LIGHT AND SIGHT SINCE ANTIQUITY

Light and sight were not distinguished from one another until the diop trics and the anatomy of the eye had been adequately described in the seventeenth century. A survey of early theories of light is presented, together with descriptions of developing knowledge of ocular anatomy. Once the analogy between the eye and a camera had been made, the prob lem of accommodation was exposed, and corrections for errors of refrac tion could be given theoretical support. Theories of accommodation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are briefly reviewed, as is t he early history of eye glasses.