Visual optics

Historical Significance: This book was a very influential text book for optometry students from 1936 until the early 1960s. It covers an outline of the eye and vision, visual acuity, refractive errors, accommodation and convergence, ophthalmoscopy, retinoscopy, keratometry, 5 chapters on binocular vision and two last chapters, one on the schematic eye and the other on aberrations of the eye. Emsley was Head of the Applied Optics Department in the Northhampton Polytechnic within which an optometry course was taught, although the Polytechnic has now become City University and the Department is the Department of Optometry and Visual Science. This a classic optometry student text, widely used until the 1960s. The first edition was published in 1936. Emsley held a BSc degree so the book tends to be quantitative although there is no hard maths. Editions held by the Kett Museum are: 1st 1936 Cat No 1083, 2nd 1939 Cat No 564, 3rd 1944 Cat No 1944, 4th 1950 Cat No 100, 5th 1953 Cat No 566