Visual optics

Historical Significance: This book is a reprint of the 5th edition 1952. It is a two volme set but the reprints were made in different years and the bindings and paper type of the two volumes do not match. This was 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: 1st 1936 Cat No 1083, 2nd 1939 Cat No 564, 3rd 1944 Cat No 1944, 4th 1950 Cat No 100, 5th 1952 Cat No 566. This book 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 in London 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.