This article aims to reconstruct and analyse the late-19th century debates about the standards used for measuring eyesight. It deals in particular with the creation of eye charts, one of the main tools used to assess visual acuity. My argument is organized as follow: I start by providing an account of the historical background against which modern eye charts were developed; the best-known of them will be discussed together with their characteristics. Next, I analyse the debates among ophthalmologists of the time about the definition of “normal eye” and “normal vision”, and show the divergence between the ones theoretically formulated and the data collected during clinical researches. Finally, I consider the question of sight measurement, looking on the one hand at the specialists’ desire to standardize a framework for measuring visual acuity, and on the other at the many obstacles in the way of achieving that aim.
...More
Article
Corinne Doria;
(2020)
À la recherche de la vision « normale » : mesurer l’acuité visuelle au XIXe siècle
(/isis/citation/CBB715193668/)
Book
Peter John Brownlee;
(2018)
The Commerce of Vision: Optical Culture and Perception in Antebellum America
(/isis/citation/CBB577723132/)
Book
Gemma Almond-Brown;
(2023)
Spectacles and the Victorians: Measuring, defining and shaping visual capacity
(/isis/citation/CBB163836400/)
Article
Alessandro Pastore;
(2018)
Dottrina dei sensi e laboratorio dell’esperienza nell’opera di Paolo Zacchia (1584-1659). A proposito delle nascite mostruose
(/isis/citation/CBB714050863/)
Chapter
Salisbury, Laura;
(2011)
Linguistic Trepanation: Brain Damage, Penetrative Seeing and a Revolution of the Word
(/isis/citation/CBB001201384/)
Thesis
Ramalingam, Chitra;
(2009)
A Science of Appearances: Vision, Visualization and Experimental Physics in Victorian England
(/isis/citation/CBB001560660/)
Article
Simon, Anne;
(2007)
Histoire de l'optique et recherche littéraire: Le rayon visuel chez Proust
(/isis/citation/CBB000954350/)
Thesis
Rossi, Michael Paul;
(2011)
The Rules of Perception: American Color Science, 1831--1931
(/isis/citation/CBB001567292/)
Article
Fiona Amery;
(2020)
‘An Attempt to Trace Illusions to Their Physical Causes’: Atmospheric Mirages and the Performance of Their Demystification in the 1820s and 1830s
(/isis/citation/CBB116918002/)
Article
Erich Weidenhammer;
(2015)
August Kirschmann and the Material Culture of Colour in Toronto’s Early Psychological Laboratory
(/isis/citation/CBB916234268/)
Article
Pesic, Peter;
(2013)
Helmholtz, Riemann, and the Sirens: Sound, Color, and the “Problem of Space”
(/isis/citation/CBB001320409/)
Thesis
Alice R. Christensen;
(2019)
Touching Temperature: Questions of Measurement and Feeling, 1870-1930
(/isis/citation/CBB137166308/)
Article
Sheehan, William;
(2013)
From the Transits of Venus to the Birth of Experimental Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB001320405/)
Article
Michell, Joel;
(2006)
Psychophysics, Intensive Magnitudes, and the Psychometricians' Fallacy
(/isis/citation/CBB000770733/)
Article
Musselman, Elizabeth Green;
(2000)
Local Colour: John Dalton and the Politics of Colour Blindness
(/isis/citation/CBB000111791/)
Article
Theunissen, Bert;
(2000)
Turning Refracting into a Science: F. C. Donders' “Scientific Reform” of Lens Prescription
(/isis/citation/CBB000770670/)
Article
Silvester, Alexander;
(2012)
Hugh Neill (1806--64) and the Early Years of the Liverpool Ophthalmic Infirmary
(/isis/citation/CBB001200786/)
Article
Kanaeev, Ivan I.;
(1977)
Goethes Arbeiten zum Problem der Physiologie des Farbsehens
(/isis/citation/CBB000027999/)
Article
Brownlee, Peter John;
(2008)
Ophthalmology, Popular Physiology, and the Market Revolution in Vision, 1800--1850
(/isis/citation/CBB001030746/)
Article
Milot, Jean;
(2008)
L'ophtalmie du nouveau-né et ses traitements à la lecture des publications médicales canadiennes: 1872--1985
(/isis/citation/CBB000933095/)
Be the first to comment!