OPTOMfit~!LtaRMY 
****. •••••••• ••••••••••••• 
: Indiana Univer;it~···· • ••••• OF THE 

~m1E'Il~ lfisTtii8tAL SOCIETY 
-::"'/f243 ~2r_th Lindbergh Boulevard 
st. r..ou!M~•t~Mit.~{:llql' 63141, uSA) 

.. 
* APR 1 1988 

• 
: Vol umtithiry • 
.....•••....•...••.•.•..•.........•... : 

October 1987 Number 4 

Another organization underway: 

In 1971 William F. Billman, o.o., then a student, organized a series of 
informal meetings of a small group of optometry students and faculty members 
at Indiana University for bible study. They dubbed themselves The 
Fellowship of Christian Optometrists, or FCO. In 1974 Professor Clifford 
Brooks, o.o., served its campus affiliation as the group's faculty sponsor. 

Aware of similar activities occurring at several optometry schools, Dr. 
Brooks, with Lon s. EuDaly, 0.0. of Missouri, and Michael Goen, 0.0., of 
Florida, undertook to formalize the movement as a world mission by preparing 
by-laws and registering a charter in the state of Indiana as FCO 
International, Inc., and in 1987 with the u.s. Internal Revenue Service as a 
not-for-profit corporation. 

Its first publication, FCO International, a four page 28 x 22 em. paper, 
appeared in the Sumner of 1987 as Vol. 1, No. 1. The above information was 
derived from an article therein by optometry student Karen Brown, President 
of the Indiana University Chapter (apparently the first) of FCO 
International, Inc. 

Author of the discerning eye: 

As previously mentioned in this newsletter, Vol. 14, No. 1, January 
1983, p.7, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was quite unsuccessfully a 
physician and oculist. More recently in Ophthalmic and Physiological 
Optics, Vol. 7, No. 3, 1987, p. 335, further commentary elaborated briefly 
on this fact. 

Doyle completed his medical training at Edinburgh in 1881. "It was, 
perhaps, the relative leisure afforded by the quietness of his practice that 
gave Doyle time to pursue his literary bent." This resulted in several 
books in the immediate few years. 

Still determined to continue his career in medicine in 1891 he put up 
his plate in fashionable Devonshire Place as a "Consulting Oculist." Alas, 
he reported, "Every morning I walked from the lodgings in Montague Place, 
reached my consulting roams at ten and sat there until three or four, with 
never a ring to disturb my serenity." 

It was this lack of success and a severe attack of influenza that 
convinced him that he should commit himself to writing rather than medicine. 

German contributions in contact lenses: 

"Die international Bedeutung der deutschen Kontaktlinsenoptik" (The 
international significance of German contact lens optics) is an historical 
article by Heinz Baron in the March 20, 1987, issue of the Deutsche Optiker 
Zeitung, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 110-112 and 114-116. 



58 

Recognizing the one hundrethYit)H'ive~U¥~fl~~ Adolf Eugen Fick of zurich 
in the Archiv fur Augenheilkunde, 9r. BaJ;on ~dentifies the three year period 
of 1887-1889 as the "pioneer period"'becaus~·of the simultaneous independent 
develo~ents of ~veral in Z~rich~~~~r~~~.~~0~iel. He also g~ve~ 
appropnate credit to the pnor conhlbutions of Leonardo da VInci, Rene 
Descartes, Thomas Young, John Frederick, William Herschel and others in 
providing early theoretical concepts and foundations. 

The intermediate years or ''middle ages" are then identified as 1889-
1945, and the "modern times" are grouped from 1946 on. For each period he 
describes the technological and clinical advancements. In a separate 
section he describes the part played by the German ophthalmic optical 
industry. In a final section on related activities he concludes that German 
optometrists, ophthalmologists, and opticians have consistently played an 
important role in the very international development and application of 
contact lenses. Seventeen original references are cited. 

In the immediately following April 20 issue of the same journal, vol. 
42, no. 4, Or. Baron provides a guest editorial on "100 Jahre Kontaktlinsen -
- und wie geht es weiter?" (A century of contact lenses -so what is 
next?) He also authors a chronology (pp. 112-113) entitled "100 Jahre 
Kontaktlinsen: ein geschichtlicher Uberblick" (A century of contact lenses: 
an historical overview). The chronology follows the same outline as his 
earlier article but in year by year sequence and including major 
contributors in other countries. 

Supplementing these in the same issue are a reprint (pp. 114, 116-119) 
of Or. Fick's original article in 1888 in the Archiv fur Augenheilkunde, 
vol. 18, I=P· 279-289 entitled "Eine Contactbrille" (A contact lens) aoo a 
reprint (J:P. 120-123) of part III of the doctoral dissertation of August 
Muller at the University of Kiel (Germany) in 1889. The dissertation was 
entitled "Brillenglaser und Hornhautlinsen" (Eyeglasses and corneal lenses) 
of which part III dealt with the latter. 

Origins hard to find: 

The Philippine Association of Optometrists is at least thirteen years 
older than we thought it was. The following paragraphs in a July 31, 1987, 
letter from OHS member Claro Cinco, o.o., of Cebu City, The Philippines, 
explains: 

I found from my files an old pamphlet, which obviously belonged to my 
late father, entitled "Optometry Law- Enacted 1917, Revised 1919". 
This could be the only available pamphlet saved. I never realized that 
this law was written in Spanish. Herewith is a copy for whatever it 
may be worth to you or the archives of the AOA. 

What could be the first organization of optometrists in the Philippine 
was the Philippine Association of Optometrists. The only available 
indication that this organization existed is from the above pamphlet 
which bears the credit "Published by the Philippine Association of 
Optometrists - March, 1919." Other than this piece of information, 
nothing much is known of this organization and no 



59 
mention of it or reference made in optometric literature in this 
country. It is amusing to note that the official English name of the 
present Samahan Ng Optanetrist Sa Pilipinas is also "Philippine 
Association of Optometrists." It was comnonly thought that the first 
optanetric organization in the Philippines was the Optanetric 
Association of the Philippines which was established in 1932, until the 
above discovery. 

The letter and the copy of the law will be forwarded to ILAMO. 

Iconographic spectacles: 

The Science Museum on Exhibition Road, London fM7 200, England, 
includes in its optics section an excellent display of spectacles derived 
mostly from the collection of M.W. ounscombe contributed in 1947. One of 
the exhibit legends explains that the word "astiCJt~atism" was coined by 
William Whewell, Master of Trinity College, who also invented the word 
"scientist." 

Included in the wide variety of optical exhibits is a most realistic 
appearing fibre glass cast of a gravestone labeled as that of "Margaret 
Shields, Scotland, ca. 1727." carved in the stone are two skulls, both 
wearing spectacles! 

Legend on the stone includes the phrase "his age 12 years", in which 
the pronoun "his" seemed of the wrong gender for "Margaret." A telephone 
inquiry to Dr. Jon Darius, the curator in charge of the optics section, 
elicited the following response: 

I have pursued your inquiry by telephone concerning the gravestone of 
Margaret Shields. 

The phrase "his age 12 years" appears on the gravestone after the 
letters JB and JW (or TB and TW), and underneath them AB. So it is 
reasonable to surmise that these were her progeny or at least other 

·members of the Shields family. The phrase patently does not refer to 
Margaret Shields herself. 

Although there are published articles on iconographic symbols (such as 
tools of trade) on tombstones, there is no published reference to my 
knowledge to the gravestone of Margaret Shields, found by chance by one 
of our Museum curators in a churchyard at Kirkliston, Lothian, many 
years ago. It would be interesting to learn of the existence of any 
similar gravestones depicting spectacles. You might like to enquire 
through the medium of your Newsletter of the gptometric Historical 
Society. 

Smelting for gold: 

A clipping from the August 5, 1987, issue of The Antique Trader, vol. 
31, no. 31, shows a half-front-page photograph of several pair of antique 
eyewear. The issue includes a two page article by Marlyn L. Mangoles 
entitled, "The Eyes Have It: Collecting Antique Eyewear" with seven more 
photographs by Norma Milner. All illustrations are of early 



60 

1900 eyewear and apparently are derived from the collection of OHS member 
Jay DeMesquita, 0.0., as he is mentioned several times in the article. He 
is credited with owning same 400 items of antique eyewear, including four 
pair of spectacles made in John McAllister's shop. 

An interesting point is made regarding the paucity of spectacle frames 
made of precious metals, of which there originally were millions and 
millions. They were melted down! For many years optometrists and opticians 
routinely kept a receptacle for old frames to be shipped periodically to the 
smelters for gold recovery. 

Thanks to OHS member James Leeds for the clipping. · 

Louis Emile Javal (1839-1907): 

Recently OHS member James Leeds loaned me two old books which he felt 
deserved a few comnents in this newsletter. They are "ENTRE AVEUGLES" by 
Emile Java!, Paris, 1903 and "ON BEC<MING BLIND", an English translation by 
Carroll E. Edson, New York, 1905. Same years ago I had read Thomas Hall 
Shastid's biographic report on Or. Javal in the American Encyclopedia of 
Ophthalmology, which included a glowing review of this book and Edson's 
translation. However, this is my first exposure to the books themselves. 

Because I have worked very closely with an organization of blind 
persons for almost two decades and enjoy a circle of fine friends among 
them, and having extensive experience in visual science, I quite naturally 
have tried to be alert to any resources that would help me appreciate the 
blind person's world. Much has been written by many, but so little by 
persons who had scientific minds and were also blind. Javal was the rare 
exception. Trained originally as an engineer, later in medicine and 
ophthalmology, an observing scientist and inventor, he had lost his sight 
quite suddenly at age 62 from chronic bilateral glaucoma. In the 
introduction to his book he modestly wrote, " I set forth in the pages which 
follow the results of my experience and researches; I ask the indulgence of 
competent persons, for I am only a parvenu in blindness" He added, "I write 
for the family of the blind." 

In spite of my own extensive association with blind persons and rny 
career-long visual science interest, Javal's book was to me a chapter by 
chapter revelation. If I were again designing an optometry curriculum I 
would include the book as a required reading assignment on which I would 
then test each student for comprehension. Much of the information in the 
book was of course already somewhat familiar to me, but so very much was 
not. 

The 27 chapters deal with phases of living that simply may not occur 
even to the most at.tentive typhlophile. Described are the nature of 
dependence on others, the enhanced utility of other senses, capabilities 
around the house, capabilities in one's professional field, maintenance of 
neatness, hygiene, and health, coping with one's dwelling, handling meals, 
keeping track of time, taking walks, the merits of a tandem tricycle for 
transport, hints for blind travellers, holding a circle of friends, on being 
read to, handwriting skill, typing, voice recordings, Braille, handling 
correspondence, use of maps, plans, and sketches, 



61 

the role of music, kinds of games, how to smoke, the use of mnemonics, the 
value of Esperanto, should blind persons marry, is there a "sixth sense", 
the psychology of the blind, and useful public resources. 

The special beauty of the book is its casual and straightforward 
literary style with no pulling at heart strings, no appeals for sympathy, 
and no sense of bitterness or tones of anger or defeat. Neither is there 
any indulgence in levity, but it provides such fascination in learning that 
the smoking of a cigar serves as a measure of elapsed time, that blind 
persons want to open their own mail, that the departure of a visitor without 
oral notice often leaves the blind person talking to no one, that it is 
easier to take walks at night than in the daytime, though carrying a lantern 
may help prevent collision with others, etc. 

The historical significance of this book is simply that a better one 
seems never to have been published. It deserves to be reprinted. 

H.W H. 

Signs of ocelli: 

The comnentary on Jules Romains's "Eyeless Sight" in the July issue 
prompted past OHS president James Leeds to describe his own fascination with 
the book and the theory it espoused. He had acquired and read the book 
almost 30 years ago. Like all of us, he continues to be impressed by the 
apparent "obstacle sense" which keeps blind persons from colliding with 
objects which we normally consider only visually detectable. He illustrates 
the perplexity with the following personal observation. 

I knew a blind gentleman, now deceased, who was the husband of a 
patient. He had two enucleations from glaucoma. She was crippled, so 
he was her legs. She would drive him to a location (she ran a 
stenographing and duplicating service) and he would take her packages 
unerringly to the right location. Once she brought same things to my 
home when my children were small, and I told them to watch him through 
the windows. He came up a flight of stairs and walked to the front 
door and rang the bell, delivered the packages, and returned to the 
car, going down the steps. Then I told the children that he was blind, 
and they were amazed. At a later time, I told him of the book "Eyeless 
Sight", which interested him. His main comnent and the reason for all 
this writing, was that he said he could never wear a hat. (I had never 
noticed he was invariably hatless.) He said if he wore a hat, he would 
bump into everything. Perhaps he had ocelli in his forehead! 

The search for historical clues: 

Recently I attended a public lecture on the history of 16th century 
France by Professor Natalie Zemon Davis. She is a renowned history scholar 
whose interpretations of life in that era have led to substantial revisions 
of the history books, even in France itself. 



~I I 

62 

Of special interest to me was her statement that to rely more or less 
exclusively on the diaries and records of royalty and of principals of the 
church was largely to overlook the involvement of the illiterate masses. 
She reminded us that among them were intelligent but nonpublishing leaders, 
thinkers, and trendmakers. I was reminded that optometry too has over 500 
years of unpublished but demographically significant and socially meaningful 
history buried, if not totally lost, in the secrecy and illiteracy of the 
spectacle-making guilds, however influential they may have been. 

What was Professor Davis's discovery? She found that so much could be 
found in the legal archives of France, the secretarial notes and records of 
complaints, allegations, and judgments involving the variety of infractions 
by IIIE!IDbers of the hoi polloi, whether street urchins, slaves, peasants, 
merchants, soldiers, housemaids, or grooms. Thefts, vandalism, 
indebtedness, drunkenness, insolence, infidelity, divorce, etc., are not 
exclusive to any social category or caste. Hence the archives of the 
magistrate can reveal much about the daily life and circumstances of common 
litigants, be they pickpockets, storekeepers, mothers, or, yes, even 
spectacle vendors. Such details are not recorded without bias in the 
archives of royalty and the church. 

What prompts my brief essay? 

It so happens that because this newsletter is on the official list of 
serial optanetric publications we editors receive innllllerable routine news 
releases. Obviously these are sent to us in the hopes that we will publish 
them or at least comment on them in our columns. Surely 99.9% of these have 
no immediate historical significance, but we do scan each release in search 
of the possible 0.1%. 

One such item costing 90 cents for first class postage recently arrived 
from The Center for Judicial Studies, Clll\berland, Virginia 23040. The letter 
of transmittal from its president James McClellan addressing us as "Dear 
Colleague" identified his accompanying docll!lent as a Constitutional Impact 
Statement, a study dated August 1987 by James Bond, an Adjunct Scholar for 
the Center "who is also Dean of the University of Puget Sound School of 
Law." The title of his study is "Ophthalmic Practice Rules" and deals with 
the constitutional legality of the PROPOSED TRADE REGULATION RULE 50 FED. 
REG. 598 (JANUARY 4, 1985) EYEGLASSES II 1 a 20 page opinion. 

As I perused it with great interest I was reminded of Professor Davis's 
comments. Here is a document derived completely outside of the ophthalmic 
literary milieu dealing with a current issue which is keenly felt by every 
optanetrist. Yet, among its 32 cited references, not one is in an 
optometric, ophthalmological, ophthalmic, or optical publication, nor likely 
to be even· vaguely familiar to more than perhaps a half dozen ophthalmic 
practitione:.:s. In this instance, because the document appears obviously to 
have been distributed to a hundred or more ophthalmic editors, it can be 
hoped that the professions will be appropriately alerted. In my more than 
50 years as a student of optometric affairs, however, I find this an almost 
absolutely unique instance of deliberate sharing of knowledge from the field 
of law to the field of optometry. 



63 

What wealth of other hidden historical optometric tidbits must be in the 
legal realm of the world! 

One may of course ask, what does this document reveal that we do not 
already know, or care to know. Perhaps very little in the practical sense 
of the moment. But when the optometric historians of the 21st century 
attempt to visualize and interpret trends of the present century, will they 
gain a clear understanding from the easily reviewed sources in the ordinary 
and narrowly collected optometric archives alone? Indeed not. 

The document at hand makes the sophisticated argument that the proposed 
ophthalmic practice rules violate the federalism precepts of our United 
States constitution. It makes no point of the fairness or logic of the 
rules as we optometrists are wont to view them. Such are the biases that 
will plague the 21st century or later historian who does not delve into 
every nook and cranny for clues and traces of the factors in today's 
developnents. 

Surely, for example, in the courthouse basements and attics of even our 
American midwestern counties there may be the fading notes of an earlier 
century justice of the peace identifying the complaints of a local resident 
against an itinerant oculist, optician, optometrist, spectacle peddler, or 
eye surgeon. One can imagine a wide variety of comparable historical gems. 
They will hardly be found in the ophthannic literature or even in the church 
reco~s. -

The theme of my comments is simply that we who share even a casual 
interest in ophthalmic history need to be constantly alert to the potential 
that traces of optometry's heritage may lurk on the shelf of an abandoned 
train depot, in the messages carved on the wood beam of an old barn, in 
attics, basements, old photographs, archeological diggings, and elsewhere. 
To make a mission of pawing through various accumulations in hopes of a find 
is likely to be boring and disappointing, for the odds are overwhelmingly 
slim. But staying simply alert, as in noticing the first buds of spring, 
can give a richness to one's cultural appetite even in total failure. 

H. W H. 

70th and 75th anniversaries: 

The ophthalmic optical anniversaries of two establishments were 
separately but almost simultaneously recognized in April in Jena, East 
Germany. One was the opening of the Deparbnent of Medical Optical 
Instrument Manufacturing at the Zeiss firm on April 1, 1912, under the 
direction of Professor Otto Henker. The other was the founding of the 
optometry school on April 21, 1917, as the "Grosserzoglich Sachsische 
Optikerschule" (Saxon Grand-ducal School of Optics) now known as the 
"Fachschule fur Augenoptik Hermann Pistor" (Hermann Pistor Academy of 
Optometry). Commemorating these two events are historical articles in the 
July-August 1987 issue of Augenoptik, vol. 104, no. 4. 



64 

"70 Jahre Fachschule fur Augenoptik Hermann Pistor" by W. Horichs is on 
the inside front cover opposite page 105 and includes a few comments about 
events leading up to the opening. "75 Jahre optisch-medizinischer Geratebau in 
Jena" by H. Sanger is on pages 106-108 and includes portraits of Alvar 
Gullstrand, Moritz von Rohr, Otto Henker, and H. Hartinger as well as 
illustrations of early models of the Nordenson retinal camera, the Gullstrand 
ophthalmoscope and slitlamp, the Henker refractometer, an ophthaDnameter, and 
the first sight-testing apparatus. 

On the front cover of the same magazine but quite unrelated to either of 
the above is a colorful 19th century East Asian print of a lady with rice bowl, 
perhaps a decorative table cover, on which are placed a pair of rock crystal 
and a pair of srooked top:~z spectacles of presumably the sane period. 
Unfortunately no clarification is provided. 

59 Years ago: 

What was a continuing optometric education lecture like in 1928? we now have 
a copy of an example. · A mimeographed document was found by a friend of O.H.S. 
member Benjamin Nerenberg, O.D., of Los Gatos, California, among many old 
papers held by a member of the Santa Clara County Optometric Society. At the 
top of this copy was a signature of the late Dr. Ed Cochran who had practiced 
in San Jose. 

The lecture, or lecture course, was by Dr. Eugene G. Wiseman of Buffalo, 
New York, to the members of the Los Angeles County Association of Optometrists 
on December 18-19, 1928, in Science Hall, the University of southern 
California, Los Angeles, at which time the Los Angeles School of Optometry was 
on the university campus. Dr. Ernest A. Hutchinson, then head of the Los 
Angeles school, introduced Dr. Wiseman as the author of three optometry books 
and explained that these lectures would be incorporated in a new book in 
preparation. The mimeographed document itself appears to be the recording of a 
stenographer, as a preliminary footnote explains that "The first part of this 
lecture course covering the evolution of the animal and of man has been omitted 
from these notes which beg in with the evolution of the visual sense." 

The stenographer's notes total 21 pages, over 14,000 words. The major 
subdivisions are "EVolution of the Visual Apparatus", "Influence of Eyes upon 
Mind and Health", "The Nerve", "The Reflex Arc", "The Neuron", "Physiology of 
Nerve Action", "The Cell", "The Muscle", and "Practical Application." 

Were the lectures as dull as might be suspected from these subtitles? Not 
really, for~wiseman gave almost every concept a light descriptive touch. For 
exanple, this paragraph: "The fish was a very useful progenitor of man. From 
it we got our vertebrae, our brain, our ears, our spinal cord, our cage of 
bones for the protection of internal organs. Bones that are inside the body 
instead of outside shells". 

Bearing in mind that these hours of lectures were attended by optometrists 
who typically had a minimum of collegiate education and that the date was less 
than a week before Christmas, one must admire the prevailing determination of 
these very recent predecessors of ours. 



65 

The document is being forwarded to the International Library, Archives, 
and Museum of Optometry, Inc. 

For lack of recorded evidence: 

The milepost book by OHS member Claro M. Cinco, 0. D., entitled OPTOMETRY 
AND RELATED JURISPRUDENCE, Filoptics Industries, Inc., Cebu City, Philippines, 
1987, is not only a historically significant document in itself but it also 
includes a special preliminary account, pages ix-xv, of optometry's origins in 
the Philippines. No doubt correctly, but perhaps too conclusively, or. Cinco 
makes the opening statEment that "At the turn of the century, there was no 
established record of optometry in the Philippines." One might clearly 
interpret this to mean that optometrists did not then exist in the Philippines 
even as sight-testing opticians or as spectacle-fitting retailers. 

Cinco then points out that the first optometric office was established in 
Manila in 1902, and that in 1917 the first Philippine optometric association 
was organized. Also in 1917 the first optometry law was enacted and more than 
a hundred optometrists became registered in the same year, with many more 
registering in 1919. The inference would seEm to be that within less than two 
decades optometry emerged phenomenally from a single pioneer or two to a well 
organized and politically influential profession of well over one or two 
hundred established practitioners who acquired their licenses under the 
"grandfather" clause of the new law. 

I feel certain this is not the interpretation that Dr. Cinco intended to 
convey by his Eminently correct statEment that there was no "established 
record" of optometry in his country at the turn of the century. It seems 
probable that numerous optometrists under the identity of sight-testing 
opticians and spectacle retailers were already serving the public there as 
private entrepreneurs long before 1900, if only as part of the commercial and 
cultural impact of centuries of Spanish rule. 

In other words, the lack of established records in the Philippines, as in 
much of the rest of the world, may well be due to the nonpublishing pattern and 
guild-controlled secrecy of the first five centuries of spectaclEmaking, a 
nevertheless thriving and respected enterprise. With or. Cinco's bent for 
history and his talent for sleuthing we can hope that he may now search early 
church archives, museum collections, commercial documents, and elsewhere for 
traces of evidence that optometry was there in one form or another long, long, 
before 1900. 

H. W H. 

Two new memorials: 

Funded by Silor Optical, Inc., the Herbert L. Moss Memorial Scholarship 
Award was established at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in memory of 
the late Dr. Moss, an alumnus, faculty member, and internationally known 
optametr i st. 



66 

The Carol B. Pratt Scholarship FUnd has been established at the Pacific 
University College of Optometry in memory of the late Professor Pratt from 
donations received from numerous friends. In 1945 Dr. Pratt was a leader in 
the transfer of the North Pacific College of Optometry to Pacific University. 

Charles Sheard hUmor: 

OHS member David Cline, O.D., writes, "I was very interested in reading 
the acoount of Sheard's 18 point exam and the later 21 point O.E.P. exam but I 
wish to add that I was fortunate in getting to know Sheard when he was at the 
Los Angeles College of Optometry and in our discussion he stated (and I think 
this is approximately verbatim) 'It is said that I am the father of the O.E.P. 
but if this is so l do not recognize my own child. ' " 

Extracted from a 1902 novel: 

From his collection of rare ophthalmic books Dr. James Leeds loaned me a 
1902 oopy of DOCTOR BRYSON, a novel by Frank H. Spearman, Published by Charles 
Scribner's Sons, New York. In it Doctor Bryson is portrayed as the young 
surgeon-in-chief for the eye at the Laflin College for the Eye and Ear in the 
heart of downtown Chicago. Written in very popular style, the plot deals with 
the romance between the oculist and a young wife of a separated but not 
divorced husband whose small child is Dr. Bryson's patient. The young wife and 
daughter and Dr. Bryson live in the same stately r~and-board residence home. 

The book is of present historical significance insofar as it may be 
presumed to reflect at least the author's, if not his 
readers', concepts of eye doctors of its era. The clinical and professional 
aspects are a very small part of the text, but they suggest that the author had 
informed himself quite well about both optometric and ophthalmological matters. 

For examples, Doctor Bryson mentions in appropriate context the use of 
finger counting for acuity, the need for glasses, the nature of hysterical 
amblyopia, the neutralizing of plus with minus cylinder, the lines on a letter 
acuity chart, 20/20, glaucoma, the ophthalmometer, the mirror retinoscope, the 
mirror ophtha~scope, the retina, the use of a magnet to remove a piece of 
steel, cataract lenses, and intraocular tension as well as numerous surgical 
techniques. Not stated, but implied, is that the dispensing of glasses takes 
place in the eye clinic. Discussing some office experiences with a friend on a 
Lake Superior vacation cruise, Dr. Bryson conments, "Day before yesterday I sat 
in the office till noon. The clinic was pretty heavy and the strange thing is, 
those cases cane in groups. One day it is all one thing, myopia or 
astigmatism, or foreign bodies, and the next, perhaps, all old people with 
cataracts or mere presbyopia. Day before yesterday there were seven cases, and 
bad ones, every one, of choroiditis. That's more choroiditis than the ordinary 
oculist runs against in a month." 

One must of course realize that the story was written as a popular novel 
rather than with any doc\ltlentation objective. Nevertheless, to induce the 
reader's credulity the text must reasonably reflect the then prevailing 
concepts in the public minds. I personally found its portrayal of ophthabnic 
services to be at a substantially more sophisticated level than I believe them 
to have prevailed at the turn of the century. On the other hand "Laflin 
College" was represented in the story as one of international fame. 



67 

According to Who Was Who in America the author, Frank Hamilton Spearman 
(1859-1937), attended Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, published 
nt~~~erous popular books, short stories, and econan ic reviews between 1900 and 
1925 and was awarded honorary degrees by Notre Dame University, Santa Clara 
University, and Loyola. 

H. W H. 

Newton memorialized in stanps: 

Recent correspondence with O.H.S. member Derek c. Davidson, organizer of 
the Ophthalmic Antiques International Collectors Club, has netted sanples of 
two optically commemorative British postage stamps. One is a colorful 34 pence 
stamp illustrating the earth with a solar battery in orbit together designated 
"The Systems of the World" and subtitled "Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) • " The 
other is a 31 pence stanp illustrating a spherical flask with colorful contents 
and the reflectively distorted words, "OPTIKS OR TREATISE OF THE REFRACTION 
REFLEXIONS AND COLOURS OF LIGHT" with the subtitle "Sir Isaac Newton (1642-
1727)." 

Mr. Davidson reports that six or seven Newton stamps were issued in 1987. 

Revealing an anonymous author: 

About two years ago my favorite challenger Jim Leeds loaned me an 
anonyrrously written book with the mere comment, "This will fascinate you." It 
did. 

A small book of over 300 pages, 16 x 10 x 2.3 an., handsomely bound in 
hard brown cover with the title LIGHT AND VISION embossed on the spine, it was 
published in 1836 and identified on the t1tle page as DISCOVERIES IN LIGHT AND 
VISION WITH A SHORT MEMOIR CONTAINING DISCOVERIES IN THE MENTAL FACULTIES. It 
was not copyrighted, but following the title page is the statement that it had 
been "Entered according to the Act of Congress of the United States of America, 
in the year eighteen-hundred and thirty-six, by G. & c. Carvill & co., in the 
Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York." Further identified are, 
"SCA'OCHERD & ADAMS, PRINTERS, 38 Gold Street." 

The text was almost flawlessly edited with only 10 err~ta. The writing 
style is in first person and clearly intended to be easily understood by any 
intelligent reader with an appreciation of scientific method. Simple 
references are made to familiar objects like window blinds, candles, a string 
and beads, etc., but plenty of more highly technical terms like muscae 
volitantes, hyaloid membrane, crystalline capsule, etc. are so routinely and 
correctly included in the phraseology as to make it evident that the author was 
a scientific master such as a professor of ophthalmic surgery or an anatomist. 
The spellings of flavour, colour, etc. suggest that the author was British 
rather than American. In the author's dedication he or she points out that the 
contained opinions are "so much at variance with the philosophy of the schools" 
that "it oould be indelicate to make use of" any scientists' nanes in 
dedication lest "they should lose caste by being associated with the work". 
The memoirs are therefore dedicated to the famous American poet William Cullen 
Bryant, who is identified as a trusted friend. 



68 

The more than two-thirds of the book under the topics of light and vision 
deal with 17 experimentally observed phenomena, some with surgically excised 
animal eyes, several as entoptic effects of pinhole experiments, various 
optical reflection and refraction effects of fluid drops, etc. Altogether the 
reported observations seem quite valid but same of the theoretical 
interpretations are poorly conceived. 

Perhaps the least excusable interpretation was the conclusion that the eye 
does not perceive an inverted image. The author had ct>served that a distant 
candle flame formed an inverted image in the retinal window of an excised 
animal eye, but if the retinal window of the animal eye was brought very close 
to the author's own eye, as one holds, for example, an opera glass, an object, 
such as a pin, held near the cornea of the excised eye was perceived upright. 
It was this upright image, according to the anonymous author, that is conveyed 
visually to the brain by an unexplained optic nerve process. This notion was 
of course completely at odds with that of the author's contemporary scientists, 
including Sir David Brewster, who is identifi~ repeatedly with considerable 
hostility. Annoyance with Brewster is expressed in various connections, 
including angry disagreement as to the roles of voluntarily induced vs. 
externally forced movements of the human eye on perceived movement of 
afterimages. At one point, p. 99, the anonymous author makes the only 
statement in the book that gives a possible clue as to his or her identity with 
the comnent, "This discovery I made known in Sir David Brewster's magazine". 

With piqued curiosity I then sequentially sought the help of History of 
Medicine Librarian Christopher Hoolihan at the University of Rochester, the 
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the Library of Congress 
Reference Division, and the archives of the Copyright Office, with no clue as 
to the identity of the anonymous author. Next I started a page-by-page search 
of the many issues of the Edinburgh Journal of Science edited by Brewster, some 
obtained by interlibrary loan, same on microfi~, and several at the University 
of Toronto which I visited during the 1986 American Academy of Optometry 
meetings in Canada. My first reward was a scathing commentary by Brewster 
entitled "Farther Observations on the supposed Optical and Physiological 
Discoveries of Mr. Charles Bell," in the October 1826 issue, Vol. 5, No. 2, W· 
259-268. His reference was somewhat vaguely to a lecture by Sir Charles Bell 
before the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh and to its being "printed in 
a periodical now at an end." The latter comment suggested the Edinburgh 
Philosophical Journal, which had been edited by Brewster and the title of which 
was terminated in 1826. 

At last, therein, Vol. 12, No. 24, 1825, pp. 371-382, appeared an article 
by "Charles Bell, Esq., F.R.S. &c. read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
March 21, 1825." Indeed the text had a style, tone, and level of 
sophisticat~on startingly similar to, though a bit more formal in manner of 
expression than, the anonymously authored book. Further, it expressed the same 
objections to Brewster's criticisms and defended the very same theory of the 
effect of voluntary vs. externally forced eye movement on direction perception 
defended in the book. 



69 

I placed the two documents side by side, the article and the book, in 
hopes of finding some identical phrase to clinch my conclusion that the book's 
author was none other than the reoowned Scottish surgeon and anatanist Sir 
Charles Bell (1774-1842). I did find a few, none of which alone might serve as 
proof, but I can say that as I scanned back and forth from one to the other the 
similarity of style was so great that I repeatedly had difficulty reminding 
myself which text I was reading at the moment. Even the sketched illustrations 
in both showed similarities of construction, line weights, and lettering. 

Remarkably, my extensive but less than complete search of biographical 
information on Bell uncovered no reference to the Brewster-Bell hostility or 
even to their acquaintanceship with each other. This search included the 
publication "Letters of Sir Charles Bell selected from his correspondence with 
his brother George Joseph Bell", London, 1871/J, which also included a chapter on 
"Lady Bell's Recollections". In it I found absolutely nothing to suggest that 
Sir Charles wrote the mystery book or even gave thought to Brewster. What is 
apparent, however, is that he had an extremely wide range of scientific and 
cultural interests, that be wrote prolifically of many, that he took on 
challenges readily, and he had the ability to write in popular as well as 
formal style. Even Brewster criticized Bell for using this last skill and his 
fame to propagate unproven conceRts. 

Why would Bell have published an anonymous book under the permissive guise 
of being a lay American author? Whatever the reason, it seems to have had 
fair distribution, is listed in a number of bibliographies, and can be found in 
numerous libraries. According to one very knowledgeable librarian a copy in 
good condition would probably sell for $51/J.f/Jf/J or more. Attributable to Sir 
Charles Bell, it can serve to illustrate vividly sane of the most sophisticated 
thinking in visual science a century and a half ago. 

H. W H. 

History of a flash. 

In 1882 the popular French writer Jules Verne published a novel entitled 
"Le Rayon Vert" (the green ray) which was translated into several languages. 
It was a fascinating description of the journey of a young SCottish girl to the 
west coast of Scotland to gain a free view of the setting sun so she might 

. observe the elusive "green ray", believed to be a luck symbol or charm. 

Verne offered no technical explanation of the phenomenon, suggesting 
rather, through the romantic girl's suitor, that it might be supernatural in 
nature. Perhaps Verne had been aware that the phenomenon traces back to 
ancient Egyptian writing and thought it useful in the plot of his story. 

In 1922 Professor Dr.M.E. Mulder, Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology, 
authored a 141 page paper-backed monograph entitled THE "GREEN RAY" ~ "GREEN 
FLASH" (RAYON VERT) AT RISING AND SETTING OF THE SUN, published in The Hague, 
The Netherlands, by N.V. Boekhandel, W.P. van Stockum & Zoon. A copy is in CHS 
member James Leed's rare book collection. ·Essentially the book is an 
historical account of dozens of variously reported observations of the 
phenanenon of numerous individuals. The book is in English but includes 
extensive citations in French and German, easy for the multilingual Dutch. 



70 

Insofar as Professor Mulder himself had apparently seen the phenomenon 
only once, some 15 years prior to writing his review, the book conveys the 
nnpression that the phenomenon is rare, and that many doubted its validity. 
FUrther, there was lack of agreement among scientific minds as to the 
explanation, and there was even moderate variance as to the size, shape, 
duration, and precise color of the flare, flash, streak, segment, or ray. The 
text is reminiscent of the UFO or "flying saucer" reports of several recent 
decades, as dealt with by my late colleague J. Allen Hynek whose federally 
assigned role it was to asce!-~ain their plausibility. 

The cluster .of dates of the observations reviewed by Mulder suggest that 
verne's book may have pranpted the nm~erous popular attempts to see the effect 
between 1882 and 1922. · 

Today the green flash is defined in several dictionaries and is 
illustrated in color, presumably a photograph, in the 15th edition of the 
Encyclopedia Britannica, courtesy of the Vatican Observatory. Therein it is 
said to be caused by refraction, absorption, and scattering of the sun's light 
in the earth's atmosphere and to last only a fr~ction·of a second. It appears 
at the upper edge of the rising or setting sun and may ~ seen with the unaided 
eye when the sky conditions are clear and in circumstances where the horizon is 
sharply defined. • ... ·. · · 

Early Zeiss instruments: 

The Zeiss firm in Jena, East Germany (not the Zeiss firm in West Germany) 
celebrated the 75th year of the establisl'lnent of the deparbnent for optical and 
medical instruments with the publication of a supplement to the Jenaer 
Rundschau (Jena Review) entitled "75 Jahre Optische Medizintechnik aus Jena". 
The magazine-like supplement is a 24 page, 28 x 20 em, full color document with 
a couple dozen illustrations of instruments the firm has built starting with a 
1911 electric hand ophthalmoscope designed prior to the establishment of the 
separate deparbnent on April 1, 1912. Shown also are portraits of key 
technical personnel including carl Zeiss (1816-1888), Ernst Abbe (1840-1905), 
Moritz von Rohr (1868-1940), Allvar Gullstrand (1862-1930), Otto Henker (1874-
1926), and Hans Hartinger (1891-1960). The historical involvement of the 
Hermann Pistor optometry school founded in Jena in 1917 is also described. 

Because this publication can be useful as a sort of atlas for identifying 
certain clinical ophthalmic instruments it is being forwarded to ILAMO. 

Henry W Hofstetter 
Douglas K. Penisten, Editors 


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