A history of the optic nerve and its diseases

Abstract

We will trace the history of ideas about optic nerve anatomy and function in the Western world from the ancient Greeks to the early 20th century and show how these influenced causal theories of optic nerve diseases. Greek and Roman humoral physiology needed a hollow optic nerve,

Optic nerve axons: life and death before birth

“…This history is an abbreviated version of the paper 23 by the medical historian, Dr Carole Reeves and I, which we read at the Cambridge Ophthalmological Symposium in 2003: I warmly recommend the interested reader to this article which is mostly the work of Dr Reeves.…”

“…Jane Leitch helped with research into Bowman's life and times and, particularly, Carole Reeves did inspirational work on the history of the ON. 23 My colleagues, Isabelle Russell-Eggitt and Ken Nischal, put up with the vagaries of my work pattern, while I was preparing this work and Katharine Barr helped with the early stages of the manuscript. Many thanks are due to the Medical illustration department at Great Ormond Street Hospital, Jeremy Naylor and Nick Geddes in particular, for all their help with the illustrations for this and numerous other works.…”

The history of scientific concepts of vision in relation to Ludwik Fleck’s thought-styles

“…Modern medical historiography, as the mainstream in the history of ophthalmology, is based on neo‐positivistic assumptions (Hirschberg 1985a,b; Lindberg 1981; Wade 1998; Reeves & Taylor 2004). This usually results in considerable simplification of the explanation of historical phenomena (Hirschberg 1985a,b; Wade 1998; Reeves & Taylor 2004; Porter 2006). Neo‐positivistic history of ophthalmology considers old medical concepts in close relation to modern achievements of scientific knowledge.…”

Developmental abnormalities of the optic nerve and chiasm

“…7 The expertise of early ophthalmoscopists, who were able to see retinal minutiae, such as Gunn's dots often not seen by today's practitioners with their technologically advanced kit, it seems unlikely that was overlooked as a diagnosis much more than it is today. ONH is thus probably both more common and better recognized than a few decades ago.…”