A Treatise on the Eye, The Manner and Phaenomena of Vision.
PORTERFIELD, William
Price: 3000.00 USD
Edinburgh: for A. Millar at London, and for G. Hamilton and J. Balfour at Edinburgh, 1759. Modern calf, spines richly gilt (2), xxxi, (2), 450, (1 errata); (2), xxxv, (1), 435 pp., with 8 folding engraved plates. 8vo, two volumes. "The first important British work on the anatomy and physiology of the eye."--Garrison-Morton 1484.2. "Porterfield's Treatise was carefully read by all of the subsequent great contributors to ophthalmology and visual science for more than a century after its publication. One of the most erudite of 18th century medical authors, Porterfield cited and quoted widely from both the 'old' and 'modern' authors of his day. The book's greatest strength, however, lay in its numerous original experiments and observations about visual physiology. Among the many who stessed the usefulness of this work, with regard to their own ideas, were Thomas Young and Hermann Helmholtz."--Daniel M. Albert, in his introduction to a modern facsimile edition in the Classics of Ophthalmology series. Becker Collection 302.
