logologo-optometry

The muscles of the eye

Catalogue Number: 510
The muscles of the eye
Category: Book
Sub-Category: Book of historical note
Author: HOWE, Lucien
Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1907 (Facsimile 1992)
Edition: 1st Ediiton facsimile
Time Period: 1900 to 1939
Place Of Publication/Manufacture: New York
Publisher/Manufacturer: Knickerbocker Press
Description Of Item: This book in 2 volumes is a facsimile of the first edition published in 1907 and 1908. Volume 1 is 467 pages with 227 figures and 9 portraits. Volume 2 is 481 pages with 128 figures and 6 portraits. It is bound in imitation leather with 'gold' leaf page edges. The original book was published in New York by GP Putnam's Sons
Historical Significance: This book is rated among the 100 most important books in ophthalmology by H. Stanley Thompson M.D. & Donald L. Blanchard M.D. http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/dept/20thcenturybooks/100Books. Dr Howe (1848-1928) was a prominent American ophthalmologist. He was educated at Harvard, Edinburgh and in Germany. In 1884, at age 36 he wrote to the American Journal of Ophthalmology from Heidelberg about the demonstration he had just witnessed of the use of a cocaine solution as a local anesthetic. At 40 he agitated for control of ophthalmia neonatorum by placing prophylactic drops in the eyes of every newborn, and was instrumental in getting 'The Howe Bill' through the New York legislature in 1890. At 60 he published his magnum opus - an influential 2 volume text on ocular motility that was 900 pages long, with 2000 references and 356 in-text figures and various appendices and indices. It was clearly the most thorough book on the subject in English, and it was much admired and was dubbed 'a classic' even before the second volume was available. He lived another 20 years and did some important philanthropy. See Charles F. F. Campbell Prevention of Infantile Blindness Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 37, No. 2, The Public Health Movement. (Mar., 1911), pp. 273-287 for the story of ophthalmia neonatorum and Dr Howe's role
How Acquired: Purchased by Kett Museum A$70
Date Acquired: Dec 2007
Condition: Excellent
Location: Archive room. East wall. Books of historical note

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