VISUAL-FIELD, ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Even in greeque medicine the visual field has been described and recog nized. Besides the visual acuity, references are given on early observ ations of the visual field and its defects. Ptolemaeus (87-165 n.Chr.) first mentioned a method to rest the visual field and also gave some physical definitions. Further developments are described in detail. Fr om this oldest method it was a long way to develop techniques for meas urement and quantification which could be used in clinical practice. T here was an amazing high number of different inventions and parallel d evelopments of methods testing the visual field in the last century.