coe made arrangements to add a member with significant residency experience. i was honored to be chosen in 1991, and served the maximum nine years. in essence, the establishment of the vision therapy residency at the college placed me on a wonderful and thoroughly gratifying unique career path as an optometric educator. i was extremely fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. with the exception of several years as dean of the academic program, i served as residency director until my retirement in 2000. notes and acknowledgments in most instances i used approximate times and numbers for the precursor programs of the residency. unfortunately, because the ocny had moved several times and the college likewise moved to three locations, many important historical documents were lost. i also named only those people whom i feel were primary to the establishment of the residency. there are others, too numerous to name, who nevertheless played vital roles. i wish to acknowledge the contributions of drs. haffner and michael heiberger for their recall of events leading to this first year-long optometric residency. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 125 recollections of participation in the first year-long optometric residency program harvey estren, o.d. northport veterans affairs medical center, optometry service, 79 middleville road, northport, ny 11768, hestren01 @aol.com it is the summer of 2010, and my residents are starting their one year rotation with me at the northport veterans affairs medical center (vamc). as we order oct, and hrt, and hvf tests, clinical privileges that are now taken for granted, i smile as i recall my optometric roots. in the winter of 197 4, i was in my fourth year of optometry school at pacific university. the state of optometry was so very different. there were no dpas, or tpas. a single slit lamp was in a room designated as "special testing." timoptic was not yet known and glaucoma was treated with miotics. ocular pathology was a cursory course that consisted of a myriad of items that we were told we really did not need to know. hard contact lenses according to my beloved contact lens professor, don west, made patients "blink like a frog in a hailstorm," and soft contact lenses were just an emerging and unknown entity. the majority of my peers were sitting in a dark room parroting which is better# 1 or# 2. harold haynes taught the most interesting course in my curriculum on binocular vision. i had the privilege of participating in a newly formed clinic. bill ludlam, a transplant to oregon from the optometric center of new york, had started a strabismus clinic at the pacific university college of optometry. i was privileged to participate in this clinical event, and saw him straighten out an eye with some simple procedures, and i had my optometric religious experience. now on a grey day in oregon, (which could have been any or every day), there was a notice on the bulletin board that referred to new york. as a native new yorker, i had learned that "back east" in oregon usually referred to boise, idaho, so seeing a blurb from the real "back east" was something that caught my attention. state university of new york (suny) state college of optometry had announced that they were starting a one year residency in vision therapy. this was a monumental step for optometric education, in that prior residencies were postgraduate courses that one enrolled in for a fee. for the first time in history, optometry was following the medical model of one year post graduate education as a salaried position. after applying, and being accepted, i knew my plans to live in honolulu would be on hold for a year. four applicants, kenneth koslowe from pennsylvania college of optometry, stanley appelbaum from illinois college of optometry, robert sanet from southern hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 126 california college of optometry, and myself from pacific, would be breaking new ground. irwin suchoff had just left full time private practice to "relax and unwind" in the world of academia, as he joined the faculty of the newly emerging suny state college of optometry. we were so privileged to have him as our program supervisor. this caring and gifted optometric educator's concept of "relaxing" was to give 150% to this program and to be both mentor and lifelong friend to not only our group but to all who followed in our path. irwin suchoff is the father of optometric residency programs. if the crown jewel of optometry in the spring of 197 4 was functional vision care i vision therapy, then new york was the place to experience it. the cluster of gifted vision therapy practitioners was exhilarating. suny state college of optometry's clinical arm was the optometric center of new york. this talent pool gave and shared with colleagues and students, and ultimately with the new emerging residents, out of a love of what they did. we worked intimately with giants in the field of vision training. some of the many included irwin suchoff, arnold sherman, martin birnbaum, ira bernstein, nat flax, ai rappaport, myron weinstein, alan cohen, israel greenwald, and carl gruning. they represented national prominence with a local address. on a national level, i had the privilege of meeting a.m. skeffington in his twilight years and interacting both clinically and socially with bob kraskin, gerry getman, and don getz. these interactions were priceless. we rotated through a one of a kind infants vision clinic, under the expert guidance of two giants of developmental vision, elliott forrest and david fitzgerald. friday afternoons were special in that we were treated to weekly seminars on timely topics of functional vision. more often than not, lively discussion continued past working hours at the local watering hole and sometimes continued long into the night. we had the opportunity to visit the offices of the private practitioners with whom we interacted at suny. we saw first hand that those who teach were also successful in the private sector. the bar was set high in that achievements such as fellowship in the american academy of optometry and the college of optometrists in vision development were not lofty goals but a natural progression of professional development. when interviewed for both of these organizations, i sensed that my short but enriched experience might have been nearly equal to that of the examiner. my residency ultimately allowed me to partner with a former president of the new york state optometric association in professional practice. opportunities were evolving in federal service at the veterans administration, and alan cohen invited me to join his newly emerging optometry service at the northport vamc. how would functional vision care, orthoptic therapy, and rehabilitative optometry mesh with the established classical medical model of eye health care? hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 127 i have the privilege of starting my 36th year of private practice, my 36th continuous year involved in optometric education, and my 30th year of federal service as a part time member of the medical staff, where i supervise two orthoptic clinics, and teach a 26 hour didactic graduate level course in orthoptic therapy, to our residents in rehabilitative optometry. rotating professional students visit with us every quarter, from both suny and new england college of optometry. i returned to my native new york with no professional support group. my residency evolved into 36 consecutive years as an optometric educator, and as a private practitioner in professional practice. looking back, there was nothing more dramatic in shaping my professional career than participating in the first residency program. i wish to express my deep affection and gratitude to irwin b. suchoff, and alan cohen, my mentors and my life-long friends. in addition, i wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to norman haffner, the first president of suny state college of optometry. it was through his guidance that i pursued a career in optometry. in addition, it was through both his vision and his dogmatic determination that the framework for my professional career was formulated, first through the creation of the optometric center of new york, then through the creation of the suny state college of optometry, and finally through the creation of the first optometric residency program in the country. hundreds and hundreds of optometric residents, most of whom do not know or share our history, are indebted to dr. haffner. i start my 36th year with the same enthusiasm in functional vision, clinical teaching and patient care, that i had that very first day of my residency program. my only regret is that i never made it back to honolulu. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 128 one hundred years ago: start of the optometry school at columbia university david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract an optometry school at columbia university entered its first students in 1910. this was the first optometry school at a university. this article examines what was said in optometry periodicals of 1910 and 1911 about this significant development. key words: optometric education, optometry history, optometry schools. the state of new york passed its first optometry licensure law in 1908.1•2 the law stated that applicants to the board should have graduated from an optometry school that maintained satisfactory standards.3 it appears that those standards were mandated by the new york department of education.3 the standards established were two academic years in the study of trigonometry, physics, theoretic and physiological optics, anatomy and physiology of the eye, practical optics, theoretic and practical optometry, and pathological conditions of the eye.3 with these requirements and the closing of the new york institute of optometry, a two year optometry school, there was the recognition of the need for an optometry school at a university.4 the rochester school of optometry was operating at this time, but apparently it was thought that its efforts would not be sufficient. in the spring of 1910, it was announced that optometry courses would be started at columbia university in september of that year.5 this was a significant step in the history of optometry, as this was the first time that an optometry school was to be conducted at a university. curriculum and instruction was placed in the hands of the columbia university department of physics, and its administration was under the control of the extension teaching department.6 admissions requirements were the completion of at least two years of high school and being at least nineteen years of age. students who had finished high school and who completed the full two years of optometry school were to receive a certificate from the columbia university board of extension teaching.5 the tuition was $5 per point, a point being one hour of class or lecture per week or two hours of laboratory per week in a semester. this resulted in tuition of $75 for the first term of the first year and $85 for the second term of the first year.5 the courses in the initial curriculum were as follows: hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 129 first year, first term: plane trigonometry, general physics, theoretic optics, physiologic optics, anatomy and physiology of the eye. first year, second term: general physics, theoretic optics, practical optics, physiologic optics, theoretic optometry. second year, first term: theoretic optics, physiologic optics, practical optics, theoretic optometry, pathologic conditions of the eye, practical optometry. second year, second term: theoretic optics, physiologic optics, practical optics, theoretic optometry, practical optometry. 5·7 optometrists taught courses in theoretic and practical optometry (andrew jay cross, with some lectures in theoretic optometry by charles prentice) and in practical optics (frederick woll). courses in theoretic optics were taught by assistant in physics w.w. stifler. physiologic optics was taught by professor of physics william hallock.7 hallock was head of the department of physics at columbia.5 louis r. welzmiller, m.d., was the instructor for the course in pathological conditions of the eye.7 textbooks for theoretic optometry included principles of refraction in the human eye, by burnett; system of ocular skiametry, by cross; ophthalmic lenses, by prentice; and the refractive and motor mechanism of the eye, by souter.7 when columbia university first announced the optometry program, it stipulated that the courses would be offered only if a minimum of twelve students enrolled. 8 there were 21 students taking the course in the fall of 1910. they were from the following states: new york, 1 0; new jersey, 2; ohio, 2; pennsylvania, 2; indiana, 1; massachusetts, 1; michigan, 1; missouri, 1; not given, 1.9 there was at least one female student, because the name of the secretary of the student organization was listed in the optical journal and review of optometry as mrs. rove j. crystal.9 during the first year, the first term was to run from september 28, 1910 to february 7, 1911, and the second term from february 8, 1911 to may 20, 1911. a loan of practical optics equipment from the standard optical company of geneva, new york was announced before the first classes began.5 donations of apparatus were made by f.a. hardy & co., the optical society of the state of new york, the optometric society of central new york; the optometric society of city of buffalo; the o~tometric society of city of rochester, and the optometric society of city of new york. 1 an appreciative letter from the students in the first optometry class addressed to a.j. cross, c. f. prentice, and w.h. hallock was published in the optical journal and review of optometry in december of 1910. it stated: "the members constituting the first class in optometry in the history of columbia university organized as the columbia university optometry association beg to extend their thanks and grateful appreciation for the invaluable services you have rendered in behalf of the profession; for your indefatigable efforts and final success in having secured for optometry state legislation; for your influence with columbia university in having that institution establish a course in optometry; for the inestimable assistance and advice you have tendered the organization as a body and to the members individually; for the deep and almost hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 130 personal interest you manifest toward us at all times; we beg to remain, with our united wishes for a merry christmas and a happy new year."11 in 1911, the optical journal and review of optometry announced that a.j. cross began his lectures in the theoretic optometry class on february 9. also in attendance was charles prentice. cross started his lecture with a review of some important steps in the history of optics. he included the scientific contributions of prentice and prentice's efforts for the legal recognition of optometry. prentice in turn praised cross for his work on dynamic retinoscopy and emphasized that it would assume greater significance in the future practice of optometry.12 in april of 1911, the president of the optometry student organization at columbia, harold w. eames, wrote a letter to the optical journal and review of optometry. 13 he stated: "next september columbia university's optometry course will begin its second year. knowing the interest manifested in the course throughout the country, a word from the students' point of view may be opportune. "the students themselves realize now what opposition was experienced in placing optometry in its proper department, that of physics, rather than in the department of medicine, and also what a tremendous opportunity this course presents. "here, instead of looking up answers to questions in text-books for three or six months, thereby receiving several elaborate diplomas calculated to impress the public eye, the student is given a thorough course in all subjects which relate to the eye and its dioptric functions .... "the question is asked, 'why take two years when a three months' course is good enough?' there is just the point. is it 'good enough?' "glance back over the past few years and note the strides which optometry has made. the fact that 25 states now have optometry laws proves that a higher degree of proficiency is demanded than could be vouchsafed by the three months' course .... "in realizing that a university course of instruction is necessary, the public will soon have a higher regard for the optometrist and will naturally give him the preference over oculists in the examination of eyes for glasses .... "13 there were 21 new students which entered the optometry program at columbia in the fall of 1911. those students were from: new york, 11; massachusetts, 4; colorado, 1; michigan, 1; new jersey, 1; north carolina, 1; rhode island, 1; and england, 1.14 comments the founding of the optometry program at columbia university in 1910 was a significant step for optometry. a 1910 editorial in the optical journal and review of optometry said: "now that columbia university is to give a course in optometry, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 131 optometrists of those states which are not near to the site of this institution are discussin~ the need of getting the universities of their localities to put in a similar course."1 the next university to start an optometry school was the ohio state university (1914). 16 the optometry school at columbia university continued to operate for over four decades. among 12,534 practicing optometrists surveyed in 1944 by the american optometric association, 524 were graduates of columbia university, the fifth highest number of graduates among optometry schools. 17 references 1. arrington ee. history of optometry. chicago: white printing house, 1929:27. 2. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:39. 3. cross aj. higher education in optometrya plea for appreciation and co­ operation. optical j 1909;25:82-85. 4. ryer el. some of the effects of the n.y. optometry law. optical j 191 0;25:256-260. 5. prentice cf. optometry in columbia university, new york. optical j 1910;25:857-861. 6. southall jpc. courses in optics and optometry in columbia university. j opt soc am 1921;5:184-192. 7. anonymous. columbia university issues prospectus of optometry course. optical j rev optom 1911 ;28:327-328. 8. anonymous. columbia opens doors to optometrists. optical j rev optom 191 0;26:69. 9. anonymous. class of optometry students at columbia university organize an association and elect officers. optical j rev optom 191 0;26: 1229. 10. anonymous. columbia optometry class well outfitted. optical j rev optom 1911 ;28:982. 11. crystal rj. optometry class at columbia university express appreciation of the course. optical j rev optom 1911;26:1589. 12. anonymous. lectures in theoretic optometry begun at columbia university by prof. a. jay cross. optical j rev optom 1911 ;27:478. 13. eames hw. columbia students on work of first year in the optometry course. optical j rev optom 1911 ;27:929. 14. anonymous. names of members of the new class at columbia university. optical j rev optom 1911 ;28:87 4. 15. anonymous. optometry courses in universities. optical j rev optom 191 0;26:517. 16. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:310. 17. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:296. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 132 ohs news optometric historical society affiliated with optometric caresthe aoa foundation 243 north lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 34231 tel: 800/365 2219 ext. 4138 date: october 5, 201 0 to: members of the optometric historical society from: irving bennett, o.d., faao, president this is the annual "report" on our small, but visible and viable, group of people and institutions that want to keep optometric history from fading into oblivion. we have been successful for the past 41 years and there is no reason why we cannot continue to do so. there have been some changes, however: reminisce-in at academy meeting: last november we revived the reminisce­ in meeting that was started decades ago. it was a big success -the room was full of interested listeners and it was necessary to interrupt the lecture twice to bring in more chairs. we shall be doing another reminisce-in on friday, november 19th in san francisco at the american academy of optometry's annual meeting. the speaker will be dr. alden n. haffner, former president of the suny college of optometry and currently a member of the ohs board of directors. his topic will be both exciting and stimulating: "the ups and downs of optometry's relationship with organized medicine and organized ophthalmology." the reminisce-in will start at 10 am in the telegraph hill room in the intercontinental hotel. guests are welcome. relationship with optometry cares: last year i reported that we were "negotiating" with the aoa foundation to take our organization under its umbrella. a "memorandum of understanding" was signed and for the past year we have been part of optometry cares -the aoa foundation. the administrative director of that foundation is ms. shannon torbett and she can be reached at the address and phone number on this letterhead. this foundation is in charge of the archives and museum of optometry, so our group is a natural fit. hindsight and historical gems: we are in our 41st year of publishing the quarterly periodical. hindsight. it is edited by david goss, od, phd of the indiana university school of optometry, where dr. goss serves as a member of the fac~lty. the e-mail historical gem series is edited by irving bennett, od, the ohs president, and is distributed to all those on the e-mail mailing list of the american optometric association. both publications of ohs are well received. your comments on them and contributions for them are solicited. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 133 transfusion needed: that may be a little harsh of a headline because ohs is surely not on life support. it is only fair to say that the founders of the society never dreamt it would be a large organization in number of members. we continue to attract those interested in history, particularly history of optometry, optics and the optical and ophthalmic field. we respectfully ask that you encourage those you know who are optometric history buffs to join, particularly those who are still in practice or still working. please write to me with your suggestions at irvbennett23@gmail.com. another reminisce-in at aoa: several members have suggested that we have a reminisce-in at optometry's meeting, the annual meeting of the american optometric association. the attendance at aoa and academy meetings is quite different so we are taking this suggestion seriously and working with the proper leaders to schedule a reminisce-in at the meeting in salt lake city, june 2011. best personal regards. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 134 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: shannon reynolds torbett, mhp c/o optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, floor 1 st. louis, mo 63141 check one: __ regular membership, $25 per year __ patron membership, $50 per year __ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ----------------------------------------------------------address ______________________________________________________ _ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. the board of directors of optometry's caresthe aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2010, volume 41, number 4, page 135 nov j 5 2010 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as 11 for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 20 i 0, volume 41, number 4, page 136 2010-41-04-001 2010-41-04-002 2010-41-04-003 2010-41-04-004 2010-41-04-005 2010-41-04-006 2010-41-04-007 2010-41-04-008 2010-41-04-009 2010-41-04-010 2010-41-04-011 2010-41-04-012 2010-41-04-013 2010-41-04-014 2010-41-04-015 2010-41-04-016 2010-41-04-017 2010-41-04-018 2010-41-04-019 2010-41-04-020 2010-41-04-021 2010-41-04-022 2010-41-04-023 2010-41-04-024 2010-41-04-025 2010-41-04-026 2010-41-04-027 2010-41-04-028 2010-41-04-029 2010-41-04-030 2010-41-04-031 2010-41-04-032 2010-41-04-033 2010-41-04-034 hindsight_54_2_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 35 editorial lawrence baitch, o.d., phd letter to the editor i greatly enjoyed the review of israel dvorine’s autobiography by lynn brandes. israel was a family friend and one of the key people inspiring me to seek a career in the optometric profession. in addition to his book that lynn reviewed, israel gave me a signed copy of analytical refraction and orthoptics, which he first published in 1939 and which went through six printings before its last publication in 1948. i also own a dvorine pseudoisochromatic color test, which the civil aeronautics administration and armed services material coordination committee asked dr. dvorine to develop for testing of pilots. in addition to the pseudoisochromatic plates, one of its unique features is a color wheel that can be rotated to individually display circles of color that the patient must identify by name. the color wheel is two-sided, with regular colors on one side and desaturated colors on the reverse. personal bias aside, i have always found the dvorine color test to be more sensitive than the ishihara pseudoisochromatic color test and use it to this day (with scrupulous protection of the pigments) here in our clinic at the mcphs university school of optometry. i am sending an image of the photo from dr. dvorine’s book that he signed for me after i told him i was accepted into optometry school. i don’t have a copy of the dvorine animated fusion training charts, but i’m always on the lookout for them. thanks again for bringing this important pioneer in optometry (and all-around wonderful person) to our profession’s attention. israel dvorine lawrence baitch, o.d., phd larry.baitch@mcphs.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v54i2.37206 newsletter of the optometric hisxorical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, u. s. a. volume 5 january 1974 election report: unwittingly we neglected to enclose a ballot with the october issue for the election of a member to the executive board for the term beginning now to expire december 31, 1978. also unwittingly, nobody called our attention to the error! so, the best we can do is enclose the ballot with this issue and ask all of you to respond promptly. this time we have a contest. three have been duly nominated, and all three are charter members who contribute regularly. directory~ current members: abel, charles a., o.d. 605 villa monte monterey park, ca 91754 abram, morton l., county court judge bro~..rard county courthouse fort lauderdale, florida 33301 abrams, j.j., o.d. 4516 west washington street indianapolis, indiana 46241 alegria, dr. ricardo e., director ejectivo instituto de cultura puertorriquena apartado 4184 san juan, puerto rico 00905 alexander, e.b., o.d. optometric extension program foundation, inc. duncan, oklahoma 73533 arteaga, dr. antonio country club shopping plaza country club carolina, puerto rico 00630 babcock, mrs. joseph m. 3130 south dorchester rd. columbus, ohio 43221 -cont'dbaldwin, dr. william r., president massachusetts college of optometry 424 beacon street boston massachusetts 02115 barker, felix m., ii, o.d. 1925 greenwyche avenue columbia, sc 29210 bennett, irving, o.d. 1316 sixth avenue beaver falls, pa 15010 berman, marvin r., o.d. p.o. box 15, foxwood dover, delaware 19901 brewer, bruce j., o.d. 535 east 1st south 118 salt lake city, utah 84102 burgess, stanley, o.d. 44 e. shirley street mount union, pennsylvania 17066 bursua, r.g., o.d. 300 n. market street, suite no. 2 marion, illinois 62959 canales, dr. angel diaz m-204 villa caparra bayamon, puerto rico 00619 caplan, lester, o.d. 6660 security blvd. baltimore, md 21207 chang, mr. t.c. 929/7 king's road hong kong, china cline, david, o.d. 4943 calderon road woodland hills, ca 91364 colorado optometric association 410 metropolitan bldg. denver, colorado 80202 dablemont, earl r. route 2, box 164aa rolla, mo 65401 dablemont, maria (mrs.) 7009 weil avenue apt. 210 st. louis, mo 63119 daubs, jack, o.d., m.p.h. 173 central avenue milton, massachusetts 02187 day, robert e., o.d. 3034 broadway garland, texas 75040 degrave, lue (mrs.) librarian bausch & lomb, inc. 635 st. paul street rochester, new york 14602 demler, james, o.d. fort gulick, canal zone p.o. #572 apo new york 09837 dupuis, sylvio, o.d. 434 hevey street manchester, new hampshire 03102 egan, mrs.elizabeth 600 s. woodlawn avenue bloomington, in 47401 engelmann, otto r., o.d. apt. l-3 2800 indian river blvd. vero beach, florida 32960 -2eure, dr. spurgeon b., president southern college of optometry 1246 madison avenue memphis, tennessee 38104 ewalt, h. ward, o.d. 8002 jenkins arcade bldg. pittsburgh, pa 15221 finkleman, e.m., o.d. kensington building 275 portage avenue winnipeg, manitoba, canada fisher, professor e.j., director university of waterloo school of optometry faculty of science waterloo, ontario, canada francioli, rudy 10 avenue de lausanne 1800 vevey, switzerland frescura, ugo (faao) 225 corso alfieri 14100 asti, italy garcia-margarida, luis, o.d. box 9533 santurce, puerto rico gathercole, f.h., o.d. 403 main street 00908 fitchburg, massachusetts 01420 grattan, paule,, o.d. 60 third street waterford, new york 12188 gregg, james r. 5930 south croft avenue los angeles, california 90056 guenveur, r.l., o.d. 310 south 5th street mt. horeb, wisconsin 53572 haffner, leon, o.d. 1015 fayette drive fort wayne, in 46806 hale, j.r., o.d. 515 6th street sunnyside, washington 98944 -cont'dheather, william j., o.d. 105 george muck drive kerrville south, texas 78208 hern~ndez, dr. roberto 1207 rafael arcelay street urbanizaci6n club manor rio piedras, puerto rico 00924 hirsch, monroe j., ph.d., dean university of california school of optometry berkeley, california 94720 hoefert, karl 0., o.d. 110 e. florence blvd. casa grande, arizona 85222 hoffmann, william n., o.d. 2101 n. edward street decatur, illinois 62526 hofstetter, h.w., o.d. indiana university optometry building bloomington, indiana 47401 hopping, richard l., o.d. -3southern california college of opt. 2001 associated road fullerton, california 92631 howard, j.d., o.d. 18771 south cicero avenue country club hills, illinois 60477 hunt, earl j., o.d. 226 ohio street johnstown, pa 15902 hummel, d.g., o.d. 7029 royalton road north royalton, ohio 44133 hussey, lester r., o.d. suite 222, rookery building spokane, washington 99201 janies, edmund g., o.d. 126 north locust centralia, illinois 62801 jenner, horace h., o.d. 53 e. walnut street frankfort, in 46401 -cont'dkahn, howard d., o.d. 1547 laskin road laskin road office center virginia beach, va 23451 kerff, joseph 40 rue de la montagne eupen, belgium kleinstein, r.n., o.d. 844 gooding drive albany, california 94708 knoll, henry a., ph.d. bausch & lomb rochester, new york 14602 kockelbergh, aime (ph.d.) 22 kardinaal mercier plein sint nikklaas, belgium koetting, felix a., o.d. 2730 watson road st. louis, mo 63139 kohn, harold (mrs.) 130 w. 42nd street new york, new york 10036 kraft, charles b., o.d. box 1 norton, kansas 67654 leeds, james p., o.d. 3954 c meadows drive indianapolis, in 46205 levene, john r., d.phil. indiana university division of optometry bloomington, in 47401 marg, elwin, ph.d. university of california school of optometry berkeley, ca 94705 mauney, m.c., o.d. southern college of optometry 1245 madison avenue memphis, tennessee 38104 mcconnie, ralph, o.d. concordia esquina jobos ponce, puerto rico 00732 mcmaster, robert w. 7 columbus avenue southbridge, massachusetts 01550 meneghini, angelo d., o.d. 524 ohio street terre haute, in 47801 -4edward g. miner library university~rochester medical center 260 crittenden blvd. rochester, new york 14n20 mitchell, margaret (miss), librarian british optical association 65 brook street london wly 2dt, england mohamed, dr. abdulsultan h. box 90582 mombasa, kenya east africa mohamed, dr. alnoor hassanali box 2942 dares-salaam, tanzania east africa mohamed, dr. shahnawaz box 90582 mombasa, kenya east africa mohme, susan (mrs.) 1024 zamora drive pacifica, california 94044 escole d'optometrie universite de montreal c.p. 6128, montreal 101 canada morales, dr. porfirio pharmacist and optometrist box 1224 mayaguez, puerto rico 00708 morewitz, bernard a., o.d. 130 30th street, vision bldg. newport news, virginia 23607 morgan, meredith w., ph.d. school of optometry university of california berkeley, california 94720 -cont'dmorris, ruth p., o.d. 3539 glendale avenue toledo, ohio morris, warren g., o.d. 3539 glendale avenue toledo, ohio 43614 mrozinski, b. optometrysta bydgoszcz 1, al 1-go maja 11 poland myers raymond, o.d. bausch & lomb co. rochester, new york 14602 library state college of optometry state university of new york 122 e. 25th street new york, new york 10010 obremskey, michael j., o.d. heritage mall professional center 7893 heritage drive annandale, virginia 22003 the ohio state university libraries serial division 1858 neil avenue columbus, ohio 43210 olsen, olee j., o.d. 6042 the plaza charlotte, n.c. 28205 oppenheimer, stephen m., o.d. 1501 e. 19lst street, #342-j euclid, ohio 44117 ortiz, luis a., o.d. box 128 bayamon, puerto rico orzack, louis h., ph.d. 7 bunny circle newton, ma 02158 pacheco antonio, dr. p.o. box 10223 santurce, puerto rico 00908 pacheco, mr. antonio, jr. l-16 villa caparra, puerto rico 00619 pacheco, ramon, o.d. de diego avenue 365 parada 22 santurce, puerto rico 00909 pacheco, mr. ram6n lopez landron street 1550 santurce, puerto rico 00909 pacheco, mr. sixto -5pennsylvania college of optometry 1200 west godfrey avenue philadelphia, pennsylvania 19141 pacheco, dr. sixto ponce de leon avenue 1012 rio piedras, puerto rico 00925 pacheco, mr. sixto jr. 801 e. hunter, apt. 9 bloomington, indiana 47401 padman, dr. e.l. 47 brisbane street launceston, tasmania australia 7250 parks, b.b., o.d. 904 pendleton street greenville, s. carolina 29601 parnigoni, richard, o.d. professional arts bldg. 85 washington street barre, vermont 05641 library pennsylvania college of optometry 6100 n. twelfth street philadelphia, pa 19141 pheiffer, chester h., o.d., ph.d. 4702 rockwood drive houston, texas 77004 ratanasirintrawoot, premvadee, o.d. 925 mahachai road bangkok 2, thailand reed, dr., o.d. 912 michigan avenue la porte, in 46350 -cont'drevell, m.j. (mr.) "brandon hall fen lane bulphan, apminster, essex england roosen, g~rard institut et centre d'optometrie 134 route de chartres f 91-440 bures-sur-yvette france schugar, richard e. 6060 crescentville road apartment east d-5 philadelphia, pa 19120 schumann, william p., o.d. 735 pear street vineland, new jersey 08360 seger, charles e., o.d. 1407 garden street san luis obispo, california 93401 shaneson, elias, o.d. 2016 genesee street buffalo, new york 14211 shearer, c. wayne, o.d. 306 ashland terrace chattanooga, tennessee 37415 shetty, dr. n.b. 7-e, gunbow street fort, "bombay india southern college of optometry library 1245 madison avenue memphis, tennessee 38104 staiman, jacob, o.d. 101 h. monument st., 116-k baltimore, maryland 21201 studebaker, david m., o.d. 1674 limestone st. springfield, ohio 45503 super, selwyn, o.d. p.o. box 15 johannesburg, south africa tannebaum, sol, o.d. 5 plaza-medical arts bldg. park forest, il 60466 terry, jack the ohio state university college of optometry 338 west loth avenue columbus, or 43210 thiriart, jean 52 avenue louise 1050 bruxelles, belgium torrence, m.d., o.d. 20 east 1st hutchinson, kansas 67501 tumblin, j.c., o.d. 5319 broadway, n.e. knoxville, tennessee 37918 verma, satya b., d.r.opt. 1100 w. godfrey avenue, #106 philadelphia, pa 19141 vito, david a., o.d. 91 weybosset street providence, rhode island 02903 vodnoy, bernard e., o.d. 316 south eddy street south bend, in 46617 wallis, norman e., o.d., ph.d. pennsylvania college of optometry 1200 west godfrey philadelphia, pa 19141 watkins, bernard, o.d. culver lake branchville, n.j. 07826 weber, j.m., o.d. 1420 greenwood avenue trenton, n.j. 08609 sorry, alphabetically misplaced: gorbea, jorge, o.d. p.o. box 695 san juan, puerto rico 00902 -6weiner, grace (mrs.) university of alabama in birmingham school of optometry/the medical center 1919 seventh avenue, south birmingham, alabama 35233 weinstein, minerva h., o.d. 1504 sheridan avenue bronx, ny 10457 welch, lester d., o.d. 3784 mowry avenue fremont california 94538 wey, john j., o.d. 305 parkdale drive venice, florida 33595 wheelock, a.p., o.d. 6479 sunset terrace des moines, iowa 50311 wolfberg, melvin d., o.d. 98 n. broad street selinsgrove, pa 17870 wolff, j. o.d. s. 2623 arthur street spokane, washington 99203 woo, g., o.d., ph.d. faculty of science school of optometry university of waterloo waterloo, ontario, canada n2l 3gl wood, dr. e.m. university of waterloo school of optometry waterloo, ontario, canada n2l 3gl hubartt, r.j., jr., o.d. 1750 east commercial blvd. suite 115 fort lauderdale, florida 33308 -7hunt scores again: the second $100 canceled check of o.h.s. member earl j. hunt, o.d., has been forwarded to the american optometric association museum for display alongside the canceled check for his earlier $100 contribution, the first in memory of his mother and the second in memory of his father. incidentally, dr. hunt enclosed a little blue o.h.s. membership invitation slip with each of his holiday greeting cards this year. revell brings patents: o.h.s. member m.j. revell dropped by in december on his return to england from the american academy of optometry meetings in san francisco to say hello, to experience one of the severest snowstorms in hoosier history, and to deliver copies of the following british patent specifications of optometric historical interest: no. 388,200: a new and improved apparatus for developing the sense of vision, and improving the muscle balance of the eyes. the applicant was ernest reynolds maddox, and the date of acceptance was february 23, 1931. no. 354,9<)9: (patent summary): eye-exercising apparatus, by j.r. howard and o,p. raphael, july 30, 1930. no. 355,626: (patent summary): appliances for ocular exercise, by elliott optical co., ltd. and w. green, december 24, 1930. these copies have been forwarded to the library of the american optometric association. prolonged occlusion ey incarceration: a local friend and neighbor, mrs. john b. patton, called my attention to an interesting late 17th century account of squint elimination by a long period of solitary confinement, as follows: "the rev. father ephraim when entering the inquisition was searched, hut there were only found, in the pocket which these monks have sewn to their cloaks in the middle of the back, a comb, an inkhorn, and some pocket handkerchiefs. the searchers forgot that the capuchins have also a small receptacle in the mantle under the armpit, where some small requisites are carried, and father ephraim was not searched in that direction. this left him four or five lead pencils which are covered with wood lest they should be broken, and as the pencil is used you pare off the wood. these pencils afforded a resource whereby father ephraim was less wearied during his imprisonment than he otherwise would have been, and that, squint-eyed as he was, he went out with a vision in which there -8appeared to be scarcely any defect. it is the custom in the inquisition to ask the prisoners every morning what they wish to eat that day, and it is then supplied them. the haltese cared for little besides tobacco, and he asked for it at morning, noon, and night, which were the times when food was taken to them. thi$ tobacco was all cut and packed in white oaper nearly of the size of a quarter of a page, for throughout all the east tobacco in powder, and all drugs and other wares which can be so treated, are wrapped in white paper; this tends to the profit of the seller, who weighs the paper and the goods together. this is the reason why so much paper is used in asia, and it is the principal article of trade of the people of provence, who export theirs even to persia. i make these remarks in reference to father ephraim, who carefully collected all these pieces of white paper in which the tobacco brought to the maltese was packed, and it was upon them he wrote with his pencil his daily thoughts in prison. this was partly the cause that his sight lost much of its natural defect, and when i beheld him again i had at first some difficulty in believing that he was the same father ephraim who had been much squint-eyed previously, as he appeared to he so no longer. the cell where he was confined had for sole window a hole 6 inches square, with bars of iron, and this hole was so placed that when father ephraim wished to write he could only have light on the side opposite to that where he ordinarily directed his sight; and so it was that by degrees it became right; thus he derived from this fact some advantage during his imprisonment." this account is taken from travels in india by jean-baptiste tavernier, translated from the original french edition of 1676 hy v. ball, second edition edited hy william crooke, vol. 1, oxford university press, london, 1925. ophthalmologist turned artist: the recently received unicef (united nations children's fund) greeting card catalog includes a card illustrated by a scene entitled "farmyard gathering" hy paps. the artist "paps" was, according to the description, a "noted german eye specialist haldemar rusche" who "began painting at age 70 when he retired as chief of the bremen hospital eve clinic." dr. rusche was a member of the deutsche ophthalmologische gesellschaft. he died in 1965. this interesting tidbit was sent to me by hr. thomas e. eichhorst, a frequent contributor to the o.h.s. hunt corrects hopping: in a letter dated november 6, o.h.s. member earl j. hunt, o.d., wrote: "received the optometric historical society newsletter yesterday and read it last evening. i always greatly enjoy -9reading it. would like to pass on some information for the next issue. on page 52 cross memorial tree revisited: 'another memorial is for a man named pinchot who, i believe, was a former governor of california.' "this should be corrected. gifford pinchot, 1865-1946, was an american forester and public official. he served in the division of forestry, united states department of agriculture (1898-1910). he was a member of many conservation commissions. he has the distinction of being the only governor of pennsylvania to have served two terms (1923-1927, ]qjl-1935). a pennsylvania governor could not succeed himself until just recently. gifford pinchot has done much for forestry and conservation of our natural resources both in pennsylvania and the united states." as an m.d. remembered it: the september 1973 issue of the indiana magazine of history, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 193-273 featured an article by my friend the late philip todd holland, m.d., entitled "i remember it this way", in which he reminisced on early bloomington, indiana, beginning about 1910 when he was five years old, at which time bloomington had a population of 8,838. he described the office of his father and grandfather holland, both of whom were medical doctors, as follows. "dr. philip and dr. frank holland had their office listed as drs. holland & holland in a frame building with a railed porch around the front of it and in the south two rooms of this building an optician by the name of dr. luck fitted and ground glasses and made up spectacles for people. on sunday he preached at the old campbellite church which was way out on north indiana above loth street at that time. dr. luck was a small man who was dark complexioned and very studious in his appearance and industrious about his work and it was always fascinating to watch the machinery that he had to grind the glass into the lenses that he was making. this he did in the back room of the two rooms which he occupled. drs. holland occupled the rest of the office . . . " later in the artlcle dr. phillp todd holland commented, "in 1908 approximately, the town decided that rloomlngton needed a new post office bullding so they condemned and took over the land from the alley between 6th and 7th up to 7th and college on the east slde of the street. this was, of course, where my father and grandfather's office was and also the office of dr. luck, the optician, whom i mentioned earlier." an editor's footnote confirms the fact that "william l. luck, optician, was for a number of years pastor of the university park christian chapel located on eleventh street at the northeast corner of indiana avenue." the 1912 blue rook of optometrists and opticians listed dr. luck as a graduate of the northern illinois college of optometry in 1900. -10the autographed guilt: when i made a visit to winnipeg, manitoba, canada, in 1951 mrs. e.i. cummings, whose husband was the secretary-treasurer of the local optometric society, was doing some unique needlework on a huge piece of tapestry or quilt. she solicited signatures of optometric visitors on the cloth and then she would weave each signature into the cloth with fine thread of contrasting color. as i recall she had the signatures of charles sheard, ernest petry, ivan nott, and many other dignitaries on it. need­ less to say i felt very honored to be asked to sign it too. dr. and mrs. cummings have since passed to their reward. about a year and a half ago i happened to recall this bit of optometricana and wondered what had became of it. i wrote an inquiry to a long time friend of mine, emanuel m. finkleman, o.d., who practices in winnipeg. luckily he had just been asked to write the history of the manitoba optometric society so his interest was sparked by more than ordinary curiosity, as he too did not know what had become of it. he immediately prepared a letter of inquiry to go to the entire society membership. (he also joined the optometric historical society!) in september, 1973, more than a year late~ he wrote me as follows: "with regard to the quilt which you mentioned in your letter of july 17, 1972, we located the quilt and had it on display at the canadian optometric convention which was held in winnipeg in july. we feel that the historical value of this quilt is such that we should preserve it in some form or other. it is our intention at the moment to make it available to the joint meeting of the canadian association of optometrists and the american optometric association when we meet jntoronto in 1977. if you think it would be desirable to have it on display at any other convention, please let me know and i am sure we can accommodate you.'' at present the quilt is in the office of donald c. small, o.d., 401 boyd building, 388 portage avenue, winnipeg, manitoba, canada. second reminisce-in scheduled: wednesday afternoon, 2:30 to 4:30, june 19, 1974, is the time of the second o.h.s. reminisce-in during the american optometric congress in washington, d.c. otherwise wednesday is family time for the congress, so there will be a minimum of conflicting activities. dr. spurgeon eure has made the arrangements for this delightful two-hour informal get-together when any and all of us can spin our tales of optometric events as we saw them. memorials down under: a reading of the thirty-second annual report & balance sheet (for 1972) of the victorian college of optometry, university of melbourne, carlton, victoria, australi.a, disclosed the following memorials to optometrists: the howard ~bell prize, the lewis r. -11£lade prize, and the nathan library. an inquiry to professor b.l. cole, director of the college, brought the following informat.ion: "the howard s. bell prize commemorates an optometrist of that name who was prominent in optometric affairs in the 1920's and 1930's. the prize was first awarded in 1948. "lewis r. slade is an optometrist, now deceased, and the prize is donated by his son, also an optometrist, f.r. slade. "the nathan library is so named to commemorate the contributions made by bertram nathan, an optometrist, first chairman of the opticians registration board 1936-1945 and councillor of the victorian (originally the australian) college of optometry 1946-48 and 1955-s7. during the second period he was honorary treasurer to council. the naming of the library also commemorates the contribution of his son john nathan, a1so an optometrist, who was the first diplomate of the college and who has held the offices in the college of clinic director and director of studies and is currently the president of the college. the plaque in the library reads 'this library is named the nathan library (incorporating the victorian optical association memorial library) in appreciation of the long and devoted service given to the college by mr. bertrant nathan as councillor and treasurer and by mr. john nathan as director of studies 20th october 1960'. "both are honorary life members of the college and i enclose copies of the citations read when they were admitted to honorary life membership. "recently we have established the c.w. kett archive to hold papers, books, instruments and other items of historical interest. the archive is in memory of c.w. kett, optometrist, a councillor of the college from its inception until his death in 1970. brian flynn and michael aitken are honorary curators of the archive and i am sure they would welcome correspondence with you and other members of the optometric historical society. i have sent them a copy of your letter and this reply." the j.l. saks foundation: in the july-september 1973 issue of the south african optometrist, pp. 4-5, south african optometric association president selwyn super announced the establishment of the j.l. ~foundation. here's why. "because of 'j.l. 's exceptional contribution to the cause of optometry and the association almost from it's inception, and continuously and actively over these past so years, it is felt that no greater honour can be bestowed on our honorary life presi­ dent than that the foundation should be set up in his name. "in the so years of our association, 'j.l.' has spent 18 years as vice-president, 1929-1947, and 7 years as president, 1947-19so, 19s8-s9, 1962-65. in addition to these high offices, he has served as hon. secretary, was one of the first examiners in -121930 at the first examination for opticians ever held in south africa, and has been a member of the examination board almost continuously until a few years ago. he has twice been editor of our journal, the south african optometrist, a position he holds currently." more memorials~ optometrists: the glenn h. moore memorial fund (reference: illinois college of optometry, chicago, illinois) the macelree building (for george a. macelree, o.d., reference: the pennsylvania college of optometry, philadelphia, pennsylvania) the max schapero guest lecture series (reference: southern california college of optometry, fullerton, california) the albert damon love scholarships (reference: university of houston, college of optometry, houston, texas) 1899 optometry student journal: believe it or not, on january 16, 1899, appeared the first issue of the optical journal supplement, a monthly "devoted to the science of optometry, a magazine for students." though it continued the volume and issue numbers of its parent publication, vol. 5, no. 1, it was issued completely separately, with a separate subscription price ( $1. 00) and its own pagination. its parent publication, the optical journal, was numbered vol. 6 during the same year. publication continued for several issues, but i do not know ~ten it was discon­ tinued. hopefully, one of our librarian readers can enlighten us. library collections improving: though all gifts to the american optometric associati.on library and archives are duly recorded in the official minutes of the aoa board of trustees and acknowledged by a letter from the aoa president to the donor, occasionally a donation is of such historical signifi­ cance as to justify special mention here. such is the case with a long series of contributions donated by the rausch & lomb scientific library in recent months. these have included numerous volumes and issues of 16 different periodicals, some dating back to the turn of the century. i can report from long experience that early issues of many periodicals in the ophthalmic field were often difficult to obtain through interlibrary loan, certainly much more difficult than early issues of periodicals in the more classic disciplines of chemistry, physics, psychology, etc. today, however, thanks to the cooperative -13efforts of well organized visual science libraries, almost any early ophthalmic periodical that exists can be found and borrowed quickly and efficiently. the aoa library now ranks among the best in this respect. light and shadows: a very fine review of the origin and development of retinoscopy is given by michael millodot, o.d., ph.d,, in an article entitled "a centenary of retinoscopy" in the october 1973 issue of the journal of the american optometric association vol. 44, no. 10. the contributions-of cuignet, mengin, parent, bowman, and numerous others are carefully described and documented. the history of the terms k~ratoscopie, r~tinoscopie dioptroscopie, skiascopie, and retinoscopy to identify the procedure is also thoroughly covered. a letter to dr. james ~gregg: "dear sir, "i recently acquired an antique optometric device while pursuing my hobby of collecting antique scientific optical instruments. having read your 'the story of optometry,' which i found fascinating, i thought as a historian you might be able to give me some information that would aid me in dating my item. it is a 'do-it-yourself' eye tester consisting of a wooden stand at one end of which a reading card would he attached. at the other is a turret of 20 lenses from +8.00 to +0.25 diopters. the 'best' lens would be determined by trial and error, and then the similar strength would be selected from the tradesman's stock. the maker is the american spectacle co. of new york, n.y. how recent were such devices still legal? also, do you have any information on the company? thank you for your cooperation. optometrist becomes millionaire: "jack rubin 238 moore st. princeton, n.j. 08540" in his "man about town" columns of july 25 and 26, 1973, in the news american, baltimore, maryland, writer seymour kopf dedicated a lengthy accolade to 80 year old isaac taylor of ellicott city, "-builder of the taylor manor hospital -the most amazing institution of its kind in the world • , • where mental patients, drug addicts and alcoholics are treated as if they were kings and queens in a utopian state." though " • , • one of the least known great men of the 20th century" isaac taylor, reports kopf, is "a modest man,.., his family was poor, and -14he soon started selling the baltimore news at a half-penny profit. after holding a job with julius j. jenkins, a manufacturer of jewelry, he "went to philadelphia to learn watchmaking in the morning and optometry at night. at age 20 he returned to set himself up in a little store on main street in ellicott city." the report continues: he built the first movie houre in ellicott city, and also "the first colored high school." later he became ''a leading board member of the sheraton-tel aviv hotel, the vice-president of the american-israel corp, (israel's major financial house), vice­ president of the citizens national bank of laurel, chairman of the board of the reisterstown federal savings & loan association, and so many other endeavours." in 1939 he bought a 10-bed mental institution, "turning it into its present 151-bed palace -a miracle of enter­ prise • . • " upon reading mr. kopf's startling account, i did a bit of sleuthing to learn dr. taylor's role in optometry. he relinquished his maryland license to practice optometry about two years ago after holding it for 50 years. he has not practiced any optometry in the last 30 years or so, and prior to that he operated a jewelry store. the records do not show that he was ever a member of the american optometric association or of the maryland optometric association. there is a bit of fascinating history in the fact that he renewed his optometry license year after year after year, suggesting that it gave him an inner satisfaction which even a millionaire can appreciate. aqua-crystal spectacles: our eyes in health and disease -spectacles, their use and abuse is the title of a yellowed and brittle booklet, 17 x 10.7 mm, 20 pages plus paper cover, copyrighted january 21, 1889, and sent to me by d.g. hummel, o.d., 7029 royalton road, royalton, ohio 44133, recently. priced at ten cents, the booklet advertises o'neil's department store in mckeesport, pennsylvania, from which aqua-crystal spectacles "can be had", and "millinery" is mentioned too. symptoms of weak sight, diseases of the eye, myopia, presbyopia, hypermetropia, cataract, and when to hegin wearing glasses are discussed. several pages of testimonials in behalf of "the periscopic aqua-crystal spectacles" by physicians, ministers, attorneys, and others are included, as well as a graduated test-type for use at 14 inches and several pages of text material in other languages. george elliott & co., 38 maiden lane, new york is identified as the wholesale only importing opticians. anomalous retinal correspo.ndence: "arc an historical review" is the title of an article by o.h.s. member m.j. revell in the september 1, 1973 issue of the ophthalmic -15optician, vol. 13, no. 17, pp. 964-966 & 971. he credits johannes muller with the first recorded reference to the condition in 1826. eyeglasses in early woodcut: " .•• the woodcut is the first one in america to depict eyeglasses" reports o.h.s. vice president john r. levene in atti della fondazione giorgio ronchi, anno xxviii, n. 4 luglio-agosto, 1973, pagg 571-576. the woodcut was made by john foster (1648-1681), the earliest engraver or printmaker in america. vasco ronchi 22 years: the following is a complete translation, by o.h.s. secretary­ treasurer maria dablemont, of an article in l'opticien belge de belgische opticien, no. 203, september 1973, p. 363. "born in florence, december 19, 1897, professor vasco ronchi will celebrate his 75th birthday this year. "possessor of various university diplomas, h~s life has been full of scientific activities. he created the italian school of optics, and his national institute of optics constitutes an organism unique in its kind, holding complete administrative and technical autonomy. "professor ronchi created also, in 1926, the italian association of opticians, and in 1945, the foundation g. ronchi. "his didactic activities are devoted to the universities of florence and trieste. he is a prolific scientific writer, particu­ larly in the field of optics and its history. "member of numerous academies and international scientific organi­ zations, president of several italian and foreign associations, possessor of high honorary distinctions, professor vasco ronchi is, even more, a friendly and sincere man. well-known in belgium, a country he often visits, a personal friendship has developed between professor ronchi and the directors of the a.p.o.b. (professional association of belgian opticians). "this association joins all the opticians of belgium in extending professor ronchi their best wishes for a long and happy life." adolph lomb optical library: recently o.h.s. member henry knoll sent me a photocopy of an article by james p.c. southall entitled, "concerning the adolph lomb optical library at the university of virginia" in the university of virginia alumni news of june 1943, pp. 2-3 & 14. the article is written -16in an intimate style in which professor southall refers to adolph and harry by first names, "harry" apparently being henry c. lomb, adolph's younger brother. says southall, "oft had i heard of the famous collec.tion of books on optics which adolph and his brother harry had made together from their earliest boyhood • • . • it contained literally everything under the sun pertaining to geometrical optics besides many volumes of the science of light and vision, many of them original editions, in english, german, and french, occasionally in other european languages, also. some of them were written in latin • • " the article includes a portrait of professor southall, the only portrait of him i have seen. wwi ~ optometry: the "in memoriam" statement for the late davids. fox, o.d., in the december 1973 issue of the journal of the texas optometric association, vol. 29, no. 12, reveals that he had a distinguished record in world war i and that he developed his interest in optometry as a career while serving as a hospital corpsman in the army of occupation in germany. dr. fox passed away october 7, 1973, in galveston, at the age of 80. just how optometrists may have served in their professional capacity in world war i has never been researched. the decade of the 1970's probably will produce a great many obituaries of wwi military personnel, and especially of optometrists who, like dr. fox, were involved in the conflict either in an optometric role or in a role which prompted them to pursue optometry as a career. would that someone had the interest and the time to explore this fascinating area of optometric history. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1974-05-01-001 1974-05-01-002 1974-05-01-003 1974-05-01-004 1974-05-01-005 1974-05-01-006 1974-05-01-007 1974-05-01-008 1974-05-01-009 1974-05-01-010 1974-05-01-011 1974-05-01-012 1974-05-01-013 1974-05-01-014 1974-05-01-015 1974-05-01-016 2018 membership application our members support original scholarship in optometry history and the identification of people and places significant to the development of the profession. the ohs also encourages the preservation and use of archival and museum collections that make this research and recognition possible. it is because of the support of members of the ohs that we are able to produce publications and educational events that highlight the important role understanding the past plays in charting the future of the profession. yes! i want to join the optometric historical society! □ free aosa student members /residents (includes subscription to online issues 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is enclosed □ paid online at www.aoafoundation.org □ charge my credit card for the amount indicated above. credit card number: expiration date: card type: mastercard visa american express name on card: 3or 4-digit code: signature: date: 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, missouri 63141 (800) 365-2219 ext. 4136 foundation@aoa.org www.aoafoundation.org collect • more than 10,000 photographs, prints, negatives, slides, film and video-recordings • thousands of ophthalmic instruments, devices, objets d’art and pieces of ephemera • rare books, historic periodicals, unique manuscripts and records, and audio-recordings protect your legacy preserve • 1,800 square feet of secure, climate controlled storage space • trained staff provide preservation assessment, monitoring, treatment and housing • conservation and preservation projects prioritize at-risk and high-value materials share • computer catalog and finding aids increase accessibility to collections • public and private exhibits promote the profession of optometry and vision science • digital access to frequently used materials encourages research and scholarship donate now! aoa.foundation.org the mission of the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the mission of the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd., floor 1 st. louis, mo 63141 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 | fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org is a program of hindsight_49_3_no_bleed_final 30 hindsight_49_3_no_bleed_final 31 hindsight_49_3_no_bleed_final 32 hindsight_54_2_no bleed_final updated.pdf 36 volume 54, number 2, fall 2023 the history of optometry journals from a bibliometric perspective introduction optometry journals have been in existence for more than a century,1 in parallel with numerous ophthalmology and (nonoptometric) vision science journals. the united states has an especially rich history of optometric periodicals and journals, which has been recounted by goss.2-4 in these historical accounts, goss described the organizational development of optometry journals, associated timelines, and key figures involved in instigating and editing these journals.2-4 we wish to build upon the foundations laid down by goss by undertaking a bibliometric analysis of the impact of all optometry journals published worldwide, throughout their entire history. a number of citation databases are available for searching and analyzing the peer-reviewed literature, including scopus, web of science, microsoft academic and google scholar. sophisticated analytical tools are also available for more detailed analyses.5 using these databases and tools, the most highly cited papers in the field can be identified, as well as the impact of the most prominent journals, authors, institutions and countries involved in the publication of articles. impact can be evaluated by calculating the h-index6–a single metric that combines productivity (number of papers) and quality (number of citations). the h-index of an author is defined as the maximum value of h, whereby an author has published h papers that have each been cited at least h times.6 in recent years, editors of prominent optometry journals have written editorials about the citation performance of their own journals7-10 and have facilitated publication in their journals of numerous bibliometric analyses of vision science sub-disciplines,11-13 as well as national14-16 and international17,18 rankings of academic optometrists. notwithstanding these informative works, a global bibliometric analysis of all optometry journals throughout the entire history of their production has not been published. the aim of this paper is to use the scopus bibliometric database and search tools to (a) identify all optometry journals; and (b) determine the overall volume and impact of papers published in optometry journals, the most impactful papers published therein, as well as the most impactful journals, authors, institutions abstract the rich history of optometric journal publications has been well documented, but the scientific impact of all optometry journals over all time has not been published. this work aims to determine the most impactful papers, authors, institutions and countries publishing in optometry journals. a h-index for “optometry journal publications” (the “h ojp -index”) was derived for each constituent of each category to serve as a measure of impact. the h ojp -index for the 34,565 papers published in all optometry journals is 136; these papers have been cited 294,239 times. optometry and vision science is the most impactful and prolific journal (h ojp =118; n=13,095 papers). the most highly cited paper, by richard armstrong, is entitled “when to use the bonferroni correction” (1,172 citations). australian optometrist nathan efron is the most impactful and prolific author (h ojp =41; n=273). unsw sydney and the university of california, berkeley are the most impactful institutions (both h ojp =58), and unsw sydney is the most prolific (n=963). the most impactful and prolific nation is the united states (h ojp =109; n=12,050). this quantitative bibliometric analysis demonstrates an impactful optometric research base enshrined in optometry journals. keywords optometry, journals, impact factor, h-index, publications article nichols, morgan, jones, efron jason j. nichols, ph.d., m.p.h., o.d. professor, school of optometry, the university of alabama at birmingham, birmingham, alabama jjn@uab.edu philip b. morgan, ph.d., bsc (hons) professor, eurolens research, division of pharmacy and optometry, the university of manchester, manchester, united kingdom philip.morgan@manchester.ac.uk 10.14434/hindsight.v54i2.37209 lyndon w. jones, dsc, ph.d., bsc (hons) professor, centre for ocular research & education (core), school of optometry and vision science, university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada and centre for eye and vision research (cevr), 17w hong kong science park, hong kong lyndon.jones@uwaterloo.ca nathan efron, ac, phd, dsc, bsc (optom) emeritus professor, optometry and vision science, queensland university of technology, kelvin grove, queensland, australia n.efron@qut.edu.au hindsight: journal of optometry history 37 article nichols, morgan, jones, efron and countries. in his way, it will be possible to extend beyond previous accounts of the historical and organizational history of optometry journal publication2-4 and to evaluate the academic impact of optometry journals by quantifying their contribution to the advancement of vision science and eye care over more than a century. search protocol the initial challenge in this work was to identify all optometry journals on the scopus database (elsevier). this database was chosen for expedience, in that all four authors of this paper had ready access to scopus. although the various bibliometric databases available today would yield slightly different metrics, the broad picture being constructed here is unlikely to be affected by choice of database. a preliminary search of the scopus database was undertaken to identify journals with ‘optometry,’ ‘optometric’ or ‘optometrist’ in the title. this search revealed 33 journal names. a supplementary search was conducted to identify names of optometry journals that might not include the stem ‘optom’ in the title but are principally organized by the optometry profession or a primarily optometric organization. this was achieved by extensively crosschecking against on-line listings of optometry journals (such as the index of nlm serial titles19), and catalogues of libraries in universities housing optometry schools, and in optometric institutions or associations. three additional journal titles lacking the title stem ‘optom’ were found: ophthalmic and physiological optics, the journal of the british college of optometrists; contact lens & anterior eye, the journal of the british contact lens association, of which most members are optometrists and all editors have been optometrists; and hindsight, a journal concerned with the history of optometry, published under the auspices of the american optometric association. these three journals were found to be included in the scopus database. thus, a total of 36 optometry-related journals were identified on scopus; however, many of these journal names were found to be previous names of a given journal, so such names were combined, resulting in 18 unique journal names (table 1). a search term was derived to further interrogate the scopus database and was used to find all papers that were published in these 18 journals in english through september 13, 2022. this search term used journal international standard serial numbers (issn) or source titles. the search term was refined through several iterations to exclude irrelevant titles, resulting in the following equation being derived: (issn(1040-5488) or issn(0275-5408) or issn(0816-4622) or (0003-0244) or issn(0817-881x) or issn(1888-4296) or issn(1705-4850) or issn(1050-6918) or issn(1529-1839) or issn(0141-7037) or issn(1444-0938) or issn(0093-7002) or issn(13670484) or issn(0007-1218)) or srctitle(optomet*) or srctitle(hindsight saint louis mo) or srctitle(international contact lens clinic) and (exclude (srctype, “b”) or exclude (srctype, “undefined”)) and (exclude (doctype, “ch”) or exclude (doctype, “bk”)) and (limit-to (language, “english”)) and (exclude (exactsrctitle, “journal of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering”)) assessing impact an h-index for “optometry journal publications” (the “h ojp -index”) was derived to serve as a measure of the impact of the search result across journals, authors, institutions and countries. this technique has been used extensively by the current authors.20-23 in brief, the h ojp -index of a given author was determined by sorting the optometry journal papers published by that author by rank order of citations (from highest to lowest) and working down the list, starting with the paper that had the highest number of citations, to determine the first paper with a paper rank number that was larger than its number of citations. the h ojp -index for that author was identified as the number of the entry above the identified paper. this was repeated for each of the 50 most prolific authors; from this list, the top 20 were then identified and ranked in order of h ojp -index. a similar approach was applied to identify the most impactful optometry journals, institutions and countries. the 18 optometry journals have published a total of 34,565 papers which have been cited 294,239 times. the combined h ojp index of this body of work is 136. a total of 46.4% of these papers received no citations. the time course of publications of these papers–from the first papers included in the scopus database published in 1920 up until september 13, 2022–is shown in figure 1. it is evident from this graph that there has been a gradual increase in the output of papers published in optometry journals to around 600 papers per year at the present time. figure 1. number of papers published in optometry journals each year between 1920 and 2022. year 2000 is an anomaly, with well over 300 more papers than the immediately preceding or subsequent years. this is because, in that year (but no other year), a large number of meeting abstracts (422) from the journal optometry and vision science were inexplicably included in the scopus database. since these abstracts are technically part of an issue of that journal, and are citable, they have been retained in the search output. the increase in number of papers published in optometry journals over the past century is commensurate with the growing recognition of optometry; expansion of the scope of practice of optometry; the increase in the number of optometry schools world-wide; and broadening of the scientific base of optometry, fueled by general and targeted funding for vision science from 38 volume 54, number 2, fall 2023 government agencies, universities, optometry organizations, philanthropic entities and the ophthalmic and pharmaceutical industries. currently, approximately two refereed scientific papers per day are published in optometry journals, as can be seen from figure 1. impactful journals according to h ojp -index the 18 optometry journals in the scopus database are listed in table 1 in rank order of h ojp -index, which ranges from 118 to 0. the most impactful journal is optometry and vision science (h ojp =118), separated by a large gap from second-ranked ophthalmic and physiological optics (h ojp =87). the top 6 journals listed in table 1 have h ojp -indices ranging from 118 to 32. by contrast, those journals ranked 7 to 18 have relatively low h ojp -indices, ranging from 15 to 0, and have thus contributed little to the collective impact of optometry journals. there are indeed many other journals that have not been included in the scopus database; for example, in 1984 the national institutes of health (nih) published a list of 61 optometry journal titles.19 however, it appears that many of these, such as rocky mountain optometrist, were local magazines that published news items, commentaries and anecdotal clinical material which has never been cited. as well, some clinical optometry journals such as journal of optometric education, optometry & vision development, and optometry & visual performance have not been included in the scopus database (possible reasons for this are discussed below). as can be seen from table 1, the vast majority of papers published in optometry journals included in the scopus database (95%) have been published in the top six most impactful journals. the total number of papers published in a given journal included in the scopus database ranges from 12,673 in optometry and vision science to one in the southern journal of optometry. the years of publication included in the scopus database for most journals does not cover all years of publication. one rational reason for this is that scopus applies a set of exacting criteria for including journals and papers in its database,24 and in many cases, journals have apparently been judged as not meeting criteria for inclusion in the formative years of publication. similarly, existing journals on the database that have subsequently failed to meet these criteria have ceased to be included. in some cases, brief runs of lesser-known journals have been included for unknown reasons. impactful journals according to ‘journal impact factor’ the optometry journals listed in table 1 essentially represent a ranking that relates to the span of years of publication of optometry journals that are included in scopus. a popular current measure of the extent to which journals are cited is the ‘journal impact factor,’ which indicates the extent to which papers in a given journal have been cited over the previous two years. strict standards are applied by clarivate analytics for inclusion of journals that comprise the journal citation reports.25 only five optometry journals have been included in the journal citation reports, which are the first five listed in table 1. at the time of writing, the 2021 journal citation reports, which were published in 2022, are the most recent. the optometry journal with the highest impact factor is ophthalmic and physiological optics (impact factor=3.992). this title must be therefore considered as the most impactful optometry journal at the present time, whereas according to the current analysis, optometry and vision article nichols, morgan, jones, efron hindsight: journal of optometry history 39 science (h ojp =118) must be considered the most impactful optometry journal of all time. although the journal optometry is ranked #5, its last assigned impact factor was 0.833 (for year 2012), which is considerably lower than the journals ranked #1 to #4 by h ojp -index in table 1. optometry ceased publication in 2012, with the then-president of the american optometric association (publisher of optometry) citing “... the realities of publishing costs and financial priorities” as a major reason for its discontinuance.26 the low impact factor of this journal clearly indicated that it was struggling to attract impactful papers at the time of its demise. the #6-ranked journal of optometry does not have an assigned impact factor; however, the editor of this journal has announced that it will have its first impact factor assigned in 2023.27journal of optometry is a relatively recent optometry journal, having only commenced publication in 2008. it takes time to acquire an impact factor through clarivate, which explains why this journal has not previously had an impact factor. nevertheless, it is impressive that journal of optometry has attained a strong h ojp -index in only 15 years, with much fewer published papers (538) compared to the five higher-ranked and more long-standing optometry journals (12,673 to 2,615 papers). highly cited papers the top 20 most cited papers published in optometry journals are shown in table 2. these papers have been cited between 1,172 and 281 times. the subject matter of the 20 most cited optometry papers can be broadly categorized as follows: refractive error– six papers; measuring vision function–four; anterior eye–three; statistics–two; and one each on age-related macular degeneration, contact lenses, computer vision, oculomotor dysfunction and psychophysics of reading. refractive error and measurement of visual function are core activities of clinical optometry, which is consistent with papers relating to such topics representing half of the top 20 papers in table 2. article nichols, morgan, jones, efron 40 volume 54, number 2, fall 2023 the #1 ranked paper by armstrong (1,172 citations) concerns an important aspect of statistical analysis although it does not specifically relate to optometric science. the paper is entitled “when to use the bonferroni correction.” if multiple hypotheses are tested, the probability of observing a rare event increases; therefore, the likelihood of incorrectly rejecting a null hypothesis (i.e., making a type i error) increases. the bonferroni correction counteracts this problem, and armstrong explains when to apply this correction. the armstrong paper addresses an important issue that arises extensively not only in optometric research, but any other hypothesis-driven research; hence the broad popularity of this paper, as indicated by the high citation rate. to illustrate the general appeal of this work, further sub-analysis within scopus revealed that the paper by armstrong has been cited by papers from 27 disciplines. the 10 fields citing this paper the most were: medicine (28.3% of all citations), psychology (7.9%), social sciences (7.2%), biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (7.2%), neuroscience (6.3%), computer science (5.6%), agricultural and biological sciences (5.5%), engineering (4.8%), health professions (4.0%) and environmental science (3.2%). the #2-ranked paper by bailey and lovie (1,146 citations) describes the novel logmar chart, which heralded a revolution in the clinical measurement of visual acuity, especially in those with low vision. further sub-analysis within scopus revealed that this work also has been cited by papers from 27 disciplines. the 10 fields citing this paper the most were: medicine (49.6% of all citations), health professions (16.7%), neuroscience (15.8%), engineering (3.4%), biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (2.4%), psychology (2.1%), computer science (2.0%), multidisciplinary (1.2%), physics and astronomy (1.2%) and social sciences (1.2%). that the top three fields–which are all health related–comprise 82.1% of all citations to the bailey-lovie paper, compared with the armstrong paper for which the top three papers comprise 43.4% of citations, points to the more specific appeal of the bailey-lovie vision assessment paper to the health professions, versus the broader scientific appeal of the armstrong statistical paper. it is interesting to observe that while the bailey-lovie paper has been cited 1,146 times, the first use of a logmar chart in a major study was the ‘photocoagulation for diabetic macular edema: early treatment diabetic retinopathy study report number 1,,’28 published in 1985; this paper has attracted 2,524 citations. it seems that when authors wish to refer to the logmar chart, they prefer to cite the more impactful ophthalmology journal (archives of ophthalmology) than the lower impact optometry journal (optometry and vision science). of the 20 most cited papers, 10 have been published in optometry and vision science; six in ophthalmic and physiological optics; three in optometry and its predecessor name, journal of the american optometric association; and one in contact lens & anterior eye. the percentage of optometry publications that have received no citations (46.1%) is high when compared to, say, the field of dry eye,20 for which only 18.1% of the relevant literature has not been cited. one reason for the high rate of papers in optometry journals with no citations may be that many articles, especially during the earlier years of publication of optometry journals (say, up until the 1960s), were editorials or clinical reports. the field of dry eye is a more contemporary research construct, devoid of a long ‘historical tail’ of non-cited works. dry eye is also a ‘hot’ field of research, and is more likely to attract citations than less active research areas. while uncited communications can be important and highly instructive for clinical optometrists (and therefore a necessary component of optometry journals), they typically have minimal scientific content and are thus less impactful. impactful authors the 20 most impactful authors of papers published in the optometry literature are listed in table 3 and have h ojp -indices ranging from 28 to 41. as a comparator, the 20 most impactful authors (from any discipline) of papers published in any journal (not just optometry journals) relating the field of dry eye disease20 ranges from 25 to 56. the most impactful author is australian optometrist nathan efron (h ojp = 41), followed by british optical physicist neil charman (h ojp =38) and canadian optometrist lyndon jones (h ojp =36). total counts of papers published in optometry journals of the top 20 authors range from 111 to 273. the most prolific of the top 20 authors of papers in optometry journals are nathan efron (n=273 papers), david atchison (n=168) and brien holden (n=164), all of whom are australian. the top 20 authors who have published the highest percentage of their total paper output in optometry journals are optometrists mark rosenfield (88%), pauline cho (77%) and philip morgan (70%). three (15%) of the top 20 authors are female; these are optometrists pauline cho and karla zadnik (both h ojp =32), and biostatistician gladys mitchell (h ojp =31). to understand all things ophthalmic, optometric researchers have found it necessary to interact with scientists from other disciplines, often publishing jointly in optometry journals. a consequence of such cross-disciplinary collaboration is the appointment of non-optometric scientists by optometry schools. four (20%) of the top 20 authors of papers in the optometry journals listed in table 3 are not optometrists, being either employed by schools of optometry or working in other departments in the same universities. the scientific background of these individuals can be broadly characterized as: optical physicist–two, biostatistician–one and microbiologist–one. the corollary of authors from other disciplines publishing in optometry journals is optometrists publishing in non-optometry journals. in this regard, it is pertinent to note that some highly impactful and prolific optometrists17,18 are not featured in table article nichols, morgan, jones, efron as an interesting aside, the top two ranked authors–professors efron and charman– worked in adjacent offices at the university of manchester from 1990 to 2005, although they never co-authored any papers. hindsight: journal of optometry history 41 3, because they seldom publish in optometry journals, so it is important to acknowledge their important contributions here. those optometrists listed in table 4 have h-indices ranging from 49 to 67, yet their h ojp -indices range from only 0 to 14. the percentage of their total output of papers that have appeared in optometry journals ranges from 0% to 17%. the research directions of these optometrists have resulted in them primarily publishing in the journals of other disciplines, such as psychology, neurology, ophthalmology and medical epidemiology (ipso facto seldom in optometry journals). the above scenarios of non-optometrists publishing in optometry journals and optometrists publishing in nonoptometry journals represent an important ‘cross-pollination’ of science that enriches the optometric research landscape (as well as that of other disciplines) and is critically important to the advancement of vision science in general. impactful institutions the top 20 institutions from where papers in optometry journals were published are listed in table 5. the h ojp -indices of the top 20 institutions range from 34 to 58. the top-ranking institutions are unsw sydney, australia and the university of california, berkeley, united states (both h ojp =58), closely followed by the queensland university of technology, australia (h ojp =57). unsw sydney, australia has produced the highest number of papers in optometry journals (n=963), followed by the university of california, berkeley, united states (n=935), with the ohio state university, united states and university of waterloo, canada, ranked equal third (n=848 each). it is not surprising that most of the top 20 institutions from which papers have been published in optometry journals house well-established schools/departments of optometry. however, one of the top 20 (5%) does not have an optometry school–johns hopkins university, united states (h ojp = 34; n = 125 papers). almost all of the papers generated from johns hopkins university are from its ophthalmology department. the number of institutions from the various countries represented in table 5 are: united states–eight; united kingdom–five; australia–four; canada–one; hong kong–one and new zealand–one. impactful countries the 10 most impactful countries are listed in table 6. the h ojp indices of the countries listed range from 34 to 109, and the paper count from 211 to 12,050. the united states is the most impactful and prolific nation publishing papers in optometry journals (h ojp =109; n=12,050). article nichols, morgan, jones, efron 42 volume 54, number 2, fall 2023 article nichols, morgan, jones, efron the united states, united kingdom, australia and spain are the home countries of the eight top-ranked journals listed in table 1. prior to the digital age (i.e., up until the late 20th century), optometrists (and indeed the majority of scientists from other disciplines) tended to be parochial in their publication behavior, preferring to submit work to their national journals. this perhaps reflected national pride, but also the path to publication was more expedient and less expensive than submitting to an overseas journal. this century, the internet has minimized time/cost barriers to publication, so national barriers no longer exist. nevertheless, the historical preference for an author to publish in a national journal can partly explain the leading positions of the united states, united kingdom, australia and spain in table 1. comparisons with ophthalmology it is possible to place the overall metrics described in this paper in a broader context by drawing comparisons with ophthalmology. a simple search for ophthalmology journals was conducted in scopus (also on september 13, 2022) using the crude search term: srctitle(ophthalmol*). an important caveat is that this search only includes ophthalmology journal titles with the stem ‘ophthalmol,’ therefore underestimating the total number of ophthalmology journals; nevertheless, 202 non-disambiguated journal names were found (compared to 36 non-disambiguated optometry journal names) that have produced 303,259 papers with a collective a h-index of 427. by contrast, 34,143 papers have been published in optometry journals, with a h ojp -index of 136. from this search, the top 20 articles published in ophthalmology journals were found to have been cited between 5,280 and 1,903 times, compared to between 1,172 and 281 citations for the top 20 papers in optometry journals. the higher h-index and related metrics of ophthalmology journals compared to optometry journals is consistent with the greater number of ophthalmology journals, and stronger academic ophthalmology departments–as a result of the long-standing medical foundations and broad, highly funded medical research base of ophthalmology– despite there being far fewer ophthalmologists29 than optometrists30 world-wide. it is also of interest to compare impact factors of the four currently published optometry journals with those of the top four currently published ophthalmology journals and vision science journals, as an indication of their relative research excellence. as can be seen in table 1, the impact factors of the four currently published optometry journals range from 3.992 (ophthalmic and physiological optics) to 2.106 (optometry and vision science). impact factors of the top four currently published ophthalmology journals range from 19.704 (progress in retinal and eye research) to 6.197 (survey of ophthalmology), and impact factors of the top four currently published vision science journals range from 3.770 (experimental eye research) to 1.984 (vision research). thus, the range of impact factors of the top four optometry journals is slightly greater than that of vision science journals, but considerably less than that of ophthalmology journals. conclusions an analysis of the collective output of all optometry journals is presented here, facilitating an appreciation of the extent and impact of papers published therein, over more than a century of optometric journal publishing. this bibliometric analysis reveals that of the 18 optometry journals, eight are especially impactful. a total of 34,565 papers have been published in optometry journals, which have been extensively cited (294,239 times), resulting in a h ojp -index of 136. the most highly cited papers in optometry journals have been identified, as well as the most impactful optometry journals, and the most impactful authors, institutions and countries publishing in optometry journals. the world-wide optometric fraternity can be justly proud of its forefathers who had the prescience to launch optometry journals over a century ago, and equally thankful for the subsequent generations of individual optometrists and international optometric organizations that have nurtured, enhanced and expanded the portfolio of quality optometry journals, as previously described by goss.2-4 a strong and vibrant journal base, such as has been demonstratedin this paper to exist today, underpins the optometric profession by providing a scientific rationale for all matters clinical, thus serving to enhance the ocular well-being of humankind. optometrists can be proud of the rich history of impactful research enshrined in the published archive of their profession. correspondence: nathan efron, school of optometry and vision science, queensland university of technology, 60 musk avenue, kelvin grove, queensland 4059, australia. e-mail: n.efron@qut.edu.au hindsight: journal of optometry history 43 article nichols, morgan, jones, efron references 1. elliott db, handley n. a historical review of optometry research and its publication: are optometry journals finally catching up? ophthalmic physiolopt2015;35:245-251. 2. goss da. a history of some optometric periodicals. hindsight 2015; 46: 85-90. 3. goss da. a history of some optometric periodicals, part 2. hindsight.2016; 47: 134-138. 4. goss da. a history of some optometric periodicals, part 3. hindsight.2018; 49: 52-56. 5. moral-muñoz ja, herrera-viedma e, santisteban-espejo a, cobo mj. software tools for conducting bibliometric analysis in science: an up-to-date review. profesional de la información 2020; 29: e290103. 6. hirsch je. an index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. proc natl acad sci 2005;102:16569-16572. 7. gonzález-méijome jm. journal of optometry bibliometrics. j optom 2020;13: 71-73. 8. efron n. optometry journals have impact. clin exp optom 2021;104: 137-138. 9. rosenfield m. 2021 – a record year for opo. ophthalmic physiolopt 2022;42: 935. 10. twa md. optometry and vision science: 2021 journal performance. optom vis sci 2022;99: 613-615. 11. cardona g, sanz jp. publication analysis of the contact lens field: what are the current topics of interest? j optom 2015;8: 33–39. 12. ruiz-pomeda a, alvarez-peregrina c, povedano-montero fj. bibliometric study of scientific research on optometric visual therapy. j optom 2020;13: 191–197. 13. alvarez-peregrina c, sanchez-tena ma, martin m, et al. multifocal contact lenses: a bibliometric study. j optom 2022;15: 53-9. 14. efron n, brennan na. citation analysis of australia-trained optometrists. clin exp optom 2011; 94: 600-605. 15. efron n. citation re-analysis of australia-trained optometrists – 10 years on. clin exp optom 2020;103: 559-561. 16. cardona g, puigdueta-carrera l, efron n. optometry research in spain: topics of interest, institutions and investigators. j optom. 2023;16:167-174. 17. efron n, morgan pb, jones lw, et al. global optometrist top 200 research ranking. clin exp optom 2021;104: 471-485. 18. nichols jj, morgan pb, efron n, jones lw. global optometrist research ranking derived from a science-wide author database of standardized citation indicators. clin exp optom 2022;105: 20-25. 19. index of nlm serial titles. 5th ed. 1984. m-z. us department of health and human services, national institutes of health (nih publication no. 84-314). p. 1963-4. 20. nichols jj, morgan pb, jones lw, efron n. 21st century bibliometric analysis of the field of dry eye diseases. clin exp optom 2021;104: 639-40. 21. efron n, morgan pb, jones lw, nichols jj. 21st century bibliometric analysis of the contact lens field. clin exp optom 2021;104: 634-638. 22. efron n, morgan pb, jones lw, nichols jj. bibliometric analysis of the refractive error field. clin exp optom2021;104:641-643. 23. nichols jj, morgan pb, jones lw, efron n. bibliometric analysis of the orthokeratology literature. cont lens anterior eye 2021;44: 101390. 24. scopus content – content policy and selection. available at: https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus/how-scopusworks/content/content-policy-and-selection. accessed october 5, 2022. 25. journal citation reports. clarivate. available at: https://jcr. clarivate.com/jcr/home. accessed october 5, 2022. 26. carlson d. a message to readers. j am optom assoc 2012;83(1):[page unnumbered]. 27. gonzález-méijome jm, piñero dp, villa-collar c. journal of optometry impact factor: it’s been a long way to here. j optom2023;16:1-2. 28. early treatment diabetic retinopathy study research group. photocoagulation for diabetic macular edema. early treatment diabetic retinopathy study report number 1. arch ophthalmol1985;103:1796-1806. 29. resnikoff s, lansingh vc, washburn l, et al. estimated number of ophthalmologists worldwide (international council of ophthalmology update): will we meet the needs? br j ophthalmol2020;104:588-592. 30. naidoo k, govender-poonsamy p, morjaria p, et al. global mapping of optometry workforce. research square 2022. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1286073/v1. hindsight: journal of optometry history 83 jerome abrams, od michael aitken, losc john amos, od, ms arol augsburger, od, phd r. norman bailey, od, mph felix barker, od allan barker, od irving bennett, od cheryl bergin, od willard bleything, od, ms lynn brandes, od abraham bromberg, od albert bucar, od alan bugg, od gary campbell, od lester caplan, od linda casser, od tony chahine, od richard chong, od john classé, od, jd judith a. clay, od barry cole, od, phd melanie crandall, od viktoria davis, od thomas eichhorst, jd, cae paul farkas, od ronald ferrucci, od gregory ferrucci, od barry fisch, od david fleishman, md george foster, od louis frank, od matthew garston, od alan gold, od fred goldberg, od david goss, od, phd gary gray, jr., od morton greenspoon, od charles haine, od, ms richard hopping, od walter king, od robert kocembo, od ernest loewenstein, od, phd stacey j. meier, od j.d. miller, jr., od pamela miller, od, jd raymond myers, od robert newcomb, od, mph arnie patrick, od p. duncan roy, jr., od james sandefur, od katie schubert, cpo clifford scott, od, mph william sharpton, od david snyder, od richard soden, od gregory stephens, od, phd nancy stovall, od charles stuckey, od selwyn super, od, phd john townsend, od satya verma, od lilien vogl, od tmothy wingert, od george woo, od, phd melissa woodard, od karla zadnik, od, phd institutions alcon laboratories, inc. carl shepard library, illinois college of optometry harold kohn vision science library, state university of new york indiana university libraries inter american university of puerto rico school of optometry library marshall b. ketchum memorial library, southern california college of optometry national library of medicine new england college of optometry library optometrists association of australia wellcome library, london, england weston a. pettey optometry library, university of houston students jeffrey ferrucci, new england college of optometry rahul gupta, new england college of optometry erick henderson, southern college of optometry bradley jansen, pacific university college of optometry ryan kern, salus university ariel lenning, southern college of optometry jackie ngo, illinois college of optometry angela nguyen, marshall b. ketchum university anna parfenova, western university of health sciences amy puerto, southern college of optometry emma scott, university of alabama school of optometry nisma sehar, al shifa eye trust hospital, pakistan stephanie uchida, oklahoma college of optometry ohs members 2017 2017 membership application our members support the enrichment of the scholarship in optometry history and the preservation of and access to the archival and museum collections that make this research possible. it is because of the vital support provided by the american optometric association and optometry cares® the aoa foundation that the archives and museum of optometry can maintain collections that have taken more than a century to build. it is because of the support of members of the ohs that these materials remain viable resources for the education of future generations. yes! i want to join the optometric historical society! □ free aosa student members /residents (includes subscription to online issues of hindsight) □ $35.00 regular membership (includes subscription to online issues of hindsight) □ $60.00 sustaining membership (includes subscription to online and print issues of hindsight) □ na i am a lifetime member and i will access hindsight online □ $25.00 i am a lifetime member and i want a print copy of hindsight □ $500.00 scholars membership (includes all benefits of sustaining membership plus annual recognition in hindsight, optometry cares® – the aoa foundation’s annual report and website, and invitation to an exclusive donor’s reception at optometry’s meeting®) $ additional donation to support the archives & museum of optometry total: $ all membership dues are tax deductible title: first name: last name: suffix: company/school/practice: address: city state: zip: email: recognition/print name: payment method □ a check is enclosed □ paid online at www.aoafoundation.org □ charge my credit card for the amount indicated above. credit card number: expiration date: card type: mastercard visa american express name on card: 3or 4-digit code: signature: date: 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, missouri 63141 (800) 365-2219 ext. 4136 foundation@aoa.org www.aoafoundation.org help protect your legacy the archives & museum of optometry the archives & museum of optometry (amo) has been taking care of the tangible pieces of our optometric memories since 2009 by collecting, preserving, and sharing. this service to you would not be possible without generous donations from optometrists interested in maintaining an outstanding collection of archival material and museum objects. located at the american optometric association headquarters in st. louis, amo strives to ensure the protection of our legacy for future generations. support the archives & museum of optometry! make your donation at www.aoafoundation.org collect  more than 10,000 photographs, prints, negatives, slides, film and video-recordings  thousands of ophthalmic instruments, devices, objet d’art and pieces of ephemera  rare books, historic periodicals, unique manuscripts and records, and audio-recordings share preserve  1,800 square feet of secure, climate controlled storage space  trained staff provide preservation assessment, monitoring, treatment and housing  digital preservation programs for at-risk and high value materials share  computer catalog and finding aids provide access to researchers  public and private exhibits promote the profession and vision science  digital access to frequently used materials  on-site research space for members by appointment the mission of the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the mission of the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd., floor 1 st. louis, mo 63141 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 | fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org the archives & museum of optometry is a program of hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 25 hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 26 hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 27 hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 28 u"' • • • e 11> o co • "o,. ll',)i' ·~., newsletter : fndian-l !.jniverc;~' /: of the • • ••' '!i. _; pptometric historical society r'~c : /;:,'(243 north lindbergh boulevard l '· ~ 1091 • ;'.st. louis, missouri, 63141, t%sa) •. , libr:.try • • .................... volume 22 july 1991 number 3 1991 ohs annual meeting: the 1991 annual meeting of the optometric historical society will be held in anaheim, california, on saturday, december 14, in the cerritos room, sierra tower, disneyland hotel from 7: oo to 10:00 p.m. this annual event is held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry and provides an opportunity for ohs members to meet, discuss matters of common interest, and hear an historical presentation. this year 1 s speaker will be dr. hank peters. he will give a talk entitled "five optometric pioneers in the establishment of the university of alabama school of optometry." dr. peter 1 s talk is scheduled to begin at 7:00p.m. ohs annual report: the following 1990-91 annual report was written by the 1990 ohs secretary, bridget kowlaczyk and was submitted for the 1991 aoa house of delegates handbook. in 1990, the optometric historical society held its annual meeting in conjunction with the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry at nashville, tennessee. at the meeting, dr. douglas k. penis ten spoke on the history of optometry in america. a short meeting was held by the officers and trustees to begin planning a fall retreat for the membership in 1992 in honor of the 700th anniversary of the invention of eyeglasses. locations near st. louis will be investigated as possible sites for the retreat. during the past year the society's main activity has been the quarterly publication of the newsletter of the optometric historical society. current joint editors of the newsletter are drs. henry w hofstetter (bloomington, in) and douglas k. penisten (tahlequah, ok) . 1990 officers: president: vice-president: secretary: treasurer: dr. t. david williams (waterloo, ontario, canada) dr. charles haine (danville, illinois) dr. bridget kowalczyk (st. louis, missouri) dr. douglas k. penisten (tahlequah, oklahoma) 22;26 trustees: dr. david goss (tahlequah, oklahoma) dr. meredith w. morgan (walnut creek, california) dr. alfred rosenbloom (chicago, illinois) ohs membership is open to all with an interest in ophthalmic history. the primary purpose of the society is to encourage the development, preservation and maintenance of historical ophthalmic collections, both public and private, and to encourage research, publication and education along historical lines through every possible medium. the society will hold its next meeting at the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry in anaheim, ca in december 1991. 1990 ohs board meeting: each year at the american academy of optometry meeting the board of the ohs gathers for a breakfast conference. the 1990 ohs secretary, bridget kowalczyk, was in attendance at last year's board meeting and filed this report. • a meeting of the board of the optometric historical society was held on sunday december 9, 1990 in nashville, tn. present at the ~eeting were dr. douglas penisten, dr. charles haine, dr. david goss, dr. meredith w. morgan, dr. alfred rosenbloom, dr. walter chase and ms. bridget kowalczyk. not present at the meeting was dr. t. david williams. the treasurer's report was given by dr. penisten. dr. penisten reported that the certificate of deposit was on a yearly, nat a 90 day maturity. there are presently 234 ohs members, 191 are in the united states and 43 from other countries. because of non-payment of dues 7 4 names will be dropped from the roster. that will leave 160 paying members. the january issue of the newsletter will have an updated membership list. there was a general discussion on how to increase membership. it was agreed that more publicity was needed. it was suggested that news items be placed in visionlink, the american optometric association news and the academy newsletter • dr. penisten lead the discussion on the possible 1992 fall retreat. it was decided that the retreat would not be an annual event. the 1992 retreat will be in honor of the 700th anniversary of the invention of eyeglasses. a successful turnout would be 20-25 people. the meeting should be held on a saturday and sunday in late october or early november. locations near st. louis will be investigated as possible sites for the retreat. pere 22;27 marquette state park in illinois is a possible site. dr. penisten will try to have concrete plans at the december 1991 board meeting. the hofstetter award was not presented this year. the award was not intended as an annual award. ms. kowalczyk will compile a list of recipients from the records held by ilamo. the meeting adjourned at 8:00 a.m. 1991 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the 1991 ohs executive board members and officers. also listed is the year of each member's term expiration. president vice-president secretary treasurer trustees call for nominations: meredith morgan (1994) dave goss (1993) walt chase (1994) chuck haine (1992) doug penisten (1992) al rosenbloom (1993) dave williams (1991) it is time for you to send in your nomination, or renomination, for the one position on the ohs executive board which will expire at the end of this year. the member whose term will expire is dave williams. by all means, do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. the members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board, ·~ill have their names placed on an election ballot which will be mailed with the next newsletter. please send your nominations to: doug penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464-7098. 1991 dues: for those ohs members which show 1991 ohs dues as outstanding, a dues statement has been enclosed with this issue of the newsletter. kindly send your check for the amount noted payable to the optometric historical society with the lower portion of the dues statement. your response to this invoice will be appreciated as only one dues statement is intended to be sent out. thanks for your support! more on armati•s 11tombstone11 : the following letter was sent by ohs member dr. robert v. sandor, curator of the museum of optics and eyewear in stockholm, sweden. 22fi8 dear dr. penisten, as a member of the ohs, for more than one decade, i have been very impressed by the high level of knowledge and objectivity shown in the ohs newsletters. therefore i was surprised when i read about jay enoch's visit to the old church in florence, italy and the report about the armati's "tombstone". actually, i missed any reproving, objective historical notes. i hoped that such would come in some future issue, but to my astonishment i found nothing, not even in vol. 21, no. 3 where dr. jerry abrams "retraced" jay enoch's steps. still no historical comments from any of the readers. so obviously i made the mistake in my supposition that everybody, who is interested in optical and optometrica~ history, knows that the armati' s tomb is a historical falsification! therefore, please receive the following information and publish it, if you find it valuable. in a guide-book about florens, written by a certain leopoldo del migliores (firenze citta nogbilissima illustrata, 1684), in connection with the describing of the church s:a maria maggiore, the author stated: here was the place · for a memorial, which has been demolished in connection with the restoration of the church, but which is carefully registered in our old funeral-list. this will be still more cherished by us since we learn about the inventor of the spectacles. it was the tomq of mr. salvino degli armati, son of the armatiens and ef noble birth. it was to see the sculpture of a man out-stretched lying on a stone-foundation in middle-class clothing with a paving-stone bearing the words: here is the resting place of salvino d'armato of the family of armatiens from florens, the inventor of spectacles. god pardon his sins. in the year of grace 1317. so~says the guide-book of the year of grace 1684 • .•• and please observe that there was actually no tomb left in the church in 1684. leopoldo del migliores is talking about something which cannot be seen by his contemporary tourists! so, what is more natural for a trained historian than looking after the mentioned "old funeral list" of the church? •.. and there is no trace at all of such a list! 22;29 if migliore's statement is true and there was such a list in the seventeenth century, the list would have been dated lonq before 1684, but as we know today, the church did not prepare such a funeral-list at that time at all. we cannot find a trace of the matter in migliore's still preserved papers either. these documents are today in the library of florens and there is no sign, trace, or evidence for the existence of the tomb in question! consequently it seems, that we must search about the truth in the psychological state of mr. migliores himself. to begin with, he was not a historian but an antique dealer and his reputation, depicted by contemporary authors, is not very good. it is written: "he could allege everything without the truth and could transfor.n a mosquito into an elephant." obviously, a very bad reference for a historian, even if it is only a guide-book we are dealing with •.. evidently, we must conclude that there is no evidence at all that the mentioned tomb with the remains of mr. armati ever existed! what is more into the bargain (and which is implied also in the editorial comments in ohs newsletter vel. 21 no. 3) is that already before 1684 are listed couples of books in which the authors are dealing with the inventors and invention of spectacle. ( •.. and nobody mentioned the name armati!) so it appears to be ·probable to state that neither the mentioned tomb or mr. armati have ever existed! but migliores statement has had unfortunate consequences for the posterity interested in optical and optometrical history. around 1730, a new guide book was issued about florens, partly based on migliores boo~, and the author of the new guide-book repeated migliores statement about the armati tomb. the same happened in 1841, when a congress was arranged in florens and the "fathers of the city" felt the need not only to repeat the false statement of migliores (which gave status to the city) but also to add substance to this information of prestige. they gave order for the building of a tomb with a portraitbust (not a lying figure as migliores describes). the false tomb was furnished also with a stone-plate with the inscription mentioned by jay enoch and jerry abrams. of course the "tomb" contains no remains. it was during the first years, after 1841, that this falsification was localized in the convent of s:a maria and later, when this building was demolished in 1891, that the "tomb" was moved to its present place in the church of the convent, where our informants have discovered it. the "tomb" design changed when it was moved from the convent to the church which can be seen in the enclosed illustrations. [these illustrations will be included in the next newsletter.-ed.] in order not to break from the start defect frame around the 22;30 miglioresjarmati history, the "tomb" was decorated not with the "portrait bust of armati" as it is stated in the guide book of 1841, but with a bust which apparently is an earth-find from the late roman times. so dear dr. penisten, here are the facts and the true story of armati "the inventor of spectacles". his "tombstone" in florens is actually a memorial over an historical fake, he never existed outside of the fantasy of a certain leopolda del migliores, an imaginative antique dealer of the 17th century, who was eager to give his contemporary tourists not only excitements but also a reputation of this city florens . ... and obviously, he succeeded very much with this also in 1990's ..• about antiques: the january 1991 issue of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club newsletter, no. 34, edited by ronald j.s. macgregor, 47 chapelwell st., saltcoats, ayrs., u.k., ka21 5eb, again provides some informative, and entertaining, tidbits about visual aids. described is the auction at sotheby's in london on october 10, 1990, which included a pair of "late 17th century leather spectacles in their original wooden dug-out case" selling at £5575 (ca. $11,000). also, a slightly damaged dollond telescope used by admiral lord nelson in 1797 realized £8920 (ca. $17, 000). a bi.t wistfully macgregor adds that "the prices realized do place them beyond the reach of the ordinary collector." in the higher priced class are napoleon's solid gold oval turnpin spectacles being offered in the u.s.a. by nieman-marcus at $90,000, according to correspondent dr. charles letocha. also mentioned:is the availability of a new german publication, "von helmholtz: augenspiegel zur funduskamera" by alfred schett at about $25.00 from verlag sauerlander, laurenzenvorstadt 89, ch-5001, aarau, switzerland. the book is based on the models held in the medical history museum in zurich. a touching feature is a several paragraph account by colin b. fryer of a 12th day of christmas mealtime gathering of three reminiscing passengers at the airport on the isle of man over "glasses of bort raspberry liqueur and green chartreuse," one of french, another of english, and the third of russian origin. among their assorted tales was the russian's recollection of a student of tsarist history who showed him his old photographs of st. petersburg (now leningrad) (and now st. petersburg again). in one of the photographs was an optical shop with a window displaying "spectacles, microscopes, telescopes, zoetropes, magic lanterns and slides, and cameras and photographic apparatus." the history buff explained that these items were for the wealthy people while "ordinary people went to smaller opticians who sold besides spectacles, clocks, hats, umbrellas, and so on." he 22/-31 documented his explanations with cuttings from a daily russian newspaper, opticians' advertisements. valid? we may never know. another brief feature in the newsletter is an historical account of the anglo american optical company, "one of the longest surviving optical companies in the u.k., more than a century old." it all started in the 1880's with stanley druiff who went to new york to establish a successful eyewear business and later returned to london to set up a prescription house and the london school of optics to teach refraction. the remainder of the account brings the story up to date and includes an invitation -::::; visit the plant on a sur:c.a~to see the extensive collection of optical antiques and enjoy a free buffet. a final feature is stuart eadon-allen's account of george washington's telescope. there is no questioning the fact that the telescope was in fact washington's, but it was clearly a forged copy of a dollond instrument which the forger labeled with the misspelling "dolland." author eadon-allen guesses that the forgery could have been made during the period 1758-1772 when dollond held the pa~ent on the achromatic lens. aberrational pun: a brief article by m.j. abramowitz about image quality in microscopes in the february 15, 1991 issue of american laboratory, vol. 23, no. 2, p. 146, is cleverly titled "abbe­ rations"! a century ago: issue number one of volume one of the optician prompts the opportunity to recall events a hundred years ago. it was dated january 1891 and published and edited by frederick boger. the publication was loaned to me by stan herrin, editor of chilton's review of optometry, the journal's present title. the lead article is by charles f. prentice and is entitled, "a metric system of numbering and measuring prisms." in mathematical detail he describes the measurement and use of the prism dioptry, a term coined by him but which we now call prism diopter. he also coined the term prismometer to identify the instrument he designed to measure prismatic strength. h.w h. an early oculist•s travelogue: flavel b. tiffany, a.m., m.d., of kansas city, missouri, was perhaps the most extensively traveled ophthalmologist of the turn of the century. perhaps, too, he was one of the most broadly cultured persons of his era. in 1917 he published a 365 page 15 22/.32 x 20 em. book entitled around the world by an oculist with 82 photographs collected in a globe-circling itinerary of over seven months during 1912-13 with his bride of a few days. the total of 16 countries included europe, the far and near east, egypt, and the u.s.a., in eac~ of which he contacted local ophthalmologists and quite incidentally gave many interesting accounts of their clinical activities and especially their surgical techniques and theories. the essence c= the book, however, is about their day to day and almost hourly travel experiences on trains and boats and on local sight-seeing tours and museum and institutional visits almost totally unrelated to ophthalmology except that he occasionally commented about the apparent prevalence of conspicuous ocular conditions in encountered populations. his style of writing is pleasingly anecdotal, much as one might describe travel experiences in a social setting. further, he injects cultural references to poetry, art, music, architecture, the bible, history, and the like to enhance or explain observations, artifacts, monuments, dress, customs, street scenes, behaviors, etc. having myself visited many of the places some decades later i can vouch for the excellent descriptions of at least those aspects that had not changed in the interim. the author had published numerous other earlier travel books and at least four editions of an excellent text entitled anomalies of refraction and of the muscles of the eye. the fourth edition of the latter in 1900 was comprehensively optometric in coverage, including basic optics, eye examining procedures, instrumentation, strabismus, spectacles, and dispensing. the words optometry and opticianry are virtually absent, however. in his preface to the first edition in 1894 he comments, "it is said that the inmates of insane asylums, homes for the feeble-minded, and prisons are, with few exceptions, either ametropic or heterophoric. it would seem then, that these anomalies may bear some intimate relation to man's moral nature." contrasting with his obvious sophistication in optometric knowledge and his above-quoted respect for the significance of ametropia and heterophoria is the fact that his global travel book makes hardly a single reference to spectacles, lenses, refraction, opticia:1s, etc. as he must have observed in his tratels. perhaps an exception is his giving casual credit to a dr. poullain of paris for invention of the "omnifocal" for seeing at any distance. similarly, he makes hardly a single reference to medicinal treatment of ocular problems. the possible exception is the credit given to two brothers, drs. pagenstecher of wiesbaden, germany, as "celebrated oculists, well known originators of the ointment or yellow salve now used in the treatment of eye trouble the world over." in contrast, virtually every reference to clinical ophthalmological procedure relates to ophthalmic surgery, 22,1.33 including the last strangely irrelevant chapter of 18 pages describing in technical detail his own "tucking operation for strabismus" patterned after what he had seen performed in calcutta by dr. maynard. in other words it is historically a bit puzzling that an ophthalmologist of his optometric talents and sophistication who could describe afternoon teas or a chinaman's basket as well as ophthalmic surgery with utter fascination could have been so oblivious of the already well established spectacle industry worldwide and the rapidly expanding optometric delivery system. there is no hint of professional prejudice or bias. it merely suggests a trait of the medical culture of the era, namely, that the services of optometrists, then called opticians, were simply beyond the pale of the medical aristocracy. dr. tiffany's opening sentence in dedication to his three year old son flavel iii suggests his mental outlook, as follows, "i have often said that i have realized every ambition." --h.w h. another collection: an april 1990 news release from the vision council of america/better vision institute reported their receiving from universaljunivis, inc. the donation of handmade replicas of the eyeglass frames worn by president john f. kennedy and his brother robert to the bettervision institute collection of historical and antique eyewear. · according to w.j. wilson, director of public relations of vica/bvi, when vica accepted responsibility for financing and managing the bvi they also acquired the bvi historic eyeglass collection, but, as of august 28, a decision had not been made as to how best t~ display it. antiques bought and sold: an unsolicited airmail envelope addressed correctly to me (h.w h.) at my home but without a return address contains an attractive folder advertising "optische antiquitaten, 1650-1950" from gotz & hannelore remus, affentorplatz 18, 6 frankfurt 70 (west germany), tel. 069/617324. categorically listed are spectacles, lorgnettes, opera glasses, telescopes, loupes, microscopes, ophthalmic instruments, trial lens sets, and other original pieces with optical motifs. the recipient is invited to call or write to consult on starting or expanding an optical collection. an attached sticker indicates a scheduled display at the weltmesse der augenoptik (optometric world fair) in cologne on april 21-24, 1990. also on the back of the folder is a very legibly inscribed note in english. "if you want to buy or to sell antique optical items, please inform me. best regards. [signature illegible.]" also included in the envelope is a self-addressed postcard on which one can express an interest in any of 21 categories of ophthalmic antiques merely by circling or checking the listed items. 22/.34 the apha: the american public health association is the world's largest interdisciplinary organization of researchers, health service providers, administrators, teachers, and other health workers. it has been influencing public policies in health matters since 1872. it would probably be impossible to ascertain who was the first optometrist member and when he or she joined. i joined in 1964 upon the persuasion of optometrists felix keating and alden n. haffner, two of a very small number of optometrists active in calling attention to optometry's role in public health. the number was small enough to account for my not finding another optometrist at the first apha convention i attended. in 1971 during the apha's 99th annual meeting, the american optometric association committee on public health and optometric care in cooperation with the apha planned the first optometric scientific session for the 1972 apha meeting. the session was titled, "visual perception and human development." in 1974 the american optometric association noted that "optometry was the only independent health profession without sectional status" in the apha and, therefore, submitted a proposal to create an "optometric health section." in 1975 the "committee on vision care" was formed by the medical care section in recognition of the hundreds of optometrist members already in that section. in 1976 two optometrists ran unsuccessfully on the slate of offices for the medical care section, but in 1977 two optometrists, bert ~kuza and sin wong, were elected to the section's governing council. the goal for separate sectional status was set for 1978 but, for organizational staffing reasons, it was delayed a year by an apha moratorium on all new sections. in 1979 the proposal was approved with a name change to vision care section to make it more inviting to "all who are interested in visionjeye issues." participation in the vision care section has included members from all 50 states, the district of columbia, puerto rico, and six continents. disciplines include mostly optometrists but also a wide range of other professionals with allied interests. during the years of existence of the vcs of the apha, eleven vcs-sponsored resolutions on vision care issues have been adopted by the apha. the above information is from a membership soliciting flier distributed by the indiana optometric association to its members. coins and medallions: a noteworthy collection of early coins and medallions featuring spectacles is that of the zeiss museum in jena, h.w h. 22/.35 germany. some of them date back to the 15th century, with the greatest number dated in the 16th and 17th centuries. the symbolism of the spectacles varies from portraying the wisdom of the owl to the transitoriness of the skull and hourglass, or even as a token of derision. a brief column in the july/august 1990 issue of auaenontik, vol. 107, no. 4, p. 128, by h.beez mentions several examples with historical details. included is a photograph of a 1572 "geusenpfennig" on display at the museum. covd history: the college of optometrists in vision de·1elopment (covd) celebrated i~s 20th anniversary in november 19;j. a description of its origins and evolvement is provided in an article entitled "covd: twenty years of excellence" by martin kane and robert wold in the december 1990 issue of the journal of optometric vision develonment, pp. 3-9. it was preceded by the national society for visual and perception training (nsvpt), which started in 1964 in los angeles. early in 1969 two other similar organizations were independently created, the national optometric society for developmental vision·care (nosdvc) in minnesota, and the southwest developmental vision society (swdvs) in texas. representatives of the three groups met in 1969 to negotiate a merger which was consummated on december 6, 1970 in san antonio, texas. the name change to covd took place at the first annual meeting in new orleans, louisiana, in october 1971 . . the artic~e further describes the establishment of membership categories and qualifications, a list of past presidents, interrelationship with other organizations, publication of a journal and newsletter, annual meetings, its award program and recipients list, and student involvement. mike drain memorial: in honor of the late c. michael drain, o.d., of st. louis, who had been chairman of the st. louis conference on theoretical and clinical optometry, the mid-america vision conference in 1981 established a memorial lectureship in his name in recognition of his role in the development and management of the prior conferences. the participants at each annual conference select by ballot the person or team making the 11most stimulating presentation" to be the recipient of the award the following year. the first award was made posthumously to dr. drain in 1981. early and late: charles letocha calls our attention to two historical items. one is a 1990 book by alfred schett entitled "vom helmholtz 22;36 augenspiegel zur funduskamera" published by verlag sauerlander, laurenzenvorstadt 89, ch-5001 aarau, switzerland. in 82 pages it portrays the history of ophthalmoscopes as represented by the models at hand in the medical history museum in zurich. dr. letocha knows the author to be "extremely conscientious and compulsive about details." the other is an advertisement for napoleon's spectacles in the nieman-marcus catalog. the catalog legend describes them as having "exquisitely wrought folding frames of 18-kt gold fitted with 2 1/2 sphere lenses of glass thought to be from venice. the spectacles were made by the eminent firm of joliet freres, circa 1815. 11 letocha learned that they were sold. $90,000! an editorial review: appearing as a guest editorial in the september 1990 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 61, no. 9, pp. 666-668, is an article by sol tannenbaum entitled, "the development of western optometry a case for history." his citations are not referenced and the details are quite cursorily recited as he traces the development from the invention of spectacles with one object in mind, namely, to "emphasize the separate development of optometry in order to preserve the integrity, the history and dignity of our profession." the evil eye in greece: . nicholas gage'(originally ngagoyeanes) was brought to america in 1949 at the age of nine with four older sisters to live with their father, a greek immigrant, after the death of their greek mother under cruel circumstances. he wrote a biographical account of the family, including much of their background in rural greece in his 1989 book entitled "a place for us". in six instances he referred to the evil eye. the first was in reference to a greek girl who "died of the evil eye at the age of seventeen, according to my father, when a passing priest remarked on her beauty. priests were well known for being unwitting carriers of the evil eye •.• " in a second instance involving a series of family catastrophes the author comments, "most greeks would have blamed the evil eye and called in the priest to perform an exorcism". on a third occasion, a young greek man was stricken with the mumps a week before his wedding. "like a forest fire, the rumor spread through the village: it was the evil eye". at the wedding the bride's mother-in-law gave the bride a sharp pair of embroidery scissors to hide in her hand and tuck them in among her flowers, explaining "that scissors would cut the power of the 22/37 evil eye, which would certainly be drawn to kanta (the bride) by the admiration and envy of all who beheld her". in a fifth instance, the author's father blamed his accident onto his son for giving him the evil eye. in the sixth reference to the superstition the author tells about his own birth in 1939, the first male in a family of five, being celebrated in many ways, including the covering of the mirrors in the house "to keep out the evil eye". folsum and tufft: laurence p. folsum, an optometrist of considerable national standing, and j. edward tufft, a long-time editor of ootometric world, each engaged in hobby-like indulgences totally outside of optometry. the former, for example, authored a 160 page book entitled "on being happy, healthy and wise" in 1951, exposition press, new york. the latter, a contemporary, wrote dozens of "prose poems" under the titles "the cheerful plowman", "the ballads of buckwheat jones", "the rhyming farmer", and "the thriving thresherman", many of which re-appeared posthumously in a 112 page volume entitled "the cheerful plowman" in 1962, exposition press, new york. an autographed copy of folsum's book was given to me by d.j. hummel, and a copy of tufft's book was inscribed and given to me by the author's widow ruby l. tufft. the texts of both books are completely devoid of any mention of optometry, optics, lenses, spectacles, vision, and the like. however, i happen to believe that the cultural, civic, political, and other extraneous involvements of persons primarily engaged in optometric careers give us added insight into the character of the profession itself. for that reason i am forwarding these to ilamo for preservation. h.w h frontier spectacles: as suggested several times in this newsletter, much of the history of spectacles can be gleaned from the literary as well as pictorial art. the instance this time is a reading of edward eggleston's classic novel, the hoosier school-master, which relates the encounters of a young schoolteacher in the backwoods village of flat creek, indiana, in the 1850's. among the local characters.portrayed in melodramatic style is squire hawkins, the loc~l m~g~~tr~te whose bearing was occasionally enhanced by h~s m~sf~tt~ng swallow-tail coat and a pair of black gloves. the a~tho: described the squire's demeanor with frequent reference to h~s dirty, waxy-colored, wig which tended to slip off his bald pate: a semicircular row of black­ dyed whiskers "hedging the.edge of the jaw and chin"; badly fitted and frequently bobb~ng false teeth; an off-color glass eye "purchased from a peddler" perpetually becoming misdirected in or 22/.38 out; and "a pair of spectacles 'with tortoise-shell rim,' wont to slip off." sample sentences include, "here the spectacles fell off.", "then he wiped his spectacles and put them on.", "the squire's spectacles slipped off several times while he read it.", and, "after a few moments' consultation, during which squire hawkins held his wig in place with one hand and alternately adjusted his eye and his spectacles with the other, . . . " inasmuch as the author himself was a backwoods preacher of the same era who published this very popular novel at the age of 34 his references to spectacles attest to the contemporarily familiar spectacles being a necessary nuisance of aging, an intellectual status symbol, and an amusingly conspicuous accouterment even among frontier dwellers. iool history: received in the mail is a 15 page 21 x 15 em pamphlet from the international optometric and optical league entitled a short history and dated january 1991 (for the period 1927-1986). the first nine pages, which cover the period 1924-1977, are by peter a. smith, who was honorary. secretary of the iool in 1977 and made emeritus secretary in 1986. the remaining pages, covering the period 1977 to 1986, are the work of professor l. david pickwell. "the first suggestion of an international optical league appears to have originated in paris in 1924 as a result of the adverse decision in the courts in what became the historical 'odin' case. in that case a french optician was accused under french medical law of using a medical instrument whilst practicing retinoscopy to measure the refractive condition of a client's eye. odin lost the case. the effect of this action was to be long lasting." in 1925 at an optical conference in leipzig the need for an international league was further suggested and discussed but no formal proposal was made until 1927 at the british optical association international congress at oxford. these proposals were in a paper read by herr w. lohmann of berlin which led to immediate expressions of support and the formulation of objectives and some of the regulations to be incorporated into bylaws. the official founding and adoption of a constitution took place at a meeting in cologne in 1928. the first participating countries were france, germany, great britain, holland, switzerland, and the u.s.a., with sweden joining soon after. the organization was named the international optical league. mr. j.h. sutcliffe, the then secretary of the british optical association, was appointed the first president and herr lohmann the first secretary. the members of the first executive committee were professor f.a. well (u.s.a.), mr. c. schmidt 22/.39 (france), mr. w. ecker (switzerland), mr. w.j. debruyne (netherlands), and mr. j.h. sutcliffe (england). the general objectives of the i.o.l. were the improvement of the opticians' status internationally and the defense and encouragement of the practice of refraction by opticians. the expansion and implementation of these objectives academically, legislatively, and organizationally as well as the broadening of membership and international participation during the subsequent decades are clearly described in the subsequent pages. the name change to international optometric and optical league was made in 1969. in subsequent years the membership expanded to include representation from every continent and numerous island nations. the add=ess of the iool is 10 knaresborough place, london sws otg, england, telephone 071-370 4765, telefax 071-373 1143. jacksonian optical college: another turn-of-the-century mailing in ohs member james leeds' collection is a series of three letters from jacksonian optical college to mr. j.w. golden of dunbar, pennsylvania, dated april 21, june 21 and october 17, 1904, soliciting his enrollment in a correspondence ~curse. included with the first letter is a return envelope addressed simply "jacksonian optical college, jackson, michigan," an enrollment blank to accompany the $10.00 tuition for the course, a part-payment order form which provided for paying the $7.50 balance of the tuition fee after paying $2.50 in advance and receiving the complete course, a large spread sheet captioned, "what prominent physicians and others have to say ragarding our correspondence course in optics", and a 20-page 17 x 12 em prospectus explaining the offering. the first of the three letters is a strong sales pitch pointing out the simplicity of learning optics and the rewarding career opportunities. the second one started, "we have been considerably disappointed ••• ". the third started, ""we have been decidedly disappointed .•• " the prospectus (fourth edition, 1903) identifies the college as "authorized and chartered under the laws of the state of michigan." the president is lester j. harris, m.d. the course leads to the o.g. (graduate of optics) degree. a handsome 22 11 x 18 11 diploma is available for a $2.50 fee. the curriculum consists of seven lessons, anatomy and physiology of the eye, light, lenses, errors of refraction, astigmatism, best methods for testing, and how to test the eyes. the prospectus itself gives a brief discourse on the anatomy of thp ~ye. it is suggested that an optical career should attract not only young men and women but also "preachers, physicians, druggists, jewelers, business men, and aged and infirm persons." most fascinating is a photograph on the back of the prospectus entitled, "correspondence and sales department." 22/40 shown are about 25 office employees busily working at typing tables in several rows in a large room. another optometrist memorialized: the dr. georae n. jessen award has been established by the national eye research foundation to recognize "worldwide clinicians who give tirelessly in their efforts to bring all the precious bits of knowledge and technique adding to the sum total of professional practice and progress." contributing editor: managing editor: *** henry w hofstetter 2615 windermere woods drive bloomington, in 47401 usa douglas k. penisten college of optometry northeastern state university tahlequah, ok 74464 usa 1991-22-03-001 1991-22-03-002 1991-22-03-003 1991-22-03-004 1991-22-03-005 1991-22-03-006 1991-22-03-007 1991-22-03-008 1991-22-03-009 1991-22-03-010 1991-22-03-011 1991-22-03-012 1991-22-03-013 1991-22-03-014 1991-22-03-015 1991-22-03-016 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bennett: bass lawsuit 2016| page 96 collateral action when cyrus bass lawsuit against ama was front and center irving bennett, o.d. irvbennett23@gmail.com n 1964, cyrus bass, a chicago optometrist, filed a lawsuit against the american medical association (ama) and nine chicago ophthalmologists alleging that the defendants had conspired against members of the profession of optometry and in the restraint of trade and commerce in the dispensing of eyeglasses. in previous issues of hindsight there have been articles on this extraordinary and momentous event.13 however, a personal behind-the-scenes correspondence exchange between dr. jack runninger with principals of cbs television for some language used in its popular "60 minutes" broadcast were never reported. the tv program, "60 minutes," was one of the nation's most watched news broadcasts in the 1960s and its sterling reports and investigative reporting were taken as gospel by extremely large audiences. runninger was a private practice optometrist in rome, georgia and a member of the american optometric association's committee on public information. the american optometric association (aoa) had not issued any public comments on the bass lawsuit but, as we learned much later on, it had officially been in contact with the united states department of justice in an effort to adjudicate the conflict with the ama. the "60 minutes" broadcast the last sunday in october, 1969 tackled the bass lawsuit straight on. the lawsuit had been lingering in the court system for nearly five years with opposing attorneys filing motions and counter motions. no one can be sure what precipitated the producers of "60 minutes" to get involved but they did. popular newscaster harry reasoner moderated the tv segment. i feel sure that he, and his associates, were unaware that their references to the profession of optometry were surely not complimentary and, in fact, demeaning. dr. runninger, who has always enjoyed a nice-guy persona, had been a strong advocate for the profession of optometry. and he has a way with words, being the author of many serious and many not-so-serious columns. using his personal stationery, because he was not authorized to speak publicly for the aoa, jack runninger wrote to harry reasoner making the case for a fairer treatment in referencing optometrists. this is what he wrote: october 30, 1969 mr. harry reasoner 60 minutes c/o cbs television new york, new york dear mr. reasoner: the contents of 60 minutes' eyeglasses segment was basically fair. i mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bennett: bass lawsuit 2016| page 97 however, you did unwittingly strike optometrists three low blows: 1 using cyrus bass as the only spokesman for optometry is like making joe pyne the spokesman for all broadcasters. 2 you stated that optometrists call themselves doctors "but are not medical doctors". true, but neither are dentists, for example. we do receive the o.d. (doctor of optometry) degree after a minimum of six years study at optometric colleges in many leading universities. 3 you were unfair to many ophthalmologists as well as optometrists by implying that we dispense glasses only because of the profit motive. most of us dispense our own prescriptions chiefly because we want to be certain that the glasses are made accurately and fitted correctly. the "profit" in the glasses goes for the time necessary for measuring, checking, fitting and servicing them. we're not all mercenary. honest! best regard, /s/ jack runninger, o.d. i feel sure that dr. runninger did not expect a reply to his letter but he wanted to relay his feelings to the television network and maybe, just maybe, next time the producer would know better. and it did work. at least it drew a lengthy response from andy rooney who was the producer of the bass lawsuit segment on 60 minutes. rooney, as most may know, went on to become a staple on cbs as a reporter and was acclaimed by many for his weekly cogent talks on a number of matters. here is rooney's response, dated november 5, 1969. it was written on official cbs stationery: dear dr. runninger: thank you for your basically fair comments about our eyeglass piece on 60 minutes. harry reasoner has given your letter to me because i produced the segment for him. it was not all we thought it should have been and if i had known it would have to be reduced to 15 minutes, i would not have attempted it. the final editing was out of my hands and made the piece, in my view, unfair to both optometrists and ophthalmologists. your "joe pyne" comment was funny. i understand exactly who and what cyrus bass was and i knew optometrists generally would object to having him represent them. the fact is, however, that he said some things succinctly and well. forget hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bennett: bass lawsuit 2016| page 98 you ever heard of bass the position all but a small handful of viewers was in and consider what he said: ‘ophthalmologists generally look upon optometrists as excess baggage so to speak. they don't consider optometrists qualified because they are their competitors. opticians don't derive their income from optometrists and therefore would not look toward optometry with any favor. my fear is that optometry is a dying profession. there's a prevailing concept among people that optometrists will generally try to oversell, or try to sell more glasses than is actually indicated. in answering that question, i would say that there is dishonesty in all walks of life. that an honest man will not do what an honest man doesn't do -a dishonest man will do what a dishonest man does. so i wouldn't say that it's specifically unique for optometry to try to sell more, it is true for medicine. many patients are being treated for diseases they don't have.’ can you really quarrel with that? it was not our conclusion that ophthalmologists and optometrists sell glasses to make money. one ophthalmologist we interviewed made that statement about other ophthalmologists. i must disagree with you about use of the term "doctor." there are no legal restrictions to its use but the word has gained its stature from its association with the medical profession. if your letterhead read "jack runninger, o.d." and other people chose to call you "doctor", i would have no objection. but when you call yourself "dr. jack runninger" i think you are intentionally borrowing some of the meaning which the medical profession has given the word and are therefore being just the tiniest bit deceptive. i hope the abbreviated form of the report has not done you and your basically honorable, and certainly improving, profession any harm. sincerely, /s/ andrew a. rooney jack runninger told me that he felt his comparison to joe pyne may have been the magic key that got both reasoner and rooney to read and respond to his letter. pyne was a showman who deliberately insulted people he was interviewing. he was not a serious newsman respected by his fellow journalists. "60 minutes" in those early years reserved a short segment, about four or five minutes, near the end of each broadcast to read and comment on a few of the letters that the producer had received about the previous week's show. on the week following the bass broadcast, about half of the "letters" segment was devoted to comments on the runninger letter. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bennett: bass lawsuit 2016| page 99 references 1. bennett i. the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama. hindsight: j optom hist 2012;43:2-4. 2. mizener fd, bennett i. the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama: more data and reader comments. hindsight: j optom hist 2012;43:75-81. 3. bennett i. more on the cyrus bass lawsuit: correcting an error and adding more information. hindsight: j optom hist 2013;44:3-4. for additional information on the bass lawsuit, see: 1. bennett i. the 1954 american optometric association seattle resolution and medical reaction to it. hindsight: j optom hist 2011;42:102-105. 2. bass c. report to the optometric profession (brochure), 1966. 3. a special report: u.s. court stipulation ends bass versus ama suit. optom weekly 1967; 58(22);15-18. 4. editorial: some facts in the case of bass vs ama suit. optom weekly 1967; 58(22):27-28. 5. classé jd. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths,1989: 17-18. 6. wolfberg md, eichhorst te. american optometric association complaint to the u.s. department of justice regarding activities of organized medicine in the field of vision care which hinder and restrain the profession of optometry. hindsight: j optom hist 2012; 43:47-57. 7. proceedings, 47th annual meeting. international association of board of examiners in optometry, june 20-22, 1966. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 membership application 2016| page 76 hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x july, 2021 volume 52, number 3 editor: david a. goss, od, phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: john amos, od, ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu chair lilien vogl, od drvogl@cox.net board liaison james deom, od, mph dr.deom@gmail.com editor david a. goss, od, phd dgoss@indiana.edu linda casser, od lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, od viktoria@davismn.net w. howard mcalister, od, mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, od rimyersod@gmail.com carol parker, od drparker4564@gmail.com optometry cares® the aoa foundation james deom, od, mph board of directors dr.deom@gmail.com kelsey wolf program manager kwolf@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: dgoss@indiana.edu. ohs committee 2021 photo and bust of otto wichterle, discoverer of the material used in the first soft contact lens (images courtesy the wichterle family), and the czech republic stamp issued in 2013 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of wichterle's birth (image courtesy the contact lens museum). hindsight: journal of optometry history 45 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 52  number 3  july 2021 table of contents 58 48 news 46 editorials from the editor: theme issue on the history 47 of soft contact lenses david a. goss, o.d., phd articles the early pioneers of global soft contact lens 48 development nicholas grant, bsc, mari fujimoto, o.d., patrick caroline, cot, craig norman toward disposability of contact lenses 58 carol parker, o.d., kara tison, o.d., raymond myers, o.d. coupling of the international society for 64 contact lens research with the evolution of soft contact lenses craig woods, phd, mcoptom, desmond fonn, dip optom, m optom special issue: focus on soft contact lenses in 1959 dr. maximillian dreifus of the second ophthalmological clinic in prague fit some of the first soft lenses in practice. (image courtesy the wichterle family) dr. carol parker 64 cover of international society for contact lens research: the first 30 years by raymond myers, o.d. hindsight_55_2_no bleed_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 43 30 years of thank yous david a. goss, o.d., phd emeritus professor of optometry indiana university dgoss@indiana.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v55i2.40822 we are fortunate to have someone as capable and dedicated as jennifer reilly take over as editor of hindsight. i am pleased to transition to a contributing editor position after serving as editor for 30 years. there are many people to thank for their encouragement and assistance over those years. first and foremost, i thank henry hofstetter for his confidence in me to edit the publication he started in 1970, for his inspiration, and for his excellent writings on optometry history that i have quoted on so many occasions.1,2 the optometric historical society (ohs) leadership has been very supportive of hindsight. the ohs presidents/committee chairs during my years as editor have been drs. chuck haine, walter chase, doug penisten, jay enoch, melvin wolfberg, irving bennett, john amos, ron ferrucci and lilien vogl. in 2006, ohs board members jerry abrams, enoch, haine, penisten and wolfberg supported my idea of shifting hindsight from newsletter to journal format. until 2017, hindsight was printed at, and mailed from, the indiana university campus in bloomington. indiana university school of optometry secretarial staff, particularly terri greene and cheryl oldfield, worked with the campus printing office and mailed copies of hindsight to ohs members. my wife diane has helped prepare images for publication for many years and she drew an ohs logo that we used on the cover of hindsight from 2007 to 2012. in 2013, we were pleased to start working with iuscholarworks, indiana university’s digital repository and online journal platform. they digitized all back issues of the ohs newsletter and hindsight as pdf files and deposited them online. in 2015, hindsight became one of iuscholarworks’ online journals with current issues published on their website. the association with iuscholarworks has made it possible to track the numbers of online views of hindsight articles. that number has increased from when that data first became available in 2019 to a total of 14,982 in 2023. soon after kirsten hébert’s hiring as the archives and museum of optometry heritage services specialist, she became an integral part of ohs and made contributions to hindsight. in 2014 she started publishing articles in hindsight. she worked with iuscholarworks to improve the functionality of the online version of hindsight, and in 2017, she arranged for layout and printing of hindsight to be done at the american optometric association (aoa) headquarters. chris martin, aoa’s graphic production specialist, designed a visually pleasing layout. since hébert’s departure from the aoa, molly brown and the aoa staff have been essential to hindsight’s success. i was fortunate to have skilled and prolific writers to serve as contributing editors. enoch started writing for hindsight when it was a newsletter and continued doing so after we went to a journal format, a total of 45 articles in all. bennett contributed 27 articles and hébert 18. john amos has contributed 12 articles so far. in 2018, we started publishing occasional theme issues. ohs committee members have suggested topics, recommended and contacted potential authors, and reviewed and wrote papers. i would like to mention ray myers as being particularly involved in each of those functions. ohs committee members who wrote papers for theme issues are ray myers, ferrucci, carol parker, linda casser, lynn brandes, heather edmonds, viktoria davis, vogl and howard mcalister. thanks also go to reviewers and authors over the years. since the switch to journal format in 2007, we have had more than 100 different authors and co-authors. the majority of our authors have been american optometrists, but we also have had authors from australia, canada, the united kingdom, poland, hong kong, india, iran, south africa and taiwan. in addition to optometrists, our authors have included vision scientists, ophthalmologists, archives and museum professionals, librarians, optometry administrative personnel, optometry students an optometrist’s spouse, an english professor and an independent researcher. the 53 volumes of the ohs newsletter and hindsight from 1970 to 2023 now comprise more than 3,700 pages of information on optometry history. when i have an optometry history question, the first place i look is in those pages.3 i am very happy to have played a role in documenting what hofstetter described as optometry’s “truly proud history.”4 references 1. goss da. 20/20 hindsight: a history of the optometric historical society as chronicled in its newsletter and journal. hindsight: j optom hist. 2019;50:4-12. 2. goss da. ohs co-founder henry hofstetter (1914-2002). hindsight: j optom hist. 2019;50:29-34. 3. interspersed with the back issues of hindsight on iuscholarworks are indexes for volumes 1-10, 11-20, 2130, and 31-40. they can be found by scrolling down through back issues on the hindsight archives webpage: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/ index.php/hindsight/issue/archives. 4. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight. 1996;27:17-18. editorial david a. goss, o.d., phd newsletter of the optometric historical society (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri vol. 14 january 1983 1982 ohs reminisce-in: competition with a prolonged and intently attended business meeting of the american academy of optometry in philadelphia on december 11 pre­ vented a large participation, only 16, in the scheduled annual 11 reminisce­ in11 of the optometric historical society. nevertheless, the brief session was most gratifying as well as entertaining. maria dablemont reported · that the ohs treasury showed a comfortable balance of slightly over $2,000, whereupon no increase in annual membership dues was entertained. exists there any other optometric organization with a bank balance and no dues increase in 14 years? especially delightful was the opportunity to meet long-retired member jacob staiman, o.d., of baltimore, maryland. ever a contributor, he brought with him a pair of century old spectacles with lenses o.d. +18.00, o.s. +11.00, which he found at a flea market. he observed that the frame had an 11 x11 bridge and straight telescoping temples, therefore vertically symmetrical and could be worn equally easily upside down or up. he theorized that the wearer had only one usable eye which was eleven diop­ ters hyperopic and amblyopic. depending on which way the wearer put on his glasses his one usable eye would be conveniently corrected for distance (11.00 d) or for a near distance of 14 em (18.00 d). one is hard pressed for a better explanation! we also had the pleasure of the presence of our on-and-off co-editor doug penisten, who is briefly back in the u.s.a. from university of the north in south africa where he is temporarily teaching. he gave us a brief review of the states of development of the three optometry schools there. fl bit boring: fifty-two ballots have already been returned, unanimously for dr. jim leeds, with an occasional ballot still coming in at about the rate of one per week. this has been a surprisingly larger than usual response, suggesting that we may enjoy voting more wh€n there is no difficult de­ cision to make. with the unanimity obvious early, i.e., there having been no write-ins, the new board promptly elected officers for 1983. only one change was made, the election of dr. abrams instead of dr. tumblin for vice-president. dr. tumblin had advised that he is becoming involved in too many activities to allow himself to serve on the o.h.s. executive board after his five year term ends next december. the following are on the 1983 executive board, the years of expiration shown in parentheses: -2president: james p. leeds, o.d. (1987) v.ice-president: jerome j. abrams, o.d. (1986) secretary-treasurer: ~1aria dablemont (1985) members: henry a. knoll, ph.d. (1984) james c. tumblin, o.d. (1983) with dr. tumblin•s announced withdrawal, nominations for his replace­ ment in next october•s elections must be made. if you would be interested in serving, or if you know of·another member who should be considered, please advise either the secretary-treasurer or the editor. not only is a little new blood always good for the o.h.s., but the appearance of more than one name on the ballot makes it a bit less boring for the scrutineer. if statistics are of interest to you, you may like to know that in the first 13 years of the ohs eleven different persons have served on the five member executive board, an average tenure of 5.9 years. only our indispensable secretary-treasurer maria dablemont has served all 13 years, now .starting her 14th. 500 years after marco polo: china-u.s. scientific exchanges, inc. has invited the optometric historical society to provide the leadership and guidance for an educa­ tional and cultural exchange tour of the people•s republic of china with emphasis on optometri c-opti ca 1-ophtha 1 mi c contacts bet\>~een knowl edgeab 1 e personnel from both countries. this of course could provide an exciting opportunity for those \1/ishing to gain some insight into optical history and developments in mainland china and at the same time to enjoy the sight-seeing benefits of a popular tour at a very competitive cost. unfortunately the administration of the ohs does not feel adequately equipped or experienced to assume the responsibility of such leadership ·on its own. however, we have learned that professor edwin marshall, o.d., a past president of the national optometric association and a world traveller himself, is exploring the possibility of heading an optometry­ oriented tour for the same organization. he would welcome expressions of interest in joining such a group and will be pleased to include em­ phasis on ophthalmic history in the educational aspects. his address is schoo 1 of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, indiana, 47 405. collectors club started: whether you collect or are merely fascinated by the early artifacts of optics and optometry, ohs member and contributor d.c. davidson, ·northall cottage, east chiltington nr lewes, bn7 3q5, england, invites you to join his ophthalmic antiques collectors club at the annual subscriptions rate ofj 3 (overseas rate j 4, ca. $7). he already has a few members who -3responded to a letter in the optician (london) last f1ay. the first issue, no. l, of a quarterly newsletter entitled the bulletin appeared in september, 1982. the club•s first letterhead included that favorite of gremlin-induced errors, the omission of the second 11 h11 in ophthalmic, suggesting to or­ ganizer davidson that it, too, 11 might one day become a collector•s item! 11 the club operates as a .. nonprofit making 11 venture, says davidson, 11 running on the proverbial shoestring, .. or, more appropriately, 11 dangling on the end of a monocle cord. 11 the first issue of the bulletin outlines the rather obvious but never­ theless quite unique purposes of the club. it includes a brief article on spectacle restoration techniques and another on clues and criteria for dating spectacles. mentioned is the fact that what the british call 11 sides 11 are called 11 bows 11 in america, and that similarly and respectively, 11 flexible curl 11 is called 11 riding bow, 11 reinforcing g.b. shaw•s observation that england and america are two countries separated by a common language. to guide those trying to evaluate their own collections for whatever purposes, prices fetched by various described ophthalmic items at auctions, and as listed in several recent sales, are included. club members also list items for sale and items and information wanted. subscribers are requested to state their special interests and to make offers to buy, sell, or exchange items for or from their personal collections. of time and transposition: ohs member david cline, o.d., co-editor of the dictionary of visual science and retired from practice shares the following with us: the paris trip of j.c. bloom, o.d. in 1900 in the october 1982 r~ewsletter of the optometric historical society was indeed most interesting. while i am not old enough to know of the year 1900 my recollections of optometry do go back to the early l93o•s. no, i was not an optometrist at that time but i had a broader view of the profession by being in the wholesale optical business and having contact with about a thousand practitioners. i now realize, in looking backward, how primitive our profession was at that time. one of our accounts apparently had a very successful practice, as judged by the quantity of uncut, single vision lenses ordered each week in addition to his rx orders. for a number of weeks each of his orders included a request for two pair of -.37 cyl­ inders which we promptly shipped in envelopes designated in the transposed form, -.37 + .37. after several months we received an indignant letter complaining bitterly that he had repeatedly ordered -.37 cylinders which we never supplied and that he was returning many lenses received but not ordered. you guessed it. the next day in came a package of about 20 pair of -.37 + .37 lenses. apparently he had become a successful refractionist without ever learning simple transposition. -4another instance of an optometrist with a fairly large practice who knew little or nothing about optics came to our attention by our receiving an interesting letter from him accompanying an order for a pair of kryptok lenses. the order was as follows: distance: .r +2.00 + .50 x 90 l +2.00 + .50 x 90 add: r +2.00 l +2.00 tota 1: r +2.00 + .50 x 90 l +2.00 sphere it was customary in those days for an rx order form to include spaces for both adds and totals. most optometrists merely wrote the adds but not the totals, as had been done previously by this par­ ticular optometrist.· his accompanying letter explained that in the past he had never examined for astigmatism at near but had decided to do so after seeing orders written by an ophthalmologist containing specifications for cylinder power at near. his accompanying rx order was for the first patient examined for both distance and near astig­ matism and that he wanted to call our attention to the fact that +.50 cylinders were needed for both eyes for distance but that he had found astigmatism at near for ~ the right eye and that he wanted to be certain that we made the lenses accordingly. i personally drove to his office to deliver that pair of kryptoks and to give him a short course on the construction of fused bifocals. i could continue with similar stories but they would be re­ dundant. i just hope that modern optometrists will appreciate the long road we have traveled in such a few years and can appreciate their opportunity to have received a well-rounded education. may i also call attention to the 11 monster11 00 lenses mentioned by dr. bloom. my memory is not exact after 50 years but i think 00 lenses were either 39 mm or 41 mm oval. hardly big enough for in­ fants these days. how to enact an optometry law: within a span of years much shorter than the length of the average optometrist's career well over 60 states, provinces, commonwealths, and territories in north america and australia enacted laws to register op­ tometrists and regulate the profession. these enactments occurred during approximately the first quarter of this century. from the contemporary books by charles f. prentice (legalized optometry and memoirs, 1926) and e.e. arrington (history of optometry, 1929) we have gained a fairly comprehensive but somewhat encapsulated -5appreciation of the fact that intensive campaigns and battles took place. however, the step by step maneuvers, the political tactics, and the personal intricacies involved in these efforts have been left largely to our imagination through lack of recording. only a few of us older ones have heard occasional accounts of isolated instances told to us with nostalgic embellishment by some of the now decreased participants. · oh, but in the april 11, 1918, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, val. 41, no. 16, pages 1061-1064, there are more than three full pages of small print describing in blow-by-blow detail an account of 11 how optometry won in queens 1 and. 11 the account was based on a long personal letter received by the editor from j.s. guilfoy of brisbane, a member of the first appointed board. queensland, the huge australian province preceded in that quarter of the globe only by the island of tasmania in the enactment of an optometry law, formally initiated its efforts in 1911. the final passage was accomplished very late in 1917 or early 1918, the exact date not being stated in the article. included in the account are names of the sponsors, proponents, and opponents participating in the lengthy drive and in the legislative hearings •. the types of arguments and evidence submitted, amendment attempts, and letter-writing and button-holing campaigns to win support of individual members of parliament are vividly described. 11 /l ~ with eric bateman .. : that is the title of an article by a.h. degenhardt in the october 9, 1982 issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 22, no. 20, pages 679680. the subtitle is 11 a glance back over a century of optics 11 • men­ tioned in the report are the early issues of reflex, the journal of the refraction hospital union from 1927 to 1930, and numerous details concerning the origin of the london refraction hospital itself, which opened its doors for the first time on january 8, 1923. mentioned also was the fact that in 1929 a group of opticians founded the society of oculists in an attempt to promote the term "oculist .. as a professional title. during bateman's career there were five organizations holding qualifying examinations. one of bateman's many involvements was as chairman of the middle east optical practitioners' group. not mentioned in the article is the fact, if my own memory is correct, that eric and mary bateman's home was earlier the home of one of england's better known prime ministers. visual screening history: 11 the first optometric industrial vision program in los angeles -6[california] was organized in 1922. 11 reported edward goodlaw, 0.0., in the june 1959 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 30, no. 11, pp. 787-790, under the title 11 history and development of in­ dustrial visual surveys ... he preferred the term 11 survey 11 instead of 11 screening 11 because of what he believed is a 11 weeding out11 connotation of the latter. whether the 1922 los angeles project was a first in the state or nationally, or even worldly, is not averred. the program was organized under the 11 california league for the con­ servation of vision 11 and was financed by voluntary subscriptions from members of the los angeles county optometric association. the subscriptions were collected by the laboratory suppliers as per cent surcharges. though the program survived only a year, six public schools were sur­ veyed by means of a modified clinical procedure employing acuity and motility tests, retinoscopy, and ophthalmoscopy. children needing optometric care were referred to a 11 yale street clinic 11 which, unexplained, seems to have been a part of the program • .. the same tests, with the addition of accommodative amplitude measure­ ments were used ·in industrial surveys. goodlav1 implies that in the in­ dustrial phase problems soon arose because the surveys, provided free, soon acquired the attributes of 11 spec-selling 11 tactics. some time later, no dates given, the late dr. arthur hoare, a former member of our o.h.s. executive board, decided to do industrial survey work on his own. active in the illuminating engineering society and in the national safety society, he served as a paid visual consultant to general petroleum corporation, union oil company, vernon refinery, shell oil company, and standard oil company. his surveys were eventually terminated by his resignation in protest of the rapidly developing policy of employers to purchase safety lenses and frames en masse from manufacturers and whole­ salers. during the 1 40s a committee of the los angeles county optometric as­ sociation attempted to institute a workable survey pattern which never came to fruition but was succeeded by the rather extensive school screening program of the los angeles college of optometry under the direction of the late professor m.j. hirsch. in 1951 the california optometrists occupa­ tional vision services (.coovs) was incorporated under a special chapter of the california law which enabled this type of corporation to employ health professionals for limited purposes. during its first seven years of existence it conducted 15 surveys. 2o;2o hindsight--4/4 foresight: in an editorial entitled flunking the metric test in the november 1982 issue of photonics spectra teddi c. laurin remarks, 11 the picture isn•t all bleak, to be sure. some industries--like optics--have, for various historic reasons, always been predominantly metric ... -7corporate structure of the ilar-10: what is the relationship of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc., to the american optometric association, inc.? here are a few details which should clarify the matter. ilamo was incorporated under the laws of the state of missouri on june 1, 1973, as a 11 general not for profit corporation .. to 11 be operated exclusively for educational, charitable, and scientific purposes for the benefit of and to carry out the purposes of the american optometric as­ sociation ... on june 4, 1974, this sentence of the statement of purposes of the articles of incorporation was amended to delete the inclusion of the aoa in its purposes and therefore to read simply, 11 be operated ex­ clusively for educational, charitable, and scientific purposes ... further, these purposes 11 shall include ••• the operation and funding of libraries, archives, and museums relating to the art and science of optometry ... the by-laws provide that the number of directors of ila~10 shall be not less than five nor more than eleven, the actual number to be de­ termined, and their appointments to be made, by the board of trustees of the american optometric association. the regular term of appointment is for three years. to date all appointees have been selected from among current members of the aoa board of trustees. the board of directors manages all of the affairs of the corporation and may exercise all of its legal powers, including the appointment of its officers. the by-laws may be altered, amended, or repealed by the board of directors, with the approval of the board of trustees of the american optometric association. the corporation authority includes, 11 ••• , without limitation, the power to accept loans, donations or con­ tributions of money or property (wherever situated) or services of any kind. 11 11 no part of the net earnings of the corporation shall inure to the benefit of, or be distributable to, any of the directors or officers of the corporation, or any other person, except that the corporation shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonab 1 e compensation for services rendered ... the corporation is not permitted to attempt to influence legis­ lation or campaign in behalf of any candidate for public office. drs. conan doyle and cronin: sir arthur conan doyle of sherlock holmes fame was a successful general practitioner of medicine but considerably less successful in his brief venture as an ophthalmologist. details of his practice ex­ periences were reported by his daughter in a radio program in february and written up in an article entitled, 11 conan doyle--the unsuccessful ophthalmologist .. by j.b. addenbrooke phillips in the september 25, 1982, issue of the ophthalmic optician, vol. 22, no. 19, p. 638. a comparable career pattern, reports addenbrooke phillips in the same article, was that of the recently deceased dr. a.j. cronin, though his brief practice as an oculist was terminated by illness rather than lack of patients. -8dartmouth~ institute (1929-1947): in the preface to his classic book 11 researches in binocular vision 11 published by w.b. saunders company, philadelphia, 1950, kenneth n. ogle, ph.d. wrote: the institute terminated its activities july 1, 1947, after eighteen years of rather intensive research on problems in physio­ logic optics and the application of the results of that research to clinical ophthalmology and to visual science in general. there­ searches were initiated by adelbert ames, jr., with a small group in the physics building at dartmouth college. later the group be­ came a department of the dartmouth medical school, and finally this was expanded into the dartmouth eye institute by the late alfred bielschowsky, m.d. the clinical activities were instigated by walter b. lancaster, m.d., professor of ophthalmology, harvard t•1edical school, and the early clinical work was supervised by e.h. carleton, m.d., professor of ophthalmology of the dartmouth medical school at hanover [new hampshire, u.s.a.]. during the entire period of the existence of the organization, however, mr. ames remained actually the head, and in those eighteen years it was he who provided the motivating spirit and the enthusiasm for the research. . the generous grants of mr. john d. rockefeller, jr., and later those of the rockefeller foundation, provided the basic financial support. these grants together with the gifts of many interested friends, and in particular those of the american optical company (which also put at the disposal of the research group its optical manufacturing facilities), made possible the scope and continuity of the various activities. by way of expressing his appreciation to the various other members of the institute for the contributions and collaborations which made his book possible dr. ogle listed 11 ••• the other men and women who were sometime mem­ bers of the department of research in physiological optics and of the dartmouth eye institute 11 , a total of 36, as follm'ls: rudolph amann, ll.b. handford auten, m.d. ethel j. babbitt, b.s. *robert e. bannon, b.s. s • hovo~a rd bart 1 ey, ph. d. *robert j. beitel, ph.d. alfred bielschowsky, m.d. lorna billinghurst carl breisacher, m.d. hermann m. burian, m.d. elmer h. carleton, m.d. herbert f. childs, m.a. eloise chute, m.a. a~thur f. dittmer, ph.d. *vincent j. ellerbrock, ph.d. mi 1 o fritz, t·1. d. gordon h. gliddon, ph.d. werner herzau, m.d. ranald hill camilla hubscher *henry a. imus, ph.d. walter b. lancaster, m.d. arthur f. linksz, m.d. *leo f. madigan, m.a. paul w. miles, m.d. j. miles o'brien, m.d. robert h. peckham, ph.d. kenneth l. roper, m.d. otto schniebs lawrence p. sparks, m.a. leon straw *rudolph t. textor, b.s. f1i lton thorburn *wendell triller, b.s. *rita walsh, b.s. *e. craig wilson, b.s. -9of the 36 on the list at least nine were in fact optometrists. those whom i know to have been optometrists are marked with asterisks. there may be others. the absence of the o.d. degree or any other professional identi­ fication reflects the early lack of uniformity of degree granting in the various optometry schools and the simultaneous lack of professional assumption of the uniform description o.d., which occurred later. it may also reflect the contemporarily intense avoidance of identification of optometric roles in the literature and institutions under ophthal­ mological hegemony. these are circumstances that make the tracing of optometric history even more difficult. contributions ·py colin fryer: o.h.s. member colin b. fryer of liverpool, england, frequently publishes very personalized historical pieces in the optician. he kindly sent me four of his most recent contributions. their in­ triguing titles are 11 spectacles in den gamle by 11 (vol. 181, no. 4682, march 27,1981, p. 23), 11 0ptics at the castle museum, york 11 (vol. 181, no. 4717, november 27,1981, pp. 31-32 & 35), 11 the sesquicentenary of wolfgang von goethe, part one 11 (vol. 183, no. 4732, march 19, 1982, pp. 17-18223), and 11 part two 11 (vol. 183, no. 4736,. april 16, 1982, pp. 23-24226). den gamle by, which fryer rresumes to be 11 universally known, 11 is the 11 0ld town 11 at aarhus or arhus in jutland, denmark. it is not the oldest part of the city, but a unique, living, occupied, museum housed in a village of genuine period buildings brought from all over the countryside. included is a watchmaker's shop with late 19th cen­ tury fittings and equipment and a showcase containing old spectacles. fryer adds, 11 in 19th century denmark many craftsmen practised the two callings, just as their modern counterparts still do today. 11 the oldest model in the collection is a pair of german origin dating back to 1749. in the second article ~1r. fryer describes his visit to the castle museum in york, especially to look at the antique spectacles in the green gallery and in the 19th century optical shop. the green gallery includes the wide variety of bygones donated to the city by dr. john l. kirk (1869-1940), a north yorkshire medical practitioner. the latter, the optical shop, is named after thomas cooke (1807-1868), a famous york optician and 11 philosophical 11 instrument maker. in that era the word philosophical had a connotation similar to today's word scientific. besides describing in detail several of the more unusual items in each collection, mr. fryer provides an account of the growth and accomplishments of the cooke enterprise. the two articles on goethe (1749-1832) include numerous bits of vital information and examples of goethe's wide scientific, cultural, and professional interests, especially his involvement with optics, -10light,and color. it is apparent that goethe was a sharp observer, an ex­ plicit describer, and an uninhibited theorist. the mutograph and mutoscope: mr. fryer responded as follows to an inqui-ry of mine: the terms 'mutoscope' and 'mutograph' together with their verbs and adjectives are now not often used in this country and i doubt if they ever were. they are mentioned in 11 a nev.f english diction­ ary on historical principles" by sir james murray, oxford, (1908), which later became the famous "oxford english dictionary", and in its "supplement" (1976). 'r1utoscope' is also mentioned in "an etymological dictionary of the english language" by walter w. skeat. according to the fo.rm.er they appear to have been derived from the latin mutare meaning 'to change' and the greek skopeo meaning 'to look' or 'to view', although another possibility is from mute, i.e. silent. they were coined by william dickson and hermann casler in the u.s. in 1895 for a moving picture peepshow and a camera they had devised, in the case of the peepshow (mutoscope), to rival thomas edison's kinetoscope, which dickson (an englishman) had also developed. the mutoscope was really a glorified version of the "flicker" or "riffle" books patented in 1868 by another englishman called li nnett as the 'kineograph'. it consisted of a ser.i es of success­ ively phased photographs of an animated scene mounted radially on an axial, each of which quickly appeared one after the other under a viewing lens as q crank handle was turned after a coin had been placed in a slot. a company, the american t1utoscope company, was set up to manu­ facture them and in the latter half of the decade mutoscope parlours appeared a 11 over the states. the american ~-1utoscope company even­ tually grew into the famous biograph company, producers of some out­ standing early feature films. similar contrivances to the mutoscope were later produced in europe under various names. one introduced by the lumiere brothers in france as the 'kinora' was operated by a clockwork motor instead of a crank handle. sometime afterwards the term mutoscope was applied to the flicker books themselves, while the term mutograph was used as a synonym for photograph. you will not find the two nouns in the first three editions of the dictionary of visual science, but they will be in the fourth. neither are they in webster's third new international dictionary, unabridged, but they are in the current oxford unabridged dictionary, and 'mutoscope' is found in webster's second edition, 1959. illustrations of their mechanisms and use are featured on the front cover of april 17, 1897, issue of scientific american, vol. 76, no. 16, and in an article entitled "the art of movinq -11photography 11 on pages 248-250. one of the illustrations shows the mutograph being used for photographing the pennsylvania limited [train] running at 60 miles per hour. another shows a mutoscope with its side panel open to display its inner workings. the anonymous author of the article gives credit 11 for courtesies extended 11 to mr. herman casler as the inventor and to mr. w.k.l. dickson · as 11 the pioneer i nves ti gator in the art of moving photography. 11 though not implied in the article, the oxford dictionary suggests by a choice of literary quotation that the adjective form 11mutoscopic 11 usefully conveyed the meaning of risque or bawdy. this secondary con­ notation presumably derived from the principal use of the mutoscope in penny arcades to exhibit moving exposures of questionable decency briefly upon insertion of a small coin. this is within living memory. retrospective diagnosis: from world press review, september 1980, p. 9: richard eckersley, science reporter for the sydney morning herald [australia] reported in the july 12, 1982, issue that dr. james leavesley of perth is a physician who likes to investigate the ailments of individuals long dead. in his speculative techniques devoted to the painter vincent van gogh [1853-1890] dr. leavesley suggests the possibility that van gogh's 11 obsession with the color yellow in the last years of his life was not artistic expression but the result of digitalis poisoning. van gogh was being treated at the time for epilepsy. digitalis ••. was a fashionable treatment for epilepsy. 11 optometric history ~peru: the following three paragraphs are excerpted from the translation by optometry student carlos pages of a letter of july 5, 1982, received by me from optometrist alfredo horta coronel of av. petit thouars no. 5550 miraflores, lima, peru. firstly, i would like to tell you that around the 1950's, which is the period that i obtained my degree, the shortage or absence of universities made the accessibility to higher educa­ tion practically impossible for the great majority of the people. in my case, for example, i learned optics and optometry through apprenticeship classes taught to me many years ago by a german immigrant, who correctly instructed me in the practices and skills necessary to fulfill my role in this profession, which i had done for many years (outside of my country). upon returning to my country, i was obligated to leave to the united states with the purpose of obtaining an optometry degree, since there existed many legal problems in practicing without a degree in peru. lamentably, upon returning to my country, a law was enacted prohibiting the practice of optometry, leaving me without any possibility of practicing, since my -12recently acquired degree was of no use, nor any of the legal proceed­ ings that i carried out effective, in order to modify this injust situation. in order for you to get a general idea of the situation, i am enclosing photocopies of all my papers, duly legalized, as well as my degree and a document that accredits those who issued my degree had the full authority to do so. the agency from which dr. horta coronel obtained his doctoral title was the philadelphia optical college, an old diploma mill operating out of philadelphia. it ceased luring american optometrists at about the time all u.s. accredited schools granted the o.d. degree, but, much to our chagrin, it continued to sell optometry doctoral degrees to victims in other countries. the accrediting document to which dr. horta c. refers merely certified the agency's legal standing as a corporation duly chartered by the commonwealth of pennsylvania. for looking fingers: the august 1982 sales catalog of the howe press of perkins school for the blind, watertown, massachusetts 02172-9982 arrived in two forms, large print and braille. the following bit of history is included in the printed catalog, together with a portrait of dr. samuel gridley howe: in 1879, three years after the death of dr. samuel gridley howe-­ the first director of perkins--his successor michael anagnos, made a public appeal for funds for the printing department of the school. at that time he also gave the printing department the name howe memorial press, which it's been called, officially, ever since. in recent years, though, it's been customary to refer to it more fre­ quently as the howe press of perkins school for the blind, thus making clear its association with the parent organization. in naming the printing press after his predecessor, michael anagnos knew exactly where credit was due. for dr. howe, among his many other accomplishments, was a leader, worldwide, in the work of providing books for blind children. even before he admitted his first pupils to his father's home in 1832, dr. howe had made clear his attitude toward books for the blind. in europe, which he had visited the previous year, he found that in some of the schools the idea of teaching the blind to read was not encouraged. he rejected the argument given him in england that blind people would always have sighted people available to read to them, and he recogni2ed how much more pleasure was to be obtained by reading by oneself. 11 they (the blind), 11 he 11/rote, 11 can stop and go back or read over a passage a dozen times, reflect upon it as long as they choose, and refer to it on any occasion ... dr. howe examined books being printed in europe and didn't find -13them to his liking--finding them unnecessarily bulky and, con­ sequently, too costly to produce. and, too, all of these books used the ordinary shaped letters of print books, whereas howe felt that a special type for blind readers could be designed which would take up less space and which, while easily read by sight, would also be easier to read by touch. when the school opened in 1832, he designed what became known as "boston line type," which is sti 11 used by the howe press on the title pages of its books [including the brailled sales catalog]. for over 50 years, it \'jas the predominant type for the blind in the u.s~ for his contribution, dr. howe was awarded a gold medal in 1851 by prince albert at his famous international exhibition in london. the rise and fall of~ optometry school: recently acquired and donated to i lat10 by ohs president leeds is a 1923 catalogue of the rochester school of optometry. it consists of 32 pages and a stiff paper jacket measuring 23xl5 em. the first page informs us that it is the 11 thentieth annual catalogue 11, that the school was 11 chartered by the university of the state of new york" as "a school of optics and optometry, organized-1902, chartered-1909, reorganized1916", and that the 11 0ffi ce of the dean' was at "38 south vjashington street, rochester, n.y. 11 a full page photograph on the second page shows the 11 0ptometric clinic' as five lanes or open-ended booths or stalls in what appears to be the modified interior of a frame house. the equipment in the first stall includes a desk, a swivel stool, an ives acuity meter on a very tall stand behind an adjustable steel frame examining chair, a phoropter on a floor stand, an adjustable examiner's stool, an oph­ thalmometer on an adjustable instrument stand, and an adjustable tilt mirror on a stand at a distance of about three meters. the partially visible interiors of the four other stalls down the corridor seem comparably furnished. page 3 shows the calendar for the 1923-24 school year beginning in the fall and ending in june with specific dates for filing scholar­ ship applications, taking entrance examinations, registration, mid-year and final examinations, payment of fees, mid-term tests, baccalaureate sermon, and commencement exercises. listed holidays included columbus day, armistice day, thanksgiving recess, christmas vacation, lincoln's birthday, washington's birthday, easter vacation, and t1emorial day. dates were also given for the 11 annual banquet and alumni meeting", the 11 spring frolic", a 11 faculty serenade11 and 11 class dai'. page 4 listed the faculty as ernest petry, dean, maurice a. wilder, harry m. bestor, herbert e. wilder, ralph l. dublin, gordon h. gliddon, clarence c. rogers, theodore h. martens, charles e. cox, and benjamin k. fickes, each with his topical teaching assignment and home address. also indicated were two faculty vacancies, one for mechanical drawing and the other for optical shop. the name of althea c. arend was listed -14with her home address as secretary to the dean. serving on the board of directors were carl lomb of the bausch & lomb optical co., burt b. clark of the klatorik optical co., w.h. vianco of the rochester athenaeum and ~1echanics institute, william h. briggs, retired, and harry m. bestor, a practicing optometrist. the following historical paragraphs are reproduced from the section entitled organization beginning on page 5: the rochester school of optometry was organized in 1902 as one of the first optometry schools to conduct an attendance course, and to meet the growing demand that was evident throughout the country at that time for more thorough training in optics and op­ tometry. th~ work was carried on as then outlined until 1909. in that year the state of new york passed the optometry law which demanded a two-year course in an approved school, as a professional educa­ tional requirement for the practice of optometry. to meet this requirement, the rochester school of optometry applied for and was granted a charter by the university of the state of new york. the school, which was then a private institution, progressed slowly, but satisfactorily, until it was found necessary to change its organization to meet the conditions imposed upon it by the rapid development in the profession of optometry. this organization was accomplished in 1916, when the school was placed under the management of a board of directors. this board, which was composed of representative optical men, planned to broaden the scope of the school, and administer its affairs in a manner more conducive to the advancement of optical and optometric education. . under the reorganization, the school passed from private ownership to a semi-public institution, whose entire income would be de­ voted to its development. in august, 1918, the board of directors was reorganized and its personnel changed, so as to amplify the benefits to be derived therefrom by a closer relationship with philanthropic individuals whose educational and optical interests proved to be of exceptional value in planning the future policy and progress of the rochester school of optometry, in a subsequent section beginning on page 6 are the following: the regulations prescribed by the various state laws vary con­ siderably at the present time, but a concerted effort on the part of the international federation of optometry is tending to unify more generally both the preliminary and professional educational requirements. -15the requirements of the new york state optometry law specify that applicants for license to practice optometry must be at least twenty-one years of age, must be of moral character, have a pre­ liminary education of at least four years in a recognized high school, must be graduated from a two-year course conducted by an optometry school chartered by the university of the state of new york and must pass the examinations provided by the state board of examiners in optometry. these requirements vdll continue in effect until 1930, when, besides having lived up to all other requirements as now in force, the applicant must be graduated from a four-year optometry course and have received a bachelor degree. to provide for the confirming of this degree, the rochester school of optometry is negotiating with one of the leading universities of this country so that stu­ dents who register in 1926 will be qualified to meet the require­ ments of the laws. if possible, arrangements will be made for the fulfillment of this requirement at an earlier date than is specified by law. the school consisted of three distinct departments of instruction. one was the department of optometry. the departmern of optgr~etry conducts two courses; one of two years and the other of three years duration. the two-year optometry course is conducted primarily to meet the minimum re­ quirements of the present new york state optometry law and all other state laws of equal requirement. the subjects presented are all of those specified by law plus a fe\'1 which are offered because of their practical and cultural value. owing to the time limitations, this course requires extraordinary diligence and application for satisfactory record and graduation therefrom. the three-year optometry course was established september, 1921, for two distinct reasons, one of which is to create a more practical balance between the theoretic and applied subjects, and at the same time to provide a less arduous curriculum. the second reason for the establishment of this course was to grad­ ually develop a course in accordance with the requirements, as they will be advanced so as to comply with the present amendment to the new york state optometry law, which requires graduation from a four-year optometry course after 1930. -an advantage of this course is that it permits students to register with a minimum age limit of eighteen years and that being the average age of the high school graduate, it eliminates the year of delay which has been an unfortunate requirement for a number of stu­ dents desiring to enter the two-year course. a 11 state board requirements are met by the three-year op­ tometry course, and all but those of the state of pennsylvania are fully met by the two-year course. -16the three-year optometry course, which \'las inaugurated in sep­ tember, 1921, has proven itself a most satisfactory development in optometric education in that it provides theoretic and practical instruction in proper balance. this course also makes possible the arrangement of a schedule of class work which is in accord with the most approved pedagogical recommendations. the two-year optometry course will be continued with but slight alterations, but because of the excessive amount of instruction and the relative extensive­ ness of its scope, it is not to be recommended except to those who have more than average ability as students. to college graduates with teaching ability and to those now engaged in the teaching profession who have the desire or in­ clination to divert their efforts in the direction of applied teaching, the opportunity is being presented by several univer­ sities at this time which, although desirous of inaugurating departments of optometry; are unable to find properly trained and educationally capable instructors. it is recommended there­ fore, that all who are desirous of taking advantage of this most promising opportunity. correspond with the dean concerning the same. the pennsylvania state board of examiners have officially ac­ cepted the work conducted during the third year of the three-year optometry course as an acceptable substitute for the one year of apprenticeship under a registered optometrist which the pennsylvania optometry law requires as a necessary supplement to graduation from a two-year optometry course. the department of technical optics was the outgrowth of an urgent demand on the part of optical manufacturers and wholesale prescription opticians for technically trained assistants and foremen for their establishments. this course is almost entirely of a practical nature, and prepares both men and women for the mechanical, or what might be called the laboratory work, of the optometrist. the department of·evening instruction offers an opportunity to the employees of optical factories in and about rochester to improve themselves educationally by offering courses during the early evening hours. concerning the clinic the catalogue informs us, among the groups from which clinic patients are drawn are the employees of optical establishments, students of the university of rochester, mechanics institute and rochester's public school system. examinations are made free of charge by the students under the supervision of a registered optometrist, and prescriptions are given to all who require glasses. in the cases of children of poor parentage, glasses are provided free of charge. -17pages 10 and 11 are devoted almost entirely to a description of the equipment and facilities of the "optometric clinic", the "optical shop", the "optometric laboratory", and the "opti ca 1 laboratory". pages 12 and 13 outline the several curricula. page 14 is a group photograph of the 10-member "r.s.o. 1923 basketball teaw' in regulation type basketball-playing suits with rso lettered shirts, and including what appears to be a 4-member coaching staff. upon satisfactory completion of a prescribed curriculum each stu­ dent was awarded a diploma or certificate designating the nature of the course and duration of attendance. course descriptions are given on pages 15 to 19, including that for history of optics, a one hour per week course in the first semester of the second year. another course not commonly included in today's curricular requirements was hygiene, one hour per week for a semester. entrance requirements for admission to either of the optometry curricula stipulated completion of four years high school, or official certification of equivalence, which included as a minimum three years of english, physics, a year of foreign language, algebra, plane geometry, a year of history, a year of biology, and a year of "freehand or ~1echanical drawing". the "recommended" high school studies included four years of english, two of latin, one of greek, one of bookkeeping, solid geometry, chemistry, manual training, and civics! the various fees and tuition totaled $277 per year, and the student was advised that the "average living expense during the past year was $10.00 a week," and that, "students are housed with private families, large boarding houses, fraternities, the y.m.c.a. and brick church . institute". severa 1 scholarships were offered, and a student loan fund enabled "worthy senior students ••• to borrow any amount not to exceed two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00) at 6 per cent interest." students had convenient access not only to the school's own library but also to the library of the rochester athenaeum and mechanics' in­ stitute, the reynolds library, the rochester university reference library, the municipal library, and, through the faculty, the optical libraries of the bausch & lomb optical company and the eastman kodak company. · pages 26 to 32 deal with students' earnings, graduate placement, student mail, regulations, athletics, inspection tours of optical plants, prizes (nine), assemblies, the student association (r.s.o. society), the school paper (r.s.o. focus), and fraternities (hu delta pi, psi epsilon, and omega pi tau). inserted in the catalogue was an application for enrollment which requested, in addition to the vital, career related, and academic preparatory questions, "name sport and position in which you have experience", 11 what musical instrument do you play?" "have you editorial or managerial experience?" "married or single?" and "what church do you attend? 11 -18altogether this catalogue is probably the most complete and most clearly written booklet of information i have ever seen for a school or college. to the best of my personal knowledge the school folded in about 1937, at which time i recall that one final year student, whose name es­ capes me, transferred out of the closing rochester school into the ohio state university school to complete his studies. at about that time i also had the pleasure of meeting dr. petry, but i cannot recall the circum­ stance • . test card or handout? inserted with the aforementioned 1923 catalogue of the rochester school of optometry was a 22xl5 em sheet of rather thin paper on which was printed a series of six paragraphs of successively smaller type size topped by the word optometry in 6 mm high letters. though it resembled a reading test card, it would hardly have been used for that purpose because of its fl im­ siness. traces of dried glue at the top edge suggested that it was removed from a pad. the wordy text starts with the definition, "optqt.1etry is the measurement of the human eye for the purpose of diagnosing its defects and prescribing proper glasses for the relief thereof." the subsequent paragraphs in successively smaller type elaborate on the definition and functions of the optometrist and offer some advice on eye care. in the smallest print at the bottom are the words, "publication c2 department of public information. american optometric association." exactly how these printed sheets were to be used is not obvious, but one can guess that the optometrist might have given one to each patient as a sort of "take home" indicator of the need for the next examination. collecting optical patent papers? if you are, you may wish to respond to the following offer received by jim leeds last september: 1. heavy paper printed document, a patent from the dominion of canada, oct. 15, 1901, to david hunt ludlow for "improvements in eyeglasses and spectacles", official seal, typed declaration enclosed with sketch of the "invention", folded, vgc, $12.00. 2. another patent as above from canada for a different improvement in eyeglasses and spectacles, nov. 26, 1900, heavy paper patent tearing at fold else good, $11.00. the following items are us patent office copies of other persons• eye­ glasses inventions. 1. l.l. mincer, patented feb. 26, 1895, no. 534, 803, 2p or 1 sheet of printed description & full p. illus item (nose piece). 2. e.s. fowler, dec. 1, 1891, similar eyeglass nose piece, paper fair. 3. i. fox eyeglasses, jan. 29, 1884, phila pa inventor, eye piece again, good. -194. d.h. ludlow, may 28, 1901, (may be the us version of the canada patents, printed form, illus, some crease tears else good). i offer the 6 items as a lot for $25.00pp. going, going, gone: mr. lee w. reese 302 s. state street ephrata, pa 17522 recently received is a copy of an acknowledgement of receipt by ilamo of materials donated by elias shaneson, o.d., upon his retire­ ment from practice in buffalo, new york, to lake worth, florda. listed in detail were 34 books and reprints, assorted issues of seven periodicals, and nine miscellaneous items mostly from his student years at columbia university. most of the items are rather familiar to those of us of the same vintage as dr. shaneson, which is to say that we remember seeing them at numerous times during our careers. such familiarity makes them seem commonplace and even worthless. what escapes us is the fact that most of us have treated their values lightly and may even have disposed of them as trash, especially if space was needed for more up-to-date materials. the result is that any given printed or written item that may have been issued in quantities of a hundred · or a thousand or even greater numbers may now be reduced to a dozen or fewer extant copies in the whole world. we owe thanks to dr. shaneson for allowing experienced and quali­ fied archivists to make the essential decisions for archival purposes. cherokee eyewash: exhibited at the cherokee national museum, tsa-la-gi, tahlequah, oklahoma 74464, u.s.a., under the display board reading of 11 cherokee medicine•• is a small transparent envelope of thin wood chips or shavings with the following posted legend: cherokee name: ta wa tsi luh common name: slippery elm botanical name: ulmus fulva cherokee remedy for: eyewash augenoptik features history: perusal of the last dozen or more issues of augenoptik, a bi­ monthly optometric journal from east germany, uncovered a surprising number of articles, mostly biographical, of historical interest. -20six of them are printed on the inside cover pages of the 1980 issues, vol. 97, nos. 1 to 6. annoyingly these two inside pages on each issue are not numbered and sometimes identified simply as the 2nd and 3rd pages of the magazine jacket, the outer sides being the 1st and 4th. they are not paginated with the rest of the magazine contents nor listed in the tables of contents, and therefore forever lost in directory retrieval systems except as mentioned here. all of them appear under the repeated caption 11 aus der geschichte der optik11 as follm'ls. jan.-feb. [author anonymous], 11 rene descartes (cartesius) 11 [1596-1650] mar.-apr. [author anonymous], 11 isaac newton (1643 bis 1727) 11 may-june, l.j. maxam, 11michail wassiljewitsch lomonossow (1711-1765) 11 july-aug., u. r.1axam, 11 thomas young (1773 bis 1829) 11 sept.-oct., u. t·1axam, 11 hennann von helmholtz 1821-189411 nov. -dec. [author anonymous] , 11 mori tz von rohr ( 1868-1940) 11 the articles are well written and referenced and typically include an illustration or two. they deal briefly with a few vital facts and in more detail with each subject's contributions in visual optics. the similarity of format suggests that r~axam may have authored all six. they are of course in german. other articles of historical interest also have appeared from time to time in the ·paginated and indexed body of the magazines, as follows: [author anonymous] , 11 aus dem leben und wi rken von karl t·1utze ( 19091979) •· [the 1 ife and works of karl r1utze], vo 1. 96, no. 6, nov. -dec. 1979, pp. 182-184. . p. wengler, 11 zur geschichte des ophthalmoskopischen geratebaus 11 [on the history of ophthalmoscopic instrument making], vol. 97, no. 1, jan.­ feb. 1980, pp. 40-45. j. abicht and p. esche, 11 ernst abbe, erfinder-gelehrter-humanist 11 [ernst abbe, inventor-scholar-humanist] [1840-1905] vol. 97, no. 1, jan.­ feb. 1980, p. 45. u. maxam, 11 100 hefte augenoptik 11 [100 issues of augenoptik], vol. 97, no. 4, july-aug. 1980, p. 98. the editor reviews editorial considerations reflected in the hundred issues of the journal appearing since adoption of its present title in january 1964. f. klix, 11 uber helmholtz' bedeutende entdeckungen bei der analyse rezeptorgebundener wahrnehmungsleistungen 11 [helmholtz's important dis­ ·coveries in analyzing receptor-specific perceptive performance], vol. 98, no. 3, ~1ay-june 1981, pp. 84-86. d. bernhardt, 11 zur geschichte der brille 11 [on the history of eye­ glasses], vol. 98, no. 6, nov.-dec. 1981, pp. 182-185 and supplemented on the inside page of the front cover. d. bernhardt, 11 die entwicklung der brille, teil il 11 [history of eye­ glasses, part ii], vol. 99, no. 1, jan.-feb. 1982, pp. 21-23 and supple­ mented on the inside page of the front cover. a continuation of the article of similar title in the preceding issue. -21legend of ~ era: the first half of this century was perhaps a relatively unique period in which a fair number of individuals successively qualified both in optometry and ophthalmology. several of these persons became very politically and emotionally involved in issues of interprofessional conflict, even to the point of assuming leadership roles in the con­ troversy by virtue of their bilateral professional experiences. one of the most prominent members of this category was edwin forbes tait (1894-1958), whom we of earlier vintage remember vividly. upon checking pagination and other reference details of the afore­ mentioned faraday article in survey of ophthalmology i happened across a brief obituary of dr. tait by arthur linksz, m.o., on page 470. the following excerpts are of special interest. "ed tait was one of that sect, for fellow ophthalmologists always somewhat outlandish, within our profession who until the end of their careers do not lose devoted interest in problems of refraction. he brought an unusually broad foundation in optics into his specialty and was able to turn this specialized knowledge to practica 1 use." "ed tait was what he looked, an american puritan; ascetic, serious, warm in heart but somewhat severe in his judgment of himself and others ••• " "his seriousness and his preoccupation with issues of moral standard made ed tait in his last years, in spite of illnesses, more and more actively engaged with problems of professional conduct and so-called interprofessional issues of eye care. about this field of his activities much is kno\'m and, i am sure, more will yet be said. we shall all sorely miss him." except for reference to tai e s "unusually broad foundation in optics," no clue was given to the fact of his distinguished opto­ metric career prior to entering the field of medicine. in the 1926 blue book of optometrists dr. tait listed himself as a 1914 graduate of the pennsylvania college of optics and ophthalmology, registrar and professor of optometry at the pennsylvania state college of optometry, and member of the american and pennsylvania optometric associations. his first listing as a licensed optometrist was in the 1918 edition and then regularly in subsequent editions through 1940. it appears that he may have abandoned his optometric license after qualifying for medical practice. dr. tait•s publications appeared in the optometric literature during his optometric career, and in the ophthalmological literature subsequently. ~siliceous style: early in the 1930 1 s when lillian m. grandmason, o.d., was president -22of the soroptimist club of los angeles her club decided upon a 11 fashion show 11 at \vhi ch each member should appear in attire representative of her own particular business, craft, or profession. dr. grandmason contrived and wore a dress made of spectacle lenses! later she was invited to display it at a biltmore fashion show. she then remodeled the gown for the lovely debutante hiss dorothy huddleston, who wore it on numerous occasions. the most glamorous occasion was the fancy dress ball of 11the troopers of hollywood .. at which she wore the 11 gown of a thousand eyes 11 escorted by the grand old man of stage and screen, mr. burr mcintosh. according to the write-up of this event in the june 1939 issue of the western optical world, vol. 27, no. 6, p. 225, the final costume made use of 5,000 lenses and 4,500 feet of waxed silk to tie the lenses together, at a cost of eleven hundred dollars. though the dress weighed 70 pounds, miss huddleston wore it 11 with the ease and grace of a princess 11 • an early optical account: mrs. rita c. zuccaro, 16901 s.w. 87th ct., miami, florida 33157 no­ ticed dr. leeds's advertisement for old books, etc., in the trader and sent him two old invoices dated 9/7/1879 and 14/7/1879 with the message, 11 ••• thought perhaps you'd 1 ike this bit of nostalgia 11 • both are from the geneva optical company, geneva, n.y., showing optical merchandise sold to a.b. jones & bro., fonda, n.y. one was for a pair of 11 gold beveled specs•• at $4.75. the other was for the following (as best i can read the longhand): 1 doz. cat. no. 588 cases •.••.•.•••••••••••••••• $1.25 l/2 gross cat. no. 574 cases. lettered •••••••••• 2.50 1 doz. cat. no. 367 frames nickled ..•..•....•••• 3.75 1 doz. cat. no. 62l .... o •••••••••••••••••••••••• 1.50 1 doz. cat. no. 612 ••.•••••.••••••.•...••.•••••• 5.00 l/2 pair frameless •.•••.•••.••••••.•.•••••••••••• 25 1 pair beveled gold e.g ..•••..••..••..••.••.•..• 4.75 19.00 scribbled notations on the backs suggest that the bills were paid. h.w hofstetter, editor p.s. have you invited a friend to join the o.h.s.? 1983-14-01-001 1983-14-01-002 1983-14-01-003 1983-14-01-004 1983-14-01-005 1983-14-01-006 1983-14-01-007 1983-14-01-008 1983-14-01-009 1983-14-01-010 1983-14-01-011 1983-14-01-012 1983-14-01-013 1983-14-01-014 1983-14-01-015 1983-14-01-016 1983-14-01-017 1983-14-01-018 1983-14-01-019 1983-14-01-020 1983-14-01-021 1983-14-01-022 hindsight_56_1_final.pdf 32 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 abstract goss david a., and pike scott e. carol b. pratt: pacific university's original optometric genius. n.p., bee tree books, 2023. isbn 9781-945-39814-8. 113+13 pages. paperback. introduction this book is a memoir of one of pacific university’s significant founding faculty members, carol b. pratt, o.d., ph.d. the text covers the development of dr. pratt’s innovative optometric testing, nearpoint visual function analysis, and original research. it is divided into six chapters and six appendices and spans 113 pages. in chapter one, a biographical sketch, we learn about carol b. pratt’s educational history from his initial start doing opticianry work in his father’s optometry practice, to studying with charles sheard while earning his ph.d. in biophysics at the university of minnesota. it was during his time in minnesota that he met his future wife, carol adams, leading the two to become known amongst friends as “carol a.” and “carol b.” in order to avoid confusion. while teaching at the north pacific college of optometry (npco), pratt earned his optometry degree remarkably in only one year. later in 1945, dr. pratt became the first optometry professor at pacific university during which he also carried the responsibilities of dean for the first two to three years. chapters two and three detail dr. pratt’s unique optometric examination routine and his methods of analyzing accommodation and convergence test findings. initially starting clinical practice with an exam similar to the optometric extension program’s (oep) 21-point exam, dr. pratt went on to develop an exam that would be “first rate” without retinoscopy, as he found he was not as good at retinoscopy as he would have wished—a feeling that may resonate with some optometry students today! in addition to his teaching and patient care responsibilities, dr. pratt also conducted research on myopia and astigmatism and served as a mentor for many student research projects. these topics are detailed in chapters four and five. one of his most interesting projects was coming up with a unique method for measuring aniseikonia. while dr. pratt was a prolific researcher, he published only one paper in an optometric journal; fortunately, this book serves as a reference to highlight some of his significant scientific work. chapter six stands as a testament to his legacy through a series of stories, tributes and perspectives. dr. pratt was a man of great intellect and inventiveness, known by one of his former colleagues as “mr. optometry.” this book would be of interest to any current and former pacific university student or faculty member, as well as those interested in unpublished research on nearpoint visual function. book review: carol b. pratt: pacific university’s original optometric genius by david a. goss and scott e. pike goss david a., and pike scott e. carol b. pratt: pacific university's original optometric genius. n.p., bee tree books, 2023. isbn 978-1945-39814-8. 113+13 pages. paperback. hilary gaiser, o.d., msc associate professor of optometry new england college of optometry boston, ma gaiserh@neco.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v56i1.41590 book reviews hilary gaiser, o.d., msc hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 book review 2016| page 42 book review michael aitken, l.o. sc. honorary archivist, kett museum and archive australian college of optometry, melbourne, victoria aitkenmr@melbpc@org.au a history of australian optometry: two hundred years of beating the tyranny of distance and fighting political battles to find new roles and a new place in health care. by barry l. cole melbourne: australian college of optometry; 2015. 320 pages. emeritus professor barry cole launched his long-awaited history of australian optometry on october 24, 2015. professor cole has been closely associated with optometry all his life. in the first place he was the son of an optometrist, then in turn he became a student, teacher, researcher and professor of optometry. he headed the australian college of optometry for 40 years and now in retirement he has continued as a very keen archivist in the kett optometry museum in melbourne. he can reasonably be regarded as the father of modern australian optometry and there is no one better qualified to write our history. the book takes a broad view. the first chapter deals with the foundation of optometry. the invention of spectacles in northern italy in the late-thirteenth century was the first major step. another milestone was the work of the spanish friar, daza de valdes (1591–1634) in determining a means of testing acuity and giving sage advice on deciding the power of spectacles. famous scientists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries such as galileo, newton and kepler contributed to the knowledge of optics. early english opticians like benjamin martin, george adams and james ayscough made small advances in the understanding of spectacles. the more famous names of thomas young, hermann von helmholtz and franciscus donders made greater progress in the wider ophthalmic field. the second chapter succinctly summarizes the development of optometry in the united kingdom, the usa and canada. the purpose of this summary is to allow the reader to compare what happened in australia to events elsewhere in the world. despite its small population and isolation from the rest of the world, optometry developed in australia in the nineteenth century in a way not far behind what was happening in the mailto:aitkenmr@melbpc@org.au hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 book review 2016| page 43 united kingdom and the united states in defiance of what is called australia’s tyranny of distance. the author’s account of our history in that period will be especially fascinating to ophthalmic buffs. as we moved into the early decades of the twentieth century australian optometry gathered momentum. the british colonies that had been established in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries became self-governing states and in 1901 they federated to form the nation of australia. optometrists in each of the states established professional associations, the first in 1904, and then set up courses of study. australia was early in adopting the term optometrist although we were still often known as opticians fifty years ago. the next chapter recounts the stories in securing legislation to regulate optometry in each of the states. there is considerable frank discussion on the opposition optometry received from the medical profession in the twentieth century. the establishment and development of the various colleges is treated in great detail in the chapter on optometric education. in the early days some optometrists were selftaught or learned from an employer or private tutor. a few travelled to london to obtain the fellowship of the british optical association while some did correspondence courses with american colleges. over time optometry courses were established in most of the states. the australian college of optometry offered a four-year course from 1940, part of which was taught in the university of melbourne. barry cole was appointed as the first full-time lecturer in 1959 and he remained at the helm until his retirement in 1999. in his time a remarkable number of his students have gone on to become leaders throughout the world in optometry, especially in the united states. there are further chapters on optometry’s ever-expanding role in clinical practice and research. in the second half of the twentieth century optometry has become increasingly part of the overall health scene and its wider role in eye-care is now understood by governments and the general public. at the end of each chapter the author has very usefully listed key dates for the significant advances made in the various topics discussed. throughout the book there are entertaining descriptions of the many personalities who have contributed to our rich history. this great book of 320 pages is superbly produced with the added bonus of a profusion of fine illustrations in color and monochrome. the deluxe hard cover edition is an especially attractive presentation and well worth the additional cost. the history of australian optometry is available in deluxe hardback at aud$160 (us$113) and softback at aud$75 (us$53) from the australian college of optometry. isbn 978-0-646-93792-2. more details and an order form are available at http://www.aco.org.au/75th-anniversary/history-book. http://www.aco.org.au/75th-anniversary/history-book microsoft word hindsight42-3 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 69 hindsight: journal of optometry history july, 2011 volume 42, number 3 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents instructions to authors………………………………………………………………………...70 american optometric association assists cuban optometrists in exile, emanuel pushkin………………………………………………………………………………………….71 the rise and fall of caecanometry, gregory l. stephens and david perrigin………...74 the initiation/origins of the elite school of optometry (part of the fine sankaranethralaya program) in madras/now chennai, tamil nadu state, india, jay m. enoch……………………………………………………………………………….….84 louis h. jaques, sr., (1888-1983) optometric leader, lecturer, and author, david a. goss………………………………………………………………………………….87 a trio of short vignettes on optometry history, irving bennett ……………………………91 ralph barstow (1884-1968), optometric practice management advisor and author of how to succeed in optometry, david a. goss…………………………………………….94 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 70 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 71 american optometric association assists cuban optometrists in exile emanuel pushkin, o.d. coral gables, fl in the 1960’s many cuban refugees fled to miami, florida in order to free themselves from the fidel castro communist regime. included were a large number of optometrists who had practiced their profession in cuba after graduating from the optometry course at the university of havana. upon arrival in the united states of america, they faced many obstacles toward achieving a license to practice. in addition to the language problem, they faced state laws, including those of florida, which required citizenship and graduation from a recognized college of optometry. as a result, some of these refugees sought employment in fields unrelated to their professional education, while others were able to work as assistants in optical and optometric locations. however, obtaining full florida licensure was a paramount objective. by 1968 a group of cuban refugee optometrists had banded together to form the cuban optometric association in exile (coae) with america parla as president. dr. parla was a lady of dynamic personality and had a history of leadership in cuba as one of the organizers of the “colegio de optometristas de cuba” in the late 1940’s. one of the first items on the coae agenda was to contact the american optometric association (aoa) for assistance. aoa in turn notified the florida optometric association (foa) in tallahassee, which passed on the request to its immediate past president emanuel pushkin, o.d., in miami. that is how the dade county optometric association became involved. optometry was not alone within the cuban professional exiles. others had also organized for the same purpose: medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, and nursing, as reported in research by raul moncarz on behalf the u.s. department of labor. he studied the adaptation of these occupations throughout the country and discussed the restrictions facing them between 1959 and 1969. he stated, “cuban optometrists suffer in their professional adaptation because their cuban training is deemed inferior, and probably is, when compared with their united states counterparts.” at the university of miami the department of medicine established the office of international medical education. appointed to direct this program was dr. rafael penalver, formerly of the university of havana. this group understood the necessity of amending licensing laws governing the health care professions. subsequently, on numerous occasions, america parla led her contingent of lobbyists to tallahassee where she met edward walker, o.d., a stalwart foa leader, who shepherded them through the halls of the florida legislature. their lobbying efforts were apparently successful as members of the legislature were convinced of the importance of such hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 72 amendments in order to better care for the increasing numbers of foreign speaking residents. governor reubin askew agreed and signed the laws in may, 1974. examples of changes in the florida statutes: 455.10 “no person shall be disqualified from practicing an occupation or profession regulated by the state solely because he is not a united states citizen. 455.11 (2) “any person who has successfully completed, or is currently enrolled in an approved course of study ……….shall be deemed qualified for examination and re-examination……..which shall be administered in the english language unless 15 or more such applicants request that said reexamination be administered in their native language.” so the stage was set for the establishment of continuing education courses for those who expected to take the state board exams in optometry. through the cooperation of the university of miami’s department of medicine and its bascom palmer eye institute, courses were given in spanish as well as in english during the years of 1974 and 1975. it is important to interject that while the above events were taking place in miami, the pacific university college of optometry in oregon offered courses leading to the o.d. degree, which appealed to a group of cuban refugees in miami. as a result, four attended classes there and were able to apply for licensure in florida. we have been assisted in gathering information for this report by one of the original group of cuban optometrists in exile: felix m. mondejar, o.d., who now at the age of ninety-six has a fantastic memory of these events. following is a segment of a treatise submitted by him: “instructors were dr. rosa revuelta, who at the time was teaching at the indiana u. school of optometry, dr. saba millares and dr. charles pappas. this course was offered in spanish. the above mentioned courses were offered at the university of miami bascom palmer eye institute. they commenced in the summer of 1975 with 56 students. four hours four times a week. throughout the classes, as things became more challenging, several students dropped out. this was due to the fact that some had families to support, had full time jobs, and the course was very expensive. the class ended in september of 1976. at this time we were almost ready for the state board exams, but first we had a refresher course that was taught by dr. carreno, m.d., a teacher in tallahassee, and other refresher courses by dr. pappas and dr. revuelta. all those that have had to take state board exams know that it is not always sufficient to pass. you must know how to take that type of exam. “here we go. february of 1977 approximately 44 of us went to take the florida state board exam. it was impressive because there were over 250 candidates to take the exams. to us the exam was offered in spanish, but the translation was so poor that many of us opted to take the exam in english. a month and a half later we got the hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 73 news: of the initial 44 only 14 passed the exam. there was another exam in the summer of the same year. four of them passed it then. another exam was offered in february 1978, by this time we had 26 cuban od's that had gone to the florida state board and were licensed to practice the profession in the state of florida.” dr. mondejar continues by noting that an additional four passed the boards at a later date, making a total of 30. he further comments, “it is a great pleasure of the writer to mention that of those 30, six of them were women.” these newly licensed optometrists immediately became active in organized optometry by joining the dade county optometric association, foa and aoa. within a short time, three of their leaders were elected to the presidency of dcoa: drs. gerardo palmeiro (1980), mario perez, and felix mondejar (1992). they and their cuban colleagues joined with the foa legislative committee in trips to the state capitol to influence the legislators and defend our profession upon the proposal of new legislation. acknowledgements thanks to raul moncarz, ph.d., for access to his study “effects of professional restrictions on cuban refugees in selected health professions in the united states 1959-1969”. thanks to felix m. mondejar, o.d., for his personal reflections: “the exodus and saga of cuban ods after communism”. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 74 the rise and fall of caecanometry gregory l. stephens, o.d., ph.d. david perrigin, o.d. college of optometry, university of houston, 505 j. davis armistead bldg., houston, tx 77204-2020; gstephens@uh.edu; dperrigin@uh.edu abstract caecanometry was a short-lived visual fields examination technique first described by ingwold davidsen, o.d. in 1949. the technique was based upon the unusual premise that the blind spot constricted in size when certain types of infection were present above the level of the shoulder blades. the davidsen-wottring caecanometer was patented as a device for plotting blind spot size and shape. caecanometry was practiced mainly in the southern u.s., dying out in the middle 1970s. key words: caecanometry, caecanometer, visual fields, blind spot. introduction over the years optometrists have developed many techniques for diagnosing and treating vision problems. some have proven useful, but others have been based more upon wishful thinking than hard data and were eventually abandoned. caecanometry is one of the latter. caecanometry is an interesting topic if for no reason other than its history within optometry, but it also had an unusual main premise, namely, that vision is present within the physiological blind spot and can be used as an indicator of disease outside the eye. practitioners of caecanometry tried to develop theories to justify their central premise, but the technique was doomed from the start. our purpose is to present a short history of caecanometry. what is caecanometry? caecanometry, a term coined by charles mcquarrie, a florida optometrist, literally means to measure the blind.1-3 caecanometry was originally developed by ingwold (or ingwald) davidsen, o.d., and he published a description of the technique in the optometric weekly in 1949.4 (the term caecanometry was not used in that paper.) according to an editor’s note at the beginning of the paper, davidsen was a graduate of the los angeles school of optometry, or laco (now southern california college of optometry, or scco), and he practiced first in pasadena, california, then later in laguna beach. (davidsen eventually moved to st. petersburg, florida.5) for a while he was a research assistant at the smithsonian institution, and he also was said to have studied with ray morse peckham, an early author of books on optometry.6 davidsen’s original caecanometry paper describes his conclusions regarding roughly 2000 patients for whom he had measured the size and shape of their blind spots. he made a number of rather extraordinary claims. first, davidsen stated that the blind spot as measured during a monocular visual field examination could be hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 75 smaller in size than what is considered a “normal” value in the literature, and that a small blind spot occurred in the presence of certain types of infections. this statement implied that vision was present within the blind spot, and he termed the phenomenon a “constriction” of the blind spot. second, davidsen stated that a constricted blind spot regained its normal size once the source of the infection was removed. third, davidsen claimed that a constricted blind spot was an indicator of disease above the level of the shoulder blades (clavicles). the type of disease was what he termed a “draining infection” of the teeth, sinuses and/or tonsils. in fact, in the case reports he presented, the size and shape of the constricted blind spot was used to pinpoint the source of the infection. finally, davidsen suggested that decreases in visual acuity and visual performance were related to blind spot constrictions. the davidsen technique of plotting the blind spot differed from standard visual field plotting methods. the limits of the blind spot (and the visual field in general) are typically plotted by moving the target from non-seeing to seeing retina.7,8 davidsen claimed that more repeatable results could be obtained when the target was moved in the opposite direction (seeing to non-seeing), and this method of plotting blind spots became the standard for caecanometry. figure 1 shows two examples of blind spots “charted” (the caecanometrists’ term) by davidsen, as reported in his original paper. the instrument used for the charting was either a stereocampimeter or an early version of the caecanometer. both of these instruments had a viewing distance of 20 cm, and, according to davidsen, a “normal” blind spot plotted at this distance was an oval measuring 25 mm vertically by 17 mm horizontally. in each drawing the normal blind spot is the large oval (for reference purposes) while the actual constricted blind spots plotted by caecanometry are indicated by the shaded areas. davidsen calculated blind spot area very simply by multiplying the length of the blind spot by its width, essentially determining the area of the smallest rectangle into which the blind spot would fit.9 a normal blind spot thus had an area of 17 x 25, or 425 square millimeters. constricted blind spots had smaller areas, calculated in the same manner, and from this number davidsen calculated a percentage constriction relative to the area of the normal blind spot. the upper drawing of figure 1 shows blind spots constricted by 92% right eye and 82% left eye. this patient was reported to have a sinus infection. once the infection cleared up, the blind spots were reported to have returned to normal size. the lower drawing of figure 1, with the truncated or flattened base, was reported to be associated with infections of the tonsils and that the blind spots returned to normal size after a tonsillectomy. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 76 figure 1. constricted blind spots, re-drawn from figure 1 of davidsen.4 the drawings of figure 1 represent what caecanometrists considered to be typical caecanometry findings.10,11 in general, sinus infections tended to cause constrictions that were approximately equal in each eye. in addition, the amount of constriction tended to vary from day to day and with exercise. dental involvement tended to create constrictions that were unequal for the two eyes, and the amount of constriction was less variable over time. irregularities or bumps in the plotted blind spot were also supposedly to be related to dental problems. some caecanometrists claimed to be able to use these irregularities to identify specific quadrants of the mouth where a dental problem was located.12 finally, flattening of the sides, top or bottom of the blind spot was said to be associated with tonsillitis. the side of the throat having more infection coincided with the blind spot showing more constriction. davidsen recognized that accurate measurement of the blind spot required good fixation by the patient, with minimal distraction. he eventually developed, along with inventor leroy (or le roy) wottring, a new instrument, the caecanometer.11,13 the caecanometer was distributed by the diagnostic instrument company (dico) of muskogee, oklahoma, and this company was apparently owned by lin moore, o.d., an early advocate of caecanometry. the company was incorporated in 1965, its registered agent was therese o. moore, and lin moore’s office address was listed as the company’s business address.14,15 figure 2 shows a caecanometer. this particular instrument belonged to chester pheiffer, ph.d., o.d., a faculty member of the university of houston college of optometry (uhco) from 1954 to 1978 and dean from 1961 to 1978.18,19 the caecanometer had two unique features. one, the fixation target consisted of a small light source at the end of a long, narrow tube. this allowed for relatively repeatable alignment of the patient’s line of sight within the device. two, the hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 77 target used for plotting the blind spot was a small steel ball, the position of which was controlled by a magnet on a movable arm located beneath the surface of the instrument. the examiner was able to move the ball around on the surface of the recording sheet, but the patient could not see the examiner’s hand, removing a major source of distraction when plotting a visual field. a number of ball diameters were available, with 1.59 mm (1/16 inch) the standard for blind spot chartings, while smaller ball diameters (1.0 mm, 0.79 mm, and 0.5 mm) were recommended for evaluation of glaucoma or other ocular pathology.11 it was suggested that measurement errors with the caecanometer were on the order of ½ mm.1 figure 2. a davidsen-wottring caecanometer. leroy wottring of the wottring instrument company patented this device in 1951.13 wottring also invented the rotoscope16 and troposcope17, instruments used for diagnosing and treating binocular vision problems. an unusual feature of caecanometry was the recommendation that it be performed early in the day, before a patient had performed much physical activity.4 this later evolved into what became known as a “basal charting” or “basal conditions.”11 a patient was to be charted as close to awakening in the morning as possible. the patient was advised to “dress slowly, do absolutely nothing to exert themselves, do not brush their teeth, to abstain from food, beverages, or smoking, and to not use their eyes any more than they absolutely must. if patients had exerted themselves in reaching the doctor’s office, they should be given a period of rest before the charting is taken.”11 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 78 maybe the oddest feature of all was the use of bubble gum for diagnostic purposes when dental problems were suspected.11,12 this became known as the “bubble gum basal” or ‘basal bubble gum.”20-22 after basal testing was completed, the patient was given two large sticks of gum (or dental paraffin) to chew vigorously for exactly 15 minutes. charting was then repeated. if the patient had dental problems, then the plotted blind spot was supposed to show even more constriction (figure 3). the greatest effect was said to occur 14 to 17 minutes after beginning the act of chewing. after 17 minutes the body’s immune mechanisms would begin to negate the toxin-releasing effects of chewing. figure 3. results of a “bubble gum basal” provocative test for dental problems, as described in the caecanometer instruction manual.11 the shaded areas in the upper drawing are the charted blind spots with basal testing. the lower drawings show the blind spots after 15 minutes of vigorous chewing of bubble gum. the right eye blind spot is further constricted, suggested a dental source for the blind spot constriction, probably on the right side of the mouth. monroe hirsch and max schapero, from los angeles college of optometry, tested davidsen’s claims soon after the description of the technique was initially published.9 in the introduction to their paper, hirsch and schapero mentioned that they were aware of “the absence of any physiological reason for infection causing what amounts to an increased sensitivity of certain retinal areas.” they also stated that they were aware that the shoulder blades were an unphysiological line of demarcation for sites of infection, and that davidsen’s field plotting techniques were different from normal. they compared white blood cell counts to blind spot size in a population of optometry students and found that, if anything, blind spot size might be increased when an infection was present. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 79 pheiffer eventually responded to hirsch and schapero in an article published in the journal of the american optometric association (jaoa) in 1959.23 pheiffer claimed that the subjects studied by hirsch and schapero had very small blind spots before the study was begun, so either most subjects had focal infections or there was a difference in the measurement technique between their method and that recommended by davidsen. however, pheiffer’s claim of small blind spots was most likely the result of a misinterpretation of the method used by hirsch and schapero to present their data. hirsch and schapero normalized their results so that a normal blind spot was 100 arbitrary units in size. pheiffer interpreted this number to be an area of 100 mm2, a value much smaller than the “normal” area of 425 mm2 mentioned earlier. hirsch and schapero’s paper was the only one ever published that actually tested the claims of caecanometry. the technique otherwise appears to have been ignored by vision researchers. pheiffer’s 1959 paper presented additional caecanometry data collected by davidsen and by guy fenton, o.d., of kansas city, missouri. these data showed that the constricted blind spots of patients with sinus or dental problems returned to normal size after medical treatment. he also presented a graph based upon data from davidsen showing the relationship between antibiotic treatment and the amount of blind spot constriction. a fairly linear relationship was found, with every injection of antibiotic decreasing constriction by about 10%. pheiffer suggested that caecanometry could be used to determine the amount of antibiotic needed for a given patient. caecanometry’s zenith a few case reports on caecanometry were published in the 1950s and early 1960s.24-27 mcalister, pheiffer and grosvenor presented a post-graduate course related to caecanometry at the american academy of optometry meeting in 1961.28 the high point occurred in 1963, when the april issue of the jaoa was devoted to the topic, with articles from many of its proponents.1,5,29,30 however, not long after this issue was published, david harrington, m.d. (the author of the textbook the visual fields and one of the developers of the harrington-flocks visual fields screener31,32) published an editorial in the american journal of ophthalmology that referenced the april, 1963 issue of jaoa.33 harrington was extremely critical of caecanometry, stating that it was based “on spurious assumptions and inadequately controlled experimentation.” he also termed it a “fad” and that the only person who stood to gain from the procedure was the “optometrist who is gullible enough to believe in its value.” pheiffer published a rebuttal to harrington in 1964,34 essentially accusing organized ophthalmology of trying to co-opt the technique of caecanometry for themselves. at the same time, pheiffer reiterated his complaints about the work of hirsch and schapero. yet, caecanometry was now on the decline. only four more articles were to appear in the optometric literature, one by lin moore in the reports of the 1964 international ophthalmic optics congress,35 two in the journal contacto by joseph haefeli, o.d., of greeley, colorado, published in 1965 and 1968,22,36 and the last a two-part article by lin moore, published in the new england journal of optometry in 1971.12,37 haefeli’s articles are mainly case reports relating to the use of hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 80 caecanometry for contact lens patients. the articles by moore attempted to justify caecanometry based upon the underlying physiology and pathology. in addition, moore’s articles described the technique of caecanometry and its use for diagnosis as practiced at uhco. the geography of caecanometry caecanometry appears to have been restricted primarily to optometrists in the southern and western united states. uhco was one of its centers in the 1960s and 1970s, and chester pheiffer was one of its leading proponents. caecanometry was taught as part of the curriculum at uhco by pheiffer at least until the early 1970s, and pheiffer would occasionally ask students to perform caecanometry on selected patients. a local newspaper from a small town near houston reported that jerome mcallister, o.d., taught a seminar on caecanometry in oklahoma in 1966.38 uhco was also the site of at least three caecanometry symposia,21,34,38 and pheiffer appears to have been the moderator or leader of one of the symposia discussions. partial transcripts of the third symposium exist,21 and this was given to optometry students as material for study when caecanometry was taught. it is probable that pheiffer was also preparing a book on caecanometry.20,37 a source of pheiffer’s interest in caecanometry may have been samuel renshaw, a psychologist at the ohio state university (osu). pheiffer was one of renshaw’s graduate students,39 and irving bennett, o.d., in an editorial in the aoaj, stated (without explanation) that renshaw was the first person to recognize caecanometry.40 moore mentioned that pheiffer was also an assistant of davidsen at osu.37 davidsen4 stated that the “head of an optometry school located at one of our great universities” told him that his caecanometry ideas were not worth pursuing. if this happened while davidsen was at osu, then this person would have been glenn a. fry, ph.d., head of the osu college of optometry at the time.41 caecanometry’s rationale caecanometrists accepted as fact that no photoreceptors were present within the optic disk, and they were greatly concerned with providing a scientific explanation for their discoveries. they offered a number of explanations for the constricted blind spots they measured, including the pulfrich effect and afterimages.37 the mechanism that was finally accepted by most caecanometrists was that infections above the clavicle somehow caused increased scatter of light within the eye.1,37 their evidence was a paper by wolff and morandi42 showing that the most likely explanation for occasional claims of light detection within the blind spot was scattered light. although increased scatter could have possibly been a mechanism, the caecanometry findings of unusually shaped blind spots (such as the truncated blind spot supposedly related to infection of the tonsils) could still not be explained. a phenomenon conceivably related to the results claimed for caecanometry is that of “filling-in” of the blind spot. when a person views the world with only one eye, the blind spot is not perceived as a hole or defect in the visual field. rather, the area of the blind spot appears similar to the surrounding visual field. this topic has been the subject of a relatively large amount of recent research.43-45 filling-in commonly occurs when there are contours on each side of the blind spot. for example, a horizontal line hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 81 that is larger than the blind spot but is positioned such that it extends across the blind spot appears as an unbroken line. however, this stimulus situation is very different from that of caecanometry, so it is unlikely to account for caecanometrists’ results. it is also difficult to imagine how changes in the process of filling-in could be related to disease only above the level of the shoulder blades. where, then, did the caecanometrists go wrong? probably the simplest explanation is that mentioned by harrington, a lack of proper experimental controls. the case reports presented by caecanometrists were highly selective, and cases where caecanometry was not predictive of disease were not published. there are hints of this problem in the caecanometry literature. pheiffer mentions in a conference transcript21 that a flattened blind spot is “supposedly found in approximately 60% of severe tonsillar involvement and is flat with tonsils in general, maybe 20 to 30% of the time.” he also suggested that there was either a relatively large amount of error involved in measuring blind spot size or that blind spot size fluctuated rapidly. kensett5 stated that “one of the real perplexing problems involving the use of the caecanometer arises when a patient with severe symptoms returns with a report of negative findings from the local doctor. difficult as this is to handle, it is not a situation unique to those who use a caecanometer.” (harrington, in his highly critical editorial concerning caecanometry, mentions this same statement.) kensett also suggested that caecanometry can be used “with an adequate degree of reliability.” about all that is left of caecanometry today are the journal articles and the caecanometer. this instrument occasionally shows up for sale on the internet, and a few are probably gathering dust in optometrist’s offices and museums. references 1. davidsen io. the evolution of a new technique. j am optom assoc 1963:34:699-701. 2. mcquarrie cw, mcquarrie ei. the winter haven story. j am optom assoc 1956;27:580-584. 3. mcquarrie cw. the winter haven program. acad ther q 1966;2(2):66-72. 4. davidsen i. blind spot constrictions. optom weekly 1949;40:1191-1197. 5. kensett jw. experiences in charting blind spot restrictions. j am optom assoc 1963;34:702-704. 6. goss da. ray morse peckham (1876-1944) and his optometric writings. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:9-14. 7. schoessler jp. a suggested perimetric procedure for optometrists. j am optom assoc 1977;48:1437-1448. 8. traquair hm. an introduction to clinical perimetry, 6th ed. st. louis: mosby, 1949:39-41. 9. hirsch mj, schapero m. the relationship between the size of the blind spot and the presence of general infection. am j optom arch am acad optom 1951;28:233241. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 82 10. wells cm. differential diagnosis with caecanometry. j am optom assoc 1963;34:707-709. 11. manual of operation. davidsen-wottring caecanometer, model 75. muskogee, oklahoma: diagnostic instruments company, 1964. 12. moore l. focal infection and caecanometry. new engl j optom 1971;22:216226. 13. wottring lr. vision plotting device. u.s. patent 2,567,003, september 4, 1951. 14. oklahoma secretary of state corporation information. www.sos.ok.gov/corp/corpinformation.aspx?id=1900194295. accessed june 13, 2011. 15. blue book of optometrists 1972, 31st ed. chicago: professional press, 1972:479. 16. wottring lr. apparatus for orthoptic training purposes. u.s. patent 2,091,173, august 24, 1937. 17. wottring lr. orthoptic instrument. u.s. patent 2,316,139, april 6, 1943. 18. pettey wa. optometry in texas 1900-1984. austin, texas: nortex press, 1985:303-312. 19. stewart cr. the founding years. georgetown, texas: armadillo publishing corp., 2003:15-28, 173-194. 20. pheiffer ch. chapter 2 instrument and procedures. (unpublished). 21. anonymous. partial transcript uhco third annual conference on caecanometry. (1964?). 22. haefeli j. caecanometrywhy. contacto 1968;12(4):16-22. 23. pheiffer ch. an analysis of clinically obtained caecanometer data. j am optom assoc 1959;31:37-44, 1959. 24. fenton g. blindspot restrictions. optom weekly 1954;45:11-19. 25. fenton g. blindspot restrictions ii. optom weekly 1954;45:1757-1762. 26. moore l. caecanometry for complete diagnosis. optom weekly 1955;46:1567-1570. 27. shreve ja. a caecanometer case report. optom weekly 1955;46:1779-1780. 28. mcalister jm, pheiffer ch, grosvenor tp. factors effecting the size of the blind spot of marriotte. am j optom arch am acad opt 38(10):591, 1961. 29. scott ga. instrumentation and clinical testing for caecanometry. j am optom assoc 1963;34:705-706. 30. fenton g. case study of blind spot restrictions. j am optom assoc 1963;34:710-712. 31. spencer wh. david oliver harrington, m.d. trans am ophthalmol soc 1990;88:6-8. 32. harrington do, flocks m. visual field examination by a new tachystoscopic multiple-pattern method. am j ophthalmol 1954;37:719-723. 33. harrington do. “caecanometry.” am j ophthalmol 1963;56:481. 34. pheiffer ch. ophthalmology alerted to the potentialities of caecanometry. opt j rev optom 1964;101(2):32-35. 35. moore l. caecanometry. in: international ophthalmic optical congress 1964 copenhagen. heidelberg: energie-verlag gmbh, 1965:168-183. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 83 36. haefeli j. caecanometry and its relationship to the prescribing of contact lenses. contacto 1965;9(4):4-13. 37. moore l. focal infection and caecanometry. new engl j optom 1971;22:182190. 38. anonymous. mcallister talks to oklahoma group on caecanometry. lamarque times, august 4, 1966:5. 39. pheiffer ch. a psychophysical investigation of the discriminal limits of sizedifferences of disks of light. dissertation. the ohio state university, 1949:1. 40. bennett i. editorial comment. j am optom assoc 1963;34:697-698. 41. goerler re. the ohio state university and its college of optometry photographic history. columbus, ohio: the ohio state university college of optometry, 1993:25. 42. wolff e, morandi aj. retinal sensitivity in the region of the blind spot. j opt soc am 1962;52:806-812. 43. durgin fh, tripathy sp, levi dm. on the filling in of the visual blind spot: some rules of thumb. perception 1995;24:827-840. 44. tripathy sp, levi dm, ogmen h. two-dot alignment across the physiological blind spot. vision res 1996;36:1585-1596. 45. atwater h, kerlin jr, evans kk, tong f. cortical representation of space around the blind spot. j neurophysiol 2005;94:3314-3324. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 84 the initiation/origins of the elite school of optometry (part of the fine sankaranethralaya program) in madras/now chennai, tamil nadu state, india jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california, berkeley, ca 94720-2020; home: 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413; jmenoch@berkeley.edu quoting wikipedia: "indira priyadarshini gandhi née: nehru; (19 november 1917 – 31 october 1984) was the prime minister of the republic of india for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, a total of fifteen years. she was india's first, and to date only, female prime minister." in a sense, from the writer's point-of-view, the origin of the elite school of optometry can be dated quite precisely. this occurred in the early hours of november 1, 1984! it was then that i received a call from then berkeley chancellor ira michael ("mike") heyman. i lifted the telephone and heard mike's booming voice literally shout, "enoch you are going to india!" i responded, "mike, you are drunk, it is 3 am!" [it should be stated that i knew mike (sort-of) from high school days. i was in the class ahead of his at the bronx high school of science. he never graduated bronx science, because his parent's transferred him from that high school to a private high school in manhattan.] he then shouted, "enoch, you have two female students in india; indira gandhi has been assassinated, there is wide-spread violence; we don't know where they are; and you need to bring them home promptly!" god-bless him, now i really thought he was drunk. we had no students in india! there was no convincing mike on this issue. a week later, a seemingly miraculously arranged indian visa in my pocket, my arm swollen with shots, i found myself on a plane to new delhi. there, i was told i would be greeted by "our man in new delhi" (who and where?)...i got off the plane in new delhi in the early hours of the morning amongst a literal sea of people shouting and milling about. amazingly, a gentleman appeared at my side about 15 minutes later...how he knew who i was in that crowd, i shall never know? (i suspected this was to be "my quest," that is, a cervanteslike series of events!) after he introduced himself, i asked him, "where are these two ladies? he answered, "we don't know?" at that moment i felt like "dorothy" dropped into the middle of kansas without toto. it turned out later that these two ladies were alumnae (!) of our school who were then participating in a very fine berkeley program organized for graduates of professional school programs. (sometime, later i was placed on the advisory board of hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 85 that fine program! in turn, it was managed on a day-to-day basis on campus by dr. david grisham's former wife.) after a day of settling in, a visit to the office of university of california berkeley in new delhi, a visit to the very beautiful us embassy, a trip to the usaid office, and other appropriate agencies of the indian government and the un, i asked our chap where i should look further for these ladies. he gave me a tentative and lengthy(!..50+) list of probable venues. (in candor, he should have known where his students were at any given time!) as noted, the list provided was long. he suggested i start my search in the deccan (the giant central high plateau in mid-northern india). i followed his advice (i had no other guidance). after failing to find them at a number of locations, and with no hint as to where next to look, i visited a small optometric school in hyderabad which was on my list. frankly, that institution was less than impressive. at the office, i asked about the ladies' whereabouts and whether they had seen/encountered them there? i was told they never heard of them! trying to be nice, the secretary of this institution told me they were having a cocktail party that evening; she invited me to come. i figured, why not? actually it was a very pleasant affair under the stars. on my arrival, i noticed across the field someone who looked familiar! it was a young lady literally wearing a sari made of silver woven into a cloth...truly, she looked lovely! it was one of the two individuals i was sent to "rescue". amazing! this don quixote went up to her and indicated that he had been sent to bring her home by the chancellor/university. she was most polite, but she declined to be rescued! i asked where i might find the other young lady. she indicated that she was on the beach in kerala (a truly lovely state/province in south-west india). apparently, both ladies were well, and enjoying their indian program. so much for my quest! now what? my former graduate student, post-doc, laboratory associate, and long-time friend, now prof. vasudevan "vengu" lakshminarayanan, school of optometry, university of waterloo, had recently finished a very fine dissertation under my supervision. i was proud of his work and i thought it would be nice if i visited his dad, professor vasudevan (now deceased) in madras. my goal was to describe his research to his dad, a very distinguished mathematician. his dad had started and headed india's institute of advanced mathematical studies, "matlab," in then madras (something like u.s. programs at princeton). at the time, i was unaware that there had been discussions between vengu, his dad, and dr. s.s. badrinath (head of the sankaranethralaya, a major private center for eye-care located on college road in then madras). they, and a mr. shah, head of the elite optical company, had apparently discussed the opening of an optometry school under the aegis of the sankaranethralaya program. apparently, they had planned to seek my cooperation in such a venture. vengu suggests he had discussed this with me, but i just don't remember any such discussions prior to my trip to india. (i am not sure this makes much difference in the narrative in any event.) anyway, i came to madras (now called chennai) to see his dad for the stated purpose. when i met dr. vasudevan, we had a most pleasant talk together about vengu's research. he, in turn, indicated that he and dr. badrinath wanted to speak to me on a separate issue. i was hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 86 pleased to meet them at the taj hotel in chennai. there, they raised the issue of starting the school. i remember thinking that this was a fine idea, and i indicated my willingness to help in this endeavor. i suggested that the then four-year university of california berkeley curriculum would be a fine model for the development of such a school. i also served as the chair of the equivalent of the first curriculum committee of the elite school. two buildings were built on the new sankaranethralaya campus dedicated to the elite school. both an academic building and a rural eye hospital (clinics) building were constructed on the campus located at the foot of st. thomas mount, not far from the madras airport. i donated my personal library to the school in order to initiate, and to further the academic program and hoped-for research program in support of the academic effort. additionally, in the attic of "old" minor hall there was located and available a large collection of surplus used, but still serviceable, clinical equipment. after discussion with the faculty, the fire marshal, and campus personnel, i offered to forward a good bit of that equipment to them for that new clinic. and, i also offered to donate my personal ophthalmic library to the school to help initiate that academic institution. i urged that books in that library should be made available on inter-library loan to other optometric institutions in india as a resource for future development. when, i returned home, i asked ophthalmic wholesalers in california if they also had added equipment that they would be willing to donate to this cause. quite a number of them participated! since the volume of the equipment exceeded the immediate needs of the elite school, some part of it was also donated for a clinic at the aravind eye hospital in madurai (the late dr. venkataswamy was the then director), some went to an optometry school in bombay (later called mumbai) headed by the now deceased mr. balliwalla, a british trained optometrist; and some was sent to another school in mexico city. (i vividly remember the latter shipment was made in a large truck labeled, "pork bellies.") after discussions with a vice president of the american president line shipping company in oakland, the equipment sent to the indian schools was transferred free of charge. thus, various people/groups helped to make possible the creation/enhancement of these clinics and schools. it is important to note that today the elite school maintains a creditable research program, it recently increased its enrollment, and a few years ago it entered into a cooperative agreement with the distinguished birla institute for technology and science, located in pilani in rajasthan state to provide b.s. optom., m.s., and ph.d. degrees at the elite school, tamil nadu state, to its able students. i am so very proud of their achievements! and, yes, our two worthy alumnae returned home safely! hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 87 louis h. jaques, sr., (1888-1983) optometric leader, lecturer, and author david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract louis h. jaques, sr., (1888-1983) had various leadership roles in optometry, but was best known for his advocacy of various testing procedures such as the incorporation of blur points in fusional vergence testing and for his casual, practical, and anecdotal style of writing and lecturing. in addition to his three books, his best known writings were in his regular column in optometric weekly entitled “a father’s advice to his sons.” this paper provides a brief biographical sketch and description of the contents of his books. key words: fusional vergence testing, optometry books, optometry history, southern california college of optometry. louis harold jaques, sr., had a long and notable career in optometry. he was born in nebraska on february 4, 1888.1 in 1911, he graduated from the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry, the school that would become the southern california college of optometry (scco).2,3 he practiced for many years in southern california, most of those years in los angeles. early years in his practice experience, he learned that even though many people didn’t like wearing glasses, they did “like what the glasses did for them, and more important, what was represented in them – the skill of the prescribing doctor.”3 jaques had a long association with the los angeles school/college of optometry (other names of the school before being known as scco), serving as a faculty member from 1928 to 1930 and as a member of the board of trustees from 1933 to 1942 and from 1947 to 1957.4 he was the first recipient of the scco distinguished alumnus of the year in 1980.3 he was president of the los angeles association of optometrists in 1927 and president of the california optometric association in 1930 and 1931.3,5 jaques was a frequent contributor to optometry periodicals. in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, he had a regular column in optometric weekly, known as “a father’s advice to his sons.” in a casual conversational manner filled with anecdotes from his personal experience, he offered advice on numerous topics, from testing and treatment procedures to patient and practice management. later he had a column entitled “dad’s point of view” in optometric monthly. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 88 jaques published many papers in the journal of the american optometric association (jaoa), the first being in 1930 and the last in 1972. an “about the author” feature published with his last jaoa article said: “louis jaques sr., more affectionately known as ‘dad’ to thousands of optometrists throughout our nation, is a loved and respected elder statesman of optometry. he has been ‘dad’ to the profession ever since his column ‘a father’s advice to his sons’ appeared in optometric weekly. his wisdom, his skill, his inquisitive mind and his love for the profession of optometry shine through a sparkling wit during his many demand performances as teacher and lecturer….”6 one of the various testing procedures that jaques promoted frequently in his writings and lectures was the observation of blur points in fusional vergence range testing.7 he advocated the use of small letters as the target for base-in and base-out prism vergence testing so that blur points could be obtained. he also recommended low illumination for near cross cylinder tests.3 two of jaques’ children, louis jaques jr. and bruce d. jaques, also became optometrists. louis jaques sr. received honorary d.o.s. degrees from northern illinois college of optometry (1929) and los angeles college of optometry (1959), and the apollo award from the american optometric association (1979).3 he died on august 14, 1983, in los angeles. applied refraction louis jaques sr. published three books. the first was applied refraction with special reference to the blur-out point technique (xv + 123 pages) published in 1934 with george crow as second author. in the introduction, jaques noted that he was led to the use of blur points in vergence testing and work on the analysis of accommodation and convergence because of the feeling that for several years, “we did not carry our near point analysis far enough.” (p. iv) the first chapter explained the use of blur points in prism vergence testing. jaques and crow recommended the use of a blur out rather than the first perceptible blur because they thought that the blur out point was easier for the patient to recognize. next the authors examined the nature and diagnostic value of subjective refraction, static retinoscopy, dynamic retinoscopy, dissociated phorias, fusional vergence ranges, cross cylinder tests, and relative accommodation tests. then they described the effects of plus and minus lenses and fatigue on the findings on those tests. following that the authors discussed the analysis and treatment of accommodative insufficiency and convergence insufficiency. in the last chapter they provided a brief description of some orthoptic exercises that could be used in such cases. one review of the book said that it would “make a most welcome addition” to the library of “the advanced thinker in optometry.”8 another review lauded the authors for “their lucid presentation of a practical method for handling the most troublesome group of cases which exist in optometry.”9 fundamental refraction and orthoptics jaques’ second book, fundamental refraction and orthoptics (xii + 209 pages) was published in 1936. he dedicated the book to the importance of spectacles and hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 89 orthoptics. he said: “my own life did not begin until i was fitted with glasses, and orthoptics had rendered normal my visual function. at the age of 19,…[c]lose work was impossible, and my eyes were examined….the diagnosis was amblyopia, astigmatism, hypermetropia, hyperphoria, cyclophoria and esotropia. the training period…brought me to 20/15 vision and orthophoria with spectacles…” (p. iv) after an introduction, jaques discussed case history, pupil testing, version tests, near point of convergence, amplitude of accommodation, and distance phorias and fusional vergences. next there was material on static skiametry, dynamic skiametry, and subjective refraction written by ivan s. nott (pages 41 to 77). then jaques discussed base-in and base-out vergences, near phorias, relative accommodation tests, cross cylinder tests, visual fields, and stereopsis testing. after a discussion of normal expected findings, he covered various orthoptic training procedures. the book closed out with discussion of presbyopic adds, a 1935 lecture on blur-out point tests, and two contributions by two other authors, “a study of visual efficiency,” by george a. parkins, (pages 194 to 207) and “the attention factor,” by h. ward ewalt, jr. (pages 207 to 209). a review of fundamental refraction and orthoptics said that “…the difficult cases are chiefly those involving discomfort at near…the author cuts through much…of the theoretic and philosophic encrustation that has impeded development in this field and offers simple methods of analysis and treatment.”10 corrective and preventive optometry corrective and preventive optometry (vii + 190 pages) appeared in 1950. the first part of the book presented information on various testing procedures and on jaques’ views on heterophoria and refractive errors. next jaques presented his ideas on training visual skills. he discussed eye movement training, accommodative facility training, and fusion training. for fusion training he emphasized the use of cheiroscopic tracing because it involved hand-eye coordination. he attributed the idea of the importance of using the hands in fusion training to e.e. maddox. there was also a chapter devoted to “some ideas on strabismus” in which the nature of strabismus and various training and treatment procedures were discussed. one procedure for strabismus which jaques described was what he called the half cover technique, in which half of each spectacle lens was covered to encourage alternation as a stage toward elimination of the strabismus. five appendices at the close of the book included miscellaneous lectures, one being material on the relation of vision and reading written with his son louis jr. and another being on stereoscope testing. reviewers of the book noted that jaques “respects precise correction of refractive faults where indicated, but thinks that in many cases visual skills training…must be added if the full possibilities for improvements in comfort, efficiency, and general well-being are to be realized.”11 references 1. world war i draft registration card, ancestry.com. 2. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:23,510. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 90 3. scco alumnus “dad” jaques passes away. southern california college of optometry alumniscope. fall, 1983;4-5. 4. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:440-445,461. 5. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:76. 6. jaques l. the golden years ahead. j am optom assoc 1972;43:419-420. 7. jaques l. the area of comfort as revealed by the technique of blur points. am j optom 1931;8:251-254. 8. koch cc. book review: applied refraction with special reference to the blurpoint technique. am j optom 1934;11:36-361. 9. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: applied refraction. j am optom assoc 1934;6(4):6. 10. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: fundamental refraction and orthoptics. j am optom assoc 1936;8:197-198. 11. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: corrective and preventive optometry. j am optom assoc 1950;21:383. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 91 a trio of short vignettes on optometry history irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com handling a movie star dr. harold blinder (pennsylvania college of optometry ’43) had his optometric practice in manhattan. because of its unique location at midtown manhattan, he was tapped for optometric services by a variety of famous and not-so-famous entertainment personalities. one particular instance sticks out his mind and he told the tale at a recent southwest retired optometric luncheon. it was 1962 and dr. blinder got a call from arthur penn, who was the director for a movie called “the miracle worker.” it starred ann bancroft and patty duke. according to harold blinder, mr. penn wanted to know if “i knew what eyes blinded by scarlet fever or meningitis looked like” so he could make the star of the movie about helen keller look authentic. a strange question but harold promptly said “of course. come over to the office and i shall show you.” long story made short, director penn came to the office and dr. blinder showed him pictures of blind eyes and together they decided on the look they wanted. helen keller’s corneas were severely scarred. contact lenses were designed for actress duke and she was made to look authentically blind. the lenses were full scleral ones and they were not the easiest lenses to insert and remove. to solve the problem one of dr. blinder’s faithful (and talented) staff attended all of the close-up shoots for the picture in order to be on hand as the official “contact lens inserter.” that worked well until the director decided to shoot some close up scenes on a memorial day weekend, an official holiday; blinder’s staff was not in town. harold to the rescue! the film shoot was done in a large warehouse in new york city, made to look like a room. all day long while scenes were shot and re-shot, dr. blinder baby-sat his movie star patient and, of course, became integral part of an academy award winning film. too bad but he did not get any film credits. an addendum to this story is a conversation i had with mel wolfberg, former president of the american optometric association and president of the pennsylvania college of optometry. dr. wolfberg recalls a dinner held in new york city in the 1960s that was sponsored by the better vision institute. wolfberg was seated at the table with helen keller, her sister and her secretary and watched as the entire conversation between the three including his verbal remarks were put into sign language. he remarked that ms. keller had a perpetual smile on her face and (to be sure) a halo around her head. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 92 getting vision testing for driver license renewals dr. martin l. kalmanson, and 88-year old retired optometrist from brooklyn, tells about the events that led up to revising or adding mandatory vision testing to new york motor vehicle laws. it was in the 1960s and here is his story: “i was president of the kings county (brooklyn) optometric society when the members demanded that something be done about the poor situation regarding the issuance of driver licenses by new york state. “we involved a man who had recently lost his vision but still had a legal license to drive. we invited him and a member of the local press to come to the motor vehicle office in downtown brooklyn on fulton street. the following ensued: he tapped his way into the office followed by several of us. in a loud voice he announced that he had come to have his license renewed. one of the clerks responded with a shout that he should proceed to window #5. he replied that he was blind. one of the clerks came out from behind the counter and led him to window #5 where another clerk helped him by filling out the proper form. when asked to sign the form, he reminded the clerk that he was totally blind whereupon the clerk guided his hand holding a pen so that he could make his mark with an x. “after a few minutes, he was issued a new driving license and the clerks cheerfully wished him good-bye. of course, this was possible because the law at that time did not require a vision test for renewal. indeed, one could renew through the mail! “after due publicity in the news media, we in brooklyn believed the legislature was so moved by this incident to agree with the new york optometric society that passing a vision test must be a requirement for renewal.” scholarships for optometric students in florida dr. ed walker of tallahassee, florida reports an interesting happening in the early 1950's. dr. walker remembers when dr. judd chapman, past president of the american optometric association, and he visited dr. doak s. campbell, president of florida state university. as ed recalls it, judd asked dr. campbell, "what can we do to get optometry better known by the public?" campbell promptly responded, "get state supported scholarships for optometry." with the help of others, ed walker walked the halls of the florida legislature and managed to get the first state supported scholarship for optometry in our nation passed. it was based upon the optometrists practicing in an "area of need". dr. walker said that “bill chapel, speaker of the house of representatives, stated to me that the board of optometry should administer the program, not the department of education (which administered the medical and dental scholarships). this allowed florida to have an optometrist in each of the 67 counties in florida. and, even more important, this, then, helped optometry later pass tpa [therapeutic pharmaceutical agent] legislation because ods practiced convenient and accessible to our entire population.” hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 93 there is an interesting story connected with the effort to get tpa legislation in the sunshine state. dr. walker recalls that “as an aside, after the legislative session was over (as reported to me by jimmy kines, the governor’s chief of staff), governor farris bryant had prepared a veto message for the bill. dr. herb stevens of gainesville, a good friend of the governor, was called to get in touch with governor bryant in hawaii to remind him that he had helped us with this legislation by speaking for the bill in committee. and governor bryant then let the bill become law without his signature.” the optometric scholarship program was discontinued when nova southeastern university created an optometry college in ft. lauderdale. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 94 ralph barstow (1884-1968), optometric practice management advisor and author of how to succeed in optometry david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract after a background in business and sales, ralph m. barstow became a practice management counselor for optometrists. he consulted in individual optometry practices, lectured frequently to optometric groups, and taught at the los angeles school of optometry. his book how to succeed in optometry emphasized professional practice and became one of the most popular books on optometric practice management ever published. this paper presents a biographical sketch and a brief description of barstow’s book. key words: optometry books, optometry history, practice management. ralph merrill barstow worked as an advisor to optometrists for nearly forty years. he lectured frequently to optometric groups on professional optometry and practice management, and he counseled individual optometrists on the management of their practices. he was born january 2, 1884 in binghampton, new york. in 1910, he was working in the office of the chamber of commerce in rochester, new york.1 in 1918, he was a sales manager for a company in rochester.2 at one time, he was a lecturer in the extension division of the university of rochester.3 before his work with optometry, he contributed business articles and fiction works to various periodicals, including collier’s, nations business, and forbes magazine.3 barstow’s first professional contact with optometry came in 1928, at the request of morgan davis, of the ohio state university college of optometry.4 it appears that shortly after that, he devoted all his time to optometric concerns, because in the preface of his 1948 book, how to succeed in optometry, he stated: “for the past nineteen years, the author has given his entire time to contact with and counseling optometrists.”5 he became affiliated with the optometric extension program in 1933 and became their director of professional counseling.6 barstow was on the faculty of the los angeles school of optometry (now the southern california college of optometry) from 1939 to 1955 for his expertise in practice management.7 during some of those years, he took some of the optometry school classes “for the purpose of thoroughly acquainting himself with optometric practice as it is taught.”5 barstow contributed frequently to various optometric publications. in 1935, barstow published a 46 page booklet entitled build a better practice doctor. it hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 95 emphasized professional practice, how to present oneself in a professional manner, and how to treat patients professionally. barstow is particularly well known for his book, how to succeed in optometry. the first edition (276 pages) was published in 1948, and a second edition (319 pages) was published in 1959. how to succeed in optometry was one of forty books to receive multiple nominations in a survey on the most important twentieth century optometry books.8 barstow received many honors from optometric organizations and institutions. he was awarded honorary degrees from the beta sigma kappa international honorary fraternity (d.o.s., 1936), chicago college of optometry (d.o.s., 1950), and los angeles college of optometry (l.h.d., 1966).6 he was the recipient of honorary life memberships in the colorado and missouri state optometric associations in 1967 and in the american optometric association the following year.6 barstow died on december 1, 1968. barstow’s how to succeed in optometry the first edition of how to succeed in optometry was published in 1948. on the title page, “professional counselor” appears under the author’s name. in the preface to the book, barstow explained the writing style he used and the reason for it: “textbook writing seems to have fallen largely into an impersonal and rather austere kind of composition….perhaps it is because of the nature of the author or because of the essential humanness of the subject matter but however it may be, this textbook is deliberately presented in colloquial and friendly form.” (p. vii) throughout the book, barstow’s emphasis is on the nature of professional practice and how to achieve it. in an introduction, he states: “…the basic tenet of professional practice is the service of humanity, represented by the highest technical development and greatest possible devotion on the part of the practitioner…it may seem odd to some, that the material rewards of such a devotion are almost on a par with the spiritual satisfactions derived from such a motivation. the public which seeks its practitioners with anxiety, senses quickly those who are consecrated to their work, who endow it with something more than deftness and dexterity – patients have a feeling that these professional services touch something far deeper in their lives than mere symptoms and superficial manifestations.” (p. ix) barstow then addressed the differences between professional practice and commercial practice in the first chapter of the book. the remaining 22 chapters detail how to start a professional practice, analyze a community, lay out and equip an office, render services, determine and present fees, set up an appointment system, establish a bookkeeping system, organize follow-ups, establish and maintain a patient base, develop a budget for the office, set up a billing system, and other factors important in developing and managing a practice. a review of the book said that: “rarely has a truer title accompanied a text.”9 further, that review suggested that the emphasis on professionalism would have benefited optometry in preceding decades: “had optometry been established upon the sound principles detailed here, she need not have struggled half a century only to find herself still hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2011, volume 42, number 3, page 96 struggling to rid herself of those basically unsound practices which have so seriously retarded her progress and which still stand in the way of full recognition and success.”9 a second edition of how to succeed in optometry appeared in 1959 published by the illinois college of optometry. revisions for the second edition were based on barstow’s recorded tapes and writings along with edits and additions by members of the illinois college of optometry staff. references 1. 1910 united states federal census, ancestry.com. 2. world war i registration card, ancestry.com. 3. who was who among north american authors 1921-1939, volume 1. detroit: gale research company, 1976. 4. anonymous. dr. ralph barstow. optom world 1968;55(12);21. 5. barstow rm. how to succeed in optometry. minneapolis: augsburg publishing, 1948:viii. 6. anonymous. obituary. optical j rev optom 1969;106(1):55. 7. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:124, 459. 8. goss da, penisten dk. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight: newsletter optom hist soc 2004;35:36-40. 9. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: how to succeed in optometry. j am optom assoc 1948;20:268. hindsight_53_1_2_nobleed (002).pdf 14 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 colorado challenge: the court battle for the prescribing of soft contact lenses, the use of the tonometer, and the diagnosis of glaucoma editorial note this paper was originally published in 2012 in the colorado optometric association’s newsletter, viewpoints. it is reprinted here with permission of the colorado optometric association. introduction there have been many challenges to the profession of optometry at both the state and federal level during its 110 years of legalized existence. these challenges have involved the passage of the original state practice acts, clarification of the original optometry laws, passage of state board rules and regulations and efforts to eliminate commercialism. this was followed by the expansion of state optometry practice acts authorizing the use of diagnostic drugs, therapeutic drugs or other clinical procedures. additional challenges have been federal in nature and therefore broader in scope but still of great importance for the profession. colorado is unique in that the colorado optometric association (coa) defended optometry’s right to use the tonometer and fit soft contact lenses in a lawsuit that had national implications. if this defense had not been successful, it is likely other states would have been confronted with similar litigation. the following is an historical account of this challenge and its outcome. background from its inception in minnesota in 1901, optometry was a profession that became legalized in a relatively short period of time. by 1924 all 48 states, the district of columbia and two territories (hawaii and alaska) had enacted optometry practice acts.1 colorado was the 30th state to pass an optometry practice act in 1913. optometry was very proud of its drugless heritage and had utilized this fact to distinguish itself from medicine in its establishment as a separate and distinct profession. the scope of optometric practice, however, had not changed in almost 70 years. those in leadership positions were beginning to sense a growing level of discontent, especially among more recent graduates, with the confined scope of practice and the increase in pre-optometry and professional program curricular requirements for the doctor of optometry degree. an informal, yet historic, meeting was called by dr. alden n. haffner, director of the optometric center of new york, in 1968. those optometrists invited to attend this meeting were drs. gordon heath (indiana university), william baldwin (massachusetts college of optometry), richard hazlett (massachusetts college of optometry), norman wallis (university of houston) and spurgeon eure (southern college of optometry) all affiliated with optometric education in one form or another. optometrists from private practice invited to this meeting were drs. irvin borish, charles seger and milton eger all involved in some capacity in organized optometry. this meeting was held on january 16, 1968, in a hotel at laguardia airport in new york city.2-4 the individuals attending this meeting did not come representing any organization or group but were there because of a sincere concern for the future of the profession. each attendee had personally funded the expense for this trip. the consensus of this group, after intense debate and discussion, was that the profession must expand its scope of practice responsibilities and discard the original concept of a drugless profession. dr. haffner articulated this notion of an expanded scope of practice within the context of an evolving american health care system during a keynote address to the new england council of optometrists on march 17, 1968.5 dr. haffner’s message particularly excited the imagination of several optometrists from the state of rhode island who were in the audience for the address. dr. haffner had met with dr. morton silverman before, during and after the new england council meeting. led by drs. morton silverman, david ferris and richard albert, the rhode island optometric association, after three years of effort, passed the first law that specifically authorized the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes.6,7 this bill was signed into law on july 16, 1971. west virginia passed the first therapeutic drug act on march 4, 1976.8 jerry r. pederson, o.d. deceased ron g. fair, o.d. 1287 8th ave., unit i-167 brighton, co 80601-3584 fairone@comcast.net 10.14434/hindsight.v53i1&2.35661 ronald d. solomon, o.d. 3203 paseo rd. colorado springs, co 80909-1049 elron3msn.com article pederson, fair & solomon dr. jerry pederson (image courtesy dr. jon pederson) hindsight: journal of optometry history 15 article pederson, fair & solomon to most optometrists, the passage of this legislation was a success that seemed to come out of nowhere but had a tremendously positive impact on the profession. it served as the event that began the change from the drugless profession of the past. it had been 70 years since the first optometry law was passed. at the present time, 183 legislative enactments have been passed since the first rhode island diagnostic drug law was enacted 40 years ago.8 each of these state laws has increased the scope of practice of optometry. no other health care profession has undergone such a scope of practice metamorphosis as optometry. the state of pennsylvania passed the second such diagnostic drug act in 1974 and oregon, maine, louisiana and delaware in 1975.8 lawsuit in colorado stimulus for lawsuit the passage of legislation in rhode island did much to generate opposition from organized medicine, especially by those in ophthalmology. among the practitioners who opposed optometry’s attempt to expand its scope of practice were such ophthalmologists as drs. charles jakel, james allen, ralph ryan, bernard campbell, eugene wiggs and lawrence winograd. dr. jakel was an optometrist who later became an ophthalmologist and was very antagonistic toward optometry. this was not an unusual or unexpected response for those individuals who had made such a professional transition. many of those practitioners were active in the physicians education network (pen), a newspaper that detailed supposed optometric diagnostic misadventures, reported lawsuits against optometrists and denigrated optometry in general and optometric education in particular. it was a form of “yellow” journalism popular around the turn of the 20th century and designed to inflame and injure the profession of optometry. it was circulated to many academic medical schools as well as to most ophthalmologists. although it was uncomfortable or distasteful to read from an optometric viewpoint, in the long term, the pen did not have its intended effect in the medical and health care community. on wednesday, january 10, 1973, dr. winograd later joined by drs. campbell and wiggs filed a suit in denver district court against c. e. johnson, o.d. and “all persons similarly situated”9 this latter phrase meant all optometrists practicing in colorado. the suit specifically asked the court to stop all optometrists from fitting soft contact lenses and “from holding themselves out to the public as persons qualified to diagnose the presence or absence of glaucoma.” the court was further requested to enter immediately a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. the reason for naming dr. johnson was apparently based on statements made by dr. johnson to a patient related to his ability to “measure intraocular pressure or diagnose glaucoma.” other reasons that may have been a factor in this decision were dr. winograd’s desire to denigrate optometry or be viewed as an important figure in ophthalmology on the state and national level. perhaps all of the above or even other reasons could explain his motives. dr. winograd and his colleagues were hoping to set a precedent for the nation. contact lenses if they could stop optometrists from fitting soft contact lenses, they would be able to reduce or eliminate optometry’s ability to examine the eye and fit this revolutionary new contact lens. ironically, it had been optometry that had been most responsible for the success of rigid contact lenses. many ophthalmologists were opposed to and did not recommend contact lenses to their patients and a few even reported they caused blindness in patients who wore them. nevertheless, from the early 1950s through the 1960s, contact lenses grew in popularity with the public. however, with the introduction of the cross-linked hydrophilic polymer, or soft contact lens, in 1971 the potential for the contact lens market was going to grow even larger. it is not clear if ophthalmology wanted to increase its share of this market or stop optometry from being able to increase its market share of contact lens patients. the ophthalmologists thought that the food and drug administration’s (fda) designation of soft contact lenses as a drug would preclude its use by optometry. this designation was used by the agency for testing and certification purposes only. the ophthalmologists reasoned that optometrists did not have a right under colorado law to use drugs and therefore it would be illegal to fit this type of contact lens. this portion of the lawsuit was important since it was the first challenge of any type to the prescribing and fitting of contact lenses by optometrists made from this material. unfortunately, some state optometry laws did not include the fitting of contact lenses in their law. however, colorado was not among these states. tonometry if ophthalmology were successful in blocking the use of tonometry for the measurement of intraocular pressure, then optometry would be at a competitive disadvantage in its ability to perform a comprehensive eye examination. at this point in time, the understanding of the diagnosis of glaucoma included patient history, intraocular pressure measurement, cup-to-disk ratio assessment and visual field measurement with a tangent screen or other kinetic visual field instrument. however, the first among equals was the measurement of intraocular pressure. glaucoma was equal to high intraocular pressure rather than intraocular pressure being one of several risk factors as it is considered today. without this technique, optometry would surely be portrayed as less than capable of delivering quality eye care. prior to the late 1950s, intraocular pressure had been measured by various instruments utilizing a weight that indented either the corneal or scleral tissue. schiotz had introduced his indentation instrument in 1905. unfortunately, scleral indentation tonometry was found to be inaccurate. usually, to the extent the technique of tonometry was performed, ophthalmologists performed it on the cornea and optometrists on the sclera. this was because ophthalmology had the right to use corneal anesthetics and optometry did not. goldmann introduced the applanation tonometer in 1954 and by the late 1950s this instrument was becoming the technique of choice. the goldmann tonometer required a corneal anesthetic. in 1958, elwin marg, o.d., ph.d. of the university of california, berkeley school of optometry was on sabbatical leave in stockholm, sweden. during this time, he met r. stuart mackay, ph. d., a physicist from the same institution who was also on sabbatical leave. mackay and marg discussed the theoretical basis 16 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 for a new electronic tonometer and by 1959, they had convinced the university to take out a patent for this instrument. the mackaymarg electronic tonometer was introduced in 1962.10 to ascertain the accuracy of this new instrument, a joint od/md study was conducted at berkeley.11 the study revealed a high correlation between intraocular pressures measured by mackay-marg and goldmann tonometers. with both tonometers, the procedure was performed on the cornea surface, but the mackay-marg instrument did not require an anesthetic. schools and colleges of optometry renewed their emphasis on the topic of glaucoma detection and diagnosis using the mackay-marg instrument and its successor, the noncontact tonometer (nct). the nct used a small burst of air to achieve a predetermined area of corneal applanation.12 these instruments helped optometrists in their movement toward a more healthoriented role. in fact, it is usually agreed that contact lenses and tonometry first brought the optometrist into direct contact with the eye. proceedings related to the lawsuit initial hearing the first proceeding of the lawsuit was a motion by the plaintiffs requesting the court to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the optometrists from claiming they could detect or diagnose glaucoma. on wednesday, january 12, 1973, the case was set for a hearing on the preliminary restraining order and temporary injunction. this hearing was scheduled for monday, january 22, 1973. during the two-day hearing, arguments against the request as well as testimony from members or representatives of the optometric profession were presented. this case was heard in the court of judge robert kingsley. counsel for the coa was the law firm of akolt, dick, rovira, demuth and eiberger. mr. jack akolt presented the case for the optometrists. on january 23, 1973, the following were in attendance at the hearing: drs. c. e. “buzz” johnson, ron g. fair, john a. ordahl, c. edward williams, george w. tull and mr. william o’rourke, executive director of the coa. the only witness who testified on behalf of the coa was dr. fair and his testimony concerned a paper he had published in the american journal of optometry and can be found in the archives of the american academy of optometry. this paper, which was published in 1972, was entitled incidence of glaucoma in optometric practice-an eight year evaluation of 6,580 tonograms, and described the prevalence and incidence of glaucoma suspects or glaucoma in an optometric practice.13 dr. fair deserves great credit for the time and effort spent in collecting and analyzing the data and writing this report. it may be one of the most fortuitous and timely clinical research reports in the history of the profession. dr. fair collected data on patients over the age of 40 years between april 1963 and january 1971. this paper contained a description of the clinical technique of the use of the mackay-marg tonometer as well as establishing criteria for determining patients who were glaucoma suspects and criteria for referral or the diagnosis of glaucoma. dr. fair was questioned extensively about this study and its results during the initial hearing. on january 26, 1973, following several sessions in chambers with the coa general counsel and the attorney for the ophthalmologists, the court issued an order. the court order denied the request for action on soft contact lenses. it restrained optometrists from “holding forth to the public as being qualified to diagnose the presence or absence of the disease known as glaucoma.” the court did not place any restriction on the use of tonometers by optometrists. when the language of the court order was compared to the language of the colorado law regulating the practice of optometry, the order simply restated what was already a matter of law. this order merely interpreted the statues of the state of colorado as they had existed for many years. this temporary injunction would remain in effect until the suit was brought to trial. dr. ron fair (image courtesy dr. fair) preparations for trial over the next two years, the coa prepared for this trial set for january 1975. in the background was mr. ellis lyons the general counsel for the american optometric association (aoa). mr. lyons had a very distinguished legal career and had served in the u. s. attorney general’s office during the korean conflict. mr. lyons’ opinion regarding eye examinations performed by optometrists was the following: “i start with the proposition that anyone licensed to examine the eye should have available the best possible means for doing so, including every device, instrument and drug in use. i believe that as an optimum goal, professionals charged with examining the eyes should be free to use or not use every diagnostic aid available.” mr. lyons did qualify this as an assumption on his part, but he felt that as a general proposition it was sound, quite apart from whether the use of drugs in diagnosis is indispensable, which was a technical question beyond his scope as an attorney. mr. lyons’ statement article pederson, fair & solomon hindsight: journal of optometry history 17 served to set the course for future actions by the coa as well as for optometric legislation across the nation. mr. carl f. eiberger was the coa’s general counsel and mr. edmundo a. gonzales was the legislative counsel. the attorneys for the ophthalmologists were mr. leonard n. waldbaum and mr. lawrence f. hobbs. this suit was classified as a “class action” suit. this meant each individual optometrist had to decide whether to “opt in” or “opt out” of the suit. if the optometrist decided to “opt out” of the suit, he or she would not be obligated for the legal expenses. however, even if the optometrist “opted out,” he or she would still be bound by the court’s ruling. fortunately, most colorado optometrists elected to remain in the suit. ultimately the lawsuit expenses cost the coa approximately $165,000. colorado optometrists were asked to pledge $1,000 each to be paid over a year’s time. a fund termed catapult, which stood for “continuous action to achieve professional acceptance and ultimate legal triumph,” was established to solicit colorado optometrists as well as appeal to colleagues nationwide. at that time, there were 219 optometrists licensed in colorado and they contributed $55,000. dr. ronald solomon, coa president, headed the catapult drive and sent a letter to all optometrists in the nation. this appeal by dr. solomon raised additional funds which, when combined with coa operational and reserve resources, the association was able to retire the indebtedness of the legal fees. interestingly, those optometrists who attended or testified in this trial paid their own expenses. the aoa was not officially involved in the lawsuit because of the implications a negative court decision would pose for this national organization. dr. ronald solomon (image courtesy dr. solomon) the trial the trial began on january 9, 1975 at denver district court in the court of judge robert kingsley. kingsley was the district judge who had presided over the initial hearing on january 22, 1973. the optometrists had witnesses from the colorado state board of optometric examiners, colorado vision services, officers of the coa, a general practice physician and two ophthalmologists. the ophthalmologists presented testimony from four community ophthalmologists and two from academic ophthalmology. dr. fair had presented the majority of the testimony in the initial hearing for the temporary injunction in 1973 but was not called as a witness in the trial. defense of soft contact lenses evidence was presented by the coa on behalf of the state’s optometrists that soft contact lenses were a device under federal law. the fda labeled the soft contact lens a “new drug” so it had greater ability to regulate the manufacture of the new contact lens. the soft contact lens prescribed by colorado optometrists was not used for any disease treatment. the soft contact lens was for vision correction only. the question of who could actually prescribe a contact lens was a matter of state law and colorado optometrists had the authority to prescribe contact lenses. clearly dr. winograd and his colleagues had a serious misunderstanding about the classification of the fda regarding new products. defense of tonometry the colorado optometrists also stated that as a matter of public health they should be permitted to use a tonometer. various nationwide statistics indicated that 70% of the u. s. population consulted an optometrist for their initial eye care. this accessibility gave patients who otherwise would not receive such care the opportunity to have their eye pressure measured as part of a routine comprehensive eye examination. it was established that there were tonometers that did not require a corneal anesthetic. both optometric and medical experts testified that these tonometers were as reliable and accurate for measuring intraocular pressure as those which did require corneal anesthetic. it was also established that optometrists did not use and did not claim to use any tonometer requiring the use of corneal anesthesia. also, optometrists did not diagnose glaucoma or any other eye disease but had a duty under the law to detect or recognize any signs or symptoms exhibited by a patient and to refer the patient to the appropriate physician for diagnosis and treatment. this was a requirement of the colorado optometry practice act at this time. to summarize, the following three factors were admitted or claimed by the optometrists: 1. optometrists did not use soft contact lens for disease treatment. 2. optometrists did not use a tonometer that required the use of an anesthetic eye drop. 3. optometrists did not diagnose glaucoma. but the optometrists did claim the right to fit and prescribe soft contact lenses as these are contact lenses and are not drugs under colorado law. also, optometrists had the right to use a tonometer which does not require an anesthetic eye drop and they had the right and duty to recognize any signs or symptoms of a disease exhibited by a patient as well as making an appropriate referral to a physician. the decision on february 5, 1975, after a 10-day trial in denver district court, judge robert kingsley agreed with the position of the article pederson, fair & solomon 18 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 optometrists. judge kingsley accepted the optometrists’ positions completely as to what the optometrists could and should do in discharging their duties as a matter of public health under the colorado optometry practice act. judge kingsley also accepted what the optometrists stated they did not do in terms of discharging their professional responsibilities. soft contact lens decision judge kingsley found that bausch and lomb’s soft contact lens was a contact lens and may be prescribed by optometrists for correction of visual acuity but not for the treatment of eye disease. the court said that optometry was not bound by the food and drug administration’s categorization of soft contact lens as a “new drug.” this ruling was consistent with what colorado optometrists had been doing since the inception of contact lenses in this ophthalmic market. tonometry decision judge kingsley further ruled that optometrists could use a tonometer which does not require anesthetic eye drops in examining their patients. the court agreed with the optometrists in their claim that they did not diagnose the presence of glaucoma. however, in no way should this be construed or interpreted to limit the optometrists’ right and duty to refer or direct a patient to a physician whenever it comes to the optometrists’ attention that such a patient exhibits signs or symptoms of a disease requiring treatment by an ophthalmologist or other physician. these decisions of the court raised some questions because of the terminology that was used in the decision. therefore, motions for clarifications were filed by the optometrists. not surprisingly the ophthalmologists subsequently filed a motion for a new trial. after a hearing, the court issued a modified decision with modified findings of fact and order on april 2, 1975. this decision rendered again was in agreement with the optometrists’ claims and positions. summary the lawsuit had taken 25 months from the time it had been filed in january 1973 until the final decision was rendered in april 1975. it had been a time of great uncertainty and anxiety on the part of the colorado optometrists. the expense of the preparation, hearings and trial for the lawsuit had been substantial and was borne largely by the coa. as with most issues of this nature, much of the effort and expense was shouldered by the minority of the membership. fortunately, the coa had the benefit of outstanding and farsighted leadership. although the lawsuit was unsuccessful from colorado ophthalmology’s point of view it had clearly validated the position of the profession of optometry. undoubtedly dr. winograd was unfamiliar with the fda’s language regarding new products and caught completely off guard by dr. fair’s clinical research that used an instrument with which winograd must have been unfamiliar or was unaware it existed. this lawsuit did serve to make colorado optometrists realize the coa, especially its leadership, needed to develop, support and pass legislation that would change the colorado optometry practice act. this would serve to make the coa proactive rather than reactive to a lawsuit. perhaps if any good came from this it was the realization of the importance of having the word “diagnosis” in the colorado optometry practice act. to achieve a change in the optometric practice act would require a political grassroots effort on the part of the coa. then executive director william b. o’rourke was active in local democratic politics and also had experience in the colorado legislature as a lobbyist. he began to educate the colorado optometrists on how to become involved in legislative campaigns at the local and state levels. o’rourke emphasized the importance of becoming involved in candidates’ campaigns early and be willing to do “grassroots” work for the candidate. if the candidate was successful in being elected to the legislature, then the optometrist would be able to have access to the legislator. in this manner, he or she could explain optometry’s proposed legislation and why it was in the best interest of the citizens of colorado. although the lawsuit was emotionally and financially troublesome for colorado optometrists, it resulted in a very united coa. as a result of the rural nature of colorado and the distribution of legislators, optometry had a significant advantage of impacting the outcome of legislation. like many states, it had really failed to grasp the significance of this advantage until adversity brought it into focus. the lawsuit may have delayed the coa by a few years in its quest to receive authorization to use pharmaceutical agents for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. however, it did help the organization and its leadership understand what was necessary to increase the scope of practice for the profession of optometry. this would ultimately result in more accessible and therefore less expensive care for the citizens of colorado. acknowledgement the authors want to express their appreciation to all of those optometrists, past and present, who supported this effort by the coa to win this important case. clearly this case would have had national implications for the profession had the outcome been different. they also thank john f. amos, o.d. for his assistance in reviewing and writing portions of this paper. references 1. hofstetter hw. optometry – professional, economic and legal aspects. st. louis, mo: c. v. mosby co., 1948; 36-54. 2. eger mj. now it can and should be told. j am optom assoc 1989; 60(4): 323-325. 3. haffner an. the la guardia conference – the meeting that changed the profession. hindsight: j optom hist 2010; 41(1):17-20. 4. bennett i. the meeting that changed the profession. hindsight: j optom hist 2010; 41(1): 21-23. article pederson, fair & solomon hindsight: journal of optometry history 19 5. haffner an. the evolving health care system in the american democracy’s welfare state and potential role of the profession of optometry. new engl j optom 1968; 19(6): 164-177. 6. silverman mw. optometry’s first drug law: a personal memoir. j am optom assoc 1998; 69(3):188-198. 7. personal communication, dr. david ferris, june 18, 2011. 8. american optometric association. optometric prescriptive authority/scope of practice. october 22, 2011. 9. classé jg. legal aspects of optometry. stoneham, ma: butterworths, 1989; 3-39. 10. moses ra, marg e, oeschli r. evaluation of the basic validity and clinical usefulness of the mackay-marg tonometer. invest ophthalmol 1962; 1(1):75-85. 11. moses ra. the mackay-marg tonometer: a report to the committee on standardization of tonometers. trans am acad ophthalmol otolaryngol 1962; 66(1): 88-95. 12. grohman b. a new tonometer system. am j optom arch am acad optom 1972; 49(8): 646-660. 13. fair rg. incidence of glaucoma in optometric practice – an eight year evaluation of 6,580 tonograms. am j optom arch am acad optom 1972; 49(9):754-761. appendix. index of witnesses for the plaintiffs charles e. jaeckle, o.d., m.d., optometrist and ophthalmologist, retired from private practice whitney g. sampson, m.d., ophthalmologist, associate clinical professor of ophthalmology at the university of texas medical branch bernard e. campbell, m.d., ophthalmologist, private practice in lakewood, co miles galin, m.d., ophthalmologist, chairman, department of ophthalmology, medical college of new york loren e. mckerrow, m.d., ophthalmologist, private practice in helena, mt for the defendants c. e. johnson, o.d., private practice in denver, co lowell e. bellin, m.d., internal medicine physician, health commissioner of the city of new york joseph c. toland, o.d., m.d., optometrist and ophthalmologist, pennsylvania college of optometry and thomas jefferson medical college bernard becker, m.d., ophthalmologist, chairman, eye department of washington university, st. louis, mo j. kafka, m.d., ophthalmologist, private practice in helena, mt harold c. heim, ph.d., dean, university of colorado college of pharmacy mary jo jacobs, m.d., family practice, glenwood springs, co john a. ordahl, o.d., president, colorado state board of optometric examiners james hopkins, o.d., colorado state board of optometric examiners william b. o’rourke, executive director, colorado optometric association donald e. gibson, o.d., president, colorado vision service article pederson, fair & solomon hindsight_56_1_final.pdf 2 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 2025 dr. w. david sullins, jr. infantsee award congratulations to john tassinari, o.d., the 2025 sullins award recipient! this award recognizes an individual doctor of optometry who has made significant contributions to optometry or his/her community for outstanding public service involving the infantsee program. honoring dr. sullins’ inspiring and passionate leadership as a driving force in optometry, the award started as a memorial fund established after his 2005 passing. the award will be presented during optometry’s meeting®, june 25-28, 2025 | minneapolis, mn optometry’s fund for disaster relief optometry’s fund for disaster relief has changed the lives of many optometrists by providing immediate financial relief for critical and urgent needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter. disasters are unpredictable and can be life-altering; it is our goal to ensure that the fund is always poised and ready to help, so doctors can get back to doing what they do best – providing eye and vision care to their community. doctors and students who have property damage to their home or practice can apply for a disaster relief grant at aoafoundation.org/our-programs/optometrys-fund for-disaster-relief. blast from the past congratulations to our 2025 blast from the past finalists! 1st place – monica do 2nd place – jared denton 3rd place – cinthia qiu cheung throwback thursday each month the optometric historical society (ohs) posts a throwback thursday post on the optometry cares – the aoa foundation facebook page. these throwback thursday posts are written by the ohs committee members and are about anything from the history of optometry in the military to unique optometry equipment, such as pince-nez glasses. follow optometry cares – the aoa foundation on facebook to see the monthly throwback thursday posts. the aoa foundation facebook page can be found at facebook.com/optometrycares. news 10.14434/hindsight.v56i1.41584 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 78 the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 18982015, part 3 r. norman bailey, ma, od, mba, mph clinical professor, retired university of houston college of optometry nbailey@uh.edu continued from volume 47, number 2 the committee on ethics and economics n 1947 the department of ethics and economics' volunteer structure was down-sized considerably with newton e. w. lenz becoming the new director. leo g. miller became director in 1949. the department was renamed the committee on ethics and economics in 1950 with donald r. provencher being appointed chair. he held the position until 1952.64 the years following the adoption of the code of ethics and its supplements saw continuing discussion and actions by the department of ethics and economics, and subsequently the committee on ethics and economics, in such areas as textbooks and ethics instruction for the schools and colleges of optometry, modes of practice including professional standards in office appearance and location as well as standards for outdoor signs. these discussions would lead to the adoption in 1950 of the aoa rules of practice and continuing efforts to rid the profession of commercialism.65-69 the 1950 rules of practice read as follows:67 aoa rules of practice (adopted 1950) a. no member shall willfully violate the optometry law or the optometry board rulings of the state in which he practices. b. no member shall practice in or on premises where any materials other than those necessary to render his professional services are dispensed to the public. c. no member when using the doctor title shall qualify it in any other way than by the use of the word "optometrist." he may, however, when not using the prefix, use after his name the "o.d." degree designation. d. no member actively engaged in the practice of optometry shall in any manner publicize or hold himself forth as an optician. e. no member shall display his license, diplomas, or certificates in such manner as to be seen and read from outside his office. f. no member shall hold himself forth in such a way as to carry the slightest intimation of having superior qualifications or being superior to other optometrists. i mailto:nbailey@uh.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 79 g. no member holding an official position in any optometric organization shall use such position for advertising purposes or for self-aggrandizement. h. no member shall display any sign containing other than name, profession, and office hours; same to be used only on office windows or at entrance to his office. letters must not be luminous or illuminated, and must not be more than 4" in height for street level and 7" in height for offices above street level. i. no member shall display eyeglass signs or painted or decalcomania eyes anywhere. j. no member shall use other than his professional card on or in any publication or in any public display; said card shall not exceed two (2) columns by two (2) inches, and it shall not contain any more than his name, profession, address, telephone number, office hours, eye examinations by appointment, practice limited to (any one optometric specialty). educational material may be published only when it has been specifically approved by the executive committee of the respective state association. k. no member shall use bold-face type or in any other manner attempt to attract special attention to himself in any telephone or other public directory. l. no member shall display any merchandise, ophthalmic material or advertising of any kind in windows or in any room of his office for the purpose of inducing patronage. m. no member shall do anything inconsistent with professional standards of the optometric and allied health professions. n. no member shall fail to observe scrupulously the code of ethics and other provisions of both his own state association and the american optometric association. enforcement of the provisions of code (rules) of practice shall be the duty of the various state associations. it is recommended that when a member is doubtful of the ethics or advisability of any action he contemplates, he shall submit a detailed statement to the proper committee of his state association for approval. this committee, if in doubt as to the point involved, shall in turn submit the question to the executive committee of the state association for final opinion. logically, the trustees of the american optometric association will give an opinion if asked by the state association. the aoa combats the commercial practice of optometry the association had finally arrived at fully defining optometry as a profession set apart from commercial enterprise through its code of ethics, supplements to the code of ethics, and the rules of practice. the detailed rules were readily adopted by the house of delegates, which was made up largely of professionally practicing optometrists. however, much strife was to develop through the country in resistance to the rules. some state affiliates readily adopted these documents and many state regulatory boards gave much of their content legal status. some states would not adopt the national position. the national position caused some loss of membership. some saw these moves as more revolutionary than evolutionary. aoa general counsel kohn called on the association hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 80 and its affiliates to assist non-complying optometrists to accept these methods of practice rather than taking actions that would alienate them.70 in 1952 harold cline was named the chairman of the committee on ethics and economics and held the position for eight years. the committee's name was changed to the committee on ethics in 1955.64 under cline’s leadership, the committee continued the efforts of previous years, serving in an advisory capacity to interpret the code of ethics and the rules of practice whenever questions had risen on specific matters. the committee continued its encouragement of state affiliates to enforce the rules of practice. the committee produced a new brochure in 1960 titled "manual of professional practice for the american optometrist" which covered professional standards, the code of ethics, and professional optometric fees. 71-76 bob thompson chaired the committee on ethics from 1960 until replaced by warren g. morris in 1964. morris held the position for 1 year. in 1965, richard c. dexter was appointed the chair and served in this position until 1969.64 throughout the sixties the aoa continued its efforts to encourage professional behavior by all its members as the ethical way to practice. the committee on ethics reported to the 1962 congress in chicago, illinois a great disregard in many of the states for ethical standards in yellow pages listings.77 because of differences in interpretation and enforcement of the "guiding" documents, the aoa congress of 1962 passed a resolution urging “the committee on ethics to communicate with all affiliated state associations to the end that there should be uniformity of interpretation and enforcement of the code of ethics and rules of practice.”78 to quote gregg:79 once again the profession was beginning to feel the need to do something about ethics. little action had been taken in regard to changing the standards or attempting to get state association compliance since the adoption of the rules of practice in 1950 and the misunderstandings that followed. now there was a movement to require every member to adhere to the aoa rules of practice. the matter had been argued at the new orleans congress in 1965, but no decision had been reached. the principle involved in the argument was the proposal that the aoa structure be changed from a federation of state associations to a direct individual membership corporation. such a change would, of course, drastically affect state autonomy. the concern about ethics stemmed from aoa's goal of eliminating unethical practice by 1970. obviously, the place to start was to determine what was ethical and what was unethical, and the rules of practice seemed to be misunderstood on this point. in new orleans constitutional amendments to require adherence to the rules of practice had been defeated, but the board of trustees was asked to pursue the matter further. at the sixty-ninth congress, held at the sheraton hotel in boston, massachusetts in 1966, an amendment was proposed that would give the aoa authority to require compliance with the rules of practice in order for an optometrist to be eligible for membership in the affiliated and constituent associations by 1970. this proposal brought forth a lively discussion of the problem. by the final vote the house of delegates agreed with the position of the board of trustees, which claimed this amendment would be impractical and unenforceable and should be left to the individual state associations as a matter of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 81 states' rights. it was pointed out that the aoa is an organization of state associations and has no jurisdiction over the individual members, but that it should encourage the states to adopt and enforce the rules of practice as a condition for membership. the annual reports of the committee on ethics during this period indicate many projects directed toward the elimination of unethical practice including the adoption of a point system for the gradual improvement of professional practices.80-86 a new set of rules of practice was adopted at the 1968 congress in miami beach, florida with minimal debate. a committee headed by robert c. phillips of pennsylvania had studied the rules carefully. they noted that various sections of the 1950 rules had found their way into the revisions of the supplements to the code of ethics. they concluded that only four points needed consideration. this reduced the debate as well as the length of the new rules of practice, which were readily adopted.87 the 1968 revised aoa rules of practice read as follows:88 aoa rules of practice (revised and adopted 1968) a. members shall abide by the constitution and by-laws, code of ethics and its supplements, and rules of practice of their national, state, and local optometric organizations. b. members shall practice in such location and manner as is customary with other health care professionals in the area. c. members shall maintain their offices so that the physical appearance is similar to that customary with other health care professionals in the area: signs shall be unpretentious, limited to four inch letters at street level, seven-inch above. ophthalmic materials and certificates shall be visible only from within. d. members shall present themselves to the public in a manner similar to that customary with other health care professionals in the area: telephone and other directory listings shall be in ordinary type size. announcements shall be limited in size to two columns by two inches, and limited in context to name, profession, address, telephone number, office hours, and practice limited to . . . enforcement of the provisions of the rules of practice shall be the duty of the various state associations. it is recommended that when a member is doubtful of the ethics or advisability of any action he contemplates, he shall submit a detailed statement to the proper committee of his state association for its consideration. the united states supreme court upholds states’ rights to control advertising efforts to restrict commercialism in oklahoma had been declared unconstitutional by a federal court in 1955, williamson v. lee optical of oklahoma. however, an appeal to the supreme court of the united states reversed the lower federal court's decision. it held that the oklahoma law was constitutional in every respect. resurgence in efforts to hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 82 restrict commercial practice, based on the oklahoma law, led to laws restricting various aspects of commercial practice in 45 states.89 by the 1970s most doctors of optometry, as other state regulated professionals, were practicing in non-commercial professional settings. the aoa ethics committees, during the period from 1943 until 1969, had experienced considerable success in their efforts to see the number of practices in commercial settings minimized. apparently as a result of its successes, the ethics committee was discontinued from the organizational structure of the aoa in 1969. however, as we will see, many of these hard-won results would, within ten years, be reversed by a u.s. supreme court decision.89 (see appendix d for a listing of the directors, chairmen and associate directors, and members of the aoa ethics committees from 1943-1969.) new standard of conduct adopted aware of the emerging age of consumerism and a pending supreme court case, the board of trustees, with the guidance of association general counsel ellis lyons, carefully re-examined the code, supplements and rules during 1975-76. the code of ethics was left intact; however, a more general standards of conduct supplanted the specifics of the supplements to the code of ethics and the rules of practice. in particular, the detailed statements regarding advertising were replaced with a statement that optometrists should honor applicable valid state and federal laws and rules regulating advertising. it is noted that the aoa did not have an ethics committee as part of its organizational structure at this time, leaving these considerations to the board of trustees with approval of the 1976 hod. a news release 90 from the aoa on march 29, 1976 stated: to keep pace with the 1970s, the american optometric association's board of trustees is taking action to update the standards by which optometrists measure their professional conduct. the actions being taken or recommended regarding the profession's code of ethics and rules of practice in no way represent a change in philosophy. they could be labeled ‘housekeeping chores.’ based on a report from a special board committee which studied the matter, the aoa board of trustees, at its march 1976 meeting, voted to: • retain the aoa code of ethics unchanged; • delete the supplements to the code of ethics adopted by the board in 1946 and revised in 1968 and 1970; • recommend to the 1976 house of delegates that the rules of practice, adopted in their present version in 1968, be deleted; • adopt standards of conduct (effective march 10, 1976) which relate to some of the subjects in the supplements and the rules of practice. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 83 these 1976 standards of conduct read as follows:91 standards of conduct (adopted 1976) i. basic responsibilities of an optometrist section a. the welfare of humanity a health profession has as its prime objective the service it can render to humanity; monetary considerations should be a subordinate factor. in choosing the profession of optometry an individual assumes an obligation for personal conduct in accordance with professional ideals. section b. continuing competence an optometrist should strive to keep current with every modern development in the profession, to enhance both knowledge and proficiency by the adoption of modern methods and scientific concepts of proven worth and to contribute personally to the general knowledge and advancement of the profession. all these things should be done with that freedom of action and thought that provides first for the welfare of the public. ii. relationships with the patient section a. presence of a pathological condition an optometrist should give to the patient or the patient's family a timely notice of manifestations of disease or abnormality. section b. emergency optometric care a request for optometric care in an emergency should receive immediate response. once having undertaken an emergency case, an optometrist shall neither abandon nor neglect the patient. section c. professional fees professional fees charged the patient for examination, diagnosis and treatment shall be determined by the individual optometrist. section d. charges for materials charges for materials should be clearly separated from professional fees. iii. responsibilities to the public section a. informing the public an optometrist should honor the applicable provisions of valid state and federal laws and rules regulating the advertising of ophthalmic materials and the disseminating of information regarding professional services. section b. patent it is unprofessional for an optometrist to exploit a patent for lenses, appliances, or instruments used in the practice of optometry in such a way as to deprive the public of its benefits, either through refusal to grant licenses to competent manufacturers who can assure adequate production and unimpeachable quality, or through exorbitant demands in the form of royalty; or for similar forms of monopolistic control in which the interests of the public are exploited. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 84 section c. rebates it is unprofessional and unethical to accept rebates on prescriptions, lenses, or optical appliances used in the practice of optometry. iv. relationships with other optometrists section a. intraprofessional referral and consultations intraprofessional referral and consultations are encouraged when the best interest of the patient indicates additional opinion. protocol on the relationship and responsibilities between the referring and attending optometrist that customarily is followed by health professions shall prevail. section b. official position an optometrist holding an official position in any optometric organization shall avoid any semblance of using this position for self-aggrandizement. v. relationships with other professionals section a. interprofessional referral and consultations interprofessional referral and consultations are encouraged when the best interest of the patient indicates additional opinion. protocol of the relationship and responsibilities between the referring and attending professional that customarily is followed by health professions shall prevail. section b. public health professional responsibility demands that the optometrist actively participate in public health activities with other health professionals to the end that every step be taken to safeguard the health and welfare of the public. at the 79th annual congress in june 1976 in las vegas, nevada the aoa board of trustees announced that the supplements to the code of ethics had been deleted and replaced by the new standards of conduct. since the supplements were originally enacted by and subsequently modified by the board, they had the authority to take this action. it is also noted that there was no ethics committee within the aoa organizational structure at this time. the board then proposed that the house of delegates delete the rules of practice, which it did.92 this action left the 1944 code of ethics and the new 1976 standards of conduct as the primary ethics documents of the aoa. as noted earlier, the 1970s were years of a major consumer movement in the united states. it was felt by many outside of the professions that the lack of information regarding professional fees and services made it difficult for the public to make purchasing decisions regarding professional services, which arguably was true. as mentioned earlier, in 1976 the aoa deleted or modified policy statements against certain forms of advertising, replacing the detailed statements with a statement that optometrists should honor applicable valid state and federal laws and rules regulating advertising. united states supreme court reverses position in 1977, reversing earlier court decisions, the united states supreme court made a decision that gave lawyers (and by implication other professionals) the right to advertise hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 85 their services. it became clear that the aoa was timely in its 1976 modifications of certain policy positions on the matter. many state optometry boards had to modify their advertising regulations to comply with the court decision. the case before the u.s. supreme court was bates v. state bar of arizona.89, 93 adoption of the optometric oath94 richard l. hopping, a previous ohio optometric practitioner, a past-president of the american optometric association, a past-president of the southern california college of optometry (scco), and a past-president of the association of schools and college of optometry (asco), was instrumental in the development of a professional oath for optometry. after becoming president of scco, dr. hopping became aware that a number of optometric educational institutions were administering an optometric oath at their commencement exercises, but they were not uniform in nature. he was also very much aware of the conspicuous absence of an optometric oath for the optometric profession. as one very interested in ethics and professionalism within optometry, dr. hopping wrote the original draft of the optometric oath for consideration by asco. his desire was that by asco’s adoption of a uniform oath, the individual schools and colleges of optometry would use this new oath at their commencements. he was also hopeful that, following the adoption of the optometric oath by asco, it would receive consideration and adoption by the house of delegates of the aoa and subsequently by the state and local optometric associations. after considerable discussion and some edits of the original draft, asco adopted the optometric oath on march 14, 1986. the house of delegates of the aoa adopted the optometric oath in june 1986 in san diego, california, followed that month by the american optometric student association’s adoption. it is worthy to note that dr. hopping led the house of delegates in reciting the optometric oath at the opening sessions of its annual meeting from the date of its adoption through 2013. the optometric oath reads as follows:95 the optometric oath (adopted 1986) with full deliberation, i freely and solemnly pledge that: • i will practice the art and science of optometry faithfully and conscientiously, and to the fullest scope of my competence. • i will uphold and honorably promote by example and action the highest standards, ethics and ideals of my chosen profession and the honor of the degree, doctor of optometry, which has been granted me. • i will provide professional care for those who seek my services, with concern, with compassion, and with due regard for their human rights and dignity. • i will place the treatment of those who seek my care above personal gain and strive to see that none shall lack for proper care. • i will hold as privileged and inviolable all information entrusted to me in confidence by my patients. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 86 • i will advise my patients fully and honestly of all which may serve to restore, maintain or enhance their vision and general health. • i will strive continuously to broaden my knowledge and skills so that my patients may benefit from all new and efficacious means to enhance the care of human vision. • i will share information cordially and unselfishly with my fellow optometrists and other professionals for the benefit of patients and the advancement of human knowledge and welfare. • i will do my utmost to serve my community, my country and humankind as a citizen as well as an optometrist. • i hereby commit myself to be steadfast in the performance of this my solemn oath and obligation. the 1990s: aoa takes steps to increase awareness of ethics in optometric practice as optometry entered the 1990s, there were ever increasing ethical considerations as the profession expanded its scope of practice, primarily into medical eye care. changing national health care policies and a resurgence of infectious diseases increased ethical demands on the doctor of optometry as on other health professionals. the profession had matured to see ethical behavior within the delivery of optometric care and services as broader than just the concerns surrounding advertising and commercial practice. the initial efforts to gain recognition of optometry as an independent profession and to regulate its practice began with the passage of the first optometry practice act in the state of minnesota in 1901, followed by 23 years until all states and the district of columbia had passed optometry laws. in addition to all the previous elements of vision care comprising the practice of optometry, beginning in 1971 with the passage of a law in rhode island that permitted optometrists to use diagnostic agents, the next forty plus years saw a major expansion of the scope of practice of optometry into the provision of varying levels of medical eye care. most of the history of this amazing period is detailed in the published paper by sherry l. cooper, 1971 2011: forty year history of scope expansion into medical eye care.96 as pointed out in this paper, several states had earlier attorney general positions that supported their original optometry practice acts to allow the profession to utilize varying levels of pharmaceutical agents. indiana was the first with an attorney general opinion in 1946 affirming that indiana’s 1935 optometry act authorized the use of legend drugs by optometrists. throughout its history, optometry had broadened its scope of practice from being only refracting opticians to assuming responsibility for detecting and referring disease conditions of the eye, to diagnosing and treating varying levels of medical eye conditions. as the profession expanded its scope of practice, it was obligated to expand its policy positions regarding the ethical practice of optometry. the early 1990s found the discussion surrounding this reawakening of ethical thought on an organizational level being led by one of the profession’s prominent leaders of the time, alden norman haffner, president of the state college of optometry hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 87 of the state university of new york. dr. haffner was instrumental in the movement to re-establish an ethics committee within the aoa organizational structure. in 1991 the house of delegates in dallas, texas passed resolution 2 establishing a standing committee to be known as the aoa committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services.97 this resolution read as follows: whereas, the profession of optometry has undergone dramatic changes in the last half century, including those that relate to its scope and organization of practice; and whereas, the current code of ethics of the american optometric association was adopted in june of 1944; and whereas, the major clinical pressures and social conditions now prevail which did not exist at that time; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association board of trustees establish a standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services with a broad mission and focus to address a variety of circumstances and problems which now exist in the health care arena that affect the practices and services of doctors of optometry; and be it further resolved, that the standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services make an annual report to the american optometric association house of delegates. alden norman haffner was named chair of the ethics and values of optometric care and services committee in 1991. r. norman bailey, jack w. bennett, george e. foster, and brian s. klinger were named members of this committee.97 aoa counsel thomas e. eichhorst served as staff for the committee. at its organizational meeting, the committee defined its scope and function by developing the objective of and three missions for the committee:97 objective the objective of the committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services is to enhance the ethical behavior and performance of doctors of optometry, individually and collectively, as members of a mainstream health discipline concerned with professional duties and services to individuals and communities. missions 1. to raise the level of consciousness about issues of ethical behavior. 2. to identify and address ethical concerns that relate to clinical practice. 3. to identify and address ethical concerns that relate to organizational behavior. in 1992, after its initial foundational efforts were completed, the committee was reduced in size. alden norman haffner remained as chair with r. norman bailey and hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 88 george e. foster retained as committee members.64, 98 (see appendix e for a listing of the ethics committee members throughout the period of its more recent history of 19912015.) by 1994, the committee on ethics and values of optometric care and services had conducted two major surveys, one to the affiliated associations regarding their positions on the use of codes of ethics, and one to the schools and colleges of optometry regarding their use of patient's bills of rights and responsibilities documents in their institutional clinics.98, 99 the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the 1944 aoa code of ethics was celebrated during the 1994 aoa annual congress in minneapolis, minnesota. for this celebration, members of the ethics and values of optometric care and services committee and others wrote articles on each of the tenets of the code of ethics that were published in a special ethics issue of the journal of the american optometric in june 1994. the original paper, the history of ethics in the american optometric association 1898-1994, for which this paper is an update, was published in that issue of the journal.99, 100 (see appendix f) the committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services was able to obtain funding to support meetings in 1995 and 1996 for representatives from each of the schools and colleges of optometry to complete the development of a recommended curriculum for the teaching of professionalism and ethics in optometry. this was intended as an ethics education program for optometry students.101-103 the curriculum included a section on the optometric profession and professionalism and a section on ethics. it was completed and distributed in 1996. there were also recommended guidelines for the implementation of that instruction into the overall curriculum of the schools and colleges of optometry. (see appendix f) in 1996, the name of the committee was changed to the “ethics and values committee.”102 during the following year the committee completed its proposal for a text on an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics, and planned to sponsor a poster on the history of ethics in the american optometric association during the association’s 100th annual congress in june of 1997 in st. louis, missouri and to make a presentation on “clinical ethical decision-making in optometric patient care.”104 often, in cooperation with other committees, the committee developed proposed resolutions on topics of ethical concern, which were subsequently adopted by the house of delegates as official policy statements of the association. (see appendix g) in 1999, obsolete language in the “standards of conduct” was deleted and a revised document adopted. in part ii, “relationships with the patient: section a on the presence of a pathological condition” was replaced by a statement on informed consent, and “section c: professional fees” was deleted. in “part iii: responsibilities to the public” both “section b: patents” and “section c: rebates” were deleted.105, 106 the 1999 amended standards of conduct read as follows: 105 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 89 standards of conduct (as revised and adopted in 1999) i. basic responsibilities of an optometrist section a. the welfare of humanity a health profession has as its prime objective the service it can render to humanity; monetary considerations should be a subordinate factor. in choosing the profession of optometry an individual assumes an obligation for personal conduct in accordance with professional ideals. section b. continuing competence an optometrist should strive to keep current with every modern development in the profession, to enhance both knowledge and proficiency by the adoption of modern methods and scientific concepts of proven worth and to contribute personally to the general knowledge and advancement of the profession. all these things should be done with that freedom of action and thought that provides first for the welfare of the public. ii. relationships with the patient section a. informed consent an optometrist should provide to the patient sufficient information in order to obtain an informed consent from the patient. section b. emergency optometric care a request for optometric care in an emergency should receive immediate response. once having undertaken an emergency case, an optometrist shall neither abandon nor neglect the patient. section d. charges for materials charges for materials should be clearly separated from professional fees. iii. responsibilities to the public section a. informing the public an optometrist should honor the applicable provisions of valid state and federal laws and rules regulating the advertising of ophthalmic materials and the disseminating of information regarding professional services. iv. relationships with other optometrists section a. intraprofessional referral and consultations intraprofessional referral and consultations are encouraged when the best interest of the patient indicates additional opinion. protocol on the relationship and responsibilities between the referring and attending optometrist that customarily is followed by health professions shall prevail. section b. official position an optometrist holding an official position in any optometric organization shall avoid any semblance of using this position for self-aggrandizement. v. relationships with other professionals section a. interprofessional referral and consultations hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 90 interprofessional referral and consultations are encouraged when the best interest of the patient indicates additional opinion. protocol of the relationship and responsibilities between the referring and attending professional that customarily is followed by health professions shall prevail. section b. public health professional responsibility demands that the optometrist actively participate in public health activities with other health professionals to the end that every step be taken to safeguard the health and welfare of the public. references 64. aoa organizational rosters. 1943-1993. st. louis: american optometric association. 65. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:226-228. 66. lenz new. report of the department of ethics and economics. j am optom assoc 1948;20(3):173-176. 67. proceedings of aoa house of delegates wednesday, june 28, 1950. j am optom assoc 1950;22(4):37. 68. provencher dr. report of the committee on ethics and economics and division of professional standards. j am optom assoc 1951;23(4):220-22l. 69. provencher dr, ludeman pa. report of the committee on ethics and economics and the division of professional standards. j am optom assoc 1952;24(4):217. 70. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:233-234. 71. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:283. 72. cline h. report of the committee on ethics and economics. j am optom assoc 1953;25(1):89. 73. cline h. report of the committee on ethics and economics. j am optom assoc 1955;27(3):172. 74. report of the committee on ethics to the interim meeting of the board of trustees of the american optometric association. december 2-4, 1956. shoreham hotel, washington, dc. st. louis: american optometric association:109-110. 75. report of the committee on ethics to the interim meeting of the board of trustees of the american optometric association. 1958. st. louis: american optometric association. item 5 – report k. 76. manual of professional practice for the american optometrist. st. louis: american optometric association, 1960. 77. annual report-committee on ethics. st. louis: american optometric association. 1962. 78. report of the 65th annual congress of the american optometric association, july 18-21, 1962 house of delegates. resolution no.2. uniformity of code of ethics and rules of practice. st. louis: american optometric association, 1962:465. 79. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:312 80. annual report of the committee on ethics. 1962-1963. st. louis: american optometric association. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 91 81. annual report of the committee on ethics. 1963-1964. st. louis: american optometric association. 82. annual report of the committee on ethics. 1964-1965. st. louis: american optometric association. 83. annual report of the committee on ethics. 1965-1966. st. louis: american optometric association. 84. annual report of the committee on ethics. 1966-1967. st. louis: american optometric association. 85. annual report of the committee on ethics. 1967-1968. st. louis: american optometric association. 86. annual report of the committee on ethics. 1968-1969. st. louis: american optometric association. 87. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:322. 88. aoa rules of practice. st. louis: american optometric association, 1968. 89. classé jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989:73-76. 90. news release-aoa board adopts standards of conduct for profession. st. louis: american optometric association.1976:march 29. 91. code of ethics and standards of conduct. st. louis: american optometric association, 1976. 92. proceedings of the aoa 79th annual congress, las vegas nv, june 22-26, 1976:116125. 93. bates vs. state bar of arizona. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bates_v._state_bar_of_arizona accessed november 19, 2015. 94. memoranda provided by and personal communications with richard l. hopping, o.d. 95. the optometric oath. ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/theoptometric-oath?sso=y accessed november 19, 2015. 96. cooper sl. 1971 2011: forty year history of scope expansion into medical eye care. j am optom assoc 2012 feb; 83(2):64-73. http://www.aoa.org/documents/achivesmuseum/journal/optometry_2012_derivativ e_files/february_2012_optometry_jaoa.pdf accessed november 19, 2015 97. first annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services. 1991-1992. st. louis: american optometric association. 98. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services. 1992-1993. st. louis: american optometric association. 99. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services. 1993-1994. st. louis: american optometric association. 100. the journal of the american optometric association. volume 65, number 6, june, 1994. st. louis: american optometric association. 101. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services. 1994-1995. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 92 102. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa committee on ethics and values. 1995-1996. 103. recommended curriculum for the teaching of professionalism and ethics in optometry, optometric ethics educators committee, sponsored by the aoa ethics and values committee, 1996. 104. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa committee on the ethics and values. 1996-1997. 105. code of ethics and standards of conduct. st. louis: american optometric association, 1999. 106. bailey rn, heitman e, eds, an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics. st. louis: american optometric association, 2000:6-8. appendix d: ethics committees from 1943 – 1969 committee on the code of ethics chairman members 1943-44 john b. o’shea edmund f. richardson, charles sheard office of ethics and economics director associate directors 1943-44 james a. palmer frank a. bemis, kenneth e. jacques, allie g. mccullar, john j. o’neil, leonard l. stillman, walter r. wilson department of ethics and economics directors associate directors and zone directors for ethics 1944-45 james a. palmer a. scott gibson, fred g. proctor; and charles f. brooks, carl a. kauffman, c.g. melton, orville n. sparrow, leonard l. stillman 1945-46 james a. palmer a. scott gibson, fred g. proctor; and charles f. brooks, carl a. kauffman, c.g. melton, orville n. sparrow, leonard l. stillman 1946-47 james a. palmer a. scott gibson, douglas f. green; and william w. anderson, ray a. dieman, carl a. kauffman, orville n. sparrow, leonard l. stillman associate directors 1947-48 newton e.w. lenz paul a. ludeman, leo g. miller 1948-49 newton e.w. lenz paul a. ludeman, leo g. miller 1949-50 leo g. miller paul a. ludeman, donald r. provencher committee on ethics and economics chairmen members 1950-51 donald r. provencher paul a. ludeman, bernard mazow 1951-52 donald r. provencher paul a. ludemnan, walter r. wilson, jr. 1952-53 harold cline robert b. camp, j. kelley robinson 1953-54 harold cline damon e. allen, d.b. fast 1954-55 harold cline d.b. fast, s.w. hora, jr. committee on ethics chairmen members 1955-56 harold cline d.b. fast, s.w. hora, jr. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 93 1956-57 harold cline verne p. ellis, bernard a. saltysiak 1957-58 harold cline carlyle bordelon, marvin m. sedway 1958-59 harold cline marvin m. sedway 1959-60 harold cline john reid, bob thompson 1960-61 bob thompson harold cline, john j. reid, hoyt s. purvis 1961-62 bob thompson warren g. morris, john j. reid 1962-63 bob thompson warren g. morris 1963-64 bob thompson richard c. dexter, warren g. morris 1964-65 warren g. morris richard c. dexter, bob thompson 1965-66 richard c. dexter warren a. broderson, edward r. keller, charles j. mcdonald, warren g. morris 1966-67 richard c. dexter warren a broderson, edward r. keller 1967-68 richard c. dexter warren a. broderson, mario o. rubinelli 1968-69 richard c. dexter warren a. broderson, john e. martin appendix e: ethics and values committees from 1991 – 2015 * committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services chair members 1991-92 alden norman haffner r. norman bailey, jack w. bennett, george e. foster, brian s. klinger 1992-93 alden norman haffner r. norman bailey, george e. foster 1993-94 george e. foster r. norman bailey, larry l. creasey, alden norman haffner 1994-95 r. norman bailey thomas dorrity, alden norman haffner 1995-96 r. norman bailey thomas dorrity, alden norman haffner ethics & values committee chair members 1996-97 r. norman bailey arthur alexander, thomas dorrity, robert mccullough 1997-98 r. norman bailey arthur alexander, donovan l. crouch, thomas dorrity 1998-99 r. norman bailey nancy barr, al rispoli, laurie sorrenson 1999-00 r. norman bailey robert aitken, rick iwai, linda johnson, james paramore 2000-01 r. norman bailey robert aitken, linda johnson, robert mccullough 2001-02 linda johnson thomas dorrity, larry forrest, robert mccullough 2002-03 thomas f. dorrity, jr. larry forrest, thomas f. terry, brendal waiss 2003-04 thomas f. dorrity, jr. larry forrest, brendal waiss 2004-05 larry l. forrest n. scott gorman, brendal waiss 2005-06 n. scott gorman morris berman, daniel e. reiser, timothy d. rioux 2006-07 n. scott gorman morris berman, james e. paramore, daniel reiser, timothy rioux 2007-08 n. scott gorman morris berman, james e. paramore, daniel reiser, timothy rioux 2008-09 n. scott gorman morris berman, james e. paramore, daniel reiser 2009-10 morris berman n. scott gorman, james paramore, daniel reiser 2010-11 james e. paramore morris berman, douglas l. totten 2011-12 james e. paramore morris berman, carolyn carman, douglas l. totten 2012-13 morris berman carolyn carman, james r. miller, douglas l. totten 2013-14 morris berman adrienne b. ari, james r. miller, douglas l. totten 2014-15 morris berman adrienne b. ari, douglas l. totten *committee staff: aoa counsel thomas e. eichhorst, jd, 1991-2002; 2009-2012. leon p. carslick, 19952006. jeffrey l. weaver, od, 2006-2008. bridget kowalcyzk, 2008-2009. beth kneib, od, 2009-2011; 2012-2015. danette miller 2011-2015. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 94 appendix f: projects of the ethics education program for optometric practitioners ethics issue: journal of the american optometric association, june 1994, volume 65, number 6 contributors: r. norman bailey, od; john g. classé, od, jd; larry creasey, od; george e. foster, od; alden n. haffner, od, phd; marc marenco, dphil; michael s. roth, od; john sterling, od; lesley l. walls, od, md recommended curriculum for the teaching of professionalism and ethics in optometry consultants: elizabeth heitman, phd, university of texas-houston; bruce d. weinstein, phd, west virginia university. optometric ethics educators committee: d. leonard werner, od, chair, state university of new york; arthur j. afanador, od, phd, inter american university of puerto; r. norman bailey, od, university of houston; jack w. bennett, od, indiana university; bethany busemeyer, representative american optometric student association; john b. classé, od, jd, university of alabama at birmingham; jerry christensen, od, phd, university of missourist. louis; albert flores, phd, california state university, fullerton; allan n. freid, od, southern california college of optometry; alden n. haffner, od, phd, representative association of schools and college of optometry; patsy harvey, od, university of california, berkeley; stanley hatch, od, new england college of optometry; sherry hogan, od, the ohio state university; marc marenco, dphil, pacific university; w. howard mcalister, od, university of missouri-st. louis; neal nyman, od, pennsylvania college of optometry; james e. paramore, od, ferris state university; ronald rounds, od, northeastern state university; morton w. silverman, od, nova southeastern university; marlee spafford, od, university of waterloo; bradley taylor, od, southern college of optometry; jeffrey weaver, od, university of missouri-st. louis. an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics contributors: arthur h. alexander, od; r. norman bailey, od; thomas f. dorrity, jr., od; kia b. eldred, od; n. scott gorman, od; elizabeth heitman, phd; elizabeth hoppe, od, drph; dawn c. kaufman, od; leroy kaufman, od; brian s. klinger, od; michael larkin, od; edwin c. marshall, od; david t. ozar, phd; mark swanson, od; satya b. verma, od; siu g. wong, od. ethical issues in contact lens practice authors: elizabeth heitman, phd and r. norman bailey, od; collaborators: contact lens section, american optometric association. nova southeastern university in florida provided media production facilities and education technology staff for the production. online ethics forum contributors: ethics and values committee and responding aoa members. appendix g: historical ethics resolutions and substantive motions by title (adopted by the american optometric association house of delegates through june 2015) resolution number: (year of adoption) status: title: m-1908-1 archived 1979 code of ethics 1913e (5 of 1913) archived 2006 fee splitting condemned 6 (6 of 1916) deleted 1975 refrain from “free examination” advertising 23 (5 of 1917) deleted 1975 policy of american optical association 114 (7 of 1923) deleted 1976 publication of unethical advertising 145 (8 of 1925) deleted 1975 radio talks 146 (9 of 1925) deleted 1976 advertising 179 (5 of 1927) deleted 1976 desirable exhibitors 187 (2 of 1928) deleted 1975 american industrial managers and visual efficiency 192 (8 of 1928) deleted 1976 fraudulent practice of cut-price advertising 315 (1 of 1935) deleted 1975 code of ethics 360 (9 of 1937) deleted 1976 unethical advertising condemned 392 (4 of 1938) (mod. 1990) (mod. 1995) current restrictions on certain activities of trustees, officers and volunteers of the american optometric association hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 95 (mod. 1997) (mod. 2005) (mod. 2012) m-1944-1 (1 of 1944) (mod. 2005) (replaced by #1969) archived 2007 code of ethics 620 (13 of 1944) deleted 1975 re elaboration of code of ethics 759 (15 of 1947) deleted 1975 requesting reading of code of ethics at state association meetings 892 (18 of 1950) deleted 1975 department of ethics and economics to prepare manual for practicing optometrists 1034 (8 of 1953) archived 1980 a.o.a. to continue to assist in prevention of unqualified persons from care of public vision and to continue cooperation with ophthalmologists 1466 (2 of 1962) deleted 1976 uniformity of code of ethics and rules of practice 1534 (7 of 1964) (mod. 1995) current practice with other health care professions and disciplines 1844 (1 of 1986) (mod. 1990) (mod. 1995) (mod. 2000) current billing to third party insurance plans 1847 (4 of 1986) current the optometric oath 1852 (5 of 1987) (combined in 2015 with 1890 (9 of 1991) and continued as 1852) current hiv and aids research 1865 (8 of 1989) (mod. 2005) current vision usa 1883 (2 of 1991) (mod. 2010) current standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services 1890 (9 of 1991) (combined in 2015 with 1852 (5 of 1987) and continued as 1852) deleted (2015) human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) infection 1893 (3 of 1992) archived 2010 testing practitioners for tuberculosis 1902 (7 of 1993) archived 2000 affiliated association’s code of ethics 1904 (1 of 1994) (mod. 2000) current education in ethics 1910 (combination in 1995 of 1903 (8 of 1993) and 1905 (2 of 1994) into new 1910) (mod. 2015) current disclosure of conflicts of interest 1913 (3 of 1995) (mod. 2015) current ethics committee 1914 (4 of 1995) archived 2010 release of patient records 1916 (1 of 1996) current abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves 1917 (2 of 1996) deleted 2005 protecting confidentiality during electronic transmission of patient information 1920 (5 of 1996) (mod. 2015) current doctor/patient communications in managed health care plans 1924 (4 of 1997) archived 2010 maintaining high standards for eye and vision care 1926 (6 of 1997) archived 2000 commendation to the national academies of practice 1938 (3 of 2001) current state board credit for continuing education courses in ethics 1939 (4 of 2001) (mod. 2015) current protecting against potential bias in patient care 1960 (7 of 2004) current patients benefit from optometric professionalism 1969 (4 of 2007) current code of ethics m-2011-2 (2 of 2011) current standards of professional conduct prepared by sherry l. cooper, staff, aoa resolutions committee from 1998 until the present time. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 72 book reviews david goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu descartes and the hyperblic quest: lens making machines and their significance in the seventeenth century by d. graham burnett philadelphia: american philosophical society; 2005. 152 pages. in the seventeenth century, the best lenses were being made in italy. although optical knowledge was improving at that time, as for example through the publications of kepler, there was little change in lens making procedures and the improvements that did occur were more through the work of lens making artisans than through that of natural philosophers (scientists) and mathematicians. quality of lenses was affected by the quality of the glass and of the abrasives used in shaping and polishing the glass, as well as the skill and techniques of the lens maker. one of the best lens makers of the seventeenth century was giuseppe campani, who guarded his methods as trade secrets and taught them to no one except his daughter. the market for high quality lenses was driven largely by the need for good lenses to make telescopes. some natural philosophers also tried their hand at lens making. for example, christiaan huygens made good enough lenses to make a telescope with sufficient imagery to allow him in 1659 to publish a theory that rings around saturn gave it its oblong appearance. it was known by the early seventeenth century that the quality of lenses was limited by aberrations. by the early 1620s the mathematician isaac beeckman was pioneering efforts to make aspheric lenses. by the late 1620s rene descartes was working with a mechanical craftsman and instrument maker named ferrier to try to design an aspheric lens making machine that was automated so that there was little work required of the lens making craftsman. his attempts to design such a machine were detailed in his 1637 book la dioptrique. descartes’ involvement in the quest to build an automated machine for hyperbolic lens grinding seems to have ended in 1640 when florimund de beaune, a young technically adept mathematician with whom he had been working, was injured by a piece of glass. the publication of descartes’ book la dioptrique in 1637 and the high regard mailto:aitkenmr@melbpc@org.au hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 73 for machines in seventeenth century science seems to have spurred several natural philosophers and astronomers to try to construct mechanical systems for the production of lenses for telescopes. the author discussed the efforts of the following in the seventeenth century after descartes: anton de rheita, emmanuel maignan, robert hooke, christopher wren, christiaan huygens, and constantijn huygens. some of those systems were only theoretical and never constructed. none of them produced lenses equal in quality to the handcrafted lenses ground by the master italian lens makers. by the last quarter of the seventeenth century, attention was shifting to newtonian reflecting telescopes. in 1671, cherubin d’orleans, a capuchin firar, published la dioptrique oculaire, a treatise on lens making. he envisioned a middle ground between complete automation of lens grinding and the “vulgar artisan.” he suggested a new artisan, with both theoretical grounding and practical ability, who would make use of mechanical devices designed in such a way that the artisan could guide their proper operation. in addition to expounding on the history of attempts to automate lens making in the seventeenth century, the author also presented some philosophical musings on the relation of scientists and artisans in that time period and on descartes’ writings. the author is a history professor at princeton university. descartes and the hyperbolic quest: lens making machines and their significance in the seventeenth century (transactions of the american philosophical society, volume 95, part 3). d. graham burnett. philadelphia: american philosophical society, 2005. 152 pages. isbn-13: 978-0-87169-953-4. softcover, $24. 20160615_bookreview_hindsight47-2_final 1 20160615_bookreview_hindsight47-2_final 2 volume34 hjndsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa january 2003 numberl 2003 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the year 2003 ohs executive board members and officers, and the year of expiration of each member's term: president ...................... . vice president. ............ .. secretary-treasurer ...... . trustees ..................... . call for nominations: doug penisten (2003) jay enoch (2006) bridget kowalczyk (2004) l jerry abrams (2005) walter chase (2006) chuck haine (2004) , melvin wolfberg (2005) '-· • ·-· ··· ~ · · · ·· · · the term of board member doug penisten will expire at the end of this year. please submit your nominations for that board position by april 15, 2003, to : david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 usa; fax: 812-855-8664; email: dgoss@indiana.edu. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. jay enoch's column: nicholas de cusa (1401-1464): a description of fine grained and polished wooden spoons employed as mirrors; concave, convex, flat and cylindrical (1450 ad) a few years ago, i was invited to discuss the use of concave mirrors for refractive corrections prior to the introduction of spectacles at a meeting of the renaissance society of america in florence, italy. my good friend, vincent ilardi of the u. massachusetts, kindly pointed me to a modest number of citations on the topic and asked me to work out the details of the described optical devices an interesting 34/1 challenge. subsequently, a paper was presented in firenze, and later published in the atti della fond giorgio ronchi. the first quite extensive mention of concave mirrors being used as magnifiers and refractive corrections is attributed to the distin~uished roman of spanish birth (in cordoba), seneca the younger (4 bc ca 65 ad). there had been many early applications of concave mirrors (for cosmetic uses and related purposes, as well as for starting fires). seneca did not invent the described applications of concave mirrors for magnifiers and/or refractive corrections. rather he describes these mirrors as being broadly used in rome for a variety of applications. from seneca=s commentaries, and later papers by g. della porta and g. albertotti, it is apparent that pairs of mirrors were employed for magnification and visual corrections. in such constructs, dual concave, or paired concave and plano mirrors were used in order to avoid well known left-right image reversals.1• 3 for certain applications, no doubt single concave mirrors were employed for magnification, such as we use today for shaving and make-up mirrors. in these instances, image reversals could be tolerated. following paper presentations in florence, i had lunch with professors ilardi and mark smith (u. missouri), and we discussed mirror applications. in the course of discussion, mark picked up a polished soup spoon from the table and demonstrated to us that one could use the bowl of a spoon as a magnifier or presbyopic correction and readily read text without image reversals. one simply tilted the front of the concave surface upward (above the object to be read), and an upright non-reversed image of text was seen when looking in the direction of the mirror. in this application, the image of the material to be read by looking into the spoon mirror was, in fact, inverted relative to the bowl of the mirror, and, thus, the optical display and principle used was not the same as in the dual mirror systems described in the cited articles. we know polished silver spoons existed a thousand years ago, as is periodically demonstrated on the popular bbc antiques roadshow television program. one would guess some such items may be on display at either somerset house or the victoria and albert museum in london. recently, vince ilardi surprised me by sending me an unusual document attributed to nicholas de cusa (1401 1464).4 mark smith=s serendipitous remark about the concave bowl of a spoon apparently had substance in the real world! de cusa (in 1450) described spoons used as mirrors! but they were not, as one might think', made using polished metal, but rather were constructed from " ... close grained wood, finer than any other wood." and these were carefully designed and very highly polished. he then states, "(on a single spoon) ... you will find every sort of mirror­ concave, convex, flat, and cylindrical. the flat reflecting surface is on the bottom of the handle, the cylindrical mirror is the handle itself. the hollow of the spoon forms the concave mirror, its back the convex mirror." earlier, referring to mirrors, he states," ... for the sharper and finer the angle, the more clearly everything is reflected in it." but he does not talk about reading with the device. and it is not clear if this was a set of discoveries made by that writer. 34/2 in 1450, it is very interesting to find a discussion of cylindrical mirrors. similarly, one is surprised by use of wood for making mirrors. once again, our ancestors prove to know more than we might have expected. of course, 1450 is after the initial discovery of spectacles, but this is still a remarkable document! it is interesting that the de cusa document was written at about the time the well­ known jan van eyck painting, the arnolfini portrait, was executed (1434). today, this painting is located at the national gallery, london. in that painting, a young couple is portrayed with the husband wearing an ample hat and cloak and delicately holding the hand of his rather pregnant wife. there is a fine round convex mirror set between them in the background. the mirror, exhibiting some distortion, captures the scene in exquisite miniature.5 references 1. enoch jm. concave mirrors used for visual corrections during the renaissance and earlier. atti della fond g ronchi 2001; 56(1, jan.,feb.): 133-148. 2. seneca the younger la. natural questions. vol.1. english translation from the latin by t. corcoran (also see introduction). loeb classical library (seneca, vol. vii), cambridge, ma: harvard u. press, 1971. in this same document, seneca described the use of the first lens (a round flask filled with water) to correct presbyopia. 3. enoch jm. archaeological optics (chapter 27). in: guenther ah, ed. international trends in applied optics. international commission on optics, vol. 5. bellingham, wa: spie press, 2002: 629-666. 4. de cusa n. ldiota de mente (1450) {the layman: about mind). translated from the latin by clyde lee miller. new york: abaris books, 1979: 56 (latin), 57 (english translation). 5. melchior-bonnet s. the mirror: a history. translated from the french by kh jewett. new york and london: routledge (english edition), 2001:123. j.m.e. report on deceased past presidents of the american optometric association: at the american optometric association (aoa) house of delegates meeting on june 27, 2002, ohs member melvin wolfberg reported that four former presidents of the aoa had passed away in the previous year. these four persons and the years that they were elected to the presidency of the aoa are: richard c. schiller (1960), w. judd chapman (1963), henry w hofstetter (1968), and charles w. mcquarrie (1977). the text of wolfberg's remarks follows: it is with regret and sadness that i call the attention of this house of delegates to the four past residents of the association on the list of deceased members. each of these distinguished members was an integral part of the remarkable legacy of our association and our profession. let us take gl few 34/3 i"ij.\t< 2 1 ?003 i> • • , "b • li rary • ·~w~~~~eee • ••••••••• moments to commemorate their dedication and achievements. in order fo seniority of their presidencies, they are: richard c. schiller practiced in marshalltown, iowa. he was associated with the wolfe clinic and was one of the pioneer optometrists who practiced in a multi-disciplinary setting. notable successed during his aoa administration included a conference to introduce and stimulate leadership training (remember this was over 40 years ago), and achieving authorization to establish aoa's washington office. certainly time has proven the wisdom of these actions. dick schiller continued to serve his profession in another capacity when he became a faculty member of the pennsylvania college of optometry, attaining the position of director of clinics. this soft spoken gentleman was greatly admired and respected by the students who he taught for his engaging personality, brilliant intellect and his sharing of his clinical expertise. optometry has lost one of its most dynamic speakers with the passing of w. judd chapman of tallahassee, florida. gregg's history of the american optometric association reports on judd's inaugural address as follows: "eloquence was not confined to politicians nor presidential telegrams [referring to one received from president john f. kennedy]. incoming aoa president judd chapman ... had no trouble expressing himself and motivating audiences, chapman was one of the best optometric orators." it was my personal good fortune to enjoy both a professional and personal friendship with judd which commenced in the 1950s and endured until his death this past february (we spoke just days before his passing). a gentleman with enormous charm, he was beloved by his colleagues, patients, and friends. when he concluded his term as aoa president, one reporter wrote, "chapman was accorded one of the greatest ovations ever tendered an aoa president a justly deserved spontaneous moment of recognition that should remain with him for a lifetime." henry w hofstetter and i were initially elected to the aoa board of trustees in 1962. it was my privilege to work with hank over many years and to serve as president-elect during his presidency. he recorded a number of firsts in our profession, for example: recipient of the first ph.d. in physiological optics " . granted in the united states, charter member of the national board of examiners in optometry (nbeo), founding director of the indiana university optometry program, and first educator to assume aoa's highest office. as a result of his interest in, and commitment to, international optometry, henry and his wife, jane, traveled abroad throughout his career. he is known and admired throughout the world for his promulgation of excellence in optometric practice and education. he contributed extensively to the literature (four textbooks, over 500 papers, and co-author of the dictionary of visual 34/4 science and related clinical terms), was the recipient of five honorary degrees, the aoa apollo award and the aoa distinguished service award and the prentice medal of the american academy of optometry. in 1974, he received one of his most cherished awards in his appointment to the distinguished rank of rudy professor, an honor accorded to very few at indiana university. charles w. mcquarrie succumbed to a twenty-five year battle with cancer in february of this year. his wife, linda, described chuck as a quiet, humble, and even shy man, an impression shared by many of his friends and colleagues. upon meeting him, one would never suspect the full and rewarding career he fashioned nor the enormous impact he had on his community, his profession, his patients and his family. dr. mcquarrie entered optometry after serving in the united states navy during world war ii. he took part in some of the bloodiest battles in the pacific theater including the conquest of the gilbert islands and the invasion of the philippines. in 1954 he went into practice with dr. george crowe in downtown los angeles. in this setting he treated severely visually impaired patients, such as author aldous huxley, with innovative therapies designed to enhance visual perception and acuity. charles mcquarrie was noted for his publications on perceptual vision. he served as a trustee of the southern california college of optometry and as president of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. along with all of our departed colleagues we remember today, we mourn our loss but celebrate their service to our profession and to humanity. advice on period spectacles: an article in the english journal optometry today provides information on the proper spectacles for historical theater or historical event re-enactment. (walsh g. spectacles through the ages and period inaccuracies. optom today (london) december 14, 2001; 41 (24): 32-37). the author, glyn walsh, reports that ••avery spectacle-wearing re-enactor i have ever met has asked whether an appropriate pair can be made for them." walsh discussed what frame materials were used at different times in history. he also mentions some of his personal experiences in working with materials such as wood, horn, leather, bone, iron/steel, copper alloys, and plastics. he also talks about lens designs at different periods of time and what may be acceptable alternatives today to have spectacles appear like those from different periods in history. d.a.g. 34/5 some early oep activities of alexander and skeffington: albert a. sutton, od, ms, fcvod, has a regular column entitled "our optometric heritage" in visions newsletter of the college of optometrists in vision development. in the december, 2002 issue he talks about some of the activities of drs. e. b. alexander and a.m. skeffington (volume 33, number 1, pages 5-6). sutton knew alexander and skeffington personally and heard them talk about the origins and activities of the optometric extension program. he relates that alexander was the developer and administrator of oep and served as the president of the board. in the early 1920s he started organizing study groups in his home state of oklahoma and then in surrounding states. he also started organizing regional educational meetings of optometrists. skeffington's role was lecturer and synthesizer of information from many disciplines such as psychology, neurology, education, and child development. sutton credits skeffington with expanding "optometry's horizons by building two way bridges to the scientific thinking of harmon, renshaw, gesell, halstead, strauss, kephart, pronko, walter, bartlett, shipman and numerous others." manifestations and effects of these "two way bridges" included having scientists from other disciplines participating in optometric meetings and speaking favorably about optometry to persons in other fields, having optometrists included in inter-professional organizations and invited to work in schools and educational institutions. sutton feels that these various effects of the two way bridges led to improvements in the popularity and public opinion of optometry. sutton lamented that "two way bridges" of that nature waned in the 1970s. he attributed that to the introduction of "medical teaching of eye care" to optometrists and the decrease in emphasis on "functional, developmental and behavioral teaching" and also to the reduced activity of alexander and skeffington in the 1970s due to age and health. d.a.g. historv of american optical company on the internet: " there is a remarkable website on the history of the american optical company (http://web.meganet.net/dickwhitnevjrbwaohistorvlndex.html). the author and compiler is dick whitney, a long-time employee of ao, whose father was also employed by ao for many years. there are many pictures of ao buildings, employee reunions, etc., extending from the 19th century to the present. the texts of a variety of publications have been assembled here, including 1909 speeches by george wells on the history of ao, historical articles from the 1933 centennial, and a 1962 brochure explaining the history and contemporary work of the company. 34/6 recollections of several former ao employees from different departments in the company are included. the website states that there are hopes that the ao museum, which is currently closed and its contents in storage, will be reopened. the space that the museum previously occupied is now part of the southbridge hotel and conference center. among the other material on this website is information about demolition of the former ao main plant and the construction of structures taking its place. this website is good place to start if you want research the history of ao or if you want to just spend a few hours reading about ao. d.a.g. three generations of eye care practitionersthe ridgways: i recently met a retired ophthalmologist who practiced for many years in california and who now resides in evansville, indiana, dr. william l. ridgway. i learned that dr. ridgway is a third generation eye care practitioner. at my urging, dr. ridgway sent me a couple letters and some newspaper clippings concerning his forbears. in one letter, he noted that his grandfather, george c. ridgway, was an " ... interesting character ... somewhat of a 'gadgeteer.' he developed and sold to the elgin watch company a watch movement. he also did early work on what became known as the risley prism. his work was published, but in optometry journals of the day, and thus escaped recognition of the medical profession. he had an m.d. degree from the university of cincinnati but never practiced medicine, being much more interested in optics." in a subsequent letter, dr. ridgway also said this about his grandfather: "my impression is that he had the idea that refraction could be done using only chromatic aberration ... but i think that the work on the risley prism was his most useful contribution. he, of course, ground all of his own lenses." the following is excerpted from an obituary of george c. ridgway, who worked most of his life in evansville, indiana: george c. ridgway, sr., of the ridgway optical firm, 313 main street, died at his home, 519 washington avenue, last night after an illness of 10 days. his death came as a shock to professional and business associates and friends. death occurred at about 5:30 o'clock. pneumonia was given as the cause. dr. ridgway, during the course of his practice as an oculist, attracted national recognition. this was due to the perfection of a number of instruments 34n for testing sight, some of which are used all over this country, and one of which is used in every civilized country of the world. these instruments were never commercialized by dr. ridgway, who chose to give them to his profession. born nearly 76 years ago in calhoun, illinois, dr. ridgway at an early age left that place with his parents, dr. and mrs. edmond ridgway, and went to olney, illinois. his father was a practicing physician. he soon took up the study of the profession that his father had studied and was practicing. later he attended the ophthalmic college at chicago and graduated from that school in 1891. dr. ridgway married miss marie o'kean, daughter of col. mortemore o'kean at olney, ill. she preceded him in death, dec. 22, 1913. to them were born three children. two of them are now living and were at his bedside when he passed away. they are his daughter, lillian, and his son, george, jr., who for many years has been a partner with his father in the optical business conducted at 313 main street. there was another child, donald, who has passed on. despite his age he would have been 76 years old on january 5dr. ridgway remained active all through his later years .... of some historical interest is the following letter which george c. ridgway wrote to the olney times newspaper (olney, illinois) in 1912. the headlines above the letter were "fake opticianslaw should be passed governing sameillinois free territory interesting letter from an evansville, indiana subscriber." olney times: evansville, indiana july 24, 1912 i noted an article in your issue of july 19th entitled "have the dog ready" and referring to some traveling spectacle venders in your vicinity, and i want to make some comment on the same. i am not surprised that you have such gentry with you as at the present time illinois is considered free territory for those who have been driven out of other states by the enactment of optical laws governing the fitting of spectacles. twenty-eight states have such laws at the present time, " including indiana, michigan, wisconsin, iowa, so that illinois is pretty well hemmed in and makes a convenient dumping ground for those not competent to comply with the laws of these states. a law was passed i think by the last legislature, but your governor in his wisdom, vetoes the same, evidently not thinking that competency in measuring defective condition of eyes was a proper subject for legislation. to the contrary, the governor of massachusetts but a few weeks ago signed a similar law passed in that state and commented favorably on the same, while chief justice hughes was governor of new york said that he considered it a proper subject of legislation and heartily approved of the bill and 34/8 signed it. in the same article referred to you say, "go to your doctor. any doctor can fit you with spectacles and do it properly." in that statement you are in error, and it is an error that is very common. there are physicians who have made a study and taken special courses in refraction and the fitting of spectacles, and no doubt you have them in your city, but it is a study that is not taught in any medical college, and the average physician while he will know and treat diseases of the eye will tell you that he knows absolutely nothing about refraction and the measuring of defects in the focusing apparatus of the eye. in fact when needing glasses they will themselves go to some one skilled in that particular line. it was to bring in more men competent in this practice, and to weed out the fakers and incompetents that optometry laws have been passed in the twenty-eight states as well as in the provinces of canada. the requirements in new york state and which are similar in all the states are: the applicant shall have a high school education, shall have spent two years in the office of a qualified practitioner, shall have attended at least one term in a recognized college devoted to such instruction and then shall pass an examination before a board appointed by the governor, and if successful will receive a certificate to practice in the state as an optometrist. the state recognition of specialism in optometry in the various states has caused the scientific faculty of columbia university to establish a two year course [in] optometry, in order that the collegiately accredited practitioners shall be the only eye specialists legally and scientifically qualified to determine the choice of spectacles. other state universities are considering and no doubt will put in similar courses. aside from columbia, your own state has what is recognized as the best school of optics, "the northern illinois college of ophthalmology." illinois people are entitled to, and will no doubt have optical laws in the near future, and then you can chain up your dog, as there will be no spectacle fakers to deal with. very truly g. c. ridgway george c. ridgway's son, george v. ridgway, trained in optometry, and joined his father in practice. the following, taken from an undated newspaper clipping, talks about their practice and george c. ridgway's work on a chromatic test: the ridgway optical company was being moved saturday from the quarters at 403 main st to the new location at 313 main. business will open at the new place monday. "in moving into the new place, we are undertaking quite an expansion," george v. ridgway said. "we will have tripled the space we now have, and one of the most up-to-date shops in the country. 34/9 "the first floor will be taken up with fitting rooms, display tables, etc. "an office and public rest room is located on the balcony. the second floor will be used for the display of engineering and architectural instruments. "our manufacturing department is locate don the third floor. george c. ridgway is famous among optometrists all over the world for his invention and discovery of the principles of the chromatic test, which is universally used today. by this test, imperfect focusing of the light in the eye, resulting in distorted images is detected, enabling the proper corrective measures to be taken. ridgway discovered this principle in 1890 while in st. louis. he was a hotel verandah and down in the railroad yards saw a red and blue cross. calling another man's attention to is the man declared it was a red light with a blue mist. another party declared he saw blue light surrounded by red. these replies led ridgway to make investigations which resulted in one of the greatest discoveries of the time in the realm of optometry. the following are excerpts from george v. ridgway's obituary, which is dated september 5, 1968: dr. george v. ridgway, retired evansville optometrist and civic figure, died today. for many years the 80-year-old doctor operated from ridgway's at 313 main, the optometry firm founded nearly a century ago by his father, dr. george c. ridgway. the father died in 1926. today the downtown business has an antique flavor with some original furnishings such as the mahogany fitting counter, stools, drawers and other items still in use. it still also features a wide variety of optometry and other merchandise besides eye glass articles, including industrial thermometers, other meteorology­ related equipment, binoculars, and clocks. dr. ridgway, a mansfield, 0., native, "retired" from the business 15 years ago but frequently returned to "putter around." he had been inactive in the last few years, however. 34/10 he was graduated from the illinois college of optometry in chicago and did post graduate work at ohio state university before setting out in his evansville career in his father's footsteps. william r. ridgway recalls seeing some old reprints of optometric publications of his grandfather's, but he doesn't have any of them in his possession at present. after looking through indexes of several volumes of the optical journal, i ran across an article by g. c. ridgway in the january 21, 1915 issue (volume 35, number 4) entitled, "the chromatic test, its value and limitations." it was read at the annual convention of the indiana state optometrical society, at indianapolis, on january 12. in the article, g. c. ridgway relates the story mentioned above of seeing a red and blue cross along a railroad track when he was not wearing his correction. he was able to duplicate this effect by using a cobalt blue glass which transmitted red and blue spectral bands. in the early 1890s, he gave " ... rights to the geneva optical co., who immediately placed it upon the market without restriction, advertising it by circular, and the spencer optical co. was the first to put it into the trial case. unfortunately many of the early ones were poorly suited in shade for obtaining the better results. the standard optical co. and the american optical co. followed later with well selected lenses of double glass, the form that i had selected, and since that time no trial case is considered complete without its chromatic test. ... " (p. 223) he noted that several authors had written about using the chromatic test to distinguish between hyperopia, myopia, and emmetropia, but they had not observed as he had that it could also be used to distinguish astigmatism. he noted that "in astigmatism one or both colors will be elongated and frequently will form a perfect cross of the two colors and the amount and colors of the elongations will be indicative of the amount and character of the astigmatism." (pp.223-224) he then talked about using the test "to differentiate between a pseudo and a true heterophoria": •'the prism necessary to re-establish symmetry of the circle and colors will need be considered in your correcting lens, for with such a prism you will find the acuity of vision enhanced, and a careful examination will show an apparent heterophoria corresponding to the prism called for. this then is a pseudo heterophoria not due to any abnormality of the extrinsic muscles. yet, comfortable vision may be obtained by the use of the correcting prism." (p. 224) at the close of the paper he gave two case examples, one of "pseudo esophoria" and one with a "true heterophoria." d.a.g. brewster society website: according to its website, www.brewstersocietv.com, ''the brewster society is an international organization for kaleidoscope enthusiasts. named after the inventor of the 34/11 kaleidoscope, sir david brewster, its purpose is to share and promote the beauty, creativity, and joy of these mirrored tubes of magic. it serves as a network linking kaleidoscope artists, collectors, and retailers." some of the pages at the website include a selected bibliography of books on kaleidoscopes, a glossary, and biographical sketches of sir david brewster {1781-1868) and charles g. bush (1825-1900). brewster was born in the scottish lowlands in 1781. he built a telescope at the age of 1 0 and was sent to the university of edinburgh at 12 years of age. he was licensed at an early age as a minister of the scottish established church, but he spent his life largely in the study of optics and scientific instruments. he wrote numerous scientific papers and many books, including a treatise upon new philosophical instruments; martyrs of science: or the laws of galileo, tycho brahe, and kepler; letters on natural magic addressed to sir walter scott; a treatise on optics; and more worlds than one. he was editor of the edinburgh encyclopedia for over twenty years. brewster published two books on kaleidoscopes: a treatise on the kaleidoscope (1819) and the kaleidoscope -its history, theory, and construction with its application to the fine and useful arts (1858). although brewster patented his invention of the kaleidoscope, a problem with the registration of the patent was responsible for him not receiving remuneration for his invention. charles g. bush was born in prussia in 1825 and came to the united states in 1847. bush was the most significant nineteenth century kaleidoscope maker in the united states. in the early 1870s he started making kaleidoscopes and patenting various aspects of kaleidoscope making. he is thought to have manufactured thousands of kaleidoscopes. d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@lndlana.edu) contributing edhors: douglas k. penlsten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mall code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 34112 2003-34-01-001 2003-34-01-002 2003-34-01-003 2003-34-01-004 2003-34-01-005 2003-34-01-006 2003-34-01-007 2003-34-01-008 2003-34-01-009 2003-34-01-010 2003-34-01-011 2003-34-01-012 microsoft word 0_cover_v48n1.docx hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2016 president: ronald r. ferrucci, drferrucci@gmail.com (2017)* vice-president: john townsend, john.townsend@va.gov (2018) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gmail.com (2021) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) r. norman bailey, nbailey@uh.edu (2021) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares ® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org erica hayes, administrative assistant, the optometric historical society, amo@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 10992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. hindsight_53_1_2_nobleed (002).pdf 4 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 the history of the passage of legislation authorizing the optometric use of therapeutic drugs in alabama introduction the governor of alabama signed into law a new optometry practice act on nov. 14, 1975. however, there was disagreement as to the language in the legislation that led to protracted legal action over the next seven years. during the following year, attorney general (ag) william baxley’s office rendered a negative ruling on may 10, 1976, followed by a positive ruling on june 21, 1976, regarding the use of diagnostic drugs by optometrists. the same ag’s office then rendered a second negative opinion, issued as the third ruling, on nov. 12, 1976, regarding this legislation. the leadership of the alabama optometric association (aloa) made the decision, at this time, to devote most of its resources to other endeavors until such time as more favorable circumstances prevailed regarding a positive ag’s ruling.1 at this point in time, as a result of the opinion rendered by the office of university counsel, the faculty of the uab school of optometry were, however, permitted to utilize drugs for diagnostic purposes in the professional program, leading to the doctor of optometry (o.d.) degree. optometrists practicing in alabama made a decision regarding the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes based on the patient’s history or their individual belief as to necessity. of course, the aloa continued to seek a positive ag’s ruling regarding the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes. the aloa eventually did prevail after several unfavorable, then favorable, ag’s rulings, receiving a final favorable ruling on sept. 30, 1982. in either late october or, more likely, early november, mr. wendell morgan, general counsel for the board of medical examiners, wrote to the ag’s office asking for a reconsideration of the opinion. on nov. 12, 1982, lynda knight, writing on behalf of ag graddick, stated the conclusion reached in that opinion was correct and should stand. therefore, the ag would not reconsider his ruling allowing optometrists to use drugs for diagnostic purposes.1 this ruling finally ended the seven-year battle to secure authorization for the use of drugs by optometrists for diagnostic purposes in the delivery of patient care. across the united states there was great legislative activity within the profession. this had originally begun with the rhode island optometric association passing an optometry practice act in 1971 that specifically authorized the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes. however, the national discussion and activity was greatly increased in 1976 with the passage of legislation authorizing the use of drugs for therapeutic purposes by optometrists in west virginia. impact of west virginia passing first therapeutic law the level of legislative discussion and activity was especially true, following the somewhat unanticipated passage of legislation authorizing the use of drugs for therapeutic purposes. this landmark legislation was enacted by west virginia on march 4, 1976, and north carolina on june 3, 1977.2,3 these events set in motion a great deal of discussion in many state optometric associations. clearly the aloa was among those states engaged in discussion among its members and observing with great interest the activity or political success of the immediate surrounding states, those other states in the southeastern region, and across the united states. the southern council of optometry (soco), an organization that sponsors the southeastern congress of optometry (seco) meeting, is an organization whose member abstract some 20 years after passing legislation authorizing the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes by optometrists in alabama, legislation was enacted by the alabama legislature that authorized the use of therapeutic drugs. the history of events that preceded the passage of this legislation, the development of a plan to successfully achieve this goal, and the actions of the alabama legislature during the legislative session are discussed in this article. the plan developed for this legislation may serve as a guide to any state optometric organization desiring to enact expansion of scope legislation. keywords alabama optometric association, optometrists, history of legislation enacted authorizing the use of therapeutic drugs by optometrists in alabama. john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o. s. dean and professor emeritus uab school of optometry birmingham, al 35216 eyedoc@uab.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v53i1&2.35649 article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. hindsight: journal of optometry history 5 article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. states were particularly interested in expansion of optometry scope of practice laws. issues in alabama aloa organizational issue perhaps the greatest issue for the aloa at this time was the lack of a well-organized, broad, grassroots political effort related to legislation, especially drug legislation. although the aloa had been successful on a number of legislative initiatives, expansion of the scope of practice would be another matter requiring a greater degree of involvement. the aloa had hired its first executive director, vernon knight, in the summer of 1975. prior to this time, the aloa had relied exclusively on the efforts of its member volunteers.1 these volunteers had been successful in passing legislation regarding practice setting, advertising, employer/ employee relationships, alabama state board of optometry issues, the establishment of a school of optometry, medicaid parity, and most recently a change in the practice act that allowed the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes after a seven-year effort to seek a final positive ag ruling. however, legislation that authorized the use of drugs for therapeutic purposes was an area of far greater clinical significance. opposition of the dean another issue of some note at this time, and potential difficulty for the aloa, was the opposition of the dean of the uab school of optometry to therapeutic drug legislation. dean henry peters was of the opinion that the use of therapeutic drugs by optometry was an intrusion into the practice of ophthalmology. it was also widely assumed he had discussions with the uab administration and presumably informed them that optometrists were only interested in seeking the legislative authority to use drugs for diagnostic purposes. dr. peters was a highly respected and visionary leader in optometric education. he was the first dean of the uab school of optometry, which was the first school of optometry to be established as an integral part of a major academic medical center. it would seem feasible that with the rather sudden possibility of therapeutic drug legislation he found himself, in his role, in a rather precarious position. dr. peters had already achieved a number of unique “firsts” by establishing programs for the school that had not been established in optometry programs elsewhere in the country. dr. peters had, within a short period of time, accomplished several major educational innovations for the uab school of optometry. he had integrated the basic health science courses utilized by medicine and dentistry into the optometry curriculum. he also established a clinic in the center for developmental and learning disorders, a clinic in the diabetes research and education hospital, a low-vision program at the alabama school for the deaf and blind, a community vision screening program, the design of a unique teaching clinic, and played a central role in initiating an optometry service and clinic in the birmingham veterans administration medical center.4 this was the first such optometry program in a va hospital affiliated with a school of optometry.5 however, dr. peters, while in favor of drugs used for diagnostic purposes, was opposed to therapeutic drug legislation and expressed his views regarding this issue on several occasions. the proposed legislation in west virginia caught many optometrists, and optometric leaders, by surprise. it introduced a level of care that, while a long-term goal for some, was a shortterm goal for a few dedicated leaders in that state. even individual board members of the american optometric association (aoa) advised against this effort by the west virginia optometric association (wvoa).6 outside of west virginia, very few optometrists expected such an expansion of scope of care within such a short time period. dr. henry b peters (image courtesy university of alabama at birmingham school of optometry). west virginia passes first therapeutic drug legislation in optometry the new optometry practice act passed by the legislature of the state of west virginia was vetoed by the governor. however, the veto was overridden by the west virginia legislature. the house had, on march 2, voted 59 to 39 and the senate, two days later, voted 27 to 6, and the legislation became law on the same day, march 4, 1976. this had been an epic achievement by the leaders and members of the wvoa. those leaders deserving of particular recognition include drs. gordon butterfield, john casto, david (john) janney, walter ramsey and frieda slaymaker.6,7 the passage of this law caught almost all involved in organized optometry off-guard. this legislative feat was especially remarkable because a well-known member of the house of representatives was an ophthalmologist. dr. albert esposito was active in organized ophthalmology, and following the passage of the law, challenged the legality of the law in court.7 a suit was filed by dr. esposito on dec. 16, 1976, in the cabell circuit court, but his actions ultimately 6 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 proved unsuccessful. the trial court decision was appealed to the state supreme court but review was denied on june 6, 1977, thereby permitting the lower court’s determination to stand.8 concern expressed by dr. peters on march 8, 1976, in a memorandum to the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco), with distribution to the board of trustees of the aoa and the council on optometric education, dr. peters offered a “tongue-in-cheek” new professional program with the degree doctor of dental optometry (ddo).9 a person in this field would confine their attention to the eyeteeth. because this change would be accomplished through continuing education, a new organization would be formed. it would be known as the academy of tehee (teeth, eyes, health, everything, everywhere). clearly, dr. peters was concerned about the potential mischief the west virginia action may create as a consequence of its passage. for this action to have taken place, at least three crucial actions were necessary. first, the wvoa leadership wanted the use of drugs for treatment purposes. secondly, a school of optometry was willing to provide continuing education “courses” that convinced these optometrists they had the knowledge, skill and clinical experience to take on this new responsibility. thirdly, the aoa failed to make, contrary to its stated policy, a forthright effort to influence the outcome. however, the biggest missing element in the whole affair was communication. in essence, dr. peters felt there had been a lack of communication on the part of all parties involved. he believed time was running out for those with a more moderate viewpoint to develop rational solutions.9 on june 17, 1976, dr. peters wrote the boards of asco and the aoa expressing his grave concerns over optometry’s incursion into ophthalmology.10 he expressed concern about this legislation threatening the strenuous efforts to improve interprofessional relations—which slowly but surely successful, had now been set back 20 years—and his position within an academic health center placed in dire jeopardy.. he then proposed four options of the few available. these options were: 1) reaffirm the stated policy of the aoa and asco that the use of drugs by optometrists is for diagnostic purposes only and that the treatment of the eye by drugs or surgery is the practice of medicine. 2) provide tacit approval of optometry’s changed position regarding the role of the profession and its claim to therapeutic use of drugs by doing nothing. 3) recognize the west virginia optometry law as “the wave of the future” and try to modify the curricula to adjust to the new demands. 4) recognize this move by optometry is, in fact, an invasion of ophthalmology and/or medicine and that optometry and medical ophthalmology be combined into a new program of ophthalmic science. in conclusion, he offered two resolutions that were mutually exclusive and while not representing all the possibilities, the profession was at a profound crossroads and must make a choice. these resolutions were: a) that asco reaffirm its stated policy that the use of drugs by optometrists is for diagnostic purposes only and the treatment of the eye by drugs or surgery is the practice of medicine. asco must bring this policy to the attention of the aoa house of delegates and urge it reaffirm its similar position. b) that asco recognize the public need for medical care by optometrists and in the public interest the present optometric curriculum be combined with the medical ophthalmology curriculum to produce a new professional to provide these services. that asco authorize its constituent members to explore with their related institutions the possibilities and opportunities for such developments. that asco bring this statement to the attention of the aoa house of delegates and urge it concur in this position.10 at an aoa-sponsored meeting “think tank iii” held in biloxi, mississippi, oct. 26-30, 1976, dr. peters spoke against adding therapeutic pharmacology to the optometric curriculum and felt it was too costly and these costs were not justified by the benefits gained. epidemiologically speaking, he stated optometrists take care of 90% of the nation’s vision care needs and that the less than 10% requiring therapeutic drug treatment can be handled by ophthalmologists. he favored the establishment of new schools as having a higher priority than therapeutic legislation. finally, he expressed the opinion that more patients could benefit from low-vision specialists than from those practicing with therapeutic drugs.11 there were many older optometrists who, at this time, concurred with dr. peters’ position regarding therapeutic legislation. there were, however, two optometrists who wrote to dr. peters expressing disappointment with his editorial and remarks in the aoa news.12,13 there is no evidence in his correspondence that dr. peters responded to either of these letters. in a jan. 26, 1979, letter to dr. peters, dr. van lilly, president of the wvoa, asked dr. peters to please clarify his position related to various comments he had made regarding the west virginia optometry practice act. dr. lilly had high regard for dr. peters and thought he was working diligently for the profession. however, he wanted to be able to better respond to his colleagues as well as legislators when those questions arose.14 there is no record that dr. peters responded to dr. lilly. settlement of 1975 optometry practice act the enactment of the 1975 alabama optometry practice act permitted, at least according to university counsel, the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes. this matter was not settled at the state level until sept. 30, 1982, when a favorable opinion was issued by alabama attorney general charles graddick. this matter was confirmed on nov. 12, 1982, when the ag’s office declined to overturn the ruling and stated it would stand as is. suffice it to say, dr. peters most likely felt the change in the 1975 law placed the uab school of optometry’s ability to teach its professional program students on a par, or perhaps even ahead of other optometry programs, as regarded the ability to use topical drugs for diagnostic purposes. it was, however, the passage of optometry practice acts in other states permitting the use of drugs for therapeutic purposes that caused dr. peters great consternation. he felt compelled to write an editorial expressing his rationale for what he viewed as an unwarranted intrusion into the practice of ophthalmology and an inappropriate goal for optometry.15 furthermore, he was concerned that such an increase in scope of practice would require radical changes in the optometric curricula and reduction or elimination of the existing optometric heritage. he also strongly discouraged optometry faculty from testifying in other states on behalf of such legislative efforts. article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. hindsight: journal of optometry history 7 whether dr. peters sincerely believed in such opposition to the treatment of eye disease by optometrists, or he simply felt obliged to take such a stand based on his prior statements or discussions, is difficult to know. certainly his views stirred strong emotions in many optometrists throughout the state of alabama, the southeast, and to some extent, the nation. many optometrists, especially recent graduates, viewed the enactment of therapeutic legislation as being vital to the future of the profession. undoubtedly, dr. peters had expressed his views to interested individuals during the subsequent years. what impact, if any, his opinion had regarding this matter on the board of directors of the aloa is difficult to judge from this point in time. regardless, during the 1980-81 year the aloa board of directors, under the leadership of president dr. carl mcinnish, approved the drafting of a new practice act to include the use of drugs for therapeutic use. the executive director of the aloa by this time was bill cook and the board of directors hired bobby jack russell to serve as lobbyist for this new effort. first attempt at therapeutic legislation-1983 the regular session for the 1983 alabama legislature began april 19, 1983, and ended on august 1, 1983. this session consisted of 30 calendar days.16 senate on april 21, 1983, the second day of the regular session, sen. john teague introduced senate bill s. 203. the intent of this bill was to further define the practice of optometry. this new bill was assigned to the senate committee on health and welfare. this standing committee reported a substitute for s. 203 on june 30, 1983, the 24th day of the session. this substitute as amended was then adopted, yeas 16; nays 3. on its third reading amended substitute s. 203 was read at length and lost, yeas 10; nays 17.16 house there was no action in the house regarding this bill nor was a companion bill introduced. dr. catherine amos, who was the president of the aloa from 1981-82, devoted many hours to lobbying for this bill. in the summer of 1983, it was becoming clear to the aloa this issue was not about the merit of the legislation but the amount of political support and the number of votes.17 lobbyists were retained, and the aloa spent significant resources, with very little to show for the effort. legislative effort of 1988 the regular session for the 1988 alabama legislature began on feb. 2, 1988, and ended on may 5, 1988. this session consisted of 30 calendar days.18 house on feb. 23, 1988, the 7th day of the regular session, rep. burke introduced in the house bill h. 630 to further define the practice of optometry. this bill was assigned to the committee on state administration. on march 30, 1988, the 18th day of the session, it was reported the committee had acted on h. 630 (with substitute and amendment) and ordered it returned to the house with a favorable report, with substitute, and it was read a second time and placed on the calendar, but advanced no further.18 senate there was not any action in the senate related to this bill or any companion bill introduced.18 as a result, this concluded the legislative year for optometry. fortunate turn of events in november 1994, fob james was elected governor and don siegelman was elected lieutenant governor. this series of events would eventually prove fortuitous for the aloa. during the hunt and folsom administrations optometry had been unable to advance politically. part of this failure to advance fell on the shoulders of the aloa because it was not organized in a manner that would result in political success. there had been an over reliance on lobbyists rather than an understanding that it was about relationships with and the votes of the legislators. in this matter the optometrists possessed a clear advantage because of their broad geographic distribution within the state. if the aloa were to become organized by developing a plan its chances for success would be much improved. the aloa gets organized there were many optometrists who were involved in the 1990s effort to pass legislation that authorized the use of drugs for therapeutic purposes in alabama. in fact, as many as 200 or more optometrists became involved to some degree or in some manner in this effort. this involvement ranged from becoming intimately involved with a specific candidate’s race, hosting fundraising events at their homes, placing signs in their yard and those of their neighbors and friends’ yards, distributing campaign literature and materials, making phone calls on behalf of the candidate and, of course, making personal donations to local, district and state campaigns. as well there was a significant effort to increase the funds in the alabama optometry political action committee (alopac). this high level of participation was in no small way a response to the frustration optometrists in alabama felt at being unsuccessful, for well over a decade, in the passage of therapeutic legislation. article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. 8 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 dr. jim mcclendon (image courtesy alabama optometric association). a plan is needed of the many optometrists involved in the successful effort that occurred in 1995, there are several optometrists who deserve specific recognition for their conception and development of an ingenious legislative plan. the three primary individuals who led the effort were drs. jim mcclendon, tommy crooks and sarah gordon. other optometrists who were very active or had specific roles were drs. charles brown, rose betz, doug clark, norman johnson and barry mcnamara. of course, there were dozens of others who were very active on the local, district or state level. of special note is the personal relationship dr. brown had developed several years earlier with lt. gov. don siegelman. by coincidence, don siegelman and charles brown were fraternity brothers at the university of alabama. although lt. gov. siegelman had already graduated by the time dr. brown was active in the fraternity, they had nonetheless been in the same fraternity. by this time siegelman was attending the georgetown school of law.19 several years later, dr. brown had become involved, through his former roommate bill cassels, as a volunteer in the campaign when don siegelman was running for secretary of state. when dr. brown read in the newspaper that siegelman was running for lieutenant governor, he wrote a note to mr. siegelman recalling brown’s earlier activities and again offered his assistance for the upcoming campaign. within a few days, don siegelman dropped by dr. brown’s office unannounced.19 as will be explained later, the support of so many optometrists was important to the overall success of the plan and ultimately the legislation. however, the relationship that developed between dr. brown and the future lieutenant governor proved to be critical. according to dr. brown, as a result of his travels and grassroots network throughout the state, mr. siegelman clearly understood the role optometrists could play in providing primary eye care to the citizens of alabama.19 like gov. george wallace before him, lt. gov. siegelman possessed a keen sense of the services optometry could provide to the citizens of the state of alabama. aloa sends a delegation to the aoa state legislative action committee the genesis of the aloa effort primarily emerged from the lack of legislative success during the 1980s. dr. mcclendon has related that his signal epiphany occurred after attending the 1991 fall meeting of the aloa.20 he heard a lecture by dr. lou catania and thought to himself there was a great deal he, and probably most optometrists, needed to learn regarding clinical pharmacology and its proper use in the treatment of eye disease. on the way out of the lecture he mentioned to dr. barry mcnamara that something needed to be done by the aloa to address the therapeutic issue. during the organizational session in preparation for the aloa’s 1991-92 year, dr. mcclendon learned he had been appointed to the legal/legislative committee (later the government relations committee) of the aloa.20 this appointment helped set into motion the aloa sending a small contingent of its members to the aoa’s state legislative action committee (slac) meeting. this meeting was entitled “statutory definition exchange” and was held in new orleans, louisiana, nov. 19-22, 1992. the program served as an informational exchange for states endeavoring to pass therapeutic drug legislation. it also served as an opportunity for the aoa to provide assistance to those states who had not been successful in passing such legislation. in many instances, the aoa slac members would discuss strategy with those states requesting assistance. those members attending the meeting on behalf of the aloa were drs. betz, crooks, johnson, mcclendon and ms. virginia campbell, executive director of the organization. after listening to the plans and successes of other states the group was left feeling even more frustrated than before the meeting. on a personal note, as a result of being chair of the aoa’s clinical care center, i had been asked to speak at this meeting and well remember the alabama attendees gathered together discussing strategy. this was the beginning of the aloa’s effort to pass legislation that allowed for the use of drugs for therapeutic purposes. the development of a legislative plan it was during an informal meeting of the group in the hotel le meridian’s bar, after the first meeting day, that dr. crooks and colleagues began to develop a long-term plan for passing legislation for therapeutic drug use in alabama.20,21 the model they chose to follow was one described by dr. larry moore, a representative from the texas optometric association. as one of the speakers for this meeting, dr. moore had described the texas model during the aoa slac-sponsored general session. dr. moore was also one of the discussion leaders of the breakout session the alabama delegation attended during the meeting. it was the result of this meeting that the aloa began to develop the seeds of a plan. a plan is developed the plan that evolved as a result of the aoa/slac meeting had several features to ensure success. first, it would, like a threelegged stool, have three central components. these tripartite components were: 1) a strong grassroots organizational concept, 2) a connection to the governor and 3) a level of alopac article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. hindsight: journal of optometry history 9 article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. contributions that would cover state-wide races, key committee chairs and senate and house races. another part of the plan was that the legal/legislative chair would remain unchanged from at least 1992 through 1995. the final portion involved the candidate races.20,21 members were warned against becoming too emotionally attached to a candidate. the basic premise was the “dead dog theory” that most learned from their mother or father growing-up. the best solution to a dog dying is to get another dog. in other words, if your candidate did not win his or her race, then transfer your efforts and support to a candidate still in the race. this plan was to be implemented over four years with information and education of the membership occurring mostly over the first one to two years. this was followed by fundraising, drafting of legislation and finally distribution of personal and pac funds as the election year unfolded.20,21 drs. crooks and mcclendon approached dr. sarah “sally” gordon during the fall meeting of the alao in 1992 to be the chair of the elections committee.20 dr. gordon accepted the challenge and set about dividing the state into districts that paralleled the number of legislative districts and local societies.22 each district had a zone coordinator whose primary responsibility was to make sure that each candidate in that district had an assigned optometrist. dr. gordon assembled a notebook that contained political, professional and pertinent family or personal information related to each candidate.22 this notebook also contained the name of the optometrist who was assigned to the candidate. she worked tirelessly on this legislation for several years. virginia campbell was very helpful in assisting dr. gordon by providing relevant information about each candidate.22 while fundraising was ongoing, especially related to the alopac, the legislation was not drafted until after the election cycle and was refined until the time the regular session began in march, 1995. as for candidate support, many optometrists were directly involved in candidate races, they gave individual donations to candidates in their districts and other candidates outside of their districts as requested by colleagues or drs. mcclendon or gordon. each member of the aloa was assessed $100 per month for each year of the plan with the funds being specifically allocated for the alopac and this legislation. aside from the alopac and therapeutics course, each optometrist was asked to donate $150 to the governor’s campaign, $250 to the lieutenant governor’s campaign, $150 to a senate campaign and $100 to a house campaign. one of the critical aspects of the plan was the aloa would not move forward with the legislation until the appropriate funds were in place.20,21 dr. arol augsburger (image courtesy university of alabama at birmingham school of optometry). on jan. 1, 1994, dr. arol augsburger became the third dean of the uab school of optometry. dr. augsburger was a strong supporter of therapeutic legislation and made many efforts to support the activities of the aloa. dr. augsburger was very active in several national optometric organizations and understood the importance of the success of this legislative initiative. dr. mcclendon developed a spreadsheet that could track every donation to a 1994 race in the state.20 likewise, dr. gordon developed a similar spreadsheet related to elections.22 in all likelihood there was overlap and redundancy, but in this manner all of the district and statewide races could be monitored and supported as the situation required. this action also allowed the aloa to track financial or gift-in-kind support to the incumbent or candidate and orchestrate additional support as necessary. the three major statewide races were covered by alopac funds, as were the chairs of the key rules and health committees in each chamber and each incumbent representative or senator. there was an 86% chance that the incumbents would be reelected. in addition, each new candidate who appeared to have a reasonable chance of election was covered by individual donations from local or state optometrists who wish to support a particular candidate. in some situations, dr. mcclendon would request assistance from others to supplement the amount given by the local optometrists. the broad base of support and cooperation by the membership was a key element to the success of this plan.20 implementation of the plan ultimately the alopac gave funds to those candidates who the polls indicated would win or were reasonably certain of winning. gov. james received $50,000, lt. gov. siegelman received by a conservative estimate $250,000 ($100,000 about 10 days before the election), and attorney general jeff sessions approximately $10,000. the original target goal of alopac was to raise $650,000. this amount was based on the amount milton mcgregor had spent to pass legislation that allowed dog racing in alabama. dr. mcclendon had read this amount in the birmingham news and 10 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. thought it would be a reasonable barometer or starting amount for this legislation. in the final analysis the amount raised, including the alopac and individual donations, was approximately $750,000. if one were to count gift-in-kind contributions and receptions for candidates, then it was well over this amount and likely closer to $1 million. this number was determined to be the amount required to appropriately cover all reasonable candidates, the amount contributed to statewide races, the amount contributed to incumbents and new candidates and, of course, to address the inflation that occurred during this four-year period.20-22 there were also several large receptions held during this period funded by the aloa. distributions to viable candidates every viable candidate for the house and senate received donations regardless of whether they were an incumbent or running as a candidate in the primary or general election. incumbents received $1,500 from alopac, while other candidates received varying amounts depending on the size of the district and the number of optometrists in that district. one of the important aspects of the plan was that the optometrists were instructed to personally deliver donations to all candidates deemed to have a reasonable chance of winning the race. the general rule followed was that funds were not distributed to candidates unless poll data found they were either predicted to win or had a reasonable chance of winning. it was even better if they could have several checks from other optometrists, even if they lived outside of the district. the face-to-face or oneon-one contact was considered essential for reasons related to accountability once a vote was called. drs. mcclendon and gordon tracked each of these races as they progressed.20,22 for the senate, with its 35 seats, the same process was followed except incumbents received $3,000. because there were fewer senators this chamber was perhaps somewhat easier, if only because of its smaller size. however, many optometrists had excellent relations with members of both chambers. the senate pro tem for this session was sen. michael figures from mobile. sen. figures was supportive of the legislative efforts of optometry and very helpful with the passage of this legislation. he had been recommended to the aloa by soon-to-be lt. gov. don siegelman. lt. gov. siegelman played a critical role in making sure this legislation came up for a vote at the appropriate time. as lieutenant governor, he had the authority to control the outcome of legislation.19 as an ironic footnote to history, lt. gov. siegelman may have had the most power to affect legislation of any lieutenant governor before or since. the political process hiring excellent lobbyists one of the important aspects of the strategy to pass this legislation was to hire a highly regarded lobbying firm. fine and geddie had been approached by the aloa in the midto late1980s to assist with therapeutic drug legislation. it was their opinion, after considering the issue, that the aloa was not ready for such an initiative. they told the leadership the aloa was not in a position to pass such controversial legislation, knowing there was very likely to be strong medical opposition. as it turned out, of course, fine and geddie were correct in their assessment as difficult as it was to hear. by the time this plan was launched in 1991, fine and geddie were still regarded as the best lobbying firm in montgomery, alabama. however, after listening to the plan that had been developed by the aloa, fine and geddie then realized the aloa was organized and its understanding of the political realities of passing such legislation had significantly changed. a contract was signed in which the aloa agreed to pay fine and geddie $100,000 per year from 1991 through 1995. it should also be noted that a bonus of this relationship was the close friendship that existed between soon-to-be gov. james and bob geddie.20-22 drafting the legislation the draft legislation was written by drs. mcclendon, crooks and gordon using language taken from the best aspects of therapeutic laws passed in other states. the language of this legislation was developed during the latter part of 1994 and into 1995 up to the point when the regular session began. it was placed in the proper legislative format by the legislative reference service (lrs) now called the legislative service agency (lsa).20-22 passage of senate bill 307 1995 the regular session of the legislature of the state of alabama, 1995, began april 18, 1995, and ended on july 31, 1995. this session consisted of 30 days.23 on june 13, 1995, the 16th day of the regular session, the house took up the bill s. 307, as amended, was read a third time at length and passed, yeas 100; nays 3. on motion of representative knight, the bill, h. 550, as amended, was indefinitely postponed. senate bill s. 307 was approved by gov. james on june 20, 1995, and was effective immediately on his signing at 12:15 p.m. compared to other legislative efforts by the aloa, this one proved to be widely supported by the membership and relatively straightforward in its passage. the development of such a comprehensive plan was critical to its success. it also provided a process that could be utilized in successive years, if necessary. the chronology of the actions related to this legislation by chamber during the 1995 regular session is provided in appendix i. it was amazing what a well-developed and supported plan could accomplish. the aloa passes therapeutic legislation there was not much rancor or even discussion related to this legislation compared to what was expected. the reasons for this are several. first, dickie whitaker, the executive director of masa, knew of the efforts of the aloa and could count the votes of the sponsors and co-sponsors as well as anyone in montgomery. the plan was so comprehensive and thorough it left almost no district race or critical statewide candidate at risk of not supporting this legislation. second, the lobbying firm of fine and geddie was now solidly behind this legislation and their support proved to be of great significance. fine and geddie were certainly regarded as one of the best, if not the best, such lobbying firms in alabama. the fact that most optometrists had already taken the required course further demonstrated the optometrist’s determination to assume hindsight: journal of optometry history 11 article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. therapeutic responsibility. third, the then executive director of the alabama academy of ophthalmology, evans whaley, had his attention focused on personal issues and problems and was either unaware of the situation or too distracted to attend to this matter. this lack of response by ophthalmology was unusual because they normally kept close surveillance of optometric legislation. the speaker of the house was rep. jimmy clark from eufaula, alabama. while not extraordinarily helpful, ultimately, he did support the bill when the vote was called. however, the senate pro tem, sen. michael figures, was very supportive and made his office available for some discussions that occurred during the last days before the final vote.20 meeting with ophthalmology dr. mcclendon had, as a courtesy, met earlier in the spring of the year with dr. elmar lawaczeck. dr. lawaczeck, a birmingham private practice ophthalmologist was representing the alabama academy of ophthalmology, for purposes of discussing the legislation. dr. mcclendon remembered two comments from this meeting. first, lawaczeck stated, “if this was germany this legislation would not be happening” (there is no american model of optometry in germany) and secondly, he tried to convince dr. mcclendon optometry did not need steroids to treat eye disease. basically dr. lawaczeck’s attitude was very old world and it was obvious he did not fully grasp the efforts the aloa had made.20 decision to drop hydrocodone another matter of some importance, and perhaps confusion, was the decision to drop the schedule iii narcotic dihydrocodenione (hydrocodone) from the legislation. during the regular session, dr. mcclendon was approached by rep. billy beasley from clayton, alabama. rep. beasley was a pharmacist and relayed to dr. mcclendon the pharmacy profession’s experiences with hydrocodone. it was not only becoming an issue of safety for pharmacies but also a personal problem for some pharmacists. his suggestion to dr. mcclendon was that, while he supported the aloa’s legislation, optometry would perhaps be best served if it dropped hydrocodone from the legislation. dr. mcclendon felt that hydrocodone could be dropped from the language of the legislation.20 dr. mcclendon knew that politically this gesture was not a necessity, but he was concerned that having such prescriptive authority for this drug might cause addicted patients to pressure optometrists to prescribe it. he also knew its absence would, furthermore, reduce the risk of abuse by optometrists. while hydrocodone is a very effective medication for the management of pain, there are several other medications available as well for this purpose. given the current crisis of epidemic opioid abuse in alabama and the united states, his view was very insightful. summary after 20 years of determined effort by the members of the aloa a very comprehensive law was enacted that significantly expanded the scope of practice of the optometry profession in alabama. the impact of this law has been of great importance. not only did it allow optometrists to deliver eye care they had, for decades been uniquely educated to provide, but it removed barriers such as access to care for patients. in many areas of the state of alabama, whether urban or rural, transportation is a significant issue. even in urban areas some individuals are reluctant to leave their immediate neighborhood. for long distances the patient will frequently elect to forego care because of the direct or indirect expenses associated with travel. optometrists are located in all but three counties of the state. this distribution of optometrists has provided access that has resulted in not only excellent clinical care but also significant savings to patients in the form of cost-efficient eye care and less travel. beyond the importance of the passage of this law was the importance of the organization that was developed to pass this legislation. this same organization can be implemented again, for any reason, should this ever become necessary. assuming, of course, there is broad-based support for the cause among the aloa membership. certainly a special word of acknowledgement is due to drs. mcclendon, crooks and gordon for their tireless efforts. however, there were perhaps as many as 10 more optometrists who were very active in this effort. there was also broad-based support from the members of the aloa. since the enactment of the first law authorizing the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes in rhode island, approximately 225 or more laws have been enacted in the united states expanding the scope of optometric practice. no doubt this number will continue to increase as the states continue to expand their scope of practice. to date, no scope of optometry practice law has been rescinded. as a result of this experience, dr. jim mcclendon decided to run for public office in 2001. he was sworn into office as a duly elected member of the state of alabama, house of representative for district 50 in january 2002. he continues to serve the state of alabama with great distinction as a member of the alabama senate. he was instrumental in assisting the aloa secure passage of an updated loan and scholarship program for optometry and vision science students in 2009, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. dr. mcclendon served as chair of the ethics committee during the special session called for december 2010. the alabama legislature passed seven ethics bills during this session, and dr. mcclendon served as the house sponsor for one of those ethics bills. in february 2011, dr. mcclendon was appointed chair of the house health committee and a member of the statewide health coordinating council. he was also chair of the house reapportionment committee, which is part of a joint house – senate reapportionment committee. rep. mcclendon was also appointed in june 2011 by gov. bentley as co-chair for the alabama health insurance exchange study commission.20 in june 2014 he was elected as the republican senator for a newly created senate district 11. he was subsequently appointed as chair of the senate health committee a position he holds currently. dr. mcclendon was reelected to the senate in 2018. one final note should be mentioned. the history of attempts to pass legislation regarding the use of drugs for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes was obviously not unique to the aloa. every state optometric association has a history related to this type of legislation. it is hoped that perhaps this history of the aloa’s legislative efforts will encourage other states to document their legislative experiences in this regard as well. it would be a great 12 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 loss to the profession if the collective history of each state’s effort to increase scope of practice were to be lost. acknowledgements the author is indebted to the following optometrists for sharing information by interview or reading the text for accuracy: drs. tommy crooks, jim mcclendon, sarah gordon, charles brown, g. robert crosby and jerry r. pederson. also the author would like to thank former rep. and now sen. (dr.) jim mcclendon for providing access to the legislative reference service (lrs), now the legislative services agency (lsa), and the department of archives and history, state of alabama. mr. frank caskey and ms. carma marks of the state of alabama, legislative service agency, for their research and providing specific information from the journals of the house and senate of the state of alabama. i am also indebted to mr. tim pennycuff and ms. jennifer beck for providing access to and information from the uab archives. drs. mcclendon, crooks and gordon served as presidents of the aloa in the years 197778, 1990-91 and 1998-99, respectively. dr. crooks served as the president of the aoa in 2006-07 and was the 85th president of the organization. he was the first alabama optometrist to have held this office. with his oath of office administered on june 23, 2018, dr. sam pierce became the second alabama optometrist to become president of the aoa. many alabama optometrists have served as volunteers on state, regional and national organizations as committee chairs or members. their dedication has contributed significantly to the advancement of the profession in alabama, the southeast, the nation and internationally. references 1. amos jf. history of the passage of legislation authorization the optometric use of drugs for diagnostic purposes in the state of alabama. hindsight: j optom hist 2. american optometric association. optometric prescriptive authority/scope of practice. november 15, 2012. st. louis, mo. 3. cooper sl. 1971-2011: forty year history of scope of expansion into medical eye care. optometry. j am optom assoc, online 2012; 83(2): 64-73. 4. peters hb. school of optometry, university of alabama at birmingham – 25th anniversary photographic history, 19691994. uab school of optometry 1994. 5. amos jf. the genesis of the optometry training program in the birmingham veterans affairs hospital. hindsight: j optom hist 2013: 44(4): 50-70. 6. personal communication with dr. john casto, march 3, 2011. 7. personal communication with dr. tom griffin, september 5, 2020. 8. classe’ jg. legal aspects of optometry. chapter 1, optometry – a legal history. boston, butterworths, 1989; 22-26. 9. memorandum from dr. peters to asco board of directors, march 8, 1976 from the files of the west virginia optometric association. 10. memorandum from dr. peters to the boards of directors of asco and aoa, june 17, 1976 from the files of the west virginia optometric association. 11. american optometric association news, educator dilemma over wv law debated at think tank. december 1, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 12. letter from dr. william bartolovich to dr. henry peters, dated june 20, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. dr. bartolovich practiced in east liverpool, ohio. 13. letter from dr. frederick bergman to dr. henry peters, dated august 4, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. dr. bergman practiced in north miami, florida. 14. letter from dr. van lilly to dean peters, january 26, 1979 from the files of the west virginia optometric association. 15. peters hb. editorial. the dog and the bone. am j optom physiol opt 1976: 53 (5); 276-277. 16. journal of the senate alabama state legislature, regular session of 1983. state of alabama, legislative reference service. 17. personal communication with dr. catherine s. amos, august, 14, 2010. 18. journals of the house of representatives and senate, alabama state legislature, regular session of 1988. state of alabama, legislative reference service. 19. personal communication with dr. charles k. brown, september 10, 2010 20. personal communication with dr. jim mcclendon. july 29, 2010. 21. personal communication with dr. tommy crooks, july 26, 2010. 22. personal communication with dr. sarah gordon, august 20, 2010. 23. journal of the senate, alabama state legislature, regular session of 1995. state of alabama, legislative reference service. appendix i chronology of actions related to passage of the aloa sponsored legislation regarding the 1995 optometry practice act regular session of the legislature of the state of alabama, 1995 house of representatives, state of alabama tuesday, may 16, 1995, the seventh day of the regular session, bill, h. 550 was introduced by representative al knight and 65 cosponsors and assigned to the house committee on commerce, transportation and utilities tuesday, may 16, 1995, the seventh day of the regular session, representative knight also introduced bill, h. 551, which was assigned to the house committee on health thursday, may 25, 1995, the 11th day of the regular session, representative knight, chairperson of the standing committee on article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. hindsight: journal of optometry history 13 commerce, transportation and utilities reported to the house that in session this committee had acted on h. 550 (with substitute) and ordered the same returned to the house with a favorable report, with substitute, and it was read a second time and placed on the house calendar tuesday, june 13, 1995, the 16th day of the regular session, the senate bill s. 307, as amended, was read a third time at length and passed, yeas 100, nays 3 tuesday, june 13, 1995, the 16th day of the regular session, representative knight moved that the bill, h. 550, as amended, was indefinitely postponed act no. 95-218 was approved and signed by governor fob james on tuesday, june 20, 1995 at 12:15 p. m. and became effective immediately on his signature. senate, state of alabama wednesday, may 3, 1995, the third day of the regular session, senate bill, s. 307 was introduced by senator jack biddle and 17 co-sponsors and assigned to the senate committee on health and human resources thursday, may 18, 1995, the ninth day of the regular session, proceeded to consideration of the unfinished business for that day, which was the bill s. 307. the question was on the biddle amendment which said amendment is set out in the journal of the senate for the eighth legislative day thursday, may 18, 1995, the ninth day of the senate, on motion of senator figures, said amendment was laid on the table (referring to the biddle amendment) thursday, may 18, 1995, the ninth day of the regular session, senator figures then offered the following substitute for the bill sb. 307, adopted, yeas 34, nays 0 (this legislative excepted the use of steroids) thursday, may 18, 1995, ninth day of the regular session, senator figures offered an amendment to the bill, sb. 307, as amended by the substitute, adopted, yeas 23, nays 11 (included the use of steroids) thursday, may 18, 1995, the ninth day of the regular session, the said bill, s. 307, as amended, was read a third time at length and passed, yeas 34, nays 1. the bill, sb. 307 was ordered sent forthwith to the house upon engrossment thursday, may 18, 1995, the ninth day of the regular session, senator biddle moved that the senate reconsider the vote by which the bill, sb. 307, as amended, was passed and further moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the motion to table prevailed act no. 95-218 was approved and signed by governor fob james on tuesday, june 20, 1995 at 12:15 p. m. and became effective immediately on his signature. article john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. r .· uri hindsight lndtana university ·~ newsletter of the nov 11 2003 optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141.jlrarary volume34 october 2003 number4 ohs meetingget some history before you "go downunder'': the optometric historical society will meet at the annual meeting of the american academy of optometry just before the "australia party." the ohs meeting is set for saturday, december 6, 2003, from 8:00 to 9:00pm in the cherokee room of the hyatt regency. the speaker will be gregory l. stephens, o.d., ph.d., of the university of houston. he will be talking about "leonard thompson troland: vision, technicolor, and the photon." an abstract of his talk follows: leonard troland (1889-1932) is best known for the unit of retinal illumination that bears his name, but little has been published about either his life or his career. troland was a well-known and influential psychologist at harvard university, and he published on topics as diverse as the blue arcs of the retina, origin-of-life theories, flicker photometry, and parapsychology. however, troland also maintained a second career with the technicolor motion picture corporation, receiving 32 u.s. patents and contributing significantly to technicolor's success. he died an accidental death in 1932 at the age of 43, during the deepest part of the depression and just months before technicolor introduced the three-color motion picture process that would make the company famous. my purpose is to review troland's short but productive life, particularly as it relates to optometry and vision science. jay enoch's column: medieval islamic achievement in optics by david lindberg (2003) and (artificial) "eye making" by michael 0. hughes (2000) in the past week i have received two very interesting mailings which i briefly share with our readers. they are two wholly different topics, but they are part of our collective heritage in optometry. 1. lindberg d. medieval islamic achievement in optics. optics and photonics news. july, 2003; 14(4):30-35. this article is also on the website of the optical society of america, publisher of optics and photonics news. lindberg has long been one of my heroes in history of vision science. in this paper, he eloquently summarizes in readily understandable terms the research of a number of years in his productive life. he was 34/39 trained at the university of chicago, but spent a good period of his career at the university of wisconsin. in this brief paper, he fundamentally considers the nature of the process of transmission of visual stimuli in space between eye and object viewed. basically he starts with graeco-roman debates on the nature of vision (spanning roughly 350 b.c. to 210 a.d.), and he addresses the hotly debated theories espoused by very distinguished philosophical schools including those of aristotle, euclid, ptolomy, and galen. they were major players in these debates. there were two main theories of vision, the intromission and extramission of light theories these are somewhat curious terms. "intromission", supported by aristotle and his followers argued for transmission of signal from the object viewed to the observer's eye. extramission theorists argued that the signal originated at the eye and traveled to the object viewed. euclid and his school led the latter arguments. lindberg notes that aristotle argued from the physical realities of light "and its transmission and reception", euclid and ptolomy considered geometric/mathematical arguments, and galen followed the stoic tradition in these debates and argued from anatomical and physiological grounds. there were quite a number of added distinguished participants in these debates. (and some part of this debate is embedded in folklore as well, e.g., consider the prevalence of the concept of the "evil eye" in its many manifestations even to this day [this is not the subject of this paper]). enter the collapse of the graeco-roman world and the obtaining and transmission of knowledge in optics and vision science by a modest number of arabic/islamic scholars. not only did they translate the works of the greeks and romans during the dark days of the european barbarians, but they embellished and built upon the earlier foundations. in fact, they resolved properly the long-standing intromission and extramission controversy. lindberg calls special attention to the efforts of ai-kindi {ca. 800 a.d.), hunayn ibn lshaq {ca. 900 a.d.), and ibn ai-haytham, known as alhacen or ai hazen (ca. 1000 a.d.). ai-kindi corrected errors in euclid's theories. hunayn clarified the anatomy of galen and supported the earlier argument that the eye lens was the receptive surface for vision. (this writer often has wondered why the already familiar technique of "couching" for cataract [known to both indians and egyptians long before this time period] did not demonstrate that there was an error in logic here, i.e., in this treatment for cataract, the eye lens was displaced from the pupil into the vitreous body by the "sur..geon", therefore re-opening an optical pathway. this helped vision when the surgery was successful, but without refractive correction, it did not resolve the quality of vision issue.) alhacen performed some key experiments. he utilized after-image phenomena to prove that the extramission theory was not correct, and firmly established the external source of vision as the correct process. there followed a "re-transfer'' of classical knowledge, embellished by the islamic scholars, back into europe, some via the moors and spain, some by other probably mediterranean routes. lindberg discusses the role of roger bacon in this transfer, and r~affirms his admiration for kepler (early 1600s) who finally put it all together and 34/40 defined the retina as the location of the image formed by the eye and the site of response to visual stimuli (the retinal site had been suggested some years earlier by anatomists, but this was after the time of leonardo da vinci). kepler combined the optics and anatomy properly in a single "argument". (in turn, descartes, a bit later, embellished and built upon these arguments) this brief summary is a jewel! 2. added to the current issue of ophthalmic antiques, #84, july 2003, the newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collector's club, frank barraclough, chairman {in great britain), there was included an interesting separatum, first published in july, 2000. michael hughes. eye making: a brief history of artifical eyes made in virginia, washington, d.c., and surrounding areas. 24 non-numbered pages including the cover sheet. mr. hughes, an ocularist, may be reached at 307b maple avenue west, vienna, va 22180-4307, tel: +(703) 352-3520. the writer started in the contact lens field fitting obrig scleral "fluid" contact lenses. theodore obrig fitted me with the same lenses {worn for eight years). he was assisted by the salvatori brothers and one of his women technicians. later, 1 came to know a number of others among the more modern pioneers in the contact lens field. some of this early group also made artificial eyes, painted shells, etc., for various purposes. in this booklet, i recognize the suction cups used to remove the obrig fluid lenses on the page titled ''tidewater area". in other words, there was a degree of overlap of skills between contact lens fitters and ocularists. in time, i maintained a lively practice most often given over to complex anterior eye problems. i employed many painted sclera/iris/some pupil contact lenses {hard scleral fluid, "fluidless", corneal, later soft lenses). i became quite familiar with techniques employed by ocularists {a more recent descriptive term for those engaged in making artificial eye prostheses). the author of this booklet seems to have been active or broadly aware of developments in this field over a lengthy period of time. also, early history of ocular prostheses is treated. a number of individuals mentioned by hughes in his booklet were known to me. as a young second lieutenant in the army during the korean war (i was told i was the 7th commissioned optometrist in the u.s. army), i was assigned to the ophthalmology clinic of the walter reed army hospital for training. the author of this booklet speaks of the fine group of ocularists who served there {on the page titled ''washington area"). indeed, i can verify his comments. i spent many an hour, in frank admiration, watching these specialists match an eye shell to an individual's second eye. i regarded them as true artists! details such as matches of scleral brightness, hue, and saturation, pigmentation, fine vessels and their distributions, etc., were painted on to the shell of these custom ocular prostheses. fitting was meticulous. these prostheses apparently lasted only several months or a year, when the process had to be repeated again, often on a new shell. some of the patients were existing military, others were veterans of world war ii, casualties from the berlin wall period, as well as those newly­ injured during the opening phases of the korean war. 34/41 for those interested in the nature of, or techniques employed in the construction of artificial eyes, or contact lens history in the mid-20tn century, and related topics, i would urge them to contact mr. hughes and obtain a copy of his fine pamphlet. j.m.e. can anyone help with these inquiries? i occasionally receive inquiries concerning the history of optometry. many of them are challenging questions which are not easily answered. in recent weeks, i received the following inquiries. can any of our readers help these individuals with their questions and research? i have included the email addresses of each of the persons requesting information. if you write to them, please copy me {dgoss@indiana.edu), because i think our readers would be interested in the answers to the questions. if you don't have access to email, you could send your answers to me and i will forward them. 1 . scott parker of the department of psychology at american university in washington, d.c. {sparker@american.edu) wrote that "a week or so ago i was at ellis island and was interested to learn that the immigrants had their vision tested using a test that relied on geometric shapes rather than letters from the alphabet {the snellen chart). the test was apparently developed especially for ellis island's screening procedures. the exhibit there gave no information about either who developed the test, how it worked, how norms were established for it, etc. if you have any information about that test, or if you could tell me where i could read something on it, i'd be grateful." 2. tim bowden {timbowden@talk21.com) is researching the history of contact lenses. he has interviewed a number of persons and he is in the process of obtaining copies of the living memory tapes held at ilamo. he writes that he is "seeking information on some of the 'heroes', jack neill, william feinbloom, theo obrig, and ted bayshore for starters. i am interested about their cl exploits but also about them as people. the contact lens world is scattered with great characters and i would like to record some of their personality as well." 3. philip davis loring, of the doctoral program in the history of science, graduate school of arts & sciences, harvard university {ploring@fas.harvard.edu), writes: "i am in the earliest stages of research on the history of legibility ... do you have a sense of when it was that letterforms first began to be associated with diagrams of how the eye works? i recall having seen, for example, diagrams which show an 'a' in front of the pupil and an inverted 'a' projected onto the retina, but it appears that the earliest diagrams of retinal projectionkepler'sfeature not letterforms but cityscapes. further, do you know when letterforms first began to be associated with eye charts and eye exams? i'm wondering it the two answers aren't linked. in any case, if you can shed any light on either, i'd be most grateful." d.a.g. 34/42 history of the indiana university division of optometry: over the last few years i have been studying the history of the optometry program at indiana university, where i received my ph.d. in 1980 and where i have been a faculty member since 1992. i recently completed a 47-page document on the history of the school from the beginning of the efforts to found it in 1944 to the time of the elevation of its status on the campus from a division to a school in 1975. the document was published as a special issue of the indiana journal of optometry (fall, 2003, volume 6, number 2). it is organized into five chapters, which are in a chronological sequence, and several appendices. the appendices cover a variety of material, including short overviews of the history of optometric education and of the history of the indiana optometric association to provide some historical context for the founding of the school, along with a timeline and various lists and data. some of the appendices cover the full history of the iu optometry program as both a division of optometry and a school of optometry; these inclusive appendices include the time line, list of full-time faculty, list of m.s. and ph.d. graduates, and numbers of o.d. graduates. there are also more than 50 quiz questions over the whole history of the school. the table of contents is as follows: chapter 1. founding (1944-1952) chapter 2. beginnings {1952-1959) chapter 3. the foley house era (1959-1968) chapter 4. a new building and a new degree ( 1968-1970) chapter 5. a new director and elevation to school status (1970-1975) indiana university school of optometry timeline appendix 1. a brief history of the indiana optometric association up to the time of the start of the school appendix 2. house bill 199 appendix 3. a brief history of optometric education up to the time of the start of the school appendix 4. foley house basement key award recipients appendix 5. list of graduates of the physiological opticsnision science program appendix 6. list of full-time faculty appendix 7. number of graduates in each class appendix 8. quiz questions on the history of the optometry school at indiana university 2003 wall of recognition honorees efforts to found the school began in 1944. fortunately, much .of the correspondence of the optometrists involved in the founding effort was preserved. the archival record tells a fascinating story. the founders faced several obstacles, the most challenging of which was the opposition of ophthalmology faculty of the indiana university school of medicine. after years of unsuccessful negotiations with the medical school, some overtures to other universities in indiana, and numerous meetings 34/43 with officials of indiana university (some of whom appeared to be strongly on their side), the school founding committee began an effort to have a bill establishing the school passed by the state legislature. after a carefully orchestrated effort, the indiana optometrists saw house bill199 passed by the indiana house of representatives 92-0 and the indiana senate 39-3 in 1951. pre-optometry classes started in 1951 while a director for the division of optometry was recruited. henry hofstetter was successfully recruited for that role and he started on the job in 1952. here again, much useful material was carefully archived. i am sure it is no surprise to many long-time readers of hindsight that hofstetter was a meticulous record keeper. the first professional classes started in the fall of 1953. the first class graduated in 1956, earning a master of optometry degree. in 1959, an old wooden frame two story house called foley house was remodeled for the optometry clinic, and the clinic remained there until the new building was occupied in 1968. in 1965, the professional curriculum was expanded to four years and the first doctor of optometry graduates completed their studies in 1968. henry hofstetter stepped down as director of the division of optometry in 1970. gordon heath became the new director and later became dean of the school of optometry, when the change in status from division to school occurred in 1975. i have a few extra copies of this history, and i would be happy to send a copy to any of our readers as long as supplies last. if you would like a copy, contact me at: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, 800 east atwater avenue, bloomington, in 47405; phone: 812-855-5379; fax: 812-855-8664; email: dgoss@ indiana.edu. d.a.g. meredith morgan on the history of the u. of california berkeley school of optometry: we are fortunate to have permission again to reproduce one of the articles in the california optometry series on the. history of optometry in california. this is the second part of their series which they entitled "optometry's screaming eagles." this part appeared in the september-october, 2003 issue of california optometry (volume 30, number 5, pages 14-16). this article was written by meredith morgan and was taken from .. his peters memorial lecture given to the university of california berkeley optometry alumni association on october 31, 1971. we again thank the california optometric association for permission to reproduce this article verbatim. 34/44 tucked in the berkeley hills, this california campus has been home to the university's school of optom­ etry today it is difficult, if not impossible, to find out where the idea of a curriculum in optometry at the university started, but we do know that the concept had sufficient basic support so that a resolution of charles wood of oakland, offered to the 1908 convention of the california optometric associa­ tion to petition the regents of the university of california to establish "a course in optics," was endorsed by the conven­ tion. as a resujt of this resolu­ tion, a committee was ap­ pointed to approach president benjamin i. wheeler and the regents. the committee appar­ ently had several very discour­ aging meetings with university officials, particularly president wheeler, and in 1910 it re­ ported, "we do, therefore, believe that the time is not yet ripe for a separate chair of optometry in the university of cali­ fo-rnia." this report apparently did not kill the idea entirely since in 1914 and 1915 the california optometric association had several contacts with the university relative to the establishment of optometry courses in university extension. this ex­ perience resulted in the introduction of a resolution to the 1917 convention "that a chair of optometry be established in a university." this was followed in 1918, when president david p. barrows became president of the university by the appointment of a permanent committee, which was to con­ tinue to exist until a program in optometry was approved by the regents of the university. 34/45 this committee consisting of c. d. mueller, oakland; r.w doig, oakland; g .l. schneider, berkeley; fred l. foster, san jose; c. h. morrisey, los angeles; glenn winslow, los ange­ les; louis kuttner, san francisco; charles wood, oakland; and william kinney, los angeles, worked dilige.ndy and well. they investigated costs, they worked with faculty and staff at columbia university, they worked with university extension and they held many meeting with david p. barrows, presi­ dent' of the university. during their activities they convinced professors m.w haskell and ralph minor of the justice of their cause and they succeeded in obtaining the cooperation of these two academic leaders. they inveigled, cajoled, threat­ ened, begged and reasoned with anyone who would listen, including their fellow optometrists as well as university per­ sonnel. in 1918, professor minor presented a course, "optics as applied in optometry,,, under university extension. in 1920 ralph mino" phd, professor of physics at the university of california, appointed the first director of the division of optometry at the university -shown here, alongside a self portrait. 34/46 a faculty committee, headed by professor haskell, reported to the university council recommending a curriculum in op­ tometry. soon thereafter medical opposition became appar­ ent and the university council, on april 8, 1920, referred the report back to the committee with the request that it confer with the advisory committee of the medical school. all during the spring at?-d summer of 1920, there was ap­ parent apprehension among the optometric leaders regarding the action of the university council. it is not possible to re­ construct all that went on behind the scene~ but there must have been very effective work, since on november 3, 1920, the university council and the academic senate ordered the physics department to take full charge of the development of a curriculum in optometry and "to carry forward a program which will finally result in optometry becoming an indepen­ dent school, as funds, space and equipment are available." this matter of funds was a major consideration in the es­ tablishment of the program. in order to meet the need for financing optometric education at the university, optometrists raised $7,500 in money, pledges and notes, and in addition, it was proposed that the license renewal fee be raised from two to ten dollars and that the extra eight dollars be given to the university to support optometric education. on october 24, 1921 the academic sen­ ate recommended to the president and the re­ gents that there be published a notice to the ~ffect that the university of california has un­ der consideration the inauguration in august 1923 of a course in optometry. in february 1923, optometrists turned over more than · $9,000 in rnoney and pledges to the regents and in may 1923, the amendtnent to raise the annual fee from $2.00 to $10.00, with the proviso that the extra money be applied to the optometry course at the university, was passed and signed into law. 34/47 pictured here is the 1923 academic senate. in august of 1923, the curriculum in optometry was established as a division of the department of physics in the college of letters and sciences of the university of california, berkeley. george l. schneider, od, leading member of the coa, appointed lecturer of optometric courses upon the establish­ ment of the newly formed division of optometry at uc berkeley. thus finally, after fifteen years of concern and five years of continuous effort by a permanent committee of the califor­ nia optometric association, the curriculum in optometry was established in august 1923 as a division of the department of 34/48 physics in the college of letters and science of the university of california. ralphs. minor, phd, professor of physics, be­ came the director of the program and george l. schneider, a leading member of the coa committee, was appointed lec­ turer to give the professional optometric courses. with the opening of the program, extensive gifts were made by individuals and organizations interested in the training of optometrists, and their generosity has continued throughout the years. the first few years of the program were a pioneering pe­ riod filled with the struggles common to all new projects. since these first several years the enrollment has grown steadily from the first class of two students in 1923 to the present enroll­ ment of 235 optometry students. in 1924, frederick l. mason, ma, a graduate of colum­ bia university, was appointed lecturer in optometry and he continued as a faculty member until his retiretnent on july 1, 1953. over the y~~rs map.y dedicated mep., no longer on the faculty, s~ch as albert a. reinke, harry m. kamp, ta brombach, everett a. coe, finley f. neal, jack t. hobson, kenneth b. stoddard, gordon l. walls and henry b. peters, made significant contributions to optometric education at the university of california. while the curriculum originated in the depart­ ment of physics, a separate department of optom­ etry in the college of letters and science was estab­ lished in july 1940. in july 1941, the original man­ date concerning the establishment of the cur~iculum in optometry was carried out by the formation of a separate school of optometry with its own dean. in january 1948, the curriculum in optometry was expanded by the addition of a graduate year. this expanded program led to 34/49 the degree of bachelor of science at the end ofthe fourth academic year and the certificate in optometry and the degree master of optometry at the end of the fifth academic year. in 1966, the school of optometry inaugurated a four-year program based on a minimum of two years of pre-professional work. ucbso class of 1933. frederick l. mason, ma, appointed lecturer of optometry for uc berkeley in 1924, pictured here with kenneth b. stoddard, dean of optometry for the university from . 1946 to 1961. students rest, study and ponder their futures in the ucbso student lounge. 34/50 this program leads to the degrees of bachelor of science at the end of the fourth academic year and the doctor of optometry at the end of the sixth academic year. in 1946, professor ralph s. minor, who had been in charge of the curriculum since its inception and who had been the first dean of the school of optometry, retired. kenneth b. stoddard was appointed dean to succeed professor minor. professor stoddard continued as dean until illness forced his retirement in 1961, at which time meredith morgan became dean. meredith morgan 1972, e/e.ven years after becoming dea.n of ucbso; since its inception, the school of optometry has been plagued with a serious space problem that was only temporarily solved for a few years in the early fifties. in 1940, the optometrists of the state under the energetic lead­ ership of drs. thomas h. pe­ ters, herman davis and ralph s. minor started a building fund drive, which raised $85,000 by 1948 for a new optometry building. in 1947, the optometrists were instrumental in obtaining an additional $300,000 grant from the state legislature for the same purpose. in 1948, on the hottest june day in twenty years, the present optometry buliding was dedicated during the congress of the american optometric association, held in san francisco that year. witl~in ten years, due to the expansion of clinical activities and research, this new building became too small. in 1946, the graduate council of the university of cali-· fornia approved the establishment of a graduate program in physiological optics leading to the ms and the phd. as ini34/51 tially established, this pro­ gram was administered by a faculty selected from optom­ etry, physiology, psychology, physics and ophthalmology. except for a· period of two years, the chairman of the group in physiological op­ tics has always been the dean of the school of optometry. during the past several years, the group in physiological optics has been the same as the faculty of the school of optometry. ucbso celebrates 75 years! the past has been char­ acterized by change and growth; sometimes slow, sometimes rapid, but in general, the change and growth have been in one direction increased size and excellence. a ucbso student observes the exami11ation of a patient. 34/52 antique ophthalmic instruments and books at the royal college museum: a two part article in the british journal of ophthalmology published in 2002 discusses the antique ophthalmic instruments and the antiquarian book collection at the royal college of ophthalmologists in london (keeler r. antique ophthalmic instruments and books: the royal college museum. brit j ophthalmol 2002; part 1. instruments 86(6):602-603; part ii. antiquarian book collection 86(7):712-714). the author is curator at the royal college of ophthalmologists. the museum has more than 70 ophthalmoscopes from the nineteenth century, including an early model of helmholtz's ophthalmoscope (1851). the author notes that helmholtz used a candle as the source of illumination for his ophthalmoscope. henry juler is credited as being the first to incorporate an incandescent bulb in an ophthalmoscope. in the various early ophthalmoscopes there were a number of ways of reflecting light into the eye, including glass mirrors and polished steel. john couper is mentioned as the first to angle the mirror away from the plane of the lenses in the ophthalmoscope. helmholtz's engineer, egbert rekoss, is said to have invented the rotatable disc of lenses to aid in viewing the fundus (1852). the museum has various other instruments, including an 1875 trial lens set and nineteenth century surgical instruments. the oldest book in the library was published in 1620 and is entitled seabrooke's caveat: or his warning piece to all his loving country-men, to beware how they meddle with the eyes. the author was richard seabrooke, "practitioner in the art of the occulist." included among the many books in the collection dated before the discovery of the ophthalmoscope is a first edition of sir william mackenzie's a practical treatise on the diseases of the eye (1830). the author credits mackenzie with introducing the term asthenopia and with publishing what may have been the first discussion about intraocular pressure increase in glaucoma. another book in the collection is the 1787 second edition of remarks on the ophthalmy, psorophthalmy and purulent eye; with methods of cure, considerably different from those commonly used; and cases annexed in proof of utility; also the case of a gutta serena cured by electricity, by james ware (1756-1815). the author credits richard liebreich (1830-1917) with being the first to publish an atlas of ophthalmoscopy, atlas des ophthalmoscopie (1863). liebreich was an assistant to von graefe from 1854 to 1862, and later also worked in england and france. liebreich was a painter in his later years, and in 1899 he exhibited a portrait of von graefe. d.a.g. the eye and vision problems of samuel pepys: "the big brown eyes of samuel pepys" is the title of an article published in the july, 2002 issue of the archives of ophthalmology (volume 120, number 7, pages 969975). the authors appear to be an ophthalmologist, an optometrist, and a "literary 34/53 lecturer and social historian", graham a. wilson, amanda p. field, and susannah fullerton. the authors' abstract states: "samuel pepys (1633-1703) is known for writing the finest diary in the english language. he was a man of remarkable accomplishments who transformed the english navy, was president of the royal society, and was a member of the british parliament. he survived the great plague and imprisonment in the tower of london. during the years when he was writing the diary, pepys began to experience great pain in his eyes when reading and writing and from photophobia, which caused him to give up writing the diary. pepys also had an ultimately unjustifiable fear of blindness." the authors provide some background on pepys and the diary. they mention some of the diagnoses suggested in eight previous publications speculating on the nature of pepys' eye and vision problems (hyperopia, astigmatism, early presbyopia, esophoria, convergence insufficiency, conjunctivitis, and overeating). they then detail the eye and vision complaints registered by pepys in his dairy. his primary complaint of visual fatigue on reading and writing began when he was 30 years old. he also complained of photophobia and eye pain, soreness, watering, and redness. the authors discuss possible diagnoses and finally conclude that "the origin of pepys' asthenopia was multifactorial: a low amount of uncorrected hypermetropia and astigmatism, convergence insufficiency with near exophoria, nonspecific low-grade ocular inflammation that was exacerbated by alcohol, paranasal sinus inflammation contiguous with or referred to the eye or orbit, a contributing functional element, and an obsessional personality .... with the passing of centuries since the writing of the diary, our diagnosis is at best speculative." d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 9472d-2020 u.s.a.; email: )menoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 34/54 2003-34-04-001 2003-34-04-002 2003-34-04-003 2003-34-04-004 2003-34-04-005 2003-34-04-006 2003-34-04-007 2003-34-04-008 2003-34-04-009 2003-34-04-010 2003-34-04-011 2003-34-04-012 2003-34-04-013 2003-34-04-014 2003-34-04-015 2003-34-04-016 hindsight_56_1_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 11 article jacob sivak, o.d., ms, ph.d. was da vinci thinking of the spherical lens of the fish eye in his painting salvator mundi? abstract the image of christ’s robe, seen through the orb held by christ in the painting salvator mundi by the italian renaissance artist leonardo da vinci, has led to speculation that the orb consists of a glass (or rock crystal, calcite) sphere that is either hollow or solid. da vinci’s drawings and notes indicate that he had an intense interest in the optics of the eye and in the natural world around him. is it possible that he was depicting the optical quality of the spherical fish lens, a lens with a gradient refractive index that neutralizes the spherical aberration that would otherwise exist? keywords leonardo da vinci, salvator mundi, christ, orb, optics, fish crystalline lens. jacob sivak, o.d., ms, ph.d. professor emeritus, fellow of the royal society of canada university of waterloo, school of optometry and vision science waterloo, ontario jacob.sivak@uwaterloo.ca 10.14434/hindsight.v56i1.41588 salvator mundi (savior of the world, 1499-1510), attributed to the italian high renaissance artist leonardo da vinci, or one of his disciples, is one of the world’s most celebrated works of art. the painting, which a few years ago sold for a record $450 million, depicts christ making a sign of the cross with his right hand and holding a large clear orb (globe) in his left. the optics of this orb has attracted controversy. in leonardo da vinci, walter isaacson1 noted that da vinci failed to paint the distortions that should appear if the orb was made of solid glass. instead, the folds in christ’s robe seen through the globe appear to be undistorted, as though it were a hollow glass bubble, perhaps, as isaacson goes on to say, because leonardo thought that the distortions would be a distraction. earlier, martin kemp, professor of art history at oxford university, drew attention to small points of light in the globe painted by da vinci. he referred to them as inclusions, characteristic of rock crystal and calcite.2 kemp noted that da vinci was aware of the double refractive properties of calcite, and this property is represented by the doubled edge of the heel of christ’s hand as it holds the orb. however, andré noest of utrecht university wrote that the globe in the painting cannot represent a solid glass or calcite sphere.3 portions of christ’s body and robe seen through it do not appear distorted and or inverted. moreover, the double image of the heel of christ’s hand is likely a pentimento, leftover from an earlier stage of the painting. three computer scientists at the university of california described the use of a computer graphics model to image of the folds in christ’s robe, as they would appear through the orb if it were solid or hollow.4 the results (published in arxiv, an openaccess archive) clearly show that the orb would have to be a thinwalled hollow sphere. in referring to the copious notes and drawings left by da vinci, liang et al., add that da vinci had the scientific knowledge, and the necessary materials, to produce an accurate optical portrayal of the image in the painting. today we would call someone like da vinci a polymath, one with wide-ranging knowledge of multiple fields of study, or, both figuratively and literally, a “renaissance man.” as isaacson points out in his book, da vinci understood that art and perspective were dependent on a knowledge of optics. however, his wide-ranging interests included problems related to engineering and weaponry, as well as the study of human anatomy and physiology. for example, he developed a technique to examine the ventricles of the brain and carried out accurate dissections of spinal and cranial nerves. he was the first scientist to describe the neuro-motor effects of pithing a frog. da vinci’s diagrams indicate that, unlike many of his generation, he was aware of the refractive nature of the eye. puzzled by the resulting inverted retinal image, he drew a diagram depicting an intriguing experiment involving an observer placing his face in a water-filled globe, which represented the eye, in order to see what the refracted image would be like. in fact, his interest in the effect of immersing the eye in water, has suggested to some that da vinci understood the principle used in contact lens practice.5 12 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 isaacson’s book portrays da vinci as someone with an insatiable curiosity about the natural world, including, for example, the nature of the tongue of a woodpecker, a tongue that can extend more than three times the length of its bill, used to access insects and to protect the brain from shock. he describes how da vinci swam underwater with fish in order to observe the propulsive action of the tail. is it possible that da vinci would likely have been aware of the optical qualities of spherical lenses that appear in nature, namely the lens of the fish eye? those familiar with the evolutionary optics of animal eyes might think of the fish lens when looking at the photograph of salvator mundi in isaacson’s book. in fish, the lens is virtually the only refractive element of the eye because the cornea does not refract light when the eye is underwater. the typical lens of a fish eye is spherical in shape with a constant relative focal length (lens radius to focal length). all vertebrate eye lenses are cellular ectodermal structures that develop initially as surface invaginations in sequence with the developing optic cup of the embryo eye. the early embryonic lens consists of a single layer of epithelial cells forming a spherical hollow vesicle, later filled by the elongation of the posterior cells. the lens develops through life by cell division (mitosis) and growth around the lens equator, with new cells forming shells around the posterior outer lens surface and under the anterior (front) layer of epithelial cells. continued lens development, with older tissue compressed centrally, results in the formation of a lens with a gradient refractive index, in which the refractive index increases from the lens periphery to the core. this in turn results in a lens which minimizes spherical aberration (the aberration characterized by lack of a common focus for light rays travelling through central and peripheral portions of the lens), a significant optical improvement. not only does the lens represent the optical quality of the whole fish eye, but because in most fish the pupil is immobile, the eye operates at low f-stop levels at all times and the iris cannot shield the retina from aberrant light rays. in other words, the optical quality of the lens is very important, particularly in fish species with life histories requiring superior vision. because the lens is spherical, lens shape is not a factor in the control of spherical aberration. the variation of lens refractive index resulting from continual lens development is the only control for spherical aberration of the fish eye. this is a feature that has fascinated scientists, at least as far back as 1816 (david brewster6) and 1854 (james clerk maxwell7). the optical quality of the spherical lens of the fish eye is vastly superior to that of a glass (or calcite) sphere. the continued development of the lens and the formation of concentric layers of lens cells, was established by german anatomists in the early 1800s. while it is unlikely that da vinci knew about this aspect of lens embryology, it is possible, and perhaps likely, that he dissected fish and fish eyes. if he did, his interest in the optics of the eye would surely have made him aware of the optical quality of the lens. there is little in nature that escaped da vinci’s attention, as highlighted in isaacson’s book, and it is reasonable to suggest that he had the optics of a fish lens in mind when painting the orb. experts at the museo nacional del prado have recently questioned whether da vinci, or someone he supervised in his salvator mundi by leonardo da vinci with the orb and optics in question in the lower right corner. a photograph showing a spherical fish lens (rainbow trout, oncorhynchus mykiss) in water focussing an array of five parallel helium-neon laser beams. the sharply focussed beams indicate little or no spherical aberration. article jacob sivak, o.d., ms, ph.d. hindsight: journal of optometry history 13 workshop, actually painted salvator mundi.8 either way, da vinci’s knowledge of the optical quality of the lens of the fish eye could have contributed to the portrayal of the orb held by christ in the painting. references 1. isaacson w. leonardo da vinci. new york, ny: simon & schuster, 2017. 2. kemp m. sight and salvation. nature. 2011, 479: 174–175. 3. noest aj. no refraction in leonardo’s orb. nature. 2011, 480:457. 4. liang z, goodrich mt, zhao s. on the optical accuracy of the salvator mundi. arxiv december 2019. arxiv:1912.03416 (cs) 5. levene jr. clinical refraction and visual science. london: butterworths, 1977. 6. brewster d. on the structure of the crystalline lens in fishes and quadrupeds, as ascertained by its action on polarized light. phil trans r soc. 1816, 311-317. 7. maxwell jc. some solutions of problems. cambridge and dublin mathematical journal. 1854,8; 188-195. 8. charr m. prado museum ‘downgrades’ salvator mundi. museum next. 2021, november 14. article jacob sivak, o.d., ms, ph.d. volume34 )iindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa april2003 number2 l!f indiana vnlverslty jay enoch's column: aug 0 1 2003 optometry library the use of past history to build current knowledge! referring back to elschnig in 1901: super-traction/super-involute in the myopias. no doubt in this group, everyone knows the classic santayana quotation, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." in a more immediate sense, currently, knowledge from the past is not being utilized adequately by many, even a meaningful majority of current college students. as but one example, i encounter this behavior in the approximate 40 term papers i review each semester. in my freshman/sophomore seminar course. even with emphasis on the use of archival resources, few of these students refer to items not found currently on the "web", and fewer yet cite works 5 years or older, either on or off the web. a number of web sources cannot be considered as archival repositories, and a number of such resources have questionable reliability. here, i do not consider use of proper format(s) for citations. the limited consideration of past literature by the current generation of students has important implications for all of us. in this column, i examine a different form of failure to utilize historical scientific sourcesa lack of interdisciplinary communication. simply put, i present evidence of data/findings known to ocular pathologists for a century or more which have been overlooked by the vision science community and clinicians in both optometry and ophthalmology! this has occurred in an area clearly within our purview, but one which has been generally under-considered for a long time period. these disorders remain a major cause of visual impairment and blindness. the areas considered are the middle to high myopias. most of us are not familiar with the presence of meaningful tractional strains occurring in the region of the optic nerve head in eyes with higher myopias and in long eyes without high myopia. we all know of the ubiquitous myopic crescents, posterior pole thinning, increased presence of staphylomas, tilted-discs, etc., which are 34/13 encountered in the midto high myopias, but we have rarely considered the etiology of these phenomenon, nor questioned whether there is more taking place in the areas of the optic nerve head and posterior pole in these patients. my interest in this topic has origin in the dissertation of dr. stacey choi, a very able optometrist, phd, who was then at the school of optometry, u. of auckland in new zealand. stacey looked at the stiles crawford effect (sce-1 or directional sensitivity of the retina) in myopes. westheimer had been the first to note the presence of anomalous sce-1 data in myopic observers. choi demonstrated characteristic alterations in determinations of retinal receptor orientations and sensitivities in midto highly myopic observers without staphylomas and with near-normal vision. she and i expanded these studies to include areas all around the optic nerve head, modeled these effects, demonstrated rather marked stable and transient traction effects, and mapped the extent of these manifestations visually and spatially upon retinas in affected eyes. these effects extend across a sizeable region of the posterior pole and have their greatest effects at or near the horizontal raphe close to the nasal side of the optic disc. and we found similar effects in individuals with large or long eyes with modest myopia. thus, both myopia and long eyes contribute to the observed physical and visual alterations recorded. and we have read, in detail, the histo-pathology of the myopias. it is the latter aspect of the research to which i draw attention here. we have been presenting most of this work at arvo (also talks have been given by either one of us [or associates located in spain] in auckland, new zealand; melbourne and brisbane, australia; kyoto, japan; geneva and zurich, switzerland; terrassa [barcelona] and madrid, spain; london, england; florence, italy; at rochester in the usa, etc. formal papers have been presented at a rate of 1 or 2 /year for three years_at arvo. most of these studies are in various stages of publication at this time, so only stacey's dissertation and a paper presented by me a few years ago in halifax have been published to date.1' 2 a bit more than 1 00 years a~o, in 1901, anton elschnig (of "eischnig pearl" fame!) wrote a masterly manuscript on the contour(s) and histology of the "normal" optic nerve head. as regards the higher myopias, this is best described as histo­ pathology. while elschnig did not have all the facts in myopia, he clearly showed what he called "the conus" on the nasal side of the disc in the midto high myopias. · elschnig's manuscript was passed on to me by prof. baldur gloor of zurich. while this doct.jment has text, figures and tables, it does not have the reference list, which i am seeking to obtain at this time. thus, i cannot state whether this is the first word on the subject. the remainder of citations appended here are relatively modern. basically, what happens in these patients is as follows: traction, translational or rotational, which is known respectively as super-traction or super-involute, occurs on the nasal side of many midto highly myopic optic discs. the retina, bruch's membrane, and choroid ride up-over and on top of the nasal side of the optic nene 34/14 head. on the temporal side of the disc, the retina, bruch's membrane, and choroid pull away from the myopic disc revealing the whitish sclera and residual pigment cells observed in the myopic crescent. grossnicklaus and green (johns hopkins) in a retrospective histo-pathological study of disc areas of their ample myopic population (refractive error greater than -5.00 d.) showed that this over-ride was present in 37-38% of observed specimens.4 dr. william spencer, recently retired optometrist (u.c. berkeley) and ophthalmologist and ocular pathologist at california-pacific medical center has shown that the over-ride can extend as much as 2/3 of the way across the disc surface.5 amazing! some other pertinent references are found in references 610. it is curious that in 100 years no-one ever asked the question, is the over-ride or conus or super-traction area on top of the optic nerve head active visually? after all, there is a full retina, bruch's membrane and choroid present why would it not be reponsive? in my laboratory there is a prototype canon fundus camera perimeter (pity it wasn't marketed broadly by canon!). this device allows simultaneous direct observation of the retina and testing of visual function at defined loci. a scanning laser ophthalmoscope can also be used. i recruited some able students jed by dong-anh le to help with the task, and we found visual responses in the nasal areas of over-ride in 37-38% in 20+ eyes of patients/observers examined with refractions over -5.00 d. error! at this point in time, we don't want to make too much of this remarkable coincidence, but it is of great interest. there is more, and this is not a stray light effect. thus, by reading the pertinent history we were able to seek out and help clarify functional features of this unusual manifestation found in the higher-myopias. this work has been submitted for presentation at the 2003 arvo meeting. this is not the most earth-shaking finding, but it is another piece of the puzzle comprising the myopias. i am sure many more disconnects exist awaiting utilization. while failures of utilization of interdisciplinary studies are not limited to the past, in this article, the point is made that failure to pursue past literature can lead to substantial oversights or mistakes! hence, studies of history are not in any sense an inactive or non-pertinent component of modern science. rather, there exists a living trust from the past offering guidance and opportunities for future studies. references 1. choi ss. the relationship between the stiles-crawford effect and myopia. dissertation, university of auckland, new zealand, 2000. 2. enoch jm, choi ss, kono-menz m, lakshminarayanan v, calvo ml. receptor alignments and visual fields in high and low myopia. in: wall m, mills rp, eds. perimetry update 2000/2001the hague, the netherlands: kugler publications, 2001: 373-387. 3. elschnig a. der normale sehnerveneintritt des menschlichen auges: klinische und anatomische untersuchen. (the entry of optic nerve fibers into the optic 34/15 indiana.lti\'iversiiy nerve head in normal human eyes: a clinical and anatomical investigation.) denkschrift der kaiserlichen akademie der wissenschaften, mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche classe wein 1901; 70: 219-278. 4. grossnicklaus he, green wr. pathologic findings in pathologic myopia. the retina 1992; 12: 127-133. 5. spencer wh. ophthalmic pathology: an atlas and textbook, 4th edition. philadelphia: saunders, 1990: 964-973. (this figure is not found in subsequent editions) 6. apple dj, rabb mf. clinico-pathological correlation of ocular disease: a text and stereoscopic atlas, 2'd edition. st. louis, mo: mosby, 1978: 39-44. 7. meyer jh, gulhmann m, funk j. blind spot size depends on the optic disc topography: a study using controlled scotometry and the heidelberg retinal tomograph. br j ophthalmol1997; 81: 355-359. 8. adams a, et al. appendix a: the biological basis of myopia. in: myopia, prevalence and progression. washington, dc: nas-nrc committee on vision, national academy press, 1989: 43-44. 9. yanoff m, fine bs. ocular pathology, london: mosby-wolfe, 1996: 466-467. 10. ryan sj, ed. retina, :fd edition: medical retina, vol. 2. st. louis, mo: mosby, 2001: 1137. j.m.e. belated obituaries morgan and alpern: while searching on the internet for items of potential historical interest concerning optometry, i happened upon the obituaries of two optometric notables. of particular note was the obituary of meredith morgan. morgan was a long time member of ohs and was ohs president for a few years. at www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/991egacy/5-3-1999b.html, i found the following news release written by pat mcbroom, of the university of california, berkeley public affairs office; dated may 3, 1999: berkeleymeredith w. morgan, who, as professor, dean, and professor emeritus, helped guide the school of optometry at the university of california, " berkeley, through 67 of its 75 years, died peacefully in the early morning hours of may 1. he was 87. morgan had been terminally ill with lung cancer for a year. known for his research into basic mechanisms of eye focus and alignment, morgan was a beloved professor for 33 years and dean of the school of optometry for 13, during which time he carried the school to international prominence. 34/16 grateful successors named the school's clinic after him and made him honorary chairman of last year's 75th anniversary celebrations. throughout 1998, after he knew that lung cancer had reappeared, morgan continued to be actively involved with the school, even writing the lead chapter in the recent book "cal optometry -the first 75 years." "he was quite remarkable," said current dean of optometry, anthony adams. "hardly anyone came through this school who didn't have contact of some kind with morgan. an unbelievable number of optometrists view him as a mentor, colleague or model; many others simply think of him as a father or grandfather." "he was a direct, very genuine man. his integrity was obvious, and he had this booming, contagious laugh," said adams. the laugh was so famous among those who knew morgan that the school played a tape recording of the sound at clinic dedicating ceremonies last year. born in kingman, arizona, on march 22, 1912, morgan moved to california as a young boy, his family settling in richmond, a city near berkeley. morgan attended richmond union high school and later established an optometry practice in that area. graduating with honors from uc berkeley in physics­ optometry in 1934, morgan earned a phd in physiology here in 1942, after which he began to teach, earning professor rank in 1951. his research into the elements of binocular vision resulted in two dozen papers laying out a basic understanding of how the eyes work in synchrony to focus and converge on objects at close range. he also contributed to textbooks on the vision of children and aging patients. during his years as dean of the school of optometry (1960-73), morgan expanded the curriculum to include a doctoral program and recruited world­ renowned vision scientists to the campus. he also was instrumental earlier in establishing a graduate program in physiological optics in 1946, one of the first such phd programs in the country and the training ground for many future leaders in optometry. in 1967, he received the prestigious charles f. prentice medal from the american academy of optometry, and in 1975, morgan was awarded a berkeley citation for service to the university. in announcing the prentice medal, the american academy of optometry said it was based not only on his scientific achievements in vision research but on "his life as a teacher, scientist and man." morgan was diagnosed and treated for lung cancer five years ago. when the condition recurred last year, he declined further treatment and spent his final months of life in a celebration of the school he helped build. morgan is survived 34117 by a daughter, linda morgan, of san pablo, california, and two grandchildren, lauren, 16, and colin, 14, also of san pablo. morgan's wife, ida, died in the late. 1980s. i also ran across an obituary of mathew alpern. i met alpern only once and only briefly. my personal knowledge of his work comes mainly from his book muscular mechanisms, 2"d edition (volume 3 of the eye, edited by hugh davson). that book was one of my textbooks in both optometry school and graduate school, and i later used it as a textbook for several years when i taught ocular motility. it is a clearly written comprehensive book. alpern wrote the material on eye movements, anatomy and physiology of the extraocular muscles, accommodation and vergence, which comprised about two-thirds of the book. other authors contributed sections on the pupil, secretion of tears, and blinking. at · www.umich.edu/-urecord/9596/may21 96/artc1 08.htm, the following from the university of michigan was dated may 21, 1996: mathew alpern, professor emeritus of physiological optics in ophthalmology in the medical school and professor emeritus of psychology, died may 16 at u-m hospitals. one of the world's foremost experts on color vision, alpern was 77 years old. a gifted scientist, educator and member of the national academy of sciences, alpern made major contributions to scientific understanding of the mechanisms of human vision during 50 years of research in the field. "dr. alpern was a devoted scientist who continued to work well past his official retirement in spite of health problems," says alan sugar, professor of ophthalmology. "he was a penetrating questioner who in recent years sometimes appeared to sleep through presentations at scientific conferences, but whose questions made it obvious that he had heard every important point and knew more about the topic than the presenter." alpern began his academic career in 1951 as an assistant professor of optometry at pacific university in forest grove, ore. in 1955, he joined the u-m faculty as an instructor in ophthalmology and research associate in the vision research laboratory. he was promoted to assistant professor in 1956 and associate professor in 1958, and received additional appointments as associate " professor of psychology in 1959 and associate professor of physiology in 1960. in 1963, he was named professor of physiological optics in the departments of ophthalmology and physiology, and professor of psychology. during his long and distinguished career, alpern received many scientific awards, including election in 1991 to the national academy of sciences. he was also the recipient of the jonas stein friedenwald award from the association for research in vision and ophthalmology, the edgar d. tillyer medal of the optical 34/18 d.a.g. society of america, the research to prevent blindness senior scientific investigator award, the charles f. prentice medal, and an honorary doctor of science degree from the state university of new york's college of optometry. alpern was born in akron, ohio in 1920. he received his o.d. degree in 1941 from northern illinois college of optometry. after spending a brief period in private practice, he served in the u.s. army from 1942-46. he received his b.m.e. degree from the university of florida in 1944, and his m.s. (1948) and ph.d. (1950) degrees in physiological optics from ohio state university. he was a member of many professional organizations, including the american physiological society, american psychological society, association for research in vision and ophthalmology, optical society of america and sigma xi. phoria card design attributed to thorington and prentice: a recent paper in the journal optometry and vision science (wong epf, fricke tr, dinardo c. lnterexaminer repeatability of a new, modified prentice card compared with established phoria tests. optom vis sci 2002; 79:370-375) reported on the repeatability of a dissociated phoria test card marketed by the australian equipment supply company cyclopean design. this version of the test card was designed by edwin howell, australian optometrist. the card has a horizontal scale of numbers with zero in the middle and with a vertical arrow projecting downward from the zero. the patient views the card with a vertical prism over one eye for prism dissociation. when the patient is 3 meters from the distance card or 33 centimeters from the near card, the number to which the arrow points is the magnitude of the dissociated phoria in prism diopters. exophoria or esophoria is indicated by the direction of lateral displacement of the arrow. the following is a photocopy of the features on howell's near phoria card (the photocopy does not show that the even numbers are on a blue field and the odd numbers are on a yellow field): 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 1 3 5 7 ii 11 13 15 17 19 21 the paper in optometry and vision science attributes this test design to thorington and prentice. this led me to try to find the connection of the thorington and prentice designs with howell's test card. by emails from tim fricke, co-author of the 34/19 paper noted above, and from edwin howell, i have found out a little about the development of howell's phoria test card. howell notes that another australian optometrist, peter dwyer, used the thorington/prentice design for a card used in vision screening of children in australia. in an email from tim fricke, i learned that dwyer found the idea for the card in barish's clinical refraction. the normal values given by howell for the near card were based on a vision screening of over 5,000 children in australia. that screening test battery and results were described in the following publications: dwyer ps. the portsea lord mayor's children's camp vision screening: a rationale and protocol for optometric screening. aust j optom 1983;66(5):178-185. walters j. portsea modified clinical technique: results from an expanded optometric screening protocol for children. aust j optom 1984;67(5):176-186. walters j. portsea modified clinical technique: evaluation of an expanded optometric screening protocol for children. aust j optom 1984;67(6):212-220. in the first of these papers dwyer talked about the phoria test being a "modified prentice tesf'. the initial version and the present version incorporates an oval shape, which howell recommended to try to avoid any fusional stimuli that may result from straight edges on a 'doubled target. later additions by howell were odd and even numbers and yellow and blue color coding to reduce ambiguity in distinguishing eso from exo. in each ofthree editions of clinical refraction, irvin m. barish talks about the thorington (prentice) phoria test and gives an illustration of the prentice card. the following is the illustration of the prentice card from the third edition of clinical refraction by berish (chicago: professional press, 1970, page 817): • -l--~ figure :xx-4 prentice phoria test. upper chart seen by right eye. displacefnent to left indicating eye turns to right, or exophoria exists. each symbol represents 1 prism diopter, indicating 6!/.z exophoria. 34/20 i found a descrirtion of the test in a book by thorington (thorington j. refraction and how to refract, st ed. philadelphia: blakiston, 1914). the following is thorington's illustration of the test card: esophoria exophoria ishi3jzuios 8 7 6 5 + 3 2 i i z 34 s 6 7 8 910111213141$ fig. zgo.-scale for testing lateral insufficiency at 13 inches. i haven't been able to find anything written by prentice about this phoria test. 1 made a quick pass through prentice's books, legalized optometry and the memoirs of its founder and ophthalmic lenses, dioptric formulae for combined cylindrical lenses, the prism-dioptry and other optical papers, 2"d edition, but i didn't see anything about the phoria test which is illustrated above. however, in the latter book, on page 121 , prentice mentions a different phoria test for which he "preferably uses a + 12 d cylindrical lens, which produces a much heavier line of light thari the maddox rod." so i have question for our readers: do you know if and where prentice may have published about the test illustrated above or do you know how the test may have come to be attributed to prentice? d.a.g. history of tachistoscope training and research: the history of the use of the tachistoscope in training and research is the topic of an article in a recent issue of journal of behavioral optometry (godnig ec. the tachistoscopeits history and uses. j behav optom 2003; 14(2):39-42). tachistoscope training is sometimes known as flash recognition training. the author identifies four areas of use of the tachistoscope: training to improve reading skills, military and police training, use as a research tool in psychology, and sports vision testing and training. the author's earliest citations were publications by bender in 1938 and renshaw in 1945. the author described the first tachistoscopes as " ... shutter aperture devices that allowed precise brief exposures of images to appear on a screen," and noted that these early devices " ... have been replaced with computer programs that generate exposure times with more gradations and variable time intervals ... " 34/21 i can recall tachistoscope training being taught as a technique for improving reading skills when i attended optometry school in the· early 1970s. however, the publications the author cites regarding this purpose range in time from 1985 to 1994. in 1945 renshaw wrote about using tachistoscope training to help u.s. navy pilots recognize airplanes quickly and correctly. the author cites a 1959 article on flash recognition tr~ining in the law enforcement area. the author discussed tachistoscope training in one police training program in the 1980s. he also pointed out several psychology studies in the 1980s and 1990s that used the tachistoscope as a research tool, and briefly discussed the use of the tachistoscope in sports vision. d.a.g. british optical association museum website: the british optical association museum has an extensive website. some of the items available and the urls are: the british optical association museum, www.college-optometrists.org/college/museum/index.htm a brief history of the british optical association museum 1901-2002, www.college-optometrists.org/college/museum/mushist.htm at the end of this article, it is stated that "accounts of the museum's history from which most of this article are drawn, are to be found in an article by j.h. sutcliffe in the 1932 catalogue and in the.historyofthe british optical association 1895-1978, by margaret mitchell. some of this information is repeated, more briefly, together with some updated information in the history of the college of optometrists, by philip cole and martin lynch (published 1999). aperture (links to optical history sites), www.college-optometrists.org/college/museum/aperture.htm of particular note is a link that they referred to as "an american article by dr. richard drewery. the best general chronological account of the development of spectacles on the web." the url for that website is: www.eye.utmem.edu/history/glass.html d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 9472d-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) 34/22 2003-34-02-001 2003-34-02-002 2003-34-02-003 2003-34-02-004 2003-34-02-005 2003-34-02-006 2003-34-02-007 2003-34-02-008 2003-34-02-009 2003-34-02-010 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 134 a history of some optometry periodicals, part 2 david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu continued from volume 46, number 4 ne of the signs of the maturity of a profession is the publication of scholarly journals. for many years, the leading scholarly optometric journals in the united states were those published by the american academy of optometry (aao) and the american optometric association (aoa). this part of this article will briefly review the history of the journals published by the aao, which continues to today, and the aoa, which was discontinued a few years ago. american journal of optometry/optometry and vision science the journal known today as optometry and vision science had its origin in january, 1924 as the northwest journal of optometry, a publication of the minnesota, north dakota, and south dakota state optometric associations.1 in august, 1925, the journal was renamed the american journal of optometry, and it was also representing the nebraska, iowa, and oklahoma state optometric associations.2 by 1928, it was the official journal of eleven state optometric associations. starting may, 1928, the journal became a news outlet of the american academy of optometry. in 1934, the journal no longer represented individual state associations, and it was associated only with the american academy of optometry. the academy also separately published volumes of the papers presented at its fourth through eighteenth annual meetings starting in 1927.3 the thirteenth such volume, transactions of the 18th annual meeting of the american academy of optometry, was published in 1939. in 1940, an academy committee decided to merge its publications. the first issue of the merged publication, the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry, appeared in january, 1941 (volume 18, number 1). the journal became a leading journal for clinical optometry and vision science, and it had several thousand subscribers.1 the founder of the journal, its editor from 1924 to 1968, and the owner of the company that published it from 1924 to 1973 was carel c. koch (1896-1973). koch attended washington university in st. louis and then the demars school of optometry in minneapolis. his optometric education was interrupted by service in the united states army, but he returned to the demars school and graduated in 1919. the unusual instructional organization of the demars school made such an interruption manageable. two years of study were required for completion. the complete course of lectures was only six months, but each student was required to attend the complete set of lectures four times.4 advanced students also did work in clinic. koch completed optometry school in 1919 and set up practice in minneapolis. koch and jack i. kurtz, who shared practice o mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 135 space with him, were among the first optometrists in minnesota to practice in professional offices.4 koch was a charter member of the american academy of optometry and was secretary of the academy from 1922 to 1925 and from 1944 to 1973. he was chairman of the american academy of optometry in 1929. he was on the american optometric association’s committee on interprofessional relations and long range planning committee. he also served on several boards and commissions of civic and community organizations in minneapolis. among various awards and recognitions he received were honorary degrees from chicago college of optometry and pennsylvania college of optometry.5,6 writing in 1968, hirsch and weiner said that: “the journal and its editor have been vital forces influencing the transition [of optometry] from a trade to a profession.”4 an obituary notice said that koch was “a great man whose intelligence, charm, love and dedication to his profession permeated everything he did….he inspired us to a life of scientific professional service through optometry, of dedication to the visual welfare of mankind, and of contribution to our fellow practitioners.”5 in 1968, monroe j. hirsch, who had been associate editor since 1953, became the editor, and he served as editor through 1976. merton flom was an interim editor in 1977 and 1978. in 1974, the title of the journal was changed to american journal of optometry and physiological optics.7 the company publishing the journal was professional press in 1974 and 1975, and then starting in 1976, williams & wilkins. william m. lyle was editor of the journal from 1979 to 1996. newcomb and eger stated that he “had served with distinction as the journal’s fourth editor” and “he had substantially improved the quality of the journal in many ways...”8 the most visible changes in the journal during lyle’s tenure occurred in 1989 when the title of the journal changed to optometry and vison science, and there was an increase in the page size and a change in color of the cover to optometry’s sea-foam green. william lyle was born in canada and graduated from the college of optometry of ontario in toronto in 1938. after practicing in kirkland lake, ontario and winnipeg, he entered the canadian military in 1940. he left the military at the rank of captain in 1946 after serving in europe during world war ii.9 he then returned to practice in winnipeg, and while there, served as president of the canadian association of optometrists and took additional courses in biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, and statistics at the university of manitoba. in 1960, lyle enrolled in the physiological optics graduate program at indiana university. he completed an m.s. degree in 1962 and his ph.d. in 1965. in 1965, lyle joined the faculty of the college of optometry of ontario. then in 1967, he became one of the first five faculty members in the university of waterloo school of optometry, where he taught for many years. a tribute to william lyle for his service as the optometry and vision science editor noted: “typically, upon accepting the responsibility or the editorship, bill lyle took a series of courses about editing from the american medical writers association and a 6month leave of absence from his teaching duties so he could put all his time and energy into the task….throughout his career, as his history reveals, bill has never hesitated to sacrifice his time, effort, and even his realm, toward consistently elevating his capacity to meet his accepted obligations – toward his own education, toward the profession’s status, toward meeting his own sense of responsibilities….to anyone who reviews the publications of the academy as they have matured throughout the years, the development of the journal during his editorial tenure is obvious – in physical format, in the type of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 136 articles published, in its increasing degree of scientific involvement, in circulation, and in the growing coalition of respected investigators.”9 editors following william lyle have included mark bullimore (1996-2004), anthony adams (2004-2015), and michael twa (2016). throughout its history, the american journal of optometry and optometry and vision science has been an outlet for some of american optometry’s best writing and research and it has matured into a leading international journal of clinical optometry and vision science. a cumulative index for volumes 1 through 44 (issues published in 1924 to 1967), compiled by grace weiner, was published in 1968, and a second cumulative index for volumes 45 to 60 (1968 to 1983), prepared by alison howard and grace weiner, was published in 1985. a diskette with an index for volumes 45 to 70 (1968 to 1993), prepared by t. david williams, was produced in 1994. journal of the american optometric association / optometry the origins of the journal of the american optometric association can be traced to the bulletin titled the aoa messenger, which was first published in 1926.10 in 1929, the aoa’s official publication was the organizer. the first issue of the journal of the american optometric association was published in 1930 as volume 2, number 1 in bibliographic continuity with the organizer. the force behind the beginning of that publication was minnesota optometrist ernest h. kiekenapp (1889-1973).10-12 kiekenapp became secretary of the aoa in 1922, a position he held for 35 years. kiekenapp had wanted to start a journal after becoming secretary of the aoa, but due to opposition to the publication of a journal, he had started with the messenger and the organizer until he had the support to start a journal.11 kiekenapp was editor of the messenger and the organizer. he then served as editor of the journal from its beginning in 1930 until his retirement in 1957. in the early years of the journal, kiekenapp solicited papers from optometry school faculty members and leading optometrists. he estimated that he wrote over 300 editorials for the aoa publications.13 occasionally he wrote under the pen name of douglas lincoln young because if readers “saw nothing but the name kiekenapp, they might be scared away.”13 kiekenapp graduated in 1912 from the stone school of optometry.13 he practiced optometry until he served with the u.s. army overseas during world war i. after the war he attended demars school of optometry for a year, and then reentered private practice in 1920. many optometrists were quoted in a tribute article after his death that he was extremely important in the activities and functions of the aoa during his years as secretary.12 he also was a member of the minnesota state optometry board and wrote their handbook and directory, and was a secretary of the international association of boards of examiners in optometry.13 he received two honorary degrees from northern illinois college of optometry and was given the aoa distinguished service award at his retirement.13,14 editors of the aoa’s journal after kiekenapp were irving bennett (1957-1964), charles margach (1964-1965), milton j. eger (1965-1985), jimmy d. bartlett (19851990), john w. potter (1990-1995), john g. classé (1995-1997), anthony a. cavallerano (1997-1999), and paul b. freeman (1999-2012).10,15 in its first year, the journal published articles based on educational presentations at the annual aoa meeting. educational articles remained an important component of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 137 journal content throughout its history.10 topical issues were common starting in the 1950s, with issues devoted to topics such as contact lenses, pediatric optometry, ocular pharmacology, sports vision, diabetes, and low vision. starting in 1958, there was an annual contact lens theme issue for over 25 years. in 1978, a journal review board was formed, and subsequently papers submitted for publication were refereed. in 2000, the title of the journal was changed from journal of the american optometric association to simply optometry. in 2003, the aoa could boast that its journal was “the most widely circulated scholarly journal in the world.”16 however, only nine years later, the journal was discontinued. the aoa president dori carlson cited “the realities of publishing costs and financial priorities” as a major reason for its discontinuance.17 the last print issue was published in january, 2012 (volume 83, number 1). a few more issues were published online, with the last online being the june, 2012 issue (volume 83, number 6). one indication of the significance of these two journals in recent years may be the results of a citation analysis done on the second edition of borish’s clinical refraction. the most cited optometry journal by a wide margin was optometry and vision science and the second most frequently cited optometry journal was optometry.18 out of curiosity, i also checked to see what journals i cited most often in the third edition my book ocular accommodation, convergence, and fixation disparity. i cited optometry and vision science more often than all other journals combined. the second most frequently cited journal was the aoa’s journal, with twice as many citations as third place ophthalmic and physiological optics. in a recent editorial in the british optometry journal ophthalmic and physiological optics, elliott and handley19 traced some of the history of optometry journals and noted their importance for education, research, and support of clinical practice. they stated that even though the aoa decided to discontinue its journal, several foreign journals may help to keep the future of optometry journals bright. they mentioned as examples the canadian journal of optometry, relatively new journals such as the spanish journal of optometry (2008) and the scandinavian journal of optometry and visual science (2008), and the renamed african vision and eye health (2015). references 1. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:156-163. 2. flom mc. how did our academy journal start and become preeminent? optom vis sci 2005;82:1011-1013. 3. leeds jp. review of the transactions of the american academy of optometry, 1922 to 1939. am j optom physiol opt 1982;59:735-737. 4. hirsch mj, weiner g. history of the american journal of optometry. am j optom arch am acad optom 1968;45:43-57. 5. peters hb. dr. carel c. koch, november 23, 1896 – november 3, 1973. am j optom arch am acad optom 1973;50:850-852. 6. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:189. 7. lyle wm. a time of change. optom vis sci 1996;135-137. 8. newcomb rd, eger m. history of the american academy of optometry 1987-2010. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 2012:45. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 138 9. borish im. tribute, william m. lyle, editor, optometry and vision science 19781996. optom vis sci 1997;74:70. 10. christensen jl. history of the journal of the american optometric association. j am optom assoc 1985;56:852-858. 11. a journal interview: the incomparable ernest kiekenapp. j am optom assoc 1971;42:166-174. 12. eger mj. the passing of a legend. j am optom assoc 1973;44:680-684. 13. oral history. interviewee: ernest h. kiekenapp; interviewer: maria dablemont. april 25, 1967. www.aoa.org/documents/archivesmuseum/oral_history/kiekenapp_ernest_h1967.p df. 14. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:183. 15. cavallerano aa. editor’s perspective: where are they now (...or objects in the mirror are closer than they appear). j am optom assoc 1997;68:549-550. 16. 2003 member desk reference: the complete guide to your aoa. st. louis: american optometric association, 2003:42. 17. carlson d. a message to readers. j am optom assoc 2012;83(1):page unnumbered. 18. goss da. literature and information in vision care and vision science. optom 2008;79:670-686. 19. elliott db, handley n. a historical review of optometry research and its publication: are optometry journals finally catching up? ophthal physiol opt 2015;35:245-251. http://www.aoa.org/documents/archivesmuseum/oral_history/kiekenapp_ernest_h1967.pdf http://www.aoa.org/documents/archivesmuseum/oral_history/kiekenapp_ernest_h1967.pdf vol. 17 newsletter of the . ~tometric historical society (243 north lindb?fgh boulevard, st •. l.auis.~.mi~.~q!j.t:l.~~141, u.s.a.) •pt8mttry ubrary ~ i" i. i . . ........ ; july, 1989 ·· :~u -1n'v 9 rsrty ~umber 3 sep 2.1986 ; sep 2 :j ·1986 ; ~ annual call for~~~n~~ . ... '· .~ ... ~ ' ' this year the call for nominations is unique. unlike previous years when the objective was· to elect one executive board member, this year three are to be elected. as detailed in the april 1986 newsletter, article iv, section 1 of the optometric historical society by-laws now state that the executive board shall consist of seven members. in addition to the annual selection of the fifth board member, two more must be elected this year to begin their terms on january 1, 1987. of the three board members to be elected one will serve for four years, one for three years, and one for two years. the executive board member whose five-year term will expire at the end of this year is jerome abrams. nominations, or renominations for the three executive board openings are hereby requested for placement on the ballot which will be sent out with the october issue of this newsletter. submissions should be sent to douglas penisten, school of optometry, 800 east atwater, bloomington, in 47405. by all means, do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility interests you. please do not specify for which term (i.e., 4, 3, or 2 years) the nomination has been ma"cj'e;" as this wi 11 be determined by a total vote ranking with the ballot nominee receiving the highest number of votes receiving the longest term. ordinarily, merely the name of the person you are nominating will suffice especially if he or she is already well known to the o.h.s. members, but if you feel that a brief "pitch" should be made in your nominees behalf it will be most favorably considered for inclusion in the october issue of n.o.h.s •• do it now. southall, the man: the search for biographical information about james p.c. southall ( 1871-1962) eli cited two more sources immediately after our april issue went to press. one was a copy of a letter of 5 april 1951 that southall had written to the late harold r. barnes and signed "daddy southall." it was sent to us by optometry librarian margaret lewis of the harold kohn vision science library at state university of new york with the suggestion that more information might be gotten from maurice h. bernstein, o.d., a former student of southall's. dr. bernstein informed me that i should call leo hirschberg, o.d., retired, a former columbia university teacher who had maintained a very close friendship with southall. my call to dr. hirschberg was a sheer delight. he subsequently sent me a dozen or more copies of pertinent correspondence ranging from 1927 to 1954 selected from among many more in his files. -32it was tempting to reprint the whole series in this issue, but with the exercise of nominal editorial restraint i decided to forward them, instead, to the international library, archives, and museum of optometry for permanent accessibility. the following excerpts, however, should convey the more personal nature of the man than can be derived frobtml'tisi ti!c:h~j~-m)i publications or who's who. ~~ ~.··:' t i:. : (~ ~ ~ ... 12 may 1927, in department of physics 1 etterh~~d to' "leo, hirschberg, esq.": "oear h1 rschberg, i want to tell you how m'm!ff'lf;'tf.lltl~tl~te your valuable help in the clinic. we are exceedingly fortunate in having the benefit of your skill and loyal cooperation. from all i can hear, the work in the clinic has made a very fine impression on outsiders. in my judgment, this is the best way to made optometry known to the public. i appreciate more than i can tell you all that you have done ever since you have been connected with this work. sincerely yours, james p.c. southall." 23 july 1936, in longhand from charlottesville, virginia, apparently in response to h1rschberg's wedding announcement: "dear hirschberg, the good news which reached me yesterday thanks to your cordial note which was much appreciatedgave me a real thrill of delight. it is true i may have been, as you say, a little 'surprised' at first, but i have seen too much in my time not to know that the state of bachelor is a precarious existence at best and liable at any moment to what the french call a bouleversement! both mrs. southall and i send you heartfelt congratulations. i feel also like congratulating the 'charming girl' because i know what a fine man she has captured. may you both have a long and happy life together with children to cheer and comfort you! i shall look forward to the pleasure of meeting your bride in the autumn." 10 february 1942: a long and sentimental letter from charlottesville, typed, to mr. leo a1rschberg includes the verse: "oft in the stilly night ere slumber's chain has bound me, fond memory brings the light of other days around me." also, he expressed emotional regret that he was not young enough to help fight the nazis and the japs, referred to surgeons as messieurs les assassins, and described charmingly his retirement activities which 1ncluded an occasional lecture, writing a book on geometry, and writing letters to the newspapers, to the secretary of war, and to others on "the way to win the war." 21 june 1942: another similarly long and expressive letter to "dear hirschberg" expressing his continued interest in the program of the optometry at columbia and his distress with the progress of the war. he added, "unfortunately, there is no military genius in sight on our side of the far-flung battle." he reported occasionally doing "some scientific work for the army or navy ordinance department." 11 april 1942: included in this letter was a brief account of a month in the hosp1tal for "four painful operations for stones in the bladder and enlargement of the prostate gland," but that he had attained the age of 75 with an extended "lease on life." -3314 march 1948: a similarly personalized letter expressing appreciation for another vernal equinox and anticipated visitations from his son and grandson and the hirschbergs. he requested tolerance for his deafness and gave instructions on how to find his house. as in other letters, he included affectionate comments regarding mrs. southall's role in his life. 17 july 1950: in this letter he commented on the magnificence of the works of nature 1n the u.s.a., his regrets that robert bannon was leaving columbia university, the utter misfortune that the optometry school was being removed away from the main campus, and the surprise that his letter to the editor of the new york times in complaint of u.s. postal services was published. 24 october 1950: some reminiscing of his summer of many years earlier at berkeley, callfornia, and further anxiety "about the status of optometry in columbia." in about february 1951, harold r. barnes, o.d., isadore finkelstein, o.d., and hirschberg fonned a "james p.c. southall birthday gift fund" comm1tted to celebrate southall's 80th birthday on april 5, 1951, by asking each alumnus to "contribute one dollar for every year since graduation" to provide a collective gift to "brighten this and subsequent days for professor southall during the trying times through which he is passing." let your generosity reflect the human warmth that daddy southall radiated in all his classrooms." among those solicited were southall's former colleagues at the university. in a march 14, 1951, letter professor george b. pegram, ph.d. pledged $100 and suggested several other academic colleagues who should be given the opportunity to contribute. the total amount of the collective gift exceeded $2,150.00. 5 april 1951: in a letter addressed to barnes for the committee and contributors, s1gned "affectionately, daddy southall," opening reference is made to the "heap of letter and messages ••• and telegrams of sympathy." he declared, "never in my life have i been so stunned, gratified and overwhelmed with trembling from head to foot ••• and saw with my own eyes, dim as they are now, ,the biggest check i ever held in my hands! in another paragraph he added, "whereby i am enabled to pay my debts and once more look my fellow man full in the face without fear and without shame." he closed with the statement that if he had the "strength to write one more book, i think it will be a companion volume to mueller's life of trust" because his bounty had now excelled that of mueller. 7 april 1951: in a letter to hirschberg, southall referred to his wife's long 11 lness and last days of suffering and to her devotion to him and others. 7 april 1952: responding to hirschberg's birthday greeting and because his birthday was so close to the vernal equinox, southall remarked, "who would ever have dreamed of my having another birthday and beginning a new voyage inside the solar system?" he also reported that his vision was nearly all gone, due to glaucoma. -346 april 1954: having no teeth left, southall described himself to be exactly 1n the same predicament as the lady at the religious revival where the evangelist laid much stress on the gnashing of teeth of the damned. "she rose from her seat and said a little indignantly; 'sir. i'll have you to know, i have no teeth!' he retorted: 'madam, teeth will be provided!" he expressed his grief over the cessation of optometric education at columbia university, "for which i fought with all my might." "the worst of it is, i say ft with sorrow and deep affection, it [optometry] has only itself to blame." in the subsequent two paragraphs he gave his heartbroken interpretation of the circumstances and sequence of events that must have led to the termination of the optomet~ program at columbia. philosophically he sighed, "the best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley." chronology of a man: prompted by previous n.o.h.s. commentry on james powell cocke southall, 1871-1962, mrs. marfa dablemont and her staff quickly assembled a library packet of southall fan items and excerpts from the ila~to fi 1 es and shelves. arbitrarily arranged in chronological order they say much about southall's career. december 15, 1910, the optical journal and review of optomet~, vol., 26, no. 28, p. 1547: professor charles sheard, a 27 year old faculty member in the physics department of the ohio state university four years prior to start1ng the optometry program there, writes a glowing review of southall's book, "the principles and methods of geometrical optics" calling it "an epoch-making volume as far as english and american writers are concerned" in spite of the fact that "nearly all the work of merit ••• has been done by the germans." he also mentions southall's prior original work in this field "which has appeared in the past in the astrophysical journal". 1913: copy of the title page of the 1913 printing of the 1910 edition of southall's book by the macmillan company and the library of congress card with the call number ac381.s7. the 1910 edition was printed by the new era printing company, lancaster, pa and dedicated by the author to henry c. lomb, esq. july 23, 1914, op. cit., vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 345-346: a reproduction of the columbia university booklet describing the two year curriculum in optometry showing southall teaching a course in each of the four semesters. october 8, 1914, op. eft., vol. 34, no. 16, p. 1064: an anonymous report annou.ncf.ng the enrollment of 23 new students in the ff fth begf nni ng optometry class, their undergraduate activities, and the important role of professor southall. april 15, 1915, op cit., vol. 35, no. 16, pp. 1061-1062: a review of the columbia university optometry prospectus for 1915-16 showing southall's key involvement. january 13, 1916, op. cit., vol. 37, no. 3, p. 181: a report from the optometry student body in which southall is cited. -351918: copy of the title page of southall's first edition of "mirrors, prisms and lenses" and the library of congress card with the call number qc385.s7. on which the book is described as "the outgrowth of a course of lectures on optics given in columbia university" and as an abridgement of his earlier treatise. may-november 1919, journal of the optical society of america, vols. ii-iii, numbers 3-6: copy of the t1tle page shows j.p.c. southall as an associate editor. january 1921, op. cit., vol. 5, no. 1, p. 121: southall elected president of the optical society of america for the year 1921. march 1921, op, cit., vol. 5, no. 2: a statement of the object of the society includes the declaration that "its membership embraces: • [among others] opticians, optometrists and ophthalmololgists intereseted in refractometry and the 1 aws of optics;." 1924: copy of the title page of vol. 1 of the three volumes of "helmholtz's treatise on physiological optics, translated from the third german edition, edited by james p.c. southall, and published by the optical society of america," and a copy of its library of congress card with the call number qp475.h485. december 11, 1931, the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 68, no. 24, p. 19: extracts from southall's rev1ew of "die optlschen instrumente" by professor m. von rohr, "the di sti ngui shed german authority on the history of optics." oct. 21, 1926, op. cit., vol. 58, no. 17, p. 42: a letter from southall expressing the fear "that we are not going to have enough students to take the new four year course. at present we have only 54 students, and nearly all of them are taking the old two-year course in university extension." he is appealing for scholarship support from optometrists. the 1927 year book of optometry, p. 49: an editorial appeal from professor soutnal i tor scnolarsn1p funds from state optometric associations to attract students to fill the optometry courses offered at columbia university, the university of rochester, ohio state university, and the university of california. the 1928 yearbook of optometry, pp. 69-92: southall participated in an intense three-way debate w1th deputy commissioner downing of the new york state department of education and new york state assemblyman berg at the 1927 convention of the new york state optometric association in syracuse. the question related to the title doctor for optometrists. op. cit., pp. 115-117: an editorial entitled "professional optometry" in which professor southall points out the need for optometrists to deal drastically with the transition from a trade to a profession. 1937: copy of the title page of south a 11' s "introduction to physiological optics", oxford university press, and of the library of congress card with the call number qp475.s6. may 1954, american journal of optometry and archives of american academy of optometry, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 252-253: ed1tor1al by carel c. koch on the co i umb1 a onwersi ty announcement of plans to terminate; its optometry courses. -36february 1963, journal of the american optometric association, vol. 34, no. 7, p. 581: ~ 72 word ob1tuary on professor southall. february 1964: journal of the optical society of america, vol. 54, no. 2, p. 288: a 167 word ob1tuary on professor southal i. former southall student writes: ohs member elias shaneson gently reminded us that we had misspelled southall 1 s middle name cocke and added the following: i read the april 1986 issue of the newsletter of the optometric historical society with interest, as i always do. i found your article on professor james powell cocke southall of special interest, since i had been his student at columbia university in the years 1935-1937. i remember him well, but rather than describing my impression of him, let me tell you of an incident in my student life that may reveal a facet of his character. although tuition at columbia university at that time was $200 per semester, all entering students at the optometry courses had to buy a kit of refracting equipment (trial case, trial frame, may ophthalmoscope, tait dynamic retinoscope) for an additional $365. this proved very burdensome to me, and although i tried to earn money working part time and borrowing from relatives, i later found myself unable to pay the tuition for the last semester of my senior year. i applied for a student loan but was turned down because of the outstanding debts i listed on my appli~ation form. dejectedly i walked over to the pupin physics building, where the optometry courses were being given and where professor southall had his office, and sadly told him that i would have to drop out of the optometry courses and graduation. he listened intently. i cannot recall our exact conversation now, but i distinctly remember his advice: 11 go back to the bursar and talk to him again. perhaps he will reconsider ... i did not just walk back -i ran back. the bursar received me more cordially and offered me the loan on condition i get a suitable co-signer. this i was able to do and i graduated successfully. the first moneys i earned went towards repayment of that loan. in 1952, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, his former students presented him with a check for $1,000. he responded that he never held a check of that magnitude in his hands, ever. oa that occasion i sent him a congratulatory letter and recalled to him the incident of the loan. he answered me with a letter which i treasure and which i keep in his book 11 mirrors, prisms, and lenses... i am enclosing a copy of his letter which you may print if you feel it appropriate to do so. now, perhaps i should put down some of my other recollections of him. his office was guarded by a formidable secretary; nevertheless, he was accessible to the students. not many availed themselves of that privilege. my attempt to solve a difficult problem proved more obfuscating after his explanation. -37he was somewhat tall, mostly grey and balding with small wrinkled eyes, and a peculiar habit of scratching his left ear with his right hand. i admired his easy walk and relaxed manners, to me, then, the epitome of a southern gentleman. his virginia accent was pronounced but not too heavy. he seemed to keep aloof of administrative and clinical problems. these were relegated to his associate, professor clifford leroy treleaven and staff. i never remember him visiting laboratories, examination rooms, or clinics. his domain was the lecture podium in the classroom. his soft mellifluous voice belied the difficult subject he expounded. i think of professor southall kindly. his vision of all professions, including optometry, as servants of mankind was lofty and ideal, and still to be completely realized. the following is the copy of the enclosed letter from southall: dear shaneson james p. c. southal-l. ao.awooo l.anc chaalottiesvillie vu'iginia. 6 june 1952 your kind and thoughtful letter, as welcome as it was unexpected, reached me yesterday. i am exceedingly grateful. i have no amanuensis, and now my eyesight is very dim. it is as much as i can do to write even a short letter, but i will not let your letter go unanswered; as i am obliged to do very often. this little note may be short in one dimension, but it is wide and deep in other ways; wide, because you opened my heart and let in much pleasure, and deep in token of mutual affection and remembrance. fifteen ye~rs back is not far to go for me; i remember you well; yet i cannot remember the incident you recalled. it is enough for me to know that you still remember it, and it gives· me much pleasure to be reminded that i befriended you once when i was in a position to be of service. nothing gives me so much delight as to get in touch with one of my old pupils, especially if he tells me that he enjoyed sitting at my feet, whether he is telling the truth or not. not long ago a pupil whom i am sorry to say i had forgotten wrote me , "you are the one teacher i will never forget!" it was a little ambiguous, but i took it ·for a compliment. i like to think you have had a big reward and have won success. optometry, as i regard it, is a noble profeseion, a high calling. it makes little difference what profession a man chooees and follows (medicine, law, teaching, etc.), it is a high calling to do good work and make an honest living. the trouble is that few are worthy of a high calling, their. hearts are not in it, and they debase it. in optometry consider men like your old teachers in columbia, roberts, barnes and hirschberg, to mention the three i admire most: if optometry was practissd all o~er the country by men of that type, it would rank at the top or the professions. elias shaneson, esq. 1547 genesee street buffalo 11, new york affectionately ~"-·• 9, e:,, <s~twl . -38origin of a library: reading of the narciso p. cinco memorial library optometry in the january 1986 issue of f1iopt1cs newsletter, ser1es 1986, vol. tv, ~jo. 10, i wrote to our fellow ohs member, claro m. cinco, o.d., dean of the cebu doctors• college of optometry, cebu city, the philippines, for information. ever promptly responsive, he replied immediately with this touching account. narciso p. cinco, sr., was my father. he was an optometrist, a graduate of the defunct philippine college of optometry and institute of technical optics {in manila) in 1921. i joined his practice in 1953 and took over after his death in 1963. while the schools at that time did not provide as much training as they do now, he developed and improved his knowledge and clinical skills through continuing self-education. i became aware of this when i inherited his books and journals which dated as far back as the early 1920 1 s and which are now)rcollector•s items. a couple of these books were authored by a certain brown, an m.d. he was a deeply professionally-oriented optometrist and very meticulous in his practice. he was, at one time, elected vice-president of the optometric association of the philippines {1947?) with dr. gregorio g. estrada as president. he has greatly influenced my thinking on optometry. he was reputed to be the •watchdog• of optometry in this region. for ¥ears, i have been thinking how to honor his name. at first i thought o~organizing the narciso p. cinco, sr., optometric center, envisioned to be a center of future research, but this would entail a lot of funding. when i organized the college of optometry at the cebu doctors• college, i loaned all my books and journals to start a library. after three years, i felt that these materials would be put to more use in the library than in my home, so i decided to donate them to the school on the condition that the college library will be named the 11 narciso p. cinco, sr., t1emorial libraryoptometry, .. and will be open to all optometrists, ophthalmologists, visual scientists, students, etc., and the school board agreed. those books and periodicals are valued at around $3,000. slowly, we have built up this library from donations, the major portion of which came from al rosenbloom•s private library, solicitations made by ed t1arshall, and other sources. my journal subscriptions are turned over to this library after fe and i have read them. even the ada news, and interoptics are retained. the library presently occupies a section of the common library for the different collegiate departments. as soon as we accumulate more materials and can justify it, i plan to get a separate room solely for the optometry library. i have already the pledge from many ophthalmic manufacturers and suppliers to contribute the furniture and furnishings. during the board meeting yesterday, i bared my plans to undertake a massive campaign for book donations. i was thinking of asking ed marshall to be our receiving end in the states for such donations, and forward them to us through the facilities of the smithsonian -39insti tuti on. i am also thinking o.f asking the support of the optometric media, although i am not quite sure how i can invite their interest in this regard. also, i am slowly building up a section on learning resources. already, i received donations of teaching slides from h. barry collin and brien holden from the university of new south wales, a set of slides on diseases complete with text (published in england) from my brother in texas (worth $1,000), two volumes of slides from b&l, coopervision, etc. i think we have now some 1,000 slides, but not yet enough to cover the other aspects of optometry. we are planning to produce our own video series on different clinical procedures to aid in the teaching at the clinic. narciso m. cinco, jr., is an m.d. he is practicing ophthalmology at cleburne, texas. he is my elder brother, the eldest in the family. he had formal training in ophthalmology at the university of the philippines philippine general hospital, and had his residency in otolaryngology at the john hopkins hospital in baltimore under dr. bordley (1959). we had a joint practice in cebu from 1959 to 1974 when he went back to the u.s. because he could not stand m.arcos• martial law. while in cebu, he set up the cebu eent hospital and later set up and chaired the eent department of the cebu institute of medicine. he was one of the founders of the cebu doctors• hospital which was finished in 1972, just a few months before martial law~ while he was here, he organized with rev~ floyd horst the operation mercy, and did some 600 harelips on indigent children. he came back to cebu in 1982 with project orbis and taught the local ophthalmologists how to do iol. he was back again last november to revive operation mercy, and did some 70 harelips and 40 cataracts, some with iol's free to indigents. our optometry seniors assisted in screening the patients, performing the vision tests, tonometry, biomicroscopy, bp tests, coordinating the surgery schedules, and doing the post-operative optometric follow-ups, all done in the optometry clinic. narciso jr. has a good practice in cleburne, texas. he converted his guest house into a clinic, complete with equipment incl~ding an argon laser, computerized perimeter, ultra-sound (biometer), etc. he is respected in his community, and in fact, was elected president of the rotary club of cleburne last year. he indicated his wish to return to cebu when marcos is out, and last night he asked me if it was time to go home. i told him to take his time. you met him here in 1970 when we had a couple of drinks together in his house one evening. a canonizing house of delegates: thrice mentioned in the t1arch 1, 1986, issue of the american optometric association news, pages 1, 8, and 13, is the assertion that the a.o.a. resolved 1n 1922 that benjamin franklin was to be honored as 11 a patron saint of optometrists ... the anonymously written item on page 8 appears reasonably authentic, though the resolution itself is not quoted. a separate single paragraph on page 13 states that the november 5 (presumably 1986) issue of capper's weekly cited the a.o.a. resolution in a feature article on franklin. lhe boxed 1tem on page 1 merely highlighted the article on page 8. franklin is quoted as having written somewhere that 11 the feet demand shoes; the legs, stockings; the rest of the body, clothing; and the belly, a -40good deal of victuals. our eyes, tho• exceedingly useful, ask, when reasonable, only the cheap assistance of spectacles, which could not much impair our finances." noted also was franklin•s frequent posing for portraits while wearing glasses. another ophthalmic subdivision: environmental optics has history, too, but it is a bit difficult to trace because the nomenclature for phases of this discipline is so varied. two-word identities include environmental, occupational, and industrial combined with vision, optics, ophthalmology, and optometry. optoergonimics, ergonomics of vision, ergoophthalmology, and preventive ophthalmologyalso plague the literature indexes, as do some of the more comprehensive terms such as occupational health and occupational medicine. yet each designation includes a significant aspect of opthalmic concern with a substantial substrate of literature, science, and technology common to all. an authorless article in the january 10, 1986 issue of the optician (london), vol. 191, no. 5028, pp. 27-28, under the caption of research review and subtitled ergoophthalmology discusses a number of optometric roles and includes a bit of historical commentary. it suggests that it may all have started in the 1840 1 s in attempts to reduce eye risks. professor herman cohn (1836-1906) is given credit for promoting the use of 11 his curved mica lens o.smm thick to give frontal and some side protection beyond that provided by flat plate glass.•• cursory mention is also made of legislative involvements, insurance programs, accident statistics, and professional roles in various countries. · the article provides no real documentation, but it does point out the need to gather and sort out the historical facts of yet another expanding aspect of optometry. an optical industry history: the 235 year history of the largest producer of finished spectacles to individual prescriptions in europe carries the title 11 eyes right: the story of dollond & aitchison opticians, 1750-1985." authored by hugh barty-y.ing and published by quiller press ltd., 50 albemarle street, london wix 480, the book is priced ati12.95 (circa $19.50 u.s.). it is anonymously reviewed in the march 1, 1986, issue of optometry today (london), vol. 26, no. 5, p. 144, from which these notes are der1ved. the book is said to include many amusing and fascinating anecdotes and in many ways~s.a story of the development of optics in great britain. john dollond, the son of huguenot refugees, was originally a silk weaver. he and his son peter set up an optical instrument business together in 1750. according to the minutes of the december 26, 1756, meeting of the worshipful company of spectacle makers peter dollond was identified as an "optician,•• the first time such a title had appeared in the spectacle t-1akers company • s records. the royal society awarded john dollond its highest honor, the copley medal, in 1758 and three years later made him a fellow •. james aitchison opened his own opticians shop in london in 1889. under his son irvine•s management in 1927 it took over oollond & co., no longer run -41by the family. subsequently the firm underwent several changes of ownership and expansion as a public company quoted on the stock exchange. kevin m. touhy, 1921-1968: "birth of the 1 flatter-than-k• corneal lens," is the title of an article about touhy•s involvement with contact lenses, his supporting professional colleagues, his patent, resulting legal battles, and some of his heartbreaking experiences. written by neal j. bailey, it appears in the april 1986 issue of contact lens spectrum, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 54-55. included is a photograph of mr. touhy. optometric education in west africa: in an article entitled "the university of benin optometry program" author i.k.o.k. kragha provides a substantial historical introduction. the university itself was started in benin-city, nigeria in 1970. the optometry program was initiated in the department of physics in the 1973-74 academic session. in 1980-81 it became a separate department. the article appears on pages 20-23 of the spring 1986 issue of the journal of optometric education, vol. 11, no. 4. nominations and volunteers needed: with the amendment of the o.h.s. by -laws, as reported in the april issue, this year calls for the election of three membeers to the executive board. nominations are needed. volunteers, 1.e., self-nominations, are especially welcome, for the nominee•s interest in optomeetric history is then known to be genuine. consider yourself seriously as a potential candidate, and do not hesitate to suggest why you would be willing to serve. in general there have been relatively few duties or expenses involved with service on the board. it is always hoped that a majority of the board members can attend the occasional get-togethers at the time and place of the meetings of the american academy of optometry and/or the american optometric association. each candidate must also realize that he or she may be elected to serve as president, vice-president, secretary, or treasurer. all duties may entail an occasional long distance telephone call, the costs of which are tax deductible as contributions in kind. membership on the board does not demand qualification as an optometrist, historian, archivist, librarian, or author. essentially, it is hoped simply that board members appreciate the significance of history as it pertains to optometry and of the need for a world organization like the o.h.s. to nurture it. think about it. nominate yourself or another. if more nominations come in than can be dealt with comfortably on a single ballot president jerry abrams will appoint a nominating committee to preview the candidates and recommend a slate. for the mailing address of your nominations seep. 31 of this issue. early corneal contact lens patents: "more early patents" is neal j. bailey• s brief commentary on patents by kevin tuohy, george butterfield, noel stimson, and joseph hornstein between 1950 and 1957 and the 1 i ti gati on between tuohy and ~1orri s green between 1950 -42and 1953. the article appears in the may 1986 issue of contact lens spectrum, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 64-65. dr. bailey promises a discussion of the court actions in the next issue. a commemorative postal stamp: on april 10, 1986, the gennan and west berlin postal services (deutsche bundespost) issued a group of colorful commemorative stamps recognizing the early and current roles of eight vocations registered under the handicaraft ministr,y, namely, masons, locksmiths, carpenters, tailors, bakers, barbers, glaziers, and ophthalmic opticians (augenoptiker). the optometric stamp, the enlarged design (muster) of which is reproduced below, includes in one half a sketch of the familiar 1698 gennan classic copperplate engraving "der brillenmacher" (the spectaclemaker) by christoph weigel. in the other half is shown a. blond-haired girl being examined with a modern ophthalmometer. of 0.50 om (german mark) denomination, an 0.25 dm surcharge is added for contribution to a foundation to provide assistance to unemployed youth (jugend). the "yesterday/today" theme was designed by graphic artist professor heinz schillinger. the special ceremony in recognition of the eight handicrafts and the commemorative stamps was attended by wilfried oberlander, president of the zentralverband der augenoptiker (confederation of optometrists), and other national dignitaries. further infonnation may be found in the march 1986 issue of deutsche optiker zeitung. vol. 41, no. 3, p. 54. a korean overvf.ew: perhaps one of the heaviest and most impressive tomes in the ophthalmic field of 11 terature is a new korean book with the translated title "the history of eye-glasses in korea: an overview" recently sent to us by won shi-hwan as a gift from hwa-ju kim, president of the opticians association of korea, 12-1, namdaemunno 5-ga, chung-gu, seoul, korea. measuring 30 x 22 x 4 em in very hard cover, gold with seafoam green trim, encompassing 675 pages, possibly a few hundred illustrations of people, places, and things, with numerous tables and graphs, and weighing 2.5 kilograms, it is encased in an imprinted open-end heavy cardboard protective container for convenient shelf use. its publication date is 1986. -43a separate insert of five typewritten pages gives an english language outline of the contents which may be further abbreviated as follows: prefaces by prominent korean and world dignitaries, primitive and early world history of optical science, spectable and other lenses in the shilla dynasty (bc57-ad935) and other adjunct eras, the origins and development of optomet~ and ophthalmology, the propagation, distribution, and industrialization of eyewear, the history of contact lenses, and the formation and development of the ten year old opticians association of korea. as a supplement the book includes substantial descriptive accounts and advertisements of korean optical firms and extensive statistics in ophthalmic business trends and international optical imports and exports. besides serving as a major cultural resource the book is an encyclopedic handbook and directory for anyone wanting historical or current information on almost any phase of korean ophthalmic optics. it is of course necessary that the reader be able to read korean. an historian views optics: 11 0ptics in philadelphia during the nineteenth century 11 : is an article in the march 1985 issue of the proceedings of the american philosophical society, vol. 129, no. 3, pp. 291-299. fhe author 1s ms. deborah jean warner, curator, history of physical sciences, national museum of american history, smithsonian institution, washington, d.c. 20560, and a member of ohs. documented by 55 citations of sources largely unfamiliar to others than history scholars she describes the slow and halting start of spectacle and other optical production in the colonies late in the 18th century and the difficulties of competing with european-made spectacles throughout most of the 19th. she observes, 11 like most technologies, optics was learned more in the doing than in the reading. the skills .•• were usually passed from master to apprentice. since colonial life attracted no trained opticians, americans could not easily learn this technology. the one exception was david rittenhouse, .. from whom george washington ordered the grinding of his lenses for 1 a new pair of spectacles.• .. the first philadelphian to specialize in optical goods was william richardson, who was listed in city directories from 1789 to 1799 as an 11 0ptical instrument maker11 or 11 0ptician. 11 he supplied several pairs of spectacles to thomas jefferson. in 1799 richardson sold out his stock of spectacles to john mcallister (1753-1830). later, john mcallister, jr., joined his father and together they began making spectacle frames in 1815 and fitting them with imported lenses. 11 the mcallisters were among the first american spectacle makers, and for many years they had the field pretty much to themselves ... the names of numerous others, mostly immigrants, are mentioned, together with their involvement in the 19th century origins of the optical industry and professions. a few of the author•s incidental observations include: 11 while few of these men •made money,• most seem to have earned enough to· live comfortably; .. 11most of these men immigrated [from europe] after completing their training; .. 11 despite their obvious talent the immigrant.opticians could not establish a succession [of sons]; 11 and america did not seem to provide the 11 needed formal educational institutions ... -44spectaclemaking emerges into optometry: an historical article by c. kuhn entitled 11 brillen ju machen, ist eine der besten und notwendigsten kunste 11 (spectaclemaking is one of the finest and most valuable arts) appears in the march-april 1986 issue of augenoptik, vol. 103, no. 2, pp. 50-52. illustrated are an early reading lens, a pa1r of circa 1300 rivited eyeglasses, and two circa 1400 oil portraits of religious scholars wearing such glasses. quoted from the high council of venice is the following regulation dated 2 april 1300 (translated): 11 we, the elder administrators of justice of venice, decree that no member of the aforementioned glass works guild may risk the buying or permitting of buying or selling or permitting of selling any product made of ordinary clear glass that is in imitation of crystal, be it for buttons, decorations on cuffs or boots, or for eyeglasses. credit is also given to an italian professor of medicine bernhard de gordon for mentioning spectacles in 1303. identity as an augenoptiker (eye-optician) was introduced around 1900, and with it a much more formalized program of training. on page 34 of the same issue is a 40 year review of the east german firm veb verlag technik, publishers of augenoptik and other technological journals. it was established february 12, 1946, as part of the postwar reconstruction program. illustrated on the front of the same issue is a beautiful circa 1700 book opened to show a pair of whalebone frame spectacles clamped into place in a recessed cutaway on the inner side of the book•s very thick front cover. the eye has it: responding to the 11 lt has a good eye .. phrase on page 22 of the april issue of the n.o.h.s., ohs member david williams writes that it reminded him of an aphorism of unknown origin: 11 nothing fattens a horse like a king•s eye ... he interprets its meaning to be that if the stable hands know the king has his eye on a particular horse, they will give it special attention. philatelists nota bene: mrs. richard m. hall, whose spectacle stamp collection was described on page 12 of the january issue of nohs, reports that she would sell it for $180, frame and all, plus the cost of crating and shipping. she also reminds us that a new u.s. stamp called 11 public education .. depicts a pair of spectacles, her address is 1200 holden avenue, suite 159, orlando, florida 32809, u.s.a. telephone 305-855-4126. · sadder but wiser? referring to our april article on the unconventional graf wiser system of ophthalmic cures and corrections, ohs member henry knoll reports that he found the doctor•s town of bad eilsen listed in meyers kleines konversations-lexicon, vol. 1, 1898, p. 626, an abridged edition of the multi-volume meyers konversations-lexikon published by bibliographes institut, leipzig und wien, 1897, in which bad eilsen is more extensively described in vol. 5, p. 456. -45bad eilsen is a spa about 45 kilometers west and slightly south of hannover, w. gennany, with 232 residents in 1890 and nine sulpher springs offering gas inhalation measures, mineral drinking water, and mud baths for a variety of ailments. knoll queries, 11 perhaps the count's treatment needs sulphur and mud baths to work properly? .. history is people: an accolade to caryl croisant, o.o., still active at age 85, describes here career and services to the optometric extension program foundation in the july 1986 issue of optometric extension program news, vol. 58, no. 10, page 3. the adolph lomb optical library: sometime before 1910 young james p. c. southall, then living in alabama, had completed the manuscript for a book to be entitled "the principles and methods of geometrical optics, especially as applied to the theory of optical instruments" with no assurance that anyone would publish it. taking a rand011 shot he addressed and mailed the manuscript to the bausch & lomb optical company in rochester, ny hoping at most that he "might get some word of encouragement and kindly advice." after about ten days he received an encouraging letter from mr. henry c. lomb, also a young man of about southall's age, together with an overwhelming check for a thousand dollars, "nearly as much as my salary for a whole year." southall and henry lomb first met face to face several years after the 626 page book was published and southall had been appointed professor of physics at columbia university. their "friendship grew apace and ripened in mutual affection knit by a bond not less strong than that which united david and jonathon." in writing about henry lomb years later southall frequently referred to him as "harry," quote evidently a wann and friendly nickname. adolph lomb was henry's slightly older and devoted brother, almost a twin in comradeship, one of the founders of the optical society of america, "withal a patriot, a gentlemen and a scholar', a man of large means who "enjoyed the luxury and the privilege of giving all his life long." it was southall's privilege and happiness to be numbered among adolph's most intimate friends. not until about 1930, however, did southall have the occasion to visit in adolph's country house where he saw the magnificent collection of books on optics that the two lombs had collected during their careers. in september 1932 adolph lomb died suddenly. shortly afterward henry lomb asked southall for advice on where to place the book collection where it would be kept intact. mr. lomb's idea was to give it to cornell university or columbia university, but southall "timidly put in a word for the university of virginia," his alma mater. he supported his suggestion with the argument that "the richly endowed colleges had big libraries already and that the time had come to distribute the benefits and facilities of learning and scholarship more widely throughout the country." henry lomb, like adolph, an enthusiastic admirer and disciple of thomas jefferson, the founder of the university of virginia, greeted the suggestion enthusiastically and immediately authorized southall to offer the library to the university of virginia "lock, stock and barrel." the university accepted the gift. in june 1934, henry lomb arrived in charlottesville, virginia, for the final arrangements. -46all of these details, and more, were described by southall in the june 1943 issue of the university of virginia alumni news, pages 2-3 and 14. the originally published announcement of the 91ft was made in the december 7, 1934, issue of science, vol. 80, no. 2084, p. 518, under the heading of memorials. included in the collection were 706 books, 470 monographs and brochures, and 174 bound and 86 unbound volumes of scientific journals. among the many rare volumes, for example, were german (1755) and french (1767) translations of robert smith's compleat system of opticks, the english (1738) edition of which was already in the original library of the university as one of the books selected by thomas jefferson. henry lomb had every intention of keeping the adolph lomb optical library up to date as long as he lived, but he died in 1936, almost as suddenly and unexpectedly as his brother adolph had died two years earlier. even in this short interim during the great depression years he expended several hundred dollars toward the library's maintenance and development. in 1947, the university of virginia published number seven of its bibliographical series entitled the "catalogue of the adolph lomb optical library at the university of virginia" with an introduction by southall, a copyrighted and lithoprinted book of 203 pages. l. m. polan, o.d., of the zenith optical company, huntington, west virginia, is given credit for making its publication possible. credit for contributions toward the growth of the collection is given to anchor optical corporation, applied optical industries, bonshur & holmes optical company, libbey-owens-ford glass company, may oil burner corporation, minneapolis-honeywell regulator company, r. b. tucker, and zenith optical company. each of the entries consists of the information normally found on the catalog cards of the library itslef, the cah number, the author's full name, life span, title, publisher, place, date, pages, etc. at least one copy of the catalogue is presently in the bausch & lomb scientific library in rochester, new york. ohs member henry knoll kindly tracked down the information from which this report is derived. what did nagel mean? according to duke-elder, on page 196 of vol. 5 of his system of ophthalmology, "when the eyes regard a near object the visual axes must be directed upon it if single binocular vision is to be retained. the unit of convergence is conventionally taken as the metre angle, the amount normally required to converge upon an object 1 metre away ... on pages 170-171 of vol. 6, however, tie says, ..... it [the meter angle] measures the angle which the line joining the object to the centre of rotation of either eye makes with the median line when the eyes are converged upon an object situated 1 metre away on the median line ... he then adds that for the distance of 1 meter "the angle is about 2°," which would be half that for the preceding definition. the former is the angle between the two lines of sight while the latter is the angle between one line of sight and the median line. the former is twice the size of the latter. similarly in the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology two different definitions may be found, one by "h. d." apparently harry gradle, vol. 1, p. 473, and the other by "c. f. p., .. charles f. prentice, vol. 10, p. 7675. gradle defined the meter angle as the angle between the two lines of sight when the object was placed at one meter in front of one straightforward looking eye while the other eye did all the converging, the angle being described as "about 3 1/2° ". prentice on the other hand defined the meter angle in terms of one eye turning to fixate an object on the median line at one meter, approximatley half of the preceding angle. howard solomons in his 1978 programmed text entitled binocular vision gets around the apparent ambiguity by i denti fyi ng the "metre angle .. as the angle made by one eye fixating an object at one meter on the median line and the "large metre angle" as the angle made between the lines of sight of both eyes. a further search of the literature might well uncover additional examples of the same discrepancy. the only consistency seems to be the crediting of the meter angle concept to albrecht nagel in the graefe-saemisch handbuch der gesamten augenheilkunde, vol. 6, part 4, 1880, pp. 478-486. precisely what did nagel say? this is not as easy as one might be led to believe by the explicit diagrams, tables of angular values, and the inordinately lengthy text which nagel devoted to making it clear. first of all nagel employed two terms which we in the english language sometimes use interchangeably, one being fusion angle (fusionswinkel) and the other being convergence or divergence movement (convergenzbewegung or divergenzbewegung). he then defined the fusion angle in terms of the turning of one eye to fixate an object on the median lien. to correspond with the dioptric nomenclature for accommodation he named his unit for the fusional movement of one eye the meter angle (meterwinkel). he identified one meter angle with a fixation distance of 1 meter from the center of rotation, two meter angles for a half meter, three for one-third meter, etc. reciprocally. his diagrams, formulas, and tables of values for the degree equivalents at various distances and for various separations of centers of rotation are in this context unambiguous. for example, for a 64 mm separation of the centers of rotation (equivalent to the interpupillary distance) and a distance of 1 meter from the center of rotation of one eye to a fixation point on the median line the corresponding metre angle equals 1• so•. for a distance of 10 em or one-tenth meter the correspondign 10 meter angles equal 18° 39'30", as shown in nagel's table. however, having thus clarified the metric of "fusional movement," nagel then discussed its clinical application to convergence, referring to examples of convergent and divergent squint. a translation of his first example reads as follows, "for instance, in a convergent squint of 3 meter angles the fusional far point lies at a distance of one-third meter (assuming a 64 mm interpupillary distance) and a base-out prism of 3 meter angles or of 11 degrees* placed before each eye will displace the fusional far point to infinity." similarly he identifies a divergent squinter of 3 meter angles as one who has a fusional far point at a distance of one-third meter behind the eyes correctable by a 3 meter angle base-in prism before each. in both clinical examples the ~ngular size of 3 meter angles would be double the values in his own prededing tables. in other words a person whose far poiint is at one-third meter behind or in front of the eyes can be said in nagel's own terminology to have a "three *probably referring to the refracting angle of the prijm rather than its deviation. -48meter angle squint," which of course is an angle of squint of about 11°. at the same time the nagel terminology would identify the three meter angles of fusion of be 5 112•, corresponding to one eye only! this turns out to be precisely the case, according to the very reputable german optical encyclopedia "abc der optik" by karl mutze et al, leipzig 1961. in the therein described meter angle a differentiation is made between convergence angle and fusion angle, the former being the sum of the two fusion angles. in other words a meter angle is either about rso• or 3°40', i.e. about ~ or 6~ respectively, depending on whether reference is to the fusional movement of each eye or to the vergence movement of both. a clue to nagel's thinking lies in his apparent obsession with the concept that vergence or fusion should be represented on a one-to-one sacle with accdtjmnodation expressed in diopters. the accommodation of two eyes is quantitatively expressed to be the same as the accommodation of one eye, just as two legs walk only one mile when in fact each leg does. whether we focus on an object at a distance of one meter with one eye or both we say that the accommodation is one diopter. it appears that nagel wanted a similar designation for convergence and divergence. it was in this sense that he wanted the number of meter angles to be the reciprocal of the distance in meters. then he chose to represent it in one eye just as we do accommodation. he simply ignored the concept that fusion is not a monocular function. he must have believed that he avoided the incongruity of using the reciprocal value for the truly binocular aspect by calling the binocular function convergence instead of fusion, in which case the meter angle doubled its angular size. also he ignored twe fact that the plane of the centers of rotation differed from the spectacle plane or any other optically logical plane of reference for the refractive power of the eye. the meter angle has other faults, too, such as its lack of additivity, its variance with interocular distance, and its inadaptability to mechanical measuring scales. would that we could bury the meter angle. but no, it still crops up occasionally into attempted use, i guess because of its teasing resemblance to our beloved diopter. h.w h. december gathering: o.h.s. president jerry abrams has written to inform the membership that a guest speaker has been arranged for the annual december o.h.s. meeting. as usual the o.h.s. gathering will be held during the american academy of optometry which this year is to be in toronto. the guest speaker, dr. e. j. fisher, curator of the museum of visual science and optometry, school of optometry, university of waterloo, will present, "canada is optometrical hi story." henry w hofstetter douglas k. penisten, editors p.s. this issue of the newsletter will be coming to you later than normal. in order for us to include your nom1nations for the o.h.s. executive board in the october newsletter (as detailed on page 31 and 41), and you will need to send us your nom1nations immediately upon receipt of the newsletter. please do · this. your input is important! 1986-17-03-001 1986-17-03-002 1986-17-03-003 1986-17-03-004 1986-17-03-005 1986-17-03-006 1986-17-03-007 1986-17-03-008 1986-17-03-009 1986-17-03-010 1986-17-03-011 1986-17-03-012 1986-17-03-013 1986-17-03-014 1986-17-03-015 1986-17-03-016 1986-17-03-017 1986-17-03-018 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 52  number 3  july 2021 special issue: focus on soft contact lenses hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x july, 2021 volume 52, number 3 editor: david a. goss, od, phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: john amos, od, ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu chair lilien vogl, od drvogl@cox.net board liaison james deom, od, mph dr.deom@gmail.com editor david a. goss, od, phd dgoss@indiana.edu linda casser, od lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, od viktoria@davismn.net w. howard mcalister, od, mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, od rimyersod@gmail.com carol parker, od drparker4564@gmail.com optometry cares® the aoa foundation james deom, od, mph board of directors dr.deom@gmail.com kelsey wolf program manager kwolf@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: dgoss@indiana.edu. ohs committee 2021 photo and bust of otto wichterle, discoverer of the material used in the first soft contact lens (images courtesy the wichterle family), and the czech republic stamp issued in 2013 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of wichterle's birth (image courtesy the contact lens museum). hindsight: journal of optometry history 45 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 52  number 3  july 2021 table of contents 58 48 news 46 editorials from the editor: theme issue on the history 47 of soft contact lenses david a. goss, o.d., phd articles the early pioneers of global soft contact lens 48 development nicholas grant, bsc, mari fujimoto, o.d., patrick caroline, cot, craig norman toward disposability of contact lenses 58 carol parker, o.d., kara tison, o.d., raymond myers, o.d. coupling of the international society for 64 contact lens research with the evolution of soft contact lenses craig woods, phd, mcoptom, desmond fonn, dip optom, m optom special issue: focus on soft contact lenses in 1959 dr. maximillian dreifus of the second ophthalmological clinic in prague fit some of the first soft lenses in practice. (image courtesy the wichterle family) dr. carol parker 64 cover of international society for contact lens research: the first 30 years by raymond myers, o.d. 46 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 ohs hosts “blast from the past” lecture at optometry’s meeting on june 25, 2021, the yearly blast from the past lecture was presented by w. howard mcalister od and jeffrey l weaver od. their lecture entitled “military optometry from world war i to present” was well attended by history buffs, afos members and active military optometrists. drs. weaver and mcalister cited the significant contributions made by military ods and their impact on contemporary optometry. five luminaries inducted into the national optometry hall of fame the american optometric association and optometry cares – the aoa foundation were pleased to induct the following doctors of optometry into the national optometry hall of fame during optometry’s meeting® on june 25, 2021: tony q. chan, o.d. (2020) robert a. koetting, o.d. (2020)* michael h. mittelman, o.d. (2019) marvin r. poston, o.d. (2021)* satya b. verma, o.d. (2020) pictured is marlene poston bell, who accepted the award on behalf of her late father, marvin poston, o.d. since 1998, the national optometry hall of fame has recognized and honored optometrists who are luminaries of the profession – those who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to the optometric field. *denotes posthumous inductee news doi: 10.14434/hindsight.v52i3.33943 marlene poston-bell accepting the award on behalf of her late father, marvin r. poston, o.d. w. howard mcalister, o.d. and jeffrey l. weaver, o.d. presenting during the "blast from the past" lecture at optometry's meeting 2021. tony q. chan, o.d. accepting his award. hindsight: journal of optometry history 47 editorial david a. goss, od, phd from the editor: theme issue on the history of soft contact lenses david a. goss, o.d., phd indiana university school of optometry dgoss@indiana.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v52i3.33727 in the previous issue of hindsight and in this one, we present articles on the history of soft contact lenses to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their introduction into the market in the united states. just how revolutionary soft contact lenses were can be illustrated by the fact that no one seemed sure what to call them. noted contact lens expert robert mandell wrote in 1974 that “there has been considerable confusion with regard to the terminology which should be used for gel contact lenses. they have been referred to by various names including: soft lenses, flexible lenses, hydrophilic lenses, hydroscopic lenses as well as many other generic and trade names.”1 the new soft contact lenses were a disruptive technology, to use today’s parlance. the comfort, easier adaptation, and various applications of soft contact lenses rapidly made them extremely popular, and they greatly impacted the practice of optometry. we thank the authors of the six articles in these two issues for sharing their expertise on the history of soft contact lenses. a special thanks goes to dr. raymond myers, member of the optometric historical society committee, for drawing up a list of potential topics, recruiting an outstanding group of authors, and then authoring two papers as well, thus making this interesting and informative collection of papers possible. reference 1. mandell rb. new thoughts on gel lenses. internat contact lens clin 1974;1:24-26. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. 48 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 the early pioneers of global soft contact lens development introduction the origin of soft contact lenses is well documented and agreed upon as beginning with otto wichterle and drahoslav lim and their groundbreaking discovery of the plastic, polyhydroxyethyl methacrylate (phema), in czechoslovakia during the early 1950s. as with all history, soft contact lens development did not escape the political, social and economic happenings of its time and is intertwined with the major events following the end of world war ii and transition to the cold war era in central europe. despite many hurdles that had to be overcome, drs. wichterle and lim are responsible for changing the entire landscape of the contact lens industry in the latter half of the 20th century with their revolutionary discovery. otto wichterle otto wichterle was born in prostejov, in central czechoslovakia on oct. 27, 1913, into a well-to-do, industrial family. like his grandfather and father, otto was supposed to take over the family business related to the manufacturing of farm equipment and motor vehicles; however, his interests were always more focused in the field of science.2 in 1936, otto graduated from the czech technical university in prague, and in 1938 he married his life-long companion linda. linda wichterle would later play a major role in the production of the first soft contact lenses. a young otto wichterle. (image courtesy the wichterle family) in 1939, otto wichterle earned the first of his two doctorates in chemistry; however, his professional career was quickly halted with the dawn of world war ii and the german invasion of czechoslovakia.3 under german rule, the universities were closed abstract this article outlines the history and development of the first hydrophilic biocompatible plastic, called phema. the story traces the notable leaders in its development and provides a timeline from the initial discovery of the hydrogel material to its evolution into the modern soft contact lens. keywords otto wichterle; drahoslav lim; robert morrison; allan isen; martin pollak; national patent development corporation; hema nicholas grant, bsc pacific university college of optometry, forest grove, oregon gran5174@pacificu.edu mari fujimoto, o.d. assistant professor, pacific university college of optometry, forest grove, oregon marifujimoto@pacificu.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v52i3.33501 patrick caroline, cot associate professor, pacific university college of optometry, forest grove, oregon co-curator the contact lens museum carolinp@pacificu.edu craig norman adjunct clinical faculty, michigan college of optometry, big rapids, michigan co-curator the contact lens museum craignorman@ferris.edu article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman hindsight: journal of optometry history 49 and students and professors at higher-educational institutes were often arrested and placed into concentration camps. in 1940, wichterle was able to escape this fate by finding employment in the chemical research department at bat’a shoe company in zlin, czechoslovakia. it was during this period that wichterle contributed to the development of silon, a similar material to nylon for synthetic socks and tights.1 in 1942, the often-outspoken wichterle was imprisoned by the gestapo and held for five months, though it is unclear as to why he was arrested.3 it is rumored that a top german chemist was familiar with otto’s work and contributed to his eventual release. at the end of the war in 1945, wichterle started work on his second doctorate in organic chemistry at the university of prague, where he became a professor within the department of plastics.2 his interest in the chemistry of plastics had impeccable timing, as the age of plastics in the 1950s was about to begin. draholslav lim born sept. 30, 1925, lim was several years younger than otto wichterle. similar to wichterle, he had a ph.d. in chemistry, and he and wichterle were working in the same polymer research department at the university of prague. not as much is known about dr. lim; however, he would be equally credited with the development of the first hydrogel plastic, the material that would change the contact lens industry forever.2 while dr. lim contributed significantly to the development of the phema material, his involvement became less prominent as the plastic evolved into soft contact lenses. later in life, dr. lim migrated to the united states to continue work as a chemist. he worked at the university of california on plastics involved in artificial kidneys and at revlon in their department of research on nail enamel. lim passed away on aug. 22, 2003, in san diego, california. 1952 let the story begin the idea of a hydrophilic biocompatible plastic is said to have originated on a train ride in 1952, when wichterle happened to be sitting next to dr. pur, a ministry of health official who was reading a medical journal containing an advertisement on metal prosthetics used in ophthalmology.4 a conversation ensued that sparked wichterle’s interest in developing a biocompatible plastic for human tissue replacement. dr. lim was the only colleague of wichterle’s interested in joining him in the research and a short six months later they had successfully synthesized the first hydrophilic plastic known as polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate (phema); and so began what would become wichterle’s lifelong journey. otto wichterle (left) with colleague dr. drahoslav lim (right) and their synthesized hydrophilic gel known as polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate (phema), 1955. (image courtesy the wichterle family) 1953 following the development of the phema material, various iterations of the plastic were sent out for toxicology testing. samples of the materials were implanted into the orbits, sclera and anterior chambers of rabbits, and the gels that were found to be inert were selected. 1955 at this point, the hydrophilic plastic’s use, as a contact lens, was not the intended purpose, and wichterle and lim immediately applied for several other medical patents.2 it was only by chance that the flexible and oxygen-permeable material also turned out to be extremely clear. one of the earliest applications of the hema plastic was in an orbital implant surgery in 1955.2 wichterle’s son tells us that it was the clarity of the plastic gel that lead wichterle to be curious as to how this property could be used elsewhere.3 wichterle’s idea of creating a soft contact lens was brought forth to the ministry of health in czechoslovakia but, with no interest or support, he was forced to work on the development on his own with willing colleagues and little financial backing.2 article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman 50 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 by chance, the hydrogel material was flexible, oxygen permeable and extremely clear. (image courtesy the wichterle family) 1957 the majority of contact lenses during this era were full-sized scleral lenses, as corneal lenses were a relatively new innovation. historically, scleral lenses were manufactured using a molding process to shape the hard plastic (pmma) and so wichterle originally attempted to manufacture his water-soluble gel in a similar molding fashion. unlike its pmma plastic counterpart, the molded gel material resulted in thick lenses with rough edges. despite the discomfort one of these lenses would induce, wichterle is reported to have been the first to apply one of his lens designs onto his own eye in 1957.2 1959 in 1959, wichterle left the university of prague and began work as a director at the institute of macromolecular chemistry (imc).3 it was at the imc that wichterle and his colleagues were able to create a more optically pure lens by changing their molds from plastic to a glass material. the “rough edges” dilemma was still an issue as these lenses would often stick to the molds upon removal. to minimize the irritation to the eye, each lens was meticulously filed down, creating a tedious process for wichterle and his colleagues. with about 100 lenses manufactured, it was time for trial on additional eyes. dr. maximillian dreifus of the second ophthalmological clinic in prague is said to have fit some of the first soft lenses demonstrating only limited success with the prototype lenses.2 in 1957, wichterle produced around 100 soft contact lenses from closed polystyrene molds; however, because of contraction of the material during polymerization the edges split and tore as they were removed from the molds. they therefore required hand finishing. (image courtesy the wichterle family) in 1959 dr. maximillian dreifus of the second ophthalmological clinic in prague fit some of the first soft lenses in practice. (image courtesy the wichterle family) 1960 the first published work on the groundbreaking material was published in nature and authored by otto wichterle and drahoslav lim.5 this article titled, “hydrophilic gels for biological use” started to gain international attention from investors and companies looking to harness the new technology to their benefit. this article was such a landmark publication that it would be referenced by scientists and clinicians for decades to come. article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman hindsight: journal of optometry history 51 the first paper published on soft contact lenses, “hydrophilic gels for biological use,” by otto wichterle, ph.d., and drahoslav lim, ph.d., nature, jan. 8, 1960. (image courtesy the wichterle family) 1961 with further budget cuts and reduced funding, the public investigation of hydrogel for the use in contact lenses was ceased.2 this forced the passionate wichterle to continue his research and experiments at home. the primary problem he needed to solve was the issue of lens discomfort. in the early months of 1961, wichterle conceived the idea of applying a spin-casting method to the manufacturing process. like many great inventions, inspiration is often drawn from the simplicity in everyday life happenings. wichterle found his while stirring a cup of coffee!6,7 being an observant man, he noticed how the edges of the cup formed a capillary interaction with the coffee inside. he imagined this being applied to his contact lenses, and so the spin-casting idea was born. at this point in time, spin casting was reported elsewhere in the world for mirror design.2 it was his hope that by having a rotating mold, the lens adherence and edge roughness problem would be solved for the hema lenses. with a lack of resources (that wichterle was accustomed to at his research lab), he had to be innovative in building a machine capable of working the fine gel material into a finished contact lens. he recruited the help of a local glassblower to make the molds as an initial step in putting together a manufacturing process.4 in a now famous story, on christmas eve of 1961 wichterle built a machine from his son’s toy merkur (erector) set and the generator from his bicycle light capable of spin casting the hema material into a finished contact lens.2,4 it is also legend that the toys used for the construction of the original device were the gifts for christmas of that year, however, looking back at this timeline, his two sons would have been 20 and 22 years of age. although this makes for a great story, it is more likely that these were childhood toys repurposed. on christmas eve 1961, wichterle built the first spin-cast machine using his son’s merkur (erector) set and the generator from his bicycle light transformer. on the afternoon of christmas day 1961, wichterle produced the first four usable spin-cast soft lenses on the family's kitchen table. (image courtesy the wichterle family) the following day, christmas day 1961, the first four soft contact lenses were produced in the kitchen of the wichterle household by wichterle and his family. 2,4 as one can imagine, christmas at the wichterle household in 1961 was not a typical holiday celebration; however, this was a landmark moment in the history of contact lenses and one that would go on to spark a multibillion-dollar industry in the years to come. wichterle did not waste any time, and the next day the soft lenses were trialed in clinic again at the second ophthalmological clinic by dr. dreifus.2 1962 as wichterle’s spin-cast soft lens design offered both comfort and optical success, the next goal aimed at increasing the production of these lenses. adjustments made to the spin-casting machine, such as increasing the number of spindles from four to 15 and adding a more powerful gramophone motor, exponentially increased lens production.2 soft lens manufacturing became a wichterle family affair, as both his sons, kamil, ivan and his wife linda contributed to the process. kamil, a trained chemist with mathematical expertise, helped formulate an equation to determine an appropriate spindle rotation speed and the amount of material required for production.4 with the help of his wife, an estimated 5,500 lenses were manufactured in their home within the first four months of 1962.2. article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman 52 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 manufacturing the first spin-cast soft lenses was a family affair, with wichterle’s sons, kamil and ivan, formulating the equation to determine spindle rotation speed and the amount of material required, and wife linda in charge of production. they manufactured an estimated 5,500 lenses in their home within the first four months of 1962. (image courtesy the wichterle family) 1963 with great clinical success, funding and support for wichterle’s innovative lenses was finally achieved. research and development restarted at the institute of macromolecular chemistry in prague, and a team of about 40 people continued wichterle’s soft lens project.7 the first soft contacts produced were considered experimental lenses and were known by the name of geltakt lenses.2 mass production became possible with the installation of three production lines, and the lenses were commercially available in czechoslovakia under the name spofa.2 establishing the soft contact lens as a competitor in the corneal pmma and an emerging gas permeable lens market proved to be difficult. at this time, it was reported that the technology of a pmma lens could be worn for up to 14 hours in 75% of patients while only 10% of soft contact lens wearers could achieve eight hours.2 being a highly esteemed scientist and researcher, wichterle joined the international union of pure and applied chemistry congress in 1963.2 this opportunity afforded him the ability to travel throughout europe and contributed to the promotion of soft contact lenses in other countries. at a meeting in london, he met several innovators and promoters in the contact lens arena and from them gained new ideas. george nissel, a contact lens expert in the u.k., suggested that the lenses should be lathe cut similar to hard lenses for more efficient production.2 wichterle was quick to recreate his hydrogel plastic in a dehydrated state and called this material xerogel. he patented the product in october 1963, and together with previous patents, this gave wichterle a monopoly on the production of soft lenses for the entire validity period of patents.2 as word spread of the radical new soft contact lens, otto wichterle continued to play a vital role in the global development of the modality. the story of how soft lenses became prevalent throughout the world is a complex narrative. outside of czechoslovakia, the earliest investigations into the lenses were conducted by pierre rocher at a french contact lens firm called l.o.r. 2 this company would later become silor and later become essilor. it is said that rocher had read about the new material in the journal, nature, and decided he needed to see the product for himself. in the summer of 1963, pierre and his family embarked on a camping trip in czechoslovakia so that he could see the soft contact lenses in person.2 rocher had a connection with dr. driefus through a mutual friend, and in a small, rural czechoslovakian village he was given a few sample lenses to evaluate. through rocher, silor had one of the first opportunities at what would become a revolutionary product in the contact lens industry. the company at the time was not interested in further investment in the product and so the door remained open for others to investigate.2 in 1963 the first commercially available soft contact lenses appeared in czechoslovakia, called spofa lenses. (image courtesy the contact lens museum) spofa soft contact lenses patient instruction booklet (image courtesy the contact lens museum) spofa soft lens chart (image courtesy the contact lens museum) article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman hindsight: journal of optometry history 53 article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman in 1963 wichterle recreated his hydrogel plastic in a dehydrated state and called this material xerogel. (image courtesy the wichterle family) 1964 in april of 1964, wichterle presented the world’s first lecture on soft contact lenses at a conference organized by his new acquaintance, pierre rocher.2 this was only the second annual contact lens conference called the journees d’etudes de royaumount hosted in rocher’s home country of france. later in the year, wichterle began a tour of america, presenting his research in various u.s. cities. while on his tour it is legend that wichterle enjoyed boasting about the durability of his lens and the ease of lens cleanliness. according to his wife, the professor claimed the fastest way to clean the lens at the time was to put it in one’s mouth.7 he often demonstrated this at various events by dropping a lens on the ground, squishing it with his shoe and then proceeding to wet the lens by rinsing it with his saliva and reapplying it to his eye.7 in contrast to the knowledge we have today about microbiology and sanitization, individuals in 1964 were more fascinated with how robust this lens was during the demonstration. wichterle’s influence began to spread outward from his home country as more people learned about his work. eventually the news made it to the united states and, in particular, reached an optometrist by the name of robert morrison. morrison graduated from the pennsylvania college of optometry in 1948 and established a contact lens specialty practice in harrisburg, pennsylvania, where he quickly gained a reputation as a skilled contact lens clinician. dr. morrison expanded his reach providing contact lens fitting for celebrities and patients of royal descent throughout the world. a wellconnected man, morrison became involved with soft contact lenses through his connection with pierre rocher.8 when rocher’s company decided not to pursue wichterle’s new lens modality, he was free to pass along the information to colleagues in the field. morrison later related a phone call he had with rocher describing the new material and its potential as a contact lens polymer. intrigued by the new technology, morrison is reported to have taken a flight to czechoslovakia the next day in hopes of meeting and learning more from otto wichterle.8 morrison worked with wichterle, and the two men developed a lifelong friendship. like rocher, morrison was given samples of the material to take home. he proceeded to work with the plastic at his own contact lens laboratory, morrison laboratories.8 in contrast to the spincasting method used in prague, morrison began trying to adapt the lathing method that was already an industry standard for manufacturing rigid contact lenses. another early suitor for developing soft lenses technology was a company called national patent development corporation (npdc) based in new york city. the company was founded in 1959 by two attorneys martin pollak and jerome feldman.2 the wall street company specialized in purchasing patents that had failed to gain traction in the world market and selling them to interested parties. at around the same time as when morrison began working with wichterle, martin pollak was in the ussr exploring different patents for the npdc.2 it was rather unusual for an american company to be conducting business in russia at this time, especially while the events of the cold war were taking place. contrary to what one might think, pollak was treated very well in the communist country as they viewed him as a man of high status because he was one of few americans still in russia. pollak eventually explored other soviet countries, which lead him to czechoslovakia and at last to otto wichterle. as a businessman, he saw great potential in wichterle’s patents and the monopoly that he had on the new, fascinating area of medical technology. the npdc believed in the product to such an extent that they were willing to change their business model from acting solely as a company that would transition a product into the hands of someone capable of production to one that wanted to become actively involved in its manufacturing and commercial success. 1965 the rights to the hema gel and its production method in the united states were eventually awarded to not just one of the interested parties but both robert morrison and the npdc.2,8 because of the czechoslovakian political system at the time, otto wichterle was only indirectly involved in the deal. the czech academy of science (cas) was the organization responsible for selling the rights to morrison and the npdc, though it is said that morrison was unaware of any other involved parties until the day the deal was to be signed.8 the original agreement was recorded on paper as a transaction between the czech academy of science and a company named flexible contact lens—another blindside to morrison.2 it was on that same day that he found out he was supposedly a 50/50 owner of the company alongside pollak, feldman and the npdc.8 in fear of losing out on the soft contact lens opportunity, he reluctantly signed the agreement with the czech academy of science and officially gained rights to the patent for hema lens development. morrison also had pollak sign an agreement stating his claim in the company to make certain he wasn’t being cheated, something that is said to have been written on the inside cover of a torn-out book. from otto wichterle’s standpoint, both robert morrison and martin pollak had their advantages in fulfilling wichterle’s dream of global soft lens development. morrison was passionate about the science and applicability of a new lens modality. being an optometrist, he was able to envision how something like hema might be able to benefit patients not only medically, but cosmetically as well. wichterle and the npdc fit together with a 54 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman shared goal of large-scale expansion and production of the lens. this was something that had significantly limited wichterle under the communist regime of czechoslovakia and his power struggle with them for autonomy. the czech academy of science also felt more secure about having two groups working on their invention as the deal that was signed was dependent on contact lens sales and the success of the product.2 another revelation came about when dr. morrison found that the stock certificate to the new company included a name besides martin pollack and jerome feldman’s, that of allan isen.8 dr. isen was an optometrist from buffalo, new york, who graduated from columbia university in 1950.2 his interest in contact lenses commenced shortly after he began the challenging process of fitting monocular aphakes. he started a contact lens laboratory in 1957 called frontier contact lenses and became a prominent name in the contact lens industry. it is reported that isen was in attendance at the 1964 indianapolis and new york meetings in which wichterle had lectured.2 isen even went on to present what he had learned from these lectures at the annual american academy of optometry meeting.2 1966 after all of the turmoil that occurred with obtaining the rights to wichterle’s patents, robert morrison hired a lawyer by the name of james purcell and filed a lawsuit against the npdc, martin pollack, jerome feldman and allan isen for $15 million each.8 they settled outside of court in an agreement to part ways and make payments to morrison in return for the npdc having exclusive rights to the license. the settlement was reported to be for a total of $250,000, a sum worth millions today taking into account market inflation. morrison claims that if it wasn’t for his signed makeshift deal on the inside of the book cover, he may have never had any rights to the patents at all.8 he also is said to have offered to buy out their share at the time but lost the opportunity on a coin toss. at this time, the npdc was still a relatively small company in terms of capital and part of the settlement agreement stated that if they missed one payment over the next 5 years, all rights would be forfeited back to robert morrison.2,8 he was advised by his lawyers that this was a real possibility given the circumstances. however, he would have to wait to find out. unfortunately for morrison, the npdc went elsewhere to cover their financial situation, and in october they brought on bausch & lomb to completely pay off their debt.2 this effectively ended morrison’s connection to official licensure of soft contact lens production in america. b&l in return gained half ownership of the license, and it was at this point that the background work for u.s. production started to commence.2 allan isen’s involvement became more prevalent at this point but was also short lived. with the bausch & lomb agreement, isen became the head of npdc’s soft lens division. he also consulted for b&l, but quickly realized he had a distaste for the corporate environment and left to work on his own contact lens laboratory, griffin contact lenses, in toronto, canada.2 1968 behind the iron curtain in czechoslovakia, otto wichterle’s involvement in scientific innovation became less prominent as he took on a more active role as a spokesperson in a rise against communism. in the past he had been restricted on travel, fired from various university positions and investigated by the secret police for his leftist political affiliations.3 in the first half of 1968, liberalization protests had begun, and wichterle was among 70 highly esteemed czechoslovakians to sign a document known as the 2,000 word manifesto.2,3,7 wichterle was very outspoken against the eastern bloc policies and occupying power in his country. in august of the same year, warsaw pact troops and soviet tanks invaded the country ending the movement known as the prague spring. at this time, wichterle and his family left the country with fears that outspoken individuals similar to wichterle were going to be executed.7 after months of living outside of their country’s grasp and no such executions taking place, the wichterle family returned home.7 this was not without consequence, as upon his return, wichterle was again restricted on travel, speech and work. it is around this time that otto wichterle retreated to a life of semiretirement in czechoslovakia and focused on family life moving forward. back in america, bausch and lomb continued with their development of the soft contact lens. they voluntarily made an inquiry with the fda in 1967 as to whether their developed soft lenses would be treated as a medical device and therefore require fda testing and approval.2 initially, they were informed that they would not be required, and for a brief period in 1968 they began to introduce lenses on an experimental basis to the public.2 henry knoll, a lead b&l scientist, reported that 140 patients were fitted in the lens and followed closely.9,10 the protocol at this time included boiling the lens daily for disinfection and regular wear.9,10 the lens appeared to have enough oxygen permeability as early indications pointed toward good corneal health and few adverse effects. on dec. 12, 1968, however, the fda ruled that soft contact lenses would be classified as a drug, which changed the course for soft lens production in the united states and significantly delayed the release of the technology.2 martin pollack speculated that hard contact lens manufacturers were behind the change in the fda’s decision, but this has never been proven.2 allan isen at this time had already formed griffin laboratories in canada and began to develop soft lenses outside of the u.s. and away from the npdc, b&l and the fda. working with a university of waterloo chemist by the name of ken o’driscoll,2 they were able to develop a variation of the hema plastic, one that was reported to have 57.5% oxygen transmissibility.11 they called the new material bionite, which would become the basis for their branded soft contact lens, the “naturalens” or the “griffin lens.”2 for isen, one of the main advantages of the soft, highly permeable lens was its therapeutic use. like morrison and others before, isen produced this lens through a lathe cutting technique due to the greater understanding of this method in the contact lens industry at the time. hindsight: journal of optometry history 55 article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman in 1968 the politically outspoken wichterle was expelled from the institute of macromolecular chemistry and his travel was restricted. it is around this time that otto wichterle retreated to a life of semiretirement in czechoslovakia. (image courtesy the wichterle family) in 1969 allan isen formed griffin laboratories in canada and began to develop soft lenses outside of the u.s. and away from the npdc, b&l and fda. they called the new material bionite, which would become the basis for their branded soft contact lens, the “naturalens” or the “griffin lens.” (image courtesy the contact lens museum) spin casting was new and very few people had experience with this process outside of wichterle and b&l, who had acquired rights to the patents. during the 1960s, pseudophakic bullous keratopathy was a prevalent complication of cataract extraction, due to a higher risk of damage to the corneal endothelium. isen’s naturalens was applied as a bandage to the cornea of patients experiencing painful, recurrent corneal erosions and ruptured bullae. the bionite lens would go on to be one the first hema lenses made by lathe cutting that became mass produced for the public.2 later versions of the lens were well known in the market as the softcon lens. 1969-1970 in canada, isen began working with josh josephson, o.d., at his contact lens practice in toronto to fit patients with the new bionite material. during the late 1960s, the soft lens still had not received fda approval but word had spread, and isen’s soft lens design became increasingly coveted. american patients in search of an opportunity to be fit in this new contact lens modality flew across the border to see drs. isen and josephsen. it was reported that patients would fly in with allan isen on a weekday, and drs. isen and josephson would fit patients late into the night and fly out the next day. dr. josephson was an early, soft-lens clinician and made many observations and theories about how to properly fit a soft lens. unbeknownst to most people, he was the person behind the push for soft lens evaluation.2 bausch and lomb during this time period was diligently working on their fda approval, filing an investigatory new drug application in april 1969, a second new drug application in september of 1969, and another revamped new drug application in july of 1970.2 meanwhile, several other contact lens laboratories also began producing lathe cut soft lenses. it is estimated that several hundred companies infringed on the wichterle patents during this time as “off-label” soft contact lenses began to emerge throughout the world.2 many costly and time-consuming court cases arose in the coming years with the npdc and bausch and lomb attempting to prosecute the many laboratories that wrongfully profited without proper licensure. 1971 on march 18, 1971, bausch & lomb was granted fda approval to market their “c-series” soflens in the united states. the lenses were fda approved with a daily heat disinfection system that consisted of a modified baby bottle heater and saline made by combining a single salt tablet with non-sterile distilled water. the 13.5 mm “c-series” lenses were manufactured through a modified version of wichterle’s original spin-casting technology in which the base curve radius of the lenses decreased as the anterior surface power increased. therefore, the base curves of the initial “c-series lenses were exceptionally steep. “c” series power base curve radius -1.00 d 8.00 mm (42.00 d) -5.00 d 7.45 mm (45.25 d) -10.00 d 6.90 mm (48.87 d) -15.00 d 6.40 mm (52.75 d) -20.00 d 5.95 mm (56.50 d) the b&l soflens was initially launched in the pacific northwest in 1971, followed by a national rollout that was highlighted by educational symposiums. by thanksgiving, 1971, they had completed the nationwide launch of the new modality. the “c series” fitting set consisted of 72 lenses in a range of different powers. practitioner cost for each set was $2,800 ($39.00 per lens). additionally, practitioners had to attend one of the bausch and lomb regional training seminars at an additional cost of $25.00) to be certified to fit the new lenses. to put those numbers into perspective today… 56 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman lens cost: $39 per lens in 1971 = $252 per lens today trial set cost: $2,800 in 1971 = $18,079 today typical patient fees: $300 in 1971 = $1,937 today because the “c-series” lenses tended to fit steeply on the eye, it was not long before bausch and lomb released two additional lenses this time with an overall diameter of 12.5 mm, the “flatter” fitting f-series lenses and the “normal” fitting n-series lenses. -2.00 d., 12.5 mm f-series base curve radius = 8.35 mm -2.00 d., 12.5 mm n-series base curve radius = 7.80 mm this was quickly followed by two additional lenses, one the even flatter b-series lenses and the steeper j-series lens to fill the gap between the f and n series lenses. -2.00 d., 12.5 mm b-series base curve radius = 8.70 mm -2.00 d., 12.5 mm j-series base curve radius = 8.10 mm to aid practitioners with the initial lens selection, in 1974, bausch and lomb introduced the best-fit band chart describing the appropriate lens selection for the 12.5 mm b,f,j and n series lenses. on march 18, 1971 bausch & lomb was granted fda approval to market the bausch and lomb soflens. the b & l “c” series was the first hydrogel lens approved by the fda for the u.s. market. (image courtesy the contact lens museum) the “c-series” lenses were fda approved with daily heat disinfection that consisted of a modified baby bottle heater and saline made by combining one salt tablet with non-sterile distilled water. (image courtesy the contact lens museum) in 1974 bausch and lomb introduced the best-fit band chart. (image courtesy the contact lens museum) wichterle recognition due to wichterle’s political affiliations and his work being mostly conducted under a communist regime, he did not receive proper recognition for his contribution to the contact lens world until decades after completing his innovative work. in a capitalist country he may have been a very wealthy individual; however, this was not the case in czechoslovakia. the income laws at the time were amended to reduce his income so that he would not receive more pay than high-ranking political officials.7 the licensing deal that had occurred with his soft contact lens designs was considered one of the most profitable transactions in the country for a long time. however, recognition finally came to otto wichterle after czechoslovakia transitioned away from its socialist ideologies. in all, otto wichterle: • wrote six textbooks • had over 100 scientific publications • held over 180 patents • was appointed as president of the czech academy of science in 1990 • had an asteroid (#3899) named after him in 1993 • was honored with a statue erected outside the institute of macro-molecular chemistry in 2005 • was honored in 2013 by the czechoslovakian government on the 100th anniversary of his birth with the issue of a commemorative currency • was honored by the issuing of a commemorative czechoslovakian stamp on oct. 16, 2013. there is no doubt that wichterle was fundamental in the innovation and development of soft contact lenses. on aug. 18, 1998, he passed away in his home country and forever remains a legend in the history of contact lenses. hindsight: journal of optometry history 57 article grant, fujimoto, caroline & norman czechoslovakian commemorative currency issued at the 100th anniversary of the birth of inventor and chemist otto wichterle. (image courtesy the contact lens museum) czechoslovakian stamp issued oct. 16, 2013 commemorating otto wichterle’s birth in 1913. (image courtesy the contact lens museum) otto wichterle passed away on aug. 18, 1998 at the age of 84. (image courtesy the wichterle family) acknowledgments the authors would like to acknowledge tim bowden for his meticulous research and dedication to the field. his devotion and involvement in recording the history of contact lenses was unparalleled and serves as a pillar for the knowledge we have today. references 1. philatelicdatabase.com [internet]. stamps of the czech republic: otto wichterle, inventor of contact lenses (2013). thematics. 2013 nov 22 [cited 2020 aug 31]. available from: http://www.philatelicdatabase.com/topicals-thematics/ stamps-of-the-czech-republic-inventor-of-contactlenses-2013/. 2. bowden tj. contact lenses: the story. united kingdom: bower house publications, 2009: 247-358. 3. sciencehistory.org [internet]. politically unreliable: the state v. otto wichterle. people. 2014 oct 2 [cited 2020 aug 31]. available from: https://www.sciencehistory. org/distillations/politically-unreliable-the-state-votto-wichterle#:~:text=the%20state%20v.-,otto%20 wichterle,he%20nor%20his%20country%20benefited. 4. thecontactlensmuseum.org [online video]. forget the frames: otto wichterle story. otto wichterle. 2020 [cited 2020 aug 31]. available from: https://www.thecontactlensmuseum. org/otto-wichterle.html. 5. wichterle o, lim d. hydrophilic gels for biological use. nature 1960; 185:117-118. 6. thecontactlensmuseum.org [online video]. troublemaking genius. otto wichterle. 2020 [cited 2020 aug 31]. available from: https://www.thecontactlensmuseum.org/ottowichterle.html. 7. thecontactlensmuseum.org [online video]. wichterle (trampled project czech documentary). otto wichterle. 2020 [cited 2020 aug 31]. available from: https://www. thecontactlensmuseum.org/otto-wichterle.html. 8. knorr r, kremer k. man of vision: the story of dr. robert morrison. osprey, fl: u. s. publishing, 2006. 9. contact lenses anyone can wear. popular science magazine 1969; 194(1):84-87. 10. hydron: new miracle plastic with a myriad of uses. popular science magazine 1969;194(2):92-95. 11. josephson je. a report on the refitting of successful griffin naturalens wearers with bausch & lomb soflens-tm contact lenses (polymacon). am j optom arch am acad optom 1973;50:416-422. 58 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 toward disposability of contact lenses abstract this article provides a history of the evolution of soft contact lenses and discusses the advancement of manufacturing and packaging techniques that ultimately led to the development of disposable lenses. this article covers contact lenses from the first soft lens polymer produced in 1961 to the first disposable in 1987 and the evolution into toric and multifocal markets. keywords hydrogel lenses, disposable contact lenses, wichterle, soflens, spincast, cast molding, stabilized soft molding, form cast, acuvue®, maximize process carol b. parker, o.d. robley rex va medical center, louisville, kentucky, staff optometrist eye care institute, louisville, kentucky, optometric research consultant carol.parker@va.gov kara l. tison, o.d. robley rex va medical center, louisville, kentucky, staff optometrist university of louisville gratis associate professor kara.tison@va.gov raymond i. myers, o.d. emeritus clinical professor university of missouri-st. louis rimyersod@gmail.com 10.14434/hindsight.v52i3.33532 the contact lens industry prior to the introduction of disposable lenses could be compared to the wild west. fortunately, there have been many players and characters that brought soft contact lenses to the frontier as we know it today. the sharpshooters kept advancing the contact lens industry with new lens materials, manufacturing techniques and wear schedules. it was not until 1968 that the u.s. government wanted some control over this revolution. the involvement of the food and drug administration (fda) was encouraged by contact lens companies.1 contact lens laboratories who used rigid materials, such as polymethyl methacrylate (pmma), were exempt from the proposed new regulations, and they urged the government to classify the new and upcoming hydrogel lens material as a “drug.”2 in 1968, the u.s. government decided that a soft hydrogel contact lens should be “regarded as a drug” and would need fda approval before it could be made commercially available. moving forward, any new lens materials would go through the drug approval process of clinical trials, pre-market toxicological trials, regulations and documentation.1 this decreased the introduction of new materials and designs in the u.s.1,3 pmma lenses prior to fda regulations of contact lenses and the invention of the hydrogel lens, pmma which was developed in 1936, was the primary material for contact lenses.4 pmma lenses were unlikely to be worn overnight. although the lenses were durable, the physiological responses from patients were significant.3 hard lens wearers may well have been satisfied with their lenses, but they expressed albeit an unconscious relief in removing their lenses including vigorously rubbing of their eyes. this complaint barely existed with the new hydrogel materials. hydrogel lenses hydrogel lenses were able to improve wear and comfort for patients when compared to prior lens materials.5,6 hydrogel lenses became popular in the 1970s. when these soft lenses first appeared, wearers could envision the new ways in which these lenses might be worn, starting with all-day wear with little or no lens awareness.3 soflens by bausch + lomb was the first soft hydrogel lens to come to market in the u.s. in 1971.4 soflens was destined to become a three-year monopoly for cosmetic wear lenses once it was approved by the fda, because it took this long for the next u.s. approval.4 this material was due to the combined work of otto wichterle, a czech polymer chemist, and his associate drahoslav lim.4 hydrogel lenses improved oxygen performance.6 due to the high risk of hypoxia with pmma lenses, an increase in dk was a great feature of the new hydrogel lenses. dk refers to the oxygen permeability of lens material. this is a calculated variable and is used to compare lenses by the amount of oxygen flow.7 dk/l article parker, tison & myers hindsight: journal of optometry history 59 article parker, tison & myers is the transmissivity of the lens and the higher the dk/l, the higher the oxygen levels being transmitted to the eye.7 oxygen permeability, or dk, of a lens depended on the lens water content and thickness.7,8 these new hydrogel lenses had low (38%), medium (50-65%) or high (68-80%) water content. therefore, the dk or oxygen permeability would vary between the lenses. there were complications experienced by hydrogel lens materials. protein, among the most bothersome deposits on hema lenses, could create a short wearing life. research showed that proteins could begin early. among patients who were high producers, the hydrogel lenses would begin to spoil within 30 minutes of wear time and deposits could be detected after one minute of wear.6 as a result of inflammation, patients also experienced neovascularization and papillary conjunctivitis with hydrogel lenses.6 in addition, the first hydrogel lenses were less durable when compared to pmma lenses and had variable optics.1,6 cleaning was also challenging for these early lenses. care systems for hydrogel lenses included hydrogen peroxide systems, cold chemical systems, a proteolytic enzyme, heat disinfection, and homemade saline solutions. early contact lens disinfecting systems had their own complications and were known to cause corneal staining, palpebral hyperemia, itching and dryness. many early chemical systems contained chlorhexidine and thimerosal which led to ocular reactions.9 the complications from solutions resulted in discomfort and dryness, which are the main reasons that lens wear was discontinued.10,11 in the 1970s to the 1980s, lenses were prescribed with no clear instructions given regarding replacement schedules of contact lenses.12 the early soft hydrogel lenses were usually worn until the lenses became too uncomfortable to wear, were lost or damaged, caused eye infections, or negative reactions to the lens were noted.5 due to the early soft contact lens issues of lens deposition and spoilation, these factors impeded successful long-term wearing of contact lenses.12 the obvious solution would be a regular replacement, but the cost was still prohibitive at the time.5,12 a testament to the history of the soft contact lens was its inventor, otto wichterle. he was a czechoslovakian chemist and a lifelong political dissident, who initially had little knowledge of hard contact lenses. having the means to produce multiple soft lenses economically, as early as 1963, he was also the first to introduce and propose disposable contact lenses. at a 1980 meeting of the international society for contact lens research, wichterle’s comments to a group of researchers defined the many areas which would confound the field for the next 25 years. wichterle said3: “i think the problem of deposits have so many variables involved that it is impossible to make any general statement. “the materials vary widely… along with patient reaction. i met an elderly lady recently in vienna who was wearing a lens i prescribed 20 years ago. she has never cleaned or disinfected the lens and it is absolutely water-clear. i am sure you can bring me examples of lenses covered by deposits after one week. environment also plays a great role. “is it worth investing a great deal of research on this problem? there is one solution that would eliminate all the problems of deposition: once deposits occur, we could reject the lens and take a new one! i believe we are now very close to the development of technology which will cause a dramatic drop in the selling price of lenses. once you are able to buy a lens for one dollar or less, lens spoilage won’t play a role. if a lens is spoiled, it will be cheaper to buy a new lens than to buy expensive solutions and waste time with cleaning. “i remember that 17 years ago [1963], in my first speech about these lenses, i predicted that lenses would soon be sold for less than one dollar. i was wrong, it wasn’t that soon.”3 manufacturing advancements the advancements in the manufacturing of contact lenses helped with the development of new lenses, which would eventually lead to disposable contact lenses. in early contact lens history, labor was one of the largest contributors to manufacturing cost. for example, early lenses were magnified and inspected more than 10 times by trained technicians for any flaws or imperfections.12 as production techniques improved, these inspections were no longer required. each new method reduced production costs and improved quality. the improvements eventually allowed disposable lenses to become possible. pmma and early hydrogel lenses were produced by lathe cutting. this process was more expensive since it required a lathe to cut each lens out of dry material and secondarily hydrate the final product.13 lathe cutting had poor reproducibility and required an evaluation of every lens before being dispensed to the patient. spin casting spin casting, which was used to create the first hydrogel lens, was created by professor wichterle.5 wichterle used a mechanical “erector set” he borrowed from his son using a glass mold for the films. he built this spin-casting device on christmas eve 1961 in his kitchen by using a centrifugal casting to form polymeric thin films, an axle from his son’s bicycle to spin the mold and a motor from a phonograph.4,12 wichterle’s polymer hema hydroxyethyl methacrylate was heated with a hot plate and was added to the mold through a tube as it was spinning.4 the patent application for the spin casting of hema hydroxyethyl methacrylate lens was finished by new year’s eve 1961.7,12 spin casting allows the lens optics to be varied by changing the speed of rotation and/or the mold shape.13 it allows for higher production of lenses than lathe cutting.13 the original hema lens had poor quality and was made of thick yellow material but had improved comfort for the patients. 60 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 article parker, tison & myers in 1966, bausch + lomb received the sublicensing of the wichterle patent. the company received exclusive rights for the spin-casting process and nonexclusive rights to hydrogel lens distribution based on this technology.3 bausch + lomb used wichterle’s polymer to help design the first hydrogel lens in the u.s., soflens. due to fda regulations, soflens did not come to market until 1971.7 cost was still prohibitive at this time for disposable lenses to become a reality. manufacturers used techniques to further lens life, as well as explored surface and materials modifications that would improve performance. over the next 10 years, other polymers evolved and the distribution rights benefitted from the nonexclusive license. this opened the door for competitors to the soft lens market.7 cast molding cast molding started being used in contact lens production in 1980, however, the cast molding process was not a new process. this had been used for years in the manufacturing of plastic products.12 cast molding begins by placing a plastic monomer between two molds. this plastic polymerizes between the molds. after polymerization is complete, the molds are broken apart forming the end product, in this case, a contact lens.12 the contacts were then hydrated and placed in packaging and were now ready to be sold.12 in november 1980, american hydron was the first contact lens company to receive fda approval for this process. this process was used to produce low-water content polymacon lenses and increase production capacity tenfold without additional labor.12 american hydron was purchased by allergan in 1983.12 stabilized soft molding johnson & johnson started in the contact lens arena by acquiring frontier contact lenses in 1981.4,12 dr. sheldon wechsler from the university of california berkeley school of optometry attended and likely heard dr. wichterle introduce the idea of disposable contact lenses. dr. wechsler helped johnson & johnson/vistakon introduce the first disposable contact lens. in 1984, the contact lens division was renamed vistakon and it purchased the stabilized soft molding (ssm) process through a danish manufacturer.12 ssm is a cast-molding process that allows high water content lenses to be manufactured with “minimal expansion on hydration.”12 by adding an inert diluent to the initial formula, it occupies space that is later replaced by water and the diluent is extracted. this process results in minimal expansion during hydration. when johnson & johnson/vistakon acquired the ssm process, they also attained the danalens technology, which used the smm process. the danalens, which was released in 1982 and was the world’s first disposable contact lens, was completely revamped for the u.s. by johnson & johnson/vistakon. johnson & johnson/vistakon changed the polymer formulation, packaging and molding technology.5,12 they introduced the first disposable contact lens using multi-lens plastic packaging. the danalens and smm technology were used in the production of the acuvue lens in 1987, the first fda-approved disposable contact lens.2,5,12 the fda defines a disposable lens as a single-use lens that is thrown away and not used again.12,14 single-use is the qualifying feature, as no cleaning or disinfecting is required.12,15 two modalities fit this definition, a weekly disposable worn seven days/ six nights and discarded upon removal and a daily disposable worn up to one day and discarded upon removal at end of the day. acuvue, a 58% mid-water content lens made of etafilcon a ionic material, was one-week extended wear (ew) lens. initially, johnson & johnson/vistakon lenses were ew in order to provide a safer lens, since hygiene and lens handling were thought to be the source of increased infections with contact lenses.7,16 this was incorrect, and disposable ew were not safer than conventional ew contact lenses.7 even though safety did not improve with disposable extended wear lenses, they succeeded in changing the industry and patients found the new lenses to be an appealing option.7 spin-cast front, lathed back bausch + lomb developed this method in the mid-1980s for their conventional optima lenses which were a premium design of daily wear and ew lenses. it was also used for the second generation of their disposable products, seequence 2.12 this was used due to a decline in the popularity of the spin cast design lenses.12 the process used a reverse process iii or rp iii which formed a spin-cast front surface and posterior surface and was then lathed and polished.12 packaging advancements in packaging also helped disposable lenses become a possibility. in the past soft lenses were placed in glass vials, sealed with silicone stoppers and crimped with aluminum caps.12 johnson & johnson/vistakon were the first to develop small individual blister packs. it had acquired the blister pack technology from the synoptic group; however, johnson & johnson/vistakon encountered issues with the original design as it was not always airtight, leading to possible contamination.12,17 soft lenses were eventually packaged in multiple packages or boxes, so as to have a supply that the practitioner adapted to the patient. with the new packaging, lenses were shipped in multipacks containing six blister packs.12 johnson & johnson/ vistakon reduced costs by producing molds and packaging into blister packs on a production line. this process lowered the per lens cost by reducing labor costs and increasing automation.5,12 disposable lenses daily dr. hikaru hamano, who had the largest contact lens practice in the world at the time, educated johnson & johnson/vistakon on the need for a daily disposable lens.5 dr. hamano showed this hindsight: journal of optometry history 61 article parker, tison & myers through his clinical and research experience. johnson & johnson/ vistakon listened and developed their first daily disposable lens in 1995, the 1-day acuvue.5,18 the company had to commit large amounts of capital and human resources to create a second-generation manufacturing process. this was needed to lower costs to make daily lenses an affordable product.5,12 this process was called maximize.12 the maximize process, optimized polymerization, and hydration time established the use of conveyors, robotics, a computerized high-resolution inspection of lenses and other improvements. this process integrated the ssm manufacturing process, which was the main contributor to the success of johnson & johnson/vistakon in the disposable lens business. by 1994, more contacts were manufactured using this process than by all other processes worldwide.12 these new daily disposable lenses were shown to have fewer symptoms, fewer deposits and better vision. the use of trial lenses allowed for more accurate prescriptions than the previous non-disposable lenses.11,19 with the success of the daily disposable lenses, more lens wearing options were introduced to provide contact lenses for more wearers. the first daily disposable astigmatism lens design was focus dailies by ciba vision. it was introduced in 2002.18 the first daily multifocal lens design was focus dailies progressives, also by ciba vision. more and more disposable wearing options continued to be marketed and entered into the contact lens industry. one week as previously mentioned, acuvue from johnson & johnson/ vistakon was the first weekly disposable introduced in 1987. in the expansion of its product lines, the company designed the first disposable presbyopic lens, acuvue bifocal.20 this was introduced in 1998 and was a one-week extended wear lens.20, 21 it was a center distance concentric design that used alternating distance and near zone powers. the add powers available were +1.00 to +2.50 in half diopter steps.22 two week after the success of acuvue, johnson & johnson/vistakon turned around and introduced the surevue. it was its first lens manufactured as a daily two-week replacement lens.12 patients were to remove the lens daily for cleaning and storage and dispose of the lens at the end of two weeks.12 monthly in 1999, purevision from bausch + lomb was the first lens approved for 30-day continuous wear.23,24 this was due to the silicone hydrogel material. the new silicone hydrogel material improved oxygen transmissibility and helped with hypoxia.11,25 silicone is highly oxygen permeable and hydrogel has a fluid and ion transport benefit.24 silicone hydrogel is considered to be one of the most important advancements in contact lenses since wichterle developed the hydrogel lens.5 also, in 1999 ciba vision launched the first disposable toric lens, focus. this was a monthly disposable lens.18 it was shown that comfort could be equal between toric and spherical contact lenses.18 multimonthly bausch + lomb’s freshlens program began in 1985. this was the first three-month disposable lens. this extended wear program enrolled patients wearing the o3 or o4 series lenses for three months. the patient was enrolled after receiving their initial pair in office. they were mailed two weeks later two glass vials marked right and left and tweezers to remove from the vials with instructions. three months after receiving their initial pair, they were mailed a reminder to replace the initial lenses with the new pair. the lenses would then be returned to the provider at six months and the cycle was repeated. this program was not accepted by everyone due to many being uneasy at releasing home addresses to the manufacturer.12 by the year 2000, 43% of all wearers were in disposable contact lenses. the other 21% of wearers were in frequent replacement and the remaining 36% were conventional wearers.19 in less than 15 years the contact industry had made a huge shift in usage.14 visual performance and satisfaction with disposable lenses the early disposable lenses were inconsistent in visual performance and handling due to manufacturing and designs. subjectively, the 1-day acuvue lenses performed visually superior to conventional and frequent replacement lenses.15 however, the original handling of the 1-day acuvue was clinically more difficult than conventional lenses. since handling is a learned procedure, this was not a major issue.15 most patients ranked their satisfaction higher with disposable lenses than with conventional lenses at that time.15 convenience of disposable lenses convenience has been the primary factor driving the increased usage of daily disposable lenses.10,26,27 children and teens are a large population that is attracted to daily disposable lenses.10 parents find these lenses appealing for safety reasons.10 also, since there is no lens care required, this eliminates the possibility of running out of solutions at an inopportune time. before the availability of disposable lenses, the thought of losing or tearing a lens made parents apprehensive to purchase contact lenses for their children. having access to disposable lenses allows for early replacements which can help address the concerns of lost or torn lenses.10,15 disposable contact lenses are also helpful for patients with occupations where conventional lenses do not work well. these include dusty environments, chemical plants and other places where a fresh lens would aid in comfort and safety for the patient.10 for the practitioner, convenience meant more competition. the options of mail-order contact lenses began in the 1980s. these were initially small businesses set up within locally established labs.7 state laws limited these businesses and issues with the release of contact lens prescriptions by doctors limited their growth.7 the federal trade commission put into effect the law, eye glasses i. this law mandated that the patient had a right to their prescription.7 laws are now in effect that allow contact lens manufacturers to sell directly to these mail-order contact 62 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 lens businesses and they continue to grow with health care plans mandating where lenses may be purchased and increased internet usage.7 mail-order companies have found convenience to be the single factor driving business to them in the contact lens market, ranking higher than price.28 ocular health with disposable lenses none of the early disposable lenses met the oxygen requirements for extended-wear, thus leading to early hypoxic reactions.12 in 1987, the fda changed approval for extended wear from 30 days to only seven days.9,14 as technology advanced, several disposable lenses were able to meet the dk/t requirements for extended wear. dk/t refers to the oxygen permeability in relation to the thickness of the contact lens. the minimal dk/t for daily wear is 24.1 and overnight or ew is 84.0.6,29 according to clinical opinion in the 1980s, lens handling played a large part in the incidence of microbial keratitis.7 this general opinion helped advance disposable lenses when they arrived in 1987.7 the use of disposable lenses grew due to increasing concerns over microbial keratitis and corneal ulcers noted with ew lenses in the 1980s.12,30 the contact lens institute reported 5-15 times higher incidence of ulcerative keratitis in ew patients than seen with daily wear (dw) patients. however, studies by the contact lens institute in the late 1980s showed disposable ew lenses caused sterile peripheral ulcers versus ew conventional lenses that caused more sight-threatening infectious microbial ulcers.12 studies in the 1990s all agreed that daily disposable lens usage was the most convenient and healthiest lens option.12 daily disposables decreased the incidence of corneal staining, epithelial cysts, corneal edema, tarsal abnormalities and infection versus conventional and frequent replacement lenses.6,15 daily disposables also caused fewer allergy symptoms.10,26 daily disposable lens wearers were three times less likely to experience complications versus conventional lens wearers.6,31 a three-year study was performed in the early 1990s comparing the performance of 229 subjects wearing a daily-disposable lens, frequent replacement lens, or conventional dw lens. the results supported the clinical advantages of daily disposable.12 it showed decreased reports of redness, cloudy vision, dryness and foreign body sensation.12 better visual acuity, comfort and overall satisfaction were noted.12 disposable lenses eliminate ocular health problems related to contact lens disinfectants.32 these lenses require no care, eliminating solution sensitivity and toxic reactions.32 new lenses do not degrade and cause vision and fit variations.32 marketing commercialization of hydrogel lenses can be attributed to martin m. pollak and jerome j. feldman of national patent development corp. through licensing wichterle’s technology to bausch + lomb.14 this got the ball rolling for the contact lens industry. johnson & johnson/vistakon introduced the acuvue disposalens in 1986.12 in early test markets in florida, little excitement about the lenses was noted.12 the key to acceptance was a low price and complimentary diagnostic lenses. the lens was released nationally in june 1988. this was the beginning of a new era in contact lenses. johnson & johnson/vistakon was the first manufacturer to do direct advertising of the prescription product to the public.7 this was a multimillion-dollar investment.7 the advertisements were based on increasing patients in the providers’ office.7 this led to other pharmaceutical companies following suit and advertising prescription products which is a common practice today.7 in conclusion, one can see the great achievements these pioneers have accomplished within 60 years. continuously, new products are emerging supplying practitioners more lenses than they can even begin to contain within their practices. practitioners have to continually assess their collection of lens designs for their practice and patients’ needs. through more education, they are able to pick and choose what they believe will suit their patient’s needs and wants. there is no doubt that disposability is the future and to think it all started on christmas eve 1961. references 1. lamb j, sabell a. the history of contact lenses. in: phillips aj, speedwell l, hough t, eds. contact lenses. edinburgh: elsevier, 2019:1-20. 2. becker a. contact lenses: a perfect fit for optometry. rev optom 2016;153(7):44-51. 3. myers r. international society for contact lens research: the first 30 years. xlibris corporation, 2009:9-15. 4. schaeffer j, beiting j. contact lens pioneers. rev optom 2007;144(7). 5. efron n. historical perspective. in: efron n. contact lens practice. oxford: butterworth-heinemann/elsevier, 2010:3-9. 6. jones l. disposable contact lenses: a review. j br contact lens assoc 1994;17(2):43-49. 7. mcmahon tt, zadnik k. twenty-five years of contact lenses. cornea 2000;19(5):730-740. 8. bruce a. local oxygen transmissibility of disposable contact lenses. cont lens ant eye 2003;26(4):189-196. 9. holden b, fonn d. the last 25 years of soft lenses. contact lens spectrum 2011;46(3). 10. schwallie j. revisiting daily disposables. optometric management 2005;40(9). 11. cox s, nichols j. daily disposables for the 21st century. contact lens spectrum 2015;50(6). 12. hamano h. development of contact lenses. in: hamano h, kaufman he, eds. corneal physiology and disposable contact lenses. butterworth-heinemann, 1997:65-93. 13. talu s, talu m, giovanzana s, et al. a brief history of contact lenses. human and veterinary medicine international journal of the bioflux society 2011;1(1):33-37. article parker, tison & myers hindsight: journal of optometry history 63 article parker, tison & myers 14. barr jt. history and development of contact lenses. in: bennett es, weisman ba, eds. clinical contact lens practice. lippincott williams and wilkins, 2004:3-10. 15. nilsson se. ten years of disposable contact lenses — a review of benefits and risks. cont lens ant eye 1997;20(4):119–128. 16. efron n, wohl a, toma n, et al. corneal ulcers associated with daily wear of disposable hydrogel contact lenses. j br contact lens assoc 1991;14(4):149–154. 17. occhipinti j, chan a, lee b. a subjective preference study of two disposable contact lenses. contact lens spectrum 1997;12(2). 18. the college of optometrists. disposable lenses. www.collegeoptometrists.org/the-college/museum/online-exhibitions/ virtual-contact-lenses-gallery/disposable-lenses.html. accessed august 1, 2020. 19. hom m, szczotka l. planned replacement for this century. optometric management 2003;38(9). 20. rigel l. a history of contact lens innovation. contact lens spectrum 2007;22(9). 21. bergenske p. first impressions of a new disposable bifocal. contact lens spectrum 1998;13(9). 22. benoit d. mastering multifocals. contact lens spectrum 2005;20(7).  23. nichols j. two sides of the contact lens coin: extended wear update. contact lens spectrum 2001;16(7). 24. chou b. the evolution of silicone hydrogel lenses. contact lens spectrum 2008;23(6). 25. nichols j, fisher d. back and the future. contact lens spectrum 2016;31(9). 26. mack cj. a new daily disposable design provides opportunity. contact lens spectrum 2009;24(1). 27. efron n, morgan p, helland m, et al. daily disposable contact lens prescribing around the world. cont lens ant eye 2010;33(5):225-227. 28. cohen s. an indispensable opportunity. optometric management 2003;38(1). 29. efron n, henriquez a, merkx j, et al. disposable contact lenses. int contact lens clin 1991;18:127-129. 30. holden b, sankaridurg pr, sweeney df, et al. microbial keratitis in prospective studies of extended wear with disposable hydrogel contact lenses. cornea 2005;24:156-161. 31. marshall e, begley c, nguyen c. frequency of complications among wearers of disposable and conventional soft contact lenses. int contact lens clin 1992;19:55-59. 32. gruber e. the disposable contact lens: a new concept in extended wear. clao j 1988;14:195-198. 64 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 coupling of the international society for contact lens research with the evolution of soft contact lenses craig woods, phd, mcoptom adjunct professor, school of optometry and vision science university of new south wales, sydney, nsw, australia craig.woods@unsw.edu.au desmond fonn, dip optom, m optom distinguished professor emeritus, school of optometry & vision science university of waterloo, waterloo, ontario, canada dfonn@uwaterloo.ca 10.14434/hindsight.v52i3.33534 abstract the advent of soft contact lenses and the paucity of knowledge of the new modality encouraged some leading minds of the time to form a new society, the international society for contact lens research. the purpose was to provide a forum for the exchange of information on the most current research and developments of contact lenses and its effects on the eye. the limited membership of the society that the founders proposed was to stage scientific meetings that would have minimal presentation time to allow for maximum discussion time of the presented information. unconcerned about the risk of failure and recriminations of establishing a society of limited membership, the bold steering committee invited researchers involved in this new science and development of contact lenses to become members. the steering committee also realized that it was necessary to enfold the contact lens industry and their scientists in the society. here we outline that journey from 1978 and how the society has maintained currency. the society, through its scientific meetings, can lay claim to fostering research that led to important developments in the field of contact lenses. keywords contact lens, history, hydrogel, isclr, scientific meeting article woods & fonn history of the soft contact lens the 1970s heralded the development and expansion of the contact lens industry. the use of pmma as a reliable material for corneal and scleral lenses had been established but had significant limitations, primarily discomfort and close to zero oxygen transmission. at the time of the launch of soft lenses in the united states of america (us) there were only 3.962 million rigid contact lens wearers in the us according to a survey conducted by the u.s. department of health, education and welfare.1 the u.s. company bausch and lomb acquired the license for spincasting soft contact lenses (scl) developed by otto wichterle described by myers.2 as for the rest of the world, the czechoslovakian government had agreed to a worldwide rights agreement with the national patent development corporation (npdc) for use of the latheable hydrogel material option. the npdc enabled companies in three key markets to emerge: australia (hydron); england, where john decarle consorted with cooper labs to develop the permalens, philip cordrey developed the sauflon lens; and finally in germany, titmus weicon and wohlk to develop their scls. the big advantage of a latheable hydrogel material was that these hydrogels could be manufactured by adapting the lathes that laboratories used to generate pmma lenses. the genesis of the international society for contact lens research (isclr) knowledge and science of the emerging soft contact lens field in the mid-seventies was limited. this led to different emphases around the world and created an opportunity to harmonize the communication of knowledge through an international association of ophthalmic professions according to myers3. a group of forward -thinking individuals discussed a plan to establish an umbrella organization of national contact lens hindsight: journal of optometry history 65 article woods & fonn associations (contact lens association of ophthalmologists in the u.s., british contact lens association, the australian contact lens society and other contact lens sections of various ophthalmology and optometry associations). alternatively, individual practitioners could become members of an international contact lens association. the initial individual ‘thinkers’ formed a steering committee which was notable by their diversity; professor montague ruben, ophthalmologist and director of the contact lenses and prosthetics at moorfields eye hospital in the united kingdom raymond myers, optometrist, manager of international professional services at bausch and lomb, rochester, new york robert koetting, optometrist in st louis, missouri brien holden, optometrist and lecturer, school of optometry, university of new south wales, sydney, australia antonio gassett, ophthalmologist, gainesville in florida michel guillon, optometrist and phd student, moorfields eye hosptial montague ruben brien holden raymond myers michel guillon this founding group discussed how to integrate contact lens research and then disseminate the information. at that time ophthalmology and optometry were disparate. ophthalmology recognized the potential benefits of contact lenses for therapeutic and drug release use and optometry was focused on vision correction. to add to the complexity, at the national level relationships between these two professions were wide ranging, as was the scope and ability of optometry. the steering committee recognized the mutual benefits of collaboration at an individual level, but how to facilitate that at an international level was a challenge. the first meeting of this committee occurred at moorfields eye hospital (london, england) in june 1978, was funded by the npdc and was attended by those listed except for dr gassett. discussion ensued about the political difficulties between the professions (particularly in europe). holden, who was a late arrival at the meeting, proposed an alternative to a contact lens association of practitioners to overcome the political differences by “establishing a research society of active researchers within academia, ophthalmology and optometry that would be devoid of political affiliation.” the group finally agreed that “it was the dissemination of research, rather than the collegiality of a larger group, that would make the difference in contact lens research and development”3. they decided on the name, the international society for contact lens research (isclr). prior to the steering committee meeting at moorfields, the members had contacted a number of international acquaintances, some of whom had expressed interest in an international contact lens association. as a result of the change to a research society, a new group of potential members were contacted, some of whom were on the original list that would have basic or clinical research credentials, to fulfill the needs of the society. the committee also felt that it was critical to include manufacturers of soft contact lenses because of the international growth of their field and because of the nature of the society, it was felt that the company scientists would be useful contributors. soon after the meeting of the steering committee at moorfields, planning began for the first isclr symposium to be held at the royal college of surgeons in london, england on september 5-6, 1980. the inaugural two-day meeting attracted an attendance of 50 researchers and industry representatives including soft contact lens inventor otto wichterle. in ruben’s welcoming address he announced that professor wichterle would be the patron of the new research society. the steering committee was replaced by the society council of 21 members and the following slate of officers: patron: otto wichterle president: montague ruben president elect: brien holden vice president: michael lemp vice president: miguel refojo secretary-treasurer: raymond myers assistant secretary: michel guillon the invited manufacturers/sponsor representatives in attendance were: allergan, alcon laboratories, bausch & lomb, ciba geigy, cooper labs, dow corning, hydron, hydrocurve, kelvin lenses, smith and nephew, syntex and toyo. the inaugural meeting schedule was set to reflect the key topics of the day: corneal oedema and oxygen needs physiological and pathological responses to contact lenses systems for disinfection 66 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 lens spoilation new measurement techniques one of the most prophetic comments about lens spoilation was dr wichterle’s remarks that the solution to lens deposition was to replace the lens because he believed that technological development will dramatically decrease the cost of the soft contact lens and approximately seven years later vistakon launched disposable contact lenses. membership the steering committee effectively set the credential criteria and “standard” for prospective members of the isclr. while an attempt was made to invite individuals with a high level of research ability to the first meeting in london of this fledgling society, the steering committee was mindful to include clinicians with some research experience in the contact lens field as well as a reasonable publication record. the aim was to establish a society with a complexion of active researchers in the field of contact lenses that included optometrists, ophthalmologists and scientists in allied fields who could contribute fresh perspectives to help understand the nuances of contact lenses and resulting ocular responses. the council met at the first symposium in london in 1980 to determine the size of the society. the decision was to limit the number of members primarily because the type of symposium that was envisaged by the council would be focused on “discussion” that would follow short presentations. there was also a concern about how to finance the society and whether members could afford the cost of attending the meeting due to international air travel. it was then agreed to limit the membership to 100. in order to continue to hold membership within the society, members had to attend at least one of two consecutive scientific meetings as the criterion for active membership was attendance and participation at these meetings. the vibrancy of the society was influenced by new developments and to entice young researchers in the field to become members to ensure turnover of membership. this was made possible by those who lost interest in the society or deviated to other fields ceasing membership. by way of example, between the periods 2010 to 2020, 54 new members joined the society. approximately 30 applications are received during each two-year cycle of membership review. prospective members, based on acceptance as members of the society following ratification by the council, were also invited to attend the meeting. the scientific meeting lengthy deliberations of the council over the first several meetings led to a format for future scientific meetings that would include keynote addresses by selected experts who were not necessarily members of the society and short presentations by members that would follow the keynotes in selected session themes. each session would be controlled by a moderator. this would be followed by discussion amongst panelists in each session with encouraged participation by the rest of members. the intention was to devote the majority of the time for discussion in each session of the symposium, rather than presentations. this “think-tank” concept was similar in style to the gordon conferences that various members had attended. the meeting would be “closed,” meaning that it was restricted to the members, invited keynote speakers, prospective members and eventually graduate students. the principle was to allow members and their students to present unpublished research of novel concepts to elicit discussion. contact lens corporation research and development employees were also invited to participate. following the first meeting in london, future meetings spanned five days in duration. another stipulated restriction was that the leading-edge research presented and discussed could not be published (in the form that it was presented), publicized, quoted or cited nor distributed, other than through the written or recorded transactions by the society to the meeting attendees and members of the society who were not in attendance. it wasn’t until 1990 that the vision of the society was finally and suitably described by michael lemp: “the basic framework of the organisation was to bring together, in an informal setting, a limited number of individuals from different disciplines, united by their interest and proven expertise in the field of contact lens research.” and so the blue print was established for an exchange of new ideas and the most current research on contact lenses and allied fields. the meeting format developed continues to this day. it was decided that the meeting would be held every two years, rotating though north america, europe and asia pacific. this reflects the goal of keeping the society and its membership truly international. twenty-one scientific meetings have been held since 1980. the contact lens and allied corporations the steering committee realized that involvement by the manufacturers was critical to the launch and success of the society for a number of reasons. the growth opportunities in the hydrogel contact lens market was highly dependent on the innovation, research and development of each corporation and their scientists. these researchers would obviously benefit from the scientific interaction at the isclr meeting, could also contribute important knowledge (without divulging proprietary information) and would meet the leading researchers and clinicians in the field. in return for participation, the manufacturers were asked to make a financial contribution to support the scientific meeting. this was done and the companies have contributed to every one of these meetings held biannually for 40 years. this can be counted as an astounding success story where companies who would normally be competitive, collaborated to pursue scientific advancement of the field. involving the next generation one of the great features of the isclr and its meeting is it offers an opportunity for higher degree research students to attend and present their work that could be discussed in real time with some of the leading researchers from the society and invited keynote speakers. in turn, members were able to assess the students as potential members for the society. according to myers’ records3 graduate students attended the first meeting in london in 1980 and for the next symposium in montreal, four students were invited. in the latter years the number of student attendees was increased to 16 from approximately 30 solicited applications per meeting. not all were offered the opportunity to do short verbal presentations, but all students presented their work as posters. the article woods & fonn hindsight: journal of optometry history 67 students had to be affiliated with members of the society. research and development in the soft contact lens field spawned and stimulated by the isclr this biannual meeting would fundamentally be like no other in so much that it was focused on the science of contact lenses with a debating/discussion meeting style. the meeting design has continued to the present day, with the philosophy to continue to bring great contact lens minds together, and to seek out leaders in other fields that might help unravel problems that have plagued our industry and to develop concepts and ideas on how to improve contact lens success. all the researchers (basic and clinical) who were attracted to the isclr were independently and collectively conducting research in this new science and did not necessarily need the isclr to guide their research endeavors. however, the isclr can lay claims for assembling the members and synthesizing their information that in many cases provided the impetus for direction. this has been the case over the past 40 years but it is far beyond the scope and space allocation of this paper to describe the 21 scientific meeting discussion and transactions but some important ones that had significant influence on the field will be included. myers’ book2 provides some information but does not include communication from the meetings beyond 2009. members can access the isclr web site for more details on these meetings. the first scientific meeting, london 1980 the extraction from the program and transactions of the first scientific meeting in london is a great example of the themes that were discussed. the two-day meeting comprised of 6 sessions: corneal oxygen needs and edema, responses of the ocular tissues to contact lenses, pathological responses, systems for disinfecting lenses, new techniques for patient evaluation and lens spoilation. in the first session, consider the topics: measurement of corneal oxygen consumption and its relationship to corneal swelling, the minimum oxygen tension to avoid corneal swelling, etiology of hard and soft lens induced edema, corneal oxygen requirements for open and closed eye conditions with and without lens wear; epithelial, endothelial and sensory response to contact lenses, pathological responses such as inflammation, chronic hyperemia, vascularization and the “red eye” syndrome, reaction to solutions cytotoxicity and corneal infections; discussion on the tear layers and meibomian glands and lens deposits. at this first meeting, discussions on how to reduce the cytotoxicity from lens care systems highlighted the issues that occurred from the preservatives used in lens care. we had to wait seven years for the first multipurpose lens care system (renu) to be launched. an emphasis on oxygen many of these themes continued at subsequent meetings in montreal, canada, two years later and in cambridge, england, in 1984. specifics from the montreal meeting are important to mention because of the research that emanated, such as contact lens–tear film interaction that included preand post-lens tear film structure, lens wetting and surface characteristics and preventing deposits. in the session on material development and performance, the topics of oxygen permeability measurement, lens water content and evaporation were discussed. that was followed by the effects of contact lenses on the anatomy and physiology of the eye, extended wear and the meeting ended with the discussion on lens design and behavior. there were at least two important developments from the early meetings that revolved around oxygen. the first was trying to understand how much oxygen was needed to avoid corneal edema. it wasn’t until 1984 that holden and mertz4 published their landmark paper on this topic describing the minimum oxygen requirement to avoid corneal swelling during both daily and overnight contact lens wear. as a consequence of the discussion on the levels of oxygen needed to avoid corneal edema was the knowledge that there was inconsistency in the methods to measure oxygen permeability of contact lens materials. this led to a global debate and eventually an alignment on how these measures needed to incorporate the edge effect and boundary effect adjustment and that there were two recognizable measurement methods; the coulemetric5 and the fatt method6. this resulted in a second development which was unique for the isclr: it sanctioned an “interest group” to meet specifically to standardize a method for reporting permeability (dk) measurements by having different groups around the world measure the same set of ‘standard’ lenses. this resulted in an important paper published by the isclr group.7 optical performance and extended wear at the meeting in cambridge in 1984 a new and timely topic, optical performance and image quality, was introduced that took up an entire session. the program outline showed a clear deviation from the principle of isclr of minimum presentation time in this session by including 10 speakers on various optical performance and image formation topics in this emerging field. there must have been good reason to include so many even if the presentations were very short. that was followed by material properties of hard and soft lenses and sessions three and four were devoted to the effects of daily and extended wear on the cornea. numerous concepts that stemmed from observations related mainly to the effects of extended wear of soft contact lenses were presented and discussed, notably how corneal physiology altered (e.g. changes in corneal thickness, loss of corneal sensitivity, etiology of microcysts and endothelial changes) but seemingly little was discussed about corneal infections. that would change dramatically beginning in 1990 at the meeting in monte carlo, monaco. refractive surgery and contact lens visual performance for the first time refractive surgery was included in the program in s’agaro, spain in 1986. although ophthalmologists only represented about 10-15% of the membership over the years, there was considerable interest amongst many other members in the procedures (although limited at that time), as there was much to learn about the effects of altering corneal shape to eliminate refractive error (predominantly myopia at that time). refractive surgery would become a standard session inclusion in many of the future meetings. coupled to the surgery was the exciting advancement of techniques to measure corneal topography discussed in the same session. an extensive list of subjects was article woods & fonn 68 volume 52, number 3, july 2021 included in the ocular and contact lens surface session such as lens deposition, lens wettability and elegant dynamic imaging presentations of the pre-lens tear film. as far as we could tell, three other novel concepts were introduced: the idea that osmolarity was a useful measure to indicate tear stability (the report of the national eye institute dry eye workshop published in 1995 that confirmed its value8); that contact lens-induced papillary conjunctivitis had an immunological basis; and that dehydration and soft contact lens comfort are linked. contact lens visual performance of aspheric rigid gas permeable single vision lenses was a hot topic but it seemed that there was even more discussion time on the visual performance of monovision and the latest bifocal lenses. themes that dominated the meetings in the 90s and 2000s the epidemiology and etiology of microbial keratitis (mk) and corneal inflammatory events (cie) have been a significant part of each program during the 20-year period and was well established both independently and within the isclr that these conditions were more prevalent with extended wear of soft contact lenses. there was great anticipation that silicone hydrogels would minimize or even eliminate mk because of the significant increase in oxygen transmission but society members who studied this phenomenon found that the incidence did not alter compared to low dk hydrogel lenses. in addition, research presented at the isclr scientific meetings in the last decade has demonstrated that there is an increased incidence of cies with silicone hydrogels compared to hydrogels for both daily and extended wear. evidence of microbial attachment to lens surfaces and to corneal epithelial cells was presented as a more likely cause of infections and inflammation. the development of silicone hydrogels was the big breakthrough that commanded considerable discussion time during the 2000s because of the virtual elimination of hypoxia but these lenses did cause mechanical complications due to high lens modulus in the first generation lenses. this would be the segue to mention the isclr’s preoccupation with the illusive contact lens discomfort and dryness etiology which has also been part of the programs over the last three decades. great discussions on this subject has led to the conclusion that the cause is multifactorial: mechanical which includes lens modulus, design, inflammation, hypoxia, the anterior lens surface/tear film/tarsal conjunctival interaction. it was well established that the most common reason for discontinuation of lens wear was discomfort. this has significantly retarded the growth of contact lens wear. daily disposable lenses (dd) were introduced to the market about the same time as silicone hydrogels and these lenses were also purported to mitigate mk from extended wear, but that was not the case. however reports at the meetings showed that the incidence of cies decreased quite significantly with dd lenses. the spinoff of visual decrement from refractive surgery was the development and use of wavefront aberrometry to measure higher order aberrations. this explained so much about the effects of altered corneal topography particularly from the early refractive surgery procedures and the fairly recent reemergence of orthokeratology (ok). both instruments have become invaluable in understanding corneal shape pathologies such as keratoconus. confocal microscopy and optical coherence tomography demonstrated how useful these instruments are in studying “in depth” features of ocular tissue associated with lens wear. the last decade contradictory results have been presented on the relationship between lens induced discomfort and dryness and lid wiper epitheliopathy. the hypothesis is that the anterior lens surface changes (dehydrates?) causing increased friction between the lens and tarsal conjunctiva leading to localized trauma and symptoms. researchers have been able to use tribology to successfully measure resistance or lubricity of the lens surface but those are invitro techniques. contact lenses are mostly corrective devices, but one important therapeutic use that has been expounded is the use of hydrogels as drug delivery devices. there have been many remarkable and ingenious discoveries in the last 50 years of the eyecare business. arguably the two most significant have been the soft contact lens and refractive surgery but these two would be dwarfed by a contact lens device and/or pharmacological agent that would predictably retard the development and progression of myopia. society scientific meetings involving this subject started discussions well before the last decade about research on the epidemiology and etiology of myopia and use of both scls and ok designs to control myopia progression. at the last meeting in singapore in 2019 the three themes were: minimizing infection and inflammation, improving comfort and functions and new applications: myopia control and alternative uses of contact lenses. alas, then covid derailed society plans for a meeting in 2021. what of the future? the isclr is in a very healthy state. sixteen new young members were admitted to the society in 2019. an active and energetic executive committee and council with a set of officers already planning for the next meeting in 2022. industry support is stronger and more engaged than ever. we can all be very thankful for the foresight and ingenuity of “the three musketeers,” monty ruben, brien holden and ray myers and ably assisted by michel guillon who forged ahead and watched the isclr grow into a unique and apolitical society. using a think-tank model for open, unadulterated discussion on the latest research and ideas amongst clinicians, researchers, students, industry colleagues and authoritative scientific outsiders who offered fresh perspectives to our field, created an opportunity for frank exchange of knowledge and direction for future research. we apologize for not naming the many past and present members who have contributed tirelessly in administrative capacities and for unselfishly sharing their knowledge, research and ideas. article woods & fonn hindsight: journal of optometry history 69 article woods & fonn references 1. dhew publication no. (hra) 75-1520 series 10 – no.93. 2. myers ri. metamorphosis of contact lenses: 1970-1980. hindsight: j optom hist 2021;52(2): 22-26. 3. myers ri. international society for contact lens research – the first 30 years. 2009. 4. holden ba, mertz gw. critical oxygen levels to avoid corneal edema for daily and extended wear contact lenses. invest ophthalmol vis sci 1984;25:1161-1167. 5. iso international standard 9913-2. determination of oxygen permeability and transmissibility by the coulometric method. geneva, switzerland: international organization for standardization, 2000. 6. iso international standard 9913-1. determination of oxygen permeability and transmissibility by the fatt method. geneva, switzerland: international organization for standardization, 1996. 7. holden ba, newton-howes j, winterton l, fatt i, hamano h, la hood d, brennan na, efron n. the dk project: an interlaboratory comparison of dk/l measurements. optom vis sci 1990; 67:476-481. 8. lemp ma. report of the national eye institute/industry workshop on clinical trials in dry eyes. clao j 1995;21:221232. the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 63141 toll free: 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 | fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org and are heritage services programs of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 52fradkin: irving fradkin irving fradkin (1921-2016), practicing optometrist and founder of scholarship america russell fradkin, o.d. 999 providence road, whitinsville, ma 01588 russ.jane12@gmail.com irving fradkin was born in 1921 in chelsea, massachusetts. he was the youngest of seven children of jewish immigrants, his father from russia and his mother from poland.1 he had thoughts of becoming a baker, but his experience getting glasses led him to decide to become an optometrist. he worked his way through school at his father’s bakery, graduating from massachusetts college of optometry (now the new england college of optometry) in 1943. after graduation, fradkin set up practice in fall river, massachusetts, a working class mill town. he acknowledged that he was blessed to be living in the united states and he wanted somehow to give something back. having a strong belief in the importance of education and knowing that many of his young patients did not attend college due to financial constraints, he decided to do something about it. he ran for the fall river school committee in the 1950s on a platform of community support for college scholarships for local students. he lost the election but decided to start a program anyway. fradkin founded citizens scholarship foundation, better known as dollars for scholars, in 1958. he had the idea that if everyone in their community gave one dollar, enough money would be available for worthy students to get a college education. fradkin always thought big. starting his program, he called president eisenhower’s white house collect. eleanor roosevelt happened to be visiting the oval office at the time, took the call, accepted the charges, and made the first one dollar donation. the comedian sam levenson was the first honorary spokesman for the scholarship program and called fradkin “an optometrist with vision.” in the first year, fradkin and community volunteers raised $4,500 to give scholarships to 24 high school students from fall river and the surrounding area. fradkin ran citizens scholarship foundation for many years. a few years ago the name of the organization was changed to scholarship america. today scholarship america is a nonprofit organization with thousands of volunteers. since its beginning in the 1950s, it has provided 3.5 billion dollars in scholarships to over 2.2 million students.2 before his death in 2016, fradkin received many recognitions and awards for his contributions to society. he was a finalist for the congressional medal of honor foundation citizens before self award. he was optometrist of the year of the massachusetts college hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 53fradkin: irving fradkin of optometry alumni association (1965), and he received honorary degrees from new england college of optometry (2008) and stonehill college (2014).3-5 fradkin’s work sometimes had surprising benefits. the supervisor of the emergency room where he received care after a 1988 heart attack comforted him, telling him that she had been able to attend nursing school because of his program.1 references 1. roberts s. irving fradkin, founder of dollars for scholars program, dies at 95. new york times. www.nytimes.com, dec. 2, 2016. accessed jan. 5, 2017. 2. letter from robert c. ballard, president and ceo of scholarship america to jasiel f. correia ii, mayor of fall river, massachusetts, august 16, 2016. 3. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:107. 4. dr. irving fradkin, od ’43, founder of dollars for scholars, dies at age 95. new england college of optometry, dec. 9, 2016. www.neco.edu. accessed feb. 2, 2017. 5. remembering dr. fradkin. the herald news of fall river, nov. 22, 2016. www. heraldnews.com. accessed feb. 2, 2017. hindsight_54_2_final.pdf hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 54 number 2 fall 2023 hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x fall, 2023 volume 54, number 2 editor: david a. goss, od, phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: john amos, od, ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu chair lilien vogl, od drvogl@cox.net editor david a. goss, od, phd dgoss@indiana.edu members maria armandi, o.d. marmandi@salus.edu taylor babcock, o.d. tdbabcock@gmail.com linda casser, od lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, od viktoria@davismn.net w. howard mcalister, od, mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, od rimyersod@gmail.com carol parker, od drparker4564@gmail.com jennifer reilly, o.d., msc reillyj@neco.edu sara warsing swarsing28@midwestern.edu optometry cares® the aoa foundation molly brown program manager mbrown@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: dgoss@indiana.edu. ohs committee 2023 bernard grolman, inventor of the non-contact tonometer. (photo from archives and museum of optometry) hindsight: journal of optometry history 31 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 54 number 2 fall 2023 table of contents35 44 49 news 32 editorials from the editor 33 david a. goss, o.d., phd guest editorial 34 viktoria davis. o.d. letter to the editor 35 larry baitch, o.d., phd articles the history of optometry journals from a bibliometric perspective 36 jason j. nichols, phd, mph, od; philip b. morgan, phd, bsc(hons); lyndon w. jones, dsc, phd, bsc(hons); nathan efron, phd, dsc, bsc(optom) tonometry through time 44 carol b. parker, od, and kara l. tison, od the history of the passage of legislation authorizing the alabama 49 board of optometric scholarship awards john f. amos, od, ms, dos three eye and vision care history organizations: their emphases, 61 activities, and how to get involved david a. goss, od, phd; charles e. letocha, md; john dixon salt, bsc, fcoptom; tony chahine, od blast from the past papers dr. bess coleman, optometrist: kentuckian, chicagoan, and pioneer 64 karli clark, b.s. all eyes on her: celebrating women in low vision history 66 trevor phillips, b.a. the development of the infantsee program 69 jessica palmer s book reviews how the ray gun got its zap: odd excursions into optics 70 david a. goss, od, phd as far as the eye can see: a history of seeing 71 david a. goss, od, phd israel dvorine bernard grolman george robert (bob) crosby, od 70 how the ray gun got its zap: odd excursions into optics. stephen r. wilk. 90 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 article raymond i. myers, od the origins of the american optometric student association 1967-1972 raymond i. myers, od emeritus clinical professor, university of missouri – st. louis rimyers@umsl.edu abstract the american optometric student association (aosa) was founded in 1968, and the early efforts made at that time established a framework that has led to the subsequent success of the organization. all u.s. schools were constituent members within five years of its founding, with a membership of 80% of all optometry students, and it became affiliated with the american optometric association (aoa) in 1974. its success as a professional student organization is a result of professionalization, associations with the aoa, and a role in the present and future developments of the optometric profession. this paper examines the origins, founding, and first few years of the aosa and identifies many of the individuals who played important roles in its founding. the american optometric student association will reach the 50th year anniversary in 2018 with a 2017 membership of 95% of the total number of u.s. and canadian optometry students.1 its origins came in the late 1960’s at a time of general student unrest, and with some support and counsel from the american optometric association (aoa). all schools were constituent members within five years and aosa became affiliated with aoa in 1974. in 2012, the aoa news conducted a one year survey presenting about 20 events with articles published over 50 years. they asked readers, “which were the ten most significant news stories?” the second most significant article was the announcement of the aosa formation in 1967.2 aosa’s success in part has been from its strong association with the aoa and a student population responding to the opportunities and challenges of a legislated profession. aosa pre-cursors aosa originated during the last half of the 1960’s creating student involvement in the profession, and at a unique time in history when college students were very active in social causes from civil rights, the vietnam war and opposition to the military draft. during the 1960’s, new professional student organizations began, and existing ones established autonomies from their comparable senior organizations. unbeknownst to aosa organizers at the time, two well-known australians, damien p. smith,3 former president of the world council of optometry, and cornea and contact lens researcher brien a. holden4 established the australian optometrical student society. the student american medical association, although previously a part of the american medical association, reorganized as an independent organization. inside their profession, the american bar association advocated and established with students the law student division.5 aoa’s acceptance of aosa’s formation was likely improved by a youthful aoa board at the time. of the thirteen aoa officers and co-founder (1967) and first president (1968) raymond i. myers (iu) (photo courtesy of ray myers). co-founder & student review editor (1968), burton e. worrell, jr. (ucb) (photo courtesy of burt worrell). hindsight: journal of optometry history 91 co-founder ellis j. hoffman (1967-68), pco (photo from salus university alumni affairs). aosa president (1969) robert j mittleman (pco) (photo from salus university alumni affairs). trustees in 1967-68, seven were first elected as trustees at 45 years of age or younger. four who are recognized in this article as aosa founders eventually became president of the aoa (richard l. hopping, b.j. shannon, john c. tumblin, and melvin d. wolfberg). two of those later became chief executive officers at optometry schools (hopping and wolfberg) and one other (h.w. hofstetter) held a top university position while being aoa trustee and later president. if he had his way in 1942, irvin m. borish, one of the dynamos in optometry and then a young faculty member at illinois college of optometry, would have established the aosa. the biography of borish6 authored by educator william r. baldwin discussed these efforts and recognized that leaders in optometric education and in political optometry worked against borish in establishing a student organization. borish noted the major difference compared with the 1960’s was that students lead the effort in an era of strong student unrest in that latter time. both borish and baldwin were intimately involved in optometric education in the 1960’s and they recognized there was still a significant opposition toward aosa development by those same groups. aosa origins in this article, the author chose the period of 1967-1972 because he was personally involved with aosa,7, 8 and an important benchmark was met in 1972 when all american schools were affiliates and student membership reached 80%.9 three individuals are often considered aosa co-founders, because they were largely responsible for its origin and subsequent continuation from 1967 to 1970. they were ellis j. hoffman of pennsylvania college of optometry (currently named salus university), raymond i. myers of indiana university, and burton e. worrell of the university of california berkeley. two of the three individuals, myers and hoffman, had strong associations with aoa. at least one year before aosa establishment, hoffman had created project envoy under aoa auspices, a national student organization for preoptometry recruitment. in 1967 and before, hoffman created the project envoy board with student leaders from each optometry school. it was coordinated with the aoa committee on vocational guidance and staff member william l. mccracken. approximately six months later and independent of hoffman, myers was looking at aoa for a summer job after his first year at indiana university. this began a five year association first as a part time student, then full time for three years after graduation. myers’ connections with aoa and optometric education were solidified through iu director (dean), h. w. hofstetter, who was also moving through aoa officer positions. during the second half of 1967 much of the aosa activity was among myers, hoffman, and mccracken. mccracken had proposed to the assistance to graduates and undergraduates committee several years earlier that aoa take the lead in organizing a national student organization, but it never proceeded any further. hoffman recognized that project envoy might be difficult to maintain on a national level given its limited purpose, but its structure could hasten aosa development. among the board, burton e. worrell, president of the student optometric society of the university of california berkeley, showed great interest in this new pursuit. his major contributions extended until his graduation in june, article raymond i. myers, od 92 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 1969. as editor of the newsletter student review, he was more correctly the mass communicator with students and chapters. aosa constitutional convention aosa’s constitutional convention on january 8-10, 1968, took place fortuitously in philadelphia, as did america’s continental congress and constitutional convention approximately two hundred years earlier. although the committee would eventually include input from students of all schools and multiple representatives from the three schools of the co-founders, the aosa constitutional convention consisted of five to eight pennsylvania college of optometry (pco) students, ellis hoffman, and raymond myers. strangely, they met at a stock brokerage office in philadelphia, where a video ticker tape displayed instant stock exchange results. since this was during christmas vacation, hoffman determined that the most expedient way to keep the pco group together for several days was to meet where some would be otherwise. myers agreed, but thinking of his iu student cohorts in the midwest, none would likely have stepped into a brokerage office during vacation. this was the first important lesson that students learn to this day at aosa national conferences: the most interesting comparisons are the mores and contrasts among students from different schools! constitutional and by-laws issues in philadelphia were important to this fledging society. at least three days of spirited deliberation were followed later by back and forth communication among the co-founders, pco, and indiana university committee members, as well as the project envoy board from every optometry school. several matters deserved more attention by the group. one was how to keep the organization strong when individuals had a potential of office for only a few years. partly, this involved tying in and promoting existing school councils. considering that the presidents and other organizations had allegiances to local activities, an aosa chapter wherever possible would still be the existing student council. another tenet was that the national board member was separate from the council president. a third tenet was to allow any optometry student regardless of class or position to be eligible for national officer positions. a further dilemma was, what should be the relationship of aosa to aoa? students did not particularly appreciate the need for a strong relationship or see what was to be gained. also, as borish observed, not everyone in political optometry or education wanted a national student association. there was little dissension among all parties that some type of involvement and recognition was desirable. this might include committee involvement, but not necessarily an immediate aosa representation in the aoa house of delegates. in march, 1968, the aoa board of trustees considered the proposal to grant aosa recognition. the proposal10 was most importantly a blueprint how aosa would proceed with its development. any aoa recognition would not affect the short term. the aoa board chose to table official aosa recognition at their meeting, and it was not until 1974 that aoa established an official affiliation of aosa.11 they have been the largest affiliated association ever since.1 aosa progress ellis hoffman graduated in june article raymond i. myers, od irvin m. borish, an optometry dynamo and primary author of clinical refraction, was a sympathetic supporter of aosa’s 1968 founding. later in his elder years, he appropriately represented excellence in optometric education at the optometry student bowl, the game show format quiz competition held as part of the annual aosa meeting. (photo courtesy of aosa). hindsight: journal of optometry history 93 article raymond i. myers, od 1968, but until then hoffman communicated with the schools and strengthened ties with aosa, leaving myers and worrell to maintain the continuity in the second year. early in the year donald s. teig of pco and larry g. sayre of iu were responsible for communicating with their respective student councils. the first aosa officers (june, 1968june, 1969) were raymond myers, president; jeffrey m furman, vice president; and burton e. worrell as editor of the student review. furman (pco) took hoffman’s place and implemented aosa at his school which became and remained an important model for others schools12 on how to bring close to 100% of the student body quickly into aosa. myers maintained the interaction with aoa which also helped in some of the administrative functions and costs. worrell communicated with optometry students nationally, which was always larger than the number of dues-paying members, and he implemented strategies for adding aosa member services. following worrell as student review editor 1970-71 was richard t. trask of the university of california. (see table 1) his success in communication was evident in the rapid expansion in numbers of aosa members and college affiliates during the next two years when trask advanced to president and john e. fawcett of indiana university became his vice president. one year later fawcett advanced to president and announced that four schools were added to complete affiliation of all us schools, while aosa membership advanced to over 80%! 9, 12 during aosa’s constitutional convention, one of the most crucial issues was how to utilize best the experience and knowledge of a revolving and short tenure of student officers. during the period of 1970-73, arguably aosa’s most expansionary period for membership and affiliated organizations, four aosa officers held two aosa officerships or editorship. not mentioned so far was cecil furer of pco who in 1972 as vice president traveled to massachusetts college of optometry (currently, new england college) with a delegation, a strong cadre of other pco leaders and brought new england into aosa. further history from the 1971-74 period is included in ronald ferrucci’s article12 in this issue. ferrucci succeeded furer as president and was vital in establishing the chapter at massachusetts. aosa founders such a meaningful organization could not have been a result coming from primarily one or even several individuals, but included many others during the formative years of 1967 to 1972. “aosa founders” listed in table 2 recognize the following groups: 1) pco and indiana university committee members; 2) project envoy board; 3) aosa national officers, editors, and two key committee chairs (anthony di stefano and ronald ferrucci) through 1972; 4) key faculty advisors from the title page of the 1968 proposal9; and 5) key aoa officers and staff. in august 1970, the aoa hired myers as director of career guidance, and as staff liaison to aosa. myers facilitated communications through 1972 with various aoa committees, particularly the committee on assistance to graduates and undergraduates. aoa also expanded their services to students including restarting the aoaaosa placement service and creating the aoa student loan fund. gradually, aosa under the leadership of third president richard trask brought officers together for the first national congress in houston in 1971. in 1972, aosa membership would increase to 80% and include all schools, and aosa had their second national congress at memphis, tennessee, chaired by dan e. owen (sco). there were several hundred students including 16 students from the university of waterloo from ontario, canada who drove the furthest distance of almost 1,000 miles. an important demonstration of aosa’s potential at its inception was an interprofessional effort by multiple student health organizations leading to the national coalition of student professional organizations. among numerous initiatives from the health manpower act of 1966, congress dramatically increased funding benefitting training, school construction, and healthcare facilities. after providing health students ample scholarship and loan funds for several years, congress then decided to reduce the funding substantially. robert mittleman, aosa’s second president, represented the allied health coalition and aosa, along with the student american medical association, and testified before congress. in future years, other administrations continued the alliance to preserve student funding and interprofessional communication. aosa nearly 50 years later the american optometric student association (aosa) will reach its 50th year anniversary in 2018 with a membership of 95% of the total number of optometry students. the success of aosa 50 years after its founding is a result of forces that have built on each other over many years. major innovations in the profession often proceed through changes in optometric education where student 94 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 article raymond i. myers, od input provides perspective and acceptance. aosa’s potential was apparent early. the value in giving the students a stake in their future is important not only for their future capabilities, but also for adding their inexperienced but reasoned opinions to current debates. acknowledgments i acknowledge contributions by ronald ferrucci, president of the optometric historical society; david goss, hindsight editor; robert foster, former executive director; and kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist, the archives & museum of optometry. references 1. personal communication with robert foster, aosa executive director. 2. no. 2, aosa names board of directors. aoa news 9/2013: 17. 3. collins hb. damien p. smith am. optometry’s leader – profile. clin exp opt 2002; 4:256-8. 4. personal communication with brien a holden. 5. morris ef. association membership for law students. amer bar assoc j 6/1967; 536-538. 6. baldwin wr. borish. springfield, ma: bassett co, 2006: 230-231. 7. myers ri. unite! optometry students (guest editorial). aoa news 7/1967; 6(9):2. 8. myers ri. a report to the aoa on the american optometric student association. optom weekly 1969; 60(32):43-44. 9. di stefano af. the student… first stage in making an od. pennsylvania optom. may-june, 1972; 32(3):15-17. 10. american optometric student association: submitted by the committee on aosa development for consideration by the board of trustees of the american optometric association, february 7, 1968. 11. goldberg fe. the history of the american optometric student association. student review 5/1975: 5. 12. ferrucci r aosa---the formative years and beyond-- a capsule summary of the years 1971-74. hindsight 2017;48:96-102: j optom hist 2017;48. table 1. early aosa officers 1968-69 officers president: raymond i. myers (iu) vice president: jeffrey m. furman (pco)* student review editor: burton e. worrell (uc) 1969-70 officers president: robert j. mittleman (pco)* secretary-treasurer: andy l. nemeth (iu)* student review editor: richard t. trask (uc)* journal of the aosa: martin rothchild (pco)* 1970-71 officers president: richard t. trask (uc)* vice president: john e. fawcett (iu) student review editor: david c. allen (uc) 1971-72 officers president: john e. fawcett (iu) vice president: cecil d. furer (pco)* secretary: albert velasco (sco) treasurer: connie m. pollack (iu) 1972-73 officers president: cecil d. furer (pco)* vice president: ronald e. dachelet (ua) secretary: dan e. owen (sco) treasurer: connie m. pollack (iu) *deceased as of june 1, 2015 hindsight: journal of optometry history 95 article raymond i. myers, od table 2. aosa founders, 1967-72 mark abelman (pco)* david c. allen (ucb)# kenneth d. clanton (uh)# david clark (pco)* william e. cochran (sco)# john e. fawcett (iu)# ronald r. ferrucci (neco)# mary l. freitag (iu)* cecil d. furer (pco)# jeffrey m. furmon (pco)* herbert glatt (pco)* harold gottlieb (tosu)^ marvin j. hertzal (neco)^ ellis j. hoffman (pco)* avery g. hill (iu)* gary hollenbeck (iu)* jorge d. huston (iu)* judson r. ireland (pco)^ edward johnston (pco)* robert j. mittleman (pco)# thomas m. moore (iu)* raymond i. myers (iu)*# andy l. nemeth (iu)# martin newman (pco)* dan e. owen (sco)# algernon a. phillips (pco)*^ connie m. pollack (iu)# richard raymond (pco)* martin rothchild (pco)# larry g. sayre (iu)* philip schub (pco)* melvin simmons (pco)* david souza (scco)^ anthony f. di stefano (pco)# donald s. teig (pco)* alan j. touch (iu)*^ richard t. trask (ucb)# lewis verdelli (pco)* richard weber (pco)* burton e. worrell, jr. (ucb)#*^ kenneth r. zuroff (pu)^ weston p. zeuge (ico) faculty and american optometric association advisors anthony j. adams (iu) jack w. bennett (iu) irvin m. borish (iu) henry w hofstetter (iu, aoa) richard l. hopping (aoa) william l. maccracken (aoa) meredith w. morgan (ucb) b.j. shannon (aoa) lewis a.f. stockley (iu) john c. tumblin (aoa) melvin d. wolfberg (aoa) key * 1968 committee on aosa development ^ project envoy board and school respondent # aosa officer, student review editor, recognized leader aoa – american optometric association ico – illinois college of optometry iu – indiana university neco – new england college of optometry, formerly massachusetts college of optometry pco – pennsylvania college of optometry pu – pacific university sco – southern college of optometry scco – southern california college of optometry tosu – the ohio state university ucb – university of california berkeley uh – university of houston hindsight_48_4_final 8 hindsight_48_4_final 9 hindsight_48_4_final 10 hindsight_48_4_final 11 hindsight_48_4_final 12 hindsight_48_4_final 13 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 14 the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 18982015, part 1 r. norman bailey, ma, od, mba, mph clinical professor, retired university of houston college of optometry nbailey@uh.edu abstract background: the history surrounding the development of codes of ethics and other official statements of desired professional conduct adopted by the american optometric association (aoa) reveals the struggle optometry faced in the united states of america (usa) in establishing itself as a leading primary health care profession. methods: information regarding the events and documents reported in this paper were obtained through research of the historical literature and archival material held in the archives & museum of optometry at the american optometric association's headquarters at 243 n. lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo; through current association documents; and from discussions with those participating in the drafting of the more recent updates to the association’s ethical statements; codes, oaths, standards, and resolutions. this writing is an update to an earlier paper by the author, the history of ethics in the american optometric association 1898-1994. j am optom assoc 1994; 65:427-444, which was written to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the then current code of ethics of the aoa. an additional purpose of this present writing is to help the reader understand, from a historical perspective, some of the driving forces and imperatives for the advancement of optometry’s professional stature. results: forces outside as well as within the profession were found to have influenced the drafting and redrafting of the official ethical and professional conduct statements meant to guide the professional behavior of the membership of the aoa. conclusions: ethical codes and other statements of desired conduct have been essential to the establishment of the profession of optometry. as optometry has grown and matured as a provider of primary eye and vision care services, so have its ethical emphases. to further understand the ethical and legal challenges for optometry as it worked to establish itself as a reputable profession, it is suggested the reader investigate in more detail the information provided in the references. any views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the american optometric association. key words: history, ethics, professionalism, code of ethics, the optometric oath, standards of professional conduct, ethics and values committee, american optometric association mailto:nbailey@uh.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 15 o understand the history of the ethics movement within optometry in the usa requires an understanding of the history of the american optometric association itself. much of the history of the ethics movement surrounds the association's efforts to establish the professional status of optometry apart from the commercial practices of its roots in the ophthalmic goods industry. these early efforts attempted to control, if not eliminate, the advertising of ophthalmic goods and professional services. those who practiced in a commercial manner were considered to be practicing unprofessionally and, therefore, unethically. over the years, however, legislation and court decisions subsequently changed the profession's ability to control these behaviors. these actions, along with other considerations, made a committee on ethics, functioning within this somewhat old narrow view of ethics in optometry, no longer an appropriate element within the aoa organizational structure. however, as optometry expanded its scope of practice and assumed a more prominent role in the health care of the nation, there was an interest in bringing a new broader application of ethical principles to the attention of the profession and its practitioners. in 1991 the aoa house of delegates meeting in dallas moved to establish a committee on the ethics and values of optometric care and services to address some of these concerns. the committee eventually became known as the ethics and values committee. this committee has been active in updating optometry’s ethical documents and pronouncements, and in promoting these ethical values within the profession. before launching into more of the history of optometry in the usa and the impact of that history on the development of optometry’s ethical standards and professionalism, let’s consider the professional obligations of any health care profession for insights into optometry’s professional development. looking at the writing of ethicist, david t. ozar, phd in “professional obligations and optometry,” the foreword of the 2000 aoa publication, an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics, we should gain much insight into the background driving optometry to seek recognition as a profession: to begin, it is useful to identify some of the characteristics of professions and professionals that make optometry a profession and an individual optometrist a professional. among the most important characteristics of professions and professionals are these four: first, each profession possesses a distinctive expertise that consists of both theoretical knowledge and the skills necessary to apply that knowledge in practice. to be accepted as a member of a profession, an individual must master the profession’s expertise to a sufficient degree that he or she can be depended on to routinely apply it correctly without direct supervision. second, this combination of theoretical knowledge and the skills for applying it is a necessary means to the achievement of some class of important benefits for members of the larger community, in their individual lives or collectively. third, the acquisition of such expertise ordinarily depends upon extensive theoretical study and training under the direction of persons already a part of the profession. the expertise of a profession is typically exclusive to the t hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 16 members of the profession. those who are not members are typically unable to make timely and dependable judgments in matters pertaining to the profession’s expertise. and fourth, because members of a profession are recognized by the larger community as possessing expertise and because such expertise is ordinarily exclusive to the members, judgments pertaining to the profession’s expertise are usually made by its members. this fact grants a great amount of autonomy to the professions, as decisions made by their members are ordinarily accepted as authoritative within the larger community. nonetheless, a community does not automatically accept the authority of an individual’s or group’s judgments about something simply because the person or group had undergone intensive training or is considered expert. instead, a community might actually be very cautious if it fears that the expert group might use its exclusive expertise solely for the benefit of its members, or even hold the community hostage to their expertise. this risk would be the greatest when, as in the case of most professions, those outside the expert group simply do not have enough understanding of what is at stake to make dependable judgments about it, or to do so quickly enough to take appropriate action. so it is worth asking under what circumstances a society would be acting reasonably to routinely accept the judgments of persons with important, specialized expertise as authoritative. what would justify such a measure of trust of an expert group whose judgments cannot practically be tested because they depend on expertise that others do not have? what sort of social structure could effectively safeguard a community from the potential harms of an expert group’s misuse of its expertise? the answer to this question in the case of the professions is the complex social structure that we call professional obligation or, when it is a characteristic of a profession or an individual professional, professionalism. that is to say, there is a fifth core characteristic of professions and professionals that is, for present purposes, the most important: professions and professionals have special obligations precisely because they are professionals. becoming a member of a profession implies acceptance of a set of standards of professional conduct by that person, both in personal commitment and in actual practice. some people take the view that practicing a profession is no different in principle from selling one’s wares in the marketplace. according to this view, a professional has a product to sell and makes agreements with interested purchasers, and that is all there is to it. beyond some fundamental obligation not to coerce, cheat, or defraud others, which are the ethics of the marketplace, this view holds that a professional has no other obligations to anyone except those undertaken in voluntary agreements with specific individuals or groups. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 17 according to this picture, in other words, there is nothing to which a person is obligated precisely because he or she is a professional. but most people in our society and most professionals themselves hold that when a group becomes a profession, or when an individual becomes a member of a profession, they undertake obligations to act and refrain from acting in certain ways. otherwise, the community and its members would have no good reason to trust the profession and its members to use their exclusive expertise appropriately. fortunately, our society has extensive positive experience with professional obligation and professionalism. the social structure of the professions has effectively shaped the behavior of professionals so that appropriate conduct is typical and aberrations are relatively rare. thus the relationship of trust upon which the mutual flourishing of both the professions and the larger community genuinely depends has been maintained. each profession has expertise that addresses specific aspects of human well-being, either individual or collective; and each profession has distinctive relationships with those whom it serves. in one sense, the content of a professional’s ethical life – what aspects of life the professional takes to be ethically important, and the standards of conduct by which the professional determines how to act, especially when actually engaged in professional practice – is distinctive for each profession.1 historical background throughout its history, the optometric profession in the usa has described its norms of conduct, or professional obligations, by a number of documents, including primarily codes of ethics, standards of conduct, resolutions, and an optometric oath. the need for these documents and for their revisions over time arose as optometry tried to meet its historical challenges, both externally and internally, to fulfill its role as a developing health care profession. optometry sought to be recognized as a profession by both the public and the other health care professions. it had taken thousands of years from the discovery of glass at about 3000 b.c. for the art and science of optometry to reach a level where the public demand for optometric services in the usa could begin to support individuals in a separate profession. in 1898 these services were provided by opticians. this group of opticians, who prescribed spectacles following an adequate measurement of the ‘power of the eyes,’ was more frequently known as refracting opticians. the term ‘optometry’ was used rather extensively during the 1890s to refer to what the refracting opticians did in practice; however, it was not until 1904 that the term ‘optometrist’ was approved by the american association of opticians to refer to those opticians practicing optometry.2 as the following story is read, the “time line” in figure 1 will assist the reader in following the history of ethics and the development of professionalism in the american optometric association. the need to organize in order to protect the public from poorly educated and unscrupulous opticians, reputable practitioners in the late 1800s became interested in organizing for the purpose hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 18 of gaining recognition as a profession through legislative regulation and other means. the science and technology of the profession had advanced to the point where, for the protection of the public, only the technically educated should be licensed to practice. prior to 1901 anyone could practice optometry since there were no state legislative acts regulating this activity. about this time, organized medicine began to see the value of optometric care and the provision of lenses to improve eyesight.3 even though nonmedical individuals developed the science of optometry, organized medicine began efforts to limit to medical practitioners the right to provide this service. the most dramatic early conflict with medicine came in new york between the refracting optician charles f. prentice and oculist h. d. noyes, who wrote prentice criticizing him for charging a separate fee for an optometric examination. subsequently, another new york physician, d. b. st. john roosa, vowed he would have the medical practice act amended to prevent "men of prentice's cult from meddling with ophthalmology." this challenge gave additional energy to the movement that led to the organization of the american association of opticians. the underlying purpose of this movement was to organize the various states to seek legislation to protect the public from the uneducated and the unscrupulous.3 the first attempt by this fledgling profession to gain control came in a bill introduced in new york in 1896 entitled, "an act to regulate the practice of optometry." this effort, however, was unsuccessful at the time largely because it also attempted to regulate the practice of optometry by physicians.4 the first state optometry regulatory act was passed in minnesota in 1901. this legislative action started the process which would see all states and the district of columbia obtain optometry sponsored regulatory acts by 1924.5 early organizational efforts to assist the movement to establish optometry as a legally recognized profession, the american association of opticians was formally organized on october 10, 1898 in new york city. this organization would change its name twice over time and would finally become known as the american optometric association. only six states had independently organized societies prior to the formation of this national organization. the constitution and bylaws of the new organization stated its purpose to be the "advancement of the optical trade in all its branches." this document extended membership to "any person engaged in the manufacture or sale of optical goods . . ."6 the association's charter membership represented 31 states and canada and included refracting and dispensing opticians as well as manufacturers and suppliers of optical goods.6 the different interests of these membership groups led to many of the early internal struggles out of which a strong profession was to emerge. dispensing opticians were forced by medicine to take sides against the refracting opticians in the battle for the new york law.6 by the time of the second american association of opticians' convention in 1899 in rochester, new york, it appeared more and more like this was not to be an organization to meet the needs of the dispensing opticians and manufacturers. disputes between the various factions persisted until membership was limited to the refracting opticians at the 1900 convention in detroit.7 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 19 1898-the american association of opticians is founded. 1901minnesota enacts the first state law defining the practice of optometry. 1904the association approves the term ‘optometrist’ for those opticians performing refractions and related services. the national association encourages the organization of state associations, which work to pass optometric legislation. 1908the first code of ethics for the american association of opticians is adopted. thirteen states have passed optometry laws and the national association has grown to 42 states. 1910the national organization is renamed the american optical association. 1919-the national organization is renamed the american optometric association (aoa). 1923a major revision of the code of ethics is considered but never adopted. 1935the aoa adopts a new code of ethics. 1937reader’s digest articles, optometry on trial, and the aoa response. 1942inauguration of the professional advancement program by the office of ethics and economics. 1944a new version of the code of ethics is adopted. 1946supplements to the code of ethics are adopted. 1950rules of practice are adopted. 1968supplements to the code of ethics and rules of practice are revised. 1970supplements to the code of ethics are revised. 1976the supplements to the code of ethics and rules of practice are replaced by the standards of conduct. 1986the optometric oath is adopted. 1994the aoa celebrates 50th anniversary of the adoption of the 1944 code of ethics. 1994the history of ethics in the american optometric association 1898-1994 is published in the june issue of the aoa journal. 1996recommended curriculum for the teaching of professionalism and ethics in optometry is distributed. 1999standards of conduct modified. 2000an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics is published by the aoa. 2002the 1999 standards of conduct retired to the historical archives. 2005the 1944 code of ethics was minimally modified. 2007the aoa adopts a new code of ethics. 2008the ethical issues in contact lens practice online course was posted to the aoa website. 2011the standards of professional conduct was adopted by the aoa. 2014-2015the online ethics forum was developed and placed on the aoa website. in 1900 the constitution read in part, any person engaged in the practice of optometry shall be eligible for active membership . . . any person of good repute who is a graduate of any reputable optical college or institute, or who has for at least two years practiced as a refracting optician and is recognized as such, shall be eligible to membership in this society. no person shall be deemed or considered a refracting optician who merely deals in spectacles and sells them as any other article of merchandise.8 these constitutional changes were made in spite of the reminder by association president charles lembke at the convention's opening speech that the association “has been organized for the purpose of joining together or blending all parties in the optical calling, figure 1: a time line for the history of ethics and professionalism in the american optometric association hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 20 be they refracting or dispensing opticians, dealers, manufacturers or jobbers. . .”9 lembke, a dispensing optician, was a strong force during the early years of organizational effort. it was also evident that these diverse membership groups would differ in their commercial and professional interests. a sense of the need for ethical standards were there any indications that ethical standards stated in the form of a code of behavior should be a part of this developing association? obviously, the early concerns for protecting the public from the poorly educated and unscrupulous practitioner indicated a concern for professional and ethical values. in a paper read at the june 1899 new york state optical society meeting titled "a code of ethics for opticians," f. l. swart called for an ethical code to govern the opticians and stated this could best be accomplished through a national body. he was calling for specific ethical rules to govern behaviors related to . . . , advertising, scope of practice, and for controlling the peddler optician.10 the diversity of the membership of the american association of opticians would make it difficult to be specific about ethical behavior. however, in an open letter to the membership in 1901, president andrew jay cross stated, "a practical, not too exacting, code of ethics could be adopted.”11 in the march 12, 1902 issue of the jewelers' circularweekly, george a. rogers made the keen observation that, . . . the most potent laws governing the conduct of men have never found a place among the statutes. of this class are the various codes of ethics controlling the practice and the representations of professional men. it is perfectly natural and certainly very important that such codes be generally accepted and adopted. they are laws that are self-made and adopted without a vote, but stronger than statutory enactment. there must soon come to be understood among professional opticians such a code . . . 12 the adoption of a code of ethics would not happen, however, for another seven years. it is worth noting that some state affiliate associations would take official actions regarding educational requirements and codes of ethics before the national organization would formulate official positions.13 the adoption of a code of ethics in 1908, ten years after the american association of opticians was organized, the committee on code of ethics which included a. jay cross as chair, john c. eberhardt, and william e. huston presented a report in the form of a code of ethics that was unanimously passed at the national convention in philadelphia.13, 14 it was not apparent in 1908 that the adoption of this first code of ethics for the aoa, and its subsequent revisions over the years, would present an ongoing challenge as the profession worked to define its core values and to refine the standards to which members would be held accountable.15 the 1908 code of ethics read as follows, hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 21 code of ethics of the american association of opticians (adopted 1908) each member should fully appreciate the responsibilities assumed by him, and endeavor by unceasing study to qualify in the important work of ministering to the visual needs of his fellow men. he should at all times emphasize the fact that optometry is a purely technical profession based on a comprehensive knowledge of the mechanism of the human eye, the skillful manipulation of instruments for its adequate examination, and a knowledge of the properties of light and the relative effect thereon of lenses. he should discourage the use of titles calculated to mislead or cause confusion in the public mind. he should cultivate those sensitivities which permit the formation of standards for the generous appreciation of the work of others and the criticism of his own. his methods of publicity should rigidly adhere to a dignified and modest statement of facts. he should value his services commensurate with his ability, special preparation and skill, always welcoming the opportunity to be generous with his knowledge where the opportunity is needed, thereby realizing in the fullest measure the true success, which lies in the consciousness that the world has profited by his work. 13,14 the association undergoes a name change in 1910 the name of the american association of opticians was changed to the american optical association. even though many members were now referring to themselves as optometrists, there was still concern for offending those using the optician title by adopting "optometric" in the organizational name. finally, at the 1919 annual congress of the american optical association in rochester, minnesota, the organization's name was changed to the american optometric association.16 a failed attempt to adopt a code of ethics in 1923 a new code of ethics was proposed by the committee on code of ethics chaired by william v. nicum who had been secretary of the association between 1918 and 1922. also serving on this committee were fay mcfadden and glenn winslow. the proposed code contained thirty-six items that spelled out what was considered appropriate ethical behavior by optometric practitioners. the delegates decided to refer the code to the affiliate associations for study and to be considered for approval by the national body the following year. this code was never adopted by the aoa.17-19 (see appendix a for this proposed code of ethics) during the development of this unsuccessful code, william v. nicum sought input from others. a number of articles appeared in the literature responding to this attempt to formulate a new and timelier code. an editorial on a national code of optometric ethics published in the optical journal and review of optometry proposed that a code of ethics would encourage membership in the national organization. the individual optometrist would want to be recognized by the public as belonging to a professional organization with high ethical standards. "the enforcement of a stringent code of ethics hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 22 will be the greatest advertisement that the profession can have."20 l. j. anderson, in a letter to the members of the north dakota optometric association, wrote about the need for a national code of ethics, "as a body of professional men, we are divided. we do not all have the same general views and purposes in mind. there is certainly room for difference of opinion in methods of refraction and individual treatment of cases; but in the big things, vital to the welfare of optometry, we must agree if we are to gain recognition and favor.”21 g. l. schneider, on the one hand, called for a very simple code; one which would “. . . be sufficiently acceptable to appear on every piece of association stationery and literature, just as the golden rule. . . .”22 on the other hand, others called for specific rules to govern behavior. bernard meyer wrote, "an organized profession is a trade organized genuinely for the performance of function, according to rules enforcing certain standards for the better protection of the members of the profession and the better service of the public."23 a 1923 editorial in the optical journal and review of optometry stated, a code of optometric ethics should not be made up of a repetition of principles of conduct that are equally applicable to the optometrist, the lawyer, the grocer and the bricklayer. the characteristic of a proper optometric code should be that it carries the general principles of ethical conduct into the optometrist's own offices and there applies them to the special kind of activities and service in which he is engaged . . . there is little use in any of our associations adopting a code of ethics, unless they are prepared to purge their membership of violators of such code. 24 fay mcfadden, a member of the 1923 committee on code of ethics, provided to the optical journal and review of optometry the following comments from a writer, optometry has two things to offer in its field of service to humanity; the self, the knowledge, the skill, the understanding, upon one side; and the mere merchandise upon the other. it is true that the latter may embrace the dual duty of the optician and the merchandiser; but the former embodies his knowledge, his skill, tact, patience, perseverance, his reverence for himself and his fellow man, his honesty, his very purpose of existence; and all this must be backed by his facilities, by every device which his art, or that of others, have devised for his use in optometric work, always provided that it is a useful device, that it is employed for a useful purpose, and not to parade a knowledge or skill he does not possess; that he shall not make a mere bluffer of himself in order to deceive an unsuspecting patron—which, alas! is too often true. 25 the above statements represent the difficulties this profession has always had in relating to its roots in the dispensing optician business. historically, there was often tension between those who advocated for a greater focus on professionalism vs. those who focused on the merchandiser role. the development of codes of ethics and other supplementary documents relating to ‘professional’ behavior has in the past faced difficulties because of this tension. gregg, discussing optometric history, stated, no other profession has ever faced a comparable situation—starting with almost total emphasis on materials and little on service, then trying to gain hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 23 professional stature without complete divorcement from materials; and certainly the materials, lenses and frames are the most tangible commodity with which any health profession deals. . . . the crux of the matter was how to charge the patient. he was accustomed to paying a high price for precious items like gems, gold, glassware, fashionware—and glasses resembled such commodities. he was not used to paying high fees for services alone, or for some numbers written on a piece of paper, or for advice he might not even follow. so glasses were sold, since it was an easy way to charge and in many respects absolutely fair. the public got used to this method, as did the optometrist. . . . so the problems of commercialism, of being labeled a businessman, of ethics, and of proper fee structure in large measure were inherited by optometry because of its very nature.26 codes of ethics were often seen as a way to control commercialism and to strengthen professionalism. the debate continued in the optometric publications27, 28 and elsewhere. during an address before the american medical association in 1928, a prominent ophthalmologist made the point that a major obstacle to consultations between physicians and optometrists was commercialism.29 a new decade and a new code of ethics the 1930s saw state and national organizations making efforts, through litigation and legislation, to limit commercial practice. state governments were increasingly using sales taxes as a source of revenue. organized optometry argued that they used optical materials in the practice of their profession, were not merchants of eyewear and, therefore, should not be subject to this taxation. the various state governments took different actions on this argument.30 the association was having great difficulty establishing and maintaining its professional status. aoa general counsel harold kohn had encouraged the association to adopt a more meaningful code of ethics since that adopted in 1908 by the american association of opticians had been all but forgotten.31 in his report to the 1935 aoa congress, “counsel kohn upheld firmly the position that optometry’s professional service begins when the patient appears in the office and continues all through the examination room and every part of the service until the patient leaves the office – professional all through the procedure.”32 the resolutions committee presented a somewhat extensive code of ethics to the 1935 aoa house of delegates (hod) in coral gables, florida. many felt this version was too detailed and could present problems for some members. varied concerns of different factions of optometrists in 1923, when the last attempt had been made to adopt a new code of ethics, seemed to still be present in 1935. the proposed 1923 version that was never adopted had 36 duties and obligations listed, whereas the proposed 1935 version had only 10 listed duties and obligations. the controversy surrounded the attempt at detailed rule making by some in an effort to have all optometric offices look and behave more as professional practices than as shops providing optical goods. (see appendix b for the 1935 proposed code of ethics) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 24 a committee on the code of ethics composed of four individuals was appointed by the 1935 house of delegates to redraft the earlier presented code of ethics and to report to the house as soon as possible. dr. john. j. o'neil, chair, of springfield, massachusetts, gave the report of the committee on the redrafted code of ethics to the hod the following day. dr. o’neil made the motion for adoption of this code of ethics, which was done by unanimous vote.34, 35 it is noted that the adopted version of the 1935 code of ethics had seven duties or obligations specified as compared to the ten proposed. most of those adopted were among the originally proposed, though some skillful rewording no doubt made them more acceptable. the 1935 code of ethics read as follows, code of ethics (adopted 1935) 1. the optometrist shall keep inviolate all confidences committed to him in his professional relationship with his patient. 2. it shall be the duty of every optometrist to support organized optometry in its efforts to advance and promote the highest ideals of professional service. 3. it shall be an optometrist's duty to refrain from any exaggeration of a patient's condition. 4. it is the duty of every optometrist to keep himself informed as to every development in his profession and to contribute his share to the general knowledge and advancement of the profession by all means within his power. 5. it is the duty of every optometrist to refrain from all criticism reflecting upon the skill of a colleague. 6. all optometrists shall refrain from advertising, except that permitted by the code of ethics of his respective state association. 7. it shall be considered unethical for an optometrist to be employed except as an associate of a registered optometrist. 35 the association now had a code of ethics it could use to enhance its professional stature. it was offered to the state affiliate associations as a suggestion for their adoption.34,35 (see appendix c for a listing of the chairmen and members of the aoa ethics committees from 1898-1935.) this same year, there was much unhappiness expressed by some delegates at the annual meeting over the way the officers had represented the aoa in the development of the code of fair competition for the retail optical trade, one of many similar codes developed as part of the national recovery act of 1933. they felt being represented in such a code was degrading to the professional image that optometry was working to develop. yet, the officers had entered into the negotiations with the intent of being there to protect optometry. many felt this discussion in the house of delegates was unnecessary since the u.s. supreme court had earlier that year found the national recovery act of 1933 unconstitutional and this and all similar codes were nullified. while the resolution proposed to criticize the officers and their methods was defeated by the aoa house of delegates, the impassioned discussion emphasized the need for optometry to increase its efforts to present a more professional image.29,36 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 25 us supreme court decision helps in struggle against commercialism a decision of the u.s. supreme court in 1935 gave all states legal support in their attempts to control commercialism in the professions. the court held that a state law prohibiting advertising by dentists was within state powers. this decision gave additional momentum to the state optometric associations' efforts to seek legislation to limit or remove commercialism in the practice of optometry. the opponents in these struggles were those against advertising and those for advertising. efforts to restrict the advertising of ophthalmic goods would be successful in the majority of states.29 references 1. ozar dt. professional obligations and optometry. in: bailey rn, heitman e, eds. an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics. st. louis: american optometric association, 2000:xix-xxviii. ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/an-optometrists-guide-toclinical-ethics?sso=y. accessed november 19, 2015. 2. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:1-2, 26-27. 3. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:3-6. 4. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:7-9. 5. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972: 17,101. 6. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:9-10. 7. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:11-12. 8. proceedings of the 1900 convention of the american association of opticians. opt j 1900;7(9):803-804. 9. proceedings of the 1900 convention of the american association of opticians. opt j 1900;7(9):783-785. 10. swart fl. a code of ethics for opticians. opt j 1899;6(5):388-391. 11. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:14. 12. rogers ga. opticians' code of ethics. jewelers' circular-weekly 1902;xliv(6):65. 13. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:40. 14. proceedings of the 1908 convention of the american association of opticians. opt j 1908;22(7):378-379. 15. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: the ronald press company, 1965:206-207. 16. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:47,80. 17. convention committees appointed by president todd-reports to be made in chicago. opt j rev 1923;51(18):47. http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/an-optometrists-guide-to-clinical-ethics?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/an-optometrists-guide-to-clinical-ethics?sso=y hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 26 18. nicum wv. a.o.a.'s committee on code of ethics report submitted at the aoa convention. opt j rev optom 1923;52(l):64-65. 19. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:96. 20. a national code of optometric ethics. opt j rev optom 1922;50(16):27-28. 21. national code of ethics a great need of the profession. opt j rev optom 1922;50(22):48. 22. schneider gl. letter to w. v. nicum. opt j rev optom 1923;51(19):34. 23. meyer b. the ethics of the profession. opt j rev optom 1923;51(19):31-33. 24. the real issues in ethics. opt j rev optom 1923;51(22):31-32. 25. mcfadden f. fundamentals in optometric ethics. opt j rev optom 1923;51(22):4647. 26. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:116,149-150. 27. haussmann og. ethics-where opinions differ. opt j rev optom 1924;53(25):29-30. 28. evenson hc. about a code of ethics. optom weekly 1927;18(25):889-891. 29. classé jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989:15. 30. classé jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989:187. 31. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:143. 32. talk and action, annual congress of american optometric association and boards of optometry examiners. opt j rev optom 1935;72(14):17. 33. report of the 38th annual congress of the american optometric association, june 23 to 28, 1935 house of delegates. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis: american optometric association, 1935:100-103. 34. report of the 38th annual congress of the american optometric association, june 23 to 28, 1935 house of delegates. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis: american optometric association, 1935:121-124,139-141. 35. talk and action, annual congress of american optometric association and boards of optometry examiners. opt j rev optom 1935;72(14):19,31 36. report of the 38th annual congress of the american optometric association, june 23 to 28, 1935 house of delegates. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis: american optometric association, 1935:9,142-158. http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/support-the-archives-and-museum-of-optometry?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/support-the-archives-and-museum-of-optometry?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/support-the-archives-and-museum-of-optometry?sso=y hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 27 appendix a. committee on code of ethics report by w.v. nicum to a.o.a. hod, chicago, june 26, 1923* proposed 1923 code of ethics of optometry (not adopted after one year of study by affiliates) we do agree to these things: 1. render the public the best service within us and constantly strive to improve that service. 2. conduct ourselves in a manner becoming to professional men. 3. aid worthy civic movements, and be considerate of fellow practitioners. 4. to meet and study at frequent intervals with other optometrists to keep abreast of the best practices in optometry; and to aid and consult with fellow practitioners when requested. 5. to make examination of the eyes the paramount feature, not the sale of glasses. 6. to impress upon the public the importance of careful and correct ocular service. 7. to equip our offices with the latest and best instruments. 8. to discontinue the sale of merchandise which has no place in optometry. 9. to limit our publicity to (1) conservation of vision. (2) optometrical service. 10. to charge for, and to collect, a reasonable fee for eye examinations. 11. to charge a fee openly, both by verbal statement and upon the bill, not concealing said fee within the cost, thereby giving the patron reason to believe that service is rendered “free.” 12. we consider that optometry may be best presented to the public through organized effort, rather than individual. to this end we will endeavor, at proper times and in proper places, to preach the conservation of vision, and to teach methods whereby this may be obtained. 13. we believe that organized optometry can best be served by group publicity, as also by magazine and newspaper articles in which the author does not seek to present his own personality. 14. we believe that newspaper “card” is the correct way of presenting ourselves in the press in a direct advertising sense. 15. we agree to discontinue the use of handbills, billboard advertising, billposter advertising, large painted signs on buildings, all types of novelties, stickers of all kinds, except inside of cases; blotters, manufacturers’ literature, freely distributed; streetcar advertising, theater program, theater curtain, lantern slides, and signs reading, “eyes examined (or tested) free.” 16. not to advertise the prices of lenses, frames or supplies. 17. to discontinue window advertising, except in dignified and legitimate manner. 18. to discontinue and remove from refracting rooms, waiting rooms and other public rooms of our business places, signs of manufacturers relating to supplies. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 28 to discontinue advertising articles of supplies as “better” or in any way superior in quality for the price asked, to that of other optometrists or refractionists. 19. to discontinue publicly advertising business ability as superior to that of others; reliability as superior to that of others; professional ability as superior to that of others. 20. to discontinue methods of practice which are manifestly “unfair” by those recognized practices of the public within which we dwell. 21. where others who are doing refracting work are unethical and resort to unfair and unethical means, we are not to retaliate in kind until we have sought by all reasonable means to win them from errant methods, to interview them personally, or by letter, or by friends, or by judicious printed matter, publicly proclaimed, and in terms which will in no way lower our own dignity, seeking thereby to elevate their on standard of procedure and win them to our side by justice. 22. when others practice optometry and they are manifestly unqualified for the work, we are to seek them personally, by letter and by other just means, seeking to elevate their moral tone, their educational status, their equipment, or their other deficiencies, endeavoring to bring them to a higher and proper level. when other means have failed, we should bring them to the attention of higher authority. 23. when there is a difference of opinion with respect to ethical and non-ethical practices, customs or behavior, we should seek to bring about a meeting of all those engaged in optometry and have a dignified discussion, endeavoring to establish rules of practice. 24. it is unprofessional and prohibited to split fees, pay bonuses or offer, or to receive, any pecuniary benefits from others who may at various times refer patrons 25. it is unprofessional and prohibited to enter into mail-order advertising or eyeglass service. 26. it is unprofessional to seek out patrons by bribes, rebates, discounts or other profit-sharing means, through friends, relatives, or patrons. 27. it is unprofessional to seek patronage by solicitous means, personal or through others. 28. it is unprofessional and unethical to promise cures, relief or benefit from lenses, or from treatment, or by other means than that one will do as well as lies within his power to correct and neutralize the errors of refractions and muscular anomalies with the hope but not with the assurance of benefit or relief. 29. it is unprofessional and unethical to undertake practices under a name of a company or organization in which the principal member or members of the organization are not actively engaged in the actual practice of refraction. 30. it is unprofessional to conduct an optometric practice in which the name or names of the principal men are not named publicly in their printed matter upon door-plates, and other similar announcements. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 29 31. it is unprofessional and unethical to travel from town to town, putting up in hotels and houses and doing refraction work without proper equipment and lighting facilities. 32. it is unprofessional and unethical to use low-grade lenses or lenses of a pattern which are not as properly designed and adapted to the correction of the errors of vision as are possible to obtain, basing the price of service and such supplies upon their cheapness, unless it is patent that the patron cannot afford to purchase the higher grade and perfected lenses, and in all such cases the factors should be carefully explained. 33. it is unprofessional for an optometrist who holds an office in any optometric association to use such position for advertising purposes. 34. it is unprofessional and unethical for an optometrist to make use of his diplomas and certificates in such a way as to be considered advertisements. 35. no member should advertise in a way which would lead to the supposition that he had a medical training unless he has such training. but it is not unethical to permit himself to be styled “doctor” by his patrons. 36. it is unethical and forbidden to keep open office or place of business on national holidays, state holidays, or sundays. this refers to the regular manner of “keeping open” but not to responding to an emergency for a particular case. for the purpose of active membership in the american optometric association, having read the code of ethics and being agreeable to its provisions, i herewith subscribe to the same. signed………………………. date…………………………. *nicum wv. a.o.a.'s committee on code of ethics report submitted at the aoa convention. opt j rev optom 1923;52(l):64-65. appendix b. initially proposed code of ethics by the resolutions committee to the 1935 house of delegates* (this proposed code of ethics was tabled and a redrafted version, by an appointed committee on code of ethics, was presented to the house of delegates (hod) the following day and adopted. the initial version is provided here for comparison purposes to the version finally adopted by the 1935 hod.) resolution no. 1 “whereas, the a.o.a. up to the present has not adopted an official code of ethics; and “whereas, such a code of ethics is essentially necessary for public enlightenment regarding the ideals, aims and conduct of the individual optometrist; now therefore be it “resolved, that said code of ethics be placed in the hands of each affiliated association, urging its adoption as a part of the individual association’s constitution and by-laws and code of ethics; and be it further hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 30 “resolved, that this code of ethics shall be mandatory on such members as are admitted from territories in which there is no organization affiliated with the american optometric association. code of ethics of the american optometric association “the golden rule represents the vital principle of all ethical codes and the purpose of this code of optometric ethics is to indicate and interpret the application of this rule to the practice of our profession. as such, we recommend it to all who are truly interested in the profession of optometry: (1) it is the duty of every optometrist to advance the interest of optometry and to support the state association in all its work for the progress and recognition of the profession. (2) it is the duty of every optometrist to keep himself informed with, and in touch with every modern development in his profession, to increase his knowledge and efficiency by the adoption of modern methods of proved worth, and to contribute his share to general knowledge and advancement of the profession by all means in his power. (3) it is the duty of every optometrist to respect the confidence placed in him by a patient bringing his case to him, and all information received from him shall be treated as a “privileged communication”, and as such held sacred. (4) it is the duty of every optometrist to refrain from an exaggeration of a patient’s visual defects. it is the duty of every optometrist to properly advise his patient of any apparent or suspected pathologic condition coming to his notice that should have medical or other care outside the field of optometry. (5) it is the duty of every optometrist t to refrain from all forms of specific guarantees. (6) it is the duty of every optometrist to refrain from all criticism that is calculated to, or would have the effect of reflecting upon the professional skill or integrity of a brother optometrist. (7) it is the duty of every optometrist to represent himself to the public in his legal capacity as that of an optometrist. (8) it is the duty of every optometrist to refrain from, and no optometrist will, under any circumstances, canvas or solicit business from house to house, from town to town, from person to person, or solicit business in any street of public place, and no optometrist shall transact business as such in a place other than in a regular place of business or permit any person to do so in his interest or his behalf. nothing in this rule shall be construed or have the effect of preventing the establishment and maintenance of branch offices, properly equipped, by an optometrist in his community. this rule shall not operate to prevent an optometrist from making calls upon request. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 31 (9) it is the duty of every optometrist to refrain from the use of all printed and displayed advertising of whatever form, unless it shall be dignified and educational, expressed in good english and free from exageration [sic]. (10) it is the duty of every optometrist to discontinue the use of all forms of the following types of advertising: handbills; road signs; all types of novelties; “eyes examined free” signs, street car signs, bus cards, theatre program or other program ads and lantern slides, or advertising fees or prices in the press, radio or other public manner or representing himself to be superior to other members of his association. every member of this association shall refrain from any reference to the use of the words “free examinations”, “lowest prices”, “terms” and “installments”. (11) optometrists employed by corporations or laymen shall not be eligible for membership in this association. (12) these standing rules of conduct may be amended by majority vote of delegates present and voting in annual convention.” * report of the 38th annual congress of the american optometric association, june 23 to 28, 1935 house of delegates. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis. appendix c. ethics committees from 1898 – 1935 committee on code of ethics chairman members 1907-08 a. jay cross john c. eberhardt, william e. huston 1922-23 w. v. nicum fay mcfadden, glenn winslow 1935 john. j. o’neil thor a. elmgren, albert fitch, ernest a. hutchison, j. fred andreae http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/support-the-archives-and-museum-of-optometry?sso=y newsletter of the optometric historical society (7000 chippewa street, saint louis, missouri, volume 8 october 1977 first formal business meeting: though in its eighth year of operation, the optometric historical society had never held a formal business meeting for officers or members until july 5, 1977. four of the five members of the executive committee and the editor met from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. the general membership meeting followed from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. with about 20 o.h.s. members and about 20 other interested persons present. the program at the membership meeting included three 10minute talks by editor hofstetter, president knoll, and secretary-treasurer dablemont. hofstetter gave an account of the origins of the society, knoll gave a review of john r. levene•s new history book entitled 11 clinical refraction and visual science", and dablemont described the concepts, methodology, and objectives of oral history applicable to optometry. the remaining 30 minutes were given over to open discussion, which included a brief response from dr. levene, several suggestions for future society projects, and discussions of membership development, finances, and the possibility of creating an optometric hall of fame. reported at this assembly was a surprise action by the executive board to make h.w. hofstetter the first fellow of the society. president knoll read the accolade. the secretary-treasurer reported a current financial balance of $2,008.86 and a total membership of 160, of whom 133 had already paid 1977 dues. forty-five of the members are from outside of the united states, from the followin~ countries: australia (4), belgium (1), canada (4), columbia (1), england {5), france (1), hong kong (1), india (2), italy (2), japan (1), netherlands (1), new zealand (2), philippines (1), poland (1), puerto rico (12}, south africa (3),•sweden (1}, switzerland (.1), and thailand (1). how and when we began: (the following account was given by your editor at the history seminar on july 5 at the royal york hotel in toronto, ontario, canada) though the ohs is officially less than 10 years old, its two primary originators, maria dablemont and i, are already in some disagreement as to the precise date of commitment to its formation. what we do agree on is the great frequency with which we said to each other, "there ought to be an optometric historical society!" i am perfectly confident that maria said it first, with the invariably added admonition that i should organize it. this dialogue began in the middle sixties. the most precipitous moment occurred in my home on the evening of labor day, september 2, 1968, following a splendid dinner my wife had fixed for three visitors from the aoa headquarters and ourselves, i.e. my wife, my younger daughter, and me. at the time, i was a little more than two months 56 into my aoa presidential term. the three visitors were maria dablemont, her assistant andrea la grue, and another assistant whose name escapes me. when the topic of discussion t~rned once again to the formation of a historical society i agreed to take the initiative, but not until after the end of my aoa presi­ dential term. this we all agreed was proper, especially to avoid any misinter­ pretation that the society was a subsidiary of the aoa. it had to stay entire­ ly on its own. thereupon we discussed all of the details that should go into the consti­ tution and by-laws, --the name, membership dues, officers, governing council, membership eligibility, purposes, election procedures, newsletter, publicity, etc. of these matters i took note, and before the evening was ended we took cognizance of the fact that for all practical purposes the optometric historical society was finally indeed conceived. the next few months, and especially after the july 9-12, 1969, aoa congress in philadelphia, the by-laws were developed and revised until both maria and i were satisified. then a letter was prepared to go out on august 28 to the following 10 persons: maurice cox, maria dablemont, james gregg, arthur hoare, henry hofstetter, ernest kiekenapp, john levene, maxwell miller, leroy ryer, and sol tannebaum. the letter read as follows: this letter and the enclosed draft of a set of by-laws for an optometric historical society is being sent to 10 persons of my acquaintance who have been concerned very actively and obviously with optometric history as a subject of avid interest. if you would be sufficiently interested in seeing this sort of activity started, please let me know whether you would be willing to serve as an organizing member of the executive board. as soon as i receive favorable answers from five of you i shall propose that these five be the 11 initial membership on the executive board 11 , and i shall circu­ late a copy of the by-laws for their five signatures (and payment of $5.00 in dues for 1970.) immediately after that i shall get out a short release to the optometric periodicals inviting membership subscriptions. i am guessing that we are likely to attract about 50 to 100 subscribers. the society response, in turn, will be a very brief newsletter, vol. 1, issue no.1, in which i may quote interesting paragraphs from your responses. depending on the financial status, i shall then try to get a quarterly newsletter out during 1970, made-up essentially of contributions of, and letters from, members. i shall also process the first election of officers from among the 11 initial membership on the executive board 11 • in addition to these intended activities i shall attempt to operate the project more-or-less singlehandedly until the organization takes on enough shape to enable it to operate itself in a more democratic manner. i shall assume full responsibility for funds, their receipt and expenditure, until officers are elected. i am enclosing a copy of the first draft of a press release if and when five of you respond favorably. sincerely, h.w. hofstetter 57 the first to respond, by telegram, was the late dr. arthur hoare, and he was also the first to pay dues, on september 15, 1969. all ten responded favorably except that one, mr. cox, had some concern that the activities of the o.h.s. might be interpreted to compete with those of the recently established ada committee on optometric history. on september 30, 1969, a round robin letter went out to the first five respondents together with the officer election ballots and the original copy of the by-laws to be signed in spaces designating 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 year terms on the executive committee. each of the five modestly signed in the space for the successively shortest term in the order of dablemont, hoare, tannebaum, levene, and finally me. the returned election ballots, as reported to me by my office secretary, judy fleetwood, showed maria dablemont elected as secretary-treasurer, john levene as vice-president, and me as president for the calendar year of 1970. in the meantime, on october 31, 1969, a brief press release announcing the organization of the society and inviting anyone interested to remit $5.00 for membership dues was sent to optometric periodicals throughout the world. by january 1, 1970 we had 33 paid up members, whom we identified as "founding members", and a cash accumulation of $269.04. two members leroy ryer and maxwell miller, had paid us $10.00 each for two year's dues, and one, e.j. hunt, included an extra $100.00 donation in memory of his mother. the first issue of the newsletter was mailed out early in january of 1970. practically every subsequent society development has been duly recorded in this quarterly publication together with occasional releases to the optometric press. two subsequent developments, however, deserve to be mentioned here. one was the incorporation of the o.h.s., as a not-for-profit corporation in the state of missouri on april 2, 1973. the other was the listing of the o.h.s. on february 26, 1975, as having tax exempt status so that its donors may deduct contributions for tax benefit purposes. i we now can say with confidence that the optometric historical society is a firmly established organization with world-wide membership, a solid reputa­ tion, a sound fiscal basis, and all of the technical and legal qualifications to enable it to pursue its aims aggressively and in perpetuity. the ophthalmic side of history: this is the title of an article by o.h.s. executive board member sol tannebaum in the january 9, 1976, issue of the optician (london), vol. 171, no. 4415, pages 4, 6, and 8-9, a paper given at the european optometric society congress in paris in november 1975. in it he develops the theme that optometry and ophthalmology had clearly different origins and progressed in very different channels, beginning to overlap and to some extent blend only in the 20th century. 58 the drs • .b:f.gr_ and hota 1 i nq: here is a copy of dr. elmer leroy ryer's bookplate, drawn and designed by his long time professional associate and co-author dr. elmer e. hotaling: the actual plates are in a sepia tone not reproduceable in this newsletter. the original drawing, in the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, is approximately 30 x 45 em. (12" x 18"). in a handwritten memo­ randum dr. ryer referred to the bookplate as "evidence bearing on hotaling's fine character." when asked for an interpretation, said dr. ryer, dr. hotaling explained that it was "meant to convey the truth about ryer he built castles in the air but kept one foot on the ground." many, if not perhaps all, of the numerous details suggest interest, hobbies, inventions, and ideas associated with dr. ryer's life and career. early convention elegance: a postcard from a mr. norman wilcox of rochester, new york, advised that he would sell for"$6.00 plus postage" a "medal from the 16th annual convention of the american opticru association, rochester, n.y. july 1913". i bought it! mr. wilcox said he had no knowledge of the history of the memento. 59 indeed, it is the attendance badge of george bausch, of solid brass except for the paper insert on which his name was typed. it weighs 1.35 ounces (38 gm) and its size is as illustrated below. .j: l 1·' ~ the convention registration list in the july 24, 1913, issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, vol. 32, no.5, pp. 328-329 & 335, shows both a mr. and mrs. geo. r. bausch of rochester, new york, registered. other reports of the same convention show mr. bausch on the convention reception committee and mrs. bausch active hosting the wives. the 1912 and 1914 blue books of optometrists identify mr. bausch as an 1887 graduate of the philadelphia optical college and a member of the new york state optical society, the optical society of new york city, the rochester optical society, and the american optical association. he was associated with edward e. bausch & son co. in rochester. the lower oval pendant is an engraving of an eagle poised for flight, a branch, a flag, and a waving blue banner containing the words "american optical association" in raised letters. on the back, also in raised letters variously arranged, is the legend "compliments of standard optical co. stoco optical goods united states lens co. manufacturers", the letters ~·i·~· inside the outline of a shield, and, in very small letters, "bastian · · · bros. co. rochester, n.y." the top frame for the paper insert, incidentally, is backed by a slide­ in brass plate onto which is welded a sturdy spring-pin for attaching to the wearer's lapel. this plate in turn is soldered in place to prevent it from slipping out! 60 in sheer weight, elegance, ruggedness, motif, and design i think i have seen no other convention badge that would match this one. if indeed it symbolized the era, it could hardly be conjectured that optometry derived from humble circumstances. the abbreviations m.p.b. and p.i.u. are a mystery to me. i could not find them in three major dictionaries nor in any of the optical advertisements in journals of the same year. they are likely to remain an enigma, which i believe to be a very appropriate fate for all carelessly used abbreviations. the rev. chauncey enoch goodrich, 1801-1864: his obiturary in the july 7, 1864, issue of the country gentleman, page 19, prepared by 11 r.g. 11 of lenox, massachussetts, descrrdes the circumstances of his discovery and correction of his own astigmatism very succinctly as follows: 11 his scientific tendencies may be illustrated by an incident in his early history. from boyhood he had a defect in his vision, not arising from any weakness of his eyes, and which neither convex or concave spectacles would relieve. after leaving college, and on his way to princeton, in going down the bay of new york he found that he could readily distinguish the transverse spars of the shipping, but could not the vertical ones. a gentleman who wore concave glasses was present, and upon borrowing them he could see the masts but the yards became indistinct. he concluded that the curvature sufficient to overcome the excessive curvature of the vertical section of his eyes, would afford him relief. a simple experi­ ment determined the exquisite curvature, and when obtaining such lenses, which were unheard of to opticians, his eyes were perfectly relieved ... a more detailed biographical account by john p. gray, m.d., appeared in the 1863 edition of the presbyterian historical almanac, and annual remembrance of the church, volume-7, philadelphia, pages l60-l65. dr. gray, the superin­ tendent of the new york state lunatic asylum, utica, n.y., where the reverend goodrich had been chaplain for about 19 years until his death, added the following comments to those of the above-cited 11 r.g. 11 : 11while at princeton, he invented, for this imperfection, a plano-concave cyl i ndri ca 1 1 ens, and perfected it through the kindness of r~ess rs. john mcallister and son, of philadelphia, who had glasses ground for him in france. these same glasses he used thirty-six years, until his death. 11 the account of his discovery of his own astigmatism, with the optical explanation of the correcting lens, was submitted for publication on feb. 29, 1828, while he was in his last year at the princeton theological seminary, new jersey. his article, entitled 11 notice of a peculiarity in vision 11 appeared in the july 1828 issue of the american journal of science and arts, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 264-267. in this communication he stated that his observations 11while in the city of new york 11 with .. a pair of concave glasses, of no.5 ... viewing some shipping in the harbor 11 had occurred 11 two years since 11 • this would place his discovery very early in 1826, or perhaps late in 1825 if we i 61 allow him at least a few weeks time to prepare the very extensive and meti­ culously detailed article with four line drawings. that it was probably earlier, during the summer of 1825, is indicated by its occurrence in new york city between his graduation from union college, schenectady, in 1925 and his matriculation at princeton theological seminary, new jersey, the same year. it seems reasonable that he went from schenectady to princeton via new york city. .·in the same article he described precisely the toroidal feature of the lens which would correct his astigmatism and added, "but i know not that such a glass could be ground very readily. i have therefore been contented to procure plano cylindrically concave glasses, whose single curve is about equal to no. 5 of common spectacles. these spectacles i caused to be made in philadelphia a few months since.n he added the following "note" at the end of his article, "if such glasses as are mentioned above, can possibly be ground, i should be happy to be informed where, and by whom." his having worn the specially ground glasses obtained for him from france by the mcallister firm for "thirty-six years", as reported by dr. gray, would date their acquisition not later than early 1828, as he died on may 11, 1864. the circumstances of communication and shipping of the period, on both land and sea, combined with the complexity and novelty of this surely unprecedented lens order, would allow us to subtract many months of elapsed time from the early 1828 date for the initial invention. just who was goodrich? he was born september 19, 1801, in the eastern part of troy, new york, a community now called brunswick. he studied for the ministry and served in various ministerial roles during his life, but his more famous contri­ butions were in the development and cultivation of disease-resistant types of potatoes. his interests were scientific, and he was particularly fond of the natural sciences. he was a most careful observer and recorder of facts. copies of the several documents from which the above information was excerpted were provided for me by the ilamo, the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. for a very much more comprehensive discussion of the role of goodrich in the discovery and correction of astigmatism see john r. levene•s new history book, "clinical refraction and visual science," published in london by butterworths, 1977. an early discourse on vision: benedetto castelli (15571643) was galileo•s oldest and closest pupil. his discorso sopra la vista was written and circulated among colleagues in 1639, but 1t was nor-pr1nted until 1669. the first and only english trans­ lation, by piero e. ariotti, was published in 1973 in the march issue of annals of science, vol. 30, no.1, pages 1 30, under the title, "a little 62 known early seventeenth century treatise on vision: benedetto castelli's discorso sopra lavista (1639, 1669)". castelli was born in brescia in northern italy. a man of the cloth, he was lecturer in mathematics first at pisa, then at rome. his treatise was published posthumously in alcuni opuscoli filosofici del padre d. benedetto castelli in bologna, from the printing shop of g. monti~669. it:included many elements of optics, ocular physiology, and visual psychology, in a thoroughly experimental approach. especially delightful is his description of the big dipper (orsa maggiore) illusion. he had observed that it seemed smaller when it was at the zenith than it did when it was near the horizon. with instruments he measured the angular subtense in each position and obtained the same value both times. he recognized the explanation to be precisely the same as that for the more popularly known moon illusion. the translator is a professor of philosophy at the university of western australia, nedlands (approximately the antipode of bermuda). nocturnal timepiece: dr. emil-heinz schmitz tells us that antique optical instruments continue to be available in the market place if one is willing to dig deep into his money bag. his commentary, entitled "antike optische instrumente sind noch kauflich zu erwerben ••. wenn man tief in den geldbeutel greift" (translated in the preceding sentence), appears on page 601 of the june 1, 1976, issue of der augeno~tiker, vol. 31, no. 6. illustrated, .both front and back view, is a """l'rocturlab1um 11 or "sternuhr", a kind of star-clock, which enables the user to tell time at night by star alignment. it is dated circa 1560 and carries a price tag of 9,200 dm ($3,700 or ~2,200). he cites this as a single example. he remarks that although individual optometrists (augenoptiker) typically show little interest in the history of the art or the profession, they are readily fascinated by examples of early pieces of handwork, invention, or instrumentation. wandering minstrel from meissen: ~ meissener, meissner, missener, missner, or mizener, usually with the german article "der" (the) in front of it, and often with the german adjective "alte 11 ( o 1 d) fo 11 owing "der", has given rise to frequent controversy concerning the origin or invention of spectacles. according to dr. elisabeth karg-gasterstadt, who authored the biographical account of "der meissner11 in volume 3 of 11 die deutsche literatur des mittelalters; verfasserlexikon" by wolfgang stammler, berlin and leipzig, walter de gruyter & co., 1943, he was a verse writer of the latter half of the 13th century. 63 she points out that his literary style suggests him to be from central germany, and that his identification as 11 the meissner11 suggests this also. as a wanderer he appears to have changed his residence often; whether he was ever in southern germany is not definite, though he had contact with the bohemian court and especially with the marquises of brandenburg, three of whom he provided with eulogies. apparently 11 der meissner .. was not the same person as a knight named henricus misnere of the same period, or as heinrich von meissen (1250-1319) who, according to the highly reliable 11th edition of the encyclopaedia britannica, 11 was one of the last minnesingers, and his pedantry and virtuosity entitle him to be called the first meistersinger ... the song or verse that prompts the spectacle question may be found on page 224 of the second volume (zweiter band) of an 1838 publication in leipzig by friedrich heinrich von der hagen entitled minnesinger and sub­ titled manessische sammlung and deutsche liederdichter, apparently a re­ storation and expansion of a collection of 12th, 13th, and 14th century songs and verses collected and published in 1531 by rudger maness von maneck as facsimiles of the parisian manuscripts of bernard matlozen. the table of contents identifies song number 115 with 11 der alte meissener 11 • the caption of the three-part song itself on page 224 however is 11 der alte mizener11 and is parenthetically coded cccxlii, perhaps a carry-over number from the maness collection. the poetry is in what one might call brutally fractured german, analogous to chaucerian english. nevertheless there is no mistaking the passage which may be interpreted to say essentially, if age weakens our sight so that we can no longer see fine script then our recourse is through a light clear 11 spiegel 11 which can clarify the writing. so what was meant by a 11 spiegel 11 ? it currently means mirror or looking­ glass and possibly derives from the latin word seecere meaning to look or behold. one early and authoritative german dict1onary said it means eye­ glasses, but other authoritative german experts have challenged this meaning on three counts: one, the lack of any other evidence that spectacles existed then; two, the phrase 11 einem •.• spiegel 11 is clearly in the singular; and, three, hand-held magnifying lenses were in use at the time and therefore were a more plausible object of reference. the period of der meissner•s poetry is usually suggested to be 12601280, possibly following the dates assumed by dr. emil bock in his 63 page 1903 book entitled 11 die brille and ihre geschichte 11 {spectacles and their history), verlag von josef safar. he also gave the alternate spelling of 11missner 11 , with 11meissner 11 in parentheses. the spelling 11 missener 11 is that of emil-heinz schmitz in his 1961 book 11 die sehhilfe in wandel der jahrhunderte 11 (visual aids over the centuries), verlag sudeutsche optikerzeitung, stuttgart. german authors consistently include the definite article 11 der 11 (the) with the noun meissner or its variations in spelling. english-writing authors on the other hand typically treat the noun meissner as though it were the surname, as i did in my optometry book in 1948, as the late gordon walls did in his personal letter to me in 1956 which i mentioned in the april 1974 issue of this newsletter, vol. 5, no.2, p. 22, and as edward rosen did 64 in "the invention of eyeglasses", a series of articles in the journal of history of medicine, vol. 11, january and april 1956, pp. 13-46 and 183-218. so, if the poet is to be called properly "the meissner", what might the word meissner or meissener mean? it could of course mean a resident of meissen, sometimes known as misnia, a city in saxony, now in east germany, and very centrally located in the region in which the minnesingers exercised their talents. "uncle sam wants lq.!!!": if my memory is correct, those were the words on a widely distributed army recruitment poster showing uncle sam pointing his finger at me and looking me squarely in the eye, no matter from what direction i viewed it. more than that, if i walked past the poster, both the eyes and the pointing finger followed me every step of the way. this was not merely my patriotic conscience dominating my sense of guilt, according to g.a. wheatcroft in an article as long ago as june 1939 in the dioptric review, pages 103-111, entitled the "following gaze" illusion.with a very thorough analysis supported by photographic evidence he concluded that " .•• psychological considerations, while adding to the apparent complexity of the illusion, in no way contradict the fact that geometrical optics gives the basic explanation." the term "following gaze" is new to me, and i do not know any other term for the well-known phenomenon that the eyes of a full-faced photograph or picture seem to follow the observer no matter at what angle the picture is viewed. it is not in the current edition of the dictionary of visual science, but it is on the list of terms proposed for inclusion in the next edition. mr. wheatcroft, incidentally, is a practicing ophthalmic optician in bridlington, england, and holds the prestigious office of president of the international optometric and optical league. he is of course a member of the optometric historical society as well. unorthodox and early: when did optometrists first undertake to incorporate hypnosis in their practice? a popular notion is that this may have been in the •4o•s. not so. one contender for first place is o.h.s. member.george a. wheatcroft whose article "hypnosis in orthoptics" appeared in the september 1937 issue of the dioptric review, vol. 39, no.4, pages 321-337. that this was indeed early is suggested by the lead editorial in the same issue, pages 267-268, entitled, "unorthodoxy how far?" the article itself is prefaced with a two paragraph commentary by editor "d.r." stating" •.• this interesting paper .•. must not be construed that we are in any sense sponsoring the somewhat revolutionary tech­ nique it describes." and "we remind readers of the warning the writer himself gives, ••. ". wheatcroft prepared his dissertation very thoroughly with an appropriate introduction, a review of the nervous system and related psychology, the state 65 of the hypnotic art, reported applications in other fields, three rather detailed case reports involving amblyopia and squint, and some cautiously phrased conclusions and recommendations. a long standing error: in the january 1972 issues of this newsletter, vol. 3, no.1, page 5, i excluded the name of lional topaz from our list of memorialized optometrists, classifying him instead among the 11staunch friends and servants of the pro­ fession... i simply thought i knew that he was not an optometrist! i knew this so well that i did not evenlbother to confirm my assumption, a procedure which would have surprised me indeed. lional topaz, o.d., is listed in the 1912 and subsequent blue books as an optometrist at 421 n. 48th avenue, chicago, illinois, as a 1906 graduate of the northern illinois college of optometry, a member of the illinois state society of optometrists, the chicago opt. club, and the a.o.a. another optometrist memorialized: the pennsylvania optometric association has established a milan milkovich memorial fund with contributions being donated to the united student aid fund in dr. milkovich's memory. celebrating 350 years: almost two years ago, in the january 1976 issue of this newsletter, i mentioned the plans for celebrating the 350th anniversary of the founding of the worshipful company of spectacle makers. the program is scheduled for july 14-19, 1979, and should attract optometric visitors from all over the world. mr. eric crundall, consultant editor to the optician {london) and other journals, and a favorite reader of this newsletter, reminds us that th\s event should be of particular interest to ohs members. detailed information may be obtained from c.j. eldridge of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, apothecaries hall, black friars lane, london ec4v 6el, england. 11 picking lincoln's pockets .. : this is the title of an article by congressman paul findley 1n the may 1977 issue of civil war times illustrated, vol. 16, no. 2, pages 40-42. o.h.s. member v.tn. r. baldwin, o.d., ph.d. called it to my attention. the contents of lincoln•s pockets on the night of the assassination were retained by the family. robert todd lincoln placed the items in a small blue cardboard box and put it in a safe. when he died in 1926 it was passed on to his oldest daughter mrs. mary lincoln isham. she in turn presented the box and other lincoln relics to the library of congress with the request that, to prevent sensationalizing the items, no publicity be given to the acquisition. 66 on lincoln's birthday in 1976, well after the decease of the lincoln heirs to whom the pledge of silence had been made, the box was opened. included were two pairs of spectacles, a case for each, and a lens cleaner. one pair, for reading, was gold-rimmed with a temple screw missing. replacing the screw was a knotted thread. the other pair, with hinged temples and bridge, was folded in'a small silver case. the lens cleaner consisted of two pads of chamois held close to each other by a metal frame to enable the user to clean both surfaces of a lens simultaneously. readers will recall that this 11 find 11 was mentioned earlier, in the april 1976 issue of this newsletter, vol. 7, no. 2, p. 22. fascinating 11 fundamentals 11 : dean jack w. bennett, o.d., of ferris state college, big rapids, michigan, wrote as follows: among some materials contributed to the library at the college of optometry at ferris state was a copy of a 1919 publication of the bureau of optometric information of the aoa titled 11 fundamentals of an ideal optometric practice11 • it is some 40 pages long and is loaded with sage advice and words of wisdom much of it surprisingly applicable today. the one thing that really caught my eye however, was the appearance of two full page ads for sphygmomanometers (blood pressure measuring devices just in case). the text seems to indicate that 11many11 optometrists were using them, and that all should. i suspect many more would use them today if they were still available at the price indicated. a loan of the booklet confirmed my suspicion that the american optometric association must have been influenced by eugene g. wiseman, that prolific optometric writer on blood pressure in the early part of this century. at the bottom of page 2 is the notation, 11 copyright by eugene g. wiseman 1919 11 ! but on the front cover is the notation 11 issued by the bureau of optometric information american optometric association 1919 11 • below the title on the front cover is the added legend: for the professional optometrist commerical optometrist jeweler optometrist 11 bargain 11 optometrist the eleven chapters are titled: i. a definite policy needed ii. location with reference to business or residential sections iii. location with reference to ground floor stores and upstairs offices iv. appearances of offices v. scientific equipment vi. technical qualifications vii. fees viii. social position 67 ix. publicity x. activities in societies x i. conclusion then follow seven full-page advertisements prefaced with an explanation that without them 11 the booklet could not have been printed and distributed at all ..... helmholtz lectured popularly too: most of us appreciate the fact that one of the characteristics of scientific material authored by helmholtz is that it is unusually understandable. his ideas are so well expressed as to have prompted me on occasions to suggest, unsuccessfully, to professors of literature that some of his writings should be included as examples of good scientific literature in literature courses. so, i am not surprised to learn from o.h.s. member e.j. fisher that there exists a volume entitled popular lectures on scientific subjects by hermann von helmholtz which has been published and republished in the original genman, and translated into english by professor e. atkinson, ph.d., f.c.s., for publication in at least three successive editions during as many decades. professor fisher sent me a xerographic copy of pages 175-276 of the 1893 new edition, longmans, green, and co., london, which covered "a course of lectures delivered in frankfort and heidelberg, and republished in the preussische jahrbucher, 1868 11 entitled the recent progress of the theory of vision. the three parts of the course were titled "i. the eye as an optical instrument," 11 ii. the sensation of sight 11 , and "iii. the perception of sight. 11 following are a few interesting excerpts. (concerning scientific contributors): 11 let me be permitted to name out of the whole number a representative of each of the three nations of common origin which have contributed most to the result: von graefe in genmany, danders in holland, and bowman in england. 11 (concerning the eye): 11 poets and orators have celebrated its praises; philosophers have extolled it as a crowning instance of perfection 1n an organism; and opticians have tried to imitate it as an unsurpassed model •.• ne"$t to the loss of life itself that of eyesight is the heaviest ... (concerning visual sensation): 11 ••• a survey of all the facts •.. puts it beyond doubt that external light is only one of the exciting causes capable of bringing the optic nerve into functional activity •.• (concerning blackness): 11 but when we examine the colours of external objects, black corresponds just as much to a peculiarity of surface in re­ flection, as does white, and therefore has as good a right to be called a colour." (concerning perception of images): 11 the first who clearly showed in what points it is impossible for any picture to represent actual objects was the great master of painting, leonardo da vinci, who was almost as distinguished in natural philosophy as in art. 11 68 (concerning em pi ri ci sm): "no fact has yet been discovered inconsistent with the empi rica 1 theory •.• " earliest optometric registry? 1478 jacob pfullmair 1483 andres mair 1485 hanns zainer 1488 hanns geman 1489 michl pelsner 1489 hanns vogl 1492 hanns lanndawer 1494 hans schmid and margarethe his legitimate wife 1497 cuntz eemann 1498 hanns sixt 1498 bartholmes schmid 1500 bonaventura this is a list of spectacle makers (pariellenmacher) registered as citizens of the city of nornberg, germany, in the 15th century. it is taken from an article by prof. dr. albert~ pflugk of dresden in forschungen zur geschichte der optik, (researches on the history of optics), vol. 1, december~28-november 1935, published in berlin by julius springer in 1936, pages 203-222. the title of the article is "die ordnungen der nurnberger brillenmacher" (the nurnberg spectacle maker regulations). it deals extensively with nurnberg ordinances adopted from time to time between 1535 and 1685 to regulate the activities, duties, responsibilites, and privileges of spectacle makers • . t~e serial publication itself is of historical interest. !twas published per1od1cally from 1928 to 1943 as a supplement of zeitschrift fur instrumenten­ k~nde (journal of instrument science) .. the management of the carl zeiss optical f1rm underwrote the costs, and dr. mor1tz von rohr of jena served as editor. "island of tears" this is the name acquired by ellis island among some 12 million american immigrants who passed through its doors between 1892 and 1924. the "tears 11 were those of the 240,000 persons who were not allowed to enter the united states and sent back to their countries of origin. 11 some failed the dreaded eye test •.• " reports william h. gentz in an article entitled, 11 where our roots were trans­ planted .. in the august 1977 issue of bond (lutheran brotherhood), vol. 54, no. 4, pages 9-11. included also is a national archives photo showing an officer in dark uniform standing in front of a lady at the head of a line of immigrants and inspecting her left eye. his left hand seems to be everting the lid and his right hand, resting lightly on her cheek bone, may be holding a probe, a swab stick, or a light. what appears to be a bath towel attached to the iron pipe railing may be the only hygienic provision at hand. the author does not describe the nature of the eye tests, but he does point out that ellis island, in new york harbor, was reopened last summer for visitors, and that the american museum of immigration, u.s. park service, on nearby liberty island tells the dramatic story. i hope that an o.h.s. member may soon pay a visit to ellis island and liberty island and ferret out the full eye test story. who knows? perhaps an optometrist was on duty. 69 librarian thinks eyeglasses helped: 11 what single technological aid is most important to libraries? 11 asks robert thayer jordan, a librarian staff member of the council on library resources, washington, d.c. in a research article published in two install­ ments in the april and may, 1964, issues of stechert-hafner book news, vol. 18, nos. 7 & 8, pages 97-100 & 113-117. he suggests that we-wound undoubtedly think first of the printing press, but that after all, there were vast libraries before its invention. then he continues, 11 there is another ubiquitous technological device that has made possible or practical for most individuals the actual use of the multitude of books and libraries. we accept eyeglasses so casually as an unobtrusive extension of our own body that we are not given to reflec­ tion on the relation between eyeglasses and the printed materials with which we surround ourselves ... his article is titled 11 books, libraries, and eyeglasses, .. and subtitled, 11 the foremost technological aid to learning ... his truly comprehensive, thoroughly documented, and easy to read dis­ course defends his thesis well and includes a very perceptive discussion of the who-invented-eyeglasses controversy. in his closing paragraphs are two sentences worth quoting: 11 rosen has made certain corrections in the earliest history of eyeglasses, but the basic general works remain those by greef, beck, and oliver, from forty or more years ago. 11 the best contemporary brief review on the history of eyeglasses appears in joseph needham's extraordinary and monumental science and civilization in china (despite the fact that eyeglasses were not 1nventedtn china). 11 o.h.s. member e.j. fisher kindly sent me a xerographic copy of the article, which i have now placed in the optometry library at indiana university. cr-39 in 1947: o.h.s. member irving bennett, o.d., edi'tor of optometric management, helped reinforce my challenge on page 44 of the july newsletter as to the initial producers of plastic lenses made of cr-39. he sent me a copy of a publication i had not seen before, the september 1975 issue of optical management, vol. 4, no. 9, in which is an article by robert graham entitled 11 the armorlite story, .. pages 23-29. graham described the original use of cr-39 as a bonding solution in combat airplanes, its initial unavailability for civilians use, and the early problems of molding into ophthalmic lenses. finally, reported graham, 11 that year, 1947, the armorlite company was incorporated, and cr-39 lenses were in production for the first time! .. 70 110ptical parlor .. : o.h.s. member dr. reed, o.d., sent us an old eyeglass case given to him by a patient, who purchased it in a flea market and gave it to dr. reed for the museum. what we both found of more than ordinary interest was its metallic imprint of 11 hammond optical parlors, 141 state st., hammond, indiana ... we both suspect that this use of the word 11 parlor 11 was well before our time, but that there may have been a period when it was not uncommon. more on the headband spectacles: alan york, o.d., wrote the following comments: in answer to your inquiry in the newsletter [july, page 45] about the origin of the 11 brow-band spectacles .. , the earliest patent that i know of was by dudley adams, of london in 1797. it was available in 2 models, monocular or binocular. however its antecedents go much further back into history ••• the 16th century print by tobias stimmer, 11 die lebensalter 11 , ••• portrays a woman wearing 11mutzenbrille 11 [ 11 cap 11 glasses] suspended by a brow device that fitted into the hair or under a cap. a similar device is shown in the french satirical painting, 11 un trio convaincu 11 , which appears to have been painted around 1750. the 1762 self-portrait by the celebrated anna dorothea therbusch portrays another pair of 11stirnreifenbrille 11 [forehead hoop glasses] with an additional support that fits into the hair for stability. all of those pictures have been reproduced many times in various historical texts on spectacles. these that (i have mentioned) ••• are ••• reproduced from emil-heinz schmitz 11 die sehilfe im wandel der jahrhunderte, 11 1961, stuttgart. concerning translations of historical articles, members could confer a favor if, when they have an article of historic interest translated, they would deposit a copy of the translation in the library for the possible future use of other researchers. almost a school in saskatoon: during the february 23-24, 1944, meeting of the saskatchewan optometric association in regina (canada) a motion was passed to create a committee 11to investigate the advisability of instituting a chair of optometry at the university of saskatchewan .. (in saskatoon). immediately the committee prepared a proposal in two parts. part i. was presented to the president of the university on june 26, and part ii on november 7, 1977. the two parts were printed and bound together in a single 25x20 em., 62 page book entitled, 11a paper concernnng and proposing a college of optometry at the university of saskatchewan ... i recall this publication as an exciting landmark in my experience, for it appeared during my second year as a career teacher of optometry while we were all still preoccupied with the late stages of world war ii. 71 it was the first comprehensive document i had seen which dealt in a practical way with the current issues of optometric education. well, late in july i received one of the original publications from jack f. huber, o.d. of regina, saskatchewan, with the request that it be placed where it wi 11 be properly preserved. both dr. huber and i are con­ vinced that it is now a rare book. so naturally i forwarded it to the inter­ national library, archives, and museum of optometry for safe-keeping and to make it permanently accessible to bona fide scholars and historians. the contents include the historical background of optometry, a review of 11 present day visual care .. in which the roles of the optometrist, the medical refractionist, and the optician are described, the ethics and economics in eye care, and the need for better visual care, with statistical documenta­ tion. this is followed by a detailed description of an existing curriculum at another institution, a listing of schools in canada and the u.s.a. with tuition costs, admission requirements, degrees offered, etc. a prospectus of a possible program for the university of saskatchewan is outlined, to­ gether with a list of presumedly available faculty personnel. finally follow two rather extensive discussions, one entitled 11 professional optometry11 and the other 11 0ptometry•s future 11 by charles sheard. additional editorial sections on the scope of optometry, educational equipment needs, methods of financing the program, legal and inter-provincial considerations, and availability of clinical patients are included as committee contributions. truly, this document gives us a very reliable analysis of the status of optometry and optometric education about 35 years ago. the school was never established, but that is another story. fboa, fsmc, and fsao to become obsolete? these familiar abbreviations or affixes for fellow of the british optical association, fellow of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, and fellow of the scottish association of opticians should soon be replaced by a single affix, fellow of the college of ophthalmic opticians, presumably to be abbreviated f.c.o.o. until the formation of the new college of ophthalmic opticians, scheduled to go into full effect on january 1, 1978, each of the three existing organizations directed its own qualifying examinations for the practice of optometry and opticianry. the b.o.a., incorporated in 1895 11 to further the science of optics and for the protection of the profession .. , gave notice on 17 june 1977 to its members of an extraordinary general meeting on 13 july 1977 to discuss proposals for the founding of the college of ophthalmic opticians. in 1956 the national association of opticians merged into the b.o.a., and in 1962 the institute of optical science did the same. the present move is to phase out the b.o.a. in deference to the new body or 11 college 11 to take over the roles of three organizations as a single, learned qualifying body. it is expected that the continuing association of optical practitioners will publish a successor journal to the ophthalmic optician, and that the c.o.o. will publish a successor journal to ine british journal of physiological optics, both of which have been publications-at the b.o.a. -72 it is also anticipated that provisions will be made within the organizational structure of the c.o.o. for serving the dispensing opticians in terms comparable to those to be provided for ophthalmic opticians. all of the above notes are derived from the aforementioned june 17, 1977, notice to b.o.a. members, a copy of which is now in the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, inc. it may be presumed that members of the worshipful company of spectacle makers and of the scottish association of opticians have received, or will receive, comparable notices of merger intent. helen claire, optometrist's daughter: those of us who frequented the legitimate theatre in the 1930's and '40's are likely to recall miss helen claire, especially if we attended "kiss the boys good-bye" at the henry miller theatre on broadway, in which she played her first lead. her first stage appearance was the civic repertory theatre in 1929 as the second twin in "peter pan". in the late '40's she performed as a commentator in fox movietime news and as a popular radio artist. her biographical account in john parker's 1952 edition of who's who in the theatre covered considerably more than a half page. in it her<fate of birth was shown as 18 october 1911. in the current edition her death is reported as having occurred on 12 january 1974 at the age of 68 (sic~) the december 1938 issue of the iris bulletin of the alabama optometric association featured a full page photograph of her on the frontispiece with the caption, "our own miss helen claire". the editorial on page 8 identifies her as the "daughter of beloved pioneer optometrist" and declares, "at a time when so much national comment is being focused upon helen claire, it is well to remember that she is not only a southern but an alabamian, having been born in union springs, alabama, where her parents colonel and mrs. henry j. rosenstihl still reside". her father, doctor rosenstihl, was listed as a member of the alabama optometric society and of the a.o.a. as an optometrist in union springs in the first issue of the blue book of optometrists and opticians, 1912, and in all subsequent issues up to and including 1958. a note from dan hummel: o.h.s. member d. g. hummel, o.d. writes as follows, august 22, 1977: re your plastic lenses. in 1948 i had a pair of rimless glasses made of lenses by igard a franchise out of england. checking with the local lab, this was confirmed. in 1950 at the meeting in chicago, morgan demonstrated the ability of american lenses to withstand shock. charnwood was the skeptic. when meredith threw them against the wall charnwood had to push his eyeballs back in. 73 to see and hear: ------the international library, archives & museum of optometry, ilamo, reports what may well be a unique contribution to its museum collection. jacob staiman, o.d., of baltimore, maryland, donated a tortoise shell combination ear horn and lorgnette. the shell is perforated for a chain or ribbon so that it can be suspended from the wearer•s neck. the horn is decorated with carvings. included is a wooden container or case approximately 12 3/4 x 3 x 2 inches (32 x 8 x 5 em). the date of origin is undetermined. italian optometrists celebrate santa lucia: the march 1977 issue of ottica italiana, vol. 19, no. 3. features page after page and photograph upon photograph depicting the festive celebration of santa lucia day, in honor of the patron saint of ophthalmic optics, in 22 different cities in italy last december. the smiles, awards, toasts, wine bottles, handshakes, plaques, certificates, medals, bouquets, and banquet scenes, etc. apparent in the pictures tell the story quite clearly even for those of us who do not read italian. saint lucy featured: on the front cover of the august 1977 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 48, no.8, is a 1470 painting of santa lucia by francesco del cossa. the legend of the saint is on page 972, by byron y. newman, o.d. from the leeds collection: in a recent communication o.h.s. member james p. leeds, o.d., of carmel, indiana, suggested that there should be a list or registry of book~ that relate somewhat especially to ophthalmic history, books that deal either with ophthalmic history as a topic or with ophthalmic personalities, and even novels which reflect ophthalmic circumstances. his suggestion was prompted by the book 11 00n it cry' chi i sa i' don it cry ii (1 is ted be 1 ow} written by the wife of an optometrist of japanese heritage interned during world war ii. to illustrate his point dr. leeds quickly jotted down a list of titles from his own collection, arbitrarily omitting the excellent publications in languages other than english. his list, to which the reader is invited to make additions, follows: arrington, e.c., 11 history of optometry 11 , white printing house chicago, 1929. augustine, r.c., 11 0ptometry in the schools 11 , kansas city, mo., 1916(?}. brucker, wilber m., "the story of optometry", aoa, minneapolis, 1939. cox, maurice e., "optometry the profession", opt. j. & rev., n.y., 1947. fitch, albert t., "my 50 years in optometry 11 , vol. i & ii, psco, 1955, 1959. flick, c.s., 11a gross of green spectacles", hatton press, london, 1951. iab, 110ptometric jurisprudence 11 , randolph, vt., 1950. osborn, michael & riggs, joseph, "mr. mac", sco, memphis, 1970. 74 prentice, charles f., 11 legalized optometry and memoirs 11 , casperin fletcher press, seattle, 1926. rasmussen, otto durham, 11 chinese eyesight & spectacles 11 , 4th revision, tonbridge, kent, england, 1949. southall, james p.c., 11 ln the days of my you'th 11 , u. of n.c. press, 1947. stead, harold j., 11 the first fifty years of an optical career .. , geneva, ny, 1954. titmus, edward h., 11 looking thru the lens 11 , petersburg, va. 1953 {revised 1958). uyesugi, ruth farlow, 11 don't cry, chiisai, don't cry 11 , stout's print shop, paoli, ind., 1977. wood, alex, 11thomas young, natural philosopher .. , cambridge u. press, 1954. wolff, j., 11 0ptometry in the state of washington, 1880-1966 11 , woa, 1967. ezell, mrs. wn. c., 11 history of the women's auxiliary to the aoa 1927-1951 11 , spartanburg, s.c., 1952 (i understand there's an update printed recently) (also there's a book on the southern council of optometry) brockbank, e.m., 11 john dalton 11 , manchester u. press, england, 1944. collins, e. treacher, 11 the history and traditions of the moorfield eye hospi ta 1", h. k. lewis and co., ltd, london, 1929. chance, burton, 110phthalmology 11 , paul b. hoeher, inc., ny, 1939. cleveland society for the blind 1906-1960, cleveland, ohio, 1961. dark, sidney, 11the life of sir arthur pearson ... , london (192?). gould, george, w., 11 biographical clinics••, 11 lnfluences of visual function on health 11 , vol. i-vi, p. blakiston's son & co., phila., 1903-1909. gifford, edw. s., jr., 11 the evil eye 11 , the macmillan co., ny 1958. griffith, beatrice fox, 11 pennsylvania doctor 11 , the stackpole co., harris­ burg, pa, 1957 (life of c. webster fox, md) hubbell, alvin a., 11 the development of ophthalmology in america, 1800 to 1870 11 , w.t. keener & co., chicago, 1908. javal, dr. emile, 110n becoming blind 11 , the macmillan co., ny 1905. james, r. rutson, 11 history of ophthalmology in england to 1800 11 cambridge u. press, england, 1933. law, frank w., 11the history and traditions of the moorfield eye hospital 11 , vol. ii, h.k. lewis and co., london, 1975. mckendrick, john gray, 11 hermann von helmholtz 11 , t. fisher unwin, london, 1899. richards, laura e., 11samuel gridley howe 11 , d-appleton-century, ny 1935. richards, laura e., 11 laura bridgeman .. , d-appleton & co., ny 1928. rosen, edward, 11 the invention of eyeglasses .. , reprint from the journal of medicine and allied sciences, 1956. sorsby, arnold, 11a short history of ophthalmology 11 , john bale, sons & danielson, ltd., london, 1933. shastid, 11an outline history of ophthalmology 11 , aoco, 1927 (i understand he also had a personal memoir.) spearman, frank h., 11 doctor bryson 11 , chas. scribner's sons, ny 1906 (a novel---the love life of an oculist) firestone, leon, o.d., 11 strength thy weakness"·1960(?) (a novel of his nico days). posey, wm. campbell & brown, samuel horton, 11the wills hospital of phila­ delphia .. j.b. lippincott co., phila., 1931. rucker, c. wilbur, m.d., 11a history of the ophthalmoscope 11 whiting printers & stationers, rochester, minn., 1971 hirsch, monroe j. & wick, ralph j., 11 the optometric profession 11 , chilton book co., philadelphia, 1968. hofstetter, h. w., 110ptometry: profession a 1 , economic, and lega 1 aspects 11 , c. v. mosby, st. louis, missouri, 1948. 75 the ramstein collection in basel: during his long life in optics max ramstein (1890-1973) acquired most of the present ramstein collection of optical antiquities, in basel, switzerland. he was of the second generation of ramsteins in optics, followed by the third generation consisting of two sons walter and rolf, and at least one member of the fourth generation. the collection includes spectacles, spectacle cases, microscopes, telescopes, sextants, theodolites, binoculars, opera glasses, optometers, books, pictures, cartoons, engravings, optical and folding sundials, compasses, a sunshine recorder, an early slide viewer or magic lantern, magnifiers, stereoscopes, a mechanical model of the earth, moon, and sun illuminated by a candle with a reflector, and a wide variety of optically related gadgets. included are spectacles worn by bernoulli (1710-1790), r6ntgen, and kaiser wilhelm ii of world war i. e.j. crundall tells all about the collection in an article entitled "the remarkable ramstein collection" in the april 29 issue of the optician (london), vol. 173, no. 4482, pages 16, 19, 21, 22, and 27, wi~l6 illustration~ johann heinrich lambert, 1728-1777: the dictionary of visual science lists four lambert namesakes: lambert's law of absorption, lambert's cosine law, the lambert, and the footlambert. lambert was a physicist, a mathematician, a cosmologist, and, above all, a logician, reports distinguished university professor stanley l. jaki in an article entitled "lambert: self-taught physicist" in the september 1977 issue of physics today, vol. 30, no.9, pp. 25-30 & 32. lambert was the first to give a strict proof of the irrationability of! and~· he was a prolific writer and included articles on perspective, photometry, color mixing, and optics in his almost unlimited range of topics. a large international gathering of scholars met in mulhouse, alsace, france, in september on the bicentennial occasion of lambert's death to discuss the many aspects of his scientific and philosophical genius. the house in which lambert was born, in mulhouse, is still standing. a recent photograph of it shows a sign "binda optic 2000 11 over the street level window, suggesting that the main floor is presently occupied by an optical firm. mulhouse, incidentally, is only about 30 kilometers from basel, very near the juncture of france, west germany, and switzerland, and at various times in history affiliated with each of the three, and it existed for a very brief time as an imperial free city. professor jaki tells us a great deal about lambert's personality, indeed so well that it almost seems that he must have known lambert personally. 76 historical articles elsewhere: james wardrop was born august 14, 1782, near edinburgh, scotland, and died in 1869 in london. he wrote "essays on the morbid anatomy of the human eye", published by ramsey in edinburgh in 1808, and several other papers on the eye, blindness, and other medical topics. his interesting personality and activities are described in remarkable detail by daniel m. albert and nancy robinson in the 1974 wardrop lecture entitled, "james wardrop: a brief review of his life and contributions" appearing in the transactions of the ophthalmological societies of the united kingdom, vol. 94, 1974, pages 89'2-908. "the past 25 years of surgery" by edward w .d. norton deals essentia·lly with retinal detachment surgery and appears in the september, 1975, issue of the american journal of ophthalmology, vol. 80, no.3, part 1, pages 450-459. a total of 63 references are listed. "200 years of progress ••• enter the contact lens 11 , anonymously authored, appears in the january 1976 issue of contacto, vol. 20, no.1, pp. 20-23. it consists mainly of several illustrations of early testing devices and instruments. o.r.m. sebag-montefiore, master of the worshipful company of spectacle makers from 1971 to 1973, describes briefly the historical development of the ophthalmic optician and the optical profession in the united kingdom, and the part played by the worshipful company of spectacle makers, in an article entitled "the development of the training and qualifications of the british optician" in the august 1975 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, vol. 46, no.8, pp. 831-834. pacheco pedigree grows: ohs charter member antonio pacheco, o.d., of puerto rico reports that with the recent graduation of sixto pacheco, o.d., the tradition of two pacheco brothers in optometry per generation is now in its third generation. the youngest or third generation actually has three pacheco's in optometry, one a cousin of the other two. the optometrist members of the second and third generation are all living. have i:q.!! heard of: patrick's improved retinoscope? a decagon ophthalmoscope by keeler? a jebb optometer? if you have, please get in touch with profess?r e.j. fisher, school of optometry, university of waterloo, waterloo, ontar1o, canada n2l 361. he requests help identifying these. naturally, i too will appreciate being carboned in on any clews you may send to 11 ted 11 fisher, as it will enable me to make this newsletter more interesting, and, of course, informative. h.w. hofstetter, editor 1977-08-04-001 1977-08-04-002 1977-08-04-003 1977-08-04-004 1977-08-04-005 1977-08-04-006 1977-08-04-007 1977-08-04-008 1977-08-04-009 1977-08-04-010 1977-08-04-011 1977-08-04-012 1977-08-04-013 1977-08-04-014 1977-08-04-015 1977-08-04-016 1977-08-04-017 1977-08-04-018 1977-08-04-019 1977-08-04-020 1977-08-04-021 1977-08-04-022 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: john f. amos (2015), email address: eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: alden norm haffner (2014), email address: anhaffner@msn.com secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016), email address: chaine@hainews.com trustees: irving bennett (2016), email address: irvbennett23@gmail.com jay m. enoch (2014), email address: jmenoch@berkeley.edu ronald ferrucci (2017), email address: rferrucci@juno.com morton greenspoon (2015), email address: drmort@mac.com alfred rosenbloom (2015), email address: aarlvpro@sbcglobal.net bill sharpton (2017), email address: sharpton@windstream.net the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. volumes 1-42 are available online at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. ohs website: http://www.aoafoundation.org/historical-gems/ on the cover: photograph of the scientific section class in eye dissection at the aoa congress 1914. the archives & museum of optometry. american optometric association records. (see the article in this issue on the aoa congress of 1914) mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 97 hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2014 volume 45, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editor: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 table of contents the aoa congress of 1914, kirsten pourroy hébert…………………………………….98 optometry one hundred years ago, david a. goss…………………………………….107 an appreciation of dr. henry hofstetter and his role in the preservation and advancement of optometry history, kirsten pourroy hébert………………………..….110 a look at the origins of dissociated phoria and fusional vergence testing, david a. goss………………………………………………………..………………………………….116 book review: the eye in history, reviewed by david a. goss……………………......120 instructions to authors……………………………………………………………………….122 ohs membership application……………………………………………………………....124 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 98 the aoa congress of 1914 kirsten pourroy hébert, b.a. heritage services specialist, the archives & museum of optometry, 243 n. lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org one hundred years ago, the american optical association held its 17th annual convention on july 18-25, 1914 at the planter's hotel in st. louis, mo. this was the first official "congress" of the aoa, a title which the association's annual meeting maintained for more than 80 years. in the context of the progressive era, the name change was significant. first, the association's political structure was, as it remains today, a group of nationally affiliated state organizations each represented by delegates. this emphasis on democracy and equal representation dominated the association during its critical formative years. second, the era was characterized by great energy for institutional reform through regulation and the improvement of society through education and public health initiatives. the desire for regulation and standardization brought about a flurry of activity among professional and trade organizations in order to define standards, set qualifications for practice and create measures to assess proficiency. the activities of the association's first congress clearly illustrate the influence of larger societal trends on the development of the profession. figure 1. photograph of the 17th annual congress, american optical association, july 18-25, 1914, st. louis, mo. the archives & museum of optometry. american optometric association records. the 1914 congress was considered exceptionally successful in terms of content and organization, although attendance was somewhat lower than previous meetings due to fears of july temperatures in st. louis. the leading optometric publication of the period, the optical journal and review, noted in their pre-convention issues that "rooms with electric fans will be in demand at the hotels"1 and the planter's hotel assured attendees that "each room has circulating ice water as well as a private bath"2 indeed, it was close to 100 degrees during the congress and at the annual banquet men were encouraged to remove their dinner jackets if they were "wearing clean shirts."3 http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/support-the-archives-and-museum-of-optometry?sso=y mailto:khebert@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 99 figure 2. postcard (1920). fourth street north from market street showing courthouse and planters hotel. the archives & museum of optometry. american optometric association records. aoa president albert myer, perhaps concerned about the possibility of a low turnout, issued a "greeting" sent to association officers which was also printed in the review. in addition to defining the pre-convention committees, myer rallied members to attend the conference by invoking the words of the former president, h.j. cook, who on his deathbed stated, "if i live, i'm going to the optometric congress in st. louis. if i don't, i will be there in spirit."4 myer's urgency was justified. the association was engaged in a battle with organized medicine and needed the support of an active and engaged membership to stake out optometry's professional jurisdiction. the pre-convention committees are recognizable as the predecessors of aoa's current sections, centers, groups and departments. these included the 1915 conference committee, the scientific section, the national organization state board examiners, education, publicity, legislation, resolutions, finance, membership, amendments, welfare, efficiency, statistics, school chart, inspection dispensaries, professional service and a general committee comprised of chairmen. the early structures of the association reflect a common concern of emerging professions in the early twentieth century when "trades" were being distinguished from "professions". the association endeavored to determine how the scope of optometry practice and the qualifications of practitioners should be defined and regulated. to this end, the aoa established committees dedicated to setting standards of practice, defining association positions, educating practitioners and the public about the profession and working to consolidate optometrists under the wing of the association for the purpose of forwarding beneficial legislation. http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/photographs/aoa-presidents/albert-myer http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/photographs/aoa-presidents/henry-j-cook hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 100 figure 3. scientific section lecture course to proceed the a.o.a. convention. excerpted from the optical journal and review of optometry 1914; 34(2): 116. the scientific section, in particular, performed a critical function. by providing a forum for conducting and disseminating research and building a knowledge base, the section laid the foundation for the development of educational standards and bestpractices, clinical guidelines, and measures of competency.5 the section also sowed the seeds of the continuing education program, the international library, archives & museum, and the clinical resources group. in the 1914 resolutions, the scientific section was given the responsibility of appointing a member in each state to "write optical history" for their home state; here the beginnings of the optometric historical society are evident. the scientific section required the submission of "theses" for membership and worked with the education committee and national state board of examiners to formulate questions for state certification examinations and to recommend textbooks and standards for university coursework. these latter duties would eventually be taken on by the national state board of examiners in optometry, the association of regulatory boards of optometry and the association of schools and colleges of optometry. the american academy of optometry had yet to gain momentum as the academic arm of optometry. indeed, the fledgling aao was disbanded before 1914 and did not revive until 1922. for the time being, the scientific section fulfilled this role as well. http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum http://www.aoafoundation.org/historical-gems/ http://www.aoafoundation.org/historical-gems/ http://www.optometry.org/ https://www.arbo.org/ https://www.arbo.org/ http://www.opted.org/ http://www.opted.org/ http://www.aaopt.org/ hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 101 to this end, the scientific section provided continuing and technical education for optometrists at a time when only 33 states had laws requiring certification--and, therefore, specialized training--to practice. while independent schools of optometry were operating in a handful of states, university-based programs were few. columbia university of new york was the first to offer courses in 1910 and ohio state university founded its two-year program in applied optics in 1914.6 one of the most popular events at the 1914 congress was the suite of "post-graduate" courses held by the scientific section. over 150 participants registered for these courses for a fee of $10 each. frederic woll's "eye dissection" course was well-attended, as were the others, despite what must have been sweltering conditions in the planter's hotel. figure 4. neum, roy h. photograph of the scientific section class in eye dissection at the aoa congress 1914. the archives & museum of optometry. american optometric association records. the courses began on the first day of the congress and ended tuesday, july 21st at noon, when the business of the congress began. from wednesday, july 22 until the closing session on friday, july 24th, presenters delivered papers, committees and sections gave their reports, and delegates elected their officers. congress attendees were given frequent breaks to explore more than 40 exhibitions. excursions for "ladies" included a mississippi steamboat ride on the belle of the bend, a swimming party at the lorelei swimming pool and a luncheon at caffereta's garden.7 the proceedings of the resolutions committee reveal the issues which most concerned organized optometry and other professional associations in 1914. chairman http://optometry.osu.edu/aboutthecollege/history.cfm http://optometry.osu.edu/aboutthecollege/history.cfm hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 102 p.a. dilworth reported on several resolutions including one discouraging the practice of advertising "free eye examinations" with the purchase of spectacles. the committee concluded that examinations were professional services which should require a fee and offering these services as a perk included with the purchase of a product undermined the very purpose of the association. the resolution stated that optometrists are "professional men" who "charge for their services, and are not mere storekeepers selling merchandise."8 thus, the association, which had restricted its membership to "refracting opticians" in its second year of existence, further delineated the distinction between optometrists and opticians and reinforced vision exams as part of the optometrist's scope of practice. resolutions were also passed to commend the organizers of the panamacalifornia exposition and the women's magazine collier's weekly for their work in prohibiting and denouncing concessions sales of spectacles at expositions. the ban was designed to stop opportunistic retailers from promising cures of various ailments through spectacle use without evidence and selling erroneous prescriptions to uninformed consumers without proper examinations. in this way, the association sought to solidify the optometrist's standing as uniquely qualified to identify visual anomalies and prescribe corrective lenses or therapy. figure 5. collier's: the national weekly 52 (17) january 10, 1914. cover. the committee also passed resolutions supporting various "fair trade" and "price maintenance" regulatory legislation, such as the stevens bill h.r. 13305 and authorized hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 103 the secretary to send a copy of the resolutions to senators and congressmen in washington, d.c. in these resolutions, the aoa was joined by the national association of retail druggists and other professional associations whose members operated as small retailers in addition to providing professional services. as most optometrists were small owners and operators, the maintenance of a fair and level playing field when dealing with manufacturers, "price-cutting" retailers and large institutions--like hospitals which benefitted from economies of scale--was a priority. these actions by the association illustrate the importance and ubiquitous nature of early lobbying efforts by professional associations on national regulatory policy. legal battles in the states without laws regulating optometry and where the american medical association was engaged in a turf war with the aoa were also the subject of the resolutions in the 1914 congress. the "special resolution on the situation in pennsylvania" dealt with the pennsylvania bureau of medical licensure's attempt to designate optometry a branch of medicine (and therefore illegal to practice unless licensed as a medical doctor). a court decision in october of 1914 would vindicate optometry as a distinct and separate science and the pennsylvania optical society immortalized this decision on their certificates. figure 6. certificate to practice optometry. pennsylvania optical society. issued to w.t. flanagan, 1915. the archives & museum of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 104 in addition to education, research and jurisdictional issues, the association began to venture into matters of public health. this had a dual purpose. first, statements on matters of public policy established optometrists as experts and helped to legitimize the profession. second, promoting vision-related regulation in the private and public sector was good for business. at the 1914 congress, a resolution on motorist's vision recommended states prevent visually impaired individuals from driving and to require use of glasses in visually impaired "chauffeurs".9,10 the popularity and affordability of ford's model t, first released in 1908 and selling 15 million by 1927, gave optometrists a new concern and new set of patients. the publicity committee under the direction of chairman reginald augustine was also very active in promoting public health and education as a way to increase the scope of practice and find new markets. to this end, the committee produced a series of pamphlets for distribution to optometrists and the public on various topics. figure 7. conservation of vision and modern optometry, 1912. the american optical association. publicity committee publications series, number 1. the archives & museum of optometry. aoa records, aoa publications. http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/photographs/aoa-presidents/reginald-c-augustine http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/photographs/aoa-presidents/reginald-c-augustine hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 105 it is worthy of note that "the conservation of vision and modern optometry" explains "how to obtain correctly adjusted glasses, without the use of drugs" (emphasis added). this directly addresses one of organized medicine's principle arguments against optometry and foreshadowed a long battle to come over optometrists' use of diagnostic and therapeutic drugs. oculists argued that refraction of the eye required the use of cycloplegic drugs and that the use of drugs should be restricted to medical doctors. optometrists contended that refraction for the purpose of determining a prescription for corrective lenses did not require drugs and accused oculists of overusing potentially dangerous mydriatics. augustine was a dynamic speaker and even after serving three terms as aoa president (1918-1921) he remained on the payroll as a travelling spokesman on behalf of optometry.11 of special interest to augustine was the expansion of practice into schools through regular vision screenings of children. in 1914, augustine's speech to the congress was a recapitulation of the forward to his 1910 publication optometry in the schools in which he encouraged optometrists and the aoa to reach out to teachers and parent organizations to incite an interest in seeking vision care for children: "you see the teacher has a derived interest in glasses through the fact that progress in the profession depends on the work one is able to get out of students . . . the teacher was the first link in my chain, and next came the parents."12 the 1914 congress came to an end only days before the beginning of world war i on july 28, 1914. the war brought an end to the progressive era and ushered in a relatively stagnant period for the growth of the profession. however, the scaffolding constructed during the early twentieth century provided a remarkably stable structure for the future growth of the association. furthermore, the association continued to engage in public health issues and to hold its own against the attempts of organized medicine to curtail the scope of optometry practice. acknowledgment this paper has been adapted from a virtual exhibit on the archives & museum of optometry website, accessible at: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-andmuseum/exhibits/the-congress-of-1914?sso=y. references 1. convention notes. opt j rev optom 1914;34:245. 2. who’s who in st. louis. opt j rev optom 1914;34:116. 3. proceedings. opt j rev optom 1914;34:300. 4. pre-convention greeting to a.o.a. opt j rev optom 1914;34:39. 5. duchan j. emergence of professionalism in late 19th and early 20th century america, 2011. http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/new_history/hist19c/professionalism.html, accessed 6/19/2014. 6. history of the college of optometry at ohio state university, 2014. http://optometry.osu.edu/aboutthecollege/history.cfm, accessed 7/8/2014. 7. opt j rev optom 1914;1914;34:434-436. http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/exhibits/the-congress-of-1914?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/exhibits/the-congress-of-1914?sso=y http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/new_history/hist19c/professionalism.html http://optometry.osu.edu/aboutthecollege/history.cfm hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 106 8. opt j rev optom 1914;34:408. 9. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:60. 10. opt j rev optom 1914;34:409. 11. koetting ra, american optometric association. the american optometric association's first century. st. louis: american optometric association, 1997. 12. augustine rc. optometry in the schools. kansas city, mo: optometry publishing company, 1910:6. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 107 optometry one hundred years ago david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu the preceding article in this issue discussed the 1914 meeting of the american optical association, later to become the american optometric association. the following are some random bits of additional information on optometry 100 years ago gained by a perusal of the 1914 blue book of optometrists and opticians and of 1914 issues of the optical journal and review of optometry. in a short blurb in a series of editorial notes in the january 22 issue of the optical journal and review of optometry, a writer speculated that about “half of the optometrists of this country use line charts in testing for astigmatism,” noting that the 15 degree intervals of a clock dial is not exact. some optometrists used “dial charts with a pin in the center so that they can be rotated, and with these they get exact results.”1 another astigmatism testing method was “the older method of swinging cylinders,” in which a cylinder lens in a trial frame was rotated back and forth until the patient reported the best visual acuity. an advantage of the line chart method over the latter method was said to be the fact that the axis of some trial case cylinders was not accurately marked.1 in an editorial note in the february 12 issue, the writer observed that many optometrists had the opinion that “no examination is complete for glasses until the fundus of the eye has been inspected so that if any signs are present that seem to show an abnormal condition the patient may be properly warned. not that there is any obligation on the part of the optometrist to discover the presence of ocular diseases. people who come to him are supposed to be seeking glasses for healthy eyes, either to improve the vision or to make their vision easier. conscientious optometrists, however, feel that they ought to go further than their legal responsibility and use the ophthalmoscope in every case, so that should anything abnormal show itself they can render a service very often very valuable to their patients.”2 after spending two paragraphs discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the direct and indirect methods of ophthalmoscopy, the writer noted that an “incidental advantage of the use of ophthalmoscope by either method, is that if anything abnormal is present in the transparent medium of the eye, it is detected, and, of course, suitable warning given.”2 in summarizing the optometry laws in various states, the january 8 issue of the optical journal and review of optometry stated that the definitions of optometry in individual state laws was similar to the following: “the practice of optometry is defined to be the employment of any means, other than the use of drugs, for the measurement of the powers of vision and the adaptation of lenses for the aid thereof.”3 mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 108 in 1914 blue book there is a listing of 27 “optical schools and colleges” in the united states.4 they were: american institute of optometry (new york, ny), joseph i. pascal, registrar. bradley horological institute (peoria, il), prof. a.f. westlake, dean. columbia optical college (st. paul, mn), james maguire, president. columbia university (new york, ny), instructors andrew jay cross, william hallock, w.w. stifler, frederick a. woll, louis r. welzmiller, m.d., frank j. mcmackin. demars school of optics (minneapolis, mn), louis l. demars, principal. franklin institute department of optics and optometry (passaic, nj), w.c. browne, secretary. interstate institute of optometry (litchfield, il), junius f. sallee, president. kansas school of optics (biddeford, me; chartered at topeka, ks), personal instruction of j.e. littlefield. los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry (los angeles, ca), m.b. ketchum, m.d. massachusetts school of optometry (boston, ma), theodore f. klein, registrar. mccormick medical college (chicago, il), charles mccormick, president. missouri college of optometry (st. louis), c. harvi altheide, secretary. needles institute of optometry (kansas city mo), w.b. needles, president. new orleans optical college (new orleans, la), david c. williams, president. northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology (chicago), george w. mcfatrich, secretary. omaha optical institute (omaha, ne), adelbert b. tarbox, president. pennsylvania college of optics and ophthalmology (philadelphia), m.l. yubas, president. philadelphia institute of optometry (philadelphia), otto g. haussman, secretary. philadelphia optical college (philadelphia), c.h. brown, president. physicians and surgeons optical college (denver, co). rochester school of optometry (rochester, ny), c.s. hawkins, secretary-treasurer. south bend college of optics (south bend, in), h.a. thompson. southern california eye college (los angeles, ca), m.m. ring, principal. southwestern optical college (kansas city, mo). spencer optical institute (new york, ny). washington school of optometry (spokane, wa), c.w.talbot, president. western ophthalmology institute (san francisco, ca), allan h. browne, principal. the brief descriptions of the schools in the blue book showed significant lack of uniformity. some schools taught both medical graduates and optometry graduates in post-graduate courses. some gave both attendance and correspondence courses. the length of study varied, with many of the schools stating a two year program and some mentioning variable lengths of study, one school giving a range of three months to three years. various degrees or certificates were offered at different schools, such as doctor of optometry, oph. d., opt. m., opt. b., doctor of optics, and full course certificate.4 hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 109 of particular importance in optometric education in 1914 was the opening at the ohio state university of the second university-based optometry school. this was announced in the august 13 issue of the optical journal and review of optometry.5 university trustees decided at an august 4 meeting to establish the program with it to begin on september 15. it was announced that charles sheard would serve as director of the program, with f.p. barr of lancaster, ohio; c.n. mcdonnell of columbus, ohio; john c. eberhardt of dayton, ohio; and clark sloan of cleveland, ohio as lecturers. the requirement for a certificate would be ohio state’s two years of optometry training following a minimum of two years of high school work. the required courses in the two years at ohio state were: first year, first semester – mathematics, physics, anatomy and physiology, and english (14 credit hours). first year, second semester – theoretical optics, practical optics, theoretical optometry (15 credit hours). second year, first semester – theoretical optics, physiological optics, practical optics, theoretical optometry, pathological conditions of the eye, practical optometry (15 credit hours). second year, second semester – theoretical optics, physiological optics, physiological conditions of the eye, practical optometry, radiant energy and the eye, practice course (16 credit hours). the announcement of the program at ohio state stated that it was “planned to meet the most rigorous of any of the state laws.” it further went on to say that: “everywhere in ohio the optometrists are jubilant and agree that now with an optometry department in the state university they must win their campaign for an optometry law.”5 periodically throughout the year, the optical journal and review of optometry reported on the status of enactment of optometry laws. in 1914, optometry achieved the passage of licensure laws in maryland and new jersey, thirteen years after the first optometry law was passed in minnesota. by the end of the year, 33 states had optometry laws.6 it would be another ten years before all states and the district of columbia had optometry laws. references 1. one advantage of line charts. opt j rev optom 1914;33:258. 2. the use of ophthalmoscope by optometrists. opt j rev optom 1914;33:460. 3. handy digest of optometry laws. opt j rev optom 1914;33:124. 4. blue book of optometrists and opticians, 2nd ed. chicago: the optometrist and optician, 1914:23-26. 5. ohio recognizes optometry. opt j rev optom 1914;34:565-566. 6. the 33 optometry states. opt j rev optom 1914;34:1734. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 110 an appreciation of dr. henry hofstetter and his role in the preservation and advancement of optometry history kirsten pourroy hébert, b.a. heritage services specialist, the archives & museum of optometry, 243 n. lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org september 10, 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the optometric historical society’s founder and first president, dr. henry w hofstetter (1914-2002).a born and raised in rural ohio, dr. hofstetter was a first-generation american whose lifelong profession was as an educator. dr. hofstetter received his teacher’s certificate from kent state university (1933) and went on to complete a b.s. in optometry (1939) followed by a m.s. (1940) and ph.d. (1942) in physiological optics from ohio state university—a program that is also celebrating a centennial this year.1 for almost 70 years, dr. hofstetter held posts as an elementary school teacher, optometry faculty member and administrator. he was a professor at ohio state, dean of the los angeles school of optometry, and the first director of indiana university’s division of optometry. after his retirement, he continued to be active as adjunct and emeritus faculty and received honorary degrees from many institutions. dr. hofstetter was not sequestered in academia by any means; he held licenses to practice optometry in three states: ohio (1939), indiana (1945) and california (1950) (figure 1). additionally, he held leadership positions in many organizations and had an international focus that earned him the honor of having his name attached to the “world council of optometry’s hofstetter symposium on international optometry and vision care” (1999). dr. hofstetter was also active in the american optometric association (aoa), serving on the board of trustees, as the aoa vice president and, finally, the 47th president (figure 2) of the association (1968-1969). during the course of his career, he received numerous awardsb from the association and other organizations for his contributions to the discipline (figure 3).2 much has been written about dr. hofstetter by his colleagues and friends and his monumental achievements on behalf of optometry as an educator, administrator, leader and practitioner are well known to students of optometry history. my relationship with dr. hofstetter is different; as the steward of the aoa’s institutional repository which includes archival materials and museum objects that document aoa history and the development of the profession, i feel his presence and influence very keenly. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 111 figure 1. certificate of registration for the practice of optometry, no. 1013, indiana state board of registration and examination in optometry. issued to henry wm. hofstetter on september 30, 1945. the archives & museum of optometry, folder gm 3. dr. hofstetter was a member of the board of trustees (1962-1968) and aoa president (1968-1969) at a time when the services of the library were beginning to prove invaluable to optometrists and students of optometry. the international library, archives and museum of optometry (ilamo, 1973-2009) did not yet exist and head librarian, maria dablemont, had been communicating her concerns about the state of the reference services, the management of the material in her care and the development of the collections from the moment she was hired in 1964. in dr. hofstetter she found a staunch ally and advocate among the board of trustees. as a member of the “history committee” and the “library committee,” hofstetter corresponded often with dablemont. in a 1965 letter, he advised her on how to present her case to the board and cultivate a following among members. he gave the librarian explicit instructions about how create compelling reports to the board, use the media to promote the library and interact with users. his suggestions demonstrated an excellent understanding of how to appeal to his colleagues not only by providing them with information to combat optometry’s foes, but also by appealing to their egos. always supportive and ever humble, hofstetter ends his letter: hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 112 “i hope you will forgive me for preaching like this but it is only because i know you can do this job so very effectively and that you merely need a little encouragement. the most important part of any library is the librarian, and the name dablemont can become more important to optometry than the name prentice.”3 as president-elect, hofstetter showed great respect for dablemont’s skill as a historian and researcher while also extending his influence to protect her. in her work with the history committee, dablemont authored an article “the survival of an ideal” in which she traces the origins of optometry to the optical trade. hofstetter recognizes the accuracy of her research but correctly asserts that some may be offended by the association of optometry with a “trade.” in his response to her submission, hofstetter replies, “i would have no objection to offending a few nincompoops, but i am unwilling to throw our priceless librarian to the fury of some simple people.” he tactfully suggests article be rewritten “with some gentle, subtle, introductory sentences . . . which will make the average optometric reader more receptive rather than resistant.”4 figure 2. american optometric association president portrait collection, "henry w hofstetter," 1968. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis, mo. as an academic and a scientist, hofstetter unwaveringly supported the growth of the library holdings. he understood that preserving scholarly research bolstered optometry’s scientific knowledge base which in turn allowed it to flourish as a profession, clinical practice and scientific discipline. in his 1969 president’s report to the house of delegates, hofstetter stated: hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 113 “. . . optometry still has a long way to go in the assumption of its full responsibility in support of visual science as a discipline . . . . our missions, our research support, our libraries, our curricula, our public information channels, our literature, and our organizational resources should be geared for a total interest in vision, not merely on those aspects that currently happen to relate to prevailing clinical demands.”5 figure 3. american optometric association distinguished service award. awarded to dr. henry w. hofstetter (1991). the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis, mo. while hofstetter exerted his influence to broaden the scope of the library holdings—the repository’s name reflected his interest in international optometry—he also recognized that the collections held there should be unique. in a 1966 letter, he advised dablemont that her collections development need not “encompass the whole field of visual science.” this endeavor, he stated, “seems more appropriate for a major university.”6 it is hofstetter and dablemont who deserve credit for developing the breadth and depth of materials on optometry that, at one time, comprised one of the most important repositories of its kind in the world. in these communications with dablemont, it is easy to discern why dr. hofstetter earned such respect and adoration among his colleagues, students and others who enjoyed his mentorship. he was extremely gracious and always quick to give credit to others which he easily could have taken for himself. he was as generous with his praise as he was with his advice and negotiated compromises that jeopardized neither dablemont’s position nor her integrity as a historian and information manager. this allowed her to apply her considerable expertise to developing the aoa collections and extract the support she needed to make the ilamo a viable resource. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 114 in tandem with his support of the library, hofstetter collaborated with dablemont to found the optometric historical society (ohs). hofstetter indicates the idea of the society predated its establishment by at least four years: “at almost my first personal acquaintance with her [dablemont], probably the same year, she pointed up the need for an optometric historical society and suggested to me that i should initiate its founding. despite my informing her that i was in no sense a historian, history having been my poorest subject in school, she started literally hounding me personally, and perhaps others, to take steps to organize the group.”7 in 1968, hofstetter and dablemont created bylaws and a constitution for the society. in september of 1969, they officially founded the ohs.8 the first hindsight was circulated in 1970 and listed 33 founding members.9 in these early documents, the intimate relationship between the ohs and the aoa repository is clear. whereas it was (and remains) the mission of the ohs to “encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry,” it is the archives & museum of optometry’s (amo) mission to collect, preserve and provide access to these materials. just as the ohs collected oral histories from prominent optometrists (1968-1973) and deposited these in the ilamo for safekeeping, the amo is in the process of launching a new oral history program to continue on the expansion of optometry scope of practice into public health. finally, the ohs mission also charges members to “encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest.”10 the amo has recently embarked on a preservation program to ensure that our collections are protected and will rely on the members of the ohs to help promote our conservation efforts to the wider membership of the aoa and optometrists. it is evident in the correspondence between dr. hofstetter and mrs. dablemont, both personal and professional, that this intimacy between the two entities is the result of dr. hofstetter’s continued support of and promotion of the repository’s mission and dablemont’s work in particular. this relationship serves as a model of professional collaboration and cooperation in pursuit of a singular goal that the ohs and the amo continue to share: to preserve optometry’s history. this year, the ohs will fully realize the board’s 2011 decision to become part of optometry cares’ heritage services program under which the amo also operates. as the heritage services specialist, i plan to remain true to this spirit of partnership and mutual support that dr. hofstetter and mrs. dablemont forged almost 50 years ago. references 1. goss da. obituary: henry w hofstetter, od, phd, faao, 1914-2002. optom vis sci 2002;79:467. 2. goss da. a short biographical sketch. in: henry w hofstetter (1914 2002): tributes and reminiscences. ind j optom 2002 5: 18-25. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 115 3. hofstetter hw. (1965, september 14). [letter to maria dablemont]. records of the international library, archives & museum of optometry, 1965-2009. in process. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis, mo. 4. hofstetter hw. (1967, october 21). [letter to maria dablemont]. records of the international library, archives & museum of optometry, 1965-2009. in process. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis, mo. 5. the american optometric association. president’s report to the house of delegates. 1969. philadelphia, pa. 6. hofstetter hw. (1966, august 27). [letter to maria dablemont]. records of the international library, archives & museum of optometry, 1965-2009. in process. the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis, mo. 7. hofstetter hw. for the record. hindsight 1995;26:1-2. 8. optometric historical society organized. optom world 1969;56: 18. 9. hofstetter hw. welcome. newsletter optom hist soc 1970;1:1. 10. optometric historical society. optometric historical society bylaws. hindsight: j optom hist 2011;42:122-124. notes a. hofstetter learned late in life that his legal middle name was not an abbreviation, but rather the letter “w”. he ceased using a period after his middle name in subsequent communications and publications. (goss da, personal communication, october 20, 2014). b. according to goss (2002) and aoa news (national optometry hall of fame inducts 4 leaders of profession. [1999, november 15]. aoa news, 38, 10, p. 12.) dr. hofstetter was inducted into the national optometry hall of fame and received the distinguished service award from the world council of optometry in 1999, the lifetime achievement and distinguished service awards from the indiana optometric association, the prentice medal from the american academy of optometry, the armed forces optometric society orion award, the apollo award from the aoa, and the international optometrist of the year award from the international optometric and optical league. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 116 a look at the origins of dissociated phoria and fusional vergence range testing david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu a dissociated phoria test measures the magnitude of misalignment of the ocular lines of sight with the object of regard when binocular fusion has been disrupted. the design of dissociated phoria tests must thus have some method of preventing binocular fusion. and they use either a scale or prisms to measure the ocular misalignment. it appears that the first subjective dissociated phoria test was the von graefe prism diplopia test. the german ophthalmologist albrecht von graefe (1828-1870) described the test in 1861.1,2 as with the procedure as practiced today, for lateral phorias, von graefe used a vertical prism to eliminate fusion and found the amount of lateral prism that aligned the diplopic images. the test target that von graefe used for lateral phorias was a dot with a vertical line passing through it. later it was recognized that control of accommodation during the test was important, so that today letter targets are used for the test. the maddox rod test was originated by the british ophthalmologist ernest edmund maddox (1863-1933).3,4 in this test, fusion is prevented by the distortion produced over one eye by the maddox rod. the initial form of the maddox rod was a short glass rod mounted on a metal disc, and later it was several pieces of glass rod laid side by side and sealed together.5 maddox described the performance of the test as follows: “on looking at a distant flame with this before one eye, it appears converted into a long streak of light, which there is no desire to regard as a false image of the flame, from its dissimilarity, especially if red glass be used. if the streak pass through the flame, equilibrium is perfect, but if otherwise, its distance indicates the amount of latent deviation. the prism that is able to bring the line and the flame together is the measure of it.”6 in the test that is commonly known today as the modified thorington test, a maddox rod is held over one eye while the other eye views a tangent scale calibrated for use at a particular distance. a light is shined from the zero point on the tangent scale. the patient reports where the line produced by the maddox rod appears on the tangent scale. when the tangent scale is at the correct distance from the patient, the location of the line on the scale indicates the amount of the phoria. although the test typically is eponymous to james thorington (1858-1944), it appears that priority should go to e.e. maddox or charles prentice. maddox described the test in an 1890 paper.7 maddox noted that this test could be used to measure lateral and vertical phorias at distance and at near.8 charles prentice may have independently designed a test like this one at about the same time, differing in that he used a +12 d cylindrical lens instead of a maddox rod.9 when thorington described this test in a 1913 book, he made no mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 117 claim for priority and he referred to the tangent scale as the “tangent scale of prentice.”10 the origin of this test being known as the modified thorington test may have come from a 1948 paper by hirsch and bing.11 maddox may have gotten the idea for this phoria test from tangent scales of landolt and hirschberg (1875), who used them with diplopia tests to determine the angle of deviation in strabismus,12 although it is interesting to note that von noorden referred to a tangent scale for that purpose as a “maddox cross.”13 another test for lateral phorias is one popularized by australian optometrist edwin howell.14 this test makes use of a scale arranged along a horizontal line with an arrow directed vertically at the zero point on the scale. vertical prism is used to double the scale and the patient reports the number on the doubled scale to which the arrow and points as well as whether the arrow is to the right or the left of the zero on the doubled scale. some publications have attributed this test to charles prentice,14,15 but it appears that priority might perhaps go to e.e. maddox. maddox described the test in 1889.16 prisms used for phoria measurements have included loose prisms, prism bars, stevens phorometers (1888), and risley rotary prisms (1889).17,18 the first phoropter, patented by henry dezeng in 1909, included a stevens phorometer, rotary prisms, and maddox rods.19 another early instrument that could be used to test phoria status was the hazen kratometer, an instrument which could be clamped to a table. in the hazen kratometer, a “prism battery,” a slide with a series of different prisms, could be used to vary prism power in front of one of the patient’s viewing ports.20,21 by the beginning of the twentieth century, phoria testing was part of the repertoire of many optometrists. the 1895 correspondence course of the south bend college of optics included “muscle insufficiencies” as one of its twenty lessons.22 a 1911 article in optical journal and review of optometry declared that: “many optometrists now consider a test of the muscle balance as much a part of every examination, as is the record of visual acuity.”23 fusional vergence range testing involves determining the range of prism powers base-in and base-out through which the patient can see clearly and/or singly. it is unclear who originated fusional vergence range testing. in the 1860s, f.c. donders24 implied ranges of relative convergence in his studies of the zone of clear single binocular vision. in the 1880s, edmond landolt25 noted that the divergence limit is seldom located at a finite distance, but rather the eyes can diverge beyond parallelism of the lines of sight, therefore making it necessary to use base-in prism to measure the vergence far point. for the convergence limit landolt26 used a device he called an ophthalmo-dynamometer. this consisted of a black cylinder with a vertical slit and an attached tape measure. a candle was placed inside the cylinder. the illuminated vertical slit served as a target for a near point of convergence determination. the distance at which the patient noted the slit doubled was measured with the tape measure. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 118 in 1889, maddox27 described measurement of the “relative range of convergence” by using base-in prism for negative vergence and base-out prism for positive vergence. maddox suggested that: “this test would probably be the most valuable of any, if the best ratio between the negative and positive parts were well worked out for different distances.”28 maddox recommended using pairs of prisms rather than a single prism over one eye. the british astronomer john herschel (1792-1871) showed that when two prisms were placed in opposition and rotated in opposite directions, the resultant effect would be that of a single increasing prism.29 that principle was used by s.d. risley in 1889 to make a rotary prism system with smooth increase in prism power for clinical use.30 evidence for the utility of that design is the fact that rotary prisms based on risley’s design continue to be incorporated in phoropters manufactured today. by the early twentieth century, dissociated phorias and fusional vergence ranges had become a part of the standard examination of many optometrists. charles sheard included them in his 1917 list of tests that should be performed by the optometrist.31,32 they were then included in the “21 point” examination which was introduced by the optometric extension program in the early 1930s and which subsequently saw wide usage for several decades.33-35 they continue to be an essential part of binocular vision analysis. references 1. remky h. albrecht von graefe: facets of his work on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of his death (20 july 1870). graefe’s arch clin exp ophthalmol 1995;233:537-548. 2. von graefe a. uber die muscular asthenopie. archiv für ophthalmol 1861;8:314-367. 3. cooper jb. obituary – dr. ernest e. maddox. br j ophthalmol 1934;18:55-58. 4. duke-elder s, wybar k. ocular motility and strabismus. vol. 6 in: duke-elder s, ed. system of ophthalmology. st. louis: mosby, 1973:245. 5. maddox ee. the clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses, 2nd ed. bristol: john wright,1893:126-127. 6. maddox ee. the clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses, 2nd ed. bristol: john wright,1893:127. 7. maddox ee. the investigation by the rod-test of pareses and paralyses of the ocular muscles. ophthal rev 1890;9:287-290. 8. maddox ee. the clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses, 2nd ed. bristol: john wright,1893:127-131. 9. prentice cf. ophthalmic lenses, dioptric formulae for combined cylindrical lenses, the prism dioptry, and other optical papers, 2nd ed. philadelphia: keystone, 1907:121. 10. thorington j. prisms, their use and equivalents. philadelphia: blakiston, 1913:9899. 11. hirsch mj, bing lb. the effect of testing method on values obtained for phoria at forty centimeters. am j optom arch am acad optom 1948;25:407-416. 12. maddox ee. tests and studies of the ocular muscles. philadelphia: keystone, 1907:224. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 119 13. von noorden gk. burian-von noorden’s binocular vision and ocular motility: theory and management of strabismus, 2nd ed. st. louis: mosby, 1980:193. 14. wong ep, fricke tr, dinardo c. interexaminer repeatability of a new, modified prentice card compared with established phoria tests. optom vis sci 2002;79:370-375. 15. dwyer ps. the portsea lord mayor’s children’s camp vision screening: a rationale and protocol for optometric screening. aust j optom 1983;66:178-185. 16. maddox ee. the clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses. bristol: john wright, 1889:86-87. 17. duke-elder s, wybar k. ocular motility and strabismus. vol. 6 in: duke-elder s, ed. system of ophthalmology. st. louis: mosby, 1973:278. 18. campbell gl. phoropters: early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. wheaton, il: gary l. campbell, 2008:55-57. 19. campbell gl. phoropters: early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. wheaton, il: gary l. campbell, 2008:65. 20. talbot cw. the ocular muscles. opt j rev optom 1910;26:939-940. 21. blue book of optometrists and opticians. chicago: the optometrist and optician, 1912:22. 22. dr. thomson’s 1895 correspondence course in optics with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch. chicago: professional press, 1975:165-172. 23. ward sp. instruments for muscle tests. opt j rev optom 1911;28:849. 24. donders fc. on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye. translated by: moore wd. london: new sydenham society, 1864:110-111. 25. landolt e. the refraction and accommodation of the eye and their anomalies. translated by: culver cm. edinburgh: pentland, 1886:192. 26. landolt e. the refraction and accommodation of the eye and their anomalies. translated by: culver cm. edinburgh: pentland, 1886:283-284. 27. maddox ee. the clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses. bristol: john wright, 1889:80-82. 28. maddox ee. the clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses. bristol: john wright, 1889:81. 29. maddox ee. the clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses, 2nd ed. bristol: john wright,1893:47. 30. risley sd. a new rotary prism. trans am ophthalmol soc 1889;5:412-413. 31. sheard c. dynamic ocular tests, 1917. in: sheard c. the sheard volume: selected writings in visual and ophthalmic optics. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:42-43. 32. borish im. borish on “21 points”. newsletter optom hist soc 1987;18:23-24. 33. lesser sk. fundamentals of procedure and analysis in optometric examination, 3rd ed. fort worth, texas: s.k. lesser, 1933. 34. lesser sk. introduction to modern analytical optometry, rev. ed. duncan, ok: optometric extension program foundation, 1969. 35. hendrickson h. 21 points and more. newsletter optom hist soc. 1987;18:55-56. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 120 book review: the eye in history the eye in history. frank joseph goes. new delhi, india: jaypee brothers medical publishers, 2013. xii + 502 pages. isbn: 978-93-5090-274-5. softcover, $149. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book is a collection of essays on topics related to the eye and to ophthalmology and its history. the editor is a well-known belgian ophthalmologist. in the preface, he states that his “idea was to give the interested ophthalmologist, the general practitioner, and an enquiring layman, an insight in the historical development of the discoveries that relate to the eye…” the editor authored or co-authored 25 of the book’s 50 chapters. writing was also done by 37 contributors, most of whom were from european countries. one could categorize the book’s topics, covered at varying levels of detail and depth, as anatomy and physiology of the eye, comparative ocular anatomy, famous ophthalmologists, history of various visual aids, growth of the eye, refractive errors, psychology and symbolism of light and vision, blindness, relation of vision to painting, vision problems of famous painters, vision problems of famous persons in history, selected persons who made important contributions to the improvement or understanding of visual function, history of eye surgery procedures, and speculations on the future of surgery and technology in ophthalmology. the foreword to the book states that it was not the editor’s “intention to be complete,” but rather he “chose…topics which are not usually found in ophthalmology textbooks.” as an example of the tidbits of information in the book, philippe lanthony, in a chapter titled “accommodation and painting,” says that painters have three “practical vision distances”: (1) the distance from the object being painted, (2) the distance from the surface on which he or she is painting, and (3) the observation distance, which is the distance from which the painting is meant to be observed. lanthony also reported a study showing that almost all painters who used the pointillism technique abandoned it around the age of presbyopia onset. another tidbit i learned was that teddy roosevelt was nearly blind in one eye in the last year of his presidency, probably due to traumatic cataract and/or retinal detachment. he had about 8d of myopia in each eye. one can also read short chapters on antonie van leeuwenhoek, louis braille, john dalton, otto wichterle, arthur conan doyle, and others. as with any book errors can be found. one example is in the discussion of the myopia of several members of the medici family in 15th and 16th century italy. the mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 121 author states that because of their myopia, they were able to pursue intellectual activities even though “reading spectacles were not accessible to them.” (p. 332) spectacles were invented well before that time in the late 13th century, and vincent ilardi in his well researched book renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes documented that spectacles were quite common in the time of the medici and that they were well aware of them. another example is the mention of roger bacon as the inventor of spectacles (p. 336). bacon described how magnifying lenses can be used to aid reading, but various scholars have noted that his writings did not mention spectacles and he has been discounted as a potential inventor of them. the book is profusely illustrated with numerous color photographs, diagrams, paintings, and other illustrations. it is remarkable for the wide variety of topics it addresses. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 122 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; history of optometric education; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 123 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2014, volume 45, number 4, page 124 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: optometric historical society attn: kirsten hébert the archives and museum of optometry 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name___________________________________________________________________ address_________________________________________________________________ city state zip_____________________________________________________________ email___________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu, or back issues can be viewed at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares® – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.aoafoundation.org and http://www.aoafoundation.org/historical-gems/. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive ohsfrontcover45-4 hindsight45-4 the aoa congress of 1914 hindsight_56_1_final.pdf 14 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 the authorization for the establishment of a school of optometry in the state of alabama – part i introduction the establishment of a school of optometry in the state of alabama occurred because of the efforts of many members of the alabama optometric association (aloa), the cooperation of several organizations, city and county governments, dr. joseph volker, dr. frank rose, sen. alton turner and many other individual legislators, the alabama legislature, governors lurleen wallace, george wallace, and albert brewer, and many determined individuals. these individuals, organizations and legislative bodies demonstrated great persistence in the face of significant medical opposition. the aloa has had on balance an impressive legislative history. one must consider its history within the context of its relatively small size, in terms of membership, and total reliance on the volunteer efforts of its leaders and members. initial attempts to pass an optometry practice act were made in 1911 and 1915, with passage of the original optometry practice act occurring in 1919.1 later many attempts were also made to elevate the profession and/or eliminate the commercial aspects of optometric practice. through all these efforts, its one common denominator has been persistence. this history is even more remarkable given the fact that for most of its first 70 years of existence there was no staff support. the officers, board of directors, and leaders among the general membership of the aloa evolved into a small, yet everchanging core group of leaders, who provided all the services necessary to support the members and goals of the organization. beginning in 1906, as the alabama optical society (aos), the aloa has ultimately been successful in passing significant legislation. this was especially true, not only during its formative years, but also during the period of the 1960s. the aloa demonstrated great strategic planning and execution in the passage of legislation to establish a school of optometry. the fact that the school is an integral part of a major academic medical center only makes this achievement even more remarkable. some of the history that led to the establishment of the uab school of optometry (uabso) has been described by dr. henry b. peters, the first dean of the school, in the book school of optometry, university of alabama at birmingham, 25th anniversary photographic history, 1969 – 1994.2 dr. peters was invited by dr. arol augsburger, the third dean of the school, to prepare this history to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the school of optometry. this article is an effort to expand on the description of events initially provided by dr. peters, especially regarding the legislative history of the steps necessary to enable the school’s establishment. appendices this article also includes six appendices that help to further elucidate issues related to the establishment of the uab school of optometry. short biographical sketches of each of the four individuals who played key roles in this legislative effort are presented under the heading of “visionaries” in appendix i. the individuals included are drs. donald springer, e. c. overton, e. a. coshatt, and sen. alton turner.2-7 however, suffice it to say there were many others involved in this legislative effort as well. of note were the efforts of drs. edgar warr and l. don snellgrove, whose abstract this article explains events leading to the decision to attempt to pass legislation establishing a school of optometry in the state of alabama. it was the vision of dr. donald springer that prompted the idea that such an accomplishment was possible but the political expertise of sen. alton turner that made the school a reality. there were many members of the alabama optometric association, legislators, education administrators, public officials, and others who played significant roles that contributed to the success of this effort. the establishment of the university of alabama in birmingham school of optometry (uabso), from its inception, as an integral part of an academic medical center was an educational model that had not been utilized by the profession of optometry before. the school, which began sept. 1, 1969, has contributed significantly to the advancement of the profession of optometry and vision science. keywords establishing a need for a school of optometry, alabama legislative actions during the various legislative sessions of 1967 and 1969, community support, actions by the opposition, selection of consultants, and selection of the first dean. article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos dean and professor emeritus uab school of optometry birmingham, alabama eyedoc@uab.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v56i1.41589 hindsight: journal of optometry history 15 discussions with sen. alton turner proved the critical link in the success of this legislation. in many ways, drs. warr and snellgrove are the unsung heroes of this effort to establish a school of optometry in alabama. dr. snellgrove served as president of the aloa during the critical period of 1967-68 when legislation was passed to establish a school and efforts to secure funding were a topic of broad interest. a “timeline of the important events related to the establishment of the uab school of optometry” is provided in appendix ii. this timeline is provided in hopes that it will help simplify what is a very complicated and somewhat complex history of the events that led to the legislation that established uabso. a “summary of the debates that occurred during the 1967 and 1969 special educational appropriations bills” is included in appendix iii. appendix iv includes an “an interview with governor albert brewer” regarding his perspective and memories of events related to the school of optometry legislation. a list of optometrists, companies, organizations, foundations and individuals who contributed to a fundraising campaign in support of the uab school of optometry is provided as they appear on the “school of optometry founder’s plaque” in appendix v. finally, a summary of the many challenges faced by dean peters in the “planning, construction, equipping, and financing of the school of optometry building” is detailed to the extent possible in appendix vi. appendices i and ii will be featured in part i of this article and appendices iii through vi will appear in part ii. prelude to change genesis for a new school as a result of his involvement over the years in the leadership of the american academy of optometry (aao), dr. donald springer from anniston, alabama, was very aware of the critical nature of optometric manpower (workforce) issues.2,3 dr. springer was especially concerned as to how workforce needs related to the south, in general, and the state of alabama, in particular, would be addressed. having served on the executive committee of the aao for several years before and during the early 1960s and as president from 1962-64, dr. springer was aware of the need for an increase in the workforce of all the independent health care professions and how this might be accomplished. this need was apparent not only because of the growing population of the united states (u.s.), but of the likely passage of future federal entitlement programs. programs such as medicare and medicaid would not only increase access to health care but add to the need for more health care providers. in 1963, dr. springer persuaded the aloa to form a health manpower committee to investigate the need for an increased optometric workforce in the state of alabama. it had become apparent, beginning in the late 1950s, that the current health care workforce would not be capable of meeting the increasing demand for health care services in the u.s., especially if federal entitlement programs were enacted.2,3 context of the time it is important to place the establishment of the uabso within the context of not only the time leading to its establishment, but to provide some understanding of the importance and the impact of the health professions educational assistance (hpea) act on all health professions. the inclusion of optometry within the hpea act enabled many schools and colleges of optometry to receive federal funds to either renovate or build new facilities for their programs. the uab school of optometry building received partial financial support for its construction from the hpea act. the original hpea act, and subsequent acts, would also significantly affect student loans, support for professional education, and the funding of research facilities.8-13 the proposal of the health professions educational assistance act addressing the needs for future health care one of the major public policy issues of the early 1960s was how to address the predicted future health care needs of the u.s. the hpea act was one of monumental importance in health care education and addressing the workforce needs for health care providers. this was in anticipation of new federal entitlement programs as well as a rapidly expanding u.s. population. this act would provide for construction of teaching facilities for specified health care providers, scholarship grants and educational cost payments, and extend and improve the health research facilities construction program scheduled to expire june 30, 1962. after public hearings and passage by congress, the hpea act was signed into law on sept. 24,1963, by president john f. kennedy. this law and its subsequent forms continued for several decades. reports that led to the introduction of the hpea legislation on feb. 24, 1961, sen. lister hill of alabama introduced senate bill s. 1072 in the u.s. senate. sen. hill’s action had been precipitated by the reports of several consultant groups. in 1958, the secretary of health, education and welfare (hew) consultants on medical research and education had reported to former health, education, and welfare secretary, marion folsom, that 14 to 20 new medical schools would be required to sustain the physician to population ratio. in a separate report by this same group, at least two dental schools would be required to reestablish the appropriate dentist to population ratio. in 1959, the surgeon general’s consultant group on medical education reported that the equivalent of 20 to 24 new two-year and four-year medical, including osteopathic, schools would be needed by 1975 to maintain the 1959 physician to population ratio. in the profession of dentistry, 22 new schools were necessary to keep the dentist to population ratio at its 1959 level.13 in 1960 the committee of consultants on medical research of the subcommittee on appropriations produced the report “federal support for medical research,” which endorsed the 1958 recommendations of the bayne-jones report for training additional physicians and dentists, federal scholarship assistance and extension, and a better-quality health research facilities construction program. finally, in april 1961, the report of the president’s conference on heart disease and cancer stressed the article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos 16 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos need for increasing the number and quality of personnel and specifically endorsed s. 1072 for scholarship assistance.8-10 the primary goal of s. 1072 was to increase enrollment and graduation rates for physicians and dentists. these professions were to become collectively known as the mod group within the context of the hpea act. the acronym mod referred to the professions of medicine, osteopathy and dentistry. several other groups of health care providers, including optometry, provided testimony urging the inclusion of their professions in this legislation as well. this group became known as vopp referring to veterinary medicine, optometry, pharmacy, and podiatry. initial testimony by optometry for inclusion in hpea act during these early years several optometrists provided testimony on behalf of the profession because of their position with an educational institution or professional organization or both. public hearings were first held on friday, april 28; wednesday, may 3; and friday, may 5, 1961, by the subcommittee on health of the u. s. senate committee on labor and public welfare.8-10 the first optometrist to testify before this subcommittee was dr. henry w. hofstetter, director of the division of optometry, indiana university, and chair of the committee on research of the american optometric association (aoa). dr. hofstetter testified on friday, may 5, 1961. he was accompanied by mr. william p. maccracken, jr., legal counsel for the aoa located in washington, d.c.10 on jan. 23, 1962, dr. alfred rosenbloom, dean of the illinois college of optometry, and a member of the council on optometric education (coe), was accompanied by mr. maccracken to testify before the house committee on interstate and foreign commerce. dean rosenbloom presented information on the decline in the number of optometrists in relationship to the population, the mounting cost of optometric education, and the decrease in the number of qualified applicants.11 introduction of legislation that included optometry by coincidence, on this same day, jan. 23, 1962, u.s. representative torbert h. macdonald, from the massachusetts 8th congressional district, offered amendments to h.r. 4999 that would authorize funds for optometry schools and colleges as well as for financial support for optometry students. one of these amendments would authorize the addition of $750,000 for construction of optometry schools and colleges to the original $75 million proposed for the renovation and construction of health schools.12 it seems likely this amendment was coordinated by the staff of the aoa with representative macdonald’s office, perhaps through some kennedy connection. congressman macdonald’s amendments ultimately proved successful and led to optometry’s inclusion in this landmark legislation. his initial action proved to be of significance in the inclusion of optometry in these important laws that continued, in some form, into the 1990s. brief biographical sketch macdonald spent several years in massachusetts public schools before entering phillips academy in andover, massachusetts. following preparatory school graduation, he attended harvard university. there he served as captain of the harvard football team, was a roommate of john f. kennedy and graduated in 1940. following service in the navy during world war ii as a pt boat commander in the southwest pacific, he attended harvard law school, graduating in 1946. macdonald and kennedy remained close friends throughout their lives and “torby” served as an usher at sen. kennedy’s wedding and an honorary pallbearer at the president’s funeral. he served in the united states house of representatives (d) from jan. 3, 1955, to jan. 3, 1963. he served as majority whip and as the ranking democrat on the house committee on interstate and foreign commerce.11,12 this is the house committee that held hearings on the original hpea act. perhaps unknown to the profession, optometry owes congressman macdonald a debt of gratitude for securing optometry’s inclusion in the hpea act of 1963. enactment of the hpea legislation the public health service (phs) act is the body of laws governing federal participation in the development of the nation’s health care delivery system. the hpea legislation was the first federal program directed at meeting critical needs for increasing the health professions workforce. it transformed the public health service act from providing support for only “health research facilities” to “health research and teaching facilities and training of professional health personnel.” the statutes governing federal legislation that aided health care profession’s schools for construction of teaching facilities and assistance to students in the form of loans and other types of support were known collectively as title vii of the phs act. in the beginning, optometry was eligible under the program for construction grants but was not included in the student loan program.11,13 the first part of this act authorized a three-year program of grants for the construction of teaching facilities for physicians, dentists, nurses, professional public health personnel, veterinarians, pharmacists, optometrists and podiatrists. the second part of this act established a national advisory council on education for health professions. the third part of this act authorized the establishment and operation of a student loan fund for students of medicine, osteopathy and dentistry.11,13 the profession of optometry became involved in title vii initially through the hpea act of 1963, known as public law 88-129. this law was approved by congress and signed into law by president kennedy in 1963. it became effective for the years 1964-66 and provided $175 million for construction and scholarships. the need for an increased workforce in the fields of medicine and dentistry had been carefully studied and documented. as a result, construction and student loans and grants for the mod group were given the highest priority.11,13 on feb. 7, 1963, dr. chester h. pheiffer, dean of the university of houston, college of optometry and representing the aoa, testified before the house committee on interstate and foreign commerce as to the need for student loans and the increasing shortage of optometrists, especially in the south. dean pheiffer was accompanied by mr. maccracken, general legal counsel representing the aoa.11 hindsight: journal of optometry history 17 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos on aug. 22, 1963, dr. w. judd chapman, president of the aoa, dr. lawrence fitch, president of the pennsylvania state college of optometry, mr. maccracken, general counsel, and mr. david sharman from the aoa washington office, appeared before the senate subcommittee on health to testify as to the need for the student loan program and construction funding for facilities. by 1964, several optometry schools or colleges had submitted applications for construction grants. among those schools or colleges submitting grants were the pennsylvania state college of optometry, pacific university college of optometry, and southern college of optometry.2,11 on may 26, 1964, several more prominent optometrists testified before the house committee as to the need for student loans and the shortage of optometrists. among those who testified were dr. h. ward ewalt, immediate past president of the aoa, dr. gordon h. heath, chair of the graduate program in physiological optics, division of optometry, at indiana university and president of the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco), dr. donald a. springer, president of the aao, dr. frank m. kitchell, senior vice president of the american optometric foundation (aof) and dr. nelson f. waldman, president of the texas optometric association and chair of the aoa committee on vocational guidance.11 u.s. rep. kenneth roberts from piedmont, alabama, and later anniston, alabama, was chair of the house of representative’s health manpower committee.2 he was also a friend and patient of dr. springer. dr. peters has reported that congressman roberts had dr. springer testify on the need for more optometrists before his committee in 1963.2 the impetus for a new school of optometry in alabama dr. springer was afforded the opportunity to testify before the house committee on interstate and foreign commerce because of his role as president of the aao. optometry’s inclusion in the landmark legislation was of vital importance to the profession’s future.2 the passage of the hpea act of 1963 (pl 88-129) and its amendments of 1964 (pl 88-654) and 1965 (pl 89-290) had made optometry eligible for funding related to its academic programs.13,14 in subsequent years, optometry would also be recognized as a potential member of the health manpower team by the president’s national advisory commission on health manpower in 1967. furthermore, the director of the national institutes of health, dr. robert marston, appointed drs. glenn fry and meredith morgan, two optometric educators affiliated with public universities, to serve on the national advisory eye council of the newly formed national eye institute. dr. fry was regents professor of the ohio state university, college of optometry; and dr. morgan, dean of the university of california, berkeley, school of optometry.15 a letter from dr. robert marston in june 1970 to rep. bob casey provided some insight into the diminishing likelihood that optometry would receive all the grant funding it had requested.16 this topic is discussed at greater length in the section on construction funding in appendix vi. establishing a need for a school of optometry in alabama there is little doubt that dr. springer, because of his experience with the aao, his testimony before the congressional committee regarding the hpea act, his connections to optometric leaders and local politicians, began to envision a way in which a school of optometry might be established in the state of alabama.3 among the first priorities was the necessity of demonstrating a need. this issue posed a challenge for the aloa because it was not familiar with individuals, institutions or organizations that had access to or could produce such information. however, this issue would not deter the aloa from moving forward with its goal of establishing a school of optometry in alabama. it was a courageous undertaking given the known opposition that medicine, especially ophthalmology, would commit to stopping this legislation. health manpower committee dr. springer initially persuaded the aloa to form a health manpower committee in 1963. he also served as chair of the new college feasibility committee for the southern council of optometrists (soco) from 1965-1970. the need for such a committee was given additional credibility by reports from the bureau of health manpower. according to these reports, the state of alabama ranked 49th out of the 50 states in the ratio of optometrists to population (4.8/100,000). with only 184 licensed optometrists in the state in 1966, it was obvious there was a need for additional optometrists.2-3,15 in alabama this low ratio was further compounded by a relatively low rate of passage of those optometrists taking the state board. during the 1960s, the alabama board of optometry (abo) was evidently somewhat discerning about such issues as mode and location of practice.17 later in mid-february 1969, in what was remarkably fortuitous timing, the comprehensive health planning office of the alabama department of public health submitted information to the division of health manpower, public health service, u.s. department of health, education and welfare, certifying medical manpower in each of alabama’s counties. this information was prepared for use related to the hpea programs and was derived from mid-1968 population data.15 the release noted that 47 of alabama’s 67 counties were lacking an optometrist, resulting in an optometrist to population ratio of 1/15,000. according to this report, alabama needed an additional 95 optometrists. the better vision institute (bvi) had also released estimates that 45% of the population wore glasses. the prevalence of visual impairments in the south, including alabama, was 20.5/1,000 population as compared to a national rate of 17.9/1,000 population.2,15 these preliminary reports only added credence to what was to follow. developing a relationship with the university of alabama the aloa deserves a significant amount of credit for undertaking such an arduous task as passing legislation to establish a school of optometry. it had been 15 years since a new school of optometry had been established in the united states. both indiana university and the university of houston began optometry programs in 1952. for a relatively small professional association without an executive director and only a core of 18 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos member volunteers to undertake the passage of such important legislation was not only courageous but impressive. one of the first indirect efforts the aloa undertook was to establish some type of relationship with the university of alabama (ua). the aloa developed a continuing education program in 1964 in conjunction with ua that was held on the campus in tuscaloosa, alabama.17,18 this continuing education meeting on the tuscaloosa campus was well attended and continued through 1967. later, dr. volker suggested that with the passage of the legislation establishing a school of optometry, future meetings should be held in birmingham. unfortunately, the date of the 1964 meeting held in tuscaloosa could not be found in any of the correspondence in the uab archives, in the files of the aloa, or remembered by any aloa members.17 however, one of the speakers for this meeting was an optometrist well-known for his research on motorist’s vision. initially the aloa was having a difficult time establishing a relationship with the ua department of continuing education. then dr. ed warr was told by a patient to contact rep. j. drexel cook, who served in the alabama house of representatives for three terms (1958-1970) and owned automobile agencies in elba and troy, alabama. elba was the same town that dr. warr practiced in for his entire professional career. it seems very likely that dr. warr either knew mr. cook personally or understood his sphere of influence in that part of alabama. dr. warr contacted rep. cook who knew circuit judge eric paul, one of the members of the ua board of trustees. judge paul was able to intervene on behalf of the aloa with the ua continuing education department.17 whether dr. warr knew of mr. cook’s relationship with judge paul was not in any of the historical recollections. the aloa knew of the importance of offering a high-quality educational program. they invited merrill allen, o.d., ph.d., a world-renowned expert in automobile safety research, from indiana university, division of optometry, to be the featured speaker. dr. allen, who was funded by mainstream american automobile manufacturers, lectured on the topic of motorist’s vision. the aloa had invited the colonel who was head of the alabama state troopers to attend this lecture. the colonel was very impressed by the lecture and shared his opinion with ua personnel or perhaps members of the ua board of trustees. this first continuing education program held on the ua campus was well attended by the members of the aloa and other optometrists.17,18 pathway to legislation although there was no record of prior correspondence from dr. volker to dr. springer or any of those who attended the meeting, there was dr. volker’s calendar for 1965. in this calendar was found, after a very thorough search of the uab archives, a notation for monday, june 14, 1965. dr. overton’s name appears on the calendar on this date for a 12:30 p.m. appointment. dr. springer had, over the years, known dr. joseph volker through social contacts, and dr. overton through his service on the city council of birmingham. it is very likely that, as noted on dr. volker’s calendar, dr. overton had scheduled the meeting with dr. volker. meeting with dr. volker it was on this date in june, drs. springer, snellgrove, overton and coshatt had a meeting with dr. joseph f. volker, vice president for health affairs, university of alabama medical center (uamc).18 these optometrists inquired as to the possibility of the uamc beginning a school of optometry. dr. volker explained that the university did not begin new schools, but by virtue of being an educational institution in the state of alabama, such action was the responsibility of the legislature. he reported that all new schools were approved by legislative actions and funding was appropriated by the legislature. dr. springer and colleagues thanked dr. volker for this information and departed knowing the requirements for such an undertaking. they felt dr. volker was forthright in his assessment of the situation and, perhaps, somewhat sympathetic to their efforts. he certainly was not opposed to the aloa’s attempt to pass such legislation.17,18 it was apparent that dr. springer possessed the vision for the establishment of a school of optometry in the state of alabama.2,3,17 he and his colleagues had now taken the initial step toward this goal and would move to develop a plan to place in motion actions that would result in accomplishing this goal. clearly, dr. volker had been honest in his description of the steps necessary for such an effort to be successful. the aloa leadership knew they had much to do if they were going to be successful in persuading the legislature to enact such a law. even though a school of optometry was not part of the university’s long-term plan, dr. volker remained committed to fairness and, if approved, having the best optometry program possible. dr. volker remained true to his word during more than two years of intense pressure from the medical community.15,19 the meeting day and date of monday, june 14, 1965, seem even more accurate since dr. volker wrote a follow-up letter to dr. overton dated june 18, 1965. once again dr. volker reiterated the university’s position. in this letter he stated, “it is not the general policy of the university to advocate legislation establishing new health science units, nor is it their custom to oppose the efforts of groups seeking support of university level educational programs shown to be beneficial to the health of the people of the state”.15 although this letter was—as mentioned by ms. crosswhite, an administrative assistant to dr. volker—sent to dr. overton, a copy was also likely received by all those optometrists in attendance at the meeting on june 14, 1965.15 dr. overton reported this matter was discussed at the next meeting of the aloa board of directors.19 because the annual aloa meeting was, during this time, held the week before the aoa annual meeting, it is possible the aloa meeting was held in june 1965. however, it is also possible that a meeting was held later in the summer or during the fall. regardless of the time of the meeting, it was at this meeting that it was suggested a special aloa board of directors meeting be held in tuscaloosa during december 1966. this time was selected since it would allow for strategic planning before the 1967 legislative session.20 it was obvious that, in the meantime, there was much behind-thescenes effort expended by the aloa membership in developing relationships with legislators and others. it is certain the aloa board of directors did not want such plans to become widely known. however, dr. volker had agreed to hindsight: journal of optometry history 19 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos speak to the aloa board of directors during the planned meeting scheduled for later in the year. he did attend the board of directors meeting and reiterated what he had explained the previous year to drs. springer, snellgrove, overton and coshatt. unfortunately, the exact date of this meeting was not recorded either. meeting with the aloa board a careful examination of dr. volker’s files and calendar in the uab archives did not find any mention of a december date for either 1965 or 1966. however, dr. volker’s calendar does note a meeting with the “optometric association” on sunday morning, jan. 8, 1967. it seems likely that dr. volker did not attend a december 1966 board of director’s meeting, if indeed there was one. perhaps it is more likely the meeting was scheduled for jan. 8, 1967. unfortunately, the date of the december 1966 meeting, if it occurred, was not recorded in either dr. overton’s or snellgrove’s recollections.18-20 whether a meeting was held in december 1966 and/or a separate meeting was held in early january 1967 isn’t especially relevant. the important aspect at this time is that the board of directors did meet with dr. volker. exactly how much of the aloa’s plans were shared by the board with dr. volker is not known. moving forward with planning from this point forward the aloa’s activity accelerated. immediately after dr. volker departed the room, following the board of directors meeting, a committee was formed to plan strategic and specific actions. dr. e. a. “bert” coshatt from aliceville, alabama, was appointed to serve as the chair of what, in effect, was the legal/legislative committee of the aloa. he also served, by coincidence, as the president of the aloa for 1966-67, having progressed through the chairs of the aloa in the normal manner. dr. coshatt had experience in dealing with the members of the legislature. his brother, dr. roy coshatt, was an optometrist and a member of the house of representatives from st. clair county, and certainly dr. coshatt was dedicated to the task. he had an unmatched passion for politics, especially as it applied to the profession of optometry. dr. coshatt spent many hours developing relationships with legislators and drove to montgomery, alabama, for almost every committee meeting or caucus related to optometry for many years.2,20 dr. coshatt served the aloa in several capacities, especially in matters related to the legal/legislative issues involving optometry or the aloa. he was also instrumental in leading the fundraising drive for the optometry building. dr. coshatt was also instrumental in optometrists being reinstated in the alabama medicaid program several years later. legislative effort to establish a school of optometry an initial plan of action developed by the aloa the first action dr. coshatt initiated was to ask that specific members contact key senate and house members who had been supportive of optometry in the past. sen. turner had known about the profession of optometry because, at the invitation of drs. warr and snellgrove, he had spoken to the local southcentral society long before the school of optometry was ever under consideration.18 dr. warr had learned, perhaps by virtue of being in senator turner’s district or through other contacts, of the important position sen. turner held in the alabama senate in 1966. dr. warr later recalled to others that he had learned of sen. turner’s position through rep. drexel cook, who had a car dealership in dr. warr’s hometown of elba.17-19 it is also known that dr. joe watson, the local optometrist in luverne, alabama, also knew sen. turner. what legislative interaction they may have had is unknown. drs. warr and snellgrove practiced in the south-central part of the state, which is populated by small towns. it was, and remains, a relatively rural part of alabama, but this group of optometrists had one unique feature in common. they had a very active study group that met once a month to discuss all things optometric. this study group was based on the model popularized by the optometric extension program (oep) so common in the mid-part of the 20th century. this study group remains active today. sen. turner agrees to sponsor legislation in the latter part of 1966, drs. warr and snellgrove went to talk to sen. alton turner to explain the aloa’s desire to have a school of optometry established in alabama. dr. don snellgrove was the president-elect of the aloa in 1966-1967 and served as its president during 1967-68 when this legislation was formulated, drafted, introduced and passed. it was this initial contact with sen. turner that resulted in a strategy being developed for the next legislative session. when asked who he would like on the legislative committee, sen. turner insisted that only one person be appointed. as unusual as this request was, dr. snellgrove appointed dr. ed warr as the only member of the legislative committee.18 among the ideas discussed was the formation of a special legislative committee during the january 1967 organizational session of the alabama legislature. the purpose of this special committee would be for the legislature to study the feasibility of establishing a school of optometry in the state of alabama.18,20 the approach suggested by sen. turner would not likely be one that the optometrists completely understood or appreciated. however, they had great confidence in his legislative knowledge and were willing to abide by his recommendations. furthermore, it was also agreed that there would be appointed to this legislative feasibility committee, three house and two senate members designated by the aloa. sen. turner, widely regarded as one of the most knowledgeable and powerful legislators in the alabama senate, if not the entire alabama legislature, played the key role in the formation of this strategy and the selection of the members of this committee.17-19 it is very likely there were other legislators who played some role as well. at this same time, an agreement was also reached in which sen. turner was to be hired as the executive secretary of the aloa.18,20 even though this may seem like a conflict of interest today, this type of relationship with an alabama legislator was not an unusual practice in the 1960s and for many years thereafter. it is almost certain that this relationship fostered a great sense of interest in the legislative outcome of this bill by sen. turner. it is also possible that sen. turner knew that former gov. george wallace and current gov. lurleen wallace would favor the presence of a school of optometry. the graduates of this program would be more 20 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos likely to remain in the state or return to their local communities, or other small communities, to serve the eye care needs of a geographically and racially diverse population. this type of program would have great appeal to a populist governor. certainly, it is much easier to kill a bill than pass one. fortunately, with sen. turner’s excellent political skills, the aloa was successful in passing the necessary legislation on its first attempt. sen. turner immediately grasped the goal of the aloa, the likely opponents such legislation would inevitably encounter, and a strategy that would very likely be unorthodox but successful.17 the optometrists were pleased with the plan because they had not had any legislative success for the past two years.18 it is clear they placed great trust in sen. turner’s plan as they were unfamiliar with the nuances of such legislation. dr. snellgrove provided eye care for sen. and mrs. turner for many years after these events occurred.18 drs. warr and snellgrove remained friends for many years with sen. turner after the establishment of the uab school of optometry.18 dr. snellgrove passed away on tuesday, june 27, 2017. his recollections were essential to the writing of this article. implementation of the legislative plan organizational session of the alabama legislature – 1967 the legislative dates of the 1967 organizational session by calendar days were three in number: first day – tuesday, jan. 10; second day – wednesday, jan. 11; and eighth day – tuesday, jan. 17, 1967. this organizational session would provide a unique opportunity for sen. turner to implement his legislative plan. senate according to the records of the journal of the senate of the state of alabama, for the organizational session of 1967, on the first day of the session, jan. 10, 1967, mrs. agnes baggett, secretary of the state of alabama, certified that according to the certified returns of the november 1966 election, among those elected to the alabama senate for a term of four years were senators from the 20th senatorial district, alton l. turner, and from the 23rd senatorial district, james s. (jimmy) clark.21 on tuesday, jan. 17, 1967, the eighth day of the organizational session, the senate not being in session on the third through the seventh days, following the announcement of names of those members receiving interim committee appointments, the senate next took up the matter of “signing of house joint resolutions”. on this same date, the president of the senate, in the presence of the senate, after the reading of the resolutions had been dispensed with by a two-thirds vote of the quorum of the senate present, and immediately after its title had been publicly read at length by the secretary of the senate, signed the foregoing house joint resolution, the title of which is set out in the foregoing “message from the house.”21 under the heading of “resolutions,” mr. clark offered the following senate joint resolution, to wit: s. j. r. 18. resolved by the legislature of alabama, both houses thereof concurring, that there shall be created and established a joint interim committee, composed of two members of the senate, appointed by the president of the senate, and three members of the house appointed by the speaker. the committee shall make such inquiries and conduct surveys and studies as may be necessary to determine the need for and feasibility of establishing in alabama a school or college of optometry to be operated in connection with an existing state college or university.21 the members of the committee shall elect a chairman and vice chairman from among their number. the committee shall meet on call of the chairman, at such times and places as he may designate. the committee members shall not be entitled to pay or expenses for performance of their duties. the secretary of the senate and clerk of the house shall provide the committee with such secretarial and clerical help as may be required by the committee. the committee shall make a report of their findings, conclusions, and recommendations to each house of the legislature not later than the fifth legislative day of the 1967 regular session, and thereupon the committee shall be discharged and dissolved. on motion of mr. clark, the rules were suspended, and the resolution was adopted by the senate and signed by the clerk, mr. john pemberton.21 sen. clark was chair of the senate rules committee, a friend of sen. turner, a man of great influence in the state legislature, and a widely regarded master politician. sen. clark was a supporter of optometry for many years. house of representatives on this same day and date under the heading “message from the senate,” mr. speaker: the senate has originated and adopted the following senate joint resolution and sends same herewith to the house for its consideration: by mr. clark: s. j. r. 18. (repeat of the above senate resolution). signed mcdowell lee, secretary. under the heading of “senate message”, on motion of mr. merrill the rules were suspended, and the house concurred in and adopted s. j. r. 18 set out in the above and foregoing “message from the senate”. on jan. 17, 1967, both houses of the legislature of alabama passed act no. 18 or senate joint resolution 18. this resolution was signed by gov. lurleen wallace on jan. 23, 1967, at 6:58 p.m.. this resolution was sponsored by sen. jimmy clark from eufaula, alabama.21 sen.clark would later become a member of the house as well as peaker of the house. this resolution concurred or approved the creation and establishment of a joint interim legislative committee (jilc) comprised of two members from the senate, appointed by the president of the senate, and three members of the house, appointed by the speaker of the house. without this resolution, the jilc would not have been formed. the formation of this committee was, as sen. turner had planned, the first action taken by the alabama legislature toward establishing a school of optometry. approval of the joint interim legislative committee the charge to the jilc was to make inquiries and conduct surveys and studies as may be necessary to determine the hindsight: journal of optometry history 21 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos need for and the feasibility of establishing in alabama a school or college of optometry to be operated in connection with an existing state college or university. the members of the committee were to elect a chair and vicechair from among its number. the chair would determine the times and places of the meetings. committee members were not entitled to pay or receive expenses for the performance of their duties. secretarial and clerical assistance would be provided by the secretary of the senate and clerk of the house as may be required by the committee. the resolution specified that the committee shall make a report of their findings, conclusions, and recommendations to each house of the legislature not later than the fifth legislative day of the 1967 regular session, which was thursday, may 11, 1967. once the report was made the committee was to be discharged and dissolved. the copy of act no. 18 of the legislature of alabama had been compared with the original and was certified as true and correct on jan. 25, 1967, by mcdowell lee, secretary of the senate.21 the jilc was approved during the 1967 organizational session. this organizational session preceded the regular legislative session, and its purpose was to plan and prioritize the legislative strategy for the regular session. it was during the organizational session that sen. turner, chair of the joint legislative committee on finance and taxation, arranged to have sen. jimmy clark introduce the act that created this committee. as chair of the joint legislative committee on finance and taxation, among other chairships, sen. turner had power and prestige in the legislature of the state of alabama. turner’s support was considered essential by those optometrists who participated in this effort, in attaining a positive report from this committee.2,17-20 in fact, it is safe to say that the establishment of the school by the legislature of the state of alabama, likely, would not have been achieved without sen. turner’s efforts. appointment of members of the joint interim legislative committee the date of the appointment of the members of the jilc most likely occurred shortly after senate joint resolution 18 was signed. there is no record in either chamber’s journal of the appointment of jilc members. these appointments were customarily made in a rather informal manner and could have been by telephone, verbal or written message, or letter. the members of the jilc were: two senators; sen. woodrow albea, anniston; sen. jack giles, huntsville; and three representatives; rep. hugh d. merrill, anniston; rep. joe money, birmingham; and rep. henry l. pennington, huntsville. rep. merrill was elected by the committee as chair.2 the appointment of the members of this committee was the second action taken in the establishment of a school of optometry. both sen. albea and rep. merrill were well-known to dr. springer and his wife rita because they were from anniston. rep. merrill asked dr. coshatt how the committee should proceed and requested that the aloa provide information of need so the jilc could respond to the charge given the committee.18-20 the manpower study would be underway within the next several weeks. a study of this nature would be critical in establishing the viability of such a program and for the jilc to approve a school of optometry. as such it was important the study be conducted by a credible person, institution or organization. it was also important that the person or institution selected to perform such a study have experience in determining data sources. manpower (workforce) study for optometrists despite the political success the aloa had achieved thus far, it was essential to establish a need for optometrists in the state of alabama. as originally conceived, this school would be established based on the need for optometrists serving only the state of alabama. several years after the optometry program had begun, there was an opportunity to accept students from other southern states. establishing a need for optometrists in alabama meeting with dr. sheldon schaffer following the appointment of the jilc and its members, drs. springer and overton once again called on dr. volker for advice. it could not be determined if drs. snellgrove and coshatt attended this meeting. there is no mention of an appointment date or time for any of the four optometrists on dr. volker’s january or february 1967 calendar. it is possible this matter was discussed, if only briefly, during the jan. 8, 1967, meeting, but it seems more likely they met with dr. volker at some time after the jilc was appointed. regardless of the type of meeting, dr. volker suggested to them that the aloa may want to find someone to conduct a professional manpower study. when asked who he would recommend, dr. volker suggested dr. sheldon schaffer, the prominent research analyst at southern research institute (sri). at that time dr. schaffer was head of the industrial economics section of sri and experienced in research on community and social issues.2,19 the goal of the study would be to determine the need for a school of optometry based on the number of current eye care providers, the distribution and age of these providers, and the demographics of the population of the state of alabama. drs. springer and overton arranged a dinner meeting with dr. schaffer at gulas’ restaurant on highway 78 near eastwood mall in birmingham. the date of this meeting is unknown, but it seems likely, since time was of the essence, the meeting took place shortly after the initial contact with dr. schaffer. most likely in late january or early february. during this meeting dr. schaffer agreed to perform a manpower survey by reviewing the optometric literature and other available information sources such as that available at the aoa library and in federal government literature. dr. schaffer believed that this was all he could accomplish in the time thought to be available. at the time of their meeting with dr. schaffer, it was thought there would be a three-month period before the jilc would need the report, since the regular legislative session began may 1, 1967, and the report was to be made no later than thursday, may 11, 1967, the fifth legislative day of the session.15,20 dr. schaffer initially reported the cost for such a survey would be $5,000. drs. springer and overton reported the results of 22 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos the meeting and cost of the survey to the aloa, and they were instructed to proceed with the project. within a short period of time the study was expanded to include other southern states and the entire $15,000 cost of the project was funded by the regional organization soco. the concept of the study was also supported by the aoa.15,20 notice from sen. turner to aloa leaders the legal/legislative committee of the aloa remained busy during the time before, and especially after, the formation of the jilc. not only was dr. schaffer’s survey ongoing, but the leaders of the aloa spent this time monitoring the activities of the legislature. however, sen.turner had made it very clear he would handle the matter, and the aloa leadership should leave it to him.18 it was essential that sen. turner did not have any undue interference, no matter how well intended, because he knew the legislative process he needed to follow to be successful. sen. turner’s comments were intended to moderate some attempts by state optometric leaders from becoming more involved in the process than he thought wise. it appears that sen. turner knew the legislative process he needed to follow but wanted to keep it confidential for fear it would get out of control. this no doubt created some anxiety among a few politically active optometrists. sen. turner even found it necessary, on occasion, to make clear to other legislators this was his legislation, and they were to not interfere in the process.18 developing support for uab as the location for a school of optometry on the local level, dr. eleazer c. overton of fairfield, alabama, remained very busy. dr. overton, usually referred to as “doc”, or “e. c.”, was an elected member of the birmingham city council and chair of the council’s education policy committee. in a remarkably short period of time, he obtained a letter of support from birmingham mayor albert boutwell, 30 or more resolutions from many of the surrounding cities’ governing bodies, including city councils as well as the county commission, requesting that if it was found feasible by the legislature to establish a school of optometry in alabama, the new school should be located at the uamc in birmingham. a partial list of government or organizations that provided such resolutions besides the birmingham city council and the jefferson county commission, were the bessemer city commission, the homewood city council, the birmingham downtown action committee, the greater birmingham area chamber of commerce, the bessemer chamber of commerce, the ensley chamber of commerce, and a positive editorial in the birmingham news. in addition, the mobile board of commissioners passed a similarly worded resolution that urged the alabama legislature to establish a school of optometry at the university of alabama, birmingham and/or the university of south alabama in mobile.15,20 once it became known that a new school was under consideration, several universities expressed interest in having the school located on their campus. in addition to the university of south alabama, in mobile, al other universities such as jacksonville state university and auburn university had also expressed similar interest.15,20 it was clear the aloa wanted to have a school of optometry in an academic health center such as existed at the uamc. the placement of a school of optometry at the uamc would not only be the first time an optometry school was, from its inception, an integral part of an academic medical center but enjoy many other advantages as well. joint interim legislative committee hearings the manpower (workforce) report 1 was officially submitted to the soco because it was the organization funding the project. although the date of the published report 1 was june 26, 1967, it is possible that an executive summary or preliminary report or the contents of the report may have been shared with the jilc, perhaps as early as may 11, 1967, or before, because this was the date originally specified for the committee’s report in the senate joint resolution. manpower report – report 1 this study was entitled, “the demand for and supply of professional refractive eye-care services in alabama and surrounding states” and was 23 pages in length.15,22 this first report included a table of contents; introduction; summary, conclusions, and implications; demand for professional eye care; supply of eye-care specialists; and an acknowledgement. each of the major headings had several subheadings describing various aspects of the study in greater detail. the report did discuss several approaches that might be considered to help correct apparent deficiencies in eye care in the state of alabama. the report included a significant amount of information, but the two primary recommendations were: • “the establishment of training facilities in alabama that can graduate at least two dozen optometrists per year, the expansion of present ophthalmology residencies in alabama so that they can graduate about a dozen additional ophthalmologists per year, or the establishment or expansion of programs for both optometrists and ophthalmologists, respectively”; and • “the increase in the average patient load, especially among optometrists, through the use of sub-professional specialization and division of labor”. • among the suggestions in this report were the following: • new training facilities might be established for professional eye care specialists in alabama or existing programs might be expanded or utilized more fully. • another approach suggested was to increase the number of present patient/specialist loads. this might be accomplished by the greater use of well-trained subprofessionals (technicians) in delivery of care. • new approaches might be considered for providing care in predominantly rural areas with the use of mobile screening units, more extensive use of multi-county offices by eye care specialists and establishment of special clinics in existing rural hospitals. • indigent care programs might be considered in areas that have significant concentrations of low-income residents. hindsight: journal of optometry history 23 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos several interesting aspects of this report related to manpower were noted. first was the fact there had been a decrease in the number of optometrists in the u.s. from 22,066 in 1956 to only 20,818 in 1966. however, the number of ophthalmologists in the u.s. had increased from 3,694 in 1955 to more than 8,000 in 1966. in alabama, the number of licensed optometrists fell from 204 in 1956 to 184 in 1966. in 1966 only eight alabama residents were known to be enrolled in optometry programs and historically few non-residents had chosen to practice in the state.22 approximately 160 hospitals currently offer ophthalmology residency programs and 97% had been filled recently. the ophthalmology residency program at uamc had filled only two positions out of the six available.22 the final report was to provide additional data on the items covered in this report and other information that may be available on such topics as the impact of government programs, industrial needs, contact lenses, federal standards for automobile drivers, military needs, and the use of skilled technicians to increase productivity.15,22 manpower report – report 2 in the 1969 report prepared for dr. volker for presentation to the alabama legislature, the second and final manpower report was included. this report was issued on august 15, 1967.15,22 this second report, known as report 2, was 34 pages in length and contained some of the same data as in report 1. however, report 2 did provide more detailed information related to the future need for professional eye-care including such factors as population growth, contact lenses, driver’s license testing, medicaid and the outlook for alabama’s future. it also included more detailed information related to the supply of eye care specialists such as the present supply and alabama supply of these specialists, and sources of educational programs such as schools and colleges of optometry and ophthalmology residencies.22 this report concluded there was a need for more eye care specialists based on the following: • substantial numbers of persons in alabama and surrounding areas are not obtaining needed refractive eye care services. • existing training facilities in alabama and surrounding states are not producing a sufficient number of trained professional eye care specialists to serve those who need refractive care. • the study suggested several steps that could be considered to correct this imbalance.22 • the establishment of training facilities in alabama that can graduate at least two dozen optometrists per year, the expansion of present ophthalmology residencies in alabama so they can graduate about a dozen additional ophthalmologists per year, or the establishment or expansion of programs for both optometrists and ophthalmologists, respectively. • an increase in the average patient load, especially among optometrists, could be achieved using subprofessional (technician) specialization and division of labor. • there exists an imbalance in the geographic distribution of eye-care specialists among alabama counties, which has resulted in limited refractive care. • special rural county programs might provide increased availability of eye care in areas which have little or no such service now. • limited eye care in alabama reflects the fact that per-capita income is relatively low in the state and to some extent the problem of limited eye care for low-income families may be resolved with the establishment of indigent-care programs for those whose low incomes preclude obtaining necessary eye care. • the study also found that medicaid and driver reexamination programs, when implemented, can be expected to intensify the need for additional professional eye-care services within the next several years. testimony of the aloa on may 9 and may 19, 1967, the jilc held hearings concerning the establishment of a school of optometry.21 the protocol of the hearings was that optometry would present their case first, followed by the medicine/ophthalmology testimony, and then a rebuttal by optometry. as president of the aloa, dr. don snellgrove testified on behalf of the association.18,19 dr. snellgrove was briefed by sen. turner as to the protocol of the hearing. dr. snellgrove’s recollections do not mention what his testimony included.19 however, it may be surmised he included such basic elements as pre and professional educational requirements, the number and distribution of optometrists in alabama, certification by passing the alabama state board, among other matters. the opposition’s testimony centered on the issues of the educational qualifications of optometrists, that the optometrists dispensed glasses as well as prescribing them, and that there were no other university affiliated schools or colleges of optometry.18,19 dr. snellgrove’s rebuttal testimony served to correct the matter of university affiliated schools or colleges of optometry. there were, in fact, four public university affiliated schools or colleges of optometry at the time of this testimony. in addition, dr. snellgrove had collected the records of physicians, lawyers, judges, dentists and other patients and their families who had received optometric care. this was an effort to demonstrate that these individuals believed optometrists were qualified to be entrusted with caring for their families.18 of course, privacy of health records would prevent sharing such information in contemporary times. as had been expected, the establishment of the jilc prompted a vigorous effort by the alabama ophthalmologists to defeat the establishment of such a program. thus, a major letter-writing campaign to newspapers, the administration of the university of alabama medical center, university of alabama board of trustees, individual members of the legislature, gov. lurleen wallace, and lt. governor albert brewer had begun.2,15 the ophthalmologists would be aided in this effort by members of the medical association of the state of alabama (masa).19,20 memorandum to administrative leaders of uab in a may 4, 1967, memorandum to drs. hill, mccallum, barker, dunbar and brann, with a copy to dr. stephen kelly, chair of the ua department of ophthalmology, dr. volker reiterated his 24 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos concern with an article that appeared in the birmingham news relative to a school of optometry. the article had quoted dr. overton and stated: “overton said the university of alabama has given assurance that it would favorably receive efforts by the optometry profession and the alabama legislature to establish a school, but that the efforts must be initiated by the profession, not the university.” dr. volker stated “he knew this article had been of concern to many members of the faculty and the following comments seem pertinent: (1) that the university of alabama understands it is a legislative prerogative to establish new educational programs. (2) that the united states public health service (usphs) has presented data which support the case for a school of optometry in the southeastern united states. (3) public law 88-129 provides matching funds for the construction of schools of optometry, gives financial support to their educational programs, and provides loans to their students. (4) the university of alabama medical center, long range plan blueprints our needs and establishes our priorities. these needs are also attested to in appropriations requests to the present legislature. (5) the aforementioned documents do not mention optometry, but stress (a) increased support for existing programs, (b) construction funds for the college of nursing, (c) construction and operating funds for the college of general studies, and (d) required resources for expanding our programs in public health. if you have any questions on this matter, please let me know.” the memorandum was signed j. f. volker, vice president for birmingham affairs and director of the medical center.23 dr. volker’s response to rep. merrill perhaps in response to a committee request or, because of other reasons, on may 22, 1967, dr. volker stated the university’s position in a letter addressed to state rep. hugh merrill, chair of the jilc. it repeated some of the points made in the above memorandum to uamc administrators. dr. volker’s letter to rep. merrill states “this will reiterate our recent conversation. i believe my comments on a school of optometry may be summarized as follows: (1) that the university of alabama understands it is a legislative prerogative to establish new educational programs. (2) whenever a program in the health sciences has been assigned to it by legislative action, it has made every effort to provide adequate leadership. examples of this attitude are the medical college, school of dentistry, and school of nursing. (3) if a school of optometry is created by legislative action and this university is asked to operate it, a similar degree of cooperation can be anticipated. (4) the university of alabama medical center long range plan, a copy of which is attached, details our best estimates of current needs and their priorities. these matters are also attested in appropriations requests to the present legislature. (5) the aforementioned documents stress (a) increased support for existing programs, (b) construction funds for the college of nursing, (c) construction and operating funds for the college of general studies, the principal resource for education and training in the allied health sciences, and (d) required resources for expanding our programs around public health.” this letter was signed, very truly yours, j. f. volker, vice president for health affairs, university of alabama, birmingham.24 clearly the letter to rep. merrill is different in several respects from that sent to the uab administrators, but it demonstrates that, if approved, there was a commitment to have a school of optometry that aspires to excellence. it is interesting to note that one of the goals mentioned by dr. volker in item five were resources for expanding programs around public health. after the uab school of optometry was established, dr. volker supposedly told several individuals, “he had asked for a school of public health but in their wisdom the legislature gave him a school of optometry.” this clever retort may have held a grain of truth based on the long-range plans of the university. medical opposition to a school of optometry as was anticipated, the establishment of the jilc on jan. 23, 1967, set in motion a major effort by the medical association, especially by the alabama academy of ophthalmology, to defeat this action. dr. john h. nelson’s testimony in fact, as early as the attempts to pass the original optometry practice act, medicine had opposed optometry in the legislative process. on july 9, 1965, dr. john hall nelson, an ophthalmologist from tuscaloosa, alabama, had testified before the alabama legislature related to the practice of optometry. in the newspaper article that appeared, he had identified himself as a faculty member with an appointment in the medical college of alabama. dr. volker’s letter of july 9, 1965, to drs. charles grant and stephen kelly, co-chairs of the university of alabama medical center’s department of ophthalmology, cautioned that when faculty testify it was wise to divorce personal opinions from university pronouncements.25 in other words, dr. nelson did not speak on behalf of the university. dr. s. richardson hill’s testimony on friday, may 19, 1967, dr. s. richardson hill testified before the jilc.26 on monday, may 22, 1967, dr. hill, dean of the medical college of alabama, sent a letter to sen. hugh merrill, responding to his request for his comments regarding the position of the department of ophthalmology. this was the same message dr. hill provided in testimony before the jilc the prior friday.26 dr. hill believed the department of ophthalmology was inadequately funded and did not have any full-time faculty. therefore, he thought it unwise to appropriate funds for the operation of a school of optometry at a time when the only department of ophthalmology in the state was inadequately staffed because of insufficient operating funds. furthermore, hindsight: journal of optometry history 25 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos unless new revenues were obtained for higher education, adequate funding for the department of ophthalmology would most likely not be forthcoming. if additional funding for the department was provided it could, within two years, develop sufficient personnel and programs in the department to provide the necessary training for ophthalmologists in this state.26 it was evident that dr. hill considered it his duty to speak on behalf of one of the school of medicine’s departments. medical organization’s testimony masa, the alabama academy of ophthalmology and otolaryngology (aaoo), the alabama academy of ophthalmology (aao), the birmingham eye, ear, nose and throat association (beenta) and the association of dispensing opticians (ado) all opposed this proposal.15,20 initial opposition by the ophthalmologists was led by drs. joseph dixon, birmingham; john hall nelson, tuscaloosa; and louis johnson, dothan. others from within and outside the state further confounded the issue.15,27 an attempt to determine the total number of individual opposition cards/letters deposited in or referring to this legislation in the uab archives, was estimated to be several hundred written responses opposing the legislation. since the 1967 legislative action, there had been a flow of petitions and resolutions opposing the action sent to the members of the medical community throughout the state. the publications of masa had been used in a rather sensational manner, and one demeaning the profession of optometry, but ultimately did not reflect positively on the medical association. in addition, letters were written to the ua’s board of trustees that deprecated dr. volker’s stature and character.15 summary of events from the perspective of the uamc administration margaret d. “peggy” crosswhite was an administrative assistant to dr. volker. peggy was assigned by dr. volker to coordinate the activities of the university regarding the optometry school. in her summary of events leading to the establishment of the school of optometry, she characterized the pattern as one of opposition to a legislative action. this opposition had come from a minority within the medical profession, even continuing after the legislation had been approved. however, the university administration was aware of only an affirmative public response. the opposition continued in the form of refusal to instruct optometry students and an attempt to reduce the profession of optometry to one of technician status. in addition, she noted the current effort was directed toward tearing down the reputation of the uamc.15 the basic points of opposition were that: (1) because an optometrist does not have a medical degree, they are not qualified to determine the presence of disease. (2) there is a greater need for ophthalmologists than optometrists. (3) the presence of a school of optometry in the medical center or within the university of alabama in birmingham would not increase the effectiveness or stature of the medical center. instead of seeking information based on the facts or a rational discussion of their points of view, ms. crosswhite noted “that those with these opinions had smothered them by ambiguous, misleading, and unsupported statements.” usually these were expressed in hastily drawn-up petitions, resolutions or letters to the editor. she also noted that unfortunately no documentation of grievances or formal proposals for development of the department of ophthalmology were received.”15 the university administration had offered to provide information based on the facts and to discuss the problem with the ophthalmologists, but these offers were ignored.15 there are copies of more than 700 postcards or letters in the uab archives that were sent to drs. volker or hill, medical organizations, legislators or the university of alabama board of trustees, from physicians and others opposing the establishment of a school of optometry.27 the exact number of postcards or letters will likely never be known but suffice it to say there were a significant number not including several petitions, resolutions or other forms of dissent. interestingly there were perhaps 10 pieces of correspondence in this collection that favored an optometry program. a more complete description of the atmosphere in the gallery on days of legislative action is provided in appendix iii. report of the joint interim legislative committee on june 23, 1967, at 2:10 p.m., the joint interim legislative committee made their report during the 1967 regular session of the alabama legislature. their report was: “we the committee appointed to investigate the feasibility of locating a school of optometry in alabama, beg leave to report as follows: we find that there is need for a school of optometry to be in the state of alabama. we therefore recommend that such a school be located at an existing state university.” this approval was the third action taken in the establishment of the school of optometry. this approval made the passage of a specific act unnecessary, if funding could be included in the state of alabama educational appropriations bill.2,15 legislative action to establish a school of optometry there are several ways in which state-supported, specialtyeducation schools of higher learning may be created in alabama.27,28 clearly, the approach utilized in this situation was not a process with which many aloa members, or others, were familiar. the first way a new program may be approved is by traditional act, or statute, enacted by the state legislature. for example, this is the way the university of alabama schools of medicine, dentistry and nursing (1947-49) and later social work (1965) were established. the medical college of alabama was established in 1859 by josiah knott, m.d., without legislative approval.29 the next year the school received a state appropriation of $50,000 and became a department of the university of alabama. however, development ceased with the onset of the civil war and the postwar economy that followed for several years after the civil war. the program reopened in 1868, but unfortunately did not flourish, and over the next 40 years, alabama’s dismal post-civil war economy hindered any chance for improvement. in 1922, the school of 26 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos medicine was moved from mobile, alabama, to the university of alabama in tuscaloosa, alabama and reduced from a four-year to a two-year program. in 1943, the four-year program was revived by the alabama legislature. in 1944, a building commission was charged with selecting a site for the program. the commission narrowed the field to mobile, tuscaloosa, and birmingham. birmingham offered all the elements needed to support a four-year medical school. it had distinguished physicians, a large population and growing industrial economy, and two hospitals. in 1945, the program moved to birmingham to the uamc campus. this campus included the jefferson and hillman hospitals and several adjoining blocks.29 however, there are many such programs throughout the state that came into being without specific statutes.27,28 usually, a specific act is necessary when a new institution is established such as the university of south alabama. interestingly uab’s college of general studies was also funded by appropriations. separate bill to establish a school of optometry a search of the journals of the house and senate for 1967 did not reveal a separate bill that was introduced for the establishment of a school of optometry. this was confirmed in two ways. first, in 2008, anita smith, a historian familiar with the uab medical center schools, and peggy striplin, the senior director of development and alumni affairs of the uab school of optometry, were accompanied by the uab archivist, mr. tim pennycuff, on a visit to the state of alabama archives. with the guidance of norwood durr of the state of alabama archives, they searched the archives for a separate bill establishing a school of optometry but were unable to locate one.28 it should be noted that mr. pennycuff was also instrumental in assisting virginia fisher in the publication of the book describing uab’s history in building on a future.29 secondly, in 2011 the staff at the legislative reference service, mr. frank caskey and ms. carma marks, by authorization of rep. jim mcclendon, and at my request, also searched these journals and did not find a separate bill.30 therefore, it seems most likely that when sen. turner called dr. snellgrove to inform him “it passed,” the “it” was referring to the 1967 appropriations bill for education as opposed to a separate bill for a school of optometry. this in fact was later corroborated in an interview with former gov. brewer. by all accounts, sen. turner was a master politician, legislator and an excellent parliamentarian. as chair of the senate committee on finance and taxation and the joint senate and house appropriations committee, he approved everything that went into the appropriations bill. as chair he would also be a member of any conference committee. it was customary for the presiding officer of each chamber to appoint the chair of the finance and taxation committee along with the sponsor of the legislation to the conference committee. in this case, sen. turner was both. in addition, the other members of the conference committee were known to be friendly to sen. turner. manner for the establishment of a school a second manner for the establishment of such programs is in what has been termed legislative “evolvements” birthed by resolutions enacted through committees of the state legislature.28 clearly, this is the route by which the need for a school of optometry in the state of alabama was established. however, the recommendation by the committee that such a school be located at an existing state university did not provide a funding source. a third option is that components of or addendums to budgets of state-supported institutions, such as the university of alabama, include funding for such a new program. as will be shown, this was the way the uab school of optometry received its initial funding.28 the fourth option is that a program can be begun by executive order of the governor. clearly, both govs. lurleen and george wallace and gov. albert brewer supported the establishment of a school of optometry, but the school was not begun by way of an executive order.28 by all accounts the uab school of optometry was established by recommendation from the jilc report and moved directly to include initial funding in the educational appropriations act for 1967 and additional continuing support from the educational appropriations act and general fund budgets in 1969.28 there was some confusion regarding the matter of a separate bill or act to establish the school of optometry. dr. don snellgrove remembers a bill on the calendar of the 1967 regular session. he was concerned that the bill was near the bottom of the calendar and time would expire before it was enacted. sen. turner informed dr. snellgrove that everything was fine and he should not worry about the bill. with this reassurance, dr. snellgrove returned to his home in greenville, alabama.18 as illustrated by dr. snellgrove’s expectation of this legislation being in the form of a bill, this legislation involved a procedure of enactment that very few optometrists were familiar with or understood. summary of part i and prelude to part ii in summary, part i of this article described the many events that led to, and included, the decision by the jilc that there existed a need for a school of optometry in the state of alabama. part ii of the article describes the actions of the alabama legislature with regards to the approval of a school of optometry by its funding, university affiliation and other actions taken to affect the outcome. acknowledgements i would like to thank mr. tim pennycuff of the uab archives for encouraging me to undertake this project. i also thank mr. pennycuff and ms. jennifer beck for providing copies of material from the uab archives. i am indebted to sen. (dr.) jim mcclendon for his support and assistance through the legislative reference service (lrs), now referred to as the legislative service agency (lsa). his kind offer to make available access to the services of the lsa made this project much more attainable and placed it in the realm of possibility. i am also most appreciative of the efforts of mr. frank caskey and ms. carma marks of the lsa for providing the reference material and other information from the journals of the hindsight: journal of optometry history 27 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos house and senate. all the legislative actions cited in this paper are from these journals. likewise, i am grateful to drs. g. robert crosby and l. don snellgrove for sharing their remembrances of these many past events. dr. snellgrove willingly shared information from his files. i thank janice turner carter for providing information about her father, sen. alton l. turner. i also want to thank anita smith and peggy striplin for conducting interviews of those individuals involved in the early history of those legislative efforts that led to the passage of this important legislation. mrs. smith’s summary of the interview with governor brewer has proved to be most helpful in further elucidating the history of the events that led to the establishment of the school. i also thank jerry r. pederson, o.d., and peggy striplin for their careful review of this paper and helpful suggestions. in addition, i want to thank mrs. donald (rita) springer for reading the final draft of this chapter and dr. ronald dachelet for confirming additional information. i dedicate this article to all those past and present who worked so tirelessly to bring about the remarkable story and success of the uab school of optometry. references 1. amos jf. the authorization for the original optometry practice act in the state of alabama. hindsight: j optom hist, 2023; 54(1):15-22. 2. peters hb. school of optometry, university of alabama at birmingham. 25th anniversary photographic history, 1969 – 1994. university of alabama at birmingham school of optometry, 1994: 1-55. 3. amos jf. donald a. springer, o. d.: optometrist with a vision. focalpoint. 2003; 8(1); 4-5. 4. walton v. e. c. overton, pioneer city councilman, dies at 79. birmingham news. monday, may 19, 1997. 5. resolution approving establishment of the dr. e. c. overton/ uabso alumni endowed scholarship. adopted by the board of trustees of the university of alabama, february 8, 2008. 6. resolution for the dr. elbert a. “bert” coshatt alumni endowed scholarship. adopted by the board of trustees of the university of alabama, june 26, 1998. 7. personal communication and material supplied by janice turner carter, november 2011. 8. report of proceedings (vol. 1), the united states senate, subcommittee on health of the committee on labor and public welfare. s. 1072, health professions educational assistance act. hearing held friday, april 28, 1961, washington, d. c., ward and paul, washington, d. c. 9. report of proceedings (vol. 2), the united states senate, subcommittee on health of the committee on labor and public welfare. s. 1072, health professions education assistance act. hearing held wednesday, may 3, 1961, washington, d. c., ward and paul, washington, d. c. 10. report of proceedings (vol. 3), the united states senate, subcommittee on health of the committee on labor and public health. s. 1072, health professions education assistance act. hearing held friday, may 5, 1961, washington, d. c., ward and paul, washington, d. c. 11. personal communication from mr. david danielson, washington office, american optometric association, january 3, 2001. 12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/”torbert h. macdonald” accessed 10/15/2024. 13. macbride o. an overview of the health professions educational assistance act, 1963-1971. report no. a1, robert wood johnson foundation, new brunswick, n. j.; 1973: 1-37. 14. kline j. the comprehensive health manpower training act of 1971: legislative history and analysis of major provisions. library of congress, washington, d. c. congressional research service, 1971: 1-49. 15. crosswhite md. relationship of optometry to ophthalmology. june 15, 1969. university of alabama at birmingham, uab archives. 16. letter dated june 22, 1970, from robert q. marston, m.d., director, nih, to representative bob casey regarding distribution of funds for construction and special project grants of the health manpower act of 1968. 17. personal communication with dr. g. robert crosby, march 2011. 18. personal communication with dr. don snellgrove, september 2010, and november 2011. 19. letter to dr. bob crosby from dr. don snellgrove in the spring of 2009 as part of dr. crosby’s preparation for his address to the uab school of optometry graduating class of 2009. 20. letter dated february 11, 1994, from dr. e. c. overton to dr. henry peters recalling events related to the establishment of the uab school of optometry. university of alabama at birmingham, uab archives. (in this recollection, dr. overton refers to representative merrill as a senator). 21. journal of the senate, alabama legislature, organizational session 1967, legislative reference service. 22. the demand for and supply of professional refractive eye-care services in alabama and the surrounding states. southern council of optometrists, project 1999, report 1. southern research institute, birmingham, alabama, june 26, 1967. university of alabama at birmingham, uab archives; final report, project 1999, report 2, southern research institute, birmingham, alabama, august 15, 1967. university of alabama at birmingham, uab archives. 23. letter from dr. volker to drs. hill, mccallum, barker, dunbar and brann, dated may 4, 1967. university of alabama in birmingham, uab archives. 24. letter from dr. volker to representative merrill, may 22, 1967. university of alabama in birmingham, uab archives. 25. letter from dr. joseph volker to drs. charles grant and stephen kelly related to department of ophthalmology faculty members testifying before the alabama legislature, july 9, 1965. university of alabama in birmingham, uab archives. 28 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos 26. letter from dr. s. richardson hill to representative hugh merrill, may 22, 1967, university of alabama at birmingham, uab archives. 27. letters in opposition to the establishment of a school of optometry. university of alabama in birmingham, uab archives 28. smith a. school of optometry historical interviews project. summary: alabama legislature’s 1960’s authorization for establishing uab school of optometry. september 30, 2008. 29. fisher v.e. building on a vision. a fifty-year retrospective of uab’s academic health center. chapter one: the vision of a medical school: 1859-1950. crane hill publishers, birmingham, al 1995. 30. journals of the house and senate, regular session of the alabama legislature 1967. archives of the state of alabama. appendix i visionaries there are four individuals, among the many who played important and significant roles in this history, who are deserving of special mention. these individuals are dr. donald a. springer, anniston, alabama; dr. eleazer c. overton, fairfield, alabama; dr. elbert a coshatt, aliceville, alabama; and senator alton l. turner, luverne, alabama. a brief biographical sketch of each of these individuals is presented to more completely explain the background of those who played a significant role in the history of the establishment of the uab school of optometry. clearly there were many optometrists and others involved in this effort but the most notable were drs. edgar warr and don snellgrove. without drs. warr and snellgrove’s connection and discussions with senator turner, there would likely have not been a school of optometry at uab. these humble optometrists preferred their role in the background, but they are equally deserving of recognition. dr. donald a. springer dr. springer was a second-generation optometrist whose father, dr. nathaniel springer, had immigrated to america from the austro-hungarian empire. he began the original springer practice in 1919 after receiving further training from kellan and moore opticians in atlanta. dr. nathaniel springer was brought to this country as a very young child and built a successful optometry practice. dr. donald springer was born in anniston, al in 1922 and attended public schools in that city. he completed his pre-optometry education at the university of alabama and, in 1941, entered the ohio state university college of optometry. his optometric education was interrupted by service in the army ordinance corps during world war ii from 1943 to 1945. following his discharge from military service, he completed his optometric education at osu in 1946 and returned to anniston to join his father in practice. he quickly became involved in his community and organized optometry. dr. springer served the profession in many capacities. he became one of the first fellows of the american academy of optometry from alabama, obtaining this distinction just one year after joining the practice. he served as the president of the alabama optometric association (aloa) in 1949-1950. in 1963, he persuaded the aloa to form a health manpower committee. he served as the president of the american academy of optometry in 1963-1964. he provided testimony before the subcommittee on health of the house interstate and foreign commerce committee related to optometry’s inclusion in the health professions educational assistance act in 1964. he served as a member of the review committee on construction for schools of optometry from 1964 to 1967. dr. springer’s goal of establishing a school of optometry was based on his years of contemplating the need for a stronger optometric workforce in alabama. he was also influenced by the perspective he gained through his leadership role as an officer and president of the american academy of optometry. the need for a greater workforce in all the independent health care professions was becoming more apparent during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. dr. springer was the catalyst for the establishment of a school of optometry in alabama. it was dr. springer who had the vision for this program.2,3 dr. eleazer c. overton dr. eleazer claiborne “e. c.” overton was born in birmingham, alabama, attended public schools and graduated from ensley high school in 1937. following graduation, he worked for the civilian conservation corps (ccc) and the southern optical company. in 1942, dr. overton entered the naval pilot training program eventually flying 85 missions over japan with air group 16, attached to the uss randolph. he attained the rank of lieutenant while serving as an aviator in the naval reserve during world war ii. after the war, he enrolled at the northern illinois college of optometry, graduating in 1948. dr. overton returned to birmingham and established a practice in the five points west area of the city in 1949. dr. overton was involved early in the efforts by the aloa to establish a school of optometry. he was elected to the birmingham city council where he served from its inception in april 1962 until october 1981. his length of service on the birmingham city council was more than 18 years. in this capacity he served as chairman of the public improvement committee and as chairman of the education policy committee. it was in the arena of public service he became acquainted with many area educators, those individuals in elected office or active in jefferson county politics. dr. overton was able to utilize these relationships to gain support from city and county governments for the establishment of a school of optometry at the university of alabama medical center. the significant level of community support marshaled by dr. overton was instrumental in the eventual success of the legislation and the school’s location at uab. dr. overton also served on the fundraising committee for the new school around the business and industry communities in birmingham. this committee raised $250,000 within eight weeks in the latter part of the 1960’s.2,4,5 dr. elbert a. coshatt dr. elbert a. “bert” coshatt was born in maylene alabama in 1921. after graduating from high school, he served in the military during world war ii. following the war, he attended the northern illinois college of optometry and on graduation, returned to hindsight: journal of optometry history 29 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos aliceville, alabama to open a practice. dr. coshatt was active in his community serving as president of the aliceville chamber of commerce. however, it was his keen interest in politics, with a desire to help others, and his dedication to the profession of optometry that was his real passion. along with drs. springer and overton, dr. coshatt recognized alabama’s desperate need for more practicing optometrists. to this end, he worked tirelessly to ensure that a school of optometry would be located at uab. he served as president of the aloa in 1966-1967 and during this same time was selected to serve as the chairman of the legal/legislative committee for the aloa. this latter position was one dr. coshatt held for several years after his term as president of the aloa. he was also instrumental in securing legislation that increased license fees assessed by the alabama board of optometry. excess monies not utilized by the board would be used to provide support for optometric education in alabama. dr. coshatt also helped organize a vigorous fundraising campaign and served as the chairman of the fund drive committee for the uab school of optometry. he was also the driving force in helping optometry regain the right to participate in the alabama medicaid program. he was twice selected as optometrist of the year by the aloa and in 1976 was named as the optometrist of the south by the southern council of optometrists. the first endowed scholarship to assist a deserving optometry student of the uabso, was named in his memory.2,6 senator alton l. turner senator alton l. turner was born in rutledge, alabama but spent his formative years attending public schools in luverne, alabama. on graduation from luverne high school mr. turner enlisted in the united states navy on july 1, 1943. he served as a navigator in the navy air corps during world war ii and was discharged at the rank of ensign on july 19, 1946. he entered the university of alabama after being discharged from the navy and received the ll. b. degree in 1950. mr. turner returned to luverne and crenshaw county where he lived and practiced law for 35 years. he developed a substantial law practice and a reputation as an outstanding defense attorney. mr. turner served as crenshaw county solicitor from 1952 to 1958. he was elected to the state senate for the first time in 1958 and served as the senator from district 25 from 1959 through the 1962 term. he was elected to the alabama house of representatives in 1962 where he represented crenshaw county and served from 1963 to 1966. he was elected again, in 1966, to the alabama senate, and served the 20th district from 1967 to 1970. he served as chairman of the joint legislative committee on finance and taxation during the 1967 special session.1 he was also chairman of the senate committee on finance and taxation during the regular session of his second senate term. he also served as chairman of the joint senate-house appropriations committee of the alabama legislature, chairman of the legislative council, chairman of the committee on grounds and public buildings (and later a member) and was a member of the committees of the judiciary, constitution, local legislation, and banking. many considered senator turner one of the most powerful and influential senators, if not legislators, of this time. mr. turner served as floor leader for governors john patterson, george wallace, lurleen wallace, and albert brewer. following elected office, mr. turner served as assistant district attorney, city attorney for luverne, alabama and rutledge, alabama, attorney for the crenshaw county commission and crenshaw county hospital. among his many honors was the award of merit for distinguished service from the southern council of optometrists.2,7 it was senator turner’s mastery of the legislative process that enabled the aloa to realize its goal of a school of optometry in alabama. the optometry community and the patients they serve are indebted to senator turner for his service to the profession, university and state. appendix ii timeline of important events leading to the establishment of the uab school of optometry events leading to the introduction of federal legislation • with the anticipated passage of legislation for federal entitlement healthcare programs (medicare and medicaid) and growing population, there was likely to be a critical shortage of healthcare providers. • dr. donald springer from anniston, al, who served as president of the american academy of optometry, was aware of the critical need for an increase in the health professions, especially optometric manpower (workforce), both in alabama and the southeast. • dr. springer had served on the executive committee of the american academy of optometry during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and had become aware of this looming shortage in the health professions. • several studies performed by various entities had attempted to predict the shortage of physicians and dentists in the coming decade. • in 1963, dr. springer persuaded the aloa to form a health manpower committee to investigate the need for an increased optometric workforce in alabama. • on february 24, 1961, senator lister hill of alabama introduced the bill, s. 1072, the health professions educational assistant (hpea) act, in the united states senate. • the hpea was one of the most comprehensive health care funding acts ever introduced. it included funding for construction or renovation of buildings, special project grants, and scholarships all to increase the number of healthcare providers. • on friday, may 5, 1961, dr. henry hofstetter, director of the division of optometry, indiana university and chairman of the aoa committee on research, became the first optometrist to testify on behalf of the profession in support of this legislation before the subcommittee on health of the senate committee on labor and public welfare. • on january 23, 1962, u. s. representative torbert h. macdonald from the massachusetts 8th congressional district, offered amendments to house legislation h. r. 4999 30 volume 56, number 1, spring 2025 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos that would authorize funding for optometry schools and colleges as well as financial aid for optometry students. • the health professions educational assistance act was signed by president john f. kennedy on september 24, 1963, and became effective for fy 1964-66. • on may 26, 1964, dr. springer, president of the american academy of optometry and a practitioner from anniston, alabama, was among several prominent optometrists to testify before the house committee on interstate and foreign commerce. their testimony related to the need for optometry student loans and more optometrists. • also, the aloa set about establishing a relationship with the university of alabama by holding its continuing education program on campus beginning in 1964. the featured speaker for the first program was dr. merrill allen, a widely respected researcher and expert on motorist’s vision. pathway to legislation for establishing a school of optometry in alabama • on monday, june 14, 1965, drs. springer, snellgrove, overton, and coshatt met with dr. joseph volker, executive vice-president for health affairs, of the university of alabama medical center (uamc). the purpose of this meeting was to inquire about the uamc establishing a school of optometry. dr. volker explained that as a state university only the alabama legislature could approve legislation establishing a school and appropriating the funds to support it. • sensing that dr. volker was not opposed to such a program, the members of the aloa, after agreeing to move forward, began to get involved in the political process at the local and state level. • in late 1966, drs. edgar warr and don snellgrove met with senator alton turner of luverne, al. the purpose of this meeting was to discuss the possibility of introducing legislation to establish a school of optometry in alabama. senator turner was widely regarded as the most influential legislator in the senate, if not the state of alabama. senator turner was well-versed in the procedures and rules for passing legislation in alabama. • during the organizational session of the alabama legislature, senate joint resolution 18 was passed on january 17, 1967, and signed by governor lurleen wallace on january 23, 1967. • on friday, june 23, 1967, the joint interim legislative committee (jilc) reported during the regular session of the alabama legislature there was a need for a school of optometry in the state. • during the regular session of the alabama legislature in 1967 the bill, h. 24 which was the educational appropriation for the state, as recommended by the committee on conference, was passed by the senate on wednesday, august 23, 1967, by the vote yeas 29; nays 2 and passed by the house on thursday, august 31, 1967, by the vote of yeas 90; nays 0. • this bill was signed into law as act no. 383 by governor lurleen wallace on september 6, 1967. it contained funds for the initial study required for the establishment of a school of optometry and the operation and maintenance of such a school. the funds of $50,000 each for fiscal years 1967-68 and 1968-69 were for planning, curriculum development, and estimated costs associated with a school. these funds were placed in the budget of the university of alabama medical center. • during the regular session of the alabama legislature in 1967, the aloa also put forth four additional bills. the most important of these bills related to the school of optometry was senate bill 381. this bill changed the alabama board of optometry rules to increase license renewal fees from $12 to $112 each year. this bill was introduced by senator alton turner on tuesday, july 11, 1967. the bill was passed by a vote of yeas 80; nays 0. senate bill 381 was approved (signed) as act no. 520 on september 7, 1967, by governor lurleen wallace. • on september 15, 1967, dr. don snellgrove notified dr. volker he had appointed a liaison committee as he requested. the members were drs. donald springer (chair), coshatt, banks, and gibson. activities of the uamc and aloa in 1968 • beginning in february 1968 dr. volker initiated a process in which individuals agreed to serve as consultants to the advisory committee. over a two-year period nine optometrists associated with optometric or ophthalmologic education met on the uamc campus with the advisory committee established by dr. volker. • on may 31, 1968, dr. volker announced to the university community the action of the legislature regarding the establishment of a school of optometry at the uamc. he also announced the appointment of an advisory committee. • a fund drive committee was established in the summer of 1968 to raise funds for the construction of a school building. this appeal was made to state optometrists, the birmingham business community, optometric organizations, and corporations, as well as the profession at large across the united states. • a brochure was developed, and a resolution was passed by the executive committee of the ua board of trustees establishing a ua fund known as the ua school of optometry fund for contributions made by the public for use as outlined in the resolution. this fund was established on or about july 25, 1968. final approval for funding of a school of optometry located at the university of alabama medical center • as part of the study process for the establishment of a school of optometry, dr. joseph volker, executive vice president for health affairs, was to deliver a report regarding the feasibility of such a program to the legislature in 1969. • dr. volker assigned mrs. margaret “peggy” crosswhite the task of collecting information about the profession of optometry hindsight: journal of optometry history 31 article john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos and optometric education. mrs. crosswhite prepared the report dr. volker would submit to the alabama legislature in 1969. • during the special session of the alabama legislature in 1969 on tuesday, april 1, h. 22 was introduced to make annual appropriations for the support of public education for fiscal years 1969-70 and 1970-71. this bill was passed on wednesday, april 3, 1969, in the house by a vote of yeas 93; nays 0 and on friday, may 2, 1969, in the senate by a vote of yeas 35; nays 0. the bill as amended by the senate was returned to the house where it was adopted 77 to 21. • this appropriation included under umac’s budget $200,000 for fy 1969-70 and $300,000 for fy 1970-71 for operation and maintenance of a school of optometry. the house bill, h. 22 was approved as act number 91 by governor albert brewer on may 14, 1969, at 2:10 pm. • during the regular session of the 1969 alabama legislature on tuesday, june 3, mr. matthews introduced h. 621. this bill was to make appropriations for ordinary expenses of the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the state, for interest on public debts, and for public education. • this bill was passed on wednesday, june 25, in the house by a vote of yeas 90; nays 2 and in the senate on thursday, september 4, by a vote of yeas 27; nays 0. this bill was signed on friday september 12, 1969, as act number 995 by governor albert brewer. this act provided $23,000 for the construction, operation, and maintenance of a school or college of optometry from the general fund budget. • on august 10, 1969, dr. volker announced that dr. henry b. peters had been appointed as the first dean of the uamc school of optometry. the uab school of optometry officially began on september 1, 1969, the first day that uab was established as a separate campus of the ua system. • the first class of the uab school of optometry had eight students who according to dean peters, matriculated on saturday, september 27, 1969. the first student admitted to the professional program was ronald e. dachelet. one class member recalled the first day of class being thursday, september 25, 1969. the latter date would seem to perhaps be more likely given it was a weekday. those graduating from the first class in june 1973 were: drs. neil bleakley, nelson crandall, ronald dachelet, michael raim, bernard scott, ernest spohn and alan tavel. • on september 2, 1970, dr. peters received a request from mr. henry cram for the legislative history of the uab school of optometry. on september 2, 1970, mr. james white iii, university counsel responded to dr. henry bruce, director of education research facilities, national institutes of health, detailing the legislative history of the uab school of optometry in answer to questions related to its being lawfully constituted. • on this same date, mr. white also sent a response to dr. bruce in answer to the authority of the ua board of trustees to establish such a program. mr. white stated there is no constitutional or statutory requirement that specific schools or departments of the university of alabama be established by legislative act. it is clearly stated in the law the board of trustees has general supervisory powers over the university, and that these powers include the power of establishing schools and departments within the university. • on september 18, 1970, more than a year after the program began, senator turner wrote a letter to roger engberg, under-secretary for health, department of health, education and welfare, detailing the legislative steps taken to establish the uab school of optometry. this letter was in response to some disgruntled ophthalmologists’ complaints. • in 1973 the uab school of optometry began participating in the southern region educational board (sreb) out-of-state contract program. the school provided 15 contract places in each entering class beginning in 1975. volume 35 hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa januarv 2004 number 1 2004 ohs board members and officers: listed below are the ohs executive board and officers for the year 2004. the year of expiration of each board member's term is given in parentheses: president...................... doug penisten (2007) vice president............... jay enoch (2006) secretary-treasurer ....... bridget kowalczyk (2004) trustees...................... jerry abrams (2005) walter chase (2006) chuck haine (2004) melvin wolfberg (2005) call for nominations: the terms of board members chuck haine and bridget kowalczyk will expire at the end of this year. please submit your nominations for these two board positions by may 15, 2004 to david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 usa. the ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. ohs has a new website: the optometric historical society has a new and expanded website. it includes information about our purposes, becoming a member, the newsletter, the annual meeting, persons who have received ohs recognition awards, this year's officers, and history of the organization. it also has a few links to sites with historical information of optometric interest. check it out: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. if you have a website relating to optometric history, please consider adding a link to the ohs site. and please contact me if you have any suggestions for improvement or if you see any corrections that need to be made. d.a.g. 35/1 jay enoch's column: "source" and "mirror, mirror ... " history of mirrors dating back ca 8000 years before the present (bp) whenever i have spoken of ancient mirrors, the response invariably is, " ... but jay they first appeared in china." no, they didn't, but i felt obligated to pursue this matter to its origins. of course, the very first mirrors were most probably quiet pools of water and containers of water. about two years ago, at the freer asian art gallery in washington, i bought a fine book on ancient chinese mirrors. speaking to a knowledgeable sales person, i asked if there was a curator who could clarify the true origins of mirrors for me. this gentleman promised to consult a curator in my behalf, and some months later, i received a bound (not very recent) proceedings issue from the smithsonian of a meeting addressing the early history of ancient mirrors (no identification as to either the kind correspondent or the salesperson). the early history of mirrors was all there, and the title of this fascinating conference and publication was the "source" dated 1985.1 the first mirror referenced in the "source" had origin in anatolia, located in northern modern turkey ca 8000 before the present (bp). since then, apparently the same mirrors were described (without a directly identified reference, although the author cites individual articles from this proceedings) in a new book, "mirror, mirror, .. " by prendergast.2 he dated these mirrors at ca 8200 bp. the first known anatolian mirrors were made of obsidian, a volcanic glass. these were recovered from graves in a cemetery located near qatal hoyok (near modern konya). 1'2 these mirrors were assumed from burials of women, because of the presence of differing objects in male and female graves. anatolia is a source of obsidian, corundum (or carborundum, or emery grinding compounds), and iron pyrite. polished obsidian objects were early exports from anatolia, and they were used for various purposes (black mirrors, scrappers, arrowheads, spear heads, etc.). following anatolia, the next mirrors were located in egypt. apparently smoothed river stones found in the nile were used for this purpose. these were wet and used for mirrors probably by ca 4000 bce or 6000 bp (at least before 3200 bce) and some mica was used. in egypt, prendergase describes mirrors comprising a slab of selenite with traces of wood around it (a frame?), a disc of slate, and a reflective piece of mica pierced by a hole. presumably the hole allowed attachment to a wall (?).all date from about 4500 bce (citations?) or 6500 bp. in the source, it is stated that in southern mesopotamian city of uruk (tello) in the late 4th early 3rd millenium bce, and at other mesopotamian sites from 3200 bce onward, copper mirrors were employed. as it became available, more rigid bronze mirrors were used in both egypt and mesopotamia. 35/2 there are papers in the source which consider mirrors which were found in central asia. 1 these apparently served as precursors for later chinese mirrors. first chinese mirrors have been attributed to the xia dynasty (21st to 16th centuries bce). and there is much more. references 1. source: notes on the history of art. winter spring, 1985;4(2,3): 15 papers (entire issue on the history of mirrors). 2. prendergast, mark. mirror, mirror: a history of the human love affair with reflection. new york: basic books, 2003. this article is an expansion with some added elements of an abstract submitted by the author to the cogan ophthalmic history society for its 2004 meeting. the cogan society does not copyright its publications. j.m.e. connecticut optometry history: the connecticut association of optometrists has several webpages on their history located at: http://www.cao.org/about!history.htm. the webpages are: -recent association presidents with summary of events during their term in office -the connecticut optometric society, 1907-1957, a synopsis of the society's first 50 years, by dr. george a. comstock -connecticut optometryhighlights of history, 1894-1922, compiled at ilamo, april 28, 1987 -past presidents of the connecticut optometric society 1908-1956 -aoa presidents and officers from connecticut connecticut optometrists attended educational programs such as ones presented by the new england council of optometry as early as 1894. organizational efforts in the beginning years of the twentieth century resulted in the election of officers of the connecticut optometric society in 1908 and the passage of an optometry bill which became law in 1913. williams. todd, the fifth president of the connecticut optometric society (1915-16), was president of the american optometric association in 1922-23. todd was greatly interested in optometric education and for several years was chairman of the state association's educational committee. another connecticut optometric society president (1947-48) who became president of the american optometric association (1957) was lester h. sugarman. the connecticut optometry law provided that those who practiced optometry before january 1, 1914, were exempt from taking the examination for license. they 35/3 had to make affidavits that they had practiced optometry and present sworn statements of three persons each had treated as patients. a total of 201 exemption certificates were issued by the first day of 1914. thirty-five applicants were denied exemption certificates, apparently failing to prove their case. an additional 56 certificates by examination were issued. the website suggests that "these latter registrants can be considered the more progressive and forward­ looking ..... " the examination consisted of 50 written questions on theoretical optics, theoretical optometry, and practical optometry. educational requirements in the first connecticut optometry law were two years of high school and two years of study in a registered optometrist's office or graduation from an optometry school recognized by the board of examiners. in 1919 the law was amended to require annual registration. the first of many upgrades in the educational requirements over the years was made in 1921. four years of high school were then made mandatory. three years of study with a registered optometrist were required, and the nature of that experience was clarified. connecticut at that time also endorsed the syllabus plan for optometry schools adopted by the american optometric association. d.a.g. history of the southern california college of optometry: we thank the california optometric association for permission to reproduce articles in their series entitled "optometry's screaming eagles," covering various aspects of the history of optometry in california. we brought you the first two parts of their series in the july, 2003 and october, 2003 issues of hindsight. part 3 of their series, excerpted from james r. gregg's book on the history of the southern california college of optometry begins on the next page. this article was in the november/december, 2003 issue of california optometry (volume 30, number 6, pages 14-17). the article is also available at the california optometric association website, http://www.coavision.org. 35/4 optometry's screaming eagles, part 3 southern california college of optometry lawrence t hal, 00, faao presjdent, california optometric association on a warm summer day, dr. ren anelle stopped along side the road to quench his thirst with cool lem­ onade. as he parked his car, he noticed the van next to him displayed a bumper sticker, "screaming eagles." under an umbrella sat an elderly gentleman also with lemonade. "were you a screaming eagle?" ren asked. "yes i was," he replied somewhat perplexed, "how did you know?" "i saw your bumper sticker and i just want to say thank you!" tears came to the eyes of this old man. no one had ever thanked him before; much less someone who could only have been an infant during world war ii. the 101" airborne division, the scream­ ing eagles, teamed up with the 82"" airborne division and the british in normandy and holland. it was at bastogne that the 10 1" heroically staved off cold, hun­ ger and the german army during the battle of the bulge. corregidor, leyte, anzio, salerno and bastogne, once strange sounding names, are remembered today for world war ii newscasts which told of the courage and the sacrifices of airborne troops on those distant battlefields. men like generals matthew ridgway, max the third group of our 'screaming eagles' are marshall b. ketchum, md; ernest a. hutch-inson, od; charles a. abel jr, od; james r. gregg, od, dos, dol; sirer d. jaanus, phd, lhd; and richard l. hop­ ping, od, dos, dsc -all influential individuals in the development of the southern california college of op­ tometry (scco). these are, bur six of the many men and women who have, during the college's nearly 100 years, played an instrumental role in the development of what, today, is considered one of the premier optom­ etric colleges in the world. innovation is a hallmark of!eadership. the men and women who have led the southern california college of optometry through its first century have, indeed, been innovators who have initiated policies and changes that have had a profound impact upon the institution, the profession and patient care. the college honored 100 of its treasured leaders during its centennial gala on 14 • californiaoptometry 35/5 well taylor, "slim jim" gavin and tony mcauliffe, who uttered the now-famous "nuts" to the germans at bastogneare but a few of the great airborne leaders whose names are indelibly inscribed on the rolls of these elite units. optometry has its own elite units with many un­ sung heroes, many of whom haven't heard the words ren said this warm, summer day, "thank you!" many of optometry's battlefields also seem quite distant, but these leaders of the past and their accomplishments need not be forgotten their names will be indelibly inscribed on the rolls of optometry's elite units. this is the third part of the series, "optometry's screaming eagles." it chronicles the founding of the southern california college of optometry. other parts have chronicled the founding of the university of cali­ fornia, berkeley school of optometry (ucbso) and the california optometric association (coa). the fourth and fifth installments will chronicle the found­ ing ofvision service plan (vsp) and vision west, inc (vwi), conserutively. saturday, october 9, 2003. the innovative thinking of scco's leaders has resulted in many key initiatives for the college and the profession. firsts for the college include: 1908, first woman gradu­ ate; 1911, the doctor of optometry degree is granted; 1930s practice management intro­ duced into the curricu­ lum; 1937, first student scholarship fund started; 1973, first to urge states not to build optometry schools, but to provide funding for their quali­ fied state residents to at­ tend scco -resulting in today's 13-state so begins another class of od hopefuls at scco! november· december 2003 wiche program; and 1973, oklahoma becomes rhe first stare to establish a conuacr wirh the college for student support. additionally, scco has set the pace in optometric education wirh the following firsts: 197 4, established a clinical program in another stare (nevada), which set rhe standard for rhe college's renown outreach clinical program; 1976, first optometry college to become li­ censed as an insurance agent for annuities and to use a flip-trust as a financial vehicle; 1997, first to require a baccalaureate degree for admission to an optometry school or college; and 1978, first college of optometry to accept land and build apartments, shopping centers and residential properties as a source of income. among the college's greatest assets are the men and women who have served on irs staff, faculty, administra­ tion and board of trustees. many members of the scco family have served with commitment and enthusiasm for decades. and with much pride, members ofscco's family have witnessed the tremendous success of irs alu!iuli -alu!iuli who have weu served rheir patients, rheir profession and their commwtities. marshall b. ketchum, md was the founder and first president of the los angeles medical school of oph­ thalmology and optometry (now scco). dr. ketchum founded the school in 1904 and served as president until 1920. when he came ro los angeles from lincoln, ne­ braska, where he was a member of the faculty of rhe lincoln medical college and conducted the lincoln optical college (from 18961903), a distinct profes­ sion of optometry was just beginning to develop, both educationally and organizationally. the time was right to open a school. some men did so in hopes of personal gain and cared little about the quality of insuuction, bur many had sincere motives to improve vision care. ketchum was one of the latter. the founder of the col­ lege was a distinguished and serious man, yet, possessed a sense of humor. above all, he sincerely believed in op­ tometry and that it should be an independent profession. he stood for the highest possible qual­ ity of education, and was convinced that the op­ tomeuist had a deep re­ sponsibility to the pat­ ient's visual welfare and to the community. that is the base upon which the institution started. fortu­ nately, such are the quali­ ties of all scco leaders ernest a hutchinson. president emeritus, served the school for over 40 years since its inception. the scco class of 1913 produced graduates who were to have the most significant impact on the devel­ opment of the college over the greatest period of time of any class before, or since. ernest a. hutchinson, od and william m. ket chum, od graduated in 1913 and immediately joined the faculty. within a short rime, they became the chief administrators of rhe school and continued to dominate irsleadership for nearly 40 years. these two gentlemen were optometrists and their entrance upon the scene soon marked the end of dominance by men with medical degrees. ernest hutchinson, od loved optometry and loved the school. he kept it going almost single-handedly during its most difficult period, 1933-38. he lectured to students for nearly 40 years and, in 1920, he assumed a majority of the school's administrative functions. hutchinson was a sought-after lecturer and aurhor of a great many papers. nearly everyone in optometry dur­ ing his 30 most active years had heard of, or read hutchinson. he was a co-founder of the association of schools and colleges of optometry and served as its president. he belonged to the american academy of op­ tometry and was active in irs affairs. the 1948, califor­ nia optometric association congress was dedicated to him. charles a. abel, od explained what he liked about reaching and, perhaps, spoke for all faculty who are op­ tometrists, but choose academia over practice: "teach­ ing, to me, is more rewarding and stimulating than op­ tometric practice. it is exciting to watch students grow and learn, while rhey complete rheir preparation to be­ come optometrists. practice can be as exciting too, but somehow, i like rhe academic atmosphere of a college better and i felt very good to be in it." in 1984, when the book on the college's first 80 years was published, dr. gregg wrote, "charles abel, thus, has been a domi­ nant figure in the life and growth of the southern cali­ fornia college of optometry d uringone-fourrh of irs his­ tory, and during rhe critical period of development -from cramped barracks structure quarters to a sparkling, new building and seven acre campus with pleasant, green space. besides that, during his deanship, the curriculum expanded from three to four years and underwent sig­ nificant improvements, as well." on july 1, 1982, charles a. abel retired after 32 years as a member of the college faculty and administration. for 17 years, he functioned as dean, holding that title longer than any other indi­ vidual in the history of the institution. • charles a. abel, odjaculty member, 1950-82; dean, 1958-75. dr. abel retired as distinguished professor emeritus, 1982. he was a member of the college faculty and administra­ tion for 32 years. 35/6 califomiaoptometry · 1 s november· december 2003 jamesr gregg, od, dos, dol has enthusiastically advanced optometric edu­ cation and spread the word of eye care. he is credited with single­ handedly researching and writing more published articles promoting optom­ etry to both professionals and the public than any other individual. in fact, james r. gregg, od, professor emeritus he has been able to combine his love for optom­ etry, writing and the great outdoors by authoring a vari­ ety of articles for professional and popular magazines. dr. gregg and his wife, bernice, worked hand-in-hand on behalf of the california optometric association, the american optometric association and numerous com­ munity organizations. for 16 years, he served as chair­ man of the coa congress committee and concurrently, bernice gregg served as chairwoman of the coa aux­ iliary. his numerous awards include the 1982 aoa dis­ tinguished service award, the 1989 scco alumni association's distinguished alumnus award and the 1999 coa paul yarwood award, which honored both james and bernice gregg. in addition to his books and articles on a career in optometry and practice management, dr. gregg has also taken on the role of optometric his­ torian, capturing and preserving the profession's dynamic past. his books cover the histories of optometry, the american optometric association, the american academy of optometry and the southern california college of op­ tometry. in 1973, siret d. jaanus, phd, lhd joined scco's faculty where she served as an associate and full profes­ sor for nearly two decades. in 1992, she was awarded the tide, professor emerita, by scco when she stepped siret }aanus, phd, professor emerita down from the faculty to return to new york where she taught at the state uni­ versity of new york, college of optometry. a recog­ nized lecturer and writer on ocular pharmacology, she is the co-editor of clinical ocular pharmacoltjgy, the first 3517 16 ·california optometry and leading textbook for the profession of optom­ etry on pharmacology. dr. jaanus also edited and contributed to several other textbooks and ar­ ticles during her long as­ sociation with optometry. her testimony was criti­ cal to the passage of laws pertaining to the use of diagnostic and therapeu­ tic drugs by optometrists; thus, changing the scope of optometric practice. dr. jaanus has lectured on diagnostic and therapeu­ tic pharmaceuticals to richard l. hopping, od, president emeritus, served the college for 25 years more than half of all living scco alumni, and to thou­ sands of other optometrists via continuing education pro­ grams throughout the country. in 1994, the national academies of practice elected dr. jaanus as a distin­ guished scholar in optometry. included among her many awards is the california optometric association's paul yarwood award. in 2000, she returned to south­ ern california and rejoined the faculty at scco. excellence permeates every facet of the 25-year presi­ dency of richard l. hopping, od, dos, dsc at the southern california college of optometry. his inno­ vations have placed scco at the forefront of optom­ etric education and confirmed optometry's place as a primary health care provider. dr. hopping's spirit, com­ passion, devotion and drive f9r excellence have led scco to develop, and enjoy a dynamic and progressive opto­ metric educational program, an extensive and unequaled outreach clinical program, and a strong financial base. dr. hopping has accumulated an extensive and impres­ sive listing of optometric milestones that have assisted in the advancement of the profession and optometric education. he has served on over 150 professional and community boards, and was the first person to serve as president of both the american optometric association and the association of schools and colleges of optom­ etry. he chaired rhe 1969 arlie house conference and from 1991 ro 1995, he chaired the georgetown confer­ ence, summit on optometric education conference series, which reset the direction for optometric educa­ tion and rhe profession. his contributions to the profesnovember· december 2003 sion are well documented, and have resulted in high rec­ ognition and honors from his colleagues and peers. as a renowned national optometric leader, he has nurtured stud ems and alumni for leadership and excellence in the profession. likewise, his enthusiastic support of com­ munity is emulated by alumni who return to their home­ towns to establish private, independent practices. exurpted from, origin and development of the south­ em california coiiegeofoptometry, 1904-1984, byscco professor &mritus janus r. g~, od; and the article, "lnflumtiai leaders of the southern california college of optometry, n by scco director of publications debra j marks, ma. <90 35/8 november • december 2003 lesley l. walls, od, md sixth president of the southern california college of opto­ metr}l pictz.ued here in his office overlooking the scco campus. califomiaoptometry • 17 book review: the founding years: university of houston college of optometry, 1952-1961. charles r. stewart. georgetown, texas: armadillo publishing corporation, 2003. softcover. 248 pages. $19.95 isbn 1-891429-49-3. this book is a history of the first nine years of the university of houston college of optometry. it was written by the dean of the college during those nine years, charles r. stewart. stewart completed his ph.d. at the ohio state university in 1951 and was recruited by the university of houston to sene as the first dean of its optometry program. he visited houston in february of 1952 and accepted the position. during spring break of 1952 he traveled back to houston and composed the first catalog for the college of optometry. in the summer of 1952, the opening of the school was announced, and that fall the first 25 students started their optometry studies there. most of the book consists of a year-by-year account of the development of the school from 1952 to 1961, largely based on material published in the journal of the texas optometric association. stewart stated that the official records from those years were no longer available, so he had to rely on other sources. some of the recurring themes of this narrative are: facilities and equipment, fund raising, recruitment of students, continuing education courses given by faculty and other faculty activities, interactions with the texas optometric association and regional optometric groups, the optometry student wives' dame's club, texas optometric association auxiliary activities to help the school, texas optometric association and southwest congress of optometry meetings, work by the foundation for education and research in vision in aiding optometric education, and some areas of optometric research at the time. at the beginning of the sections for each year stewart listed the names of the university of houston regents and administration, the college of optometry faculty, and faculty from other university of houston colleges who taught courses in the optometry curriculum. although stewart mentioned that is was difficult recruiting faculty due to the limited support for research, i recognized names of many well-known optometric educators who sened on the faculty there. optometrists who were on the university of houston college of optometry faculty for varying periods of time from 1952 to 1961 were: jane brent, darrell carter, w .l. cheatham, milton covell, jack daubs, j.b. eskridge, troy fannin, ted grosvenor, vernon hammond, murray klaff, bernard mazow, chester pheiffer, albert romano, charles stewart, gerald westheimer, and james whitney. low numbers of applicants to optometry schools was a problem throughout the country in the 1950s, and the university of houston was no exception. when the school was about to begin, stewart had anticipated that the enrolment might be as much as 100 students by the third year of the program, but it turned to be far less than that. thirteen students graduated in 1955 in the first graduating class. eleven graduated in 1956 and ten graduated in 1957. the number of entering students hit a 35/9 low of eight in 1956, but began to pick up in the late 1950s. eighteen students started the program in 1958, 30 in 1959, and 32 in 1960. personnel at a new optometry school often feel that it has a tenuous existence, and it did not appear to be any different at the university of houston. the university had four different presidents in the first nine years of the optometry program, but each proved to be supportive of the optometry school. the low amount of tuition income brought in by the optometry school due to the low enrollments was also a constant concern. a worrisome challenge by some prominent ophthalmologists was turned around to benefit the school. the fact that any optometry school survives and flourishes is a testament to the dedication and tenacity of the optometrists who support it and its administrators, faculty, and students. the ophthalmological challenge to the school came when the optometry o.d. curriculum expanded from 3 to 4 years. initially two years of pre-optometry and three years of optometry led to an o.d. degree at houston. however, a doctorate was usually given by most institutions after a minimum of six years of university work. so in 1956, the university of houston decided to offer a certificate of completion after three years of optometry school (5 years total) and the o.d. degree after four years of optometry school (6 years total). the certificate of completion met requirements for licensure. ophthalmologists edwin forbes tait of pennsylvania and everett l. goar of baylor university in houston objected to the offering of a doctor of optometry degree. copies of their letters are reprinted in this book. a reply was written by clanton w. williams, academic vice president of the university of houston. he posed several questions about the roles of optometry, ophthalmology, educational institutions, etc. he then delineated some of the facts, as he saw them, about doctorate level education and optometric education. stewart felt that goar's response that ophthalmology did not want to see optometry eliminated helped to cement the presence of the college of optometry at the university of houston. these letters make for fascinating reading. as a consequence of goar's objections, many ophthalmologists withdrew from teaching at the optometry school, but this did not turn to be particularly damaging. stewart observed: "one of the unanticipated benefits of dr. goar's action was that our optometric faculty was forced to take over much of what had been taught at the medical school. i soon learned that a dedicated uhco faculty could stimulate more learning of pathology than a disinterested medical faculty. we actually improved our pathology instruction because, as the uh biology chairperson said, 'do they think that you can't read?' we did not, however, lose sight of the need for an ophthalmologist in the clinic, and were fortunate that dr. brandon stayed with us." in an epilogue at the conclusion of the year-by-year narrative, stewart expounded on "some fundamental factors that were essential to the establishment and to the survival of uhco." these factors were: "1. dedicated and unwavering support from optometry, the profession. "2. a fair-minded university of houston administration dedicated to support programs that were needed by the public and whose costs to the university were affordable. 35110 • • "3. my determination to be honest and forthright with the university, no matter how embarrassing or humiliating. i would not try to hide facts or sweep embarrassing things under the carpet. "4. objective reports that i prepared. there were several, in considerable detail, completed before critical showdowns. fortunately, i had paved the way by presenting these reports to the university, and to the profession though sometimes in different format. "5. increasing the o.d. degree from five to six years. "6. a letter from houston ophthalmologist, dr. everett goar. "7. the untiring efforts and outstanding ability of mr. ralph frede, director of development and public relations, and dr. nelson waldman, houston optometrist and dedicated member of the texas optometric association." the epilogue is followed by forty pages of appendices, including recollections by vernon c. hammond, the first uhco faculty member; paul h. floyd, jr., a member of the first graduating class; and thurman j. ray, a member of the second graduating class. also included in the appendices are a discussion of the southern regional educational board, formed by a compact of 14 states for "voluntary pooling of educational facilities within regional patterns," and a 1957 address to an optometric group by clanton w. williams, university of houston president, entitled "education: key to a profession's future." i enjoyed reading this book. having joined the faculty of one optometry school in the second year of its operation (northeastern state university in oklahoma in 1980) and having researched and written about the founding and early years of another optometry school, (indiana university, published as a special issue of the indiana journal of optometry, fall, 2003), i can appreciate the excitement and unique challenges of getting a school started. the excitement and challenges at the university of houston college of optometry in its early years should be apparent to readers of this book. the book is recommended to anyone with an interest in the history of optometric education or the history of the university of houston college of optometry. it can be purchased on-line at www.fineliterature.com. d.a.g. profile of theodore grosvenor recently published: a nice profile of ohs member ted grosvenor was recently published in clinical and experimental optometry (september, 2003, volume 86, number 5, pages 346-349). clinical and experimental optometry is a publication of the optometrists association australia. ted was born in cuyahoga falls, ohio in 1923. he graduated from optometry school at the ohio state university in 1945, and entered private practice in franklin, ohio. he pursued graduate studies in physiological optics at ohio state 35/11 starting in 1953 while maintaining his practice on the weekends. he completed his ph.d. in 1956 under the direction of glenn fry. ted has held faculty appointments at a number of optometry schools: university of houston (1956 to 1964), university of auckland (1964 to 1970), university of waterloo (1970 to 1973), university of montreal (1973-74), indiana university (1974 to 1977), illinois college of optometry (1977-78), university of houston (1978 to 1989), indiana university (part-time 1989 to 2000), and most recently pacific university (part­ time adjunct). he has held various administrative posts: founding dean of the optometry school at the university of auckland, chief of the contact lens clinic at university of waterloo, clinic director at university of montreal, director of the optometric technician program at indiana university, and academic dean at illinois college of optometry. the article mentions some of ted's service activities and ~iscusses aspects of his always carefully considered research. ted, of course, is very well known for his excellent books. j. graham strong, the author of this profile notes that, "grosvenor writes with a seasoned eloquence that tames even the most complex topics, making the material easily understandable by any serious reader." strong discusses some of ted's books, "contact lens theory and practice," "contemporary contact lens practice," "primary care optometry," "clinical management of myopia," and "the myopia epidemic: nearsightedness, vision impairment and other vision disorders," but he neglects to mention a couple of ted's other books, "clinical optics" and "refractive anomalies: research and clinical applications." this profile not only recites many of ted's accomplishments, but also captures some of his personality. having had the great fortune of knowing ted for many years and of working with him on a number of projects, i found this profile to be enjoyable to read. besides being available in print form, this article can be downloaded at: http://www.optometrists.asn.au/gui/files/ceo865346.pdf or at http://www .optometrists.asn .au/ceo/backissues/vol86/no5/2321 . d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) ohs website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 35/12 • 2004-35-01-001 2004-35-01-002 2004-35-01-003 2004-35-01-004 2004-35-01-005 2004-35-01-006 2004-35-01-007 2004-35-01-008 2004-35-01-009 2004-35-01-010 2004-35-01-011 2004-35-01-012 hindsight 56_2_final draft.pdf the optometric historical society protect and promote the historical legacy of the profession of optometry. the archives & museum of optometry collect, preserve, interpret and make available for research archival resources and museum objects that document the history of the profession of optometry as a clinical practice, academic discipline, and a health science. 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, mo 63141 toll free: 800.365.2219, ext. 4200 phone: 314.983.4200 fax: 314.991.4101 foundation@aoa.org aoafoundation.org and are heritage services programs of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 6 from the archives & museum of optometry looking forward in 2016 kirsten pourroy-hébert, b.a. heritage services specialist optometry cares ®the aoa foundation here is no time like the present to curate the past. in 2016, we are doing what needs to be done today to preserve and provide access to our holdings tomorrow. this means taking significant steps toward our goal of rehousing and digitizing our collections. when i became the archivist and curator at the archives & museum of optometry (amo) in may of 2013, the repository was a remnant of the defunct international library, archives & museum of optometry (ilamo). the circulating reference materials that had formed the core of the library’s services to members for more than 40 years had been deaccessioned in 2009. the electronic catalog was lost and the staff of five, full-time librarians had been reduced to one part-time heritage services specialist. the institutional memory held by the last librarian, linda draper (figure 1), was lost to us with her retirement in 2012. the condition of the archival collections was poor. a portion of the aoa records— the house of delegates proceedings and board of trustees meeting minutes—had been minimally processed and housed in acid-free boxes and folders. however, materials in boxes were often were inconsistent, poorly arranged and museum items were housed together with paper records. other media were at-risk of deterioration or obsolescence. finding aids took many forms; none were comprehensive, conformed to archival standards nor were they up-to-date. no procedures for basic archival management existed and policies were rudimentary. accessions to the collections were sporadic and idiosyncratic. many unprocessed donations accepted throughout the decades were little more than random collections of ephemera or unrelated material of unknown provenance. the museum objects, once on display throughout the aoa headquarters and featured in publicity pieces for the library, were poorly curated. several attempts at cataloging appear to have been taken up and then abandoned. connecting an incomplete set of donation records with artifacts was all but impossible. a large portion of the collection was in off-site storage, some remained in exhibit cases inside the small repository, and still other objects were in random boxes on shelves in a non-climate controlled storage closet. objects were subject to improper handling and movement by staff and visitors. we have set the stage for better preservation. last year, we consolidated materials, devised a system for inventory and implemented a cataloging system. we no longer allow untrained and unsupervised handling and removal of our holdings. however, the move in august brought home the need to step up our preservation efforts. the prospect of a t hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 7 brand new facility in the aoa headquarters also provided a deadline for achieving greater accessibility. therefore, in 2016 we aim to provide preservation housing for a significant portion of our collection and to bring those collections online. preservation and access designing storage that ensures preservation and facilitates access for researchers presents a unique challenge for curators of diverse collections such as ours. in 2016, volunteers and staff at the archives & museum of optometry are paying special attention to preservation and access both for our physical and for our electronic resources. as we inventory and document our collections, not only must we ensure that our threedimensional objects and media are protected from damage, but also that our born-digital and digitized records are not at-risk of obsolescence and deterioration. figure 1: librarian linda draper demonstrates the use of the cameron’s syntonizer (2015.fic.0166), 1974. draper retired after nearly 40 years of service; she was on staff during critical transitions in the history of the repository. the archives & museum of optometry. unprocessed images. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 8 housing museum objects for long-term preservation one way to house physical collections safely while also providing access is to segregate collection storage into classes of material determined by both function and form. last year our university of missouri st. louis museum studies intern, sarah budai, conducted an inventory of our large diagnostic and therapeutic instruments which are primarily composed of iron and copper alloy. housing for these materials, which are at once heavy (20-50 lbs.), delicate and uniquely shaped, needed to be sturdy and secure, but also provide viewing and identifying objects easily with minimal handling. we solved our housing challenge with adjustable, open shelving of inert, bakedenamel and dust covers which provides both protection and compact storage (figure 2). objects with moving parts, decorative elements and odd shapes can be arranged on open shelving to maximize the use of space. dust covers of untreated, washed muslin can be used to cover shelving and keep objects clean. artifacts are photographed prior to storage and these photographs are made available to researchers and exhibitors to minimize the necessity for physical handling. if a researcher or exhibitor does need physical access to an object, it can be easily located by matching the location and unique object identification number in the pastperfect database with the tyvek tag attached to the object. this winter budai is working her way through our eyewear collection, which includes spectacles, lorgnettes, monocles, quizzers, pince-nez, industrial and sporting goggles, and a multitude of specialized objects that illustrate innovation in technology, treatment and our understanding of vision correction, health and safety. by treating this figure 2: open storage of large instruments saves space and provides protection for and access to objects. the archives & museum of optometry's offsite storage, august 2015. photograph courtesy of the author. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 9 class of objects separately, she is able to ensure that objects with similar function, size and material composition are housed together. eyewear is housed in acid-free trays lined with inert ethafoam® which are then stacked in acid-free boxes made from strong b-flute archival board (figure 3). this method allows both efficient individual storage for each object and safe segregation of material to prevent damage from contact with other objects that may have corrosive properties. more than 3,000 pieces (approximately 50 cubic feet) including cases will be photographed, assigned numbers, and cataloged into our pastperfect database. as with the larger objects, photographs and catalog records are made available to researchers and access, if necessary, is easy to accomplish. digital preservation and access in january the foundation signed a contract with preservica to ensure that our digital resources are preserved and accessible in the long-term. preservica is a digital archival system (das) and trusted repository that automates the migration of electronic records and other digital objects into a preservation format, provides consistent monitoring of material for deterioration or “bit rot” and employs geographic distribution and redundancy in cloud storage to protect against environmental threats. the system also allows us to provide access to our resources online through a wordpress website. this year, in addition to placing images of our museum objects online, we will begin digitizing our large collection of thousands of print photographs for preservation and exhibition (figure 4). figure 3: a single cubic-foot box provides protection for approximately 60 pairs of glasses. august 2015. photograph courtesy of the author hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 10 beyond access: public education and exhibition public education is a critical mission for all museums and we continue to search for ways to exhibit our archival materials and museum objects to diverse crowds. our unique objects do not often find a home in exhibits frequented by the general public, but this year we are entering into an informal partnership with the st. louis science center (slsc) to feature antique ophthalmic instruments and devices in a variety of contexts. in this way, we will be able to expose children of all ages, educators and families about vision science, eye care and how optometry contributes to science, healthcare and culture. on february 19, 2016, the science center installed an exhibit of our objects to be featured in their first friday event on march 4. this event, entitled “steampunk science,” is one in a series of themed evening exhibitions that seek to expose the “science behind science-fiction”1.steampunk is a science-fiction literary and artistic genre that uses victorianand edwardian-era material culture as motifs and elements of setting.2 a staple of steampunk costuming and art are late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century eyewear, including railroad and safety goggles, pince-nez, and tinted, mutli-lens spectacles modified in fantastic ways. technology powered by springs, gears, and other simple machines but embellished with decorative elements are also a critical element of the steampunk lexicon.3 our collections includes many diagnostic and therapeutic figure 4: workplace vision, circa 1940. example of uncatalogued historical black & white print that will be digitized and available online by the end of 2016. the archives & museum of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 11 instruments from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century that fully embody these characteristics. the era of steam engines and factories was one of great innovation in optometry. the increased regulation of industry gave rise to an interest in eye protection for factory workers.4, 5 the automation of manual tasks increased the need for skilled workers with improved visual acuity and literacy became more common among the working class.6,7 optometrists and their optical partners stepped into the public health arena to provide solutions for the new challenges of the industrial era. the proliferation of optical devices and instruments between 1880 and 1920 explains the presence of eyewear in steampunk fashion, but the union of function and form in these objects what has captured the imagination of the steampunk movement. 8, 9 artist john coulthart whose numerous steampunk illustrations (figure 5) feature eyewear observed: the steampunk genre makes a point of exposing the machinery of the industrial world that is now largely obsolete, hence the fetish for wearing bits of machinery. spectacles, goggles and other eyewear are a convenient way of attaching machinery to the human face.i figure 5. john coulthart’s first steampunk piece (2008) “features a device that's a combination of goggles and a pair of outsize optician's frames" (2016). image provided courtesy of the artist. all rights reserved. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 12 the exhibit features two cases of objects (figure 6). staff members were joined by dr. joseph c. castellano and his brother nick castellano, a fourth-year student at the university of missouri’s college of optometry, to facilitate hands-on activities and to interpret the materials. the science center estimates that we had as many as 3,000 visitors on march 4 and we were very busy assisting visitors in trying on replicas of antique glasses and interacting with the castellanos about the history of optometry. we are very excited to offer this exhibit and to embark on this partnership with such a popular tourist attraction and recreational destination. furthermore, it was a wonderful way to engage young optometrists and students in promoting the history of the profession. our objects occupy a distinctive place at the nexus of science, technology and culture history and it is rare to have an opportunity to display and describe their importance. the exhibit will stay on display at the science center until june 30, 2016. conclusion this year we are gaining traction in our preservation and access efforts that should propel us forward. i am hopeful that this early inertia will place us in a position to embark on new activities in 2017. we encourage the optometric historical society members to continue their mission with our repository in mind. original research on objects and archival materials held in our repository will only improve the visibility and viability of the archives & museum of optometry. donations not only of archival and museum objects but also financial support for our preservation efforts are a key component of any figure 6. the archives & museum of optometry’s “steampunk science” exhibit at the st. louis science center. february 22, 2016. photo courtesy of the author. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 looking forward 2016| page 13 archival and museum program. the membership of the ohs is the amo’s conduit to support for all of our efforts. together, the amo and the ohs can ensure that the history of the profession is always in focus. references 1. slsc.org [internet]. st. louis: st. louis science center; [cited 2016 feb 19]. first fridays. available from: http://www.slsc.org/first-fridays 2. steampunkworkshop.com [internet]. waltham, ma: the steampunk workshop; [cited 2016 feb 19]. charles river museum of industry and vision (crmiv) steampunk:form & function, an exhibition of innovation, invention and gadgetry. [exhibit press release], 2010. available from: http://steampunkworkshop.com/charles-rivermuseum-industry-steampunk-form-and-function/ 3. carrott jh, johnson, d. vintage tomorrows: [a historian and a futurist journey through steampunk into the future of technology]. farnham, ma:o'reilly, 2013. available from: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=e1nt3xwy51sc&oi=fnd&pg=pr2&dq= steampunk+literature+future&ots=4qju5jh57k&sig=39inxz910h7owjpxau3imr8h_su #v=onepage&q=steampunk%20literature%20future&f=false 4. aldrich ma. history of workplace safety in the united states, 1880-1970. tucson, az: economic history association’s eh.net [internet], 2001. available from: http://eh.net/encyclopedia/?article=aldrich.safety.workplace.us. 5. maclaury j. government regulation of workers' safety and health, 1877-1917. washington, d.c.: u.s. dept. of labor, office of the assistant secretary for policy, 2004. available from: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/gpo/lps60778 6. occupational safety and health administration (osha). reflections on osha’s history, osha 3360. washington, d.c.: u. s. department of labor, 2009. available from: https://www.osha.gov/history/osha_history_3360s.pdf 7. kaestle cf. literacy in the united states: readers and reading since 1880. new haven: yale university press, 1991: 18-19. available from: https://books.google.com/books?id=yrgq56s45syc&pg=pa17&dq=increased+literacy +late+nineteenth+century&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewib85o90ujkahud0wmkhw hkcz8q6aeimtad#v=onepage&q=increased%20literacy%20late%20nineteenth%20c entury&f=false 8. waring d. manufacturing the muse: estey organs & consumer culture in victorian america. middletown, ct: wesleyan university press, 2002: 23 available from: https://books.google.com/books?id=60elwdtssmwc&printsec=frontcover&dq=warin g,+dennis+organs&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewjqlau-0jkahuk1wmkhb5nczyq6aeimdaa#v=onepage&q=waring%2c%20dennis%20orga ns&f=false 9. steampunkworkshop.com [internet]. waltham, ma: the steampunk workshop; [cited 2016 feb 19]. charles river museum of industry and vision (crmiv) steampunk:form & function, an exhibition of innovation, invention and gadgetry. [exhibit press release], 2010. available from: http://steampunkworkshop.com/charles-rivermuseum-industry-steampunk-form-and-function/ i john coulthart, e-mail message to author, january 17, 2016 http://www.slsc.org/first-fridays http://steampunkworkshop.com/charles-river-museum-industry-steampunk-form-and-function/ http://steampunkworkshop.com/charles-river-museum-industry-steampunk-form-and-function/ https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=e1nt3xwy51sc&oi=fnd&pg=pr2&dq=steampunk+literature+future&ots=4qju5jh57k&sig=39inxz910h7owjpxau3imr8h_su#v=onepage&q=steampunk%20literature%20future&f=false https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=e1nt3xwy51sc&oi=fnd&pg=pr2&dq=steampunk+literature+future&ots=4qju5jh57k&sig=39inxz910h7owjpxau3imr8h_su#v=onepage&q=steampunk%20literature%20future&f=false https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=e1nt3xwy51sc&oi=fnd&pg=pr2&dq=steampunk+literature+future&ots=4qju5jh57k&sig=39inxz910h7owjpxau3imr8h_su#v=onepage&q=steampunk%20literature%20future&f=false available%20from:%20%20http:/eh.net/encyclopedia/?article=aldrich.safety.workplace.us available%20from:%20%20http:/eh.net/encyclopedia/?article=aldrich.safety.workplace.us http://purl.access.gpo.gov/gpo/lps60778 https://www.osha.gov/history/osha_history_3360s.pdf https://books.google.com/books?id=yrgq56s45syc&pg=pa17&dq=increased+literacy+late+nineteenth+century&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewib85o90ujkahud0wmkhwhkcz8q6aeimtad#v=onepage&q=increased%20literacy%20late%20nineteenth%20century&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=yrgq56s45syc&pg=pa17&dq=increased+literacy+late+nineteenth+century&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewib85o90ujkahud0wmkhwhkcz8q6aeimtad#v=onepage&q=increased%20literacy%20late%20nineteenth%20century&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=yrgq56s45syc&pg=pa17&dq=increased+literacy+late+nineteenth+century&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewib85o90ujkahud0wmkhwhkcz8q6aeimtad#v=onepage&q=increased%20literacy%20late%20nineteenth%20century&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=yrgq56s45syc&pg=pa17&dq=increased+literacy+late+nineteenth+century&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewib85o90ujkahud0wmkhwhkcz8q6aeimtad#v=onepage&q=increased%20literacy%20late%20nineteenth%20century&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=60elwdtssmwc&printsec=frontcover&dq=waring,+dennis+organs&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewjqlau-0-jkahuk1wmkhb5nczyq6aeimdaa#v=onepage&q=waring%2c%20dennis%20organs&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=60elwdtssmwc&printsec=frontcover&dq=waring,+dennis+organs&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewjqlau-0-jkahuk1wmkhb5nczyq6aeimdaa#v=onepage&q=waring%2c%20dennis%20organs&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=60elwdtssmwc&printsec=frontcover&dq=waring,+dennis+organs&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewjqlau-0-jkahuk1wmkhb5nczyq6aeimdaa#v=onepage&q=waring%2c%20dennis%20organs&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=60elwdtssmwc&printsec=frontcover&dq=waring,+dennis+organs&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewjqlau-0-jkahuk1wmkhb5nczyq6aeimdaa#v=onepage&q=waring%2c%20dennis%20organs&f=false http://steampunkworkshop.com/charles-river-museum-industry-steampunk-form-and-function/ http://steampunkworkshop.com/charles-river-museum-industry-steampunk-form-and-function/ hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 biographical sketches 2016| page 100 biographical sketches: some notable optometric educators david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu meredith walter morgan, jr. (1912-1999) meredith w. morgan, jr., was born in kingman, arizona, and grew up in richmond, california, near berkeley.1,2 his father, a certified railroad watchmaker, became interested in optometry from encounters with persons who needed spectacle repair in a jewelry store he operated and took a correspondence in optometry. he later completed a six month optometry course at night at benson’s college of optometry in san francisco. morgan, sr., then set up a private optometry practice in richmond, california. in 1934, morgan, jr., completed a b.s. degree in physics/optometry at university of california berkeley, when the optometry program there was operated within the physics department. he then went into practice with his father, where he continued on at least a part-time basis until 1960.2 after deciding to prepare himself for a career in optometric education, morgan started graduate study in physiology at the university of california berkeley in 1936. he completed his m.a. degree in 1939 and his ph.d. in 1941. his doctoral dissertation research was on neural control of accommodation.2,3 he published several important papers on clinical and basic science aspects of ocular accommodation and convergence in the 1940s to the 1960s. he is well known for the “morgan’s norms” he derived for dissociated phoria, fusional vergence, and relative accommodation tests.4 morgan was an optometry faculty member at university of california, berkeley from 1942 to 1975 and was dean of the optometry school from 1960 to 1973. during his 33 years on the faculty he taught all but two courses in the optometry curriculum at one time or another and he had a “regular schedule in the clinic, where he excelled in squint diagnosis and the emerging field of low vision rehabilitation.”1 during his years as dean of the optometry school, he oversaw the expansion of the professional curriculum to four years, allowing the awarding of the o.d. degree, and the recruitment of well-known vision scientists to the optometry faculty.2,3 morgan was president of the american academy of optometry in 1953 and 1954 and president of the optometric historical society from 1991 to 1995. in recognition of his extensive activity in teaching, research, administrative work, committee service, and optometric organizations, morgan received the american academy of optometry prentice medal, the american optometric association apollo award, the berkeley citation for exceptional service to the university, four honorary degrees, induction into the optometry hall of fame, and the naming of the optometry school’s clinic in his honor.3,5 colleagues remembered his “booming, contagious laugh” and valued “his friendship, his integrity, his strong sense of fairness and ethical behavior, mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 biographical sketches 2016| page 101 his tolerance, his ability to mentor and provide sage advice, and his ability to recognize excellence in a wide range of interests outside of his own.”5 morgan was also the author or editor of some significant optometry books, most of which were completed after his retirement from teaching in 1975. in 1948, he wrote the optics of ophthalmic lenses with henry b. peters. it was a 96 page book which was printed at the university of california and used in the ophthalmic optics course there for 30 years.6 in 1978, morgan was the sole author of a completely rewritten 377 page book of the same title. the 1978 book dealt with characteristics of ophthalmic lenses, methods of determining their refractive power, ophthalmic prisms, absorptive lenses, aberrations, multifocal lenses, high power lenses, magnification, and lens reflections. a review of the book found it to be “well written” and “readily understandable by a student of ophthalmic optics.”6 vision and aging: general and clinical perspectives (1986, 393 pages) was edited by alfred a. rosenbloom and morgan. they had both been contributors to hirsch and wick’s vision of the aging patient, and they observed that in the more than 25 years since its publication, the number of older individuals had increased greatly. the 27 contributors to rosenbloom and morgan’s book represented a wide variety of academic backgrounds and discussed epidemiological, sociological, physiological, pathological, optical, and other aspects of vision and aging. rosenbloom and morgan “had in mind a primary readership of vision care colleagues, both practitioners and students.”7 a review of the book praised it for “commendable emphasis on practical solutions to real life problems” and assessed it as “the best available book on vision and aging.”8 rosenbloom and morgan edited a second edition in 1993 and rosenbloom edited a third edition in 2007. rosenbloom and morgan also edited principles and practice of pediatric optometry (1990, 589 pages). here also, they were both contributors of hirsch and wick’s important book vision of children, but they noted that there had been great increases in knowledge in the 25 years since the publication of the hirsch and wick book. in the preface rosenbloom and morgan said that their book emphasized vision care for children in the first six years of life and that it was written for advanced optometry students and practicing optometrists. the book was organized into three parts: growth and development, diagnosis and management, and specific conditions. there were 32 contributing authors. alfred a. rosenbloom, jr. (1921-2015) born and raised in pittsburgh, alfred rosenbloom completed a b.a. degree from penn state university in 1942 before joining the u.s. army during world war ii.9,10 during the war, his work with some optometrists while he was a master sergeant in a medical unit on a base in georgia got him interested in optometry. after the war, he studied at northern illinois college of optometry (nico), graduating in 1948. upon graduation, he started working in the nico clinic, beginning a long career at that chicago school. he was dean of the illinois college of optometry (ico) from 1955 to 1972 and president of ico from 1972 to 1982. in 1953, rosenbloom earned an m.a. degree from the university of chicago. his thesis was titled “aniseikonia among good and poor readers.” rosenbloom was well hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 biographical sketches 2016| page 102 known for his clinical work in low vision, and he was heavily involved in service activities throughout his career. he was a consultant to the chicago lighthouse for the blind and helped found their low vision clinic in 1954. he was a president of volunteer optometric services to humanity, and in 2007 he was given their humanitarian of the year award.11 rosenbloom was a member of the board of directors of the american foundation for the blind and received their migel medal. he also served for several years as a member of the board of trustees of the optometric historical society. awards he received include the william feinbloom award (1995) and the carel c. koch award (1999) from the american academy of optometry, the distinguished service award from the american optometric association, and induction into the optometry hall of fame (2010). william russell baldwin (1926-2014) william r. “bill” baldwin was born in danville, indiana. he attended indiana university for one semester before enlisting in the united states navy. after his military service, he attended butler university in indianapolis for one year and then enrolled at pacific university. in 1949, he completed his b.s. degree at pacific and in 1951, he received the o.d. degree.12,13 after graduation from optometry school, baldwin set up in private practice in beech grove, indiana. while in practice, he took courses in psychology at the indianapolis campus of indiana university. baldwin was one of the first three students accepted into indiana university’s graduate program in physiological optics on the bloomington campus.14 he completed an m.s. degree in 1956 and a ph.d. degree in 1964. his ph.d. research advisor was henry hofstetter and his thesis included an extensive review of myopia literature and an original investigation of relationships between refractive error, the ocular refractive components, height, and other anthropometric measurements. baldwin had appointments at indiana university as a lecturer in optometry from 1954 to 1960 and as an assistant professor of optometry from 1960 to 1963, after which he served in optometry school administration for many years. he was dean of the pacific university college of optometry from 1963 to 1969, president of the new england college of optometry from 1969 to 1979, and dean of the university of houston college of optometry from 1979 t0 1991. baldwin had extensive involvement in many service activities. he chaired american optometric association (aoa) committees on academic facilities and research in the 1960s. he chaired the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco) committee on academic policy from 1963 to 1970, and was president of asco from 1974 to 1976. he was on the national academy of sciences committee on vision working group on myopia prevalence and progression. baldwin was chairman of the first world congress on optometric education in 1991. he was a co-founder and the chief executive officer of the river blindness foundation, formed to combat river blindness in africa and latin america. baldwin was awarded life fellowship in the american academy of optometry in 2002, received four honorary degrees, and was elected to the national optometry hall of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 biographical sketches 2016| page 103 fame in 2011. he also received distinguished service awards from indiana university, pacific university, the american optometric association, world council of optometry, prevent blindness america, united states public health association, and new england methodist conference. the author of papers on myopia and optometric education, baldwin also published two books, corneal contact lenses: fitting procedures (1962, 144 pages) and borish (2006, 444 pages). in the preface to corneal contact lenses, baldwin and his co-author charles shick noted that because there was “substantial lack of agreement as to what represents proper technique in fitting,” their goal was “to present a general procedure that has grown out of the use of various lenses and various methods in an attempt to make contact lens fitting as certain and as simple as possible…” (p. vii). their procedural guide included chapters on determining corneal lens specifications, checking finished lenses, patient adaptation, symptomatology, procedures in special cases, and modification of lenses, with appendices containing sample forms, tables, and other information. a review of the book found the book’s pictures of finished lens edges to be of “particular interest” and suggested that the book would “serve both the student and practitioner well in supplying the necessary ingredients for the firm foundation upon which to build a successful contact lens practice.”15 the book with the simple title borish is baldwin’s biography of irvin m. borish. it extends from borish’s childhood through his remarkable career to his retirement. the book was based on material provided by borish and his friends and colleagues. it details borish’s activities as optometric practitioner, teacher, writer, lecturer, and leader. along with numerous black and white photographs, there is a section of color reproductions of some of borish’s paintings, a hobby he undertook after taking painting lessons in the 1950s. a reviewer found the biography to be “both interesting and helpful in providing a deeper understanding of the struggles and accomplishments that have led to optometry’s extraordinary development during the twentieth century.”16 charles riley shick (1928-2013) charles r. “charley” shick was baldwin’s co-author on corneal contact lenses and a significant optometric educator in his own right. shick was born in new bethlehem, pennsylvania.17 after service in the united states marine corps, he attended the indiana university purdue university extension center in fort wayne and indiana university in bloomington, where he graduated from optometry school in 1958. when an indiana university faculty member suddenly resigned in 1958, shick was convinced to take a position as an instructor soon after his graduation. in his 35 years as a faculty member, he taught courses in contact lenses, ophthalmic optics, low vision, and practice management, and progressed in rank from instructor to full professor. shick served the indiana university school of optometry in several leadership roles, including director of clinics, director of continuing education, and directory of residency programs.18 in 1979, shick received the foley house award, given in recognition for important contributions to the iu school of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 biographical sketches 2016| page 104 shick practiced optometry part-time for 28 years, and often used experiences from his practice as examples in his course lectures. he was a frequent continuing education lecturer, giving presentations in thirty states and three countries. a particular area of expertise was contact lenses. he invented various contact lens modification tools and techniques, patented a reversing prism contact lens, and consulted for several contact lens companies. in 1962, he published a proposed modification of keratometer mires to improve the accuracy of their measurements,19 a design which was adopted by some manufacturers. shick also contributed to four chapters in irvin borish’s classic 1970 third edition of clinical refraction. references 1. peters hb, enoch jm, sarver md. meredith walter morgan – a salute. am j optom physiol opt 1988;65:322-324. 2. fiorillo j. berkeley optometry: a history. berkeley, ca: university of california berkeley school of optometry, 2010:335-346. 3. carter d, enoch jm, goodlaw e, westheimer g. meredith w. morgan, 1912-1999, professor of physiological optics and optometry, dean of the school of optometry, university of california at berkeley. ophthal physiol opt 1999;20:169-171. 4. goss da. ocular accommodation, convergence, and fixation disparity: clinical testing, theory, and analysis, 3rd ed. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program foundation, 2009:61-63. 5. adams aj. meredith w. morgan, od, phd, faao (1912-1999). optom vis sci 2000;77:6-7. 6. hirsch mj. the optometrists’ bookshelf. am j optom physiol opt 1981;58:677-684. 7. morgan mw, rosenbloom aa. preface. in: rosenbloom aa, morgan mw, eds. vision and aging: general and clinical perspectives. new york: professional press. 8. lyle wm. book review: vision and aging: general and clinical perspectives. am j optom physiol opt 1987;64:156. 9. kates jg. dr. alfred rosenbloom, esteemed optometrist, dies at 94. chicago tribune, april 21, 2015. www.chicagotribune.com. accessed may 27, 2015. 10. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:297. 11. optometric community mourns loss of rosenbloom. primary care optom news 2015;20(5):4. 12. baldwin wr. some relationships between ocular, anthropometric, and refractive variables in myopia. ph.d. thesis, indiana university, 1964. 13. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:14. 14. goss da. about the author. in: baldwin wr. borish. springfield, ma: bassette, 2006:443-444. 15. book review: corneal contact lenses: fitting procedures. j am optom assoc 1962;34:235. 16. polse ka. book review: borish. optom vis sci 2007;84:545. http://www.chicagotribune.com/ hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 biographical sketches 2016| page 105 17. goss da, meetz re, brooks c. memorial tribute: charles riley shick (december 20, 1928-january 25, 2013). indiana j optom 2013;16:1-2. 18. bennett jw. charles r. shick. in: to honor retiring faculty. bloomington: indiana university, 1993. 19. shick cr. a simple mire modification to improve keratometer efficiency. j am optom assoc 1962;34:388-390. 96 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 article ronald r. ferrucci, od aosa: the formative years and beyond, a capsule summary of the years 1971-74 ronald r. ferrucci, od greater milford eye associates drferrucci@gmail.com abstract the american optometric student association (aosa), officially begun in 1968, has played important roles in the lives of optometry students, giving them a voice in the direction of their education and profession. this author played a role in the massachusetts college of optometry (mco) becoming an official chapter of the aosa in 1972, and was elected to serve as the sixth national president of aosa in 1973. this paper examines mco student activities in those years and some of the challenges and accomplishments of the young aosa during the presidencies of john fawcett (1971-72), cecil furer (1972-73), and ron ferrucci (1973-74). february 1972 was a different time – a gallon of gasoline cost 55 cents, watergate had yet to erupt as a scandal, and all in the family was the hottest show on television. e-mails, faxes and smart phones were the stuff of science fiction. i was in my second year at the massachusetts college of optometry (mco), busily immersed in my optometry studies, and blissfully unaware that a whole new dimension of optometric involvement was about to open for my colleagues and me. the late ‘60s and early ‘70s were heady times for students. controversy over the war in vietnam and disillusionment with government in general had created a student activism in the united states that had never been seen before. optometry students were no exception. while the concept of a national optometric student association was considered as early as 1941, it was not until much later that the idea gained enough traction to become a reality. the aosa was beginning its fourth year of existence in 1972, having been started by a trio of students led by ray myers of indiana university division of optometry (iu), as documented by myers in this issue of hindsight. in 1972, there were 12 colleges of optometry in the u.s., and eight of these had already formed local aosa chapters. (see appendix i for a list of u.s. optometry schools in 1972) in the winter of 1972, mco was not an official member of aosa, but that was about to change when four enthusiastic students from the pennsylvania college of optometry (pco) made a visit to boston on february 6 and 7. the pco students were aosa vice-president cecil furer, pco trustee tony distefano, pco local chapter secretary harvey hanlen, and aosa interprofessional committee chair mark barth1. the students from pco proved to be effective emissaries of aosa. over the course of two days, they met with the student leaders and the student body at mco, and brought the news of aosa’s exciting success story. shortly thereafter, as the president of the second year class at mco, i approached the mco student council with a proposal that our school join this emerging national student movement. the opportunity for us massachusetts students to continue our activism by having a unified voice fourth president (1971) john fawcett (iu) (left) and fifth president (1972) cecil furer (pco) (right) (photo from student review, 1972; 4(5):1). hindsight: journal of optometry history 97 in matters affecting our profession was an intriguing proposition. however, the decision to join this fledgling organization was not made without serious deliberation. after all, optometry school was a serious financial burden and the annual dues of aosa were a whopping $2.00 per student per year! nevertheless, by the end of february, 1972, the mco student council voted to become the ninth chapter of aosa, sent in a check for its dues, and in turn, i was elected to be the first aosa trustee from mco.2 meanwhile, on the national level, significant events were occurring. thanks to a grant from the nih bureau of health manpower education, the first national student interdisciplinary health manpower conference was held in chicago on march 10-12, 1972. aosa president john fawcett of indiana was involved in securing optometry’s role in the process, and tony distefano, aosa public health chair, served on the national planning committee.3 i was fortunate to be one of the twenty optometry students who participated in the conference. eleven of the twelve optometry schools were represented at the three day event that involved over 300 health science students from multiple disciplines. this meeting helped to forge a bond of mutual understanding and respect among the various health disciplines that attended. one of the offshoots of the chicago conference was that its success was the genesis of additional future grant monies to support 10 more such conferences to be held on a local level.3 by this time the mco chapter of aosa had earned the full support of the college’s administration, headed by president william baldwin. with help from the school administration, mco was able to send several student delegates to the second annual aosa congress. this was held on march 24-27, 1972, at the southern college of optometry (sco) in memphis, tennessee. the fawcett administration (1971-72) the 1971-72 aosa national officers were as follows: john fawcett (iu), president cecil furer (pco), vice-president albert velasco (sco), secretary connie pollack (iu), treasurer paul monroe of sco was the host trustee and aosa president john fawcett of indiana university presided over the second annual aosa congress agenda. aosa was a growing force at this time. from the beginning, the movement had attracted the attention and support of certain members of the aoa leadership. at this critical juncture in its history, the aosa needed to show it had enough maturity and staying power to represent itself and its profession on a national stage along with its peers in medicine, podiatry, pharmacy, and the other student health professions. by any measure, the second annual congress was a great success and, in this author’s view, was a major turning point in the development of the aosa. it should be noted that the aoa was strongly represented at the second annual aosa congress. aoa president-elect j.c. tumblin was a main speaker and an attorney from the aoa washington office was present to assist as a legal advisor. aosa’s first president, ray myers, who had become aoa director of career guidance, attended as a mentor and historian. article ronald r. ferrucci, od aosa vp (1973-74) and aoa president (1999) harvey p. hanlen (pco) speaks at the 2001 aosa meeting (photo courtesy of aosa). ronald r. ferrucci, president of the american optometric student association in 1973-74 (photo courtesy of ronald ferrucci). 98 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 article ronald r. ferrucci, od the aosa delegates did not disappoint. several major accomplishments were achieved: 1) the delegates voted to officially incorporate the aosa as a notfor-profit organization in the state of missouri. 2) the aosa constitution was reviewed, revised, and ratified. 3) with the official acceptance of the applications of mco, southern california college of optometry (scco), university of houston (uh), and state university of new york (suny), all twelve of the existing optometry schools became affiliate members of aosa. 4) this brought the membership in aosa to 2813, or over 80% of the total national optometry school enrollment.4,5 in january 1971, the fawcett administration also produced the “first national aosa opinionnaire”, an attempt to obtain an understanding of the collective opinions of the nation’s optometry students. the 1972-73 national officers elected at the second annual aosa congress were as follows: cecil furer (pco), president ron dachelet (uab), vice-president dan e. owen, (sco), secretary connie m. pollack, (iu), treasurer aosa student activities in massachusetts moved along swiftly during its first year of involvement. local aosa committees were formed which mirrored the national structure – legislative, public health, save your vision week, minority recruitment, intraprofessional liaisons, agu/ summer employment, and among others, an mco associate editor for the national student newspaper, the student review. new student leaders emerged from the ranks to fill these many positions – all of them gaining experience that would one day assist them as they began successful optometric practices, or went on to productive careers in teaching, research, and organized optometry. in its first full year in aosa, over 70 of mco’s 258 enrolled students were involved in its activities. two of the most significant projects were carried out by first year students sandy schwal and thom freddo.6 as the chair of the march, 1973 save your vision week’s activities, sandy arranged for mco students to conduct several lectures on optometry and vision at area high schools, organized a screening of grade school children, planned a minority recruitment effort, flooded the city with optometry/vision pr materials, and hosted a day-long public symposium at a boston hotel which featured lectures on optometry and vision science, and highlighted optometry’s and mco’s growing role in the boston community health system.6 on another front, thom freddo led an interdisciplinary consortium of local health care students who applied for and received one of the ten nih grants that had been generated from the aforementioned national student conference in chicago. as the project director of the boston student health alliance, thom, and a number of mco optometry students who were on the planning committee, hosted 175 health care students and professionals for a two day conference at the harvard club in boston. as in the national conference, the meetings served to foster a greater awareness of and appreciation for the education and skills represented by the many different disciplines. among the many topics discussed was how a team approach to health care delivery could improve the overall quality and efficiency of care.6 william r. baldwin, president of the association of schools and colleges of optometry in 197374, congratulating ronald r. ferrucci, at the end of his 1973-74 presidency of aosa (photo from optometric weekly; 1974; 65:965). hindsight: journal of optometry history 99 article ronald r. ferrucci, od the furer administration (1972-73) with a number of other aosa local chapters actively engaged in their own impressive activities, president cecil furer (fifth aosa president) and his administration could turn to matters that impacted our profession on a national scale during the 1972-73 fiscal year. as the aosa president, cecil represented optometry students on the student advisory committee (sac), a group funded by the bureau of health manpower education of the national institutes of health. this was a consortium of the presidents of the eight major health professions that met quarterly to present student views to the government on policies and proposals regarding legislation in health care planning and delivery. cecil was selected by his peer members of that group to submit testimony in may 1973, before the labor subcommittee of the appropriations committee of the house of representatives.7 as impressive as cecil’s appearance in washington on behalf of optometry was, his testimony was actually the fourth time that an aosa student had testified before the u.s. congress. (see appendix ii. aosa testimony before united states congress, 1969-73) in addition to meeting in their official government capacity, the sac members had organized themselves into an independent group called the national student health organization liaison committee (nsholc). nsholc’s major objective was to promote better interdisciplinary understanding and awareness. this group promoted and coordinated the successful regional student health manpower conferences in the spring of 1973 that were discussed earlier in this paper.7 during the furer administration, aosa continued to develop its relationship with the aoa. aoa president j.c. tumblin had named three students as funded consultants to certain key national aoa committees: assistance to graduates and undergraduates; community health optometry; and membership development. meanwhile, aosa continued to develop its own national committees: public health, legislation, assistance to graduates and undergraduates, minority recruitment, intraprofessional liaisons, national boards, and student review. and, of course, there was always the task of fostering the growth and development of the local aosa affiliates. this goal was assisted by having the national aosa officers lead four successful regional conferences across the country. the third annual aosa conference was held at scco in anaheim, california from march 29 to april 3, 1973. fifty delegates from 11 of the 12 optometry schools met to deliberate on the next stage of aosa’s development. the agenda was packed with sessions by prominent optometric leaders who gave presentations on such topics as leadership, political optometry, and insights on how the national boards of examiners design the board examinations. among the issues discussed were the need for a dues increase, the establishment of a sustaining member category, and support for the upcoming resolution at the aoa congress in san francisco that would allow for a student vote in the aoa house of delegates.8 the 1973-74 national officers elected at the third annual aosa congress were as follows: ron ferrucci (mco), president harvey hanlen (pco), vice-president duane dodds, (scco), secretary david welch (uab), treasurer only three months after its third annual congress, a long-term goal of the aosa became a reality at the 73rd aoa congress in san francisco. in june 1973, the aoa house of delegates (hod) voted unanimously to amend the aoa bylaws to allow optometry students a vote. the initiative for a student vote in the aoa hod had been started as early as the trask administration in 1971.9 each school was allowed to seat one student representative and one alternate delegate. the students were collectively entitled to one vote.10 of course, more important than the actual vote was the opportunity for students to have an official national forum in which to express their views and concerns to the leaders of the profession. president furer was an active and productive leader. his mid-year report of march, 1973 contained the following observation and prediction: “the office of president is getting to be more demanding each day as the organization progresses into a viable and strong association. the next president of aosa will be doing more traveling to represent the students, will be busier with the day-to-day operations of the organization, and will have an extremely demanding task ahead of him.” the ferrucci administration (1973-74) when i became the sixth aosa president on july 1, 1973, there were a myriad of opportunities and challenges facing the organization. by this time, the leadership in aoa had been convinced that the students had much to offer, and embraced the 100 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 article ronald r. ferrucci, od aosa as a potential breeding ground for a new generation of leaders. aoa president robert day named five aosa students as liaisons to aoa committees and funded their travel to the meetings. these committees were as follows: assistance to graduates and undergraduates; community health optometry; federal legislation; administrative agencies; and membership development. (see appendix iii. student consultants to aoa 1973-74) robert day’s successor as aoa president, bud shannon, took an even stronger step during his presidential year, when he named ohio state university student beth workman as a full aoa member of the membership development committee, along with three additional student consultants to other committees. (see appendix iv. student consultants to aoa, 1974 -75) meanwhile, during the year, formal liaisons were established with the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco), the american optometric foundation (aof), the national board of examiners in optometry (nbeo), and the international association of boards in examiners in optometry (iab).11 past aosa leaders had been communicating student ideas and concerns to the aforementioned optometric groups for several years, so it was gratifying during my administration to see that these past student endeavors could culminate in students having an official and welcomed voice within each organization. during this time, the aosa continued its strong connection to the national student health organization liaison committee (nsholc). as aosa president, i attended several meetings of this group in new york city and at the hew headquarters in bethesda, maryland. along with the president of the student american medical association (sama) and the president of the national student nurses association, i was selected by my student peers to represent the alliance at the october, 1973 meeting of the milbank memorial fund commission for the study of higher education for public health. the other presidents and i were invited to present formal remarks before the commission on our opinions regarding the direction of health care education. my remarks were later published in the journal of the american optometric association in a paper entitled “recommendations for the education of health professionals.”12 this was the latest instance in which an optometry student, an aosa leader, was selected by his peers in the other health professions to represent all of them on a national arena. as a result of my paper, i was invited to be a participant in the aoa’s futures meeting the following year in biloxi, mississippi. although aosa was making headway on the national stage, it was important for the organization to keep its base strong at the same time. aosa’s base, the backbone of its strength, was the affiliation of our twelve national school chapters. some of these chapters were mature and well organized by now, while others were still relatively new and feeling their way. therefore, we decided to continue the tradition of holding regional meetings among the schools. once again, the aosa executive council divided the country into four regions with three schools in each region. each officer of the aosa executive council was assigned to organize and head a regional meeting. the purpose was to provide leadership and direction to the newer schools and to encourage the stronger, more established schools to mentor their sister institutions. strengthening the local chapters was greatly assisted by the dissemination of a detailed guidebook to aosa trustees on how to organize and run a local aosa affiliate chapter. i had developed this guide based on my experience of starting a brand new aosa chapter at mco. such an instructional guide was a necessity, given that with the ongoing graduation of established student leaders, there was the continual passing of the torch to a less experienced underclassman. my administration kept in place the seven national aosa committees that had become well established over the past several years, but i added a new standing committee which encompassed the overall concerns of the optometric student experience. this was the education committee, chaired by sam stennis of uh, the nephew of then senator john stennis of mississippi. the education committee was “established to investigate, examine, and evaluate on both the local and national levels the quality of their education, and to make recommendations for its improvement.” 13 this was at the time that the profession was beginning to make a major paradigm shift from emphasis on physiological optics type courses to those which more closely paralleled the “medical model”. optometry students were more than ready for this shift, and we felt that we wanted to have a voice in its implementation. another major committee in my administration was the national affairs/legislative committee. this was co-chaired by terry marquardt of sco and alan gold of mco. both terry and alan were able student representatives. terry later was elected hindsight: journal of optometry history 101 article ronald r. ferrucci, od to the legislature in the state of new mexico, and alan went on to earn a degree in law. the fourth annual aosa congress was held in philadelphia at the pennsylvania college of optometry (pco) on march 8-11, 1974. as always, there was spirited discussion as to what direction the students wanted the profession to move toward, and how we could improve the efficiency of our own organization. although by this time rhode island had passed the nation’s first diagnostic pharmaceutical agents (dpa) law in 1971, the issue as to how far to expand the scope of optometric practice was still hotly debated among the various schools of optometry and within the state and national associations as well. the students of the fourth aosa congress were ready to weigh in on the discussion and they were clear in their opinion. they passed unanimously resolution 74c -18, that read in part “the aosa believes that the clinical use of agents, devices, and procedures commensurate with professional optometric education would enhance the role of the optometrist in diagnosis and treatment related to optometric care and health care in general.” the resolution went on to say that the aosa would support the efforts of entities that sought to implement this concept. this sensitive resolution was not made public, but was shared with the aoa board of trustees, asco, and the nbeo as a confidential memo. by the end of the ferrucci administration, aosa had grown to the point where it was becoming necessary to seek a way to obtain central staff services to assist with the growing administrative burden on the aosa president, executive council, trustees, and committee chairs. for example, during my administration, i wrote a number of articles and editorials that appeared in such journals as the journal of the american optometric association, optometric management, optometric weekly, the aoa pacer, etc., as well as welcome messages which appeared in several optometry school catalogues. there was also the president’s column in aosa’s national newspaper, the american optometric student review. beyond that, there are literally hundreds of letters in my correspondence files, and i estimate that during the span of my involvement in aosa as trustee and president i had travelled an aggregate of over 50,000 miles and made formal oral presentations at seven of the 12 existing schools of optometry, at least three different state association meetings, the new england council of optometrists, as well as at the aoa house of delegates. immediate past president cecil furer’s prophecy was indeed coming true. aosa had reached a critical level of acceptance within the optometric profession and beyond. aosa leaders at all levels were tasked with unprecedented levels of responsibility. in its mid-year meeting, the aosa executive council had established an ad hoc committee on central staff services. at its fourth annual aosa congress, the delegates passed a resolution endorsing the concept. by the time i left office, the committee was in serious discussions with several other optometric groups about the possibility of sharing staff and administrative support. these discussions continued into the 1974-75 aosa administration, led by president larry bonderud (scco). at the fifth annual congress of aosa in chicago, the issue was once again a hot topic. the aosa continued to deliberate on the issue of administrative support for several more years. however, it was not until 1981 that aosa was able to obtain the services of carol freihaut, who remained as executive director for over 25 years until her retirement in 2007. there is no doubt that as aosa has grown, its level of sophistication and involvement in optometric affairs has also grown exponentially. today, aosa’s 7000 plus membership is served by an executive director headquartered at the aoa offices in st. louis, mo. the future of aosa is bright and it will undoubtedly continue to spawn new leaders whose efforts will take optometry to unparalleled heights. nevertheless, as i look back on the early history of aosa, i salute the courageous young stalwarts, who with little resources, but with an abundance of energy and talent, took a dream and turned it into a reality. references 1. letter from cecil furer to mco director of personnel, feb 9, 1972. 2. letter from j. pearson and r. ferrucci to aosa president j. fawcett, feb 18, 1972. 3. aosa at chicago conference. am optom student rev, june, 1972;4(5):3. 4. furer c. president’s report. am optom student rev, june, 1972;4(5):1. 5. a.o.s.a., inc. treasurer’s report, march 22, 1972. 6. ferrucci r. annual report on the 1972-73 activities of the mco chapter of aosa, march, 1973. 7. furer c. president’s report. am optom student rev, oct 16, 1972:2. 8. minutes of the third annual aosa 102 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 article ronald r. ferrucci, od congress, dan owen, secretary, march, 1973. 9. trask r. aosa 1970-71 presidential report. 10. bylaw changes give students an aoa vote. aoa news, july, 1973;12(7):10. 11. ferrucci r. aosa – on the threshold. optom weekly, oct 1974;10:963-965. 12. ferrucci r. recommendations for the education of health professionals. j am optom assoc 1974;45(6):713-716. 13. ferrucci r. president’s column. am optom student review, sept, 1973. appendix i. list of u.s. schools and colleges of optometry in 1972. illinois college of optometry indiana university, division of optometry (now indiana university school of optometry) massachusetts college of optometry (now new england college of optometry) pacific university college of optometry pennsylvania college of optometry (now salus university pennsylvania college of optometry) southern california college of optometry (now southern california college of optometry at marshall b. ketchum university) southern college of optometry the ohio state university college of optometry university of alabama in birmingham school of optometry/the medical center university of california, berkeley school of optometry university of houston college of optometry state university of new york state college of optometry appendix ii. aosa testimony before united states congress, 1969-1973. statement of robert j. mittleman on behalf of the american optometric student association on federally guaranteed student loans before special sub-committee on education, u.s. house of representatives, july 24, 1969. statement of robert j. mittleman, o.d. for the american optometric student association before the labor/ hew subcommittee of committee on appropriations, u.s. house of representatives, june 18, 1970. statement of anthony distefano, sophomore class president, pennsylvania college of optometry, on the health professions educational assistance act amendments of 1971, submitted to the subcommittee on health, committee on interstate and foreign commerce, u.s. house of representatives, april 29, 1971. statement of the american optometric student association on appropriations funding, laborhew budget-fy 1974, presented by cecil d. furer, president, american optometric student association before the subcommittee on labor/ hew appropriations committee on appropriations united states house of representatives, may 22, 1973. appendix iii. student consultants to the aoa, 1973-74. ronald r. ferrucci, assistance to graduates and undergraduates george gottschalk iii, membership development committee terry t. marguardt, federal legislation committee alan r. gold, administrative agencies committee donald l. barniske, public health and optometric care committee appendix iv. student consultants to the aoa, 1974-75. beth workman (tosu), full committee member, assistance to graduates and undergraduates burt dubow (puco), consultant, committee on public health and optometric care mark flora (sco), consultant, national affairs division robert day, jr. (uh), membership development committee hindsight_48_4_final 14 hindsight_48_4_final 15 hindsight_48_4_final 16 hindsight_48_4_final 17 hindsight_48_4_final 18 hindsight_48_4_final 19 hindsight_48_4_final 20 hindsight: journal of optometry history 63 moving forward while respecting and learning from our history regular readers of hindsight: journal of optometry history will recognize the change in the design for this issue. this is the first issue in the 48 year history of the optometric historical society (ohs) that its quarterly publication has not been printed on the indiana university campus in bloomington. this issue is being printed at the american optometric association headquarters in st. louis overseen by kirsten hébert, who as heritage services specialist for the archives and museum of optometry of optometry cares, is an energetic and enthusiastic advocate and contributor for ohs activities. the new cover was designed by chris martin, the graphics specialist for the american optometric association. the cover retains an element of seafoam green, the color of optometry and the color of the hoods received at the graduation ceremony for optometry students completing their education. soon after maria dablemont and henry hofstetter initiated the formation of the ohs, its first newsletter of the optometric historical society was published in january 1970. the title of the periodical was changed to hindsight in 1992 while retaining its newsletter form. it was changed to hindsight: journal of optometry history starting with the january 2007 issue. the ohs publication now has accumulated more than 3,100 pages of information on optometry history, a truly remarkable compendium documenting the centuries-long existence of our profession, including its transitions from spectacle making to refracting opticianry to doctors of optometry to applications of new devices, new treatments, and new technologies. henry hofstetter, od, phd served as the first president of ohs, the first editor of the newsletter, and the primary contributor to the newsletter and hindsight for over 25 years. optometric historians owe him a great debt. while we are moving hindsight forward, hopefully we are respecting and learning from its history. there have been more changes in hindsight in the past ten years than in the previous 38 years. these changes have included shift to journal format, use of color photographs, digitization of all issues back to volume 1, number 1, and deposit of them in the online repository iuscholarworks, online publication of current issues, and introduction of refereeing of submitted papers. these changes would not have been possible without the support of the ohs board/ advisory committee and especially its presidents over the past ten years: melvin wolfberg, irving bennett, john amos, and ron ferrucci. we hope that you the readers like these changes. please feel free to send in your feedback. david a. goss, od, phd editor dgoss@indiana.edu from the editor david a goss, od, phd david a. goss, od, phd hindsight_55_2_no bleed_final.pdf 54 volume 55, number 2, fall 2024 abstract from spectacle making trade to scholarly profession, a history of optometry in the united states. david a. goss. forest grove, or: pacific university press, 2022. isbn-13: 978-1945398063. 368 pages. paperback. introduction this insightful romp through the history of optometry in the united states by dr. david goss takes its readers on a journey through the first six centuries of optometry and the development of vision care. it follows the maturation of optometry as a profession to the frontline of vision care as the profession exists today. the book was first published by pacific university press in 2022 and consists of seven chapters split into two parts with an additional four appendices. despite its length of 343 pages, it is a quick read. the first part covers the overall history of the profession, starting with its origin in europe, while the second part covers aspects of the development of optometry as a scholarly profession in greater detail. the appendices cover details such as listings of optometry schools in the united states, the changing optometry student body, optometric periodicals and the history of optometry books. part one starts by giving us a view into the origin of spectacles circa 1286 in northern italy with the publication of the first known book on the subject of optometry written in 1623 by benito daza de valdes. next, the book explores the history of optometry in the united states from colonial america to present day. the book then covers the development of optometry from a trade to a profession: through the development of the examination fee as proposed by charles prentice, efforts to achieve licensure in the late 19th century, legal challenges and the formation of optometric associations. later chapters explore the challenges faced by the profession to expand scope of practice and recognition of optometry as a specialized health care profession providing comprehensive eye care. this is perhaps the most valuable part of the book as many newer graduates may be unaware of how hard previous generations of optometrists had to fight for professional recognition. lastly, the book has a thorough review of the development of optometry as a scholarly profession and covers such topics as the development and evolution of optometric education, the changing demographics of optometry students and optometric publications e.g., periodicals and books. included in this section is a number of interesting appendices providing information on such topics as the number of optometry school graduates compared to the u.s. population, the percentage of women among entering optometry students, and the racial diversity of optometry students. in summary, this book provides valuable context on the development of optometry as a profession with a detailed look at the development of the profession within the united states. i would highly recommend this book to optometry students and anyone in the optometric field interested in the development and evolution of the profession. book review: from spectacle making trade to scholarly profession, a history of optometry in the united states t from spectacle making trade to scholarly profession, a history of optometry in the united states. david a. goss. forest grove, or: pacific university press, 2022. isbn-13: 9781945398063. 368 pages. paperback. hilary gaiser, o.d., msc associate professor of optometry new england college of optometry boston, ma gaiserh@neco.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v55i2.40830 book reviews hilary gaiser, o.d., msc volume37 hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa july 2006 number3 jay enoch's column: the death of charles schepens, m.d., march 28, 2006: charles was a very distinguished ophthalmologist, a freedom fighter, and a champion in behalf of low vision care! an obituary and reminiscences jay m. enoch school of optometry university of california at berkeley jmenoch@ berkeley.edu aug 2 5 206£ optometry libp.ary on march 28, 2006, a number of us lost a very good friend. and optometry and the ophthalmic community, in general, will very much miss the presence of a very meaningful and active participant who was a major contributor to eye and retinal care. not too long before his death, charles schepens, m.d., celebrated his 94th birthday with his family and close friends. he later died shortly after slipping into unconsciousness following a massive stroke. in the days just prior to his death, he planned next steps directed towards strengthening/improving the schepens eye institute in boston (associated with harvard university), he worked on details of preserving his legacy at that center, and helped a friend with the translation of a complex french manuscript to english (source, schepens' long-term close friend and associate, frans j. van de velde, m.d.). his very creative and wide-ranging mind had endured to the very end of his life! this was a special blessing for him and for us all. our sincerest condolences are extended to his wife of 69 years, marie germaine (vander-eecken), known by many as cete, and to his extended family. a week before charles' death, on march 21, 2006, at the home of m. fran<;ois gauthier, the french consul general in boston, he had conferred upon him the insignia of knight of the legion honor of france. this very high honor recognized both his very ample contributions as a world war ii resistance fighter in behalf of the belgian underground against the nazis (mainly) on assignment in the pyrenees in southern france, and his many meaningful discoveries and contributions to retinal disorders, 37/25 retinal surgery, and eye care over a long and highly distinguished career! this is but one of many distinguished recognitions he received during his lengthy career. here, i additionally document some of his very special contributions to low vision care! background: to address this task properly, i must first describe events which (to my knowledge) came to the fore in the early-mid 1960s. i also had opportunity to play a role in a number of these events, and i speak as one who "was there." this is a somewhat unusual history. while this is not about me, one has to have a feel for the time and those active in somewhat related affairs. in 1965, i was appointed as the executive secretary of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders of the national advisory neurological diseases and blindness council of the then national institute of neurological diseases and blindness institute (nindb) of the of the nih. this subcommittee was chaired by professor bernard becker, m.d., of washington university of st. louis. prof. becker was then a member of the nindb council, and he was also my employer. over a period of some critical years, the eye and vision care communities had not received a fair share of nih funding allocated to the nindb for research and training. our committee's collective task was to document the then current status of the many facets of vision and eye research and to consider future opportunities for advancement of ophthalmic and vision science; to report fiscal support received in support of eye and vision research in the past and projected into the future (based largely upon nih and nindb budgetary projections), to define better the perceived needs of the eye care r&d community, and to offer a plan for enhancement of existing eye/vision research nationally within the nih in general, and specifically within nindb. although never mentioned in subcommittee actions, in time, it became quite evident to all of us on the subcommittee that the future of eye and vision research lay in establishing a separate identity in the form of a national eye institute (nei). this latter topic can be fruitfully explored in future columns. optometry played a meaningful role in this activity. another member of the nindb council at that time was the reverend thomas j. carroll, who served as executive director of boston's catholic guild for all of the blind. although he and i often spoke on the telephone, i never met this absolutely dedicated and charming gentleman. the late father carroll's interests were the care, welfare and rehabilitation of the "substantially visually impaired" population. as they say, "he fought the good fight," and, in truth, through his efforts to educate me, i came to understand that this area of our concerns had far greater needs than i had previously appreciated. that is, he led me to understand the immensity of the problem and its numerous complexities. many of these problems are still with us, and given current demographics (e.g., growth of populations, aging of populations, increases in numbers of individuals with eye and vision disorders associated with increasing age) both nationally and worldwide, there are clear signs that in spite of best efforts made, these issues will not be resolved in the near term. 37/26 not very long after our committee report was submitted, and encouraged by a number of able people and related events, there followed enabling congressional legislation (remarkably brief in length) which led to formation of the national eye institute (nei). that legislation called for research directed towards both (1) prevention of blinding diseases and disorders, and (2) efforts to ameliorate the conditions encountered by the visually impaired, and enhancement of residual visual and other sensory functions. the words employed in the legislation were similar to some phrases used in our subcommittee report. even with this legislative mandate in hand, research in behalf of significantly visually impaired populations failed to prosper. indeed, the then newly-formed nei had many problems to address! i certainly was aware of this. however, since virtually all emphasis at the time was placed on prevention of blinding diseases and disorders, the low vision care and research community, over a period of years, failed to receive encouragement. that is, by not having the resources and leadership then provided to the large and rapidly expanding bio-medical research community, and made available (even if not equally shared by them) to the eye/vision care researchers and educators during the remarkable and rapid growth spurt of nih (during the so-called halcyon years and the still-impressive growth phase occurring following this time period), the second area of interest/responsibility assigned to the nei failed to expand, to grow, or to prosper. thus, support for research, research groups, products of research, training of researchers, and effective new approaches applied to vision and rehabilitative care of the visually impaired populations did not really flourish, nor did this area of endeavor develop as it should have done. i do not suggest that individual worthy contributors such as the late louise sloan, richard feinbloom, lan bailey, randy jose, eleanor faye, gus colenbrander, etc., failed in their efforts to address these problems. charles schepens (1912, born: mouscron, belgium2006, nahant, ma, usa): charles schepens very-much cared about people and their welfare throughout his multiple careers. he served (1) as a medical practitioner; (2) as a resistance fighter (nom de guerre, jacque perot!) who helped well over 100 people to escape from the nazis over the pyrenees mountains into northern spain while posing as a manager of a lumber mill who developed and utilized a large ski-lift-like transporter of lumber (a "transportation pipeline" for lumber [and people]) over these mountainsone suspects this operation is better described as something like the one shown in the movie "zorba the greek"only better, it worked much of the time(!); (3) ophthalmologist, the father of, or at least a premier contributor(!) to modern retinal surgery he contributed the binocular indirect ophthalmoscope (initially built in the united kingdom, the first working model is now in the smithsonian institute collection in washington, dc), led in scleral­ buckling techniques, micro-scissors for intraocular surgery, the coherent scanning laser ophthalmoscope (c-slo), the scanning laser coagulator, "open-sky" vitrectomy, very wide-field retinal camera development, etc., and he very greatly enhanced retinal re­ attachment success rates following retinal detachments; (4) academic ophthalmologist (teacher, researcher, clinician); (5) creator of a major and forward-looking private eye research institute (the schepens eye institute), the retina foundation, and the retina associates (a nearby and very distinguished clinical group in downtown boston) in 37/27 addition to his initiation of the retinal service (a first!) at the howe laboratories at the massachusetts eye and ear infirmary, his affiliation with harvard medical school, etc. he had a very long connection with a russian emigrant family for much of his life including the time he spent in belgium, in the wwii underground movements, and at the schepens eye institute. one member of that russian family was the kindly and talented dr. oleg pomeranzeff, an engineer who worked with charles from before ww ii until his own death many years later while employed at the schepens eye institute. another fine employee of the institute is the very creative prof./dr. robert webb who played a major role in the design of c-slo devices, etc. schepens' fascinating wartime experiences were recently detailed in an excellent book which i thoroughly enjoyed! it was written by meg ostrum, "the surgeon and the shepherd", university of nebraska press, 2004. the surgeon, of course, was charles, here portrayed in his role as jacques perot, manager of a forestry business and transport-system. this was remarkable! i am not sure when i first met charles, but it was many years ago. i visited him and the institute a number of times, and often stayed for some days at the institute located at 20 staniford st. in downtown boston. throughout the time i knew him, he had been interested in low vision and rehabilitative vision care, and always encouraged "an arm" of the retina associates which offered low vision services for those who could not be otherwise helped. this care was dispensed by a very able optometrist attached to that service, or as an adjunct to their medical and surgical care. he also encouraged staff researchers working with scanning laser ophthalmoscopic devices to plot patients' residual visual fields, to assess their visual capabilities, and to determine the loci of non­ central fixation of those with foveal disorders, and to teach these patients how to utilize/optimize their remaining vision. more recently, he encouraged the research of dr. eli peli, an israeli optometrist by training, in his wide-ranging investigations of numerous creative devices in behalf of the low vision patient community. thus, charles schepens truly appreciated the large problems associated with care and rehabilitation of visually impaired populations. for some years, charles and i jointly served a term on the national advisory eye council. i think this occurred during the time period 1980-1984. he, i, and the late julian morris, an able administrator associated with the national eye institute (nei), jointly urged prompt action on creation of a meaningful program of research and training in support of the visually impaired. we were successful in advancing this cause, and as a first step, it was agreed to hold a symposium at nei on the general topic of low vision care, training, rehabilitation services, etc. sadly, this gathering proved to be a great disappointment. the long-standing weak support for this set of topics had greatly limited research in this field. as noted, there had been little growth in this sub-specialty in the intervening years, and there were few individuals active in the enterprise either as practitioners, or researchers, and there were only a very modest number of training programs in existence. 37/28 as a next step, charles and i urged, and received support from the national advisory eye council to establish this endeavor as one with high program relevance, an almost unheard of action! even with this action, there were only limited responses from the academic and research community. not too long thereafter, the national advisory eye council voted to not designate any area as having high program relevance. this was not because they opposed this particular program, rather other programs were pressing to be included in this very special category. dr. constance atwell, then a senior administrator at the nei, kindly took it upon herself, with support of dr. carl kupfer, the director of nei, to further activity in low vision over a period of some years. sadly, in spite of collective efforts, research and training in low vision did not flourish as had been hoped by us; there were just too few individuals participating in this work. one suspects a critical mass of investigators and educators (however defined) had not developed within the group. this did not slow down charles! charles then established an organization called the friends of eye research (i served on its board) with marvin brotman as the leader. one role of this body was to support the nei's budgetary efforts before congress, and another was to develop further low vision programs. marvin brotman, a blind gentleman, sought to advance this cause for a number of years with urging from charles. this effort also was not met with great success at least from this point of view. however, there is no denying that charles schepens tried! a few years later, i served as a member of the pisart award committee of the lighthouse, international, in new york city. the year i was chair of that committee, charles schepens was granted the pisart awardin response to his seeming-never­ ending efforts in behalf of the low vision population. this recognition was very well deserved! cete, his wife, was pleased that he received this recognition, but stated to me privately on that occasion that it was a pity that it came so late in his career, that is, after he had left active leadership of the schepens eye institute. i can only wish that this fighter for good causes has found peace. i greatly valued the years i had opportunity to know him. he made a real difference in this world! j.m.e. 37/29 a nineteenth century version of orthokeratology: the first ortho-k in 1865 by byron y. newman, od dr. dale freeberg, scco 1951, received a collection of harper's weekly newspapers from around 1865, all bound, from one of his relatives, left to him in a will. dale frequently thumbed through the pages, reviewing history as it was lived at the time, since lots was happening. one day he ran across the advertisement reproduced below and thought about it awhile. he thought about it a lot. it was the first time anyone ever discussed improving eyesight by flattening the cornea, at least in this country as far as he knew. the more he thought about it, the more excited he got. one day, he called me up, and told me about the ad. i went over to look at it. he said to me, "did you notice that it says the item has a patent on it?" and, sure enough there it was announcing it was patented, but without a number. we talked about it briefly, and he asked, "do you think we could do a search on this, and find the original patent information?" i told him that my daughter-in-law worked for a patent attorney, and perhaps she could prevail upon him to search it at some reasonable cost, which he agreed to do. and in a few weeks, we had the information in hand. the picture and the explanation of its use were clear and concise, but i can see there was no way to control the effect you wanted or needed, and no way to determine if it would last more than a few hours upon waking. there was also little control for an active sleeper to keep them centered on the eye lids. reproduced on the following pages are the advertisement from the september 30, 1865 issue of harper's weekly, and the 1851 patent (including accompanying diagram) of jonathan ball. author biographical notes: ohs member byron y. newman, od, is a graduate of scco, 1954. he practiced for many years in va!1 nuys, ca., sold his practice and moved to the city of orange, where he opened a practice for another 1 0 years. he sold that office at the age of 71 in 2001, and retired to san diego. byron (by) has been an active writer, having edited the california optometry magazine for 6 years in the 1970s, a kiwanis district newsletter for 6 years, and many society and kiwanis newsletters, and having served as a columnist in optometry, journal of the aoa, for the past 35 years. by has received many awards, including being voted the california "optometrist 37/30 of the year" for 1980. he remembers having charles sheard as an instructor in college, as well as ernest hutchinson, two names well known in optometric circles. he recalls one day when a 16 year old boy was sitting in his office getting his eyes examined, and the kid asked what year dr. newman graduated from optometry school. when told in 1954, the kid got excited, and exclaimed, "wow, you must have seen a lot of history." byron observed that what was history for the boy was current events for himself. :bestob.e your sight. use dr. j. stephens & co.'s patent 1 cornea restorers, or restorers or the i:yl!sight. ! they will ltcstoro lmpnir~d sight, nnj praservc it to the ln1ost period or life. spectacllls iujndered useless. . 'l'h• in~at emln•nt l"hph:lnn•, oculi'¢" 1)1.-ine.<, ""~ tba mcxot prom!mnt •nell or our country, reoommcod th "'"' r:f thts counea nl<:stoueh:i for j'rrlfi,!!''i'ut, ot ,.;, or l~fjwt·.,>\ighttdlj~, ot t:vtry penon who we~a.r. rpedotclttt rmm old a;ot di",.,. ... .., n/ vilfiun, (tr nlur,.i"t': ()crt'tf1tt't.l:cd rt!f"tj ~,jllcm/'iu. or jr..n~ bttut; hpfp'ht"«t or dia­ ler!• ~1; /\1in in th~ f.•~·l•lll; am••.,o•i.<. nr m .. curil!l a/ v/.lmt: paoi"j'htbin, 11r int~lmmcr ".f s41at; lrnrk­ ,,.c.., fji./ia!! ntjintj and optio n"ru: ,)f,ft'lt'jiil'mft, ,,, sptckl qt nut,fn(.l nih.ltr. 'blftsrl lite e!jr',; ()pi&~atdmia, tr in· .f~r!;j,;fi.on nfijt• p.!fd ttlttl j<:v«ifl4; ·t"alarira j!!lr~; ll~'"iopi4t, or partial dlin~; 8inkitj!j of tm hyrbtdl; 8/r!'bf~mt~ or stj1duti·11171 &e. . thf """ he """'' by ~ny otto with r enrt~!otr ~r .rucr.o<o, an•l ,..jthout lho l~ul !011r ot lnj••ry 1o tho !(yo. lfnro · llllm !'soi'n ccrtitlc,t.c.\ o. t cu~tt •u·g c"x-11tbitutl nt.•"-tr t•lftre. curu ,:ndnmt~ed in ey~t a.eo \rhqn :tppllctl nccnnl\l•h to tho dlrtcuonllncioisl-11 hl ri\cb ho~, c'lr t~i'j monr.y \4till bn rofun•li)il jrnt-4/or tl circul'tll"-iicuit cntt.is.. atlilrt;.e . 1 . .mt. j. s·rm•m·:;>;s ,r, co .• o.:iiltan, xo.14 john stn:"': llew york. (1'. n.llo-. p,s.) 1'.~-'-nr.. .r. lll'i':piirns & txl. h1'11 lnvp.nu'l ""'l.pl\lentc.l a a!yopta, or c,ornf.a l"f.a1'1'l·::•n:r, f~ ill". \:ut•: uf ..\".:ttr .. ,t:;t71dtdtlc~, which 1&.'\w pn.~\·etl "~~;reat.•u~ wrilcft.trct cirauut. · 37/31 r-:'. t:. 5. tv. •t ... tjnlted states patent office. jonatiuh b..u.l, oj' new yobk. n. y. liiieald oj' b.eitov..&.tdtg .allrd cob.liji&o'nlrg sici:jft. to all td.kom il may cone~: :be it known that. i, .ton~tiluf b.au., of the city .w.j cl•unty of ·new' york, in the state of new york, have invented a new a and improved mode of renovating tbe sight where 1t is lost by age or where the con­ vexity of the pupil or cornea. is .dattened, but not diseased or distorted, and also of corncting the ~ht. where the con vuity is 10 too great, producing near-sisdttedness; and i do hereby declare. the folfowing to be a · full-and exact description. . the nature of my invention consists in fanning for ~ncb eye, a cup large enough 1!5 in diameter to set upon the bqe of the bill of the eye, th~ edge of whie\ is smoothly rolulded which by being wom at intervals of two or three days, for an hour or two at. ·each time will gradually and surely bring 20 the pupil or cornea to its original connxity and the sight to its youthful clearness a.nd stredgth. this cup may be ei~ular or euip­ tie&l in ease of uearm.ghtedness the action is reversed. i form a cap with the inside 11 conea.ve sufticiently when placed upon the closed eye to l?ress lightly upon. the center of the ball, which bl eeing worn as the cups above desc:ribed, will !m&dually lessen the . · convexity ·and eor,rect tt; ~ht. ad to enable others skilled in the art to make ... and ·use my invention, 1· will proceed to de­ scribe its c:onstruction and operation. , . i form a cup for each eye of ivory, wood, jdass. metal or any hard sobsta.nce that can 36 6e. made smooth. the length five eighths of an inch more or less, a.nd the diameter one inch mont or less, to set upon the base of the ball of th~ eye, through this i make • a hollow jive eighths of a.n inch more or 4.0 less in diameter which fo.nns a tube, the inner side, nut to the eye· is formed out to fi.t the proper convexity of the eye, leaving the edge thin but smoothly rounded-see letter a in the accompanying drawings. 41 on the outer' aide of the cups and near the outer end i form· a• groove, or projections to · hold the-bindings which fasten them in their places upon ~be eyes-5ee letter b. i cut a strip of soft leather, t.hrough which i make slits to draw on to the cupa into the j.l"oove 50 or j)etween the projections, these slits are jusl distant from each other ~ enough to bring the cnps centml17 onr the eyes see letter c. i prefer this mode of holding them. althoogh they may be held by springs, u or otherwise. · · for near sight i form caps of the same materials as the cups sufficiently concave on the innerside, so &9 to rest heaviest upon the center of the ball of the eye {the lids eo being closed)-see letter d. these caps m&y be made one inch in diameter more or less, and an held in their place by the same means and wom in the same manner of the cups. ii · by a.pplying the above invention two or three times each week, on retiring to rest, and before sleep, turning or rolling the eies gently in them a few moments, the pupil or cornea will gradually resume its proper and 7l original con\"exity, and • sistht its youth­ ful clearness and st-rength. · when the ~ begin to fa.il an occasional application will · restore and preserve them ~h life. by the applicatton of the.eapa in the same man71 ner 6y those. afbicted with near sight tb& e~nvexity will iu&dually lessen &dd the m~t~~ ' 'what i elaim as my invention an,.wish to secure by letters patent, is· ao the cups and caps to produce a pressu~ upon the periphery, in case of old age, or .front of the eye in ease of near sight, which will increase or diminish its convexity as • . the nature of the case may require. · .tonatiian ba't.l. witnesses: josep'b. stepid!.n~ joxatiian jd.aaon. 37/32 jl3ol~_· .. -t"oz-r~cfz/-z_p ~~at: .jyf' ~/j~ij. ?aftf'nf~c/jf/tr.~~fstf"/. 37/33 text of bob boynton's aao presentation in 1997: editor's note: the following is adapted from the text of a speech given by bob boynton on december 14, 1997, in san antonio, texas, following his receipt of the prentice medal of the american academy of optometry. although i had heard of bob boynton from his distinguished work in vision, it was at a meeting of the society for american baseball research that i first met him. this is the first publication of his aao talk in an optometric publication. a somewhat different version was published previously in joe wayman's grandstand baseball annual. this is bob's third contribution to hindsight. keeping an eye on baseball by robert m. (bob) boynton to receive this year's prentice award is a great honor and i am very pleased and happy to accept it despite the requirement that i should give a speech. figuring out what to talk about has presented a problem for me, because i am now well launched into my seventh year of retirement, and i have no new vision research to discuss. instead, in a very significant departure from recent prentice award talks, i am going to tell you about my passion for the great american game of basebau, with special emphasis on how that interest has interacted with, and sometimes actually threatened, my career as a student, university professor, and visual scientist. this passion may be hard for some of you to understand, or even to believe. the noted sportswriter roger angell explained it this way: " ... belonging and caring is what our games are all about; this is what we come for. it is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (i know this look -i know it by heart) is understandable. almost. what is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring -caring deeply and passionately, really caring -which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. and so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it is no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. naivete -the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball-seems a small price to pay for such a gift." you will not be surprised to learn that my interest in baseball began long before i had any thoughts of doing research in vision. i was a kid 37/34 of ten when my father took me to old league park in cleveland on opening day in 1935, and i became hooked for life. i saw a three-run homer by the home team, the indians, in the very first inning. i watched as the indians scored two runs in the last of the ninth inning to beat the st. louis browns, 76. 1 experienced visual hallucinations that night -images of baseball players gliding around in my head. a beautiful sport to watch, especially when the home team comes from behind to win. on pearl harbor day in 1941, i had just turned 17 and after graduating from high school the following june, after a year at antioch college, i was lucky to be admitted into the navy's v-12 program, in which i spent two years studying electrical engineering at the university of illinois. during the summer semester of 1944, i took an elective course in psychology which convinced me that i wanted to study experimental psychology after the war. electrical engineering subsequently lost much of its interest for me, and my grades suffered as i began to spend more time than i could afford hitch-hiking to st. louis or chicago to watch the wartime version of major-league baseball. the most memorable of these trips was to st. louis on october 1, 1944 when, in sportsman's park, i watched as the st. louis browns, the only major-league team ever to field a one-armed outfielder, won their only american league pennant. i was released from the navy in may of 1946, and despite some poor grades at illinois, i was accepted that autumn as a junior transfer student at amherst college in massachusetts. (the fact that my father, grandfather, and great grandfather were amherst graduates undoubtedly helped my chances of being admitted.) a smith college girl, alice neiley, came suddenly into my life and we were married the following april. amherst is not too far from boston and upon occasion it was possible to see a game at fenway park or braves field. but my interest in sports mostly took a different form. i wrote for the college newspaper and during my senior year became its sports editor. when it came time to consider graduate work, i applied to four or five schools, including the university of michigan, which i selected partly because of its proximity to briggs stadium. i also favored columbia because it was conveniently located near three major league ballparks. i was invited down to providence for mutual scrutiny at brown university. i was offered, and accepted, a research assistantship with a young vision scientist named lorrin riggs, supported by funds provided by the office of naval research. following graduation from amherst in 1948, allie and i lived that summer with my parents in the cleveland area. i was beginning to get cold feet about graduate work. i was aware of the intense degree of 37/35 specialization that a ph.d. program entails, where you run the risk of learning more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing. meanwhile, there was the exciting world of sports out there, and i thought maybe i should become a sportswriter. one day i screwed up my courage and phoned the cleveland plain dealer and asked to talk with gordon cobbledick, the sports editor. he graciously agreed to meet with me, and the interchange in his office lasted about half an hour. his advice was, basically, "continue your education, young man. if it doesn't work out, you can always try sportswriting later. besides," he added, "sportswriting is not as glamorous as you may think, and the pay isn't all that great." cobbledick, who had a degree in mining engineering, once had to make a similar decision. this interview was very helpful and i decided to stick with my graduate-school plan. about two weeks after allie and i arrived in providence, something happened that might have ended my career in visual science even before it began. on the afternoon of monday, october 4, i was scheduled to go into the lab for the very first time to begin learning my trade. after saturday's american league action two days earlier, my first-place indians held a one-game lead on the red sox. on sunday i listened as the red sox beat the yankees, while reports from cleveland indicated that cleveland's star pitcher, bob feller, had lost to detroit. the result was a dead heat, one that by american league rules required a single playoff game to decide the pennant. and wouldn't you know, that playoff was scheduled at fenway park to begin, as the kids say today, at the "exact same time" i supposed to meet with lorrin riggs in the lab. allie and i had happily contributed to the major-league attendance record that had been set that season in cleveland. i had been following the indians for fourteen seasons by then, and this could be their first pennant and world series appearance since 1920. i had no choice. i walked up to riggs's office, knocked at his open door, and announced "dr. riggs, i can't come to the lab this afternoon because i have to listen to a baseball game." perhaps i would have been smarter to have feigned illness, given that i didn't really know lorrin very well yet; an advisor of a different ilk might have told me to pack my bags and go home. but somehow lorrin, despite having no interest whatever in baseball, understood my plight and never held it against me. the indians won that game 8-3, which was great, although it meant that i had to begin graduate work while distracted by a daytime world series in which my team was playing. somehow i managed to get through it, as the indians beat the boston braves in six games to become world champions. once the indians won the 1948 world series, i was able to keep my nose to the grindstone pretty well during the four years i spent as a graduate student in experimental psychology at brown. allie and i did venture into 37/36 boston once in a while to see a ball game. throughout this period, i continued to keep an eye on the progress of the cleveland indians, and my attendance at ball games picked up after moving to rochester where i became an assistant professor in 1952. for the most part i would be watching minor league baseball, which i found less addicting than the major-league variety. still, i watched a lot of minor league baseball for the next 22 years, much of it excellent, as the red wings in rochester stocked future stars for the baltimore orioles. major league baseball was not ignored, however. i made several baseball trips with various members of my family, and i would sneak out of scientific conventions whenever possible to catch a game. by now i have seen the game played in more than 40 major-league venues. in the years before the major leagues split into two divisions in 1969, no baseball fan could afford to ignore the world series. the season would end on a sunday and the series would begin only three days later. all of the games were played in the early afternoon. my memories include sneaking a bulky portable radio into high school, cutting afternoon labs at amherst, and feelings of utter frustration, in those days before tape recorders of any kind. sometimes, although rarely, i would miss the action altogether because of real-world obligations that i was forced to meet. a serious conflict occurred almost every year because the fall meeting of the optical society of america, which had become my principal scientific home, always coincided with the world series. consequently i saw many televised games, or at least pieces of them, in hotel rooms all over the country. in 1992 in tucson, my mentor lorrin riggs was presented with the lves medal of the optical society of america during the seventh game of the world series. i reluctantly left the telecast before the end of the game in time to see the award bestowed. if one lives long enough, retirement is something that must be dealt with sooner or later, even if the decision is not to retire. of course a university researcher may, as lorrin riggs did (and many do) retire in name only and keep an active lab. by the summer of 1991, approaching 65 years of age, i still had not lost my interest in baseball. i continued to fanaticize about what my life might have been had i become a sportswriter. and, frankly, i was getting a little tired of what i had been doing during forty years split between rochester and the university of california at san diego. so i made the decision to retire --really retire -and write a book about ballparks, those places that had fascinated me ever since that first game, more than a half-century earlier, in old league park in cleveland. 37/37 about a week after i had made my retirement decision, the new yorker magazine of september 18, 1989 included an article which began: "shortly before embarking on a week-long tour by rental car this summer of a few favorite midwestern baseball landmarks ... we made a phone call to the osborn engineering company, of cleveland, and asked for an appointment. we'd been aware for years ... that the bronx's own yankee stadium was designed by osborn, and, in the spirit of our tour, we felt that a visit to osborn was almost obligatory. "dale swearingen, the company's vice-president and its director of architecture, received us, in a resolutely unassuming reception area ... and ushered us into a comfortable but hardly ornate office. we couldn't resist asking him if the plans from the yankee stadium job were still around somewhere. "right here," he said, and pulled open a long document drawer marked "yankee stadium: american league baseball." there were five yankee stadium drawers, all told -drawers brimming with exquisite drawings of the architectural details that were also indelibly familiar: the great twin eagle emblems that once graced the main stadium gate; the stadium's huge outer cathedral windows; the ubiquitous art deco copper frieze that encircled the old roof." after reading this, i was almost drooling at the mouth, wishing that i could share the experience of the anonymous new yorker reporter. as it turned out, i could, and did. i telephoned cleveland and talked with swearingen, telling him that i was planning a trip east (which i was) and could i please visit with him much as the new yorker reporter had? he acquiesced, and added, seemingly as an afterthought: "by the way, saba is meeting here in cleveland at about the time you're coming through." "saba? what is that?" was my reply. he explained that the acronym stands for society for american baseball research, an organization of more than 5,000 members, organized by committees, one of which is concerned with ballparks. i joined saba immediately, and in june i visited at osborn engineering, and i also attended the 20th annual convention of saba. i have been very active in the society ever since. i never wrote that book on ballparks because, in the two years following my decision to retire, about a half-dozen books on the subject were published. so i decided just to write articles on various topics instead. these have appeared in journals that are no less obscure than those that contain scientific publications. i have been interested to note that the organization of saba is very similar to that of scientific societies. the large number of college and university faculty who write 37/38 tor baseball journals came as a surprise to me. in my second year of retirement, i agreed to participate in a scientific conference to be held at the asilomar conference center, which is operated by the state of california on the monterey peninsula. the scheduled dates ran from october 24-28, 1992. i recalled that only twice had a final game of the world series been played as late as october 28th-­ most recently in 1989, the year the earth shook in san francisco. thinking it safe, i agreed to participate. i should have checked more closely. in the sixty-two years since i had started following the game, there had been twenty-two world series that featured a seventh game. i consider the seventh game to be the ultimate sporting event. i have already mentioned the one that i partly missed in tucson. otherwise, since following my first such game by radio in 1940, only once had i missed hearing on the radio, or watching on tv, a seventh game of the world series. that was in 1960, and it happened because the british lack concern for american baseball. i was on sabbatical leave in england and was lucky if i could find the scores, which were set in agate type in an obscure corner of an inside page of the london times. at asilomar, arrangements had been made for most of the conferees to assemble at a motel in san francisco on saturday the 24th, from which we would drive to the conference center the next morning. as it turned out, saturday featured the sixth game of the world series between the toronto blue jays and atlanta braves, and i arrived in time to watch the game in my motel room. however, the first session of the asilomar conference was scheduled to take place in total conflict with the seventh game, a conflict which would occur only if the braves were to win game 6 and tie the series at three games apiece. i therefore rooted passionately for toronto, whose victory would resolve my conflict. i thought i was home safely with the blue jays leading by a run going into the last half of the ninth inning. with two outs, braves runners on first and second, and two strikes on otis nixon, he bounced a single between short and third that scored the tying run. my heart sank when the inept leftfielder, candy maldonado (who had already misjudged a fly ball earlier in the inning) fired the ball half way up the backstop screen trying to keep the winning run from scoring. a lucky bounce brought the ball back toward the catcher and kept the runner on third. it was ironic that, in the eleventh inning, nixon -with a chance to drive home the tying run with two outs for the second time -bunted and was thrown out to end the game and the series. first-baseman joe carter's joyful leap after making the final putout was mirrored by my own. 37/39 even had i bolted from the meeting in an effort to see a seventh game, it probably wouldn't have done me any good, because i doubt that there is a tv set anywhere in the conference center. so my thanks go out to dave winfield for his two-run double in the eleventh that gave the blue jays a lead, and to otis nixon for his curious decision to bunt. for many years now, all world series games have been played at night. yet, in october of 1997, as the indians were playing against the marlins, i enjoyed watching the seventh game of the world series while the sun was shining. how is this possible? the answer: retire and spend the last half of october in hawaii, six time zones west of cleveland and miami. recommend it. originators of patching therapy in amblyopia: an article by sjoukje e. loudon in the journal strabismus (2005, volume 13, pages 143-144) discusses charles de saint-yves (1677-1736} and the earliest descriptions of occlusion therapy. credit for the first description of patching therapy usually goes to the french naturalist and botanist george-louis leclerc, comte de buffon (1707-1788), who wrote about it in 1743. but earlier european descriptions of patching for amblyopia were written by john allen (1730) and by de saint-yves (1722). the frenchman de saint-yves started his education in general surgery at the age of 17, and began specializing in eye diseases at 22 years of age. his 1722 textbook was entitled nouveau traite des maladies des yeux. loudon notes that in chapter 24 of that book, de saint-yves "wrote that one was sometimes obliged to fully cover the non­ strabismic eye while encouraging the child to do handicrafts and read fine print." however, the earliest discussion of occlusion therapy found so far was in the book vision and perception bythabit ibn qurrah ibn marwan ai-harrani, who lived from about 836 to about·90r.·,·· :::' d.a.g. i·:· :, t' managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 37/40 2006-37-03-001 2006-37-03-002 2006-37-03-003 2006-37-03-004 2006-37-03-005 2006-37-03-006 2006-37-03-007 2006-37-03-008 2006-37-03-009 2006-37-03-010 2006-37-03-011 2006-37-03-012 2006-37-03-013 2006-37-03-014 2006-37-03-015 2006-37-03-016 76 volume 48, number 3, july 2017 book review treasury of optics: the collections of the optisches museum jena david a. goss, od, phd emeritus professor of optometry indiana university bloomington dgoss@indiana.edu treasury of optics: the collections of the optisches museum jena. edited by r.f. schmalbrock, karin gjudjenow, and hans meinl. jena, germany: ernst-abbe-stiftung, 2013. 303 pages. as can be discerned from the title, this book celebrates the collections of the optisches museum jena in jena, germany. the book contains sixteen essays with accompanying images, the topics of which include the history of the museum and its intertwined history with the carl zeiss jena company, aspects of the museum’s collection of visual aids and optical instruments, development of refractive procedures, nuremberg masterpiece spectacles, contact lens history, history of the microscope and important persons in its development, optical technology, and graphic art related to optics. the optisches museum jena was formed in 1922, but some collecting by the carl zeiss company in jena was started before that, and the museum acquired some personal collections dating from before 1900. the book is lavishly illustrated with both color and monochrome photographs, portraits, drawings, paintings, reproductions of advertisements, and other images. some of the pictures that particularly caught my eye were those of a davidson double optometer from about 1900, nuremberg masterpiece spectacles from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and an early trial lens set. there are numerous photographs of microscopes, telescopes, and binoculars. three of the essays document the history of the museum. the history of microscopes is given particular attention, being the subject of six of the sixteen essays. simple and compound microscopes, important microscope makers, binocular microscopes, microscope projectors, and microphotography are among the topics examined on microscopy. the contributions of individuals such as carl zeiss (1816-1888), ernst abbe (1840-1905), friedrich nobert (1806-1881), and others to the development of optical instruments and technology are discussed. this book is a fitting tribute to a museum with thousands of items of historical interest. treasury of optics: the collections of the optisches museum jena. edited by r.f. schmalbrock, karin gjudjenow, and hans meinl. translated from german by janet mayer and steven w. sidore. jena, germany: ernstabbe-stiftung, 2013. isbn 978-3-9811120-5-4. 303 pages. hardcover. ~,r-· ... ~olr\: · · · oct o 4 2ooe hindsight journal of optometry history july, 2008 volume 39, number 3 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-jaws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society: president: melvin wolfberg, 3095 buckinghammock trl., vero beach fl 32960-4968, ilovesylvan@bellsouth.net vice-president: jerome j. abrams secretary-treasurer: bridget kowalczyk, american optometric association, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: walter w. chase jay m. enoch chuck haine douglas k. penisten the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek jetter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html ' i oct 0 4 2008 hindsight: journal of optometry history july, 2008 optometry usraft"t volume 39, number 3 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 7 4464, penisten@nsuok.edu. table of contents la dedicaci6n del centre universitari de ia visi6 de la universitat polytecnica de catalunya, juneo 27, 2008, terrassa, catalunya, espagna, jay m. enoch .............. 86 rare book library catalogs with significant eye and vision content, david a. goss ......................................................................................................... 91 book review: a brief history of bausch & lomb's first 150 years, david a. goss .. .. 95 book review: the prism and the pendulum: the ten most beautiful experiments in science, david a. goss ................................................................................. 97 past american optometric association presidents remembered, david a. goss ......................................................................................................... 99 instructions to authors ................................................................................. 1 02 ohs membership application form ............................................................... 1 04 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 85 la dedicaci6n del centre universitari de ia visi6 de la universitat polytecnica de catalunya, juneo 27, 2008, terrassa, catalunya, espagna jay m. enoch, 0.0., ph.d., dr.s sci.(h.c.) professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu bon dial i last appeared before you at 12 noon on october 18th, 2002, at which time this faculty, school, and university honored me by conferring upon me the doctor of science degree, honoris causa, in vision science. this was the first such recognition in vision science granted in the history of spain, and the first honorary degree offered by this school. indeed, i was highly honored! on that occasion, as a first step in the process, i was granted membership in the fine faculty of this university and was awarded a gold ring symbolizing my acceptance by them as one of their own, as well as a fine pair of white gloves as a symbol of my purity (well, let us say that was a bit of "a stretch"!). these and my diploma hang on the wall in front of my computer desk at home as a constant reminder of that very special event. i remember this occasion most fondly! shortly prior to that event, director nuria lupon and professor and former director josep pladellorens asked dr. joan gispets to show me the beginnings of a new and rather ambitious project then being undertaken by this fine educational institution. it was a clinical development and research facility designed to serve the school of optometry, the university, the profession of optometry, and the public for years to come. this building and academic program was to be called del centre universitaria de ia visi6. today, we are assembled to proudly dedicate this completed and fine new academic and clinical center! we can all be very pleased with the realization of this special achievement in behalf of science and research. it will provide education for new clinicians and specialists serving society for the coming decades. it, too, is a resource for provision of continuing education for graduate optometrists and other practitioners, as well as for the welfare of the patient population of this school and university, for terrassa, for barcelona, and the surrounding countryside. a clinic provides a vehicle for delivery of health care to the populace, and in a very real sense, it becomes a true gift to them for many years to come. just as it serves to educate and enlighten, it helps to ameliorate the visual and eyecare needs of its client population. you will be surprised from how far and wide patients will come here to seek eye-care, from not only catalunya, but also from other parts of espagna, and, by hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 86 extension, from parts of france. by coupling this clinic to a research facility we effectively multiply its gifts to society in general! following a suggestion made by prof. ondategui to prof. gispets in an e-mail message, i am a pleased to state to you, we at the university of california at berkeley are examining possibilities for undertaking joint research enterprises and student exchanges for purposes of special training and research between our two institutions. i have spoken to our dean dennis levi, to our associate dean and director of clinics edward revelli, and to the clinical research center director prof. meng lin. each of them and others will interact with dr. nuria lupon who has been designated as your leader in the effort to develop a meaningful collaborative endeavor. during this trip, one of my purposes is to explore further the proposed nature of such activities with interested parties within your group. indeed, it is our collective hope that a promising cooperative program between our two institutions will result! in the years since my last visit here, both the profession of optometry and this school made excellent progress! in 2002, you were still limited to offering the dip/omatura to your students. due to the european convergence process in higher education, 2007-2008, you are now able to offer the m. sci. degree, and hopefully soon to follow, the ph.d. degree, and as an important result, you also will be able to develop fully your associated graduate studies and research program. the centre universitari de ia visi6 will play a meaningful role in evolving graduate and post-graduate training at this distinguished institution. already necessary changes in the curriculum are being made by the faculty and administration. a law, which passed in 2003, properly declared optometrists as health professionals(!). it requires them to give evidence of on-going continuing education. no doubt, the new clinical and research centre will also serve an important ongoing role in continuing education for optometrists and for other health care professionals as well. one of my contributions to optometric education (in general) was (to my knowledge) the first introduction of rounds at the school of optometry at berkeley in 1980. given rapid and important developments in basic knowledge, in ophthalmic instrumentation, available and emerging diagnostic techniques (including adaptive optics, coherent scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, optical coherence tomography, flood illumination, individually or in combination), as well as remarkable advances in molecular and cellular biology, the genome and genetics, and pharmacology, for us it is most important to participate in continuing education studies. thus, in a sense, we also celebrate today advances made by the profession of optometry and by this school of optometry, as well as the creation of new scholarly opportunities for optometrists, and for the pursuit of advanced eye and vision research in behalf of the health and welfare of the public. you have already established a fine tradition in the development of research within this institution and the surrounding geographic area. in addition to individual faculty members and students who perform research at this institution, i have learned hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 87 from dr. gispets that about 20 optometrists have formed the "grup de recerca del centre universitari del visi6". in addition, there is the cd6, the centre de desenvolupament de sensors i sistemes; the gopapi, the grup d'optica aplicada i processament de ia image; the cima, the centre lnternacional de medicina avan<;ada; and the cst, the consorci sanitari de terrassa. your activities in support of the journal, very oir, also provide a valuable means of disbursing and sharing the results of that research with your professional colleagues. of course, individuals have the freedom to publish in any of a number of other journals of merit as well. the cd6 is a research group with broad interests in vision science, the area which formerly used to be termed, physiological optics. the gopapi is a leading research group in image processing, and they have interest in applications to medical imaging, and the utilization of these techniques clinically. cima is a group which, among other activities, promotes coordination of research between ophthalmology and optometry in behalf of the public interest. cst seeks to emphasize and develop research in the region of terrassa, and no doubt within catalunya and beyond. i am also well aware of developments here in spain in the field of adaptive optics (ao) as well. work on ao at the csic in madrid, and at u. of murcia is well known and is growing in a number of centers. some of the leaders in this particular field reside within this fine nation. i expect that such research developments will lead to, "a new era in ophthalmoscopy" and much more in the years to come. one area of enterprise which unfortunately is often not quite adequately addressed, nor served as well as it should be by the ophthalmic professions, is "low vision". we need to focus more attention on this speciality; we can all make a difference in this arena. we owe it to these often handicapped individuals to improve meaningfully their quality of life. in espagna, you are indeed fortunate to have the once organization. they raise meaningful funds to serve that population. we need to seek their support to further enhance research and services to the blind and visually challenged populations, including the ever-growing aging populations of this world. in regard to all aspects of your research program, i urge you to seek and to find common ground with those conducting research within ophthalmology. i am as well aware of some of the unfortunate history of the relationships between our two professions, but this, shall i say, goes no-where. there is no reason that optometric and ophthalmological researchers cannot work together constructively in the public interest, and they should. i have done so throughout my career. we hope to see you and your associates with some regularity at the several international meetings, as well as meetings in the usa of the american academy of optometry (aao), and the association for research in vision and ophthalmology (arvo). i note this has already occured to some extent. an example of this is our annual meeting with a number of spanish friends at the (informal) "cuban" dinner which has been held for some years now at arvo. one of the things i came to appreciate when i lived in florida, was cuban food! it is different, rather interesting, and very good! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 88 a few words about academic research programs: i have served for many years as both a clinician and a researcher both within optometry and ophthalmology. in optometry, we do not have available the enormous "research engine" which is available to medicine. the depth and breadth of the medical enterprise is enormous and rightly so. we all benefit from it, and hopefully they, in turn, benefit from contributions made by the optometric profession and its educational institutions. it is our collective duty to translate basic science into clinical applications! so saying, we have only limited research facilities in optometry, both in this country and elsewhere. for some years, i have watched these services grow within the profession of optometry, and i have sought to contribute in many ways to that growth as researcher, clinician, and administrator. we, as optometrists, very much need centers with programs such as the one which we dedicate today, in order to allow us to enhance our abilities to address the broad ophthalmic needs of the public, whom we all serve. and we must strive to perform our roles in an ever more effective manner. it can be useful for a school to establish a modest cadre of individuals (here simply defined as "more than one") having relatively common interests (but each person addressing somewhat different aspects of a problem), as a means of creating one or more research-focus-groups which can serve to encourage interpersonal interactions, and broaden offerings to advanced students. these can effectively serve to stimulate research progress. on the other hand, there is also an argument for enhancing the breadth of interests and topical coverage of an existing faculty. if we set goals too broadly, the result is a diffuse product. if the research group (and teaching resources) are chosen too narrowly, in turn, this may not serve adequately the larger interests of the school or profession. the argument comes down to a need for all concerned parties to consider carefully the long term needs of the school and profession when making decisions regarding selections of new faculty. in candor, it is a difficult balancing act! and it is in everyone's interest that there to be a congenial relationship between all parties. the facility we dedicate today gives to you the opportunity to help this school to develop and to broaden further, to recruit additional capable faculty, to offer special advanced courses at all levels, to train graduate students, to expose under­ graduates to science (and to interest some of them in an academic and clinical role and career). this and other schools in spain have a special additional responsibility. for a very long time, you have helped to train students from latin-america (as well as within the european union) in modern technology and eye care. but above all, collectively, we need to offer the profession of optometry new approaches applicable to patient care including enhancement of clinical assessments and treatments of patients, and the means of correction of disorders and diseases of the eye(s) and their adnexa. in conclusion, you are to be congratulated on this truly fine and forward looking achievement! may del centre universitaria de ia visi6 serve society well in terms of its contributions to the education of ophthalmic practitioners and to the training of advanced research students and future faculty, to the enhancement of the ophthalmic hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 89 health of the populace, and to the realization of enduring creative and meaningful ocular and vision research. may this center prosper for many years into the foreseeable future! and may each of you find great and continuing satisfactions in your contributions to this institution, to your chosen profession, to this area, and to espagna. mucho gracias! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 90 rare book library catalogs with significant eye and vision content david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract rare book library catalogs can serve as useful historical reference works. this paper discusses the content and format of seven rare book library catalogs with significant information relating to the eye and vision. the catalogs examined are held in the libraries on the bloomington campus of indiana university. key words: history of ophthalmology, history of optometry, ophthalmology books, optometry books, rare books. rare book library catalogs are documents describing the books in a collection or in an exhibition. the detail they contain can vary from a simple listing of bibliographical data to annotations describing the historical significance of the books and giving biographical information concerning the authors. illustrations may or may not be present. the content and format of a catalog varies depending upon the purposes of its publication or of the exhibition it accompanies. such purposes can include: (a) providing entertainment for the general public, (b) creating a reference work for the academic community, (c) making a contribution to scholarship on the topic, (d) recognizing a donor or meeting an agreement associated with a gift, (e) celebrating the library's opening or anniversary, and (f) elevating the recognition of the library.1-4 rare book library catalogs published today are often produced with the goals of having a visually appealing document of lasting contribution to the particular field of study.5-7 this paper will discuss seven rare book library catalogs which contain significant content relating to the eye and vision and which are held in the libraries on the bloomington campus of indiana university. catalogue of the adolph lomb optical library at the university of virginia8 this quite plain catalog, published in 1947, consists of 203 pages of reproductions of card catalog cards reduced in size to fit ten to fifteen items per page. a one-page introduction by james p.c. southall, professor emeritus of physics, columbia university, notes that the collection began with the donation of the books of adolph lomb and was built up further with contributions from companies and individuals. most of the books in the collection deal with optics of lenses, optical instrumentation, and optics as applied to optometry and ophthalmology. the catalog does not appear to have been produced in association with an exhibition, and seems to be a complete listing of the books and pamphlets in the collection. most of the items were published in the 19th century, with many others from the early 20th century and a few from the 18th century. items are in alphabetical order by author. there are no illustrations and no index. the collection includes 706 books, 470 monographs and hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 91 brochures, 17 4 bound and 86 unbound volumes of journals. 9 adolph lomb, who died in 1932, was one of the founders of the optical society of america, and the oldest son of henry lomb, co-founder of bausch & lomb. bibliotheca osleriana 10 this is an impressive 792 page tome that gives bibliographical data for 7,787 works, with occasional notes on provenance and physical description and, in some cases, biographical notes on the author and notes on historical significance of the work. the items were collected by sir william osler and donated to mcgill university. the initial sections include works by notable authors and they follow a roughly chronological order. this catalog was published in 1969. within the initial sections entries are arranged by author with inclusion of biographies of those individuals. following those initial sections, there are sections with works by less famous persons, literary works, works on the history of science and medicine, biographical works, bibliographies, and incunabula (early printed books). these lists are preceded by a six page prologue by lloyd g. stevenson, a six page editor's preface by w.w. francis, r.h. hill, and archibald malloch, and a 17 page introduction by osler entitled "the collecting of a library." there is an 81 page index, but no illustrations. there are over 70 items under the index entries of ophthalmology, ophthalmoscopy, optics, and vision. sir william osler (1849-1919) was a canadian physician who made numerous contributions to medicine and who has been described as "the best-known physician in the english­ speaking world" .11 british optical association library and museum catalogue 12 pages 1 to 296 of this 1932 catalog list the books in the british optical association library. pages 297 to 324 and 75 plates document items in the museum. pages 1 to 236 of the library catalog give bibliographical data and a one or two sentence annotation for each of the books. the library catalog has a 51 page subject index. there are, for example, 38 items listed under astigmatism dating from 1862 (astigmatisme en cylindrische glazen by donders) to 1930, 131 items listed under frames and lenses dating from a 1614 copy of bacon's perspectiva to a 1931 book, and about two hundred listings under refraction dating from 1685 (oculus artificialis by j. zahn) to 1931. there are some black and white illustrations from selected books in the catalog. a nine-page history of the library at the front of the book (pages v to xiii) states that its first catalog, published in 1901, consisted of only seven books. bibliotheca walleriana 13 this two volume set, published in 1955, lists the books and journal articles in a collection remarkable in its magnitude over 20,000 items. it provides bibliographical data on materials significant in the history of medicine and science collected by swedish surgeon erik waller (1875-1955) and willed to uppsala university in sweden. there are no annotations on the books in this catalog. there are numerous index entries under ophthalmology, ophthalmoscopy, optics, and vision. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 92 medicine: an exhibition of books relating to medicine and surgery14 this book was published by the lilly library at indiana university to accompany a 1966 exhibition of books from the collection of j.k. lilly, jr., grandson of the founder of eli lilly and company and former president and chairman of the board of the company. the book presents bibliographical data and annotations on 195 books. three pages are devoted to books related to ophthalmology, such as george bartisch's ophthalmodouleia (1583) and jacques guillemeau's traite des maladies de l'oeil ( 1585), as well as publications by william briggs, charles saint-yves, helmholtz, purkinje, donders, and albrecht von graefe. another part of the book includes an essay upon single vision with two eyes: together with experiments and observations on several other subjects in optics (1792) by william charles wells. there are 24 pages of illustrations from some of the books, but none from the eye related books. notable medical books 15 this is a 1976 publication of the lilly library of indiana university highlighting historically significant medical books that were donated to the library by josiah kirby lilly, jr. introductory material includes a two page discussion of significant medical book collections and their donation to libraries, a two page account of lilly's collecting interests and the lilly library, and a one page introduction to the main body of the catalog. a description of the contents and historical importance of 130 books is discussed, along with some biographical information on the authors. two facing pages are devoted to each book, providing a simple but appealing design. the left facing pages contain illustrations, either from the book or having some connection to the author. the right facing pages contain text matter. the entries in the catalog are arranged in chronological order of their writing or publication. there is an index of the authors. an acknowledgments page at the end of the book lists six reference sources. the eye-related items in this book are publications by bartisch, purkinje, helmholtz, and von graefe that were also featured in the 1966 exhibition catalog from the lilly library. the bernard becker collection in ophthalmology16 this nicely designed catalog discusses 426 rare books in the bernard becker collection of ophthalmology books. bibliographical data plus a short discussion of contents and historical significance are given for each book, along with references for further information. there are more than 30 black and white illustrations taken from these books. included are a subject index and a chronological and geographical index for the books. also included in the catalog are a seven page listing (basic bibliographical data only) of 20th century books in the collection, a six page listing of selected titles from the library's other holdings that are complementary to the becker collection, and 16 color plates from the becker collection. this book demonstrates that a catalog can be both visually appealing and a contribution to scholarship. a review of this catalog praised it for being "ably and thoughtfully annotated" and "interesting to browse."17 comments the rare book catalogs discussed were produced with a variety of formats. they differed in number of illustrations, and indexing ranged from none to very extensive. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 93 they provide examples of some of the different purposes discussed earlier, although they could all serve as reference sources to some extent. they vary in potential value as contributions to the scholarly literature, although i learned something from each of them and i enjoyed examining them all. references 1. traister d. rare book collections: the need for interpretation. wilson library bulletin october, 1983; 115-119. 2. allen g. the design and printing of library exhibition catalogues. rare books & manuscripts librarianship 1990;5(2):77 -84. 3. taylor mj. letter to the editor. rare books & manuscripts librarianship 1992;7(2): 160. 4. traister d. public services and outreach in rare book, manuscript, and special collections libraries. library trends 2003;52(1 ):87 -108. 5. holman wr. library publications. san francisco: r. beacham, 1965. 6. berger se. the design of bibliographies: observations, references and examples. westport, ct: greenwood press, 1992. 7. berger se. the design and evaluation of exhibition catalogs. rare books & manuscripts librarianship 1992;7(1 ):45-60. 8. university of virginia. catalogue of the adolph lomb optical library at the university of virginia; with an introduction by james p.c. southall. charlottesville: alderman library, 1947. 9. hofstetter hw. the adolph lomb optical library. newsletter optom hist soc 1986;17:45. 10. osler w. bibliotheca osleriana: a catalogue of books illustrating the history of medicine and science collected, arranged, and annotated by william osler and bequeathed to mcgill university. montreal: megill-queen's university press, 1969. 11. roland cg. osler, sir william. dictionary of canadian biography online. http://www.biographi.ca/en/showbio.asp?biold=41753. accessed july 7, 2008. 12. sutcliffe jh, mitchell m, chittell. british optical association library and museum catalogue. london: council of the british optical association, 1932. 13. sallander h. bibliotheca walleriana: the books illustrating the history of medicine and science collected by dr. erik waller and bequeathed to the library of the royal university of uppsala; a catalog. stockholm: almqvist & wiksell, 1955. 14. randall da, bennett jq. medicine: an exhibition of books relating to medicine and surgery from the collection formed by j.k. lilly. bloomington, in: indiana university lilly library, 1966. 15. lefanu wr, waife so, mccain e, weber r, hammond ce. notable medical books, from the lilly library indiana university. indianapolis: lilly research laboratories, 1976. 16. wechsler l, hoolihan c, weimer mf. the bernard becker collection in ophthalmology: an annotated catalog, 3rd ed. st. louis: bernard becker medical library, washington university school of medicine, 1996. 17. enoch jm. book review: the bernard becker collection in ophthalmology: an annotated catalog. optom vis sci 1998;75:634. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 94 book review: a brief history of bausch & lomb's first 150 years a brief history of bausch & lomb's first 150 years: perfecting vision, enhancing life for 150 years. lee sullivan. bausch & lomb, 2004.72 pages. hardcover. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book was produced to commemorate the 150th anniversary of bausch & lomb. it is filled with photographs of bausch & lomb products and personnel. toward the front of the book are one page biographies of founders j.j. bausch and henry c. lomb. john jacob bausch was born in 1830 in germany, and came to the united states in 1849. his name was originally jacob bausch, but he changed it to john jacob bausch, when he found that there was another person named jacob bausch living in rochester, new york where he settled. obviously a man of patience, bausch had to wait several years before his optical business, started in 1853, began to turn a profit. even though his business grew into a giant company, bausch is said to have been friendly to all employees and did not expect deference to his position. bausch died in 1926. henry c. lomb was born in 1828, also in germany, and, like bausch, came to the united states in 1849. he worked as a carpenter in rochester, new york, until joining bausch in the optical business. his loan of sixty dollars to bausch started their company. he fought in the american civil war from 1861 to 1863, rising in the ranks from sergeant to captain. his army pay helped keep bausch's optical business going. when lomb returned to rochester from the civil war, the business officially became known as bausch & lomb. lomb showed great concern for employee welfare and worked on a number of philanthropic projects during his lifetime. he died in 1908. the financial breakthrough for bausch & lomb was in 1866 when the company started manufacturing spectacle frames and optical instruments using vulcanite from the american rubber company. in the mid 1870s, b&l started making microscopes and in 1880, they started manufacturing photographic lenses. in the 1890s, they began making telescopes and binoculars. soon thereafter they were making slide projectors and naval gun sights. b&l's scientific bureau started in 1905, prior to which their research efforts were an informal family effort. during world war i, b&l produced about three fourths of the approximately six hundred thousand pounds of optical glass needed by the u.s. military. during world war ii, that amount increased to three million pounds of optical glass. b&l also produced aerial mapping camera lenses, projection equipment, ortho-rater vision testers, binoculars, range and height finders, spotting scopes, gas masks, and ray-ban goggles for the military in world war ii. at one point during the war, employment at hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 95 b&l's rochester plant was over ten thousand. after world war ii, ray-ban sunglasses became very popular. in the 1930s, b&l started manufacturing ophthalmic testing equipment. among this equipment were the ferree-rand perimeter, ortho-rater vision tester, universal slit lamp, greens' refractor, and eye chart projectors. the 1950s were marked by production of various camera lenses, photographic filters, magnifiers, and other accessories, and the development of the cinemascope lens for motion picture projection. early in 1971, b&l started marketing its soflens soft contact lens, the great success of which led b&l to become a fortune 500 company in 1975. the last two decades of the twentieth century saw b&l change its direction, selling its interest in many of its traditional products and moving into the field of gas permeable contact lenses and extended wear soft contact lenses, as well as into various other health care areas, such as pharmaceuticals, microsurgical equipment, skin care products, and toothbrushes. clearly not an in-depth history, this promotional book provides some entertaining browsing. the numerous photographs are attractively presented, and the text gives an overview of the major accomplishments of the company from its beginnings to the present. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 96 book review: the prism and the pendulum: the ten most beautiful experiments in science the prism and the pendulum: the ten most beautiful experiments in science. robert p. crease. new york: random house, 2004. xxiii + 244 pages. isbn 08129-7062-4. paperback, $14.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu i was drawn to this book because two of the experiments the author identifies as the most beautiful in science involve optics. one was isaac newton's (1642-1727) experiments with prisms showing that colors mixed together form white light rather than color being a distortion of white light. the other was thomas young's (1773-1829) double slit experiment showing the interference of light and suggesting its wave nature. early in the book the author gives his definition of a beautiful experiment. he claims that a beautiful experiment has three characteristics depth, efficiency, and definitiveness: " ... a beautiful experiment is one that shows something deep about the world in a way that transforms our understanding of it." its "elements have to be efficiently arranged." and "a beautiful experiment should be definitive, revealing its result without need for further generalizations or inferences." (pages xviii-xix) the author suggests that " ... the beauty of newton's experimentum cruces had nothing to do with the colors produced by his prisms ... but with how it reveals what it does about light. ... and the beauty of young's experiment is not due to its rather mundane pattern of black-and-white stripes but to how these disclose something essential about light." (page 17) each of the ten beautiful experiments is discussed in a separate chapter. in addition to the experiments by newton and young, the other eight are: measurement of the earth's circumference by eratosthenes (c.276-c.195 bc); galilee galilei (15641642) showing that objects of different weights fall at the same speed; galilee's inclined plane experiment showing the acceleration of gravity; henry cavendish (1731-1810) and measurement of the mean density of the earth; jean-bernard-leon foucault's (1819-1868) pendulum showing the rotation of the earth; the oil drop experiment of robert millikan (1868-1953) to measure the charge of an electron; discovery of the internal structure of the atom by ernest rutherford ( 1871-1937); and the phenomenon of quantum interference of single electrons by various investigators and groups. in each chapter the author wrote about the particular scientist and the historical context of the experiment, and he sketched out the nature of the experiment. after each chapter, the author presented an "interlude" of a few pages. these interludes address various issues in the philosophy of science, such as the contrast hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 97 between demonstration and experiment, imagination and creativity in the sciences compared to the arts, and the integration of science with popular culture. in a final concluding chapter, the author suggested that science can still be beautiful today. he observed that "almost all of the experiments in the top ten were done solo, or with the aid of a few collaborators, in a relatively short period of time. but the past half-century has wrought tremendous changes in the size and scale of science experiments. today, physics experiments are routinely interdisciplinary and multinational, and often involve dozens of institutions and hundreds of collaborators; they may take years or even decades to complete." the book includes twenty pages of reference notes and a four page index. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 98 past american optometric association presidents remembered david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu four former presidents of the american optometric association (aoa) passed away in december of 2007 and january of 2008. don a. frantz was aoa president in 1961-62, lester hussey in 1970-71, robert e. day, sr., in 1973-74, and harold frank demmer in 1981-82. don a. frantz don frantz was born in lola, kansas, in january 25, 1916, and died december 3, 2007. frantz started doing lens surfacing, edging, mounting, and dispensing in his father's optometry office when he was in high school. 1 he attended the university of chicago for two years and then completed a bachelor of science degree from northwestern university. he graduated from the northern illinois college of optometry in chicago. in 1942, he established a practice in dekalb, illinois. that practice grew into a professional corporation with five outstanding optometrists, three opticians, and ten assistants. my first experience with optometry, and subsequently my inspiration for going into optometry, was as a patient in that office in the 1960s. i was examined by one of frantz's partners, paul d. randolph, 1964 illinois optometrist of the year and the son of the superintendent of the rural school district where my father was one of the principals. their optometric practice occupied a two story building. examination rooms were l­ shaped with almost the entire wall at the "top" of the l serving as a projection screen. the screen was approximately six feet wide. during some tests the patient viewed stereoscopic color pictures which covered most of the screen. standard optometric letters and charts could be projected into a blocked out portion of the color scene.2•3 so, for example, a check on the subjective refraction was done using a standard letter chart in the middle of a stereo color picture of a distant mountain scene. frantz served the aoa in many capacities, chairman of the committee on practice management, eight years as the secretary of the council on optometric education, and chairman of the long-term planning committee.4 he was a lecturer and author for the optometric extension program, frequently writing on practice management topics, and a fellow of the american academy of optometry. he taught practice management at illinois college of optometry, and spoke at many other schools and colleges of optometry. i was fortunate to hear one of his inspiring talks when i was a student at pacific university college of optometry in the early 1970s. perhaps the most memorable part of his presentation was the story he told of his examination of a woman who had been thought to be blind. he described how he found that the woman hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 99 had about twenty diopters of hyperopia and a very high amount of astigmatism and was able to help that woman see as she had never seen before. 5 lester r. hussey lester hussey was born june 23, 1912, and died on december 21, 2007. hussey attended high school in spokane, washington.6 in 1934, he completed a b.s. degree from whitworth college with a major in math.7•8 he graduated from los angeles college of optometry in 1938, and he established a practice in spokane, washington. 9 he completed additional study in education at gonzaga university.7 he served in the united states navy from 1943 to 1946. hussey was president of the washington optometric association from 1958 to 1960, and he was their optometrist of the year in 1960. he served the american optometric association for 32 years in various roles, including work on the insurance committee, the department of public health, and the department of organization. during his aoa presidency (1970-71 ), hussey worked to reorganize the aoa's departments and committees.10 robert e. day, sr. robert day was born in van alstyne, texas on may 19, 1924, and died on january 11, 2008. he served in the united states army air corps from 1943 to 1946.11 he earned a b.s. degree in physics from north texas university and graduated from southern college of optometry in 1949.12•13 day practiced in garland, texas from 1950 to 2000. he became president of the texas optometric association in 1963 and chairman of its board of directors in 1965.13 he was a fellow of the american academy of optometry, and received an honorary doctor of ocular science degree from southern college of optometry in 197 4. he was president of the aoa in 1973-7 4. harold frank demmer harold f. demmer was born in cincinnati on december 11, 1926, and died on december 26, 2007. he was in the united states air force from 1945 to 1946, and served in okinawa during world war 11. 14 he attended the university of dayton and graduated from southern college of optometry in 1954.15 he practiced in houma, louisiana. he served as a president of the louisiana state association of optometrists and was their od of the year in 1969. he was aoa president in 1981-82. references 1. anonymous. profiles of personalities in optometry: dr. don a. frantz, aoa president elect. jam optom assoc 1960;32:314. 2. frantz da. natural color stereoscopic refraction. j am optom assoc 1959;30:471-476. 3. frantz da. a review of three-dimensional refraction. optom weekly 1966;57(1 ):23-30. 4. anonymous. frantz: noted educator, author. aoa news january, 2008;46(9): 15. 5. frantz da. thorough refraction makes blind woman see: a human interest story. jam optom assoc 1960;32:318-319. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 100 6. anonymous. personalities in optometry: dr. lester r. hussey, aoa trustee. j am optom assoc 1964;35:140. 7. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:164. 8. anonymous. introducing a.o.a.'s new president. jam optom assoc 1970;41 :610-611. 9. anonymous. hussey served aoa 32 years. aoa news january, 2008;46(9): 15. 10. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:329. 11. anonymous. day served 1973-74. aoa news february 4, 2008;46(10):8. 12. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:75. 13. anonymous. profiles: robert e. day, o.d. jam optom assoc 1967;38:1050. 14. anonymous. demmer prominent in la. aoa news february 4, 2008;46(1 0):8. 15. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:77. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 101 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should tnclude a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as l:l. for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 102 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38: 17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 103 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: bridget kowalczyk secretary-treasurer, optometric historical society international library, archives, and museum of optometry 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: __ regular membership, $25 per year __ patron membership, $50 per year __ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ______ ~------------------------------------------------address ______________________________________________________ __ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. for more information on the optometric historical society, see: www.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... july, 2008, volume 39, number 3, page 104 2008-39-03-001 2008-39-03-002 2008-39-03-003 2008-39-03-004 2008-39-03-005 2008-39-03-006 2008-39-03-007 2008-39-03-008 2008-39-03-009 2008-39-03-010 2008-39-03-011 2008-39-03-012 2008-39-03-013 2008-39-03-014 2008-39-03-015 2008-39-03-016 2008-39-03-017 2008-39-03-018 2008-39-03-019 2008-39-03-020 2008-39-03-021 2008-39-03-022 optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume37 april2006 number2 jay enoch's column: on being fitted with scleral fluid hard contact lenses in the office of theodore obrig in new york city jay m. enoch professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus school of optometry, mc 2020 university of california at berkeley berkeley, california 94720-2020 jmenoch@ berkeley.edu i was the youngest member of my school of optometry class. more than 130 of us entered the first year optometry class in 1948 at columbia university in new york city, most all of the students were wwii veterans (i was not), there was one female in the class, a puerto rican young lady named irma pedrogo (who later married my good friend robert phillips, also a member of the class); 96 of us survived the cut at the beginning of the second year. ours was the last two-year optometry class at columbia university resulting in a b.s. degree in optics and optometry (two-years pre-optometry, two-years optometry). luckily, i had a tuition scholarship, but money was very tight, and i very much needed a job! previously, i noted i had entered research abruptly by physically bumping into the late prof. isidore finkelstein at a columbia dance where i heard he was offering the then rather princely sum of $1.00/hour for research subjects to participate in experiments being conducted by him at columbia-presbyterian medical center in the laboratory of the late prof. george smelser (anatomy) in the department of ophthalmology research. finkelstein had started his graduate studies in biophysics with the late prof. selig hecht in physiology on the 116th street campus, but following hecht's untimely death, he had transferred to prof. smelser's program at the medical center. that program was funded by the u.s. army. since 1 million+ men had been deferred because of vision problems during wwii, the army sought to determine if, by fitting a number of these men with contact lenses, they could effectively serve in meaningful roles in the military in the future. 37111 as selected subjects and assistants in the laboratory, we were refracted and screened for unsought complications. my memory is not clear on this point, but i believe this screening was performed by dr. finkelstein in his optometric office. following this, we were fitted with now old-fashioned fluid (non-vented) scleral hard contact lenses made of molded plexiglas (perspex). the molded lens was cut to size, and ground and polished as indicated. the very knowledgeable and gentle "finky" and his phd advisor, anatomist prof. george smelser, were studying the biophysics, biochemistry and physiology of the cornea and how it was affected by contact lens wear. our contact lens fitting, per se, took place in the offices of the late theodore obrig in an elegant former mansion on a street off of fifth avenue near st. patrick's cathedral in new york city. then quite elderly, theodore obrig molded my eyes, and the lenses and their fit was refined by a warm-hearted lady, mrs. bergman. the salvatori brothers, phil and tony, played a role in the fitting as well and were also involved in the fabrication and modification of the lenses. at that time, i saw little of anthony "tony" salvatori, but i got to know phillip salvatori quite wellhe taught me a great deal, and was active in contact lens fitting at the obrig establishment. while, i do not know mrs. bergman's background, both obrig and the two salvatori brothers were opticians. after being fitted and adapting to the lenses, i wore them quite regularly for about 8 years. of course, "sattler's veil" became evident after about two hours of wear. so saying we could readily wear the lenses for periods of time of say 6 hours or a bit more. true, things got somewhat cloudy, but we managed. i should point out that coincident with this form of fitting (or shortly thereafter) the obrig labs began to fit "fluidless" vented contact lenses which had shallow corneal clearance. at that time their design featured an inverted narrow "u" slot which was located inferiorly in the molded lens. by this means tear fluid was admitted to the central lens area of the design, and that central area was surrounded by a blended clearance zone. in this lens design, the slotted cut facilitated passage in and out of tear fluid. on some occasions a second inverted "u" slot was ground into the lens. however, for purposes of our research program at columbia (university) college of physicians and surgeons, we were fitted with the older form of fluid contact lenses. finky and smelser were interested in corneal physiology and the factors influencing it, and sought to better understand the properties of sattler's veil and associated corneal clouding. actually these lenses were not uncomfortable once they were properly fitted and a suitable wetting agent was applied(then obrig wetting solution .. it was methyl­ cellulose based). a stand-off edge would definitely irritate the lid(s). if the lens rotated, the plastic would deviate from the mold contours. one quickly learned that rotation was commonly encountered if there were two opposing tight areas or the effective sum of snug areas on the sclera acted as two-effective opposing tight areas. the effect was similar to throwing a curved ball in baseball. after taking a case history, step one in the obrig office when fitting the individual with a fluid contact lens was to utilize the information or resources provided by the referring eye care practitioner, ophthalmologist, optometrist, or optician. a visual acuity was taken, with and without a refractive correction. if an ophthalmologist accompanied 37112 -his patient, he was asked to administer the necessary drops when the eye was molded. a drop or two of anesthesia was applied to the cornea, this secondarily resulted in softening the corneal epithelium, and after molding the eye, when applying fluorescein enhanced corneal staining was noted. both the anesthesia, and the molding resulted in conjunctival injection. the conjunctiva was blanched just before molding in order to obtain a satisfactory mold of both cornea and sclera. a multiply fenestrated molding shell was selected for eye/orbit size and applied to the eye. obrig ophthalmic moldite material was injected through the handle of the eye-cup-like mold frame into the space between the eye and the molding shell. as the moldite compound set, one noted the familiar small mushroom-like extrusions of molding compound oozing through fenestrations in the shell. these served to hold the moldite to the shell. to remove the mold, it was necessary to depress gently the eye about the edge of the mold in order to break/release the modest vacuum which had developed and which effectively held the mold to the eye. the shell was then gently removed. after allowing the mold to harden a bit, a fine dental cement was pored into the mold, and this cement-transfer mold (now a positive-shaped mold of the cornea and sclera) served as the pattern in a small hydraulic press. a thin, solid flat sheet of heat-softened plexiglas (perspex) plastic was then pressed to shape in order to create the outlines of the lens used to fit the eye. obviously, the fluid chamber and blend zone were built up and shaped. and one did not want to support the lens too closely at the limbus. it was the sclera which was really fitted. among the many lenses i wore was one with the cornea removed to see if part of corneal effects noted could be ascribed to the scleral fit alone. while this donut-shaped lens was not particularly comfortable, the cornea remained clear. at the second and third visits, the lenses were inserted in my eyes and checked for fit. the proper orientation of the lens was determined by locating partially drilled holes which were filled with red dye. these were located inferiorly. tight spots were loosened by either grinding away areas within the shell or warping out the scleral section locally by using heated spatulas (variously shaped). power adjustments were made to the corneal area. the writer found he was particularly sensitive in areas of the blend zone where it repeatedly contacted the limbus. the real challenge (demanding great patience) was inserting the fluid along with the lens onto the eye. i wonder how many times the fluid ran down my arm before i learned the necessary tricksnamely the need to bend way down, keep level, expect to lose some fluid, set the insertion angle with care, etc. and a good bit of patient time was absorbed in finding the most comfortable insertion fluid medium. most of us found some combination of 1.5-2.0% of bicarbonate of soda in triple distilled water from small bottles or containers seemed to work best. the inserting fluid would last 2-4 days in a well stoppered bottle if kept in the refrigerator between uses. the insertion fluid working best was one which had a slightly basic ph (to match tears), had some buffering capacity, and which came in small bottles with little air space above the fluid line in the stoppered bottle. that is, in time, the fluid absorbed carbon dioxide from the air and formed carbonic acid, lowering the ph and altering comfort. by keeping air away from the solution, the batch lasted considerably longer, and by utilizing bicarbonate of soda ,. ''!!') ·~ . ~ 0 ')• ~ ./ ,,. ·'" ,, 37/13 mixtures some buffering was achieved. one did not want to use distilled water from a large carboy standing for some time in the lab, open (or not) to the atmosphere. the author previously has discussed some details of the research performed on this fascinating set of topics at columbia by finkelstein and smelser; and separately by david cogan, v. everett kinsey and d. donaldson at harvard (i was given opportunity to spend time working in cambridge, ma, one summer with that group). interested parties should read finkelstein's fine dissertation which appeared largely the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry in two sections within the same volume (see references). subject jme is one of the faithful subjects in these studies. others included as subjects were the wild twins from rhode island, brad and bart, herbert korones, benjamin davis, and bill ludlam. all of us ended up as academics and/or researchers, except for bart wild who took over his dad's practice in newport, and ben davis who had already been in practice before serving as subject. finally, one of my many tasks with smelser and finkelstein was to fit scleral fluid contact lenses to many experimental animals employed in their studies. included were hamsters (many), cats (few), dogs (few), monkeys (few), rabbits (many). thus, i learned contact lens fitting and much useful knowledge. these were wonderful people with whom to work. i remember those rich experiences fondly! references isidore s. finkelstein. the biophysics of corneal scatter and diffraction of light induced by contact lenses. (presented dec. 8, 1951 at the american academy of optometry.) american j. of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry 29(4 [april], 5 [may]): part i, april, 1952, pp. 185-208; part ii, may, 1952, pp. 231-259. j.m.e. bob boynton's talk at ohs meeting in san diego, december. 2005: editor's note: this is a text of bob boynton's talk at the ohs meeting held in december during the american academy of optometry meeting in san diego. fifty years of viewing optometry as an outsider 1 . an article in the reader's digest if it happened, it would have been more than fifty years ago. what i vaguely remembered was being in an attic surrounded by piles of old magazines. i was leafing through an ancient copy of the reader's digest1 when i happened upon a nasty piece-­ obviously planted by ophthalmologists -warning the public to beware of optometrists. 37114 my hazy memory of this long-forgotten event was revived by the need to prepare this talk. 1 decided to look for it. a reference librarian at the ucsd library helped me locate a listing that looked promising. in the stacks, i removed a fat 1937 volume of reader's digest from the shelf and found an article with the provocative title "optometry on trial". 2 the following paragraph reveals that some of the article was, as i had remembered, nasty indeed. 'when dr. w. e. lambert was chairman of the eye section of the academy of medicine of new york he personally collected evidence of more than 50 cases of glaucoma, brain tumor and other diseases which had been overlooked by optometrists ... to the optometrist, impaired vision is merely a matter of giving the customer 'relief' by hanging lenses on his nose, usually without taking the slightest medical history or making even the shallowest physical examination. as a result, a long caravan winds into the eye clinic or ophthalmologist's office suffering from advanced cases of glaucoma, syphilis, diabetes and kidney trouble which the lenses prescribed by optometrists have had no power to retard or avert. worse yet, the patients have had no warning of their impending fate." to be sure, there were many badly-trained optometrists practicing seventy years ago. on the other hand, less than thirty years earlier -at the time of the flexner report3 -even larger stones could have been hurled at the house of medicine. fortunately, the article was not entirely negative. it ended as follows: "is there a remedy? clearly the standards of optometrists -both in education and practice -must be raised. the optometrists must clean their own shop if they expect to enjoy the continued confidence of the public. there are, within the ranks of the optometrists themselves, a considerable body of men who wish to raise the standards of their craft, to root out flagrant commercialism and unethical practices. in the high councils of optometry these men, aware of their responsibilities, are advocating reforms which will be discussed in the succeeding article." it was pointed out to me at our meeting that the american academy of optometry has housed the "high councils of optometry" that have subsequently been very successful in elevating the profession. 2. glenn a. fry readers of hindsight will have no trouble recognizing glenn fry in the accompanying photograph, which was taken in 1956 at nela park in cleveland at a "conference for research specialists". glenn is standing tall at the upper right, fronting what looks like the world's largest light bulb, and i am next to him. in this photo, glenn is in his late forties and i am a mere 32. 37/15 w ..,_) .._ ....... 0\ conference for visual research specialists, general electric lighting institute nela park cleveland, ohio, april 23-25, 1956 front row (left to right): c. w. melton, david g. fleming, leonard c. mead, kenneth n. ogle, harry nelson, r.m. hall, g.a brecher, gerald westheimer, arthur a eastman. middle row: sylvester guth, warrens. mcculloch, fmtest l. dimmick, edgar auerbach, david volk, mathew alpern, wemer k. noell, sam renshaw, r. binder. back row: j.f. mcnelis, men-ill j. allen, chas. s. bridgman, miles a tinker, meredith w. morgan, deane b. judd, ralph g. hopkinson, robert m. boynton, glenn a fry. 1 ~.11 1 had previously known glenn, but i probably met merrill allen and meredith morgan for the first time at this conference. this meeting also provided an opportunity tor me to interact with two of my contemporaries, mat alpern and gerald westheimer, both of whom had recently earned their doctorates with fry.4 of the many times i interacted with glenn fry over the years -at conferences, committee meetings, and so on -two events stand out in memory. in 1953, only a year out of graduate school, i was an assistant professor at the university of rochester. in the 1950s, the office of naval research (onr) had a "resident representative" on campus to monitor its projects, including my $5000 contract. from him i learned of equipment from a completed project at rochester that was slated for transfer to the ohio state university. i had wanted to visit fry's lab, so i volunteered to drive the onr stuff to columbus in exchange for partial reimbursement of my travel expenses. on the telephone, after saying that he would be happy to have me come, glenn mentioned that a small vision conference was scheduled near the time of my visit, and he invited me to sit in. this turned out to be one of the annual vision meetings named for sam renshaw (middle row in the photograph), a psychologist with strong ties to optometry. i attended, and was invited back in subsequent years. there were usually about twenty papers presented. at the conclusion of these meetings, which were interdisciplinary and very worthwhile, a mysterious man named skeffington5 gave each of us a $50 bill. i met many more research optometrists at renshaw conferences. an especially vivid memory is driving up to cleveland with gordon walls after one of these gatherings, which provided a wonderful opportunity to spend two or three hours with one of vision science's outstanding "characters".6 the second fry-related incident occurred in 1962. about three years earlier, after moving from michigan, dick blackwell had established his vision research institute at ohio state. he and glenn wanted me to join them at osu, and i accepted their invitation to visit and be interviewed for a possible position. after a long day chatting with deans and vice presidents, followed by a "job talk" in the evening, i found myself with glenn eating wheaties at about four o'clock in the morning. i was getting very sleepy when glenn told me that he planned to retire as director of the school of optometry in a couple of years and return to full-time research and teaching. then he jolted me wide awake by saying he had me in mind to succeed him as director! although i probably didn't say so at the time, i did not think this was a good idea. i let the wheels turn and soon received a formal offer as professor in the school of optometry. i turned it down because i could not imagine how anyone without optometric training could possibly succeed in glenn's job. moreover, i did not want to be involved in the ophthalmology-optometry wars. 7 37/17 3. precocious collaborators my collaborators jay enoch and william baron had similar backgrounds including their precocity: jay was the youngest optometrist in the u.s. army during the korean war, and bill was at one time the youngest licensed optometrist in the state of new york. i enjoyed productive associations with these outstanding researchers, and i benefited from their strong optometric backgrounds. jay enoch needs no introduction but most hindsight readers probably don't know that he and i were co-authors of a pair of publications more than sixty years ago.8 jay had come to rochester in 1952-53, expecting to work with brian o'brien in the institute of optics. unexpectedly, o'brien left the university during that year, leading jay to transfer to the graduate program at ohio state in the fall of 1953. in the spring of 1953, jay came my office, saying that he'd like to work in my lab during the summer before he left rochester. i explained, truthfully, that i had no funds for his support, but that didn't deter him: "i'd be willing to work for nothing," he said, and he did. it was a productive summer, resulting in two papers that were published the following year in the journal of the optical society of america, each co-authored with graduate student bill bush. one of these was a study of stray light in excised steer eyes. it was jay's idea to do this work, which required the use of a sensitive photomultiplier unit. i had no funds to buy one, but jay -who always seems to find a way -was able to borrow one9 and we were off and running. in the early '70s, after completing his ph.d. at berkeley with gerald westheimer, bill baron came to rochester to assist in the study of receptor potentials. when i moved to ucsd in 1974, bill took our lab equipment with him to the stanford research institute in menlo park, where i visited frequently as we continued our collaboration for six more years.10 4. a "cool" conference brian tansley, a canadian who was perhaps the most talented of my graduate students, came with me from rochester to la jolla after completing course requirements for the doctorate. he did his dissertation research at ucsd and received a rochester ph.d. he then went to the school of optometry at waterloo to work as a postdoc with jack moreland. the equipment that he had used for his two dissertation projects became available, and i decided to make use of it. not since doing my doctoral research had i been the laboratory working alone, doing everything with my own two hands, and i felt a strong desire to do this for a while. using what brian had left behind, and a bit more, i built and calibrated an apparatus, arranged it so that a experimenter was not necessary, and served as the only subject in a new experiment on chromatic discrimination. this turned out to be the foundation for several years of collaborative work on this subject that would follow. 37118 1 had not intended to publish this preliminary study, but in 1977 the university of houston celebrated the opening of its new optometry building by staging a huge conference to which i was invited to contribute. the write-up of my preliminary solo experiment was one of 70 papers that were published in a thick book titled "frontiers of visual science". the editors were s.j.cool and e.l. smith. 11 for summer readin~ before i started graduate work at brown, lorrin riggs had recommended two books. 2 one of these was written by ragnar granit, the other by howard bartley. both gave papers at this "cool" meeting. bartley, like renshaw, was a psychologist who was heavily involved with optometry and this was the only time i would ever see him. although there were, of course, a great many research optometrists at this meeting, researchers from many backgrounds were represented. 5. scco during the 1980s, i served for three or four years as an outside judge of fourth­ year student research papers at the southern california school of optometry. some of these papers were very good. this also gave me an opportunity to learn something of their curriculum and i was very favorably impressed. from the internet i have concluded that the other fifteen u.s. schools in the association of schools and colleges of optometry enjoy equally rigorous programs. later i was asked to serve on a committee at scco, the purpose of which was to think of ways that the research effort at the school could be increased and outside funding attracted to support it. we found this to be an impossible task for a private school whose primary mission was not to do research, but to train future practitioners of optometry. i was reminded of what brian tansley had told me about his experience at waterloo. much as jay enoch had been abandoned by brian o'brien, tansley was abandoned by jack moreland, who returned to england not long after tansley arrived. tansley made arrangements to take a postoc at dalhousie with david regan beginning a few months later, but in the interim he decided to sit in on some optometry classes. being squelched whenever he corrected an instructor or attempted to expand on an issue, brian quickly discovered that instruction there was a one-way street. this is not the kind of environment that is compatible with innovative research. 6. some final thoughts optometry has come a very long way indeed since that nasty reader's digest article was published in 1937, despite obstructions put in its path by the medical profession, which seems to have placed economic considerations above concerns for the health of the public. a prime example was making it illegal for optometrists to use a drug to dilate the pupil. i can almost believe that the medics would have made it illegal for optometrists to use an ophthalmoscope, had they been able to find a basis for doing so. optometry arose as a profession because there never were anywhere near enough ophthalmologists to provide eye care for the public. in my opinion, it is immoral for the medical profession to have prevented optometrists from doing their best work. 37119 no one has prevented ophthalmologists from receiving rigorous training in refraction: they have managed to avoid such training on their own. while at rochester, 1 was shocked to learn how little instruction in refraction was provided to ophthalmic residents there, and i am told that they get even less at ucsd. a reader's digest piece entitled "medical refractionists on trial" could be published today. endnotes 1. i remembered this as an event that took place in the winchester, massachusetts home where my first wife grew up. we visited there often while i was finishing my undergraduate education at amherst and during the four years i was a graduate student at brown. my mother-in-law was the pack-rat responsible for this disorganized cache of old magazines. 2. riis rw. optometry on trial. the reader's digest 1937;31: 77-85. two articles quickly followed in successive issues. the second, which had not originally been planned, was needed to discuss an outpouring of letters that the digest had received in reaction to the first article. the third article -originally intended as the second -added little to what had already been written. all that i can surmise about r.w. riis, who authored these articles, is that he could not have been a medical doctor because he was referred to as "mr. riis" in a prefatory section that introduced the second article. 3. flexner a. medical education in the united states and canada. new york, ny: carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching, 1910. 4. others at this meeting who would soon play important roles in my career included deane judd and ken ogle, senior figures who reviewed some of my early papers favorably. a.m. hall was a local practitioner who happened to be my father's optometrist. i remember dad telling me, long before i began to study vision, how impressed he was with the fancy equipment in dr. hall's office. 5. according to what jay enoch told me at dinner before the meeting, a.m. skeffington was the prime mover in the optometric extension program, about which there was a great deal of controversy. although i don't remember it, jay said that skeffington always appeared in a white suit at these meetings. 6. gordon walls was not trained as an optometrist, but ended his career at the school of optometry in berkeley. his book the vertebrate eye and its adaptive radiation (haftner, 1963) is a classic. possibly as a result of our conversation on that drive, i obtained a copy of book-length notes that he had assembled for his students. these made for lively reading. 7. the idea of creating a center for visual science at rochester arose shortly after my visit to columbus. i reasoned that if i were capable of being a director of something, i would prefer to lead an organization compatible with my training and interests. 37/20 8. boynton am, bush wr, enoch jm. rapid changes in foveal sensitivity resulting from direct and indirect adapting stimuli. j opt soc am 1954; 44:56-60; boynton am, enoch jm, bush wr. physical measures of stray light in excised eyes. j opt soc am 1954; 44:879-896. 9. the photomultiplier unit was borrowed from professor george smelser of the college of physicians and surgeons at columbia university where jay had earned his o.d. degree in the soon-to-be-defunct school of optometry. 1 o. our last publication together: boynton am, baron ws. field sensitivity of the "red" mechanism derived from primate local electroretinogram. vision res 1982; 22:869-878. 11. seventy papers based on talks at the conference were published in cool sj, smith el, eds. frontiers in visual science. springer-verlag, 1978. my paper was titled "discriminations that depend upon blue cones" (pp. 154-163). 12. the books were granit r. sensory mechanisms of the retina. oxford university press, 1947; and bartley sh. vision, a study of its basis. van nostrand, 1941. robert m. boynton 376 bellaire st., del mar ca 92014 858 481 0263 on the rochester school of optometry (rso) and reuben greenspoon: the following was written by ohs member morton k. greenspoon (4326 park paloma, calabasas, california 91302; drmort@mac.com) i read with interest the two part essay by professor jay enoch on the optometry program at the university of rochester. he writes "it is important to point out that there was a second, non university affiliated optometry educational program located in rochester. it was called rochester school of optometry." my father, reuben greenspoon, was a graduate of that program. i think it would be of interest to share his story and what i know of rso from reading his 1921 yearbook. my father was an immigrant from the ukraine in czarist russia. his father brought the family to new york to escape the oppression of the czar when my father was five. my father was plagued by poor eyesight. he was hyperopic, astigmatic and hyperphoric. one summer he went to a summer camp for poor lower east side children sponsored by comedian eddie cantor. the camp provided health care and he was seen by an optometrist who provided glasses. the glasses changed his life. he became an excellent student and decided that he was going to dedicate his life to providing vision care to others. 37/21 after graduation from high school he was accepted at rochester school of optometry. optometry was then a two year course and he paid his way through college working as a street car conductor at night. i was fortunate to find his 1921 yearbook in my attic and started looking through it. i was amazed. the school was housed in a beautiful three story ivy covered brick building. the class of 1921 had a football team, a basketball team and a track team. there were two fraternities on campus mu delta and chi delta. among the social activities were six dances, several banquets and field trips to the bausch and lomb plant and the geneva lens plant. on march 21, 1921, they held the twelfth annual banquet of the rochester school of optometry alumni association, which would mean the school was founded in 1909. in attendance were the president of the university of rochester, and a representative of the bausch and lomb co. several selections were played by the student body orchestra. the school had an alma mater sung to the tune of "juanita." the dean of the school was ernest petry with whom my father formed a lifelong friendship. on page 60 of the yearbook appears an essay by henry bestor, a new york optometrist, that is quite prophetic for its time. he writes, "optometry is not and never should become a branch of medicine, and while we, as optometrists should have more education along the so-called medical lines, so that we may be able to co-operate more fully with the medical practitioner in cases which show ocular manifestations of pathological conditions, our strictly optometric work is better accomplished along the purely physical and physiological lines upon which optometry is based." after graduation my father opened a practice in brooklyn, new york. he developed an interest in low vision aids and keratoconus. in an effort to learn more about contact lenses he studied with william feinbloom. several years later, his brother, william greenspoon, also an rso graduate, joined him in practice in brooklyn, new york. in 1927, while ice skating at lake george in upper new york state, my father met my mother, stella blum, daughter of a well-known jeweler, harry blum. they were married at the park manor in brooklyn and took the train to los angeles for their honeymoon. they were absolutely fascinated by los angeles and in 1932 my father sold his half of his brooklyn practice to his brother william and moved with his wife and young son morton (me) to los angeles. dean petry introduced my father to his friend ernest hutchinson, dean of the los angeles college of optometry (laco). it was determined that in order to qualify for the california state board, he would have to go back to school for one year. he combined his studies with teaching the course in low vision at laco. after receiving his license to practice in california my father formed an association with arthur hoare and they practice together for several years in downtown los angeles. one fateful day my mother and father took a drive down wilshire boulevard out to the country. they came to the corner of beverly drive where they had just erected a new office building. my father said, "what is this place called because this is where i am going to move my practice." my mother replied, "this is a new area 37/22 called beverly hills." the building my father had decided to move office to, 9439 wilshire blvd., housed a veritable "who is who" of the movie business. he was the only optometrist in town. he was well on his way to becoming the optometrist to the stars. in 1939 one of his friends and patients, ben nye, head of the makeup department at 20th century fox studio, asked my father if he could use the new invisible spectacles, as contact lenses were called, to change the color of an actor's eye from brown to blue. my father accomplished this by fusing a blue ring of ceramic material onto a glass zeiss scleral lens. this was the first use of a contact lens in the movie industry to effect an eye color change. the name of the movie was "miracles for sale" starring actor robert young. the contact lenses and their removal to expose the killer's eye color change in the movie were a sensation. soon after paramount asked my father to make a popular science color short subject film about contact lenses. this film was distributed around the world and was the first introduction to the public about the existence of contact lenses. i graduated from los angeles college of optometry, later to become southern california college of optometry, in 1951. the school had a dream faculty headed by henry hofstetter and monroe hirsch. they became my idols. i joined my father in his beverly hills practice and soon took over the special effect contact lens part of the practice. i have been in practice for 54 years and have done special effect contact lenses for over 200 films and received an academy award for my work on "dracula" and an emmy award for my work on the "star trek" series. i am now 77 and practice three days a week. the practice now known as "professional visioncare assocaites" has four partners and a full time cosmetic contact lens department. optometry has come a long way in 84 years. i passed the exams in therapeutics and got my license and am still amazed every time i write a therapeutics prescription. morton k. greenspoon one hundred years ago: i noticed several ads for schools in the february 1 (volume 17, number 6) issue of the optical journal. on page 248, there was an ad for the rochester school of optometry, "a thorough and practical optical school." a. h. bowen was given as the president, and b. b. clark as the secretary of the school. on page 286, it was announced that either ophthalmology or neuropathy (including chiropractic) could be studied at the rowley ophthalmological college of st. louis. the ad noted that dr. a.p. davis was the originator of the school and one of its faculty. 37/23 on page 290 of the february 1, 1906, issue there were three advertisements for schools of various types. one was a brief ad from the los angeles school of ophthalmology and optometry in los angeles, california, that said "the california state board of optometry gives a stiff examination for everyone. we can qualify you. send for announcement." an ad from the horological department, bradley polytechnic institute (formerly parson's horologicallnstitute), peoria, illinois claimed that it was the "largest and best watch school in america. we teach watch work, jewelry engraving, clock work, optics. tuition reasonable. board and rooms near school at moderate rates. send for catalog of information." a slightly larger advertisement from the de selms watch school, 101 perry street, attica, indiana, exhorted the reader to "learn watchmaking at homeby the deselms chart system, copyrighted and pat'd, the most simple, practical and up to the minute method of learning .... " on page 308 of the february 1, 1906 issue there was a full page ad for the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology. this is almost the same as the ad that we reproduced in the july, 2005 issue of hindsight from the june 29, 1905, issue of the optical journal, except that the 1906 ad announced a feb. 12th to 16th alumni gathering and george a. rogers, oph. d., was not listed as a member of the faculty in 1906. j.b. mcfatrich, m.s., m.d., geo. wilbur mcfatrich, m.d., henrys. tucker, a.m., m.d., e.g. trowbridge, m.d., chalmers prentice, m.d., hon. lawrence y. sherman, ll.d., and james j. lewis, oph. d., were listed as faculty both in june, 1905 and in february, 1906. page 378 of the february 1 , 1906 issue featured a full-age ad from the south bend college of optics, no. 2 mcdonald building, south bend, indiana. the heading of their ad proclaimed that "we settle the question of prisms. our course in optics tells you just when and how to prescribe prisms and when to let them alone." after several lines about how their rules for prescribing prisms have "never been known to fail," the ad mentions teaching correction of astigmatism and use of the ophthalmoscope, retinoscope, and trial set. the ad also says that the school's "64-page prospectus, 'how to become a good optician," ... tells all about the most thorough and painstaking optical college in america." d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 37/24 2006-37-02-001 2006-37-02-002 2006-37-02-003 2006-37-02-004 2006-37-02-005 2006-37-02-006 2006-37-02-007 2006-37-02-008 2006-37-02-009 2006-37-02-010 2006-37-02-011 2006-37-02-012 2006-37-02-013 2006-37-02-014 hindsight_53_1_2_nobleed (002).pdf 20 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. a summary of the life of “the father of optometry,” charles prentice introduction this summary is intended to capture the essence of charles prentice’s optometric career without the necessity of finding and reading his autobiography. this summary is condensed from prentice’s autobiography entitled legalized optometry and the memoirs of its founder.1 the book was published in a limited edition of 200 copies in 1926. it is 416 pages in length and the first part of the book describes the events that led to the legalization of optometry and the writing and publication of several important papers related to optics. this section of the book is 188 pages in length. the remainder of the book is devoted to prentice’s memoirs and provides details of his life from birth through his education, to his involvement in the new york state board of examiners, beginning the program in optometry at columbia university and various other topics. although there were many men who contributed to the founding of the profession, it is prentice, who more than any other individual, deserves the honor of being called “the father of optometry.” classe’ has mentioned in his excellent chapter on “optometry–a legal history” that the impetus for the legal basis of optometry originated with an insult.2 prentice was a refracting optician who practiced in new york city. his examination was not limited solely to refraction and dispensing services, but he employed the ophthalmoscope and other techniques to detect disease. it was largely prentice’s unique personality, character of purpose and integrity that took great offense to a letter he received from dr. henry d. noyes. prentice chose a course of action where others might easily have succumbed to such threats. prentice has been characterized as an idealist. he deplored anyone who compromised at any stage of his existence. throughout his memoirs, he criticized his optometric colleagues, political friends, and friends in ophthalmology for their compromising attitudes. this rigid style may explain why he was only involved in the new york state legislative arena for two years. origin and early education prentice’s father, james prentice, was born in london, england on january 2, 1812, the only son of john prentice. prentice does not provide the name of his grandmother. john prentice, at this time, was secretary of the london and manchester coaching company operating prior to rail service. james was apprenticed for seven years to john beal, a maker of drafting instruments. john thought that james should know a trade. charles prentice’s mother was henrietta marschutz originally from germany. as a young woman, she served as a lady-inwaiting to the princess von wittgenstein at schloss (castle) hohenrothe, neuberg, germany. on her departure, she received a letter of introduction and praise from the princess von wittgenstein to comtesse de moat de l’ampere of paris, france when she moved to that city. following her service to the comtesse, she accompanied a married sister and her husband to america in 1849. in america, she was governess to the children of a well-known family who resided on astor place in new york city. prentice would later credit his mother for his good manners. on the day james absolved his apprenticeship, after seven years of service, and on his 23rd birthday, his father john died, suddenly leaving his estate to james and his two sisters. james took a position with the coaching company at the saracen’s head, london until this company discontinued business. in the meantime, the estate was poorly managed and ended disastrously abstract charles f. prentice published a book entitled, legalized optometry and the memoirs of its founder in 1926. only 200 copies were published. this 416page book was divided into two parts. the first part describes the events that transpired leading to the attempt to pass the first optometry practice act in the state of new york. the latter part describes prentice’s life. while every optometrist has heard of prentice, many are not familiar with his contributions to the profession of optometry. this summary offers an opportunity to read about the achievements of the man who has been called the “father of optometry.” keywords charles f. prentice, history of optometry licensure, optometric autobiography, optometry books, optometry history. john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o. s. dean and professor emeritus uab school of optometry birmingham, al 35216 eyedoc@uab.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v53i1&2.35648 hindsight: journal of optometry history 21 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. through ill-advised land and building investments. this turn of events resulted in james taking a job with elliott and sons in their mathematical instruments department. shortly thereafter, james emigrated to new york city, where he immediately established himself in the manufacture of drafting instruments in 1842. it was from this original business that the optical business evolved. it was during the american civil war that james opened his retail optical store. james prentice marries henrietta met james prentice through a previous acquaintance she had known in paris. by this time, he was a widower without heir. they were married in 1851 in brooklyn, new york and had eight children. charles prentice was the second child and their only child who survived infancy. he was born on june 24, 1854. he was enrolled in a german school in new york city at the age of five in 1859. later, during his boyhood years, he spent time on staten island and attended methfessel’s institute. he and his father had a close bond, and the latter always preached the value of a good education. it was apparent that his father planned for his son to join him in business after completing his education. one interesting childhood anecdote that followed prentice into adulthood is of note. at some point in his first decade of life, young charles was taken by his mother to visit a friend, mrs. linder. her husband edward was the inventor of the first breechloading firearm. mrs. linder called on her nephew, a teenage boy of 18 years, to entertain young charles. after watching the teen paint in watercolors, the young man decided to show charles his prowess with a breech-loading pistol. without a word of warning or explanation, he stood charles on a chair with a target set on a bracket just above his head. he then proceeded to fire the pistol, shooting at the target while cautioning charles not to move. after being terror stricken, charles collapsed in the chair from fright. this unusual adventure was followed in a day or two by an attack of scarlet fever. as a result of violent drugging, charles’ digestion and metabolism were greatly impaired and from whose effects he felt he never fully recovered. youthful accident while attending methfessel’s institute, during his youth, he jumped some 12 feet out of a barn window and sustained a fallen stomach. this condition was not discovered until 1909 when, at age 55, he was suffering from his third attack of inflammatory rheumatism. he had managed the condition primarily by paying careful attention to his diet. however, after having the condition for six months, his weight had been reduced to 115 pounds. a few days after returning to the office, a scottish gentleman came to see him. alarmed by his condition, the gentleman recommended that prentice resume his normal diet, discontinue all medications and take one ounce of “king william” scotch whiskey before each noon meal. he worked up the courage to try this remedy on january 15, 1910, and continued it until may 15, 1910 at which time he weighed 145 pounds. he concluded that his digestion had been stimulated and assimilation improved accounting for the weight gain. however, he was not able to relinquish the scotch whiskey without recurring symptoms and had to leave the country on occasion to lawfully gain access to the whiskey. needless to say, he was not a fan of the volstead act (prohibition). education abroad in april 1870, at the age of 16, he left for europe accompanied by his mother. during that year he attended the gymnasium (similar to high school) in lahr, baden, germany. henrietta had been born and raised in lahr. after turning 17 years of age, when he met the age requirement, prentice entered the royal polytechnicum at karlsruhe, baden in the autumn of 1871. his education was primarily in engineering, physics and mathematics. he completed his courses in mechanical engineering in june 1874. this program was very arduous in that lectures began at 7 a.m., changing hourly until 12 p.m., resuming at 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. six days a week. the lecture notes were to be in writing at day’s end, so the nights were late. his father had carefully planned prentice’s college education being of the opinion there were no courses in optics available in the u.s. of comparable quality. charles prentice (image from bohne w. handbook for opticians: a treatise on the optical trade, and its mechanical manipulations, 3rd ed. new orleans, la: griswold, 1895: frontispiece). prentice joins father in business prentice returned to the u.s. in october 1874. not wishing to join his father in a business he felt beneath his dignity, and one the public did not yet appreciate, he worked for several months for mr. john towle as a mechanical engineer. evidently, he left this position after several months because the owner’s monkey kept stealing his drawing instruments. next, he worked for mr. john roach at the ninth street yards for eight months in a business that repaired steamships. 22 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. prentice then complied with his father’s wishes and joined him in business. his first task was to supervise the installation and take charge of his father’s exhibit of engineering instruments at the 1876 world’s fair in philadelphia. his father won a bronze medal for excellence of these instruments at this exhibit. in 1867, his father patented his so-called “anatomical eye glass,” the first patent issued for eye-glass frames in america. bausch and lomb opticians paid james prentice royalties on shell and rubber frames for the full life of the patent. next, young prentice undertook the preparation of drawings and specifications for a patent application requested by one of his father’s customers. as a result of this success, he solicited patent work from several other businesses. prentice was not yet 24 years of age. charles marries just before his 26th birthday, most likely around 1879, prentice, still inexperienced with women, married a woman two years older than he. it was a disastrous union in which during one of her fits of disapproval, she swept from the table his paper on the “metric system of numbering and measuring prisms” that contained the “law of decentration.” unfortunately, this marriage ended in divorce in 1894. the second duty assigned prentice by his father was to compile an elaborately illustrated catalogue devoted to descriptions of instruments manufactured and imported by him. his father was increasingly busy with fitting and prescribing glasses and wanted prentice’s assistance as soon as the catalogue was completed. it was during this time that prentice began the study of optics and reading the ophthalmology literature. there were no regularly published high quality optical periodicals, journals or other such literature at this time. although several optical books had been published by this time in america, prentice may not have been aware of their existence. in the evening, he would read books by donders, helmholtz and other authors of the period. he noticed that none of these books contained a description of the properties or construction of ophthalmic lenses. this led prentice to write a clearly illustrated 48-page paper entitled “ophthalmic lenses.” this was published as a book in 1886 by james prentice and son. as a result of this book, prentice, developed a long friendship with dr. swan burnett, reviewing editor of the archives of ophthalmology. in 1886, prentice also wrote and copyrighted a brochure entitled the “opticist” in which he set forth the origination of the word and its meaning. prentice was of the opinion that since the early years of the 18th century, opticians became generally known as the adapters and dispensers of spectacles. this was apparent since they alone had acquired a certain proficiency and experience in the selection and fitting of spectacles. the oculists of this time were not interested in spectacles and confined themselves strictly to the treatment of eye disease. the dictionaries of the day support this contention. invasion of the province of the optician however, prentice claimed that between the years 1866 and 1888, after the publication of donders’ book, oculists began to surreptitiously invade the province of the optician. some oculists, and general physicians, began to prescribe spectacles without any training in this area. this, in turn, gave rise to a division within the opticians to those who were “dispensing opticians” and those who were “refracting opticians.” in addition, the refracting opticians found their own ranks invaded by young watchmakers or jewelers who were taught to examine eyes at trade schools. all of these events led to the establishment of an atmosphere of the eventual conflict that ensued. later prentice was introduced to dr. richard lennox, pathologist at the new york eye and ear infirmary. prentice was interested in learning more about ocular pathology and lennox was willing to assist. lennox became prentice’s preceptor at the infirmary for two winter sessions during 1887 and 1888. publication related to combined cylindrical lenses in 1887, dr. swan burnett had conceived the idea of making plastic models to illustrate bi-cylindrical refraction. burnett sent to prentice two crudely constructed combinations of cylinders made of wood, their axes at right angles. at this time, burnett suggested prentice undertake making similar models for cylinders, combined at other angles of deviation between their axes, along with mathematical solutions. after spending five months after office hours, prentice had completed the text, illustrations and a set of five gilded models constructed in accordance with the 16 inherent laws not previously disclosed. james prentice and son published “dioptric formulae for combined cylindrical lenses” in 1888. at that time, this was the only publication in which powers of the cylinders and the deviation of their axes were given and required to determine the primary and secondary refractions of any part of superimposed cylindrical lenses. the book and models were presented to dr. burnett who later presented them to georgetown university, washington, d. c. in 1889, dr. burnett informed prentice that drs. noyes, jackson and he (burnett) had been appointed to a committee to suggest a new nomenclature for prisms. a dr. dennett had already suggested the term “centrad.” (it is not entirely clear who appointed this committee.) burnett thought that prentice might, based on his earlier publications, be able to suggest some simpler and more practical method of measurement. after due consideration by the committee, the resulting publication was the “metric system of numbering and measuring prisms.” this paper was published in dr. knapp’s archives of ophthalmology, januaryapril issue, 1890. first publication in the ophthalmology literature this paper was the first to reveal the intimate relationship between lenses and prisms and the consequent “law of decentration.” dr. knapp requested this paper be translated into german for publication in archiv fur augenheilkunde in berlin of the same year. this paper was the first published by an optician (optometrist) in the ophthalmology literature. as a result, dr. knapp advised prentice to study medicine, but dr. burnett thought it inadvisable since prentice displayed no interest in surgery. prentice was happy to follow this advice since he knew to do otherwise would meet strong opposition at home. dr. noyes invited prentice to attend the meeting of the section on ophthalmology and otology on october 19, 1891, to explain his suggested system of prism measurement. prentice complied hindsight: journal of optometry history 23 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. primarily in the interest of early adoption of the prism-dioptry as the unit of prismatic power. the original name prism diopter had been suggested by dr. burnett. subsequently, they decided to abandon the word diopter because it had already been applied to the surveyor’s level. after the meeting, the chairman suggested a vote of thanks to prentice, which was seconded by dr. knapp, and carried unanimously. prentice was pleased since he was the only optician to have been privileged to address an assembly of medical specialists on a strictly scientific subject at this time. (not too much has changed in this regard in 120 years, except optometrists have been banned from attending the american academy of ophthalmology.) the affront on december 16, 1892, the battle for independence in which refracting opticians would lawfully be recognized began with the writing of a letter. the central argument was that medicine, and in particular oculists, were not successful in convincing legislators that refraction was one of the “undisturbed possessions” of the medical profession. prentice had taken charge of his father’s practice on his death in 1888. he had developed a successful practice and received referrals from some 60 general physicians as well as satisfied patients. ultimately, the refracting opticians utilized three approaches to convince legislators that the medical concept or notion was not valid. first, they educated legislators with respect to historical background of optometry that clearly illustrated the development of the field and the science of refraction through activities essentially nonmedical. second was the comparison of educational facilities and schools for training optometrists with the training provided medical students and thirdly, by placing emphasis on the physical as opposed to physiological aspects of optometry by the use of slogans. interestingly new york was the first state to attempt to pass an optometry practice act but became the 13th state to pass an optometry practice act. the letter from dr. noyes specifically, prentice received a letter on december 17, 1892, from dr. henry d. noyes thanking him for referring a patient but criticizing him for charging a separate fee for an examination. in this letter, dr. noyes stated that not only did prentice place himself in direct competition with oculists but was doing so without having the proper training and education to do so. he charged that it was an impropriety for him to practice without the necessary qualifications. prentice answered noyes’ letter on december 17, 1892, with a long letter describing his rationale, defending his actions and qualifications. this exchange of correspondence continued through much of january 1893. on january 2, 1893, prentice again defended his actions based on his education and experience. noyes shared prentice’s reply with dr. d. b. st. john roosa, who joined the fray, and thought prentice might even be breaking the law. by the end of january, prentice, had considered the matter closed. st. john roosa was successful in february 1895 in passing a resolution of the new york county medical society that ejected members who sent patients to opticians. opticians mobilize at this time seeing the true trend of affairs, prentice, brought the matter to the attention of mr. frederick boger, editor of the optical journal. boger, favoring a national or american association of opticians organization, published a call for action in the july 1895 issue of the journal. he received an approving response from across the country. however, prentice thought that a national organization was premature but would support a state association for scientific purposes. there already existed a new england association. prentice’s editorial explaining the bill to incorporate the optical society of the state of new york appeared in the new york sun. the optical society had been formed april 15, 1895, and was the third such society formed before any legislation was attempted in any state. a small triumvirate was formed that consisted of prentice, andrew jay cross and j. j. mackeown. this trio met in mr. boger’s office to consider forming a steering committee for an organization. this group, and six other opticians, met september 13, 1895, in cross’ office. of the nine people present, six were primarily interested in the dispensing business. no action was taken at this meeting once the group concluded that more opticians needed to be supportive of such an organization, if it were to be successful. a meeting was scheduled for december 14, 1895, at the arena located at broadway and 31st street. however, after the september meeting, mr. mackeown informed prentice he had contacted his personal attorney, a mr. channon press. mr. press was of the opinion it was feasible to incorporate a society with powers to regulate opticians as had been done by the dental society. up to this time, mr. prentice had concealed his intent to introduce legislation but in a private conference with messrs. cross and mackeown, he shared his idea and they unanimously concluded that prentice should present this plan at the next meeting. during the intervening time, mr. press was engaged as counsel for this yet-to-be-formed organization and received $1,000 for his services in drafting legislation. mr. boger agreed to tour the state to solicit the attendance of opticians at the december meeting. at the december 14, 1895 meeting, mr. e. b. meyrowitz was elected chairman of the group for this meeting. it was also at this meeting that the plan for an organization as outlined originally by prentice was read by him to the group. the proposed legislation was, for the first time, publicly disclosed, explained by mr. press and endorsed by the assemblage. it was agreed to hold another meeting january 11, 1896. a few days later, mr. meyrowitz asked mr. press, the retained counsel, to call on certain members of the new york ophthalmological society to get their opinions of the proposed legislation. there is no further reference to the called january meeting in prentice’s book and memoirs, but a meeting was held february 8, 1896, in mr. cross’ office attended by a large number of opticians from across the state. at this meeting, mr. press gave his report of reactions from oculists interviewed and, following the report, the dispensing opticians rose and apologized for not being able to be a part of this organization. they wished the others good luck and retired from the room. this left the original 11 men plus mr. boger in the room. these 11 opticians were prentice, bausch, cross, bissell, mackeown, kenney, mason, appleton, guy, newing and robbins. 24 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. following the dispensing opticians’ departure, prentice addressed the group and told them this was the reaction he expected and that they should proceed to albany, new york and place the drafted bill before the legislature at once. mr. cross cautioned against such hasty action and thought that opticians needed more education to a higher plane of efficiency and increased membership. since no other attendees seemed in accord with cross’ suggestions, prentice compared cross’ action to building a house on land you do not own. furthermore, he stated “oculists don’t care how much education we have, but they seriously object to our being allowed to use it. we must strike now.” prentice, many years later, told a meeting in los angeles, california in 1923 that it was that moment that determined the future of optometry in the u.s. following this, all of the 11 men paid their respective shares of money and officers of the optical society of new york were elected. prentice was elected president; george bausch, vice president; andrew j. cross, secretary; and frederick boger, treasurer. the executive committee consisted of messrs. bissell, bausch, cross, mackeown, kenny and mason. opticians challenge oculists first attempt to pass legislation within a week’s time of the organization of the optical society of the state of new york, a bill was drafted and introduced in the assembly (house) of the new state legislature in albany. it was accorded a hearing before the committee on public health on february 26, 1896. it was during this hearing that prentice used his “class model,” his “astigmatic eye model” and another model developed for laymen to explain the defects of vision and their correction by lenses. by february 19, 1896, the oculists had been granted a hearing and had already filed briefs in opposition to the bill. in an attempt to pass this legislation on its merits, the opticians presented some 600 signatures in support of the bill. mr. press described how the groups harmonized and where they differed. letters were read from prominent physicians and five volumes of letters were placed in evidence, sent by physicians to five of the opticians. press answered the committee members’ questions and prentice used the various models referred to above to demonstrate the various defects in vision and the manner of their correction by lenses. prentice also emphasized that the art of adapting lenses is “the treating of light and not the treating of the eye.” in fact, one of his models bore the inscription, “a lens treats light” – “physics not physic” – “a lens is not a pill.” it was this particular model that was presented to the rochester school of optometry in 1921. of these three phrases, the latter is the most famous. following this, prentice read a very lengthy paper entitled, “defense of the optician.” on march 11, 1896, the optical society’s bill, no. 727, was favorably reported to the assembly by the committee. a few days later, the chairman of the committee had the bill brought back and amended. on march 18, 1896, the committee granted a hearing to the dispensing opticians and oculists opposing the bill. on march 25, 1896, prentice, cross, mackeown and press called on committee members in albany but were unable to have the bill favorably reported. this ended the first attempt to pass an optometry practice act in the state of new york. a special meeting of the original members of the society was held at cross’ office on march 28, 1896, to frame a constitution and bylaws for the society. it was also decided at this meeting, by the executive committee, to hold the first society meeting in syracuse, new york on june 2, 1896. in a subsequent special meeting on april 14, 1896, plans were formalized to hold the meeting at the yates hotel in syracuse. this meeting was well attended by opticians from all over the state. their interest had been aroused by the society’s legislation and the published program of scientific lectures to be presented by ophthalmologists and opticians at the syracuse meeting. perhaps the most notable aspect of the syracuse meeting was prentice’s presentation of a paper on “prismdioptry” and also one entitled “the optician treats light–the oculist treats disease.” the latter paper prompted a series of exchanges which were either reprinted or published in the optical journal from july through september 1896. prentice again suggested the title opticist to help distinguish refracting from dispensing opticians. early on, he was also opposed to the title “doctor” and chose the designation “physical eye specialist.” second attempt to pass legislation at the annual meeting of the society on october 6, 1896, at the fifth avenue hotel in new york city, prentice presented his revised legislation, bill 459. this bill was discussed, amended and presented to the state assembly on january 28, 1897, where it was referred to the committee on general laws. on the advice of a dr. h. bendell, an albany ophthalmologist, prentice wrote to each medical society in the state to explain his purpose in advocating an optometry bill. this bill received numerous hearings and subsequently was favorably reported by the committee. it failed by three votes when acted on by the full assembly. in the senate, the bill was introduced and referred to the committee on public health where the original bill was amended to specify that two board members must be physicians. prentice pointed out in his letter to the medical societies that since it was the responsibility of the state board of regents to appoint board members such an amendment was unnecessary. however, the real opposition by the ophthalmologists seemed to be an objection to being regulated in any manner by a board of optometry and this bill was never brought up for a hearing. the opposition to the bill was so strong because it provided for the examination of oculists and opticians engaged in the practice of optometry. in the bill, prentice used the word optometry since opticians were at that time engaged lawfully in the practice of optometry. optometry being defined as involving a knowledge of theoretical, practical and applied optics, all of which the bill was seeking to compel qualification. prentice also felt the use of the title optometrist would assist in decreasing the confusion created by two types of opticians. following the defeat of this bill, prentice did not attend any more society meetings until the optometry practice act was passed in 1908. in reflection in retrospect, it is evident that such a bill was not likely to pass during the first attempt given the lack of the establishment of a practice act and its supporting infrastructure. that is to say, the power for such a bill was vested in the optical society and not in the state. in the second attempt, the efforts of the organization were devoted to trying to pass the bill on the merits of the argument. another factor that affected the outcome was that hindsight: journal of optometry history 25 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. oculists had no education in any optics and were opposed to such an examination. beyond this important issue, they felt that medicine already incorporated all those aspects optometry was attempting to bring under its control. at this point in the profession’s history, and for many years thereafter, optometry did not clearly understand that the political reality of counting votes was, relatively speaking, more important than the merits of the legislation. it seemed clear that optometry could only control its destiny and not that of the oculists. being the idealist he was, prentice made the decision to bow out of the political arena and devote his energies to other pursuits. at the society’s june 8, 1897 meeting, the defeat of the bill was discussed but prentice apparently missed this meeting due to illness. however, as a result of advice from friendly ophthalmologists as well as legislators, prentice visited, by letter, each state medical society to explain his interest in the bill. the society’s executive committee had also agreed that any board of examiners established as a consequence of the passage of this legislation would consist of at least four physicians. originally, as prentice had written the bill, board members were to be appointed annually by the board of regents of the university of the state of new york, two being versed in physiology and pathology and two in practical, theoretical and applied optics. this change essentially placed the profession of optometry in the hands of ophthalmology. charles prentice (image courtesy archives and museum of optometry and the aoa foundation). no longer directly involved at the october 5, 1897 meeting of the society, cross was elected its second president. although no longer directly involved in the society, prentice did retain his interest in the profession and his efforts continued as he made personal appeals to the governor, the legislature and ophthalmologists. this era can be summarized in the following manner. the optical society of the state of new york was organized on february 8, 1896. thus, this organization became the third formed before any legislation had been enacted anywhere. the first two states to enact optometry practice acts were minnesota and california. the bills introduced by these states, while not exactly the same, were patterned after the first optometry bill that had been advocated by the optical society of the state of new york and first introduced in 1897. new york became the 13th state to enact its original optometry practice act in 1908. moving forward with the election of cross as president of the society, prentice was of the opinion that cross followed the line of least resistance as exemplified through the belief “one can catch more flies with molasses than vinegar.” cross also earned prentice’s criticism for failing to introduce a bill in the 1898 legislature and coming very close to ruining the aspirations of the optical society. according to prentice, “the weak and irresolute policy of cross gave medical opponents the opportunity to introduce a bill that placed fear in the heart of opticians, chiropodists, truss makers, bandagists, department stores and christian scientists.” if not for the determined interests of the organizations, opticians would have been eliminated. this scare gave rise to the awareness there was a need for more aggressive leadership of the society. in 1903, mr. b. b. clark of rochester, new york became the third president serving for the next three years. an aggressive policy was again resumed and another optometry bill was introduced in 1904 in which it became necessary to grant exemption to the physicians. the concession of a physician exemption and the administration of a board of optometry by the board of regents resulted in the bill being passed in the next legislative session on may 8, 1908. clark appointed e. e. arrington chairman of the legislative committee and lobbyist for the optical society of the state of new york in 1904. prentice has given full credit to arrington for his achievement in passing this historic legislation in spite of arrington’s weaknesses of seeking popularity and esteem. it was due to arrington’s persistent efforts that it became possible for other states to follow the example of new york. interestingly arrington never mentions prentice’s earlier efforts in chapter ii (legislative efforts) of his book entitled the history of optometry. thus, it had been 12 years since the effort to establish and regulate the profession of optometry had begun in the state of new york. it had proved not possible to regulate the profession through a professional organization or to establish a single standard for all future eye practitioners to qualify alike. prentice stated it was not his intent through the enactment to establish a new breed of optician, later designated as optometrists, but to establish a law that through agreement with the oculists would lead to a just ophthalmic practice act. 26 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. new york state board of optometry it was arrington’s wish that prentice help the society prepare plans for carrying out the provisions of the law even though prentice had not been active in the society for 10 years. as a result, prentice served as the president of the newly formed, or more properly stated, appointed to the board of examiners in optometry from 1908 to 1918. at the society’s june 1908 meeting at the savoy hotel in new york city, prentice had presented his paper in support of a proposal that the subjects for board qualifications for future practitioners should be the following: theoretical optics, practical optics, physiological optics, theoretical optometry, practical optometry and anatomy and physiology of the eye. although cross believed this proposal was too advanced, it was nevertheless approved by the board of examiners. an announcement was made to the optical press that at its meeting on october 89, 1908 an examination syllabus had been established by the state board. this syllabus determined that the complete examination would cover six subject areas: theoretical optics, practical optics, physiological optics, theoretical optometry, practical optometry and anatomy and physiology of the eye. therefore, the new york state board of optometry, with concurrence of the new york state educational department, would permit graduates of programs that required at least three month’s attendance to take examinations in all subjects except theoretical optics and pathologic conditions of the eye. thus, the abbreviated examination of 1909 covered limited knowledge. the complete board examination was offered from january 1, 1910. prentice served as the president of the new york state board of optometry beginning this same year of 1908. the first comprehensive board examinations were administered in early 1910. augustus s. downing had decided that since theoretical optics was not being taught by current trade schools this section could be omitted until the 1910 administration of the examination. during the first 18 months of the board’s existence, it passed 2,000 candidates for exemption certificates. this served as the nucleus of the first optometrists licensed in the state of new york. columbia university course in optometry during a banquet at the ten eyck hotel in albany, new york, attended by gov. charles e. hughes, in 1909, prentice met dr. augustus s. downing. many years later, prentice would dedicate the first portion of his book on legalized optometry to gov. hughes for signing the optometry practice act. the second part containing his “memoirs” would be dedicated to dr. downing for his support, during prentice’s time as president of the new york state board of optometric examiners. during this time, dr. downing was the first assistant commissioner of education and director of professional education for the state of new york. at a later time, prentice brought to dr. downing’s attention that none of the then-current trade schools taught theoretical optics and this would pose a problem for candidates taking the state board examination. the inception of the columbia university optometry course it was dr. downing who introduced prentice to professor william hallock, head of the physics department, columbia university, on december 28, 1909. this was after dr. nicholas murray bulter, president of columbia university, had consented to establish a course in optometry. dr. downing had taken prentice’s plea to heart regarding the need for an optometry course at the university level and conferred with dr. bulter in a meeting at columbia university. prentice followed his meeting with hallock with a memorandum on january 3, 1910. in an unfortunate turn of events, professor hallock departed for europe without notifying prentice. after this, the program was quickly placed in the hands of professor j. c. egbert. egbert requested that prentice provide an outline of the expected courses to be taught by the university that would satisfactorily comply with the new york state education department. prentice prepared this synposis for professor egbert in six weeks time. the university would provide instructors in physics and theoretical optics and asked prentice to lecture as well as provide the names of others who could teach the other subjects. equipment and course syllabus mr. prentice suggested the names of cross and mr. frederick a. woll as other possible instructors for this program. a medical faculty was requested from the college of physicians and surgeons as the instructor in anatomy and physiology. the necessary equipment was solicited or donated from the bausch and lomb optical company and standard optical company. members of the society individually contributed other necessary items. the synposis was provided using two copies of five books and rearranging and classifying the pages such that three new books emerged containing subject matter that applied only to the contents designated by the titles “physiological optics,” “theoretical optics” and “practical optics.” in a memorandum dated april 8, 1910 to professor egbert, prentice expressed his opinion that this course or program be in the department of physics. these new books were bound in morrocan leather and, after approval by the board of optometry, presented to columbia university. the cost of printing and binding were paid for by the society. annoucement of the course formal announcement of the course in optometry at columbia university was made in the optical press in the spring of 1910. prentice received several congratulatory telegrams or letters from collegues about this program on may 10, 1910. at the society’s 1910 convention in rochester, new york, prentice announced to the convention the establishment of the course in optometry at columbia university. this was the first university-based optometry program in america. the university amended the announcement that a collegiate course in optometry was offered by columbia university in its extension education department to medical and nonmedical candidates, the latter of who must have two years of high school training. prentice also wrote an article for publication in the public press and received the commendation of the brooklyn eagle on june 23, 1910. connection to alabama in late 1910, prentice published a two-leafed folder entitled, “an object lesson in optometry,” which was designed to explain to the public the corrective effect of lenses on defective vision. this folder was also printed and distributed by the american optical association for legislators where legislation was in progress. this folder’s contents was endorsed by professor james p.c. southall from alabama polytechnic institute, department of physics, hindsight: journal of optometry history 27 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. auburn, alabama in a letter dated december 15, 1910. southall was to become a professor in the department of physics and director of the columbia university optometry program in 1914. he also published several well-known books. the first book was principles of geometrical optics published in 1910; the second was mirrors, prisms and lenses published first in 1918 and revised in 1923 and 1934. southall was also the editor of the american edition of helmhotz’s physiological optics. medical opposition to the optometry program not surprisingly, shortly after the optometry course had begun in october 1910, the medical instructor, dr. opitz, had withdrawn his services as a result of objections made by the faculty of the college of physicians and surgeons. another faculty was found, dr. louis r. welzmiller, to take opitz’s place. the oculists continued to petition the president and others at columbia to eliminate the optometry courses. they were promptly referred to albany and the state legislature. other personalities and issues prentice and cross prentice did not care for cross since, in prentice’s opinion, the latter sought popularity and esteem early in the fight for recognition for optometry. cross had been one of the original three men who began the effort for organizational and legal recognition of optometry. it was cross’ willingness to compromise that seemed to disturb prentice the most. prentice was of the opinion that cross had been a less than forceful leader when president of the optical society of new york. he thought that cross and, later his loyal sycophant, arrington, were at opposite ends of the same appendage. prentice thought arrington was at the barking end and cross the waging end. in addition, cross favored the title “doctor” for optometrists which prentice opposed. cross did much to develop the technique of dynamic retinoscopy for clinical practice. according to prentice, as learned from burnett, it was bowman who first discussed the possibility of applying the skiascopy mirror for measurement of refractive error. however, bowman did not pursue the clinical development of this subject. certainly cross did much to popularize dynamic retinoscopy within optometry. in this technique, the patient fixated on the light or a near target rather than a distance object. the advantage of this technique was that it rendered cycloplegia unnecessary and gave the clinican insight as to the response of accommodation and converence. static skiametry was performed through a dilated pupil and thus not utilized by early optometrists. also, for many years, cross worked to develop a monocentric bifocal and, near the end of his professional career, this lens went into production. cross was elected the second president of the optical society of the state of new york in 1898 and the president of the american association of opticians in 1900. (it became the american optical association in 1910 and the amercian optometric association in 1919). according to hirsch and wick, cross was an unusual man but imbued with a vision that moved optometry forward. cross recognized the need for education and helped establish the new york institute of optometry which lasted only briefly. prentice offered him the instructorship position at columbia university. one of cross’ greatest assets was his ability to get people to work together. it was cross and arrington who worked together to secure legislative success not only in new york but on a national basis. prentice’s goals and the title doctor of optometry prentice’s primary goal from the beginning of his efforts to pass legislation was the establishment of a just and uniform ophthalmic practice act. his desire was for both optometry and ophthalmology to have education in optics and refraction (optometry) and co-related medicine and surgery. he did not support the title of “doctor” and even went so far as to have an amendment (s.b. 868) introduced to the new york state optometry practice act on february 13, 1913. this bill would prohibit such a title unless conferred by a duly authorized college or university. he had instigated the amendment on november 29, 1912 and was aware by february 5, 1913 of its introduction the next week. this was no doubt an unpopular move by prentice. conflicts between prentice, cross and arrington beginning in 1912, prentice exchanged correspondence with both arrington and cross regarding their views versus his own on several issues. it is clear cross and arrington had differing ideas and goals than prentice. no doubt all three of these men were considering how posterity would view their respective roles in the history of the profession. prentice reiterated his belief that qualifications in optics is the only excuse for the practice of optometry as a special branch of applied science. he also believed the public was best served from the services of the practitioner who has had accredited knowledge of both optics and medicine. one of his great disappointments was the exemption granted oculists in the very beginning from the optometry practice act. prentice felt that if oculists realized their own situation (shortcomings) in this area they would ask for a proper modification of optometry laws to establish the logical ophthalmic practice acts. other issues were related to who should receive credit for the optometry law, of being ahead of the times regarding educational requirements, securing uniform ophthalmic practice acts with one class of practitioners and the title doctor. this brief outline illustrates some of the differences in philosophy and approach. resignation from the new york state society on may 12, 1913, prentice resigned from the optical society over the issue of the incoming president insisting on using the title doctor based on a degree known to be for sale by so-called chartered colleges in another state. this action was part of the ongoing disagreement prentice had with cross on what prentice perceived as cross’ approach to issues and chararacter. it is difficult to perceive that many contemporary optometrists would agree with prentice on issues related to title and scope of practice. in spite of either cross or arrington’s failings, or perceived failings, it seems they were both politically pragmatic. other projects prentice spent much time between 1912 and 1921 working on contributions to the american encyclopedia of ophthalmology in the area of physical and physiological optics. prentice and dr. casey wood, the editor-in-chief, had many exchanges regarding the status of optometry and its rightful title. unfortunately, the beginning of world war i prevented a conclusion of this 28 volume 53, number 1 & 2, december 2022 biographical sketch john f. amos, o.d., m.s., d.o.s. disccussion. these discussions were not resumed following the conclusion of the war. prentice learned of the intention of the ohio state university (osu) to begin an optometry program in its department of physics. he wrote to osu president w. o. thompson and received a reply on august 29, 1914. this program began in 1914 as a two-year course and became a four-year program in 1915 with a b. s. degree in applied optics from the college of engineering. there can be little doubt that the inception of the osu program and, later the university of california at berkeley program, was influenced by the existence of the program at columbia university. resignation from the board of examiners in optometry in a letter dated may 15, 1918, prentice resigned from the state board of examiners in optometry for reasons of health. he was now 64 years of age and had served for 10 years. likewise, after seven years, he had completed his contributions to the encyclopedia of ophthalmology of which the last volume was published in 1921. he sold his practice as well in 1921 to his assistant mr. perry hanuer. prentice moved to the pacific coast area of british columbia that same year following his retirement. on march 17, 1926, he received a letter from professor southall informing him the optometry program at columbia continued to flourish and that a new four-year curriculum leading to a b.s. degree, as well as a certificate of graduation in optometry, would be offered under the direct supervision of the council of the university. this meant the optometry program would no longer be under the university extension program. the optometry program at columbia university was in existence from 1910 until the 1950s when the decision was made by the university to close the program. the last students of the program graduated in 1956. legalized optometry and the memoirs of its founder it is not clear in what year prentice began writing his book. the book is 416 pages in length. it was published in 1926 by casperian fletcher press, publishers, seattle, washington. the preface from the publisher is dated may 1, 1926. this book was divided into two parts. the first part, legalized optometry, is 179 pages in length (pages 9-188) and describes the events and issues related to the legalization of the profession. it provides great detail of the various individuals involved and the actions taken that led to the legalization of the profession in new york and other states. it is both striking and remarkable that in many ways the behaviors of those opposed to optometry has not changed in 120 years. the second part, the memoirs of its founder, is 199 pages not counting the author’s preface or postscript and the back matter. this chapter is the memoir portion of the book and describes prentice’s life, family, his entry into the profession and participation in various professional organizations and boards, the beginning of university optometric education and his various publications. the postcript to this chapter is dated august 1926. prentice died on july 2, 1946 at age 92 having never remarried. he was a courageous, if idealistic, man who deserves the credit of the title “father of optometry,” even though he was not successful in passing legislation in the state of new york. he took a position for the establishment of an independent profession that otherwise might not have come into existence and contributed to its early formation in many valuable ways. for any optometry student, optometry resident or optometrist who wants to understand the heritage of the profession this book is highly recommended. references 1. prentice cf. legalized optometry and the memoirs of its founder. casperian fletcher press, publishers, seattle, wa, 1926; 1-416. 2. classe jg. the legal asects of optometry. part one/history. optometry – a legal history. butterworth publishers, 1989; 3-48. hindsight volume 47, number 2 april 2016 journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society jaoa, 1937, vol. 9, no. 1, p. 12 hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2016 president: ronald r. ferrucci, rferrucci@juno.com (2017)* vice-president: chuck haine, chaine1@icloud.com (2016) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gamil.com (2016) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) alden norman haffner, anhaffner@msn.com (2018) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares ® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org brittany broombaugh, development officer bbroombaugh@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. mailto:rferrucci@juno.com mailto:chaine1@icloud.com mailto:irvbennett23@gamil.com mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu mailto:lynnbrandes@comcast.net mailto:anhaffner@msn.com mailto:sharpton@windstream.net mailto:george.woo@polyu.edu.hk mailto:zadnik.4@osu.edu mailto:jbyarsod@bellsouth.net mailto:rahildebrand@aoa.org bbroombaugh@aoa.org mailto:khebert@aoa.org https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight 243 north lindbergh blvd st. louis, mo 63141 www.aoafoundation.org hindsight: journal of optometry history april 2016 volume 47, number 2 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com kirsten pourroy hébert, the archives an museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org table of contents from the editor: they were optometrists!, david goss 46 remembrances: dr. larry j. alexander, john f. amos 48 my recollections of how optometry got into medicare, irving bennett 49 the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 1898-2015, part 2, r. norman bailey 52 book review: descartes and the hyperbolic quest: lens making machines and their significance in the seventeenth century, reviewed by david goss 72 book review: our history in focus: the first 100 years of the ohio state university college of optometry, reviewed by david goss 74 application for membership 76 mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 from the editor 2016| page 46 from the editor they were optometrists! f you happen to read an article of potential interest to optometric historians, i encourage you to write a review of it and submit your review to hindsight. alternatively, you could send the article of interest to me, and we will bring it to the attention of ohs members through the pages of hindsight. ohs advisory committee member chuck haine recently sent me an article entitled “spectacles, cheaters, and shades,” which appeared in the march/april, 2016 issue of your genealogy today (volume 2, number 1, pages 33-36), written by a regular contributor to that magazine, david a. norris. dr. haine wrote that he found the article to be “interesting but not exactly scholarly research.” the author of the article wrote about the history of spectacles in the last few centuries because “hints about spectacles and eyeglasses during…genealogy research…might be a good way of finding new and personal information about our ancestors.” (p. 36) one of the various interesting tidbits was that two mayflower passengers had pairs of spectacles mentioned in the inventories of their estates after their deaths in 1659 and 1672. the author also noted that the 1781 probate file of one of his ancestors mentioned one pair of spectacles. spectacles were imported in colonial america, and the american spectacle making industry did not arise until after the american revolution. norris noted that early newspaper advertisements can provide clues concerning where our ancestors may have obtained their eyeglasses. watchmakers, jewelers, booksellers, druggists, and other merchants advertised the sale of spectacles. norris gave these examples: torry and company of charleston, south carolina advertised themselves as ‘opticians and print sellers’ in the early federal era. a philadelphia city directory of 1819 included the firm of ‘fisher m. and son’, who were listed as a ‘thermometer and spectacle maker.’ in early newspaper ads, ‘opticians’ also offered telescopes, microscopes, magnifying glasses, barometers, and other optical instruments besides spectacles. (p. 36) what i found most interesting in the article was the reproduction of two advertisements for “opticians” from the 1880 worchester, massachusetts city directory. this was an era before the term optometry was in common usage, and persons who were practicing optometry referred to themselves as opticians or other monikers. henry hofstetter often talked about optometry’s “centuries-long existence,”1 emphasizing that the popularization of the term optometrist, the passage of licensure laws, etc., in the early twentieth century were stages, albeit highly significant stages, in the development of optometry, rather than indications of the de novo birth of a new occupation. the factor that we may view as distinguishing the refracting optician or optometrist from the dispensing optician is the conduct of some form of examination, however rudimentary it may seem by today’s standards. i hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 from the editor 2016| page 47 one of the 1880 advertisements was for “i.h. stockwell, optician.” further inspection of the ad suggests that he was practicing optometry because it says: “spectacles adapted after an examination of the eye.” the multiple roles often filled by the nineteenth century optometrist are illustrated where the ad says: “mathematical and philosophical instruments in great variety.” the other advertisement was for “w.a. england, watchmaker and optician.” in fine print the ad states: “personal attention given to fitting the eye for spectacles or eye glasses. improved instruments used.” it is not as obvious whether w.a. england was also practicing optometry, but if we assume that the “improved instruments” were used in some type of examination, then we can assume he or she was also practicing optometry. although we can rightfully be proud of the advances in optometric knowledge and technology of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it would be arrogant on our part to think that optometrists of centuries past were less important to the persons they served. reference 1. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight 1996;27:17-18. david a. goss editor, hindsight: journal of optometry history hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 remembrance: larry j. alexander 2016| page 48 remembrance john f. amos, o.d., m.s. eyedoc@uab.edu larry j. alexander, o.d. (1947-2016) it was with great sadness the profession learned of dr. larry alexander’s sudden passing on april 16, 2016. it caused me to reflect on larry’s career and the many times our careers intersected. i first met larry in 1969 when he was a third year student at indiana university. this was in the very early years when the seeds were being sown for the evolution of the profession to expand its scope of practice. this notion took root during the years of the vietnam conflict when many graduating or young optometrists served as optometry officers in the military. it was apparent to me that even as a student larry possessed a keen desire to see the profession change. he was insightful and always anxious to learn more beyond the interests of others. following graduation from the school of optometry at indiana university in 1971 larry served as an optometry officer in the u. s. navy. on his discharge from the navy in june 1973, he practiced in elizabeth city, north carolina. during his time in north carolina, i received a call from larry expressing an interest in academic optometry. after the appropriate interviews, larry joined the uab school of optometry in 1975 as an assistant professor in the department of optometry. he was the first of many young faculty who helped transform the uab school of optometry into the outstanding clinical program it became. his interest and passion was in the area of ocular disease. needless to say, he was a talented educator whom both students and practitioners enjoyed. during his 20 years at uab he developed several courses, but his primary clinical interest was in diseases of the vitreous and retina. this eventually led to his writing a book entitled primary care of the posterior segment. for many years, and through three editions, this book served as the standard for the profession in this area of eye care. on a personal note, larry and i had the opportunity to travel together and serve the school and profession on many occasions. he was friendly, gregarious, funny, caring, possessed a quick smile, and a wonderful laugh. sometimes just one look sent us both into gales of laughter we could not control. after he left uab to practice in indiana and kentucky he retired in mckinney, texas but continued to serve the profession in a number of ways. our paths continued to cross but not as frequently. i will miss larry for many reasons but always remember our many good times together and his significant contributions to optometry. figure 1. larry j. alexander (from the birmingham news, april 24, 2016) mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bennett: medicare 2016| page 49 my recollection of how optometry got into medicare irving bennett, o.d. irvbennett23@gmail.com f course, memories of events get muddled with time. but for the most part this is what i recall of the efforts of optometry in those 22 years between when medicare was adopted as the law of the land and when the congress finally granted optometry the privilege to participate in that program. the span of years was from 1965 to 1987, a critical period in optometric history. this version does not completely coincide with the printed versions in the aoa news or in the journal of the american optometric association, both of which carried detailed stores of the events leading up to the final inclusion. even though the american optometric association (aoa), its affiliates, and individual optometrists all played a role in the medicare episode, there is much more to this success story. as i recall, in 1965, during president lyndon johnson's administration, the medicare bill was framed. optometry was a purely drugless profession then, and there was a great deal of talk among practicing optometrists that the profession needed to get the right to use diagnostic and therapeutic drug prescribing privileges. many of the practicing optometrists had been allowed to use drugs while practicing in the medical corps during world war ii and the korean war and felt that they should be allowed to do the same in their civilian practices. the official stance of the elders in the profession and of the american optometric association, was that optometry was not a part of medicine and held a unique distinction in that it could examine eyes correctly and thoroughly without the aid of drugs. the relationship between organized optometry and organized ophthalmology was not at all good in those days—at least on the surface. the two professions barely ever communicated with each other at the state or national levels. every effort for optometry to expand its responsibilities was met with strong push-backs by ophthalmology. in 1965, dentistry opted out of medicare. officials in ophthalmology, in a rare confab with leaders in our profession, convinced our leaders that what dentistry had opted to do was a good lead to follow. ophthalmology said that it would make sure that refractions and eyewear were not included in the medicare legislation. official optometry felt that this was a good bargain and signed on to it. only after the medicare bill was passed by the congress and signed by the president in 1965 did optometry realize it had been "snookered" by ophthalmology! the "medical eye exams" (that ophthalmology said it—and only it—performed) were covered by the medicare legislation. medical eye exams could, of course, include refractions, but that "small" part was a non-covered medicare service. ophthalmologists required patients to pay out-of-pocket for the refraction part of the visit, often $10 or so. the rest of the exam, for which a more substantial fee was charged, was paid for by medicare! suddenly, it made sense for many patients to leave their family optometrists for ophthalmologists. the thoughts then of many in private practice was that their time of o mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bennett: medicare 2016| page 50 existence was numbered. most ophthalmologists dispensed eyeglasses in their practices in 1965, so patients who came for medical eye exams stayed with their new eye care practitioners for complete care: refraction and eyeglasses!! in the interval between 1965 and 1987 a lot of things happened. optometry fought hard and won the battle of getting both diagnostic and therapeutic drug privileges in state after state. the battles with ophthalmology were often fierce and bloody. the aoa made effort after effort to get the medicare bill changed to include optometry. one optometrist, bob whitaker of kansas, got elected to the congress and made numerous efforts to get the "optometric leveling the playing field" bill adopted. and, if i recall correctly, it did pass the house once or twice only to be stopped in the senate. or vice versa. these were frustrating years. the aoa did try to engage its affiliates to have their members consult with their congressmen and representatives. many did but with little success. in the 1970s and 1980s i was president of advisory enterprises, a publishing firm that published four ophthalmic publications. i was also president of optifair, the popular national ophthalmic exhibition and exhibit. these two activities provided me with many good contacts with optometrists, both members and non-members of aoa. the magazines were well read by thousands of optometrists; and more optometrists attended optifair than attended any other ophthalmic convention. i saw a great opportunity in the late 1970s to solicit thousands of optometrists to work for the passage of an amendment to the medicare act to recognize optometry and the services it rendered. it was a surprise to me that the then aoa washington office director, jim clark, telephoned one day and bluntly asked that i not interfere with this activity. i did not. yet, it was painful to have years go by and no action occurring. enter 1986. as is the case in most years, the house and senate adopted annual budgets for the following year. often these budgets are not completely the same. to reconcile the two budgets, a budget reconciliation committee of 40 members of the congress—some from the senate and some from the house of representatives—is appointed to join the two budget bills into one. in those days the members of the reconciliation committee "horse-traded" in order to adopt a unified budget. this is when "earmarks" were added to the budget bill. earmarks are attachments to the bill that did not get the full vote of the house of representatives or the senate. a unified budget suggested by the reconciliation committee is then submitted to both the house and the senate for an up or down vote, no amendments. once adopted it goes to the president for signature or veto. the federal government does not allow the president a line item veto. generally speaking the reconciled budget is more often than not adopted into law. in 1986 there were members of congress strongly against optometry's amendment and it was thought then that president ronald reagan was not in favor of it either. to many of us, the future of our practices looked bleak. the vast majority of the patients in many of our practices consisted of senior citizens. what goes on in congressional budget reconciliation committee meetings generally stays there. what i am reporting is the story that circulated about the famous 1986 meeting that dealt with the proposed 1987 budget. one of the 40 members of the committee was representative barbara mikulski (d-md), a close friend of dr. egon werthamer, then a member of the aoa board of trustees. they were close buddies and barbara was a relatively new congresswoman and was eager to participate in the process. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bennett: medicare 2016| page 51 as is true with the reconciliation committee meetings, the chair asks each member what it would take for him or her to vote affirmatively on a unified budget report. when it came to ms. mikulski she promptly replied the "optometry leveling the playing field" amendment. "what the hell is that?" the chair reportedly asked. "it is a stipulation that eligible medicare recipients would be allowed to choose what kind of eye care practitioner—optometrist or ophthalmologist—they could use to get an eye exam and be covered under medicare," barbara responded. "and what will this cost?" asked the chair. "not a penny more than what is allotted now," replied barbara continuing, "you see qualified medicare recipients already have the benefit; this amendment allows them the choice of to whom they go for care," "okay," said the chair, "you've got it!" thus, the budget for 1987 contained a change in designation for optometrists as far as medicare is concerned by including them as "physicians" and, therefore, eligible for reimbursement for the services they could legally provide. congress on an up/down vote agreed to the budget and president ronald reagan signed it into law. by april 1, 1987 when the provision took effect, there was a different optometry than the one that sat idly by as the medicare law was enacted 22 years earlier. optometrists had won the battles in the states to get diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceutical privileges for the profession and now they won the war. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 52 the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 18982015, part 2 r. norman bailey, ma, od, mba, mph clinical professor, retired university of houston college of optometry nbailey@uh.edu continued from volume 47, number 1 public perception of optometry arlier efforts had failed to dispel the unprofessional image of optometry held by many in the public and other professions. the leadership of the american optometric association (aoa) had been working for years to raise the ethical standards and professionalism of optometry when an article, optometry on trial, by roger william riis appeared in the august 1937 issue of reader’s digest. 37 this article readily demonstrated the ongoing lack of respect for optometry by many in the public and by oculists in particular. oculists were considered the standard of accuracy in the reported “study” in the article. in that era, oculists were the medical doctors who limited their practices to care of the eyes. without direct access to the methods used to select specific data reported, one cannot outright refute the observations; however, the purpose of and bias in the study are quite obvious and can cause one to question many of the conclusions. looking at some direct quotes from the article will help the reader to understand how this article upset many of the professional optometrists of the day and motivated them to work more diligently in cleaning up the unprofessional image presented by the reader’s digest article: wearing no glasses – and needing none – a young man went to optometrist a, who examined his eyes and sold him a pair of spectacles. he took these to optometrist b and asked him to check them. optometrist b said they were not the correct prescription, and made up a second pair. the man proceeded with the second pair to optometrist c, who roundly denounced them and made a third pair. these were brought to optometrist d, who brushed them aside and sold him another set. when the same thing occurred again, and was becoming a fairly monotonous process, this investigator took the glasses of both a and b to four other optometrists. all four stated that neither pair was correct for his eyes! this happened during a nation-wide inquiry into the practices of optometrists who sell the american people nearly $75,000,000 worth of spectacles a year. investigators visited optometrists from coast to coast and from canada to the gulf, in shops on avenues of great cities, in the nation’s most famous department stores, in small side-street shops and optometrical chain stores. the findings of this investigation buttressed by facts and statistics from other impartial sources, revealed grave abuses in the field of optometry. e mailto:nbailey@uh.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 53 there are many conscientious and skilled optometrists; men who will frankly admit their limitations when they see that the eye conditions of their visitors are beyond their abilities and training. but there are many optometrists – far too many – who blithely undertake problems beyond their training. to consult one of these, when you have serious eye trouble, may be worse than useless. yet, if your eyes are troubling you, the chances are you will consult an optometrist. there are 22,000 of them in the united states. their advertising tempts you from every side. in newspapers, in pretentious shop windows, in street cars and buses, they are appealing to you with all the wiles of sales psychology. to begin with, let us clearly understand the difference between the optometrist and the oculist. the oculist is a graduate physician who has specialized in the study of eyes. not only is he competent to correct defects in vision, but, as a medical man, he can detect and give you timely warning of changes in the tissues of the eye caused by diabetes, kidney trouble, brain tumors, arteriosclerosis and other diseases which frequently affect our power of vision. the optometrist (literally ‘one who measures the eye’) is not a licensed physician; indeed he is forbidden by law to practice medicine. his acknowledged function is to examine the manner in which the eye transmits or refracts light. and even this limited function calls for skill and a strictly diagnostic attitude that many optometrists do not possess. yet as things stand today, the optometrist assumes a triple and somewhat mixed role: he examines your eyes, prescribes glasses and then proceeds to sell them to you. a survey of 2800 establishments showed that 88 percent charged no fee for examination; their profit came from selling glasses. the oculist has nothing to sell but his professional skill; if he finds that you do not need glasses, he tells you so; if he finds that you do need them, he gives you a prescription for them, which you take to an optician. (an optician is a craftsman skilled in grinding lenses; he does not prescribe lenses himself, but merely fills prescriptions, much as a pharmacist compounds the prescription of a physician.) but the optometrist, depending upon the money he makes from the sale of spectacles, is necessarily tempted to sell you glasses whether you need them or not. both prescribing and dispensing eyewear had the potential of creating a serious ethical issue for the optometrist, if particular care was not taken in providing these separate but related services. riis continues, if the eye were merely a refracting apparatus – something that properlyfitted glasses could correct – the optometrists would fit far better into the scheme of things. but this complicated and delicate organ is more than an arrangement of lenses existing apart from the rest of the body. the eye is a subtle barometer of general health, and is quickly affected by systemic diseases. competent eye examination may give you notice of some such condition in time to permit early treatment. an optometrist’s examination may, as our survey shows, equip you merely with a pair of futile glasses and leave you ignorant of a serious menace to your health. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 54 the eye also has its own pathologic conditions, distinctly not connected with refraction…. riis described several occasions when optometrists missed significant health issues in the reader’s digest study. one such occasion follows: but still another discovery about optometry was made. a noted oculist accompanied the writer to one optometry shop, where the title ‘dr.’ appeared on the optometrist’s sign and business card; no layman could be blamed for believing the proprietor to be an m.d. (the fact is that optometrists quite generally assume the title ‘dr.,’ basing their claim on the degree of d.o. [sic], given by some schools of optometry. needless to say, no optometric course of study compares even remotely, in length or scope, with that required by a medical college.) the oculist described, not once but three times, definite symptoms of brain tumor, syphilis, and glaucoma. he mentioned the characteristic fogginess and gradual closing down of his eyesight; spoke of other impairments clinically associated with brain tumor. whereupon the “dr.” optometrist told him he had “eyestrain,” sold him a pair of glasses for $10.50 and gave him a bottle of eyewash to dispel one of the most dangerous afflictions that can beset human life! ... if glasses are sold to a person (especially a child) who does not need them, the consequences fluctuate between mere discomfort and grave damage. the great focusing power of young eyes frequently leads optometrists to prescribe wrong lenses for children (too weak for farsighted eyes – too strong for nearsighted ones). the fundamental wrongness of such lenses is revealed only when “drops” are used, and the eyes are relaxed. only in this state can an accurate and trustworthy measurement of the child’s eyes be made. this, the oculist does; this, the optometrist cannot do. with wrong glasses, the child’s eyes are put under a constant strain, and the focusing muscles are not permitted to relax. the child may become nervous; it may actually develop cross eyes or give up trying to use the two eyes together. commonly, the eyes become habituated to glasses that they did not originally need, and many people are thus condemned to a lifelong expense and dependence on spectacles. in adults, the harmful effects of improper glasses are chronic headache, increased irritability, fatigue, poor muscular coordination, aversion to reading, nerve strain and digestive disorders – all of which may affect general efficiency, happiness and earning power. some of the charges made by riis are difficult to believe, as “forty optometrists in seemingly reputable shops were ignorant of the obvious fact that mr. d. had ‘alternating squint’….” riis concluded with the following: is there any remedy? clearly the standards of the optometrists – both in their education and practice – must be raised. the optometrists must clean their own shop if they expect to enjoy the continued confidence of the public. there are, within the ranks of the optometrists themselves, a considerable body of men who wish to raise the standards of their craft, to root out flagrant commercialism and unethical practices. in the high councils of optometry these men, aware of their hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 55 responsibilities, are advocating reforms which will be discussed in the succeeding article. the following month’s issue of reader’s digest provided, optometry on trial: an editorial interlude.38 this issue reported: telegrams, long-distance calls, pamphlets on optometry, and letters by the hundreds have reached the reader’s digest following publication last month of ‘optometry on trial,’ by roger william riis. they come from physicians, oculists, optometrists, opticians, better business bureaus, state officials, and laymen. their quantity, the intensity of feeling they express, the information they contain and the wide divergence of their opinions all show that ‘optometry on trial’ served to bring into the open a contemporary controversy of considerable public importance that had hitherto been little mentioned outside professional circles. because mr. riis in his first article dealt with the frankly commercial side of optometry, scores of optometrists bitterly charge him and the reader’s digest with unfairness. writes one, from pennsylvania: “…mr. riis’s article oversteps all limits of decency and good taste. a more biased, a more slanderous article i have never as yet read. it contains numerous errors of fact, and is overloaded with halftruths. i classify it as nothing more than pure, unadulterated propaganda for a group of starving oculists, who have steadily throughout the last few years been waging a losing battle to hold the goodwill of the public in competition with the growing profession of optometry. on the other hand, the head of the department of ophthalmology in a pennsylvania hospital writes, “the facts in your article are all true and fairly stated, and should do an immense amount of good in dispelling public ignorance on a matter of primary importance… several other contradictory opinions of the original article from both sides were presented with the editor pointing out that the originally planned continuation of the first article would appear in the october 1937 issue the following month. as promised, optometry on trial – 2 by roger william riis appeared in the october 1937 issue of reader’s digest.39 as a summary of the first article, riis wrote: the more important discoveries made by the investigators at the places visited were: that in their own special province of refraction – or correction of visual defects with lenses – many of the optometrists visited did not prescribe correctly that many of those visited failed to take note of diseased conditions of the eyes that their prime interest was the selling of glasses rather than providing conscientious professional service. riis further noted: in their own promotional literature the optometrists say that they prescribe three fourths of the glasses used in the united states. the paths to their doors are well hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 56 marked with newspaper advertisements, neon signs, shop window displays, huge spectacles hung over the sidewalk. our investigators followed the paths most trodden by the public. riis stated: the organized optometrists are prosecuting an intensive campaign for public attention. one of their official leaflets states boldly: ‘the modern optometrist is a specialist to consult about all eye conditions.’ if, following that advice we go to an optometrist and get an ineffective examination, but a highly effective dose of commercial salesmanship, what are we to think of optometry?” riis summarized: to this end two things seem essential – and with these demands many responsible leaders in optometry will agree: 1. a further improvement in optometric education. 2. abandonment by optometry of the sale of spectacles as a business and the offering of professional skill, for a fee, instead. riis noted: the code of ethics of the american optometric association requires a member to refrain from advertising ‘except that permitted by the code of ethics of his state association.’ and how about the ethics of the optical chain stores, department stores, or jewelry stores which lease to or hire optometrists? it is through the advertisements of such stores and of individual commercial optometrists that the average citizen is introduced to optometry. their advertising is often on its face a red flag of warning. “free examination,” easy payments,” “glasses on credit” abound in their copy. riis’s insights stated in the end of his article may be viewed by the open minded as reasonable for that time; i.e.: for the immediate future, the public, whose eyesight is at stake in all this, may fairly demand these things: that the optometrists raise their standards and drive out all commercialism from their ranks; that they and the oculists try to settle their differences, stop quarreling about jurisdiction over the human eye, and seek to cooperate in working out a program primarily for the public’s good. rebuttals to the first reader’s digest article by riis appeared as editorials in the august 1937 issue of the journal of the american optometric association. one editorial, titled “the deluge,” stated, “as is well known by those who have read the article [reader’s digest], it reflected many deplorable things pertaining to optometry, some truths, some half-truths and, we maintain, many falsehoods.”40 the second editorial, “objection sustained,” stated: hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 57 while some of the things cited in the article purporting to be actual experiences of the investigators may have been true, official and unadulterated optometry refuses to accept the verdict of any biased investigation based upon alleged misconduct of certain individuals arbitrarily named by the investigators as the standard bearers for optometry…the optometry statutes were enacted for the specific purpose of protecting the public. our state boards are constantly reprimanding offenders, punishing violators and revoking licenses to practice optometry. the state societies too have adopted codes of ethics, taken oaths and pledges to better serve humanity, become more proficient and helpful and, above all, honest with its clientele…we can hardly conceive of a magazine with the reputation for truth, veracity and honesty of purpose which the reader’s digest has in the past enjoyed, lending its valuable pages to any designed persecution of a well-intentioned profession, portraying to the public a story based upon evidence obtained from sources acknowledged to be without port-folio or proper authority to represent the cause.41 as reported in the august 1938 issue of the journal of the american optometric association, discriminatory articles followed the reader’s digest publication in other magazines throughout the following year. prominent among these magazines were mccall’s, saturday evening post, and collier’s.42 over a thousand type-written pages of material with additional rebuttal information was accumulated and turned over to the former governor and attorney general of michigan and friend of optometry, wilber m. brucker, who subsequently wrote a book using this information in the support of optometry.42 the story of optometry43 was published in 1939 by the journal of the american optometric association. in the first chapter of his book brucker states: modern optometry is making enormous strides to meet this overwhelming demand for better vision. in addition to applying its ordinary lens relief in adapting a far-point eye to a near-point world, optometry is making highways safer by eliminating fatigue hazards caused by eyestrain; it is returning to usefulness and independence many near-blind through the aid of telescopic spectacles; it is making possible careers in athletics, in aviation, on the screen, stage and platform by invisible contact lenses. it has developed orthoptics, a means whereby the brain is literally re-educated to coordinate the muscles that control movements of the eyeballs, thus making it possible to correct most cases of crossed eyes without surgery. this continuing story of the history of ethics and professionalism in the american optometric association will show how the reader’s digest articles and other pressures, internal and external, were driving forces in the advancement of optometric education and scope of practice in an improved professional atmosphere. we will see, however, how the consumerism movement of the 1970s subsequently reversed some efforts in the control of advertising. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 58 the 1940s, world war ii, and the office of ethics and economics the 1940s and world war ii brought new challenges along with the old. the continuing tendency of many to view optometry as a commercial business created many problems for the profession. in 1942 the aoa launched the professional advancement program44 modeled to increase the professional stature of the optometrist through many avenues from organizational advancement and student recruitment to public relations and ethics and economics. e. leroy ryer of new york city was named the national director-general for the professional advancement program. national directors were appointed for the office of public relations, the office of ethics and economics, the office of student procurement, and the office of organizational advancement, with an aoa officer or trustee as an advisor for each. james a. palmer of charlotte, north carolina was appointed national director of the office of ethics and economics with edmund f. richardson, aoa trustee, as advisor.45 due to his absence, dr. ryer's report of the professional advancement program was read by john e. corbett at the 1943 annual meeting of the aoa in chicago, illinois and stated in part: he [james palmer] cannot succeed so long as the aoa and some of the states condone the non-professional practices not only of their rank and file but of some of her state officers—leading officers practicing in pawn shops, jewelry departments and furniture stores, or in nothing better than their own ‘exclusive’ store. if those who thus jeopardize optometry's professional standing lack the taste to lie low, optometry must spunk up the courage to lay them low. if we continue to avoid this issue of true ethics by sham, hypocrisy and blatant disregard of public opinion, we may have to take the responsibility of causing a cleavage between the professional and unprofessional group which may spell ruin for both . . . dr. palmer has devised a way to change over from hidden fees for professional services in the price of glasses to properly charging for those services. dr. heather has traveled from one end of the country to the other demonstrating that way—that philosophy of sound economical, ethical practice. paying lip service to these essential principles of professional conduct at meetings and ignoring them in practice is steadily leading optometry to destruction…optometry must either kill or be killed by this canker of unprincipled, unbridled commercial exploitation that no one seems to dare to attack.46 by the name, office of ethics and economics, it is evident the efforts of this entity would encounter the professional-commercial tension. the office of ethics and economics issued "ethics and economics, part 1"47 in december 1942 and "ethics and economics, part 2" in march 1943.48 james palmer wrote: ethics and economics, part i . . . followed closely the inauguration of the aoa professional advancement program. in order to quickly establish a sound foundation upon which we could complete the development of sound ethics and economics, it was necessary to cover our complete objectives in a brief and greatly abridged form. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 59 the procedure has proven to be wise. it served as a trial balloon to determine the state of mind of the optometrists. it was necessary to know if we, as a profession, were ready to completely emerge from the field of commercialism into the field of professionalism. our months of travel, discussion with optometrists, and careful observation have established this happy fact: optometry is not only ready for this transaction, it is impatiently anxious to make it. the big question in the mind of the men has been: 'how can i make the necessary changes to have my practice conform to the concept presented in ethics and economics, part i? during march we developed ethics and economics, part ii . . . everything we have said in part ii was developed from, and conforms strictly with the brief overall picture of part i. 49 part i excluded corrective focus spectacles compounded for a predetermined individual from the commodity classification. these were considered therapeutic materials that were consumed by the optometrist in the course of his work and “material that has been consumed cannot be re-evaluated for resale.” therefore, these materials represented laboratory costs that were part of the operating expenses of the practice.47 part ii was a more extensive document and demonstrated how the optometrist could dispense ophthalmic materials (spectacles) at laboratory cost and charge for all professional services surrounding the fitting and care of spectacles.48 this committee saw ethics strongly tied to the way one practiced. if a profession is defined, in part, by ethical codes and standards in its provision of services to the public for a reasonable fee, then any optometric practice that sold spectacles with a mark-up for profit was a commercial enterprise and unprofessional in character. they recognized the importance of the economics of practice as seen in the following: a profession has for its prime object the service it can render to humanity; reward or financial gain should be of subordinate consideration. service, as our major responsibility, is rendered completely when we look toward the end result. there can be no middle ground. optometrists recognize that their professional responsibility must be met and discharged completely. then the economics of the situation need consideration. economics for the professional man can be sound and well accepted by the public only when adequate professional income results from professional services rendered. today the science of refraction, starting as it did closely allied with the sale of glasses as such, approaches its economic problems amidst great confusion. that confusion has spread to the public. unethical practices have developed and still exist. commercialism has grown strong and challenges the economics of the ophthalmic professions... professional men know they must render the services which the public requires. on the other hand, if they render services for which they are inadequately remunerated, the inexorable laws of economics will catch up with them. then they must alter either their economics or their services to the public. professional responsibility may become secondary rather than primary. the interests of the public and of the individual practitioner demand sound professional economics. in fact, ethics and economics go hand in hand where hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 60 successful professional results are to be attained. in a professional capacity, the optometrist's income must be derived from professional services rendered, rather than from the sale of ophthalmic materials in any way, shape or form. there must be no confusion on that point. 48 the office of ethics and economics published in june 1943 the fifteen components of optometric thinking,49 which every optometrist was urged to study and to put into practice for the profession to gain the degree of professional recognition that was considered merited. these components had been clearly established in parts i and ii of ethics and economics published earlier. the fifteen components of optometric thinking read as follows: fifteen components of optometric thinking 1. optometry is a profession and therefore optometrists should conduct themselves as professional men. 2. a profession has for its prime object the service it can render to humanity; reward or financial gain should be a subordinate consideration. 3. the professional optometrist charges a fee for services rendered and not for materials supplied. 4. the amount of any fee charged is, generally speaking, based upon three factors: a. the type and character of the optometrist charging the fee. b. the character of the service and the skill and knowledge involved in rendering the service. c. the value of the service to the patient and his ability to pay (refer to 9) 5. six professional services are established, each dependent upon the other for their success and value. they are: a. examining to determine the presence or absence of pathology b. refracting and visual analysis. (determine the procedure to be followed to re-establish visual efficiency and visual comfort). c. writing a prescription for glasses. d. consumption of the prescription materials. e. verifying, re-evaluating, and fitting. f. services incident to professional eye care for the life of the materials. 6. the optometrist is the consumer of ophthalmic material in the conduct of his professional practice. 7. a lens or a frame carries no intrinsic value to a patient, therefore cannot legitimately be dispensed upon that basis. this is equally true whether the material is supplied on original prescription or upon replacement. 8. the value of a pair of glasses to a patient is based entirely upon what they do for him. 9. all patients cannot afford the same fee for the same service. some cases, due to economic circumstances, justify a complete service without any fee. (refer to 4) 10. a basic fee must be established. this basic fee should be what your charges have been for your average paying patients when a complete service is rendered. 11. when prescribing for a patient, and he desires to utilize his own frame, the only legitimate adjustment in the fee is the laboratory cost of frame (average). hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 61 12. when a patient desires his prescription to obtain his glasses through a friend at "wholesale,” the only legitimate adjustment in the fee is the laboratory cost of the ophthalmic materials. all other services must be rendered. they must be paid for. 13. optometry must consider its relationship with the ophthalmologist and the ophthalmic dispenser in all its plans for future development. any assistance rendered by either group to the other contributes to the correction of a "public misconception as to the cost of eye care." certainly at this time, equitable consideration must be given to all. 14. prescription glasses, lenses, frames, temples, etc., must not be dispensed as a commodity. 15. every charge made by an optometrist in the conduct of his practice is for some professional service. therefore, the gross income of an optometrist from his practice is for professional services rendered, represented by his professional fees, never from the sale of materials. the adoption of a revised code of ethics the forty-seventh aoa congress was held in detroit in 1944. the humiliation of optometry by not being recognized as a profession in the military services during the war years, particularly in the army, made the profession realize that a high standard of ethics was required. the committee on the code of ethics, chaired by john b. o'shea with edmund f. richardson and charles sheard serving as committee members, had been established and given the responsibility of updating the code of ethics.50, 51 the report of the committee on the code of ethics of the american optometric association to the president and members of the house of delegates in 1944 states in part: because the code of ethics which our association had formulated some years ago no longer adequately represents the ideals and practices of modern optometry, this committee was appointed to revise that code and present for your consideration at this convention a code more representative of our ideals and aims and conduct. in the many and varied types of codes that were studied by your committee, many positive and negative responsibilities and restrictions had been enumerated and placed upon the members. that may be advisable in its place, but it is the considered opinion of this committee that a list of ‘musts’ and ‘must-nots’ has no place in the dignified code of ethics by which a profession should practice. usually such items belong under rules of practice for members. the american optometric association may wish to set up such a set of rules or regulations to guide and direct its members. it seems to this committee, however, that listing and, if necessary, enforcing such specific requirements might better be done by the various state associations. in formulating the code of ethics which is hereby recommended for adoption by the american optometric association, your committee was unanimous in feeling that our national code should be a positive statement, honestly setting forth in general terms the sort of persons we expect our members to be and the general policy we expect them to pursue. we believe that it should be hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 62 specific enough to call attention to certain meritorious qualities and practices that as members of the american optometric association they are expected to demonstrate. yet it must not be so specific that failure to mention any desirable quality or practice could be construed as neglect or disapproval of it. the code we adopt should be broad enough to cover all the needs of the highest type of present day practice of optometry; it should be flexible enough to meet the varying conditions of different localities; and it must allow for the inevitable changes of tomorrow. 51 the aoa house of delegates adopted the code on june 27th, 1944, fulfilling the last objectives in chairman o'shea's report.51 when the 1944 code of ethics was adopted, it was adopted subject to refinements in language without change of meaning. the committee to revise the code of ethics, having gone over the code carefully since its june adoption, presented it in final form at the meeting of the board of trustees in washington, d.c. on december 4, 1944. with slight changes made in the wording, the board of trustees adopted it unanimously. the 1944 code of ethics read as follows:52 code of ethics (adopted 1944) it shall be the ideal, the resolve and the duty of the members of the american optometric association: to keep the visual welfare of the patient uppermost at all times; to promote in every possible way, in collaboration with this association, better care of the visual needs of mankind; to enhance continuously their educational and technical proficiency to the end that their patients shall receive the benefits of all acknowledged improvements in visual care; to see that no person shall lack for visual care, regardless of his financial status; to advise the patient whenever consultation with an optometric colleague or reference for other professional care seems advisable; to hold in professional confidence all information concerning a patient and to use such data only for the benefit of the patient; to conduct themselves as exemplary citizens; to maintain their offices and their practices in keeping with professional standards; hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 63 to promote and maintain cordial and unselfish relationships with members of their own profession and of other professions for the exchange of information to the advantage of mankind. this 1944 version of the code of ethics remained as a set of guiding principles for 61 years until a minor modification in 2005 and a major rewrite in 2007. development of additional documents expanding the code of ethics following the adoption of the new code of ethics, the 1944 aoa house of delegates passed the following resolution no. 13: whereas, there has now been adopted a code of ethics, which represents the ideals of the aoa for the conduct of its members; and whereas, there is a need for the elaboration of this code of ethics into a codification of policies of the aoa; and whereas, there is a fundamental need for a set of criteria for the guidance of the conduct of the individual optometrists and their organizations; now, therefore, be it resolved, that the department of ethics and economics of the aoa be directed to explore every possible source and to prepare a body of criteria which is consistent with the code of ethics adopted at this convention, for the guidance of the thinking and behavior of the practitioners of optometry. 53 consistent with the directive of the above resolution, the department of ethics and economics, previously known as the office of ethics and economics, led the development of additional documents to supplement the code for purposes of setting up rules and regulations to guide and direct more specific "ethical" behavior of its members. the supplements to the code of ethics were adopted in 1946 and the rules of practice were adopted in 1950. these supplementary documents covered many of the musts and mustnots related to specific practice activities, which john o'shea wished to keep out of the wording of the code of ethics itself. the supplements and the rules would be used to help regulate the business aspects of practice and to aid in the fight against commercialism. these documents became part of the continuing struggle to dispel the notion still held by many in the public and some of the other professions that optometry was a business venture dealing in the sale of a commodity. some of the history leading to the development of these additional documents follows. in october of 1944 the department of ethics and economics (previously known as the office of ethics and economics) reported recommendations from a recently held conference. the department now had three subdivisions under the chairmanship of james a. palmer of charlotte, north carolina. a. scott gibson of thomaston, georgia was hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 64 in charge of the subdivision of ethics, galen f. kintner of wabash, indiana was in charge of the subdivision of economics, and paul a. ludeman of chicago directed the subdivision of professional standards. in order to clarify their thinking, certain principles were laid down as a foundation from which to work. these included those previously reported as well as some new recommendations. several of the more significant recommendations: regardless of seemingly expedient purpose, no advertising should be indulged in except for the purpose of public information and education and then only as it is representative of an optometric group affiliated with the american optometric association, and never by an individual or group of individuals for the purpose of discrimination…splitting of fees and accepting of commissions, regardless of the form or the excuse thereof, are well established as inimical to the public welfare, in addition to being unethical….this department urges all optometrists and suppliers to avoid such practices.54 cooperation was sought from publishers as well as from suppliers of ophthalmic materials. in 1945, the forty-eighth annual meeting of the aoa in cincinnati, ohio was limited to only fifty representatives, some proxies, because of wartime travel restrictions. there were no social events, exhibits, or educational lectures that year.55 the house of delegates appears to have taken no action that year on the above pending work of the department of ethics and economics. when the department of ethics and economics presented its forty-five-page report56 to the aoa house of delegates in 1946 in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, there seemed to be some confusion about the charge given to the department by the 1944 resolution.53 the following discussions centered on whether the department was to develop a new and more expansive code of ethics or just give interpretations of the 1944 code for specific practice circumstances. these meetings pointed out that pennsylvania, as well as some other states, needed specific ‘must-nots’ defining what was ‘unprofessional conduct’ in order to get legislation regulating some commercial practice activities. even though the department had prepared an extensive document, it was determined more work was needed. the board got permission from the house of delegates to complete the task at a later date after further work by the department of ethics and economics. this permission was obtained with the following resolution no.4: whereas, pursuant to resolution no. 13, adopted at the detroit congress in 1944, the department of ethics and economics of the american optometric association was directed to explore every possible source and to prepare a body of criteria which is consistent with the code of ethics, which code had been adopted at that congress; and, whereas, the department of ethics and economics prepared and submitted the draft of a treatise which from its context indicated that a great amount of study and research had already been contributed to this work; and whereas, the work of this department has not been fully completed, now, hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 65 therefore, be it resolved, that the department of ethics and economics continue its efforts pursuant to the provisions of resolution no. 13, adopted at the detroit congress in 1944, and prepare, in collaboration with the board of trustees, a document which will set forth in articles supplemental to the code of ethics, standards of conduct for the guidance of the thinking and behavior of the practitioners of optometry, and a second document which may be used as a rule and guide for the practicing optometrist and as a text for the teaching of ethics and economics to the undergraduate; and be it further resolved, that the document setting forth the articles supplemental to the code of ethics shall be prepared with all convenient speed and that upon its completion, the board of trustees is authorized to issue and promulgate these articles which shall forthwith go into effect and supplement the present code of ethics of the american optometric association; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association does hereby tender its thanks and appreciation to those members of the department of ethics and economics who so laboriously and painstakingly prepared the draft which was submitted for consideration at this congress. 57 the adoption of supplements to the code of ethics upon instruction by the 1946 house of delegates, the final draft of the supplements to the 1944 code of ethics was adopted by the board of trustees in 1946.5759 this document was revised in 1968 and 1970.60 the document expanded on the code of ethics and its application to specific behaviors within the practice of optometry. the july 1946 report of the department of ethics and economics56 served as a guide. one section of the supplements clearly prohibited the methods of advertisement which would be considered unethical and to constitute unprofessional conduct, a major concern at that time.59 the house of delegates passed a resolution at the 1947 congress in atlantic city, new jersey urging all members "to study and comply with the code and its supplement."61 the great detail of the historically significant supplements to the 1944 code of ethics, as last revised in 1970, follows. it is noted, when comparing the 1946 version with the 1970 version that the 1968 and 1970 revisions resulted in sections d and e of part ii being summarized into one paragraph each with some small wording changes while retaining essentially the same meaning. the section c of part iii revision, in describing advertising that was considered unethical and to constitute unprofessional conduct, added “in accordance with the laws and regulations of each particular state.”62 section q of part iii was added addressing the need to avoid using official positions in optometric organizations for self-benefit.59-61, 63 the supplements to the code of ethics read as follows:60 supplements to the code of ethics (as revised and adopted in 1970) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 66 i. basic responsibilities of an optometrist section a. the welfare of humanity a profession has for its prime object the service it can render to humanity; reward or financial gain should be a subordinate consideration. the practice of optometry is a profession. in choosing this profession an individual assumes an obligation to conduct himself in accord with its ideals. section b. self-improvement it is the duty of every optometrist to keep himself in touch with every modern development in his profession, to enhance his knowledge and proficiency by the adoption of modern methods and scientific concepts of proven worth, and to contribute his share to the general knowledge and advancement of his profession by all means in his power. all these things he should do with that freedom of action and thought that provides first for the welfare of the public within the scope and limits of his endeavor. section c. scientific attitude an optometrist should approach all situations with a scientific attitude, weighing all that is new against the present fund of knowledge and his experience, and accepting only that which is truth as nearly as he can ascertain. section d. personal deportment an optometrist should be an upright man. consequently he must keep himself pure in character, must conform to a high standard of morals, and must be diligent and conscientious in his studies. section e. optometrists as public citizens an optometrist should bear his full part in supporting the laws of the community and sustaining the institutions that advance the interests of humanity. ii. relations between an optometrist and his patients section a. confidential aspects of patient relations patience and delicacy should characterize all the acts of an optometrist. the confidence concerning individual or domestic life entrusted by a patient to an optometrist and the defects of disposition or flaws of character observed in patients during attendance should be held as a trust and should never be revealed except when imperatively required by the laws of the state. section b. the presence of a pathological condition should be communicated by an optometrist to his patient an optometrist should give to the patient a timely notice of manifestations of disease. he should neither exaggerate nor minimize the gravity of the patient's condition. he should assure himself that the patient or his family has such knowledge of the patient's condition as will serve the best interests of the patient. section c. patients must not be neglected an optometrist is free to choose whom he will serve. he should respond to any request for his assistance in an emergency. once having undertaken a case formally, an optometrist shall not abandon or neglect the patient. frequently the immediate, prior need of the patient for the professional services of another must be recommended by the optometrist. in any event, he shall not withdraw from a hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 67 case until a sufficient notice has been given the patient or his family to make it possible to secure other professional services. section d. compensations and fees the fee charged the patient is determined by the skill, knowledge, and responsibility of the optometrist. additional factors are the time and overhead costs, and the relative value of the service given. section e. the relations of services and materials materials utilized by the optometrist are charged to the patient on the basis of their costs to the optometrist. section f. gratuitous service the poverty of a patient and the humanitarian, professional obligations of optometrists should command the gratuitous services of an optometrist. other individuals and endowed institutions and organizations have no claim on the optometrist for gratuitous services. section g. contract practice it is unethical for optometrists to enter into contracts which impose conditions that make it impossible to deal fairly with the public or fellow practitioners in the locality. section h. interference or unrelated practices the acts which an optometrist performs and which are outside the confines of his profession must not mislead the public as to the scope of his profession, and must not be inimical to the public welfare or to that of his fellow practitioners. iii. responsibilities to other optometrists and to the public section a. uphold the honor of the profession the obligation assumed upon entering the profession requires the optometrist to comport himself as a gentleman, and demands that he use every honorable means to uphold the dignity and honor of his vocation, to exalt its standards and to extend its sphere of usefulness. section b. optometric societies in order that the dignity and honor of the optometric profession may be upheld, its standards exalted, its sphere of usefulness extended, and the advancement of optometric science promoted, an optometrist should associate himself with optometric societies. he should contribute his time, energy, and means to the end that these societies may represent the ideals of the profession. section c. advertising the following are deemed, among others, to be unethical and to constitute unprofessional conduct in accordance with the laws and regulations of each particular state. --soliciting patients directly or indirectly, individually or collectively through the guise of groups, institutions, or organizations. --employing solicitors, publicity agents, entertainers, lecturers, and any mechanical or electronic, visual or auditory device for the solicitation of patronage. --advertising professional superiority or the performance of professional services in a superior manner. --any advertising or conduct of a character tending to deceive or mislead the public. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 68 --advertising one or more types of service to imply superiority or lower fees. --holding one's self forth to the public under the name of any corporation, company, institution, clinic, association, parlor, or any other name than the name of the optometrist. --holding one's self forth as possessed of or utilizing exclusive methods of practice or peculiar styles of service. --displaying certificates, diplomas, or similar documents unless the same have been earned by the optometrist. --guaranteeing or warranting the results of professional services. --advertising of any character which includes or contains any fee whatsoever, or any reference thereto, or any reference to the cost to the patient, whether related to the examination or the cost or fee for lenses, glasses, frames, mountings, or any other optometric services, article, or device necessary for the patient. --offering free examination or other gratuitous services, bonuses, premiums, discounts, or any other inducements. --permitting the display of his name in any city, commercial, telephone, or other public directory; or directory in the lobby of public halls in any office or public building using any type which is in any way different from the standard size, shape, or color of the type regularly used in such medium. --permitting his name to be put in any public directory under a heading other than "optometrist." --printing professional cards, billheads, letterheads and stationery with illustrations or printed materials other than his name, title, address, telephone number, office hours, and specialty, if any. --displaying large, glaring or flickering signs, or any sign or other depiction containing as a part thereof the representation of an eye, eyeglasses, spectacles, or any portion of the human head. --using large lettering or other devices or unusual depictions upon the office doors or windows. section d. patents it is unprofessional for an optometrist to exploit a patent for lenses, appliances, or instruments used in the practice of optometry in such a way as to deprive the public of its benefits, either through refusal to grant licenses to competent manufacturers who can assure adequate production and unimpeachable quality, or through exorbitant demands in the form of royalty; or for similar forms of monopolistic control in which the interests of the public are exploited. section e. rebates it is unprofessional and unethical to accept rebates on prescriptions, lenses, or optical appliances used in the practice of optometry. section f. safeguarding the profession an optometrist should expose without fear or favor, before the proper optometric tribunals, corrupt or dishonest conduct of members of the profession. all questions affecting the professional reputation or standing of a member or members of the optometric profession should be considered only before proper hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 69 optometric tribunals in executive sessions, or by special or duly appointed committees on ethical relations. every optometrist should aid in safeguarding the profession against the admission to its ranks of those who are unfit or unqualified because deficient either in moral character or education. section g. professional services of optometrists to each other an optometrist should always cheerfully and gratuitously respond with his professional services to the call of any optometrist practicing in his vicinity, or of the immediate family dependents of optometrists. section h. consultations of optometrists should be encouraged in doubtful or difficult conditions where the services of another may be required, the optometrist should request consultations. section i. consultant and attendant when an optometrist has been called on a case as a consultant, it is his responsibility to ensure that the patient be returned to the original optometrist for any subsequent care that the patient requires. section j. criticism to be avoided in consultation the optometrist, in his relations with a patient under the care of another optometrist, should observe the strictest caution and reserve; should give no derogatory hints relative to the nature and care of the patient's disorder; nor should the course of conduct of the optometrist directly or indirectly tend to diminish the trust reposed in the attending optometrist. in embarrassing situations or wherever there may seem to be a possibility of misunderstanding with a colleague, the optometrist should always seek a personal interview with his fellow. section k. general practitioner responsible when the general practitioner of optometry refers a patient to another optometrist, the former remains in charge of the case and is responsible for the care of the patient until properly dismissed. section l. services to patient of another optometrist an optometrist should never take charge of, or prescribe for, a patient who is under the care of another optometrist, except in an emergency, until after the other optometrist has relinquished the case or has been properly dismissed. section m. criticism of a colleague to be avoided when an optometrist succeeds another optometrist in the charge of a case, he should not make comments on, or insinuations regarding the practice of the one who preceded him. such comments or insinuations tend to lower the esteem of the patient for the optometric profession and so react against the critic. section n. a colleague's patient when an optometrist is requested by a colleague to care for a patient during his temporary absence; or when, because of an emergency, he is asked to see a patient of a colleague, the optometrist should treat the patient in the same manner and with the same delicacy as he would have one of his own patients cared for under similar circumstances. the patient should be returned to the care of the attending optometrist as soon as possible. section o. arbitration of differences between optometrists hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 70 should there arise between optometrists a difference of opinion which cannot be properly adjusted, the dispute should be referred for arbitration to an appropriate committee of impartial optometrists. section p. fee splitting when a patient is referred by an optometrist to another for consultation or for care, whether the optometrist in charge accompanies the patient or not, it is unethical to give or receive a commission or secret division of fees, by whatever term it may be called or under any guise or pretext whatsoever. section q. official position a member holding an official position in any optometric organization shall avoid any semblance of using this position for self-aggrandizement. iv. relations between an optometrist and other professionals section a. interprofessional relations dignity, propriety and a proper regard for their individual fields of service must characterize the relationship between optometrists and members of other professions. section b. referring patients whenever, to complement the services of an optometrist, the patient's condition requires the professional services of another, every cooperative effort shall be made to the end that the patient's welfare be safeguarded. section c. public health professional responsibility demands that the optometrist actively participate in public health measures to the end that every step be taken to safeguard the welfare of society. references 37. riis rw. optometry on trial. readers digest 1937 aug;31(184):77-85. 38. editor. optometry on trial: an editorial interlude. readers digest 1937 sept;31(185):100-102. 39. riis rw. optometry on trial – ii. readers digest 1937 oct;31(186):89-96. 40. kiekenapp eh., ed. the deluge. j am optom assoc 1937;9(1):12. 41. kiekenapp eh., ed. objection sustained. j am optom assoc 1937;9(1):13. 42. report of the forty-first annual congress of the american optometric association. j am optom assoc 1938;10(1):11,16. 43. brucker wm. the story of optometry. minneapolis: am optom assoc, 1939:15. 44. optometry the profession: surveying optometry’s emergency and professional advancement program. american optometric association, 1942. 45. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:177-181. 46. ryer el. report of the professional advancement program. j am optom assoc 1943:xv(1):52-53,66. 47. palmer ja. ethics and economics part 1. st. louis: american optometric association, 1942. 48. palmer ja. ethics and economics part 2. st. louis: american optometric association, 1943. 49. palmer ja. ethics and economics. opt j rev optom 1943;80(11):22,24. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 bailey: history of ethics 2016| page 71 50. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:192. 51. o'shea jb, richardson ef, sheard c. report of the committee to revise the code of ethics. j am optom assoc 1944;16(1):16-18. 52. code of ethics in final form. j am optom assoc 1945;16(6):132,136. 53. minutes of the aoa board of trustees meeting. july 4-12, 1946. st. louis: american optometric association:58-59,66-67. 54. kintner gf. report of the conference of the department of ethics and economics of the american optometric association, cincinnati, ohio, october 4 and 5, 1944. j am optom assoc 1944;16(4):91-92. 55. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:196. 56. department of ethics and economics. principles of ethics and economics for the optometrist (a department report to the house of delegates). 1946, st. louis: american optometric association. 57. proceedings of the aoa house of delegates. july 7-10, 1946. st. louis: american optometric association. 58. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:132-136. 59. optometric code of ethics and supplements. st. louis: american optometric association, 1947. 60. supplements to the code of ethics. st. louis: american optometric association, 1970. 61. proceedings of aoa house of delegates, june 21-25, 1947. st. louis: american optometric association, 1947:119. 62. minutes of aoa board of trustees, pre-congress meeting. miami beach, fl. st. louis: american optometric association, june 23-25, 1968:17. 63. minutes of aoa board of trustees, post-congress meeting. miami beach, fl. st. louis: american optometric association, june 30-july 1, 1968:9. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 72 book reviews david goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu descartes and the hyperblic quest: lens making machines and their significance in the seventeenth century by d. graham burnett philadelphia: american philosophical society; 2005. 152 pages. in the seventeenth century, the best lenses were being made in italy. although optical knowledge was improving at that time, as for example through the publications of kepler, there was little change in lens making procedures and the improvements that did occur were more through the work of lens making artisans than through that of natural philosophers (scientists) and mathematicians. quality of lenses was affected by the quality of the glass and of the abrasives used in shaping and polishing the glass, as well as the skill and techniques of the lens maker. one of the best lens makers of the seventeenth century was giuseppe campani, who guarded his methods as trade secrets and taught them to no one except his daughter. the market for high quality lenses was driven largely by the need for good lenses to make telescopes. some natural philosophers also tried their hand at lens making. for example, christiaan huygens made good enough lenses to make a telescope with sufficient imagery to allow him in 1659 to publish a theory that rings around saturn gave it its oblong appearance. it was known by the early seventeenth century that the quality of lenses was limited by aberrations. by the early 1620s the mathematician isaac beeckman was pioneering efforts to make aspheric lenses. by the late 1620s rene descartes was working with a mechanical craftsman and instrument maker named ferrier to try to design an aspheric lens making machine that was automated so that there was little work required of the lens making craftsman. his attempts to design such a machine were detailed in his 1637 book la dioptrique. descartes’ involvement in the quest to build an automated machine for hyperbolic lens grinding seems to have ended in 1640 when florimund de beaune, a young technically adept mathematician with whom he had been working, was injured by a piece of glass. the publication of descartes’ book la dioptrique in 1637 and the high regard mailto:aitkenmr@melbpc@org.au hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 73 for machines in seventeenth century science seems to have spurred several natural philosophers and astronomers to try to construct mechanical systems for the production of lenses for telescopes. the author discussed the efforts of the following in the seventeenth century after descartes: anton de rheita, emmanuel maignan, robert hooke, christopher wren, christiaan huygens, and constantijn huygens. some of those systems were only theoretical and never constructed. none of them produced lenses equal in quality to the handcrafted lenses ground by the master italian lens makers. by the last quarter of the seventeenth century, attention was shifting to newtonian reflecting telescopes. in 1671, cherubin d’orleans, a capuchin firar, published la dioptrique oculaire, a treatise on lens making. he envisioned a middle ground between complete automation of lens grinding and the “vulgar artisan.” he suggested a new artisan, with both theoretical grounding and practical ability, who would make use of mechanical devices designed in such a way that the artisan could guide their proper operation. in addition to expounding on the history of attempts to automate lens making in the seventeenth century, the author also presented some philosophical musings on the relation of scientists and artisans in that time period and on descartes’ writings. the author is a history professor at princeton university. descartes and the hyperbolic quest: lens making machines and their significance in the seventeenth century (transactions of the american philosophical society, volume 95, part 3). d. graham burnett. philadelphia: american philosophical society, 2005. 152 pages. isbn-13: 978-0-87169-953-4. softcover, $24. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 74 our history in focus: the first 100 years of the ohio state university college of optometry by robert d. newcomb columbus: the ohio state university; 2014. 232 pages. there are very few optometry schools that can trace their origins back 100 years, and the ohio state university college of optometry is the only university based optometry school that can do so. this book chronicles those 100 years at ohio state. columbia university was the first university to operate an optometry school, starting in 1910, but it closed in 1956. charles sheard (1883-1963) joined the ohio state faculty as a physics professor in 1907. in 1908 he gave a lecture to the ohio state optical association. the optometrists in attendance were so impressed with sheard that they encouraged him to try to start an optometry school at ohio state. in 1914, sheard submitted a proposal for an optometry school to the university president and by september there were 12 students registered in the two year program in applied optics as the optometry school was first known. sheard was the first head of the optometry school. in the lower right area of the collage of pictures hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 book reviews 2016| page 75 on the front cover (see above) there is a picture of charles sheard. there were nine students who completed the applied optics curriculum in 1916. the optometry program soon expanded to a four year curriculum. in 1918, the first student to receive a bachelor of science in applied optics from the department of physics graduated. the next graduates were eight students receiving their b.s. degrees in 1920. sheard left ohio state in 1919 for a research position at american optical company in southbridge, massachusetts. howard minchin was head of the applied optics program at ohio state from 1920 to 1929. in 1935, glenn a. fry was recruited to ohio state to head the applied optics program. a photograph of glenn fry taken in 1983 is toward the left in the middle row of pictures on the front cover. in the group picture just below that, glenn fry and henry hofstetter are the first two persons standing on the left side of the bottom row. in 1937, it was announced that the optometry degree would be changed from a b.s. in applied optics to a b.s. in optometry. in the 1930s, ohio state started a graduate program in physiological optics. herbert mote and howard haines received the first m.s. degrees in 1938 and henry hofstetter received the first ph.d. in 1942. in 1964, ohio state approved a six-year curriculum leading to the doctor of optometry (o.d.) degree. in 1966, frederick w. hebbard succeeded glenn fry as the director of ohio state’s optometry school. subsequent deans have been richard hill, john p. schoessler, melvin d. shipp, and karla zadnik. at the time of the writing of this book, ohio state had graduated 3,628 students in applied optics and optometry and awarded 347 m.s. and ph.d. degrees in physiological optics and vision science. this book includes a hundred page chronological history of the optometry school examining curriculum, facilities, research, leadership, and related topics; a seventy-five page section of biographical sketches of most of the faculty members in the school’s history; and lists of endowments, graduates, award recipients, and persons featured in the celebrity eyewear collection created by arol augsburger. this book is a fitting tribute to the optometry school at ohio state and the many persons who have contributed to its success. the book is profusely illustrated with blackand-white and color photographs. the author is robert d. newcomb, a b.s. (1970) and o.d. (1971) graduate of ohio state and former ohio state faculty member (1997-2012). he also holds an m.p.h. degree from the university of alabama at birmingham (1975) and is a member of the optometric historical society. our history in focus: the first 100 years of the ohio state university college of optoemtry. robert d. newcomb. columbus: the ohio state university 2014, 2014. 232 pages. hardcover. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 membership application 2016| page 76 20160615_hindsight47-2_cover_final coverdraft_final 20160615_frontmatter_hindsight47-2_final 20160615_toc_hindsight47-2_final 20160615_editorial_hindsight47-2_final 20160615_biosketch_hindsight47-2_final 20160615_bennett_hindsight47-2_final 20160615_articlebailey_hindsight47-2_final 20160615_bookreview_hindsight47-2_final 20160615_membershipapplication_end hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 member list| page 150 ohs membership 2016 individuals jerome abrams, od michael aitken, losc john f. amos, od, ms* arol augsburger, od, phd r. norman bailey, od, ms allan barker, od felix barker, od irving bennett, od* cheryl bergin, od lynn brandes, od* abraham bromberg, od albert bucar, od, dos alan bugg, od gary campbell, od lester caplan, od linda casser, od tony cavallerano, od tony chahine, od richard chong, od john g. classé, od, jd judith a. clay, od barry cole, od melanie crandall, od viktoria l. davis, od thomas eichhorst, jd paul farkas, od ronald ferrucci, od* gregory ferrucci, od barry fisch, od david fleishman, md george e. foster, od matthew garston, od fred goldberg, od david goss, od, phd (editor, hindsight) gary gray, jr., od morton greenspoon, od rahul gupta, od charles haine, od, ms* stanely hallock, od richard hopping, od walter king, od robert kocembo, od ernest loewenstein, od, phd stacey meier, od j.d. miller, jr., od pamela miller, od, jd raymond myers, od robert newcomb, od, mph jackie ngo, od angela nguyen, od amy puerto, od p. duncan roy, jr., od jack runninger, od james sandefur, od clifford a. scott, od, mph bill sharpton, od david snyder, od gregory stephens, od, phd nancy stovall, od charles j. stuckey, jr., od selwyn super, od, phd john townsend, od stephanie uchida, od timothy wingert, od george woo, od, phd* melissa woodard, od karla zadnik, od, phd* institutions alcon laboratories, inc. the archives & museum of optometry harold kohn vision science library, suny illinois college of optometry inter american university of puerto rico marshall b. ketchum university library national library of medicine optometrists association of australia university of houston wellcome library *advisory committee members hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 membership application 2016| page 151 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 nomination form 2016| page 152 advisory committee nomination form we have two seats that will come vacant in january 2017. all nomination forms must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on sunday, november 20, 2016. you may submit your form online at http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/. if you have any questions or your contact information changes, please contact erica hayes, administrative assistant, at amo@aoa.org. advisory committee nomination process 1. short biography for each nominee; 2. a written confirmation that the nominee(s) is aware of the nomination (unless selfnominated) please attach a single document or file containing both the (1) biographical paragraph noting your expertise in the subject matter and (2) written confirmation of consent from the nominee (if not self-nominating). you may fax to erica hayes at (314) 991-4101: name (person nominating): email: phone: date: nominee name: nominee email: nominee phone: nominee address: nominee city, state zip: http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/ mailto:amo@aoa.org 20160615_membershipapplication 20161025_ocohs_nominationform hindsight47-4_memberlist_final hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 member list| page 44 ohs membership 2015 individuals jerome abrams, od michael aitken, losc john f. amos, od, ms* arol augsburger, od, phd r. norman bailey, od, ms allan barker, od felix barker, od irving bennett, od* cheryl bergin, od lynn brandes, od* abraham bromberg, od albert bucar, od, dos alan bugg, od gary campbell, od lester caplan, od tony chahine, od john g. classé, od, jd judith a. clay, od barry cole, od melanie crandall, od viktoria l. davis, od desiree hopping, od ronald hopping, od thomas eichhorst, jd paul farkas, od ronald ferrucci, od* barry fisch, od david fleishman, md george e. foster, od david goss, od, phd (editor, hindsight) gary gray, jr., od morton greenspoon, od alden haffner, od, phd* charles haine, od, ms* david hauk, od richard hopping, od walter king, od robert kocembo, od dennis kuwabara, od ernest loewenstein, od, phd stuart mann, od stacey meier, od j.d. miller, jr., od pamela miller, od, jd raymond myers, od robert newcomb, od, mph duncan roy, jr., od jack runninger, od james sandefur, od clifford a. scott, od, mph jack schaeffer, od bill sharpton, od david snyder, od gregory stephens, od, phd nancy stovall, od charles j. stuckey, jr., od natalie taylor, cpot john tull, md william urosevich, od satya verma, od robert williams, od george woo, od, phd* melissa woodard, od karla zadnik, od, phd* institutions alcon laboratories, inc. the archives & museum of optometry harold kohn vision science library, suny illinois college of optometry indiana university libraries inter american university of puerto rico marshall b. ketchum university library national library of medicine, north carolina board of optometry optometrists association of australia university of houston wellcome library *advisory committee members official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. volumes 1-42 are available online at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. ohs website: http://www.aoafoundation.org/historical-gems/ on the cover: dr. george s. houghton (1867-1933), founder of the distinguished service foundation of optometry and president of the american optometric association, 1928-1930 (photo courtesy of the american optometric association archives and museum of optometry) hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 1 hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2015 volume 46, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editor: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 table of contents a history of the distinguished service foundation of optometry, david a. goss……….2 robert bannon (1910-1996), optometric practitioner, researcher, and writer, david a. goss…………………………………………………………………………………………….10 book review: splendid audacity: the story of pacific university, reviewed by david a. goss…………………………………………………...........................................................13 instructions to authors………………………………………………………………………..15 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 2 a history of the distinguished service foundation of optometry david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract the distinguished service foundation of optometry was an organization which sought to encourage research and education to facilitate the conservation of vision through publications and the awarding of medals. it existed from 1927 to 1979, but was most active in the 1930s and 1940s. its leaders and activities are discussed. key words: optometric research, optometry awards, optometry books, optometry history. the increasing professionalization of optometry in the first few decades of the twentieth century included the formation and maturation of various organizations. one of these was the distinguished service foundation of optometry (dsfo). it was founded in 1927 by george stevens houghton.1-3 george s. houghton (1967-1933) practiced optometry in boston and was heavily involved in optometric organizations. he was a president of the massachusetts state optometric association, was a member of the massachusetts board of registration in optometry, and he organized the new england council of optometrists.4 he served as president of the american optometric association in 1928-1930. he was director of the distinguished service foundation of optometry (dsfo) until his death in 1933. the purposes of the dsfo were to correlate and disseminate research findings from various fields, to encourage research, and to promote publication of inventive work by proficient clinicians in order to facilitate greater conservation of human vision.1,5-7 the dsfo consulting board in 1933 consisted of many well-known persons in optometry and optics: charles sheard, edwin h. silver, howard c. doane, james p.c. southall, frederick a. woll, arthur e. hoare, ernest h. kiekenapp, clinton r. padelford, matthew luckiesh, thomas mcburnie, and chester johnson.2 the director of the dsfo in the late 1930s and in the 1940s was clinton r. padelford (1877-1961). he practiced optometry in fall river, massachusetts. he was a president of the massachusetts and new england optometric societies.8 serving as secretary-treasurer of the dsfo in the 1940s was laurence p. folsom (1896-1956), of south royalton, vermont. folsom had also served as a president of the new england optometric association and of the international board of examiners in optometry.9 mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 3 fig. 1. george s. houghton (photo from american optometric association archives and museum of optometry). fig. 2. clinton r. padelford (photo from optical journal and review of optometry, april 15, 1937, vol. 74, no. 8, p. 30). hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 4 in 1958, theodore a. brombach (1884-1961) was installed as director of the dsfo.3 brombach was born in germany and practiced optometry in san francisco for many years. he was a lecturer at university of california berkeley school of optometry, and he served on the california state board of examiners for ten years.10,11 brombach conducted research on visual fields and the effects of various systemic conditions and substances on them. he received an honorary d.o.s. degree from pacific university in 1956. the brombach wing was added to the optometry building at pacific university in 1967. during brombach’s years as director of the dsfo, john r. uglum was the secretary-treasurer. uglum had served several years as secretary of the national board of examiners in optometry.12 fig. 3. theodore a. brombach. (photo from western optical world, may, 1939, vol. 27, no. 5, p. b). hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 5 following the death of theodore brombach, james f. wahl (1901-1982) took over as director of the dsfo.12 wahl received a b.s. degree from the united states military academy at west point in 1920, and in 1923 he graduated from optometry school at the needles institute.13 wahl was president of the american optometric association in 1952-1954. he practiced optometry from 1923 to 1955 and was dean of the pacific university college of optometry from 1955 to 1963. he received honorary d.o.s. degrees from northern illinois college of optometry in 1952 and from los angeles college of optometry in 1953. the dsfo granted fellowships to invitees who submitted an acceptable thesis or to individuals who were voted to fellowship unanimously by the dsfo council by virtue of their outstanding contributions. fellowship was limited to 100 active members.3 the foundation did not collect dues and was “self-supporting”.3 as part of its purpose of encouraging research, the dsfo awarded medals for meritorious contributions to vision science. a list of gold medal winners compiled from various sources1,3,14,15 (and therefore possibly incomplete) is as follows: 1929 howard c. doane, o.d. 1929 charles sheard, ph.d. 1930 clinton r. padelford, o.d. 1930 frederick a. woll, ph.d. 1931 walter i. brown, o.d. 1931 james p.c. southall, m.a. 1932 matthew luckiesh, m.s., d.sc. 1932 frank moss 1933 dartmouth department of research in physiological optics (adelbert ames jr., a.m.; elmer t. carleton, m.d.; gordon h. gliddon, ph.d.; leo f. madigan, o.d.; and kenneth h. ogle, ph.d.) 1934 albert fitch, o.d. 1935 theodore a. brombach, o.d. 1936 frederick hamilton, o.d. 1937 paul boeder, ph.d. 1937 katherine chamberlain, d.sc. 1937 earl taylor, m.a. 1938 b.w. hazell, m.d. 1938 w.b. needles, o.d. 1940 george w. parkins, o.d. 1944 thomas g. atkinson, m.d. 1944 e. leroy ryer, o.d., and elmer hotaling, o.d. 1944 carl f. shepard, d.o.s. 1948 alvah r. lauer, ph.d. 1948 onfrey rybachok, m.a. 1948 edwin h. silver, o.d. 1949 e.e. rogers, m.d. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 6 1952 dr. julius neumueller 1952 dr. ernest a. hutchinson 1952 dr. ralph green 1959 james f. wahl, o.d. from 1932 to 1949, the dsfo published several monographs16: annals of the distinguished service foundation of optometry, number 1 (1932, 62 pages), number 2 (1935, 78 pages), number 3 (1937, 158 pages). visual fields, theodore a. brombach (1936, 228 pages). an introduction to the mathematics of ophthalmic optics, paul boeder (1937, 244 pages). seeing dramatized, the human eye demonstrator: how we see, why we see, what we see, frederick hamilton (1937, 54 pages). the diagnosis and elimination of visual handicaps preventing efficient reading, george a. parkins (1941, 142 pages). the philosophy and science of health, e.e. rogers (1949, 153 pages). the 1932 annals of the distinguished service foundation of optometry contained four papers on aniseikonia, the horopter, and iseikonic lenses by adelbert ames, jr., gordon h. gliddon, kenneth n. ogle, leo madigan, and elmer h. carleton of the dartmouth eye institute. the 1935 annals had 11 papers on a variety of topics, most of which were abridged versions of theses submitted for dsfo fellowship. again in the 1937 annals most of the contributions were abridged versions of dsfo fellowship theses. in visual fields, brombach reviewed methods of visual fields charting and discussed clinical applications based on his experience of doing numerous perimetric analyses. he noted that factors such as shape of the orbital cavity, pupil size, ametropia, illumination, patient intelligence, and examiner skill can affect visual fields. he did most of his visual field investigations with arc perimetry and some with campimetry. he advocated doing what he called form, color, and motion fields. for form fields he used 5 mm diameter round and triangular white targets. for color fields he used 5 mm diameter green, red, and blue targets. motion fields were done by moving a 1 mm target on a thin gray wire up and down. the book included case reports illustrated with color plates. he discussed the effects of tobacco, caffeine, fatigue, glaucoma, optic tract lesions, and other substances and conditions on visual fields. brombach also related the visual fields of some members of the university of california football team to their performance on the football field. a review called the book “an inspiration to every optometrist” and suggested that it would “stimulate many to enter this new phase of optometric procedure and thus render a more finished service to their patients.”17 this book is significant in that it appears to be the first book devoted exclusively devoted to visual fields written by an optometrist. hamilton’s seeing dramatized was published as a separate monograph and was also included as part of the 1937 annals. he described a mechanical “human eye demonstrator”, and showed pictures using it. it had a lens system, an adjustable iris, hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 7 eyelids which could squint, and a spherical translucent retina. one of the illustrations showed a simulation of the blurred retinal image of a schoolteacher at the blackboard that a nearsighted child would experience. other pictures simulated astigmatic imagery and illustrated how the proper individual cylinder correction was needed to clear imagery for each separate case of astigmatism. hamilton also wrote about glare and drivers’ vision in this publication. hamilton practiced optometry in owego, new york and providence, rhode island, and he was one of the members of the first executive board of the organization that would be become the american optometric association.18 boeder’s introduction to the mathematics of ophthalmic optics provided instruction on optical calculations. he started with basic math, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry and gradually proceeded to the optics of lenses. at the time of its publication, boeder worked at the dartmouth eye institute. he was german born and in 1931 he received a ph.d. in mathematics from the university of göttingen.19 in the diagnosis and elimination of visual handicaps preventing efficient reading, george a. parkins described studies he did in his practice and in the local schools. based on eye movement recordings during reading with the american optical ophthalmograph camera system, he suggested that deficient eye movements were significant factors in reading problems. he interpreted differences in movements of the two eyes as evidence of a fixation disparity, which he also associated with poor reading skill. he also felt that a further contributor to poor reading was central suppression. the author’s remedial procedures were outlined and cases were presented. one of his training procedures was a device he designed and called a binocular synchronizer which consisted of rotating discs seen through a stereoscope. he also used a rotator with various combinations of lenses and prisms and stereoscopes he called a helmholtz tele-stereoscope and a tele-eye-trainer. a review called the book “meaty, yet readable” and stated that the book “is worthy of study by all practitioners interested in the problems of near point efficiency, and outlines a field of corrective work admirably adapted to the optometric profession.”20 george a. parkins (1881-1966) was born in iowa. he attended brown school of optometry in 1899, and practiced optometry in ord, nebraska for many years.21 he was a fellow of the american academy of optometry, and for three years was director of the american research council of optometry.21 he received a gold medal from the dsfo in 1940. he published a number of papers in the journal of the american optometric association, the american journal of optometry, and other journals. the book philosophy and science of health by canadian physician everly eddan rogers examined the influence of heredity, habits, and environment on health. his thesis was that factors such as life style habits, nutrition, and exercise were more important in general health that was recognized at the time. many of his recommendations, such as composting and soybeans as a good source of protein for vegetarians, are well accepted today. after a period of dsfo inactivity in the 1970s, the decision was made to dissolve the foundation in 1979. its documents and papers were turned over to the international hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 8 library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo) in st. louis (now the american optometric association archives and museum of optometry). maria dablemont, librarian for ilamo, wrote the following about the distinguished service foundation of optometry: “the foundation was a good, sound optometric organization concerned with optometric research….its awards were prestigious…there have been attempts to revive the foundation and i believe economic reasons, along with satisfaction with the role of the academy, have prevented it.”22 acknowledgment i thank kirsten hébert for providing documents and photographs from the american optometric association archives and museum of optometry. references 1. the distinguished service foundation of optometry: purposes, officers, medalists, fellows, constitution and by-laws. undated pamphlet. files of the american optometric association archives and museum of optometry. 2. houghton gs. the distinguished service foundation of optometry. j am optom assoc 1933;4(6):5,8. 3. part 7, ancillary groups in optometry: the distinguished service foundation of optometry. j am optom assoc 1959;30:649-650. 4. dr. george s. houghton 1867-1933. j am optom assoc 1933;5(5):7. 5. foundation announcement – of march 20, 1939 at the convention of the new england council of optometry. j am optom assoc 1939;10:222-223. 6. nichols as. a tribute to the distinguished service foundation. j am optom assoc 1944;15:264-265. 7. the distinguished service foundation’s aims and purposes. opt j rev optom 1949;86(11):64. 8. obituary: clinton r. padelford. j am optom assoc 1962;33:454. 9. laurence p. folsom. j am optom assoc 1957;28:421. 10. obituary: dr. theodore a. brombach. j am optom assoc 1961;32:732. 11. fiorillo j. berkeley optometry – a history. berkeley, ca: university of california school of optometry, 2010:149. 12. uglum jr. the distinguished service foundation of optometry. j am optom assoc 1980;51:214. 13. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:365. 14. the distinguished service foundation of optometry news letter, september 21, 1959. 15. folsom lp. comments on “the philosophy and science of health” by rogers. am j optom arch am acad optom 1950;27:52. 16. worldcat online library catalog. http://firstsearch.oclc.org. accessed december 11, 2014. 17. koch cc. book notices: visual fields. am j optom 1936;13:279. 18. late in life recollections of a turn of the twentieth century optometrist. hindsight: j optom hist 2013;44:19-21. http://firstsearch.oclc.org/� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 9 19. bisno dc. eyes in the storm – president hopkins dilemma: the dartmouth eye institute. norwich, vt: norwich press books, 1994:54. 20. emmes ab. book notice and reviews: the diagnosis and elimination of visual handicaps preventing efficient reading. am j optom arch am acad optom 1941;18:475. 21. who’s who in nebraska, 1940. nebraska genweb project, valley county. www.usgennet.org. accessed jan. 18, 2015. 22. dablemont m. letter to eger mj. december 25, 1979. files of the american optometric association archives and museum of optometry. http://www.usgennet.org/� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 10 robert bannon (1910-1996), optometric practitioner, researcher, and writer david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu a native of schenectady, new york, robert e. bannon (1910-1996) graduated from optometry school at columbia university, where, in 1934, he completed a b.s. degree.1 in 1935, he joined the staff of the dartmouth eye institute. bisno,2 in his book on the history of the dartmouth eye institute, said that bannon “was a quiet, knowledgeable young man when he arrived from columbia university,” and noted that bannon had studied under james p.c. southall at columbia. the dartmouth eye institute was particularly well-known for its pioneering studies on aniseikonia, and bannon was an integral part of that work.2-4 the dartmouth eye institute closed in 1947, and bannon accepted a position as an assistant professor of optometry at columbia. while at columbia, he also practiced optometry in new york city and had a weekend practice in hanover, new hampshire, where dartmouth college is located.5 in 1951, bannon joined the american optical company as a vision scientist. in 1958, he moved to buffalo, new york, where he worked at the buffalo outlet of american optical company, later acquired by leica science instrument company, and he served as a consultant to leica until his death in 1996 at 86 years of age.6 for seven years, he was also an associate (research) professor of ophthalmology at state university of new york in buffalo.7 bannon served and lectured to various groups in both optometry and ophthalmology. for the american academy of optometry, he was a member of the executive council, a chairman of the committee on research, a chairman of the program committee, a member of the education courses committee, a vice-president, and research editor of its journal for four years.7 he was also editorial consultant to the new england journal of optometry, secretary-treasurer of the aniseikonia forum, chairman of the committee on visual problems in schools of the new hampshire optometric association, and member of the committee on occupational vision of the new england council of optometrists.5 he taught in lancaster ophthalmology courses and american academy of ophthalmology courses, was a consultant to the dr. conrad berens ophthalmology foundation and to the national society for prevention of blindness, and was on the editorial board of the quarterly review of ophthalmology.5,7 bannon published over 100 papers, of which more than 30 were in the american journal of optometry.7-9 he published significant papers on aniseikonia, astigmatism, binocular refraction, cycloplegic refraction, and other topics. in 1954, bannon authored a 120 page fold-and-stapled softcover typescript book entitled clinical manual on aniseikonia.10 the first part of the book discussed the nature mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 11 of aniseikonia and the development of instrumentation for its measurement. bannon next explained the operation of the office model space eikonometer manufactured by american optical. this was followed by a section on clinical judgment in prescribing for aniseikonia. for example, bannon noted, based on his own studies, that the most frequent symptoms of aniseikonia were asthenopia and headache, with other symptoms such as photophobia, reading difficulty, and nausea also being found. after 25 case reports, the book closed with various clinical notes on aniseikonia, including clues to its detection, aspects of lens correction, and frame considerations. i can recall reading the book as a student and considering it an excellent introduction to aniseikonia. a review of the book stated: “every optometrist, whether he intends to become an aniseikonia clinician or not, should be able to discuss the problem. this manual is the most direct route to more than a passing acquaintance with this new branch of science in optometry.”11 the review also called the book “most useful” and noted that it “contains an excellent and complete bibliography.”11 fig. 1. robert e. bannon (photo from american optometric association archives and museum of optometry) bannon received a number of recognitions for his work and service, including a gold medal from the new york state optometric association (1961) as well as the eminent service award (1978) and honorary life fellowship (1980) from the american academy of optometry.1,12 he received honorary d.o.s. degrees from the chicago hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 12 college of optometry (1950) and from the massachusetts college of optometry (1957).1 acknowledgment i thank kirsten hébert for providing the photograph of robert bannon from the files of the american optometric association archives and museum of optometry. references 1. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:15. 2. bisno dc. eyes in the storm – president hopkins’s dilemma: the dartmouth eye institute. norwich, vt: norwich press books, 1994:57-58. 3. bannon re, neumueller j, boeder p, burian hm. aniseikonia and space perception – after 50 years. am j optom arch am acad optom 1970;47:423-441. 4. pepin sm. adelbert ames and the dartmouth eye institute. j neuro-ophthalmol 2003;23:290-297. 5. bannon re. personal contribution. in: bisno dc. eyes in the storm – president hopkins’s dilemma: the dartmouth eye institute. norwich, vt: norwich press books, 1994:201-202. 6. robert bannon, 86, researcher in optics. new york times. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/20/nyregion/robert-bannon-86-researcher-inoptics.html. accessed december 15, 2014. 7. robert e. bannon, b.s., d.o.s. am j optom physiol opt 1979;56:152. 8. weiner g, ed. the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometrry forty-four year cumulative index, vol. 1 (1924) – vol. 44 (1967). chicago: professional press, 1968:38. 9. cumulative index 1968-1983, american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry (1968-1973) and american journal of optometry and physiological optics (1974-1983). am j optom physiol opt 1985;62(supplement):3. 10. bannon re. clinical manual on aniseikonia – a lecture series. buffalo, ny: american optical, 1954. 11. belanger gm. book review: clinical lanual on aniseikonia. am j optom arch am acad optom 1954;31:410. 12. american academy of optometry awards. http://www.aaopt.org. accessed january 7, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/20/nyregion/robert-bannon-86-researcher-in-optics.html.%20accessed%20december%2015� http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/20/nyregion/robert-bannon-86-researcher-in-optics.html.%20accessed%20december%2015� http://www.aaopt.org/� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 13 book review: splendid audacity: the story of pacific university splendid audacity: the story of pacific university. gary miranda and rick read. forest grove, or: pacific university, 2000. 143 pages. isbn 0-935503-30-7. hardcover. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu i graduated from the college of optometry at pacific university in the 1970s. i was aware of some of the significant names in pacific university history, but didn’t know their stories. this book tells those stories. the three main figures in the founding of pacific university were harvey clark, tabitha moffatt brown, and george atkinson. their efforts resulted in the 1849 charter of tualatin academy, a preparatory school “for the instruction of persons of both sexes in science and literature” in the west tualatin plains area. the board of trustees decided to create a town adjacent to the academy, and in 1851, the town was named forest grove. the original charter of tualatin academy included a provision for the later establishment of a “collegiate department”. in 1854, the tualatin academy board of trustees decided to add that collegiate department and to call it pacific university. sidney harper marsh, a 27 year old seminarian at union theological seminary when he was recruited by george atkinson, became pacific university’s first president in 1854. he served in that capacity until 1879, the longest term of presidency in pacific university’s history. harvey whitefield scott, later the editor of the portland oregonian newspaper for forty years, was pacific’s first graduate in 1863. the tualatin academy, which had many of its graduates go on to attend pacific, closed in 1915, in part due to increasing competition from public schools. major themes of the book are the accomplishments and failings of pacific’s presidents, the ongoing controversy of whether to strengthen its ties to the congregational church or to make the institution more secular, and financial challenges. other themes throughout the book are construction or loss of campus buildings, notable alumni and supporters of the university, some influential administrators, athletics, some aspects of student life, and new academic programs. a six page chapter outlines the start of the optometry school at pacific university. north pacific college of optometry, in portland, oregon, which was founded in 1919 through the merger of dekeyser institute of optometry and the oregon college of ocular sciences, suspended operations in 1943, due to world war ii. later negotiations of the optometrist co-owners of north pacific, newton wesley and roy clunes, plus dr. clarence carkner, with pacific university resulted in the transfer of the school’s charter to pacific university in 1945. the optometry school’s first home in 1945 was in the basement of marsh hall. jefferson hall was built for the college of mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 14 optometry in 1952, with expansions in 1967 and 1999. pacific university became the first university to grant the o.d. degree, awarding three o.d. degrees in 1947 and six in 1948. even as a student i was aware of some tension between the college of optometry and the rest of the university in the early 1970s. although there is not a great deal of coverage of the college of optometry in this book other than its formation, this aspect was mentioned: “…the professional programs, and especially the college of optometry, bore the lion’s share of the burden for keeping the university solvent…from this point of view, the recurrent demand from the optometry faculty for salaries more in line with those of comparable professional schools was reasonable enough, though it did not always seem so to their colleagues in the college of arts and sciences.” (page 108) by the late 1970s, however, the university’s financial picture was much improved. the title of the book comes from a 1905 article on the founding of pacific university. the author of the article is quoted as saying that pacific’s founding “may be regarded as one of the acts of splendid audacity with which the student of western history becomes familiar.” (page 23) the primary author of the book, gary miranda, noted that the phrase “splendid audacity” was appropriate because “pacific has an established history of favoring the long odds.” (page 8) miranda also made the following interesting, and apt, observation: “to tell the story of the battle of gettysburg in a book devoted exclusively to that event is a very different matter from dealing with that same topic in a book about the civil war or, again, in a book on the history of the united states. all three accounts may be accurate, but as the scale of the enterprise broadens, the battle of gettysburg is bound to become less recognizable to those who lived through it. “similarly, alumni from pacific university may feel that the present history, which relies heavily on the broad strokes of presidential administrations, fails to capture the sense of what it was like to be at pacific during a given period in time. this is regrettable but also unavoidable in sketching the history of an institution as old as pacific university….it is also why the sesquicentennial committee decided to enrich the broth of the narrative with generous portions of photographs and sidebars.” (page 9) the book’s narrative continues up to the year 2000. the book is well written and attractively produced in a 29 cm high by 23 cm wide format with numerous photographs, many of which are in color. endmatter includes a three page bibliography, a list of presidents and chairs of the board of trustees, a list of pacific university presidents, and a four page index. hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 15 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; history of optometric education; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu� hindsight: journal of optometry history….january, 2015, volume 46, number 1, page 16 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. ohsfrontcover46-1 hindsight46-1 72 volume 48, number 3, july 2017 article ebrahim jafarzadehpur, phd jām-e jam, legendary in visual optics ebrahim jafarzadehpur, phd professor of optometry and vision science, department of optometry school of rehabilitation science, iran university of medical sciences jafarzadehpour.e@iums.ac.ir “jām-e jam” (globe or cup of jam or jamshid) is a common word in persian classical, mythological, mystical and fiction literatures. “jām-e jahānbin” (globe or cup for seeing the world), “jām-e jahān nama” (globe or cup that shows all the world), “jām-e giti nama” (globe or cup that shows all the universe) and other similar words may be referred to the “jām-e jam” concept.1 jamshid is a legendary ancient persian king who made many great inventions.2 he invented a cup that was filled by elixir or crystal globe or mirror so that he could see the future and the world.2 in classical iranian mystical poems and literature, the “jām-e jam” concept is usually synonymous to “insight”, “intelligence” and “vision”. for instance, in a famous poem of hafez, he says: “for years, our heart has been seeking out “globe of jam” from us, begging from strangers what he was already owned”. the ancient concept of “jām-e jam” originated in persia and then entered into europe. in europe it is known as saint ciarán of saighir cup.3,4 although there are many symbols for predicting devices in ancient legends, the most common one is a magician globe. the magician globe was a wellknown device for everyone who was living in ancient times and it seems to have originated from ancient legends. many researchers believe that exaggeration of realities and facts are presented as myth and legends. therefore, in each legend, some aspects of realities may be found. there are some small spherical crystals that have been found in archeological excavations in different parts of persia (ancient iran). these small spherical jewels may be the reality of “jām-e jam”. visual optics may give an answer to the legend: 1. small spherical transparent natural crystals (gems) may be considered as small thick convex lenses with radii of curvature around a few centimeters. 2. according to the thick lens formula5 the vertex focal length of the lens (gem) is around a few centimeters too. as a result, these small gems have great dioptric powers. 3. refractive error is corrected by superimposition of the second focal point of correcting lens on the far point.5 the far point is located behind the eye in hyperopic eyes and in front of the eye in myopic eyes. the far point is very near to the eye in high refractive errors. therefore, high power lenses with small focal length are needed for correcting high refractive errors. changing the lens position also alters its effective correcting power.5 4. it seems, in persia, people held the gems in front of their eyes and saw clear images by changing its distance from their eyes. in a specific position, according to the optical properties of the gem and refractive error of the eye, hafez looking at the cup of jamshid, bibliothèque nationale de france, turkish manuscript of 1477, author unknown, from shîrâz, iran hindsight: journal of optometry history 73 the crystal ball by john william waterhouse article ebrahim jafarzadehpur, phd that far point of the eye and focal point of the gems are coincident, the clearest image would be seen! 5. as these gems are similar to a high power convex lens, their correcting effect is completely obvious. the objects are seen straight and clear, according to the lens position. interestingly, it is also possible for myopic eyes to see the far objects clearly by convex lenses! according to the far point principle, if the far point of a myopic eye is located between the eye and a convex lens in a manner that the far point and the second focal point of the lens are coincident, the far objects are focused on the retina. this implies that in this specific circumstance, this high myopic eye can be corrected by convex lens but the visual perception of the image is inverted. to explain such a thought-provoking phenomenon, some knowledge of visual optics and perception are needed. when light from an object comes from infinity toward a convex lens, the image will be a point on the second focal point of the convex lens. after rays from infinity parallel to the axis are refracted by the convex lens at this focal point, the light rays also change their direction as they leave the focal point. this means light rays cross one another at this focal point. therefore, when the parallel ray comes from the top of the object horizontally to the convex lens parallel to its axis, it refracts through the convex lens and passes through the focal point on the far side of the lens and crosses over. for this reason, in the situation where the far point of a myopic eye and the second focal point of the lens are coincident, the retinal image in this circumstance will be erect and thus the visual perception of such an image will be inverted. 6. high-power convex lenses (gems) may be also considered as a magnifier! therefore, gems, which are very beautiful and decorative for rich people, may also work as low vision aids for high myopic or high hyperopic individuals for far and near distances. the spherical crystal may improve vision for some people to see the world. an exaggerated description of these spherical crystals may be the “jām-e jam” (globe of jam or jamshid). references 1. emami n, malgrad n. the myth of jām-e jam and islamic-iranian mysticism, researches on mystical literature (gawhar-i guya), 2012; 2, 22, 1-24. 2. shimamoto t. gnosis (`erfan), reason (`aql): the case of hafez, the persian poet. j interdisc study monotheistic religions (jismor) 2012;8:77-100. 3. loomis rs. celtic myth and arthurian romance. chicago: academy chicago publishers, 1997:280-281. 4. farmer d. oxford dictionary of saints. oxford: oxford press, 2011:91. 5. rabbetts rb. bennett & rabbetts’ clinical visual optics, 4th ed. edinburgh: elsevier/butterworth heinemann, 2007. jafarz_jamejam hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 15 hindsight_54_2_final.pdf 32 volume 54, number 2, fall 2023 update from former optometric historical society board member october 20, 2023 lakemont, ga usa from: bill sharpton, o.d. former member of the optometric historical society board i am now 85, having given up my georgia license back in 2020. the late dr. irving p. bennett is responsible for my being on the board in the first place. he passed on a few years back and was like a father to me for many years. i still correspond with his children. i recently had heart surgery and a "stent" implanted to get more oxygen to my system. it was successful, and i am now in rehab with a couple of months to go. i will likely offer to submit an article to you in the next few years that i hope will educate younger od's that the privileges that they enjoy were not easily gained. so many who have passed did so much to literally change our profession which resulted in optometry being on a more even level with ophthalmology and now respected more as a profession than ever before. 2024 “blast from the past” challenge the optometric historical society invites all optometry students to submit an entry about an influential person, event, or development in optometry history in any form of media. the top three finalists will present during an hour long virtual blast from the past education event that will take place during the first week of may 2024 in the evening. the application and a full list of requirements can be found at aoafoundation.org. go to the programs drop down and visit the optometric historical society’s blast from the past challenge page for more information. optometry’s fund for disaster relief optometry’s fund for disaster relief has changed the lives of many optometrists by providing immediate financial relief for critical and urgent needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter. disasters are unpredictable and can be life-altering; it is our goal to ensure that the fund is always poised and ready to help, so doctors can get back to doing what they do best – providing eye and vision care to their community. doctors and students who have property damage to their home or practice can apply for a disaster relief grant at aoafoundation.org/ofdr. 2024 optometry cares student scholarship winners congratulations to our 2024 scholarship winners! dr. larry j. alexander scholarship meagan seufert from pacific university college of optometry dr. seymour galina scholarship shawn matsumoto from state university of new york college of optometry bernard maitenaz scholarship faye nie from southern california college of optometry news 10.14434/hindsight.v54i2.37203 student scholarships hindsight newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume 37 october 2006 number 4 election for board positions beginning in 2007: congratulations to walter chase and jay enoch for being re-elected to ohs board positions to begin in 2007. the board members will now, as specified by ohs by-laws, elect among themselves officers for the 2007 year._ the results will be announced in the january, 2007 issue of hindsight. ballot for by-laws change enclosed: enclosed please find, as a separate enclosure, a ballot for a change in ohs by­ laws. the annual ohs membership dues have been $10 since 1985. with increasing costs of production and mailing of hindsight and a planned modest upgrade of hindsight, the ohs board recommends an increase in dues. membership dues are stated in the ohs by-laws, so a change in dues must be established through a change in by-laws by ballot. please complete the enclosed ballot and return as instructed on the ballot. jay enoch's column: editor's note: the spring, 1994 issue of the journal optometric education published a feature celebrating the 251h anniversary of the national eye institute. however, some of the optometric involvement in the formation of the nei was not included. jay enoch wrote the following letter to the editor to fill in some of the missing information. his letter to the editor was published in the summer, 1994 issue of optometric education (volume 19, number 4, pages 104-1 05). the editor's response to the letter was as: "we appreciate dr. enoch's first-hand account of the role played by optometry. it is a valuable addition to the early history of the national eye institute." the letter below is as it was submitted to the journal. it was published with one paragraph omitted presumably due to space limitations and a few very minor editorial modifications. 37/41 the anniversary of the national eye institute letter to the editor of optometric education originally published summer, 1994 i read your most interesting feature issue on the national eye institute. no doubt because of lack of knowledge, some meaningful early history of, and optometric participation in, the formation of the national eye institute were omitted. in the early 1960's, both ophthalmology and otolaryngology were represented in a limited manner on the then national advisory neurological diseases and blindness (nndb) council. eye and ent each had two members on that council, and their share of nindb funding was (separately) virtually a fixed percentage and modest, and not responsive to perceived needs. this limited role had not been mandated by congress. apparently, t~e nindb leadership was unwilling to alter existing patterns of support. a number of powerful advocacy groups supporting neurology research wielded great influence. in 1964, the nndb council sponsored an ad hoc meeting held at the annual meeting of the (then) american academy of ophthalmology and otolaryngology to consider the desirability and feasibility of forming task forces to consider the state of research in vision and its disorders, and human communication and its disorders. the formation of both groups was recommended, and then approved by the nndb council. early on, during planning, there was a rather critical meeting called by the academic leadership within ophthalmology which was held in philadelphia (date?). many of the individuals listed below were present. that meeting included both professors glenn fry (ohio state) and meredith morgan (ucb), both of whom represented optometry. the nndb council subcommittee on vision and its disorders which was appointed was composed as follows: bernard becker, md, chair of subcommittee, and member, nndb council; chairman, ophthalmology, washington u. in st. louis jay enoch, od, phd, executive secretary of subcommittee; research associate professor, ophthalmology, washington u. in st. louis mathew alpern, od, phd, professor, ophthalmology and physiology, u. of michigan goodwin breinin, md, chairman, ophthalmology, nyu everett kinsey, phd, member of nndb council; assistant director of research, kresge eye institute, wayne state u., michigan irving leopold, md, director, ophthalmology, mount sinai hospital, ny 37/42 a. edward maumenee, md, director, wilmer institute (of ophthalmology), johns hopkins u., baltimore frank newell, md, chairman, ophthalmology, u. of chicago george smelser, phd, director of ophthalmic research, columbia u., ny lorenz zimmerman, md, chief, ophthalmic pathology branch, armed forces institute of pathology, walter reed army hospital, dc this group was charged to review the (then) current state of knowledge in vision and its disorders, the status of research, per se, and training in this area, and to make recommendations relative to "further development of the nindb program in eye and vision research." as executive secretary, i was effectively withdrawn from research for two years in order to organize, to manage, and to write a substantial portion of the report of the subcommittee. obviously, i worked closely with the membership, the staff of nindb, and, in particular, with the chairman, professor becker. this was an extraordinary experience for me, as i spent time visiting the institutions of all the members (except zimmerman) and developed a clear picture of where research in ophthalmology was at that time. i was also provided access to fiscal data, allocations, and activities of the nih. and i was given a relatively free hand in the preparation of the report and in defining proposals included in the report. i was not told to develop a plan for a separate institute. however, given the relatively poor state of support for the eye research community, and the apparent intractability of the nindb concerning provision of resources for eye research, or even willingness to provide leadership to alter this situation, it became clear that movement towards a separate institute was inevitable. the separate human communications and its disorders sub-committee reached essentially identical conclusions. my colleague, professor joseph ogura, department of otolaryngology at washington u. in st. louis, played a dominant role on that committee. although that group held similar views, it was many years before the ent and auditory scientific establishment sought an independent institute of its own. each member of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders ably reviewed research in his own area of expertise and indicated opportunities for future research. a special section on low vision was added. the subcommittee report was a precursor to the five year plans regularly provided since then by the nei. i was fortunate in having access to the then recently submitted nih report dealing with research in heart, lung, and cancer. data and recommendations contained in that document proved to be a valuable guide to me in preparing the plan for rectification of the situation existing in ophthalmic research. i had help from many 37/43 people, in addition to the subcommittee. their contributions have been properly recognized. note, this was a report to the nndb council, and as such, it would have been inappropriate to call for a separate institute. however, this conclusion, unstated, was implied in the plan. after preparation, the plan was first reviewed by and approved by professor becker. the subcommittee debated it, and was very pleased with it. they added only two recommendations to the lengthy list i had formulated. in fact, professor ed maumenee commented to me one day (something like), "jay, how did you ever know how to write such a plan as that?" the report "vision and its disorders" was submitted on november 1 , 1966. the nndb council accepted the report, but until the legislation leading to the formation of the nei was passed by congress, no part of it was released by the nindb for duplication or publication. this report, which had broad private distribution (from many sources), served both as the initial plan and the raison d'etre, for the development of the national eye institute. although not then published (the "plan" was never published), during the congressional debates, the entire three volume document was introduced into the congressional record by one of the members of the house of representatives. it was repeatedly quoted during the congressional debates. several members of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders served on the initial national advisory eye council (naec). also appointed to the initial naec were professors meredith morgan and glenn fry. at a later time, i served two terms on the naec. i was also complimented to be considered for appointment (as the only optometrist) as director of the nei and received the full treatment. however, i had no illusions that i would be appointed. it is worth noting that most members of this same subcommittee played critical roles in the modern development of the association for research in vision and ophthalmology (arvo) (of course, there were other able individuals active as well). among many contributions i made to arvo during my seven year term on its board of trustees and as president were: participating in the major restructuring of that organization (from aro), including establishing sections; opening that body to broad optometric participation; establishing arvo's support of the budgetary requests of the nei before congress (i testified six times); allowing optional receipt of the journal, vision research, by members (this provision has been discontinued); supporting the move of the annual meeting to florida, and then to sarasota; and creating and fostering poster displays. in summary, this was an exciting and rewarding time. the members of the subcommittee represented a substantial portion of the then academic leadership of ophthalmology. they had a clear perception of the research enterprise they sought to build. they were interested in the development of quality products in science and training. virtually all of these activities and more were interwoven. 37/44 i congratulate the nei on its 25th anniversary, and on its seemingly endless achievements. director carl kupfer and his fine staff have indeed contributed greatly to the advance of research in vision and to the provision of modern eyecare. i am proud to have played a modest role in these developments. sincerely, jay m. enoch albert sutton on aspects of behavioral optometry history: albert sutton has written a regular column, our optometric heritage, for visions: newsletter of the college of optometrists in vision development since 1998. thirty­ eight of his columns have been collected in a 48-page booklet entitled our optometric heritage. recurring themes in the columns include: 1) the importance of arnold gesell, m.d., and the gesell institute in investigating child development and in involving behavioral optometry leaders in that work; 2) the efforts of a.m. skeffington in cultivating interdisciplinary relationships and the various meetings, collaborations, and lectures to optometric groups that resulted, and 3) the contributions of various optometrists and non-optometrists to behavioral optometry theory and practice. among those whose contributions were discussed are e.b. alexander, richard apell, george crow, elliott forrest, g.n. getman, darrell boyd harmon, louis jaques, robert a. kraskin, c.v. lyons, emily bradley lyons, lawrence macdonald, carl marsden, amorita treganza, and robert wold. sutton is a 1949 graduate of northern illinois college of optometry. after graduation, he worked in nico's visual training department. later he established a practice in pueblo, colorado. while in colorado, he served as a regional director for the optometric extension program, as the colorado optometric association president, and as president of the colorado state board of examiners. he also had a fellowship at the gesell institute of child development and was involved with child development programs at barry college in florida. limited quantities of the booklet are available for a $50 contribution to the college of optometrists in vision development, 243 n. lindbergh boulevard, ste. 310, st. louis, mo 63141-7851. d.a.g. profile of a 19th century australian optometrist: the march, 2006 issue of clinical and experimental optometry included an article entitled "william henry vanheems 1831-1917: first honorary life member of the 37/45 victorian optical association and one of the first teachers of optometry in australia" (volume 89, number 2, pages 100-101). the author is wolf f. gartner. henry vanheems, born in london in 1831, emigrated to australia in 1852. sometime after 1857 he trained in optical work in melbourne with thomas gaunt. gaunt had learned his craft in england and established gaunt & co. jewelers, clockmakers and opticians. vanheems went to work for gaunt & co., and eventually became manager of the company. vanheems and his wife and children moved to richmond in 1884. vanheems founded the visioscope optical company, touted as "the exclusive mail order optical house in the commonwealth." in australia in the early twentieth century, prospective optometrists learned optometry as an apprentice or from a private tutor. vanheems was one of these tutors, charging five pounds for twelve lessons. he taught several persons who were part of the original faculty of the australian college of optometry and at least one ophthalmologist. surviving documents praised him as being "a man of great learning, of manifold scientific interests and singular charm of character," "a gentle person, about 5'6" or 5'7" tall ... ", and "a dedicated and patient teacher." vanheems was active in establishing educational requirements when the victorian optical association was established in 1911. in 1913, the victorian optical association elected him their first life member. vanheems died in 1917. d.a.g. history of the tachistoscope: an article entitled "the tachistoscope: its history and uses," by edward c. godnig appeared in the journal of behavioral optometry in 2003 (volume 14, number 2, pages 39-42). a tachistoscope uses a shutter device to allow timed exposures of numbers, letters, or figures. godnig noted that the tachistoscope has largely been replaced by computer programs which allow finer gradations of exposure times and of times between exposures. godnig cited a 1938 paper by bender as the first published description of the use of a tachistoscope. bender used one to investigate the effects of viewing time limitations on visual perceptual experience. familiar to many optometrists in the 1940s were the tachistoscope experiments of samuel renshaw. he used a tachistoscope to train world war ii pilots to more quickly recognize enemy aircraft. godnig quotes a 1945 paper by renshaw in which it was claimed that tachistoscope training with digits improved reading comprehension and speed. 37/46 godnig then describes studies done in the 1980s at the state university of new york by harold solan and colleagues. they reported that speed of perception measures from the tachistoscope were correlated with reading skills. the 1980s also saw the tachistoscope used in the training of police officers. it has been observed that under stressful conditions requiring high levels of mental activity, there is decreased awareness of the periphery. the indiana law enforcement academy used what they called flash recognition training "to improve decision-making skills in 'deadly force' situations." godnig cited several psychology research studies in which tachistoscopes were used. the cited studies were published between 1978 and 1999. in one study, for example, a tachistoscope was used to deliver subliminal messages to investigate their effect on eating disorders. another study looked at the effect of exposure time on perceived size. lastly godnig cited two papers in optometric publications which described use of the tachistoscope in sports vision. a 1984 paper by harris et al. reported a high level of skill on the tachistoscope in basketball officials. a 1993 paper by kirscher included the tachistoscope as a tool in office based sports vision training. d.a.g. centenary of munsell's color atlas: the magazine american scientist marked the one hundred anniversary of the first atlas of color in an article entitled "charting color from the eye of the beholder," in its september-october, 2005 issue (volume 95, number 5, pages 436-443). the authors were edward r. landa and mark d. fairchild. the artist albert henry munsell became interested in describing color in 1879, as a student at the massachusetts normal art school, now known as the massachusetts college of art. munsell became an instructor there after his graduation in 1881. it appears that his work on color description began in earnest in 1898 when he worked on designations of colors for students in his class on color composition. in 1905, he published a 67-page book, the first of fifteen editions of "a color notation." in it, he described numerical scales of hue, value, and chroma to specify color. the numerical scales were perceptually, rather than physically, based. in about 1917, munsell formed the munsell color company to sell color charts and other products. munsell died in 1918, at 60 years of age. the company was continued by his son alexander ector orr munsell. one of the company's products was munsell crayons which were identified with the color designations from the munsell system. the crayon business was sold to binney & smith, which now makes crayola 37/47 crayons .. the color names used on crayola crayons do not relate to the munsell color system designations. the article discussed some of the uses and implications of the munsell color system in industry, science, and art. there are several color photographs and two black-and-white photographs in the article, the latter being pictures of a. h. munsell and dorothy nickerson. initially a secretary and laboratory assistant for a.e.o. munsell, nickerson published over 150 papers. the article closes with the following two sentences: "color science is perhaps unique in the degree to which experts in a wide range of disciplines can make important contributions. albert munsell is one such example in which an artist and teacher satisfied his curiosity and need to teach by developing a system that had a profound impact on color science and commerce and will continue to do so long into the future." d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 37/48 2006-37-04-001 2006-37-04-002 2006-37-04-003 2006-37-04-004 2006-37-04-005 2006-37-04-006 2006-37-04-007 2006-37-04-008 hindsight: journal of optometry history 71 there’s gold in them thar boxes irving bennett, od irvbennett23@gmail.com my century-old optometric friend morey x. powell, formerly of middletown, pa, and now from lantana, fl, called the other day, saying that he had finally decided to open up the last few boxes of “junk” that he and his late wife, dot, had brought with them when they moved into their current retirement home. of course, the move had been made a couple of years ago but neither of the powells had much curiosity to unpack the “stuff,” until now, that is. a cursory glance at the contents was unremarkable. old papers, old letters, old booklets, all kinds of “worthless” memorabilia. morey decided to close up the box and check it out another day. of course, that would have been the end of the story if he did not inadvertently spill a glass of something on the contents as he was closing the box. now he had to clean up the mess. he wisely decided that at the same time he could take a look at what had been packed. surprise! surprise! on the bottom of the pile was a promissory note for $2,900 from the pennsylvania optometric association (poa) to morey x. powell. it was dated february 1, 1960 and carried an interest requirement of 6%. the signatures on the note were those of melvin d. wolfberg, then president of the poa and later aoa president, and shay p. millis, then secretary of the poa. both of those two association officers have long been deceased. the grey memory cells in dr. powell’s head began to work. he recalled that in 1960, the poa was in a deep financial dilemma. the dues collected were insufficient to cover the rent and the salaries of the executive director and his staff. it was three months before the next state convention would be held; it was then that the membership dues could be increased. the wolves were at the door and, for non-payment of rent, the association was going to be evicted from its office quarters. the 1950s were good investment years for morey and dot powell. and their optometric practice had done well. by standards of that day, they were “affluent.” of course, morey volunteered to lend his association the $2,900 it needed to get out of the financial hole it was in. over the next few years, the association repeatedly asked for an extension on paying back the loan. as it turns out, the note was never cashed. and now there is some doubt if it would even be cashable. nonetheless, morey powell does not intend to find out. he actually finds the experience amusing! for readers to understand this story fully, $2,900 in 1960 is, because of inflation, equivalent to more than $32,000 in 2016 dollars. and the 6% interest, compounded yearly over the 56 years that the note remained outstanding, would make it payable to about $ 75,775. i feel sure the current poa leadership would not like to face that obligation! perhaps now is the time for the association to say thanks to its oldest life member. oh, yes, there was another find in that box: 32, two-dollar bills! those morey powell smilingly has spent. you never know what one finds in those old cartons. morey x. powell morey x. powell & gordon c. shivas (1966) morey x. powell article irving bennett, od hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2017 president: ronald r. ferrucci, rferrucci@juno.com (2017)* vice-president: john c. townsend, john.townsend@va.gov (2018) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gmail.com (2021) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) r. norman bailey, nbailey@uh.edu (2021) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 48, number 2 april 2017 irving fradkin (1921–2016) photo courtesy of scholarship america hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2017 president: ronald r. ferrucci, rferrucci@juno.com (2017)* vice-president: john c. townsend, john.townsend@va.gov (2018) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gmail.com (2021) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) r. norman bailey, nbailey@uh.edu (2021) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. 243 north lindbergh blvd st. louis, mo 63141 www.aoafoundation.org hindsight: journal of optometry history april, 2017 volume 48, number 2 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com kirsten pourroy hébert, the archives and museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org table of contents did t. r. procter bring ‘modern’ optometry to new zealand and australia? an investigation through archival newspapers, barry l. cole …………………………………34 irving fradkin (1921-2016), practicing optometrist and founder of scholarship america, russell fradkin…………………………………………………………………………………..….52 where have all the vendors gone. . . , irving bennett……………………………....……..……..54 a note on some aspects of optometric education in the 1980s and 1990s, david a. goss ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..56 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 34 did t. r. procter bring modern optometry to new zealand and australia? an investigation through archival newspapers barry l. cole, ao, phd, mappsc, bsc, losc, faao honorary archivist, kett optometry museum, australian college of optometry, professor emeritus, department of optometry and vision sciences, university of melbourne, bcole@aco.org.au abstract thomas robert procter (1826-1905) immigrated to australia in 1849 and in the course of a chequered career as a metalworker, gold prospector, silversmith and jeweler, became a well-known sight-testing optician in australia and new zealand, although he is not well remembered today. interest in him was piqued recently through the acquisition by the kett optometry museum of a classy spectacle case bearing his name and the location of his practice in melbourne, australia. we were able to date the case as being made about 1890. initial research using two contemporaneous biographies and a 20 page promotional ‘treatise’ written by procter suggested that he was well-versed in the techniques and the science of modern optometry that had emerged during the second half of the 19th century. he returned to england in 1857 reportedly to study “diseases of the eye”. he left england in 1861, this time arriving in new zealand, where he made a name for himself as an optician before returning to australia in 1888. more exhaustive research confirms the view that he was the first sight testing and manufacturing optician in new zealand, and among the first when he came again to australia in 1888. he mentored two new zealand opticians who migrated to australia in the 1880s who had a significant impact on the emergence of professional optometry in australia. however, it was also found that thomas procter cannot be given sole credit for being the first to practice ‘modern’ optometry in new zealand. a good deal of the credit must be accorded to william pugh, a london trained optician who came to new zealand about 1875 and was employed by procter. he may have also been the person who taught procter about ‘modern’ optometry and who trained the two new zealanders who came to australia. the kett optometry museum bought an elegant spectacle case in december 2014 to add to its collection, it is a lozenge shaped snap spectacle case, 120 x 55 mm, made of wood covered in black leatherette, with gold edging and gold stamped with the british coat of arms above a cartouche enclosing the name of the supplying optometrist, t. r. procter of melbourne (figure 1). the case can be dated about 1890 because we know procter (figure 2) had emigrated from new zealand to australia in 18881 to set up as an optician in melbourne and that he died in 1905.2 the spectacle case is just a spectacle case, albeit a classy one dating from the late 19th century, but it turns out it has a story. it is possible that procter was the man who hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 35 brought ‘modern’ optometry to new zealand and was among the first in australia. this article explores that possibility. procter describes himself on the spectacle case as an oculist optician. not too much should be read into that: there is no evidence that procter had medical qualifications and it was not uncommon in 19th century australia for opticians to claim to be oculists, sometimes with an apostrophe (oculists’ optician) suggesting they dispensed oculists prescriptions, but often without the apostrophe suggesting something else entirely.3 procter uses the designation ‘oculist’ without the possessive, so we can sense that procter wanted it known that he was more than a spectacle maker or seller. figure 1. spectacle case of t. r. procter, oculist and optician of melbourne, australia c 1890. kett optometry museum. cat no. 2773. this becomes abundantly clear on looking at a promotional ‘treatise’ written by him titled “optical diseases of the eye and their results”,4 a copy of which is held by the kett optometry museum. the front cover proclaims the author is an “oculist, optician and scientific ophthalmologist”, an even more grandiloquent characterization of his occupation. of course, the nomenclature of the ophthalmic professions was not settled in the 19th century, but procter seems very intent on claiming the widest scope of expertise. figure 2. thomas r. procter, oculist, optician and scientific ophthalmologist of melbourne, australia, about 1890. sourced from cyclopedia of victoria 1904. (photo: johnstone o’shannessy and co.) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 36 procter’s treatise the treatise is undated, but it was printed in 1888, the year procter moved to melbourne since he was advertising its availability in february of that year5 (figure 3). there was a precursor, a pamphlet, published in 1883,6 and a 16-page treatise7 was published in 1886 when procter was in new zealand. the 1888 edition held by the kett optometry museum records it was printed in melbourne and it bears procter’s melbourne address so it is an edition especially published on his arrival in australia. figure 3. t. r. procter advertised his treatise in the star (ballarat, australia) on february 8 1888, the year he returned to australia to set up practice as an oculist optician in melbourne, australia. what does this treatise tell us about procter? it is quite a substantial work for a promotional booklet. it is 20 pages of tightly packed text within paper covers and has 20 illustrations throughout the text. it is promotional with testimonials and favorable newspaper articles reproduced on the inside pages of the covers. an advertisement for t. r. procter oculists’ optician on the back cover states “the author of this work may be consulted on all cases of impaired vision, inflammation of the eyes, or granular lids and for the proper adjustment of spectacles”, yet another claim for a wide scope of expertise. the emphasis in the treatise is on refractive errors and their correction, but later he expanded his scope of practice to include supplying an eye ointment, advertised as “procter’s universal eye ointment, a salve to cure blight, sore and inflamed eyes, granular lids and ulceration of the eyeball”.8 the booklet is well written and is basically sound except for the claim that deafness is associated with astigmatism (p 6) and inflated claims that not wearing appropriate spectacles can cause blindness (p 9). it cove rs the basic anatomy of the eye and orbit, and ocular accommodation. it gives a good account of the refractive errors including astigmatism and presbyopia. it dwells on the inadequacy of purchasing ready-made spectacles and the need to measure refractive errors for each eye separately. it touches on eye muscle disorders, strabismus hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 37 and nystagmus. the use of prism to correct eye muscle defects is mentioned. the closing pages deal with the making of spectacle lenses and the qualities of good spectacle lenses including the importance of correctly locating the optical centers of the lenses. photophobia, tinted lenses, and side shields are discussed and alternative types of spectacles and other visual aids are described and illustrated. there is no specific account of his methods of sight testing or of the equipment he used but the astigmatism fan test is illustrated and described (p 6), as is the snellen letter chart. procter may have been in no hurry to reveal all his secrets by detailing his test methods. what impresses is that he refers to the writings of noted authorities of his time, quoting from some and even giving the page numbers of the quotes. he alludes to william mckenzie’s a practical treatise on the diseases of the eye (4th edition 1854) and to soelberg wells on long, short, and weak sight, and their treatment by the scientific use of spectacles of 1862, a well-received book that anticipated much of what donders would write in his seminal book of 1864, to which procter also refers. how did procter acquire his knowledge of modern optometry? the knowledge and techniques underpinning modern optometry were well established by 1888 when procter wrote his treatise: astigmatism had been measured and corrected in 1825, the ophthalmoscope was invented in 1851, snellen devised his letter chart in 1862, donders published his seminal book in 1864, the astigmatism fan and clock test was devised in 1868 and the retinoscope was in use by 1880. von graefe, chavasse, stevens, worth, and maddox were beginning to unravel strabismus and heterophoria. in the 1880s all this new knowledge began to filter to the business of sight testing and providing spectacles tailor-made to meet the visual needs of individual patients. the first ‘modern optometry’ books began to be published at that time, in particular the books of gustavus hartridge (1884), charles prentice (1886), william bohne (1888) and c. h. brown (1901). procter’s treatise, published in 1888 with earlier versions in 1883 and 1886, suggests he was an early adopter of the new knowledge of ophthalmic science in its application to prescribing and making spectacles. how did he acquire his knowledge of modern optometry when living in new zealand, a colonial outpost of britain with a population of 80,000 people, that was a very long way from everywhere else? he may have been self-taught. his references to key books in his treatise suggest he may have been a reader and he also alludes in his treatise (p 10) to learning systematically, by arrangement, with unnamed ‘parties’. however, he says that he was the only “practical optician in new zealand”, and if this is so, it is not clear who might have been his tutors. it may have been a london trained optician whom procter employed, but more of that later in this article. in his 1888 treatise procter claims (p 10) to have had 30 years of experience “in the optical business” during which time he has made “the adaptation of spectacles an especial study” and says he had examined the eyes of thousands of people. he makes the same claim of 30 years’ experience in an advertisement published 10 years earlier in 18789 (see figure 4). hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 38 his claim of 30 years-experience is doubtful. thirty years takes us back to 1848 from the date the claim was first made. he was on his way to australia from england in that year. he departed cornwall in england for australia in 1848, arriving at adelaide, in the british colony of south australia, on january 6 1849, with his widowed mother and three siblings.10 he was 21 years of age. he was not an optician then. his intent in coming to australia was to get employment in the copper mining industry. he had an engineering background having been taught mechanical skills and metallurgical assaying by his grandfather, robert malachy, a mining agent, and having worked in pope’s dockyard in plymouth.11 cornwall was long famed for the mining of its rich mineral resources but the industry was in decline in the middle of the 19th century causing many cornish miners to emigrate to mining districts overseas where their skills were in demand. the procter family journeyed to the colony of south australia where copper mining was booming: by 1850, south australia was the third largest copper producer in the world.12 however, another kind of mining soon caught the attention of young thomas procter. gold was discovered in the neighboring colony of victoria in july 1851 and procter promptly travelled there in search of his fortune. he had some success in his quest for gold1, 11 but he turned to business as a goldsmith, jeweler and watchmaker in june 1853 in the goldfields township of ballarat.13 his business was in a tent on bakery hill marked out by a red flag, which was not uncommon accommodation for traders on the gold fields at that time. his claim to be a silversmith and jeweler seems well founded enough. he is reported to have been commissioned to make some fine silver pieces during his time in ballarat, including a gold cup for the gold diggers to present to a friendly gold commissioner, gilbert amos in 1854, and a gold mounted whip as a racing trophy.1 his advertisements back in the mid-1850s make no mention of supplying glasses or examining eyes. he was a prolific advertiser of his businesses, and was often in the news for one reason or another, but he is invariably identified as a jeweler and watchmaker, and sometimes as a silversmith or goldsmith. on the other hand, an article entitled “an eminent oculist and optician. personal reminiscences” published in table talk in 1905 reports that he had practiced as an optician in the bakery hill business11 but this article would have relied on procter’s recollections in the last year of his life, and in the absence of corroborative evidence this particular recollection is unlikely to be true. he advertised sight testing and made to order spectacles for the first time in january 1877, by which time he was in new zealand. in this advertisement he invited the public to “take the opportunity of calling on t. r. p. where they can have their sight gauged” and alludes to having dr. ackland’s optometer for this purpose14, 15 (figure 4). these first advertisements for sight testing were still under the banner of “watchmaker & jeweller” but within a few months he began advertising what he called the spectacle branch of his business.16 in the following year he advertised himself as an optician for the first time9 (figure 5). in the 1880s procter begins to advertise himself variously as oculists’ optician, oculist’s optician and oculist optician.17 it seems he was an optician from 1877. when procter came to melbourne in 1888, a claim of 10 years-experience as an optician would have been more reasonable than 30 years. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 39 did procter study the “optical diseases of the eye” in london? procter returned to england in 1857 and lived in london for four years. he may have learned about modern optometry during that time. it is reported in his biographies1,11 this is what he did but confirmation is necessary because these sources would have relied on procter as the sole source of the information. procter advertised his ballarat business for sale in 1856,18 saying the reason for its sale was his intention to return to england. the year he actually left australia is uncertain but is probably 1857. however, he was certainly in london in 1861. according to the 1861 uk census he was living in upper charles street, clerkenwell, london, married, with a 10-year old son, john. procter’s occupation is given as goldsmith.19 the declared purpose of his journey to england in his biographies was to “engage in a course of medical studies to extend his knowledge of diseases of the eye.”1, 11 he may have done so since clerkenwell was a center of the optical trades, as well as for jewelry and watchmaking, and the already famous moorfields eye hospital was, at the time, only a short walk from the center of clerkenwell. there were also a number of eminent opticians in london from whom he could have obtained tuition and training as an optician, most notably dollonds, a highly regarded firm of opticians and instrument makers founded in 1750 that numbered the crowned heads of europe among its clients. while there were opportunities for thomas procter to embark on his planned studies, there were no optometry courses: they did not come into being until the late 1880s and 1890s. procter’s time in london is shrouded in mystery. one of his biographies reports that he had opened a business in london for the manufacture of jewelry and scientific instruments, especially the manufacture of optical appliances, but why then did he give his occupation in the 1861 uk census as goldsmith rather than optician or instrument maker? another curious event is that he travelled back to australia in may 1859 without his family and returned to london in december.20 this interlude would have taken him from any business he was running in london for the better part of 12 months, including 6 months at sea, not a journey to be undertaken lightly. however, as testament to his entrepreneurial character, just prior to leaving australia in december 1859 to return to england he advertised that he was a practical engineer and was taking orders on commission for “all kinds of equipment and mining plant” that he would source in england.21 he was a man of many parts, seemingly always with an eye to the next opportunity. no evidence has been uncovered to show that procter did undertake studies in optics or diseases of the eye while he was in london. none of his advertisements, nor his treatise and biographies, make specific comment about the nature of any london studies, and he was not a man to hide his light under a bushel. had he completed studies or received tutelage from anyone of note, we would have been told of it. procter left england for australia in 1861 but finished up in new zealand. had he trained as an optician in london, it might be expected he would commence practice as such on his arrival in new zealand. for 16 years his advertising in zealand was as a jeweler and watchmaker. he did not claim he was an optician until 1878.9 it seems unlikely that he trained as an optician while he was in london, as he claimed. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 40 figure 4. t. r. procter advertised spectacles with made to order lenses and sight testing for the first time in 1877. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker and jeweler. west coast times (new zealand). january 2 1877. figure 5. t. r. procter identifies himself personally as an optician for the first time in 1878. timaru herald (new zealand), december 4 1878] hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 41 procter returns to the antipodes procter left england for the australia on october 1 1861, arriving in melbourne on december 22.22 there he must have learned of the gold rush in the province of otago in the south island of new zealand. it had burst on the scene late in 1861. he set sail for port otago, near dunedin, arriving in march 1862.23 it seems that he was again in the pursuit of fortune as a gold prospector or as a merchant trading with the miners, as he did in the 1850s when he was in australia. he was soon back in business as a watchmaker and jeweler, firstly in dunedin in 1862,23 and later setting up business in queenstown on lake wakatipu in may 1863.24 his advertisements rarely make mention of spectacles.25 in a burst of advertisements in 1863 he states that he has available “spectacles for all ages” but there is no further mention of spectacles until the appearance of a few advertisements in february 1875 for “real brazilian pebble spectacles”. it seems he is not yet a sight-testing optician or even a regular spectacle seller. he nonetheless kept himself busy for the next 15 years. he opened and closed shops in various new zealand towns before settling his main place of business in christchurch in october 1873.26 he continued to travel to other towns, some quite far afield despite the arduous nature and hazards of such journeys. in 1876, the patea mail reported that t. r. procter, jeweler of christchurch, fell from his horse when travelling to opunake dislocating his shoulder and requiring the attendance of a dr. walker so he could continue his journey.27 news and advertisements in local newspapers tell us that procter also had an eye for the business of gold mining. he advertised his services for gold smelting and refining. he took up a lease for gold mining in 1864, called for tenders to sink a mine shaft, another to remove a boiler and he bought a pump and winding gear from a discontinued mine. he applied for a patent for a gold washing cradle and then endeavored to sell the rights to it. he was also a lively figure in society providing a demonstration of magnetism and electricity after a concert and some years later he held public exhibitions of a camera obscura. in 1867 he ran an art union raffle of 1000 tickets at £1 each, with most of the prizes drawn from his own merchandise. he joined the united grand lodge of english freemasons in 1871. he was in the news because of the transit of venus of 1874, which could be observed in new zealand. his biographies have him engaged in the adjustment and repair of the instruments of the official observing party in christchurch that included major henry palmer, the head of the observation party, and captain charles darwin, the son of the famous evolutionist.1, 11 newspaper reports paint a different picture.28 procter accommodated an unofficial observation in his backyard in the town hokitika, on the west coast of new zealand, for which he supplied the chronometers and was one of the timekeepers. his unofficial site was blessed with good weather and a clear view of the transit, while the official observations elsewhere in new zealand failed because of poor weather. it is not certain whether procter’s unofficial party provided observations of any value. the newspaper report suggests that procter had not set his chronometers with sufficient accuracy. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 42 procter becomes an optician procter advertised spectacles and sight testing for the first time in january 1877 (figure 4). the same advertisement also tells us that procter had secured “the services of a first class and thoroughly qualified optician (late of dollond’s london) and the only practical optician in new zealand”. he also advises that he has a dr. ackland’s optometer for “gauging the sight.”15 procter was ahead of australia in his acquisition of an optometer. the first advertisement in australia for sight testing using an optometer appeared in 1882,29 a claim that was advertised by australian opticians with increasing frequency over the next decade. not that the optometer was a recent invention: porterfield invented it in 1738. in a later advertisement in 1881 procter advises he has “various mechanical contrivances and instruments, which suit what is known as donders’ system”30 suggesting that he has added to his sight testing armamentarium. in 1877, procter had established a workshop for grinding and polishing lenses and fitting them to spectacle frames, no doubt made possible by the “thoroughly qualified optician” he had employed. he invited the press to visit the new workshop and an article about it appeared in a local newspaper in october 1877.31 the article reports that procter showed the journalist his optometer and gave an account of its virtues and then showed his marble jewelry before introducing “the optician”. the optician remains anonymous, but took the journalist through the processes of grinding lenses to their desired optical power and fitting them to spectacle frames. the optician is described as “a most communicative and agreeable gentleman” but that is all we learn about him until later. the lens grinding workshop and the optometer enabled procter to provide madeto-measure glasses. in the article in the press he asserts he is the only person in new zealand able to do so.31 a year and bit later, procter is advertising himself as an optician9 (figure 4). within another two years, in 1881, he advertises correction of astigmatism with cylindrical lenses.32 his workshop could now grind cylindrical lenses and was presumably able to fit the lenses to a spectacle frame with the axis of the cylindrical lens at the correct orientation. this time he is not ahead of australia: he was narrowly beaten by charles sawtell, practical optician in adelaide, south australia, who advertised astigmatic spectacles a year earlier, in 1880.33 not that astigmatic spectacles were new. thomas young measured his own astigmatism in 1793 and the british astronomer royal, george airy, measured his astigmatism and had a lens made to correct it in 1825. a number of lens makers in britain, usa and france were making cylindrical lenses soon after.3 what was new was bringing made-to-measure spectacles to the market place that could precisely correct refractive errors. this occurred through a convergence of advances in the science of optics in the 18th century, in ophthalmic science in the 19th century, and in the slow evolution of the craft spectacle lens making over the 600 years since spectacles were first devised in the late 13th century. procter and his anonymous ‘optician’ were pioneers in bringing made-to-measure spectacles to the market place in new zealand, as others were doing at much the same time in many other parts of the world. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 43 who was procter’s optician? the identity of the anonymous optician was revealed in two newspaper reports of the camera obscura that procter was exhibiting around new zealand during 1879 and 1880. the lens of the camera obscura is reported as the handiwork of a mr. pugh, an optician who was employed as an “operator” in mr. procter’s workshop in christchurch.34,35 a search of newspapers and official records reveals a little bit about william pugh. he was a londoner, born in 1824, who like procter decided to try his luck in australia. he arrived in australia in january 1849, as did procter, but disembarked in melbourne rather than adelaide. he was accompanied by his wife and six-month old daughter and the passenger list gives his occupation as optician.36 australia did not suit the pugh family and they returned to london in 1852 where the 1861 census records his occupation as an ‘optical instrument maker’ and as ‘optical glass worker’ in the 1871 census, suggesting he was an optical lens maker rather than a sight-testing optician. a few years later, pugh left london for new zealand and was followed by his family, his wife and four children, who arrived at timaru, new zealand in november 1875.37 the reason for this second go at emigration has not been uncovered. perhaps procter got to know pugh when they were both in australia in the 1850s, or perhaps they met when they were in london in the 1860s and if so procter may have invited him to work with him in christchurch. however, we do know william pugh was employed by procter in 1877, possibly earlier, as his lens maker. we do not know if he did sight testing or if that was left to procter. in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the latter is the more likely. procter was always the front man. we also know that pugh’s training as an optician and optical glass worker, said to be with the famous london firm of dollond’s, enabled procter to supply made-to-measure glasses because pugh could make lenses to the optical powers ordered for individual clients. this included cylindrical lenses for correction of astigmatism. what remains a moot question is whether pugh taught procter about refractive errors and their correction, and perhaps provided the optometer. it is entirely possible that pugh passed on his knowledge gained from his training at dollond’s to procter. equally possible is that procter, the entrepreneur, taught himself about sight testing once pugh had set up a laboratory to make lenses to suit the needs of individual clients. was procter the first new zealand sight-testing optician? procter was not the first in new zealand to style himself as an optician. james henry marriott (1799-1885) was the first person to advertise as an optician in new zealand newspapers. he was identified as an optician as early as 184738 and first advertised as such on june 9 1849.39 he advertised as an optician and mathematical turner who made and repaired telescopes and sextants. his infrequent advertising ceased in 1872 and while he sometimes offered “spectacles to suit all sights” he never offered to test eyesight. at first blush the honor of being a sight-testing optician in new zealand might go hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 44 to mr. a. j. solomon, who advertised as an optician and sometimes as an oculist optician from 1872, five years before procter did so. solomon advertised40 that he “gauges sight with marvelous accuracy by an optometrical apparatus” of his own discovery, which he claimed to be better than von graefe’s. however, unlike procter he does not seem to offer made-to-measure spectacles but instead seems to have relied on a “regular supply (from london) of warranted pure brazilian pebble spectacles suitable to all sights.” he advertised prolifically and was often lionized by the press, 41 most likely as a reward for his advertising in the newspapers. it transpires, however, that solomon was a charlatan and his career as optician and oculist in new zealand was short. a warrant for his arrest was issued in april 1873 on the charge of obtaining money under false pretenses. he had diagnosed an eye condition as extreme and offered treatment with ointments at a cost of £50 ($us 6,000 in today’s values). medical testimony said the ointments were useless and may have aggravated the condition. he was convicted on april 12 with damages of £20 awarded to the plaintiff, but mr. solomon had already fled christchurch, only to reappear the next month selling his same story in australia.42 the account of his downfall in the timaru herald ends by calling newspaper editors to account for giving testimonials to regular advertisers without due diligence.43 solomon might have been new zealand’s first sight testing optician in 1872, if in fact he tested eyes as he claimed, but he gone from new zealand within only ten months. william percival is another contender for the crown of being the first to style himself as an optician in new zealand and engage in sight testing and making spectacles to measure. percival was born in england in 1817 where his occupation was rule maker 44 and his father was an optician. he came to melbourne, australia, in 1861 where he set up business making and selling tape measures, rules, callipers and other measuring devices.45 he called himself an optician in his melbourne advertising although he did not advertise spectacles. he moved to new zealand in 1863 setting up business in dunedin. he advertised as an optician in 1864,46 some 13 years before procter did so. while he then advertised spectacles “to suit all sights” he also sold general merchandise, including umbrellas and parasols.47 in 1865 he adds spectacle maker to his professional title and says he can make “spectacles adapted to suit their sight.” no advertisement was found in which he offered sight testing or the use of an optometer, and none making claims that astigmatism could be corrected. the major part of his business was selling and buying scientific, optical and mathematical instruments. he also dabbled in real estate and this may have been a cause of his bankruptcy in 1890.48 while percival called himself an optician in the 1860s and sold spectacles there is no convincing evidence that he tested eyesight or ground lenses to suit. his role as a “spectacle maker” may have been to cut imported lenses to shape to fit them to spectacle frames. a history of new zealand optometry published in the commonwealth optometrist in 1927 briefly acknowledges some of new zealand’s 19th century opticians including procter, who is noted for “grinding and fitting cylinders and compounds as far back as the early 70s with remarkable success as some of his old patients still testify.”49 only two other names of 19th century new zealand optometrists are recalled in this article, a. levi and t. peacock. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 45 alfred levi was a “consulting and manufacturing optician” in wellington, new zealand. however, he post-dates procter: he was a much younger man and did not advertise as an optician in new zealand until in 1888, ten years after procter did so. his earliest advertisements offered “thorough testing of the eyes (with trial glasses)”50 and it was not until the 1890s that he advertised spectacles for astigmatism.51 and that he tests “the sight of each eye thoroughly (using) the most modern appliances.”52 mr. peacock advertised as an optician in the 1860s well before procter, but did so almost exclusively by publishing the weather conditions of the previous day, no doubt to promote the thermometers and barometers he sold. in 1871 he began advertising as an “optician, mathematical and nautical instrument maker” and his advertisements indicate that while he sold “spectacles in great variety” that were imported from overseas, the main part of his business was selling a considerable diversity of optical and nautical instruments.53 he also advertised sewing machines extensively between 1875 and 1880. peacock did not advertise correction of astigmatism or the use of an optometer or other sight testing methods until 1891 when he says he gives “special attention to astigmatism.”54 from 1892 he advertises that “eyes are tested separately and effectively by the most recent and improved instruments and methods brought by mr. peacock from england and the continent on his recent trip” and that “astigmatism and other defects of vision are corrected.”55 his adoption of modern optometry occurs over a decade later than procter’s. on the evidence gathered it seems that procter was the first sight-testing optician in new zealand in 1877 and was also the first to have his own lens-grinding laboratory. influence of t. r. procter in australia procter left new zealand for australia in 1888. he set up practice in melbourne at 7 burlington terrace at 388 albert street. this elegant set of two-story terrace houses still remains today, situated facing the imposing 19th century neo-gothic catholic cathedral and the grand sweep of the fitzroy gardens. it was a good address. most likely procter left new zealand for financial reasons. new zealand suffered an economic depression from 1885 to 1900 but before that procter was in financial trouble and was declared insolvent in february 1880.56 in contrast, “marvellous melbourne” was booming in the 1880s and may have seemed a good place to start again. did procter have an impact on the development of optometry in melbourne? probably not. it was too late: modern optometry in australia was emerging from other directions. the use of an optometer was being advertised by local australian optometrists from 1882 29 and correction of astigmatism from 1886.33 procter may have preceded these practitioners but that was when he was in new zealand. by 1888, when he arrived in melbourne a number of australian opticians had already caught up. other leadership figures had emerged. the most significant in melbourne was henry vanheems. vanheems (1831-1917) emigrated from london to melbourne in 1852 where he was employed by thomas gaunt and company, a reputable melbourne firm of jewelers and clockmakers founded in 1858, which from 1866 also advertised as opticians.57 vanheems learned the optical trade with gaunt’s and rose to become its managing director.58 he became a highly regarded private tutor in optometry. there was hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 46 no optometry course in melbourne until 1913. he trained a large number of melbourne optometrists who would be the profession’s leaders in the first decades of the 20th century, and even taught a few ophthalmologists. melbourne optometrists william j. aird and arthur jones may have been mentored or influenced by procter. william j. aird had worked for procter and continued the procter practice for two years after procter’s death.59 arthur jones advertised himself in 1909 as successor to the late t. r. procter, 60 but neither aird nor jones became optometric leaders. nevertheless, procter did have an influence on the early development of optometry in australia, but indirectly. he was as a pebble dropped in a new zealand pond from which ever-expanding ripples reached the shores of australia. he trained or was a mentor of some sight-testing opticians in new zealand who later came to australia. the first was charles pugh (1854-1902) a new zealand optician who came to australia about the same time as procter. he was certainly in business in melbourne as an optician in 1890.61 charles pugh was the son of william pugh, the ‘qualified optician’ who worked for procter, and would have trained his son. procter may have also been charles’ mentor or at least a role model. after his training in christchurch, new zealand, charles seems to have practiced optometry in dunedin although the evidence is slender.62 on migrating to melbourne he set up his business at 19 gertrude street, fitzroy,63 not far from melbourne’s central business district. he moved to no. 13 in 1898.64 the tiles of the entrance porch to these premises, now a café, still carry the sign “c. w. pugh optician”. charles pugh clearly brought his father’s lens making skills to melbourne. in the 1891 sands and mcdougall directory for melbourne 63 he styles himself as a ‘manufacturing ophthalmic optician’ who can make “every description of compound astigmatic spectacles and eye glasses made to order on the shortest notice; oculists prescriptions accurately made up.” later he claimed the patronage of the right honorable the lord brassey k.c.b., who was the governor of victoria from 1895 to 1900.64 pugh’s business was based on word of mouth reputation because there is no trail of newspaper advertising for his business. it is no more than a hypothesis but charles pugh may have come to melbourne at procter’s behest to be his lens maker but chose to operate independently of procter so he could supply lenses to other opticians as well as procter. this might explain pugh’s lack of advertising. procter by contrast was a prolific advertiser. on the other hand procter’s 1902 biography reports that he had brought with him his experienced staff and his complete plant from new zealand.1 his “experienced staff” could have been charles pugh, ensconced in gertrude street, fitzroy, but in procter’s personal reminiscences11 he says his extensive workshop was attached to his consulting rooms in albert street, east melbourne. his probate lists the value of his plant, tools and stock at £567, a not inconsiderable sum at the time ($us 60,000 in today’s values).65 charles pugh died in 1902 at the age of 49. his business was continued by his wife66 until it was purchased by ernest macfarlane in 1907.67 it is quite possible that macfarlane was the person employed to continue the practice after pugh’s death and that he was also trained by pugh. the evidence for that is twofold, albeit very indirect. macfarlane was the right age: he was 29 when he bought the practice, old enough to have completed an apprenticeship and to have managed the pugh hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 47 practice for 5 years and he was also exceptionally well-trained in lens making. the kett optometry museum has a remarkable bifocal lens made by ernest macfarlane in 1902 (kett cat no. 0109). it is an invisible bifocal made by sandwiching a 17 mm diameter high refractive index glass button, the near vision segment, between two larger lenses. it is contained in an envelope inscribed “1st invisible bi-focal lens made in melbourne by self = 1902 / ‘invisible’ but not fused”. the item was donated by ken macfarlane, ernest’s son. the lens is accompanied by a cutting from the optical journal dated 1902 explaining the optics of the invisible bifocal. if pugh was mcfarlane’s mentor, he did a good job of training him in lens making and setting the right attitudes toward his profession. macfarlane continued his learning: he obtained a doctor of optics degree by correspondence from the philadelphia optical college in 1910 and was elected a fellow of the uk institute of ophthalmic opticians in 1930.• the second way procter influenced optometry in australia was by training alfred percival greenfield to be an optician.† greenfield was a new zealander, born in dunedin in 1864, who after completing his training with procter in christchurch migrated to the economically greener pastures of australia in 1886,68 two years before procter returned to australia. greenfield settled in brisbane, queensland, where he established himself as an oculists’ optician in june 1887. he immediately claimed that he was the only practical oculists’ optician in queensland and invited the public to “call and get your eyes scientifically tested and measured”.69 he was entrepreneurial (like procter). within two months of establishing his practice he had arranged for a long promotional article to be published,70 which reports that greenfield tested for astigmatism and had a full scope workshop for grinding lenses and fitting them to spectacle frames, including cylindrical and prismatic lenses. the kett optometry museum holds a digital copy of a photograph of greenfield’s optical workshop taken about 1912, which has nine employees working in it (kett cat no. 2788). greenfield advertised prolifically often claiming to be the only “practical oculists’ optician in queensland.”71 he also claimed to be the person who introduced “practical sight testing” to queensland.72 the spirit of thomas procter and william pugh from christchurch, new zealand, had been relocated to brisbane, australia. greenfield was prominent in the emergence of organized optometry in australia. he would have been the foundation president of the queensland institute of ophthalmic opticians in 1908 had he attended the inaugural meeting.3 he was made president the following year. he was a foundation member of the opticians registration board of queensland in 1917 and represented queensland to the meeting in melbourne in 1918 that founded the australasian optometrical association that is now optometry australia. procter’s ripples in the pond kept expanding. h. a. barraclough became a partner with greenfield in brisbane (queensland) and in 1894 they established a practice in • the kett optometry museum holds the original certificates for his doctor of optics degree and his fellowship of the london institute of ophthalmic opticians. † reference 68 records greenfield’s teacher as j. r. procter. this would be john robert procter, the son of t. r. procter but this is most likely an error. john was an optician trained by his father and william pugh. he set up in business for himself in christchurch as jeweler and watchmaker about 1884 but john procter was only 12 years older than greenfield and did not advertise as an optician until 1889, by which time greenfield was in brisbane. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 48 sydney (new south wales),73 which barraclough continued under his own name when their partnership was dissolved. barraclough was no doubt inspired by greenfield. he was an innovator and an optometrist keen to push the boundaries. in 1898 he advertised that his practice had a de zeng refractometer, a wilson’s phorometer and a javal’s ophthalmometer.74 he was elected the president of the australasian optical association at its foundation meeting in 1904. his two sons became optometrists. thomas procter did not set out to be a sight testing optician and was never driven by any altruistic desire to bring optometry to the antipodes for the betterment of society. his career was defined by chasing opportunities that morphed into his becoming a sighttesting and manufacturing optician in 1877, the first in new zealand, albeit with a good deal of help from his employee, william pugh, a london trained optician. without him procter probably would most likely remained a jeweler. procter was energetic, a risk taker and self-confident man in search of his fortune. he did not make his fortune as his probate shows too clearly,65 but he did set the ball rolling in new zealand optometry as early as 1877, and two of those he trained in new zealand who migrated to australia in the late 1880s, had a significant influence on australian optometry. acknowledgements i am immensely grateful to margaret augusteyn and caroline moore who gave enthusiastic assistance searching for and evaluating archival records. they found many jigsaw pieces that i would have missed and have enabled a far more complete picture of this story to be assembled than would have been possible without their help. i am also grateful to margaret augusteyn for her comments on several drafts of this article and her meticulous proof reading. my thanks go also to my fellow archivists in the kett optometry museum for their helpful comments on an early draft of the article. references 1. smith j. the cyclopedia of victoria (illustrated): an historical and commercial review: descriptive and biographical, facts, figures and illustrations: an epitome of progress. melbourne; cyclopedia co: 1902. 2. birth, deaths and marriages, victoria. procter, thos robt, death, 1905, reg no. 6084. 3. cole bl. history of australian optometry: two hundred years of beating the tyranny of distance and fighting political battles and finding a new place in health care. melbourne; australian college of optometry: 2015 p 32. 4. procter tr. a treatise on the optical diseases of the eye and their results. the use of spectacles and mode of manufacture. anatomy and physiology of the eye. melbourne; w. smith and co: (undated but published 1888). 5. “weak eyes”: advertisement for t. r. procter: first of several advertisements that include promotion of procter’s treatise. the star (ballarat, australia) february 8, 1888. 6. advertisement for t. r. procter. evening post (wellington, new zealand) october 19, 1883 stating “pamphlet on the optical diseases of the eye. free on application or by post on receipt of a one penny postage.” 7. advertisement for t. r. procter announcing he has just issued a 16-page treatise on hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 49 the optical diseases of the eye and describes its content at length. he styles himself as optician and scientific ophthalmologist. auckland star (new zealand) february 1, 1886. 8. cured without operation. a specialist in all complaints. advertisement for t. r. procter, oculist optician and for his universal eye ointment. the australian october 6, 1900. 9. advertisement for t. r. procter, optician. timaru herald (new zealand) december 4, 1878. 10. shipping list for the william money, emigrant ship from england. south australian register. january 6, 1849. 11. an eminent oculist and optician. personal reminiscence. table talk. page 13. february 2, 1905. 12. bampton kf. copper mining and treatment in south australia. mesa journal 2003; 28: 38-44. 13. advertisement announcing the establishment of business by t. r. procter, gold smith, jeweller and watchmaker, late of geelong. the argus (melbourne) june 13, 1853. 14. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker and jeweller. west coast times (new zealand) january 2, 1877. 15. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker, jeweller and silversmith, headed “spectacles, spectacles, spectacles t. r. procter”. akaroa mail and banks peninsula advertiser (new zealand) february 20, 1877. 16. advertisement for t. r. procter. akaroa mail and banks peninsula advertiser (christchurch, new zealand) september 14, 1877. 17. advertisement for t. r. procter, oculist, optician and maker of spectacles. evening post (wellington, new zealand) february 7, 1882. 18. advertisement for sale of t. r. procter’s “well-known oldest established business in ballaarat” the argus (melbourne) june 10, 1856. 19. uk census online. the uk 1861 census of april 7, 1861 at url: http://www. ukcensusonline.com/census/1861.php, sighted august 10, 2016 20. index to passengers to interstate, uk, nz and foreign ports 1852-1923. public records office, victoria. thos r. procter, age 32, male, watchmaker, arrived as an unassisted passenger in melbourne may 3 1859 on the prince of the seas from liverpool in december. thomas r. procter, age 33, departs melbourne for london on the ship, essex. december 1859. 21. t. r. procter, practical engineer, advertises for orders on commission for mining equipment. the star (ballarat, australia) november 18, 1859. 22. inward overseas passenger lists (british ports). victoria, australia. 1852-1915. series vprs 7666. 23. index to outward passengers to interstate, uk, nz and foreign ports 1852-1923. public records office, victoria. the blue jacket left melbourne for port otago in march 1862 carrying a mr. and mrs. proctor (not procter with no first names and aged 31 and 30) and john proctor, aged 10, (procter’s son was john aged 11 at this time). the misspelling of his name and discrepancies in the ages of the procter family leave some doubt but procter was certainly in new zealand in 1862: he was advertising the sale of clocks, watches and jewelry in the otago times on august 12 1862 and later in december 1862 from an address in princes street, dunedin. 24. advertisement for t. r. procter, watchmaker and jeweller. lake wakatipu mail may hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 50 2, 1863. 25. search for “procter and spectacles” in papers past (new zealand) 1862 to 1876. 26. advertisement for t. r. procter watchmaker, jeweller etc announcing commencement of business in high st christchurch press october 13, 1873. 27. news report of procter falling from his horse. patea mail october 18, 1876. 28. watching the transit. the transit of venus. the observations a failure. west coast times december 10, 1874. 29. h. miller, optician, advertises sight testing with an optometer. horsham times (vic, australia) april 18, 1882. 30. procter advertising cylindrical lenses for astigmatism, mechanical contrivances and instruments constructed to suit donders’ system. oamaru mail october 29, 1881. 31. as to spectacles. the press (christchurch, nz) october 12, 1877. 32. t. r. procter advertises cylindrical lenses to correct astigmatism. oamaru mail october 24, 1881 33. sawtell’s advertises astigmatic spectacles that are not available elsewhere. south australian register may 1, 1880. 34. exhibiting a monster camera obscura in oamaru. oamaru mail november 6, 1880. 35. camera obscura exhibition. evening post (new zealand) january 17, 1881. 36.state records nsw: kingswood nsw; persons on bounty ships arriving at port phillip (agents’ immigrant lists); series: 5318; reel 2144; item: [4/4816]. 37. immigrants by the duke of wellington. timaru herald november 3, 1875. william pugh is not listed as accompanying his family. he probably arrived earlier but a record of his arrival in new zealand has not been discovered. 38. list of all persons (and their occupations) qualified to serve as jurors in the district of port nicholson for the year 1847. new zealand spectator february 10, 1847. 39. advertisement for j. h. marriott. wellington independent (new zealand) june 9, 1849. 40. a. j. solomon & co, optician and mathematical turner. west coast times (new zealand) june 19, 1872. 41. article on the eye and mr solomon with quotes of “opinions of the press”. wellington independent (new zealand) october 16, 1872. 42. advertisement for mr solomon, “the qualified oculist and optician and sole inventor of the optometric apparatus” at 151 castlereagh st, sydney. evening news (sydney) may 8, 1873. 43. quack doctors. timaru herald (new zealand) april 16, 1873. 44. england & wales census 1851: pro ho 107; piece/folio: 2227/0; the national archives of the uk, kew, surrey. 45. advertisements for william percival, optician. the argus (melbourne) august 13, 16, and 19, 1862. 46. advertisements for william percival, optician. southland times (new zealand), january 4, december 1, 1864. 47. advertisement for william percival, optician, advertising general merchandise. otago daily times, (new zealand) 22 december 22, 1865. 48. meeting of creditors in the bankruptcy of william percival. evening star (new zealand) march 8, 1890. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 cole: t. r. procter | page 51 49. anon. optometry in new zealand. an historical record. comm optom 1927;9:477480. 50. advertisement for a. levi, optician. wanganui herald (new zealand) june 4, 1888. 51. advertisement by a. levi, optician, for supply of spectacles for astigmatism. otago times (new zealand) may 27, 1893. 52. advertisement by a. levi, optician stating the sight of each eye is thoroughly tested by the most modern appliances. evening post (new zealand) february 2, 1894. 53. advertisement for t. peacock, optician. new zealand herald july 23, 1870. 54. advertisement by mr. peacock, optician, of attention given to astigmatism. auckland star (new zealand) december 15, 1891. 55. advertisement by mr. peacock, optician, of new sight testing instruments and the correction of astigmatism. auckland star (new zealand) august 11, 1892. 56. insolvency notice. feb 7 1880, thomas robert procter. the press february 9, 1880. 57. thomas gaunt advertising as opticians. the argus (melbourne), september 25, 1866 58. gartner wf. william henry vanheems. clin exp optom 2006;89:100-101. 59. advertisement for w. j. aird. advocate (melbourne) june 4, 1910. 60. advertisement for arthur w jones, oculist optician, successor to the late t. r. procter. punch (melbourne) june 10, 1909. 61. mr. pugh optician of 19 gertrude street fitzroy advertises a large mirror for sale. the argus (melbourne) december 6, 1890. 62. advertisement for spectacles lost in st kilda road, melbourne, the case of which is marked “c. pugh manufacturing optician dunedin” the argus (melbourne) may 14, 1891. 63. sands and mcdougall melbourne directory. 1891. 64. sands and mcdougall melbourne directory. 1898. 65. will and application for probate dated april 14 1905 for thomas robert procter, oculist optician, of albert street. digitised records and online indexes public records office victoria at http://prov.vic.gov/au/provguide-23. sighted august 8, 2016. 66. advertisement by mrs. c. w. pugh advising that her husband’s practice is continuing. fitzroy city press (melbourne) august 28, 1903. 67. advertisement advising the purchase of mr. c. w. pugh’s business by mr. macfarlane. fitzroy city press (melbourne). march 15, 1907. 68. anon. well known australian optometrist passes. aust j optom 1930;13:16-17. 69. advertisement for a. p. greenfield, oculists’ optician. queensland figaro and punch august 6, 1887. 70. spectacles v. blindness. queensland figaro and punch august 20, 1887. 71. a. p. greenfield advertises that he is the only practical oculists’ optician in queensland. queensland figaro and punch august 6, 1887. 72. advertisement for a. p. greenfield in which he claims to have introduced practical sight testing to queensland. gympie times and mary river mining gazette (queensland) may 31, 1892. 73. announcement of the opening of the sydney practice of greenfield and barraclough and co. australian town and country journal (sydney nsw) september 15, 1894. p 25. 74. advertisement for h. a. barraclough, optician, george st, sydney which lists the then very latest equipment used in his practice. sydney morning herald august 11, 1898. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 52fradkin: irving fradkin irving fradkin (1921-2016), practicing optometrist and founder of scholarship america russell fradkin, o.d. 999 providence road, whitinsville, ma 01588 russ.jane12@gmail.com irving fradkin was born in 1921 in chelsea, massachusetts. he was the youngest of seven children of jewish immigrants, his father from russia and his mother from poland.1 he had thoughts of becoming a baker, but his experience getting glasses led him to decide to become an optometrist. he worked his way through school at his father’s bakery, graduating from massachusetts college of optometry (now the new england college of optometry) in 1943. after graduation, fradkin set up practice in fall river, massachusetts, a working class mill town. he acknowledged that he was blessed to be living in the united states and he wanted somehow to give something back. having a strong belief in the importance of education and knowing that many of his young patients did not attend college due to financial constraints, he decided to do something about it. he ran for the fall river school committee in the 1950s on a platform of community support for college scholarships for local students. he lost the election but decided to start a program anyway. fradkin founded citizens scholarship foundation, better known as dollars for scholars, in 1958. he had the idea that if everyone in their community gave one dollar, enough money would be available for worthy students to get a college education. fradkin always thought big. starting his program, he called president eisenhower’s white house collect. eleanor roosevelt happened to be visiting the oval office at the time, took the call, accepted the charges, and made the first one dollar donation. the comedian sam levenson was the first honorary spokesman for the scholarship program and called fradkin “an optometrist with vision.” in the first year, fradkin and community volunteers raised $4,500 to give scholarships to 24 high school students from fall river and the surrounding area. fradkin ran citizens scholarship foundation for many years. a few years ago the name of the organization was changed to scholarship america. today scholarship america is a nonprofit organization with thousands of volunteers. since its beginning in the 1950s, it has provided 3.5 billion dollars in scholarships to over 2.2 million students.2 before his death in 2016, fradkin received many recognitions and awards for his contributions to society. he was a finalist for the congressional medal of honor foundation citizens before self award. he was optometrist of the year of the massachusetts college hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 53fradkin: irving fradkin of optometry alumni association (1965), and he received honorary degrees from new england college of optometry (2008) and stonehill college (2014).3-5 fradkin’s work sometimes had surprising benefits. the supervisor of the emergency room where he received care after a 1988 heart attack comforted him, telling him that she had been able to attend nursing school because of his program.1 references 1. roberts s. irving fradkin, founder of dollars for scholars program, dies at 95. new york times. www.nytimes.com, dec. 2, 2016. accessed jan. 5, 2017. 2. letter from robert c. ballard, president and ceo of scholarship america to jasiel f. correia ii, mayor of fall river, massachusetts, august 16, 2016. 3. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:107. 4. dr. irving fradkin, od ’43, founder of dollars for scholars, dies at age 95. new england college of optometry, dec. 9, 2016. www.neco.edu. accessed feb. 2, 2017. 5. remembering dr. fradkin. the herald news of fall river, nov. 22, 2016. www. heraldnews.com. accessed feb. 2, 2017. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 54bennett: vendors gone where have all the vendors gone. . . irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com it is conventional wisdom among publishers that the amount of advertising that is carried by a magazine determines the amount of editorial copy that is published. this is particularly true of controlled circulation magazines, like optometric management and others in the ophthalmic media. controlled circulation provides for more favorable (read that less expensive) mailing costs. the regulation requires that publishers send the magazine to everyone in a grouping (e.g., all licensed optometrists) whether they pay for a subscription or not. having said that, it behooves publishers to get a minimum of 40% of the total pages of a publication as paid advertisers in order to come close to breaking even. most publishers strive for a 50/50 split between ad pages and editorial (non-advertising) content. if, and when, the percentage gets to be more than 50% advertising, it is time to break out the champagne bottles and celebrate. as many readers know, i became the editor/publisher of optometric management (om) in 1971. under the previous owners, the magazine scored high in every readership study but it was a disaster in the financial arena. the publication, before i came to the helm, was averaging about six pages of ads—in a good month. that is unsustainable unless the owners have deep pockets. or decided to reduce the editorial content to one or two articles, which made it thinner than a comic book. long story short, we hired a great advertising team and it soon solicited more ads than we needed for a 50/50 split. we never turned down advertising (of course) and never did we publish the magazine with less than half editorial material. having a modern, attractive format, with four-color ads, and professionally written articles were inducements both to readership and for advertiser support. in cleaning out my store of memorabilia recently, i came across the march, 1973 issue of om, published two years after our team started producing optometric management. that issue had 45 different advertisers with nearly half of them taking multiple pages! my pride in this success is comparable to my sadness wondering where all these companies have gone. rarely do we see the “missing companies” have ads in any ophthalmic medium. look at this list of those who advertisers in the march 1973 issue of om: abbott laboratories; a.i.t. industries, inc.; allergan pharmaceuticals; alpa corp.; t.a. altschuler; american optical corp.; armorlite lens co.; art-craft optical co.; a.v. scientific aids, inc.; ayerst laboratories; central labs, inc.; conforma laboratories; continuous curve contact lenses, inc.; corning optical products; crown optical co., inc.; dmv contact lens co.; eye kraft optical, inc.; frames; gordon contact lenses, inc.; histacount corp.; kontur kontact lens co.; liberty optical co.; martin-copeland; j.i. morris co.; new hermes engraving machine, corp.; nikon, inc. instrument division; novamatic systems; oculite company; omega instrument co., inc.; optometric center hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 55bennett: vendors gone of n.y.; patti co.; a. lemay co., inc.; ppg industries; replacement lens, inc.; sitler's supplies, inc.; united states optical co.; univis, inc.; victory optical mfg., co.; visionease corp.; welling international; whitney optical co.; wise optical co., inc.; and raymond s. wright insurance agency. when i drafted this article, i had the june 2016 issue of om on my desk. so i looked at the index of advertisers. only one company that had advertising in the 1973 issue noted above was listed in that 2016 issue! it was allergan and it had dropped the “pharmaceuticals” in its name. the 2016 ad was for a drug ("restatis") while the 1973 ad was for a contact lens eye drop ("blink -n-clean"). my, have times changed! hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 56goss: optometric education a note on some aspects of optometric education in the 1980s and 1990s david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu summit on optometric education in 1992, richard l. hopping observed that: “at no previous time in the history of the optometric profession has there been a greater need for the full cooperation of the entire profession in order to move the educational establishment and thus the profession forward to an even higher level.”1 in 1992 through 1994 a series of eight conferences was held to evaluate the status of optometric education and to study what should be done to prepare for the future. over 200 participants represented the american academy of optometry, american foundation for vision awareness, american optometric association, american optometric foundation, american optometric student association, association of schools and colleges of optometry, college of optometrists in vision development, international association of boards of examiners in optometry, national board of examiners in optometry, national optometric association, optometric extension program, and faculties of each of the optometry schools. representatives of the corporate sponsors, alcon, allergan, ciba, and vistakon, also attended. the eight conferences were: (1) georgetown conference, examining a broad range of topics, march 19-22, 1992; (2) scope of optometric practice conference, july 9-12, 1992; (3) curriculum conference, july 30-august 1, 1992; (4) conference on optometric students, january 10-12, 1993; (5) conference on optometric research, april 1-4, 1993; (6) conference on graduate education, residencies, and fellowships, august 26-29, 1993; (7) conference on financing optometric education, november 18-21, 1993; and (8) action plan conference, october 8-11, 1994. richard l. hopping served as chairman of the summit on optometric education conferences. hopping, l. edward elliot, president of the american optometric association in 1991-92, and larry decook, president of the aoa in 1994-95, were the only persons to attend all eight conferences.2 among the concepts discussed at the conference on scope of practice were what constitutes entry level competence and the need for optometry to practice primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care. factors identified as affecting scope of practice included matters such as public welfare, professional judgment, education, training, and new technologies. the 1978 association of schools and colleges of optometry curriculum had significant impact in the 1980s, but by the 1990s its limitations were beginning to be recognized. its emphasis on knowledge limited its ability to keep up with expansion of scope of practice. developing an understanding of concepts, learning problem solving hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 57goss: optometric education skills, and gaining an appreciation for lifelong learning came to be considered more important than knowledge of facts. the expansion of learning in the biological sciences also required additional facilities and equipment. it was agreed that research was essential for the future survival and growth of optometry. to make efficient use of resources, the importance of collaboration between optometric institutions and with other professions studying vision was emphasized. the idea of a training program for optometric clinician-scientists was also discussed. it was observed that graduate programs and residencies could serve as a vehicle for expansion of scope of optometric scope of practice and for certification in optometric subspecialties. the need for recruitment of graduate students, for the informing of graduate students concerning uniquely optometric areas of study, for a strategic plan for residencies, and for the development of fellowships in optometry were among areas identified as requiring attention. in reading through the monograph summarizing the conferences, perhaps the greatest sense of urgency could be felt in the section on the conference on financing optometric education.2 at one place, it was stated that the resource gap was “really big, not just big.” (p. 123) identified areas of need included meeting increased operating costs, resources needed for expansion of scope, maintenance and expansion of faculty and infrastructure, expansion of research, replacement of reduced government scholarship funding, provision of adequate student loans and financial aid, and resources for new technology. discussion on number of optometry schools one matter discussed at the summit on optometric education that has had a great deal of attention in the following years was whether additional optometry schools should be started. at that time, there were 16 optometry schools in the united states. hopping1 pointed out the great increase in optometry graduates in the eight years following the end of world war ii due to the very large classes admitted at some schools. he stated that: “had the profession not graduated the number of optometrists that it did at that time… we would not be the major provider in the eye/vision care field today and we would not have captured our distribution system and the primary care position that the profession enjoys today.”1 hopping noted that there were many factors affecting manpower needs in the health professions and that longitudinal manpower studies should be conducted on a regular basis. he also suggested that appropriate ratios of faculty, space, library volumes, and patient encounters per student should be evaluated. jack bennett3 pointed out that in 1976 the american optometric association recommended a total of 22 schools, but in 1984 changed the recommendation to four new schools for a total of 19. bennett listed the reasons in favor of additional schools as: (1) there is a need for additional optometrists, particularly in light of expanding scope of care, aging of the population, and unmet needs in areas such as low vision and rehabilitation. (2) an optometry school is a political resource for legislative and regulatory matters. (3) schools are resources for needed research. (4) schools have a positive impact on the professional image perceived by the public, funding agencies, governmental entities, and other professions. (5) schools have an important role in continuing education. bennett hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 58goss: optometric education gave as a significant argument against the addition of new schools that it would dilute financial, applicant pool, and faculty resources. bennett concluded that additional schools were warranted but only under appropriate conditions in areas of need. earle hunter4 was of the opinion that additional schools were not needed because existing schools could increase or decrease the number of students admitted to adjust to perceived changes in manpower needs. lorraine voorhees5 observed that schools can improve the professional image of optometry by being a center for research and specialty patient care, but she felt that overall there are more arguments for not having more schools. her reasons for that conclusion were: (1) manpower projections do not suggest a need for additional graduates. (2) the applicant pool is not large enough to ensure high academic standards for all admitted students. (3) financial support is a limiting factor. (4) there may not be adequate financial aid for students. (5) there may not be enough qualified individuals for additional faculty positions. increasing curricular emphasis on ocular disease and pharmacology the expansion of curricular elements devoted to disease and pharmacology continued through the closing decades of the twentieth century. for example, comparing the 1979-80 and 1999-2001 bulletins for the indiana university school of optometry, there was an increase of three semester credit hours in courses on general and ocular pathology and ocular disease. looking at the 1981-82 and 2000-2002 bulletins for the northeastern state university college of optometry in oklahoma, the increase was seven semester credit hours. over those time spans, there was a decrease of one credit hour in courses on geometrical and physical optics at both schools. a 1983 comparison of lecture hours on pharmacology given to medical students and to optometry students at indiana university in bloomington indicated that the total number of hours was the same, but there was more emphasis on ocular pharmacology in the optometry curriculum and more breadth of coverage in the medical school curriculum.6 similar results were found in a 1985 study comparing 41 optometry, medical, and dental schools in 14 states.7 the vast majority of respondents to a survey of optometrists graduating from indiana university school of optometry before 1995 supported the trend of increasing curricular emphasis on ocular disease, but they also strongly felt that optometrists should continue to be very good at all aspects of eye and vision care, including refraction, basic binocular vision problems, and contact lenses, as well as ocular disease.8 such a response was undoubtedly due in part to the fact that an average of 93% of the respondents’ income was derived from traditional optometric services compared to an average of 7% from treatment of ocular diseases. increasing number of optometric residency programs the number of accredited optometry residency programs increased in the 1980s and 1990s, going over 20 programs in 1983, over 40 programs in 1986, and over 60 in 1995. in 1996, that jumped up to 82 accredited residency programs.9 the 139 residency hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 59goss: optometric education positions in accredited and accreditation candidate programs in 1996 made it possible for about 10% of optometry school graduates to pursue residency education. the new england college of optometry accelerated o.d. program in 1983, pease reported on ten years of experience with the accelerated o.d. program at the new england college of optometry (newenco) for persons holding a ph.d. degree in the sciences. the program was started in 1972, one year after a similar accelerated program for the m.d. degree at the university of miami school of medicine. the initial planners for the accelerated o.d. program at newenco were william r. baldwin and john h. carter, and its first director was norman e. wallis. from 1972 to 1981, 85 students were enrolled in the program and 74 (69 men and 5 women) had graduated. the most common original fields of the students were physics, psychology, biochemistry, and biology. their mean age was 37 years, with a range of 27 to 54 years. curricular content was “essentially the same” as in the four year curriculum, and the number of clock hours in clinical rotations was the same.10 the primary areas of employment of the 66 graduates in the first eight years of the program were optometry practice (37) and teaching/research (20), with 18 of the latter having full-time positions at optometry schools.10 this program has been very successful in providing faculty to optometry schools. three of my colleagues at northeastern state university (nsu) in oklahoma hired in the early 1980s were graduates of the newenco program and had long careers as outstanding instructors at nsu (lynn cyert, george fulk, and roger west). by 1994, the entrance requirement of a ph.d. in science had been modified to a doctorate level degree in medicine or science.11 through 1995, there were 140 graduates of the newenco accelerated o.d. program.12 out of 101 of them who responded to a survey, 37% were self-employed and 35% were employed in education and/or research. among the respondents were faculty members at twelve optometry schools and two medical schools. two-thirds were members of the american optometric association and one-third were members of the american academy of optometry. their performance on basic science and clinical science sections of the national board examination in optometry far exceeded national averages. references 1. hopping rl. what should be the proper size and number of optometric schools? j am optom assoc 1992;63:808-811. 2. gregg jr, ed. the georgetown summit: a critical assessment of optometric education. st. louis: american optometric association, 1995. 3. bennett jw. the pros and cons of developing additional schools and colleges of optometry. typescript of paper presented at the summit on optometric education, 1993. 4. hunter el. the pros and cons of developing additional schools and colleges of optometry. j am optom assoc 1992;63:865-866. 5. voorhees li. topic: discuss the pros and cons of developing additional schools and colleges of optometry. typescript of paper presented at the summit on optometric education, 1993. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 60goss: optometric education 6. hegeman s. comparison of pharmacology courses for optometry and medical students, indiana university, bloomington. j optom ed 1983;9:22-23. 7. waigandt m, waigandt a. an analysis of pharmacology training in schools of optometry, medicine and dentistry. j optom ed 1985;10:20-25. 8. grosvenor t, goss da. a survey of indiana university school of optometry alumni. optom ed 1998;23:114-120. 9. haffner an. optometric residency education: past, present, and future. optom ed 1997;22:82-86. 10. pease pl. the accelerated o.d. program: the two-year program after ten years. j optom ed 1983;8:15-19. 11. heath da, caruso j, chauncey dm. developing innovative programs for unique student populations. j am optom assoc 1994;65:865-871. 12. chauncey dm. the accelerated doctor of optometry program: outcomes assessment. optom ed 1998;23:108-113. hindsight_54_2_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 71 this book offers a collection of anecdotes and facts concerning the history and impact on us and our world of various discoveries and technologies involving vision. after a chapter on the evolution of eyes, the creations that are considered are firelight, art, mirrors, writing, spectacles, the printing press, telescopes, industrialized light, photography, moving images, and smartphones. in the chapter on spectacles the author of course noted that their invention made it possible for persons with presbyopia to continue to be able to do work at close distances. she also discussed how there was greater interest in observation in the years following the invention of spectacles, along with increased representation of subtle details of faces and emotions in art. an interesting anecdote about the increased availability of books coming from the invention of the printing press was that reading became more often an individual activity as opposed to the entertainment of listening to a book being read out loud to a group. the author observes that while smartphones are a great convenience and ready source of information, they “have enslaved our eyes like nothing before them.” further, it is troubling that there have been great increases in depression and self-harm among young people in the years that smartphones and social media have become popular. with each new way of seeing the world, there have been substantial changes in the way humans spend their time, interact with each other, and think of themselves. and with each new invention, vision became more dominant over other senses. many of the inventions also emphasized more solitary pursuits. although the ascendance of vision as the strongly dominant sense may make sense to us as eye and vision care practitioners, the author points out how much has been lost through the diminution of the use of hearing, smell, and touch. the closing advice offered by the author is to exercise “some caution” in future use of visual technologies and “take care of those precious, precious eyes. switch off our screens and go outside…and do more talking, touching, tasting and smelling every day.” the book is recommended for its interesting perspectives on visual technologies and their consequences. the author has degrees in creative writing, economics, law, and business. her linkedin page describes her as an “author (non-fiction), editor, writer, strategic advisor,” and an “experienced strategy and management consultant with particular expertise in the creative, visual media and digital communications industries.” book review: as far as the eye can see: a history of seeing t as far as the eye can see: a history of seeing. susan denham wade. cheltenham, gloucestershire, uk: the history press, 2019. isbn-13: 978-0-7509-8703-5. 304 pages. hardcover. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. emeritus professor of optometry, indiana university dgoss@indiana.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v54i2.37221 book reviews david a. goss, od, phd hindsight: journal of optometry history 77 book review carl zeiss, a biography 1816-1888 david a. goss, od, phd emeritus professor of optometry indiana university bloomington dgoss@indiana.edu carl zeiss, a biography 1816-1888. by stephan paetrow and wolfgang wimmer. jena: zeiss archives, 2016. 143 pages. this book was published in 2016, the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of carl zeiss, founder of the german company which bears his name. zeiss was born in weimar, the fifth of twelve children of a wood turner. he attended grammar school in weimar before starting an apprenticeship in jena in 1834. he was apprenticed with university of jena mechanic friedrich körner (1778-1847) until 1838. during this time, he also took classes in math and science at the university. from 1838 to 1845, zeiss was a journeyman mechanic in workshops making mostly scientific instruments in stuttgart, darmstadt, vienna, and berlin. in 1845 to 1846, zeiss attended lectures in mathematics at the university in jena. it is difficult to relate training then to comparable status today; the book suggested that zeiss’ mathematical and linguistic skills would resemble those of a present-day engineer. in 1846, zeiss opened his own workshop in jena. he sold spectacles, loupes, and thermometers, among other items. in 1847, he sold his first simple microscope. zeiss was acquainted with the microscopy pioneer matthias jakob schleiden (1804-1881), a botanist who was co-founder of the cell theory. zeiss incorporated suggestions made by schleiden for the improvement of microscopes. from 1847 to 1852, zeiss sold 20 to 40 simple microscopes annually, but he was struggling to keep his business financially viable. one problem was that the optical construction of microscopes was largely trial and error. zeiss recognized that their construction would benefit from collaboration with a qualified scientist. his first collaboration was with mathematician wilhelm barfuss in 1852. modest improvements were made before the death of barfuss in 1854. zeiss started making compound microscopes in 1857, but sales remained low. he made only 17 compound microscopes between 1857 and 1859. in june of 1859, he had to reduce the number of his employees from three to two. things started looking up for zeiss in 1860 when he was appointed university mechanic at the university of jena. in 1861, he was one of 28 winners out of 1,300 exhibitors at the general thuringian trade exhibition, receiving a gold medal “for one of the most sublime microscopes ever produced in germany.” (p. 72) in 1863, he was named grand ducal mechanic of the court. in 1866, zeiss had an eleven man work force, and he brought ernst abbe (1840-1905) into the company to work toward a more scientific and repeatable method of producing lenses. abbe had completed a doctorate degree in physics and was a lecturer in mathematics and carl zeiss, a biography 1816-1888. by stephan paetrow and wolfgang wimmer. translated by clive poole, james humphreys, marina stephanon, and charles taggart. jena: zeiss archives, 2016. 143 pages. isbn: 978-3-41250423-6, hardcover. 78 volume 48, number 3, july 2017 book review physics at the university of jena. abbe’s efforts resulted in the development of instruments to measure focal lengths, lens radii, lens thickness, and refractive index. through collaboration with abbe, zeiss was able to modernize production methods and reduce the price of microscope lenses. that work by abbe, along with his studies on aperture size and diffraction in the early 1870s, resulted in substantial improvements in microscope quality by 1872. the collaboration was proving to be a successful combination of the theoretical and the practical. by the mid 1870s, zeiss had more than twenty employees. innovations in microscope design continued in the late 1870s with the introduction of new stands, a lens turret for ease in changing between lenses, and an oil immersion objective lens. sales of microscopes increased significantly so that in 1880, zeiss announced that he was transferring his business in eyeglasses, telescopes, thermometers, barometers, and other equipment to another company. for many years, zeiss was dependent on external suppliers of glass. zeiss and abbe enticed chemist otto schott (1851-1935) to come to jena in 1882 to continue his experimentation on glass. in 1883, zeiss made his first microscope lens using schott glass, yielding further improvement in optics. in the 1880s, carl zeiss gradually withdrew from involvement in the company. before his death in 1888, carl zeiss saw his company expand its distribution of microscopes into international markets and, in 1886, produce its 10,000th microscope. he received many recognitions, including an honorary degree from the university of jena (1880) and presentation of the knight’s cross first class by the grand duke of saxe-weimar-eisenach (1886). in the 1890s, the zeiss company started expanding its product line to include binoculars, camera lenses, astronomical equipment, and other instruments. in addition to the interesting narrative on the life of carl zeiss, the book contains the transcripts of interviews of four present-day individuals with ties to carl zeiss through family, the zeiss company, or the physics of microscopy. all of them expressed admiration for carl zeiss’s skills as an entrepreneur and as a visionary for how science and craftsmanship can be synthesized. the book is nicely illustrated with numerous photographs and images. as an aside, one of the photographs that i found interesting was a picture of nine individuals identified as the 1891 zeiss scientific staff and lens designers, including carl pulfrich, well known to vision scientists for the pulfrich effect, and siegfried czapski, who worked closely with ernst abbe. the book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn about the life of carl zeiss or the people behind nineteenth century developments in microscope optics. toss_rvwzeiss hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 20 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 139 dr. clara schell: pioneer arizona territory optometrist, suffragist, and community leader janolyn g. lo vecchio, b.s.ed. lovecchio@dakotacom.net ptometry, women’s rights, and animal rights all contributed equally in shaping the life of dr. clara schell. she was born in chicago, illinois on june 27, 1872, the daughter of charles and catherine kaub.1 at age 19 clara married henry a. schell on february 20, 1891 in chicago, illinois. due to henry’s asthma, they moved to the small mining town of morenci in the arizona territory where he worked at the detroit copper mining company store as a bookkeeper and optometrist.2 henry quickly became active in community and professional organizations and was elected as a delegate to the territorial democratic convention in phoenix.3 in 1898, he attended the organizational meeting of the american association of opticians in new york city and became one of 183 charter members.4 the schells built a house in morenci, furnished it with a piano shipped into town by train, and advertised for a housemaid in the phoenix newspaper.5 o figure 1:clara schell (1872-1955) and henry schell. (photos courtesy of aileen schell mccurnin) mailto:lovecchio@dakotacom.net hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 140 henry schell expanded his optometry practice outside morenci and traveled by train and car to towns throughout southern arizona and sonora, mexico to provide optometric care. he advertised his travel schedule in local newspapers and stayed at hotels where he gave eye examinations and prescribed glasses in his hotel room.6 in 1900, henry moved his optometry practice to tucson to provide a centralized base for his trips to visit patients. after the schells moved to tucson, clara returned to chicago to attend the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology. after graduating in 1902 at age 30, clara returned to arizona and joined her husband in his optometry practice in tucson. she was the first woman optometrist in the arizona territory and one of the first women optometrists in the united states.7 clara became a partner in her husband’s optometry practice and frequently traveled with him in southern arizona and sonora, mexico to visit patients as well as friends. the office of schell and schell was located at 38 n. stone avenue.8 an arizona weekly citizen article described schell and schell as “arizona’s oldest exclusive optical house with the first lens grinding plant in the state” well known “for accurately fitting glasses, good services and reasonable prices” by “arizona’s leading optometrists and opticians.”9 without legislation establishing standards for practicing optometry and licensing procedures for optometrists, at the beginning of the twentieth century anyone could practice optometry, a situation which was exploited by charlatans. spectacle peddlers traveled throughout the rural united states with ready-made eyeglasses while other men gained optical experience as apprentices in watchmaker or jewelry stores or studied the limited available books on optics and eye physiology. the first optometry law was passed by a state legislature in minnesota in 1901, and the american association of opticians was founded in 1898. this organization was later re-named the american optical association in 1910 and then the american optometric association in 1919.10 one of the key issues in the development of optometry and for professional recognition of optometrists by medical physicians was the creation of state optometry licensing boards to regulate the practice of optometry. when the arizona territorial legislators approved a bill to create an arizona optometry board in 1905, governor joseph kibbey vetoed the bill on march 22.11 two years later in march 1907, the arizona territorial board of optometry was established, and arizona joined 13 states with optometry boards.12 governor kibbey appointed two optometrists, henry schell of tucson and ernest munson of phoenix, and physician h. t. southworth of prescott as the initial board members.13 the territorial board of optometry members continued to be composed of two optometrists and a physician until 1918 when dr. southworth joined the military during world war i and the vacant board position was filled by optometrist d.d. northrup of phoenix.14 during the territorial optometry board’s first meeting on april 6, 1907, henry schell was elected president. the new board created state licensing examinations, conducted licensing examinations and established $5 dues. during a six month enrollment period for current arizona opticians to register for licensure, 37 applications were received and processed by the board in 1907. on april 13, 1907, henry issued licenses no. 1 and 2 to himself and clara. the first licensing examination was held on july 1, 1907 and one of three applicants (a.s. green of denver) successfully passed the examination with a grade of 83. in 1908 henry schell was re-elected president of the hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 141 territorial optometry board. during this year, the territorial optometry board approved a motion to publish lists of licensed optometrists in arizona newspapers along with a $25 reward for the arrest and conviction of illegal unlicensed optometry practitioners. during the next 16 years, henry served as president or secretary of the arizona board of optometry.15 in may 1908, after meeting with an american association of opticians representative dr. william houston, 70 arizona opticians organized an arizona optical society. henry and clara schell were charter members of the arizona optical society and regularly attended state meetings.16 on april 30, 1909, henry schell was elected vice president of the arizona optical society. in 1921 the arizona optical society re-organized as the arizona association of optometrists with a constitution and bylaws17 and by 1923 there were two women optometrist members: clara schell of tucson and donna fleming of bisbee.18 clara was the arizona delegate for the 1922 american optometric association national convention.19 on june 26, 1926, clara was elected president of the arizona association of optometrists in san francisco, california at their annual meeting one day before the american optometric association national convention.20 despite her busy professional schedule, clara was a tucson community leader and activist for women’s rights. she served as the commander of the old pueblo hive, women’s benefit association of the maccabees and helped organize the equal suffrage club of pima county with dr. rosa goodrich boido, josephine brawley hughes, abbie haskin, and ruth may nowell.21 clara gave the first women’s suffrage speech at the old pima theater on west congress street, and was one of the tucson suffrage leaders.22 in 1891 josephine brawley hughes, wife of the arizona daily star newspaper owner, worked with laura johns, a national american women’s suffrage field organizer from kansas to organize an arizona suffrage association. governor alexander brodie vetoed a woman’s suffrage bill passed by the 1903 territorial legislature. when territorial legislators prepared a draft state constitution for president william taft’s approval 1910, they did not include a clause for women’s suffrage because they believed president taft would veto a state constitution allowing women to vote. after arizona became a state on february 14, 1912, arizona equal suffrage association president francis willard munds circulated a suffrage initiative petition for the november ballot state-wide when the state legislature failed to pass a bill for women’s suffrage.23 during 1912, the equal suffrage club of pima county worked with the arizona equal suffrage association to organize mass meetings in tucson and southern arizona to support passage of the suffrage initiative on the november ballot. on march 6, 1912 the equal suffrage club of pima county organized a mass meeting at the clifton theater in clifton with dr. rosa goodrich boido, selim franklin, clara schell, rena matthews, and adele fields as speakers.24 in her speech, clara schell declared: i have been asked to tell why i believe in equal suffrage. i know of no good reason why any fair minded person should not believe in it. any intelligent person, regardless of sex, should have a voice in the making and maintenance of state laws under which he or she must live…you and i, my dear woman, have home, school, and property interests. we have the best interests of the community and our fellow man at heart. hoodlums – the worst type of men are allowed to vote. you, my dear fellow woman, you and i have not. is it right? would you neglect your husband, children, and home for politics? no, not any more than your husband, brother, or hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 142 son would jeopardize his business interest because he is interested in politics and has a voice in the making and maintenance of the laws and affairs. i believe when women have the franchise, qualifications will be necessary for those seeking office other than being just a good fellow. let us prepare ourselves for the proper use of the franchise which will surely be ours soon. let us use it for the best interest of our fellow women, to the betterment of our homes, and to the purification of our politics.25 in november 1912, arizona voters approved the suffrage initiative to give women the right to vote but they were unable to register to vote until the following spring. one of the first women in tucson to do so was clara schell who registered to vote on april 9, 1913.26 in march 1917, the tucson business women’s club was founded to create an organization for tucson’s working women, and clara schell became a charter member of the new organization. during the same year, tucson business women’s club members raised $1,000 and founded the ywca organization in tucson. when the arizona federation of business and professional women’s clubs (arizona bpw) was founded in 1921, the tucson business women’s club was one of six charter clubs of the new organization which was affiliated with the national federation of business and professional women’s clubs. at that time, the club name was changed to the tucson business and professional women’s club (tucson bpw). the goals of arizona bpw and tucson bpw were to promote opportunities for women to advance in the workforce, provide networking for working women, provide scholarships for women, and address legislative issues affecting working women such as equal pay.27 in 1922 clara schell was elected vice president of tucson bpw and succeeded agnes biddle as club president when biddle resigned in june 1922. her interim presidency was so successful that she was quickly elected president in her own right the following year. during clara schell’s presidency from 1922-1924, tucson bpw membership grew to over 170 members. as club president, clara also worked to promote women’s issues. in january 1924, the club organized a public meeting with a national speaker to discuss passage of the equal rights amendment.28 another legislative issue which clara addressed was the arizona minimum wage law for women. as women began working at the beginning of the twentieth century, a series of what became known as protective laws were created to “protect” women workers.29 one such law was the 1917 arizona minimum wage law which established a minimum wage of $10 weekly for women except women agriculture workers and housemaids. in 1917, although tucson bpw did not officially oppose passage of the arizona minimum wage law for women, many club members circulated a petition of opposition to the law.30 when representative rosa mckay introduced a bill in the 1923 state legislature to increase the minimum wage for women from the $12 wage approved by the state legislature in 1919 to $16 per week, clara discussed the issue at a tucson bpw executive board meeting of nine members and they voted to officially oppose passage of the proposed mckay bill and authorized clara to travel to phoenix to lobby state legislators. tucson bpw opposed the mckay bill because members believed it would result in young girls losing their jobs, increase consumer prices, and cause loss of business from arizona hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 143 to other states with lower prices. an arizona star article about the board meeting reported: so long as women are competing with men in the business world, give them an equal chance is the opinion of the (tucson bpw) board. if a minimum wage law is found necessary, let it apply to both men and women then there will be no discrimination shown when it comes to employment of either. 31 clara spent several days in phoenix discussing the issue with state legislators and when she returned to tucson, she reported to tucson bpw members at a club meeting: “i may have done some good but i should have been there a week ago” and stated most of the state senators opposed amending the minimum wage law for women.32 however, state legislators voted unanimously to amend the minimum wage law for women, and governor george hunt signed the mckay bill into law on february 13, 1923.33 a tucson newspaper article about the february 15 tucson bpw meeting stated: (clara) had been censored and commended for her action at the suggestion of the board of the club…but was first, last, and always for the working girl and her interest, but that after a complete study of the bill she felt it would do more harm than good to the working girl. (clara stated) it is the young girl who is just starting out to work that will be most seriously affected for without experience the employer will not want to pay her $16 a week. whereas if she worked for sometime (sic) obtaining experience at ten or twelve dollars she, with the aid of her family, would be able to get along. the bill has been passed and the only action which can now be taken is to get a certain number of names on a petition and to have the bill voted upon by the public in general.34 however, the arizona minimum wage law for women did not end until 1925 when the united states supreme court ruled the arizona minimum wage law for women unconstitutional.35 in 1923 clara organized a three car caravan of 15 women who drove over rugged, unpaved roads to the arizona bpw state convention in prescott, arizona. at the convention, clara promoted tucson as the site for the next state convention and the club members worked together for the election of tucson postmistress allie dickerman brainard as state president.36 during the second year of clara schell’s presidency when allie dickerman brainard was arizona bpw president, they worked together to organize the 3rd state convention in tucson. the convention was held at the tucson bpw clubrooms from april 11-12, 1924 and was attended by over 100 club delegates from throughout arizona. 37 following her presidency, she continued to be an active member of tucson bpw and served as chair of several committees. in 1932 she was part of a tucson bpw delegation to greet first lady lou hoover when president herbert hoover’s train traveled from california through tucson to washington dc.38 in 1936 as tucson bpw public relations chair, clara organized the national business women’s celebration in tucson from march 15-21, which featured a hotel banquet and daily radio broadcasts by club members.39 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 144 in 1905, clara also helped re-organize the arizona humane society which was based in tucson and served as the secretary for the next 17 years. in this capacity, she traveled to clifton, globe, bisbee, and nogales and founded arizona humane society chapters in those cities. clara also organized be kind to animal weeks in arizona, distributed information to newspapers about animal right issues, and prepared annual state reports to the national humane society. in recognition of her work for animal rights, she was awarded a life membership.40 during these busy years of medical and community activities clara and henry adopted two young children: william and helen. after 34 years of marriage, the schells separated in 1925 and divorced by 1929. clara continued working in tucson while henry moved to phoenix in 1939 where he worked until his death in 1946.41 when william schell graduated from los angeles college of optometry in 1929, clara and her son practiced optometry together as schell and schell until 1936 when william opened his own optometry office.42 clara continued to work in a solo optometry practice until her retirement in 1946 at age 76. two years later, the arizona state association of optometrists awarded clara a life membership in recognition of her contributions to arizona optometry.43 a woman who enjoyed life, clara enjoyed traveling with her husband on fishing and hunting trips. in 1917, the schells bought a studebaker and she kept a detailed log of their trips throughout southern arizona in their new car.44 clara and henry also enjoyed traveling in mexico. during 1909 they traveled by train, steamer, and stagecoach to culiacan, mazatlan and other towns.45 henry and clara built a 2-bedroom cabin on mt. lemmon for weekend visits and bought a house in the desert which they named alta vista. she also enjoyed playing bridge and frequently organized card parties for community clubs.46 after she retired, clara lived briefly in chicago, illinois and then returned to tucson where she died at age 83 on april 24, 1955.47 she will be inducted into the arizona women’s hall of fame in spring 2017 in recognition of her achievements as a pioneer optometrist and community leader in arizona.a although clara schell’s professional accomplishments may seem unique, she practiced optometry during an era when women optometrists received professional recognition by their male peers earlier than women physicians or women lawyers. when the american association of opticians (later re-named the american optometric association) was founded in 1898, two women optometrists, mrs. william c.c. ball of connecticut and annie starr of canada were charter members.48 elva cooper was elected second vice president of the american optometric association in 1910, and she presided at the organization’s national convention in 1911.49 by 1912 there were approximately 500 women optometrists, and an issue of the optical journal and review featured articles and letters from 18 women optometrists in minnesota, pennsylvania, kansas, oklahoma, ohio, kentucky, maine, wisconsin, massachusetts, nebraska, colorado, indiana, illinois, louisiana, and new york describing their experiences as optometrists along with their recommendations for women seeking to enter the field of optometry.50 in 1917, mildred winslow was elected fourth vice president of the american optometric association. during 1920 dr. mae booth-jones was the first woman president of an optometry school, washington school of optometry in spokane, washington.51 women and men students attended and graduated together from optometry schools and there were no separate optometry colleges founded for women students. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 145 by contrast, when the american medical association was founded in 1849 there were no women members for 27 years until sarah hacket stevenson of maryland joined the national organization in 1876. the first woman vice president of the american medical association (lillian south of kentucky) served in 1913 but the first woman president of the american medical association (nancy dickey of maryland) did not serve until 1989.52 because women were an under-represented minority in their profession, women physicians formed the american medical women’s association in 1915 for professional support. similarly, because it was difficult for women to enter medical schools during the 1800’s, medical schools were founded for women students such as the woman’s medical college in pennsylvania in 185053 and the new york medical college and hospital for women in 1863.54 early women lawyers encountered similar obstacles. the american bar association was founded in 1878 by 75 male lawyers but the first two women lawyers were not elected to membership until 1918 (mary florence lathrop of denver and mary grossman of cleveland). in 1995, roberta cooper ramo of new mexico was the first woman to serve as president of the american bar association.55 since they were unable to join the american bar association, in 1899 eighteen women lawyers in new york city formed the women’s lawyer club which re-organized in 1923 as the national association of women lawyers.56 the first law college established for women students was the washington college of law in the district of columbia (now known as american university washington college of law) in 1896.57 another successful woman optometrist whose career closely paralleled that of clara schell during the same time period in the west is texas optometrist mollie wood. she obtained an optometry degree in 1898 and became the first woman optometrist in texas, was appointed by governor miriam ferguson to the first texas optometry board, elected president of the texas optometry association in 1923, elected to the national american optometric association board of trustees in 1928, published an optometry journal the texas optometrist, and organized brownwood business and professional women’s club.58 clara schell was a pioneering woman optometrist in the arizona territory who traveled widely throughout southern arizona and mexico to provide optometric care and created a lasting legacy in tucson for women’s rights, and animal rights, and optometry. notes a. the arizona women’s hall of fame “honors posthumously women who played a significant role in the history of arizona.” it is a very competitive nomination process and only four women are admitted into the hall of fame bi-yearly. schell is the first woman optometrist to be admitted to the arizona women’s hall of fame and one of very few women in the hall of fame in the optometric field. references 1. connors j. who’s who in arizona. tucson: arizona daily star, 1913:666. 2. bisbee daily review july 15, 1903. 3. copper era may 17, 1900. 4. american opticians in session. jeweler circ hor rev 1898;37:24-25. 5. arizona republican july 29, 1899. 6. florence tribune november 24, 1900. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 146 7. mcclintock, james. arizona: prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern, the nation’s youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture. chicago: s.j. clarke, 1916:261. 8. arizona business directory 1905, 390. 9. arizona weekly citizen august 29, 1924. 10. http://www.seebetterflorida.com/american-optometric-association-overview 11. arizona republican march 22, 1905. 12. the optom rec 1914;51. 13. arizona board of optometry records, 24.6.7 box 1 file 1, arizona state library and archives, phoenix, arizona. 14. arizona republican january 5, 1918. 15. arizona board of optometry records, 24.6.7 box 1 file 1, arizona state library and archives, phoenix, arizona. 16. arizona republican may 1, 1908. 17. november 17, 2014 e-mail from kirsten hebert, archives and museum of optometry, st. louis, missouri. 18. arizona daily star april 28, 1923. 19. october 1, 2004 interview of aileen schell mccurnin. 20. tucson citizen july 18, 1926. 21. connors, jo. who’s who in arizona. tucson: arizona daily star 1913:612. 22. tucson citizen november 4, 1936. 23. oessaeler h. winning their place: arizona women in politics 1883-1950, tucson: university of arizona press, 2009:11, 21, 40-44. 24. tucson citizen march 6, 1912. 25. clara schell scrapbook, personal collection of aileen schell mccurnin. 26. http://windowonyourpast.com/site/research/arizona-suffrage/1913female.registration-analysis 27. arizona federation of business and professional women: women who made a difference: 1921-2003. tucson: arizona business and professional women’s foundation, 2003:348-349. 28. arizona daily star january 10, 1924. 29. oessaeler h. winning their place: arizona women in politics 1883-1950, tucson: university of arizona press, 2009:105. 30. tucson citizen may 29, 1917. 31. arizona daily star february 4, 1923. 32. arizona daily star february 9, 1923. 33. tucson citizen february 14, 1923. 34. arizona daily star february 16, 1923. 35. oessaeler h. winning their place: arizona women in politics 1883-1950, tucson: university of arizona press, 2009:105. 36. arizona daily star april 24, 1923. 37. arizona daily star april 12, 1924. 38. tucson citizen november 14, 1932. 39. arizona daily star march 15, 1936. 40. mcclintock j. arizona: prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern, the nation’s youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient cultures. chicago: s.j. clarke, 1916:261. http://www.seebetterflorida.com/american-optometric-association-overview http://windowonyourpast.com/site/research/arizona-suffrage/1913-female.registration-analysis http://windowonyourpast.com/site/research/arizona-suffrage/1913-female.registration-analysis hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 147 41. arizona republic august 14, 1946. 42. who’s who for arizona. portland: r.o. norman, 1953:249. 43. tucson citizen june 3, 1946. 44. clara schell scrapbook, personal collection of aileen schell mccurnin. 45. arizona daily star april 11, 1909. 46. october 1, 2004 interview of aileen schell mccurnin. 47. tucson citizen april 25, 1955. 48. women in the a.o.a. (a bow to the ladies). opt jour rev optom 1947;84:78,97. 49. march 2, 1973 list of women officers of aoa 1898-1972, american optometric association library, st. louis, missouri. 50. opt j rev optom 1912;30:228-236. 51. powers, mp. the women of optometry. am optom assoc foc 2014;30-34. 52. women physicians and the american medical association, http://www.amaassn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/women-physicians.ama 53. fee e, brown tm. an eventful epoch in the history of your lives. am j pub health 2004;94:367. 54. cazalet s. history of the new york medical college and hospital for women. in: articles on homeopathy, 2001. http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/newyork.htm. 55. http://apps.americanbar.org/members/history-timeline/timelineassets/timeline.html 56. national association of women lawyers history, http://www.nawl.org/p/cm/ld/fid=20 57. clark ml. the founding of the washington college of law: the first law college established by women for women. amer univ law rev 1998;47:613-676. 58. women in the a.o.a. optom weekly 1933;24:27. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/women-physicians.ama http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/women-physicians.ama http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/newyork.htm http://apps.americanbar.org/members/history-timeline/timeline-assets/timeline.html http://apps.americanbar.org/members/history-timeline/timeline-assets/timeline.html http://www.nawl.org/p/cm/ld/fid=20 microsoft word 0_cover_v48n1.docx hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 news 2016 | page 2 news ohio state optometry emeritus dean frederick w. hebbard, revered leader in optometric education, dies at 93 reprinted with permission from ohio state university college of optometry news, https://optometry.osu.edu/news/2016-08-15. emeritus dean frederick w. hebbard, od, phd, of the ohio state university college of optometry, passed away on august 14, 2016. he was 93. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 news 2016 | page 3 r. hebbard was born on august 6, 1923 in eureka, utah and grew up in vallejo, california. after graduating from high school, he served in the u.s. navy as a pattern maker at mare island. he first found out he was myopic during a military physical, which sparked his interest in vision. when the war ended, he started optometry school at the university of california, berkeley, graduating with his optometry degree in 1949 and a ph.d. in 1957. after earning his ph.d., dr. hebbard accepted a faculty appointment at ohio state, where he excelled in various teaching, clinical, and research roles. he truly built upon the optometric education foundation at ohio state by guiding the design, construction, and dedication of the new west wing of fry hall, which opened in 1961. in addition, he negotiated with the university to acquire starling-loving hall for the college of optometry. dr. hebbard was instrumental in bringing the od degree to ohio state, spearheading the expansion of the five-year curriculum (concluding with a bs-optometry degree) to a six-year curriculum (concluding with an od degree). in fact, he designed the doctoral hoods and presided at the first awarding of the od degree. he became the college of optometry’s first dean on january 1, 1968. during his tenure as a faculty member and administrator, he was responsible for many initiatives that helped solidify optometry’s presence and prestige, not only on ohio state’s comprehensive health sciences campus, but nationwide as well. he worked tirelessly to preserve optometry’s independence from ohio state’s college of medicine in the mid1960s when the department of ophthalmology proposed that the optometry program be placed under its administrative structure. dr. hebbard was a respected leader in optometric education and served on many boards and committees for the american optometric association, the american academy of optometry, the association of schools and colleges of optometry, and the national board of examiners in optometry. he recruited a world-class faculty of luminaries in optometric education, including neal bailey, richard hill, j. boyd eskridge, brad wild, jerry lowther, john schoessler, ron jones, michael polasky, arol ausburger, paulette schmidt, jim sheedy, kevin alexander, joe barr, and greg good, just to name a few. dr. hebbard retired from ohio state in june 1988. during his tenure, 1,081 doctors of optometry and 91 graduate students in physiological optics received their degrees from ohio state. at the time of his retirement, dr. hebbard told a reporter from ohio state’s student newspaper, the lantern, “i’ve always enjoyed the university’s atmosphere. the students at ohio state are very fine young people. one of the blessings in my life is i have had a career i truly enjoy. my job [has been] my hobby; if you enjoy your job, you don’t need another hobby.” emeritus dean richard hill, od, phd, notes, “dean hebbard had a remarkable life, and was a strong influence in the development of our profession. he will be remembered as a visionary and leader of high standards.” dr. hebbard’s most recent successor, dean karla zadnik, od, phd, observes, “dr. hebbard’s legacy resides in the college of optometry at the ohio state university. he dedicated his professional life to the advancement of students and faculty. he will be missed.” d hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 news 2016 | page 4 in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the frederick a. and betty l. hebbard memorial fund. established in 1976 in memory of his parents, dr. hebbard created this fund to support the college of optometry and its education and research programs. to make a donation, visit https://www.giveto.osu.edu/makeagift/?fund=603051 or call 614292-2100. hindsight: journal of optometry history 79 from the archives the aoa photograph preservation project kirsten hébert heritage services specialist the archives & museum of optometry the archives & museum of optometry holds more than 10,000 photographs that document the history of the american optometric association, state affiliates and optometry’s leaders. among these are many oversize photographic prints, including 43 unique panoramic photos of aoa congresses, state meetings and events from the last century (1913-2000). digitally preserving and providing online access to these resources is a long-term goal for our repository, but only a few digital images have ever been made from this collection and these are of poor quality. many of the photographic prints are damaged or in fragile condition and need to be rehoused in archival containers to keep them from deteriorating. still others require expensive conservation treatment before we can create digital masters. conservation in the fall of 2016 our university of missouri-st. louis museum studies interns, brittany golden and sophie grus, finished an inventory of the photographs in our collections. this year, they have been preparing our oversize and panoramic photographs for digitization and rehousing. most of our large photos were rolled for compact storage. once photos are stored this way forcing them open can cause damage to the emulsion, cracking and flaking the images. before we can begin to digitize our panoramic photos they must be humidified, unrolled and dried flat. while it is recommended that conservation treatment of historic photographs be performed by a conservator, humidification and flattening can be performed by trained museum staff and interns under the supervision of a curator. figure 1. rolled panoramic photographs in a humidification chamber figure 2. flattened panoramic photograph drying before rehousing. humidification and flattening photographs that are tightly rolled are placed in a humidification chamber and monitored every hour. the chamber in figure 1 was constructed from a plastic container and baker’s racks lined with muslin. the students must make sure that the photographs become pliable without getting so moist that they buckle or develop mold. the photos will begin to unfurl on their own, but very large photographs may need several sessions and be placed in larger containers as they unfold. when they are ready to be unrolled, the photos are carefully placed on sheets of archival blotter paper and held flat with glass weights. by stacking the blotter sheets, several photos can be processed at once. they are allowed to dry slowly in a clean, climate-controlled space (figure 2). 80 volume 48, number 3, july 2017 from the archives preservation rehousing once they have been flattened, a custom mylar sleeve is created for each photograph to prevent damage from handling and dust. the sleeve is left open along one of the long axes in order to accommodate removal for digitizing or conservation work. encapsulated photographs are stored flat in archival boxes (figure 3). figure 3. after treatment, photos are encapsulated and stored flat in archival boxes. digital preservation digitization achieves two goals. first, digital images published online can provide access to researchers across the globe. second, allowing researchers to access digital surrogates protects the original object from damage due to handling. this is particularly critical for large-format archival material, but it is also difficult as most panoramic photographs will not fit on a scanner and require the use of very expensive photography equipment to capture images of sufficient resolution and clarity. the few images that we have already digitized were created by scanning or photographing portions of the image and “stitching” them together using photo editing software such as photoshop to match overlapping edges (figure 4). unfortunately, the images were not captured properly to ensure long-term access nor was the color adjusted to give an accurate depiction of the original images. very high-quality images can be produced this way if one is skilled working with the software and familiar with standards for creating digital masters. it is preferable to outsource this project to professional photographers who have experience working with historical photographs and who have access and expertise in using specialized equipment. this way, the photograph is not damaged by placing on a scanner that does not support the entire photograph, and a highresolution image can be captured and used to make service copies while preserving the master. figure 4. images stitched together to produce a panoramic. pre-congress post graduate course, aoa scientific section, 1913, rochester, ny. original held at the archives & museum of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history 81 from the archives figure 5. 17th aoa annual congress, st. louis, mo, july 18-25,1914. the archives & museum of optometry. panoramic photographs are special because they allow the photographer a wide field of view. this means they can capture a large group of people in great detail. naturally, the association used this new and exciting format to photograph their annual convention attendees. the photograph in figure 5 was taken in front of the planters hotel in st. louis, mo in 1914 figure 6. 61st aoa annual congress, shoreham hotel, washington d.c., 1958. the archives & museum of optometry. the panoramic photographs in our collection not only capture the association’s past, but also can serve as a time capsule for historic landscapes. photos taken outside can provide insight into how the environment has changed over time. the [omni] shoreham hotel grounds featured in figure 6 have changed drastically in the past six decades. panoramic photographs the technology used to produce panoramic photographs was developed in the early nineteenth century, but the first panoramic cameras were not widely available to commercial photographers until 1898--the same year as the aoa was founded! a typical panoramic print is twice as long as it is high, but they vary in size. the prints in our collection range from 4” tall x 12” long to 18” tall x 60” long.1, 2 82 volume 48, number 3, july 2017 from the archives next steps: conservation and accessibility digitizing large photographs is a necessary and expensive part of our preservation program, but some of our photographs have suffered damage from years of poor storage and treatment. photos hung in hallways are faded from uv light or have adhered to glass as a result of poor climate control. still others have suffered mold infestation, tearing or damage to the emulsion from exposure to environmental pollutants or poor storage practices. these will need the services of a professional conservator before they are lost and this treatment must be done to stabilize the photographs so that they can withstand the digitization process. your contribution to optometry cares – the aoa foundation (www.aoafoundation.org) can help us in meeting our preservation goals and making these remarkable photographs accessible. please remember to select “museum and archives” as the program designation. references 1. library of congress. “a brief history of panoramic photography.” accessed: https://www.loc.gov/collections/ panoramic-photographs/articles-and-essays/a-briefhistory-of-panoramic-photography/ 2. bigelow, sue. (march 2011).”the moore panorama digitization project.” accessed: http://www. vancouverarchives.ca/2011/03/01/the-moore-panoramadigitization-project/ 3. “marriott wardman park.” wikipedia. accessed: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/marriott_wardman_park 4. kansas city public library. “convention hall.” missouri valley special collections. accessed at: http://www. kchistory.org/content/convention-hall-0 figure 7. 77th aoa annual congress banquet, sheraton park hotel, washington, d.c., 1974. the archives & museum of optometry panoramic photographs can also provide interior detail that assists architectural historians in restoring historic furnishings or researching structural histories. located just two blocks from the [omni] shoreham, the sheraton park hotel [now the marriott wardman park] is the largest hotel in the capitol and is listed on the national register of historic places. the ballroom seen in figure 7 in the photo of the aoa’s 77th annual convention in 1974 is still used for large banquets and other events.3 historians and city planners often use historic photos to understand changes in land use and plan developments in urban landscapes. in the rear of this 1934 (figure 8) photograph of the 27th aoa congress you can see kansas city’s second convention center. built after the first convention center burned to the ground in april of 1900, this building was erected in only 3 months to accommodate the july 4 democratic convention. this historic building has since been replaced by a parking garage.4 figure 8. 27th aoa annual congress, 1924, kansas city, mo. the archives & museum of optometry hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 21 hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 22 hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 23 hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 24 llindsight journal of optometry history october, 2009 volume 40, number4 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. · the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society: president: irving bennett, 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com vice-president: chuck haine secretary-treasurer: bridget kowalczyk, american optometric association, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis; mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: jerry abrams jay m. enoch douglas k. penisten melvin wolfberg if the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2009 volume 40, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, penisten@nsuok.edu. table of contents appendix to rays of light and the hands of god: use of egyptian hieroglyphics to demonstrate light rays, jay m. enoch .......................................................... 113 glimpses of optometric education 100 years ago as revealed in the pages ot the optical journal, david a. . goss ...................................................................................................... 117 gideon lang and the blind pension law change of 1950, ining bennett ............ . 129 nineteenth century english optician john browning and his book how to use our eyes, david a. goss .................................................................................. 132 contributions to optometry by albert fitch, melvin d. wolfberg .......................... . 136 book review: adams of fleet street, instrument makers to king george ill, david a. goss ....................................................................................................... 139 book review: aladdin's lamp: how greek science came to europe through the islamic world, david a. goss ....................................................................... 142 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 111 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as f:j. for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, vohm1e 40, number 4, page 112 appendix to rays of light and the hands of god: use of egyptian hieroglyphics to demonstrate light rays. jay m. enoch, 0.0., ph.d. school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 947202020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu please note: all dates provided here were taken from the catalogue of the egyptian museum, cairo, dated 2002. this article is an appendix to the article "rays of light and the hands of god: a fascinating egyptian application!, published in the july, 2009 issue of hindsight: journal of optometry history. dr. chloe ragazzole [chargee de recherches documentaires bibliotheque nationale de francemanuscipts; centre de recherches egyptologiques de ia u. sorbonne, paris] kindly called the attention of prof. enoch to the work of dr. holger kockelmann of the university of trier, germany. this gentleman recently presented an interesting paper at a meeting held at the british museum in london titled: sunshine for the dead: on the role and representation of light in the book of the dead from the new kingdom to ptolemaic times. dr. ragazzole (who also presented a talk at that meeting) properly suggested that dr. kockelmann might be knowledgeable about issues associated with the early use of light-rays in egypt. importantly, dr. kockelmann pointed out that "representations of the "shining sun" [= a sun-disc with light-rays indicated], seem to be rare in [egyptian] pre-amarnan times indeed [that is, prior to circa 1350 bce=bc]." he also noted that, " .. we do find them in the [post-amarna-period] documents that can be dated to the egyptian 19th/20th dynasties [1291-1075 bce=bc]. after the new kingdom, i.e., after 1075 bce=bc, "the shining sun" appears to be occur much more frequently, especially in the late period, [664-332 bce=bc], and the ptolemaic periods" [305-30 bce=bc]." thus, one assumes there was quite broad use of light-ray representations after 664 bce=bc. [importantly, however] he added, "there are pre-amarna examples of the shining sun [to be found] in early hieroglyphic scripts! for instance, the sun disc with rays drawn in the form of lines is found as a determinative in the [hieroglyphic] word "wbn" ="to rise; to shine" already during the time period 2649-1781 bce=bc in the old and middle kingdom, so that iconography, as such, was well established before the amarnan age." (dr. chloe ragazzoli, also pointed out that we should look as well at applications of the hieroglyphic word "itn".] hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 113 "the tears of horus!" early use of hieroglyphics to demonstrate light rays ( e-mails from dr. holger kockelmann, u. trier, germany 7/28-29/09) importantly, dr. kockelmann suggested that the sun's rays were used in hieroglyphics in papyrus texts in egypt from about 2650 bce=bc onward. apparently, this occurred a bit later in-time than the drawing of light rays on the iranian artificial eye (circa 2900-3000 bce=bc). that is, please realize these time estimates were made in good faith(!), but they are estimates none-the-less! the time period between these two representations is diminishing. figure 1 (also see table 1) is one example of use of a known word/phrase which contained the hieroglyphic symbol of a "shining sun" (see the left side of figure 1 ). [version] [impressum] list of egyptian lemmata containing "wbn". there were 22 such entries listed. [the entire list is not presented here. all entries with the "sun+ rays" are displayed with an asterisk(*).] ... the text is in german. wbn aufgehen; iiberquellen wb 1, 292.9-294.3; 294.13 *wbn scheinen; aufgehen; herauskommen wb 1, 292.9-294.3 wbn iiberquellen (vom kom) wb 1, 294.12 wbn queue ("das was hervorkommt") wb l, 294.13 wbn [eine pflanze (aus dem wadi natrum)] wb l, 295.3 wbn heraustreten wb 1, 295.4; vgl. van den boom, duties, 63 ff. *wbn.w osten ("sonnenaufgang") wb 1, 294.8-9; lesko, dictionary i, 111 wbn.j der leuchtende (sonnengott) wb 1, 294.4; lgg ii, 301 f. wbn.w sonnenstrahlen wb l, 294.7 *wbn. w osten ("sonnenaufgang") wb 1, 294.8-9; lesko, dictionary i, 111 wbn.w wurzel des schwanzes ("herauskommender") wb l, 294.14 wbn.w offene wunde; verletzung wb 1, 294.15-295.2; medwb 172-178 wbn.w offnung (des netzes) meeks, al 78.0924 13 of22 entries of"wbn" (with linked entries) in this dictionary are listed, i.e., these are bibliographical_abbreviations of "wbn" used in the list-of-lemmata session of jay m. enoch, 28 juli 2009, © bbawancient egyptian dictionary project. table 1. hieroglyphic representations of light-rays associated with the sun in "wbn." hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 114 i j ~~~fllybf!!c ~!!!~f!!.ar:!!ri~, y'bt8f(jg1yphic scieiuirft:j'> """', *'~"0iim-%"''mi figure 1. this is a hieroglyphic phrase, which was found in table 1, under the listing "wbn.w". it contains a symbol of a sun with associated rays of light located to the left. dr. kockelmann also remembered a 'book of the dead' (bd) document that was produced in the egyptian 18th dynasty, one hundred years or so before the amarnan age." "in this illustration, in the bd (figure 2), the sun is shown with rays. it is found in the "papyrus of nebqed". this document is located in the louvre museum (dated to the time of thutmosis iv to amenhotep ill, circa 1479-1387 bce=bc). dr. h. kockelmann kindly sent a scan of a facsimile of that figure in that papyrus." hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 115 figure 2. light rays portrayed in an illustration in "the egyptian book of the dead". jme asked dr. h. kockelmann if, at the ends of these rays of light, there were located the small hands (this comment refers to a discussion of this point in the main paper above}. that is, was this feature already present at the time this drawing was made? he (dr. kockelmann} responded almost immediately (7/29/09), that, the hands apparently were not present in this figure. he added, the "hands" were a feature of the amarnan age. so-saying, he noted, "i know of at least one similar iconography from the late third intermediate period/early late period (circa 1075-404 bce=bc} where there was a winged-sun-disk with two arms granting the ankh-sign." [that period of time was after the armanan period which was ca. 1350-1333 bce=bc).] obviously, such matters are interesting questions worthy of pursuit! the knowledge/fine-insights provided by dr. kockelmann are very much appreciated! [finally, an interesting supplement to this material (but not really addressing issues considered here} for a reader seeking to understand the· then existing egyptian society, religious beliefs, and eyecare of those times is referred to a comprehensive 2volume work by richey waugh, jr. the eye and man in ancient egypt. julius hirschberg history of ophthalmology, vols. 1 ,2. j.p. wayenborgh, publisher, published at postbus 196, 8400 oostende, belgium. mr. wayenborgh now lives in retirement in paraguay.] hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volmne 40, nmnber 4, page 116 glimpses of american optometric education 100 years ago as revealed in the pages of the optical journal of 1909 david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract the optical journal in 1909 frequently carried advertisements for optometry schools. on occasion it also published news items on optometry schools and articles on issues in optometric education. the pages of this weekly periodical were examined for information on optometric education of that time. educational programs varied in length from one month to two years, and some schools offered correspondence courses. articles published at the end of the year advocated the two year curriculum. advertisements often listed topics of study at the schools, which included theoretical optics, physiological optics, theoretical and practical optometry, keratometry, skiascopy, ophthalmoscopy, and other subjects. news items from the individual schools indicated that the students in the schools came from various walks of life, including jewelers, watchmakers, pharmacists, medical doctors, opticians, and persons who had already done some work in optometry. key words: history of optometry, optometric education, optometry schools. the leading optometric periodical in 1909 was the optical journal, published by frederick boger. it was then in its twentieth year of publication and was published weekly. one hundred years ago, the term optometry was starting to gain popularity among its practitioners, but it would be some years before it was universally accepted. around the beginning of the twentieth century, some refracting opticians had started calling themselves optometrists to distinguish themselves from opticians who did not do refractions. the organization that would become known as the american optometric association in 1919 was, in 1909, still officially named the american association of opticians. in 1909, there were no university optometry schools. optometry schools of the time were privately owned for-profit schools. estimates suggest that from 1872 to 1901, there were 60 optometry schools, and from 1901 to 1914, there were 42 optometry schools.1 there were no academic requirements for admission to optometry school at that time. 1 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 117 the first optometry licensure law had been passed just eight years before in 1901. by the start of 1909, thirteen states had passed optometry licensure laws, and in 1909, another eleven states would be added to that list.2 the laws varied widely from state to state in their educational requirements. the pages of the 1909 issues of the optical journal were examined for insights into what optometric education may have been like one hundred years ago. advertisements for various schools were displayed frequently and prominently. there were occasional news items about some of the schools, and the last issue of 1909 included three editorial-like articles on issues surrounding optometric education. northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology (nicoo) had frequent advertisements throughout 1909. and there were occasional "northern illinois college notes" published with other news items. these notes frequently mentioned students and graduates by name, along with their state of origin. students at nicoo hailed from alabama, arkansas, california, colorado, illinois, indiana, iowa, kansas, kentucky, michigan, missouri, north dakota, ohio, oklahoma, pennsylvania, south dakota, tennessee, texas, utah, washington, wisconsin, and canada.3 in the december 2 issue, it was stated that a brother and sister were attending, and two of the graduates noted as having passed state optometry board examinations were listed as having m.d. degrees. notes published in the january 28 issue proclaimed that: "the college is tightening its requirements for graduation on account of the approaching optometry laws of various states."4 it appears that night courses were popular at nicoo because the "notes" in the january 28 issue of the optical journal listed the names of 52 persons who had enrolled for the night session. an advertisement for nicoo in the july 1 issue said that "our courses are graduated to meet all requirements without hardship to any student from any state. "5 this theme of helping students prepare for state board examinations was exploited in an advertisement in the december 30 issue. the ad stated that all14 optometrists who passed the indiana state board were graduates of nic00.6 among these graduates were hugh davey, father of john p. davey, who in the mid twentieth century, would play the leadership role in establishing the optometry program at indiana university,7 and george v. ridgway, who was second in a line of three generations of eye care practitioners.8 an advertisement in the february 25 issue boasted that nicoo "gives the best and most practical course in optometry" and that "thorough practical instruction is given in refraction. you can fit glasses properly and be successful in a clean and profitable business."9 the advertisement also announced that both attendance and correspondence courses were offered and that a night school was in session. geo. w. mcfatrich, m.d., was identified as the secretary of the school, and masonic temple, chicago, was given as an address. nicoo was one of the predecessor schools of the present-day illinois college of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 118 philadelphia optical college the pages of the optical journal sometimes included "philadelphia optical college notes", usually consisting of short notes on students and graduates. typical of these entries is the following: "isidore kahn, of washington, d.c., who was formerly in the jewelry business, is taking a thorough attendant course with the view of devoting himself to optometry exclusively."10 locations from which their students hailed included connecticut, florida, massachusetts, new jersey, new york, north carolina, pennsylvania, tennessee, virginia, west virginia, manitoba, barbados, and panama. 11 varied backgrounds of students could be observed in the "notes" from the august 5 issue. one was a watchmaker and engraver, one a jeweler and optician, and one had been in the "mercantile business". some were new to optometry, but some had done previous work in optometry. one was a pharmacist and sought "to combine optometry and pharmacy". another had taken a partial course in 1897, and was returning "to complete his work".12 one paragraph in the february 4 "notes" identified an early female optometry school instructor: "the students are all pleased with the courteous attention given them by miss nettie m. stone of enfield, mass., who graduated in 1907 and is assisting dr. brown in the college work. she is always ready to assist the student and explain the difficult points and nothing is too much trouble for her."13 the dr. brown referred to is undoubtedly christian henry brown, m.d., who operated the philadelphia optical college. advertisements for the philadelphia optical college announced that they offered six month, three month, one month, special and post graduate courses, night courses, and correspondence courses. one advertisement said that ''twenty years ago we originated the correspondence system of teaching optometry" .14 another said that some of the courses in their curriculum were: "mathematics and geometry (as necessary), physiologic and applied optics, theoretical, practical and subjective optometry, skiascopy, ophthalmoscopy, keratometry, perimetry, pathology, ocular anatomy and physiology, mechanical optics."15 in an advertisement in the december 9 issue, they announced that they had "recent additions to our teaching force and enlarged and improved quarters."16 new york institute of optometry an advertisement for the new york institute of optometry (nyio) said that they ''teach theoretical optics, including the laws of reflection and refraction, as applied to mirrors, lenses, prisms and optical instruments. practical optics, including the mounting, construction, and adjusting of lenses and prisms. physiological optics, covering the dioptric functions of the eye, its anomalies, and their correction by lenses. theoretical optometry, covering the principles involved in the methods and instruments used in detecting and measuring the anomalies of the eye. practical optometry, covering the demonstration and use of mechanical appliances for measuring the powers of vision. anatomy, physiology and hygiene, including also ocular pathology."17 the advertisement procalimed nyio to be "america's ideal optometrical college" and hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 119 included photos of a. jay cross, d.o.s., president and prof. objective optometry, and e. le roy ryer, d.o.s., secretary and prof. physiological optics. the january 28 issue of the optical journal contained a section headed "new york institute of optometry notes" in which a number of students were mentioned by name. most of them were from the state of new york, but there were also students from georgia, massachusetts, ohio, and rhode lsland.18 the faculty of nyio, most of whom may be recognized as authors of optometry books, were e.e. hotaling, e. leroy ryer, a.j. cross, r.m. lockwood, s.h. brooks, and f.a. woll.19 nyio did not offer correspondence courses.20 in 1909, the state of new york started requiring a two year optometry course for new optometry licentiates. an advertisement for nyio in the june 3 issue stated that they were offering the "new york state standard two-year (18 months) course. complete one-year (7 to 9 months) course for out-of-state applicants. post-graduate courses for optometrists and physicians. special one-month courses on specific subjects for advanced optometrists."21 the june 3 issue also carried a photo of a class of nyio students and the faculty (see figure 1 ). in the july 29 issue, nyio announced a two week "post graduate course" from august 16th to 28th for $35, in which there were to be 75 special lectures on muscle tests and corrections, dynamic and static skiametry, perimetry and keratometry, ophthalmoscopy, frame fitting, and transpositions.22 on november 25, the closing of nyio was announced. the primary reason given was that some members of the faculty had resigned due to the difficulty of maintaining their private practices while teaching at the school.23 one week later it was announced that the optometrical society of the city of new york was to take over the management of nyio. the board of trustees appointed for that purpose were: e. le roy ryer, chairman; p.a. dilworth, s.h. brooks, elmer e. hotaling, f.w. blair, albert cohen, and r.m. lockwood?4 one could speculate that those efforts may have been superceded by the founding of the optometry program at columbia university in 1910. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volmne 40, number 4, page 120 figure i. a class of students and the faculty at the new york institute of optometry in 1909. the faculty are the persons seated in chairs. they are, left to right: elmer e. hotaling, e. le roy r yer, stephens h. brooks, andrew jay cross, robert m. lockwood, and frederic a. woll. (from the optical journal, june 3, 1909, volume 23, number 23, page 923) rochester school of optometry an advertisement for the rochester college of optometry (rso) in the february 25 issue put forth that "its graduates are successful optometrists practicing in all parts of the united states" and that "students prepared for any state board examination."25 a news item in the april 29 said that graduates of the rochester school of optometry had a granite tablet placed at the gravesite of dr. arthur h. bowen at waterford, ohio, with the permission of bowen's widow and family. the tablet read "dedicated to the memory of our beloved friend and teacher, dr. a. h. bowen, by the graduates of rochester school of optometry."26 the june 17 issue of the optical journal explained that the rochester school of optometry was organized in 1902 by dr. a.h. bowen and b.b. clark. bowen who was "a physician of many years experience," served as president. b.b. clark was a former hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 121 president of the american association of opticians. after bowen's death, clark took over as president of rso, and chas. s. hawkins as secretary-treasurer. rso offered coursework only by attendance rather than by correspondence. it was announced that rso would move to a two year program of instruction_27 . ·a september 30 advertisement mentions a two year program and lists the faculty as follows: howard d. minchin, ph.d., prof. of physics; w.h. doane, m.d., prof. of ocular pathology; w.w. winans, m.d., prof. of anatomy, physiology,and hygiene; b.b. clark, prof. of subjective optometry and president; h.m. bestor, prof. of objective optometry; c.s. hawkins, prof. of theoretical and practical optometry and secretary; e. h. silver, prof. of physiological optics; arthur e. surdam, prof. of mechanical optics; hon. john j. mcinerney, prof. of optical jurisprudence; and w.w. page, prof. of practical advertising and business system. 28 an october 30 advertisement for a post graduate course said that "individual instruction can be arranged for any branch of optometry which you feel the need of 'brushing up' on, including anatomy, physiology, mathematical optics, skiametry, physiological optics, ophthalmoscopy, muscle work, etc."29 los angeles optical college advertisements in early 1909 for the los angeles optical college said that it had "established a six months' course of study and practice as a basis for the degree of doctor of optometry and ophthalmology for those who desire to engage in this work as a profession after being properly qualified for it. regular diploma, without degree, given for general proficiency. advanced standing given to state licentiates and graduates of this or other optical colleges who take post graduate work here to prepare for the degree. a student can enter at any time .... no correspondence course."30 readers were advised to address m.b. ketchum, m.d., president, 510 temple auditorium, los angeles, cal. for information. a later advertisement said that: "at this writing, may 13th, we have in attendance 21 students, some of which are medical and osteopathic practitioners as well as graduates of different eastern optical schools. our classes are usually about this number as students are coming or going every few days."31 they were preparing for to offer a two year course for the first time: ''we herewith announce complete preparation for any period or course of instruction now required by any state in the union. our every facility for imparting knowledge in optometry and ophthalmology cannot be excelled and a student can enter at any time and get his credits according to his attendance."31 in november of 1909, an announcement was made that los angeles optical college had consolidated with another los angeles school, the southern california eye college. the affiliation would form the southern california college of optometry and ophthalmology with the following officers: dr. t. jefferson ruddy, president; dr. m.m. ring, secretary-treasurer; and dr. m.b. ketchum, dean. there were plans to have a six months daily attendance course, as well as an evening course which would meet two to three nights a week. 32 according to gregg, 33 that affiliation lasted less than two years, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volmne 40, number 4, page 122 and in 1911, m.b. ketchum had re-established his school with the new name of the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry. that school would eventually lead to the southern california college of optometry of today. massachusetts school of optometry the massachusetts school of optometry was previously known as the klein school of optics. some advertisements in 1909 still carried both names. as, for example, one on july 29 said that the massachusetts school of optometry "and klein school of optics, offer the most complete courses in optometry, optics, chemistry, bacteriology, and physics demanded of the up-to-date optician. for further information, address dr. august a. klein, 185 summer street, boston, mass.34 in the september 2 issue of the optical journal, an advertisement announced for the massachusetts school of optometry that: "entrance examinations will be held oct. 1st and 2nd, from 1 :00 to 5:00 pm. all students who have a certificate from a high 'school of two years attendance are admitted without examination. all who can not pass the examination are allowed one year to study up any subject in which they are deficient."35 a december 30 ad said that a two year course was available for $200 and a one reear course for $100. in addition, special and three month courses were also given. 6 the massachusetts school of optometry over time became the new england college of optometry.37 eberhardt's correspondence course john eberhardt was president of the american association of opticians from 1903 to 1904 and more than anyone is recognized as the champion for the adoption of the term optometrist.38 hofstette~9 referred to eberhardt as "greatly admired." an advertisement in the february 25 issue of the optical journal made the following announcement: "since writing 'dynamics of the ocular muscles,' and 'prisms in ocular practice,' numerous requests to give instructions in these subjects have been received from practitioners who find it impossible to take advantage of attendance courses, yet are desirous of perfecting themselves in advanced methods. after much consideration in which the advice of representative authorities was solicited, i have decided to offer my services as: tutor in objective optometry and analytical phorometry. instruction will be entirely by correspondence, and will be adapted to the individual needs of each student. the course will include thorough coaching in retinoscopy, ophthalmometry, and original methods for determining and correcting deficiencies of the ocular muscles. only such as have a working knowledge of optics will be accepted ... "40 a july 29 advertisement contained the following endorsement from h.j. cook, president of the american association of opticians: "the advantages of instruction from one who is acknowledged as possibly the highest authority in optometrical science cannot be questioned and will most certainly contribute to the advancement of our profession."41 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 123 manhattan school of optics of the city of new york the manhattan school of optics was a frequent advertiser in the pages of the optical journal in 1909. officers of the school were mark miller, president; maxwell miller, m.d., vice-president and treasurer; samuel m. miller, secretary; and richard a. hamilton, m.d., "aided by an active faculty of professors in every branch."42 excerpts from their february 25 advertisement say that: "a chair of special diagnosis of eye diseases has been added to the course. regular and continuous lectures will be delivered on the various diseases of the eye by physicians of long experience in the field of special eye work both in this country and abroad .... this course added to that already taught in this college will be incalculable benefit to all who avail themselves of the opportunity of securing valuable information given by few if any colleges in this country .... conducting the very best attendance and correspondence courses, thorough in every respect, covering the entire field of modern optics. we teach you all there is to know in optometry and ophthalmology, so as to surely enable you to pass the most rigid examinations. we teach you how to properly fit glasses and obtain the best results, assuring a successful profession for a lifetime. classes are continually forming, so that you may enroll at any time, or individual instruction by appointment. elegantly engraved diplomas granted on completion of course ... "42 usually the advertisements for the manhattan school of optics took up the top half of a page in the journal with an ad for the metropolitan optical works taking up the bottom half of the page. the address for the metropolitan optical works was the same as one of the addresses for the manhattan school of optics. in the metropolitan optical works ad, mark miller, presumably the same person as the president of the manhattan school of optics, is identified as "importer, exporter and manufacturer of optical goods."42 a news item in the april 1 issue noted that the manhattan school of optics had formed an affiliation with a school in new jersey: "the university optical college, of new jersey, has just been incorporated by the members of the manhattan school of optics, and are established at the rooms of judge sorenson, 25 montgomery street, jersey city, n.j. the officers are the same as in the manhattan school, and the same efficient methods of instruction will be employed in order to make it one of the most prominent schools in the country. the incorporators are mark miller, maxwell miller, samuel m. miller, f. marsh soper, m.d., and geo. c. norris.'743 southwestern optical college the june 3 issue had this advertisement for the southwestern optical college in kansas city, missouri: "dr. s.w. lane, president. something new! our practical method of optical instruction, which makes the mysteries of fitting lenses to the eyes, the adjustment of eyeglass and spectacle frames, prescription writing, straightening cross-eyes with lenses and laws of health and their application easily understood, will in the future be demonstrated by our new system, projection and photo-micrographic apparatus. reference, fifteen hundred graduates. particulars and new catalogue, address the southwestern optical college (incorporated and chartered), 1023 grand ave., kansas city, mo."44 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, vohune 40, number 4, page 124 there was at least one significant admirer of this school. m.b. ketchum, of the los angeles optical college and the southern california college of optometry and ophthalmology, gave his opinion that there were five good schools in the united states in late 1909: "the rochester school, mcfatrich, of chicago, tarbox, of omaha, lane, of kansas city, and our school here."45 other schools a limited amount of information about a few other schools could be gleaned from advertisements. the optical journal frequently ran small ads from the horological department of bradley polytechnic institute, in peoria, illinois. the ads said that: 'we teach watch work, jewelry, engraving, clock work, optics."46 an advertisement for a correspondence course and diploma from the physicians' and surgeons' optical college in denver, colorado, appeared in the june 3 issue. dr. j.w. bailey was listed as president and m.e. reichwald, opt.d., as the secretary of the school. the ad said: "our course is published in the state baord examination form with answers to each question, thus enabling the student to practice anywhere in the world. the title 'doctor of optics' (printed on diploma) is conferred upon each graduate. size of diploma, 16 x 21 inches. course and diploma sent by return mail to practicing optometrists for only $5.00. fee to beginners, $25.00."47 in december, 1909, the iowa college of optometry in des moines announced a 30 day special course starting january 5, 1910, and the first year of a regular course starting february 10, 1910. their advertisement proclaimed that they had "the most complete equipment for all branches pertaining to optometrical science and ophthalmology." listed as faculty were e. h. hazen, m.d., president; h.l. rowat, b.s., m.d.; c.m. post, d.o.; w.e.d. rummel, a.m., ll.b., treasurer; geo. j. feige, oph.d., secretary.48 the existence of another school could be implied by an advertisement for a book. in january, there was an ad for a book entitled ocular refraction and the shadow test by the late frederick a. bates. bates was said to have been "optician and president of the new york school of optometry."49 articles on the status of optometric education in the december 30, 1909 issue, the optical journal celebrated its twenty year anniversary by publishing a number of articles on various topics, including three articles on the status of optometric education. the first of the articles was by m.b. ketchum, m.d., president of the los angeles optical college and later dean of the southern california college of optometry and ophthalmology. ketchum advanced that essential elements of a successful school are individual personal instruction, being equipped with the principal modern instruments used in the profession, and selection of useful textbooks.45 ketchum said the textbooks he found to be most useful were: henderson's lessons (presumably lessons on the eye, by f.l. henderson, the third edition of which was published in 1903); thorington's refraction and how to refract; both volumes of the optician's manual; clinics in optometry; valk's squint (strabimsus, or squint. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, vohnne 40, number 4, page 125 latent and fixed was published by francis valk in 1904 ); lewis' optical dictionary, and haab's internal diseases of the eye and external diseases of the eye. ketchum45 suggested that in the first three months of training, the student should be able demonstrate knowledge of "anatomy of the eye, ametropia, light, lenses, transposing, neutralizing, etc." then he said the student should be "better able to take up the deeper studies, such as amblyopia, asthenopia, the practical use of the different instruments and trial case, as well as the study of diseases." he also gave the opinion that state licensure laws should not require specific numbers of hours of instruction in particular areas, but instead curricular design should be the responsibility of the schools. a second article on optometric education was written by andrew jay cross. a.j. cross was the second person to serve as president of the american association of opticians, and he was president of the new york institute of optometry. he argued that elevation of the standards of optometric education will benefit the profession and the public. one point he made was the importance of an understanding of theory: "many old optometrists of long practical experience confess their weakness when it comes to questions of theory. similar excuses were put forward in medicine and dentistry in their early days, but now it is well known that practitioners whose theories are well grounded have a decided advantage over those who are termed 'empirics' ."50 cross further emphasized high standards when he said that "efficient schools of optometry must be maintained or else the c~lling, as a distinct profession, will disappear from off the earth; neither night, correspondence nor mediocre schools of any kind whatsoever will suffice, no matter whether they are run by societies, corporations or individuals."50 cross gave as an example of "exacting standards" those that were mandated by the department of education of the state of new york. they prescribed course work in trigonometry, physics, theoretic optics, physiological optics, and anatomy and physiology of the eye for the first term of the first year; and physics, theoretic optics, physiological optics, practical optics, and theoretic optometry for the second term of the first year. for the second year they required theoretic optics, physiological optics, theoretic optometry, practical optics, and pathological conditions of the eye in the first term; and theoretic optics, physiological optics, practical optics, theoretic optometry, and practical optometry in the second term. 5° the third of the articles relating to optometric education in the twenty year anniversary issue of the optical journal was an article by harry martin bester, who was a faculty member at the rochester school of optometry. bester supported the two year program despite the warnings of some that such requirements were too stringent. bester observed that "if optometry is to take a serious and dignified position among professions it seems to me that a two-year course is none too long, and could not be shortened, when you consider the mathematics of the course alone could not be crowded into lesser time. "51 bester further suggested that: "the weeding out of the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 126 charlatan and spectacle peddler by optical laws, and the planting in their places of a dignified and educated class of practitioners, will eventually give to optometry the moral and active support of other professions and the general public."51 bestor also appealed to readers with the observation that "with the general recognition of optometry surely their services will become more valuable and compensation therefore greater."50 closing comments in 1909 there was a multitude of optometry schools, which varied widely in the length of required study and, undoubtedly, the quality of their programs. programs varied from one month to two years. there were both attendance schools and correspondence schools. in the intervening one hundred years, the number of years of optometry school increased gradually to the four year curriculum today, and the academic entrance requirements increased from nothing for most of the 1909 schools to the three to four years of pre-optometry university study today. nevertheless, we can see some of the seeds of present-day optometric education in some of the schools of 1909. references 1. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:297. 2. arrington ee. history of optometry. chicago: white printing, 1929:26-27. 3. northern illinois college notes. optical j 1909;23:219,657,851; 1909;24:903. 4. northern illinois college notes. optical j 1909;23:219. 5. optical j 1909;24:81. 6. optical j 1909;25:35. 7. goss da. history of the indiana university division of optometry. indiana j optom 2003;6:28-74. 8. goss da. three generations of eye care practitioners -the ridgways. hindsight: newsletter optom hist soc 2003;34:7 -11. 9. optical j 1909;23:383. 10. philadelphia optical college notes. optical j 1909;23:831. 11. philadelphia optical college notes. optical j 1909;23:245,614; 24:261-262. 12. philadelphia optical college notes. optical j 1909;24:261-262. 13. philadelphia optical college notes. optical j 1909;23:245. 14. optical j 1909;23:235. 15. optical j 1909;24:inside back cover facing p. 760. 16. optical j 1909;24:936. 17. optical j 1908;23:39. 18. new york institute of optometry notes. optical j 1909;23:218-219. 19. optical j 1908;23:46. 20. optical j 1909;23:347. 21. optical j 1909;23:895. 22. optical j 1909;24:199. 23. closing of the new york institute of optometry. optical j 1909;24:828. 24. the work of the new york institute of optometry goes on. optical j 1909;24:904-905. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 127 25. optical j 1909;23:347. 26. optical j 1909;23:744-745. 27. optical j 1909;23:979-980. 28. optical j 1909;24:540. 29. optical j 1909;24:711. 30. optical j 1909;23:196 31. optical j 1909;24:40. 32. consolidation of california optical schools. optical j 1909;24:781. 33. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:10. 34. optical j 1909;24:234. 35. optical j 1909;24:352. 36. optical j 1909;25:36. 37. moline sw. century of vision, the new england college of optometry: an anecdotal history of the first hundred years. boston: new england college of optometry, 1994. 38. gregg jr. american optometric association -a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:22-23. 39. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:90. 40. optical j 1909;23:350. 41. optical j 1909;24:202. 42. optical j 1909;23:322. 43. optical j 1909;23:579. 44. optical j 1909;23:938. 45. ketchum mb. the best methods for an optometrical school. optical j 1909;25:61-62. 46. optical j 1909;21:135. 47. optical j 1909;23:896. 48. optical j 1909;24:884. 49. optical j 1909;23:222. 50. cross aj. higher education in optometry: a plea for appreciation and co­ operation. optical j 1909;25:82-85. 51. bestor hm. two-year course not too long. optical j 1909;25:108-109. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, vohm1e 40, number 4, page 128 gideon lang and the blind pension law change of 1950 irving bennett, o.d. 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett@juno.com in 1950, optometrists were not permitted by federal law to ascertain if a patient's corrected visual acuity was sufficiently poor to qualify for a blind pension. optometrist gideon lang of concord, north carolina, a recently discharged veteran of world war ii, saw how grossly unfair this was and set out to change the law. gideon leon lang grew up in concord.1 his father started an optometry practice there in 1909. lang attended pennsylvania state college of optometry in the late 1930s. he entered military service in world war ii. not sure what an optometrist did, military superiors initially assigned him to be a cook. when his optometric skills were recognized, he was reassigned to performing optometric examinations. after his military service was completed in 1945, lang was honorably discharged at the rank of captain,2 and he took over his father's practice. he served his community and state in a number of ways. for example, as chairman of the local school board, he worked for integration of schools.2 gideon lang also made numerous contributions to the optometric profession. these contributions were recognized in his election to the optometry hall of fame in 2006. lang died in june, 2009 at age 88 and was buried in arlington national cemetery. what follows is an excerpt from an article written by dr. lang on changes in optometric history published in the journal of the american optometric association, volume 60, number 5, may, 1989, pages 391-404, reproduced here by permission of the american optometric association. "before, during and after world war ii, services for indigent persons who needed eye care and glasses were furnished by local welfare agencies, state welfare agencies and health agencies, and lion's clubs. school vision screenings were performed by nurses and teachers and the "e" snellen chart was used. optometrists were not allowed to participate in screenings or to provide eye care services. in fact, if a school child was found to have a visual defect, the parent was told by the nurse that the child should be taken to an eye physician. in many cases the parent was told not to take the child to an optometrist because he or she could not use drugs and could not perform an adequate examination. "those in authority at the state level set up the programs for the visual assessment of welfare patients. in north carolina there were clinics at the medical schools in departments of ophthalmology, and residents would examine these patients. there were two or three established eye clinics in a few very large cities; the variety club and the lions club were the sponsors and ophthalmologists would staff these clinics a day or so a week. in the smaller towns, there were clinics in the offices of eent practitioners, and in addition to all of these there were clinics at the state welfare departments in the "halls." usually a resident from the medical school would perform the examinations, using an ophthalmoscope, trial frame, phoropter, trial case, retinoscope hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 129 and pen light. the resident was paid $2 per patient, although later a lump sum was given for a day's work at the clinic. a welfare patient was not allowed to see an optometrist, even after receiving the glasses prescribed (which were received by mail), but patients would bring their glasses to optometrists anyway. "the policy was discriminatory because it denied patients freedom-of-choice as to who would examine their eyes. in north carolina, the state optometrists decided that enough was enough. the north carolina employed e.t. bost, jr., an attorney from concord, and a powerful force in the general assembly (later to become speaker of the house). "our group visited the executive director of the north carolina state commrssion for the blind to discuss our problem. the executive director informed us plainly that we could not participate in eye care services because of a federal law. title 10 of the social security act stated: "in determining whether a person is blind, there shall be an examination by a physician skilled in diseases of the eye". it was the view of the commission that this law precluded optometrists from participating. we informed the official that our interest was not to certify blindness for pensions but simply to allow people to choose their own practitioner. he stated it could not be done. bost advised us to go to washington to change the law. "amendments originated in the ways and means committee of the u.s. house of representatives. the chairman of the committee was robert l. ("muley") doughten, who was from my own [lang's] congressional district. he was nicknamed "muley" because once he made up his mind on a subject he was "as stubborn as a mule." doughten was over 80 years of age but was sharp as a tack. he was the second most powerful man in the house due to his position and seniority. dr. john high of rocky mount was president of the north carolina optometric society and he and i naively went to washington to "change the law." we did not know any better, and it was good that we were so ignorant. fortunately for us, doughten had a daughter named reba who pretty much ran the ways and means office and who was a character in herself. reba took to dr. high and myself and correctly surmised that we needed help. i had been active in democratic politics in my county in the late 1940s and had served as president of the young democratic club. our county was the county which elected doughten, so extra consideration was shown to us. "doughten had difficulty understanding why we needed to change the social security act, but with reba's assistance we were able to convince him of the discriminatory nature of the law, and doughten placed into hr 6000 of 1950 the following language: 'in determining whether a person is blind, there shall be an examination by a physician skilled in diseases of the eye, or by an optometrist, whichever the individual may select.' "dr. high and i notified maccracken (note: bill maccracken was then the aoa lobby in washington) of our surprising success, but other aoa officials really did not grasp the significance of what we were trying to do. doughten held no hearings on the bill in the ways and means committee and allowed no debate on the house floor, demanding that the house either accept the bill or kill it. the bill passed without any problem and was duly sent to the senate. "with our bill equating optometry with ophthalmology half way through the congress, aoa officials perked up their ears, joined forces with us, and together hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 130 prepared for a hearing before the senate finance committee. at this point ophthalmology and the american medical association (ama) rang the firebell. one must remember that there was no aoa office in washington just mr. mac. dr. high and i went to the office of the senate finance committee and naively asked about the hearing procedure. the lady who was the administrative assistant to senator walter george of georgia the chairman of the finance committee was a former roommate of the wife of a prominent athens, ga optometrist, named chickie matthews. i sometimes think that the good lord was looking after us because this lady took an interest in our problem and helped us immeasurably. "our primary concern was the opposition we would face from the american medical association; but the national society for the prevention of blindness also entered the fight in support of ophthalmology. we agreed among ourselves to offer a compromise version of the bill, and a "watered down" amendment was proposed to the senate committee. the day before the hearings, dr. and mrs. matthews came to washington, entertained senator george and his wife (and the administrative assistant and her husband), and afterward senator george was on our side. when the chairman is with your cause, it is difficult to kill a bill. after the hearing was held and our compromise was accepted, we all went into the senate dining room and had lunch together, smoking the peace pipe with the opposition. dr. john o'shea, then president of aoa, testified for optometry, as did i. harold kohn, dr. joe babcock and maccracken were all present. 'when hr 6000 came to conference (because of the two different versions of the bill passed by the house and the senate), daughton was true to his nickname. he refused to consider the ''watered down" amendment of the senate, and he argued for 3 hours in favor of the house version. dr. high and i had not bothered to inform daughton about our ''watered down" amendment, as we thought that those on the senate side would tell him. the bill was passed by the conference committee containing the optometric amendment exactly as daughton had proposed it: equating optometry with ophthalmology, the first federal law passed by optometry and signed by the president. the law still stands today. daughton knew more that dr. high, the ama, the aoa officials, or me. again, i felt that the good lord has looked after me. "the language of hr 6000 was to be used again in title 16 and in title 19 (medicaid). because of daughton's persistent advocacy of our original bill, the ama accused us of a double cross, but that was not the case, as we assumed that daughton would go along with the senate version." references 1. nimocks a. dedicated optometrist broke through boundaries. the news & observer. raleigh, durham, cary, & chapel hill, north carolina, july 20, 2009. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1613713.html. accessed september 14, 2009. 2. passing of dr. gideon leon lang, father of professor mann. inside mc online, montgomery college, montgomery county, maryland, june 19, 2009. http://insidemc.montgomerycollege.edu/showstory.php?id=11371. accessed september 14, 2009. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 131 nineteenth century english optician john browning and his book how to use our eyes david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract john browning (1835-1925) was well known in late nineteenth century england as a scientific instrument maker and optician. a brief biographical sketch is presented, along with a discussion of his 1883 book how to use our eyes, and how to preserve them by the use of spectacles. key words: john browning, history of optometry, optometry books. john browning (1835-1925) was a noted english optician and scientific instrument maker, following in the occupational footsteps of his father and grandfather. he was apprenticed to his father at 15 years of age. during the three years of his apprenticeship, he worked for his father every other day. on alternate days he studied chemistry and physics at the royal college of chemistry.1 browning became well-known as a maker of scientific instruments. he introduced new developments in spectroscopes, telescopes, microscopes, and meteorological instruments.1 he made various pieces of equipment for many renown scientists, including george siddell airy, faraday, charles lyell, and john herschel.1 browning was a fellow of the microscopical society of london, a fellow of the metereological society, and a fellow of the royal astronomical society. in 1867, browning published a book entitled a plea for reflectors, which emphasized the advantages of reflecting telescopes? according to the worldcat online library catalog, there were at least four later editions of the work, in 1968, 1870, 1872, and 1876.3 according to one biography, browning had a special interest in spectroscopes and was the leading english maker.2 his book, how to work with the spectroscope, was first published in 1878, and also went through several editions. browning set up a telephone system in buckingham palace and windsor castle.1 he is also said to have been working on a phonopraph system using metal foil when edison hit upon the idea of using a wax cylinder. browning was described by a former associate as being "kind and considerate" to the people who worked for him? he was also described as enjoying scientific work more than business? he liked astronomy and some of his observations were published in the monthly notices of the royal astronomical society. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, vohune 40, number 4, page 132 a significant part of browning's business was the making and fitting of spectacles. he saw patients from all over the united kingdom, as well as north america, egypt, and lndia.4 he was successfully prescribing cylinder lenses in the 1870s, and he was one of the early enthusiasts for the use of the retinoscope.4 he was the first president of the british optical association when it was founded in 1895, and he served in that position for five years.4 · browning's book how to use our eyes in 1883, browning published a book entitled how to use our eyes, and how to preserve them by the use of spectacles. it went through a number of editions, extending to at least 1896.3 i examined a reprint of the first edition of 1883, produced as part of the legacy reprint series of kessinger publishing.5 on the title page browning is identified as "f.r.a.s., f.r.m.s., etc." and "optician to her majesty's government, the royal society, the royal observatories of greenwich and edinburgh, and the observatories of kew, cambridge, durham, utrecht, melbourne, etc., etc." the title page also notes that the book contains 37 illustrations. on the first page of the text, browning makes the observation that it is necessary to learn how to see: "it might at first thought appear that it cannot be necessary for any person to learn to see. a moment's consideration will show that this is a mistake. before an artist can draw any object well, he must be able to see the most delicate lights and shades upon its surface." (page 9) on pages 10 and 11, he notes that his purpose in this book is mainly to present a "popular account"of improvements in spectacles and their application. he then proceeds over the next pages to explain the rudiments of ocular anatomy and color vision. · on page 22, he explains how to read by lamp light: "always turn your back to the source of light when you are reading, so that the light may fall on to the book, instead of coming into your eyes." a few pages later, he says that myopia is often produced by reading in "imperfect light." browning recognized that different lenses could be prescribed for different visual tasks: "different spectacles should, as a rule, always be worn for playing music from those used for reading, because the music is placed on the instrument at a greater distance from the player than the book is held while reading." (page 33) he also noted that the optical centers of lenses should be over the patient's pupils: "no attention is generally paid to a pair of spectacles fitting the face, yet, to obtain the full benefit from them, they ought to fit the wearer's face so well that the centres of the glasses come exactly opposite to the pupils of the eyes." (page 34) browning emphasized that there should be no conscious or unconscious strain from the use of spectacles. on pages 44 to 50, browning described presbyopia and myopia. next browning talked about his opinion of the importance of his work prescribing spectacles: "more than one of my valued scientific correspondents have gently hinted their regret at my devoting so much of my time to the adaptation of spectacles. they would prefer that i should direct my attention to improving still further the construction of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 133 the spectroscope, the microscope, or the astronomical telescope. i believe i am more usefully employed in a practical application of science to the benefit of humanity, and i know that some of my medical friends support me in this opinion." (page 51) as an example, he described his successful solution in what we would think of today as a low vision case. on pages 53 to 55, browning discussed astigmatism, including testing for and correcting astigmatism: cylinder lenses "have to be put into trial frames with round eyes, in which the glasses will turn easily. the wearer should then close one eye, or cover it with the hand, and slowly and carefully turn the glass round while looking at the figures on a clock-dial, and the glass should be left in the position in which the figures are seen with equal clearness all round the dial. the other glass should then be adjusted in the same way. the optician should carefully note the direction of the axes of the cylindrical lenses, and should cut them into an oval form and fit them up in oval frames." (pages 54-55) browning next turns to anisometropia, which he calls "unequal vison." he has this to say: "by unequal vision i mean a person having two eyes which differ in focus. the optometer is the only good test for this inequality, which is much more common than is generally supposed. when the difference in focus is very great, as a rule spectacles which equalize the focus cannot be worn; the strain upon the eyes appears to be too great. but, if a pair of spectacles to be worn at first in which the lenses differ only slightly in focus, and the difference in focus is then slowly increased, the eyes may after a time become accustomed to the difference, and in this manner both may be suited and clearer vision with comfort obtained." (page 60) on pages 63 to 65, browning warns that harm may come from wearing inaccurate spectacles that are "manufactured by grosses to supply the wholesale market" and that are "sold by people that are not opticians." from page 66 to the close of the book on page 72, browning gives advice on topics such as the how to put spectacles on, how to care for spectacles, and cautions against trying to hold lenses by hand in front of the eyes while reading. on pages 69 and 70, he advises against the use of monocles: " wearing a single eyeglass has happily of late become less common than it used to be, but it should be confined to those who are blind in one eye. i need say nothing respecting the unpleasant expression given to the face caused by the contortion of the features, which is made to keep the eyeglass in position. this is a small evil compared to the injury done to the eyesight by working one eye at the expense of the other. those who wear a single eyeglass soon acquire a habit of seeing with the eye only on which it is worn. the vision of the other eye is suppressed; that is, the image which is formed on the retina remains unseen, a convincing proof that people do not see with their eyes, but with their brains." after page 72, there are six unnumbered pages of promotional material for browning's business. the first two of these pages contain testimonials from satisfied hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 134 patients. that is followed by a two page price list of spectacles and then two pages of advertisements for binoculars. references 1. mr. john browning, f.r.a.s., f.r.m.s., p.b.o.a. dioptric ophthalmometric rev 1897;8:122-126. 2. john browning. monthly notices roy astronom soc 1930;40:359-362. 3. worldcat. http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org. 4. the british optical association: its founders and formation. dioptric news br j physiol opt 1945;5:1-18. 5. www.kessinger.net. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 135 contributions to optometry by albert fitch melvin d. wolfberg, 0.0. 3095 buckinghammock trail, vero beach, fl 32960-4968, machesic@msn.com it is my opinion that the manner in which optometry is practiced at the present time (2009) in the united states, should be attributed more to the pioneer, albert fitch (1879-1960), than to any of the many distinguished leaders of our profession since 1898. fitch was born in philadelphia and lived and worked there his entire life. he started learning optometry in 1902 through an apprenticeship arrangement, and in 1906, he established his own practice.1 when he died in early 1960 at the age of 80, he left behind a legacy of leadership and service. following are some of his contributions. as early as 1914, albert fitch was the leader of an organization that was formed and called the pennsylvania college of optometrists. several years later, as the result of the activities of this group with albert fitch as chairman of the board of directors (on march 30, 1917}, the pennsylvania optometry bill was passed and signed by the governor to establish a non-profit college of optometry, initially known as pennsylvania state college of optometry (psco) and later as the pennsylvania college of optometry (pco). fitch faced strong opposition in establishing educational standards considered impossible in the proprietary schools then in existence. fitch recalled later in his professional autobiography that his "idea of a proper college of optometry was that it must compare with any of the colleges of the other health professions, such as medicine and dentistry, and be on a par with the best of them."2 fitch viewed expansion of the responsibilities of optometrists as desirable and recognized that it could be achieved only with high quality of instruction and clinical experience in optometry schools. one of the key architects of the profession, irvin m. barish, had this to say about albert fitch. "from the start, albert fitch had more vision than anyone else in the other independent institutions. fitch was one of the first to expand the biological sciences. he had anatomical dissections way, way back in the old pennsylvania state college. so, in many ways, he was a visionary of his time." from the 1970's on, the pennsylvania college of optometry played the key role in expanding the profession's role in h~alth care in two important ways. one, it provided the education and clinical training in the use of diagnostic and therapeutic agents throughout the country along with expert testimony from faculty at legislative hearings. for a significant period of time it was the sole optometric college offering this service. as many as 17 of the first 20 states to enact diagnostic pharmaceutical agent legislation used expert testimony and educational instruction from pco faculty.3 two, graduates of pco became the leaders in the movement to expand optometry's role in health care. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, vohune 40, number 4, page 136 albert fitch is recognized as the founder of pco and served as its president for 40 years (1919-1959). as early as the 1920's, fitch lectured on the subject of office practice. he stressed the importance of the professional appearance and location of the optometrist's office. through his influence and that of the american academy of optometry (whose major contribution over many years was the professionalization of optometry), many improvements in the appearance and location of offices were realized. in 1923, fitch caused a bill to be introduced in the pennsylvania legislature empowering psco to confer the doctorate degree upon its graduates. it was passed by both houses and signed by the governor in april of that year. a first for optometry! it was albert fitch who led the educational community increasing the years of study required to become an optometrist (to 3 years in 1923, 4 years in 1935, 5 years in 1949and on to 6 years, 7 years, etc.). in addition, his integration of the biological sciences into the curriculum has stood the test of time and is now standard in today's optometric educational programs. optometry's first law in the united states authorizing the use of diagnostic pharmaceuticals was passed in the state of rhode island in 1971. the first law authorizing the use of therapeutic pharmaceuticals by optometrists was enacted in north carolina in 1976. decades before those laws, fitch caused the introduction of a bill (#1119) in the pennsylvania legislature extending the practice of optometry to the whole field of eye care (meaning no restrictions). the year1937! the bill had support in some circles of the state government, but it failed to pass. for a period of 18 years (1922-1940), albert fitch served as secretary­ treasurer of the american association of schools and colleges of optometry. under his leadership, this group became the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco)where he became its first president, serving from 1941 to 1945. on a personal level, my relationship with albert fitch was an adversarial one. first of all, when i was a student he denied my request for the formation of a student council because he felt it was unnecessary. later when i was a member of the college's board of trustees, he refused to share financial information concerning the college with me. i saw his style as autocratic, but later i came to see how such a style was advantageous for the founding and nurturing of an optometry college. and i have come to admire fitch for the role played by him and the educational institution he founded in advancing professional optometry. the professionalization of optometry required a strong and expanding educational base, the conferring of an appropriate degree, successful legislation, and acceptance by the public, producing national results. not only was albert fitch hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 137 successfully involved in all of these pursuits, but the mark he left on many current leaders of the profession continues to this day. references 1. obituaries. jam optom assoc 1960;31:659. 2. fitch a. my fifty years in optometry. philadelphia: pennsylvania state college of optometry, 1955;1:81-82. 3. wolfberg md. a profession's commitment to increased public service: optometry's remarkable story. jam optom assoc 1999;70:145-170. hindsight: journal ofoptometryhistory .... october, 2009, volmne 40, number 4, page 138 book review: adams of fleet street, instrument makers to king george ill adams of fleet street, instrument makers to king george ill. john r. millburn. alders hot, england: ashgate, 2000. xix + 420 pages. isbn 0-7546-0080-7. hardcover, $140. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu george adams senior (1709-1772), george adams junior (1750-1795), and dudley adams (1762-1830) were noted instrument makers in london. among the wares they sold were optical instruments and spectacles. they were also authors, with george adams junior publishing a book entitled an essay on vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye, and the nature of vision, in 1789. the text of adams of fleet street is divided into three parts, each emphasizing one of the three previously mentioned members of the adams family: part i (chapters 15, pages 3-156) on george adams senior; part ii (chapters 6-9, pages 159-269) on george adams junior; and part ii (chapters 10-12, pages 273-331) on dudley adams. the book covers family lineages, their work in business, their guild activities, their royal business connections, the instruments they made, and their publications. george adams senior served an apprenticeship from 1724 to 1733. in 1734, he established his instrument business. the book contains numerous black and white photographs and drawings of instruments made by the adams family, including orreries (a mechanical model of the solar system, showing orbits of the planets and their moons), microscopes, surveying instruments, quadrants, dials, sets of geometrical solids, sundials, draftsmen's tools, mechanical tables, air pumps, globes, calipers, barometers, compasses, perambulators, thermometers, telescopes, and theodolites (a surveying instrument with rotating telescopic sight to measure horizontal and vertical angles). there are more pictures of microscopes and globes in the book than of any other instrument. there are reproductions of some title pages and figures from their books and illustrations of buildings at or near their places of business. the book also contains two adams genealogy charts and several tables summarizing various aspects of instrument sales, publications, etc. george adams senior was successful in attaining various appointments. most of these appointments were continued by his sons. he was mathematical instrument maker to his majesty's office of ordnance, from 17 48 to his death in 1772; mathematical instrument maker to the royal mathematical school, from 1748 and continued by george adams junior and by hannah adams (george junior's widow) to 1796; mathematical instrument maker to his royal highness george, prince of wales, from 1757 to 1760; and mathematical instrument maker to his majesty george ill, from hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 139 1760 and continued by george adams junior and by dudley adams to 1817. george adams junior did not have a specific appointment to the office of ordnance, but was one of the regular suppliers from 1780 to 1795. george junior was optician to his royal highness george, prince of wales from 1787 to 1795. dudley adams was globe maker to his majesty george ill, from 1794 to 1817; mathematical instrument maker to the office of ordnance, 1795 to 1806; and optician to their royal highnesses the prince of wales and the duke of york, from 1796 ·to 1817. george adams senior published a number of books on scientific topics. they included (with dates indicating the original and succeeding editions, some of the latter being mainly reprintings after the author's death): micrographia 11/ustrata (1746, 1747, 1771), the description and use of a new sea quadrant (1748}, the description and use of the universal trigonometrical octant (1753}, instructions for the use of hadley's quadrant (c. 1757}, a treatise describing and explaining the construction and use of new celestial and terrestrial globes (1766, 1769, 1772, 1777, 1782, 1810). george adams junior was born in 1750 to his father's second wife and was apprenticed to his father in 1765. when his father died in 1772, george adams junior was 22 years old and had completed the required seven years of his apprenticeship but had not yet petitioned for freeman status. his petition was accepted in february, 1773, and in about december, 1773, he took over his father's business, after a period of time as "adams, widow and son." a significant portion of george adams junior's income derived from sales to the office of ordnance. with the end of the american war of independence, that source of income declined sharply. looking for an additional line of business, he turned to writing and selling science books. his first book was an essay on electricity, which appeared in 1784, with subsequent editions published in 1785, 1787, 1792, and 1799. his essays on the microscope was published in 1787 with a second edition in 1798. george adams junior's fourth title was an essay on vision, published in 1789, with a second edition in 1792. it also appeared in dutch and german translations. the author states that "it seems that adams wrote it primarily because many people were using spectacles who did not really need them. by giving 'proper rules for ascertaining when spectacles are necessary, and how to choose them without injuring the sight' (part of the subtitle}, no doubt he hoped to dissociate himself from pedlars and hawkers who sold unsuitable glasses with little regard for the harm they might do." (pages 224-225) other titles published by george adams junior were: astronomical and geographical essays (1789, 1790, 1795, 1799, 1803, 1812}, description, use, and method of adjusting hadley's quadrant and sextant (1789}, a short dissertation on the barometer, thermometer, and other meteorological instruments (1790), geometrical and graphical essays (1791 }, and lectures on natural and experimental philosophy (five volumes, 1794 ). hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volnme 40, number 4, page 140 george adams junior died in 1795, at the age of 45. dudley adams, who was born in 1762, started an apprenticeship with his older brother in 1777. he continued to work for his brother for some time after completing the apprenticeship, and later started his own globe and instrument making business. after 1800, it appears that dudley may have begun to neglect his business and live beyond his means, so that he was declared bankrupt in 1817. he lived to 1830, but may have had some mental deterioration late in his life. george adams senior had one patent, george junior none, and dudley three. one of dudley's patents, dated 1797, was for a type of spectacles. lenses were suspended from a headband. the separation of the lenses could be adjusted and the lenses could be rotated up out of the way when they weren't needed. the headband was hinged so that it could be folded up. the book contains a photograph of a recent reconstruction of these spectacles. the end matter of the book takes up almost ninety pages: notes, pages 333-361; appendix i, george adams senior's catalogue 1775, pages 362-366; appendix ii, george adams junior's last catalogue 1795, pages 367-382; appendix ill, aids to dating adams instruments and publications, pages 383-385; appendix iv, short-title list of publications by the adams family, pages 386-398; bibliography, pages 399-405; and index, pages 407-420. george adams senior's catalog in appendix i is divided into mathematical instruments, optical instruments, and philosophical instruments. among the optical instruments are telescopes, microscopes, camera obscuras, mirrors, prisms, opera glasses, reading glasses, spectacles for the nose, spectacles for the temples, double joint spectacles, and spectacles of brazil pebbles. one of a number of headings in george junior's catalog was optical instruments. it included spectacles of several types, reading glasses, opera glasses, telescopes, microscopes, magnifying glasses, camera obscuras, an artificial eye for illustrating the principles for vision, prisms, and mirrors. this book was extensively researched and represents definitive biographical studies of the adams family of english instrument makers. it is recommended to anyone who wants to learn more about them. hindsight: journal of optometry histm:y .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 141 book review: aladdin's lamp: how greek science came to europe through the islamic world aladdin's lamp: how greek science came to europe through the islamic world. john freely. new york: alfred a. knopf, 2009. xi+ 303 pages. isbn 978-0-30726534-0. hardcover, $27.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book illuminates important persons in the path from the origination of ancient greek science, to its translation and advancement in the middle east, to its rediscovery in europe, forming part of the foundation for the renaissance and the scientific revolution. the cast of characters extends in time from thales and anaximander in the 61h century greek world to isaac newton (1642-1727). roughly equal numbers of chapters are devoted to ancient greek science, middle eastern science, and the emergence of european science. a frequent topic in the book is a heliocentric model of the solar system, dating back to aristarchus of samos (ca. 310-ca. 230 b.c.), but various topics in optics also receive significant emphasis. empedocles (ca. 482-ca. 432 b.c.) believed that light travels through space at very great speed. the equal angles of incidence and reflection, recorded in ptolemy's (ca. 100-ca. 170 a.d.) optics, was known to euclid. middle eastern scientists who did significant work in optics included ai-kindi (ca. 801866), hunayn (jannitus) (808-873), ibn sina (avicenna) (980-1037), alhazen (ca. 965ca. 1041), and ibn rushd (averroes) (1126-1198). the author credits gerard of cremona (1114-1187) as being the most prolific translator of arabic to latin, some 71 works, including arabic versions of the ancient greek scientists and writings of middle eastern scientists. gerard translated works from many fields, including optics. the author devotes significant attention to european optics, including the writings of robert grosseteste, roger bacon, witelo, dietrich of freiburg, kepler, descartes, and newton. this book provides a chronology of books, scientists, and translations that ranges widely across time and distance. it provides a view of the preservation, transmission, and advancement of knowledge. the book includes 28 pages of reference notes and bibliographical references, as well as a 15 page index. there are approximately 28 black and white illustrations scattered throughout the book. the author john freely has taught physics and history of science and has published more than forty books. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2009, volume 40, number 4, page 142 2009-40-04-001 2009-40-04-002 2009-40-04-003 2009-40-04-004 2009-40-04-005 2009-40-04-006 2009-40-04-007 2009-40-04-008 2009-40-04-009 2009-40-04-010 2009-40-04-011 2009-40-04-012 2009-40-04-013 2009-40-04-014 2009-40-04-015 2009-40-04-016 2009-40-04-017 2009-40-04-018 2009-40-04-019 2009-40-04-020 2009-40-04-021 2009-40-04-022 2009-40-04-023 2009-40-04-024 2009-40-04-025 2009-40-04-026 2009-40-04-027 2009-40-04-028 2009-40-04-029 2009-40-04-030 2009-40-04-031 2009-40-04-032 2009-40-04-033 2009-40-04-034 hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2016 president: ronald r. ferrucci, rferrucci@juno.com (2017)* vice-president: chuck haine, chaine1@icloud.com (2016) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gamil.com (2016) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) alden norman haffner, anhaffner@msn.com (2018) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares ® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org brittany broombaugh, development officer bbroombaugh@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. mailto:rferrucci@juno.com mailto:chaine1@icloud.com mailto:irvbennett23@gamil.com mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu mailto:lynnbrandes@comcast.net mailto:anhaffner@msn.com mailto:sharpton@windstream.net mailto:george.woo@polyu.edu.hk mailto:zadnik.4@osu.edu mailto:jbyarsod@bellsouth.net mailto:rahildebrand@aoa.org bbroombaugh@aoa.org mailto:khebert@aoa.org https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight r news leiter of the opromerr.ic his'idrical society did ex volume's 1-10 (volume pqr,e) a "a treatise on the eye," vol. ii 7-44 abbe, ernst, 10-56 abbott, a.n., 9-54 abegglen, tho, 7-33 abel, charles, 4-39; 5-l abel, herr, 8-41 abernathy, don, 6-29 aberrations, 7-4 abram, morton, 4-39; 5 1 abrams, jerry, 4-1; 5-l; 6-9 7-16; 9-19; 9-57; 10-35 "academy's role in optometry's professional growth, the," 6-9 accommodation, 8-29 "accommodation and refraction," 4-50 accommodative convergence, 8-4 achromatic systems, 8-10 acorn (sign of), 9-8 acuity projector, 6-21 screening test, 7-83 standardsi'. 7-41 tests, 5-lto adams, dudley, 8-70 adams, ewing, 7-21 adams, george, 8-2 adams, j.c., 10-22 adaptometry, 6-28 adler, cyril, 8-35 ads (see also advertisement, advertising) contact lens, 7-20 advertisements, 7-38-41; 7-68 10-60 advertising history, 3-30 "advertising and optometry· 3-30 ahlstrom, otto, 6-45; 8-9 airy, george, 6-51; 10-21 aitken, michael, 5-11 albert, d.m.; 5-41; 6-50; 8-76 albinus, bernard; l-20 albrecht.von graefe's archiv fur klinische und experimentelle ophthalmologie 2-12 alciphron, 4-56 alcohol, 7-16 alcor, 7-83 alegria, ricardo, 4-39-39; 5-l; 6-16 6-45 alexander, e.b., 4-1; 5-l; 6-47; 7-55-56 9-50 alexander, king, 3-11 alexander optometric fellowship; 8-26 alhazen, 2-17; 3-38; 5-30 all-union conference; 4-6 allen, merrill, 2~19 allied optometric organizations, 1-23 alpern, mat, 7-19 alt, charles, 8-30 alt, robert, 8-16 alumiscope, 8-26 alumni bulletin of the pennsylvania college of optometry, 5-30 amaurosis, burn's, 6-48 amblyopia, 7-22; 7-86 ex-anopsia, 4-54 historical, 6-48 postmarital, 6-48 amblyoscope, 9-13 amendments (o.h.s.), 1-4 american academy of optometry, 2-2; 6-19; 7-2 american expeditionary forces, 2-20 american foundation of the blind, 6-23 american heritage, 6-25 american journal of ophthalmology (see also ophthalmology, american journal of), 5-41; 6-12; 7-20; american journal of. optometry, 6-22 american journal of optometry and archives of .american academy of optometry, 3-37; 3-40; 4-56; 7-20 american journal of physiological optics, 5-34 american journal of science and arts, 8-60 american museum of irrmigration, 9-3 -76american ophthalmological society, 5-40 american ophthalmology (history), 9-33 american optometric association (see also legislation, meetings, members, membership, history), 4-47; 5-30-31; 6-6; 6~7; 7-1-2; 7-12; 7-14; 7-16 archives, 2-20; 7-37; 4-54; 4-58-59; 5-12; 5-18; 5-25; 5-31 congress, 5-17 convention, 7-52 -1908, 10-58 history, 5-27; 10-50-51 -comnittee, 1-25 home study course, 4-22 journal, 5-35 library, 3-39; 5-12; 5-35; museum, 5-7 news, 7-15 organizer, 4-49 photographs, 7-2 a~erican optical campany,3-7 american philosophical society, 5-41; 6-42; american revolution, 8-27 american society of contemporary ophthalmology, 5-40 amers, adelbert, 3-41 amoretti, edwardo, 7-21 arnuletic eye symbols, 4-10 amulets, 4-56 amulets and talismans, ltd., 4-43; 6-5 "an analysis of the literature concerning the dependency of visual functions upon illumination intensity," 5-28 anagnos, michael, 10-8 anagnostatis, andre, 6-49 analytische dioptrik in zwei theilen, 6-44 ".anatany and physiology of the eye," 7-73 "ancient ophthalmological agents," 10-74 anderson, albert, 7-21 andreae, j. fred, 6-27 andrews family, 9-57 angiography, 7-86 angles of squint, 4-5 am nh; of ophthalmology, 5-40 annals of science, 8-61 annual remembrance of the chur-ch, 8-60 "anorrk-'llies of refraction and of the muscles of the eye," 9-11 anomalous retinal correspondence (see arc) anoptico, 7-14 "answers to interrogatories of plaintiff," 3-42 "anthology of ophthalmic classics, an," 1-19 antiquaria optometrica, 6-50 antique instruments, 4-33 "antique looking glasses and frames , " 5-32 antiques, 9-3 antwerp opticianry, 4-27 aoa (see american optometric association) aop, 7-64 "apparent motion and the pulfrich effect," 7-85 applanation tonometry, 10-56 apotropaia, 4-56 apotropaic eye symbols, 4-10 applied optics, 5-21 "apuntes sobre optometria," 3-39 aqueous humor, 6-12; 6-49 "arc an historical review," 5-14 archimedes, 5-21; 5-29 archives, babcock, 7-1 archives of ophthalmology, (see also ophthalmology, archives of) 1-25, 7-20 archives ( ohs) , 1-6 archives of optometric history 6-21 arias, marcelo, 3-19 arias, victor, 3-19 ariotti, piero, 8-61 arista, maria, 6-29 armaignac chart, 9-62 arrnaignac , h. , 9-6 2 armstrong, h.c., 6-29 arnett, earl, 3-37 arnold, emil, 2-20 arnold, henry, 6-25 aronsfeld, g. henry, 7-48 arrington, ed, 2-20 arrington, george, 9-10 art, 3-31 art and opticianry, 4-43 art for the blind, 10-36 arteaga, antonio, 4-39; 5-l; 6-45 articles, visual science, 4-o artist, 5-8 "as i see color," 10-12 asami, kenichi, 10-48 aschenbrenner, claus, 3-30 ashley, james, 7-11 aspectibus, r::e (see r::e aspectibus) aspheric lenses, 8-28 association, british optical, 2-14 danish optical, 7-5 danish watchmakers, 7-14 -77association for the blind, 1-15 association of listed optometrists, 6-27 association of ophthalmic opticians, 2-22 association of optical practitioners, 7-64; 8-71 l'association professionnelle des opticiens de belgique, 5-31 association of schools and colleges of optometry, 5-17; 5-25 astigmatic effect, 3-10 astigmatis, 8-61 astigmatism, 6-51; 7-3; 8-29 8-60; atkinson, e., 8-67 atkinson, h., 4-19 atlas, 1-13 attendance badge, 8-59 atti della fondazione giorgio ronchi, 5-15; 9-5 aucott, jarius, 9-8 "augenlicht. 3. folge," 6-47 augenoptik, 7-82; 9-15; 10-36 augenoptik education history, 5-37 augenoptik school in cologne, germant, 5-37 augenoptiker, 5-37; 10-33 augenspiegel, 4-34; 4-59; 5-37; 6-28 augustine, reginald, 7-11; 10-50 "aus der geschichte," 4-12 australian and new zealand association for the advancement of science, 3-22 australian medical history, 10-59 australian national health insurance, 10-54 australian optometrical associj.tion, 3-22; 8-23; 9-10; 10-59 australian optometrical society, 8-22 australian optometry, 10-54 "autobi_op;raphy of cecil n. ~ mille' the' ii 4-51 autograph manuscript, 9-11 automooile collision, 7-16 averbakh, m.i., 4-6 aves, cmen, 5-40 aviation medicine in the a.e.f., 2-21 award, conditions for, 4-19 ayscough, mr., 3-19 aztec and maya public health and pre­ optometry in mexico, 3-37 b babbage, charles, 1-25; 5-41; 10-22 babbitt, edwin, 9-18 babcock archives, 4-58; 5-35; 6-16; 7-1 babcock, joseph, 3-33; 4-1; 4-58; 5-l; 6-29; 7-1 babcock, lucille, 4-58 bacon, roger, 5-33; 10-32 bacterium granulosis, 9-28 bailey, edwin o., 5-26; 5-27 bailey, george w., 6-29 bailey, hal, 4-18 bailey, j. harold, 10-35 medal, 3-5 bailey, walter, 9-49 baker, j.w., 5-29 baldwin, william, 4-39; 5-l; 6-29; 9-10 ball, g.v., 7-77; 10-54 ball, v., 5-8 banerjea, a.k., 9-15 · bangerter, alfred, 7-85 banister, richard, 1-20; 6-49 bannon, robert e., 3-41-42 barbier, charles, 6-23 barcelo, antonio, 3-49; 6-45 barkan, otto, 10-55 barker, felix, 5-l; 6-29 barker-meadley scholarship, 3-4 barker scholarship, 4-37 barker, william, 3-3 barnacles, 10-16 barnett, albert, 2-6 "barnstorming the u.s. mail," 6-25 barrett, john, 4-48 barstow, ralph, 9-24 baseball (see catcher) bateman, john, 5-39 bates, william horatio, 8-17-18 baudouin, king, 3-11 bausch, george, 8-59 bausch, john j., 9-58, 10-74 bausch and lomb, 4-23; 4-51; 6-1-2; 6-21; 8-48; 9-59; 10-15; 10-74 magazine, the, 7-42 scientific library, 5-12 beacher, l. lester, 7-21 bear, the, 7-83 be11re, 4-50 beatty, a. , 3-40 becker, j.a., 7-40 bedini, silvio, 4-30; 7-74-75 beecher, henry ward, 5-19; 5-20 behrman, simon, 10-55 beiman, jack, 6-50 "belehrungen uber brillen," 5-38 belgium, 3-34 belisario, alberto, 3-40 belisario, amador, 3-39 bell, alexander, 9-25 bell, charles, 9-51 bell prize, howard s. , 5-10-11 bemis eye sanitarium, 8-38 benavente, jorge, 8-32 bennett, a.g., 4-9; 4-35; 6-46 bennett, irving, 1-1; 1-16; 4-1; 5-l; 5-30; 6-29; 8-69 bennett, jack, 8-66 bentley, richard, 9-30 bentzon, malcojm, 4-10 berens, c. and wilmer, w .h. , 2-20 berger, chas. , 4-24 berger, ivy, 4-24 berkeley, george, 4-56; 9-43 berlin, randolph, 9-31 berman, marvin, 1-1; 4-2; 5-l; 6-29 bernoulli, daniel, 10-33 better vision institute, 7-75; 10-64 bezold, 7-10 bible, 10-35 "bibliography of the history of eyeglasses," vol. 1 supplement bicentennial (u.s.), 5-30-31; 6-1 biese, bror, 3-35 bifocals, 4-10; 7-36; 7-44-45 8-28 by bugbee, 3-11 cement, 7-46 design, 4-9 development, 4-10 history, 4-9 invention, 4-9-10 panoptic, 3-14 -78binda optic 2000, 8-75 binocular vision, 4-6 biographical sketches, 7-77; 10-29; 10-50 biomicroscopy history, 10-73 b.j.p.o., 7-64 black, hugo, 6-25 black, justice, 6-25 blackness, 8-67 blau, joseph, 4-21 blind, 1-16; 5-20 word origin, 10-47 blind horses, 5-34 blindmen, 4-11 blindness, 7-22 cured, 9-31 night, 6-28 prevention, 4-43 school for, 5-19 blood pressure, 9-4 "blood pressure in ocular work," 9-4 bloodgood, d., 10-72 blue book of optometrists, 5-19; 6-38; 9-10 blue glass, 9-7-8 "blue glass history," 9-7 board of directors o.a.p., 5-29 o.h.s., 6-1 board of examiners, 4-22 bock, elnil, 8-63 boeder, paul, 6-21 boerhaave, hermann, 6-12 boger, frederick, 9-20; 10-50 boggs, w.s., 7-33 bohrne, williams , (see bohne) bohne, william, 6-4 bond, 8-68 book collections, 7-38; 10-5; 10-7 book news, 8-69 bookplate (ryer's), 8-58 "books, libraries, & eyeglasses," 8-69 books (see also rare books) old, 4-52 optics 10-30 rare, 9-10 boorstin, daniel, 7-22 boorstin, marc, 7-22 bootleg kryptoks, 7-50 barish, irvin, 6-29 borucki, k., 5-32 bos, h.j.m., 9-34 bowen, otis, 5-28 bowman, william, 3-17; 7-37; 9-60; 10-11 bowske, zygmunt, 4-18 boyd, j.t., 3-41 boyle, robert, 9-11 "boyle's experimental history of color," 9-11 braconier, harry, 6-4 7 bl':ldl~._'y, 1\ln·.vl.vn, 11)'{ braff, solon, 7-20 braille, louis, 6-23 brailliart, j.p., 7-87 "brain and personality," 4-50 brand, j.c., 7-23 braun hospital (heinrich); 10-36 -79brevarium magistri petri hyspani de egroi tudinibus oculorum et curis, 6-49 breviary, 1-20 brewer, bruce, 1-1; 4-2; 5-l; 6-29 brewster, david, 1-10; 2-12; 2-17; 3-7; 3-16; 6-51 "brewster and the clinical detection of corneal .anomalies , sir david," 2-17 briceno, eduardo, 5-41 bridgman, charles, 7-19; 7-21 "brillenglasser mit verstellbarer und bleitender optischer wirkung lo teil, ii 6-46 briscoe, leverne, 1-11 british journal of ophthalmology, 6-11 'of physiological optics, 7-64 british medical association, 5-40; 10-59 british ophthalmic opticians, 5-40 british optical association, 3-3 army spectacle scheme of 1915, 5-40 library, 4-45 library and museum catalogues, 1-20 museum, 10-52 british optical history, 10-53 british optical societies, 10-53 british opticians, 10-50 british optometrists, 4-14 bromberg, abraham, 3-37 bronson, l.d., 4-33; 6-46; 7-24 bronze star medal, 3-4 brook-taylor, r., 4-19 brow-band spectacles, 8-70 brown, c.h., 7-13; 7-38; 7-86 brown, earl j., 7-73; 10-50 brown, edward, 10-33 brown, john j., 6-29 hr•owr1, hoy, -ll1-~"i'( brown, walter f'., b-25 brown, walter i., 2-18 brown, winfield, 1-14; 9-12; 9-33 browne, howard, 6-26 brown's scrap book, 7-13 bruce, gordon, 10-56 bryan, wendell, 4-58 bryan, william, 3-5 bucklin, c.a., 9-20 buddha, gautarna, 4-11 buddha teaching, 4-10 buffalo optometric society, 9-4 buffon, 5-22 bugroee, l.w., 3-10-11 building optometry, 9-4 bull, edward, 2-17 bunyan, paul, 6-15 bur, 'ihe, 7-73 burch, 4-50 burchardt, may, 7-22 burgess, stanley, 4-39; 5-l; 6-29 burian, hermann, 6-47 burnett, henry, 4-18 "burning glass" 5-21 ' ' burn's amaurosis (see amaurosis) burns, john, 6-48 bursua, r.c., 4-39; 5-l; 6-29 burt, struthers, 3-31 burton, h.e., 3-12 business horizons, 3-12 business meeting, 8-55 buve, magnus, 8-11 by-laws (o.h.s.), 1-2 c "cabinet physique de m. bonnier de la mosson, le," 6-8 cain, e.j., 7-20 caj al, santiago y, 5-42 calderon, jose, 6-45 california optometric association, 1-7 canada, optometric history, 9-57 canadian journal of optometry, 2-5; 2-15; 6-6 . canadian optometrist, 4-22 canales, angel, 5-l cantrell, cecil, 4-37 cape sable historical society, 2-5 caplan, lester, l-1; 3-37; 4-2; 5-2; 6-30; capone, al, 6-26 capuchins, the, 5-7 carle clinic association, 4-37 carlson, aileen, 9-30 carpi, leo~, 9-21 carrel, alexis, 5-19 carter, robert, 6-9-10 cartoons, 7-69-72; 8-32-33 9-50; 9-56; 10-2 advertisements, 7-68-69 casals, olivella, 7-21 "case history the development of optometry," 6-1 cassville and exeter railroad, 7-17 castelli, b., 8-62 castroviejo, ramon, 5-40 categories of hue in infancy, 7-22 cataract, 4-26; 9-8 extraction, 7-87; 8-1 incipient, 4-54 minifying lens, 6-21 surgery, 7-37; 7-87; 8-2; 8-25 treatment, 9-8; 9-48; 9-65 catcher, new york giants, 3-9 caterett, e.c., 8-4 cauterizing, 9-9 "centenary of retinoscopy, a," 5-39 "centennial of light," 10-15 "center and surround," 6-15 central london ophthalmic hospital, 4-54 "century of ophthalmic service," 7-35 chamberlain, willis, 7-44 chamberlin, clarence, 3-15 chamberlin, elizie, 3-15 chambers-inskeep company, 5-41 chambers, sam, 5-41 chang, t.c., 2-5, 2-15, 3-1, 3-36; 4-2; 5-2; 6-30 "charles sheard: optometry's brightest star," 3-15 charter member, 1-11 chase, a.r., 3-40 chattanooga news free press, 6-26 cheatham, l., 7-45 cheatham, william, 10-64 checks, membership, 101 "chemist optician, the" 1-8 -80chiasm, optic, 4-56 cnicago historical society, 6-11 chinese optical, 2-16 christensen, paul, 7-4; 7-6-8; 7-13-14 collection, 7-13 christianson, s., 7-85 christmas-new year's card, 3-17 churchman, william, 5-20 cinco, claro, 5-24; 6-30; 7-16 cinematogr>aphy, fundus, 7-86 cisler, walker, 10-15 citadons, 3-4 city university department of optometry and visual science, 9-9 city university library (london), 9-9 ciuffreda, kermeth, 10-74 civil war times illustrated, 8-65 claire, helen, 8-72 claribel series~ 8-32 clark, j.h., 7-~4-45 clark, j.s., 6-26; 7-19 clark, kitty, 6-16 clark, thomas, 9-9 classics in psychology, 6-7 cleveland optical company, 7-40 cline, david, 4-39; 5-2; 6-30; 6-48 clinical refraction and visual science, 8-27; 8-55 "clinical use of prisms , " 9-11 "cle:vage de la profession vu par les ueux d 'un opticien," 5-39 clock makers, 6-41 cluxton, mariette, 3-11 cobalt blue light, 7-36 cobb, stephen, 10-12 cobban, alfred, 6-8 cobean, james, 9-52 memorial award, 9-52 "codex atlanticus " 5-33 cohen, allen, 5-34-35 cohen, ho, 7-44 coins, 8-7 cole, a.h., 3-7 cole, b.l., 5-11 cole, john, 4-45; 5-39; 6-47 colebrook (george) prize, 4-37 coleman, james, 3-2 colerrnn, theodore, 5-21 collection (private), 5-30 college of optometry, southern, 7-1 collins, h.b., 9-10 collins research medal, 9-10 . collision automobile, 7-16 colloqualisms, 3-10 collyria, 10-74 cologne augenoptik school, 7-25 colonial doctor, 4-31 optics, 4-30 colonies, american, 6-1; 6-9 "color and its applications," 9-10 color blindness, 8-20-21; 9-11 color description (history), 10-53 "color discrimination among tribal africans," 5-32 color engineering, 1-17 "color essays," 10-53 color perception, 10-12 history, 10-53 color thoery (history), 10-12; 10-73 color vision, 4-13; 10-4 history, 10-70 -81colorado optometric association, 5-2 colored glass, 9-7; 9-17; 9-48 colored lenses, 9-8; 9-65 "colour and colour theories," 6-7 columbia, optometry at, 3-42; 9-63 committee, american optometric association history, 7-1 committee for physiological optics of the academy of science in the u.s.s.r., 4-6 committee (o.h.s.), 1-4 on meetings, 3-33 on membership, 3-33 on nominations and elections, 4-1 committee on industrial lighting of the national research council, 5-29 committee on public and professional relations, 3-33 corrmonwealth optometrist, 8-23 communis, 2-17 "compleate system of opticks," 4-50 comstock (george) scholarship foundation, 3-19 concaves, 9-5 "concerning the adolf lomb optical optical library at the university of virginia," 5-15 conference on physiological optics, 4-6 conference on reading, 7-41 congress, library of, 7-24 congres periodique international d'ophthalmologie, 3-17 congressional legislation, 10-43 conner, charles, 9-48 conners, nellie, 10-62 "conservation of vision and modern optometry, the," 7-24 constellation, 7-83 consultant, visual, 7-17 contact lens, 3-18; 4-16; 4-35; 4-55; 4-57; 6-26; 7-19; 7-21; 7-33; 7-36 ads, 7-20 design, 8-29 history, 6-40; 7-2; 9-33; 9-52; 10-28; 10-32; 10-71 scleral, 6-21 soft, 6-50 solutions, 7-20 technique, 7-21 texts, 7-21 contact lens service, inc, 7-20 contact lens specialists, international society of, 6-40 contact lenses to ilamo, 7-19 contact, 6-41 conte, le hall, 4-7 conte, joseph le, 4-6-7 contour studies, corneal, 7-18 contributions, 1-1; 1-21; 4-36-36; 4-39; 5-7; 5011; 6-16; 6-2 convergence, 2-20 convexes, 9-5 cooke, sarah, 10-36 copernicus, nikolaus, 4-16 cordwainers, 7-83 cornea, 4-26; 4-35; 6-47 contour studies, 7-18 deformation, 6-50 flattener, 6-22 molds, 7-19 restorer, 6-22; 7-40 correspondence (o.hos.), 1-2; 1-5 correspondence course, 7-13 corresponding secretary of pennsylvania, 3-37 corson, richard, 4-45 cossa, francesco del, 8-73 costabile, john, 4-37 cotes, roger, 9-50 "country gentleman, fue," 8-60 courrnettes, henry, 4-10 course, correspondence, 7-13 courtney, g.r., 1-12 covell, harry, 2-20 cox. george, 4-19 memorial lectures, 4-18-20; cox, grace, 4-37 cox, maurice, 5-26-27 cozzens, charles, 4-17 cr 39, 8-44 craven, geraldine, 9-30 croatian ophthalrnics, 10-15 crooke, william, 5-8 crookes, 7-10 cross, andrew j., 1-14; 2-14; 2-20 3-28; 4-52-53 memorial prize, 3-19 tree, 4-52-53; 5-9 cross-cylinder test, 7-26 cross-eyed, 8-22 orangutan, 4-59 crossed-cylinder, 8-11 crown glass, 8-10 crurn, penn, 6-30 crundall, eric, 5-39; 6-30; 8-65 8-75 druse, lyle, 7-16 cryoextraction, 8-25 crystalline, 9-5 burnous , 4-26 crystallographer, 6-41 culver, edward, 4-10 culver, eric, 4-20-22 culver, lily, 4-21 cumming, william, 9-26 cummings, e.i., 5-10 cuppers, curt, 7-86 "cure of imperfect sight by treatment without glasses," 8-17 curtis, ethelred, 9-32 cyclopaedia, 9-1 "cyclopaedia, or universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, rrhe," 9-1 cylimer laps, 7-46 cylindrical concave glasses, 4-61 d dablemor~, earl, 3-15; 3-22; 3-31; 4-2; 4-51; 5-2; 6-30; 7-22 -82dablemont, maria, 1-1; 1-5-7 1-14; 1-19; 1-25; 2-2; 2-9; 2-11; 3-1; 3-4; 3-14; 3-28; 4-1-2; 4-34; 4-50; 6-37; 6-40; 7-1; 7-19; 7-22; 7-26; 7-27; 8-1; 8-13; 8-27; 8-55; 8-57; 9-1; 9-17; 9-35; 10-1; 10-17; dag. r.s., 3-11 dailey, ray, 10; 66 dale, william, 4-37 dalton, john, 5-33; 8-20-21 daltonism, 8-20-21 damon (albert) love scholarships , 5-12 daniels, howard, 10-65 danish ophthalmological society, 7-6 optical association, 7-5; 7-7 optical school, the, 7-5; 7-7 optometric history, 7-4 optometry, 7-13-14 watchmakers association, 7-14 danmarks optiker forening, 7-8 dark adaptation, 6-28 dartmouth eye institute, 3-41; 6-47 darwin, charles, 9-51 "darwinism reconsidered," 9-3l1 "das optische lviu.seurn in oberkochen wurtternber~, 11 4-34 daubs, jack, 4-40; 5-2; 6-30 davey, john, 6-47; 9-57 davey, hugh, 9-57 davidson, d.c., 9-42; 9-54 da vinci, leonardo (see also vinci, da), 3-18; 7-24; 9-52 davis, samuel, 9-21 davis, steven, 2-15 dawson (j. stephen) memorial awards, 10-52 day, robert, 1-23; 4-2; 5-2; 5-32; 6-30 deafness, 7-22 de aspectibus, 8-39 de bolt, mol., 1-23 decagon ophthalmoscope, 9-4 3 i):~c0ufnl vlew, 8-lll ~d\.cr, (hobert !!~.) memorial fund, 3-19 de cola, aldo, 9-64 defects, sight, 4-35 degrave, lue, 1-11; 4-2; 5-2; 6-30 delacey, p.r., 2-8 de lajoue, jacques (see lajoure, de) delamorton, robert, 4-58 della magia naturale, 9-5 -83della porta, ao (see also porta), 10-35 de mille, cecil (see autobiography) demler, james, 5-2 dempsey, philip, 7-21 denny, roy, 6-24; 6-27; 7-12; 7-16 department of ophthalmology: the eye in aviation, 2-21 deportation, 9-47 deputy director, 1-24 der augenspiegel (see augenspiegel) descartes, 5-33 des elms, omar, 8-51 deshpande, p.j., 7-87 "design of 17th century french spectacles," 5-32 desmond, daniel, 4-11; 10-48 deutsch optischen wochenschrift, 4-34 deutsche ophthalmologische gesellschaft, 5-8 de valdez (see valdez, de) developmental sequence of instrurents, 4-5 devyln, frank, 3-19 dewali, 8-2 dewey, john, 3-11 dezeng, henry, 9-29 phoropter, 9-3 standard company, 9-29 "diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the eye," 9-11 "diagnostic examination of the eye," 2-9 dialing, 7-75 diamond drill, 7-45 dickinson, frank, 4-14; 6-40-41; 7-20; 10-37 dickson, inez, 8-24 dickson, j.r. jro, 1-8; 2-7; 6-30; 8-24 dickson, j.r. sr., 8-24 "die brille der mormonen-, 11 6-17 "die brillenverkaufer in alter zeit," 4-34 "die brillenverkauferin von heemskerk, 4-34 "die geschichte des zielfernrohrs," 7-24 "die sehhifle im wandel der jabr hunierte," 4-12; 6-17; 7-23 "die taucherbrillen des leonardo da vinci," 7-24 dikanskaya, eugenia, 6-49 dikta, 10-7 dingler, dave, 7-11 dioceltian, emperor, 8-8 dioptric review, 8-64 directory of aoa (1st ed.), 9-10 discorso sopra la vista, 8-61 diseased lid, 4-35 "dispatch, the," 5-37 "dispensing optician, the," 3-11 dittmer, arthur, 6-2; 6-21 diving glasses, 7-24 dixon, herbert, 9-21 "dobson concentrator, the," 4-54 "dobson concentrator, the," 4-54 "doctor bryson," 1-16 "dr. c.h. williams lantern for testing color sense," 8-43 "dr. john," 4-16 doldrums of ophthalmology, 7-37 doloff, bertram, 5-30 collection, 5-30 donations, 4-36; 4-37; 4-45; 5-12 donders, franz cornelis, 2-17; 3-28; 4-50 7-5; 7-14; 7-18; 9-11; 9-51 dorn, v o, 10-15 downing, augustus, 10-50 draper, linqa, 6-16 drawer, cabinet, 10-40 drucker, peter, 10-32 dues, 1-3, 2-2 dugdale, r.e., 3-3 duke-elder, 8-17 dulles, john, 3-11 duncker, johann, 5-38 dupuis, sulvio, 1-23; 4-2; 5-2; 6-30 dupuis, toon, 7-14 duverger, camille, 7-85 dvorine, israel, 8-12; 9-12; 9-32 dyslectic lapses, 5-42 d,yslexia, 4-7; 9-31 d,yslexiacs, 5-42 dzieje okulistyki, 4-17 e ear horn, 8-73 earhart, .amelia, 6-25 earlham college, 10-36 "earliest exclusive optometric periodical?", 9-18 earliest lenses, 3-29 early american men of science, 7-74-75 early american spectacles, 4-33; 6-46; 7-24 "early history of optometry in maryland, the," 9-12 early schools, 8-18 early spectacles and instruments, 4-33 eastman, goerge, 3-11 eaton, allen, 10-35 everhardt, john, 2-9 everl, marguerite, 3-15 ecclesiasticus, 2-1 eciolaza, j. soto, 7-21 eclip;:;e, 8-30 ecole superieur d'optometrie, 7-33 eddy, mary baker, 10-35 edison (thomas) foundation, 10-15 edison, thomas, 7-10; 10-15 education (optical) 8-30-31 edwards, i. 9-49 egan, elizabeth, 3-20; 4-40; 5-2; 6-30 eganhouse, j.g., 7-42 egyptian legend, 4-56 ehlers, holger, 7-6 ehrenberg (rudolph) memorial classroom, 4-57 eichhorst, thomas, 3-13 eidola and simulacra, 8-39 "18th century europe in the age of enlightenment , " 6-8 "18th century optical instrument mailers," 6-41 eimer, ernest, 2-20 "ein leseglas vor 3500 jahren," 7-24 einstein, albert, 10-52 "einstein's researches on the nature of light," 10-52 eisenhart, m. herbert, 10-74 eisenhower, julie, 5-28 eldridge, colin j., 8-15; 8-65 10-56 elections (04h.s.), 1-3; 2-11; 3-1; 3-21; 4-29; 5-23; 5-l; 6-1; 637; 7-26; 9-1 electronic optometric history, 4-56 "elements of geology," 4-7 elkstrom, daniel, 8-10 ellerbrock, vince, 7-19 ellis island, 8-68; 9-2; 9-28 9-44 -84el optometrista, 3-39 elsmere, jane, 5-19 elstein, m.v., 4-7 emerson, a.h., 4-10 emerson, stanley, 4-10 emmert's law, 3-28 emperor chow, 2-16 empiricism, 8-67 encyclopedia of philadelphia, 3-37 engelking, ernst, 10-70 engelmann, otto, 4-2; 4-13; 4-58-59; 5-2; 6-30 england, 4-31 ~7th century, 10-16 enoch, jay, 6-21 enriquez de alemany, syra, 6-45 "entopics with its uses in physiology and medicine," 1-10 epaphi, 7-20 ephraim, rev., 5-7-8 episcleral vessels, 6-2 epstein, william, 3-7 equipment antique, 4-33 photographic, 4-9 refracting, 4-34 equity no. 254, 3-42 ernst, abbe, 7-33 escole d'optometrie ~university de montreal, 4~3 escuela superior de optometria de venezuela, 5-41 "essay, the," 4-56 essay on the nature and the con­ sequences of anomalies of refraction, 9~11 essay on vision, briefly explai~ ing the fabric of the eye and the nature of vision, 8-2 estrada memorial awards, 5-31 "ether of space," 4-50 ethics, 7-53-54 ettles memorial lecture, 7-63-64 euclid, 3-12 eure, spurgeon, 3-33; 4-2; 5-2 5-10; 5-17; 5-31; 6-30 "eureka," 5-21 evans , alona, 4-8 evil eye, 4-10; 9-50 evil magic, 4-10 "evolution of a profession, the," 4-6 evolution of the ophthalmic optics practitioner," 6-47; 7-83 "evolutionary history of the eye," 9-34 ewalt, h. ward, 1-1; 3-33; 4-2 5-2; 6-30 ewing, j. ralph, 7-56 executive board, 3-1; 4-1; 4-29 5~17; 5-23; 6-1; "experiments and considerations touching colors," 9-11 extraocular muscles, 10-74 eye, 4-26; 4-56; 4-60; 6-5 7-2; 8-8; 8-67 clinic, 4-14 diseases, 4-31; 6-18 examination, 4-13 of ra 4-43 surgery, 5-40 symbols, 4-10; 4-56 test, 8-7-8 tester, 5-13 -85"eye and the haematologist, 'ihe," 4-20 "eye clinic of the university of zurich," 6-47 eye, ear, nose and throat monthly, 2-14; 7-20 eyeglasses, 4-32; 5-15; 6-4; 7-23-24; 7-75; 8-69; antique, 4-45; 5-18; 6-43; 7-37; 7-75; on stamps, 3-11 "eyeglasses: fads and fashions in spectacles, " 10-20 "eyeglasses of the presidents, 2-15 "eyes in health and disease spectacles, their use and abuse, our," 5-4 "eyes of liberty," 7-76 "eyes of the president," 8-11 eyewear, illustrations, 4-45 ezell, w.c., 6-30 f fachschule fur augenoptik hennann pistor, 10-20 fachschule fur optiker, 5-37 fair, ron, 4-2 family library, 'ihe, 3-8 fantascope, 8-34 farley, james, 6-25 "farmyard gathering," 5-8 "far-sighted forefathers," 8-16 "fashions in eye glasses," 4-45 fast, dan 9-54 "father of american ophthalmology, 10-55 "father of optics," 3-38 "father of physiological and geometrical optics, 3-38 fee schedule 8-26 feehan, timothy, 3-40 feinbloom, william, 6-21; 7-20; 7-21; 7-35; 10-54 scleral contact lens, 4-55 fellow of the british optical association, 8-71 of the royal academy of sciences, 8-16 of the royal society, 4-10 of the scottish association of opticians, 8-71 of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, 4-21; 8-71 fellowship (o.h.s.), 1-3 ferguson, jane, 8-23 ferguson, s~c., 4-60 fess bill, 10-43 festival of the lights, 8-2 "few odd books, a," 4-50 field glass peddler, 7-23 "fifty years of optometric progress," 4-13 finances (o.h.s.), 7-26 fincham, walter, ·-8-43; 9-9 findley, paul, 8-65 finhelstein, isadore, 2-19 finkelman, e.m., 4-2; 5-2; 5-10 fires, 4-48 "first american ophthalmology textbook," 9-33 "first formal business meeting," 8-55 fischer, andy, 4-18 fish, hamilton, 6-25 fisher, e.j., 2-5; 4-23; 4-35-36; 4-40 4-45; 5-2; 6-30; 8-69; 9-1; 9-29 9-42-43; 9-58; 9-60 fisher, harold, 6-28 fishman, ronald, 4-35 fitch, albert, 9-1 memorial library fund, 3-19 fitting of spectacles, 7-14 "flaxseeds in ophthalmic folk medicine," 2-13 fleck, heinrich, 9-15 fleetwood, judy, 8-57 fletcher, robert, 4-20; 9-9 flick, c.s., 4-17; 8-7; 9-59; flint glass, 8-10 fluorescein angiography, 7-86 light, 7-36 flynn, brian, 5-11; 5-24; 6-30 "focus, 'll1e," 9-20 foerster, richard, 6-28 following gaze, 906 illusion, 8-64 folsom, laurence, 10-71 fonda, gerald, 6-11 fondazione giergio ronchi, (see ronchi) 7-18 "fore eyes," 10-63 foreign body (eye), 9-10 foremost technological aids to learning, 8-69 forrest, james, 5-40 "fortunes of nigel," 10-16 foster, hohn, 5-15 foster, lawrence, 1-12; 4-27 founding members (o.h.s.), 1-1 "four eyes," 10-63 fox, david, 5-16 frames (see also spectacles), 4-24; 4-55 france, 3-34 francioli, rudy, 3-34; ll-2; 4-36; 5-2 francois, jacob, 9-34 franklin, benjamin, 4-10; 5-33 ; 8-28; 10-23 fraser, ian, 7-85 . fraunhofer, joseph von (see also von franuhofer), 7-24; 8-31 f.r.c.s. 7-64 freeberg, dale, 6-22 "freedom of the company," 8-16 frescura, angelo, 10-34 frescura, ugo, 3-35; 4-2; 5-2 6-30 fresnel, 5-33 friang, waldemar, 3-35 frick, george, 9-33; 10-55 f.ciedman, m.p., 8-4 "friem in disguise, a," 6-28 fryer, colin, 7-33; 8-34; 9-59 . 10-19 "fundamentals of an ideal optometric practice," 8-66 fundus, 7-86 photography, 9-15; 9-29; 10-59 fuog, harry, 3-6 g. , .tulio moros, l-iw uallm, 10-j;,> galey, ~1orris, 3-l galilean telescope, 6-21 galilee, 9-6 gall, julius, 8-30 gall and lembke firm, 8-30 -86gambacorta, hubert, 3-18 gandhi, mahatma, 3-11 garcia, abel, 4-37 garcia, carlos, 7-17 garcia-margarida, luis, 4-2; 5-2; 6-30 garlic, 6-28 gartner, winfried, 8-31 gassen, walter, 1-10; 4-26; 4-36; 7-85 gathercole, f.h., 1-1; 1-5; 4-2; 5-2 . gauss, carl f., 5-33; 9-32 gedeon, a., 7-40-41 genealogy of the review of optometry, 9-20 "genese de l'invention de 1a skiascopie," 6-47 "geneva glasses," 10-40 gentz, willimn, 8-68; 9-28 george, h.m., 7-83 georg1a optometric association, 6-30 gerver, paul, 8-11 germony, arthur, 6-7 gershun, a. , 3-31 tube, 3-31 gerson, g.h., 8-29 gerstman, dapiel, 6~50 "geschichte der augenheilkunde," 10-33 getman, g.h., 3-30; 8-25 gibson, benjailin, 5-19 gibson, (h.w.) prize, 4-37 gifford, edward, 4-10 gilberd, henry, 4-19 medal recipients gilbe~t, madison, 6-30 giles, george, 4-20; 7-11; 7-25; 10-53 memorial auditorium, 4-39 memor~al fund, 3-19 memorial theatre, 4~20 research trust in scotland, 4-5'7 giles~ ivy, 4-38; 4-57; 6-31 8-42 giraud-tealon, 3-17 glass, 5-25 ~ol oyy'd, 0-7-r lcgumt~~;, ~)-'> glasses (see also spectacles), 4-13; 4-27; 6-7; 7-11; 7-16; 7-22; 9-14 diving, 7-24 invention of, 8-10 glaucoma, 4-26 absolute, 1-20; 6-49 "glazed goods iaw, 11 6-7 glosser, william, 1-23 gobar, franklin, 0-4 joethe, von (see also von goethe) color theory, 3-19 gogh, van (see van gogh) ~87gold f-1edal· (of the distinguished service foundation of optometry) , 7-76 goldmann, h., 10-73 golf histt)ry, 10-64 gomez, alberto de la mora, 3-19 goruoscopyhistory, 10-55 gonzalez (justo) memorial awards, 5-31 gonzalea, rafael, 6-45 goodrich, chauncy, 6-51; 8-60-61 . gorbea, jorge, 4-40 gordon, felton, 5-22 gordon, steven, 4-56-58 gore, e.l., 10-66 goss, david, 9-62 goto, baron shinpei, 10-48 gowdy, hank, 3-9 gradle, harry, 5-42 graefe, von (see also von graefe), 5-37; 8-67 graham, rovert, 8-69 grainger, joseph, 3-38; 4-22 grant, roderick, 6-31 grants, 4-22 graphs, 8-3 gratten, paul, 5-2; 5-19; 6-31 graves, john, 4-16 gray, john, 8-60 great dipper, 8-7-8 greer,, dr., 4-34 "greek theories of elementary cognition," 4-50 greeley, horace, 3-11 greeman, nelson, 10-67 green, anthony, 4-43 green glass, 9-8 green, john, 5-40 green, w., 5-7 greenie, the, 7-37 greenspoon, reuben, 4-37; 7-2 1-6 gregg, james, 1-6; 1-12; 3-1; 3-34; 4-1-2; 5-2; 5-13; 5-23; 5-26-26; 6-1; 6-22; 6-31 7-26; 7-27; 9-10 grey glass, 9-6 griffin, john, 9-52; 10-28 griffith, clarence, 3-22 binocular visual anomalies clinic, 3-22 griot, melles, 8-22 groffman, sich1ey, 7-76; 8-2 "gross of green spectacles, a," 2-13; 9-59 grosvenor, t~, 4-19 grottaferrata monks, 5-33 grove, arthur, 6-46 guenveur, r.l., 4-40; 5-2; 6-31 guerra, francisco, 4-30 guild, spectacle makers, 7-24 guildcraft, 7-35; 8-30 guilleman, jacques, 6-49 gurnpejmayer, theo, 6-41; 9-1 gunsights, 7-24 gustav v, king, 3-11 gyorff.y, s., 7-21 gyorff.y, t., 7-68 h f~, emile, 10-28; 10-32 haasner, lilo, 9-16 haberdashers, 8-16 haffner, leon, 6-31 hague, the, 9-6 haine, charles, 9-27; 9-29 hakim mohammed said, 3-38 hale, jack, 1-11; 4-2; 4-9; 5-2; 6-31; 8-51-52 hall, clifford, 7-20 hall, richard, 7-40; 10-68; hamblin, paul, 5-38 hamblin, theodore, 7-4 hamard national foundation, 3-38 hamilton, john, 5-19 hamilton, virginia van der veer, 6-25 hamiltonian, the, 9-17 hammon, james, 3-14; 3-29; 3-42 optical machine l\1anufactm.,ing company· 3-42 hammond optical parlors, 8-70 handedging stone, 7-47-48 "handbook for opticians," 6-4 "r-1jld.book of perception, 11 8-4 hansen, johan, 3-35 hanukkah' 8-3 haptic lenses, 4-16 hardy, s.c., 4-27 hardy, w.e., 4-27; 4-35 hannon, paul, 3-5 harper's weekly, 6-23 harrison, benjamin, 9-6 hartley, harold, 6-51 hartrid.ge, gustavus, 9-10 harvard university, 5-30 "hat es in nurnberg eine brillenmacherzunft gegeben?", 7-24 haughton, a.c., 4-37 haugwitz, thilo von, 4-34; 7-84 hawkins, issac, 8027-29 hay, james, 1-22 hay, william, 10-72 hayes (samuel) research library, 10-7 hayne, donald, 4-51 hays , norman, 6-6-7 "headache and the optician," 4-21 headaches, 9-4 headbands, 9-7 "heard around the salt pan," 3-10 heath, gordon, 1-12; 1-18 heather, fred, 4-18 heather, jerome, 4-17; 4-37; 4-40 5-3; 10-2 heddeman, ruth, 4-37 heemskerk, martin, 4-34 heidelberg university eye clinic, 4-28 heilprin, issac, 7-84 heine, leopold, 7-34 helden, albert van (see also van helden), 9-6 helmholtz, hermann von (see also von helmholtz), 4-50; 5-33 5-41; 7-9-10; 7-18; 8-67; 9-25 henao r., hernando, 6-31 henderson, f.l., 9-10 henning, stig, 3-35 henry vii, 3-12 henry, patrick, 3-11; 7-76 henry, william, 2-19 hering, ewald, 3-17; 6-15 heritage, 4-38; 4-45; 4-48; 4-50; 5-38; 5-39; 6-47; 7-13 "heritage of applied optics, the," 4-36 "heritage 1," 5-39 "heritage 2," 5-39 "heritage 13," 5-39 "l!tc1'illarm pistop !:tml gedanken," 7-25 hernandez, roberto, 4-40; 5-3; 6-46 -88herringrnan, henry, 9-12 herschel, john, 6-50; 9-8; 9-52 on contact lenses, 4-35 herschel, william, 9-30 hertz, henrich, 7-9-10 hertz, johanna, 7-10 hessler, herbert, 4-28 hicks, gilbert, 10-6 hideyo, noguchi, 9-28 hieronymous, 7-23 higginbotham, t. s. , 7-60 higher education, indiana commission for, 6-37 hill, adrian, 6-44 hill, lister, (see lister hill) hillard, j.r., 1-1 hillebrand, 3-42 himlay, k., 9-11 hind, harry' 7-21 hindenburg, marshall von, 7-33 hindi cartoon, 9-50 hinkle, norman, 1-23 hire, la (see la hire) hirsch, monroe, 4-20; 4-40; 5-3; 5-26-27; 6-31; 7-13 hirschberg, julius, 10-33 hirschmann, henry, 10-70 hislop, jean, 4-54 hispanus, petrus, 6-49; 7-67 historical collection, optometric, 4-55 collections, 10-14 facts, 7-43-61 interest, 1-2; 3-9 tidbits, 3-13 writing, 1-2; 3-9 history aoa, 9-10 bifocal, 4-9 committee, aoa, 1-25; 7-1 contact lenses, 4-35; 10-32 danish optometric, 7-4 eye massage 4-54 eyeglasses, vol. 1 supplement in japan, 1-15 keratoplasty, 6-49 maryland optometry, 9-12 ophthalmology, 9-10 ophthalmoscope, 3-18 optics, 8-10 optometric, 7-23 current articles, 6-46-47 optometry, fi-1; 6-4 optometry in new han1pshire, 9-12 puerto ricooptometric, 4-38 spectacles (see also spectacles) 4-35 synoptophores, 4-5; 4-36 theoretical, 4-5 visual science, 4-6; 10-55 "history and orientation," 5-26 "history and present state of discoveries relating to vision light and colours, the," 4-31 -89"history of colours begun," 9-12 "history of contact lenses, the," 10-32 "history of optometry," 5-25-26 history of science, 9-52 history of science, museum of 6-41 history of science society, 9-60 "history of the southern council of optometrists and its woman's auxiliary, a," 5-22 "history of three color photography, the, " 3-19 hitchcock, h.m., 4-22 hitler, adolf, 7-33 hitler youth movement, 7-33 hoag, john, 1-14 hoare, arthur, 1-1; 1-6; 1-14 2-11-12; 2-19; 3-1; 3-5-6; 7-20 hoare, barbara, 3-6 hoefert, karl, 1-1; 4-2; 5-3; 6-31 hoffinann, ernst, 4-51 hoffinann, william, 3-1; 5-3; 6-31 hofinann, f.b., 3-42; 4-2 hofstetter, carl, 10-40 hofstetter, henry, 1-1; 1-5; 1-18; 2-3; 3-1; 4-1; 4-2; 4-37; 4-44; 7-85; 8-56-57 hofstetter, susan, 3-22 holland, frank, 5-9 holland, philip, 5-9 holmes, oliver, 10-12 stereoscope, 10-12 holten, c., 7-14 hornmerstag, svein, 3-35 honegger, heinrich, 4-28 honorary member (o.h.s.), 1-3; 1-20 hood, co, 10-73 hooke, robert, 5-33; 10-24 hoore, arthur, 8-57 hopping, richard, 1-24; 2-9; 2-18; 4-2 4-52; 5-3; 6-31 horses, blind, 5-34 horsey, old, 7-16 hospital, central london ophthalmic, 4-54 hospital, london refraction, 5-38 hotaling, e.e., 5-26; 8-58 botten, j.c., 10-64 hougen, harvey, 7-79; 9-54 houston college of optometry, 10-65 houston optical company, 7-44 houston, university library, 6-46 howard, j.d., 1-12; 4-3; 4-40; 5-3; 6-31 howard, john n., 10-12 howard, j.r., 5-7 hubartt, r.j., 4-40; 5-6 huber, jack, 8-71 hudson, l.l., 7-33 hue, in infants, 7-22 hugh's medical and surgical infimlary and eye and ear institute, 8-36 hulke, 6-51 hummel, dan, 5-3; 5-14; 6-31; 7-17; 7-76; 8-72; 9-48; 10-71 humphrey, wrn., 2-13 hunt, e.j., 101; 1-6; 1-17; 3-16; 3-29; 3-33; 4-3; 4-36; 5-3; 5-8; 6-31; 8-57 hunt, idella, 3-16 hunt, robert, 9-6; 9-8 hunter, hugh, 7-21 hurtes, r., 10-59 hussey, lester, 1-24; 3-34; 4-3; 5-3; 6-31 hutchinson, e.a., 7-81 fellows, 7-81 huygens, christian, 9-34; 10-30 h~ratt-woolf, charles, 8-13 hyperopia, 8-28 hypnosis, 8-64 in orthoptics, 8-64 i "i remember. it this way," 5-9 ibn al-haitham, 3-38; 5-30 ibsen, henrik, 3-11 ickes, harold, 6-25 "iffy certificates," 4-42 i.l.a.m.o. (see also international library, archives, museum of optometry), 6-45; 7-1; 7-3; 7-13; 7-16; 7-19; 7-24 illinois college of optometry, 2-14; 4-57-58; 5-12; 5-31; 6-16; 10-62 illinois society for prevention of blindness, 4-59 illuminating engineering research institute (ieri), 9-55 illuminating engineering society (ies) 9-55 illumination, history of, 7-4 "image," 1-13 image, retinal, 4-35 immigration (u.s.) , 9-28 requirements, 9-44 statistics, 9-44 imperial college of science and technology, 7-4 "improved spectacle manufacturing and berlin optical establishment," 7-41 "in the days of l"ly youth," '6-24 inaugural address, 4-6 incarceration, 5-7 incipient cataract, 4-54 incorporated, 3-13 "incredible heritage," 8-26 independence funs, 7-81 index legalized optometry, 7-30-32 memoirs, 7-28-30 -90to prentice book, 7-27 indexing publications, 10-39 indian optical institute, 9-16 and refraction hospital, 9-15. indian optometrical society, 9-15 indiana commission for higher education 6-37 indiana historical society, 3-21 indiana optometric association, 9-48 optometric history, 10-62 university, 1-18; 2-8; 5-17 department of history and philosophy of science, 6-41 school of optometry, 6-1; 6-8-9; 6-16; 6-37; 6-41; 9-9 library, 4-8; 4-24; 5-18 museum, 6-50 indianapolis star, 3-30 indirect retinoscopy, 7-49 "individual research in theoretical and applied optics," 3-28 "industrial vision," 5-32 testing, 7-14 infants, 7-22 infinity balance, 10-54 "influence of the blue ray of sunlight in developing an:irral and vegetable life, the," 9-8 infocus, 4-17; 8-7 ingle, h. gerald, 6-6 innervation extraocular muscles, l0-74 inoyue, dan, 4-18 inquisition, the 5-7-8 l'institute d'optique raymond tibaut," institute of ophthalmic opticians, 5-31; 7-64 institute of optometry, 7-7 instruments (see .also optometric instruments), 4-30; 4-55 5-18; developmental sequence of 4-5 early, 4-33 large, 6-4 ophthalmic, 4-34 small, 6-4 internal revenue service 6-16· 6-2 ' ' international associations of boards of examiners in optometry, 2-2; 10-72 international congress of optometry, 6-1 international library, archives, and museum of optometry (see also i.l.a.m.o.), 5-35; 6-15; 6-27; 6-45 7-1; 7-3; 7-13; 7-16; 7-19; 7-24 international optometric and optical league, 7-8; 9013 international school of optics, 9-22 international society of contact lens specialists 6-40; 10-37 ' interoptics, 4-17 intraocular lens history 10-70 ' invention eyeglasses, 8-64 telescope, 9-6-7 inventions visual sciences, 10-55 . investigative ophthalmology, 6-15 -91i.o.o., 7-64 i.o.o.l. (see also international optometric and optical league) , 7-8 iridodiagnosis, 10-57 iridology, 10-57 irion, chester, 10-61 iris, 10-57 iris bulletin of the alabama optometric association 8-72 "irish faculty of ophthalmologists yearbook 1973," 6-50 irvine library ('univ. of cal.), 9-1 irwin, jerry, 7-37 isham, mary, 8-65 isis, 9-60 "island of tears," 8-4-68 isarel opticians and optometrists association, 1-57 israeli, optometry, 9-50 italian association of opticians, 5-15 italian school of optics, 5-15 italian, spectacles, 10-34 italy, 3-34 iverson, golf, 7-8 ives, frederic medal, 10-53 visual acuity apparatus, 9-3 iwasaki, ruchi, 4-10; 4-56 j jachnow, walter, 5-37 jackman, w.t., 9-29 jackson, andrew, 9-33 jackson, joseph, 3-37 jacob, arthur, 5-19 jacob, francois, 9-34 jacob 's , membrane, 5-19 jacobsen, h., 7-5 jaeger, v.j. , 3-17; 10-70 jago, james, 1-10 jaki, s.l., 8-75 james, r.r., 4-31 janies, edmund, 4-40 janke, steven, 10-50 jankiewicz, harry, 2-1 memorial fund, 3-20 janskerhof, 7-14 janssen, sacharias, 9-6 japanese optical consultants association, 10-48 japanese optometric association, 10-48 japanese optometryhistory, 10-48 jaques, louis, 8-26 javel, e., 4-5 j.c.q.o., 7-64 jefferies, b.j., 9-11 jefferson, thomas, 8-28 jena, (east germany), 10-20 optical museum, 9-65 optical works, 6-8 review, 4-7; 4-9; 4-26; 6-9; 9-32 jenner, horace, 4-3; 6-31 jennings, stephen, 6-9-10 jenny optical company, 7-20 jensen, vraa, 7-6 "jewelers, the," 9-15 jeweler's circular, 9-20 jeweler's circularweekly, 5-35; 8-30; 9-15 jewish festival of lights, 8-2 jobe, fred, 6-21 "johannes kepler astronom, mathematiker, und optiker," 9-15 john, henry, 5-41; 6-42 "john mcallister and son," 6-25 johnson, earle, 7-79 johnson, s.e., 1-13 johnson, u.f., 3-10-11 johnson, walter, 9-49 johnston eye-echo, 9-18-19 johnston, george, 9-18 johnston, j. milton, 9-18 johnston optical company, 9-19 joint council of qualified opticians, 3-3; 7-64 jones, henry, 2-20 jordan, robert, 8-69 jordan, walter, 6-31 joson, antonio, 5-29 journal, 9-16 aoa (see also american optometric association journal), 2-14; 3-30; 4-6; 4-49; 4-56; 5-13; 5-39; 6-6; 6-28; 9-12; of history of medicine, 8-64 of the illinois optometric association 2-14 of mathematics and physics, 3-31 of the optical society of america, 1-14; 3-12; 3-19; 6-21-22 physiological optics, 4-6 of the texas optometric association, 4-15; 5-16 of the wiscons:in optometric association, 3-15; jris, 4-26 jumping jack, 3-9 junius, johann, 6-44 justice, johnny, 10-59 jvdsk optikerforening, 7-7 k kad.esky, d., 7-20 kahn, hov.rard, 3-1; 4-3; 5-3; 6-31 kaleidorama, 8-34 kaleidoscope, 2-12 kansas school of optics, 3-36 karber, william, 4-39 karg-gasterstadt, elisabeth,· 8-62 katz, albert, 3-13 kearny, paul, 2-15 keeler-instruments, ltd., 9-42 mlseum, 9-42-43 keller, helen, 9-15 international inc., 9-15 kelley, james s., 10-56 kelley, j.e., 8-18 kelly, chris, 7-12 kelv:in, lord, 8-5 kemmerer, w .w., 10-65 kemp. w .n., 1-13 kennebeck, m.j., 4-37 kennedy, stewart, 10-72 kent, 1-14 kent, william, 4-22 kentucky state college of optorretry, 2-20 kepler, johannes, 3-18; 4-32; 9-15; 10-20 discovery of retinal image, 4-35 optics, 3-18 keratoconus, 2-18 keratoplasty, 6-49 keratoscopie, 5-13 kerff, joseph, 3-34; 4-3; 5-3 kessen, sm., 7-22 ketchum, fred, 6-31 ketchum, m.b., 3-6 memorial library, 3-5 kett, c.w., 5-11 /\rehi ve, 5-11 kelt, w.c., ;~-8; 8-23; 8-54 · kever , 0. a. , 9-3 3 keystone magazine of optometry, 7-14 -92kiekenapp, ernest, 1-1; 1-6; 3-9; 3-33; 4-3; 4-58; 7-1 memorial library, 4-57; 6-16 7-1 king alexander, 3-11 king baudouin, 3-11 king gustav v, 3-11 king (julius) optical company, 7-41 kingslade, hilda, 2-21; 7-4 kinney; fred, 2-19 kirchhoff, 7-9-10 kjobenhauen, 7-14 kle:in school of optics, 10-9 kleinstetn, r.m., 4-40; 5-3 klingenstierna, sanru.el, 8-9-10 klugel, george, 6-44 kluger, pao, 10-21 knapp, hermann, 3-17; 9-25; 10-56 knife-edge test, 7-4 knoll, chris, 7-15 knoll, henry, 1-1; 4-3; 4-23; 4-30; 5-3; 5-15; 6-1; 6-17; 7-22; 7-15; 7-19; 7-26; 7-73; 8-1; 8-13; 8-25; 9-1; 9-6; 9-17; 9-52; 9-53; 9-59; 9-3 10-17; 10-28; 10-32; 10-37; 10-54; 10-71 knoll, pat, 7-15 "know your doctor," 4-59 knowles, r.h., 7-78 en.cyclopedia-dictionary, 7-78 knox, george, 5-37 knutson, s.l., 7-12; 7-50 koch, carel, 4-37; 4~41; 6-9; 6-16; 10-54 memorial medal, 5-38 koch, russel, 1-24 kockelbergh, aime, 3-34; 4-3 5-3 koenigsberger, 4-50 koetting, felix a., 1-24; 4-3 5-3; 6-31 kohlrausch, 7-10 kohn, gladys, 5-31; 6-31 kohn, harold, 3-22; 4-3; 4-37; 5-3 awan.l, 7-gcl visual science library, 3-22 kolb (francis) memorial fund, 3-20 koph, seymour, 5-13-14 kraft , charles b. , 4-41 kraft, charles k., 4-37; 5-3; 6-32 krawicz, tadeosz, 8-25 kreander, a.a., 3-35 kriege, theodore, 10-58 kritzer, j. haskel, 10-57 kroner, h.o., 4-31-1 collection, 4-34 kryptok, 7-46 blank, 7-47 example, 3-10 kubler, john, 6-26 kuhlltl81l, william, 6-4 3 scholarship fund, 5-38 kuhnke, laverne, 6-18 kulba, john, 6-12 kumar, narendra, 8-2 kund.t, 7-10 kuntz, seymour, 9-12; 9-32 "kurzer abriss der geschichte der i.o.o.l.," 8-41 kussmaul, adolf, l-25 kuyatkorskaya, julia, 6-49 l labels, adhesive, 3-21 laboratories, 7-20 labouisse, henry, 9-15 lacemaker's condenser, 6-29 ladd-franklin, christine, 6-7-8 lahire, phillipe de, 8-29 lajoue, jacques de, 6-8 laksmi, 8-2 lambert, j.h., 8-75 i.ambert, john w., 8-47 lamborn, robert, 101 lamp candle operated, 8-25 lancaster, walter, 10-68 lance, patricia, 6-47 landmark of science, 5-33 landolt, 4-50 lane, henry, 10-57 lange, oscar, 9-13-14 lanternslides, 9-4 la prey, h. , 9-6 larson, j.d., 10-58 lionel, laurence, 8-16 laver, h.j., 6-49 lavijerie museum, 3-30 law, frank, 7-37 lawrence, lionel, 4-54 lawrence, thomas, 6-11 layard, henry, 4-26 lens, 4-26 layland, brian, 10-54 lazarev, p.p., 4-6 -93lebensoh, j.e. , 1-19; 1-24 leber, theodore, 6-47; 7-49 le conte (see conte, le) leeds, james, 1-1; 1-7; 1-16; 2-11; 3-16; 4-3; 4-34; 5-3 5-32; 7-13; 7-22; 7-38; 8-73; 9-l; 9-6; 9-9; 9-17; 9-65; 10-5; 10-17; 10-18; 10-46; 10-72 book collection, 8-74-75; 9-17 leeunwenhoek, 6-49 · legacy membership (o.h.s.), 10-1; 10-17 "legal position of optometrists, the," 3-8 "legal position of sight testing opticians, the," 3-8 legal standing, 8-14 legalized optometry, 7-28-30 and memoirs, 2-21; 7-27 legislation, 8-14 aoa, 10-51 minnesota, 4-22 optometric, 10-43 tasmanian, 8-5 puerto rico, 8-32 legrand, yves, 8-5 legumes (glass), 9-5 lehnberg, carl, 8-9-10 pamphlets, 8-9 lehr, richard, 5-24 leibowitz, herschel, 8-29 leland, george, 2-9 lembke, charles, 7-35; 8-30 presidential address, 8-30 lenses, 4-24; 4-55; 5-38; 7-44; 8-10-11; 9-2; 9-5-6; centering machine, 6-4 cylindrical, 6-51 history, 7-3 · german, 5-38 haptic, 4-16 history, 9-5 makers, 6-41 naval-type, 8-25 "lenses • • • 300 b.c. , " 3-29 lentil, 9-5 lenz, newton, 9-54 "letters on natural magic," 3-7; 3-16 levene, john, 1-1; 1-5; 1-11; 1-3 (supplement); 2-3; 2-17; 3-1; 3-9; 3-11; 4-1; 4-3; 4-10; 4-29; 4-37; 4-43; 5-3; 5-15; 5-17; 5-19; 5-23; 5-26; 6-1; 6-4; 6-2; 6-32; 6-37; 6-50-51; 7-1; 7-26; 8-1; 8-13; 8-26; 8-57; 9-16; 9-17 levin, alvin, 5-24; 6-32 levine, chas • , 3-15 levinson, lewis, 5-24; 6-32 lewis, j.j., 7-48 ley, arthur, 7-80 "liber de oculis " 6-49 liberty island, b-68; 9-3 library (see also by name) collections, 10-14 congress, 7-24 kiekenapp m5norial, 7-1 new england college of opto:rretry, 10-9 pennsylvania college of optanetry, 4-4 state college of optometry, 3-22; 4-4 "licht lebt im glass vom lavaglas zum i.aserstrahl," 6-47; 10-33 lid diseased, 4-35 muscles, 9-51 lie, alf, 3-35 liebreich, richard, 1-19 lienberger, e. , 9-31 lierman, e.a., 8-18 light, 5-13 historical investigations, 10-52 "light, the raw material of vision," 6-24 "light and shade and their applications," 9-10 "light and vision," 5-29 lighting, 5-28 liljequist, nils, 10-58 lincoln, abraham, 6-11; 7-22 glasses, 7-22 lincoln, robert, 8-65 lindberg, david, 2-17; 8-39; 10-41 lindbergh, charles, 6-25 linksz, arthur, 5-40 lippenshe:im, h., 9-6 lippensum, h., 9-6 lipperhey, hans, 9-6 lippersein, h., 9-6 "lis sac empire, the," 4-4 3 lissac, r~urice, 4-43 lister hill library of the health sciences, 4-55 mu~emn of the health sciences, 11-~1 1_, lit, fred, 9-·1 "literature for the blind," 10-8 -94litsinger, george, 6-11; 10-2; 10-5 littlefield, j.e., 3-35-36 syst5n of eye and nerve measurement, 3-35 lobby, william, 5-41 lobbying, 10-43 local sign theory, 10-70 locke, john, 9-31 lodge, oliver, 4-50 lohmann, willy, 8-41 lomb, adolph, 5-15-16 optical library, 5-15 lomb, henry, 5-16 i.anonossov, michail, 2-4 london opticians, 9-59 london refraction hospital, 5-22; 5-38; 5-40 lord chief justice of england, 3-8 lorgnette, 8-73 los angeles college of optometry library, 4-3 lotze, rudolf, 10-70 love, albert, 6-4 3 love, francis, 6-4 3 love, louis, 6-43 low, seth, 9-25 memorial library, 3-42 lowry, ralph, 7-21 lubin, "pop" sigfilud<i, 3-31; 3-37; 4-51 lucas, george, 4-37 lucia buns, 8-9 luck, william, 5-9 i.uckiesh, matthew, 7-76; 9-10 i.qons , claude, 10-53 i.qons , j .a. , 8-6 i.qsets naturlaere, 7-14 i.qtton-joseph, fitt, 3-39 m macadam, david, 10-53 macarthur, douglas, 6-25 macbeth photometer, 8-40 maccracken, wm., 6-25 memorial library, 3-20 macdanicl, donald, 4-33 macelree guilding, 5-12 macgtllavry, 1-12; 3-17; 3-28 m~ll~ll, i•:j'jt.;l, 3-31; ~i-33; b-1'1; 10-50 mackenzie, wm., 9-11 madden, peter (prize), 4-37 maddox, ernest, 9-11 magic, 4-50 disc, 8-34 evil, 4-10 of nature, 9-5 magilnitsky, s.g., 6-49; 7-84 "magnet of the mind, the, 11 3-18 jvjagnif~ring glass, 10-18 jv!dgsaysay, ramon, 7-17 mahlman, h.e., 1-24 maine optometry history, 10-54 optometric association, 10-54 jvjaj orkirk, george, 3-9 maklakov, 10-56 "maladies de l'oeil," 6-49 malingering, 7-22 lenses, 2-14 malpractice case, 8-13 suit, 2-3-4 maltese, the, 5-8 "man about town," 5-13 r~chester institute of science · and technology, university of," 3-3-4 "manchester optics," 7-23 mandalian, ruth, 6-23 maneck, rudger, 8-6 3 -95manitoba optometric society, 5-10 mann, ida, 10-29 manufacturing optics, 4-21 optics international, 4-35 processes, 4-24 "manuscripta," 5-33 marg, elwin, 4-41; 5-3 margarida, luis, 3-34; 6-18 margulies, ben, 1-14 mariotte, 5-33 markaw vs wood, 2-34; 3-8; 8-13 marly, pierre, 6-42 marsh, j. joe, 4-37 martin, alexander, 9-4 martin, (david) memorial scholarship fund, 4-37; 4-57 martinsville daily reporter, 3-40 marton, h.b., 7-86 library, 10-52 marvelli, m.a., 3-15; 7-18 maryland optometry, 8-12; 9-12 mashkovtseba, olga, 6-49 masingue, p., 6-4 7 mason, t. standish, 3-2 memorial fund, 2-22 masonic temple (chicago), 4-58 massey f·fuseurn (tarbes, france), 4-27 massys, quentin, 8-25 "lvla.ster opticicm, the," 7-2? materials for the blind, 10-8 matlozen, bernard, 8-63 "matter of terms the 11 4-27 ' ' mauney, m.c., 4-41; 5-3 maurolycus, franciscus, 3-29; 10-20 maxwell, james clerk, 5-33; 9-53; 10-3; 10:-24 spot, 10-3 may, laurence, 9-33 may, winston, 9-7 maya, 8-22 maybee, w.a., 4-35 maybee, w .g., 4-22 memorial f'und, 4-22 mayo brothers, 3-9 mayor, hyatt, 3-31 mayorga, nicholas, 3-19 mazal, ruben, 3-19 mazow, bernard, 10-65 mcallister, john jr., 6-18 mcallister, john sr., 2-13; 3-37; 6-18; 6-51; 7-3; 7-12 frim, 8-61 mcclintock, richard, 9-51 mcclung, l.s., 10-30 mcconnie, ralph, 3-34; 4-3; 5-3; 6-31 mccosker, m.j., 3-37 mcdonald, herbert, 4-52 mcbivney:-nalan, patrick, 3-3 mcguire art galleries, lq-36 mclean's optical illusion, 8-34 rllcmaster, robert, 101; 1-5; 4-3 5-4 mcnutt, paul, 4-13 medals, 8-7; 8-24 medical record, 9-25 medieval, 2-17 mehra, k.s., 7-87 meisling, dr., 7-5-6 meissen, heinrich von, 8-62 meissner, herr, 5-22; 8-63-64 melanowski, wladyslaw, 4-17 melendez, paul, 3-34; 4-3 melhouse, f., 7-84 melton, garland, 6-32 members (o.h.s.), 1-1; 1-3; 2-7; 3-34; 4-1; 4-38-39; 5-l; 7-33 membership (o.h.s.), 1-1; 1-3; 3-35 5-23; 6-45-46 memoirs, 7-27; 7-30-32 series, 5-41 memorabilia, 5-18 memorial plaques, 4-52 memorials, 2-22; 3-2; 3-19; 3-20 3-22; 4-18; 4-36-37; 4-57; 5-10; 5-12; 5-29; 5-32; 5-38 6-16 me neghini, angelo, 4-3; 5-4 ; 6-32 mercer, richard, 6-8 metius, jacob, 9-6 metropolitan museum of art bulletin, 3-31 mexico (optometry), 3-19 meyer, leo a., 3-38 meyerhof, max, 10-7 michelson, albert, 10-25 michigan optometrist, the, 3-14 microcorneal lens, 10-37 microscopes, 2-18; 6-41 "midas 11 railroader wheelock, 7-17 midland optical society, 10-53 mielenz, klaus, 5-21 migraine, 6-51 mihalyhegi, a., 7-21 milder, benjamin, 10-33 military optometry, 6-12 milkovich memorial theater, 8-65 miller (henry) theater, 8-72 miller, johannes, 5-15 miller, maxwell, 1-1; 1-6; 3-33; 4-3; 8-57 miller, theo, 7-40 miller, w.h., 5-41; 6-50 millis (shay) memorial fund, 3-19 milldadt. michael, 5-13; 5-39 minchin, howard, 9-65 mindt, walter, 7-6 miner (edward) library, 4-41; 5-4; 6-32 minnesota board of optometry, 3-38 optometry history, 4-22 minor, ralph, 9-1 mintz (leslie) scholarship foundation, 3-19 mirror, 4-11 misnere, henricus, 8-63 "mr. mac," 6-25 "mr. president how is your health," 8-11 mitchell, margaret, 1-20; 2-14; ~-1; 11-l; f1-li; lo-ij;1 l\'li tch~ll, 'l'orn, '( -'.jb "modern ophthalmic lenses and optical glass," 7-36 moi1arned, abdulsultan, 5-4; 6-32 -96mohamed, alnoor, 5-4· 6-32 mohamed, shah...'1b.waz, s-4; 6-32 mohrne, susan, 4-3; 5-4; 6-32 molds, corneal, 7-19 molyneux; 9-31; 9-4 3 monaghen, m.d., 4-37 monocle, 1-21; 1-22 monocular aphakia, 6-21 vision, 4-6 monti, g., 8-62 montreal, universite de, 5-4; 6-32 moore (glen) memorial fund, 5-12 "moorfields eye hospital," 7-37; 7-66 morales, porfirio, 4-41; 5-4; 6-32 morewitz, bernard, 4-41, 5-4 morgan county republican, 3-40 morgan, meredith, 3-30 4-3 5-4; 6-32; 8-29; 9-1 morgan, michael, 7-84 morgret, frank, 7-26 morie, furnio, 10-48 morrey, fumio, 4-11; 4-37 morris, charles, 6-25 morris, ruth, 4-3; 5-4; 6-32 morris, warren, 4-4; 5-4 moss, frank, 7-76 moses spectacles, 3-40 mote, herbert, 6-16 distinguished faculty award, 8-26; 6-16 memorial conference room, 6-16 motion picture involvement, 3-41 philadelphia's contribution to, 3-37 moulton, marjorie, 3-11 mt. tamalpar's state park, 4-52 mrozinski, bernard, 4-3; 4-16; 4-46; 5-4; 5-32; 6-32 much, viktor, 9-52; 10-28 muir woods national monument, 4-52-53 mullen, j.e., 7-35 muller, kurt, 6-17; 7-23 munchow, wolfgang, 7-67;10-36 munsell color systems, 1-17 murine company, 3-14 murray, john, 3-8 muscular imbalances, 4-13 museum british optical association, 10-52 catall )t':lll', 11-111:) of history of science, 6-41 ryer, 7-1-2 of science and indust~y, 4-59 "ivti second life," 6-ll! ivtrer, albert, 3-9 r~ers, raymond, 1-1; 3-2; 3-33; 4-4; 5-4; 6-32 f~odisc bifocal, 7-36 ivt!opia, 6-22; 8-28-29; 9-51 myopia news, 8-17 ivt!opia, night, 8-29 n nagaoka, hiroo, 1-15 naples, 9-6 ?j.a.s.a., 4-6 nash, ogden, 2-7 nathan, bertram, 5-11 nathan, john, 5-11 national academy of sciences, 10-49 national aeronautics and space administration, 4-6 -97national contact lens corporation, 7-20 national cyclopedia of american biography, 7-35 national geographic, 8-22 national historian, 8-23 national institute of optics, 5-15; 7-18 national insurance act, 8-23 national research council, 10-49 committee on vision, 10-49 national society for the prevention of blindness, 4-42; 10-13 national technical information service, 4-6 "natural philosophy," 6-24 "nature of light, the," 2-18 needham, joseph, 2-5-6; 2-16; 8-69 needles, william, 4-16-17; 7-52; 9-1; 9-27; lo-2 institute of optometry, 9-27 neill, john c., 3-24; 6-40; 7-20; 7-33; 10-37 nela research lab, 7-76 nerve-waste, 9-4 neutralization, cornea, 8-29 new england college of optometry library, 10-9 ophthalmological society, 6-47 new jersey optometric association committee on history, 4-7 new members (o.h.s.), 1-23 new york academy of optometry, 7-2 contact lens research labs, 7-21 state society of optometrists, 6-7 state college of optometry (state university), 5-4; 6-32 times, 8-17 new zealand, 4-18 optometrical association, 4-18 newbold, harry, 4-10 newsletter, (o.h.s.), 1-2; 6-12; 6-1 newsweek, 7-22 newton, isaac, 4-50; 5-33; 7-22; 9-32 10-24; 10-26 "newton reinforced," 7-22 nickerson, dorothy, 1-17 nicole, luis, 6-46 nielsen, c. george, 4-57 memorial fund·, 4-57 neilsen, harald, 10-74 neilsen, jorgen, 7-7 nielsen, m. bernice, 4-58 nielsen, vigo, 3-35 night blindness, 6-28 "ninevah lens," 4-26 nisted, j.h., 7-7 nixon, richard, 5-28 nocturnal timepeice, 8-62 noguchi, hideyo, 9-28 nomenclature history, 4-27 nominations, (o.h.s.), 7-27; 8-27 non-profit organization, 3-13 noort, van (see van noort) nordic council of opticians, 3-35 optical council, 7-8 nordisk tidsskrift for optikere, 3-35; 7-8 "nordiske museet," 6-45 nordmann, jean, 7-85 north british review, the, 1-10 north carolina museum of art, 10-35 northampton polytechnic, 8-16 northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, 3-14; 4-58; 5-9 norton, w.d., 8-76 "notes on the eye for the use of undergraduate students," 9-10 "notice of a peculiarity in vision," 8-60 nott, ivan, 5-10 novak, v., 3-11 noyes, henry, 9-11 nupuf, jas., 7-20 nuremburg, friedrich, 8-6 nurock (e. c.) optometric research library, 3-19 nus, van (see van nus) 0 obituary, 4-15 obremskey, michael, 4-41; 5-4; 6-32 obrig, theodore, 7-20-21; 7-35-36; 8-30 occhiena, ernest, 10-2 occlusion, 5-7 ocean, optical properties of, 3-31 ocular diseasehistory, 10-74 ocular exams history, 10-68 "ocular muscle balance at the reading distance and certain related factors," 8-4 ocular pathology in tmmigrants, 9-44 ocular refraction tests, 7-22 "ocular surgery: yesterday, today, and tomorrow," 5-40 ocular symptomatology, 9-4 ocular treatment history, 10-7 4 oculist, 4-26-27 "odds and ends," 7-41 o'dea, william, 5-28; 6-29 odin, 8-41 oenological optics, 4-33 o.e.p. (see optometric extension program), 0-eye-0, 6-16 officers (o.h.s.), 1-5; 6-12; 10-48 ohio state board of optometry, 3-7 university libraries, 4-41; 5-4; 6-33 optometry school, 5-34; 5-37; 6-16 . oiets refraktionstilstande, 7-22 old books, 4-52; 9-10 eye glasses, 2-8; 2-17; 3-11-12; 3-20 horsey, 7-16 "oldest lens in the world, the," 4-26 olin, w., 7-44 oliphant, mark, 7-80 oliver, charles, 7-11; 7-79 -98olsen, olee, 4-41; 5-4; 6-33 "on photographing the retina of the living human eye," 9-29 "on the anomalies of accorrrnodation and refraction of the eye," 9-11 "onderzoekingen over de hoegrootheid der acconrnodatie," 1-12 "one man's work," 4-18 onepiece bifocal lens company, 3-10 ontario, 9-57 association of optometrists, 4-22 ophthalmia, 10-72 ophthalmic genealogy, 4-25 ophthalmic instruments, 4-34 jurisprudence, 6-24 kinship, 4-25 landmarks for 1979, 6-49 museum in paris, 6-42 opticianry, 7-66 opticians, 4-21 optics, 4-20; 8-8 pedigrees, 4-25 scientist, 7-85 side of history, 8-57 ophthalmic optician, 1-10; 1-20; 3-3; 4-5; 4-20-21; 4-26; 4-35; 5-14; 5-22; 5-38; 7-23 ophthalmic photographers society, 10-59 ophthalmological coins, 7-68 medals, 7-68 ophthalmologist, 4-14; 5-8; 6-14 19th century russian women, 6-49 as pope, 7-67 ophthalmology, 4-31; 4-52 american, 10-55 american journal of, 7-20 archives of, 7-20 haads atlas of, 3-4 history, 9-29 patron saint, 2-17 ophthalmometer, 5-29 ophthalmoscope, 4-50; 5-41; 6-4; 6-29; 6-50; 7-84 invention, 5-41; 9-25 ophthalmoscopy, 4-26 ophthalmy, 4-26 opland, ronald, 3-4 oppenheimer, s.m., l-2; l-5; l-8; 2-7; 3-2; 4-4; 5-4; 6-33 optepaphy, 7-20 optic chiasm theory (see also chiasm) , 4-56 optic glasses, l~-26 instrument maker, 8-10 optical age, 4-50 aids, 3-31 appliance, 4-27 books (oldest), 4-46-46 colleges (history), 10-47 company, 7-20 hong kong, 2-5 developments, 5-19 glass, 4-30 guilds, 4-48 history, 10-33 ins trurnent antique, 5-13 makers, 6-10 journal, the, 2-8; 3-28; 3-38; 4-60; 5-12; 5-20; 5-35 6-5 journal and review, 2-17; 3-7; 3-39; 5-35; 9-7 journal supplement, 5-12; 5-20 lenses, 7-17 manufacturers, 4-58 "memories," 5-32 museum in stockholm, 6-45 parlor books, 10-12 phenomena, 10-12 -99philately (see also philately), 3-25 practitioners, 7-83 properties of the sea, 3-31 publications, 4-46 review, the, 5-35 societies, 10-53 society of america, 2-21; 7-4; 9-65 history, 7-4 spectra, 5-32 world, 7-35 "optical tradition, an," 5-39 optician, 4-32; 5-9; 6-4; 8-6; 8-16 optician, the, l-8; 2-3; 3-8; 4-7; 4-20-21; 4-26; 4-45; 5-39; 8-9; 8-57; 8-65; opticianryhistory, 9-59 opticians board, 4-19 "legal standing," 3-8; 8-14 manual, the, 7-13; 7-86 "outfit," 6-6 patron saint, 2-17 registration board, 5-11 l'opticien belge de belgische opticien, 5-15 "opticks " lt-50; 7 --:!':'. optics, 4-16; 4-26; 4-52; 5-15; 5-25; 5-33; 9-2 calendar, 8-22 · colonial, 4-30 geometrical, 5-16 history, 9-l; 9-7; 7-18 in a 1795 dictionary, 4-26 in liechtenstein, 8-25 in merrie england, 10-16 in the graeco-roman age, 2-18 manchester, 7-22 mathematical, 3-12 oenological, 4-33 of euclid, the, 3-12 physiological, 4-6 "optikeren, maanedsblad for optik," 7-14 optikerfagets faellesudvalg, 7-14 optikerforening, danrnarks, 7-8 "optikermeister, ~r," 7-22 optikos, 7-20 optiks and phototechnique, school for, 7-14 optisher museum der zeiss-werke, 4-34 optist, the, 5-41 optometer, 8-28 optometric advertising, 10-41 "analysis of visual performance," 8-26 assistant, 10-16 association of the phillipines, 5-29; 5-31 7-17; 9-12; 9-32 books (historical), 1-16; 9-9-10 (see also books) cartoon (see also cartoons), 8-32-33 education, 4-49; 8-71 and professional advancement, 7-77 "fraternity and protection," 5-29 extension program, 3-39; 9-50; 9-56 historical collection, 4-55 historical society (see under separate heading below) history, 5-25-26; 5-37; 7-87; 8-8 indiana, 10-62 institute and clinics of detroit, 3-22 instruments, 9-3 journal and review of optometry, 4-9 jurisprudence, 10-71 legislation, 10-43 news, 8-36 organizations, 2-1 "practice development and practice administration," 5-26 profession, the, 5-27 slogans, 9-4 weekly, 3-30; 4-35; 4-37; 4-56; 5-18; 5-29; 5-35; 6-9; 6-11; 7-21 world, 2-18; 4-33 optometric historical society see also: archives business meeting charter member checks corrmittee contributions correspondence donations dues elections executive board fellowship finances historical society, optometric honorary membership legacy membership membership new members newsletter nominations officers parliamentary authority president reports secretary treasurer vice president 1-2; 3-33; 6-6; 7-3; 8-56 by-laws, 1-2; 3-21 change of address, 9-35 commentary on, 7-3-4 election results 1978, 9-1; 9-17 executive board, 9-53; 10-1 10-38 history, 8-55 meetings, 9-1; 9-53 membership, 6-39; 9-35 new members, 10-39 president, 6-37; 7-26 secretarytreasurer, 6-37; 7-26 treasurers report december 1978; 10-l optametricana, 8-24 "optometrie, early," 5-37 -100optometrie, leitschrift fur augenoptik und optometrie, 5-38 optometrist, 4-26-27; 4-33; 4-36; 4-45; 4-48-49; 4-55; 4-57; 4-59; 5-11-12; 5-13; 5-18 5-22; 5-24; 5-29; 5-32; 5-36; 5-38; 5-41; 6-5; 6-12; 6-15-16; 6-25-27; 8-6; 9-4-5 british, 4-14 deceased, 4-49; 4-15 memorialized, 6-47-48 pachecos, 4-25 women, 4-34; 4-50 word history, 10-68 optometry (see also specific title, i.e., cark~a~ etc.), 3-35; 4-9; 4-27; 4-~9; 4-55; 4-58; 5-16; 5-21; 5-25; 5-29; 5-40; 6-l; 6-8; 6-22; 6-24; 6-27; 7-78 american acadeny of (see under .arneric811) .american journal fo (see under .american) , 4canada, 4-22; 4-36 danish, 7-14 heritage, 8-25 history, 4-33; 8-71; 9-1; 10-38 in 1819 encyclopedia, 9-1 indiana laws, 7-42 influence, 2-4 institute of, 7-7 legal development of 4-38 mexico, 3-19 military, 6-12 museum, 6-1 new york acadeny of, 7-2 profession, 5-27 s.chools berkeley, 4-7 history, 10-47 indiana university, 4-8 waterloo, 2-5; 2-15 student journal, 5-12 washington, 1-12 "optometry in theory and practice," 4-35 "optometry on trial," 4-59 "optometry: profession, economic and legal aspects," 5-27 -101"optometry the profession and science," 5.:..26 "optometry, 2, 000 years ago," 7-24 oral history, 2-2; 3-5-6; 3-13; 3-33; 5-31 orbeli, l.a., 4-6 orbicularis oculi, 9-51 oregon optometric association, 5-40 optometrist, 5-40 organizations optometric, 2-1 history, 1-23 oriani, americo, 7-21 "origins of optometry," 7-83 orma 1000 lenses, 8-44 ortega, jorge, 3-19 orthokeratology, 6-22 orthoptic, 4-34; 6-47; 7-86 ortiz, luis, 4-41; 5-4 orzack, louis, 6-33 osborn, michael, 6-25 osmena, sergio, 7-17 osmotic pressure (of contact lens solution), 7-20 ostergord, w., 7-7 ostwald, 5-33 osun, rodrigo de, 3-11 otero, jose, 6-46 otoscopes, 6-21 otte, dick, 5-37 ottica italiana, 8-73 "outline of ophthalmology, an," 6-24 "outline study of fogging system," 9-27 "over there in 1918 with america's first mobile optical unit," 7-42 overton, rosalind, 7-11 oxford ophthalmological congress, 7-85 p pacheco, antonio, 1-24; 2-8; 3-15 3-24; 3-36; 4-4; 4-25; 4-37 4-38; 4-41; 5-4; 6-16; 6-33; 6-38-39; 8-76 pacheco, garcia sixto, 6-46 pacheco optometrists, 4-25 pacheco, ramon, 3-34; 4-4; 4-42 5-5; 6-33 pacheco, sixto, 4-42; 5-5; 8-76 pacific coast ophthalmological convention, 6-1 padman, eric, 4-42; 5-5; 6-33; 8-5-6 pain, i.d.c., 9-42 painting, 4-27. palicki, max, 4-37 palmer, wm., 7-42; 8-12 paludan, hother, 7-7 panoptic bifocal, 3-14 panum, 3-42 pap, 2-18 "paps" (waldemar rusche) , 5-8 "paradigm and methodology in the optics of alhazen," 5-30 parks, billie, 3-1; 4-4; 5-5; 7-11 parks, e.c., 4-10; 6-33 parnigoni, richard, 4-42; 5-5 parnum, ivy, 4-38 partridge, eric, 10-64 pasco scientific, 10-29 paterson, thomas, 3-12 patron saint of ophthalmology, 3-11 the optician, 2-17 patton, john, 5-7 paul, albert, 1-2; 1-5; 4-4; 6-33 pavia, j.l., 7-86 pax, 2-1 pecham, john, 2-17 and the science of optics, 2-17 peczely, von (see von peczely) pelly, laurence, 3-3 penisten, douglas, 10-21 pennsylvania college of optometry, 4-57; 5-12 5-20 library, • 4-4; 5-5; 6-33 magazine of history and biography, 3-37; 6-25 people guide, 3-40 pepys, samuel, 3-20; 4-35 perception and psychophysics, 3-7-8 "perception of images," 8-67 "perfect sight without glasses," 8-17 perimeters, 6-4 peripatetic optometrist, 5-36 perkins school for the blind, 10-7 ' 1perspecti ve communis," 2-17 peters, henry, 4-55 peters, james, 9-8 petry, ernest, 5-10 pettey, weston, 4-15 pflugk, albert, 8-24 phantasmascope, 8-3ll pheiffer, chester, 5-5; 6-33; 6-43 7-58-59; 10-64 phenakistascope, 8-34 -102philadelphia and the genesis of the motion picture, 3-37 optical college, the, 7-13; 7-16 4-54 optical parlor, 7-13 photographer, 9-29 story of optometry, 2-13 philately, 3-11; 3-25; 9-31 philips, gerard, 7-4 philippines, 9-12 optometry, 9-12 optometric association of, 7-17 phillips, r., 9-11 philosophy optics, 8-31 "philosophy, science, technolor~, 1-14 phoropter, 7-84 de zeng, 9-3 "photoismi de i..umine, 3-.l9 photograph, tscherning, 7-14 photographic equipment, 4-9 "eye", 3-31 trade journal, 2-3; 3-8 photographs aoa collection, 7-2 photography fundus (see also fundus) , 10-59 first, 9-15 photons, 3-5; 3-35; 4-27; 5-39 photoreceptor cells -discovery, 6-49 physicists, 6-41; 10-29 physics, 7-9 "physiologic examination of thh organ of vision," 5-41; 6-42 physiological optics, 7-73 5th conference, 4-6; 4-50 "physiology of vision under normal and extremal conditions," 4-6 piekarczyk, paul, 10-61 pierson, richard, 9-8 pinchot, gifford, 1-14; 4-52; 5-9 pine, harty, 4-53; 10-54; 10-71 normulator, 4-53-54 pirenne, henri, 3-11 pirquet, c.p. von, 5-19 pistor, hermann, 3-39; 7-25; j o-:'o l•':.lcllsclmle fur aut~enoptik, j-:10 "plus," 7-25 "l'lnisir de france,'' 6-42 plastic lenses, 8-72 plate, franz, 7-7 plateau, j.a.f., 8-1; 8-34 spiral, 8-1 play bill, 7-42 pleasanton, a~j., 908; 9-17 plus fifty sphere, 7-51 poe, edgar allan, 4-12 poland, 8-25 pooley, thomas, 9-10 "pop" lubin, 4-51 pope, 7-67 "popular wctures on scientific subjects," 8-67 porta, giovan battista della (see also della), 9-5 porta, il, 9-6 porter (w.j.) prize, 4-37 porterfield, wiliiam, 4-31; 6-44; 8-28 potter, jack, 5-31 potter (charlotte) memorial fund, 5-31 poulsen, scheel, 7-7 power lenses, 4-35 "practical diagnosis of stimula­ tion of loss of touch sense, deafness, and amblyopia," 7-22 "practical guide to the study of diseases of the eye," 9-11 "practical treatise on the diseases of the eye," 9-11 "practice of fitting contact lenses, 7-21 practitioners, (basis for choosing) 4-27 "precious eye, the," 4-56 precision contact, 7-20-21 prentice, charles, 2-20-21; 4-23; 5-39; 6-15; 7-2; 7-9; 7-27; 9-30; 10-50 merrorial medal, 5-38 preoptometry, 3-37 presbyopia, 6-22; 7-76; 8-28 presbyterian historical almanac, 8-60 . prescriptions, 4-13; 4-27 president (o.h.s.), 1-5; 2-2; 4-1 of phillipines, 7-16 of the royal academy, 4-10 pr'l '~; i d l 'i 1 i. i.:t l boo\\. review, 9-6 lecture, 5-40 presidents u.s. (see also by name), 2-15; 7-17 glasses, 7-16 preston, richard, 6-1 "pricing of old books," 9-12 priestly, joseph, 4-31 "principles," 4-56 -103"principles of light and color, the," 9-18 printed plates, 6-4 printer's devil, 9-10 private collections, 10-14 "private dining room," 2-7 privy seal (of charles i), 8-16 prizes, 4-36 "problems of physiological optics," 4-6 "problems of the dyslexic child, the," 4-7 proceedings american philosophical society, 7-79 contact lens meeting, 7-21 "professional orientation," 5-26 project-0-chart, 7-17 protractor celluloid, 7-24 "proud walk through optometric history, a," 2-14 puerto rico, 2-8; 3-34; 4-24 optometric chronology, 4-25 o.h.s. members, 3-34 optometric legislature, 8-32 pulfrich, carl, 7-10; 7-33; 7-84 effect, 3-29 pupillary reflexes, 8-28 purkinje, jan (also purkyne), 5-41; 6-42; 6-50 purulent ophthalmia, 6-23 "puzzle of our optometric past, the," 3-30 q quengzy, 6-51 quilt (autographed), 5-10 quinn, arthur, 4-12 quinn, john., 3-7 r "radiation of light," 8-11 railroad (see cassville) rainbow, 9-64 ramirez perez, julio, 6-46 "ramon y cajal," (see also cajal) 5-42 rampolla medina, daisy, 6-46 ramsden, 7-18 collection, 8-75 ramstein, max, 8-75 randolph, m.e., 8-17 raphael, j:--tck, g-lf8 raphael, o.p., 5-7 rare books (see also books), 9-30; 9-gl 10-18; 10-30; 10-46 rasmussen, o.p., 2-6; 2-16 ratanasirintrawoot, prernvadee, 5-5; 6-33; ray, alan, 4-20 ray, james, 5-19 reading charts, 4-55 "reading fingers, the life of louis braille," 6-23 reading lens, 7-24 "reading puddle ball," 3-20 reagan, ronald, 5-28 "recent progress of the theory of vision, the," 8-67 reciprocal innervation, 10-74 reciprocity, 8-23 redslob, e., 7-85 reed, d.r., 2-8; 4-4; 5-5; 6-33; 7-12; 7-41; 8-70 . rees, abraham, 9-1 rees, lynn, 5-24; 6-33 reiner, josef, 8-15 reflecting stereoscope, 4-5 reflexes, 8-28 "refraccion," 3-39 refracting equipment, 4-34 instruments (antique), 4-33 refraction, 4-13-14; 4-16; 4-52 hospital, 9-16 tests, 7-22 "refraction and accommodation," 4-50 "refraction and how to refract," 9-10 "refraction of the eye, the," 9-10 refractive analysis, 7-14 analysis and techniques, 7-14 error, 5-28; 8-28 refractor leland, 7-2 "refrakitionsbestemnelse og brilletil­ pasning," 7-14 "refraktionsbestimrnungen und brillenanpassung," 7-6 regained sight, 9-31 reichle, karin, 6-47 reitzels, c.ao, 7-14 "religion and science," 4-7 "remarkable family of opticians a " 5-39 ' ' remedies, 2-5 "remembering ourselves," 9-52 reminisce-in, 3-13; 3-33; 5-17 5-10; 5-31; 5-35 "reminiscences of over 70 years," 5-32 rentsch, werner, 7-86 rentzsch, werner, 3-29; 3-39; 4-28; 6-47 reports: secretary-treasurer (o.h.s. , 3-1 "reputable optical colleges," 10-47 research center library of the american optical corp. 9-30 research medal (collins), 9-10 resnik, judith, 9-50 resnik, marvin, 9-50 ress, l.a. 9-2-3; 9-28; 9-34; 9-44 retina, 4-26 retina, g.h., 7-22 retinal image, 4-35 retinoscope, 4-55 ryer, 7-2 retinoscopie dioproscopie, 5-13 retinoscopy, 5-13; 5-39 revell, m.j., 2-12; 3-22; 4-4-5 4-36; 5-5; 5-7; 5-14; 6-33; 7-86 review of optometry, 2-8 history, 9-20 review, presidential book, 9-6 reynolds, joshua, 4-10 historical library, 9-1 rice, william (f"lr's.), 4-29 richenthal, ulrich, 8-6 rickenbacker, eddie, 6-25 ridley, harold, 3-8; 10-70 rieger, l.s., 4-37 riggs, joseph, 6-25 riley, james whitcomb, 3-11 rintelen, f., 6-47; 6-49; 10-33 ritholz, 3-9 rittenhouse, david, 4-30 rivera santiago, jose a., 6-46 rizal, jose, 1-22 robertson, marion, 2-5 robins, grace, 7-34 robinson, nancy, 8-76 robinson, robert, 9-21 roblin, jean, 6-23 rodenstock, 9-16 firm, 9-16 rodenstock, josef, 9-16 -104rodenstock, rolf, 9-16 "rodenstock unlimited," 9-16 rodgers, becky, 7-11 rodgers, donna, 7-11 rodriguez (albert) memorial auditorium, 3-19 rodriguez martinez, adalberto, 6-46 rodriguez, rafael, 6-46 rods and cones, 6-49 rogers, goerge, 9-20 rogue's gallery, 4-17 roher, g., 7-25 rohr, moritz von, 6-8; 8-68 romer, f., 7-84 ronchi, giorgio, 5-15; 7-18; 8-39-40 ronchi, lucia, 7-18 ronchi, vasco, 1-14; 2-18; 5-15 9-5-7 rones, benjamin, 6-47 roos, gerhard roos, kugn, 7-23 roos, wolfgang, 7-23 roosen, geraud, 3-35; 4-4; 5-5 6-33 roosevelt, f.d., 1-14; 3-14; 4-52; 6-25 roosevelt, john, 3-11 roosevelt, theodore, 4-25; 5-28 roper-hall, m.j., 10-70 rose, a.h.t., 4-19; 6-17 rose, stephen, 6-33 rosen, edward, 8-42 rosenfeld, a., 9-7 rosenstihl, h.j., 8-72 rosere, r.a., 2-5 rossoy, allan, 7-21 rosser, hubert, 1-2; 1-16; 7-16 rossi, f. , 9-65 roth, robert, 7-20-21 roueche, berton, 7-28 rowe, i.m., 9-48 rou, p.n.,7-87 royal academy, 3-3 royal institute for the young blind, 6-23 royal microscopical society, 6-41 royal netherlands academy of sciences, 10-30 royal order of goats, 10-71 royal society, 6-41 ruben, montague, 7-47; 7-83 rubens, peter paul, 3-17-18 rubin, jack, 5-13; 5-21; 5-24; 6-33 rubin, sigmund, 4-51 rucker, wilber, 3-18 rusche, vjaldema.r ("paps") , 5-8 rushton, w .a.h., 10-73 ruskiewiez, joseph, 6-33 -105russia, history of visual science in, 4-6 ryabachok, dr. , 9-4 ryer, e.l., 1-2; 1-6; 4-4; 4-12; 4-18; 4-37; 4-50; 5-26; 6-28; 7-1; 8-57-58 museum, 7-17; 7-1-2 s sabell, a.g., 7-77 sabra, a.i., 5-30 sacharias, janssen, 9-6 saideh, 7-83 saint (see also patron) st. claire, h.d., 1-12 st. james church, 9-60 st. jerome, 2-17 st. lucia day, 8-8 st. valentine's day massacre, 6-26 st. yves, 6-50 sakks, ioannis, 5-21 saks, j.l., 2-5; 6-27-28 foundation, 5-11 sakyamuni, 4-11 salvatori, philip, 7-21; 7-35-36 salvius, la.r, 8-11 samsonova, v.g., 4-6 sanchez (jose) memorial eye clinic, 3-19 sanchez velez, felix, 6-46 sandor, robert, 8-9 santa lucia, 3-11; 8-8 day' 8-73 gille, 8-9 saskatchewan optometric association, 8-40 saunders, john, 5-19 scandinavian opticians/ optometrists, 3-35 "scant quarter," 3-10 schactschabel, karl, 8-15 schaedel, harmut, 7-23; 8-15 schapero, max (guest lecture series) 5-12 scheiner, 7-lb schiotz, h.j., 7-22 schmidt, bernard, 10-13 camera, 10-13 and haensch, 9-15 schmidt, theodor, 10-73 schmitz, emil-heinz, 4-12; 4-35 6-17; 6-47; 7-15; 7-23; 8-72; 8-70; 10-33 schneider, zurich, 6-17 schober, herbert, 3-17; 5-37 schoen, john, 6-34 scholarships, 4-36 school danish optical, 7-5; 7-7 of applied optics, 5-32 of optics, 4-19 schools (extinct), 8-18-20 schott, otto, 7-33; 10-56 schubert, franz, 3-11 schugar, richaiu, 4-4; 5-5; 5-20-21; 6-34; 9-3 schultz laboratory, 8-12 schumann, william, 4-42; 5-5; 6-34 . schuster, j., 7-41 schutz, c., 7-23 schuyler, louisa lee, 10-13 schweigger, 3-17 schwimmer, reinhardt, 7-26 science, 7-22 "science and civilization in china, 2-5-6; 8-69 "science and thought in the 15th century," 1-20 science of seeing, 7-77 scopistry, 7-79 scott, brian, 10-63 scott, ronald, 4-20-21 scott, thomas, 10-64 scott, walter, 3-8; 10-16 scottish association of opticians, 8-72 scrantonian, the 5-30 scrapbook, 7-40-41 "scrapbooks of a hoosier optometrist," 3-14 sea, optical properties, 3-31 searcy, harvey, 2-15 sears, m.l., 6-12; 6-50 sears-roebuck co. catalogue, 6-6 secretary-treasurer (o.h.s.), 1-5 reports, 3-21; 3-34; 3-37 section on ophthalmology (a.m.a.), 5-42 seefelt, edward, 4-56 seeing, 8-5 seger, charles, 1-14; 1-24; 3-33; 4-4 5-5; 6-34 "sehprufung vor 3000 jahren," 7-24 semokaitis (julie) memorial fund, 6-16 seneca's quaestiones naturales, 8-10 sentinal, 3-41 "september 1947tj" 3-41 serial sacrosanctity, 7-82 serials librarian, 7-33 servin, g., 7-85 "7 and 4 out the door," 3-10 shaneson, elias, 1-12; 4-4; 5-5 6-34 shanks, edward, 4-12 shastid, thomas, 6-14-15 sheard, charles, 3-7; 3-14-15; 3-29; 5-10; 5-34; 7-77 8-4; 9-1; 9-29 sheard, d.a., 4-36 shearer, c.w., 1-12; 4-4; 5-5; 6-17; 6-34 sheffington, a.m., 1-10 shepard, john (mr's.), 3-14 shepard (carl) memorial, 1-14 library, 3-11 shepard, ruth, 3-42 sherman, geraldine, 4-61; 10-36; scholarship fund, 10-36 sherrington, 5-33 shetty, n.b., 3-24; 4-4; 5-5; 6-34 shipley, t., 3-30 sirayama, sekiya, 7-33 shreiner, e.e., 9-7; 9-17 shreve, j.r., 7-42 shultz (donald) lab, 8-12 shuron/continental digest, 3-11 sichel, jules, 9-11 "sieben ja.hrhunderte brille," 7-23 "sight: an exposition on the principles of minocular and binocular vision," 4-6 sight defects, 4-35 testing, 4-26; 8-5 "sight testing optician," 5-31 silva, daniel, 7-21 silverstein, samuel, 7-20 simpson, donald, 3-30 simpson, r. harold, 6-43 sinclair, mrs., 2-14 -106singer, curtis, 5-26-27 sjogren, halverd, 3-35 skeffington, a.m., 8-26 skiascopie, 5-13 skjoldbo, c.l., 7-14 slade, f.r., 5-11 slace, lewis, 5-11 prize, 5-11 slit-lamp microscopy history, 10-73 slocum, claude, 4-58 s.m.c. (see also worshipful company of spectacle makers), 7-3 smith, damien, 4-50; 7-80; 8-53; 10-59 smith, dorothy, 3-4 srrdth, j.p., 6-17; 7-77 smith, p.a., 4-17 smith, robert, 9-30 smith, sandra, 3-4; 3-12; 4-39; 6-37; 7-26 smith, william, 7-86 smithsonian institution, 4-30 smoked glass, 9-8 sneider, william, 7-21 snett, 7-18 snell, c.a., 4-22 snell, willebrord, 10-19; 10-37 snellen, 3-17 snellius, willebrord, 10-19; 10-37 snyder, charles, 4-30; 6-47 "social history of lighting, the," 5-28; 6-29 "social optometry," 5-26 societe d'optometrie d'europe, 3-34 society american philosophical, 7-11 danish ophthalmological 7-16 for the advancement of contact lens research, 7-21 indiana historical, 3-21 optometric historical, 1-2; 3-21 sohnges, withelm, 6-40; 10-37 solomon, a.e., 8-6 solutions, contact lens, 7-20 "some historical notes on carl pulfrich," 7-84 "same pages of bifocal history," 4-9 sonnefeld, august, 6-8 sonography, 6-23 soochow, 2-17 south africa, republic, 6-27 south af'rican optometric association, 2-5 5-32; 5-40; 6-34 optometrist, 5-11 optometrist, 5-32; 5-40 south bend college of optics, 7-13 southall, james, 5-15-16; 6-24 southall, p.c., 9-1; 10-54 southern california college -107of optometry, 5-12; 5-24; 9-21 southern college of optometry, 5-17; 7-1 library, 5-5; 6-34 southern optcmetrist, 'lhe, 3-15 soviet union (see also russia), 4-6 s.o.z. (see also suddeutsche optikerzeitung), 7-23 spafford, r.e., 4-37 spatial perception, 10-70 spearman, f .h., 1-16 specere, 8-63 specialoptikernes landsforening, 7-5; 7-7 "specs n' stamps," collection (see aslo philately), 3-11 spectacles, 4-12; 4-16; 4-35; . 4-43; 4-45; 4-48; 4-55; 4-60; 5-25; 5-32; 6-1-2; 6-3-4; 6-9; 8-11; 8-23-24; 9-2; 9-5; 9-11 allergy, 9-59 antique, 4-33-34; 4-45; 7-2 aqua-crystal, 5-14 bunyan, paul, 6-15 designs, 9-7 double, 8-28 history, vol. 1, supplement, 9-1; 9-5; 10-33; 10-36; 10-73 invention, 10-32 iseikonic, 6-21 italian, 10-34 makers, 4-30; 6-10; 6-41; 8-16; 8-32; 8-68 worshipful col. of (see also worshipful), 7-3 making (history), 10-73 manufacture (history} , 10-34 market, 4-24 old (see antique above), 1-15; 2-7 philippine presidents, 7-17 rimless, 7-45 sweden, 9-13 "timetable" errors, 6-42 vending machine, 9-7 wearers of the revolutionary era, 7-76 wire rim, 7-22 sphy~omancmeter, 9-3 spiegel, 8-63 "spirit for '76," 5-30; 6-40 spoone, angus, lo-64 springborg, walter~ 3-14 springer, donald, ll-55 squarebriggs (harry) memorial lectures, 3-20 "squawman, the," 4-51 squint (see also angles of squint), 4-5; 4-26; 4-54 elimination, 5-7 stafanacci, siroonetto, 7-18 · staiman, jacob, 1-24; 4-4; 4-37; 4-45; 5-5; 6-34; 8-24; 8-45; 8-73; 9-50; 10-17 stampfer, s.r. von, 8-34 stamps (see also philately), 3-25 stanislavski~ 3-11 star-clock,. ~-62 stark, lawrence, 10-74 stars, 8-7-8 state college of optometry library, 3-22 state optometric associations, 3-5 state optical institute, 4-6 statue of f.c. donders, 7-14 stealey, roy, 5-18 stein, gertrude, 3-30 stein, jules, 5-42 stein, martha, 9-56 stereo grams, 3-30 stereophenomenon, 7-84-85 stereopsis, 4-13 stereoscope, 10-12 stereoscope a' charniere, 4-5 stereoscope (reflecting), 4-5 "stereoscopes and stereoscopic views," 6-23 sterne, karl, 9-1 stevens, j., 6-22 stevenson, elma, 5-27-28 stevenson, harry, 5-27-28 stewart, walter, 4-18 st:imner, tobias, 8-70 stimson, russell, 10-41 stocker, frederick, 6-47 stone, f.h., 7-42 stonskas, carolyn, 6-12; 6-14 storey, j.k., 7-86 "story of optometry, the," 5-26; 9-10 "story of vision," 7-42 strabismus (see also squint) , 2-12; 7-86 straker, stephen, 3-18 straub, wolfgang, 10-73 strawn, e.w., 1-14 memorial fund, 3-19 strickland, jerald, 5-17-18 stroboscope, 8-34 stuckey, kenneth, 10-7 studebaker, david, 4-4; 5-5; 6-34 "studies in the history of ophthajmology in england prior to the year 1800," 4-31 stuewer, r.h., 0-34 sturm, 3-17 suddeutsche optikerzeitung, 3-29; 4-12; 4-35; 5-37; 6-1 7-23; sullivan, e.f., 7-68 9-16 sully, thomas, 7-76 summers, will, 3-12 sun (direct fixation), 8-1 sundial, 8-30 super, selwyd, 4-4; 5-5; 5-11; 6-34 superietrr•, ecole, 7-33 survey of ophthalmology, 7-37 "survey of optometry," 5-26 suttcliffe, j.h., 4-10; 4-45; 5-40; 9-64; 10-52 scholarship, 4-37 sutton, m.r., 1-14 sveningsen, alex, 3-38 swaby laboratory, 8-12 swann, l.a., 5-38 swaziland, 9-31 sweden, 6-45; 9-13-14 symbols, 4-34 eye, 4-56 "synoptophores -the history of," 4-5 synverktyg fran aldre tider, 6-45 "system of fitting glasses and apparatus for use in practicing the same," 2-19 -108"system of ophthalmolqsy," 8-17 t tabo, 8-7 taboada, jorge, 3-19 tactile art, 10-36 taft, robert, 3-11 ta.it, c.c., 2-5 tal om optiken, 7-65 talbot-plateau law, 8-1 "tales of hofftnann, the," 4-50 talismanic eye symbols, 4-10; 4-56 talley, daniel, 10-41 tamamizuya optician co. ltd., 4-:-11 tannebaum, sol, 1-2; 1-6; 2-14; 3-1; 3-21; 3-30; 3-33; 4-1; 4-4; 4-28; 5-6; 5-23; 6-1; 6-34; 7-26; 8-4; 8-13; 8-27; 9-1 tasmanian act, 3-24 legislation, 8-5 optometry board, 3-23 tavernier, jean-baptiste, 5-8 taylor, isaac, 4-45; 5-13-14 taylor, jennifer, 6-34 taylor, ward e., 9-21 "teaching of buddha, the," 4-11 teague, s.j., 9-9 "techiliques of fitting contact lenses," 7-21 technische, hochschule, 7-10 "technology,, j.vianagement andsociety," 10-32 telescope, 6-41; 7-23; 8-10-11; 9-6 galilean, 10-13 gunsights, 7-24 invention, 9-6-7 "telescopic spectacles and magnifiers as aids to poor vision," 5-42 temples, 3-9 "ten theorems essential for finesse in optometry," 7-2 terry, jack, 5-6; 6-34 test, knife-edge texas optometric association, 4-15; 10-66 "texas optometry honors its most senior full time practicing optometrist," 4-16 "textbook of physiology," 7-73 thabor teens, 8-8 'lheil, p. vl. , 8-11 'lhelan, alfred, 8-25 'lheological optics , 10-35 'iheoretical history, 4-5 "theories of vision from al-kindi to kepler," 10-41 'lherbusch, anna, 8-70 thiele, johan, 3-35 crossed cylinder technique, 8-11 "'ihinkers and tinkers," 4-30 'ihiriart, jean, 3-5; 3-34-35; 4~4, 4-27; 4-37; 5-6; 6-34; 6-42 -109"thirty years in contact lenses," 6-41 'ihanas , j. herman, 7-56 'ihanas, margaret, 7-79 'ihomas, r. ~ 3-8 thompson, lj.-50 'lllompson, peter, 7-84 thomson, h.a., 7-13 1895 correspondence course in optics, 7-13 thorington, james, 9-10 'ihorndike, iqnn, 1-20 'lhorner, walther, 7-84; 9-15 'lllornthwaite, wrn., 8-16 thorson, roy, 5-29 award, 3-20; 5-29 "three cases of foreign bodies in the eye," 9-10 tibaut, raymond, 5-31 tiffany, flavel, 9-11 tjme, 5-21 times record, 'ihe, 5-19 timms, d.l., 5-29 tina, r.e., 10-55 tinted glasses, 9-8 "title varies," 9-16 titus, sterrett, 6-34; 9-21-24 l:iernoirs , 9-21 tbbiasz, e.c., 6-11 todd, a.s., 7-41 todd, w .s.' 2-8 "todos los optometras de puerto rico, a," 4-25; 4-38 toewe, carolyn (see also stonskas, carolyn) toewe, william, 6-12 toncmeter aneroid, 7-86 indentation, 7-86 tonometric, 4-34 tonometry (applanation), 10-56 topaz, lional, 8-65 memorial library, 3-5 toroidal lens, 8-61 tbitence, m.d., 1-2; 4-5; 5-6; 6-34 tort, jose, 6-46 touh,y, kevin, 7-jq trachoma, 9-28 trachtman, joseph, 8-22 trade journals, 4-24 trade practices, 4-24 trademarks (zeiss) , 4-9 transactions of .american academy of ophthalmology and otolaryngology, 5-42 .american ophthalmological society, 5-40 .american philosophical society, 9-7 illwninating engineering society, 5-28 international ophthalmic optical congress, 1970, 4-36 trantas, alexios, 10-55 "travels in india," 5-8 travis (wm.) estate record, 5-34-35 "treatise de 1 'ophthar.r:d.e, la cataracte et l'.amourose," 9-11 "treatise on the diseases of the eye,a," 9-11; 9-33; 10-56 "treatise on the eye,a," 6-44 "treatise on the eye, the manner and phenomenon of vision," 4-31 "treatise on optics," 3-16 treleaven, clifford, 3-42; 9-1 trends and objectives, 1898-1909, 5~35 treviranus, gottfried, 6-49 trifocals, 8-28 tri-state trader, 1-8 troland, leonard, 5-28-29; 6-21 truman, harry, 5-28 tscherrna.k, a., 3-42 tscherning, 7-5 photograph, 7-14 tso, cho, 2-5-6; 2-15 tso-sze, 2-16 tsuan-tsu hong, 2-16 tsuda, shozaburo, 4-11 tuberville, 3-20 tubesing, richard, 7-12 tubesing, robert, 6-48; 7-12 tumblin, james , 1-24; 3-33; 4-5; 4-38; 5-6; 6-34; 10-1; 10-17 tuohy, kevin, 7-19 turbayne, colin, 4-56 turner, gerard, 6-41 turville, a.e., 4-77; 10-54 tutankhamun, 9-49 tuttle, a.w., 2-20 "25 jahre entwicklung in der augenoptik," 5-37 ii i i "two generations in optcxnetry," 9-21 "231 years in optometry the story of a family," 4-9 "two treatises concerning eie­ sight," 9-49 tyler, sam, 5-41 u "uber die beziehungen zwischen licht urd elektrizitat," 7-9 "uber stimulation blind heit und schwachsichtigkeit und deren entlarvung," 7-22 udjat eye, 9-49 ueberschaar, gunter, 7-23; 10-21 ultraviolet radiation, 9-10 umpire (national league) , 3-9 unicef, 5-8 u.s. district court (in), 3-42 u.s. presidents, 9-33 u.s.s.r. acadell\y of science, 4-6 universidad central de venezuela, 3-40 universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, 9-1 university microfilms, 3-18 university of alabama, 4-55; 5-24 of california school of optoiietry berkeley, 4-56 of houston, 5-12 college of optometry, 5-41 of wales institute of science ard technology (u.w.i.s.t.) univis digest, 2-13 "unorthodoxy how far " 8-64 unpublished manuscripts, 4-51 upham, f .a., 4-22 urim and thurrm:i.m, 6-17 v valdez, daza de, 5-22; 10-38 van helden, albert, 9-7 van gogh, vincent, 3-18 van noort, a., 4-27 van nus, fred, 3-35 van veen, martin, 4-34 "variable and progr>essi ve power lenses , " 4-35 vassalli, debby, 6-16 vatican, library, 4-16; 5-33 -110vazquez, hector, 6-46 veen, van (see van veen) veins, aqueous, 6-50 velez, f.1anual, 6-33 vending apparatus, 9-7 venezuelan optometric association, 5-41 optometry, 3-39-40; 5-41 verma, satya, 5-6; 6-34 veterinary ophthalmology, 5-34 vice president (o.h.s.), 1-5 vug, thorlief, 3-35 villani, sergio, 6-34 vinci, leonardo da (see also da vinci), 3-18; 5-33; 7-85; 8-40 violet glass, 9-8 v.i.s.i.c., 4-27 vision, 4-7; 4-56; 5-28-29; 5-30; 5-33 binocular, 4-6 care, 4-24 history, 10-40 monocular, 4':"'"6 "vision and optics in 1776," 6-44 vision research, 3-31 vision testing (industrial), 7-14 "visual acuities: factors, theories, problems," 4-51 visual acuity, 4-13 charts, 4-34 measurement, 5-40; 7-41; 9-62 notation, 5-40 testing, 9-28 visual aids, 7-23 "history, legend, and fact," 4-36 "of long ago," 6-45 visual consultant, 7-17 visual illusions and their application, 7-76 visual illusions, their causes, characteristics, and appli­ cations," 9-10 ''visual language," 4-56 visual optics, 7-14; 8-28 visual persistence, 8-34 process (history), 10-41 ps~rchology, 8-28 science, 3-28; 3-31; 4-6; 5-19; 6-11; 6-15; 7-86; 10-55 sensation, 8-67 training, 7-86 visual science information research center (see v.i.s.i.c.) vitellius, witelo, 4-16; ~32 vito, david, 4-42; 5-6; 6-34 vcxjnoy, bernard, 4-42; 5-6; 6-35 volz, h., 8-41 von fraunhofer, joseph, 7-24 von goethe, johann, 9-59 -111von graefe (see also graefe, von) 1-20; 2-12; 3-17 von haugwitz (see ha.ugwitz) von helmholtz (see also helmholtz), 1-19; 2-15 von peczely, ignatz, 10-57 von pirquet (see pirquet, von) von rohr, moritz, 7-8; 8-68 ''vote, the," 7-67 vrancx, sevastian, 4-26 vrugaft, m.e., 10-56 w wahr, george, 6-14; 6-24 walden, w.d., 2-20 wall eye, 4-26 wallis, norma, 5-6; 6-34 walls, gordon, 4-51; 5-22; 8-17; 8-63 walters, deborah, 7-12 waldrop, j. , 8-76 warner, eleanor, 10-9 warren, george, 3-14 washington school of ·optometry, 4-9 washington scope, 5-27 waterhouse, peter, 2-18 waterloo school of optometry, 2-5; 2-15 waterworth, newham, 3-22-24; 8-5-6 memorial lecture, 3-22 waterworth, philip, 3-24 watkins, bernard, 1-2; 1-5; 4-5; 6-35 watson, f.b., 4-10 watson, f.b., 3-22 wavelengths infants' response, 7-22 ''we used what we had," 2-15 weart, spencer, 9-52 weber, jack, 1-2; 1-5; 4-5; 4-7; 5-6; 5-33; 6-35; 7-24 weber, r..l., 8-21 webster, j.d., 9-29 weil, joseph, 3-14 weill, georges, 7-85 weiman, max1miliano, 7-21 weiner, grace, 1-2; 1-15; 3-2; 4-5 4-55; 5-6; 5-24-25; 6-35; 8-1 8-13; 8-17; 9-1; 9-17; 10~17 weinstein, m.h., 1-2; 1-5; 4-5; 4-34; 5-6 weis, william, 4-38 weiskopf, sally, 7-22 weisman, eugene, 9-3; 9-5 weiss, edmund, 7-6; 7-14 welch, herbert, 3-25-28; 8-46 welch, lester, 1-2; 3-2; 4-5; 5-6; 6-35 welch, r.b.; 8-17 wellington, john, 6-5 wells, william, 3-17; 10-55 wellsworth merchandiser, 7-14 wesley, john, 4-31 wessing, a., 7-86 west, benjamin, 4-10 westheimer, gerald, 6-15 wey, john, 5-6; 6-35 weymouth, f., 3-29; 8-4 weymouth, p.r., 8-4 ''what is light?", 2-18 wheatcroft, g.a., 4-17; 8-64 wheatstone, charles, 4-5 wheelock, a.p. 5-6; 7-10-11; 7-17 ''when opticians examined eyes with little equipnent," 7-84 whitaker, charles, 4-38 white, e.r., 7-40 who's who, 7-78 in america, 6-16 in the east, 6-38 in the midwest, 6-38 jn the south and southwest, 6-38 in the west, 6-38 wichers, max, 8-45 wichterle, 6-50 wick, k., 7-22 wick, ralph, 4-6; 5-26-27; 7-22-23 ''wie wurde die brille in alter und neuer zeit getragen?", 7-24 wilcox, norman, 8-58; 9-55 wilde, oscar, 6-50 wilde, william, 6-50 wildermuth, eof., 7-42 wille, herluf, 7-6-7 willenbrock, j., 5-39 williams, frank, 6-35 williams, jerome, 3-31 williams, henry, 9-11 williams, robert, 8-50 williams,. t.d., 7-33 wilmer institute, 6-47; 8-17 wilmer, w .h. , 2-20 wilson, kenneth, 6-35 wilson, woodrow, 3-11 windows (colored), 9-18 "winds of kitty hawk, the," 10-17 wine competition, 4-33 wingate, george, 5-39 wingate, w. rex, 9-64 wisconsin optometric association historic corrmittee, 3-15 optometric history, 9-54 optometry, 7-79 wiseman, eugene, 8-66; 9-3 wiseman, frank, 7-3 wiseman, max -memorial fund, 3-19 witelo (vitellius), 5-32) ''with heritage in hand," 4-48 witt, j .h., 1-9 wittig, j., 8-31 wolbach, john, 10-9 wold, karl, 8-11 wolf, emil, 10-52 wolfberg, melvin, 1-14; 1-24; 4-5; ~6; 6-35 wolff, j., 3-1; 4-5; 5-6; 7-25 woll, frederick, 2-19; 8-23; 9-1; 10-50 ' wollaston, w.h., 8-27 woo, g., 5-6; 6-35 wood, alex, 6-24 wood, ethel, 4-54; 5-6; 6-35 wood, oscar, 4-54 woodcock, f.r., 10-16 woodcut (american), 5-15 woods, ira, 10-67 woodward, william, 10-70 ''works on vision," 4-56 "world through blunted sight, the," 2-14 world war i, 4-13; 5-16; 5-37; 5-40 world war ii, 4-14 worshipful company of spectacle makers, 5-31; 7-3; 8-5; 8-15-16; 8-65; 8-72; 10-46; 10-56 wottring, leroy, 4-54 wright, charles, 7-80-81; 8-23 wright, frederic~, 7-80 wright library, 7-80-81 wright (w.d.) scholarship, 4-37 "writing, reading, and dyslexia, on," 5-42 wuensch, ron, 9-48 wundt, 5-33 -112y "years of fulfiljment," 9-9 york (adam) unique products co. , 10-13 york, alan, 8-2; 8-7; 8-24; 8-70; 9-31; 10-20 "you too can enjoy a busman' s holiday," 3-11 young, clarence, 4-9; 5-33 young, dwayne, 10-43 young, thomas, 6-11; 6-24; 7-18; 8-27-28; 10-27 z zamenhof, l.l., 8-43 zamer, 4-50 zeiss, carl, 4-8; 4-26; 7-32; 10-56 zeiss information, 4-9 trademarks, 4-9 werkzeitung, 7-32 works, 7-35 "zeittafel der schlehre," 10-55 zentmayer, joseph, 7-11; 7-78 zettel, john, 6-9 zielinski, j. , 8-25 zoethout, wm., 7-73 zones of ocular comfort, 8-4 "zur geschichte der adaptometrie," 6-28 "zur geschichte der fachschule fur optik und fototechnik berlin," 5-37 "zur geschichte der keratoplastik, 11 6-47 "zur geschichte der sehlehre," 3-29 zurbaran, francisco de, 3-11 zurich, university of, 6-47 zweiter band, 8-63 index-01-10-001 index-01-10-002 index-01-10-003 index-01-10-004 index-01-10-005 index-01-10-006 index-01-10-007 index-01-10-008 index-01-10-009 index-01-10-010 index-01-10-011 index-01-10-012 index-01-10-013 index-01-10-014 index-01-10-015 index-01-10-016 index-01-10-017 index-01-10-018 index-01-10-019 index-01-10-020 index-01-10-021 index-01-10-022 index-01-10-023 index-01-10-024 index-01-10-025 index-01-10-026 index-01-10-027 index-01-10-028 index-01-10-029 index-01-10-030 index-01-10-031 index-01-10-032 index-01-10-033 index-01-10-034 index-01-10-035 index-01-10-036 index-01-10-037 index-01-10-038 hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2016 president: ronald r. ferrucci, rferrucci@juno.com (2017)* vice-president: chuck haine, chaine1@icloud.com (2016) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gamil.com (2016) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) alden norman haffner, anhaffner@msn.com (2018) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares ® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org brittany broombaugh, development officer bbroombaugh@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. mailto:rferrucci@juno.com mailto:chaine1@icloud.com mailto:irvbennett23@gamil.com mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu mailto:lynnbrandes@comcast.net mailto:anhaffner@msn.com mailto:sharpton@windstream.net mailto:george.woo@polyu.edu.hk mailto:zadnik.4@osu.edu mailto:jbyarsod@bellsouth.net mailto:rahildebrand@aoa.org bbroombaugh@aoa.org mailto:khebert@aoa.org https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight 108 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 experiences with the american optometric student association in the 1990s kelly kinney nichols, od, mph, phd  dean and professor, school of optometry, university of alabama at birmingham nicholsk@uab.edu at the end of my first year as an optometry student in 1992 at the university of california berkeley (ucb) school of optometry, as trusteeelect, i attended my first american optometric association (aoa) meeting in montreal. at the time, i did not realize the impact my involvement in the american optometric student association (aosa) would have on my then short-term future, as well as my long-term path. congratulations aosa on this milestone anniversary! a difference in perspective over the next three years in optometry school, i went on to be trustee, and when the time came i successfully ran for the office of president. at the time, the annual aosa meeting was held separately from the june aoa meeting, and schools would compete for the privilege of hosting the aosa meeting. our all-female officer team (kelly kinney, joanne bachman, melissa ernst, and jennifer bailey) was elected in southern california in 1994 (newport beach—and disney land sponsored by allergan!) and our year ended in memphis. we were allowed to “walk the ducks” from their penthouse to the pool at the peabody hotel, a tradition reserved for famous hotel guests and dignitaries. what a fun memory! more than those unique events though, was the chance to see things differently through the eyes of students from all over the country. even though optometry school provided an opportunity to meet students from different undergraduate universities, in my case most were from california, so i enjoyed learning the accents and hearing how article kelly nichols, od, mph, phd 1994-95 aosa officers, left to right: melissa ernst (uh), secretary; joanne bachman (uab), vice president; carol freihaut, executive director; jennifer bailey (iu), treasurer; kelly kinney (nichols) (ucb), president (photo courtesy of kelly k. nichols). american optometric association meeting badge of kelly kinney (nichols), along with logos from various optometry schools she collected from other students during the meeting and ribbon in support of dave nelson for aoa trustee (photo courtesy of kelly k. nichols). hindsight: journal of optometry history 109 article kelly nichols, od, mph, phd optometry schools were different from my colleagues to-be from all over the united states and canada. a chance to be an activist as aosa leaders, we all had the chance to see aoa political wheels in action, and in my presidency year, all aosa student leaders became advocates for dave nelson’s aoa trustee campaign. nelson had himself been an aosa president in 1984-85, and we supported him. we all wore “vote for dave, the wave of the future” ribbons to the house of delegates and around the meeting. to our knowledge, it was the first time the students had been asked to participate through support, and this relationship led to the beginning of the discussions to have the student meeting join the june aoa meeting, which went on to be known as “optometry’s meeting.” nelson was and still is, an advocate for the students, and while the process of moving the student meeting to the june meeting wasn’t without distress, the ultimate result was beneficial for the profession. a window into the future at the time, duties of the aosa president included being the student member at the national board of examiners in optometry (nbeo) board meetings, as well as attending aoa membership committee meetings as the student representative. at the nbeo dinner reception, nbeo members lesley l. walls (southern california college of optometry president at the time), thomas l. lewis (pennsylvania college of optometry/ salus president at the time), and arol augsburger (university of alabama birmingham dean at the time) advised me that i should consider a ph.d. in vision science—a career path i had never thought of, and did not seriously consider at the time, but the seed was planted. fast forward to the present, multiple degrees later and as the only (to my knowledge) aosa president to become a dean, i feel i can trace it back to that conversation at a meeting reception related to aosa (and a boat load of work to follow). my advice— never say never! the test of time in those years when the aosa meeting was separate from the aoa meeting, our fearless aosa executive director, carol freihaut, managed us all with a kind heart and a penchant for order (thankfully). our experiences, with her expert help, in the meeting room in montreal, inside the gateway arch in st. louis (it snowed that year!) and at every meeting to follow provided every officer, trustee, and trustee elect with an opportunity to experience optometry at its collaborative best, with the viewpoint that all things are possible if we work together. while i have the honor to serve future optometrists as dean at the university of alabama birmingham (uab) school of optometry, my experiences through aosa added shape to my career and have come back into my life in meaningful ways— my mentors (from the nbeo meeting long ago) are friends and colleagues. my fellow aosa trustees and officers are leaders in our profession. aosa connections have a way of persisting. at our recent uabso alumni weekend, i had the pleasure of sitting by a class of 1977 alum, dr. mike gambino. through conversation i discovered he was aosa president in 1975-76—his memories are as fond as mine. so, as a nod to today’s student aosa leaders—enjoy every minute and take advantage of the opportunity. you will see, some things just stand the test of time. student leaders (left to right) kellye knueppel (scco), keith chow (ucb), kelly kinney (nichols) (ucb), and stan woo (ucb) at the aosa meeting in st. louis in 1993 (photo courtesy of kelly k. nichols). hindsight_48_4_final 26 hindsight_48_4_final 27 hindsight journal of optometry history april, 2008 volume 39, number 2 official publication of the optometric historical society :i, f f< . ~ i ; / :. hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry: and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society: president: melvin wolfberg, 3095 buckinghammock trl, vero beach fl 32960-4968, ilovesylvan@bellsouth.net vice-president: jerome j. abrams l i ' ~ 1 ,; secretary-treasurer: ~ bridget kowalczyk, american optometric association, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, l st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: walterw. chase jay m. enoch chuck haine douglas k. penisten the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history . april, 2008 volume 39, number 2 editor: oavid a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, penisten@nsuok.edu. table of contents the need for recognition, regularization and regulation of eye and vision care practices in india: an oration/paper for presentation to the palkhivala foundation, chennai, tamil nadu state, india, on january 26, 2008, jay m. enoch ..................... 26 an early sixteenth century optometrist's shop: jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen's "lx siin tiid", sara newman ................................................................................. 58 william molyneux and the optometry content of his 1692 book dioptrica nova, david a. goss ....................................................................................................... 67 a little personal optometric history, lester b. kahn ............................................. 72 communications concerning the o.d. degree and licensure ................................. 75 book review: the science of leonardo: inside the mind of the great genius of the renaissance, david a. goss ........................................................................... 78 book review: isaac newton, david a. goss ....................................................... 81 instructions to authors .................................................................................... 83 ohs membership application form .................................................................. 84 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred , means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. · india~la · apr 3 0 2008 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page0fltomethy i..ishi-\fw the need for recognition, regularization and regulation of eye and vision care practices in india: an oration/paper for presentation to the palkhivala foundation, chennai, tamil nadu state, india, on january 26, 2008 jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d., dr.s sci. (h.c.) professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry (mail code 2020), university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley@ edu definitions of terms the following terms are defined as follows • in this paper: "recognition" as used here signifies acknowledgement or acceptance of a qualified professional or technical group of individuals serving a defined role. in turn, a suitable organization may represent each such group of qualified providers. each such organization should reflect the will of the majority of individuals represented in the group, and may represent that group in appropriate settings associated with actions of governmental, administrative, or professional nature. "regularization" means to make regular. this term implies achieving "good order", and asks that all parties and organizations comply with, and adhere to accepted societal, educational, and legal standards. "regulation" means a rule or order prescribed by authority, which serves to regulate conduct, or is a governing direction, or a law". introductory remarks it is a pleasure to have an opportunity to address this most distinguished audience. i have carefully weighed ophthalmic professional issues to be considered, and i try to provide you with insights as to how you might best proceed in recognizing, regularizing and regulating ophthalmic and vision care in india. i have not chosen an easy path, but, rather, i chose one which i hope will advance ophthalmic care in india. have taken a rather controversial, but, hopefully, a rational position. these issues speak to protections offered to the people whom you serve in this vast nation. some of you know me well, and i am pleased to meet others among you for the first time. i feel you have a right to know, "who is this fellow?" in an addendum appended to this document, i discuss a number of aspects of my career which touch upon issues considered. i also hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 26 disclose prior actions taken by me which are pertinent to aspects of this discussion. terminology does count in matters addressed in this document. hence, i have tried to choose words and terms used carefully. introduction collectively, we address a major set of issues today! i can advise you as to what i feel are appropriate actions. in concert with others, individually, each of you has responsibility to make solutions happen. no one promised that the tasks, upon which you have embarked, will be easy. • it is clear that, over time, a number of aspects of ophthalmic-care-provision in india either were not carefully planned, and/or executed. i hope you will approach issues facing eye-and-vision-care-provision in this great nation constructively. stated alternatiyely, jet us find workable solutions to problems faced, and help each other to overcome difficulties encountered. as one part of a solution, i believe it is necessary to recognize, to regularize and to regulate appropriately "modern optometry'' as a profession in this nation. and, it is necessary to define properly, that is, regularize all other groups serving or working in concert with the professions of ophthalmology and optometry in an orderly way. minimum acceptable educational standards for all groups need to be defined, to be reviewed, and to be updated regularly. we must consider those aspects of the "three r functions" appropriate for each of these several affected groups of individuals. optometrists must properly refer patients, as appropriate, for ophthalmological or other necessary care. ophthalmologists must respect the recommending clinician. these two groups, ophthalmology and optometry need to work together, effectively, efficiently and purposefully in order to provide needed services to the larger community, the indian nation. all parties need to continually upgrade their knowledge in the face of growing research, acquired knowledge, and changing modes of practice. there is a need to upgrade systematically those with lesser training in order to create a larger effective and cooperating body of quality eye and vision care practitioners. all necessary protections for the public must be put into place! literally, the future of eye care in india is in your hands! on a related but different note, simple refractive techniques can be largely automated today. let us grow as patient care providers and fill a broader role in eyecare in behalf of this society, and let us do it cooperatively .• refractive errors based upon both focus and aberrations can be almost totally corrected· using adaptive optics and associated techniques. these new approaches to refraction are powerful tools! you dare not ignore them. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 27 please put aside politics and raise yourselves up in such a way that you better serve this vast and growing population. my one talk will not alter current practices, but the time has come for you as a group to grasp your own future! the price you pay is the need to learn a number of evolving and newer ways now being pursued avidly in many nations. i remember vividly, the first day i served as dean at berkeley. i was called to the office of the provost for professional schools and colleges at the university of california at berkeley. provost doris calloway's opening words to me were, "dean enoch, i pay you to be effective, not nice. if you can be effective and nice, so much the better! but, be effective!" these were my marching orders as dean! and doris was right. here, 1 am trying very hard to be effective in your behalf! your problem is larger then you yet contemplate. come, let us join the 21 51 century! recently proposed legislation #1 : in the past year a proposed legislative action was prepared for submission to the national parliament of india. this document is titled "initial vision council draft: "vision council of india," vision council act, 2007. (an act to regulate the profession of optometry and vision science). i found a number of items contained in this document to be difficult to accept. i will detail my objections below. in this talk, i address a number of pertinent issues for your consideration, hopefully to be addressed by the parliament at a later time in a revised document. your task (our collective task) is to address effectively the ever-demanding eye and vision care needs of india at a time of great population growth and the rapid expansion of this society! these matters relate to the safety, efficacy, efficiency, and costs of ocular care delivery in this great nation. when we consider eye and vision care, we need to reflect upon collective reductions achieved in the maternal death rate, in increases in survival rate of infants, and in the very meaningful enhancement of longevity of life of india's vast population. it is known that virtually 100% of individuals benefit substantially from vision care as they age. and it is recognized that quite a number of major incapacitating and blinding ophthalmic diseases and disorders increase in prevalence with increasing age (e.g., cataract, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, complications of high myopia, etc.). along with demographic realities in india, there must result growth in demand for eye and vision care services of all kinds, and necessary development of visual rehabilitative care for the vast visually impaired population in india. thus, services provided for care of the older citizens of this nation must increase in proportion with the continued growth and aging of the population of india (and of virtually all populations in the area and the world). it is important in the near future for the parliament of india to address, with some urgency, the series of problems and issues considered in this discussion! what we do hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 28 here affects not only the efficiency and abilities of the individual, but extends benefits to the larger economy by enhancing ocular comfort and real productivity of workers. please assume an individual has been practicing a specific skill(s) as either a professional practitioner, or as a trained aid, associate, technician, sister, etc. that individual may, as a result of such activities be faced with requirements which make necessary his/her access to added special knowledge in order to meet new and emerging needs specified by regulatory groups or professional organizations in their specific category of care-provision. that is, reasonable added course material, or clinical experience may be required to bring that individual up to a new level of performance. after necessary training, most probably that individual will be asked to take a suitable examination(s) designed to allow him/her to establish a new qualification level, and then, assuming passage of such examination(s), he/she can be advanced to a higher level of practice. in a modest number of instances, the regulating board or council (or appropriate supervisory agency or group) should be able to decide whether, due to self-study, and/or their considerable extensive clinical experience, some individuals already qualify for the new role. the latter actions are commonly termed "acceptance by 'grandfathering"'. given the recent and seemingly ever-accelerating pace of new knowledge acquisition, one assumes there will be a life-time requirement for continuing education (ce) in support of each and every form of health-care provision! this differs from advancement to a higher or different level of provision of eye or vision care. and ce need not be limited to eye-care alone. for example, currently in california, each year, each health care professional must pass qualification in cpr (cardiopulmonary resuscitation). sometimes, there needs to be mandatory upgrading of care by all practitioners for defined purposes such as the introduction of a new form of therapy, surgery, or other aspect of practice which is associated with modern health care delivery. in such a case, the skill level of the practitioner needs enhancement without altering his/her official status per se. as but one example of our ever-expanding knowledge base through new scientific research and modern technology, consider a set of meaningful new developments in ophthalmic optics. these will provide high-tech applications of optics and electronics to eye care, assessment, and near-instantaneous and more perfect correction of ocular imagery, and much more. these techniques greatly improve visual corrections by minimizing either or both ocular and spectacle or other lens-induced aberrations. here, i refer to three (four?) largely independent techniques in development, adaptive optics (ao), coherent scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (cslo), and optical coherence tomography (oct) [sometimes incorrectly described as ocular coherence tomography (see just below)], and associated flood illumination (fi). we are just beginning to appreciate the real opportunities for clinical applications of these devices, both individually, and in combination(s). as but one of several results, the role(s) of the ophthalmoscope is( are) being redefined for the first time since its discovery by hermann von helmholtz in the latter half of the 19th century. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 29 adaptive optics offers advanced aberration-minimized, laser-assisted, corneal surgery for refractive corrections. sankara nethralaya has had such an instrument for some period of time. no doubt other fine institutions in india do as well. i remember dr. s.s. badrinath proudly remarking on acquisition of such a device to some of us after we had attended the very special memorial ceremony for the renowned sri chandrasekhar saraswathi in kanchipuram. these sophisticated technologies, already here, will play an important and increasing role in eye care and in the design of, and modification of visual corrections in future. on november 4, 2007, i received the following notice by e-mail for a talk given at our next local east of san francisco bay-area optometric group meeting: the alameda/contra costa counties optometric society presents: tuesday, november 20, 2007 donald siegel, 0.0. multifocal contact lens fitting and integrating ocular coherence tomography into the optometric practice it is clear that meaningful aspects of these technologies are here now! while these tools are, in many ways, still in development, and are being modified regularly, their utilization is growing and spreading with rapidity! in the near future, we as educators and clinicians need to educate eye and vision care professional practitioners, as well as refracting technicians, and other interested parties, relative to uses and applications of these emerging techniques and tools. as one who regularly attends ophthalmological and optometric grand rounds (see below), i can assure readers that there is much else in the offing! these new techniques can make a real difference! indeed they can, but ... ! let us say that we seek to eliminate a// blur in/of the retinal image. particularly for younger folks, a word of caution is needed. please note, the "accommodative mechanism", the internal eye-lens power adjustment used to correct eye focus for different and varying ocular viewing distances, utilizes image blur with remarkable accuracy in order to correct the focus of the eye. assuming one is able to eliminate totally blur of a retinal image, will that person still able to accommodate satisfactorily for different object distances? some important distinctions before proceeding, i want to make some important distinctions, e.g., between professional practitioners versus technical support personnel. the technical staff supports (and often broadens) services rendered by the clinician, or the activities of a group of professionals. such support services may occur within the office of the health care professional, but, in a number of cases, such services need not be located there or within a clinic or hospital. some examples of the latter "external supportive services provided by technical staff' are roles played by a visiting home nurse, the physical therapist, the pharmacist, etc. they are health professionals in a number of ways by training, but they are limited in terms of making independent decisions relative to what test(s) to perform, or what treatment to pursue, or what medication to administer. as hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 30 noted, in some cases their activities are not conducted in the medical practitioner's office, because of space restrictions, instrumental or other technical requirements, or limitations on mobility of the patient, etc. these personnel may not have been taught extensive differential diagnostic skills, although they are often able to detect the presence of a disorder, and if they find an unreported anomaly, they are obligated ethically, and/or often by statute, to refer the patient for appropriate follow-up care. in the united states (u.s.a.), such individuals can only dispehse many of their services with a formal prescription in hand issued by a licensed clinician. in some instances these same individuals legitimately undertake certain responsibilities outside of the presence of the referring professional. in such cases, professional lines are somewhat blurred. as examples, the pharmacist may advise the patient within certain bounds and/or prescribe or dispense certain medications. the dietitian has some leeway in deciding how to best manage his/her patient's diet, one may state the same thing about the physical therapist, etc. i address this matter, in part, because we need to define properly the roles of all eye and vision care professionals and of technical support personnel. for example, what are the defined roles of various categories of opticians in indian society? note, the word technician is in no way a sign of disrespect, rather it is a term associated with mastery of a defined set of "technical" skills. an instrument maker, as an example, is a very highly skilled technician! i have watched a number of these outstanding machinists address instrument design problems with frank awe! on the other hand, i do not favor the term para-medical personnel. it says nothing other than that these individuals serve medicine. my webster's universal unabridged dictionary defines this term as, "related to medicine in a secondary or supplementary capacity". it is not complimentary, per se, and does not consider skill level. an important and separate question is, what does the professional practitioner "sell"? i will argue that this individual should primarily market his/her extensive learned and licensed knowledge, and in the eye care field, he/she should not offer a "free eye examination". this question is critical when we consider the role(s) played by optometrists. this issue/matter peaked in the united states at about the time when i was a young optometrist (i was licensed in 1950 within a few weeks after reaching the minimum required age for licensure of 21 years). then, most optometrists offered "free" eye examinations, and most "sold 'glasses"'! were they appreciated for this mode of practice? absolutely not! optometrists were regularly accused of prescribing glasses when they were really not needed! and it was not possible to prevent such allegations against them from being levied. the wiser optometric practitioners quickly learned they received an average of five referrals of new patients in each situation when they told the patient that they did not need a visual correction or a new replacement set of lenses/ that is, patients were amazed by such honesty! thus, it turned out that there was a real incentive for optometrists not to prescribe spectacles when they were not required. shortly thereafter, it was argued (qroperly!) that a true professional charged for their services and acquired skills, not just for the sale of spectacle corrections or other products and materials. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 31 does the physician charge for the visit by the patient? does the dentist? why do many individual optometrists in this country often not charge for an examination? this is a major mistake from many points of view! a new patient examination, and/or a more complex examination during an office visit is(are) charged at a higher rate (and reimbursed by insurance carriers as such!), and there is a charge for each office visit. in the united states, i receive a bill for a substantial sum of money for a house call made by every electrician, plumber, gardener, or other service person, whether he/she does something or not! why-ever should we optometrists not be paid for the conduct of a bona fide eye examination? also of very great significance, health insurance plans almost universally pay the practitioner for their eye examinations, and not for dispensing visual corrections! i do not know the current status of health insurance plans in india, but this form of practice has become dominant in the united states and europe. in one form of another, if health insurance plans do not exist as yet in india, i suspect you will find them taking a prominent place in ophthalmic practice in future years! i find it hard to believe that the operant principles applied in other nations will be different within india. and in the united states, the american academy of optometry does not accept those in "commercial" practice into membership, and utilization of other than limited advertisements by their members are not acceptable. i realize that employed optometrists in india may not be able to establish practice modes different from those specified by their employer. so saying, a more professional approach needs to be taken in future by all contributory parties! i hope this policy will be re-examined by responsible individuals, and actions taken to end such forms of practice. do individuals practicing optometry or ophthalmology commercially still exist in the u.s.a.? yes, but though these individuals are still rather numerous; today they are in the minority, and the majority of us are proud of the changes which have been made in order to professionalize properly ophthalmic practices! all optometrists in america no matter their practice mode/setting are educated and trained to the same minimum standards. in india also, there should be only one optometry, with meaningful/sincere efforts made to enhance the quality of education and to upgrade those in lesser forms of practice. additionally, in california, optometrists organized their own health insurance program, the vision service plan (vsp, a corporate entity), and this structure has benefited the profession greatly! in recent years, the very successful vsp program has been expanded nationwide in the u.s.a. with comparable favorable results. and vsp has offered a similar service to ophthalmologists, and i understand a number of them use this service at this time. vsp has also been a force for uplifting the general quality of eye examinations by giving bonus reimbursements to clinicians who perform specific advanced diagnostic procedures! this interesting technique has proved to be a very efficacious method for enhancing the skills of the professional optometrist, and fqr paying for the addition of special diagnostic instruments in their offices. in many service areas, vsp also fills spectacle prescriptions. separately, office dispensing of prescribed eye glasses by the optometrist makes good sense as well. yes, optometrists do make a profit from this activity, but it is a hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 32 lesser proportionate charge than in prior times (and is presented as such to the patient!). in part, this is because the examination(s) is( are) properly charged separately, and the charge for providing, dispensing, and fitting materials is levied separately from billings for the original and subsequent office visits. it has been found that if one provides the full service of (1) conducting the ophthalmic examination, (2) writing the prescription, (3) filling, or arranging for the prescription to be filled, (4) checking accuracy of the resultant spectacle product or contact lenses prior to dispensing, and (5) then fitting and delivering prescribed materials to the patient, the result has been far more satisfactory and successful! on november 5, 2007, on u.s.a national television stations (news reports), there was a major expose of poor follow-through in proper spectacle delivery of a clinician's prescription (ophthalmologist or optometrist) by a number of national big chain providers of low-cost visual corrections (by wai-mart, target, costco., etc.). significant errors of various types occurred in as high as 80% of rx's delivered to patients in this substantial clinical study! these large corporate groups apparently automatically assumed correctness in the filling of the prescription, and did not provide follow-through by careful checking of the product against the original prescription rx prior to delivery of that visual correction to the patient. as a result, a great deal of error resulted, and patient satisfaction was compromised! long ago, optometrists in the u.s.a found it to be critical to provide follow-through on spectacle and/or contact lens rx(s) by checking properly these products prior to these corrections being dispensed. thus, by using appropriate care, the modern optometrist takes full responsibility for the entire service rendered. today, in the u.s.a., very few urban and suburban optometric offices manufacture their own visual corrections, rather they receive them either fully assembled or partially assembled through wholesale optician services. the spectacle rx orders are sent to the optical wholesaler on-line (by computer), and the ordered materials are delivered quite promptly to the practice. modes of practice vary in different settings and locations. recently proposed legislation #2: like everything else, a bit of reconsideration is often valuable when seeking to write legislation. i encountered some items to which i object in the proposed legislation. 1. please distinguish between the clinical entities which we define and consider here, and the basic science(s) underlying and effectively supporting those activities. clinical eye and vision care are being considered in the proposed legislation. and vision science or visual science is that very broad set of scientific knowledge which underlies the associated branches of health care provision including ophthalmology and optometry. in recent years, supporting sciences underlying modern clinical practices for these endeavors have literally mushroomed in all directions! it was felt that a more broadly-based term for this highly interdisciplinary field of study was needed. scientists settled upon the terms, "vision science" (preferred) or "visual science". thus, i practice optometry; i study and conduct research on vision science. i do not practice the latter. the same and other scientific disciplines also underlie the even more hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 33 broadly-based medical practice. the title of the legislation should read, "the act to regulate the profession of optometry [please delete "&vision science'j." 2. the proposed legislation talks only in a limited way about optometry! there seems to be confusion here between regulation of all parties associated with eye care (with very little mention of ophthalmology), or even the profession of optometry. what 1 term here as "modern optometry" has matured world-wide, and in recent years this form of ophthalmic practice has begun to emerge in india. it is already well established in great britain plus in canada, south africa, australia, new zealand, singapore, etc. and the u.s.a. (all of the latter were former british colonies). and in the proposed document, a variety of technical support personnel in related fields are listed and represented. many practice independently. this is an additional reason why regulation of the eyecare field is so long overdue! the first step in establishing a modem optometric profession must be standardization of the educational programs and the academic credential that is awarded at the completion of that program. in india, there are also substantial numbers of individuals who graduated-from, or who are being trained-in institutions which provide less complete training (e.g., those who receive two rather than the four years associated with modern optometric education). they are also termed optometrists, but, sadly, by modern educational standards, these individuals cannot be as well, or as broadly trained! similarly, they do not have the training to equip them to handle emerging trends in the optometric profession, nor many aspects of eye care which optometrists now need to know. the long term management of these several institutions and their graduates will require special attention and careful consideration. i do not criticize these individuals for practicing their profession as it has been taught to them. rather we must face the realities of our collective responsibility to the public, and help them to make the transition to more modern forms of optometric practice. optometry in the u.s.a. underwent a similar transition or conversion, "growing pains", if you prefer, from two-year and three-year programs in the 1940's and 1950's to the current four-year graduate-level programs of today. for quite a period of time (decades), more than one optometric curriculum was in use until all schools and colleges of optometry were transformed to modern four-year programs. the same is true for the evolution of the academic credential (doctor of optometry, or o.d.) earned in these programs. the first doctoral-level degree was awarded in 1923, but it took until the early 1970's before all schools and colleges awarded this same degree. while it will be discussed later in this document, it is important to note that optometric programs in the u.s.a. now are actually 8 years long(!), comprising four years of undergraduate collegiate education including a majority of pre-requisite courses (see discussion below), and four years of graduate school training leading to the degree, doctor of optometry, or o.d. (note, d.o. is the designation used by doctors of osteopathy.) today's optometrist needs a much deeper understanding of optics and mathematics, as well as of the physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, genetics/the genome, biochemistry, pharmacology, diseases and disorders of the eye, as well as systemic infirmities of the individual which affect the ocular system, and principles of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 34 public health in order to properly meet requirements of current and emerging optometric practice! i understand that when australia underwent this same transition to the more modern form of optometric profession, they introduced an additional useful feature into their program. they recognized that the process of transformation could go on interminably (as it did in the u.s.a.). thus, they provided a "time-certain" for completion of the transformation period. i assume that a reasonable time period for this process was set. that is, they established a time-certain date for the end of the transformation process including upgrading of educational and clinical experience of less educated optometrists, and for "grandfathering" of a limited number of appropriate individuals. here, i do not mean to enter into contentious inter-professional or intra­ professional issues. i recognize the existence of the lesser trained graduates and their schools. we need now to consider how they can effectively be more extensively educated in order to fit into the fabric of modern ophthalmic care. fundamentally, they require a much broader foundation, which, in turn, will enable them to grow in knowledge, and to serve the public effectively for some years into the future. thus, at this time, i recommend strongly that we bring all optometry programs up to the now common four year education program employed throughout the modern world. hence, there is a need to clarify what legislation is being written, and for whom it is being written. the overwhelming consideration of such legislation should be protection of the health and welfare of the public! 3a. the definition of the main committee (and all committees) created under the proposed act leaves ophthalmologists out, and provides them with only an observer, and without a formal vote. it gives two votes to optometry (i assume there are two separate organizations in optometry, that is, one vote is for the "modern" optometric group, and, separately, one vote is offered to the earlier form of optometry offering a shorter curriculum), and there are single votes allocated to quite a number of technical groups. thus, in the proposed legislation, the modern profession of optometry is grouped with a substantial group of less educated individuals who are also termed optometrists. because of the latter group's limited training after secondary school (50% of that of modern optometrists), the less educated group is less able to provide the breadth of professional eye-care services of the modern optometrist, nor do they have the breadth of foundation upon which to build. 3b. there is a second complication in the design of the committee structure in the proposed legislation. a number of different groups of technicians are each represented equally on committees along with the two optometric groups. for modern optometric programs, this is one step forward, and several steps backward. thus, i regard this arrangement as completely unacceptable. would ophthalmology or other medical specialty accept such a design for its regulation; whereby registered nurses and other highly important, but "dependent" ancillary support groups could control effectively the regulation of medical practitioners? i doubt it very much, and it certainly should not; nor should optometry accept such an arrangement! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 35 (so saying, these valued technically-trained-individuals are quite capable of making helpful and constructive suggestions, or acting as effective members of a team. hence, it is appropriate that they do have a clear voice in the process, but not the controlling hand.) 4. this proposed legislation constructs what seems to me (perhaps as an outsider) to be a very complex organizational structure, and an over-lapping bureaucratic arrangement. i hope i am wrong, but i worry that there might be endless delays in actions taken, and un-necessary duplications of effort encountered. while i recognize there are sectional differences in peoples, resources, and needs; the definition of a profession should be a common one for the entire nation, defined educational requirements should be national in scope, etc. in short, i argue that the proposal needs to be modified and simplified, and functions delegated properly for orderly and rational national and state administration. 5. finally, please let us properly address modern optometry (given the title of this proposed legislation). this is only fair! recognition, regularization and regulation of eye and vision care india currently lags behind most of the advanced segments of industrialized society in recognition, regularization and regulation of eye care professionals and technical persons in the eye and vision care field(s). the singular exception to this set of statements is the role of the ophthalmologist. apparently, they are properly recognized, regularized, and subject to regulation. i am not sure of the status of ophthalmic nurses. this leaves the remainder of those providing eye and vision care in india in a state of some disarray. as a result, the public can be subjected to forces other than what might be considered best for the care and safety of patients. i recognize the need for optometrists to make a reasonable profit, and favor his/her being recognized primarily for demonstrated professional skills. in this day and age, i feel that basing practice largely on sales of ocular devices sold, and offering free eye examinations as a sales inducement to be rather demeaning of the individual! , there are overlapping groups of differently educated practitioners offering similar or related services. as noted, ocular refractions are conducted by ophthalmologists, modern well-trained optometrists, older forms of lesser-trained optometrists, nurses, refracting technicians, refracting sisters, probably some opticians, and still others. let us assume the content, quality, and extent of pertinent training in clinical refractive care provided to the different groups of individuals varies meaningfully! and, many individuals practice for an extended time period, i.e., careers can be very lengthy (consider my career!). to remain relevant, clinical practitioners require both a broad and strong foundation of knowledge, and quality continuing education programs in order to enable participation by the practitioner throughout their career. i accept arguments in support of selectively trained short-term (a few years of service) technicians, but re­ education and upgrading are absolute necessities today for those in long-term or career practice. i i hwd•igh" journal of optomotry hi~ocy .... april, 2008, volume 39, nwnbe< 2, p"8< 36 ~ in the united states, there are recurring discussions about the need for professional re-licensure periodically by all practitioners! the principle is quite correct(!), but the thought is daunting to virtually all of those so affected. let us not speak only of optometrists, but for the moment, consider the physician, perhaps the ophthalmologist, the dermatologist, the neurologist, etc. based upon numerous discussions which i have attended on this matter, such re-examinations will include a// of medicine. so saying, how many of these practitioners after a period of "n" years will be familiar with the latest techniques for delivery of infants, or complications and subtle diagnostic issues regarding the digestive system, or questions associated with psychiatric diagnoses and treatments, etc. where added training and/or upgrade of educational programs is indicated, i most certainly do not intend the result of such activities to be punitive. i assume all parties enter their respective fields for honorable purposes! if a group of practitioners is deemed not to be adequately trained in modern ways of doing things, let us try to enhance their status, if it is at all reasonable to achieve such a goal. such actions are not easy, and will arouse the ire of many of those affected! hence, we must seek to be sympathetic with their predicaments. so saying, the status quo ante does not serve this fine nation as it enters dynamically into many new fields of endeavor in the modern world. thus, a higher threshold of education and achievement needs to be set in the ophthalmic area! and, repeating, we must not overlook accompanying and increasing demands for enhanced ophthalmic care in this rapidly enlarging and aging society. not only must "this house" be put in good order, but emerging and changing patterns of eye care in india must be met promptly and effectively in an adequate, responsible, and orderly manner! definitions of professions and technical groups at the outset, i defined the terms: recognition, regularization and regulation of eye and vision care. often applications of these activities overlap to some degree. a definition of a profession or professional group today can be rather complex, but such definitions or descriptors of functions are necessary. involved are statements describing the role or roles filled by this group of individuals in society. even better perhaps, a defined, standardized, recognized (or accredited) or representative curriculum is indicated for training such practitioners, and a statement of a reasonable minimum time period for conduct of such studies is needed. and curriculums need to be updated regularly every few years. in such discussions, prerequisites for training in a chosen field should be clearly defined, and adjusted periodically in order to keep pace with emerging needs and modern developments in basic and clinical science. similarly, one needs to specify reasonable minimums for student exposures to patients of certain types under satisfactory supervision by licensed or certified practitioners within a defined field of study or specialization. the definition of a technical support group is also complex. these definitions may differ to some extent within different practices, in various settings, and in time. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 37 to achieve necessary goals, considerable groundwork is needed: medicine has been recognized in india; dentistry as well (e.g., the dentists act, 1948 (16 of 1948), (as modified up to 1st july, 1987my copy); modern optometry as a learned profession, needs to be properly recognized, regularized, and regulated. additional schemes for advanced training of academics also need to be considered. as one example of the latter, the elite school of optometry at the sankara nethralaya now has a formal arrangement as an external program with the birla institute of technology and science (b.i.t.s.), pilani, rajasthan. with b.i.t.s.'s review and approval, the elite school provides approved degrees of b.sci. in optometry (a 4 year program), as well as the advanced degrees of m.phil., & ph.d. in optometry for future academics and researchers in optometry and vision science. dr. t. surendran of sankara nethralaya led this academic development some years ago. other schools have followed a similar path. just as in medicine and dentistry, specialty practices in optometry will evolve in india. we have them in optometry in the u.s.a. as examples, advanced training is offered in special and/or complex cases/and pediatric contact lenses; in binocular vision; in pediatric eye care, and developmental reading and learning problems; in low vision care and visual rehabilitation; in the presence of aniseikonia, and complex refractive cases; in ergonomics, e.g., in conjunction with optimizing vision and visual comfort associated with extended use of computers or other visual display devices; in sports medicine (here, eye and vision-related care), etc. a suggested definition of modern optometry i have made an attempt to define a modern optometrist as a professional health care provider in india as follows: "optometrists are independent primary health care providers who have successfully completed at least an appropriate four year collegiate training program after secondary school, have been suitably examined (tested), and who are licensed and registered to examine, to diagnose, to manage*, and to correct visual anomalies and disorders of the eyes, the visual system, and associated structures. specified pharmaceutical agents may be utilized for diagnostic purposes. when an optometrist detects and diagnoses ocular diseases and disorders, and when it is appropriate*, he/she refers such individuals for further follow-up care. he/she also seeks to address requirements of patients with low vision, and to promote their visual and social rehabilitation." [note, i borrowed here from a variety of other sources and definitions.] * the speaker does not propose specifics at this time at these two points (*) in the proposed definition of modern optometry. a number of issues need to be considered/addressed. as examples: in a particular patient, what exactly is involved, where does the examination take place vis-a-vis other resources(?), is emergency/prompt care required(?), how available is an ophthalmologist or an emergency room physician(?), what is the training of the practitioner(?), and are special additional resources needed to provide care? etc. were the decision mine, i would argue that at a minimum, cpr, first aid, and acute care training, are essential for optometrists at all levels. for purposes such as these (for definitional purposes), the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 38 presence of multiple classes/forms of optometric training does not serve the public interest well. the world council of optometry employs the following definition of the profession: "optometry is a health care profession that is autonomous, educated, and regulated (licensed/registered), and optometrists are primary health care practitioners of the eye and vis~al system who provide comprehensive eye and vision care, which includes refraction and dispensing, detection/ diagnosis and management of disease in the eye, and the rehabilitation of conditions of the visual system." cited in: optometry and vision science, 81(5): 289-290, 2004. please note, there is a great need for enhanced rehabilitative care for visually impaired persons in india! we must never forget that 1/3 of all blind and visually impaired people in the world reside in india! such statistics have long been cited by who (i sat/sit on a who committee addressing refractive needs in developing nations, and this figure has been cited often by them). research programs into this area of vision science and associated optometric studies are clearly of importance, such studies do not conflict with other group efforts, and this form of activity is needed badly! we can make a difference to quite a number of individuals requiring such care. that is, optometrists should be able to contribute effectively to the independence of a number of the visually impaired people, to the relief of care-givers from at least part of their service to handicapped persons, and to allow a modicum of these low vision patients to enter into useful employment. needed are optical and electronic interventions, aids to daily living, mobility techniques, rehabilitation counseling, etc. optometrists serve not only as proper referral sources of patients; but in certain areas, these practitioners can serve effectively as valid distributors of medications for prevention of trachoma and/or other disorders and diseases; and they can help to arrange and to participate in eye camps visits, to detect/diagnose, and to manage/monitor glaucoma (that is, they can sample the intra-ocular pressure in eyes, assess properly visual fields, and observe and record the optic nerve head and the fundus), etc. as always, the goal must be efficient service for, and orderly care of the indian public. and it goes without saying that meaningful cooperation among the professions will be of great advantage to affected patients. thus, modern optometry is much more than refraction and the fitting of eyeglasses. he/she addresses ophthalmic diagnosis, rehabilitative care, and so very much more. these definitions also speak to regularization of the profession and to its proper regulation! regularization involves establishment not only of recognition, but also of an organizational structure for representation and participation in the process of recognition, establishment of rules for practice, definition of malpractice, examination and approval processes for new graduates of schools, etc. clearly, it will be advantageous for government-based boards or councils of examiners to be established. separately, additional schools and appropriate programs need to be established which meet the professional requirements of modern optometry or of other groups hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 39 serving the eye and vision care professions. clearly, idealized model curriculums need to be established (or already have been established?) which can serve as guidelines for new or evolving schools. the elite school curriculum as first formatted was similar to that of the school of optometry at the university of california at berkeley at the time the elite school was created in ca. 1985. of course, a number of necessary adjustments have been made in this model in order to enable this curriculum to meet conditions extant in, and perceived needs of india. in turn, efforts were made to coordinate the training provided to the needs of sankara nethralaya. i am sure the curriculum has been updated with the passage of time to meet the ever-changing requirements in this nation. assessing and accrediting school programs i advocate application of an important program we employ in the united states! each school must pass accreditation (or re-accreditation) reviews every 5 years (well established and highly rated schools are assessed at somewhat less frequent intervals, i.e., each 7 years). these are serious reviews/examinations! assessments of all phases of the school program are conducted. included in this extensive review are the overall status of the institution and its programs, the relationship(s) of the school with the profession, the selection of appropriate students and faculty, its curriculum and plans for development of the school in the future. student-faculty ratios for didactic teaching, for laboratory teaching, and for clinical teaching must be reviewed and approved (and must meet or prove superior to agreed minimum standards). school administration, finances, building(s) and plant adequacy and safety, are all defined and examined. and there needs to be demonstrated evidence of satisfactory production of qualified students; there must be support of research endeavors designed to advance learning per se, as well as the needs of eye care. continuing education programs for graduate optometrists must be offered. numbers of, and types of clinic patients seen by each student are assessed, and quality of clinic supervision and teaching are reviewed. laboratory experiments conducted by students are considered for relevancy and content. library resources available, and inter-library loan programs are determined and critiqued. outreach programs for students are carefully reviewed for adequacy of instruction at these often remote locations, and they are also examined as to the numbers and the types of patients provided and availability of quality supervisors/teachers at that site. graduate programs and residencies are assessed. prior to the review, a book-length self-review by the school administration, the faculty, the students, the staff, etc., is assembled and submitted to the reviewing board, committee, or council as an aid to them! the review itself is conducted by an external "blue-ribbon" council , which includes distinguished educators not only from optometry, but also from other professions (often ophthalmology), as well as representatives (in the u.s.a.) of the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco), the association of regulatory boards of optometry (arbo), the american optometric association (aoa), an optometric technician, and two public members. this substantial council meets at the school for about a week or ten days in order to conduct the review. at the end of these detailed examinations, and after meetings with the administration of the university hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 40 and the school or college, the faculty, the staff, and the students in each program, the review committee not only prepares a lengthy review in the form of a report for interested parties, but they also present their immediate findings to (and for discussion with) the dean/director/principal of the school, and to the senior administration of the school or college (chancellor, provost, president, chairman, etc.). deficiencies are noted, and must be resolved within a finite period of time. if these are not satisfactorily met, the school is placed on probation, and/or can lose its accreditation. in sum, such a program is of great value to all parties, and is taken most seriously, even by the strongest institutions. this program is very effective! a different authority needs to be formed for setting standards for ophthalmic materials employed, eye tests employed, and minimum practice standards. these matters may be handled by organizations representing the professions, or by an organization such as an indian version of the american national standards institute, or by suitable governmental bodies and committees. this is a critical task as it strengthens referral policies, the quality of, and the uniformity of patient test procedures and materials dispensed and methods used, the approaches taken in educating students and practitioners, in exchange of research and other data, etc. for example, if individual practitioners (all groups) apply different tests, or different test conditions, any chance of reproducing test results will either be lost, or greatly reduced. common methodology makes transfer or portability of data much easier and more meaningful when referring a patient for care to another office. good examples of clinical examinations for which standards have been established include the testing of visual acuity, and/or perimetry, etc. a national and/or state board (council) of examiners serves to assess candidates for licensure at the completion of their academic and clinical training, and/or considers the application of individuals who move to another state seeking licensure within its borders. today, usually there is required passage of a national board examination for all graduates of schools and colleges of optometry at the completion of schooling (often individual parts of these examinations are staged at different time periods during student training). usually, special provisions are made for those in the military, or in the public health service, etc., because of the different conditions under which such individuals may practice their profession. consideration should be addressed as to whether it is desirable to offer national versus state licenses? i cite a reference (a bit below) which addresses the issue of "portability of licensure". importantly, state and/or national regulatory/licensing board(s) of examiners must also address charges of malpractice or other forms of irregularity/impropriety in practice. we must take such claims seriously, and have a legitimate means of managing such matters fairly, with great care, and expeditiously. you must decide which matters are to be handled "locally" in the individual states or whether certain issues are national in scope or importance. accreditation of schools, establishing a minimum curriculum for schools and colleges (which is updated on a continuing basis), national board examinations, definitions of, and recognition of professions, and classes of technical support personnel should be addressed centrally. administration of local added state board examinations (covering local special legal requirements, ethical issues, malpractice regulations, etc.) might best be hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 41 administered at the state level. the state must also attest to the validity of the credentials of the individual applicants. similarly, issues requiring direct contact with practitioners, as well as establishing appropriateness of practice settings, propriety of advertising, etc., are probably most suitably handled in the states. etc. a good source of information relative to professional regulation is a paper written by ms. sherry l. cooper. the licensure mobility experience within the united states. optometry, the journal of the american optometric association, 76(6): 347-352, june, 2005. resolutions presented to and passed by the american optometric association at its meeting, june 2007. optometry, the journal of the american optometric association, 78(10), 492-493, october, 2007. the following example is rather useful for format purposes for resolutions, etc. please note a recently approved resolution in the u.s.a. which is pertinent to situations such as the problem set considered here is presented on the next page. it was "adopted by the house of delegates of the american optometric association on june 28, 2007." support for the recognition and regulation of the profession of optometry by all sovereign states whereas, the american optometric association represents the profession of optometry in the united states; and whereas, optometry was legally recognized as a profession in the united states in 1901 when the first licensure law was enacted; and whereas, optometrists are trained and educated to provide safe and effective eye and vision care; and whereas, eye and vision problems are substantial public health problems which have profound global human and socioeconomic impact; and whereas, the american optometric association strives to ensure that public policy related to eye and vision care will uniformly recognize optometrists as primary health care providers; and whereas, there is a demonstrable public health benefit when all people have access to comprehensive optometric are, now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association strongly encourages the government of every sovereign state where optometry is not recognized as a profession to enact laws establishing the licensure and regulation of optometrists; and be it further hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 42 i j resolved, that the american optometric association strongly encourages the government of every sovereign state to recognize the authority of optometrists to practice in their jurisdiction at the highest level of their education and training. the optometries we face a special problem in india. today, as already noted, there are two or more optometric groups offering their services to the indian public. they are not equivalent. one, which i have termed "modern optometry", is a more advanced form of the profession of optometry, requiring considerable added training. this form of optometry is practiced almost world-wide, and has flourished with modest variations for a number of years. in the case of modern optometry, the professional course we established in india at the elite school of optometry at sankara nethralaya, and which has been largely reproduced elsewhere in india, requires four years of professional training after secondary school. as noted, a curriculum is a living document and needs periodic updating and reconsideration. interestingly, quite a large number of the graduates from modern indian schools and colleges of optometry have continued on for advanced optometric training and research in india, singapore, australia, and the u.s.a. (and no doubt elsewhere). currently, i have an elite school of optometry graduate in my laboratory. she follows a long list of other very able individuals who have worked with me over the past decades. the older, and long established form of optometry in india requires only two years of training after secondary school. this group maintains quite a large number of schools in india (ca. 40). there is also a three year optometry-like program offered at the all india institute of medical sciences (aiims) in new delhi. this program is titled "ophthalmic technique" and provides a b. sci. degree after three years. the school trains a limited number of students in optometry per annum. it is not clear to me if there are other centers (how many?) offering this or a comparable program as well. aiims seeks to offer a high quality and mostly clinical curriculum in optometry. i urge that this program (and ones like it) be expanded to a four year program. given the limited number of students trained per annum in these programs, added basic and formal clinical science training might be provided at one or more of the other modern optometry schools, if indeed this presents a special problem for all ms. i lectured briefly more than once in that program quite a number of years ago. at this point, for comparison, it is useful to consider current requirements for optometric programs in the u.s.a. there, optometry students now are required to study a minimum .period of eight years after secondary school! todav, under-graduate pre-optometry programs for students planning to enter into optometry are very much like programs in q[e-medicine. pre-dentistry, and other health care fields in the u.s.a. these programs include roughly three(+) undergraduate collegiate years of intensive study of a goodly number of pre-requisite courses. included are anatomy (gross human, neuro-anatomy, histology, embryology, etc.), biology and physiology including molecular biology, neuro­ physiology, chemistry through advanced biochemistry, often pharmacology, genetics/the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 43 genome, mathematics, and physics (including enhanced optics), and biophysics. in short, it is recognized that fundamental knowledge has proliferated to the degree that it ---....;; can no longer be contained within the formal four vear professional medical/dental/ optometric teaching program. optometry, now, like medicine and dentistry, is purely a four year graduate training program leading to the doctor of optometry (o.d.). further, there is a steadily growing trend for these optometrists to stay on as residents or fellows for another one or two years of advanced (often specialty) training! these developments are quite separate from our graduate programs for eye and vision researchers. when i stepped out as dean in 1992 after serving for 12 years, about 15-16% of optometric graduates at berkeley were seeking post-graduate optometric training as residents or fellows. the current dean at berkeley, dennis levi, estimates that today that number is approximately 19-21% nationally, with almost 30% of berkeley graduates going on for such special training. these advanced students concentrate on/specialize in (1) advanced cornea and contact lens care, e.g., correcting/fitting of more difficult cases, including neonates, keratoconus, distorted/irregular corneas, monocular aphakics, telescopes, etc.; (2) amblyopia, vision training, binocular vision anomalies and strabismus; (3) low vision care and vision rehabilitation, (4) pediatric eye care, and (5) those concentrating upon reading disorders, the latter programs are sometimes combined with programs in special education in colleges of education; (6) primary eye care/ family practice, and (7) ocular disease. within the numerous veterans administrations (va) hospitals, there are optometric residencies offered either in (8) low vision care and rehabilitation (related to, but somewhat different from (3)), or in (9) hospital-based residencies. these post­ graduate students include individuals seeking careers as optometric providers within va hospitals, as well as those in the military, the public health service administration, and a number of individuals participating in ophthalmology practices, etc. there also are residencies addressing (1 0) ergonomic treatment of computer-related visual problems, and (11) vision care associated with sports optometry. clearly, the group studying optometry in india for four years is not equivalent to those studying for two years, and they in turn are different from many of those studying outside of this nation. then, how do we define licensure for optometry in india? there are two or perhaps three groups with the same or different names but having different traditions and durations of training, and somewhat different modes of practice. they are not equivalent. hopefully, they wi/1 cooperate and find solutions to their differences and reasonable means/methods for upgrading, and reconciliation of their programs? my positions i have been stating my positions clearly. the larger group of optometrists in india, those who have studied at two year colleges, are practicing a rather archaic form of optometry. this form commonly existed widely during the latter part of the 19th century with extensions into the first half of the 20th century. in a number of cases, these are very commercial and questionably professional forms of practice focusing a hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 44 , great deal on the dispensing aspect of optometry, and not upon medical and or health related issues. from my point ofview, the older format is a creature of our past. i have been very proud to practice professional optometry in a variety of venues for 58 years! i would be deeply insulted if a patient said to me he was not willing to pay my examination fee. here, i do not speak of those in poverty, or experiencing other situations where they just cannot afford to pay that fee. we accept their condition as it is, and treat such individuals as being worthy and having a sense of honor, and ask them to pay whatever and whenever they can! and most all of those able to do so, pay their bills. are we to be bound by the past? i do not think so; our world literally has moved on! i would not expect the two year student to compete on an equal basis with the four year student in examinations for licensure. this does not mean that any individual is better or worse than the other; rather, less education surely affects the outcome. how does one decide what knowledge is necessary in order to provide necessary care, safety, and efficacy, and all suitable protections for the public whom we serve? i feel we must take all measures to ensure that we practice a form of optometry which meets the very highest current professional standards. i would like to see all optometric programs in indian optometry coalesce upon the four-year curriculum model. obviously, at the same time, all modern health care professions have changed or are changing dramatically. that is, training programs in medicine, and all other health professions, in recent years have had to keep in-step with incredibly rapid scientific and social progress made, as well as with demographic realities. it may be that in future, in india, as in the united states, sustained pressures of a comparable sort will force health-related professional programs, including optometric ones, to expand into a pre-professional undergraduate program for a substantial portion of their basic science studies. similarly, it will be necessary to create added post-graduate professional residency curriculums for specialty training. in parallel, there will have to be added training programs established in order to provide/to create the required researchers and academics for this expanding set of educational and health care resources. i have stated many times, certain research programs must be developed here in india, as we in the u.s.a. and europe do not see many of the large numbers of patients with characteristic diseases and disorders which place so much pressure upon the health delivery systems of south and south-east asia (and which also are encountered in quite a number of developing nations). similarly, you owe it to your enormous visually impaired and blind populations to develop meaningful research into low vision and vision rehabilitation practices. above all, i hold tightly to the belief that it is critical that optometry and ophthalmology be cooperative professions and not competitive entities! i am a forever a rounds participant! weekly, i still participate and enjoy this form of continuing education! from 1958-1974, i attended regularly grand rounds at washington university in saint louis led by prof. bernard becker, m.d., (and i also used to conduct scheduled refraction rounds with my good friend, benjamin milder, m.d., at that institution for several years); during the many years i shuttled back and forth between hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 45 st. louis, missouri, u.s.a. and berne, switzerland, i used to join in the remarkable rounds conducted there by prof. hans goldmann. from 1974 to 1980, i regularly attended rounds at the department of ophthalmology at the university of florida in gainesville led by prof. herbert kaufman. since 1980, i have participated in rounds programs at the university of california in san francisco. and that same year, as dean at the university of california at berkeley school of optometry, i introduced the same teaching modality to schools of optometry. i have learned (and we all can learn) much from this classical, well-established, and largely socratic-form of medical health debate and education. not surprisingly, there are remarkable differences today between case presentations, differential diagnoses, presentation of histology data and genetic information(!), and treatment options considered previously! happily, optometry has kept up with these developments (at least in the san francisco/bay area). for example, on november 7, 2007, i attended a fine rounds program held at the nearby palo alto (california) veterans administration (va) hospital. cases were presented by optometry residents at the va hospitals in the (larger) san francisco area, and by current u.c. berkeley optometric residents. on this day, i was very proud of our 12 residents who presented diverse cases in a first­ class five-hour session. the key issue we need to consider here is, how will india define optometry in the future, and how shall we deal with existing variants among those identifying themselves as optometrists? i feel it may be a mistake in modern times to license the group with limited training. i very much suspect it will not be easy task to alter/upgrade that particular form of practice to a modern-criterion-level if that group is recognized in its current state within the legal system. today optometry is so very much more. true, modern optometrists do refract, as refraction (or a form of visual correction) is the historic root of all optometry, but so does the ophthalmologist, or his nurse, or refracting sisters, etc. i make this distinction here because the modern optometrist takes far greater responsibility for his patient's welfare than do refractionists, per se. alternatively, shall we offer the larger group a different title and scope of practice? does this really solve the problem? i think not. education upgrade is the logical way to go, although it may take some time and/or prove to be difficult. modern indian optometry should be a licensed profession with reasonable control over its fate. that is, this profession should have its own licensing board or council. it should prepare and implement national tests which can be supplemented by local state tests as regards local laws, etc. it needs to have both a designated school accreditation body and a committee to establish national test and other standards for practice of the profession. it needs to address honorably and properly issues of malpractice and malfeasance. yet again, i emphasize again that i do not oppose the many two year refractionistsl optometrists. i was one of them! as stated, i accept that these are fine individuals, and, no doubt in many ways, very capable people. rather, as currently constituted, i just do not see them building a future for the optometric profession in india! as the standard of care for eye and vision care has evolved over the decades, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 46 separation of a refraction from a comprehensive eye exam is no longer acceptable and, most importantly, this is poor public health policy. 1 have stated the hope that provision will be made in order to allow these refractionists/ optometrists trained in two years to take additional courses in order to rnake it possible for them, in time, to qualify for examination and licensure as modern optometrists. i also suggested that their academic leaders and some well recognized individuals might be "grandfathered" into the category of modern optometrists. i urge their schools to consider upgrading their faculties and curriculum to qualify as modern optometric programs. as i understand the situation, that this process has begun. here, i am concentrating on what it will take to resolve this impasse in order for optometrists, as eye care professionals, to better serve india. necessary transitions will take a number of years. let us assume we seek to upgrade/update the education of the two-year optometric graduates. will there be a single upgrade program devised which is applicable for all participants, that is, a "one-size-fits-all solution"? i wonder? here we deal with a large number of two-year post-secondary school programs. was the curriculum the same in each of these schools, or nearly so? did these early programs also dedicate a meaningful portion of their total teaching program to training their students in opticianry as well as in optometry? i appreciate that this might have been suitable for the times. and, we must not forget that these programs have existed over quite a long span of years, and it has been a number of years since a number of these individuals were first trained. i have taught in ophthalmologic, optometric, and opticianry programs. they are each quite different! if we are going to pursue the recommended approach, let us do it properly! what i fear is that many of these individuals will not even perceive what they do not know! given the backgrounds of the two and three year trained groups of optometric practitioners, the courses will have to be formatted such that they are seen to be clinically applicable. and where does one start? this set of issues will take serious consideration by able, dedicated, and caring individuals/academics. and do we have qualified individuals to teach this large cohort of existing practitioners? what are associated costs? in parallel, the existing two-year schools all will have to adjust/change to the accepted modern four-year curriculum. as another feature, i recommended above an approach employed in australia years ago when they faced similar issues. provision was made ( 1 ) to arrange to have the group(s) with briefer training take special designated upgrade-courses during a defined period of time, (2) all school/college curriculums were brought into compliance with an agreed 4 year-program standard, and (3) certain individuals were grand­ fathered into licensure. the australians then ( 4) set a time-certain date after which no­ one was granted optometric licensure unless they had completed a four-year optometric training program and passed a board or council examination. i am sure we will all agree that the transition-process should not continue endlessly as it did in my own nation. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 47 and we should initiate promptly regular, required, and meaningful ce programs if they do not already exist! in closing optometrists, in this great nation, must become aware of their real value to society and to india, and develop a true sense of pride as regards themselves, and relative to their profession! you can be so much more! modem optometry can make a meaningful contribution to eye care and to this nation. it should be recognized, regularized, and regulated! we need to consider as well the regularization, and regulation of all technical support individuals/groups. regulation is designed to protect the public. hence, it is logical for all ophthalmic care groups to be defined properly and regulated. to achieve such developments will take good will, understanding, and, above all, cooperation by all parties. as an absolute minimum, please address the issues i raised in criticism of the proposed new law. while a number of my suggestions are no doubt highly controversial, i have sought to be constructive in my approach to the problem. writing in a recently published and magnificent book(!), prof. emeritus vincent ilardi, of the university of massachusetts at amherst (u.s.a.), closes his text with a wonderful quote by the scholar and philosopher, rene descartes, in la dioptrique (dioptrics), dated 1673: ''the whole conduct of our life depends upon our senses, among which vision is the noblest and most universal, there can be no doubt that inventions to increase its power are the most useful there can be." ilardi also quotes the early spanish historian/author daza de valdez, who declared in his book in 1623 that practitioners of the refractive art were "divine", and ilardi adds, "today's more educated and mathematically sophisticated opticians can feel justly proud that they are practicing a "divine" calling." may we collectively achieve that status! ilardi's book is: renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes, memoirs of the american philosophical society, vol. 259, (citation p. 251 ), 378 pages. philadelphia, pa., isbn-10: 0-87169-259-7; isbn-13: 978-0-87169-259-7. winner of the american philosophical society j.f. lewis award in 2006 for best book of the year! acknowledgements quite a goodly number of individuals have kindly helped me with this document, both in india and the united states. ms. sherry cooper of the american optometric association was a fount of knowledge on the general topic of licensure, accreditation, etc. friends in india among former elite school of optometry students (e.g., mrs. kripa nagarajan karthikeyan, b.s. opt., 2006) were of great help, as was dr. krishna kumar, ph.d., principal of esq. so saying, a// comments made are mine and i take full responsibility for them. i apologize that this document is so lengthy. had i some weeks more, i am sure it would have been less lengthy. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 48 addendum who am i? i was a child of the "great depression" (this terrible event in our nation [and world-wide] occurred just months after i was born in 1929 in new york city). my parents, like so many others, were negatively and significantly affected by that event and its enduring aftermath. i "survived" growing up in the streets of new york at that time. i earned admission to the outstanding bronx high school of science, and was pleased to be awarded a full new york state regents' scholarship to columbia university. so saying, there was no money available to enable me to consider any form of advanced training beyond the bachelor's degree, and my father made it clear to me that i must choose an educational path that led to licensure, a privilege which could not readily be taken from me, and one which would provide opportunity for me to open my own practice and allow me to escape the hiring and firing cycles which so devastated most all individuals during the depression years of the 1930s, and which only ended during world war ii (wwii). in 1946, i was one of very few individuals (a few handfuls) who were not veterans of wwii who achieved admission to columbia college, a distinguished four year undergraduate college within columbia university. my choice was limited by my father's instructions to the programs in pharmacy, accounting, and optometry. oddly, in retrospect, teaching was never considered! from the short list offered to me, i chose optometry, because i had (still have) vision problems and found the topic quite interesting. at a dance held shortly after i entered optometry school, i heard an optometry professor, dr. isidore finkelstein, say to others that he was offering individuals $1.00 per hour to serve as his experimental subjects. a dollar an hour! wow! i literally crashed my date into him, and, thus, i entered the scientific and academic world. importantly, this work was being conducted at the columbia university medical school campus within the department of ophthalmology research. there, i worked both with dr. finkelstein and his then mentor, prof. dr. george smelser, who was both a superb anatomist and a specialist in corneal physiology. later, dr. smelser kindly sent me for further training and research experience to harvard university to work with professors david cogan, and everett kinsey. such connections and experiences allowed me to meet and to later work with many of the then leaders of ophthalmology and optometry. i was called up to military service the very first day of the korean war! because of my years of work with finkelstein and smelser as a student, i was assigned as #2 lead in the management of the same research project(!) in the u.s. army ... amazing! in turn, that service during the korean war enabled me to obtain "g.i. bill" funding for graduate and research training in vision science! among my several teachers and supervisors in subsequent years were prof./dr. james mcgraw (syracuse u.); profs. brian o'brien and robert boynton (u. of rochester); profs. glenn a. fry, vincent ellerbrock in optometry, prof. paul fitts in psychology , and profs. edwards and knopf in anatomy, etc. (ohio state u.); drs. walter stanley stiles, f.r.s., and brian crawford (national physical laboratory, teddington, u.k.); profs. bernard becker, paul cibis, m. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 49 constant, robert moses, etc. (washington u., st. louis); prof. herbert kaufman (u. florida); profs. hans goldmann, franz fankhauser, baldur gloor (later chair, basel/zurich), and the berne group (u. of berne, switzerland); and prof., dr. charles schepens (retina foundation, harvard u., boston). because of my sustained connections with, and understanding of both optometry and ophthalmology, i have made a life-time commitment to try to reconcile differences between these two professions! from the point of view of development of legislation, i played a key role as a young man for some years during the mid-1960s as executive secretary, of the subcommittee on vision and its disorders, of the then national advisory neurological diseases and blindness council, national institute of neurological diseases and blindness, of the national institutes of health (njndb, nih). our distinguished subcommittee, chaired by prof. bernard becker, m.d., was charged to review the then current status of all eye and vision research, detail then current funding and support mechanisms of eye and vision research, and we were asked to make recommendations to the nindb as to how to strengthen our then (recognized as deficient!) programs serving eye and vision care in the united states. both profs. becker and kinsey were then serving members of the national advisory neurological diseases and blindness council. i was given critical access to all pertinent data at the nih (what an education that was!). i had to visit (and to study in considerable depth) many of the major eye and vision research venues in the u.s.a., and to lead in the preparation of, and writing of much of the subsequent major three volume report of the sub-committee. rather quickly, it became evident to all members of this subcommittee that it was necessary for them to consider (without overtly saying so) the development of a new and separate national eye institute (nei) at the still young and growing nih. in my role, i wrote most all of the plan for the proposed institute. the subcommittee strongly supported that plan and its recommendations! in fact, the late professor edward maumenee, md, then chairman of the department of ophthalmology at johns hopkins university medical school and a subcommittee member, asked me, "jay, however did you know how to write such a plan?" (i didn't know, i just did it!) creation of the new nei was later approved by the united states congress (in 1968). some wording in the rather brief enabling legislation was identical to wording in the report we had submitted. today, research in support of the extramural eye and vision research budget of the nei has grown remarkably (and well beyond our wildest expectations!) into a potent resource in support of effective ophthalmic and vision care. on six/seven occasions, i had the privilege to support the program and budgets for the new nei in testimony presented before the two houses of the u.s. congress. on some of those occasions, the late and very prominent mrs. mary lasker (a key figure in development of the nih!) would come and sit directly behind me. thus, in effect, she offered great (and remarkably effective!) support for my testimony. i later served two terms on the national advisory eye council of the nei. i was appointed by president richard nixon, and reappointed by president jimmy carter. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page so ' .; j separately, about 15 years ago, i helped two senior california state legislators write legislation for the later-approved academic geriatric resource program (agrp). because at that time substantial programmatic weaknesses as regards teaching and research existed relative to issues pertaining to aging populations in california, this ongoing and now long-standing legislative program provides a structure for enhancement of teaching age-related topics in the five state of california-financed medical schools and at u.c. berkeley. also, it authorized modest, but key start up funds for pertinent research on geriatric (and gerontological) subjects. it recognizes that california is a "sun-belt" state to which aged individuals in the u.s.a. tend to flock in retirement, and it recognizes the very real need for the state to meet its academic obligations to its burgeoning millions of "senior citizens". and for more than a decade, i served on the agrp advisory board at berkeley. part of our duties were to build our teaching and research programs in aging at berkeley (including vision-related programs) and to coordinate associated u.c. berkeley programs with those at the five medical schools. today, this is a full-fledged research and graduate training program with a number of course offerings taught each year (including by the speaker). (as used here, the term "geriatric" refers to the study of old age and its diseases and disorders, while "gerontologic" considers virtually all other issues associated with aging. as examples, the later term deals with population statistics, social issues, economic and social issues related to retirement, and post-retirement life, transport of the elderly, risks encountered by elderly persons (e.g., falls in homes, on escalators, etc.), provision of non-medical care to the elderly, e.g., nursing home conditions and standards, questions of death and dying (other than direct health issues), hospice programs, designs of buildings serving the elderly, etc. these two words define rather broad sets of issues and requirements.) i served as dean of the school of optometry at berkeley for 12 years, and by the time i stepped down from this role, i had become the senior campus dean at berkeley. for some years during this period of my career, i also served on the u.c. systemwide health sciences committee. i was appointed to their sub-committee for foreign health science graduates. that group had to deal with requirements for licensed immigrant health care practitioners (mainly in medicine) seeking to practice their skilled profession in california. at that time such individuals were moving to the united states in large numbers! all manner of questions arose as to the qualifications of these individuals, equivalence of their education, the definitions of individual professional training programs in the several countries of origin of these many students, etc. there were also demands made by some of applicants' countries that their graduates return to their home countries in order to serve the needs of their country of origin. i also was named co-chairman of the committee on documented (legal) and non-documented (that is, illegal) immigrant health care in california. (what a mess!) during our assessment of this complex situation, we had a major measles outbreak and epidemic in california, and quite large numbers of children (in particular) died of this disease. not surprisingly, individuals included in both immigrant population categories, documented and non-documented, were among those who died. the then governor of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 51 california sought to deny provision of health care to non-documented individuals including their children, and revoked the licenses of physicians who were found to provide such care to these individuals! our committee pointed out that infectious diseases do not respect the legal/illegal status of people, and crowded living conditions among the poor favor disease transmission, etc. we also asked the very practical question, did physicians have the time, or the appropriate personnel needed to assess properly an immigrant's residence status before that individual was provided with necessary emergency medical care? my son contracted the measles, and his survival was touch and go for a period of a week or more. candidly, if a child had been presented to me with a very high fever such as is commonly encountered in children with measles, and had i been trained in their care, i would have treated the child regardless of his/her immigration status, or fiscal resources. separately, as dean, i had to provide an orderly mechanism to make periodic curriculum changes, and to lead two cyclical re-accreditation reviews of our school, etc. in another set of actions, issues arose relating to the presence of over 4000+ philippine u.s.a. residents who were graduates of the (then) seven unregulated optometry schools in their native land. at that time they resided in california (living/ located mainly in the los angeles area). these individuals were not licensed to practice optometry in california. a then california state senator (later removed from elective office for cause!) stated i had agreed to provide additional education for these 4000 individuals such that they could then qualify to take the california state board examinations. at that time, we had only about 4000 (exact number ?) licensed optometrists in all of the state of california. neither this california legislator. nor his staff had ever spoken to me or to my associates about this issue! this state senator pushed a law through the legislature, which was signed by the governor, obligating our school (as the single state-financed school of optometry in california) to provide such training for these individuals. this would have been a major task for us (without even considering language issues), and we were neither equipped, nor had adequate manpower for this additional role. at that time, we graduated about 65 optometry students per year (a four year professional optometry program), we also had about 26 graduate students at various stages in their m.s. and ph.d. programs designed to train teachers and researchers for careers in academia, and about 10-12 individuals annually taking specialty programs in advanced clinical subjects as either residents or fellows. the state legislation which was passed carried no funds to hire individuals to teach this major additional program to the philippine optometry graduates. similarly, neither space, nor facilities were provided in the legislation for this activity (we had one classroom for our entire school!). our faculty each had a fair teaching load, and showed absolutely no enthusiasm for this large added obligation! thus, i had no choice but to oppose this program and law. it was a bruising confrontation. so saying, i neither oppose philippine people, nor philippine optometrists. rather, we were placed in a wholly untenable position by this legislator and his staff. i am sure my former philippine students and then-faculty members will attest to this point. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 52 setting of standards i participated as a representative of many groups over an extended period of time in actions associated with setting of professional ophthalmic examination and product standards. these standards involved issues associated with testing of visual acuity, standardization of perimetric devices and peri metric tests, standardization of terminology employed in ophthalmic settings, spectacle-lens standards, sunglass-lens standards, contact lens standards, contact lens case, cleaning agent and wetting agent standards, safe use of lasers, etc. at different times, in these several actions, i represented the american academy of ophthalmology, the american academy of optometry, the american optometric association, the concilium ophthalmologicum universale (cou) in my role as elected chairman of the visual studies or vision functions committee of the cou, the optical society of america, the international perimetric society (a component of the cou), the national academy of science armed forces national research council committee on vision, american national standards institute (ansi), etc. standards setting activities by professional societies are important for quite a number of reasons! they regularize and define the preferred/designated approach to testing of patients by ophthalmic practitioners, as well as establish minimum performance standards of products described from safety, quality, and functional points of view. they also provide a critical resource for proper referral of patients by one practitioner to another in the same or different ophthalmic professions. that is, by establishing standardized measurement techniques, e.g., visual acuity, individual practitioners and their co-workers are able to compare effectively their results with those of other practitioners. some published standards with which i was associated were as follows: concilium ophthalmologicum universal, perimetry standards and perimetric glossary of the international council on ophthalmology. (perimetric standards, 1978). jay m. enoch (usa) chairman, of the international perimetric society research group on standards, editor, and committee. dr. w. junk, bv publishers, the hague, the netherlands, etc., 1979. pp. 133. note: also included in the same publication was an approved glossary of terms used in vision testing translated into ten different languages (english, french, german, . spanish, russian, italian, swedish, dutch (netherlands), polish, japanese) based on efforts of a second committee, chaired by the late ophthalmologist, dr. guy verriest of belgium. i served on, and exercised administrative control on this committee as well. !1 is urged that this list be further translated into hindi and other indian languages, etc. jay m. enoch, presidente, august colenbrander, secretario-geral. media padrao da acuidade visual, comite de fum;oes visuais, concilium ophthalmologicum universale, 1984. published in arq. bras. oftal. 51(5), 203-212, 1988. see also visual acuity measurement standard: italian journal of ophthalmology 11/1, 5-19, 1988. etc hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 53 american national standards institute portions of the report in item 2 just below have been reproduced in trauma (1978, 1979). and, in due course, by the american national standards institute, committee 2.80. i participated on the parent ansi 2.80 committee, and chaired the ansi 2.80 subcommittee on contact lenses. the latter inter-professional group completed a number of standards during 1970-77. i remained as a consultant to ansi 2.80 and to its contact lens subcommittee for several years thereafter. listed are some of the contact lens standards with which i have been affiliated. 1. prescription requirements for first-quality contact lenses, ansi 2.80.2-1972. 2. standard for accessory solutions used with contact lenses made of conventional hard plastic materials such as polymethyl-methacrylate, ansi 2.80.4-1974. 3. standard for "physico-chemical properties of conventional hard plastic contact lenses", ansi 2.80.6-1976. how i came to india, and some of my activities here my first contact with an indian individual was with dr. narinder singh kapany, one of the fathers of modern fiber-optics, with whom i often visit to this day! we first met at a meeting of the optical society of america well over 50 years ago. he has been a close friend and one of those who taught me early-on about fiber optics. now, he lives in nearby palo alto. narinder invited me to write a chapter in his first book on fiber-optics. i wrote on the retinal receptor as a fiber-optics element. that activity proved rather seminal in my career, and led me, among other things, to meet the writer of the next chapter in the same book, member of the board of directors, dean of science and technology, and professor of optics emeritus hitoshi ohzu of waseda univerisity. hitoshi became my fulbright fellow for two years at washington u. in st. louis, and later i was his guest as visiting professor of the japanese society for the advancement of science at waseda university. the three of us, narinder, hitoshi and i maintain a close relationship to this day. separately, in later years, narinder and i, and the late sri bhai mohan singh, founder of ranbaxy corp. (an early associate/schoolmate(?) of narinder), tried to organize an optometry school in chandigarh (this was some years after the founding of the elite school). we did not succeed. some years after that, bhai mohan singh played a meaningful role in development of the bausch and lomb school in hyderabad. i believe he was also then president of bausch and lomb, india. i first came to india in response to an urgent request from then chancellor ira michael heyman of the university of california at berkeley. in the immediate aftermath of disorders occurring following the assassination of prime minister indira ghandi, efforts were made to locate and to assure the security of all berkeley students then studying in india. two alumnae of our school were then registered for studies in india, and apparently they could not be contacted/reached. since i knew these ladies, and at the time served as dean of the school of optometry, i was sent promptly to india to locate them and to bring them, if indicated, safely home. i asked the obvious questions, "where are they studying or conducting research?" they (u.c. berkeley) didn't know! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 54 "where do i start?" they didn't know! india is a big country, and i knew almost nothing about it at that time! i felt like cervantes' don quixote tilting at windmills. to be brief, purely by chance, i found one of these young ladies (i might add looking rather glamorous!) at an evening lawn party in hyderabad. she was perfectly happy, and she really didn't want to be saved! it turned out that our second former student was then vacationing on the beach in kerala. so much for my quixotic quest! as i was then in india, i decided to visit (then) madras, (later) chennai, in order to visit with the distinguished father of my then graduate student (now professor vasudevan "vengu" lakshminarayanan, u. waterloo, ontario, canada; he holds full professorship in optometry, physics, and electrical engineering!). vengu had then just completed a brilliant dissertation! his father, the late professor vasudevan, was the founding director of the institute for advanced mathematical studies (matlab) located in chennai. i wanted to describe to him my pride his son's truly fine research work. while discussing this research with prof. vasudevan, and after i lectured at matlab, he told me of the truly good works of dr. s.s. badrinath ("sadri") at sankara nethralaya, and of sadri's nascent plans to build, in chennai, a quality optometric institution associated with sankara nethralaya. he asked me to meet with them both, and i was pleased to do so. in turn, they asked for my cooperation in the effort to create, and to build, a new school of optometry. i gladly joined in this worthy effort, which was designed to further develop eyecare in india in hopes of reducing the substantial backlog of patient demands for eye and vision care in india. as i noted above, optometry, the profession, had developed to a high level in great britain, and in former major british colonies in canada, south africa, australia, new zealand, the u.s.a., etc. frankly, i didn't understand why parallel development of modern optometry had not also occurred in the indian subcontinent. a small number of us modified modestly the then berkeley curriculum to meet the perceived needs of your fine nation. (i am most pleased that this curriculum has been so widely copied!) i arranged for members of our faculty to teach at the school for extended periods of time during the early years, and i asked them also to act effectively as role models (an important requirement when establishing a new/modern profession!). i sent a large· consignment of surplus clinical equipment (accumulated over 50+ years at our school) to help to start the rural eye clinic on the new sankara nethralaya campus located near st. thomas mount in chennai. and, over a number of years, i have been pleased to (and continue to) transfer my personal professional library to the school here in chennai. the intent has been, and remains, to provide a valuable resource for teaching and research programs at the emergent elite school of optometry (and through inter-library loans, to help serve the other emerging colleges of optometry, as well as ophthalmological programs). early on, i regularly chaired meetings of the very impressive board of studies established to guide the new elite school of optometry. since its initial development, i have been active in many programs of this fine school, and i have been most pleased to participate both in its inauguration, and in its recent 20th anniversary meetings and celebration. i also should mention the very significant contributions made by the very accomplished, but recently deceased, first principal/director of the elite school, prof. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 55 govindarajan. he set very high standards for the school and for the profession! his fine successors have been most able as well! quite separately, and with encouragement from the national eye institute of the national institutes of health, i developed a research laboratory at the aravind eye hospital located in madurai, tamil nadu state. over a period of a number of years, i sought to develop a test of vision which would assess the quality of vision available behind "dense" ocular media opacities. given the incredible backlog of cases with such opacities, e.g., such as cataracts, cornealleucomas, etc., the demand for surgery far exceeded then existing capability-to-serve the populace by then available ocular surgeons. the questions asked were, "who should we operate, and which of two eyes should we operate among our patient population?". then, in most non-private cases, only one eye could be treated with then available resources. a simple clinical test was developed based on vernier acuity techniques, and this interesting test proved to be independent of the age of patients(!), or the density of cataracts or other opacities. over the years, quite a number of associated research projects were conducted, and accompanying research papers were published. among the numerous individuals who worked with me on this program was dr. s. aravind. i also went into the clinic with dr. venkataswamy (dr. "v"), and, at his request, i demonstrated successfully and rapidly (on quite a sample of patients) a simple version of the test, only requiring two portable hand-held battery-driven flashlights. on several occasions, dr. v emphasized to me, the largest group of patients seen in eye camps (ca. 38%) were those either requiring refractions, or simple magnifiers for low vision. actually, the total number of these patients modestly exceeded the number of those individuals requiring cataract surgery! and the cost of serving these people was far less, and could greatly reduce the visually-impaired population in india. to emphasize this point to me, dr. v, placed me for some years on the aravind eye-camp committee. each week, data were available on eye camp populations sampled, tested and managed. dr. v was absolutely correct about the proportion of patients requiring only refractive and/or low vision aids. dr. v also asked me to teach visual optics and a variety of other topics to classes of students at aravind (variously to the residents, visiting ophthalmologists, the staff, and to the sisters). also, i conducted graduation ceremonies for groups in training, etc. when i last saw dr. vat the fine new aravind eye center in pondicherry, just shortly before his death, he told me proudly of two new optometry schools he was starting both in madurai and at their fine new facility on the coromandel coast. earlier, i had arranged for the aravind group to receive several "rooms" of surplus refracting equipment from our school for the refraction clinic in madurai. also worthy of note, dr. namperumalsamy of aravind hospital in madurai, and dr. s.s. badrinath, both fine senior retinal surgeons(!), were very proud of having served earlier as students of the late, distinguished, retinal surgeon, dr. charles schepens of boston. in addition, "nam" earlier spent a period of time studying low vision care in new york city with the late george hellman. other ophthalmologists with interest in this topic have included the drs. desai, father (now deceased) and son. i point this out, because knowledge of low-vision-care and rehabilitation services remains hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 56 in very short supply in india, and must be strengthened as part of an effective program for the visually-impaired of this nation. separately, i maintained a close relationship with the british-trained optometrist, the late, naval balliwala (of balliwala and hom, ltd.) of mumbai. he was one of few individuals in india who consistently championed development of low-vision-care in india. and for years balliwala organized and headed a succession of small optometry schools in mumbai; i also arranged for him to receive some of our surplus clinic equipment for use at those institutions. balliwala also served on the elite school of optometry board of studies. i was so very pleased, very shortly before his death, to speak with him during the ceremonies celebrating the 20th anniversary of the elite school. similarly, i had an opportunity then to interact with my old friend, prof. govindarajan, who has also passed on! after my original trip to india, and for quite a number of years after that, i also served on the board of directors of the u.c. program for graduate professional studies/research in india. and, finally, i had the pleasure of participating in a number of meetings of the all­ india congress of ophthalmology, where i was invited to present quite a number of research papers over a period of many years. on one of these occasions, i delivered the first lecture on low vision care presented in india (at least that was told to me by a number of individuals). our several visits to india have been a very special pleasure for both my wife becky and me. it is a special honor for me today to have an opportunity to address this very distinguished forum! i have had opportunity to read some of the works of sri palkhivala, and i was most impressed by his scholarly contributions (particularly) to the constitution of india. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 57 an early sixteenth century optometrist 's shop: jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen's "lx siin tiid" sara newman, ph.d. department of english, kent state university, p.o. box 5190, kent, oh 44242-0002, snewman@kent.edu abstract in jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen's early dutch painting (ca.1511-1514), an elderly gentleman hands a pair of spectacles to a young woman within a richly filled interior. although the painting has acquired various names and is described more generally as a genre piece, no research has considered its specific imagery and the reason for its commission. this article argues that the painting depicts an early sixteenth century eyeglass maker's shop and may even be the earliest known advertisement for such an establishment. key words: advertising, amsterdam, dutch painting, eyeglasses, genre painting, jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen, optometry, optometrist 's shop. "lx siin tiid" workshop of jacob comelisz. van oostsanen ca.1511-1514 49 x 35 em utrecht, museum of catharine's convent in a small painting in utrecht's st. catharine convent museum, an elderly gentleman holds a pair of spectacles-pinch-nez's to be exact-in his left hand and, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 58 with the right, gives a coin to a young woman. before the woman, on the viewer's left, sits a small box containing similar glasses from which she lifts another pair. behind and between the two, another man and woman appear, their genders, ages, and physical locations reversed. in this case, a young man, on the left, grabs coins from a pot held by an older woman as this second couple kisses. these two transactions, contrasting and yet complementary, take place within an interior cramped full of objects and activities. to the untrained twenty-first century observer, the painting is no doubt mysterious in ways it would not have been to its intended sixteenth century audience. for that audience, the people, the objects, and their interactions in jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen's early sixteenth painting ( ca.1511-1514) would be familiar. these elements, moreover, identify the painting as a transitional one; it is at once a product of the mystical medieval world in northern europe preceding its creation and of the developing commercial world in northern europe which followed, reaching its apex, some say, in seventeenth century holland's golden age. the painting's complexities aside, one thing about it seems clear, even to the contemporary viewer-it has something to do with the transactions that figure so prominently in it. with these exchanges in mind, it has been called the spectacle seller (carroll\ a scene in a brothel (steinbart2), and "lx siin tiid" ("each to his time," see below; utrecht, museum of catharine's convent), and described more generally as a genre piece. but, no research has considered the painting's specific imagery and the reason for its commission. after undertaking such tasks, i suggest that the eyeglasses are not only the centerpiece around which jacob cornelisz.'s painting resolves but also the purpose which occasioned its creation. in what follows, i argue that the painting depicts an early sixteenth century eyeglass maker's shop and may even be the earliest known advertisement for such an establishment. to link the painting and these possibilities, i turn first to the histories of optometry, advertising, and artistic representation of them in the early sixteenth century and then to jacob cornelisz. and his art. optometry and advertising in the early sixteenth century although optometry was not officially recognized as a profession until the nineteenth century, it existed de facto long before that; humans have studied glass, optics, and refraction for millennia and, with this, attempted to harness these capacities and materials to improve vision.3.4 eyeglasses per se are thought to have been invented just before 1300 perhaps by a cleric, a workingman, or a scientist. a with the invention of the printing press ( 1441 ), the availability of reading materials increased and, with this, the demand for glasses.5 at the time of jacob cornelisz.'s painting, then, glasses would had been available for several centuries, and increasingly so for citizens on the netherlands whose desire for them was supported by greater commercial opportunities and abilities to produce, disseminate, and buy them (see gregg,6 for example). d the earliest known representation of glasses appears in a painting by tommaso a modena, a portrait of hugh of st. cher, painted sometime between 1352 and 1360 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 59 (rosen,7 p. 205; rome, ministry of education). shortly thereafter, glasses became a standard attribute of individuals in portraits, indicating perhaps that the wearer was modern, learned, and fairly wealthy. in another example, jan van eyck's the van der paele madonna of 1436, the subject, canon van der paele, holds a pair of spectacles much like those in the jacob cornelisz. painting (bruges, musee communal des beaux­ arts). as optometry achieved professional recognition in the nineteenth century, so too did advertising attain such professional status in the time period, due in large part to the role of newspapers in disseminating information. 8 still, humans have long attempted to sell their wares. evidence of advertisements exists in babylonia and ancient greece and rome. 9 although these ads consist of inscriptions, the majority of early advertising was oral, carried out by means of town criers.10 in addition to town criers, medieval craftsmen advertised in graphic media but not in terms familiar today. in the collective spirit of those times, commissions for goods took place under the auspices of guilds. and, in the religious spirit of the times, each guild had a patron saint who sanctioned and protected its members and their wares, st. luke for the painters' guild, for instance (see below, 6th page of this paper). thus, the windows of chartres cathedral represent 42 guilds (including bakers bankers, blacksmiths, coopers, and carpenters, etc.), each of which is a token of the guild's sponsorship of the cathedral.11 (see 4th page of this paper below). advertising in this way acknowledged the authority of god, the ultimate creator (cf. 4th page of this paper), but also implicitly acknowledged the craftsmen and the product without inappropriate hubris (cf. below on artist's and signing works). a guild with such blessing was presumably a worthy one. as cities grew, advertising continued to be handled by guilds but in less explicitly religious forms. notable, then, is pieter aertsen's 1551 meat stall (raleigh, north carolina museum of art~, which was commissioned by the antwerp butcher's guild and located in its hall (craig 2 and see below, 6th page of this paper). the majority of the work details the meats hanging in the butcher's stall. in contrast, the religious element, the "flight into egypt," is inverted; that is, it is a tiny background scene which is almost indistinguishable as that or any religious event. thus, aertsen's "inverted still-lifes" are not only important as evidence of advertising but are also considered the turning point in the development of genre painting.13 by the mid sixteenth century, then, advertising did not require overt religious sanction although it was far from the more widely disseminated, product-oriented forms of advertising which developed subsequently. jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen and early art in amsterdam although not much is known about jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen, the style of his art and the words of his early seventeenth century biographer, carel van mander (1604),14 place him in amsterdam at the beginning of the sixteenth century. as such, jacob cornelisz. has been called the city's first artist.15 even if that moniker is not strictly correct, his oeuvre represents what art in that northern european city was like at hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 60 a time when the church-bound medieval world was giving way to secular cities with various classes of citizen, including the new middle-class.16•17 according to van mander, the artist was born in oostsanen, in the vicinity of modern-day haarlem and amsterdam, around 1472.18 nothing is known of the route jacob cornelisz. took to amsterdam nor of the training he received prior to his arrival. but, as van mander again tells us, the artist owned a house in amsterdam in 1500, ran a successful workshop in the city, and died there in 1533. the existing artistic evidence associated with jacob cornelisz. speaks to the character and range of his production. his extant works belong to various media: oil painting, woodcut, church vault paintings, drawing, and embroidery for clerical robes. across these media, he primarily depicts traditional new testament scenes along with some old testament fare, some portraits, and some unusual scenes such as the painting in utrecht. b such subjects reflect the taste of his patrons, still by and large grounded in a church-based world, while the range of media speaks to the different artistic patrons and possibilities for them in that growing commercial environment (see below).c significantly, jacob cornelisz. did not sign and date all of his works, nor did he sign and date them consistently; some works are dated but bear no signature and some bear the signature without a date. these practices are in keeping with the transitional environment in which the artist worked and with the spirit of advertising at this time mentioned above. in previous centuries, artists did not sign their works, at least not as marks of creativity because, from a medieval standpoint, only god created. artists, therefore, were considered craftsmen, and simply adorned the objects they made with marks of their associated guild and/or its patron saint, these, as indicated, to offer protection for the guild members and sanction for their products.d in cities governed by secular authorities, artists could increasingly take credit for their art as creative works and, on that reputation, sell them (see faries,19 pp.2 ff). thus, jacob cornelisz.'s signature marked works that he designed and executed himself, making them more expensive and valuable. the unsigned works, often in media other than oil, were from his workshop or copies of them; being generally of less expensive material, less original design, and a less skilled hand, they were also more affordable. these workshop practices enabled jacob cornelisz. to serve the needs of a community with citizens, individual and municipal, of various incomes and needs. the signed and/or dated works also provide a framework for identifying jacob cornelisz.'s handiwork and determining a chronology and characterization of it.e although the artist signed only five paintings of the 27 attributed to him, and these from the end of his career, he created more than 200 woodcuts, many of them belonging to signed and dated series.t his first signed and dated work is a series of woodcuts from 1507, the life of the virgin (amsterdam, rijksmuseum) and his last, a self-portrait from 1533 (amsterdam, rijksmuseum). these circumstances suggest that he began his career as a woodcutter (see meuwissen,20 p. 65ff.). hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 61 all variations aside, his works exhibit the followin~ stylistic elements, all of which are said to reflect his efforts in illustration (meuwissen,2 pp. 60 ff): heart-shaped heads with large foreheads and small chins, foreshortened bodies and perspective, intricate details, and black contouring.9 works baring these characteristics but have signature and are unevenly executed are attributed jacob cornelisz.' workshop. within these works, a stylistic development is evident.h his early works are more medieval in their use of symbolic imagery and greater detail, and his later works more concerned with accurate representation of perspective and the human form; that is, they show the influence of italian renaissance art which had discovered its early roman heritage and brought back to the north by jacob cornelisz.'s student, jan van scorel, the first dutch artist to study in ltaly.21 the painting in utrecht is a workshop piece because it is unsigned and its execution flat, uneven, and less crisp than those by the master's hand. the piece is dated between 1511 and 1514 because of stylistic and compositional similarities to signed and/or dated works in jacob cornelisz.'s oeuvre from around that time ( cf. a nativity dated 1512 ; naples, capodimonte museum). nonetheless, the style appears to be the master's, evident in the characteristic shapes, details, and perspective. a lost version of the same painting, known through a photograph, suggests both that the piece had a certain amount of popularity and that they are copies of a lost original by the artist himself.22• 1 the utrecht work is also typical of dutch art at the time in its use of symbolic objects to offer a moralizing message. this message is encapsulated in a phrase on the balcony at the back of the room, "lx siin tiid" or "each to his time.'' of biblical origins, the proverb indicates that a time and place exists for each person and each activity) as such, the painting depicts two pairs of individuals, these of contrasting ages, arrangement, and genders, each pair involved in a different activity. in the most prominent pair, the old man hands the younger woman a coin as part of an exchange for a commodity, glasses; complementing this, the younger man grabs coins from a pot in exchange for another kind of transaction with the older women, presumably a prostitute. thus, two kinds of knowledge and activity are contrasted. within the painting, the meaning of each exchange is suggested and reinforced by symbolic objects. on the right in the back, a young lutier and woman "consort" as an older man looks on, music being a symbol of intimate relations.23. k in the center, over the fireplace, a fool with his cap and staff reflects on the young man and older woman's exchange; associated in renaissance imagery with love, folly, and youth,24 this less than virtuous being warns the couple of the folly of their actions. thus, the kissing couple represents a certain kind of knowledge, intimate knowledge, which has a time and place but is often a foolhardy pursuit. the contrasting transaction focuses on a different kind knowledge, one symbolized by eyeglasses and, thus, vision. sight has a longstanding association with light, and, therefore, with enlightenment, that is, with cognitive and conceptual knowledge. from this well-known perspective, vision facilitates insight, and insight hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 62 leads to proper actions at the proper time. for some people, however, acquiring such vision requires glasses. sight and its enhancement are symbolized by other objects in the room. to the left and complementing the amorous activities on the right, the room is tightly packed with objects; many are accoutrements of a sixteenth century apothecary and/or optometrist, such as the weights for measuring materials, the vessels for grinding lenses, and the fireplace for making and shaping glasses; the mirrors and beads are other products made in the shop. all this leads to a window in the back, the shop looks out on a street, offering a view of the world for those who have to vision to see it. typically, the early sixteenth century painting presents a moral lesson which contrasts good and bad behavior. the viewer is warned that humans must choose between nearsighted folly or clearer vision, the latter often enabled by eyeglasses. in contrast to earlier portraits which included glasses, those in jacob cornelisz.'s painting are not an attribute of an individual, but, i would suggest, the subject of the painting. although the non-biblical subject is unusual for jacob cornelisz., it belongs within the tradition of genre pieces and within this to a type associated with guilds (and hence advertising) called the "occupational portrait.''25 as a snapshot into a shop or room, this type of genre painting has precedents in more overtly religious painting involving transactions. petrus christus' 1449 st. eligius as a goldsmith (the lehman collection, new york) takes place in a room where a goldsmith sells gold rings to a couple.25 the goldsmith is represented appropriately by that profession's patron saint, st. eligius. similarly, rogier van der weyden includes st. luke, the patron saint of artists, in st. luke portraying the virgin from c.1435-40 (boston, museum of fine arts).1 his inclusion was appropriate since, as documentation confirms, the work was "presented to the guild of saint luke for their chapel.''26 by the beginning of the sixteenth century, occupational genre pieces without overt religious symbols emerge. thus, quinten metsys' banker and his wife (1514; louvre, paris) shows an exchange that recalls christus's work without the saint.m and as indicated, aertsen's seemingly secular 1551 meat stall was commissioned for the butchers' guild and hung there with no explicit reference to religious matters. jacob cornelisz.'s genre piece not only focuses on vision and appropriate actions but also on the ways in which vision can be enhanced, this within a shop containing tools of the optometrist's trade. given the conventions of the time and comparable art works, it is likely an occupational portrait. given its content, the painting would be most fitting for an optometrist's shop in early sixteenth century amsterdam. conversely, its subject would be inappropriate for liturgical purposes in a public religious site and unusual for a home. conclusions it is unlikely that any document will be found that will definitively link jacob cornelisz's painting with an optometrist's shop. nonetheless, the evidence suggests that the painting was designed for such a location. understood this way, the utrecht hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 63 painting shows us what the interior of an early sixteenth century optometrist's shop was like and, in so doing, indicates that regular people were familiar with, bought, and used glasses at this time. the representation also suggests something about how eyeglasses were conceptualized in that environment. still a new technology, eyeglasses were the product of a world in transition from the so-called dark ages to times presumably more enlightened; such enlightenment could be facilitated by extending the reach of the written word and the ability of any individual to read it. by opening up the possibilities inherent in improved vision, the painting opens our eyes to the fact that literacy, art, and technology always develop together rather than in isolation and that seeing has always been a window to the human soul. references 1. carroll jl. the paintings of jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen (1472?-1533). ph.d. dissertation. university of north carolina, chapel hill, 1987. 2. steinbart k. die tafelgemalde des jacob cornelisz von amsterdam, strasbourg, 1922. 3. enoch jm. early lens use: lenses found in context with their original objects. optom vis sci 1996; 73: 707-715. 4. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965: 10 ff. 5. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:41. 6. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:43. 7. rosen e. the invention of spectacles. j hist med and allied sci 1956; 11:1346,183-218. 8. schuwer p. history of advertising. london: leisure arts, ltd., 1966:73 ff. 9. schuwer p. history of advertising. london: leisure arts, ltd., 1966:9 ff. 10. schuwer p. history of advertising. london: leisure arts, ltd., 1966:10 ff. 11. stoddard ws. art and architecture in medieval france. new york: harper and row, 1972:267. 12. craig k. pieter aertsen's inverted still lifes. ph.d. dissertation. bryn mawr college, 1979:113 ff. 13. craig k. pieter aertsen's inverted still lifes. ph.d. dissertation. bryn mawr college, 1979:2 ff. 14. mander k van. het schilder-boeck (haarlem 1604) the lives of the illustrious netherlandish and german painters, from the first edition of the schilder-boeck ( 16031604). miedema h, ed. doornspijk: the netherlands.1994-1999. 15. carroll jl. the paintings of jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen ( 14 72?-1533 ). ph.d. dissertation. university of north carolina, chapel hill, 1987:6. 16. carroll jl. the paintings of jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen (1472?-1533). ph.d. dissertation. university of north carolina, chapel hill, 1987:4, 49 ff. 17. snyder j. northern renaissance art. painting, sculpture. the graphic arts from 1350-1575. new york: prentice hall, 1985:448. 18. carroll jl. the paintings of jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen (1472?-1533). ph.d. dissertation. university of north carolina, chapel hill, 1987:7. 19. faries m. making and marketing: studies of the painting process. in: faries m, ed. making and marketing: studies of the painting process in fifteenthand sixteenth­ century netherlandish workshops. turnhout, belgium:brepols publishers, 2006: 1-15. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 64 20. meuwissen d. a painter in black and white? the symbiotic relationship between the paintings and the woodcuts of jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen. in: faries m. ed. making and marketing: studies of the painting process in fifteenthand sixteenth­ century netherlandish workshops, turnhout, belgium: brepols publishers, 2006: 55-81. 21. snyder j. northern renaissance art. painting, sculpture. the graphic arts from 1350-1575. new york: prentice hall, 1985:448 ff. 22. carroll jl. the paintings of jacob cornelisz. van oostsanen (1472?-1533). ph.d. dissertation. university of north carolina, chapel hill, 1987:285. 23. hall j. dictionary of subjects and symbols in art. new york: harper and row, 1974:218-219. 24. hall j. dictionary of subjects and symbols in art. new york: harper and row, 1974:169. 25. cutler c. northern painting, from pucelle to bruegel/fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. new york: holt, rinehart, and winston, inc., 1968:131. 26. snyder j. northern renaissance art. painting, sculpture. the graphic arts from 1350-1575. new york: prentice hall, 1985:126. 27. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965. 28. kruijff jd de. http://www.jacobcornelisz.nl/index.html. 29. friedlander mj. early netherlandish painting vols. x en xii, leiden/brussel 1975. 30. hoogewerff gj. de noord-nederlandsche schilderkunst. vol. 3, the hague, 1939. 31. middeleeuwse kunst der noordelijke nederlanden. 150 jaar rijksmuseum jubileumtentoonstellung. amsterdam 28 june/28 september,1958. notes a. see gregg27 for a complete history of optometry. in 1286, roger bacon discusses the convex lens in his text on magnification, opus majus. in the west, spectacles probably originated in the late 13th century in italy (see rosen\ in a manuscript from 1305 ad, a monk from pisa named rivalto wrote, "it is not yet 20 years since there was discovered the art of making eyeglasses: (cited in gregg,27 f· 46). spectacles were probably invented in china around the same time (gregg,2 p. 50). the oldest extant glasses, pince-nezs, were found in weinhausen convent in germany whose founding dated to 1221 (see gregg,27 p. 55; cf. rosen,7 pp. 206 ff. on glasses in germany in the fourteenth century). b. more specifically, his works include nativity, a lamentation, salome, christ in the garden of gethsemane, virgin and child, and several crucifixions and the works listed in note f. for a complete list of his oeuvre see carroll.1 c. of note, too jacob cornelisz.: -was the the first dutch painter to paint a harbor scene (background of the nativity, naples' capodimonte museum). -was one of the first dutch painters, like albrecht durer, to paint from drawings made as quild on his canvas. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 65 -likely painted the first dutch "trompe l'oeil" painting, evident in the paper on which he signs and dates his painting saul and the witch of endor (1533, rijksmuseum, amsterdam). -was the first dutch painter to make an independent self-portrait (1533, amsterdam).28 d. the independent portrait and the self-portrait especially are considered signs of increasing secularization in both cases and emerging artistic independence in the case of self-portraits. jan van eyck singed what is thought to be a self portrait in 1433 in the national gallery, london; durer painted many self-portraits, for example in 1498 in the prado, madrid. e. see faries19 (pp. 1-5) on dutch artists, including jacob cornelisz., at this time and meuwissen20 on jacob cornelisz. issues of attribution and chronology are understandably difficult but have been helped by recent infrared reflectography and knowledge of workshop practices. for complete discussions and catalogues of jacob cornelisz's art, see carroll, 1 friedlander,29 hoogewerff,30 and steinbart.2 f. these five include: triptych (ca. 1515, state museum, berlin); ai/saints (1523; city museum, kassel); salome with the head of st. john the baptist (1524 rijksmuseum, amsterdam). g. this characterization of his style avoids critical evaluation. friedlander,29 for example, is not very impressed by jacob cornelisz.'s talents. h. today, dating and chronologies are made with the help of infrared reflectography. it reveals preparatory under drawings beneath the visible surface of a painting. if the painting is not dated, then, its under drawings can be compared with dated works. (see faries 19 and meuwissen20). i. the painting was formerly in groningen, the netherlands, groninger museum, lnv. no. nk 2495, on loan from dienst voor's verspreide kunstwerpen, the hague. j. the proverb reads "elk zijn tijd" in modern dutch. the phrase is found four times in the bible. the closest to the proverb in the utrecht painting appears in ecclesiastes 3:1. variations appear in ecclesiastes 8:6, the book of proverbs 15:23, and in the new testament's "letter from st. paul to the ephesians" 5:16. k. a contemporary example is quinten metsys ill-matched lovers (c. 1515 washington, d.c., national gallery of art). i. luke "was likened unto a christian apelles, and thus was the natural patron saint for the artists' guild" (snyde~6). m. according to carroll,22 "genre first became popular in northern late medieval prints. in works such as israel van meckenem's scenes of daily life, ca. 1495, the religious and portrait connotations were almost totally eliminated, washington, d.c.," national gallery of art, and in lucas van leyden's 1508 chessplayers (berlin, serlin­ dahlem museum) they are gone. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 66 william molyneux and the optometry content of his 1692 book dioptrics nova oavid a. goss, 0.0., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract this paper provides an overview of the life of william molyneux (1656-1698) and his book dioptrica nova, published in 1692. the first part of that book examines the geometrical optics of lenses, the eye, telescopes, and microscopes. the second part consists of commentaries on various topics, including spectacles, telescopes, and physiological diplopia. key words: history of optics, history of optometry, irish physicists, optometry books. tidbits of optometric wisdom can be found in various unexpected places. one such place is the book dioptrica nova published by the irish physicist william molyneux in 1692. molyneux was born in dublin on april17, 1656 to a wealthy land-owning family. 1 he entered trinity college dublin in 1671 at the age of fifteen and received the bachelor's degree in 1675. he then studied law in london from 1675 to 1678. molyneux later observed that "my inclination to the study of the law was not so strong as to make me master of the profession."2 after studying law in england, molyneux returned to ireland. he later received honorary m.a. (1692) and ll.d. (1693) degrees.3 molyneux was wealthy enough that he did not have to work to earn a living. he held various commissions, including surveyor general of the king's buildings and works in ireland from 1684 to 1688 and from 1690 to about 1698. it appears that molyneux occupied much of his time with scientific studies, which he viewed as a way of showing "that god is the fountain and original of truth."2 in 1680, molyneux published a translation of descartes' six metaphysical meditations and wrote a preface to the translation. he also translated some of galilee's work from the italian but did not publish it. molyneux's wife lucy went blind in january of 1679, a few months after their marriage in september of 1678. she had a severe illness in november of 1678, which was followed by declining vision, severe headaches, and dizziness. by january she could only perceive light. they sought care for her in england in 1679 and 1680 from a number of leading physicians, but could find no one to improve her vision.4 lucy's eyes did not seem to be affected, and molyneux perhaps correctly deduced that the vision loss was due to a disease of the brain. it is said that she accepted her difficulties with patience, diverting "herself with music and handwork, in which she developed remarkable dexterity."4 lucy died in 1691, perhaps due to the strain of the life­ ~hreatening illness of their son samuel, the only one of their three children to survive into adulthood.5 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 67 molyneux's concern over lucy's vision problem may have led him to pose the question that has since come to be known as the molyneux problem. this question was posed in a letter to his good friend john locke. molyneux asked about a man that was born blind but learned to be able to tell between a sphere and a cube by touch. if that person had his vision restored, would he be able to immediately distinguish between the sphere and the cube by sight without touching them? the molyneux problem has drawn the attention of numerous leading philosophers over the years. 6 in the early 1680s, molyneux undertook studies in mathematics, optics, and astronomy. in his study of optics, he was assisted by correspondence with john flamsteed, astronomer royal, and edmond halley. in a 1682 letter to flamsteed, molyneux said that he was "much enamoured with optics, for in them there is such a mixture of physics and mathematics that renders this subject very pleasing."7 in 1683, molyneux founded the dublin philosophical society. his first presentation to the society in october, 1863, was on the moon illusion.8 over the first three years of the society's existence, he read 25 papers covering a wide variety of topics.2 in 1685, molyneux was elected to fellowship in the royal society. also in 1685, molyneux published a book entitled sciothericum te/escopicum, in which he described a telescopic dial he had designed. molyneux was hindered somewhat in his studies by lack of equipment in ireland. he was also forced to flee ireland with his family to chester, england, in 1689 due to the oppression of king james ii. king william defeated king james ii in 1690, allowing molyneux and other irish refugees to return to ireland. molyneux's most famous scientific work was the book dioptrica nova.9 he told his brother that his goal in writing the book was to improve on previous books on the subject, making "that useful part of mathematics more complete and plain."10 he may have completed the manuscript in 1690, because his dedication to the royal society was dated april17, 1690. he consulted edmond halley on the content of the book. halley added an appendix and guided the book through the publication process. the title page is dated 1692. dioptrica nova consists of two parts. the first part is essentially a geometrical optics textbook, and contains numerous detailed ray diagrams. it covers the optics of planoconvex lenses, planoconcave lenses, meniscus lenses, the eye, eye/lens combinations, telescopes, and microscopes. a total of 184 pages in length, the first part is organized around 59 propositions. many of the propositions build upon preceding propositions. proposition 28 deals with the optics of the eye. molyneux recognized that the eye changes in order to view objects at different distances, but he didn't take a stand on the mechanism. he wrote: '"tis therefore contrived by the most wise and omnipotent framer of the eye, that it should have a power of adapting itself in some measure to nigh and distant objects. for they require different conformations of the eye; because hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 68 the rays proceeding from the luminous points of nigh objects do more diverge, than those from more remote objects. "but whether this variety of conformation consist in the crystallines approaching nigher to, or removing farther from the retina; or in the crystallines assuming a different convexity, sometimes greater, sometimes less, according as is requisite, i leave to the scrutiny of others, and particularly of the curious anatomist." (page 104) molyneux drew an optical diagram showing the inversion of the retinal image. he did not view this as contrary to one's observation of the world, "for 'tis not properly the eye that sees, it is only the organ or instrument, 'tis the soul that sees by means of the eye." (page 1 05) molyneux also described how the point of best focus in a myopic eye is a point in front of the retina. he suggested that the cause of myopia was a crystalline lens which was "too convex." (page 1 08) he observed that myopes can see near objects clearly without lenses, but they need concave lenses to see distant objects clearly. with regard to presbyopia, molyneux said that "the eyes of old men have their crystalline too flat and cannot correct the divergence of the rays ... 'tis requisite they add the adventitious convexity of a glass ... spectacles help old men, not by magnifying an object, but by making its appearance distinct. .. ". (page 108) molyneux included a ray diagram showing the point of focus for a near object in presbyopia to be behind the retina. "the second part containing various dioptrick miscellanies" extends over pages 185 to 301 and consists of eight chapters, the eighth chapter being halley's appendix. chapter 1 discusses the nature of refraction and light. chapter 2 explains why four convex lenses in a telescope can result in an erect image. chapter 3 is entitled "of glasses for defective eyes." in the first paragraph of chapter 3 he extols the virtues of spectacles: "were there no farther use of dioptricks than the invention of spectacles for the help of defective eyes; whether they be those of old men, or those of pur-blind [myopic] men; i should think the advantage that mankind receives thereby, inferiour to no other benefit whatsoever, not absolutely requisite to the support of life. for as the sight is the most noble and extensive of all our senses; as we make the most frequent and constant use of our eyes in all the actions and concerns of human life; surely that instrument that relieves the eyes when decay'd, and supplies their defects, rendring them useful, when otherwise almost useless, must needs, of all others, be esteemed of the greatest advantage. in what a miserable condition do we count those, in whom it hath pleased the great contriver of the eyes and sight, to shut those two little windows of the soul? and we may imagine, that they, in whom these lights are but partly obscured, so in some measure partake of t~e misery of the blind. how melancholy is the condition of him, who only enjoys the sight of what is immediately about him? with what disadvantage is he ingaged in most of the concerns of human life? reading is to him troublesome, war more than hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 69 ordinary dangerous, trade and commerce toilsome and unpleasant. and so likewise, on the other hand; how forlorn would the latter part of most mens lives prove, unless spectacles were at hand to help our eyes, and a little form'd piece of glass supply'd the decays of nature? the curious mechanick, engaged in any minute works, could no longer follow his trade than till the 50th. or 60th. year of his age: the scholar no longer converse with his books, or with an absent friend in a letter. all after would be melancholy idleness, or he must content himself to use an other man's eyes for every line. thus forlorn was the state of most old men, and many young, before this admirable invention; which, on this very account, can never be prized too highly." (pages 207-208) in chapter 3, molyneux also discussed rules for choosing spectacles. for presbyopia, he advised the least plus power "that will possibly help our eyes." (page 209) he then gave an example. if one can read moderate print at about two feet, and you want to read moderate print at about one foot, you need glasses that reduce the divergence of light from the object at one foot such that it would be as if the light was coming from an object at two feet. for myopia, he noted that the focal length of the correcting lens should be equal to the distance to the person's far point of clear vision. molyneux also commented in chapter 3 on robert hooke's idea of using a convex lens to correct myopia. we know, as did molyneux, that any lens so placed as to have its second focal point coincident with the punctum remotum will produce a clear image. molyneux noted that using a convex lens in that way for myopia would result in objects being seen upside down and backwards, and that the lens would have to be held so far away as to be impractical. the last section of chapter discusses how the design of telescopes and microscopes could be modified to correct myopia and presbyopia. chapter 4 of the second part of dioptrica nova is named "of mechanick dioptricks." in that chapter, molyneux listed authors that described grinding of lenses and discussed methods of evaluating lenses and of finding focal lengths and centers of lenses. chapter 5 covers various topics related to telescopes. chapter 6 includes comments on the history of lenses and telescopes and the discoveries made with telescopes. chapter 7 is entitled "an optick problem of double vision." it includes a careful description of physiological diplopia. molyneux suggested that ''we see with both eyes at once," (pages 293-294) and he recognized the importance of binocular vision when he said "that which is commonly known and practiced in all tennis-courts, that the best player in the world hoodwinking one eye shall be beaten by the greatest bungler that ever handled a racket; unless he be used to the trick, and then by custom he gets an habit of using one eye only." (page 294) after 1690, molyneux became involved in irish politics and economics, and was an important figure in the new dublin government after the defeat of james.1 in the year of molyneux's death, his last, and overall best known, book, the case of ireland's hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 70 , being bound by acts of parliament in england, stated, was published. he argued that the english parliament should legislate for ireland only if there were irish members in parliament.2 it is thought that the expression "no taxation without representation" was first stated in this book.1 molyneux's book was used in the efforts of the american colonists in the revolutionary war. thomas jefferson and james madison had copies of the book in their libraries, and benjamin franklin and samuel adams referred to it in correspondence. 11 molyneux died in 1689 of a long-standing kidney ailment. references 1. wayman p, mcmillan nd. william molyneux 1656-1698. in: mccartney m, whitaker a, eds. physicists of ireland: passion and precision. bristol, uk: institute of physics publishing, 2003:17-23. 2. happen kt. the royal scoiety and ireland william molyneux, f.r.s. (16561698). notes records roy soc london 1963;18:125-135. 3. westfall rs. william molyneux. in: the galileo project, 1995. http://galileo.rice.edu/catalog/newfiles/molyneux.html. accessed march 22, 2008. 4. simms jg. william molyneux of dublin. blackrock: irish academic press, 1982:20-22. 5. simms jg. william molyneux of dublin. blackrock: irish academic press, 1982:60. 6. davis jw. the molyneux problem. j hist ideas 1960;21:392-408. 7. simms jg. william molyneux of dublin. blackrock: irish academic press, 1982:61. 8. simms jg. william molyneux of dublin. blackrock: irish academic press, 1982:62. 9. molyneux w. dioptrica nova, a treatise of dioptricks in two parts. wherein the various effects and appearances of spherick glasses, both convex and concave, single and combined, in telescopes and microscopes, together with their usefulness in many concerns of humane life, are explained. london: benjamin tooke, 1692. 10. simms jg. william molyneux of dublin. blackrock: irish academic press, 1982:71. 11. simms jg. william molyneux of dublin. blackrock: irish academic press, 1982:117. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 71 a little personal optometric history lester b. kahn, 0.0. 2555 n. price road, chandler, az 85224, lkahn1 @cox.net editor's note: this article by dr. kahn had its origin in an email sent to irving bennett and which was then forwarded to the editor. additional emails to the editor added more information to make this article possible. the original email to irving bennett spurred other email communications concerning licensure and the o.d. degree. excerpts from those emails are recorded elsewhere in this issue of hindsight. i had absolutely no idea of what i wanted to be or do after my high school education. i did know that a secondary education was important to succeed. on my mother's side of the family there were several uncles in the dental profession. on my father's side, all the men were in some kind of manufacturing business and most of the women were teachers. none of those occupations seemed appetizing to me. my older sister (by six years) wore glasses and after talking to her optometrist i thought that would be great way to make a living. academically i was not that great. i did apply at columbia university's optometry school and was told that i would be admitted the following year. i didn't want to waste a year so i applied to pennsylvania state college of optometry (psco) and was accepted. i entered psco (later to be known as pennsylvania college of optometry, pco) in september, 1941, only to learn that the school was not recognized in new york state. i loved the school, the students, the curriculum, and philadelphia. i just thought that my days as a new york state resident were over. world war ii had just started and, unfortunately for me, my draft board number meant that i would be in the service very soon. there was always the possibility that i would not be taken, because i was asthmatic, but they took me anyway. after two years of service, my asthma flared up, and i received a medical discharge toward the end of september, 1944. a week after my discharge, i returned to school and graduated on november 26, 1946. i immediately took the pennsylvania and new jersey boards, not knowing where i would get a job or set up a practice. when i went back to newburgh, new york to see my parents late in 1946, my sister's husband, who was a local attorney, invited me to a christmas party. the party was given by state senator thomas desmond. at this christmas party, senator desmond asked me when i would be opening my office in newburgh. i had to tell him at that time that the optometry college i went to was not recognized in new york state. the senator was quite upset. he asked how it was possible that new york state did not recognize a college that was recognized in all the other 47 states. he invited me hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 72 ii to albany where he took me over to the state education department. we saw dr. irwin conroe who was the commissioner of professional education. i returned to newburgh and a few days later i received a call from dr. conroe, who said that they had found a loophole in the jaw and that i would be able to take the state boards. he also asked me if 1 knew others that were in the same position as me. i gave him some names, and tater we were told a special state board exam would be given. we took the state boards at columbia university in the spring of 1947. within a week i was told that i'd passed and that my license was in the mail. i immediately picked a location, purchased equipment, and was head over heels in debt. immediately after that, new york state recognized most of the other colleges of optometry. the loophole in the jaw was an old jaw that was on the books since world war i. the jaw simply stated that honorably discharged veterans of the war would be permitted to take the state boards in their field of study regardless of what school they attended. in 194 7, the jaw was still on the books. they never figured there would be another world war. it took a sharp aide of senator desmond to uncover this law. shortly after starting practice, i experienced another problem. up until that time, most optometrists in new york state did not have the o.d. degree. many of them had b.s. degrees in optics. soon after i opened my office, the state inspector came around and said that i had to change the signs and eliminate the title "dr.". the practicing optometrists and ophthalmologists were upset because a few of us who had earned an 0.0. degree used the title "doctor". thanks to ashley king of the new york state optometric society we gained permission to use the title doctor. those who wanted to be called doctor were told that they would have to go back and take postgraduate courses to receive an o.d. degree. both pennsylvania and new england colleges of optometry offered such postgraduate courses. when i started my practice the scope of optometry was primarily to check the health of the eye and do a refraction to determine any visual insufficiency. after a few years, contact lenses became an important part of vision care. i took the pennsylvania optometry school's postgraduate course in fitting of contact lenses. contact lens fitting became an important part of my practice. i also had many school children as patients and visual training became an important service in my practice. for some time i attended the wednesday morning postgraduate course at the state university of new york college of optometry. as my practice grew, i knew i would need additional help. i was looking for a young associate. i became very discouraged after interviewing many young people. it seemed that they were primarily interested in salary, benefits, vacation time, and how long they would have to work before they became part of the practice. at that time, i was president of our local hudson valley optometric society. i received a call from dr. ashley king telling me that they just hired a recent graduate to travel across the state and do a legislative survey. i offered my home to this young man while working in the area. i liked him and told him to keep in touch with me and that when he finished the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 73 survey i would hire him. that young man, joel coplan, a 1970 pco graduate, soon became my junior partner. this past year he retired, making me feel old! one day a well-established ethical practitioner friend passed away. his son had graduated from optometry school and was in military service. he became the sole financial supporter of the family. it was important to save the practice. he was able to get released immediately. however, he had never taken the new york state boards and had no license to practice. fortunately, we were able to convince the state board that they could offer a special exam because they previously done so in the spring of 1947. i sincerely hope that this information is of interest to hindsight readers. i enjoyed and received much satisfaction during my active years in optometry. unfortunately, because of my health, i had to retire much sooner than i had planned. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 74 • communications concerning the o.d. degree and licensure editor's note: private optometry schools started offering the o.d. degree before the state university optometry schools. in 1948, according to hofstetter's book, optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects, four of the nine nationally accredited optometry schools granted the o.d. degree, those being pacific university, pennsylvania state college of optometry, northern illinois college of optometry, and southern college of optometry. los angeles school of optometry awarded a doctor degree after a year of graduate work beyond the bachelor degree in optometry. pennsylvania state college of optometry granted the o.d. degree starting with its first graduating class in 1923. massachusetts college of optometry conferred its first o.d. degree in 1953. columbia university, which closed its optometry school in 1954, never offered an 0. d. degree program. the desire of optometrists to advance the columbia curriculum to provide for the o.d. degree was, in fact, one of the reasons for its closure. ohio state university and indiana university graduated their first o.d. classes in 1968 and university of california berkeley in 1970. all american optometry schools founded after 1970 granted the o.d. degree from their beginnings. the change in optometry curricula from five years (total pre-optometry studies plus optometry school) to six years in the 1960s made it possible for the optometry schools at state universities to gain approval from the university administrative boards for a doctorate degree. in the years when not all optometry schools granted the o.d. degree, some schools offered an educational program for optometry graduates without o.d. degrees so that they could obtain an o.d. ohs member irving bennett shared an email from lester kahn with some of his colleagues (that email from kahn has been incorporated into the article by him on previous pages of this issue of hindsight). irving bennett shared two subsequent emails he received with the editor of hindsight. those emails and a third one are excerpted here with the permission of their authors. they illuminate an interesting chapter in the history of optometry. the following is from an email sent from john d. robinson to irving bennett dated january 27, 2008. robinson has served as a member of the north carolina board of optometry for a number of years. he is also active in the association of regulatory boards in optometry. i recall new york optometrists coming to pennsylvania state college of optometry (psco) on weekends in the 1950s seeking an o.d. degree so that they could present themselves to the public as "doctor". many optometrists at that time were graduates of columbia where they received a bachelor's degree. another piece of history that you may be aware of is that in the late 1950s and into the 1960s, the north carolina board of optometry notified the schools and colleges of optometry that future applicants to take the north carolina boards would have to have graduated with an o.d. degree. the only practitioner we had at the time who did hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 75 not have an 0.0. degree was glenn fry's younger brother, jim fry. the fact that he ~ referred to himself and his practice of optometry as "doctor fry" was overlooked by the 1 board and his fellow practitioners. however, for a number of years in the late 1950s f and early 1960s, there were no ohio state graduates taking the north carolina board 1 becausetheylackedtheo.d.degree. ~ when we passed our therapeutic law in 1977, there were significant numbers of i ohio state graduates applying to take our examination. they were among the "best 1 and brightest" graduates looking to practice in a state where, at the time, there had been such a dramatic change in the scope of optometric practice. the ohio state graduates were consistently among the highest scorers on our examinations into the late 1980s, when their numbers began to decrease as additional states, including ohio, gained therapeutic privileges. another example of "pushing the envelope" by the north carolina board during this period was mandating that applicants would have to be graduates of a six-year curriculum. we were told by officials at the illinois college of optometry (ico) that they would not be able to meet such a requirement. however, they did make the change within the time frame and no ico graduate was ever denied application for licensure in north carolina. the following is from an email sent to irving bennett on january 28, 2008, by bud lilly, who had been bennett's partner in optometry practice. i started my college education in 1963 at indiana university in bloomington with the full intent of completing my optometric education there. within the first year, my curriculum counselor (it may have been merrill allen) mentioned to me that graduates of indiana university's optometry school were not eligible to take the pennsylvania state board exam. i did not know that prior to entering school. he knew that i wanted to return to pennsylvania to practice and indicated that the law, regulation, or policy would likely not hold up in court. he urged me to stay at indiana university and become the ''test case" to force such a change. as a young fellow with a strong desire to return home to practice, i did not want to take the chance. i applied to pennsylvania college of optometry (pco) and was offered a four year full tuition scholarship. that sealed the deal. i completed two years of undergraduate studies in pre-med at indiana university and entered pco in the fall of 1965. having read the emails from irving bennett, jay enoch offered the following in an email to the editor on january 28, 2008. i was a columbia university graduate in optometry with a b.s. in 1950. thus, i did not receive an 0.0. degree, although i have my full share of doctorates, both earned and honorary! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 76 i when i came to berkeley as dean, as is appropriate, i sought licensure in california. i then learned that without an o.d., technically i could not apply! within days of our arrival there was a banner headline in the los angeles times on their first age (!). it went something like, "new dean at berkeley optometry school does not bualify for licensure in california!" appended was a very large picture of me in long white clinic coat, grimacing as if in pain! a rather mocking story followed; what a welcome! where-ever did they get that picture? to save space, the california optometric association saved the day, by requesting passage of a special brief california state legislative bill allowing me to take the california state board examination. to prevent further suspense, i passed, and all simmered down! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 77 book review: the science of leonardo: inside the mind of the great genius of the renaissance the science of leonardo: inside the mind of the great genius of the renaissance. fritjof capra. new york: doubleday, 2007. xx + 329 pages. isbn: 978-0-385-51390-6. hardcover, $26.00. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book examines the wide-ranging scientific investigations of leonardo da vinci (1452-1519). it also provides a sketch of other aspects of his life. leonardo was the embodiment of the phrase "renaissance man." he, of course, painted masterpieces such as the last supper, mona lisa, and madonna of the rocks. he was a sculptor, a mapmaker, and a civil and military engineer. he designed buildings and gardens. i also learned in this book that he designed sets, costumes, and mechanical devices for plays and pageants and that he was a musician and an athlete. as an example of the latter, in his forties, he climbed monte rosa, the second highest mountain in europe. leonardo's scientific work was not published and was largely unknown until his notebooks were discovered centuries after his death. for this book, capra examined over six thousand pages of leonardo's notebooks. (unfortunately, perhaps at least half of leonardo's notebooks have not survived) capra is the author of four bestselling books, including the tao of physics and the web of life. approximately the first half of the text of the book (part one entitled leonardo, the man) presents a biography of leonardo. the second half (part two, entitled leonardo, the scientist) describes leonardo's scientific work. capra describes leonardo as a pacifist and an animal lover. leonardo bought birds in the market place in order to set them free. capra notes that leonardo designed military machines for the rulers where he lived, but that "leonardo was well aware of the conflict between his work as a military engineer and his pacifist nature." (page 102) capra suggested that some of leonardo's artworks show the terror of war rather than depicting the glories of military victory as was hoped by his patrons. capra also observed that leonardo was "utterly aloof from politics." (page 99) leonardo did not receive a formal education. he served an art apprenticeship with verrocchio. later he studied from books he purchased and from library books, and he learned as much as he could from mathematicians and scholars of his acquaintance. capra described leonardo as having many friends and as being self-confident, but not boastful. the author suggested that leonardo's view of the world was an organic, ecological view. as an example, the author described leonardo's map of the arno river as looking like veins, "testimony of how leonardo saw water as the veins of the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 78 living earth." (page 99) leonardo "was deeply aware of the fundamental interconnectedness of all phenomena and of the interdependence and mutual eneration of all parts of an organic whole ... leonardo's science is a science of ~ualities, of shapes and proportions, rather than absolute quantities. he preferred to depict the forms of nature in his drawings rather than describe their shapes, and he analyzed them in terms of their proportions rather than their measured quantities." (pages 168, 169) leonardo studied related areas to better understand a particular topic. for example, to better understand the function of muscles, tendons, and bones, he not only did anatomical dissections, but he also studied the physics of balances, levers, pulleys, and objects hanging from cords. capra considers leonardo centuries ahead of his time in suggesting that the buildings, cities, and objects that humans design should mimic nature. leonardo is quoted as saying, "though human ingenuity in various inventions uses different instruments to the same end, it will never discover an invention more beautiful, easier, or more economical than nature's, because in her inventions nothing is wanting and nothing is superfluous." (page 260) a new approach in leonardo's science was "his relentless reliance on direct observation of nature." (page 160) an epigraph in the front matter of the book puts it in leonardo's words: "first i shall do some experiments before i proceed farther, because my intention is to cite experience first and then with reasoning show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way. and this is the true rule by which those who speculate about the effects of nature must proceed." capra observed that leonardo refused "to blindly accept the teachings of the classical authorities. he studied them carefully, but then he tested them by subjecting them to rigorous comparisons with his own experiments and his direct observations of nature. in doing so, i would argue, leonardo single-handedly developed a new approach to knowledge, known today as the scientific method." (page 156) also important to understanding leonardo's science is that he didn't separate science and art as distinctly as we do today. the careful observation skills he learned as an artist were essential to his scientific work. "he used his scientific understanding of the forms of nature as the intellectual underpinning of his art, and he used his drawings and paintings as tools of scientific analysis." (page 259) capra observed that plants and rocks were accurately portrayed in leonardo's paintings and that drawings were often used in his notebooks to provide notes on his readings or on the development of his ideas. the accurate dating of leonardo's notebooks in recent years has made it possible to construct the progression of his ideas. previously it was thought that his ~otes .instead contained contradictory statements. he recorded notes in many different elds 1n his notebooks, including human and animal anatomy, the flight of birds, dynamics of water flow, botany, geology, mechanics, and mathematics. he developed numerous machines, including rotary cranks, hoists, cranes, water-powered milling machines, and others. he used geometry to study motions of natural phenomena, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 79 which he called "geometry done with motion." his transformations of geometric patterns into other shapes have been said to have foreshadowed some aspects of calculus and topology. capra discussed leonardo's work on optics, the eye, and the senses in some detail. among the areas studied by leonardo were the optics of linear perspective, reflection of light rays from mirrors, formation of shadows, the pupillary light reflex, ocular anatomy, and visual perception. leonardo suggested that light spreads out in a circular pattern, and likening that to the circular spread of ripples of water, he thought that light, as well as sound, was propagated in waves. he noted the differing speeds of light and sound. leonardo distinguished between central and peripheral vision, but he did not correctly describe image formation in the eye. he correctly thought that the optic nerves carry visual information from the eyes, but incorrectly suggested that visual information went to the cerebral ventricles. it may also be incidentally mentioned that leonardo wore eyeglasses for presbyopia, having worn them "for a few years" by the age of 55. a quotation from leonardo's treatise on painting shows that he had a great appreciation for vision: "don't you see that the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world? it is the master of astronomy, it practices cosmography, it counsels and corrects all human arts; it transports man to different parts of the world. [the eye] is the prince of mathematics; its sciences are most certain. it has measured the heights and sizes of the stars, it has discovered the elements and their locations ... it has created architecture, perspective, and divine painting ... [the eye] is the window of the human body, through which [the soul] contemplates and enjoys the beauty of the world." (pages 237-238) this is a very enjoyable and informative book. capra effectively communicates an admiration and awe for leonardo the man and the scientist. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 80 i i i sook review: isaac newton isaac newton. james gleick. new york: vintage books, 2004. xii + 272 pages. isbn: 1-4000-3295-4. paperback, $13.95. oavid a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu isaac newton was born in 1642 in rural england. his father had died before isaac was born, and when isaac was three years old, his mother left to remarry. newton was left under the care of his grandmother. later at age ten, he boarded with an apothecary while he attended school. living with the apothecary, he learned some chemistry, read the apothecary's books, and started keeping a notebook. newton was admitted to trinity college at the university of cambridge in 1661. the curriculum was largely based on aristotle, but newton read widely from trinity college's more than three thousand books. amidst epidemic in 1665, the colleges of cambridge shut down and newton returned home. he spent much of his time working on the mathematics of geometry, curves, motion, and other problems. he also observed the world around him. these observations led to many of the ideas for which newton is famous. the author also discusses some of newton's less known observations; for example, on page 61, the author discusses newton's observations of pressure phosphenes. when the plague subsided, newton returned to cambridge. newton did not speak of his experiments, but he did share some of his mathematical studies with isaac barrow, professor of mathematics. newton started to gain notice when barrow sent some of newton's work to a royal society colleague. in 1669, barrow left cambridge, and newton took his place as lucasian professor. on page 71, the author mentions that newton was "grinding glass and polishing lenses in difficult, nonspherical curves" and that because he recognized the cause of the color fringes that bothered the makers of refracting telescopes, he made a reflecting telescope. barrow showed the telescope to his friends in the royal society in london. however, it wouldn't be until 1675 that newton appeared before the royal society himself. one of the emphases of the book was newton's disputes with robert hooke. this began late in 1675 when henry oldenburg read a paper from newton to the royal society concerning his corpuscular theory of light and some of its ramifications. in the paper, newton mentioned that hooke's account of diffraction was preceded by fabri and grimaldi. in the years at cambridge, newton mostly kept to himself and wrote in his private "?tebooks about extensive alchemy experiments and his study of theology and the bible. he conducted experiments in optics and continued his mathematical studies. in hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 81 1684, edmund halley visited newton at cambridge and asked him, based on kepler's work, what type of curve planets would make. newton said that he had calculated some time before halley's visit that the path would be an ellipse and promised to send halley the proof. two years later he sent to halley the first part of his famous book, philosophiae natura/is principia mathematica. among other things, the principia contained newton's law of gravitation. a second edition of the principia appeared in 1713. in 1696, newton left cambridge and moved to london to take up an appointment from the king as warden of the mint. he received a salary and a percentage of each pound that was coined, eventually making him wealthy. in 1703, robert hooke died, and newton published his second book, opticks, a treatise on the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light. it contained work accumulated over decades, which he said he had not published "to avoid being engaged in disputes" (page 163). early in the eighteenth century newton became president of the royal society. the book discusses the conflict between newton and gottfried leibniz over credit for the development of calculus. the author concluded that newton "and leibniz had created the calculus independently. leibniz had not been altogether candid about what he had learned from newton in fragments, and through proxies but the essence of the invention was his. newton had made his discoveries first, and he had discovered more, but leibniz had done what newton had not: published his work for the world to use and judge." (page 172) newton died in 1727. the last chapter of the book (pages 175 to 191) discusses some of the memorials to newton and some aspects of his legacy. this book presents an interesting introduction to the life of isaac newton. the text of the book is followed by 48 pages of reference notes and supplementary notes, an 18 page bibliography, and an index. indiana university apr 2 ,3 2008 ; lbr.;·1 :· · &.. . hh.!: i hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 82 , j t ' i .. instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), nd as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical ~~arch, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as fl for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine ;nd mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; ueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. lffootnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with ~larscript l?wer case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be st sect1on of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 83 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: bridget kowalczyk secretary-treasurer, optometric historical society international library, archives, and museum of optometry 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: __ regular membership, $25 per year __ patron membership, $50 per year __ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________ _ address ______________________________________________________ _ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edulohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. for more information on the optometric historical society, see: www.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... april, 2008, volume 39, number 2, page 84 2008-39-02-001 2008-39-02-002 2008-39-02-003 2008-39-02-004 2008-39-02-005 2008-39-02-006 2008-39-02-007 2008-39-02-008 2008-39-02-009 2008-39-02-010 2008-39-02-011 2008-39-02-012 2008-39-02-013 2008-39-02-014 2008-39-02-015 2008-39-02-016 2008-39-02-017 2008-39-02-018 2008-39-02-019 2008-39-02-020 2008-39-02-021 2008-39-02-022 2008-39-02-023 2008-39-02-024 2008-39-02-025 2008-39-02-026 2008-39-02-027 2008-39-02-028 2008-39-02-029 2008-39-02-030 2008-39-02-031 2008-39-02-032 2008-39-02-033 2008-39-02-034 2008-39-02-035 2008-39-02-036 2008-39-02-037 2008-39-02-038 2008-39-02-039 2008-39-02-040 2008-39-02-041 2008-39-02-042 2008-39-02-043 2008-39-02-044 2008-39-02-045 2008-39-02-046 2008-39-02-047 2008-39-02-048 2008-39-02-049 2008-39-02-050 2008-39-02-051 2008-39-02-052 2008-39-02-053 2008-39-02-054 2008-39-02-055 2008-39-02-056 2008-39-02-057 2008-39-02-058 2008-39-02-059 2008-39-02-060 2008-39-02-061 2008-39-02-062 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and members of the ohs advisory committee with their email addresses and the years of expiration of their terms on the committee in parentheses: president: john f. amos (2015);eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: ronald r. ferruci (2017); rferrucci@juno.com secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016); chaine@hainews.com irving bennett (2016); irvbennett23@gmail.com morton greenspoon (2015); drmort@mac.com alden norman haffner (2018); anhaffner@msn.com alfred rosenbloom (2015); aarlvpro@sbcglobal.net bill sharpton (2017); sharpton@windstream.net karla zadnik (2018); zadnik4@osu.edu ohs administrative support: kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist, the archives and museum of optometry, khebert@aoa.org rebecca hildebrand, development officer, optometry cares (aoa foundation), rahildebrand@aoa.org the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. volumes 1-42 are available online at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. ohs website: http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/ on the cover: some of the equipment for fitting scleral contact lenses from a 1942 textbook by william feinbloom. see the article starting on page 27. mailto:rferrucci@juno.com mailto:chaine@hainews.com mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com mailto:drmort@mac.com mailto:anhaffner@msn.com mailto:aarlvpro@sbcglobal.net mailto:sharpton@windstream.net mailto:zadnik4@osu.edu mailto:khebert@aoa.org mailto:rahildebrand@aoa.org http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/ hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 17 hindsight: journal of optometry history april, 2015 volume 46, number 2 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editor: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 table of contents historical note on subjective refraction, trial lens sets, and phoropters……………18 half a century ago: optometric education in the united states in the 1960s………....23 authors of the first contact lens textbooks: beacher, feinbloom, and obrig………..27 biographical notes on benjamin pike, sr. (1777-1863) and benjamin pike, jr. (18091864)……………………………………………………………………………………………32 miscellany……………………………………………………………………………………....34 ohs membership application……………………………………………………………..…36 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 18 historical note on subjective refraction, trial lens sets, and phoropters david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu for many years after the invention of spectacles in the late thirteenth century, the lenses available were plus lenses for presbyopia. spectacles were initially ordered on the basis of the buyer’s age.1 the first documented use of spectacles for myopia was in the fifteenth century.1 in the 1623 book the use of eyeglasses by daza de valdes there was a diagram with which individuals could find their punctum remotum and from that determine the power of concave lenses they needed for myopia.2 for presbyopia, daza de valdes recommended convex lens powers based on age.2 as spectacles came to be mass produced, buyers could visit a shop and pick from a supply of spectacles the ones that seemed to work best for them or they could buy from the stock carried by a traveling spectacle peddler. gregg3 referred to this as “do-it-yourself fitting of glasses.” obviously this allowed neither careful determination of refractive error nor individualized correction of conditions such as anisometropia or astigmatism. the availability of equipment such as trial lens sets, and later phoropters, made it possible to perform some sort of subjective refraction testing procedure. this allowed the making of individualized lens prescriptions, and of particular significance, it advanced the process of obtaining spectacles from an interchange between buyer and seller to the provision of a service. bennett4 credits a german monk named johann zahn (1641-1707) with describing the first rudiments of a subjective refraction procedure. zahn made a planoconvex polyspherical lens and a plano-concave polyspherical lens. each consisted of a single piece of glass with six concentric zones of different powers. the zones of different power could be sequentially brought in front of the eye to estimate spherical refractive error. zahn was also aware that the distance of the punctum remotum from a myopic eye could be used to determine the focal length of the correcting lens.4 credit for the development of a trial lens case generally goes to a bavarian physician georg fronmüller (1809-1889) because in 1843, he published the first account of designing one.4,5 however, it is known that english opticians jesse ramsden (1735-1800) and william cary (1759-1825) had ranges of different lens powers used for refractive testing prior to that.5 even though trial lens sets made it possible for some opticians to make glasses to order as early as the eighteenth century, spectacle shops with do-it-yourself fitting and spectacle peddlers persisted for many more years. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 19 an appreciation of the development of refractive procedure would not be complete without some consideration of the contemporary knowledge of refractive errors. for many years, hyperopia was not distinguished from presbyopia. levene6 suggests that the writings of physicians william charles wells (1757-1817) and james ware (1756-1815) were the first to recognize the difference, but that it wasn’t until the work of frans cornelis donders (1818-1879) that hyperopia “was treated adequately, both clinically and on a sound scientific basis.” an understanding of refractive methods in the late nineteenth century can be gained from the 1896 book the human eye – how to correct its defects by properly fitting glasses published by queen and company, the company that had originally been started by american optician james queen (1811-1890). they noted that the test for hyperopia was that the eye can see “as distinctly, or more distinctly, through a convex lens.” to determine the amount of hyperopia, they recommended covering one eye and then placing in the trial frame “successively stronger and stronger convex lenses, until they become so strong that the distant vision is less distinct,” with the lens correction being “the strongest lens that left the vision clear.”7 queen and company said that if distance visual acuity was reduced and near visual acuity was better than distance visual acuity, it could be deduced that myopia was present. they advised that the selection of minus lens power for each eye could be guided by the level of distance visual acuity in that eye, and that the weakest concave lens that resulted in the best distance visual acuity was the amount of the myopia.8 for presbyopia, queen and company recommended lens powers based on the near point of accommodation and the habitual near point working distance. in a table of dioptric lens powers, they had columns with working distances of 30, 20, 15, 12, 10, 9, and 8 inches, and rows with near points of accommodation of 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and more than 40 inches. for example, for a working distance of 15 inches and a near point of accommodation of 20 inches, we find in their table that they recommended +1.25 d. parenthetically, the fact that they repeated the table with lens powers in focal length inches9 illustrates that the diopter still hadn’t achieved universal acceptance. to test for astigmatism, queen and company advised using a distance astigmatic test card in which there are “sets of parallel black and white lines of uniform size, running in different directions.”10 these could in the form of “astigmatic letters” in which the letters are made up of parallel stripes with varying orientation from letter to letter or in the form of lines radiating from a common center, as in a clock dial.10 in his 1896 book, bohne11 stated that he found striped letters designed by a dr. pray and a dr. john s. owens to be more “convenient” for finding the axis of astigmatism than a “fan or a dial” target. in the early twentieth century, common tests for astigmatism were clock dial like targets, which some optometrists mounted with a pin in the center so that finer gradations of axis other than the separations of the lines could be obtained, and the hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 20 “swinging cylinder” method in which a cylinder lens was rotated back and forth in a trial frame until the patient reported that visual acuity was best.12 irish mathematician and physicist george gabriel stokes (1819-1903) had designed a lens system which acted as a variable power cross cylinder in the 1840s for the measurement of astigmatism, but it never achieved common usage.13 in papers published between 1887 and 1907, american ophthalmologist edward jackson (1856-1942) described testing procedures for astigmatism which have come to be known as the jackson cross cylinder test.4 slowly over the first three or four decades of the twentieth century it became the preferred subjective method of astigmatism measurement that it is today. a significant development in the field of refraction was the invention of the phoropter. bennett4 credits french ophthalmologist marc antoine girard-teulon (18161887) with producing a prototype of what might be considered a phoropter. however, it was henry l. de zeng, jr. (1866-1929) who made the phoropter as we have come to think of it today, an instrument useful for both distance and near testing, with accessories such as rotary prisms, cross cylinders, and maddox rods. in 1885, de zeng started working for an optical company. later he attended hobart college, studied medicine in chicago, and took refraction and optics courses.14,15 between 1895 and 1915 de zeng patented 41 inventions, including a refractometer, a phorometer, an electric ophthalmoscope, the first battery handle ophthalmoscope, and other diagnostic equipment.14,15 de zeng’s first phoropter was patented in 1909, which was then produced in somewhat altered form by the de zeng standard company.16 in 1917, de zeng published a 68 page manual entitled the modern phorometer, including the phorometer-trial frame, phoro-optometer, and the rotary cross cylinder, and five years later, he published a 120 page book entitled the phoroptor. in 1925, de zeng sold his company to american optical company.17 american optical produced phoropters similar to the de zeng phoropter into the 1940s. a competing phoropter was the bausch & lomb greens’ refractor, developed in the 1930s by clyde l. hunsicker, aaron s. green, louis d. green, and m.i. green.18 optometers have often served as an adjunct or even a replacement for subjective refraction. optometers can be as simple as a single convex lens with a scale or they can incorporate elaborate optical systems. scottish physician william porterfield (c.1696-1771) was the first to describe an optometer in a 1737 paper and in his 1759 two volume treatise on the eye, the manner and phaenomena of vision.19 porterfield’s optometer made use of the scheiner double aperture principle.19 later thomas young (1773-1829) used an improved version of porterfield’s optometer to discover his own astigmatism. an excerpt from the 1895 correspondence course offered by dr. h.a. thomson of the south bend college of optics illustrates not only the type of optometer occasionally in use at the time, but also dr. thomson’s attitude toward them: “although i hope none of my pupils will ever be so unscientific as to use an optometer, it is desirable to understand the principles upon which it is constructed. the common optometer consists of a convex lens through which the patient looks at a card attached hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 21 to a slide. the card is moved until seen most distinctly, when we have the focus of the eye. if it stopped at the principal focus of the lens we know that the rays emerged parallel and that he is emmetropic. if beyond the principal focus they emerged converging showing him to be hypermetropic; if nearer than the focus, diverging, and he is myopic. by marking the slide at different distances we have only to look where the card stands and the number tells the glass required. other more complicated optometers are on the market, but are based on the same principle. the objection is that accommodation, convergence, astigmatism, etc., are not considered, thus rendering the instruments inaccurate.”20 the 1896 manual by queen and company gives a similar opinion about optometers when they state: “although in some cases convenient, they are not so generally applicable or useful as even a small set of testlenses; and those who have most to do at testing eyes almost invariably prefer the trial case.”21 the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw the development of several optometers which went by names such as punctumeter, refractometer, ophthalmometroscope, stigmatometer, ametropometer, ametrometer, autophorooptimeter, and refractionometer.22,23 problems with alignment and instrument accommodation limited their usefulness. a significant development in the automation of optometers was the introduction of the bausch & lomb ophthalmetron in 1971. since then many more autorefractors have appeared on the market.23,24 even with improvements in technology, grosvenor in 2007 stated that autorefraction was not a suitable substitute for subjective refraction and that retinoscopy by an experienced clinician is a better starting point for subjective refraction than is autorefraction.25 references 1. ilardi v. renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes. philadelphia: american philosophical society, 2007:82-95. 2. daza de valdes b. the use of eyeglasses, english translation edited by paul e. runge. oostende, belgium: j.p. wayenborgh, 2004:115-118. 3. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:141-158. 4. bennett ag. an historical review of optometric principles and techniques. ophthal physiol opt 1986-6:3-21. 5. levene jr. clinical refraction and visual science. london: butterworths, 1977:4344. 6. levene jr. clinical refraction and visual science. london: butterworths, 1977:3840. 7. queen and company. the human eye – how to correct its defects by properly fitting glasses. philadelphia: queen and company, 1896:48-49. 8. queen and company. the human eye – how to correct its defects by properly fitting glasses. philadelphia: queen and company, 1896:57-58. 9. queen and company. the human eye – how to correct its defects by properly fitting glasses. philadelphia: queen and company, 1896:39-41. 10. queen and company. the human eye – how to correct its defects by properly fitting glasses. philadelphia: queen and company, 1896:65-66. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 22 11. bohne w. handbook for opticians: a treatise on the optical trade and its mechanical manipulations, 3rd ed. new orleans: a.b. griswold, 1895:138. 12. anonymous. one advantage of line charts. opt j rev optom 1914;33:258. 13. levene jr. clinical refraction and visual science. london: butterworths, 1977:242246. 14. keeler r, singh ad, dua hs. reducing errors in measuring refractive errors: de zeng refractometer. br j ophthalmol 2012;96:311. 15. campbell gl. phoroptors – early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. wheaton, il: gary l. campbell, 2008:57-58. 16. campbell gl. phoroptors – early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. wheaton, il: gary l. campbell, 2008:65-66. 17. campbell gl. phoroptors – early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. wheaton, il: gary l. campbell, 2008:69. 18. campbell gl. phoroptors – early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. wheaton, il: gary l. campbell, 2008:85-87. 19. levene jr. clinical refraction and visual science. london: butterworths, 1977:315. 20. dr. thomson’s 1895 correspondence course in optics, with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch. chicago: professional press, 1975:82. 21. queen and company. the human eye – how to correct its defects by properly fitting glasses. philadelphia: queen and company, 1896:33. 22. campbell gl. phoroptors – early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. wheaton, il: gary l. campbell, 2008:41-53. 23. guyton dl. automated clinical refraction. in: safir a, ed. refraction and clinical optics. hagerstown, md: harper & row, 1980:505-533. 24. grosvenor t. primary care optometry, 5th ed. st. louis: butterworth heinemann elsevier, 2007:200-205. 25. grosvenor t. primary care optometry, 5th ed. st. louis: butterworth heinemann elsevier, 2007:205-206. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 23 half a century ago: optometric education in the united states in the 1960s david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu from the mid-1950s when the optometry school at columbia university closed to the fall of 1969 when the school at the university of alabama birmingham opened, there were ten optometry schools in the united states at: illinois college of optometry, indiana university, los angeles college of optometry, massachusetts college of optometry, the ohio state university, pacific university, pennsylvania college of optometry, southern college of optometry, university of california berkeley, and university of houston. in the early 1960s, nine of the ten schools required a minimum of two years of college pre-optometry study followed by three years of optometry school.1 the exception was pennsylvania state college of optometry which, starting in 1955, required a total of six years, two years of pre-optometry and four years of optometry school, with the doctor of optometry (o.d.) degree being awarded at the end of the fourth year.1,2 at the university of houston and massachusetts college of optometry, professional qualifying degrees were earned after three years of optometry school, but students could take an optional fourth year to earn an o.d. degree.1 although the minimum requirement for optometry school entrance was two years of college study, many students had more than that. for example, at pennsylvania college of optometry from 1961 to 1968, entering students averaged three and a third years of previous college credit.3 by 1965, six optometry schools were requiring six years of study, two years preoptometry and four years of optometry school.4 by 1967, all ten schools had initiated six year programs.2 six years of study allowed optometry schools at public universities to award the o.d. degree because their governing boards required six years of study minimum for the granting of a doctoral degree. the last school to adopt the o.d. degree was the university of california school of optometry.5 they awarded their first o.d. degrees in 1970. reasons given for the expansion to four years at university of california, for example, were advancements in physiological optics and optometry along with increased interest in visual performance, as well as the opinion of alumni that there should be expanded coverage of ocular disease, pharmacology, contact lenses, pediatric and geriatric optometry, and practice management.5 it was widely accepted that there was a shortage of health care professionals, including optometrists, in the 1960s. one study in the early 1960s estimated that 750 new optometry graduates were needed annually in the united states to make up for retirements and population increases.6 the actual number of graduates nationwide was mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 24 between 300 and 400 each year from 1956 to 1965.7 the number of registered optometrists in the united states dropped from 22,136 in 1956 to 20,610 in 1966.8 writing in 1967, baldwin9 agreed with the united states public health service that there was a need for more optometrists. a commonly accepted standard was that there should be one optometrist per about 7,000 population. he argued that there should probably be more optometrists than that due to “the expansion of valid methods for improving human visual performance.” when speaking of the number of optometrists, he said: “the gap between the supply and the need is in grave danger of becoming wider.”9 at that time optometrist to population ratios varied from one to about 5,000 in illinois and oregon to one optometrist for approximately 18,000 population in some states in the southeastern u.s. baldwin noted that increasing the number of optometrists could be achieved by increasing enrollments at individual schools or by increasing the number of schools. enrollment ceilings were established by the american optometric association (aoa) council on education for each school based on factors such as admission standards, rate of attrition, faculty, curriculum, achievement standards, physical facilities, clinical program, financial status, research activity, demand for graduates, current enrollment, and particularly, the council’s last evaluation of the school.10 baldwin was in favor of those ceilings, and he agreed with the assessment of the aoa council on education that the number of schools should be increased. baldwin argued against increased tuition income being a financial incentive to schools to increase their enrollments, because he calculated that tuition could not be expected to provide more than about half of the expense of educating one student, regardless of the number of students. he suggested that the number of schools be at least doubled and that new schools be established at universities. addressing concerns about an adequate number of qualified faculty for a greater number of schools, he did not expect that to be troublesome because the number of persons completing ph.d. degrees in physiological optics and related areas was increasing. he also argued that practicing optometrists could be recruited by the schools to faculty positions if salaries were made competitive.9 baldwin’s call for a doubling of the number of schools was not achieved until 2009. in the 1960s there were, however, increases in enrollments at each of the ten schools. the increases in enrollments from 1960-61 to 1964-65 ranged from 14% at los angeles college of optometry to 103% at pennsylvania college of optometry.5 the number of optometry school graduates in the united states increased from less than 400 per year from 1956 to 1965 to being between 400 and 500 each year from 1966 to 1970.7 federal legislation in 1963 and 1965 provided funds to health professions schools for construction grants, educational improvement grants, student loans, and scholarships.11,12 the aim of this funding was to increase the numbers of graduates as well as to improve the quality of professional education. all ten optometry schools took advantage of this funding.2 hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 25 one potential measure of the level of education offered could be the degrees earned by faculty. in 1962, 77% of optometry faculty held a doctorate degree, the highest degree being an o.d. in 49% of faculty, a ph.d. in 19% of faculty, and another doctorate in 8%.6 in the 1960s, there were six programs designed for optometrists to complete graduate degrees.13 the university of california berkeley, indiana university, and the ohio state university offered m.s. and ph.d. programs in physiological optics. an m.s. degree in perceptual psychology, physiological optics, or clinical optometry could be pursued at pacific university. optometrists who had completed five years of pre-optometry and optometry college credit could also attend programs at the university of houston or massachusetts college of optometry to complete a doctor of optometry degree.13 from 1961 to 1970, indiana university awarded 39 m.s. and 12 ph.d. degrees in physiological optics, university of california granted 10 m.s. and 8 ph.d. degrees in physiological optics, ohio state awarded 7 m.s. and 3 ph.d. degrees, and pacific granted 11 m.s. degrees.14 in 1969, the number of optometry schools in the united states increased to eleven with the opening of a school at the university of alabama birmingham. they started with a class of eight students in the fall of 1969 to become the first university connected optometry school in the southeastern united states.15 it was also the first optometry school designed to be incorporated into a university-based academic health sciences complex. in the 1960s, the number of optometry school applicants was increasing over the levels in the late in 1950s, and the grade point averages of entering students were higher than in previous decades.16 for 1962, the ratios of applications to entering students at the ten optometry schools ranged from 1.27:1 to 3.53:1.6 levine and baldwin16 recommended that in addition to grade point average, information from interviews, letters of recommendation, a personal data form, and tests such as the graduate record exam, an occupational interest test, and a personality profile could be useful in selecting students from the applicant pool. they further recommended that optometry should construct a national selection test for optometry applicants with the assistance of a testing organization. within a few years, the optometry college admission test (ocat, now oat) was developed.17,18 the 1960s saw significant change and advancement in optometric education. the changes would be even greater in the 1970s. references 1. baldwin wr. modern optometric education. j am optom assoc 1962;33:667-672. 2. hazlett rd, hofstetter hw. optometric education in the united states. j am optom assoc 1967;38:927-935. 3. fischer af. pennsylvania college of optometry. j am optom assoc 1968;39:11091113. 4. baldwin wr. optometric education: portent for the profession. j am optom assoc 1965;36:332-334. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 26 5. morgan mw, peters hb. optometry at the university of california. j am optom assoc 1965;36:1059-1067. 6. morgret f. optometric education in the united states. j am optom assoc 1963;34:785-795. 7. goss da. numbers of optometry graduates since 1925. hindsight: j optom hist 2014;45:81-84. 8. havighurst rj. optometry: education for the profession. washington: national commission on accrediting, 1973:39. 9. baldwin wr. do we need more schools of optometry? j am optom assoc 1967;38:293-296. 10. american optometric association council on education. enrollment ceilings. j am optom assoc 1967;38:288-292. 11. seger ce. the council on optometric education. j am optom assoc 1967;38:271272. 12. morgan mw. federal support of undergraduate optometric education. j am optom assoc 1967;38:284-287. 13. armed forces liaison committee of the association of schools and colleges of optometry. graduate programs for optometrists. j am optom assoc 1961;32:808-809. 14. goss da. a history of m.s. and ph.d. programs offered by schools and colleges of optometry in north america. optom vis sci 1993;70:616-621. 15. naff d. profile: university of alabama in birmingham. j optom ed 1976;1:142-144. 16. levine nr, baldwin wr. achievement and aptitude tests in selection of optometry students. am j optom arch am acad optom 1968;45:840-850. 17. wallace wl, levine nr. optometry college admission test. am j optom phsyiol opt 1974;51:872-886. 18. levine nr. coping with the admission’s avalanche: the role of asco’s ocat committee. j optom ed 1975;1:34-41. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 27 authors of the first contact lens textbooks: beacher, feinbloom, and obrig david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in, dgoss@indiana.edu one potential correlate of the popularity of a treatment regimen may be the demand created for textbooks on the topic. based on searches on iucat (indiana university’s online library catalog), worldcat (an online catalog of libraries around the world), and research by knoll,1-3 it appears that the first contact lens textbooks were published in the early 1940s. at that time plastic had recently been introduced as the material for contact lenses, replacing glass; and the lenses being fit were scleral lenses, as corneal contact lenses had yet to be invented. the first contact lens textbooks were written by l. lester beacher (1941), william feinbloom (1942), and theodore obrig (1942). this article will present brief biographical sketches for each of these authors and discuss the content of their books. lawrence lester beacher l. lester beacher (1905-1987) was born in czechoslovakia.4 he completed optometry school at pennsylvania state college of optometry in 1927. available biographical data list numerous other degrees obtained between 1945 and 1975 from various institutions, such as mccormick medical college, philathea college, and london college of applied science.4,5 he was a member of the american academy of optometry and the american optometric association, as well as a member of psychology and homeopathic medicine organizations.4,5 he was a diplomate of the contact lens section of the american academy of optometry. beacher taught at pennsylvania state college of optometry from 1927 to 1931.4 according to the pennsylvania state college of optometry “iris” yearbooks from 1928 to 1931, he taught theoretical optics, optometric technique, and clinical optometry, and from 1929 to 1931, he was chief of the bronx county optometric clinic. the 1929 yearbook said that beacher’s “proficient manner of teaching so forcibly drove home the many hard aspects of his course, that in later years we will still be indebted to him for his instruction.”6 the 1972 american optometric association directory lists him as doing contact lens fitting and being in general practice, with addresses in new york city and orange, new jersey. beacher published contact lens technique in 1941, with a second edition also in 1941, a third edition in 1944, a fourth edition in 1946, and a fifth edition in 1974. the first edition was a small 115 page typescript book which beacher self-published. the first edition instructed the reader in procedures for the insertion, removal, fitting, and evaluation of scleral contact lenses. while reviews of the book acknowledged that information concerning contact lenses was needed, they were generally lukewarm. a review of the first edition said: “as far as a hand-book can take the place of direct mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 28 training this may be recommended.”7 another for the second edition stated: “in his own way, beacher tells the practical story of prescribing and making contact lenses.”8 with regard to the third edition, it was noted that: “as a practical means of instructing, the book may prove as useful as a book can be expected to prove.”9 a reviewer of the fifth edition said that optometrists “should not expect…this brief discourse to be a substitute for one of the standard texts.”10 beacher wrote several other books1,2: ocular refraction and diagnosis (1931, 286 pages, self-published; 2nd edition, 1980, 205 pages); practical optometry: a treatise describing modern technique of eye examination (1934, 163 pages, selfpublished); your precious eyesight: a concise and comprehensive anthology of questions and answers (1952, 84 pages); corneal contact lenses: presenting the history, construction and various techniques in the evolution of the contact lens (1955, 45 pages, articles reprinted from optometric weekly); how can i improve myself? a study in practical psychology (1962); psychological manifestations in ocular science: a lexicon of terms (1968, 53 pages); and happiness and success in marriage (1979, 82 pages). beacher also wrote an autobiography entitled the rise of an im[m]igrant to national fame (1985, 260 pages).2 william feinbloom william feinbloom (1904-1985) was born in brooklyn. he was the son of an optometrist and often worked in his father’s practice before graduating from optometry school at columbia university in 1923.11,12 he continued his formal education while in optometry practice, earning a b.s. degree from city college of new york in 1927, an m.a. from columbia in 1933, and a ph.d. from columbia in 1939.11 the title of his ph.d. thesis was “a quantitative study of the visual after-image.”1 feinbloom was well known as a pioneer in low vision, being sometimes referred to as the father of low vision.12 he devised spectacle telescope systems, head mounted telescope systems, low vision microscopes, and other low vision aids. one of his notable early papers on low vision was an analysis of 500 low vision cases from his practice files.13 one tribute stated that “millions of low vision patients worldwide owe at least an indirect debt to the tenacity and ingenuity of dr. william feinbloom.”12 feinbloom was also an innovator in contact lenses. in 1936 he patented a bifocal scleral lens.14 in the late 1930s, he designed the first contact lens containing plastic. it had a glass central optical portion and a plastic outer portion over the sclera.14-16 he later introduced an all plastic sclera lens called the feincone lens.14 feinbloom was one of three original partners in the frontier contact lens company.16 knoll17 observed that contact lenses gave feinbloom another means of managing low vision and praised him for his “unusual ingenuity.” in 1942, feinbloom published the practice of fitting contact lenses (46 pages). it was based on a series of articles published in the journal of the american optometric association in 1941. it was organized into 12 “lessons,” and well illustrated with more than 50 photographs and drawings. instructions were given in selecting and handling hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 29 lenses, evaluating fit, and doing a refraction over the contact lenses to determine power of the contact lens to be prescribed. the recommended procedure for the overrefraction involved use of a trial frame and measurement of vertex distance from the contact lenses to the lenses in the trial frame. a review of the book stated it represented “a satisfactory background of reading to enable a practitioner to acquire further training in the fitting of contact lenses.”18 figure 1. some of the equipment used in fitting scleral contact lenses according to feinbloom: a contact lens with central transparent optical portion and the opaque scleral portion, a suction device to aid removal of the lens, “one-half normal saline solution” obtained from a drug store, and a gauge used to measure vertex distance. (from feinbloom w. the practice of fitting contact lenses. minneapolis: american optometric association, 1942:23.) feinbloom also published a manual entitled the feinbloom plastic contact lens: manual of instructions (1940, 44 pages), and more than 30 papers in the american journal of optometry and journal of the american optometric association on low vision, contact lenses, public health, and other topics. feinbloom received an honorary d.o.s. degree from northern illinois college of optometry in 1933.11 the william feinbloom award is an award given annually by the american academy of optometry to an individual making distinguished and significant contributions to clinical excellence and to the direct clinical advancement of visual and optometric service.19 theodore e. obrig theodore ernst obrig (1894-1967) followed in the footsteps of his father, j.a. theodore obrig, as an optician. in 1914, after graduating from columbia university, theodore obrig went to work at gall and lembke optical company, which was partly owned by his father.20,21 charles lembke (1835-1903) of gall and lembke was the first president of the organization that would become the american optometric association. in 1901, lembke sold his holdings in gall and lembke to theodore obrig’s father. obrig volunteered in the french army ambulance corps in world war i, and served for seven months.20-22 when the united states entered the war, he joined the u.s. army, serving in the medical department in france.20,21 in 1919, obrig once again hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 30 went to work for gall and lembke. while working there, he patented the myodisc bifocal spectacle lens for high myopia. in the early 1930s, obrig got interested in contact lenses, fitting ground glass sclera lenses.21 in about 1936, he discovered the use of fluorescein with cobalt blue filters as a contact lens fitting aid. obrig was one of the first to use an all plastic contact lens in 1938. he worked at gall and lembke until the late 1930s, when he founded obrig laboratories with philip salvatori.21 obrig retired as president of the company in 1952. in 1942, obrig published the first edition of contact lenses (470 pages). a second edition was published in 1947, and a third edition, with philip salvatori as second author, appeared in 1957. i examined a copy of the first edition. it is more comprehensive than the beacher and feinbloom books. obrig devoted two chapters to ocular anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology. in the third chapter, he discussed the refractive and disease conditions in which contact lenses could be used and the vocational and avocational uses of contact lenses, with interestingly six pages on contact lenses in sports. next were chapters on the optics of contact lenses and the development of them. the sixth through eighth chapters described the obrig all plastic lens, the technique of making eye molds, and the procedure for fitting molded contact lenses. next there was a chapter on solutions, and a final chapter reprinted some contact lens patents. a review of the first edition said that it was “well written” and presented “a review of the entire subject of prescribing and fitting contact lenses.”23 a review of the third edition said that it “should not be overlooked by anyone interested in any way in contact lenses.”24 obrig also published an earlier book, modern ophthalmic lenses and optical glass (first edition, 1935; second edition, 1937; third edition, 1944). i examined a copy of the third edition. topics in its 323 pages included history, manufacture, and characteristics of glass; colored lenses; refraction by lenses; history of spectacles; aberrations; single vision, bifocal, and trifocal lenses; contact lenses; telescopic spectacles; iseikonic lenses; cataract bifocals; vocational bifocals and trifocals; and prism compensation in bifocal segments. obrig also described an optical slide rule made by zeiss that “should be owned by every optician and refractionist.” (page 294) a review of the first edition called it “a valuable contribution to ophthalmic optics.”25 acknowledgment i thank the gerard cottet library of salus university for providing copies of pages from the pennsylvania state college of optometry yearbooks from 1928 to 1931. references 1. http://iucat.iu.edu. 2. http://firstsearch.oclc.org. 3. knoll ha. about 30 years of contact lenses. newsletter optom hist soc 1976;7:1921. http://iucat.iu.edu/ http://firstsearch.oclc.org/ hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 31 4. beacher, lawrence lester. marquis who was who in america 1985-present. new providence: marquis who’s who llc, 2012. http://www.credoreference.com/marquiswww/beacher_lawrence_lester. 5. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:19. 6. iris, yearbook of the pennsylvania state college of optometry, 1929:30. 7. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: contact lens technique. j am optom assoc 1941; 12:381. 8. koch cc. book review: contact lens technique. am j optom arch am acad optom 1941;18:476. 9. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: contact lens technique. j am optom assoc 1944;16:120-121. 10. hirsch mj. the optometrist’s bookshelf. am j optom physiol opt 1974;51:433-440. 11. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:98. 12. visionaries: a salute to the “father” of low vision. rev optom 1991;128(4):10. 13. feinbloom w. report of 500 cases of sub-normal vision. am j optom 1935;12:238249. 14. bowden t. contact lenses the story: a history of the development of contact lenses. kent, uk: bower house, 2009:130-132. 15. filderman ip, white pf. contact lens practice and patient management. philadelphia: chilton, 1969:418. 16. schaeffer j, beiting j. contact lens pioneers – the early history of contact lenses. rev optom 2007;144(7):28-30,32,34. 17. knoll ha. william feinbloom: pioneer in plastic contacts. contact lens forum 1977;2:29,31,32. 18. koch cc. book review: the practice of fitting contact lenses. am j optom arch am acad optom 1942;19:309. 19. http://www.aaopt.org/about/feinbloomaward. accessed january 27, 2015. 20. knoll ha. obrig and contact lenses. newsletter optom hist soc 1976;7:35-36. 21. bowden t. contact lenses the story: a history of the development of contact lenses. kent, uk: bower house, 2009:132-135. 22. theodore ernst obrig world war i draft registration card. www.ancestry.com. 23. koch cc. book review: contact lenses. am j optom arch am acad optom 1942;19:354-355. 24. ryer el. book review: contact lenses, third edition. j am optom assoc 1957;29:324. 25. kurtz ji. book review: modern ophthalmic lenses and optical glass. am j optom 1935;12:375-376. http://www.credoreference.com/ http://www.aaopt.org/about/feinbloomaward.%20accessed%20january%2027 http://www.ancestry.com/ hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 32 biographical notes on benjamin pike, sr. (1777-1863) and benjamin pike, jr. (1809-1864) david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu the pike family was important in the nineteenth century american optical and scientific instrument industry. benjamin pike, sr. (1777-1863) was born in london, england. he immigrated to new york in 1798, and by 1804 he had started his own business selling optical and scientific instruments.1 he had at least six children, three boys and three girls. the three sons, benjamin jr. (1809-1864), daniel (1815-1893), and gardiner (1825-1893) all worked for him and joined him in business at various times.1,2 benjamin pike, sr. and all three sons identified themselves as opticians in city directories and census documents.1 one writer observed that the term optician at that time often included more than just being an expert in the field of spectacles, as it also frequently “embodied the entire field of the construction of instruments for various sciences – meteorology, chemistry, and physics.”3 according to an obituary, benjamin pike sr. was well known for his mechanical skill and his shop was a frequent gathering place for men who worked in science and technology.1 pike senior took junior into partnership in 1831, and in 1837 they won a medal from mechanics’ institute of new york. junior later set up his own business in new york city. the date of the founding of his business is unclear – one source1 says about 1843, while others2,3 say 1839. junior’s instruments won medals at the american institute fairs and from the new york state agricultural society. in 1848 and again in 1856, benjamin pike, jr. published pike’s illustrated descriptive catalogue of optical, mathematical, and philosophical instruments. manufactured, imported, and sold by the author, in two volumes. volume i expanded from 342 pages in 1848 to 389 pages with the addition of a 47 page supplement. volume ii was 288 pages. there was a separate price list, which in 1856 constituted 66 pages. the two volumes included more than 750 engravings which illustrated the various instruments offered. two different writers agreed in calling the catalog a “veritable textbook” because the instruments in them were described and their use explained.1,2 in the preface to the catalog, benjamin pike, jr., speaking of himself in the third person, stated that he “having devoted himself from early youth to the manufacture of these instruments on a somewhat extensive scale, is satisfied that his collection of instruments is not surpassed, if equalled, by any in the country, for extent, style, quality, or cheapness…”(p. vi). volume i included compasses, surveying instruments, globes, astronomical instruments, apparatus to demonstrate motion and mechanics, air pumps, mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 33 hydraulic equipment, and electrical apparatus. volume ii included magnets, electromagnetic instruments and machines, chemical apparatus, meteorological instruments, optical instruments, magic lanterns, microscopes, and miscellaneous other instruments. among their optical instruments were spectacles, spectacle cases, monocles, magnifiers, opera glasses, telescopes, eye models, models of refraction by lenses, models of image formation, a model of the extraocular muscles, prisms, camera obscura, daguerreotype camera, and equipment to demonstrate polarization. in the section on spectacles, it was explained that “if the lens of the eye is not of a proper convexity to bring the image” on the retina, “…we must make the rays pass through a glass of sufficient convexity to assist the eye…” (p. 149). if “the eye should be too convex, or short-sighted,… concave lenses must be resorted to… (p. 149). it was also noted that wollaston designed a meniscus lens form that he called periscopic. also available were pebbles, “made from blocks of rock crystal, usually brought from the brazils, …ground to convex, concave, or periscopic forms.” (p. 151) spectacles seem to have held a particular interest to benjamin pike, jr. in the preface to his catalog he said that: “in regard to spectacles, eye-glasses, and lenses for optical purposes of every description, his assortment is most extensive and complete. to this branch of his business he devotes special attention, furnishing glasses or pebbles that are truly ground, and properly adapted to the sight; feeling that so important a matter as vision should receive more attention than is usually given.” (pp. viii-ix) references 1. warner dj. in: pike’s illustrated catalogue of scientific instruments by benjamin pike, jr., with a new introduction by deborah jean warner. san francisco: norman, 1993:vii-xv. 2. child e. the tools of the chemist: their ancestry and american evolution. new york: reinhold, 1940:187-189. 3. bettman ol. benjamin pike, jr., pioneer in american optics. opt j rev optom 1941;78(17):23-24. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 34 miscellany ohs member jerry abrams celebrates 65 years in practice the indianapolis star newspaper for january 22, 2015 had a nice article on longtime ohs member and former ohs president j.j. (jerry) abrams.1 he was also featured in the march, 2015, issue of indiana optometry news, a publication of the indiana optometric association. he has now been in practice in indianapolis for 65 years. when he opened his office on january 19, 1950, at 22 years of age, he was the youngest optometrist in the state of indiana. now, at 87 years of age, he is said to be the oldest optometrist in the state. abrams grew up in indianapolis and attended indiana university for a short period of time before enlisting in the navy. after completing military service, he attended northern illinois college of optometry, graduating a few years before the optometry school started at indiana university. abrams currently practices three afternoons a week at abrams eye care on the west side of indianapolis. he has been in practice with one of his sons, john, an ophthalmologist, for about 15 years. he is a life member of the indiana optometric association, a fellow of the american academy of optometry, and an active participant in volunteer optometric service to humanity. on january 15, 2015, he received the sagamore of the wabash award, an honor bestowed by the indiana governor for distinguished service, from governor mike pence. more on theodore brombach in the article on the history of the distinguished service foundation of optometry in the last issue of hindsight,2 theodore brombach (1884-1961), who appears to have been the first optometrist to publish a book on visual fields, was discussed. an unanswered question was why the wing added to the optometry building at pacific university in 1967 was named for him. archives at pacific university indicate that the wing of pacific university’s jefferson hall constructed in 1967 was named brombach wing because funding for it came from a bequest from his estate.3 willard bleything,4 a pacific alumnus and former pacific university college of optometry dean, suggested that brombach may have felt a connection to pacific because brombach’s work with color visual fields was taught at pacific, and pacific faculty member hugh webb published some material on brombach’s work.5 decline in number of eent specialists an article in survey of ophthalmology asked the question, “whatever happened to the eent specialists?”6 in the early nineteenth century, according to the author, there was a resistance among physicians against specialization because it “was considered a restriction of their general medical diagnostic skills and interests.” the journal archives of ophthalmology and otolaryngology was started in 1869. the section of ophthalmology and otolaryngology in the american medical association, its first specialty section, was formed in 1878. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 35 in the mid-1930s, over 50% of life members of the american academy of ophthalmology and otolaryngology (aaoo) practiced eent and about 20% limited their practices to ophthalmology, but among new members, only 3% were practicing eent and about 30% were ophthalmologists. in 1977, about 2% of aaoo fellows were listed as ophthalmologists/otolaryngologists. in 1979, aaoo separated into the american academy of ophthalmology and the american academy of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery. in 2012, neither of the two organizations had anyone who was an eent physician as a member. the author noted that eent physicians disappeared from large cities before small cities. is a medieval anglo-saxon eye potion an effective antibiotic? a tenth century eye potion from an early medical book, bald’s leechbook, was recently studied in a united kingdom microbiology laboratory.7 the recipe included garlic, onion, wine, and bile from a cow’s stomach brewed in a brass vessel, left standing for nine days and strained through a cloth. initial testing showed it to be highly effective against staphylococcus, including methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa). translation of the manuscript from old english was done by an english professor at the university of nottingham. this appears to be a good example of how knowledge from the past shouldn’t be underestimated. statistics for online use of hindsight this past year is the first full year that back issues of hindsight have been available online. statistics from iuscholarworks indicate that during the 2014 calendar year there were 3,291 hits on issues of hindsight and its indexes. of the 168 issues and 4 indexes currently online, there were 130 with at least one hit. some issues had over one hundred hits. references 1. rudavsky s. optometrist marks 65 years in practice. indianapolis star. january 22, 2015: a3, a11. 2. goss da. a history of the distinguished service foundation of optometry. hindsight: j optom hist 2015;46:2-9. 3. guggemos er. email to david goss, february 6, 2015. 4. bleything w. email to scott e. pike, forwarded to david goss, january 29, 2015. 5. webb hf. visual fields. duncan, ok: optometric extension program, 1948. 6. truhlsen sm. whatever happened to the eent specialists? surv ophthalmol 2013;58:92-94. 7. thompson n, smith-spark l. thousand-year-old anglo-saxon potion kills mrsa superbug. http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/31/health/anglo-saxon-potion-mrsa/. http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/31/health/anglo-saxon-potion-mrsa/ hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2015, volume 46, number 2, page 36 ohsfrontcover46-2 hindsight46-2 microsoft word 0_cover_v48n1.docx hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 goss: book review | page 31 book review: history of the american academy of optometry 1987-2010 history of the american academy of optometry 1987-2010. robert d. newcomb and mark eger. american academy of optometry, 2012. no isbn. 246 pages. softcover, $25. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu his book continues james gregg’s book history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. it discusses the organizational activities, annual meetings, and leaders of the american academy of optometry over the time span indicated in the title, while touching on some aspects of previous years to provide context. among the items discussed is the start of research workshops or summer research institutes in 1988. in 1991-92, the academy budget first exceeded one million dollars and it was over three million dollars by 2002. international academy meetings were started in 1992. also in 1992, the american optometric foundation became affiliated with the academy and transferred its governance to the academy. joan exford was the first woman aao president in 1993-94. in the 1990s, efforts to recruit new members were initiated. previously, such efforts were thought inappropriate; it was necessary for prospective members to request a membership application or be recommended by a current fellow. in 2007, the time of the annual meeting switched to october. for many years, the meeting had been in december because that traditionally had been a slow time in most optometrists’ offices. in addition to the narrative on events and landmarks in the history of the academy such as the above, the book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs and it contains appendices with lists of academy presidents and board members, american optometric foundation presidents, annual meeting dates and locations, award recipients, active chapters, and 2009 committee structure. the book includes an introduction by mark w. eger, president of the academy in 2009 and 2010. the author, robert d. newcomb, is an ohs member and was secretarytreasurer of the american academy of optometry in 1997-98, president of the aao in 2001 and 2002, and recipient of the aao eminent service award in 2006. t hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 news 2016| page 110 news nominations to ohs advisory committee 2017 the optometric historical society is seeking nominations to the 2017 ohs advisory committee. the terms of dr. irving bennett and dr. charles haine will expire on december 31, 2016, leaving two vacancies on the advisory committee as of january 1, 2017. any member of the society in good standing may nominate another member or themselves to the ohs advisory committee. nominees should be willing to serve a fouryear term and participate in regular committee meetings, ongoing discussions, and reporting to the optometry cares board of directors. members of the advisory committee will take responsibility for conducting the regular business of the society and for the planning, coordination and promotion of the society’s special events and programs. all nominations forms must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on sunday, november 20, 2016. you may self-nominate. a member in good standing may serve as many four-year terms to which he is elected. please use the nomination form found here: https://amopt.wufoo.com/forms/q6hzj2d07ud5xf/ to submit your nominee. the form is also accessible through the ohs webpage at www.aoa.foundation.org. you must attach a short biography for each nominee and written confirmation that the nominee(s) is aware of the nomination (unless selfnominating). the submission should be a single file in pdf, ms word (.doc or .odf) format. if you have questions or are experiencing difficulty using the form, please feel free to email erica hayes, administrative assistant for the optometric historical society at amo@aoa.org. https://amopt.wufoo.com/forms/q6hzj2d07ud5xf/ http://www.aoa.foundation.org/ mailto:amo@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x january, 2021 volume 52, number 1 editor: david a. goss, od, phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: john amos, od, ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu chair lilien vogl, od drvogl@cox.net board liaison james deom, od, mph dr.deom@gmail.com editor david a. goss, od, phd dgoss@indiana.edu linda casser, od lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, od viktoria@davismn.net w. howard mcalister, od, mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, od rimyersod@gmail.com jim sandefur, od exec@optla.org optometry cares® the aoa foundation james deom, od, mph board of directors dr.deom@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: dgoss@indiana.edu. ohs committee 2021 meeting for orientation and training ca.1980 at the northport ny va medical center of the initial influx of new va optometrists hired as a result of public law 94-581, which was passed by congress in 1976. that law removed optometrists from civil service pay grades (title 5) and placed them in more competitive pay grades (title 38) along with va physicians, dentists, nurses and pharmacists. the first director of the va optometry service, dr. ken myers, is standing in the front row, far left. standing next to him in the front row is dr. robert newcomb. hindsight: journal of optometry history 1 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 52  number 1  january 2021 table of contents 9 4 3 12 news 2 editorials from the editor: theme issue on optometry 3 in the u.s. military and department of veterans affairs david a. goss, od, phd articles military optometry from world war i to 4 the present: an overview w. howard mcalister, od, ma, mph; jeffrey l. weaver, od, mba, ms; jerry d. davis, od, ms; and jeffrey a. newsom, od optometry and the department of veterans 9 affairs: a synergistic relationship robert d. newcomb, od, mph, faao observations on optometry in the veteran’s 12 administration from an optometric educator’s perspective john f. amos, od, ms, dos special issue: focus on military optometry afos members touring uss bremerton submarine david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. john f. amos, od, ms, dos veterans tribute park in south carolina official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and members of the optometric historical society advisory committee with their email addresses and years of expiration of their terms on the committee in parentheses: president: john f. amos (2015); eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: ronald ferrucci (2017); rferrucci@juno.com secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016); chaine@hainews.com irving bennett (2016), email address: irvbennett23@gmail.com morton greenspoon (2015); drmort@mac.com alden norm haffner (2018); anhaffner@msn.com bill sharpton (2017); sharpton@windstream.net karla zadnik (2018); zadnik4@osu.edu ohs administrative support: kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist, the archives and museum of optometry, khebert@aoa.rg rebecca hildebrand, development officer, optometry cares (aoa foundation), rahildebrand@aoa.org the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. volumes 1-42 are available online at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. ohs website: http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/ on the cover: noah bixler (1884-1959), a prominent indiana optometrist, whose interesting life included a friendship with the famous poet james whitcomb riley. excerpts from a memoir written by friend of his are included in this issue of hindsight. mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu mailto:khebert@aoa.rg mailto:rahildebrand@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 65 hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2015 volume 46, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238, irvbennett23@gmail.com kirsten pourroy hébert, the archives and museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org table of contents letter to the editor: salute to the archivists and ohs co-founders, raymond i. myers………………………………………………………………………………………….66 update on the museum & archives of optometry, kirsten hébert……………………..68 a history of optometry in louisiana, james d. sandefur………………………………70 noah bixler (1884-1959): friend of james whitcomb riley and prominent indiana optometrist……………………………………………………………………………………79 a history of some optometric periodicals, david a. goss……………………………...85 book review: antique spectacle cases……………………………………………………91 book review: eye of the beholder: johannes vermeer, antoni van leeuwenhoek, and the reinvention of seeing…………………………………………………………………..92 instructions to authors……………………………………………………………………….94 ohs membership application form………………………………………………………..96 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com mailto:khebert@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 66 letter to the editor: salute to the archivists and ohs co-founders raymond i. myers, o.d. formerly clinical professor, university of missouri-st. louis college of optometry, st. louis, mo 63121; 208 beverly lane, collinsville, il 62234; rimyers@umsl.edu in the october, 2014 issue of hindsight, kirsten pourroy hébert wrote two articles, one on the 1914 aoa congress,1 and the other2 about henry w hofstetter and maria dablemont on their founding roles with the optometric historical society. in ms. hébert’s description of the 100 year old congress, she enlivened optometric history and displayed a sensitivity that is reminiscent of maria dablemont who could similarly bring history to life. ms. hébert is the heritage services specialist from the archives & museum of optometry, which was transferred from aoa to optometry cares. dr. hofstetter and mrs. dablemont were two of the most influential persons of my professional and personal life. most interesting was ms. hébert’s description of the relationship between the two. i worked for maria in st. louis while an indiana university optometry student in 1967, mostly in the sub-basement of 7000 chippewa, organizing documents of the aoa house of delegates and board of trustees. as a personal friend of my wife and me for 25 years, maria was responsible through close brazilian friends for the independent adoption of our now 30 year old son. dr. hofstetter was the director (i.e., dean) of the school when i was a student, and he was also the aoa vice president. without his mentorship, i probably would not have moved to st. louis that summer. also, the emergence of the american optometric student association in 19673,4 might have laid dormant in the archives containing a proposal by irvin m. borish5 in 1942 and later a similar proposal by aoa staff member william mccracken.6 starting that summer, my wife and i were exposed to the thoughts of maria. as optometry’s first archivist, maria was collecting organizational files and publications from aoa and the american academy of optometry (aao). some of the major moments for optometry were then documentable, and demonstrated stages of professional development. optometrists were then beginning to appreciate their heritage, but not everyone saw the benefit in looking at our most humble beginnings. as reported in ms. hébert’s article, dr. hofstetter who was normally very formal and reserved in writings and speech, could not help but commiserate with maria that some of the opposition they received were from “simple people” or “nincompoops.” maria always represented the very best professionally and in our family relationship. at a st. louis party maria hosted in the 1970s in honor of a brazilian sports star and former family acquaintance, we met soccer star, pelé, whom we naïvely failed to recognize as having an international reputation until long after meeting him! mailto:rimyers@umsl.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 67 dr. hofstetter realized that an organization supported by aoa could best be a repository for optometric history than the whole of visual science. the optometric historical society and the archives & museum of optometry are fitting legacies to aoa and other supporters, including the aao and schools of optometry and their libraries. also, some of the individual supporters are from that generation and on the ohs board today! most importantly i wish to thank ms. hébert and optometry cares for the yeoman’s task of reestablishing the archives. on the 50th anniversary of maria’s first year at aoa, i am pleased to see someone who can contribute as she did, to the greater goals of the history and the profession of optometry. we should be pleased to have an archival specialist who can combine her expertise of collection with a fervor to report on the forebears of optometric history! references 1. hébert kp. the aoa congress of 1914. hindsight: j optom hist 2014;45:98-105. 2. hébert kp. an appreciation of dr. henry hofstetter and his role in the preservation and advancement of optometry history. hindsight: j optom hist 2014;45:110-115. 3. myers ri. unite! optometry students (guest editorial). aoa news july 1967;6(9):2. 4. no. 2: aosa names board of directors. aoa news 2013;52(3):17. 5. baldwin wr. borish. springfield, ma: bassett, 2006:230-231. 6. american optometric student association: submitted by the committee on aosa development for consideration by the board of trustees of the american optometric association, february 7, 1968. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 68 update on the archives & museum of optometry kirsten hébert, b.a. heritage services specialist, archives & museum of optometry, optometry cares—the aoa foundation, 243 n. lindbergh blvd., st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org the move of the archives & museum of optometry collections to secure, climatecontrolled off-site storage was completed during the second week of august, 2015 prior to the commencement of construction at the st. louis american optometric association headquarters on lindbergh blvd. we have consolidated 2,400 cubic feet of archival material and 1,400 cubic feet of museum objects in the collection at this time in our offsite facility. inclement weather during the move resulted in some water damage to previously mold-impacted records, however, these were properly dried, rehoused and quickly placed in humidity and temperature controlled storage. we continue to research sources of funding for digitizing this material to improve both access and ensure longterm preservation. while approximately 2,000 cubic feet of the archival material has been classified according to a subject classification system devised for and implemented in the library, the collection remains minimally processed and little material has been properly accessioned, arranged and described. furthermore, at least 400 cubic feet of material—much of this dating from the 1970s and 1980s—remains undiscovered. a preliminary finding aid of the materials in the aoa records collection is now available on the archives & museum page at the aoa website (http://www.aoa.org/about-theaoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/finding-aid-to-the-american-optometricassociation-records?sso=y). a detailed inventory of these records is underway and we will use this information to accession and document the materials, to determine collection development goals, and to identify duplicates and reappraise the value of materials. the remaining eight collections will be subject to the same process. this should provide us with the ability to make the records more accessible to members and researchers and to determine preservation and conservation needs. additionally, this month we will continue the inventory and catalog of the museum objects in our holdings. sarah budai, university of missouri st. louis museum studies intern, completed cataloging and photographing 216 cubic feet of large ophthalmic instruments, mostly made of cast iron and copper alloy. sarah’s work included descriptions and photographs of the objects, assignation of preliminary catalog numbers, removal of dust and other corrosive particles using a nilfisk hepa vacuum, and assessing the material for deterioration. as sarah moves through the collection, we will be rehousing material and reappraising the objects’ significance to the repository. we will also be working toward providing a complete online virtual catalog of the objects held in the collections. http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/finding-aid-to-the-american-optometric-association-records?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/finding-aid-to-the-american-optometric-association-records?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/archives-and-museum/archival-collections/finding-aid-to-the-american-optometric-association-records?sso=y hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 69 our mission this year and the next is not only to gain greater intellectual control over our collections, but also to update our policies and procedures. for this reason, we need your support more than ever. we have suspended both reference services and collection of new materials until the archives & museum facility at the aoa headquarters is complete. we ask for your patience during this time and also to please check with us before sending any materials to the archives & museum. we have no space to store new material and we want to collect responsibly! hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 70 a history of optometry in louisiana james d. sandefur, o.d. executive director, optometry association of louisiana, 419 highway 165n, oakdale, la 71463, optla@bellsouth.net from the archives of the american optometric association (aoa) we learn that dr. william bohne of new orleans was elected second vice president of the aoa for the years 1898-1899. his book, “handbook for opticians,” published in 1888, may be considered to be the most comprehensive of the american early optometry textbooks. he was a charter member of the aoa, the only one from louisiana. the march 1908 issue of the optical review magazine notes that at a meeting of the louisiana state optical association “the society was reorganized and brought into affiliation with the american association of opticians”. the meeting was called to order by w.e. huston, representing the national association. the following officers were elected for the state society: s.p. schuessler, baton rouge, pres.; m.l. krammer, lake charles, vice-pres.; ike schwartz, shreveport, 2nd vice pres.; maurice f. fitzgerald, new orleans, sec.; nicholas belliamore, new orleans, treas.; executive committee: harry schwartz, new orleans; jake lowe, monroe; e.j. bahne, new orleans; chas. clairemont, alexandria; board of examiners: geo. a. beavers, new orleans, chair; harry watson, new orleans; harry hollins, jennings. in 1918, house bill 280, which became act 193 of the 1918 louisiana legislature created the optometry law. it was approved july 10, 1918. the law defined the practice of optometry, created a board of examiners, and allowed anyone who had been practicing optometry actively for three years to file an affidavit and receive a certificate to practice optometry. it set the annual renewal fee at $2.00. board members received $8.00 per day and three cents per mile for attending board meetings. having in one’s possession any eye remedy, lotion, salve, or medicines of any kind or description was grounds for suspension of the certificate. on the 29th of september, 1937, e. a. conway, louisiana secretary of state recorded in book 1537, folio 293 certifying that “a certificate of the articles of incorporation of the louisiana state association of optometry, a corporation created under the provisions of act 254 of the session acts of the general assembly for the year 1914, approved july 9th, 1914, has been duly filed and recorded in this office.” this is apparently the earliest record of the formation of an optometry association in louisiana. an article in the june 1917 issue of the magazine the optometrist and optician notes that “louisiana has taken the bit in her teeth and organized a state association. on april 24th, george r. keller, alfred edgert, u.s. meyer, l.h. hayden, a. kerchesky, ed harris, and porter mathews, some of the leading optometrists of shreveport, met at the youree hotel, the fruit of the meeting being a state organization and a local society mailto:optla@bellsouth.net hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 71 pledged to exert every effort to secure the needed legal recognition for optometry in the pelican state. “on sept. 24th, 1937, joseph monie reported that: before me, joseph f. monie, a notary public in and for the parish of orleans, state of louisiana, duly qualified and commissioned personally came and appeared: noel c. genevay, earl a. dimitry, s.s. lewis, geo. geautreaux, fred hornberger [fred hornberger’s son, everrett, also an optometrist, was living in new orleans as of 2010], frank methe, and lloyd landry, all of age and residents of new orleans, who declared unto me, notary, in the presence of the undersigned witnesses, that desiring to avail themselves of the provisions of the laws of this state relative to the formation of corporations for educational, eleemosynary, literary, scientific, religious, and charitable purposes etc.; and more particularly in accordance with act 254 of 1914, as amended by act 190 of 1924 and 146 of 1936, and to acquire the rights and to enjoy the privileges of a body politic in law, that they do hereby form themselves into such corporation and body politic under the name and style and for the purpose hereinafter set forth, viz: “the name of the corporation shall be the louisiana state association of optometry, inc. (same having organized in 1915) and by the name and title it shall have and enjoy succession for a term of ninety-nine years from the date hereof, unless sooner dissolved by a vote representing two-thirds of the members present at a special meeting called and held for that purpose after thirty days notice mailed to each member at his or her last known address. “the domicile of this corporation shall be the city of new orleans, and all citations and other legal process shall be served on the president, or in his absence, on the secretary-treasurer or any other officer of the corporation. “the objects and purposes of this corporation shall be to unite fraternally all reputable optometrists; to promote and safeguard the standards of the profession of optometry and to restrict the practice thereof to properly qualified individuals, and to aid in the advancement of the science of optometry through educational and research activities.” [it is not clear why there is a discrepancy in the dates in these documents] the first organized optometry meeting in louisiana that we have evidence of in the records of the optometry association of louisiana (oal) was march 10-12, 1929 in alexandria at the hotel bentley. we have a photograph showing approximately 32 men and their wives on the steps of the hotel. dr. j. ottis white of baton rouge served as president of the aoa for two terms in 1950 and 1951. the other aoa president from louisiana was dr. hal demmer of houma in 1981. in 1959, the new orleans contact lens society was formed by drs. glenn young, leon reiss, dave ostrick, joyce adema and sol heiman, noel genevay, jr., warren ales, and walter vinsant. dr. vinsant fitted his patients with polymethyl methacrylate (pmma) lenses (there were no soft lenses then) and after two weeks of hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 72 wear he had the patient wear the lenses 24 hours a day. he may have been the first optometrist to fit “continuous wear” lenses. optometry in louisiana, and the united states, was a drugless profession until 1971, when rhode island passed the first diagnostic pharmaceutical agent (dpa) law. louisiana was quick to follow, passing a dpa law in 1975, only the third state to do so. the aoa has louisiana listed as the fifth state, only because after passage in louisiana, two other states passed a dpa law and the governor of those two states signed the bill into law before governor edwin edwards signed the louisiana law. the oal has a photograph of the governor signing the bill with dr. mark roy, jr. standing beside him. the debate on the bill became so heated at one point during discussion on the floor of the senate, that an ophthalmologist in the audience began angrily shouting at senator john tassin, m.d. (d-ville platte), sponsor of the senate bill, as tassin was explaining the bill from the podium. it was so disruptive that lt. governor jimmy fitzmorris, then president of the senate, had the sergeant-at-arms physically remove the ophthalmologist from the chamber. it is reported that the senate later voted to ban the ophthalmologist from the senate permanently. in order to pass the dpa bill, the association realized that they needed some lobbying help. retired colonel mark j. roy was the father of mark roy jr., o.d. in thibodaux and had had extensive lobbying experience in washington, d.c. for the military. he was hired and steered the bill through successfully. col. roy remained the lobbyist for the association for many years and was the mentor and teacher for many optometrists who later were involved in the legislative efforts of the association. the association passed many bills during col. roy’s tenure. he was the grandfather of dr. mark roy iii who now has the practice his father started in thibodaux. in 1984 dr. james d. sandefur and dr. willard marionneaux, with the backing of the optometry association of louisiana (oal), formerly the louisiana state association of optometrists (lsao), filed a lawsuit against the louisiana department of health and hospitals. this lawsuit was the result of dr. sandefur performing a tangent screen visual field on a medicaid patient and being denied reimbursement. at that time, medicaid only paid optometrists for refraction ($5.00) and no other procedures. the federal judge, john parker, ruled against optometry and the association voted to appeal. upon appeal, the federal appeals court sent one question to the louisiana supreme court. the court answered in optometry’s favor and the appeals court overruled judge parker and stated: “therefore the defendants must amend the plan and the manual so as to provide that optometrists who perform eye care services that are within the scope of optometric practice will receive reimbursement to the same extent, and according to the same standards, as physicians who perform those same services. the defendants must put optometry on a precisely equal footing with ophthalmologists and other physicians with regard to reimbursement for services that optometrists are qualified to perform under louisiana law. we do not undertake to determine which eye care services are reimbursable, but the defendants must assure the equal treatment of optometrists and physicians that is mandated by state law.” the officials at medicaid refused to implement the court order and we were forced to file hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 73 contempt of court charges against them. they were brought back into court and the federal judge told them that if they did not immediately make the changes that he was “going to put you all in jail”. the changes were instituted. the result of this lawsuit has meant millions of dollars in reimbursement to optometrists in louisiana. in 1989, dr. mark franks, who practiced in winnsboro, louisiana for many years, left approximately $500,000 to the then lsao upon his death. it was his stated wish that the funds be used for scholarships for louisiana students in optometry school. after dealing with attorneys and the irs for several years the trust finally came into being in the year 2000. an agreement was signed between the association and southern college of optometry (dr. franks was an sco alumnus) for the college to administer the loan program. the oal determines if, when, and to whom money will be loaned, and receives a financial report quarterly. to date over $200,000 has been loaned and the balance in the fund is now over $700,000 and growing. dr. franks truly left a mark on optometry in louisiana. in 1976, west virginia passed the first therapeutic pharmaceutical agent (tpa) law, allowing optometrists to prescribe pharmaceuticals for the first time in the united states. in 1986, optometrists were included as providers in medicare. this event is seen as second only to the expanded scope of practice movement in importance to optometrists. it meant millions of dollars to optometrists and drastically increased the patient base. when the cataract surgery era began (due to the intraocular lens implantation technique), it was essential that optometry was included in medicare, and thus the co-management era was born. possibly the most significant year in the history of optometry in louisiana was 1993. it was in this year that the louisiana tpa law was finally passed! while not the first attempt, it was successful nonetheless after a bitter battle from start to finish. in the end, the last vote on the floor of the senate was 38 in favor, none opposed (one was absent). finally, optometrists were free at last to write prescriptions to treat eye disease for their patients rather than calling an ophthalmologist to ask them to write it. this law allowed optometrists to prescribe all topical medicines, oral antibiotics (both antibacterials and antivirals), and oral antihistamines for “the treatment of diseases and disorders of the eye and its adnexa”. to become tpa-certified, optometrists completed 80-, 100-, and 120-hour courses to qualify, depending on their year of graduation from optometry school. today, graduates are automatically qualified, as pharmacology and treatment of disease is now part of the standard optometric curriculum. the tpa bill was first introduced in 1986 and passed the house committee, house floor and senate committee only to fail at the last stage, the senate floor – a crushing defeat. it lost again on the house floor, was amended onto a dental bill and both the optometry bill and the dental bill were killed (the dentists were not happy). another attempt failed in the senate committee when the chairman, a chiropractor, who was expected to vote with optometry, instead voted against our bill breaking a tie vote and causing the bill to fail. another attempt was lost on the house floor when optometry had the votes but the voting machine was closed early with 52 votes for the bill (53 are hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 74 needed for passage). the early closing of the machine prevented many representatives from being able to cast their vote. though many protested loudly, the speaker moved on to the next order of business – another heartbreaking loss. in 2003, it was felt that the name of the association, the louisiana state association of optometry, was too long and cumbersome. many felt that “optometry” should be the first word in our name and not the last. so in march 2003, at a meeting in alexandria, a motion was made by dr. darby chiasson, seconded by dr. elvis surles, to change the name to optometry association of louisiana. the motion passed unanimously and the name change was made. in 2005, state law was again amended to allow optometrists to prescribe controlled dangerous substances (specifically schedule iii, iv, and v narcotics), allowing optometrists to obtain a federal drug enforcement agency (dea) number. this was significant because many pharmacies were not able to honor optometrists’ prescriptions without a dea number and patients had to pay out of pocket or go to an ophthalmologist. this law changed that. another significant change in this bill was the fact that it gave optometrists the right to perform “incisional surgery”. the bill allowed “incision and drainage of superficial lesions of the eye”. the next year, 2006, optometry sought to add the words “and its adnexa” to the above wording, and had the assurance of the ophthalmology association that they would not oppose it. ophthalmology kept their word as the bill passed out of the senate health & welfare committee and then the full senate floor. but in the house health & welfare committee, ophthalmology showed up and opposed the effort. after much debate, some of which was heated, the committee changed the wording to “…drainage of superficial lesions of the eye and its adnexa”. the louisiana state board of optometry examiners maintains an audio transcript of this committee hearing in which the representative who amended the bill states that it is necessary to use an instrument to drain a lesion. thus, it is the board’s belief that optometrists are allowed to incise a superficial lesion in order to drain it. also in 2006, the oal killed a bill that would have made it illegal for optometrists to prescribe any contact lens that was not sold by 1-800-contacts. had the bill passed, any patient wearing a lens not sold by 1-800 would have to be re-fit, and if a patient required a lens not sold by 1-800 they could not be fit with contact lenses. in 2006 the oal had a busy legislative year. the oal also passed a law making it illegal to sell plano colored contact lenses (or any contact lens) without a valid prescription. this law makes it illegal for beauty shops, etc. to sell the lenses without a valid rx. also in 2006 the o.a.l. passed a law that specifically exempts “prescription eyeglasses and contact lenses prescribed by an optometrist” from state sales tax. in 2007, the optometry association introduced another bill which allowed the use of all oral medications for the treatment of eye disease. in order to be successful, optometry had to convince several members of the house health & welfare committee to change their previous stand and vote in favor (the bill had been introduced in the hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 75 house committee the previous year and lost). dr. tim barry, oal president at the time, traveled to each member of the committee and visited face to face with them to give them the facts of the matter. his personal effort paid off and the bill got through the house committee. strong optometric support from many oal members in person at the capitol when the bill was debated on the floor of the house ultimately won the day and the bill moved on to the senate. there, the votes in the senate health & welfare committee were set and the bill passed. at this time it became clear that the bill was going to pass. the opposition saw the handwriting on the wall, and when the bill came up for final vote on the floor of the senate, not a single ophthalmologist or their lobbyists or any member of the louisiana medical society was present to oppose it. however, almost 90 oal members showed up to support the effort. the bill passed by a vote of 29 yeas, 8 nays and 2 absent. this was truly a monumental victory and cemented optometry as a major player in louisiana. another major achievement for optometry occurred in 2007, as david heitmeier, o.d., a long-time oal member, was elected to serve a four year term in the louisiana senate. this marked the first time an optometrist served in either body of the louisiana legislature, and turned out to be a tremendous benefit to organized optometry, as senator heitmeier became an invaluable asset and ambassador for us. the year 2008 saw the oal pass a bill that allowed optometrists to sell and dispense contact lenses that contain medication. with the possibility that contact lenses containing medication for glaucoma and allergies coming on the market, this was a necessity. in 2009, the optometry association of louisiana achieved record membership, both in total numbers and percentage of o.d. members, and further, the oal's annual convention in lafayette set records for every attendance category, and hosted both governor bobby jindal and department of health & hospitals secretary al levine. this was the first time a sitting governor ever addressed a meeting of organized optometry in louisiana. in august of 2009, the oal partnered with the american optometric association to host the vsp/infantsee mobile clinic for infantsee awareness week. over 300 babies were examined as a result of this effort, with 400 media hits and numerous oal members interviewed by radio, tv, and print media regarding the event. this was arguably the greatest media coverage optometry ever received to-date in louisiana, as over 35,000 direct mailouts were also sent to recent mothers, and 400 tv public service announcements were aired, co-promoting infantsee and optometry. in 2010 the oal scored big on the national scene as three major aoa awards were won by louisiana optometrists. dr. james sandefur was the recipient of the aoa distinguished service award; dr. jeff anastasio was the winner of the aoa dr. david sullins infantsee award; and dr. tim barry took the aoa pac representative of the year award. to our knowledge there has never before been a time where one state received three major aoa awards in the same year. in 2012 dr. chris wroten received hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 76 the aoa young o.d. of the year, in 2013 amy goudeaux received the aoa paraoptometric of the year, in 2014 dr. james sandefur received the executive director of the year award, and in 2015 dr. david heitmeier received the aoa o.d. of the year award. additionally, louisiana has produced two presidents of the aoa. it is probable that no other state can make that claim. oal scored big in louisiana also as every society held a fund raiser for dr. david heitmeier’s senate re-election campaign. over $100,000 was raised for david by optometrists alone! his strong financial position contributed to his re-election, without opposition, the next year. as a state senator, david was able to have members of the oal appointed to several important state boards and committees. optometrists were appointed as members of bayou health quality assurance committee, louisiana healthcare quality forum, louisiana medical advisory board, louisiana medical disclosure panel, louisiana medical care advisory committee, and the louisiana emergency response network board. the 2010 louisiana legislature significantly reduced funding for the louisiana board of regents (lbr), which forced lbr to eliminate all funding for current and future optometry contract seats with the southern regional educational board (sreb) immediately. for these professional programs which lack an in-state school for louisiana students to attend, lbr had been providing funding through sreb to pay the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition for louisiana students attending these schools. the sreb cuts were discovered by the oal the first week of july, 2010. recognizing the extreme financial burden the changes would force on current students, and the potential negative impact on our profession’s future leaders, the oal immediately began working to rectify the problem with senator david heitmeier, o.d. those efforts, coupled with lbr’s willingness to work with us, and the sacrifice and support of most of the schools and colleges of optometry, resulted in only 7 of the 43 louisiana optometry students having to pay any additional tuition for that academic year. given where this process started (i.e., with no funding available whatsoever), that was quite an accomplishment, and the efforts of senator heitmeier cannot be overstated. the real challenge was finding a long-term solution to the problem in the midst of a continuing budget crisis. the oal explored all funding options available for louisiana's optometry sreb slots for the following academic year, including alternative sources of funding, low or no interest loans, scholarships, grants, and changes in residency status for our students to receive in-state tuition at their respective schools. as a direct result of the diligence and creativity of sen. heitmeier, sreb funding for louisiana optometry students was restored in the 2011 legislative session using several new mechanisms, including allocation of designated, recurring funds from the upper payment limit system (created by sen. heitmeier) and from the department of hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 77 health & hospitals budget, along with some non-recurring funds from lbr. to receive the designated, recurring funding, these state agencies added new requirements in which students had to return to practice in louisiana 1.5 years for every 1.0 years they accepted the sreb funding. additionally, graduates had to agree to accept medicaid patients for the duration of this period. these new stipulations mirrored a similar program for medical school students which was already in existence. in the event a student who accepted sreb funding did not return to louisiana to practice or chose not to accept medicaid, the previously provided sreb funds would revert to a low interest student loan, and the loan remittance amount would be placed in a fund for use in future sreb contract seat loans. as of 2012, there are nine annual contract seats at southern college of optometry, eight annual seats at the university of houston college of optometry, two annual seats at the university of alabama-birmingham school of optometry, and one annual seat at northeastern state university oklahoma college of optometry. in 2012 senate bill 669 by senator rick ward, which became act 843, required all third parties to pay optometrists equally with medical doctors, prohibited third parties from requiring an optometrist to join a vision plan as a requisite for joining a medical plan, and prohibited third parties from requiring participants to see an ophthalmologist rather than an optometrist. in the senate the bill passed by a vote of 35 to 0. in the house, a motion to amend the bill against our wishes, by rep. seabaugh, failed on a vote of 94 to 5. then on the vote for final passage, the bill passed 96 to 2. this further strengthened our anti-discrimination legislation. in 2013 after almost two years of preparation by making personal relationships with legislators, drafting bill verbiage, planning strategy, etc., the oal introduced a bill (hb-527) in the legislature to allow optometrists to do lid injections and incisions, laser procedures such as yag, slt, and pi, and to state clearly that the louisiana state board of optometry examiners (lsboe) had the exclusive authority to determine the scope of practice of optometry. the bill was introduced in the house health and welfare committee and after two hours of debate the bill passed by a vote of 12 to 7. introduction of this bill brought out the full wrath of ophthalmology. the executive director of the american academy of ophthalmology (aao) came to baton rouge and stayed for the duration. the aao ran push polls and flooded the air waves with radio commercials and robo-calls which contained a considerable amount of misinformation and quite a few simply false statements. the oal believed, in spite of the great amount of this negative publicity, that we had the votes to pass the bill on the floor of the house. unfortunately and inexplicably at this point the author of the bill decided he would not bring the bill to the floor for debate by the full house. the author of a bill has complete control over the bill and it was not possible to move the bill without his permission. several of the co-authors asked the author to let them handle the bill, but all were refused. the author put the bill back on the calendar which killed it for the session. it was extremely frustrating to have the votes for passage and be unable to bring the bill up for a vote. but, that was the situation and the bill was dead. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 78 in 2014 the oal again introduced a bill to allow lid procedures and lasers. the bill was introduced in both the house and senate. the chairman and the vicechairman of the health and welfare committee in the house were staunchly opposed to our bill, as was the speaker of the house – very big obstacles to overcome. the senate bill was heard first and passed the health and welfare committee (chaired by senator david heitmeier, who did not vote) by a vote of 7-1. the house bill (which was identical to the senate bill) was finally heard after several delays by the chairman and passed by a vote of 10-9. the next vote was on the floor of the house where the opposition attempted several amendments that would have gutted the bill. after lengthy debate, each amendment was defeated and the bill passed on a vote of 66-30. the house bill then went to the senate health and welfare committee where, again, it passed 7-1 with heitmeier again abstaining. the bill then went to the senate floor where the opposition again tried to amend the bill and again failed. the final vote was 25-12 for the bill. the final step was to get governor bobby jindal to sign the bill. the opposition began a nationwide campaign involving over 100 organizations from 40 states contacting the governor to veto. the oal responded by asking all optometric organizations in america to contact the governor. thousands of letters and e-mails poured in from every state optometry association, optometrists in practice, students, and other optometric organizations. on june 1, 2014 governor jindal signed house bill 1065 which became act 398 of the 2014 louisiana legislature. it was an historic event that was only made possible through the efforts of many people and it changed the profession in a dramatic way, positioning optometry in louisiana for the future. in the fall of 2014 the federal government re-scheduled hydrocodone combination medications from schedule iii into schedule ii. this move effectively prevented optometrists in louisiana from prescribing these medications. in the 2015 legislative session, senator heitmeier added an amendment to a physicians assistants bill by senator mills (a pharmacist) which would allow optometrists to again prescribe these medications and in addition, it would allow optometrists to prescribe all schedule ii medications, which was not allowed in the past. senator heitmeier was successful in getting the approval of the physician assistants to allow the amendment, and in getting the medical society not to oppose the amendment. in the senate an amendment to remove optometry from the bill failed by a vote of 27-7. then the bill passed the senate on a vote of 36-0. in the house, rep. carmody (whose brother is an ophthalmologist) tried again to amend optometry out but that failed 79-11. then the bill passed the house by a vote of 95-3. this was a significant expansion of scope and a very shrewd and commendable move on the part of senator heitmeier. at this point, louisiana has one of the three best optometry scope of practice laws in the united states. all the legislative successes experienced over the last decade which have made life better for optometrists and their families would not have been possible without the support of all of the members of the oal. it is only through a strong association that we can accomplish what we have. the oal executive board, and society presidents, along with the entire membership will continue to work diligently to further the profession of optometry in louisiana and in the united states. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 79 noah bixler (1884-1959): friend of james whitcomb riley and prominent indiana optometrist editor’s note: irving bennett recently wrote to me about his friendship with donald bixler, an ophthalmologist from anderson, indiana, who passed away earlier this year. don bixler was formerly a college roommate of henry hofstetter at the ohio state university and he graduated from optometry school in 1941 from ohio state. don bixler went on to become an ophthalmologist. don bixler’s father, noah bixler, was a prominent indiana optometrist and a remarkable individual. noah albert bixler joined the indiana association of optometrists (later known as the indiana optometric association) in 1917 and served as its president in 1923 and 1924. he later served for many years on the indiana state board. he and john p. davey are most recognized as the originators of the idea of starting an optometry school at indiana university, and he was on the school committee formed by the indiana association of optometrists to achieve that goal. after the law establishing the optometry school at iu was passed in 1951, the indiana optometric association formed a library committee to help establish an optometry library at iu. noah bixler was made chairman of that committee and he donated many of his own books to the school. bixler was a book lover and he helped design the public library in decatur, indiana, where his optometry practice was located. one of noah bixler’s descendants gave dr. bennett permission to have hindsight publish some excerpts of recollections of noah bixler written by edison brock, an engineer by training and a long-time friend of bixler. the recollections are written in an informal style. a few excerpts of that 40 page typescript memoir are presented here. in compiling this memoir, brock wrote that it was his intention “to present those things which pertain to noah a. bixler as fixed in my memory from personal observations and discussions with that very unusual man.” noah bixler’s childhood was spent in berne, indiana. it was there that he formed a friendship with the famous poet james whitcomb riley (1849-1916). brock wrote about the formation of that friendship and the poems that riley wrote about bixler: “one day, many years ago, the g.r. and i. local passenger train puffed to a stop at the berne indiana station. the conductor waited until a few passengers had gotten off and others on, and then the train crew took time to supply the locomotive tender with water. while the train was still standing there an elder passenger looked over to an adjoining woods and there he saw a small boy with a pet coon. at that time animals of that species were common in indiana but since they did their feeding at night they were seldom seen and only the experienced hunters with trained dogs knew how to find them. “suddenly our elderly friend hurried off of the train and seemed unconcerned at its departure. he made his way over to the little boy and asked his name. ‘noah a. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 80 bixler’, came the prompt reply. somehow that rather formal name just seemed to carry the impression of mature age as though it was hardly suitable for a boy so young. so our friend said, ‘suppose i just call you noey bixler,’ and that is the way the name has gone down through our american literature as you will see. not to be outdone, the boy asked the name of the visitor and the man replied, james whitcomb riley. notwithstanding his tender age, that name of the beloved hoosier poet was well known to our wise little man as shown by the conversation which followed. when riley asked where would be a good place to eat and spend the night, noey told him that there was a hotel farther on, but if he wanted something really good to eat, he had better go home with him because his mom was the best cook in town, and then he added that they had good beds too, and if riley would tell the family some of his stories it wouldn’t cost him anything. “that sincere hospitality is well reflected in riley’s lovely poem, ‘at noey’s house.’ and from that time ‘noey bixler’ was a favored principal in the poet’s stories, while many of his little friends, both boys and girls, took on parts as supporting characters. since riley was a most prolific writer it would take considerable research to even list the publications in which the name ‘noey bixler’ appears…. “a child-world was written by riley and published in 1897. it is in seven chapters, one of which is entitled ‘noey bixler,’ and another ‘at noey’s house.’ these two chapters are principally about noey, but riley was such a prolific writer that in all there are many references to noey bixler, for instance the rhymes of childhood as made up of 102 dialect and serious poems of which the one entitled “the pet coon” is so closely associated with our subject noah a. bixler and was responsible for his close friendship for the hoosier poet, james whitcomb riley. “a reference book which i have says in part, ‘riley used the hoosier dialect and pure english alternately, and because of his intimate knowledge of rural life and manner he has succeeded in lending his work a tenderness, sincerity and simple humor that place him in the first rank of american authors who have remained content to touch only on themes dealing with homely, country life.’ “to me all other considerations are dwarfed by the fact that riley, that great student of human nature, was able to see in this small boy all of the remarkable traits which developed in later life so as to make him the remarkable man that he was. but as i read the things assigned to little noey by riley, i do not question but that they originated in noey and that somehow riley had the uncanny ability to detect them and to blow them up and give them a frame to fit his later years. even the title, ‘at noey’s house,’ should bring fond memories to those of us fortunate enough to have been the guests of the bixler home. we can well realize how noey as a small boy was successful in persuading riley to be the honored guest in the home of the elder bixlers, and the effect of that visit upon the author. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 81 “it will not be practible [sic] for me to attempt to mention the many accomplishments credited to noey by riley or to name the many little boys and girls which riley saw fit to use as supporting characters…. “i feel sure that if at that early time riley had been told that after reaching maturity his protégé would design and construct his own watch, together with the tools for making it, or that he would invent, design, and construct and give away intricate instruments for testing the accuracy of commercial optical lenses, he would not have been surprised.” brock noted that as a teenager noah bixler had experimented with wireless telegraphy: “shortly after the close of world war i, i happened to mention to noah that i had recently seen a radio. in a modest way he told me that twenty years previously he had built wireless equipment with which his father had obtained the arlington (government) time signals. it was not until i began the preparation of these memoirs that i was able to patch together any knowledge of wireless transmission sufficiently so as to realize the profound significance of noah’s statement…. “…the beautiful and massive clock which in later years was so prominently placed in the bixler stair hall is the one with which the train men checked their watches in the berne store. each day it was checked with the arlington time signal coming in over noah’s receiver so that its accuracy could always be depended upon….” “it might be well to point out that while the functions of wireless telegraph and radio are essentially the same, the former was intended to receive signals in code, that is dots and dashes and other mechanical sounds, while radios are principally used to receive the voice, music, and similar kinds of entertainment; however, radios can also receive code signals. but at the turn of the century, when noah was doing his experiments, there were no broadcasting stations devoted to entertainment.” noah bixler’s father, david bixler, had been a jeweler and watch repairer and also did optometric work. noah started out as a watch maker but later turned to working exclusively as an optometrist. brock wrote the following about bixler’s watch making work: “a few years after i first met noah bixler, he told me that he had spent considerable time in switzerland where he had completed a course of study and training to become a watch maker. one requirement for graduation and satisfactory completion of the course was to prepare the complete detailed designs for an original watch and to personally construct it so that it would run with accuracy and dependability as intended…. “in the late thirties noah bixler gave a complete exhibit pertaining to the watch making industry to the museum of science and industry, which is located in jackson park in chicago. this institution featuring the accomplishments of industry is regarded hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 82 as the finest of the kind in the world. noah’s exhibit was extensive and consisted of both fairly modern and also ancient and rare watch making tools…. “it seems evident that while noah bixler did not follow the watch making trade and turned instead to the optometrist profession as his life-long occupation, never-theless his early and intense training in watch making, together with an uncanny natural ability, caused him to think and work with extreme accuracy whenever minute things were concerned throughout his entire life. fortunately his profession as an optometrist also called for unusual accuracy and skill and so his early watch making training was not wasted.” noah a. bixler (1884-1959) brock wrote about bixler’s various interests and skills. he called bixler a “master cabinet maker” and said that bixler made various instruments in a basement workshop. brock noted that their conversations sometimes included practical mathematics. he also characterized bixler as a skilled linguist: “during the period which extended from soon after the close of the civil war to the end of the century, there was a gradually diminishing flood of immigration from european countries to america. many of those who had come from germany, and to a hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 83 lesser extent those from switzerland, settled in the area immediately surrounding berne, indiana, the town in which noah a. bixler was born and raised. a few miles further to the north at decatur, where he established his practice as an optometrist, the immigrants were mostly german, with quite a scattering of those who had come from ireland. berne, indiana was also the adopted home of a large colony of amish people… “noah came in contact with a number of languages both in his home town of berne, indiana, and in berne, switzerland, the city for which the indiana town was named, so as to know them reasonably well….he was also a student of latin…. “i well remember of noah speaking fluently and earnestly to customers, both using the german language. you see, many who had immigrated to this country after they had reached maturity did not learn the english language so as to be at ease when trying to use it.” lastly, brock wrote about noah bixler as an optometrist: “i have on the table beside me, a bronze finished plaque, on the lower part of the face ‘1897-1947 – fiftieth anniversary – the indiana association of optometrists.’ immediately above the inscription is a slender, graceful figurine, with its arms spread wide and extended high towards the heavens, which are represented by cumulus clouds partially obscuring the sun, which in turn radiates beams of light like the spokes of a wheel. at each side of the plaque there is a decorative background resembling the folded wings of a giant bird. on the reverse side of the plaque there is a sallow depressed area about the size of a silver dollar, centered in which is an olympian torch encircled with two delicate olive branches. the plaque is somewhat less than one-quarter of an inch in thickness, and is 2½ inches wide and 3½ inches long. it has well-rounded corners, the curvature of which gradually diminished so as to merge with the slightly curved ends and sides of the plaque. “notwithstanding that noah a. bixler had the honor of serving as chairman for both the 25th and 50th anniversary conventions of the indiana association of optometrists, that always willing and versatile servant of the association saw fit to make, in his basement workshop, a sufficient number of these brown plaques so as to give one to each member of his society as a memento of that very important 50th anniversary. his work included the design, making of the mold, casting and finishing…. “in a previous chapter of these memoirs i recalled … having come with my mother to the adjoining and somewhat smaller town of berne indiana in order that she might have her eyes tested and be fitted with glasses by the father of noah a. bixler. the skill which the father possessed was well recognized beyond the limits of the community in which he lived. in 1897 he became a charter member of the indiana association of optometrists…. “it is not too surprising that dr. donald paul bixler has followed in the footsteps of both his father and grandfather. however, i am sure that not many families can boast of three generations of men all prominent in the field of optometry. it was by no accident hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 84 that dr. donald became a specialist in the care of the eye, including the important field of surgery. after a thorough pre-medical training, he entered the indiana university for medical school and later to the university of kentucky to complete a residency in ophthalmology, from which in due time he graduated with honors. in the dozen, or so, years that have elapsed since his graduation he has become widely known as an outstanding eye surgeon…. “dr. noah a. bixler was a profound and tireless student…. he served as president of the indiana association of optometrists … and also served on all permanent committees and in every office. he was the chairman of both the 25th and of the 50th anniversaries of that society…. he was named optometrist of the year in indiana by the society in 1958. “for a number of years i had known that he was working tirelessly to establish a school of optometry at indiana university. he served on the state board of optometry from 1939 to 1948. and then from 1950 to 1954 he returned to the board as president so that he could go all out for the establishment of that school, in which effort he was successful. then next he started on the library of optometry of indiana university, to which he devoted much time, and i am satisfied even more definite aid. he brought this venture to a successful stage, although he was still working on it at the time of his recent death. “it seems a miracle that this man of ability and energy could accomplish so much, while in his modest way avoiding publicity. most certainly, the world is better for his having lived.” hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 85 a history of some optometric periodicals david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu there have been numerous optometric periodicals. they have served various educational, organizational, communication, and research roles. in 1948, hofstetter1 listed 49 optometric periodicals then being published in the united states. the list included national journals, regional and state journals, optometry school publications, and periodicals produced by organizations. hofstetter2 also compiled a worldwide list of 409 serial publications related to vision science that had been published before 1948. in 1990, carlson3 compiled a list of 206 english language optometry and ophthalmology journals, most of which were no longer in existence. the history of some significant early american optometric periodicals will be reviewed here. periodicals for jewelers with optical content jewelers’ circular was a periodical which started in about 1870. in 1886, it started an “optical department” with a series of articles by c.a. bucklin.4 in 1900, jewelers’ circular purchased jewelers’ weekly and it became the jewelers’ circularweekly. in 1901, the optical feature was expanded with regular weekly contributions by george a. rogers.4 e. leroy ryer published frequent optometry articles in jewelers’ circular-weekly from 1903 to 1905.5 the optical department of this periodical split off to form a new serial publication, optical review, in 1907. the keystone, the magazine of the keystone watch case company, was started in about 1881 and continued to 1934, when it was purchased by jewelers’ circularweekly.4 the keystone had various subtitles at different times, but at one point it was a monthly journal devoted to the interests of the watch, jewelry, and optical trades.6 in 1909, keystone magazine of optometry split off from the keystone. keystone magazine of optometry continued as optical age from 1921 to 1924. johnston’s eye-echo the first periodical in the united states, and possibly the world, devoted exclusively to optometry was johnston’s eye-echo.7,8 it was published by j. milton johnston (1844-1930), who was born in western new york. he served in the civil war and then attended adrian college in michigan and northwestern university in illinois. in 1880, after nine years as a methodist minister, he joined his brothers in the johnston optical company in detroit, michigan, founded by his brother george. he soon recognized the need for an optical periodical. the first issue of johnston’s eye-echo was the january-february, 1886 issue. johnston’s eye-echo was published in six issues per year, each containing about four pages, from 1886 to 1891.8,9 in each issue, johnston included lessons which he called “eye studies.” each following issue contained questions on the previous lesson, mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 86 and then in the issue after that, answers to the questions were given. during 1891, johnston changed the title to eye light. from 1893 to about 1895, johnston published another periodical titled our vision. in 1892, johnston published a 228 page book, eye studies: a series of lessons on vision and visual tests, which was revised and enlarged from a compilation of lessons he had written for the eye-echo and eye light.10 in 1895, johnston started an optometry school, which included correspondence courses. in 1905, he moved to portage, wisconsin, where he practiced optometry.8 optical journal and review of optometry today’s review of optometry is the optometry periodical which has had the longest publishing history, although it has had several name changes. it started as a monthly, and then later was a weekly, then a biweekly, and once again a monthly. it was started in 1895 as optical journal by frederick boger (1866-1936). boger got his start in the publishing business as a teenager working as an employee of the publisher of jewelers’ circular.11 in 1891, boger started a monthly periodical which he called the optician. the lead article in the first issue was “a metric system of numbering and measuring prisms,” by charles f. prentice.12 the optician was not financially successful, and in 1894, boger ceased its publication.13 in march of 1895 boger launched the optical journal. the first issue contained an article on optical glass by william bohne. it also included boger’s call for the formation for a national association of opticians.14 he continued to work toward the formation of that organization, and from 1898 to 1900, and even though he was not an optometrist, he served as the first secretary of the american association of opticians, which later became the american optometric association. in 1910, he was made the first honorary member of the american association of opticians.15 the optical journal published educational articles, opinion pieces, extensive news, and many advertisements, and it achieved the prosperity that boger’s previous publication had not. it absorbed several other periodicals. the focus was started in 1901 by george a. rogers; it became a publication of the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology when rogers began teaching there the next year and soon after that boger purchased it. in 1906, boger purchased optical instrument monthly which had started publication in 1905, and in 1910, he acquired optical review, which had begun in 1907.11 with the acquisition of optical review in 1910, the title of the periodical was changed to optical journal and review of optometry. frederick a. mcgill, who had been editor of optical review, became editor of optical journal and review of optometry. the journal was published by optical publishing company with v.s. mulford, who with his father had been publisher of jewelers’ circular weekly and optical review, as president, and frederick boger as vice-president and treasurer.15 boger retired in 1913. in 1927, the journal became part of united publishers corporation and in the 1930s part of the chilton company. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 87 when frederick mcgill died in 1936, his associate for 18 years, maurice e. cox (1900-1997), became the editor of optical journal and review of optometry.15 cox continued as editor until 1965 and as publisher until 1968. cox was named a vice president of the chilton company in the late 1950s.16 cox wrote a series of articles on the history of optometry in optical journal and review of optometry from october, 1945 to january, 1947, which were issued in a 48 page booklet in 1947 entitled optometry, the profession: its antecedents, birth, and development. a revised 72 page edition of the book was published in 1957. it contents clearly show his familiarity with events in optometry history and his admiration for the optometrists who led its development. recognition of cox’s dedication to optometry is shown by the fact that he received an honorary doctor of ocular science degree from northern illinois college of optometry.17 in 1984, cox received a recognition certificate from the optometric historical society for significant contributions to awareness of optometry history.18 in 1977, the title of the periodical changed to review of optometry, the title which it retains at the present time. for a number of years, chilton company had chilton’s review of optometry on the cover, so sometimes it is indexed in library catalogs as chilton’s review of optometry. optometric weekly in 1910, while practicing optometry in chicago, lionel topaz (1875-1942) started publishing a periodical titled practical optometrist and optician. in 1912, the title was changed to optometrist and optician and then in 1919 to optometric weekly and the optometrist and optician. for five decades, from 1928 to 1978, it was published as optometric weekly. in february, 1978, it became a monthly and the title was changed to optometric monthly, which was published until may, 1985. optometric monthly was merged with international contact lens clinic to form international eyecare, which was published from june, 1985 to december, 1986. like optical journal and review of optometry, optometric weekly published clinical review articles, opinion pieces, news items, and related material, rather than peer-reviewed research. it was a widely read publication. topaz founded professional press, which published not only optometric weekly, but also eye, ear, nose, and throat monthly, optical index, blue book of optometrists, red book of ophthalmologists, and many optometry books. his son martin topaz and grandson peter topaz followed him into management of professional press. according to an obituary,19 lionel topaz was born in finland, but most sources20,21 and several federal censuses say that he was born in russia. the illinois death index22 says that he was born in petrograd, now known as saint petersburg, which is in northwestern russia, close to finland. he emigrated to england in 1897 and then settled in the united states in 1903. he graduated from optometry school at the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology in chicago in 1905.20 lionel topaz was active in the american optometric association. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 88 in 1943, lionel topaz’s children, mae, oscar, and martin, made a gift to the ohio state university to establish the lionel topaz memorial library of visual science there. ohio state was chosen for the gift because of the high esteem topaz had for charles sheard, the first director of ohio state’s optometry school.20,21 one obituary notice for lionel topaz stated that “his purposeful writings contributed towards the upbuilding of the exclusive ethical practice of professional optometry now generally accepted as the normal standard of refractive practice.”23 many other optometrists expressed their high regard for him in tributes in optometric weekly.24 in speaking about optometric periodicals in the early decades of the twentieth century, gregg25 observed that: “the early vigor of the optometric publications was an important factor in the development of optometry….the independent journals, such as the weekly, spoke effectively and well for the profession….topaz in his editorials spoke strongly for professionalism, education, and research.” optometric world western optical world was published from 1917 to 1944. in 1944 its title was changed to optical world and then in 1947 to optometric world. it ceased publication in 1975. its contents included educational articles, new communications, historical pieces, and related material. an optometrist readily recognized as being associated with optometric world and who also served optometry in other capacities was arthur e. hoare (1890-1971). he contributed many articles and was associate editor from 1962 to his death in 1971. hoare was born in australia and attended battersea polytechnic school in london and otago university in dunedin, new zealand.26 a few months before he would have been ordained as a presbyterian foreign missionary, he was drafted into the british army.27 serving for four years during world war i, he was wounded twice and nearly had to have a foot amputated.26,27 his military experiences led him to “the philosophy that he could better reconcile doctrine with the idea of tangible service to people than with spiritual leadership.”27 influenced by his brother, a california medical doctor who was taking some courses at the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry run by m.b. ketchum, hoare enrolled there and completed optometry school in 1922.26-28 hoare subsequently taught at the school in the 1920s and again in the 1940s28 and practiced in los angeles. hoare was very active in the american optometric association, serving as trustee from 1926 to 1929, director of the department of education, and as the first chairman of the council on optometric education.26 he was a member of the board of trustees of the los angeles school of optometry from 1928 to 1948, serving as an officer many of those years.28 he was an editor of the california optometrist, the magazine of the california optometric association.29 he was recognized by the american academy of optometry with honorary life fellowship, and he received an honorary d.o.s. degree from the los angeles college of optometry in 1962. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 89 hoare was a charter member of the optometric historical society and was a member of its first executive board from 1970 until his death in 1971. hofstetter noted that hoare “felt so keenly…that optometry’s history is magnificent.”27 hoare was described as a “gifted writer, brilliant orator and true friend who...marked the course of the future of optometry.”26 american journal of physiological optics the american journal of physiological optics was a quarterly journal published from 1920 to 1926 by the american optical company and edited by charles sheard. it published research papers and review articles by leading vision scientists, optometrists, and ophthalmologists. references 1. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:399-400. 2. hofstetter hw. serial publications in the field of visual science. on file in the archives and museum of optometry, american optometric association. 3. carlson p. early ophthalmic english language journals and years of publication (a preliminary list). on file in the archives and museum of optometry, american optometric association. 4. international library, archives, and museum of optometry. history of early journals. on file in the archives and museum of optometry, american optometric association. 5. ryer el. from a sixty-year contributor. opt rev optom 1966;103:111. 6. worldcat online library catalog. http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org. 7. johnston jm. the really first optical journal, the “eye-echo.” optical j 1909;25:115117. 8. hofstetter hw. earliest exclusive optometric periodical? newsletter optom hist soc 1978;9:18-19. 9. hofstetter hw. the johnston eye-echo. newsletter optom hist soc 1978;9:19. 10. johnston jm. eye studies: a series of lessons on vision and visual tests. chicago: j.m. johnston, 1892. 11. hofstetter hw. genealogy of the review of optometry. newsletter optom hist soc 1978;9:20-21. 12. hofstetter hw. a century ago. newsletter optom hist soc 1979;22:31. 13. boger f. twenty years in optical journaldom. optical j 1909;25:40-42. 14. herrin s. herald of a revolution. rev optom 1991;128(1):36-38. 15. anonymous. the optician. opt j rev optom 1966;103(2):62-63. 16. price b. m.e. cox, sr., 96, retired publisher. http://articles.pilly.com/1997-0313/news. march 13, 1997. accessed july 24, 2015. 17. maurice e. cox retires from “journal”. opt j rev optom 1968;105(24):47. 18. ohs meeting. newsletter optom hist soc 1985;16:1. 19. anonymous. lionel topaz 1875-1942. j am optom assoc 1942;14:13. 20. hofstetter hw. the lionel topaz memorial library. newsletter optom hist soc 1984;15:36. http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org/ http://articles.pilly.com/1997-03-13/news http://articles.pilly.com/1997-03-13/news hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 90 21. newcomb rd. our history in focus: the first 100 years of the ohio state university college of optometry. columbus, oh: the ohio state university, 2014:178179. 22. www.ancestry.com. accessed july 28, 2015. 23. wheelock ap. lionel topaz. am j optom arch am acad optom 1942;19:353. 24. to the memory of lionel topaz. optom weekly 1942;33:693, 734-737. 25. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:185-186. 26. kiekenapp eh. obituary: arthur e. hoare. j am optom assoc 1971;42:1289. 27. hofstetter hw. arthur hoare and oral history. newsletter optom hist soc 1972;3:56. 28. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:436,460,515. 29. kendall r, thal l. optometry’s screaming eagles. california optometrist 2003;30(3):13-15; reprinted in hindsight 2003;34:29-38. http://www.ancestry.com/ hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 91 book review: antique spectacle cases antique spectacle cases. gary conway. no publisher information given. 2015. 102 pages. hardcover, £ 40. available from the author at: http://www.fleaglass.com/ads/antique-spectacle-cases-book-which-i-have-justwritten-i-only-printed-300/. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book contains color photographs of antique spectacle cases from the author’s collection. brief descriptions of the cases are given. almost every page includes very nice photographs of several cases. there are cases from across the centuries and from around the world, although most are from the nineteenth century and most were made in europe. cases of many different materials, including ivory, leather, various metals, porcelain, plastic, tortoise shell, and wood, are illustrated. various decorative techniques are represented, and many of the cases show remarkable workmanship. the last page of the book has photographs of one of the most notable “cases.” it is a 1691 german religious book in which period spectacles are lodged in the back cover in a depression hollowed out for them. it is apparent that the author is an enthusiastic collector. the book includes one of the most humorous dedications i can recall: “to my wife who gave me no support in writing this book. my daughter who told me a book about spectacle cases will not be a best seller. my son who thinks i am an eccentric.” http://www.fleaglass.com/ads/antique-spectacle-cases-book-which-i-have-just-written-i-only-printed-300/ http://www.fleaglass.com/ads/antique-spectacle-cases-book-which-i-have-just-written-i-only-printed-300/ mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 92 book review: eye of the beholder: johannes vermeer, antoni van leeuwenhoek, and the reinvention of seeing eye of the beholder: johannes vermeer, antoni van leeuwenhoek, and the reinvention of seeing. laura j. snyder. new york: w.w. norton, 2015. 432 pages. isbn: 978-0-393-07746-9. hardcover, $27.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu a primary objective of this book is the examination of the effect of optical instruments on seventeenth century concepts of vision, particularly through the microscopic studies of antoni van leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) and the painting of johannes vermeer (1632-1675) – “a new idea of what it meant to see.” lenses and optical instruments allowed humans to see nature in ways that were not possible before. this led to many of the new ideas in the scientific revolution. the author observed that during the scientific revolution: “the widespread acceptance of optical instruments in science required not only optical theories explaining how they worked but also – and especially – the willingness to accept that there is more than meets the eye…in this invisible world lies the causes of the natural processes we observe.” (page 6) the author suggests that work by van leeuwenhoek and vermeer shows that they recognized that vision was complex. interpreting what was seen with optical instruments was a skill that was learned, but as a consequence, prior assumptions could confuse interpretations. difficulty in the seventeenth century with learning to see with telescopes and microscopes and learning to interpret what is seen reinforced the viewpoint that vision was learned. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 93 the book weaves through biographies of vermeer and van leeuwenhoek, discussions of their work, how they may have learned about lenses, historical context of holland and the scientific revolution, production of lenses, aspects of painting, the nature of perception, history of the camera obscura, famous dutch painters, seventeenth century microscopic and anatomical studies, and other related topics. antoni van leeuwenhoek and johannes vermeer were both born in 1632 in delft, holland, and were baptized in the same church four days apart. leeuwenhoek was an amateur natural philosopher and studied astronomy, mathematics, and other areas of science. he served an apprenticeship with a cloth merchant and later had his own cloth business until about 1660, after which he had a job in civic government maintaining the offices of the chief judge and sheriffs of delft. he also did some work as a surveyor. leeuwenhoek’s microscopes consisted of a single glass bead or lens mounted on a flat rectangle of brass or silver. he made hundreds, but only eight complete leeuwenhoek microscopes are known today. these eight microscopes have magnifications ranging from 69 to 266 times. the strongest of these was blown glass and the other seven were ground and polished. there is evidence that some of his microscopes magnified up to 480 times. leeuwenhoek never published a scientific paper, but over a 50 year period he wrote about 300 letters (which filled 15 volumes in a twentieth century collection) describing his observations. many of the letters he wrote to the royal society in england were translated into english and published in their philosophical transactions. eyes of various animals were a frequent object of study by leeuwenhoek. his first letter to the royal society described the eye of a bee. the author suggested that what made leeuwenhoek so successful in observing and describing things never before seen was due to several factors – great skill in making microscopes, creativity in manipulating light to illuminate specimens, dexterity and inventiveness in preparing specimens, talent in making measurements, being nearsighted, and dogged persistence. it is likely that vermeer used convex mirrors or concave lenses to maintain accurate proportion in paintings of large buildings or expansive landscapes through their minification effects. it is also likely that vermeer was influenced by experiencing camera obscura images. vermeer painted many pictures of similar themes but experimented with different light and shadow conditions to modify emotional impact. the author is a historian and professor at st. john’s university. sixteen pages of illustrations include drawings, diagrams, and paintings, eleven of the latter by vermeer. the dust jacket shows a portion of vermeer’s 1669 painting the geographer. snyder is among those who think that vermeer’s model for that painting and its companion 1668 painting the astronomer may have been van leeuwenhoek. the book provides a detailed science and biographical history, as well as an interesting perspective on the nature of vision. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 94 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; history of optometric education; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 95 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2015, volume 46, number 4, page 96 ohsfrontcover46-4 hindsight46-4 hindsight_55_2_no bleed_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 51 blast from the past jared denton, bs & julia vandyk, ba infantsee: a brief history please paste this link into an internet browser to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra0jhiexmdk. jared denton, bs optometry student, midwestern university, arizona college of optometry jared.denton@midwestern.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v55i2.40827 optometric inventors comic julia vandyk, ba optometry student, new england college of optometry juliavandyk26@neco.edu 10.14434/hindsight.v55i2.40828 hindsight journal of optometry history index to volumes 31-40 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. this index covers volumes 31-40 of hindsight. three indexes have been published previously, one index for each of the following ranges of volumes: 1-10, 11-20, and 21-30. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html index volumes 31-40 a a brief history of bausch & lomb's first 150 years, 39/95-96 "a co1ornotation," 37/47 a course of lectures on natural philosophy and the mechanical arts, 38/73-74 a familiar introduction to the theory and practice of perspective, 38/70 "a lens is not a pill," 31/6 "a practical and historical treatise on consumptive diseases," 38/24 a scene in a brothel, 39/59 a short account of the eye and nature of vision, 401100-103 abbas, ali ibn, 38/86 abbe, ernst, 33/34; 40/42 abel, charles a., jr., 35/5-6 aberrations, 36/7 abrahamsen, nelson e., 34/27 abrams, d., 35/39 abrams, jerry, 32118-20, 24; 36/28-30 ocular hs, 31/24; 32/17 ohs board, 33/1; 34/1; 35/1; 36/1; 3711; 38/2; 40/2 abrams, "jerome j. abrams day", 31/24 abu ali al-hussein ibn abdallah ibn sina, 38/86 academy award, contact lens, 3 7/23 accommodation, 31120; 3617; 38/70, 71 acid-free paper, 3112 ackroyd, peter, 40/108-109 acta ophthalmologica scandanavica (journal), 36/7, 13 ad vitellionem paralipomena, 38/91 adams, anthony, 34/17; 40/104 adams, dudley, 40/68, 139-141 adams, george jr., 40/63-68, 139-141 adams, george sr., 40/81, 139-141 adams on fleet street, instrument makers to king george iii, 40/139141 adams, samuel, 39/71 adams, r.l., 39/135 "add a measurement," 38/76 advisory enterprises, 3 8/18 aertsen, pieter, 39/60, 63 agrawal, d.p., 37/6 agueli, ivan, 36/13 aguillon, 35/18 aguilonius, on color types, 31/27 airy, george biddell, 31122; 35117; 38/35-36; 40/132 akhenaton, 40/90-91 alabama polytechnic, 36/22 aladdin's lamp: how greek science came to europe through the islamic world, 40/142 alameda and contra costa counties optometric society, 35/29 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page i alas, leopoldo, 33/34-35 albert, daniel, 38/69 albertotti, 32/2 alberotti, guiseppe, 39/145 alexander, e.b., 34/6; 37/45 alexander, kevin l., 34/27 al-harrani, thabit ibn qurrah ibn marwan, 37/40 alhazen, 31127; 34/40; 35/17; 38/71, 86-87, 90-91; 40/69-71, 90, 142 alkindi, 34/40; 38/86-87, 90-91; 40/142 all india institute of medical sciences, 39/43 allen, arthur w., 36/27 allen, john, 37/40 allen, merrill j., 36/40-41; 37/16-17; 39/76 allyn, william g., 36/27 alpern, mathew, 36/38, 41; 37/16-17, 42; 40/5-6, 9, 21 tribute, 34/18-19 amenhotep, 40/90-91 american academy of ophthalmology and otolaryngology, 37/42 american academy of optometry, 31/78; 35/6, 24; 36/35, 38; 37/14; 38/50 american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, 3115 american journal of optometry, 3 7 /14; 38/50 american national standards institute, 39/54 american optical association, 31/5-6; 38/49 american optical company, 32/15; 33/39; 34/6-7; 38/35; 39/4 american opticist company, 3114 american optometric association, 34/35,32-38, 51; 35/24; 36/5, 31; 38/49; 39/14, 40 american philosophical society, 38/78, 95 american schools and colleges of optometry, 35/6 american scientist, 37/47 ames, adelbert, 36/25, 42; 40/6 amherst college, 37/35 amici, giovan battista, telescopes, 33/34 amos, john f., 35/37, 39 an essay on dew and several appearances connected with it, 38/72 an essay on vision, 40/63-68 an essay upon single vision with two eyes-together with experiments and observations on several other subjects in optics, 38/71-72, 101102 an eye for painting, 39/19-20 "an introduction to medical literature," 38/24 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 2 anatolians, 37/3 anaximander, 40/142 anderson, douglas, 35/38 anderson, j.e., 36/4 anderson, p.g., 39/12 angell, roger, 37/34 animal vision, 33/25 aniseikonia, 3117; 36/42 annan, j.l., 39/12-13 anomaloscope, 35/42 antique spectacles (website), 40/78 apell, richard, 37/45 aravind eye hospital, 39/107 aravind, s., 39/56 archimedes, 34/23-26 archives, optometric, 32/10-12 ardalan, nastaran zafar, 38/58-62 arista, 39/143 aristarchus, 40/142 aristophanes, 35/17 aristotle, 38/86, 88, 101; 39/81; 40/90 on color, 31126; 34/40; 35/17 on myopia/presbyopia, 31121 armati, salvino, tombstone, 32/18, 24 armington, 36/19 armistead, j. davis, 38/103-104 armstrong, a.g., 36/27 army, u.s. army optometry, 35/31 army medical research laboratory (ky), 33/12 arnold, emil h., 33/18 aronson, casper j., 36/27 arrington, e.e., 35/44 ars parva galeni, 38/86 artificial eyes, 32/5-6; 34/41-42; 38/58-67, 83-84; 40/47-62, 88-90 artists, myopic, 36/13 artists, using optics, 33/4-5 ascher, karl, 35/41 assmann, jan, 40/96 association for research in vision and ophthalmology, 36/38; 37/42 association of regulatory boards of optometry, 39/40 association of schools and colleges of optometry, 37/19; 39/40 assyrians, 32/13-14 asthenopia, 34/53-54 astigmatism, 31122; 34/54; 38/33-39, 69 astronomiae pars optica and dioptrice, 39/18 atchison, david, 40/3 atwell, constance, 37/29 auerbach, edgar, 37/16 augsburger, arol, 31125; 34/27 august von ammon, friedrich, 32/35 austen layard lens, 32/13-14 australia, museums, 32112 australian college ofoptometry, 37/46 australian j oumal, 31124 australian optometric association, 32/17 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 3 auto-goggles, 36/32-34 auzout, adrien, telescopes, 33/34 a vicenna, 38/87 ayscough, james, 40/77, 100-103 b babcock, joseph m., 39/138; 40/131 bacon, roger, 31127; 34/40; 35/18; 38/85-86, 89-92; 39/92; 40/69, 142 badinanus, juannes, 33/41 badinanus manuscript, 33/41 badrinath, s.s., 39/111 bailey, ian, 37/27 bailey, j.w., 40/125 bailey, neal, 34/27; 36/41; 38/56 baker, george, 38/78 baker, henry, 40/81 baldwin, w.r., 35/44; 38/55-56 ball, jonathan, 37/30-33 balliwala, naval, 39/57 balter, michael, 40/48 bandrinath, s.s., 39/30, 55, 56 bannon, robert, 36/42 baptistae della porta, giovanni, 32/2 barany, 38/102 barlow, horace, 40/4 barnett, 39/128 baron, william, 37/18 barrow, isaac, 39/81 barrows, david p., 34/45 barstow, ralph, 35/37 bartlett, jimmy, 35/37 bartisch, george, 39/93 bartley, howard, 37/19; 39/2-3 baseball, 36/19; 37/34-40 bateman, eric, 31/7 bates, f.a., 37/9; 40/125 bausch and lomb optical company, 35/29; 36/36; 38/15; 39/95-96 bausch and lomb school, 39/111 bausch, augustus, 36/24 bausch, edward, 36/22 bausch, john jacob, 39/95 bayshore, ted, 34/42 becker, bernard, 33/22; 37/26, 42-44; 38/8, 10, 11; 39/5, 45, 49-50, 93 becker collection, indiana university, 39/93 washington university, 32/10 beel, william e., 36/27 belmont, owen, 38/76 bender, 34/21; 37/46 benford, james r., 36/27 benjamin, william, 35/37 bennett, irving, 32/22; 38/17-22; 39/75-76; 40/2, 33, 37-39, 129-131 bennett, jack, ohs board, 3111 benson, rt. hon. john roby, 31/7 berens, ai, 40/90 beretta, la., 34/31 bergman, 37/12 bergmann, cedric 0., 36/27 berman, morris, 35/37 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 4 bernard of chartres, 40/7 4 berry, william, 36/28 bestor, harry martin, 40/122, 126 bestor, henry, 37/22; 38/14-15 bethlem royal hospital archives and museum, 39/14 bettman, jerome w., 35/38 biblical figures and spectacles, 32/24 bibliotheca osleriana, 39/92 bibliotheca walleriana, 39/92 bickel, edward e., 36/27 bieganowski, lech, 40/69-75 bielschowsky, alfred, 36/42 bifocals, unusual, 33/35 binder, r., 37/16 bing, lois b., 34/27 bingham, w.j., 36/27 binocular vision, 31/7; 38/71 biography ofvision scientists, 33/31-32 biomicroscopy, 33/24 bird, walter, 40/10 birnbaum, martin h., 35/38 bishop, george h., 39/3 bisno, d.c., 35/44; 36/42 bittel, bob jr., 40/38 bixler, noah, 35/25 black, james, 39/129-133, 135-136 blackwell, richard, 37/17 blair, f.w., 40/120 blake, j.b., 39/10-11 blanchard, donald l., texts, 33/29 blattner, henry, 36/31 blind pension law, 40/129-131 blind spot, 33/26 blue, dan, 39/130 blum, henrik l., 35/38 blyth, 35/39 boger, frederick, 36/30; 38/50; 40/117 book of healing, 38/86 book of the questions on the eye, 38/86 books, important 20th century optometric, 35/36-40 books, on optometric history, 35/43-48 barish, 38/55-56 borish center for ophthalmic research, 38/56 borish, irvin m., 33/8; 35/25, 37, 40; 38/55-56; 40/136 borsch, 35/36 bost, e.t. jr., 40/130 boston's catholic guild for all of the blind, 37/26 bourcier, c., 35/44 bowen, a.h., 37/23; 40/121-122 bowers, scott, 39/126, 129 bowman, l.j., 35/46 boyle, robert, 31/28 boynton, robert m., 36/17-20, 22, 35, 37-38; 37/14, 16, 34-40; 39/2, 49; 40/11, 20 brachner, a., 35/44 bradley polytechnic institute, 3 7/24 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... index to volumes 31-40, page 5 brandreth, roy, 35/28-29 brecher, g. a., 37/16 breck, philip, 35/29 breinin, goodwin, 37/42 brent, jane, 35/9 brescher, gerhard, 33/24 brewer, 38/102 brewster, sir david, 33/41; 39/23; 40/82 brewster society, 34/11-12 "bridegroom of the soul", vision, 33/16 bridgman, charles s., 37/16 briggs, william h., 38/14, 71; 39/93 brilliant, 35/39 brindley, giles, 40/4, 11 briscoe, herman, 35/25 british museum, 32/13-14 british optical association foundation museum (london), 32/10; 34/22; 35/36; 39/92 brock, arnold e., 39/120 brock, frederick w., 36/16; 39/120-123 brocklesby, richard, 38/73 brodie, harold, 38/14 brombach, t.a., 34/49 bronson, l.d., 35/44 brooks, clifford, 35/40; 36/6 brooks, stephens h., 40/120-121 brotman, marvin, 37/29 brown, brian, 31124 brown, carol, 34/27 brown, charles, 35/30 brown, christian henry, 35/39; 40/119 brown, peter, 35/20 brown, samuel, aoa, 34/27 brown, william, 36/41 browning,john,40/132-135 brozek, josef, 38/99-100 brubaker, 39/129 briicke, 40/82 bruneni, j.l., 35/44 bull, edward c., 36/4-5, 30-32 bull, g.j., 35/44 bulletin of the history of dentistry, 39/7 bulletin of the history of medicine, 39/7 bullfinch, charles, 36/2 bullis, glenna e., 35/38 burch, james m., 40/4, 18 burian, hermann, 33/24; 36/42 burnham, john c., 39/146-147 burnie, david, on optics, 32/25 burnt city, 38/58-67, 83-84; 40/88-89 burrage, r.r., 36/27 bush, charles g., 33/41; 34/12 c cahan, d., 35/45 cahn, h.s., 34/31 california optometric association, 34/29-38, 45-52 california optometry gournal), 34/3138, 44-52; 35/4-8, 28-30; 37/30 california state association of opticians, 34/31 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 6 california state association of optometrists, 36/32 california vision services, 35/28-30 calloway, doris, 39/28, 106 caloroso, elizabeth, 35/3 7 camera obscura, 31128; 33/4-5 cameron, 35/39 campbell, fergus, 40/4 campbell, gary l., 40/79-80 campbell, j. stuart, 36/28 campini, giuseppe, telescopes, 33/34 canadian bulletin of medical history, 3917 canadian dermatology association, 39/13 canadian journal of ophthalmology, 38/103 canadian medical association, 39/13 canon, 38/87 cantonnet, 36/16 cantor, eddie, 37/21 capra, fritjof, 39/78-80 cardiff university, 40/29-32 cark university, 36/42 carlson, n.b., 35/37 carroll, reverend thomas j., 37/26 carter, darrell, 35/9; 38/41 carter, jimmy, 39/50 carter, joe, 37/39 catalogue of the adolph lomb optical library, 39/91-92 cataracts, 33/24-25 cavendish, henry, 39/97 cellular pathology, 38/69 central florida retinal experts, 36/15 cezanne, paul, 36/13 chamberlin, j.c., 36/27 chapman, w. judd, tribute, 34/3-5 charm, harry, 34/33 chase, walter, ohs board, 31/1, 9; 32/9; 33/1, 29; 34/1; 35/1; 36/1; 37/1, 41; 38/2; 40/2 chavasse, 36/16 cheatham, w.l., 35/9 chicago college of optometry, 38/51 chinn, f.c., 34/31 chisholm, julian john, 32/35 choi, stacey, 34/14 christus, petrus, 39/63 chromatic test, 34/10 cibis, paul, 38/10; 39/49 cincinnati medical heritage center, 39/13 cinco memorial library (philippines), 32/12 circle of ancient iranian studies, 38/58-62; 40/59, 61, 89 ciuffreda, kenneth, 35/38 clark, b.b., 37/23; 38/14; 40/121-122 clark, herbert a., 36/28 clarke, frank j.j., 40/4 classe, john g., 35/37 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 7 cleveland indians, 37/35-37 cline, david, 35/37 clinical and experimental optometry, 31/24; 37/45; 40/104 clinical management of myopia, 38/44 clinical manuals, early, 33/16 clinical optometry textbooks, 38/40-46 clinical refraction, 38/41-42, 56 cobb, percy, 39/3-4 cobbledick, gordon, 37/35 coe, everett a., 34/49 cogan, david, 36/2; 37/14; 39/5, 49 cogan ophthalmic history society, 35/3 cohen, 38/34 cohen, albert, 40/120 cohn, ferdinand, 32/35 coldsmith, e.e., 39/12-13 cole, barry l., 31/24 cole, p., 35/46 colenbrander, gus, 37/27 collections of spectacles, 35/34-36; 36/4-5, 30-32 colledge, thomas, 33/40 collin, h. barry, journal editor, 31/24 college of optometrists, 31/8; 40/77 college of optometrists in vision development, 35/24 color, mixing, 31/29 naming, 31/29 perimetric tests, 35/43 theories, 31/25-30 vision, 31/29; 35/41-43; 36/8 wheel, 31/26 colorado legislation, 31/5 colorado optometric association, 3 7/45 colorado state board ofexaminers, 37/45 colorimetry, 31129; 33/24 columbia university, 31/4; 33/2, 9-15; 36/22, 36-37; 37/11; 38/51 comenius, johannes amos, 40/25-28 company of spectacle makers, 32/16 commonweath optometrist, 32/16-17 communia naturalium, 38/90 comstock, george a., 35/3 conjunctivitis, 34/54; 36/13 connecticut association of optometrists, 35/3-4 connor, james a., 39117-18 conoid of sturm, 38/33-34 conrady, a.e., 36/23 conrady, hilda gertrude, 36/20, 23 conroe, irwin, 39/72 constant, m., 39/50 constantine the african, 38/86 constantini, lorenzo, 38/62-65 contact lens forum, 38/21 contact lens pioneers, 39/22-23 contact lens theory and practice, 38/41 contact lenses, 32/32; 33/11, 17-18; 34/28, 42; 36/38; 37/11-14, 23 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 8 contemporary contact lens practice, 38/42 continuing education, 34/3 7 contributions to the physiology of vision, 38/72 controversial vision theories, 32/19 convergence insufficiency, 34/54 conway, bevil r., 36/14 cook, captain, and telescopes, 33/34 cook, h.j., 40/123 cooke, william fothergill, 38/73 cool, s.j., 37/18 cooper, sherry, 39/48 coplan, joel, 39/74 corneal physiology, 33/11 comsweet, tom, 36/19 corundum, 3 7/2 cosmetic contact lenses, 3 7/23 cotter, susan, 35/38 cottet library (pco), 32/10 council of education (aoa), 33/16 couper, john, 34/53 covell, milton, 35/9 cox, m.e., 35/45 cox, roland, 36/28 craig, b.l., 39/8 crawford, brian, 39/5, 49; 40/3-24 crayola crayons, 37/47-48 craytor, russell e., 36/27 crease, robert p., 39/97-98 croatian eye votives, 33/28 crombie, a.c., 35/45 crone, robert a., 31/25-30; 35/45 cross, a.j., 34/32-33; 35/37; 37/9; 38/49; 40/120-121, 126 cross-cylinder, 33/30-31 crow, 35/38 crow, george, 34/5; 37/45; 39/140 cruillion, 35/39 crum, 38/102 cycloplegia, 32/22-23 d da modena, tomasso, 39/59 da rivalto, giordano, 40/77 da silveira, 38/104 da vincenza, fra isnardo, 32/36 da vinci, leonardo, 39/78-80 on color, 31127 dablemont, maria, 39/138 daguerreotypes, using to date spectacles, 32/6 dalley, stephanie, 34/23-26 dalton, charles e., 36/36; 38/69 dalton, john, on color deficiency, 31/29 daly, walter j., 33/16 danish ophthalmological society, 39/13 dark adaptometer, 33/25 d'arrnati, salvino, 32/18 dartmouth college, 33/1-2; 36/25, 42 dartmouth eye institute, 36/25, 42 dartnall, h., 40/4 darwin, charles, 38/101-102 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 3 i -40, page 9 darwin, erasmus, 38/101 daubs, jack, 35/9 daum, kent m., 36/41 davey, hugh, 40/118 davey, john, 35/25; 40/118 davidson, d.c., 35/39, 45; 40/43 davis, a.p., 37/23 davis, benjamin, 33/10; 37/14 davis, frank 0., 36/3-4 daw, nigel, 35/42 dawson, w.w., 35/39, 45 day, robert sr., remembrance, 39/100 de anima, 38/88 de cusa, nicholas, document, 34/1-3 de la cruz, martinus, 33/41 de medici, antonio, 33/34 de medici, cosimi, collection, 32/18 de multiplicatone specierum, 38/89-90 de saint-yves, charles, 37/40 de selms watch school, 37/24 de speculis comburentibus, 38/90 de valdes', benito daza, 38/32,48 1623 book, 32/30; 35/19; 38/5; 39/48, 143-145 "defense of the optician", 31/4 degas, edgar, eyesight, 35/32, 13; 39/20 del centre universitaria de ia visi6, 39/86-90 del vecchio, marisa, 33/33-35 demmer,haroldfrank,remembrance, 39/100 democritus, 31/26; 35/17 dental management, 38/17-20 denton, arthur h., 36/27 descartes, rene, 32/8; 34/41; 38/70, 96, 98; 39/48, 67; 40/142 desmond, thomas, 39/72-73 destined for distinguished oblivion, 38/71 deutsches museum (munich), 32/11 "dewey c. well," 40/38 dewey, jane, 36/28 dezeng, henry, 40/79 di francia, g. toraldo, 36/21 diagnostic pharmaceutical agents, 34/36 dick, peters, opticians, 32/7 dickinson, christine, 35/39 dietary of isaac, 38/88 dietrich of freiburg, 40/142 dilworth, p.a., 40/120 dimmick, forrest l., 37/16 dioptrica nova, 39/67-71 dioptrics, 38/98 dioscorides, 38/86 directory, membership, 33/36-38 distortion in art, 32/34; 33/4-5 ditchburn, r.w., 40/4 divini, eustachio, telescopes, 33/34 doane, w.h., 40/122 doctor's franklin's medicine, 38/78-79 documenta ophthalmologica, 32/35; 33/16, 28 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page i 0 dodge, raymond, 38/102 dodson, a., 40/90 doering, e.c., 35/25 doig, r.w., 34/46 dollond, john, telescopes, 33/34 dollond, peter, telescopes, 33/34 donaldson, d., researcher, 33/11; 37/14 donders, frans cornelis, 32/30; 33/18, 39; 35/20; 38/68-69; 39/92-93; 40/77 donders law, 38/102 doughton, reba, 40/130 doughton, robert l., 40/130-131 dowaliby, margaret, 35/37 dowland, john, 38/31-32 dowling, william, 40/77 downing, joseph dudley, 39/21 draper, linda, 36/30; 391122 drewery, richard, on spectacles, 34/22 dreyfus, john, 34/28; 36/5 dubois-reymond, 40/82 dugac, zeljko, 33/28 duke-elder, sir stewart, 35/40; 40/4, 15 dunscombe, matthew w., 35/36 dwyer, peter, screening, 34/20 e eakins, richard, 36/10 early depictions of spectacles, 32/24; 34/28-29 eastman, arthur a., 37/16 eastman, george, 36/22, 24 easton, gerald j., 34/36 eberhardt correspondence course, 40/123 eberhardt, j.c., 34/27; 40/123 economics, concerning spectacles, 32/2 education, history of optometric, 31/31; 33/15-16 edwards, k., 35/39 edwards, scott, 39/136 eger, mark, 40/38 eger, milton, 40/38 eggleston, john n., 36/27 egypt, ancient egyptian lenses, 31/9-17 eidola, 31/26 eikonometer, 36/42 eldredge, l.m., 38/87-88 electric lamps, 32/25 eli lilly and company, 39/93 elite school of optometry, chennai, india, 37/2; 39/38, 40, 43, 48, 55, 57, 107, ill ellerbrock, vincent, 32/22; 36/41; 39/5, 49 elliot, l. edward, 34/3 7 elliott, theodore f., 36/27 ellis island screening test, 34/42 elmer, ernst, 33/18 elschnig, anton, 34/13-16 empedocles, 40/142 on elements/colors, 31126; 35/17 emsley, h.h., 35/38 england, museums, 32/10-11, 25 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 11 enoch, jay, 31/9-17; 32/1-3, 13-14,2122, 33-35; 33/1-3,9-14,21-26,3132; 3411-3, 13-16, 23-26, 39-42; 35/2-3, 13-16, 33-34, 39,41-43, 45; 36/1-3, 9-10, 20-28, 35-37, 41; 37/29, 11-14, 18-19, 25-29, 40-45, 48; 38/8-13, 14, 33-39, 58-67, 83-84, 95-98; 39/26-57, 76, 86-90, 106-119; 40/3-24, 40, 47-62, 87-99, 113-116 glenn a. fry medal acceptance, 39/2-6 ohs board, 32/9; 33/1; 34/1; 35/1; 36/1; 37/1, 41; 38/2; 40/2 presentation, 31/9 entopic imagery, 36/8 eratosthenes, 39/97 erckert, s.d., 36/27 erlanger, 39/3 erlen, jonathan, 39/141-142 eskridge, jess boyd, 35/9, 37; 36/41; 38/41 esophoria, 34/54 estes, cameron b., 36/27 "ether dome", 36/1-3, 10 etheridge, grace, 40/5 ethics, code of, 36/29 etruscan art and mirrors, 32/33-35 euclid, 38/101; 40/87, 142 on image formation, 31/26; 34/40; 35/17 evans, bruce, 35/38 evans, john c., 36/27 evans, preston g., 36/27 everson, ronald, 35/37 evitts, b. a., 39/12-13 evolution ofthe eye, 36/9-10 ewalt, h. ward jr., 40/37 ewalt, ward, 40/3 7 eye talk, 38/21 eye wash, 33/15 "eye-following action", 31/9-17 eyeglasses, see spectacles eyewear manufacturing, 32/30 ezzell, 39/126 f fabri, 39/81 fairbanks, floyd c., 36/28 fairchild, mark d., 37/47 falco, charles, physicist, 33/4 fankhauser, franz, 33/22 fannin, troy, 35/9, 37; 38/43-4 faraday, michael, 40/41-42, 82, 132 farnsworth, dean, 35/42 farnum, royal b., 38/14 farrington, joseph e., 34/33 farwell, herman waldo, in memory of, 33/1 fashion eyeglasses, 33/27 fassin, gustave, 36/28 father of optometry (prentice), 33/17 fatt, h.v., 35/39 faulk, 0., 35/45 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 12 faye, eleanor, 35/38; 37/27 fedukowicz, helena b., educator, 32/35 feige, george j., 401125 feinberg, richard, 36/26-27 feinbloom, richard, 37/27 feinbloom, william, 34/42; 37/22; 38/56; 39/22 feller, bob, 37/25 fender, d.h., 40/4 ferris state university, 35/22; 38/51 ferry, andrew p., on history, 33/41 fictional optometrists, 36/14, 28-30 field, amanda p., 34/54 finch rigid spring eyeglasses, 36/32 fincham, w.h.a., 35/38 finger, stanley, 38/78-79 fingeret, linda, 35/38 finkelstein, isidore, 35/41; 3 7/11; 39/5,49 tribute, 33/9-14 firth, m.j., 36/4 fisher, c. earl, 35/25 fisher, e.j., 35/45 fishman, ronald s., 33/7; 38/104 fitch, albert, 35/39, 45; 40/38, 136-138 fitch memorial library, (pco), 32/10 fitts, paul, 39/5, 49 flamsteed, john, 39/68; 40/108 fleishman, david, 35/34; 36/4-5; 40/78 fleming, david g., 37116 fletcher, robert, 40/4, 30 flom, merton c., 35/38; 38/44 flower, rupert e., 34/33, 35 floyd, paul h., jr., 35111 fluorens, 38/102 foley house (iub), 34/43 fontana, francesco, telescopes, 33/34 forrest, elliot, 35/40; 37/45 fortmiller, louis j., 36/27 foster, fred l., 34/46 foster school of optics, 38/51 foucault, jean-bernard-leon, 39/97 foumess, lester, 35/28 fowler, pamela, 40/19 france, museums, 32/11-12, 26 francis crick archive, 39/14 francis, w.w., 39/92 frank, phillip, 33/24 frankhauser, franz, 38/10-13; 39/5, 50 franklin, benjamin, 32/30, 38; 38/70, 78-79; 39/71 frantz, don, remembrance, 39/99-100 frayer, william c., 33/15 freddo, t., 40/60 frede, ralph, 35/11 freeberg, dale, 37/30 freely, john, 40/142 freeman, douglas k., 36/6 freeman, eugene, 38/56 freeman, m.h. 35/38 freeman, paul, 40/38 fresnel, augustin jean, on waves, 31129 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 13 fricke, tim, 34/19-21 fried, a.n., 35/39 friends ofeye research, 37/29 friedenwald award (arvo), 34/18 fry, glenn ansel, 33/18; 34/27; 35/45; 36/16, 21; 37/15-17, 42; 38/40; 39/2-6, 49, 76 fry, jim, 39176 fry, martha, 39/2 fuller, 35/17 fullerton, susannah, 34/54 g galen, 38/86, 88; 39/146 on the lens, 31/28; 34/40; 38/71 galenic medicine, 38/86-87 galileo, 38/96; 39/67, 97 on telescopes, 32/8, 25; 33/33 galleria guglielmo tabacchi, 32/18 galst, jay m., collection, 33/18 on von helmholtz, 33/39 on rittenhouse, 32/6 ganglion cells, 36/9-10 garcia-guixe, elena, 40/47, 61 gardner, earl stanley, 36/13 garoni, charles, 35/29 gartner, wolff., 37/46 gascogigne, william, telescopes, 33/34 gaseous exchange across cornea, 33/11 gasser, 39/3 gaunt, thomas, 37/46 gauthier, frandois, 37/25 george, walter, 40/131 gerard ofcremona, 38/86; 40/142 germany, museums, 32/11 gerstman, daniel r., 32/23; 36/6 gesell, arnold, 35/38; 37/45 getman, gerald n., 35/37; 37/45 getz, donald j., 39/139-140 geyer, h.u., 35/45 ghandi, indira, 39/54, 107 gibbs, robert, on tomas da modena, 32/2 gienke, e.l., 36/27 gifford, harold, sr., 32/35 giles, george, a manual of practical orthoptics, 3117 ginn, richard v.n., 35/31 gispets, joan, 39/86-88 glassblower's cataracts, 33/25 glasses, see spectacles glass-making artistry, 32/17; 35/27 glaucoma research, 33/21; 34/53 gleick, james, 39/81-82 gliddon, gordon h., 36/25, 42; 38/14-15 gloor, baldur, 33/24; 38/10; 39/50 goar, everett l., 35/10 godnig, edward c., 37/46-47 goerler, r.e., 35/45 goetz, ernst, 40/104 goldberg, joe, 38/56 goldberg, mel, 38/17-20 goldlist, gerald, 38/103-104 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 14 goldmann, hans, 38/8-13; 39/5, 46, 50, 112-113; 40/11 tribute, 33/21-26 goldstein, david g., 36/27 goldstein, murray, 33/21; 38/9 gonioscopy, 33/24 goodman, harry e., 34/33 goodrich, reverend, 35/17 goodwin, harry c., 38/14 goss, davida., 3111-6, 18-32; 32/3-12, 14-18,22-23,25;33/5-8, 15-18,2736, 39-42; 34/5-12, 16-22, 27-29, 4244, 53-54; 35/3-4,9-12, 16-27,3132, 34-40, 43-48; 36/3-8, 10-16, 2832, 41-42; 37/40, 45-48; 38/3-7, 1416, 23-24, 31-32, 44, 47-52, 5556, 68-79, 85-94, 99-104; 39/7-23, 6771, 78-82, 91-101, 120-123, 138, 140, 143-147; 40/2, 25-28, 33-36, 41-43, 63-68, 76-82, 100-109, 117128, 132-135, 139-142 gould, jay w., 33/18 graham, clarence, 35/40; 36/18 granit, ragnar, 37/18 grassus, benvenutus, 38/85, 87-88, 92 greene, terri, 3111 greenspoon, morton k., 37/21-23; 38/14-15 greenspoon, reuben, 37/21-23; 38/14 greenspoon, william, 3 7/22 greenwald, israel, 39/122 gregg, bernice, 35/7 gregg, james r., 33/34; 35/5-7, 39-40, 45-46; 36/11; 38/76; 40/33 griffin, john r., 35/37, 39; 36/16 grimaldi, francesco maria, on diffraction, 31128; 32/8; 39/81 grisham, j. david, 35/37; 36/16 griswold, mack d., 36/27 groat, francis p., 38/15 grosseteste, robert, 38/85-86, 89-90, 92; 40/69, 142 on color, 31127 grosvenor, theodore, 35/9, 11-12, 3738; 36/3, 28-30, 41; 38/40-46; 40/104 ohs board, 3111; 32/9 grut, edmund hansen, 36/7 gubitz, jay, 38/19, 20 guild, john, 40/4 guillemeau, jacques, 39/93 guinand, pierre-louis, telescopes, 33/34 gullstrand, allvar, 33/18 on keratoscopy, 32/23 gurganous, edgar, 39/135 gurney, hudson, 38/24 guth, sylvester, 37/16 h hrr pseudoisochromatic plates, 35/4143 haeckel, 40/82 haffner, alden n., 31130; 33/13 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 15 haine, chuck, ohs board, 3111; 32/9; 33/1; 34/1; 35/1; 36/1; 36117; 37/1; 38/2; 40/2 haines, howard, 38/52 hall, r.m., 37/16 halley, edmond, 39/68, 82 halos around lights, 33/11 hamilton, richard a., 40/124 hammond, vernon, 35/9, 11 handel, george frederic, blindness, 32/35-37 hannauer, perry, practice, 3115 hanson, g., 40/17 harappans, 3 7/2 harcourt brace jovanovich, 3 8/18-19 hardy, benson w., 33/18 hardy, legrand, 35/41 hardy, w.e., 35/46 hare, w.h., 34/32 harmon, darell boyd, 35/38, 37/45; 40/39 harmon, paul, 35/25 harms, h., 33/24 harris, paul, 39/139-140 hart, james c., 36/27 hart, william m., 35/38 hartridge, gustavus, 35/40 hartridge, hamilton, 40/4 harvard university, 33/11; 36/14, 42 medical school, 3 7/28 harvey, james e., 36/27 haskell, m.w., 34/46-47 hathaway f.m., 36/27 hawkins, chas s., 40/122 hawkins, j.i., 38/35 hazen, e.h., 40/125 heath, d.a., 35/37 heath, gordon, 34/44 hebbard, frederick w., 34/27; 35/45 hecht, selig, professor, 33/10; 37111 heinz, 39/126 heitz, robert f., 38/34-36 hellman, george, 39/56 helmholtz, hermann von, 33/18, 39; 34/53; 35/18, 38; 38/12, 100, 102; 39/29, 93; 40/42, 82 on color mixing, 31129 henle, 40/82 henry, larry, 38/21 henson, david b., 35/39 hering, ewald, 38/102 on opponent-colors theory, 31129 herschel, frederick william, 38/33-36 herschel, john, 40/42, 132 hevelius, johannes, telescopes, 33/34 hewett, j. lloyd, 31124 heyman, ira michael, 39/54 higgs, e., 39/10-11 high, john, 40/130-131 hildreth, l.e., 36/27 hill, emory, 36/5 hill, lister, 39/11 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 16 hill, r.h., 39/92 hindman, mildred, 39/3-4 hines, c., 35/37 hipp a, 36/29 hippocrates, 38/86, 88; 39/146 hirsch, ira, researcher, 33/10 hirsch, monroe j., 35/38, 40, 46, 48; 37/23; 38/5, 44 hirschberg, 38/69 hispanus, petrus, 33/16 history of healthcare, study of, 38/3-8; 39/7-15 periodicals on, 38/4-5 history of medicine, 40/76 history of optics, 38170 history of optometry, books, 35/44-48 importance of, 38/31-32 study of, 38/3-8 history of science museum, 32/18 hitzeman, steven a., 36/6 hoadley, h. orio, 36/27 hoare, arthur e., 34/33; 36/11; 37/22 hobson, jack t., 34/49 hockney, david, artist, 33/4 hodgkin, alan l., 40/4 hoenig, maurice, 32/21 hofstetter, henry, 3112, 32/28-33; 35/3 7, 39, 46; 36/16, 41; 37/23; 38/5, 7, 32, 44, 47, 52; 39/8, 143 in memory of, 33/19; 34/3-5, 27, 44 holland, museums, 32/11 holly, buddy, 38/103-104 holmes, clark, 35/39 homatropine trials, 32/23 hood, j. douglas, 36/28 hooke, robert, 39170, 81; 40/81, 108 on light, 31/28 hopkins, robert e., 36/27 hopkinson, ralph g., 37/16 hopping, richard, 34/27, 36; 35/5,7 hotaling, elmer e., 40/120-121 how to use our eyes, 40/132-135 howard, harvey, 39/3 howell, edwin, research, 34/19-21 hubertus, greg, 36/6 hubler, richard s., 34/33 huddart, joseph, on color deficiency, 31/29 hudak, robert j., 36/27 hughes, michael, 34/41-42 hunain, 38/88 hunayn, 40/142 hunayn ibn ishaq, 34/40 hunsicker, clyde, 40179 hunt, james, 39/130 hunt, p., 37/2 hunter, walter, 36/17 hussey, lester r., remembrance, 39/100 hussong, harold e., 36/27 hutchings, franklyn c., 36/27 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 17 hutchinson, ernest a., 34/32-33; 35/5-6; 37/22, 31 huxley, aldous, visually impaired, 34/5 huygens, christian, on light, 31/28 telescopes, 33/34 hyperopia, 34/54; 38/47-48, 69 ! ibn rushd, 40/142 ibn sina, 40/142 iizuka, k., 32/13 ikeda, mitsuo, 40/20 ilardi, vincent, 32/1-2; 35/13-16; 38/95-98; 39/48 ilg, frances, 35/38 illinois college of optometry, 35/12, 21; 38/51 imperial college of science and technology, 36/23 india, 37/2; 39/26-57 indiana historical society, 32/38 indiana journal of optometry, 34/43; 36/6 indiana law enforcement academy, 37/47 indiana optometric association, 34/43 indiana university optometry, 33/20; 34/43-44; 35/12, 22; 36/6-7; 38/51-52, 55-56 library, 32/11, 19; 38/76 indiana university school ofdentistry, 39/13 ingalls, arthur l., 36/27 ingres, auguste-dominique, artist, 33/4 institute of ophthalmic opticians, 32/17 inter american university, 32/12; 35/22; 38/51 international biography and bibliography of ophthalmologists and vision scientists (ibbo), 33/33 international library, archives, and museum of optometry (mo), 31/18; 32/11; 33/17; 34/5; 35/36; 39/14, 138; 40176 intraocular pressure, 34/53 invention of spectacles, 32/18, 24, 29 iowa college of optometry, 40/125 isaac newton, 39/81-82 isagoge johannitii, 38/86-87 iseikonic lenses, 36/42 italy, museums, 32/12, 26, 33-35 lves metal, lorrin riggs, 37/37 j. jaanus, siret d., 35/5, 7, 37 jackson, 38/34 jackson, edward, 33/30-31; 40/34 jackson, m.w., 35/46; 40/41-42 jalie, m., 35/40 jaques, louis h., 34/32; 35/28, 38; 37/45; 39/140 javal, louis emile, 36/5,7-8, 16, 31; 38/102 jefferson, thomas, 33/34; 38/70; 39171 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 18 jeffries, john, 36/3 jena optical museum, 32/11 jenkins, c.m., 39/138 jensen, ove a., 36/7 jerome, st., 36/5 jessen, george, 38/56; 39/22 jewelers, 36/14, 28-30 jeweler's circular, 38/50 johannitius, 38/86-87 johnson, donald-brian, 33/27 johnson, fred w., 36/27 johnson, j.r., 36/27 johnson, paul, 40/96 johnson, samuel, 36/12 johnston, alan, 31124 johnston eye-echo, 38/50 johnston, george, 38/50 johnston, j. milton, 38/50 johnston optical company, 38/50 johnston optical institute, 38/51 joint council on vision care, 35/28 joliffe, 35/39 jolt, harvey, 33/12-13 jones, lloyd a., 36/24, 28 jones, ronald, 36/41 jones, thomas wharton, 40/78 jordan, p.d., 39/8, 10 jose, randy, 37/27 journal of behavioral optometry, 3 7/46 journal of the american optometric association, 38/17 journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences, 3917 journal of the history of the neurosciences, 38/79 journal of the optical society of america, 36142; 37/18 judd, deane b., 35/41; 37/16; 40/9 juengst, w.c., 36/27 juler, henry, 34/53 jurin, 38/71 justice, larry, 39/130 k ka statues, 34/24 kahn, isidore, 40/119 kahn, lester b., 39/72-74 kaleidoscopes, 33/41; 34/11-12 kallman, herbert, 34/33; 35/46 kamal al-din al-farisi, 31127 kamat, h.l., 37/3 kame, rodger, 38/44 kamp, harry m., 34/49 kansas optometric association, centennial celebration, 3116 kapany, narinder singh, 39/54 karthikeyan, kripa nagarajan, 39/48 kasim, nazeer badhu, 37/2 kaufman, herbert, 39/46, 50 kavner, richard, 35/40 keith, jack t., 34/27 kellam and moore's college of optics, 38/51 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 19 kendall, richard, 34/29-38 kepler, johannes, 31/20, 28; 32/8; 33/18, 33; 34/40; 35/17; 38/48, 91, 96; 39/17-18, 82; 40/72, 90, 149 kepler's witch: an astronomer's discovery of cosmic order amid religious war, political intrigue, and the heresy trial of his mother, 39/17-18 keratoconus, 3 2/31; 3 7/22 keratoscopy, 32/23 ketchum, marshall b., 34/32; 35/5-6; 40/122-123, 125-126 ketchum, william m., 34/32; 35/6 kett, w.g., 31/24; 32/16-17; 40/104 kidman, charles, 31/24 kiekenapp, ernest, 39/138 kime, timothy q., aoa, 34/27 king, ashley, 39/73 king djoser statue, 31/13 king george iii, 40/139-141 king optical company, 38/51 king philip ii ofmacedon, 31/23 king philip iii arrhidaeus, 31/23 king, vincent, 36/41 king's college in london, 38/73 kingslake, hilda, 36/20, 23, 37 kingslake, rudolph, 36/20, 23, 28 kinney, william, 34/46 kinsey, v. everett, researcher, 33/11; 36/2; 37/14, 42; 39/5,49, 50 kintner, galen, 35/25 kintner, kenneth, 35/25 kirstein, eduard; 38/14 kirstein, l.e., 36/31 klaff, murray, 35/9 klein, august a., 40/123 klein school of optics, 38/52; 40/123 knight of the legion honor offrance, 37/25 knights, s., 35/46 knoll, henry, 36/41 koch, carel c., educator, 33/5; 38/50 koch, robert, 32/35 kockelmann, holger, 40/113-116 koetting, james, 3 8/41 koetting, robert a., 33/4-5, 17-18; 35/46 kohn, harold, 40/131 kohn vision science library (suny), 32/11 kooyong vision center, 39/118 korones, herbert, researcher, 33/10; 37/14 kosloff, arielle p ., 40/92-94 kovacich, susan, 36/6 kowalcyzk, bridget, ohs board, 31/1; 32/9, 27; 33/1; 34/1; 35/1; 36/1; 37/1; 38/2; 40/2 kozol, f., 35/46 kraskin, robert a., 35/39; 37/45 kraus, david, 35/28 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 20 krauss, rolf, 40/95 kries, johannes von, on zones, 31/30 krishnan, nirmalla, 37/2 kryptok company, 35/36 kuhn, betty lee, 38/20 kumar, krishna, 39/48 kupfer, carl, 37/29, 45 kurtz, d., 35/37 kurtz, henry, 36/28 kusch, polycarp, educator, 33/3 kuttner, louis, 34/46 kwasnieuska, sylwia, 38/12 l l. s. ayres, 36/29 laird, i. k., 36/4 lakshminarayanan, vasudevan, 38/34-36, 38; 39/55; 40/3-24 lambert, johann heinrich, on color mixing, 31/29 lambert, w.e., 37/15 lancaster, walter, 36/42; 38/34 landa, edward r., 37/47 landolt, 35/21; 36/5 lane, s.w., 40/124 lang, a., 38/38 lang, gideon, 401129-131 lanthony, philippe, 39/19-20 lapicque, charles, 39/19 lasker, mary, 39/50 laurance, lionel, 35/38 laurence, john zachariah, 39/23 layard lens, 32/13-14 lawler, andrew, 38/83-84 laws, optometric, 31/4, 6, 30-31 lawsuits, 32/31 le, dong-anh, 34/15 legrand, y., 35/39; 38/35 leatart, d. leroy, 35/28 leather spectacles, 33/40 lecture on optometric history, 35/16-27 leclerc, george-louis, 37/40 lederer, j., 35/46 lee, kenneth p., 34/33 lee, palmer n., 34/33 leeds, james p., tribute, 32/18-20 leeuwenhoek, microscope, 32/25 legge, g.e., 38/38 legibility, 34/42 legislation, optometric, 31/4, 5; 34/8-9, 31-38 leibniz, gottfried, 39/82; 40/108 leiden university, 38/68 leland refractor, 33/17 lembke, charles, 38/49 lens-grinders, renaissance era, 31/27 lenses, 34/24 leonardo, 38/96 leopold, irving, 37/42 lesser, 35/37 letocha, chuck, 32/13; 33/40; 34/28; 36/5; 38/79 letterforms, 34/42 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 21 leucippus, 35/17 levene, j.r., 35/46; 38/41, 79 levi, dennis, 39/87 levi, george a., 38/76 levin, harry, 35/30 levoy, robert p., 35/40 levy, s.h., 36/27 lewis and clark expedition, 33/15 lewis, c.p., 36/27 lewis, james j., 36/33; 37/24 libraries, ophthalmic, 33/42 libraries, optometric, 32/10-12 library company, 38/78 liebreich, richard, 34/53 lilly, bud, 39/76 lilly, josiah kirby jr., 39/93 lim, drahoslav, 39/22 lin, meng, 39/87 lincoln, abraham, 38/103-104 lindberg, david, historian, 34/39-41; 35/46; 38/85, 87, 89-92; 40/40, 90 lindsay, william g., 34/33 linksz,arthur,33/24 lippershey, hans, telescopes, 33/33; 40/107 licensing, 32/31; 38/49 lister hill museum of health sciences, 32/11 lister, joseph, 36/3 listing's law, 36/7; 38/102 litten, walter, 36/27 littlefield, 35/39 livingstone, margaret s., 36/14 llewellyn, r., 35/39 locke, john, 39/68 lockwood, r.m., 37/9-10; 40/120-121 lomb, adolph, 36/24; 39/91-92 lomb, carl f., 38/14 lomb, henry, 39/92, 95 london institute of optometry, 31/7 london refraction hospital, 31/7 london, mortimer a., 36/27 lopez, jose luis gomez, 40/52 lord charnwood memorial lecture, 31/8 lorenz, konrad, 33/24 los angeles college of optometry, 37/22; 38/52 los angeles museum ofnatural history, 36/4 los angeles optical college, 40/122123 los angeles school of ophthalmology and optometry, 34/32; 37/24; 38/52 loshin, david, 36/41 lotus school, 39/111 lotto, lorenzo, artist, 33/4 loudon, sjoukje e., 37/40 louvre, glasses in paintings, 32/26 lowry, earl m., 36/28 low-vision, 37/22, 28-29 in india, 39/106-119 luckiesh, m., 35/46; 36/28 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 22 ludlam, william, 33/10, 13; 37/14 lueck, amanda, 39/119 lupon, nuria, 39/86-87 lusitanus, petrus julianus, 38/88-89, 92 luxottica museum, 32/17, 25; 33/33-35 lx siin tiid, 39/58-66 lyell, charles, 40/132 lyle, w.m., 35/39 lynch, m., 35/46 lyons, c.v., 37/45 lyons, emily bradley, 37/45 m maccallan, 38/86 maccracken, bill, 40/130-131 macdonald, lawrence, 37/45 macgregor, r.j.s., 35/45, 39/139; 40/43 mach, 38/102 mackenzie, sir william, 34/53 mackinnon, glenn, 35/28 madigan, leo, 36/42 madison, james, 39/71 maimonides, moses, 35/33 maino, d., 35/39; 39/21 maino, j., 35/39 maldonado, candy, 37/39 malinovsky, victor, 36/6 malloch, archibald, 39/92 malvasia, cornelio, telescopes, 33/34 manas, leo, 35/38 mandell, robert b., 35/37; 38/41 manhattan school of optics of the city ofnew york, 40/124 mann, james, 40/77, 100-101 manufacturing, of eyewear, 32/30; 33/41-42 of mirrors, 33/6 margaretten, elias j., 36/26-27 mark, harry, 39/23 markham, keratoconus patient, 32/31 marks memorial library (ny), 32/11 marly's museum (paris, discontinued), 32/12 marmor, michael, 35/32; 36/15 marquez, gabriel garcia, on telescopes, 33/35 marquez, manuel, 39/143, 145 marsden, carl, 37/45 marshall, edwin c., 35/39 marshall, henry s., 36/27 marshutz, s.g., 34/31 martin, benjamin, 40/66, 76, 81, 101 martin, l.c., 36/28 martin, thomas, 40/3 7 mary and edward norton library, 33/41 mason, frederick l., 34/49-50 massachusetts college of optometry, 38/51 massachusetts eye and ear infirmary, 36/2-3; 37/28 massachusetts general hospital, 36/2, 10 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 23 massachusetts school of optometry, 40/123 matthews, brian h.c., 40/4 matthews, chickie, 40/131 matthews, dennis, 39/133 maumenee, a. edward, 37/43-44; 39/50 maurolyco,francesco, 38/47 maxwell, james clerk, on colorimetry, 31/29 may, charles h., 37/10 mayo clinic, 32/15 mazow, bernard, 35/9; 38/41 mcallister, john, jr., 39/14 mcallister, john, sr., 35/20; 38/48 mcallister optician family, 32/4, 30; 33/17; 35/18, 20; 38/48-49 mcbrayer, alan, 32/5; 33/40 mccall, n., 39/13 mccarthy, john, 38/20 mccarter, harold, 35/28-29 mccaughey, r.a., 35/47 mccleary, virgil, 35/26 mcconnell, william t., 40/37 mccormick optical college, 38/51 mcculloch, warrens., 37/16 mcdaniel, ronald, "the patriot", 31132 mcdonnell, c.m., aoa, 34/27 mcfatrich, george wilbur, 36/33; 37/24; 40/118 mcfatrich, j.b., 36/33; 3 7/24 mcgraw, james, 33/12; 39/49 mcinerney, john j., 40/122 mckenzie, a.e.e., 40/87 mcnellis, j.f., 37/16 mcquarrie, charles w., 34/3-5, 36 mead, leonard c., 37/16 meat stall, 39/60 medical bureau oflicensure, 31/6 medical college ofpennsylvania, 39/13 medical history, 3917 medicine: an exhibition of books relating to medicine and surgery, 39/93 medieval medicine, 33/16-17 medival optometric traditions, 40/6975 mees, c.e. kenneth, 36/28 meetz, richard m., 36/6 mehr, e.b., 35/39 mein, j., 35/39 melchior-bonnet, sabine, 33/5 melling, j., 39/10-11 melton, c.w., 37/16 menlo park, 37/18 meryon, charles, 39/20 merz, georg, telescopes, 33/34 metsys, quinten, 39/63 meyrowitz, 35/36 michigan optometric association, 33/18 milder, benjamin, 35/40; 39/45 millburn, john r., 40/139-141 miller, a.r., 35/47 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 24 miller, anna,40/39 miller, earl f., 36/41 miller, joan, 39/133 miller, mark, 40/124 miller, maxwell, 40/124 miller, samuel m., 40/124 milligan, f .h., 36/27 millikan, r.a., 36/37; 39/97 millodot, m., 35/39; 40/29-32 minchin, howard d., 40/122 minoan lens design, 31/12-15 minor, ralph, history, 34/46, 49, 51 mirrors, 32/1-2; 33/5-7; 34/1-3, 24; 35/2-3, 41; 37/2-9 mitchell, m., 35/46 model eyes, ancient egyptian, 31/9-1 7 early french, 32/25 modulation transfer function, 38/38 moline, s.w., 35/47 molyneux, william, 35/19; 38/48; 39/67-71 monanari, geminiano, 33/34 monet, claude, 39/20 monoyer, 35/17 monroe college ofoptometry, 38/51 moore, b., 35/39 moore, william daniel, 38/69 moreland, jack, 37/18-19 moreno-barriuso, esther, 40/61 morez eyewear museum (france), 32/11 morgan, 39/129 morgan, meredith, 34/44-52; 35/43; 36/16; 37/16-17, 42 tribute, 34/16-18 morris, juilian, 37/28 morris, ruth p ., 34/27 morris, warren g., 34/27 morrisey, 34/46 morrison,39/22-23 morrissey, margaret, on history, 33/40 morton, william t.g., 36/2 moses, robert, 33/23; 38/10; 39/50 moss, f.k., 36/28 mote, herbert g., 34/27; 36/28; 38/52 mozart, leopold, and telescopes, 33/34 mueller, c.d., 34/46 mueller, robert, 38/22 mueller-welt, adolf wilhelm, 34/28 mullen, c.f., 35/47 muller, johannes, 40/82 munsell, albert henry, 37/47-48; 38/15 munsell color company, 37/47 murlin, john r., 36/28 musee de l'instrumentation optique (france), 32/11 museo dell 'occhiale, 32/17-18, 26 museum ofhistory of science (oxford), 32/11 museum of ophthalmology, 32/4, 10 museums, optometric interest, 32/10-12, 17-18, 25; 34/22, 53; 35/36 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 25 muth, e.p., 35.47 muth library and museum (va), 32/11 mutter museum, 32/11 myopia, 31/21; 38/47-48,69 n namperumalsamy, 39/56 national board of examiners in optometry (nbeo), 34/4 national eye advisory council, 37/28, 29,44 national eye institute, 37/26-29, 41-45; 39/50 national institute ofneurological diseases and blindness (nih), 36/26; 37/26, 42-43; 39/50 national museum of american history (smithsonian), 32/12; 36/4 natural history of vision, review of, 31/19-22 naval research, 36/18, 37/17 neal, finley f., 34/49 needles institute, 38/51 needles, william, 35/25; 38/56 neill, jack, 34/42 neiley, alice, 37/35-36 nelson, harry, 37/16 neubauer, clarence, 38/14 new england college of optometry, 35/21; 38/51 new mexico association of optometrists, 36/32 new sydenham society of london, 38/69 new york hospital, 36/2 new york institute of optometry, 40/119-121 new york medical society, 31/3 new york optical society, 31/3-5 new york state board of examiners in optometry, 31/5 new york state board of optometry, 31/4 new york university, 33/12 new york weill cornell medical center, 39/13 new zealand, 32/7 new zealand optometrical association, 36/3-4 newcombe, robert d., 35/39 newell, frank, 37/43 newman, byron, 34/33; 37/30-33; 38/76 newman, sara, 39/58-66 newton, 40/108-109 newton, isaac, 39/81-82, 97; 40/108109, 142 on light, 31/28; 32/8; 35/17; 38/70 reflecting telescope, 32/25; 33/34 nickerson, dorothy, 35/42; 37/48 nicolo, cardinal, of rouen, 32/36 niell, d.o., 36/4 nitchie, charles, 36/28 nixon, otis, 37/39-40 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 26 nixon, richard, 39/50 noell, werner k., 37/16 nordiske museet (sweden), 32/12 norn,mogens,36/7 norris, geo c., 40/124 north carolina scope of practice, 39/124-137 northeastern state university, 35/22; 38/51 northern illinois college of optometry, 36/26; 37/45; 38/51, 55; 40/118 norton, edward w.d., 33/41 norway, museums, 32/12 northampton polytechnic, 31/7 northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, 36/33; 37/24 notable medical books, 39/93 nouveau traite des maladies des yeux, 37/40 nova southeastern university, 35/22; 38/51 nurock optometric research library, 32/11 nye, ben, 37/23 nye, ed, 39/126-127 0 o'brien, brian, 36/21,28, 37; 37/18-19; 39/49 obrig, theo, 34/42; 35/47; 37/11-14 observatory, first american, 32/6 obstfeld, h., 35/39 o'connor, richard, 36/10 ocular heritage society, 31/31; 32/5-7, 17-18; 33/39-42; 34/23 o'donnel, john anthony, 35/30 office ofnaval research (onr), 36/18, 37/17 ogle, kenneth n., 35/38; 36/25, 42; 37/16 ogura, joseph, 37/43 ohio optometric association, 34/27-28 ohio state university, 33/15; 35/22; 36/21,28, 38-41; 37/17; 38/51-52 collection, 32111, 22; 35/36 ohm's law, 38/72 ohzu, hitoshi, 39/54 o'leary, dan, journal editor, 31124 oldenburg, henry, 39/81 oleson, john peter, article, 34/23-26 oliver goldsmith eyewear ltd., 32/4 olson, jacqueline s., 36/6-7 on light, 38/89 on lines, angles, and figures, 38/89 on optics, 38/86-87 on some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, phenomena of binocular vision, 38/72 on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye, 38/68-69 on the mechanism of the eye, 38/74 ophthalmic opticians, 32/30 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 27 ophthalmic texts, 33/29-31 ophthalmology management, 38/21 ophthalmophacometer, 3 6/7, 31 ophthalmoscopes, 34/53 opponent-colors theory, 31/29 optic nerve head, 34/13-16 optical heritage museum (ma), 32/12 optical journal, 36/30; 37/9-10, 23-24; 38/17-20; 40/117-128 optical management, 38/21 optical museum of the carl-zeiss­ stiftug jena, 32/12 optical society of america, 36/24, 38, 42; 37/37 optician vs. optometrist, 34/27 optics, 38/86-87 optifair, 38/21 optometeter, 36/7 optometria de atencion primaria, 38/44 optometric center of new york, 33/13 optometric education, 37/41 "optometric educational requisites," 38/15 optometric extension program, 34/6, 33; 35/24; 36/11; 37/45; 38/40-41 ohs board members, 2000, 31/1 2001,32/9 2002, 33/1 2003, 34/1 2004,35/1 2005,36/1 2006, 37/1 2007, 37/41; 38/2 2009,40/2 ohs website, 31/1; 35/1; 37/40,48 optometric management, 38/17-22 optometric weekly, 38/16, 17-20, 42, 50 optometry field magazine, 40/33-36 optometry, journal oftheaoa, 37/30 optometry reconsidered, 38/42 opus maius, 38/89-90 opus tertium, 38/89-90 orbis pictus, 40/25-28 orbital damage of king philip ii, 31/23 orden, alex, 36/27 origin of species, 38/69 origins ofneuroscience, 38/79 origins of ophthalmology, 32/35 origins of optometry, 32/28-33 orser, w.d., 36/27 orthokeratology, 37/30-33 osborn engineering company 37/38 o'shea,john,40/131 osias, len, 35/30 osler, william, 39/92 osterberg, harold, 40/8, 18 ostrum, meg, 37/28 ott, katherine, on artificial eyes, 32/5-6 our optometric heritage, 37/45 overbury, olga, 39/119 oyster, harold w., 34/27 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 28 ozanics, victoria, assistant, 33/10 l pacific university, 33/11; 34/18; 35/12, 22; 38/51 padula, william, 35/39 page, w.w., 40/122 painters, myopic, 36/13 painters, using optics, 33/4-5 palmer, david, 40/4, 11 palmer eye institute library, 33/42 palmer, george, on colorblindness, 31/29 palpability of eye, 32/32 pardee, george, 34/31 pare, ambroise, and artificial eyes, 32/5 park, d., 35/47 parson's horological institute, 37/24 patching therapy for amblyopia, 37/40 patella, vincent michael, 35/38 pathology, emphasis, 32/32 "patriot, the", eyeglasses in, 31/32 patron saint of opticians (st. jerome), 36/5 patron saint of optometrists (benjamin franklin), 32/38 patron vs. patient, 34/28 peacock, george, 38/23 pearson, d., 39/9 peckham, john, 38/85, 90-92; 40/69 pedrogo, irma, 37/11 peli, eli, 36/2; 37/28 pell, wilbur, sr., 35/25 penisten, doug, 35/37-40; 37/40, 48; 38/6 ohs board, 31/1; 32/9, 33/1; 34/1; 35/1; 36/1; 37/1; 38/2; 40/2 pennsisi, elizabeth, 36/9-10 pennsylvania college of optometry, 34/4; 35/22; 38/52; 40/136 collection, 32/10, 26 pennsylvania hospital, 36/2; 38178 pepys, samuel, 34/53 perception, visual, 36/42; 38170 perimetry, 33/24-25; 3617 perkins, r.f ., 36/27 perry mason, 36/13-14, 28-30 perspectiva, by bacon, 38/89-90 perspectiva, by witelo, 38/91 perspectiva communis, 38/90-91 peter of spain, 38/88-89, 92 peters, henry b., 34/49; 35/28-29, 38, 47 peters, richard, 35/28-29 peterson, bart, mayor of indianapolis, 31/24 petry, ernest, 36/25,28, 36; 37/22; 38/14 pettinato, giovanni, on lenses, 32/13 pharmaceutical agents, 31131; 33/8; 38/52 pharmacy in history, 3917 pheiffer, chester, 35/9, 19; 38/41 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 29 philadelphia optical college, 35/22; 38/51; 40/119 philippines, museums, 32/12 philips, a.j., 35/39 phillips, bob, 38/19; 40/37-38 phillips, robert, 37/11 phoria card, 34/19-21 phoroptors: early american instruments of refraction and those who used them, 40/79-80 photomultiplier, 3 7/18 photophobia, 34/54 photoreceptors, 36/9-10 physicians' and surgeons' optical college, 40/125 picasso, pablo, 39/21 pickel, sandi corns, 36/6 pickwell, david, 35/38 pietsch, paul a., 36/6 pikasa, 39/143 pike, benjamin, 35/20; 38/49 pilgrim eyeglasses, 35/20 pina, leslie, 33/27 pioneer health centre, 39/14 pi sa, giordano da, on glasses, 32/1; 35/13 pisart award, 37/29 pissaro, camillo, 36/13 pladellorens, josep, 39/86 plato, 31/26; 40/90 poetry, 32/20 pollack, p., 35/47 polyopia, 38/37 pomeranzeff, oleg, 37/28 poor richard's almanac, 38/78 pope clement iv, 38/89 pope gregory x, 38/88 pope john xxi, 33/16 popper, karl, 33/24 popular science, 32/25 porro, ignazio, telescopes, 33/34 porter, melbourne j., 36/27 porter, r., 39/12, 15 porterfield, william, 35118; 38/71, 101; 40/31 portrait of hugh of st. cher, 39/59 post, c.m., 40/125 poston, marvin, 35/28-29 poulsen, stanley, 35/28 practice management seminar, 38/21 prendergast, mark, historian, 35/3 prentice card, 34/19-21 prentice, chalmers, 36/33; 37/24 prentice, charles, 31/2-5; 32/21-22, 31; 33/17; 34/19; 35/20-21, 37, 39, 47; 38/49; 39/14 prentice, james, 35/20; 38/49 prentice medal (aao), 32/22; 34/17, 19; 36/17, 38 boynton, robert, 3 7/34 prentice's law ofdecentration, 31/3; 38/49 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 3 0 presbyopia, 31121; 33/7-8; 34/54; 38/70 priestly, joseph, 38/69-70 primary care optometry, a clinical manual, 38/42-43 prisms, 31127 proctor, charles, 36/42 proctor medal (arvo), 36/38 prostheses, 34/41-42 protanopy, 33/24 ptolemy, 40/142 on color mixing, 31126, 34/40; 35/17 public vision league, 34/35 purkinje, jan evangelista, 38/99-100, 102; 39/93 description of reflection on eye, 31121 history, 33/18; 35/18 purkinje images, 36/7 purkinje 's vision: the dawning of neuroscience, 38/99-100 puyoles, carme olaria, 40/47-48, 50, 52, 55-61 q quackery, eye-care, 32/19 quantum theory, 31130 queen, james w., 35/20; 38/49 quick, h.e., 36/27 quirke, stephen, 40/97 r ragazzole, chloe, 40/113 rainbows, 31127 ramsden, jesse, 33/34; 40/76 rand, gertrude, 35/41 randolph, paul d., 39/99 rathschuuler, fritz, optician, 33/33 ratliff, floyd, 36/19 rau, 39/117 raubitschek, 38/35 ravin, james g., 33/40; 36/12 ray, thurman j., 35/11 rays of light, early representations, 40/87-99, 113-116 rayton, wilbur b., 36/24, 28, 36 reading glasses, 33/27 refraction, 36/7; 37/20; 38/49 refractive anomalies: research and clinical applications, 38/44 refractor, leland, 33/17 regan, 37/19 regimen sanitas, 38/88 reichardt, werner ernst, 32/35 reichwald, m.e., 40/125 reid, thomas, 38/71; 40/67 reinke, albert a., 34/49 rekoss, egbert, 34/53 rembrandt, 36/14-15 "remember me", poem, 32/20 remy, 36/16 renaissance era, 35/13-16 renaissance society of america, 32/1 renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes, 38/96-98 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 31 renoir, august, 36/13 renshaw, sam, 34/21; 37/16-17, 46 replogle, w.h., 40/33 repositories of items of optometric historical interest, 32/9 research to prevent blindness senior scientific investigator award, 34/19 restoring ophthalmic antiques, 39/139 retina associates, 37/27, 28 retina foundation, 37/27 retinal detachment surgery, 32/35 retinal ganglion cells, 36/9-10 retinal image formation, 31120 retinitis pigmentosa, 36/20 retinopathy, 33/25 retinoscopy, cross-cylinder, 33/30-31 ryer, 33/17 wet vs. dry, 32/23 retrospective, one hundred years, 36/3234; 37/9-10, 23-24 revelli, edward, 39/87 review of optometry, 38/50; 39/22-23 reynolds, edward, 36/3 rhazes, 3 8/86 rhees, benjamin rush, 36/24, 26, 36 rhode island society of optometry, 36/32 ribright, thomas, 40/77 rice, george, 35/29 richardson, edmund f., 34/33 ridgway, george c., 34/7-11 ridgway, george v., 34/7-11; 40/118 ridgway optical company, 34/9 ridgway, william l., 34/7-11 riggs, lorrin, 36/17-20; 37/19, 35-37; 39/2 rigid spring eyeglasses, 36/32 risley prism, 34/7 risner, f., 40/70 rittenhouse, david, optician for george washington, 32/6 rittler, catherine, 35/41 rivalto, 35/19 robinson, 38/34 robinson, andrew, 38/23,74 robinson, john d., 39/75, 124-137 rochester school of optometry, 36/25; 37/18, 21-23; 38/14-16; 40/121-122 roemer, on light speed, 32/8 rogers, george a., 36/33; 37/24 rogers, clarence c., 38/14 rogers, howard f., 36/27 roget, peter mark, 40/82 romano, albert, 35/9 ronchi, v., 35/47 rose, p.r., 36/4 rosen, 35/13; 38/47 rosenbloom, alfred, ohs board, 3111; 32/9; 35/43 rosenthal, j. william, ocular hs, 32/5, 24; 34/23; 35/47 obituary, 38/80 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 32 rosner, jerome, 35/39 rosner, joy, 35/39 rouse, michael, 35/37 rowat, h.l., 40/125 rowley ophthalmological college of st. louis, 3 7/23 royal college museum, 34/53 royal institution in london, 38/33, 73 royal microscopial society, 31/7 royal polytechnikum, 3112 royal society of medicine, 3117 royal tomb ii, 31123 ruben, 35/39 rubin, melvin, 35/40 ruddy, jefferson t., 40/122 rueda, sanchez, 35/47 rummel, w.e.d., 40/125 runge, paul e., 39/143 rush, benjamin, eye wash, 33/15 rushton, william, 40/4, 20 rutherford, ernest, 39/97 ryer, leroy, 39/14, 138; 40/120-121 ryer retinoscope, 33/17 ~ safilo group museum (italy), 32/12, 18, 26 saint jerome, 36/5 saint-yves, charles, 39/93 sajjadi, mansour sayyed, 38/62-65 salmoiraghi, angelo, telescopes, 33/34 salvatori, phil, 37/12 salvatori, tony, 37/12 sammis, s.k., 39/9, 12 san nicolo oftreviso, fresco, 32/2, 24, 35-36 sankara nethralaya, 39/30, 38, 40, 43, 55, 107 santayana, george, 38/6 saraswathi, sri chandrasekhar, 39/30 sattler's veil, 33/11; 37/12 saturn's rings, 32/13-14 sawchak, matthew, 39/135 schapero, max, 39/139 scheiman, mitchell, 35/37 scheiner, christoph, 33/18 on accommodation, 31120; 32/8 on retinal imagery, 32/8; 35/18 schempp, ed, 40/3 7 schempp,mary,40/37 schepens, charles, 39/23, 50, 56 reminiscences, 3 7/25-29 schepens eye research institute, 36/1; 37/25, 28, 29 scheslinger, stan, 38/20 schickore, jutta, 40/81-82 schiffer, nancy n., 32/3-4, 6; 35/48 schiller, a., 36/27 schiller, richard c., tribute, 34/3-5 schlick, moritz, 33/24 schneider, g.l., 34/31,33,46,48 schoen, john n., 33/5, 35 schoessler, john p., 36/41 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 33 scholles, james r., 34/27 schor, clifton, 35/38 schott, otto, telescopes, 33/34 schubert, g., 33/24 schwann, 40/82 schwartz, f., 38/38 science museum (london), 32/25; 40/77 "screaming eagles" of optometry, 34/31-38, 44-52; 35/4-8, 28-30 seabrooke, richard, 34/53 second lord chamwood, 31/6-8 sedgwick, h. jobe, 36/28 seger, charles e., 34/35 seneca the younger, 32/2; 34/24 sennacherib, king, 34/23-26 sewell, jessica, 39/142 seysenegg, tschermak von, 33/24 sforza, francesco, 38/96 shaikh, saad, 36/15 shapiro, m. 35/37 shastid, thomas hall, 35/23 sheard, charles, 33/3, 5; 34/27; 35/3738; 36116; 37/31 remembrance of, 32/14-16 sheard allen, dorothy, on her father, 32/14-16 sheedy, james e., 36/41 shepard, carl, 38/56 shepard memorial library, 32/11 sheridan, captain john w., 35/31 sherman, lawrence y., 36/33; 37/24 shigon, nathan, 40/79 shur-on optical company, 38/15 siegel, donald, 39/30 sieving, pamela, 37/2 singh, bhai mohan, 39/54 sixteenth century art, 39/58-66 skeates, p.d., 36/4 skeffington, a.m., 34/6; 35/39; 36/16; 37/17,45 skeffington memorial library and archives (ca), 32/10 skiascopy, 37/10 slit-lamp, 33/24 sloan, louise, 37/27; 38/97 smelser, george, anatomist, 33/10; 35/41; 36/2; 37/11, 43; 39/5, 49 smith, a. mark, on magnification, 32/2 smith, e.l., 37/18 smith, p.a., 35/48 smith, robert, 38/71 smith, s., 38/12 smither, morrison, 38/76 snell, 38/70 snell's law, 32/8; 35/17 snellen, herman, 40/34 snitzer, elias, 40/8, 18 society for american baseball research, 37/34, 38 solan, harold, 37/47 soles, elmer, 40/37 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 34 somers, william w., 36/41 soper, f. marsh, 40/124 sorbonne university, 36/7 sorsby, arnold, 38/97; 40/4 south bend college of optics, 37/24; 38/51 southall, james, 35/37, 39; 36/22-23, 37; 39/91 southbridge, ma, 33/40-41 southern california college of optometry, 34/5, 36; 35/5, 21; 36/5, 11; 37/19, 23; 38/52 southern college of optometry, 35/21 library, 32/12; 38/52 southwestern optical college, 38/51; 40/124-125 spatial frequency, and astigmatism, 38/33, 36-39 spectacle-makers guild, 35/14 spectacles and other vision aids: a history and guide to collecting, 38/80 spectacles, early prints of, 36/5 spectacles, history of, 31/32; 32/3-7, 1718,24,29;33/17,27,40;34/5,2226; 35/13-16, 34-36; 36/4-5, 30-34, 42; 38/47; 39/141-142 spectacles, lorgnettes and monocles, 40/43 spectrum of belief, 40/41-42 spencer optical company, 38/51 spin-casting, 33/18 spoons used as mirrors, 34/1-3 "spy in the sky," 39/4-5 standard optical company, 38/15 standards, optometric, 33/16 standart, nelson k., 33/18 stanford, 36/15 stanton, j. r., 35/48 state university of new york, 31/8; 35/22; 37/47; 38/51 harold kohn library, 32/11 stealey, roy, 38/20 stein, sir aurel, 38/58 stereo-chronoscopy, 33/25 stereograms, 31/7 stereographic cards, call for, 32/38 stevens, gregory l., speaker, 34/39 stevenson, lloyd g., 39/92 stewart, charles r., 35/9, 48; 36/40-41; 38/41 stiles-crawford effects, 36/21; 40/3-24 stiles, walter stanley, 38/33; 39/5, 49; 40/3-24 sting (singer), 38/31 stoddard, kenneth b., 34/49, 51 stone, j., 35/39 stone, nettie m., 40/119 strabismus, 36/14 strabismus (journal), 37/40 strangeways research laboratory, 39/14 streubel, gustave a., 36/27 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 35 stroud, carlos r., 36/20-28 studebaker, david, 34/27 sturm, 38/37 sugarman, lester h., 35/3 sullivan, lee, 39/95-96 sunga, roberto, researcher, 33/26 sunglasses, 33/27 surdam, arthur e., 40/122 surendran, t., 39/38 surgery, ocular, 32/35 suter, walter j., 36/27 sutton, albert, "heritage comer", 3115-6; 34/6; 37/45 swann, peter, journal editor, 31/24 swartzberg, john, 35/33 swearingen, dale, 37/38 sweden, museums, 32/12 sydney technical college, 36/38 syracuse school of optics, 38/51 t tachistoscope, 34/21-22; 37/46-47 tait, edwin forbes, 35/10 takahashi, ernest k., 34/33 tansley, brian, 37/18-19 tansley, katherine, 40/4, 18 tatler, benjamin w., 38/101-102 taylor, 38/34 taylor, a. maurice, 36/28 teatro anatomico, 32/17 telescope, first american, 32/6 telescopes, 33/33-35 temple spectacles, 33/40 thai, bernhardt "buzz", 35/2829 thai, lawrence, 34/29-30 thales, 40/142 the beginnings of western science, 40/40 the eye book, 38/88 the harmony ofthe world, 39/17 the history and present state of discoveries relating to vision, light, and colours, 38/69-70 the history and present state of electricity, with original experiments, 38/70 the long route to the invention of the telescope, 40/106-107 "the manufacture of the optometrist's supplies," 38/15 the microscope and the eye: a history of reflections, 40/81-82 the moving tablet of the eye: the origins of modern eye movement research, 3 8/1 0 1-102 the myopia epidemic: nearsightedness, vision impairment and other vision problems, 38/45 the optician, 38/50 "the physical mixture of colors," 38/15 the prism and the pendulum: the ten most beautiful experiments in hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 36 science, 39/97-98 the refraction letter, 38/76 the science of leonardo: inside the mind of the great genius of the renaissance, 39/78-80 the scientific papers of sir charles wheatstone, 38/72-73 the spectacle seller, 39/59 "the surgeon and the shepard," 37/28 the tao of physics, 39/78 the temple of nature, 38/101 the ten treatises on the eye, 38/86 the use of eyeglasses, 39/143-145 the vander paele madonaa, 39/60 the web of life, 39/78 the wonderful art of the eye, 38/87-88 theodoric of freiberg, 31/27 theophile, and glassmaking, 33/6 therapy provision, 32/32 theunissen museum (holland), 32/11 "third eye", 36/10 thirteenth century manuscripts on vision, 38/85-94 thompson, h. stanley, texts, 33/29 thomson, h.a., 35/48 thorington, james, 34/19; 35/39; 40/34 thorn, f., 38/38 tillyer medal (osa), 34/18; 36/38 tinius olsens tekniste skole (norway), 32/12 tinker, miles a., 37116 todd, william s., 35/3 tomasso da modena, painter, 32/2, 24, 35-36 tonometry, 33/25; 34/35 topaz,marty,38/18,20,41-42 topaz, peter, 38/18, 42 tousey, richard, 39/3 tractatus de perspectiva, 38/90 traction on optic discs, 34/13-16 trafalgar, and telescopes, 33/34 treganza, amorita, 3 7/45 treviso, fresco, 32/2, 24, 35-36 trimble, r., 35/39 troland, leonard t., 34/39; 39/3 trowbridge, e.g., 36/33; 37/24 tscherning, marius, 36/7 tubesing, robert, 35/25 tuck, t.s.p., 40/30 tucker, henrys., 36/33; 37/24 tuhoy, kevin, 39/22 tuhoy lenses, 33/12 tull, john w., on daguerreotypes, 32/6 on kaleidoscopes, 33/41 tupper, j.l., 36/27 turnbull, d.k., 35/48 u u gone, hugh of st. cher cardinal, fresco, 32/24 u.s. army optometry, 35/31 universite rene descartes museum, 32/26 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 37 university of alabama-birmingham, 33/11; 35/22; 38/51 library, 32/12 university of aston ophthalmic museum, 32/12 university of auckland, 35/12 university of berne, switzerland, 38/8, 9 university of california-berkeley, 33/11; 34/16-19, 33, 44; 35/22, 33; 36/10, 41; 37/18; 38/51-52; 39/38, 40,50 university of california san diego, 36/17; 37/18 university of copenhagen, 36/7 university of edinburgh, 38/70, 71 university of houston, 35/9-12, 22; 36/3, 40-41; 38/51-52, 55 university of miami, 33/42 university of minnesota, 32/15; 33/5 university ofmissouri-st. louis, 35/22; 38/51; 39/45 university of montreal, 35/12 university ofnew south wales, 32/17 university of rochester, 36/17, 20-28, 35-37 university of siena, 38/88 university ofutrecht, 38/68 university of wales, 40/29-32 university ofwaterloo, 35/12; 37/18 museum, 32/11; 35/36 utrocular discriminations, 38/11-13 uterocular effect, 33/26 uveitis, 33/25 v valine, roger, 35/30 van de velde, frans j., 37/25 van der weyden, rogier, 39/63 van essen, willam j., 40/37-39 van eyck, jan, 33/4-5; 34/3; 39/60 van mander, carel, 39/60-61 van oostsanen, jacob conelisz, 39/58-66 van scorel, jan, 39/62 vander-eecken, marie germaine, 37/25, 29 vanheems, henry, 37/46 vanishing points, 33/4 veit, m.c., 36/27 venkataswamy, govindapa, 39/56, 107, 117-118 verhoeff, f.h., 39/121 vermilya, e.b., 36/27 verriest, guy, 39/53 vianco, william h., 38/14 victorian optical association, 37/46 vigil, jeanne, 40/19 virchow, 38/69; 40/82 vision after 50: preventing age-related vision loss, 38/45 vision and perception, 37/40 vision service plan, 34/35; 35/28-30; 39/32 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 38 vision therapy, 36/16 vision west, inc., 34/36 visioscope optical company, 37/46 visual perception, 36/42 vitellio, see witelo vodnoy, 36/16 vogt, alfred, history, 33/25 yolk, david, 37/16 yolk, francis, 40/34 volkmann, 40/82 von arlt, ferdinand, 40/78 von doderer, heimito, 33/35 von fraunhofer, joseph, 40/41-42 telescopes, 33/34 von graefe, 34/53; 39/93 von noorden, gunter k., 35/38 von reichenbach, georg friedrich, telescopes, 33/34 von utzschneider, joseph, 40/41 telescopes, 33/34 votives, eye, 33/28, 36 w wade, nicholas, 31/19-22; 35/48; 38/71, 73, 99-102 wald, george, 40/9 waldman, nelson, 35/11 waller, erik, 39/92 waller, richard, on color naming, 31/29 walls, gordon l., 34/49; 37/17 walls, lesley l., 35/8 walraven, pieter, 40/3, 12 walsh, glyn, on period spectacles, 34/5 ware, james, 34/53 warren, c.d., 36/27 warren, franklin a., 36/27 warren, john c., 36/2-3 washington, george, his optician, 32/6 his presbyopia, 33/7-8 washington university collection, 32/10 washington university school of medicine, dept. of ophthalmology, 38/8, 9, 11 watchmakers, 36/14, 28-30; 37/24 water screw, 34/23-26 waugh, richey jr., 40/116 wave theory oflight, 31/28 waxburg, joseph, 38/18 wayenborgh, jean-paul, biographer, 33/31-33; 39/143 wayman's grandstand baseball annual, 37/34 weale, robert, 40/4 webb, robert, 36/1; 37/28 websites on optometric history, 32/7, 13 wedeking, lloyd, 35/25 weichselberger, philipp anton, 40/41 weinstein, jacob d., 36/27 wellcome foundation archive, 39/14 wellcome, henry solomon, 39/14 wellcome library, 40/77 wellman center for photo-medicine, 36/1-2 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 39 wells foundation, 33/41 wells, elaine, 39/122 wells, george, 34/6 wells, helen, 38/71 wells, herman, 35/25 wells, william charles, 3 8/71-72, 1 01; 39/93 wersinger, r.e., 36/27 wesley, n.k., 35/48; 38/56; 39/22 west, cedric f., 36/27 west, nathaniel, 35/28-29 west, roger w., 33/18 western pennsylvania optometric society, 40/37-39 westheimer, gerald, 35/9, 38-41; 37/1618; 39/3 weston, frederick c., 36/27 weymouth, frank, 38/44 what is medical history?, 39/146-147 wheatstone, charles, 35/18; 38/72-73; 39/23 wheatstone's stereoscope, 36/8; 38/72 wheeler, benjamin i., 34/45 white, steven, 39/126 whitman, walt, 39/6 whitney, dick, on history of american optical company, 33/39; 34/6-7 whitney, james, 35/9 wichterle, otto, spin-casting, 33/18; 39/22-23 wick, bruce, 35/37 wick, r.e., 35/38, 40, 46; 38/5 wiesel, johannes, telescopes, 33/34 wild, bart, 33/10; 37/14 wild, bradford, 33/10; 36/41; 37/14 wilder, herbert e., 36/25, 28, 37; 38/14 wilhelm, 40/69 wilkins, mike, 39/129 wilkins, t. russell, 36/24, 28, 37 willach, rolf, 40/106-107 williams, bob, 36/11 williams, clanton w., 35/10-11 williams, david l., 36/27 williams, j.c., 36/27 williams, robert, 39/122 willis, on optic nerve, 32/8 wills eye hospital, 32/31 wilson, graham a., 34/54; 36/12 winans, w.w., 40/122 winfield, dave, 37/40 winslow, glenn, 34/46 wirtz, milton, and acrylic eyes, 32/5 wisconsin association of optometrists, 36/32 witelo (vitellio), 31/27; 38/47, 91-92; 40/69-74, 142 wold, robert, 37/45 wolfberg, melvin, 40/136-138 on optometric history, 32/28-33 ohs board, 33/1; 34/1; 35/1; 36/1; 37/1; 38/2; 40/2 wolff, j., 35/48 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 40 wolfson, marty, 40/38 woll, frederic a., 40/120-121 wollensak optical corporation, 33/11 woo, george, 40/104 wood, alex, 38/23 wood, charles, 34/45-46 woodruff, christopher, 33/15-16 woolery, don, 38/41 world council of optometry, 39/39 world health organization, 39/39 world series, 37/36-40 worshipful company of spectacle makers, 32/30 worth, claud, 36/16 wright, 391126 wright, c., 35/48 wright national library of the australian optometric association, 32/12 wright, w.d., 40/4 y yarwell, john, 40/77 yee, robert d., 33/16 yellot, jack, on vision science, 32/7-8 young, f.z., 38/33; 40/4 young, john, curator, 33/39 young, thomas, 33/18; 36/7; 38/73-74, 100; 39/97; 40/4, 82 bibliography review, 38/23-24 fellow ofthe royal society, 38/23 on astigmatism, 31122; 35/17; 38/23, 33 on trichromy, 31129; 35/18; 38/23 young's double slit experiment, 31129 z zadnik, karla, 39/6 zahn, j., 39/92 zeiss, carl, telescopes, 33/34 zeiss company museum (germany), 32/11 zimmerman, helen m., 38/14 zimmerman, lorenz, 3 7/43 zoethout, w.d., 35/38; 38/56 zoonomia, 38/101 hindsight: journal of optometry history 0 0 0 .index to volumes 31-40, page 41 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as 1:1 for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 42 acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten ok. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 43 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: linda draper c/o optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, floor 1 st. louis, mo 63141 check one: __ regular membership, $25 per year __ patron membership, $50 per year __ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name address a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares tm the a oa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometrvscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .index to volumes 31-40, page 44 index 31-40-001 index 31-40-002 index 31-40-003 index 31-40-004 index 31-40-005 index 31-40-006 index 31-40-007 index 31-40-008 index 31-40-009 index 31-40-010 index 31-40-011 index 31-40-012 index 31-40-013 index 31-40-014 index 31-40-015 index 31-40-016 index 31-40-017 index 31-40-018 index 31-40-019 index 31-40-020 index 31-40-021 index 31-40-022 index 31-40-023 index 31-40-024 index 31-40-025 index 31-40-026 index 31-40-027 index 31-40-028 index 31-40-029 index 31-40-030 index 31-40-031 index 31-40-032 index 31-40-033 index 31-40-034 index 31-40-035 index 31-40-036 index 31-40-037 index 31-40-038 index 31-40-039 index 31-40-040 index 31-40-041 index 31-40-042 index 31-40-043 index 31-40-044 index 31-40-045 index 31-40-046 microsoft word 0_cover_v48n1.docx alden norman haffner, 1987 catalog number: 2016.img.0080, aoa photograph collection courtesy the archives & museum of optometry hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 48, number 1 january 2017 2017 yyyy hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2016 president: ronald r. ferrucci, drferrucci@gmail.com (2017)* vice-president: john townsend, john.townsend@va.gov (2018) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gmail.com (2021) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) r. norman bailey, nbailey@uh.edu (2021) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares ® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org erica hayes, administrative assistant, the optometric historical society, amo@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 10992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. 243 north lindberg blvd st. louis, mo 63141 www.aoafoundation.org hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2017 volume 48, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238, irvbennett23@gmail.com kirsten pourroy hébert, the archives and museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org table of contents ohio state optometry emeritus dean frederick w. hebbard, revered leader in optometric education, dies at 93, ohio state university college of optometry news ................................................................................................................. 2 “i” to eye – 66 years of optometry through the eyes of a clinician, educator, administrator, consultant and public health optometrist, lester caplan ...................... 5 the rli (replacement lens, inc.) story, irving bennett and floyd mizener ................ 25 remembering and furthering the vision of an optometric trailblazer, alden n. haffner, o.d., ph.d. (1928-2016), andrea p. thau ......................................................... 29 book review: history of the american academy of optometry 1987-2010, reviewed by david a. goss ................................................................................................................ 31 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 news 2016 | page 2 news ohio state optometry emeritus dean frederick w. hebbard, revered leader in optometric education, dies at 93 reprinted with permission from ohio state university college of optometry news, https://optometry.osu.edu/news/2016-08-15. emeritus dean frederick w. hebbard, od, phd, of the ohio state university college of optometry, passed away on august 14, 2016. he was 93. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 news 2016 | page 3 r. hebbard was born on august 6, 1923 in eureka, utah and grew up in vallejo, california. after graduating from high school, he served in the u.s. navy as a pattern maker at mare island. he first found out he was myopic during a military physical, which sparked his interest in vision. when the war ended, he started optometry school at the university of california, berkeley, graduating with his optometry degree in 1949 and a ph.d. in 1957. after earning his ph.d., dr. hebbard accepted a faculty appointment at ohio state, where he excelled in various teaching, clinical, and research roles. he truly built upon the optometric education foundation at ohio state by guiding the design, construction, and dedication of the new west wing of fry hall, which opened in 1961. in addition, he negotiated with the university to acquire starling-loving hall for the college of optometry. dr. hebbard was instrumental in bringing the od degree to ohio state, spearheading the expansion of the five-year curriculum (concluding with a bs-optometry degree) to a six-year curriculum (concluding with an od degree). in fact, he designed the doctoral hoods and presided at the first awarding of the od degree. he became the college of optometry’s first dean on january 1, 1968. during his tenure as a faculty member and administrator, he was responsible for many initiatives that helped solidify optometry’s presence and prestige, not only on ohio state’s comprehensive health sciences campus, but nationwide as well. he worked tirelessly to preserve optometry’s independence from ohio state’s college of medicine in the mid1960s when the department of ophthalmology proposed that the optometry program be placed under its administrative structure. dr. hebbard was a respected leader in optometric education and served on many boards and committees for the american optometric association, the american academy of optometry, the association of schools and colleges of optometry, and the national board of examiners in optometry. he recruited a world-class faculty of luminaries in optometric education, including neal bailey, richard hill, j. boyd eskridge, brad wild, jerry lowther, john schoessler, ron jones, michael polasky, arol ausburger, paulette schmidt, jim sheedy, kevin alexander, joe barr, and greg good, just to name a few. dr. hebbard retired from ohio state in june 1988. during his tenure, 1,081 doctors of optometry and 91 graduate students in physiological optics received their degrees from ohio state. at the time of his retirement, dr. hebbard told a reporter from ohio state’s student newspaper, the lantern, “i’ve always enjoyed the university’s atmosphere. the students at ohio state are very fine young people. one of the blessings in my life is i have had a career i truly enjoy. my job [has been] my hobby; if you enjoy your job, you don’t need another hobby.” emeritus dean richard hill, od, phd, notes, “dean hebbard had a remarkable life, and was a strong influence in the development of our profession. he will be remembered as a visionary and leader of high standards.” dr. hebbard’s most recent successor, dean karla zadnik, od, phd, observes, “dr. hebbard’s legacy resides in the college of optometry at the ohio state university. he dedicated his professional life to the advancement of students and faculty. he will be missed.” d hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 news 2016 | page 4 in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the frederick a. and betty l. hebbard memorial fund. established in 1976 in memory of his parents, dr. hebbard created this fund to support the college of optometry and its education and research programs. to make a donation, visit https://www.giveto.osu.edu/makeagift/?fund=603051 or call 614292-2100. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 5 “i” to eye – 66 years of optometry through the eyes of a clinician, educator, administrator, consultant and public health optometrist lester caplan, o.d., m.ed. school of optometry university of alabama birmingham baltoeyedoc@mac.com chapter 1 — the college years 1946-1950 y optometry history really begins in mid-1946, about a year prior to my matriculation into northern illinois college of optometry. after three years in the army in world war ii, with service in okinawa and korea, i was discharged on march 6, 1946. i started to think of what i was going to do for the rest of my life. one of my closest childhood friends, gilbert schiffman, had been talking to one of our mutual neighborhood friends about optometry and we both thought it was worth looking into. i knew nothing about optometry or didn’t even know an optometrist, so i started to investigate the profession, its educational requirements, its institutions and its post-graduate job opportunities. the more i found out about optometry, the more interested i became. i liked the idea of becoming a health professional and, of even greater importance to me at the time, was that i could earn a doctor of optometry degree in a relatively short period of time, unlike medicine, which would have required at least 8-10 years. time was of the essence, as i had met my wife to be, florence shenker, in late april, quickly followed by our marriage in early september. a doctor of optometry degree in four years seemed like a very plausible option. the only problem was that by late spring of 1946, the schools which i contacted had no openings because of the incursion of thousands of discharged veterans who had similar ideas. optometry schools were inundated with applicants from post-war gi bill recipients and classes were filled for the next couple of years. i decided to apply to northern illinois college of optometry (nico). nico had 1st year classes beginning in february, june and september in the immediate post-war years, with close to 300 in each class. they anticipated no openings for the next couple of years. however, attrition in the first year classes was very high and they would consider waiving my first year if i had the necessary pre-requisites, comparable to what was taught in the first year of their program. i could then start in september, 1947, as a second year student. i already had one year of college credits obtained during the war at wheaton college in wheaton, illinois under the army specialized training program (astp). to acquire the pre-requisite credits, which i was lacking, i enrolled at the university of maryland and commuted from baltimore to college park from september 1946 to june 1947. i began nico in september, 1947 as a second year student, and with an accelerated program and m hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 6 no holidays or summer breaks, i was able to complete the program in two years, graduating (summa cum laude, and recipient of the william b needles scholarship award) in september 1949. the profession 1946-1950 – the number of students in the optometry schools during the war years was very small, but as soon as the war ended, the schools were deluged with the high number of returning veterans. the gi bill provided students with tuition up to $500 a year, for the number of months in service (up to 4 years), covered all other school related expenses (books, lab fees etc.) plus $75 a month, if married, (raised to $105 in 1948) for living expenses. there were ten schools and colleges of optometry in the u.s. at the end of world war ii (one in canada at university of montreal); four were university schools (california berkeley, columbia, ohio state, pacific) and six were proprietary institutions (pennsylvania, northern illinois, monroe, southern, massachusetts, los angeles). north pacific college of optometry closed its doors in 1942 when its co-owner, dr. newton uyesugi (wesley), was interred. it became part of pacific university at forest grove in 1945. although all private schools issued a doctor of optometry degree, pacific university college of optometry was the first university to issue a doctor of optometry degree (1947). the other university schools of optometry generally issued a bachelor of science (or optometry) degree. optometry in the immediate post-war years was a solo practice profession. state boards of optometry controlled the profession from the examination and licensing of new practitioners to practice modes, ethics, signage, advertising, etc. in most states advertising was not allowed and only a few states allowed corporate ownership, so what was termed commercial optometry was able to operate in only a few states. in maryland there were two so-called commercial houses, new deal optical and universal optical, which became one of the first pearle vision stores in the early sixties. they both advertised, “examination free, single vision glasses $10.50, bifocals $13.50”. except for the military and in the few states which allowed commercialism, graduates had few opportunities for employment. solo practices proliferated, so many rural areas throughout the country benefitted with having their first eye care professional. it became very difficult for out-of-state graduates to pass the licensing examination in states which had commercial entities. the state boards did not want to give the commercialists a readily available source of optometrists to staff their stores. some jewelry stores also employed optometrists, but their fees were comparable to private practice. this was the climate for optometry when i entered practice in 1950. chapter 2 the early practice years 1950-1967 – from private practice to frustration and back to private practice although i graduated in september of 1949, i had to wait until february, 1950 to take the maryland state board examination. in the interim, i worked as a delivery boy for my father-in-law’s hand laundry in new york city. the “tough” reputation of the maryland state board was well known and only about 25% of the examinees usually passed the board. many graduates from other states, hoping to hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 7 get a high paying job in a commercial establishment ($125 a week was considered a nice income in 1950) would apply to take the board. with that in mind, it was almost impossible for someone from out of state to pass the board. i found the examination very difficult and i thought for sure that i had failed. the fact that i was a native marylander and first in my graduating class, may have played a role in my gaining a passing grade and receiving my license to practice on march 17,1950 (license # 448). the members of the state board were: a.l. trussell (president), george h. kohler (secretary), albert b. boulden, and g. william seabold. i had also taken the virginia state board examination and was issued a license to practice in virginia. i opened a solo practice a couple of months later in my neighborhood, the forest park section of baltimore. it was located on the second floor of a building at the corner of garrison boulevard and liberty heights avenue, upstairs from the lambros pharmacy (many years later it was former colt all star, jim parker’s bar). florence and i had $3000 in the bank, which we used to furnish and equip the office. my initial examination fee was $10 and glasses were probably around $25 for single vision. i’ll never forget my first patient, a young boy with extremely high astigmatism. i had not ordered a keratometer, which would have been very helpful in this particular case, so after sweating for at least an hour or more performing the examination, i asked the patient’s mother to bring him back the following week for further tests. as soon as they left the office i called hilbert optical and ordered a b & l keratometer, which they delivered the next day. much to my chagrin, but understandingly, the patient never returned for the completion of the examination. after struggling for nine months, having grossed $900, and with no more money in the bank, i decided to close the office and look for a job. i had joined the maryland optometric association (moa) shortly after opening my practice and i was hoping that one of my association colleagues would help me out and hire me. no one offered me a job so i had to go “commercial” in order to feed my family. new deal optical hired me at $125 a week. i had to submit my resignation to the moa/aoa as their by-laws did not permit anyone in the commercial practice of optometry to be a member. i was so ashamed and humiliated that i totally withdrew from the profession that i loved, except for giving 50 “quickie” eye examinations a day to “customers” whom i resented for looking for bargain eyecare. the only positive during those three years at new deal, was when i went up to chicago for a two-week course with the wesley/jessen contact lens company on the fitting of hard corneal contact lenses (polymethylmethacrylate or pmma). only scleral lenses were in use when i was in optometry school, and making a mold of the eye, prior to the fitting of scleral lenses was so abhorrent to me, that i vowed that i would never fit contact lenses in my practice. famous last words! in march of 1953, we rejoiced with the addition, by adoption, of our three month old son, bruce. after three years in the commercial environment, drs. bob and lila schwartz offered me a job in their brooklyn and glen burnie offices. i jumped at the opportunity, even though it would create a financial hardship. by that time i was making $150 a week at new deal but was very willing to work for the hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 8 schwartzs’ at $125 a week. it was wonderful returning to a professional, ethical environment. unfortunately, my addition to the practice did not generate enough additional income to feed two families. when a job became available at s & n katz, the largest jewelry store in baltimore, bob and lila encouraged me to take the position, since, except for being located in a jewelry store, it was the closest thing to private practice in terms of the ethics of practice. in october of 1959 our family was now four, with the celebrated birth of our second son, eric (rick) scott. i started my employment at s&n katz in 1954, working with a dr. clodfelter. he was an excellent refractionist, but not much else, since he was practicing optometry, when, in 1914, the first state law establishing the art and science of optometry was passed. anyone who claimed to be an optometrist, was automatically licensed, regardless of educational background (grandfather clause). in addition to the grandfather clause, the law included the infamous myopic clause, which required optometrists to refer all patients 16 and under to an ophthalmologist if they were unable to improve their vision to better than 20/40. no optometrist paid any attention to it, and as far as i know, it was never challenged. i was quite happy practicing at s&n katz, since i could perform complete examinations, take as much time as necessary, and never feel pressured to prescribe for the sake of selling glasses. i left s&n katz in 1961 after seven years, when many of my patients encouraged me to open my own practice and promised to follow me as patients, which they did. now with a family of four to take care of, i could not afford to open “cold”, so i looked for a job to keep me financially viable while i was building my practice. the only ones that would hire me were the low price, commercial houses, since our patient base would be entirely different and not be competitive. so once again i went to work, full time, with new deal optical. i informed them that i would gradually reduce my days with them as my private practice developed. lillian augustine, the owner, laughed at me, stating that i will never be successful in a private practice. “even though you are the best doctor we ever had, you are too nasty to our customers.” i opened my practice on the second floor of the trailways bus terminal building on fayette street in downtown baltimore, within a block of the two “price houses” (new deal optical and universal optical) and a large semiprofessional practice (barenburg optical). my entire office measured 14 x 16 feet. by dividing the space in half, each room was 7’x16’, a reception/dispensary room and an exam/office room. there was no running water, so it was necessary, after each patient, for me to run down to the restroom at the end of the hall to wash my hands and to bring back a couple of bowls of fresh water for patient use. the practice was quite successful, grossing over $10,000 the first year, even though i was in the office only 2 nights a week and on saturdays. i gradually reduced my time with new deal and by 1964 decided to open a second office near my home on the corner of liberty road and croydon avenue, one block south of the baltimore beltway (i-695). it was a small office in the basement of a williamsburg style house that a dentist, dr. howard goldberg, had converted to a professional office hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 9 building, with his office on the first floor. by this time my days with new deal had been reduced to one day a week and i also obtained a one-day a week position at the sinai-druid comprehensive child care clinic. it was one of the first, if not the first, clinical optometric positions in maryland which was affiliated with a hospital. shortly after opening my liberty road practice, i learned of the planned construction of the first professional office building on security boulevard, across the street from the national headquarters of the social security administration. the only commercial structure on security boulevard at that time was a relatively small, strip shopping center. the new professional building faced the west side of the strip shopping center. i moved my liberty road office to the new professional building in 1965. although it was only 750 square feet, it was luxurious when compared to my downtown 224 square foot office and my slightly larger liberty road office. the only other office in the building which was occupied when i moved in, was next door to my office and it was occupied by a company i had never heard of, hewlett-packard. if i had only known! while i considered contact lenses my specialty, my training at nico emphasized vision training and developmental vision, so i was also trying to build a pediatric vision practice and i thought that a master’s degree in the field of reading would boost my chances of success. starting in 1964, i went to night school, at loyola college of baltimore (now loyola university), under the tutelage of my childhood friend, gilbert schiffman, o.d.,ed.d. i received my master’s in education (m.ed.) in the field of reading in 1967. dr. schiffman later transferred to hopkins and was appointed by president richard nixon as director of his national right to read program. after earning my m.ed. degree, i was hired as a consultant to the prince george county public schools and taught in the adult education program in baltimore county schools. by mid-1965 i had divested myself of all commercial optometry connections and re-applied for membership in the maryland optometric association and the american optometric association. within a year i was appointed chairman of the moa’s public health committee, probably influenced by my employment at the sinai-druid comprehensive child care clinic. the profession 1950-1967 – in the 1950s, columbia university’s school of optometry closed its doors and by the early fifties, the onslaught of new applicants to the schools of optometry had slowed considerably and enrollments were at an all time low. two new schools of optometry were established during this time period, indiana university in 1951 in bloomington and university of houston in 1952. chicago college of optometry merged with northern illinois college of optometry and became illinois college of optometry in 1955. the ohio state university school of optometry issued its first o.d. degrees in 1966, when four of its former graduates returned to complete an additional fifth year. a six-year was then added. the 1968 graduating class was the first class to receive the o.d. degree. the university of california, berkeley school of optometry added an optional six-year in 1966 with an o.d. degree and the first entire class to receive a doctor of optometry degree graduated in 1970, after completing four undergraduate years and two graduate years. it wasn’t until the mid-sixties that hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 10 “health-professional” schools became healthy again with a huge boost from federal dollars for construction of new facilities. optometry schools were extending their programs to five and six years, with greater emphasis on diagnosis, treatment and management of ocular diseases, even though the optometric scope of practice was still limited to refraction, contact lenses, low-vision and visual training. the battles with ophthalmology were extensive and bitter, with their fear of optometry’s growth in numbers, upgrading of its curricula and the possible legalization of diagnostic and therapeutic drug utilization; a fear that the future proved to be well founded. although private practice was still the primary practice mode for optometry, state boards of the health professions were beginning to lose their clout. legal challenges were resulting in a lessening of power and restrictions on how one was allowed to practice were falling by the wayside. optometry was particularly affected and commercial enterprises, such as pearle vision and the addition of optical departments in many large national chains, were opening throughout the country by the late 1960s. in the mid 1950s the aoa committee on social and health care trends was formed under the leadership of dr. norman haffner and dr. felix koetting of the aoa staff. the committee included prominent optometrists throughout the u.s. as well as local optometrists who were well aware of the importance of optometric inclusion in the health care structure of the future. dr. haffner, an active member of the new york state public health association in the late fifties and sixties, and president of the public health association of new york city in 1972-73, was the leading force in establishing an optometric presence in public health and the american public health association (apha). an “optometry in public health” seminar was held at 4h headquarters in washington in february, 1967. this seminar was the first ever “to be held in the areas of public health and optometric care”. it was planned by dr. haffner, chairman of the aoa committee on public health and optometric care and dr. henry peters, seminar educational director, sponsored by the american optometric association, the american optometric foundation and the association of schools and colleges of optometry and funded through a public health traineeship grant of the us public health service. dr. peters’ opening remarks stated that “since optometry provides the major share of vision care in the american scene, there can be no doubt that public health care needs optometry and optometry needs to enter new dimensions of service, if it is to make its greatest contribution. thus optometry needs public health”. the program brought together some of the leading public health physicians at the time, such as lorin kerr, paul cornely, john porterfield, milton terris, then the apha president, and the visionaries of public health optometry, like dr. henry peters, dr. norman haffner and dr. alfred rosenbloom. i was fortunate to have been invited to this historic meeting. the closing of the columbia university school of optometry in the 1950s had left a serious shortage of vision care services for the indigent population in new york city. through the leadership of dr. a. norman haffner and a small hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 11 group of dedicated optometrists and benefactors, the optometric center of new york (ocny) was founded in 1956 as a nonprofit health and professional education resource for the community. this center became a model for additional centers which were established in other cities with dr. haffner serving as a consultant and advisory board member, as with the optometric center of maryland. it was at this time when i first met dr. haffner. the optometric center of new york, through its pioneering effort, supported and directed the establishment of a vision-care clinic, which, in 1971, became the patient care centerpiece for the new suny college of optometry. chapter 3 – the developing public health, indian health years and the end of private practice 1967-1979 one of my first responsibilities as chair of the moa’s public health committee was to meet with maryland health officials to convince them of how valuable optometrists could be in providing vision care in the recently approved federal title 19 (medicaid) program, passed by congress in 1965. i was successful in working out an agreement, but my colleagues were not very happy with my negotiating competence, especially when i informed them that we would receive $3.00 for eye examinations for medicaid patients. although i wasn’t very happy with the negotiated fee either, i explained that we had to get our “foot-in-the-door”, and that there would be opportunities in the future to increase the fee. maryland’s early inclusion of optometry, in a state’s medicaid program, had a significant national implication for the profession. in september,1968 i received a call from the american optometric association’s washington office, asking their permission to submit my name to the indian health service (ihs) to be considered for appointment as the director’s optometric consultant. needless to say, i was quite surprised and was somewhat hesitant, having little knowledge of our american indian population or its health issues. when aoa informed me that it would probably require a few days a year with meetings in the d.c. area, and not be too demanding on my growing practice, i consented to allow them to submit my name, along with two other candidates. in december of 1968, i received a letter from dr. e. b. rabeau, director of the indian health service, offering me the position. he informed me that the pay would be $50 a day, for about 10 days a year, with a stipend of $16 a day. after discussing the situation with the aoa, and, of course, my wife, and even though it would mean a loss of income on the days that i worked for the ihs, i accepted the offer. it sounded as though it could not only be an interesting position, but more importantly, increased utilization of optometrists in the ihs would result in better eye care for our native american population. the acceptance of this position and what transpired over the next 16 years, profoundly affected both my personal and professional life, up until this very day. because of a series of delays, caused by personnel changes in the ihs headquarters administration, along with lost appointment papers, it wasn’t until september 1969 that i had my first meeting with dr. emery johnson, the newly hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 12 appointed indian health service director and dr. donald swetter, newly appointed chief of medical services. much to my dismay, dr johnson informed me, that contrary to dr. rabeau’s initial description of the position, the job would entail far more than 10 days a year in the headquarters’ office but more like 50+ days a year, wherever the ihs delivered services. his charge to me was to educate ihs administrators and clinicians about optometry, to develop and expand optometric utilization, to improve the relationship with the private sector of optometry and to develop a harmonious relationship with ihs ophthalmologists and ophthalmology consultants. during the next five years, i made over 40 trips, from the west coast of alaska to the southeast corner of florida. i met with ihs area and service unit administrators, ihs ophthalmologists and consultants, ihs optometrists and with private sector optometrists in all states where services were being provided by the ihs. i visited all eight ihs area offices, many reservations and service units within the larger reservations and i visited almost all the schools of optometry to recruit students for the usphs/ihs (after they graduated). from late 1969, until i stepped down as the ihs optometric consultant in 1985, i selected and assigned every usphs commissioned corps optometrist who entered the indian health service. in addition, because of my frequent presence in reviewing optometry applicant files for the ihs, i became well known to the commissioned corps office of personnel and was called upon to recruit, select and assign optometrists for other agencies within the department of health, education and welfare (hew) which utilized optometrists. these agencies included the bureau of medical services – division of hospitals and clinics (public health hospitals), bureau of community health services – the national health service corps and the bureau of health manpower. as an interesting side note, dr. donald swetter, a pediatrician by training, and the ihs chief of medical services, (with whom i worked very closely with over the entire 16 years as the ihs optometry consultant), and i became very close friends. his entire family became my patients, and with my encouragement, one of his four daughters, dr. cindy swetter, went into optometry and is now a practicing optometrist in virginia. in 1971, i was appointed by the governor of maryland to serve on the advisory council of the maryland comprehensive health planning agency and served as chairman of its health services and facilities committee from 1973 to 1976, in addition to serving on its executive, plan development and health manpower committees. the health services and facilities committee advised approval/denial on all certification of need requests for new, major renovations or merger of hospitals and other health care facilities throughout the state. i also served on the maryland state board of examiners in optometry from 1975 until i left maryland in 1979. although my contact lens practice was growing, not too many patients had the motivation to go through the accompanying discomfort during adaptation of the hard, pmma contact lenses. corneal staining and edema were on-going problems. in 1971, bausch & lomb, introduced the first soft contact lens, the soflens. only practitioners who purchased their trial fitting set at a cost of $3000, could order the lenses and thereby fit and prescribe the soflens. although the hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 13 initial lenses had their problems, mostly non-centering, resulting in peripheral arcuate corneal staining, they were a panacea for patients who were unable to adapt to hard lenses and had no or little astigmatism. my total fee for the fitting of the soflens was $350, $100 more that i was charging for pmma lenses. the lenses cost $30 a lens, however, the expense of the trial fitting set had to also be recovered. in 1978, hard (rigid) gas permeable contact lenses (rgp) came on the scene with the release of the polycon rgp lens by syntex. although there were still some of the same inherent adaptation problems as with the pmma lenses, corneal edema was reduced considerably, much sharper vision than with soft lenses could be expected and toric and bifocal designs were available long before their availability in soft lenses. in 1974, my colleagues in maryland, named me the maryland optometrist of the year and one year later, in 1975, ten years after i was allowed to re-join the moa and the aoa, i was named the aoa national optometrist of the year in hot springs, arkansas. i may add that the moa’s executive director, william (bill) eisner, was a leading force by pushing my candidacy for both of these awards. when my name was submitted to the aoa past the deadline for the 1974 award, the aoa advised bill eisner that they would consider it for the 1975 award, since they were impressed with my work for the indian health service and its impact on our profession. in those days, the national optometrist of the year was not announced prior to the time of the award ceremony. you can imagine my complete surprise and emotional reaction to have warranted such a prestigious award after such a brief ten years of professional involvement. incidentally, dr. howard woolf, a fellow ico alumnus and prominent maryland optometrist, and his wife barbara, were present at that ceremony. my initial introduction into the realm of optometry related education began in 1976 when i helped establish an optometric technician program at howard community college in columbia, maryland. my involvement included administrative assistance to the college, hiring its director and instructors, teaching and working with the aoa and other schools throughout the country in the education and training of optometric technicians and assistants. in march of 1978, my late wife, florence, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died in january of 1979, only 10 months after diagnosis. i no longer had the heart to continue in private practice since i not only had lost my life partner, but also a vital part of my practice, since florence ran the business end of the practice. this seemed to be the time to pursue one of my lifelong dreams, to teach. shortly before florence passed away, i flew up to boston for a few hours and was inducted as a fellow into the american academy of optometry. i also met with dr. henry peters, the dean at the university of alabama at birmingham school of optometry and told him of my plans to leave private practice and go into optometric education. he encouraged me to do so and said he would like me to come down to birmingham for an interview and hoped that i would join his faculty. from february to may i visited uab, ico, and ferris state, and received offers from all three schools, in addition to one from scco, even though i had not had a hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 14 chance to visit for an interview. uab was my first choice for several reasons. first, i was impressed that it was the only optometry school associated with a university medical center. also, drs. bob newcomb and bill schuller, close friends from our common public health interests, were on the faculty. my personal relationship with hank peters and his willingness to allow me to continue my work with the indian health service was certainly a major factor in my decision. an incoming rank as associate professor, along with a starting salary of $35,000, was equal or better than the other job offers. i also had a 19-year-old son and a 93-year-old dad still living in baltimore, so i wanted to be close enough to get up to baltimore frequently and quickly. therefore, it was a rather quick and easy decision to select uab. i sold my half of the practice to my partner, dr. eric cohen (i had sold the other half to him, two years earlier) and off i went to birmingham, alabama, in late july of 1979. the profession 1967-1979 – phenomenal changes occurred in optometry during this time frame. ln early 1968, a historic meeting in a hotel at laguardia airport in new york, took place that changed optometry forever. the meeting was called by the head of the optometric center of new york, dr. a. norman haffner. there were 28 in attendance, mostly optometry school deans/presidents with a few others, like milton eger, editor of the aoa journal, irv borish, writer and researcher, and charles seger, chairman of the aoa council on education. there were no minutes and no list of attendees. a couple of months later, dr. haffner reported on the results reached at the meeting in a paper he delivered at a new england council of optometry meeting in boston. the la guardia recommendations were as follows: optometry must discard its concept of a drugless profession dedicated to function and expand its responsibilities to include, at least the detection, recognition, diagnosis, and monitoring of diseases that affect the eye; optometric education should be encouraged to provide the necessary courses of study that would sustain all challenges to provide the optometrist with the expertise to become a primary eye care provider and a primary entry point into the health care system of the united states; state laws that govern the practice of optometry must be brought up to date and include provisions that would allow the optometrist to practice that which he/she is taught, including the appropriate use of pharmaceutical agents. in january, 1969, lester caplan, o.d., m.ed., was appointed as the first optometric consultant to the director of the indian health service (ihs). what followed over the next decade or two in the ihs had a significant impact on optometry. an optometry school clinic was built in the confines of an indian health hospital (nsuoco school clinic in w.w. hastings indian health hospital in tahlequah, oklahoma), externship & residency affiliations occurred between the ihs and almost all schools and colleges of optometry, there was early and extensive use of therapeutics, the development & use of qa programs and the attainment of hospital privileges for many optometrists throughout the indian health service. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 15 in 1971, dr. morton silverman, a rhode island optometrist, led the charge for rhode island to pass the first law granting optometrists the right to use diagnostic pharmaceutical agents (dpas), all other states followed over the next 18 years (maryland was last). in 1976 west virginia passed the first legislation allowing the use of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents (tpas) to treat eye diseases, with other states following over the next 20+ years. there were dramatic differences from one state to the other as to what agents were allowed and what diseases could be treated by optometrists. in 1972, dr. henry b. peters, dean at the university of alabama at birmingham (uab) school of optometry, secured funds from the va office of academic affairs to open an optometry teaching clinic at the birmingham va hospital. it was pressure and funds from central office and the lobbying of dean peters that led to the first optometry teaching program at an american teaching hospital in 1973. in 1974, kenneth j. myers, ph.d., o.d. was appointed as the first director of optometry for the department of veteran affairs (dva). in 1972, there were no va optometry teaching affiliations, no student rotations, no residency training programs and nine poorly paid optometrists with limited privileges manned the va’s 172 hospitals and 120 outpatient clinics. by 2010, dva was the largest employer of optometrists including originating hospital rotations of optometry student externs and pioneering postgraduate optometry residency training. every optometry school was affiliated with the dva and rotated students and cooperated with residencies at one or more va hospitals or clinics. along with optometry’s expanding scope of practice there came a resurgence of interest in the profession and a growing demand for more schools and colleges of optometry, especially in areas of the country where there were severe shortages of eye care personnel to serve the needs of the less affluent society, especially in the rural areas. four new schools of optometry were established in this time period: university of alabama birmingham, 1969, state university of new york, 1970, ferris state university (michigan), 1975 and northeastern state university (oklahoma), 1979. federal grants assisted the schools by providing funds for building new facilities, purchase of equipment and to cover other developing expenses as well. optometric residencies trace their origins back to the late 1960s. threemonth advanced clinical training programs in vision therapy were initiated in 1967 at the optometric center of new york. these early certificate programs were not formally recognized by any official body. the first formally accredited one-year optometric residency began in 1976 at the veterans affairs (va) medical center in kansas city, missouri. in 1978, at uabso, dr. john amos established the first one year school residencies in family practice and low vision. after many years of unsuccessful attempts to have an optometry section within the american public health association (apha), in 1979, a vision care section (vcs) was finally approved. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 16 the introduction of two new types of contact lenses in the decade of the seventies, resulted in a marked increase of patients and income for optometrists. bausch & lomb with the first soft lens (soflens) in 1971 and syntex with the first gas permeable hard lens (polycon) in 1978, got the jump on the rest of the industry. chapter 4 – the full-time uab years 1979-1993 – director of optometric technician program, chief of contact lens services, assistant dean for clinical services (clinic director), director of externship program upon arriving at the uab school of optometry in august of 1979, i met with the dean, dr. henry peters to determine what my role would be at the school. initially he asked about my interest in becoming the clinic director and i quickly and wisely advised him that being new to academia, not only would it not be well received by the faculty, but i was not yet qualified, either administratively or clinically to take on such a huge responsibility. i was an unknown to most of the faculty, all of the staff and all of the students. i was also very concerned about my lack of experience with diagnostic pharmaceutical agents and some vital diagnostic instruments such as the binocular indirect ophthalmoscope and the goldman tonometer. i can thank maryland’s strong medical dominance for preventing the state from passing any dpa legislation until years after i had left the state. i did explain to dr. peters that contact lenses were my practice specialty, but there were no open positions in that area. public health, another one of my areas of expertise, was not a priority at the schools of optometry in the early eighties, and the school also had two well-known public health optometrists, dr. robert newcomb and dr. robert kleinstein, on their faculty. when dr. peters mentioned that the current director of the optometric technician program (dr. melvin shipp) was leaving to pursue a master in public health degree at the university of michigan, i immediately knew that this was the ideal position for me to begin my career in fulltime academia. not only would it give me a start in academic administration, but i would be working with a student body with which i could feel very comfortable with, as they had no prior knowledge or experience in anything connected with optometry. the optometric technician program, along with 16 other health related technical programs, was in the uab school of community and allied health (scah). my primary appointment would be at scah with a secondary appointment at the school of optometry. my responsibilities at the school of optometry would be as a clinical instructor one day a week. my office and classrooms were in a building housing the regional technical institute (rti) for health occupations. governor george wallace had established community colleges throughout the state so that high school graduates in rural areas, especially minority students, would have the opportunity to further their education. the uab school of community and allied health joined with these community colleges to develop a two or four year education and training program. the student would take one year of pre-requisite courses at their community college and then would attend the school of community and allied health in birmingham, where they would complete all the necessary course work, hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 17 laboratories and clinical training in their selected technical specialty, prior to their certification as assistants or technicians. one of my first duties was that of recruiting students for the class that would begin in 1981. the current 1979 class (14 students) and the 1980 class (only 3 expected students) had been recruited by the former director. my recruiting visits to many of the community colleges throughout the state in 1980, resulted in an expected enrollment of at least 20 students for the 1981-82 academic year. unfortunately, there was a severe budget crunch in 1980 and uab decided to eliminate the less successful technical level programs beginning with the 1981-82 academic year. naturally, with only 3 students in my 1980 optometry technician class, the program was one of the first programs to be disbanded. dr. peters assured me that after the close of the program in may 1981, i would return to the school of optometry as a full time faulty member. in january of 1981, i married arlene wilder, a psychiatric social worker. arlene was an old acquaintance from when we were back to back neighbors in the early years of our first marriages. i now had a family of seven with the addition of arlene’s two daughters, lori and harriet. the 1981-82 academic year was my most frustrating in optometric education. although the chief of contact lens services had transferred to houston and i had hopes that dr. peters would select me to succeed him, i was very disappointed when he selected someone else. my responsibilities for that year were limited to teaching in the contact lens laboratory and as a clinical instructor in primary care and contact lenses. the following year, the chief of contact lenses was promoted to assistant dean for clinical services (clinic director). i pleaded with dr. peters for the chief of contact lens services position and reluctantly, he agreed to appoint me, but only as “acting” chief until he was able to recruit someone with a national reputation in contact lens instruction and research. over the next few years i managed to attain the national reputation that dr. peters was looking for in 1982. in addition, the contact lens program at uab became recognized as one of the best in the country, with a contact lens residency program that recruited the finest candidates. dr. peters never officially removed the “acting” from my title, and i never bothered to request it, since no one ever knew that my official title was acting chief. in 1983, as the chief of contact lens services, i represented the school at the association of optometric contact lens educator’s (aocle) first workshop, hosted by the university of california berkeley (ucb). the idea of an optometric contact lens organization was initially discussed at a bausch & lomb meeting in rochester, new york, in 1972 when drs. paul white, marty gelman, woody kolb and others broached the subject. in 1974 the first official meeting of the organization sponsored by the wesley/jessen contact lens company, took place at the john hancock towers in chicago. dr. maury poster was elected as aocle’s first chair. paul white, who had acted as unofficial chair during the formative years, volunteered to be the organization’s fund-raiser. his success in getting the contact lens and solution companies to support meetings and later its annual workshops, assured the aocle its viability. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 18 i was elected treasurer/secretary at the 1984 workshop and treasurer a couple of years later when the positions were separated. i held the position until 1996, no longer in contact lens education, and very much involved at that time in administrating the association of schools and colleges of optometry clinic directors/administrators special interest group (asco sig).1 dr. peters retired in 1986 and dr. brad wild became the new dean. late in the year, dr. wild asked me if i would accept the assistant dean of clinical services (clinic director) position, replacing dr. melvin shipp. for the second time at uab i replaced dr. shipp, this time when he went to harvard to pursue the doctor of public health degree. there were a number of problems in the clinic at that time, the most serious were the physical condition of the clinic and a lack of state of the art equipment, both of which resulted in low morale among faculty, staff and students. i was a full professor and had tenure by then, so speaking from a position of strength, i told dr. wild i would only accept the position if he somehow found the funds that would allow me to renovate the clinic, with a totally new design, new furniture throughout the clinic and the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment and instruments throughout the clinic. within a year, with financial and in-kind assistance from of a number ophthalmic related companies, the new clinic was completed and in full operation. one of the highlights of the renovations was the new, centrally located and modern designed optical dispensary. it had replaced three small, widely separated dispensaries located in three separated primary/specialty care clinics. the newly renovated and equipped clinic and “summa cum laude” dispensary (as noted on the cover of the december, 1990 issue of eyecare business) paid off immediately, not only financially by an upsurge in number of patients, a more realistic fee structure and a much higher utilization of our optical dispensary, but there was a significant improvement in student, staff and faculty morale. we were the first optometry school to emphasize the value of having a state-of-the-art dispensary and other schools followed our lead, many calling on our experience to assist them along the way. although our students received the finest pedagogic pharmaceutical instruction from one of the most renowned and respected optometric educators in the nation, dr. jimmy bartlett, we were unable to give our students the practical, hands-on experience in the use of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents (tpas). being in a state that had not yet passed a tpa law (passed in 1995), the uab school of optometry could not legally treat eye diseases and thereby provide our students with the training which would allow them to gain the required tpa documented experience. with the realization that we had this serious gap in our clinical education program, dr. john amos, the director of our residency program and i, put our heads together to plan for an externship program that would allow our students the opportunity to acquire experience in the use of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents. with this need as the impetus, the externship program began in the spring quarter of the 1988-89 academic year with the assignment of seven students from the 4th year class. dr. james beisel, a young faculty member, was appointed as director of the program. dr. beisel left the school in 1991 and i placed the program under the administration of the clinic, so i became the hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 19 externship program director, while still maintaining my position as the assistant dean for clinical services. it was impossible to send more students since a modification of the curriculum had taken place at the beginning of the academic year and it had not provided for the possibility of an externship program. it was therefore necessary to keep most of the 4th year students on campus in order to adequately staff all of our school-based clinics as well as our clinic in the birmingham veterans administration medical center. although full implementation of the program, when all senior students would go on externships, was not designed to take place until the current entering first year class would be seniors, it quickly became apparent that many of our current students would never receive the externship experience, which would create a severe morale problem for some students. by modifying the 4th year curriculum, we were able to send half of the class on externships in the 1990-91 academic year and all the students by the 1991-92 academic year, with five 4th year clinical sessions and seven week externship rotations for every student. two years later we were able to return to the regular four-quarter curriculum. in the 1997-98 academic year, a full ten week summer quarter was created and it allowed for a second externship rotation for all students. dr. alden norman haffner, the president of the state university of new york (suny) school of optometry, had directed his vice president for clinical affairs, joan camera, to organize a meeting of the clinic directors of all the schools and colleges of optometry, to be held at the 1989 aao meeting in new orleans. unfortunately, the scheduled meeting was cancelled at the last minute due to the unexpected departure of joan camera from the school. however, dr. weylin eng, then the assistant dean for clinical services at the university of california school of optometry, berkeley and i, then the assistant dean for clinical services at the university of alabama at birmingham, school of optometry, got together during the academy meeting and discussed the possibility of forming a national organization of clinic directors of all the schools and colleges of optometry in the united states and canada. it was our concurrent opinion that many benefits could be derived by a sharing of knowledge and experiences. a few of the subject areas that came to mind were clinical grading, use of computers, scheduling, faculty assignments, marketing, quality assurance and utilization review. after exploring the feasibility of establishing such an organization, we decided to proceed with organizing such a group. the organization was named the association of clinic directors and administrators of schools and colleges of optometry (acdasco). the first workshop was held in 1991 with illinois college of optometry as the host institution. in 1995, acdasco joined asco as the first asco sig and it was no longer an autonomous organization. over the next 18 years, as the asco senior consultant, i continued to raise the funds from the ophthalmic industry for our workshops as well as coordinate all aspects of the workshops, except the educational programs, which were the responsibility of the host institution. i retired from this position in december 2013. the complete story of acdasco and its transition to becoming the first asco sig is described in a non-published paper that i wrote in 2014 titled “the history of the association of clinic directors & administrators of schools and colleges of optometry.” hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 20 the profession 1979-1993 – the phenomenal changes that occurred in optometry during the previous time frame of the late sixties through the seventies were dwarfed by what would take place over the next 14 years. all the states had passed tpa legislation and schools responded with expanded curricula and an increase in program years. at first it was five and six year programs at the schools of optometry, which included a year or two of pre-optometry courses. then schools converted to a four year professional program, limited to professional didactic courses, laboratories and clinical training. all schools required pre-requisites similar to pre-med course work and, before long, an applicant without at least 3 years of pre-optometry would not even be considered. as applicant pools increased and competition for available openings became more and more competitive, most applicants to the schools of optometry already had a b.s. degree. residencies began at the schools in primary care and in a number of specialty areas such as contact lenses, pediatric care and low vision. optometric referral centers, vamcs, indian health service and military hospitals added residency programs through contracts and memorandum of agreement/understanding (moas and mous). many of these same institutions also helped in the training of senior students through externship affiliations. in the early eighties, dr. william cuthbertson, of cornelia, georgia wanted to establish a network of referral systems for optometrists so that they could refer patients to ophthalmologists who were friendly to optometry. these centers would focus on surgical care and disease management, and would provide services that would not compete with organized optometry. in this way, an o.d. could feel comfortable in referring a patient to an ophthalmologist since he knew that the patient would return to his office for all services which were normally provided in his office. dr. cuthbertson met with the visual education foundation (vef), an academic group at the southern college of optometry, about setting up a referral clinic which was controlled by optometrists and staffed with ophthalmologists. the vef agreed and the first optometric referral center was established in atlanta in 1982, followed by centers in chattanooga and lexington, kentucky. optometrists, who had completed residencies which had a heavy emphasis on ocular diseases, such as bascom-palmer in miami, florida, were hired to head these centers. eventually, omni eye services bought the vef group. establishment of an optometric referral center in alabama began with a meeting of interested optometrists in birmingham, in march of 1984. it took four years of study and back and forth negotiations before a decision was finally made as to which management group would be selected to operate the birmingham center. in july of 1998, omega health systems out of dallas was selected over occusystems (houston) and visionamerica (nashville). the referral center opened in july of 1989. in 1990, omega acquired occusystems and visionamerica. dr. jim marbourg has been the guiding force of the group from its very beginning. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 21 in 1986, with the change in the medicare law, which now allowed optometrists to be reimbursed for the treatment of eye diseases, dependent on their level of training, pharmaceutical certification, state licensure requirements and state law, the profession experienced an image metamorphosis, from a refraction/ spectacle/contact lens profession to a total eye care profession. refraction and contact lenses were no longer the center of attraction for those considering optometry and even for the students currently in optometry schools. learning about pharmaceutical agents and the diagnosis, treatment and management of eye diseases was foremost on their minds. since ocular diseases were most prevalent in the 65 and over population, few optometrists retained their 65 and over patients. most patients could be legally identified as requiring a “medically necessitated visit” (developing cataracts, dry eye problems, early macular degeneration etc), so they were covered by medicare, except for the low refraction fee of $6. in all probability, with the 1986 change in medicare regarding payment guidelines for optometric services, the profession was saved from possible extinction. eventually, despite heated opposition from ophthalmology and the medical profession as a whole, almost all third party providers (insurance companies, state and federal government agencies, industry run health programs etc.) followed the medicare lead. more progressive ophthalmologists recognized the value of optometrists, from being a huge referral source for cataract surgery and other eye conditions requiring tertiary care, to providing primary and secondary eye care services thereby giving them more time for more lucrative cataract and refractive surgery. many began to employ or even partner with optometrists and turned over most of their primary and secondary eye care to the optometrist. a number of ophthalmology practices partnered with schools of optometry by participating in their externship programs. many of the optometric referral centers had ophthalmologists on their staff, performing cataract and other surgical procedures. although modifying refractive error with surgical procedures began as early as the mid-seventies it wasn’t until the advent of refractive lasers that refractive surgery came into its own. with increasing success rates, minimal risks, explosive publicity and excessive advertising, both optometrists and ophthalmologists became part of the refractive surgery scene. laser centers, owned by ophthalmologists, optometrists or corporations started popping up throughout the country. with the fear of potential loss of patients, especially contact lens patients, many optometrists felt compelled to be involved, in one way or another with the emerging laser centers in order to save their patient base. another significant role that optometry played on the national health care scene was the appointment of an optometrist to a leading position within the fda. dr. richard lippman, whom i had originally brought into the public health service in 1974 to serve at the public health hospital in staten island, new york, transferred briefly to the indian health service in 1983 when the public health hospitals closed and then to the fda in 1984. from 1984 to 1986, he was the chief of the contact lens branch in the same division. after many years of senior management experience with fda's division of ophthalmic devices, office of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 22 device evaluation (ode), center for devices and radiological health (cdrh), he was named in 1986 the director of this division, responsible for managing the review of 510(k)s, ides, pmas, and reclassification petitions for ophthalmic devices. this included developing strategic approaches to device review, designing and implementing policy on new products, and managing the related advisory panel. he served in this position until 1993. three new schools of optometry came into existence during the 1980-1993 time frame; the university of missouri st. louis in 1980, the inter american university of puerto rico in 1981 and the southeastern university of the health sciences (north miami beach, florida) college of optometry in 1989. in 1994, southeastern merged with nova and it became nova southeastern university college of optometry in ft. lauderdale, florida. during these years, the vision care section played a major roll in the american public health association. the section, although experiencing extreme disparity in membership numbers over the years, with highs of over 800 and lows under 250 (depending on whether or not there were national issues that affected the profession), maintained a highly respected presence and on-going visibility within the apha. over the years the section held honorary position of vice president for the usa (dr. lester caplan), a multi-year treasurer and a president (dr. melvin shipp) and a chairman of the executive board (dr. edwin marshall). many other members of the section have chaired key apha committees and been actively involved in other apha proceedings. the section also introduced and received apha governing council approval of many key resolutions to safeguard the eye and visual health of the general public. two very influential resolutions were the 1980 resolution which urged elimination of restrictive medicare policies pertaining to reimbursement for optometric services and the 1990 resolution urging state legislatures to update their optometric practice acts to permit optometrists the use of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents. the 1990 resolution was bitterly fought by ophthalmology and in the 1991 apha meeting in atlanta, ophthalmology introduced a resolution to overturn the 1990 resolution. the resolution was overwhelmingly defeated by the governing council, with only one vote recorded for rescinding the resolution. chapter 5 – the part-time uab and consultant years 1993-2013 – director and consultant for the externship program and consultant for the asco clinic director’s special interest group (asco cd/a sig) in early 1993, arlene’s youngest daughter, harriet, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, adrenal, which had and still has an extremely poor prognosis. arlene immediately returned to baltimore to be with her daughter and to give her the love and support to help her get through months of intense chemo-therapy and surgery. we established a second home in the baltimore area and i would fly up two or three times a month to lend my support. i decided that by the end of the year it would be time to retire so that i could devote more time to family and not compromise the school’s clinical program. however, i did not feel ready to cut off hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 23 all my ties with the school and optometric education, since i was only 69¾ years old and still in good health. i therefore made a proposal to dean wild, that since i would like to continue my role as director of the externship program, asking what he would think about my working part-time from an office at the school and an office in my home in baltimore. although working from home in 1993 was not very common, i advised him that the only way my plan would work was if the school was willing to equip a home office for me which would require the purchase of a computer, printer, copier/fax and an internet connection. we had an excellent externship program and dr. wild liked the idea of my continuing as its director, so he agreed to equip my home office, as a side note, the copier/fax (no printer or scanner) machine, was twice as large and three times as heavy as today’s 4-in-1 (printer/copier/scanner) and it cost $2300. there was no high speed internet, email was still in its infancy and not the major communication tool in 1993, so working from a home office was not nearly as easy or efficient as it is today. therefore, i was still spending the majority of my time in birmingham, especially after my step-daughter died in march of 1994. with my school responsibilities limited to the externship program, i was able to devote an extensive amount of time to evaluating our off-campus sites. during the years 1994-2000, i visited well over a hundred of our externship sites throughout alabama, in all the southeastern states and in other areas of the country. i decided to retire again at the end of 2000 and asked dr. john classé to take over as the director of the program. he agreed to do so, but only if i would stay on as a consultant to the program and perform all of the site visits. dr. classé retired ten years later and i was still doing the site visits under the program’s new director, dr. leo semes. fortunately for me, dr. arol augsburger (who followed dr. wild as dean in 1994) and dr. john amos (who followed dr. augsburger as dean in 2000) were very supportive and both asked me to stay with the program. when dr. rod nowakowski became the dean in 2010, i continued my role as consultant, but due to severe budget constraints, my externship site visits were reduced to a trickle. i finally retired in december of 2013. in 1998, i was the recipient of the carel c. koch memorial award and the life fellowship award presented by the american academy of optometry and served as vice president, usa, for the american public health association in 199798, an honorary position. the association of optometric contact lens educator's first lifetime achievement award was presented to me in 2009 and in 2011, i received the james a. boucher award of excellence from the national academy of practice in optometry. my entire family shared with me the thrill of being inducted into the national optometry hall of fame in 2011 at the annual meeting of the american optometric association in salt lake city, utah. i continued my role as senior consultant for asco and to administrate all phases of the clinic directors/administrators sig activities until i retired at the end of 2013. the only annual workshop which did not take place was the one scheduled in forest grove, oregon, in late september, 2001, less than 3 weeks after the world trade center tragedy. in 2014, in glendale, arizona, at the first workshop after my retirement, the sig named a lecture in my name to be held yearly at its workshops. at the 2015 sig’s workshop in san antonio, texas, i had the privilege of introducing the first hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 caplan: 66 years of optometry | page 24 dr. lester caplan lecture awardee, dr. glenn hammack, who was the last president of acdasco and the first chair of the new asco clinic directors sig. in 2015, in new orleans, i was the second recipient (dr. norman haffner was the first in 2014) of the henry b. peters memorial award presented by the public health & environmental vision section of the american academy of optometry. the profession 1994–2013—changes in the optometry during these years were not nearly as dramatic as those which had occurred over the previous 45 years, but there were still some major transformations. the number of women going into the profession grew substantially. when i was in optometry school, there were 3 women in my class and over 250 men. by the late nineties, women had outnumbered men in many of the schools of optometry and within another generation or two, there will be more female optometrists than male. the introduction of new high tech, sophisticated diagnostic instruments, which started back in the seventies with the auto-refractors and programmed perimeters continued at a rapid pace. retinal imaging and corneal topography instruments became the latest tools for improved diagnosis, treatment and management of ocular anomalies. the solo practice mode, the keystone of the practice of optometry when i started in 1950 was gradually fading from the scene. the cost of furnishing, equipping and running a solo practice had become so astronomical that it was no longer feasible to be a solo practitioner. many private practices were purchased by ophthalmology and optometry group practices, referral centers and multi-disciplinary practices. optometry school graduates now had multitude choices of employment, very few of which were available in the earlier days. a good percentage of graduates choose to pursue a one-year residency for post-graduate work in primary and specialty areas in optometry. this placed them in a much more favorable position for employment in optometric education, or for positions in the v.a. and referral centers. the veterans administration, the military, and the indian health service offered career oriented opportunities, with good pay and excellent fringe benefits. commercial entities offered high paying positions and opportunities to work part-time, especially for the many whose priorities, while they are still young, were raising a family. in 1994, the aoa published the first series of optometric clinical practice guidelines (ocpgs). they combined the best available current scientific evidence and research with expert clinical opinion to recommend appropriate steps in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of patients with various eye and vision conditions. a total of 20 ocpgs were published over the next couple of years. dr. john amos, as chair of the clinical guidelines coordinating committee was the guiding force behind this major endeavor. review with revisions are continuous. four new schools of optometry opened their doors in the twenty-first century: western university of health sciences school of optometry, midwestern university of health sciences college of optometry, university of the incarnate word rosenberg school of optometry (uiwrso) in 2010, and the massachusetts college of pharmacy and health sciences college of optometry midwestern university will be opening a college of optometry at its downers grove campus in hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 25 the rli (replacement lens, inc.) story irving bennett, o.d. drive, #5551 dunrobin 4208 sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com floyd d. mizener, o.d. 8613 evergreen lane darien, il 60561 floydmizener@comcast.net he idea of putting "lenses" on the corneas of human eyes to improve vision dates back to the days of leonardo de vinci. over the next many decades, several efforts were made to develop and produce lenses to fill the mission. it was not until the late 1940s that contact lenses, made from polymethyl methacrylate (pmma), were produced to provide both safe and comfortable wear. both eye professionals and consumers were ready and eager to try this product. like we, most optometrists began adding contact lens fittings to our practices. world war ii had ended and many of the optometrists who had graduated in the early 1940s were returning to civilian life and, for the most part, opening private practices. they were excited to encompass a new product for their patients and for their bottom lines. contact lenses were considered then a "big ticket" item, much like dentures were to dentistry. many of our colleagues had gone through the difficult experiences in fitting scleral lenses. they welcomed the tuohy corneal lenses and other micro lenses. not only were these smaller contact lenses easier to fit but also they provided greater patient satisfaction. but the lenses were small and they occasional fell off the cornea and were lost. the dilemma that faced the eye care professionals was a business one. contact lenses themselves, as they came from the manufacturing laboratories, were not really expensive. some lenses needed a little in-office modification to provide better comfort. all the lenses seemed to require a long and drawn out fitting procedure. what does one charge the patient for the fitting and for the materials? it was no problem to set a bundled fee that included the eye examination, the contact lens fitting fee, and a pair of contact lenses. the predicament was what to charge for a lost lens that did not require another examination or another contact lens fitting. some doctors just charged half the original fee for a lost lens; others made the charge smaller but not significantly so t hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 26 enter jerry stephens jerry stephens was a near-sighted 18 year old living in peoria, illinois. his hopes for becoming an air force pilot were nixed because of his poor vision. he reluctantly made the decision to follow his family in the insurance business. his father and two uncles were insurance agents. jerry tells what happened: "i did some research and found the university of wisconsin was among the top undergraduate insurance and risk management schools in the country (and still is). as the korean war was raging, i became an rotc 2nd lt. in the infantry upon graduation. after spending close to two years in korea i joined my father in the insurance agency business. i also became a private pilot. “still upset about wearing glasses, i visited my optometrist, dr. jerry conlogue, in 1958 and he fit me with contact lenses. thinking that i would like to insure my valuable lenses, i looked but could not find an insurance company to insure them. i decided to propose an "insurance plan" to dr. conlogue for his patients. he turned me down, saying it just would not work. i kept going back to him with idea after idea and he kept rejecting them. in the process, i made sure that dr. conlogue became knowledgeable about the insurance business and at the same time, i was learning a little about the contact lens industry as it existed then. three years later we jointly decided to test the waters and we borrowed $1,000 for the adventure." replacement lens, inc. created stephens continues, recalling: "in 1961, dr. conlogue and i formed an insurance agency named “replacement lens, inc.” we first offered dr. conlogue's patients a proposal to buy insurance coverage for their contacts. over time we provided similar opportunities to the doctors who used conlogue's small (procon) contact lens laboratory for the lenses they dispensed to their patients. conlogue's lab serviced about 30 optometrists and they became important supporters of the new venture. by 1965 we had the insurance product perfected and felt the need for our own insurance company. we had been agents of west bend mutual up until this time. "we incorporated a holding company and named it 'replacement lens investment company.' it later became known as rli corp. jerry conologue and i sold stock to 32 people, most of whom were optometrists and friends. on that list were many of the 'who's who' in the illinois optometric association leadership, the president and vice president of the illinois college of optometry, and others in private practice. we formed a talented board of directors: gene strawn, o.d., don frantz, o.d., steve gard, o.d., jerry conlogue, o.d., warren kreft, m.d., evelyn corell, optician, and jerry stephens. "we raised about $300,000, acquired a dormant small insurance company for $100,000 and spent the other $200,000 on a nationwide marketing effort. we placed full page ads in national consumer magazines, like life, mccalls, and seventeen. however, we did not include our phone number or address; instead we referred patients to their contact lens professionals. we also mailed an application dispenser and tear sheet to every contact lens fitter in the nation. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 27 "having done this, we had little funds left at year end. fortunately the ad campaign worked. we produced only $100,000 in premiums in 1965; that number grew to $600,000 the next year and doubled year after year for many years." the company grew and grew in 1969, rli went public to raise money to convert its mutual insurance company to a stock company and increase its surplus to gain admittance to other states. the laws had changed allowing states to require direct mail insurance companies such as rli to be admitted. however, rli did not have enough capital for admittance. in 1972 soft contact lenses were approved by the fda and our stock price went from $8 a share to $38 a share overnight! and the company soared. as noted by chairman stephens, "the original $1000 of borrowed capital had by 2006 blossomed into a market cap in excess of $1.2 billion and now exceeds $3 billion." running the company it took a lot of effort to start and run an insurance company. internally rli had a dedicated, hardworking team of employees. to pique their interest and enthusiasm and dedication, ceo stephens began a program in april 1990 called "message of the week." these messages had a unique beginning. stephens was addicted to running and, in order to make his morning exercise more interesting, he always listened to tapes of motivational talks. this led to a collection of a substantial library of books and tapes. when he returned from a run, he would jot down a few notes and store them. as stephens remembers "on saturday, i composed a short "message of the week" essay about current issues at rli, borrowing from my notes for help. monday morning each employee of rli found the essay at his or her work station. i did miss a few weeks each year and when i was traveling, my executive assistant was known to repeat past messages. of course, some themes were repeated several times in different ways. the theory was to tell it, tell it again, tell it a different way, and then repeat it." no doubt about it, the messages had a good impact. it led to a distinct rli culture. a book of the essays was published in 2007 and in his introduction, mr. stephens noted: "key values were repeated many times over the years for the benefit of new employees and to drive home our unwavering concern about ethical behavior and the value of serving our customer in an outstanding manner." on its way to a $3 billion property and casualty company, rli had many ups and downs. replacement lens, inc. became rli vision corp. providing practice management software and other products to the profession. it had a great sales force but contact lens prices had declined to the point where insurance was not necessary. over time the demand for contact lens insurance shrank with the emergence of more affordable disposable soft contact lenses. in order to remain in business, in the early 1980’s stephens expanded rli's offerings to include specialty lines of commercial property and liability insurance. in 1994, the company retired its founding contact lens insurance product and in 1996, rli merged its rli vision subsidiary with maui jim, a manufacturer of luxury sunglasses. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 28 maui jim (now 44% owned by rli) has been successful expanding worldwide providing plano and prescription quality sun glasses. beginning in 1972, the company started an employee stock ownership program which continues today. every single rli employee is a stockholder. due to the success of the company, rli has a wealthy staff. in summary, rli was made possible by its outstanding original professional founders and board. they were willing to risk not only money, but reputation. people in the insurance industry said it could not be done. too small of a premium and too many government regulations. but as stephens aptly put it: “our founders were brave enough to invest in a little company with a big idea.” the reward was substantial. their stock has a $.02 basis and at this writing is trading on the nyse at $68. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 thau: alden n. haffner | page 29 remembering and furthering the vision of an optometric trailblazer, alden n. haffner, o.d., ph.d. (1928 – 2016) andrea p. thau, o.d. president of the american optometric association apthau@aoa.org s a man dedicated to paying respect to the past, connecting people in the present and setting a vision for the future of optometry, health care, and public health, dr. alden n. haffner, who was called norman by his friends, was truly a giant and unflagging advocate for the profession. it was with great sadness that we noted his passing on june 22, 2016, but it is with hope that we look towards a future where doctors of optometry build on the foundation that he established. dr. haffner was a man with high expectations for his colleagues and profession and i had the privilege to know him and call him my mentor. i remember clearly walking into his office on the day that i interviewed for admission to suny optometry. when i entered his office, a male colleague made a comment about my appearance. dr. haffner immediately stopped him and said, “never mind how she looks. it’s her brain and drive that should impress you. she will be a great optometrist.” high expectations from a legend in optometry and someone optometry will never cease to celebrate and recognize. a fellow new yorker, dr. haffner graduated with his doctor of optometry degree from the pennsylvania college of optometry (pco) in 1952, eventually receiving an mpa and ph.d. from new york university (nyu). he constructed and taught the first formal, semester-long course in public health in academic optometry at pco in 1966, before becoming the founding president of my alma mater, the state university of new york (suny) college of optometry in 1971. he was appointed vice chancellor of health sciences of the entire suny system, which included overseeing medical schools, but returned as the president of suny optometry in 1988, serving in that capacity until his retirement in 2005. even before i met dr. haffner, i knew of his dedication to understanding, memorializing and gleaning insights from the past. a friend of my father’s, he was a titan in the world of optometry. his memory was second to none. he used his incredible knowledge of the profession and the history of medicine daily, applying it to the establishment of the suny college of optometry and using it to further the knowledge of his students and the profession of optometry as a whole. while keeping an eye on the past, he made sure that the professionals and students around him advanced. he was a networker as well as an instigator. each conversation and encounter was more than just an engagement – he inspired those around him to think, challenge and learn from each other. you were never just “on the phone” with him. you were likely on speakerphone so that your conversation with him could further inform others. and the quickest route to his respect wasn’t deference but to push back. the first time i pushed back as a colleague i was unsure of what his reaction would be, but knowing i was right, i pressed the issue. to my surprise, instead of chastising me, he smiled. a hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 thau: alden n. haffner | page 30 across his numerous leadership roles, whether it was president of the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco) or president at suny, dr. haffner never let pass an opportunity to connect professionals and propel our discipline. the unifying theme that runs through dr. haffner’s career is his impact and ability to be a catalyst for change. as an army veteran, dr. haffner championed a number of public health issues across his career and served extensively on the u.s. department of veterans affairs' (va) top-level health care advisory panel, the va special medical advisory group (smag). appointed to the panel by president ronald reagan in 1987, dr. haffner helped spur important initiatives to advance health care for veterans, including an effort to expand access to eye and vision care in the va system. as a panel member, dr. haffner recommended that the va conduct a comprehensive inventory of its eye care resources that would ultimately document unacceptable waiting times and deficiencies in staffing levels at va clinics. his subsequent report led to improved optometry staffing and increased numbers of optometry residency positions at va medical centers. dr. haffner served on the va smag for 25 years, the longest anyone ever served. he not only changed the face of va care, dr. haffner brought the optometry profession to the tipping point and carried us over. the architect of the laguardia meeting, dr. haffner convened a group of nearly two dozen optometric educators and researchers at laguardia airport in new york in 1968 to discuss the imbalance between optometrists' scope of responsibility and educational requirements. historically a drugless profession, optometry was put on a path toward the medical model with an agreed-upon need for scope expansion through bolstered academic curriculum and heightened state and federal advocacy. a former president of the new york state optometric association (nysoa) who served on numerous aoa committees, dr. haffner was awarded the aoa distinguished service award, the eminent service award from the american academy of optometry (aao) and was inducted into the national optometry hall of fame in 2000. dr. haffner earned these honors because he knew the true meaning of the phrase “better together” and it was his vision that set the future of optometry. he helped advance our profession into the diagnosis and treatment of disease, won the right for optometrists to be recognized as commissioned officers and created residencies for optometry. as i have set the path for my career, i have always held my actions and direction to the standards of two incredibly important people in my life – my father and dr. haffner. his vision created a lasting imprint on our profession across the nation. he was my mentor, colleague, friend and inspiration, and he will be greatly missed. but i know that i and my fellow doctors of optometry will continue his efforts and bring to life a better future for the profession and our patients. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 goss: book review | page 31 book review: history of the american academy of optometry 1987-2010 history of the american academy of optometry 1987-2010. robert d. newcomb and mark eger. american academy of optometry, 2012. no isbn. 246 pages. softcover, $25. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu his book continues james gregg’s book history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. it discusses the organizational activities, annual meetings, and leaders of the american academy of optometry over the time span indicated in the title, while touching on some aspects of previous years to provide context. among the items discussed is the start of research workshops or summer research institutes in 1988. in 1991-92, the academy budget first exceeded one million dollars and it was over three million dollars by 2002. international academy meetings were started in 1992. also in 1992, the american optometric foundation became affiliated with the academy and transferred its governance to the academy. joan exford was the first woman aao president in 1993-94. in the 1990s, efforts to recruit new members were initiated. previously, such efforts were thought inappropriate; it was necessary for prospective members to request a membership application or be recommended by a current fellow. in 2007, the time of the annual meeting switched to october. for many years, the meeting had been in december because that traditionally had been a slow time in most optometrists’ offices. in addition to the narrative on events and landmarks in the history of the academy such as the above, the book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs and it contains appendices with lists of academy presidents and board members, american optometric foundation presidents, annual meeting dates and locations, award recipients, active chapters, and 2009 committee structure. the book includes an introduction by mark w. eger, president of the academy in 2009 and 2010. the author, robert d. newcomb, is an ohs member and was secretarytreasurer of the american academy of optometry in 1997-98, president of the aao in 2001 and 2002, and recipient of the aao eminent service award in 2006. t 2017 membership application our members support the enrichment of the scholarship in optometry history and the preservation of and access to the archival and museum collections that make this research possible. it is because of the vital support provided by the american optometric association and optometry cares® the aoa foundation that the archives and museum of optometry can maintain collections that have taken more than a century to build. it is because of the support of members of the ohs that these materials remain viable resources for the education of future generations. yes! i want to join the optometric historical society! □ free aosa student members /residents (includes subscription to online issues of hindsight) □ $35.00 regular membership (includes subscription to online issues of hindsight) □ $60.00 sustaining membership (includes subscription to online and print issues of hindsight) □ na i am a lifetime member and i will access hindsight online □ $25.00 i am a lifetime member and i want a print copy of hindsight □ $500.00 scholars membership (includes all benefits of sustaining membership plus annual recognition in hindsight, optometry cares® – the aoa foundation’s annual report and website, and invitation to an exclusive donor’s reception at optometry’s meeting®) $ additional donation to support the archives & museum of optometry total: $ all membership dues are tax deductible title: first name: last name: suffix: company/school/practice: address: city state: zip: email: recognition/print name: payment method □ a check is enclosed □ paid online at www.aoafoundation.org □ charge my credit card for the amount indicated above. credit card number: expiration date: card type: mastercard visa american express name on card: 3or 4-digit code: signature: date: 243 n. lindbergh blvd. st. louis, missouri 63141 (800) 365-2219 ext. 4136 foundation@aoa.org www.aoafoundation.org blank page blank page microsoft word 0_cover_v48n1.docx hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 25 the rli (replacement lens, inc.) story irving bennett, o.d. drive, #5551 dunrobin 4208 sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com floyd d. mizener, o.d. 8613 evergreen lane darien, il 60561 floydmizener@comcast.net he idea of putting "lenses" on the corneas of human eyes to improve vision dates back to the days of leonardo de vinci. over the next many decades, several efforts were made to develop and produce lenses to fill the mission. it was not until the late 1940s that contact lenses, made from polymethyl methacrylate (pmma), were produced to provide both safe and comfortable wear. both eye professionals and consumers were ready and eager to try this product. like we, most optometrists began adding contact lens fittings to our practices. world war ii had ended and many of the optometrists who had graduated in the early 1940s were returning to civilian life and, for the most part, opening private practices. they were excited to encompass a new product for their patients and for their bottom lines. contact lenses were considered then a "big ticket" item, much like dentures were to dentistry. many of our colleagues had gone through the difficult experiences in fitting scleral lenses. they welcomed the tuohy corneal lenses and other micro lenses. not only were these smaller contact lenses easier to fit but also they provided greater patient satisfaction. but the lenses were small and they occasional fell off the cornea and were lost. the dilemma that faced the eye care professionals was a business one. contact lenses themselves, as they came from the manufacturing laboratories, were not really expensive. some lenses needed a little in-office modification to provide better comfort. all the lenses seemed to require a long and drawn out fitting procedure. what does one charge the patient for the fitting and for the materials? it was no problem to set a bundled fee that included the eye examination, the contact lens fitting fee, and a pair of contact lenses. the predicament was what to charge for a lost lens that did not require another examination or another contact lens fitting. some doctors just charged half the original fee for a lost lens; others made the charge smaller but not significantly so t hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 26 enter jerry stephens jerry stephens was a near-sighted 18 year old living in peoria, illinois. his hopes for becoming an air force pilot were nixed because of his poor vision. he reluctantly made the decision to follow his family in the insurance business. his father and two uncles were insurance agents. jerry tells what happened: "i did some research and found the university of wisconsin was among the top undergraduate insurance and risk management schools in the country (and still is). as the korean war was raging, i became an rotc 2nd lt. in the infantry upon graduation. after spending close to two years in korea i joined my father in the insurance agency business. i also became a private pilot. “still upset about wearing glasses, i visited my optometrist, dr. jerry conlogue, in 1958 and he fit me with contact lenses. thinking that i would like to insure my valuable lenses, i looked but could not find an insurance company to insure them. i decided to propose an "insurance plan" to dr. conlogue for his patients. he turned me down, saying it just would not work. i kept going back to him with idea after idea and he kept rejecting them. in the process, i made sure that dr. conlogue became knowledgeable about the insurance business and at the same time, i was learning a little about the contact lens industry as it existed then. three years later we jointly decided to test the waters and we borrowed $1,000 for the adventure." replacement lens, inc. created stephens continues, recalling: "in 1961, dr. conlogue and i formed an insurance agency named “replacement lens, inc.” we first offered dr. conlogue's patients a proposal to buy insurance coverage for their contacts. over time we provided similar opportunities to the doctors who used conlogue's small (procon) contact lens laboratory for the lenses they dispensed to their patients. conlogue's lab serviced about 30 optometrists and they became important supporters of the new venture. by 1965 we had the insurance product perfected and felt the need for our own insurance company. we had been agents of west bend mutual up until this time. "we incorporated a holding company and named it 'replacement lens investment company.' it later became known as rli corp. jerry conologue and i sold stock to 32 people, most of whom were optometrists and friends. on that list were many of the 'who's who' in the illinois optometric association leadership, the president and vice president of the illinois college of optometry, and others in private practice. we formed a talented board of directors: gene strawn, o.d., don frantz, o.d., steve gard, o.d., jerry conlogue, o.d., warren kreft, m.d., evelyn corell, optician, and jerry stephens. "we raised about $300,000, acquired a dormant small insurance company for $100,000 and spent the other $200,000 on a nationwide marketing effort. we placed full page ads in national consumer magazines, like life, mccalls, and seventeen. however, we did not include our phone number or address; instead we referred patients to their contact lens professionals. we also mailed an application dispenser and tear sheet to every contact lens fitter in the nation. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 27 "having done this, we had little funds left at year end. fortunately the ad campaign worked. we produced only $100,000 in premiums in 1965; that number grew to $600,000 the next year and doubled year after year for many years." the company grew and grew in 1969, rli went public to raise money to convert its mutual insurance company to a stock company and increase its surplus to gain admittance to other states. the laws had changed allowing states to require direct mail insurance companies such as rli to be admitted. however, rli did not have enough capital for admittance. in 1972 soft contact lenses were approved by the fda and our stock price went from $8 a share to $38 a share overnight! and the company soared. as noted by chairman stephens, "the original $1000 of borrowed capital had by 2006 blossomed into a market cap in excess of $1.2 billion and now exceeds $3 billion." running the company it took a lot of effort to start and run an insurance company. internally rli had a dedicated, hardworking team of employees. to pique their interest and enthusiasm and dedication, ceo stephens began a program in april 1990 called "message of the week." these messages had a unique beginning. stephens was addicted to running and, in order to make his morning exercise more interesting, he always listened to tapes of motivational talks. this led to a collection of a substantial library of books and tapes. when he returned from a run, he would jot down a few notes and store them. as stephens remembers "on saturday, i composed a short "message of the week" essay about current issues at rli, borrowing from my notes for help. monday morning each employee of rli found the essay at his or her work station. i did miss a few weeks each year and when i was traveling, my executive assistant was known to repeat past messages. of course, some themes were repeated several times in different ways. the theory was to tell it, tell it again, tell it a different way, and then repeat it." no doubt about it, the messages had a good impact. it led to a distinct rli culture. a book of the essays was published in 2007 and in his introduction, mr. stephens noted: "key values were repeated many times over the years for the benefit of new employees and to drive home our unwavering concern about ethical behavior and the value of serving our customer in an outstanding manner." on its way to a $3 billion property and casualty company, rli had many ups and downs. replacement lens, inc. became rli vision corp. providing practice management software and other products to the profession. it had a great sales force but contact lens prices had declined to the point where insurance was not necessary. over time the demand for contact lens insurance shrank with the emergence of more affordable disposable soft contact lenses. in order to remain in business, in the early 1980’s stephens expanded rli's offerings to include specialty lines of commercial property and liability insurance. in 1994, the company retired its founding contact lens insurance product and in 1996, rli merged its rli vision subsidiary with maui jim, a manufacturer of luxury sunglasses. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 1 bennett & mizener: the rli story | page 28 maui jim (now 44% owned by rli) has been successful expanding worldwide providing plano and prescription quality sun glasses. beginning in 1972, the company started an employee stock ownership program which continues today. every single rli employee is a stockholder. due to the success of the company, rli has a wealthy staff. in summary, rli was made possible by its outstanding original professional founders and board. they were willing to risk not only money, but reputation. people in the insurance industry said it could not be done. too small of a premium and too many government regulations. but as stephens aptly put it: “our founders were brave enough to invest in a little company with a big idea.” the reward was substantial. their stock has a $.02 basis and at this writing is trading on the nyse at $68. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 73 hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2012 volume 43, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett23@gmail.com jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu table of contents ohs membership application form……………………………………………………….74 the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama: more data and reader comments, floyd d. mizener and irving bennett…………………………………………75 a historical list of optometry schools in the united states, david a. goss………….82 the madame heymann optical collection – greatest in history, disappeared in 1925, then resurfaced between 2006 and 2008, david a. fleishman ………………………..90 jess boyd eskridge, optometric educator and author, david a. goss………………..103 biographical notes on lionel laurance, david a. goss………………………………....107 book review: eyewear: a visual history 1491-today, david a. goss……………..…110 instructions to authors……………………………………………………………………….111 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 74 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: optometric historical society attn: sandi gregson optometry cares – the aoa foundation 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________________ address ______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares™ – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 75 the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama: more data and reader comments floyd d. mizener, o.d. 8613 evergreen lane, darien, il 60561, floydmizener@comcast.net irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett23@gmail.com several of our readers suggested that we provide more information on the lawsuit in behalf of optometry by cyrus bass, o.d. of chicago, illinois. there are many optometrists still living who knew dr. bass personally and observed first hand some happenings during the four or five years that the suit was pending. here is an effort to provide more data on that interesting phase of optometric history. it is most unfortunate that the professional optometric press, including the nonassociation magazines that traditionally covered optometry and the optical field, actually published very little about the bass lawsuit. it was not at all covered in the journal of the american optometric association, the official publication of the aoa. not even a mention. our research has revealed that cyrus bass practiced optometry in chicago for his entire career. he had been trained initially as a psychologist, and after initiating his lawsuit against the american medical association (ama) took legal courses. however, he was never admitted to the bar. according to his optometric associates he sought legal training so he could be more effective with his lawsuit. bass graduated from northern illinois college of optometry in 1939. an “official” biography of dr. bass was included in the “report to the optometric profession” that bass distributed widely to practicing optometrists about the time the original lawsuit was filed. the purpose of the “report” was to raise money for a national trial committee of optometrists being formed to fund the trial. the final paragraph in his biographical sketch in the “report” is as follows: “dr. cyrus bass is the author of four published works on social issues. he has written extensively and lectured widely. he has been a practicing clinical psychologist for over twenty years and was formerly the head of the department of clinical and abnormal psychology at northern illinois college of optometry. he was the first to institute the c.q. (culture quotient) tests, which tests he compiled and administered to the classes at n.i.c. in 1940. he has been a student of law and received a law degree in 1959, all this in addition to having been a practicing optometrist since 1939.”1 hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 76 classé reference john classé, formerly assistant professor at the school of optometry at the university of alabama at birmingham, did give the bass lawsuit a brief mention in his book, the legal aspects of optometry, as follows: “….. in 1964, a chicago optometrist, cyrus bass, filed a lawsuit against the ama and nine chicago ophthalmologists, alleging that the defendants had conspired to monopolize the examination of eyes and the production, marketing, and sale of ophthalmic eyewear and that they had conspired to restrain trade and commerce in the dispensing of eyeglasses. amidst considerable publicity, bass devised a plan whereby optometrists throughout the country would be allowed to participate in the legal fund to finance the lawsuit. the case drew the attention of practitioners and organizations, including the international association of boards of optometry (iab), and became a source of debate within the profession. despite the interest generated by the lawsuit, bass – who was not an aoa member – did not receive the financial support he had envisioned. but in 1966 – while the suit was still pending – the house of delegates of the ama voted to rescind the anti-optometry resolutions of 1955, declaring that: “’the full benefit of medical progress and existing opportunities for the prevention of blindness can be realized if there is no avoidable delay between the onset of abnormalities or their symptoms and the provision of medical care by qualified physicians. the improvement of educational standards of optometry is a laudable objective. doctors of medicine may as teachers participate in the education of optometrists within the legitimate scope of optometric practice.’” “in april 1967, the bass case was settled, with the judge noting that the ama resolution was ‘a great step forward in enhancing continued improvements of relationships which the court suggests should be fostered by both the medical profession and optometrists…”2 classé added one dimension to the conclusion of the case when he continued in his book as follows: “because of aoa’s complaint with the justice department, the bass lawsuit, and conferences between organized optometry and medicine, the inflammatory ama resolutions ended in 1966.”2 complaint with the justice department in reviewing his collection of papers during his term as president of the american optometric association, dr. melvin wolfberg discovered confidential letters from then aoa counsel ellis lyons including a 63-page memorandum filed with the united states department of justice in february 1966 setting forth the aoa’s complaint against organized medicine and its anti-trust implications. an account of those events was published in the july, 2012, issue of hindsight, co-authored by dr. wolfberg and thomas e. eichhorst, j.d.3 mr. eichhorst had been a member of the legal team of the aoa, starting when the bass lawsuit was pending. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 77 this article is no doubt factual but is far from being complete. there is much missing in the story. what the aoa didn’t do in the bass case years is as important, if not more important, than what it did do. during the era of the 1950s, the ama reacted violently to the aoa’s seattle resolution with its own – not one but many – resolutions. the aoa at that time was controlled politically by a faction of optometrists who saw optometry as a profession whose practice was based on the ‘functional’ aspect of vision. in their minds a clear distinction could be made between the professions in that its scope practice was not the practice of medicine. the leadership at that time showed no interest in “medical” optometry. some believe that it was quite possible that had cyrus bass not filed his lawsuit (helped to a great extent by the intervening in that lawsuit by a number of individuals representing the international association of boards of optometry’s (iab) leadership but not the organization itself) that any settlement – when and if made – between the aoa and the ama would have amounted to a “capitulation” on the part of the optometric profession. further, had it not been for the ignoring of aoa policy statements and the then aoa leadership by a number of the state optometric associations and their leadership, the changes in optometry that followed over the next decade that resulted in those states creating the “medical model” of optometry might never have happened. the aoa was publicly silent on the bass case in may 1967, the american optometric association issued a press release concerning the ending of the litigation in the bass ant-trust lawsuit. it was one of the few, if not the only, official published acknowledgement of the bass case. it referred to the “memorandum of opinion” of the court that terminated the lawsuit. one of the sentences in that memorandum stated that “the enactment of the illinois optometric practice act lent a helping hand, in part, by depriving the optometrists from the timehonored means of public contact through window display” and was so alleged in the lawsuit. from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s, before the bates vs. the arizona bar supreme court ruling allowing lawyers to advertise, optometry was reaching its peak in restricting advertising in the interest of “professionalism.” at the time the bates case was decided in 1977, along with the berryhill case (alabama) that forever changed the way state boards were appointed, “the corporate practice of optometry” was well on its way out and price advertising was on the verge of being eliminated thanks to the power given state boards of optometry by various state legislatures. these happenings may have caused cyrus bass to feel “put upon” by professional optometry as represented by aoa. bass practiced in a store front office with eye glasses displayed in the window. other comments on the bass case most of those readers who commented to us on the bass case really commented on the man who filed it rather than on the case itself. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 78 ohs member al rosenbloom, who was president of the illinois optometric association (ioa) in 1968 when the case was going on, mentioned that he met with cyrus bass “and i had a long discussion with him.” dr. rosenbloom, who went on to become the president of the illinois college of optometry, reported that “my aim was to convince bass that he might be more effective in airing his grievances as a member of the ioa and aoa. he did join the ioa for a brief year, but being the loner he was, he quickly got out.” rosenbloom’s thoughts on bass, the person, are quite perceptive: “i don’t remember him ever attending an ioa function. he was an interesting guy. i believe i taped our conversation when we met and i was especially careful during our encounter. i found him to be highly intelligent but highly egocentric with perhaps a messianic-like complex that he, and he alone, had the answers to optometry’s problems. i believe that he had a profound effect on aoa/ama relations. “when i was on the aoa board (of trustees), ellis lyons (counsel to the aoa) dismissed bass’ impact…..i have always felt that differences in opinion should be welcomed and that dialogue leads to better answers.” ohs member david goss, when he knew we were working on a follow-up piece on cyrus bass reported that he found a “cyrus bass reference” on the internet website ancestry.com and “that he was born july 23, 1912 (in poland), and died may 28, 2001, with his last residence in chicago.” we think that that was cyrus bass the optometrist, but we are not absolutely sure. ohs member floyd mizener was ioa president during some of the time of the bass lawsuit and recalls that “dr. bass had a warning reputation in the view of several highly respected optometrists in the aoa and in some state associations. he would not join the aoa or our ioa; i asked him a dozen times. he said he could do more good not being an aoa or an ioa member, and could remain as a radical, and use his legal training more effectively to challenge anything he wanted to.” mizener continued: “his first challenge i remember, one that got major attention, was when we in illinois passed a law that no frames could be displayed in optometrists' retail windows. this bothered bass for some reason, even though he did for the most part practice professionally. what he did was put a portrait of the mona lisa wearing a pair of glasses in his window. well this made the press and news, and everyone soon knew about dr. cyrus bass.” dr. mizener has always been a relentless fighter for private professional optometry and his memory of occurrences during his ioa leadership roles remains sharp. he recalls that bass’ next challenge was when lee optical opened up about 50 lee retail optical stores, in strategic locations around chicago. lee optical purchased all of the andre candy locations in chicago and hired 50 optometrists to work in them. the wholesale optical company behind the scene was dal tex optical, a wholesale lab hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 79 located in texas. the big deal was that lee was violating two state laws and one federal law. this reference to lee optical is germane because at that time, according to mizener, “all of optometry went bonkers and started meeting to see what they could do (with this new competition). dr. cyrus bass surfaced again and we started a committee of a hundred ods to raise money and we tried to fight in the courts!” this was the time that professional ods started metroptic, as a way to handle rx work without sending the orders to texas. dr. bass was a strong advocate in support of that venture. one must have to ponder what dr. bass’ motives were in filing his lawsuit. ohs member john robinson commented to me: “there were several ‘un-named’ optometrists’ who were part of the law suit, making it a class action law suit on behalf of all optometrists in the united states. the ‘illinois optometry act’ was alleged to be equally (?) responsible for the ‘restraint of trade’ and, therefore, implicated in the ‘antitrust’ violations. were bass’ motives entirely ‘personal’ pocketbook issues? were they an issue involving the health and well-being of citizens by depriving them of the services of optometrists whose training would be adversely affected by the actions of the ama? and would the costs of eye care services be more expensive due to lack of competition among providers? or, as many thought, was dr. bass on an ego trip?” robinson continued: “other factors to be considered as to why bass named the illinois optometry practice act as a ‘conspirator’. this was at a time when the ‘professionalization’ movement was reaching its peak in optometry and the state boards were slowly but effectively eliminating the corporate practice of optometry. “two us supreme court decisions that came down a few years later should be kept in mind: 1) gibson v berryhill (1971) forever placed restrictions on the naming of state board members by professional associations of those being regulated; and 2) bates v arizona bar (1977) struck down prohibitions on advertising by attorneys and thereby by all professions including optometrists. at the time of the bass law suit these laws were in full force and effect. “there were very deep divisions between the aoa and the iab over the bass issue. one would need to go back to the aoa house of delegates meeting in seattle in 1954 and carefully review the aoa resolution passed at that meeting. it was interpreted by the american medical association as ‘optometry claiming visual care to be the sole realm of optometry (or words to that effect).’ the ama resolutions quickly followed, as did the adoption of “optometry’s premise” which was thought by many to be an attempt to satisfy the ama that the seattle resolution had been misinterpreted. other than the ‘press release’ and the statements made at the time that the aoa was working with the u.s. justice department behind the scenes, the iab proceedings of the boston meeting 1966 place parameters around the story’”. there is one thing for sure and it is the ‘bass law suit’ and the settlement agreement ending it along with the court’s summary of the dismissal deserve credit in hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 80 the history of the optometric profession for the ama’s rescinding their infamous resolutions of the 1950s demeaning and defaming the profession of optometry. involvement of international association of boards (iab)4 the international association of boards was “involved” in the bass case but not directly so as an organization. the iab had the support of the vast majority of delegates attending its annual meetings, but it was never recognized (as an organization) as a party to the lawsuit by the court. individual members – some were officers or became officers during the course of the lawsuit – were allowed to file ‘amicus curiae’ (friends of the court) briefs. actually, the iab saw a need for the profession to be represented in a lawsuit, the outcome of which could, and would, affect every optometrist in the united states. it was a consensus at that time that the profession’s national organization, the aoa, was ‘sitting on its hands’ doing absolutely nothing – leaving cyrus bass as the ‘engineer’ and ‘conductor’ on a train whose cargo was the ‘future of the optometric profession’. richard billups esq. of mississippi was the iab attorney at the time of the bass case and he had a reputation of being a very effective lawyer in the southern states for ‘clamping down’ on the commercial practice of optometry. he made overtures to bass to assist in the lawsuit but the synergy was missing and billups only became involved peripherally. the fact that the aoa was “working with the justice department behind the scenes” was not well known in the profession, but the involvement by the international association of boards (iab) is well documented. in the 1960s there was not a strong aoa presence in washington. the aoa board of trustees likely with executive director hal bailey’s support was ‘livid’ that the iab was getting involved in the bass lawsuit. it was the aoa contention at the time that this was a matter of interprofessional relations, and, therefore, the sole domain of the aoa. it was a feeling on the part of iab, however, that the chief reason for iab involvement was because the aoa was not going to get involved! robinson remembers that “after the iab got involved and the aoa saw there was fairly broad support for the lawsuit, the story surfaced that the aoa had been working with the justice department in the area of anti-trust and that the law suit by cyrus bass destroyed any opportunity to have the justice department bringing an anti-trust law suit against the ama. then, after the settlement and the withdrawal of the resolutions by the ama, the story began to change that the aoa worked behind the scenes to get the suit dismissed forcing the ama to give in.” in any event, the true story of involvement in the bass case may be lost to history. references 1. bass c. report to the optometric profession, self-published brochure, 1966. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 81 2. classé jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989:17-18. 3. wolfberg md, eichhorst te. american optometric association complaint to the u.s. department of justice regarding activities of organized medicine in the field of vision care which hinder and restrain the profession of optometry. hindsight: j optom hist 2012;43:47-57. 4. proceedings, 47th annual meeting. international association of board of examiners in optometry, june 20-22, 1966. appendix: timeline for bass vs. ama lawsuit 1954 resolution #4 was adopted unanimously by the house of delegates, of the american optometric association in seattle, washington, declaring the “field of visual care is the field of optometry and should be exclusively the field of optometry.” 1955 among a number of resolutions that were adopted by the house of delegates of the american medical association that affected optometry and the relationship between the optometric and medical professions, the main one stated that “it is unethical for any doctor of medicine to teach in any school or college of optometry or to lecture to any optometric organization, or to contribute scientific material to the optometric literature, or in any way impart technical medical knowledge to nonmedical practitioners” was the most demeaning and destructive. 1955 at its annual meeting in milwaukee, wisconsin, the american optometric association adopted resolution #5 that attempted to clear up what optometry “really meant” by its seattle action of 1954. this resolution had three whereases and seven resolves essentially declaring that optometry had no intention to eliminate the exemption granted to medicine to practice optometry. 1964 cyrus bass, an optometrist practicing in chicago, illinois, filed a lawsuit against the american medical association and eight chicago ophthalmologists charging violation of the sherman act. 1965 defendants filed a motion to dismiss. (february 2) 1965 the court denied the motion to dismiss and ordered the plaintiff to file an amended complaint spelling our specifically who were to be included in “and all those similarly stipulated,” the court stating that the description of the class in this class action was too vague. (june 11) 1965 amended complaint filed by dr. bass and five practicing optometrists who joined in the action. (june 30) 1965 defendants filed a motion to dismiss the class action. (september 3) 1966 three officers of the international association of board of examiners in optometry, together with two mississippi optometrists filed a petition as interveners on behalf of the plaintiffs. on that date the court denied the motion of the interveners to intervene “in the interests of judicial economy.” (february 15) 1966 the court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the class action provision of the complaint. (april 15) 1966 the american medical association, at its annual convention, held in chicago, modified resolution #77 by allowing medical doctors to teach in optometry schools. (june 28) 1967 the court ruled that the bass case be dismissed with prejudice. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 82 a historical list of optometry schools in the united states david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university school of optometry, dgoss@indiana.edu until the late nineteenth century, the learning of optometry occurred by apprenticeship. starting in the 1870s, optometry training programs seemed to have proliferated in the united states. one estimate suggests that there were about 60 optometry schools operating for various periods of time between 1872 and 1901 in the u.s., about 42 between 1901 and 1914, 36 from 1914 to 1922, 30 from 1922 to 1926, 10 in 1926 to 1936, and eight from 1936 to 1946.1 the first schools were privately owned operations with training programs of a few weeks to a few months. optometric curricula gradually increased in length and became more standardized, leading to today’s four years of collegiate pre-optometry studies and four years of professional education. this paper represents an attempt to construct a list of optometry schools in the united states. schools listed in blue book of optometrists, 1912-1972 the blue book of optometrists was first published in 1912 and was published every other year thereafter through most of its existence. the following is a listing of the schools and the years that they were included in the blue book of optometrists through 1972. the year 1972 was an arbitrary stopping point. all of the schools operating in 1972 are still in existence. this list does not indicate how active the schools were. because the listings began in 1912 and were printed only every other year and the criteria for inclusion in the blue book are unclear, the years of inclusion may not accurately represent the starting and ending years of operation of the schools. the schools are listed below with the names given in the blue book. some of the different listings may represent name changes in continuing schools. american institute of optometry (new york city), 1916-1924 american optical college (detroit), 1912-1914 appleton college of optometry (seattle), 1922 atlantic university school of optometry (virginia beach, virginia), 1932 aydelotte-mccormick college of ophthalmology (dixon, illinois), 1934 bradley horological institute (peoria, illinois), 1914-1916 bradley polytechnic institute (peoria, illinois), 1918-1926 california college of optics (san francisco), 1918 california college of optometry (san francisco), 1920-1924 chicago college of optometry, 1948-1954 chicago school of refraction, 1916 hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 83 columbia optical college (st. paul, minnesota), 1914, 1920-1926 columbia university, 1912-1954 dekeyser institute of optometry (portland, oregon), 1916-1926 demars school of optics (minneapolis), 1912-1922 denver optical college (denver, colorado), 1912 donders school of optometry (los angeles), 1918 franklin institute (passaic, new jersey), 1914-1918 harden optical college (denver, colorado), 1912, 1918 harden optical college (cleveland, ohio), 1920-1926 illinois college of optometry (chicago), 1956-1972 indiana university (bloomington, indiana), 1952-1972 interstate institute of optometry (litchfield, illinois), 1912-1914 kansas school of optics (saco, maine), 1912-1918 kansas school of optics (atascadero, california), 1920 kentucky state college of optometry (mt. sterling, kentucky), 1940 los angeles college of optometry, 1950-1972 los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry, 1912-1920 los angeles school of optometry, 1922-1930, 1934-1948 james maguire (st. paul, minnesota), 1912 massachusetts college of optometry (boston), 1952-1972 massachusetts school of optometry (boston), 1912-1950 monroe college of optometry (chicago), 1940-1946 mccormick medical college (chicago), 1914-1918, 1924-1926 milwaukee college of optometry, 1920 missouri college of optometry (st. louis), 1914-1926 nebraska college of optics (lincoln), 1920 needles institute of optometry (kansas city, missouri), 1912-1926 new orleans optical college, 1914-1926 northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology (chicago), 1912-1926 northern illinois college of optometry (chicago), 1928-1954 north pacific college of optometry (portland, oregon), 1928-1942 northwest college of optometry (seattle), 1924 ohio state university (columbus), 1916-1972 omaha optical institute, 1914-1922 oregon college of ocular sciences (portland, oregon), 1922-1924 pacific university (forest grove, oregon), 1946-1972 pennsylvania college of optics and ophthalmology, (philadelphia), 1914-1920 pennsylvania college of optometrists (philadelphia), 1918-1920 pennsylvania college of optometry (philadelphia), 1966-1972 pennsylvania state college of optometry (philadelphia), 1920-1964 philadelphia institute of optometry, 1914-1916 philadelphia optical college, 1912-1940 post graduate eye institute (chicago), 1932 physicians and surgeons optical college (denver, colorado), 1912-1920 reynolds optical college (portland, oregon), 1912 rochester school of optometry, 1912-1926 hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 84 school of optometry of monroe university (chicago), 1938 south bend college of optics (south bend, indiana), 1912-1920 southern california college of optometry and ophthalmology (ruddy and ring) (los angeles), 1912 southern california eye college, 1914 southern college of optometry (memphis, tennessee), 1934-1972 southwestern optical college (kansas city, missouri), 1912-1922 spencer optical institute (new york), 1912-1914 state university of new york, 1970 stone school of optics (st. paul, minnesota), 1912-1922 texas college of optometry (dallas), 1922-1924 university of alabama birmingham, 1970-1972 university of california (berkeley), 1924-1972 university of houston, 1954-1972 university of illinois (champaign), 1924 university of massachusetts (boston), 1922 university of rochester, 1926-1932 university of southern california, 1932 washington school of optometry (spokane), 1914-1928 western ophthalmology institute (san francisco), 1914-1918 additional extinct schools the vast majority of the above schools are no longer in operation. a 1977 issue of the newsletter of the optometric historical society included a listing of extinct optometry schools compiled from the files of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo, now the archives and museum of the american optometric association).2 while there is significant overlap in that list and the one above, there are some schools appearing in only one or the other. the schools appearing in the ilamo list, but not the one based on the blue book of optometrists are as follows: bates’ school of optometry, new york city chicago ophthalmic college chicago ophthalmic college and hospital detroit optical institute j.c. eberhardt’s optometry courses, new york city ferguson’s school of optometry, new york city hutchinson’s school for watchmakers, engravers, and opticians, laporte, indiana indiana state college of optics, south bend, indiana iowa college of optometry, des moines johnston optical institute, chicago johnston optical institute and college of ophthalmology, chicago kansas city optical college kansas city school of optometry kansas school of optometry, topeka kellam and moore’s college of optics, atlanta hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 85 king school of optics, new york city klein optical school, boston knowles’ school of optometry, new york city leader optical college, topeka, kansas lincoln optical college, lincoln, nebraska los angeles optical college lowe’s school of optometry, mcminnville, oregon manhattan school of optics of the city of new york maryland optical college, baltimore mccormick neurological college, chicago mccormick optical college, chicago new england optical institute, boston new york institute of optometry, new york city the new york preparatory school, new york city new york school of optometry, new york city new york university, new york city pennsylvania college of optometry, pittsburgh rowley ophthalmological college, st. louis st. louis college of optometry st. louis college of physicians and surgeons southern school of optometry, nashville, tennessee southwestern college of optometry, kansas city, missouri syracuse school of optics, syracuse, new york some name changes of existing schools illinois college of optometry (ico) can trace its origin to the chicago college of ophthalmology and otology started in 1872. with a change in ownership in 1891 from henry olin to james mcfatrich, the name of the school changed to northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology (nicoo). another of the predecessor schools of ico was the needles institute of optometry started in 1907 in kansas city. needles purchased nicoo in 1922, and in 1926 he merged nicoo and the needles institute of optometry to form the northern illinois college of optometry. in 1936, physician reuben seid started another of ico’s predecessor schools, the midwestern college of optometry, which had name changes to monroe college of optometry in 1937 and to the chicago college of optometry in the late 1940s. northern illinois college of optometry and the chicago college of optometry merged in 1955 to form ico.3 the new england college of optometry had its start as klein school of optics in 1894. it was started by physician august andreas klein. in 1901, the name of the school was changed to massachusetts school of optometry. in 1950, its name was changed to massachusetts college of optometry, and in 1976 to new england college of optometry.4 the origin of the southern california college of optometry was in the los angeles school of ophthalmology and optometry founded by marshall b. ketchum in 1904. another school, the southern california eye college was started in 1908 by hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 86 oculists t.j. ruddy and m.m. ring. in 1909, the name of ketchum’s school was changed to los angeles optical college and post graduate school for opticians. the southern california eye college merged with the los angeles optical college to form the southern california college of optometry and ophthalmology in 1909. in 1911, the name of the school changed to the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry. in 1922, the name of the school became los angeles school of optometry. in 1930, the school operated as part of the university of southern california (usc) in the department of physics-optics. in 1933, the school separated from usc and again assumed the name los angeles school of optometry. later name changes were to los angeles college of optometry in 1949 and to southern california college of optometry in 1972.5 north pacific college of optometry had its origins in the 1920s. it operated in portland, oregon until its suspension during world war ii. the charter and assets of the school were transferred to pacific university in forest grove, oregon, and the college of optometry started there in 1945.6,7 one reference says that the dekeyser institute of optometry was founded in 1910 and the oregon college of ocular sciences was founded in 1919, with north pacific college of optometry being formed in 1921 from their merger.6 pennsylvania college of optometry began as pennsylvania state college of optometry in 1919. in 2008, pennsylvania college of optometry established salus university. the following programs are offered by salus university: pennsylvania college of optometry, college of education and rehabilitation, osborne college of audiology, college of health sciences, and office of graduate studies in biomedicine.8 some changes in name and location of extinct schools the kansas school of optometry appears in the list of extinct schools above in topeka and the kansas school of optics was listed in the blue book in maine and california. this was the correspondence school operated by james littlefield and the different locations represent the moves that he made during his lifetime.9 there was an entry in the 1912 blue book for a james maguire school in st. paul, minnesota. in the 1914 through 1926 blue books, the columbia optical college is described as being in st. paul with james maguire as the president, so these are presumably the same school. the teaching of optometry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was sometimes done in conjunction with the teaching of horology (watch and clock making). it has been suggested that the first school of horology was the parsons horological institute, opened in 1886 in laporte, indiana, by j.r. parsons.10 its department of optics was the start for some optometrists.11 in 1892, lydia moss bradley purchased the school and moved it to peoria, illinois. it may have been known as parsons polytechnic institute for a period of time, because a history of the indiana association of optometrists states that one of its charter members, i.m. rowe, took a course in 1894 at parsons polytechnic institute in peoria, illinois.12 in 1897, bradley polytechnic hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 87 institute was dedicated with the inclusion of a horology department. in 1946, bradley polytechnic institute was renamed bradley university.13 one of the schools listed in the blue book was the kentucky state college of optometry. it was founded in 1935 by william dayton walden (1911-1988) with the name walden college of optometry and technology.14 the school was re-chartered with the name kentucky state college of optometry in 1937. it closed in 1945. other extinct schools the above lists of schools no longer in existence are undoubtedly incomplete. by searching the indexes of the newsletter of the optometric historical society and of hindsight and other resources, i have found a few more extinct schools. gregg15 says that the foster school of optics was formed in 1888 in boston. cox16 also mentions the foster school of optics and said that it was run by edwin s. foster, m.d. some of the first “schools” were brief courses given by optical companies in order to have more persons to whom to sell their products. gregg15 mentions that the king optical company in cleveland, ohio, offered such courses prior to 1890. it is unclear whether there was any connection of that course to the king school of optics in new york city in the ilamo list above. another extinct school appears to have been the jacksonian optical college in jackson, michigan. the james leeds collection of books and documents contained three letters dated 1904 soliciting enrollment in its correspondence course.17 the fourth edition of a prospectus for the course was dated 1903. its president was lester j. harris, m.d. if readers can provide information on any other schools not included in this list, please contact the author. alternative names for schools it is possible that some schools may have at times been referred to by the name of the proprietor rather than the actual name of the school. for example, i have read of two optometrists who were said to have taken a six month night course at benson’s college of optometry in san francisco.18 optometrist ernest a. benson (1872-1960) was president of the california college of optometry which opened in 1904 in san francisco.19 so it appears that the california college of optometry and benson’s college of optometry must have been the same school. present day optometry schools from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, the number of optometry schools remained fairly stable at 10 to 12. although there were four schools that opened during those years, that number was offset by one closure (the optometry school at columbia university in the 1950s) and one merger (chicago college of optometry with northern illinois college of optometry to form illinois college of optometry in 1955). three schools opened in the 1970s, and three in the 1980s. then there were no more optometry schools opened until 2009, when three more started. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 88 the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco) currently lists 21 member schools and colleges.20 the current names of those schools, as given at the asco website, and the years of their founding are as follows: illinois college of optometry (chicago), 1872 new england college of optometry (boston), 1894 southern california college of optometry (fullerton, ca), 1904 the ohio state university college of optometry (columbus), 1914 pennsylvania college of optometry at salus university (philadelphia), 1919 university of california berkeley school of optometry, 1923 southern college of optometry (memphis, tn), 1932 pacific university college of optometry (forest grove, or), 1945 (a continuation of north pacific college of optometry, founded in 1921) indiana university school of optometry (bloomington), 1951 (preprofessional classes started in 1951; first professional courses in 1953) university of houston college of optometry (houston, tx), 1952 university of alabama at birmingham school of optometry, 1969 state university of new york state college of optometry (new york), 1970 michigan college of optometry at ferris state university (big rapids), 1975 northeastern state university oklahoma college of optometry (tahlequah), 1979 university of missouri at st. louis college of optometry, 1980 inter american university of puerto rico school of optometry (bayamon), 1981 nova southeastern university college of optometry (ft. lauderdale, fl), 1989 midwestern university arizona college of optometry (glendale), 2009 university of the incarnate word rosenberg school of optometry (san antonio, tx), 2009 western university of health sciences college of optometry (pomona, ca), 2009 massachusetts college of pharmacy and health sciences school of optometry (worcester), 2012 references 1. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:297. 2. hofstetter hw. 66 or more optometry schools. newsletter optom hist soc 1977;8:18-20. 3. miller ar, brown jm. optometry in america: a history of the illinois college of optometry 1872-1997. chicago: illinois college of optometry, 1996. 4. moline sw. century of vision: the new england college of optometry – an anecdotal history of the first hundred years. boston: new england college of optometry, 1994. 5. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984. 6. bleything w. pacific university college of optometry. oregon encyclopedia. portland state university, 2009. www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/pacific_university_college_of_optometry/. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 89 7. miranda g, read r. splendid audacity: the story of pacific university. seattle: documentary book publishers, 2000. 8. www.salus.edu/index.html. 9. goss da. james e. littlefield, author of optometry – the littlefield system of eye and nerve measurements. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:92-99. 10. brown a. bradley university and its watchmaking past. peoria magazines, 2012. www.peoriamagazines.com/print/7998. 11. goss da. century old optometry practices. hindsight 1998;29:23. 12. anonymous. origins of an association. newsletter optom hist soc 1983;14:37-44. 13. www.bradley.edu/about/history. 14. hofstetter hw. an academic rise and demise. newsletter optom hist soc 1986;17:3-5. 15. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:219. 16. cox optometry, the profession: its antecedents, birth, and development. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:45. 17. hofstetter hw. jacksonian optical college. newsletter optom hist soc 1991;22:39-40. 18. fiorillo j. berkeley optometry: a history. berkeley, ca: university of california, 2010:11,337. 19. fiorillo j. berkeley optometry: a history. berkeley, ca: university of california, 2010:80-81. 20. http://www.opted.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3336. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 90 the madame heymann optical collection – greatest in history, disappeared in 1925, then resurfaced between 2006 and 2008 david a. fleishman, m.d. 20 kings road, sharon, ma 02067, dflash50@comcast.net abstract beginning over one hundred years ago the finest collection of optical objects was assembled by madame alfred heymann. then in 1911, this parisian woman authored the greatest book on the history of eyeglasses. subsequently, in 1925, her entire collection totally disappeared from public view. the research effort behind www.antiquespectacles.com located this amazing collection between 2006 and 2008, all in museum storage. nine institutions around paris hold some of the best optical artifacts ever created and the majority of the missing collection has now been recovered. considered the holy grail in the world of those who collect optical antiques, this pre-eminent collection included (especially) early fabulous hand-carved wooden eyeglass cases along with their associated original early glasses. the author traveled to paris in 2010 to work with curators at all these prominent french museums. additional items from the original renowned collection were successfully recovered. introduction madame heymann authored the greatest book on the history of eyeglasses in 1911 and she has become the only female recognized on the honor roll of distinguished persons which appears on the antiquespectacles.com online museum and encyclopedia. born alice babette schloss in august 1844, little else is known about alice’s very early life. after marrying alfred heymann in 1865 the couple rented a residence at 20 avenue de l’opera but they also owned a fine home in st cloud just west of paris. both sides of the family had fairly substantial assets and alice’s husband alfred (abraham) became a fruit trader. their friends around paris, near the end of 19th beginning of 20th c., were important aristocrats, famous musicians, and well-known writers. after alfred passed away in 1897, alice devoted the vast majority of her time pursuing and collecting fine optical objects. her searches extended far and wide. she travelled and studied extensively and thus became a truly passionate collector who organized a sizeable number of the most attractive relics she could acquire. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 91 16th century french jeton, musee de cluny. 1915 american encyclopedia of ophthalmology, the photo that stimulated it all items all from the 16th century hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 92 she developed studious experience and was therefore able to sniff out at least several hundred uncommon and unusual optical treasures. madame heymann strongly believed that the artisan who first created eyeglasses around the year 1286 was just as important as christopher columbus!! in addition, she considered many of her best eyeglasses cases from the 16th to 18th century to be little masterpieces. her collection also included a large group of ornate spyglasses, optical fans, tobacco containers, optical charms, scissors-glasses, monocles, perfume flasks, and all sorts of other assorted unusual objects. she even gathered some incredibly rare non-optical collectibles. heymann knew that viewing tubes without lenses had been used as early as the year 1000. once high quality optical lenses were added to these tubes in the early 17th century in order to create the telescope, she looked upon that as an admirable invention. during her later years heymann located some of the most fantastic spyglasses (little telescopes) in existence and some of these were later given to the musée du louvre and musée des arts décoratifs following her death in 1925. around the turn of the 20th century some wonderful heymann objects were exhibited associated at the carnavalet museum in paris. her nicest optical objects were in the exhibition of les lorgnettes, part of the much larger 1900 universal and international exhibition of paris. only four copies of the rare 1900 brochures are currently known to exist. the book – lunettes et lorgnettes de jadis madame alfred heymann continued to hunt down and acquire relics and finally around 1911 a large group of wonderful objects became part of an exhibition again associated with the carnavalet museum while some of her best spyglass lorgnettes were exhibited at the musée des arts décoratifs. that same year she published lunettes et lorgnettes de jadis, [paris, j. leroy]. this rare book was based mostly on her own collection. her major goal was to please anyone who was attracted to historical objects of the past. only 300 copies were printed and just over 50 examples have been located to date. books with their original slipcover are especially scarce. an exhibition was also held at the musée de cluny, officially known as musée national du moyen âge. at the same time, musee des arts decoratifs had two windows filled with little collectibles, 18th and 19th century lorgnette spyglasses from the collection. these events all occurred together with the publishing of the book around 1911-12. copy #114 of the book deserves high respect. its existence only became known in october 2010 during an appointment to meet heymann’s great grandson roland hesse. he possesses the only copy that was handed down in the family. with its original slipcover and in excellent condition, it was a great experience to hold this treasure. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 93 cut steel, largest known group, carnavalet second earliest dated case known, dated 1580 decorated with cherubs, gilded ornate, 18th century hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 94 the book is a well-written survey on the history of eyewear, though it is presented entirely in french. there are about 155 pages in all with 25 plates of which four are fullpage color gravures. there are over 200 additional smaller illustrations. more than half of these illustrations are pictures of paintings and prints rather than actual optical aids. most of these pictures are ascribed to a particular museum or other site. the photos were apparently well-selected because madame heymann wanted them to be instructive for anyone who handled the book. in conclusion, heymann’s book made her collection famous while at the same time the collection now makes her book famous too. the review and evaluation of all the pages initiated leads to several other collections since not everything illustrated is from the heymann collection. rare and unusual objects from other museums have also led to the discovery of artwork and objects which have been of interest to this research and the resulting educational antiquespectacles website. one significant example can be presented. near the top of page 29 heymann, in french, describes what she believed to be the greatest optical object ever. part of the felix doistau collection, it was on loan to the musée du louvre. the two solid gold eyeglasses in a solid gold and enamel case may possibly be the example seen as part of the rothschild collection, currently in london at s.j. phillips. no other solid gold glasses in a gold and enamel case are known to exist in any other collection from all this research, so far. the heymann book continues to serve as a valuable resource for www.antiquespectacles.com. mrs. heymann deserves our sincerest thanks and credit for providing images and information about other historic optical objects, thus helping to further expand everyone’s general base of knowledge. exquisite carving, the story of saint hubert hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 95 for two pairs, virgin mary and jesus on the reverse, 16th century madame heymann’s book hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 96 imagine opening a drawer and finding these instruments of the passion and the last supper, 19th century ivory, with book of sundials, one of two known hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 97 the collection ophthalmologist dr. charles letocha has studied optical history for several decades and he has helped with many areas of the website. his research found a 1960s german journal which listed countries with the locations of some significant optical collections. charles shared that list with the author in 2006 and several new names appeared. specifically for “frankreich” (france) there were two leads to pursue with this research. so the musée des arts décoratifs was contacted and soon afterwards the musée carnavalet. this eventually led to the location of the madame heymann’s 1924 will. the details of the story and the detective work are available on www.antiquespectacles.com. over time objects have been found and now examined in storage at the following institutions: a. chateau in ecouen (musée national de la renaissance). about 150 of the finest eye boxes and their associated glasses, 16th – early 19th century. these used to reside in the musée de cluny so in inventory they started as cl. 210xx but then became e. cl. 210xx. b. musée des arts décoratifs. about 75 objects, mostly ornate spyglasses. c. musée carnavalet. over 60 objects including about thirty single lens relics. d. musée de cluny. only one object is present, however, it is a world class 16th century jeton. this is where the major portion of the collection actually began its journey soon after heymann’s death in 1925. e. musée des arts asiatiques guimet. two wonderfully carved chinese cases with their original eyeglasses. f. château de malmaison in rueil-malmaison. one spyglass and one optical fan, both associated with napoleon. g. musée de ’opéra. a fan, a pair of scissors-glasses and a spyglass, all with important provenance. h. musee du louvre. eleven objects, all amazing spyglasses. i. musée du conservatoire de musique this museum has nothing optical but they received heymann’s four guimbards (jew’s harp) from the 17th century with their cases of sculpted wood, one of the cases is in iron. j. museo dell'occhiale in pieve di cadore, italy. about ten very nice objects are now here. the actual eyeglass cases themselves, each and every one, represent incredible works of craftsmanship. some of the relics are truly spectacular. these objects are so rare and artistic they stand out and deserve everyone’s appreciation. several of the best are religious in nature, both front and back. madame heymann believed these particular cases may have originally belonged to the high clergy because the cases depict scenes from the life of christ. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 98 mop quizzing glass, musee carnavalet optical charms, museo dell’occhiale hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 99 silver and mop, about 1700 after the discovery news regarding the discovery of many of the missing heymann objects has already started to spread. advanced collectors worldwide amaze at the sight of these historic relics, known previously only in the underappreciated 1911 book. many do not even appear in the book and were therefore totally unknown previously. these antiques deserve to be considered amongst the most outstanding optical treasures in existence….the best of the best. imagine what madame heymann must have felt as she held each one in her own hands perhaps 100 years ago. small portions of the heymann collection still appear to be missing. some of the unusual spyglasses (lorgnettes) seen on the colored plates in her book have not yet been located. hopefully these are in storage at one of the smaller museums in the vicinity of paris. where are the nearly three dozen fans that were mentioned in the 1900 exhibition catalogue? two are located at musée des arts décoratifs and one appears in storage at the château de malmaison, and one other with provenance is at the musée de l’opéra. one surfaced by chance in the vanlathem collection. where are the rest? where are all the nearly dozen tobacco containers with optical devices? the musee du tabac d’interet national (tobacco museum) in south in bergerac, france has none of the missing tobacco containers. where are the best magnifiers, the ones from her book and also several which appear in the photo from the 1915 encyclopedia? one from the 17th century has a horn frame and also its original case, essentially unique as a combination. heymann proudly owned about fifty optical charms and yet only a few have been seen in the art decoratifs storage area. where are all the rest? there were ten perfume flasks and nearly all are missing. in addition, she describes seven “primitive” binoculars (given dates 1826 – 1838). what happened to them? what else was in her collection that does not even appear in her book? we may never know the answer to this key question. but it is fun to wonder and speculate and hope. leads should arise in the future and then further research may provide additional answers to all these questions. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 100 religious carvings, 17th century tobacco container with spyglass, musee carnavalet hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 101 two baleen spectacles, from the du sommerard collection summary madame alfred heymann was an advanced french collector from the late 19th and early 20th century who devoted much time to enriching her optical collection. she remained devoted to all the available scientific and historic knowledge of the time. missing since 1925, much of her collection has now been uncovered in storage at a group of famous museums mostly around paris. by far, this is the #1 optical collection in history. to have been partially instrumental in the discovery of the madame heymann optical collection was one of the most exciting experiences of the author’s life. optical lens research remains fascinating and the author has received the kind assistance of a wonderful group of individuals (collectors/historians/curators) worldwide. this has been a team effort. everyone’s combined time and energy has been rewarded and hopefully it will lead to further discoveries and an ever-increasing recognition of this amazing heymann collection (and perhaps others) in museums around paris. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 102 perhaps an attractive coffee-table book will be created and published in the future in order to further spread the information and images of these incredibly historic specimens. someone may eventually translate the original 1911 book from french into english so more people around the world can enjoy everything included in those wonderful pages. the book likely featured heymann’s best objects but one significant question remains. how large was her entire collection at its maximum? finally, these objects have the potential to be gathered together for a public display and exhibition. will an interested public ever be granted the opportunity to see and appreciate all of these treasured objects? will the prominent museums of paris ever try to organize and assemble something for the public to see? i hope so. the heymann collection could be featured along with great antique optical objects from other famous collections. certainly optical collections are underappreciated and some of the most important objects seem lost to history. a great exhibition organized at a major french museum in or near paris would be well-attended. these objects deserve the highest level of recognition and visitors from around the world would benefit from the sight and knowledge of the fabulous madame heymann optical collection. acknowledgments the author warmly acknowledges the extreme dedication of jean-marie devriendt and alexis vanlathem who separately drove to paris to meet with prominent curators in order to take some photos for the start of this research. their devotion of time and energies over a several year period has been deeply appreciated. this article was assembled with the wonderful assistance of dr. charles letocha, roberto vascellari, and werner weismuller. curators michèle bimbenet-privat from the musée national de la renaissance, roselyne hurel from the musée carnavalet, and sophie la gabrielle from the musée de cluny also deserve special gratitude for giving up time from their regular responsibilities in order to help with this endeavor. finally credit is due carla and paul aangenendt, gail bardhan, nadia braham, frank barraclough, dr. jay galst, dr. patricia haas, mr. roland hesse, reva hurtes, sara schechner, udo timm, lilla vekerdy and jean-paul wayenborgh. i am very appreciative of their contribution. rachel brishoual and anne forray-carlier of the musée des arts décoratifs, catherine delacour of the musée des arts asiatiques guimet, alain pougetoux of the château de malmaison, marie-hélène de ribou and béatrice coullaré of the musée du louvre, and pierre vidal of the musée de l’opéra were all helpful with this research work. many thanks to them. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 103 jess boyd eskridge, optometric educator and author david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract jess boyd eskridge (1928-2011) was a noted optometry faculty member from 1954 to 1990 at four different schools. he was co-editor of a popular 1991 book, clinical procedures in optometry. that book and his other contributions to optometry are discussed. key words: optometric education, optometry books, optometry history. jess boyd eskridge (1928-2011) was born and raised in wyoming. after two years in the army and brief periods of study at ventura junior college (california) and ucla, he enrolled at university of california berkeley. he completed b.s. and m.opt. degrees in optometry there in 1953 and 1954. he joined the faculty of the university of houston college of optometry in 1954, when it was in its third year of existence.1 while at houston, he taught courses in low vision, advanced refraction methods, strabismus diagnosis and treatment, and glaucoma detection.2 in 1958, he left houston to enter the physiological optics graduate program at the ohio state university. eskridge received the m.s. degree at ohio state in 1959 with a thesis entitled “the role of saccades and drifts in the maintenance of binocular fixation” and the ph.d. in 1964 with the thesis “investigation of the horopter and the apparent frontoparallel plane.” he was a member of the ohio state optometry faculty from 1961 to 1971.3 he spent the 1971-72 academic year on the faculty at indiana university. in 1972, eskridge went to the university of alabama birmingham school of optometry, at the start of its fourth year of operation. he served there as chairman of the department of optometry for over ten years.4 he retired in 1990. eskridge was a frequent contributor to american journal of optometry and physiological optics, journal of the american optometric association, and optometry and vision science. most of his papers were on various aspects of binocular vision, such as strabismus, testing procedures, vertical imbalances, fixation disparity, prism prescribing, and accommodation, but he also published papers in other areas, such as refraction and tonometry. his research often addressed significant clinical issues and its results offered practical applications to patient care. eskridge’s ability to apply research results to clinical practice is illustrated by the statement made by irvin borish in 1971 that he considered eskridge “among the top five or six clinicians in the educational area and a prime example of the type of instructor who can relate proven background in research method and theoretical knowledge with clinical application.”5 hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 104 an example of eskridge’s practical mind is his design of what many clinicians have come to call the “doggy paddle.”6 it consists of small black on white figures printed on paper with an adhesive back and attached to a tongue depressor. the figures in its most recent design are a sunburst-like pattern, four lines of letters, and the profile of the head of a dog, the latter element giving it its popular name. it has been used as a nearpoint target for decades. photographs of a doggy paddle can be found on pages 67 and 80 in clinical procedures in optometry edited by eskridge, john amos, and jimmy bartlett.7,8 some years ago when i made inquiries about its origin, ted grosvenor said that he recalled eskridge making such an object in the 1950s at the university of houston when they were on the faculty together there.9 when i wrote to eskridge, he confirmed that he introduced a nearpoint target on a tongue depressor at houston and then at each of the other schools where he taught – ohio state, indiana, and then alabama, and he sent me a sheet of the stick-on targets, identical to those that were used at indiana.10 today similar nearpoint targets on pd rules or other handheld objects are commonly available commercially or as give-aways from optical companies. an obituary notice recognized eskridge as a mentor to many young faculty members, and observed that he possessed “great intellect, a positive attitude, and compassion to help people in their career development.”4 eskridge’s long-time colleague at university of alabama birmingham school of optometry (uabso), john f. amos, said that eskridge “was infinitely patient, encouraging, and the greatest intellect i have met in optometry for his wide range of knowledge….[and] was deeply passionate about clinical optometry as well as research. he deserves significant credit for the development of the optometry program at uabso. he was responsible for the recruitment of an outstanding group of young clinicians who brought stability and recognition to this young program.”11 eskridge was a strong advocate of optometric continuing education, as evidenced by the fact that he gave over 400 continuing education courses and he was a member or chairman of the american academy of optometry ellerbrock continuing education committee for 24 years.4 he received the american academy of optometry’s eminent service award, the award of excellence from heart of america contact lens and primary care, and the distinguished service award from southeastern university. university of alabama birmingham school of optometry gives the dr. jess boyd eskridge clinical excellence award annually to a primary care faculty member. in 1991, eskridge, along with his uabso colleagues john amos and jimmy d. bartlett, published a very significant 808 page book, clinical procedures in optometry. in the preface, they described the main purpose of the book as providing “a clinical reference in the needed area of clinical procedures, and through its use to unify components of the optometric curriculum and thereby produce greater unity within the profession of optometry.” (p. xi) emphasis was on procedures that would likely be used by a primary care optometrist rather than on procedures that might be exclusively in the province of the specialty practitioner. eighty-four chapters by 44 authors were organized into seven parts: (1) general procedures, (2) ocular disease procedures, (3) contact lens procedures, (4) pediatric procedures, (5) binocular vision procedures, hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 105 (6) low vision procedures, and (7) patient care decision making and reimbursement. the first two of the seven parts accounted for about three-fourths of the book’s pages. each chapter covered one procedure, as for example, one chapter on visual acuity, one chapter on near point of convergence, one chapter on contrast sensitivity, etc. chapters contained five general headings: (1) introduction, which defined the particular procedure and described its general clinical use; (2) instrumentation, which looked at the theoretical basis of the devices used in the procedure; (3) commercially available instruments, which described their basic design, with the inclusion of photographs of the instruments described; (4) clinical procedure, which gave a step by step outline of how each procedure is performed; and (5) clinical implications, which covered the clinical significance and interpretation of each procedure. reviews of the book were very positive. reviews for optometry journals said that it was “a valuable resource containing much practical information,”12 and an “excellent textbook.”13 a review in an ophthalmology journal called it “well-written, well-organized, and well-illustrated.”14 evidence for it being a valuable reference is the fact it was among the forty books nominated more than once for being one of the most important twentieth century optometry books.15 it was also the most frequently cited book in the second edition of borish’s clinical refraction.16,17 i was fortunate enough to contribute three chapters to clinical procedures in optometry, one of them co-authored with eskridge.18 through that process and through co-authoring a chapter in another book with eskridge,19 i came to admire him for his professionalism, his intellect, his practicality, his empathy, and his confident demeanor. references 1. stewart cr. the founding years: university of houston college of optometry 1952-1961. georgetown, tx: armadillo publishing, 2003:41. 2. stewart cr. the founding years: university of houston college of optometry 1952-1961. georgetown, tx: armadillo publishing, 2003:131. 3. eskridge jb. accommodation and vergence with the brewster stereoscope. j am optom assoc 1976;47:919-924. 4. anonymous. jess boyd eskridge, od, phd, faao, passing. optom vis sci 2011;88:652-653. 5. borish im. letter to whom it may concern, june 29, 1971, on file at indiana university. 6. goss da. origins of iu ‘doggy paddle’ revealed in research. indiana university optometry alumni focus 1995;17:1. 7. london r. near point of convergence. in: eskridge jb, amos jf, bartlett jd, eds. clinical procedures in optometry. philadelphia: lippincott, 1991:66-68. 8. daum km. heterophoria and heterotropia. in: london r. near point of convergence. in: eskridge jb, amos jf, bartlett jd, eds. clinical procedures in optometry. philadelphia: lippincott, 1991:72-90. 9. grosvenor t. email to the author, april 8, 1994. 10. eskridge jb. letter to the author, april 25, 1994. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 106 11. amos jf. email to the author, september 18, 2012. 12. hrynchak p. book review: clinical procedures in optometry. optom vis sci 1992;69:250-251. 13. lovie-kitchin j. book review: clinical procedures in optometry. clin exp optom 1992;75:126. 14. santos g. book review: clinical procedures in optometry. arch ophthalmol 1992;110:1059. 15. goss da, penisten dk. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight 2004;35:36-40. 16. benjamin wj, ed. borish’s clinical refraction, 2nd ed. st. louis: butterworth heinemann elsevier, 2006. 17. goss da. literature and information in vision care and vision science. optom 2008;79:670-686. 18. goss da, eskridge jb. keratometry. in: eskridge jb, amos jf, bartlett jd, eds. clinical procedures in optometry. philadelphia: lippincott, 1991:135-154. 19. goss da, eskridge jb. myopia. in: amos jf, ed. diagnosis and management in vision care. boston: butterworths, 1987:121-171. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 107 biographical notes on lionel laurance david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract lionel laurance (1856-1936) was an optometric educator in canada and england and an author of important optometry books, most notably general and practical optics, first published in 1908, and visual optics and sight testing, first published in 1912. key words: optometric education, optometry books, optometry history. lionel laurance was born in england in 1856. after the completion of his early education in london, he went to work for an older brother in spain.1 the older brother, like their father, was an antiques dealer. soon after his brother in spain died in 1886, laurance went to toronto, canada, to work for another brother. this brother, barney laurance, was a dealer in “wholesale optical goods” and in the 1890s was president of dominion optical company.1 during his stay in toronto, lionel laurance suffered a leg injury and was incapacitated for a period of time. he spent that time studying books on optics and refraction, including donders’ major text. laurance’s self-study in toronto and some instruction from his brother largely constituted his education in optics.1 he then opened a school named optical institute of canada in montreal and another named dominion optical college in toronto. fisher suggested that laurance’s reasons for opening these schools included his “love for teaching,” his “quest” for optical knowledge, and a desire “to increase the number of prospective customers” for his brother’s wholesale optical businesses.1 fisher credits lionel laurance with being the first known optometric educator in canada.2 in 1896, laurance returned to london. soon after his arrival, he started giving classes in “practical sight testing.”3 in 1898 and 1899, he taught at northampton polytechnic. later instructional efforts included partnership with henry oscar wood in the school of optics ltd. in 1898, the worshipful company of spectacle makers held their first examination and laurance passed “with distinction.”3 in 1904, the spectacle makers company held their first examination on sight-testing and laurance passed that test as well. laurance was active in efforts to advance optometry and protect its interests. in 1905, he founded an organization named the institute of ophthalmic opticians devoted to those purposes. laurance was a frequent contributor to english optometric periodicals such as the optician and was an associate editor for the american publication optometric hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 108 weekly. many of his articles emphasized a systematic routine of subjective testing including the fogging method. in 1921, he delivered a lecture on subjective testing at the american optometric association meeting. in that lecture he stated that the majority of persons consulted him due to “asthenopic conditions” and that his subjective testing consisted of six stages: “the measurement of optical error of each eye. the test for equalization of the eyes. the muscle test. the near test. the decision as to the lenses needed. the fitting of, or measurement for, the frame.”4 lionel laurance published some widely used books. one of his first books was the eye: its elementary anatomy, physiology and optical constants, published in 1908 (100 pages). in the preface to this little book, laurance stated that it was “written for students in optics.” it contained a summary of ocular anatomy, sensory aspects of vision, visual acuity, color vision, and ocular optics. the first edition of general and practical optics was also published in 1908. laurance published second and third editions in 1914 and 1920, and a fourth edition appeared in 1932 with laurance and h. oscar wood as co-authors. i examined a copy of the second edition (363 pages) and found it to be comprehensive with coverage of physical optics, photometry, reflection, refraction, thin lenses, magnification, cylinder lenses, transposition and neutralization of lenses, prisms, decentration, effectivity, thick lenses, color, aberrations, polarization, and other topics. laurance’s best known book, visual optics and sight testing, was first published in 1912. the first edition (396 pages) covered ocular anatomy, ocular optics, sensory aspects of vision, visual acuity, subjective testing procedures, nature and management of refractive errors, phorias, strabismus, presbyopia, color vision, optics of lenses, keratometry, retinoscopy, ophthalmoscopy, retinal imagery, and spectacle frames. in the preface, laurance said: “i have endeavoured to cover here and in ‘general and practical optics,’ all that is essential for the sight-testing optician. that i shall not have succeeded will be but natural.” (p. vii) the same basic format was used with much additional material in second (1920, 420 pages) and third (1926, 502 pages) editions. a fourth edition with h. oscar wood as second author was published in 1936. visual optics and sight testing is one of forty books with multiple nominations for being among the most important twentieth century optometry books.5 the wide usage of this book is illustrated by the following statement from irvin borish: “although many concepts, and even instrumentation, varied between england and the united states, this volume remained the basic text in the field until it was replaced by clinical refraction in 1949.”6 laurance published simple calculations for students of visual optics (72 pages) in 1919. it presented some basic mathematics, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, apparently prepared as a prerequisite for the study of optics. worldcat online library catalog also lists a book entitled simple mathematics for students of ophthalmic optics published in 1930 (57 pages) with laurance and h. oscar wood as authors.7 according to worldcat, the only library copy of simple mathematics is in the british hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 109 library. one could guess that simple mathematics might be a later edition of laurance’s simple calculations book. laurance died in 1936 at the age of 80. a memorial notice in optometric weekly said that “his fame is secure on this side of the atlantic. his textbooks ‘general and practical optics’ and ‘visual optics and sight testing,’ remain classics among american no less than among british optometrists, fundamental and sound; and those who were privileged to hear him lecture on the occasion of his visit to the united states just after the close of the great war will not soon forget the broadness and soundness of this distinguished scholar’s foundations.”8 in 1958, the optician had this to say about laurance: “…his great aim from the time he returned to england until he died was to raise the status of the sight-testing optician. it should be realised that when he arrived in the eighteen-nineties the majority of spectacles were sold glazed, and people just tried them on until they found a pair that suited them. during his life time he helped to change this and bring about the high state of the profession as we know it today.”3 references 1. fisher ej. lionel laurance – a pioneer teacher. optom vis sci 1989;66:484486. 2. fisher ej. early canadian optometry. newsletter optom hist soc 1989;20:4145. 3. jsw (full name not given). lionel laurance – a biography. optician 1958;135:307-309. 4. laurance l. the routine of subjective testing: a lecture delivered before the convention of the american optometric association in new york city, june, 1921. hartford, ct: department of education, american optometric association, 1921. 5. goss da, penisten dk. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight 2004;35:36-40. 6. borish im. foreword. in: eskridge jb, amos jf, bartlett jd, eds. clinical procedures in optometry. philadelphia: lippincott, 1991:ix. 7. http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org. 8. anonymous. in memoriam: lionel laurance. optom weekly 1936;27:746. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 110 book review: eyewear: a visual history 1491-today eyewear: a visual history 1491-today. moss lipow. cologne, germany: taschen, 2011. 358 pages. isbn: 978-3-8365-2565-7. hardcover, $38.00. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu the author of this visually attractive book is moss lipow, a spectacle frame designer and collector. the highlight of the book is the numerous well-produced color photographs of spectacles and sunglasses. several eras are represented but there is somewhat more emphasis on the twentieth century. there are also some reproductions of advertisements for sunglasses and frames and some photographs of celebrities in eyewear. the brief text in the book is presented in english, german, and french, with a total of 20 pages of text in english. photo captions are in english. the brief text provides some explanation of the trends in spectacle frame design. influences of culture, fashion, art, and spectacle frame materials on frame design are discussed. an example of the interesting facts presented by the author is that the shift of craftsmen in the ornamental comb industry into the eyewear industry was a significant factor in the boom of sunglasses after world war ii. influences of modernism and pop art and the adoption of licensed names in eyewear are also discussed. one statement made by the author that would be disputed by scholars of spectacle history is his statement that: “it is generally agreed that glasses were invented in 1287, in florence, italy, by a monk named salvino degli armati.” (p. 10) most scholars see the story of salvino as a hoax perpetrated by a florentine patriot seeking to glorify his city.1-4 it is now generally accepted that spectacles were invented by an unknown artisan at pisa, italy, in 1285 or 1286. this book will be of particular interest to collectors of spectacles and sunglasses and to persons seeking a visual record of artistic aspects of spectacle frame design, particularly from about 1930 to about 1990. references 1. rosen e. the invention of eyeglasses. j hist med allied sci 1956;11:13-46, 183-218 (see especially pages 183-193). 2. sandor rv. more on armati’s “tombstone”. newsletter optom hist soc 1991;22:27-30. 3. rosenthal jw. spectacle and other vision aids: a history and guide to collecting. san francisco: norman, 1996:395. 4. ilardi v. renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes. philadelphia: american philosophical society, 2007:15-18, 103. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 111 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as ∆ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2012, volume 43, number 4, page 112 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. frontcoverhindsight43-4 hindsight43-4 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: john f. amos (2015), email address: eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: alden norm haffner (2014) secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) arol augsburger (2013) irving bennett (2016) jay m. enoch (2014) morton greenspoon (2015) alfred rosenbloom (2015) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: illustration of the performance of retinoscopy from a 1899 book, a treatise on the shadow test in its practical application to the work of refraction, by george a. rogers, page 12. this picture illustrates how light from a lamp on the wall was reflected from the retinoscope and directed toward the patient. this issue contains a short article on the history of retinoscopy. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 33 hindsight: journal of optometry history july, 2013 volume 44, number 3 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents ohs news……………………………………………………………………………………34 letters to the editor, jack runninger and lester caplan……………………………….36 hindsight classic article: the ohs mission, henry w hofstetter………………………38 james r. gregg, practicing optometrist, professor, and author, david a. goss…….40 a short history of retinoscopy, david a. goss…………………………………………..44 book review: ophtha-philately: a journey to ophthalmology through postage stamps of the world, david a. goss…………………………………………………………………48 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 34 ohs news optometric historical society affiliated with optometry cares – the aoa foundation 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 2012-2013 annual report submitted by john f. amos, ohs president in 2009 the optometric historical society (ohs) signed a memorandum of understanding (mou) with optometry cares – the aoa foundation that established a trial merger between ohs and the aoa foundation. since its inception this merger has been successful and in 2012 the ohs became an official part of optometry cares – the aoa foundation. the ohs is staffed by mr. dennis holter, chief advancement officer for the aoa and optometry cares – the aoa foundation, who assists the ohs with communications to the profession and the media and also arrangements for meetings. ms. emily stenberg, a former staff member of the aoa archives and museum, assisted the ohs with matters related to membership and the collection of dues. ms. stenberg is leaving the aoa for another position. her responsibilities have temporarily been assumed by rebecca hildebrand, development officer for optometry cares – the aoa foundation. currently the membership of the ohs is 93, 78 individuals and 15 organizations/libraries. the financial status of ohs continues to be stable and the cash flow is positive. for the past four years, dr. irving bennett has served as president of the ohs. dr. bennett deserves our gratitude for providing stability to the ohs. it is the result of his efforts that visibility of the ohs has increased through the publication of “historical gems” that have appeared in the aoa’s online daily update “first look”. articles of a historical nature have also been featured periodically in the aoa news. this increased visibility has resulted in an increase in membership as well. dr. bennett’s dedication to the ohs, optometry cares – the aoa foundation and the profession of optometry over his distinguished career is both noteworthy and remarkable. he has agreed to continue to serve the ohs as a member of the board of trustees. the ohs is fortunate to have had such dedicated leadership this past four years. this past october the ohs met in phoenix, arizona in conjunction with the american academy of optometry. this was the first “blast from the past” presentation after many years of the ohs holding a “reminisce-in”. the featured speaker for this newly named event was dr. morton greenspoon. his presentation was the “history of contact lenses in the movies”. dr. greenspoon and his late father, dr. reuben greenspoon, are well-known within the profession for their work with the movie and television industry in providing specialty contact lenses. it was a fascinating history of this unique aspect of clinical optometry from their first efforts in 1939 until the hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 35 present.the attendance at this meeting was excellent with over 50 optometrists, residents and students present. the ohs is reaching out to the aosa in an effort to attract students and young optometrists to learn more about the important history of the profession. an updated version of this topic will be presented at the ohs meeting, which for the first time will be co-sponsored with the contact lens and cornea section, at aoa’s optometry’s meeting this june in san diego, ca. dr. morton greenspoon will share the history and associated anecdotes of working with the movie and television industry, including the highlights of his first presentation, in addition to additional history not previously covered. dr. david goss continues to serve as editor of hindsight: journal of optometry history. this journal is published quarterly and is now in its 43rd year. dr. goss has recently implemented a change in the cover of this publication so there is a color photograph of historical interest or importance. ohs is indebted to dr. goss for his editorial leadership and excellent writing of papers for publication in this journal. all optometrists are encouraged to submit papers of historical interest to dr. goss. we also continue to urge members of the aoa to join the optometric historical society. the annual dues are $25.00 and the membership requirements are few. there is a need to update dr. james gregg’s book on the “history of the aoa” or commission an author to write a history of optometry covering the past 60 years. the ohs would also like to encourage the development of a one-hour power-point presentation for presentation to incoming students of optometry or perhaps local society meetings. likewise, there is the need for the design of a banner for the organization. the ohs held elections for members of the board of trustees in december 2012 for terms beginning january 2013 through december 2016. the elected board members then voted among themselves, as outlined in the ohs by-laws, for officer positions. the duly elected officers and board members for 2013 are the following optometrists. 2013 members of the board of trustees officers: john f. amos president alden norman haffner vice-president chuck haine secretary-treasurer trustees: jerry abrams arol augsburger irving bennett jay m. enoch morton greenspoon alfred rosenbloom hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 36 letters to the editor: world war ii experiences jack runninger, o.d. runningerj@comcast.net i am writing in response to the summary in the april, 2013 issue of hindsight of an article in ico matters about involvement of some illinois college of optometry alumni in world war ii.1,2 you asked for recollections of the world war ii era of any of us who were involved back then. despite the interruption to my college education and life in general, world war ii turned out in one way to be a blessing for me. i was the combat information center officer aboard an attack transport, participating in the invasion of iwo jima in 1945. the night before d-day as we were steaming into position, sleep was hard to come by, even though we were scheduled to arise at 2:00 a.m. the noise of bombardment, plus the nervous apprehension made sleep impossible. thus another officer, arthur chalmers, and i spent the bedtime hours instead in conversation. it turned out he was an optometrist. this conversation was what got me interested in studying optometry, so despite the fear and experience of the invasion, i always remember how it was responsible for my becoming an optometrist, a career i have so thoroughly enjoyed!!!! references 1. goss da. miscellany. hindsight: j optom hist 2013;44:25-27. 2. engstrom e. ico & wwii. ico matters 2013;12(1):7-12. lester caplan, o.d., m.ed. lcacc@comcast.net whenever i tell the story of my optometric education, it begins with, “i completed optometry school in two years”. that statement always raises some eyebrows, so i go on to tell the story of my two-year journey to obtain my doctor of optometry degree at northern illinois college of optometry (nico), a story that i refer to as the “the two year wonder”. i was drafted in march 1943, just shy of 19 years of age. i was a private in the army for 3 years and 3 days and was in okinawa when ww ii ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb. i was then deployed to korea and, as a member of the army signal corps, was assigned to set-up communications between the cities of seoul and pusan, while stationed on a mountaintop in the middle of “no-where”. upon my discharge in march 1946, i decided that i would like to pursue a career in a health profession. since i had gotten married six months after returning to civilian life, i felt it was imperative that the length of my undergraduate and post-graduate studies determine my eventual choice. medicine was out of the question, as i did not want to wait 10 years before being in a position to support my family. i knew nothing about optometry, but when a close friend mentioned that he was thinking about applying to a hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 37 school of optometry in chicago, i thought it was worth looking into. my investigation revealed that the profession of optometry would meet my goal of becoming a health professional within a relatively short period of time. i applied to northern illinois college of optometry, which awarded a doctor of optometry degree after four years of study. the first year consisted of pre-optometry courses, while the last three years were the professional didactic and laboratory courses, along with clinical training. i was informed that all classes were filled. however, since there was an exceedingly high attrition rate in the freshman classes, i would be able to enter their program as a second year student if i had college credits in courses equal to the pre-optometry courses that were taught in their first year. fortunately, during the war, i had acquired some of the required credits in the army specialized training program (astp) at wheaton college in illinois. however, i was lacking some courses, so i enrolled at the university of maryland in september 1946 and earned the additional needed credits. i began my studies at nico as a second year student in september 1947. in the immediate post-ww ii era, almost all higher education institutions had dramatically increased their enrollment and modified their programs in order to meet the challenge of the influx of thousands upon thousands of veterans seeking a college education under the g.i. bill. accordingly, at nico, three distinct classes started each calendar year (february, june, september). in addition to the three classes a year, the program had been modified so that the 2nd through the 4th year of training was accelerated, with no summer or long holiday breaks, thereby enabling the three year program to be completed in two years. i don’t know how many students started in the freshman year of my class, but there were 243 in my graduating class in september 1949, exactly two years after i had matriculated. new applications rapidly decreased over the following years and i believe that by 1949 or 1950, enrollment had dropped to the point where it was no longer necessary to have more than one freshman class a year. and that’s my nico, two-year wonder story. sixty-four years later, after 30 years of private practice in baltimore, maryland and 34 years in academia at the uab school of optometry, i am thinking about retiring next year. as my friends and colleagues have repeated time and time again over the past 34 years, “not again”. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 38 hindsight classic article: the ohs mission henry w hofstetter, o.d., ph.d. (1914-2002) editor’s note: henry hofstetter was one of the founders of the optometric historical society, its first president, and the first editor of its publication. he published this article in the july, 1996 issue of hindsight (volume 27, number 3, pages 17-18). it could rightfully be considered a classic statement of the importance of hindsight and of the optometric historical society. it is with that in mind that it is reprinted here. “it is depressingly clear that we americans are largely ignorant of our history,” says robert mcc. adams, secretary of the smithsonian institution, in the lead editorial of the february 1994 issue of smithsonian, vol. 24, no. 11, p. 8. similarly, i find the circumstances at least as depressing in american optometry. what is more depressing than merely the lack of clear images of optometry’s past is the prevailing unawareness of the ignorance itself. many an erroneous assertion in prominent published optometric papers and reports is made as though the author has some historical insight when in fact it is a cold presumption, if not merely a popular misconception. much of this circumstance may well be a freudian desire to envisage current concepts, trends, and technologies as “new” developments, the interpretation that any change is a sign of progress. my own career experiences enable me to appreciate the significance of this commentary. in high school and in my first two college years i ranked history as my academic subject of least interest. during my next three years as an elementary school teacher of eight grades in a rural one-room school, i taught the history lessons coldly from a textbook. on weekends i worked part-time for a retail hardware firm and was at the same time exploring other more promising fields of endeavor, including the suggestion of optometry. this was the great depression era. from the college catalogs i received, the strolls down retail business streets, and the newspaper advertisements of eyewear, i gained the impression that optometry was a relatively “new” field, an interesting retail business involving a technology which seemed to be of fairly recent development. there was no hint that spectacles had been invented more than 600 years earlier! quite naively, in september of 1936, without even submitting a letter of application for admission, i rode the train 150 miles to columbus, ohio, and enrolled in the curriculum of beginning courses outlined in the bulletin of applied optics of the ohio state university, having been told by someone that this was in fact optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 39 in the ensuing three years of professional courses i slowly began to realize that the underlying sciences pertaining to optometry, the visual sciences, were of classic origin, that early optics and philosophy were intermingled, that the visual arts and laws of perception preceded the birth of christ, etc. nevertheless i continued to harbor the misconception that optometry itself was “new,” that it was created in the early twentieth century by statutory registration, and that the change of academic identity from applied optics to optometry confirmed it. by way of contrast, nary a hint was dropped to alert me to the fact that by the beginning of the fourteenth century spectaclemakers were already widely consulted by the innumerable presbyopic scribes whose vision was crucial to the preservation and dissemination of science and literature throughout the civilized world. three more years of post-professional graduate study in physiological optics with haploscopic research in the accommodation and convergence relationships gradually impressed me with the illustrious contributions of vision scientists early in the renaissance period. it was beginning to dawn on me that i was in a discipline with as noble and pervasive a heritage as any that i had learned about in my preoptometric cultural studies. mine was a discipline relatively free of the quackery, charlatanism, fakery, etc., that plagued especially the various components of the healing arts. still not a historian at heart i had, right up to that point in my career, failed to realize that i was still mentally excluding clinical optometry from any historical perspective. then suddenly came my awakening. in the fall of 1942 i was appointed to the ohio state university optometry faculty and was assigned, among other duties, the teaching of a new course in optometric history and orientation. lacking a syllabus or textbook i truly had to scrape and scurry for tidbits of optometric history from journals, newsletters, commercial documents, and various other library references. fortunately the university library and the optometry school files had accumulated a variety of resources, even old correspondence. what i discovered, especially from british and german periodicals and books, was that clinical optometry did indeed have an honorable heritage, albeit under the rubrics of ophthalmic optician, sight-testing, spectaclemaker, and other identities. the history of spectaclemakers guilds, the role of spectacle styling, the appearance of spectacles in classic oil paintings, reference to spectacles in early literature, the long-prevailing opposition to optical correction by medical authorities, the involvement of religious scruples, ophthalmic instrument inventions, apprenticeships, optical schools, and dozens of other bits of optometricana clearly document optometry’s centuries-long existence and emergence from a prestigious and sophisticated handicraft to its present academic stature, a truly proud history which includes many prominent and accomplished personalities. that very few of us recognized this was the concern of the late maria dablemont, archivist for the american optometric association. she was the prime mover to create the optometric historical society in 1969. like the smithsonian, hindsight’s role is to try to dispel our depressing ignorance of optometric history. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 40 james r. gregg: practicing optometrist, professor, and writer david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract james r. gregg (1914-2009) had long careers in optometry practice and optometric education, but he is probably best known for his extensive writing. he wrote newspaper columns, articles for practicing optometrists, magazine articles about outdoor life, and 15 books. this paper gives a brief biographical sketch and discusses his books. key words: optometric education, optometry books, optometry history. james r. gregg (1914-2009) probably committed more words to print that any other optometrist in history. he wrote extensively for optometric audiences and for the general public. in his autobiography, he wrote about having three occupations – practicing optometrist, professor, and writer.1 gregg was born and raised in napoleon, ohio, a town of about 2,500 people.2 he attended bluefield junior college in bluefield, west virginia, and wooster college in wooster, ohio, before transferring to the ohio state university. he graduated from ohio state with a b.s. in business administration in 1937. he had completed most of the work toward a masters degree in public administration at ohio state before starting optometry school there in 1939. he finished optometry school in 1942, receiving the b.s. in optometry degree, which was the optometry degree that ohio state awarded at that time. he completed a post-graduate doctor of optometry degree from los angeles school of optometry in 1948.3 after working as an optometrist in cincinnati, ohio, gregg was an army optometrist from 1943 to 1946. after discharge from the army, he worked for a few months in an optometry practice in pasadena, california. in late 1946, he purchased a practice in los angeles. in 1947, he started teaching part-time at los angeles school of optometry, beginning a long career at the school now known as the southern california college of optometry. in 1962, gregg started phasing out of optometry practice to become a full-time faculty member at los angeles college of optometry, but he continued in part-time practice until 1973. before retiring from southern california college of optometry in 1984, gregg served in various administrative roles, including a year as interim dean, and taught courses in physiological optics, clinical optometry, practice management, perimetry, industrial vision, and optometry history.4 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 41 gregg was on the california optometric association board of directors from 1952 to 1959 and was president in 1958. he was also active in numerous community organizations. his work was recognized by two honorary degrees from los angeles college of optometry, doctor of ocular science in 1956 and doctor of optometric letters in 1965. among gregg’s writings were about a thousand newspaper items, part of a “your vision” column written over a ten year period. he wrote more than one hundred articles for optometric serial publications, about half of which were for optometric management magazine. he authored more than one hundred papers for the optometric extension program in its monthly professional counseling series and monthly optometric assistants series. one of his non-optometric interests was outdoor life, and he published over one hundred articles on that topic in about sixty different magazines. by my count, gregg also wrote fifteen books, some of which will be discussed below. gregg was a co-author on guide to occupational and other visual needs, published in 1958 (477 pages).5 that book sought to describe how spectacle prescribing should be influenced by occupational and avocational needs. most of the book consisted of analyses of the visual tasks of various jobs. one to three pages was devoted to each occupation with black and white photographs of persons at work, description of the job, analysis of visual tasks, and factors affecting lens prescriptions. in 1960, gregg published your future in optometry (160 pages), written for young persons considering optometry as a career. it covered what optometry was, what optometrists do, the required education, how licensure is obtained, school costs, getting a start in practice, earning potential, optometric careers other than private practice, finding a position, military optometry, women in optometry, optometric research, teaching opportunities, characteristics of the successful optometrist, some thoughts about the future, and sources for information. the book was reprinted in 1963 and 1971. in 1978, gregg revised the book and retitled it your future in new optometric careers. information added reflected changes in the profession since the original publication in 1960. topics of the added material included optometric specialties (contact lenses, vision therapy, and low vision), paraoptometric personnel, and trends toward automation. gregg co-authored the eye and sight with gordon heath in 1964. it was a small (136 pages) paperback book on vision science written for high school students. it provided a readable basic introduction to ocular structure, visual pathways, ocular optics, refractive conditions, and vision science. the next year gregg published the story of optometry, an account of the history of optometry. in its 305 pages there is a broad overview of early glass and lenses, knowledge of vision in ancient history, invention of spectacles, optometry’s background sciences, optometry in america, professional developments, optometric education, beginnings of visual training, contact lens history, and contributions of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 42 although it did not give in depth coverage of any one topic, it was easily readable and informative, as illustrated by a contemporary review which said not only that it was “intended for the lay reader,” but also that “optometrists should enjoy reading and owning this book.”6 experiments in visual science (1966, 158 pages) described 39 vision science experiments that young people around high school age could perform at home or at school. the experiments were designed to demonstrate principles of reflection, refraction, apertures, chromatic aberration, entoptic phenomena, visual fields, retinal blind spot, visual acuity, dark adaptation, afterimages, color phenomena, eye dominance, eye movements, depth perception, size constancy, optical illusions, and others. gregg’s next book was how to communicate in optometric practice (1969, 250 pages). he presented insights gained through experience on general principles of communication, public education materials, letter writing, explaining test procedures, demonstration aids, educational material for patients, making public presentations, communicating with colleagues, writing for the popular press, and tips on organization leadership. gregg noted the importance of image building for individual optometrists and for the profession collectively. in 1971, the sportsman’s eye: how to make better use of your eyes in the outdoors (210 pages) appeared. it was written in three parts for the general public. the first part explained some aspects of vision. the second part discussed spectacle lenses and frames, contact lenses, sunglasses, and optical aids such as binoculars and gunsights. and in the third part there were specific recommendations for better visual performance during outdoor activities. gregg’s american optometric association – a history (399 pages), beginning with the formation of its predecessor organization in 1898, was published in 1972. details of conventions, committees, resolutions, and other organizational matters were included. an appendix has lists of officers, meeting sites, charter members, etc. a review of the book observed that one should not expect “to understand the sociology of the optometric profession” or to find “an in-depth study of optometry” from a reading of the book, but rather it was “an official record of an organization and the people who made the organization…”7 the business of optometric practice (226 pages) is james gregg’s compilation of 29 updated articles from the periodical optometric management from its beginning in 1965 to the publication of this book in 1975. the wide range of practice management topics included practice location, group practice, office design, office policies, personnel, fees, telephone communications, records, recall, collections, insurance, incorporation, retirement, among others. in the foreword, the editor of optometric management magazine irving bennett observed: “the time interval covered by the book has witnessed a remarkable change in the profession. it has seen optometrists consider leaving solo practice for associateships and partnerships. some have incorporated. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 43 assistants, technicians and technologists have arrived to relieve optometrists of many sub-professional duties. multi-aide offices are rapidly becoming the example rather than the exception.” (p. i) the articles are in an easily readable style presented as advice for the practitioner. in 1984, gregg published origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984 (564 pages), a detailed history of that school from its origins. it is well illustrated and has an extensive appendix with a chronology and lists of trustees, administrators, faculty, graduates, alumni association presidents, and honorary degree recipients. james gregg published two books in 1987, vision and sports: an introduction (188 pages) and history of the american academy of optometry, 1922-1986 (207 pages). in vision and sports, gregg explained how the optometrist could get involved in sports vision. he discussed the relation of visual skills to sports performance, as well as the application of vision screening, contact lenses, eye protection, spectacles, and vision enhancement to sports. gregg’s history of the american academy of optometry starts with events leading up to its founding in the 1920s and extends into the 1980s. details of its meetings and its activities are presented. the book also contains photographs of academy presidents, a chronology, a history of the academy’s journal, and lists of officers, award winners, and charter members. other books that gregg wrote were visual science as applied to law enforcement (1968, 168 pages), wanted: optometric writers (1986, 72 pages), and his 1997 autobiography, the life and times of james r. gregg. references 1. gregg jr. the life and times of james r. gregg. anaheim: james r. gregg, 1997:113-124. 2.gregg jr. the life and times of james r. gregg. anaheim: james r. gregg, 1997:1-10. 3. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:524. 4. gregg jr. the life and times of james r. gregg. anaheim: james r. gregg, 1997:115-119,230-231. 5. holmes c, jolliffee h, gregg j. guide to occupational and other visual needs. chicago: independent optical wholesalers association, 1958. 6. hirsch mj. book review: the story of optometry. am j optom arch am acad optom 1965;42:152. 7. hirsch mj. the optometrists’ bookshelf. am j optom arch am acad optom 1973;50:691-695. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 44 a short history of retinoscopy david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract retinoscopy as an objective method of estimating refractive error was developed in the late nineteenth century. its application to assessment of accommodation in dynamic retinoscopy followed soon thereafter. this paper provides an overview of the history of retinoscopy. key words: optometry history, retinoscopy, refraction methods the introduction of retinoscopy was a significant step in the history of clinical refraction in that it provided a relatively accurate objective method for estimating refractive error. bennett1 described retinoscopy as “an offshoot from ophthalmoscopy,” because british ophthalmologist sir william bowman (1816-1892) reported in 1859 being able to detect slight degrees of keratoconus by observing shadow movements obtained by rotating his ophthalmoscope mirror. donders2 stated that bowman also was able to use the technique to detect astigmatism and identify the principal meridians. credit for the development of retinoscopy is generally given to the french ophthalmologist ferdinand cuignet.1,3,4 he described the shadows he saw when rotating his ophthalmoscope mirror in a series of papers published from 1873 to 1887 in the journal recueil d’ophthalmologie.3 ferdinand cuignet (1823-1890) was a military physician who served in algeria, being decorated in 1870. he later taught ophthalmology at the medical school in lille in france.4 he was coeditor of the journal recueil d’ophthalmologie. according to hirschberg,4 he published only a few papers in addition to his work on retinoscopy and a 271 page book, ophthalmie d’algerie (1872). cuignet used the term keratoscopie for the technique that we know today as retinoscopy because he thought the phenomenon was due to the cornea. other terms suggested for retinoscopy included dioptroscopie, optometrie scotoscopique, shadow test, pupilloskopie, and koreskopie.3,5 skiascopy and skiametry were commonly used terms for retinoscopy extending well into the twentieth century. popularization of retinoscopy in the late nineteenth century came through the efforts of european ophthalmologists mengin, chibret, parent, and landolt.1,3 by the turn of the twentieth century, retinoscopy was popular enough that books were being devoted to the topic. early books on retinoscopy by ophthalmologists were skiascopy and its practical application to the study of refraction, by edward jackson, 1895 (112 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 45 pages) and retinoscopy (or shadow test) in the determination of refraction, by james thorington, 1897 (66 pages). some of the first books on retinoscopy by optometrists were skiascopy, a treatise on the shadow test in its practical application to the work of refraction, by george a. rogers, 1899 (221 pages); skiametry, static and dynamic, by william b. needles, 1900 (56 pages); a system of ocular skiametry, by andrew jay cross, 1903 (181 pages); and skiascopy without the use of drugs, by robert m. lockwood, 1906 (112 pages). the first retinoscopes were perforated mirrors on a handle, with illumination from a candle or from a lamp separate from the retinoscope mirror. the figure on the cover of this issue is an illustration from g.a. rogers’ 1899 book showing retinoscopy being performed.6 the examiner holds the retinoscope mirror and reflects light from a lamp to the patient’s eye. the lamp appears to be mounted on a wall. a trial lens set can be seen on the table between the examiner and the patient. the first retinoscope with an electric light source incorporated into the retinoscope itself was made in 1901 by wolff.7 an early prominent electric self-luminous retinoscope was the de zeng retinoscope.8 the first electric retinoscopes projected a spot of light. the streak retinoscope, which facilitated the observation of astigmatism, was patented by jack c. copeland (1900-1973) in 1927.9 copeland graduated from northern illinois college of optometry in 1922. he started work at bausch & lomb as a technical consultant in optics in 1927. he held more than 35 patents.10 from 1931 to 1956 he was editor of the monthly periodical optical developments. from 1965 until his death, copeland taught in the department of ophthalmology at the marquette university school of medicine, which is now the medical college of wisconsin. copeland did much to popularize streak retinoscopy through his publications, lectures, and demonstrations.11 the initial application of retinoscopy was in the measurement of refractive error, which has come to be known as static retinoscopy. the early development of the use of retinoscopy to assess accommodative function, known as dynamic retinoscopy, is usually credited to american optometrist andrew jay cross (1855-1925). sheard made a statement that cross devised his system of dynamic retinoscopy “in the early ‘80s.”12 cross devoted a significant portion of his 1903 book on retinoscopy, a system of ocular skiametry, to dynamic retinoscopy. in 1911, cross published a tome on dynamic retinoscopy, dynamic retinoscopy in theory and practice. pascal13 mentioned an early use of dynamic retinoscopy in 1895 by r. greef to show that accommodation in the blind eye of a young boy occurred when accommodation was stimulated in the other eye. retinoscopy was mentioned by edward jackson in 1895 as a potential objective method of determining amplitude of accommodation.14 cross devised an attachment for retinoscopy with letters and dots . he asked the patient to read letters or count dots as retinoscopy was performed. cross advocated adding plus lenses to reversal. in today’s dynamic retinoscopy, this most resembles low neutral retinoscopy in which when a lag of accommodation is observed, plus is added to hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 46 the first observed neutral. canadian optometrist ivan nott (1892-1969) described a dynamic retinoscopy procedure in which the nearpoint target remained at a fixed distance while the retinoscope was moved separately back behind the target until neutral was observed.15 this procedure, in which the distance of the retinoscope from the patient yields an accommodative response measurement, is known as nott retinoscopy. probably the most commonly used dynamic retinoscopy procedure today is the monocular estimation method (mem). in 1960, pacific university college of optometry faculty member harold haynes (1926-1997) detailed a method of finding lag of accommodation by estimating in diopters how far the retinoscopic reflex was from neutral and using lenses “interposed only momentarily to check the examiner’s estimates.”16 various authors have thus credited haynes with devising mem retinoscopy.17-19 several other dynamic retinoscopy procedures, such as bell retinoscopy, book retinoscopy, and stresspoint retinoscopy, have also been described.18 references 1. bennett ag. an historical review of optometric principles and techniques. ophthalmic physiol opt 1986;6:3-21. 2. donders fc. on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye. london: new sydenham society, 1864:490. 3. millodot m. a centenary of retinoscopy. j am optom assoc 1973;44:10571059. 4. hirschberg j. the history of ophthalmology. translated by blodi fc. volume 11 (part 1-c) bonn: wayenborgh, 1992:687-688. 5. pascal ji. modern retinoscopy including the principles and practice of velono-skiascopy. london: hatton press, 1930:1-2. 6. rogers ga. skiascopy, a treatise on the shadow test in its practical application to the work of refraction. philadelphia: keystone, 1899. 7. von haugwitz t. the history of optical instruments for the examination of the eye. translated by blodi fc. volume 11 (part 2) in history of ophthalmology. bonn: wayenborgh, 1986:a39. 8. cross aj. a system of ocular skiametry. new york: frederick boger, 1903:36-37. 9. the college of optometrists. retinoscopy. http://www.collegeoptometrists.org/en/knowledgecentre/museyeum/online_exhibitions/optical_instruments/retinoscopes.cfm. accessed may 6, 2013. 10. wayenborgh j-p, mishima s, keeler cr. international bio-bibliography of ophthalmologists. volume 7 (part 1) in history of ophthalmology, the monographs. oostende, belgium: wayenborgh, 2001:150. 11. copeland jc. a simplified method of streak retinoscopy. chicago: copeland refractoscope co., 1936. 12. sheard c. dynamic skiametry and methods of testing the accommodation and convergence of the eyes. chicago: cleveland press, 1920:5. 13. pascal ji. studies in visual optics. st. louis: c.v. mosby, 1952:175. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 47 14. jackson e. skiascopy and its practical application to the study of refraction. philadelphia: edwards & docker, 1895:86-88. 15. nott is. dynamic skiametry, accommodation and convergence. am j physiol opt 1925;6:490-503. 16. haynes hm. clinical observations with dynamic retinoscopy. optom weekly 1960;51:2243-2246, 2306-2309. 17. rouse mw, hutter rf, shiftlett r. a normative study of the accommodative lag in elementary school children. am j optom physiol opt 1984;61:693-697. 18. valenti ca. the full scope of retinoscopy, rev ed. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program, 1990:8. 19. birnbaum mh. optometric management of nearpoint vision disorders. boston: butterworth-heinemann, 1993:169. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2013, volume 44, number 3, page 48 book review: ophtha-philately: a journey to ophthalmology through postage stamps of the world ophtha-philately: a journey to ophthalmology through postage stamps of the world. samar k. basak. new delhi, india: jaypee brothers, 2007. 206 pages. isbn: 81-8448-035-0. softcover, $30. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu the author, an ophthalmologist, defines “ophtha-philately” as “the collection and study of postage stamps and other related materials that pertain to the subject ‘ophthalmology’ in some way.” (p. xi) this book contains color reproductions of over 300 postage stamps. images of the stamps in the book depict the eye in ancient history, anatomy and physiology, diseases and their treatment, optical instruments and studies, spectacles, blindness and rehabilitation, medical and non-medical persons involved in the study of the eye and optics, and ophthalmology conferences and organizations. the non-medical personalities represented on stamps in this book are alhazen, nicholas of cusa, leonardo da vinci, galileo, johannes kepler, daza de valdes, rene descartes, christiaan huygens, isaac newton, benjamin franklin, empress maria theresa (who in 1773 in vienna established the first university chair in ophthalmology in europe), goethe, helmholtz, carl zeiss, ernst abbe, and percy julian (who was the first to synthesize physostigmine). the stamps illustrated are from numerous countries all around the world. i counted seven stamps from the united states. some of the images are a little out of focus. twelve items, some of which are websites, are listed on a bibliography page. this small (18 x 12 cm, 206 pages) softcover book can be compared to blodi’s large (31 x 22 cm, 296 pages) hardcover treatise, the eye, vision and ophthalmology on postage stamps, published in 1986. blodi’s book is part two of volume 11 in the history of ophthalmology series from the wayenborgh publishing company. the figures in barak’s book are in color, whereas in blodi’s book they are mostly black-andwhite. glancing through blodi’s book, it appears to have somewhat more comprehensive coverage in numbers of stamps and in explanatory material. the barak book, being 20 years newer, covers recent stamps that the blodi book does not. the cost advantage definitely goes to the barak book at $30, in contrast to $3,132 for the history of ophthalmology series which is sold only as a multiple volume set. ohsfrontcover44-3_2_ hindsight44-3 hindsight_55_2_no bleed_final.pdf 52 volume 55, number 2, fall 2024 blast from the past min-ju pak, bs a look into optometry’s first female practitioner: gertrude stanton min-ju pak, bs optometry student, university of waterloo, school of optometry and vision science minjupak7@gmail.com 10.14434/hindsight.v55i2.40829 volume of stanton was also involved in an abundance of charity work. she provided services for the examination of applicants of the united states army medical corps and for the training camps.eventually, she opened up her own optometry practice and employed a team entirely composed of women, including her daughter who also pursued a career in optometry.stanton was even elected as the fourth vice-president of our very own aoa. . gertrude ayer, m.o. – expert refractionist.this is your opportunity to correct your visual defects andpreserve your eyes. madam ayer is not a spectacle peddler, but a finished and competent optician. in order to avoid any of the above deviations, lay aside your false pride and have your visual defects properly corrected by a competent optician. a look into optometry’sfirst female practitioner: gertrude stanton was the first ever woman to receive her license to practice optometry in the united states in 1901. she began her early career as a teacher and with her dedication to helping others, then decided to pursue the practice of optometry. after taking some courses, she began travelling around minnesota, placing advertisements in local newspapers for free eye examinations from an . she initially began working as an optometrist at a department store. during this time, she also became involved in the minnesota state association of optometrists and even became a founding member, and eventually the vicepresident, of the northwestern optical association. she was successful. quotes taken directly from a few of gertrudestanton’s many advertisements. references 1. davis v, vogl l. gertrude stanton (1863-1931): the first woman licensed to practice optometry in the united states. hindsight: journal of optometry history. 2020;51(1):5-10. hindsight: journal of optometry history 53 blast from the past min-ju pak, bs optometry history stanton was , , and a businesswoman. she had immense popularity with her patients, as well as the public, despite living what was considered an unconventional lifestyle for a woman during this time period. aside from her involvement in the optometry field, stanton was also active in various other community organizations, including the automobile club and the minneapolis women’s rotary, which was the first all-female rotary club in the country. st hhe ccoo ttii throughout her entire career, stanton was very vocal about the opportunities that optometry could provide for women. “women have entered such extraordinary pursuits that seemingly there is no field where men succeed that a woman may not achieve success also.” al about omen. tstt that that a “it is the young woman who has a fondness for tools and who can readily repair a sewing machine or typewriter when it gets somewhat out of gear, who will take up optometry and acquire with ease the basic knowledge of the profession.” “optometry needs women, and women, in my opinion, who can make themselves successful in it, will find a substantial and satisfying profession to follow.” “if a woman has these qualities, and also a ready good humor and a naturally cordial manner, she is eminently fitted for success, always providing she has had the proper training for her work. the one big stumblingblock in her pathway, probably, is the lack of confidence which people generally have in a woman in any line of work that requires brains, skill and experience. a woman is obliged to build up confidence often, whereas a man finds it given him readily.” 24 volume 50, number 1, january 2019 for many years, the ohs held nearly annual meetings called “reminisce-ins.” in 2012, it was decided to refer to these presentations as a “blast from the past.” these meetings have been held in conjunction with the annual meetings of the american optometric association (aoa) or the american academy of optometry (aao). the following is a list of those meetings, their locations, the annual meeting during which they occurred (aoa or aao), the attendance where known, and the speakers. at some meetings, there was an open discussion in which attendees shared their historical perspectives and experiences, as opposed to one or more scheduled speakers. attendance was often limited by competition with concurrent lectures or meetings. list of meetings of the optometric historical society and speakers date location during attendance speaker(s) june 20, 1972 st. louis aoa 30 open discussion june 19, 1974 washington, dc aoa about 25 open discussion july 5, 1977 toronto aoa about 40 henry hofstetter, od, phd; henry knoll, phd; maria dablemont dec. 11, 1977 birmingham, al aao 31 open discussion dec. 9, 1978 boston aao ? henry knoll, phd dec. 8, 1979 fullerton, ca aao 24 open discussion dec., 1980 chicago aao 25 henry knoll, phd; maria dablemont; james leeds, od dec., 1981 orlando aao at least 31 james leeds, od dec. 11, 1982 philadelphia aao 16 maria dablemont; jacob staiman, od; douglas penisten, od dec. 8, 1984 st. louis aao 45 christopher hoolihan, mls; william austin, od dec. 7, 1985 atlanta aao 35 douglas penisten, od dec. 13, 1986 toronto aao over 20 e.j. fisher, od dec. 5, 1987 denver aao at least 30 ron fair, od dec. 10, 1988 columbus, oh aao 37 gregory good, od; james leeds, od dec. 9, 1989 new orleans aao 40 j. william rosenthal, md dec. 8, 1990 nashville, tn aao ? douglas penisten, od, phd dec. 14, 1991 anaheim, ca aao ? henry b. peters, od dec. 9, 1995 new orleans aao 22 j. william rosenthal, md dec. 13, 1997 san antonio, tx aao ? jerry christensen, od, phd dec. 12, 1998 san francisco aao ? joe bruneni dec. 10, 1999 seattle aao ? jay enoch, od, phd dec. 8, 2000 orlando, fl aao ? arol augsburger, od, phd dec. 7, 2001 philadelphia aao ? jay enoch, od, phd dec. 14, 2002 san diego, ca aao ? walter chase, od, ms dec. 6, 2003 dallas, tx aao ? gregory stephens, od, phd dec. 11, 2004 tampa, fl aao ? jay enoch, od, phd dec. 10, 2005 san diego, ca aao ? robert m. boynton, phd nov., 2009 orlando, fl aao ? nov. 19, 2010 san francisco aao ? alden n. haffner, od, phd oct. 14, 2011 boston aao 11 alden n. haffner, od, phd; howard backman, od june 28, 2012 chicago aoa ? open discussion oct., 2012 phoenix aao over 50 morton greenspoon, od june, 2013 san diego aoa ? morton greenspoon, od june 26, 2014 philadelphia aoa ? alden n. haffner, od, phd june 25, 2015 seattle aoa ? lester caplan, od, med june 29-july 1, 2016 boston aoa not tabulated ronald ferrucci, od june 22, 2017 washington, d.c. aoa na david ferris, od (cancelled) june 21, 2018 denver, co aoa 25 david fleishman, md appendices 10.14434/hindsight.v50i1.26595 hindsight_56_1_final.pdf hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 56 number 1 spring 2025 hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x spring, 2025 volume 56, number 1 editor: jennifer reilly, o.d., msc new england college of optometry boston, ma 02115 reillyj@neco.edu contributing editors: david a. goss, o.d., phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@iu.edu john amos, o.d., ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu optometry cares® the aoa foundation molly brown program manager mbrown@aoa.org chair lilien vogl, o.d. drvogl@cox.net editor jennifer reilly, o.d., msc reillyj@neco.edu members maria armandi, o.d. marmandi@salus.edu taylor babcock, o.d. tdbabcock@gmail.com linda casser, o.d. lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, o.d. viktoriadavis@gmail.com w. howard mcalister, o.d., mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, o.d. rimyersod@gmail.com carol parker, o.d. drparker4564@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: reillyj@neco.edu. ohs committee 2025 top: dr. carol b. pratt lecturing and performing slit lamp at pacific university college of optometry. bottom: drs. nancy carlson and dan kurtz at a book signing at the western university college of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history 1 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 56 number 1 spring 2025 table of contents 9 11 32 news 2 editorials individuals with an impact 3 jennifer reilly, o.d., msc articles mentorship with dr. nancy carlson 4 jennifer reilly, o.d., msc illuminating the path of optics: insights from dick whitney 9 evangelina laboy, ldo, mhsc was da vinci thinking of the spherical lens of the fish eye 11 in his painting salvator mundi? jacob sivak, o.d., ms, phd the authorization for the establishment of a school of optometry 14 in the state of alabama – part i john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos book reviews book review: carol b. pratt: pacific university’s original 32 optometric genius by david a. goss and scott e. pike hilary gaiser, o.d., msc dick whitney, executive director of the optical heritage museum spherical lens of fish eye focusing helium-neon laser with little or no spherical aberration book cover of carol b. pratt: pacific university’s original optometric genius hindsight: journal of optometry history 43 the annals of the profession of optometry have documented well the outstanding achievements of dr. henry w. hofstetter and his enormous contributions to optometric education, research, and patient care.1 on the occasion of acknowledging the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the optometric historical society (ohs), of which dr. hofstetter was a co-founder, it is a pleasure to have an opportunity to provide some informal perspectives about dr. hofstetter from a few of his former students in the doctor of optometry degree program at the indiana university school of optometry (iuso). as a student, it is sometimes hard to see beyond the demands of the optometric curriculum—lectures, laboratories, patient care, assignments, examinations, etc. in addition, as very new and emerging members of the profession, it can also be challenging for students to fully understand and appreciate the stature and accomplishments of their faculty members. and, for a variety of reasons, students don’t always have an opportunity to get to know a faculty member as a “person.” the 65 members of the class of 1978 at the indiana university school of optometry (iuso), of which i was one, were fortunate to have dr. hofstetter as a faculty member towards the end of his illustrious academic career. more specifically, he served as the instructor for our introduction to optometry / history of optometry course. this provided a wonderful educational opportunity since dr. hofstetter had been such a direct contributor to much of our profession’s history and evolving stature. in addition, since dr. hofstetter was the founding director of the division of optometry at indiana university,2 which was ultimately renamed the indiana university school of optometry, the opportunity to study at the iuso in the mid-1970s in a modern facility was substantially the result of his leadership. putting our best foot forward as a profession as member of the iuso class of 1978, i have several recollections to share about dr. hofstetter. i found him to be professional, humble, unassuming, well-organized, and attentive to detail. there was an aspect of dr. hofstetter’s course that has stayed with me to this day: he felt that it was important that we spell “optometrically” related terminology correctly. for example, i recall one quiz in his course in which we were expected to correctly spell “accommodation” (not one “m” but two) and ophthalmic (not one “h” but two). i took this as an example of dr. hofstetter’s approach toward guiding us to put our best foot forward as a profession in record-keeping, writing reports to other professionals, etc., which is a lesson i share with all of my students. dr. hofstetter’s commitment to accurate spelling made eminent sense given that he authored five editions of the dictionary of visual science. i am proud to own an autographed copy of the book. enjoying life’s lighter moments at one point during his course, dr. hofstetter mentioned a tribute to henry w hofstetter, od, phd, faao: recollections from students linda casser, od professor, pennsylvania college of optometry and salus university coordinator of interprofessional education lcasser@salus.edu doi: 10.14434/hindsight.v50i2.26592 abstract in this article dr. linda casser constructs a biographical profile of henry w hofstetter, od, phd from the point-of-view of his students. keywords hofstetter; history biography; memoir; indiana university, optometry education; optometric historical society; optometry history biographical sketch linda casser, od 44 volume 50, number 2, april 2019 that one of his hobbies was collecting optometry-related cartoons. to this day, when i see a cartoon that has an eye and / or vision theme, i think about dr. hofstetter taking the opportunity to enjoy life’s lighter moments, yet keeping our profession in mind. i believe that dr. nelson whitling, a fellow member of the iuso class of 1978 who recently retired after 38 successful years as a private practitioner in pennsylvania, perfectly captures our collective memory of dr. henry w. hofstetter: “i mainly remember dr. hofstetter as a very gentle and classy man who was a good teacher and one of the giants of our profession.” recollections from richard meetz, iuso class of 1976 richard meetz, o.d., m.s., who went on to a distinguished career as a faculty member at the indiana university school of optometry, including serving as an instructor for our class of 1978, has very generously shared his recollections below about dr. hofstetter. in reading them, it made me think that the iuso class of 1976 was more rowdy than the class of 1978! “dr. hofstetter always strived to make the students feel welcome. early on as a student i recall this story he told about when he and his wife, jane, arrived in bloomington to head up the indiana university optometry program. upon entering town, they stopped at a gas station to fill up. dr. hofstetter asked the elderly attendant if he thought they would be happy here. after a long moment the attendant asked if they were happy where they had come from. dr. hofstetter replied ‘why yes, they had been’ to which the attendant said, ‘then you’ll be happy here.’ the message i took from this was if you are happy with your life, then you can be happy no matter where you go. “dr. hofstetter had such a wonderful sense of humor and enjoyed the students. before 1968, when the classes were small, he and his wife jane would take great delight in having the classes over to their home, but by the 1970s the classes were much larger and our class was much more rowdy than those in earlier years. “i recall the class optometric history, which of course dr. hofstetter taught. he lectured straight-faced in a deep not quite monotone voice. on one mischievous occasion, our whole class gathered dark plastic spectacle frames, similar to the ones he wore, from the ophthalmic optics lab, and we all put them on the first time he turned around to write on the chalkboard. struggling to hold a straight face, he continued his lecture, then as he turned to again write on the board, the class switched to all wearing the blue up-swept judy frame that was so popular in those days. again, he held a straight face only to finally laugh as the class again switched the frames behind his back. all in all, i think he enjoyed us. dr. hofstetter gave me some very important advice when i was a very junior faculty member about the next step in my career. he gave me many pieces of advice that would shape my future. three i remember well: “1. get a master’s degree in an area that would be outside of, but complement, optometry: he, along with dr. ed marshall, were my main motivation to pursue a master’s degree from the university of michigan school of public health in 1988 which opened so many doors for me. “2. get some real world clinical experience: he told me that a good clinical teacher needs the confidence that they could really run an office. ‘prove to yourself that you can not only run an office, but also care for people and make an income.’ he felt that being able to run an office was the true mark of a successful doctor. ‘for a clinical teacher, go in with the notion that every patient has something to teach you. those will be the classroom stories that will make you a great teacher.’ he recommended me to a rural area alum as someone who could temporarily cover a few open days a week until a full time replacement could be found. that led to a 24-year experience of providing rural eye care and unique clinical examples for two decades of graduates. “3. join and get involved in the american academy of optometry (aao): i became a full fellow in 1979 and after 39 years have been an active presenter, lecturer, and a strong supporter of the aao and its programs.”3 to sit out or dance richard meetz shared one more anecdote about dr. hofstetter: “at a formal dinner (likely at the academy) my wife, lois, and i were at a table with dr. hofstetter and his wife jane. towards the end of the dinner the music picked up and a dance floor was cleared. after we watched a set or two, dr. hofstetter and jane returned to the table where he promptly asked lois to dance. shocked, lois exclaimed ‘but i can’t dance’ and before he could respond, jane leaned across laughing, ‘neither can he but it has never stopped him.’ he was such an old school gentlemen that lois couldn’t refuse him, and she had a rather good time. but, lois insisted that we take dance lessons in the future, which we did. nothing much stopped him.”3 biographical sketch linda casser, od hindsight: journal of optometry history 45 biographical sketch linda casser, od conclusion i am sure that the readers of hindsight and other former students of dr. hofstetter have many more memories and recollections that they could share, but of this i am certain: we are fortunate to have learned from such a special, gentle but fun-loving giant within our profession. references 1. goss da. obituary, henry w. hofstetter, od, phd, faao, 1914 – 2002. optom vis sci 2002;79:467-468. 2. it began as a vision: history of the indiana university school of optometry. https://optometry.iu.edu/about/ history.html. 3. meetz r. memories of dr. hofstetter, personal communication, 2018. optometry cartoons “testing the eyes of potatoes.” the optometrical record 1914; 1: 469. did you know that cartoons, like optometry, have a history dating all the way back to leonardo da vinci? while british satirist william hogarth (1697-1764) is credited with the first political cartoons, an early form of caricature developed by da vinci is considered the first renderings of the technique employed by today’s editorial and spot cartoonists.1 in her tribute to ohs co-founder henry w hofstetter, dr. linda casser mentions that dr. hofstetter collected cartoons featuring topics relevant to optometry—and he was not alone! the manuscript collections held in the archives & museum of optometry hold several scrapbooks compiled by optometry’s leaders that feature cartoons and other items clipped from newspapers and magazines. whether editorial commentary, advertisements or simply meant to inspire a chuckle, cartoons can be a treasure trove of historical information because they capture the mood of an individual or a society at a specific point in space and time, often succinctly communicating a complicated idea, attitude or concept in a way that only an artist can do. they are also one of the scrapbooker’s favorite pieces of ephemera and collections of cartoons can add dimension to these rare resources, painting “personal constructions” of events or time periods “that contribute to the telling” 2 of optometry’s story! valuable as they are, cartoons in archival scrapbooks often pose a special set of problems for archivists because newspaper—the most common media used to publish cartoon spots—is highly acidic and fragile, and the glue or tape used to adhere these items to scrapbook pages in most cases have not stood the test of time. for this reason, preserving scrapbooks can be an urgent and expensive endeavor for a small repository. luckily, modern scrapbookers can find acid-free albums and “archive-safe” adhesive tools in art and craft stores. if you are a collector of optometry cartoons or other ephemera, please reach out to the archives & museum of optometry for guidance on the best materials to use and ways to store your precious assemblage! references 1. illustration history: an educational resource and archive [internet]. stockbridge (ma): norman rockwell museum [2018]. genres [cited 2018 apr 1]. available from: https://www. illustrationhistory.org/genres. 2. buchanan-cates eh. scrapbooks: troublemakers and treasures in the archives. 2017 september 30 [cited 2018 apr 1]. in: o say can you see?: stories from the national museum of american history [internet]. washington, d.c.: smithsonian institution. available from: https:// americanhistory.si.edu/blog/ scrapbooks-archives hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 book reviews 2016| page 106 book review david goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu galileo’s telescope: a european story by massimo bucciantini, michelle camerota and franco giudice cambridge, ma: harvard university press; 2015. 340 pages. n september, 1608, hans lipperhey, a german-born spectacle maker, working in the netherlands, attempted to patent a telescope. within a few weeks, another spectacle maker requested a patent, and at least a third person claimed the invention. although lipperhey was the first to apply for a patent, his application was rejected because others had knowledge of the invention. lipperhey’s innovation did not involve putting two lenses together to see faraway, because that had been recognized for at least a couple decades, but rather perhaps in the use of apertures to compensate for the poor quality of the lenses then available. knowledge of the spyglass spread across europe within months. by november, 1608, galileo’s friend and scientific colleague paolo sarpi had heard about the spyglass. by the summer of 1609, galileo was working with unknown spectacle makers to try to improve the quality of the telescope. he completed his first telescope in late july, 1609, and later he set up an optical workshop in his house to continue his efforts to make better lenses for telescopes. before kepler published his geometrical optics book dioptrice (1611), galileo had combined elementary optical knowledge from books such as giovan battista della porta’s magia naturalis (1589) with empirical methods learned from spectacle makers to improve the performance of the spyglass to the point that it became a useful astronomical instrument. by late november, 1609, galileo was using it to make systematic observations of the moon. in march, 1610, galileo’s book sidereus nuncius (starry messenger) was published. it contained a description of the rough surface of the moon, the discovery of four satellites orbiting jupiter, the finding that the milky way was made up of numerous individual stars, and other observations. remarkable for its time was the fact that it included illustrations of what galileo had seen with his telescope. the authors spend significant time discussing the controversies surrounding galileo’s book arising in part because galileo did not describe how the telescope worked and he did not mention some of the previous work by others, but mostly because there was difficulty in confirming galileo’s observations. this latter difficulty may have been due to the fact that galileo appeared to have reserved his best telescopes for himself and various roman prelates rather than providing them to other scientists who were not able to make telescopes of the quality that he did. galileo also experienced resistance because his findings seemed to contradict the beliefs of some rigid theologians, astrologers, and i mailto:aitkenmr@melbpc@org.au hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 3 book reviews 2016| page 107 aristotelian philosophers. support came from kepler, some astronomers, and others who were able to confirm what he had described. this book covers a period of time from the first significant telescope in 1608 to the spread across the globe of knowledge of galileo’s book sidereus nuncius in the 1610s. in an epilogue, the authors noted that just a few years later, in 1616, copernicus’s book was banned by the roman congregation of the index of forbidden books, “establishing an initial dividing line between the true and false constitution of the universe, between conclusions that could licitly be drawn thanks to telescopic observations and those that were banned…” (p. 237) the authors are history of science professors at universities in italy. the book is well illustrated and presents an interesting perspective on the telescope and its early application as an astronomical instrument. galileo’s telescope: a european story. d massimo bucciantini, michele camerota, and franco giudice. translated by catherine bolton. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2015. isbn 978-0-674-73691-7. 340 pages. hardcover, $35.00. hindsight_55_1_final.pdf special issue: scope expansion hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 55 number 1 spring 2024 irvin borish a. n. haffner hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x spring, 2024 volume 55, number 1 editor: david a. goss, o.d., phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@iu.edu contributing editors: john amos, o.d., ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu chair lilien vogl, o.d. drvogl@cox.net editor david a. goss, o.d., phd dgoss@iu.edu members maria armandi, o.d. marmandi@salus.edu taylor babcock, o.d. tdbabcock@gmail.com linda casser, o.d. lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, o.d. viktoria@davismn.net w. howard mcalister, o.d., mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, o.d. rimyersod@gmail.com carol parker, o.d. drparker4564@gmail.com jennifer reilly, o.d., msc reillyj@neco.edu sara warsing swarsing28@midwestern.edu optometry cares® the aoa foundation molly brown program manager mbrown@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: dgoss@iu.edu. ohs committee 2024 drs. irvin borish and a. n. haffner were visionary optometric leaders who helped propel optometric scope expansion. irvin borish a.n. haffner hindsight: journal of optometry history 1 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 55 number 1 spring 2024 table of contents3 8 28 news 2 editorials guest editorial: our proud optometric therapeutic heritage 3 louis j. catania o.d., dsc from the editor: scope expansion and periods of optometry history 5 david a. goss, o.d., phd articles a history of scope expansion in optometry and its impact 8 on the profession john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos, and david a. goss, o.d., phd the impact of military experience on state optometric legislation 25 w. howard mcalister, o.d., ma, mph, jeffrey l. weaver, o.d., mba, ms, and jerry d. davis, o.d., ms a brief history of optometric co-management and its role 28 in scope expansion paul ajamian, o.d. thoughts on a lifetime of optometric practice and changes in 32 scope of practice charles edmonds, o.d. reflections on optometric scope of practice witnessed over 35 one clinical educator’s career neil a. pence, o.d. book reviews book review: optometry in mississippi 1920-2020 37 david a. goss, o.d., phd louis j. catania, o.d., dsc drs. janney, ramsey, and casto paul c. ajamian, o.d. 32 charles edmonds, o.d. newsletter of the optometry library optometric historical society / 24 may lui : ..... , ......................... ~·········'= indiana university index \nolana unwersity (volume/page) volumes 11-20 may 221mo a aack, herb, 14/77 aarkus, denmark, 14/9 aasen, larry, 13/13 abbe, ernst, 14/20,29; 15/78,39,59; 16/11,32,51; 17/18; 18/70 coin, 11/54 abbot, j.o., 17/29-30 abc der optik, 17/48 abel, c.a., 18/14 peter, 20/9 abell, j.o., 14/88 abicht, j., 14/20 abracadabra, 11/25 abrams, h., 20/23 j.j., 11/1; 12/1; 13/1,7,26; 14/2,102-103; 15/2,38, 45; 16/1,22,39; 17/1, 15,31,41,48,49,51; 18/12,40,41,42,45; 19/8; 20/1,2,27-28 acad. of optom., amer., 18/68 new york, 14/34 the lynx, 18/5 acadia, 17/61 accommodation, 19/41-42 spasm of, 12/10 theories of, 12/88; 19/2 accomm. conv., 17/6-7 accreditation, 15/55 actina eyes restorer, 20/27 acuity meter, 19/16 adair, c.d., 14/40; 15/60 adam hilger ltd., 12/77 adams, g., 11/3,30; 17/50 john, 12/87 l.b., jr., 17/7 mr., optician, 13/11 addenbrooke phillips, j.b., 12/25; 14/7 adds specification, 14/4 adie, john, 14/50 adler, bernard, 15/48 jacob, 3/37 adolph, g., 20/39 "advances in diag. vis. optics", 20/31 advertisements, 13/17; 17/57-60; 19/4546; 20/7 aero club of amer., 18/44 aesthetics, color, 18/17-18 afb news, 17/10 aflect?effect, 11/63 africa, 13/20; 13/46 aftel, h., 13/25 afterimage, 14/76-77 aging, 17/25 aguilon horopter, 16/59-60 ahlstrom, o., 16/45 ainslee's magazine, 13/37 air force, 13/18 airy, b. 11/20, 22; 14/50; 19/23-24; 20/33 ai-tai, 11/13 aitchison, 16/25; 17/40 aitken, m., 17/51 ajoc, 13/37 kikuchi coll. of optom., 13/50 alabama, 12/65 poly. inst., 17/29 alaska geographic, 20/27 albert berger co., 13/21 d.m., 17/57 prince, 16/56 albrecht, prince,l8/28 aldersley, 15/43 alexander, e.b., 12/70; 13/13, 22-23; 16/13,25; 18/55 alexandria, queen, 13/63-64 al-haitham, 13/52; 14/75; 16/10,56; 19/20; 20/31,32 "alice in wonderland", 12/17 al-kindi, 11/34 all j~pan opt. fed., 12/35 opto.m. consort i urn, 13/37-38 allard, ot:, 14/41 allgeyer, l., 17/23 allen county public lib., 15/5 d. sheard, 15/10-13; 15/59 allyl diglycol carb., 14/93 aloes in collyria, 19/31 alpha chi omega, 13/38 kappa alpha, 13/38 alten, a. von, 18/28 alumni news, 17/46 alumniscope, 15/21; 16/39,49 alvarez principle, 17/49 alzheimer's disease, 15/46 amann, r., 14/8 ambrosian library, 16/33 ambrosini, l., 12/20 amendments, ohs by-law, 17/1,15 amer. colonial, 17/57 acad. of ophth., 20/5 museum, 15/84; 17/21; 18/15,20; 19/15 optom., 13/3-7; 15/1,40; 16/12; 17/6,48; 18/1,15,40,49,68 chapters, 13/4,68-69; 14/76; 19/16 amer. antiq. soc., 14/91; 19/27-28,34 assoc. adv. sci., 12/9 state & local hist., 14/85 of opticians, 18/42 opt om., 14/44 astron. soc., 14/88 cyanamid, 14/94 encycl: df ophthal., 17/46; 18/60 found. for blind, 17/10 med. ass'n., 13/73; 15/56 microscope co., 14/10 optical ass'n., 14/40 co., 12/30; 13/51,84; 14/8; 15/57,85; 16/5-6,53; 17/59; 18/44; 20/48 canada, 20/44 museum, 15/83; 16/22; 17/21 optom. ass 'n., 50 11/46; 12/64,65,68-75; 13/22; 14/7,18,96; 15/1,55,56; 16/6,9; ., 18/40,41,42-45; 19/f2~14; 20/12,38,43,47 study courses, 12/3' · foundation, 18/14; 19/25 coll., china, 12/27;13/30 personnel & guid. ass'n., 16/9 phil. soc., 17/25-26,43; 20/7 plan, 15/5-6,8 amer. herit. invent. & tech., -16/41; 18/10 -j. of microscopy, 12/9 ophth., 16/33 optom., 19/15 and a.a.a.o. 15/41; -r6/33,34,36; 17/35 physiol. optics, 15/6,40; 16/59; 18/20; 19/13 med., 15/33 physiol. optics, 18/44 magazine, 15/58 med. news, 16/4 optom:-ass•n. messenger, 17/13 news, 15/68; 17/38,39; --rb/45 organizer, 17/13 ames, adelbert, 13/51; 14/8 amici microscope, 12/58 amman, jost, 15/42 amos, j.f., 18/41 amos 'n andy, 11/66 ampere, m., 18/17 amsden, l.g., 20/44 amulets, 11/24; 18/46 anagnos, m., 14/12 "anatomical eyeglass", 19/46 anatomy course, 14/27-28 an-beu-wis associates, inc., 11/39 anchor opt. co., 17/46 anderson, r., 20/25 anecdotes, 14/33-34,75; 15/73; 16/56 anel, dominique, 14/74 anfao, 20/7 angel, bethesda, 19/27-34 angerstein, 11/27 angle, brewster, 16/55 metre, 17/46-48 nagel's fusion, 17/47 anglo-saxons, 11/26 animal spirits, 11/57 anne, queen, 15/79 anomalous corresp., 11/55; 13/40 antiquarium soc., amer., 19/27,34 antique collectors club, 14/2-3; 15/23; 16/60; 17/18 "antique glasses and frames" book, 20/18 antique trades, 18/59 weekly, the, 17/21 week/tri-state trader, 15/58 antiques, ophthalmic, 11/5; 12/20; 13/79; 14/45; 15/83; 16/4; 18/57-60; 20/7-8 anti-reflection coating, 18/45 apelles, 17/14 aphasia, 12/85 apollo, 13/8 award, 15/49; 16/49 apotropaic ophthal., 12/13 tritanopia, 14/72 appelbaum, a., 18/14 apple of one's eye, 15/4 opt. industries, 17/46 appraisers, 16/19; 16/22 apprentices, 16/2 aquapendente, 20/31 aquino, c., 18/36 arabia, 14/74; 16/61 arachnid filaments, 13/43 archeology, 11/29 architectural lighting, 18/10,22 architecture school, 18/10 archiv fur augenheilk., 18/58 archival destruction, 14/85-86 archival sense, 11/67 archive, lubin, 15/37 archives, skeffington, 18/48 archivist's dilemma, 17/30 arcus senilis, 17/25 arderne, john of, 19/5 "arena", 13/67 arend, a.c., 14/13 argand's lamp, 18/54 aristophanes, 14/75 aristotle, 14/72; 16/37 ariz. optom. aux., 18/15 51 arlt, ferd., 11/3 arlt, prof. von, 18/29,30,34 armorlite, 14/92-94 armstrong, d.m., 11/4 harry, 13/22 m.w., 12/64 army, 13/17-18; 15/49,54 arnold, j.h., 14/38-39,44 rudi, 11/37 arons, i.j., 18/48 aronsfeld, g.h., 12/68-75; 13/22-23 aronson, t., 16/56 arrington, e.e., 14/4 g.e., 14/70 ars magna lucis et umbrae, 15/80; 19/3-4 artificial eye on lion, 16/6 artificial eyes, 12/52; 16/6,29-30,40; 19/40; 20/11 artificial illum., 16/49 artistic light, 19/17 asakura, 14/100 m., 14/97-98 asami, k., 13/16 asbjornsen, p., 14/31-33 aspectibus, de, 13/52 aspherical contacts, 20/30 ass'n. of brit. ophthal., 14/59,63 opt. pract., 16/13 opt., scot., 11/36 optom. editors, 11/34 sch. & coll. optom., 11/34; 12/51 wholesale & mfg. opt., 15/7 asthenopia, 15/56-57 astig clip, 18/9 astigm. lens, stokes, 11/20 astigmatism, 11/21 and cylind. lenses, 19/22-24 corrected by contacts, 19/43 correction, 19/2 designation, 14/29-31 donders on, 19/23 in 1880, 12/8,9 inheritance of, 19/23 mcallister and, 16/32 measurement, 20/32-33 "astigmatism" coined, 18/59 aston museum, 11/40 astrology, 19/5 astronomy, 14/88 astrophysical journal, 17/34 atkinson, t.g., 15/46-47 atlas of vision aids, 13/11a,55; 19/9 atmosphere contam., 18/11-12 attic, germs in, 18/13 atwood, t., 11/4 aubert, 15/76 audiometry, 15/73 "augendienst", bartisch, 18/46 augenheilkunde geschichte, 13/49 augenoptik, 14/19-21a; 15/59; 16/l!a-12; 17/18,24,44,49; 18/22,63-64; 19/15,21; 2!a/22,23-24 augenoptik, 14/71a; 16/32 school, jena, 15/39 augenoptiker title, 21a/2!a postal stamp, 17/42 "aughts", 21a/2 augsburger, a.r., 13/25; 14/77; 15/68; 18/4 augusta von alten, 18/28 augustine, r.c., 12/68; 13/22 aurora borealis, 18/12 austin, w., 12/76; 13/53; 16/1 australia, 11/28,38,64; 12/21,77; 16/23; 17/51; 18/36,39; 19/35-37 eye hospital, 12/79 1 a ws , 14 i 45 , 53 o.e.p. in, 16/13,29 optom. ass'n., 12/13; 18/36-37; 19/36 austral. j. of optom., 12/13; 16/23 austria, 14/25 auten, h. 14/8 autoinoculation, 13/46 auxiliar~, florida, 13/76 amer. optom. ass'n., 12/61 ariz., 18/15 indiana, 14/79-82 texas, 13/76 averani, 15/23 aves, owen, 11/8; 13/53; 15/85; 17/76 award, bausch & lomb, 11/4 hendrickson, 15/61 hewitt, 12/13 hofstetter, 19/11,39 o.h.s., 15/1 scown, 11/9 52 t illyer, 13/51 ayscough, j., 14/11a6; 17/8-9 b babalola, j., 18/53 babbage, c., 21a/35 babbitt, e.j., 14/8,75-76 babcock archives, 14/77 babylonians, 19/19-21a backman, h.a., 18/49 bacon, r., 12/82; 13/52; 14/49,77; 15/63-64; 16/lla,46; 19/4 baconian method, 15/11 bacon's "perspectiva", 21a/5 bad eilsen clinic, 17/16-17,44-45 bader, d.a., 13/9 bailey, james, 12/61a ba i 1 e y , n • j • , 16/15; 17/21,23,41-42; 18/8,48; 19/17 bailey, rosemary, 12/22 baker, c., 19/37 baker, fred, 2!a/9 baldwin, w., 12/61a; 18/7 baliwalla, n.p., 13/15 ball, dr., 14/95 ballard, s.s., 14/lla6 ballingham, mr., 14/lla2 balthaser, s., 2!a/7 bancroft, w., 16/53 banks, mrs. g.g., 15/78 bannon, r.e., 11/22,23; 13/5; 14/8; 17/33 banta, o.o., 13/19 barber-surgeon, 18/46; 19/41 bardell, o., 18/5 barker, w.b., 14/46; 17/17 barnes, h.r., 17/31,33,37 barnes-hind, 16/7 barnett, a., 11/22 barnum museum, 13/84; 16/53 baron, h., 18/57-58 barr & stroud, 12/11 e.s., 19/21; 2!a/18 j.t., 18/48 barrett, w.m., 15/24-26 barrow, i., 11/38; 19/13 barstow, r., 17/71a bartholin, c. j., 13/54-55 bartisch, g., 13/19; 14/49,75; 18/46 bartleson, c.j., 16/40 bartley opt. sales, 16/2 bartley, s.h., 14/8; 16/2 bartmus, g.m.c., 14/38,41,44 barty-king, h., 17/40 basic science law, 11/43 bastedo, n.j.r., 13/25 bateman, e. & m., 14/5 bates, j., 17/21 method, 13/7 wm. h., 17/16 baths, eye, 11/33 battle of lutzen, 20/39 "battle of richmond", 12/68; 13/22 bausch & lomb, 11/4,13; 12/61; 13/21; 14/86-87,92; 15/58; 17/39,45,46,59; 19/46,59; 20/48 j.j., 15/58 robert, 13/21 bavarian acad. sci., 20/18 bax, d., 19/20-21 bax-botha, m.a., 19/20-21 bax's interpretation, 20/5 baxley, b., 13/57 baxter, r. c., 13/5 bay state opt. co., 13/62 bazin, beth, 13/25 beacher, l.l., 12/61 bear, n. & o., 18/6 bearborn, l., 15/25 bebber, otto, 19/9 beck, r. & j., 12/9; 16/31 becker, b., 15/69; 16/1; 19/25 beckman, r., 16/7; 19/22 bee and weevil, 18/5 beeswax, 11/11 begemann, s.h.a., 14/71 behavioral optom., 18/48 beitel, r.j., 14/8 belanger, g.m., 18/15-16 bell & brewster, 20/31 g. j., 18/69 r.c., 12/83 sir charles, 18/68-69 thomas, 13/8 belland, george, 18/17 belle-burke, r., 15/63 bellefroid, 17/25 bell's recollections, lady, 53 18/69 belous, r., 20/28 benevolent fund, 14/26 bennett, a.g., 13/40; 18/22; 19/13; 20/30 bromley, 19/44-45 harold, 19/44-45 i., 13/79,84; 14/73; 15/68; 16/47,53,60; 17/2-3,8,18 j.w., 11/63; 12/61 q., 19/44-45 r.w., 13/24 sir john, 19/44-45 benoist-berthiot, 16/47 berchtesgaden, 12/53 berg of new york, 17/35 bergen, j. v., 13/19 berger, a., 13/21 bergin, d. 15/65 bergmann, j.f., 19/39 berkeley optom., 17/11 berlin opt. school, 15/82; 20/9 be r 1 i o z , l • h • , 18 i 51 bernard, c., 18/29 bernays, e., 13/23 bernhardt, d., 14/20 bernheimer, st., 11/3 bernstein, m.h., 17/31 berry sir geo., 12/81; 13/11,55; 14/56,64 beryl, 12/79 bester, h.m., 14/13,35 bethesda angel, 19/27-34 betony in collyria, 19/31 better light better sight bureau, 12/62 vision inst., 13/13 bettman, o.l., 16/25 betty {lamp), 18/10 bevan, b., 15/7 beveridge, a.j., 14/38 beveridge report, 14/45-69 bhatt, k.k., 13/15 bible, 13/19; 16/13; 18/57; 19/28 bicentenary, australia, 19/36 bielschowsky, a., 11/3; 14/8 bier, norman, 16/16 bifocals, 13/66; 14/42; 16/4,21; 18/21; 19/42 billinghurst, l., 14/8 billman, w.f., 18/57 bing, lois, 15/65; 16/8-9 binocular refraction, 15/43 binocular rivalries, 28/31 vision by solomons, 17/47 binsey, 13/18 binstead, h., 14/44 biograph co., 14/18 biographic clinics, 18/58-52 biomed. sci. co., 13/18 biomicroscopy, 14/44 bio science, 18/5 birnbaum, m.h., 13/18 birren, f., 11/33 bishop, ray, 11/4 roy l., 15/24 bismarck, b.h., 13/63,65 bixler, n.a., 13/33,78; 28/39 black women in optom., 13/38-39 blackerby, p.e., 17/5 blades, obsidian, 18/18-11 blaess, m., 13/4 blagden, c., 11/6,19 blaine, gov., 11/45 blind, accomplishments of, 19/32-33 books for, 28/32 cure, 13/18 dogs for, 28/28-29 education for, 15/59 perkins school for, 14/12-13 printer, 13/18 volunteers, 12/53 blinded veterans ass'n., 13/12 blindiana stamp, 17/18 blinding. penal, 19/4 blindness and von graefe, 18/25 and bethesda, 19/28-38 and god, 19/32-33 and john milton, 16/46; 19/5 indian n.s.p., 28/33-34 indiana soc. to prevent, 15/38 javal on, 18/68-61 nat. soc. to prevent, 15/38 prevention, 11/5 54 to the blind, 16/46 blindspot, mariotte, 19/24 bliss, dr., 18/28 bloch, felix, 13/49 blocks, jere's, 16/8 blodi, f.c., 13/18,49, 55-57; 14/45; 15/62-63; 28/36-37 bloembergen, n., 14/36 blood, christian, 14/31-33 bloom, j.c., 13/61-65; 14/3-4; 19/9 m., 14/26 blue and evil eye, 14/72 book of optom., 15/46 mystery of, 28/32 plate glass, 14/97; 28/32 to ward off jinns, 19/6 board questions, state, 15/3-4 boat passenger lists, 15/5 bobier, c.w., 13/25 bock, e., 12/77 bock, jerry, 13/57-59 boden, h.c., 16/31 boegehold, h. 11/39 bohne, prof., 11/27 boissonneau, 16/29 boller, p.f., 12/86 bonaparte, j., 16/31 bond, james, 18/62 bonhams, 15/44 bonnell, v.e., 16/2 bonschur, h., 16/31 and holmes, 17/46 book, case record, 13/26-28 collecting, 28/13-16 collection, 16/21 for opticians, 12/34 booker t. washington high school, 13/38 books in optometry, 14/67-68 old, 11/2 on light, 11/28 on quackery, 28/15 talking, 28/32 bookstores, second-hand, 28/16 booth, f., 13/36-37,59 bootie gen. hosp., 12/15 boots, messrs., ltd., 12/14 bordley, dr., 17/39 borish, i.m., 11/22: 13/69: 18/14,23,55 borsch, j.l., 16/31 bosch, h., 19/29-21: 29/5 bostock, f.c., 16/6 boston line type, 14/13 bot lantern, 13/48 bothman, l., 12/2 bouguer, 16/35 bow, riding, 14/3 bowers, a.b., 13/36 j.h., 16/31 bowman, 11/39 lecture, 17/6-7 professor, 18/29,34 sir william, 17/7 boyle, 13/54 boynton, r.m., 13/51; 18/4 bozherianov, i.n., 16/2 bracher, a., 18/5 bradley, c.c., 12/61 braff, s.m., 11/9; 15/6 brake, tycho, 16/56 braille, 11/5 catalog in, 14/12-13 coins, 13/54 louis, 15/59; 29/27 postage stamp, 13/12 "brain vibration", 15/25 brake, gus, 13/63 brazelton, f.a., 13/83-84; 17/22 bregens, b., 15/23 lens, 14/99; 15/23 breintnall, h. & j., 19/45-46 breisacher, c., 14/8 brewster, 14/24; 15/89; 16/53-55,56; 18/7,6869;19/21-22,37,42 and bell 29/31 and wheatstone 16/53-54 society, 19/37 stereoscope, 17/21 brewster's optical toy, 14/75 bridge, saddle, 13/21 wheatstone, 16/55 bridgeport post, 16/53 brieux, alain, 15/84 brille, 12/79 brindze, r., 11/14 brineman, d.g. & j., 29/25-26 britain, 16/23 55 brit. chapt. a.a.o., 19/16 coll. of ophth. opt., 11/36; 12/84; 14/26; 15/27,64; 18/3 contact lens ass'n., 12/22; 15/79 disp. opt., guild, 14/61 guiana, 14/53 j. physiol. opt., 12/46; 17/16-17 med. ass'n., 14/58,61 museum, 15/27 ophthalm., ass'n., 14/59,63 opt. ass'n., 11/36; 14/45,51-52,62; 15/9; 17/19,22; 18/49,52; 19/44; 29/14 foundation, 12/24 history, 12/84; 14/25-27 library, 14/45; 15/27; 19/3-4; 29/5 yearbook, 15/27 . instrument mfgrs. ass'n., 12/77 soc. history of pharm. 14/95 brizius, s.r., 11/45 brock, f.w. 18/14 brookman, k.e., 13/9 brooks, c., 12/78; 18/57 broom, 13/37 brothers, leo, 11/66 brougham, m., 16/43 browband spectacles, 12/79 brown, a.c., 13/39 c.h., 14/44: 15/33-36; 17/38 e.v.l., 12/2 early optician, 13/55 e.g., 16/46 ernest, 14/69 j.w., 12/82 k., 18/57 r. 16/69 s.h., 16/39 browning, j., 11/2 r., 18/59 browse, v.m., 13/29 brush, haidinger, 11/55 bryant, w.c., 18/67 bryden, o.j., 16/62-64 bubble sextant, 12/54 bucar, a.a., 12/61 buchanan, j., 12/87; 13/19 buckley, o.e., 13/53 bucklin, dr., 14/41 buffon and color, 18/17 bugbee, l.w., 14/44 bugelbrille, 12/79 bulbs, 1 ight, 11/63; 15/56-57 bull, john, 17/52-53 collection, 19/9 bulletin, the, 14/3 bull's head rhyton, 20/31 burian, h.m., 14/8 burnett, s., 13/80 burning glasses, 14/90; 17/24,49; 18/54 burschenschaft, 15/39 buser, f., 14/72 bush, c.g., 19/37 george, 18/4 butterfield, g., 17/41 buzzard, f., 14/59 "bwana devil", 13/67 bybee, d.a., 18/14 bygones sale, 15/44 by-laws, o.h.s., 16/39; 17/1,15 c calendar reform, 12/28 calendars, 11/4 california league for conserv. of vision, 14/6 opt. lab. ass•n., 18/15 optom. ass'n., 13/37-38; 18/14 optom. occup. vis. serv., 14/6 univ. o{, 12/10; 13/77; 15/41; 17/35; 19/3 press, 16/2 sch. of opt om., 12/58; 15/50; 18/3,40 vis. therap. forum, 18/15 callender, m.g., 12/7 caloroso, e.e., 15/65 calvina, italo, 15/79 cambridge phil. soc., 20/33 trinity coll., 11/38 univ. of, 19/13 press, 19/4 56 camera lucida, 12/10 nordenson, 18/64 obscura, 14/75; 15/66; 19/4 retinal, 11/38 cameron, j., 12/82 campbell, e.a., 12/62 f.w., 13/51 m.c.w., 19/13 r., 12/81 canada, 12/21; 16/42; 17/49; 18/1; 20/40-45 first optom. act, 20/43 optom. educ., 20/44-45 canadian j. of optom., 18/1-;-lsoptom. & opt., 20/43 ophth. coll., 20/44 optometry father, 20/42-44 canary islands, 12/21 candle, standard, 11/10 candles, 18/10 candlewood, 20/10-11 canton art inst., 13/41 edwin, 17/25 cantonnet, 14/55 cantor lectures, 16/49,50 cantwell, h.m., 13/34 capone, al & r., 11/66 capper's weekly, 17/39 card, reading test, 14/18 cardiff tech. coll., 14/53 cards, trade, 20/27 carl zeiss found., 12/58, 13/56; 15/7-8; 16/10 carleton, e.h., 14/8 carlson, p., 11/1; 12/49; 13/59,84; 15/1,2,45; 16/1,21,39; 17/1,15,25; 18/1-2; 19/8 carlyle, j., 16/64 thomas, 18/50 carmichael, h., 18/11 carnegie found., 15/56 caro, r.a., 17/22 carr, e., 15/9 carr-saunders, 13/82 carreon, r.j., 15/21; 18/14 carter, h.c., 17/21 cartoons, 11/42; 13/11; 16/14,22; 17/13; 18/1516,37; 19/10 carville, g. & c., 18/67 cary, wm., ll/2e; 14/se case inst. of tech., 17/54 records, 13/26-28 typing, 18/56 western reserve univ., 17/54 casler, h., 14/le-11 cases, chinese, 2e/17 cassanova, 14/27 cassat, m., 16/7 cassini lecture, 20/31 castle liners, 15/66 museum, 14/9 castor-oil, 18/25 cat experiment mery, 11/19,56 wearing spectacles, 16/62 catalog, b. o. a., 2e;s in braille, 14/12-13 1918 jewelry, 12/27 optical, 17/57-6e; 18/3-4; 2e;4e cataract, 11/19; 12/55; 13/4; 17/12; 18/46; 19/31 glasses, 11/15; 16/35 catawba (color), 15/4e catechisms, pinnock, 12/67 catholic univ., 15/73 cave dwellers, 18/le cavendish, 11/19 cbs ad, 15/12 cebu doctors' coll. of optom., 17/38-39; 18/35 hospital, 17/39 inst. of med., 17/39 celebrity eyewear, 15/68 cellini, b., 12/57 celluloid eyes, 2e111 celsus, 18/7 centenary of contacts, 19/15 centennial, h. ives, 13/53; 15/le-13 centrad, 11/63; 12/11 central states coll. of physiatrics, 12/se; 12/64 technical school (toronto), 2e/43,44 centralzeitung fur optik und mechanik, 2e/11-12 centro escolar univ., 19/11 57 century of progress, 15/le cerium oxide, 11/29 certificate, ohs recog., 13/2; 15/1 ces i , f. , 18/5 ceylon, 15/43-44 chairman, w.n., 12/46 chamber, j.w., 11/52 chamblant's glasses, 20/48 chambre, de la, 13/54 chan, viven, 11/3 chaplin, charlie, 12/17 chappell j.h., 15/16-21 chapters, acad., 13/4 chardon lakes inn, 18/54 charles i, 14/49; 15/7 ii and blindspot, 19/24 of roumania, 13/63 charman, w.n., 12/85 charnly, 11/30 chart, iridology, 11/47,48 knowles acuity, 15/75 chase, w., 16/49 chatham booksellers, 11/4 chemists-opticians, inst., 14/51-52 cherokee eyewash, 14/19 indian nation, 17/12 chevalier, j.g.a., 13/14 j.t., 19/5 chevallier's "le conservateur de la vue", 20/5 chevreul, m. e., 11/33; 18/17-18 chiaramonte, c., 17/15 chiaroscuro, 18/18 chicago coll. of ophthal. & otol., 14/73 optom., 15/61 music conserv., 20/25 ophth. coll., 13/21; 14/42 world's fair, 14/42; 16/37; 19/19 child, e., 13/8e; 16/25 children's need, 19/2 childs, h.f., 14/8 chilton's rev. of optom., 14/9e-91; 17/15 chimerae, 11/25 china, 12/28; 14/2,102-3 opthalmology in, 15/62 spectacles in, 11/13; 12/19,81; 26/27,47 chinese j. of opthalm., 14/i"rn­ chiropodists & physicians, 15115 chiu, kaiming, 11113 chloroform, 18132-33 choroid observations, 11159 chossat, j.f.g., 14124 chou, b.r., 19113 christ and the eye, 19129-34 pope's visitation by, 15148 christensen, j.l., 17113 christian blood, 14131-33 optom., fellowship of, 18157 christie, j.r.r., 16155 christopher, a.c.e., & g.a., 13138-39 chromaticity, 16136 chromatics, 19143 chrome generator, 15170 chrome-orthoptics, 12169 chronotype, the, 13119 chute, e., 1418 cicero, 13143; 19126 cie, 1515; 16136; 20119 ciliary gymnastics, 1913 cima di ruta, 11126 cinco, claro, 141103; 17138-39; 18135-36,58,65; 19111 n.m., 17138-39 cinema invention, 14128 cinema scope, 13166-67 cinematic eye effects, 19111 history, 17120 cinerama, 13167 citrine ~ure, 18148-49 ci v i1 war, · 18150 optom., 1218 clark, b.b., 13181 m.c., 13130 ronald, 15156 univ., 16112 classe, j.g., 2019 classics of ophthalm. lib., 1717 claudius, a., 16146 clay, henry, 16131 cleary, j.w., 16131 cleopatra eye makeup, 1916 58 clifford's inn, 15127 cline, 0., 1413-4; 1514,79; 17159; 18166 clinic, g.m.dunn, 19116 "clinical refraction", 18123 clip, astig, 1819 clockmaker bennett, 19144-45 club, ophth. antiques col!., 15123 coa-japan seminar, 13137-38 coating, anti-reflection, 18145 cobb, emma, 17155 cochran, ed, 18164 code of ethics, acad., 1313 coetzee, h., 12123 cohen brothers, 20144 g.b., 16122 coherent light, 1717 cohn, h., 17140; 20111 cohn's diseases, 1917 coiled filament, 1617 coin collectors' lamp, 11139 ernst abbe, 11154 zamenhof, 1216 coins and medals, 12181 coins rn-braille, 13154 colburn, optician, 14150 colcothar, 14199 co 1 e , b. l. , 13 i 4 8 ; 14 i 9 4 ; 19137 p.j., 11137 coleman, r.c., 1115 ronald, 17120 w.r., 20110 collecting benefits, 15158 collection, eyewear, 15168 heyman, 14136 instruments, 12167; 1614 collector, book, 20113-16 collectors club, ophth. antiq., 1412-3; 17118 spectacle, 1813-4 coll., chicago ophth., 13121 of ophth. opticians, 11136 optom. in vis. ovpt., 13113; 18115,38 israel, 16115 canada, 20143,44 ontario, 12/5; 20/45 physicians of phil., 14/91 syntonic optom., 12/4,63,64,65 collins, h.b., 11/37; 17/39; 19/37 collings, e., 14/38 collinz, e.o., 14/39,44 robert h., 14/94 wilkie, 13/66 collyria, 15/82; 19/5,30-31 colombia, 12/21 colonial optics, 20.6-7 spectacles, 19/45-46 color aesthetics, 11/33; 18/17-18 afterimage, 14/76-77 early knowledge of, 13/54 names for amer. indians, 15/39-40 standards, 16/36 test, 18/2 0 vision deficiency, 19/2 in antiquity, 15/63 test lanterns, 13/47-48 "color blind" book, 20/16 color-blind painter, 14/104-105 colorado optom. ass'n., 12/61 optometry, 19/8-9 state hist. soc., 18/22 colored light treatment, 15/69 "colored glass", 16/35 colors, 18/18 columbia univ., 13/4,73; 15/61,65; 17/23-24,2829,31-36,45; 18/42; 19/7 optom. courses, 13/16,41; 15/28-30,50 alumni ass'n., 15/28-29 colville, e., 14/36,102 combined opt. ind., ltd., 14/93 comfort zones, ocular, 13/4 comiers, c., 14/49 commercial opt. publications, 17/57-60 comm. internat. de l'eclairage, 15/5; 16/40 de photometrie, 20/19 committee, nominating, 59 18/2-3 on vision, 14/106 ophth. opt. stand., 15/7 commons, house of, 17/19 co., spectacle makers, 11/36 compleat syst. of opt., 17/46 "compound" colors, 18/18 comstock, h., 14/42 conan doyle, 14/7 conant, j., 15/11 concave mirror skiascope, 12/2 confederacy, 12/8 conference optom. stand., 1922, 19/12 congress, 53rd. i.o.o.l., 11/37 great lakes, 18/19 congressional record, 20/29 conical cornea, 16/8 conjunctivitis cure, 12/44; 13/46 conner, c.w., 14/37-38,42 conrad, k., 16/12 consol. opt. co., 20/44 contact lens, 11/6,9,40,55; 12/22,35; 13/4,56; 14/74,86; 15/5-6,40,79; 16/8,15-19,32-34; 17/21,23,27,41; 18/4041,48,49,53,57-58; 19/15,17,43; 20/30 association of ophthalmologists, 16/33 insurance, 18/8 leonardo and, 16/32-34 litigation, 19/17 museum exhibit, 18/45 patent, 15/26 patents, corneal, 17/23 removal, 14/81 contact lens forum, 14/44; 16/33,34; 17/25 journal, 12/7,8; 16/8 spectrum, 17/21,27,41,42; 18/8,48; 19/17; 20/9-10 contact lenses and capt. knowles, 15/40 aspherical, 20/30 in japan, 12/35 in the film industry, 20/10 rgp, 17/27; 19/17 continuing education, 14/87 contrast, law of, 18/17 convergence and stereopsis, 11/6 components, 17/6-7 convergenzbewegung, 7/47 convex lenses for myopia, 17/16-17 convicts, australian, 19/36 cook, m.d., 13/50 cook of tenn., 13/81 cooke, thomas, 14/9 coon, l.j., 13/57 m.w., 14/94 cooper, philip, 18/21 coopervision, 17/39 coovs, 1~/6 copley medal, 17/40 copperplate engraving, 15/42 copple w., 19/17 cordoba, univ. of, 14/104 core, the sensory, 11/14 corliss, wm., 11/20 cornea, conical, 16/8 mould, 19/43 corneal contact lens, 17/23,41 reflections, 11/60 cornell univ., 17/45 corns, robert, 15/3 coronel, a.h., 14/11-12; 15/33,35-36 corpuscular theory, 16/55 correll, c. & j., 11/66 corresp., anomal. ret., 11/55; 13/40 corresp. course, 12/15; 15/33-35; 18/43 corson,~r., 13/10 c8te-d'or, prieur de la, 18/17 cotgrave, r., 19/41 counc. optom. educ., 15/55; 18/41 counterstamp, j.o.p. 13/45-46 courier-journal, 17/12 courses, early, 20/43 court case, saks, 11/19,49 jester's spectacles, 20/23 cowen, 15/43 cox c.e., 14/13,35 m.e., 15/1; 16/1 cozzens, c.o., 16/5 crab orchard sanitorium, 12/50 crawford, w.l., 11/19,56 cressets, 20/10-11 crete museum, 17/56 cricket trophy, 15/66 crisp, w.h., 14/59 critchett, dr., 18/34 croisant, c., 17/45 cronenwett, s.e., 18/15; 19/15,25 cronin, a.j., 14/7 crookes glasses, 17/53 sir wm., 18/45 cross, a.j., 11/31; 17/24; 18/41-43; 19/6-7,15 cross-cyl. tests, 18/24 crosse, w., 19/5 crossed cyl., jackson, 15/42 crowther, mr., 15/9 cr-39, 14/93-94 crundall, e.j., 14/92 crystalline index, 14/24 lens optics, 15/21 csapody, dr., 16/17 cuiffreda, k.j., 13/10 culbertson, dr., 14/44 cullen, a.p., 12/61 cult treatments, 15/69 culver, c.m., 14/30 cure, citrine, 18/48-49 cures by eye cups, 19/10 curl, flexible, 14/3 curriculum ii, 16/13; 16/28 currie, donald, 15/65-66 custis, g.w.p., 16/29 cyclopean history, 19/13-14 cyclophoria, 18/24 cycloplegic, 19/7 cyl. designation, 14/3-4,29-31 obliquely crossed, 11/21 lenses for astig., 19/22-24 czapski-zeiss, 14/44 d da modena, 12/82 dabezies, o.h., 16/33 dablemont, earl, 12/61; 16/h' maria, 11/1,2,15; 12/1,2,21,26; 13/26; 14/l-2,88,1b2; 15/2,45; 16/1,21; 17/1,15,34; 19/8,25,34-35 daca de valdes, 13/14,66; 17/5b; 19/3 daily express, 12/53 dallos, a., 11/6 david, 11/8 joseph, 11/6,8; 15/79; 16/15-19 damian, 19/38 dance of siva, 17/11 dandalo, blind, 16/46 daniel, gov., 13/77 daniels, j., 12/76 daniken, e. von, 11/29 darius, john, 18/59; 19/27 darkness, 14/83 darrow, k.h., 13/53 dartmouth coll., 14/8,35,75-76; 17/55; 18/44 darwin, c., 16/37; 18/50 davey, j.p., 13/67-70; 15/38,60 memorial fund, 2/22; 6/47; 7/65 davy, h., 14/28,90; 15/23 david, i.s.n., 16/46 davidson, d.c., 13/55; 14/2-3,36,90; 15/22,23; 17/18; 18/67 daviel, 12/79 davies, m.c., 12/3,4,49 da vinci, leonardo, 13/56 davis, a.b., 17/20; 19/9 jefferson, 12/8 n.z., 18/61-63 dayton bd. of educ., 18/44 d.d.r. stamps, 12/24 de aguilon, f., 16/59-60 deane-butcher, w., 12/79 deane, g.i., 18/14 de aspectibus, 13/52; 16/10 de cura oculorum, 19/5 definitions, 14/48 degenhardt, a.h., 14/5; 15/23; 17/8; 18/45 de gitis, mrs. a., 11/65 degree, o.d., 14/9 61 de grosz, e., 16/16 de la chambre, 13/54 delius, f., 12/25 de luxe opt. co., 12/67 de maria, a.j., 17/7-8 de mesquita, j., 11/5; 18/60 de mille, c.b., 15/37; 17/20 de moor, s., 11/52 democritus, 19/33 denderah temple, 11/25 den gamle by, 14/9 dennett, w., 11/23,63; 12/11 dennis, al, 18/14 denny, r.e., 13/34; 19/12 denver & rio grande, 18/43 de pilli, 12/57 depression, great, 11/45 de provence, h., 12/82 de quincey, t., 18/50 derby, dr., 18/34 hasket, 14/30 designs for vision, 18/14 descartes, rene, 11/18,55; 13,54; 14/20,72; 15/11; 16/34,56; 18/58; 19/15,19-20 de selms, o.c., 14/4b design, frame, 2b/27 desmarres, 18/29 desmond, d., 12/27,30,47; 13/15,29-30 de tellez, i.f., 16/57 detroit univ., 16/12 deutsche bundespost, 17/42 deutsche optiker zeiting, 15/41-42; 16/59; 17/42; 18/49,53,57-58; 19/17,39; 20/18,19,20 deutsche dem. rep., 12/24; 16/12; 20/24 gesell. fur mech. und opt., 13/41-42 de valdes, daca, 13/14,66; 17/50; 19/3 devereux, r., 15/39 devil's work, 14/77 "de visione", 20/31 de zeng, h.l., 11/30; 12/67; 13/12,21 diamond, burning a, 14/90; 15/23 diana, 11/26 dick, w. b., 16/31 dickens, c., 14/29; 15/4 dickenson, f., 11/6; 12/25; 18/3 dickson, j.f., 17/1 william, 14/10-11 diet., vis. sci., 14/77; 15/4; 19/16 oxford eng., 15/4 webster, 15/4; 18/40 "didja know?", 13/63 "die brillenmacher", 20/18 dietrich, w.l., 15/14 diogenes, 13/47 dimmer's camera, 11/38 dionne quintuplets, 12/55 diopter, 14/29-31; 15/34; 17/48 dioptric by descartes, 11/18 unit, 13/31-33 dioptric news, 12/13,53 dioptrica~ygens, 13/40 dioptrics, 16/61 dioptroscopy, 11/30 dip!., b.o.a., 14/52 w.c.s.m., 14/52 diplopia, monocular, 11/55; 13/39-40 directory, ohs, 14/23 omega epsilon phi, 17/23-24 disease, alzheimer, 15/46 eye, 11/5; 19/27-34; 20/16 disp. opt. guild, 14/61 disputes, brewster & bell, 20/31 disraeli, b., 13/50-51 dittmer, a.f., 19/8 divergenzbewegung, 17/47 dixon, mrs. c.f., 13/27 "doctor bryson", 18/66 doctor title, 13/70-79; 14/9; 16/43; 17/35 documenta opthal., 16/7 d8derlein, g., 12/78 dodwell, e., 14/33 dogs, seeing eye, 20/28-29 dollars, j.o.p., 13/45-46 dolland & aitchison, 17/40; 18/3 g., 14/90 john, 17/40 62 peter, 16/11 dominion opt. co., 20/44 opt. sch., 20/44 donahue, phil, 18/4 donald currie packet, 15/22-23 donaldson, e.j., 12/79 donations to o.h.s., 14/24 donders, f.c., 11/19,21,23; 13/47; 14/50; 17/7; 18/29,30,33,34; 19/1,3,22-24,41; 20/35 doors, blue, 20/32 d'orleans, cherubin, 13/14 double aught lens, 17/58 double crusie, 18/10 monoc. dipl., 13/39-40 downing, commissioner, 17/35 doyle, a.c., 14/7; 18/57 doyne medal, 18/50 "dr." title, 13/34 drain, c.m., 12/62 drakeford, j. h., 14/34 draper, l., 13/17; 14/36; 18/7; 19/35 dreifus, max, 17/25 professor, 18/49 dressler, marie, 3/37 drew, n.j., 14/94 drugs, 12/65 dryer, a.e., 13/34 dublin, ralph, 14/13,35 dues, ohs, 14/24; 15/1; 16/39 duffens opt. co., 11/5 duke-elder, s., 17/46 duncan, george, 16/55 ramona, 15/71 duncker, j.h.a., 11/39; 16/11; 17/50 dunn, g.m., 11/37; 17/26; 19/16 dunscombe, m.w., 18/59 duplessis, guy, 17/23 duration, eye exam., 17/26 durban-westvillle univ., 15/78 dutch optometry, 12/62 rail authority, 13/47 dvorine, i., 12/24; 13/13 15/1,40; 16/1; 18/20 dyeing, 18/17 "dynamic ocular tests", 18/24 dynamic retinoscopy, 13/4; 15/43; 18/24,42,56; 19/7 dynasty, ming, sung, & yuan, 11/13 dyslexia, 12/85 dzik, david, 15/61 e eade, thomas, 11/5; 14/1~3 ear piercing, 12/53 rings, 12/24,53 earhart, amelia, 12/54 early amer. museum, 18/1~ ~arning & vision, 12/8~,81 east germany, 12/24; 15/59; 16/11,12; 18/18 easterday, h.r., 13/34 eastlake, c.l., 14/76 eastman house, 16/4; 17/21 kodak co., 11/13 eastwood, b.s., 17/25-26 eberhardt, j.c., 13/8~-81; 14/44; 18/39,41,42,4344; 19/15 echo, satellite, 15/12 echols, d.b., 17/15 ecker, herr, 14/72 eckersley, r., 14/11 eckert, r.c., 17/1~ eckhardt, j., 15/37; 17/2~ eclipse, venus, 18/5 viewing, 15/66 eco, umberto, 16/1~ ecole nat. d'opt., 2~/19 economics, heather, 16/8 edberg, k.c., 14/94 edgar, d.f., 19/13 edging, lens, 12/29 edinburgh eye infirm., 14/5~ edinburgh j. of sci., 18/68 phil. j., 18/68 edison,-t.a., 11/63, 12/8, 62; 14/1~; 15/45,56-57; 16/41; 17/2~; 18/54 editing, newsletter, 15/31 editorial "we", 15/45 editor's role, 17/15,17-18 edridge-green lantern, 13/47 edson, c.e., 18/6~ educ., coun. on optom., 63 15/55 for the blind, 15/59 optom., 13/7~-79 in australia, 11/38 india, 2~/33-34 japan, 12/31 the philippines, 18/35-36 educators, ass'n. of optom., 11/34 efficiency rating, visual, 12/8~-81 egan, elizabeth, 16/29 eger, m.j., 2~/33 egypt, 11/24,25,28; 14/74; 15/62; 19/6,19-2~,27; 2~/32 einstein, a., 11/18; 2~/23 eldridge, c.j., 11/37; 15/2; 17/27-28 election, o.h.s., 11/1; 12/21; 13/1; 14/1,85; 17/31; 18/1-3; 2~/1 electric lamps, 11/12; 14/83; 16/7,41; 2~/11 electro-therapy, 13/23-24; 16/6~; 2~/27 electromagnetic theory, 14/28 elephant skull, 19/13-14 elgie, k.o., 15/78 eliot., george, 18/5~ elite sch. of optom., 17/11; 2~/34 elizabeth, queen, 15/7 elkin, m., 16/5 elkington, g.r., 14/88 ellerbrock, v.j., 14/8; 18/4~ elliott, d.o., 2~/3~ earl b., 12/61 frank, 13/43 james, 16/35 ellipse, tscherning, 16/53 ellis island, 17/13 john e., 14/4~ john h., 15/6~ of indiana, 13/81 elson, w.d., 13/34 elworthy, f.t., 11/26 emanuel, king, 13/63-64 embalming of a pope, 15/48 emerald, nero's, 18/18 emery, 14/99 emmott, w., 14/76-77 emons, ernest e., 12/66 emsley, h.h., 11/64; 12/12; 14/55 "visual optics", 16/29 encyclop. brit., 12/77; 14/75; 18/70 metropolitana, 16/8; 19/42-44; 20/33 england, 12/21 dennis, 17/23 optical profession in, 14/46-69 opticians, victorian, 12/81-84 engleman, h.k., 20/36 english eyecare before 1800, 19/4-6 engravings, 15/42 enoch, j.m., 15/41; 17/11,56,60; 20/30-33 enschede en zonen, joh., 12/18 entoptics, 17/62-70 "entre aveugles", 18/60-61 environmental, opt., 17/40 ephemera soc., 14/102 eponyms, 16/28 epsilon psi epsilon, 17/30 epsom salts, 18/25 epstein, w., 11/15 ergonomics, 17/40 ergophthalm., 17/40 eric culver, 12/85 erisman, j., 14/40 erker, a.p. & bro., 13/21 erlangen, univ. of, 20/18 eskimo goggles, 20/28 erskine, g.j., 15/43; 16/43 esche, p., 14/20 esperanto, 12/6 espy, w.r., 17/11 essel, 12/88 essilor, 12/88; 16/47 esthetis, color, 18/17-18 estonia, 16/3 estrada, g.g., 17/38; 19/11 ethics, academy, 13/3 & econ., aoa, 15/56 etruscan art, 11/25 euclid, 19/19-20,39 euoaly, l.s., 18/57 euler, 16/56 j.a. & l., 14/24 64 eure, spurgeon, 19/25 e. s. n. inf. bull., 19/8 eustics, o.h. ,20728 evangeline, 17/61-62 evans, mary ann, 18/50 evansville (indiana), 11/45 "evensong", 12/16 everson, r., 13/59 evil eye, 11/24; 19/6; 20/20-21 and blue, 14/72 superstitions, 19/40 of spectacle selling, 19/20-21 spirits, 20/32 ewalt, h.w., 13/5,54; 14/94 examination of japanese opt., 12/48 trends, optom., 17/26 examiner the, 13/19 exec. board, ohs, 17/15 exemption, license by, 14/42 exercises, eye, 11/31,63 hatha yoga, 13/7 reading, 19/3 exercisers, ciliary, 20/24 experiments, vis. sci., 16/35 expansionists vs. extensionists, 12/69,70 exposure to light, destructive, 16/13 expressions, curious ocular, 16/24 ext. prog., optom., 12/69 extra-retinal vision, 18/46-48 extramission theory of vision, 17/26 ~ear, nose, & throat, 12/2 to eye, 15/26 "eye, the", 17/22 "the world's", 12/13 eye and bethesda, 19/27-34 apple of one's, 15/4 artificial, 16/29-30 on lion, 16/6 bank (japan), 12/36 care in the 19th century, 18/25 cups, 14/95; 19/10 day campaign (japan), 12/33 effects in the movies, 19/11 evil, 11/24 and blue, 14/72 exercise, truth about, 11/63 exercises, hatha yoga, 13/7 glass (in 193 ~), 18/13 health association, osaka, 12/48 hospitals in india, 2~/33 impression technique, 11/7 infection treatment, tribal, 13/46 massage, 15/24-26; 16/6~ mechanical, 14/35; 16/49 of horus, 11/24 of trolls, 14/31-33 on postage stamp, 12/18,37 stones, 16/42; 19/7 surgeons, italian, 13/42 surgery, 19/41 talismanic, 12/13 treatise on the, 11/15 water, 13/48 dr. thompson's, 15/82 eyebright, 19/3~-31 eyecare business, 19/38; 2~/19 eyecare in england, 19/4-6 eyecup collection, 19/25 eyeglass fund, 12/55 industry, japanese, 14/96-1~2 patents, 14/18-19 eyeglasses, antique, 13/79; 14/2~,45,78; 16/1~; 17/42; 2~/27 book by duncker, 16/11 poster, 13/13 ii, federal reg., 18/62 "eyeless sight", 18/46,61 eyes, porcine, 13/42 artificial, 12/52; 16/4b; 2b/ll for statues, 19/4~ "eyes on the road", 14/8b eyesight surv. corp., 16/58 "eyesight without glasses", 15/25 eyewash, 13/48; 14/19 65 eye-waters, preservative, 19/3~-31 eyewear, antique, 11/5 celebrity, 15/68 ezell, wm. c. & mrs., 14/87 f f.a. hardy co., 13/36 fabrici, g., 12/79-8~; 2~/31 face masks for squint, 18/46 fachschule, 15/39; 16/12; 18/63-64 fagots, burning, 18/1~ fahrenbach, s., 18/46 fair in paris, world's, 13/61-65 ron, 11/37; 18/49; 19/8-9 falush, paul, 16/17 fantoscopy, 11/3~ faraday, m., 14/21,28-29,90; 15/23 farbenlehre, 14/76 farigoule, l., 18/46-47 farnsworth lantern, 13/48 farthings opticians', 12/81-84; 13/55 fascinus, 11/25 "fashion in eye glasses", 13/10 fashion in eyewear, 12/33; 13/57; 16/4 fat-burning lamps, 18/10 father of canadian optom., 20/42-44 modern optics, 15/62 fatima, 19/6 fay, h.c., 19/13 fco internat., inc., 18/57 federal regulation, 18/62-63 trade commission, 19/12 federalism, 18/62-63 fees, med., 20/36 feinbloom, wm., 12/3; 13/4-5; 15/4~,75; 18/14 fellowship, christian optom., 18/57 fennel seed, 19/31 ferdinand de rouge, 13/62 ferguson, j.c., 16/31 fermet, 19/20 ferree, g.r., 13/51 ferrero, nino, 16/33 ferric oxide, 11/29 ferris state coll. of optom., 11/63 ferry, a.p., 19/13 and m.k., 15/82 "fess bill", 13/34 fever, puerperal, 15/47 fick, a.e., 11/55; 14/104; 16/8; 18/58 fickes, b., 14/13,35 field, sidney, 16/37 fielding, a., 16/23 fields, visual, 19/39 fieuzal lenses, 18/45 filaments, 13/43; 16/7 filiozat, 14/55 film company, lubin's, 15/36-38 films, eye effects in, 19/11 filoptics industries, inc., 18/65 filoptics newsletter, 17/38 finances, ohs, 12/21; 14/1 fincham, w.h.a., 12/52,87 edgar, 14/44 theory of accomm., 12/88 fink, b.a., 11/24; 15/2 finkelstein, i., 17/33 fiorentini, a., 20/31 fischer, a.f., 15/33,48,84,85; 16/1,56,9,21,22,39; 17/1,10,15,20; 18/1-2; 20/1 fisher, e.j., 12/5,6; 13/26; 15/83; 16/43-44; 17j48,49; 18/1,55; 19/25; 20/27,37-38,40-45 harold, 13/5 fitch, a., 17/3,8; 20/9 fitscher, r.,l., 14/94 fitzgerald, j.e., 15/44 fitzhugh, w., 16/29 fixture, light, 16/7 flames of rome, 18/18 flash, the green, 18/69-70; 19/27 flaubert, g., 18/50 fleck, h., 12/24 fleming, ltd., j & f, 15/6 66 sandford, 14/104-105 fletcher, isabel, 16/57 flexible curl, 14/3 flexifocal designs, 17/49 flick, c.s., 15/27 "flicker" books, 14/10 flora, m.r., 15/33 "flying saucer, 18/70 flynn, brian, 17/51 focal points, 14/95 focus, 12/87 r.s.o., 14/17 folk art sculpture, 19/39-40 ford foundation, 19/44 folk tales of trolls, 14/31-33 folklore anecdotes, 14/33-34 creators of, 18/49 in namibia, 14/25 stone, 17/61 folsom, l.p., 16/42 fontanelle, b., 11/56 foreign object, 20/36 foresight fund, 13/19 formula, magnus-wurdemann, 12/80,81 formili, r.m., 11/28 forst, g., 18/53 fort wayne internat. bus. coll., 20/25 foundation, carl zeiss, 16/50 museum, amer. acad. of ophthal., 15/84 the optom., 15/29-30 vision educ., 16/24 "four eyes", 14/75 4-h grants, 14/82 fourteenth century manuscript, 14/74 fowler, e.s., 14/18 fox, ivan, 14/89 offset guard, 14/89 s.l. & i., 16/3 frame design, 20/27 patents, spectacle, 12/65,66,67 frames, glamour, 16/4 framemaking, 20/19 framing techniques, 15/71 france, 12/21 franciscan triad, 19/14 frank, arthur, 16/4 morris, 20/28 franklin, b., 13/66; 14/75; 14/50; 17/13,39-40,50; 18/6; 20/48 fraternities, 14/17; 17/24 fraternity, o.e.phi, 17/23-24; 18/21 fraunhofer, j., 14/28; 16/11; 18/6; 20/17-18 wave theory, 16/55 frederick, crown prince, 20/6 john, 18/58 of prussia, prince, 16/56 william iii, 18/28 freeburg, d., 16/22 freeman, m.h., 12/52 freiburg museum, 17/50 french ophthal. soc., 17/12 frescura, a., 20/8 fresnel zone plates, 17/49 freuhling, m., 11/31 frick, g., 17/57; 19/1 frideswide, st., 13/18 friedel, r., 16/41 friedman, m., 17/20 friedrich wilhelm iii, 17/50 fritz, milo, 14/8 from the master and wardens, 15/7; 17/27-28; 19/21 fry, g.a., 13/5,40,51; 17/70 and martha, 15/13 fryer, c.b., 13/29; 14/9-10,33,76-77; 19/3-4; 20/26-27 fuchs, leonhart, 12/5 fukuda, y., 12/27,43,47; 13/29 fulkerson, h.k., 17/4 full back reform eye, 16/6 fundus observations, 11/56 fung, paul, 16/14 funk, c.e., 16/24 t.m., 13/26 fuller of ipswich, 14/50 fundus, cat, 11/19 furnaces, solar, 17/24 fusion angle, nagel's, 17/47 fusional convergence, 67 g 17/6-7 movement, nagel's, 17/47 g.p. putnam's sons, 18/47 g.t. optics, ltd., 18/49 gag professor, 12/60 gainsborough, 17/52-53 galeazzi-lisi, r., 15/47-48 galen, 18/7 galenic visual theory, 17/25-26 galilee, 16/35,56 in prison, 14/75 telescope, 16/61 vs. scheiner, 17/13-14 gallo, d.a., 20/29 gallup, edith, 19/9 galvanism, 12/49 gandhi eye hosp., 13/14 gankyoshi, 12/32,48 gardner, j., 16/27 gargory, j., 12/82-83; 13/55 gas congress, internat., 15/5 lighting, 18/10 mantles, 15/5 gaspari, j., 12/67 gassen, a., 13/66 w., 12/19; 15/63; 16/12; 18/7 gaster, l., 16/49,50 gauntlett, d.a., 12/85 gauss, 15/74 gaylord, n., 19/17 geiser, j., 12/67 gelber, o.o., 14/103 genealogical collections, 15/5 general opt., council., 15/27 petroleum corp., 14/6 generation, 15/40 genesis, book of, 13/47 geneva retinoscope, 13/36 geneva optical co., 14/22 genitalia & animal spirits, 11/61 genophthalmic refractor, 13/12 geometric optics, 16/61; 17/34,45 geo. eastman house, 16/4; 17/21 washington univ., 16/12 german insurance, 12/8e optics, 13/41-42 stamp, 17/42 germany, east, 12/58; 18/19 west, 17/50 gerstman, d., 11/18 getman, g.n., 13/13; 16/13 ghirlandaio, d., 12/82 giants, one-eyed, 19/13-14 gibson, a.s., 15/56 gifford, e.s., 11/26 "giglamps", 13/51 gilded cock tavern, 18/54 giles, geo., 16/13; 17/19; 2e114 ivy parnum, 17/19 giles-archer lantern, 13/48 gillis, s., 12/79 gilstrap, m.k., 13/43 ginsberg, a., 17/52-53 louis, 19/le gish, lillian, 17/20 giordano, friar, 18/2e gladiator, oculist, 18/8 glamour eyewear, 16/4 glascow courant, 16/64 glaser, theo, 18/19 glasgow eye infirmary, 11/15; 15/78 refraction hospital, 14/53 sun-ray centre, 17/53 glasogen katalog, 12/2e glass, "blue plate", 14/97 burning, 18/54 development, 16/10-11 eye, 18/13 grinders,· 12/28 lentils condemned, 16/61 manufacture, opt., 14/28-29 non-glare, 15/71 optical, 11/29 18e9-1884, 16/11 technology, 18/10-11 volcanic, 18/10 glass-eye maker, 12/52 glasses, 19/49 and ophthal., 19/1 chamblant's, 29/48 68 for a pope, 15/48 spy, 14/88 throw away your, 11/31 glassworks history, jena, 15/59 glassworkers, venetian, 18/20 glatt, l.d., 12/61 "glazed goods", 16/42 gleichen & klein, 20/5 glidden, g.h., 14/8,13,35 glosser, bill, 11/5 goat milk, 14/25 gobelin tapestry, 18/17 god and light, 13/47 the eye, 19/28-34 goddard, c., 13/14 gods, 11/25 godwin, j., 15/81 goen, m., 18/57 goethe, w. von, 12/79; 14/9-10,76-77; 16/37; 20/12 goggles, eskimo, 29/28 helmet-mounted, 29/19 gold frames, 18/6e medal, i.e.s., 14/29 scrap fund, 14/79 goldie, w., 12/16 goldman, mr., 17/52 goldmann, h., 14/44 goldoni, l., 20/8 goldrich, s.g., 13/10 goldsmithing, 19/44 goldwyn, 15/37; 17/2e golf, 16/39 golightly, c.r., 13/59 gonara, emperor, 14/97 good, gregory, 29/2 goode, 11/22 goodlaw, e., 14/6; 16/58; 19/3 goodrich, gov., 14/42 rev. mr., 11/2; 14/59 goodyear co., 15/53 gordon, b., 17/44 stephen, 11/8 gorin, g., 15/62; 16/7; 19/49-41 goss, d., 14/29-31; 2e/5 goto, shinpei, 13/15 gougelman, p., 16/29 gould, g.m., 18/50-52 "gown of a thousand eyes", 14/22 gradal hs lens, 16/48 gradient index lens, 15/24 optics, 12/85-86 gradle, h., 17/46-47 graefe, a. von, 15/73,75; 18/22,28-34; 19/23 c.f. von, 18/22 prof. von, 18/28 graefe-saemisch handbuch, 13/49; 17/47 graham, c.h., 13/51 e.c., 11/4 robert, 11/9; 14/92-94; 15/1,13; 16/1,33,34 billy, 18/4 "grand old man of optom.", 18/42 grandfather clause, 29/45-57 grandmason, l.m., 14/21-22 grant, roger, 19/3 u.s., 13/19; 15/37 grassi, orazio, 17/14 graticules, 13/43 graubart, a.l. & h., 15/28-39 gravestone, shields', 18/59 great britain, 14/46-69; 17/49 great depression, 18/13 influence, 11/45 lakes congress, 18/19 greece, ophthal. in, 15/62-63 greek physicians, 18/8 greeks, ancient, 11/25 on refraction, 19/19-29 greeman, n., 17/18 green, 11/21 flash, the, 18/69-79; 19/27 gallery, 14/9 morris, 17/41 walter, 14/55 greenberg, judge, 11/52 greene, billy, 16/22 greenspoon, m.k., 19/11; 29/19 reuben, 11/9; 19/11 greenstein, t.n., 12/61; 15/2; 18/14 greenwood, jack, 12/15 69 gregg, j.r., 11/1,2,22; 12/61,64,65; 13/22; 15/1,65; 16/1,35,36; 17/6; 19/12 griffin, j., 13/9 griffiths, j.l., 14/39 w.a., 15/25 groenouw, 12/89 groffman, s., 16/49 grolman, b., 15/43; 29/9 grosserzoglich sachsische optikerschule, 18/63 grosse, w., 29/12 grosseteste, r., 19/4 grossman, t., 29/22 grosz, e., 11/6; 16/16 "ground-wood" papers, 15/71 grout, j.h., 15/77 gruening, dr., 14/39 grut, e.h., 17/6-7 grylli, 11/25 guadalupe lady, 16/56 guard, spectacles, 14/89 guerrin, r., 17/15 guiducci, m., 17/14 guilbert-routil., 16/48 guild, italian, 29/8 of brit. disp. opt., 14/61 of spectaclemakers, 17/44; 19/5; 29/27 of nurnberg, 29/29 secrecy of, 18/62,65; 19/6 guilfoy, j.s., 14/5 guinand, p.l., 14/28; 16/11 gullstrand, a., 11/39; 14/44; 15/21,41-42; 17/59; 18/22,64,79 ophthalmoscope, 11/38 gumbert eyes, 16/6 gumpelmayer, t., 11/37; 14/25 theodor, 14/25 gunning, j.n., 12/61 gunther of rathenow, 13/29 guth, edwin, 13/14 fred, 13/14 s.k., 15/5 guttman, j., 17/19 guyton, d.l., 29/31 gymnastics, ciliary, 19/3 8 haas: contact lens, 11/55 hadley, j.h., 17/13 haffner, a.n., 13/16~ 20/9 gerald, 20/36 hafter, m., 15/48 haidinger brush, 11/55 haine, c.l., 12/8~ 20/1 haines, j., 16/31 howard, 12/57,78 hale, j.r., 15/68,81 hall, a.r., 12/18 martha, 17/12,44~ 18/7 r.m., 13/5~ 17/12 hallauer, otto, 13/56-57 of basel, prof., 18/45 haller, 16/35 albrecht von, 16/51 halogen ~amp, 16/7 ham, italian, 13/42 hamada, y., 14/97 hamblin, d.j., 14/78 hamblin's, 16/16,18 hamburgh, mcallister &, 13/21 hamilton, r., 14/50 w.c., 17/5 w.h., 13/8 hammond, b.j., 15/65 bus. coll., 20/25 john h., 15/66 "handbuch zur geschichte der optik", 16/62 hanly, governor, 14/40 hanna, r.e., 15/18-21 haptic lenses, 11/7~ 20/30 hardy, a., 16/56 f.a. i 13/21 oliver, 15/37~ 17/20 w.e., 11/8~ 13/53 hare, robert, 13/67 system, 18/1 harlan, dr., 14/30 harlequin, 13/24~ 16/4 harmon, b., 14/63 d.b. i 12/62 harnick, s., 13/57-59 harper's new monthly mag., 18/2-5harriott, t., 14/24 harste, j., 13/11 hartinger, h., 18/64,70 hartline, h.k., 17/54 hartr idge, 18/43 harvard divinity sch., 70 18/50 med. sch., 14/8 univ., 16/12 harvey, e.n., 12/20 will i am , 12 i 8 5 harwood, k.a., 11/37 harz mountains, 15/38 hasbrook, t.c., 15/38 hatha yoga exercise, 13/7 hattori pi lens, 16/48 haugwitz, t. von, 20/37 hauksbee, f., 14/24 hausmann & co., 12/67 hauy & color perception, 18/17 hawkins, j.j., 18/21; 20/33 hay associates, 16/9 hazards, lighting, 15/56-57 hazlett, r., 13/53 heacock, h.e., 13/30 headaches, 19/16 health care, optom., 14/48; 20/20 occupational, 17/40 hearn, w., 20/42 l., 18/51 heath, w., 14/102 heather, fred, 15/67 w.j., 13/23; 15/32-33,4647,57-58,65,67,85; 16/56,8,25 heaward, j., 12/82 hebbard, f.w., 14/75~ 15/10,13; 20/36 heddaeus, 12/80 hedrick, l.e., 14/94 heine, leopold, 11/55 heitz, r.f., 16/33-34~ 17/60; 20/31,32-33 heller, f.t., 11/4; 16/22 helmet spectacles, 20/22-23 helmet-mounted goggles, 20/10 helmholtz, h., 11/4,56; 12/52; 14/20; 15/22,24,73-74,77; 16/2,32,34,37; 17/7,2829,54,68-69~ 18/29~ 19/24,41~ 20/6,35,36 on color, 20/12 ophthalmoscope, 11/38 phantom visual imagery, 17/1 theory of accomm., 12/88 treatise wanted, 14/34 wit, 16/56 hema, 18/53 hemeralopia, 15/63 henao, r.h., 16/49 henderson, c., 16/13 hendricks, c.h., 18/11,13 hendrickson, h., 15/61; 16/13,28; 18/14,38,55 and marie, 16/25 henkel, g., 18/45 henker, 0., 11/2,39; 14/44; 15/39; 16/7; 18/63-64,70 henkind, p., 17/7 henne!, c., 18/11-13 henry, c., 11/33 viii, 20/22-23 the first, 19/4 w.r., 13/54 herakleion museum, 17/56 herald-argus, 15/41 tribune, 17/29 heraldry references, 15/5 herbal medicine, 12/44 herbert, g., 20/39 herbs, 19/4 hering on color, 20/12 heriot-watt coll., 14/53 heritage center, 12/75 soc., ocular, 17/20-21 study aids, 15/5 herman, c.l., 18/48 "hermann pistor" fachschule, 16/12 hero of alexandria, 19/19 herron sch. of art, 11/5 hersch, b.c., 15/68 herschel, j.f.w., 11/55; 14/90; 16/8; 19/15,4244; 20/33 william, 18/5 8 hertel, 13/66 herzau, w., 14/8 hevner, c.e., 18/53-54 hewett, j.l., 12/13 heyman, madam a., 14/36 hieronymous, 19/26 hikojiro k., 12/28 hilburn, l.b., 14/38 hill, adrian, 17/54-55 ronald, 14/8 hillier, r.w., 12/67 71 hindenburg disaster, 14/87 hindu juggler, 14/33 trinity, 17/11 hire, de la, 16/35 hirsch, m.j., 13/26,85; 14/6 hirschberg, j., 13/49; 14/45; 15/62; 16/34-35; 20/36-37 leo, 17/31,37 hirst, e., 20/30 historia ophthal. internat., 14/24 historial optom., 12/25 historischen bildarchiv a. kayser, 15/42 "history of austral. optom.", 19/35-36 "history of ophthal.", 15/62-63; 16/34-35; 19/40-41; 20/36-37 history of spectacles, 11/14 local optom., 11/66 "history of vis. aids", 20/17 hitler, a., 12/22,53 hiura, g., 12/58 hlusak, a., 16/22 hoare, a., 14/6 hobart coll., 17/29 hobbs, dr., 14/44 thomas, 12/85 hoefer, dr. le, 11/63 hoehn co., r., 16/6 hofbrau, 18/40 hoffman, l.g., 13/10 hofman, c., 16/11,32 hofstetter, h., 11/1,2,31,63; 12/1,61; 13/2; 14/94; 15/38,45; 16/33-34; 18/2-3,56; 19/34-35; 20/13 cartoon, 11/42 collection, 16/22 editorial, 20/29-30 recognition award, 19/11,39 jane, 12/6 holcomb, f.w., 18/28 holden, b., 17/39 holland, j.g., 12/71 opticians, 18/4 hollywood in phila., 15/37 holmes, a., 16/31 o.w., 15/47; 17/21 stereo. library, 13/41 sherlock, 14/7 holmes-wright lantern, 13/48 holtman, h., 13/55-57 homer, 13/11 blind, 16/46 hominit, 16/17 hominite process, 11/6 hommerstad, s., 29/9 honey in collyria, 19/31 "honeyhill, letters from", 18/11-13 hong kong, 12/21 honnors, r.h., 14/193 honorary ohs member, 17/19 hoods, j.m., 16/41 hooke, robert, 16/56 hoolihan, c., 15/69; 16/1; 18/68 hoover, h., 13/53 hopping, r.l., 12/26,61; 16/1 horay, prof., 11/6 horichs, w., 11/39; 18/64 horiuchi, y., 12/42 horn lantern, 18/54 horner, s.h., 13/47 hornstein, j., 17/41 horopter,aguilon, 16/59-69 horst, f., 17/39 horta, c.a., 14/11-12; 15/33,35-36 horus, eye of, 11/24 hoskin, m., 14/88 hosp., london refr., 11/9 royal free, 11/8 whipps cross, 11/8 hospitals in india, eye, 29/33 hotaling, e.e., 13/81; 14/34 hotel, bernard, 15/57 hounslow, a.w., 12/53 house of commons, 17/19 household words, 14/29 houston, univ. of, 13/79-79; 18/7,23 w.e., 14/37-38,44 hoving, w., 13/24 howard, d.w., 15/58 · howe press, 14/12-13 72 s.g., 14/12-13 hoye, w.j., 13/21 "hr6999, mr.", 29/28 h. stern jewellers, 18/48-49 hubbell, a.a., 19/1-3 huber, c. & h., 16/31 hubscher, c., 14/8 huddleston, d., 14/22 hughs, j.n., 16/15 hugo, victor, 29/21-22 hull, n.y., 14/34 robert, 19/34 hulsman, p.e., 14/39 "humble" origins of optom.?, 13/89 humidity in preservation, 15/71-72 hummel, d.g., 11/9; 13/5,12,43,61; 15/49,44,73; 16/36,49,49; 17/16,55 humphriss, d., 15/43 hunain ibn is-hag, 11/26; 17/26 hunayn, 17/26 huntley microscope, 12/58 hurvich, l.m., 13/51; 18/6 hussey, l., 11/1 hutchins, r.m., 13/24 hutchinson, e., 18/64 huxley, t., 18/59 huygens, c., 13/49; 16/34,35,41 hyde, i.d., 13/9 w. lewis, 18/7,18 hydrogel lens, 17/25; 18/49 hydrophilic lenses, 11/8; 18/49 hynek, j.a., 18/79 hypnotism, 12/79 i i.b.b., 16/43 ibn al-haitham, 14/75; 16/56 ideal co., 15/25-26; 19/13 sight restorer, 14/95; 15/24-26; 19/13 masseur co., 15/25 ideoretinal light, 17/1 igard lenses, 14/93 ignis fatuus, 14/75 il callotto resuscitate cartoon, 19/llll ilamo, 11/1; 12/11,76; 13/7/17; 14/7,35,36,91,92; 15/9,31; 17/2-3,23,32,34; 18/8,43,45, 49,59,65,711j; 19/3,6,9,11 contributors, 12/61; 14/94-95 corp. struct., 14/7 service, 11/63 ill. call. of optom., 13/39; 18/19,41 chronology, 14/73 university of, 18/llll illum. eng. res. inst., 11/64; 12/62 soc. of n. amer., 11/64; 12/62; 13/14; 14/6; 16/7,41 anniversary, 12/76 gold medal, 14/29 illum., artificial, 16/49 early, 18/22 history, 16/7 internat. comm. on, 15/5 library, 11/64 of test-type, 19/3 "illumination engineering", 211j/llll-ll illusions, natural, 18/11-12 image guadalupe, 16/57 retinal, 11/26,34 image, 14/73 immunology question, 13/46 imp. call. sci. and tech., 12/18; 14/52-53 impression technique, eye, 11/7; 16/17 imprint, retinal, 11/26 the patenaude, 13/45-46 imus, henry a., 14/8 incandescent gas mantles, 15/5 light bulb, 15/56-57 inches in dioptrics, 13/33; 14/29-31; 15/34 incorporation of n.y. acad. of optom., 14/34 index of refraction, 19/211j india, 12/21 ophthalmology in, 15/62 73 optometric registration, 13/14-15 optometry, 211j/33-34 schools, 13/14-15 indian nat. soc. to prev. blindness, 211j/33-34 optom. ass'n., 13/15 indiana chap., amer. acad. of optom., 13/68-69 historical soc., 12/511j,51; 16/411j; 18/6 opt. soc., 11/37; 14/37-411j optom. ass'n., 11/37; 13/68; 15/58, 14/79-82; 15/15-16 auxiliary, 14/79-82 origins, 14/37-44 records, 12/44 legislation, 14/37 practice, oldest, 13/8 soc. to prev. blindness, 15/38 state board of optom., 13/68; 14/37; 15/4,49,53,611j-61; 211j/25 records, 15/15-21 indiana historical soc. newsletter, 15/71 history bulletin, 14/85 magazine of history, 211j/36 indiana univ., 15/45,61; 18/57; 211j/39 foundation, 13/19 library, 15/31 sch. of optom., 15/46 library, 14/811j indianapolis star, 13/7 indians and color, 15/39 indices, ocular refractive, 14/24 industrial vision, 13/4; 14/5-6; 16/58; 17/16,411j in england, 14/54 industry, optical, 17/411j infection treatment, 13/46 infrared effects, 17/23 inheritance of astig., 19/23 injection molding, 14/93 inoo, tadataka, 12/28 institut de france, 16/33 institute of chem.-opt., 14/51-52,62 ophth. opt., 14/46,51,53; 15/7 optics, 11/13 optom., 16/45 tech. opt., 17/38 instituto e museo di storia della scienza, 15/23 instrument makers, 16/62-64 instruments, ophthalmoscopic, 11/18 optical, 18/79; 29/37 manufacturing, 18/63 insurance, contact lens, 18/8 law, german accident, 12/89 inter amer. univ. puerto rico·, 12/1, 25 internal rev. serv., u.s., 15/58; 16/19; 18/57 internat. ass'n. of boards of exam. in optom., 15/55,61; 16/41; 17/4; 29/47 comm. on illum., 15/5; 29/19 photometry, 15/5 conf. on luminescence, 15/8 congress of ophthalm., 29/31 esperanto congress, 12/6 fed. of optom., 14/14 gas congress, 15/5 lib., arch., & mus. of optom.: see ilamo museum of history, 17/21 ophth. antique collectors club, 16/69; 17/8,18 opt. year book and diary, 15/27 optom. and opt. league, 11/37; 12/11,39,42,43; 16/45; 17/19; 29/9 origin, 14/72 interoptics, 12/11; 17/38; 29/9 intraocular lenses, 14/27 intromission theory, 17/26 invention of cinema, 14/28 contact lenses, 15/26 ophthalmoscope, 29/35 spectacle temple, 74 14/195-196 spectacles, 12/19; 18/29; 29/8 by bacon, 15/64 stroboscope, 14/28 inventions, 29/27 ipiutak, 29/28 iraq history, 11/28 iraqi physician, 17/26 ireland, 12/21 iridectomy, 18/33 iridial history, 16/51 iridology, 11/47; 13/4 iris movements of cat, 11/56 ironbridge gorge museum, 14/88 isaac, dr., 19/2 blind, 16/46 ishida, t., 14/98 isis, 12/18 israel, 12/21; 17/51 coll. of optom., 16/15 optom. law, 16/15 paul b., 16/41 italian ham, 13/42 med. profession, 15/48 money in braille, 13/54 prosciuto, 13/42 spectacles, 29/7-8 nat. ass'n. of manufacturers, 29/7 italy, 12/21 itinerant cataract removers, 18/46 oculist's diary, 16/49 spectacle peddler, 16/26 ives acuity meter, 19/16 f., 19/15-16 h., 11/4 h.e., 13/53 iwabashi, s., 14/lbb iyo, t., 13/39 j jabara, e., 15/83 jackson, a., 16/4,21,31 e., 11/21,31; 12/12; 15/42 t.j., 12/8 w.a., 14/95 jacob blind, 16/46 jaeger, a., 18/29 jago, j., 17/69-70 jahne, j., 20/22 m., 18/22; 20/22 jalie, m., 11/23 jama, 18/53-54; 19/13 james & james, 15/15 r.r., 19/46 jameson, d.m., 13/51 sir william, 14/57 william, 19/32 jander, b.c., 14/95 janner, lady, 17/27 janoff, l.e., 12/61 japan, 12/21 75 advertising rev. org., 13/17 ass'n. of eyeglass industries, 14/101 ophth. optics in, 12/27 ophthalm. ass'n., 12/15-16 ophthalm. in, 15/62 opt. tech. ass'n., 12/36,49 sch. of osaka, 12/37 ass'n., 12/34,36,48 optom. & opt. ass'n., 12/47 ass'n., 12/31 lectures in, 13/29-31 optom., wwii, 12/31 pharmaceutical law, 12/48 japanese eyeglass industry, 14/96-106 ophth. history, 12/47-49 optom., 13/15-17,37-38 jaques, l., 12/57; 15/21 jason, s.l., 13/25 jauregui, m., 13/84 javal, e., 11/21; 13/39; 14/55; 16/34 l.e., on blindness, 18/60-61 jefferson med. coll., -18/50 thomas, 11/68; 12/73; 16/31; 17/43,45,46 jena, 15/38-39,59; 16/10,12; 20/20 jenaer glaswerk, 16/32 jenaer rundschau, 18/70 jenkins, c.m., 14/39-40,44 jennings, g.c., 13/38-39 jensen, b., 11/47 james, 11/63 r.g., 14/103; 15/2 jerome, saint, 12/82 jester's mask, 20/22-23 jesuit c. scheiner, 17/14 jesus a. kircher, 15/80 christ, 15/48 jeweler-optometrist, 13/70 jewelers' circular, 14/90-91 weekly, 16/24 jewelers, 12/81-84 jewelry catalog, 12/27 trade and optom., 14/90-92 jewish exponent, 16/5 jewish historical soc., 15/40 history, nat. mus. of amer., 15/36-37 jinns, 19/6; 20/32 johannesburg star, 12/52 john of arderne;-19/5 johns hopkins hosp., 17/39 univ., 16/12; 17/29 johnson, alf, 12/73; 15/46-47 andrew, 13/19 edward c., 16/22 g. lindsay, 14/62 library & museum, 16/4 luci, 17/23 lyndon b., 17/22-23 orvel, 12/65 sam ealy, 17/22-23 samuel, 12/85; 19/5 joint council of qual. opt., 14/46,51,54 jones, a.b. & bro., 14/22 g.w., 19/27,34 h.s., 14/52 r.v., 16/55 t.w., 14/50 "j.o.p." imprint, 13/45-46 joseph, j.g., 20/41-42 journal of occup. med., 16/30 -optom. educ., 17/12 the amer. optom. ass'n., ---16/49; 17/13,29,36; 18/41; 19/11; 29/9,29,28,33,35,39 brit. contact lens ass'n., 15/79 -ill. optom. ass'n., 18/45 missouri optom. ass'n., 15/77; 16/52 nigerian optom. ass'n., 18/53 opt. soc. of amer., ----r-7/29,36;29/6 royal soc. of arts, 16/4_9_-journal, oldest optom.?, 20/23-24 juggler, hindu, 14/33 julius king opt. co., 14/42 jurin, 16/35 jurisprudence, optom., 16/42; 18/65 k kaiser, d., 11/43 kaisers, 16/56 kaji, hikobe, 13/39 hikojiro, 12/28 kaleidoscope, 15/89-81; 18/7; 19/21,3 7 kalt, e., 11/55; 16/8 kanei era, 12/28 kansai calendar, 12/28 university, 12/48; 14/96 kansas city sch. of optom., 15/77 veterans administration medical center, 18/41 kaplan, a., 15/69 r.s., ls/61 karl marx univ., 18/46 karoly, nagy, 16/19 kasper, margit, 17/19 kastner, norbert, 14/95; 17/19 katz, carolyn, 12/10 s.b., 14/95 kayser bildarchiv, 15/42 kazonsky institute, 12/25 keaton, buster, 12/17 76 keef, 15/46-47 keefe, f.m., 15/73 keller, helen, 12/18 kelley, alberta, 11/14 kelly, k.l., 16/36 richard, 11/8 kelvin, lady, 17/68 lord, 17/62,68 kendall, r.m., 17/4 katz, s.b., 17/23 kentucky board of exam., 17/4 health, 17/4 state college of optom., 17/3-5 kentucky optom., 17/4 kenya, 12/21; 13/20 kepler, j., 11/34; 12/79; 13/29; 15/62; 16/34,46; 16/69-62; 19/20; 20/31 keppler, j., 14/72 keratoconus, 16/17 keratometer, 17/53; 18/43 keratoscopie, 11/39 kerosene lighting, 18/10 kerr, john r., 13/19 richard, 16/35 ketcham lib., 11/1-2 richard w., 19/18-19 kett, w.g., 12/13 ketteniss, h., 17/50 kettner, c., 17/11 keystone, 14/39,41 keystone, the, 14/99; 16/57 kidwell, p.a., 19/46 kiel, oskar, 15/39 univ. of, 18/58 kim, hwa ju, 17/42 kimball, w.f., 11/47 kinetoscope, 14/10 king charles, 13/63 emanuel, 13/63-64 isabelle, 13/39 leopold, 13/63-64 of norway, 12/11 spain, 13/63-64 olav v, 12/11 opt. co., 14/42 oscar, 13/63,65 kingslake, h.g., 11/13 "kinora", 14/19 kintner, g.f., 15/53-56; 16/36 kipling, r., 12/72,75; 13/50-51 kircher, a., 15/80; 19/3-4 kircherian museum, 15/81 kirk, j.l., 14/9 "kiss me, kate", 13/67 kitchell, f., 16/9 klein, j., 14/75 m.c., 14/39 klingaman, r.l., 20/35 klin. monatsbl. fur augenheilk.~6/17 klix, f., 14/20 kloth, g., 20/20 klotz, a., 20/18 kluger, e., 16/12 knaff, dr., 18/34 kneuth, countess, 18/31,34 knight, r.w., 13/54 77 knoll, h.a., 11/1,6,55,68; 12/1,2,78; 13/1,36-37; 14/2,44,86,104; 15/2,26,45,65; 16/2,8,28; 17/44-45,46 knowles, c., 15/40,75 koch, c.c., 13/3-4; 17/6,23,35; 19/12 robert, 15/8 koelbing, h.m., 20/31 koeppe, l., 14/44 koetting, f.a., 12/61; 16/57-58 james f., 12/61 john, 16/57 r.a., 14/95 kohl as eye makeup, 19/6 kohler, max, 16/6 kohn, h., 12/87; 13/13; 15/15,61; 17/31 kollmorgan corp., 16/36 ko1osimo, p., 11/28,29 "konkav-konvex", 12/78 korea, eyeglasses, in, 17/42 opt. ass'n. of, 20/2 korean opt. journal, 19/26 war, optom. in, 13/18 kornblut, d.w., 14/95 kosh, a.e., 14/94 kousnetz, s.b., 12/63 kowalczyk, b., 20/1 kowall, l., 15/37; 16/5; 17/20 kozaki, k., 12/36 kpabitey, t., 11/37 kratz, d., 16/22 kring, v.f., 15/46-47,73 kroll, s., 2fll/2 kroner, 0. & g., 13/56 kruger, paul, 12/23,24 phillip, 13/8,9 kryptok lenses, 14/4 ku klux klan, 12/72,73,74 kuehni, r.g., 13/54-55 kugimiya, t., 13/29 kuhn, c., 17/49 kumar, n., 13/15; 20/33-34 kurtz, j.i., 12/49; 13/2324; 17/23 kushner, b., 15/48 kvetny, n., 18/37 kyushu, 12/27 l "la popessa", 15/47-48 laboratory, contact lens, 17/27 lachenmayr, b., 19/39 lacrymal syringe, 14/74 lady o.d.'s, 15/64-65 pres. of optom. sch., 15/68 lahaye, p.a., 15/33 lakshminarayanan, 2fll/32-33 lambert, 16/35 lamp, electric, 11/12; 16/7 fat-burning, 18/10 history, 18/10,22 incandescent, 15/56-57 magnifier, 11/39 museum, 18/54 room, the, 18/54 sodium, 14/71 l'amy of france, 2fll/19 lamy, l.f., 20/19 lancaster, w.b., 14/8 lance, j.w., 19/16 lancets, cups, & leeches, 18/25 lander, t.e., 16/31 landolt, e., 14/3fll-31 landon, h., 2fll/42 lang, g.l., 28/28 langemantel, j., 19/4 lantern, color, 13/47-48 horn, 18/54 magic, 19/4 larkin, g.v., 15/15 larmor, j., 17/62-78 lasers, 14/36; 17/7-8 lasky, j., 15/37 laszlo, m., 13/57 latin of "accommodation", 19/42 poets, 18/8 lauber, h., 19/39 laufer, b., 11/13 laurance, l., 12/12; 28/37-38,44 laurel, stan, 17/20 laurin, t.c., 14/6 law, f.w., 15/7; 17/27 matthiessen's, 15/21,84 model optom., 16/42 new york, 14/14-15 of refraction, 19/19-28 snell's, 11/17 so. african, 11/53 lawrence coll., 18/67 "diseases of the eye", 19/2 laws, enactment of, 14/4-5 layland, b., 18/36-37 lazarus, b., l., & m., 20/37-38 league, internat. optom. & opt., 11/37 leavesley, j., 24/11 lebensohn, j.e., 14/28-29 l'ecole nationale d'optigue, 20/19 leconte, john & joseph, 15/41 lecture, ~cantor, 16/49,50 desmond, 12/30 sheard, 15/13 lederer, r., 19/41 ledig, g.r., 13/34 robert, 13/69 lee, davin j., 12/61 robert e., 12/8; 16/29 t.c., 12/25 leeches, 11/17; 18/25; 19/4 leeds, j.p., 11/1-4; 78 12/1,2,21; 13/l2,11,12,26,48,50,61; 14/1-2,22,34,35,45,95; 15/2,6-7,9-10,2426,27,40,45,57-58,69,73; 16/1,4,20,22,35,36,39,42, 43,47,60; 17/1,5,8,1516,25,51; 18/1,17,46,56,60,61, 66,67,69; 19/6,25; 20/2,13-16,27 legacy, ohs consigned, 13/13 legge, g.e., 14/34 legislation, indiana, 14/37 wisconsin, 11/43 legislative efforts, 18/52; 20/9 legrand, yves, 13/51 lehmart, j., 15/47-48 lens, aspherical contact, 20/30 burning, 17/24,49 bregens, 14/90; 15/27 contact, 11/6,9; 12/22; 13/4; 14/86; 15/5-6; 17/41; 18/48,53,57,58 cyl, 11/20; 19/22-24 edging technique, 12/29 first hydrogel, 18/49 gradal hs, 16/48 gradient index, 15/24 haptic, 11/7 hard resin, 14/92 hattori pi lens, 16/48 hydrophilic, 11/8 igard, 14/93 index, crystalline, 15/24 jackson's crossed cyl., 15/42 monocentric, 18/42 numbering, 14/29-31 oldest, 17/56 00 eye, 13/62 optics, crystalline, 15/21 patent, contact, 15/26 corneal contact, 17/23 pebble, 13/21 photochromic, 18/45 polycore, 16/48 progressive add, 15/85; 16/47,48 scleral contact, 15/79 soft contact, 14/74; 17/27; 18/49 stokes, 11/29,21; 15/41-42 tinted, 18/45,46 ultraviolet-absorbing, 14/94 ultravue, 16/48 univis unison, 16/48 varilux, 16/43 younger, 16/48 zoom, 16/4 7 lenses, absorptive, 12/54 anti-dazzle, 12/55 aught, 29/2 in prehistory, 11/28 .obliquely crossed cyl., 11/21 ophthalmic, 19/41 lensmaker's art, 17/54 leonardo da vinci, 11/55; 17/23,69; 19/59; 29/31 "leonardo on the eye", 16/32-33 leopold, king, 13/63-64 les miserables, 29/21-22 lesestein, 16/19; 17/49 lesser, sol, 12/62 lerayon vert, 18/69 letocha, c., 16/22; 17/8; 18/9,29,22,23,54; 29/6,18,22-23,32 "letter writers, rules for", 12/11 "letters from honeyhill", 18/11-13 optical", 12/11 levene, j.r., 11/18,19,23; 12/11; 14/24,195; 15/1,2,33; 16/1,14; 18/23,54 levy, i.e., 17/23 max, 12/68 lewes, h.g., 18/59 lewis, a., 17/52-53 f.p., 15/38 m., 17/31 libbey-owens-ford co., 17/46 libby, c.f., 11/4 liber, 11/25 79 library, amer. optom. ass'n., 18/43 australian optom. ass'n., 19/36 brit. opt. ass'n., 14/2527; 29/14 cinco mem., 17/38-39 illumination, 11/64 indiana univ., 15/31 kohn vision science, 17/31 lilly, 15/89; 19/22-23 monroe county, 15/31 philadelphia free, 15/37 services for blind, 29/32 skeffington mem., 18/48; 19/42 topaz mem., 15/36 univ. of virginia, 15/76 vatican, 15/89 visual science, 15/36 washington univ., 15/69; 16/1 wellcome, 14/95 licensure by exemption, 29/45-47 educ. requirements, 15/69 light and sight, 12/62 vision, 18/67-69 artistic depiction of, 19/17 bulbs, 11/63 edison's electric, 16/41 electromag. theory of, 14/28 fantastic, the, 16/59 herschel on, 19/42-44 phenomena of, 11/29 polarized, 19/43 propagation, 13/47 speed of, 19/29 therapy, 17/23 lighthouses, 14/28 lighting contest, 13/14 design, 11/63 destructive, 16/13 development awards, 13/14 electric, 16/7 gas, and oil, 16/49 gas, 18/19 hazards, 15/56-57 history, 12/76; 15/5; 18/19 kerosene, 18/19 low pressure sodium, 14/71 modern, 16/49 lighting design ! applic., 13/14; 14/71; 16/7 magazine, 12/62 lignum vitae eye cups, 19/19 lilly library, 13/19; 15/89; 19/22-23 lim, o., 17/25 k.t., 15/43 lima, peru, 15/33 limeburner, p.e., 16/31 lincke, r., 11/39 lincoln, a., 12/73,87; 13/8,19; 15/86 lindan, 0., 16/69 lindberg, d., 11/34 linge1, j., 11/66 linke!, g., 29/11 linksz, a., 14/8,21 linn, c., 18/22 linnaeus, e., 14/76-77 linnett, 14/19 lion's artificial eye, 16/6 lion's club, 16/14 lippershay, h., 16/56 listing, 17/69 literature, ophth., 29/49 spectacles in, 29/21-22 litigation, contact lens, 19/17 litsinger, e.f. & v., 11/65,66 george, 11/65; 15/67; 29/2 littel, s., 11/2 liverpool sch. of opt., 12/13 pharmacy, 12/13 livery &. company, 17/27 livingstone dramatic soc., 12/16 d.m., 14/193 lloyd, harold, 14/75 patent, 14/92 local soc. minutes, 13/34 locke, 16/35 lockwood, r.m., 14/34 loeb, deenah, 15/37 optician, 19/23 logo, s.o.r., 16/45-46 89 lohne refraction history, 19/29 lomb, a., 17/45 library, 17/45,46 henry, 17/34,45,46 lomonossow, m.w., 14/29 london, mayor of, 15/7 opt. inst., 15/22 refraction hosp., 11/9; 14/5,26,53,55; 15/9; 17/19; 19/44-45 royal soc., 18/68 tower of, 29/22-23 univ., 12/18; 15/9 long, w.s., 12/3 longellow, h.w., 17/61 loomis, j.f., 13/76 l'opticien belge, 17/25 lord & taylor, 13/24 kelvin, 17/62 loren, sophia, 18/4 lorgnette, 14/36 los angeles coll. of ophthal. & optom., 29/17 optometry, 12/78; 13/54; 14/6; 15/65; 16/1; 18/44,66 county optom. ass'n., 14/6; 18/64 med. sch. of ophthal. & optom., 11/39 sch. of optom., 12/72 "lot 919159" scare, 17/21 lotions, early eye, 19/31 louisiana state univ., 15/41 lovell, d.j., 16/56 lowings' orthoptic charts, 15/6 lowitzki, j., 19/19-29 loyola univ., 18/67 lubbock lions club, 16/14 lubin, annie, 16/5 s., 13/81; 15/36-38,84; 16/5; 17/29; 19/11 lubitsch, e., 13/57 lubsynski, s., 15/84 lucas, j.h., 15/9,43-44 lucasian prof., 11/22 lucia, st., 12/57 ludlow, d.h., 14/18-19 ludvik, g., 15/59 luke, j.t., 16/40 lumiere brothers, 14/10 luminaires, 18/22 luminescence, internat. con£. on, 15/8 lundquist, a., 16/45 b., 16/46 lundy, b., 13/19 lunetiers, soci~tg des, 12/88 lunette museum, 13/14 lusaka theatre club, 12/16 lutz, phillip, 15/16 lutze, b., 18/22 llltzen, battle of, 20/39 luyken, jan, 15/42 lyle, wm., 14/28; 15/3; . 19/23 lyndon b. johnson library, 16/4 lynx, acad. of the, 18/5 lyons, 15/43 m m.d. degrees, 15/81 macadam, o., 16/36 mace in eye-water, 19/30-31 macfadden, b., 11/31 sanitorium, 12/50 machine vision, 16/26-27 mackay, k., 11/20 mackenzie, w., 11/15; 15/78-79; 16/2,8 macmillan co., 17/34 madden, r., 13/25 maddocks, p.j., 12/17 maddox, e.e., 17/6-7; 20/5 madigan, l., 14/8 madison architecture, 18/6 james, 12/87 madonna image, 16/57 magic lantern, 19/4,19 kircher's, 15/81 magnan, h.e., 14/94 magnifier lamp, 11/39 magnus, h., 12/80,81 mahmoud, b., 12/18 mahlman, h.e., 13/17 maier, p.l., 18/18 maimon's laser, 17/7 81 main, e.c., 19/16 mainwaring, m., 13/64 maitenez, b., 16/47 majeska, m.l., 20/32 maklakov tonometer, 12/24 malacca, 11/13 malebranche, 13/54 malpractice suit, 14/26 manas, leo, 18/19 manchester coll., 14/53; 15/53 public libraries, 15/27 royal sch. of anat. & med., 14/50 univ. of, 18/3 mangoles, m.l., 11/5; 18/59 manitoba optom. soc., 20/43 mann, ida, 11/7; 16/17 contact lens history, 11/55 mantles, gas, 15/5 manufacture of opt. glass, 14/28-29 manufacturing opt. internat.~/88; 14/92; 18/22 marco polo, 14/2; 20/47 marcos, f., 17/39; 18/35 marcy, w.t., 14/42 marg, e., 19/21; 20/9 margach, c., 15/48; 16/28; 19/16 margarita philosophica, 13/52 margulis, m., 11/5; 18/59 mariette, m., 11/61,62; 19/24 maritz, judge, 11/52 market crash, stock, 11/46 markham v. thomas, 14/26 marks, l.b., 11/64 roy, 18/15 marly, p., 13/14,56-57; 20/19 marrian, f.g., 15/78 marsden, a.m., 20/19 marshall, e.c., 14/2; 17/38 peter, 13/47 w.e., 13/34 w.h., 20/24,27 marshutz, 13/81 martel, 18/17 martens, t.h., 14/13,35 martin, b., 14/75; 18/9 dean, 18/4 dr., 14/42 h.m., 13/21 l.c., 14/52 lantern, 13/48 martius, madam, 15/74 marton, h.b., 17/17 marvelli, m.a., 13/25,42 mary image, virgin, 16/57 mascher, j., 17/21 mask for squint, 18/46 spectacles on jester's, 20/22-23 mason, peter, 16/50 mass. inst. of tech., 16/56 massage devices, 14/95; 16/60 eye, 11/32; 15/24-26; 19/13 masuryk, j., 15/11 mather, c., 17/57; 19/27-34 matthaei, r., 14/77 matthews, j., 16/31 matthiessen, a., 14/105 h.f.l., 15/22 l., 14/24,105; 15/76 maunder, s., 12/7 maxam, u., 14/20; 15/59; 19/21 v., 19/15; 20/24 maximillian, 20/17-18, 22-23 maxwell, c., 14/28 j.c., 11/18; 12/85-86 on color, 20/12 spot, 11/55 may, charles 14/71 oil burner corp., 17/46 maybee, w.g., 20/42-44 mayer, i., 16/6 l.b., 17/20 l.m., 12/64 mayo clinic, 13/80; 15/10; 18/44 mazer, a., 15/48 mazzolini, r., 16/51 mcallisters, the, 13/21,80; 14/50; 16/31-32; 17/43; 18/54,60; 19/2,25; 20/48 82 mcandrew, j., 13/53 mcclellan, j., 18/62 mcclung, l.s., 12/18 mccord, c.p., 16/30 mccormack, a.t., 17/4-5 mccormick, c.n., 14/31 med. sch., 12/63 college, 15/46 mccoy, dorothy, 15/65 mccullough, w.t., 14/40 mcdougal, w.h., 14/39 mcfadden, b., 12/63 sanitorium, 12/64 mcfatrich, g. & j., 20/25 mcgill, a.j., 14/75 mcgraw, lora, 18/15 mcguire's school, 17/29 mcintosh, b., 14/22 mckay-marg tonometer, 12/3 mckee, g.w., 13/9 mcquarrie, c., 15/3 mcvey, f.l., 17/4-5 md, 14/74-75 meadow, the, 13/18 mech. opt. text, 20/5 mechano-therapy, 13/24; 14/95 metropolitan coll., 12/50 medal, owen aves, 13/53 media, indices of ocular, 14/24 med. negligence of refract., 18/50-52 med. world news, 12/20 med., amer.~of optom., -15/33 -med. in 17th century, 16/46 and optom., 11/52; 12/63; 13/73; 14/37-40,46,6166; 15/15,54; 16/23 medieval eye, 17/25-26 perceptual theory, 11/15 medusa, 11/25 meerlov, joust, 11/26 meetings of ohs, 16/1; 17/49 mehemmed & blindness, 19/33 meija era, 12/28; 14/97 mein kampf, 12/53 meissner, der, 12/77 meister, c., 16/31 melbourne, univ. of, 15/83 membership, ohs, 14/23; 16/21; 18/23 memorials, 12/26,84; 13/53,54,85; 15/13,33,36,75; 16/14~ 17/79; 18/3,14,15, 38,49,48,65,66; 19/11,16,42; 29/36 meniscus, word, 13/29 menlo park, 16/41 mentz, coloner, 11/59 meredith, t., 11/8 merry, c.l., 14/42 mery, jean, 11/19,56,62 mesopotamia temple, 14/33 mesquita, de, j., 11/5 messinger, j., 15/3 messter firm, 16/59 metallurgy, 18/11 meter angle, 17/46-48 meterlinse, 14/31 meterwinkel, nagel's, 17/47 metric lens power, 14/29-31 trend in optics, 14/6 metropolitan coll., 12/64 mex. amer. optom., 15/21 meyer (1853), 17/69 meyerhof, max, 17/26 meyers lexicon, 17/44 meyrowitz, 16/25 brothers, 12/29 hiatt's quarterly rev., 16/24,25 michaelangelo, 12/55 michelson, a.a., 17/54 micro-cosmology, 17/25-26 micro-photoscope, 16/24,25 microscope, 12/59; 19/4 amici, 12/58 collection, 16/4 design & mfgr., 17/18-19 huntley, 12/58 on stamps, 12/24 microscopy, 12/8,9; 18/5 middle east ass'n., 14/5 "midwives, chiropodists, and optom.", 29/15 miereanu, h., 18/37 milburn, w., 18/25 miles, p.w., 14/8 mil. optom., 13/17; 15/54 83 in england, 14/54-55 pension record, 15/5 miller, e.j., 12/61 ken, 16/36 manual training sch., 17/29 millodot, m., 11/31 milner, norman, 18/59 milton, j., 16/46; 19/5 mincer, l.l., 14/18 ming dynasty, 11/13 scholar, 14/33 minnaert, m., 11/29; 14/75 minneapolis-honeywell, 17/46 minn. hist. soc., 14/99 mining & manufact. co., 14/94 state board, 29/9 minor hall at u.c., 19/3 ralph, 12/19 minutes, local soc., 13/34 miracle, blind cure, 13/18 "miracle of vision", 14/89 mirages, 18/11-12 "mirrors, prisms, and lenses", 17/28,35,36 missouri optom. ass'n. j. of the, 16/57 missouri~ptom. educ. in, 15/77 optom. law, 16/58 state board rules, 16/43 mitchell, charles, 12/13-18 j.m., 12/84 library, 15/27 margaret, 14/25-27,88; 18/9 mnemonic phrases, 15/6-7 mo ti, 15/66 model optom. law, 16/42 modern lighting, 16/49 moe, jorgen, 14/31-33 mogul, optom. movie, 17/29 mohaw, 15/49 mol, manufact. opt. --internat.,~47 molding, injection, 14/93 the eye, 29/39 moliere, 18/28 molyneux, w., 17/9 monet, claude, 17/12 monks, alf, 12/17 monocentric multifocals, 18/42 monocle, 12/79 monoc. diplopia, double, 13/39-40 money, braille, 13/54 monfort, b., 13/8 monroe coll. of optom., 13/37,39; 14/73; 15/61 county library, 15/31 univ. sch. of optom., 15/60-61 montreal opt. co., 20/44 moonlight, uncontaminated, 18/11 moore, h.l., 14/103 t.h., 14/88-89 w.d., 19/24 moorfields, 11/7; 14/50; 16/18 moran, bugs, 11/66 morez museum, 20/19 morgan, j.c., 12/9 meredith, 13/85; 18/1,40; 20/1 morgani, 12/85 mori, f., 12/43; 13/1517,26,29,37,50 k., 11/37; 13/50 morita, y., 14/100 morris, c.w., 13/68 philip, 12/56 morrison, h., 13/50-51 philip, 16/35 robert, 14/74 morrison-low, a.d., 16/55 mosaic colors, 18/18 moss, f.a., 13/40 h.l., 11/37; 18/65 motion p~cture eye effects, 19/11 industry, 15/36-38 pictures, early, 19/19 moulang, h.w. & t.h., 11/52 moulding the cornea, 19/43 mt. sterling, ky. sch., 17/3-5 talmalpais park, 18/43 movie mogul, optom., 17/20 "movies, rockefeller of 84 the", 15/37 movies, 3-d, 13/66-67 moving photog., 14/10-11 "mr. denbigh", 17/13 mu delta pi, 14/17 much: contact lens, 11/55 mueller's life of trust, 17/33 muir woods, 18/42 mulder, m.e., 18/69-70 muller, a., 11/55; 16/8; 18/53,58 f.a., 19/15; 20/9 frank, 16/31 glass contacts, 18/16-17 j., 15/73-74; 16/37 muliers of wiesbaden, 11/7 mulrooney, g., 13/25 multifocals, 13/66; 17/49; 18/42 multimillionaire optom., 16/9 munchow, w., 19/21 mundorff eye, 16/49 munich opt. history, 18/5 tech. univ., 18/5 munsell color co., 16/40 murdoch, j.b., 20/10-11 murillo exhibition, 14/36 murphy, paul, 15/47-48 murray, james, 14/10 museet, nordiska, 12/20 museum, amer. acad. of ophth., 15/84; 17/21; 18/16 optical co., 15/83; 16/22; 17/21 at oberkochen, 20/18 barnum, 13/84 brit. opt. ass'n., 20/14 columbia u. optom., 15/28-29 display of optom. office, 12/75,76 hallauer, 13/56-57 history of sci., 15/23 jena opt., 15/39 kircherian, 15/81 lamp, 18/54 morez, 20/19 of amer. history, 19/9; 20/17 jewish history, 15/36-37 ophth., 18/20; 19/15; 20/24 sci. & industry, 19/27 opt., 13/55-57; 16/10,22,26,45 optisches, 12/78 opt om., 12/11 pierre marley, 13/14,56-57 rosenthal, 17/21 shelburne, 19/40 sutcliffe, 14/25-27 theunissen, 14/73; 17/10 u. of aston, 11/40 u. of waterloo, 12/4,5; 15/83; 17/48; 20/40 voigtlander, 13/56-57 york castle, 14/9 zeiss, 13/55-57 zeiss-ikon, 13/56-57 music staves to test astig., 20/33 mussey, r.d., 13/19 mustard seed, 16/42 muth, e., 13/84; 14/94; 15/84; 16/53; 19/9; 20/6,17,35-36 mutograph & mutoscope, 14/hl-11 mutze, karl, 14/20; 17/48 muybridge, e., 19/19 myopia, 11/5,15/19; 17/16-17 of gustav adolph, 20/39 mystery dioptric unit, 13/31-33 myth, medusa, 11/25 mythology, 11/24 nagel. a., 14/31; 17/46-48 nairobi ophth., 12/56 name of the rose", "the, 16/10 namibia, 13/46; 14/25 napoleon, 14/75; 15/39; 16/33,56 natal mercury, 15/21-22 nataraja, 17/11 85 nat. ass'n. of opt., 14/46,51-52 bureau of standards, 16/36 coll. of audiometry, 15/73 eye service, 14/61,63 health service, 12/16; 14/51,54,58; 15/26; 16/6 hist. publications & records comm., 14/85 lib. serv. for the blind, 20/32 nat. lib. of med. news, i4'774---nat. museum of amer. hist., 16/13; 17/20; 20/17 jewish history, 15/36-37,84 natural history, 17/43; 19/46 science & industry, 19/27 ophth. treatment board, 14/61,63 optom. ass'n., 13/39; 14/2 patent, 14/74 safety soc., 14/6 soc. to prev. blindness, 15/38 state board, 14/42 stereo. ass'n., 13/41; 17/22 "natural eyesight system", 15/24-26 nature, 16/50; 17/25 naturopath, 15/69 navaho, 15/40 navy optom., 13/17-18; 15/54 neal, h.v., 11/3 near sightedness, 11/5 neary, c., 13/10 nederlanse unie van opticiens, 12/62 needles inst. of optom., 14/73; 15/53,60,77 richard, 15/77 w.b., 14/43; 15/4953,60,77; 18/24 negocoll process, 11/6 negokoll hydrokolloid, 16/17 neill, j.c., 11/6,37; 12/25 nelson, h.c., 18/15 horatio, 13/5e-51 thomas, inc., 11/14 nee-impressionists, 11/33 neo-macropia, 19/2 nerenberg, b., 13/41; 18/64 nero, 12/79; 14/75; 15/63; 18/18 nerve head, 11/62 netherlands, the, 12/21,62 nettleship, e., 11/3 neu-vita eye masseur, 14/95 neues optikerjournal, 17/5e neumuller, j., 18/15 "nevskii prospect 17031903 ii 1 16/2 new era printing co., 17/34 sun-ray clinic, 17/52 jersey optom. ass'n., 16/6 south wales, u. of, 16/29; 17/39 york acad. of optom., 14/34 optom. law, 14/14 public library, 14/91 state u. of, 17/31 u. of the state of, 14/13 zealand, 12/21; 14/54; 19/44 new scientist, 16/55 -york times, 17/29,33; --19/13 newfoundland, 14/54 newsletter economics, 15/85-86 of the ohs, 12/58,61; --r5/31; 19/14-15; 2e;3e newton, dr., 14/38 j.a., 16/4e isaac, 11/38; 12/84; 13/54; 14/2e,72,75; 16/35;36,55; 18/67; 19/13,2e; 2e/5,12 newtonian epoch, 20/27 new-vita oculizer, 14/95 niagara u., 15/73 nickerson, d., 16/40 nicum, w.c., 12/65 w.v., 14/96 nicura, 18/3 nietbrille, 12/79 nietsche's vision, 18/5e 86 nigeria, 18/52-53 night vision goggles, 2e11e nikko treasury, 12/28 19th century eye care, 18/25 nishimura, k., 13/3e nissel, g., 11/6; 15/79; 16/15 nitrate of silver, 18/25 nitsche of rathenow, 13/29 nobel laureate, 14/36; 16/53; 17/54 noble, j., 14/72-73 noble rank & spectacles, 14/33 "nobody's fault", 15/4 nominating committee, 18/2-3 non-glare glass, 15/71 nordenson camera, 11/38; 18/64 nordiske museet, 12/20 norges optikerforbund, 16/56 norman, carl, 14/31 norman rare book news, 2e/5 norris, charles, ii727 w.f., 14/3e north carolina optom. board, 15/49,52 dakota heritage center, 12/75 optom. ass'n., 12/76 london ass'n. of ophth. opt., 14/66 pacific call. of optom., 15/46; 18/66 u. of the, 15/78 northampton polytechnic, 14/53 northeastern okla. u., 13/25 state u., 17/12 northern ill. call. of ophth. & otology, 15/60; 18/43; 20/25 opt om., 13/39; 15/36,46,54,57,6061,70,73; 16/5 lights, 18/12 rhodesia, 12/13 norwegian folk tales, 14/31-33 norway,· 16/56; 28/9 nostrum, or. thompson's, 15/82 notebook, student's, 15/46 notes and queries, 2v2'8-21 notre dame u., 18/67 nottingham, j., 16/8 novel about oculist, 18/66 novelists' denigration of eyeglasses, 28/8 "now see this", 28/12 noyes, henry, 19/2 numismatic opt., 12/81-84; 13/55 numismatists, 12/6 nun in the vatican, 15/47-48 nupuf, j.s., 13/61 nurmberg guild of spectaclemakers, 28/28 nyctalopia, 15/63; 19/4 nyquist, w.w., 14/94 0 o.o. degree, 14/9 oap, 12/59 oatman volumes, 28/13 oberkochen museum, 28/18 oberlander, w., 17/42 obremskey, m., 15/59 obituaries, 17/18 o'brien, e.j., 13/37 j .m., 14/8 obrig, t., 11/6,7; 15/26; 18/53; 28/38 obscura, camera, 15/66 observatory, rocker!, 18/5 obsidian, 18/18-11 obsius, 18/18 obstfeld, h., 16/13; 28/5 occupational opt., 17/48 occhiali italiani, 28/7-8 ocelli, 18/61; 18/47 ochs, j., 16/31 o'connell, d., 19/27 ocular expressions, 16/24 heritage soc., 17/28-21; 18/16; 19/14-15,25; 28/24,27-28 87 massage, 15/24-26 pysical therapy, 13/23-24; 17/23 prosthesis, 16/29-38 refract. indices, 14/24 oculist, 11/39; 15/52 becomes gladiator, 18/8 the, 19/28 oculist's diary, itinerant, 16/48 oculists in 19th century, 18/25-34 opticians become, 18/52 soc. of, 14/5 oculo-reflexology, 15/69 oculizer, 14/95 oculus, 12/62 odom, a.a., 14/87 officers of ohs, 28/1 ogawa, m., 13/15-16 ogden, c.k., 18/47 ogle, k.n., 13/51; 14/8 ohio, aoa charter in, 12/65 fed. of allied sci., 15/78 league for conserv. of vis., 15/78 northern u. coll. of pharm., 15/46 optom. board, 18/44 legislation, 18/39-48 state optom. ass'n., 12/64 u., 12/3,4,63,78; 14/18,92; 15/18-13,36,4958,65,68; 17/23,34,35,78; 18/44; 19/21; 28/2,38,36 volunteers, 63rd, 18/58 wesleyan u., 18/58 ohs, the other, 28/27-28 ohuchi, y., 14/97 okla. optom. ass'n., 13/76 okun, e., 12/28 olav v, king, 12/11 "old man's bow", 17/25 old optom. practice, 13/47 oldest indiana practice, 13/8 o.w. holmes stereo. lib., 13/41 olmos, e., 14/27 olsens teknise skole, 12/11 omega epsilon phi, 17/23-24; 18/21 pi tau, 14/17 "on becoming blind", 18/6"-61 one-eyed giants, 19/13-14 one-piece bifocal, 19/42 ontario, coll. of optom., 12/5 optom. cert., 2"/43 "00 eye" lenses, 13/62~ 14/4~ 17/59 opera glasses, 14/36 operation mercy, 17/39 ophthalmia in egypt, 19/6 ophth. antiques collectors club, 14/2-3,88,9"~ 15/23~ 16/6"~ 17/8,18 benefit approved comm., 14/51-52,54 case book, 13/26-28 co11., chicago, 13/21 industry, 2"/6 laboratory in 19""' 16/3 museum, u. of aston, 11/4" opt. standards comm., 15/7 opticians & physicians, 15/15 opticians, coll. of, 11/36 institute of, 15/7 no. london ass'n. of, 14/66 optics definition, 14/48 evolution, 14/49-51. i.n japan, 12/27,47-49 publications, amer., 17/57 and trade catalogues, 2"/4" science, 16/12 ophthal. & physiol. opt., 12/46~ 18/7,57~ 2"/32-33 bulletin, 14/63,66 optician, 12/19~ 14/77~ 15 i 4-3-4 4 i 6 3 i 8 5 ~ 16/6,12,13 ophthal.-optom. relations, 13/73 ophthal. assistants in india, 2"/33-34 ass'n. of britsh, 14/59,63 james & james, 15/25 and optom., 11/39~ 16/23~ 19/1-3,41~ 2"/39 ass'n., japan, 13/15-16 88 definition, 14/48 history, 11/5~ 12/79~ 13/49~ 14/45,51~ 15/4748,62-63,79~ 16/3",34,35,4"~ 17/57~ 18/46,51~ 19/1-3,46,13,41~ 2"/37 industrial, 17/4" internat. congress of, 2"/31 museum of, 16/1~ 18/2"~ 19/15 training in, for opt om., 13/53 ophthalmometer, 2"/36 ophthalmoscopy, 11/38,56~ 12/12~ 14/2",7"~ 15/74~ 16/2~ 18/27,3",64~ 2"/35 oppenheimer, s.m., 13.59 optic news, 2"/18 opticar-!ndex, 17/15 journal, 14/38,9"-91~ 16/6,62 and rev. of optom., ---14/89,96~ 15/67~ 16/4,25,3"~ 17/34-35~ 18/39 month!' ankyoungkye, 3" 2-4 world, 2"/47 optical aids on stamps, 17/12 anecdotes, 14/75~ 16/56 apprentices in russia, 16/2 ass'n., british, 11/36 catalogs, 17/57-6" educ. promotional ass'n., japan, 12/37 glass, 11/29~ 14/28-29~ 16/11 heritage museum, 16/22,26 industry, 17/4"~ 18/63~ 2"/47-48 inst. of london, 15/22 canada, 2"/44 instruments, 18/7"~ 2"/37 museum, jena, 15/39~ 16/1" patents, 14/18-19 profession in england, 14/46-69 soc. of amer., 13/51~ 14/34; 15/8,61; 16/40; 17/29,45; 20/31 practitioner definition, 14/48 specialists, 20/48 technicians ass'n., japan, 12/36 "optical letters", 12/11 shop & counter", 15/73 optician and allied interests, 14/91 jeweler, 14/91 photopraphic trades review, 16/37 the, 12/13; 14/76,90-91; --17/8,13,18,40; 20/2627,29 optician in court, so. afr., 11/50 origin of word, 12/81 opticians register, 15/27 opticians, 19/41 act of great brit., 16/16; 17/19 at wills hospital, 16/31-32 ass'n., japan, 12/36 korea, 17/42-43; 20/2 north london, 14/66 scottish, 11/36 texas, 13/77 wholesale & mfg., 15/7 coll. of ophthalmic, 11/36 course, prescription, 14/16 early canadian, 20/40-45 farthings & tokens, 12/81-84 guild of brit. disp., 14/61 incompetence of, 18/50-52 jewellers, & watchmakers, 12/81-84 kit, sears roebuck, 16/26 manual, 13/35 scottish, 16/62-64 sign, early, 19/39-40 optics news, 14/36; 15/61; 16~41; 18/6-7,18; 19/16,21 optics, 16/61,62; 17/43 and glass, 16/11 89 musical genius, 12/25 natural philosophy, 16/41 social history, 16/50 vision, 16/41 bacon's, 15/64 definition of, 16/54 doctor of, 20/25 educ. in, 12/13; 14/17; 18/63 environmental, 17/40 evolution of ophth., 14/49-51 gallery (london), 18/18 gay professor of, 12/60 geometric, 16/61 gradient index, 12/85-86 in japan, ophth., 12/27 munich, 18/5 ophthalmology, 19/4 institute of, 11/13 matthiessen's, 15/76 mechanical text, 20/5 newton's 20/5 numismatic, 13/55 perspectivist, 13/52 physical, 19/40 rinnock's, 12/67 prism, 18/18 ptolemaeus, 15/63 renaissance, 15/79 symposia, visual, 20/31 theoretic, 14/35 vs. optom., 19/8 optifair, 13/46,79; 14/45; 15/83 optikeren (norway), 16/56 optische werke rodenstock, 12/18; 17/8 optisches museum, jena, 12/24 zeiss, oberkochen, 12/78 optist, 13/35 optoergonomics, 17/40 optometer, 11/21; 13/3133,59; 16/22; 18/22 skiascope, 13/43 optom. extension prog. news, 17/45 med.~er. j. of, 15/33 monthly, 18/53 -­ weekly, 15/36,49 optom. ass'n., philippine, 17/38; 18/59 case records, 13/26-28 center of n.y., 12/87 educ., council on, 15/55 in canada educators, 11/34, 19/21 extension prog., 12/69; 13/8,54; 15/61,75; 16/25,28; 17/68-61,78; 18/14-15,19,23,24,38, 55,66; 19/16,41-42 in australia, 16/13,29 foundation, 15/29-38 historical society, 19/14-15 awards, 13/2; 17/1; 18/41; 19/11 by-law amendment, 17/1 reminisce-in, 17/1; 19/8-9 history course, 12/25 jurisprudence book, 16/42 museum in n. oat., 12/75 residencies, 18/41 soc. of new jersey, 15/38 optom.-ophthal. relations in japan, 12/31 optom. soc. of city of n.y., 15/6 optometrie, 18/49 optometrist, origin of word, 18/39-48,43 optometrists desire to become oculists, 18/53 fellowship of christian, 18/57 in the military, 15/54 research, 14/8-9 incompetence of, 18/58-52 optom. and vis. sci., 28/37 forum, 12/18,58; 13/41 times, 15/65; 17/15 today, 13/14; 16/57; 17/8,22,26,48,55; 18/45; 28/38,33 optom. and related jurisprudence, 18/65 ass'n. of sch. and coll. of, 11/34 behavioral, 18/48 board records, 15/15-21 corps legislation, 13/18 98 course at columbia u., 19/7 osaka, 12/27 courses in india, 28/33-34 environmental, 17/48 in australia, 19/35-37 ceylon, 15/43-44 china, 14/182-183 industry, 17/16 japan, 13/15-17 st. louis, 16/57-58 south africa, 14/73 sri lanka, 15/43-44 the military, 13/17 19th century, 18/21 office in 1915, 12/75 prior to 1988, 14/98-92 sch. in india, 13/14 jena, 15/38-39 of, rochester, 11/13 schools in the '40s, ],.5/54-56 '20s, 15/49 section, army, 15/49 68 yrs. of, 28/28 vs. optics, 19/8 "optometry on trial", 13/49 "bptometry" and i.o.o.l., 16/45 optospoon, the, 13/24 optyl eyewear corp., 28/6 "opus majus", 14/49; 15/63-64 minus", 15/63 tertium", 15/63 oral history, 14/83 of contacts, 14/86-87 orangoutang cataract, 12/55 orators' spectacles, 18/9 orbis project, 17/39 ord., j.w., 11/49 oresme, 13/47 orient and spectacles, 12/19 o'rourke, w., 19/9 orr, h., 16/59; 18/9-18 orthokeratology, 13/57,61; 14/95; 15/24-26 orthops retinoscope mirror, 12/12 orthoptic charts, 15/6 orzack, l., 15/15; 16/2 osaka, 12/27,28,32,48; 13/29-3s; 14/96-1s2 osborne, p., 12/18 oscar, king, 13/63,65 oskamp-nolting co., 12/27 ossoli's vision, 18/5s ostade, a., 15/42 osteopath, 14/35 ostwald, f., 16/53 "othello" & accommodation", 19/41 otto young & co., 13/21 outreach to older amer., 14/82 "overlooked" meaning of, 2s/21 owambu 13/46; 14/25 owen, e.f.d., 12/54 owens, a.g., 12/61 oxford, adjusting an, 15/47 english dictionary, 14/10; 15/4 eye hospital, 17/54 spectacles, 12/79 u. diploma in ophthal., 14/51 u. press, 17/35 oxford's big field, 13/18 oxide, cerium & ferric, 11/29 oxturn, dr., 18/26-27 oysters restore eyesight, 19/31 p pace, loran, 11/1 pacelli, e., 15/47-48 pacheco, a., 11/40,41; 15/2 sixto, 11/42 pacific northwest optom., 15/68 univ., 15/65; 18/1415,38,66 packet, currie's, 15/2223,65-66 padova, univ. of, 20/31 pads & arms, spectacle, 14/89 padula, w.v., 13/9 paetz & flohr, 19/23 91 page, alfred, 14/34 pages, c., 14/11 paine, d.r., 13/5,43 ron r., 13/43 painter, color-blind, 14/104-105 painting, 11/33 paintings, eye-related, 16/7 spectacles in, 13/57 paley, b., 12/61 palmer, j.a., 15/56 pan-amer. expo., 14/83 pandy, v., 13/39 panoptics, 15/47 pantoscopic spectacles, 14/88 paper types, 15/72 paraffine, candle, 11/11 paralipomena ad vitellionem, 16/61 paramount films, 19/11 parfumerie play, 13/57 paris world's fair, 13/61-65; 14/36 parks, e., 14/78 parker, d., 14/75 e. & h., 14/27-28 w.w., 15/49-53 parks, b.b., 12/84; 14/94 parliament & opt., 14/51; 17/19 parlours, mutoscope, 14/10 parnum, i., 14/46; 17/19 paroptic vision, 18/46-48 parsons polytech. inst., 14/43 pascalina, sister, 15/47-48 patenaude, j., 13/45-46 patent applications, 12/65-67 contact lens, 15/26; 17/23 eye cup, 19/10 kaleidoscope, 19/37 lorgnette & pincenez, 20/11 lloyd, 14/92 papers, opt., 14/18-19; 20/35-36 repositories, 20/36 patron saint jerome, 12/82 optometrist's, 17/39 p. blakiston co., 18/50 paul of algina, 11/26 paulhus, o., 13/26 pauly, hans, 14/72 peach tree leave, 12/44 peale, c.,m., & r., 18/53-54 pebbles, 13/21 peckham, j., 13/52; 19/4 robert, 14/8 peddler of dreams, 15/36 spectacle, 12/78; 16/26 peepshow, 14/10 pegram, g.b., 17/33 pekao corp., 12/6 pell, wilbur, 15/61 pemberton, 16/35 penal blinding, 19/4 penisten, o.k., 11/1; 12/1,6; 13/1,42,85; 14/1; 15/24,45-46; 16/28,37,38,39; 17/1,31,62-70; 18/12,5,56; 19/8; 20/1 pennsylvania board, 14/15-16 coll. of ophthalmetry, 15/14 . opt. & ophthal., 14/21 optom., 15/13; 18/65; 20/33 optom. ass'n., 13/54,81 state coll. of optom., 14/21; 16/5,9 pennsylvania gazette, 19/45-46 pension records, military, 15/5 peoples rep of china, 14/2,102-103 ruth, 13/39 peppard, h., 20/14 pepys' diary, 16/49; 18/9; 19/5 perception theory, 11/15 perimetry, 19/39 perkins sch. for blind, 14/12-13 perma, c.a., 17/10 perry, brian, 17/15 persimmon color, 15/39 persius satires, 18/5 92 personality & v1s1on, 16/27 perspectiva, 13/52; 20/5,32 peru, 14/11-12; 15/33 petersmith publishers, 14/34 petit, fr. p. du, 15/76; 16/52 petry, a. & c., 20/42 ernest, 11/13; 14/13,35 petty, weston, 16/14 pfaffendorf, w., 16/12 pfeiffer, w., 13/55-57 pfisterer, r., 11/47 pfluger's archiv., 15/21 ph. g. degree, 15/70 phallus, 11/25 phantom imagery, 16/36-38; 17/1 pharmaceut. law, 12/35 pharmaceut. historian, 14/95 pharmacist-optom., 19/44 pheiffer, c.a., 12/63; 13/12 phenomena, light, 11/20 phenomenon, e. linnaeus, 14/76-77 verdun, 14/76-77 philadelphia free lib., 15/37 optics, 17/43; 20/6-7 opt. coll., 14/12,89; 15/13-14,33-35 sch. of opt., 14/44 philadelphia inquirer, 15/84; 16/9 times, 16/62 philatelic optics, 12/24; 20/37 philip of brighton, 12/82 optician, 13/55 ii of spain, 14/33 philippine co11. of optom., 17/38 gen. hosp., 17/39 optom. ass'n., 12/59; 18/58-59 optometry, 18/58-59,65; 19/11 philippines, 12/21,28; 18/35-36 univ. of, 17/39 phillips, j., 12/25; 13/5~; 14/7; 16/6 t.j., 11/7; 16/17 t.k.e., 18/52 philosoph. soc., 2~/33 phoenicians, 11/25 phoropter collection, 12/67; 13/12 phosphorescence, 14/75 photochromic lens, 18/45 photog. sci. & eng., soc., 17/21 photgraphs, preserving, 15/71 photography, 13/41; 14/11; 17/24 photometry, 19/43 internat. comm., 15/5 photo-optical instrum. eng. soc., 14/75 photonics spectrum, 16/26,36; 2~/1~ phylacteries, 11/25 physiatrics, cent. state col!. of, 12/50,64 physical opt., 19/40 physiol. opt., 12/18,78; 14/8,34; 17/35,54 section of aoa, 18/43 physiotherapy, 15/15,7~ picture industry, motion, 15/36-37 pictures in dead eyes, 11/28 pierce, franklin, 13/19 pigeon eyes, 17/22; 2~/15 pike, b. & d., 16/25 optical house, 13/80 pills in eyecare, 18/46 pince-nez, 12/79; 19/46; 20/11 pine knots, glowing, 20/11 pine, r.t., 16/13 pink-eye, 12/53; 17/11-12 pinnock, w., 12/6-7 pioneer, satellite, 15/12 pistor, 11/39; 15/39; 16/12; 17/5~; 18/63641 7~; 2~/20 pitch, 14/99 pitts, d.g., 10/61; 14/94 pizardi, l., 13/50 93 plane mirror skiascope, 12/12 planetarium, 15/38 plastic optics co., 14/93 spectacle lenses, 14/92-94 plato, 16/56 pliny, 11/26; 14/75; 18/7,1~ plunkett, m., 19/34-35 pmma, 14/92; 18/53 pneumatic medium theory, 17/26 poda, 12/59 polan, l.m., 17/46 poland, 12/6,21 polarized light, 19/43 polishing compound, 11/29 politics of optom., 2~/28 pollack, a. & r., 14/75 p., 11/63 poller, 16/17 pollution, atmospheric, 18/11-12 polo, marco, 14/2 polycore lens, 16/48 polydyptic theatre, 15/8~-81 polymethylmethacrylate, 14/92 polyophthalmoscope, 11/38 polzien, d., 16/27; 17/7; 18/5 pomeroy, m., 13/18 pope, a., 11/38 b., 18/34 pius xii, 15/47-48 "popessa, la", 15/47-48 porcine eyes & thighs, 13/42 port meadow, 13/18 porter, m. c., 15/41 wm., 14/49 porterfield, l., 11/4 wm., 15/43; 16/34-35,52; 19/5,42 portman, o., 12/61 portugu1ite, m., 13/64 posey, w.c., 16/3~ post, w., 19/18-19 postage stamps, 11/5; 12/5,37; 13/12; 17/42; 29/22 posters, opt., 29/38 potgieter, m., 11/54 potter, c., 29/42 j.a., 12/61 potts, a.m., 12/13 poulet, w., 13/19,55-57 poultices, 19/31 powell, j.w., 19/2 power, lens, 29/27 practical medicine, 12/2 practice, oldest indiana, 13/8 trends, 29/29 prairie farmer, 15/16 pratt, c.b., 18/66 prentice, c.f., 13/35,8981; 14/4,39; 17/24,4647,55; 19/12,15,41,46; 29/5,9 preoptometry requirements, 14/17 presbyopia, 11/15 prescott, historian, 18/27 preservation techniques, 15/71 president jackson, 16/4-5,21 washington, 14/78 presidents, iesna, 12/76 u.s., 12/86-87 preston, p.e., 14/59 howard, 18/15 prewitt, judge, 17/5 prices, opt., 12/37; 29/48 prieur de la c~te-d'or, 18/17 "primary" colors, 18/18 prince rule, 13/59 princeton univ., 18/44 printer, '"bl-ind, 13/19 prism diopter, 19/41 optics, 18/18 prismoids, 17/64-79 private optom. schools, 15/54-56 proa, 12/59 proc. amer. philosoph. soc., 17/43 prof. advancement prog., 16/8 94 professional press, 15/36,73 professionalism, 13/82-83 profits from collecting, 15/58 progressive lens, 15/85; 16/47,48 project orbis, 17/39 propagation of light, 13/47 propper mfg. co., 14/79 proprietary schools, 15/54-56 proprioceptive visual synthesis, 16/36-38 prosciuto, 13/42 proximal convergence, 17/6-7 prunelle (pupil), 11/55 psalms, 16/47 pseudo-isochromatic test, 18/29 psi epsilon, 14/17 psychic convergence, 17/6-7 ptolemy, 15/63; 17/49; 19/19-29,39 publications, a.a.o., 13/3 optical co., 17/57-69 puck, 16/41 puerperal fever, 15/47 puerto rico, 11/49; 13/2 puget sound, univ., 18/62 pulliam, mrs. e., 15/38 punjab, 12/55 punktal lenses, 11/39 pupilloscopy, 11/39,55 pupin bldg., 15/29; 17/36 m.j., 29/6 purdy, d.m., 13/39-49 purgatives, 18/46 pure food and drug act, 15/82 purkinje-sanson images, 16/56 pyramids, the, 11/28 pythagorus, 19/19-29 0 quackery, 15/78; 19/5; 29/15 quartz lamp, 16/7 quasi-light beams, 17/66-67 queen alexandria, 13/63-64 elizabeth, 15/7 james w., 12/9; 16/31 victoria, 11/5; 19/44 queensland, 11/39; 14/4-5 questions, board, 15/3-4 quick, mrs. h., 13/5~; 14/94 quinn, j.e., 18/48-49 quiller press, 17/4~ quisumbing, l.r., 18/36 quran, the, 19/6 r ~hoehn co., 16/6 r.s.o. focus, 14/17 radford, j., 12/82; 13/55 radian, 17/62 radiant energy protection, 13/36; 19/38 therapy, 17/23 rag paper, 15/72 ragsdale, j. & p., 2~/17 rakos, i., 11/7 railroad, 18/43 lanterns, 13/47 rainbow theory, 14/72 rambusch, v.b., 16/7 rand afrikaans univ., 15/48,78 rand ferree, g., 13/51 randall, m., 15/58 raphaelson, s., 13/57 rare books, 19/22-23; 2~/5,13-16 rastogi, h.o., 13/15 rathenower firm, 16/11 ratliff, f., 13/51 ravin, j.g., 17/12 ray, green, 18/69-70 raye, r.j., 18/8 razis & blindness, 19/33 rcn lantern, 13/48 read, wm., 19/5 readers digest, 13/2324,49,61; 15/9 reading exercises, 19/3 rogers, 12/11; 16/59-6~ reagan, ronald, 2~/1~ 95 recognition, ohs, 13/2,53; 15/1; 16/1; 17/1-3; 18/41 records, case, 13/26-28 red rim, 19/27 river expedition, 2~/44 redi, f., 2~/8 reed, d.r., 15/41 h.i., 13/28 l., 2~/15 reese, l.w., 14/19 reetz, hans, 2~/22-23 reflex convergence, 17/6-7 reflex, 14/5 reflexion & refraction, 19/43 reflexologist, 15/69 refraction at wills hospital, 16/31-32 binocular, 15/43 hospital, 11/9; 14/5 law, 19/19-2~ ophthalmological, 19/13,4,41 refractive, errors, 12/9,1~; 18/5~-52 indices, 14/24 refractometer, 11/38; 12/11; 13/21; 18/64 refractor collection, 13/12 register, memorials, 18/38-39 registration in india, 13/14-15 reilly, p.c., 15/81 reimold, w.f., 16/31 reiner, fritz, 11/25 j., 15/41; 2~/2~ reinhard, j., 16/59 reisch, g. 13/52 reminisce-in, 11/1,2; 12/2; 13/2; 14/1; 17/1; 18/12,4~,49; 19/8-9; 2~/2 remsbecken, s.a., 11/26 renaissance ophthal., 19/41 republique tunisienne stamp, 12/18 research, 14/8-9,67-68; 16/12 residencies, 18/41 resin lens, 14/92 restorer, eyes, 2~/27 retina, 11/61 "retina manual, the", 29/16 retinal image, 11/26,39: 16/61 camera, 18/64 retinoscopy, 11/39: 12/12: 15/43: 18/56 rex vs. saks, 11/49,53,54 reynolds, o., 12/19,52: 14/72-73: 15/65-66,78: 17/51: 19/9 genealogy, 15/5 rgp lens, 17/27: 19/17 rhubarb, 18/25 rhyton, bull's head, 29/31 richardson, e.f., 15/75 w., 17/43 "richmond, battle of", 12/68: 13/22 richmond coll., 17/29 ridgeway, d.m., 14/39 e.h., 16/22 riding bow, 14/3 ridley, f., 16/18 riel rebellion, 29/44 rife, o., 19/23 "riffle" books, 14/19 riggs, lorrin, 13/51 rigid gas permeable lens, 17/27 riis, r.w., 13/49: 15/9 ripley's believe it or not, 14/194-195 rittenhouse, d., 17/43: 29/48 rittenhouse, 19/46 "rivalries, binocular", . 29/31 river, saale, 15/38 rivolta, friar, 18/29 risley, s.o., 14/29-31 roberts (at columbia), 17/3, . b.l., 18/15 ralph, 15/58 robin, grace, 15/6 robinson, b., 13/39 cohen slide, 12/3 e.k., 16/13 j., 15/3 robots, visual, 16/26-27 rocher, pierre, 17/25 rochester convention, 12/73 96 atheneum & mechanics' inst., 14/16-17 sch. of optom., 11/13: 14/13-18,27,35 univ. of, 14/16: 17/35: 18/68 rock, m.l., 16/9 rockefeller found., 14/8 j.d., jr., 14/8 rockefeller inst. rev., 17/54 rockerl observatory, 18/5 rodenstock family, 13/42: 17/8: 18/6 firm, 12/18: 18/6,45: 19/17 lens, 16/48 rodgers, c.c., 14/35 rogers, c.c., 14/13 co., 29/26 stella, 14/39 will, 19/18-19 rohr, m. von, 14/29: 17/35,59: 18/64,79 rolf, blinded knight, 14/23 romains, j., 18/46-48,61 roman, paul, 19/7 rome, 11/25: 15/62: 18/7-8,18 ronchi, v., 11/18: 16/61 rood, o.n., 11/33 roosevelt, t., 11/42 "roots of rebellion", 16/2 roper, k.l., 14/8 rose, a.j., 16/36 rose water, 19/31 rosen, e., 18/29 rosenbloom, a., 17/38 rosenthal, j.w., 17/29-21: 29/35 rosetta stone, 14/75 roth, hans-walter, 13/55-57 rothig on dioprics, 15/76 rothschild, baron, 13/63,65 rouge, 11/29 rowe, i.m., 11/37: 14/37-39,43 roy, f.h., 14/27 royal acad. of art, 14/36 coll. of sci., 14/52 surgeons, 14/51 free hospital, 11/8 london ophth. hosp., 14/62 scottish museum, 16/55,62 societies, 18/68 soc. of health, 18/49 (london), 17/4e ruben, montague, 15/79 rubenstein, a., 13/5e-51 rubin, m.l., 18/2e rue, 11/26 ruegamer, laan, 12/5e ruff, r.r., 14/le3 rufus, 18/7 rugby trophy, 15/66 rugg-gunn, 11/7: 16/17 rule, prince, 13/59 "rules for letter writers", 12/11 rumford on color, 18/17 rush county, 16/15 rushlight (lamp), 18/le: 2e11e-11 rushton, w.a.h., 12/85 russell, d., 17/19 russia, 11/28; 16/2,35 ruth, e.p., 14/27-28 rutgers univ., 16/2 ryan, k.j., 16/7 ryer, e.l., 13/81: 14/34: 17/24 ryle, j., 14/57 s s.-a., noel, 13/13 sabell, a., ll/4e sabra, a.j., 11/18 sachsenweger, m., 2e122 sacred heart coll., 15/73 sadat, a., 19/6 jehan, 19/6; 2e/32 saddle bridge, 13/21 sager, h., 14/34; 15/28 saint fridescoide, 13/18 jerome, 12/82 lawrence univ., 18/44 louis optom., 16/57-58 lucia, 12/57; 16/45 valentine's day, 16/27; 17/13 saks, b.d., 11/51 j.l., 11/49,51: 15/78 97 "saloon bar", 12/17 salt for evil eye, 19/6 salvatore, 16/1e salvatori, p.l., 2e/3e salvinus d'armati, 16/1e sam 'n henry, 11/66 sam-ctt, 13/48 samahan ng optometrist sa pilipinas, 18/59 samson blind, 16/46 san jose con£., 17/7e sanchez, f.j., 12/25 sanders, a., 13/24 sandor, r., 11/63; 16/45 sandoval, c., 18/15 sanger, h., 18/64 sanskrit, 15/62 santa clara county, 18/64 univ., 18/67 sargent, b., 15/6e sarton, g., 11/13 sarver, m.d., 18/3 sasieni, 14/36 satellites, 15/12 sattler, prof., 11/7 "save your vis. week", 14/79,82 saxon school, 18/63 scandinavian trolls, 14/31-33 scarpa, a., 17/7 schade, a.h., 14/87 schaffer, s., 12/84 schary, d., 13/66-67 schawlow, a., 14/36 scatcherd & adams, 18/67 scheibner, r., 16/11 scheiner, c., 16/34; 17/13-14,5e scherffer & color, 18/17 schillinger, h., 17/42 k., 17/24 schmidt, ingeborg, 16/3 j.f., 12/61 w.j., 14/1e4 schmitz, e.h., 16/62 schniebs, o., 14/8 schoen, j., 12/86: 17/1e scholarships, 14/8e-82; 18/66; 2e/33 school, a forgotten, 15/77 japan, 12/37 jena, 15/38-39; 20/20 liverpool, 12/13 london, 20/44 osaka, 12/36 rochester, 11/13; 14/13-18 saxon, 18/63 schools ass'n., 11/34 private, 15/54-56 schott, o., 14/29; 15/59; 16/32,51; 17/18 und genossen, 15/59 schreiner, e.e., 16/35 schubert, franz, 12/25 schulz, charles, 18/4 schumacher, h., 15/82 schuster, sir arthur, 18/18 schutz, erich, 14/105 schuyler, l.l., 15/38 schwalm, m., 19/19-20 schweiger, dr., 19/23 schweizer optiker, 14/72 schwimmer, r., 16/27 science in artistry, 20/22 museum, london, 15/66; 18/18,59 science, 12/8,9; 17/46 84, 16/55 sci. instrument makers, 16/62-64 scientific american, .16/33 "scientist" coined, 18/59 scleral contacts, 15/79; 20/30 scott, r.l., 13/8 scottish ass'n., 11/36; 14/26,46,51-52 instrument maker, 16/62-64 scown, l.w., 11/9 screening, visual, 14/5-6 in japan, 12/36 scutt, der, 11/8 se tenant, 12/59 seattle coll. of optom., 15/68 sears-roebuck, 16/26 "secondary" colors, 18/18 second-hand bookstores, 20/16 seed, mustard, 16/42 98 seeing-eye dogs, 20/28-29 "seeing is believing", 18/37 sehen, 12/19 seidner, j. & l., 17/27 seneca 14/75; 18/7,18 sense, paroptic, 18/46-48 sensory core, 11/14 septicentennial, spectacle, 18/9 seurat, g., 11/33 seusenhofer, h. & k., 20/22 seven arts, 13/37 sextan~ubble, 12/54 seymour safely, 14/81 shah, c.k., 17/11 shakespeare's "accommodation", 19/41-42 shaneson, e., 12/61; 14/19,94; 17/36,37; 18/8 shanghai coll., 12/27; 13/30 sharp, s.c., 17/4 shastid, t.h., 11/63; 18/60 shaw, g.b., 11/8; 14/3 g.r., 15/3 pat, 14/31 she loves me, 13/57-59 sheard allen, d., 15/10-13 charles, 12/4,57,63; 13/4,23,51,80; 14/105; 15/10-13,36,55,77; 17/24,34; 18/24,41,42,4445,55,66; 19/15; 20/2 foundation, 15/36 shelburne museum, 19/40 sheldon, gil, 14/86 shell oil co., 14/6 shennan, t., 20/30 shepard, c.f., 15/46-47,60 sheridan, j.w., 15/49 sherlock holmes, 14/7 sherman, spencer, 17/21 sheshet, rabbi, 16/46 shick, chas., 15/3 shields, margaret, 18/59 shilla dynasty, 17/43 shipley, ed, 11/37; 14/38-42 shiroyama, 13/16 shogun teyosu tokugawa, 12/28 "shop around the corner", 13/57 showa era, 12/31 show-me libraries, 13/17 shreve; j.r., 12/70 shrine, guadalupe, 16/56 shulman, p.f., 13/85 siam king and prince, 13/63-64 sichel, j., 18/29; 19/2 sickbert, s.r., 16/15 sides (temples), 14/2 sidle, j. w., 16/31 siegel, i.m., 20/31 "sight" by le conte, 15/41 sight restorers, 20/24 testimony on, 19/43 testing aid, 18/64 sign, optician's, 19/39-40 silk, anne, 11/8 silor opt. inc., 12/88; 18/65 silver nitrate, 18/25 silverman, m. w., 20/20 simulacra, 16/61 simultaneous contract, 18/17 sin of spectacle selling, 19/20-21 singh, daljit, 14/27 sins and the eye, 19/29-34 sistine chapel, 12/56 siva dance, 17/11 sivak, j.g., 18/20 "sixty years of optom.", 11/38 sjambok, the, 17/51-53 skeat, w.w., 14/10 skeffington, a.m., 99 12/62,69,70; 13/13,23-24; 17/60; 18/15,2324,38,48,55-56; 19/9,42 -alexander ctr., 13/10,13 -kehl era, 16/58 skiametry, 11/30; 19/7 dynamic, 13/4; 15/11; 18/24,42 skiascopy, 11/30; 12/12; 13/43 "skiddoo, 23", 15/59-60 skulls with spectacles, 18/59 sky and telescope, 15/24 slator, l., 12/57 slaves, nonpresbyopic, 18/8 slide, robinson-cohen, 12/3 slit lamp, 14/44; 18/64 stenopaic, 11/20 sloan, l., 13/51 slocum, w.l., 13/82 small, c.h., 12/2 smaragdus, nero's, 18/18 smelling salts, 18/46 smith, a. mark, 13/52 alpheus, 12/57,78; 13/12 boykin b., 14/94 judy b., 16/57 mr., 15/21 p.a., 11/37 pete, 13/67 robert, 15/76; 16/34; 17/46; 18/10 sandra, 11/63 smithsonian inst., 13/66; 14/78; 15/84; 16/13; 17/20-21,38-39,43; 19/46; 20/6-7,17 snakeroot extract, 16/40; 17/58 snell, carl, 17/18 snellen, 12/24; 16/6,30; 19/2 snellie, r., 11/7 snellius, 19/26 snell's law, 11/17; 19/19-20 snider, h.a., 18/15 snodgrass, h., 11/65 social effects, 16/50 security act, 13/23; 20/28 socialism, 16/12 societa italiana di optometria, 14/95 societe des lunetiers, 12/88 sociologist's view, 15/15; 16/23 society, local, 13/34 ocular heritage, 19/25 of oculists, 14/5 opticians, 14/46 photog. sci. & eng., 17/21 photo-optical instrumentation engineers, 14/75 soderberg, per, 11/37; 16/45 sodium lamps, 14/71 soelberg wells, j., 11/3 soft lens, 18/49 sahnges, w.p., 16/59 sola ruling, 19/17 solar furnaces, 17/24 solomons, h., 17/47 somer, will, 19/26; 20/23 songer, nan, 13/43 sop newsletter, 12/59 s.o.r. logo, 16/45-46 soroptimist club, 14/22 soule, j.b., 20/43 south africa, 11/49,52; 12/13,19,21,23; 14/73,104; 15/45,77; 16/13; 17/52-53 so. afr. optom., 12/13,19; --14/72,104; 15/21-22; 17/51-53 south bay (calif.), 18/15 south-west africa, 13/46; 14/25 southall, abbot (mrs.), 17/30; 19/34-35 j.p.c., 13/41; 14/34; 15/22,28-29,77; 16/37; 17/24,28-30,31-37,45-46; 19/15,34,35 thomas, 19/34 southern cal. coll. optom, 11/2,39; 12/26; 13/54,8384; 15/48,65; 16/1,39; 18/14-15,38 japan-amer. soc., 18/15 uni v. of, 18/64 coll. of~optom., 12/61; 15/33,65; 16/14; 17/4 council of optom., 14/87 so. j. of optom., 19/25 -optometrist, 16/8 southgate, m.t., 12/26 southwestern optom. sch., 20/17 spain, philip ii of, 14/33 spandau diaries, 12/22 sparks, l.p., 14/8 100 spasm, accom., 12/10; 17/16 spearman, f.h., 18/66-67 specialties, opt., 20/48 spectacle auction, 17/18 collection, 11/5; 14/7475; 16/53; 18/3-4,59 elimination, 11/33; 20/24 frames & mtgs., 12/79; 14/89; 16/4; 17/50; 18/60 history, 11/14; 12/78; 13/10,55-57; 14/78,102,105-106; 16/10,59; 17/8-9; 18/9; 19/40; 20/24 invention, 12/19; 14/105106; 15/64; 18/20 lenses, 17/57; 18/45,46,64 makers, 13/55; 17/44; 20/18 guilds, 11/36; 12/82; 15/7; 16/46; 17/27-28,40; 19/6; 20/20 manufacturers, 12/28 patents, 12/65-67; 14/18-19 restoration techniques, 14/3 selling & peddling, 12/78; 15/44; 16/26; 19/20-21 "spectacles & eyeglasses", 20/19 spectacles & bethesda, 19/30-34 antique, 12/20; 18/9-10; 20/7 as symbols, 14/33,77; 19/20-21; 20/23 children's 19/2 colonial, 19/45-46 for near, 17/49 in art & lit., 14/36; 19/21; 20/21-22 in china, 11/13; 12/19,81; 20/27 italy, 20/7-8 japan, 12/27,33,40 on stamps, 12/5; 17/12,44; 18/7 orators', 18/9 syllepsis, 18/9 telescopic, 13/4 speed of light, 13/47; 19/20 speer, a., 12/22 speke, j.h., 12/18 spencer opt. house, 13/80 herbert, 18/50 sperm candle, 11/10 spermaceti, 11/11 spider filament, 13/43 spina, a., 18/20; 20/47 spinoza, 12/19; 15/40 spirits, animal, 11/57 spitler, h.r., 12/3,4,49,63-65; 13/12 spontini, l., 12/25 sposato, p., 17/27; 18/48 springer, b.e.c., 15/78 spy glasses, 14/88 springer verlag, 20/31 squint, 11/55; 17/47; 18/46 sri lanka, 15/43-44 staatliche fachschule, berlin, 15/82 staiman, j., 11/1; 12/26,27,61,87; 13/7; 14/1,35,95; 15/1; 17/2 stamp, braille, 13/12 collectors' lamp un stamps, postage, 11/5; 12/5,24; 17/12,44; 18/7; 20/37 memorial, 12/18,58; 17/10,42; 18/67; 20/22 standard candle, 11/10 oil co., 14/6 standards comm., 15/7 star, johannesburg, 12/52 starcraft, 19/4 starstechers, 18/46 state board questions, 15/3-4 state coll. of optom., 12/87 journal editors, 17/17-18 societies, 14/38 stativ vii, 15/7-8 stecchini, l.v., 11/29 steele, s.e., 17/4 stein, g., 17/21 r., 13/25 steinfeld, m., 13/3; 15/40 steinheil, optician, 19/23 stelluti, f., 18/5 stenplinger, e., 15/73 stenopaic slit, 11/20 stephens, g., 19/21 l.d., 15/41 stereo camera, 17/21 organizations, 17/22 photographs, 17/21 stereo world, 13/41 stereograms, 13/41; 17/21-22 stereopsis, 11/6; 13/66; 20/22,31 stereoscope library, 13/41 wheatstone, 20/31 stereoscopic ass'n., 13/41; 17/22 photography, 13/41 society, 13/41 sterling, l.s., 14/43 stevenson, m., 18/6 stewart, c.r., 12/68 h.s., 14/75 james, 13/57 stiles, w.s., 13/51 stimson, n., 17/41 stock market, 11/46 stocker, t., 18/10-11 stockwell, h., 14/44 stoddard, k., 14/76 stoicheff, b., 14/36 stokes, g., 11/20,21,23 lens, 15/41-42 stone, j., 17/15 report of '66, 17/21 "stone, wondrous", 17/61 stones, eye, 16/42 storer, w., 18/9 stores, discount, 12/38 story of visual aids, 11/14 strabismus, 11/55; 13/4 stradamus, j., 15/42 stratton, d., 16/59 straw, leon, 14/8 strawbridge, v., 16/22 streff, j., 13/9 stroboscope, 14/28 strong, d.s., 16/32-33 student loan, 14/17 notebook, 15/46 studt, w., 13/54 study courses, 12/3 sturdy, j., 11/52 subnormal v1s1on, 15/75 suda, dr., 13/15 sugg, j., 14/95 sugino, a., 18/15 suid-afrikaans oogkundige, 12/19 sukoff, l., 15/65 sullavan, m., 13/57 sullivan, a., 12/18 sun, eclipse, 18/5 phenomena, 19/27 sung dynasty, 11/13 super, selwyn, 14/73; 15/48,78 superstitions, 11/24; 19/6 sureau skiascope, 13/43 surgeons, barber, 19/41 surgery, ~ataract, 11/19 blades, 18/1~-11 survey, industry, 14/6 survey of ophthal., 18/2~ sutcliffe, j., 14/26; 17/19,22 museum, 14/25-27 r.l., 17/22 sveriger optikers, 16/45 swain & emsley, 12/12 swaine, w., 11/64 swallow nest stone, 17/61 swann, l.a., 15/43 swartwout, j.b., 15/3 sweden, 12/21, 16/45 sweitzer, c., 14/4~ swift, dean, 12/85 jonathan, 18/51 swinger, a., 13/39 switzerland, 12/21 sydney hospital, 12/79 tech. col!., 16/29 syllepsis spectacles, 18/9 symbolism, spectacle, 2~/18 symonds, ~.a., 18/5~ symposium, vision, 15/1~-13 syninformation, 11/63; 16/45 syntonics, 12/4,49,5~,6365,69 syphilis, 15/47 syracuse univ., 16/12 syringe, lacrymal, 14/74 1~2 t tadataka inoo, 12/28 tagolog, 12/59 taine, h.a., 18/5~ taisho era, 12/28,31; 14/99 tait, e.f., 13/4; 14/21; 16/12 g. c. i 12/11 retinoscope, 17/36 takahashi, e., 13/31,37-38 takaoka, t., 12/38 talbot, c.w., 14/36 talcott, r.e., 16/22 talismans, 11/24 talking books, 2~/32 tams journal, 12/59 tannebaum, s., 2~/39 tapestry dyeing, 18/17 targioni, 15/23 tasmania, 14/5 taylor, c.j., 14/55; 19/5 c. a., 12/4 godfrey, 12/52-53 j.d., 14/38-39,42-43 jennifer, 15/64 r.m., 18/6 zachary, 12/87 tchaikovsky, p.i., 18/5~ tear-prism entoptics, 17/69 technology, vis. sci., 13/53 tel aviv univ., 17/51 telescopes, 12/28; 16/3,4,61 telescopic spectacles, 13/4 television, 13/66-67 temple, denderah, 11/25 shirley, 12/55 spectacle, 14/3,1~5-1~6 uni v., 16/12 terminology, 15/35 terrell, d.o., 13/34 terson, a., 11/3 tesla, nikola, 16/37 test card, reading, 14/18 test-type illumination, 19/3 tests, astigmatism, 2~/32-33 teunissen: see theunissen texas medical act., 12/7~ med. assoc., 13/78; 17/22 board, 13/77 opticians ass'n., 13/77 optom. assn., 12/70; 13/76-78; 20/17 board, 12/70; 13/77 texas optometry, 17/17-18 textbooks, optom., 14/67-68 textile colors, 18/18 textor, r.t., 14/8 thaw, e.n., 15/37 "the helpless ones", 13/37 theatre collection, lubin, 15/37 polydyptic, 15/80-81 winter gardens, 12/16 theodore hamblin, 11/7 theory, vision, 11/15,34 therapeutics bills, 20/9 therapy, light, 17/23 theunissen, j., 14/73,106; lib 17/9-10; 18/3-4; 19/10; 20/38,40 thomas, markham, 14/26 thomin, 13/14 thompson, "big" bill, 11/66 allen, 14/50 d.e., 13/37 isaac, 13/48; 15/82 j.l., 13/48 j.w., 14/40 silvanus, 14/62; 17/67-68 thomson, a.m.w., 15/78; 16/2 j., 11/3; 17/62-70 lantern, 13/48 sir wm. 17/62-64 thorburn, m., 14/8 thorington, j., 11/30,31 thorndike, e.l., 13/40 thorner-busch refractor, 12/11 thorpe, r.b., 11/37 thread, spider, 13/43 "3-d" films, 13/66-67; 17/13 robots, 16/27 3m company, 14/94 tibbles, sydney, 14/62 tibet ophthalmal., 15/62 tice, d.l., 14/89 tilghman, justice, 16/31 tilka soc., 17/29 tillyer award, 13/51 time on contacts, 15/5-6 times, (london), 14/105 tinder, j.h., 12/65 tinius olsen sch., 12/11; 16/56 tinsmith inventor, 15/26 tinted lenses, 18/45,46 tiresias, blind, 16/46 title "doctor", 17/35 todd, w., 12/3; 19/12; 20/43 tokay wine merchants, 16/17 tokens, optician's, 12/81-84 tokugawa, 12/28; 14/97 tokyo, 12/29; 13/16 tolles, r.b., 13/80 tomaso da modena, 20/8 tompkins, p., 11/28 tone, color, 18/17 tonic convergence, 17/6-7 tonometry, 12/3,24 tonsure, 19/4 topaz family, 15/1,36 spectacles, 18/64 toric lens, 14/89 toronto tech. sch., 20/43,44 univ. of, 18/68 tortoise shell, 16/4 toscanini, a., 12/25 toshogu temple, 14/97 tower collection, 19/26 townsend, w., 13/21 trachoma, immigrant's, 19/7 trade cards, 20/27 spectacle, 20/8 trader, the, 14/22 trait~ de-fa lumiere, 13/40 transactions of aao, 13/3-7 amer. ophth. soc., 14/29-31 ophth. soc. u.k., 17/6-7 transcurve lenses, 16/16 transposition, 14/3-4 transvaal optom. ass'n., 14/73; 15/77 treasurer's report, 11/2; 12/2,21; 14/1 treatise on the eye, 11/15 treleaven, c., 17/37 trevor-roper, p., 16/27 tribal color names, 15/39-4~ cures, 12/44 trifocals, 18/21 triller, 14/8 trinity coll., 11/38; 18/59 tristan da cunha, 12/54 tritanopia, apotropaic, 14/72 trolls, 14/31-33 troncoso, m., 14/44 trophy, currie, 15/66 tropical optics, 12/52 troxler, 16/52 true, b.c., 12/59 truman, h., 13/18 truth-in-print, 12/68 trutner, t., 17/11 tschermak, a., 11/55 tscherning, m., 12/88; 14/24; 16/53; 2~/5 tschirnhaus, e.w., 17/24 tubercle bacillus, 15/8 tubesing, r., 17/46 tucker, r., 17/46 tulca, 14/92 tullis, c., 14/74 tumblin, j., 11/1; 12/1; 12/8,21; 13/1,8,1~,22; 14/1-2,37 tune, t., 12/53 tungsten filament, 16/7 tunisian stamp, 12/18 tuohy, k., 11/6,9; 13/56; 17/23,41; 18/53 turkish governor, 14/33 turner, r., 11/8; 18/49 turville; 15/43 tuttie, w., 13/2~ tutty, 19/5,31 tweedle, l.k., 12/61 21 points, 16/29; 17/6~-61; 18/23-24,55-56,66 2~/2~ magazine, 17/15 22 skiddoo, 15/59-6~ twombly, g.f., 17/22 twyman, f., 11/29; 12/77 type, boston line, 14/13 1~4 typhlosis, 13/34-35,83-84 typing, case, 18/56 tyrell, f., 14/5~ tyrol, 14/33 tyrrell, c.a., 19/13 u uebershaar, g., 14/7~; 15/39; 17/49 ueda, tatsuzo, 14/96-1~2 ufo, 18/7~ ugone da provenza, 2~/8 ultex bifocal, 14/42 ultraviolet absorbers, 14/94 effects, 17/23 protection, 17/38 ultravue lens, 16/48 umbrascopy, 11/3~ unbreakable lens co., 14/92 "unguarded hour", 12/16 union~castle line, 15/66 union list, 14/9~-91 of pure & applied phyics, 15/8 oil co., 14/6 united nations univ., 14/96 u.s. food & drug, 15/82; 17/23 house of reps., 2~/28 int. rev. service, 15/58; 18/57 interstate comm. comm. lib., 14/9~ libr. of congress, 14/91 presidents, 12/86-87 university, columbia, 13/73 inter amer. p.r., 12/25 of akron, 15/53 calif., 12/1~,72; 13/41; 15/41,5~,65; 16/2; 17/11,29,35; 18/3,4~ cordoba, 14/1~4 durban-westville, 15/78 erlangen, 2~/18 houston, 13/7~-79; 18/7 illinois, 18/1~ kentucky, 17/3-5 kiel, 18/58 london, 14/52 louisville, 12/13 manchester, 14/52-53; 18/3 melbourne, 15/83 michigan, 15/57; 16/12 minnesota, 16/12 montreal, 20/45 new so. wales, 16/29; 17/39 pennsylvania, 16/12 puget sound, 18/62 rochester, 14/16-17; 17/35; 18/68 southern calif., 16/12; 18/64 the north, 12/1; 13/1; 14/1; 15/45,78 philippines, 17/39 state of n.y., 14/13-14 toronto, 18/68 virginia, 15/76; 17/29-30, 45-46 waterloo, 12/3-5; 16/44; 17/48 witwatersrand, 15/78 ohio state, 13/77 optom. center, 12/87 rand afrikaans, 15/78 univis co., 14/92; 15/47; 16/48 uranus rings, 16/35 urine as eyewash, 19/5 urlaub, i.j., 16/3 usair, 16/4; 19/39-40 usnc/cie, 16/13,40 ussr, 16/12 utzschneider, j., 16/11; 20/18 uushona, m.m., 13/46; 14/25 uwainat, 11/13 oyama, y., 12/34,37 v valdes, daca de, 13/66; 16/34-35; 17/50 value of gifts, 16/19 van aswegen, w., 11/52 bornrnel, w., 14/71 der merwe, mrs., 17/53 gogh, v., 12/25,60; 14/11 hoven, r.c., 13/26 orden, m.e., 13/59 105 os vs. rex, 11/50 osdol, w.l., 13/34 variety, 15/37 varifocals, 17/49 varilux, 12/88; 16/47 vatican, 12/20; 15/4748,80; 18/70; 19/27 veb verlag technik, 17/44 venetian glassworkers, 18/20 venice regulations, 17/44 venus solar eclipse, 18/5 verbatim, 15/39; 19/41 verdun phenomenon, 14/76-77 verne, jules, 18/69-70 vernon refinery, 14/6 vestial virgin, 11/25 veterans, blinded, 13/12 vibrator treatment, 15/70 victor, j.r., 11/46,47; 15/18-21 victoria, queen, 11/15; 16/56; 19/24 victorian coll. of optom., 15/83; 17/51 opticians, 12/81-84 vietmeyer, n., 16/55 vinci, leonardo da, 11/55; 17/23,60; 18/58; 19/15; 20/31 vingrys, a.j.,l3/48 vinyard, r.k., 18/15 violet-ray machines, 16/60 virgin mary image, 16/57 virginia, univ. of, 15/76; 17/45; 19/34-35 virgins, vestial, 11/25 vision, 12/19 research, 14/36; 18/4 vision aids, 11/14; 17/49; 19/9; 20/17 armed forces-nrc comm., 14/106 educ. found., 16/24 effects on behavior, 16/27 extra-retinal, 18/46-48 machine (robot), 16/26-27 occupational, 14/5-6; 17/40 on stamps, 12/37 paroptic, 18/46-48 science library, 15/36; 17/31 symposium, 15/liij-13 theory, 11/34; 17/25-26 "visione, de", 211j/31 visionlink, 14/36; 18/7 visser, f., 12/611j "visual economics", 12/811j visual aids on stamps, 17/12 efficiency rating, 12/81/j-81 fields, 19/39 optics, matthiessen's, 15/76 symposia, 211j/31 science, 15/64; 17/54; 18/4,7-8; 19/42-44 dictionary, 14/77; 15/4 screening, 12/36; 14/5-6; 19/3 visually evoked response, 13/8 handicapped terminology, 13/35 vitelo, 16/61 vitreous index, 14/24 vogel, j., 13/67 vogt, a., 14/44 voigt, g., 12/58 voigtlander museum, 13/56-57 voke, j., 12/87,88; 17/54-55 volk, d., 12/78; 211j/311j volle, j.f., 15/26 voluntary convergence, 17/6-7 von daniken, e., 11/29 goethe, w., 14/76-77 graefe, a., 11/38; 19/41; 211j/!5· guericke, o., 211j/ll peczely, i., 11/47 rohr, m., 11/39; 17/511j; 18/64,71/j vossius, 13/54 vulcanite eyes, 211j/ll vurgaft, m., 12/25 w 111j6 wade, n.j., 16/54; 211j/31 wagener, c., 16/11 wagner, a., 14/89 r., 18/511j walden coll. optom. & tech., 17/3 w.d., 17/3-5 waldert, l., 14/87 waldie, w., 12/61 waldorf-astoria, 13/24 walker, j., 14/511j wall, c.f. & w., 16/31 c.h., 18/11-13 wallace, l.b., 13/25 w.c., 17/57; 19/2 walls, g.l., 12/77; 211j/5 walsh, j.w.t., 15/5; 211j/19 rita, 11/22-23; 14/8 thomas, 13/64 want, e. & h., 13/21 ward, g., 16/13 maude, 15/38 wardrop, j., 17/7 ware, j., 11/5,16,19 warren, a., 14/43 r.p., 11/68 warbinton, p., 15/77 warlmont, dr., 18/28,33 warner bros., 17/211j d.j., 17/43; 19/46; 211j/6-7 warren, f.r., 13/36 washington, b.t., 13/38 geo., 12/73; 14/78; 16/29,31; 17/43; 211j/48 martha, 16/29 optom. ass'n., 15/81-82 univ., 12/211j; 15/69; 16/1; 19/25 washington optom. today, 15/68,81 wassenaar, t., 11/52 watchmaker opticians, 12/81-84 shop, 14/9 waterloo, univ. of, 12/3-5,8; 15/83; 17/49; 211j/43 waterman, g. & r., 21/j/25-26 waterworth lecture, 11/64 watkins, m., 211j/7 watson, mrs. r., 15/4 wave theory, 16/55 wayenborgh, j., 13/uj, 55-57 "we" editorial, 15/45 weaver, w., 15/89; 16/19 webb, e.h., 19/49 weber, j., 11/47 webster dictionaries, 15/4; 18/43,59 weeks, b.a., 15/73 weigel, c., 17/42 weimar duke, 15/74 weiner, g., 11/1; 12/1; 13/1; 15/1,86; 16/39 weisz, c., 13/9 wellcome library, 14/95 weller, f.h., 15/73 wells bookstore, 13/26 h.b., 14/83 j.s., 11/38; 14/29 w.c., 19/5 wengler, p., 11/38; 14/29 werenskiold, e., 14/31-33 west, f., 12/82-83; 13/11,55 germany, 17/59 indies, 14/54 weste, b., 14/59 western ophth. eye hosp., 16/18 westfall, r.,. 12/84; 17/14 westheimer, g., 13/51; 15/21; 16/29; 19/37 weston, o., 16/31 wheatstone, c., 16/53 stereoscope, 17/21; 29/31 wheeler, b.i., 13/41 treasure, 15/65 wheelock, a., 17/55 whewell, w., 18/59 which?, 14/192 whipps cross hosp., 11/8 whitaker, o., 14/38,43 whitcomb, m., 14/196 white, j.o., 14/95 whitley council, 17/19 whitney, t., 29/48 whittaker & co., 12/6 whittier, j.g., 18/59 who was who in amer., 18/59 who's who, 18/44 197 wichterle, 0., 15/61; 17/25; 18/49,53 wick, lamp, 18/19 candle, 11/19 wiener, s., 12/61 wiesbaden lens, 29/19 wilberding, a. & h., 18/6 wilbour, c., 29/21-22 wilder, h., 11/13; 14/13,35 m.a., 14/13,35 will, g.f., 18/4 willemse, p., 15/78 william i, 16/56; ·18/28; 29/6 williams, a.m., 13/38-39 c. w., 13/79-79 h.w., 19/2 j.f., 13/9 lantern, 13/48 t.d., 15/1; 17/11,44; 19/24,39; 29/1,35 trevor, 12/86 w.r., 16/31 williamson-noble, 11/7; 16/17 willis, e., 16/23 m., 12/29 wills hosp., 16/39-32; 29/23 james, 16/39 wilson, e.c., 14/8 w.h., 15/69 wimmer, j., 11/37; 14/37-42 windle, j., 18/6 windows, 12/29; 18/18 windsor, r., 13/8 wingate, g., 11/7; 16/17 paul, 16/16 winnipeg opt. co., 29/43 winter, dale, 16/4 gardens, 12/16 winthrop, j., 15/85 wisconsin law, 11/43 univ. of, 15/8 wiseman, e., 13/3,4,6-7; 18/64 f.m., 15/26 wiser, graf, 17/16-17,44 witelo, 13/52; 19/29 wittekind, j., 16/22 witwatersrand tech. coll., 15/78 univ. of, 15/78 wizard of menlo park, 16/41 wodehouse, p., 14/75 wolseley, col., 29/44 wolfberg, m., 15/13 wolfe, d., 13/4 woll, f.a., 17/4-6,24 wollaston, w., 14/24 women in optom., 14/26-28; 15/64-65; 19/9; 29/25-26 black, 13/38-39 women's aux. i.o.a., 14/79-82 won, shi-hwan, 17/42-43 wood, c.a., 12/2 e.m., 12/11 oscar, 29/44 r.w., 12/85-86; 15/61 sir h., 12/25 woodard, h., 14/37-38,41-42 woodcock, f., 29/27 woodcut engraving, 15/42 woodland, k., 16/13 woolf refractor, 13/12 world coin news, 12/6 "world through blunted sight", 16/27 war ii, 13/17-18; 18/41 "world's eye", 12/13 fair, chicago, 14/42 paris, 13/61-65 worshipful co. spect. makers, 11/36; 14/26,46,49,51-52,62; 15/7; 17/27-28,49; 19/13,44-45; 29/31-38 worth, c., 14/55 wright, l., 11/3 chas., 11/18,38,63; 12/77; 18i37; 19/35-37 wu, kie-can, 14/192-193 wuensch, r., 15/15 wunsh, s.e., 11/23 wurdemann, h., 12/89 wurttemberg nat. lib., 29/18 wynter, harriet, 11/2 x-y 198 yale street clinic, 14/6 univ., 14/91 yamamoto, w., 18/15 yarnall, w., 16/31 year book, b.o.a., 15/27 publishers, 12/2 yearbook of ophthalmol., 12/2 pract. med., 12/2 yearbook of ophthalmol., 12/2 pract. med., 12/2 yen-ching, 11/13 yingling, les, 18/22 yolton, r.l., 13/9 york, alan, 11/54; 12/6,18,58,59,81; 13/19,13,46,54,79; 14/45; 16/22; 17/21; 18/15 yorkshire opt. soc., 13/53 young, c., 15/71,81 dwayne, 14/193 jack, 29/42 jewel, 16/25 john, 15/83,85; 16/22,26; 19/38; 29/47-48 on color, 29/12 otto, & co., 13/21 people's fellowship, 12/55 thomas, 11/18,19,29,55; 14/29,24,59,75; 16/56; 18/58; 19/15,42 w.l., 13/21 "young mother, daugher, & son", 16/7 younger lens, 16/48 yuan dynasty, 11/13 z zambia, 12/13 zamenhof, dr., 12/6 zantos, steven, 13/25 zehender, 12/89 zenith opt. co., 17/46 zeiss, carl, 15/39,59; 16/32,59,51; 17/18; 18/45,79; 29/18,22 firm, 11/6, 12/31,78; 15/7-8; 16/11,59; 18/6364 found. & museum, 12/58; 13/56; 15/7-8; 16/19 products, 16/16,48; 18/79 roderick, 16/32 zeiss-ikon museum, 13/56 zeiss werkzeitschrift, 29/22-23 zeitschrift fur instru• mentenkunde, 29/36 zenganrenme, 13/37-38 zentmayer, j., 12/8; 16/31 zentra1verband der augenoptiker, 17/42 zhejiang med. univ., 14/102 ophthal. ass'n., 14/103 ziggelaar, a., 16/59 zimmerman, g. & h., 14/27-28 zinc oxide, 19/5 zinn, j.g., 16/51,52 ziska, blind, 16/46 zone plates, 17/49 zonen, job. enschede en, 12/18 zones, ocular comfort, 13/4 zoobooks, 19/13-14 zoom lens, 16/47 zooprax i scope, 19/19 zuccaro, r.c., 14/22 zva, 18/49 zylonite eyeglasses, 12/27; 19/46 199 index-11-20-001 index-11-20-002 index-11-20-003 index-11-20-004 index-11-20-005 index-11-20-006 index-11-20-007 index-11-20-008 index-11-20-009 index-11-20-010 index-11-20-011 index-11-20-012 index-11-20-013 index-11-20-014 index-11-20-015 index-11-20-016 index-11-20-017 index-11-20-018 index-11-20-019 index-11-20-020 index-11-20-021 index-11-20-022 index-11-20-023 index-11-20-024 index-11-20-025 index-11-20-026 index-11-20-027 index-11-20-028 index-11-20-029 index-11-20-030 index-11-20-031 index-11-20-032 index-11-20-033 index-11-20-034 index-11-20-035 index-11-20-036 index-11-20-037 index-11-20-038 index-11-20-039 index-11-20-040 index-11-20-041 index-11-20-042 index-11-20-043 index-11-20-044 index-11-20-045 index-11-20-046 index-11-20-047 index-11-20-048 index-11-20-049 index-11-20-050 index-11-20-051 index-11-20-052 index-11-20-053 index-11-20-054 index-11-20-055 index-11-20-056 index-11-20-057 index-11-20-058 index-11-20-059 index-11-20-060 index-11-20-061 hindsight_55_1_final.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history 37 optometry in mississippi 1920-2020. william e. cochran. madison, mississippi: mississippi optometric association, 2021. isbn 978-0-578-98115-4. 115 pages. hardcover. this book gives a brief look at the history of the mississippi optometric association and the mississippi state board of optometry. it started with the first meeting of the mississippi optical society in may 1906 at which officers were elected. at an october 1906 meeting, the society passed a regulation that applicants would be tested on ocular anatomy, refraction, optics, and practical experience. at its next meeting in 1907, the society approved a version of an optometry practice bill, but it wouldn’t be until 1920 that an optometry practice act was passed. in 1909, the name of the society was changed to mississippi association of optometrists. in 1947, the mississippi optometric association (moa) was incorporated. in 1948, irvin mauldin, od, became the second editor and publisher of the mississippi optometrist, following j. w. rothchild, od. in 1950, the moa adopted a code of ethics which excluded “nonprofessional” optometrists from membership. in 1951, dr. david w. white became the first african american optometrist licensed in mississippi. relations with ophthalmology were very contentious through much of the history of the moa, an example being the mississippi state medical association asking the university of mississippi in 1958 to not allow optometrists from having meetings on the university campus. in 1964, mississippi adopted a regulation of 20 hours of continuing education for optometry license renewal. legislation for diagnostic pharmaceutical agent use by optometrists was introduced in 1974, and after a long struggle was passed in 1982. therapeutic pharmaceutical agent legislation was introduced in 1990 and finally passed in 1994. the book also discusses updates to the optometry law in the present century. following the passage of the optometry practice act in 1920, the mississippi state board of optometry issued 147 licenses that year. in 1929, the license renewal fee was $2. after world war ii many military veterans attended optometry school on the g. i. bill. consequently, the state board saw an increase in applicants – 91 from 1947 to 1951. in 1989, the board voted to require the national board of examiners in optometry (nbeo) examinations and the nbeo treatment and management of ocular disease examination. the 2015 year ended with 388 optometrists licensed in mississippi. the author included a chapter describing his personal experiences in optometry. his maternal grandfather, his mother, and his father were all optometrists, and he recalls going with them to optometry meetings as a child. after graduating from southern college of optometry in 1968, he served as an army optometrist for two years, after which he joined his mother in practice. he was moa president in 1977-78. he later served as president of southern college of optometry for more than two decades. the book has 30 pages of photographs, most in color, and an appendix with copies of documents, clippings from periodicals, and lists, including a list of moa presidents. book review: optometry in mississippi 1920-2020  optometry in mississippi 1920-2020. william e. cochran. madison, mississippi: mississippi optometric association, 2021. isbn 978-0578-98115-4. 115 pages. hardcover. lynn m. brandes, o.d. sharon, massachusetts lynnbrandes@comcast.net 10.14434/hindsight.v55i1.40255 book reviews david a. goss, o.d., phd hindsight: journal of optometry history 79 from the archives kirsten hebert doi: 10.14434/hindsight.v51i2.30281 preserving the afos flag in honor of the 50th anniversary of the armed forces optometric society’s founding earlier this year, the archives & museum of optometry staff used the milestone as an excuse to do some preservation work on the flag presented to the aoa in 1970 by afos’s first officers. image courtesy of the archives and museum of optometry. the 5’ by 8’ cotton dettra brand flag presented to the aoa in 1970 was flown at the capitol building in washington, d.c. it has remained folded, wrapped in butcher paper and hidden in a box for 50 years. ideally, textiles should be stored flat to reduce stress on the fibers, but most museums don’t have that kind of space. one way to properly store a large flag is to roll it around a tube made of archival board and protect it with unbuffered or buffered tissue. but first, the amo staff carefully unfolded the flag and inspected for damage, bleeding colors or insect infestation. completely unfurled and inspected, we made sure tissue was placed on top and below (interleaved) to prevent abrasion or bleeding when stored. because the flag is so large, we compromised and made a fold along a seam to reduce the length of the finished tube. once the flag was rolled, carefully beginning at the hoist end, we used unbleached cotton twill “tape” (ribbon) to secure the roll. now, the flag can be stored in archival shelving safely for many years to come! image courtesy of the archives and museum of optometry. image courtesy of the archives and museum of optometry. image courtesy of the archives and museum of optometry. 80 volume 51, number 3, july 2020 we are here when you need to rebuild. we stand ready to help in times of need so doctors can return to providing vision care for their communities. to apply for aid or to donate to the cause, please visit aoafoundation.org/ofdr. tornadoes. floods. civil unrest. hurricanes. fires. earthquakes. in 1970, the afos gift to the aoa was accompanied by framed memorandum commemorating the occasion. unfortunately, the memo was adhered to the acidic, cardboard matting. the adhesive eventually failed, but not before bleeding through and leaving residue. the acidic backing material also caused discoloration along the edges of the memo. our preservation measures included removing the memo from the frame, encapsulating in clear polyester and making a digital copy to minimize use. image courtesy of the archives and museum of optometry. from the archives kirsten hebert hindsight_54_1 final for iu scholarworks.pdf hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 54 number 1 spring 2023 hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x spring, 2023 volume 54, number 1 editor: david a. goss, od, phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: john amos, od, ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu chair lilien vogl, od drvogl@cox.net editor david a. goss, od, phd dgoss@indiana.edu members maria armandi, o.d. marmandi@salus.edu taylor babcock, o.d. tdbabcock@gmail.com linda casser, od lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, od viktoria@davismn.net w. howard mcalister, od, mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, od rimyersod@gmail.com carol parker, od drparker4564@gmail.com jennifer reilly, o.d., msc reillyj@neco.edu sara warsing swarsing28@midwestern.edu optometry cares® the aoa foundation molly brown program manager mbrown@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: dgoss@indiana.edu. ohs committee 2023 unveiling of the historical marker honoring the mcallister family optical legacy in philadelphia, august 21, 2022. the youngest mcallister family member, juniper mcallister, unveils the marker with the help of her father. the article in this issue by dr. ron ferrucci describes the cooperative efforts of ophthalmologists, opticians, optometrists, and others in making this marker possible. (image courtesy salus university) hindsight: journal of optometry history 1 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 54 number 1 spring 2023 table of contents4 10 23 news 2 editorials from the editor 3 david a. goss, o.d., phd articles the story of the historical marker honoring the 4 mcallister family ophthalmic legacy ron ferrucci, od important happenings in optometry one hundred years ago 10 david a. goss, od, phd the authorization for the original optometry 15 practice act in the state of alabama john f. amos, od, ms, dos development of optometry in taiwan 23 helen liaw, od, and george c. woo, od, phd biographical sketches george crow, o.d., pioneer in optometric 26 vision therapy david a. goss, o.d., phd book reviews israel: a foreign-born optometrist looks back 29 at his american dream lynn m. brandes, od mcallister historical marker unveiling. some 1922 aoa meeting attendees. dr. george woo. 26 dr. george crow. hindsight 56_2_final draft.pdf hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 56 number 2 fall 2025 hindsight: journal of optometry history p-issn 2374 3271 e-issn 2374-328x fall, 2025 volume 56, number 2 editor: jennifer reilly, o.d., msc new england college of optometry boston, ma 02115 reillyj@neco.edu contributing editors: david a. goss, o.d., phd school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@iu.edu john amos, o.d., ms, dos school of optometry university of alabama birmingham, al 35233 eyedoc@uab.edu optometry cares® the aoa foundation molly brown program manager mbrown@aoa.org chair lilien vogl, o.d. drvogl@cox.net editor jennifer reilly, o.d., msc reillyj@neco.edu members maria armandi, o.d. marmandi@salus.edu taylor babcock, o.d. tdbabcock@gmail.com linda casser, o.d. lcasser@salus.edu viktoria davis, o.d. viktoriadavis@gmail.com w. howard mcalister, o.d., mph mcal@umsl.edu raymond i. myers, o.d. rimyersod@gmail.com carol parker, o.d. drparker4564@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. on the cover the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 19701991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. the electronic edition and digital copies of all back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https:// scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a microsoft word document can be submitted by email to the editor: reillyj@neco.edu. ohs committee 2025 front entrance of uab school of optometry. courtesy of uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. hindsight: journal of optometry history 35 hindsight journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society volume 56 number 2 fall 2025 table of contents news 36 editorials transformational technology in optometry 37 jennifer reilly, o.d., msc articles report on blast from the past student challenge, 2025 39 viktoria davis o.d. blast from the past essay (third place), a visionary pioneer: 40 the legacy of dr. patricia bath cinthia qiu cheung, bs blast from the past video (second place), history and 41 impact of the oct jared denton, bs blast from the past presentation (first place), trailblazer in 41 low vision: dr. ian bailey monica thu do, ba a history of fluorescein angiography 42 danielle kalberer, o.d. the authorization for the establishment of a school of 44 optometry in the state of alabama – part ii john f. amos, o.d., ms, dos 44 front entrance of uab school of optometry. courtesy of uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 41 photo of dr. ian bailey from monica do's blast from the past winning presentation. hindsight journal of optometry history july, 2012 volume 43, number 3 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society for 2011 (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: irving bennett (2012), 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett23@gmail.com vice-president: john f. amos (2015) secretary-treasurer: alden norm haffner (2014) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) arol augsburger (2013) jay m. enoch (2014) morton greenspoon (2015) chuck haine (2012) alfred rosenbloom (2015) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the o an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 45 hindsight: journal of optometry history july, 2012 volume 43, number 3 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents instructions to authors………………………………………………………………………46 american optometric association complaint to the u.s. department of justice regarding activities of organized medicine in the field of vision care which hinder and restrain the profession of optometry, melvin d. wolfberg and thomas e. eichhorst……………………………………………………………………………………...47 max schapero (1921-1972), optometric practitioner, educator, and author, david a. goss……………………………………………………………………………………………58 the american optometric association congress of 1910, linda draper and irving bennett…………………………………………………………………………………………61 h.h. emsley and w.h.a. fincham, optics book authors, david a. goss………………64 miscellany, david a. goss…………………………………………………………………....67 book review: the genesis of science: how the christian middle ages launched the scientific revolution, david a. goss………………………………………………………..71 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 46 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 47 american optometric association complaint to the u.s. department of justice regarding activities of organized medicine in the field of vision care which hinder and restrain the profession of optometry melvin d. wolfberg, o.d. 648 sw andros circle, port st. lucie, fl 34986, machesic@msn.com thomas e. eichhorst, j.d., cae 5228 creighton drive, st. louis, mo 63123, eic2hs@sbcglobal.net a fascinating series of historical events that began over fifty (50) years ago has been treated as highly confidential. what is amazing in that much of the activity remained “under wraps” for so long and that this remarkable story has never been fully recounted. over the years, much has been written about the 1954 american optometric association (aoa) resolution, the american medical association (ama) misreading and over-reaction, the subsequent aoa 1955 clarification, and the 1964 filing of a lawsuit by a chicago optometrist against the ama. more recently, irving bennett, o.d., authored several excellent articles: “the 1954 american optometric association seattle resolution and medical reaction to it”1 and “the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama”.2 however, there is very little in the literature about the 63 page memorandum filed in february 1966, setting forth the aoa’s complaint against organized medicine. we have found a personal recollection many years afterward by mr. j. harold bailey, cae,3 aoa’s first executive director (1952-1977), and a recital of the events in the consummate optometricolegal history of profession by john g. classé, o.d., j.d.4 it is to record for posterity this significant endeavor that this article has been written by researching the original source documents. (author wolfberg was a trustee/officer of the american optometric association 1962-1971; author eichhorst was the aoa staff legal counsel, 1965-2002.) as the aoa special report to the membership on “aoa-ama relationships” of february 27, 1967, began by asserting that: “the aoa has always, and particularly since 1955, devoted a great deal of time, money, and manpower in its continuing efforts to improve the relationship between the optometric and medical professions.”5 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 48 . . . . “the aoa has been extremely active in its efforts to improve the position of optometry vis-à-vis organized medicine and to eliminate what it considers unreasonable restraints on the profession of optometry to the detriment of the public. these activities,because of their delicate nature, necessarily had to be conducted without fanfare or publicity.”6 the report noted that the lawsuit filed by dr. cyrus bass against the american medical association on july 24, 19647 was done without notice to or consultation with the aoa.8 the four legal minds involved in the story (left to right): harold kohn (general counsel for aoa, 1934-1968); william p. maccracken (washington counsel, 1942-1968); ellis lyons (general counsel for aoa, 1968-1994); thomas e. eichhorst (staff counsel, 1965-2002, and currently staff for the judicial council and the ethics and values committee, and parliamentarian for the house of delegates since 2009). more than five years before the filing of that lawsuit, aoa had started its consultations with expert legal counsel seeking advice on how to address the issues raised by ama resolutions 77, 78 and 79, and other discriminatory activities. in late 1958 and early 1959, the aoa had consulted mr. philip b. perlman, the former solicitor general of the united states (the federal government’s lawyer in the supreme court of the united states), and his law partner mr. ellis lyons.9 mr. perlman submitted a comprehensive report in the spring of 1959. in his report, mr. perlman counseled against a private antitrust lawsuit. a significant factor in this recommendation was the magnitude of the financial undertaking involved in such a private antitrust lawsuit.10 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 49 mr. perlman recommended instead the possibility of the filing of a complaint with the u.s. department of justice. he described the nature of the materials that needed to be obtained to support a proper submission. even this would involve the expenditure of substantial sums of money. mr. perlman’s recommendations were approved by the aoa board of trustees for action by the aoa house of delegates.11 the 1959 aoa house of delegates adopted a resolution authorizing the president of aoa to appoint a special commission to investigate thoroughly the existing relationship between the eye care professions and to make recommendations to the board of trustees. the commission and later, the aoa department of legal affairs, gathered information and materials showing the extent of the ama activities against optometry.12 on the basis of the preliminary information received, the aoa board of trustees proceeded with the research project, and in march 1964, retained mr. lyons as special counsel to study the feasibility of submitting a complaint to the u.s. department of justice. (mr. perlman had passed away.) mr. lyons developed a questionnaire to elicit information which would support such a complaint. this questionnaire was mailed on august 5, 1964, to every aoa member optometrist, the schools and colleges of optometry and other optometric organizations.13 over the next 18 months about 3,000 responses of over 100,000 pages were given careful study.14 founded on this documentation, on february 25, 1966, mr. lyons filed a 63-page memorandum with the u.s. department of justice antitrust division. it set forth aoa’s complaint against the “activities of organized medicine in the field of vision care which hinder and restrain the profession of optometry.” the memorandum includes a lengthy listing of medical transgressions which would meet the requirements for legal relief at the national level.15 excerpts [footnotes excluded] state: “optometrists from all sections of the country have informed us that since the promulgation of the ama resolutions, they rarely get their patients back from physicians to whom they have referred the patients for treatment of pathology discovered in the course of an optometric examination. when a patient is referred to an ophthalmologist for medical treatment, the optometrist usually does not see that patient again. strong anti-optometric lectures are given to the patients by the ophthalmologists about the optometrist ‘not being a doctor’ and about the dangers of trusting one’s precious vision to an optometrist, who is not qualified to help, and we have received many reports of physicians sending hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 50 patients to opticians for contact lenses rather than sending them to the trained optometrist. the conspiracy to deprive optometrists of their patients is nationwide, and optometrists throughout the country have suffered severe economic losses. “the foregoing is a general picture of the activities of organized medicine which restrict, restrain, and, indeed, tend to eliminate optometry as an independent profession competing with medicine in the field of vision care . . . . “ . . . . the legislatures of all of the states have authorized and licensed the practice of optometry as an independent profession in the health care field, and if the pursuit of that profession has affected medicine economically, it is because the laws of the land have so provided . . . . “jurisdiction under the antitrust laws appears quite clear. the department of justice has already taken the position that the practice of a profession like medicine is a trade and that a restraint imposed upon the practice of medicine may constitute a restraint of trade in violation of the antitrust laws . . . . “the interstate aspects of the conspiracy would seem clearly sufficient to support jurisdiction under the antitrust laws. the activities here involved are not limited to the confines of a single state . . . they are nationwide in scope. the activities of the american medical association and the national medical foundation for eye care are carried on all over the country, and the impact of these activities is felt by optometrists all over the country. the fact that the individual optometrist offers his services to a patient in an office building in a particular community is beside the point and does not deprive the overall conspiracy of its nationwide interstate quality. “the operations of optometric schools and colleges have been subjected to restraints and boycotts, and these schools draw their students from all over the country. optometrists, as part of their professional service, provide their patients with ophthalmic devices – eyeglasses, frames, lenses – all of which are shipped across state lines. and, as indicated from some of the situations above referred to, optometrists have been restrained in attempting to move a practice from one state to another, in offering radio broadcasts, in publishing articles in national magazines and publications, etc. . . . .” following this recital of aggrieved activities, the memorandum concludes with a fervent appeal for legal redress:16 “the foregoing material, it is submitted, discloses a situation which calls for further investigation by the department of justice, and it is respectfully requested that the department undertake an investigation of the matters referred to herein so that appropriate action may be undertaken to put an end to such activities as may be found to be unlawful.” hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 51 describing the february 28, 1966 discussions he had with officials at the department of justice, explaining the submission, mr. lyons reported to the aoa board of trustees in a memorandum, dated march 2, 1966:17 “i was asked whether we were involved anywhere in any litigation raising these antitrust issues and i was relieved to be able to answer in the negative, for i am convinced that, if we were, the department, as a matter of policy, would keep its hands off while such litigation was pending without even looking into the matter at all. i am now satisfied more than ever that our decision was sound not to have anything to do with the bass case. “i felt called upon to refer to the bass case, and i reported on its status as best i knew it; i pointed out that we were not involved and that i doubted whether the issues we were presenting would ever really be reached in bass. although i am not absolutely sure, i feel fairly certain that i convinced them that the pendency of the bass case should not prevent their consideration of our matter.” the astute attorney, mr. lyons was correct, as he received a letter dated march 9, 1966 from lewis bernstein, chief of the special litigation section of the department of justice’s antitrust division, stating that: “the memorandum and exhibits referred to in the letter which you delivered and explained to mr. edwin m. zimmerman, first assistant, and myself are being studied . . . . thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.”18 while the pendency of the bass case did not preclude the initiation of the department of justice investigation, there were real concerns that a middling settlement in that case could unduly limit the extent of any federal relief that might be offered, or possibly even preclude any such action. (this was particularly so, as the bass case was presided over by a federal district judge in chicago who prided himself by using his full name – abraham lincoln marovitz. styling himself as a skilled compromiser, the judge had a great penchant for forcing settlements to clear his docket.) the aoa report was able to declare that fortunately, however: “now for the first time since the adoption of resolutions nos. 77, 78 and 79 in 1955, there have been developments which tend to indicate some change of policy on the part of the ama in its relationship to optometry. at its june, 1966, meeting, the ama house of delegates adopted resolution no. 107, which modified its prior position set forth in resolution 77 making it ‘unethical for any doctor of medicine to teach in any school or college of optometry.’ resolution no. 107 now provides that ‘doctors of medicine may as teachers participate in the education of optometrists within the legitimate scope of optometric practice.’”19 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 52 it is indeed beneficial to the public good, and salutary to the profession, that the “legitimate scope of the optometric practice” is solely determined by the scope of practice legislation enacted by the state legislatures. who could have foretold in 1966, the monumental expansion of the rights, privileges and obligations of doctors of optometry as set forth in the state optometric laws enhanced over the years. the “aftertold” is recorded in wolfberg, m. “a profession’s commitment to increased public service: optometry’s remarkable story,” journal of the american optometric association, march 1999, 70:145-170, and in cooper, sl. “1971-2011: forty year history of scope expansion into medical eye care.” optometry, 2012; 83:64-73. (unfortunately ms. cooper’s excellent article is only available in an online version, the first month after the last print issue of optometry.) as resolution 107 spoke in positive terms, the aoa was asked to provide the department of justice with its views on whether this might not take care of optometry’s complaints against organized medicine and, if not to set forth the aoa’s views on wherein it failed to take care of optometry’s legitimate complaints. on october 28, 1966, in response to this request, mr. lyons sent an eleven page letter to the department setting forth the aoa views on the deficiencies of resolution no. 107 and pointing out that, even if the resolution were broadly interpreted, it fell “far short of eliminating the other restraints, boycotts and restrictions complained about” in the earlier aoa presentation.20 mr. lyons concludes his letter, by noting: “we appreciate that good will and good relationships cannot be achieved by mere decree alone. but the elimination of restrictive and repressive resolutions can create a climate in which good will and good relationships can develop and flourish. if the individual medical practitioner were not under the threat and fear of being declared ‘unethical’ by his own profession when he had any professional contact with an optometrist, we believe that optometrists would have no complaint and the general public would, thereby, be greatly served. “to accomplish this, it seems to us that, at the very least, resolutions 77, 78 and 79 and related rulings, etc., should be rescinded . . . .”21 one example of the softening of the positions of the ama during this process, concerns the employment of optometrists by medical doctors. the ama journal of september 3, 1960 reported: “a ruling that it is unethical for a medical doctor to hire an optometrist as an assistant, ‘if the optometrist is held out to the public or to the doctor’s patient as a doctor of optometry or as a licensed optometrist.’ employment of an optometrist as an assistant is permissible only so long as the optometrist is held out as a faceless assistant, and the public is not permitted to know that he is a licensed optometrist….”22 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 53 this harsh, demeaning and dehumanizing depiction of that employment situation was later described in more neutral terms in the ama news of december 26, 1966, as follows:23 “optometry is not a cult and an ophthalmologist may employ an optometrist to assist him, provided the optometrist is identified as an optometrist and not as a doctor of medicine, the judicial council of the american medical association said. “the council said, however, the ophthalmologist has an ethical responsibility to take affirmative measures to make sure patients will not be given the impression the optometrist is also a doctor of medicine.” the executive committee of the american optometric association board of trustees met at the o’hare inn in chicago, illinois on may 6-7, 1967. the minutes for may 6, 1967 read as follows: “the meeting of the executive committee was called to order by president [dr. melvin b.] dunbar, at 8:00 p.m. present were drs. dunbar, [president-elect john g.] sugg, [vice president henry w.] hofstetter, [secretary-treasurer melvin d.] wolfberg, and messrs. [general counsel harold] kohn and [administrative director j. harold] bailey. “dr. cyrus bass, chicago, illinois, appeared before the executive committee at his request. he presented his views of the bass vs. ama case. he had three requests to make of the aoa board of trustees. these were: 1) that aoa establish a ‘policing commission’ to gather information on discrimination by physicians against optometrists, collate the information, and forward it to judge marovitz or to any other district court for contempt of court proceedings in keeping with the final decision rendered by judge marovitz in his case. 2) that he be permitted to appear before the aoa house of delegates in portland to plead his need for financial assistance. he indicated that his total expenses on the lawsuit had amounted to about $50,000 and at the present time he was $43,000 short. 3) he would like to have aoa spearhead a campaign to raise funds to pay off his debts. “dr. bass was asked to write a letter to president dunbar setting forth his requests along with an itemized statement of expenses. he was advised that his letter would be given full consideration.” “the executive committee recessed at 10:00 p.m.” dr. wolfberg recalls that his specific assigned responsibility at the meeting was to review the information that dr. bass brought to the meeting. he remembers that he was greatly surprised that the “documentation” consisted solely of copies of dr. bass’ hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 54 federal tax returns for several years. thus, in retrospect, it was a fortunate happenstance that this case was concluded by this particularly forceful judge at a very early stage. just days later, on may 11, 1967, judge marovitz issued his order that by “stipulation of the plaintiffs and the defendants,” that “this case be, and it is hereby dismissed with prejudice [that it can’t be brought again], each party to bear its own costs.” the memorandum opinion noted that: “the court does recognize that a problem existed and the plaintiffs’ efforts in this case have contributed to bring these issues into focus . . . .”24 judge marovitz stated: “resolution no. 107, adopted by the [ama] house of delegates last june, and the two rulings of the judicial council in november, 1966, all of which have been widely circulated to ama’s members, effectively resolve the basic issues which the court understands constitute the gravamen of plaintiff’s complaint. these actions by the ama comport with the suggestions made by the court and are a great step forward in enhancing continued improvement of relationships between the medical profession and optometrists . . . .”25 the court concluded: “there are no winners or losers in this type of a disposition but the public and the professions gain by the mutual respect and regard in which the great medical profession and optometrists are held. “during our discussion, the court’s attention was called to the fact that other organizations – not party litigants – were interested in taking steps toward clarifying the situation and for their interest, we express our appreciation. . . .”26 in commenting on the dismissal order, melvin b. dunbar, o.d., president of the american optometric association, said: “judge marovitz has expressed what has been our belief from the beginning … that this private lawsuit was not the way to settle interprofessional problems. the american optometric association has worked diligently in the past, and will continue to do so in the future, to improve the relations between optometry and medicine for the benefit of the public welfare.”27 after the dismissal of the bass case, the aoa continued in discussions with the department of justice. aoa general counsel harold kohn and special counsel ellis lyons renewed contact with their legal counterparts at the ama. the purpose of the meetings was “to determine what additional action the ama could or would take to help remove the basis for much of the medically-enforced discrimination against optometry.28 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 55 in discussions with the attorneys for ama, the internal politics of that organization was noted, indicating the difficulties involved in passing actions that looked favorably toward optometry. when asked about how resolution 107 passed, the ama attorney “smiled and stated that we knew darned well why they took that action, and they were not referring to judge marovitz alone.”29 the aoa persisted in seeking clarification, and the ultimate elimination of the ban on “voluntary associations” between m.d.s and o.d.s, and any other specific discriminatory statement.30 for instance, mr. lyons directly queried the ama judicial council, asking: “is it unethical for a doctor of medicine to refer his patient to a qualified optometrist solely for optometric care?”31 the ama responded: “it is the opinion of the judicial council that a doctor of medicine may refer his patient to a qualified and ethical optometrist solely for optometric care.”32 a number of articles have appeared over the years which infer that the bass case was largely responsible for the actions taken by the ama to correct discrimination against optometry. clearly that is not the case. the aoa course of action of seeking u.s. department of justice assistance in eliminating the discrimination was a prudent, although time-consuming process. in retrospect, a logical assumption is that both the bass case and the u.s. department of justice activities must have created serious concerns within the american medical association. how much, or how little, impact each had remains a question for debate. likening the totality of the legal actions to an iceberg, the bass case was the public, visible aspects of the entire effort. what is important, though, is that this article contributes to an accurate rendition of these milestones in the history of the optometric profession. acknowledgments and personal post-scripts tee: our thanks to linda draper, heritage services specialist, (who has just retired after 39 years of dedicated service of preserving the history of the profession) for her outstanding research assistance; and to pat mcmahon and sally meyer of administrative services for their skilled efforts. mdw: working with my friend and co-author tom eichhorst has been a pleasant trip down memory lane. in addition, it is important, i believe, to acknowledge some of the heroes of this chapter of optometry’s history. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 56 first and foremost, credit must go to attorney philip perlman and aoa’s highlyeffective legal team of special counsel ellis lyons, general counsel harold kohn, washington counsel william maccracken and staff counsel thomas eichhorst. their sage legal advice was wisely heeded by successive boards of trustees. with calm resolve, the aoa leadership persevered, keeping the confidentiality and not yielding to impetuous commentary or action. also, to executive director j. harold bailey and his aoa staff who provided strong administrative support over the many years the process took place. and, to the thousands of optometrists who responded overwhelmingly with documentation, which provided the necessary foundation for the successful request for legal action. finally, the profession of optometry is deeply appreciative of the united states department of justice for instituting its investigation and the resultant curtailment of efforts of organized medicine in the field of vision care which had hindered and restrained the profession of optometry. references 1. bennett i. the 1954 american optometric association seattle resolution and medical reaction to it. hindsight: j optom hist 2011; 42:102-105. 2. bennett i. the lawsuit of optometrist cyrus bass versus the ama. hindsight: j optom hist 2012; 43:2-4. 3. bailey jh. carel c koch memorial lecture: the four eyed man. am j optom physiol opt 1983; 6:421-424. 4. classe jg. legal aspects of optometry. butterworths, 1989: 17, 18, 36. 5. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967: 1. 6. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967: 6-7. 7. classé jg. legal aspects of optometry. butterworths, 1989: 36. 8. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967. 9. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967. 10. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967:2. 11. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967:3. 12. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967. 13. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967:4. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 57 14. proceedings of the american optometric association house of delegates. 1967: 217. 15. lyons e. memorandum to the u.s. department of justice. february 23, 1966: 57-62. 16. lyons e. memorandum to the u.s. department of justice. february 23, 1966: 62-63. 17. lyons e. memorandum to the aoa board of trustees. march 2, 1966: 3. 18. bernstein l. letter to ellis lyons. march 9, 1966. 19. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967: 5. 20. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967: 6. 21. lyons e. letter to homer hanscom, esq., u.s. department of justice. october 28, 1966: 10-11. 22. american optometric association. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967: 6 23. aoa-ama relationships: a special report. february 27, 1967. 24. marovitz al. memorandum opinion. april 28, 1967: 9. 25. marovitz al. memorandum opinion. april 28, 1967: 9. 26. marovitz al. memorandum opinion. april 28, 1967: 10. 27. american optometric association. news release. may 11, 1967: 2. 28. lyons e. memorandum for the officers and trustees of the aoa. september 21, 1967: 1. 29. lyons e. memorandum for the officers and trustees of the aoa. september 21, 1967: 2. 30. lyons e. memorandum for the officers and trustees of the aoa. december 8, 1967: 3-6. 31. lyons e. letter to ama judicial counsel. november 13, 1967. 32. american medical association judicial council opinion. november 25, 1967. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 58 max schapero (1921-1972), optometric practitioner, educator, and author david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract max schapero was an accomplished optometric educator. he was co-editor of the first two editions of dictionary of visual science and the author of a textbook on amblyopia. this paper gives a biographical sketch and brief descriptions of his books. key words: optometry books, optometry dictionaries, optometry history, southern california college of optometry max schapero (1921-1972) earned b.s. and o.d. degrees from los angeles college of optometry.1 he joined the faculty of los angeles college of optometry (which would become known later as southern california college of optometry) upon his graduation in 1949, and continued on the faculty there to his death in 1972.2 he was director of the school’s orthoptic clinic from 1953 to 1966. schapero also practiced optometry for a period of time, sharing offices with his wife, dorothea, who was an ophthalmologist.3 schapero was a fellow of the american academy of optometry and served as the chairman of its section on binocular vision and perception.4 he was a diplomate of the academy’s section on contact lenses.5 he served the academy in several other roles, including being a member of the editorial council of the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry. in 1963, schapero received the outstanding achievement award from the alumni association of the los angeles college of optometry. in 1972, the american academy of optometry established the max schapero memorial lecture, recognizing a person who has made significant contributions to the cornea and contact lens field.6 schapero was co-editor of two editions of the dictionary of visual science and the author of a textbook, amblyopia. both books are among the 40 books receiving multiple nominations in a survey on the most important twentieth century optometry books.7 the third edition of the dictionary of visual science, published after schapero’s death, was dedicated to him. the co-editors stated that schapero’s “many accomplishments in research and teaching, as well as in the writing of numerous articles and the book amblyopia, published just prior to his death, would have been remarkable for a strong, healthy person. max schapero, however, in his short lifespan was never without pain, suffering from arthritis and an intestinal ailment from childhood. only his family and a few close associates knew of his poor health and even they never hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 59 heard a complaint from him.”8 it was also observed in an obituary that schapero’s “soundness of knowledge and enthusiasm for optometry were assets of inestimable value to his college and to optometric education in general.”3 dictionary of visual science max schapero recognized the need for an optometry and vision science dictionary early in his career and worked with two co-editors to make such a dictionary a reality. the editors of the first two editions of the dictionary of visual science were max schapero, david cline, and henry hofstetter. the first edition (785 pages) was published in 1960 and the second edition (804 pages) in 1968. for the first edition, the editors wrote and accumulated definitions over a number of years, including definitions from 61 contributors. the first edition contained definitions of over 13,000 terms. for the second edition, some definitions were revised and new terms were added. reviews of both editions were very positive.9-12 one review called the first edition “an immensely significant contribution to the field of optometry and to the whole field of visual science.”9 another review says that the “listings contained are quite comprehensive and are a credit to the perspicacity and judgment of the editing team.”10 a review of the second edition called it “an eminently useful book.”12 evidence of the usefulness of the dictionary comes from the fact that it has continued into a fifth edition.13-15 amblyopia i can recall reading schapero’s book amblyopia soon after my graduation from optometry school and thinking that it was the best organized, most clearly written optometry book that i had read at that point in time, while still being very informative. it was published in 1971. its 305 pages were organized into four parts. the first part provided an introduction to visual acuity and fixation. part ii described categories, epidemiology, and characteristics of amblyopia. the third and fourth parts covered diagnostic and training procedures, respectively. the information on treatment included more than 20 pages on occlusion and more than 60 pages on active training. my positive assessment of the book was corroborated by several reviewers.16-18 one complimented schapero for “careful, documented, professional treatment of his subject.”16 another review called it “very easy reading,…a thorough insight to the development and understanding of the many characteristics of the mechanism and incidences of amblyopia.”17 it was also described as a “welcome addition to the optometrist’s library.”18 references 1. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:307. 2. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:473-487. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 60 3. hirsch mj, weiner g. max schapero 1921-1972. am j optom arch am acad optom 1973;50:67-69. 4. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:86. 5. about the author. in: schapero m. amblyopia. philadelphia: chilton, 1971. 6. www.aaopt.org/about/awards/section/. accessed june 17, 2012. 7. goss da, penisten dk. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight 2004;35:36-40. 8. cline d, hofstetter hw, griffin jr. dictionary of visual science, 3rd ed. radnor, pa: chilton, 1980:[v]. 9. weiner g. book review: dictionary of visual science. am j optom arch am acad optom 1960;37:547-548. 10. friedberg es. book review: dictionary of visual science. j am optom assoc 1961;32:460. 11. hirsch mj. the optometrists’ bookshelf. am j optom arch am acad optom 1969;46:299-302. 12. russakoff p. book reviews. j am optom assoc 1970;41:186-187. 13. cline d, hofstetter hw, griffin jr. dictionary of visual science, 3rd ed. radnor, pa: chilton, 1980. 14. cline d, hofstetter hw, griffin jr. dictionary of visual science, 4th ed. radnor, pa: chilton, 1989. 15. hofstetter hw, griffin jr, berman ms, everson rw. dictionary of visual science and related clinical terms, 5th ed. boston: butterworth-heinemann, 2000. 16. hirsch mj. the optometrists’ bookshelf. am j optom arch am acad optom 1971:48:1041-1043. 17. milkie gm. book review: amblyopia. j am optom assoc 1972;43:92. 18. layland b. book review: amblyopia. australian j optom 1972;55:153. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 61 the american optometric association congress of 1910 linda draper special collections librarian (recently retired), archives & museum of optometry, american optometric association, 243 n. lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141 irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett23@gmail.com a little over one hundred years ago, the aoa’s 13th annual convention was held at the breakers hotel, cedar point, ohio. estimated attendance was 310. cedar point boasted of having the largest and most modern hotels on the great lakes, and the seven-mile bathing beach was considered to be the finest in the world. in fact, the splendid surf bathing proved a great attraction. it was difficult to keep members at lectures inside the hotel. due to the august heat, the meeting finally adjourned to the open in a grove of cedar trees. there were more ladies at this meeting than at any previous one, and the canadian contingent was stronger than usual. rooms at the breakers were $1.00$1.50 per person, per day. scientific sessions were popular as always, and the program included practical talks related to the business or commercial side of optometry. the exhibit hall was called a “marvel of beauty as well as a showhouse of useful and new things that every delegate was glad to see.” souvenirs were abundant. ambiance aside, the meeting had somber and serious tones due primarily because the american medical association meeting in st. louis the year before (1909) had adopted a resolution “instructing its officers to begin at once the prosecution of nonmedical refractionists and endeavor to obtain supreme court decisions interpreting the practice of optometry as a violation of the medical practice act.” at the 1910 convention, according to gregg,1 president h .j. cook advanced proposals to “promote a universal uplift of the profession, primarily aimed toward the ultimate goal of an optometry law in every state.” cook advanced certain action proposals that are as valid today as they were 100 years ago: “a committee on statistics. to make an annual report in tabulated form showing number of refractionists, types of practice, and such things. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 62 “strengthen the organization. to develop concrete evidence of the usefulness of the national society and to demonstrate its right to exist. “a publicity committee. to make it known that optometry is as distinctly special as dentistry, law or the gospel. “uniformity of state boards.to develop a comprehensive syllabus with uniform examination conditions. “a lecture bureau. to place good optometric speakers at all educational gatherings.”1 by 1910 the association had 6,500 paid members and 24 states had optometry laws. discussion at the convention was that the national association should take a more active and aggressive part on behalf of new optometry laws. up to this time the burden and frustration of the work had fallen almost altogether on the state societies, and there was a feeling that the national association should lend a hand. the association was growing. a new delegated system of representation at convention seemed advisable to assure fair deliberations and a resolution was passed to establish it. it was voiced that physicians and the general public were misinformed about optometry. charles prentice’s phrase “a lens is not a pill” was taken up as a slogan, and at this 1910 convention button-hole lapel pins were worn by “one and all” with that slogan. the announcement of the establishment of a course in optometry at columbia university was met with much jubilation as it was a big step for recognition of the profession. cedar point, ohio is known in optical history as the place at which the american association of opticians changed its name to the american optical association, changed again in 1919 to the american optometric association. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 63 the 1910 convention was notable for the good fellowship and harmony that prevailed. those attending the salt lake city convention in 1911 would find a different spirit.2 reference 1. gregg jr. american optometric association – a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:46-47. 2. bennett i. women on the american optometric association board. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:3-5. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 64 h.h. emsley and w.h.a. fincham, optics book authors david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract h.h. emsley (1890-1972) and walter h.a. fincham (1889-1977) were long time instructors of optometry students at northampton polytechnic institute in england. this paper provides brief biographical sketches of each and discusses the commonly used optics books that they wrote. key words: optics books, optometric education, optometry books, optometry history. harold heaton emsley (1890-1972) h.h. emsley was born at yorkshire, england and earned a b.sc. in engineering at age 19.1 after spending some time in the united states, canada, and india, he was employed in research and development at barr and stroud, an optical engineering firm in glasgow. during world war i, he was manager of the infantry range-finder assembly department at barr and stroud.2 in 1919, emsley was appointed head of the technical optics department of northampton polytechnic institute (now known as city university london), where he taught optometry students.3 emsley retired from teaching in 1947, but he continued working for a number of years as a consultant to optical and instrument companies.2 hardy said that: “emsley’s strength was as an organizer and as an expositor. his technical writing reached a high standard; accurate, lucid, well constructed.”2 emsley published several significant books. in 1921, he and william swaine published a english translation from german of the theory of modern optical instruments by alexander gleichen (365 pages). it covered general optics, telescopes, stereoscopes, range finders, microscopes, photographic lenses, ophthalmic optics, and related topics. in 1928, emsley and swaine published ophthalmic lenses. i examined a copy of the second edition, published in 1932 (338 pages). in the preface, the authors stated that the book was an outgrowth of their lectures at northampton polytechnic institute (emsley) and at west ham municipal college (swaine). part i of the book contained material that they characterized as being related to everyday clinical practice: spherical spectacle lenses, astigmatic lenses, prisms, lens decentration, bifocals, protective lenses, optical dispensing, and lens surfacing. they noted that part ii contained material of interest to manufacturers and persons in the optical industry: lens form and thickness, image formation, aberrations, spectacle lens design, relation of binocular vision to spectacle lenses, and other types of lenses. subsequent editions were published in 1935, 1940, 1946, and 1951, followed by a two volume revision of the book hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 65 by arthur g. bennett in 1968. a review of the first edition said that it was “a valuable contribution to ophthalmic science” and that it “fills a gap in ophthalmic literature.”4 after its six editions, it was referred to as “a standard classic in the field of optometry.”5 in 1936, emsley published the first edition of his well-known book, visual optics. later editions were published in 1939, 1944, 1946, and 1952-53. i examined copies of the fourth and fifth editions. topics in the fourth edition (647 pages) were introduction to the visual system, retinal imagery, visual acuity, refractive errors, accommodation and convergence, ophthalmoscopy, retinoscopy, keratometry, binocular vision, heterophoria, space perception and aniseikonia, anisometropia, schematic eyes, ocular aberrations, and entoptic phenomena. the fifth edition was split into two volumes and information on color vision and other areas of sensory aspects of vision were added. emsley’s visual optics was an authoritative book with much information applicable to clinical practice. it was one of forty books receiving multiple nominations in a survey on most important twentieth century optometry books.6 emsley also wrote factory costing and organisation(with john loxham, 1924, 1939, 1947), aberrations of thin lenses: an elementary treatment for technicians and students (1956, 352 pages) and emsley’s optical tables and data (1968, 231 pages). in the preface to aberrations of thin lenses: an elementary treatment for technicians and students, emsley stated that the book was written for applications in the factory and laboratory and to help students bridge the gap between geometrical optics and problems of optical design. emsley’s optical tables and data was a reference book with tables, formulas, and information divided into categories of weights and measures, mathematics, optics, and ophthalmics. it included a section comparing optical terms in english, french, and german. walter henry angel fincham (1889-1977) walter fincham was born at islington, greater london, england.7 in 1904, he became a junior assistant in the optical workshop at northampton polytechnic institute in london. he continued working there until 1950, with an interruption during world war i working on optical munitions.8 in 1911, he passed the examinations of the worshipful company of spectacle makers. in 1919, he was appointed lecturer and demonstrator in the applied optics department at northampton polytechnic institute. r. fletcher, a former student, complimented fincham for “his genial and painstaking instruction” and for “his inspiration, clarity and kindness.”8 walter fincham was a bachelor and for many years lived with his brother edgar.8 edgar f. fincham (1893-1963) was also on the staff at northampton polytechnic institute for many years (1919-1950), and then from 1950 to 1961, he was the head of the research department in ophthalmic optics at the institute of ophthalmology in london.9,10 edgar fincham did extensive research on accommodation and on the interactions of accommodation and convergence. several generations of optometry students have been familiar with walter fincham’s optics book. optics was first published in 1934, with subsequent editions by hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 66 fincham in 1936, 1939, 1942, 1945, 1951, 1954, and 1965. an eighth edition by fincham and m.h. freeman appeared in 1974. additional updates of the book have followed, the most recent being the 11th edition in 2003 by m.h. freeman, c.c. hull, and w.n. charman. a review of the first edition (462 pages) claimed that it was “the most complete and comprehensive textbook written on this subject.”11 a review of the eighth edition stated that the book has been “demonstrated to be a classic.”12 it was among the forty books nominated multiple times for being one of the most important twentieth century optometry books.6 walter and edgar fincham were collectors of books on the eye and optics. their books were willed to the city university london. titles in the collection dated from the 16th through the 20th centuries and included books by scheiner, descartes, molyneux, newton, robert smith, benjamin martin, george adams, huygens, brewster, donders, landolt, tscherning, and others.13,14 references 1. crundall ej. the skipper – h.h. emsley in retirement. 1972; optician 163(4222):33. 2. fincham wh, hardy we, binstead hc, swaine w, fletcher rj, bennett ag. harold heaton emsley. optician 1972;163(4231):32-33. 3. the college of optometrists. london the northampton institute and city university.http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/knowledgecentre/museyeum/online_exhibitions/students_past/london.cfm. accessed july 8, 2012. 4. kurtz ji. book review: ophthalmic lenses. am j optom 1929;6:373-374. 5. hirsch mj. the optometrists’ bookshelf. am j optom arch am acad optom1969;46:299-300. 6. goss da, penisten dk. most important 20th century optometry books. hindsight 2004;35:36-40. 7. ancestry.com. 8. champness r, stockwell h, fletcher r. walter fincham, cstj, mphil, fsmc. optician 1977;173(4470):7. 9. obituary: edgar frank fincham, 1893-1963. br j ophthalmol 1964;48:120. 10. duke-elder s, abrams d. ophthalmic optics and refraction. vol. v in: dukeelder s, ed. system of ophthalmology. st. louis: mosby, 1970:159-161. 11. kurtz ji. book review: optics. am j optom 1934;11:196-197. 12. hirsch mj. the optometrists’ bookshelf. am j optom physiol opt 1975;52:358-363. 13. teague sj. the walter fincham optics collection.the city university (london) library, 1977. 14. voke j. the walter fincham optical book collection. ophthalmic optician 1981;21:434,436. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 67 miscellany david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu hatfields, mccoys, and coleman hatfield, o.d. earlier this year the history television channel aired a mini-series on the hatfields and mccoys. one of the descendents of the hatfields of west virginia was an optometrist named coleman caldwell hatfield (1926-2008) who wrote two books about the hatfield and mccoy feud, the feuding hatfields and mccoys, with f. keith davis, and tale of the devil – the biography of devil anse hatfield, with robert y. spence. according to the website of the publisher woodland press, they were used as resource material for the history channel mini-series.1 coleman hatfield was a great-grandson of anderson “devil anse” hatfield, who was portrayed by kevin costner in the history channel program, and a grandson of cap hatfield, who was also prominent in the program.1 coleman hatfield attended concord college.2 he graduated from illinois college of optometry in 1967.3 he practiced optometry in chicago, illinois and logan, west virginia, and for a period of time was an instructor at illinois college of optometry. in logan, west virginia, he practiced with his daughter, arabel e. hatfield.2,4 his son, r. mark hatfield, a retinal surgeon, also spent some time in that office.4 coleman hatfield served as a president of the west virginia optometric association. he authored a book entitled visual training: the joy of optometry, published by the optometric extension program (1977, 1990). he was a fellow of the american academy of optometry, a fellow of the college of optometrists in vision development, and a member of the examination board for fellowship in the college of optometrists in vision development.4 fremont f. ellis (1897-1985) another recent television program led to an additional optometry history research foray. on antiques roadshow, someone had brought in a painting which the expert identified as being painted by fremont ellis. he went on to say that ellis had briefly practiced optometry before turning to painting full-time. a search for information about ellis led me to a 122 page biography.5 fremont f. ellis was born october 2, 1897 in virginia city, montana. his father was a dentist who traveled to do dental work in remote areas in montana. his father then got into mining, training a horse to do tricks in fairs, running a movie theater, and other enterprises. the family moved very frequently, and lived at times in various regions of the united states. the only time fremont was in one place long enough to receive formal schooling was to attend first grade. he was otherwise taught by his parents. he was said to have learned about artistic aspects of light and color from his hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 68 mother who designed hats. at 12 and 13 years of age, he did photographic work and sold portraits. fremont ellis’s interest in art began when he visited the metropolitan museum of art in new york city at about 13 years of age. he then read everything he could about art and artists and tried to duplicate paintings from memory. he also attended the art student’s league for three months when he was 14 years old. when fremont ellis was in his late teens, his mother suggested that he should learn another skill besides painting. according to the biography, ellis “went to los angeles for a nine month optometry course, but after eight months he left because he felt he had learned enough about refractions to make prescription glasses.” (p. 37) however, james gregg’s history of the southern california college of optometry lists f.f. ellis as a 1917 graduate of the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and optometry, and he is included in the photograph of the march, 1917 class.6 according to the biography, ellis set up practice in el paso, texas. (i was unable to find him in el paso in the 1918 or 1920 blue book of optometrists) after his own practice failed, he worked for a short period of time for another optometrist. by then ellis was making some money from his painting. by 1920, he had given up optometry and moved to santa fe, new mexico. in santa fe, he met some other painters, who, with him, became known as los cinco pintores (the five painters). he lived in or near santa fe most of the rest of his life. ellis became especially well known for his landscape paintings. he continued painting until shortly before his death in 1985 at 87 years of age, completing more than two thousand paintings. the biography lists twelve museums in the west and southwest where his paintings are displayed. article on ernest edmund maddox the 2009 issue of the american orthoptic journal contained an article on e.e. maddox.7 the article describes maddox’s family life and professional career and achievements. he was born in england in 1860. he attended the university of edinburgh and studied medicine there, receiving the m.d. degree in 1889. he became a fellow of the royal college of surgeons, edinburgh in 1894. the author of the article says that maddox “became well known for his clinical acumen and surgical skills. he was greatly esteemed by his colleagues and loved by his patients, who sought his care from across the world.” (p. 104) the author identified maddox’s main interest as strabismus, but noted that he was also very interested in optics. maddox was greatly concerned with the accuracy and fit of glasses and “placed much emphasis on correct placement of optical centers, measurement of interpupillary distances (measured monocularly and summated), and correct frame position.” (p. 106) maddox did orthoptics for strabismus, and he was often assisted by his daughter mary, who subsequently started her own practice as an orthoptist. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 69 topics of maddox’s published papers included accommodation and convergence, refractive procedure, astigmatism, and ocular surgery. he received several awards for his writings. his books were clinical use of prisms and the decentering of lenses, tests and studies of the ocular muscles, and golden rules of refraction, each of which went to multiple editions. maddox is known for his component classification of convergence and for devising several tests and instruments, among which were the maddox tangent scale, maddox wing, cheiroscope, and maddox rod. he died in 1933, at 73 years of age. article on civil war spectacles an interesting and informative article entitled “history on your face – common spectacle styles before, during and after the civil war, 1835-1870,” by alan r. mcbrayer and thomas f. valenza, is available online at: www.historiceyewearcompany.com/historiceyewear/files/onyourfacefinal2-2.pdf. the authors define spectacles as eyeglass frames that include temples. during the period from 1835 to 1870, spectacles were widely available and basic types did not change greatly. most vision aids in north america were imported from england and europe prior to the war of 1812, but after that manufacture in the united sates increased greatly. most lenses from 1835 to 1870 were glass. clear quartz crystals, known as pebbles, were also used and were harder, but were much more expensive. most spectacle lenses were oval in shape. the next most common shapes were oblong and octagon shapes. there were four main types of spectacle temples during this period of time: (1) sliding temples, temples which could be reduced to a shorter length for storage; (2) ladies’ temples or single joint temples, straight temples that extended past the ears; (3) pivot or turnpin temples, temples with a second piece that could be turned on a pivot; (4) single wire curl or hook temples, that wrapped around the back of the ear. mass production of spectacles in the united states began in about 1860. new developments in spectacles were slow during the civil war and the years leading up to it. there were 29 u.s. patents relating to spectacles in the five years after the civil war compared to 22 patents in the thirty-five years before it. there are documented cases of spectacle wear by civil war soldiers. it is also known that spectacles were used by older officers such as generals robert e. lee and george meade. this 18 page article contains many diagrams and photographs of spectacles and cases. references 1. www.woodland.com. accessed june 3, 2012. 2. www.ancestry.com. coleman caldwell hatfield obituary. charleston newspapers, january 16, 2008. accessed june 3, 2012. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 70 3. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:146. 4. hatfield c. visual training: the joy of optometry, rev. ed. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program foundation, 1990. 5. foster bs, ellis be. fremont f. ellis: last of los cinco pintores of santa fe. santa fe, nm: sunstone press, 2010. 6. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern california college of optometry, 1984:33,512. 7. roper-hall g. historical vignette: ernest edmund maddox (1860-1933): master surgeon, inventor, and investigator. am orthoptic j 2009;59:103-110. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 71 book review: the genesis of science: how the christian middle ages launched the scientific revolution the genesis of science: how the christian middle ages launched the scientific revolution. james hannam. washington, dc: regnery publishing, 2011. xxiii + 454 pages. isbn: 978-1-59698-155-3. hardcover, $29.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu james hannam, who holds a ph.d. in the history of science, presents evidence in this book to show that, contrary to popular belief, the middle ages was a time of scientific and technological progress. as a prime illustration, he noted that spectacles were invented in medieval europe. he describes other many developments with narratives on unheralded scholars responsible for those advances. among the better known medieval scholars were robert grosseteste (c.11701253) and roger bacon (1214-1292), theologians who wrote significant works in natural philosophy, as science was then known. optics was among the topics about which they both wrote. grosseteste believed that “understanding light would also tell him something important about god.” (p. 143) bacon, whose work came late enough after grosseteste’s that arabic and greek books on science had become available in latin, “produced an impressive synthesis of all the advances up until his time” in the science of light. (pp. 142-143) other thirteenth century philosophers who studied optics, or “perspective” as it was known at the time, were john peckham, archbishop of canterbury, and polish theologian witelo. spectacles were invented in the late thirteenth century. hannam states: “spectacles meant that monks and other scholars could continue working even after their eyesight began to deteriorate with age….mechanical clocks started to tick in england and italy at about the same time. these inventions catapulted medieval europe into first place in the race to become the most technologically advanced civilization on earth.” (p. 146) one of the lesser known natural philosophers discussed by hannam was thomas bradwardine (c.1290-1349). he was one of the scholars at merton college of oxford known as the merton calculators. the author credits bradwardine with showing that mathematics was a vital part of scientific work rather than being a separate discipline from science. hannam suggested that the middle age church was important for scientific advance. he notes that universities were the main scientific institutions in the middle hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2012, volume 43, number 3, page 72 ages and they were supported by the church. he writes: “the popular image of the medieval church as a monolithic institution opposing any sort of scientific speculation is clearly inaccurate. natural philosophy had proven itself useful and worth supporting. it is hard to imagine how any philosophy at all would have taken place if the churchsponsored universities had not provided a home for it. but the price of having a rich sponsor is having to bend to their interests and avoid subjects that they find controversial….[natural philosophers] were free to speculate as much as they pleased as long as they avoided religious controversy.” (p.190) johann gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in the mid fifteenth century was mentioned by the author as a world changing advance. he noted that works of fourteenth century natural philosophers were among the first printed books. that included books by john buridan (c.1300-c.1358), who speculated about the rotation of the earth; nicole oresme (c.1325-1382), who pioneered the application of graphs to physical problems; william heytesbury (c.1313-1373), who was first to record the mean speed theorem describing motion of an object under uniform acceleration, as with gravity; and albert of saxony (c.1316-1390), who diagrammed the curved path of projectiles. though these persons and other medieval natural philosophers are relatively unknown today, they set the stage for more recognizable scientists, such as kepler and galileo. hannam noted that johannes kepler (1571-1630) solved “two of the greatest scientific problems of the middle ages” – planetary motion and ocular imagery. the title of one of kepler’s books on optics contained the phrase “supplements to witelo.” hannam writes: “in putting witelo’s name in the title of his book on optics, kepler was not afraid to admit to his sources. the same cannot be said for his contemporary galileo galilei. his achievements were just as great as kepler’s, but galileo was a great deal more circumspect about where he was getting his ideas…” (p. 302) galileo brought together work of medieval natural philosophers, discarded parts that were incorrect, and made corrections and advancements with experimentation. kepler and galileo made previous work obsolete, but that previous work made their achievements possible. hannam notes that another contribution of the medieval natural philosophers was “to make modern science even conceivable. they made science safe in a christian context, showed how it could be useful, and constructed a worldview where it made sense.” (p. 342) the book includes a timeline, a “list of key characters” that serves as a sort of biographical glossary, reference notes, and a bibliography. i found the book to be interesting and informative while providing new perspectives on the development of science. ohsfrontcover hindsight43-3 74 volume 48, number 3, july 2017 article lester caplan, od, med erratum: “i” to eye – 66 years of optometry through the eyes of a clinician, educator, administrator, consultant and public health optometrist lester caplan, od, med school of optometry, university of alabama at birmingham baltoeyedoc@mac.com editor’s note: the last page of dr. caplan’s article in the january, 2017 issue of hindsight was inadvertently omitted in the final version published in hindsight. the last page is presented here starting from the heading on the previous page. our apologies to dr. caplan for this omission. the profession 1994-2013 – changes in optometry during these years were not nearly as dramatic as those which had occurred over the previous 45 years, but there were still some major transformations. the number of women going into the profession grew substantially. when i was in optometry school, there were 3 women in my class and over 250 men. by the late 90’s, women had outnumbered men in many of the schools of optometry and within another generation or two, there will be more female optometrists than male. the introduction of new high tech, sophisticated diagnostic instruments, which started back in the 70’s with the auto-refractors and programmed perimeters continued at a rapid pace. retinal imaging and corneal topography instruments became the latest tools for improved diagnosis, treatment and management of ocular anomalies. the solo practice mode, the keystone of the practice of optometry when i started in 1950 was gradually fading from the scene. the cost of furnishing, equipping and running a solo practice had become so astronomical that it was no longer feasible to be a solo practitioner. many private practices were purchased by ophthalmology and optometry group practices, referral centers and multidisciplinary practices. optometry school graduates now had multitude choices of employment, very few of which were available in the earlier days. a good percentage of graduates choose to pursue a one-year residency for post-graduate work in primary and specialty areas in optometry. this placed them in a much more favorable position for employment in optometric education, or for positions in the veterans administration and referral centers. the v.a., the military, and the indian health service offered career oriented opportunities, with good pay and excellent fringe benefits. commercial entities offered high paying positions and opportunities to work part-time, especially for the many whose priorities, while they are still young, were raising a family. in 1994, the aoa published the first series of optometric clinical practice guidelines (ocpgs). they combined the best available current scientific evidence and research with expert clinical opinion to recommend appropriate steps in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of patients with various eye and vision conditions. a total of 20 ocpgs were published over the next couple of 1994 optometric clinical practice guideline on amblyopia. hindsight: journal of optometry history 75 the kentucky college of optometry at the university of pikeville welcomed its first class in the fall of 2016. article lester caplan, od, med years. dr. john amos, as chair of the clinical guidelines coordinating committee, was the guiding force behind this major endeavor. review with revisions are continuous. four new schools of optometry opened their doors in the twentyfirst century: western university of health sciences school of optometry, midwestern university of health sciences college of optometry, university of the incarnate word rosenberg school of optometry (uiwrso) in 2010, and the massachusetts college of pharmacy and health sciences college of optometry. midwestern university will be opening a college of optometry at its downers grove campus in 2016 and new colleges of optometry are expected to open in kentucky and west virginia in the next couple of years. on july 1, 2008, pco became salus university, consisting of four colleges: pennsylvania college of optometry; george s. osborne college of audiology; college of education and rehabilitation; and college of health sciences. ln 2013, at the 109-year-old southern california college of optometry, marshall b. ketchum university was established and named in ketchum’s honor to recognize his dedication to developing inter-professional education. the first program to be added was the school of physician assistant studies, which opened in 2014. conclusion. before ending this 66year journey of my years in optometry, i would like to close with a tribute to those who made optometry what it is today. this is my personal opinion and does not take into account those individuals whose equally important contributions to the profession, either took place before i became actively involved in the profession or after i was actively involved, or those whom i never had the opportunity to get to know on a more personal level. so for those whom i failed to list, i do apologize, as i am sure their contributions are as significant as the many whom i have mentioned. my four leading “game changers” for optometry in the past 66 years are dr. henry b. peters, dr. a. norman haffner, dr. irvin borish and internationally, dr. brien holden. the following are those whom i was fortunate to interact with in one way or another and whom i consider the “other great ones” who made a difference in my life and for our profession. the names are without the dr. title or their degrees since i wanted them listed as they are or were known to me. john amos, arol augsburger, bill baldwin, jimmy bartlett, irv bennett, jim boucher, joan exford, ron fair, dave hansen, michael harris, dick hopping, don korb, richard lippman, jerry lowther, bob mandell, ed marshall, charlie mullen, bob newcomb, al rosenbloom, jack runninger, mel shipp, mort silverman, rod tahran, john townsend, satya verma, rick weisbarth, john whitener, brad wild, siu wong, and stan yamane. references 1. caplan l. early history of the association of optometric contact lens educators 1974 – 1998. aocle newsletter 1997, 1998. hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 16 hindsight_48_3_full_nobleed 17 hindsight journal of optometry history january, 2009 volume 40, number 1 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society: president: irving bennett, 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett@juno.com vice-president: chuck haine secretary-treasurer: bridget kowalczyk, american optometric association, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: jerry abrams jay m. enoch douglas k. penisten melvin wolfberg the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2009 volume 40, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley .edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, penisten@nsuok.edu table of contents ohs news .................................................................................................... 2 75th anniversary of the stiles-crawford effect(s): a celebratory special symposium, october 23, 2008; rochester, new york, jay m. enoch and vasudevan lakshminarayanan ...... .................................................................................... 3 johannes amos comenius (1592-1670) and his depiction of lenses and spectacles in the first children's picture book, david a. goss ................................................. 25 origin of optometry at cardiff university, michel mil/odot .................................... .. 29 optometry field magazine, an early twentieth century periodical, david a. goss .... 33 optometry's "leading society" celebrates its 1001h year: notes on the western pennsylvania optometric society, irving bennett ................................................ 37 book review: the beginnings of western science: the european scientific tradition in philosophical, religious and institutional context, from prehistory to a.d. 1450, jay m. enoch ........................................................................................................ 40 book review: spectrum of belief: joseph von fraunhofer and the craft of precision optics, david a. goss ................................................................................... 41 book review: spectacles, lorgnettes and monocles, david a. goss ..................... .43 instructions to authors .................................................................................. 44 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for a regular personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email address or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page i ohs news officers and board members for 2009 irving bennett and chuck haine have been elected to four year terms on the ohs board. bridget kowalczyk will complete the unexpired term of walter chase, who is ill. the board members have completed election of officers among themselves. listed below are the ohs executive board members and the officers for 2009. the year of expiration of each board member's term is given in parentheses. president.. ..................... irving bennett (2012) vice-president. ............... chuck haine (2012) secretary-treasurer. ........ bridget kowalczyk (201 0) trustees ........................ jerry abrams (2009) jay enoch (201 0) doug penisten (2011) melvin wolfberg (2009) nominations to fill board positions expiring at the end of 2009 the terms of board members jerry abrams and melvin wolfberg will expire at the end of this year. melvin wolfberg has asked to not be re-elected to the board. please submit your nominations for these two board positions by june 15, 2009 to: david a. goss, hindsight editor school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 fax: (812) 855-8664 email: dgoss@indiana.edu ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. self nominations are welcome and encouraged. dues notice a dues notice has been enclosed with this issue of hindsight: journal of optometry history. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 2 75th anniversary of the stiles-crawford effect(s): a celebratory special symposium, october 23, 2008; rochester, new york jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d., dr.s sci. (h.c.) professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu vasudevan "vengu" lakshminarayanan, ph.d. professor of optometry, physics, and electrical engineering, school of optometry, university of waterloo, waterloo , ontario n2v 2v8, canada, vengu@uwaterloo.ca> abstract there are rather few articles which, so-to-speak, serve to change the landscape in a scientific field. one of those was the discovery of the "directional sensitivity of the retina" by walter stanley stiles and brian hewson crawford (first reported in 1933). subsequently, their findings were subdivided by hansen into two logical components, "the stiles-crawford effects of the first and second kinds, (sce-1 and sce-2)." the former (sce-1) dealt with aspects of their research which addressed alterations in perceived brightness of a visual stimulus; the second (sce-2) was associated with the perceived hue and saturation of these visual stimuli. these discoveries arose out of a failed attempt by ws. stiles and b. h. crawford to measure properly the areas of the entrance pupils of their experimental subjects as part of a research program which addressed problems of glare, e.g., disability glare, in illuminating engineering. their research was conducted at the national physical laboratory (npl), which is located in teddington, middlesex, england. these two fine scientists properly deduced the reason for the failure of their experimental design, and they effectively described and defined a new feature of the visual system which was largely ascribed to the retina. in time, it was realized that this phenomenon was associated in large measure with the waveguide/fiber-optics properties of photoreceptors, and that this was a feature shared by virtually all vertebrate species. this paper is divided into two parts. in the first part, enoch describes, as best he can, the culture and working conditions at npl during 1959/60 when he served as a post-doctoral fellow with w s. stiles. and in the second part of this paper, the authors describe the findings of w s. ·stiles and b. h. crawford at the time of their discovery. today, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of that research. the organizing committee for this program (alphabetically) is david atchison, jay m. enoch, vasudevan lakshminarayanan, and pieter walraven. our group of speakers today will follow with discussions of aspects of subsequent work which has evolved from the initial discoveries made by the late ws. stiles and b.h. crawford. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 3 introduction today, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of research conducted by walter stanley stiles and brian hewson crawford. the report of this research appeared in the proceedings of the royal society of london in 1933.1 subsequently, their discovery became known as the stiles-crawford effect of the first kind (sce-1 ). some years after this research had been reported, the speaker had opportunity to serve as a post­ doctoral fellow (in 1959-1960) with walter "stanley" stiles at the national physical laboratory (npl). this fine institution is located in teddington, middlesex, u.k., and lies within "bushy park", the large royal preserve attached to hampton court palace. hampton court palace is located a bit upstream from the teddington locks on the thames river. while at that laboratory, jme also had opportunity to get to know quite well brian h. crawford, james m. burch, frank j.j. clarke, david a. palmer, and quite a number of others at npl. there, he also had opportunity to meet the then npl director g.b.b.m. sutherland as well as john guild. guild was then quite elderly and retired. guild's npl colorimetric data coupled with contributions made by w.o. wright played an important role in the development of the c.i.e. standard color matching data for vj.... while in england, jay and mrs. enoch were invited by stanley stiles to attend a meeting at the royal institution in london and to hear prof. f.z. young speak. he described and demonstrated the experiments of thomas young (that is, he used the original apparatuses of his forebear thomas young, who had been associated with the royal institution). separately, several times, enoch visited the laboratories and libraries at the institute of ophthalmology in london where he met sir stewart duke-elder, robert weale, katherine tansley, h. dartnall, etc. he also had opportunity to visit with profs. arnold sorsby and hamilton hartridge at the royal college of surgeons. subsequently, and to his surprise, hartridge kindly willed his card and reprint files to enoch (these maintained and updated materials now reside in the library of the elite school of optometry, a unit of the sankara nethralaya, chennai, tamil nadu, india). at city university in london, jme came to know prof. robert fletcher, then director, and a number of his faculty. during two extended visits to the cambridge university physiological laboratories, he met and interacted with sir bryan h. c. matthews, alan l. hodgkin, fergus campbell, giles brindley, horace barlow, etc. (note, william rushton was not in residence at the time). jme also visited with w.o. wright at imperial college, and r.w. ditchburn and d. h. fender at the university of redding. clearly, this was a period of time when quite a number of physicists and visual scientists in great britain were active in colorimetry, lighting research, radiometry and photometry, as well as in other aspects of visual psychophysics and physiology. and there were quite a number of additional distinguished scholars active in studies of the physiology of vision. these individuals brought very special skills to their research, and this, in turn, enriched interdisciplinary, or what today might be termed translational research. in general, one might argue that this time period was "golden" for vision science in england! jme was very lucky to have had an opportunity to meet many members of this fine, active, and then dominant scientific group. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 4 thus, jme was in residence in teddington roughly 26/27 years after the initial discovery of sce-1. sadly, few of the other students and scientists remain who had opportunity to work early on this and related topics with stanley stiles and/or brian crawford at teddington. jme hopes some of them are here today! in early september, 1959, as enoch left washington university in st. louis to travel to teddington to start his post-doctoral fellowship at the national physical laboratory, he was handed his just-delivered work permit. in that document, he had been appointed a "consultant to her majesty's government". when he arrived with his family in southampton, as is appropriate, he presented their passports and documents to the immigration officer. this officer took one look at jme's work permit as a "consultant to her majesty's government", and said to him, "cor! blimey! what god­ dammed fool is coming here to work for this god-dammed government!" thus, properly-chastened, jme, his wife, and their then two children, aged 2 and 4, arrived in england. with his family settled-into a residence on cambridge street in teddington, jme remembers walking daily through this still shrapnel-scarred town (this was about 15 years after wwii) to report for work at the national physical laboratory. on his first day at work, stanley stiles graciously received him into his office (which he was to share), but indicated he had to submit an urgent report that day, and asked jme to introduce himself to the several individuals working at the light division of npl. he did so, and at one point came to the laboratory of a gentleman with short-cropped white hair who was seated at his desk. before jme could introduce himself, he turned to jme and said, "how is it that you didn't come to work with me?" enoch said, "sir, may i ask, who you are?" he responded, "i am crawford." enoch replied, "am i not to work with you?" thus, enoch learned (sadly) that stiles and crawford were not the close partners they had been in earlier years. so-saying, both of these gentlemen were extremely kind to him (and his family) in fact, they could not have been nicer! he learned a great deal from them both, and became close friends with them and their families. walter stanley stiles was one of a number of individuals named walter stiles in his family (5 are cited). hence, family and friends came to call him by his middle name, "stanley". mathew alpern wrote the biographical memoir of stiles for the royal society of london.2•3 there he discusses stiles' family and their history. his older sister, grace etheridge, stated to mat, "they were of yeoman stock, and had qualities of honesty of purpose which people of the times seemed to possess." stiles' dad retired at age 54 after a career spent in the metropolitan police. he died at the age of 101! jme met stiles' dad on 2 or 3 occasions when he visited stanley stiles at his office. his dad was then well into his 90's (had jme known that then, he would not have believed it!). his dad was taller than stanley, and was well­ built, with ample white hair. he remembers that he had very large and very strong hands, and seemed quite athletic. enoch could readily appreciate the reference to "yeoman stock" mentioned by stiles' sister. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 5 the npl experience was quite incredible. in his introductory memorial to walter stanley stiles presented at the stiles-wyszecki memorial symposium on color vision models, held in 1987, mathew alpern3 commented upon first seeing stiles' npl trichromator, "my first impression of this elegant instrument was so memorable, that 25 years later i devoted a sabbatical year to experiments on its canadian off-spring".3 westheimer called it the "cyclotron of vision research".3 jme was equally impressed and overwhelmed, and he truly valued the extraordinary opportunity given to him which allowed him to reassemble a good bit of the instrument (2 tiers), to align, and to recalibrate this remarkable three-tier instrument while he was in residence at the national physical laboratory figs. 1 ,2. skills learned in these highly demanding activities benefited the writer throughout his entire research career. when this task was completed, he was to work both at length as experimenter and subject on this remarkable device in joint studies with stiles.5 this device had been used for color matches for 2° and 1 0° field diameter standard observer measurements, for determination of stiles' two color increment threshold "rr" functions, for sce-1 measurements (of white light, and monochromatic light stimuli, and sce-2 hue and saturation data). fig. 1 is a schematic of the optical plan for the three tiers of the npl trichromator.4 fig. 2 shows the optical changes made to two tiers of this instrument for stiles' and enoch's research on the stiles-crawford effects sce-1 and sce-2 (see below).5 enoch had never even heard of a near-two-story-high, enclosed optical device for vision testing. the only other self-enclosed stand-alone equipment or test rooms jme had encountered were the chambers used for dark adaptation and other studies in selig hecht's laboratory at columbia university, and they were of modest size. although quite different in complexity and application, he suspects one might place "leaf-rooms" designed by adelbert ames and co-workers at the dartmouth eye institute (and the distorted rooms employed there as well) in the same general category. the latter were used for testing and correcting aniseikonia and for educating individuals as to the spatial distortions encountered in aniseikonia. the basement of the building housing the light division at npl contained an enormous assembly of large wet-cell batteries forever being recharged and maintained by a team of scurrying technicians. each research laboratory in the light division was assigned a private bank of batteries to power test lamps employed. on the main floor, there was a giant switch-board (really a switch-wall) which each morning could be reached by available tall rolling step-ladders. into an assigned porthole, one inserted a large cone-shaped solid metal connecter with an insulated knob handle. this served to open one's designated circuit (and this circuit was closed again at night by removing same). after making this connection, one went upstairs to one's laboratory to close a private, giant knife-switch which would then deliver the desired power to one's lamps in the laboratory. the stability and accuracy of these circuits was just extraordinary! hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 6 ~----=--=::.::..-----·· . . ----. ------···----------.... ._ ......... ____ -------figure 1. isometric sketch of npl trichromator. figure 1. the npl trichromator: this drawing provides the reader with some idea of the optical layout of the three tiers of this remarkable instrument. the double monochromators are readily visible on each tier. the beams are bought together for viewing at the level of the middle tier. each tier has associated with it a separate well controlled lamp, and an independent balanced glass neutral density wedge was provided for each selected portion of the spectrum on each tier. the scales are read and adjusted to the desired calibrated value. note, lamps were replaced on a regular schedule, that is, they were replaced before they exhibited even modest instability. all data were readily read out by the technician who sets up the experiment for the subject. the head/eye location of the subject is held at the appropriate location by a bite bar/head-rest assembly. observer position, pupil size, etc. were monitored/adjusted and recorded repeatedly. (this figure is reproduced with the permission of the physical society of london. it is taken from w.s. stiles' thomas young oration.4) many, but not all, optical units used at npl were designed and built in-house. in the case of the "npl trichromator", 4•5 this included the double monochromators in each of three tiers. the light division had their own stock of glass from various batches/melts, each with defined features (index, dispersion, etc.). a team of design personnel would come in to aid scientists design lenses, prisms, lens/component holders, attachments, etc., as requested. these designs then were fabricated in-house. these fine products provided excellent control of aberrations and image quality. one could not help but be impressed! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... januwy, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 7 vc-ri•co i !t«l ion thf'ou9h x x normal to the main ray path~ i i !x (a) -~-j-...;--l--§'<.->--~----1>-i i ':j..::r ---~;-. ~ .... 0 l2 d1 ~ ll i i i _______ [__ __]_l/1 __ 1.47 -~ -----~---i tlor ----1 ---1 --------fimi trt-i<jf collimators. uit lfib post nit slit collimators • figure 3. diagrams showing adaptation of trichromator for directional colour-change measurements. figure 2. the npl trichromator: specific optical modifications made to the npl trichromator for the purposes of measuring the sce-1 and sce-2 in 1959 for the research ofw.s. stiles and j.m. enoch.5 also see fig. 8, below. (this figure is reproduced with the permisson of the surviving author, and the publishers ofopticaacta.5) separately, the superb spectrometer, microscope, camera, and precision turntable with which jme was provided at npl were commercial products. he used these to study the then remarkable single and double fiber optics elements with cladding which were provided to him by drs. elias snitzer and harold osterberg of the then american optical corporation in southbridge, massachusetts. the ratio of the index of refraction of these optical fibers and the index of their cladding was similar to the index ratio values encountered in vertebrate photoreceptors relative to their interstial matrix. the diameters (not lengths) of these fibers were also similar to those encountered in vertebrate photoreceptors.6•7 based upon these detailed studies, enoch knew exactly what to examine when he returned to st. louis and applied similar techniques to the study of vertebrate retinal receptors as fiber optics elements and waveguides (including study of human retinas).7-12 some years ago, one of our vision scientists (well-intentioned no doubt!) claimed in a paper that he had built the finest-ever stiles-crawford device! jme has never have known how to respond to this statement. none (few?) of us has had available such hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 8 resources as existed at npl, and our nih budgets did not let us build comparable devices. i and others (including this gentleman) have tried to do our very best, but the services offered, and the quality of products provided at npl was just of a different class than that which has been available to most all of the rest of us. so saying, jme was particularly blessed to have been associated with first class instrument­ makers/machinists and electronics engineers at each of his posts. at npl enoch learned that fine optical-system-alignment is both a true art as well as a science, and it required great patience, perseverance, and dedication. the standards to which we were held in alignment and precision at npl were such that, at times, jme found that he had to excuse himself, in order to relieve tension, so that he might continue to function properly. one rather interesting feature of stiles' laboratory was the bite-bar-file-drawer in the laboratory where the "npl trichromator" was located. each bite bar of each subject was retained, it was "carefully filed away", properly labeled, and cleaned regularly with great care. stiles deliberated as to placement of these individual bite bars within his collection. it was a veritable "who's who of vision science". as a relatively young scientist (then age 31), jme was most proud of his bite bar being located between george wald's and deane b. judd's. one assigned task was drilling a precise x-y grid of screw holes in a two inch thick sheet of steel. these plates had origin as spares for one of britain's battleships during wwii. today, almost everyone uses this sort of optical benches, but they are not two inches thick, and they are not made of case-hardened steel. so saying, the job was done, and jme's shoulders ached for weeks. this was his first exposure to this sort of optical bench, and difficult as it was, he must admit, he was much impressed by this form of base upon which to build optical instruments (in comparison to the rods or triangular structures widely used at that time). in stark contrast to all of the above, some of the support services provided at npl were, at best, rudimentary. there was no stapler, rather we were each given a common tailor's pin to make a hole, and short pieces of thread or yarn were provided to pass though (or be pushed through) the pinhole in order to join/tie two (or more) pieces of paper together. pencils were sharpened with a razor blade. and one used ink wells and pens with disposable pen-points. paper provided to most of us was unlined, yellowed with age, and rather brittle ... only the most senior people received lined paper! etc. walter stanley stiles and brian hewson crawford; the directional sensitivity of the retina walter stanley stiles, june 15, 1901december 15, 1985: stanley was london born, and he was the youngest of two children. his dad worked for the metropolitan police. clearly, there were only limited resources for stanley's education. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 9 when one reads alpern's biographical sketch(es) of w.s. stiles for the royal society,2•3 one senses that stiles was searching to find the right path for his future career. stiles had great mathematical facility. mat alpern made a key point in his writings, " ... without the advantage of education at one of the great english public schools which nurtured his country's scientific and intellectual elite, and largely not recognized throughout his working life, he nonetheless changed the face of color science as only a few of his predecessors managed."2•3 stiles' contributions were broad, and he received a number of honors, and justly so! figure 3 is a fine portrait ofw.s. stiles.2 figure 3. walter stanley stiles, ph.d., f.r.s., o.b.e. june 15, 1901dec. 15, 1985. (photograph of walter stanley stiles taken by photographer walter bird, 1960. this photograph is reproduced with perrnisson of the royal society. it appeared in the memoirs of fellows of the royal society 34: 816-885, 1988.) hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 10 giles brindley, in his book on the retina, 13 selected stiles as his model for a class a scientist. stiles' precision, attention to detail, careful formulations, and his approach to research were exemplary, and in the classic style. the results were elegant. so saying, brindley's definition of a class a scientist did not necessarily imply best, or that this form or research was the preferred format; rather, brindley argued that there was more than one approach to answering scientific questions. in this same context, hans goldmann's paper proving the sce-1 was largely retinal in origin 14 is an excellent example of brindley's type b category of research. 13 for the graduate student, it is indeed worth seeking an understanding of these differences in experimental design, methodology, and procedure in scientific studies. 13·14 working in stiles' office for that year, jme came to appreciate how very thorough stiles was in his approach to questions asked. the care taken in analyses, his clear search for the right and definitive path in his experiments and quantitative solutions, were just exemplary. brian hewson crawford, march 26, 1909may 5, 1991: brian crawford was an only child whose father died early in his life. brian was educated at john lyons lower school at harrow, and university college, london. he became a physicist and spent much of his professional life at npl. he worked there from 1927 (apparently starting at age 18!) until september 30, 1966. after retirement from npl, he was associated for a number of years with the conservation department of the national gallery of art; he taught color science and conducted research at the u. of edinburgh; he was affiliated with the paint research association; with imperial college, london, and with the institute of ophthalmology, london. brian was unquestionably a first-rate scientist, and a hard and diligent worker! he was awarded the newton medal of the colour group. figure 4 is a good portrait of b. h. crawford. after joining npl, crawford's career was linked for many years to that of stanley stiles (who was about 8 years older than him). together they worked on a variety of research associated with lighting, glare, etc., before their landmark research on sce-1, and sce-2.1 separately, in 1947, crawford published in proc. roy. soc. lond., an important paper on the visual "onset" of a luminous stimulus which is known variously as either "the crawford effect", or "crawford masking". jme first encountered this phenomenon in 1953 when he was conducting research with robert boynton which examined glare and the effects of a displaced glare source upon increment thresholds measured at a distance (a few degrees) from that source. both onset and offset of the glare stimulus were considered. 15•16 when making such determinations, initially, it appears as if the sensitivity of the visual system is affected before the onset of a light source! this is not some intuitive appreciation of an impending stimulus, or a change in stimulus; rather, this is due to the relatively rapid transmission of onset-of-stimulus-data to the central nervous system where it is detected in advance of more steady state response(s). a rather similar phenomenon is also detected prior to the offset of a luminous stimulus. 15•16 crawford also provided valuable research on the definition of v11'. the cie scotopic spectral response function. when jme was at npl, brian was performing very interesting studies on color rendering, which was a major interest of his. dr. david palmer of npl prepared a fine obituary of brian crawford.17 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 11 figure 4. brian hewson crawford, ph.d. march 26, 19091991. (this photograph of crawford was kindly provided by dr. pieter walraven, the netherlands. dr. crawford served at npl from 1927 to september 30, 1966.) in the first section of this paper (above), the speaker sought to give a sense of the atmosphere and culture at npl where stiles and crawford made their landmark discoveries.1.4·5•18-20 obviously, jme was not at n.p.l. in 1933; i.e., rather, as noted, he arrived in 1959. in 1933, stiles and crawford were then involved in conducting research and setting standards associated with requirements of illuminating engineering.1 as part of their research program, stiles and crawford designed a rather simple and straight-forward pupillometer to determine the area of an observer's entrance pupil. 1 the observer viewed a bipartite field (the outer boundary of which was limited by aperture "d" in fig. sa top). one beam (forming the upper portion of the bipartite field) passed through the center of the observer's entrance pupil (a maxwellian view system design was used for this beam; it subtended 1.5 em. diameter in the entrance pupil of the observer's eye), and the second beam of uniform irradiance in the plane of the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 12 entrance pupil of the eye was self-limited by the observer's eye pupil (this is the beam having origin in fig. sa .at the ~palescent diffusing glass "o:· ~~rmo.unted by the right­ angle prism (top drawtng of ftg. s, or sa). [note 1.: the dtvtdtng hne between the two hemi-fields fields was formed by the upper edge of the right angle prism ("prism", located near the center of the instrument in the top of fig. sa. note 2.: in figure sb (middle of fig. s), the diffusing opalescent glass is designated as d.] one assumes the experimenter viewed the subject's eye ("e" in fig. sa, top) through the 40 em. open-top­ area of the device. this device just didn't work as predicted! stiles and crawford had expected/predicted that all parts of the eye pupil contributed equally to the perceived brightness of the lower hemi-field. "it appeared that even when the pupil was fully extended and had a diameter of about 8 mm, the value derived by the above method never exceeded s.s mm."1 and, "after all conceivable instrumental errors had been investigated, it was concluded that the discrepancy was due to the fact that the apparent brightness of an object is not proportional to the pupil area because the rays entering the pupil at points distant from the axis are not so effective visually as rays entering along or near to the axis."1 a quantitative study of the effect was then undertaken, and for this purpose, at some point in time, the pupillometer shown in fig. s was superceded by a second device, with maxwellian fields being used for both beams." see fig. 6. the second instrument used by stiles and crawford employed a classical two­ path or "two-armed" maxwellian-beam-system to define and to maintain control over each of the two required test fields. a single light source was employed. they used a chopper to alternate between these two fields in order to allow the observer to make a suitable flicker match between the two stimuli. they point out that this device can be employed either for making flicker matches of the two fields (as shown in the fig. 6), or for use as a bipartite field matching device ("equality of brightness method") as shown at the bottom of fig. s, with a modest alteration(s) in the design. note, in fig. 6, apertures a1 and a2 are focused in the entrance pupil of the eye. for example, the location of aperture a2 can be translated away from the center of the observer's entrance pupil. the field stops are apertures 0 1 and 0 2, are designed to be conjugate with the retina. the paired double diffusers (01 and 0 3), and (02 and 0 4) provide near uniform luminous fields for each of the two light paths. the surfaces of 0 3 and 0 4 represent the locations of the effective light source for each of these two light paths. the image of small aperture a1 is centered in the entrance pupil of the eye at all times during the experiment. aperture a2 can be translated in the entrance pupil plane of the eye to test what has been termed "the directional sensitivity of the retina," or the stiles­ crawford effect of the first kind (sce-1 ).1 both horizontal and vertical translations were possible/made. in order to obtain a match by either method, the luminance of this field can be assessed by adjusting the density of the neutral density wedge (w). note, one assumes these capable scientists used a balanced neutral density wedge. that is, balanced neutral density glass wedges were employed for each individual-beam-path in the npl trichromator (figs. 1,2.). hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 13 walter stanley stiles 827 between two fields; the light reaching the retina from one of these depended upon the area of the pupil (a), whereas the light reaching the retina from the other was independent of a. figure 1 at the top illustrates the final ''ersion of this instrument developed and used by stiles & crawford (22). light from the source diffused bl the opal glass 0 was reflected by the prism to fill the hole e in the centre of which the subject's pupil was centred. from this same source, light illuminated a ground glass, a variable attenuator neutral wedge w and the small circular aperture stop p. the lens formed an image of i' 1.5 mm in diameter in the plane of the subject's entrance pupil (so that the lens is seen filled with light in 1\·iaxwellian view). if the diameter of the subject'$ pupil is at least 1.5 mm, all the light in this second path is collected by the eye. the two homogeneous fields (below on the left) are divided by the edge of the prism: the brightness of the upper field is independent of, and thut of the lower field is dependent upon, the area of the subject's pupil (a). the subject adjusts the transmissivity setting t of the variable wedge w for a w ~ g~-·~ "' ~h :e 0~---~h· (c) r (<l) fwces l photometric pupillometer. top: actual teet:ion; (o) fidd suhdivt.ion; (b) r•y di~gram; •c) ray di&gtflrn for travtraefi. (repl"()duc~d, ":ith permistthm, from &i. p,fmj., 0~, 33, 676489 (1939) .,,d a••· r. coli. s.•g. 311, 73-101 (1962).) (20, 40. 89). " figure 5. this illustration was taken from the 1933 published paper by w.s. stiles and b.h. crawford. 1 the pupillometer designed by these two scientists is shown. measurements of entrance pupil area provided by this device were incorrect. w.s. stiles' and b.h. crawford's proper interpretation ofthese data led to the formulation of the "directional sensitivity of the retina", later known as the stilescrawford effect ofthe first kind (sce-1)?1 (permission to reproduce this figure has been received from the royal society of london.) hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 14 figure 6. this figure shows the design of the first instrument used to make determinations of sce-1. it was also taken from the 1933 paper. 1 this was a dual-path maxwellian view device. as configured, it provides alternate exposure for each of the two light paths; this makes possible a flicker photometric method of matching the perceived brightnesses of the two channels. (permission to reproduce this figure has been received from the royal society of london.) dr. w.s. duke-elder of the institute of ophthalmology, london, recommended that stiles and crawford employ the mydriatic, euthalmine hydrochloride (this mydriatic only very weakly affects accommodation of the observer). 1 jme notes stiles used this same mydriatic when he was in residence at n.p.l. in 1959-1960.5 jme, in turn, used it for many years in his laboratory. it is not clear whether this pharmaceutical agent is still available? that is, some years later, it became very hard to obtain this agent (in the 1980s, it was only possible to obtain this formulation at a single pharmacy in san jose in the san francisco bay area). other pharmaceutical mydriatic agents were satisfactorily substituted. the first sce-1 data sets presented in their manuscript were obtained from the eyes of brian crawford (these comprise fig. 4, stiles &crawford, 1933), 1 [please see fig. 7, this paper]. the results in the horizontal meridian in each of brian crawford's two eyes presented in fig. 7 were remarkably similar, but data obtained in b.h.c.'s vertical meridians did differ somewhat. knowing these two investigators well, more than one data set was included here, or at least they satisfied themselves as to the near identity of these data with other data obtained previously. these were extremely careful investigators, and they no doubt reflected the existing culture at npl we will not repeat the contents of the remainder of the 1933 paper here. rather, we urge the reader to peruse the whole as it is a landmark contribution to vision science. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 15 ~~~ ~ -r·-7 p\ i ·9 ·---if x )( ·8 l t'l. i \ • •7 ~ ~i \ i -~ ~ ·6 !f -·' ~ [1 0 ~ ·5 . /. _\ ·4: lt.j ~ ·4 ~ v\ .... ~ ~ --' -·(;! ....., " "" ~ ·2 -}:: -!i'~ j a:; ·i -· -----· t--·-·· ··nasa ~ 7e:j b.por.t" '-os 4 .3 i 0 i 2 j 4 .. point of entry of beam_ din mh . fm. 4.-horizonta.l traverse, subject b.h.c. 0 right eye; x left eye. figure 7. these are the first set of sce-1 data included in the 1933 paper. 1 data were obtained from the right and left eyes of subject b.h. crawford. note, the abscissa here defines the locations of the moveable test beam in the entrance pupil ofb.h.c.'s eyes for nasal and temporal settings of that imaged aperture-stop relative to the center of the entrance pupils of each of his two eyes. thus, one set of these data were reversed (left-right) relative to the other one. crawford's data in the vertical direction were not quite the same in the two eyes. (permission to reproduce this figure has been received from the royal society of london.) before proceeding, it is important to make a point about reading the classic papers of these two fine gentlemen, particularly papers by stiles. in one sense, one can think of them as "multi-layered". each individual, by taking some time, can come to appreciate their content. yet, if one puts these papers aside for a bit of time, then re­ reads them, one finds there is far more content than was appreciated during the first reading. if one re-reads these manuscripts again a year or so later, one appreciates added points, etc. that is, these papers seem to grow with time, and with one's own maturity in dealing with the subject at hand. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 16 in general, seminal papers defining the stiles-crawford effect of the first kind (sce-1) and the stiles-crawford effect of the second kind (sce-2) were the following: walter stanley stiles, brian hewson crawford. the luminous efficiency of rays entering the eye pupil at different points. proc roy soc lond b 1933;112: 428-450. (sce-1)1 walter stanley stiles. luminous efficiency of monochromatic rays entering the eye pupil at different points and a new color effect. proc roy soc lond b 1937;123: 90-118. (sce-1)18 brian hewson crawford. the luminous efficiency of light entering the eye pupil at different points and its relationship to brightness threshold measurements. roy soc lond b 1937;124: 81-96. (sce-1)19 walter stanley stiles. the directional sensitivity of the retina and the spectral sensitivities of the rods and cones. proc roy soc lond b 1939; 127: 64 -105. (sce-1, sce-2)20 g. hanson. zur kenntnis des physiolischen apertur farbeffekts (stiles­ crawford effect ii art). die naturwiss. 1943;35/36: 416. (among other matters, in this brief paper, hanson differentiated between the sce-1 and sce-2 effects.)21 walter stanley stiles. the basic data of colour-matching: 181h thomas young oration. year book, phys. soc. 1955:44-65. (in this oration, the "trichromator" was described in some detail.) (sce-1, sce-2) note, this instrument was not employed in the original studies of sce-1.4 jay m. enoch, walter stanley stiles, the colour change of monochromatic light with retinal angle of incidence. optica acta1961; 8: 329-358. (sce-1, sce-2)5 others of stiles' and crawford's fine papers might be listed here, i.e., quite a number of these were of considerable importance(!), but the few manuscripts listed above speak to the origins, and early development of our understanding of the stiles­ crawford effects, per se. since those early studies, we have come to appreciate the waveguide nature of photoreceptor optics;e.g., 6"12 the remarkable stability of sce-1 functions over many years; 22-23 factors inducing changes in sce-1 such as tractional strains (marked accommodation);24-27 g-forces; physical changes following traumatic "insults" (and recovery from same),28 recoveries from retinal detachments,9 ·9·• 29 the presence of weakened scleral walls and extended ocular growth, often associated with the high myopias (e.g., overlap of functional retina and choroid onto the nasal side of optic nerve heads, and induction of transient orientation alterations),30 the presence of a very hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 17 different "second" orientation scheme discovered in a rare few eyes/individuals (a tendency for center-of-the-eye-pointing as opposed to the more normal center-of-the­ exit-pupil-of the eye pointing);, 31 induction of altered alignments induced by use of a displaced eye-pupil using a painted-iris-contact-lens, and recovery of orientation from both transient and induced changes, 32-33 etc. much of this material, including work from a number of other laboratories, has been brought together in two books. 34·35 additional aspects of this set of discoveries have been studied/described, but it would take a separate major manuscript to consider these many efforts. included in such a document would also be the relatively recently defined "optical sce effect."e·9·•3638 the latter examines the reflection of energy back through the retina and retinal receptor waveguides. that back-reflected energy is sampled and assessed in the entrance pupil of the observer's eye (which images the exit pupil of the eye). we include the paper by enoch and stiles in the list of citations above, because it provides necessary data needed to advance our understanding of sce-2. stiles and jme had a delayed start upon their studies on sce-1 and sce-2, due largely to the fact that the npl trichromator (as noted above) had been substantially disassembled in order to make necessary modifications which would allow them to ensure proper experimental controls, and to make possible necessary measurements for their sce-2 studies conducted on the trichromator. as a result, jme's post-doctoral period at npl was divided into three segments. (1) while the trichromator was disassembled and two tiers were being restructured, he spent this time period at npl both studying the applicable literature, and investigating e. snitzer's and h. osterberg's glass fiber optics elements which had a number of properties similar to those of photoreceptors. the speaker might point out that stiles was also quite fascinated with the properties of the snitzer and osterberg fibers which jme was analyzing and studying. stiles often spent time examining them as well. having had opportunity to perform this very meaningful introductory activity, jme was then ready to apply similar techniques to direct study of the optics of photo receptors shortly after his return to st. louis in 1960. 6-12·34 both drs. katherine tansley at the institute of ophthalmology and brian crawford advised jme on appropriate design of wet cells for studying retinal receptors when performing these studies. (2) re­ assembling, aligning, and calibrating the npl trichromator (mentioned above). (3) conducting research on sce-1, and sce-2 using the npl trichromator. the latter role included his serving extensively separately as experimenter and subject. both james m. burch (at npl) and w.s. stiles also served periodically as subjects in this endeavor. in his role as subject, j.m.e. first had to learn how to make the colorimetric determinations employed in the program of data collection. he then had to provide often repeated baseline data for sce-1 and color matches at 17 selected loci about the spectrum locus (and for white light, and at a modest number of other sites sampled in each of his eyes. interestingly, stiles noted that jme's colorimetric data (at that time) most closely matched the c. i.e. standard observer of any subject tested to that date.5 only after all of this, did jme enter into data collection of colorimetric matches for hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 18 entrance pupil points located away from the pupil center. day after long-day, during this time period, he worked extensively with misses pamela fowler and jeanne vigil, stiles' very able laboratory assistants. because of the late completion of the active data collection phase, the analyses of these extensive data were deferred until after jme departed. thus, most all subsequent advanced data analyses resulting from this research program were conducted by stiles after jme's departure from teddington. jme commented on the manuscript prepared by stiles, and added material on assessments of the fiber optics elements kindly given to him by the gentlemen at the american optical corp. stiles generously made jme first author! in subsequent years, jme has sought to follow this same generous tradition in his own laboratory. some comments on color matching in studies of sce ii because relatively small effects were being measured in the enoch and stiles research program,5 when making these color matches, one had to use special care, particularly when adding r,g, and/or b desaturating stimuli to the obliquely incident (at the retina) test field. note, here, stiles used r,g,and b rather than l,m, and s.5 the investigators wanted to be sure that responses recorded were in response to the obliquely incident test beam and were not biased by the sum of added desaturating stimuli. moves made in color matching were executed carefully and repeated often! primaries testargb rgb te ta i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i '" i hl ~~~ comparison 1 test stimulus 1 stimulus ~ . figure 8. this figure details the experimental arrangement employed when using the bipartite­ field test arrangement on the trichromator in 1959-1960 in order to test for sce-2 at npl.5 note the oblique incidence of the test beam at the retina of the observer, while all other adjustable beams were incident normally in the at the retina (at fixation). see fig. 2. (this figure is reproduced with the permisson of the surviving author, and the publishers of optica acta. 5) hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 19 in the enoch and stiles paper (see fig. 8, right side)5, control and desaturating stimuli were introduced through the entrance pupil of the eye at its center, and this locus was different from the ray path of the test stimulus (the latter was introduced at a location 3.5 mm from the center of the entrance pupil of the eye in the horizontal meridian). thus, test and desaturating stimuli were incident at the retina at different angles of incidence. simply stated, the effect on color matching of the obliquely incident (at the retina) test stimulus was sought, and hence the experimenters chose not to confound unnecessarily the result. in these experiments, rather small apertures were imaged in the entrance pupil of the eye. a central two degree, carefully aligned, and centrally fixated test visual field(s) was(were) employed. within the two degree fields sampled, on a number of occasions, the observer encountered one or more small sub-areas within the test field with hues and saturations which were quite different from the larger 2° field. these small sub­ areas varied in saturation, and had demarcated boundaries. when making matches it was necessary to ignore effectively these small sub-areas and to attend the colorimetric properties of the larger and dominant field area considered. even small head/eye movements would alter the sub-patterns. prof. robert boynton (with prof. mitsuo ikeda) followed enoch as a guest(s) in stiles' laboratory. enoch earlier had worked with boynton for some period of time in 1953 at the u. of rochester. 15·16 when questioned by jme, boynton reported to enoch that he had encountered these same sub-field area effects (re-affirmed by boynton shortly before his recent death). both enoch and boynton assumed these were due to sub-areas of receptors with a particular receptor bias or sub-groups of receptors with different alignments within the larger two degree test field area. a file not found? a true delight experienced by enoch during his days at teddington was having been given opportunity by stanley stiles to read carefully his voluminous correspondence file (jme guesses this was 5-6 inches thick!) with william rushton assembled over many years. these two scientists clearly were very close friends! each taught the other, and the reader very much appreciated the results of this in their individual research publications. as but one of many examples, stiles provided rushton with a replica tier from the trichromator for his studies on color vision.2•4·5 the tutorials provided by stiles to rushton, and which discussed fine points regarding alignment and calibration, and utilization of this fine device were, to say the least, elegant. over the years, these two scientists criticized each other constructively, each one brought their unique backgrounds to the table on different problems considered, and they mutually sought to expand the conceptual framework of arguments provided. there was much give and take in this correspondence. hindsight: journal of optometry histocy ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 20 it is unfortunate that this fascinating (and important) correspondence seems to have been lost. enoch called this material to the special attention of prof. mathew alpern at the time mat wrote the memorial/obituary of stiles for the royal society of london.2•3 this file was apparently nowhere to be found! so said, alpern did locate some bits of their correspondence, and these samples were discussed briefly in his obituary. in closing jme and vl are most proud to have had a role in this worthy scientific endeavor, now 75 years old. we very much respect the work of both stanley stiles and brian crawford. jme personally appreciated their help, their many kindnesses, their advice, and their guidance. these were indeed fine/exceptional men and worthy mentors; their research has stood the test of time! jme and vl have been proud to pursue this subject matter throughout their careers, and they have sought to incorporate much learned from these gentlemen into their research. there remain problems to be solved, and opportunities for further pursuit both in terms of theory and application. as examples, it would be most useful to understand better the operant feedback system for receptor alignments, the anomalies encountered (and possible means of correcting these anomalies, and/or mitigating them), as well as the evolution of these rather remarkable properties. we have been surprised that the elegant biological-feedback-system evolved has not been more widely considered in modern applications of fiber optics. there is a need to develop more effective interactive models of this system, and so forth. finally, we express frank amazement at the finely honed visual system with which we have all been endowed. thank you. references 1. stiles ws, crawford bh. the luminous efficiency of rays entering the eye pupil at different points. proc roy soc lond b 1933;112:428-450. 2. alpern m. walter stanely stiles, 15 june1901-15 december 1985. biographical memoirs of fellows of the royal society 1988;34:816-885. 3. alpern m. walter stanley stiles, memorial lecture. in: stiles-wyszecki memorial symposium on color vision models, florence, june 10-13, 1987. gottingen, zurich: muster-schmidt verlag, 1989. issn 0014-7680,pp. 1-13. [u.c. berkeley library call number qp 483 s75 1989 opto.] 4. stiles ws. the basic data of colour-matching: 18th thomas young oration. year book, phys. soc. 44-65, 1955. (a 2nd citation describes the volume as "phys. soc. year book".) note, the abbreviation refers to the "physics society of london year book. copies can be found in the california state library, and the u. of giessen, germany. 5. enoch jm, stiles ws. the colour change of monochromatic light with retinal angle of incidence. optica acta 1961 ;8:329-358. 6. enoch jm. response of a model retinal receptor as a function of wavelength. j opt soc am 1960;50: 315-320. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 21 7. enoch jm. waveguide modes: are they present, and what is their possible role in the visual mechanism? j opt soc am 1960;50: 1025-1026. note 1, early on, it was suggested by g. toraldo di francia, and brian o'brien and others that fiber optics and waveguide properties were present in retinal receptors. note 2, jme was privileged to attend a debate on this topic presented by these two gentlemen at u. of rochester, ny, in 1953. 8. enoch jm. waveguide modes: are they present, and what is their possible role in the visual mechanism? j opt soc am 1960;50:1025-1026. 9. enoch jm. waveguide modes in retinal receptors. science 1961;133:13531354. 10. enoch jm. visualization of wave-guide modes in retinal receptors, am j ophthalmoi1961;51(part 11):1107-1118. 11. enoch jm. nature of the transmission of energy in the retinal receptors. j opt soc am 1961 ;51 :1122-1126. 12. enoch jm. optical properties of retinal receptors. j opt soc am 1963;53:7185. 13. brindley gs. chapter 4, class a & b experiments, in: physiology of the retina and the visual pathway, 1st ed. monographs of the physiological society, no.6; london: edward arnold publisher, 1960:144-150. (in the 2nd edition, 1970, same publisher, see chapter 5, pp. 132-138.) 14. goldmann h. stiles-crawford effekt. ophthalmologica 103: 225-229, 1942. 15. boynton rm, bush wr, enoch jm. rapid changes in foveal sensitivity resulting from direct and indirect adapting stimuli. j opt soc am 1954;44:56-60. 16. boynton rm, enoch jm, william r. bush. physical measures of stray light in excised eyes. j. opt. soc. am. 33:879-886, 1954. 17. palmer da. necrology. brian hewson crawford. color research and applications. feb 1992; 17:3. 18. stiles ws. luminous efficiency of monochromatic rays entering the eye pupil at different points and a new color effect. proc roy soc lond b 1937;123:90-118. 19. crawford bh. the luminous efficiency of light entering the eye pupil at different points and its relationship to brightness threshold measurements. roy soc lond b 1937;124:81-96. 20. stiles ws. the directional sensitivity of the retina and the spectral sensitivities of the rods and cones. proc roy soc lond b 1939;127:64 -105. 21. hanson g. zur kenntnis des physiolischen apertur farbeffekts (stiles­ crawford effect ii art). die naturwiss 1943;35/36:416-417. 22. rynders m, grosvenor t, enoch jm. stability of the stiles-crawford function in an unilateral amblyopic subject over a thirty-eight year period: a case study. optom vis sci 1995;72:177-185. 23. enoch jm, werner js, haegerstrom-portnoy g, lakshminarayanan v, rynders m. forever young: visual functions not affected or minimally affected by aging. (invited) journals of gerontology: biological sciences 1999;55a:b336-b351. 24. blank k, enoch jm. monocular spatial distortions induced by marked accommodation. science 1973; 182:393-395. 25. enoch jm. effect of substantial accommodation on total retinal area. j opt soc am 1973;63: 899. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 22 26. blank k, provine rr, enoch jm. shift in the peak of the photopic stiles­ crawford effect with marked accommodation. vision res 1973;15:499-507. 27. enoch jm. marked accommodation, retinal stretch, monocular space perception, and retinal receptor orientation. am j optom arch am acad optom 1975;52:375-392, 435. 28. campos ec, bedell he, enoch jm, fitzgerald cr. retinal receptive-field like properties and stiles-crawford effect in a patient with a traumatic choroidal rupture. doc ophthalmol1978;45: 381-395. 29. fitzgerald cr, birch dg, enoch jm. functional analysis of vision in patients following retinal detachment repair. arch ophthalmol 1980;98: 1237-1244. 30. enoch jm, choi s, kono m, lakshminarayanan v, calvo ml. receptor alignments and visual fields in high and low myopia. in: walls h, mills rp, eds. perimetry update 2000-2001, proc. international perimetric society, sept 6-9, 2000, halifax, nova scotia, the hague, the netherlands; kugler publications, 2001:373-387. (this is just one of a number of related papers) 31. bedell he, enoch jm. an apparent failure of the photoreceptor alignment system in a human observer. arch ophthalmol 1980;98:2023-2026. (this paper reports one of two such eyes found in this laboratory with this very interesting anomaly. in this observer, the photoreceptor alignments were directed approx. at the center of the retinal sphere rather than towards the center of exit pupil of the patient's eye.) 32. enoch jm, birch dg. evidence for alteration in photoreceptor orientation. ophthalmol1980;87-821-833. 33. enoch jm, birch dg. inferred positive phototropic activity in human photoreceptors. phil trans royal soc london b 1981 ;291: 323-351, 1981. (please refer to the second part of this paper) 34. enoch jm, tobey fl, jr., eds. vertebrate photoreceptor optics. springer series in optical sciences, vol. 23, springer-verlag, berlin, heidelberg, 1981. isbn 3540-10515-8; isbn 0-387-10515-8. 35. enoch jm, fitzgerald cr, campos ec. quantitative layer-by-layer perimetry, an extended analysis. new york, london: grune & stratton, inc. 1981. isbn 8089-1282-8. 36. he jc, marcos s, burns sa. comparison of cone directionality determined by psychophysical and reflectometric techniques. j opt soc am a 1999; 16:2363-2369. 37. j. kanis mj. foveal reflection analysis in a clinical setting. dissertation, utrecht university, faculty of medicine, the netherlands. 2008:pp. 155. ibsn: 978-9039348536. 38. gao w, cense b, zhang y, jonnal rs, miller dt. measuring retinal contributions to the optical stiles-crawford effect with optical coherence tomography. opt express 2008;16, 6486-6501. some other useful references 1. enoch jm. the stiles-crawford effects, also known as the directional sensitivity of the retina (a review). very oir (vision and hearing), oct 2002;9(#169, a special edition):651-662. 2. enoch jm. the two-color threshold technique of stiles and derived component color mechanisms. chap. 21 in: jameson d, hurvich lm, eds. (this volume) handbook hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 23 of sensory physiology vol. vll/4, visual psychophysics. berlin: springer-verlag, 1972: 537-567. 3. wyszecki g, stiles ws. color science. new york: j. wiley and sons, 1967. 4. enoch jm. studies on colorimetry, the stiles-crawford effects i & ii, and fiber optics properties in the laboratory of w.s. stiles at the national physical laboratory, teddington. in: proceedings of the iscc/cie expert symposium "75 years of the cie standard colorimetric observer", 16-17 may 2006, ottawa, ontario, canada, national research council of canada. published (1) in a co-rom # cie x030:2006; and (2) in print format: cie x030:2006. isbn 3 901 906 51 7, (enoch paper) pp. 37-43, 2006. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 24 johannes amos comenius (1592-1670) and his depiction of lenses and spectacles in the first children's picture book david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract johannes amos comenius (1592-1670) was a moravian clergyman, teacher, and author. he is recognized as introducing several concepts of modern education. he advanced the views that education should be appropriate to age and development levels and that teaching should make use of everyday sensory experience. one of his many books, orbis pictus, followed those concepts. orbis pictus, first published in 1657, is hailed as the first children's picture book. among the many commonplace objects he included in the book were a mirror, spectacles, a telescope, a magnifying lens, and a burning glass. key words: children's books, lenses, history of spectacles. johannes amos comenius (or jan amos komensky) was born on march 28, 1592, in moravia. comenius was a clergyman in the unity of brethren church, a teacher, and an author. some have called him "the father of modern education".1 comenius's parents died when he was a child, and he was raised in the care of relatives.2 after university studies in herborn and heidelberg, in germany, comenius became a clergyman and teacher in moravia. comenius's first wife and their two children died of the plague in 1622. the following year, in the turmoil during the thirty years' war in europe (1618-1648), comenius's home and books were burned. comenius escaped, eventually settling in 1628 in poland, where remained until1641. while in poland, comenius became a bishop in the unity of brethren church and he became noted for his many writings. after a year in england, comenius was invited to sweden, where he worked on the reformation of their school system.3 leaving sweden at the end of the thirty years' war in 1648, comenius lived in poland and hungary until 1656, when war broke out again in poland. comenius lived his last years in amsterdam until his death on november 15, 1670. throughout his many moves, comenius continued to write textbooks and books on educational theory. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 25 comenius's works and educational philosophy among his books are janua linguarum, a latin textbook; didactica magna (the great didactic), a famous book on educational theory; via lucis, on the reform of society through education; orbis pictus, the first children's picture book; and universal consultation on the reform of human affairs, a comprehensive treatment of his philosophy for the betterment of human conditions through educational, religious, and social reform. 2•3 comenius believed that educational reform was essential to the improvement of human society, and he thought that education should be available to all, regardless of social status or gender.3.4 comenius suggested that education be tailored to age levels, with learning beginning in early childhood, and with the timing of teaching based on readiness to understand the various concepts. striving to make education less oppressive and abstract, comenius stressed learning through sensory experience. 1•4 so, for example, in orbis pictus, comenius used pictures of many familiar everyday objects to try to stimulate children's desire to learn and to improve their cognitive and language skills.3 orbis pictus was originally intended for children up to six years of age before attending school, but it became very popular for all ages. orbis pictus the full title of the book that is generally known as orbis pictus is orbis sensualium pictus: hoc est omnium principalium in mundo rerum, & in vita actionum, pictura & nomenclatura. one english translation of the short title is world illustrated, and an english translation of the full title is visible world: or, a nomenclature and pictures of all the chief things that are in the world, and of men's employment therein. orb is pictus was first published in latin in 1657, and was subsequently translated into many languages. an english translation by charles hoole was published in 1658. the copy i examined was a 1968 reissue of an 1887 publication of the 1727 english edition, which was based on hoole's translation. in the 1727 edition, english words were in the left hand column opposite the corresponding original latin in the right hand column. the book contains 151 figures and accompanying text. the book starts with the exhortation "come, boy, learn to be wise." (page 1) after an exchange between the teacher and the boy, and an introduction to the alphabet, various ideas and commonplace objects are pictured and discussed. various elements within the drawings are numbered and the numbers are referred to in the corresponding discussion. among the first items to be featured are air, water, clouds, metals, stones, trees, and flowers. animals are discussed, and then the human body. in the latter series, the eye is mentioned as one of the "five outward senses." on pages 52-53, one finds drawings of the sense organs (figure 1) and the following text: "there are five outward senses; the eye, 1. seeth colours, what is white or black, green or blew, red or yellow. the ear, 2. heareth sounds, both natural, voices and words; and artificial, musical tunes. the nose, 3. scenteth smells and stinks. the tongue, 4. with the roof of the mouth tastes savours, what is sweet or bitter, keen or hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 26 biting, sower or harsh. the hand, 5. by touching discerneth the quantity and quality of things; the hot and cold, the moist and dry, the hard and soft, the smooth and rough, the heavy and light. "the inward senses are three. the common sense, 7. under the forepart of the head, apprehendeth things taken from the outward senses. the phantasie, 6. under the crown of the head judgeth of those things, thinketh and dreameth, the memory, 8. under the hinder part of the head, layeth up every thing and fetcheth them out: it loseth some, and this is forgetfulness. sleep, is the rest of the senses." xlii. sensus externi & interni. figure 1. drawing ofthe senses from orbis pictus, page 52. on pages 56 to 194 (there is a six page index after page 194), there are drawings and descriptions of various occupations, manmade objects, concepts, and activities. some examples are bread-baking, weaving, the shoemaker, the mason, a house, the blacksmith, wells, the cooper, paper, printing, musical instruments, philosophy, geometry, eclipses, justice, a city, measures and weights, physick (physicianry), tennis-play, the soldier, religion, judaism, christianity, etc. a drawing headed "looking-glasses" can be found on page 97 of the book (figure 2). the text, continuing onto page 98, describing that drawing is as follows: "looking-glasses, 1. are provided that men may see themselves. spectacles, 2. that he may see better, who hath a weak sight. things afar off are seen in a perspective glass, 3. as things near at hand. a flea appeareth in a multiplying-glass, 4. like a little hog. the rays of the sun, burn wood through a burning-glass, 5." comenius included commonplace items in his mid seventeenth century book. this makes it particularly interesting that he would include a mirror, spectacles, a telescope, a magnifying lens, and a burning lens in the book. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 27 looking·,t;lasses, 1. i spccu!aria, i. i figure 2. the drawing including spectacles and lenses from page 97 of orb is pictus. references 1. armstrong c. elementary school: medieval to modern. christian history and biography 2005;86:13. 2. greengrass m. johannes amos comenius. oxford dictionary of national biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/articles/67/67104-article.html?back=. accessed december 3, 2008. 3. gundem bb. "vivat comenius": a commemorative essay on johann amos comenius, 1592-1670. journal of curriculum and supervision 1992;8:43-55. 4. peltzman br. pioneers of early childhood education: a bio-bibliographical guide. westport, ct: westport press, 1998:xiii, 1. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... januruy, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 28 origin of optometry at cardiff university michel millodot, ph.d. honorary professor, school of optometry and vision sciences, cardiff university, cardiff cf10 3at, united kingdom, millodot@btinternet.com editor's note: michel mil/odot was asked by the archivist of cardiff university to write this article about the history of the optometry program at cardiff. dr. millodot has graciously granted permission to have the article published in hindsight. "at every crossing in the road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the pasf' unknown source introduction the change of the name of the 'department of ophthalmic optics' to 'department of optometry' in 1975 at the university of wales institute of science and technology, represents the first official use of the term optometry in the united kingdom. until then universities only used the name ophthalmic optics and trained ophthalmic opticians who were usually referred to as opticians. the main professional bodies were the british optical association (founded 1895), the worshipful company of spectacle makers (founded 1629), the association of optical practitioners and the scottish association of opticians. the adoption of the word optometry by the university of wales constituted a revolution in the british terminology of the profession as the old terminology was deeply entrenched in the psyche of the practitioners and the public, and remained so for many more years. the happening at cardiff became a milestone, which had an extraordinary impact on the discipline and the profession. brief history since the 1 ih century individuals involved in optical instruments, spectacles, lenses, optical science have been known as opticians. in the early part of the 20th century opticians in the uk who performed sight-testing and dispensing to correct errors of refraction became known as ophthalmic opticians. courses of training for ophthalmic opticians were devised firstly by the associations and soon afterwards by training institutions. the first such course appears to be at northampton institute (now city university) in 1908. it was followed by manchester college of technology (now manchester university) in 1920, then bradford (1920), herriot-watt college, edinburgh (1924), birmingham technical school (now aston university) in (1926) and at cardiff technical college (now cardiff university) in 1935. in all instances the course was provided within the department of physics as was suggested by the word optics in its hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 29 title, except at northampton where it was taught in a separate department of applied optics. uwist 1974 the ophthalmic optics course at cardiff technical college and later uwist was taught as an ancillary subject within the department of applied physics. in the 1970-71 academic year it became a separate department of ophthalmic optics with a senior lecturer mr t.s.p. tuck in charge. in 1974 a professor and head of department was appointed. the first incumbent of the chair was professor michel millodot who had been a senior lecturer in optometry at the french-speaking university of montreal. he began his function in september 1974. the department had five full-time academic staff and 85 full-time students, all undergraduates. uwist 1975 professor millodot soon realized that although the profession used the term ophthalmic optics and ophthalmic opticians, very few people understood what it meant. there was confusion among the public as well as university colleagues in other disciplines. they did not know whether it was a branch of physics or medicine. they confused ophthalmic opticians with dispensing opticians, manufacturing opticians, technical opticians, or even oculist and ophthalmologists. before professor millodot decided to change the name of the department he sought the advice of the professional bodies and colleagues. the response was almost entirely negative. nevertheless he persisted in the genuine belief that a single term like optometry described the discipline more concisely and more clearly than a compound term and that some international standardization of terminology for the same profession would be beneficial. thus on wednesday 19th february 1975 professor millodot presented a request to the senate of uwist. the motion was passed without any difficulty whatsoever (the professor of physics remarked that the new term was much easier to spell!) and the minutes read: "resolved that it be recommended to the academic board that the title of the department of ophthalmic optics be changed to the department of optometry that, if this change was approved, the new name come into use from 01/08/75 with any anticipatory action being taken when appropriate". subsequently the academic board met on the 6th of march 1975 and the minutes note: "the recommendation that the title of the department of ophthalmic optics at uwist be changed to department of optometry was approved". reactions the change of the name ophthalmic optics for optometry at cardiff had an extraordinary impact on the profession throughout the uk. soon after this momentous decision i informed various people and journal editors and i received two congratulatory notes, one from professor r.j. fletcher of the city university and the other from the editor of the optician. interestingly the latter journal then dedicated an editorial to the hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 30 subject in the issue of april 18, 1975 (vol. 169; 4378) and pointed out that, coincidentally, they had adopted the word by renaming the journal, beginning with this issue, the optician, the weekly journal for optometrists and dispensers. the editor philip mullins, a new-zealander, just could not have expected the explosive reaction to the "offending" word. it is unlikely that it was the letters to editors which had the most impact but i understood that it was most likely the pressure from the professional associations and most importantly that of the optical companies that advertise in the journal, which compelled it to remove the word in the title and to resume using its name the optician within just over one year! indeed the term optometry was strongly opposed by most members of the profession and by professional associations and letters to the editor of the journals, the optician and the ophthalmic optician echoed the arguments for and against, which appeared in most issues from 1975 to about 1978 when the city university renamed its department of ophthalmic optics to department of optometry. the main reasons for objecting to the word optometry included the fact that the term 'ophthalmic opticians' is the term used in the opticians act 1958, the belief that ophthalmic opticians in this country can do more than optometrists in other countries, and possibly the fact that it was an imported word (viewed as americanism) and not british. some arguments for its adoption included the fact that a single term is more comprehensible than a compound term, that its ending in 'ist' conformed better with physiologist, physicist, psychologist, ophthalmologist, etc., and that international understanding would be facilitated by the standardization of terms. repercussions following the decision of the city university in london, the matter was taken more seriously in the rest of the country. the antagonistic dust settled to some extent, it was replaced by some years of acquiescence and was eventually followed by full acceptance of the word optometry. all departments of ophthalmic optics in the country eventually changed their name in the next 15 years and/or taught optometry. in 1980, the british optical association, the worshipful company of spectacle makers and the scottish association of opticians amalgamated to form the 'college of ophthalmic opticians (optometrists)'. it was renamed in 1996 to 'college of optometrists' and it is now the sole professional, scientific and examining body for optometry in the uk working for the public benefit. the association of optical practitioners changed its name to 'association of optometrists' in 1987, it is concerned with the welfare of the practitioners. conclusion it is actually ironic that the word optometry aroused so much opposition in the uk since the word first appeared in 1759 in a book entitled 'treatise on the eye" by w. porterfield, a scottish physician who devised the first optometer to examine accommodation. in the first decades of the 20th century the professional associations of australia and the usa became known as optometric associations and learned journals of optometry were begun (e.g., american journal of optometry in 1923, now known as hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 31 optometry and vision science; australian journal of optometry in 1918, now known as clinical and experimental optometry). in the uk, the ophthalmic optician ceased to exist in 1984 and was replaced by optometry today in 1985, and nowadays the term ophthalmic optician has been almost completely buried. thus it fair to say that this change of name represented a revolution in terminology in the uk, which was triggered by the momentous decision taken in cardiff in 1975 and which reverberated throughout the profession for a period of about 15 years, until 1990 when all the university department and professional bodies, if not the public and some practitioners, adopted the word optometry. references mitchell m. history of the british optical association 1895-1978. the british optical association, 1982. wade nj, fingers. william porterfield (ca 1696-1771) and his phantom limb; an overlooked first self-report by a man of medicine. neurosurgery 2003;52: 1196-1199. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 32 optometry field magazine, an early twentieth century periodical david a. goss, 0.0., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu through an inquiry from ohs member irving bennett, i recently learned of the existence of a periodical titled optometry field magazine. through some online searching and the examination of one volume of this publication, i have been able to find out a little about it. the online catalog, worldcat, indicated that three libraries have holdings of optometry field magazine: university of california berkeley (ucb), indiana university (iu), and southern california college of optometry (scco). the online catalog for the ucb libraries said that their holdings began with volume 1 and continued to volume 2, number 2. it further noted that the publication began in june, 1915, and that volume 2, number 2 was published in 1917. the periodical was published monthly in the united states and was 18 em high. the scco online library catalog listed their holdings as volumes 3, 4, and 5. the catalog stated that those volumes were published in 1924, 1925, and 1926, and that the name of the publisher was not given. linda draper of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo), in an email to irving bennett noted that ilamo held volumes 1, 3, 4, and 5. she stated that volume 1 was thought to be published in 1916, but the dates were uncertain. volume 1 was bound with the cover referring to it as a yearbook. she said that volumes 3, 4, and 5 were bound with the covers of the individual issues removed and the dates were unknown. indiana university holds volume 2, and i checked it out to examine it. there are 12 issues in volume 2, and they are bound in a hard cover which carries the title optometry field magazine year book 1917. the publication is 18 em high by 13 em, and each issue in volume 2 contains 16 pages. the individual issues do not have dates on them, only the numerical designations for volume and issue number. neither are editor, authors, publisher, or place of publication identified anywhere in the publication. on the back cover of volume 2, issue 8, the following is printed: w.h. replogle, optometrist and optician, 619 sheridan ave., shenandoah, iowa. perhaps replogle was the editor and/or publisher of optometry field magazine. there is no listing of a replogle in any of the hindsight indexes. nor does the name replogle appear in the name indexes of james gregg's histories of the american optometric association and the american academy of optometry. issue numbers 1 through 5 have the title optometry on the cover followed by "published in the interests of optometry and its legitimate adjunctsa monthly epitome of optometric science, art, literature and news." issue numbers 6 through 12 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 33 have optometry field magazine on the cover. it appears that it was published to promote optometry and vision care, based on the preponderance of articles explaining what optometry is, the importance of vision care and of eyeglasses, etc. some excerpts will illustrate this point. in the first issue of volume 2, in the midst of a long essay on various aspects of the eye and vision, the importance of vision, and visual efficiency, there are balded definitions of optometry, optometrist, optics, optician, ophthalmology, ophthalmologist, and oculist. the definition given for optometrist is "one who practices the profession of optometry. one familiar with the science and art of adjusting lenses to the human eye for the relief of eyestrain and the betterment of vision. an optometrist is not an ophthalmologist either by education or legal requirements." an ophthalmologist was defined as "a medical practitioner who confines his practice to diseases and surgical operations on eyes. an ophthalmologist is not an optometrist either by education or legal requirements." and the definition of oculist is "a medical practitioner who treats diseases of the eye with drugs, and practices surgery. most so-called oculists, outside the larger cities, also treat the ear, nose and throat. an oculist is not an optometrist either by education or legal requirements." the cover of the second issue of volume 2 proclaims that it is a "child's welfare issue." the cover contains photographs of five children with esotropia and the statement "look on the back cover and see what optometry did for these five little cross­ eyed kiddies." the back cover shows the five children in spectacles with straight eyes and the notation that "the eyes of these children were straightened, as shown, by properly adjusted lenses and exercises." in the fourth issue of volume 2, there is an editorial that mentions that "most advanced optometrists" use dynamic skiametry. it states that, in contrast, oculists rarely use that procedure. the editorial notes that optometrists have qualified themselves in the prescribing and fitting of glasses, but there is "no assurance" that the oculist has. later in that issue on page 61 below a list of the states that have optometry licensing laws, there is a definition of optometry that states that "optometry is the scientific and drug less method of examining the powers and visual conditions of the eyes, together with the strength and poise of their related muscles and giving the proper assistance exercise or lensesto overcome their defects." on the cover of the volume 2, number 6, the word op-tom-e-try appears, presumably to indicate the proper pronunciation, followed by the words "eye sight conservation." an editorial in this issue quotes thorington, herman snellen, francis volk, edward jackson, and other ophthalmological authorities on the disadvantages of refracting using drops. elsewhere in the issue the point is made that there is a significant economic cost of eyestrain. inside the back cover of the seventh issue of volume 2, one finds the following three paragraphs: "to qualify for the examination in optometry in states having optometry laws, now thirty-eight, the applicant must be at least twenty-one years of age, hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 34 in addition to having a preliminary training of at least two years in an accredited high school, or must give evidence of having studied optometry, preferably by presenting a certificate of graduation from a registered school of optometry. "these courses include such subjects as mathematics, physics, theoretical optics, general anatomy and physiology, theoretical optometry, practical optometry, physiological optics and pathological conditions of the eye. "standard schools of optometry are located at boston, new york (columbia university), philadelphia, rochester, columbus (ohio state university), chicago, st. paul, minneapolis, kansas city, los angeles, san francisco, portland and spokane. in addition, several state universities are giving lectures notably the california state university at berkeley." the editorial in the eighth issue is headed "reading causes indigestion through eyestrain." the issue carries "the story of jim and joe," a story in verse about two boys on pages 131-138. on the top of page 132, we find that: now jim liked the school and was willing to go; but a laggard in study and learning was joe. the next few pages elaborate on that theme, and a perceptive teacher recognizes that joe has a vision problem. then on page 136: the next day joe went to an optical place, where a "licensed optometrist" took care of his case. he went in a dullard, a crabbed kill-joy; he came out with specs but a real living boy. joe then had as much success in school as jim. jim became a lawyer and joe a "doctor". the last stanza of the story says that joe appreciated his optometrist: and among his best friends, whatever their classes, is the optical man who supplied his first glasses. the editorial in volume 2, issue number 10 is titled: "beauty in and behind glasses." it emphasized that properly fitted glasses are comfortable and individualized hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 35 to the appearance of the patient. the primary topic of the twelfth and last issue in volume 2 was headaches. the editorial claimed that most headaches are eyestrain headaches. that editorial concluded by saying that: "with proper ventilation, meaning by that all the fresh air you can get, sleeping with all the windows open, regularity of the bowels, exercise outdoors and nourishing food and correction of your eye defects, you have the best preventives of headache." several questions remain concerning optometry field magazine. how well was it accepted by the profession and the public? was it successful in its promotional message? was replogle the editor and/or publisher? was it discontinued after volume 5? are 1924 to 1926 the correct dates for volumes 3 to 5? and, if so, why was there a seven year gap between volumes 2 and 3? hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 36 optometry's "leading society" celebrates its 1 ooth year: notes on the western pennsylvania optometric society irving bennett, o.d. 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett@juno.com editor's note: many state and local optometric associations and societies were founded in the early years of the twentieth century in efforts for the passage of licensure jaws and/or for the promotion of professional practice. as a result, many are celebrating their 1 ooth anniversaries. the western pennsylvania optometric society recently obsened its centennial anniversary. here ining bennett highlights some of the remarkable individuals populating the society and some of its important contributions to optometry. during the decade or two following the end of world war ii, the pittsburgh optometric society enjoyed the distinction and reputation as being the most influential local optometric society in the entire american optometric association (aoa). and there were very good reasons for this. but before that, we need to set matters straight. the records are a bit fuzzy. pittsburgh's organization of optometrists came into being in 1906 and, from 1919 on, it was called the pittsburgh association of optometrists. in 1940 the name was changed to the pittsburgh optometric society. with the area of membership extending far beyond pittsburgh's city limits, the society changed its name to the western pennsylvania optometric society (wpos) in october 1957. in the style of david letterman, here are ten reasons, not in any order of importance or chronology, why ours has been the most outstanding local society for so long: 1) in the mid-1940s, the aoa public information bureau (the public relations arm of national optometry) was headquartered in the jenkins arcade in downtown pittsburgh. first ward ewalt and then elmer soles were chairs of this important aoa department. (later, when the bureau was moved to st. louis, bob phillips became its director). all were our society members. 2) three aoa presidents came from the pittsburgh societywilliam t. mcconnell in 1917, thomas martin in 1923, and h. ward ewalt, jr. in 1962. the national parliamentarian was william j. van essen for a decade in the 1940s. one remarkable lady, mrs. mary schempp, the wife of dr. ed schempp, then state board secretary, became the president of the woman's auxiliary of the american optometric association, the national organization, in 1946. that was the only year that the aoa congress was ever held in pittsburgh. the national annual meeting was held at the william penn hotel and the pittsburgh society hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 37 was its host. currently, the president of the (national) american academy of optometry is mark eger. this is an honor that parallels being aoa president. 3) three of the nine editors of the journal of the american optometric association came from the society (irving bennett 1957-1964; milton eger 1965-1985; and the current editor paul freeman who began his stint in 1990). the journal is now called "optometry." two of the editors, eger and bennett, combined their talents in the mid-1960s and started the statewide think-tank conference called allenberry. it was held at the allenberry resort in boiling springs, pa in october. well over 50 ods from all over the state convened for a shirt-sleeves no-holds­ barred meeting on the pressing problems facing optometry in the state and in the nation. 4) the rivalry between the pittsburgh society (led by william j. van essen) and the philadelphia society (led by albert fitch) during the middle 1930s is legend. it led to the strengthening of the optometric act in many ways and the landmark court case (neill vs. gimbel) declaring optometry as a separate independent profession, not subservient to medicine. in 1937, legislation that would have granted optometrists tpa and surgical privileges failed passage by one single vote in the pennsylvania assembly! 5) a statewide public relations campaign -that had national overtonesfeatured pittsburgh tv artist ("the musical sketchpad") marty wolfson and his kdka tv program, comic books ("dewey c. well") and others public relations items. the ambitious program began in pittsburgh in the early 1950s and led to the formation of the vision conservation institute (vci), which remains today as a public relations arm of the pennsylvania optometric association (poa). 6) at least 16 optometrists who were wpos or pittsburgh society members ended up as president of the pennsylvania optometric association, including the current poa president bob bittel, jr. one member of the society received aoa recognition by being granted a prestigious apollo award (ewalt) and two members were honored with aoa's highest award -the distinguished service award (eger and bennett). three members of the wpos (ewalt, eger and bennett) were among the 49 optometrists who have thus far been inducted in the national optometric hall of fame. 7) the pittsburgh society was so big in the late 1950s that, under bob phillips' direction, it was split into five "forums" so the members could meet more often as smaller study groups. the only forum remaining is the one in beaver valley. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 38 it still meets infrequently. a standout o.d. who was a female from pittsburgh was anna miller; she was the first chair of the poa's assistance to graduates and undergraduates committee. and it was dr. miller who was the force behind the beginning of a viable para-optometric organization in this state. it became a model for other states to emulate. she was a lady "before her time." 8) third party vision programming actually started in pittsburgh when the teamsters asked aoa for a contract so its members could get eye exams and eyeglasses as a worker benefit. this led to the formation of the national vision institute of america (via) which changed later into vision service plan (vsp). a member of the wpos (bennett) was on the first national via board of trustees. 9) the society can boast that it had the first "co-ordinated classroom" school building as per the direction of the famous architect darryl harmon and the oep. it was located in beaver falls, the city that also passed a city ordinance in the 1950s that made it illegal to price advertise eye exams or eye glasses. 10)the society was not purely all businessit held annual north park picnics (featuring dr. van essen's famous hot german potato salad) and other social gatherings. most of the members during the formative years were male and it was common to bring their wives for meetings with their own "auxiliary." and so it goes. the western pennsylvania optometric societythe society that helped make history. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 39 the european scientific tradition in philosophical, religious and institutional context, from prehistory to a.d. 1450 the beginnings of western science: the european scientific tradition in philosophical, religious and institutional context, from prehistory to a.d. 1450, second edition. david lindberg. chicago: u. of chicago press, chicago, 2007 (the first edition appeared in 1992). xvi + 488 pages, 116 figures, and 6 maps. isbn-13: 978-0-226-48205-7. isbn-10: 0-226-48205-7. paperback, $25.00. jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, usa, jmenoch@berkeley.edu an updated book by david lindberg (a second edition) has appeared, in which there is much material on vision science, but, in addition, it covers science as a whole. this volume provides added coverage relative to the first edition. western traditions are well represented. he also addresses mediterranean and near eastern arabic contributions to research. optics, vision, and development of medicine are well treated. prof. david lindberg, the author, is located at the university of chicago, and quite a number of years ago, he wrote authoritatively on development of visual science from antiquity to kepler (and a bit beyond), in his ph.d. dissertation. this book brings together a rather complete treatment of science covering the early developmental years through medieval times. the writer's paperback copy was obtained on sale from the u. of chicago press. lindberg is a fine writer and scholar and he holds the interest of the reader well. this volume largely covers medieval history of western science. it is well illustrated, and he explains contributions made by the greeks and romans as well as the arab scientists who contributed not only to vision and other science, but who perpetuated ancient knowledge, per se, during the european dark age. they also contributed to re-introduction of that science to the european continent through the iberian peninsula. the associated bibliography is well ordered and voluminous. illustrations and maps are pertinent and ample. the book is recommended to those interested in the early history of optics and vision. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... januruy, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 40 book review: spectrum of belief: joseph von fraunhofer and the craft of precision optics spectrum of belief: joseph von fraunhofer and the craft of precision optics. myles w. jackson. cambridge, ma: the mit press, 2000. x + 284 pages. isbn 0262-10084-3. hardcover, $40. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book uses the working life of joseph von fraunhofer and surrounding events to illustrate the economic importance of glassmaking, relationships of science and society, and the relationships of skilled craftsmen and scientists in the early nineteenth century. the author emphasizes that the book is not a biography of fraunhofer, but he notes that fraunhofer's life story is an interesting one, "a rags-to­ riches story worthy of a hollywood production." (page 5) joseph von fraunhofer was born in 1787 into a family of generations of german glassmakers. his mother died in 1797 and his father in 1798. fraunhofer was sent to apprentice and live with mirror maker and glass cutter philipp anton weichselberger in munich. it was not an entirely happy association as, for example, weichselberger tried to keep fraunhofer from using a lamp to read about optical theory at night. in 1806, king maximilian's privy councilor joseph von utzschneider, who had watched over fraunhofer since 1801, when weichselberger's house collapsed, arranged for fraunhofer to work at his optical institute at benediktbeurn in bavaria. fraunhofer went to work making achromatic lenses for refracting telescopes and surveying instruments. the author states that "within 15 years, the orphaned lad from the most humble of origins produced the finest achromatic lenses and prisms the optical community had ever seen." (page 5) fraunhofer's laboratory was housed in an old benedictine monastery purchased by utzschneider for the purpose of making lenses. the monks who worked there provided an environment in which manufacturing methods could be kept secret, and the surrounding forest contained plenty of wood to heat the furnaces for making glass. fraunhofer perfected the glass recipes, the stirring procedures, and the heating methods that made excellent homogeneous achromatic lenses free of bubbles and distortions. the book emphasizes the importance of lenses for economic, military, and scientific purposes and for national pride. the author discusses attempts by the english to duplicate fraunhofer's lenses. for example, michael faraday analyzed the chemical composition of fraunhofer's lenses and tried making lenses using the same ingredients. however, perhaps in part because glassmaking was fraunhofer's life work and it was a minor sideline to faraday, hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 41 the lenses made by faraday were never of the same quality as fraunhofer's. john herschel, expecting fraunhofer to adhere to the philosophy of open communication among scientists, visited fraunhofer to learn the manufacturing methods. however, fraunhofer kept the philosophy of artisans that the secrets of manufacturing processes should be carefully guarded. in fact, after fraunhofer's death, "even the apprentices who had worked most closely with him, in the same glass hut and with the same equipment, achieved only limited success in the manufacture of optical glass." (pages 89) fraunhofer also undertook various optical investigations. in 1807, he wrote his first scholarly work, which dealt with catoptrics. his most famous work was the discovery of the "fraunhofer lines." the author notes that this work "was not the culmination of any concern on his part with the nature of light. nor did he use those lines to analyze substances. rather, his work was a product of artisanal training with a view to perfect the construction of achromatic lenses for astronomical instruments ... and ... surveying instruments." (page 45) in 1817, fraunhofer became a corresponding member of the royal bavarian academy of sciences. because he was an artisan and did no have a university education, he did not achieve acceptance among all members of the scientific community. in 1822, he received an honorary doctorate degree from erlangen. fraunhofer died in 1826 of lung disease, presumably due to exposure to lead oxide from glassmaking. he was only 39 years old when he died. the author observes that after fraunhofer's death, he "became a powerful historical example of the benefits of merging scientific research and technological innovation with industrial and state support .... hermann von helmholtz and ernst abbe used fraunhofer to unify the efforts of science, technology, and industry during the 1870s and 1880s." (page 9) the book includes a number of black and white illustrations, a time line appendix, an extensive bibliography, and an index. it uses an interesting and well-researched historical story to illustrate relationships of science, craft, industry, and the state. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 42 book review: spectacles, lorgnettes and monocles spectacles, lorgnettes and monocles, 2"d ed. d.c. davidson and r.j.s. macgregor. buckinghamshire, uk: shire publications, 2002. 40 pages. isbn 0747805458.paperback. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this is an attractive little (21 x 15 em) forty page booklet describing rivet spectacles, seventeenth century to twentieth century spectacles, lorgnettes, and monocles. the book contains 69 illustrations, most of which are nicely produced color photographs of spectacles, lorgnettes, and monocles at various times in history. a two page introduction discusses the invention of spectacles and has a photograph of a replica of rivet spectacles and an illustration of the fact that the frames for rivet spectacles could have been cut from the metacarpal bone of a bull. the next six pages discuss and picture spectacles from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. a section headed "vision and fashion" extends over nine pages and deals with scissors spectacles, quizzers, monocles, and magnifying glasses, as well as silver, brass, tortoiseshell, and horn spectacles. on ages 21 to 32, discussion of "nineteenth-century developments" includes lorgnettes, gold spectacles, steel-wire spectacles, pince-nez, rimless spectacles, and others. three pages are devoted to chinese spectacles and two pages to spectacles in the twentieth century. the booklet concludes with a two page diagram of the terminology of spectacles through history, a list of seven books on the history of spectacles, and a list of museums in england and scotland that have collections of optical items. this booklet can be consulted for a brief but interesting introduction to the history of spectacles. derek c. davidson was an optician who founded the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club. ronald j.s. macgregor is a retired optometrist who is the editor of ophthalmic antiques, the newsletter of the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... january, 2009, volume 40, number i, page 43 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as ij. for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... .january, 2009, volume 40, number 1, page 44 2009-40-01-001 2009-40-01-002 2009-40-01-003 2009-40-01-004 2009-40-01-005 2009-40-01-006 2009-40-01-007 2009-40-01-008 2009-40-01-009 2009-40-01-010 2009-40-01-011 2009-40-01-012 2009-40-01-013 2009-40-01-014 2009-40-01-015 2009-40-01-016 2009-40-01-017 2009-40-01-018 2009-40-01-019 2009-40-01-020 2009-40-01-021 2009-40-01-022 2009-40-01-023 2009-40-01-024 2009-40-01-025 2009-40-01-026 2009-40-01-027 2009-40-01-028 2009-40-01-029 2009-40-01-030 2009-40-01-031 2009-40-01-032 2009-40-01-033 2009-40-01-034 2009-40-01-035 2009-40-01-036 2009-40-01-037 2009-40-01-038 2009-40-01-039 2009-40-01-040 2009-40-01-041 2009-40-01-042 2009-40-01-043 2009-40-01-044 2009-40-01-045 2009-40-01-046 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 112 the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 18982015, part 4 r. norman bailey, ma, od, mba, mph clinical professor, retired university of houston college of optometry nbailey@uh.edu continued from volume 47, number 3 a new century dawns s the decade of the 1990s was coming to a close, the ethics and values committee developed a proposal in 1997 to produce a textbook addressing the ethical issues that a doctor of optometry may face in clinical practice. as the result of obtaining subsequent funding to write and print the text, an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics was published in 2000.107 the text was edited by committee chair, r. norman bailey, od, and bioethicist, elizabeth heitman, phd. there were sixteen contributing authors.108 this text was one of a planned series of projects for the ethics education program for optometric practitioners. funds allowed every doctor of optometry member of the aoa, as well as every third year and graduating optometry student in 2000 to receive a free copy of this text. complimentary copies were sent to the libraries and to the ethics educators of the schools and colleges of optometry throughout the world. distribution of the text was also made available to attendees of a presentation by the text’s optometrist editor to the 13th asia-pacific optometric congress held in coolum beach, australia in 2001. it is worthy to note that during this period of time, committee members encouraged state and regional continuing education administrators to place ethics courses/lectures into their programs.103, 107, 109-112 in december 2000, an ethics workshop with david ozar, phd, department of philosophy and center for ethics, loyola university of chicago was held in chicago for the purpose of assessing the ethical values that influence contemporary optometric practice. the committee was expanding discussions on how the profession could more fully express to the public and to the membership those principles that guide professional behavior as individual primary eye care providers.111, 112 during the january 2001 aoa mid-year planning conference, the committee recommended that the standards of conduct be continued as written until such time as the document could be incorporated into a more comprehensive statement by the house of delegates regarding the ethical obligations of doctors of optometry.111 the committee had begun discussions on the need to develop new versions of the code of ethics and standards of conduct. a new ethics and values committee determined in 2002 that many of the standards in the 1976 standards of conduct were considered dated and not consistent with current thinking in biomedical ethics. the committee recommended that the board a mailto:nbailey@uh.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 113 of trustees retire the 1976 standards of conduct to the historical archives, which the board did.113 it is noted that the board of trustees could take this action with subsequent approval of the house of delegates as this document had been approved as a board policy statement. the code of ethics was minimally modified in june 2005 to make the language more inclusive in three of its stated principles. this historical event occurred during the american optometric association’s annual congress held in grapevine, texas. for the first time in 61 years, the house of delegates voted to make changes to the code of ethics as recommended by the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair n. scott gorman. while some may not consider the few modification of language of much significance, others would see the wording changes as timely. (see appendix i) subsequently, in 2006, with the aoa board of trustees encouragement; the ethics and values committee reviewed all aoa related documents and concluded the code of ethics needed to be updated to (1) address patient autonomy, (2) to expand the visiononly language to include both general and eye health language, and (3) to recognize the limited exceptions to confidentiality resulting from legislation. the ethics and values committee also concluded that a new supporting document should be created to address a broad range of ethical issues in support of the code of ethics. this would be a working document that could also replace many of the resolutions and board policy statements and be more easily modified over time. a goal would be that periodic modifications of this document could embrace changing circumstances in the profession or society.114 the ethics and values committee set out to complete the monumental task of drafting new and updated documents to replace the 1944/2005 code of ethics and the now archived 1976 standards of conduct. in 2007, the house of delegates in boston, massachusetts adopted the current code of ethics115 that incorporated the three changes identified in 2006. this new document was drafted by the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair n. scott gorman.116 the adopting resolution resolved that the code of ethics adopted as substantive motion 1 in 1944 and modified in 2005 be repealed and the following be adopted:115 code of ethics of the american optometric association (adopted 2007) it shall be the ideal, resolve, and duty of all optometrists: to keep their patients' eye, vision, and general health paramount at all times; to respect the rights and dignity of patients regarding their health care decisions; to advise their patients whenever consultation with, or referral to another optometrist or other health professional is appropriate; to ensure confidentiality and privacy of patients' protected health and other personal information; to strive to ensure that all persons have access to eye, vision, and general health care; to advance their professional knowledge and proficiency to maintain and expand competence to benefit their patients; hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 114 to maintain their practices in accordance with professional health care standards; to promote ethical and cordial relationships with all members of the health care community; to recognize their obligation to protect the health and welfare of society; and to conduct themselves as exemplary citizens and professionals with honesty, integrity, fairness, kindness and compassion. an online course, ethical issues in contact lens practice, was developed and produced in 2007. the course was authored by elizabeth heitman, phd, a bioethicist at vanderbilt university and r. norman bailey, od, past-chair of the ethics and values committee and a clinical professor at the university of houston college of optometry. the course, sponsored by the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair n. scott gorman, was posted on the american optometric association’s website in 2008 for the benefit of the membership. nova southeastern university in florida provided media production facilities and education technology staff for the production of the course.116-120 between 2007 and 2009, the ethics and values committee developed a working draft of the standards of professional conduct document.118, 120-123 modifications were made to the first draft based on numerous comments and suggestions received from the profession. the final draft of the standards of professional conduct from the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair james e. paramore was adopted as motion 2011-m-2 by the house of delegates in june 2011, in salt lake city, utah.124 while the code of ethics refers to the ethical principles that guide the profession as it serves the public, the standards of professional conduct spell out in more detail how these principles may be applied in practice from day to day. the 2011 standards of professional conduct read as follows:124 standards of professional conduct (adopted 2011) background: the profession of optometry is privileged to serve the eye care needs of the public and is entrusted by society to do so in a professional and ethical manner. the placement of the patient’s interests above self-interest is referred to as fiduciary duty and is the primary ethical responsibility of all health care professionals. specifically, optometrists have the duty to look after the best interests of their patients with regard to the patient’s eye, vision and general health. additionally, the ethical optometrist strives to protect and enhance the health and welfare of the public in general. the american optometric association (aoa) has adopted a code of ethics and standards of professional conduct to guide optometrists in their professional and ethical duties. these documents are supplemented by the optometric oath, and certain aoa house of delegates’ resolutions and board of trustees’ policy statements. the content of these ethical documents and pronouncements is the result of a continually evolving relationship between the profession of optometry hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 115 and the society it serves. while the code of ethics of the american optometric association sets forth the basic tenets of ethical behavior for optometrists, the standards of professional conduct is a more evolving document that amplifies the code of ethics and describes appropriate ethical and professional behaviors in greater detail. it is the intent of the american optometric association that the code of ethics and the standards of professional conduct be written expressions of and a continuing commitment to professional and ethical behavior for all optometrists. discussions of biomedical ethics traditionally identify four categories or fundamental principles of ethical behavior: patient autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. these principles provide the underlying support for specific ethical behaviors within the health care professions. each of the topic areas within the aoa standards of professional conduct is arranged under one of these principles. while each topic area can be identified and justified under several if not all of the principles, they are arranged here under what could be considered the most compelling principle for each. a fifth category, non-patient professional relationships, is added to complete the content of the aoa standards of professional conduct. it should be noted that these ethical documents and pronouncements are expressions of many but not all of the ethical ideals of the profession and are not necessarily expressions of legal obligations. ethics and the law are two different entities, although many times these may overlap. the law sets minimum standards for societal behavior that all persons must comply with. ethics generally sets higher than minimum standards for behavior that people should strive for as the ideal. standards of professional conduct a – patient autonomy (“self-determination”) the optometrist has the duty to involve the patient in care and treatment decisions in a meaningful way, with due consideration of the patient’s needs, desires, abilities and understanding, while safeguarding the patient’s privacy. 1. patient participation: optometrists have a duty to respect the right of their patients to be active participants in decisions affecting their health care. this duty should be reinforced and supported through patient education and effective communication. 2. confidentiality: optometrists and their staff should hold in confidence all protected health and other personal information. this is an essential element of the doctor-patient relationship that is necessary to build and maintain trust. the optometrist may reveal protected health and other personal information only with the written consent of the patient as defined under the health insurance portability and accountability act (hipaa). however, exceptions to confidentiality do exist that are ethically justified. these exceptions occur either when it is necessary to protect the welfare of the patient or others when faced with a significant threat, or hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 116 when the release of information is required by law. it should be noted that an ethical imperative of an optometrist to release information to protect the welfare of the patient or others without the patient’s consent may have legal considerations. 3. truthfulness: telling the truth is a necessary component of a trusting optometrist-patient relationship. from an ethical standpoint, there are two levels of truthfulness, veracity and candor. simply put, veracity is “telling the truth” and candor is “telling the whole truth.” optometrists should always practice veracity and strive to tell the truth. while candor is usually required from an ethical standpoint, exceptions are only justifiable out of kindness to the patient or to protect the overall best interests of the patient. since breaching candor would be a violation of the basic principle of patient autonomy, it should only be considered after careful reflection and weighing the alternatives. 4. informed consent: optometrists have a duty to inform patients or their legal guardian about the patient’s health care and health care options. the process of informed consent requires the optometrist to make a reasonable determination of the patient’s ability to reason and make informed decisions free of external coercion. additionally, optometrists should explain to the patient or their legal guardian the patient’s health care status, what appropriate procedures are available, and the risks and benefits of each procedure. finally, optometrists should make the effort to ensure that the patient or guardian has a reasonable understanding of the information presented. 5. patient records: the optometrist is responsible for maintaining appropriate and accurate records on every patient encounter. upon written request and in accordance with applicable federal and state laws, patients or their legal guardian have a right to obtain or have sent copies or summaries of their medical records. b – nonmaleficence (“do no harm”) the optometrist has the duty to avoid acts of omission or commission that would harm the patient. 1. standards of care: optometrists should strive to provide care that is consistent with established clinical practice guidelines such as those adopted by the american optometric association that are based on the latest scientific knowledge and procedures and utilize the opinions of authoritative experts and is in accordance with existing laws. 2. professional competence: optometrists have an obligation to strive to stay current with the prevailing scope of practice and standards of care to benefit their patients. additionally, optometrists should employ only those clinical procedures and treatment regimens for which they are educated and competent to perform. 3. delegation of services: optometrists may delegate services to office staff as permitted by law. for any services performed on patients by office staff, the optometrist must ensure that they are adequately trained and/or certified. additionally, the staff member’s level of training or designation hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 117 (technician, assistant, etc.) must be clearly communicated to the patient receiving care. 4. conflict of interest: the care of a patient should never be influenced by the self-interests of the provider. optometrists should avoid and/or remove themselves from any situation that presents the potential for a conflict of interest where the optometrist‘s self-interests are in conflict with the best interests of the patient. disclosure of all existing or potential conflicts of interest is the responsibility of the optometrist and should be appropriately communicated to the patient. 5. referral: an optometrist should refer a patient whenever the optometrist believes this may benefit the patient. the provider and/or facility to which the patient is referred should be based primarily on what is in the best interest of the patient. when a patient is referred to another health care provider, the referring optometrist should remain involved in comanaging the patient’s overall care. an optometrist should not offer or accept payment of any kind, in any form, from any source, for referring a patient. payment between health providers, or from a health service industry, solely for the referral of a patient, is considered fee splitting and is unethical. 6. relationships with patients: optometrists should avoid intimate relationships with patients as such relationships could compromise professional judgment or exploit the confidence and trust placed in the optometrist by the patient. if such a relationship does inadvertently develop, the professional care of this patient should be transferred to another optometrist. 7. impaired optometrist: optometrists who are impaired because of the use of controlled substances, alcohol, or other chemical agents must remove themselves from patient care activity. in an effort to protect patients and encourage help for impaired providers, optometrists should assist impaired colleagues in seeking professional help and/or identify impaired colleagues to appropriate state agencies or licensing boards. optometrists who have physical or cognitive limitations should not provide professional care if the condition limits their ability to provide the highest level of care to their patients. c. beneficence (“do good”) the optometrist has the duty to proactively serve the needs of the patient and the public at large regarding eye, vision and general health. 1. character: optometrists should conduct themselves with good character in all of their actions to build trust and respect with patients, the public, and colleagues. good character includes but is not limited to honesty, integrity, fairness, kindness, and compassion. 2. respect for the law: optometrists should comply with all applicable state and federal laws and should remove themselves from any situation which prevents them from fulfilling their legal and professional responsibilities. it should also be noted that ethical duties may sometimes exceed legal obligations. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 118 3. protected populations: optometrists have the responsibility to identify signs of abuse and neglect in children, dependent adults and elders and to report suspected cases to the appropriate agencies, consistent with state law. 4. public health: optometrists have an ethical obligation primarily to their patients but also to society in general. as primary health care providers, optometrists should participate actively in professional organizations and other efforts that enhance the eye, vision, and general health of their patients and the public. optometrists should also strive to ensure that all persons have access to eye, vision, and general health care. 5. clinical research and trials: it is the ethical responsibility of an optometrist to maintain integrity and independent judgment in all research endeavors to advance the best interests of patients, the public welfare, and the profession. optometrists who conduct research should adhere to accepted scientific conduct guidelines and respect all ethical tenets that protect patients’ rights. when collaborating with industry, optometrists should encourage and support the timely and accurate publication of all scientifically relevant findings. optometrists who present scientific information shall fully disclose any financial and/or other relationship that exists with a company when its product or services are discussed in the presentation. d – justice (“fairness”) the optometrist has the duty to treat patients, colleagues, and society fairly and without prejudice. 1. patient selection: optometrists, in serving the public, may exercise reasonable discretion in selecting patients for their practices. however, services should not be denied to patients presenting with emergent conditions. optometrists must not refuse to accept patients into their practice or deny services to patients because of the patient’s race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or health status. 2. patient abandonment: once the optometrist has undertaken a course of treatment, the optometrist should not discontinue treatment without giving the patient adequate notice and the opportunity to obtain the services of another eye care provider. optometrists are responsible for ensuring appropriate follow-up care when not available to render such care. 3. advertising: advertising by optometrists should be truthful and in accordance with prevailing federal and state laws and regulations. optometrists who advertise should identify their professional degree and/or their profession in all forms of advertising and should never mislead the public regarding their expertise or competency. optometrists should not hold themselves as having superior knowledge or credentials other than their earned degrees, certifications or license types. 4. economic interests: fees for optometric services must be reasonable and accurately reflect the care delivered to the patient. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 119 e – non patient professional relationships optometrists have an obligation to conduct themselves with integrity and without conflicts of interest in all of their professional relationships. 1. relationships with industry: in their interactions with industry, optometrists are expected to maintain the highest level of ethical conduct in order to retain their professional autonomy and clinical integrity. optometrists have a responsibility to provide the best care possible for their patients and to continuously advance their clinical and scientific knowledge. industry can be a valuable resource in these endeavors. however, optometrists must avoid situations and activities that would not be in the best interest of their patients. any financial and/or material incentive offered by industry that has the appearance of, or could be an inappropriate influence on an optometrist’s clinical judgment should be avoided. 2. employer-employee relationships: optometrists should avoid or terminate any employment situation where the employer interferes with or attempts to control the independent professional judgment of the employed optometrist within the scope of optometric practice. relations between optometrists, and between optometrists and staff, must be conducted in a manner that advances the best interests of patients, including the sharing of relevant information. an optometrist’s clinical judgment and practice should not be compromised by economic interest in, commitment to, or benefit from professionally-related commercial enterprises. 3. harassment and relationships with subordinates: an optometrist should not engage in any acts of emotional abuse, physical abuse, or sexual misconduct/ exploitation related to the optometrist’s position as a health care professional. intimate relationships, even when consensual, between an optometric supervisor and a colleague, student, office trainee, or staff member raise concerns because of inherent inequalities in the status and power of the individuals and are therefore inappropriate. 4. expert testimony: when optometrists provide expert testimony within a judicial or administrative action, the testimony should be balanced, fair, and truthful based on scientific and clinical knowledge. a reasonable fee, which is not contingent upon the outcome, may be accepted. article v. section 2. f. of the aoa bylaws125 provides that: “the judicial council shall also, in appropriate cases, render advisory opinions interpreting the code of ethics of the association, the optometric oath, and the aoa standards of professional conduct.” in 2012 carolyn carman and douglas totten, a subcommittee of the ethics and values committee, reviewed the potential ethical considerations of optometrists using social media. an article by carman and totten, social media recommendations was published in november 2012. in that article, james e. paramore, immediate past-chair, stated that, “optometrists need to be aware of how to uphold the same professional and ethical standards in their social media participation as they do in the rest of their practice.”126, 127 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 120 in 2014, 128 the ethics and values committee developed plans for an online forum to present a monthly case study with an ethical challenge. the ethics forum was launched in april 2015 on the aoa website under the ethics and values link to “foster ethical practices for the optometric community by providing a vehicle for education and discussion.”129 the forum is setup to solicit opinions from practitioners on how they would handle each ethical challenge. this concludes a description of the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the usa as revealed through the history of the american optometric association during its first 117 years (1898-2015). more detail of this history can be obtained by carefully reviewing the references and appendices. acknowledgements the author would like to thank the following persons for their advice and assistance on the manuscripts and supporting references during the development of this paper or the original paper to which this paper is an update: larry l. creasey, od; linda j. draper; james r. gregg, od; kirsten hébert; james e. paramore, od; danette miller, and jerald w. strickland, od, phd. my greatest gratitude and thanks go to sherry l. cooper and thomas e. eichhorst, jd, both longtime aoa staff and now retired. both contributed much time and advice to the successful completion of this paper. i am especially grateful for mr. eichhorst’s efforts in providing research for and editing of the final drafts of the text. ms. cooper was the aoa associate director of state government relations from 1990 until her retirement in 2013. she also has served as staff for the aoa resolutions committee from 1998 to the present time. mr. eichhorst was the aoa counsel from 1965 through 2002, when he retired. he has served as a legal consultant to the aoa since 2008. special thanks and acknowledgement is given to elizabeth heitman, phd of the center for biomedical ethics and society at vanderbilt university medical center and david t. ozar, phd of the graduate program in health care ethics and department of philosophy at loyola university of chicago. their consultations, writings, and other assistance during the development of projects of the ethics education program for optometric practitioners were invaluable. special gratitude is extended to the former ciba vision corporation and richard e. weisbarth, od, then ciba’s executive director of professional services for north america, for the unrestricted grant support essential during the development and distribution phases of the recommended curriculum for the teaching of professionalism and ethics in optometry, an optometrists guide to clinical ethics, and ethical issues in contact lens practice. these ethics education program for optometric practitioner projects could not have been successful without this generous support. dr. weisbarth, a past president of the american academy of optometry, is currently the vice president of professional affairs at alcon, inc., which subsequently merged together with ciba vision corporation in 2011. references 107. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 1997-1998. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 121 108. bailey, rn, heitman, e., eds. an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics. st. louis: american optometric association, 2000. ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: http://www.aoa.org/documents/optometrists/book.pdf. accessed november 19, 2015. 109. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 1998-1999. 110. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 1999-2000. 111. midyear planning conference agenda and minutes of the ethics and values committee. 2001. 112. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2000-2001. 113. midyear planning conference agenda and minutes of the ethics and values committee. 2002. 114. paramore j, berman m, eichhorst t. development of the aoa code of ethics and standards of professional conduct. guest editorial. optometry: j am optom assoc 2012:83(4);6-7. 115. resolution #1969 (4 0f 2007). code of ethics. st. louis: america optometric association. also: ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/code-of-ethics?sso=y. accessed november 19, 2015. 116. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2006-2007. 117. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2005-2006. 118. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2007-2008. 119. online course in ethical behavior on way. aoa news. st. louis: american optometric association, 2006:april:24. 120. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2008-2009. 121. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2009-2010. 122. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2010-2011. 123. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2011-2012. 124. standards of professional conduct. st. louis: american optometric association, 2011. ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: http://www.aoa.org/documents/about/standards-of-professional-conduct_adoptedjune-2011.pdf. accessed november 19, 2015. 125. article v. section 2. f. of the aoa bylaws. st. louis: american optometric association. 126. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2012-2013. 127. carman c, totten d. social media recommendations. st. louis: american optometric association, 2012. ethics and values section of the american optometric http://www.aoa.org/documents/optometrists/book.pdf http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/code-of-ethics?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/documents/about/standards-of-professional-conduct_adopted-june-2011.pdf http://www.aoa.org/documents/about/standards-of-professional-conduct_adopted-june-2011.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 122 association website: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/socialmedia-recommendations?sso=y. accessed november 19, 2015. 128. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2013-2014. the ethics forum was placed online at the ethics and values section of the aoa website: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/ethicsforum?sso=y as of april 2015. accessed november 19, 2015. 129. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2014-2015. additional readings: (to further appreciate the setting in which the discussed history occurs) koetting ra. the american optometric association’s first century. st. louis: american optometric association. 1997. past issues of hindsight: journal of optometry history, official publication of the optometric historical society author’s notes i have been interested in the professional practice of optometry since my days in optometry school at indiana university in the 1960s. i had the privilege of serving my profession both as a private practitioner in charlotte, north carolina for ten years during the 1970s and as an educator and member of the faculty at the university of houston college of optometry for almost thirty years. i was particularly honored to be asked to serve on the aoa ethics and values committee for ten years beginning in 1991. i am currently serving a third term on the judicial council of the aoa. as you may recall from the paper, the aoa launched the professional advancement program in 1942. the professional advancement program was part of the continuing effort by the aoa to particularly address the challenges highlighted by the reader’s digest articles in 1937 and the lack of respect by the military for the profession during world war ii. at that time, james a. palmer of charlotte, north carolina was appointed national director of the office of ethics and economics. in 1970, upon my entering practice in charlotte, i had the opportunity to meet dr. palmer at one of our local professional society meetings; however, i was unaware at the time of the impact he had made on the professional practice of optometry in north carolina and nationally. for me, this point highlights the importance of today’s optometry student and practitioner alike knowing and appreciating the history of our profession, in all its aspects. organized optometry in north carolina (n.c.) was quite progressive during my practice in that state in the 1970s, which led to the state becoming the second state to pass legislation allowing for the prescribing of therapeutic pharmaceuticals by optometrists. i was a member of the initial therapeutics licensed group in n.c. this was also a period when there were many rules of practice required by the regulations of the optometry practice act of n.c., largely reflecting those promoted by the aoa. while it may be difficult to believe in today’s environment, one n.c. regulation in my practice years did not allow for eyewear frames to be visible from the reception area of the office. in addition, i also followed the recommended guidelines for charging professional service fees plus material http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/social-media-recommendations?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/social-media-recommendations?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/ethics-forum?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/ethics-forum?sso=y hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 123 costs for eyewear rather than using a “mark-up of materials” system, which was a common practice in most commercial optical businesses and some optometric practices. i followed this system throughout my ten years in private practice, attempting constantly to promote a professional image rather than a merchant image. it was not always easy. while one can appreciate the arguments that it should be easier for members of the public to make purchasing decisions if they have all of the information regarding optometrists’ professional services and fees, the practitioner needs to realize that promotion of optical goods may make it more difficult, as a professional, to manage the more commercial/product aspects of an optometric practice that both prescribes and dispenses. the nature of product promotions has the potential to lead the public to view some optometrists more as merchants than as professionals. some would say that the u. s. supreme court’s decision, allowing for the professions to advertise in ways that were historically considered unprofessional and illegal in most states, places an additional challenge on today’s doctors of optometry and other professionals to maintain a professional image. the optometric practitioner should be ever mindful of the potential for conflicts of interest in all areas of practice, especially when dispensing materials or any professional services that the optometrist prescribes. this requires one to take additional care in order to maintain the highest professional behavior. as noted in the paper, professional ethics demands more than just adhering to the letter of the law, but sets obligations that are greater than the law. following ethical principles and standards has become increasingly complex as optometry has expanded its scope of practice into medical eye care. the 2007 code of ethics and 2011 standards of professional conduct clearly guide the optometrist in the obligations that should enable the practitioner to serve as the patient’s fiduciary. it is very difficult to include all the nuances reflecting the profession’s efforts to establish its ethical basis and to advance the public’s image of the profession through legal and association endeavors. the author encourages the reader to review the references, read the appendices carefully, and to complete additional readings where an expanded understanding of events, and the times in which they occurred, is desired. i especially want to acknowledge the monumental task of my colleague and professional friend, john g. classé, in researching and authoring his text, legal aspects of optometry. i personally refer the reader to its contents for greater detail of the discussed subject matter, including his three chapters devoted to the topic of ethics. the views expressed in these author’s notes and throughout this paper to which it is attached, the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 1898-2015, are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the american optometric association. i hope this paper on the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the usa has been of interest to the practitioner and student alike, and that it will serve as a useful reference in the future. r. norman bailey, ma, od, mba, mph, faao emeritus clinical professor, retired university of houston college of optometry member, judicial council past-chair, ethics and values committee american optometric association hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 124 past-chair, vision care section american public health association dedication: i would like to dedicate this paper to all who helped me to become the doctor of optometry i became; regrettably knowing i will miss some important individuals in the list below. parents and siblings: clyde h. and ruby dell bailey and my four siblings, betty, larry, william, and margaret public schools and community: chattanooga, tennessee faculty at the university of chattanooga (university of tennessee at chattanooga): (1959) ba, comb. science faculty at peabody college of vanderbilt university: (1960) ma, psychology* faculty and graduate students at indiana university: (1969) o.d., optometry especially, faculty (alphabetical): graduate students: merrill j. allen anthony j. adams irvin m. borish t. david williams gordon g. heath george c.s. woo henry w. hofstetter, dean john r. pierce jerald w. strickland distinguished staff at the gesell institute of child development: (1969-70) optometric fellowship** many others after beginning optometric practice in charlotte, north carolina in 1970. *this degree led to my subsequent employment as a masters-level school psychologist for the chattanooga, tennessee public schools where i examined children with learning problems. while there are many reasons why children do not succeed in school, it was during this time i became acutely aware that vision difficulties (not just refractive) could contribute to the learning difficulties of some children. in 1964, while in this position, i had the opportunity to attend a school readiness workshop at the gesell institute of child development in new haven, connecticut where i met richard j. apell, od and john w. streff, od and began investigating optometry as a calling for a way to assist others to a better life. **upon graduation from indiana university, i was awarded the gesell institute’s optometric fellowship and benefited from the instruction and experience of drs. apell and streff. the co-founders of the gesell institute of child development, francis l. ilg, md, and louise bates ames, phd, taught me the relationship between visual development and the other areas of child development. appendix h: currently active (extant) ethics resolutions and substantive motions as of july 2015 (not shown in the order they were adopted) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 125 ethics code of ethics #1969 the optometric oath #1847 standards of professional conduct #m-20112 vision usa #1865 standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services #1883 hiv and aids research #1852 ethics committee #1913 study of ethics integral part of optometric education #1904 state board credit for continuing education courses in ethics #1938 practice with other health care professions and disciplines #1534 abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves #1916 doctor/patient communications in managed health care plans #1920 protecting against potential bias in patient care #1939 patients benefit from optometric professionalism #1960 billing to third party insurance plans #1844 restrictions on certain activities of trustees, officers and volunteers of the american optometric association #392 disclosure of conflicts of interest #1910 #1969(4 of 2007) code of ethics resolved, that the code of ethics adopted as substantive motion 1 in 1944 and modified in 2005 be repealed and the following be adopted. code of ethics (see the body of the paper for the text of the 2007 code of ethics) #1847 (4 of 1986) the optometric oath whereas, over the years numerous optometric organizations and the schools and colleges of optometry have developed and utilized an optometric oath; and whereas, the american optometric association has always supported and endorsed the highest standards, ethics and ideals for the profession of optometry; now therefore be it resolved, that the following statement be adopted as the oath of the optometric profession, to wit: the optometric oath (see the body of the paper for the text of the optometric oath) and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourages all state and local optometric associations and the schools and colleges of optometry to endorse and to employ the optometric oath whenever appropriate. #m-2011-2 (2011) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 126 standards of professional conduct (see the body of the paper for the text of the 2011 standards of professional conduct) 1865 (8 of 1989)(mod. 2005) vision usa whereas, most americans recognize the importance of good vision; and whereas, some people are unable to obtain needed eye care services due to their lack of financial ability, or their inability to secure private health insurance, or their inability to qualify for government health care programs; and whereas, the code of ethics of the american optometric association states that "it shall be the ideal, the resolve and the duty of its members to see that no person shall lack for visual care regardless of his financial status"; and whereas, the american optometric association has developed a national optometric charity entitled vision usa which provides needed vision care services to the working poor throughout this nation; now therefore be it resolved, that all members of the american optometric association be urged to participate in the vision usa national optometric charity project and to donate at least 8 hours of their services each year to individuals who are unable to obtain needed eye care services due to their lack of financial ability, their inability to secure private health insurance, or their inability to qualify for government health care programs. #1883 (2 of 1991)(mod. 2010) standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services (see the body of the paper for the full text of the original resolution as adopted in 1991) resolved, that the american optometric association board of trustees establish a standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services with a broad mission and focus to address a variety of circumstances and problems which now exist in the health care arena that affect the practices and services of doctors of optometry; and be it further resolved, that the standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services make an annual report to the american optometric association house of delegates. #1852 (5 of 1987) (combined in 2015 with 1890 (9 of 1991) and continued as 1852) hiv and aids research whereas, it is incumbent upon optometrists, as primary health care providers, to be knowledgeable and to counsel patients about acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids), since the disease has ocular manifestations and the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) antibody has been isolated in tears but not found to be transmissible; and whereas, it is important to educate the public to take precautionary measures to prevent aids transmission; now therefore be it hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 127 resolved, that the american optometric association strongly recommends that it be the responsibility of all practicing optometrists to acquire background and knowledge, through continuing professional education of hiv infections, appropriate infection control and related public health and patient care issues; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association supports private and government funding of educational programs to inform the general public accurately with scientific facts, to reduce unfounded fear of infection in the general population, and to prevent further infection in populations at risk of contracting aids; supports confidentiality in voluntary testing for the hiv antibody; supports increased private and federal funding for aids research; and supports continual efforts to assess potential improvement of treatment in order to provide the most efficacious cost-effective care. #1913 (3 of 1995) (mod. 2015) ethics committee resolved, that the affiliated associations of the american optometric association be encouraged to make efforts to raise the level of consciousness about issues of ethical behavior; to identify and address ethical concerns that relate to clinical practice; and to identify and address ethical concerns that relate to organizations' behavior; and be it further resolved, that the affiliated associations of the american optometric association be encouraged, with advice and guidance from their legal counsel, to activate committees on ethics and values which would address concerns as they may arise related to issues of ethical behavior in accordance with applicable federal and state laws. #1904 (1 of 1994)(mod. 2000) education in ethics whereas, a comprehensive understanding of ethics is essential for the humanitarian delivery of health care; and whereas, the practice of optometry must be firmly based on professional and moral ethics; and whereas, ethics education should be included within the formal optometric curricula of the schools and colleges of optometry; and whereas, optometric educators have formulated a curriculum model on ethics; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association endorses the study of ethics as an integral part of optometric education; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association urges the schools and college of optometry, as well as its affiliate associations providing continuing education, to adopt structured curricula and programs in ethics. #1938 (3 of 2001) state board credit for continuing education courses in ethics whereas, the present complexity of health care practice has created a variety of new ethical issues, concerns, and dilemmas; now therefore be it hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 128 resolved, that the american optometric association supports the inclusion of presentations on ethics in national, regional, and state continuing education programs; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourages all state boards of optometry to accept courses in ethics toward fulfillment of continuing education requirements for license renewal. #1534 (7 of 1964)(mod. 1995) practice with other health care professions and disciplines whereas, optometrists and state associations have sought guidance from the american optometric association concerning the ethical relationship of optometrists with other health care professions and disciplines in the joint practice of their professions; and whereas, it is against the public interest if the public cannot readily identify and distinguish the profession or discipline practiced by each individual in a joint practice; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association declares that it is ethical for optometrists, as permitted by law, to be associated with, to be partners with, to employ or be employed by other health care professions and disciplines, so long as each practitioner is clearly identified by designation and title of the profession or discipline for which he or she is licensed. #1916 (1 of 1996) abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves whereas, the awareness of abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves has been elevated to a level where society has taken increased steps to curtail the exploitation of these persons; and whereas, the profession of optometry has an ethical and societal responsibility to be advocates for those suffering abuse; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association and affiliated state associations be encouraged to provide members with educational resources to aid in the recognition of abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourages the national board of examiners in optometry to include questions on the subject of abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves as a portion of their examination, making future practitioners more aware of these problems; and be it further resolved, that individual doctors of optometry be encouraged to report cases of suspected abuse to the appropriate authorities in accordance with current laws; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourage all affiliated state associations to adopt a similar resolution. #1920 (5 of 1996) (mod. 2015) doctor/patient communications in managed health care plans whereas, there is concern that some managed health care contracts may limit doctors' ability to communicate with patients; and hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 129 whereas, it is the ethical duty of doctors of optometry, as a fundamental element of the doctor-patient relationship, to act as advocates on behalf of the patient; and whereas, it is a doctor's obligation to discuss necessary and appropriate treatment alternatives and in good faith to fully inform the patient of all treatment options; and whereas, the failure to communicate specific information may limit the patient's access to timely, relevant and quality health care services; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association strongly encourages the adoption of federal legislation prohibiting managed health care organizations from using restrictive contract clauses that may serve to limit a doctor's ability to communicate openly and freely with patients about their care options; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association strongly encourages the affiliated state associations to seek the adoption of similar state legislation. #1939 (4 of 2001) (mod. 2015) protecting against potential bias in patient care resolved, that the american optometric association reiterates its time-honored principle of appropriate professional care for all patients; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association, as a matter of ethical concern, strongly encourages all practicing optometrists to be cognizant of the potential for bias in patient care based upon health, gender, age, ethnicity, race, financial status or any other patient characteristic. #1960 (7 of 2004) patients benefit from optometric professionalism whereas, the american academy of ophthalmology has adopted a policy excluding optometrists from all educational courses offered at american academy of ophthalmology meetings; and whereas, the new exclusionary policy of the american academy of ophthalmology is offensive to the principles of scientific professionalism, the free exchange of medical knowledge for the benefit of the public, and the ethics of collegiality among all health care professionals that helps to ensure the best care for patients; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association shall continue unchanged its long-standing policy of opening all educational courses offered at american optometric association meetings to ophthalmologists to attend; and be it further resolved, that, in all educational relationships with ophthalmologists, the american optometric association shall, for the benefit of patients, adhere to the principles of scientific professionalism, the free exchange of medical knowledge, and the ethics of collegiality among health care professionals. #1844 (1 of 1986)(mod. 1990)(mod. 1995)(mod. 2000) billing to third party insurance plans hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 130 resolved, that the american optometric association considers the excess billing of benefit plans, whether in the public or private sector, to be unethical and to be contrary to the behavior of a professional practitioner of a learned health care profession. #392 (4 of 1938)(mod. 1990)(mod. 1995)(mod. 1997)(mod. 2005)(mod. 2012) restrictions on certain activities of trustees, officers and volunteers of the american optometric association whereas, the american optometric association, with an established code of ethics, is a membership organization of optometrists and others devoted to improving the visual welfare of the public; and whereas, the participation of trustees, officers and volunteers of the american optometric association on boards, advisory boards, councils, or committees of other entities may be beneficial to the advancement of the objectives of the association; and whereas, the individuals serving as trustees and officers of the american optometric association, a non-profit corporation organized and governed by the laws of the state of ohio, are obligated, both legally and ethically, to maintain faithfully their duty of loyalty to the american optometric association and to protect the integrity of their positions as fiduciaries of the association by promptly disclosing any actual or potential conflicts of interest, and in appropriate circumstances, recusing themselves from participating in deliberations and/or voting on any matter involving a conflict of interest that may come before the board of trustees in the course of their duties; and whereas, all individuals serving as volunteers and elected officials of the american optometric association, including members of the board of trustees, as recognized leaders of the optometric profession and representatives of the aoa and its membership must, as a condition of service, comply with and adhere to the association's established policy and procedures requiring the disclosure of all personal professional and financial interests and activities which may cause a conflict of interest; and whereas, any meaningful and effective policy intended to guard against the potential for conflicts of interest, whether actual or perceived, must necessarily be an evolving policy, adaptable and flexible enough to address unforeseeable situations in which potential conflicts may arise; and whereas, under such a policy, questions regarding the interpretation and application of the policy can be expected to arise; and whereas, it is in the best interest of the association, its members, and its elected leaders on the board of trustees, to maintain fair and effective procedures to protect against potential conflicts of interest, whether actual or perceived; now therefore be it resolved, that the current aoa board policy, that imposes a duty on a board member of the american optometric association to recuse himself or herself from discussion and voting on any matter in which they may have a conflict of interest, is hereby affirmed; and that the board of trustees, consistent with governing law, is empowered to temporarily suspend from any discussion or vote a board member whom they determine to have a conflict of interest and who refuses to recuse himself or herself from discussion and voting on the matter in which he or she has a conflict of interest; and that the board of trustees shall develop and implement policies to carry out the principles of this resolution, including the reporting of matters by the board of trustees to the judicial council for its review when necessary; and be it further resolved, that the policy expressed in resolution 1910, requiring each member of the board of trustees and each volunteer of the american optometric association to properly disclose any potential conflict of interest, along with a description of any personal business interests, affiliations, or activities with any entity active in the health care field, is hereby affirmed; and be it further hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 131 resolved, that a member of the board of trustees of the american optometric association may not serve as a member of a board, advisory board, or as a principal, agent, or employee of, or have any other active personal affiliation with, any other entity, if such affiliation would conflict with the objectives and policies of the american optometric association; and be it further resolved, that, prior to election, a candidate for the american optometric association board of trustees shall publicly disclose any potential conflict of interest and provide to the house of delegates a description of any personal business interest, affiliation or activity with any entity that, whether or not active in the health care field, may have the potential to give rise to a conflict of interest with the association or its objectives and policies; and be it further resolved, that in no case shall the house of delegates elect a candidate who has, nor shall a candidate or member of the board of trustees develop, a personal interest of such a nature that it would compromise that individual's ability to perform his or her responsibilities as a member of the american optometric association board of trustees; and be it further resolved, that all members of the american optometric association board of trustees shall, on an annual basis, disclose any potential conflict of interest by providing to the house of delegates a description of any personal business interest, affiliation or activity with any entity that, whether or not active in the health care field, may have the potential to give rise to a conflict of interest with the association or its objectives and policies; and be it further resolved, that elected officials of the american optometric association shall not allow their names, photographs, titles and/or positions with the association to be used improperly by any other entity-to advance that entity's business interests, and/or for the official's own personal financial gain; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association counsel shall be responsible for ensuring: that the information provided in accordance with the association's conflict of interest and disclosure policies is properly collected, reviewed, and maintained at the association's main office; that, upon request, such information is provided to any delegates, officers, and trustees at the house of delegates each year at the annual congress; that any interim disclosures of information submitted in accordance with these policies in between annual congresses is promptly redistributed to all members of the board of trustees and to all members of the judicial council for their review; and that such information be made available for inspection, upon the written request of any member, by appointment with the association counsel, during regular business hours; and be it further resolved, that the judicial council shall be responsible for overseeing the administration of the association's conflict of interest and disclosure policies, and shall make recommendations, where appropriate, to the house of delegates as to the sufficiency and appropriateness of these policies and the procedures established to implement them; and be it further resolved, that the judicial council shall be responsible for rendering final decisions on any questions arising under the association's conflict of interest and disclosure policies. complaints against any member elected or appointed to a position in the association related to conflicts of interest or failure to disclose any conflict of interest shall be made in writing to the judicial council setting forth the details of the complaint with specificity. the judicial council shall initially screen such complaint, with assistance from counsel, and determine if it merits further review. if further review is determined to be warranted, the judicial council shall conduct a hearing at which the party making the complaint and the party against whom the complaint is being made shall have the right to be heard, be represented by an attorney, give evidence, and present and cross-examine witnesses. the judicial council, by majority vote, shall then render a written decision on the complaint, including any recommendations thereon. such decision shall be forwarded to the board of trustees for final action on any recommendations. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 132 #1910 (combination in 1995 of 1903 (8 of 1993) and 1905 (2 of 1994) into new 1910) (mod. 2015) disclosure of conflicts of interest whereas, the american optometric association continues to recognize the necessity that individuals holding elected or appointed positions within the american optometric association embrace the principles of integrity and trust; and whereas, the american optometric association continues to recognize that officers, trustees and other volunteers of the american optometric association and of its affiliated associations bear a special responsibility to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof between their association responsibilities and their private business interests; and whereas, the american optometric association has adopted a process to identify potential conflicts of interest for volunteers and staff; now therefore be it resolved, that all elected officials of the american optometric association, including the american optometric association board of trustees and section officers, all appointed volunteers and staff of the american optometric association should disclose any conflict of interest when engaged or about to engage in activities on behalf of the american optometric association, provided that an american optometric association entity may adopt stricter guidelines; and be it further resolved, that all elected and appointed volunteers and staff of the american optometric association shall annually execute a statement that they will reveal personal business interests relating to any activities in which the american optometric association is engaged; and be it further resolved, that no person shall hold an elected or appointed position within the american optometric association volunteer structure, without having executed the disclosure statement within 30 days of appointment or election to the volunteer structure and then annually thereafter; and be it further resolved, that the affiliated associations are urged to develop conflict of interest disclosure requirements comparable to those of the american optometric association. appendix i: 2005 modification of the 1944 code of ethics (m-1-1944) showing the modifications adopted in 2005; note: deleted wording is indicated by strikethrough; added language is indicated by underscore (a new code of ethics replacing m-1-1944 was later adopted as resolution #1969 in 2007): it shall be the ideal, the resolve, and the duty of the members of the american optometric association: to keep the visual welfare of the patient uppermost at all times; to promote in every possible way, in collaboration with this association, better care of the visual needs of mankind humankind; to enhance continuously their educational and technical proficiency to the end that their patients shall receive the benefits of all acknowledged improvements in visual care; to strive to see that no person shall lack for visual care, regardless of his financial status; to advise the patent whenever consultation with an optometric colleague or reference for other professional care seems advisable; hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 133 to hold in professional confidence all information concerning a patient and to use such data only for the benefit of the patient; to conduct themselves as exemplary citizens; to maintain their offices and their practices in keeping with professional standards; to promote and maintain cordial and unselfish relationships with members of their own profession and of other professions for the exchange of information to the advantage of mankind humankind. hindsight: journal of optometry history 27 from the editor: honoring the ohs co-founders in the last issue of hindsight we highlighted the fact that the optometric historical society had been founded 50 years ago, and we featured articles on the history of the ohs and on the circumstances surrounding its formation. in this issue we continue the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of ohs by bringing you articles honoring the ohs co-founders maria dablemont and henry hofstetter. dablemont and hofstetter each brought to the ohs a combination of professional skill, passion for the history of optometry, and a desire to involve others in that history. dablemont served as secretary of ohs for its first 18 years and treasurer for its first 17 years. hofstetter was president of ohs for its first five years and variously editor, co-editor, or contributing editor of the ohs newsletter for over 30 years. important in their leadership was their conviction that optometry has a grand history. dablemont declared that optometry has a “glorious past.”1 hofstetter wrote that optometry has “an honorable heritage,…a truly proud history which includes many prominent and accomplished personalities.”2 together they got the ohs off to a good start. we hope you find these articles about maria dablemont and henry hofstetter to be informative and inspiring. references 1. hofstetter hw. for the record. hindsight 1995;26:25-27. 2. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight 1996;27:17-18. david a. goss, od, phd editor, dgoss@indiana.edu editorials david a. goss, od, phd guest editorial: maria dablemont’s museum “i didn’t know you had all this stuff!” is the most common reaction of visitors to the archives & museum of optometry (amo). the truth is that, up until recently, even we did not know what we had, but we knew that we needed to find out, and that it needed to be shared. since i joined the staff of optometry cares – the aoa foundation in 2013, i have seen how the artifacts in the museum never fail to inspire astonishment and fascination in seasoned optometrists, students, and members of the public alike. i also have come to understand that our ability to unlock their full potential for increasing public awareness of optometry is limited without the assistance of the academic community. in this issue, we focus on one of the first collaborations between organized optometry and academia to build the infrastructure for preserving optometry’s historical legacy—the relationship between the american optometric association’s maria dablemont and indiana university’s henry w hofstetter. among the many projects undertaken by the cofounders of the optometric historical society, the construction of a pipeline for channeling donations from private collectors to the international library, archives and museum of optometry (ilamo) may be one of the least known but most important. sometimes in drips and drabs, and at other times as a flood, the ilamo correspondence files between 1965 and 1990 chronicle the steady flow of maria dablemont, librarian, contemplates an optometry history exhibit at the international library, archives & museum of optometry, 1971. doi: 10.14434/hindsight.v50i2.27027 ' i ... jiindsight / newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume35 july 2004 number3 jay enoch's column: a fascinating and charming editorial by john swartzberg, m.d., in the wei/ness letter, volume 20, #5, february 2004, p. 3. school of public health, university of california at berkeley reproduced with oral permission of j.s., chair, editorial board john swartzberg, editor of the wei/ness letter at berkeley, saved my life twice. the first time we met i was in hospital where my treatment by others was frankly not being handled very well. he came to the case as a consultant. he properly diagnosed my legionnaires disease well before the laboratory determination was made, in fact, i was already home from the hospital when the confirmation of his diagnosis was received. not surprisingly, i selected him as my internist in subsequent years. on a second occasion, he insisted that urologists pursue further an anomalous psa reading when they twice said i was normal. once again, john was correct. he has since left practice for an academic career. we remain good friends. here, i reproduce with his permission, a very fine and brief editorial addressing a bit of medical history which he recently wrote in his column, "speaking of wei/ness'. the editorial was titled, "a doctor for all ages." "would you like to have a doctor who: • believes that your emotions are important and always takes time to talk with you, • extols the benefits of moderate exercise, • selects his assistants on the basis of their sunny nature, • recognizes the importance of a healthy diet, • consistently recommends the least invasive therapies, • is recognized as the greatest authority worldwide? such a doctor, you might think, would have been trained in some very up-to-date medical school. but, actually, this was moses maimonides, who died exactly 800 years ago. most such anniversaries go uncelebrated, but maybe we can learn something from this one. "maimonides was born into an educated jewish family in cordoba, spain, which at that time was part of a flourishing mediterranean culture ruled by muslims. 35/33 throughout his long and prolific life, maimonides moved from one land to another­ morocco, palestine, egyptoften fleeing persecution or war. he turned down a job as court physician to richard the lionhearted, the english monarch and crusader. eventually maimonides settled in cairo, where he opened a flourishing practice. "he was chief physician to the sultan of egypt, his harem, and his numerous children. "my duties to the sultan are very heavy, "he wrote. finishing his work at the palace, he rode home to his waiting room, which by then was filled with a "mixed multitude." he relates that he would then "dismount from [his] animal" and wash his hands another sign of his wisdom in an era that knew nothing of germs. then he would eat his one meal of the day and set to work. he also found time to write. among his books were one on asthma (he understood that climate and environment played a role), another on hemorrhoids (he suggested sitz baths and oils, rather than surgery, which no doubt the patient was relieved to hear), and a kind of "physician's desk reference," listing drugs and their uses. a rabbi and philosopher as well as a doctor, maimonides is famous for his treatises on jewish law. "we've made a lot of progress since that day, of course, and not all of this great physician's advice would be acceptable now. but he gave us the timeless gift of his belief in rational inquiry, humanity, and common sense. he thought medical practice should be "inspired with soul, filled with understanding, and equipped with the gift of keen observation and compassion." words as useful to our era as to his." "for maimonides' biography, i [swartzberg] owe thanks to dr. steven simon and his article in archives of internal medicine, september 13, 1999, and to dr. steven nuland." j.m.e. excellent website on antique spectacles: retired ophthalmologist david fleishman, a very enthusiastic collector of antique spectacles, has been working diligently for the last few months assembling an educational website on the history of spectacles. it was recently launched with the url www.antiquespectacles.com. the paragraphs below in quotation marks, which david recently sent for inclusion in hindsight, describe this extensive and interesting website. "almost 720 years ago the first simple pair of eyeglasses was invented. the name of the artisan from pisa, italy who devised them has remained obscure yet this was .. an achievement of monumental significance for mankind that has had an incalculable impact. they were certainly one of the most important inventions of all time. although it has been relatively unknown to the general public, the evolution and development of spectacles over the past seven centuries qualifies as a long, quite fascinating journey through history, whose impact deserves to be better recognized and more widely appreciated. david a. fleishman, m.d., retired ophthalmologist from massachusetts, has built an educational website with the help of over one hundred noted experts in the field of spectacles from all over europe, the far east, and the 35/34 united states. this new website reviews the subject of antique spectacles and other vision aids and is filled with interesting text along with wonderful and abundant imagery. "the core of this new website is eyeglasses through the ages, a history paper with over 60 colorful images attached, which adds 'life' to this amazing story. there is a list of all the world's public collections where groups of spectacles can be seen including hyperlinks to all those institutions which have websites. there is a timeline of development, a guide to assist in identification, a glossary, educational gam~s, key translations, and many other relevant pages. obviously, nothing is being bought or sold for the website is not commercial. the introduction explains the purpose in this website. there is a virtual museum page which will become an ever-expanding organized group of exceptional images aimed at drawing much attention and interest. "the defined goals are: 1. to educate interested visitors to the website. 2. to increase pubic awareness and thereby nurture a deeper appreciation in general. 3. to complement the other websites which have information on this topic. 4. to attract the newest generation of collectors (who may wish to join the only collectors' clubs, the ocular heritage society and/or the ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club). 5. to provide a forum where scholarly people can have a dynamic exchange of information and ideas. "this website is dedicated to an honor roll of distinguished persons, twenty-two individuals form eleven countries who were the true pioneers of this hobby. a newsworthy page will list recent books, upcoming meetings and exhibits, new discoveries, and other important news related to this subject. information is also being gathered relative to over twenty key subtopics which will become add-on pages in the future. visit www.antiquespectacles,com and enjoy an entertaining experience regarding something that is worn by a majority of people around the world yet is taken for granted by almost everyone." this website includes items that are of potential interest to the idly curious as well as items that the serious scholar of spectacle history may find helpful. with regard to the latter, there is a list of 47 references and recommendations for further study. these references include books, articles in various periodicals, pamphlets, and websites. most of the publications are in english. the dates of publication range from 1904 to 2003. there are various pages not mentioned in fleishman's abstract above, such as a page on the depiction of spectacles on coins, tokens, and medallions. much of the emphasis on the website relates to the collection of spectacles. on a page providing a "guide to assist in the identification of antique spectacles" there are examples of the lens shapes, bridge designs, temple designs, and temple endings that were characteristic of various periods from 1730 to the early 20th century. a page on preserving and restoring ophthalmic antiques gives contact information for the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club, which will be publishing a third printing of restoring ophthalmic antiques, by ronald j.s. macgregor. 35/35 the links page of this website appears to be under continuing construction. at present, there are links to the websites of two ophthalmic collectors groups, the ocular heritage society and the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club. however, there are numerous jinks on other pages of this website. there are various tidbits of information on the website. for example, there is a six paragraph biography of matthew w. dunscombe (1841-1918), along with a three paragraph description of his spectacle collection. dunscombe is described as "the world's first great collector of antique and unusual spectacles." he was an english optician. he is said to have "combined scholarship and research with sound commercial sense." he published a book entitled vision and spectacles in 1875, as well as a catalog of visual aids. he was one of the founder members of the british optical association in 1895. he was one of the founders of the kryptok company in 1905, along with borsch of paris and meyrowitz of new york. in 1861, dunscombe purchased a collection of about 50 spectacles, and by 1897, the collection had grown to 250 items. the dunscombe ltd. company passed out of the hands of his descendents in 1971, but there are establishments which still use the name. the world's finest public col.lections page contains a listing of 88 public collections in 17 countries. there are web links to 73 of the entities listed. one of the listed collections is the ohio state university college of optometry collection of spectacles of famous persons. the "american optometric association museum" (ilamo) in st. louis is listed, as is the museum of visual science and optometry at the university of waterloo in waterloo, ontario, canada. the author of this site, david fleishman, is to be commended for his hard work and dedication in constructing it. d.a.g. most important 20th century optometry books: we sent out a survey with hindsight several issues ago. in the survey we asked members of the ohs what you thought were the most important optometry books of the 20th century. the survey was also sent to all members of the association of visual science ·librarians (avsl). this question was discussed at the annual meeting of the avsl in december, 2002, and one of the members sent us the list of 19 books that they mentioned at their meeting as having merit for inclusion. in addition, we sent an email asking the question to the members of binocular vision and perception educators special interest group via that group's listserve (bvpe-l). and we also sent the question to the faculty of one optometry school by email. we received a total of 21 responses, 16 of which were from persons in the united states. we wish to express our thanks to the persons who responded to the survey. numerous books were listed in 35/36 the 21 responses. the book that was listed most frequently (ten times) was clinical refraction by irvin m. borish. before listing all the responses to the survey, we would like your input again or your responses if you didn't happen to respond the first time around. are there any books that were overlooked? are there any books that you would elevate from single nomination to multiple nomination? listed on two or more surveys: the books which were listed on two or more returned surveys were as follows (in alphabetical order): a amblyopia, shapiro applied concepts in vision therapy, press b binocular anomalies: diagnosis and vision therapy, griffin and grisham barish's clinical refraction, ed. by benjamin c clinical management of binocular vision: heterophoric, accommodative, and eye movement disorders, scheiman and b. wick clinical management of strabismus, caloroso and rouse clinical ocular pharmacology, bartlett, jaanus, et al. clinical optics, fannin and grosvenor clinical procedures for ocular examination, carlson, kurtz, heath, and hines clinical procedures in optometry, ed. by eskridge, amos, and bartlett clinical refraction, borish contact lens practice, mandell d dictionary of visual science and related clinical terms, cline, shapiro, hofstetter, griffin, berman, and everson dynamic skiametry, sheard dynamic skiametry in theory and practice, cross e,f fundamentals of cosmetic dispensing, dowaliby g,h . how to develop your child's intelligence, getman how to succeed in optometry, barstow i introduction to modern analytic optometry, lesser j,k,l legal aspects of optometry, classe legalized optometry and memoirs of its founder, prentice m mirrors, prisms, and lenses: a textbook of geometrical optics, southall 35/37 n notes on a dynamic theory of vision, harmon 0 ocular accommodation, convergence, and fixation disparity: a manual of clinical analysis, goss optics, fincham and freeman optometric management of nearpoint vision disorders, birnbaum p primary care optometry, grosvenor physiological optics, sheard physiological optics, zoethout q,r refractive anomalies: research and clinical applications, ed. by grosvenor and flom researches in binocular vision, ogle s, t the optometric profession, hirsch and r. wick treatise on physiological optics, helmholtz u, v, w, x, y, z vergence eye movements: basic and clinical aspects, ed. by schor and ciuffreda vision of children, ed. by hirsch and r. wick vision: its development in infant and child, gesell, llg, and bullis vision screening for elementary schools: the orinda study, blum, bettman, and peters visual analysis, manas visual optics, emsley visual optics and sight testing, laurance listed on one survey. the books which were listed on one returned survey were as follows (in alphabetical order): a adler's physiology of the eye, ed. by hart applied refraction, jaques and crow atlas of primary eye care procedures, fingeret et al. automated static perimetry, anderson and patella 8 .. basic clinical science course 12 volumes, american academy of optometry binocular vision, pickwell and evans binocular vision and ocular motility: theory and management of strabismus, von noorden c clinical low vision, faye clinical management of myopia, grosvenor and goss clinical uses of prism, ed. by cotter 35/38 computer applications in optometry, j. maino, d. maino, and davidson contact lenses, phillips and stone contact lens practice, ruben and cruillion d diagnosis and management in vision care, ed. by amos diagnosis and management of ocular motility disorders, mein and trimble diagnosis and management of special populations, ed. by d. maino dictionary of optometry, millodot duke-elder's practice of refraction, abrams e essentials of low vision practice, brilliant eye care for infants and young children, moore f foundations of sensory science, ed. by dawson and enoch g genetics for primary eye care practitioners, fatt, griffin, and lyle guide to occupational and other visual needs, holmes, joliffe, gregg, cameron, and blyth h, i, j, k, l lens power in action, kraskin low vision care, mehr and fried low vision: principles and practice, dickinson m my fifty years in optometry, fitch n neuro-optometric rehabilitation, padula 0 ophthalmic lenses, dioptric formulae for combined cylindrical lenses, the prism dioptry, and other optical papers, prentice optics in vision, obstfeld optometric instrumentation, henson optometrist's manual, brown optometry, edwards and llewellyn optometry, littlefield optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects, hofstetter p pediatric optometry, rosner physiological optics3 volumes, legrand physiological optics, southall practical applied optometry, skeffington procedure in ocular examination, skeffington public health and community optometry, newcomb and marshall q,r refraction and how to refract, thorington rx for success 35/39 s system for ophthalmic dispensing, brooks and berish system of ophthalmology, ed. by duke-elder t the fine art of prescribing glasses, milder and rubin the $100,000 practice, levoy the principles of ophthalmic lenses, jalie the refraction of the eye, hartridge the story of optometry, gregg u,v vision of the aging patient, ed. by hirsch and r. wick visual imagery: an optometric approach, forrest vision and visual perception, graham w, x, y, z your child's vision, kavner please send your comments on this list and/or the books therein to: david goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405. d.a.g. & d.k.p. managing editor and contributing editor.: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; emaif: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 35/40 2004-35-03-001 2004-35-03-002 2004-35-03-003 2004-35-03-004 2004-35-03-005 2004-35-03-006 2004-35-03-007 2004-35-03-008 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: john f. amos (2015), email address: eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: alden norm haffner (2014) secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) arol augsburger (2013) irving bennett (2016) jay m. enoch (2014) morton greenspoon (2015) alfred rosenbloom (2015) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: an 1899 advertisement from the optical journal for the south bend college of optics, of south bend, indiana. the term optometry was not in common use at that time. what we would today call optometry was often then referred to as optics. an article starting on page 71 discusses optometric education around the beginning of the twentieth century. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 49 hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2013 volume 44, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 table of contents the genesis of the optometry training program in the birmingham veterans affairs hospital, john f. amos……………………………………………………………………..50 notes on optometric education around the beginning of the twentieth century, david a. goss……………………………………………………………………………………..…71 “optometrist of the stars”: his wife remembers, les-lee roland……………………..77 william kitchiner (1775-1827), author of the economy of the eyes, david a. goss…79 robert klark graham (1906-1997), jack runninger and richard l. hopping…………82 book review: a short bright flash: augustin fresnel and the birth of the modern lighthouse, reviewed by david a. goss…………………………………………………...89 instructions to authors………………………………………………………………………...91 ohs membership application………………………………………………………………..92 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 50 the genesis of the optometry training program in the birmingham veterans affairs hospital john f. amos, o. d. school of optometry, university of alabama at birmingham, birmingham, alabama 35216-2049, eyedoc@uab.edu introduction as the university of alabama at birmingham school of optometry (uabso) celebrates its 44th year, it is important to record the history of events that served to not only shape the uabso, but of equal importance, have significantly impacted the profession as well. during the first 25 years of the uabso professional program’s history, fourth year interns participated in four affiliated programs. these programs were the vision function laboratory of the center for developmental and learning disorders (cdld), the optometry clinic in the diabetes research and education hospital (dreh), the vision screening and low vision rehabilitative care provided to clients of the alabama institute for the deaf and blind (aidb) and the optometry service of the birmingham veterans administration hospital (bvah). the cdlc, dreh and bvah were all located on the uab campus, with the aidb facility being located about 50 miles east of birmingham in talladega, alabama. the first three of these rotations began in 1972 and were staffed with fourth year interns under faculty supervision. of the four original rotations, all but the optometry clinic in the dreh, continue to exist and provide, in some form, patient care services. the dreh clinic eventually became a victim of political infighting in which ophthalmology, originally resistant to providing services in the dreh, agreed to provide such services either at the diabetes hospital or the eye foundation hospital, which was located one block away. eventually the dreh ceased to exist as an entity when treatment, education and research of diabetes and other endocrine diseases were integrated into the uab health system. however, it is the optometry training program in the bvah that has had the greatest impact on the profession, especially from the national perspective. early history of optometry in the va system newcomb, in his paper on the history of optometry in the veterans administration (va), provides a brief history related to the origins of the professions existence in the va system.1 optometrists were first placed on the staff of va hospitals in 1947 following the end of world war ii. however, it was not until 1957 that public law 85-96 provided specific authority, through united states code (38 usc) for subsequent employment of additional optometrists. in 1958, public law 85-462 amended section 4105 (5) of usc 38 to require that all optometrists employed by the va must hold valid state licenses to practice optometry and must have graduated from an accredited and approved united states school or college of optometry. next, several laws were enacted to clarify the fact that staff optometrists were duly authorized to render care to eligible veterans for “medical services”. in 1958, public law 85-857, and later in 1960, public law 86-598, made further modifications to usc 38 such that services of staff optometrists were hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 51 defined under the rubric of “medical services”. the purpose of these laws was to enhance the va’s ability to render optometric care to eligible veterans. although veterans had been receiving limited optometric care since 1947, the u.s. congress believed it was necessary to emphasize and clarify the fact that staff optometrists were duly authorized to render care to eligible veterans. in this manner, the optometrists could not be excluded from providing such services, even though optometrists were not specifically included in the original law. with the establishment of the uab school of optometry, as an integral part of an academic health center, the profession’s involvement in the care of veterans was poised to expand. the approval of an academic affiliation between uabso and the birmingham vah and the establishment of an optometry program in the birmingham vah served as a stimulus for the development of other optometry programs in va facilities with academic affiliations. appointment of dr. peters to the dean’s committee of the birmingham vah the uab school of optometry began its first program, the professional program (doctor of optometry), on september 1, 1969. the school’s first dean was dr. henry b. peters. dr. peters was the only faculty member for the first academic year (196970). in the first uabso annual report, which covered the 1970-71 year, dr. peters discussed future plans for the school.2 in this annual report, dean peters discussed a possible relationship with the veterans administration and more specifically with the bvah. as the dean of a new health care professional program on the uab campus, dr. peters had been offered, and accepted an appointment during this year, as a member of the dean’s committee of the bvah. the appointment was made by dr. m. j. musser, chief medical director, department of medicine and surgery, veteran’s administration central office (vaco), on the recommendation of dr. clifton meador, dean of the university of alabama, school of medicine, at uab.2 the transformation of the va into its present system actually began in 1946 with the establishment of an appointed va administrator, a chief medical director, and a department of medicine and surgery along with a va central office and the removal of physicians and dentists from title v-civil service for purposes of pay. the first training program in optometry was approved in 1972 and the position director of optometry was made possible by p. l. 93-82.1,3 an in depth history of the evolution of the veterans administration, the department of veterans affairs and the role of optometry within the va has been provided by myers.3 planning and initiation of an optometry training program in the birmingham vah it is apparent that dr. peters had entered into discussions with the veterans administration during the academic year of 1970-71, for the development of a pilot optometry program.2 the purpose of this program was to provide clinical training for optometry interns from the uabso and optometric technicians from the regional technical institute (rti). these programs were to be located in the bvah. a proposal was developed by the uabso and the bvah for submission to the veterans administration central office (vaco) as a result of discussions between dean peters, hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 52 the director of the bvah, and representatives of the research and education service in the vaco during the summer of 1971. this proposal was submitted on october 18, 1971 and included a request for funding of renovation to existing space in the bvah, purchase of equipment and support for faculty and staff as well as stipends for optometric technician students.4 supplemental information was submitted to the vaco on december 22, 1971 that provided more detailed financial information. on february 2, 1972 the director of the birmingham vah was notified of the approval for affiliation between the birmingham vah and the uab school of optometry and the funding of a pilot program.4,5 dr. peters received a copy of the chief medical director’s weekly highlights reports on march 7, 1972 from mr. russell d. bowman, coordinator of scientific communications, entitled “birmingham vah to help train optometrists and optometric technicians”.6 this highlight report noted that this would be the first program in the va system to provide clinical training for optometrists and optometric technicians. this program was the result of an affiliation between the school of optometry, the university of alabama in birmingham medical center and the birmingham vah. this report also referred to the fact that to become a completely effective member of a medical care team, optometrists needed more inter-professional interaction during their training. it was also envisioned that this program would help fill the need for the workforce required to provide comprehensive care to the veteran. it is clear from this highlights report that dr. peters recognized the considerable long-term promise such a program would have for teaching, research and patient care related to the uabso and the profession of optometry. the appointment of dean peters to the bvah dean’s committee and the relationship that followed set in motion certain actions that led to a more formal relationship. in a letter to dr. musser, dated march 31, 1972, dr. peters refers to dr. musser’s visit to birmingham and musser’s announcement of the affiliation of the bvah and the uabso.7 the date of dr. musser’s visit is not specifically mentioned by dr. peters, but it seems likely this visit occurred shortly before or perhaps within the same week, as the letter to dr. musser. in fact, on february 2, 1972, the veteran’s administration department of education and research had formally approved and funded a program for the clinical training of optometry students and optometric technician students in the bvah.5 the implementation of this new program was greatly assisted by the previous establishment of innovative training programs by the bvah and the university of alabama in birmingham medical center. the affiliation of the uabso and the bvah brought to 32 the number of categories of health care personnel training in cooperative programs in an effort to help alleviate the shortage of health manpower.4 this pilot program was also mentioned by senator alan cranston in an address before the western states optometric conference on march 2, 1972 and is explained in more detail in appendix ii of this paper. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 53 on november 22, 1972, mr. clyde g. cox, director of the bvah, issued hospital memorandum medical administration 45(136) as related to policies and procedures for patient services in the optometry program. this memorandum contained a stated purpose, optometric services to be provided to eligible veterans, policy for eligible outpatient and inpatient veterans, procedures for eligible outpatient and inpatient veterans and procurement of prosthetic services and references to applicable va regulations.8 a position description was signed by dr. jeffery t. keller as chief, optometry service; mr. clyde g. cox, director of the bvah; mr. e. vaughn crawford, administrative officer/medical executive board; and mr. r.k. davenport, personnel management specialist, on december 12, 1972. the position description related to the chief, optometry service at bvah as regards principle duties and responsibilities, supervisory controls over the position and other significant facts.9 dr. keller initially received approximately one-half of his salary from the uabso and the remainder from the bvah. on december 21, 1972, dean peters sent a memo to the association of schools and colleges (asco) and its board of directors announcing the opening of the optometry clinic in the bvah.10 he included the memorandum outlining policies and procedures along with reference to this memorandum being the first known statement in the va covering optometry services for a training program. the clinic was completed in december 1972, and keller stated that the bvah optometry service officially began january, 1973.4 dr. peters also prevailed on ms. gloria goldstein, director of public affairs at uab during this time, to write u.s. representative john buchanan (r-al) requesting that he have an announcement of this affiliation inserted in the congressional record. goldstein enclosed two articles containing the necessary information; one being a statement or article written specifically for the congressional record, and the other, a news release sent to the press by her office.11 this letter, written march 31, 1972, also referenced the fact that dr. musser was in birmingham that week and both he and dr. peters thought the insertion of this information in the congressional record would be helpful. on july 24, 1973 mr. clyde cox, the hospital director of the birmingham, vah, sent a letter to the regional medical director at vaco. in this letter he describes the organizational change at the birmingham vah in which the position chief-of-staff had been restored in lieu of the medical executive board. this organizational change had recommended that optometry be placed under the assistant director with support and allied health services. the organizational chart was approved by vaco on june 4, 1973. with the establishment of the position chief-of-staff and implementation of the approved organization, mr. cox states that his office has received a request that optometry organizationally be placed under the chief-of-staff. the primary justification for this request stems from the feeling of this new va service to identify with and report to the chief-of-staff. the chief-of-staff concurred. cox requested that the optometric hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 54 service be relocated accordingly.12 interestingly, on august 16, 1973, dr. r. n. whittington, regional medical director of region 2, wrote a letter to the director of the vah, birmingham advising him that the organizational chart had been revised and optometry had organizationally been placed under the chief-of-staff.13 this issue would be revisited again in several years. in an august 2, 1973 memorandum to uabso faculty dr. jeffrey keller, director of optometry services at the birmingham vah, announced that president nixon had signed the veteran’s health care expansion act of 1973. this act established the position of director of optometry and greatly expanded the availability and eligibility of veterans and their families for outpatient services.14 however, as of august 28, 1973, the regulations, as they were being redrafted, had not been published by the va.15 on october 19, 1973 dr. peters responded to a request from dr. paul haber, deputy assistant chief medical director, professional services, vaco. in this response dr. peters discusses, based on the development of the optometry program in the birmingham vah, the significant need for optometric services in the va, concerns regarding the reporting structure for the optometry service and the need for optometry to report to the chief-of-staff and not surgical services, services performed by optometry and the job description for the chief of optometry services at vah birmingham, the willingness of uabso to serve as an intake, indoctrination, qualification and continuing education center for optometrists employed by the va, future development of optometry services and estimated costs for an optometry clinic based on birmingham vah, and finally the job description for the director of optometry service.16 on november 1, 1973 dr. james gill wrote to dr. peters requesting his assistance in the structuring of a functional statement for optometry for use in the va. dr. gill served on an american optometric association (aoa) committee which met with the va among other federal agencies. in this letter he mentions a recent meeting he attended in dallas, texas with drs. peters, robert day and mr. hal bailey.17 there is a copy of a four item list regarding a functional statement for optometry in dr. peters’ file but what role he played in its development is not stated. optometry/ophthalmology relations in the bvah dr. ralph levene, chairman of the combined program in ophthalmology at uab, sent a memorandum dated november 23, 1973 to drs. hill, pittman, peters and aldrete. in this memorandum he proposed a schematic outline of an ophthalmologyoptometry program for the va. he asked that dr. peters study the proposal and comment. in summary, he proposed that 1.) the final program between the two professions involves the proposed blind rehabilitation center (brc), 2.) the proposal was in two steps because of the time lag in building a brc; 2a.) step 1 consists of an immediate updating of ophthalmology concurrent with the appropriation of funds from washington to the birmingham va in 1974. this involved space, money and an independent service, 2b.) step 2 a detailed joint proposal for optometry and ophthalmology for a brc program and the incorporation of adjacent space for the two professions within an expanded brc, 3.) at this time levene thought it best to keep the ophthalmology service within the medical-surgical unit rather than leave this unit and hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 55 form a new visual science unit with optometry. at some future time this idea could be re-evaluated.18 the discussion then broadened to the issue of ophthalmologists teaching optometrists and the conditions that must exist for this to occur. among these conditions set forth by dr. levene were that the ophthalmology community would teach optometrists to detect ocular disease but any proposal of unilateral legislation by optometry, deemed unacceptable to ophthalmology, would result in such teaching to cease immediately.19 dr. peters initial response to this memorandum was to send a memorandum to the curriculum committee, department of optometry, and dr. boyd eskridge, chairman, department of optometry. in this memorandum dr. peters addressed the memorandum from dr. levene and his subsequent meeting with levene. he stated he could make no promises regarding the actions of the alabama optometric association or the alabama board of optometry. he did seek the curriculum committee’s input related to an outline of material that could be taught, the number of lecture hours and other details of ophthalmology’s participation in the professional program of the uabso.20 this discussion had evolved beyond the scope of the optometry program at the birmingham vah and is discussed in greater detail in appendix i. on february 28, 1974 dr. peters wrote a memorandum to dr. william baldwin, president of asco, in which he proposed asco develop a position paper to address the same general problem areas of optometry/ophthalmology relations.21 this memorandum was presumably written in response to the aupo position paper which is discussed later in this paper. the call for a position paper was also renewed later by dr. kenneth myers in may, 1976. dr. myers was the first director of optometry service in the va central office. efforts to establish a joint blind rehabilitation center on may 9, 1975 dr. peters wrote a letter to dr. carlton c. evans, director of health services research and development service at vaco. dr. peters expressed an interest in, and had learned from dr. myers, of dr. evans interest in the potential of developing a research proposal for exploring role relations between optometry and ophthalmology in a joint clinical program.22 he enclosed a “letter of intent” drafted at uab in december, 1974. in the “statement on development of a joint eye clinic veterans administration hospital” dr. peters submitted to dr. evans, he references dr. harold skalka as the chairman of the department of ophthalmology. this statement proposed that a blind rehabilitation center (brc) be developed and that one floor of this addition be designated as a joint optometry/ophthalmology clinic. on june 25, 1975 dr. peters sent a memo to dr. skalka informing him that 1.) the special project grant for faculty exchange had been verbally approved for funding and each program may proceed to recruit for one faculty position and 2.) dr. evans had sent a letter encouraging the submission of a proposal to explore role relationships between ophthalmology and optometry in the birmingham vah.23 in a memorandum dated july 14, 1975, dr. peters notified dr. myers as to the status of the district council hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 56 on eye care. dr. peters had proposed such a council be formed to develop referral and service procedures related to eye care at the six va hospitals in alabama. these six hospitals comprised the va’s medical district 11.24 dr. peters had received a number of positive responses to the proposal and it was approved on july 2, 1975 by dr. s richardson hill, vice president for health affairs, uab. on august 21, 1975 dr. peters delivered a report to the academic health affairs committee, va medical district 11, on “the joint optometry-ophthalmology clinic, vah birmingham”.25 dr. newcomb appointed chief of bvah optometry service in december, 1975 following the completion of the masters of public health degree from uab, dr. robert newcomb was appointed chief of the optometry service at the bvah. on february 25, 1976 dr. robert slaughter, chief-of-staff at bvah, issued a policy for optometric services and clinical education in the va hospital.26 in this memo he approved a list of topical ophthalmic pharmaceutical agents that could be used for diagnostic purposes. in a personal communication from april, 2010 dr. newcomb related that initially dr. slaughter had approved everything on the list with the exception of methylcellulose.27 methylcellulose was, however, on the approved list sent by dr. slaughter and on the diagnostic pharmaceutical agents list sent to the chief-ofpharmacy services by dr. newcomb on march 3, 1976. how this list was approved is uncertain and somewhat curious considering the negative alabama attorney general’s opinion that existed at this time and the friendship between drs. slaughter and robert morris, chief-of-ophthalmology at the bvah. perhaps it was a result of dr. slaughter being a colonel in the alabama air national guard at that time and, undoubtedly, being aware that military optometrists were often privileged to use both diagnostic and therapeutic ophthalmic pharmaceutical agents while on active duty. dr. john potter was appointed as an additional staff optometrist during 1976. like dr. newcomb, dr. potter had been a navy optometrist during the vietnam era. it is important to keep in mind that in federal agencies such as the va, department of defense (dod) and indian health service (ihs) hospitals and clinics, clinical privileges are not governed by state law. in these federal facilities, clinical privileges are granted to staff optometrists, just as with other independently licensed health care professionals, by a local executive board based on verification of credentials that include education, licensure and clinical experience as well as the needs of the facility. all federal health care professionals need to be state licensed but not necessarily by the state in which a particular federal facility is located. however, it should be noted that on november 14, 1975 the alabama legislature had passed a new law that did not prohibit the use of drugs for diagnostic purposes. it would take another six years before the issue concerning the use of drugs by optometrists for diagnostic purposes in alabama was finally settled with a positive attorney general’s opinion. bvah organizational structure next, ensued several exchanges related to changing the organizational structure such that instead of being a service that reported to the chief-of-staff, optometry would report to the surgical service throughout the va. in a letter dated may 12, 1976, dr. r. m. whittington, associate deputy chief, medical director for operations, vaco, stated hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 57 that a recent review of hospital organizations was needed. the approved organizational structure for the bvah facility was included by attachment but questions had been raised concerning the separate service status for optometry. he concluded by stating this element of a separate optometry service was disapproved and should be restructured as a section under an appropriate service.28 in most other va facilities optometrists functioned under the supervision of the chief of surgical service, as did ophthalmology, and this was consistent with departmental policies. thus, even though optometry was clearly not a surgical discipline, its scope of practice was more similar to ophthalmology’s than any other discipline in the va hospital and, therefore, was placed under surgical service for administrative parity reasons. in a may 20, 1976 memorandum to dr. s. richardson hill, dr. peters made an urgent appeal that the current organizational structure of direct reporting to the chief-ofstaff be preserved.29 on june 15, 1976 dr. whittington notified the bvah hospital director that his appeal for the continuation of a separate optometry service had been denied.30 whittington further pointed out that congress had created the position director of optometry and not an optometry service. the director of optometry in the central office would be assigned to vaco surgical service.30 ironically, dr. whittington had approved the original organizational change placing optometry under the chief-of-staff in the birmingham vah in 1973.13 from the first year of the establishment of an affiliation agreement for an optometry service between the uabso and the birmingham vah in 1972, dr. peters envisioned a blind rehabilitation center (brc) at this hospital. by 1976 there were only three such brc’s in the u.s.: one in palo alto, california, one at the hines vah in chicago and one at the westhaven hospital in connecticut. there was no such facility in the entire southeastern region of the united states. the university administration and the birmingham vah had collaborated in preparing a proposal and it had been under active consideration by the vaco for some four years. in an effort to gain support for this brc project, and to increase its priority, dr. peters wrote a letter to mr. w. w. wadsworth in the state of alabama, department of veterans affairs.31 dr. peters had met mr. wadsworth at a recent vah dean’s committee meeting in birmingham. by this time dr. peters had also secured the support of the veterans of foreign wars and the blind veterans association. on july 29, 1976 dr. peters sent the following materials to dr. w. f. holdefer, chief of surgical service at bvah.32 first, the original proposal for the development of a clinical training program in the vah for optometry, second, the original and renewed applications for an interdisciplinary training grant between optometry and ophthalmology, including the joint statement for the brc and joint clinic and third, the current operating statement for the optometry service in the bvah. (it is assumed that either dr. holdefer was new to this position or not familiar with the project). in a report of contact, mr. doyle liles, hospital director, bvah on july 29, 1976 sent notice to mr. michael homyak at vaco that confirmed the brc, including the hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 58 ophthalmology/optometry clinic, were scheduled for design in fy 1977 and fy 1978. this facility was to be a five story addition to the dental wing of the bvah.33 in an august 12, 1976 letter to dr. paul haber, associate chief, medical director for professional services, department of medicine and surgery, vaco, dr. peters expressed concern about the change in reporting structure and sought dr. haber’s support of the brc and joint eye clinic at the bvah.34 in a separate letter dated august 25, 1976, dr. peters again wrote dr. haber, expressing concern that he had learned that one of the proposals circulating around some circles was to organizationally place optometry under ophthalmology.35 he urged this matter be given his personal attention and, if necessary, a meeting scheduled with optometry leaders. as a result of this change, dr. newcomb was directed at some time in 1976 to send all unscheduled walk-in patients examined by optometry to ophthalmology for confirmation of diagnosis. dr. newcomb was diligent in complying with this directive even to the point of sending patients with straightforward refractive conditions such as presbyopia. needless to say, after approximately six months, this resulted in even ophthalmology recognizing the waste of such redundant services and called to inform dr. newcomb it would not be necessary to continue these referrals.27 at the request of dean peters, drs. newcomb and potter later published two articles on diagnostic outcomes of optometric referrals within the bvah, which demonstrated both timeliness and appropriateness of optometric management plans.36,37 important federal legislation on october 5, 1976, dr. peters wrote a memorandum to the faculty of the school of optometry announcing passage by the u. s. congress of two bills of interest to optometry. the first being the veteran’s omnibus bill which established a separate optometry service in va central office under title 38.38 this separate service removed the threat of ophthalmological domination of optometry in the vaco, but not at the local level, and also provided for improved compensation for staff optometrists. the second bill was the health manpower bill which authorized legislation that included provisions for curriculum development, residency program development and support for regional consortia for development of optometry schools. dr. peters also wrote a memorandum on october 6, 1976 to dr. s. richardson hill informing him of the passage the veterans omnibus bill, dr. haber’s support of the brc, and a request to transfer the special projects grant (optometry-ophthalmology interdisciplinary training grant) from optometry to dr. hill’s office. this would relieve the problem of ophthalmologists being paid from an optometry grant.39 dr. peters was also instrumental in assisting with the development of va optometry programs in other va hospitals with affiliation with optometry schools or colleges in the same city or area. he was directly responsible for the establishment of the optometry program at the tuscaloosa va hospital. this program has developed into one of the leading optometry training sites in the va system and continues to be an important part of the uabso externship program and residency programs. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 59 association of university professors in ophthalmology resolution on november 10, 1976 dr. myers received a letter from dr. jonathan wirtschafter, secretary/treasurer of the association of university professors in ophthalmology (aupo), informing him that a resolution had been passed on november 7, 1976 at the aupo business meeting of the membership.40 this resolution stated that the appointment of a director of optometry service within the va should in no way alter the proper role of this non-medical discipline in the eye care team. optometrists should continue to report to the chief of ophthalmology and, if there is no such position, then the chief of surgery, then to the chief of staff. in response to the aupo resolution and letter dr. norman wallis, president of asco, on november 23, 1976, appointed a committee consisting of drs. hopping, peters and haffner, to develop a draft response for consideration at the next asco board of directors meeting.41 dr. peters sent a rewrite of a previously submitted statement to dr. norman wallis on december 30, 1976. this rewrite was developed by drs. myers, newcomb and peters with input from dr. hopping and the appointed committee.42 on january 5, 1977 asco submitted to aupo and others a “statement of position relative to the implementation of optometric participation in veterans administration hospitals and clinics under p. l. 94-581”.43 dr. wallis noted that this position statement was unanimously approved by the board of directors of asco on december 19, 1976.43 the asco considered it both inappropriate and totally unacceptable to place optometry (a service in the va central office) under ophthalmology (a sub-department of the surgical service) or under another service such as the surgical service. asco was of the opinion, based on six rationales, that optometry should report to the chief-of-staff of the hospital or clinic in an administrative organizational chart like dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and other independently licensed health care professions. ultimately, optometry’s position was not adopted by the va, which places non-surgical doctors of optometry administratively in a section of the local va’s surgical service even to this day. features of the bvah optometry service and facility administrative reporting in a memorandum dated july 23, 1973, mr. clyde cox, director of the bvah, notified the regional medical director at the veteran’s administration central office (vaco) of an organizational change in which the chief-of-staff position had been restored at the bvah. furthermore, that optometry would now report directly to the chief-of-staff instead of the assistant director of the support and allied health services. this organizational change was approved by the vaco june 4, 1973. at the outset of early discussions with hospital administration, it was decided that optometry should function as a distinct service of the hospital. in this manner the program director would be designated as the chief-of-the-optometry service and report directly to the chief-of-staff of the bvah. the purpose of this reporting relationship was to ensure this program would function independently. as a separate service, optometry would therefore be at the same administrative level as other professional services such as medicine, surgery and dentistry. this administrative structure was indirectly hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 60 supported by the dean of the uabso serving as a member of the dean’s committee of the bvah. the dean’s committee was an advisory committee to hospital administration on education and research programs conducted in the hospital. dean peters also served on the academic health affairs committee for vah district 14 which served in a similar capacity for alabama and mississippi. unfortunately this reporting structure was changed nationally by vaco, but this change has not impeded the development of optometry within the va system. features of the optometry clinic the newly renovated optometry clinic in the bvah was a 1,600 gross square foot area on the ground floor of the hospital. this facility consisted of a reception/waiting area, optical service and repair area, frame selection and dispensing area, special test area, director’s office, two examination rooms, conference room and an area for ocular fundus photography. the clinic was staffed by fourth year student interns and optometric technician students, two optometric technicians and the director. in the beginning, patient care was provided on a part-time basis but the technical and clerical staff was present on a full-time basis. the amount of time for providing clinical care transitioned to staffing the clinic full-time as the class size increased and as curriculum changes permitted. patient demographics the patient demographics, in general, were middle aged males many of them retired, disabled or not working because of health problems. the patient census of the clinic was by law limited to veterans who were eligible for either in-patient or out-patient services in the bvah. after 10 months of providing optometric services to veterans, 71% of all patients were found to be in need of eye care. many veterans had not had any form of vision care since separation from the military. of those patients needing vision care, glasses were provided to 72% of these veterans. based on this small sample of services provided, keller predicted a significant growth in the number of optometrists needed to provide vision care to current and future veterans.3 a follow-up study was reported by kleinstein and newcomb related to optometry services provided in the bvah.44 based on a retrospective case survey of almost 1,500 clinic records, it was determined that the optometry service had provided 1,428 comprehensive eye examinations for veteran patients during a two and a half year period. the total number of patient visits for other services was at least double the number of comprehensive eye examinations. of those receiving comprehensive vision care, 50% had not received any care within the past three years, 35% in over six years and 12.5% had never received care. over 70% of the patients examined (1,056), required spectacles or a change in their current spectacle prescription. approximately 14% of the veterans examined were found to have suspected disease or trauma and were referred to physicians in other hospital services. twenty-six (26) or 1.4% of veterans from this survey were found to be legally blind. this case survey study clearly demonstrated the need for optometric services in this veteran’s hospital. in 1975, dr. keller left the bvah to assume the responsibilities of assistant dean for clinic affairs at hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 61 uabso and dr. robert kleinstein was appointed interim chief of optometry services. in 1976, dr. robert newcomb was appointed the next chief-of-optometry services in the bvah. the success of the birmingham va optometry clinic led to the establishment of other such facilities as opportunities arose. dr. peters shared his experiences with his colleagues at national meetings, such as asco, and wherever possible, encouraged and facilitated the development of other optometry clinics within the va. conclusion it is clear that dr. peters played a critical role in the establishment of the first academically affiliated optometry teaching program in the va. in this regard the profession is indebted to dr. peters for his insight and leadership. perhaps there is no clearer evidence of how percipient dr. peters’ recognition of the promise optometric services in the va would hold for teaching, research and patient care than to examine the number of staff optometrists, optometry fellows and residents, and optometry interns currently involved in the va programs. to place the current staffing levels in some perspective, as late as 1972 there were only nine (9) full-time optometrists in the entire va system.45 newcomb has reported that prior to 1976 there were only eight (8) fulltime optometrists in the va system.1 at present, there are 721 staff optometrists; 543 are full-time, 164 are part-time and 14 are intermittent in assignment. there are three (3) clinical research fellows, one (1) polytrauma clinical fellow and one (1) polytrauma/traumatic brain injury research fellow. the latter position is post residency in nature. in addition, there are 211 residents and an estimated 1,200 optometry intern positions and approximately 1,400 rotation opportunities available on an annual basis.45 it is clear that the va has been pleased with the quality of optometric services provided by staff optometrists, fellows, residents and interns as evidenced by many outcome measures. perhaps the most important outcome measure being that the vast majority of the positions have been funded by the budgets of the local va hospitals or outpatient clinics. it seems very likely that more recent military involvement around the world will only serve to increase the demand for optometric services for veterans. it may also be that the growth in postgraduate clinical experiences as a career option will lead to future growth in residency education and fellowship experience in the va system. the impact the va has had on optometric education and the profession of optometry has been of great importance. its importance to staff optometrists, fellows, residents and interns cannot be over-estimated. it is also important to recognize the significant role va optometrists play in providing primary and secondary eye care to the nation’s veterans. it is clear that optometry has provided excellent clinical care while allowing the va system to provide timely care to those who have borne the battle. acknowledgment i thank drs. bob newcomb and john townsend for sharing information related to various aspects of optometry in the va. i also want to thank mr. tim pennycuff and hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 62 jennifer beck of the uab archives for their assistance in locating information from dr. peters’ files referenced in this paper. references 1. newcomb rd. history of optometry in the va. hindsight: j optom hist 2010; 41: 6-8. 2. peters hb. uab school of optometry annual report (1970-71). pp 13. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 3. myers kj. public health and the department of veterans affairs. in: hatch s, whitener jc, mcalister wh, block s, eds. optometric care within the public health community. section 3, government role in health care. cadyville, ny; old post publishing, 2010: 1-34. 4. keller jt. optometric training in a veterans administration hospital. am j optom physiol opt 1974; 5: 425-428. 5. foye lv. letter to director, birmingham vah announced approval and funding of pilot program. clinical training of optometrists and optometric technicians in vah birmingham. february 2, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 6. bowman rd. reference slip to dr. peters. birmingham vah to help train optometrists and optometric technicians. chief medical director’s weekly highlights reports, march 7, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 7. peters hb. letter from dr. peters to dr. musser regarding meeting in birmingham, march 31, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 8. cox cg. optometry program. hospital memorandum, medical administration 45(136), november 22, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 9. crawford hv. position description, chief of service, optometry service, december 12, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 10. peters hb. letter to association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco). december 21, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 11. goldstein g. letter to u.s. representative john buchanan, march 31, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 12. cox cg. letter to regional medical director, vaco. organization of va hospital, birmingham. july 24, 1973. 13. whittington rn. letter to hospital director birmingham vah. organization of vah birmingham. august 16, 1973. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 14. keller jt. memorandum to uabso faculty. v.a. legislation. august 2, 1973. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 15. johnson de. letter to representative william jennings bryan dorn, committee on veteran’s affairs, u. s. house of representatives. august 28, 1973. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 16. peters hb. letter to dr. paul haber regarding the development of the optometry service in the va. october 19, 1973. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 17. gill jr. letter to dr. peters regarding a functional statement for optometry. november 1, 1973. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 63 18. levene rz. memorandum to drs. hill, pittman, peters and aldrete. ophthalmology-optometry combined program, vah birmingham, including blind rehabilitation center. november 23, 1973. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 19. levene rz. memorandum to all staff members and senior residents of the eye foundation hospital. teaching optometrists by ophthalmologists. january 2, 1974. uab archives, university of alabama birmingham. 20. peters hb. memorandum to curriculum committee, department of optometry. teaching for ophthalmology. january 3, 1974. uab archives, university of alabama birmingham. 21. peters hb. letter to the president of asco. development of a position paper by asco. february 28, 1974. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 22. peters hb. letter to dr. carlton evans, director of health services research and development service (vaco). letter of intent for research proposal exploring role relationships between ophthalmology and optometry. may 9, 1975. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 23. peters hb. memorandum to dr. hal skalka. interdisciplinary program. june 10, 1975. uab archives. university of alabama at birmingham. 24. peters hb. letter to dr. ken myers. present status of council on eye care for va medical district #11. july 14, 1975. uab archives. university of alabama at birmingham. 25. peters hb. report to the academic health affairs committee, va medical district #11. august 21, 1975. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 26. slaughter rl. hospital memorandum 11-15 related to the optometry service. february 25, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama. 27. newcomb rn. personal communication. april 26, 2010. 28. whittington rm. letter to director of vah, birmingham, al. may 12, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 29. peters hb. memorandum to dr. s. richardson hill. va organizational chart – optometry. may 20, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 30. whittington rn. letter to hospital director birmingham vah. june 15, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 31. peters hb. letter to mr. w. w. wadsworth, state of alabama, department of veterans affairs. june 4, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 32. peters hb. memorandum to dr. w. f. holdefer, assistant chief, medical director for professional services, vaco. materials related to optometry. july 20, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 33. liles dr. report of contact. sent to mr. michael homyak, planning service, vaco. july 29, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 34. peters hb. letter to paul a. l. haber, assistant chief, medical director for professional services, vaco. august 12, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 35. peters hb. letter to dr. paul haber, assistant chief, medical director for professional services, vaco. august 25, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 64 36. newcomb rd, potter jw. diagnostic outcomes of optometric referrals in a va medical center. j am optom assoc 1979; 50: 881-887. 37. newcomb rd, potter jw. diagnostic outcomes of optometric referrals in a va medical center – part ii. j am optom assoc 1981; 52: 599-604. 38. peters hb. memorandum to school of optometry faculty. good news from washington. october 5, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 39. peters hb. memorandum to dr. s. richardson hill. interdisciplinary matters. october 6, 1976. uab archives. university of alabama at birmingham. 40. wirtschafter jd. letter to dr. kenneth j. myers, director of optometry service, va. resolution passed by the association of university professors of ophthalmology, november 7, 1976. november 10, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 41. wallis ne. memorandum to drs. hopping, peters haffner. rationale and response to aupo letters of the va. november 23, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 42. peters hb. memorandum to dr. norman wallis. position statement of asco on p. l. 94-581. december 30, 1976. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 43. wallis ne. president of the association of schools and colleges of optometry. statement of position relative to the implementation of optometric participation in veterans administration hospitals and clinics under p. l. 94-581. submitted january 5, 1977. 44. kleinstein rn, newcomb rd. a descriptive epidemiological study of optometry services in the birmingham veterans administration hospital. j am optom assoc 1976; 47: 1542-1545. 45. townsend j. personal communication. may 9, 2013. appendix i interprofessional relations between optometry and ophthalmology at uab it is not surprising that the funding and support of an optometry service in the bvah would be a cause for concern on the part of ophthalmology. it was apparent to both local ophthalmologists and those on the national level, that the establishment of an optometry teaching clinic in the bvah could have far reaching implications for both professions. as early as october 23, 1972, dr. ralph z. levene, chairman of the university of alabama, school of medicine’s department of ophthalmology, wrote to mr. clyde cox, director of bvah, dr. clifton meador, dean of the ua school of medicine and dr. s. richardson hill, vice president for health affairs at uab seeking clarification as to whether physicians had ultimate responsibility for patient care.1 on november 15, 1972 mr. cox wrote a report of contact memo in which he reported the findings of dr. benjamin wells, deputy chief medical director, vaco. dr. wells had called mr. cox concerning the question raised by dr. hill on patients referred to the clinical optometry facility. dr. wells had this question investigated by the legal department. it was determined that no law addressed this question and that policy is established by the hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 65 administrator of the va and the chief medical director as to the treatment of veterans. in summary, dr. wells stated that no case could be made about anything that would be in the law or regulations that would prevent an optometrist from doing anything he does in a private sector.2 in other words, it was generally the policy to follow traditional patterns as prevailed in private practice. on november 23, 1973, dr. levene sent a memorandum to drs. hill, pittman (dean, uasom), peters and aldrete.3 in this memo he included a schematic outline of an ophthalmology-optometry program in the va and a request for additional funding for new space for ophthalmology as an independent service in the medical-surgical unit of the bvah instead of as a division of surgery. he also presented a detailed joint proposal for optometry and ophthalmology for the blind rehabilitation program and incorporation of adjacent space for the two professions within an expanded brc. under the heading “logistics of patient care between the two professions” dr. levene stated that most patients will be seen first by optometry except for direct referrals to ophthalmology, patients requesting to be seen by ophthalmology or those with obvious disease requiring the services of ophthalmology. to monitor appropriate referrals from optometry to ophthalmology, a flexible set of criteria for referral was to be established, as well as periodic referrals on a random basis to allow comparison of the results of the examinations of the two professions. the sample size was to be determined by ophthalmology. this methodology was to be utilized to assess the adequacy of the referrals and examinations by each profession. referrals to other medical and surgical units were to be made only after consultation with ophthalmology. in a subsequent memorandum entitled “teaching optometrists by ophthalmologists” sent on january 2, 1974 to all staff members and senior residents, dr. levene outlined five items related to this broader issue.4 this memo was also copied to drs. hill, pittman, and peters. these were as follows: 1. the ophthalmology community will teach optometrists to detect ocular disease for referral. 2. such teaching will stop immediately if optometry proposes unilateral legislation unacceptable to ophthalmology. 3. referrals from optometrists to ophthalmologists must be distributed to many in the community, particularly younger ophthalmologists staring out, rather than a select few. any pattern of referrals by the school of optometry that is unacceptable to the community of ophthalmologists will result in cessation of teaching. 4. all teaching by ophthalmologists should be channeled through the official combined eye program. if optometry accepts independent teaching by other individual ophthalmologists the teaching through the combined program in ophthalmology will stop. 5. the ophthalmologists will be compensated for their time by a fee from the school of optometry. not surprisingly dr. peters, after consulting with faculty members and those in the optometric community, responded to dr. levene’s proposal. on february 22, 1974, he answered by responding to each proposition as well as sharing his own concerns hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 66 regarding this memo.5 (due to the length of the letter some of the responses have been paraphrased). 1. the statement that the ophthalmological community will teach optometry students to detect ocular disease for referral is inadequate. since the community does not teach does this mean the department of ophthalmology will assume this relationship (a proper interdepartmental relationship in a university?). secondly, the very restrictive implications of “detect ocular disease for referral” seems to preclude knowledge about, understanding of ocular disease or ocular manifestations of systemic disease and the necessary decision making process by the optometrist as to whether or not to refer. the more optometry students know about ocular disease, the better they will be able to serve the public. 2. this statement is that teaching will stop if optometry (any optometrist?) proposes unilateral legislation unacceptable to ophthalmology (any ophthalmologist?). dr. peters could not agree to give such assurance or carry it out if given. neither the alabama state board of optometry nor the alabama optometric association would give him the right to bargain away their political birthright for any purpose, nor should they. as an alternate solution dr. peters proposes the formation of an alabama inter-professional committee on eye care. this committee, composed of individuals of common purpose, open minded men of good will could consider in open discussion all legislative matters affecting either or both professions. with such a committee there is a good possibility of establishing communication and cooperation – instead of the coercion implied in his (dr. levene’s) statement. 3. the statement regarding referrals seems to imply that the “ophthalmological community” wishes to control or direct referrals from the school of optometry to “deserving” ophthalmologists and again the coercive phrase (referring to the “ophthalmological community”, i believe). dr. peters states he believes this (such controlling action) would violate medical ethics. the faculty will refer their patients to that practitioner or those practitioners whom they feel will best serve their patient’s needs. this (referral) usually involves some cooperation between the optometrist and ophthalmologist and if the young ophthalmologists cooperate with faculty (even be reasonably courteous and not make unnecessarily derogatory comments to patients) in other words, behave in a civil manner, they will receive referrals. 4. this statement relates to control of “all teaching by ophthalmologists” by the “official combined eye program”. i believe this is unnecessarily restrictive unless the “official combined eye program” is exceptionally responsive to our needs and has within its staff experts in all aspects of vision care. the school does call on outside consultants, experts, researchers, etc., with unique knowledge to supplement knowledge of the faculty for the benefit of students. since the school is responsible for the student’s education, it must be responsible for those individuals brought in to teach, be they regular faculty, consultants or whatever. 5. the school has agreed from the start to compensate those who teach students. by the same token the school wishes to monitor and evaluate the teaching effectiveness of the faculty (or others). hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 67 dr. peters then discusses several other considerations he wishes to bring to dr. levene’s attention. these matters are as follows: a) dr. peters believes that in a university there is a general obligation to teach, that is, to transmit existing knowledge to bona fide students. in this regard dr. peters believes it is dr. levene’s department’s obligation to teach school of optometry students (one might assume dr. peters is referring primarily to professional students since this was the only program that existed at this time in the school). furthermore, dr. peters states that you (dr. levene and the department of ophthalmology) should do this out of self-interest. the more sophisticated the optometry students (and optometrists) become with regard to ocular disease and ocular manifestations of systemic disease, the better and more competent they will become in referring appropriate patients to ophthalmologists. b) it seems to dr. peters that this exchange of faculty resources should be a two-way street. the school has some exceptionally knowledgeable and talented young faculty in basic visual science, who have much to offer ophthalmology residents. dr. peters acknowledges the traditional trip ophthalmology residents make to new hampshire or california for basic visual science. dr. peters thinks that dr. levene should consider strengthening this training by using the school’s basic visual science faculty on the same basis as the school of optometry would use the faculty of the department of ophthalmology. dr. peters also feels the school’s clinical faculty could also contribute to the department of ophthalmology’s program in such areas as low vision, contact lenses and binocular vision. such an interaction between the two faculties would do much to establish the kind of cooperative climate for future practice they both desire. c) the problem of dr. darrell rains is one that concerns dr. peters. first, each of the faculty and a number of community optometrists had referred patients to him with a wide variety of ocular conditions. he has been uniformly courteous, helpful and skillful in his handling of these patients. none of the faculty or community optometrists had even hinted at “unnecessary surgery” and, while one may say it is not optometry’s place to judge, optometrists are not without experience in such matters. if dr. rains has been forced to resign from the staff of eye foundation hospital because of his obvious cooperation with the school of optometry, then i am deeply disturbed. when dr. rains leaves, as he is planning to do, that will reduce optometry’s options and it will be forced to deal with the “ophthalmological community” which does not include dr. rains. if, dr. levene, your commitment is to deal fairly, honestly and courteously with the patients referred, and the optometrists, then this new arrangement will work; but if you use the coercive tactics expressed in your memo, it will not. finally dr. peters makes a genuine plea for dr. levene to drop the adversarial posture and make a real effort to treat each other and the patients in cooperation, harmony, courtesy and mutual respect. dr. peters believes such a spirit can make a real contribution to the visual welfare of the public and demonstrate to each profession that such a working relation can be beneficial to all. dr. peters pledges himself to such an effort. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 68 on february 26, 1974 dr. levene responded to dr. peters’ reply.6 in this response, dr. levene stated he believes that all questions raised by dr. peters can be satisfactorily resolved except the ones relating to his statement that teaching will stop if optometry proposes unilateral legislation unacceptable to ophthalmology. since this is the most important point and historically the reason teaching was withdrawn he chose to limit his remarks to this subject. dr. levene shared a copy of a proposed resolution on ophthalmology-optometry with dr. peters. dr. peters subsequently sent this proposal to dr. william r. baldwin.7 an up-to-date ophthalmological viewpoint on this subject and related matters had been proposed by drs. john henderson, ralph levene and robert reinecke as an unofficial position paper for the association of university professors of ophthalmology (aupo) and presented to the group on november 5, 1973. the paper was received but not voted on at the time it was received. in essence ophthalmology was bitterly opposed to significant portions of legislation by optometry because such teaching had not only been used to increase the skills of optometrists, but as a powerful weapon in legislative battles between the two professions. dr. levene acknowledged it was optometry’s birthright to propose, politic and fight for legislation it believed in but it was also ophthalmology’s birthright to do the same if they believed such legislation is wrong. in a teaching institution ophthalmology feels an obligation to teach but only if it has a guarantee that such teaching will not be used against them in legislative battles. furthermore, he claims dr. peters persists in separating teaching and legislation but in the legislative battles optometry fuses the two. ophthalmology on the other hand views the two within one framework and will not consider one without the other. even where teaching does not enter directly in optometry’s legislative proposals it does not make sense to teach on one hand and fight on the other. dr. levene concluded by echoing dr. peters’ suggestion of an interprofessional committee to consider all problems within the two groups. references 1. levene rz. letter to medical executive committee. relationship between ophthalmology and optometry within the vah hospital. october 23, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 2. cox cg. report of contact to dr. benjamin b. wells, deputy chief medical director, vaco. november 15, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 3. levene rz. memorandum to drs. hill, pittman, peters, and aldrete. ophthalmology-optometry combined program, vah birmingham, including blind rehabilitation center. november, 23, 1973. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 4. levene rz. memorandum to all staff members and senior residents of the eye foundation hospital. teaching optometrists by ophthalmologists. january 2, 1974. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 69 5. peters hb. memorandum to dr. ralph z levene. teaching optometry students by ophthalmological faculty. february 22, 1974. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 6. levene rz. memorandum to dr. henry b. peters. teaching optometrists by ophthalmologists. february 26, 1974. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. 7. peters hb. letter to dr.william r. baldwin, president of asco. development of a position paper by asco in response to resolution proposed but not passed by the association of university professors of ophthalmology. february 28, 1974. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. appendix ii new federal legislation appendix ii has been included because of the unique and accurate forecasting for the future of va optometry that is contained in it, as well the appearance, in part, of this important information in the congressional record. in an effort to resolve deficiencies in the nation’s health care system, the one issue on which consensus existed, was the need to develop the necessary numbers and types of health professionals to meet the needs of a growing population. to this end, the u.s. congress had recently enacted the comprehensive health manpower training act of 1971. based on the scope of this act it was of great importance to the american optometric association (aoa) that it be included, involved in and work to support the passage of this legislation. this act amended the health professions educational assistance act (hpeaa) of 1963 which among other features provided financial assistance to health profession schools and colleges to increase manpower (workforce). this act and subsequent legislation provide financial assistance to many schools and colleges of optometry including uabso. alan m. cranston served as a u.s. senator for 24 years (d-california). he served on two occasions as the senate majority whip and one as the senate minority whip (1997-1990). from 1977 to 1981 he served as the chair of the senate veteran’s affairs committee. senator cranston had a keen interest in health care manpower and health care policy issues. the summary that follows was published in the senate congressional record on march 23, 1972.1 on march 2, 1972, senator cranston addressed the annual meeting of the western states optometric conference. in his address senator cranston commented on issues such as manpower (workforce) distribution and the need for more optometrists, perhaps as many as 15,500 additional by 1980, the extension of the health manpower educational assistance act in the fall of 1971 and the retention of federal support for optometry schools and colleges under provisions of this act. in addition, he mentioned that congress had restored $1m for special project grants and financial distress funding for schools of optometry as well as increasing the level of capitation support from 60% to 74%. finally he addressed the need for better utilization hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 70 of existing physical facilities such as the veterans administration hospitals as clinical teaching facilities for various health care specialties. senator cranston, who served as chairman of the subcommittee on health and hospitals of the veterans affairs committee, introduced several bills to accomplish this purpose. he introduced senate bill 2219 entitled the “veterans administration health manpower training act”. the act, if passed, would create a system in which fourth year students in optometry schools and colleges affiliated with va facilities could take a portion of their clinical training in excellent clinical teaching settings in va facilities, while improving the availability of visual services to eligible individuals through the va health program. this bill also included the important aspect of a program for continuing educational of professional and other health personnel on the staff of va hospitals. perhaps more germane to the discussion of optometry and bvah was senator cranston’s next statement. during this same address he announced the introduction of s 2354 which was the proposed “health care expansion act of 1972”. senator cranston stated during subcommittee hearings related to this bill on february 16, 1972 he offered an amendment to establish the position director of optometry in the veterans administration, department of medicine and surgery. furthermore, the subcommittee had voted unanimously to report favorably on the bill and the amendment to the full committee. this new position director of optometry would be at the same level as the va’s heads of other professional disciplines. senator cranston also announced to the attendees at this same conference that the va had just initiated an affiliation between the uab school of optometry and bvah to provide a pilot training program for optometrists and optometric technicians. he acknowledged this as the first such program in the va system and stated it could serve as a model for similarly affiliated accredited schools and colleges of optometry and nearby va teaching hospitals after s 2219 and s 2354 are enacted. ultimately public law 93-82 created the position of director of optometry in 1973, pl 94-581 created a director of optometry services in 1976 and subsequent congressional and agency reports were instrumental in the veterans omnibus health care act of 1976 which served to establish optometry as a section reporting to either the surgical service or chief-of-staff. it also improved the compensation of optometrists by removing them from civil service and placing them under title 38. reference 1. address by senator cranston before the western states optometric conference. congressional record-senate. s 4694-s 4695. march 23, 1972. uab archives, university of alabama at birmingham. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 71 notes on optometric education around the beginning of the twentieth century david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract optometric education existed in various forms around the beginning of the twentieth century. backgrounds of the proprietors of the schools and the length of study varied from school to school. this article provides an overview of optometric education at that time and of some of the schools. key words: optometric education, optometry history at the beginning of the twentieth century, the term optometry had not yet become common, and its practice was often referred to as “optics.” optometrists referred to themselves by terms such as opticians or sight testers. optometry (or optics) schools had attendance or correspondence options and the requirements and length of study varied from school to school. in an 1899 issue of optical journal, there was a “directory of reputable optical colleges.”1 there was no indication of the criteria by which such a list was established. the schools listed were as follows: atlanta, georgia kellam & moore’s college of optics. chicago, illinois chicago ophthalmic college and hospital, 607 van buren st., dr. h.m. martin, president. northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, masonic temple, drs. j.b. and g.w. mcfatrich, pres. and sec. mccormick optical college, 84 adams st., dr. charles mccormick, pres. la porte, indiana hutchinson school, j.l. hutchinson, supt. south bend, indiana south bend college of optics, dr. h.a. thomson. boston, massachusetts klein school of optics, 2 rutland st., august klein, m.d., pres. new england optical institute, 3 winter st., c.e. tucker, sec. dr. edwin s. foster, private, 120 tremont st. detroit, michigan detroit optical institute, dr. john s. owen. kansas city, missouri kansas city optical college, tenth and walnut sts., dr. j.t. hamilton. new york city spencer optical institute, 15 maiden lane, j.e. spencer, pres. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 72 american ophthalmic institute, 177 broadway, dr. r.h. knowles. l.l. ferguson, 32 maiden lane. syracuse, new york syracuse school of optics, hitchcock & morse. mcminnville, oregon dr. c.w. lowe, private. philadelphia, pennsylvania philadelphia optical college, 1435 chestnut st., dr. c.h. brown, pres. toronto, canada optical institute of canada, 88 yonge st., dr. w.e. hamill. the optometry schools of the day were for-profit enterprises, and the backgrounds of their proprietors varied. some schools were run by doctors of medicine, some by optometrists, and some by optical companies presumably to train people to use the goods that they sold. gregg2 noted that in the 1890s, the spencer optical company gave a two-week refraction course, and the king optical company of cleveland, ohio and new york city gave a one-week course for jewelers to learn the fitting of glasses. the spencer optical company taught use of the audemaire trial case which they manufactured. the king company made the elite test case.3 there was no standardization of educational programs. some described as post-graduate were designed to educate those who were already doing optometric work at some level. the julius king optical company of 14 maiden lane, new york, announced “a post-graduate course in refraction” in an 1896 issue of optical journal. the advertisement stated: “beginning february 1 and continuing indefinitely thereafter, we have arranged to give advanced individual private instruction, to those who have been making a specialty of refraction and the mechanical adjustment of frames. these courses will embrace instruction in the use of the ophthalmometer, retinoscopy, ophthalmoscope, refractometer, prisms, and kindred subjects. students may select, at their option, any or all of these studies. those desiring to avail themselves of this opportunity may make application at any time, as no regular classes will be formed. we have found individual attention to students much more satisfactory to them and to ourselves. thorough and complete directions and actual practice in the use of test lenses will be given at any time to students who have had little or no experience in fitting eyes.”4 no statement was made in the advertisement about the length of time required to take that instruction, but it seems likely to have been variable depending on the subjects which students elected to study. the backgrounds of optometry students varied. they included doctors of medicine, jewelers, watchmakers, pharmacists, and others who wished to make “optics” their life’s work. the following news item in the optical journal illustrates that varied background: “r.h. bailey, m.d., of mattoon, ill., and m.e. mosher, m.d., of havana, ill., are taking a course in optics at the northern illinois college of ophthalmology & otology hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 73 of chicago. charles f. rauth, a jeweler of springfield, ill., is a recent graduate and dr. w.b. richardson, optician of spokane, wash., has had the degree ‘doctor of optics’ conferred upon him by the same institution.”1 northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology one of the schools on the list above is the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology (nicoo), which is one of the predecessor schools of the present-day illinois college of optometry. dr. henry olin started the chicago college of ophthalmology and otology in 1872. in 1887, james mcfatrich joined olin in ophthalmology practice and as a member of olin’s faculty. mcfatrich took over the school in 1889 when olin retired. in 1891, mcfatrich changed the name of the school to nicoo. george w. mcfatrich joined the faculty in 1893.5 before 1898, most of their students were doctors of medicine, but after that the majority of their students were jewelers, dispensing opticians, and refracting opticians.6 philadelphia optical college the philadelphia optical college was founded in 1889. its initial instructor and president was christian henry brown, m.d.7 in 1900, the philadelphia optical college advertised six month, three month, one month, special, and post-graduate attendance courses and correspondence courses. the shorter courses were designed for persons who were already doing optical work. klein school of optics the klein school of optics was founded in 1894 by august andreas klein, who was born in germany in 1846. klein came to the united states when he was 16 years old.8 klein graduated from the boston university school of medicine in 1882, and he studied ophthalmology in germany. klein school of optics had a faculty of seven, including august klein and three of his children. the one year curriculum offered instruction in optics, anatomy, pathology, mathematics, physics, dispensing, and refraction.8 the tuition was $75 for a full course and $30 for a single term. the name of the klein school of optics was changed to massachusetts college of optometry in 1901. it later became the new england college of optometry. hutchinson school in 1886, j.r. parsons started the parsons horological institute in laporte, indiana, to teach watchmaking.9,10 in 1888, a.j. hutchinson went to work for parsons. shortly thereafter, hutchinson resigned and with j.h. william meyer founded the hutchinson school of watchmaking and optics. it is of interest that in 1892, lydia moss bradley purchased the parsons institute and moved it to peoria, illinois, where it became the bradley polytechnic institute and then later bradley university. the bradley polytechnic institute offered instruction in optics until about 1926.11 an 1896 advertisement for the hutchinson school said: “optical students cannot find a more comprehensive and complete course in optics than that given at hutchinson’s school for watchmakers, engravers and opticians. next course commences january 6, 1896. j.h. wm. meyer, m.d., lecturer in optics…j.l. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 74 hutchinson, supt., laporte, ind.”4 it may be presumed that the hutchinson school ceased operation by at least 1912 because the list of optometry schools in the 1912 blue book of optometrists and opticians does not include it.11 south bend college of optics the south bend college of optics was founded in 1893.12 from 1893 to 1901 it offered attendance and correspondence courses. in 1901, it discontinued the attendance courses to concentrate on the correspondence course. in 1912, its president h.a. thomson announced that it would start its attendance courses again.13 south bend college of optics discontinued its operation in about 1920.11 in 1899, south bend college of optics charged $50 for its attendance course and $25 for its correspondence course.14 in 1903, it announced that its rate had been reduced to $7.50 for the correspondence course and doctor of optics diploma.15 a 1906 advertisement for the south bend college of optics said that: “we settle the question of prisms. our course in optics tells you just when and how to prescribe prisms and when to let them alone.” after claiming that their rules for prescribing prisms have “never been known to fail,” the advertisement mentions that the course teaches the correction of astigmatism and the use of the ophthalmoscope, retinoscope, and trial set. the school also claimed to be “the most thorough and painstaking optical college in america.”16 h.a. thomson copyrighted his correspondence course in 1895. it was reprinted in 1975 by professional press with a 30 page historical commentary by monroe hirsch.17 the course consisted of 180 pages in 20 lessons. each lesson had text to read and questions to answer plus a reading assignment from hartridge on refraction. there was a total of 333 questions. students were instructed that they were not to send in the answers to the questions except for the questions they received with lessons 18 and 20 which served as the final examination for the course. for all other questions thomson sent answers and explanations with the next set of lessons. students were also advised to purchase a blank notebook and write down rules that were presented in each lesson, a total of 214 rules in the 20 lessons. the course was designed to be a ten week course with two lessons sent to students each week. a diploma was awarded to those students who achieved the requisite score on the final examination. h.a. thomson was not only president of the south bend college of optics, but also president of the thomson optical company which sold trial sets and other optical equipment. lessons 1-5 covered propagation of light, reflection, refraction by curved surfaces and lenses, spherical aberration, and chromatic aberration. topics in lessons 6-8 were refraction by the eye, accommodation, and convergence. lessons 9 and 10 dealt with subjective refraction, the cobalt blue test, estimating refractive error with ophthalmoscopy, and retinoscopy. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 75 in lesson 9, thomson expresses a negative opinion of the use of optometers. this passage also gives a description of the optometers in use at that time: “although i hope none of my pupils will ever be so unscientific as to use an optometer, it is desirable to understand the principles upon which it is constructed. the common optometer consists of a convex lens through which the patient looks at a card attached to a slide. the card is moved until seen most distinctly, when we have the focus of that eye. if it stopped at the principal focus of the lens we know that the rays emerged parallel and that he is emmetropic. if beyond the principal focus they emerged converging showing him to be hypermetropic; if nearer than the focus, diverging, and he is myopic. by marking the slide at different distances we have only to look where the card stands and the number tells us the glass required. other more complicated optometers are upon the market, but are based upon the same principle. the objection is that accommodation, convergence, astigmatism, etc., are not considered, thus rendering the instruments inaccurate.”18 hypermetropia, myopia, astigmatism, and anisometropia were the subjects of lessons 11, 12, 13, and 14, respectively. lessons 15 and 16 were entitled “practical work,” and looked at general tips in conducting an examination, illuminating and equipping the examination room, order of testing, questions to ask the patient during testing, and prescription of lenses. retinoscopy was presented in more depth in lesson 17 than the introduction to it in lesson 10. in lesson 18, the student learned about converting optical crosses to prescriptions, transposing prescriptions, distinguishing types of astigmatism (mixed, simple, compound), lens materials, and ordering lenses and frames. topics in lesson 19 were heterophoria and prisms. testing procedures described in this lesson are what we would recognize as the von graefe and maddox rod phoria tests. among the rules that students were told to copy into their notebooks were rules 199 and 200: “in prescribing prisms never give over one-half to two-thirds the full correction….patients to whom prisms are given should be requested to return in about two weeks for reexamination of the eyes.”19 in lesson 20 there was further discussion of heterophoria and mention of some common diseases such as cataract, pterygium, glaucoma, nystagmus, and tobacco and alcohol amblyopia, as well as the recommendation that: “a hand-book of the different diseases of the eye should be in every optician’s library for constant reference and study.”20 thomson closed lesson 20 with words of encouragement: “our course of lessons is ended. the course of study upon your part is, i hope, just begun. i have endeavored to guide you on the right path of study and research in this interesting science, until you would have a sufficient understanding of the work to enable you to continue upon your own footing….hoping that you may attain the highest position in the field which you have chosen, and with many thanks for your kind co-operation in making this course a pleasure and success, i am, your friend and teacher, dr. h.a. thomson.”21 references 1. optical j supp 1899;5:31. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 76 2. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:218-219. 3. cox me. optometry, the profession: its antecedents, birth, and development, rev. ed. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:43-44. 4. optical j 1896;2:37. 5. miller ar, brown jm. optometry in america: a history of the illinois college of optometry 1872-1997. chicago: illinois college of optometry, 1996:19-24,129. 6. miller ar, brown jm. optometry in america: a history of the illinois college of optometry 1872-1997. chicago: illinois college of optometry, 1996:23. 7. goss da. christian henry brown (1857-1933) and the philadelphia optical college. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:114-121. 8. moline sw. century of vision – the new england college of optometry: an anecdotal history of the first hundred years. boston: new england college of optometry, 1994:3-7. 9. reed dr. the indiana optometry heritage: the first optometrist in laporte. indiana j optom 1999;2:19-20. 10. brown a. bradley university and its watchmaking past. www.peoriamagazines.com/print/7998. accessed sept. 4, 2012. 11. goss da. a historical list of optometry schools in the united states. hindsight: j optom hist 2012;43:82-89. 12. blue book of optometrists and opticians. chicago: the optometrist and optician, 1912:16. 13. thomson ha. new attendance courses announced by south bend college of optics. optical j rev optom 1912;29:1421. 14. optical j supp 1899;5:53. 15. optical j 1903;12:144. 16. optical j 1906;17:378. 17. dr. thomson’s 1895 correspondence course in optics with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch. chicago: professional press, 1975. 18. dr. thomson’s 1895 correspondence course in optics with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch. chicago: professional press, 1975:82. 19. dr. thomson’s 1895 correspondence course in optics with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch. chicago: professional press, 1975:171. 20. dr. thomson’s 1895 correspondence course in optics with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch. chicago: professional press, 1975:179. 21. dr. thomson’s 1895 correspondence course in optics with historical commentary by monroe j. hirsch. chicago: professional press, 1975:180. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 77 “optometrist of the stars”: his wife remembers les-lee roland 6023 bonaventure place, sarasota, fl 34243 the news reporters called him the “optometrist of the stars” and my husband, harold “doc” roland earned and deserved the name. originally from detroit, he and i have for the past 24 years been residents of sarasota, florida. harold died in january, 2013 at the ripe age of 94. roland took care of countless famous patients of the entertainment world, starting with the motown artists. his reputation spread to celebrities in new york and california. famous folks sought him out in southfield, michigan for his expertise and proficiency in providing eyewear that was not only functional but also very chic and outstanding. i recall his involvement with michael jackson. the jackson people contacted our office about designing a signature pair of glasses michael could wear and also give away or endorse. we went back and forth with costs and distribution only to have his team finally decline the proposition. however, we were asked to invest in jackson’s other endorsements, including stuffed animals that were to be promoted in movie theatres with proceeds going to charity. there is a sad part of this adventure. there was a good presentation from michael’s co-producer and mentor, quincy jones, so we and mutual friends did invest. needless to say, once michael’s legal actions began, everything was shelved; he lost his endorsements, and we lost our investment! harold took care of many motown entertainers, including berry gordy’s family, marvin gaye, and others, john denver, johnny mathis, and local tv stars. our office provided eyewear for album covers for bob seeger’s group as well. i remember when he fitted peggy cass with contacts to wear on stage. she freaked out after the first performance! why? ms. cass said she had never been able to see anyone in the front row before, and now that she could, it threw her off. and then there was a “damon runyan” character who came into the office and asked “doc” roland to make him some special contact lenses that had a yellow cast to them in order to read the marked cards in high stake games. another interesting story: we got a call from a man in dubai, who had seen an unusual pair of glasses on someone working there and wanted the same frame. we told him he had to be custom measured for this frame, so he flew in from dubai and ordered several pairs. the frame was so unusual. you and the patient selected the shape for the lenses and instead of temples, the lenses were drilled to hold two almost hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 78 invisible “cat gut” wires that were connected to the earpieces on each side. it looked like the lenses were just floating in the front of the face. actor john amos wore this frame as well. it was very fragile, but the appearance was startling and an attention getter. figure 1. dr. roland with johnny mathis harold’s involvement with celebrities included playing in golf tournaments with persons such as james garner, jack jones, and jamie farr. and when stars were touring in the detroit area, harold put together tee times for them. in addition to practice, harold hosted his own radio talk show, made many television appearances. before he became an optometrist, he was a singer on radio and appeared often with a comic named amos jacobs. amos later changed his name to danny thomas when he left the radio show. harold also was part owner of a horse farm and had many winning thoroughbreds, including the #2 horse in the country in 1971. “governor max” won the washington futurity and was unfortunately injured while being shipped to the next race before the kentucky derby. he also won breeder of the year award in michigan. dr. harold rowland graduated from the northern illinois college of optometry (now called ico) and served in the army during world war ii for over five years, handling vision problems for u.s. soldiers and german prisoners of war. up to the very end, he enjoyed talking with new optometrists and offering advice. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 79 william kitchiner (1775-1827), author of the economy of the eyes david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract william kitchiner (1775-1827) was variously described as a physician, optician, musician, and gastronome. this paper provides a brief biographical sketch and comments on his book the economy of the eyes. key words: optometry books, optometry history, telescopes william kitchiner was born in london, england and lived most of his life there. he attended medical school in glasgow. most references state that he held an m.d. degree, but bridge and english questioned whether he completed the degree.1-4 he inherited a large annual income from his father, and he never practiced medicine. some publications refer to kitchiner as an optician.2,3 this may have been due to his years of work on telescopes, but it has also been stated that he sold spectacles “from his home and other outlets.”5 he claimed to have invented a telescope with variable magnification, but john herschel called it “mr. g. dollond’s pancratic telescope.”6 kitchiner’s interests also extended to music and food. in fact, he is best known for his book the cook’s oracle, which went through many editions. bridge and english called it “most extraordinary, the most entertaining and the most bizarre cookery book of the nineteenth century.”7 they believed that the source of the book’s success was kitchiner’s “meticulous attention to detail.”8 kitchiner also emphasized that fresh food and a balanced diet were important.9 he held dinner parties with regular guests he called the committee of taste to try out recipes. kitchiner authored many books, the first two of which were a companion to the telescope (1811) and practical observations on telescopes (1815). the cook’s oracle was first published in 1817. that was followed by practical observations on telescopes, opera glasses, and spectacles in 1818, observations of vocal music in 1821, and directions for invigorating and prolonging life in 1822. the economy of the eyes was published in two parts in 1824 and 1825. part i had the subtitle precepts of the improvement and preservation of the sight, and the subtitle for part ii was of telescopes. his other books were the housekeeper’s ledger (1825) and the traveller’s oracle (1827). part i of the economy of the eyes contained information on vision and guidance for the general public on selection and use of spectacles. on page 14, kitchiner hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 80 advised that: “when you go to an optician’s to choose spectacles, the first thing to attend to is to look at a book with each eye alternately, – and carefully ascertain if you see equally well, with both eyes, with the same glass, at exactly the same distance. inequality of the focus of the eyes is much more common than is generally supposed.” as could be expected, much of the advice related to presbyopia. kitchiner observed that: “the average period of the eyes requiring spectacles to read with, is about the 45th year.” (p. 24) “the first indication of the eye beginning to be impaired by age, is that when you wish to read a small print, you are obliged to remove it further from your eye than you have been accustomed to do…” (p. 25) kitchiner explained that the power of convex lenses needed for near vision increased with age. he gave the focal length of convex lenses commonly required at various ages as: 36 inches at 40 years, 30 inches at 45 years, 24 inches at 50 years, 20 inches at 55 years, 16 inches at 60 years, 14 inches at 65 years, 12 inches at 70 years, 10 inches at 75 years, 9 inches at 80 years, 8 inches at 85 years, 7 inches at 90 years, and 6 inches at 100 years. he noted that lenses were not convex enough if one had to hold a book far from the eyes, and they were too convex if one had to hold a book “nearer to your eyes than when your sight was good.” (p. 45) a numbering of concave lenses that kitchiner suggested came from jesse ramsden was: concave no. 1, 24 inches focus; concave no. 2, 21 inches focus; and concave no. 3, 18 inches. kitchiner noted that he himself was short-sighted and that he mostly wore a no. 2. in part i of the economy of the eyes kitchiner gave advice on many other aspects of vision, such as types of illumination, use of window shutters, selection of spectacle frames, use of opera glasses, and getting a good view of the stage in various theaters. he suggested that for determining proper power of spectacle lenses, an optometer can be used by persons who reside a long distance form an optician, but it is better to visit the optician and view through lenses if possible. references 1. hill b. mrs. beeton’s predecessor: william kitchiner, m.d. (c.1775-1827). practitioner 1952;168:624-627. 2. schiller f. haslam of “bedlam”, kitchiner of the “oracles”: two doctors under mad king george iii, and their friendship. med hist 1984;28:189-201. 3. anonymous. illustrations from the wellcome institute library: iconography of dr. william kitchiner (1775?-1827). med hist 1984;28:202-209. 4. bridge t, english cc. dr. william kitchiner regency eccentric, author of the cook’s oracle. east sussex, uk: southover, 1992:43. 5. bridge t, english cc. dr. william kitchiner regency eccentric, author of the cook’s oracle. east sussex, uk: southover, 1992:6. 6. rudd me. chromatic aberration of eyepieces in early telescopes. annals sci 2007;64:1-18. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 81 7. bridge t, english cc. dr. william kitchiner regency eccentric, author of the cook’s oracle. east sussex, uk: southover, 1992:xi. 8. bridge t, english cc. dr. william kitchiner regency eccentric, author of the cook’s oracle. east sussex, uk: southover, 1992:xii. 9. bridge t, english cc. dr. william kitchiner regency eccentric, author of the cook’s oracle. east sussex, uk: southover, 1992:37. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 82 robert klark graham (1906-1997) editor’s note: jack runninger suggested that hindsight readers would be interested in learning something about the life of optometrist robert k. graham. he submitted a column he recently wrote for optometric management and a copy of a talk given by richard l. hopping. they are reprinted here with permission. runninger also suggested that an excerpt from graham’s autobiography would be of interest, and he provided a copy of that book inscribed to him by graham so such an excerpt could be included here. lessons learned: from hard resin lenses to sperm banks jack runninger, o.d. runningerj@comcast.net optometrist robert klark graham was born in 1906, and died in 1997. the story of his life is a fascinating tale. accomplished singer, then optometrist, then inventor, then multimillionaire, then famous geneticist. “i wasted seven college years studying singing,” he said in his autobiography. although his voice was described as being “almost exceptional” (he sang solos twice at the metropolitan opera house in new york), he discovered he wasn’t quite good enough to make a living at it. an attorney friend of his family fortunately talked graham into instead pursuing a career in optometry. the new career the man was obviously brilliant. he enrolled at ohio state in 1935 to pursue his optometry degree. through persistence he finally convinced school authorities to allow him to take the four year course in just two years, since he had ranked in the upper 1% in the college’s entrance exam. even so, he was over 30 years old by the time he got his degree. after graduation he went to work for bausch and lomb and then univis to participate in their research in making ophthalmic lenses out of plastic. after the project was discontinued, graham and his team left and formed their own company, armorlite lens co. “we did not know how to manufacture a plastic lens successfully, but we knew (from the years of research at univis) a great many things not to do,” he said. they were finally able to produce “superb” pmma ophthalmic lenses. they had but one fault. they were easily scratched. after further research they were successful in producing hard resin ophthalmic lenses, thirty times more resistant to scratching than pmma, which have now almost completely replaced glass lenses. to support himself during this research he opened an optometric practice limited solely to contact lenses. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 83 multitalented “it was slow, for in those days we had only scleral contact lenses, fitted by taking an impression of the eye,” he wrote in describing his practice. “we considered four hours of wearing time quite successful.” in addition he taught at southern california college of optometry, serving as associate professor of contact lens and low vision courses. he is also credited with the introduction of a reflection-reducing coating for ophthalmic lenses, the development of colorless ultraviolet absorbing lenses, the invention of the variable focus lens, and the invention of the hybrid corneal lens. the sale of armorlite and plastic lens patents made him a multimillionaire. rather than retiring in luxury, in 1963, along with geneticist and nobel prize winner herman muller, he founded the repository for germinal choice, a sperm bank which collected germinal material only from outstandingly intelligent and healthy men. the repository received great national publicity and attention. graham felt that this was a way to improve the intelligence of the human race. many critics felt that it was hitler like tactics. evidently there are today almost 300 children conceived by the graham repository. some are reportedly extremely intelligent, but many are not exceptional. dr. robert klark graham, rotary club of escondido recognition luncheon, january 28, 1997 richard l. hopping, o.d. rhoppingod@aol.com it is a very great honor for me to be present today at the rotary club of escondido meeting when you have chosen to honor a most distinguished and accomplished individual and leader, dr. robert klark graham. i have had the privilege to know and admire him for these past 40 years. as most of you have also known dr. graham for some time, you may be aware of his many accomplishments and honors. however, i should like to share some aspects of his impressive career with you so that all here might know of the magnitude of his long career and the impact he has had on his chosen profession and also the effect those successes have had on the many people who have enjoyed the benefits of his long career in research, contact lens development, low vision lenses and the repository for germinal choice. dr. graham is a man of many faces and many talents. he is an optometrist, writer, lecturer, teacher, researcher, inventor, historian and manufacturer. a person to be any one of these in a lifetime would be considered accomplished. but for one to have succeeded in all is remarkable. robert klark graham proves to be a unique individual. he has achieved in all of these areas, making many contributions to mankind over more than fifty years. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 84 dr. graham was born in harbor springs, michigan to dr. frank and ellen klark graham in june, 1906. he received a bachelor of arts degree from michigan state university and then matriculated at the ohio state university where he worked in the field of applied optics, receiving a bachelor of science degree in 1937. following graduation, dr. graham was chosen by bausch & lomb optical company for special training in optical methods, remaining with that company until 1940. he then joined the univis company of dayton, ohio, which had begun research relating to plastic ophthalmic lenses. when this project was discontinued by univis six years later, dr. graham decided they had given up too soon. so in 1947 dr. graham, taking three univis research technicians with him to pasadena, california, established a new company called plastic lens company. the name was later changed to armorlite lens company, and is still one of the nation’s leading producers of ophthalmic lenses. at the same time he established a private optometric practice which he limited solely to contact lens service. this was believed to be the first office in the nation to consistently remain limited to this specialty. dr. graham was to write later that “it was slow for in those days we had only scleral contact lenses, fitted by taking an impression of the eye. we considered four hours wearing time quite successful.” he also taught at the southern california college of optometry (then named the los angeles college of optometry) which he related helped him to maintain his family and retain his upstairs optometric office. from 1948 to 1961, dr. graham served at the rank of associate professor in charge of the contact lens and low vision courses and clinics at the college. an article appearing in a college publication in 1954 stated that dr. graham had “made a place for himself in the heart of every senior student.” throughout this time he continued his deep interest in science and optics, retaining his memberships in the american institute of physics professors, the american physical society, the optical society of america, and the american association for the advancement of science to which, in 1958, he was elected to a lifetime membership in “recognition of his standing as a scientist.” also during these years dr. graham was serving as an optometric consultant to kevin touhy, the inventor of plastic corneal lenses, and to other optical laboratories including solex laboratories and later in the 60’s with bausch & lomb during their development of the first soft contact lens. dr. graham learned of a clear plastic material called cr-39 developed as a bonding agent for bomber fuel tanks and began to work to develop this material for ophthalmic lenses. after years of experimentation, plastic lens production commenced and for six years his company was the exclusive world-wide source for hard resin lenses. as a result of dr. graham’s early efforts, fifty years later more than 80 percent of the lenses dispensed in the united states today are made from lightweight plastic. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 85 not only was dr. graham working to develop his lightweight contact lens, he was widely acclaimed for his invention of a low vision spectacle that he developed over five years of research with dr. william feinbloom. this lens was labeled a “miracle lens” for certain partially sighted patients who had been previously labeled and treated as blind but could now carry out their daily routines without assistance. dr. robert graham is credited with the development of plastic spectacle lenses, the introduction of a reflection-reducing coating for ophthalmic lenses, the development of colorless ultraviolet absorbing lenses, the invention of the variable focus lens and the invention of the hybrid corneal lens. dr. graham has been a fellow of the american academy of optometry for over fifty years and served as chairman of its contact lens section from 1957 to 1963. he was elected as one of 25 professionals to be a full member of the international society of contact lens specialists. he has been the recipient of numerous honors and other awards, including the most prestigious friederich william herschel gold medal in 1958 in germany. in 1966 the national eye research foundation presented him with the special man of distinction award as “the man who made it safe to wear glasses.” in 1963 dr. graham, along with renowned american geneticist and nobel prize winner hermann muller, founded the repository for germinal choice which collects germinal material from outstandingly intelligent and healthy men. in 1970 he authored the book the future of man. following his retirement from armorlite, he became active in the affairs of the repository and announced in 1980 that the repository would offer germinal choice to young married couples who want children but in whom the husband is infertile. since that time the repository has become referred to as the nobel sperm bank and has received wide attention throughout the world. in 1970 the wisdom society for the advancement of knowledge, learning and research in education named him an eminent recipient of the wisdom award of honor, joining the ranks of such illustrious persons as winston churchill, aaron copland, dr. michael debakey, w. somerset maugham, dr. karl menninger, carl sandburg, dr. albert schweitzer, and others of such accomplishment. that’s quite a distinguished list of colleagues, bob. in 1974 dr. graham retired from his contact lens practice, but continued as head of armorlite until 1978 when the company was acquired by minnesota mining and manufacturing company. in 1984 he was elected a distinguished practitioner and member of the national academies of practice. dr. graham’s biography appears in a number of various volumes of who’s who. he holds several patents and has authored numerous articles, two books and one chapter of another book. in 1987 the american academy of optometry awarded dr. graham the william feinbloom award for his distinguished and significant contributions to clinical science and his direct clinical advancement of visual and optometric service. the southern hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 86 california college of optometry conferred a doctor of ocular science honorary degree upon bob in 1988. the national eye research foundation presented him with the leonardo da vinci award in 1989 and the ohio state university college of optometry declared dr. graham a distinguished alumnus in 1987 and later awarded him the glenn a. fry medal in physiological optics in 1992. last year dr. graham observed his 90th birthday with a gala celebration attended by family members and many of his friends. you would think that by now he would be sitting back and reveling in the memories and satisfaction of his many accomplishments. but bob had a very busy year. he called a meeting of many outstanding eugenists and they decided to establish the society for the advancement of genetics education. then ohio state university college of optometry established an ophthalmic research laboratory in his name. to wrap up the year, the optical laboratories association presented him with their directors’ choice award for outstanding contributions to the eyecare professions and spectacle wearers everywhere. bob, i hope that if i live that long, my 90th year is as exciting as that! dr. graham is truly a modern day renaissance man who has made distinguished and significant contributions to clinical excellence, the optometric profession, genetic research and the public’s quality of life. although i have related to you here today some of dr. graham’s many accomplishments and the honors he has had bestowed upon him, my words are inadequate to properly describe all that this man has contributed to mankind. bob, i stand in awe and great admiration of your intelligence, your work, your drive and your dedication. it is an honor for me to be here today with your family and many friends and colleagues to participate in saluting you for your lifetime’s work and accomplishments. i hope i’m around to attend your 100th birthday celebration! excerpt from: graham rk. r.k.g.: how an ordinary man despite a very poor start, still won in full measure the good things in life. washington, dc: scott-townsend publishers, 1996: 40-42, 48, 51, 52. from time to time i find the news media referring to me as the optometrist who developed hard resin spectacle lenses. accordingly it might be appropriate for me to outline the development of these lenses. this is inevitably semi-biographical. when i was graduated from osu in applied optics, i had accepted a position with the bausch & lomb optical company which gave me some background in optical manufacturing. i subsequently was engaged in further optical manufacturing with the univis lens company. the univis lens company had acquired the unbreakable lens company of american (tulca), which had attempted to make ophthalmic lenses of polymethylmethacrylate (pmma) under the lloyd patent. univis moved the tulca project from california to dayton and established a laboratory there to develop the techniques to the point where production would be commercially feasible. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 87 i was interested in the potentialities of the then new optical medium pmma and so visited the univis project, reporting in some detail to bausch & lomb. (at that time glass ophthalmic lenses were bausch & lomb’s most profitable product from the standpoint of dollars earned. it is worth noting that, in part because initially they ignored the new medium, they never caught up in the hard resin lens field and, lacking a complete line of lenses, some 40 years later practically ceased to be a supplier of ophthalmic spectacle lenses.) a few months after my visit to univis their president, jack silverman, offered me a position as their western division manager. this i accepted, being largely persuaded by my interest in the potentialities of their plastic lens project. some six years later univis was confronted by a patent infringement suit filed by combined optical industries, ltd., of slough, england, who manufactured igard lenses of pmma. the c.o.i.l. patents antedated the lloyd patent so univis decided to abandon their plastic lens project. they had employed injection molding, which necessitated the use of high chrome content steel molds so as to withstand extremes of heat and pressure. the mold cost was high and the mold life short. furthermore, injection invites striae. univis never reached a point where their costs and reject rate were low enough so that they could enter the market with their product. i was by then sales manager of univis. when the company closed their plastic lens project i resigned and took with me to pasadena, california all but one of univis’ plastic lens research technicians. (they were, of course, out of a job in dayton. smitty went to seattle.) we did not know how to manufacture a plastic lens successfully but we knew a great many things not to do. we were, for example, saved the great expense of trying metal molds and injection molding. also we felt that there were several things yet to be tried. we, the plastic optics company (later renamed armorlite), developed and patented a minimum-flow process in which we took discs of clear pmma, turned them on a lathe into the lens form we wanted, and then polished them by pressing the blank between polished glass molds under moderate temperatures. as a consequence, we had superb, strain-free lenses with no problem of plastic memory or of striae. their major limitation was susceptibility to abrasion. nevertheless, since we were the only source of non-glass lenses in the nation, we developed a modest enterprise. during world war ii, the columbia-southern chemical company developed a new resin (columbia resin #39). armorlite was producing lenses of methacrylate. we knew, from scientific reports, of the superior qualities of cr-39 but could not buy it because it was limited to military uses. however, i had sought access to it and they gave me small (five gallon) quantities for experimental purposes. by the time it was available commercially, we had worked out most of the techniques which enabled us to make excellent marketable lenses of cr-39. by marketable, i mean that the quality was good and the unit cost did not make the lenses prohibitively expensive. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 88 with the end of the war, columbia-southern had large production facilities and tankcar quantities of cr-39, but suddenly had no use for them. armorlite had a use for this redundant stuff. as the months and years went on, we became a pretty good consumer of material of which columbia-southern once had excessive quantities. the chief problem in the manufacture of these lenses was the 14% shrinkage of the liquid monomer as it solidified between dies. this we accommodated by casting blanks with the appropriate front curvature and with a back curvature practically paralleling the front. this permitted uniform, distortion-free shrinkage during cure. we then ground and cold-polished on the back surface the curvature required to produce the desired power in the finished lens. from then on the use of plastic spectacle lenses accelerated, since the new product was some thirty times more resistant to abrasion than its pmma predecessor. for about the first six years we had a worldwide monopoly as the sole producers of cr-39 lenses. then imitators began to enter the field, thus confirming the significance of our development. the manufacturers of glass lenses pointed out that our lenses were scratchable. the one major way in which allyl resin lenses were not equal to or superior to those of glass was in their abrasion resistance. even so, the use of resin lenses grew until it equaled, and in some countries exceeded, the use of glass. we constantly sought ways of improving the abrasion resistance and, through the years, tested and retested many approaches to improving the product. consistently, the surface treatment developed by the minnesota mining and manufacturing company (3m) proved superior to all others and i tried to license their process for use by armorlite. failing in that i tried to negotiate a license to manufacture the coating material itself. after years of negotiations, joint research and testing, 3m decided to acquire armorlite. this was accomplished in 1978. on july 26, 1978, a letter was sent to each armorlite shareholder informing them of the proposed merger with the minnesota mining and manufacturing company (3m), and calling for a meeting of the armorlite shareholders at 10:00 a.m. on august 23, 1978 at the armorlite company offices in san marcos for the purpose of approving the agreement under which they would receive $414.18 per share. it pointed out that the earliest armorlite investors had paid only $1.00 per share, and that counting dividends and stock splits during thirty years under the terms of the agreement they would have received a total of $4,164.88 per share, part of which would, of course, be in 3m stock, but which could be converted to cash if that were preferred. this merger enabled 3m to market armorlite lenses with improved abrasion resistance. with that development my contributions to the field of ophthalmic lenses ended. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 89 book review: a short bright flash: augustin fresnel and the birth of the modern lighthouse a short bright flash: augustin fresnel and the birth of the modern lighthouse. theresa levitt. new york: w.w. norton, 2013. 281 pages. isbn: 978-0-393-068795. hardcover, $25.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu having used fresnel lenses and fresnel prisms on occasion, the subtitle of this book caught my attention as i had little knowledge of fresnel’s life or contributions. augustin fresnel was born in 1788 in the normandy region of france. entering école polytechnique in paris at 16 years of age, his skill at graphic arts and engineering drawing stood out, “his dexterity and practical bent already marking him as an engineer.” (p.26) he proceeded to école nationale des ponts et chausses, a school of civil engineering, from which he graduated in 1809. fresnel’s first job as an engineer was building roads. in 1819, fresnel won the grand prize from the académie des sciences for research on diffraction that he completed while on leave from his engineering job. his measurements of diffraction patterns corresponded closely to the predictions he made based on a wave theory of light. later in 1819, fresnel was assigned to assist physicist francois arago in studies of the light output of lighthouses which at that time used parabolic mirrors behind oil lamps. these lights were not bright enough and shipwrecks were a major problem. to increase the light output, fresnel designed a system of concentric lenses. fresnel’s system in 1820 had multiple polygonal lenses to make up each concentric ring. by 1821, the concentric rings were more circular as improved glassmaking allowed more arch in the individual pieces of glass in each ring. fresnel and arago also designed an improved lamp. tests of fresnel’s system in 1821 and 1822 showed it to be a much brighter light than those that were in lighthouses at the time. in 1822 and 1823, fresnel also published a series of papers relating to the wave theory of light. in 1823, he was elected to the académie des sciences, and in 1824, he was decorated with the ordre national de la légion d’honneur. the first of fresnel’s lighthouse lighting systems was in use by 1823. fresnel was promoted to secretary of the lighthouse commission. as he continued to work on improvements in the design and construction of his lighting system, he started to plan where lighthouses should be placed along the coast so that one light would always be visible, and he oversaw their installation. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 90 long in ill health, fresnel died of tuberculosis at 39 years of age in 1827. shortly before his death, he received the rumford medal from the british royal society for his contributions to science. fresnel’s brother, léonor, also an engineer, had been assisting fresnel and took over as secretary of the lighthouse commission. the largest of the fresnel lighthouse light systems incorporated concentric lenses along with prisms and mirrors to redirect light coming out of the lamp in many directions into parallel paths. at the exposition universelle of 1855, a bust of fresnel was displayed and a fresnel lighthouse lighting system was a prominent exhibit. by that time, sixteen different countries had installed the fresnel systems. the united states was slow in adopting the fresnel lighthouse lighting systems. the emphasis of roughly the second half of the book was on struggles in the united states in the 1830s through the 1850s to improve the lighthouse system, the dismantling of the lights in the southern states during the civil war to hamper the union blockade effort, and rivalries among french and english companies making lighthouse lights in the late nineteenth century. the last few pages of the book address the legacy of augustin fresnel. the items listed by the author as being byproducts of the principles of fresnel’s lighthouse light system have been stage lights, stop lights, car headlights, overhead projectors, solar generators, and “handheld sheet magnifying glasses.” (p. 232) the author did not specifically mention the application of fresnel lenses and prisms to spectacle lenses. the author closed the book with these thoughts: “the most brilliant physicist of his age, he abandoned his research to devote himself to the cause of illuminating the coast. although he was small, delicate, and hampered by sickness, the strengths he possessed were his mind and spirit, and these were enough to take on one of the civilization’s most indomitable opponents: the sea. the brighter lights emanating from his lenses were one of the few human efforts to reduce the terrible risks facing every sea voyage. it is only fitting, then, that as every lighthouse in france came to have a fresnel lens in the nineteenth century, so too did they all have bust of fresnel, his high, pale brow surveying the shoreline that he had made a little safer.” (p. 233) in the preface, the author described herself as a historian of optics. she is a history professor at the university of mississippi. she graduated from the massachusetts institute of technology and holds a master’s degree in history from iowa state university and a ph.d. from harvard university. i found the book to be interesting reading, and i was pleased to learn something about the life of augustin fresnel. the book includes 29 pages of bibliographical notes, an index, and a number of black and white illustrations. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 91 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; history of optometric education; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as ∆ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history….october, 2013, volume 44, number 4, page 92 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: optometric historical society attn: kirsten hébert american optometric association 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: _____ regular membership, $25 per year _____ patron membership, $50 per year _____ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________________ address ______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. members of the board of directors of optometry's cares™ – the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society (ohs) have signed a memorandum of understanding that places ohs under the auspices of the aoa foundation. for more information about the aoa foundation and the optometric historical society, please visit www.optometryscharity.org and www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. ohsfrontcover44-4(1) hindsight44-4 hindsight: journal of optometry history 5 article davis and vogl dr. ella gertrude smith ayer stanton jones was the consummate marketer. better known as gertrude stanton, she was the first woman licensed to practice optometry in the united states. in many ways, this was purely due to fortuitous chance − she lived in minnesota, the first state to license optometrists, and she promptly responded to the request that “all persons practicing optometry in the state of minnesota are requested to make application to the secretary of the state board of examiners in optometry, accompanied by an affidavit, that they were engaged in the practice of optometry, on or prior to the thirteenth day of april a.d. 1901, remitting their registration fee at the same time.”1 by june 11, 1901, sixty-five acceptable affidavits had been received. four of these were from women. the first, number 27, was from gertrude ayer.2 ella gertrude smith, called gertie, was born either february 17 or 26, 1863, in howard county, iowa, the second of at least seven children born to john taylor smith and lucy ann olmsted.3,4,5 on october 30, 1880 she married roswell eugene ayer (called eugene). eugene was the son of darius ayer and lydia tennent.6 the union produced three children: arthur darius in 1881, sarah (sadie) taylor in 1884 and john herbert (called herbert) in 1891.7,8,9,10 it appears the marriage was not an altogether pleasant one. in 1890, gertie received a teaching certificate in dakota territory,11 but by 1891 she was back in iowa for the birth of her third child, john.10 in october 1895, the local newspaper, the twice a week plain dealer, reported that eugene ayer and family were “obliged to vacate” their home.12 two months later, they reported “eugene ayer left last week for dubuque where he will seek employment. if unsuccessful, he expects to continue south.”13 gertrude apparently decided to take matters of earning money into her own hands. by 1899, she had taken some courses and was working as “the willmar [minnesota] occulist.”14 she left her children with her parents in iowa15 and started traveling around southern minnesota, advertising herself as “gertrude ayer, m.o. – expert refractionist.” she would place advertisements in local newspapers and distribute handbills announcing her imminent arrival. she advertised free eye exams,16 including phrases such as “this is your opportunity to correct your visual defects and preserve your eyes.” she strongly believed in educating patients properly, distributing circulars with descriptions of refractive errors and muscle imbalances. however, she also believed in the power of dramatic marketing, as the circular ended with “in order to avoid any of the above deviations, lay aside your false pride and have your visual defects properly corrected by a competent optician. the longer you allow your natural prejudices to delay this correction, the longer will be the score you will have to settle, at some day, with abused natural laws.” at the time, optometry was a bit of the wild west–with no licensing or registration required, many peddlers sold eyeglasses from their wagons. gertrude met this allegation head-on, frankly stating “madam ayer is not a spectacle peddler, but a finished and competent optician…” 17, 18 she traveled by horse and buggy and drew attention by providing straw hats for her horses−something that had never been seen in many small towns.19 gertrude stanton (1863-1931): the first woman licensed to practice optometry in the united states viktoria davis, o.d. lilien vogl, o.d. madelia optometric, inc. chair, the optometric historical society drdavis@madeliaeyes.com drvogl@cox.net doi 10.14434/hindsight.v51i1.28765 abstract dr. ella gertrude smith ayer stanton jones (1863-1931), better known as gertrude stanton, was the first woman licensed to practice optometry in the united states. a native of iowa, stanton began her career as a teacher, but eventually moved to minnesota where she received training and began to work as an itinerant refracting optician or optometrist, building her professional reputation through clever marketing. in 1901, shortly after the passage of the first optometry licensure law in minnesota, stanton applied for and received a license by exemption. stanton went on to become an in-store optometrist at dayton’s department store and eventually set up her own storefront where she employed her daughter and ran an optical business run entirely by women. during her career, she participated in optometry and professional associations and public service projects and was active in her community. thrice married with three children, stanton’s abiding popularity with her patients and the public as well as her financial success despite leading an unconventional life for a woman at the turn of the twentieth century is a testament to her fierce independence, indomitable spirit and impressive business acumen. this article, constructed from meticulous research in archival records, paints a detailed portrait of stanton’s life and career as an optometric pioneer. keywords gertrude stanton; gertrude smith; gertrude ayer; women’s history; history of medicine; optometry history; minnesota; professional licensure portrait of gertrude stanton. from the opt j rev optom. 1906;28:368. 6 volume 51, number 1, january 2020 article davis and vogl by 1900, gertrude had met and started working with dr. charles stanton in redwood falls, minnesota.20, 21 dr. stanton was one of the first to bring x-rays to minnesota, and continually fought allegations of being a “quack.” he fought this with testimonials from cured patients as well as offering “large volumes” on loan. he frequently used the phrase “dr. stanton don’t care a rap … whether he treats your case or not.” 21,22 at some point, gertrude and eugene were divorced. she later claimed that he had died, leaving her a young single mother (taking several years off her age) with three young children. in fact, eugene did not die until 1937 and their children stayed with her parents.15,23 however, she realized that a young widow would tug at the heartstrings more than a divorcée with help from her former in-laws. optometry was a profession on the brink of professionalism in 1900. many states were considering licensing and registration as a way of regulating optometrists and safeguarding the public from unscrupulous peddlers. drs. j.w. grainger, h.m. hitchcock, f.a. upham, c.a. snell, and alexander swening were instrumental in the passage of the nation’s first optometry practice law in minnesota in 1901. the law defined optometry as “the employment of subjective and objective means to determine the accommodative and refractive states of the eye and the scope of its functions in general.” the law further stated that every person beginning to practice optometry in the state would have to pass an examination before the board of optometry. there was a stipulation written into the law that allowed for anyone currently practicing optometry at the time the law was passed to be exempt from the examination so long as an affidavit was filed within six months. there were 363 people who filed acceptable affidavits.1,2, 24, 25 the aforementioned doctors debated at length about the scope and breadth of the examination. they decided upon a combination of a written and practical examination, covering “such several subjects as are applicable to the practice of optometry.” the examination proved to be quite challenging, with an average pass rate of about 50%. the doctors were, in fact, so disappointed with the quality of some of the candidates that in 1909 they instituted a “preliminary examination,” which was comprised of seven questions including definitions, arithmetic, and a short essay. if candidates did not receive at least 75% on the preliminary examination, they were not permitted to sit for the comprehensive examination. 26 many doctors who had originally been licensed by affidavit later chose to prove their competence by taking the practical examination. dr. ayer was not among them, and never did attempt to prove her competence by sitting for the examination. 27 however, in most of her early marketing materials she did refer to herself as the “expert optician” and promoted the fact that she was “thoroughly educated and competent.”28 on december 4, 1901, dr. ayer married dr. charles stanton, the “famous electromagnetic healer” in estherville, iowa.29,30 at the time, he had a new practice in st. james, minnesota and gertrude joined him there while still traveling throughout southern minnesota. he was also an optometrist, as minnesota license number 16 was issued to “c.m. stanton” of minneapolis.2,28 it is likely that, during this time, the couple would have had business or social involvement with george dayton, a prominent banker and merchant in worthington, minnesota. although no proof of this relationship can be found, in 1902 mr. dayton moved his business to minneapolis and purchased a dry good store which would become dayton’s department store. mr. dayton was a very forward-thinking entrepreneur and had promised his customers to expand the store in space and services. in 1903, space on the second floor of the new addition to dayton’s dry goods, on nicollet mall in minneapolis, was leased to mrs. gertrude stanton for her optical service.31 the office opened to patients on wednesday, march 18, 1903.32 gertrude stanton then became one of the nation’s first commercial optometrists.(p. 7, figs.1 and 4) her husband, dr. charles stanton, may have practiced with her, but virtually all the advertising was in her name only. she had a particular interest in treating women and children. she−and dayton’s department store−promoted her as “the only woman optician in the twin cities.” she frequently advertised “children’s day,” offering a 25% discount for children on saturdays. less commonly the same discount was offered on “old folks’ day.” all work was guaranteed, and examinations were free. advertising was usually presented as coming from dayton’s−“there is no better place in the city to have your eyes examined than at our optical department.”28 dr. gertrude stanton soon became involved in organized optometry. she served as a founding member of the northwestern optical association and was also involved in the minnesota state association of optometrists.28 by 1905, she had risen to first vice president of the northwestern optical association.33 she had attended illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, receiving her first degree around 1893, and in 1905 was honored for being the first female graduate and received a doctor of optics degree.28,34,35 her husband, dr. charles stanton, succumbed after a battle with tuberculosis and died on january 3, 1906, but gertrude continued to practice and remained active.36,37 she was extremely popular in the community and, in 1907, she won the grand prize in the minneapolis tribune’s “popular vote contest.” in order to vote, readers had to pay for a newspaper subscription or classified ad coupon book. dr. stanton won by thousands of votes and generated over $90,000 for the newspaper.38-40 her prize: a 1907 oldsmobile. (figure 6) perhaps not coincidentally, dr. stanton had been the subject of a very favorable article in the same newspaper just a few months before calling her “loquacious” and “charming,” giving us an insight into her personality.41 figure 6. dr. gertrude stanton in her 1907 oldsmobile, won in a minneapolis tribune popularity contest. image courtesy the minnesota historical society. he3.1r285 hindsight: journal of optometry history article davis and vogl 4 2 1 7 5 marketing was one of stanton's great strengths and she found every opportunity to engage with the press, turning her unique status as a woman practitioner into a professional advantage. her journal is filled with newspaper clippings and detailed notes: 1. page 152 of the journal held at the minnesota historical society features a recipe for "eye water" containing cocaine, often used as a mydriatic. 2. murine ad featuring stanton testimonial, from the optical journal, 1905;26(7):360. 3. dayton's department store ad, featuring special callout for stanton's optical department, minneapolis star, friday, 12 feb 1904, p. 3. and 4. profile in the "women's section", saturday, 2 jan 1904, p.5, and 5. stanton's portrait after her election as fourth vice president of the aoa in 1918, the optical journal, 1918;42(1): 37. 3 8 volume 51, number 1, january 2020 she also continued her involvement with organized optometry. in 1908 alone, she served on the reception committee for minnesota state association of optometrists and the membership committee for the northwestern optical association,28 and was elected president of the alumni association of the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology.42 she also presented a paper on “indications in retinal fatigue” at the joint annual meeting of the northwestern optical association and minnesota state association of optometrists. this paper was also published in optical review, a periodical publication of the time..43 in 1909, she prepared the souvenir programme for the joint meeting of the two organizations. 28 dr. stanton married again, on december 8, 1909, to a swedish immigrant, joseph jones.44 according to census records, he was employed as an “optician and repairer.” dr. stanton’s youngest son, herbert ayer, continued to live with them and work with his mother. 45,46 during this time, dr. stanton’s daughter, sadie, got married to edward amesbury.47 sadie also pursued a study of optometry, attending demars optical school and the northern illinois college of optometry.48 as well as being active in optometric associations, dr. stanton was active in community organizations. she was a member of the automobile club, the zuhrah ladies’ club (associated with the shrine club), and the order of the eastern star.49 in 1911, she was also a charter member of the minneapolis women’s rotary−the first all-female rotary club in the country. after rotary international refused them admission because of their sex, they separately incorporated and are still active today.50 dr. stanton bought the records of prominent minneapolis optometrist c.a. snell in 1913. dr. snell placed a large advertisement in the newspaper informing his patients of his retirement and the transfer of his records to dr. stanton. the advertisement states “the former patrons of dr. snell are assured they will receive that courteous and careful treatment at the hands of dr. stanton which he bespeaks for her.” 51 between her optometric commitments, social engagements, and charitable work−not to mention her practice−her life must have been very busy. her daughter sadie passed the minnesota examination for licensure in 1915 on her first try with a very respectable 79%. the new dr. amesbury joined her mother in practice at dayton’s.28,52 the pair moved to a new, larger location within dayton’s on april 12, 1917.48 in 1918, the american optometric association (aoa) congress was held in st. paul, minnesota. dr. stanton served as chair of the ladies’ reception committee and planned a very ambitious social program for all the women (primarily wives) attending the congress. she used her connections and resources, such as the women’s rotary club, to assist in entertaining the women. at this meeting, she was also elected fourth vicepresident of the aoa.28 (p. 7, fig. 5) during world war i, drs. stanton and amesbury provided services as consulting optometrists in the examination of applicants for commissions into the united states army medical corps and training camps. for such service, in 1919 they received a letter of thanks from ralph perry, president of the board of examiners for the medical corps. it is unlikely that there were many other women who were able to provide such service.28 although not involved in the women’s suffrage movement in the united states, drs. stanton and amesbury were vocal about the opportunities that optometry provided for women. in 1912, she wrote an article entitled “qualities required of a woman in optometry” for the optical journal and review. some of her statements in the article are remarkable for the time: “women have entered such extraordinary pursuits that seemingly there is no field where men succeed that a woman may not achieve success also.” in the article, she points out certain traits that are required of optometrists: “it is the young woman who has a fondness for tools and who can readily repair a sewing machine or typewriter when it gets somewhat out of gear, who will take up optometry and acquire with ease the basic knowledge of the profession.” she continues, “one must be alert and alive to what is going on in the world.” she also mentions those traits that are more common in women, stating: “sympathy, tact and magnetism are usually present to a greater degree in women than in men. if a woman has these qualities, and also a ready good humor and a naturally cordial manner, she is eminently fitted for success, always providing she has had the proper training for her work. the one big stumblingblock in her pathway, probably, is the lack of confidence which people generally have in a woman in any line of work that requires brains, skill and experience. a woman is obliged to build up confidence often, whereas a man finds it given him readily.” 53 it is hard to believe that the article was written over 100 years ago, as she continues, “another thing, they do not know how to charge for their work. it is a woman’s failing to underestimate the value in dollars and cents of what she does, and i presume it is attributable to her lack of experience and natural diffidence. it is essential, of course, that not only the actual cost of an article, but that one’s experience, one’s expenses and one’s brains should enter into the fixing of prices for whatever one puts on the market. when women learn to put a fair price, neither exorbitant nor too low, upon their work they will have made progress toward establishing themselves substantially in business.”53 one can only wonder what dr. stanton would have thought of vision plans and their impact on the profession−for both women and men. by 1920, both dr. stanton and dr. amesbury were divorced from their husbands.54 their optical shop was known and recognized for employing only women, even including women grinding the lenses. in 1923, drs. stanton and amesbury left dayton’s and moved into new offices across the street, in the wilmac building.55 (figure 7). it is unclear what precipitated the move−perhaps space issues, or perhaps the growing disagreement within optometry about ethical practice. in 1923, the aoa proposed a radical new code of ethics. the code was not adopted, but its very proposal indicates the degree of discontent and disagreement within optometry at the time. some of the statements of the proposed code directly contradicted many of the common avenues previously practiced by drs. stanton and amesbury: “we agree… to make examination of the eyes the paramount feature, not the sale of glasses. … to charge for, and to collect, a reasonable fee for eye examinations. … we believe that organized optometry can best be served by group publicity, as also by magazine and newspaper articles in which the author does not seek to present his own personality. … we agree to discontinue the use of handbills, billboard advertising, billposter advertising, … and signs reading, ‘eyes examined (or tested) free.’”56 dr. stanton was always very proud of her ethical practices−she frequently advertised that she only recommended glasses when there was actually article davis and vogl hindsight: journal of optometry history 9 article davis and vogl a need−so she was undoubtably concerned about remaining professionally ethical in all respects given the changing climate. between 1925 and 1930, dr. stanton gradually started to retire. she would visit her son herbert in california for extended periods of time and had a summer home on lake minnetonka. she continued to participate in an active social and community life and advocate for optometry, including making presentations to california optical societies and organizations when she was visiting her son.28.57,58 on march 25, 1931, during a visit with her son in atascadero, california, dr. stanton passed away. the official cause of death on the death certificate was “mitral regurgitation and chronic interstitial nephritis,” with a contributory condition of hypertension.3,59 news of her death was printed in several journals and newspapers. nearly all of them portrayed her life as she had created it−married at age seventeen, widowed with three children before age 25, and stumbling upon optometry as a means for supporting herself. even her death certificate portrays only part of the story, as she is listed as the wife of charles m. stanton−the one of her three husbands to whom she was married the shortest amount of time, but perhaps the one she was closest to, as she retained his name both professionally and socially.60-62 dr. stanton was truly a trailblazer in optometry. she was never willing to allow her gender to be an excuse. in her words from 1912, “optometry needs women, and women, in my opinion, who can make themselves successful in it, will find a substantial and satisfying profession to follow.”53 acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the research staff at the minnesota historical society – gale family library for their diligence in providing access to dr. stanton's papers. references 1. minutes of the minnesota state board of optometry 1901-1965. records of the minnesota state board of examiners in optometry. 1 may 1901. located at minnesota historical society, st. paul, mn. 2. minutes of the minnesota state board of optometry 1901-1965. records of the minnesota state board of examiners in optometry. 11 jun 1901. located at minnesota historical society, st. paul, mn. 3. familysearch.org [internet]. california, county birth and death records, 1800-1994, database with images, ella gertrude stanton, 1931. 4. ancestry.com. [internet]. 1870 united state federal census, gertrude smith. 5. ancestry.com [internet]. 1880 united states federal census, gertrude smith. 6. ancestry.com [internet]. iowa marriage records, 1880-1940, gertrude smith and r eugene ayer. 7. ancestry.com [internet]. iowa state census, 1895, arthur d ayer. 8. ancestry.com [internet]. u.s., find a grave index, arthur d ayer. 9. ancestry.com [internet]. virginia, death records, 1912-2014, sadie a betzer. 10. ancestry.com [internet]. u.s., find a grave index, john herbert ayer. 11. department of education, territory of dakota, teachers’ certificate #253, hamlin co., dakota, 12 apr 1890. located at: minnesota historical society, st. paul, mn gertrude stanton papers, 1890-1931. box p1558. 12. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. twice-a-week plain dealer. (cresco, howard county, iowa), 08 oct. 1895. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88059319/1895-10-08/ ed-1/seq-4/ 13. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. twice-a-week plain dealer. (cresco, howard county, iowa), dec. 1895. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88059319/1895-12-13/ ed-1/seq-1/ 14. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. willmar tribune. [volume] (willmar, minn.), 26 july 1899. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89081022/1899-07-26/ed-1/seq5/ 15. ancestry.com [internet]. 1900 united states federal census, arthur d. ryer, john h. ryer. 16. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. new ulm review. (new ulm, brown county, minn.), 07 march 1900. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89081128/1900-03-07/ed-1/seq-5 17. gertrude ayres optical journal. minneapolis: hall-black and company printers, n.d. located at: minnesota historical society, st. paul, mn gertrude stanton papers, 1890-1931. box p1558 18. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the worthington advance. [volume] (worthington, minn.), 24 aug. 1900. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025620/1900-08-24/ ed-1/seq-3/ 19. gertrude stanton personal journal [scrapbook containing newspaper clippings, personal/business accounts, professional notes], located at the minnesota historical society, st. paul mn, gertrude stanton papers, 1890-1931, box p1558. 20. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the worthington advance. [volume] (worthington, minn.), 19 oct. 1900. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025620/1900-10-19/ ed-1/seq-12/ 21. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the redwood gazette. [volume] (redwood falls, minn.), 09 may 1900. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025570/1900-05-09/ ed-1/seq-8/ figure 7. office of dr. gertrude stanton, optometrist, 301 wilmac building, 719 nicollet avenue, minneapolis. image courtesy the minnesota historical society. r5 r1. 10 volume 51, number 1, january 2020 22. stanton cm. “concerning ‘quakes’ and ‘humbugs’”, place of publication not identified; publisher not identified. n.d. located at: minnesota historical society, st. paul, mn, gertrude stanton papers, 1890-1931. box p1558. 23. ancestry.com. [internet]. minnesota, death index, 1908-2017, eugene ayer. 24. minnesota legislature office of the revisor of statutes. an act to regulate the practice of optometry. general laws. chapter 269. 1901. available from: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1901/0/ general+laws/chapter/269/pdf/ 25. minutes of the minnesota state board of optometry 1901-1965. records of the minnesota state board of examiners of optometry. 1902. minnesota state board of examiners in optometry. located at minnesota historical society st. paul mn. 26. minutes of the minnesota state board of optometry 1901-1965. records of the minnesota state board of examiners of optometry. 1910. minnesota state board of examiners in optometry. located at minnesota historical society st. paul mn. 27. list of registered optometrist in minnesota, annual reports 1903-1951, minnesota state board of optometry, st. paul, mn 1929 located at minnesota historical society, st. paul, mn. 28. various newspaper clippings. place of publication not identified; publisher not identified. located at the minnesota historical society, st. paul mn, gertrude stanton papers, 1890-1931, box p1558. 29. ancestry.com. [internet]. iowa, marriage records, 1880-1940, gertrude ayer and charles m stanton. 30. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the worthington advance. [volume] (worthington, minn.), 20 dec. 1901. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. availabe from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025620/1901-12-20/ ed-1/seq-8/ 31. dayton bd, green eb. george draper dayton: a man of parts. 1997, privately printed minneapolis, mn pg. 251. 32. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the minneapolis journal. [volume] (minneapolis, minn.), 18 march 1903. available from https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1903-03-18/ed-1/seq3/ 33. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the minneapolis journal. [volume] (minneapolis, minn.), 29 dec. 1905. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1905-12-29/ ed-1/seq-7/ 34. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the minneapolis journal. [volume] (minneapolis, minn.), 06 march 1905. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1905-03-06/ ed-1/seq-7/ 35. newspapers.com “local woman is given high honor” star tribune (minneapolis, minn), 28 feb 1909: p 9. available from: https://www. newspapers.com/image/180265078/ 36. ancestry.com [internet]. u.s., find a grave index, charles m. stanton. 37. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov [internet]. the redwood gazette. [volume] (redwood falls, minn.), 07 march 1906. chronicling america: historic american newspapers. lib. of congress. available from: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025570/1906-0307/ed-1/seq-2/ 38. newspapers.com. “automobiles and pianos for grand contest prizes. star tribune, minneapolis, mn 26 aug 1907. available from: https:// www.newspapers.com/image/178723201/ 39. newspapers.com “final standings in tribune contest” star tribune, minneapolis, mn 2 nov 1907. available from: https://www. newspapers.com/image/179037899/ 40. star tribune.com “march 7, 1907: a very popular optician” yesterday’s news blog. welter, ben. 6 mar 2012. available from: http://www.startribune.com/ march-7-1907-a-very-popular-optician/106821628/ 41. newspapers.com “woman and her career” star tribune, minneapolis minnesota 7 mar 1907, p 11. available from: https://www. newspapers.com/image/179004744/ 42. newspapers.com “local woman is given high honor” star tribune, minneapolis, mn 28 feb 1909 p 9 available from: https://www. newspapers.com/image/180265078/ 43. stanton g. indications in cases of retinal fatigue. optical review 1908;2(7):23-24. 44. familysearch.org. minnesota, county marriages, 1860-1949, minneapolis, hennepin, minnesota, fhl microfilm 1,380,453, 8 dec 1909. joseph h. jones and gertrude stanton. available from: https:// familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:qjgb-shkv 45. ancestry.com [internet]. 1910 united states federal census, lehi (ut): ancestry.com operations, inc. 2006. joseph h jones, gertrude l jones, john h ayer jones. 46. ancestry.com. [internet]. u.s. city directories, 1822-1995 john h ayer, gertrude stanton. 47. ancestry.com. [internet]. michigan, county marriage records, 18221940, edward s amesbury, sadie t hyer. 48. author unknown, “removal of stanton-amesbury offices-women do all the work, even the grinding”, opt j rev optom 1917; 1(17):1092. 49. newspapers.com “automobiles are coming and the votes piling up”, star tribune, minneapolis, mn 24 sep 1907: p. 8. available from: https://www.newspapers.com/image/178769183/ 50. newspapers.com “women and their work” minneapolis women first to form a rotary club mcdonald, blanche r., anderson eugenia a., star tribune, minneapolis, mn 27 apr 1911 p 11 available from: https://www.newspapers.com/image/180277527/ 51. newspapers.com “optical announcement” star tribune, minneapolis, mn 3 jun 1913 p 3 available from: https://www.newspapers.com/ image/181122120/ 52. minutes of the minnesota state board of optometry 1901-1965. records of the minnesota state board of examiners of optometry. 1-2 apr 1915. minnesota state board of examiners in optometry. located at minnesota historical society st. paul mn. 53. stanton jones g. qualities required of a woman in optometry. opt j rev optom 1912;103(1): 233-234. 54. ancestry.com [internet]. 1920 united states federal census, joseph h jones, gertrude staunton and sadie amesbury. 55. newspapers.com “short cuts in the city news” star tribune (minneapolis, mn). 7 feb 1923: p. 12. available from: https://www. newspapers.com/image/181367970/ 56. nicum wv. a.o.a.’s committee on code of ethics report submitted at the aoa convention. opt j rev optom 1923;52(1): 64. 57. newspapers.com, society section star tribune, 13 may 1926 p 10 available from: https://www.newspapers.com/image/181855378/ 58. newspapers.com, society news, fads and fancies of interest to womensociety calendar, 12 jul 1927: p. 4. available from: https://www.newspapers.com/image/186799931/ 59. findagrave, altadena, los angeles co., ca, 25 mar 1931. ella gertrude stanton. available from: https://www.findagrave.com/ memorial/7692972/ella-gertrude-stanton. 60. newspapers.com “gertrude stanton optometrist, dies” star tribune. (minneapolis mn). 7 apr 1931: p. 10. available from: https://www. newspapers.com/image/182455155/ 61. pettet r. to dr. gertrude stanton. the optometric weekly. 1931;21(april 9):215 62. author unknown. death of dr. gertrude stanton, first woman to register as an optometristpioneer traveled in southern minnesota before opening office in minnesota. opt j rev optom 1931;67(14):32.60. 63. newspapers.com “gertrude stanton optometrist, dies” star tribune minneapolis mn 7 apr 1931 p 10 available from: https://www. newspapers.com/ article davis and vogl m 00 en c) 1""'"4 _,. ::::> ..., newsletter of the optometric historical society optoliletrl!' tibrat'y .loa file (243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, t~issouri 63141, u.s.a.) vol. 14 july 1983 number 3 annual call for nominations: the board member whose five-year term will expire at the end of this year is james tumblin, o.d. he informed us last year that due to several other long range commitments he could not allow himself to be renominated for another term. nominations for his replacement for a five-year term are hereby requested for placement on the ballot in october. they may be submitted to henry hofstetter, 2615 windermere ~·joods drive, bloomington, indiana 47401, u.s.a. by all means do not hesitate to include yourself as a candidate if such responsibility challenges you. remember, self-nominated volunteers founded the o.h.s., and unpaid volunteers have kept it going. origins of an association: discovered in the old files of the indiana state board of optometry is a carbon copy of a six-page single-spaced typewritten paoer entitled a history of the indiana association of optometrists. of almost flawless grammar, virtually free of typographical errors, and in fine literary style, it seems to have been prepared for publication, but where i do not know. the author is unknown, as is also the date excent that it would not be before 1920. though ostensibly a history of indiana's optometric association, it clearly reflects circumstances that must have prevailed throughout a large part, if not the whole, of the united states around the turn of the century. the full text follows: =--,.._ i 5e =:, ;! :s ~ on december tenth, 1896, a number of opticians from various parts of the state of indiana, who had a keen interest, not only in their individual work, but also in the advancement of the profession as a whole, came together for a meeting at the caoital city, indianapolis. this meeting, which was held in a little room at the denison hotel, was called to order by john vlimmer, of indianapolis, now deceased. a medicinal bill having been introduced into the indiana state legislature, which, upon investigation, proved to be adverse to the opticians, all of the men present felt the need of an organized and effective body to advance their profession and disseminate knowledge concerning it. after some discussion, a motion was carried to form an organization to be known as the indiana optical socie~y, composed of the following charter members: john wimmer, i. m. rowe, g. w. conner, and h. e. woodard of indianapolis, william e. houston of 38 greenfield, g. m. c. bartmus of clinton, ed shipley_ of green­ castle, eugene collings of franklin, j. h. arnold of columbus, j. d. taylor of logansport and d. s. whitaker of lebanon. four officers were then elected for the ensuing year: president­ vice-president­ treasurer­ secretaryassistant secretaryjohn wimmer william e. houston i. m. rowe c. w. conner h. e. woodard after the installation of officers, a motion was carried that the executive committee should meet on the following day, december eleventh, 1896, at ten o•clock in the morning. at this session of the executive committee, a motion was discussed and carried that mr. albert j. beveridge be employed as attorney for the indiana optical society, and that he be paid fifty dollars as a retainer fee. under the direction of the society, mr. beveridge drafted a bill defining and regulating the practice of optometry which was introduced into the legislature of the session of 1897 by senator hugg. this bill, as read, was referred by dr. newton of barthol­ omew county to the committee on public health in the house of representatives. although the bill was favorably reported on in both the house and the senate, because of the similarity of the medical bill and the optical bill, it became necessary to effect a compromise. through the efforts of mr. i. m. rowe and mr. beveridge, an amendment was added to the medical bill, which amendment read 11 that the said medical bill was not to be construed to apply to opticians ... the optometry bill was then withdrawn. this was a triumph for the society and a speedy reward and justi­ fication of its formation. its fame spread abroad and in the same year of 1896, announcement was made in the optical journal that opticians in ohio, pennsylvania, new york and other new england states had met to form state societies for the advance­ ment and protection of their profession. this activity caused the following favorable comment by mr. l. b. hilburn of new york which appears in the optical journal in 1897: 11 lt is very encouraging to observe the number of optical societies springing up ... a similar society was organized in illinois on september fifteenth, 1898. 39 since no business arose after this first meeting of the indiana optical society in 1897, which urgently required action on the part of the members, the society did not again function actively until 1901. two years before this date, the medical bill had again appeared before the legislature to be amended. without the knowledge of the indiana optical society, the clause was left out which said 11 that the bill was not to be construed as applying to opticians.~~ as a result of this, the society again came together on january twenty-ninth, 1901, and adopted the name of the indiana state optical society. they were ready for instant and effective action. the meeting was well attended, representatives being present from all parts of the state. an interesting article appeared in the keystone of march, 1901, giving an account of the proceedings as follows: 11 after a general greeting, the meeting was called to order by president wimmer, who stated its object and invited the non­ members present to join the society. after electing a number of new members, the society proceeded with the election of officers with the following result: e. shipley of greencastle, president; j. h. arnold of columbus, vice-president; g. m. c. bartmus of clinton, secretary; i. m. rowe of indianapolis, treasurer; miss stella rogers, assistant secretary. the executive committee consists of e. 0. collins, franklin; c. m. jenkins, richmond; 0. m. ridgeway, sheridan; paul e. hulsman, indianapolis; w. h. mcdougal, indianapolis. a committee was appointed to revise the constitution and by-laws of the society as follows: c. m. jenkins, richmond; ~·1. c. klein, crawfordsville; j. d. taylor, logansport. 11 the medical bill was then discussed at length and a committee appointed to confer with and employ an attorney, if necessary. the han. john l. griffiths was retained to look after the interests of the society. 11 after due consideration, it was deemed urgent to issue a call for all the opticians of the state of indiana to meet on february twenty-first, 1901, to enlist in a movement to pass a favorable bill through the legislature and to defeat the hostile medical bill then up for consideration by the law-making body. this call read as follows: 11 the object of this meeting is to confer with our attorney and formulate a plan by which we can defeat the passage of the 'medical bill' now in the legislature. if you are alive to your interests, you will be present without fail, as the critical point is now here and we must act quickly, or be debarred from the practice of our profession by an innocent looking clause inserted by the 'occulist'. would you permit a law to be passed against you to save five or ten dollars? if so, remain inactive and it is sure to come. 40 "four years ago a very sma 11 per cent of the opticians in indiana saved our necks by prompt action and liberal dona­ tions, while the other ninety per cent of the opticians saved their money and time by staying at horne. the magnitude of the present danger cannot be described in this letter. come and see for yourself. the comparatively few of us that are trying to surmount this obstacle are unequal to the emergency. will you help us defend your interests and ours? this is not a scare call, but stern reality. " as a result of the splendid and vigorous efforts made by the members of the indiana optical society, they brought about an amendment by the legislature which again read, "that the medical bill was not to be construed as applying to opticians." the society itself continued to actively concern itself in pro­ moting its best interests and at the session of the legislature in 1907 a bill favorable to optometrists was passed both by the house of representatives and by the senate and was signed by governor hanly. this bill was favorably amended in 1913 and also in 1919. from the above resume of the early functioning of the indiana association of optometrists, known at different times by the names of the indiana optical society, the indiana state optical society, and the indiana state optometrical society, it can be seen how the broad foresight, the clear vision and the tireless activity of its founders aided much in establishing optometry on its present satisfactory basis in the state of indiana. the members who have come into the organization in recent years do not entirely realize, perhaps, what difficult problems had to be faced and solved by the society in its early days, handicapped as it was by small membership, much opposition, and the general ignorance which then prevailed on the subject of optometry, but nevertheless upheld and strengthened by unceasing earnest­ ness, and a deep conviction of the real value of the principles for which it stood and for which it fought. thirteen persons have thus far held the office of president in the association, and have successfully guided it in its achievements. these persons are john wimmer, indianapolis; ed shipley, greencastle, c. m. jenkins, richmond; john e. ellis, plainfield; margaret j. erisman, lafayette; j. w. thompson, danville; w. t. mccullough, indianapolis; c. d. adair, elwood; omar c. deselms, attica; clara m. sweitzer, richmond. on august fifteenth, 1901, the indiana association was honored by the election of john h. ellis of south bend as president of the american optical association. 41 of the eleven charter members of this society two are deceased; mr. g. m. c. bartmus of clinton and mr. john wimmer of indianap­ olis, the first president of the association. mr. wimmer was born in cincinnati, ohio, but came to indianapolis in his early youth. after beginning business as an optometrist in this town in 1880, he suffered various reverses which caused him to discontinue his business career for a time. when he resumed it in the same location where he remained until his death at the age of fifty-two years, his business prospered with increasing success. by dint of energy, enterprise and business acumen, he accumulated a fortune of some two hundred thousand dollars. throughout all of his business career, he worked faithfully and unremittingly for the success of the indiana association. the second president, mr. ed shipley, who was elected in 1901, was born near baltimore, maryland. he first established himself in business as an optician in philadelphia, but after a few years, he moved to greencastle, indiana, where he is living at the present time. a short time after this move in 1887, he wrote to doctor bucklin of new york, asking him for his opinion on the establishment of ophthalmic schools for the education of opticians. eleven years afterward, in 1898, the keystone published an article which said in part: "dr. bucklin favored the idea (i.e., ophthalmic schools), and .... started his school very shortly after this (i.e., mr. shipley's letter in 1887), and in less than two years, several schools were started, and all have done a good business. today we have in this country no less than a dozen ophthalmic schools. since the different colleges started, mr. shipley has attended and graduated from several of them. he not only makes his own exami­ nations, but also grinds his own lenses." the indiana association is indebted to mr. shipley for a great deal of interesting information concerning its origin and the early years of its existence. mr. h. e. woodard was born february sixth, 1863, in mannsville, new york. he graduated from the common school in 1880 and went to work on a farm and in a lumber camp. at the age of twenty-five, he met dr. allard from syracuse, new york, who induced mr. woodard to study optometry with him. the first year he worked for dr. allard for ten dollars a month, the second year for fifteen dollars a month and by the time the third year rolled around, he was receiving the princely salary of twenty dollars a month. following his three years with dr. allard, mr. woodard went to new york and took a course in optics, then bought a test case, a stock of lenses and started out on the road as a full-fledged optician. during the summer months, he worked through northern 4? new york, and in the winter, traveled farther south. in the fall of 1893, he went to chicago hoping to obtain a concession to sell spectacles at the world's fair. being unsuccessful and in need of money, mr. woodard then worked south as far as danville, illinois and crossed over into indiana, living at frankfort for a year and a half, and moving to indianapolis in may, 1896. his first location in this town was with horace comstock's jewelry store on east washington street. not meeting with great success there, he accepted a position with w. t. marcy on west washington street and from there, mr. woodard moved to massachusetts avenue, where he established a business of his own, remaining there until 1908, in which year he moved into his present location. at the annual meeting of the indiana association of optometrists, mr. woodard was elected president. in 1912 he was appointed by governor goodrich to serve on the state board of registration and examination. this oosition he held for five years, being secretary each year and at the expiration of his term of office, he was elected by the other members, to a life position. mr. woodard is believed to be the only exempt man in indiana who has taken the state board examination. at the a. 0. a. meeting at providence, rhode island, mr. woodard was elected president of the national state board. mr. charles w. conner, the first secretary of this society, who was the inventor of the one-piece bifocal lens, now known by the name of ultex, was born in bloomfield, pennsylvania, in april 1868. a few years later he moved with his family to indianap­ olis, where he later went into business as an optometrist. after remaining for over thirty years in this town, he moved away, continuing his business in detroit and new york. in 1920, he again made a change, moving to his present home in asheville, north carolina. mr. j. d. taylor, whom, as in the case of mr. woodard, mr. wimmer, mr. conner, and mr. shipley, indiana can claim only as an adooted son, was born near auburn, new york, on july twenty-seventh, 1860. in the fall of 1871, he came westward to logansport ancl at that time he concluded to learn the jewelry business. in 1888, having had some trouble with his eyes, he consulted an oculist who loaned him a book on refraction. he became so interested that he decided to make it his life work. about this time the julius king optical company was giving courses in this work at cleveland, and mr. c. l. merry, who happened to visit logansport at that time, induced him to attend. in 1896, mr. taylor took a course in the chicago ophthalmic college, then conducted by dr. martin, and having disposed of the jewelry department of his business in 1917, he took a post-graduate 43 course with dr. needles in kansas city and became exclusively an optometrist. mr. taylor, who has been very successful in his work, may be quoted as follows: "my greatest trouble in my early experience was to get people to sit in the chair and use the trial frame. they did not want to buy glasses that way. they just wanted to try them on. f~y experience is that a jeweler-optometrist is working at a disadvantage as he cannot give it the time it should have. he has no time to study." another of the charter members, mr. i. m. rowe, who was elected as first treasurer of the indiana association, was born in grant county, indiana on december first 1854, but spent his childhood on a farm in missouri. in early life he learned the painter and carpenter trade, but he never put it into practical use. he was a trader and stock buyer until he was almost thirty years of age. then, because of reverses in this business, he took up the spectacle trade. finding that this business was profitable, he continued in it and soon began jobbing spectacles to the trade. after four years of this, he began traveling, selling from samples, and at the same time took up the subject of refrac­ tion, studying this in all his spare moments. in 1894, he took a course at parsons polytechnic institute at peoria, illinois. after his graduation, he established a business in indianapolis, which he conducted successfully until 1919, at which time, he sold his business and retired from active work as an optometrist. mr. rowe expects, however, to re-establish himself in the business in the near future. mr. d. s. whitaker was born in scotland, indiana, on november twelfth, 1854. at the time he was six years old, his parents moved to indianapolis for a period of three years. when they moved again, this time going to whitestown in 1863, he spent several vacation months working in a stove factory. in 1869 he and his parents moved to zionsville, where he obtained a position in a dry goods store for a time and, later, in 1874, went into the jewelry business with mr. warren, father of miss annie warren, whom he married. in 1879 mr. whitaker moved to lebanon and, after acquiring experience in handling watches, he invested in a small stock of watches and other je111elry--the nucleus of a business as a jeweler and optometrist which he has built up with ever increasing success during the past forty-three years. in 1918, he took as a partner mr. l. s. sterling, also an optometrist and practical watch maker, who had been in his employ for fourteen years. it is with much regret that biographical sketches of the life and work of four other charter members must be omitted, since the material was not available at the time of publication. although it is therefore not possible to give detailed information 44 concerning these men, it is with much pride that the indiana association of optometrists includes in its list of charter members such men as william e. houston of greenfield; eugene collins of franklin; j. h. arnold of columbus and g. m. c. bartmus, now deceased, of clinton. john c. eberhardt of dayton, ohio was elected to honorary membership on january 12, 1903, and l. w. bugbee on january 13, 1920. c. m. jenkins was born in december 1854, at dayton, ohio. he was first interested in optics at the age of eight years, the subjects being two schoolmates with internal strabismus and congenital ptosis. these made such an impression on him that he selected for his declamation on the last day of school, a four-verse poem by some doctor, the substance of which was: spectacles are made for old people to see to read and write and sew with, and near-sighted persons of any age to see with. in 1873 he was employed with a firm on main street, dayton, ohio, and there with our friend, john c. eberhart, delved into the mystery of lenses. he is a graduate of the philadelphia school of optics, the late c. h. brown, m.d., being president. in 1877 and 1878 he was a co-worker with dr. culbertson, oculist, their subject being eyes and artificial ear drums. about 1880 he and dr. hobbs, oculist, jointly studied refraction and the fitting of eyes. he served three years as president of the indiana association of optometrist, one year as president of the indiana state board of registration and examination, as many years back as the writer recalls as treasurer of the american association of optometrists and twenty-five years as counsel for our state association. slit j amp __ bi omi crosco_q,y_: ohs member henry a. knoll has published a brief history of ocular biomicroscopy in the february 1983 issue of contact lens forum, vol. 8, no.2, pp. 71 & 74-75, under the title "thetndfspens-ableslit lamp". he identifies the 20's as the "golden age" of slit lamp biomicroscopy, with textbooks appearing in german, french, english, and spanish. the various names credited with design contributions are leonhard koeppe, manuel troncoso, alvar gullstrand, czapski-zeiss, otto henker, hugh binstead, henry stockwell, edgar fincham, hans goldmann, and alfred vogt. 45 hirschber9 available in english: ---·------. --------·-·----------~--_volume i of julius hirschberg•s 11 history of ophthalmology,~~ ment1oned on page 49 of the july 1982 issue of nohs, is now available from alan york, 0.0., one main street, east hampton, n.y. 11937, the distributor for the u.s.a. frederick c. blodi, m.d., translated not only the german text but also all quotations which in the german edition are in the language of the original source, such as greek . ' lat1n, french, and italian. volume i contains the history of ophthalmology in antiquity in egypt, assyria, babylonia, israel persia, india, and greece. ' the first volume by itself is $98.00, but if the entire series of about 11 volumes is ordered now, the price of each volume is only $78.00. ohs member york reports that his talk on 11 collecting antique eyeglasses~~ at optifair east drew an audience of about 30, a mixture of o.o.•s, m.o.•s, opticians, aides, and antique lovers. in· defense of our role: ohs president leeds kindly loaned me his copy of a 24 page, 21.5 x 14 em, pamphlet, which i know he did not steal but which obviously derived from the british optical association library as indicated by a somewhat smudged but still faintly legible rubber stamp impression on the front outside cover. also on the front cover is imprinted the price of 1/-, i.e., one shilling. the publication was the work of a sp~cial coalition committee appointed to respond in behalf of the whole ootical (optometric) profession to what was known in england as 11 the beveridge report". in the british nomenclature of the era the designation optometrist was not used and therefore is totally abs~nt from the text, but the issue deals historically with optometry in the most obvious sense of the word. the document is of course biased in its representation of the profession•s role in public health insofar as that is its purpose, but its gratifying feature from a histor.ian•s point of vievj is its coverage of meticulously referenced .historical details. it therefore seems appropriate that the contents of this now rare publication be shared again with others, wherefore it is photo­ graphically reproduced in the following pages with a 25';;, increase of size to make the otherwise very small print a bit more legible. 46 the place of the optical profession in the i-leal tll services of the nation. this statement on the place of the optical profession in the he~'\lth services of the nation has been drawn up by the members of an ad hoc committee consisting of representatives of the various organis:\tions in the optical profession. these organisl\tions are as follows: examining bojies \vurs!ill'ful company of spectacle mai\.t.rs llritish optical association national association of opticians scuttisll association of opticians nun-examining bodies institute of ophtl!ai.mic opticians joint council of qualified opticians society ·of opticians questionnaire committee lssui~d uy tile be\'eludge hei'ort (.-ld lioc) col\ll\llttfl: (optical profession), t,'i, hi<ook street, london, w.r january, ii) 1-1 ciiajrma.n: w. h. h/\i{keh, f.b.o.a. (hon5,) sli.crlita rl': \lisa i. parnum. introduction section i. 47 contents to show that ophthalmic optics has developed as <~ distinct and pa1'a. individual field of work . 9 evolution of ophthalmic optics : (i) from early times to the 19th century ( ii) modern period (iii) training, qualification and disciplinary control (iv) the wor~ of the optical practitioner (v) research and advances in tcchniljuc conclusions srction ii. to show that in the public intere~t optical practitioners !'hould continue 9 23 34 46 47 53 as a separate and independent profession 57 ( i) efficiency of service 61 (ii) public preference . 6'i (iii) development-past and future 68 conclusions 3 3 section iii. to show that full effect cannot otherwise be given to the three prin­ ciples laid down by the ministry of health as those upon which the future health service will be based . 87 (i) best services for all 88 (ii) personal and professional freedom . 96 (iii) preservation of health, not cure of disease alnnc lol conclusions 105 appendix a. medical opposition to the optical profession. appendix b. repreaentative selection of re11earch papers, text book11 ilnd ln~tr11 ment deaign by the optical profu11ion and tht 5taff~ of itr~ tr:lchhlj:( lnetitutiona. r ! . ! 48 -t 3 definitions applying to this document " ophthalmology" means that field of work concerned with the structure, functions, pathology and therapeutics of the eye. " 0phthalmologi st " means one practising ophthalmology; an oculist or ophthalmic surgeon. " ophthalmic optics " means the field of work concerned with the function and conservation of vision, the correction of visual anomalies due to anatomical and physiological defects and the appliance& used for those purposes. "optical practitioner" means one practising ophthalmic optics; also described as a sight•testing or ophthalmic optician. the place of the optical profession .... in the comprehensive health service. introduction. 1. for many years the optical practi­ tioner has provided an essential part of the nation's health services. that he has done so efficiently and satisfactorily is scarcely open to question, for were it otherwise the great majority of the public would not continue to resort to him with the1r optical troubles (a), nor would he have been permitted to take the substan• tial part he does in the national health insurance ophthalmic benefit scheme (b). 2. ln view of this it might reasonably be supposed that the optical practitioner could confidently anticipate finding his accustomed place in the new and compre• hens1ve health service the government is considering as a result of its acceptance of assumption b of the beveridge report. 3. there is good reason to know, how• ever, that the just expectations of the optical profession in this, or, indeed, in any other direction will be most bitterly opposed, aa they have always been, by organised medicine, which has fur many years sought-unsuccessfully despite its power-to establish a monopoly of the nation's sight-testing work. 4. for a proper understanding of the position, it is perhaps desirable at this point to explain shortly the precise reason for this opposition, leaving a more detailed examination of the contentions of the (a) for comparative figures, see para. 66 (inf,.a). (b) it ia estimated that optical praotitioners medical profession to a later part of this memorandum (c). 5. according to the medical view the optical practitioner should be permitted to do no more than make up spectacles in accordance with the instructions of a medical practitioner and in particular he should not be allowed to refract (i.e., test sight) or to prescribe for the correction of errors of vision. the reason given for this attitude is that the optical practitioner is likely to overlook a diseased condition of the eye, which would not then receive the necessary medical attention at the earliest possible stage. 6. for their part optical practitwners claim rtot only that they are fully com· petent to prescribe for errors of refraction --as their past record shows-but also that their training is such as to enable them to recognise and refer to an ophthal· mic surgeon or physician those cases of organic deterioration or disease that call for medical attention. they add that under national health insurance arrange· ments they are required to refer such· cases, which is, of itself, official recognition of their ability to detect them. 7. it has been made quite plain in a variety of ways that it is the intention of organised medicine to oust the optical practitioner altogether from sight-testing work or, as an intermediate measure, so to contrive matters that he is permitted to handle well over three quartera of all n a tiona! health in11urance optical work. (c) set appendix a. 49 4 c:ury it on only under complete mcdic.d control. 8. it is, therefore, the purpose of this memorandum to show that, apart altogether from the gross unfairness of such inten· tions, neither alternative is justifiable or desirable in the public interest and this it will seek to do by reference to the follow· ing propositions: 1. that ophthalmic optics has developed as a distinct and individual field of work. 11. that, in the public interest, optical practitioners should continue as a separate and independent profes· sion. iii. that full effect cannot otherwise be given to tl:'te three principles laid down by the ministry of health as those upon which the future health service will be based (cc). (i.) to show that ophthalmic optics has developed as a distinct and individual field of work. evoi.lltion 01:' ophthalmic optics. (i.) f<rom early times to 19th century. 9. there is little doubt that the correc· tion of errors of vision developed from experiments with lenses in general (d). the magnifying properties of convex lenses were known from at least a.d. 150 (e), but the application of them to the needs of the old and weak·eyed does not seem to have occurred to anyone until about the 13th century. . 10. the man who was then responsible lor this . considerable advance was roger bacon,. hi whose opus majus, published in 1268, we find a substantial section devoted to optical science. although he certainly possessed the requisite theoretical knowledge, he apparently did not get as far as the idea of spectacles, for he men­ tions only a lens of glass or crystal to be used actually resting on the reading matter to be magnified (f) and it is not until the end of the 13th c~ntury that we find any d1stwct ment1on ot spectacles. · i i. the physicians and surgeons of the day were then, as now, concerned with the relief of disease and illness and spec· (cc) t!1ese vrinciple.s are, briefly: (i) best ser. vices for all; (ii) personal and profes­ slonal freedom, anj (iii) maintenance of health, not cure of disease alone. (d) v,on rohr, tl,wm<~.s young oration, 1923, 1 rans. opt. soc., xxv.241. (t) ibid., xxv.2.42. ltclcs were n·, <:lvt'd hy tht:lll w!lh .dl!l<>bl unanimous djsl!ppruval geur g lhrtlsch (i 53 5 1607 ), the father of german ophthalruology, at a somewlhtl later date dismis1>ed them 111 the wost llllcdlllpn•rnr:,­ ing terms as u~cle~s (g) und th<jsc ocullots who did not actively condemn them touk no intere.st whatever in their use, at the most recornmendlllg pati.:nt~ to v1~1t a spectacle maker and obtain the most ,,ull­ able pa1r (h). 12. in spite of thi~ more and !llljfc people began to discover the benefits of spectacles and to use them, espectally alter the invention of printing in 1440. 'the indifference of the oculists i11.1de it uuly natural fur the fitting of spcltacj.:~ to become increasingly the prerogative of those_ who sold them and during the yc.tr:; that followed a great deal of practical and valuable information about !.pe..:tacle.s and lenses and their .adaptation to indivrdual requirements was accumulated by ,uch men (1). i 3. it was abuut th1s llllle lh.tl a group of london citizens engaged in the w. •rk of making and fitting speclalks to the "dim·bightcd" petitioned charles i fo1 ,, charter of incorporatiun thi,; w.ts july granted to them on the 5th 1-.bi, ic>~y, and the body thus creoted wa' k11uwtl as the worshipful cornp.my ol sp,:clhlc makers and was given powers of control "throughout the realm ol england''. 14. the company forthwith cmb,ul.ed upon a full exercise of these power!, .111j ~s its records show, used them very freely mdeed fur about a century·and-a·half ;dtc1 its incorporation. persons smpccted ul "uttering hurtful wares" were visited by th~ company's officers and, wl1er.: appru pnate, were purushed by way of fines ()( the smashing t!l the offending spccta .. ln or both_ i 5. for the ncxt l )() year~ optlcj,dl'i contlllued to rnak.: steady progre"s and the development of spectacles and thcrr adaptation to v1sual needs remamed, as 1t had begun, almu:,t entirely in the hand, of non·med1cal men. in l67u wli!.,lln purter devised his (lptumeter tur the more accurate measurement lli viou..tl defects, while 111 16~2 claude cullli.:rs produced the fir::.t english puhlicaiiull devotee! exclusively to the :,ubject of spectacles (j). at the same time l11 gcr (/) ibid., xxv.2.42. (g) ophthalmoduuleij (i s~j) (h) sorshy, sltort llislul \' "l i !ji:thn/ 111 ,>/ ,;y (1933), p.56. (i) jbij., p.72. (i) spatadt•s /ut .~ liij'iiiijol si11hl wulk~ of cuii~ij~r.jhi..: llll[hlll,lilu" wt:ic also app~a1ing ( ~)in 1777 benjamiu franklin de:iignej and wore the first pair of bifocal spccta· des and a few years l.tter similar glasses were -made by benjan1in weste, th~ thew president of the royal academy. 16. prescribers were, however, cc•nsider­ ably handic<tpped <~.s they did not appreciate the existt:iice ur nature of the condition we now kuow as astigmatism and the more ex.tct correction of eye defects could not, therdore, be developed to the full. it was not, in fact, until 1799 that w. cary, an optician, communicatt:d to thomas young, the e111incnt physicist, the results of hi~ oh:iervations on the effects of astigm<~tblll, which young developed with ius custom..try brilliance(l). even young's genius, however, dues not s.:.:rn to have led him to the means of remedying the condition and sir george l\iry, astronomer-royal, is usually re· gardcd as the lirst person to have received the benefit of the correction of his astig· matiom, which he estimated himself in about 1817 and for which the optician fuller of ipswich subsequently furnished appropriate sphero-cylindrical lenses ( m ). · 17. for some reason, however, airy did nut publish his discuve1y for about ten years ( m) and there are recorded iw stances of the relief of astigmatism by persons who had no knowledge of his investigations. thus, prior to 1815 -how long we do not know--an opician uamcd colborn came ncar to solving the problem. the correcti• 111 of astigmatism rcquin.:s lenses of irregular curvature and colborn, complaining of the uneven sphericity of certain cheap lcnse~ of his time, says: .. but i must confess there arc instances in whtch we not only tolerate, but are obliged to prescribe, such irregular len~es" ( ll ). in 1828, mcalhtt:r, a philadelphia optician, who also k11ew nothing of airy's wurk, prescribed and supplied cylindric<tl lenses for the astigmatism of the rev. goodrich (o). 18. the first recorded case of astigma · ti~m in scollaud was in 184 7 at the edinburgh eye i11firmary. dr. allen thompoon of edinburgh university, diagnosed tlc e<•ndition but was 11<>t ahle (k) a,, e y., !\llllyncux's vioptrica nova (16y2). smiih's opti,·ks (173!!) and l'orterflcld'~ treatise of tile 1-:y.: ( 1759). (/) l.edun: o11 the mcchallism of the bye (i hoi). (m) "trans. camh. phil. soc." (ih27l 11.267. (n) cited by t. wharton jones, direases of ih<' eve (i 847). (,.) .·lm. hll ,,f !of,•.j. scienc.·s (ih27) 50 5 to mcasuic tb cxtcut 11..:, thadoit:, s.:ut tht: patieut to john ;\die, an optiri••n of the same city, whu prct.cribed for the case, supplying weak cylindrical lenses(p). according to dr. h .unilton ( [l) this was only the second recorded ca~e of corrected astigmatism in this country ~ince airy's discovery, though adte hiiw.clf claimed lo have supplied cylindrical lenses to a woman patient some years previmhly. 19. in some medical yuartcrs upposi· tion to the use of spectacles continued almost to the middle of the century. thus, in 1832, we find weller, sichel and othc1s condemning the use 'of couca ve lenses on the ground th<lt they caused myopta (short sight), presbyopia ("old" tiight), deformation of the eye and a variety of other more "or less unpleasant con:;e­ qucnces ( q). this attitude appears, how· ever, to have hecn changing, for opticians were bemg definitely recommended both for testing and for the supply of spec tacles by some of the most en)l!lent oculi~ts of the day, as, for example, fredk. tyrdl ( r), senior surgeon at 'tvloorficld~. t. wharton jones (s), proft:~~or uf ophthal­ mology at univcrbity cullcgl:, and julw walker ( t), of the "tvbnchcstcr royal school of anatomy illld l-.-kjtcine. 20. in fact, it is t1 ue to say that pt ior to 1869 opcicians prescribed almmt all the spectacles worn .tnd even moorfields hospital sent out their refractive cases to opticians fur testing until j. suclbcrg wells first advocated (u) the exclusive right of sight·testing for medical utc 11 21. as we ha\'e ~ccn (par.t~ 17 18: supra), the developments made pos~thlc by the discoveries of y .. ung <•nd r\it y wctc not immediate and it was not until i 864 that their full benefit began t(j be r..:apl'd . in that year there appear,·d tlu: da.:~i·.~ work of frans cornelius danders, 'flu accommoda.tion tmd rejr<:rtiun oj the hye. 22. dondcrs, a modcst and una~o;uming man, wa~ prof ess(jf uf ophthalmology at utrecht and daimcd that he had done no more than follow the patb indicated by young, airy, brcw~ter and others btll, in fact, his own work w<ls of such 1111purt­ anlt that it may he truly said of it th,tt it pointl'd the w;ty more dearly th.m any other of its time towards the pl;td' that ----_l ----------------------·· -----·-· -· --(fl) cited by r. lfamilion, monthly lui. ··f filed. scicuci's (ir~7). (tl) sorshy, short fli>tol·y of tjf>hth<jimolu,/y (1933), p.74 (r) diseases of the rye (ih·llll (s) diseases of the i!yc (1!!-12) (t) ocu/i,-t's vade 1\lectwl (18431. (ll) treatise 011 tl11· di«·os.·s .•i the r::,. ·(ir!i"l 51 6 the modern practice of refraction now occupies and it is largely to his credit that modern refractive technique is huilt upon a sound and scientific foundation. (ii.) modern period. 23. we have given in the preceding paragraphs some account--necessarily brief-of the sources from which ophthal­ mic optics is sprung. the period covered is a long one and the advances made cow siderable, but the most intense develop­ ment is that which has been concentrated into the last fifty years. 24. towards the ~nd of the 19th cen­ tury we find the opticians of that time giving the clearest evidence of that par­ ticular form of professional consciousness that demands the regulation of the prac· tltiuncr, the proper dissemination of tech• nical knowledge and a due appreciation by all of their responsibility to the public in using that knowledge. 2 5. in 1895, therefore, the british optical association was founded and in the following year instituted qualifying examinations. almost immediately after· wards the worshipful company of spec· tacle makers, whose old powers of control had lain dormant for many years, again became active and held its first diploma examination in 1898. these developments were followed by the creation of the in· stitute of chemists-opticians in 1906, the national association of opticians in 1910 and what is now called the scottish association of opticians in 1921 (v). 26. the above are bodies primarily concerned with the examination of students and the issue of diplomas and it is only to be expected that in due course optical practitioners should have felt the need for some co-ordination in the organ• isational and representative sphere. accordingly the year 1905 marks the creation of . the institute of ophthalmic opticians, followed in 1923 by that of the joint council of qualified opticians. neither is an examining body but both are very much concerned-and always have been-with the organisation of a better and more comprehensive optical service through the encouragement of local associations (or branches of the parent bodies), research .and technical imp'rovement. (v) it is perhaps interesting to note that no medical diploma in ophthalmology existed prior to that of oxford university in 1910. the royal college of surgeons did not follow sutt until 1920, and then not without some opposition from within the profession as the subject was apparently not thought important enough to merit a for the sa ... .: uf completeness it may be added that at the present time matters are heing taken a logical stage further by the fuston of the institute of ophthalmic opticians and the joint council of quali­ tield opticians into a single represerltative body. 27. on two occasions, namely, in 1lj06 and 192 7, optical practitioners have sought fuller control of their profes,wn in the form of state registration. draft bills were introduced in parliament, but both failed, the first ow1ng to the gcnnal disinclination of the legislature to interest itself in the matter and the second because of the very strong medical opposition i~ engendered. 28. the departmental co m m 1 t. t e e appointed to consider the 19 2 7 bill ad· vised against state registration ( w) but in doing so was in ll uenced by the med 1cal profession's promise (x) that an efficient and comprehensive medical ophthalmic service would be available within a reasonable time. that was .16 years ago and the promised service is still quite in· capable of handling more than a small part of the country's optical work (y). 29. all the organisations referred to abov_g were, of course, formed purely •1oluntarily and are fairly illustrative of the earnest desire of the optical practi· tioner that his professional work should be properly and fully regulated. another example of voluntary co-operative action of this sort was that which led to the formation of the ophthalmic benefit approved committee, a statutory body. reference to which is necessary to make complete this part of the memorandum 30. optical practitioners had taken part in the provision of ophthalmic bene· fit under the national health insurance acts since its inception in 1921, but the absence of any universally applicable pro' visions as to the conditions on which they did so ultimately led to such chaos and divergences in procedure as between the different approved societies that a numher of optical and approved society organisa· tions decided in 19 3 2 to form a joint com­ mittee to investigate and report on the whole position. 31. the resultant body, the ophthalmic benefit joint committee, was of a purely voluntary nature, without official standing separate dipl()ltl]a. su "brit. jnl. ophth." iv.331 (1920). ~w) cmd. 2999 (1927). x) ibid., pp. 18, 21 and 22. y) su para. 61 (inf,.a.); for a fuller discus· sion of this and related topicr, se~ appendix a. or recognition and therefore without any official mandate, but such, on occasion, is the value of voluntary co-operative action that the committee carried its self-imposed task to a success£ ul conclusion and the recommendations it subsequently sub­ mitted to the minister of health in 19 3 4 were accepted almost in their entirety and embodied in statutory regulations (z), under which the ophthalmic benefit approved committee came into existence. · 3 2. the new statutory body (fonsisting of equal numbers of approved society and optjcal representatives) was created "for the general purposes of the administration of ophthalmic benefit" and, apart from laying down a variety of standards and other wnditions re iative to the service, it was required by the regulations to com­ pile and maintain a register of those optical practitioners it recognised as quali­ fied to undertake n a tiona! health insur­ ance work. this register now includes some 7,000 practitioners and constitutes a measure of state recognition. no person is permitted to undertake national health insurance work unless his name is m­ cluded therein. 33. it is, perhaps, interesting to add that at the time the ophthalmic benefit }oint committee was being formed medical organisations were invited to participate. they declined to do so. (iii.) training, qualification and disciplinflry control. 34. as already mentioned the recog­ nised examining bodies are: british optical association. worshipful company of spectacle makers. institute of chemists-opticians. :t-.;"ational association of opticians. scottish association of opticians. 3). the examinations vary a little in scope, but all conform to the standard epecified by. the ophthalmic benefit approved committee, which standard is based on the recommendations of dr. l. c. martin, d,sc., of the royal college of science, who in 1934 and 1935 carried out an investigation of the examinations at the request of the o.b.j .c., having b_een nominated for , that purpose by dr. h. spencer jones, the astronomer-royal. no person is now admitted to the committee's register unless he has obtained one or (•) n a tiona! health insurance (additional benefits) regulations, s.r.&o. 1937 no. 973. (a) it should be made quite clear that the object is not to· enahle the optical pr01cti52 7 more of the diplomas mentioned and 1~ otherwise of satisfactory standing. 36. the examination syllabuses cover the following subjects: (i) theoretical and practical physical optics and the theory of optical instruments. (ii) subjective and objective method~ of measuring errors df refraction and their correction. (iii) the principles, construction and use of all kinds of apparatus re­ quired for the complete external and internal examination of the eye, its fields of vision and other functions. • ( iv) anatomy and physiology and, tn particular, that of the organs ol vision. ( v) the abnormal and pathological conditions of the eye (a). ., (vi) the orthoptic or non-operative methods of correcting squint and related conditions in conjunction with errors of refrac:tion that may be present. (vii) the design and construction of spectacle frames and lenses, the assembly of parts and the fitting and adjustment of completed appliances. 37. each of the examining bodies ad· mits successful candidates to fellowship or membership and grants diplomas. cer· tain of them also grant an honours diploma at a more advanced examination which may not ordinarily be sat until a year after the fellowship examination. 38. the honours diploma of the british optical association is accepted by the university of manchester for admis­ sion to a research course for the degree of master of science in the faculty of technology. both it and the honours diploma of the spectacle makers' com­ pany are also accepted by the university of london for admission to special courses at the imperial college of science and technology, successful completion of which entitles candidates to the diploma of the imperial college (d.i.c.). in addi­ tion they are approved by the war office in lieu of a university degree in connec­ tion with enlistment for certain scientific duties which· may not be more fully re· ferred to for security reasons. tioner to treat such oonditions, but merely to reoognise them so that he may refer them to an ophthalmic surgeon or other medical practitioner. 53 8 39. courses of study for the examina· tions are provided at many technical col· leges in various parts of the country, as e.g., the northampton polytechnic, london, the manchester college of technology (at both of which further facilities for research are provided) the heriot• watt college, edinburgh, cardiff technical qollege, etc. full·time courses are usually of 2 or 3 years' duration; part•time courses ~xtend from 3 to 5 years. 40. a number of scholarships are avail· able, including ten research scholarships tenable at' the university of manchester, the imperial college of science and the northampton polytecbnic, london. 41. clinical training and experience is provided by clinical classes at the recog· nised training colleges and in addition optical practitioners have by their own activities extended facilities in this direc· tion by the foundation of refraction has· pitals. 42. the london refraction hospital, the first of its kjnd in the world, was founded by the institute of ophth:tlmic opticians in 1922. the glasgow refrac• tion hospital was opened in 1928 and, like its london counterpart, provides re· fractive and other 'treatment. both are entirely staffed by optical practitioners and are supported by voluntary contribu· tions and students' fees, together with ' such sums as the patients are able to afford. the london hospital is now ad· ministered under a scheme approved . by the charity commissioners. 43. clinical instruction in anatomy, physiology and pathology at the recog· nised training colleges is provided by medical school staffs or by medical men and the examination of candidates on be· half of the diploma•issuing bodies is also carried out by medical specialists. 44. disciplinary control of optical practitioners is in the hands of the exam• ining bodies and the ophthalmic benefit approved committee. any departure from the code of conduct that has been laid down by the optical organisations may involve the offender in proceedings leading to the removal of his name from his examining body's register. in the same way all optical practitioners who are registered by the o.b.a.c. are re· quired to subscribe to certain conditions of service, infringement of which may re· suit in the withdrawal of recognition. this renders a practitioner ineligible .to undertake national health insurance work. 4 5. the posttwn of the british optical practitioner is strangely in contrast with that of his professional colleague overseas, for while in this country the optical pro· fession is subject to no state control (ex· cept in respect of national health lnsur· ance work), in almost all other english· speaking parts of the world optometry acts provide for a state register of prac· titioners and the due regulation of pro· fessional activities. to the lay reader it may seem almost unbelievable, but there is nothing in english law, as it now stands, to prevent any person, however ignorant or untrained, from practising optics and though the reputable practi· tioner is subject to strict control through the optical bodies we have already men· tioned, this is solely because he has vol· untarily submitted himself to it for the improvement and good governance of the profession as a whole. in the u.s.a. optometry acts are in force in ali 48 states of the union and in the district of columbia. in nearly all parts of the empire the same is true by virtue of the followirtg statutes : australia n.ew south wales : opticians' acts, 1930/8. itueensland : opticians' acts, 19 3 7/9. south australia : opticians' acts, 1920/2. tasmania: opticians' act, 191 3. victoria: opticians' registration act, 19 3 ,-. british guiana opticians· act, 19 3 3. canada alberta : optometry act, 19 21. british columbia: optometry acts, l 9 21 i 3 5. manitoba : optometry act, 1909. n.ew brunswic~ : optometry acts, 1921/36, nova scotia : optometry act, 19 21. ontario: optometry act, 1936. prince edward is. : optometry act, 19 2 2. ituebec: optometrists' and opticians' acts, 1907/37. sas~atchewan : optometry act, 19 24. newfoundland optometry act, i 928. new zealand . opticians' :\cts, 1928/34. west indies jamaica: opticians' law, 1926. trinidad: opticians' registration ordinance, 1933. perhaps the most striking anomaly is the fact that in some parts of the empire, as, e.g., new zealand, the west, indies, etc., a british diploma entitles the holder to ad­ mission to the state register, thus con­ ferring on him privileges that are denied him at home. (iv.) the work of the optical practitioner. 46. in view of what has already been said on the subject of training and exam­ ination it is, perhaps, not necessary to do more than to summarise the present-day scope of ophthalmic optics under the following headings: · ( i) private practice. this forms the greater part of the optical practi· tioner's work, the preference of the public in this connection being well established. (ii) national health insurance prac­ tice. as with private practice, the greater part of the insured population shows a preference for the services of optical practitioners, notwithstanding that a small num­ ber of approved societies compul­ sorily direct their members to a medical service and assume full responsibility for the fees thereof. as already mentioned, this side of the work is controlled by the ophthalmic benefit approved committee and it is worth noting that in laying down its standards the o.b.a.c. adopted the prin· ciples already enunciated and applied some 5 years earlier by the joint council of qualified .. opticians. these principles volun• tarily adopted by the profession for national health insurance work thus later became the ac­ cepted basis of the official scheme. (iii) visual welfare in industry. num· bers of large industrial firms in the country are using the services of 54 9 optical practitioners m providing an optical service for their employ­ ees, thus· enabling industrial eye­ sight to be dealt with against 1ts proper occupational and environ­ mental background. this service has proved so satis­ factory that it has been adopted by the ministry of supply for royal ordnance factories throughout the country. practitioners undertake the refraction work, where neces­ sary issuing a prescription to be made up by the employee's own optician. the fee for the exam­ ination is met by the treasury. in royal ordnance factories alone more than 30,000 workers have been examined by optical practitioners, who work in close collaboration with the factory medical officers. assistance has also been g1ven in the protective field and in at least one instance a special goggle has been designed which must have saved hundreds of eyes from in­ jury. (iv) in the fo·rces. owmg to medical oppos1tion the optical practitioner is not recognised in his professional capacity in the medical branches of h.m. forces. in the army and the royal navy he is permitted to act only as a dispensing optician with the rank of sergeant or petty officer. in the r.a.f. the scope of his duties is a little wider but he is graded only as an optician­ orderly with the rank of sergeant, if establishment allows. in all three serv1ces optical practitioners are in many cases carrying out refraction unofficially, but receive no recognition for this work. in the non-medical branches of the forces, where, of course, medical men are not in control, there is a marked contrast, for optical practitioners are used in a variety of scientific capacities for which their training suits them and commissioned rank has been granted freely to them. the treatment of optical practi­ tioners jn h.m. forces in this country is sharply at variance with to 55 what obtains in ,the australian and new zealand forces, where practi· tioners holding "british qualifica­ tions are used in a professional capacity and accorded commis­ sioned rank. (v.) research apd advances id technique. 4 7. for the last 40 years the subject of research has increasingly occupied the minds of optical practitioners. it has been encouraged by the provision of scholar• ships, by collective efforts organised or sponsored by the optical associations and to no small extent by individual effort. 48. it is not possible to give here a full list of the published results of such research but for those who are interested a representative selection will be found in a later part of this memorandum (b). 49. 'in the field of instrumentation valuable contnbutions have also been made by optical practitioners and a selec· tion of these, too, is given (b). 50. optical practitioners are particu· larly proud of their contribution to the correction of squint. during the 18th century medical men were helpless to cor· rect it (c), though chevalier john taylor a qualified but itinerant and unorthodox practitioner, undoubtedly put squinting eyes straight by surgical means, which probably involved severance of the tendons or muscles of the eye. his methods were naturally decried by ortho· dox medicine, yet in another 100 years tenotomy and myotomy, which he prac• tised, had become the normal medical procedure. 51. surgical measures alone are not, however, as a general rule, a true remedy arid the first moves in the diagnosis and treatment of squint as we now know them came from emile java! (d), whose work was developed in england by claud worth, a surgeon (e). this technique was practised by medical men but in most cases with little or no improvement on the teachings of thirty years ago. 52. optical practitioners have, however, been able to make considerable advance· ment. the london refraction hospital provided orthoptic' treatment from its in· ception, but originally as part of the or· dinary clinical arrangements. by 1926, however, the demand for this treatment (b) see appc:ndix b. (c) sorsby, shot·t history of opllthalmology ( 1933), p.61. (d) mant.,l throretique n pratique du stra· bism11 (1896). had become such that <t separate urthup· tic clinic was established--the first in any hospital in great britain originally, the worth technique wa» largely employed, but in about 19h walter green introduced into this country the newer methods of cantonnet and filli02;at, which, conjoined with the worth teaching, were developed by green and his colleagues at both refrac;tion hospitals, where the modern psychological · techniques have been practised with great success. from the clinical experience gained at these hospitals two textbooks (f) have been compiled and are used by medical and optical men alike. at the same time valuat-.le research has been car· ried out at the northampton polytechnic's orthoptic clinic, some of the results of which may be found in h. h. em~ley's vistu1l optics. the design of a number of the latest instruments (g) and their associated techniques have been developed largely from experiments carried out by optical practitioners. conclusions. 53. it will be ~een from what has been said that ophthalmic optics has developed from the physical sciences. 54. it has developed on d1stinct and separate lines from quite early times be· cause it is primarily concerned with the adequacy of healthy eyes, thus differing from ophthalmology which is traditionally occupied with dibease. these constitute the essential differences between the two pro· fessions in their fundamental outlook and fields of work, which make it impossible to combine satisfactorily their respective functions within the same profession. it should be noted that for centuries nearly all medica) men regarded glasses a~ clther useless or definitely harmful. 55. the present high standard of effici· ency has been achieved by means of vol­ untary action on the part of the optical profession and without the assistance of the state except insofar as certain of the training colleges are state· aided. 56. the field of ophthalmic optics is linked with that of medicine only where the detection of pathological conditions is ·studied, but this is done, not fat the pur· pose of purporting to treat such condi­ tions, but solely for that of recogni~ing them so that they may be referred for the necessary medical attention. · (e) squmt, 1ts causes, jjatl1•loyy a·nd treat· met1t ( 1903). (f) giles, manual of ptactical orthophc• ( 1938) and practice of orthoptics (1943). (g) e.v., tho3e of cole, skewes, green, etc. (11.) to show that in the public interest optical practitioners should continue as a separate and independent professslon. 57. as already indicated (paras. 3-7, supra) official medicine has for many years opposed the development of the optical practitioner with every force at its disposal, repeatedly urging that the dan• ger. of his q':'e.rlooking a diseased or patho· logtcal condttjon of the eye is so great that he ought not to be permitted to carry out a sight-testing examination in any case or to prescribe for the correction of errors of refraction. 58. it is not proposed to dwell at this stage upon the weight of this argument which is considered elsewhere (h), but a~ a corollary to it, it has long been the proposal of organised medicine that the optical practitioners should be reduced to th~ level of fl dispensing optician, i.e., one who '~oes no sight-testing and who only supplies spectacles in accordance with a prescription. 59. notwithstanding such opposition it is an incontrovertible fact that ophthalmic optics has developed to a remarkable ex• tent, particularly in the last half century and, perhaps because of this, a new or alternative attitude seems, more recently, to have been engrafted on to what we may term the traditional medical view. this is to the e !feet . that if, as a temper• ary measure, optical practitioners are to w allowed to continue i sight-testing and prescribing, then they should do so only under full medical control. 60. it is, therefore, the purpose of this part of the memorandum to shew that, quite apart from the question of equity, it would not be in the public interest that either alternative should be permitted and the matter is approached from the points of view of: ( i) efficiency of service. ( ii) public preference. (iii) development, past and future. 56 1 l bee~ permitted to participate in the nat10nal health insurance ophthalmic benefit scheme to the extent they do, nor would the legislature have been pre· pared to grant the limited measure of state registration that is implied in the list maintained by the ophthalmic bene• fit approved committee. 62: ~o.reover, examples are not lacking of ~ndtvtdual op.hthalmologists having publl~ly sta:ed the~r. ~wareness of optical practitioners capabthttcs. thus, sir george berry, surgeon·oculist to his majesty in scotland, has stated ( i), ". . . 9; % of cases of eye trouble are of only optical defect. . . . in point of fact, the skt1ied optician is perfectly competent to under­ take the correction of optical defects" ( j). 63. the question of the efficiency of a se~ice is to no small degree bound up ~ith that of. its availability, particularly ~ a geographical sense. from this point of view the optical practitioner provides a truly nation•wide service. 64. as further evidence of the fact that optical practitioners are officially re· garded as performing a vital service satis· factorily it may be mentioned that their liability for military service under the national service acts is subject to a special scheme agreed between the minis· try of health and the ministry of labour and national service, tht! object of which is to ensure that no man shall be enlisted for service in the forces if the optical facilities in the area he serves would thereby be reduced below what is regarded as a reasonable minimum. these arrange· ments are exactly similar to those apply· ing to the medical and dental professions. (ii.) public preference. 65. it has already been stated (para. l, supra) that the majority of the public consult optical practitioners in the first place in relation to their eye troubles. unfortunately it is not possible to prove precisely the extent to which this is done since no figures showing the number of refractive cases dealt with by the medical and optical professions, respectively, can (i.) efficiency of service. be produced. 61. it is submitted that it cannot 66. it is known, however, that there reasonably be doubted that the service are about 1,000 ophthalmic surgeons and provided by optical practitiot:~ers is ade· ophthalmic medical practitioners now avail· quate and satisfactory. if it were not, then able (~) (but see para. 91). as against there would scarcely be some 7,000 of this there are some 7,000 optical practi­ them in practice, nor would they have tioners and, assuming for the moment (h) s "' a ppenrlix a~ ·----------~.(j"') -s<"'e=-=e:-:-alr.::s-=-o-a'p:-:p:-:e::::n-;rl.,-ix-.a:.....-p=-=a-r-as-.-:9;;-·-:cl 0;;-.--(i) optical practitioners' (registration) bill, (k) per n. bishop harman, annual meetinc. 1927: dehate on second reading, han· b.m.a., loth september, 1942. sard, 206.826. • 57 1 2 that medical and opt1cal men handle on the average the same number of refraction cases each, we are led to the conclusion that medical ref ractionists deal with about one-eighth and optical practitioners about seven-eighths of the total amount of re­ fraction work carried out. this does not, however, take into account that the medical men are required to deal with surgical and pathological work which naturally reduces the time available for purely refractive cases. probably, there­ fore, medical men handle no more than one-tenth of the refr;jctions done, the rc· maining nine-tenths being dealt with by optical practitioners, 6 7. it will thus be seen that the prefer­ ence of the public is very marked indeed, notwithstanding the intensive publicity that has been carried on for nearly 13 year¥ on behalf of medical intere~;ts and d~llplte th~ { 4ct that in the arhere of national health ln~jurance a smal number of approved societie~ compel their mem­ bers to undergo a medical eye examination as a condition of their receiving benefit. (iii.) development-past and future. 68. it is submitted that the field of public health is now too wide to be covered adequately by a single profession and that so great is the knowledge needed in this sphere that its successful applica­ tion has required, and must in the future require. the development of separate anc.l ctllllplt'nh·ntilry prnl\:~11ionk within the g~twtal f 11brlc of the hrulth llct·vice. 69. this is obviously appreciated in official circles for sir wilson jameson, chief medical officer of the ministry of health, • in his speech to the industrial health conference in 1943 (!), indicated the necessity for joint efforts by all con­ cerned in the field of public health and said that in any planned effort to raise the standard of public health service, medicine had an important but by no means the only part to play. 70. in the two fields of ophthalmic optics and ophthalmology both the ap­ proach and outlook are fundamentally different, fot while the former is based on the science of physics and its application to visual needs, the latter is primarily con­ cerned with pathology. that is to say, ophthalmic optics is concerned with healthy eyes and the correction of their anomalies of vision; ophthalmology is con­ cerned with unhealthy eyes and the treat­ ment and cure of disease. 71 .. '\ rcu:nt ,tatemo:nt •jt prutt"··"r john ryle ( m) s•trports this: "the maj••nty of doctor' h,t\t i·een compdled to the beltd that thea tlr~t funcllun 1s the treatment uf diseaso: <)r injury and nut the mainten:tnce of, or education fur, health. mej1cal student~ are still largely b1ed m this belief, they learn little of the foundations, rnearom); or measurement of health and r.ucly examme a healthy ''1bject the public for the must part tlnnk ot the dul1••r as someone to consult 111 t1me., of -ick· ness only." 72. j\1orcover, 1t is psy.:hu!c:gjcallv "" sound to bring unde1 the jr.tlucncc of rnedicine the la~ge numbers ot the public who are healthy subjects and whuse vp;ual efficiency has been, and can be, looked after by the optical practitioner. it is, of cour~>c, neceliliary that there should be ade­ '!uate safeguards to ensure that cases of di11ea~e are "ent forward for medical atten­ tion, hut these safeguardr a-lready exist. optical practitioners arc tr;uned and ex· ami ned m the rccog nition of diseases by medical men and the fact that under national health lmurance arrangements they are required to refer such cases surely · comtitutes offi cia! recognition that they are capable of identifying then, 7 3. optical practitioners could. inded, have reached proficiency in the recognjtit)n of abnormal conditions more cc~sily if or­ ganised medicine had a~sisted i11 provijmg (uciliticll. aa it i11 the optical prnfessinn acknowlcd~cs wnh !<pedal gratitude the­ public spirit of those individual opkh. mologists who have helped it to become efficient in th1s sphere. 74. it is certainly true that no pr' •tes­ sion can live on its past but there <u~ valuable lessons to be learnt from jt ,nj it has been thought expedient to g1,·,: ill earlier paragraphs some account nf the history of ophthalmic optics to show the manner of and reason for its develupm~.·nt as a separate field of \\'•>rk. that development, de::-pllc mcdj<·:d opposition and indifference !rom the earliest times, has con tmucd lllll·heckec. 75. the prr~ent btage of advanu'nll.:nt has been attained under the system of domestic professional control that ~till' exists and which has amply justified 1tdf by the fruit it has borne. the substitutlun, of medical control--and, it must be rc· membered, this would mean control not. only of practice, but also oi training, ex(f) reported in the lancet, 17th april, 1943, (m) brit. mrd. htl., editorial. 7th a11;:u,t. p.soo. 1943. p.l74. am1nation and research -would, it is suggested, hamper continued development along the present very satisfactory lines because of the fundamentally different outlook and approach of the two profes­ sions. 58 sional not to ~ay ~cltish--point of view." 82. it may also be mentioned that although dentists and pharmacists are now poth state-registered by virtue of thur own acts of parliament. medicine has nevertheless clung to its right to dispense and to practise dentistry notwithstanding that training in either now forms but a negligible part of medical school curricula 76. although ophthalmic optics is of early origin, the most intense period of its development has been the last 50 years; the major techniques of refraction are, therefore, modern and capable of vigorous growth and scicntifi,.: extension so long conclljsions. as they are not stifled by an unsuitable 83. it is submitted that the continued form of control. existence of the optical profession as a 77. moreover, it would seem illogical tq separate entity is justified on grounds alone hand control of the techniques optical of its prov"cn efficiency and of the very practitioners have largely developed and marked preference that the public shews are still developing satisfactorily to a profor its services. fession which has not only aggressively 84. it is necessary, however, also to opposed the just claims of the optical prosafeguard future development as a public fession for many years but. which did not health service along the best possible lines. see fit itself to cater for a public need · so far as this is concerned it should be which apparently "orrly became pressing noted that its growth so far has been when there was a probability that this natural and has produced satisfactory re· field of practice would escape from the suits, but the substitution of some alterna· grasp of its members" ( n). tive or artificial form of control vested in 78: in general the relationship of the another profession would militate against british medical association to allied pro· further development along the same bene· fess10ns is a grave reflection on organised ficial lines. medicine itself, since its present activities 85. to maintain the standards of a pro· and past history shew it to be much more fessional technique and to foster the re· fully concerned with its own interests quisite sense of corporate and individual than with those of the public as a whole. responsibility, control of its work must 79. it will be recalled that in 1911 orrest with the profession itself, subject ganised medicine opposed in every way only to the over-riding supervision of the possible the introduction of the national state. health insurance all. a measure which, 86. broadly speaking, the meji.:al and with all its admitted anomalies, it cannot opticaf professions should provtde com· be doubted has been to the great and plementary services, relative respedively lasting benefit of the public as a whole. to the fields of pathology and refraction. ~0. again, in 19 3 7, there was the most once ophthalmic optics is fully regulated intense medical opposition to the national by the state as a separate profession it health insurance (additional benefits) would be a simple matter to provide suit· regulation.s of that year. the object of able links with medicine within the these regulations was to improve and general structure of the health services of unify the administration of ophthalmic the nation. both the public and the pro· benefit to the advantage of the insured fessions-and, therefore, the state-must population and the necessity for such im· benefit if a sound relationship is estab· provement was strongly urged by all lished. approved societies and was fully recog· nised by the minister of health. (iii.) to show that full effect can81. more recently, lord latham, chair·not otherwise be given to the man, london county council, referring three principles laid down by the to the government's fon;nulation of a com· ministry of health as those upon prehensive health scheme based on h h ~ h 1 h s 1 assumption. b of the beveridge report w ich t e i uture eo t erv ce said (o): wl/1 be based. "unfortunately, there are not want87. it is now proposed to consider with ing indications that many of the official particular reference to the optical profc~· spokesmen of the doctors are approach· sion three basic principles which, it is to ing the matter from a narrow· profesbe gathered from statements on behalf oi (n) carr·saunders and \vilson, 1'/tcjj·:-,..-,f-:-e-s·--(-o-) r~porterl in tk~ 1'ime;~·6~-h-(-lcf.~:-19-4j:­ rion.ll (1933). p.474. -59 14 the ministry of health, are those upon which the nation's comprehcmive health service will be built. these principles are in substance as follows: the medical profession was given an opportunity (at the expcmc of the optical profession) to provide what it then said was the best service ( q), 16 years have passed and medical men are still dealing with only about one-tenth of the people requiring refractive attention ( s ). (i) to provide the best services and provide them for all. (ii) to ensure personal and profes· sional freed om. (iii) to aim at the preservation of health as well as the cure of "disease. 93. the general position is fully appre· ciated in medical circles, a-; witness a re· cent editorial m the british med1cal journal which said, " ... doctors simply (i.) hcst s•:rviccs for oil. have not the time nece.;sary to do their 88. the c;-trdinal requirement of this job with satisfaction either to the cornmu· principle is that the service should he efli· nity or themselves" ( t) the ,s:jme article cient, and full consideration of what is quotes and supports sir farquhar buz.z.ard efficient, in turn, requires that there should (u) in saying, "the number of doctors he taken into account the accessibility of must be increased or their work decreased. the service, the established preference of the first alternative is a melancholy and the public and the best use of existing defeatist attitude; the second deserve& facilities, providing always that they are more careful consideration than it has yet technically adequate. received." 89. it is at least doubtful whether the 94. a rather different point, but one most efficient service can be provided by that bears strongly on the question of what a single profession that attempts to cover is the best service, is that the division of too wide a field, especially when that field responsibility between the prescriber and falls naturally into two parts springing the dispenser of glasses under medical from different technical sources. arrangements is fundamcnldly unsnund 90. pure ophthalmology is already wide a patient with an error of refracthj!l and rapidly developing. the same is true needs to be supplied with an optical aprli· of ophthalmic optics and separation of ance that will correct that e1 ror and it the two techniques is, it is submitted, in ;jwuld be the responsibility uf the pcr~'ln the bc~t interests of the public. the v.~ho carries out the examination to prtl\:jde medical p10fe~·irll1 is not in a position to him with it. pn)vide the bc,t, or even an adequate, 95. in this connection it is rertincnt to service in refraction if only through sheer quote the opinion of dr. w. h. cnsp, lack of numbers, since accordind' to the the eminent american ophthalmologist(v): briti,<h medical association (p) there are "nor should it he forgotten that an now b11t 1,000 ophthalmic surgeons and important p;u t of refractive technique ophth:-drnic medical practitioners to deal lies in the proper adjustment of fnme with the requirements of 45,000,000 and lenses, and that a g•jod rdractive people, including surgical and pathological diagnosis may he spoiled, :;o far as the wo1 k. result to the patient is concerned. by 91. 1v1oreover, of this 1,000 a suhstanneglect as to centering and angltn~: ,,f tial proportion consists merely of general the lenses or as tel the di,ltnc-e ! 1 nn1 practitioners whn have been persuaded to the eyes .. " work under the b.m.a.'s medical ophthal· moreover, any tiubsequent ;tdju,tihrnts mic service, which was initiated in 1927 that may he needed can he ct1.:(·tfd hy the to block the optical practitioners' (regis• refractionist wllh full knowlnj~~e of tht• tration) l3ill (q). in 1938, mr. f. e. condition shewn hy his examinathl11. preston, president of the association of separation of the practice anj the arrlica· british ophth;-tlmologists, said at a con· tion of refraction is artifie~al and ill<lj:lcal. fnence of the /\ssoci;-ttion at oxford that, nor is it in the best int,:rcsts ol the of a tot;-tl of y02 medical men working patient. the scheme, only 342 were consultants, the remainder heing general practitioners (r). (ii). l'crsonol and profcs~ional it seems fair to assume that the proporfreedom. tion is not now materijlly different. 96. by the expression ·"p•·j·.,•tul :tc•· 92. thus, despite the fact that in 1927 dom" is presum;tbly meant tl .. · lt,·!'\l<>r~' ol (ri--h~:r;,;r-"t----or-~\ilil-it;r· kt;;-:t~n~;----folh"sep!~---(:!tsu-i.at--a-:--66 -(;upili):------· 1042, cited in para. 66 (supra)_ (i) issue of 7th august, 1943, p 174 (q) sn para. 28 (su{'ru). (u) writing in i hi' times of 2ht jtdl', 1'1·11 (r) reported in tltl' ophthalmic bu/ktin, (v) am. jul. 0('hth., .'\uf.(u:>i, j<~4:j. jamwq•, 1930 ~the individual member of the public to -obtain attention in the manner that most -commends itself to him and from a prac· titioner of his own choice. 97. organised medicine, in opposing the suggestion of a state salaried medical service, has already laid stress on the im· portance of this principle. the optical profession agrees that it is vital and has nothing to add save to point out that the public already enjoys in large measure freed om of choice in respect of optical facilities and that this freedom is exercised in a very marked manner in favour of -optical practitioners ( w). 98. in relation to professional freedom mr. erne5t 13rown, then minister of health, speaking at the westminster hos· pita! medical school (x), said that the •true liberty of the professional man was freedom to exercise his knowledge and his skill according to his conscience and ability, without fear or favour. 99. it would be difficult to find better words for what the optical profession is claiming. 100. professional freedom, it is evident, 1s closely connected w1th the provision of the best service. the greatest stimulus to advancement must always come from within the profeesions themselves and to this end it is important that each indepen· dent profession should be encouraged to retain the fullest measure of self-govern· ment, subject only to the over·riding .authority of the state. iii.) preservation of healtl\, not cure of disease alone. i 0 l. in any health service that pur· ports to be comprehensive the need of -ensuring the preservation of the health of the individual is obvious. many human ills are due to working <:onditions and environment and most of them arc therefore avoidable and there is amrk evidence of the economic losses hjstained by industry and by the nation as a whole owing to the lack of a com· plete complementary social service of this kind 102. the optical practitioner's work is largely preventive· in nature, for by cor· rccting refractive defects he is remedying a condition which, if unchecked, leads to 60 the all·too·familiar type!! of fatigue and inefficiency. the optical practitioner has not only recognised his share of responsi· bilil y in this direction but has also made positive. attempts to neutralise the ill· effects of occupation on eyesight. 103. this is shown by his work in fac tories, which first began some 10 years ago and which is so satisfactory as to have been adopted by the ministry of supply. so far, however, only the fringe of the problem has been touched and the work of maintaining optical com fmt and efficiency is capable of extension to an almost unlimited variety of visual tasks. 104. a wide sphere of development in this particular direction is therefore open and the optical profession will be found willing and anxious to co-operate' loyally in whatever demands may be made of it in this or in any other phase of hs pro· fessional work. with regard to these wider issues we feel certain that the opportunity exists to establish an ophthalmic service which would be an outstanding model and which might favourably influence associated de· velopment in all parts of the world. co:'iiclusions. 105. it is submitted that the "best ser· vice" cannot be given to the public except by utilising to the full the existing facili· ties provided by optital practitioners. this, in turn, calls for the state regulation of the profession at the earliest possible moment, together with the provisi(ln of suitable liaison arrangements with the medical profession within the gener;d or· ganisation of the comprehensive health ·service. 106. the optical profession is already state regulated to some extent through the ophthalmic 13encfit approved cornmittee. the optical practitioner earnestly de· sires that state regulation shall extend to the complete protection of his professional title and function and although the present n.h.i. arrangements are gerhaps not ideal for this particular purpose there can be little doubt that the experience gained under them would be found of the utmo~t value in setting up a full state register for the profession. ·--------·-----. -·-----·-·-·-·--·-····---(w) see para. 66 (supra). (x) reported in the 1 imes, 5th octohl:'r, 1943, 61 16 appendix .a . . medical opposition to the v.:ith the board. optichi profession. the board, whtch comt~h ot represcn i. the attttude of organised medicine tat1ves .appomtej. hy the b.m.a. and hy towards the optical practitioner has already the 1 gmld of britt<;h dispensing opticians, been refencd to in various parts of the dtd. not, however, commence operation.> preceding memorandum and the essential unul 1930, that is, until three years after nature of the di !terences between the two the optical practitioners' ( regi<tration) professions has hcen explained briefly. it bill had been rejected. this seem.~ to make ts now proposed to examine a little more it quite certain that the negutiations men· fully th~ contentions of the medical pro· tioned had as their express object the fe,5'ton tn thts connection. blocking of the bill, but for which thr 2. before doing so however it would be anxiety of the british medical a<sociation as well to give some account of certain to make the servtces of oculisth readily medical activtttes contemporary with the available to the public at fees within their ~rc~erhation. in parliament of the optical reach might not have found expression. j ractttjoners (registration) bill, 1927 . 5 · in relation to medical opposition 3. that llil! was referred to a depart· generally it will be remembered that the mental ~ommtttee, whose majority report view put forward is that the optical prac· (a) advtsed agamst state registration, the titioner should not be allowed to do more reason for thts recommendation being in than make up glasses ordered by a medical the committee's own words: ' man and that, in particular, he should not " ... we are sat1sfied that there exist~ be permitted to test sight or to prescribe a movement on the part of the medical for the correction of errors of refraction profession to provide treatment by 6. the principal reason given for this oculists on terms which will make that is the danger--said to be a senous one-treatment much more readily accessible that an optici!ln is likely to overlook a to the public. we are assured, for ex· diseased or abnormal condition this ha~. ample, tha't so far as insured persom however, been enlarged upon and supplr are concerned, negotiations are at mented, as follows: pre~ent being conducted by the british (i) that though optical pr;lwtionct !i medical association with a view to the may claim to be trai11ed •.n detect establishment in all the more populous abnormal conditions. such training di~tricts of clinics . . . the setting up is utterly inadequate for the pu: of a state register of opticians would pose. not rncourage and might indeed retard ( ii) that the examination of eyes and these movements" (b). " ... we desire the prescribing of treatment, to emphasise that one of the principal whether in the form of corrective reasons on which we base this opinion lenses or otherwise, are matters ex (i.e., against a state register) is our elusively within thl' sphere <1! view that it is possthle and prohable that . medicine, and the medical profession will be able to (iii) that it is not desirable tu cornhtti\' provide insured persons ... with the in one person the profes~ion.d ~ervices of oculists at an early date . . . function of prescribing with tl•: \vc hope also that such a service will be commercial one of ,ejling :-p._., extended to the nowinsured population. taclcs. !f, however, 1hese hopes are not ful· 7 it is not proposed to comment on filled within ;1 reasonable time we do the bare assertion that the optical pral, not wish our report to preclude the titioner should not be allowed to test 01 possibility of oa reconsideration of the prrscrihe, except to say that his ability to question in the light of the circum· do so is fully recognised by the public a11cf ~tances then existing" (c). aim by the ministry of health and the 4. the negotiations referred to in due government, by virtue of the part he take• course resulted in the formation of the in national health insurance and royal national ophthalmic treatment board, ordnance factory work. it is very nece:; an organisation which, under the name of sary, however, tn deal fully with th,· the national eye service, provides exam· grounds upon which the ass!'rtion is sup ination by medical men and the supply of posed to he based. any necessary glasses through a numher of 8. the first such ground j, the sug ~:m~ ~~--di:~pcnsing optici~1n~ as~9ci~ted __ b:stcd inadequacy of the opti, a\ pt .tcti (n1 l'ni<l 2<jq'l (l<l:!7). (h) ibid., p.l7 -----(c-:)-ji~i./.~-~; jr. tioner·~ trainmg. to detect disease. but any allcgatton of th1s sort by the medical pro­ fession in fact amounts to no less than a condemnation of the abilities of certain of its own members, for, as has already been stated, the training and examination of optical students in pathological subjects is carried out by medical men. 9. in this connection it is interesting to quote the views of mr. sydney tibbles, the ophthalmic surgeon (d): " in all fairness to the optician i must say that if they meet with any abnormality they are only too pleased to send the patient to someone . . . for years i have examined in one section out of five on abnormalities and diseases of the eye for the institute of chemists­ opticians. last week i could only find one candidate out of six whom i could conscientiously mark below 70% in my section. i do not set the papers, which are under the supervision of officials of the university of london." 10. the opinion of mr. g. lindsay johnson, another ophthalmic surgeon, is even stronger (~:): "perhaps it may come as a surprise to many of your readers when i assure them that the examinations held by the spectacle makers' company and the british optical association (at any rate, for honours) require quite as much hard study as is necessary to pass the m.b. or conjoint examination at any of our medical universities and schools in great britain." " i speak from personal knowledge, as i was one of the four examiners for 10 years for the spectacle makers' ·com· pany, in conjunction with prof. silvanus thomp5on, f.r.s., prof. glaz.e· bro(;~. f.r.s. and dr. smith, f.r.s. " on one occasion i handed the list of questions i had just set for the can· didates of the spectacle makers' com· pany to the entire senior staff of the royal london ophthalmic hospital and not a single one of the ten sur· geons there could answer more than one or two or, at the most, three of the questions set." in fairness to both sides, however, it is desirable to make two comments. the first is that mr. lindsay johnson is referring to the papers of the examination as a whole and not merely to the "diseases" papers. the second is that since he wrote (d) brit:--medical jnl., 26th nov., 1937. (e) south africcm medical jnl., feb., 1932. (f) south african med. h1l., feb., 1932; also 'confirmed by authorities cited at page 5, 62 17 the above 11 years ago all the optic.d ex· aminations have been made of equal standard; moreover that standard has been appreciably raised. 11. to the above it is only necessary to add what has already been said, viz., that as, under national health insurance arrangements, optical practitioners are re· quired to refer pathological cases for other attention, their ability to recognise them is implicit. 12. the second ground referred to in paragraph 6 (supra) is that the examin· ation and ~r~atment of the eye, including the prescnbmg of spectacles, is wholly within the medical sphere. so far as treat­ ment of disease pure and simple is con· cerned, the optical profession is in com­ plete agreement and it has, in fact, never attempted to trespass on what it regards as exclusively medical territory. 13. but whether prescribing for errors of refraction alone is a wholly medical conc~r~, is a matter of opinion. optical practtttoners have been doing it for some hundreds of years longer than medical men and we have it on the authority of mr. g. lindsay johnson, m.d., f.r.c.s., that, save in isolated cases, the latter have done so for no longer than 70 years (f). thu.s, though there is apparently a sug­ g.e~twn that the activities of optical prac· t1t10ners constitute an attempt to surplant me~ical m.en, the facts are the very op· postte. th1s has already been shown in the short historical survey in part i of the memorandum. 14. the third ground relates to the i~appropriateness of combining the profes· swnal work of prescribing with the corn· mercia! activity of selling spectacles. but this hardly seems to differ from the supply of medicine by a doctor or dentures by a dentist; moreover, it is by no means un· ~nown for doctors to provide glasses and, mdeed, their right to dispense their own optical prescriptions has been asserted on many occasions (g). presumably, in this respect, medical and non·medical refrac­ tionists are deemed to be subject to differ­ ent rules and what is "commercial" in an optical practitioner becomes a right in the hands of a medical man. l f. the point is sometimes put by medical interests in a slightly different way, viz., that because the optical practi· tioner provides glasses, then he will gener· ally take care that patients have them, (g) para. 19 (supra). · as, e.g., ophthalmic bulletin, jan., 1939: medical practitioners' union's circubr tg members, 25th nov., 1937. 63 18 whether strictly they need them or not. the presumption is a purely gratuigous one and even the majority report of the departmental committee on the optical practitioners' (registration) bill (h): which was preponderantly pro-medical in tone, s<tid of this ( i) : " we pass over any suggestion that in practising his craft he may be unduly in 0 uenced by the fact that a prescrip· tion of glasses involves a sale of his own goods, since that temptation only differs in (kgrce from that which neces· sarily operates in almost all profes· sions." it is also to be remembered that persons who wear glasses generally do so uriwill· ingly. unnecessary prescribing by optical practitioners in the past would therefore have invited--and deserved-public dis· approval. but no such disapproval exists. 16. in connection with a general charge of commercialism against optical practitioners, it is material to mention that ever since its creation the national eye service ha.~ been the subject of publicity of the most intensive type. leaflets have been showered on approved societies a n d full·page advertisements h ave <~ppeared in the national daily papers. the most recent circular supplied to approved societies ior distribution to members con· tains, after the usual claim that only a medical man can properly examine eyes, the following : " the work of the optician is of the utmost value. we look to him to pre· pare the lenses and frames that are necessary; he has the skill of grinding the curvature of the glasses to the pre· scribed degree and the capability of making metal into convenient and com• fortable frames. " but hi~ work begins and ends there. to expect him . to 'test eyes scientifically' would be like expectmg the oil and colourman to be an artist just because he has skill in stretching canvases and mixing paints." it seems that the national ophthalmic treatment board's anxiety to press home its point is leading it into misrepresenta· tions and errors of taste unworthy of a great profession. 17, the following observations on the national eye service may also be quoted from the 0[1hthalmic bulletin (j), a medical journal and organ of the associa· tion of briti~h ophthalmologists,: ---·------------------.... --~---· ___ ... ___ _ (~j cj!id. 2999 (1927). (t) lb•d., pp.ls-16. (j) lasue of january, 1939. we are tonrerncd that the· n.o.t.b. has either failed or never attempted to achieve the objects for which it was formed . . . we maintain ... that this scheme which was initiated for the purpose of providing an efficient industrial ophthalmic service . . . has. degenerated into a purely commercial concern." 18. the attacks upon the optical prac· titioner's ability to detect abnormal con· ditions of the eye have not, however, heen confined to mere assertions of incompet· ence. attempts have been made to produce concrete evidence to show that the per· centage of eye cases rcquinng medical attention is, in fact, very much higher than the percentage of cases referred for medical attention by optical practitioners and thus to infer either that the optical practitioner failed altogether to detect the condition, or that, having detected it, he failed to refer it. 19. to this end mr. n. bishop harman, then chairman of the ophthal· mic group committee of the b.m.a., caused to be made annually analyses of straight runs of 10,000 ca~cs from the records of the national eye service and the published results for the five years 1934-1938 were (~): · errors of refraction :\2,29~ 63 6)% errors of refraction and other eye con· ditions . . . . . 14,04 7 2 7.68% other eye conditions only . . . 4,008 7.90% no appreciable defect 391 0.77% 50,741 100.00% it will he observed that the total percent­ age of cases with "other eye conditions" amounts to 35.58%. 20. mr. bishop harman then ascer· tained from a group of approved societies having a membership of several millions that of all their members seeking ophthalmic benefit an average of only 3 % was referred by optical practitioners for medical .attention and, on comparison of this with the above figure of, 3s' .l 8%, drew the inference he was seeking. 21. he did not, however, make any allowance for the important fact that a medical eye service would naturally re· ceive a high percentage of cases calling for medical attention and, indeed, it is (k) brit. med. jnl. suprl~nunt, 11th f~b., 1939; allw circulated in pamphlet form to approved societies. only surprising that the figure is not more than 3 5. 58%, because it would include: ( i) persons sent for medical examin­ ation by their approved societies or general ·practitioners because of known or suspected disease. ( ii) persons who themselves knowing of or suspecting disease chose to be medically examined. (iii) cases which because of injury, pam or sudden diminution of vision were obviously medical cases. 22. the figures quoted in para. 19 1'.'ere accompanied by an analysis classify· ing the cases under the various conditions encountered and though it is obviously not possible to make any full criticism with· out access to individual case records, cer• tain conclusions may be drawn from the figures themselves. these conclusions and the figures extracted from the analysis to which they relate are as follows: cases % (i) injuries or effects thereof 503 .99 diseases of the conjunc· tiva diseases of the cornea (in all three categories the conditions, being as a rule visible and/ or painful, would auto· matically be taken to a medical man). (ii) myopia over 5 dioptres. (myopia, or short sight, is ne1ther a disease nor a condition requiring medical att.!ntion, save in those rare cases where it is either ni.pidly pro• gressive or malignant.) (iii) constitutional diseases . (i.e., ocular manifesta· tions due to affections of other parts of the body. but the causative complaint would nor• mally be receiving the attention of a general practitioner who would naturally send the patient to an oculist for any necessary specialist oph· thalmic treatment.) (iv) bad conditions of work (this involves no ques· tion of disease and the remedy is certainly not exclusive to the medical profession.) {i) 1/ansard 206, 826. 3717 1140 1616 2273 238 7.33 2.25 3.18 4.48 .47 64 iy (v) squint 3726 7.33 (of these cases only a comparatively s m a ii number would be para· lytic or would for other reasons demand medical attention.) (vi) other material conditions 18 3 3 3.61 (of the nature of these no information is given. it seems somewhat strange, however, that a miscellaneous category should--relative to the others-contain so many cases that did not justify more exact classification.) it will be observed from the above that (i) and (iii), totalling 7,633 cases (or 15.05%) may fa1rly be regarded as cases in which an optical practitioner would not normally be consulted at all; while ( ii). (iv) and (v), totalling 5,580 cases (or 10.98% ), are for the most part conditions that do not require medical attention and with which an optical practitioner can quite properly and efficiently deal. one further point is that the quoted figures make no allowance for old or congenital conditions for which treatment is likely to be ineffective. 23. mr. bishop harman's figures arc: not, therefore, fairly relevant for the pur· pose of proving what he set out to estab­ lish, for notwithstanding his assertion that "there has been no selection of cases" the very method of collecting these statistics automatically weighted the evidence in favour of the medical view. in confirmation of this it is pertinent to refer again to the remarks of sir geor~e berry, surgeon-oculist to the kmg tn scotland, during the debate on the seco~d reading of the optical practitioners' (regtstration) bill, 1927. he sa1d (l), " ... 95% of cases of eye trouble are of only optical defect .... " .this figur~ is in substantial agreement w1th that gtven b'y the group of approved so~ieties men· tioned in paragraph 20 and 1!1 . any. case it is hardly credible that a dtsttngutshed ophthalmic surgeon woul.d place before parliament figures of whtch he was not reasonably certain. 24. in most medical dissertations on the shortcomings of the optical practitioner it i3 customary to quote copiously from the report of the departmental committee on the optical practitioners' (registration) bill, 19 2 7 ( m ), and to a lesser degree (m) cmd. :1999 (1927). 65 20 frum the final report of the depart­ mental c .. ommittcc on the causes and pre· vention of blindness, 1922. it is not pos­ sible in the sr,are at our disposal to re· produce all the usual quotations, but as the former report sa1j in a variety of ways what may, in fact, be reduced to two propositions it will perhaps be sufficient merrly to give the sense of them. they .1re: ( i) that as an optical practtttoner cannot treat d~;;ease he can at best provide only <t partial service and that it would therefore be prefer· ahle fnr an oculist to be employed in all cases. ( ii) that the training of optical prac­ titioners in the recognition of ab· normality is inadequate. 2 5. the second proposition has already heen dealt with in paragraph 8 et seq. (supra). in relation to the first it is neces· sary to point ottt that the service provided by optical practitioners is "partial" to the extent of about 5 /~ of cases only. more· over, there ts nothing inherently and necessanl y bad about a partial service provided it is not so circumscribed as to he inadequate and provided its scope is reasonably clearly defined-conditions which, it is contended, are satisfied in the present case, thus enabling 95% of cases to enjoy all· the benefits of a specialised service. 26. the sphere of medicine itself is sub­ divided in a score of ways and specialisa­ tion in pat ticuhr branches of the work is so common as tu call for only passing mention. such specialisation is only natural and is of the essence of efficiency. 27. the report to which such frequent n:ferencc is made by medical men is, in fact, a majority report only and there were, in addition, two minority reports, both of which supported the state regis· tration of optical practitioners. in view of this the deci~ion of the signatories to the majority report not to publish the evid­ ence taken has been the subjt>ct of the following criticism ( n): •• since the committee failed to agree among themselves it is much to be re· gretted that they declined to recom• mend the publication of the evidence they took, for it is impossible to judge how far the different opinions had the weight of evidence behind them." 28. the following extract from the first minority report ( o ), coming as it does from persons who heard the whole of the evidenu~ hdure the committee, is an interesting comment on the prin.cipal ground (ue p;tragraph 3, .mpra, for full otaternent thereof) on which the majority report considered a state register un­ desirable: •· evidence was suhmilted by medical witnesses that the numbers and distri· bution of members of the medical pro­ fession specially trained to deal with the eyes are quite inadequate for the needs of the public . . . " "we do not consider tl1at the estab­ lishment of clinics, staffed by medical practitioners along the lines indicated by medical witnesses, is l1kely to alford any practical solution of the main problem before us. . . . the majority report specially stres~es the fact that this fresh proposal from medical orgatmations has largely determined its opinion that a state register would not he, at the present time, in the public interest: we submit that the whole idea of these potential clinics has received an entirely false emphasis, since ... such a scheme ... could only hope to affect a small proportion of the population. . . ." we consider it, therefore, unreasonable for the majority report to conclttde that a state register i~ almu't inevitable, and then to ride off from this conclu· sion on the strength of an unexplored promise from one of the interested par­ ties (traditionally jealous of subsidiary professions bordering upon it:; own). " 29. the second official d<j, umcnt referred to in paragraph 24, the hnal report of the departmental c:.ummittee on the causes and prevention of blindnt•,s, was concerned only to a small degree (and that outside its terms of reference) with the state registration uf optical practi· tioners, but it expressed the opinion: ". . . that it would be undesirable and a positive danger to the public for parliament to pass any measure which might convey the idea that an optician. who is a person qualified to provide glasses prescribed by medical men, is further himself competent to examine the eyes of patients and to prescrihr glasses for the correction of errors of refraction" (p). but optical practitioners do ex.tmlrtr eyes and they do prescribe for the con ec­ tion of errors of refraction and thm, ;n these words the report committed it.,df to the extraordinary vjew that, ~o far a• ( 11) c;~rr.satlnderc ~ncl \vilson, the profes. (o) pp. 21-22 . . <ions (j'j.3j). p.l42. ({') pp. j(l<; q the welfare of the public is concerned, a "posttive danger" tbt is not controlled by the state is greatly to be preferred to one that is; and despite the horror with which the committee viewed the prospect, parlia· rnent subscquendr did pass a measure that recognised the right of the optical prac· titioner "to examine the eyes of patients and to prescribe glasses for the correction of errors of refraction," namely, the national health insurance additional benefits regulations, 1930, and later con· firmed it in the amending regulations of 1937. 30. the committee next delivered itself of the opinion that if a register were es· tablished it would probably be difficult to prevent. unscrupulous persons who might succeed in obtaining admission to the re• gister from posing and advertising them· selves as experts competent to treat dis· eases of the eyes and the danger to the public would be increased as they "would regard the register as an official guarantee that those whose names were included in it were competent not only to provide but to prescribe glasses, and generally to deal with defects of vision from whatever cause arising" (p). 31. but this seril·~ of suppositions al· together ignores the fact that "unscrupu· lous persons" may well exist whether there is a state register or not and that once ·hrr~ is such a register-and they are on .t · they immediately become subject to the same measure of control as other practitioners. it is when these people are not registered that their supervision is a matter of such difficulty. 32. it is to be regretted that this part of the report showed such obviops marks of bias, but its presence is not surprising, hearing in mind that a large number of the committee's members were medical practitioners, that it included no optical representatives and that it dedinl'd al· together to hear any evidence from optical ~>r~.:anisations ( q). 3 3. such then, is the opposition of or· f!,tllised medicine to the nptical profession ( f• l l•p· 105-9. (</) cm<l. 2(}q<j (1927), p.s. 66 21 and such arc the rca~ons officially givc11 for it. it is submitted, however, that the real reason-or at any rate the most im· portant from the medical point of view-·­ is one that is never given officially, but which can be clearly seen in the following quotation from the ophthalmic bulletit1 ( 1"): "it is a fact, however unfortunate for the surgeon and the optician, that approximately 80 to 90 percent. of the former's professional time is engaged upon this routine exercise of merely one facet of his professional skill (i.e., re­ fraction) and he, therefore, is compelled to rely upon it for the main source of professional income." 34. it would appear that antagonism has developed principally from economic rivalry and instincts of self-preservation and there is ample evidence that in pur• suit of the main object medical organisa· tions have frequently shown scarcely any regard to the public interest. the follow· ing quotation from the 1938-39 annual report of the council of british ophthal· mologists n:quires no comment in thili respect: "the north london association ol ophthalmic opticians approached the medical officer of health of kensing· ton with an offer to train opticians to act at first•aid posts, casualty clearing hospitals, etc., for a.r.p. work. the opticians will be in charge of the eye cases. action by the british medical as· sociation resulted in the offer being refused. it is felt that if opticians are recognised as being capable of giving these services the fact will not be lost sight of by their organisations, should they agitate again for recognition by parliament." 35'. it is now submitted and strongly urged that the medical and optical profcs sions should work in harmony within the general structure of the nation's health services. both profe5sions and the publll· could not fail to bcnefit from ~uch a re lationship. -----------··-··------··-·····---·-(,) issue of january, 1942. 67 22 appendix h. representative selection of resetlrch papers, text bool{s und instrument design by the opticul profession llnd the stuffs of its tc~tching institutions. k.bseakch paper~. 1lx l ijuuks. e i<: d ,, a lljl.'. l '}i 2 l \) i 4 iyiy jl) 211 i 9 2 i i 'j 2 ·i i'j2'i i '.1 2 {l i 'j 26 i 'i "'j l ') 2 7 i 'j 2 i) ,\u ll!uk l. laurance h. l taylor l. laurance and h. 0. wood l. laurance 0. a\·c-, ii. 11. bmlcy ;tnj e. f. fincham \\'. swaine vv'. if :\. hncham \v. b. ll;u h...: 1 h. l. taylor u. w. col elnuok a. j prest,,n p. frccma11lee j. r. hamblin and t. h. winser titli '''vi~ual optics and sight te~ting [' lil1l i o,f {i h school <jt ut11ic·s lt,i the ophthalmic ~i1gndicance "' proc opt 1. ·"nvcntt<>ll facial asymmetry ·~general and practtc..tl opt1o the true action of lcll'ics 111 :\metro pia school ()f optics ltd ln~t. ophth. opticians ( ettles mcnwrial lecture) hyperphmia-lts estunatiofl, rll'.tt refractionist ment and correctwn dillraction halos 111 1\urtual .111d trjn,; upth:al suctely glaucomatous eyes :ophthalmo-optical manual liattun p1o~ ltd. vertex power and ib 1v1ca,urcmcnt tran:, optical so(t\ly the problem of the .-\lll,u!llctt~p. proc upt conventt11 1 bi f ucal lenses j & rl t.tylor ltj stcr coscupic vision dioptric bullctm ''physiologic chemistry fo1 kelr.tc lonj,>b reiijcttun liu>plldi tionists i\ new theory and mcthud ul dluptnc uullet111 neutralising and tran.~pos111g oblique cross cylinders resolutwn of grating' hy 1\stigmatic eye i <}21) j-l h. emslcy and 't )phthalmic lenses w. swaine hatton prr.ss ltd llj2'j ). c tl'icadlcy i 'j 2y h. lowery and n. taylor i <j30 n. taylor and g. s. evenden an lnvcsttgation into the l'("ture o! the eye retinal fjtrguc and flicker scnsttj\lty to p1 uc opt. conventl"ll fundamental colour scnsattnns <tjh..i dioptric bulletin chromatic sensitivity 1931 l. a. swann 1y32 j. adamson *ocular muscles hatton pre~· ltd. cyclo·rotattonal power of th,· eyt> refractiormt « tt•xt booh. 68 research papers, text books, etc. author k. smith a. p. turvillc w. green e. f. fincham 1934 c. richards title. i ntcrpretation of persistency cmvr• with respect to the factor of fatigue the value of refraction in tlw treatment of migraine orthoptic treatmen·t of concomi· tant strabismus publisher brit. jnl. physiolof{ical optic~ lost . .ophth optician~ ( ettles memorial lecture) trans. opt. congre~s observations on the refraction of the eye dynamic lnst. ophth. opticians (ettles memorial lecture) the microscopic structure of the refractionist eye !9h w. h. a. fincham •optics hatton press ltd. 19h e. f. fincham study of accommodation by photo· trans. ophthalmological so.: 19h d. b. barker 19v-, h. h. emsley i<)'(, w. r. coates 1936 h. h. emsley 19~7 e. f. fincham 1937 a.w.s. raxworthy 1938 e. w. jones 1938 g. h. giles 19~8 d. g. mackenzie 1?~9 j. adamson and e. f. fincham if)~() \v. swaine 19~9 l. a. swann 1940 g. h. giles .1940 h. b. marton 1941 c. d. barrett i '>4 2 f. e. martin graphy of the living lens and ciliary body eye dominance and its association brit. j nl. phy!\inlogical optic' with hand dominance problem of unequal ocular images inst. ophth. opticiam (ettles memorial lectme) visual acuity and test letters lnst. ophth. opticiam "'visual optics hatton press ltd. the mechanism of accommodation brit. jnl. ophthalmolo!!y the stereoscope in diagnosis and refractionist practice-a new approach microscopic examination of gold· brit. jnl. physiological optio filled spectacle frames •manual of practical orthoptic~ hatton press ltd. heliotropism and the eye brit. j nl. physiological opt1c6 the effect of lenses and c.onver· trans. ophthalmological s•k. gence upon the state of accom· modation of the eye the sagittal and tangential errors refractioni~t of ophthalmic lenses *objective refraction raphaels ltd. modification of standards of colour brit. j nl. physiological optics vision ' observations on refractive coover· brit. j nl. physiological optics gent strabismus the reflex and its inftuence on brit. jnl. physiological optics accuracy in retinoscopy the measurement of angle alpha brit. j nl. physiological optic! ii) 4' r.. l f. giles "'the practice of orthoptics • trxt book,;. hammond, hammond & co , ltd. 69 2·1 instruments datp. di'.slcnrr jnstrumenf 1920 ]. h. sutcliffe micru·kcratometcr 1924 e. f. fincham corneal microscope wtth cumhirh·j 'llt·lllnp. 192 5 a. j. e.<dailc myophoriagraph. 1926 0. aves deviograph. 1927 a. e. turvillc & d. s. stewart ophthalmoscope with combined ~lit l11np and rctino scope. 1929 a. w. s. raxwortlw phoria~copc. 1929 e. f. fincha!n steren·fixation apparatus for usc wllh bjcrnrn1 sc1ccn 1929 w. green improvements to the synoptt•plwrl' .tnd otht'j ortl optic instruments. 1930 h. h. emsley & e. f. fincham "amrmhra" ophthalmoscope. 1930 ]. a. linfield kerascopc. 193 2 h. courhnder direct hxation ~cotometer. 1932 ]. cole & n h. nl,ckh11rn clinometer. 1932 j. rosen foriagraph. 1932 w. green diploscope. 193 3 e. f. fincham coincidence optometer. 1933 a. e. turvillc stereo-cinematograph apparatus f,>r <•rtlwpt,, tr.l!f<ii'l: 1933 j. e. skewc~ myoscope. 1933 h. freeman scotometer. 1933 i\. e. tun·illc & j. pascal dynascope 19 3 3 j. cole & l. a. swann comparator for ucar vision test. 1934 c. r. crofton focal line retinoscope. 1934 a. j. esdailc '& a. e. turville equilibrium balance te,t. 1934 d. b. barker 1935 g. h. giles . 1935 w. n. i3arkcr 1936 g. h. gilc" 1936 j. rosen 1937 g. d hunt fi g. h. giles 1938 c. d. barrett 1938 a. e. turvillc 1938 g. collins 194:\ e. w. goddinc projection apparatus for lllc..tsiiici!lclll of rupill.ll )' distance. colour perccptio11 unit, 1938 -irnprovl'd r ;\ l' nh>drl eikonometer. near point rule with acc.essottcs. ophthalmo·retinoscope. infinity far point test. subnormal vision te~ting appar.ttus and lit• ill"' 11 ''' attachment. infinity balance test. electronic refractionometcr. adaptometer. apparatm for te~ting nrght ,.,, '' "1 70 a german reader writes: new ohs member dr. gunter ueberschaar of jena, east germany, wrote a brief note acknowledging receipt of the january issue of nohs. he says (translated) 11 it pleased me very much, and i am most appreciative. i was especially pleased that our professional journal augenoptik was reviewed so generously. its editor of course deserves the great share of credit. 11 history sans documentation: in a 50 page, 11 x 17 em paperback booklet entitled introduction to ophthal~10scopy by g. e. arrington, jr., m.d., dated august 1964, but copyrighted 1966 by the propper manufacturing company, inc. and printed in germany, appears the following chronology without any supplementary comment or detailing of references. i till() lt;oo 1/()-/ i i ij9 1196 1800 18/ti !:ill 18·/i" !8sj 186:.! 1862 18til /81).1 tsu.? historical chronology of the ophthali\tioscope: .jnhaltll!'' kt•plt•r: studit·d tlw optics of the eye. chri~tupht•r sdwi11pr: studied the optical image on tht· retina through a sdt>ral window . . /,•an l\iery: ohst·rved fundus of cats eves under wa­ tt•r. bt>lievl'cl that the water filled in :.unevenesses" on t hp t'orih·~tl -;u rfal't.'. dp ia hire: correctly t.•xplaijlt•d that the water elim­ matt·s tlw refraction of tht· cornea so that li"ht pnwrging from a point 011 the fundus leaves the ;ye divt·rgent, not parallt·l. fermin: notpd luminosity in albino's eye. thomas young: studied astigmatism and accom­ modation. scarpa: nott>d reflection from retina. beer: ternwd tlw disease producing this rcflt·dion .. an1aurotic eat's eve". purkinje: noted his observation of the "beautiful orang<' color of the pupil" when light cast from his concave spectacles entered a dog's eye and returned into his own. bahhage: invented a plane mirror with a peep holt• scraped in silver backing. l-il'lmholtz: description of wi eye mirror berlin 18;)1. the most precise description to that datt• of ~ means to study the interior of the eyp. (this work was not published until 1854) czermak: invented orthoscope for viewing fundus under water. ~uete: used a. co!1eavp mirror with a dear portion 111 the center (mchrect ophthalmoscopy) with a eon­ vex lens. rt>koss: invented an inslrurnpnt consisting of a plane mirror and lens in a variable frame. giraud-teulon: introduced the demonstration oph­ thalmoscope and the binocular stpreo ophthalmo. scope. hpymann: introduced auto-ophthalmoscopy. liebreich: invented ophthalmoscopp with clip to hold corrpding ipnsps for rpfracting. /81i9 1874 1883 188.) /886 1886 1899 1902 1903 1910 1912 1913 1915 1928 1.969 71 loring: lnventecl tht~ first practical ophthalmoscop.­ designt-d for refraction for glasses. loring: invent<>d refracting ophthalmoscope with hinged tilting mirror and hekoss disks containing 23 lpnses in one disk on 2 concentric circles, thus ex­ panding the instrument's usefulness. morton: substituted a continuous chain holding the series of lenses. this is said to make the instrument fit th(• examiner:s orbit better. morton modified <;:.?.~£t::'s_ ( 1883) ophthalmoscope. marple: introduced a metal mirn.r with a u-.,hapt·d segment. cut out of the top to dirninate the black shadow 111 the lower portion of th.fundus. de~nett: e_lectrified the hand ophthalmoscope. reid: designed an electric ophthalmoscope with pnsmabc rdlpctor and a micromder scale. juler: dev1sed an electric ophthalmoscope. thorner: •nve~ted a reflexless ophthalmuscupe. ophthalmoscopic photography: denimer 1902 wulff 190:3 thorner 1909 wolti: introduced the microophthalmoscope. gullstrand: perfected the large reflexless ophthal­ moscope. ohm_: invent~d ophthalmoscope for viewing both fundi at one time (binophthalmoscope). crampton: introduced the battery handle. charles may: subs!ituted a total reflecting prism in the form of a rod w1th a condensmg lens ground into the lower end over an electric bulb. friedenwald: introduc,~d reflex less ophthalmoscope. heme: invented the bifocal ophthalmoscope for al­ termg the focal distance of the ophthalmoscope to view the fundus (at infinity) and the surface and antprior portions of the eye (at near). also intro­ duced the hemi-spot to eliminate reflections. yellow but useful: research into low-pressure sodium gas discharge lamps started in the 1920s. the first commercial application was a road lighting installation that was put into service on a section of road in the south of the netherlands on l july, 1932. so starts an article on "low-pressure sodium lighting--the past, present and future" by s.h.a. begemann and w.j.m. van bommel in the june 1983 issue of lighting design~ application, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 25-33. not a kind of illumination to be used where color rendition is important, it nevertheless has a more than 50 year history of increasing use for a variety of other reasons with which this article deals in technological and pictorial detail. 72 apotropaic tritanopia: from jerusalem via mount scopus, "we drive through arab villages where flat-roofed houses are trimmed with blue to ward off the evil eye, past bedouin camps, and within half an hour we had dropped 3,900 feet to the shimmering, pale green dead sea. an hourly bus service covers that route. 11 so \'/rote pam hobbs in the february 26 globe and mail of toronto, canada, excerpted in the may 1983 issue of world press-review, page 63. how or why blue wards off the evil eye is not explained in the article. however i was told by a young american rabbi who spent some months in israel that the blue above the front door symbolizes heaven, which evil spirits are presumed to avoid, and that this tradition dates back centuries among both arabs arid jews of the area. rainbow theory and the i.o.o.l.: "le mystere de 11 arc-en-ciel" is the title of an article in french in the april 1983 issue of der schweizer optiker/l 1 0pticien suisse/l 1 0ttico svizzero, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 51-55, about the historical attempts to explain the rainbow. among the theorists were aristotle, descartes, newton, keppler, and very recently, hans pauly, who included the phenomenon within the domain of the atom. also in this issue is an article in german by f. buser entitled "die grundung der iol" (the founding of the international optometric and optical league) on pages 14-16, with special emphasis on the role played by herr ecker, the first swiss delegate. ~~_j_y south african optometry: the march 1983 issue of the south african optometrist/die suid-afrikaanse oogkundige, vol. 42, no. 1~ includes two items of hi story. one, on page 1 and 7, is a commentary entitled "voice from the past" in which editor d.h. reynolds reports having unearthed an advertisement by optician i.h. noble (or j.h. noble) in the february 28, 1862 issue of the natal mercury of durban, south africa. the advertisement showed mr. noble's first initial to be "i." in one part and "j." in another. it included the information that he had had 15 years experience with dolland of london, and that he had received a shipment of merchandise by way of the barque "marietta". he offered for sale, "binacular (sic) field or night glasses; pocket telescopes; reconnoitring telescopes, with sling laces; a 3.5 ft telescope, with table stand and rack and pinion motion; microscope 73 and objects; hydrometers, saccharometers, & thermometers; a few choice stereoscope slides; pocket sun dial for natal; a large assortment of spectacles". he also offered neutral tint spectacles and goggles "as recom­ mended by the london oculists 11 • he further begged 11 to caution the public against using improper spectacles or purchasing spectacles from inexperienced persons. 11 in a subsequent advertisement, says reynolds, mr. noble offered 11 pocket magnifiers for botani ca 1 and cutaneous purposes, sugar boiler thermometers, and double joint gold spectacles. 11 he also included the fact that a recent rifle competition had been won by a mr. newling who was wearing his spectacles. the other historical item in the same issue of the south african optometrist is a detailed article entitled 11 the legal and educational history of optometry in south africa 11 by selwyn super on pages 21, 23, and 27-28, reprinted from the march 1974 issue. included is the establishment of the south african optometric association, initially as the optometric association of the transvaal, in 1924. the theunissen museum: ohs member irving bennett, o.d., calls our attention to a museum item on page 53 of the february 1983 issue of vedere contact inter­ national, the international journal of contactology, val. 7, no~, a bimonthly serial in four languages published in milan, italy. described is the museum owned by jan theunissen on the floor above the theunissen-reyner optical firm at rechtstratt 61, eindhoven, holland. the collection of a wide variety of items of optical interest. chiefly from the 18th and 19th centuries, includes some 10,000 spectacles. a unique feature of the museum is that most of the exhibited items are for sale. also, mr. theunissen, who speaks german, is most likely to show visitors around personally. history of an optometry school: illinois college of optometry traces its or1g1ns to three insti­ tutions. the earliest was the chicago college of ophthalmology and otology in 1872. the second \'las the needles institute of optometry in 1907 in kansas city. the third was the monroe college of optometry in 1938 in chicago. following a series of name changes and mergers the present institution and title became effective in 1955. a chronology of these and numerous other landmarks in its history appeared in the spring 1983 issue of image, the ico alumni newsletter, val. 4, no. 2, page 3. 74 soft lenses have ~history too: in response to a brief acknowledgement to robert morrison, o.d., i received the following comment from his office manager peggy drewett: "i saw your nice note to my boss, and i thought i would take the liberty of writing. "it often occurred to me that the history of optometry should include the unusual work that my boss did with the czechs. i don't think that it's commonly known that in the early days of soft lenses in america every lens was made in our laboratory here in harrisburg. this was before dr. morrison and national patent sold the patent rights to bausch and lomb. there is lots of interesting history here, and i think it is good for optometry to have it properly acknowledged. "if i can help further, please let me know." early ophthalmological papers: on page 3 of the april-may 1983 issue of national library of medicine news the library's history of medicine division reports two unusualacquisitions as follows: "dominique anel's suite de k nouvelle methode de guerir les fistules lacrimales turin, 1714. this is a supplement to his original work on the subject, an ophthalmological classic acquired by the library more than 100 years ago. anel developed the first lacrymal syringe which influenced the development of other small syringes in the twentieth century." "another work of ophthalmological importance is an arabic manuscript written by an egyptian probably in the last half of the fourteenth century. an extensive analysis of the work was made in 1905, but apparently the text has never been published. it has been described as 'remarkable for its comprehensiveness and relative originality.'" librarian carol tullis thoughtfully called our attention to these. j\!lq_!her spectacle collection_: two complementary articles on spectacles appeared in the february 1983 issue of md, val. 27, no. 2, an elegantly composed monthly publication of!md publications, inc., new york. the one entitled 75 "the perpetual spectacle" is by allen j. mcgill on pages 275-277 & 280. the other, "the pollacks' spectacular spectacle collection" is by jessica klein on pages 281, 284, & 287. mentioned in the first article are contributions to optical history by aristophanes, pliny, seneca, nero, alhazen, bartisch (credited with the term "four-eyes"), franklin, harold lloyd, p.g. wodehouse, dorothy parker, and even the 1760 optician benjamin martin who is credited with saying "no further progress is possible. we've reached the peak of perfection." the second article describes the hobby of cardiologist albert pollack, m.d., and his wife ruth, who works in university and hospital administration. they started collecting spectacles in 1960. their collection now includes more than 200 spectacles as well as antique optical testing equipment, glass eyes, opticians' signs, and posters and prints about eyeglass history. ignis fatuus: in a sepia-colored paperback of 150 standard 6" x 9" (15 x 23 em) pages, opticist and history buff harold s. stewart tells 36 anecdotes in yarn-like style. the book is titled optical anecdotes and published in 1981 by the society of photo-optical instrumentation engineers, 405 fieldston road, bellingham, washington 98225, usa. the anecdotes have such fascinating chapter titles as "the greatest authority on optics in the middle ages," "a seventeenth-century concept of liqht," "the napoleonic influence," "young and the rosetta stone," and "brewster's optical toy," to mention a fev.j. the numerous illustrations include ibn al-haitham's experiment with the camera obscura, a germari etching of galileo in prison in 1638, newton's cottage, and marcel minnaert sketching some manifestations of light and color. the antics, idiosyncrasies, and legends, as well as the strengths, accomplishments, and contributions of perhaps two hundred or more persons whose names are familiar in optical history are woven into the anecdotes. exemplary of the author's entertaining style is his review of the nature of light as understood in the 1780 edition of encyclopedia brittanica, citing the observations of the "poor old woman" of ~1ontpelier in 1641 that a cut of putrescent meat in her room at night emitted a (phosphorescent) light. supplementing this anecdote is a cartoon depicting the phenomenon of ignis fatuus in a cemetery. one more makes eleven: responding to an item in the january noh~, dean frederick w. hebbard of the ohio state university has written as follows: i wish to point out that ethel jean babbitt, among the people listed as having something to do with the dartmouth eye institute, is also an optometrist. i believe that she is a 76 columbia graduate. she is a fellow of the american academy of optometry, and lives at 852 arlington avenue, berkeley, california 94707. i have not been in touch with her since i came to ohio state more than 26 years ago, but, as far as i know, she did not practice optometry after coming to california in the early 195o•s. i am not even sure whether she obtained a license in california, but i believe that she may have been a part-time clinical instructor at berkeley for a brief period. in any event, dr. stoddard had at least visited the dartmouth eye institute, and told me of ethel jean•s former association with it. so i was not surprised to see her name when ogle•s book came out in the 195o•s. she was married, and i believe that her husband was a physicist at the u.c. radiation laboratory. he had a ph.d., at least, and she was the mother of at least several children. however, she used to attend the quarterly or somewhat irregularly scheduled meetings of the bay area chapter of the american academy of optometry, which were usually held at the school of optometry building at berkeley. two slightly hazy phenomena: in part two of his article on "the sesquicentenary of wolfgang von goethe" (actually johann l~olfgang von goethe) in the april 16, 1982, issue of the optician, vol. 183, no. 4736, pp. 23-24 & 26,. ohs member colin b. fryer cited a passage from goethe describing the so-called "elizabeth linnaeus phenomenon". fryer reports the phenomenon to have been "discovered by the daughter of the famous botanist and subject of a whole series of learned treatises, which unti 1 then had been thought electrical in origin. 11 in the cited passage goethe describes strolling in the garden with a friend at dusk on june 19, 1979, and observing that immediately subsequent to fixating a brilliant flower, e.g., an oriental poppy, and upon fixating elsewhere, such as on the gravel walk, a momentary after­ image of complementary color would be induced. mr. fryer 1 s source for some of this information was m. minnaert 1 s 1954 book entitled "light and colour in the open air," bell & co. ltd., page 128. the original german passage may be found on page 55, section 54, of "goethes farbenlehre," published by im insel-verlag, leipzig, 1937. it is also included in the classic translation entitled "goethe 1 s theory of colours" by charles lock eastlake,. london, john murray, 1840, page 23. i have checked both the german and english versions and find no mention of ms. linnaeus by goethe himself. also goethe 1 s "with a friend" phrase in the original german is "mit einem freunde," the masculine form, rather than "mit einer freundin," the feminine form. 77 in mr. fryer's above-mentioned article he also described the "verdun phenomenon" which goethe is said to have discovered in 1792 near verdun in northeastern france while talking to a squad of soldiers resting beside a fresh water pond. it seems that goethe noticed that the fish in the pond exhibited a series of changing colors as they swam about, blue and violet towards the sun, red and yellow away from it. mr. fryer's source in this instance was \~. emmott in an article entitled "goethe as a physical scientist" in the september 5, 1964, issue of }he ophthalmic qptician, vol. 4, no. 17, pages 907-910. unfortunately, author emmott did not identify any of his several references as his source for this phenomenon. wishing to write reliable definitions for these two phenomena for the dictionary of visual science i scanned the two above-mentioned goethe books page after page for the terms "linnaeus" and "verdun" with no luck. i also searched the american edition book entitled "goethe's color theory" arranged and edited by rupprecht matthaei and translated and further edited by herb aach, van nostrand reinhold co., new york 1971. all i gained from it was a genuine appreciation of a comment by aach that some of professor matthaei 's editing "is to compensate for goethe's longwindedness"~ if i write any more on this i may well be accused of the same, but i cannot refrain from appealing for help from anyone who reads this. i hesitate to help perpetuate the existence of two namesake­ identified phenomena whose origins and interpretations are so vague. the devil \'[a~ !!_9_1 an optometrist: "watch out for the devil 's work" is the title of a sunday feature article by o.h.s. member arol augsburger, o.d., in the april 17 issue of jhe columbus (ohio) dispatch. the "devil's \ijork" in this instance refers to the early fears that anything like spectacles must surely be the work of the devil. dr. augsburger cites numerous other early superstitious fears and remedies for visual defects, but concludes that, "we know that the improvement in vision with today's complex spectacle lenses is far from being the devil 's work. indeed, it is merely the natural outgrowth of what roger bacon told us 700 years ago." b~cill~tv1_:. ~abcoc~ (1911-1983): the above clipping was sent to us by mrs. joseph m. (lucille) babcock only a few weeks before her death on may 30. she was a long­ time member of ohs and the contributor of the extensive organizational files of joseph m. babcock, o.d., to ilamo. these files are the nucleus of the babcock archives of ilamo. 78 ~spectacle spectacular: no less than four persons called my attention to the march 1983 issue of smithsonian, vol. 13, no. 12, in which appeared two histori­ cal articles involving spectacles. the first "around the mall and beyond," by edwards park, pp. 28, 30, 32, & 34, related a "moment of theatricality" employed by general george washington when he met with the discouraged officers of the continental army in march 1783. washington had been almost desperately trying to quell a movement from within his army to take over the reins of government, which included even the suggestion that washington become king--george i of america--to "start running a proper government with the power to tax." washington feared the possibility of military dictatorship. in his talk to more than 600 officers he hammered at the ideal of separated military and civil powers, with little effect on his audience of war-toughened faces. then: "the general digs in a pocket to produce a letter from a member of congress. this, he says, will indicate what they're trying to do down there in philadelphia, and how hard it is to do it. he starts to read. he stumbles over a word or two, and then stops. the officers suddenly hold their breaths: what can be wrong with their old commander? "then washington goes for another pocket and pulls out a pair of spectacles. he had them made recently in philadelphia, and few people have seen them before. now he puts them on, explaining quietly, 'gentlemen, you must pardon me. i have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind.' "he reads the letter, but he doesn't have too. for years, these officers have known their general and honored him as a sort of father figure, an iron man who never gave in to weak­ ness, who held their impossible enterprise together against all odds, and finally won. now, seeing him suddenly aged and mortal, they cannot keep the tears from welling; they cannot break old bonds of loyalty and affection. "general washington walks out, tucking his spectacles back in a waistcoat pocket. this moment of theatricality has turned the trick. his officers quickly repudiate the plan and express renewed faith in the shaky congress." the second article "what a spectacle! eyeglasses, and how they evolved" by dora jane hamblin, pp. 100-102, 104, 106-108, 110-lll, and 188, is a delightfully readable and entertaining anecdotal account of incidents, persons, things, and attitudes associated with spectacles, their design, wear, and fashions. the numerous illustrations, most in full color, could well be cut and mounted as a collage for an optometrist's reception room. 79 the article offers no new information on spectacle history, but it does provide something of a kaleidoscopic review of centuries of development. 42 years of auxiliary effort: in april 1983 the indiana optometric association acknowledged the often taken for granted organizational role of its members' spouses by honoring the auxiliary to the indiana optometric association, inc. with the "outstanding service in the public interest" award. the documents in support of the nomination of course emphasized the public interest aspects of this organization of a very few hundred spouses, and among the documents was a chronology of its "public information highlights." there is every reason to presume that this interesting history has its parallel in dozens of other organizations of optome­ trists' spouses, but it also seems likely that nowhere is such an example recorded in the public literature, if only to illustrate an easily overlooked phase of optometric history and its identification with the circumstances of the times. here it is. the women's auxiliary to the indiana optometric association had its beginning on sunday, january 5, 1941--during the 44th annual convention of the indiana optometric association at the severin hotel, indianapolis, indiana. 1941 their first activity was a motorists' visual testing --clinic in indianapolis. their first state wide project, in august, 1941, was a campaign to make parents realize the importance of an eye examination before children returned to school in the fall. 1942during "save your vision week" the auxiliary sponsored -a-poster contest "guard your eyes." it was open to high school students in marion county. prizes were three war savings stamps--$15, $10, and $5. in august, their campaign was "send your whole child to school"--again publicly stressing the importance of a visual examination. 1943 this year, the "save your vision" poster contest included -----:rc>ur cities, and nine high schools participated. again, war savings stamps were the prizes. 1944-45 the auxiliary set up a gold scrap fund to be used for optometry in indiana. 1946 auxiliary state dues were raised from $1 to $2. the gold --scrap fund was continued. 80 1948 the auxiliary set up a fund of $300 to be used in estab­ --rlshing a library in the anticipated school of optometry at indiana university. on march 11th, during "save your vision week," mrs. roy denny and dr. john o'shea spoke to the nation on a 15 minute program given by columbia broadcasting system on "the visually handicapped child. ,, 1950-52 -the auxiliary distributed the pamphlet "what is school doing to your child's eyesight." 1953 increased the library fund for indiana university to ~00. 1955 started the project to send used eyeglasses to the --rhilippines through a missionary there. 1956 auxiliary spent $600 to furnish the clinic waiting room --rn jordan hall at the indiana university school of optometry. sponsored a state-wide highway safety proqram in indiana. 1957established a $1,000 emergency loan fund for students --at the optometry school. 1958 $200 scholarship for an optometry student was established. ~tional added $50 to increase it to $250. distributed the pamphlet "your baby's eyes." donated a file cabinet to indiana university. 1959 the auxiliary supported a research project in a diabetic camp. 1961 northeastern society distributed the pamphlet "do you -mow these facts about vision and school achievement." 1963 gave $300 towards the purchase of a desk and chair in ~e dean's office at indiana university. 1967 annual scholarship was increased from $250 to $300. the ~xiliary gave $1,000 toward the furnishing of the new indiana optometric association central office. the auxiliary gave $2,000 to help furnish the lounge at the school of optometry. 1969 -the auxiliary purchased its first film "miracle of vision" ~be shown to schools, organizations, service clubs, etc. 1970established an eye-education poster project. posters --were distributed throughout the state. voted to start a film library, and a second film "eyes on the road" was purchased. 81 1971 scholarship was increased from $300 to $500. "let's see" --activity books were distributed to first and second graders throughout the state. purchased the film "0.0. vision care specialists." "eye opener" safety bookmarks were distributed. 1972 auxiliary members volunteered to help man the indiana -----university eye mobile. "seymour safely" flyers and "let's see" activity booklets were distributed throughout the state. 1973the theme this year was "highway and pedestrian safety." every third grader in the state received a folder and two inches of reflective tape pinned to "ha 11 oween tips for trick or treaters." this was timed for education week and halloween. the auxiliary made three tv appearances on children's tv programs and there was extensive newspaper coverage. "bike basics" and "i didn't see" pamphlets were distributed. the film "step lightly'; was purchased for our film library and was shown in local societies, schools, and service organizations. 1974 $500 was given towards new furnishings at the indiana --optometric association central office. this year the auxiliary took on the "seymour safely" puppet show project. 144 puppet shows, which stressed "protect your eyes, take care of your vision," reaching approximately 4,000 children were given during the year througho~t the state. there were tv appearances and newspaper publicity on the project. $500 was given to help defray the cost of a postage meter for the central office. 1976-1977 seymour safely was expanded to several different puppet shows and was continued in indiana. 5,000 children saw the puppet show "hush puppies bright ideas." farm bureau women from 82 counties and women highway safety leaders saw both "hush puppies bright ideas" and "seymour safely's bike basics." seymour safely appeared on cowboy bob's children's tv show as well as other tv and radio programs around the state. a booth was set up for indiana state teachers institute with handouts to teachers for ordering optometric brochures for their classes and "teachers guide to vision problems". "hush puppies bright ideas" film was shown continuously. a booth was set up for the children's festival at lafayette square shopping center with seymour safely posters shown and bookmarks distributed. the governor of indiana signed a proclamation for save your vision week as did the mayor of indianapolis and mayors of other cities. 1977-1978the auxiliary funded the emergency contact lens removal project to a sum of $2,000 and emergency posters reached all counties and at least one emergency medical technicians unit in each county in indiana. subsequent training programs were held in several local locations for emergency medical technicians. 82 through the county health nurses via the indiana state board of health, emergency contact lens removal posters were placed in over half of the schools in half of the counties in indiana. 2,000 posters were placed in indiana. 1978-1980outreach to older americans was adopted as a state project. $2,000 was initially spent for slides, literature, and presentations. the auxiliary reached all 92 counties in indiana through coordination with the governor's commission on aging. presentations were given at nutrition centers, senior citizens clubs, nursing homes, etc. we were invited to be participants at the governor's conference on aging where we were able to reach 50 area agencies as well as participating senior citizens. approximately 8,000 in all. the outreach program was televised via wipb in muncie. reached a potential viewing audience of l/2 million people in east or central indiana and west central ohio. jay county was the pilot project for 4-h eye care education in indiana, and as a result of continued implementation, the indiana 4-h council adopted eye care education as a state project. the auxiliary provided awards to champions at the county fair and awarded a $175 stipend to send a 4-h person to a specialized health awareness leadership forum in washington, d.c. the auxiliary also helped apply for an eye care education grant which is given through the 4-h council by the american optometric association. it was not received at this time, but indiana continued to apply and in 1982, received a grant for $1,200. 1981 first year for the billboard project during save your vision -----week. limited to marion county. 100 copies of the book "arthur's eyes" were sold to optometrists for use in their office, schools, libraries, etc. outreach to older americans was continued. od's were invited to do glaucoma testing through the salvation army and the 82 state fair booths. 1982 the billboard project for save your vision week was ex­ panded state wide. 83 billboards were posted at a cost of $3,298.84. the scholarship was increased from $500 to $1,000. 7,000 halloween safety fliers were distributed to elementary students at a cost of $75. 150 drug abuse posters were distributed to junior high and high schools at a cost of $150. 5,000 in-office promotional items have been sold to od's for use in their office. outreach to older americans, seymour safely, and 4-h eye care are being continued at this time. 83 few remember how dark it was: some of us older ones who may have visited buffalo, new york, in our youth will recall the peripheral flicker of the electric lights powered by the hydroelectric generators of low frequency alternating current at niagara falls. fewer can recall the ubiquitous prevalence of darkness before the advent of electric lights. a reminiscent paragraph by herman b wells (born june 7, 1902) in his autobiography, "being lucky," indiana university press, 1980, page 5, is a rare statement of this experience, as follows: niagara falls was an especially strong magnet for honeymooners in 1901 because of the pan-american exposition in buffalo. the feature of the exposition was millions of small, twinkling electric light bulbs illuminating the fairgrounds. most of the visitors had not seen electric lights before, nor would they soon again see them used on such a scale. the memory of that occasion remained vivid in the minds of my parents throughout their lives. in her later years, when we would drive through the countryside at night and could see the electric floodlights in the barnyards of brightly lighted houses in between the glare of passing automobiles, my mother would frequently remark on how much lighter the world was then than it had been when she was young. in her youth the country roads had been pitch-black at night, the darkness broken only by an occasional feeble glow from a farmhouse or by the light of a swaying lantern on a buggy. what _:!2 oral his tory? from time to time the term "oral history" pops up in the nohs and elsewhere without explanation. oral history is not a case-history recorded by a dentist, nor is it the oral reading of a history book. you will not find it in old dictionaries~ nor in some new ones. if you do not happen to be active in a community with strong academic leanings you may well not be quite certain what the expression entails. here then is an easy to read, plagiarized, and adapted paragraph which defines it briefly and precisely: oral history is a method of research which attempts to probe human memories and retrieve information not usually documented anywhere else. relying on the informed interviewer and the tape recorder, oral history is more than an attempt at recording memories. the best oral history results from a combination of trained interviewers who have thoroughly researched the backgrounds of their subjects and respondents who are willing to peel back the layers of their own memories. the interview is ideally a shared project of historical research and conceptualization and human recollections about events personally experienced. during 84 the past decade, oral history has emerged as a useful method not only in traditional history subjects, but as a means of generating a unique historical perspective in fields such as business, medicine, sociology, and optometry. h.w hofstetter, editor consider whether you are an optician in soochow, an ophthalmist in irkutsk, a retiree on pitcairn island, or an optometrist in huntsburg, ohio, or even middlefield, it is your privilege to join the optometric historical society, for whatever reason. the phenomenal cost is five u.s. dollars per year, or free for the rest of your life if you amend your will to provide a one thousand dollar legacy to the society. if you are not already a member, give this a moment's thought. * * * * * 1983-14-03-001 1983-14-03-002 1983-14-03-003 1983-14-03-004 1983-14-03-005 1983-14-03-006 1983-14-03-007 1983-14-03-008 1983-14-03-009 1983-14-03-010 1983-14-03-011 1983-14-03-012 1983-14-03-013 1983-14-03-014 1983-14-03-015 1983-14-03-016 1983-14-03-017 1983-14-03-018 1983-14-03-019 1983-14-03-020 1983-14-03-021 1983-14-03-022 1983-14-03-023 1983-14-03-024 1983-14-03-025 1983-14-03-026 1983-14-03-027 1983-14-03-028 1983-14-03-029 1983-14-03-030 1983-14-03-031 1983-14-03-032 1983-14-03-033 1983-14-03-034 1983-14-03-035 1983-14-03-036 1983-14-03-037 1983-14-03-038 1983-14-03-039 1983-14-03-040 1983-14-03-041 1983-14-03-042 1983-14-03-043 1983-14-03-044 1983-14-03-045 1983-14-03-046 1983-14-03-047 1983-14-03-048 hindsight volume 47, number 4 october 2016 journal of optometry history publication of the optometric historical society clara schell hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), a program of optometry cares®-the aoa foundation, hindsight supports the mission and purpose of the ohs. members and officers of the ohs advisory committee 2016 president: ronald r. ferrucci, rferrucci@juno.com (2017)* vice-president: chuck haine, chaine1@icloud.com (2016) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gmail.com (2016) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) john c. townsend, john.townsend@va.gov (2018) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) *term expires optometry cares ® the aoa foundation t. joel byars, o.d., liaison to heritage services, board of directors jbyarsod@bellsouth.net rebecca hildebrand, director rahildebrand@aoa.org kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist the archives and museum of optometry khebert@aoa.org erica hayes administrative assistant,the optometric historical society, amo@aoa.org the official publication of the ohs, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 22-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. back issues, indexes, and additional information about the journal are available at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. manuscripts can be submitted for publication at the journal website (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight). alternatively, a word document can be submitted by email to the editor. mailto:rferrucci@juno.com mailto:chaine1@icloud.com mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu mailto:lynnbrandes@comcast.net mailto:sharpton@windstream.net mailto:george.woo@polyu.edu.hk mailto:zadnik.4@osu.edu mailto:jbyarsod@bellsouth.net mailto:rahildebrand@aoa.org bbroombaugh@aoa.org mailto:khebert@aoa.org https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight mailto:john.townsend@va.gov 243 north lindbergh blvd st. louis, mo 63141 www.aoafoundation.org hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2016 volume 47, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com kirsten pourroy hébert, the archives an museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141, khebert@aoa.org table of contents news 110 from the editor: learning from our history, david a. goss 111 the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 1898-2015, part 3, r. norman bailey 112 a history of some optometry periodicals, part 2, david a. goss 134 dr. clara schell: pioneer arizona territory optometrist, suffragist, and community leader, janolyn g. lo vecchio 139 about heart disease: a conversation with morey x. powell, irving bennett 148 member list 2016 150 membership application 2016 151 advisory committee nomination form 2016 152 mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 news 2016| page 110 news nominations to ohs advisory committee 2017 the optometric historical society is seeking nominations to the 2017 ohs advisory committee. the terms of dr. irving bennett and dr. charles haine will expire on december 31, 2016, leaving two vacancies on the advisory committee as of january 1, 2017. any member of the society in good standing may nominate another member or themselves to the ohs advisory committee. nominees should be willing to serve a fouryear term and participate in regular committee meetings, ongoing discussions, and reporting to the optometry cares board of directors. members of the advisory committee will take responsibility for conducting the regular business of the society and for the planning, coordination and promotion of the society’s special events and programs. all nominations forms must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on sunday, november 20, 2016. you may self-nominate. a member in good standing may serve as many four-year terms to which he is elected. please use the nomination form found here: https://amopt.wufoo.com/forms/q6hzj2d07ud5xf/ to submit your nominee. the form is also accessible through the ohs webpage at www.aoa.foundation.org. you must attach a short biography for each nominee and written confirmation that the nominee(s) is aware of the nomination (unless selfnominating). the submission should be a single file in pdf, ms word (.doc or .odf) format. if you have questions or are experiencing difficulty using the form, please feel free to email erica hayes, administrative assistant for the optometric historical society at amo@aoa.org. https://amopt.wufoo.com/forms/q6hzj2d07ud5xf/ http://www.aoa.foundation.org/ mailto:amo@aoa.org hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 editorial| page 111 from the editor: learning from our history david a. goss, o.d, ph.d. dgoss@indiana.edu n this issue janolyn lovecchio writes about early twentieth century optometrist clara schell. schell’s story is an interesting one in itself, but in telling that story, lovecchio also makes the point that optometry appears to have been more welcoming to women as colleagues than medicine. as i read lovecchio’s point about early women in optometry, i found myself pondering in what other areas optometry has done a better job than medicine. two things came to mind. first, while ophthalmology has, of course, had the leadership role in eye care over the years, optometry has traditionally taken the leadership role in vision care. optometry has excelled in refraction, contact lenses, binocular vision, and vision therapy. secondly, i think that, in general, optometry has done a better job of spending time with patients. for example, a few months ago, i had the opportunity to visit with a good friend from undergraduate school who went to medical school and became a primary care physician. he mentioned that he referred his diabetic patients to optometrists rather than ophthalmologists because the optometrists spent more time with his patients. in recent years, as optometry has expanded its scope, the profession has taken on more and more attributes of a medical model of practice and in so doing, optometry has emulated the medical profession in many aspects of practice philosophy, modes of practice, and analytical approaches. while we should rightfully admire our colleagues from the medical profession and continue to learn from them, we should remember the areas in which optometrists have excelled and continue to build on those strengths. we can once again quote the words of henry hofstetter to remind us that optometry has “a truly proud history” and is “a discipline with as noble and pervasive a heritage as any.”1 in this era of rapid change, it becomes even more important that we celebrate, try to understand, and learn from optometry history. david a. goss editor references 1. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight 1996;27:17-18. i mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 112 the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 18982015, part 4 r. norman bailey, ma, od, mba, mph clinical professor, retired university of houston college of optometry nbailey@uh.edu continued from volume 47, number 3 a new century dawns s the decade of the 1990s was coming to a close, the ethics and values committee developed a proposal in 1997 to produce a textbook addressing the ethical issues that a doctor of optometry may face in clinical practice. as the result of obtaining subsequent funding to write and print the text, an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics was published in 2000.107 the text was edited by committee chair, r. norman bailey, od, and bioethicist, elizabeth heitman, phd. there were sixteen contributing authors.108 this text was one of a planned series of projects for the ethics education program for optometric practitioners. funds allowed every doctor of optometry member of the aoa, as well as every third year and graduating optometry student in 2000 to receive a free copy of this text. complimentary copies were sent to the libraries and to the ethics educators of the schools and colleges of optometry throughout the world. distribution of the text was also made available to attendees of a presentation by the text’s optometrist editor to the 13th asia-pacific optometric congress held in coolum beach, australia in 2001. it is worthy to note that during this period of time, committee members encouraged state and regional continuing education administrators to place ethics courses/lectures into their programs.103, 107, 109-112 in december 2000, an ethics workshop with david ozar, phd, department of philosophy and center for ethics, loyola university of chicago was held in chicago for the purpose of assessing the ethical values that influence contemporary optometric practice. the committee was expanding discussions on how the profession could more fully express to the public and to the membership those principles that guide professional behavior as individual primary eye care providers.111, 112 during the january 2001 aoa mid-year planning conference, the committee recommended that the standards of conduct be continued as written until such time as the document could be incorporated into a more comprehensive statement by the house of delegates regarding the ethical obligations of doctors of optometry.111 the committee had begun discussions on the need to develop new versions of the code of ethics and standards of conduct. a new ethics and values committee determined in 2002 that many of the standards in the 1976 standards of conduct were considered dated and not consistent with current thinking in biomedical ethics. the committee recommended that the board a mailto:nbailey@uh.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 113 of trustees retire the 1976 standards of conduct to the historical archives, which the board did.113 it is noted that the board of trustees could take this action with subsequent approval of the house of delegates as this document had been approved as a board policy statement. the code of ethics was minimally modified in june 2005 to make the language more inclusive in three of its stated principles. this historical event occurred during the american optometric association’s annual congress held in grapevine, texas. for the first time in 61 years, the house of delegates voted to make changes to the code of ethics as recommended by the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair n. scott gorman. while some may not consider the few modification of language of much significance, others would see the wording changes as timely. (see appendix i) subsequently, in 2006, with the aoa board of trustees encouragement; the ethics and values committee reviewed all aoa related documents and concluded the code of ethics needed to be updated to (1) address patient autonomy, (2) to expand the visiononly language to include both general and eye health language, and (3) to recognize the limited exceptions to confidentiality resulting from legislation. the ethics and values committee also concluded that a new supporting document should be created to address a broad range of ethical issues in support of the code of ethics. this would be a working document that could also replace many of the resolutions and board policy statements and be more easily modified over time. a goal would be that periodic modifications of this document could embrace changing circumstances in the profession or society.114 the ethics and values committee set out to complete the monumental task of drafting new and updated documents to replace the 1944/2005 code of ethics and the now archived 1976 standards of conduct. in 2007, the house of delegates in boston, massachusetts adopted the current code of ethics115 that incorporated the three changes identified in 2006. this new document was drafted by the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair n. scott gorman.116 the adopting resolution resolved that the code of ethics adopted as substantive motion 1 in 1944 and modified in 2005 be repealed and the following be adopted:115 code of ethics of the american optometric association (adopted 2007) it shall be the ideal, resolve, and duty of all optometrists: to keep their patients' eye, vision, and general health paramount at all times; to respect the rights and dignity of patients regarding their health care decisions; to advise their patients whenever consultation with, or referral to another optometrist or other health professional is appropriate; to ensure confidentiality and privacy of patients' protected health and other personal information; to strive to ensure that all persons have access to eye, vision, and general health care; to advance their professional knowledge and proficiency to maintain and expand competence to benefit their patients; hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 114 to maintain their practices in accordance with professional health care standards; to promote ethical and cordial relationships with all members of the health care community; to recognize their obligation to protect the health and welfare of society; and to conduct themselves as exemplary citizens and professionals with honesty, integrity, fairness, kindness and compassion. an online course, ethical issues in contact lens practice, was developed and produced in 2007. the course was authored by elizabeth heitman, phd, a bioethicist at vanderbilt university and r. norman bailey, od, past-chair of the ethics and values committee and a clinical professor at the university of houston college of optometry. the course, sponsored by the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair n. scott gorman, was posted on the american optometric association’s website in 2008 for the benefit of the membership. nova southeastern university in florida provided media production facilities and education technology staff for the production of the course.116-120 between 2007 and 2009, the ethics and values committee developed a working draft of the standards of professional conduct document.118, 120-123 modifications were made to the first draft based on numerous comments and suggestions received from the profession. the final draft of the standards of professional conduct from the ethics and values committee under the leadership of chair james e. paramore was adopted as motion 2011-m-2 by the house of delegates in june 2011, in salt lake city, utah.124 while the code of ethics refers to the ethical principles that guide the profession as it serves the public, the standards of professional conduct spell out in more detail how these principles may be applied in practice from day to day. the 2011 standards of professional conduct read as follows:124 standards of professional conduct (adopted 2011) background: the profession of optometry is privileged to serve the eye care needs of the public and is entrusted by society to do so in a professional and ethical manner. the placement of the patient’s interests above self-interest is referred to as fiduciary duty and is the primary ethical responsibility of all health care professionals. specifically, optometrists have the duty to look after the best interests of their patients with regard to the patient’s eye, vision and general health. additionally, the ethical optometrist strives to protect and enhance the health and welfare of the public in general. the american optometric association (aoa) has adopted a code of ethics and standards of professional conduct to guide optometrists in their professional and ethical duties. these documents are supplemented by the optometric oath, and certain aoa house of delegates’ resolutions and board of trustees’ policy statements. the content of these ethical documents and pronouncements is the result of a continually evolving relationship between the profession of optometry hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 115 and the society it serves. while the code of ethics of the american optometric association sets forth the basic tenets of ethical behavior for optometrists, the standards of professional conduct is a more evolving document that amplifies the code of ethics and describes appropriate ethical and professional behaviors in greater detail. it is the intent of the american optometric association that the code of ethics and the standards of professional conduct be written expressions of and a continuing commitment to professional and ethical behavior for all optometrists. discussions of biomedical ethics traditionally identify four categories or fundamental principles of ethical behavior: patient autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. these principles provide the underlying support for specific ethical behaviors within the health care professions. each of the topic areas within the aoa standards of professional conduct is arranged under one of these principles. while each topic area can be identified and justified under several if not all of the principles, they are arranged here under what could be considered the most compelling principle for each. a fifth category, non-patient professional relationships, is added to complete the content of the aoa standards of professional conduct. it should be noted that these ethical documents and pronouncements are expressions of many but not all of the ethical ideals of the profession and are not necessarily expressions of legal obligations. ethics and the law are two different entities, although many times these may overlap. the law sets minimum standards for societal behavior that all persons must comply with. ethics generally sets higher than minimum standards for behavior that people should strive for as the ideal. standards of professional conduct a – patient autonomy (“self-determination”) the optometrist has the duty to involve the patient in care and treatment decisions in a meaningful way, with due consideration of the patient’s needs, desires, abilities and understanding, while safeguarding the patient’s privacy. 1. patient participation: optometrists have a duty to respect the right of their patients to be active participants in decisions affecting their health care. this duty should be reinforced and supported through patient education and effective communication. 2. confidentiality: optometrists and their staff should hold in confidence all protected health and other personal information. this is an essential element of the doctor-patient relationship that is necessary to build and maintain trust. the optometrist may reveal protected health and other personal information only with the written consent of the patient as defined under the health insurance portability and accountability act (hipaa). however, exceptions to confidentiality do exist that are ethically justified. these exceptions occur either when it is necessary to protect the welfare of the patient or others when faced with a significant threat, or hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 116 when the release of information is required by law. it should be noted that an ethical imperative of an optometrist to release information to protect the welfare of the patient or others without the patient’s consent may have legal considerations. 3. truthfulness: telling the truth is a necessary component of a trusting optometrist-patient relationship. from an ethical standpoint, there are two levels of truthfulness, veracity and candor. simply put, veracity is “telling the truth” and candor is “telling the whole truth.” optometrists should always practice veracity and strive to tell the truth. while candor is usually required from an ethical standpoint, exceptions are only justifiable out of kindness to the patient or to protect the overall best interests of the patient. since breaching candor would be a violation of the basic principle of patient autonomy, it should only be considered after careful reflection and weighing the alternatives. 4. informed consent: optometrists have a duty to inform patients or their legal guardian about the patient’s health care and health care options. the process of informed consent requires the optometrist to make a reasonable determination of the patient’s ability to reason and make informed decisions free of external coercion. additionally, optometrists should explain to the patient or their legal guardian the patient’s health care status, what appropriate procedures are available, and the risks and benefits of each procedure. finally, optometrists should make the effort to ensure that the patient or guardian has a reasonable understanding of the information presented. 5. patient records: the optometrist is responsible for maintaining appropriate and accurate records on every patient encounter. upon written request and in accordance with applicable federal and state laws, patients or their legal guardian have a right to obtain or have sent copies or summaries of their medical records. b – nonmaleficence (“do no harm”) the optometrist has the duty to avoid acts of omission or commission that would harm the patient. 1. standards of care: optometrists should strive to provide care that is consistent with established clinical practice guidelines such as those adopted by the american optometric association that are based on the latest scientific knowledge and procedures and utilize the opinions of authoritative experts and is in accordance with existing laws. 2. professional competence: optometrists have an obligation to strive to stay current with the prevailing scope of practice and standards of care to benefit their patients. additionally, optometrists should employ only those clinical procedures and treatment regimens for which they are educated and competent to perform. 3. delegation of services: optometrists may delegate services to office staff as permitted by law. for any services performed on patients by office staff, the optometrist must ensure that they are adequately trained and/or certified. additionally, the staff member’s level of training or designation hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 117 (technician, assistant, etc.) must be clearly communicated to the patient receiving care. 4. conflict of interest: the care of a patient should never be influenced by the self-interests of the provider. optometrists should avoid and/or remove themselves from any situation that presents the potential for a conflict of interest where the optometrist‘s self-interests are in conflict with the best interests of the patient. disclosure of all existing or potential conflicts of interest is the responsibility of the optometrist and should be appropriately communicated to the patient. 5. referral: an optometrist should refer a patient whenever the optometrist believes this may benefit the patient. the provider and/or facility to which the patient is referred should be based primarily on what is in the best interest of the patient. when a patient is referred to another health care provider, the referring optometrist should remain involved in comanaging the patient’s overall care. an optometrist should not offer or accept payment of any kind, in any form, from any source, for referring a patient. payment between health providers, or from a health service industry, solely for the referral of a patient, is considered fee splitting and is unethical. 6. relationships with patients: optometrists should avoid intimate relationships with patients as such relationships could compromise professional judgment or exploit the confidence and trust placed in the optometrist by the patient. if such a relationship does inadvertently develop, the professional care of this patient should be transferred to another optometrist. 7. impaired optometrist: optometrists who are impaired because of the use of controlled substances, alcohol, or other chemical agents must remove themselves from patient care activity. in an effort to protect patients and encourage help for impaired providers, optometrists should assist impaired colleagues in seeking professional help and/or identify impaired colleagues to appropriate state agencies or licensing boards. optometrists who have physical or cognitive limitations should not provide professional care if the condition limits their ability to provide the highest level of care to their patients. c. beneficence (“do good”) the optometrist has the duty to proactively serve the needs of the patient and the public at large regarding eye, vision and general health. 1. character: optometrists should conduct themselves with good character in all of their actions to build trust and respect with patients, the public, and colleagues. good character includes but is not limited to honesty, integrity, fairness, kindness, and compassion. 2. respect for the law: optometrists should comply with all applicable state and federal laws and should remove themselves from any situation which prevents them from fulfilling their legal and professional responsibilities. it should also be noted that ethical duties may sometimes exceed legal obligations. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 118 3. protected populations: optometrists have the responsibility to identify signs of abuse and neglect in children, dependent adults and elders and to report suspected cases to the appropriate agencies, consistent with state law. 4. public health: optometrists have an ethical obligation primarily to their patients but also to society in general. as primary health care providers, optometrists should participate actively in professional organizations and other efforts that enhance the eye, vision, and general health of their patients and the public. optometrists should also strive to ensure that all persons have access to eye, vision, and general health care. 5. clinical research and trials: it is the ethical responsibility of an optometrist to maintain integrity and independent judgment in all research endeavors to advance the best interests of patients, the public welfare, and the profession. optometrists who conduct research should adhere to accepted scientific conduct guidelines and respect all ethical tenets that protect patients’ rights. when collaborating with industry, optometrists should encourage and support the timely and accurate publication of all scientifically relevant findings. optometrists who present scientific information shall fully disclose any financial and/or other relationship that exists with a company when its product or services are discussed in the presentation. d – justice (“fairness”) the optometrist has the duty to treat patients, colleagues, and society fairly and without prejudice. 1. patient selection: optometrists, in serving the public, may exercise reasonable discretion in selecting patients for their practices. however, services should not be denied to patients presenting with emergent conditions. optometrists must not refuse to accept patients into their practice or deny services to patients because of the patient’s race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or health status. 2. patient abandonment: once the optometrist has undertaken a course of treatment, the optometrist should not discontinue treatment without giving the patient adequate notice and the opportunity to obtain the services of another eye care provider. optometrists are responsible for ensuring appropriate follow-up care when not available to render such care. 3. advertising: advertising by optometrists should be truthful and in accordance with prevailing federal and state laws and regulations. optometrists who advertise should identify their professional degree and/or their profession in all forms of advertising and should never mislead the public regarding their expertise or competency. optometrists should not hold themselves as having superior knowledge or credentials other than their earned degrees, certifications or license types. 4. economic interests: fees for optometric services must be reasonable and accurately reflect the care delivered to the patient. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 119 e – non patient professional relationships optometrists have an obligation to conduct themselves with integrity and without conflicts of interest in all of their professional relationships. 1. relationships with industry: in their interactions with industry, optometrists are expected to maintain the highest level of ethical conduct in order to retain their professional autonomy and clinical integrity. optometrists have a responsibility to provide the best care possible for their patients and to continuously advance their clinical and scientific knowledge. industry can be a valuable resource in these endeavors. however, optometrists must avoid situations and activities that would not be in the best interest of their patients. any financial and/or material incentive offered by industry that has the appearance of, or could be an inappropriate influence on an optometrist’s clinical judgment should be avoided. 2. employer-employee relationships: optometrists should avoid or terminate any employment situation where the employer interferes with or attempts to control the independent professional judgment of the employed optometrist within the scope of optometric practice. relations between optometrists, and between optometrists and staff, must be conducted in a manner that advances the best interests of patients, including the sharing of relevant information. an optometrist’s clinical judgment and practice should not be compromised by economic interest in, commitment to, or benefit from professionally-related commercial enterprises. 3. harassment and relationships with subordinates: an optometrist should not engage in any acts of emotional abuse, physical abuse, or sexual misconduct/ exploitation related to the optometrist’s position as a health care professional. intimate relationships, even when consensual, between an optometric supervisor and a colleague, student, office trainee, or staff member raise concerns because of inherent inequalities in the status and power of the individuals and are therefore inappropriate. 4. expert testimony: when optometrists provide expert testimony within a judicial or administrative action, the testimony should be balanced, fair, and truthful based on scientific and clinical knowledge. a reasonable fee, which is not contingent upon the outcome, may be accepted. article v. section 2. f. of the aoa bylaws125 provides that: “the judicial council shall also, in appropriate cases, render advisory opinions interpreting the code of ethics of the association, the optometric oath, and the aoa standards of professional conduct.” in 2012 carolyn carman and douglas totten, a subcommittee of the ethics and values committee, reviewed the potential ethical considerations of optometrists using social media. an article by carman and totten, social media recommendations was published in november 2012. in that article, james e. paramore, immediate past-chair, stated that, “optometrists need to be aware of how to uphold the same professional and ethical standards in their social media participation as they do in the rest of their practice.”126, 127 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 120 in 2014, 128 the ethics and values committee developed plans for an online forum to present a monthly case study with an ethical challenge. the ethics forum was launched in april 2015 on the aoa website under the ethics and values link to “foster ethical practices for the optometric community by providing a vehicle for education and discussion.”129 the forum is setup to solicit opinions from practitioners on how they would handle each ethical challenge. this concludes a description of the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the usa as revealed through the history of the american optometric association during its first 117 years (1898-2015). more detail of this history can be obtained by carefully reviewing the references and appendices. acknowledgements the author would like to thank the following persons for their advice and assistance on the manuscripts and supporting references during the development of this paper or the original paper to which this paper is an update: larry l. creasey, od; linda j. draper; james r. gregg, od; kirsten hébert; james e. paramore, od; danette miller, and jerald w. strickland, od, phd. my greatest gratitude and thanks go to sherry l. cooper and thomas e. eichhorst, jd, both longtime aoa staff and now retired. both contributed much time and advice to the successful completion of this paper. i am especially grateful for mr. eichhorst’s efforts in providing research for and editing of the final drafts of the text. ms. cooper was the aoa associate director of state government relations from 1990 until her retirement in 2013. she also has served as staff for the aoa resolutions committee from 1998 to the present time. mr. eichhorst was the aoa counsel from 1965 through 2002, when he retired. he has served as a legal consultant to the aoa since 2008. special thanks and acknowledgement is given to elizabeth heitman, phd of the center for biomedical ethics and society at vanderbilt university medical center and david t. ozar, phd of the graduate program in health care ethics and department of philosophy at loyola university of chicago. their consultations, writings, and other assistance during the development of projects of the ethics education program for optometric practitioners were invaluable. special gratitude is extended to the former ciba vision corporation and richard e. weisbarth, od, then ciba’s executive director of professional services for north america, for the unrestricted grant support essential during the development and distribution phases of the recommended curriculum for the teaching of professionalism and ethics in optometry, an optometrists guide to clinical ethics, and ethical issues in contact lens practice. these ethics education program for optometric practitioner projects could not have been successful without this generous support. dr. weisbarth, a past president of the american academy of optometry, is currently the vice president of professional affairs at alcon, inc., which subsequently merged together with ciba vision corporation in 2011. references 107. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 1997-1998. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 121 108. bailey, rn, heitman, e., eds. an optometrist’s guide to clinical ethics. st. louis: american optometric association, 2000. ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: http://www.aoa.org/documents/optometrists/book.pdf. accessed november 19, 2015. 109. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 1998-1999. 110. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 1999-2000. 111. midyear planning conference agenda and minutes of the ethics and values committee. 2001. 112. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2000-2001. 113. midyear planning conference agenda and minutes of the ethics and values committee. 2002. 114. paramore j, berman m, eichhorst t. development of the aoa code of ethics and standards of professional conduct. guest editorial. optometry: j am optom assoc 2012:83(4);6-7. 115. resolution #1969 (4 0f 2007). code of ethics. st. louis: america optometric association. also: ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/code-of-ethics?sso=y. accessed november 19, 2015. 116. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2006-2007. 117. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2005-2006. 118. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2007-2008. 119. online course in ethical behavior on way. aoa news. st. louis: american optometric association, 2006:april:24. 120. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2008-2009. 121. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2009-2010. 122. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2010-2011. 123. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2011-2012. 124. standards of professional conduct. st. louis: american optometric association, 2011. ethics and values section of the american optometric association website: http://www.aoa.org/documents/about/standards-of-professional-conduct_adoptedjune-2011.pdf. accessed november 19, 2015. 125. article v. section 2. f. of the aoa bylaws. st. louis: american optometric association. 126. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2012-2013. 127. carman c, totten d. social media recommendations. st. louis: american optometric association, 2012. ethics and values section of the american optometric http://www.aoa.org/documents/optometrists/book.pdf http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/code-of-ethics?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/documents/about/standards-of-professional-conduct_adopted-june-2011.pdf http://www.aoa.org/documents/about/standards-of-professional-conduct_adopted-june-2011.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 122 association website: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/socialmedia-recommendations?sso=y. accessed november 19, 2015. 128. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2013-2014. the ethics forum was placed online at the ethics and values section of the aoa website: http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/ethicsforum?sso=y as of april 2015. accessed november 19, 2015. 129. annual report to the house of delegates of the aoa ethics and values committee. 2014-2015. additional readings: (to further appreciate the setting in which the discussed history occurs) koetting ra. the american optometric association’s first century. st. louis: american optometric association. 1997. past issues of hindsight: journal of optometry history, official publication of the optometric historical society author’s notes i have been interested in the professional practice of optometry since my days in optometry school at indiana university in the 1960s. i had the privilege of serving my profession both as a private practitioner in charlotte, north carolina for ten years during the 1970s and as an educator and member of the faculty at the university of houston college of optometry for almost thirty years. i was particularly honored to be asked to serve on the aoa ethics and values committee for ten years beginning in 1991. i am currently serving a third term on the judicial council of the aoa. as you may recall from the paper, the aoa launched the professional advancement program in 1942. the professional advancement program was part of the continuing effort by the aoa to particularly address the challenges highlighted by the reader’s digest articles in 1937 and the lack of respect by the military for the profession during world war ii. at that time, james a. palmer of charlotte, north carolina was appointed national director of the office of ethics and economics. in 1970, upon my entering practice in charlotte, i had the opportunity to meet dr. palmer at one of our local professional society meetings; however, i was unaware at the time of the impact he had made on the professional practice of optometry in north carolina and nationally. for me, this point highlights the importance of today’s optometry student and practitioner alike knowing and appreciating the history of our profession, in all its aspects. organized optometry in north carolina (n.c.) was quite progressive during my practice in that state in the 1970s, which led to the state becoming the second state to pass legislation allowing for the prescribing of therapeutic pharmaceuticals by optometrists. i was a member of the initial therapeutics licensed group in n.c. this was also a period when there were many rules of practice required by the regulations of the optometry practice act of n.c., largely reflecting those promoted by the aoa. while it may be difficult to believe in today’s environment, one n.c. regulation in my practice years did not allow for eyewear frames to be visible from the reception area of the office. in addition, i also followed the recommended guidelines for charging professional service fees plus material http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/social-media-recommendations?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/social-media-recommendations?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/ethics-forum?sso=y http://www.aoa.org/about-the-aoa/ethics-and-values/ethics-forum?sso=y hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 123 costs for eyewear rather than using a “mark-up of materials” system, which was a common practice in most commercial optical businesses and some optometric practices. i followed this system throughout my ten years in private practice, attempting constantly to promote a professional image rather than a merchant image. it was not always easy. while one can appreciate the arguments that it should be easier for members of the public to make purchasing decisions if they have all of the information regarding optometrists’ professional services and fees, the practitioner needs to realize that promotion of optical goods may make it more difficult, as a professional, to manage the more commercial/product aspects of an optometric practice that both prescribes and dispenses. the nature of product promotions has the potential to lead the public to view some optometrists more as merchants than as professionals. some would say that the u. s. supreme court’s decision, allowing for the professions to advertise in ways that were historically considered unprofessional and illegal in most states, places an additional challenge on today’s doctors of optometry and other professionals to maintain a professional image. the optometric practitioner should be ever mindful of the potential for conflicts of interest in all areas of practice, especially when dispensing materials or any professional services that the optometrist prescribes. this requires one to take additional care in order to maintain the highest professional behavior. as noted in the paper, professional ethics demands more than just adhering to the letter of the law, but sets obligations that are greater than the law. following ethical principles and standards has become increasingly complex as optometry has expanded its scope of practice into medical eye care. the 2007 code of ethics and 2011 standards of professional conduct clearly guide the optometrist in the obligations that should enable the practitioner to serve as the patient’s fiduciary. it is very difficult to include all the nuances reflecting the profession’s efforts to establish its ethical basis and to advance the public’s image of the profession through legal and association endeavors. the author encourages the reader to review the references, read the appendices carefully, and to complete additional readings where an expanded understanding of events, and the times in which they occurred, is desired. i especially want to acknowledge the monumental task of my colleague and professional friend, john g. classé, in researching and authoring his text, legal aspects of optometry. i personally refer the reader to its contents for greater detail of the discussed subject matter, including his three chapters devoted to the topic of ethics. the views expressed in these author’s notes and throughout this paper to which it is attached, the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the united states of america 1898-2015, are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the american optometric association. i hope this paper on the history of ethics and professionalism within optometry in the usa has been of interest to the practitioner and student alike, and that it will serve as a useful reference in the future. r. norman bailey, ma, od, mba, mph, faao emeritus clinical professor, retired university of houston college of optometry member, judicial council past-chair, ethics and values committee american optometric association hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 124 past-chair, vision care section american public health association dedication: i would like to dedicate this paper to all who helped me to become the doctor of optometry i became; regrettably knowing i will miss some important individuals in the list below. parents and siblings: clyde h. and ruby dell bailey and my four siblings, betty, larry, william, and margaret public schools and community: chattanooga, tennessee faculty at the university of chattanooga (university of tennessee at chattanooga): (1959) ba, comb. science faculty at peabody college of vanderbilt university: (1960) ma, psychology* faculty and graduate students at indiana university: (1969) o.d., optometry especially, faculty (alphabetical): graduate students: merrill j. allen anthony j. adams irvin m. borish t. david williams gordon g. heath george c.s. woo henry w. hofstetter, dean john r. pierce jerald w. strickland distinguished staff at the gesell institute of child development: (1969-70) optometric fellowship** many others after beginning optometric practice in charlotte, north carolina in 1970. *this degree led to my subsequent employment as a masters-level school psychologist for the chattanooga, tennessee public schools where i examined children with learning problems. while there are many reasons why children do not succeed in school, it was during this time i became acutely aware that vision difficulties (not just refractive) could contribute to the learning difficulties of some children. in 1964, while in this position, i had the opportunity to attend a school readiness workshop at the gesell institute of child development in new haven, connecticut where i met richard j. apell, od and john w. streff, od and began investigating optometry as a calling for a way to assist others to a better life. **upon graduation from indiana university, i was awarded the gesell institute’s optometric fellowship and benefited from the instruction and experience of drs. apell and streff. the co-founders of the gesell institute of child development, francis l. ilg, md, and louise bates ames, phd, taught me the relationship between visual development and the other areas of child development. appendix h: currently active (extant) ethics resolutions and substantive motions as of july 2015 (not shown in the order they were adopted) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 125 ethics code of ethics #1969 the optometric oath #1847 standards of professional conduct #m-20112 vision usa #1865 standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services #1883 hiv and aids research #1852 ethics committee #1913 study of ethics integral part of optometric education #1904 state board credit for continuing education courses in ethics #1938 practice with other health care professions and disciplines #1534 abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves #1916 doctor/patient communications in managed health care plans #1920 protecting against potential bias in patient care #1939 patients benefit from optometric professionalism #1960 billing to third party insurance plans #1844 restrictions on certain activities of trustees, officers and volunteers of the american optometric association #392 disclosure of conflicts of interest #1910 #1969(4 of 2007) code of ethics resolved, that the code of ethics adopted as substantive motion 1 in 1944 and modified in 2005 be repealed and the following be adopted. code of ethics (see the body of the paper for the text of the 2007 code of ethics) #1847 (4 of 1986) the optometric oath whereas, over the years numerous optometric organizations and the schools and colleges of optometry have developed and utilized an optometric oath; and whereas, the american optometric association has always supported and endorsed the highest standards, ethics and ideals for the profession of optometry; now therefore be it resolved, that the following statement be adopted as the oath of the optometric profession, to wit: the optometric oath (see the body of the paper for the text of the optometric oath) and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourages all state and local optometric associations and the schools and colleges of optometry to endorse and to employ the optometric oath whenever appropriate. #m-2011-2 (2011) hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 126 standards of professional conduct (see the body of the paper for the text of the 2011 standards of professional conduct) 1865 (8 of 1989)(mod. 2005) vision usa whereas, most americans recognize the importance of good vision; and whereas, some people are unable to obtain needed eye care services due to their lack of financial ability, or their inability to secure private health insurance, or their inability to qualify for government health care programs; and whereas, the code of ethics of the american optometric association states that "it shall be the ideal, the resolve and the duty of its members to see that no person shall lack for visual care regardless of his financial status"; and whereas, the american optometric association has developed a national optometric charity entitled vision usa which provides needed vision care services to the working poor throughout this nation; now therefore be it resolved, that all members of the american optometric association be urged to participate in the vision usa national optometric charity project and to donate at least 8 hours of their services each year to individuals who are unable to obtain needed eye care services due to their lack of financial ability, their inability to secure private health insurance, or their inability to qualify for government health care programs. #1883 (2 of 1991)(mod. 2010) standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services (see the body of the paper for the full text of the original resolution as adopted in 1991) resolved, that the american optometric association board of trustees establish a standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services with a broad mission and focus to address a variety of circumstances and problems which now exist in the health care arena that affect the practices and services of doctors of optometry; and be it further resolved, that the standing committee dealing with ethics and values of optometric care and services make an annual report to the american optometric association house of delegates. #1852 (5 of 1987) (combined in 2015 with 1890 (9 of 1991) and continued as 1852) hiv and aids research whereas, it is incumbent upon optometrists, as primary health care providers, to be knowledgeable and to counsel patients about acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids), since the disease has ocular manifestations and the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) antibody has been isolated in tears but not found to be transmissible; and whereas, it is important to educate the public to take precautionary measures to prevent aids transmission; now therefore be it hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 127 resolved, that the american optometric association strongly recommends that it be the responsibility of all practicing optometrists to acquire background and knowledge, through continuing professional education of hiv infections, appropriate infection control and related public health and patient care issues; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association supports private and government funding of educational programs to inform the general public accurately with scientific facts, to reduce unfounded fear of infection in the general population, and to prevent further infection in populations at risk of contracting aids; supports confidentiality in voluntary testing for the hiv antibody; supports increased private and federal funding for aids research; and supports continual efforts to assess potential improvement of treatment in order to provide the most efficacious cost-effective care. #1913 (3 of 1995) (mod. 2015) ethics committee resolved, that the affiliated associations of the american optometric association be encouraged to make efforts to raise the level of consciousness about issues of ethical behavior; to identify and address ethical concerns that relate to clinical practice; and to identify and address ethical concerns that relate to organizations' behavior; and be it further resolved, that the affiliated associations of the american optometric association be encouraged, with advice and guidance from their legal counsel, to activate committees on ethics and values which would address concerns as they may arise related to issues of ethical behavior in accordance with applicable federal and state laws. #1904 (1 of 1994)(mod. 2000) education in ethics whereas, a comprehensive understanding of ethics is essential for the humanitarian delivery of health care; and whereas, the practice of optometry must be firmly based on professional and moral ethics; and whereas, ethics education should be included within the formal optometric curricula of the schools and colleges of optometry; and whereas, optometric educators have formulated a curriculum model on ethics; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association endorses the study of ethics as an integral part of optometric education; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association urges the schools and college of optometry, as well as its affiliate associations providing continuing education, to adopt structured curricula and programs in ethics. #1938 (3 of 2001) state board credit for continuing education courses in ethics whereas, the present complexity of health care practice has created a variety of new ethical issues, concerns, and dilemmas; now therefore be it hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 128 resolved, that the american optometric association supports the inclusion of presentations on ethics in national, regional, and state continuing education programs; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourages all state boards of optometry to accept courses in ethics toward fulfillment of continuing education requirements for license renewal. #1534 (7 of 1964)(mod. 1995) practice with other health care professions and disciplines whereas, optometrists and state associations have sought guidance from the american optometric association concerning the ethical relationship of optometrists with other health care professions and disciplines in the joint practice of their professions; and whereas, it is against the public interest if the public cannot readily identify and distinguish the profession or discipline practiced by each individual in a joint practice; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association declares that it is ethical for optometrists, as permitted by law, to be associated with, to be partners with, to employ or be employed by other health care professions and disciplines, so long as each practitioner is clearly identified by designation and title of the profession or discipline for which he or she is licensed. #1916 (1 of 1996) abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves whereas, the awareness of abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves has been elevated to a level where society has taken increased steps to curtail the exploitation of these persons; and whereas, the profession of optometry has an ethical and societal responsibility to be advocates for those suffering abuse; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association and affiliated state associations be encouraged to provide members with educational resources to aid in the recognition of abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourages the national board of examiners in optometry to include questions on the subject of abuse against individuals unable to protect themselves as a portion of their examination, making future practitioners more aware of these problems; and be it further resolved, that individual doctors of optometry be encouraged to report cases of suspected abuse to the appropriate authorities in accordance with current laws; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association encourage all affiliated state associations to adopt a similar resolution. #1920 (5 of 1996) (mod. 2015) doctor/patient communications in managed health care plans whereas, there is concern that some managed health care contracts may limit doctors' ability to communicate with patients; and hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 129 whereas, it is the ethical duty of doctors of optometry, as a fundamental element of the doctor-patient relationship, to act as advocates on behalf of the patient; and whereas, it is a doctor's obligation to discuss necessary and appropriate treatment alternatives and in good faith to fully inform the patient of all treatment options; and whereas, the failure to communicate specific information may limit the patient's access to timely, relevant and quality health care services; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association strongly encourages the adoption of federal legislation prohibiting managed health care organizations from using restrictive contract clauses that may serve to limit a doctor's ability to communicate openly and freely with patients about their care options; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association strongly encourages the affiliated state associations to seek the adoption of similar state legislation. #1939 (4 of 2001) (mod. 2015) protecting against potential bias in patient care resolved, that the american optometric association reiterates its time-honored principle of appropriate professional care for all patients; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association, as a matter of ethical concern, strongly encourages all practicing optometrists to be cognizant of the potential for bias in patient care based upon health, gender, age, ethnicity, race, financial status or any other patient characteristic. #1960 (7 of 2004) patients benefit from optometric professionalism whereas, the american academy of ophthalmology has adopted a policy excluding optometrists from all educational courses offered at american academy of ophthalmology meetings; and whereas, the new exclusionary policy of the american academy of ophthalmology is offensive to the principles of scientific professionalism, the free exchange of medical knowledge for the benefit of the public, and the ethics of collegiality among all health care professionals that helps to ensure the best care for patients; now therefore be it resolved, that the american optometric association shall continue unchanged its long-standing policy of opening all educational courses offered at american optometric association meetings to ophthalmologists to attend; and be it further resolved, that, in all educational relationships with ophthalmologists, the american optometric association shall, for the benefit of patients, adhere to the principles of scientific professionalism, the free exchange of medical knowledge, and the ethics of collegiality among health care professionals. #1844 (1 of 1986)(mod. 1990)(mod. 1995)(mod. 2000) billing to third party insurance plans hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 130 resolved, that the american optometric association considers the excess billing of benefit plans, whether in the public or private sector, to be unethical and to be contrary to the behavior of a professional practitioner of a learned health care profession. #392 (4 of 1938)(mod. 1990)(mod. 1995)(mod. 1997)(mod. 2005)(mod. 2012) restrictions on certain activities of trustees, officers and volunteers of the american optometric association whereas, the american optometric association, with an established code of ethics, is a membership organization of optometrists and others devoted to improving the visual welfare of the public; and whereas, the participation of trustees, officers and volunteers of the american optometric association on boards, advisory boards, councils, or committees of other entities may be beneficial to the advancement of the objectives of the association; and whereas, the individuals serving as trustees and officers of the american optometric association, a non-profit corporation organized and governed by the laws of the state of ohio, are obligated, both legally and ethically, to maintain faithfully their duty of loyalty to the american optometric association and to protect the integrity of their positions as fiduciaries of the association by promptly disclosing any actual or potential conflicts of interest, and in appropriate circumstances, recusing themselves from participating in deliberations and/or voting on any matter involving a conflict of interest that may come before the board of trustees in the course of their duties; and whereas, all individuals serving as volunteers and elected officials of the american optometric association, including members of the board of trustees, as recognized leaders of the optometric profession and representatives of the aoa and its membership must, as a condition of service, comply with and adhere to the association's established policy and procedures requiring the disclosure of all personal professional and financial interests and activities which may cause a conflict of interest; and whereas, any meaningful and effective policy intended to guard against the potential for conflicts of interest, whether actual or perceived, must necessarily be an evolving policy, adaptable and flexible enough to address unforeseeable situations in which potential conflicts may arise; and whereas, under such a policy, questions regarding the interpretation and application of the policy can be expected to arise; and whereas, it is in the best interest of the association, its members, and its elected leaders on the board of trustees, to maintain fair and effective procedures to protect against potential conflicts of interest, whether actual or perceived; now therefore be it resolved, that the current aoa board policy, that imposes a duty on a board member of the american optometric association to recuse himself or herself from discussion and voting on any matter in which they may have a conflict of interest, is hereby affirmed; and that the board of trustees, consistent with governing law, is empowered to temporarily suspend from any discussion or vote a board member whom they determine to have a conflict of interest and who refuses to recuse himself or herself from discussion and voting on the matter in which he or she has a conflict of interest; and that the board of trustees shall develop and implement policies to carry out the principles of this resolution, including the reporting of matters by the board of trustees to the judicial council for its review when necessary; and be it further resolved, that the policy expressed in resolution 1910, requiring each member of the board of trustees and each volunteer of the american optometric association to properly disclose any potential conflict of interest, along with a description of any personal business interests, affiliations, or activities with any entity active in the health care field, is hereby affirmed; and be it further hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 131 resolved, that a member of the board of trustees of the american optometric association may not serve as a member of a board, advisory board, or as a principal, agent, or employee of, or have any other active personal affiliation with, any other entity, if such affiliation would conflict with the objectives and policies of the american optometric association; and be it further resolved, that, prior to election, a candidate for the american optometric association board of trustees shall publicly disclose any potential conflict of interest and provide to the house of delegates a description of any personal business interest, affiliation or activity with any entity that, whether or not active in the health care field, may have the potential to give rise to a conflict of interest with the association or its objectives and policies; and be it further resolved, that in no case shall the house of delegates elect a candidate who has, nor shall a candidate or member of the board of trustees develop, a personal interest of such a nature that it would compromise that individual's ability to perform his or her responsibilities as a member of the american optometric association board of trustees; and be it further resolved, that all members of the american optometric association board of trustees shall, on an annual basis, disclose any potential conflict of interest by providing to the house of delegates a description of any personal business interest, affiliation or activity with any entity that, whether or not active in the health care field, may have the potential to give rise to a conflict of interest with the association or its objectives and policies; and be it further resolved, that elected officials of the american optometric association shall not allow their names, photographs, titles and/or positions with the association to be used improperly by any other entity-to advance that entity's business interests, and/or for the official's own personal financial gain; and be it further resolved, that the american optometric association counsel shall be responsible for ensuring: that the information provided in accordance with the association's conflict of interest and disclosure policies is properly collected, reviewed, and maintained at the association's main office; that, upon request, such information is provided to any delegates, officers, and trustees at the house of delegates each year at the annual congress; that any interim disclosures of information submitted in accordance with these policies in between annual congresses is promptly redistributed to all members of the board of trustees and to all members of the judicial council for their review; and that such information be made available for inspection, upon the written request of any member, by appointment with the association counsel, during regular business hours; and be it further resolved, that the judicial council shall be responsible for overseeing the administration of the association's conflict of interest and disclosure policies, and shall make recommendations, where appropriate, to the house of delegates as to the sufficiency and appropriateness of these policies and the procedures established to implement them; and be it further resolved, that the judicial council shall be responsible for rendering final decisions on any questions arising under the association's conflict of interest and disclosure policies. complaints against any member elected or appointed to a position in the association related to conflicts of interest or failure to disclose any conflict of interest shall be made in writing to the judicial council setting forth the details of the complaint with specificity. the judicial council shall initially screen such complaint, with assistance from counsel, and determine if it merits further review. if further review is determined to be warranted, the judicial council shall conduct a hearing at which the party making the complaint and the party against whom the complaint is being made shall have the right to be heard, be represented by an attorney, give evidence, and present and cross-examine witnesses. the judicial council, by majority vote, shall then render a written decision on the complaint, including any recommendations thereon. such decision shall be forwarded to the board of trustees for final action on any recommendations. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 132 #1910 (combination in 1995 of 1903 (8 of 1993) and 1905 (2 of 1994) into new 1910) (mod. 2015) disclosure of conflicts of interest whereas, the american optometric association continues to recognize the necessity that individuals holding elected or appointed positions within the american optometric association embrace the principles of integrity and trust; and whereas, the american optometric association continues to recognize that officers, trustees and other volunteers of the american optometric association and of its affiliated associations bear a special responsibility to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof between their association responsibilities and their private business interests; and whereas, the american optometric association has adopted a process to identify potential conflicts of interest for volunteers and staff; now therefore be it resolved, that all elected officials of the american optometric association, including the american optometric association board of trustees and section officers, all appointed volunteers and staff of the american optometric association should disclose any conflict of interest when engaged or about to engage in activities on behalf of the american optometric association, provided that an american optometric association entity may adopt stricter guidelines; and be it further resolved, that all elected and appointed volunteers and staff of the american optometric association shall annually execute a statement that they will reveal personal business interests relating to any activities in which the american optometric association is engaged; and be it further resolved, that no person shall hold an elected or appointed position within the american optometric association volunteer structure, without having executed the disclosure statement within 30 days of appointment or election to the volunteer structure and then annually thereafter; and be it further resolved, that the affiliated associations are urged to develop conflict of interest disclosure requirements comparable to those of the american optometric association. appendix i: 2005 modification of the 1944 code of ethics (m-1-1944) showing the modifications adopted in 2005; note: deleted wording is indicated by strikethrough; added language is indicated by underscore (a new code of ethics replacing m-1-1944 was later adopted as resolution #1969 in 2007): it shall be the ideal, the resolve, and the duty of the members of the american optometric association: to keep the visual welfare of the patient uppermost at all times; to promote in every possible way, in collaboration with this association, better care of the visual needs of mankind humankind; to enhance continuously their educational and technical proficiency to the end that their patients shall receive the benefits of all acknowledged improvements in visual care; to strive to see that no person shall lack for visual care, regardless of his financial status; to advise the patent whenever consultation with an optometric colleague or reference for other professional care seems advisable; hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bailey: history of ethics, part 4 2016| page 133 to hold in professional confidence all information concerning a patient and to use such data only for the benefit of the patient; to conduct themselves as exemplary citizens; to maintain their offices and their practices in keeping with professional standards; to promote and maintain cordial and unselfish relationships with members of their own profession and of other professions for the exchange of information to the advantage of mankind humankind. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 134 a history of some optometry periodicals, part 2 david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu continued from volume 46, number 4 ne of the signs of the maturity of a profession is the publication of scholarly journals. for many years, the leading scholarly optometric journals in the united states were those published by the american academy of optometry (aao) and the american optometric association (aoa). this part of this article will briefly review the history of the journals published by the aao, which continues to today, and the aoa, which was discontinued a few years ago. american journal of optometry/optometry and vision science the journal known today as optometry and vision science had its origin in january, 1924 as the northwest journal of optometry, a publication of the minnesota, north dakota, and south dakota state optometric associations.1 in august, 1925, the journal was renamed the american journal of optometry, and it was also representing the nebraska, iowa, and oklahoma state optometric associations.2 by 1928, it was the official journal of eleven state optometric associations. starting may, 1928, the journal became a news outlet of the american academy of optometry. in 1934, the journal no longer represented individual state associations, and it was associated only with the american academy of optometry. the academy also separately published volumes of the papers presented at its fourth through eighteenth annual meetings starting in 1927.3 the thirteenth such volume, transactions of the 18th annual meeting of the american academy of optometry, was published in 1939. in 1940, an academy committee decided to merge its publications. the first issue of the merged publication, the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry, appeared in january, 1941 (volume 18, number 1). the journal became a leading journal for clinical optometry and vision science, and it had several thousand subscribers.1 the founder of the journal, its editor from 1924 to 1968, and the owner of the company that published it from 1924 to 1973 was carel c. koch (1896-1973). koch attended washington university in st. louis and then the demars school of optometry in minneapolis. his optometric education was interrupted by service in the united states army, but he returned to the demars school and graduated in 1919. the unusual instructional organization of the demars school made such an interruption manageable. two years of study were required for completion. the complete course of lectures was only six months, but each student was required to attend the complete set of lectures four times.4 advanced students also did work in clinic. koch completed optometry school in 1919 and set up practice in minneapolis. koch and jack i. kurtz, who shared practice o mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 135 space with him, were among the first optometrists in minnesota to practice in professional offices.4 koch was a charter member of the american academy of optometry and was secretary of the academy from 1922 to 1925 and from 1944 to 1973. he was chairman of the american academy of optometry in 1929. he was on the american optometric association’s committee on interprofessional relations and long range planning committee. he also served on several boards and commissions of civic and community organizations in minneapolis. among various awards and recognitions he received were honorary degrees from chicago college of optometry and pennsylvania college of optometry.5,6 writing in 1968, hirsch and weiner said that: “the journal and its editor have been vital forces influencing the transition [of optometry] from a trade to a profession.”4 an obituary notice said that koch was “a great man whose intelligence, charm, love and dedication to his profession permeated everything he did….he inspired us to a life of scientific professional service through optometry, of dedication to the visual welfare of mankind, and of contribution to our fellow practitioners.”5 in 1968, monroe j. hirsch, who had been associate editor since 1953, became the editor, and he served as editor through 1976. merton flom was an interim editor in 1977 and 1978. in 1974, the title of the journal was changed to american journal of optometry and physiological optics.7 the company publishing the journal was professional press in 1974 and 1975, and then starting in 1976, williams & wilkins. william m. lyle was editor of the journal from 1979 to 1996. newcomb and eger stated that he “had served with distinction as the journal’s fourth editor” and “he had substantially improved the quality of the journal in many ways...”8 the most visible changes in the journal during lyle’s tenure occurred in 1989 when the title of the journal changed to optometry and vison science, and there was an increase in the page size and a change in color of the cover to optometry’s sea-foam green. william lyle was born in canada and graduated from the college of optometry of ontario in toronto in 1938. after practicing in kirkland lake, ontario and winnipeg, he entered the canadian military in 1940. he left the military at the rank of captain in 1946 after serving in europe during world war ii.9 he then returned to practice in winnipeg, and while there, served as president of the canadian association of optometrists and took additional courses in biochemistry, microbiology, genetics, and statistics at the university of manitoba. in 1960, lyle enrolled in the physiological optics graduate program at indiana university. he completed an m.s. degree in 1962 and his ph.d. in 1965. in 1965, lyle joined the faculty of the college of optometry of ontario. then in 1967, he became one of the first five faculty members in the university of waterloo school of optometry, where he taught for many years. a tribute to william lyle for his service as the optometry and vision science editor noted: “typically, upon accepting the responsibility or the editorship, bill lyle took a series of courses about editing from the american medical writers association and a 6month leave of absence from his teaching duties so he could put all his time and energy into the task….throughout his career, as his history reveals, bill has never hesitated to sacrifice his time, effort, and even his realm, toward consistently elevating his capacity to meet his accepted obligations – toward his own education, toward the profession’s status, toward meeting his own sense of responsibilities….to anyone who reviews the publications of the academy as they have matured throughout the years, the development of the journal during his editorial tenure is obvious – in physical format, in the type of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 136 articles published, in its increasing degree of scientific involvement, in circulation, and in the growing coalition of respected investigators.”9 editors following william lyle have included mark bullimore (1996-2004), anthony adams (2004-2015), and michael twa (2016). throughout its history, the american journal of optometry and optometry and vision science has been an outlet for some of american optometry’s best writing and research and it has matured into a leading international journal of clinical optometry and vision science. a cumulative index for volumes 1 through 44 (issues published in 1924 to 1967), compiled by grace weiner, was published in 1968, and a second cumulative index for volumes 45 to 60 (1968 to 1983), prepared by alison howard and grace weiner, was published in 1985. a diskette with an index for volumes 45 to 70 (1968 to 1993), prepared by t. david williams, was produced in 1994. journal of the american optometric association / optometry the origins of the journal of the american optometric association can be traced to the bulletin titled the aoa messenger, which was first published in 1926.10 in 1929, the aoa’s official publication was the organizer. the first issue of the journal of the american optometric association was published in 1930 as volume 2, number 1 in bibliographic continuity with the organizer. the force behind the beginning of that publication was minnesota optometrist ernest h. kiekenapp (1889-1973).10-12 kiekenapp became secretary of the aoa in 1922, a position he held for 35 years. kiekenapp had wanted to start a journal after becoming secretary of the aoa, but due to opposition to the publication of a journal, he had started with the messenger and the organizer until he had the support to start a journal.11 kiekenapp was editor of the messenger and the organizer. he then served as editor of the journal from its beginning in 1930 until his retirement in 1957. in the early years of the journal, kiekenapp solicited papers from optometry school faculty members and leading optometrists. he estimated that he wrote over 300 editorials for the aoa publications.13 occasionally he wrote under the pen name of douglas lincoln young because if readers “saw nothing but the name kiekenapp, they might be scared away.”13 kiekenapp graduated in 1912 from the stone school of optometry.13 he practiced optometry until he served with the u.s. army overseas during world war i. after the war he attended demars school of optometry for a year, and then reentered private practice in 1920. many optometrists were quoted in a tribute article after his death that he was extremely important in the activities and functions of the aoa during his years as secretary.12 he also was a member of the minnesota state optometry board and wrote their handbook and directory, and was a secretary of the international association of boards of examiners in optometry.13 he received two honorary degrees from northern illinois college of optometry and was given the aoa distinguished service award at his retirement.13,14 editors of the aoa’s journal after kiekenapp were irving bennett (1957-1964), charles margach (1964-1965), milton j. eger (1965-1985), jimmy d. bartlett (19851990), john w. potter (1990-1995), john g. classé (1995-1997), anthony a. cavallerano (1997-1999), and paul b. freeman (1999-2012).10,15 in its first year, the journal published articles based on educational presentations at the annual aoa meeting. educational articles remained an important component of hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 137 journal content throughout its history.10 topical issues were common starting in the 1950s, with issues devoted to topics such as contact lenses, pediatric optometry, ocular pharmacology, sports vision, diabetes, and low vision. starting in 1958, there was an annual contact lens theme issue for over 25 years. in 1978, a journal review board was formed, and subsequently papers submitted for publication were refereed. in 2000, the title of the journal was changed from journal of the american optometric association to simply optometry. in 2003, the aoa could boast that its journal was “the most widely circulated scholarly journal in the world.”16 however, only nine years later, the journal was discontinued. the aoa president dori carlson cited “the realities of publishing costs and financial priorities” as a major reason for its discontinuance.17 the last print issue was published in january, 2012 (volume 83, number 1). a few more issues were published online, with the last online being the june, 2012 issue (volume 83, number 6). one indication of the significance of these two journals in recent years may be the results of a citation analysis done on the second edition of borish’s clinical refraction. the most cited optometry journal by a wide margin was optometry and vision science and the second most frequently cited optometry journal was optometry.18 out of curiosity, i also checked to see what journals i cited most often in the third edition my book ocular accommodation, convergence, and fixation disparity. i cited optometry and vision science more often than all other journals combined. the second most frequently cited journal was the aoa’s journal, with twice as many citations as third place ophthalmic and physiological optics. in a recent editorial in the british optometry journal ophthalmic and physiological optics, elliott and handley19 traced some of the history of optometry journals and noted their importance for education, research, and support of clinical practice. they stated that even though the aoa decided to discontinue its journal, several foreign journals may help to keep the future of optometry journals bright. they mentioned as examples the canadian journal of optometry, relatively new journals such as the spanish journal of optometry (2008) and the scandinavian journal of optometry and visual science (2008), and the renamed african vision and eye health (2015). references 1. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:156-163. 2. flom mc. how did our academy journal start and become preeminent? optom vis sci 2005;82:1011-1013. 3. leeds jp. review of the transactions of the american academy of optometry, 1922 to 1939. am j optom physiol opt 1982;59:735-737. 4. hirsch mj, weiner g. history of the american journal of optometry. am j optom arch am acad optom 1968;45:43-57. 5. peters hb. dr. carel c. koch, november 23, 1896 – november 3, 1973. am j optom arch am acad optom 1973;50:850-852. 6. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:189. 7. lyle wm. a time of change. optom vis sci 1996;135-137. 8. newcomb rd, eger m. history of the american academy of optometry 1987-2010. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 2012:45. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 goss: historical periodicals, part 2 2016| page 138 9. borish im. tribute, william m. lyle, editor, optometry and vision science 19781996. optom vis sci 1997;74:70. 10. christensen jl. history of the journal of the american optometric association. j am optom assoc 1985;56:852-858. 11. a journal interview: the incomparable ernest kiekenapp. j am optom assoc 1971;42:166-174. 12. eger mj. the passing of a legend. j am optom assoc 1973;44:680-684. 13. oral history. interviewee: ernest h. kiekenapp; interviewer: maria dablemont. april 25, 1967. www.aoa.org/documents/archivesmuseum/oral_history/kiekenapp_ernest_h1967.p df. 14. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:183. 15. cavallerano aa. editor’s perspective: where are they now (...or objects in the mirror are closer than they appear). j am optom assoc 1997;68:549-550. 16. 2003 member desk reference: the complete guide to your aoa. st. louis: american optometric association, 2003:42. 17. carlson d. a message to readers. j am optom assoc 2012;83(1):page unnumbered. 18. goss da. literature and information in vision care and vision science. optom 2008;79:670-686. 19. elliott db, handley n. a historical review of optometry research and its publication: are optometry journals finally catching up? ophthal physiol opt 2015;35:245-251. http://www.aoa.org/documents/archivesmuseum/oral_history/kiekenapp_ernest_h1967.pdf http://www.aoa.org/documents/archivesmuseum/oral_history/kiekenapp_ernest_h1967.pdf hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 139 dr. clara schell: pioneer arizona territory optometrist, suffragist, and community leader janolyn g. lo vecchio, b.s.ed. lovecchio@dakotacom.net ptometry, women’s rights, and animal rights all contributed equally in shaping the life of dr. clara schell. she was born in chicago, illinois on june 27, 1872, the daughter of charles and catherine kaub.1 at age 19 clara married henry a. schell on february 20, 1891 in chicago, illinois. due to henry’s asthma, they moved to the small mining town of morenci in the arizona territory where he worked at the detroit copper mining company store as a bookkeeper and optometrist.2 henry quickly became active in community and professional organizations and was elected as a delegate to the territorial democratic convention in phoenix.3 in 1898, he attended the organizational meeting of the american association of opticians in new york city and became one of 183 charter members.4 the schells built a house in morenci, furnished it with a piano shipped into town by train, and advertised for a housemaid in the phoenix newspaper.5 o figure 1:clara schell (1872-1955) and henry schell. (photos courtesy of aileen schell mccurnin) mailto:lovecchio@dakotacom.net hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 140 henry schell expanded his optometry practice outside morenci and traveled by train and car to towns throughout southern arizona and sonora, mexico to provide optometric care. he advertised his travel schedule in local newspapers and stayed at hotels where he gave eye examinations and prescribed glasses in his hotel room.6 in 1900, henry moved his optometry practice to tucson to provide a centralized base for his trips to visit patients. after the schells moved to tucson, clara returned to chicago to attend the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology. after graduating in 1902 at age 30, clara returned to arizona and joined her husband in his optometry practice in tucson. she was the first woman optometrist in the arizona territory and one of the first women optometrists in the united states.7 clara became a partner in her husband’s optometry practice and frequently traveled with him in southern arizona and sonora, mexico to visit patients as well as friends. the office of schell and schell was located at 38 n. stone avenue.8 an arizona weekly citizen article described schell and schell as “arizona’s oldest exclusive optical house with the first lens grinding plant in the state” well known “for accurately fitting glasses, good services and reasonable prices” by “arizona’s leading optometrists and opticians.”9 without legislation establishing standards for practicing optometry and licensing procedures for optometrists, at the beginning of the twentieth century anyone could practice optometry, a situation which was exploited by charlatans. spectacle peddlers traveled throughout the rural united states with ready-made eyeglasses while other men gained optical experience as apprentices in watchmaker or jewelry stores or studied the limited available books on optics and eye physiology. the first optometry law was passed by a state legislature in minnesota in 1901, and the american association of opticians was founded in 1898. this organization was later re-named the american optical association in 1910 and then the american optometric association in 1919.10 one of the key issues in the development of optometry and for professional recognition of optometrists by medical physicians was the creation of state optometry licensing boards to regulate the practice of optometry. when the arizona territorial legislators approved a bill to create an arizona optometry board in 1905, governor joseph kibbey vetoed the bill on march 22.11 two years later in march 1907, the arizona territorial board of optometry was established, and arizona joined 13 states with optometry boards.12 governor kibbey appointed two optometrists, henry schell of tucson and ernest munson of phoenix, and physician h. t. southworth of prescott as the initial board members.13 the territorial board of optometry members continued to be composed of two optometrists and a physician until 1918 when dr. southworth joined the military during world war i and the vacant board position was filled by optometrist d.d. northrup of phoenix.14 during the territorial optometry board’s first meeting on april 6, 1907, henry schell was elected president. the new board created state licensing examinations, conducted licensing examinations and established $5 dues. during a six month enrollment period for current arizona opticians to register for licensure, 37 applications were received and processed by the board in 1907. on april 13, 1907, henry issued licenses no. 1 and 2 to himself and clara. the first licensing examination was held on july 1, 1907 and one of three applicants (a.s. green of denver) successfully passed the examination with a grade of 83. in 1908 henry schell was re-elected president of the hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 141 territorial optometry board. during this year, the territorial optometry board approved a motion to publish lists of licensed optometrists in arizona newspapers along with a $25 reward for the arrest and conviction of illegal unlicensed optometry practitioners. during the next 16 years, henry served as president or secretary of the arizona board of optometry.15 in may 1908, after meeting with an american association of opticians representative dr. william houston, 70 arizona opticians organized an arizona optical society. henry and clara schell were charter members of the arizona optical society and regularly attended state meetings.16 on april 30, 1909, henry schell was elected vice president of the arizona optical society. in 1921 the arizona optical society re-organized as the arizona association of optometrists with a constitution and bylaws17 and by 1923 there were two women optometrist members: clara schell of tucson and donna fleming of bisbee.18 clara was the arizona delegate for the 1922 american optometric association national convention.19 on june 26, 1926, clara was elected president of the arizona association of optometrists in san francisco, california at their annual meeting one day before the american optometric association national convention.20 despite her busy professional schedule, clara was a tucson community leader and activist for women’s rights. she served as the commander of the old pueblo hive, women’s benefit association of the maccabees and helped organize the equal suffrage club of pima county with dr. rosa goodrich boido, josephine brawley hughes, abbie haskin, and ruth may nowell.21 clara gave the first women’s suffrage speech at the old pima theater on west congress street, and was one of the tucson suffrage leaders.22 in 1891 josephine brawley hughes, wife of the arizona daily star newspaper owner, worked with laura johns, a national american women’s suffrage field organizer from kansas to organize an arizona suffrage association. governor alexander brodie vetoed a woman’s suffrage bill passed by the 1903 territorial legislature. when territorial legislators prepared a draft state constitution for president william taft’s approval 1910, they did not include a clause for women’s suffrage because they believed president taft would veto a state constitution allowing women to vote. after arizona became a state on february 14, 1912, arizona equal suffrage association president francis willard munds circulated a suffrage initiative petition for the november ballot state-wide when the state legislature failed to pass a bill for women’s suffrage.23 during 1912, the equal suffrage club of pima county worked with the arizona equal suffrage association to organize mass meetings in tucson and southern arizona to support passage of the suffrage initiative on the november ballot. on march 6, 1912 the equal suffrage club of pima county organized a mass meeting at the clifton theater in clifton with dr. rosa goodrich boido, selim franklin, clara schell, rena matthews, and adele fields as speakers.24 in her speech, clara schell declared: i have been asked to tell why i believe in equal suffrage. i know of no good reason why any fair minded person should not believe in it. any intelligent person, regardless of sex, should have a voice in the making and maintenance of state laws under which he or she must live…you and i, my dear woman, have home, school, and property interests. we have the best interests of the community and our fellow man at heart. hoodlums – the worst type of men are allowed to vote. you, my dear fellow woman, you and i have not. is it right? would you neglect your husband, children, and home for politics? no, not any more than your husband, brother, or hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 142 son would jeopardize his business interest because he is interested in politics and has a voice in the making and maintenance of the laws and affairs. i believe when women have the franchise, qualifications will be necessary for those seeking office other than being just a good fellow. let us prepare ourselves for the proper use of the franchise which will surely be ours soon. let us use it for the best interest of our fellow women, to the betterment of our homes, and to the purification of our politics.25 in november 1912, arizona voters approved the suffrage initiative to give women the right to vote but they were unable to register to vote until the following spring. one of the first women in tucson to do so was clara schell who registered to vote on april 9, 1913.26 in march 1917, the tucson business women’s club was founded to create an organization for tucson’s working women, and clara schell became a charter member of the new organization. during the same year, tucson business women’s club members raised $1,000 and founded the ywca organization in tucson. when the arizona federation of business and professional women’s clubs (arizona bpw) was founded in 1921, the tucson business women’s club was one of six charter clubs of the new organization which was affiliated with the national federation of business and professional women’s clubs. at that time, the club name was changed to the tucson business and professional women’s club (tucson bpw). the goals of arizona bpw and tucson bpw were to promote opportunities for women to advance in the workforce, provide networking for working women, provide scholarships for women, and address legislative issues affecting working women such as equal pay.27 in 1922 clara schell was elected vice president of tucson bpw and succeeded agnes biddle as club president when biddle resigned in june 1922. her interim presidency was so successful that she was quickly elected president in her own right the following year. during clara schell’s presidency from 1922-1924, tucson bpw membership grew to over 170 members. as club president, clara also worked to promote women’s issues. in january 1924, the club organized a public meeting with a national speaker to discuss passage of the equal rights amendment.28 another legislative issue which clara addressed was the arizona minimum wage law for women. as women began working at the beginning of the twentieth century, a series of what became known as protective laws were created to “protect” women workers.29 one such law was the 1917 arizona minimum wage law which established a minimum wage of $10 weekly for women except women agriculture workers and housemaids. in 1917, although tucson bpw did not officially oppose passage of the arizona minimum wage law for women, many club members circulated a petition of opposition to the law.30 when representative rosa mckay introduced a bill in the 1923 state legislature to increase the minimum wage for women from the $12 wage approved by the state legislature in 1919 to $16 per week, clara discussed the issue at a tucson bpw executive board meeting of nine members and they voted to officially oppose passage of the proposed mckay bill and authorized clara to travel to phoenix to lobby state legislators. tucson bpw opposed the mckay bill because members believed it would result in young girls losing their jobs, increase consumer prices, and cause loss of business from arizona hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 143 to other states with lower prices. an arizona star article about the board meeting reported: so long as women are competing with men in the business world, give them an equal chance is the opinion of the (tucson bpw) board. if a minimum wage law is found necessary, let it apply to both men and women then there will be no discrimination shown when it comes to employment of either. 31 clara spent several days in phoenix discussing the issue with state legislators and when she returned to tucson, she reported to tucson bpw members at a club meeting: “i may have done some good but i should have been there a week ago” and stated most of the state senators opposed amending the minimum wage law for women.32 however, state legislators voted unanimously to amend the minimum wage law for women, and governor george hunt signed the mckay bill into law on february 13, 1923.33 a tucson newspaper article about the february 15 tucson bpw meeting stated: (clara) had been censored and commended for her action at the suggestion of the board of the club…but was first, last, and always for the working girl and her interest, but that after a complete study of the bill she felt it would do more harm than good to the working girl. (clara stated) it is the young girl who is just starting out to work that will be most seriously affected for without experience the employer will not want to pay her $16 a week. whereas if she worked for sometime (sic) obtaining experience at ten or twelve dollars she, with the aid of her family, would be able to get along. the bill has been passed and the only action which can now be taken is to get a certain number of names on a petition and to have the bill voted upon by the public in general.34 however, the arizona minimum wage law for women did not end until 1925 when the united states supreme court ruled the arizona minimum wage law for women unconstitutional.35 in 1923 clara organized a three car caravan of 15 women who drove over rugged, unpaved roads to the arizona bpw state convention in prescott, arizona. at the convention, clara promoted tucson as the site for the next state convention and the club members worked together for the election of tucson postmistress allie dickerman brainard as state president.36 during the second year of clara schell’s presidency when allie dickerman brainard was arizona bpw president, they worked together to organize the 3rd state convention in tucson. the convention was held at the tucson bpw clubrooms from april 11-12, 1924 and was attended by over 100 club delegates from throughout arizona. 37 following her presidency, she continued to be an active member of tucson bpw and served as chair of several committees. in 1932 she was part of a tucson bpw delegation to greet first lady lou hoover when president herbert hoover’s train traveled from california through tucson to washington dc.38 in 1936 as tucson bpw public relations chair, clara organized the national business women’s celebration in tucson from march 15-21, which featured a hotel banquet and daily radio broadcasts by club members.39 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 144 in 1905, clara also helped re-organize the arizona humane society which was based in tucson and served as the secretary for the next 17 years. in this capacity, she traveled to clifton, globe, bisbee, and nogales and founded arizona humane society chapters in those cities. clara also organized be kind to animal weeks in arizona, distributed information to newspapers about animal right issues, and prepared annual state reports to the national humane society. in recognition of her work for animal rights, she was awarded a life membership.40 during these busy years of medical and community activities clara and henry adopted two young children: william and helen. after 34 years of marriage, the schells separated in 1925 and divorced by 1929. clara continued working in tucson while henry moved to phoenix in 1939 where he worked until his death in 1946.41 when william schell graduated from los angeles college of optometry in 1929, clara and her son practiced optometry together as schell and schell until 1936 when william opened his own optometry office.42 clara continued to work in a solo optometry practice until her retirement in 1946 at age 76. two years later, the arizona state association of optometrists awarded clara a life membership in recognition of her contributions to arizona optometry.43 a woman who enjoyed life, clara enjoyed traveling with her husband on fishing and hunting trips. in 1917, the schells bought a studebaker and she kept a detailed log of their trips throughout southern arizona in their new car.44 clara and henry also enjoyed traveling in mexico. during 1909 they traveled by train, steamer, and stagecoach to culiacan, mazatlan and other towns.45 henry and clara built a 2-bedroom cabin on mt. lemmon for weekend visits and bought a house in the desert which they named alta vista. she also enjoyed playing bridge and frequently organized card parties for community clubs.46 after she retired, clara lived briefly in chicago, illinois and then returned to tucson where she died at age 83 on april 24, 1955.47 she will be inducted into the arizona women’s hall of fame in spring 2017 in recognition of her achievements as a pioneer optometrist and community leader in arizona.a although clara schell’s professional accomplishments may seem unique, she practiced optometry during an era when women optometrists received professional recognition by their male peers earlier than women physicians or women lawyers. when the american association of opticians (later re-named the american optometric association) was founded in 1898, two women optometrists, mrs. william c.c. ball of connecticut and annie starr of canada were charter members.48 elva cooper was elected second vice president of the american optometric association in 1910, and she presided at the organization’s national convention in 1911.49 by 1912 there were approximately 500 women optometrists, and an issue of the optical journal and review featured articles and letters from 18 women optometrists in minnesota, pennsylvania, kansas, oklahoma, ohio, kentucky, maine, wisconsin, massachusetts, nebraska, colorado, indiana, illinois, louisiana, and new york describing their experiences as optometrists along with their recommendations for women seeking to enter the field of optometry.50 in 1917, mildred winslow was elected fourth vice president of the american optometric association. during 1920 dr. mae booth-jones was the first woman president of an optometry school, washington school of optometry in spokane, washington.51 women and men students attended and graduated together from optometry schools and there were no separate optometry colleges founded for women students. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 145 by contrast, when the american medical association was founded in 1849 there were no women members for 27 years until sarah hacket stevenson of maryland joined the national organization in 1876. the first woman vice president of the american medical association (lillian south of kentucky) served in 1913 but the first woman president of the american medical association (nancy dickey of maryland) did not serve until 1989.52 because women were an under-represented minority in their profession, women physicians formed the american medical women’s association in 1915 for professional support. similarly, because it was difficult for women to enter medical schools during the 1800’s, medical schools were founded for women students such as the woman’s medical college in pennsylvania in 185053 and the new york medical college and hospital for women in 1863.54 early women lawyers encountered similar obstacles. the american bar association was founded in 1878 by 75 male lawyers but the first two women lawyers were not elected to membership until 1918 (mary florence lathrop of denver and mary grossman of cleveland). in 1995, roberta cooper ramo of new mexico was the first woman to serve as president of the american bar association.55 since they were unable to join the american bar association, in 1899 eighteen women lawyers in new york city formed the women’s lawyer club which re-organized in 1923 as the national association of women lawyers.56 the first law college established for women students was the washington college of law in the district of columbia (now known as american university washington college of law) in 1896.57 another successful woman optometrist whose career closely paralleled that of clara schell during the same time period in the west is texas optometrist mollie wood. she obtained an optometry degree in 1898 and became the first woman optometrist in texas, was appointed by governor miriam ferguson to the first texas optometry board, elected president of the texas optometry association in 1923, elected to the national american optometric association board of trustees in 1928, published an optometry journal the texas optometrist, and organized brownwood business and professional women’s club.58 clara schell was a pioneering woman optometrist in the arizona territory who traveled widely throughout southern arizona and mexico to provide optometric care and created a lasting legacy in tucson for women’s rights, and animal rights, and optometry. notes a. the arizona women’s hall of fame “honors posthumously women who played a significant role in the history of arizona.” it is a very competitive nomination process and only four women are admitted into the hall of fame bi-yearly. schell is the first woman optometrist to be admitted to the arizona women’s hall of fame and one of very few women in the hall of fame in the optometric field. references 1. connors j. who’s who in arizona. tucson: arizona daily star, 1913:666. 2. bisbee daily review july 15, 1903. 3. copper era may 17, 1900. 4. american opticians in session. jeweler circ hor rev 1898;37:24-25. 5. arizona republican july 29, 1899. 6. florence tribune november 24, 1900. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 146 7. mcclintock, james. arizona: prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern, the nation’s youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture. chicago: s.j. clarke, 1916:261. 8. arizona business directory 1905, 390. 9. arizona weekly citizen august 29, 1924. 10. http://www.seebetterflorida.com/american-optometric-association-overview 11. arizona republican march 22, 1905. 12. the optom rec 1914;51. 13. arizona board of optometry records, 24.6.7 box 1 file 1, arizona state library and archives, phoenix, arizona. 14. arizona republican january 5, 1918. 15. arizona board of optometry records, 24.6.7 box 1 file 1, arizona state library and archives, phoenix, arizona. 16. arizona republican may 1, 1908. 17. november 17, 2014 e-mail from kirsten hebert, archives and museum of optometry, st. louis, missouri. 18. arizona daily star april 28, 1923. 19. october 1, 2004 interview of aileen schell mccurnin. 20. tucson citizen july 18, 1926. 21. connors, jo. who’s who in arizona. tucson: arizona daily star 1913:612. 22. tucson citizen november 4, 1936. 23. oessaeler h. winning their place: arizona women in politics 1883-1950, tucson: university of arizona press, 2009:11, 21, 40-44. 24. tucson citizen march 6, 1912. 25. clara schell scrapbook, personal collection of aileen schell mccurnin. 26. http://windowonyourpast.com/site/research/arizona-suffrage/1913female.registration-analysis 27. arizona federation of business and professional women: women who made a difference: 1921-2003. tucson: arizona business and professional women’s foundation, 2003:348-349. 28. arizona daily star january 10, 1924. 29. oessaeler h. winning their place: arizona women in politics 1883-1950, tucson: university of arizona press, 2009:105. 30. tucson citizen may 29, 1917. 31. arizona daily star february 4, 1923. 32. arizona daily star february 9, 1923. 33. tucson citizen february 14, 1923. 34. arizona daily star february 16, 1923. 35. oessaeler h. winning their place: arizona women in politics 1883-1950, tucson: university of arizona press, 2009:105. 36. arizona daily star april 24, 1923. 37. arizona daily star april 12, 1924. 38. tucson citizen november 14, 1932. 39. arizona daily star march 15, 1936. 40. mcclintock j. arizona: prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern, the nation’s youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient cultures. chicago: s.j. clarke, 1916:261. http://www.seebetterflorida.com/american-optometric-association-overview http://windowonyourpast.com/site/research/arizona-suffrage/1913-female.registration-analysis http://windowonyourpast.com/site/research/arizona-suffrage/1913-female.registration-analysis hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 lo vecchio: clara schell 2016| page 147 41. arizona republic august 14, 1946. 42. who’s who for arizona. portland: r.o. norman, 1953:249. 43. tucson citizen june 3, 1946. 44. clara schell scrapbook, personal collection of aileen schell mccurnin. 45. arizona daily star april 11, 1909. 46. october 1, 2004 interview of aileen schell mccurnin. 47. tucson citizen april 25, 1955. 48. women in the a.o.a. (a bow to the ladies). opt jour rev optom 1947;84:78,97. 49. march 2, 1973 list of women officers of aoa 1898-1972, american optometric association library, st. louis, missouri. 50. opt j rev optom 1912;30:228-236. 51. powers, mp. the women of optometry. am optom assoc foc 2014;30-34. 52. women physicians and the american medical association, http://www.amaassn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/women-physicians.ama 53. fee e, brown tm. an eventful epoch in the history of your lives. am j pub health 2004;94:367. 54. cazalet s. history of the new york medical college and hospital for women. in: articles on homeopathy, 2001. http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/newyork.htm. 55. http://apps.americanbar.org/members/history-timeline/timelineassets/timeline.html 56. national association of women lawyers history, http://www.nawl.org/p/cm/ld/fid=20 57. clark ml. the founding of the washington college of law: the first law college established by women for women. amer univ law rev 1998;47:613-676. 58. women in the a.o.a. optom weekly 1933;24:27. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/women-physicians.ama http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/women-physicians.ama http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/newyork.htm http://apps.americanbar.org/members/history-timeline/timeline-assets/timeline.html http://apps.americanbar.org/members/history-timeline/timeline-assets/timeline.html http://www.nawl.org/p/cm/ld/fid=20 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bennett: heart disease 2016| page 148 about heart disease: a conversation with morey x. powell irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208 sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com eaders will have to be at least 75 years old to remember when heart disease, and heart attacks, were much more prevalent than they are today. and readers will have be at least that old to recall when the median amount of years that people lived was dramatically fewer than it is today. three-quarters of a century ago, the word "cholesterol" was not in the vocabulary of the average adult; and "breaking" cholesterol down into hdl and ldl, was totally off the radar screen of even many physicians. morey powell has a mind and a memory nearly as sharp as it was during his 70 years practicing optometry. in the late 1940s he was a leader among a relatively few professionals in health care who felt that there were hidden secrets in human blood that directly affected how people lived and how long they lived. dr. powell had his office in middletown, pa and was well respected in that community, not only by his peers but also by his patients and the community at large. wanting to be sure that he would not become a victim of heart disease like his father who died at age 42, dr. powell became addicted to learning more about how some folks get heart disease at an early age and others do not. he read medical literature that came from france and from italy. he became a disciple of dr. john gosman of the university of california in berkeley. he embraced the swedish swenberg index, dealing with arthrosclerosis. he made personal and thorough studies of fatty diets and fatty foods that he suspected might trigger higher cholesterol numbers, essentially in the hdls. in the 1950s, hardly any of the medical practitioners in mid-pennsylvania provided detailed blood analyses services like he needed. so he urged his friends to get blood samples and send them, via airmail, to a california lab for analysis. i say "via airmail" since that was not the mailing method of choice a half century ago. those friends included former aoa presidents mel wolfberg and al levin; pco faculty member harry kaplan; and me. he arranged for all of us to get samples of our blood and he sent those samples to california for examination and analysis. and from the results of our blood analyses he created diets for us to follow. remember, if you will, that this was in the early 1950s before dr. wolfberg, levin, kaplan and i were really active in optometric organizations. there were others. the diets dr. powell created were simple: low on fatty foods, moderate on carbohydrates, regular exercise, and absolutely no smoking. this is commonplace information that physicians give their patients today. but 60 years ago it was revolutionary. to put things into a proper perspective, those were the days long before cell phones were developed and it was commonplace to have party lines (that is, when more than one r mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bennett: heart disease 2016| page 149 family not living together shared one telephone line!) here is a little story about telephoning in those days as morey tells it: people did not dial or press keys to make a telephone call in my early practice days. instead, once you picked up the phone from its cradle, a female voice of an operator said 'number please' and the callers gave the numbers that they wished to call. there were no telephone messaging machines. it is hard to believe but when patients wanted to call my office and i was on vacation, the local telephone operator told callers that i was away and when i would be back. she recorded the names of the callers and gave me a list of those names when i returned! morey powell was athletic and he took chances with his life. he raced cars; he flew his own airplane; he parachuted; he played semi-pro baseball. he vowed that he might die young because of his activities, but he would not die young because he had a heart attack. although dr. wolfberg passed away a couple of years ago well into his 80s the other three of us levin, kaplan and i are still going strong. dr. powell had his 100th birthday earlier this year. although his passion was for general good health, he devoted much of his free time to his optometric involvement to association work. his activities included going through the chairs of the pennsylvania optometric association ending with being poa president. he also served as president of the alumni association of the pennsylvania state college of optometry. (putting the word "state" in the name of dr. powell's alma mater is no mistake; the college had "state" as part of its name until the early 1940s when it made an agreement to drop it to accommodate penn state university that complained about a conflict in the similarity of names. i wonder how many psco grads are still living today.) powell was active civically, too. and he was well known in his community. where else in these united states would you find a telephone operator to keep a record of calls for a vacationing doctor? i shall share a secret why: dr. morey powell was a gem and a conversation with him was and is a delightful experience. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 member list| page 150 ohs membership 2016 individuals jerome abrams, od michael aitken, losc john f. amos, od, ms* arol augsburger, od, phd r. norman bailey, od, ms allan barker, od felix barker, od irving bennett, od* cheryl bergin, od lynn brandes, od* abraham bromberg, od albert bucar, od, dos alan bugg, od gary campbell, od lester caplan, od linda casser, od tony cavallerano, od tony chahine, od richard chong, od john g. classé, od, jd judith a. clay, od barry cole, od melanie crandall, od viktoria l. davis, od thomas eichhorst, jd paul farkas, od ronald ferrucci, od* gregory ferrucci, od barry fisch, od david fleishman, md george e. foster, od matthew garston, od fred goldberg, od david goss, od, phd (editor, hindsight) gary gray, jr., od morton greenspoon, od rahul gupta, od charles haine, od, ms* stanely hallock, od richard hopping, od walter king, od robert kocembo, od ernest loewenstein, od, phd stacey meier, od j.d. miller, jr., od pamela miller, od, jd raymond myers, od robert newcomb, od, mph jackie ngo, od angela nguyen, od amy puerto, od p. duncan roy, jr., od jack runninger, od james sandefur, od clifford a. scott, od, mph bill sharpton, od david snyder, od gregory stephens, od, phd nancy stovall, od charles j. stuckey, jr., od selwyn super, od, phd john townsend, od stephanie uchida, od timothy wingert, od george woo, od, phd* melissa woodard, od karla zadnik, od, phd* institutions alcon laboratories, inc. the archives & museum of optometry harold kohn vision science library, suny illinois college of optometry inter american university of puerto rico marshall b. ketchum university library national library of medicine optometrists association of australia university of houston wellcome library *advisory committee members hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 membership application 2016| page 151 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 nomination form 2016| page 152 advisory committee nomination form we have two seats that will come vacant in january 2017. all nomination forms must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on sunday, november 20, 2016. you may submit your form online at http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/. if you have any questions or your contact information changes, please contact erica hayes, administrative assistant, at amo@aoa.org. advisory committee nomination process 1. short biography for each nominee; 2. a written confirmation that the nominee(s) is aware of the nomination (unless selfnominated) please attach a single document or file containing both the (1) biographical paragraph noting your expertise in the subject matter and (2) written confirmation of consent from the nominee (if not self-nominating). you may fax to erica hayes at (314) 991-4101: name (person nominating): email: phone: date: nominee name: nominee email: nominee phone: nominee address: nominee city, state zip: http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/ mailto:amo@aoa.org hindsight_47_4_cover_v1 coverdraft_final hindsight_47_4_frontmatter_v1 hindsight_47_4_toc_v1 47_4_news_v1 47_4_hindsight_editorial_v1 47_4_bailey_ethicsp4_v2 47_4_goss_histperiod_v2 47_4_lovecchio_schell_v2 47_4_bennet_powell_v2 47_4_goss_histperiod_v2 hindsight47-4_memberlist_final 20160615_membershipapplication 20161025_ocohs_nominationform 106 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 recollections of the aosa in 1985-86 beth kneib, od director, clinical resources group american optometric association bakneib@aoa.org a time of change 1985 in 1985, the world was changing. the food and drug administration had just approved the first blood test for aids, microsoft released windows 1.0 and the average price of a new home was $89,000, but more importantly for students, the average rent was $375 per month. and for sports fans, in 1985, michael jordan was named, “rookie of the year!” the american optometric student association (aosa) was about to change too, and elect their first all-female executive board. by 1985, women made up a good percentage of the optometry classrooms and our numbers were growing, but few women held leadership positions in any profession. the american medical association was seeing that same growth, with female admittance to medical school up over 500%. in 1997, the american medical association elected its first female president. the american optometric association (aoa) elected its first female president in 2011, dori carlson. although things were changing in 1985, looking back now, the speed of change was slow. in january 1985, the aosa was about four thousand members strong and held its convention in st. louis, missouri. ten inches of snow and bitter cold didn’t stop the swell of enthusiasm. the aosa had just elected an all-female executive team with michelle staarman from the ohio state university (tosu), jari frazier from northeastern state university (nsu), linda ching from state university of new york (suny), and myself as president, from the southern california college of optometry (scco, now marshall b. ketchum university). it was a year of firsts for most of our schools and definitely for us as students. we celebrated the victory and final night of the convention at the st. louis arch. the aosa rented the lobby/museum area on the first floor for a reception and small groups of students took turns, riding the elevators to the spectacular view at the top. although it was very cold, larger groups of students ventured outside from where we could hear school chants and laughter. as the evening came to an end, i rode with one of the last groups to the top of the arch. i finally saw what the groups had been doing outside, as there in the snow, each school had stamped out their college and university letters, each trying to make theirs bigger than the first no matter how cold their feet got. their school spirit, aosa pride article beth kneib, od beth kneib became the first female aosa president in 1986 and at the same time she also had the first all-female executive council. they are from left to right michelle staarmann (tosu), beth kneib (scco), linda ching (suny), and jari frazier of nsu (photo courtesy of aosa). carol freihaut was a dedicated aosa executive director for many years (photo courtesy of aosa). hindsight: journal of optometry history 107 article beth kneib, od and collegiate enthusiasm was clearly spelled out! not quite so fast at that time, the pace of change was not as fast as it is today. there were no cell phones, no email, no texting, and communication was by telephone or postal mail. i clearly remember several times a week, standing along a wall of pay phones, so the aosa executive director, carol freihaut, and i could discuss aosa business. i would balance my notes on the cubicle shelf outside of the scco bookstore and both of us would routinely pause for the student traffic noise to subside. the aosa landline calls between the two of us became our routine. a time of professional growth and responsibility in 1985, optometrists were still fighting for better care and access for their patients. the first diagnostic pharmaceutical law was passed in 1971 by rhode island, and many states had followed. therapeutic prescribing privileges, first passed in 1976 by west virginia, were coming along as well, but it would not be until 1998 that all states would have some level of prescribing rights. the aoa advocacy state and federal committees were assisting optometrists in their fight to change the legislated scope of practice one state at a time, and each was celebrated. students were aware as each state passed laws, watchful to see if their state would have the prescribing privileges to practice the knowledge learned in school. as progressive as things were, our new all-female executive team was a bit worried about how the aoa board of trustees and other doctors might recognize us, or more worrisome, not recognize us. our fears were unfounded and quickly put to rest. aosa broke the glass ceiling and females had taken leadership roles. the aoa board welcomed us as young colleagues, just as they had the aosa boards before us. the aoa president, gerald easton, was gracious, kind, and respectful to each of us. the aoa board went out of their way to ask our opinions of the future directions of the profession and asked what we might do together to advance optometry. we were all one team, ready to roll up our sleeves to promote the best eye care possible for patients and wishful to advance the profession forward. to solidify it all, in 1986 the optometric oath, written by richard hopping, president of scco, was adopted by the aoa and the association of schools and colleges of optometry (asco), emphasizing that doctors of optometry will always do what is right for every patient. it is still the cornerstone of our optometric ethics today. a time of gratitude our optometry school leaders supported the aosa and each of us with the same enthusiasm as the aoa board. established doctors like richard hopping, morris berman, and lorraine voorhees, from scco, generously gave of their time to listen and coach us along the way. edward johnston and norman haffner, from suny, encouraged us to speak up and be heard. frederick hebbard, dean at tosu, and chester pheiffer from nsu, reminded us to keep looking forward to what we might offer our patients and future graduates as technology changed. they were there to mentor us, to encourage us, and they treated us with dignity and respect. the four women elected to aosa leadership roles in 1985 will always be grateful. our strongest advocate, who befriended us all and worked diligently on our behalf, was carol freihaut, aosa executive director. she always treated us as equals, although we know we could not have survived without her guidance. when the aosa challenged the national board of examiners in optometry, or prepared for presentations to the aoa house of delegates or asco, her guidance was ever present. she arranged each aosa meeting, with or without the help of the hosting committee. she embraced and sometimes tolerated our “extra school spirit,” and made sure each of us felt confident that we were contributing to the work, the association, and the profession. she continues to give and stays in touch with the current aosa executive director. ms. freihaut will always have our deepest gratitude, admiration and friendship. where are they now? michelle staarman graduated from ohio state university in 1986, completed a residency in children’s vision care and practices with her husband in fairfield, ohio. jari frazier graduated from the northeastern state university college of optometry in 1986 and gives back to future generations of optometrists as an assistant professor at nsu. linda ching graduated from the state university, new york in 1986 and is a hospital and health care professional and life coach in sacramento, california. beth kneib graduated from the southern california college of optometry in 1986, completed a va residency in hospital based care, and serves as the director of clinical resources group for the american optometric association. carol freihaut is retired, living a wonderful life with her family in the st. louis area, and stays in touch with most of our past leaders. hindsight_48_4_final 24 hindsight_48_4_final 25 88 volume 48, number 4, october 2017 guest editorial andy mackner, ba happy 50th anniversary aosa andy mackner, ba president, aosa fourth year student at pacific university college of optometry amackner@theaosa.org i would first like to express my gratitude for the leadership and participation of those before me. as the american optometric student association (aosa) begins its 50th year, it is important to recognize the dedication and leadership that empowered this organization to be in the thriving state that it is today. it is thanks to our members, sustaining members, past leadership and our many industry partners that we are able to provide opportunities to our students that will aid in their success upon graduation and will foster active membership within the american optometric association (aoa) and their state affiliate. i am humbled to have the opportunity to serve as the 50th president of the aosa and am eager to continue the strong tradition of student leadership in our profession. as the son of an optometrist, many ask if i chose this career path because of my dad. initially, i was hesitant to give him any credit but looking back i can see how many of those childhood experiences were pivotal in my decision to pursue optometry. my father graduated from pacific university college of optometry in 1991, he owns five practices in rural minnesota and is a past-president of the minnesota optometric association. i have many fond memories of my dad’s involvement in our state affiliate. they include traveling to minneapolis for the annual meeting and our family vacation to washington d.c. for optometry’s meeting in 2009. little did i know, these experiences were exposing me to a vital part of our profession. that is, optometry is legislated and it is thanks to the sacrifices, dedication and devotion of the generations before us that we are privileged to provide the level of care that we do. ultimately, these experiences not only shaped my decision to become an optometrist but also my motivation to share with my classmates the importance and value of being engaged members in their association. it is an exciting time to be an optometry student. being aosa members gives us tangible experiences to know that we are in the process of shaping our future. the aosa continues to offer unique experiences and opportunities that will undoubtedly aid in a student’s professional development. this year, the aosa board of trustees has been working on initiatives to ensure that we are fulfilling our mission and continue to meet the needs of our student members. these initiatives include bolstering membership benefits, continued work on our strategic plan, connecting students with their state affiliates and the development of the aosa student of the year. at our june meeting, the aosa board voted and approved the development of an aosa student of the year award to recognize the contribution that a student can make to the profession. our current initiatives continue to follow the objectives that were set forth when this organization was first established. we strive to be a resource for optometry students, informing them about all issues regarding their chosen profession, instill in optometry andy mackner, president, aosa (photo courtesy of the aosa) hindsight: journal of optometry history 89 guest editorial andy mackner, ba students a spirit of professionalism and engage and motivate them to be advocates for patients and the profession. it was 1968 when raymond myers founded the american optometric student association, giving a voice to students across the country. the organization now represents more than 7,100 students at 24 schools across the united states, canada and puerto rico. at that time, optometrists couldn’t dilate the pupil of the eye and were not allowed to use therapeutic pharmaceutical agents. we are entering the profession at a much different time and we would be mistaken if we took the rights we have now for granted. as we look to the next 50 years, we must think about the future that we are going to create. where are we going to take this profession? optometry will continue to face opposition that threatens the health of the patient and the quality of care that we provide. however, we are strongest when we are united, and through our steadfast involvement in the aoa, aosa and state affiliates we can ensure a bright and vibrant future for the profession of optometry. from the archives: early optometry education establishing educational standards for optometry students was critical to distinguishing professional optometrists from tradesmen and merchants. when the first law regulating optometry was passed in 1901, dozens of private optometry schools provided training to prospective optometrists. the new york institute of optometry (1907-1909) provided a rigorous two-year training program in optics, anatomy and physiology and clinical methods. this curriculum likely provided the groundwork for the first university-based school of optometry, which was founded at columbia university in 1910. nyio faculty seated in the first row in the photograph above went on to teach at columbia, and were founding members of the american optometric association. for more on the history of optometric education, check out back-issues of hindsight! new york institute of optometry, circa 1909. collodion print on paper. donated by dr. e. leroy ryer 1969, new york. original image held at the archives & museum of optometry, st. louis, mo. first row, left to right: a.l. merin, e.e. hotaling, e.l. ryer, a.j. cross, s.h. brooks, f.a. woll. hindsight_48_4_final 6 hindsight_48_4_final 7 hindsight: journal of optometry history 3 a new version of “seven, four, and out the door”? i attended pacific university college of optometry in the early 1970s. for a part of the standard examination procedure we were taught the optometric extension program 21 point sequence. tests were numbered from 1 to 21. for example, number 1 was ophthalmoscopy, 2 was keratometry, 4 was static retinoscopy, 5 and 6 were dynamic retinoscopy, and 7 was subjective refraction. numbers 8 through 12 were dissociated phorias and fusional vergence ranges at distance. numbers 13 through 21 involved nearpoint testing – dissociated phorias, fusional vergence ranges, cross cylinder tests, and relative accommodation. we were taught that a complete examination should include the 21 points, plus entrance tests such as visual acuity, cover test, eye movement tests, etc., and ocular health tests, such as intraocular pressure and others as indicated. while the intervening years have seen significant expansion in optometric knowledge and scope of practice, advances in technology, changes in analytical philosophies, the dropping of such a test numbering system, and many other changes, one’s view of what constitutes a complete examination might not differ too greatly from what was taught four decades ago. in other words, adequate care then and now should involve careful assessment of the entire visual system, including refractive status, accommodation, binocular vision, visual perception, ocular health, and ocular indicators of systemic health. a slogan that i recall hearing during school years to represent inadequate patient care was “seven, four, and out the door,” indicating an examination consisting of only retinoscopy and subjective refraction, substandard care then and now. some of the procedures on smart phones or similar technologies being touted now as an “examination” appear to be only attempting an evaluation of refractive status. are these new versions of “seven, four, and out the door”? what lessons can we learn from our history to assure that adequate care of patients is achieved? it seems to me that knowledge of optometry history will always be a valuable aid to the challenges and changes the profession faces. david a. goss, od, phd editor dgoss@indiana.edu david a. goss, od, phd letter to the editor when i opened my new hindsight, i could not believe how “refreshing” the new look is terrific job! then i turned the first page and what did i see? my ‘mug’ and the announcement of my ‘retirement’ from the board which was very complimentary, by the way. thank you. since i lost my collection of past hindsights in a house fire on september 15th, i can begin my new collection with this historic issue. i shall miss serving and am hopeful that someone younger will take my place, encouraging younger ods to take a greater interest in optometry’s past. i do feel that the infusion of younger ods into our society will cause us to grow to a level that will enhance the profession and further preserve our proud history. sincerely, bill sharpton, od sharpton@windstream.net from the editor david a goss, od, phd hindsight journal of optometry history april, 2007 volume 38, number 2 fndlana univeasit'{ jun 11 2007 optometry library" official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society for 2007: president: · melvin wolfberg, 3095 buckinghammock trl., vero beach fl 32960-4968, ilovesylvan@bellsouth.net vice-president: jerome j. abrams secretary-treasurer: bridget kowalczyk, international library, archives, and museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: walterw. chase jay m. enoch chuck haine douglas k; penisten the official publication of the optometric historical society was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history july, 2007 volume 38, number 2 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020; jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 7 4464; penisten@nsuok.edu table of contents instructions to authors ................................................................................... 30 editorial: perspectives on the importance of history, david a. goss ........................ 31 astigmatism, its measurement, and fundamental optical properties, jay m. enoch .... 33 clinical optometry textbooks, ted grosvenor .................................................... .40 landmarks in the history of optometry, david a goss ......................................... .47 book review: berish, david a. goss ................................................................. 55 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for a regular personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the postal address or email address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 29 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society ( ohs ), d as such supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes articles, reports, ~~ok review;, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor. david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. material may also be submitted by paper copy through the postal service. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as ll for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed at the end of the article. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indian cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 30 editorial: perspectives on the importance of history oavid a. goss, 0.0., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu not everyone recognizes the importance of history. those of us who see history as significant for the present and the future often find ourselves defending and advocating attention to history. in an article in the previous issue of hindsight: journal of optometry history, 1 i listed reasons, paraphrased as follows, for the importance of the history of optometry: ( 1) learning from the past helps guide better decision making in the present and more effective planning for the future. (2) learning the history of a profession informs one about its perennial problems, about the cultural atmosphere that shaped it, and about the nature of professional life. (3) appreciation of optometry's unique heritage can enhance the pride of students and practitioners in their profession. (4} wider communication of optometry's contributions to society will engender respect for the profession. (5) the study and transmission of optometry history can confer honor and respect upon persons who have contributed to the profession and to human welfare, and it can promote correct attribution for such contributions. (6) history well­ told is fun and interesting. hopefully such arguments can be taken as rational and compelling by those whom we are trying to convince of the importance of optometry history. but for many of us, there is also that intangible conviction or "gut feeling" that our professional history is a part of who we are, that an appreciation of our history is important for the present, and that our history should be preserved for, and transmitted to, the future. the optometry of the past is a part of what we are now and it will be a part of the optometrists of the future. similar sentiments are shared by persons in other fields and other pursuits. persons studying their genealogy and family history, for instance, can see the personalities, struggles, and concerns of their ancestors in themselves. they may not be able to explain verbally why they are driven to find information about their great great grandparents, but they feel the connection when they learn about them. i was struck by another illustration of this feeling for the significance of history when i read an article in the television section of our local newspaper.2 it was an article about an upcoming pbs special featuring the 55-year-old po~ular singer sting. he devoted more than a year to the study of the music of the 16 century british musician john dowland. he subsequently recorded a cd of dowland's songs accompanied by a lute. in the article he explained his attraction to the music and why he pursued the project. one quotation, in particular, caught my eye: "i have plenty of curiosity, and not necessarily [only] in the past. i'm also interested in the music of the future, and trying to create some of that. but it's part of a continuum. you're not separate from what was written 500 years ago. if you hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 31 investigate the bedrock of john dowland or the beatles or even me, it's english folk music underneath all of us. that connects us all." one can easily change a few words and names to apply those sentiments to optometry. i have arbitrarily chosen a couple names, one from the 1 ih century and one from the 20th century, but there are other names that would work as well: "i have plenty of curiosity, and not necessarily only in the past. i'm also interested in the optometry of the future, and trying to create some of that. but it's part of a continuum. you're not separate from what was done 500 years ago. if you investigate the bedrock of daza de valdes or henry hofstetter or even me, it's optometry underneath all of us. that connects us all." references 1. goss da. the status of the study of optometry history. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:3-7. 2. crook j. sting explores songs by a 16th-century master of melancholy. in: television. the herald-times, bloomington, indiana, february 24, 2007:20. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 32 astigmatism, its measurement, and fundamental optical properties jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry (mc2020), university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu in this issue of hindsight, the writer has "bundled" two earlier publications with which he has been associated. these articles address issues related to the history of, and some very interesting optical properties relating to, astigmatism and its correction, and the underlying optical nature of the familiar "conoid of sturm." the first article 1 addresses a very interesting brief passage taken from john frederick william herschel on testing for astigmatism dated 1845. in turn, that citation was apparently taken from a communication "from slough, december 12, 1827". herschel described fundamental distortions associated with astigmatism and certain features of the conoid of sturm. separately, we know that thomas young first appreciated the presence of astigmatism at the very outset of the 19th century. he also made a serious attempt to characterize experimentally his own astigmatic disorder. in so doing, he created a very contact device, or contact lens. because he had rather high lenticular astigmatism, he assumed that astigmatism, per se, was largely lens based. as noted earlier in one of these columns, the writer had the special pleasure of having been invited (by the late walter stanley stiles, frs), to attend, in formal attire, a lecture at the royal institution in london, presented by a distinguished descendent of thomas young, professor f.z. young. professor young, at that lecture, using young's original equipment, stored at the royal institution, demonstrated this experiment to the audience, along with color mixture, and other important studies. the second paperl addresses a curious finding (readily replicatedplease try it!) associated with the conoid of sturm. we came to this realization some years ago while testing a patient at the aravind eye (charity) hospital in madurai, tamil nadu state, india. optics has made quite a number of rapid advances in recent decades; one of those advances relates to the "modulation and phase transfers" of an optical system. the concept of "spatial filtering" is associated with this form of analysis. the lowest spatial frequencies carry the bulk of the luminance or the apparent brightness of a figure of stimulus, and higher spatial frequencies carry much of the information defining the boundaries or edges of objects viewed. in essence, the "conoid of sturm" proves to be a characteristic form of high spatial frequency spurious resolution associated with astigmatism. by using a spatial filter effectively removing the higher spatial frequencies (here the spatial filter is created by a fine ground glass), the "conoid" flattens and disappears and a rather blurred residual distribution, passed through by the spatial filter, is perceived by the observer. while considering this particular topic, it is useful to note that the so-called "circle of least confusion" in the conoid need not be a circle! actually, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 33 it takes the shape of the aperture of the optical system, be it circle, square, "d" shaped, etc. references 1. enoch jm, heitz r, lakshminarayanan v. john frederick william herschel on testing for astigmatism in 1845. ophthal physiol opt 1988;8:349-350. 2. enoch jm, lakshminarayanan v, kono m (married last name menz), shih p, strada e (married last name russo). refractive astigmatism acts predominantly as a source of high spatial frequency image distortion: the associated lineal distortions can be overcome by using a low pass spatial filter! lnternat ophthalmol1999;22:181-182. note: in the original article strada was spelled strata incorrectly. john frederick william herschel on testing for astigmatism in 1845 jay m. enoch school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720, usa robert f. heitz medecin ophthalmologiste, medecin chef au centre hospitalier, f67504 haguenau, france vasudevan lakshminarayanan school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720, usa (reproduced with permission from ophthalmic and physiological optics 1988;8:349350) characteristic refractive anomalies of the eye, described by the term astigmatism, are caused by certain non-sphericities of the cornea and crystalline lens. most people exhibit some degree of this anomaly. this anomaly results in the formation of a complex three-dimensional image (of a point) generally described by the conoid of sturm. the common result is blurring of imagery and poorer resolution for objects in meridians not parallel to one of the eye's principal meridians. thus individuals exhibiting this anomaly will selectively mis-read letters with certain oriented features, often over more than one line, on visual acuity charts with which all of us are familiar. this selective blurring and resolution can be detected in an accurate manner, and such determinations are used to define that amount and axis of the astigmatic refractive error of the observer. one group of tests used for such determinations employs a form of protractor to detect the alignment of the blackest, sharpest, and most distinct direction of spurious resolution. these tests have been known as the fan dial, the clock dial, the 't' test, the multiple lines cross, etc. cohen, jackson, lancaster, robinson, and taylor are among those who have been associated with such techniques which developed late in the nineteenth century and early in this century. (for a description of various tests, see borish 1970). hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 34 the same principle can be applied using geometric figures with multi-directional components, i.e., a circle, an arc, a pair of parabolas. a pair of hyperbolas or parabolas can describe virtually all directions and one can define that portion of such figures which appears blackest, sharpest, and most distinct. such forms have been developed more recently by raubitschek (1929, 1952), and legrand (1952). legrand's test was used jess for astigmatism assessment, per se, than for defining details of the mechanism of ocular accommodation and the demonstration of transient effects that occur during accommodation and the astigmatic nature of some of these transients. the raubitschek test, though not broadly used today, is rather elegant. it was marketed by the then american optical corporation as the paraboline test. such figures require 180 degrees of arc direction to meet the requirements of the test. the modern literature on astigmatism has missed the fact that this principle was clearly stated by john frederick william herschel (1792-1872) in his 'discourse on light' in the encyclopedia metropolitana 4, 398 (1845). although this volume is dated 1845, the last page of the test of herschel's article is dated 'slough, december 12, 1827', and the article was published separately in 1828. the full text of section 359 is given in dickinson and hall (1946). we quote the following passage (from section 359, malconformations of the cornea): "malconformations of the cornea are much more common than is generally supposed, and few eyes are, in fact, free of them. they may be detected by closing one eye, and directing the other to a very narrow, well-defined luminous object, not too bright (the horns of the moon, when a slender crescent, only 2 or 3 days old, are very proper for this purpose) and turning the head about in various directions. the line will be doubled, tripled, or multiplied, or variously distorted; and careful observation of its appearance will lead to knowledge of the peculiar conformation of the refracting surfaces of the eye which causes them, and may suggest their proper remedy. a remarkable and instructive instance of the kind has recently been adduced by mr. g.b. airy (transactions of the cambridge philosophical society) in the case of one of his own eyes, which, from a certain defect in the figure of his lenses, he ascertained to refract the rays in the vertical to a nearer focus in a vertical than in a horizontal plane, so as the render the eye utterly useless." herschel then offers some suggestions as to how this anomaly might be corrected. these suggestions, interesting in and of themselves, bear on the early history of contact devices and contact lenses. we will separately discuss these points elsewhere. airy (1801-1892), in his paper read before the cambridge philosophical society in 1825 (and published in 1827) described his use of a crossline figure to detect and measure the astigmatism of his own left eye. also, in 1826, j.l. hawkins suggested the use of printed music staves as a suitable test object in the detection of astigmatism by means of an optometer. clearly herschel properly understood and applied a sensitive test for astigmatism and the determination of the axis for astigmatism. such tests are still in use today. it is hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 35 proper to credit this distinguished scientist with the full appreciation of airy's pioneering investigations. acknowledgement this work was supported in part by nei grant ey0367 4 to jay m. enoch. references borish, i.m. (1970) clinical refraction, 3rd edn. professional press, pp. 715-733. dickinson, f. and hall, c. (1946) an introduction to the prescribing and fitting of contact lenses, hammond, london, pp. 15-16. hawkins, j.l. (1826) repertory of patent inventions, vol. 3, pp. 347-353, 385-392. legrand, y. (1952) optique physiologique, la dioptrique de l'oeil et sa correction. tome premier, paris, p. 146. raubitschek, e. (1929) die jetzige ausgestaltung der pfeilschattenprobe. studien uber den richtwinkel bei zylinderskiaskope und pfeilschattenprobe. klin. mbl. augenheil. 83, 221-242. raubitscheck, e. (1952) the raubitschek arrow test for astigmatism. am. j. ophthalmol. 36, 1334-1339. refractive astigmatism acts predominantly as a source of high spatial frequency image distortion: the associated lineal distortions can be overcome by using a low pass spatial filter! jay m. enoch, 1 vasudevan lakshminarayanan,2 momoyo kono, 1•3 paul shih1 & elisabetta strada 1.4 1 school of optometry (m. c. 2020), university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, usa; 2 school of optometry, university of missouri at st. louis, 8001 natural bridge road, st. louis, mo 63121-4499, usa; 3 department of ophthalmology, shiga university of medical science, seta, ohtsu, shiga 520-219, japan; 4 department of psychology, university of bologna, 48100 bologna, italy (reproduced with permission from international ophthalmology 1999;22:181-182. key words: astigmatism, "conoid of sturm", degraded retinal imagery, modulation transfer function (mtf), vernier acuity, visual acuity hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 36 abstract: purpose: surprisingly, an important characteristic of astigmatism has been overlooked by ophthalmic and clinical scientists. apparently, refractive astigmatism is due largely to a form of high spatial frequency image distortion. methods: characteristic astigmatic image distortion can be minimized or eliminated by using a low-pass spatial filter (here, a ground glass plate was employed for this purpose). the ground glass is placed a short distance in front of a visual acuity chart, or it may be used with other tests, such as vernier acuity. results: this test has been performed by us on large numbers of patients and test subjects. a clinician can try this test for himself/herself. place a +2.00 d.c. (any axis) lens in front of the eye; the usual distortions will be observed. locate the ground glass plate asdescribed. the usual distortions associated with the conoid of sturm will not be visible or will be virtually eliminated, although some image blur will remain. conclusions: this technique has significance, e.g., in visual screening programs in developing nations, or in assessing patients with media disorders prior to ophthalmic surgery. a ground glass reduces image contrast at all spatial frequencies. however, the effect is much greater at high spatial frequencies, e.g., [1-4]. thus, a ground glass largely acts as a low-frequency-pass spatial filter (here, we ignore light scatter effects). previously, it was found that a ground glass resulted in the elimination of multiple images (polyopia) in patients with posterior sub-capsular cataracts [5-7], although the image viewed was somewhat degraded by the ground glass. the ground glass could also be used to simulate effects of nuclear cataract. as part of these studies, when viewing an object through a ground glass, an interesting effect was found in patients with uncorrected astigmatism. we are all familiar with characteristic lineal distorted imagery encountered in uncorrected astigmatism. this effect was long ago characterized by sturm (e.g., the conoid of sturm). we found that the lineal distortions of astigmatic images can be removed or minimized to a large extent by placing a ground glass between the object viewed (usually by locating the ground glass reasonably close to the object viewed) and the observer. for example, if one places a +2.00 or +3.00 d.c. cylindrical lens (any axis) in front of one's own eye and views an acuity chart (or a video display terminal [vdt]) through the lens, one sees the typical astigmatic distortions of the letters or objects viewed. if, then, one asks an assistant to hold (or mounts) a ground glass a bit in front of this chart (i.e., a discrete distance), the blur circles round up, and the distortion effects associated with astigmatism affecting the individual letters are eliminated. a self­ luminous chart or vdt provides a superior effect in this application, because veiling glare is reduced. similarly, using the same cylindrical lens in a trial frame, the effect can be readily experienced for oneself by viewing a small flashlight beam and a placing a ground glass hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 37 some mm in front of it. the luminous area of the flashlight can be viewed with and without the ground glass in place. try using differing ground glass separations, and locate different power cylinders and axes before the eye. a number of individuals have addressed various aspects of this problem [8-13]. legge et al. [14] have shown that tasks requiring only low spatial frequencies will be more tolerant to defocus than tasks requiring higher spatial frequencies. more recently, thorn and schwartz [15] discussed the effects of defocus on letter and sine wave gratings and concluded that 'letters are recognizable only if the spatial components used for recognition are free of spurious resolution or phase reversals' (also see ref. 1 0). lakshminarayanan and lang [16], using concurrent measurements of defocused modulation transfer function (mtf) and subjective letter recognition, confirmed that just recognizable letters are free of spurious resolution with approximate values of about 2.1 cycles/letter, and that spatial frequencies required for letter recognition fall below the first spurious zero in the defocused mtf and thus are free of spurious resolution. distortions caused by refractive astigmatism can be readily overcome by use of low-pass spatial filtering (provided by a ground glass or other predominantly low-pass spatial filter). the simple approach described here has been used successfully in visual studies of vernier acuity (or vernier alignment) and visual acuity conducted in india. there, one encounters settings, e.g., some eye camps, where reliable refractions were not always available or possible, particularly in patients with advanced cataracts or corneal disorders [5-7]. and in a number of developing nations, trial sets without cylinders may be encountered. the technique described is applicable for use with a variety of ophthalmic tests. in general, this technique is useful in a number of screening situations and is not limited to developing world settings, e.g., it can be useful in testing certain patients who exhibit irregular astigmatism. it can be employed to evaluate potential retinal function pre-surgery or pre-treatment. references 1. baraldi p, enoch jm, raphael s. vision through nuclear and posterior subcapsular cataract. lnt ophthalmol 1986; 9: 173-178. 2. baraldi p, enoch jm. hyperacuity: successful evaluation of visual function through ocular opacities. fiorentini a, guyton dl, siegel im, eds. advances in diagnostic visual optics. new york: springer-verlag, 1987: 82-87. 3. baraldi p, enoch jm, raphael s. a comparison of visual impairment caused by nuclear (nc) and posterior subcapsular (psc) cataracts. doc ophthalmol proc series 1987; 49:43-50. 4. williams ra, enoch jm, essock e. the resistance of selected hyperacuity configurations to retinal image degradations. invest ophthalmol vis sci 1984; 25(4): 389-399. 5. enoch jm, giraldez fernandez mj, knowles r, huang d, hunter a, labree l, azen sp. hyperacuity test to evaluate vision through dense cataracts: research preliminary to a clinical study: i. studies conducted at the university of california at berkeley prior to hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 38 travel to india. optom vis sci 1995; 72(9):619-629. 6. enoch jm, knowles r. hyperacuity test to evaluate vision through dense cataracts: research preliminary to a clinical study: ii. initial trials of the india instrument and hasp protocol at aravind eye hospital, madurai, india. optom vis sci 1995; 72(9): 630-642. 7. enoch jm, giraldez fernandez mj, huang d, hirose h, knowles r, namperumalsamy p, labree, l, azen, sp. hyperacuity test to evaluate vision through dense cataracts: research preliminary to a clinical study in india. optical engineering 1995; 34(3): 765-771. 8. smith g. ocular defocus, spurious resolution and contrast reversal. ophthalmic physiol opt 1982; 2: 5-23. 9. fincham ef. monocular diplopia. br j ophthalmol1963; 47:705-712. 10. parish dh, sperling g. object spatial frequencies, retinal spatial frequencies, noise, and the efficiency of letter discrimination. vision res 1991; 31: 1339-1415. 11. sour l, apkarian p. segmented refraction of the crystalline lens as a prerequisite for the occurrence of monocular polyopia, increased depth of focus, and contrast sensitivity notches. j opt soc am, part a 1994; 11: 2769-2776. 12. johnson ca, casson ej. effects of luminance, contrast, and blur on visual acuity. optom vision sci 1995; 72(12): 864-869. 13. oshika t, tomidokoro a, maruo k, tokunaga t, miyata n. quantitative evaluation of irregular astigmatism by fourier series harmonic analysis and videokeratography data. invest ophthalmol vis sci 1998; 39(5): 705-709. 14. legge ge, mullen kt, woo gc, campbell fw. tolerance to visual defocus. j opt soc am, part a, 1989; 4: 851-663. 15. thorn f, schwartz f. effects of dioptric blur on snellen and grating acuity, optom vis sci 1990; 76: 3-7. 16. lakshminarayanan v, lang a. the relationship between defocused mtf and spatial frequencies needed for letter recognition, vision science and its applications, optical society of america technical digest, 1995; 1: 159-162. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 39 clinical optometry textbooks ted grosvenor, 0.0., ph.d. adjunct professor, college of optometry, pacific university, forest grove, oregon 97116, grovnr@comcast.net when i was an optometry student at the ohio state university during the 1940s, very few textbooks on clinical optometry were available. although we had textbooks on optics, ocular anatomy, and ocular physiology, our main source of information for the courses in vision science and clinical optometry taught by prof. glenn fry was fry's comprehensive mimeographed notes. by the time my classmates and i graduated, in 1946, we possessed about a dozen thick notebooks full of these valuable notes. after graduation, i started an optometric practice --'from scratch'-in franklin, a small town in southwestern ohio between dayton and cincinnati. during my first several years in practice, i became increasingly aware of the 'unsettled' condition of optometry: those optometrists who had graduated from the university schools (ohio state and berkeley) learned to use the 'graphical' method of analysis of binocular vision findings; whereas those who had graduated from the private schools (ico in chicago, sco in memphis, and scco in los angeles) learned to use the oep, or 'analytical' method of analysis, which placed much more emphasis on vision therapy than did the graphical method. fortunately, some of us who were in practice during that period had a background in both methods of analysis. although having graduated from ohio state, once i was in practice i routinely attended the "zone meetings" in dayton, ohio, in which the main topic of conversation was the oep method of analysis. [for those who are not familiar with the oep method -also called the '21-point' method, the endpoint for the binocular subjective is "'twenty-twenty without a blur," whereas the binocular subjective endpoint for the graphical method is "maximum plus for best visual acuity."] although i participated in many discussions concerning which method was better, it usually occurred that when each method was performed correctly, there was little or no difference in the 'end-point' for the two methods. but, for binocular vision problems, the oep method was likely to involve vision therapy for cases in which the graphical method would involve the prescription of bl or bo prisms or, for nearpoint esophoria, added plus power at near. there seemed to be two reasons for my decision to go back to ohio state to obtain a ph.d. and eventually become an optometric educator and researcher: a desire to learn more about binocular vision and other aspects of optometry, and (although i wouldn't admit this at that time) a desire to-eventually-sum up the existing knowledge of optometry in a textbook or two. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 40 upon receiving the ph.d. degree in 1956, i obtained a position at the university of houston college of optometry, where dr. charles stewart, also an ohio state graduate, was the founding dean. during the 1950s and 1960s, houston was one of the few optometry schools where both the oep and the graphical methods of analysis were taught. the form on which students recorded their examination findings had two columns: one for the oep 21-point method, and one for the graphical method. depending on which clinical instructor happened to be on duty, students were expected to complete -and record -the tests in either the oep or the graphical column. when i was on duty in the clinic, some students would complete -and record -the tests in both the oep and the graphical columns. as expected, there was usually very little difference in the results obtained by the two methods; except for the fact that the oep method was more likely to result in vision therapy than the graphical method. during the decade of the 1950s, the need for textbooks in what we now call 'primary care optometry' was met by dr. irvin berish's clinical refraction, published by the professional press in chicago. although there was no textbook devoted specifically to the oep method of analysis, for many years the optometric extension program published the 'oep papers' which served the purpose of a textbook. contact lens theory and practice with the rapid development of corneal contact lens technology, it became obvious that the greatest need for textbooks was in the contact lens area. initially, the contact lens teaching at houston was done, on a part-time basis, by dr. bernard mazow, a houston practitioner whose practice was limited to contact lens work. but with the introduction of the corneal contact lens, it was obvious that the contact lens area required more than one instructor: this effort was led by dean stewart; and within a short period of time drs. chester pheiffer, darrell carter, jess eskridge, john levene, james koetting, and i were all involved in contact lens teaching. during the 1950s and 1950s, several contact lens textbooks were published, but by the 1960s it became obvious that a more comprehensive textbook was needed. we had some discussions at faculty meetings, in which i agreed to take on the task of writing the needed textbook. after a period of several months, i had completed the manuscript for contact lens theory and practice 1 which was published in 1963 by the professional press. i was fortunate that an optometry student, don woolery, was an accomplished draftsman (this was before computerized drawing programs were available) who did a really great job of providing numerous optical diagrams. during the decade following the publication of contact lens theory and practice, contact lens technology continued to expand at a rapid pace. during that period, dr. robert mandell published a more comprehensive textbook, much of which was based on research done by himself and others at the university of california. although martin topaz, president of professional press, suggested that i write a revised edition of contact lens theory and practice, i was unable to do this because of the pressure of my teaching and administrative duties, as founding head of the diploma in optometry programme at the university of auckland, in new zealand. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 3 8, number 2, page 41 contemporary contact lens practice . when contact lens theory and practice was published, in 1963, the only contact lenses available were made of the rigid polymethyl methacrylate (pmma) material. however, with the development of soft, hydrogel materials for the manufacture of contact lenses, it seemed like a good idea to write a book, contemporary contact lens practice2 which presented the latest developments in rigid contact lens fitting; with a final chapter concerned with the fitting of soft contact lenses. by that time, i had moved to the university of waterloo in ontario, canada, where we had access to some newly-developed contact lens modalities that had not yet been approved by the fda for distribution in the united states. optometry reconsidered many older practitioners will remember the optometric weekly, published by the professional press. during the 1970s, president marty topaz let it be known that he would like to recruit somebody to write a 'column' in the optometric weekly called optometry reconsidered. this seemed to me like a good idea, so i wrote a 2-3 page column--first in the optometric weekly and then in the optometric monthly---during the period from may, 1975 to june, 1981; for a total of several hundred columns. in each of these columns, i brought a specific area of optometry (refraction, contact lens fitting, vision training, etc.) "up-to-date." i found this to be an interesting endeavor, and-­ perhaps selfishly -the areas that i selected were usually those in which i was currently teaching. primary care optometry although lrv barish's clinical refraction was still a very popular book --having gone into several editions and gradually becoming more comprehensive over the years --peter topaz, who was then president of professional press, suggested that i write a strictly clinically-oriented book -a clinical manual. with the increasing emphasis of optometry as a primary care profession, i chose the title primary care optometry, a clinical manual. 3 i had the advantage of having written all of those 'optometry reconsidered' columns, many of which could be used as the basis for a chapter in the new book, published in 1992. at that time, legislation for the optometric use of diagnostic pharmaceutial agents (dpa's) had been enacted in some states, and was under consideration in others -but in many sates, optometrists still had to examine the fundus through an undilated pupil, and could relax the patient's accommodation only by 'fogging' with convex lenses. when the second edition of primary care optometry4 was published, in 1989, legislation allowing the optometric use of dpa's had been enacted in virtually all of the 50 states; and legislation allowing the use of therapeutic pharmaceutical agents (tpa's) had been enacted in several states; so more emphasis was placed on the use of these pharmaceutical agents. in addition, increased emphasis was placed on the control of myopia by various methods including vision training, bifocals or reading glasses, and the wearing of rigid contact lenses. also, newly-developed methods of reducing the existing amount of myopia with contact lenses --orthokeratology --were described. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volwne 38, nwnber 2, page 42 by the time the third edition of primary care optomet,y was published, in 1996, many new diagnostic procedures were available including testing for disability glare, contrast sensitivity and low-contrast visual acuity testing, static perimetry, photokeratoscopy, and videokeratoscopy. perhaps more importantly, several methods of refractive surgery had been introduced, and optometrists were (and still are) in a position to interact with refractive surgeons in the care of these patients. not long after i retired in the year 2000 and betty and i moved to the northwest, i was contacted by the butterworth-heinemann editor concerning the possibility of writing a 4th edition of primary care optometry. i accepted the challenge, and arranged to visit the pacific university college of optometry at forest grove, oregon, to consult with faculty members concerning the content of the 4th edition and, of course, to spend many hours in their library. on my first visit to forest grove i was offered a position as an adjunct professor-a position with no duties and no pay! i gratefully accepted, and have found this relationship to be extremely satisfying. the 4th edition,6 published in the year 2002, differed from previous editions in placing even greater emphasis on methods for the management of myopia, both non-surgical and surgical methods; and -­ with the aging of the population -the management of age-related vision problems. although i had expected that further editions of primary care optometry, if any, would have other authors, in the year 2005 i was contacted by the managing editor of elsevier, inc., inviting me to write a 5th edition of primary care optometry, which would go on sale 25 years after the first edition was published. again, i accepted the challenge. during the 5-year period since the publication of the 4th edition, optometry's horizons had continued to expand; particularly in regard to age-related changes-­ having personally experienced a retinal detachment (right eye), macular degeneration (left eye) and cataract extraction followed by iol implantation (both eyes). in the 5th edition, which is now in print, more emphasis is placed on these age-related changes; along with discussions of newly-developed instrumentation for autorefraction, biomicroscopy, visual field evaluation and other procedures. i can't end this discussion without emphasizing an important fact: with the increased dependency on auto refractors and the tendency for some practitioners to forego retinoscopy, with or without cycloplegia, latent hyperopia in children and young adults often goes undetected: for this reason, in the fifth edition, increased attention is given to 'the neglected hyperope.' clinical optics, with troy fannin at the university of houston, dr. troy fannin had taught clinical optics for many years, during which an up-to-date textbook on the subject had not been available. many readers of hindsight will recall that in years past, several textbooks on optics were written by authors in the united kingdom: southall, fincham, bennett, jalie, to name a few. although textbooks covering various aspects of optics had been written by optometric educators in the united states in more recent years, none of them provided information on all of the topics that were included in dr. fannin's clinical optics course. hindsight: journal ofoptometryhistory .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 43 over a period of years, he had accumulated many pages of hand-written lecture notes; so our method of producing the textbook was for him to supply me with the notes, together with the necessary optical diagrams, and for me to enter them into a computer program in the form of a textbook. [of course i also had some input, having taught an occasional optics course.] it was an interesting challenge for both of us! the first edition8 was published by butterworth-heinemann in 1987, and a second edition9 was published, also by butterworth-heinemann, in 1996. in each of the two editions, the first several chapters cover the 'nuts and bolts' of optics: the sign convention, nomenclature, characteristics of ophthalmic lenses, power specification and measurement, prisms and decentration, etc., whereas the remaining chapters deal with the more clinically-oriented subjects such as the correction of ametropia, absorptive lenses and lens coatings, multifocal lenses, eyewear design and dispensing, lenses for high refractive errors, optical principles of lenses for low vision, and optics of contact lenses. refractive anomalies: research and clinical applications, with merton flom this book was written during the 1980s, when dr. merton flom and i were both on the optometry faculty at the university of houston. many years previously drs. frank weymouth and monroe hirsch, working together at the stanford university vision laboratory, had reviewed more than 3,000 articles and abstracts with the intention of writing a book on myopia. in 1960, when weymouth came to berkeley to collaborate on a research project with flom, he spent several spare hours revising the first several chapters that he and hirsch had written. unfortunately, due to weymouth's death in 1963 and hirsch's prolonged illness prior to his death in 1982, the book was never published. it was fortunate that flom was in possession of these introductory chapters: we used them as the first three chapters of refractive anomalies, research and clinical applications, 10 with the remaining 21 chapters being written by 25 optometrists and vision scientists, each an expert in his or her area. although the major thrust of the book has to do with myopia, there are also chapters on hyperopia, astigmatism, anisometropia, and experimentally-induced myopia in birds and mammals. in spite of the fact that this book was published almost a decade ago, i am aware that it is used as a text or reference book in some optometry schools. clinical management of myopia, with david goss the need for a book on the clinical management of myopia 11 was suggested by dr. rodger kame, an avid myopia researcher, mainly in the area of orthokeratology. sadly, he became ill and did not live to see the finished product. after a foreword by dr. henry hofstetter, the text is organized into two sections, with a total of 11 chapters: i. general principles: epidemiology of myopia; etiology of myopia; clinical examination; prescribing for myopia. ii. methods of myopia control and reduction: vision therapy; control with added plus power for near work; myopia control with pharmaceutical agents; corneal hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 44 topography measurement; myopia control or reduction with rigid contact lenses; keratorefractive surgery; refractive surgery involving the lens. foreign language translations although totally unexpected, two of the textbooks have been translated into foreign languages: the fourth edition of primary care optometry was translated into spanish, with the title: optometria de atencion primaria; published by masson s.a., barcelona; spain; and clinical management of myopia was translated into chinese by ho-chi book publishing co., taipei, taiwan. self-published books during the 1990s, when i was enjoying a half-time 'post-retirement' position at indiana university, it occurred to me that there were very few books on vision intended for the 'general public.' i was particularly concerned about myopia, having personally observed the almost complete lack of myopia in melanesian children in the pacific island nation of vanuatu, where only 3% of children between the ages 14 and 15 years were myopic,12 as compared to the 70% prevalence of myopia reported for asian children of the same age in taiwan.13 the title i chose for my first self-published book was the myopia epidemic: near­ sightedness, vision impairment and other vision problems.14 after completing the 138page manuscript, in 12-point geneva typeface and 8.5" x 11" format, i found no publisher was interested in a book for "the general public." after retiring and moving to ferndale, washington, i formed a company, twenty twenty publications, and arranged for a local printer to print 1,000 copies of the book. but then i found that it is easier to write a self-published book than to market it. meanwhile, i had completed the manuscript for a second self-published book, vision after 50: preventing age-related vision loss, 15 also in 12 pt geneva typeface, but in 5.5" x 8.5" format. i looked into the possibility of having the two books 'marketed,' in hard-copy or electronic form, but in either situation the cost would have been too high to make the enterprise worth the effort. so i soon concluded that the best way to 'distribute' the books was to give them away, treating them as income tax deductions! postscript occasionally, somebody asks me "how---or why---do you write all those books?" my usual answer is "because /learned to use a keyboard when i was in high school, on a 1934 remington portable typewriter." other optometrists i know who used a typewriter before the 'computer era' are lrv borish and jerome rosner. if i hadn't been able to use a typewriter, i would have had to dictate to a stenographer or write legibly with a pencil or a pen. references 1. grosvenor t. contact lens theory and practice. chicago: professional press, 1963. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 45 2. grosvenor t. contemporary contact lens practice. chicago: professional press, 1972. 3. grosvenor t. primary care optometry: a clinical manual. chicago: professional press, 1982. 4. grosvenor t. primary care optometry, 2nd ed. boston: butterworths, 1989. 5. grosvenor t. primary care optometry, 3rd ed. boston: butterworth­ heinemann, 1996. 6. grosvenor t. primary care optometry, 4th ed. boston: butterworth­ heinemann. 2002. 7. grosvenor t. primary care optometry, 5th edition. st. louis: elsevier, 2007. 8. fannin te, grosvenor t. clinical optics. boston: butterworth-heinemann, 1987. 9. fannin te, grosvenor t. clinical optics, 2nd ed. boston: butterworth­ heinemann, 1996. 10. grosvenor t, flom mc. refractive anomalies: research and clinical applications. boston: butterworth-heinemann. 1991. 11. grosvenor t, goss da. clinical management of myopia. boston: butterworth­ heinemann, 1999. 12. garner rf, kinnear lf, keller mj, klinger jd, hovander m, grosvenor t. prevalence of myopia in schoolchildren in vanuatu. acta ophthalmologica, 63: 232-236, 1985. 13. lin ll-k, chen c, hung p, ko l. nationwide survey of myopia amoung schoolchildren in taiwan. myopia workshop, acta ophthalmologica suppl. 185, 66: 2933, 1988. 14. grosvenor t. the myopia epidemic. nearsightedness, vision impairment and other vision problems. ferndale, wa: twenty twenty publications, 2002. 15. grosvenor t. vision after 50: preventing age-related vision loss. ferndale, wa: twenty twenty publications, 2004. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 46 j landmarks in the history of optometry david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract this article discusses some selected important events and achievements in the history of optometry. the purpose of the article is not to provide an inclusive, comprehensive list of developments related to optometry, but rather to present a discussion of representative events of significance or of interest. for the last two centuries, emphasis is on developments in the united states. key words: history of optometry, optometry, optometric education. a reasonable place to start a discussion of the history of optometry is to consider when optometry began. while there are many influences that have led to the optometry of the present, some commentators suggest the invention of spectacles as the time that can be identified as the beginning of optometry.1-3 the fact that physicians and medical practitioners for many years did not incorporate the use of spectacles among their treatment methods allowed the development of an occupation of spectacle making and prescribing independent of medicine. there are no existing records of the invention of spectacles. hofstetter4 suggested that the invention could not have been before 1270 because spectacles were not mentioned in the comprehensive book on optics published about that time by the famous polish scientist witelo. it is likely that the inventor was an unknown craftsman in northern italy who kept his manufacturin~ methods secret in order to try to protect the profits derived from the sale of spectacles. 8 the most exhaustive study on the invention of spectacles is the work of rosen.5 he concluded that spectacles were invented probably in pisa in about 1286. other persons quickly copied the work of the inventor of spectacles and by about . 1300, there were spectacle manufacturing businesses in nuremberg in germany, haarlem in the netherlands, and venice in ltaly.4 at that time, the lenses in spectacles were plus spheres for presbyopia. when the first spectacles for the correction of myopia were worn is uncertain, but probably sometime in the fifteenth century. there is evidence of spectacle makers guilds in france in 1465, in nuremberg in 1483, and in england in 1563.4 in the first few centuries of spectacle making, there were, of course, changes and improvements in frame and lens materials and construction methods. an understanding of the basic optics of hyperopia and myopia started to emerge in the sixteenth century. the 1554 work by francesco maurolyco (1494-1575) included a discussion of the optics of lenses correcting hyperopia and myopia. he wrote that " ... when spectacles are used to correct the defects of nature, they do this only by hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 47 converging the rays which have been spread out or by spreading the rays which are too closely assembled: and experience shows that convex lenses will correct the error of long-sightedness and concave lenses that of short-sightedness. it follows therefore that, in the case of those who are troubled with too long vision, the visual rays ought to be gathered together: while in the short-sighted, they should be spread apart.''9 maurolyco attributed refractive errors to variations in the curvature of the crystalline lens.10 the great physicist johannes kepler (1571-1630) published his important works in optics in 1604 and 1611. kepler's work is sometimes hailed as the being largely the geometric optics taught today with, of course, changes in terminology, units, etc. among other things, he showed that the image on the retina was inverted. kepler said that " ... vision is brought about by a picture of the thing seen being formed on the concave surface of the retina. that which is to the right outside is depicted on the left on the retina, that to the left on the right, that above below, and that below above.''11 incidentally, kepler may have been the first to publish a hypothesized connection of near work and myopia, when he wrote that "a life srent sitting indoors, bent over a book or a fine manual task, leads to nearsightedness .. .'' 2 the first book devoted to optometric procedures and analysis was published in spain in 1623. an english translation of the title of the book by benito daza de valdes is use of spectacles for all kinds of sight. 13 the topics in the book included optics, ocular anatomy, and the use and fitting of spectacles.14 daza de valdes included a system of lens grades for lens power, and he presented a table of lens grades according to age in presbyopia. he suggested that minus lenses for myopia should not be so powerful as to cause perceived reduction in image size, a common principle used in determining endpoints on subjective refraction today. one part of the book was entitled "dialogues between various persons and a master maker of spectacles,"15 and contained what we would recognize as case reports. another book which covered the optometry of its time was published in 1692 by william molyneux of dublin.16 molyneux discussed the optics of plus and minus lenses and how lenses and spectacles can be used to improve vision. he suggested using the weakest power lenses to remedy the visual problem in question. he noted that in presbyopia there was a relation between the power of lenses and the distance of the object being viewed. molyneux discussed the occasional near point problems of myopes when they get new glasses. and he described the use of telescopic and microscopic systems for persons with failing eyesight. if we jump forward to the eighteenth century, the year 1783 is significant in american optometry because the purchase of a number of spectacles by john mcallister, sr., of philadelphia, may be viewed as the beginning of the american optical industry. before that time it is thought that spectacles in america were imported from europe. but soon after mcallister began selling glasses, he started making them. his son, john mcallister, jr., joined him in business in 1811. the mcallister family of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 48 opticians continued through john mcallister, jr.'s son, william young mcallister, and grandson, james cook mcallister. the early american spectacle makers became the first refractionists in america. in 1913, james cook mcallister, who at that time had been working as an optician for 43 years, testified that his grandfather, john mcallister, jr. was the first person to perform refractions in the state of pennsylvania.17 the mcallister family taught refraction and the optical business to various people, as for example, james w. queen, who started his own business in 1853. according to the testimony of james cook mcallister, his father, william young mcallister, and james w. queen were the first to teach the medical eye practitioners in philadelphia, then known as oculists, how to refract.17 other prominent early american optometrists (who at the time called themselves opticians) were benjamin pike, who came to the united states in the early 1800s, and james prentice, who emigrated in 1847. they both learned optics in england, and they both trained their sons in optics. james prentice's son was charles prentice, who received further training in optics and engineering in germany and became a leader in organized optometry. charles prentice published works on optics that were well received in both optometry and ophthalmology and he coined the term prism diopter. the formula for calculation of the prismatic effect of the decentration of lenses, prentice's rule, still carries his name. one of the hallmarks of maturation and acceptance of a profession is formal licensure. we could also identify the charge of a fee for services rather than just obtaining a profit by sales of goods as another sign of professionalization. the first attempt to pass an optometry licensure law in the united states occurred in new york in 1897. this effort was, in part, a consequence of threats to charles prentice from ophthalmologists for charging a fee for a vision examination.18 this initial effort in new york was unsuccessful, but the first passage of an american optometry licensure law occurred shortly after that in minnesota in 1901. by 1924, all states and the district of columbia had passed optometry licensure laws. the last years of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth century were also marked by efforts to form optometric organizations and associations. many state optometric associations were established in those years. the american optometric association recognizes 1898 as its year of formation.19•20 it was first known as the american association of opticians. in 1910, the name was changed to the american optical association. by that time, many opticians who did vision testing were calling what they did optometry and were calling themselves optometrists. in 1919, the american optical association changed its name to the american optometric association. the first two presidents of the american optometric association were charles lembke, who served in that capacity from 1898 to 1900, and andrew j. cross, who was president from 1900 to 1901. in addition to his organizational activities nationally and in the state of new york, cross was also known for his work in the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 49 development of dynamic retinoscopy and for being an influential optometry instructor at columbia university from 1911 to 1924.21 the american academy of optometry was founded in 1922.22•23 today it publishes the respected journal optometry and vision science. the journal assumed that title in 1989. from 1941 to 1973, the journal was known as the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry, and from 197 4 to 1988, its title was american journal of optometry and physiological optics. the journal can trace its lineage (and its volume numbering) back to the northwest journal of optometry, first published in 1924 as the journal of the minnesota, north dakota, and south dakota state optometric associations. in august, 1925, the journal title was changed to american journal of optometry. by 1928, the journal was the journal of eleven state associations and in may of that year it became the official news outlet of the american academy of optometry. starting in 1934, there was no mention in its pages of its use as an official publication by an¥, state associations.24 the editor of the journal from 1924 to 1968 was carel c. koch.2 •25 from 1948 to 1973, koch was also secretary of the american academy of optometry.26 a claim for the earliest exclusively optometric periodical was made by j. milton johnston ( 1844-1930) for the johnston eye-echo, first published in 1886. johnston wrote a series of lessons for the journal. the journal was published under the sponsorship of the johnston optical company, which had been founded by j. milton's brother george. 27 the first established periodical to start publishing material on ophthalmic optics regularly appears to have been the jeweler's circular. dates for the beginning of the optical department in that periodical have been reported variously as june, 1882 or january, 1886.27 a young employee of the publisher of that publication was frederick boger (1866-1936), who would go on the found a periodical entitled the optician. the oldest surviving optometry periodical is review of optometry, which can be traced back to the the optician, founded in 1891, and the optical review, started in 1907. boger ceased publication of the optician in 1894, but started another monthly periodical, the optical journal, in 1895. the optical review is thought to have been derived from the optical section of the jeweler's circular. 27 the optical journal and the optical review joined in 1910 to form the optical journal and review of optometry, the periodical's title until 1977, when it changed to review of optometry.27 another long-standing optometry periodical, but one which is now defunct, was started in 1910 and was published for more than seven decades under various titles, including practical ofatician, practical optometrist and optician, optometric weekly, and optometric monthly. 8 like review of optometry, optometric weekly published mostly new items, technical information, and clinical review articles rather than peer reviewed research papers. in addition to licensure and the founding of professional journals, another sign of professionalization is the formation and standardization of rigorous educational hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 50 • • • • programs. optometry was learned largely by apprenticeship until the late nineteenth century. at that time privately owned schools, usually known by the owner's name, began to appear. it is thought that there were more than 60 of these schools and training clinics in operation in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.29•30 some of the courses were only one to two weeks in length. academic prerequisites were minimal. some of the schools were operated by optical companies, such as the spencer optical company, which offered a two-week course for $25, and the king optical company of cleveland, ohio. the foster school of optics, started in 1888 in boston, offered onsite classes and correspondence classes. the philadelphia optical college also offered a correspondence course. some of the other early optometry schools were the mccormick optical college and the johnston optical institute in chicago, the college of optics in south bend, indiana, southwestern optical college in kansas city, missouri, syracuse school of optics in syracuse, new york, and kellam and moore's college of optics in georgia. 30"3 in the mid 1920s, there were about 40 optometry schools in operation and the curricula were usually two years in length. as optometric organizations worked toward the standardization of curricula, weaker schools went out of business, and by 1936, there were ten optometry schools and the optometry curricula were generally three years. schools had reduced enrollments during world war ii and some closed, but by 1946, there were again ten schools in operation with three of them requiring a total of five years of education including pre-optometry university work. educational requirements gradually increased to two years of pre-optometry and four years of optometry school in all the schools by the 1960s and then to the present-day levels of three to four years of pre-optometry university work and four years of optometry school. by 1970, all american optometry schools had adopted the doctor of optometry (0.0.) as the degree granted at the successful completion of optometry school. the first university to open an optometry school was columbia university, where optometry classes were offered from 191 0 to 1954. the existing university-based optometry schools and their years of origin are: the ohio state university, 1914; university of california berkeley, 1923; pacific university, 1945 (although it was a continuation of a private school, north pacific college of optometry which originated in 1921 and closed during world war ii); indiana university, founded in 1951 with pre­ optometry classes beginning in 1951 and optometry classes beginning in 1953; university of houston, 1952; university of alabama birmingham, 1969; state university of new york, 1970; ferris state university (michigan), 1974; northeastern state university (oklahoma), 1979; university of missouri st. louis, 1980; inter-american university of puerto rico, 1981; and nova southeastern university (florida), 1989.33-35 the existing independent optometry schools are: illinois college of optometry, which traces its lineage back to the northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology founded in 1872 and through predecessor schools which include the needles institute, northern illinois college of optometry, monroe college of optometry, and the chicago college of optometry; new england college of optometry, previously known as the massachusetts college of optometry, which traces its roots back to the klein hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 51 school of optics which started in 1894; southern california college of optometry, which started in 1904 as the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and was later known as the los angeles college of optometry; pennsylvania college of optometry, founded in 1919 as the pennsylvania state college of optometry, and southern college of optometry, begun in 1932. 3!2·33• 36-38 through most of the existence of optometry most of work done by optometrists was vision testing and dispensing of spectacles. in the twentieth century there was an increase in the frequency of use of treatments other than spectacles and a broadening of the scope of practice. examples of the former are increased use of vision training, contact lenses, and low vision devices. the latter is exemplified by passage of laws to permit the use of diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents by optometrists. the first state law passed to allow use of diagnostic pharmaceutical agents was in 1971 in rhode island and the first for therapeutic pharmaceutical agents was in 1976 in west virginia. 39.4° the twentieth century also saw the founding of graduate programs for the m.s. and ph.d. degrees in physiological optics and vision science. the graduates of these programs have elevated the research efforts in optometry and have been an important part of the faculty of optometry schools. the ohio state university started a graduate program in physiological optics in the 1930s. the first persons to receive m.s. degrees from that program were howard haines and herbert mote in 1938. in 1942, henry hofstetter received the ph.d. degree in physiological optics from ohio state, the first ph.d. in physiological optics granted by a graduate program offered at an optometry schoo1.41 several other schools have established graduate programs in physiological optics and vision science, with ohio state, university of california berkeley, indiana university, and university of houston having the greatest numbers of ph.d. graduates among the american schools. references 1. hirsch mj, wick re. the optometric profession. philadelphia: chilton, 1968:2. 2. hofstetter hw. letter to melvin wolfberg, dated september 5, 1996. hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society 2001 ;32:28-33. 3. tannebaum s. a case historythe development of optometry. j am optom assoc 1974;45:1251-1255. 4. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:22-24. 5. rosen e. the invention of eyeglasses. j hist med allied sci 1956;11 :1346,183-218. 6. letocha ce. the origin of spectacles. surv ophthalmol 1986;31: 185-188. 7. dreyfus j. the invention of spectacles and the advent of printing. the library 1988;1 0:93-106. 8. rosenthal jw. spectacle and other vision aids: a history and guide to collecting. san francisco: norman publishing, 1996:35-40. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 52 • • j 9. maurolyco f. photismi de lumine. crew h, translator. new york: macmillan, 1940:117-118; excerpts from the crew translation, including the portion quoted here, were published in optom weekly 1968;59(18):19-28. 10. albert om. ocular refraction and the development of spectacles. in: albert om, edwards do, eds. the history of ophthalmology. cambridge, ma: blackwell science, 1996:107-123. 11. kepler j, 1604. quoted in: wade nj. a natural history of vision. cambridge, ma: mit press, 1998:9. 12. kepler j, 1611. quoted in; park d. the fire within the eye: a historical essay on the nature and meaning of light. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1997:167-168. 13. levene jr. clinical refraction and visual science. london: butterworths, 1977:37. 14. hofstetter hw. optometry of daza de valdes. am j optom physiol opt 1988;65:354-357. 15. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:26. 16. tannebaum s. william molyneuxdioptrica, a 1 rth century classic. j am optom assoc 1972;43:566-570. 17. hirsch mj, wick re. the optometric profession. philadelphia: chilton, 1968:136-137. 18. cox me. optometry, the profession -its antecedents, birth, and development, 1st ed, revised. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:30-42. 19. gregg jr. american optometric association a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972. 20. koetting ra. the american optometric association's first century. st. louis: american optometric association, 1997. 21. arrington ee. history of optometry. chicago: white, 1929:113-116. 22. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:17-21. 23. flom mc. perspective: why was our academy formed? optom vis sci 2005;82:944-945. 24. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:156-163. 25. flom mc. how did our academy journal start and become preeminent? optom vis sci 2005;82:1011-1013. 26. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:179-182. 27. hofstetter hw. newsletter optom hist soc 1978:9:18-21. 28. edwards do. optometry. in: albert om, edwards do, eds. the history of ophthalmology. cambridge, ma: blackwell science, 1996:303-310. 29. hofstetter hw. education in optometry. higher education. 7(3):25-29. 30. hirsch mj, wick re. the optometric profession. philadelphia: chilton, 1968:162-170. 31. cox me. optometry, the professionits antecedents, birth, and development, 1st ed, revised. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:44-50. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 53 32. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965:218-230. 33. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:309-310. 34. woodruff ce. the evolution of optometric education in america. j am optom assoc 2001 ;72:779-786. 35. goss da. history of the indiana university division of optometry. indiana j optom 2003;6:27-74. 36. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry, 1904-1984. fullerton, ca: southern college of optometry, 1984. 37. moline sw. century of visionthe new england college of optometry: an anecdotal history of the first hundred years. boston: new england college of optometry, 1994. 38. miller ar, brown jm. optometry in america -a history of the illinois college of optometry 1972-1997. chicago: illinois college of optometry, 1996. 39. classe jg. legal aspects of optometry. boston: butterworths, 1989:22-25. 40. wolfberg md. a profession's commitment to increased public service: optometry's remarkable story. jam optom assoc 1999;70:145-169. 41. goss da. a history of m.s. and ph.d. programs offered by schools and colleges of optometry in north america. optom vis sci 1993;70:616-621. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 54 book review: borish eorish. william r. baldwin. springfield, ma: bassette, 2006. pages: xiv + 444. isbn-10: 1-4243-1888-2. isbn-13: 978-1-4243-1888-9. hardcover. david a. goss, 0.0., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu given the exceptional achievements and remarkably long career of irvin m. borish and the pivotal role he played in encouraging and nurturing many developments in optometric education and practice, it is appropriate that someone should attempt a book-length biography. bill baldwin has achieved that and has done it well in this book. borish was born in 1913 in philadelphia. his childhood was spent in philadelphia and in liberty, new york under humble circumstances. he studied for a while at temple university with thoughts of a career in literature. due in part to the influence of an uncle, he decided instead to pursue optometry, and attended northern illinois college of optometry (nico) in chicago. he graduated from nico with highest honors in january of 1934. after a brief period of time in optometry practice in chicago, he became a full-time faculty member at northern illinois college of optometry in january of 1936. his teaching and administrative responsibilities increased at nico until he left in 1944 to start an optometry practice in kokomo, indiana. from 1973 to 1983, borish was a full-time faculty member at indiana university. in 1983, he became benedict professor of optometric practice at the university of houston. in 1989, borish retired from houston, but continued to write, lecture, and work for the enhancement and advancement of the optometric profession. into that biographical framework baldwin weaves details of borish's family and friends, colleagues, professional activities, artistic endeavors, community contributions, travels, personality, and philosophy. it makes an interesting story. baldwin captures the insight, intelligence, and drive that allowed borish to rise to the top of his profession. the fifteen chapters in the book are organized thematically, each one addressing a common grouping of activities. the successive chapters form an overlapping chronology. the years considered in each of the chapters are part of the chapter titles, which are as follows: 1) the early years, 1913-34; 2) courtship and marriage, 1932-43; 3) northern illinois college of optometry, 1936-44; 4) early service to optometry, 194050; 5) early years in kokomo, 1944-50; 6) two triumphs, 1945-51; 7) achieving prominence in the community, 1950-56; 8) the advent of corneal contact lenses, 1952-62; 9) national and state health care legislation, 1962-82; 10) personal health history, 1925-2006; 11) bloomington, 1973-83; 12) houston, 1983-89; 13) optometry abroad, 1976-87; 14) essilor, 1977 -95; and 15) the borish version of retirement, 1990-2006. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 55 the topics discussed in each chapter can probably be guessed from the chapter titles with the possible exception of chapter 6, "two triumphs, 1945-51." it deals with the efforts to start the optometry school at indiana university and with the writing of the first edition of clinical refraction. borish worked with many prominent people in optometry through the years, so the book contains references to many such individuals. and the book contains photographs of many of them. for example, in the chapter on nico (chapter 3), one can find mention and photographs of william needles, carl shepard, william zoethout, and eugene freeman. in the chapter "the advent of corneal contact lenses" (chapter 8), one can read about, and see pictures of, persons such as william feinbloom, newton wesley, george jessen, neal bailey, and joe goldberg. the book includes three appendices. appendix a, "borish views his profession," contains excerpts of essays and articles that he wrote on the optometric profession. the dates of these writings range from 1941 to 1993. appendix b, "barish's wit and wisdom," consists of some anecdotes that he has used to emphasize particular points made in his lectures. in appendix c, there are tributes from four of his friends and colleagues and a listing of some of the most prestigious awards that he has received. in researching this book, baldwin used extensive interviews with borish, interviews of several of barish's colleagues, his own personal knowledge of borish, and information gained from a number of optometry schools and organizations. the book contains more than 170 black and white photographs of borish, his family, friends, and colleagues, places that he worked, and places that he visited. there is an index and an eight-page color section of barish's paintings. some of barish's paintings also adorn the back and the flaps of the dust jacket. persons who want to learn more about irvin m. borish or about the history of optometry in the twentieth century will find much of interest in this book. because of gifts from essilor and from an anonymous donor, proceeds from the sale of the book go to the borish center for ophthalmic research at indiana university. a copy of the book signed and with a personal message from borish can be obtained for $200. a book with a greeting and signed by borish can be obtained for $100. the cost of the book is partially tax deductible. checks should be made payable to indiana university and sent to: optometry budget office, iu school of optometry, 800 east atwater avenue, bloomington, in 47405. a form for ordering the book can be found at www.opt.indiana.edu/bcor/borishbook/borish.pdf. additional information about the book can be obtained at www.opt.indiana.edu/bcor/borishbooklindex.htm, or by contacting hillary person (812-855-0351 or hlheflin@indiana.edu) at the indiana university school of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... 2007, volume 38, number 2, page 56 2007-38-02-001 2007-38-02-002 2007-38-02-003 2007-38-02-004 2007-38-02-005 2007-38-02-006 2007-38-02-007 2007-38-02-008 2007-38-02-009 2007-38-02-010 2007-38-02-011 2007-38-02-012 2007-38-02-013 2007-38-02-014 2007-38-02-015 2007-38-02-016 2007-38-02-017 2007-38-02-018 2007-38-02-019 2007-38-02-020 2007-38-02-021 2007-38-02-022 2007-38-02-023 2007-38-02-024 2007-38-02-025 2007-38-02-026 2007-38-02-027 2007-38-02-028 2007-38-02-029 2007-38-02-030 . a ~ -· -~ ;-n , ~ ,j i\ . '""' """"· ,...i' t " """' /' i indiana un\versity l ~1p.y , 9 2000 index optomefry library advertising, early, 27/23 volumes 21-30 advertising in 17th century, 27110 advertisement, fraudulent, 27/30 a aegena, paul, 21/15 african american optometrist, 29/20 "a lens is not a pill", 30/6 afrikaans; 23/36 aangenendt, c.j.m., 26/5 afterimage, 26/20 aangenendt, p.h.m., 25118 age markings on lenses, 27/4 aangenendt, p., 24/8,22 age markings on spectacles, 28/13 abarbanell, 25/4 agraphia, 27/24 abbe, ernst, 21118, 40-41; aids, visual, 21124 23/46; 25/11, 19; 29/1 akron, univ. of, 27/22 abbe-rations, 22/31 alabama, univ. of, 22/25 abbott, 27/31 alabaster eye cure, 2112 abe martin cartoon, 22/46-47 alameda county assoc. of optometrists, abel, elizabeth, 22/18 23/25, 28, 30 abel, peter, 22/18, 24/5 albert, daniel m., 21132 abraham, markham v. wood, 27/25 alberti, 21141, 42 abramowitz, m. j., 22/31 alexander, e. b., 21/47; 23/44; 29/17 abrams, j. j., 21/27; 22/17, 29, 41; alexander, e. b., memorial, 23/10 23/1-2, 33-36; 25/19; 26/20, 28; 2817 alexander, f. g., 21133 accommodation, 29/14 alexia, 27/24 accommodation spasm, 24/31 al-haitham, ibn, 21/8, 18 accommodation theory, 30113 alhazen, 23/18; 27/2; 28/26; 29/13; 30/18 actina battery, 28/20 ali ibn ira, 29/3 actino laboratories, 27/15 alicante university, 25/15 acuity, 22/9 allen, henry, 25/28 acuity chart, armaignac, 29/5 aluminum, anodized, 26/29 acuity chart, bailey lovie, 29/5 amblyo-syntonizer, 22/45 acuity chart, kuchler, 29/6 ambrose, s. e., 28/9 acuity chart, monoyer, 29/5 america, optometry in, 22/25 acuity, "normal", 22/45 amer. academy of ophthalmology acupuncture, 22/48 foundation museum, 26114 adams, 21128; 25/20; 28/26 amer. academy of optometry, 21/1; adams, anthony, 30/16 22/25-26; 23/4, 23, 31; 29/19 ?adams, geo., 29/3 amer. academy of optometry tapes, f;~ c.· .. = adams, john, 28/2 23110 i.·l = ... , .. = < c'j >adams, r.m., 27/17 aao, seattle, 30/21 !,:, ·; ~ :::-·~·~ ;~ .... ' adds, reading, 24/30 amer. assn. of opticians, 30/5 < ,_... = -~: >-...... llt~:~ <~: ... _ :c q 30/27 ~ amer. assn. of wholesale opticians, 28/6 amer. college of optometrists, 27/15 amer. heritage of inventions & technology, 23/36-37 amer. indian eyes, 23/36 amer. journal of optometry, 30/23 amer. journal of optometry and physiological optics, 22/12 amer. journal of physiology, 23/10 amer. medical association, 21/33, 47 amer. medical association resolutions, 28/28 amer. ophthalmological society, 23/18; 30/2 amer. ophthalmology, 23/17-18 amer. optical association, 23/26, 27; 28/22; 30/5 amer. optical company, 27/29; 29/21; 30n; 30/9 amer. optometric association, 21123; 22/34; 23/26, 27' 42; 24/9-7' 31; 24/1; 26/25; 27/20; 28/22,31 amer. optometric association and international optometric and optical league, 25/24 amer. optometric association conventions, early, 30/5 amer. optometric association council on education and professional ~ guidance, 30/11 amer. optometric association news, 22/26; 23/4 amer. optometric association organizing meeting, 30/4 amer. optometric association professional advancementprogram,21/47 30/28 amer. optometric association seattle resolution, 28/27 amer. optometric foundation, 21122 amer. optometry,28/1 amer. philosophical society, 24/31 "american plan", 27/30; 30n amer. public health association, 22/34 ames, l. b., 29/18 amusia, 27/24 andressen, b. m., 28/13 angle, brewster's, 21/8 angle, polarizing, 2118 angle, zero-reflection, 2118 anglo american optical company, 22/31 aniseikonia, 23/31 anomalies of refraction and of the muscles of the eye, 22/32 anthropologists, 25/12 anti puffs, 27/31 antiquarian science, medicine, and instruments, 21/6 antique lenses, craftsmanship of, 30/25 antique spectacles, 25/29; 26/32 antiques, 21138-39 antiques bought and sold, 22/33 antique collecting, 25/28; 26/24 antiques, ophthalmic, 22/30; 23/19 antiques, preserving, 23/3-4 antiques, restoring, 21143; 26/24 antwerp, 25/18 aoropia, 21/36 apell, richard, 29118 aphasia, 27/24 apollo award, 27/20; 30/24 applebaum, morris, 21129; 22/20, 48 applied optics, 2112-3 applied optics at ohio state univ., 27/17 appointment book, early, 24/6 apprenticeship, 24/22 appuhn, horst, 25/12 arabian ophthalmology, 21118 archer, jack, 23/14 archer, r., & sons, 2717 archimedes, 24/4 archiv fur augenheilkunde, 22/6 aristophanes, 29/13 aristotle, 23/8, 16; 23113; 30/18 arizona state college, 23/31 armaignac chart, 29/5 armati, 21/4-5, 27; 22/17, 27-30, 41-42; 2311-2; 24/6 armati saga, 25/22 armorlite company, 28/30 "around the world by an oculist", 22/32-33 arps, prof., 24/19 aspheric lens surfaces, 30/25 arrington, e., 24110 art and eyeglasses, 21/48 art in craftsmanship, 23/36-37 art, renaissance, 21/41 art, spectacles in, 2617 art, western, 21/41 artist's color concept, 2317 asian-pacific optometric congress, 26/23 asian students, 30/18 association of boards of examiners in optometry, 28/27 association of schools and colleges of optometry, 23/30, 31, 37; 28/18 association of schools and colleges of optometry history, 23/10 asthenopia, 23118 astigmatism, 22/9; 27/3 astigmatism, clock test for, 29112 astigmatism, java and, 23/19-22 astigmatism, oblique, 24/30 30/29 atkinson, henry, 21/45 atkinson, t. g., 29/20 atom bomb, 23/31 atropia, 24/30 atropine, use of, 24/26 auckland, university of, 21/45 audiologist, 24/2-3 audomarus, saint, 28/13 auerback, felix, 21/39; 23/40 augenoptik, 21/14, 18; 22/10, 19, 35 augenoptiker, 25/2; 26/31 augenspiegel, 25/4 augsburger, arol, 22/43, 45; 27119 augusteyn, robert, 25/30 augustine, a.c., 29/17 augustine, r. c., 21133 austin, w. g., 22/41 australia, victoria, 22/16-17 australian college of optometry, 22/16-17 auxiliary, texas optometric association, 21/4 award, hofstetter, 22/27 award, jessen, 22/40 ayscough, james, 25/30; 30/19 azurlite lenses, 23/13 babbage, charles, 2116; 26/21 babbitt, e. d., 27/11 bachelor of science degree, 30/11 bacon, francis, 30/19 bacon, roger, 2117, 24; 24/3; 27/1; 28/26; 29/14 bagwell, elizabeth, 25/31 bagwell, withers, 21134; 22/13-14 bailey, ian, 30/17 bailey, neal, 24117; 26/19 bailey-lovie acuity chart, 29/5 baker, cozy, 26/19 baldwin, william, 23/15, 23; 2717; 30/11 balkans, the, 25/20 baltimore myopia project, 23/41-42 banninga, w., 28/13 banks, martin, 30/18 barlow, horace, 30/16 baronet optician, 22/5 barr, f., 24/18 barrow, isaac, 21/8-9; 22/12 barry, s., 26/22 barry and beale firm, 26/22 barstow, ralph, 21147 bartholinus, erasmus, 21/8 b artisch, 28110 basnett, g., 24/2 bates, c.a., 27/23 bates, w. h., 2.8/10 baumann, claus, 21148; 28/30 bausch & lomb, 23/4, 26; 29/21 bausch, g. b., bausch, j. j., 30/6 baust, dieter, 25/22; 26/14 beale, j., 26/22 beatty, e., 24/13 becker, bernard, 29/23 beer, g. j., 21/6 beez, helga, 22/10, 34; 27/4; 28/13,22 behavieral optometry, 26/18; 27/8 belanger, maurice, 22/48 belgium, 25/18 belgium ophthalmology, 23/17-18 bellevue hospital medical college, 30/2 bene, d. j., 28/20 bennett, a. g., 2119, 46 bennett, irving, 22/41; 28/20; 29/2 bennett, jack, 30/1 30/30 bentall, thomas, 2717 beranger, louis, 22/2 beride douantes, 21130 berkeley, george, 29/5 berlin, 24/5; 25/26 berlin wall, 23/41 beryl lenses, 21130 besides, 21130; 28/26 "besides clousantes", 24/27 "better sight without glasses", 25/19 better vision institute, 22/33 bezigue, 21/30 bibliotheque royale in brussels, 27/12 bickerman, elias j., 21/42 bickford, joseph, 30/11 bierent, paul, 21/30-31; 24/27 biette of lyon, 21146 bifocal, comment, 27/3 bifocal, franklin 26/22 bifocal, kryptok, 29/12 bifocal, solid, 25/9 bifocals, 26/8, 22; 27/3 bind, ed, 21116 bion, nicholas, 28/13 bird, ghent, 27/12 birnbaum, m. b., 26/19 bizieux of montdoubleau, 22/2 blackham, w., 25/22 blaess, marvin j., 22/14 blind, facilities for the, 21122-23 blodi, frederick c., 21119, 24; 22/17; 23/17-18; 25/4; 26/18; 28/29 bloom, j. c., 23/12 blue book of optometrists, 21/35 blue lenses, 21134; 22/13-14; 23/13 boger, frederick, 22/31; 30/3 bohne, w., 2116 boldt, julius, 29/3 boll, franz, 26/30 bollen, mary & george, 25/31 bonanno, joseph, 30/18 book decay, 21124 books and catalogues, list of, 26/6 books, historical, 28/13 books, rare, 2116 boots ltd., 27/4 borglum, g., 25/5 borish, i. m., 23/23, 37; 2717; 29/20; 30/22, 24 borja, i.m., 2617 bomecque, j. h., 26/30 borsch, j. l., and john, jr., 29/12 boscovich, r. j., 2116 boston university, 30/9 bourgeous, j., 29/4 bowman, william, 27/3 boxing method, 28/15 brabant, 25/18 brachner, a., 22/6 bradley's "improvements of planting and gardening", 21121 braff, solon, 21/29; 22/10, 48; 30/18 braille, 23/21 brain-scan, 26/31 brandreth, roy, 30/16 brazil, 25/20 brechler, fred, 22/50 bremen-kuhne, von, 26/31 brennecke, 25/1 brewster, david, 21/6, 8, 21-22; 24/2; 26/19; 27/32 brickers, john w., 27/21 briley, j. m., 27/21 brillen, 25/25 brillenmakers, 24/8 brisbane, w., 23/9 british college of optometrists, 21146; 22/5; 26/22, 32 30/31 british college of optometry, 23/11; 25/28 british guiana, 22114 british national health services, 21/24 british optical association, 22/38; 25/9; 26/24 british optical association foundation, 21146; 25/29; 26/32 british optical association foundation museum, 21144; 22/49; 25/15,31 broadbent, sir william, 27/24 brodnax, j., 29/20 brooklyn eye and ear hospital, 30/2 brookman, k., 26/15 brooks, s. h., 21/23 brown, carol, 30/24 brown, c. h., 24/25-26, 27-31 brown, e. g., 26/20 brown, jared, 29/19 browne, e. a., 2116 browning, john, 29/3 brunelleschi, 21/42 bruneni, j. l., 26/20; 28/6, 30, 31; 29/12, 29, 21; 30/1 bryden, d. j., 27/10 buck, fred, 24/22 buffon, 23/21 bull, 23/20 bull, e. c., 25/21 bull, c. s., 22/12 bull metacarpal, 28/14 burchardt, jerzy, 23/16-17 burning mirror, the, 26/21 bums, qeorge, 25/28 burow on diopters, 21/46 butler, paul, 2717 byzantine era, 21115 cagnolati, wolfgang, 22118 calcium and cataract, 22/16 california berkeley, university of, 30/15 california college of optometry, 23/32 california optometric association, 23/27, 32; 30/15 california optometry act, 23/25 california state association of opticians, 30/15 california state association of optometrists, 28/18 campbell, melanie, c.w., 22/12 campbell, 0. m., 27/31 canada, 23/13-14; 25/20; 26/27 canada congress in optometry, 24/17 candles, spermaceti, 21/13 canes with optical devices, 29/4 canterbury university, 21145 card, greeting, 26/14 card, spectacle greeting, 21/46 carden, d., 29/14 cards, greeting, 26/5 cards, trade, 23/13; 25/29 "caribbean", 22/13 carl zeiss foundation, 27/6 carl zeiss foundation jena, 21/48 carlson, patricia, 21125, 28-29; 23/23;28/1; 29/1; 30/1 carr, richard, 29/5 carter, r. b., 25/19 carter, robert, 21112-13 cartoons, promotional, 22/46-47 case history, early; 24/28 cases, eyeglasses, 26/20 cases, early chinese spectacle, 30/20 cases, spectacle, 25/19 30/32 casser, linda, 23/45; 24/12-15 cassettes, interview, 26/4 castle dillon, 23/14 catalogs, sears & harrods catalogues and books, 26/6-7 cataract history, 23/5 cataract surgery, 23/13; 25/19 cataract treatment, 25/30 cataracts, 21134 cataracts in 1927, 22/13-14 cataracts in 1938, 22/14-15 cataracts in 1945, 22/15-16 cataracts, spectacles for, 28/26 cathay legenda, 28/12 cathedral florence, 21/4 cayea, j.g., 29/23 cedar point, 24/21 central technical school, toronto, 26/27 chamblant lens, 21/21 chamblant of paris, 3017 chamblant, marie-nicolas-joseph, 21/46 chanterie, guenon de la, 22/3 charged water, 27/11 charlatans, ocular, 22/2-5 charles hass & son, 23/26 charlatanism, 28/10 charlatans, 28/27 charms, healing, 22/5 chart, test, 25/9 chase, walter, 22/26, 27; 23/10, 23, 24; 28/1; 29/1, 4, 14; 30/1 chaucer, geoffrey, 23/8 chauliac, guy de, 22/2 "cheerful plowman, the", 22/37 cherington, w. s., 28/17 cheshire study, 29/18 chevalier of tadiny, 22/2 chicago college of ophthalmology, 24/26 chicago college of ophthalmology and otology, 29/19 chicago college of optometry, 24/12; 29119,20 chidicock, lady katherine, 2112 chidicock, sir john, 2112 chile, 24/11 chilton's review of optometry, 22/31; 23/12 chinese, 27/3 chinese invention of spectacles, 23/17 chinese painters, 21141 chinese spectacles, 23/2-3; 25/19 chinese term for optometrist, 27/15 chou, b. ralph, 22/12 christchurch priory, 2112 christensen, jerry, 23/10, 37; 28/25 christie's, 24/1; 2517; 27/4 christie's in london, 23/11 chromaray, 27/11 chromo therapy, 27111 church, santa maria maggiore, 2114 church times, the, 21/24 cilium, 26/15 city university, london, the, 2119 clark, b. t., 21/44 clark, ronald, 21115 classe, j. g., 28112 clausen, larry r., 30/11 clemens, s., 27/6 clockdial test for astigmatism, 29/12 clore gallery, 22/50 clouants, 21130 "cluants", 24/27 coady, cliff, 28/24 cobb, p. w., 23/10 coccius, 23/21 cock, c., 25116 coddington, h., 26/8 30/33 coi, almer, 29/12 cohen, g. b., 23/39 cohen, gilbert, 26/14 cohn, theodore, 30/16 coins, 22/10; 2511 coins and medallions, 22/34-35 coins, spectacles on, 21/25; 28/22 cole, b. l., 22/17 colegio nacional de opticosoptometristas, 25/14 collectible ophthalmic items, 21/43 collecting antiques, 25/28; 26/21 collection, antique, 23/4 collectors club, 22/50 college of optometric vision development, 22/34 college of optometrists in vision development, 22/35 college of optometry of canada, 26/27 college of optometry of ontario, 26/27; 28/5 college of saint-come, 22/2 collier, howard, 27/22 collyria, 22/9 colombian stamp, 23/19 colonial optometry, 28/2 color blindness, 25/4 color in. eyewear, 26/28 color theory, goethe's, 23/5-7 color therapy, 27/11, 14 color vision, 29/14 colorado optometric association centennial, 23/12 colored lenses, 28/26 columbia history of the world, 21/37,41,42 columbia university, 21/4; 23/4, 11, 27; 24110; 25/8, 22; 28116, 30; 30/5 columbus technical institute, 27/22 complutence university in madrid, 25/15 concave lenses, early, 22/48-49 congress, asian pacific optometry, 26/23 congress, library of, 23/33 conspicilla, 23/39 contact lens, 2119-10 contact lens, three mirror; 30/22 contact lenses, 21146; 22/6; 30/19 contacts, plastic molded, 23/14 "continental" education pattern, 27/25 convent of s:a maria, 22/29 coolidge, calvin, 25/28; 30/5 copiopia, 21136 correspondence course, 21114; 24/25-26; 30/5 corrie, rev. mr., 21121 corson, r., 26/6 cort, eric van, 26/19 costs, spectacle, 28/29 course, correspondence, 21/14; 24/25-26 couching cataracts, 22/2 court case, markham v wood, abraham, 27/25 court case, spanish, 25/15 court, t., 24/3, 5 cox, george, 27/31 cox, jim, 28/23 cox, maruice, 22/41; 27/29 cozzens, charlie, 27/30 cramer, dr. w. r., 21/5 crisp, w., 21115-16 critchett, g. a., 25/19 crosby,james,30/16 cross, a. j., 21123; 27/30; 30/4 crossan, j. d., 29/16 cross-eyedness beautiful, 22/13 crossed cylinders, 24/5 crossed cylinders test, 26/15 30/34 crossed cylindrical lenses, 21146 crow, g., 23/42, 44 crusades, 26/21 cuff, john, 30/19 cuignet, f., 26118 cultists, 21/36 curriculum, early, 30/9 curriculum, optometry, 21/2-3 curry & paxton, 27/4 curtis, don l., 27/22 curtis, edward, 26/32 curtis motion target, 26/32 cylinders, crossed, 26115 cylindricallense, 22/9 cycloplegic, use of, 24/26 czechoslovakia, 24110 d dablemont, a., 2817 dab lemont, earl, 22/1; 26/26; 2817 dablemont, edward, 26/26 dablemont, maria, 2211; 22/41; 23/25; 26/25; 27/18; 2817 daca de valdez, 22/38; 2417, 24; 27/3,4, 27; 28/26 dachino, 22/2 daguerreotype, 24/23 daily courant, 22/50 dallmeyer, 24/2 dallos, j;, 28/13 dalton, john, 29/14 damasio, a., 28/16 damianus, 24/15; 25/17 danti, ignace, 25/17 d' arcy, dan, 28/18 darrah, w. c., 24/23 dartmouth eye institute, 23/31 d' artois, comte, 22/2 database, lion, 21128-29 davidson, d.c., 21/43, 44; 24/1; 2517, 29; 26/22; 27/4, 7, 12; 28/29 davidson, f., 28/13 da vinci, leonardo, 22/6 davis, audrey, 26/14 davis, cath, 2217 davis, frank owen, 2217 davis, herman, 23/29 deboer, j. b., 23/11 debruyne, w. j., 22/39 de chauliac, guy, 22/2 degrees in optometry, 27/21 de jaeger, e., 29/6 de la hire, philippe, 22/6 del verchio, m., 28/14 delaunay, paul, 22/2 delftware, 23/39 del vecchio, l., 24/1 de l'isle-adam, v., 26/30 de maisonneux, mahe, 22/2 de mesquita, j., 25/23 de mille, agnes, 23/46 democritus, 30/8 dentistry, 24/11 depression, great, 27/17; 23/30 descartes, 28/16; 30/8 devlyn, f., 28/12 de solla price, d. j., 27/10 detroit optical institute, 21/41 deuteranopia and dna, 29/16 deutsche optiker zeitung, 21/35 deutsch optische wochenschrift, 22/19; 24/10; 25/1 deutsches museum, 2617 deutsches museum in munich, 21134-35; 22/50 devalois, karen, 30/18 de valois, russell, 30/18 30/35 devriendt, j., 2411; 28/13 dewey, t., 26/4 dezeng refractometer, 24/30 depene, r., 23/10 dercartes, rene, 21/8, 9, 14; 22/6 de schweinitz, george, 21132 diagnostic pharmaceutical agents, 30/25 diagnostic therapeutic agents, 30/25, 26 diamond, harold, 29/4 diamondopoulou-drummond, a. h., 28/13 diaz, maria, 26/25 dickenson, c., 29/14 dickenson, frank, 22/18 dickey, john, 29/2 dickson, 25119 dickson, j. e., 22/41 dickson, j. f., jr., 23/2-3 dictionary of scientific biography, 21/8 "die brille", 21124 diet for cataract, 22/15 diopter, 24/24 diopters, 24/30; 27/3 dioptric power notation, 21146 dioptric review, 25/9 dioptrics, 29/14 dioptry, prism, 22/31 dior, christian, 26/29 diplopia, 24/24 directory, optometric, 27/14 dis aile, michael, 27/20 dispensing opticians, 25/11 dispensing techniques, 26/29 distasi, l., 25/12 dixey, e., 27/12 district of columbus, 30/5 dna and deuteranopia, 29/16 doctor of optics diploma, 29/19 doctor of optometry degree, 23/29; 27/21; 30/11, 16 doctor title, 25117, 22; 30/5 dolland, 22/31; 25/31; 28/26 dolland aitchison museum, 22/50 dominion contact lens laboratory, 23/14 donatello, 21/42 donders, f. c., 2116, 32; 23/15, 18, 20; 25/4, 21; 26118; 27/3; 28/6; 29/12; 3on donders' book, 23/5 d'orleans, due, 22/2 dowaliby, margaret, 21129; 22/20, 48; 23/9 doyle, a. c., 25/3 dp a see diagnostic phannaceutical agents dragon with spectacles, 27112 drain, mike, memorial, 22/35 drankler, albertina drugs in optometric education, 23/9 drugs, use of, 30n druiff, stanley, 22/31 duchess of kent, 27/12 duke of wellington, 27/4 dulles, 26/5 duncan diary, 23/44 duncker, j. h. a., 25/25; 27/4 dundes, a., 25/12 dunscombe,m. w.,28/13 duopal bifocals, 26/8 durban-westville, university of, 28/24 durer, albrecht, 21/42 dutch gujld, 24n d'vorine, israel, 22/41 dynasty, rodinstock, 23/5 dyslexia, 26/20; 27/24 east west eye conference, 1999, 30/22 bade, thomas, 21/27 30/36 eadon-allen, stuart, 22/31; 23112; 25n "eastern" educational pattern, 27/25 eastlake, sir charles lock, 23/6 eaton, a., 26/9 eberhardt, j. c., 24118; 26/17; 30/4 ecker, w., 22/39 eco, umberto, 21115 edgar, c., 24118 edgar, d. f., 21/9 edmondson, linda l., 23/36 edmonston, a., 29/3 educational models, 27/25 eggleston, edward, 22/37-38 egypt, 25/20 egypt, first century optometry in, 29/16 egyptian lenses, ancient, 30/21 eidola, 29/13 election results, 22/13 elizabeth ville, 24/22 elliott, g. c., 21135 ellipsoid lens surfaces, 30/25 elvin, ferd, 30/16 emerson, william, 2116 empedocles, 29/13 "english" educational pattern, 27/25 enoch, jay, 2114-5; 21/27; 22/17,28, 29, 41; 2311-2; 28/28; 29/23, 24; 30118,24 "entres a veugles", 23/21 eponyms, 27 n epsilon psi epsilon, 23/4; 25/8 erisman, m., 23/45; 24/12-13 ernest, e. a., 27111 eskimo, 27/3 esperanto, 23/22 essilor espana, 27/27 etiquette and spectacles, 28/3 euclid, 29113 "european" educational pattern, 27/25 evans, b. c., 26/29 evil eye, 22/36-37; 23/36; 25/12-13 ewalt, h. ward, 21/46 examination procedures, early, 24/27 executives' magazine, the, 21139 exemption licensure, 21116-17; 22/10-11 exercises, eye, 21/36 experimentation, early, 30/18 extra mission theory of vision, 28/30; 29/4, 13 eye color, 25/26 "eye following illusion" model, 30/21 eye training, 21/36 eyebaths, 24/1; 28/12 eyebrow, eyelash, and eyelid, 26/15 "eye culture", 21135-36 eyecups, 24/2 eyeglass, 28/12 eyeglass iconography, 28/29 eyeglasses, 24/3; 25/21; 27/2 eyeglasses and art, 21148 eyeglasses, bar spring, 28/20 eyes, sore, treatments for, 24/21 eyesight survey corporation, 21139 eyewash, 22/4 eyewear, 21143; 25/23 eyewear, antique, 2111 eyewear, fashion, 26/28 eyewear history, 27/8 eyewear style, 25/28 ezell, wm. c., fellowship, 21122 fair, rodney d., 23/12 fairbanks, paul, 23/17 fairish, hunter dickenson, 21/12 fascinum, 25/12 fashion, 24/3 30/37 fashion eyewear, 26/28 fashions in eyeglasses, 26/6 fawcett, novice g., 27/21 fawkes, r. a., 26115 fee, optometric, 30/3 fees, ancient, 21142-43 feinberg, richard, 29/20 fellowships, ezell, 21122 female students, 30/18 fermat, pierre de, 2118 ferree, j., 24/19 ferry, a. p., 28/20 "fests", 30/18 fick, adolf eugen, 22/6 fick' s axis, 22/45 file, harold, 23/14 filius thuringorum et polonorum, 2117 fink, wolfgang, 21135 finland association, 23112 fire in the eye, 29/13 fire of london, great, 25/32 firma trothe-optik, 26/15 fischer, andrew, 27/29 fisher, e. j., 2111, 10, 16-17,43, 44-45; 22/41; 23/37; 25/19; 27/24, 27; 27/28; 28/20 fisher, ralph, 27/22 fisher, ted, 23/13-14 fitch, albert, 23/37; 28112; 30/25 fithian, philip vickers, 21112-14 flanders, 25/18 flax, nathan, 28/23 flick, c. s., 21/24 flick, j. f., 25/25 flom, merton, 30/16, 17 florence cathedral, 21/4 flugle, evil eye, 25/13 flynn, frank, 30/19 focal length in inches, 25/16 focoray, 27/11 folklore, ocular, 26/29 folsum, laurence, 22/37 forbes, 26/19 ford, j. ottis, 27/21 forlenze, 22/3 forster, john, 21/2 foundation, carl zeiss, 21118, 39,41 four seasons game, the, 26/5-6 fourteenth century spectacles, 21115 fox, ivan, 21132 fame, trial, 25/9 frames in 14th century, 27112 frames, spectacle, 25/27; 27/3 france, 24/10 france, ophthalmology in, 21120 francesca, piero della, 21/42 frank, arthur, 2717; 28112; 29/2 franklin, ben, selling spectacles, 21/15 franklin, benjamin, 21121, 28, 32; 24/31-32; 25/28; 27/3; 28/4; 30/8 franklin bifocal, 26/22 franklin, friends of, inc., 24/32 fraternity history, 23/4 fraternities, 25/18 frauds, advertising, 27/32 fraunhofer, 21140; 23/40 frederick williams, iii, 27/4 freeman, eugene, 29/20 freeman, r. a., 25/3 freeman1 ralph, 30116 freitag, mary, 26115 french court case: odin, 22/38 french eyecare 1800, 22/1 french history of eyewear, 28/35 friang, waldemar, 22118 fried, allan, 30/16 friedenwald, h., 23118 friedenwald, j. s., 29/3 30/38 friedman, g. b., 24/24 friends of franklin, inc., 24/32 frier, michael, 29/17 frontier spectacles, 22/37-38 fry, g. a., 22/43; 24/17; 27/21; 28/15; 30/22 fry, glenn a., building, 27/20 fryer, colin b., 22/30; 23119; 25/29; 26/21; 2717; 28112, 29; 29/2, 22; 30119 fuller, f. l., 28/18 fuller, j. osborn, 27/21 fuller of ipswich, 21146 ful vue, frames, 29/21 fund vom nonnenchor, der, 27/12 fuog, h., 23/44; 28117 furth, 25/18 gabriel, lynn, 21/29; 22/20,48 gage, nicholas, 22/36-37 galst, jaym., 21/25; 25/19; 26/20; 28/20 garraty, john a., 21137 game with spectacles, a, 26/5-6 gamma omega phi, 25/8 garcia sanchez, julian, 27/27 garver, thomas h., 23/36 gatlin, nancy, 21125, 28-29 gauger, g. e., 30/13 gauss, c. f., 30/8 gay, peter, 21137 gaynes, florence and ernest, 21139; 23/39 general optical council, 25/11 genth, c.,. 29/3 geometric optics, 27/19 geometric perspective, 21/41 george.~ng,21/44 george, ii, 28112 girald-teulon, 29/6 german optics, 2114 german optometry, 22/18 german stamp, 23119 german trade cards, 28/14 germany, 24/5, 10; 2511, 18; 26/31; 27/4 germany, east, 23/41 germany, west, 23/41 gesell, arnold, 29118 gesell institute, 29/18 gesnerus, 23/45 geyer, hans-ulrich, 22/18 ghent bird, 27/2, 12 giambalvo, v., 23/42 giambattista della porta, 21/15 giles, g. h., 25/10, 11 gilligan, john, 27/22 gilseman, michael p., 23/14-15 glare symposium, 23/10-11 glass, 27/2 glass lenses, 28/20 glasses, antique scissors, 21/1 gleize, oculist, 22/2 goethe, j. w. von, 22/19-20; 23/5-7; 28114 golden, j. w., 22/39, 43 golden, r. c. memorial, 23/12 goldmann, hans, perimetry, 30/21 goldsmith, oliver, 21/24; 28115 goodlaw, e., 23/41 goodrich, samuel, 28/3 gordon, donald, 26/15 gordon, l., 24/3 goss, david, 21/1, 11; 22/26, 27; 23/23, 36, 39; 2717; 28/1, 6; 29/5; 30/24 gosset, 22/3,4 gotland, sweden, 30/25 gotz & hannelore remus, 21138; 22/33 gould, 23/42 30/39 govan (gobham, gobban, gouan), saint, 28114 grad, 24/24 gradle, h. s., 28/23 grado, 21146 graefe, von, a., 23/20; 25/4; 26/18 graham, m., 23/46 graham, robert, 21/29; 22/10, 41, 48; 28/30 granada university, 25/15 grand army of the republic, 28/6 grand rapids wholesale opticians, 22/43-44 grandfather clause, 21116-17 grassy, oculist, 22/3 great britain, 25/9 great fire, london, 24/6 greece, 25/20 greece, the evil eye in, 22/36-37 greelrichard,29/22 greek visual science, 25/17 green, ralph h., 30/10 gregg, j. r., 22/41; 25/23 grinder, lens, 27/9 grisham,david,30/16 "gross of green spectacles", 21124; 28/15 grosseteste, robert, 29/13 grosvenor, theodore, 21/45; 22/7; 23/23; 2717; 2911; 3011 grout, g., 26/9 grout, j. h., 26/9 guenveur, r. l., 21147 guild medals, 25/18 guild minutes, 2.5/31 guild of dispensary opticians, 24/11 guild, silk & textile, 25/18 guild, turners, 25116 guilds, 24/3-5; 25/21 guilds, spectacle makers, 26/27 gullstrand, a., 25/21; 26/8; 29/1 gunther, j., 26/3 gurvis, sandra, 22/43 guth, s. k., 23/11 guthrie, g. j., 29/3 guyana, 22114 hass, charles & son, 23/26 haegerstrom-portnoy, g., 30/18 haffner, alden n., 22/34; 23/10, 23; 25/22; 2717; 28/16 hagley museum, 21/21 haine, charles, 2111, 11; 22/25, 26, ' 27; 23/23, 24; 28/1; 29/1;30/1 hajnosz, jan, 23/15-16 halberg, g. peter, 27/15 hale, otis r., 22/46-47 half eyes, half glasses, 26/22 hall, clifford, 22/18 halley, edmund, 27/9 · hamer, j., 25/9 hamilton college, 23/28 hammon, j. h., 2115 hammurabi, 21/42 handicapped care, visually, 23/9 hardy keratometer, 23/36-37 hardy, w. e., 25/9 harmonp chrome therapy, 27115 harold kohn library, 24/9 harrigan, robert, 39/16 harriman, w. a., 26/4 harrington, robert, 30/16 harris, lester j., 22/39 harris, michael, 30/16 harris, p. c., 24/18 harrods catalogs 30/40 hartinger coincidence refractometer, 27116 hasik, jan m., 2118 haskell, m. w., 30115 hauptverbandes der deuschen optikervereinigungen, 24110 hawkins, j. t., 21146 hawkins, squire, 22/37-38 hawksbill turtle, 2517 hagan, edward, 28/3 heard, thomas m., 28/6 hearn, 27/28 heath, g. g., 26/20; 30/17 heather, w. j., 27/29 hebbard, f. w., 22/43; 27/22; 30117 hebbard, f. w., medal, 27/20 heliodorus of larissa, 24/25; 25/17; 26/20 hellenistic artists, 21/41 helmholtz, h. von, 22/30; 23/5, 15, 20, 21, 45; 25/4; 26/18; 26/3, 15, 18 helmholtz on acuity, 22/45 helmholtz physiological optics, 22/46 helmholtz, von, book, 22/35-36 helmholtz's axis, 22/45 hendrickson, h., 27/8 henker, otto, 26/8 henkes, h., 28/14 henning, william, 27/15 henry, ~,27/3, 7 henry ~helmet, 28/15 hinshelwood, j., 27/24 hering, e., 26118 hermes,karl,22/18 herrin, stan, 22/31 herve, saint, 28/13 hessen-kassel, court of, 22/49 "het oog wil ook wat'', 23/17; 25/18; 26/4 hicks, clayton, 30/24 hill, emory, 25/21 hill, richard, 21/2' 30117,24 hilmer, councillor von, 22/2 hilmer, oculist, 22/4 hindsight, 22/41 hire, philippe de la, 22/6 hirsch, j. monroe, 23/30; 30117 hirsch, m. j. and winifred, 23/9 hirschberg, julius, 21118-20; 22117; 25/4, 20, 22; 26/18 hirschberg, vol. 9, 23/17-18 hispano-america, 25/20 "history of ophthalmology", 21/32; 22/17 "history of ophthalmology", vol. 9, 23/17-18 hitler, a., 22/18 hoare, a., 23/41,42, 43-45; 28/17 hobson,jack,30/16 hochstadt, otto, 30/10 hoebeke, editions, 21/30 hoeft, wayne, 23/9 hoffman, e. t. a., 26/30 hofstetter, h., 21/11, 37-38; 22/25, 27, 41, 50;23/15,23,24,37,39;24/12, 15; 25117; 26/20, 27/30; 28/4; 30/12, 22, 23 hofstetter, h., on educational models, 27/25 hofstetter, henry, on optometric history, 27/17 hofstetter recognition award, 2111 hofstetter symposium, 2717 holladay, l. l., 23/11 holland, 24/10 holland, allen c., 22/15 holmgren, 25/21 homatropine, use of, 24/26 honduras, optometry in, 28/8 hong kong polytechnic, 26/23 hooke, robert, 27/9; 28115; 29/6 hoolihan, christopher, 29/23 hoosier school-master, the, 22/37-38 30/41 hoosier star-light, 21122-23 hopkinson, r. g., 23111 hopping, richard, 28117; 30/24 hom spectacles, 28/14 horton, j. j., 21/5 hospital eye service, 25/10 hotaling, e. e., 21/23 houghton, j., 27110 howe, lucien, 29/3 hubbell, 0., 24/18 hugh of provence, 25/28 hungary, 24/10 humanists concept of color, 23/5-7 hummel, d. j., 22/37 humphreys, colonel, 28/2 "hundert jahre kontaktlinse"; 22/6 hutchinson, e., 28117 hutchinson, j., 25119 hutchinson, j. & s. & c., 28/17 hutchinson, joseph b., 27/22 huygens, christiaan, 2118, 9; 30/8 hydrophthalmia,22/9-10 hyperacuity, 30/21 hyperopia, 25/27 i lab see international association of boards of examiners in optometry iconography, 28/29 iconography, spectacle, 21/48 ilamo see international library, archives, and museum of optometry ilamo visionlink, 21129-30; 22/20; 23/9 ilardi, vincent, 22/48 ilg, frances, 29118 illinois association of optometrists, 21/33 illinois college of optometry, 26/10 illinois college of optometry history, 29/19 illiteracy and perspective, 21142 image technology, 22/18-19 imperial college, 21/3 implants, orbital, 28/20 incandescent lamps and glare, 23/10 independent optical wholesalers association, 28/6 india, 24/22 indian eyes, american, 23/36 indian optician, 22/46; 23/5 indiana optical organization, 25/30 indiana optometric association, 23/45; 24112-15 indiana optometry law, 24/14 indiana university, 23115, 23; 24/22-23 indiana university optometry library, 27/23 indianapolis star, 21122 indians, american, 28/9 indians' blink game, 27113 indians' perspective vision, 27113 indians' spectacles, 27114 industrial vision screening, 21/39 industry, optical, 23/13 institute of optics, 21/3-4 institute of optometrists of new zealand, 2217 instrument makers guild, 27/9 insurance, health, in germany, 26/31 insurance, ophthalmic services, 25/9 inter american university, 23/23,2417 international association of boards of examiners, 26/15; 28/27 international federation of optometry schools, 30/10 international library, archives, and museum of optometry, 21/5, 12, 30; 22/20, 46, 48; 23/9, 39; 25/18; 26/25 international optical league, 25/9, 11 30/42 international optometric and optical . league, 22/38.,.39; 24/9-11, 21; 25/1, 13; 27/26 international optometric and optical league and american optometric association, 25/24 international optometric and optical league, 22/38-39 international society for philosophical inquiry, 26113 interprofessional competition, 30/6 interpupillary distance, 24/30 interviews, living history, 22/48 invention of eyeglasses, 21/5 inventor of spectacles, 2311-2 iridiagnosis (iridology), 29/22 iris color irlen method, 26/20 iron duke, 27/4 italy, 25/18 italy, ophthalmology in, 22/17 itinerant peddlers, 27/32 itinerant physicians, 22/2 .i j.p. wayneborgh verlag, 22/17 jaanus, siret, 23/9 jackson, e., 24/5; 26/15 jacksonian optical college, 22/39-40 jager, 25/21 jagiellonian university, 23/15 james, clive, 28/31 janssen, z, 25/18 japan, 25/20 japan, spectacles in, 23/10 japanese painters, 21141 jarrot, carolyn, 27/29 laval, e., 26118 laval, jacob, laval, leopold, 23119 laval's blindness, emile, 23/13, 19-22 laval's name, orgin of, 23/19 jefferson, thomas, 2115; 25/5; 26/22 lena, 23/39-40 jena exhibition catalog, 28114 jena influence, 25111 jena museum, 27/4 jena review (1956-1991), 26/8 jena school chartered, 26/8 lena, university of, 21140 jessen, george, award, 22/40 jewel lenses, 2912 jeweler opticians, 30/5 jewelry, 24/2 jewelry on spectacle, 26/28 johnnie walker label, 28/4 johns hopkins wilmer institute, 23/42 johnson,frank,30/16 joliot freres, 22136 joseph, h., 24/2 joshitaka okuchi, 23/19 journal of the american medical association, 22112 journal of optometric vision development, 22135 journal of the american optometric association, 22112, 36 journal of the association of schools and colleges of optometry, 23110 journal of the california optometric association, 23/32 journal of the history of medicine, 2115 journal of the texas optometric association, 21/31 journal (optical), 30/3 30/43 i over, narciso pascual, 27/27 joyce, james, 25/28 jull, douglas, 25/30 jurin, j., 29/16 kalder, dieter, 25/26 kaleidoscope, 21/21-22; 26119 kallman, herbert, 30/15 kane,martin,22/35 kalt, eugene, 21/9 kansas city school of optometry, 29/20 kanthack, r., 21139; 23/40 kapemik, geo. f., 20/18 kara, gerald, 30111 karol marcinkowski academy of medicine, 23/17 kassel museum, 22/49 katrallenses, 26/8 kave, willi, 22118 keating, (see koetting), 22184 kedzia, boleslaw, 23/15 keeler, c. r., 22149 kelly, donald h., 22118-19 kennedy, john f., glasses, 22133 kennedy, robert, glasses, 22/33 kepler, johannes, 2117, 9; 26/8; 28/26; 29/14; 30/18 keratoconus care, 2119-10 keratometer, 25/9 keratometer, hardy, 23/36-37 kerr, kenton, 30/16 ketchum, m. b., 28/17 ketchum, w ., 28117 keystone magazine, 24/26 kiekenapp, e., 24/11 kilton, a. a., 21134; 22/13-14 kingslake, hilda & randolph, 2113-4 king, george, 21144 kinney, w. m., 28118 kinsey institute for sex research, 28/19 kipling, rudyard, 26/29; 28/19 kircher, 28/23 kissinger, henry, 25/28 kitchener, greg, 28/23 kitchner, w., 21136 klein, august a., 30/9 klein, e., 24/18 klein, herman l., 30/9 klein school of optics, 30/9 klein, stanley, 30/18 klein, theodore, 30/9 klinika oczna, 23/16 kloevekom-norgall, d., 26/15 knights of hospitallers, 28114 knights of rhodes, 28114 koetting, felix a., 21/39; 22/34; 23/2 koetting, john, 29/23 koetting, r. a., 28/31 kohn, harold, 24/9 "kojemaakarista optikoksi", 23112 konkola, d., 24/21-22 korea, optical monthly of, 2115 kors, kermit, 30/16 kortland, kees, 23/4, 17; 24/8; 25/29; 2617 kowalczyk, bridget, 21/1, 11, 37; 22/25-26, 41, 50; 28/1; 29/1; 3011 kozol, frank, 30/10 kratocul~tor, 22/45 kratometer, 22/45 kratzer, b. j. l., 25/22 kripalani, m., 26/19 kriegsmann, j., 28/14 kryptok bifocal, 29112 kuchler, 29/9 kuchler, henri, 29/6 kuhl prism refractometer, 27/16 30/44 kuhne, willy, 26/30 kuisle, a., 2617 kumar, s. l., 22/46 kussmaul, 27/24 l lakhtakia, akhlesh, 21/8 ladies home journal, 23/42 landacre, prof., 24/19 landolt, e., 23/20; 25/21; 26/18 landon, harry, 27/29 lane, e. a., 30/5 larissa, 24/15 larissa, heliodorus of, 25/17 latin visual science, 25/17 latvia, 24111 lausche, frank, 27/20 law, indiana optometric, 24/14 lawrence radiation laboratory, 23/31 lawrence, william, 21/6 laws, enactment of optometric, 28/11 laws of hammurabi, 21142 lazarus, robert, 27/21 leach, a., 29/3 lead acetate, 28/9 lear, mr., 28/2 leamed,janet,29/18 leason, d., 25/9 leather spectacles, 26/21 lee, j. c. k., 26/23 leeds, james, 21114, 23, 32, 24; 22/13, 15, 39, 43; 2317, 19-22; 24/25, 31; 25/22; 26/20; 27/11, 23; 28/10, 20 legal actions affecting optical industry, 29/21 legal status of optometry, 26/31 legends, optical, 28/12 legislation, 26/23 legislation, early, 25/30 leigh, vere, 26/3 lembke, charles, 30/4 lens, crossed cylinders, 26/15 lens, chamblant, 21/21 lens, contact, 2119-10 lens, first, 27/2 lens grinder & polisher, 27/9 lens-grinding machine, 25/29 lens is not a pill, a, 24/16 lens, meniscus, 27/3 lens power, 25/26 lens power designation, 24/30 lens power units, 24/24 lens shapes, 2117 lens, stanhope, 26/20 lenses, azurlite, 23/13 lenses, blue tinted, 23/13 lenses, cataract, 26/8 lenses, chamblant, 21136 lenses, blue, 21134 lenses, burning, 29/13 lenses, colored, 22/9; 25/26; 28/26 lenses, concave and convex, 22/9 lenses, croned cylindrical, 21146 lenses, glass, 28/20 lenses, gotland antique, 30/25 lenses, periscopic, 21146 lenses, stanhope, 25/29 lenses, katral, 26/8 lenses, meniscus, 27/32 lenses, periscopic, 26/8; 27/32 leonardo da vinci, 2117, 42, 46; 22/6; 27/2 lesser, s., 23/44 lester, robert, 30/16 letocha, charles, 21115, 21, 22, 29; 22/30, 35-36, 49; 23/37; 25/19; 30/45 26/6-7, 14, 21; 27/3; 28/13; 30/12 leucippus, 29/13 levasseur of lemans, 22/2 levene, john r., 21121; 22/41; 2617 levi, a., 2217 levoy, m. b., 26/20, 28 levy, g. b., 23/41 lewis and clark, 28/9 lewis, alan, 30/24 lewis, t. l., 28/12 l'habitant, dr., 22/3 library, american optometric association, 26/25 library and museum, muth, 26/16 library at indiana university, 24/23 library of congress, 23/33 licensure by exemption, 21116-17; 22/10-11 lichty, h. l., 25/17 lierman, e. c., 28110 light, theory of, 29/13 lightin~ and lamps, 22/9 lighting research institute, 23/10-11 lights, windows, 21113 lincoln, abraham, 23/33-36; 25/5, 19 lingelbach, bernd, 30/24 linnell, 27/12 lion database, 21/28-29 lipperhey, h., 25/18 listing's axis, 22/45 lit, alfred, 30/12 literacy and perspective, 21142 literary reference to optics, 23/8 literature references to spectacles, 21/24 litsinger, g. g., 26/17 littel, squire, jr., 29/3 little, j., 26/9 living history cassettes, 23/4 llardi, vincent, 28/20 lobe, ear, and fetus, 22/48 lockwood, r. m., 21123 loeb, carl, 27/15 lohmann, w., 22/38; 24110; 25/1 london, 24/5; 25/26 london bridge, 25/32 london, great fire of, 2414; 25/32 london stone, the, 25/32 looking glasses, 28/9 lopez, guido, 22/49 lorgnettes, 21/43; 23/13; 25/29; 26/20 los angeles college of optometry, 23/14; 25/23; 28/17 los angeles school of optometry, 23/11; 28/17 louis xvi, 22/2 lovo, g., 28/8 lowe, jessie, 28/17 luckiesh, m., 21/6 lunectes, 21/30 lunette, 25/3 lunettes, 21/30 luxembourg, 24/11 luxottica museum, 28/14 lyle, william, 23/23; 25/12; 27/7, 24 lyle, william, as soldier, 28/5 lynch, t. p., 28115 m maasen, j. h., 22/15-16 macarthur, d., 25/28; 26/5 macdonald, l. w., 26/19 macgregor, r. j. s., 21/43,44;22/30; 23/3-4, 11; 24/1, 2; 2517, 28; 26/21, 24; 27/4, 5, 12; 28/12, 23; 29/3 maclay, william, 28/2 madrid gazette, 25/14 30/46 magnifiers, 28/23 magnifying glass, 28/9 maine optometry law, 24/26 maisonneux, mahe de, 22/2 maitre-jan, antoine, 21136 majer, j., 23/15-16 mal occhio, 25112 maloine, a., 28/25 maloney, c., 25112 malpractice suit, 1910, 21110 mandell, robert, 30/16, 17, 18 manhattan eye and ear hospital, 30/2 manitoba, university of, 28/5 mann, h. h., 2617 mann, ida, 28/13 mann, james, 25/31; 30/19 mann, thomas,30/19 mann, it, james, 30/19 maples, w. c., 30/24 marco polo, 21121; 23/2; 25/19; 27/2 marfan' s syndrome, 23/33-34 marg, elwin, 28/16; 30/16, 17 margolin, jean-claude, 21130-31 margoten, j., 24/27 margulis, m. i., 25/23 markham vs. wood, abrahams, 21110; 27/25 marly, pierre, 21130-31; 23/39; 24/1, 27; 2617, 20; 28/13 marquez,manuel,27/27 marroquin, pres., 23/19 marshall, e. c., 2717 marshall, edwin, 23/23 marshall, henry and atherton, 29/23 marshall, john, 22/50; 27/9 marshall, w. h., 26/20; 28/20 martin, abe, cartoons, 22/46-47 martin, benjamin, 21146 marzock, otto, 22/18 masaccio, 21/42 maseres, francis, 21/6 mason, fred, 23/25-33 mason, frederick l., 30116 massachusetts licensure, 30110 massachusetts school of optometry, 30/9; 30/11 master of optometry degree, 30/16 matthaei, rupprecht, 23/6 maximilian, emperor, 28115 mayan beauty, 22/13 maybee, w. g., 21/16 maynard, dr., of calcutta, 22/33 maxam, v., 21114-15 mayer, leo, 24111 mayer, thobias, 29/6 mcallister, john, 21/21, 22; 23118; 26/14, 22; 28/13; 3017 mcallisters, 21132 mccampbell, e., 24119 mccormick medical school, 30/5 mccormick neurological school, 30/5 mccormick optical college, 29/20 mccormick school, 26/11 mccullough, d., 2611 mcdonnell, c., 24/18 mcfatrick, dr., 26/9 mcfatrick, george, mcfatrick, j. b.,30/5 mcfatrick,james,29/19 mcguire, s., 26/9 mckee, m., 28/1; 29/1 mechem, c. s., 27/20 medal, ewalt, 21146 medallions, 22110 medals, guild, 25/18 medals, spectacles on, 21/25; 28/22 mediascope, 22116 medical opposition, 26/31 medical refractionists, 25110 30/47 meeting, annual, 22/25 meissner, roman k., 2118 melbourne, university of, 22116 meller, r. j., 25/9 mellor, valerie, 24/1; 26/21; 28/15,23 membership list, 22/13 memorial, jessen, 22/40 memorial lecture, neill, 21146 memorial, mike drain, 22/35 memorial, robert c. golden, 23112 memorial, skeffington! alexander, 23/10 meniscus lenses, 27/32 merry, eleanor c., 2317 merry, c. l., 30/5 mesquita, jay de, 25/23 messinger, v. s., 25/17 metal lux, 22/48 mexico, 28/12 miami indian, 27/13 microcomputers, 24/22 microscope, 25/18 mid-america vision conference, 22/35 middleburg, netherlands, 24/8; 25/18 miller, sheldon, 30/17 minor, ralphs., 30/15, 18 midwestern college of optometry, 29/20 migliores, leopoldo del, 22/28-30 miller, anistasia, 29/19 minor, ralph, 23/25-33 mesopotamia,21/42 michener, james a., 22/13 middle ages, 21135 milton's blindness, 26/20 miraculous beam, 21/2 missouri lions eye clinic, 23/4 mitchell, m., 26/24 models, optometric education, 27/25 modena, tommaso da, 25/28 moline, susan w., 30/9 molyneux, sir thomas, 23/14-15 molyneux, samuel, 22/5 molyneux, sir thomas, 22/5 molyneux, william, 2116 monacles, 21/43 monatsblat fur augenheilkunde, 23/10 "mondals", 24/22 monoyer, 23/20; 27/3 monoyer chart, 29/5,7,8 monoyer, f., and diopter, 21/46 monroe college of optometry, 29/20 moore & evans, wholesale jewelers, 22/45 moors, 21/40; 23/40 morand, oculist, 22/4 morch, 27/3 morgan, linda, 30/24 morgan, meredith, 21/1, 11, 37; 22/26, 27; 23/22, 24, 25; 21n; 30/16, 11, 22 morgenstern, christian, 27/6 mote, h. g., 27/20 mount rushmore, 25/5 mueller, johannes, 2116 mueller, kurt, 22/19 multifocals, first, 28/14 murine, 26/9 murine eye remedy company, 29119 murray,ian,29/14 museum,24n museum, american academy of optometry foundation, 26/14 museum at ohio state university, 22/43 museum, british optical association foundation, 21/44; 26/37 museum in munich, deutsches, 21134-35 museum in oberkochen, optisches, 21144 museum, marly, 24/27; 26/20 museum,muth,26/16 30/48 museum,mutter,21/32 museum of american history, national, 26114 museum, optical instruments, 28112 museum, puerto rico optometry museums,24/3;26/21 ~ushkenum,21/42 muth, eric p., 21/5, 7, 24, 27-28; 23/1i, 37-38; 25/2, 19; 26113, 22 muth library and museum, 26/16 mutter museum, 21/32 myddfai, 28/29 myers, ray, 28n myoculator,22/45 myopes, spectacles for, 22/48-46 myopia, 22/9; 25/4, 27; 27/2; 29/14 myopia correction, 24/26 myopia overcorrection, 27/32 myopia project in baltimore, 23/42 n achett, 25/2 nagel, a;, 25/21; 26/18 namias, foster, 30/10 napoleon, 23/19 napoleon's spectacles, 22/30,36 nash, ogden, 21124 national academy of opticianry, 28/24 national association of opticians, 30/3 national board of examiners in optometry, 28/28 national eye research foundation, 22/40 national geographic society, 23/2-3 national health insurance, 25/9 national museum of american history, 26/14 national optometry hall of fame, 30/22 national science foundation, 25/13 ·national society for visual & perception training, 22/35 national vision research institute, 23/5 naturopathic, 27115 neaman, j. s., 27/12 near east, 21/42 needles institute of optometry, 21114; . 23/44; 26/9, 10; 29/17, 20; 30/5 needles, lida, 26/9 needles, richard, 26/10; 29/20 needles, w. b., 21/14; 26/9, 11; 29/20; 30/5 neill, hugh, 29/3 neill, john e., 21/46 nelson, horatio, 23/12 nelson, lord, 22/30 nelson, samuel, 23111 nero, 27/2 nero's emerald, 28/25 netherlands, 24/4 netherlands museum tour, 28113 netherlands, the, 2417; 25118, 20 new england college of optometry, 30/9; 30/11 new york assembly optometry bill, 30/4 new york county medical society, 30/3 new york eye and ear infirmary, 30/2 new york historical society, 28/28 new york institute of optometry, 21123 new york legislation, 27/14 new york licensing, 22/11 new york, optical society of, 27/14 new york state optical society, 21/44 new york state optometric association, 30/6 new york, state university of, 25/22 new zealand, 21/45; 22/7; 26/22 new zealand optical association, 22/7 30/49 newcomb, robert, 30/22 newsletter of the oaicc, 22/49-50 newton, sir isaac, 21/8; 23/6; 27/3, 19; 30/8 newton, w. l., 26119 noble, e. m., 29/3 noe, e. h., 28117 norgall, e., 26115 northern lllinois college of ophthalmology and otology, 30/5 northern lllinois college of ophthalmology, otology & otolaryngology, 26/12 northern lllinois college of optometry, 26112; 27 /29; 30/5 ngagoyeanes,22/36 nicaragua, 28/8 nicholson, j. u., 23/8 nieman-marcus, 22/30,36 noriga, amarilis, 23/23; 2417 northern lllinois college, 21135 northern lllinois college of ophthalmology and optometry, 23/11 northern lllinois college of ophthalmology and otology, 29/19, 20 northern lllinois college of optometry, 29/20 northern rhodesia, 24/21 northwest journal of optometry, 27/24 nosch, thomas,22/18 noyes, a. m., 30/2 noyes, dr., 27/29 numismatic depictions, 21125 numont frames, 29/21 nun's choir, discover in, 27112 nuremberg, 27/3 numberg, 24/3; 25118,26 oaicc:_ (ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club) oberkochen, optical museum in, 21144 obrig laboratories, 23/14 obstfeld, henri, 23/11-12; 27112 occhiali da verdere, 2617 occhiena, e., 26/9, 11 octagon frames, 21128 ocular calisthenics, 21135-36 ocular healer, 22/4 ocular heritage society, 21/10, 11; 23/13, 19-22, 33-36, 39; 25/10; 26/19, 28; 2817,20 optometric historical society meeting, seattle, 30/21 "ocular sketches", 27/6 ocularscope, 22/43-44 oculists, french, 22/2 oculist's qualifications, 27/32 oculo-didactics, 21/35-36 oculometer, 22/45 odilio (othilio, ottilie, odile, odile), 29/22 odin court case, 22/38; 24/10 0-eye-0, 23/4; 25/8 0. g. degree, 22/39 ohio optometric association, 27 /20; 30/22 ohio state university, 21/46; 22/43; 23/4; 25/8; 27/17, 19; 30/5,24 ohio state university bulletin, 2112-3 ohio state university optometry museum, 22/45 ohio state university school of optometry, 24/17-21 ohio state optometric historical society and ocular heritage society, 21110 oklahoma extension program, 29/17 ohuchi, yoshitaka, 23/19 30/50 olin, henry, 29/19 omega delta, 25/8 omega epsilon phi, 25/8 orner (or otmar) saint, 28/13 omnifocal, 22/32 o'neil, c. w., 27/20 ontario, 26/27 ontario, canada, licensure ontario, college of optometry of, 26/27; 28/5 opera glasses, 21/30-31; 24/1; 28/13 ophthalmic antiques, 25/29; 27/4; 28/12 ophthalmic antiques collectors club, 21/43 ophthalmic antiques international collectors club extracts, 28/23 ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club, 23/3-4; 24/1-2; 2517, 28, 29; 26/20, 24; 2817, 12 ophthalmic antiques international collectors' club newsletter, 22/30, 49-50; 23/1112, 17, 18-19 ophthalmic industry, 26/28 ophthalmic industry history, 29/19 ophthalmic lens, 30/1 ophthalmic services in great britian, 25/9 ophthalmological degree ophthalmological society, american, 23/18 ophthalmologists, 25/11, 19 ophthalmology, 25/4, 15, 20; 26/18; 28/28 ophthalmology, classics in, 29/3 ophthalmology degree, bachelor of, ophthalmology degree, doctor of, ophthalmology degree, master of, 29/20 ophthalmology history by hirschberg, 21118-20 "ophthalmology, history of', 21/32; 22117 ophthalmology in france, 21120 ophthalmology in great britain, 22117 ophthalmology, relationship with, 25/1 ophthalmometer, javal and, 23/20 ophthalmometry, 26/18 ophthalmoscope, 25/4; 28/29 ophthalmagia, 21/36 ophthalmoscope, 26/21, 27/3 ophthalmoscope history, 22/36 ophthalmoscope, potter, 27/28 ophthalmoscope, projection, 28/20 ophthalmoscopes, 22/49; 23/45 opsiometer, 27/4 optical industry, 23/13; 25119 optical journal, 27/30 optical journal and review of optometry, 21/47; 27/29 optical laboratories association, 28/6 optical monthly of korea, 2115 optical organizations, 25/30 optical physiology, 23/15 optical review, the, 22/10 optical science, early, 27/19 optical society, the, 25/9 optical society of america, 2118; 22/46; 24/11 optical society of new york, 23/12; 27/14; 30/4 optical society of the state of new york, 30/6 optical wholesalers association, 28/6 opticians, the, 21146; 22/5; 23/18-19; 24/2; 25/2 opticians and photographers trade review, 24/30 opticianry in 1837, 28/3 30/51 opticians art of 1958, 25110 opticians association of america, 28/24 opticians association of america foundation, 26/16 opticians, non-refracting, 30/4 opticians' record book, 24/27 opticians, refracting, 26/11, 30/4 opticist, 30/1, 4 optico, spanish, 25/13 optics and javal, 23/20 optics, applied, 28/22 optics and photonics news, 22/18 optics, applied, 2112-3 optics, geometric, 27119 optics museum, 21134-35 optics museum, jena, 27/4 optics news, 2113, 8 optics, ophthalmic, 3011 "opticus", 25/9 optische werke g. rodenstock, 23/5 optisches museum in oberkochen, 21144 optograms and fiction, 26/29 optometer, 23/15 optometric center of new york, 28/16 optometric editors association, 21112 optometric education, 23/10 optometric educators, inc., 21/46 optometric extension program, 21/47; 23/42, 43-44; 26/17; 29117 optometric extension program foundation, 26119 optometric historical society, 21110; 26/25; 27/18, 30 optometric historical society awardees, 22/41 optometric historical society executive board, 21111 optometric management, 29/2 optometric periodicals, early, 27/23 optometric practice management, 29/2 optometric research society, 23/26 optometric technicians, 27/22 optometric world, 22/37 optometrists, early title of, 30/4 optometrist in spain, 25/13-15 optometrist, the term, 25/2 optometry, 25/5 optometry and vision science, 2119; 22/45; 27/24; 30/21 optometry and world history, 21137-38 optometry, behavioral, 26/18; 27/8 optometry degree, doctor of, 27/21 optometry endorsement fund commission, 23/26 "optometry in texas", 21/31-32 optometry in the first century, 29/16 "optometry in the schools", 21133 optometry, industrial, 21139 optometry, o.d. title, 25117 optometry publishing company, 21/35 optometry, 17th century, 27/9 optometry title, 26/27 optometry vs ophthalmology in germany, 26/31 optotypes, 29/6 oral history, 23/9-10 optyl, 26.29 opus major, 27/2 order of knights hqspitallers, 26/21 organi~ations, optical, 25/30 "oriental" educational pattern, 27/25 orr, hugh, 21/44; 2517, 15, 31; 2617, 32; 27112; 28113; 29/2; 30/19 orthoptics, javal's, 23/19-22 orzack, louis, 22/1 osias, leonard, 30116 ostwald, f., 26/8 oval shape, 2117 30/52 owen, john s., 21144 oyster, harold, 27119 pennsylvania college of optometry, 30/25 pacific contact laboratories vs. solex, 21/25-26 pacific university college of optometry, 29/20 padua, university of, 2117 pagenstecher, drs., 22/32 pagenstecher, h., 29/3 palmer, j., 28/27 palpebra, 26/15 panas, photinos, 2119 panes, window, 21113 panoptic lens, 21/5 parillenmacher, 25/18 paris, 25/26 park, david, 29/13 parson's horological institute, 29/23 pascual jover, narciso, 27/27 patent, panoptic, 2115 patent, contact lens, 21/25-26 patents, 29/3 pathology detection court decision, 27/26 patron saint herve (harvey), 28/13 patron saints, optical, 28112 paul of aegena, 21115 pearson, r. m., 21/9-10 pebble lens, 24/2 pebble lenses, 23/19 peepshows, 28/15 peckham,john,21/7 peczely, ignatz von, 29/22 peddlers, itinerant, 27/32 pegram, g., 25/23 penisten, douglas k., 2111, 11, 27; 22/24, 26, 27, 28, 39; 23/23,24, 25, 36, 39; 2717; 28/1 pennsylvania college of optometry, 21/22, 46; 28/12 pennsylvania law, 28/11 · pennsylvania optical society, 25117 pennsylvania state college of optometry, 26110 pennsylvania, university of, 21132 pepys, samuel, 29/2 pergens, 29/6 peri optikes, perspecti va, 2117 perimetry, goldmann, 30/21 periscopic lenses, 21/46; 26/8; 27/32 perkins, chet, 21122-23 perkins, c. h., 29/23 "perspectiva" (witelo), 23/16-17 perspekti v, 2617 perspective boxes, 28/15 perspective, history of, 21/41-42 perspective vision, indians', 27/13 peters, henry, 22/25, 50 peters, henry b., 23/24-33; 30116 peters, thomas h., 23/29 peters, tom, 23/25-33 petrie, charles, 27/29 pettey, weston a., 21131-32 pfeiffer, wolfgang, 25/22 pfuhlmeier, j., 25/18 pharmacology, 23/9 phi theta upsilon, 25/8 philadelphia optical and watch company, 24/27 philadelphia optical college, 24/25; 25/17; 30/5 philip, prince, 26/21 philippine, 24/22 30/53 phillips, dr., 24/22 philosophy, doctor of, degree, 24/21 physician's review (poland), 23115 physics, 24/20 physiological optics, 24/20 physiological optics graduate study, 23/31; 30/17 pickard, 27/4 pickwell, david, 22/38 pierce, 28/26 pigeons, homing, 28/20 pince-nez, 2111 pince-nez designs, 28/20 pince-nez, truman's, 6/3 piorry, 21136 pirates, one-eyed, 22/48 pithsanus, johannes, 28/26 pittman, w. d., w. e., 29/23 planation life, 21/12-14 plastic frames, 26/29 plastic lenses, 28/30 plato, 29/13 pliny, 27/2 plutarch, 27/2 poe, edgar allan, 26/30; 27/6 poem, "the spectacles", 27/5 poetry, optometric, 28/21 pointer, j. s., 27/4; 28/13, 29 pol pot and spectacles, 28/31 poland, 24/11; 25/20 poland, optometry in, 23/15-16 polarizing angle, 21/8 polenberg, s., 29/23 polisher, lens, 27/9 polo, marco, 21121; 2311; 25/19; 27/2 poise, kenneth, 30116 polycarbonate lens council, 29/19 pompeii, 21141 ponsier, docteur p., 28/25 pope, cindy, 27/29 porterfield, william, 22117 portugal, 25/20 postage stamps, spectacles on, 28/29 potawatomi indians, 27/13 potter, charles, 27/28; 28/20 potter,john,26/13 pouces, 24/24 poulet, w., 2617 poullain, dr., of paris, 22/32 pounds, t. c., 28/8 power lens, 25/26 powers, richard, 30/18 poznan, university of, 21/8 prange, donald and harold t., 29/23 prentice, charles f., 2116, 23; 22/31; 24/16; 27/3, 29; 28/11, 25, 31; 29/19; 30/1, 22 prentice, james, 30/2 prentice medal, 30/23 prentice's rule, 29/19; 30/2, 22 presbyopia, 22/9 preserving antiques, 23/3-4 president truman's glasses, 26/1-5 presidents' glasses, 6/24 pressure phosphenes, 25/4 printing, inventories of, 27/3 prism diopter, 24/24; 27/3; 30/2 prism dioptry, 22/31 prism power, 24/30 prismometer, 22/31 professional advancement program, 21/47 professional and popular medicine in france, 22/1 professional press, 28/6 progressive addition lenses, 25/20 provence, hugh of, 25/28 przyczynki do optometry, 23/15-16 psychology and optometry, 21/45 psychology, visual, 24/28 30/54 ptolemy, 27/2; 29/13 pterygium, 22/5 ptolemy, 30/18 puerto rico, 2417 puerto rican library and museum of optometry, 23/23 "puffing" advertisements, 27/32 punktallens, 25/22 punktallenses, 2617; 29/1 "purdom & stokes", 23/18-19; 24/2 "pure colour", 2317 purkinje, 25/4; 26/21 pythagoras,21/14 q quackery, optical, 27/31 quacks, 25/21 quartz, 27/2 quebec queen, james w., 21/32 queen, james w., & co., 25/2 rabiglia, 22/3 radicke, k., 22/19; 24/10 radiometer, 23/28 ramsden, 28/26 ramsey, allan, 27/5 ramsey, matthew, 22/1 raphael's patent opsiometer, 27/4 rrre books, 21/6 raskop, eduard, 22/18 rathenow, 24/6; 27/4 rathenow, preacher in, 25/25 rathschuler, f., 24/1; 2617 raustela, lasse, 23/12 ray, harry, 27/30 reader's digest, 21147 reading stone, 24/3; 25/29 rebating to oculists, 29/21 reference list of catalogs and books, 26/6 refraction, 25/2; 29/13 refractionists, medical, 25/10 refractive errors, 25/27 refractive errors in ophthalmology, 23118 refractometer, dezeng, 24/30 refractometers, 27/16 regensburg,24/4;25/18 reinke, albert r., 27/15 religion, 24/3 reminisce-in, 1989, 21/1-2 remky, h., 26/32 renaissance art, 21141 renaissance quarterly, 22/48 renshaw, s., 23/42 residency program, 30/11, 18 restoring antiques, 21/43; 23/3-4 restoring ophthalmic antiques, 25/28; 26/24 retinal images after death, bleached, 26/29 retinoscope, 27/3 retinoscope as lie detector, 28/20 retinoscopy, 26/18 retreat, optometric historical society, 21112 retreat plans, 22/25, 26 rey publishing company, 21134 rhees, rush, 21/3 rhodes, james a., 27/21 rhodesia, northern, 24/21 rice, eugene f., jr., 21141 richards, samuel, 24/25-26 rimless spectacles, 22/5 rimway frames, 29/21 ritholz, 2117 rivet spectacles, 2717 riviere, lazare, 22/2 30/55 robb, colin j., 22/6; 23114-15 robinson, j.d., 28/27 rochester school of optometry, 2113; 24/13; 25/8 rochester, university of, 21/3; 22/19 rodenstock dynasty, 23/5 rogers, will, 21/31 rohr, m., von, 25/19, 22; 26/8 roman artists, 21/41 romer, ole, 30/8 roos, wolfgang, 25/22 roosa, d. b. st. john, 22112 roosa, john, 30/1 roosevelt, f. d., 26113 roosevelt, theodore, 25/5; 26/13 rose, albert, 21/45 rosebrugh, a.m., 27/28; 28/20 rosen, 24/6 rosen, edward, 2115 rosenbloom, alfred, 2111, 11; 22/26, 27; 23/23; 28/1; 29/1, 21; 3011 rosenthal, j. wm., 21/1; 26/20; 27/1; 28/20; 29/3, 4 rosenthal, w., 25119 rossenwasser, g., 28/20 rossi, frank, 21124; 2617 roth, niles, 30/17 rounds, i., 24/31 royal highnesses, opticians to, 25/16 royal polytechnikum, 30/2 royal society (london), 27/9, 10 rucker, c. w., 22/49; 26/21 rueda, ana m., 27/27 rule, prentice's, 30/2 rumage, john, 29/4 runninger, j., 24/15 ruscheweyh, e., 27/11 russia, 22/30-31; 22/30-31; 25/20 rutgers university, 22/1 ruth, babe, 30/11 ryer, e. leroy, 21123 ryer, richard w., 21123; 29/23 sachs, hans, 23111 saint come, college of, 22/2 st. john roosa, d. b., 22/12, 30/2 st. louis world's fair, 23/11 saint lucia, 28/12 saint odilia (odile, othilia, ottlia), 28/12 salt, j.d., 28/12 salve, yellow, 22/32 salvina d' armati, 24/3, 6; 27/1 sampson, barney, 21145 sanchez, julian garcia, 27/27 sandor, robert von (sander), 22/17, 27-30, 41; 23/1-2; 24/6 santa maria maggiore church, 21/4-5 santiago de compostela university, 25115 sargent, b., 24/12 sargent, theodore f., 30110 sarver, morton, 30116, 18 saxony, grand-duke of, 21140 scandinavia, 25/20 scarlett, edward, 21/44; 25/15; 27/3 scarlett's trade card, 21128 scarlett-type spectacles, 22/49 sched~l!libes chronicarum, 21118 scheie, harold g., 21132 scheiner, 23/15 schett, alfred, 22/30, 35-36; 23/45 schiller university, friedrick, 21118 schindler, maria, 2317 schmitz, e.-h., history of optics, 30/20 schneider, george l., 30/15 schor, clifton, 30/17 30/56 schiotz, 23/20-21 schmidt, c., 22/38 schmidt, olaf, 30/24 schmitt, c., 24/9 schmitz, e. h., 2617 schnaitman, 21146 schneider, geo., 28/18 schneider, george, 23/25-33 schoessler, john, 30/24 schone, r., 25117 school of optometry, jena, 20/18 school, jena, 25/11 schools, vision screening in, 21133 schott, otto, 21/18, 40; 23/40; 25/19 schuler, neville, 22/14-15; 23/13-14 schultze, karl schwartz, i., 26/19 schweigger, carl, 2116 scofield, r. h., 24/15 scott, harry, 21/45 scriptores, optici, 2116 sears catalogs, 25/23 seasons game, the four, 26/5-6 seebeck, 25/4 sein, reuben, 29/20 seligmann, s., 25/13 seneca, 27/2 sense, sixth, 23/22 sepper, d. l., 27/19 setons, 28/10 sforza, f. and g. m., 22/49 shakespeare, w., 23/8 shapes, lens, 2117 shaw, g. b., 22/49 sheard, charles, 2112-3; 24/17-21; 26/17; 29/4; 30/22 sheedy, james, 30/24 shells for spectacle frames, 25/8 shepard, carl, 29/20 sherman antitrust act., 29/21 sherman, spencer, 26/21 shirayama, sekiya, 23117, 19 shoshone wartier, 28/9 shows, fashion, 26/29 sichel, julius, 21/20, 36; 22/8; 23/20 "sights and sounds", 22/20 signs, opticians', 24/4 sims, d. l., 27110 singer, m. b., 25119; 26/20 sixth sense, 23/22 skales, howard, 21117 skeffington, a. m., 21147; 23/43; 26/12, 17, 19; 28112; 29/17 skeffington, a.m., memorial, 23/10 skeffington, m. j, 23/43 skiametry, dynamic, 30/6 skiascope, 21132 skiascopy, 27/30 skipton, john, 27/20 skuza, bert, 22/34 sloane, albert, 30/10 sloan, c., 24/18 smee, 29/6 s. m. c. (spectacle makers company) smith, addison, 29/3 smith, alpheus w., 24119; 27/21 smith, f. dow, 30/11 smith, peter, 22/38 smith, robert, 27110; 29/5 smith, sandra, 22/10; 2817 smith, todd, 28/19 smithsonian institution, 23/37 -38; 26/14, 16; 27117 snails' backs for sore eyes snel van royen, willebrord van, 2118 snellen, 25/21; 29/6, 7, 8 snellen fraction, 24/30 snellen w. on acuity, 22/45 30/57 snow, c. p., 21/38; 2317 sohnges, willi, 22/18 sola optical usa, 27/8 solex vs. p.c.l., 21/25-26 solla price, d. j. de, 27/10 soloman, john, 28/13 sotheby's, 22/30, 50 south africa, 28/24 south bend college of optics, 30/5 southall, j.p. c., 23/37; 25/23 southern california college of optometry, 21/25, 29; 22/48; 23/9-10; 25/23; 29/19 southern california, university of, 28/17 southern college of optometry, 21/25, 2829 southern college of optometry newsletter, 21/5 southwest developmental vision society, 22/35 southwestern optical college, 30/15 spain, 25/13-15, 20 spanish optometry book, 27/27 spasm of accommodation, 24/31 specialists, medical, in france, 2211 spect and spects, 26/22 spectacle antiques, 25/28 spectacle cases, 25/19 spectacle collection, 21/30-31 spectable history, 24/27 spectacle iconography, 21148 spectacle makers' company, 30/19 "spectacle of spectacles, a", 21/48 spectacle swap-fest, 21/35 spectacle secrets, 27/31 spectacle wearers, 21/31 spectacle makers, 24/3-5 spectacle makers guild, 26/27 spectacle makers guilds in france, 28/26 spectacles, 21/22, 24, 32, 43, 46; 22/8; 24/3, 5, 31; 25/21, 23, 25; 2711 spectacles among indians, 27114 spectacles and etiquette, 28/3 "spectacles & skyglasses", 21130-31; 24/27 spectacles fastened behind ears, 25116 spectacles, first printed illustration, 21118 spectacles for cataracts, 28/26 spectacles for myopes, early, 22/48-49 spectacles, 14th century, 21/15 spectacles, frontier, 22/37-38 spectacles, goethe's aversion to, 22/19-20 spectacles, history of, 21/18 spectacles in a novel, 25/3 spectacles in classic art, 28/30 spectacles in granite, 25/5-7 spectacles, inventor of, 23/1-2 spectacles, leather, 23/37; 26/21 spectacles, mail order, 21/32 spectacles, napoleon's, 22/36 spectacles role in ophthalmology, 21118-20 spectacles, steel, 25119 "spectacles, the", 27/5 spectacles, truman's, 26il-5 spectacles, whalebone, 26/21 spectral therapy, 27/11 spermaceti candles, 21/13 spherical aberration, 30/25 spina, 21121 spinola, r., spinola, a., 2817 split bifpcals, 25/3 sproul, r. g., 23/28, 29, 32 spyglass, 28/9, 12 spyglasses, 21/30-31; 24/1, 27 stahle, h., 2817 staiman, j., 22/41 stamp, colombian, 23/19 stamp, german, 23/19 stamps, zeiss postage, 21118 30/58 stanford university, 23/30-31 stanhope, charles, 24/29; 26/20; 28119 stanhopelenses,25/29 stark, lawrence, 30/16, 18 state university of new york, 25/22; 28116 stayskal,24/15;25/17 steel spectacles, 25119 stein, jules, 28/23 steinem, gloria, 25/28 steinmeyer, j. h., 23/11 stem, m., 23/44 stempfer, 23/15 stenopaic slits, 27/3 stereographs,23/13 stereography, 24/23 stereoscope, 24/23 stereotypes, 23113 stevenson, j., 28/13 stier, counsellor, 25/11 stiles, w. s., 23/11 stoddard, kenneth, 23/25-33; 30116 stone, reading, 25/29 stradanus, j., 23/39 stratton, judge, 22116 strain, eugene, 29/20 streff, john, 29/18 sturrock, g., 2411 style in eyewear, 25/28 suchoff, irwin, 28/33 suckling, sophia lois, 2217 sulzer, 2917, 8 summit art glass, 28112 sun shades, 27/3 suomen silmaoptikkojen liitto, 23112 superstition, oldest, 25112 supral bifocals, 26/8 surfacing machine, 27/4 surgery, cataract, 25/19 sutcliffe, j. h., 25/9; 28/38-39 sutton, a. a., 29/17 svendsen, wilhelmina a., 30/9 swap-fest, spectacle, 21135 sweden, 24/11,22 sweden museum tour, 28115 sweitzer, c., 23/45; 24/13 swiss ophthalmological conference, 1944,30/21 switzerland, 24110 switzerland ophthalmology, 23/17-18 symons,arthur,26/30 symptoms of need for glasses, 25/27 synchisis, 22/10 syndrome, marfan's, 23/33-34 syntonizer, 27115 syracuse university, 23/30 takahashi, e. s., 29/20 tangal bifocals, 26/8 tennant, r., 29/20 tannenbaum, sol, 22/36; 29/22 tauber, gottfried, 28114 ''tauber" firm, 22119 taylor, charles henry, 21135-36 taylor, jennifer, 22/5 taylor, professor, 2113 technicians, optometric, 27 /22; 30/11 technology, current, 24/22-23 telescope, 24/6; 25/18; 28/9 telescopes, 21130-31 telescopes in fans, 26/20 telescopic spectacles, 28/23 temme fecit kassel, 22/49 temples, spectacle, 24/6; 25/16, 20; 27/3; 30/19 temples, sliding, 21/28 30/59 tenotomies, 22/12 terrassa university, 25/15 test chart, 25/9 test, crossed cylinders, 26/15 teunissen, j., 28115 texas optometry association, 21131 texas optometry association auxiliary, 21/4 texas optometry, 2114, 31-32 thackray trust, the, 25/29 theod, christ. fr. enslin in berlin, 25/25 therapeutic pharmaceutical agents, 30/25, 26 thiebe, w., 24/5 thoman, monsieur, 26/21 thompson, j. c., 21116 thompson, pres., 24/18 thorndyke, dr., 25/3 thorner refractometer, 27/16 thuringia, 25/11 tiffany, flavel b., 22/31-33 timm, udo, 21/44; 2911,22 tint, umbral, 26/8 tinted lenses, 25/26 title, doctor, 25/22 titles, 25/2 tokens, opticians', 26/20 tokens, spectacles on, 21125 toledo, university of, 27/22 tonkelaar, 1., 28114 tonkin,mayor,25/17 topaz, lionel, 28/6 topaz, martin, 22/41 toppler, j., 28/30 tortoise-shell, 22/38; 2517, 29 tpa (see therapeutic pharmaceutical agents) trachtman, j. n., 23/42 trade cards, 23/13; 25/29 trader and canadian jeweller, the, 21144-45 trial case 21132; 24/30 trial frame, 25/9 trial sights, trial lenses, 25/2 trichromatic theory, 30/13 trifocals, 21/46 trioray, 27111 trothe, j. w., trothe, c. w., trothe r., 26114 trotsky, 25/28 truman, h. s., 2611-5 tryphon, son of dionysius, 29116 tscherning, m., 22/46; 23/20; 25/21; 26/8 tufft, j. edward, 22/37 tulane medical school, 27/2 tulett, barry, 21/30-31 tull, j. w., 25/19; 26/20; 28/20; 29/4 tull, valda j., 23/13 tuohy, kevin, 21/26; 30/20 tura company, 26/28 turkey, 25/20 turlington, 29/2 turnbull, d. k., 28/24 turner, g., 28/30 turner, g. l'e, 21/48 turners' company, 27/9 turville, a. e., 22/18 twain, mark, 27/6 21 poin!s, 26/17 "two cultures", 2317 twombly, g. f., 28/20 ueberschaar. gunter. 21/48; 27/16 uhthoff on glare, 23/10 umbral tint, 26/8 30/60 united kingdom, 24/10 united kingdom opticians act. of 1958, 28112 united states of america ophthalmology, 23117-18 universal/univis, inc., 22/33 universities, ophthalmology in, 25/21 university, alicante, 25/15 university, city, 21/9 university, columbia, 21/4; 25/22 university, complutence, 25/15 university, friedrich schiller, 21118 university, granada, 25115 university of auckland, 21/45 university of california, 23/25-33 university of california-berkeley, 30/15,24 university of california los angeles, 23/30 university of durban-westville, 28/24 university of gottingen, 23/28 university of houston, 23/15 university of manitoba, 28/5 university of missouri-st. louis, 22/50; 23/37 university of nevada, 23/28 university of new york, 30/2 university of new york, state, 25/22 university of padua, 2117 university of pennsylvania, 21/32 university of poznan, 21/8 university of rochester, 21/3; 30/5 university of southern california, 28/17 university of waterloo, 21/10; 23/36; 26/27; 28/5 university, santiago de compostela, 25115 university, terrassa, 25/15 "upstairs" practices, 3017 "urbanus", 21/24 utoff on glare, 23/10 valdez, daca de, 21138, 46; 27/27 van cort, eric, 26/19 vanderhoef, c., 28114 van essex, 25/17 van leersum, g. k., 28114 van sluyters, richard, 30117 vanity fair, 25/19 vargas, president, 26/26 vaughan, h., 26/2 velasco, antonio augusto, 22/45 venice, 25/18 vericle, 21130 verne, jules, 26/30 "vicar of wakefield, the", 21124 victoria, australia, 22/16-17 videotapes, 21/29-30; 22/20; 23/9-10 viking lenses, 30/24 vinci, leonardo da, 2117, 42, 46; 22/6 vision aids, 25/19; 27/2 "vision aids in history", 23/38 vision council of america, 22/33 vision screening in schools, 21133 visionlink, ilamo, 21/29-30; 22/20-26 visual science, 26/20 visual science, ancient, 25/17 visual science articles, 21/25 visual science, early, 24115 visual science in ophthalmology, 21/18-20 visual science in poland, 23/16-17 visually handicapped care, 23/9 vitellion, 28/26 vitello, 2117-8; 23/8 vlissingen, 25/18 voltaire, 29/2 30/61 von carlon, stellwag, 24/6 von graefe, a., 23/20; 26/18 von helmholtz, 22/30 von helmholtz book, 22/35-36 von hilmer, councillor,.22/2 von rohr, moritz, 24/3, 5; 25/22, 26/8; 29/1 von sandor, robert, 22/41 wagener, 27/5 waller, e. a., 22/45 wails, gordon, 30116 walter, stephanie k., 28/22 warbinton, p., 26/9, 10 warder, robert & irminor, 25/32 washington, george, 21/1; 25/5; 28/2 washington's telescope, george, 22/31 water, charges, 27/11 water, sovereign, 22/4 waterloo, university of, 21/10; 26/27; 28/5 watson, fred, 28/14 watt, james, 21121-22 wavelength cures, 27/14 w.c.s.m. (worshipful companies of spectacle makers) weber, jack m., 21122 webster's biographical dictionary, 21/8 wechsler, lilia, 29/33 wechsler, sheldon, 21146 weiler, egon, 24/5 weimer, mark w., 29/23 weimer, grace, 22/41 weinschenk, rolf, 22/18 weismuller, w., 28/14 wellcome museum, 22/50 wellington, duke of, 27/4 wells, edwin p., 30/9 wellsworth twentieth century test type cabinet, 22/45 west, j. b., 26/4 western art, 21141 westheimer, gerald, 30116 whatley, george, 21132 whalebone, 26/21 whalebone temple spectacles, 22/49 wheeler, benjamin 1., 23/26 white, h., 24/18 wick, r. e., 25/5 wienhausen, 27/12 wilbur, ray, 21139 wild, bradford, 30/24 wilde, emil, 2116 wiley, alexander, 29/21 wiley, thomas, 30/18 willer, 21/36 william, henry w., 22/8 williams, matha, 25/31 williams, r. a., 25/23 williams, r. k., 23/43 williams, t. david, 2111, 2, 11, 12; 22/25, 26, 27; 30/21 wilms, karl-heinz, 30/24 wilson, blanche, 28/20 wilson, charles c., 28/21 wilson, e. s., 28/21 wilson library, 24/3 wilson, yv. c., 28/20 wilson, w. j., 22/33 wimmer, john, 25/30 windoffer, ulrich, 21124 window lights, 21/13 wink competition, 27/13 winkler, wolf, 21148; 28/29 winter, george, 27/13 wisconsin chronology, 21147 30/62 wisconsin optometric association, 21/47-48 witelo, 2117-8; 23/16-17; 29/13 wold, robert, 22/35 wolfberg, melvin, 30/25 wolff, j., 24/13 woll, frederic a., 21123; 22/28; 23/29; 24/9-11; 25/1, 23; 28/18 wollaston, w. h., 26/8; 27/3 wollaston's periscopic lenses, 21/46 woman president of state association, 24112-15 women in sales force, 26/29 wong, sin, 22/34 woo, george, 23/23; 2717, 16 wood, abrahams, markham v, 27/25 wood, charles h., 23/25 wood spectacle frames, 28/14 woodard, 24/12 word-blindness, 27/24 worden, dr., 25/23 worden, j. l., 23/11 world war it, 21/47 world war it impact, 2114 worshipful company of spectacle makers, 21/8-9, 43; 22/12; 24/3-5; 25/15, 31; 26/32; 27/9, 12, 25 wroclaw cathedral, 2117 wynne, terry h., 29/23 x xaviar, francisco st., 23/19 y yale university, 24/31; 29/18 yarwell, john, 24/4; 27/10 yell ow salve, 22/32 young, h., 24/16 young, j., 23/44 young, jack, 27/29 young, john, 21121 young, thomas, 21/19; 22/17; 27/3; 30/13 y2k compliant perimeter, 30/22 zadnik, karla, 30/24 zall, p.m., 28/5 zambia, 24/21-22 zeeland, 25118 zeiss, carl, memorialized, 21118 zeiss, carl, 21140; 23/39-41; 24/4, 6; 25/11, 19,22 zeiss exhibit in florence, 26/7 zeiss firms, 26/8 zeiss foundation, 28/30 zeiss foundation, 21139-41 zeiss foundation, carl, 27/6 zeiss foundation jena, carl, 21/48 zeiss information (1953-1992), 26/8 zeiss museum (jena), 22/10, 30; 25/25; 29/1 zeiss, roderick, 21140 zeiss works, 21139-41 zentmayer, joseph, 21/32; 28/6 ziemssen' s cyclopaedia, 27/24 zinc sulphate, 28/9 zoethout, w. d., 29/20 zoll, (inch), 25/26 zolle, 24/24 "zur farbenlehre", goethe's, 23/5-7 zwingli, 25/4 30/63 index 21-30-001 index 21-30-002 index 21-30-003 index 21-30-004 index 21-30-005 index 21-30-006 index 21-30-007 index 21-30-008 index 21-30-009 index 21-30-010 index 21-30-011 index 21-30-012 index 21-30-013 index 21-30-014 index 21-30-015 index 21-30-016 index 21-30-017 index 21-30-018 index 21-30-019 index 21-30-020 index 21-30-021 index 21-30-022 index 21-30-023 index 21-30-024 index 21-30-025 index 21-30-026 index 21-30-027 index 21-30-028 index 21-30-029 index 21-30-030 index 21-30-031 index 21-30-032 index 21-30-033 index 21-30-034 index 21-30-035 index 21-30-036 index 21-30-037 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 announcements 2016| page 2 announcements 2016 ohs advisory committee officers elected the members of the optometric historical society advisory committee for 2016, their email addresses, and the years of expiration of their terms on the committee are as follows: president: ronald r. ferrucci, rferrucci@juno.com (2017) vice-president: chuck haine, chaine1@icloud.com (2016) secretary-treasurer: irving bennett, irvbennett23@gamil.com (2016) members: john f. amos, eyedoc@uab.edu (2019) lynn m. brandes, lynnbrandes@comcast.net (2019) alden norman haffner, anhaffner@msn.com (2018) bill sharpton, sharpton@windstream.net (2017) george woo, george.woo@polyu.edu.hk (2019) karla zadnik, zadnik.4@osu.edu (2018) renewal period for 2016 offers free student membership the 2016 renewal period is underway! take a moment to look at our new membership levels and benefits. this year we are offering a free membership to students. we hope that those beginning their careers will take this opportunity to look back for a moment and remember their predecessors. we also hope to see their submissions and fresh ideas in future issues of hindsight. please take the time to review and complete the renewal form (application) included in this issue. you may also download the application and pay online at the website http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/. hindsight goes online in 2016 this is the last print issue of hindsight you will receive with a regular $35 membership. current issues of hindsight will now be available online to all regular and student members at iuscholarworks accessible via the following link: http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight ohs members who wish to continue to receive print copies of hindsight starting with the next issue will be required to become sustaining members. this membership level includes a $25 fee that will help to defray the costs of printing and mailing, which for 2015 averaged about $5 per copy. lifetime ohs members will also be required to pay this fee to receive print copies. mailto:rferrucci@juno.com mailto:chaine1@icloud.com mailto:irvbennett23@gamil.com mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu mailto:lynnbrandes@comcast.net mailto:anhaffner@msn.com mailto:sharpton@windstream.net mailto:george.woo@polyu.edu.hk mailto:zadnik.4@osu.edu http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/ http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 1 announcements 2016| page 3 call for submissions hindsight: the journal of optometry history is now reviewing submissions for an upcoming issue entitled through a different lens: diversity in the profession. submission deadline is may 30, 2016. this themed issue will explore the experiences and perspectives of women and persons of color in the profession. a variety of material will be considered for publication, including but not limited to oral histories and personal narratives, biographical sketches, historiographies, original research articles on relevant topics and critical essays. instructions to authors and guidelines are available at iu scholarworks. submission of your article on the hindsight website on iuscholarworks (http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/index) is preferred, but you can also send a word document to the editor at dgoss@indiana.edu. please follow the instructions to authors in recent issues and on the website. reviewer recruitment the editorial staff of hindsight: the journal of optometry history is seeking reviewers for future issues in 2016. reviewers should have expertise in the areas of optometry, history, the history of science and medicine and/or the history of medical technology. applications for reviewers can be found on the website under announcements. volunteers to participate in the double-blind review process may contact the editor at dgoss@indiana.edu. http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/index mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 56goss: optometric education a note on some aspects of optometric education in the 1980s and 1990s david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 dgoss@indiana.edu summit on optometric education in 1992, richard l. hopping observed that: “at no previous time in the history of the optometric profession has there been a greater need for the full cooperation of the entire profession in order to move the educational establishment and thus the profession forward to an even higher level.”1 in 1992 through 1994 a series of eight conferences was held to evaluate the status of optometric education and to study what should be done to prepare for the future. over 200 participants represented the american academy of optometry, american foundation for vision awareness, american optometric association, american optometric foundation, american optometric student association, association of schools and colleges of optometry, college of optometrists in vision development, international association of boards of examiners in optometry, national board of examiners in optometry, national optometric association, optometric extension program, and faculties of each of the optometry schools. representatives of the corporate sponsors, alcon, allergan, ciba, and vistakon, also attended. the eight conferences were: (1) georgetown conference, examining a broad range of topics, march 19-22, 1992; (2) scope of optometric practice conference, july 9-12, 1992; (3) curriculum conference, july 30-august 1, 1992; (4) conference on optometric students, january 10-12, 1993; (5) conference on optometric research, april 1-4, 1993; (6) conference on graduate education, residencies, and fellowships, august 26-29, 1993; (7) conference on financing optometric education, november 18-21, 1993; and (8) action plan conference, october 8-11, 1994. richard l. hopping served as chairman of the summit on optometric education conferences. hopping, l. edward elliot, president of the american optometric association in 1991-92, and larry decook, president of the aoa in 1994-95, were the only persons to attend all eight conferences.2 among the concepts discussed at the conference on scope of practice were what constitutes entry level competence and the need for optometry to practice primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care. factors identified as affecting scope of practice included matters such as public welfare, professional judgment, education, training, and new technologies. the 1978 association of schools and colleges of optometry curriculum had significant impact in the 1980s, but by the 1990s its limitations were beginning to be recognized. its emphasis on knowledge limited its ability to keep up with expansion of scope of practice. developing an understanding of concepts, learning problem solving hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 57goss: optometric education skills, and gaining an appreciation for lifelong learning came to be considered more important than knowledge of facts. the expansion of learning in the biological sciences also required additional facilities and equipment. it was agreed that research was essential for the future survival and growth of optometry. to make efficient use of resources, the importance of collaboration between optometric institutions and with other professions studying vision was emphasized. the idea of a training program for optometric clinician-scientists was also discussed. it was observed that graduate programs and residencies could serve as a vehicle for expansion of scope of optometric scope of practice and for certification in optometric subspecialties. the need for recruitment of graduate students, for the informing of graduate students concerning uniquely optometric areas of study, for a strategic plan for residencies, and for the development of fellowships in optometry were among areas identified as requiring attention. in reading through the monograph summarizing the conferences, perhaps the greatest sense of urgency could be felt in the section on the conference on financing optometric education.2 at one place, it was stated that the resource gap was “really big, not just big.” (p. 123) identified areas of need included meeting increased operating costs, resources needed for expansion of scope, maintenance and expansion of faculty and infrastructure, expansion of research, replacement of reduced government scholarship funding, provision of adequate student loans and financial aid, and resources for new technology. discussion on number of optometry schools one matter discussed at the summit on optometric education that has had a great deal of attention in the following years was whether additional optometry schools should be started. at that time, there were 16 optometry schools in the united states. hopping1 pointed out the great increase in optometry graduates in the eight years following the end of world war ii due to the very large classes admitted at some schools. he stated that: “had the profession not graduated the number of optometrists that it did at that time… we would not be the major provider in the eye/vision care field today and we would not have captured our distribution system and the primary care position that the profession enjoys today.”1 hopping noted that there were many factors affecting manpower needs in the health professions and that longitudinal manpower studies should be conducted on a regular basis. he also suggested that appropriate ratios of faculty, space, library volumes, and patient encounters per student should be evaluated. jack bennett3 pointed out that in 1976 the american optometric association recommended a total of 22 schools, but in 1984 changed the recommendation to four new schools for a total of 19. bennett listed the reasons in favor of additional schools as: (1) there is a need for additional optometrists, particularly in light of expanding scope of care, aging of the population, and unmet needs in areas such as low vision and rehabilitation. (2) an optometry school is a political resource for legislative and regulatory matters. (3) schools are resources for needed research. (4) schools have a positive impact on the professional image perceived by the public, funding agencies, governmental entities, and other professions. (5) schools have an important role in continuing education. bennett hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 58goss: optometric education gave as a significant argument against the addition of new schools that it would dilute financial, applicant pool, and faculty resources. bennett concluded that additional schools were warranted but only under appropriate conditions in areas of need. earle hunter4 was of the opinion that additional schools were not needed because existing schools could increase or decrease the number of students admitted to adjust to perceived changes in manpower needs. lorraine voorhees5 observed that schools can improve the professional image of optometry by being a center for research and specialty patient care, but she felt that overall there are more arguments for not having more schools. her reasons for that conclusion were: (1) manpower projections do not suggest a need for additional graduates. (2) the applicant pool is not large enough to ensure high academic standards for all admitted students. (3) financial support is a limiting factor. (4) there may not be adequate financial aid for students. (5) there may not be enough qualified individuals for additional faculty positions. increasing curricular emphasis on ocular disease and pharmacology the expansion of curricular elements devoted to disease and pharmacology continued through the closing decades of the twentieth century. for example, comparing the 1979-80 and 1999-2001 bulletins for the indiana university school of optometry, there was an increase of three semester credit hours in courses on general and ocular pathology and ocular disease. looking at the 1981-82 and 2000-2002 bulletins for the northeastern state university college of optometry in oklahoma, the increase was seven semester credit hours. over those time spans, there was a decrease of one credit hour in courses on geometrical and physical optics at both schools. a 1983 comparison of lecture hours on pharmacology given to medical students and to optometry students at indiana university in bloomington indicated that the total number of hours was the same, but there was more emphasis on ocular pharmacology in the optometry curriculum and more breadth of coverage in the medical school curriculum.6 similar results were found in a 1985 study comparing 41 optometry, medical, and dental schools in 14 states.7 the vast majority of respondents to a survey of optometrists graduating from indiana university school of optometry before 1995 supported the trend of increasing curricular emphasis on ocular disease, but they also strongly felt that optometrists should continue to be very good at all aspects of eye and vision care, including refraction, basic binocular vision problems, and contact lenses, as well as ocular disease.8 such a response was undoubtedly due in part to the fact that an average of 93% of the respondents’ income was derived from traditional optometric services compared to an average of 7% from treatment of ocular diseases. increasing number of optometric residency programs the number of accredited optometry residency programs increased in the 1980s and 1990s, going over 20 programs in 1983, over 40 programs in 1986, and over 60 in 1995. in 1996, that jumped up to 82 accredited residency programs.9 the 139 residency hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 59goss: optometric education positions in accredited and accreditation candidate programs in 1996 made it possible for about 10% of optometry school graduates to pursue residency education. the new england college of optometry accelerated o.d. program in 1983, pease reported on ten years of experience with the accelerated o.d. program at the new england college of optometry (newenco) for persons holding a ph.d. degree in the sciences. the program was started in 1972, one year after a similar accelerated program for the m.d. degree at the university of miami school of medicine. the initial planners for the accelerated o.d. program at newenco were william r. baldwin and john h. carter, and its first director was norman e. wallis. from 1972 to 1981, 85 students were enrolled in the program and 74 (69 men and 5 women) had graduated. the most common original fields of the students were physics, psychology, biochemistry, and biology. their mean age was 37 years, with a range of 27 to 54 years. curricular content was “essentially the same” as in the four year curriculum, and the number of clock hours in clinical rotations was the same.10 the primary areas of employment of the 66 graduates in the first eight years of the program were optometry practice (37) and teaching/research (20), with 18 of the latter having full-time positions at optometry schools.10 this program has been very successful in providing faculty to optometry schools. three of my colleagues at northeastern state university (nsu) in oklahoma hired in the early 1980s were graduates of the newenco program and had long careers as outstanding instructors at nsu (lynn cyert, george fulk, and roger west). by 1994, the entrance requirement of a ph.d. in science had been modified to a doctorate level degree in medicine or science.11 through 1995, there were 140 graduates of the newenco accelerated o.d. program.12 out of 101 of them who responded to a survey, 37% were self-employed and 35% were employed in education and/or research. among the respondents were faculty members at twelve optometry schools and two medical schools. two-thirds were members of the american optometric association and one-third were members of the american academy of optometry. their performance on basic science and clinical science sections of the national board examination in optometry far exceeded national averages. references 1. hopping rl. what should be the proper size and number of optometric schools? j am optom assoc 1992;63:808-811. 2. gregg jr, ed. the georgetown summit: a critical assessment of optometric education. st. louis: american optometric association, 1995. 3. bennett jw. the pros and cons of developing additional schools and colleges of optometry. typescript of paper presented at the summit on optometric education, 1993. 4. hunter el. the pros and cons of developing additional schools and colleges of optometry. j am optom assoc 1992;63:865-866. 5. voorhees li. topic: discuss the pros and cons of developing additional schools and colleges of optometry. typescript of paper presented at the summit on optometric education, 1993. hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 60goss: optometric education 6. hegeman s. comparison of pharmacology courses for optometry and medical students, indiana university, bloomington. j optom ed 1983;9:22-23. 7. waigandt m, waigandt a. an analysis of pharmacology training in schools of optometry, medicine and dentistry. j optom ed 1985;10:20-25. 8. grosvenor t, goss da. a survey of indiana university school of optometry alumni. optom ed 1998;23:114-120. 9. haffner an. optometric residency education: past, present, and future. optom ed 1997;22:82-86. 10. pease pl. the accelerated o.d. program: the two-year program after ten years. j optom ed 1983;8:15-19. 11. heath da, caruso j, chauncey dm. developing innovative programs for unique student populations. j am optom assoc 1994;65:865-871. 12. chauncey dm. the accelerated doctor of optometry program: outcomes assessment. optom ed 1998;23:108-113. hindsight journal of optometry history april, 2009 volume 40, number 2 , .. f.,~, ' ' . -' ' c official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society: president: irving bennett, 1520 pelican point drive, ba252, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett@juno.com vice-president: chuck haine secretary-treasurer: bridget kowalczyk, american optometric association, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: jerry abrams jay m. enoch douglas k. penisten melvin wolfberg l the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry hist~~~-, april, 2009 1'" 1 •· · volume 40, number 2 jur~ "editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu · contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, penisten@nsuok.edu. table of contents instructions to authors .................................................................................. 46 a mesolithic (middle stone age!) spanish artificial eye: please realize this technology is circa 7000 years old!, jay m. enoch ................................... ........ .47 george adams junior and his 1789 book an essay on vision, david a. goss ......................................................................................................... 63 medieval optometric traditions, lech bieganowski, translated by grazyna tonde/ ...................................................................................................... 69 selected online sources of images relevant to the history of optometry, david a. goss ......................................................................................................... 76 book review: phoroptors: early american instruments of refraction and those who used them, david a. goss ........................................................................... 79 book review: the microscope and the eye: a history of reflections, 1740-1870, david a. goss ...................................................................................................... 81 membership application form ........................................................................ 83 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 45 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as ll for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17 -22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 46 a mesolithic (middle stone agel) spanish artificial eye: please realize this technology is circa 7000 years old! jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu abstract in 2008, the author presented a paper at the cogan society which addressed an amazing ancient artificial eye recently found in iran. that artificial eye is about 5000 years old. a kind reader of some of jme's writings [who lives in spain] noted this report, and called his attention to yet another artificial eye of a similar sort, but it was 2000 years older! it is dated ca. 7000 years bp [before the present] during the mesolithic time period, i.e., the middle stone age(!), and was unearthed in modern spain. this artificial eye was found in situ in the right orbit of the scull of a man who died at 40-45 years of age. the man was tall, and was apparently relatively well-to-do (jme assumes this is based upon items found in the grave). the artificial eye was made of ocher (or ochre). in the artificial eye, an incised cornea (and possibly a pupil) can be identified. this prosthesis may have been inserted backwards into the orbit at the time of burial. this artificial eye was much more primitive in both shape and design than the later one discovered at 'the burnt city" in eastern iran. the man's body (containing the artificial eye) was found at an archaeological site in spain called cingle del mas nou i cava fosca, ares del maestro, castellon province. this particular body was exhumed at cingle del mas nou by profa. dr. carme olaria puyoles and her team. keywords: artificial eye, mesolithic (middle stone-age) or epi-paleolithic time period, ocher/ochre artificial eye, european cro-magnon people introduction in june 2008, at the fine/new "cosmocaixa" or "cosmo caixa" science museum in barcelona(!), the speaker presented a discussion of the remarkable ancient artificial eye recently found in "the burnt city", in eastern iran! that artificial eye is ca. 5000 years old. (fig 1) the presentation in barcelona 11 •12 was a then updated/ expanded version of jme's 2008 cogan talk in charlestown, south carolina. a reader of enoch's cosmocaixa paper, dr. elena garcia-guixe, a spanish physical anthropologist, kindly called jme's attention to a second artificial eye of a similar sort, but one which is 2000 years older! it originated in spain ca. 7000 years ago during the mesolithic or epi-paleolithic age, that is, during the middle stone age! hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 47 figure 1. artificial eye found at "the burnt city", iran, dated ca. 5000 bp (before the present). the "eye" was found in the left orbit in the skull of a woman whose body was recently exhumed. note inscribed patterns, and the residua of gold coating and painting of this prosthesis. also, observe holes where supportive ties affixed were located. the "eye" was made from a type of "bitumen". these figures are reproduced courtesy of the c.a.i.s., iran. a mesolithic artificial eye found in situ: i the artificial eye described in this paper was found in the right orbit of a man who died at 40-45 years of age. he was quite tall and apparently well-to-do. he had quite prominent supra-orbital ridges, a broken right ulna, and a deformed pelvis.7 this body was exhumed by profa. dr. carme olaria puyoles and her archaeological colleagues at a dig area known as "cingle del mas nou i cava fosca" located in the ares del maestre, castellon province, spain. specifically, this body was located in the region of cingle del mas nou. the artificial eye was made of ocher (or ochre), which is defined as any of a class of natural earths, mixtures of hydrated oxide of iron with various earthy materials, ranging in color from pale yellow to orange and to red. ocher was used for decorative wall and rock paintings and for body decorations and tattoos by then residents of the iberian peninsula. also, ocher (ochre) was broadly and probably symbolically used, as an inclusion with the body at early burial sites across europe. profa. dr. carme olaria puyoles considers this matter in her paper, "death as a transcendental rite. funeral rituals in the epi-paleolthic/mesolithic period and their probable influence on the megalithic world."8 she also noted that between the paleolithic and neolithic time periods, there was a reduction in the use of ocher. during this period there was also a gradual transition from widely based hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural communities. there are recent interesting reports by michael balter (january and february, 2009, in science, 13•14 indicating that very early-on(!), ocher was inscribed/ engraved purposely by ancient man either as a means of possible artistic expression or as a hindsight: journal of optometry history .. . april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 48 symbolic gesture.(figs. 2,3) these "decorated" pieces of ocher were located in south africa at the blombus dig. the lineal patterns inscribed on these pieces of ocher are dated about 77,000 years ago, 13•14 and are thought to be the oldest known drawings made by human beings! primitive human use of symbolic decoration on ocher (ochre). symbolic start. some scientists argue that this 77,000-year-old engraved ochre shows symbolic capacity. )2, p.:.. 29-j; now •rts on an >chre .rliest known sym­ again be redrawn. f chair" on seeing says archaeologist nati ings had bee tool and a finely i wadley agre seem engraved 1 ~~~~:_r_~e~~~: f. 2 3 ~------------------------------------------------~ ig. ' figures 2 and 3. early line drawings on ocher, possibly used symbolically; these may be the earliest known such items(?). they were found in blombus cave in south africa by michael balter, et al., science jan. 30, 2009;323:569 & science february 6, 2009;323:709-711. these line patterns were inscribed ca. 77,000 b.p. reproduced courtesy of the author(s) and science. the now oldest artificial eye(!) located at "cingle del mas nou i cava fosca": hindsight: journal of optometry history .. . april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 49 figs. 4-6 help the reader to locate the dig area in spain where the now oldest known artificial eye was found, and to provide him/her with a sense of the region where these individuals lived. note, fi~. 6 was provided by and is reproduced with permission of profa. carme olaria puyoles. (caste 116 de ia plano) figure 4. map of the castellon area, which is located south of barcelona. this small segment of a larger map shows the general area of the archaeological dig. the black arrow points to the location ofcingle del mas nou i cava f osca, ares del maestre, castellon province, espana. this is taken from a map: editorial everest, sa, espana y portugal. scale 1:100,000, 14a edicion. hindsight: journal of optometry history . .. april , 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 50 • esquem tlco levantino • esquematlco ylevantloo • covafosea • masnou >._ ______________________________ _. figure 5. this terrestrial map shows the contours of the land in this mountainous region. the small upper map-insert shows where castellon province is located in spain. the blue arrow locates mas nou where the man's body with the artificial eye was exhumed. this illustration derives from: cartesia modelos digitales del terreno e investigacion prehistorica gustau aguilella arzo, servicio de arqueologica, diputacion de castellon, espana, <gustauaguilella@dipcas.es> 8/6/04; see p.2 of 12pages. http://www .cartesia.org/print. php? sid= 14 6 hindsight: journal of optometry history .. . april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 51 figure 6. this map helps the viewer appreciate the altitude and contour of the dig sites, i.e., both mas nou and cava fosca.(ref. 7) this map is reproduced with permission of the profa. puyoles. the appellation, cingle del mas nou i cava (or cova) fosca, is translated as follows: the word "cingle" means 'crag', i.e., a place with a rocky wall where cavities, or hollows, or rocky shelters have developed. a "mas" or "masia" is a farm, or country house; "nou" = new. note, less than 200 yards away from the dig site there is a country house, now abandoned, but which earlier had been described as "new". a "cava"= cave in english, and "fosca" = "oscura" in spanish, or dark or dim in english. the "cingle del mas nou i cava fosca" is a well-known geographical and archeological site located in northeastern spain near its mediterranean coast. another translation of "cingle", in addition to crag, is a cliff, "a steep, rugged rock formation arising from a rock mass." this cingle is located on the side of a mountain called "e barranco". there are archaeological sites and caves located in this area which have been carefully researched, e.g., by archaeologist profa. dr. carme olaria puyoles and her associates. profa. carme olaria puyoles and prof. jose luis gomez lopez point out that these archaeological sites were continuously inhabited by local peoples from 12,0007000 years bp (before the present).7•8 "the population ... probably had a transitional subsistence economy, which combined agriculture and livestock-based economy with hunting and harvesting/fruit picking." it is noted that some of the modest number of bodies exhumed at this/these site(s) were quite short (of course, excluding the man with the artificial eye). did some of them exhibit dwarfism? courtesy dr. carme olaria puyoles. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 52 designation of eras; the time line: 1. paleolithic: the early/older stone age period. during this time period, less complex, or simpler stone implements were employed. a. lower paleolithic: circa. 2,000,000-100,000 bce b. middle paleolithic: circa 100,000-30,000 bce c. upper paleolithic: circa 30,000-10,000 bce 2. mesolithic or epi-paleolithic: featured use of more complex stone tools and/or instruments: circa 10,000-6,000/5000 bce 3. neolithic: this time period is defined, in part, by the introduction of metal tools; and use of copper predated bronze. please note, time of introduction of metal tools varied with location! circa 6,000-5,000 bce ... *reference: the stone ages: e.g., kime (2005),10 also see ref 9. dates for at least sub-portions of "ancient eras" are assigned differently by various sources (e.g., see tabular materials presented in wenke 10). a caution, one must realize that individual groups of ancient peoples made the transition from one era (or sub-era) to another one at somewhat different times. when considering the peoples who lived in the area of modern spain considered here, we should speak of their still being in the mesolithic era, or middle stone age! designations of the age of discoveries one can readily become confused by different designations for the ages of objects, and specifications of time. 1. archaeologists and others try to avoid antagonizing different peoples, particularly those with differing religious beliefs. 2. in the u.s.a. we usually define calendar years as either bc or ad. 3. in the scientific domain, one often encounters use of bce (before the common era) instead of bc, and ce (the common era) in place of ad. also bp (before the present) is used. for example, 2000 years bce = 2000 years bc =about 4000 years bp. the mesolithic spanish artificial eye: ii in figs. 7-9 parts of the exhumed skeleton, head, and in situ artificial eye are seen. interestingly, this spanish artificial eye "may" have been placed in a reversed/backwards orientation into the orbit of this deceased person at the time of burial (please see below). the external or outward-facing portion of the prosthesis (back?) had an incised left-right facing "x" mark (for centration?). please note, this eye­ structure precedes, by quite some period of time, known written language! the spanish archaeologists believe this x mark might have symbolized an iris (?). hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 53 the inward-orbit-facing portion of the artificial eye (figs. 9,1 0) had what might be considered an outlined and raised cornea made by hammering-in short incisures into an approximately circular pattern on the block of ocher. there also might have been a flattened pupil located at it's center(?). was the seating of the eye, as found, accidental or purposeful? let us assume the artificial eye was erroneously inserted into the orbit during burial in a-reverse-manner (intentionally or un-intentionally?). if it was intentional, this might have symbolized the death of the man, or an inwardor rear-ward facing alignment, or a looking-backward-in-time, etc.(?) figure 7. the body, in situ, containing the artificial eye in the right orbit. note, the site has been partially cleaned up. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 54 5. vista del globo ocular postizo realizado en ocre y mos­ incisiones para simular el iris. figure 8. another view of the artificial eye in situ. note the "x" located on this side ofthe artificial eye. reproduced with permission of prof. puyoles. the features on the inner side of this artificial eye more closely approximated the appearance of a front-of-the-eye configuration. alternatively, this device might not have stayed in-place within the orbit without lid pressure, etc. , had it been facing forward. the writer can only surmise the reason this artificial eye structure was placed in this curious orientation within the orbit. not surprisingly, this earlier artificial eye was much more primitive in design than the iranian one discovered 2000 years later at "the burnt city", in iran. (fig. 1) the iberian dwellers were cro-magnon individuals (homo sapiens sapiens) of european origin (that is, it was unlikely they were of african origin). this point was made to enoch by profa. dr. carme olaria puyoles. included here is an artist's portrayal of the people living in those times in the area of cingle del mas nou i cava fosca! (see fig. 11 ). mesolithic spanish artificial eye ill: as noted, the area containing this dig was inhabited over a lengthy time period. the bodies exhumed, including the body of interest here, are dated from about 701 0+/40 years bp (before the present) to 6920+/40 years bp. this is equivalent to 5010 +/­ years to 4920+/years before the common era (bce). 7·8 hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 55 figura 6. la pieza de ocre una vez ex t:raida de 1a cuenca ocular con indicac i6n de la incisi6n ci rcular del ojo. figures 9, 10. the rear view of the artificial eye! was the "eye" inserted in reverse orientation? this appears to be the front of the eye, i.e., one discerns the cornea with a possible centered pupil?! that is, the modest chipped out depression in the center of the raised area might have been intended as the eye pupil (note red arrow)? photo presented in color and black and white. courtesy profa. puyoles. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april , 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 56 figure 11. an artist's perception of what a man of the time might wear. courtesy of pro fa. puyoles. skull and orbit observe this man's skull. (figs. 7, 12, 13) note, that the supra-orbital ridges of this man are quite prominent (this is termed [in spanish] "ceja 6sea" = bony eyebrow")! this is considered normal by the spanish examiners. it is postulated that these protuberances look like a "torus supraorbitalis"(a marked eyebrow ridge). the comment is made that further anthropological study of these features is indicated. it is not quite clear from the figures whether there is close symmetry between his two supra-orbital ridges(?). courtesy dr. carme olaria puyoles. was there an injury? importantly, there may have been an injury here. apparently the man's right ulna had been broken and it is suggested this may have been associated with an attempt by this man to protect his face/eyes from a blow coming from above (or above left?). please observe the calvarium (figs. 7,1 0,11) where it contacts the nasal bones, and we must not forget the broken right ulna. there also has been evidence presented for a possible chronic infectious process associated with the para-nasal sinuses, i.e., it is suggested this process might have favored development of osteomyelitis (inflammation of the bone marrow). further analysis is needed. this is a difficult set of issues to analyze. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 57 figure 12. profa. puyoles provided this fine photograph(!) of the skull of this exhumed male. please note the heavy supra-orbital ridges, and the possible downward shift of the calvarium in the area of the junction with the nasal bone, etc. what was the cause of cracks in the skull? etc. note also, there was no information provided as what might have happened earlier to the individual's right eye. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 58 figure 13. the right side of the skull of this man. courtesy profa. puyoles. figure 14. comparison of the two artificial eyes, left, the iberian/spanish artificial eye, ca. 7000 bp; and the iranian/"bumt city" artificial eye, ca. 5000 bp. courtesy profa. puyoles; and c.a.i.s., hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 59 comparison of the two early artificial eyes, an ancient technology!: the spanish "eye", ca 7000 bp; and the iranian "eye", 5000 bp. (fig. 14) 1. the "spanish" eye was constructed from ocher (ochre), the other was made of a resinous/tar-like bitumen(+ animal fat?).(see refs. 7,8, 11, 12). note the iranian artificial eye was also coated thinly with gold. 2. orbital fit? the iranian eye was clearly a better fit, and much better finished. 3. were 'ties" employed to hold the artificial eye in place? the iranian eye used ties to hold the eye structure in place; the spanish one did not. 4. decorative features: the iranian eye was decorated in a far superior and more interesting and sophisticated manner. the rays of light radiating from, or entering the eye pupil (iranian), were among the very earliest ones portrayed! 5. apparently both artificial eyes were (?) worn under the eyelid; these individuals were both relatively well-to-do, and tall. one must assume artificial eyes were relatively expensive and rare. 6. both individuals were buried with the artificial eye found in situ in their orbit. 7. the gold coating on the iranian eye would have provided a degree of protection relative to interactions of the prosthesis with the individual wearer's orbital contents. this point was made to jme by director/prof t. freddo, school of optometry, u waterloo, ontario. 8. the question as to whether the spanish eye was properly oriented in the exhumed male skull limits further comparisons which might be made. if the spanish eye was placed incorrectly in the eye of the deceased man, and if the prosthesis was properly oriented in life, one could argue the spanish artificial eye made a more realistic (if modest) attempt to recreate the natural shape of the human eye. this was not attempted in the iranian eye, but individual features such as scleral capillaries, the iris and pupil, were better represented in the much later iranian prosthesis. conclusions not surprisingly, given the dates assigned, the spanish artificial eye discussed here is much more primitive than the one recently found at "the burnt city" (located in modern iran). as noted, the spanish artificial eye discovered by profa. carme olaria puyoles and co-workers is about 7000 years old, while the iranian one is ca. 5000 years old. without doubt, these each were remarkable discoveries! the two individuals buried with these artificial eyes were apparently both well-off, and were quite tall for their time. the design(s) on the spanish eye were simple, and it was not as well finished nor as well physically supported as the iranian one. so saying, these artificial eye structures were extraordinary for their times! unless proven otherwise, one needs to assume they were independent developments. so saying, associated skills clearly matured over time. in this sense, 2000 years, the equivalent to the time from the birth of christ to the present era is a rather long period of time! on the basis of these rare finds, one must predict that in the interim other artificial eyes existed, and there must have been a continuing demand for limited numbers of hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 60 such products! one must ask, if this technology was communicated, how might this have occurred? we need also ask, when was the first artificial eye developed, and by whom? clearly, with the spanish artificial eye we approach that original development. one wonders if the spanish eye represented the very first such effort (this cannot be ruled out). obviously, it must now be considered to be the first known such device. separately, jme concludes the spanish eye was reversed in orientation at interment. as a long time contact-lens-fitter serving mainly patients with complex ocular problems, it is probably valid to state that the spanish eye (or both such artificial "eyes") were not worn for an extended periods of time with great comfort. jme is amazed to have learned of these early developments of artificial eyes. the desire/incentive of these individuals to wear such appliances must have been very great indeed. acknowledgements the author warmly acknowledges the help of dr. elena garcia-guixe, a physical anthropologist, located in spain. she called jme's attention to this ancient and most remarkable discovery! elegagui@gmail.com he very much appreciates the excellent cooperation of profa. dr. carme olaria puyoles, and for her advice, for literature sent, and for sending some remarkable figures and other materials from her current publications and files! olaria@his.uji.es this is an outstanding set of discoveries. in no way, does jme mean to preempt her discoveries and those of her able co-workers! he very much hopes his interpretations of their work (and that of the iranians as well) are correct. jme is surprised by how limited our knowledge is of the history of the apparently venerable profession served by present-day ocularists, i.e., those who continue to fill this much needed niche/service-area within ophthalmic science/care. early in his career, jme spent long hours watching these remarkable miniaturists create startling prosthetic matches for missing eyes due to war injuries. this exposure occurred early during the korean war when jme was assigned to the ophthalmology service at walter reed army hospital in washington, dc. finally, dr. esther moreno-barriuso was most effective in aiding jme with necessary translations. emb@moreno-barriuso.com jme expresses his great gratitude for being allowed to reproduce a number of photographs employed in this document. he thanks both c.a.i.s. (iran), and prof. carme olaria puyoles (spain), and journals/papers of record from which some illustrations have been reproduced. both research groups, iranian and spanish, need to be congratulated for their outstanding work! references 1. carme olaria puyoles. cova fosca. un asentamiento meso-neolithico de cazadores en ia serrania del alto maestrazgo, monografies de prehistoria i arqueologia castellonenques, 3, 424 pp. slap. diputaci6, castello, 1988. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 61 2. c. olaria puyoles. naves intervencions argeo/ogiques als jaciments neolitics del cingle del mas nou i cava fosca (ares del maestre, aft maestrat). quaderns de prehistoria i 7-350. slap. diputacio, castello, 1999. 3. c. olaria puyoles. nuevas dataciones de c-14 para el neolitico mediterraneo peninsular. quaderns de prehistoria i arqueologia castellonencs, 21, 2734 pp, 34 , servicio publicaciones diputacion provincial castellon, casteiiarqueologia castellonencs, 20, 34, 2000a. 4. gustau aguilella arzo. cartesia modelos digitales del terreno e lnvestigaci6n prehist6rica. servicio de arqueologica, diputacion de castillon, spain, 8/6/04, 12 pages. (seep. 2), url read, 8/25/08. http://www.cartesia.org/print.php?sid= 146. please note the location of the dig. 5. c. olaria puyoles. projecte d'lnvestigacio arqueologica cofinan9at per ia direccio general de ia promocio cultural i patrimoni artistic de ia generalitat valenciana i ia universitat jaume i de castello. 2000. quaderns de de prehistoria i arqueologia castellonenques, 21, 463-468. slap, diputacio, castello, 2000b. 6. c. olaria puyoles, f. gusi jener, m. diaz. el asentamiento neolitico del cingle del mas nou (ares del maestrat, castellon). cuadernos de prehistoria y arqueologia castellonenses, 13, 95-169, 1987-88. 7. carme olaria puyoles and jose luis gomez lopez. hallazgos antropologicos del12000 al 7000 bp en ares del maestre (castellon). in: (consuela roca de togores munoz, and fernando rodes lloret, eds.) aetas de las jornadas de antropologia fisica y forense (aiicante, 29-30 de junio de 2006). lnstituto alicantino de cultura "juan gil-albert". 47-55, 2008. 8. carme olaria puyoles. la muerte como ritu transcendental. los rituales funerios del epipaleolitico-mesolitico y sy probable influencia en el mundo megalitico. quad. preh. arq. cast. 23(2002-2003): 85-106, 2002-2003. [laboratori d'arqueologia prehistoria, universitat jaume i. castello de ia plana. olaria@his.uji.es] 9. kime ao. human prehistory and the stone age; a timeline critique, second edition, may 2005. 10. wenke rj. patterns in prehistory: humankind's first three million years. 3rd ed., new york: oxford university press, 1990, isbn 0-19-506848-3. 11. (a.) enoch jm. the burnt city and the first known artificial eye. presented at the april 12, 2008, meeting of the ocular heritage society. this paper has appeared in the 25th annual society proceedings, 2008, dr. john tull, organizer; (b) this article also appeared in the proceedings of the cogan ophthalmic history society, 2008, pp. 95-107; (c.) and in hindsight: j optom hist 2008;38:58-67. 12. enoch jm. the burnt city and the first known artificial eye. presented as a public lecture in behalf of the school of optometry, la universitat polytecnica de catalunya at 7:00 pm, june 25, 2008 at the cosmocaixa, barcelona, catalonia, espagiia. 13. salter m. human evolution: early start for human art? ochre may revise timeline. science jan 30, 2009;323:569. 14. salter m. on the origin of art and symbolism. science feb. 6, 2009;323:709711. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 62 george adams junior and his 1789 book an essay on vision david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract english instrument maker george adams junior (1750-1795) published an essay on vision in 1789, with a second edition appearing in 1792. the 153 page book (157 pages in the second edition) presented material on structure of the eye and the basic nature of vision and vision conditions, with an emphasis on the proper use and choice of spectacles for the "long sighted" and the "short-sighted." a brief biographical sketch of adams is given, and the contents of the book are discussed, with presentation of excerpts relating to general optometric principles. the excerpts can serve to illustrate the state of optometric knowledge in the late eighteenth century. key words: george adams, history of optometry, instrument makers, optometry books george adams junior (1750-1795) came from a family of english instrument makers. he was apprenticed to his father in 1765. his father died in 1772. after a period of time in which the business was officially run by his mother, george adams junior took over the business in 1773. the business included microscopes, telescopes, spectacles, globes, and instruments for astronomy, geometry, surveying, navigation, meteorology, etc. george adams junior, like his father, held various royal appointments. he continued from his father as mathematical instrument maker to the king. in 1787, he became optician to the prince of wales, the future king george iv. a significant part of his business was selling equipment to the british military. albert3 observed that george adams junior may be best known for his work in the construction of microscopes. he, as well as his father, made significant contributions to the development of microscopes. they both published books on microscopy, the elder's being a 263 page book first published in 17 46 and the younger's being a 724 page book first published in 1787. adams microscopes and instruments are preserved in many museums and private collections, and pictures of many of them can be seen in millburn's book on the adams family. 1 in the 1780s and 1790s, george adams junior published a number of books dealing with scientific topics. these books (with the dates of the first editions in parentheses) included essay on electricity (1784 ), essays on the microscope (1787), essay on vision (1789), astronomical and geographical essays (1789), description, use, and method of adjusting hadley's quadrant and sextant (1789), a short hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 63 dissertation on the barometer, thermometer, and other meteorological instruments (1790), geometrical and graphical essays (1791 ), and lectures on natural and experimental philosophy (in five volumes, 1794 ). some of these books went through several editions. many of them closed with a catalog of instruments for sale. the full title of adams' essay on vision is an essay on vision, briefly explaining the fabric of the eye, and the nature of vision: intended for the service of those whose eyes are weak or impaired: enabling them to form an accurate idea of the true state of their sight, the means of preserving it, together with proper rules for ascertaining when spectacles are necessary, and how to choose them without injuring the sight. the first edition was published in 1789, and a second edition appeared in 1792. adams wrote it for lay persons and opticians ("particularly those who live in the country," page iv) to learn about vision and to be more informed about the proper use and wear of spectacles. the first edition is 153 pages in length, followed by a 14 page catalog of instruments sold by adams. the second edition is 157 pages. introductory material, a description of eye and adnexa, binocular fusion, and the structure of the eye takes the reader through the first 34 pages of the first edition and the first 36 pages of the second edition. in the discussion of the pupil, adams observed that: "those who are short-sighted, have the pupils of their eyes, in general, very large; whereas in those whose eyes are perfect, or long-sighted, they are much smaller." (first edition, pages 22-23; second edition, page 24) after about eleven pages of very basic optics, adams discusses vision, including image formation by the eye, differences between clarity and distinctness of vision, factors affecting clarity and distinctness of vision, accommodation, and pupillary reflexes. 'we see an object clearly, when it is sufficiently illuminated, to enable us to form a general idea of its figure, and to distinguish it from other objects: we see it distinctly, when the outlines of it are well defined, when we can distinguish the parts of it, and determine their colour and situation. thus we may be said to see a distant object clearly, when we can perceive that it is a tower; but to see it distinctly, we approach so near as to be able to determine not only its general outline, but to distinguish the parts of which it is composed." (first edition, page 66; second edition, pages 69-70) the mechanism of accommodation was unknown at adams' time, as can be seen by his statement that: "authors are much divided in their opinions concerning the change that is made in the conformation of the eye, to procure distinct vision at different distances, some thinking it to be a change in the length of the eye, others that it is a change in the figure or position of the crystalline humour, other that it is a change in the cornea." (first edition, page 76; second edition, pages 80-81) adams prefaces a discussion of "imperfect sight" by saying that: "there is no branch of science, of which it is more important that a general knowledge should be diffused, than that part which treats of the various imperfections of sight, and the remedies for them." (first edition, page 86; second edition, page 90) hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 64 adams first considers "old or long-sighted eyes." "by the long-sighted, remote objects are seen distinctly, near ones confusedly; and in proportion as this defect increases, the nearer objects become more indistinct, till at length it is found almost impossible to read a common-sized print without assistance." (first edition, pages 88-89; second edition, page 93) the consequences of presbyopia are noted: "those who were accustomed in their youth to read a common size print, at about twelve or fourteen inches distance from their eyes, are obliged to remove the book to two or three feet before they can see the letters distinctly, and read it with comfort." (first edition, pages 89-90; second edition, page 94) adams observed a relation between use of the eyes and refractive conditions: "country-men, sailors, and those that are habituated to look at remote objects, are generally long-sighted, want spectacles soonest, and use the deepest magnifiers; on the other hand, the far greater part of the short-sighted are to be found among students, and those artists who are daily conversant with small and near objects; every man becoming expert in that kind of vision, which is most useful to him in his particular profession and manner of life ... " (first edition, pages 91-92; second edition, page 96) in beginning a discussion of spectacles, the author opined that: "the discovery of optical instruments may be esteemed among the most noble, as well as among the most useful gifts, which the supreme artist hath conferred on man." (first edition, pages 94; second edition, page 98) concerning the proper choice of spectacles, adams observed that: "the most general, and perhaps the best rule that can be given, to those who are in want of assistance from glasses, in order so to choose their spectacles, that they may suit the state of their eyes, is to prefer those which shew objects nearest their natural state, neither enlarged not diminished, the glasses being near the eye, and that give a blackness and distinctness to the letters of a book, neither straining the eye, nor causing any unnatural exertion of the pupil." (first edition, page 96; second edition, page 100) further he said that: "though, in the choice of spectacles, every one must finally determine for himself, which are the glasses through which he obtains the most distinct vision; yet some confidence should be placed in the judgment of the artist, of whom they are purchased, and some attention paid to his directions." (first edition, page 96; second edition, pages 1 00-1 01 ) adams gave the following rules for the preservation of sight: "1. never to sit for any length of time in absolute gloom, or exposed to a blaze of light. ... 2. to avoid reading a small print. 3. not to read in the dusk; nor, if the eyes be disordered, by candle-light.. . .4. the eye should not be permitted to dwell on glaring objects ... 5. the long-sighted should accustom themselves to read with rather less light, and somewhat nearer to the eye than what they naturally like; while those that are short-sighted, should hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 65 rather use themselves to read with the book as far off as possible." (first edition, pages 97-99; second edition, pages 101-103) a few pages later, adams notes that age is not "an absolute criterion" for deciding whether the use of spectacles for reading is warranted, and he puts forward rules to determine when "sight may be assisted or preserved by the use of spectacles": 1. when we are obliged to remove small objects to a considerable distance from the eye, in order to see them distinctly. 2. if we find it necessary to get more light than formerly; as for instance, to place the candle between the eye and the object. 3. if on looking at, and attentively considering a near object, it becomes confused, and appears to have a kind of mist before it. 4. when the letters of a book run one into the other, and hence appear double and treble. 5. if the eyes are so fatigued by a little exercise, that we are obliged to shut them from time to time, and relieve them by looking at different objects." (first edition, pages 103-104; second edition, pages 107-108) another aspect of reading glasses that he addressed was that their power should be based on individual characteristics and reading distance: "magnifying power is not the point that is most to be considered in the choice of spectacles, but their conformity to our sight, their enabling us to see distinctly, and with ease, at the distance we were accustomed to read or work, before the use of spectacles became necessary: or in other words, glasses should so alter the disposition of the rays, at their entrance into the eyes, as will be most suitable to procure distinct vision at a proper distance ... " (first edition, page 1 07; second edition, page 111) adams advised against the use of "visual spectacles." although he did mention benjamin martin's (1705-1782) name, it is evident that he was talking about the spectacles also known as martin's margins." adams considered the rims of visual spectacles to be "imperfect and detrimental" as a "shade or screen," and thought that they were "inconvenient in use." (first edition, page; second edition, pages 114-115) he also thought that, in general, that "coloured glasses" should not be recommended. after a little further discussion of reading glasses, adams took up the topic of couched eyes. he noted that persons with couched eyes "generally require tow pair of spectacles, one for near, the other for more distant objects. the foci that are used lie between 6 and 1 y:z inches." (first edition, page 122; second edition, page 126) adams' next topic is short-sightedness: "in this defect of the eyes, the images of objects at ordinary distance unite before they arrive at the retina, and consequently the images formed thereon are confused and indistinct. this effect is produced either by too great a convexity in the cornea and crystalline, or too great a refractive power in the humours of the eye; or the retina may be placed too far; or it may arise from a concurrence of all these circumstances." (first edition, page 122; second edition, pages 126-127) next he says that: "happily for the short-sighted, the principal inconveniences of their sight may be remedied by the use of concave glasses; ... the concave lens hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 66 produces distinct vision, by causing the rays to diverge more, and unite at the retina, instead of meeting before they reach the bottom of the eye." (first edition, pages 124125; second edition, page 129) and he observed that the selection of lens power "must depend on the observation of the short-sighted themselves, who, by trying glasses of different degrees of concavity, will soon find out that whose effects are most advantageous ... " (first edition, page 125; second edition, page 130) adams recognized an association of near work and myopia: "we often find, that watch-makers, engravers, and studious persons, often bring o this defect. by reading or working as great a distance as possible, and often looking at remote objects, the degree of short-sightedness may be much lessened. as children in general read much nearer than grown persons, if they are suffered to indulge this propensity, they become naturally short-sighted." (first edition, page 127; second edition, page 132) adams' last topic in the book is strabismus or "squinting." he cited thomas reid as presenting that "in perfect human eyes, the centers of the two retinae correspond and harmonize with one another, and that every other point in one retina, corresponds with that point which is similarly situated in the other. .. " (first edition, pages 135-136; second edition, pages 140-141) he also mentioned an association of strabismus with amblyopia: "the greatest number of that squint have very indistinct vision with one eye ... " (first edition, page 140; second edition, pages 145) next adams discussed the "eleven subjects of inquiry" that reid recommended be determined for each individual to establish "the foundation for a rational mode of cure." these included points that we could recognize as difference in acuity between the eyes, change in angle with direction of gaze, and presence of diplopia. adams closes the narrative with treatment for strabismus, which included aspects such as patching and work to improve fixation. at the end of the first edition there is "a catalogue of mathematical and philosophical instruments made and sold by george adams." the headings for the items in the catalog were optical instruments; geographical and astronomical instruments; mathematical instruments, for geometry, drawing, etc.; surveying instruments; military instruments; instruments for navigation; instruments for electricity; apparatus for experiments on magnetism; instruments for experiments on pneumatics; apparatus for an air-pump; meteorological instruments; instruments for illustrating the mechanic powers, the laws of motion, etc.; and instruments for experiments for experiments in hydrostatics and hydraulics. the optical instruments include a number of different types of spectacles, as well as various opera glasses, telescopes, microscopes, prisms, mirrors, and other items. there is fairly little difference between the first and second editions. the basic outline is the same. in the second edition there are occasional additions of paragraphs, sentences, or footnotes, along with the deletion or revision of a few sentences. essay on vision appeared in dutch translations in 1792 and 1800 and a german translation in 1794. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 67 george adams junior's younger brother dudley adams (1762-1830) was apprenticed to him in 1777. dudley established his own business in 1788, taking over most of the family's globe making business, but also selling many other instruments. dudley did not prove to be as good a businessman as his father and brother and he went bankrupt in 1817. in about 1794, george adams junior's health started failing. he died on august 14, 1795, a few weeks after he turned 45 years old. his widow hannah continued the business for about a year after his death until the business's stock was sold at auction in 1796. w. and s. jones published updated versions of some of george adams junior's books from 1797 to 1813, but essay on vision was not among those works. references 1. millburn jr. adams of fleet street, instrument makers to king george ill. aldershot, england: ashgate, 2000. 2. millburn jr. adams family. oxford dictionary of national biography. oxford university press, 2009. www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49854/117. last accessed april 8, 2009. 3. albert dm. an essay on vision, george adams. birmingham, al: gryphon editions, 1988 (fourteen page pamphlet accompanying the classics in ophthalmology library reprint of an essay on vision, by george adams). hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 68 medieval optometric traditions lech bieganowski, m.d., ph.d. ul. storczykowa 40, 87-:100 -toruli, poland originally published in polish: bieganowski l: sredniowieczne tradycje optometrii. optometria 2007; 1 (2):3-7. translation from polish: grazyna m. tondel, m.d., m.s., ph.d. bloomington, in 47403, gtondel@sbcglobal.net optometry is relatively young as an organized profession, with many developments taking place in the twentieth century. therefore, it can be surprising that some of problems that optometry deals with, were subjects of consideration for medieval natural philosophers (scientists) such as ibn ai-haitham (in europe known as alhazen), bacon, grosseteste, peckham or witelo. information on this topic was mainly gained from the works on translation of witelo's scientific work. 1-3 this was also shown in comparison studies related to some aspects of anatomy and physiology of the eye in the works of alhazen and witelo.4 the previously mentioned medieval natural philosophers were in favor of an intromission theory of seeing, the basis of which began in antiquity. the theory assumed that the image of an observed object enters the eye through some elementary "forms" released from the observed object together with light. these forms were assumed to be part of each object. the competitive theory was an idea (known today as extramission) which stated that vision happens as a result of releasing specific subtle "emanates" from the eye. when they leave the eye, they reflect from the observed object and reenter the eye causing the act of seeing. the proof used by people in favor of this theory was the greenish tint seen at night in some animals' eyes. it was thought that these animals can see well at night because the "emanates" sent out from their eyes were very strong. it is necessary to underscore that the founder of the scientific bases of the intromission theory was mostly alhazen. however, without a doubt, witelo contributed to the popularization of this theory in medieval europe. witelo (1237-1300), son ofturyngs and poles (filium thuringorum et polonorum, as he described himself), was born in poland. after his studies in italy and paris, he started, among other projects, to do scientific work. in about 1272 the scientist wilhelm of moerbeke, who was connected to the papal curia in viterbo, proposed that witelo write a work that would include the whole knowledge in the optics area. witelo took up this task and this is why he got interested in all the elaborations on this topic available to him. he also had a latin translation of the work kitab a/-manazir (arabian, optics) hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 69 written by ai hazen. _this scientist came from basra and lived from about 963 to 1040. the oldest presently known latin translation of this work comes from 1269 and a translator gave it the title de aspectibus (about sight). 5 witelo, in his epochal work titled perspectiva, indeed included the whole knowledge on optics available during this time. this gigantic work had 10 volumes and was a basic manual in this area for universities practically until the time of kepler, that is until the seventeenth century. the first ill.. volume included mathematical background needed to make mathematical proofs of the statements included in the following volumes. the second bookjill is the introduction to the discussion of optics. in the third volume ill!l.jhe author describes how the eye is constructed, and discusses the mechanisms of image formation in the eye and some psychological-physiological aspects connected to vision. the fourth volume.jri.} is devoted to the description of vision when an object is being seen directly~ and to the reasons for vision problems. the phenomena of light reflections and seeing when using mirrors is described in volumes v-ix. the tenth book.qq discuses the phenomena of light refraction, seeing objects in refracted light, and some of topics on optics of the atmosphere. the work of witelo was first printed in nuremberg in 1535 and edited by tanstetterapian (a reprint took place in 1551 ). the next edition was published in bazylea in 1572 edited by f. risner. in this edition risner placed alhazen's text in front of witelo's work. he also introduced many modifications and changes in witelo's text.6 this editorial interference by risner resulted in the rising of some critical opinions about witelo that claimed he used a lot of the work of the arabian author and that his own input in the essence of his work was very small. research conducted in the twentieth century on this critical edition of witelo's work allowed explanation and rejection of many of these criticisms. it was also confirmed that some of the expressions and fragments of witelo's text are borrowed from ai hazen. however, it was decided that witelo's work shows the better orientation in the subject, clearly a more correct methodology and the rule of proving formulated theorems mainly based on geometry. (figs. 1, 2, and 3) because most of witelo's work is now translated into polish, his ideas will be presented, although obviously ibn ai-haitham (aihazen) also worked in this area. particularly interesting, for ophthalmologists and optometrists, will be witelo's ideas concerning: the structure of the eye, mechanisms of image formation in the eye, and conditions required for good vision including binocular vision; these problems are considered in the ill and iv volume of perspectiva. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 70 l l rvc. 2. schemat oka w de aspectibus alhazena. rvc. 3. schemat oka w perspektywie witelona. left to right: figure 1. the schematic of the visual system from kitab al-manazir ibn al­ haitham; figure 2. the schematic of the eye from de aspectibus, ibn al-haitham; figure 3. the schematic of the eye from perspectiva, witelo. witelo described the structure of the eye according to medical books of his time. that i!.s why in statement 4 in book ill he wrote that the eye consists of three fluids and four coats, that is: the "crystalline or ice fluid" (i.e., the lens), the "hyaline fluid", the "albumen humour", the "horn membrane" , the "bonding membrane" etc. at the same time, these elements are spherical structures (for example, the eye ball), or they are spherical parts of other elements of the eye. witelo also put a big emphasis on precise description of the position of geometrical centers of the aforementioned spherical elements in the eye. the eye ball in the posterior part is supposed to connect with the "visual, that is hollowed (concaved) nerve" (nervus opticus vel concavus), whose coats are supposed to blend with the eye membranes. inside this nerve were small canals that were used to nourish the nerve. (the small canals mentioned by witelo are certainly branches of arteria at vena centra/is retinae.) the nerve was hollow inside in order to allow the movement of the "visual spirit" (spiritus visibilis). through the hole in the bone, the visual nerve was entering the inside of the skull where, in the front part of the brain, it was meeting with the identical nerve from the other eye and they were switching -places. the right visual nerve became the left and the left one became the right. the place of the crossing witelo named the common nerve. in this place, where the image of an object arrived thanks to the "visual spirit", the ability to see was localized. this ability was responsible for receiving visual sensations (virtus visiva sentiens) and for discrimination ( dijudicans). it was mentioned before that witelo paid attention to sphericity of "fluids" and "membranes" of the eye. underlining the geometric shape of the particular fluids and membranes of the eye led witelo to change the nomenclature and to start describing hindsight: journal of optometry history . . . april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 71 these structures using such terms as: "crystal sphere", "grape-like sphere", "ice sphere" and "horn sphere". this tendency becomes clear when witelo, in the end of the description of the eye, presents a mathematical figure that demonstrates the eye. witelo's thoroughly considered goal and purpose was to create a model of the eye that would make the understanding of the next theory, the theory of image formation in the eye, easier to understand for readers. (it is worthwhile to note that the picture of the sectional view of the eye known as mathematical figure or mathematical picture as well as the description of the picture are totally original work of witelo.) this theory, as was already mentioned, assumed that together with light the "forms" of the seen objects enter the eye. according to these ideas, on the front surface of the cornea the exact copy of the object was created, thanks to the expansion of this form (from the observed object to the eye). (so called first purkinje image.) in addition, this concept assumed that the "horn sphere" and the "crystal sphere" had the same middle, thus the surfaces of these "spheres" were parallel. therefore, according to this idea, also on the front surface of the lens the exact copy of the observed object was created. (so called second purkinje image.) this is why it was assumed that vision is only possible when the forms that came from the observed object and reached the eye were coming along the lines that were perpendicular to the cornea and the lens. thus.z. the forms that reached the eye created a cone (called the vision cone), with the base located on the surface of the observed object and the apex in the geometrical center of the eye. according to this theory, after passing through the lens.z. but before getting to the geometrical center of the eye, the direct image of the observed object was received by the "visual spirit" (spiritus visibilis), which carried this copy through the vision nerve to the "common nerve" (the crossing of vision nerves). the additional reason for such explanation of the way of transmitting direct image was the ascertainment that in the opposite situation.z. after the rays pass the geometrical center of the eye.z. an inverted image would be created which was contradictory to everyday observations. (analyzing these ideas it is necessary to say that in medieval times the optical features of lenses were not known. it was thought that that the rays perpendicular to the cornea and sclera meet in one point behind the lens. however; for example, the parallel ray, will be refracted but will not meet in one point.)the rays that fall on the cornea at different angles-therefore, according to the theory mentioned earlier, the lens was the element of the eye that received visual sensations.z. and for this reason was considered to be the most important and most protected part of the eye. it is worth underscoring that the paradigm concerning receipt by the eye of the direct (erect) image of the observed object existed until the eighteenth century! only the work of johannes kepler, ad vitel/ionem paralipomena ... , published in 1604, had the description of the lens as an element of the optical system of the eye and a cause for the inverted image falling on the retina. it should be noticed that although the great kepler realized that his explanation ended the existence of the theory of -intromission to the crystalline lens, the decision to title his work ad vitellionem paralipomena ... (paralipomena means deficiencies in greek) was made intentionally, surely as the last tribute to witelo the great medieval scientist. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 72 let's take a look at the other problems that can be included in medical, optometric, and psychological aspects,~. which are described in the work of witelo. it is possible to include in this area the parts of the work that try to explain why, in spite of having two eyes, we see one object thus these are issues described nowadays as monocular perception and fusion (the phenomena of stereoscopic vision was not noticed). when witelo analyzed the issues of single vision, he stated that this process is a result from the fact that both eyes are the same, identically located in relation to each other and they always perform the same movements. the stimulus to move is sent to both eye balls from the common nerve point (crossing of vision nerves). the visual spirit (spiritus visibilis) carries the direct image of the observed object to the same point. this occurs because at this point, the ability to see, responsible for both receiving and discriminating the visual sensations (virtus visiva sentiens et dijudicans), is located. in the same point of the common nerve the merging of the two identical forms of the observed image takes place. the analysis of the proof of this statement leads to the conclusion that the formation of one image is made possible by the superimposition of geometrically identical figures. in addition let's notice, that the function responsible for movements of the eyeball was also thought to be carried by the vision nerve. witelo stated that a number of conditions have to be fulfilled in order for the act of vision to take place. they are as follows: the presence of light, a specific distance between the observed object and the eye, the localization of the object in front of the eye, the size of the object, the appropriate transparency of the air, the appropriate observation time and, visual acuity. (these are issues concerning the threshold of the resolution of the eye discussion and conclusions are correct although there is a lack of quantitative information) each of these conditions is extensively described and commented on. witelo's comprehensive explanations concern the conditions described by him as "indispositions". they concern such characteristic of objects as: distance, size, localization, form (i.e. shape), and sphericity (i.e. three dimensional shape), distance from others, uniformity and number, movement and rest, roughness and smoothness, transparency and density, shadow and darkness, beauty and ugliness, similarity and variety. in addition, each of the indisposition conditions is described and commented on, although sometimes in a very complicated way. let us just add that in this group an interesting discussion on perspective can be found. interesting also are witelo's deliberations concerning the errors that are made by the discrimination ability (virtus visiva sentiens et dijudicans) when any of the conditions from the above group are out of the norm. in addition, the author proves that the ability to discriminate may, in some conditions, undergo illusions (that is, visual illusions caused by the bad judgment of distance, size etc.). the phenomenon of physiological diplopia is described fascinatingly. what is interesting, in addition to the theoretical discussion on this subject, witelo proposes making a special instrument that can be used to demonstrate this phenomenon. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 73 this short review of medical matters that might be found in witelo's works allows concluding that the medical and optometric communities' pride in witelo's achievements and his importance for the scientific knowledge is justified. thus~ the introduction in 1990 of a special commemorative medal made out of bronze is not a surprising but an interesting form of honoring witelo. (this action was initiated by prof. dr. boleslaw k~dzia, founder and head of the department of optometry at the university of medical science in poznan. the author of the medal is sculptor, ewa olszewska-borys.) (figs. 4 and 5) rye. 4 i 5. medal witelonskiawers i rewers. figures 4 and 5. witelo's medalfront and back. naming one of the moon's craters vittellon in the 1990s of the 20th century may be a sign of international tribut~ to witelo. (the diameter of the crater is 42 km. the position of the crater is: 3cl0 24· sand 3p5· w; see: the hatfield photographic lunar atlas, jeremy cook, ed., london 1999, boards 9, 11, 12) looking from today's perspective at the views presented here~ it should be stated that the theory of intromission to the crystalline lens extraordinarily intelligently and cleverly explains the visual process and the mechanism of image formation in the eye, mainly based on the observation of the first purkinje image. however, the theory had to come to pass, since it was based on false assumptions. yet, this was the level of academic knowledge during these timesthe best scientists did not know the facts that today are taught in elementary schools. it seems that when evaluating the level of knowledge from ages ago it is still true what bernard of chartres (xii century) said: "we are midgets that stand on giants' shoulders. if we see further and reach further than they do, it is not because our sight is sharper or our posture taller, but because they brought us higher and uphold us on their gigantic height." references hindsight: journal of optometry history . . . april , 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 74 1. burchardt j. witelo. filosofo della natura del xiii siec. una biografia. wrocfaw 1984. 2. witelona perspektywy ksi~ga iii ill. wst~p. przekfad i komentarze: biganowski l, bielski a, dygdafa rs, wroblewski w, wrocfaw 1991, studia copernicana, t.29. 3. witelona perspektywy ksi~ga iv. przekfad w. wroblewski, wst~p. opracowanie przekfadu i komentarz: bieganowski l, bielski a, wroblewski w, wrocfaw 1994, studia copernicana, t.33. 4. bieganowski l. anatomia oka i mechanizm widzenia w uj~ciu sredniowiecznych uczonych ibn ai-haythama (aihazena) i witelona. torun, 2001. 5. the optics of ibn alhaytham-, books 1-111 on direct vision, voll. translated with introduction and commentary by a. i sabra, london 1989. 6. opticae thesaurus, alhazeni arabis libri septem, nunc primum editi, eiusdem liber de crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus item vitellonis thuringopoloni libri x .... frederico risnero, basileae 1572 (reprint: new york 1972, introduction and commentary by d. c. lindberg) hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 75 selected online sources of images relevant to the history of optometry david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this article provides descriptions of a sampling of websites that contain images relevant to the history of optometry. international library, archives, and museum of optometry the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo) has a "virtual museum" that can be found at www.aoa.org/x7388.xml. there are eleven categories of pictures of items: eyewear cases and containers; contact lenses; decorative items, art, photos; eyeglasses and spectacles; four lens spectacles; instruments, equipment, tools, and training; lorgnettes; martin's margins; miscellanea; pince-nez, folding, and quizzers; and recreational and safety eyewear. one can click on any of these categories and observe photos of items in the ilamo collection. there are anywhere from 5 to 27 items displayed in the separate categories. individual photographs have brief descriptive captions. among the cases is a leather case from mcallister opticians, 1226 chestnut st., philadelphia. the contact lenses grouping consists mostly of photos of equipment and contact lenses. there are two groupings under eyeglasses and spectacles. one is antique spectacles, with 20 photos, some of which are from the mcaiiisters, and the other is 20th century spectacles, with six photos. items in the instruments, equipment, tools, and training category include an arneson korector, optometers, refractors, a lens bar, pupillometer, reflecting retinoscopes, schematic eye, stereo orthoptor, syntonizer, worth black amblyoscope, b&l ferree-rand projector, and clason projector. among the miscellanea are a number of early american optometric association meeting badge medals. national library of medicine images from the history of medicine images from the history of medicine (www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/ihm/) contains almost 70,000 images from the prints and photographs collection of the history of medicine division of the united states national library of medicine. the emphasis is, of course, on medicine, disease, and surgery. there is a search function on this website. a search on the word optometry yielded zero results. a search on the word optician came up with seven records, including portraits of jesse ramsden, benjamin martin, and one of the dollonds. searches on eyeglasses and optics resulted in 40 and hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 76 28 records, respectively, mostly prints depicting eyeglasses, or in the case of optics, mostly prints depicting telescopes and optical instruments. the college of optometrists on-line exhibitions the college of optometrists is the organization which performs professional, scientific, and examining functions for optometry in the united kingdom. it has an online exhibition based on the collection of the british optical association museum in london. this online exhibit can found online at www.college­ optometrists.org/index.aspx/pcms/site.college.what_we_do.museyeum.online_exhibiti ons.onlineexhibs_home/. categories of items are: art gallery, colour vision gallery, eye gallery, observatory (history of astronomical optics), optical instruments gallery, print room, students past, artificial eyes gallery, contact lenses gallery, microscopy gallery, optical entertainment gallery, post room (stamp collection), and spectacles gallery. clicking on one of those categories leads one to a list of topics. for instance, in the optical instruments gallery, the topics are: examination chairs, retinoscopes, perimeters, slit lamps, duochrome tests, focimeters, ophthalmoscopes, keratometers, and tonometers. for each topic, there is both text describing the history of each topic and a number of images. for example, the discussion of retinoscopes include a description of retinoscopy, the history and development of retinoscopy, other terms used for retinoscopy, early simple retinoscopes, dynamic retinoscopy, spot retinoscopes, and streak retinoscopes. the text on retinoscopy is accompanied by eleven images. the discussion of ophthalmoscopes is the most extensively of any topic and is complemented by 41 images. there are many interesting items to be found by perusing this website. for example, under the topic invention of spectacles in the spectacles gallery, one sees a picture of the church where giordano da rivalto delivered his 1305 sermon in which he stated that "it is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making spectacles." the science museum (london) history of medicine website the science museum in london was founded in 1857. it has a great deal of online material including a history of medicine website which can be found at www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife.aspx. by using the search function, one can find some eye related items, such as eye models and eye cups. searching on the word lenses yields some images of intraocular lenses and microscopes. not much can be found by searching on words such as optometry, eyeglasses, and spectacles. however, an interesting find resulted from searching on the word optician: trade cards of late 1 ih century through 19th century english opticians james mann, william dowling, john yarwell, thomas ribright, and james ayscough. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 77 wellcome collection images images from the collection in the wellcome library in london can be found at http://images.wellcome.ac.uk. the website includes a search function. a search for optometry resulted in only two images, a portrait of f.c. donders and the title page of his die anomalien der refraction und accommodation des auges. a search for spectacles yielded 100 results, most of which were pictures of spectacles and prints depicting spectacles. by searching on the word ophthalmology, 134 items were found. these images included pictures of glass eyes, eye models, pages from various manuscripts and printed texts, pages from chinese ophthalmology texts, various prints and drawings depicting eye diseases, surgery and instruments, and portraits of ferdinand von arlt and thomas wharton jones. antique spectacles no discussion of online images of optometrically related materials would be complete without mention of www.antiquespectacles.com. this website is managed by retired ophthalmologist david a. fleishman. the tops of its pages proclaim it to have "over 4,950 images". it is self-described as "the online museum and encyclopedia of vision aids," an apt description because of the extensive information it contains. among the goals that it lists are "to accumulate in one place the wealth of knowledge regarding antique vision aids" and "to share images of the finest and most interesting historical items in both private and public collections from around the world." the extent of the information on this website can be appreciated by going to the table of contents page found under the introduction and news tab. to give examples of some of the images available, under the collections tab, one can find "virtual museums" of spectacles, cases, materials, and other items. under the interesting topics tab, there are images of spectacles of well known people, along with documentation of sources and descriptions. one can also find 55 images of antique optical trade cards. in addition to the images at this website, more images can be located by using its numerous links to art institutes, publishers, organizations, libraries, and museums. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 78 book review: phoroptors: early american instruments of refraction and those who used them phoroptors: early american instruments of refraction and those who used them. gary l. campbell. wheaton, il: the author, 2008. 99 pages. paperback, $10. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu in the foreword to this book (p. 11 ), the author explained that as a collector of phoropters, he was disappointed to learn that there was no single source that he could use to find information about most historical phoropters. as a consequence, he decided to produce this monograph. in the title and throughout the book, the author uses the spelling phoroptor, an early spelling of the word. the front matter of the book includes a glossary of terms for persons not familiar with the terminology used in the book (pages 15-18). chapters 1 through 3 (pages 2130) provide a historical overview of the optical business and state of refraction just before phoropters were developed. chapters 4 through 6 (pages 33-59) discuss precursor instrumentstrial lenses, trial frames, optometers, and phorometers. chapters 7 through 11 (pages 61-89) are devoted specifically to phoropters. after a brief introduction to phoropters in chapter 7, chapters 8 through 10 are organized to illustrate the evolution of particular lines of instruments made in the united states. chapter 8 starts with henry dezeng's phoropter patented in 1909 and proceeds through the phoro-optometer to the no. 57 4, no.584, no. 588, no. 589, no. 593, and the ao model 590 to the ao rx master. chapter 9 notes that patents received by nathan shigon in 1910 and 1915 were transferred to the woolf instrument corporation which subsequently produced the ski­ optometer models 215 and 205. the patents were later transferred to the general optical company and the shu ron optical company which produced the genothalmic refractor. chapter 10 looks at the bausch & lomb greens refractor and the greens ii refractor. the greens refractor was developed from the patent of clyde hunsicker by a.s., l.d., and m.l. green. chapter 11 briefly mentions some phoropters made outside the united states. in an epilogue on page 91, the author notes that "phoroptors have advanced significantly since the time dezeng, woolf, general optical, and the greens first hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 79 designed them. improvements have been substantial and the competition has been hardy. eventually woolf, shuron, and bausch & lomb stopped making phoroptors. only the line of dezeng/american optical prevailed and it has now achieved a century of producing phoroptors in america." the monograph contains 31 figures, most of which are photographs or diagrams of phoropters. there are also pictures or diagrams of optometers, phorometers, and other instruments. a five-page listing of references can be found on pages 93 to 97. the book is produced in a 22 em high by 14 em wide format. i found this book to be enjoyable, easy, and quick to read. i learned quite a bit about the history of phoropters. the author is a 1977 graduate of the indiana university school of optometry and practices in wheaton, illinois. he can be contacted at garylcampbell@gmail.com to obtain a copy of the book. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 80 book review: the microscope and the eye: a history of reflections, 17 40-1870 the microscope and the eye: a history of reflections, 1740-1870. jutta schickore. chicago: university of chicago press, 2007. ix + 317 pages. isbn-10: 0-226-73784-5. isbn-13: 978-0-226-73784-3. hardcover, $40. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book examines a number of issues surrounding the use of the microscope in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. it is not a chronology of the development of the microscope. rather, the author elaborates on matters such as the discourses among microscopists concerning the correctness of the observations being made; studies of how visual function affected the perception of objects viewed with the microscope; use of microscopes in validation of surveying, meteorology, and astronomy instruments; advance of the use of microscopes from parlor amusement to scientific tool; use of microscopy to study neural and retinal tissue; realization that different chemicals used to handle tissues affected the observations with the microscope; and views on the value of microscopy. the inclusion of the words microscope and eye in the title reflects the fact that the author emphasizes that the eye was one of the objects studied with the microscope during the time in question, that "the eye and the microscope together have been described as an optical system ... ", and that "the enhancement of the eye's powers through the microscope has been indispensable for the study of subvisible realm ... " (page 1) the author notes that the book addresses three main questions: "what were the main procedural problems that the microscopists addressed? did they assume that these problems could be solved, and if so, how? what conclusions did the practitioners [of microscopy] draw regarding the epistemic merits of the microscope, microscopy, vision, and the validity of specific observations and results?" (page 1 0) emphasis is on great britain and the german lands. popular eighteenth century books on microscopy included books by henry baker, benjamin martin, and george adams senior. martin and adams were instrument makers. baker was a gentleman of science who wrote on a number of different topics. these books were somewhat modeled after hooke's 1665 book on microscopy. they dealt with a variety of matters such as procedural instruction, optics of the microscope, and descriptions of various objects seen with the microscope, and hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 81 the promotion of microscopy as a means of improvement of the observer as "a tool for gathering factual knowledge as well as for gaining self-knowledge, a means of elevating the soul by presenting it with the marvels of the divine creation." (page 21) concerns about "optical deceptions" in microscopy are related to the study of optical illusions and sensory perception in the early 1800s. studies by thomas young, david brewster, michael faraday, and peter mark roget of perceptual function as it relates to microscopy are discussed. test objects were adopted to test the quality of observations with microscopes and the level of distortion produced with different microscopes. test objects included scales, feathers, or other parts of various animals and insects. the book examines the work of johannes muller and the development of microscopy in german universities. prior to that time, microscopy was largely a social avocation of gentleman scientists in each other's homes. among muller's students were henle, schwann, virchow, haeckel, helmholtz, and dubois-raymond. detailed discussions of methods of microscopy started to appear in publications in the 1820s. separate chapters are devoted to the study of nervous tissue and the retina with microscopy. debates about the fine structure of these tissues and the possible functions of their parts are examined along with their implications for the understanding of vision and for the improvement of microscopy. familiar names from nineteenth vision science found in these chapters include brucke and volkmann. this book roams over a broad range of topics surrounding the uses and methodology of microscopy and how microscopy was viewed and practiced by the microscopists of the time. along the way the reader can gain some glimpses of historical perspectives on the interrelations of microscope and eye. the author is assistant professor of the history and philosophy of science at indiana university. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 82 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: bridget kowalczyk secretary-treasurer, optometric historical society american optometric association 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: __ regular membership, $25 per year __ patron membership, $50 per year __ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name --------------------------------------------------------address -------------------------------------------------------a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. for more information on the optometric historical society, see: www.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 83 institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. hindsight: journal of optometry history ... april, 2009, volume 40, number 2, page 84 2009-40-02-001 2009-40-02-002 2009-40-02-003 2009-40-02-004 2009-40-02-005 2009-40-02-006 2009-40-02-007 2009-40-02-008 2009-40-02-009 2009-40-02-010 2009-40-02-011 2009-40-02-012 2009-40-02-013 2009-40-02-014 2009-40-02-015 2009-40-02-016 2009-40-02-017 2009-40-02-018 2009-40-02-019 2009-40-02-020 2009-40-02-021 2009-40-02-022 2009-40-02-023 2009-40-02-024 2009-40-02-025 2009-40-02-026 2009-40-02-027 2009-40-02-028 2009-40-02-029 2009-40-02-030 2009-40-02-031 2009-40-02-032 2009-40-02-033 2009-40-02-034 2009-40-02-035 2009-40-02-036 2009-40-02-037 2009-40-02-038 2009-40-02-039 2009-40-02-040 2009-40-02-041 2009-40-02-042 jiindsight -' newsletter of the optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume37 january 2006 number1 2006 ohs board members: the optometric historical society executive board members and the years of expiration of their terms on the board are as follows: jerry abrams (2009), walter chase (2006), jay enoch (2006), chuck haine (2008), bridget kowalczyk (2008), doug penisten (2007), and melvin wolfberg (2009). the ohs president is chuck haine and the secretary-treasurer is bridget kowalczyk. call for nominations to board: the terms of ohs board members walter chase and jay enoch will expire at the end of this calendar year (december 31, 2006). please submit your nominations for these two board positions by june 15, 2006, to: david a. goss, hindsight editor school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa ohs members who receive at least three nominations and agree to serve on the board will have their names placed on an election ballot to be mailed later this year with a copy of hindsight. self nominations are welcome and encouraged! a nominations form is enclosed with this issue. dues notice enclosed with this issue: a notice for 2006 ohs dues is enclosed with this issue. this is the only notice you will receive! ohs dues remain a bargain at $10. consider giving a colleague a gift membership in ohs. 37/1 jay enoch's column: early indian mirrors: an interesting historical question is asked jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d., dr.s sci.(h.c.) collaborating librarians: mrs. pamela sieving, bethesda, md; ms. nirmala krishnan, elite school of optometry; chennai, india; mr. nazeer badhu kasim, sankara nethralaya, chennai, india. introduction this past summer, i was invited by the very kind people at the elite school of optometry, chennai (formerly madras), tamil nadu state, india, to participate in their 20th anniversary celebration. i had been one of those who participated early in development of this modern-style optometry school, which, in many ways, was a first for india. i was honored to deliver the dedication lecture for the school in 1985, as well as the first lecture in this optometry program. as part of the recent celebration, they asked me to present two invited lectures, one of which, "archaeological optics, the very first known mirrors and lenses", 1 served as plenary lecture for the associated meeting (over 700 participantsjust amazing!). i have been interested in the history of the earliest mirrors and lenses for well over a decade. to my surprise, i had not read about early contributions made on this set of topics by people(s) living in the indian sub-continent. so saying, early civilization(s) in the indus valle/ were of special moment (some were quite ancient), e.g., harappa and mohenjo-daro. i felt i should investigate this topic. unfortunately, my research into the matter was not nearly complete when my lecture was presented in chennai. the librarians listed above were very helpful in pointing me to critical sources. and, i must give librarian ms. nirmala krishnan a special vote of thanks! some years ago, prof. p. hunt of stanford u. stated to me that one of the early known corundum (product name, carborundum) mines had been located in the indus valley. this suggested that cutting, grinding, and polishing of hard materials (e.g., flint, etc.) might have been conducted in the region. there are reports of a variety of astronomical devices being built elsewhere in india. the harappans are known for fine and distinctive glazes (frits, faiences), colorful and well made beads, glass seals, metal tools, etc. but, i encountered naught about indian or pakistani participation in early mirror and lens development. one issue i addressed in my talk in chennai was the fact that mirrors had been developed most probably a millennium or more prior to the appearance of lenses (world-wide). i concentrate here on items gleaned about early mirror development in india. in turn, this raises additional interesting questions. 37/2 1 previously noted3 that the worlds' oldest known mirrors were developed in the stone age by anatolians in qatal hoyok which is located in the konya plane in south­ central modern-day turkey (ca. 8000 years ago). next mirrors were reported in mesopotamia (modern iraq) and in egypt 6000-5000 years ago.4·5 chinese mirrors appeared somewhat later, i.e., about 4000 years ago (i.e., ca 2000 b.c.).6 the somewhat different style mirror support structures found in china can be traced to earlier west asian and/or siberian sources. and therefore, two different style mirror support structures evolved in time. they were a "western style" which evolved from early mesopotamian and egyptian mirrors which had a tang which was held or inserted into a handle (alternatively a handle was included in place of a tang), and an "eastern style", developed in siberia and china which featured rear-central-mirror supports or hand-holds. this rather distinctive stylistic difference will be considered in this discussion. major indian, or better, early indus river valley settlements included harappa, which was located between the chenab-jhelum, chenab, and ravi riversmajor upstream tributaries of the indus river. mohenjo-daro was located on the indus river south-west of the location where those tributaries join with the indus river. (op. cit. 2, p. 9) both harappa and mohenjo-daro were included in the larger indian sub-continent, but, after the 20th century partition these former settlements were allocated to (western) pakistan. the harappan civilization existed ca 2500-1500 b.c., with their most mature period occurring during ca 2000-1900 b.c. harappa is located ca 500 km northwest of mohenjo-daro; the latter community apparently came under the influence of the harappan culture. just a short distance southeast of mohenjo-daro is the somewhat older community of koto-diji (2700-21 00 b.c.). in the latter community, they had mud­ bricks, not baked-bricks as were found in later settlements. in early koto-diji, copper and bronze items were not evident (i.e., inca 2605 b.c.). in addition to a lack of metallurgy, in koto-diji town planning and writing were found to be missing. (op. cit. 2, p. 170) the question addressed here were early indian mirrors, which were located, in the indus valley designed in the "western style" or in the concurrently developing "eastern style". that is, were earl¥ indian mirrors dominated by maturing mesopotamian or egyptian styles (western),3or evolving siberian/chinese styles (eastern),6 or did they follow a third totally separate style or canon? the argument is centered upon the century, 2000-1900 b.c. the illustration (fig. 1) included here was taken from a web site provided by ms. krishnan of the elite school. it provides a collage of images based upon earlier drawings reproduced by h.l. kamat of indians using mirrors (time period or originals?)? in fig. 1, items 1 & 3 are in the eastern tradition with a central rear-mirror-surface hand­ hold. the remaining drawings are closer in style to western traditions, none exhibit a handle nor tang? ibr.i\r'·{ 37/3 figure 1 access to indus valley civilizations and interactions and trade of this area with other peoples needs to be considered. somewhat later, perhaps about 959 b.c., the "silk road" developed between points in china and terminations of the silk road which were located in modem-day antioch in syria, as well as in turkey, etc., in the middle east and along the mediterranean coast. king mu or mu wang, a west chou king, was perhaps the first traveler of note on the silk road (from china). a written account of king mu's travels appeared in the sth_ 4th century b.c. one should not forget that trade existed in both directions along the silk road, and the path(s) traveled were more than one.8 interestingly, there are reports that silk cloth remnants were used rather early on along this route to wrap (assume this was done in order to protect the surfaces of) manufactured mirrors. there also developed a land route or spur from the silk road southward from the community of bactra which was located on the southern silk road route. this spur led to indus valley centers as well as to the port city of lothal (and no doubt to other harappan-influenced ports). this route passed southward via the community of taxila, which was located to the north of the indus valley.9•10 as an aside, apparently, somewhat north of bactra there were available sources of rock crystal associated with the city of samarkand (located on the more northern branch of the silk road). also, lapis lazuli was to be found near the latter location. thus, although the silk road developed later than the time period considered here, there is evidence for the presence of communications between the indus valley and more northern locations in asia and siberia.2•8-10 37/4 one must also consider the long existing coastal sea-trade to and from a number of ports serving the indus river valley at its southern terminus as well as locations located near its river delta on the arabian sea. lothal was a substantial port settled by harappan peoples. it had substantial ancient dock facilities which are intact today. it was located on the gulf of cambay on the arabian sea to the southeast of the mouth of the indus river. 2 sea trade occurred west of lothal with the middle east, including mesopotamia, egypt and other centers in the levant and also in east africa. egypt had access via the red sea. to the south-east of lothal, there was also trade along the west coast of india to the south, as well as around the tip of india to the east. in other words, the indus valley civilization was neither isolated landwise nor seawise from external influences. thus, the indus valley and its settlements were subject over time to (reciprocal) influences from mesopotamia and egypt civilizations to the west and to inputs with other indian and asia civilizations to the south and east. returning to the question posed, one asks which influence was applied to mirrors utilized by harappa in about 2000/1900 b.c., that is, during the period of the height of that special civilization? at that same time mirror use was spreading with some rapidity within the known world. 1-6 intuitively, one might expect western-style mirrors to influence the result in harappa as well as its derivative community at the port of lothal. this is because mirror use was then greater in areas influenced by mesopotamia and egypt, while the chinese and east asian communities were first developing their own mirrors. that is, although a mirror had been located in a tomb in china dated during that century, one assumes such items were not yet broadly distributed in that great land. further, while land routes into the indus valley from the north already existed, it is doubtful they were as well developed as they would be at a later time period, e.g., by the end of the first millennium a.d. and thereafter, with maturation of the silk road. and, most probably, reciprocal sea trade to the west of lothal was probably greater than to the south and east. (op. cit. 2, p. 117) and this is exactly what one finds. in lothal's modern-day museum, there are four mirrors identified as harappan on display. two of these four are shown in fig. 2. this is a reproduction of plate xviiic from the cited book on lothal.2 these mirrors are round, made of copper, and have handles similar in general form to western-style mirrors. curvature of surfaces? decorative themes are not visible. these mirrors seem rather simple in design; one assumes they were molded and then ground to shape and polished. there are also additional mirrors shown in fig. 20 on p. 83 in that book, one was from mohenjo-daro (md}, and one had origin in lothal (l). (op. cit. 2: fig. 20, #28 (md}, p. 83; fig. 20, #18 (l), p. 83; also see text pp. 82-84) the latter mirrors were made of copper or an alloy of copper. a note on bronzes and copper alloys: after discovery of metallurgy using copper, in time, there followed use of harder and more durable bronze products. "bronze" results from a mixture of copper and tin. early-on, there was no single entity which 37/5 today we call bronze. apparently, the greater the proportion of tin added, the more brittle the resultant product. thus, in current cited references, one often finds discussion of "copper alloys" and rarer use of the terms "bronze" and "brass". in the cited book on lothal, a limited number of copper-based items were sampled for tin content.(op. cit. 2, p. 81 ,82) the following measurements were recorded: spear 2.27% tin; mirror, 5.47% tin; chisel 9.62% tin; bangle 11.82% tin; and pin 13.80% tin. it is not indicated whether these data apply to the copper mirrors shown in fig. 2, this paper. figure 2. plate xviiic, copper mirrors. reproduced from s.r. rao, lothal and the indus civilization. new york, asia publishing house, 1973.2 the following quotations were included in an excellent essay by d. p. agrawal, 12 titled "the indus civilization = aryans equation: is it really a problem?" [note, this title refers to the competing peoples who settled harappan areas and communities. this topic was also discussed in the book on lothal.] (also see, op. cit. 2, pp.168-175) quoting from agrawal, 12 "the indus civilization was remarkable for its uniformity and standardization in weights, measures, ceramics, architecture, town planning and in arts and crafts, though there were variations in ceramics, town plans, and perhaps religious beliefs. this uniformity appears all the more imposing when one considers that the culture extended over more than a million sq km, an area more than that of pakistan today. recent studies, however, are bringing out a good deal of regional variation too." [the author adjusted original verb forms to the past tense in the quotation.] "in a third millennium b.c. context, when communication and transport must have been difficult, the credit for unifying the north and west of the sub-continent goes 37/6 to the harappans. they were the first to achieve this unification of a society with so much diversity. the location of their main metropolitan towns in a peculiar network of intersecting circles may have provided impetus for travel to these far-flung areas of the harappan state. in later times, it was achieved by locating main pilgrimage centers at the farthest points of the country: from amarnath and badrinath in the north, dwarka in the west, puri in the east, to rameshwaram in the south."12 of pertinence here is the following paragraph from the same document. note; the harappan civilization reached a peak and then was in an early stage of dissolution in the early 2nd millenium b.c. (2000-1900 b.c.) this dissolution occurred unevenly, with some of the larger changes occurring in the region of sindh (also written as sind), 12 which is located in an area in the lower indus valley now in pakistan. there also were round bronze mirrors with tangs found there. "there is now archaeological evidence of new central asian elements appearing in the harappan zone. the bronze cosmetic flagon known at hissar, at altyn-depe, and in bactria, also occurs at chanhu-daro as a beautifully fluted piece, in a probable jhukar culture context. round bronze mirrors with tangs for fitting into wooden handles, as at hissar, altyn-depe, gonur i, sapal/i, dashly, shahdad and khinaman, and mehi some of them with a handle shaped as a human body also occur at harappa and mohenjo­ daro. twelve such mirrors occurred in graves at harappa and one in a kalibangan (rajasthan) grave."12 [author's italics.] as indicated, tangs/handles signify the use of western-style mirrors. from the previous statement, one assumes these influences came from the north and/or west from central asia into the harappan culture. separately, we know that eastern-style mirrors were in use at that about that same time in scythia (at kelermes which is located north of the caucasus mountains near the black sea) which is quite a bit to the west and north of harappa in central asia! eastern-style mirrors were also in use north and east of harappa in southern siberia, e.g., in andronovo by 2000 b.c., and also at karasuk. (op. cit. 3, see papers by juliano, a. possible origins of the chinese mirror. pp. 36-45, and k.s. rubinson, k.s., mirrors on the fringe. pp. 47-50) mirrors from scythia and southern siberia apparently influenced co-development of mirrors in china at that time.6 thus, it is apparent that styles of mirrors in use may have varied in local areas across the central part of the asian continent. there is some uncertainty here. thus, harappan civilization apparently imported western-style mirror formats during the time period considered here (2000-1900 b.c.). after that time period, the harppan civilization waned, while chinese, or east-asian, mirrors exerted growing influence on mirror technology in future years to the east. this is an interesting study of ebb and flow of development of technology, with clearly meaningful influences active and in flux. 3717 references and notes 1. enoch jm. (plenary lecture) archaeological optics: the very first known mirrors and lenses. international vision science and optometry conference, elite school of optometry, august 13-15, 2005, chennai, india. proceedings published in london, taylor and francis, ltd., j. modern optics, uk, (in press). 2. rao sr. lothal and the indus civilization. new york: asia publishing house 1922 (in particular, see introduction and chapter xiv for dates, plate xviii c, harappa, copper mirrors; and see fig. 20, p. 82-84 for additional mirrors and metallic content of materials). 3. enoch jm. the "source": history of mirrors dating back 8000 years before the present (bp). proceedings, cogan ophthalmic history society, 1 ih annual meeting, toledo, oh, april17-18, 2004, pp. 145-159. this publication can be located in the archives of the american academy of ophthalmology library, beach st., san francisco, ca. 4. lilyquist c. ancient egyptian mirrors from the earliest times through the middle kingdom. u. of munich egyptological studies, vol. 27, philosophy faculty), dissertation, 1979, deutscher kunstverlag gmbh, munchen, berlin, isbn 3 422 00801 2, u.c. berkeley library#: main ucb dt 57 m8 no.27; i-xiii, 170 pages, 150 plates. 5. source: notes in the history of art. schneider l, ed., volume iv, numbers 2/3, winter/spring 1985. new york city, ars brevis, inc.: pp. 88. some of 15 listed articles follow: a) albenda, p. mirrors in the ancient near east, pp. 2-9; b) bianchi, rs. reflections in the skys eyes (largely addresses egyptian influences as applied to mirrors), pp.1 0-18; c) cogdon lok. greek mirrors, pp. 19-25; d) de grummond nt. the etruscan mirror. pp. 26-35; e) julianno a. possible origins of the chinese mirror, pp. 3645; f) rubinson ks. mirrors on the fringe (also addresses possible asian origins of early chinese mirrors), pp. 47-50. note, this fine journal is no longer published, and, apparently, the publisher is no longer in business. 6. graham jr dh, nakano t, et al. ancient chinese bronze mirrors (a nakano-authored chapter). in: bronze mirrors from ancient china, donald h. graham jr. collection. hong kong, orientations, 1994, pp. 9-45. [isbn 962-7956-01-5, edited by susan dewar, translated by tetsuro kono and ace translation, honolulu]. other introductory information by graham, d.h., jr., pp 1-9; ecke, tseng yuho, pp. 46-49; cahill, suzanne, pp. 50-59. 7. kamat hl. illustrations of sculptures depicting ancient indian mirrors. <http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/ancient/social_life/19011.htm> read 2005. 8. waugh d, lee a. travellers on the silk road. 11 pages, u. washington, and the silk road foundation, <http://www.silk-road.com/artl/srtravelmain/shtml> read 2005. 9. kenover mj. early developments of art, symbol, and technology in the indus valley. <http://www.harappa.com/indus3/print.html> read 2005; includes the second worldwide seaa conference, 6-9 july 2000, u. durham, england (history and technology). 10. maps: http://www.silk-road.com/maps/images/srmap1.jpg>; <http://silk­ road.com/maps/images/xzmap.jpg. read 2005; <http://silk-road.com/maps/images/polomap.jpg.>, <http:// www.silk-road.com/toc/ft.html> read 2005. 37/8 11. the ancient indus valley: includes trade routes to the indus valley through baluchistan (pakistan), helmand (afghanistan): <http://www.harappa.com/har/haro.html> read 2005; 12. a. sindh (also written as sind) is an area in the lower indus valley now in pakistan, there was evidence of round bronze mirrors with tangs, etc. 12. b. separately, essay (quoted in part) by d.p. agrawal titled, the indus civilization= aryans equation: is it really a problem? see web site: <http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/h_es/h_eagraw_indus/htm> read 2005. 12. c. see also an important review of a paper by sen, s.n., and chaudhary, mamta. ancient glass and india. new delhi: indian national science academy 1985, pp. 201, here, a commentary was written on the sens and chaudhary manuscript by agrawal, d.p. and shah, manikant. this tract deals with glass and india and to some extent refers to early mirrors in the indus valley and elsewhere in the subcontinent. it is concluded, that although present, the importance of glass was underestimated (subbarayappa, b.v. (ed.), 1999, was cited). j.m.e. one hundred years ago: glancing through the first few issues of the optical journal from 1906, i happened to note several advertisements for books. among them was an ad for ocular refraction and the shadow test, by f.a. bates, o.r., of new york, on page 146 of the january 4, 1906, issue (volume 17, number 2). that book of 200 pages, with 145 illustrations, sold for $2.00. on page 148 of that same issue was an advertisement for a system of ocular skiametry," by a. jay cross. it was billed as the "greatest shadow-test book of the day," "attractively gotten up," and "immensely popular." the advertisement also states that it was " ... the first book ever written by mr. cross, who is one of the foremost opticians of america. this book is an exhaustive study of the shadow test, and cover[s] not only the methods of other writers and a description of all instruments used in the work, but also gives the results of years of study and research on the part of mr. cross .... " the book, which contained 181 pages and 93 illustrations, could be purchased for $2.00. on page 152 also in the january 4, 1906, issue was an advertisement for "the lockwood series of optical text books," which were four books authored by r.m. lockwood, scientific editor of the optical journal. the cost of each of them was 50 cents. the titles were: principles of optometry, the trial case and how to use it, frames and lenses, and subjective tests for difficult cases. there were chapters in the first book on lenses in general, plus lenses, the wave theory, minus lenses, compound lenses, some measurements, cylinders, sphero-cylinders, prisms, and dispersion. the chapters in the book on subjective tests were reasons for special tests, special methods of testing, special methods for the detection of astigmatism, tests for 37/9 small children, illiterates, and others, muscle tests, tests for malingerers, and spasm of the accommodation. below the ad for the lockwood series was an ad for the fourth edition of manual of diseases of the eye for students and general practitioners,by charles h. may, m.d. the book was described as beginning " ... with the external examination of the eye, the full routine being explained and with descriptive cuts. next comes the subjective or functional examination of the eye, also well illustrated with descriptive cuts from life. the balance of the work is given up to a discussion and explanation of the diagnostic appearance of the various ocular diseases, all the leading conditions accompanied by plates in color. at the close of the work 50 pages of more are given up to the practice of refraction." the 390 page book sold for $2.00. the january 25, 1906 issue (volume 17, number 5) announced a new book in press by r.m. lockwood, skiascopy without the use of drugs. the book was to be sold for 50 cents and would be about 100 pages in length. the ad notes that the book " ... is written in the author's well-known clear, interesting, and explicit style, and is to a considerable extent the result of personal investigations and experiments, not a mere compilation of what has already been written by others .... " d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu} contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@.berkeley.edu} optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 37110 2006-37-01-001 2006-37-01-002 2006-37-01-003 2006-37-01-004 2006-37-01-005 2006-37-01-006 2006-37-01-007 2006-37-01-008 2006-37-01-009 2006-37-01-010 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 54bennett: vendors gone where have all the vendors gone. . . irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com it is conventional wisdom among publishers that the amount of advertising that is carried by a magazine determines the amount of editorial copy that is published. this is particularly true of controlled circulation magazines, like optometric management and others in the ophthalmic media. controlled circulation provides for more favorable (read that less expensive) mailing costs. the regulation requires that publishers send the magazine to everyone in a grouping (e.g., all licensed optometrists) whether they pay for a subscription or not. having said that, it behooves publishers to get a minimum of 40% of the total pages of a publication as paid advertisers in order to come close to breaking even. most publishers strive for a 50/50 split between ad pages and editorial (non-advertising) content. if, and when, the percentage gets to be more than 50% advertising, it is time to break out the champagne bottles and celebrate. as many readers know, i became the editor/publisher of optometric management (om) in 1971. under the previous owners, the magazine scored high in every readership study but it was a disaster in the financial arena. the publication, before i came to the helm, was averaging about six pages of ads—in a good month. that is unsustainable unless the owners have deep pockets. or decided to reduce the editorial content to one or two articles, which made it thinner than a comic book. long story short, we hired a great advertising team and it soon solicited more ads than we needed for a 50/50 split. we never turned down advertising (of course) and never did we publish the magazine with less than half editorial material. having a modern, attractive format, with four-color ads, and professionally written articles were inducements both to readership and for advertiser support. in cleaning out my store of memorabilia recently, i came across the march, 1973 issue of om, published two years after our team started producing optometric management. that issue had 45 different advertisers with nearly half of them taking multiple pages! my pride in this success is comparable to my sadness wondering where all these companies have gone. rarely do we see the “missing companies” have ads in any ophthalmic medium. look at this list of those who advertisers in the march 1973 issue of om: abbott laboratories; a.i.t. industries, inc.; allergan pharmaceuticals; alpa corp.; t.a. altschuler; american optical corp.; armorlite lens co.; art-craft optical co.; a.v. scientific aids, inc.; ayerst laboratories; central labs, inc.; conforma laboratories; continuous curve contact lenses, inc.; corning optical products; crown optical co., inc.; dmv contact lens co.; eye kraft optical, inc.; frames; gordon contact lenses, inc.; histacount corp.; kontur kontact lens co.; liberty optical co.; martin-copeland; j.i. morris co.; new hermes engraving machine, corp.; nikon, inc. instrument division; novamatic systems; oculite company; omega instrument co., inc.; optometric center hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 48, number 2 | page 55bennett: vendors gone of n.y.; patti co.; a. lemay co., inc.; ppg industries; replacement lens, inc.; sitler's supplies, inc.; united states optical co.; univis, inc.; victory optical mfg., co.; visionease corp.; welling international; whitney optical co.; wise optical co., inc.; and raymond s. wright insurance agency. when i drafted this article, i had the june 2016 issue of om on my desk. so i looked at the index of advertisers. only one company that had advertising in the 1973 issue noted above was listed in that 2016 issue! it was allergan and it had dropped the “pharmaceuticals” in its name. the 2016 ad was for a drug ("restatis") while the 1973 ad was for a contact lens eye drop ("blink -n-clean"). my, have times changed! official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and members of the optometric historical society advisory committee with their email addresses and years of expiration of their terms on the committee in parentheses: president: john f. amos (2015); eyedoc@uab.edu vice-president: ronald ferrucci (2017); rferrucci@juno.com secretary-treasurer: chuck haine (2016); chaine@hainews.com irving bennett (2016), email address: irvbennett23@gmail.com morton greenspoon (2015); drmort@mac.com alden norm haffner (2018); anhaffner@msn.com bill sharpton (2017); sharpton@windstream.net karla zadnik (2018); zadnik4@osu.edu ohs administrative support: kirsten pourroy hébert, heritage services specialist, the archives and museum of optometry, khebert@aoa.rg rebecca hildebrand, development officer, optometry cares (aoa foundation), rahildebrand@aoa.org the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). use of the current title, hindsight: journal of optometry history, began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. volumes 1-42 are available online at: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/hindsight/issue/archive. ohs website: http://www.aoafoundation.org/ohs/ on the cover: an illustration from the monograph patient control, by harry pine. if you can identify the instruments, please write the editor at dgoss@indiana.edu and your identifications will be published in a future issue of hindsight. tentative identifications of two of the instruments are given in the article on harry pine. mailto:eyedoc@uab.edu mailto:khebert@aoa.rg mailto:rahildebrand@aoa.org mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 37 hindsight: journal of optometry history july, 2015 volume 46, number 3 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editor: irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34238 table of contents ohs news……………………………………………………………………………………...38 a brief biographical sketch of harry e. pine, jr. (1890-1965), optometric leader ..…42 changes in optometric education in the 1970s……………………………………………46 changing nature of the optometry student body: compilations of illustrative data across several decades……..……………………………………………………………....51 1961 conference on graduate training for research in vision………………………….56 book review: vision realized: a history of the mco……………………………….........59 three prominent ohs members remembered…………………………………………....61 instructions to authors……………………………………………………………………..…63 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 38 ohs news from john f. amos, ohs advisory committee president brief summary optometry historical society business meeting – seattle sheraton june 25, 2015 the ohs annual business meeting was called to order by president john amos. the members of the ohs advisory committee were introduced as were staff members in attendance. it was not necessary to appoint a recorder of minutes since the entire meeting was being audio recorded. the minutes of last year’s meeting were read and approved by those in attendance. the treasurer’s report was read by dr. amos at the request of dr. haine since he was unable to attend the meeting. at this time the amount in the account is slightly decreased over that amount from last year, but with the increase in members and the amount of dues to be collected with the rolling membership, it is projected there will be an increase in funds by the end of the fiscal year. the membership report finds that the ohs has 97 members, including 87 individuals and 10 libraries. new business included the acknowledgement of the passing of two well-known optometric leaders – dr. alfred a. rosenbloom and dr. melvin d. wolfberg. brief biographies of the accomplishments of drs. rosenbloom and wolfberg were read. each of these optometrists contributed significantly to the growth of the profession as well as serving as long-term board members of the ohs. they also contributed papers to hindsight: the journal of optometry history. a draft of the charter for the new advisory committee was distributed. this charter will be discussed at a later time by the advisory committee. ms. kirsten hebert, an archivist, heritage services and museum specialist, with aoa heritage services was called on to discuss several items of business. among these were the genesis of the new banner, lapel pin, and graphic symbol of the ohs. the new banner was displayed for the first time at this meeting. kirsten also presented an overview of the archives and museum of optometry including the appraisal subcommittee regarding the museum collection, the newly resurrected oral history program and the national register of historic places/national trust. she also briefly mentioned the aoa reception story wall timeline. dr. amos requested that all those in attendance please provide the names of possible new committee members to serve on the advisory committee as well as names for a speaker at optometry’s meeting 2016 in boston. the names of potential new ohs members are always welcomed. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 39 following the adjournment of the business meeting and a brief break, dr. lester caplan this year’s speaker for the “blast from the past” was introduced. dr. caplan’s topic was “the early years of optometry in the indian health services” (1968-1989). dr. caplan’s talk was most interesting and provided great detail as to those optometrists who served in the early years of optometry in the ihs. his presentation provided greater detail than that covered during his recent oral history of the same topic. top photograph: lester caplan making his “blast from the past” presentation. bottom photograph: ohs president john f. amos leading the 2015 business meeting. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 40 from kirsten hébert, ohs administrative support and heritage services specialist, archives and museum of optometry the archives & museum of optometry move in july 2016, the archives & museum of optometry collections are moving offsite to secure, climate-controlled storage in preparation for the renovation of the aoa st. louis headquarters. moving collections such as ours is challenging because many of the objects are at once fragile, heavy and awkward to move. furthermore, our unseasonably wet weather requires us to modify our schedules and our packing methods and materials. however, the risk of damage to material from vibrations, contamination and deterioration from environmental pollutants during construction is much greater for collections stored on-site. since we will be unable to readily access our material, reference services will be suspended during the course of the next year. while this poses an inconvenience to researchers in the short run, this “down time” gives us an opportunity to gain greater intellectual control over our collection by conducting a survey of our holdings. additionally, it will provide us with time and space to process donations that have been languishing in storage since the 1980s, and to conduct conservation and preservation treatments on materials such as our rolled, panoramic photographs and our motion picture collection. in the long term, this will improve access to our materials by opening up many new objects and archival materials to researchers. we look forward to sharing our progress with you in the coming months! preparing for the archives and museum of optometry move, heritage services specialist kirsten hébert prepares the new storage space with nilfisk museum vacuum and hepa filter. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 41 more photographs showing preparations for the archives and museum of optometry move: top: student volunteer christopher murphy unloading museum objects. middle left: objects at the new site awaiting the construction of baked-enamel shelving. middle right: university of missouri museum studies intern, sarah budai, returns from shrinkwrapping boxes to protect them from unusual july rain in st. louis, missouri. bottom: ophthalmic instrument removed from its stand and packed for moving and temporary storage. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 42 a brief biographical sketch of harry e. pine, jr. (18901965), optometric leader david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu harry e. pine, jr. (1890-1965) was the son of an optometrist. his father was one of many trained in optics while employed by the james queen company in the late nineteenth century.1 harry e. pine, jr. graduated from northern illinois college of optometry in 1923.2 a profile indicated that he had b.s. and d.o.s. degrees,2 the latter usually being an honorary designation. pine was a first lieutenant in the united states army in world war i and served in france. he continued with the army reserves until he retired in 1955 with the rank of major.2 he practiced optometry in chicago, and was president of the illinois optometric association for six years. he was the twenty-fourth president of the american optometric association, serving in the years 1936-38. it was observed that “his influence extended far beyond his official optometric offices.”2 he was characterized as an idealist and he worked to advance a positive image of professional optometry.2 pine published many articles in the journal of the american optometric association over a more than twenty year period, primarily on topics of professionalism in optometry. in 1934, he published a paper in the american journal of optometry entitled “amblyopic treatment technics.” pine also published two small books, patient control: applied psychology for the optometrist and state board questions and answers. patient control (64 pages) was a fold and staple soft cover monograph published in 1939 by professional press in chicago. pine gave advice on how to understand and manage patients, how to make a favorable impression, and how to achieve financial success while maintaining a professional practice. in the foreword, pine noted that the successful optometrist “must understand people and human nature, and be able to approach and influence them. the ability to do so is just as much, and as important, a part of his professional service as the technical ability to diagnose and treat their physical defects.” (p. 5) in patient control pine emphasized a good looking office with up-to-date equipment, an immaculately clean examination room, and a thorough and impressive examination. he suggested that orthoptic training should be advised when indicated, not only because it can eliminate the patient’s visual fatigue, but also because it is a good practice builder. pine stressed listening carefully to patients and trying to understand their needs. he noted that patient welfare must come first, but the optometrist should confidently charge fees that will be profitable. mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 43 throughout the book pine gave examples of how he handled various patient encounters. for example, when the optometrist who examined the patient previously is mentioned by the patient, it is best to be complimentary concerning that optometrist or say nothing. pine noted that “whenever an optometrist is lowered in public esteem we all suffer.” (p. 25) a review of pine’s patient control stated: “much importance is given to minute detail and many of the object lessons stressed could be used to advantage by a large majority of practitioners.”3 the book included seven black and white illustrations of office rooms. two of those illustrations are reproduced here (figures 1 and 2). figure 1. this photograph of an examination room from shuron optical company was in pine’s patient control (page 24). hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 44 figure 2. this drawing from american optical company was in pine’s patient control (page 26). this room appears to be an orthoptics and special tests room. the instrument on the left next to the margin of the drawing appears to be a rotoscope, which was a stereoscope arrangement in which the object viewed could be rotated and convergence could be varied. the instrument on the right may be a stereocampimeter for examination of central fields. can anyone confirm those identifications and/or identify the instrument in the foreground or the instrument just to the left of the door? pine’s state board questions and answers (136 pages) was published in hardcover in 1950 by professional press of chicago. pine compiled questions and answers from the licensure examinations of several unidentified states. they were grouped into categories of ocular pathology, geometric optics, theoretic optometry, physiological optics, practical optometry, practical optics, and ocular anatomy. the material was compiled to assist those who were preparing to take state board examinations. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 45 in an introduction to state board questions and answers, pine noted that some errors in the answers given by the state boards were corrected so that those preparing for board examinations would not be confused. some answers were followed by editorial notes which pointed out problems with the questions or the answers provided by the boards. pine stated that this was done partly to help examiners improve their questions. a review of the book observed that it would be helpful to persons taking state board examinations in showing them the type of questions they were likely to face and the answers that might be expected.4 the review also suggested that the book made clear a shortcoming of board examinations. not only were some esoteric questions included, but they also had answers that extended over multiple pages. the review concluded by stating: “the author has served his profession better by giving such questions and answers wider distribution than he has with the presentation of all the good ones that make up the greater part of the book. let us hope the full scope of his labors will be appreciated and that it will bring about a long overdue reform.”4 references 1. cox me. optometry, the profession: its antecedents, birth, and development, rev. ed. philadelphia: chilton, 1957:16. 2. babcock fd. personalities in optometry: harry e. pine – 1890-1965. j am optom assoc 1965;36:310. 3. ryer el, hotaling ee. book review: patient control. j am optom assoc 1940;11:279. 4. ryer el. book review: state board questions and answers. j am optom assoc 1950;22:294-295. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 46 changes in optometric education in the 1970s david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu optometric education underwent significant change in the 1970s. this article gives an overview of some of those changes. the havighurst report in the early 1970s, the american optometric association made a $90,000 grant to the national commission on accrediting to make a study of optometric education. twelve persons, including four practicing optometrists, and staff and officers of the optometrists, were appointed to the commission on the study of optometric education. robert j. havighurst, professor of education and human development at the university of chicago, was named study director. between june, 1971 and december, 1972, havighurst met with members of the commission, students and faculty at all optometry schools in the united states and one in canada, presidents or deans of optometry schools, and staff and officers of the aoa. the results of study were summarized in a 128 page soft-cover book.1 among the recommendations coming from the study were the following: (1) practitioners should be required to take continuing education courses to maintain licensure. (2) all schools should have some faculty with both o.d. and ph.d. degrees. (3) optometry faculty salary scales should approximate those of other health science schools, such as dentistry. (4) optometry faculty should have time available for research and service activities. the amount of time should approximate one-third of a full-time faculty member’s time. (5) there should be more opportunities for graduate training and research. (6) the optometry school curriculum should give greater emphasis to ocular disease and pharmacology, public and community health, social and behavioral sciences related to vision, and optometry practice specialty areas. (7) standards for vision science libraries should be developed. (8) optometry schools should cooperate with organizations which provide continuing education. (9) several new optometry schools associated with universities or health science centers should be established. (10) the optometric profession should continue to study itself so that it can make a wise plan for the future. within the following decades these recommendations would largely be met. four new schools open between 1971 and 1980 in april of 1971, new york governor nelson rockefeller signed bills authorizing the establishment of the state university of new york (suny) college of optometry. classes started in september, 1971. the founding president was alden n. haffner, who was the executive director of the optometric center of new york, a nonprofit institution. haffner served terms as the suny college of optometry president from mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 47 1971 to 1979 and from 1987 to 2005, with time in between as the vice chancellor for research, graduate studies and professional programs for the suny system. at first the college of optometry occupied space where the optometric center of new york had operated a clinic, but soon the college rented additional space and then in 1976 consolidated facilities in one 130,000 square foot location where it remained for the next quarter century.2 the college of optometry at ferris state college (now ferris state university michigan college of optometry) entered 21 students in september of 1975. this was the culmination of efforts of the michigan optometric association, although they had originally envisioned the school at one of michigan’s larger universities. ferris state president robert ewigleben was successful in arguing that the optometry school would be a natural fit with ferris state’s opticianry and optometric technician programs.3 the college of optometry’s first dean was jack w. bennett, who served in that role until 1988, when he became dean at indiana university school of optometry. the faculty members during the school’s first two years were robert l. carter, michael keating, and vincent king.3 the next optometry school to open was at northeastern oklahoma state university in tahlequah, oklahoma, where 24 students started classes in the fall of 1979. one of the attributes of that location that made an optometry school feasible was that tahlequah was the capitol of the cherokee nation and the site of an indian health service u.s. public health service hospital where an optometry clinic could be incorporated.4,5 the first dean of the college was chester h. pheiffer, who had previously been dean at the university of houston college of optometry. the faculty in the first year of the program were hank g. van veen, lesley l. walls, and m. gary wickham. david a. goss joined the faculty in august of 1980 and harry o. house in january of 1981. the college of optometry at the university of missouri st. louis started classes in the fall of 1980. efforts to establish the school began in 1967 when the missouri optometric association appointed jerry franzel chairman of a task force for that purpose.6,7 the founding dean was jerry l. christensen. faculty who started at umsl in the first few years of the optometry school and subsequently taught there for 25 or more years include g.a. franzel, ralph garzia, william long, and carol peck.8 curricular additions related to pathology and pharmacology in the 1970s the 1970s saw increases in coursework in ocular and systemic disease and pharmacology at all optometry schools, corresponding to the expansion in scope of practice occurring in many states. for example, required courses in this area in the optometry curriculum at indiana university listed in the 1969-70 bulletin were 4 semester hours in general and ocular pathology, 8 semester hours of applied ocular pathology, and 1 semester hour of ocular pharmacology. in contrast, required diseaserelated coursework in the 1979-80 bulletin included 4 semester hours of medical and ocular microbiology, 4 semester hours of general pathology, 3 semester hours of ocular physiology and biochemistry, 6 semester hours of ocular disease, 6 semester hours of hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 48 general and ocular pharmacology, and 3 semester hours of physical diagnosis. other related changes from 1969-70 to 1979-80 at indiana university were the increase in credits for ocular anatomy from 3 to 4 and addition of courses in optometric histology and neuroanatomy. implementation of ocular disease management in the teaching clinics was a challenge but was aided at many schools by external rotations. accelerated optometry program for ph.d.s in 1972, the massachusetts college of optometry (later named new england college of optometry) established a program in which students with earned ph.d. degrees in the sciences could obtain and o.d. in an accelerated two year program. similar two year programs were already in existence in some medical and dental schools. the program made extensive use of seminars and independent study. by 1976, the program had graduated 22 doctors of optometry.9 one of the motivating factors in establishing the program was a shortage of optometric educators, and many of the graduates did take faculty positions at optometry schools. for example, in the summers of 1981 and 1982 when northeastern state university in oklahoma was expanding its optometry faculty in the third and fourth years of the existence of its optometry school, three of the ten faculty they hired were graduates of the accelerated o.d. program at new england college of optometry (lynn cyert, george fulk, and roger west). changes in numbers of optometry school applicants in the 1970s from 1969-70 to 1974-75, the number of persons submitting applications to optometry schools increased from 1,400 to 3,622, the total number of applications from 1,744 to 8,328, and thus the number of applications per applicant also showed an increase (from 1.2 to 2.3).10 explanations for the increased number of applicants could include increase in numbers of female applicants to optometry school, increasing recognition of optometry, high regard for health care workers by the public at this time, and possible deferment from military service during the vietnam war. the number of applicants who matriculated at an optometry school increased from 783 in 1969-70 to 1,000 in 1974-75. thus the percentage of applicants who were admitted to an optometry school decreased from 55.9% in 1969-70 to 27.6% in 197475.10 the numbers of applicants to medical and dental school also showed increases from 1969-70 to 1974-75. at the time, there were ten times as many medical schools as optometry schools and five times as many dental schools as optometry schools. so in terms of numbers of persons, the increases were greater for medicine and dentistry, but on a percentage basis the increases for optometry were greater. from 1969-70 to 1974-75, the number of persons applying to dental schools increased by 45%, to medical schools by 73%, and to optometry schools by 159%.10 the number of applicants per acceptance at optometry schools increased in the years between 1969-70 to 1974-75 from 1.8 to 3.6, at medical schools from 2.3 to 2.9, hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 49 and at dental schools from 2.4 to 2.6. thus the applicant to acceptance ratio was lower for optometry than for dentistry and medicine in 1969-70 but higher in 1974-75.10 the number of optometry school applications increased again from 8,328 in 1974-75 to 9,164 in 1975-76, but after the startling increases in numbers of optometry school applications from 1969-70 to 1975-76, the numbers of applications decreased each year in the rest of the 1970s.11 the number of applications decreased to 6,185 in 1979-80.11 the first year long residencies the first year long residency in optometry was one in vision therapy at the state university of new york. it started in 1974 with four residents: stanley appelbaum, harvey estren, kenneth koslowe, and robert sanet.12,13 a residency started at the veterans administration hospital in kansas city in 1975 became the first residency accredited by the council on optometric education.14 the first resident in that program was thomas stelmack.14 by 1979, there were 18 residency programs offered by ten optometry schools.15 areas of emphasis of those residencies included general optometry, ocular disease, low vision, vision therapy, pediatric optometry, and contact lenses.15 references 1. havighurst rj. optometry: education for the profession – report of the national study of optometric education. washington, dc: national commission on accreditation, 1973. 2. state university of new york college of optometry. history and mission. www.suny.opt.edu/about/history_and_mission. accessed june 11, 2015. 3. saladin jj, carter rl. vision realized: a history of the mco. big rapids, mi: ferris state university, 2012. 4. frankovic jg. northeastern oklahoma state university college of optometry: its conception and establishment, 1973-1979. seminar paper presented in hist 5433, northeastern state university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the m.a. degree, 2008. 5. eger mj. optometry’s new college in oklahoma. j am optom assoc 1983;54:467470. 6. brechler f. formation of the school of optometry at the university of missouri-st. louis. optom vis sci 1994;71:584-589. 7. umsl college of optometry. founding history. http://optometry.umsl.edu/about us/history.html. accessed june 16, 2015. 8. umsl college of optometry eyewire newsletters, 2005-2008. www.umsl.edu/~optometry/alumni and friends/eyewire archives.html. accessed june 16, 2015. 9. butterfield p. the second time around: a look at mco’s accelerated program for ph.d.’s. j optometric education 1976;2:17-20. 10. levine nr, levine l. a study of applicants to colleges of optometry in the u.s. j am optom assoc 1976;47:616-623. 11. boucher ja. optometric education. j am optom assoc 1980;51:359-363. http://www.suny.opt.edu/about/history_and_mission http://optometry.umsl.edu/about%20us/history.html http://optometry.umsl.edu/about%20us/history.html http://www.umsl.edu/~optometry/alumni%20and%20friends/eyewire%20archives.html hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 50 12. suchoff i. the first year-long optometric residency education program. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:122-125. 13. estren h. recollections of participation in the first year-long optometric residency program. hindsight: j optom hist 2010;41:126-128. 14. amos jf. a brief history of optometric residency education. j am optom assoc 1987;58:374-376. 15. bleything wb. the optometric residency: its bloom. j optometric education 1979;5:16-21. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 51 changing nature of the optometry student body: compilations of illustrative data across several decades david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this article contains three tables of data which illustrate ways in which the optometry student body changed in the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. data were collected from a variety of sources, and there are some years for which data do not seem to be readily available. levels of college training before entering optometry school at the beginning of the twentieth century, there were generally no academic requirements for admission to optometry school.1 in 1944, only 19% of practicing optometrists had attended college before optometry school.1 optometry school entrance requirements were gradually added, and by the early 1940s, they were increasing to a minimum of one year of college credit. this has incrementally increased to the present standard of four years of pre-optometry college work, although some students with exceptional academic records can gain admittance after three years of college. each year from 1999 to 2012, at least 90% of students had a bachelor’s degree or higher entering optometry school. of course, there have always been a number of students who exceeded the minimum requirements for admittance. in each of the years from 1999 to 2012, one to three percent of entering students had a master’s or doctorate degree. table 1. percent of united states optometry students with college training and college degrees before entering optometry school. year percent with college training percent having bachelor’s degree or higher source 1924 3 <1 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1925 14 1 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1926 15 <1 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1927 13 1 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1928 10 <1 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1929 13 2 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1930 12 1 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1931 15 2 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1932 15 3 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1933 20 3 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 52 1934 19 3 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1935 10 2 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1936 15 2 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1937 18 2 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1938 22 4 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1939 24 4 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1940 35 6 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1941 39 7 estimated from figs. 18 & 19 in hofstetter1 1970 100 41 seger2 1973 100 49 seger3 1977 100 64 j optometric education4 1978 100 64 j optometric education5 1979 100 65 j optometric education6 1980 100 66 j optometric education7 1981 100 63 j optometric education8 1982 100 62 j optometric education9 1983 100 61 j optometric education10 1984 100 64 j optometric education11 1987 100 62 data provided by asco12 1989 100 76 asco survey13 1990 100 67 asco survey14 1991 100 71 asco survey15 1999 100 92 data provided by asco12 2000 100 90 data provided by asco12 2001 100 90 data provided by asco12 2002 100 90 data provided by asco12 2003 100 91 data provided by asco12 2004 100 91 data provided by asco12 2005 100 92 data provided by asco12 2006 100 92 data provided by asco12 2007 100 93 data provided by asco12 2008 100 94 asco website16 2009 100 93 asco website16 2010 100 94 asco website16 2011 100 96 asco website16 2012 100 97 asco website16 asco = association of schools and colleges of optometry pre-optometry grade point averages not only have the years of pre-optometry training increased, but available data (table 2) indicate an increase in pre-optometry grade point averages since the 1960s. some of this increase can be attributed to grade inflation which has been estimated at an average increase in gpa of about 0.1 per decade.17 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 53 table 2. mean pre-optometry grade point averages (gpa). for some years, the available data were the overall mean gpas for all entering optometry students, and for some years the data available were mean gpas for entering students at each of the asco member schools. in the latter case, the table below gives the range from the school with the lowest mean entering gpa to the school with the highest mean entering gpa. year overall mean gpa range of mean gpas for asco member schools source 1965 2.46 seger3 1966 2.50 seger3 1967 2.56 seger3 1968 2.62 seger3 1969 2.59 seger3 1970 2.67 seger3 1971 2.80 seger3 1972 2.91 seger3 1973 3.00 seger3 1975 3.27 boucher18 1976 3.25 boucher18 1977 3.29 2.89 – 3.53 j optometric education4 1978 3.30 2.91 – 3.53 j optometric education5 1979 3.31 2.90 – 3.58 j optometric education6 1980 3.28 2.87 – 3.48 j optometric education7 1981 3.19 2.80 – 3.40 j optometric education8 1982 2.86 – 3.38 j optometric education9 1983 2.91 – 3.40 j optometric education10 1984 2.70 – 3.40 j optometric education11 2009 3.03 – 3.57 asco website16 2010 3.33 – 3.87 asco website16 2011 3.28 – 3.92 asco website16 2012 3.03 – 3.73 asco website16 2013 3.02 – 3.65 asco website16 percentages of women among applicants and entering students a survey conducted by the american optometric association in 1944 found that about 3% of practicing optometrists were women.20 the pattern of few women in optometry persisted until the 1970s. the percentage of optometry school applicants who were women increased from 5% in 1971 to 19% in 1977.21 the proportion of women among optometry students throughout the last quarter of the twentieth century increased until they reached a majority. these trends are shown in table 3. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 54 table 3. percentages of women among optometry school applicants and among entering optometry students. year percentage among applicants percentage among entering students source 1971 5 levine21 1972 7 levine21 1973 9 levine21 1974 13 levine21 1975 14 levine21 1976 18 levine21 1977 19 20 levine21; j optometric education4 1978 20 j optometric education5 1979 23 j optometric education6 1980 25 j optometric education7 1981 27 j optometric education8 1982 29 j optometric education9 1983 34 j optometric education10 1984 35 j optometric education11 1989 50 asco survey13 1990 51 asco survey14 1991 53 asco survey15 1992 55 trends in optometric education22 2008 65 asco website16 2009 62 asco website16 2010 64 asco website16 2011 66 asco website16 2012 63 asco website16 2013 65 asco website16 references 1. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:297-307. 2. seger ce. a year of educational activity. j am optom assoc 1971;42:331-336. 3. seger ce, report to aoa house of delegates – optometric education 1974. j am optom assoc 1974;45:918-925. 4. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1977-78. j optometric education 1978;4(2):27-30. 5. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1978-79. j optometric education 1980;5(4):27-31. 6. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1979-80. j optometric education 1980;6(2):23-28. 7. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1980-81. j optometric education 1982;7(3):22-27. 8. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1981-82. j optometric education 1982;8(2):24-29. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 55 9. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1982-83. j optometric education 1984;9(3):24-29. 10. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1983-84. j optometric education 1985;10(3):2630. 11. american optometric association council on optometric education. annual survey of optometric educational institutions 1984-85. j optometric education 1986;11(3):2630. 12. data from association of schools and colleges of optometry in email from joanne zuckerman. 13. association of schools and colleges of optometry. annual survey of optometric educational institutions: survey results july, 1989-june, 1990. on file in indiana university optometry library. 14. association of schools and colleges of optometry. annual survey of optometric educational institutions: survey results july, 1990-june, 1991. on file in indiana university optometry library. 15. association of schools and colleges of optometry. annual survey of optometric educational institutions: survey results july, 1991-june, 1992. on file in indiana university optometry library. 16. website of the association of schools and colleges of optometry. www.opted.org/past-student-data-reports/. accessed march 25, 2015. 17. rojstaczer s, healy c. grading in american colleges and universities. teachers college record, 2010. www.tcrecord.org. accessed april 8, 2015. 18. boucher ja. optometric education. j am optom assoc 1980;51:359-363. 19. website of the association of schools and colleges of optometry. www.opted.org/about-optometric-education/professional-o-dprograms/optomcas/optomcas-website. accessed april 8, 2015. 20. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:313-314. 21. levine nr. characteristics of applicants to schools and colleges of optometry – 1971-72 to 1977-78: changes, lack of changes, trends. j optometric education 1978;4(2):8-14. 22. association of schools and colleges of optometry. trends in optometric education 1989-90 to 1992-93. on file in indiana university optometry library. http://www.opted.org/past-student-data-reports/ http://www.tcrecord.org/ http://www.opted.org/about-optometric-education/professional-o-d-programs/optomcas/optomcas-website http://www.opted.org/about-optometric-education/professional-o-d-programs/optomcas/optomcas-website hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 56 1961 conference on graduate training for research in vision david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu knowing my interest in optometry history, indiana university retired professor graeme wilson gave me a notebook with material from the rochester conference on graduate training for research in vision, held august 13 to 19, 1961 at the university of rochester in rochester, new york. he had not attended the meeting and could not recall how he obtained the notebook. the notebook contained pre-conference information for the participants, biographical information on the participants, some hand written and typewritten notes on discussions at the conference, and a group photograph of scientists who attended the conference. the stated purpose of the meeting was “to provide an opportunity for scientists working in the field of vision to discuss problems of educational philosophy, goals and content for graduate programs in the various disciplines contributing to research in vision.” it was attended by scientists from industry, government laboratories, and university departments and schools of biophysics, engineering, ophthalmology, optics, optometry, physics, psychology, and zoology. the vast majority of participants were from the united states, but the conference was also attended by scientists from england, france, germany, spain, and sweden. the meeting was funded by the national science foundation. the planning committee for the conference consisted of: robert m. boynton, jean s. cameron, norma d. miller, and g. richard wendt, all of the university of rochester; glenn fry of the ohio state university; and oscar richards of american optical company. five days of the conference were devoted to one topic of discussion each and participants were split into three groups for elaboration on those topics. there were also plenary sessions and opportunities for sightseeing and tours of bausch & lomb, eastman kodak, and corning glass works. the topics of discussion and some of the thoughts that were expressed were: (1) for what roles should we educate visual scientists? roles include teaching, research, engineering, clinical practice, and propagation of visual science. the multiplicity of roles implies a multiplicity of programs. (2) what is common in the training of all scientists working in the field of vision? the fact that people entering the field of vision science come from many different disciplines is healthy and should continue. however, it would be useful in training programs to have survey courses providing some basic level of understanding in areas of knowledge of vision science. (3) has the field of vision reached the level of a separate discipline? mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 57 it appears that most discussants thought the answer to this question was no, and the contemplation of this question led to discussions of the formation of an organization of vision scientists. (4) what can be done to facilitate communications between the different disciplines contributing to knowledge about vision? it was noted that a survey of vision scientists, 175 respondents named 104 different journals as the preferred periodical for submission of their papers. it was suggested that abstract volumes be published or an annual review of visual science similar to the annual review of psychology. the publication of review papers which include all relevant literature was encouraged. the dictionary of visual science by schapero, cline, and hofstetter was recommended as a basis for consistency in terminology. a directory of vision scientists compiled by norma miller and glenn fry was thought to be a useful resource for identification of scientists working in vision. (5) what specialized equipment and techniques used in individual disciplines could be profitably applied to other disciplines? many different types of equipment were discussed. courses in methodology should be included in training programs. of particular interest in this notebook of material was a group photograph of meeting participants (figure 1). well-known optometrists such as jay enoch, glenn fry, henry hofstetter, meredith morgan, and donald pitts can be seen in the picture. i also noted two of my former teachers at pacific university college of optometry in the early 1970s, niles roth, who was at ucla at the time of the conference, and oscar richards, who worked at american optical company at the time of the conference. the biographical material in the notebook included portrait photos of many of the meeting participants, so i was able to identify most of the persons in the group picture that i was not able to otherwise recognize. four persons remain unidentified. can any readers identify them? hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 58 hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 59 book review: vision realized: a history of the mco vision realized: a history of the mco. j. james saladin and robert l. carter. big rapids, mi: ferris state university, 2012. 68 pages. isbn 978-1-300-13910-2. softcover. $25 at www.lulu.com. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book tells the story of the ferris state university michigan college of optometry. in 1967 the michigan optometric association formed a committee to promote the idea of an optometry school in michigan, and within a few years they were lobbying the state legislature to establish one. during the 1973-74 legislative session, it appeared that this could become a reality. the michigan optometric association favored establishing the school at michigan state university, but their priority was to start a new law school. ferris state college president robert ewigleben lobbied the legislature for the establishment of the optometry school at ferris state, where there was already an existing opticianry program and newly formed optometric technician program. in july of 1974, a bill which authorized an optometry school at ferris state was passed by votes of 35-0 in the michigan senate and 91-6 in the house. in early 1975, jack w. bennett, then a faculty member at indiana university, was named dean. over 350 applications for the first class were received and a class of 21 was accepted for classes beginning in september of 1975. the initial optometry faculty members were robert carter, o.d., michael keating, ph.d., and vincent king, o.d. soon after classes started in september, 1975, the michigan governor vetoed the budget for health programs at ferris because it included funding for the college of optometry. the school year proceeded as legislative support for a veto override grew. the threat of an override led to compromises in june of 1976 and the college of optometry was able to admit 22 more students to start in september, 1976. by then it was too late to hire additional faculty, so the faculty that taught the first year classes in 1975-76 had to teach first and second year classes in 1976-77. five new faculty members were hired in the summer of 1977 and five more faculty in the summer of 1978. from the beginning in 1975, the ferris state curriculum involved having all classroom and laboratory work in the first three years of school and having the fourth year devoted solely to clinic work. because of the limited population base in the area, the fourth year was divided into three 14-week rotations, only one of which was conducted on the ferris state campus. the late 1970s and early 1980s saw curricular changes due to optometric expansion in scope, adaptation to changes in testing and http://www.lulu.com/ mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 60 management technologies, increase in class sizes to 32, expansion of the optometry library collection, and increase in number of sites for fourth year rotations. when jack bennett left ferris in 1988 to become dean of the optometry school at indiana university, michael keating served as interim dean. after kenneth j. myers served as dean for a few months, keating once assumed the role of interim dean. in december, 1991, alan l. lewis took over as dean. subsequent deans have been c. allyn uniacke (interim, 1999-2000), kevin alexander (2000-2008), nancy petersonklein (interim, 2008-2009), and michael t. cron (2009). the college of optometry started its first affiliated residency program in 1988-89 at the battle creek va hospital. by 2011, it had ten different residency positions at seven locations. in january, 2011, the college of optometry assumed occupancy of a new optometry building. since 1977 the college had been located in a building which originally was a dormitory and its limitations had been obvious for some time. in 2001, a new ferris library for information, technology, and education, incorporating the main optometry collection, was dedicated. an optometry reading room had been maintained within the optometry building since the early years of the college and its smaller duplicate collection was included in the new optometry building in 2011. by 2010-2011, the three fourth year rotations were 16 weeks long and about 70% of students were doing all three rotations off campus. by 2010, the curriculum had also expanded to the point that there were required classes between the second and third years. the two year optician program at ferris, which had started in 1959, was discontinued in 2002. the optometric technician program operated from 1973 to 1997, averaging 15 students per class over those years. the book also covers student life and organizations, clinics, faculty hirings, and some humorous anecdotes. it is well illustrated with numerous black and white as well as color photographs. hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 61 three prominent ohs members remembered alfred a. rosenbloom, jr. (1921-2015) alfred a. rosenbloom, born and raised in pittsburgh, received a b.a. degree from pennsylvania state university in 1942.1,2 he joined the united states army during world war ii and served as a master sergeant for a medical unit on an army base in georgia. being inspired by optometrists in that unit, he enrolled in northern illinois college of optometry after his military service.3 rosenbloom went to work at northern illinois college of optometry after his graduation in 1948. rosenbloom received an m.a. degree from the university of chicago in 1954. his thesis was entitled aniseikonia among good and poor readers. rosenbloom was dean of illinois college of optometry from 1955 to 1972 and president of ico from 1972 to 1982.4 rosenbloom was recognized as an expert in low vision. he was a diplomate of the low vision section of the american academy of optometry. he helped found the low vision clinic at the chicago lighthouse, and he was on the board of directors of the american foundation for the blind.1 rosenbloom was co-editor with meredith morgan of two books: principles and practice of pediatric optometry (1990) and vision and aging (1986, 1993, 2007). rosenbloom received many awards and recognitions, including an honorary d.o.s. degree from northern illinois college of optometry in 1954, william feinbloom award from the american academy of optometry in 1995, carel c. koch medal from the american academy of optometry in 1999, vosh international humantarian of the year in 2007, distinguished service award from the american optometric association, migel medal from the american foundation for the blind, and election to the national optometry hall of fame in 2010. rosenbloom served on the optometric historical society board of trustees for several years. john n. schoen (1918-2014) john schoen was the son of an owatonna, minnesota jeweler.5 after his graduation from northern illinois college of optometry in 1939, he returned to his hometown where he practiced optometry for 50 years. he was very active in his community in various service organizations, musical groups, and other activities. schoen was assistant secretary of the american academy of optometry from 1967 to 1973 and then secretary-treasurer from 1973 to 1982.6 he participated in many optometry humanitarian mission trips. schoen was a charter member of the optometric historical society, and in his later years he contributed letters to the editor to hindsight. melvin d. wolfberg (1926-2015) melvin wolfberg was born in altoona, pennsylvania. he served in the u.s. army infantry in europe during world war ii and received purple heat and silver star medals.4 after military service he attended pennsylvania state university and hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 62 pennsylvania college of optometry.7 after completing optometry school in 1951, he practiced in selinsgrove, pennsylvania. wolfberg served in numerous leadership roles in optometry. he was president of the american optometric association in 1969-70, president of the american academy of optometry in 1985 and 1986, and president of the pennsylvania college of optometry from 1979 to 1989. he also served as a vice president at bausch & lomb for two years before retiring.8 among the awards he received were the distinguished service award from the american optometric association in 1994 and the eminent service award from the american academy of optometry in 2005. wolfberg was president of the optometric historical society in 2007 and 2008. references 1. kates jg. dr. alfred rosenbloom, esteemed optometrist, dies at 94. chicago tribune. april 21, 2015. www.chicagotribune.com/news. accessed may 27, 2015. 2. american optometric association. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972: 297. 3. commentary: optometric community mourns loss of rosenbloom. primary care optometry news 2015;20(5):4. 4. remembering extraordinary members. american optometric association focus 2015;2(5):10. 5. jackson j. owatonna optometrist dr. john schoen dies at age 95. www.southernminn.com/owatonna_peoples_press. accessed may 27, 2015. 6. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:91,114,183. 7. american optometric association. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972: 385. 8. www.legacy.com/obituaries/tcpalm. accessed may 27, 2015. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news http://www.southernminn.com/owatonna_peoples_press http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tcpalm hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 63 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes historical research, articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; history of optometric education; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title, the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended but not necessary for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or cm for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as δ for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant mailto:dgoss@indiana.edu hindsight: journal of optometry history….july, 2015, volume 46, number 3, page 64 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed after the acknowledgments, and for most papers will be the last section of the paper. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in hindsight: journal of optometry history should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. if footnotes or notes on additional (minor) details are used, they should be marked in the text with superscript lower case letters starting with a and continuing in alphabetical order. the notes themselves should be the last section of the paper. the heading for the section should be notes. ohsfrontcover46-3 hindsight46-3 uf7 j!ine.~!g ht optometric historical society 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume35 october 2004 number4 ohs meeting at the american academy of optometry meetings: the optometric historical society will meet from 8:00 to 9:00pm on saturday, december 11, 2004, in meeting room 2 at the tampa marriott waterside in conjunction with the american academy of optometry meetings. jay m. enoch will speak on "the world's oldest mirrors and why they are important to us." the presentation will identify and detail very early mirrors (from 6000 b.c.) and their uses. the archeological and literature evidence which demonstrates that mirrors were used for not only reflection, but also refractive applications, will be discussed. jay enoch's column: announcement of the 4th edition of the hrr pseudoisochromatic plates and an interesting observation a few months ago i received an advertisement from richmond products, inc., boca raton, fl 33487, declaring their issuance of the 4th edition of the hrr pseudoisochromatic plates. this took me back to 1948-1949, at which time i served as a subject for the 1st edition of these color vision test plates at columbia university. hrr stands for legrand hardy, m.d., gertrude rand, ph.d., and catherine rittler, b.a. hardy had died by the time of my involvement, but the team of rand and rittler, both fine ladies, soldiered on with their research in the basement of the eye institute at the college of physicians and surgeons on the 168th st. campus of columbia university. my primary activity at the medical campus was to participate in research of professors george smelser and isadore finkelstein which was conducted in the department of ophthalmology research (different building). however, at this medical center, subjects and assistants were commonly shared by investigators. as an added example, i was also asked to work with dr. karl w. ascher, known for his work on aqueous veins (e.g., am. j. ophthalmol. 25: 31, 1942). i apparently had readily visible aqueous veins, and ascher examined the effects of scleral fluid contact lens wear on aqueous fluid and blood flow in my eyes. indiana university .jan 0 6 2005 35/41 cf:j"i ometay lltihary the studies conducted by rand and rittler were very carefully performed but there was a lighter side as well. one day, as i was being tested on their anomaloscope, i noticed a prism sitting just adjacent to the instrument on the table. i asked rittler for what purpose they used this prism? apparently, she thought i had removed it from their calibrated instrument! at any rate, she became quite excited/agitated, chased me down the corridor with a hammer swinging wildly in her hand. (fortunately, i could outrun her [i was young then], she calmed down, and then discovered the prism was a spare part.) quoting the richmond announcement, "the hrr plates served a threefold purpose: (1) as a screening test to separate those with defective color vision from those with normal color vision, (2) as a quantitative diagnostic test to classify the type of the color defect (whether protan, deutan, tritan, or tetartan), and (3) as·a quantitative test to indicate the extent [(author) really degree] of the color defect (mild, medium, or strong)." the first goal was readily achieved, but there were problems with the second and third goals of this activity at least in the earlier iterations. however, hrr did make an honest effort to achieve these goals. dean judd, dean farnsworth and dorothy nickerson all consulted on the project. anomaloscopes of differing designs and the farnsworth 100 hue test proved superior for the latter functions. the richmond folks state that in the new 4th edition of hrr plates they have made major improvements over the past in the definition of the color confusion lines (a defining principle of the test), lighting control, inks, and paper. the hrr plates were also meant to take the analysis of color defects forward from earlier plates designed by shinobu ishihara in japan. but like in many clinical tests, lack of a widely distributed controlled illuminant and defined level of illumination outside of the laboratory limited measurement reliability and exchange with other practitioners. control problems with printing inks, aging of test booklet paper, fading of inks, and physical handling of the test books served to limit use of such tests to a largely screening function. few practitioners used the proper illuminant or lighting levels for these tests. it makes quite a difference if one uses the source defined for the test versus a yellowish tungsten bulb in the office. the richmond people write quite well, and they describe their product and the underlying scientific basis of this technology and comparison items in some detail. i will not repeat their documentation here. " i want to call attention to a personal experience in assessment of visual functions (including color vision) encountered during research on a blue cone monochromat some years ago. this young man was studied extensively at washington university in st. louis in cooperation with prof. nigel daw (who is now at yale university). dawn, enoch jm. contrast sensitivity, westheimer function and stiles-crawford effect in the blue cone monochromat. vision res 1973; 13:1669-1681. 35/42 nigel and i had tested a number of different aspects of this subject's central visual functions. there had been more than one visit to saint louis from the subject's home in western kentucky. there was no question that he was a blue cone monochromat. we had just finished our tests, when, while i was preparing to present a lecture on color vision, this young chap wandered back into my office. i was projecting a large diffraction spectrum on a screen as part of a class demonstration of subtractive color mixture effects using standard food color dyes (bausch and lomb sold a teaching kit for instructors for this purpose). the spectrum projected was perhaps 4 feet wide, and it subtended about 20-30 degrees at his eyes. he blurted right out something like the following, "that looks pretty good with the yellow band at one end and the blue band at the other end!" a blue-cone monochromat? so i sent him outside and put a dove prism in the projector beam path reversing the spectrum. then i called him back into the room and politely asked him to comment on what he observed? he replied, ''why you reversed it, now the yellow and blue are on different sides." an important clinical and physiological lesson resides here. most all of our color vision testing is foveal or near foveal. but, the quality or nature of color vision perception is not uniform across the retina! this fact is known to those engaged in professional color matching (e.g., the 2° and 10° cie v,. functions). and it is familiar to those performing color perimetric tests. the same sort of phenomenon can be appreciated in a now aging u.s. navy training film addressing the nature of color vision anomalies, the testing of color vision, and why this is important. it was prepared in new london, ct, on 16 mm film. there is a section in this film depicting use of the farnsworth lantern test showing the port and starboard running lights on the different sides of a ship. the image is slowly reduced in size as the silhouette of the ship and its red and green running lights recede into the distance. the now considerably smaller running lights both look green at this apparent distance. j.m.e. two more important 20th centurv optometrv books: in july, 2004, issue of hindsight, we had a feature on the most important 20th century optometry books, based on surveys sent to members of the optometric historical society, the association of visual science librarians, and the binocular vision and perception educators special interest gr.oup. we requested comments on whether there were any books that had been overlooked. since then we received nominations for inclusion of two more books: rosenbloom aa, morgan mw, eds. principles and practice of pediatric optometry rosenbloom aa, morgan mw, eds. vision and aging d.a.g. 35/43 books on the history of optometry: listed below are books related to the history of optometry. i have attempted to include all books on the history of the practice of optometry and its development as a profession in this bibliography. the goal was also to include all books on the history of optometric education and the history of national professional optometric organizations in the united states, with representative works on these topics in other countries. the list also contains representative books on the history of spectacles and on the history of the background vision sciences supporting the art and science of optometry. there are also representative books on the history of various aspects of the ophthalmic optical industry. in addition, the bibliography includes some autobiographies of notable optometrists. this bibliography has been compiled primarily using personal books and files; searching the online public access catalogs of libraries at indiana university, the ohio state university, university of california berkeley, university of houston, and pacific university; and searching the worldcat online catalog. i have also perused various serials such as hindsight, isis, journal of the history of medicine, and the bulletin of the history of medicine; websites such as www.antiquespectacles.com and www.oaicclub.org; and online booksellers, such as amazon.com. if there are any books that i have overlooked, please write david goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405 or dgoss@indiana.edu. i will report in a future newsletter any such additions to this bibliography. arrington ee. history of optometry. chicago: white printing house, 1929. baldwin wr. pleoptics: historical developments and review of the literature. minneapolis: american academy of optometry, 1962. bisno dc. eyes in the storm, president hopkins's dilemma: the dartmouth eye institute. norwich, vt: norwich press, 1994. bronson ld. early american specs. glendale, ca: occidental publishing, 1974. bourcier c. history of optometry. montreal: universite de montreal ecole d'optometrie, 1934 . .. brachner a. hundert jahre kontaklinse: vom lesestein zur kontaklinse. monchen: vereinigung deutscher contactlinsenspezialisten, 1988. bruneni jl. looking back: an illustrated history of the ophthalmic industry. torrance, ca: optical laboratories association, 1994. bull gj. lunettes et pince-nez; etudes medicale et pratique. paris: masson, 1889. 35/44 cahan d, ed. hermann von helmholtz and the foundations of nineteenth-century science. berkeley: university of california press, 1994. cox me. optometry, the profession: its antecedents, birth, and development. philadelphia: chilton, 1957. crombie ac. robert grosseteste and the origins of experimental science, 1100-1700. oxford: oxford university press, 1953. crone ra. a history of color: the evolution of theories of lights and color. dordrecht: kluw~r. 1999. davidson dc, macgregor rjs. spectacles, lorgnettes and monocles. buckinghamshire, uk: shire publications, 2002. dawson ww, enoch jm, eds. foundations of sensory science. berlin: springer-verlag, 1984. dvorine i. israel: a foreign-born optometrist looks back on his american dream. baltimore: scientific publishing, 1986. faulk 0. a man of vision: the life and career of o.w. coburn. oklahoma city: western heritage books, 1980. fisher ej. twenty-five years: school of optometry, university of waterloo, 1967-1992. waterloo, ontario: university of waterloo school of optometry, 1992. fitch a. my fifty years in optometry (2 volumes). philadelphia: pennsylvania state college f optometry, 1955-59. geyer hu. ein ieben for die optometrie: peter abel und seine zeit: mehr al seine biografie. fellbach: geyer, 1988. goerler re, fry ga, hebbard fw. the ohio state university and its college of optometry: photographic history. columbus, oh: ohio state university college of optometry, 1993. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965. gregg jr. american optometric association: a history. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972. gregg jr. origin and development of the southern california college of optometry. fullerton, ca: southern· california college of optometry, 1984. 35/45 gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry, 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987. gregg jr. the life and times of james r. gregg. self published, 1997. hardy we. random reflections on ophthalmo-optical history, techniques, philosophy, literature and personalities. london: hatton press, 1934. hirsch mj, wick re. the optometric profession. philadelphia: chilton, 1968. hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: c.v. mosby, 1948. jackson mw. spectrum of belief: joseph von fraunhofer and the craft of precision optics. cambridge, ma: mit press, 2000. kallman h. cal optometry: the first 75 years. berkeley, ca: university of california, berkeley, 1998. koetting ra. history of the contact lens. irvine, ca: allergan, 1978. koetting ra. the american optometric association's first century. st. louis: american optometric association, 1997. kozol f. the history and development of ophthalmic materials. boston: massachusetts college of optometry, 1976. lederer j, knights s, bowman lj. optometry in the university of new south wales, 1951-1981. kensington, nsw: university interviews project, university of new south wales archives, 1987. levene jr. clinical refraction and visual science. boston: butterworths, 1977. lindbergh dc, ed. and trans. john pecham and the science of optics. madison: university of wisconsin press, 1970. lindbergh dc. theories of vision from ai-kindi to kepler. chicago: university of chtcago press, 1976. lindbergh dc. studies in the history of medieval optics. london: variorum reprints, 1983. luckiesh m. seeing and human welfare. baltimore: williams & wilkins, 1934. lynch m, cole p. the college of optometrists: a history, 1980-1998. london: college of optometrists, 1999. 35/46 mccaughey ra. stand, columbia: a history of columbia university in the city of new york, 1754-2004. new york: columbia university press, 2003. miller ar. optometry in america: a history of the illinois college of optometry, 18721997. chicago: illinois college of optometry, 1996. mitchell m. history of the british optical association, 1895-1978: with additional material covering the founding of the british college of ophthalmic opticians (optometrists) and the liquidation of the b.o.a. london: the british optical association and the british optical association foundation, 1982. moline sw. century of vision: new england college of optometry: an anecdotal history of the first hundred years. boston: new england college of optometry, 1994. mullen cf. the road to excellence: a continued history of the illinois college of optometry, 1997-2000. chicago: illinois college of optometry, 2001. muth ep. vision aids in history: a documentation. milford, ct: e.p. muth, 1995. obrig te. modern ophthalmic lenses and optical glass. philadelphia: chilton, 1944. park d. the fire within the eye: a historical essay on the nature and meaning of light. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1997. peters hb. school of optometry, university of alabama at birmingham: 25th anniversary photographic history, 1969-1994. birmingham, al: university of alabama school of optometry, 1994. pollack p. opportunities in optometry and optics. new york: vocational guidance manuals, 1955. prentice cf. the memoirs of charles f. prentice. seattle, wa: casperin fletcher, 1926. prentice cf. legalized optometry. seattle, wa: casperin fletcher, 1926. ronchi v. the nature of light: an historical survey. barocas v, trans. london: heinemann, 1970. rosenthal jw. a history of the ocular heritage society of the united states. new orleans: j. william rosenthal, 1995. rosenthal jw. spectacles and other vision aids; a history and guide to collecting. san francisco: norman, 1996. rueda sanchez, am. historia de ia optometria en espana. madrid: universidad complutense de madrid, facultad de farmacia, 1995. 35/47 schiffer n. eyeglass retrospective: where fashion meets science. atglen, pa: schiffer publishing, 2000. smith pa. a history of the aop: the first fifty years. london: association of optometrists, 1996. stanton jr. the ophthalmic optical profession. london: keith vaughn, 1963. stewart cr. the founding years: university of houston college of optometry 19521961. georgetown, tx: armadillo publishing, 2003. thomson ha, hirsch mj. dr. thomson's 1895 correspondence course in optics. chicago: professional press, 1975. turnbull dk. optometry in perspective. durban: university of durban-westville, 1983. wade nj. a natural history of vision. cambridge, ma: mit press, 1998. wesley nk. contactsone hundred years plus. new york: vantage press, 1988. wolff j. optometry in the state of washington, 1880-1966; a history. bellingham, wa: washington optometric association, 1967. wright c. history of australian optometry, 1922-1986. carlton, victoria: australian optometrical association, 1988. d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http:l/www.opt.lndlana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 35/48 2004-35-04-001 2004-35-04-002 2004-35-04-003 2004-35-04-004 2004-35-04-005 2004-35-04-006 2004-35-04-007 2004-35-04-008 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 from the editor 2016| page 46 from the editor they were optometrists! f you happen to read an article of potential interest to optometric historians, i encourage you to write a review of it and submit your review to hindsight. alternatively, you could send the article of interest to me, and we will bring it to the attention of ohs members through the pages of hindsight. ohs advisory committee member chuck haine recently sent me an article entitled “spectacles, cheaters, and shades,” which appeared in the march/april, 2016 issue of your genealogy today (volume 2, number 1, pages 33-36), written by a regular contributor to that magazine, david a. norris. dr. haine wrote that he found the article to be “interesting but not exactly scholarly research.” the author of the article wrote about the history of spectacles in the last few centuries because “hints about spectacles and eyeglasses during…genealogy research…might be a good way of finding new and personal information about our ancestors.” (p. 36) one of the various interesting tidbits was that two mayflower passengers had pairs of spectacles mentioned in the inventories of their estates after their deaths in 1659 and 1672. the author also noted that the 1781 probate file of one of his ancestors mentioned one pair of spectacles. spectacles were imported in colonial america, and the american spectacle making industry did not arise until after the american revolution. norris noted that early newspaper advertisements can provide clues concerning where our ancestors may have obtained their eyeglasses. watchmakers, jewelers, booksellers, druggists, and other merchants advertised the sale of spectacles. norris gave these examples: torry and company of charleston, south carolina advertised themselves as ‘opticians and print sellers’ in the early federal era. a philadelphia city directory of 1819 included the firm of ‘fisher m. and son’, who were listed as a ‘thermometer and spectacle maker.’ in early newspaper ads, ‘opticians’ also offered telescopes, microscopes, magnifying glasses, barometers, and other optical instruments besides spectacles. (p. 36) what i found most interesting in the article was the reproduction of two advertisements for “opticians” from the 1880 worchester, massachusetts city directory. this was an era before the term optometry was in common usage, and persons who were practicing optometry referred to themselves as opticians or other monikers. henry hofstetter often talked about optometry’s “centuries-long existence,”1 emphasizing that the popularization of the term optometrist, the passage of licensure laws, etc., in the early twentieth century were stages, albeit highly significant stages, in the development of optometry, rather than indications of the de novo birth of a new occupation. the factor that we may view as distinguishing the refracting optician or optometrist from the dispensing optician is the conduct of some form of examination, however rudimentary it may seem by today’s standards. i hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 2 from the editor 2016| page 47 one of the 1880 advertisements was for “i.h. stockwell, optician.” further inspection of the ad suggests that he was practicing optometry because it says: “spectacles adapted after an examination of the eye.” the multiple roles often filled by the nineteenth century optometrist are illustrated where the ad says: “mathematical and philosophical instruments in great variety.” the other advertisement was for “w.a. england, watchmaker and optician.” in fine print the ad states: “personal attention given to fitting the eye for spectacles or eye glasses. improved instruments used.” it is not as obvious whether w.a. england was also practicing optometry, but if we assume that the “improved instruments” were used in some type of examination, then we can assume he or she was also practicing optometry. although we can rightfully be proud of the advances in optometric knowledge and technology of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it would be arrogant on our part to think that optometrists of centuries past were less important to the persons they served. reference 1. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight 1996;27:17-18. david a. goss editor, hindsight: journal of optometry history hindsight /',, ' journal of optometry history october, 2008 volume 39, number 4 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society: president: melvin wolfberg, 3095 buckinghammock trl., vero beach fl 32960-4968, ilovesylvan@bellsouth. net vice-president: jerome j. abrams secretary-treasurer: bridget kowalczyk, american optometric association, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: walterw. chase jay m. enoch chuck haine douglas k. penisten the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history october, 2008 volume 39, number 4 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 7 4464, penisten@nsuok.edu. table of contents low vision care in india: a time for action! & issues which need to be considered, jay m. enoch ............................................................................................. 1 06 biographical sketch: frederick w. brock (1899-1972), david a. goss .................... 120 optometry in north carolina: calendar of events in legislation and litigation concerning expanding scope of practice, january, 1971-may, 2008, john d. robinson ................................................................................................... 124 recent booklets and video of historical interest, david a. goss ........................... 138 recent dissertation on the history of spectacles, jonathan erlen .......... ............... 141 book review: the use of eyeglasses, by benito daza de valdes, david a. goss ......................................................................................................... 143 book review: what is medical history?, david a. goss ....................................... 146 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 105 low vision care in india: a time for action! & issues which need to be considered (plenary lecture, the 9th international congress on low vision, july 10, 2008, 8:00 am, montreal, canada) jay m. enoch, ph.d., dr.s sci. (h.c.) professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020, usa, jmenoch@berkeley.edu abstract with a national population now estimated at 1.1 billion people (and growing!), it is often stated that india accounts for 1/3 of all blind and visually impaired individuals in this world! if this statement is correct, this means that there are 5-6 million visually impaired and blind individuals in india! although certainly real progress is being made, one can reasonably ask, is the existing organizational structure designed to sene the needs of so large a number of people, and are the necessary care-providers available to provide for visual rehabilitation requirements of this very substantial cohort of affected patients? both continuing growth and aging of the indian population tend to challenge the capacity of that nation to meet demands for ophthalmic senices, as well as their ability to meet the visual rehabilitation requirements of this populace. modern optometry is, in many ways, a nascent profession in india. in behalf of the large cohort of visually impaired patients, i argue that a difference can be made through effective inter-professional cooperation between emerging modern optometry and more developed ophthalmology! i hope to see an increasing role for optometry in the provision of care for the visually impaired and blind in coming years. here, i discuss a number of issues pertinent to needs of the blind and visually impaired population, as well as means for enhancing applicable rehabilitation senices. introduction within days after i was appointed as a new dean at the school of optometry in berkeley in 1980, i was called before my new provost of professional schools and colleges, prof. doris calloway. as dean, i reported to her. i had never met her before that moment. please note, in berkeley, we rarely use last names. i walked into provost calloway's office, we shook hands, and "right off the bat", she said to me in a very strong voice, "jay, i pay you to be effective, not nice! if you can be effective and nice, so much the better! but be effective!" i quickly realized that hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 106 these were quite literally my marching orders as dean! and, she was just right! in our various roles in this complex world, in all things, we must seek to be effective! why do i speak of india today? i have been active in that great nation since 1984, that is, since shortly after the death of prime minister indira ghandi. in india, i have played roles within both ophthalmology and optometry as teacher, as one of the founders of the elite school of optometry in chennai, and as a member of their board of studies, as occasional clinician, and as clinical researcher. my main efforts have been concentrated at the sankara nethralaya in chennai and at the aravind eye hospital in madurai. i am told i presented the first-ever lecture on low vision and vision rehabilitation at an all-india ophthalmological congress. as a group we must search for means and needed resources to enable us both to enhance development of, and to provide effective visual care for the blind and visually impaired population(s) of india. comparable requirements need to be provided in many other developing world nations. i will argue that optometry can play a more effective role in providing this care. so saying, i believe that the professions of ophthalmology and optometry need to work together towards this goal and in other matters where they share "a common cause". we must never forget that fully 1/3 of all blind and low vision patients in the world are said to reside in india! if there are about 16 million blind and visually impaired individuals in the world, that means we are speaking of 5-6 million individuals! while good progress in visual rehabilitation has been made in india, is the existing infrastructure set up to manage so large a population of affected individuals? do we have the man (and/or woman) power among the eyecare professions or the rehabilitation workers, etc., to service the needs of individuals who comprise the visually impaired population? are we prepared to address this challenge? the late dr. govindapa venkataswamy of aravind hospital in madurai repeatedly drilled into me that 37%-38% of eye camp patients needed only a refractive correction or a simple magnifier to meet their visual needs. in addition, he also noted that this percent of patients was actually even a bit greater than those who required cataract surgery, and this substantial subset of patients could be treated more cheaply than those requiring surgery. dr. venkataswamy might have spoken with a soft voice, but he was never subtle! in order to underscore his argument, he placed me on the eye-camp committee at aravind for a few years. in that role, i saw the regular tallies of data from the unending eye-camps organized and managed by the aravind group. these were held mostly in tamil nadu in the latter part of the 1980s. data and statistics, which i encountered in that role, rarely wandered from dr. venkataswamy's estimates. it is important that we endeavor to help this group in the eye-camp population to attain useful vision. most of these patients do not have low vision, but a meaningful proportion of them do. if we can make possible this group's fuller participation in schools, or enable them to find useful employment, or, at the least, to be less of a hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 107 l l burden upon their families, this would be a major step forward! stated another way, it is our collective duty to aid those with limited visual performance to recognize and to utilize objects-of-interest in their homes, at work, or in other environments, and to identify those individuals requiring further eye-care and/or rehabilitation services. to assist those many individuals who can be helped by a satisfactory refraction, or a modest visual aid(s), we need to more effectively mobilize ophthalmologists, optometrists, and their associates. for patients with meaningful visual impairments which are not correctable, we also need to develop cadres of trained individuals to provide these patients with effective training in mobility techniques, education in the use of aids-to-daily-living, and to offer them personal and vocational counseling, and other critical services. obviously, for those able to afford superior care, higher cost services and devices can be provided. on a sustained basis there is a need to make continuing substantial efforts to address the visual and rehabilitative requirements of this population. and such services need to be addressed broadly, that is, wherever they are not being currently met. in order to fulfill our responsibilities regarding eye and vision care-provision to the visually impaired and blind populations, we need to consider a number of structural and organizational issues. the remainder of my talk will concentrate on such considerations. training cadres of technicians to assess and to properly treat low vision and blind patients for low vision rehabilitation services to be both successful and practical, existing teams of professionals, technicians, and providers are often utilized to teach established techniques and skills to newly recruited individuals. this becomes a repetitive cycle. however, i want to interject some words of caution here. we need to be aware that, in certain instances, by employing established techniques, we may encounter certain problems! that is, though the intent is indeed well meaning(!), a scheme where one technician teaches or trains another technician, and that second technician now teaches yet another technician trainer, etc., after the second "generation" of trainees, this system tends to result in development of trainers who may not have been exposed to a broad enough sampling of patients, and/or they may come to their assigned tasks with too limited an acquaintance with the fundamental science (or sciences) associated with their assigned tasks! and, in turn, these deficiencies in necessary knowledge, or in broader applicable skills, can serve to limit their abilities to expand their own technical skills, and/or our capability to utilize these technicians fully in teaching other new workers. while it is true that an individual can learn by rote, this can carry them only so far in their acquisition of a specific set of knowledge. thus, we need to question, or at least restrain, that which used to be stated as a rather cynical witticism in clinical programs, as the "see one; do one; teach one" cycle. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page i 08 hence, if a professional practitioner, with a good foundation and reasonable instructional skills, teaches the first round of technicians, they will usually perform their tasks quite adequately. if that then newly trained technician communicates his/her knowledge or skills to a second set of students, up to a point, all may be well if both the program and associated processes are well-thought-out. that is, students having had reasonable subsequent experience can probably transmit their limited knowledge to a second set of individuals, etc., but it is not clear that by the "n"th round of individuals trained within such a system, if the then new trainees will receive an adequate non-rote learning experience. there needs to be periodic re-introduction of the original knowledge provided by the more experienced practitioner-teacher into the system at critical point(s) in such training programs. that same instructor also needs to introduce periodically needed applicable updates and corrections into the curriculum. and there needs to be provided a scheme for continuing education to aid these technicians to continue to grow, and to keep them currentjust like everyone else in the clinical milieu! consider an audio-visual approach an alternative approach is to teach such material by using audio-visual material prepared by, or in close cooperation with the primary instructor(s). and, similarly, that material needs to be upgraded regularly (i.e., at a minimum of once a year). the trained teacher can supplement the audio-visual materials he/she develops by providing an additional period of time to see students who have used the audio-visual materials, and who have one or more questions concerning the contents of a given set of that material. if the audiovisual materials provided are of sufficient quality and provide suitable depth of coverage, the required question and answer time provided by the instructor is most often modest. this argues for the primary instructor to take great care in the preparation of his/her teaching segment( s ). such a system was in place when i served as a faculty member at the school of medicine at the university of florida in gainesville in the late 1970s. i had opportunity to study these techniques on multiple occasions, and to take courses in the application( s) of such techniques. they had the necessary methodology well developed at that time. there, i also had opportunity to watch my son and his classmates utilize this learning technique through much of their training in the then new university of florida at gainesville dental school program. each student proceeded at his/her own chosen pace(!) a very impressive and useful technique! that is, each student takes whatever time he or she needs to complete individual teaching modules. this policy can be particularly effective when a heterogeneous group of individuals with non-common backgrounds is being trained. today, my son is very successful orthodontist, and the same may be said of his several classmates. individual courses, or units provided within that dental program were quite straight forward, and they were placed in logical sets or sequences. each course or segment of the program was composed of detailed sets of notes supported by 35 mm slides held in one or more kodak carousels which were placed into available slide projectors. each segment and supporting materials could be checked out of a libraryhindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number4, page 109 like resource. in addition, added motion pictures were available on loan; and the students were offered periodic demonstrations of specific experiments, diagnostic techniques, and/or surgical procedures, etc. there was a self-administered examination that the student had to pass at the end of each of the then 80+(?) training units, segments, or modules, before beginning the next segment. if my memory is correct, remedial segments were also offered to those students who lacked or failed to retain certain preliminary/basic knowledge. all of these segments or component parts had to be completed successfully before the individual could enter the clinical phase of his or her training program. using this quite creative and interactive program, the classroom time spent by the professor was very limited, and he had more time for clinical work and teaching, laboratory research, and for providing scheduled supportive consultations to students as needed. yes, the initial set-up or preparation of the program was time consuming, but if the material was regularly upgraded and updated, a major re-write or review was needed only every three to five years (as distinguished from the yearly update of the syllabus). today, we would employ a power-point display placed on co-roms, or offer plug-in memory sticks, or, most probably, place the individual segments on-line on the world-wide-web. i suspect the programs would be also designed to be even more interactive, and would offer branching options, etc. in addition, there would be offered web-based links to critical selected urls for readings and additional documents recommended to aid learning-in-depth. growth and adequacy of professional services we have seen great growth in the quality of ophthalmological programs, the numbers of medical practitioners, and more effective dispersal of eye-camp services in india. in the latter case, eye-camp services, i tend to prefer the aravind principle where patients for eye surgery were most often brought by bus to the hospital-center for treatment. there, all needed resources and facilities were concentrated. and at the hospital-center, complications were minimized, and the capability for quick and appropriate response was available 24/7. there has occurred a marked increase in cataract surgeries performed and other medical eye care provided in india, but for every advance, often there has been a near parallel increase or an even greater enhancement of the population needing to be served. and, not surprisingly, provision of care for the rural poor often remains less than adequate. even with the improvements made, many among the blind and partially sighted populations remain under-served. today there are over 1,100,000,000 people living in india. while the indian economy has unquestionably expanded in recent years, the vast rural population, where so many of the visually-impaired population reside, has experienced only small changes in their lives and lifestyles. that is, they seem not to have been full hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 110 participants in the recent expansion of indian industrial and commercial society. i am sure we all feel this to be most unfortunate. the role of optometry i today, the profession of optometry in india is experiencing a modest quickening! some fine modern schools have been created, examples include: the elite school of optometry associated with the sankara nethralaya in chennai; the bausch and lomb school associated with the l.p. prasad eye center in hyderabad; the lotus school in coimbatore; etc. other new optometry schools exist, and others are in development. a number of older institutions seem ready to begin to make the transition to more modern formats and curriculums in optometry. there is an active movement towards national optometric recognition and licensure. of course, there remains much work to be done. recently, i discussed many aspects of this set of issues in my palkhivala oration.* (*jay m. enoch (invited): the need for recognition, regularization and regulation of eye and vision care practices in india. this oration was presented as the shri nani palkhivala foundation lecture, january 26, 2006, chennai, tamil nadu, india. the text of this oration has been reproduced as a separate "special report" by the indian optician, january-february 2008, non-paginated, 24 pages; and it also has been printed in hindsight: journal of optometry history april, 2008; 39(2):25-57.) so saying, the large majority of current "optometric practitioners" in india have been trained far less adequately than that level of education provided in the more modern/emerging schools which offer four-year quality optometric training programs. the earlier-developed optometric programs, still extant, have not kept pace with development of optometry outside of india. the profession (or perhaps better stated) the various professions of optometry in india must get their acts together, in order to join modern optometry in this 21st century of the common era! i have argued forcibly that these programs should coalesce about the four-year optometric training programs just mentioned. indian optometric groups need to clean house and bring all of their institutions and curriculums up to a standard comparable with that of their stronger schools and colleges of optometry and/or those existing now in quite a number of other nations. on a most positive note, i was impressed during my recent trip to india in january, 2008, by the use of examination-vans equipped with tv/computer linkages. these special vans are dispatched to rural and remote locations from the parent clinical center. these models of modern "tete-medicine" were effectively linked to the central (or base) clinic for consultation and advice on more complex cases. i watched this system operate with dr. s.s. badrinath at the sankara nethralaya college-road campus in chennai, and i was most impressed. these well equipped vans were manned by optometrists. this same positive approach can be taken by many ophthalmic programs, which serve to bring eyecare effectively to rural and more remote locations. this is an important example of eyecare professions working cooperatively together in an effective manner in order better to serve india! hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page ill as i stated in my palkhivala foundation oration, it is time for those identifying as optometrists to move past the archaic roles many of them still fill in india, and for the profession to serve much more effectively the vision and eye-care needs of this nation. this includes playing a greater role in the examination for, and detection of ocular diseases and disorders. and this must be done cooperatively with those practicing ophthalmology. this is no small task, but in the final analysis, if properly managed, everyone gains. the role of optometry ii: optometry may be the more effective group to lead and/or address needs of the visually impaired and blind! i will now comment on what might be considered to be a somewhat sensitive topic. i have served with more than one ophthalmologist who either felt rather frustrated, or in other situations, felt that they had somehow failed in the care of some of their blind or severely visually impaired patients. i also have noticed some ophthalmologists experience discomfort when a patient who was totally blind, or nearly so, came to consult them in their office. occasionally, they have commented to me on these issues. i found that except for attendant medical issues, many ophthalmologists (at that stage of care of their patient) felt that they had little more to contribute to these particular patients. it is also true that the presence of a blind patient can be disruptive to patients who are sighted. in the presence of a totally blind patient, you can often observe restlessness among other patients in the waiting room of an ophthalmic practice. the optometrist is obligated to refer the patient losing-sight for treatment to the ophthalmologist. in such situations, the optometrist, who often does not manage patients during the critical time period when they experience their major joss of vision, usually does not share the same sense of responsibility, or perhaps better, frustration, for that joss (whether it is the ophthalmologist's responsibility or not!). in such instances, the optometrist may well be at greater ease relative to the provision of post­ vision-loss care, and when offering these patients rehabilitative care. so saying, i do not suggest that the ophthalmologist does not empathize with his/her patients; and i am sure he or she always wished for a more positive outcome! in effect, this problem was addressed somewhat indirectly in a wonderful dialogue which i sought to reconstruct as accurately as i could in the obituary i wrote of my close friend (and one of my personal heroes!), the late and most distinguished rector and professor hans goldmann, m.d., of berne, switzerland. these remarks were made at a special rounds program which i attended at washington university in saint louis quite a number of years ago. on that occasion, hans goldmann described his own frustrations relative to provision of care for a gentleman who was rapidly losing vision due to open-angle glaucoma.** (**jay m. enoch: tribute: hans goldmann (1899-1991 ), ophthal. physiol. optics july, 1994; 19:330-332. or optom vis sci 1992;69: 168-169.) hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 112 i must admit, i have special admiration for clinicians who have the courage to describe their failures, or partial failures, in order to help guide others in the management of such patients. i quote from my obituary of prof. goldmann: ""at the time there was quite an ongoing debate about the value of a surgical technique called the preziosi surgical procedure for reducing intra-ocular pressure in patients with glaucoma. this technique was then being used in berne. at washington university in saint louis, they were not having good results with this procedure. thus, when professor goldmann visited washington university, he was asked a rather loaded question at rounds, it went something like the following: "professor goldmann, do you feel the prezioso technique to be successful for treatment of glaucoma?" ""he paused a minute, and then responded approximately as follows: "a patient comes to me in his late forties. he is experiencing trouble reading, and i tell him he has open angle glaucoma, he is losing visual field(!), i prescribe medication, and i tell him he must return in a few months." the patient returns as requested, and says to me (that is, to goldmann), 'professor goldmann, thank you very much for your diagnosis and treatment, but i still have trouble reading. in fact, i am having even more trouble reading when i take the medication!' i examine him, and i find the situation has become worse, and i must increase his medication. he comes back again a few months later, and he says to me, 'professor goldmann, i am really having great difficulty reading!' i have no choice but to respond to him, 'mr. x, your glaucoma is much worse, i must perform some surgery.' i do the surgery, and as a result, perhaps 60%-70% of the time, i achieve improved control over his intraocular pressure. in the remainder of the cases, i do not achieve improved control. however, for the purposes of this discussion, let us assume this gentleman had a reasonably successful result. the patient later returns to me and says, 'professor goldmann, i know the surgery was successful, and i thank you very much for this. but to tell you the truth, i still cannot read well.'" '"'hans then turned to face directly the audience, and he said, "i ask you, do you regard this as a success? .... hmm?!. .. hmm?!" hans often used this locution ... "hmm?!" with his eyes gleaming and his fists clenched, as a means of emphasizing a point he was making. he was not questioned further on this issue! goldmann cared very much about his patients.'"' based on many such exposures, i think it wise and wholly appropriate for ophthalmic professionals in india to consider enhancement of the role(s) played by optometrists in the management and provision of care for patients with severe visually impairments and blindness. also, above, i suggested that there be trained added cadres of individuals who would minister to the needs of many of these patients. logically, therefore, in india, i urge you to turn to optometrists and/or to optometric institutions for backup and guidance of such activities, and in the development of needed personnel. i also advocate that there be enhanced training in management of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 113 low vision and blind patients by optometrists per se, and that they utilize this training in their practices as well. the economic transformation occurring in india there is no question that the indian economy has changed for the better in recent years. today, india is exhibiting meaningful industrial and financial growth. better roads are being built particularly away from city-centers. and factories, from very large to small, are appearing across the country; educational institutions are proliferating; medical facilities are expanding in population centers, and so forth. as but one example; one needs only to consider development associated with a relatively new four-lane road built between chennai and bangalore. on the other hand, when driving in, and or visiting rural communities, one sees only modest or limited changes from the past. while i am sure there are other alterations occurring as well, one does observe the presence of increased use of cell phones by individuals, and a boost in the presence of tv antennas in certain areas. of course, these both are powerful tools or vehicles for education and change in society! otherwise, in recent visits, i have noted few signs of broad participation of the vast rural populace in an "emerging india". if true, such a meaningful divide in appreciation of the benefits of economic and industrial growth can result in restiveness in so large a segment of society. one can deduce from the popular press that the same is occurring in rural china. somehow, these governments need to enable their vast rural populations to feel that they are participating more fully in modern economic and social developments. it is easy to say that educational opportunities and health care need to be expanded in rural areas, but these are not easy tasks to accomplish! in addition, somehow, there is need to meet the needs of the burgeoning population. the fact that the population has been and continues to age rapidly, also speaks to the need of providing more attention to the needs of the rural poor. separately, one must also ask, how will agricultural production be further increased in order to feed adequately the growing population? i see very little un-tilled or un­ committed land which remains available for development. bringing eye care to rural societies when i was dean of the school of optometry at berkeley, i learned how very difficult it is to induce young graduates from our institution to venture into rural communities in order to better serve these populations. that is, in the u.s.a., we also are not successful in providing adequate and equivalent health-care services for our rural populations. stated alternatively, it would be very desirable to enhance vision and eye care in virtually all non-urban and non-suburban societies. i had hoped to achieve a comparable goal also in india. there, too, i was not very successful. let me help you to understand some of the reasons for difficulties encountered. for example, one rarely encounters large centers or concentrations of population in hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 114 agricultural regions. as a result, there is a lack of hospitals ·or appropriate nearby centers for referrals in support of medical practitioners. that is, mds may not have meaningful facilities for advanced diagnostic testing of patients, or for surgery, or for necessary consultations. optometrists are not nearly so dependent upon such supportive services as are physicians, but some important common factors do exist. one tool, which has been used successfully to enhance available health-care provision in rural areas, has been for society to offer to pay a student's tuition while in professional school, in return for their commitment to serve, subsequent to graduation, in a rural area for a defined period of years. education of professional health care providers today in the usa, an optometrist goes to college for four undergraduate years, and that undergraduate training in optometry, like in medicine or dentistry, provides most all of the basic science pre-requisites required for success when these students attend their future professional school. one might argue that the undergraduate program has become an integral part of the professional training of the health-care provider. this is an important change from the past! in "the good old days" undergraduate school years were not nearly so focused, and there was time for a student to take a number of elective courses. that is, they were able to explore their individual interests in the sciences, in the arts, or in other disciplines. clearly, today, the formal or classical "four-year professional educational program"in medicine, dentistry, optometry, podiatry, pharmacology, etc., is no longer sufficient to fully train the clinician! stated alternatively, in this age of information explosion, there is just too much to teach for the whole set of topics and subjects, which need to be taught, to be contained in that four-year period of professional education. this statement does not even consider the necessary broad exposure of the individual student to clinical populations of all sorts. there have always been some undergraduate pre-requisite courses required for entry into the health professions, but today, that list of pre-requisites is verv long and engages the undergraduate for the large majority of his or her undergraduate training period. the whole time period is nearly filled with the basic science prerequisites for the specific health care profession chosen. and these prerequisites are very similar for all of the health sciences! included are the usual introductory biology, chemistry, physics and math courses. today, there are also added required introductory courses which address the genome and genetics, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, pharmacology, human anatomy and physiology, statistics, etc. each health group then adds on a few specific courses for their special purposes. thus, in this day and age, the education of a health care practitioner in the u.s.a. is essentially an eight year continuum from undergraduate training through professional school and, in many cases, on into subsequent specialty training! thus, the collegiate experience has changed dramatically, largely due to necessity, and partially by chance. and that is not the end of it. this entire set of issues is also of critical hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 115 importance to institutions in the developing world as well! the pressures leading to such actions are or will be comparable there, and are of no less importance. in my palkhivala oration, i argued strongly that it was necessary to bring modern optometry in india up to a four year program after secondary school! will even that be enough for the future of the optometric profession in india! somehow, i seek or sought to convey the urgency of the problems faced by health care professionals in india without unduly alarming them. they need to become aware of realities extant in this world, in health-care provision, and in health-care education. it is no different for any of the health professions. turning attention to the usa once again, at the end of that eight year training period (i.e., the pre-health science program, and the health science school), many health care practitioners go on for further specialty-training as well. today, for example, at berkeley, about 30% of our optometric graduates (now not-so-young people) at berkeley stay on for another year or two of specialization or fellowship and some others go on to an academic career. thus, in the usa, optometrists literally train for 8-10 years before entering practice. in medicine, these training periods are even longer than in some of the other health-care professions. an associated problem not considered here, is for how many years very highly trained professional health care providers will be available to participate effectively in the work force after completion of their extended training periods? this question is important particularly for medical practitioners, and especially so for those who have chosen the surgical specialties where the duration of the residencies are often quite a bit longer. provision of health care for rural communities let us return to the issue of provision of health care to rural communities (anywhere!). where, within rural communities, will very highly trained health-care providers live and work? by the time of completion of their training, many of these individuals are now married, and either have done, or are seeking to develop their families. where in the rural communities will they find their educational and social equivalents? those that live there, no doubt will mingle socially with the local physician, the dentist, the optometrist, the lawyer, the accountant (assuming they are also there and are of roughly equivalent age). that is, they will mingle with other professionals. and equally or more important, will these same (now highly trained individuals) be satisfied with educational opportunities available for their own children within such settings or locales? the short answer to such questions is that for such reasons, few of them will choose the rural environment for their professional career, and this situation is really not different in india or in any other nation! the problem is real; all of the health professions need to find adequate solutions to this existing (and growing!) set of problems. as i stated before, i am sure most all of us will agree we must serve these rural, less densely populated, areas in a much more satisfactory manner. this is why, i found the telemedicine option mentioned above so very interesting! surely, that is not hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 116 the whole solution, but some such schemes need to be developed in order to address these problems. "compassionate capitalism" i heard both dr. rau of lv. prasad and the late dr. venkataswamy address the general problem of "compassionate capitalism". this reminds me somewhat of pronouncements of our own government. president bush has stated on occasion that he supports "compassionate conservativism". some of our comedians point out that our government is neither "compassionate" nor "conservative"! "compassionate" as proposed here implies that this tool will be used with a sympathetic view, and with consideration of the individual person's special needs and resources. by inference, within such a system, those with limited resources are expected to pay a lesser charge than those with greater resources. "capitalism" used here means the whole health care system needs to be self-supporting, integrated effectively, and logically organized. as i understand the use of the term, "compassionate capitalism", as used by both drs. rau and venkataswamy, it addresses the very real need to find ways to meet the real needs and costs of health (and other) care provision and services offered to those residing in the developing world, and to do so within a viable health­ care-delivery framework applicable to the area and nation where such activities are being carried out. the concept is quite rational in that it seeks to balance costs and services adjusted to an individual's ability to pay for those services. at the same time, this approach places demands upon resources of the health delivery system. it is necessary to provide trained social workers, or other appropriate individuals, capable of determining appropriate charges to be applied to individual patients for professional and other services and supplies rendered. this, too, can be a burden, particularly if the health care delivery unit is of modest size. the community/agency providing service needs finally "to stand upon its own two feet" financially in a viable manner. thus, each patient must pay what they can afford for their care. the general concept is critical if we are to succeed in offering quality low vision care to the many individuals who are not well-endowed fiscally. we cannot assume that organizations can always depend on either the government (at any level), or non-governmental organizations (ngos) to finance activities of the health-care system. what if grandpa or grandma is blind or has very limited vision? consider the near-total blind person (for example, say grandfather). often, in the developing world, a responsible not-too young child or older adult, etc., is made available to offer care-provision to grandfather. this individual also leads him about the village at the other end of a stick as is necessary for whatever purpose. the old man can do little constructive work and either contributes minimally in the economy of the family or not at all. the second individual, the care-provider, who tends grandfather, is also limited in his/her contribution economically to the family because of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 117 l his assigned duty to look out for grandfather. this is a large burden on the poor family with limited resources! two individuals at each end of the stick create meaningful financial and social problems for the well-intended family. i have often asked why they don't consider broader use of the hoover cane in the developing world? i would urge that these canes be painted white for visibility at dusk or at night, or that the white paint is applied in bands in order to enhance visibility. is it not possible to free up the care-giver in at least some situations, or for some period of time, so that the individual can serve constructively as an economic provider, or go to school, etc.? of course, all roads are not outstanding in rural india, but grandfather is not going to walk long distances either. holes in the road or impediments near the home and immediate area can be filled in or repaired, etc. in the management of low vision in india, i have long followed a dictum of dr. venkataswamy, that is, services and devices provided must work, be of modest cost, and their design must be simple and practical. the just mentioned hoover cane falls in this category. in conclusion i have discussed a number of pertinent issues here, and i could go on for another hour or more in a similar manner. for example, i have hardly touched upon the substantial research required in behalf of these populations! indeed, each of these topics and others are multi-faceted. while good progress is being made in india, i wonder if the existing program is adequate to serve the projected five to six million affected individuals located in that fine nation? we need a program which will provide enhancement of residual vision, living conditions, and the quality of life of the partially sighted and blind. here, i use india as an example; this is a nation with which i am familiar. so saying, this is not the only developing nation needing or deserving special attention. such requirements are also great in most all developing world nations. i feel strongly that the visual quality of life for many of these people can be enhanced through rehabilitative care of all sorts, including provision, if and when applicable, of visual aids, of mobility training, of utilization of aids for daily living, as well as access to counseling, and development of local centers for provision of such care. the latter may not measure up to the well known kooyong vision center in melbourne, australia. these might be simply gathering or meeting places for the provision of care or for dispensing of needed supplies, training, and advice. to assist in these efforts, we need professional leadership at all levels, particularly from the eye­ care community, and here i argue optometry can play a meaningful role, but i certainly do not exclude ophthalmology. in addition, we need cadres of adequately trained technical people as well. as is necessary, or as indicated, these same individuals also need to intercede in behalf of their patients. hence, there needs to be a united effort made in their collective interest. and this should occur in real time. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 118 surely, no one would deny the visually-impaired populace a better, and a more satisfying existence. poor sight often limits the lives of people; here, i call for our maximizing the capabilities of these five-to-six million people in order that they may be able to live a more normal existence, and to make more effective contributions to their society. above all, together, let us be effective in their behalf! acknowledgements i have discussed these remarks with a number of individuals. i particularly appreciate the critical comments provided by professor amanda lueck of san francisco state university, and professor olga overbury of the university of montreal. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 119 biographical sketch: frederick w. brock {1899-1972) david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract frederick w brock was an innovator in the development of instrumentation and treatment strategies for strabismus and amblyopia. brock was born in switzerland and graduated from optometry school at columbia university. this article provides a brief biographical sketch of brock and an overview of some of his contributions. key words: frederick w brock, brock string, history of optometry, strabismus, vision therapy. the name brock is associated with several binocular vision testing and training instruments and procedures. the best known of these is the brock string. the dictionary of visual science and related clinical terms includes brock's scotoma box, brock's luster method, brock's posture board, brock's rings, brock's stereomotivator, and brock string.1 a book of optometric eponyms contains five for brock among its roughly 120 entries: brock basic targets, brock posture board, brock rings, brock stick and straw, and brock string? as an instructor in binocular vision, i was familiar with some of brock's contributions, but i knew little else about him. this article summarizes what i was able to learn about frederick brock through a literature search and requests for archival resources. frederick brock was born in zurich, switzerland, on december 4, 1899. his father, arnold e. brock, had an optical business in zurich, dealing in spectacles, optical instruments, cameras, and photographic supplies.3 frederick's high school work included optical technician vocational training. after high school, he attended the university of switzerland for two years.4 there his studies included geometrical optics and instrument design. 3 when his father died suddenly, he left school and for a while he ran the business that his father had started. after about a year, brock found his interests to be "centered in the refractive procedure rather than in dispensing of optical goods."3 as a result, he sold the business, and in 1921, he came to the united states to study optometry at columbia university. despite difficult¥ with english language, brock graduated from columbia in 1923 with "highest honors." brock practiced briefly in brooklyn and staten island, new york, before going to jena, germany, to study at the zeiss optical school for two years. subsequently he opened an office in staten island, where he practiced for 41 years. 5 in 1935, in an era in which commercial practice was common, brock bought a building and "tore out the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number4, page 120 commercial front and put up a colonial fa(/ade minus plate glass, minus signs and minus displays. a nameplate bears the only outside evidence of an optometric establishment."6 brock noted that such an environment "benefited [his] professional standing in the community. patients showed greater willingness to pay for eyy examinations and to make appointments for such examinations and the local physicians showed a greater willingness to refer patients."6 in 1966, brock7 recalled that a 1938 paper by f.h. verhoeff in archives of ophthalmology led him to seriously study strabismus. brock identified verhoeff as "the first who tried to raise orthoptics from an art to a science."7 the first of brock's three decades of publications on strabismus, amblyopia, and visual training were five papers in the american journal of optometry in 1939 and 1940.8-12 in 1940, brock made a major presentation on optometry day at the new york world's fair and he became the director of the experimental strabismus clinic at columbia university school of optometry.7 brock wrote numerous articles on strabismus and amblyopia, including two extensive series in optometric weekly. segments of a series entitled binocular vision in strabismus appeared in thirteen issues of optometric weekly in 1945 and 1946. his series visual training was published in three parts: part i was split between eleven issues in 1947 and 1948; part ii was published in fourteen issues from 1950 to 1952; and part ill was found in 38 issues from 1955 to 1959. most of brock's work was published in optometric weekly, but a bibliography of his writings includes papers in journals such as canadian journal of optometry, journal of the american optometric association, archives of ophthalmology, american journal of ophthalmology, british journal of physiological optics, american orthoptic journal, american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry, and new england journal of optometry.13 birnbaum 13 observed that brock's "contributions far transcend his instrumentation and techniques, although the latter are certainly significant.. .. brock developed instruments and techniques to serve specific purposes in keeping with the principles of vision training that he developed and/or espoused. brock's insight into eccentric fixation and eccentric viewing preceded the work of cuppers and bangerter, and even preceded the development of the visuscope. brock introduced the approach of training in the normal environment, in free space, with training devices that simulate reality and at tasks within the patient's capacity for achievement. he introduced the idea of establishing a binocular line of sight [superimposition of foveal images] in real space in strabismus training. brock also pioneered in the use of large targets to stimulate and involve the retinal periphery in the achievement of fusion and stereopsis. he recognized the significance and value of peripheral fusion as an aid in facilitating binocular alignment." (pages 667 -668) revell14 stated that brock's work "was marked not only by profound thought on the problems of strabismus but by numerous practical techniques and instruments to solve these problems." wittenberg 15 noted that brock's "investigations were almost hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 121 always directed toward illuminating some point of clinical relevance. interestingly though, his written work almost always described studies within a theoretical rather than a clinical context. his writi"ngs tended to be an amalgam of abstraction and clinical observation .... ln his writings, brock darted back and forth between the founders of binocular vision theory, contemporary researchers in vision, and his own simple tests." in 1965, brock brought in israel greenwald as an associate in his practice, and greenwald eventually took over the practice. greenwald attended the city college of new york for two years before his studies at the pennsylvania college of optometry, where he graduated in 1959.16 greenwald was assistant director of the optometric center of new york from 1960 to 1966.16 the practice continues today with greenwald and several other optometrists. in 1979, greenwald published a 168 page book entitled effective strabismus therapy. greenwald17 observed that brock had a fascination for how strabismics adapted to achieve spatial localization with their abnormal eye position. brock felt that "vision appears to the strabismic to be anything but normal and seems to be alarmingly complicated and confusing."17 greenwald quoted brock as saying that in strabismic seeing "each eye maintains its individuality and ... visual impressions are cortically integrated by means other than fusion."18 one of brock's last papers was a three part article in optometric weekly entitled "a chronicle of orthoptic history covering 25 years of practice."7 in that paper, he discussed his initial efforts in strabismus, how some of his concepts changed over the years, and some of the important principles in the treatment of strabismus and amblyopia. another of his last papers was an overview of his thinking on the treatment of amblyopia.19 late in his career he also published a guest editorial in the journal of the american optometric association encouragin~ optometrists to continue looking for new concepts and ideas in strabismus treatment. 0 brock was active in a number of local, state, and national organizations. brock was one of the founders of the richmond county optometric society and served as its president for several years. he was on the research and standards committee of the american optometric association (aoa) from 1957 to 1959, on the aoa standards committee from 1959 to 1963, and on the aoa committee on orthoptics and visual training from 1963 to 1966, serving as the chairman of the latter committee from 1963 to 1965. he received a distinguished service to optometry award in 1944 and a distinguished achievement award from the new york state optometric association in 1970. he received an honorary d.o.s. degree from northern illinois college of optometry in 1942 and an honorary sc.d. degree from wagner college in staten island, new york in 1958. brock died on august 1, 1972, while visiting his daughter in stowe, vermont.5 acknowledgments i thank linda draper of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry; robert williams of the optometric extension program; and elaine wells of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 122 the harold kohn vision science library at the state university of new york college of optometry for providing information that made this article possible. references 1. hofstetter hw, griffin jr, berman ms, everson rw. dictionary of visual science and related clinical terms, 5th ed. boston: butterworth-heinemann, 2000: 58, 60,322,404-405,445,478,486. 2. hendrickson h. eponyms of behavioral optometry. santa ana, ca: optometric extension program foundation, 1993:14-19. 3. anonymous. optometry's galaxy, star ii. pennsylvania optometrist 1943;3(5):4-5. 4. anonymous. frederick william brock. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:39. 5. anonymous. obituaries. optom weekly 1972;63:852. 6. brock fw. dr. brock on validation. pennsylvania optometrist 1943;3(5):5. 7. brock fw. a chronicle of orthoptic history covering 25 years. optom weekly 1966;57(5):25-31; 57(6):31-35; 57(7):23-27. 8. brock fw. investigation into anomalous correct projection in cases of concomitant squints. am j optom 1939;16:39-77. 9. brock fw. anomalous projection in squint; its cause and effectnew methods of correction; report of cases. am j optom 1939;16:201-221. 10. brock fw. dr. verhoeff and anomalous projection. am j optom 1939; 16:322-324. 11. brock fw. projection habits in alternate squints. am j optom 1940;17:193207. 12. brock fw. the cortical mechanism of binocular vision in normal and anomalous projection. am j optom 1940;17:460-472. 13. birnbaum mh. perspectives on the contributions of frederick brock. am j optom physiol opt 1981 ;58:667-670. 14. revell mj. strabismus: a history of orhtoptic techniques. london: barrie & jenkins, 1971 :70-71. 15. wittenberg s. brock's research in stereopsis. am j optom physiol opt 1981 ;58:663-666. 16. anonymous. israel greenwald. directory of the american optometric association. st. louis: american optometric association, 1972:133. 17. greenwald i. frederick brock ... an optometric giant. j optom vis dev 1993;24(2):4-7. 18. greenwald i. strabismus: brock's influence on new therapies. duncan, ok: optometric extension program foundation, 1981-82:1. 19. brock fw. the care of the amblyopic childan overview. am j optom arch am acad optom 1967;44:42-55. 20. brock fw. guest editorial: quo vadis. jam optom assoc 1965; 36:620,656. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 123 optometry in north carolina: calendar of events in legislation and litigation concerning expanding scope of practice, january, 1971-may, 2008 john d. robinson, o.d. executive director, north carolina state board of examiners in optometry, 109 north graham street, wallace, nc 28466, exdir@ncoptometry.org 1971 north carolina controlled substances act completely revised as article 5 of chapter 90 of the general statutes. optometry is included within the definition of "practitioner" (until further amended in 1981 and 1987, the practitioners were referenced by article of licensure, i.e. optometry being article 6). 1973 -a bill re-writing the optometry act in its entirety is introduced. midway during the session, the definition section (90-114) was separated from the remainder of the bill because of the controversy surrounding the expansion of the scope of practice. the bill without the change in scope of practice was enacted into law. 1975 -there were no legislative bills introduced on behalf of the profession; however, the society was actively involved in educating the practitioners by providing the opportunities to complete transcript education in the field of pharmacology and in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of ocular disease in order to support legislative efforts to expand the scope of practice in 1977. 1977 bills were jointly introduced in the house and senate to re-write g.s. 90-114 to allow the use and prescription of pharmaceutical agents in the practice of optometry of the eye and its adnexa. the senate bill passed in may of 1977 and was sent to the house of representatives. the house version of the bill was then set aside and the senate version was placed on the house calendar. after brief debate and without further amendments the bill passed the house on june 7, 1977 and became law with the effective date being july 1, 1977. during the next several weeks the board began the process of certifying those licensed optometrists who had successfully completed the course in ocular pharmacology and therapeutics for practicing optometrists conducted by the pennsylvania college of optometry over the preceding 18 months to begin the use of and prescribing of pharmaceutical agents in the practice of optometry effective july 1, 1977. 1979 no legislation was introduced on behalf of either optometry or ophthalmology. 1981 -a bill was introduced on behalf of ophthalmology to repeal the new optometry definition (90-114) and replace it with the one that existed prior to 1977. this bill never made it out of committee. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 124 1983 another repeal effort was made to limit optometrists to the use of diagnostic drugs only. as was the case in 1981 the bill never made it out of committee. during both the 1981 and 1983 sessions there was some testimony given by representatives of the north carolina society of ophthalmology alluding to optometric mismanagement that had resulted from the use of drugs by optometrists since the law was changed in 1977. 1984 the board received a copy of a document purported to be evidence of 173 cases of optometric mismanagement in north carolina that was presented to members of the nebraska legislature at a hearing in that state. the investigation, hearing and litigation lasted through july 1, 1987, at which time the board concluded its investigation and hearing and entered an order wherein it was stated that no substantive or credible evidence existed to support the allegations of the north carolina society of ophthalmology. 1985 another repeal effort was made but failed to make it out of committee; and the board of medical examiners attempted to prevent optometrists from engaging in post­ operative management of cataract patients by transmitting the 'views of the board" relating to the post-operative care of cataract surgery patients for publication in the north carolina medical society journal; said view being that such practice was the practice of medicine and was not within the lawful scope of practice of optometrists. 1986 -an attorney general's ruling was issued which nullified the view of the board of medical examiners and stated that post-operative care of cataract patients was within the scope of optometric practice as defined by law. in may of 1986, the north carolina board of medical examiners brought certain charges against dr. steven white, the substance of which focused upon the postoperative care of cataract surgery patients by optometrists. 1987 a malpractice law suit is filed against an ophthalmologist and his clinic alleging unnecessary surgery. the complaint named an optometrist as a co-conspirator though the optometrist was not sued; however, based upon the filing of the lawsuit and the optometrist being named in the allegations, the board of optometry instituted a probable cause investigation on the grounds that if the optometrist committed illegal acts as set forth throughout the very lengthy list of allegations, then there would be grounds for disciplinary action by the board of optometry. in may of 1990 the board issued its order of "no probable cause" in the case of the optometrists and that all acts and procedures performed by him were within the legal scope of practice of optometrists in north carolina and that there was no evidence to suggest that the patient was referred for surgical consult and eventual surgery unnecessarily. the final document that set forth the findings by the board along with all the attachments included some 100 pages. the law suit filed against the ophthalmologists and his clinic was eventually thrown out of court. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 125 1987in september of 1987, dr. steven white and the board of medical examiners entered into a consent order wherein it was acknowledged that optometrists were allowed to participate in the post-operative care of surgery patients. 1988 senator heinz holds hearings in philadelphia concerning the issues involved in cataract surgery, referrals and optometric post-operative following. drs. wright and bowers introduce the "mismanagement" issue in north carolina into the record. extensive rebuttal was added to the record by the north carolina state board of examiners in optometry relative to the previously discredited allegations by these same individuals. 1989 senator ezzell introduces a bill to clarify the medical practice act and re-define surgery to include post-operative care. the effect of the bill would have been to literally eliminate optometrists from caring for any patient whose diagnosis would indicate that they would need surgery; since the definition of surgery (currently undefined by law) would, if the bill were enacted, encompassed pre-operative, peri-operative and post­ operative care. this bill failed to come out of committee. 1990 the suit filed against the ophthalmologist for unnecessary surgery is thrown out of court. may 16, 1990 the board of optometry issued a no probable cause order in which the optometrist whose name appeared in the original complaint filed against the ophthalmologist had violated no laws, rules or regulations governing the practice of optometry, nor was there any departure from the acceptable standards of care. 1991 senator ezzell who had become the chief advocate of ophthalmology's position in the legislature was killed in an automobile accident in raleigh shortly after the beginning of the 1991 session. it was anticipated that he was prepared to once again introduce legislation similar, if not identical, to the bill he had introduced in 1989. in may, representative ed nye introduced house bill997 which would establish both peer review for optometrists and optometrist's privilege. the bill languished in committee until it died because of lack of action during the 1992 session. 1992 -at its planning meeting, the society's executive council discusses the issues surrounding peer review and privilege with an eye towards having the bill reintroduced in the 1993 session. there were communications between the board and the society relative to the problems at the department of human resources with the acceptance of the cpt codes that were in effect at medicare. a revised list of codes was submitted to the board on behalf of the society by its third party committee. at its meeting in november, the board approved and forwarded to the society, those codes that were determined to be within the scope of optometry. a number of the codes approved were dependent upon the fact that the optometrist billing the code was qualified by training and experience to perform the procedure; and further, that any special instrumentation hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 126 and/or facilities necessary are available and that physician consultation as might be required are available and properly documented in the patient record. 1993 the executive council unanimously approves the previously introduced peer review bill that included patient privilege as the number one legislative priority in the 1993 session of the general assembly. hb 987 is introduced by rep. ed nye on april 19, 1993, passed the house with minor amendments and was sent over to the senate on 7/24/93 where it can be acted upon during the 1994 session. a number of other bills dealing with health care reform or that in some way affect optometry were also introduced. some were enacted into law while others were held over until the 1994 session. if optometry's current legislative efforts that began with the 1993 session continue to be successful in the 1994 session, the profession will have continued to move forward in positive fashion and will be well positioned in the health care reform efforts at the state level. in that fall of 1993, negotiations between the society and the department of human resources resulted in the acceptance of the cpt codes approved by the board. in november of 1993, these codes were published in the medicaid monthly bulletin. in december of 1993 there was a tremendous uproar from ophthalmologists. both the ophthalmologic and medical society news letters have devoted the most recent mailings to this issue. on december 21, the board of optometry was asked by attorneys for the nc society of ophthalmology to furnish them with copies of all documents in the possession of the board that related to the board's approval of the codes that were published in the november medicaid bulletin. in conjunction with the first executive council meeting following the spring meeting, the president of the society called a meeting of a "special committee" with a broad representation of the society including some past presidents and others who have played recent leadership roles in the society with the goal of identifying and prioritizing those issues that must be addressed by the society both legislatively and educationally over the remainder of this decade. this committee met for a second time in november at the fall meeting in asheville. 1994 on february 2 and 3, 1994 the president along with a small team travel over the state bringing together all of the officers, trustees, district presidents, committee chairmen and committee members, and the past presidents of the state society as well as the entire membership of the society to lay out the plans for optometry's future in north carolina as we approach the 21 s century. the north carolina medical society, having received a declaratory ruling from the board of medical examiners concerning the use of some 150 cpt codes accepted for billing by optometrists by the north carolina department of human resources in hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 127 their administration of the medicaid program requests a declaratory ruling by the board of optometry relative to these same codes. the board of optometry issues a declaratory ruling affirming the use of most of the codes at issue as being within the scope of optometry. the medical society is successful in getting a temporary restraining order that prohibits the department of human resources from paying for those procedures represented by the codes at issue. the board of medical examiners joins the medical society in the law suit and the north carolina state optometric society joins the suit on behalf of the board. in march, judge barnett of the wake county superior court issues a temporary injunction that prevents optometrists from performing any of the procedures at issue pending a final ruling by the court. both sides proceed to file briefs and the board of optometry and the society file appeals with the court of appeals. negotiations get under way between attorneys for both sides in an effort to settle the matter. in june an agreement is reached and the injunction is dissolved leaving optometrists free to perform "core" procedures such as foreign body removal and irrigation of the lacrimal system with or without puncta i plugs as procedures authorized to optometrists by the board prior to the filing of the law suit and the issuing of the temporary injunction. settlement of the remaining codes was not reached; however, the injunction denying their use by optometrists was dissolved. in july the peer-review and patient privilege bill that had passed the house during the 1993 session of the legislature, dies in a senate committee with the adjournment of the 1994 short session. during the last weekend in august there is a joint meeting between the elected officers and trustees of the society and the state board. while there were no official minutes or reports coming form this meeting there was a consensus from each reporting group that concerted efforts were made to define the quality and availability of continuing education available to practicing optometrists in north carolina in light of expanding scope of practice and new technologies. the legislative goals previously set forth by the amplification committee and reported to the society served as the template for most of the discussions. at the november meeting of the executive council, prior to adjournment, there was another review of the legislative goals for the upcoming session of the general assembly. without a single dissenting vote the council supported its previous decision to move ahead. the fact that there was a republican sweep in the recent elections and the fact that they would control the house of representatives for the first time in this hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 128 century was not seen as an obstacle because of the grass root efforts of optometrists over the state. dr. james black moves from being the majority whip to the minority leader in the house of representatives for the 1995 session. 1995 -on january 30, representative mike wilkins (d) from roxboro introduced the house bill 50 entitled "an act to enhance the role of optometrists in medical cost containment through revision of the hospital privileges law, to repeal the requirement for an optometrist to collaborate with a physician in the use or prescription of certain pharmaceutical agents, to establish peer review for optometrists, and to establish an optometrist privilege." representative wilkins was joined in the introduction of this bill by 18 of his fellow legislators. the bill was referred to the rules committee where it will remain until it is referred to another house committee, most likely to the insurance committee. evidence of medical opposition begins to mount. correspondence over the signature of scott bowers, m.d. as legislative chairman of the north carolina society of ophthalmology alleges that there are "hundreds" of cases of mismanagement by optometrists some leading to patient harm that have been documented by physicians. the degree of medical opposition is greater than anticipated, especially as witnessed by the large role apparently being played by the medical society. on march 7, house bill 50 is finally moved from the house rules committee to the judiciary 1 committee of the house for hearing. a hearing is tentatively scheduled on tuesday, march 21. on march 14, the executive council meets and reaffirms the society's commitment to the wording of the bill without any substantive amendments. on april 20, house bill 50 passes the judiciary 1 committee of the house by a vote of 12 to 7 and is returned to the house rules committee for calendaring. the chairman of the house rules committee, rep. morgan with the support of the speaker and a number of the republican leadership holds the bill until the adjournment of the 1995 session. the bill dies. april 3, 1995, senate bill 573 is introduced and is identical to house. bill 50 which is languishing in the house rules committee. on april 13 the bill passes the senate health committee without amendments by a vote of 13 to 6. on april 17 it passed the senate by a vote of 40 to 6 and is sent to the house where it was sent to the house rules committee. it was sent to judiciary 1 where it passed by the same vote as did house bill 50 some weeks earlier. it was returned to the house rules committee where rep. morgan held it until the 1995 session adjourned. since it was a senate bill and having passed on house, senate bill 573 was held over until the 1996 short session. 1996 -february 1996 until july 1996, rep. morgan, again with the support of speaker brubaker and most of the republican leadership held the bill in his committee and it died with the adjournment of the 1996 session. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 129 1997 early in the 1997 session with the republicans still in the majority in the house of representatives, representative larry justice, a republican, introduced hb 527 which: 1. removed the "communication and calibration" clause from the gs 90-114. the removal of this language allowed optometrists who were certified to use and prescribe pharmaceutical agents in the practice of optometry to use and prescribe any medication, including systemic medications, to "correct, relieve or treat defects or abnormal conditions of the human eye or its adnexa." 2. recognized optometrists along with physicians, dentists, and podiatrists as independent practitioners to whom a hospital might grant privileges within their education, training, experience and demonstrated competence. 3. recognized the authority of the board to enter into agreements with the society for the purposes of peer review activities. 4. established "optometrist/patient privilege" and protects communications between optometrists and their patients in a manner similar to physicians, psychologists, lawyers, ministers and a number of other professions. the bill cleared the judiciary committee by a comfortable majority and, thanks to the work of the society leadership and the optometrists across the state during the election cycle between the 1996 and 1997 sessions the bill was calendared by the republican leadership in the house for a vote this time around. it passed the house overwhelmingly and was sent to the senate. in the senate there was an attempt to amend the bill in committee with a minor amendment. this was an attempt to "slow the bill down", since any amendment would require that the bill be returned to the house for concurrence. the amendment attempt failed, the committee reported the bill out with a favorable report and it went on to the senate floor for a vote where it passed overwhelmingly. governor hunt signed it into law on may 22, 1997. 1999 -the democrats once again in a majority in the house of representatives. by a margin of only one vote, dr. jim black was elected speaker. this narrow margin resulted from an attempt by the republican minority to forge a coalition between themselves and the "black caucus" to elect former speaker, dan blue, speaker. a bill that would allow "any willing provider'' to participate as a provider on any managed care panel was debated a length in committee before finally being reported to the house where it passed comfortably, despite intense lobbying by the insurance industry. in the senate it remained "locked" in committee until the end of the session; however, because it had passed house before the adjournment, the house and senate rules allow the bill to be carried over to the "short session" which convenes in may of 2000. in february a meeting was held between the board of optometry and representatives of the medical board to review with them the education of optometrists, including the clinical training in the use of injections. course outlines of the curriculum hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 130 at the southern college of optometry were given the representatives of the medical board by a faculty member of the college who taught some of the courses in the outlined in the notebooks that were provided. as course director for the clinical portions that including training in performing injections she went into great detail of the training provided and the safety of the procedures as they were performed in the state of tennessee for a period of nearly five years. 2000 -the managed care bill providing for "any willing provider'' in eye care remained in the senate committee where it died with the adjournment of the 2000 session. the representatives of the board of optometry and the state optometric society met with the medical board and representatives of the society of eye physicians and surgeons to discuss the amending of the earlier cpt code agreement to include a number of injection codes that could be performed by properly trained and licensed optometrists. at its june 2000 meeting the medical board voted to amend the agreement to include the cpt codes under discussion. two months later, however, following a storm of protest from the state medical society and the society of eye physicians and surgeons, the board rescinded its previous action and formed to a joint collaborative committee with representatives from the medical board, the optometry board, the optometric society and the society of eye physicians and surgeons to study the matter further and to recommend criteria for certifying optometrists to do the procedures in question. following a series of meetings over a period of a year with talks going nowhere, the committee was dissolved. 2001 -dr. black is re-elected as speaker of the house, this time without the fight that occurred in 1999 (differences were worked out prior to the opening of the session); however, his democratic majority was slim. a managed care bill similar to the one introduced in 1999 was introduced, passed the house by a comfortable margin and is currently in a senate committee where it is being held, a situation similar to that occurring in the 1999-2000 sessions. after a number of meetings the committee of the optometry and medical board and the two societies was disbanded, unable to reach any agreement on the cpt codes in question. at its july 2001 meeting, the board of optometry unanimously passed a resolution that in its opinion the cpt codes that included the use of injections by properly trained and licensed optometrists were within the lawful scope of the practice of optometry, and that the board intended to proceed to establish educational and training criteria for certifying optometrists to perform the procedures in question. a copy of the board's resolution was forwarded to the medical board immediately following its passage. upon receipt, the medical board notified that it would be placed on the agenda of their august 2001 meeting for consideration. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 131 2002 -at its meeting in march the board approves the southern college of optometry in memphis, tn as the provider of an injections course that includes a "wet lab" and final examination as the sole provider of a course that when successfully completed would qualify a north carolina licensed optometrist to be credentialed to perform injections in the treatment of chalazia. in june the first 20 optometrists to become eligible for credentialing in the performance of injections in the treatment of chalazia successfully completed the course given by the faculty of southern college of optometry. a series of memoranda from the board concerning its plans for the credentialing of optometrists to perform injections were mailed to all licensees announcing the requirements and plans for the state society's offering of additional courses by the southern college of optometry to be given at its fall meeting in asheville in november. in late october the president of the board received a letter from the president of the medical board that the medical board may consider injections by optometrists as the unauthorized practice of medicine and may pursue legal remedies to prevent them from doing so. at its november meeting the board postponed further action on credentialing its licensees until it could consult with its attorney. in december, prior to the time the board could reconvene its meeting to consult with its attorney, the medical board's policy committee announced that the issue of optometrists performing injections would be on its december agenda. at this meeting the committee voted unanimously to authorize its attorney to attempt to arrive at an agreement whereby the matter of "injections being performed by optometrists" could be put before a proper court for a ruling as to whether such procedures would be considered the unauthorized practice of medicine. the board of optometry will meet in early january, 2003 to confer with its attorney as to how it should proceed. 2003 after a number of votes by the house of representatives that resulted in the lack of a majority vote for speaker, dr. black, a democrat, is elected as "co-speaker" with representative richard morgan, a republican who had served as speaker when the republicans controlled the house. in november the state board of optometry filed a lawsuit against the state board of medicine in the wake county superior court over the rights of the board of optometry to credential properly trained and experienced optometrist to perform injection procedures so long as such procedures were for the purpose of "diagnosing, treating or managing conditions of the eye and its adnexa". 2004 in november, a year after the filing of the lawsuit, the north carolina society of eye physicians and surgeons (seps) files a petition with the court to intervene in the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 132 lawsuit. the petition was denied by the court and seps appealed this decision by the superior court to the north carolina court of appeals. seps files a request for a declaratory ruling with the medical board concerning the identical injection procedures that are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the board of optometry against the medical board. the board of optometry asks the court for an injunction to prevent the medical board from proceeding with the issuing of a declaratory ruling on a matter properly before court. the court issues a restraining order whereby the medical board could conduct hearings but could not issue a declaratory ruling so long as the matters at issue were before court. the medical board files a motion to appeal the decision to the north carolina court of appeals. 2005dr. black, with the democrats in the majority, was elected as speaker. in january a mediation hearing as required by the court was conducted with representatives of the optometry and medical boards present. after some 4 or 5 hours of negotiations it was determined by the mediator that the parties were unable to reconcile their differences and the mediation was ended. on february 16 the medical board conducts the first two hearings on the request for a declaratory ruling by seps. at this hearing (except for remarks made by the optometry board's attorney toward the end when asked if he had any comments) only those representing seps offered testimony. on march 18 at the second hearing the board president and the executive director testified on behalf of the board of optometry. also offering testimony on behalf of the optometry board were dr. joan miller from oregon and dr. dennis matthews from tennessee who testified on the performance of the procedures by properly trained and licensed optometrists in their respective states without incidence over a period of years. several others appeared to speak on behalf of seps. in late june or early july word reached the board of optometry from the medical board that there were now positive indications that the injection issues could be resolved between the two boards. a request for a second mediation conference based upon the appeals at the north carolina court of appeals was received. on july 27 the second mediation conference was held. following nearly 12 hours of negotiations between representatives of the medical board and the board of optometry a memo of settlement drawn by the mediator with the two parties participating was signed by the presidents of each of the boards. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 133 at its meeting on july 29 the board of optometry unanimously agreed to approve the memo of settlement and authorized its attorney to proceed to work with the attorneys for the medical board in order to draft a settlement agreement for signature by the presidents of the board of optometry and the medical board on behalf of their respective boards. the following week word was received that the medical board had voted at a specially called meeting to approve the settlement agreement and to authorize their president to sign it the medical boards behalf. on saturday, august 13, 2005 the presidents of the two boards signed the settlement agreement agreeing to the use of three injection procedures by properly trained and credentialed optometrists. in return the board of optometry will seek dismissal of its lawsuit against the medical board. the injection procedures agreed to are for treatment of chalazia, periocular injections except for the purpose of cosmesis and excluding injections into the extra-ocular muscles, and to perform flourescein angiography. further, this agreement between the two licensing boards supersedes the 1998 agreement as amended going forward. on wednesday, august 17, the optometry board dismissed its lawsuit against the medical board. on friday, august 19 the medical board and the north carolina medical society filed motions with the court to dismiss their appeals, thus ending the litigation. however, at the time the medical board dismissed its appeal, seps refused to dismiss theirs. after weeks of negotiations seps did file a dismissal and this lawsuit ended. the main issue, however, did not go away. seps then filed suit to have the medical board respond to their request for a declaratory ruling, such request having been the subject of two separate hearings held by the medical board in february and march of this year. in accordance with the agreement the optometry board appointed a committee to draft recommendations for credentialing properly licensed and trained optometrists to perform the injections that were agreed to. before the committee could began its work it awaited the medical board's confirmation of its appointment of an ophthalmologist as a member. during the week of august 7 the 2005 2006 appropriations bill passed both the house and the senate who sent it to the governor for his signature. over the weekend the governor signed the bill. including in this act was a provision that created the "governor's childhood vision care commission". this legislation required that beginning with the start of the 2006 school year every child entering kindergarten will have to have submitted on their behalf evidence that they have had a comprehensive eye examination by either an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. in november the injections protocol committee began its work, two members of the optometry board and a designee of the medical board meeting with the executive directors of the two boards to draft protocols to be submitted to the board of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 134 on december 1 , 2005 the committee issues its report which included recommended protocols for the credentialing of optometrists who met the criteria as set forth in the recommendations of the committee. on december 12, 2005 at a specially called meeting the board accepted the committee's report and voted unanimously to adopt the protocols recommended by the committee for the credentialing of optometrists who met the criteria to perform injections in accordance with the terms of the agreement. on december 27, 2005 the board sent letters notifying some 50 optometrists that they had been credentialed to perform chalazia and peri-ocular injections effective on january 1 , 2006 (some 8 weeks later another 20 optometrists were notified that they were being credentialed effective march 1, 2006) 2005 has been a great year for the optometric profession in north carolina. 2006 some years ago the then attorney for the board, edgar (red) gurganous, (who represented both the board and the society for nearly 20 years) remarked that if we (optometrists) did not have a crisis, we would create one. 2006 starts off with a bang. early on news began to spread about pending investigations into political fund raising, particularly by the speaker of the house, dr. jim black, and monies that was raised among his optometric colleagues through the optometry pac. in late january i early february, 20 or more optometrists were served subpoenas, some by two different agents one state and one federal -to appear before the state board of elections and/or a federal grand jury in raleigh. the agents had in their possession copies of checks written by the optometrists to the optometry pac and/or candidates for the state legislature. many of their checks had the 'payee's name' and the date in a hand writing different from that of the person filling in the amount of the check and the signature. the speaker of the house and the secretary/treasurer of the optometry pac also received subpoenas. the north carolina optometric society provided legal representation for all those of its members who were subpoenaed to appear before the federal grand jury and/or the state board of elections in their investigations of monies these optometrists donated to or through the optometry pac in support of the profession's legislative initiatives. the expense to the society ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. in identical letters of some eight pages in length dated january 25, 2006, the attorney for the state board and the board's executive director were asked by matthew w. sawchak of the ellis & winters law firm to furnish thousands of documents in the board's possession dating back some 12 or more years dealing with the injections lawsuit and other matters pertaining to optometry's scope of practice. the request was made under the provisions of the north carolina public records laws, and while the request was made on behalf of mr. r.l. adams, another attorney, there was little doubt hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 135 that the records were going to be used as a source of information by the north carolina society of eye physicians and surgeons (seps) and the american academy of ophthalmology for informational purposes in an attempt to seek a reversal of optometry's scope of practice as represented in the agreement reached with the medical board in august 2005. it should be noted here that the medical board received an almost identical request for records. an attorney working for american academy of ophthalmology in their washington office began attending meetings of the north carolina state optometry board on a regular basis. at each meeting he was provided with all the documents provided the board members with the exception of those relating to the scoring of the board's clinicai/practicum examinations. at one meeting he was provided with a copy of one of his own memos to the north carolina society of eye physicians and surgeons (seps) asking for documentation of 'optometric mismanagement'. when asked at a later meeting about the number of cases he had received his reply was "none". 2007 north carolina association of school boards had announced their opposition to the "governor's childhood vision care commission" requiring mandatory comprehensive eye examinations for all children entering kindergarten or first grade. others including the nc society for the prevention of blindness (active in doing school vision screenings), nc society of pediatricians, etc. also expressed opposition. the society of ophthalmology mainly sat on the sidelines. others 'wrecked' the mandatory comprehensive eye examination law (which never went into effect because the 'commission' appointees were late in receiving their appointments and the protocols were never formally adopted). in short the provision in the 2005-2007 appropriations act, the "governor's childhood vision care commission", was quickly repealed and an 'enhanced' school vision program was instituted in its stead. dr. black gives up the race for speaker, later resigning his seat in the legislature and is indicted on charges of bribery by a federal grand jury. he was also indicted by the state. on february 20, 2007 he entered a plea to bribery in the federal district court and was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison. he was sent from raleigh, nc to the lewisburg, pa to serve the sentence in the federal prison located there. shortly after appearing in federal court he pled guilty to similar charges in state court. on the state charges he was given a fine of one million dollars and (at the time of this writing) awaits sentencing following payment of the fine. if the fine is paid then his state sentence could run concurrent with that imposed by the federal court. dr. scott edwards who served many years as the legislative chairman of the nc state optometric society and as treasurer of the optometry pac was indicted on chargers of perjury in wake county during this same period. at trial in a plea bargaining to avoid the uncertainty of what a jury might find as well as the cost of what could be a lengthy trial (and an appeal if he were to be found guilty) he plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and received a 6 month suspended sentence and a 'restitution' payment of court cost and ten thousand dollars to the state board of elections to cover their costs of investigation. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 136 2007 was not a good year for optometry in north carolina. at the state board's fall meeting there was no representative from the american academy of ophthalmology present. perhaps it was because they realized that there were no deep dark secrets being held among the members of the board of optometry. 2008 north carolina optometry begins the process of mending its 'political fences'. the short session of the legislature is upon us and rumor has it that seps has in mind the 'resurrection' of a bill defining surgery previously introduced in the senate in the 2007 session that was never heard, therefore not eligible under the rules to be considered in the short session. this being said there is a possibility (though remote and requiring a large majority of votes to accomplish) it could be attached to another bill moving through the senate as a part of that bill. could it happen? the answer is yes though very unlikely. optometry in nc learned years ago that the 'price of freedom is eternal vigilance', so a very close eye will be kept on the activities of the legislature over the session which should end by mid july. then comes the elections in november: a new president, a new us congress, a new governor and a new nc legislature. aweek following aoa's seattle meeting seps's plan to amend the nc optometry act was a 'plan in motion' in the nc senate. discovery of the plan made it possible at the last minute to prevent the effort from going forward. two weeks later the general assembly adjourned. now the society looks to the convening of the 2009 session. in the meantime a lot of work lay ahead of the north carolina state optometric society's membership to ensure their practice act remains 'intact', free from restrictions that would be imposed upon them and the patients they care for. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 137 recent booklets and video of historical interest david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract this article discusses two booklets and a dvd published in 2008. one is a booklet published in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry. another booklet, published by the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club, is entitled restoring ophthalmic antiques. the dvd contains an interview of donald getz, an optometrist noted for his work in vision therapy and binocular vision. a booklet commemorating the 1 oath anniversary of the international library, archives, and museum of optometry (ilamo) celebrates and discusses its past, present, and future. the origins of ilamo date back to 1908 when the scientific section of the american association of opticians (later known as the american optometric association) established a circulating library. the booklet recognizes four persons as "ilamo champions" on page 5. ernest kiekenapp served as american optometric association (aoa) secretary for 35 years, starting in 1922. the aoa's library resided in kiekenapp's office in minnesota from 1923 to about 1953. e. leroy ryer served optometry in many ways, including being history consultant to the aoa library and to the aoa history committee. ryer "donated his library, private papers, museum objects, some of his own inventions, patents, awards, and memorabilia to ilamo." joseph m. babcock was 3rd vice-president of the aoa from 1942 to 1957 and director of the department of national affairs from 1942 to 1960. c.m. jenkins was the aoa's first librarian and was aoa treasurer from 1913 to 1928. the ilamo library is named for kiekenapp, the archives for babcock, and the museum for ryer. a timeline on pages 6 and 7 notes some of the moves of the aoa library, some changes in personnel, and various other events. the library was consolidated in st. louis in the 1950s and 1960s. maria dablemont was hired as full-time librarian in the mid 1960s. in 1972, the name international library, archives, and museum of optometry was assumed. in 1977-1978, ilamo was moved, along with the aoa headquarters, to 243 north lindbergh boulevard in st. louis, where it now resides. the timeline is supplemented with a historical narrative on pages 9-12. photographs and additional information on ilamo, interspersed with advertisements and congratulatory notes, fill the remainder of this 32 page magazine size booklet. the booklet is available free of charge by contacting ilamo (ilamo@aoa.org). hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 138 restoring ophthalmic antiques is the title of a small (22 mm x 15 mm) 48 page booklet written by ronald j.s. macgregor and published by the ophthalmic antiques international collectors club. the 2008 edition is a revision of a 1990 version. it offers recommendations for cleaning and repairing spectacles, frames, cases, and various other ophthalmic items, such as instruments and eyebaths. the book also contains some suggestions for identification of lens and frame materials. there are color photographs on the front and back covers, but the booklet. contains no other illustrations. the isbn is 978-0-9519290-1-8. on page 4 of the booklet, macgregor noted that the material was "written from practical experience" and that "a certain amount of skill and much common sense are required for this work. if you have a good pair of hands there are many happy hours to be had repairing and restoring your ophthalmic antiques." copies of the booklet can be obtained for 7.50 pounds plus postage from macgregor at: 17 corsehill drive, west kilbride, ayrshire, uk ka23 9hu. in 2008, the optometric extension program (oep) presented a video on dvd of an interview of donald j. getz, o.d. the interview took place in 2006, and was conducted by paul harris, o.d., oep director of education. this video is to be the first installment in the oep heritage series. don getz was born in 1931. after three years at ucla, he entered the los angeles college of optometry, graduating in 1954. getz is a fellow of the american academy of optometry and a fellow of the college of optometrists in vision development. he published a manual on strabismus and amblyopia in 197 4, with a revised edition appearing in 1990. getz is noted for his successful vision therapy practice and for his entertaining and informative lectures on strabismus, sports vision, and other topics. during the interview, getz mentioned that he started at ucla as an accounting major, planning to follow his brother into accounting practice. not finding accounting to his liking, he looked at other professions and settled on optometry. his minor at ucla was public speaking, which may explain his skill in presenting optometry lectures. after optometry school, getz went into the united states navy. he stated that he was the first commissioned optometry officer in the navy. after naval service, he worked part-time in a practice with max schapero, who taught orthoptics at los angeles college of optometry. he also worked part-time at kaiser permanente. after a short period of time, getz started his own private practice. getz stated that he was interested in vision therapy from optometry school. he got heavily into strabismus work after one of his children developed strabismus after a high fever. he proceeded to read every article on strabismus that he could find and developed a protocol for strabismus treatment. he successfully treated his child, who went on to become an optometrist herself. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 139 getz said that he purchased the practice of george crow, who was an important influence on him. he mentioned that the greatest influence on him was louis jaques. in the late 1970s, getz started having optometry students spend extended periods of time in his office during summers on an informal basis. the interviewer, paul harris, was one of the first two students to take advantage of this opportunity. harris mentioned during the interview that the experience had a significant impact on his career path. later getz had student externs in his office as part of their formal clinical rotation requirement. during the interview getz also discussed his work with the college of optometrists in vision development. he was one of the co-founders, was one of the presidents of the organization, and for about 25 years was program chairman for the annual meeting. the recorded interview lasts about 48 minutes. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 140 recent dissertation on the history of spectacles jonathan erlen, ph.d. medical historian, history of medicine collections, falk medical library, school of medicine, university of pittsburgh, 200 scaife hall, pittsburgh, pa 15261, erlen+@pitt.edu an ongoing search of recent doctoral dissertation literature to find works in the medical humanities uncovered the following item on the history of eyeglasses in the united states. reading glasses: american spectacles in the age of franklin. stebbins mccaffrey, katherine. proquest dissertations and theses 2007. section 0017, part 0323, 425 pages; [ph.d. dissertation].united states­ -massachusetts: boston university; 2007. publication number: aat 3279965. abstract (summary) reading glasses argues that spectacles played a critical role in shaping ideas about vision in the american colonies over the course of the eighteenth century. chapter two explores the tension between changing expectations for visual aids in seventeenth-century england and the attitudes of puritans who owned some of the few spectacles available in the early colonies. chapters three and four trace the emergence of a new style, called temple spectacles, made after the 1720s and sold in the colonies by the 17 40s, which allowed wearers--both the seriously afflicted and the merely curious--to try on an enlightenment perspective. this perspective, the makers argued, simulated the privacy, interiority, and security of viewpoint that inhered in the camera obscura while freeing the hands to assist the eyes in collecting and documenting information. drawing on probate inventories, account books, advertisements, correspondence, literature, medical and philosophical treatises, paintings, and engravings, and organized around the timeline suggested by extant artifacts, reading glasses documents how american colonists bought temple spectacles, as technologically restyled and materially refined by the english spectacle guild, to express and enable their devotion to reading, writing, account and other record keeping. both practically and metaphorically, these spectacles helped to shape understandings of what it meant to be a spectator/speculator in a bourgeois public sphere, and reoriented the body in relation to pages and persons alike. chapter five explores how this new awareness of binocularity informed the texts and visions that constituted a functional body politic and a healthy nation in the emerging united states. at the same time that observers became accustomed to a relatively powerful, individuated sense of sight by spectacle frames, they were challenged by conventions in the use of lenses to think about the coordination of their eyes. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number4, page 141 reading glasses demonstrates that temple spectacles formed a tangible link between enlightenment understandings of vision and the binocular, bounded, embodied concept of vision symbolized by the stereoscope and other nineteenth century visual technologies. indexing (document details) advisor: sewell, jessica school: boston university school location: united states-massachusetts keyword(s): reading glasses, spectacles, vision, eye care, material culture source: dai-a 68/08, feb 2008 source type: dissertation subjects: american studies, american history, ophthalmology publication number: aa t 3279965 isbn: 9780549212409 hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 142 book review: the use of eyeglasses, by benito daza de valdes the use of eyeglasses (1623). benito daza de valdes. edited by paul e. runge. oostende, belgium: j.p. wayenborgh, 2004. viii+ 281 pages. hardcover, $180. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu this book contains an english translation of the 1623 book uso de los antojos (the use of eyeglasses), by benito daza de valdes, plus supplementary material. the book by daza de valdes is the first known book presenting the rudiments of optometric analysis. this is the first english translation from the spanish to be published. a previous english translation by pikasa, arista, and hofstetter was deposited in manuscript form at the international library, archives, and museum of optometry, but never published.1 the supplementary material makes up more than half of the pages of this book. included in this material is a translation of the commentary on the daza de valdes book by manuel marquez which formed a prologue to a 1923 spanish republication of the 1623 work. this commentary provides some historical background for the book and makes some comments on its content. it also contains these comments about daza de valdes: "the only sure facts about daza are those found in the inscription around his picture in the engraving located after the title page in this edition (and immediately after the prolog in his original text). these facts are that he was a clerk of the holy inquisition when he wrote the book in 1623, that he was thirty-two years old, and was born in cordova, which means that he came into this world in 1591. however, our efforts to find his baptismal registration and other data in his native city have been in vain." (page 38) the translation of the use of eyeglasses by daza de valdes is found on pages 51 to 178 of this book. after a dedicatory statement and poem and a pro log to the reader, it consists of three parts: book 1: the nature and properties of eyes (pages 71 to 93); book ii: using eyeglasses to correct vision (pages 97 to 118); and book ill: the dialogs (pages 121 to 178). daza identified five categories of vision defects which can be treated with spectacles. his names for these categories (with what we would call them today in parentheses) are as follows: (1) "blurred or weak vision in old people" (presbyopia), (2) "natural nearsightedness of the young" (myopia), (3) "unaccustomed vision" (refractive amblyopia), (4) "uneven vision" (anisometropia, unequal refractive errors in the two eyes), (5) "opposite vision" (mixed anisometropia or antimetropia, hyperopia in one eye and myopia in the other eye). (page 79) daza said the following about presbyopia: "of all types of imperfect vision and these are innumerable -the most common and most hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 143 prevalent is blurred vision, which is created by aging. therefore, this affliction is found in almost all people of advanced years. blurred vision is first noticed when one is forty years oldfifty at the latest." (page 81) daza was aware of the phenomenon, known by optometrists today, that nearsighted children most often don't know that they have a vision problem until they find out that their friends can see better than they. a common situation today is that nearsighted children notice that classmates can read the blackboard better than they can. daza explained this as follows: "every day we encounter children who learn to read and write well, but whose vision deficiency frequently goes unnoticed. upon reaching the age of reason, however, these young people with deficient vision discover their lack themselves. they do so by measuring and comparing their vision with that of others who have perfect vision. it is then that they realize that their vision is short because they cannot see far away as well as others." (page 83) daza said that the types of eyeglass lenses were convex, concave, and conservative, known today as plus, minus, and plano lenses, respectively. daza used a unit of lens power based on a spanish measure of linear distance, the vara. one vara is equal to about 0.835 meters. daza's lens power unit, the grado, translated in the book as degree, is a reciprocal vara. today's diopter (d) being a reciprocal meter, daza's grado or degree would be equal to about 1.20 d. there are methods described in daza's book for the determination of lens power. for plus lenses, there are two circles, a larger one labeled x and a smaller one labeled q. circle q is viewed through the plus lens and the lens is moved toward and away from circle q until the two circles are the same size. the distance of the lens from the chart containing the circles is noted on a scale which gives the power of the lens in grados or degrees. there are two similar charts for determination of minus lens power (one for minus up to ten degrees and one for minus over ten degrees), with the minus lens held over the larger of the two circles on each of the charts. there is an additional chart which was used to mark the punctum remotum of a person with myopia. the location of the punctum remotum could then be converted into the number of degrees of needed lens power. the chart covered 5 to 30 degrees. there are also recommendations for how to order lens power in absentia according to age and gender. it may be noted that the powers recommended by daza are much greater than we would think appropriate for nearpoint plus adds for presbyopes today. for men, the recommended lens recommendations are: ages 30 to 40 years, two degrees (about 2.4 d); 40 to 50, two and a half degrees (about 3.0 d); 50 to 60, three degrees (3.6 d); 60 to 70, three and a half degrees (4.2 d); 70 to 80, four degrees (4.8 d); and over 80, five degrees, six maximum (6.0 to 7.2 d). for women, ages 30 to 35, four degrees (about 4.8 d); ages 35 to 40, five degrees (6.0 d); 40 to 45, six degrees (7.2 d); 50 to 60, eight degrees (9.6 d); and over 60, nine degrees, ten maximum ( 10.8 to 12.0 d). (pages 117, 118) perhaps the different lens powers for men and women that daza recommended reflected his views concerning gender differences hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 144 in visual needs, as later he talked about the vision of women becoming weak due to needlework. (page 164) after presenting the above and other information on the nature of vision and lenses, daza presented a series of dialogs in which an optometrist (maestro) holds illustrative consultations with patients with various vision problems. the consultations are also attended by a "doctor." the doctor seems to have a more scholarly background. the maestro and the doctor show mutual admiration toward each other, often supporting statements made by the other. in one of these dialogs, the optometrist determines the power of presbyopic lenses for a given patient by using the ranges of clear vision with lenses. the optometrist had the patient use lenses of two and a half degrees and stated to the patient: "move the book farther and closer away and tell me at what distance you see best with those eyeglasses. then i will know which glasses to give you." based on those measurements, the optometrist increases the power to three degrees, and being satisfied with the result with that power, reports to the patient: 'those are the glasses you need because you see the print as it is and you read it well and with ease at the distance where one usually puts a book." (page 128) the optometrist goes on to say that one should not wear lenses with any greater power than necessary. even though higher powers would make print appear larger, "too many degrees weaken the vision." (page 129) among the other information contained in the dialogs are recommendations about wearing only well made spectacles. for example, daza warned against lenses with unwanted cylinder power (at this time only spherical lenses were used): " ... raise the glasses over the print. twist them around and if the print is sometimes long and narrow and at other times short and wide, the lenses are badly ground." (page 167) following the translation there is more supplementary material, including tables showing the pages in the daza de valdes translation and in the marquez commentary where various topics can be found, black and white photographs of the copy of the original 1623 book found in the national library of medicine, and a facsimile reproduction of the original 1623 book with four pages of the original on each page of this book. also among the appendices to the book is a translation of the italian preface by giuseppe albertotti to the 1892 french edition of the daza de valdes book. the last appendices are black and white pictures of postage stamps issued by spain in 1966 honoring daza de valdes and a glossary. this book is attractively produced, and it provides us with a fascinating glimpse into seventeenth century optometry. reference 1. hofstetter hw. optometry of daza de valdes ( 1591-ca.1636), am j optom physiol opt 1988;65:354-357. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 145 book review: what is medical history? what is medical history? john c. burnham. cambridge, uk: polity press, 2005. viii+ 163 pages. isbn: 0-7456-3225-4. paperback, $19.95. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu according to the preface of this book, the author seeks "to explain what medical historians have done and are doing." this slim book is not a comprehensive tome on the academic study of medical history, but rather presents the author's theories on how medical history has been written, providing some examples along the way. the author notes that the first medical history writers were physicians who wrote about the classical teachings of hippocrates and galen. in the eighteenth century, medical history writing began to show the idea of progress and advancement of knowledge. starting in the nineteenth century, medical history still generally written by physicians, often served to praise innovators, portray medicine as an important contributor to civilization, or uphold the status of physicians against "non-medical practitioners or pretenders." it was in the twentieth century that persons trained as historians, not as physicians, began to enter the field of medical history. that resulted in greater emphasis on social and political aspects. one of the author's theories is that historians have often written about "the extent to which medical thinking shaped life." he presented this as opposing processes of "medicalization" and "demedicalization." medicalization involves efforts to increase the influence, control, recognition, and perceived importance of medicine. demedicalization represents the resistance to medicalization. most of the book deals with what the author sees as being the five dramas written about in medical history: (1) the healer, (2) the sick person, (3) diseases, (4) discovering and communicating knowledge, and (5) medicine and health interacting with society. the writing about healers could involve a number of themes, including physicians vs. naturalistic healing, development of professional medicine, medical organizations, ethics, struggle for recognition, philanthropy, and biography. the author discussed a variety of philosophical issues surrounding illness that have been written about in considering the patient as a sick person. likewise, disease has been written about in various ways, such as identifying what older names for diseases may represent, what diseases existed in antiquity, effects and nature of epidemics, significance of diseases that seem to have suddenly appeared or disappeared, social effects of various diseases, etc. writing about discovery and the communication of knowledge can include topics such as the discovery process, diffusion of information, tracing the development of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 146 ideas, and specialization. the author cautions that we may be able to better understand persons in the past when we realize that they didn't think as we do about disease or other aspects of life. topical areas falling within the author's interaction with society category include ways in which civilization causes disease, institutions peculiar to medicine, formal organizations of health care workers, institutions that provide medical care, social history, charitable care, medical economics, roles of government, moral lessons, and so on. the author suggests that there will always be a market for medical history. he stated that "as long as there are illnesses and healers, medical history will continue to provide context for the efforts of humans to deal with their ailments. practitioners of medicine will find reassurance in the timelessness of the healing enterprise and may also use history to soften the arrogance of any generation caught up in the excitement of knowledge and treatment. sufferers from biological invaders and from environmental toxins may also gain from finding out what scholars can tell about how people in the past coped with sickness and fatality." (page 140) although the author was writing about medical history, many of the principles discussed and all of the five "dramas" of medical history writing could apply as well to the writing of optometry history. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 147 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: bridget kowalczyk secretary-treasurer, optometric historical society american optometric association 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: __ regular membership, $25 per year __ patron membership, $50 per year __ lifetime membership, $250 checks should be made payable to the optometric historical society. name ________________________________________________________ _ address ______________________________________________________ __ a sample copy of hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by writing to the journal editor: david a. goss, hindsight editor, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu or can be viewed at www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/hindsightjan07.pdf. for more information on the optometric historical society, see: www.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html. institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... october, 2008, volume 39, number 4, page 148 2008-39-04-001 2008-39-04-002 2008-39-04-003 2008-39-04-004 2008-39-04-005 2008-39-04-006 2008-39-04-007 2008-39-04-008 2008-39-04-009 2008-39-04-010 2008-39-04-011 2008-39-04-012 2008-39-04-013 2008-39-04-014 2008-39-04-015 2008-39-04-016 2008-39-04-017 2008-39-04-018 2008-39-04-019 2008-39-04-020 2008-39-04-021 2008-39-04-022 2008-39-04-023 2008-39-04-024 2008-39-04-025 2008-39-04-026 2008-39-04-027 2008-39-04-028 2008-39-04-029 2008-39-04-030 2008-39-04-031 2008-39-04-032 2008-39-04-033 2008-39-04-034 2008-39-04-035 2008-39-04-036 2008-39-04-037 2008-39-04-038 2008-39-04-039 2008-39-04-040 2008-39-04-041 2008-39-04-042 2008-39-04-043 2008-39-04-044 2008-39-04-045 2008-39-04-046 hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bennett: heart disease 2016| page 148 about heart disease: a conversation with morey x. powell irving bennett, o.d. 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208 sarasota, fl 34238 irvbennett23@gmail.com eaders will have to be at least 75 years old to remember when heart disease, and heart attacks, were much more prevalent than they are today. and readers will have be at least that old to recall when the median amount of years that people lived was dramatically fewer than it is today. three-quarters of a century ago, the word "cholesterol" was not in the vocabulary of the average adult; and "breaking" cholesterol down into hdl and ldl, was totally off the radar screen of even many physicians. morey powell has a mind and a memory nearly as sharp as it was during his 70 years practicing optometry. in the late 1940s he was a leader among a relatively few professionals in health care who felt that there were hidden secrets in human blood that directly affected how people lived and how long they lived. dr. powell had his office in middletown, pa and was well respected in that community, not only by his peers but also by his patients and the community at large. wanting to be sure that he would not become a victim of heart disease like his father who died at age 42, dr. powell became addicted to learning more about how some folks get heart disease at an early age and others do not. he read medical literature that came from france and from italy. he became a disciple of dr. john gosman of the university of california in berkeley. he embraced the swedish swenberg index, dealing with arthrosclerosis. he made personal and thorough studies of fatty diets and fatty foods that he suspected might trigger higher cholesterol numbers, essentially in the hdls. in the 1950s, hardly any of the medical practitioners in mid-pennsylvania provided detailed blood analyses services like he needed. so he urged his friends to get blood samples and send them, via airmail, to a california lab for analysis. i say "via airmail" since that was not the mailing method of choice a half century ago. those friends included former aoa presidents mel wolfberg and al levin; pco faculty member harry kaplan; and me. he arranged for all of us to get samples of our blood and he sent those samples to california for examination and analysis. and from the results of our blood analyses he created diets for us to follow. remember, if you will, that this was in the early 1950s before dr. wolfberg, levin, kaplan and i were really active in optometric organizations. there were others. the diets dr. powell created were simple: low on fatty foods, moderate on carbohydrates, regular exercise, and absolutely no smoking. this is commonplace information that physicians give their patients today. but 60 years ago it was revolutionary. to put things into a proper perspective, those were the days long before cell phones were developed and it was commonplace to have party lines (that is, when more than one r mailto:irvbennett23@gmail.com hindsight: journal of optometry history, volume 47, number 4 bennett: heart disease 2016| page 149 family not living together shared one telephone line!) here is a little story about telephoning in those days as morey tells it: people did not dial or press keys to make a telephone call in my early practice days. instead, once you picked up the phone from its cradle, a female voice of an operator said 'number please' and the callers gave the numbers that they wished to call. there were no telephone messaging machines. it is hard to believe but when patients wanted to call my office and i was on vacation, the local telephone operator told callers that i was away and when i would be back. she recorded the names of the callers and gave me a list of those names when i returned! morey powell was athletic and he took chances with his life. he raced cars; he flew his own airplane; he parachuted; he played semi-pro baseball. he vowed that he might die young because of his activities, but he would not die young because he had a heart attack. although dr. wolfberg passed away a couple of years ago well into his 80s the other three of us levin, kaplan and i are still going strong. dr. powell had his 100th birthday earlier this year. although his passion was for general good health, he devoted much of his free time to his optometric involvement to association work. his activities included going through the chairs of the pennsylvania optometric association ending with being poa president. he also served as president of the alumni association of the pennsylvania state college of optometry. (putting the word "state" in the name of dr. powell's alma mater is no mistake; the college had "state" as part of its name until the early 1940s when it made an agreement to drop it to accommodate penn state university that complained about a conflict in the similarity of names. i wonder how many psco grads are still living today.) powell was active civically, too. and he was well known in his community. where else in these united states would you find a telephone operator to keep a record of calls for a vacationing doctor? i shall share a secret why: dr. morey powell was a gem and a conversation with him was and is a delightful experience. hindsight journal of optometry history april, 2012 volume 43, number 2 official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: ● to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, ● to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, ● to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, ● to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and ● to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society for 2011 (with years of expiration of their terms on the board in parentheses): president: irving bennett (2012), 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com vice-president: john f. amos (2015) secretary-treasurer: alden norm haffner (2014) trustees: jerry abrams (2013) arol augsburger (2013) jay m. enoch (2014) morton greenspoon (2015) chuck haine (2012) alfred rosenbloom (2015) the official publication of the optometric historical society, published quarterly since its beginning, was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history began in 2007 with volume 38, number 1. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the o an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. ohs website: www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/opthohiso.html hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 17 hindsight: journal of optometry history april, 2012 volume 43, number 2 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413, jmenoch@berkeley.edu irving bennett, 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com table of contents ohs news…………………………………………………………………………………….18 the incunabula of american optometry, michael j. aitken……………………………...19 1932 northern illinois college of optometry yearbook, david a. goss………………..25 a review of events leading to the development of modern optometry in the united states, rodney l. tahran and irvin m. borish…………………………………………….28 george w. knox and vincent j. ellerbrock: authors of light, vision and lenses, david a. goss………………………………………………………………………………………..35 addendum to william cain ruffin, m.d., and some history of the ruffin family as it pertains to the american civil war, jay m. enoch……………………………………….38 george h. giles, english optometrist, author, and administrator, david a. goss……40 book review: centennial issue of the north carolina state optometric society, david a. goss………………………………………………………………………………………..43 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. the cost of an institutional or library subscription is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the email or postal address above. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of submission. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will also be considered. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 18 ohs news dues notice for 2012 a dues notice is enclosed with this copy of hindsight. this volunteer organization greatly appreciates your support. the address and instructions for submitting your dues are included on the dues notice form. call for nominations to the executive board the terms of irving bennett and chuck haine on the ohs executive board will expire at the end of the 2012 calendar year. please use the enclosed form for nominations to the executive board. reminisce-in at american optometric association meeting the optometric historical society will meet at the annual meeting of the american optometric association in chicago on thursday, june 28, 2012, at 3:00 pm at mccormick place west in room w473. rather than a tribute to irv borish as originally planned, the reminisce-in meeting will be an open discussion on optometry history and ohs. ohs officers for 2012 as specified in the ohs by-laws, the members of the executive board have voted among themselves to elect officers for 2012. the officers and the board of trustees for the optometric historical society are listed with the years of expiration of their terms on the board in parenthesis. their email addresses are also provided. president: irving bennett (2012), 5551 dunrobin drive, #4208, sarasota, fl 34231, or 3307 seventh avenue, beaver falls, pa 15010, irvbennett23@gmail.com vice-president: john f. amos (2015), eyedoc@uab.edu secretary-treasurer: alden norm haffner (2014), anhaffner@msn.com trustees: jerry abrams (2013), abra2020@sbcglobal.net arol augsburger (2013), aaugsburger@ico.edu jay m. enoch (2014), jmenoch@berkeley.edu morton greenspoon (2015), drmort@mac.com chuck haine (2012), chaine@hainews.com alfred rosenbloom (2015), aarlvpro@sbcglobal.net hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 19 the incunabula of american optometry michael j aitken, l.o.sc. honorary archivist, kett museum and archive, australian college of optometry, melbourne, victoria, australia, aitkenmr@melbpc.org.au abstract only a very few american opticians (optometrists) wrote textbooks or manuals before the end of the 19th century. the important hand-book by william bohne has already been excellently covered by david goss but three others appear to have been largely unnoticed. these are manuals by walter alden, august morck and j w queen & co.: pioneer works that can be regarded as the incunabula or cradle of printing of optometric publishing in the united states. key words: opticians, optometrists, optometric forebears, incunabula. incunabula generally refers to books produced in the infancy of printing. the term derives from a latin word meaning ‘cradle’. nowadays it can be applied to the earliest printed work in any particular field. i want to write about some of the books belonging to the cradle of american optometric printing and publishing. david goss has inspired my interest with his erudite hindsight articles on the publications of some early english opticians. more recently the early american optometric writing of william bohne has been extensively reviewed by goss.1 hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 20 in his preface to the first edition of hand-book for opticians, new orleans, 1888,2 bohne says “there is nothing previously published about these subjects, as far as i know; and my little book may be the pioneer to open the road for other more able writers. all other trades have their literature; every other art has a hand-book of the secrets peculiar to its business; but the optical trade, as regards the mechanical part of it, has none whatever.” it seems that bohne did not know about several other writers of basic ‘optometric’ manuals. coincidentally, in the same year of 1888, there were two small manuals also published in the united states on this same subject. the first was by james w. queen and co.,5 and the second was by augustus morck.6 a much earlier and more comprehensive book was published by walter alden in 1866.7 all three of these books were addressed to the profession as well as the general public. bohne can be said to be the originator of the first american book specifically for opticians. the other authors used their publications to advertise their individual optical firms while simultaneously providing useful information for their colleagues. before this time there were, of course, books dealing with optometric material. many books on optics and ocular physiology had appeared very much earlier but these were written by scientists and medical practitioners. in general our optometric forebears were not highly educated and they were mostly incapable of writing the textbooks needed by our profession. there had been a few significant books written by english and european opticians from as early as the mid-18th century but it seems that nothing similar appeared in america or the rest of the world until very much later. we are fortunate in our kett museum and archive at the australian college of optometry to hold copies of three of these rare american books. i propose to review each in turn. quite early there appeared the substantial book of about 150 pages by walter alden, the human eye, its use and abuse, cincinnati, 1866.7 the book is selfpublished by the author who describes himself as an optician on the title page. in his preface alden says: “this work is presented for the acceptance and approval of the public…” perusal of just a few pages would indicate that his audience would need to have been an educated one. the early chapters dealt with the anatomy of the eye and accommodation. a chapter on myopia indicated that the condition is usually hereditary, and that it is more commonly seen in students and professional people, and less frequently in soldiers and sailors. he advised against monocles and recommended spectacles or nose-glasses (pince-nez). myopes were advised to see an oculist or optician rather than buy glasses from a peddler. presbyopia and hypermetropia were given separate chapters and we are reminded that donders had differentiated the two conditions only two years earlier. alden also noted the relationship between convergent strabismus and hypermetropia. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 21 cataract was discussed in detail. the slow onset with age was noted. the author also recognized the occurrence of cataract due to irradiation as experienced by blacksmiths and glassblowers. there is an interesting chapter on astigmatism. it seems that our 19th century optometrist believed it could all be just too difficult. on page 72, alden advised “all parties whose vision can not be corrected by the usual concave or convex glasses furnished by the optician, to consult with any oculist of good standing and experience, who will readily determine the character of the glasses to be worn, in order to render vision clear and distinct. and, as the cylindrical glasses are more generally imported from paetz & flohr, berlin, it may require eight or ten weeks after the examination before they can be had.” several chapters on spectacles then follow. the differences between the numbering systems for english and continental lenses were clarified. pebbles, isochromatic lenses and stenopaic spectacles were discussed. alden even commented on fashions in spectacles, pointing out that in eastern states oblong and octagonal shapes were preferred, while in the west and south only oval and pantascopic styles were wanted. the only bifocals available were the franklin-style and the french verres a foyer. the latter were essentially one-piece lenses where a basic reading lens was ground in the upper section to provide a weaker distance portion. neither of these bifocal types was regarded as satisfactory but half-eye glasses, also known as pulpit spectacles, were sometimes found to be useful. another option was a 4-lens device where side lenses could be swung into place behind the distance spectacle lenses when the reading correction was required. pince-nez, although sometimes worn by ‘fops’, were seen as convenient as also were lorgnettes. in general, alden advised that spectacles should only be procured from opticians and that the weakest focus giving perfect vision should always be selected. it is seen that alden was primarily addressing his book to the general public but i believe he also intended its use by fellow opticians. he widely quoted from medical and scientific textbooks, especially j. soelberg wells impaired vision, london, 1862,8 and also works by donders, helmholtz, von graefe and others. it is unlikely that the general public of that time would have wanted such detailed information. furthermore, alden included an addendum of 12 unnumbered pages, mostly advertising other optical businesses. whether intended or not, it is seen that his book would have been a very useful manual for the optician fraternity. at this stage we know very little about walter alden. an advertisement at the back of his book7 indicates that he was in practice with the long-established cincinnati optical firm of james foster, jr. & co. at that time (1866) cincinnati was a very important city, and, in fact the largest inland city in the united states. the james foster firm would have given alden good scientific grounding. as well as being opticians the company manufactured and supplied a wide range of mathematical and scientific instruments. in this way alden was inevitably exposed to the rigours of a more learned and disciplined society. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 22 we do know rather more about james w. queen. according to one source he was born in 1815 and he was listed as an optician in philadelphia in 1839.9 he had been trained by the famous mcallister optician family. the firm of james w queen & co. was established in philadelphia in the 1850s. in time the company grew to become a very large importer, manufacturer and supplier of all kinds of scientific goods, perhaps the largest in the united states. the ophthalmic department always remained a prime part of the business. the supply of prescription lenses was an essential activity and the firm may have been the first to widely manufacture cylindrical lenses in america.10 james queen retired in 1885 but three years later his company published how to fit glasses. this booklet was subtitled a manual for the use of opticians, jewelers, druggists etc. the introduction stated that “this manual is offered with the hope that it will enable those who follow its teachings to furnish their patrons with glasses suited to their needs.”5 the early chapters dealt with ophthalmic lenses and simple refraction techniques by way of test-types and trial-sets. the various refractive errors each were given a chapter with many illustrative cases discussed. the author declared that when frequent changes to spectacles were needed, or when pain or inflammation was apparent, then referral to an oculist was advisable. chapter 6 dealt with cylindrical lenses and astigmatism which was still seen as too complex for the ordinary optician. it was recommended that sufferers be sent to an oculist who could be expected to have more time than the busy optician! a tedious trial and error method was described. edward jackson had promoted his crossed cylinder technique at about this time but it was apparently unknown to the writer of how to fit glasses. various ways of producing bifocals were described. these included the preferred cement bifocals which i will come to when discussing the work of august morck. chapter 8 is titled frames, and how to fit them. there are clear diagrams differentiating spectacles and eyeglasses, and useful illustrations of the various components. there is also practical advice on the centering of lenses and the proper facial fitting of frames. pages 88 to 96 of queen’s booklet list various standard outfits for different levels of ophthalmic practice. druggists and jewelers in a small town may have needed only a modest range of ready-made spectacles. an optician in a city would be advised to have a trial-set, mirror retinoscope, test-types, astigmatic dial and physicians’ textbooks on refraction as well as a large stock of spectacles and lenses. an oculist could be supplied with an operating chair, surgical instruments, ophthalmometer, ophthalmoscope, perimeter, and interestingly, a range of frames and lenses. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 23 there are then two pages of distance and near test-types followed by 14 unnumbered pages of illustrated advertisements for optical and other products. it seems clear that queen’s manual was addressed primarily to opticians. although bohne first published his handbook for opticians in the same year (1888)2 and actually refers to james queen in the second and third editions, he does not appear to have known of queen’s book. the third book i wish to discuss is preservation and care of the human eye by august morck, jr.6 coincidentally this also was published in the same year as bohne’s first edition of 1888. by the time of his second edition3 of 1892, bohne is aware and actually willing to praise morck’s perfection bifocals but he does not mention morck’s book. we do not know in which order the 1888 books appeared. one might speculate that bohne, in his bold preface statement, wanted to take all the glory of being the first american author of an optician’s manual. it may be significant that in his third edition4 of 1895, bohne chose not to mention morck at all. august morck jr. was born in the small town of warren, pennsylvania in 1855.11 he was a younger brother of frederick morck who had established himself as a jeweler in warren, in 1870. august joined the business as an optician in 1882, and when the town flourished with a brief oil boom, the business of morck bros. undoubtedly also prospered. morck’s book comprises some 70 pages. it is addressed to opticians and the general public. there are chapters on the anatomy of the eye, refractive errors, rules for fitting glasses, and the care of eyes. some of author’s information is quite unsound and he has many quaint misspellings, e.g., ophalmic, ophthomoscope, asthemopia, hyperforia and bifocle. it seems that morck had limited education but he was probably a good practical optician. his special achievement was his morck’s patent perfection. this was the cement bifocal. (the cement was canada balsam which has a similar refractive index to crown glass) on page 54, he declares ‘to all whom it may concern: be it known, that i, august morck, jr., of warren, in the county of pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful improvement in bifocle lenses for spectacles and eye glasses…’ he goes on to describe the various bifocal lenses available at the time. the franklin split lens was well-known but never widely used. a one-piece bifocal where a basic lens was ground off, top or bottom, in order to give two appropriate powers within the same rim, had the disadvantage of introducing unwanted prism. morck claimed to have made a very useful advance in introducing the cement bifocal in two different forms. his patent no.1 consisted of a distance lens from which a small crescent was cut from the lower section and replaced with a stronger reading lens that was cemented, or slotted into a groove, to complete the oval. morck’s patent no. 2 had the same appearance but was created by cementing a thin wafer of extra power on the front or back of the lower part of the distance lens. (it has been pointed out that cement bifocals were probably invented simultaneously or earlier by other workers. there is a reference to a samuel gregg hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 24 introducing such a lens as early as 1866. in any event it appears that morck was granted the patents.)12 cement bifocal lenses had the disadvantages of discoloration of the cement and chipping of the adjoining lens sections. however this type of bifocal did survive as a moderately successful construction even long after the introduction of fused bifocals in the early 20th century. morck’s little book is largely a promotion for his own business but it would also have been most useful to other opticians. in this sense it is almost a textbook. all three of these manuals appear to be genuinely rare. the copies described are the only examples seen by me on the book market in nearly 50 years of interest in this field. alden’s book is solidly cloth-bound and copies can be found in a few institutional libraries in the united states. the more ephemeral nature of the softcovered booklets of queen and morck would account for their very low survival rate. the worldcat online catalog lists just one copy of queen’s book and nothing at all for morck.13 there are probably similar titles yet to be rediscovered. at first glance such books may appear to be inconsequential but for scholars and collectors they can be of great interest. most importantly they represent some of the very first printed material, the incunabula of our optometric forebears in america. references 1. goss da. william bohne (1827-1906), author of handbook for opticians, first textbook by an american optometrist. hindsight: j optom hist 2011; 42:14-16. 2. bohne w. hand-book for young and old opticians: a concise and comprehensive treatise on the theory of the optical trade and of its mechanical manipulations, (1st ed.) new orleans: griswold, 1888. 3. bohne w. hand-book for opticians: a treatise on the optical trade, and its mechanical manipulations, 2nd ed. new orleans: griswold, 1892. 4. bohne w. hand-book for opticians: a treatise on the optical trade, and its mechanical manipulations, 3rd ed. new orleans: griswold, 1895. 5. james w. queen & co. (publisher). how to fit glasses, a manual for the use of opticians, jewelers, druggists (etc.), philadelphia; 1888. 6. morck a. jr. preservation and care of the human eye, warren, pa.; 1888. 7. alden w. the human eye; its use and abuse, cincinnati; 1866. 8. wells j.s. on long, short and weak sight, and their treatment by the scientific use of spectacles, london: j. churchill, 1864. 9. http://www.surveyhistory.org/james_w__queen1.htm 10. bruneni jl. looking back, an illustrated history of the american ophthalmic industry, torrance, ca: optical laboratories association, 1994. 11. ancestry.com 12. gregg jw. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press,1965. 13. worldcat online library catalog. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 25 1932 northern illinois college of optometry yearbook david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu indiana optometrist james pennington recently brought a copy of the focus, the yearbook of the northern illinois college of optometry (nico), dated june, 1932, to my office. his father was attending nico at the time of its publication. identified as editor-in-chief of this 98 page yearbook was john p. mahn of the class of june, 1932. the administration of the school is pictured on page 9: dr. william b. needles, president; prof. ernest occhiena, vice-president; lida e. needles, registrar; dr. w. jerome heather, clinical department; and dr. william h. bray, instrumentation department. senior faculty are pictured on pages 10 and 11: dr. w.d. zoethout, dr. thomas g. atkinson, dr. c. stanley mcguire, dr. bernard t. hoffman, dr. otis r. wolfe, dr. john a. ross, dr. charles h. dodge, dr. miriam a. walker, dr. harold forbes, dr. robert w. uphoff, dr. richard h. snyder, and dr. john h. zeisler. students who graduated in 1932 are pictured on pages 15-33. i counted 35 who graduated in january of 1932, and 87 who graduated in june of 1932. the 122 graduates came from 24 states, and there was one student from canada. about a third of the graduates listed their address as being in illinois, and 89 of the 122 were from states in the upper midwest (illinois, indiana, iowa, michigan, minnesota, ohio, and wisconsin). i counted seven women among the 122 graduates. group pictures and lists of “undergraduate” students can be found on pages 3743. the various classes had designations of junior class, sophomore class i, sophomore class ii, freshman class i, and freshman class ii. according to a history of the illinois college of optometry and its predecessor institutions,1 the curriculum at nico expanded from two years to three years in 1933-34. so the progression from one class to another occurred in less than a year. elsewhere in the yearbook there is a mention of “the junior semester,” so evidently the class designations represented the number of semesters they had completed. it is unclear what the i and ii designations represented. among the students in the freshman class i was irvin m. borish of new york, ny. louis i. borish was in the sophomore class i. louis borish was irvin’s uncle, and he persuaded irvin to go into optometry.2 also in the sophomore class i was r.w. tubesing, of richmond, indiana, who would go on to be a president of the indiana optometric association and a president of the american academy of optometry. in the june, 1932, graduating class was loyd m. wedeking, who also later served as a president of the indiana optometric association. irvin borish, r.w. tubesing, and loyd wedeking were among the nine remarkable optometrists on the indiana optometric association’s school founding committee which worked to establish the optometry hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 26 school at indiana university.3 james pennington’s father was in the freshman class ii. another name that caught my eye was kenneth h. oakley, from toledo, ohio, who was in the class of june, 1932. it seems likely that he was the same person as ophthalmologist kenneth h. oakley (1902-1999), born in toledo, ohio, who published a frequently cited paper on myopia in the american journal of optometry and physiological optics.4 the yearbook contains pictures of the nico basketball team and players. for 1931-32, they had a schedule of 20 games and won 11 of them. nico also fielded golf, bowling, and tennis teams. the yearbook featured various organizations, including a sorority, pi kappa rho; and several fraternities, omega delta, omega epsilon phi, phi theta upsilon, and mu sigma pi. there were eight members in the sorority. the nico chapter of the sorority and the chapters of three of the four fraternities were alpha chapters. according to this yearbook, omega epsilon phi was founded at columbia university. the yearbook stated that: “the mu sigma pi fraternity was founded in october 1931 by eight jewish students of northern illinois college, who realized the need of a fraternity to further the interest of jewish men in optometry.” other organizations with pictures of members were the square and compass club and the tomb and key honorary senior fraternity. according to the constitution of the square and compass club, founded in 1931, its aims and purposes were “to remind its members constantly of the ideals and teachings of freemasonry; to stimulate a brotherly feeling among the master masons attending northern illinois college and to create a spirit of closer friendship and brotherhood among its members; and through its influence to help promote high standards in the school.” the northern illinois college alumni association was founded in 1930. the yearbook stated that graduates were urged to join the alumni association before the chicago world’s fair in 1933 because some activities related to it were being planned. pages 72-98 contained various short essays, photographs, jokes, and advertisements. some excerpts from a page and half passage headed “the clinic” are as follows: “the clinical course at northern illinois is confined to senior students only. it is designed to perfect and correlate their practical knowledge of the things they have learned in their first three semesters. “…an adequate number of patients is supplied to each interne, and careful records are kept so that no student may fail to examine the required minimum number of cases. “the clinical work falls into the three general classifications of refraction, orthoptics and pathology. in the latter division, the student learns that it is not the function of the optometrist to treat diseased conditions, but that it is his function to note and recognize such conditions so that he may refer the patient at once to a competent medical or dental adviser…. “…the degree of opt.d. as conferred by northern illinois college means that the wearer of it is, in all truth, and in the broadest possible sense, a doctor of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 27 “this important department of the college is under the personal direction of dr. w. jerome heather, known nationally as writer, lecturer and educator, and known to each student who comes within the sphere of his dynamic influence as a man of great personal force, magnetic personality and profound convictions. assisting dr. heather is a distinguished staff of associates, including bernard t. hoffman, m.d., otis r. wolfe, m.d., and charles h. dodge, d.d.s., and a competent clinical staff consisting of drs. john a. ross, helen lazarski, george r. beilfuss, r.r. king, h.j. kerker and harold laban. miss nurnberg is the able nurse in charge of the clinical reception room.” (pages 75-76) another essay was headed “instrument technique.” it stated that the “department of instrumentation…is sometimes called the junior clinic. its work is organized to prepare junior students for the responsibility of clinical internship which they assume with the beginning of their senior semester. they are familiarized with the construction and use of every known testing mechanism. the work in the booths includes the use of the ophthalmometer, the ophthalmoscope, the phorometer and the retinoscope. subjective testing, neutralization of lenses, rx writing and frame fitting are presented in so practical a way that when the junior semester is finished, each student is capable of conducting a complete refractive examination, recognizing his findings and writing an accurate rx. “instruction in the department of instrumentation is in the capable hands of dr. william h. bray, assisted by drs. forbes, zeisler, uphoff, mckelvey and walker. the course includes lectures on the theory of light and refraction. dr. thomas g. atkinson, dr. w.d. zoethout and dr. c. stanley mcguire are among the outstanding lecturers whose appearances are appreciated by the junior students. the sure, swift technic of the senior internes is an eloquent tribute to the thoroughness of the training which they received as juniors in the department of instrumentation.” (page 77) references 1. miller ar, brown jm. optometry in america: a history of the illinois college of optometry 1872-1997. chicago: illinois college of optometry, 1996:46-47. 2. baldwin wr. borish. springfield, ma: bassette, 2006:21-22. 3. goss da. history of the indiana university division of optometry. indiana j optom 2003;6:27-74. 4. oakley kh, young fa. bifocal control of myopia. am j optom physiol opt 1975;52:758-764. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 28 a review of events leading to the development of modern optometry in the united states rodney l. tahran, o.d. vice president of professional relations/clinical affairs, essilor of america, 13555 n. stemmons fwy., dallas, tx 75234-5765, rtahran@essilorusa.com irvin m. borish, o.d., d.o.s., l.l.d., d.sc., d.h.l. development of visual science theories of vision began in greek and roman periods, paralleled by the chinese, followed by an arabic period. da vinci described cornea and lens as refractive elements of eye. little arose in the middle ages, but the renaissance began movement through the 17th and 18th centuries led by kepler, scheiner, huygens, newton, snell, and many others, which began to define modern optics and which culminated in a golden age in the 19th century with the work of helmholtz, the father of physiologic optics, and donders, the father of refraction, and in the development of the basic instrumentation of modern eye examination. history of spectacles origin of spectacles is believed to have begun in the form of reading glasses in the dark ages in about 1285 a.d. the impetus of the art of printing is believed to have influenced acceptance. roger bacon described convex lenses for reading in england in 1266. spectacles appear in paintings dated about 1350s. they are mentioned in early german songs. they were mentioned by chaucer in 1400s. concave lenses first appear in paintings in 1500s. the period from about 1285 to 1650 was very productive. development of opticianry monks in the renaissance period are credited with perfecting optical principles, etc., for spectacles. the art of spectacle making dates to about 1285. charles i of england, in 1629 chartered the worshipful company of spectacle makers, who developed the first standards, set quality control, and could levy fines. spectacle makers had also developed in most other countries of europe by then. since ophthalmology ignored the use of spectacles for other than presbyopia, opticians became the general source of supply of spectacle corrections, although the method of testing for many years was trial and error, with only spheres. benjamin franklin, who invented the bifocal, befriended john mcallister, whose purchase of a bushel basket of steel and iron spectacle frames is considered the birth of opticianry in america. mcallister made the spectacles for thomas jefferson. his son joined him, and they began making gold and silver frames after the war of 1812. the firm, passing through several partnerships and family additions, was the major optical hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 29 establishment for many years in the usa, developing the art of lens making. it made the astigmatic lenses forty years before a prescription was written by an oculist. it finally went out of business in 1928. during the latter years of the century, also, many immigrants brought the skills developed in europe to the american scene, helping establish not only the retail establishments but also major manufacturers, such as bausch and lomb. one of the mcallister's early partners, james queen, established the largest scientific optical business in america in 1853. his institution was a training ground for many future leaders in the field of optometry. although itinerant spectacle peddlers covered much of the outlying country, in concentrated populations, many opticians were associated with jewelry stores because the frames for spectacles were made of gold and silver, and the first articles on lenses and vision appeared in jewelry periodicals. for example, the jeweler's circular weekly eventually became the review of optometry. articles on optics appeared during the latter years of the 1800 and finally a school of optics was established. as more scientific techniques of refraction were developed, various courses for training opticians in their use promulgated. ophthalmology and refraction ophthalmology was the first surgical specialty in the united states recognized through a certifying board. however, bartisch, in 1575, considered the father of ophthalmology, bitterly opposed the use of spectacles, an opinion which continued within ophthalmology until the very latter years of the nineteenth century. jaeger in 1855 warned against the mad fashion of wearing glasses, a persistent ophthalmological fixation which carried over into the american colonies and the eventual united states. despite the call of von arit, who, in his monumental three volume work (1851, 1853, and 1856) urged his colleagues to fit glasses instead of leaving the art to opticians. however, as late as 1880, shastid, an eminent ophthalmologist, deplores the ignoring of this aspect by ophthalmology. thomas hall shastid, a prominent ophthalmologist of his time, cites from personal experience the medical thinking of the post-civil-war period as related to spectacle wear. he cites that ferdinand van arit called upon the medical profession to fit spectacles and eyeglasses themselves, instead of leaving so important a matter to opticians. this advice was disregarded for a very long time. shastid recalls how uncorrected eyestrain handicapped him in his youth, and how he was without relief until finally fitted with glasses by a jeweler-optician. his own father, a physician, shared the medical sentiment of the 1880s and swore that the glasses would ruin his son's eyes. so strongly was this sentiment promulgated that, even today, many of us in practice still encounter patients who ask if the wearing of glasses will ruin or weaken their eyes. sixty to seventy years later, dr. shastid, still embittered about medical thinking of the time, expresses his feelings: "the m.d.'s generally would not recognize even the existence of such a thing as eyestrain. for eyestrain headache, they gave morphine, antipyrine, antifebrin, and the like. sometimes, in this way, they produced drug addictions. if there was any worse quackery than this of the regular medical profession, hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 30 i do not know what it was. yet they called ‘quacks’ all of us who fitted glasses to the eyes of the young. " "there were certain traveling ‘spec-peddlers’ who went from house to house fitting glasses and unskilled though they were, relieving many of the simpler cases of eyestrain headaches, sick stomach and nervous disorders. such men excited extreme contempt and bitterness on the part of the 'regular" profession, feelings which grew the more the ‘spec-peddler’ beat the scientific m.d.s at the treatment of eyestrain and its numerous results. incredible, yet unqualifiedly true." "hardly anything that now i can recall served so much to weaken the standing and influence of physicians in any community than this absurd, ridiculous, hard-headed, stubborn, absolutely unyielding opposition to the fitting of glasses for anything whatever, excepting simply and solely for the difficulty known as ‘old sight’. next to the physician who lent his name into the newspapers was he who fitted or caused them to be fitted." george m. gould, editor of the journal, american medicine, began to crusade against this indifference in the first decade of the 1900s. he pioneered for the "new" ophthalmology which recognized more than disease and surgery, and opposed strongly the development of non-medical refraction. he noted "poor refraction work on the part of oculists is the greatest cause of skepticism. those who do accurate refraction know perfectly well that, broadly speaking, the ophthalmologists of the world have done their refraction work badly." despite his efforts, he became more accepted as a "hobby-rider" than taken seriously. ophthalmology into the late eighteen hundreds, not only continued to ignore refractive corrections but to violently oppose them. ophthalmology's interest was then essentially in disease and surgery and their training had little relationship to that which was cardinal to refractive expertise. gould was eventually convinced that much as he deplored the rise and growth of optometry, he could not escape the conclusion that nonmedical refraction came about because of the failure of the majority of ophthalmologists to meet public need, nor could he manage to escape the admission that the type of nonmedical refraction available at the time was as good as, if not better than, his own profession was able to provide. donders himself credited the nonmedical refractionists for their work in correcting hyperopia. thus it appears very evident that the field of optometry developed primarily because ophthalmology left a vacuum. origin of professional optometry in the united states just as in the rest of the world, once ophthalmology accepted the value of refraction, it considered refraction a medical procedure, and when the ophthalmologist performed the refraction and wrote a prescription, they had the patient take the prescription to an optician to have the spectacles made. while many non-medical refractionists were operating, a large body of opticians fulfilled the role of spectacle providers. many may have overlapped somewhat in both fields. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 31 there was little training in optics or refractive procedures in the ophthalmological training program, a potential which is still manifest to this day. a certain number of prescriptions were unsatisfactory, and if a patient returned to the ophthalmologist with a complaint, the ophthalmologist would recheck the prescription (and privately instruct the optician of the new rx) but would not acknowledge an error to the patient -instead blaming the optician as having erred in composing the spectacles. since the optician desired to remain in the good graces of the referring ophthalmologist, the optician accepted the blame and made the new spectacles without charge to either the patient or the referring doctor. one of the major optical establishments was that of james prentice, founded in the mid 1880’s. james was joined by his son, charles prentice. charles prentice was unique in that he had five years training in germany in physics, optics, and engineering, and was possibly the best versed savant in optics in the united states, among either opticianry or ophthalmology. (the prentice law for prismatic effect is a basic in optical science). probably aggravated by the above sequences, prentice established an optical test lane in his dispensary, and took to refracting the referred patient himself, before making the spectacles. he undoubtedly felt safe in that the ophthalmologist probably did not care as long as the patient was satisfied, and the patient would return to him for replacement of a broken lens, etc. the patient would not be aware since he had no interpretation of what the doctor had ordered the optician to do. many fellow opticians took to the same process and probably many do so today. so long as nothing aroused the patient there was no protest from ophthalmologists. however, prentice decided that he should be paid for his refractive examination. immediately, the patient recognized that something additional was in process, and undoubtedly resented an additional fee. so long as there were no charges for refractions, there were no objections from ophthalmology, but when a charge for refractions was introduced. noyes, a leader of ophthalmology, accused prentice of practicing medicine without a license. prentice contested this assumption, and was joined by other opticians. the field of opticianry divided into those who supported his concept and those who preferred remaining in the cooperative status that had previously existed. several years of interchanged correspondence included other m.d.s, who threatened to have the law changed to exclude opticians from refracting. the new york county medical society was also influenced to ban referrals from physicians to prentice, a number of whom had been referring patients directly to him for refractions. as prentice learned that an attempt to form a national association of opticians was to take place, he reported his controversy and a number of prominent opticians came to his support. prentice decided to use the initial meeting of the group, scheduled for september, 1895 to discuss the matter of legislation. prior to the meeting, prentice allied with a.j. cross, who with prentice, is considered the father of optometry. as the leading dispensing opticians at the meeting decided not to join the movement, it was deferred. formation of a new york society of opticians resulted, whose first meeting was in june, 1896. a hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 32 bill was introduced to regulate the practice of refracting opticians. optometry rebutted ophthalmology's charge of encroaching upon the practice of medicine without a medical license, by the slogan "a lens was not a pill" and specifically banning the use of drugs. however, it took 12 years of effort before new york passed a bill establishing optometry (1908). the american optometric association was founded in 1898 (originally founded as the american association of opticians name changed in 1919). the mere legalization of itself does not establish a "calling" as a profession in society. a profession is connoted as a group of individuals pursuing a learned art as a common calling in a spirit of major contribution towards increased welfare of the society which accords the status. but other attributes besides service influence acceptance as a profession rather than merely a contributing calling. for example, garbage collectors provide a major service to society. foremost, in addition is the realization that the vocation commands a broad body of specialized knowledge that is sufficiently defined and delineated so that it readily and universally can be identified by the public. but even that in itself is not enough. it must also be accompanied by the implication that the command of that body of knowledge cannot be achieved without a formal program of education at a high level. actually, the status of the vocation seems to bear a direct correlation to the length and level of the educational process. however, since optometry was almost uniquely in immediate competition with ophthalmology (which occupied such professional position), it was also incumbent upon optometry that it be recognized as a "learned" profession. such status requires that the profession earn also the respect of its peer learned professions by producing a new discovery and knowledge to augment the field in other words participate in valid research. by the time of the last state's legalization, the educational system in optometry had grown to a number of independent schools in the united states and canada and three schools associated with universities. the latter had been begun by prentice and cross at columbia (1911) as a two year program, followed shortly by a similar program at ohio state instigated by charles sheard. in 1915, sheard persuaded ohio state to expand its course to a four year degree. this set the pace for a similar program at the university of california in berkeley, and subsequent expansion of the columbia program. the independent schools, mostly proprietary, maintained the two year programs for some time beyond. each school was a project in its own right with undefined curricula and standards among them. recognizing the immediate need for defining professional status, irvin m. borish in 1940 instigated the development of a council on education to serve as an accreditation body for the institutions within optometry. since no actual standards existed, he and a colleague, eugene freeman, then wrote the initial manual of accreditation which was immediately adopted by the new council on education. since little uniformity of programs existed, the next problem was that of establishing a joint cooperation among the schools. shortly thereafter, borish and glenn fry authored the constitution and by-laws which established the association of hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 33 schools and colleges in optometry. as the years developed, the educational picture changed to eighteen schools in the united states and canada, of which only the original five are not connected with universities. of these, seven have become recognized as major research institutions, while others are also developing research programs. the curriculum has increased by one year for every decade until today it is parallel to that of medicine and dentistry, and the doctor of optometry degree is uniformly granted by all schools. as optometry expanded the scope of care, including more detailed examination of the eye, the need for diagnostic drugs to dilate the pupil became apparent. a meeting to plan optometry’s expansion into the use of pharmaceutical agents convened at laguardia airport, led by a. norman haffner, president of state university of new york college of optometry, and irvin borish. the first diagnostic pharmaceutical agent (dpa) law was passed in rhode island in 1971. by 1999, all 50 states and the district of columbia had obtained the right to use dpa’s. in some areas of the united states, optometry represents the primary eyecare available, raising the need for therapeutic treatment of the eye by optometry. the movement to gain the rights to use therapeutic pharmaceutical agents (tpa’s) began with the passing of the first tpa bill in the state of west virginia in 1976. optometry in all 50 states and the district of columbia, now has the right to use a wide range of tpa’s to treat red eyes, glaucoma, and a host of other eye conditions. today, optometry in the united states is recognized by government, by insurance agencies, has commissions in all branches of the military, and has broken the drug barrier. breaking the drug barrier for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes was necessary for providing the full scope of eye care required by government and insurance agencies. although it may appear that securing legislation establishing optometric practice may have been accelerated by the fact that the united states regulates such activity via its separate state governments, it should also be remembered that this additionally required consistent repetition of effort before every one of the 50 state legislatures. in the united states, among the professions such as medicine and dentistry, the various specialties are controlled and conducted without any government sanction. members of specialties such as ophthalmology, have, by their own volitional effort, formed academies and sections of the american medical association (an entirely voluntary organization in its own right), which have set standards for practice, defined the scope of the field, and certified members by examination, with a resultant acceptance of appropriate qualifications by the public. physicians unaccredited as fellows of a given specialty no longer make an attempt to practice such. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 34 modern optometry writes 66% of eyeglass prescriptions in the united states, and treats a wide range of eye diseases with therapeutic drugs and procedures. acknowledgments this paper was presented at rmpi meeting, essilor international, varilux university, paris, may, 2002. irvin m. borish passed away march 3, 2012, at the age of 99 years; his many contributions to optometry are recorded in the book borish by william baldwin. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 35 george w. knox and vincent j. ellerbrock: authors of light, vision and lenses david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract george w. knox (1911-2010) and vincent j. ellerbrock (1918-1965) were optometry graduates, ph.d. graduates, and optometry faculty members at the ohio state university. this paper presents biographical sketches of each and describes the textbook they co-authored. key words: optometry books, optometry history, the ohio state university. george willard knox (1911-2010) george knox graduated in 1933 from denison university in granville, ohio.1 he held an optometry degree from the ohio state university, and m.a. and ph.d. degrees in psychology, also from ohio state. he received his m.a. in 1936 with a thesis entitled “some phases of gestalt dynamics contrasted with some historical and contemporary psychological standpoints,” and his ph.d. in 1940 with the thesis “the relation of dynamic factors to flicker and fusion.”2 he served in the u.s. navy medical service corps during world war ii and earned the rank of lieutenant commander.3 knox was an optometry professor at the ohio state university for 15 years. he later practiced both optometry and psychology. at about the age of 80, he retired from optometry practice, but continued to practice psychology.1 he became the oldest practicing psychologist in the state of ohio.3 a remarkable fact about knox was his longevity, living to 99 years of age. after a heart attack at 55, he developed a serious passion for running.3,4 he won numerous awards in running and set several age records. he ran a 100 kilometer race at age 70, and continued to compete in races until he was 86 years of age. late in life he gave talks to senior citizen groups about the value of regular exercise, a healthful diet, and relaxation techniques that he had learned from being a psychologist. in 2003, he received the denison university alumni citation “for his indomitable spirit, his service to country and profession, and his conviction that age is just a footnote to one’s life story.”1 vincent joseph ellerbrock (1918-1965) vincent ellerbrock was a native of ohio and received his b.s. degree in optometry in 1940 from the ohio state university.5 in 1941, he received an m.s. degree from ohio state, with the thesis topic of “some effects induced by anisometropic corrections.”2 then in the next two years, during world war ii, he worked on military research on range finders and did some teaching in the army hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 36 specialized training program in ohio state’s department of physics.5 in 1944, he took a research position at the dartmouth eye institute in hanover, new hampshire, where he worked on aniseikonia and low vision. after two years there, he returned to ohio state and completed his ph.d. degree in 1947. the title of his ph.d. thesis was “an experimental investigation of the fusional movements of the eyes.” in 1947, ellerbrock was appointed assistant professor of physiological optics at ohio state. he worked his way up the academic ranks and became a full professor in 1956. ellerbrock published 45 papers, 26 of them appearing in the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry.5,6 in 1954, he compiled, along with a few contributors, a manual of standard operating procedures and information for the ohio state optometry clinic, manual for optometry clinics (175 pages). a review noted that although it described the organization, facilities, forms, and procedures of the ohio state clinic, it could “be of special value to optometrists serving on the staffs of optometry clinics connected with hospitals, schools, or other special service agencies, and to optometrists participating in school screening surveys.”7 ellerbrock also prepared a document entitled report on survey of optical aids for subnormal vision (1946, 73 pages) for the committee on sensory aids of the national research council, containing information on the theory and application of low vision aids. he was working on books on subnormal vision and the optics of contact lenses when he died.5 ellerbrock was on the executive council and the editorial council for the american academy of optometry. in 1953, ellerbrock was made chairman of the academy committee to study the idea of five days of postgraduate courses held immediately before or after the annual meeting of the academy.8 the first postgraduate courses were held at the annual meeting in 1955, and ellerbrock, as chairman of the committee on postgraduate education, directed the program and courses until his death ten years later.9 ellerbrock died two years before the 1965 academy postgraduate courses were to begin. because of his work on the continuing education courses for the academy, they were named the ellerbrock courses in his honor.10 light, vision and lenses light, vision and lenses: an introductory text-book of geometrical, physiological and ophthalmic optics (350 pages) was published by knox and ellerbrock in 1949. a second printing appeared in 1950. the first of three parts covered basic physical and geometrical optics. the topics of part ii, the largest section of the book, were ocular anatomy and pathology, monocular sensory aspects of vision, refractive anomalies, objective and subjective refraction, binocular vision, phorias, fusional vergence ranges, analysis of test findings in writing a prescription, and psychological factors in vision. part iii dealt with mechanical and ophthalmic optics. in the preface, the authors suggested that the book was “introductory” and “elementary” and that it should not be mistaken for one of “the comprehensive treatises which have to be used in the training of optometrists and ophthalmologists.” (p. v) a review of the book said: “in general, this well written and well illustrated book should find a welcome audience among those beginning the study of clinical optometry and/or ophthalmology hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 37 as well as those who wish a composite picture of the various aspects of visual science with which the eye specialist is concerned.”11 references 1. first person: george knox ’33. denison magazine 2011;101(2). http://denisonmagazine.com/2011/departments/first-person/first-person-george-knox33/. last accessed april 4, 2012. 2. worldcat online library catalog. http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org. 3. obituary: george w. knox. columbus dispatch. 2010. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch. 4. hofstetter hw. peripatetic optometrist. newsletter optom hist soc 1974;5:3637. 5. fry ga. vincent j. ellerbrock – his contributions. opt j rev optom 1966;103:119-120. 6. weiner g, ed. the american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry forty-four year cumulative index, vol. 1 (1924) – vol. 44 (1967). chicago: professional press, 1968:45. 7. hofstetter hw. book review: manual for optometry clinics. am j optom arch am acad optom 1955;32:161-162. 8. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:73. 9. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:77. 10. gregg jr. history of the american academy of optometry 1922-1986. washington, dc: american academy of optometry, 1987:99. 11. bannon re. book notices: light, vision and lenses. am j optom arch am acad optom 1951;28:111-112. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 38 addendum to william cain ruffin, m.d., and some history of the ruffin family as it pertains to the american civil war jay m. enoch, o.d., ph.d. professor of the graduate school, dean emeritus, school of optometry, university of california, berkeley, ca 94720-2020; home: 5537 106th avenue ne, kirkland, wa 98033-7413; jmenoch@berkeley.edu in the previous issue of hindsight, i noted that there seems to be some competition (at least in existing print sources) as to who might have fired the first shot(s) of the american civil war.1-5 there seems to be little doubt as to who fired the first cannon at fort sumter. it was ensign edmund ruffin, a forebear of dr. william cain ruffin, with whom i worked in florida in the 1970s. because edmund ruffin was considered to be the leader of the south carolina militia, he was given the opportunity to fire the first cannon at fort sumter, that is against the union fortifications (e.g., please refer to references 3 and 5; the author here calls special attention to reference 5, pp. 296 and 297. page 296 discusses ensign edmund ruffin's (professor ruffin's forebear) actions at the time, and his subsequent suicide just after appomattox; and page 297 is a photograph of the late edmund ruffin, i.e., prof. ruffin's forebear.) that photograph, which is in the public domain, is reproduced below. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 39 references 1. edwards o. lincoln’s loss: the first union officer killed in the civil war was a friend of the president’s. smithsonian 2011;42(1):28-30. 2. simpson bd, sears sw, sheehan-dean a, eds. the civil war, the first year by those who lived it. new york: library of america, 2011. 3. holzer h, symonds cl, eds. the new york times complete civil war, 18611865. new york: black dog and leventhal publishers, 2010. 4. thomas em. the dogs of war, 1861. new york: oxford university press, 2011. 5. robertson j, kagan n. the untold civil war: exploring the human side of war. washington, dc: national geographic society, 2011. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 40 george h. giles, english optometrist, author, and administrator david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract george h. giles (1904-1965) had enormous influence on optometry in the united kingdom through his extensive organizational work and writing. this paper contains a brief biographical profile and a description of the books he wrote. key words: optometry books, optometry history, orthoptics, refraction. noted english optometrist george henry giles (1904-1965) received his education in optometry at northampton institute, where one of his instructors was h.h. emsley.1 in 1926, he passed the final examination of the worshipful company of spectacle makers, and in 1928, he became a fellow of the british optical association. he was prolific writer throughout his career beginning in his student days, publishing more than 100 papers.2 in 1933, he received the institute of ophthalmic opticians’ prize for a paper entitled “the standardization of colour tests.”2 in 1938, giles became an elected member of the council of the british optical association. shortly thereafter, he organized english optometrists to test and care for munitions workers as part of the war effort in world war ii.3 giles went on to serve in numerous administrative positions. he was secretary of the british optical association from 1942 until his death and secretary of the association of optical practitioners from 1948 until his death. some of the other positions he held were director of examinations for the british optical association, secretary of the joint committee of ophthalmic opticians, secretary of the joint advisory board of opticians, member of the board of management of the london refraction hospital, editor of the ophthalmic optician and of the british journal of physiological optics, and president of the international optical league.1-3 one writer noted: “it has been said that the optical world of the united kingdom revolved around george giles.”3 another tribute said that giles had “done more to further the interests of optometry in great britain and throughout the continent of europe than any other one man.”4 giles invented various devices for refractive practice. these included the gilesarcher colour perception unit, the hunt-giles infinity far point test, and a near point rule.2 he was also very involved in international optometry. his two longest optometry tours occurred in the 1950s. in 1954, he conducted a 20,000 mile lecture tour of north america in which he visited all twelve optometry schools in the united states and canada.5 in 1955, he made a 52,000 mile optometry tour of india, australia, new zealand, and africa.5 hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 41 after world war ii, giles studied law and qualified as a barrister, in order to better represent optometry’s interests in relations with government agencies.4 he was a fellow of the american academy of optometry, fellow of the illuminating engineering society, fellow of the royal microscopical society, and a fellow of the royal society of health.1,3 he was awarded the order of the british empire by the queen of england.3 other awards and recognitions include the ernest aves medal and a memorial plaque at the college of optometrists museum in london.6 giles received the apollo award posthumously in 1966 from the american optometric association.7 books by george h. giles giles’ first book was a manual of practical orthoptics (1938, 140 pages). the emphasis of the book was the orthoptic treatment of heterophoria and strabismus with various types of stereoscopes and other instruments. for his next book, the practice of orthoptics (1943, 366 pages), giles added material on theory and testing procedures and expanded the coverage of treatment. a second edition of the practice of orthoptics appeared in 1949 (407 pages) with inclusion of more detail on some topics and addition of some new information. a review of the first edition noted that giles’ “techniques generally follow those of cantonnet, but his presentation of the subject is far more readable than that of the french ophthalmologist.”8 giles wrote various monographs which reveal the status of the optometric profession. in the ophthalmic services under the national health services acts 19461952 (1953, 503 pages), he wrote a formal and detailed description of the regulations of ophthalmic services in the united kingdom. in american tour (1955, 70 pages), he presented a narrative on his tour of the american optometric sites and schools he visited in 1954. the book gives a glimpse into 1950s optometry and its educators. it makes for interesting reading and includes black and white photographs of giles with various north american optometrists. in commonwealth tour (1957, 120 pages), giles described his 1955 several week optometry tour of india, australia, new zealand, and africa. in 1960, giles published his widely used book, the principles and practice of refraction (688 pages). in the preface he stated that his perception of a need for a book on refraction led him to write a book “which was mainly clinical in its approach, but which at the same time dealt with sufficient of the underlying theory.” (p. v) the first of four sections was named the refractive error and its correction, but it was wider in scope than that and it made up more than half of the book. it discussed equipment needs, recording forms, case history and symptoms, external and internal ocular examination, visual acuity, static and dynamic retinoscopy, subjective refraction, accommodation and binocular vision tests, alternative subjective test methods, phoria and fusional vergence range tests and their evaluation, lens prescription writing, prescription of prisms, tinted lenses, and low vision. section ii, supplementary examination, had three chapters on visual fields and perimetry and a chapter on color vision. section iii, orthoptic investigation and treatment, covered testing and treatment of phoria cases and strabismus, and various instruments used in orthoptics were hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 42 explained. section iv, special aspects of ophthalmic optics, contained five chapters, each by a contributing author, on ocular drugs, instruments for objective ocular examination, contact lenses, aniseikonia, and dispensing. giles mentioned in the preface that the third and fourth sections were introductory only. in the second edition of his refraction book (1965), giles added a sub-title so that the title became the principles and practice of refraction and its allied subjects. the format and organization of the book remained the same, but giles took “the opportunity to revise and extend where necessary and to include a few new developments or instruments that have since appeared.” (p. vii) a review of the second edition stated that “although the instruments illustrated by giles, being of british manufacture, will often seem strange to american optometrists, this book will be a valued addition to our bookshelves. giles writes well and is obviously a sensible and competent clinician.”9 references 1. anonymous. g.h. giles, o.b.e. ophthalmic optician 1965;5:1047-1049. 2. anonymous. obituary: mr. g.h. giles. optician 1965;150:336-337. 3. fisher ej. a tribute to george h. giles. am j optom arch am acad optom 1966;43:64-66. 4. neill jc. george g. giles – eulogy. j am optom assoc 1965;36:1070. 5. flick cs. round the world of g.h.g.: a review of the international activities of g.g. giles, o.b.e. ophthalmic optician 1965;5:1068-1069. 6. college of optometrists – george giles. www.collegeoptometrists.org/en/knowledge-centre/museyeum/history/curators/giles.cfm. accessed april, 2012. 7. the apollo award. american optometric association. http://www.aoa.org/x12286.xml. last accessed april 10, 2012. 8. koch cc. book review: the practice of orthoptics. am j optom arch am acad optom 1945;22:40. 9. hirsch mj. book review: the principles and practice of refraction and its allied subjects. am j optom arch acad optom 1965;42:202. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 43 book review: centennial issue of the north carolina state optometric society centennial issue of the north carolina state optometric society. compiled by sue gardner. wilson, nc: north carolina state optometric society, 2009. v + 108 pages. hardcover. david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu in this book, the executive director of the north carolina state optometric society has compiled historical narratives, timelines, photographs, letters, lists of award winners and society presidents, and reprints of articles to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the society. the book was dedicated to john d. costabile, o.d., (1926-1989), who served as secretary-treasurer/executive secretary of the ncsos from 1952 to 1989. in 1908, eighteen opticians, as optometrists were then commonly known, met in raleigh, north carolina to form the society, and the first annual meeting of the north carolina optical society was held in january of 1909. the north carolina optometry licensure law was passed in march of 1909, and north carolina became the sixteenth state to have an optometry licensure law. the first certificates of registration were dated june 8, 1909. the records of the society first referred to the members as “dr.” instead of “mr.” in 1911. the society became the north carolina optometric society in 1912. in 1912, there were 153 optometrists registered with the state board. the women’s auxiliary to the ncsos was founded in 1936. it had many years of active work until declining membership led to its disbanding in 1996. the first female president of ncsos was dr. rebecca h. wartman who took office in 2001. as with any state association, there was much work relating to legislative matters. the book contains a nine page legislative timeline from 1971 to 2009 and copies of a few letters and documents relating to legislative and government matters. the first of three reprinted articles is a one page article from the north carolina optometrist profiling dr. p.n. devere. devere served as president of ncsos in 195051 and was elected president of the american optometric association in 1959. the second reprinted article was taken from pages 40-44 in the june, 1989 issue of review of optometry. the title of the article was “the battle of north carolina,” and it discussed how the north carolina optometrists were able to pass and maintain one of the first optometric therapeutic pharmaceutical laws. it also noted that the state association had a 96% membership rate. the work of several north carolina optometrists, john costabile in particular, was highlighted. hindsight: journal of optometry history….april, 2012, volume 43, number 2, page 44 the last of the reprinted articles is a fascinating article entitled “recollections of 60 years of the history of optometry” taken from the journal of the american optometric association (may, 1989, volume 60, number 5, pages 391-404). it was written by former north carolina optometrist gideon l. lang, jr. lang’s father started optometry practice in north carolina in 1909, and lang entered pennsylvania college of optometry in 1937. in this article, he presents detailed recollections of his years practicing optometry and advocating for the profession, including comments on military optometry, government relations, and industrial optometry, among other topics. although written in a humble manner, it is clear that lang achieved much for the advancement of the optometric profession. the book contains numerous black and white photographs, including photos of society presidents. this book is a good place to start for anyone wanting to find out more about the history of north carolina optometry. with so many state optometric associations being founded in the early years of the twentieth century, there are many that would have celebrated 100 years of existence in recent years. the oklahoma state association also produced a book celebrating their one hundredth anniversary (reviewed in hindsight, 2010;41:60-61). i would be interested in hearing from readers who are aware of other state associations who produced books celebrating their centennials. ohsfrontcover43-2 hindsight43-2 hindsight -----newsletter of the :··,._,.... ~ -~-~-----~"'. ~""-" optometric historical society '· · · · • .-.. l.:_., ~-.:~-~ 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, missouri 63141, usa volume35 april2004 number2 jay enoch's column: a discussion and review of an upcoming and important book by prof. vincent ilardi: renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes. transactions of the american philosophical society.* *tentatively scheduled for publication in 2005 by the american philosophical society in its transactions series. publishers permission has been received for presentation of this review (m. mcdonald, philadelphia, 2/28/04). i call the readers special attention to a new book in preparation for publication. this book is scheduled to appear most probably in 2005. it is of special pertinence to the ophthalmic professions in general, and specifically to those interested in its history. vincent ilardi, u. mass., is a first class economic historian. vince became interested in the early history of spectacles, not from a clinical point of view, rather from the aspect of how trade and the associated arts and sciences developed, costs of production and sale, exchange issues, orders and receipts of goods, movement and origins of raw materials and resultant manufactured products, manufacturing processes for glass, spectacle lenses, etc., costs of lenses and classes of lens goods and implications for their distribution, and much more associated with this general topic, including important clinical insights occurring in tandem. as the real starting point of this history, ilardi selects the first public announcement of spectacles by domincan friar giordano da pisa (or da rivalto) at santa maria novella church in firenze, italy in 1306. and of course, he goes backward in time to the inferred first utilization of spectacle corrections in the mid-1280's in pisa). for those interested, the back of santa maria novella church is located across the street from the entrance to the main railroad station in florence, italy. ilardi states he became interested in the topic through his friendship with rosen. i am sure our readers are familiar with rosen's contributions to the early (and often contentious) history of spectacles. i sense that vince chose this work, because as an economic historian it was an opportunity to study a newly evolving industry, associated professions, and their financial/commercial and scientific development. and he had access to the necessary and remarkable records required to perform this obviously rewarding task. 35/13 recently, i had opportunity to review the first four chapters of this fascinating new book by ilardi. this is a work in progress, nearing completion! since its area of interest is so different from the sorts of material we often consider, and it was so close to our interests, i felt it would be of value to call attention of the reader-audience of hindsight to this impending master-work! this is a scholarly text, filled with endless original citations, quotes, and translations from a variety of languages. it is filled with data on the early development of spectacles and covers a time period extending centuries, but it is particularly rich when covering the latter part of the 15th century. the main focus is florence, the effective center for arts and trade during the remarkable period of time known as the renaissance. ilardi convincingly shows that early venetian artisans produced fine glass, but the florentines produced and shipped the finest or among the finest spectacles of the era. these artisans catered to all classes, from the rich and powerful to everyman. he has uncovered and studied, in detail, remarkable florentine commercial records of all sorts. he carefully documents the costs of production of spectacles, sources of materials employed in their production, their shipment, taxes,_ duties, and shipping costs, both domestic and foreign, from translated orders, shipping documents, receipts, ledgers, ect. and much more. his findings lead to a variety of conclusions about early spectacle development. from comments already made, it is apparent that lenses and frames of apparent acceptable quality, from rather early times, could be manufactured both in volume and cheaply, varying mainly in materials used for the lenses and frames. do not forget this was the era of the printing press and available reading materials, and a time of rising expectations. the finest spectacles were products of the goldsmith's art and employed rock crystal and other crystal lenses. at the lower end were frames made of bone and wood -some leather, and glass lenses. there was apparently no spectacle makers guild, rather the workers in this group could be found among a variety of the different guilds (goldsmiths, bone workers, mercers= tradesmen, etc.). the spectacle-worker guilds in this field came apparently rather late. and there was added production at local monasteries. associated with these incredible analyses are to be found a number of inferred clinical jewels! examples are: 1. in the mid-15th century, a good description is provided defining the early system for grading powers of spectacles. a critical document located by ilardi noted that by age 60, the equivalent lens correction was ca. +3.00 d.s. in modern units. the schems for plus lenses was categorized by age, in 5 year steps! at early presbyopic ages, weaker plus lenses were specified. clearly, this was an important feature making possible orderly broad distribution of spectacles. that is, a scheme was needed to specify effective power of pairs of spectacle lenses. orders of hundreds, even thousands of spectacles had to be organized or graded. 35114 2. finding 1 implies that there existed an early understanding of effects of loss of accommodation (not so stated, but implied). since the system of grading was an orderly one defined by age, there had to be recognition that there was need for stronger visual corrections with increasing presbyopia. no doubt this was a pragmatic deduction. since a common system was used by the lens-makers, this also suggests a degree of organization among spectacle producers, and their purveyors. thus, by inference, some degree of understanding of presbyopia had emerged. this is much earlier than any accounts of accommodation, amplitudes of accommodation, presbyopia and aging known to the writer. · 3. perhaps most interesting, by the mid 1400s there was apparently at least modest use of concave lenses for early correction of myopia in young people. this occurred well before we commonly thought these visual corrections were discovered and in place(!), and these lenses were available in two different powersthey were designated clearly as lenses for the young! ilardi leads us through a careful argument to indicate that this was indeed the way myopic corrections were designated and that concave lenses were available. neither the term myopia, nor near-sighted vision entered into the discussion. however, there was clear realization of the problem and an approach towards its correction! there is much more, and therefore, i feel this new book by vincent ilardi is an especially valuable study directly related to the origins of optometry. in a way, it is a breadth of fresh air in the history of optometry (and ophthalmic history in general). the book will be of special interest to members of ohs. the above discussion only touches on the contents of this scholarly work. watch for it! i received the following e-mail on march 12 about vince ilardi's emerging book! "dear jay, thanks for your kind reply and the nice things you said about my forthcoming book. coming from a former dean of a distinguished school of optometry, your comments have added meaning. i did not know that you had received permission from mary mcdonald, editor at aps, to publish your review. i suppose she feels that your generous comments will serve to publicize the book among experts in the field. please allow me to suggest a couple of changes in your text. i am not an "economic historian", only a historian of renaissance diplomacy. i found the first crucial documents the nearly prescription lenses, graded in five-year intervals, in diplomatic correspondence, which i showed to rosen, who encouraged me to publish them. following the first publication, i found other documents in diplomatic correspondence and private letters, and other documents were sent to me by friends and my life and research interests changed for a while. subsequently i was able to interest leading economic historians to look for mention of spectacles in account books of the age, especially in florence, because of its unique collections of such sources. (for venice 35115 and other places we simply don't have the documents; i am confident that venice, holland, germany and other places produced spectacles in quantity and also quality, but we cannot prove it-we can only surmise). these economic historians, who had previously not noticed entries about spectacles in ledgers largely because they were cheap and did not involve large sums, now found them and sent me dozens and dozens of them, and the latest arrived about a month ago from florence again! they joke with me that i have unpaid research assistance all over europe! in other words, jay, this has been a cooperative enterprise without which it would have been a very different book. and we all have learned in the process particularly in discovering a separate industry in renaissance florence is totally unknown to economic historians. it has been a fascinating story of generous scholarly collaboration seldom equaled in the annals of scholarship. and i don't mind your saying this in your piece, if you wish. in fact, i believe that the topic is too big and the sources are so scattered in all sorts of unlikely places to be handled by one person, especially one that will be 79 years old in may! once again, many thanks and say hello to your bride. ciao, vincenf' j.m.e. lectures on the history of optometry: each fall semester for the last few years, i have given a two hour set of lectures on the history of optometry to first year optometry students. like most people of their age, they are not very interested in history. as an approach to try to maintain their attention, i have presented the material as answers to a series of questions about optometric history. the lecture notes that i make available to the students via the internet are given below. i would appreciate hearing from any ohs members who have any recommendations for improvement in the material or who recognize any inaccuracies or significant omissions or who may have differing interpretations of the historical events. the notes are not presented in a polished narrative form, but rather in a form convenient for lecture presentation. history of optometry david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. lectute notes lectures in v578, public health policy and the optometric profession indiana university why should optometrists know about their history? a. optometry is, and always has been,, a unique and important profession. b. optometry has a lot to be proud of. c. we should learn from the past. those who don't know history will repeat past mistakes. 35116 d. we should have respect for those who have contributed to our profession. 1. what are the origins of optometric science? a. optics there is evidence that lenses for decoration existed a few thousand years bg. the ancient greek author aristophanes wrote in 434 bc about a burning glass. the greek mathematician euclid in about 280 bc wrote about light traveling in straight lines and the equality of the angles of incidence and reflection. he also talked about the concept of the visual cone which is the equivalent of our concept of visual angle today. claudius ptolemy in about 150 ad measured angles of incidence and reflection from air to water but did not discover the exact mathematical relation. johannes kepler (1571-1630)in kepler's 1611 book "dioptrics" there are descriptions of the mathematics of lenses, prisms, and mirrors. kepler presented many of the concepts taught today in geometric optics. sir isaac newton showed how white light could be split into component colors and then recombined into white light. snell discovered the law of refraction in 1621. snell died at 35 years of age, and his contribution was not widely recognized until after his death. inventor of the term diopter monoyer, 1872. b. image formation by the eye empedocles (c. 450 bc)extromission theory, visual ray. leucippus, democritus (5th century bc)intromission theory, eidola. aristotle (4th century bc)mediumistic theory alhazen (965-c.1 041 ad) proved intromission johannes kepler first accurate description of image formation on the retina thomas young (1773-1829)first to measure astigmatism (1801) george siddell airy english astronomer credited with being the first to design and wear a spherocylindricallens to correct astigmatism (published 1827). an optician named fuller made the lenses. at about the same time the mcallister family of opticians in philadelphia made a cylinder lens for a rev. goodrich. goodrich had 35/17 previously obtained minus lenses, but as he explained in a letter to the mcaiiisters, vertical lines appeared clearer without his glasses and horizontal lines appeared clearer with his glasses. based on their correspondence with goodrich, the mcaiiisters made a planoconcave cylindrical lens which goodrich started wearing in may of 1828. c. sensory physiology visual illusions were discussed by the ancient greeks. christoph scheiner (1611) described several observations about the eye, including the size of images reflected from the cornea. his double aperture principle is used in most present-day autorefractors. · the mathematician aguillon published one of the first significant analyses of binocular vision in 1613. william porterfield made an optometer in the mid 1700s and noted the existence of a relationship of accommodation and convergence. thomas youngtrichromatic theory of color vision and crystalline lens as source of accommodation johannes purkinje, czech physiologist, published books on sensory physiology in 1823 and 1826. his name is attached to many phenomena purkinje images, purkinje tree, etc. charles wheatstone invented the mirror stereoscope and in 1838 used it to experiment on binocular vision and stereopsis. hermann von helmholtz (1821-1894), physiologist and physicist, wrote "handbook of physiological optics." according to hofstetter, the background sciences for early optometry were stronger than for any other profession. optometry has incorporated knowledge of optics, mathematics, psychology, and other sciences. and optometry has developed its own literature in clinical practice and vision science. optometry has been the leader in investigations on clinical lens application, non-strabismic binocular vision problems, contact lenses, low vision, role of vision in learning, etc. 2. when were the first spectacles made? the exact origin and inventor of spectacles are unknown. roger bacon in the middle 13th century talked about placing a planoconvex lens on text for magnification. 35/18 spectacles probably originated in the late 13th century in italy. in a manuscript from 1305 ad, a monk from pisa named rivalto wrote, "it is not yet 20 years since there was discovered the art of making eyeglasses." most likely, the first person to make spectacles was an unknown artisan, who tried to keep his methods secret to avoid economic competition. by 1300 ad, there were spectacle manufacturing businesses in italy, germany, and the netherlands. some of the first spectacle frames were made from leather and wood. 3. when did optometry begin? it is often stated that optometry began about 1 00 years ago when the first optometry licensure laws were passed in the us. but this is incorrect. optometry was being practiced for centuries before that, even though the persons providing spectacles did not call themselves optometrists at the time. another extreme viewpoint chester pheiffer suggested that optometry began with the pronouncement "let there be light." (genesis 1 :3) a reasonable time of origin for optometry is when spectacles appeared. conventional wisdoms for use of spectacles developed after the advent of spectacles. 4. when were the first optometry books published? in 1623 benito daza de valdes published a book which covered optics, ocular anatomy, and the use and fitting of spectacles. he included a system of lens grades for lens power, and he presented a table of lens grades according to age in presbyopia. he suggested that minus lenses for myopia should not be so powerful as to cause perceived reduction in image size. daza de valdes also included case reports. william molyneux published an optometry book in ireland in 1692. he suggested using the weakest lens that solves the problem and he discussed the occasional nearpoint problems of myopes when they get new glasses. 5. how is optometry different from medicine? a. legally legal cases in the first half of the 20th century ruled that optometry was separate from medicine. b. origins their origins differ both in the sciences from which they developed and in the shift of tradesmen into the professions. scientific origins: optometry optical sciences; medicine biological sciences 35/19 tradesmen who entered the respective professions: optometryjewelers (they had the tools to work on spectacles); medicinebarbers (they had the equipment with which early surgeries could be done) c. areas of primary expertise optometryoptics, refraction, vision science, non-strabismic binocular vision and accommodative problems medicinesurgery, anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, disease the difference between optometry and medicine today is not as distinct as it once was. until the late 19th century and early 20th century medicine was largely opposed to the use of spectacles. this allowed optometry to develop to fill the need of the public for the prescription of spectacles. one important factor leading to ophthalmologists getting interested in refraction and spectacles was the publication of the book "on the anomalies of accommodation and refraction of the eye," by dutch ophthalmologist f. c. donders in 1864. ophthalmologists have continued to increase their interest in refraction and there are more ophthalmology offices today with spectacle dispensaries than previously. in the 1970s, the scope of optometry expanded to include the traditionally medical areas of eye disease diagnosis and treatment. 6. how did optometry develop in the united states? it is said that peter brown, a pilgrim, brought a pair of eyeglasses to north america in 1620 and thus became the first to wear glasses on this continent. there is little known about the use of spectacles in north america for more than another hundred years. during this period of time spectacles were obtained ready made from europe. spectacles were uncommon and expensive. the year 1783, when john mcallister, sr., a philadelphia whip and cane maker, purchased a number of spectacles, is often considered the beginning of the american optical industry. soon he was making spectacles. in 1811, his son, john mcallister, jr., joined him in business. the mcallister family of opticians continued in business until the early 1900s. because there were few places to get glasses, there was no demand for vision testing. so spectaclemakers became the first refractionists. the mcallister family taught refraction and the optical business to many people, notable among them james w. queen, who started his own business in 1853. other notable early american optometrists were benjamin pike, who came to the us in the early 1800s, and james prentice, who came to the us in 1847. they both were trained in optics in england, and they both trained their sons. james' son, charles prentice, would have an important role in the development of american optometry. 35/20 gradually two types of persons providing spectacles could be discerned: dispensing opticians and refracting opticians. the refracting opticians were essentially optometrists, because they were doing vision testing and writing lens prescriptions. 7. when were the first american optometry licensure laws passed? the first attempt was in 1897 in new york. this effort was a consequence of threats to charles prentice from ophthalmologists for charging a fee for a vision examination. the first law was passed in 1901 in minnesota. all states and the district of columbia had optometry licensure laws by 1924. in comparison, the first medical licensure jaw in the us was passed in the late 1700s, but it was 1895 before almost every state had its own medical licensure board. the first state dental licensure law was passed in 1868 and all states had dental licensure laws by 1900. licensure is a sign of professionalization. 8. what were optometrists called before they were called optometrists? first use of the term optometrist is thought to have been by landolt in 1886 to describe the fitting of glasses. the term became popular in the first two decades of the 20th century. before then optometrists were usually referred to as opticians. in the 19th century there came to be a distinction between refracting opticians and dispensing opticians. refracting opticians became known as optometrists. 9. when was the american optometric association formed? it was formed in 1898 as the american association of opticians. in 1910, the name was changed to the american optical association. by this time, many of its members called themselves optometrists. in 1919, the name was changed to the american optometric association. 1 0. when did the existing us optometry schools start? private schools: •illinois college of optometry traces it roots to 1872 (some of its predecessor schools were northern illinois college of ophthalmology and otology, needles institute, northern illinois college of optometry, monroe college of optometry, chicago college of optometry) •new england college of optometry traces its roots to 1894 as the klein school of optics (newenco was at one time known as massachusetts college of optometry) •southern california college of optometry started in 1904 as the los angeles medical school of ophthalmology and later was known as the los angeles college of optometry 35/21 •pennsylvania college of optometry, 1919 •southern college of optometry, 1932 university schools: •ohio state university, 1914 •university of california berkeley, 1923 •pacific university, 1945 (originally north pacific college of optometry, a private school founded in 1921) •indiana university, 1951 (pre-optometry started in 1951; first professional optometry class started in 1953) •university of houston, 1952 •university of alabama birmingham, 1969 •state university of new york, 1970 •ferris state university (michigan), 197 4 •northeastern state university (oklahoma), 1979 •university of missouri st. louis, 1980 •inter american university of puerto rico, 1981 •nova southeastern university (florida), 1989 the first university optometry school was at columbia university. it opened in 1910 and closed in 1954. 11. how did the use of the doctor of optometry (00) degree develop? various doctor titles were awarded even before 1900. the philadelphia optical college may have been the first to give a doctor's degree to optometry graduates when it awarded the doctor of optics degree in 1889. before about 1920, optometrists generally resisted using the term doctor, but this attitude gradually changed through the 1930s and 1940s; in 1950, all ten of the optometry schools in existence at the time required five years of study past high school. the private schools all offered the od degree. ohio state, university of california berkeley and indiana did not offer the od degree until switching to a six year pre-optometry and optometry curriculum. iu graduated its first od class in 1968 and berkeley graduated its first od class in 1970. 12. what were the original stimuli for optometry to start studying ocular disease, and when were the first optometry diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceutical agent laws passed? original stimuli for optometry to move into the area of ocular disease: a. interest of some optometrists b. optometrists were distributed more evenly across the country and were the only eye/vision practitioner in many rural areas and small towns. optometrists had to refer eye disease cases to either the local general practice physician or to an ophthalmologist that may have been many miles away. optometrists had more knowledge f the eye and 35/22 had better instruments to view the eye (e.g., slit lamp biomicroscope) than the local gp mds, so it was good for rural or small town patients to be treated for minor eye disease by the local optometrist than by the local gp md c. criticism by ophthalmologists ophthalmologists criticized optometrists for being poorly trained in eye disease first dpa lawrhode island, 1971 first tpa lawwest virginia, 1976 despite this change, practices of iu alumni average only about 7% of their income from the treatment of eye diseasessee goss da, grosvenor t. summary of optometry alumni survey. indiana journal of optometry 1998;1 (2):26-28. 13. what were oculists and what lesson does the history of oculists and ophthalmologists provide for optometry today? oculists were eye care physicians who did not have residency training in ophthalmology. optometrists knew more about refraction and prescription of lenses. ophthalmologists knew more about eye surgery and eye disease. so as residency training in ophthalmology became more common, oculists were no longer needed. ophthalmologists were not greatly interested in refraction and eyestrain until the late 19th century and early 20th century. thomas hall shastid quotation in borish article, indiana journal of optometry, fall, 2001, p. 24: "the m.d.s generally would not recognize even the existence of such a thing as eyestrain .... lf there was any worse quackery than this of the regular medical profession, i do not know what it was. yet they called "quacks" those of us who fitted glasses to the eyes of the young .... there were certain traveling "spec-peddlers" who went from house to house fitting glasses and unskillful though they were, relieving many of the simpler cases of eyestrain headache ... such men, speaking generally, excited extreme contempt and bitterness on the part of the "regular'' profession, feelings which grew the more the "spec-peddlers" best these scientific m.d.s at the treatment of eyestrain and its numerous results .... hardly anything that now i can recall served so much to weaken the standing and influence of physicians in any community than this absurd, ridiculous, hard-headed, stubborn ... opposition to the fitting of glasses." along with the "spec-peddlers" that shastid refers to, persons who provided people in need with spectacles included respectable and professional optometrists, but in the minds of many physicians, the optometrists weren't much better than the spec-peddlers. 35/23 as american ophthalmologists started realizing the importance of spectacles, they learned the methods of refraction from optometrists quotation on pages 136-137 of hirsch and wick (the optometric profession) discusses how the mcaiiisters taught oculists how to do refractions. the emphasis on good refraction techniques by optometrists and the precedence of optometrists in refraction has resulted in our pre-eminence in this area to the present day. lesson for today: every profession justifies its existence (in part) by being better at something than any other profession (a niche). we need to maintain our strength in the treatment of refractive problems and eyestrain. 14. what are some major optometric organizations and when did they begin? a. american optometric association mentioned earlier b. american academy of optometry organized in 1922, serves to promote professionalism and high standards of patient care and to disseminate information through its journal, optometry and vision science (previously known as american journal of optometry and archives of the american academy of optometry and then later as the american journal of optometry and physiological optics) offers fellowship status (faao) in general optometry and diplomate status in optometric specialties c. optometric extension program traces its roots to a plan developed by the oklahoma optometric association in 1928 for membership education. it quickly became a nationwide organization. it developed a standardized system of testing with numbered tests that helped promote standardization of testing that was badly needed at the time. today oep emphasizes what is often referred to as behavioral optometry. d. college of optometrists in vision development developed in the early 1970s (see wold history article in j optom vis dev for details) by merger of three small organ1zations. this is an organization of optometrists who practice vision therapy. they offer a certification program. optometrists who complete it are fellows of the college of optometrists in vision development (fcovd). 15. when and how did the optometry program at indiana university begin? discussions began in the 1930s. 35/24 . the person who had the most to do with developing the idea of an optometry school at iu and with leading the effort to convince the appropriate people for the need of the school was john p. davey, an indianapolis optometrist. john davey (1893-1954) originally trained as a lawyer later went to optometry school secretary of indiana board of optometry for many years promoted high standards the board failed many applicants from proprietary schools davey discussed the possibility of a new school with indiana optometrist noah bixler and on fishing trips with wilbur pell, sr. (lawyer for optometry state board) and paul harmon (physiology prof at iu) irvin borish, who had been a professor and administrator at northern illinois college of optometry, entered practice in kokomo in 1944; davey and bixler asked him to work with them to start negotiations to start the school harmon arranged for davey, bixler, borish to meet with herman wells (iu president); wells met with them and asked them to come back as official representatives of the indiana association of optometrists (lao). initially there was resistance from some members of lao, especially those with ties to william needles, owner of the northern illinois college of optometry. a speech by ed cain, 1945 president of the lao, at the1945 lao meeting led to support of almost all optometrists in the state. in 1945,.the lao formed the school committee charged with founding the optometry school. membership on the committee from 1945 to 1951 included john davey (chairman), noah bixler, lrv borish, loyd wedeking, galen kintner, e. c. doering, kenneth kintner, robert tubesing, and c. earl fisher. davey et al. returned to talk to wells as official committee of lao irr 1945; wells appointed herman briscoe, dean of faculties at iu, to handle working with the lao concerning the school and to learn more about the requirements and implications of having an optometry school at iu. in 1947, there was an attempt to pass a law to dedicate a portion of licensure fees to optometry school, but the bill failed. in 1947, briscoe presented a plan for an optometry school at iu to the iu board of trustees and the trustees approved it. but later, due to medical school opposition, the trustees rescinded their motion. indiana optometrists tried unsuccessfully for many months to convince ophthalmologists at iu school of medicine of the importance of an optometry school. briscoe told the indiana optometric association (loa) school committee that they may have to go to the state legislature. they immediately tried in the 1949 session but the bill was held up in committee and the session ended without the bill being voted upon. 35/25 the next legislative session was 1951. the indiana optometrists organized a huge effort to contact all legislators that they knew personally and tell them about the importance of having an optometry school at iu. along with davey and the school committee, virgil mccleary (loa president in 1951) and other indiana optometrists played an important role in organizing the legislative effort. the bill to start the school passed the state house of representatives unanimously (92-0) and passed by overwhelming margin (39-3) in the state senate. pre-optometry classes started at iu in 1951. briscoe hired henry hofstetter to be the first director of the optometry program. hofstetter started in 1952, and worked for a year drawing up curriculum, hiring faculty, ordering equipment, and making other arrangements. the first optometry class at indiana university entered in the fall of 1953. for more on the history of the founding and early years of the optometry school at indiana university, see: goss da. history of the indiana university division of optometry. indiana journal of optometry 2003; 6(2):27-74. references hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948. hofstetter hw. education in optometry. higher education 1950;7(3):25-29. rosen e. the invention of spectacles. j hist med allied sci 1956;11 :13-46,183-218. gregg jr. the story of optometry. new york: ronald press, 1965. hirsch mj, wick re. the optometric profession. philadelphia: chilton, 1968. tannebaum s. william molyneux: dioptrica, a 1 ih century classic. j am optom assoc 1972;43:566-570. " hofstetter hw. optometry of daza de valdes. am j optom physiol opt 1988;65:354357. wold rm. covd: the first twenty-five years. j optom vis dev 1995;26(3):177-189. rosenthal jw. spectacles and other vision aids: a history and guide to collecting. san francisco: norman publishing, 1996. 35/26 enoch jm. early lens use: lenses found in context with their original objects. optom vis sci 1996;73(11 ):707-715. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society 1996;27(3):17-18. park d. the fire within the eye: a historical essay on the nature and meaning of light. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1997. koetting ra. the american optometric association's first century. st. louis: american optometric association, 1997. berish im. optometry: its heritage and its future. indiana j optom 2001 ;4(2):23-31. woodruff ce. the evolution of optometric education in america. jam optom assoc 2001 ;72(12):779-786. d.a.g. the origins of glass: an overview of the origins of glass was published in the spring, 2003 issue of points du vue (issue number 48, pages 42-49) by maurice hamon of saint-gobain, france. the author notes that knowledge of the early production of glass is based on archeological work rather than written descriptions, although the precise time and place of its first creation are not known. important developments included glass blowing, decoloration, and production of flat glass. the author also briefly discusses production of glass for scientific instruments and in various industries. eight references are listed. d.a.g. california optometry history continued: we are again fortunate to have permission to reprint an installment from the california optometry series on the history of optometry in california. this is the fourth part of their series. it was published in the january-february, 2004, issue of california optometry. the article starts on the following page. 35/27 optometry's f:\ · ) screaming eagles, part 4 .. ., ~ vision service plan {) ~ lawrence thft.l, 00, faaoprfsidln•, caurornia orwmnr;c as50ciation on a warm summer day, dr. ren anelle stopped along side the road to quench his thirst with cool lemonade. as he parked his car, he noticed the van next to him displayed a bumper sticker, "screaming eagles." under an umbrella sat an elderly geode­ man also with lemonade. "were you a screaming eagle?" ren asked. "yes i was," he replied somewhat perplexed, "how did you know?" "i saw your bumper sticker and i just want to say thank you!" tears came to the eyes of this old man. no one had ever thanked him before; much less someone who could only have been an infant during world war ii. the lolst airborne division, the screaming eagles, teamed up with the 82nd airborne division and the british in normandy and holland. it was at bastogne that the lolst heroically staved off cold, hunger and the german army during the batde of the bulge. corregidor, leyte, anzio, salerno and bastogne, once strange sounding names, are remem­ bered today for world war ii newscasts which told of the courage and the sacrifices of airborne troops the fourth group of our screaming eagles are roy brandreth, lester foumess, harold mccartor, henry pe­ ters, richard peters, marvin poston, stanley poulsen, bernhardt thai and nathaniel west. these nine individu­ als, in september 1955, filed the articles oflnmrporation for california vision services (cvs), a not-for-profit or­ ganization designed to increase the community's access to quality eyecare, now known as vision service plan. these cali­ fornia optometrists were the first to become devoted ro the principle that vision care was insurable, and that a prepaid vision care pro­ gram offered by professional oprometry was feasible and viable. january. february 2004 the original idea was mnceived by henry peters and bernhardt thai. pre-payment of health care ser­ vices was not an original thought. blue cross and blue shield were already well entrenched, but they on those distant batdefields. men like generals mat­ thew ridgway, maxwell taylor, "slim jim" gavin and tony mcauliffe, who uttered the now-famous "nuts" to the germans at bastogne are but a few of the great airborne leaders whose names are indel­ ibly inscribed on the rolls of these elite units. optometry has its own elite units with many un­ sung heroes, many of whom haven't heard the words ren said this warm, summer day, "thank you!" many of optometry's batdefields also seem quite dis­ tant, but these leaders of the past and their accom­ plishments need not be forgottentheir names will be indelibly inscribed on the rolls of optomet:rfs elite units. this is the fourth part of the series, "optometry's screaming eagles." it chronicles the founding ofvi­ sion service plan. other parts have chronicled the founding of our two schools of optometry in cali­ fornia-. and, of course, the california optometric association. the fifth and final part will cover the founding ofvision west, inc. refused to include vision care. in 1952, hank peters and bernhardt (buzz) thai began meeting regularly. as hank often said, "if a prepaid vision care program can be spawned that works, they'll damned well include it!" the year was 1954. optometrists throughout the state were being urged to give financial support to the newly formed joint council on vision care. there were well known and respected optometrists behind this program. no one could doubt the motivation behind its origins. it included past presidents of the coa and the splinter asso­ ciation, the national association of optometrists. it in­ cluded knowledgeable practitioners looking for a better way to sell optometry to the public. early leaders in the pro­ gram included louis jacques, sr., d. leroy leatart and david kraus, among others. the program obtained the services of glenn mackinnon, whose background was with unions representing the theatrical and movie business. the selling point was that if a group signed with the joint coun­ cil on vision care, services would be provided to their mem­ bers at a given maximum cost. the presentation did nor californiaoptometry · 13 35/28 aerial view of the vision service plan headquarters in rancho eo;dova, california. emphasize a "discount" on fees, but a maximum, which was thought to be more palatable to practitioners. at about this same time, two energetic representatives of bausch and lomb optical company acquired the b & l prescription laboratory in oakland. in order to increase the number of prescription units going through theidabo­ ratory, they devised a plan, which was first known as the dodd-haldren vision plan. the essentials of this plan were that .~1 doctors doing business with this lab were eligible to p.arucipate, that there was a discount on professional ser­ vices for any member of a group that signed with dodd­ haldren, that there would be no registration or member­ ship fees for the group, and that all prescriptions would be fabricated in the dodd-haldren laboratory. while the doc­ tors were to discount their fees, the laboratory did not. when the dodd-haldren laboratory eventually failed, mann optical company of oakland picked up this pro­ gram. here, the program underwent a major change as mann optical management realized that greater optomet­ ric participation was needed, so they organized a profes­ sional board of directors. remember that hank peters and buzz thai had begun meeting two years earlier and had convinced the leader­ ship of the alameda and contra costa counties optom­ etr~c society (acccos) of the need for both a public re­ lations program and a group vision care program to fur­ ther optometry's interests. to meet these needs, the ~ccc?s established community vision services for pub­ he relations and a committee to investigate the possibility of prepaid vision care programs. under the direction of the acccos president, richard peters, investigation tasks were split between these two committees. roy brandreth, an oakland optometrist, chaired one committee. the other phase of the study was under the already existing indus­ trial vision committee, chaired by bernhardt thai of ber­ k~l?. one committee evolved from these two, the prepaid vision care committee. this committee consisted ofbuzz thai as chairman, and roy brandreth, richard peters, henry peters, marvin poston (all of oakland), harold mccartor (hayward) and nathaniel west (berkeley). a consultant to the committee was philip breck. numerous meetings were held with leaders within la­ bor and management, as well as with those in the insur­ ance industry. labor and management indicated interest, but offered no real encouragement. both sides felt that af­ ter medical plans were instituted in all programs, increases in pension plans were needed, and that these increases or 14 • californiaoptometry 35/29 increased medical benefits (even perhaps, dental coverage) :~re of higher priority than would be a vision care plan. 1 hose that need eye care can get it on their own" was a prevalent attitude. insurance company representatives felt that eye care and glasses were neither insurable nor actuari­ ally predictable. not discouraged, the committee made contact with the university of california institute of in­ dustrial relations. here, they found some encouragement and through the efforts of hank peters, valuable contacts were made. buzz thai resolicitted local industrial leaders and came back with assurances that once something for­ mal was ready to present, they would certainly study the plan and consider its adoption. within weeks, buzz thai had three local manufactur­ ing plants on industrial vision programs that covered, for the first time, more than the dispensing of only safety eyewear. one such plant, tinsley laboratories, had a safety­ dress eyewear program. tinsley laboratories paid for re­ fractions and either safety or dress eyewear. if the patient required safety glasses for the job, that is what t msley paid for, and the individual would have to pay for dress eyewear, but not the examination or refraction. while dr. thai had been discussing a prepaid program for tinsley (as precision optical manufacturers of spotting scopes, tv lenses, astro-­ nomical telescopes and mirrors, they had almost eighty per­ cent of employee.~ wearing ophthalmic devices), they ulti­ mately opted for the "pay as you go" plan. soon, they signed contracts in fresno, monterey, santa rosa and other com­ munities which made a two county program (alameda and contra costa) no longer feasible; thus, a change in status to a 9201 corporation and involvement by the california optometric association by resolution of the house of delegates in february 1957 in supporting a statewide panel. george rice was hired as cvs's first executive director and coa began loaning cvs $20,000 per year for a maxi· mum of three years. additional fmancing came from a fif­ teen percent withholding on professional fees due doctors. the first multi-state contract was signed in april1958with the masters, mates and pilots local90. claims were paid in the port cities of boston, new york, philadelphia, new orleans, galveston, port­ land and seattle. in 1960, george rice resigned as executive director due ro cancer and cvs hired his replacement, charles garoni. in september 1958, ownership was of· john anthony 0' donne/, pictured here, named ceo of c a/ironia vi5ion service5 (today, vsp) in april of 1967 january • february 2004 fered to the american optometric association; however, other states were not yet convinced of a need for a cvs­ type organization, and the offer was declined. by 1967, it became apparent that the growth of pre­ paid vision care would soon overwhelm the abilities of the original founders who, at the same time, had full time optometric practices. the coa board appointed a spe­ cial committee to oversee an evaluation of the prepaid vision care concept. the committee, chaired by charles brown, included buzz thai and len osias. 'the committee hired an independent consultant and a report followed. the most significantrecommendation was to hire a full time ceo. this resulted in buzz thai chaired the search committee that resulted in dr. harry levin, then presi­ dentofcys, hiring john anthony o'donnel as ceo in april 1967 and california vision services never stopped growing. john immediately signed the california teach­ ers' association. the company changed its name from cvs to vision service plan (vsp) to reflect an expansion to­ wards a national network. by the mid-1980s, regional offices were opened in new york city, atlanta, washing­ ton d.c., st. louis, seattle, indianapolis and dallas. in 1986, the california optometric association, which owned the only share of stock in the company, totally re­ linquished its ownership and control. the company has taken a joyous ride through the decades. vsp has grown from a small, prepaid vision care company in california, serving school districts, labor and management trust funds, to an organization that provides eyecare services to one in ten employees in america. today, vision service plan is a billion-dollar business. during the first four years that cvs was in existence, its founding president never had a cvs patient. finally, the ice was broken and an appointment made. it was for a dependent son of an hod carrier who came in with his mother. with great amusement, dr. thai remembers what a huge mistake was made when that appoin tmem was sched­ uled; it turned out that the mother's expectations were that her son was to have a circumcision at that visit. when asked about his recollections from those early ~-=-=---. .. .___,_ ..__...__ .. ___ """' -·-----·--....-.-r--._ .. _______ _ ._---~ www.vsp.com keeps vison service plan (vsp) in touch with today's increasing online community january· february 2004 years. dr. thai said, "during the early days of formation and planning, the small group of us met so frequently that we half expected to find door locks at our homes changed. instead, we found understanding spouses· who were able to feed a group of seven or eight breakfast, lunch or dinner at odd hours. the support that we received from our families car­ ried right over to the doctors in our optomet­ ric society. they ponied up money to finance the project initially and continued to pay monthly dues, even though there was no pro­ gram, only a paper organization. i would judge that seventy percent of the doctors in the alameda and contra costa counties optom­ etric society supported this vision." the company, now known as vsp, started small and struggled in the early years as it set the stage for high quality group vision services. the company struggled with paying claims at times and often withheld payment to optomc etrists, because there was no money in the claims account. as a testament to the manage· ment, employees and mission of the organization, roger valine, current president & chief executive officer of vision service plan california optometrists supported the company in the early days. they saw the potential which continues to unfold as vsp embarks on the new millennium with a new identity, an embrace of technology and a crystal clear desire to provide the best vision services anywhere in the world. california0ptometry·15 35/30 history of optometry in the u.s. army: a twenty-five-page document covering the history of optometry in the united states army is available on the internet at http://history.amedd.army.mil/ameddcorp/medicalservicecorps/optometryginn.htm. the author is richard v.n. ginn, col, usa, ret. he is listed as being in the office of medical history, office of the surgeon general, department of the army. the document is dated march 31, 2003. it is an expanded version of three pages devoted to the topic in his 536-page book entitled "the history of the u.s. army medical service corps." prior to world war i, the army did not provide soldiers with spectacles. in world war i, there was no provision for optometrists to serve in the army professionally, but it was possible for them to enlist as medical officers and hope their hospital commanding officer would take advantage of their expertise. in world war ii, optometrists were recognized professionally, but were frustrated by the fact that they were not commissioned officers. in 1947, congress passed a law establishing the army medical service corps (msc), with optometry as one of its four sections, along with pharmacy, supply, and administration; medical allied sciences; and sanitary engineering. in september, 1947, captain john w. sheridan, who had been an army ordnance officer during world war ii, became the first optometrist commissioned in the medical service corps. however, enlisted optometrists continued to be used unti11957. in 1968, the army started placing optometrists in combat divisions, and at one point there were 28 optometrists in vietnam. this history continues through the post-cold war period. the author notes that "the development of optometry as a recognized profession and a component of the army medical service corps was an evolutionary process that began during world war i, and continued throughout the twentieth century in war and peace. time and again, the united states found that the support of soldiers in combat necessitated a medical team that included officers skilled in administrative and scientific specialties, such as optometry, that were not incorporated within the professional purview of physicians, dentists, nurses and veterinarians. the emergence of those specialties and their eventual amalgamation into the msc as members of a permanent organization was evidence of that need. the optometry story, as was the case for other specialties, was .. not a straight line development, but rather an up and down saga of gains and losses as an emerging profession eventually gained recognition and acceptance." the document includes nine pages of reference notes. d.a.g. 35/31 the vision of degas: "the late vision of degas" is the title of an article in the spring, 2002 issue of points du vue (issue number 46, pages 36-44) by michael marmor, professor of ophthalmology at stanford university medical center. the author examines the likely levels of visual acuity loss of painter edgar degas (1834-1917), and how it may have affected his painting and his own perception of his work. degas had poor vision with his right eye throughout much of his life. his vision in his left eye started declining in his later years. the cause of his visual difficulties is unknown, but marmor speculates that it was "probably some type of maculopathy." marmor estimated degas' visual acuity at various stages by studying correspondence mentioning degas' visual problems, the changes in his handwriting over time, and the spacing of shading lines in his paintings. the author also did a computer simulation of how a person with 20/200 visual acuity would see one of degas' late paintings, as an illustration of how degas may have seen his own work at that time. marmor is co-editor of the book "the eye of the artist" (1997) and is the author of the recently published book "degas through his own eyes." d.a.g. managing editor and contributing editor: david a. goss (school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, u.s.a.; email: dgoss@indiana.edu) contributing editors: douglas k. penisten (college of optometry, northeastern state university, tahlequah, ok 74464, u.s.a.); jay m. enoch (school of optometry, mail code 2020, university of california at berkley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020 u.s.a.; email: jmenoch@socrates.berkeley.edu) optometric historical society website: http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/optohiso.html 35/32 2004-35-02-001 2004-35-02-002 2004-35-02-003 2004-35-02-004 2004-35-02-005 2004-35-02-006 2004-35-02-007 2004-35-02-008 2004-35-02-009 2004-35-02-010 2004-35-02-011 2004-35-02-012 2004-35-02-013 2004-35-02-014 2004-35-02-015 2004-35-02-016 2004-35-02-017 2004-35-02-018 2004-35-02-019 2004-35-02-020 hindsight journal of optometry history january,2007 volume 38, number 1 !nolana unive:·::-~. ' apr 0 ~. 2007 )ptomethy librafl( official publication of the optometric historical society hindsight: journal of optometry history publishes material on the history of optometry and related topics. as the official publication of the optometric historical society, hindsight: journal of optometry history supports the purposes and functions of the optometric historical society. the purposes of the optometric historical society, according to its by-laws, are: • to encourage the collection and preservation of materials relating to the history of optometry, • to assist in securing and documenting the recollections of those who participated in the development of optometry, • to encourage and assist in the care of archives of optometric interest, • to identify and mark sites, landmarks, monuments, and structures of significance in optometric development, and • to shed honor and recognition on persons, groups, and agencies making notable contributions toward the goals of the society. officers and board of trustees of the optometric historical society for 2007: president: melvin wolfberg, 3095 buckinghammock trl., vero beach fl 32960-4968, ilovesylvan@bellsouth.net vice-president: jerome j. abrams secretary-treasurer: bridget kowalczyk, international library, archives, and museum of optometry, 243 north lindbergh boulevard, st. louis, mo 63141; btkowalczyk@aoa.org trustees: walterw. chase jay m. enoch chuck haine douglas k. penisten the official publication of the optometric historical society was previously titled: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1970-1991 (volumes 1-22), and hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society, 1992-2006 (volumes 23-37). hindsight: journal of optometry history begins in 2007 with volume 38. on the cover: the drawing represents ohs for optometric historical society: the 0 an elementary schematic of an eye, the h three intersecting pairs of spectacles, and the s a representation of a light wave with the greek letter lambda indicating one wavelength. the drawing artist was diane goss. hindsight: journal of optometry history january, 2007 volume 38, number 1 editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu contributing editors: jay m. enoch, school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, ca 94720-2020; jmenoch@berkeley.edu douglas k. penisten, college of optometry, northeastern state ~~ersity, tahlequah, ok 7 4464; penisten@nsuok.edu ana universi i , table of contents apr 0 2 2007 optometry library ohs news .................................................................................................. 2 the status of the study of optometry history, david a. goss ................................ 3 hans goldmann's year in st. louis: daily research bench rounds with the master!, jay m. enoch .............................................................................................. 8 the 1921 rochester school of optometry yearbook, david a. goss .................... 14 the story behind optometric management magazine, irving bennett ................... 17 book review: the last man who knew everything: thomas young, the anonymous polymath who proved newton wrong, explained how we see, cured the sick, and deciphered the rosetta stone, among other feats of genius, david a. goss ........ 23 instructions to authors ................................................................................ 25 ohs membership application form ............................................................... 27 journal subscriptions are registered by joining the optometric historical society. see page 27 for a membership application form. the cost for institutional or library membership is the same as for personal membership. manuscripts submitted for publication should be sent to the editor at the postal address or email address above. paper copy submissions sent by postal service will be considered, but email is the preferred means of submission for publication. a word document attached to an email message is the preferred means of electronic submission. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 1 ohs news officers and board members congratulations to walter chase and jay enoch for each being elected to serve another term on the ohs board. listed below are the ohs executive board members and the officers for 2007. the year of expiration of each board member is given in parentheses. president. ...................... melvin wolfberg (2009) vice-president. ............... jerry abrams (2009) secretary-treasurer ......... bridget kowalczyk (2008) trustees ........................ walter chase (201 0) jay enoch (201 0) chuck haine (2008) doug penisten (2007) the term of board member doug penisten will expire at the end of this year. please submit your nominations for this board position by march 31, 2007, to david a. goss, hindsight editor school of optometry indiana university bloomington, in 47405 usa or email: dgoss@indiana.edu by-laws change twenty-four ohs members responded to the ballot enclosed with the october, 2006 issue of hindsight. the results were: for-23, against-0, abstain-1. article ill, section 4 of the ohs by-laws will now read: the dues in this society shall be $25.00 per calendar year for regular membership, $50.00 per calendar year for patron membership, and $250.00 for a lifetime membership. change in this publication and enclosed announcement this issue of hindsight marks its conversion from hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society to hindsight: journal of optometry history. we hope that this change will contribute in some small way to the study and preservation of optometry history. enclosed with this issue is an announcement concerning the new form of hindsight and giving information on membership in ohs. please consider sending copies of this announcement to potentially interested colleagues or posting it in an appropriate location. an electronic version of the announcement can be obtained from the editor. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 2 the status of the study of optometry history david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu abstract the status of optometry history was examined by searching online databases for publications on the history of optometry and the history of other health care professions and some medical specialties. there have been many fewer publications on the history of optometry than on most other health care professions or on medical specialties. further, there are common misconceptions about optometry history even among its own practitioners. the importance of the study of optometry history is emphasized and suggestions to improve its status are discussed. key words: history of healthcare, history of optometry. background optometry is an independent health care profession that has contributed to the comfort and well-being of mankind, has greatly expanded and enhanced its educational requirements, and has made important scientific contributions in the remediation of visual anomalies. the unique heritage of optometry offers an interesting example of how a trade learned by apprenticeship has blossomed into a mature scholarly profession. but is the history of optometry being studied and communicated adequately? this paper will attempt to assess the status of the study of optometry history. numbers of papers published on optometry history one way to examine the state of scholarship on optometry history is determine the numbers of published papers on the topic and compare that to numbers for comparable disciplines. numbers of papers were derived from two online sources: the history of science, technology, and medicine database and pubmed. first we will consider the results from the history of science, technology, and medicine database. this online resource contains the complete contents of four major annual bibliographies for the history of science and health care: isis current bibliography of the history of science ( 1975 to the present), the current bibliography in the history of technology (1987 to the present), bibliografia ltaliana di storia della scienza (1982 to the present), and current work in the history of medicine (1991 to the present). the items indexed in the database include journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations. keyword searches were done on january 10, 2007 using the names of various health care professions and various medical specialties. no limits, such as by language or type of publication, were used. the numbers of items retrieved for each of the keywords listed below are as follows: hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 3 audiology25 nephrology37 4 nursing 3492 optometry 82 otolaryngology 431 pharmacy4516 psychiatry4323 dentistry 1504 neurology1838 ophthalmology 958 orthopedics481 pediatrics1303 podiatry39 psychology8996 optometry being the third largest health care profession behind medicine and dentistry, one might expect the number of publications to be similar for dentistry and optometry. however, the number of publications on the history of dentistry was more than 18 times the number of publications on the history of optometry! one might also expect the number of publications on ophthalmology history and on optometry history to be similar, but the number on the history of ophthalmology was more than 11 times the number of publications on the history of optometry! three periodicals were responsible for 61 of the 82 items on the history of optometry. these periodicals and the corresponding numbers of items were: journal of the american optometric association (23), hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society (22), and optometry and vision science ( 16). in contrast, for ophthalmology, there were numerous different journals that featured at least somewhat regular historical publications. in pubmed, a search was performed on "history of optometry." such a search on pubmed is interpreted as "history and optometry," thus including variants of case history as a subject heading. the results of the search were individually examined and the titles which appeared to be about the history of optometry were counted. only english language articles were included. similarly, searches were done for history of dentistry and history of ophthalmology. the ten year period from 1997 to 2006 was searched on january 10 and 11, 2007. the numbers of articles found published over that ten year period were as follows: history of optometry44 history of ophthalmology376 history of dentistry 215 here also there is a disparity between numbers of publications on the history of optometry and other disciplines. there were 8.5 times as many articles on the history of ophthalmology than on the history of optometry, and 4.9 times as many on the history of dentistry than on the history of optometry. periodicals on the history of health care another gauge used to examine how the study of optometry history compares to the study of the history of other health care professions was to determine whether optometry and other professions have comparable numbers of history publications. hindsight: journal of optometry history, is the only serial devoted specifically to hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 4 optometry history. the history of science, technology, and medicine online database was searched for titles of periodicals covering the history of health care. also a book chapter on library collection development in the area of health care history was examined.1 the following is a list, which should not be considered exhaustive, of the some of the periodicals in various professions: dentistry dental historian, journal of the history of dentistry (formerly bulletin of the history of dentistry), newsletter of the history of dentistry research group medicine bulletin of the history of medicine, canadian bulletin of medical history, clio medica, indian journal of history of medicine, journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences, medical historian, medical history, social history of medicine, plus periodicals dealing with various medical specialties, such as history of paediatrics, history of psychiatry nursing history of nursing society journal, international history of nursing journal, newsletter of the canadian association for the history of nursing, nursing history review pharmacy pharmaceutical historian, pharmacy history australia, pharmacy in history there do not appear to be any periodicals specifically on the history of ophthalmology, but as noted above, numerous ophthalmology journals have regular contributions on historical topics. the search did not uncover any periodicals on the history of podiatry or the history of audiology. so using this parameter, optometry appears to be ahead of audiology and podiatry, but again behind other health care professions. attitudes and misconceptions about optometry history perhaps the most pervasive misconception about optometry is that it is a new occupation, beginning about a hundred years ago.2 it sometimes seems to be portrayed as suddenly springing to life with the passage of licensure laws in the united states in the early twentieth century. spectacles were invented in the late thirteenth century. 3.4 hirsch and wick5 identified the beginning of the fourteenth century as the approximate time of the start of "early optometry." one landmark that clearly shows optometry as being centuries old is the book by daza de valdes, published in 1623, which discusses aspects of vision, spectacles, and optometric procedure, including case history, test measurements, analysis, and prescription. 6 one disturbing attitude that seems all too common among optometrists is that it is only in recent years that optometry has become a sophisticated profession worth practicing. the apologetic stance of many optometrists about the history of the profession may reflect an ignorance of the true nature of the development of the profession. hofstetter7 noted that his studies of optometry history showed that "clinical optometry did indeed have an honorable heritage, albeit under the rubrics of ophthalmic optician, sight-testing, spectaclemaker, and other identities. the history of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 5 spectaclemakers guilds,.the role of spectacle styling, the appearance of spectacles in classic oil paintings, reference to spectacles in early literature, the long-prevailing opposition to optical correction by medical authorities, the involvement of religious scruples, ophthalmic instrument inventions, apprenticeships, optical schools, and dozens of other bits of optometricana clearly document optometry's centuries-long existence and emergence from a prestigious and sophisticated handicraft to its present academic stature, a truly proud history which includes many prominent and accomplished personalities." an observation that one can make about ophthalmology and optometry publications is that there are many more published biographical sketches of well known former ophthalmologists than of notable former optometrists. it may be possible that there is more existing biographical data for ophthalmologists. but perhaps this is another instance of where the often apologetic frame of mind of optometrists concerning their professional forebears has negative consequences. why should we be concerned about the study of optometry history? based on the information collected, it appears that optometry isn't doing a good job studying, presenting, or appreciating its history. is it worth the effort to do a better job? i believe it is, and here are the reasons why: ( 1 ) the most obvious reason is that we learn from the past. there have been those who have tried to dissuade me from the study of optometry history, saying that is a waste of time to be looking back, what we need to be doing is looking ahead. to me, it can be an enormous waste of time to be looking ahead without also looking back. perhaps it was best stated by george santayana (1863-1952): 'those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."8 (2) learning about the history and development of a profession teaches one about its ethics and its perennial problems, about the cultural atmosphere that has shaped it, and about the nature of professional life. (3) understanding the unique heritage of optometry can give its students and practitioners pride in their profession. penisten2 noted that "what you know about your own history, and that includes professional history, influences not only your feelings for your profession, but also your own self-image." (4) by communicating the legacy of optometry's contributions to society, it will be better respected as a profession. (5) it provides a means of showing honor and respect to the persons who have contributed to the profession and to human visual welfare. it can also help to advance correct attribution for such contributions. (6) lastly, history well told can be fun and interesting. what can we do to promote the study and appreciation of optometry history? we can individually, as well as collectively as the optometric historical society, take steps to improve the status of the study and appreciation of optometry history. some of these steps could include: (1) attempt to advance in our colleagues and students a correct knowledge, a pride, and an appreciation of the unique heritage of optometry. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 6 (2) encourage other optometrists, vision scientists, and interested persons to join the optometric historical society or provide them with gift memberships. encourage libraries of optometry, vision science, or ophthalmology to subscribe to hindsight: journal of optometry history. (3) write your personal professional reminiscences for publication. write for publication your remembrances of significant instructors, influential colleagues, or other persons participating in the development of optometry. we would be pleased to publish appropriate recollections in hindsight, for documentation of such is included in the purposes of the optometric historical society. ( 4) volunteer to be a contributing editor to hindsight and make at least one contribution per year. (5) persons who are inclined to do historical research should do so and publish their findings. (6) encourage institutions and organizations to maintain suitable archival collections. give items of historical interest to an appropriate archival repository. i can personally attest to the importance of archival materials for the conduct of historical research. in 1996, hofstetter7 observed that "hindsighfs role is to dispel our depressing ignorance of optometric history." let us rededicate our efforts to that end. references 1. zinn nw. special collections: history of health science collections, oral history, archives, and manuscripts. in: darling l, ed. handbook of medical library practice, 4th ed., val. ill. chicago: medical library association. 1988:469-572. 2. penisten ok. optometric historywho cares? optom vis sci 1 993; 70:628630. 3. rosen e. the invention of spectacles. j hist med allied sci 1956; 11:13-46, 183-218. 4. letocha ce. the origin of spectacles. surv ophthalmol1986; 31:185-188. 5. hirsch mj, wick re. the optometric profession. philadelphia: chilton, 1968:2. 6. hofstetter hw. optometry of daza de valdes (1591-ca. 1636). am j optom physiol opt 1988; 65:354-357. 7. hofstetter hw. the ohs mission. hindsight: newsletter of the optometric historical society 1996; 27:17-18. 8. mackay al. a dictionary of scientific quotations. bristol, uk; adam hilger, 1991:217. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 7 hans goldmann's golden year in st. louis: daily research bench rounds with the master! jay m. enoch school of optometry, university of california at berkeley, berkeley, california 947202020, jmenoch@berkeley.edu. abstract the late prof. dr. hans goldmann took a we/l-earned year of sabbatical/eave, shortly after having stepped down as rector magnificus of the university of berne, switzerland and from his chairmanship of the department of ophthalmology in the school of medicine at the university of berne, switzerland. hans spent that sabbatical year at the department of ophthalmology at washington university medical school in st. louis, mo. he and bernard becker (and many of us in the department) were long­ time associates and friends. and what a year it was! those who were present still speak of it with awe and respect. what fun, what excitementwhat work! each of us had a variety of fascinating personal interactions with hans. however, a single set of salient experiences stands out in all of our memories! early­ on, he established a daily routine of going from laboratory to laboratory on the 1 dh and 11th floors of mcmillan hospital in order to conduct daily bench rounds with each of the individual faculty/investigators. mornings, he would appear in a well pressed and fresh lab coat, greet us with a gleaming smile, and upon entry into your lab, he would ask, "huh, huh, so what's new today?" and it was expected that you would have new data, or experimental results to show to him! he would then ask penetrating questions about your work, techniques employed, the data presented, etc., as well as make suggestions for improvements. he also usually had some kind words of encouragement. if you did not have something new, he had something new and exciting to tell you of his own! questions on the latter were almost always considerably more difficult to answer, than if you had something new to offer! as a result, the research faculty and staffs were literally driven to a creative frenzy in order to have something new to discuss or to demonstrate when the good professor made his anticipated daily entry into the laboratory. the faculty operated in high gear. every morning, the techs would lean out of our doors, and indicate to their investigator toiling away, (the is coming very soon; he is in the next lab now!" oh, to finish in time! key words: (the late) prof. and rector emeritus hans goldmann; department of ophthalmology, washington u. medical school in (st. louis, mo); u. berne department of ophthalmology (switzerland); glaucoma; utrocular discriminations = the ability to distinguish which eye was stimulated by light. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 8 sac kg round hans goldmann (1899-1991, figure 1) was a certainly one of the world's most outstanding ophthalmologists. he had incredibly broad interests and an amazingly keen intellect. his personal library, contained on shelves which ran from floor to ceiling, adorned most rooms in his lovely berne home (and much of his second/vacation home in brissago ). they contained a remarkable collection of all manner of books on ophthalmology and medicine in general, on vision science, on optics, and on a variety of interests of hans (many of his interests lay outside of medicine and optics). the author had the extra-ordinary good fortune to spend extended time periods in his company and at his homes for more than a decade. while technically the writer was not his student, he came to regard goldmann's contributions to his understanding of many issues as seminal. for eight years the author served as the liaison between ongoing nih sponsored research organized and administered by dr. murray goldstein of the nindb and its successor organizations. this activity was jointly undertaken by the department of ophthalmology at washington university in st. louis, chaired by professor bernard becker, and by the department of ophthalmology at the unversity of berne, switzerland, chaired by professor hans goldmann. much of this work addressed glaucoma, but certainly not all of it. figure 1. hans goldmann, 1899-1991. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 9 in this role, for the better part of a month each year, the writer was often invited as a guest in hans and erna goldmann's home(s) either in the swiss capital, berne, or in brissago which was on la go di maggiori near the italian border. for some time, the goldmann's owned two homes in brissago, one directly on lago di maggiori, and a second home some distance up the hillside from the lake. it was in the latter home that the goldmann's lived when they were at the lake. on occasion, the goldmann's kindly offered becky and the writer the pleasure of staying in the lakeside home. it was common for hans and the author to spend quite a number of days working together during each visit. they discussed and debated data, protocols, approaches to problems, etc. together goldmann and the author would take walks, visit local restaurants, or often, hans' wife erna would make rather simple but always tasty meals. after dinner, hans would build a small fire in a quiet niche outside his hillside house overlooking lago di maggiore, and together he and the writer would look-out across this body of water at the twinkling lights of the scattered houses and at the myriad of stars above. hans often brought out a large woven-raffia(?) covered bottle of brolio chianti reserva or a fine white wine from orvieto to be shared, and he would sing folk songs of his native czechoslovakia and of the swiss cantons well into the night! for the writer, these were golden times. enoch, the writer, assumes bernard becker, robert moses, and probably others of the st. louis group had similar close relationships. the two faculties were indeed very close! robert moses from st. louis took a one-year sabbatical in berne with goldmann. bob used to tell of his first day(s) in berne, at which time he was invited to join professor goldmann when he conducted regular bed rounds. after introductory presentation of a case by a resident, goldman commented at some length on the patient's management. apparently bob moses (as he might do in st. louis), said something like, "but professor have you considered the xyz approach .... " immediately following this question, the assembled group of students, residents, fellows and faculty emitted an audible gasp! apparently, it was unheard-of for someone to question herr professor. knowing hans well, he loved it! franz fankhauser, one of the senior faculty at berne (latter quite famous in his own right!), worked both with the late paul cibis and the author during his extended stay in st. louis. franz was the writer's first post-doc (or was the writer hisdoes it matter?)the author taught fankhauser much about retinal optics and retinal functional properties; franz brought the writer a gift from hans, an advanced version of a haag­ strait quantitative perimeter, and taught the author how to use it properly! franz's first wife verena served as the authors's lab technician (sadly, this lovely lady later died of cancer); baldur gloor, and others of the berne group spent extended time periods in st. louis as well. thus, when hans goldmann came to st. louis on his sabbatical, there were numerous existing close friendships, often based on common interests. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 10 there is uncertainty as to the precise year when goldmann spent his sabbatical year in st. louis. the writer consulted bernard becker and franz fankhauser on this matter. it was before publication of a joint research paper by goldmann and the writer1 was published in june, 1969, but it was after hans retired from his administrative posts in about 1964. hans goldmann's daily bench rounds shortly after his arrival in st. louis, hans started to conduct "daily research bench rounds" (for want of a better term) in the department of ophthalmology at washington university in st. louis. this started out rather casually, but, in a rather short time, this developed into a daily ritual which endured until he returned home and it was enthusiastically embraced by the faculty as a whole, both individually and collectively. we loved it. the writer had never heard of, nor had he ever seen such a thing! it all appeared so very simple. that said, the writer assures the reader it was no simple matter. the diversity of active research projects at st. louis was broad indeed, and the breadth of knowledge needed to engage in the sort of give and take daily performed by goldmann was very extensive. every morning, hans would appear in a well pressed and fresh lab coat, greet each of us in our own laboratory with a gleaming smile, and ask enthusiastically, "huh, huh, so what's new today?" and it was expected that you would have new data, or newly determined experimental results to show to him! he would then ask penetrating questions about your work, techniques employed, the data presented, etc., as well as make suggestions for improvements. he also usually had some kind words of encouragement. if you didn't have something new, he had something new, different, and exciting to tell you of his own! questions on his new thoughts were almost always considerably more difficult to answer, than if you had something new to offer! as a result, the research faculty and staffs were literally driven into a creative frenzy in order to have something new to discuss or to demonstrate when the good professor made his anticipated daily entry into the laboratory. all of us operated in highest gear. every morning, the individual technicians would lean out of their doors, and indicate to their investigator toiling away, "he is coming, he is in the next lab now (the pathology lab, bob moses' lab, nancy newman's lab, etc.)" oh, to be able to finish in time! it was really something to see three or four techs leaning out their individual laboratory doors in anticipation. the writer never has seen the equivalent activity performed before or since. what if you did not have something new? it is useful to present, as an example, an instance when the author did not have something new to discuss with hans. on one such occasion, hans posed approximately the following question to the author, "if i shine a light into one of your two eyes, and you were not told which eye had been stimulated, could you state properly which of the two eyes had been stimulated/excited?" in candor, the writer did not know the answer. hans then went on to explain, in many species not having binocular vision, hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page ii the individual animal's survival depended upon correctly making such judgments. with advance of the eyes forward in the head, and both eyes facing forward, binocularity evolved. hence, there was reduced need for this particular response capability. thus, goldmann properly raised the question, did modem humans retain this particular ancient perceptual capability or skill? goldmann and the writer considered this interesting question from a variety of points of view, and together, they decided to put a number of questions to the test. it turned out that this was not a simple task to conduct, because one had to rule out quite a number of clues available to the observer. further, as we got more deeply into the matter, we looked not only at foveal and central retinal responses, but also at visual performance at different loci in the visual field. and we learned that we needed to determine if there was a practice and/or learning component associated with this form of visual stimulation. in time, we determined that most individuals retain some degree of this ancient capability, that it proved to be stronger in the fovea and in central vision than in the peripheral visual field, that performance was related to stimulus duration, and, to some extent, practice enhanced this response capability. additionally, it proved not to be a simple task to manage these data sets statistically, and without bias. in the end, quite a satisfactory result was obtained.1 naturally, goldmann and the author asked whether previous work had been done on this and/or associated topics? a question arose as to what key word or words one needed to use in order to access available literature. it turned out that a number of prior psychophysical studies had been conducted on related topics.1-3 such judgments are termed utrocular discriminations. utrocular discrimination was defined as the ability to distinguish which eye was stimulated by a luminous stimulus. this term is taken from the latin uter, or utero which translates variously as (1) one of two, (2) one from two, or (3) which one of two? to prevent confusion, our paper in (then) investigative ophthalmology was titled, "the ability to distinguish which eye was stimulated by light."1 smith2 wrote a then good review of existing studies relating to this topic, and he credited von helmholtz3 with first consideration of aspects of the problem (in 1866). glaucoma the author would be remiss if he didn't mention his many discussions with hans goldmann on the general topic of the glaucomas during these several years. as noted, hans was a multi-dimensional individual/ophthalmologist; glaucoma was only one of his interests, but it was indeed a major one. so saying, he often expressed to the author his own uncertainties regarding our collective understanding of these disorders, per se; as well as matters associated with detection and management of the glaucomas. most properly, goldmann is well remembered for his many contributions to a wide variety of issues associated with studies addressing these diseases. frans fankhauser and sylwia kwasnieuska recently wrote a major tract titled "hans goldmann: the legacy of a titan. "4 the author urges the reader to seek that source for extended citations to the contributions of hans goldmann. fankhauser also called the author's attention to hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 12 another article he wrote on goldmann in ophthalmic surgery. 5 goldmann was clearly troubled by the then definitions of glaucoma and our less than complete understanding of these disorders as a group. he would often return to debates on the glaucomas, per se, and particularly to consideration of either or both, ocular hypertension, and low tension glaucoma. [here, the author quotes from his obituary of prof. goldmann published in 1994, rather than to try to reconstruct these thoughts from memory over an even more extended time period.]6 "he (goldmann) worried if ocular hypertension was, in part, a 'quiet period' in the development of glaucoma and he sought to determine how to differentiate the initiation of such a quiet period before overt manifestations occurred. also, he did not believe there was some magic number of measured intraocular pressure which signaled the need for initiation of treatment for open-angle glaucoma. however, he did establish a practical protocol for the university eye clinic at berne. that is, 22.5 mm hg was used as the dividing line. he encouraged his associate, theo schmidt, to conduct extended statistical studies on probability distributions designed to differentiate normal from abnormal intraocular pressures. however, he felt the issue to be complex, and the measurements used were often too imprecise to use as the sole means for discriminating the presence of glaucoma and for defining therapy." summary professor goldmann, during his sabbatical in st. louis, succeeded in enriching, engaging, and greatly stimulating the ophthalmic research enterprise at washington university in a most gracious and remarkable way. the writer sought to adopt a number of his methods in his own laboratory in his own day to day interactions with his students, but he could never claim to have succeeded in the manner that hans did during that golden year in st. louis! it was not some-lightly held judgment which led the author to designate hans goldmann as the master! references 1. enoch jm, goldmann h, sunga r. the ability to distinguish which eye was stimulated by light. invest ophthalmol1969; 8(3): 317-331. (a lengthy list of applicable references is enclosed) 2. smiths. utrocular or "which eye" discrimination. j exp psychology 1945; 35:1. (a review of the applicable literature) 3. von helmholtz h. in southall, jpc, ed, handbook of physiological optics, vol. ill (translated from the german 3rd edition, 191 0): reproduced from the optical society of america edition, in new york, by dover press, 1962:458. 4. fankhauser f, kwasniewska s. hans goldmann: the legacy of a titan. anals del lnstituto barraquer, in press, december 2006. 5. fankhauser f. hans goldmann. ophthalmic surg 1994;25: 8-12. 6. enoch jm. tribute: hans goldmann (1988-1991). ophthalmic physiol opt 1994;14: 330-332. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number l, page 13 the 1921 rochester school of optometry yearbook david a. goss, o.d., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu in recent issues of hindsight, when jay enoch1•2 wrote about the founding and termination of the optometry program at the university of rochester, he noted that there also had been another optometry school in rochester, the rochester school of optometry (rso). in a subsequent issue, morton greenspoon3 wrote about his father reuben greenspoon, who attended rso, and about his father's 1921 rso yearbook. morton greenspoon very kindly allowed me to examine that yearbook. it is such a remarkable document that i thought that hindsight readers might be interested to know more about it. the yearbook consists of 140 pages plus another 30 pages of advertisements at the end of the book. it was dedicated to the memory of eduard kirstein, "a pioneer whose courageous and moral establishment of optical precedents is of redounding benefit to all present-day optometrists and opticians." (p. 3) following that dedication, a picture of the building housing rso, and a foreword, there are photographs of ernest petry, dean of the school, and helen m. zimmerman, dean's assistant and girls' advisor. the members of the board of directors were listed as: carl f. lomb, bausch & lomb optical co., rochester, n.y., president; royal b. farnum, president of rochester athenaeum & mechanics institute, vice-president; burt b. clark, president of klatorick optical co., rochester, secretary; william h. vianco, treasurer and business manager; william h. briggs, 22 lakeview park, rochester, n.y., director; and harry m. bestor, optometrist, 5 triangle bldg., rochester, n.y., director. the faculty of rso are listed on page 11: ernest petry, dean, theoretic optometry and general optometry; maurice a wilder, theoretic optics and optical laboratory; h.m. bestor, physiologic optics and practical optometry; william h. doane, ophthalmology; dr. john s. hart, general anatomy and physiology; ralph l. dublin, practical optometry and pathology; herbert e. wilder, practical and mechanical optics; harry c. goodwin, advertising and business management; harold brodie, mechanical drawing; gordon h. gliddon, physics, physiologic optics and psychology; clarence c. rogers, trigonometry, general mathematics and optical laboratory; clarence neubauer, optical shop assistant; helen m. zimmerman, dean's assistant and girls' advisor. a number of pages are devoted to individual photos of the class of 1921, where they were from, the schools they attended previously, their activities at rso, etc. there were 4 7 members of the class of 1921. thirty-five were listed as being from various locations within the state of new york, three from pennsylvania, and one each from florida, georgia, illinois, and new jersey. five were from outside the united states: two from canada, and one each from colombia, france, and mexico. four of the 47 were women. previous college attendance was noted for nine of the 47. a composite hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 14 hoto and the names of 36 persons in the class of 1922 were also included. twenty ~ere from new york, four from pennsylvania, two from maine, two from north carolina, and one each from maryland, massachusetts, michigan, new hampshire, ohio, vermont, wisconsin, and italy. starting on page 60 there were three essays, "optometric educational requisites," by harry bestor, faculty member, pages 60-63; "the physical mixture of colors," by g.h. gliddon, faculty member, pages 64-69; and ""the manufacture of the optometrist's supplies," by francis p. groat, a member of the class of 1922, pages 7075. the essay by bestor is particularly remarkable. it evidently caught greenspoon's eye as well as mine, for he quoted from it in his hindsight article. 3 part of the quotation in greenspoon's article includes the statement that "optometry is not and never should become a branch of medicine ... " in another part of the essay, bestor noted that " ... efforts are being made to include optometry departments in established universities and thus place the profession on an educational par with the other recognized professions. ohio state university has, for several years, had a regular collegiate course in optometry, and while a little ahead of the times, has through the foresight of our beloved dr. sheard, set a precedent and example for other universities to follow. columbia is planning to do the same and the university of california is considering the establishment of an optometry department." (p. 61) bestor noted that the educational requirements for optometry would continue to increase. he noted that to some " ... an elevation of our educational standards to the full four-year collegiate, and eventually two-year pre-optometry, and four-year optometry courses, seems professional suicide, butt has been done in dentistry, and surely optometry is as dignified and important a department of public health-welfare as dentistry." there was concern that if the time to qualify in optometry was the same as for medicine, students might be attracted to ophthalmology rather than optometry. bestor attempted to allay those fears by noting in part that "optometry is not a medical science and those who might be attracted by it, would not be attracted by medicine, any more than students who enter law, ministry, dentistry, or the other professions." (p. 62) the essay by gliddon talked about the difficulties of describing color. he discussed the additive method of color mixing and the subtractive method of colors. he stated that an equation of three terms, using the three primary colors as a basis, was a theoretically logical way of describing color, but impractical. he mentioned that an artist named munsell had attempted a method of classifying colors. the topic of the essay by groat was the materials used by optometrists. he urged that the best quality lenses and frames be used. he also suggested that the opinion of the public of the optometrist is enhanced if the best quality examination equipment and furniture is used. most of the rest of the yearbook dealt with various activities at rso the football team, the basketball team, the track team, two fraternities, dances, banquets, field trips, the orchestra, and the newspaper (the rso focus, printed five or six times a year). field trips were taken to the shur-on optical company and the bausch & lomb plant in rochester. another field trip involved tours of the standard optical company and the hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 15 united states lens company in geneva, new york. on pages 129 to 137 there is a listing of the alumni of rso. advertisements in the back of the yearbook were for various optical and ophthalmic equipment companies, as well as for some businesses in rochester. one of the ads indicated that 52 issues of the optometric weekly could be obtained at a cost of $1.00. references 1. enoch jm. a jewel in the crown: the program in optometry at the university of rochester in new york; part i. the founding of the program. hindsight: newsletter optom hist soc 2005; 36:20-28. 2. enoch jm. a jewel in the crown: the program in optometry at the university of rochester in new york; part i. the termination of the program. hindsight: newsletter optom hist soc 2005; 36:35-37. 3. greenspoon mk. on the rochester school of optometry (rso) and reuben greenspoon. hindsight: newsletter optom hist soc 2006; 37:21-23. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 16 the story behind optometric management magazine irving bennett, o.d. 1520 pelican point drive, ba-252, sarasota, fl 34231, irvbennett@juno.com. 1 was editor of the journal of the american optometric association from 1956 to 1965. one of my last editorials in that publication dealt with the lack of "business" information available to optometrists. i conjectured about a magazine devoted essentially to business management. the idea was not readily embraced by my colleagues or by my association or by my peers in the optometric press. those were the days when talking about "optometric business", "profit", "selling", and nearly anything connected with commerce was considered heresy. surprisingly, mel goldberg, then editor of the very successful dental magazine, dental management (om), read the editorial, and he decided to pursue the idea. in 1965 the first issue of optometric management (om) appeared. it was "readers' digest" size six inches by eight inches. i had been asked to be one of a group of optometrists to serve on the "consulting board." the magazine was sent at no charge to all of the optometrists in the nation, members of the american optometric association (aoa) or not. the advertising rate was high for those times for an optometric magazine, nearly double what was being charged by the only three magazines that then served the profession: the journal of the aoa, the optometric weekly, and the optical journal and review of optometry. the magazine was an immediate big hit with optometrists essentially because it was so very different from existing magazines. it contained articles written in a very readable, understandable style dealing with subjects likely to be taught in business 101. there were a number of optometric authors at least they carried names of optometrists as authors. what i did not know then was that most of the articles that appeared in om had already been published in dental management, with only the word "dental" changed to "optometric". one of the features of om was a column for dental assistants, called "dear juli." eventually that column became a mainstay in om and it was renamed "dear judi." om never enjoyed financial success in it first five years of existence. advertisers balked at the higher ad charges. advertisers objected to the extra charge required to provide camera-ready ads for oms smaller size. being a caboose to dm, om had no advertising director or sales reps. small commissions were given to dm sales reps for whatever ads they could bring in for om but the incentive was not there. the higher ad hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 17 rates, the extra cost of ad development, and the lack of a sales department all contributed to little or no profit for the publication. the consensus was that easiest thing to change to make om profitable was its size, so three years after the start of publication, the six by eight inch readers' digest styled magazine graduated into the more convention larger size, not quite the "a" time magazine size of later years. sad, but true, the size change failed to bring in more advertising. keep in mind the magazine was mailed monthly to all optometrists in the nation for no subscription fee. as an experiment about three years after publication, all of the od recipients received a bill for $10 to "renew" their om magazine subscription. the response was great (although i never learned how great). no records were kept on who paid and who did not pay to subscribe. in 1969, or thereabouts, the publisher of dental managementheaded by a new york psychiatrist dr. joseph waxburg -sold the dental magazine to very large book/magazine publisher harcourt brace jovanovich. optometric management was part of the sales package. it did not take long for the management of harcourt to conclude that om was a financial loser, particularly when you added in all of the hidden costs publishers add on to every publication. this includes a percentage (albeit small) of the president's salary, the overhead, whatever. word soon went out to sell the publication. who would be the most logical purchasers of an optometric magazine? probably the two competing non-association publications. the optical journal and review of optometry gave an immediate and emphatic "not interested." peter topaz, son of the owner and publisher of the optometric weekly and optical index, did have an interest but his dad did not agree. feeling that om could not be sold and would, therefore, fold, marty topaz turned down the harcourt offer. mel goldberg, managing editor of both om and dm, recognized that there was potential for an optometric business publication and called me with a proposition that was hard to refuse. get together a group to buy the magazine and its valuable mailing list, he said, and he and his colleagues would do all the work needed to carry on. well, buying a magazine with no advertising department seemed to me to be but a continuation of the no-profit venture. yet, i thought that it would be neat to have a national presence in journalism so i decided to pursue the matter. trude, my wife, was supportive to a pointi assured her that it would be a nice venture and if we controlled our expenditures, it would not be a major loss. i assured trude that under no circumstances would we spend more than $7,500 on the magazine. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 18 l 1 the first challenge was to get two partners to join mel goldberg and me. mel suggested jay gubitz, a talented graphic artist who had a one-room office at 52 west 42ncr street in new york city. i came up with bob phillips my longtime colleague in optometry, who i felt would be a good business manager. to get going with the purchase, i agreed to meet mel goldberg at the kennedy airport in new york on january 1, 1970. the time and place were set to accommodate metrude and i were on our way to japan, via israel, and there was to be a three-hour lay over at kennedy. i never imagined that that three-hour window would be consumed on the runway in pittsburgh because of a major snowstorm. when we got to kennedy, three hours late, we rushed to the el ai terminal to catch our plane. we got to the terminal as the doors of the airplane were ready to close! mel goldberg, who has been impatiently waiting, was paging me over the loud speaker system. the el ai ticket counter person told me that if i responded to the page we would not be allowed on the aircraft. we left mr. goldberg hanging. on the plane to israel, i wrote mel goldberg telling him of the snafu with the airlines and weather and agreed to call him upon our return from japan a month later. but i did not know where to send the letter! so, i addressed it to goldberg as editor, dental management, stamford, ct. no street address. no zip code. i was unaware at that time that stamford was a relatively large city at least large when compared to my beaver falls city and its 15,000 residents. you guessed it. on our return from israel and japan, the letter on top of the stack of mail waiting for me was my letter to mel goldberg returned for lack of a complete address! a telephone call to mel set the matter straight. harcourt had still not sold om and had gone back to the optometric weekly and the optical journal and review of optometry with a lower price. still, no sale. mel arranged for a meeting for me in new york city with the board of directors of harcourt to negotiate the purchase. to the "sophisticated" members of the harcourt board, all in their three-piece suits, i must have appeared like a country bumpkin. we talked a bit and i told the board of my lack of journalistic or business experience but i liked the idea of the magazine. the price they said was $10,000 for which i would get all the rights to the publication and the mailing list. there was no physical equipment; there were no financial records. what i was buying was the magazine's name and mailing list! "$10,000," i said, "is a lot of money." i suggested $5,000 as a down payment and two equal installments of $2,500 for the next two years, no interest. the board was delighted. and so was i. had the board insisted on the $10,000 right then and there, i would have conceded. mel goldberg has told me that this was a "fire sale"harcourt considered my visit as the last effort. if i had refused to buy om, the publication of the magazine would have ceased the next month. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 19 after the meeting with harcourt, i met with mel goldberg and jay gubitz in gubitz's office. this was my first meeting with jay and i was impressed with some of his work and his assurances that he could handle the production of the magazine. we needed a name for our new company. even then we thought future and we thought big, real big. jay was our name person and he suggested "advisory enterprises"we all liked it and approved. we agreed at this initial meeting that the four partners would provide $2,600 each for the magazine. we agreed to issue shares at $100 a share. we never ever contributed more to the enterprise. we did need a lawyer to draw up the legal papers and paid him with ten shares of stock. he had been jay's lawyer. we did need an accountant and agreed to get stan scheslinger, mel's boyhood friend, to do this work at a reasonable rate if he bought ten shares of stock. he did. and we needed a good writer so we employed betty lee kuhn, the author of "dear juli" in dm, to sign on for a year or so for ten shares of stock. mel thought it would be a good idea to get as many ods to "buy'' a piece of our new company for $1 ,000, ten shares of stock. fortunately, the couple of friends that i asked to do this turned me down. i say "fortunately'' because what little money we could raise by this would not have been needed and would only complicate the profit of the new company. the first thing we did was to write letter to all om advertisers; to all the companies we knew that supplied the ophthalmic industry; to all ods who got the magazine, and to the editors of the other optometric magazines. we told each that om was now in optometric hands and that we would supply a needed "whiff of optometry'' to its pages. we asked their indulgence there was no response from advertisers or potential advertisers. there were a few congratulatory letters from colleagues around the nation. there was a nice letter from john mccarthy, editor of the optical journal welcoming us to the field of optometric journalism. and from marty topaz, publisher of the optometric weekly, there was only a one-sentence letter"who are your partners?" [i politely replied.] probably the biggest single stimulus to our success was a statement made openly at the pennsylvania optometric association convention that may by mr. topaz and the editor of the optometric weekly, roy stealey, which in effect said, "i hope lrv bennett goes broke on his new magazine." it was a rocky road for the publication attracting advertisers was not very easy. and we needed money to promote. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 20 om was mailed under a controlled circulation permit. this provides a very low ostal rate and we had continued to send the magazine to every od in the country at no p harge. we then decided to bill the recipients, a modest $6 for a "renewal." our mailing ~st had about 15,000 or so names and addresses and in a few weeks after mailing our bills we had $40,000 in the bank from renewal fees. [we continued to send the magazine to all ods, those who paid and those who did not.] six months later, we mailed another "renewal notice" to those who had not responded the first time around and raised another $10,000. that was all we needed! by the third or fourth issue, our advertising rates were covering our direct costs. the rest is history. within a year, we added a magazine for opticians (optical management), then a magazine for contact lens practitioners (contact lens forum), another for para-optometric personnel (eye talk), and subsequently one for ophthalmologists (ophthalmology management). we started optifair in 1978, a conference/exhibition for all members of the ophthalmic field that soon became the largest eyecare conference in the usa. optifair was an immediate success, with nearly 7,000 eyecare professionals attending the first conference in new york city. the same year we started optifair west and the following year we added optifair midwest. we also introduced annual international educational conferences and a series of domestic seminars, all featuring management topics. our annual practice management seminar in las vegas was a staple for at least one hundred ods. what made this little company thrive so well in such a relatively short period of time? as some of the principals looked back, as in later years they often did, they came up with some answers: • we had our fingers on the pulse of our readers and our profession • we changed the publication to the "a" (time magazine) size • our insistence on printing full-color ads rather than asking our advertisers to supply inserts which were actually more expensive to the advertisers • we cleansed our mailing lists regularly and maintained one of the cleanest lists in the field • we updated our mailing lists annually with all the new graduates • we encouraged our advertisers to rent our lists • we had professionals edit and copy-edit manuscripts which resulted in well­ written, well-edited editorial content • we employed key advertising people, headed by larry henry, who we attracted from the journal of the aoa, and found a diamond in the rough • and, lastly, the owners were the key employees, something unusual in most companies. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 21 in the summer of 1978, i received a telephone call from robert mueller, still president of harcourt brace jovanovich. mr. mueller wanted to meet with me and flew into the pittsburgh international airport from minneapolis to do so. over lunch, mr. mueller asked about buying back the magazine and offered well over one hundred times the sale price. "but mr. mueller," i said, "the property is worth much more than that!" he countered, "dr. bennett, i know what we sold it to you for." "yes, i know you do," i said, "but that's your problem." hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 22 book review: the last man who knew everything: thomas young, the anonymous polymath who proved newton wrong, explained how we see, cured the sick, and deciphered the rosetta stone, among other feats of genius oavid a. goss, 0.0., ph.d. school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405, dgoss@indiana.edu reading the title and subtitle of this book, one quickly gets the notion that a major theme of the book will be thomas young's polymathy. and, in fact, it is. in the preface, the author, who has published four previous biographies, notes that he has always been fascinated by versatile people. he observes that " ... thomas young (1773-1829), for sheer range of expertise, beats them all. not only did he make pioneering contributions to physics (the wave theory of light) and engineering (the modulus of elasticity), to physiology (the mechanism of vision) and to egyptology (the decipherment of hieroglyphics), but he was also a distinguished physician, a major scholar of ancient greek, a phenomenal linguist, and an authoritative writer on all manner of other subjects, from carpentry and music to life insurance and ocean tides." (p. ix) this book discusses aspects of young's life from his childhood (chapter 1, pp. 15-31, is entitled "child prodigy'') to his later years and death. his contributions to optics and vision, including the wave theory of light, discovery of astigmatism, explanation of the accommodative mechanism, and the trichromatic theory of color vision are discussed primarily in chapters 2 (fellow of the royal society, pp. 33-40), 5 (physician of vision, pp. 67-83), and 7 (let there be light waves, pp. 95-112). because the author thought it would be difficult to write comprehensively about young's myriad contributions, he " ... decided it would be better to write an introduction to young for a new audience, rather than attempting a full biography. to cover his work in life in detail and with authority is probably impossible for a single writer. this book therefore dwells only on the highlights of his polymathic career, though it aims to touch on every interesting and enduring aspect of young." (pp. ix-x) the author, andrew robinson, is a king's scholar of eton college, and has written more than a dozen books. there have been two longer biographies of thomas young, one published by george peacock in 1855, and another by alex wood in 1954. i have not read the two previous biographies, so i cannot make a comparison. however, robinson says that while peacock and wood provided much useful information, they failed "to tell a story." robinson also mentions that he stressed young's work as a physician more than peacock and wood. young achieved notoriety in scientific circles before completing medical studies. he was made a fellow of the royal society at age 21. he was trained in medicine from 1792 to 1796, in london, edinburgh, and gottingen. he had the cambridge bachelor of hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number 1, page 23 medicine (m.b.), m.d., and fellow of the royal college of physicians (f.r.c.p.) conferred upon him in 1803, 1808, and 1809, respectively. in 1802 and 1803, young gave a course of lectures at the royal institution in london which robinson described as "covering virtually all of known science, which has never been surpassed in scope and boldness of insight." (p. 3) between 1816 and 1825, young wrote 63 articles for encyclopedia britannica, including 46 biographical sketches. topics of these articles included carpentry, chromatics, cohesion, double refraction, egypt, fluents (integrals), herculaneum), languages, road-making, steam engines, tides, and weights and measures. many of these contributions were made anonymously because young feared that public knowledge of his many scientific interests could lead to the impression that he wasn't as committed to his medical practice as he should be. young held various consulting positions at different times in his life, such as inspector of calculations and physician for the palladium life insurance company, advisor to the british admiralty on shipbuilding methods, board of longitude secretary, and nautical almanac superintendent. young was disappointed that he wasn't more successful in his medical practice than he was. robinson suggests that his relative lack of success may have been due to young's "reputation for being a cold man of science." (p. 133) young published two books on medicine, "an introduction to medical literature" (1813 and a second edition in 1823) and "a practical and historical treatise on consumptive diseases" (1815). young was largely self-taught in science, having achieved much of his knowledge from his own readings. his viewpoint on this matter is shown in a 1798 letter to his brother: "although i have readily fallen in with the idea of assisting you in your learning, yet [there] is in reality very little that a person who is seriously and industriously disposed to improve may not obtain from books with more advantage than from a living instructor... masters and mistresses are very necessary to compensate for want of inclination and exertion: but whoever would arrive at excellence must be self­ taught." (p. 15) later, in 1809, he wrote the following to his friend hudson gurney: "the longer a person has lived the less he gains by reading, and the more likely he is to forget what he has read and learnt of old; and the only remedy that i know of is to write upon every subject that he wishes to understand, even if he burns what he has written." (p. 179) in today's day of specialization and narrow focus, scholars with a wide range of interests are often viewed askance, perhaps as odd or uncommitted. and some may think it impossible for someone to be successful in more than one area. robinson suggests that young's reputation among his contemporaries may have also suffered from comparable attitudes. the author portrays thomas young as modest but driven by curiosity. young is presented as charming at times and loyal to friends, but as a person who "did not by nature easily open himself to others." (p. 61) i found robinson's telling of the life and work of thomas young to be interesting and enjoyable reading. it should give readers insight into young's personality and scholarly pursuits. the book includes 23 pages of reference notes, a seven-page bibliography, and an index. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 3 8, number i, page 24 instructions to authors hindsight: journal of optometry history is the official publication of the optometric historical society (ohs), and, as such, supports and complements the purposes and functions of ohs. the journal publishes articles, reports, book reviews, letters to the editor, and article reviews. the topics of material published in the journal include: history of optometry; history of eye and vision care; history of spectacles, contact lenses, and other corrective devices; history of vision therapy, low vision care, and other vision care modalities; history of vision science; biographical sketches of persons who have worked in or influenced optometry and/or vision science; recollections or oral histories of optometrists and persons who have worked in optometry and optometry-related fields; and related topics. material submitted for publication should be sent to the editor: david a. goss, school of optometry, indiana university, bloomington, in 47405; dgoss@indiana.edu. material may be submitted by postal service or by email, although the preferred mode of reception of submissions is a word document in an email attachment. authors who wish to use direct quotations of substantial length, tables, figures, or illustrations from copyrighted material must obtain written permission from the publisher or copyright owner. short quotations may be acknowledged by quotation marks and a reference citation. submissions should include a title and the names, degrees, postal addresses, and email addresses of the authors. abstracts are not recommended for short articles. abstracts and key words are recommended, but not necessary, for longer articles. tables and figures should be numbered sequentially in the order that the mention of them appears in the text, e.g., table 1, table 2, figure 1, figure 2. each table and figure should have mention or discussion of it in the text of the article. each table and figure should be accompanied by an explanatory figure legend or table legend. any article containing tables should be submitted as a word document attachment to an email message with the tables produced through the table creating function of word (as opposed to an excel or comparable spreadsheet). extensive use of uncommon abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms is discouraged. common abbreviations, such as d for diopters or em for centimeters, may be used. common symbols, such as ll for prism diopters, may be used when the context for their use is clear. the first use of acronyms should be accompanied by the name or phrase spelled out followed by the acronym in parentheses, as for example: the optometric historical society (ohs) has produced a quarterly publication since 1970. acknowledgments should be placed between the text of the article and the reference section. sources of support, such as grant funding or other significant hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 25 assistance, should be acknowledged. the assistance of persons who contributed to the work may also be acknowledged. references should be placed at the end of the article. references should be numbered in order of their citation in the body of the article. citations should be identified in the text by superscript numbers. authors are responsible for ensuring that reference listings are correct. reference format should be as follows: journal articles: calvo m, enoch jm. early use of corrective lenses in spanish colonies of the americas including parts of the future united states: reference to viceroy luis de velasco (the son). optom vis sci 2003;80:681-689. section in a single author book: hofstetter hw. optometry: professional, economic, and legal aspects. st. louis: mosby, 1948:17-35. chapter in a multi-author volume: penisten dk. eyes and vision in north american indiana cultures: an historical perspective on traditional medicine and mythology. in: goss da, edmondson ll, eds. eye and vision conditions in the american indian. yukon, ok; pueblo publishing, 1990:186-190. citations to articles in this periodical should be given as follows: bennett i. the story behind optometric management magazine. hindsight: j optom hist 2007;38:17-22. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 26 optometric historical society membership application membership in the optometric historical society (ohs) is open to anyone interested in the history of optometry, spectacles, vision science, or related topics. membership includes a subscription to hindsight: journal of optometry history. to join ohs, send your address and a check for dues payment to: bridget kowalczyk secretary-treasurer, optometric historical society international library, archives, and museum of optometry 243 north lindbergh boulevard st. louis, mo 63141 check one: __ regular membership, $25 per year __ patron membership, $50 per year __ lifetime membership, $250 name ______________________________________________________ _ addffiss ____________________________________________________ ___ institutional or library subscriptions to hindsight: journal of optometry history can be obtained by following the above instructions for registering ohs membership and completing the above ohs membership application form. hindsight: journal of optometry history .... volume 38, number i, page 27 2007-38-01-001 2007-38-01-002 2007-38-01-003 2007-38-01-004 2007-38-01-005 2007-38-01-006 2007-38-01-007 2007-38-01-008 2007-38-01-009 2007-38-01-010 2007-38-01-011 2007-38-01-012 2007-38-01-013 2007-38-01-014 2007-38-01-015 2007-38-01-016 2007-38-01-017 2007-38-01-018 2007-38-01-019 2007-38-01-020 2007-38-01-021 2007-38-01-022 2007-38-01-023 2007-38-01-024 2007-38-01-025 2007-38-01-026 2007-38-01-027 2007-38-01-028 2007-38-01-029