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Semin Neurol 2002; 22(4): 357-366
DOI: 10.1055/s-2002-36757
Copyright © 2002 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc., 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA. Tel.: +1(212) 584-4662

The Historical Roots of the Visual Examination

Peter J. Koehler
  • Department of Neurology, Atrium Medical Centre, Heerlen, The Netherlands
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Publication History

Publication Date:
22 January 2003 (online)

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ABSTRACT

The history of the visual examination is discussed in five parts. The history of visual acuity is followed from the minimum separabile of Persian scientists to the 19th-century charts. Events in the history of the examination of the pupil include the late discovery of the significance of anisocoria in trauma, the description of the pupillary light reflex, the midbrain nucleus responsible for it, and the discovery of the neuroanatomic basis of pupillary abnormalities. Attempts to look into the eyeball date from the 17th century and are followed up to the discovery of the ophthalmoscope (1851). The evolution of the visual field examination is described from the first observations of hemianopia in the Hippocratic Corpus, to the present day visual field examination. Important landmarks in the history of central disorders of visual integration include "mind blindness" and the theories on aphasia that formed the basis for the study of disorders of central integration.

KEYWORD

History of medicine - visual acuity - pupil - ophthalmoscopy - visual fields

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