The visual fields: a textbook and atlas of clinical perimetry

Historical Significance: This was one of standard texts on visual fields in the second half of the 20th C. The first edition was published in 1956 and the 6th edition was published 1990 with Michael Drake as co-author. It was the successor to Traquair's book on perimetry. Harrington was an American ophthalmologist who completed his ophthalmology training in 1932. He published about 50 papers, most on perimetry, from 1946 to 1978. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the tangent screen, as recommended by Bjerrum and Ronne in Copenhagen, and picked up by A.H.H.Sinclair of Edinburgh (TOSUK, 1905) was popularised in America by Alexander Duane, Harry Friedenwald and Luther C. Peter, and it began to replace the arc perimeter. Traquair of Edinburgh, Scotland took a special interest in tangent screen campimetry, and in 1927 produced a book called 'An Introduction to Clinical Perimetry' that he personally carried through six editions. The 7th was done in 1957 by Traquair's student G.I. Scott. Traquair's book, in which he introduced the concept of 'the Island of Vision', was the standard perimetry text throughout the world until edged out by David O. Harrington's text book 'Visual Fields' in the late 1950s. The archive has a copy of the first 1927 edition of Traquair's book see Cat No 338. Another copy of this book at cat No. 572 has been de-accessioned.