“…He was educated at the Hazelwood School in Birmingham from the age of 10 and, after a period in a country practice, was apprenticed to a locally renowned surgeon, Mr Joseph Hodgson, aged 16 His early scientific work, much of which was published jointly with Robert Bentley Todd (1809-1860) in The Physiological Anatomy and Physiology of Man, 2 accurately showed microscopic anatomy and related structure to function in muscle, kidney, the cochlea, skin, and other organs; he was greatly helped by his inherited drawing skills. Todd and Bowman's views on anatomy and physiology of the optic nerve (ON) were, naturally, coloured by the viewpoints of their teachers: 'Their (the optic nerves) anatomical disposition 'place it beyond all question that they are the proper conductors of visual impressions to the sensorium' and ' from this chiasma, the optic nerves spring, and diverge as they pass forwards into the orbits through the optic foramina'.…”