The vertebrate eye and its adaptive radiation

Historical Significance: Gordon Lynn Walls (1905-1962) was Professor of Physiological Optics and Optometry at the School of Optometry in the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his B.S. from Tufts in mechanical engineering (1926), AM from Harvard 1927 and ScD Zoology 1931. He did not pursue engineering because of a self-claimed difficulty with mathematics ("I flunked every math course I ever took!") and because of a fascination with zoology that he developed during a summer course at Woods Hole. His teachers at Harvard arbitrarily gave him a problem concerning the photomechanical changes in the retina, which launched his career in vision. He is famed for his 785 page book The Vertebrate Eye.1942. This 785-page classic contains about 200 illustrations, many of which Gordon Walls drew himself. See also Cat No 1367 for another of Walls books. See Walls' obituary at http://crsltd.com/research-topics/walls/obituary.html. The picture is from Duke-Elder Vol 1 Evolution of the eye. Walls was so famous for his work on the evolution of the eye that Duke-Elder chose to feature his photograph in his 'System of Ophthalmology.'