Astigmatismus und cylindrische glaeser.

Berlin:: Hermann Peters, 1862., 1862. 217 x 145 mm. 8vo. XII, 137 pp. 15 figs., tables; first and last leaves foxed. Early dark green cloth-backed marbled boards, cloth corners, paper spine label with ms. title; extremities rubbed, else fine. Bookplate of Haskell Norman. RARE. FIRST GERMAN EDITION. On astigmatism and cylindrical lenses. Dedicated to Albrecht von Graefe, his close friend whom he met in London where they were both visiting the home of William Bowman. / Donders was a Dutch ophthalmologist and professor of physiology in Utrecht, and was internationally regarded as an authority on eye diseases. He was Director of the Netherlands Hospital for Eye Patients. In 1860 he introduced the use of prismatic and cylindrical lenses for treatment of astigmatism. He writes that the anomaly of astigmatism, first noted in 1836 by Sir George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal of England, who carried out optical research and first drew attention to the visual defect of astigmatism, and who employed a concave cylindrical-spherical lens (1825) ground to correct his vision, was considered as a curiosity. However, as Donders took the condition more seriously he realized that others suffered from the same condition and that an improved lens could render a correction to some satisfaction. / The final chapter of the work contains a brief history of the knowledge associated with astigmatism. Here he refers to William Mackenzie, A practical treatise on the diseases of the eye, London, 1854, and Evariste W. Warlomont & Achille-Arthur-Armand T. Testelin, Traite pratique des maladies de l'oeil, par Mackenzie, Paris, 1856. REFERENCES: Haskell Norman Library 648 (this copy). (Inventory #: M14903)