William Cain Ruffin, M.D., and some history of the Ruffin family as it pertains to the American Civil War.

In the late 1970s, Prof. Herbert ("Herb") Kaufman, M.D., a fine Harvard-trained ophthalmologist who had both developed and chaired the Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, University of Florida. Gainesville, FL, chose to resign his appointment there. Prof. Kaufman had accepted the Chair in Ophthalmology at Louisiana State U. in New Orleans. The writer was a member of the Department of Ophthalmology faculty in Gainesville, FL, at the time. Following Herb Kaufman's resignation, Professor William Cain Ruffin, M.D., a psychiatrist with academic credentials, was assigned to serve as the Interim Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Gainesville for a few years by the then Dean of the Medical School at the U. of Florida. This paper addresses some interesting facts regarding Prof./Dr. Ruffin and his family history, particularly as that history relates to the American Civil War.

In vivo imaging of the human rod photoreceptor mosaic.

Although single cone receptors have been imaged in vivo, to our knowledge there has been no observation of rods in the living normal eye. Using an adaptive optics ophthalmoscope and post processing, evidence of a rod mosaic was observed at 5° and 10° eccentricities in the horizontal temporal retina. For four normal human subjects, small structures were observed between the larger cones and were observed repeatedly at the same locations on different days, and with varying wavelengths. Image analysis gave spacings that agree well with rod measurements from histological data.

A Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age!) Spanish artificial eye: please realize this technology is circa 7000-years-old!

In 2008, the author presented a paper at the Cogan Society which addressed an amazing ancient artificial eye recently found in Iran. That artificial eye is about 5000-years-old. A kind reader of some of JME's writings [who lives in Spain] noted this report, and called his attention to yet another artificial eye of a similar sort, but it was 2000 years older! It is dated ca. 7000 years BP [before the present] during the Mesolithic Time Period, i.e., the Middle Stone Age(!), and was unearthed in modern Spain. This artificial eye was found in situ in the right orbit of the scull of a man who died at 40-45 years of age. The man was tall, and was apparently relatively well-to-do (JME assumes this is based upon items found in the grave). The artificial eye was made of ocher (or ochre). In the artificial eye, an incised cornea (and possibly a pupil) can be identified. This prosthesis may have been inserted backwards into the orbit at the time of burial. This artificial eye was much more primitive in both shape and design than the later one discovered at "The Bumt City" in Eastern Iran. The man's body (containing the artificial eye) was found at an archaeological site in Spain called Cingle del Mas Nou i Cava Fosca, Ares del Maestro, Castellón Province. This particular body was exhumed at Cingle del Mas Nou by Profa. Dr. Carme Olària Puyoles and her team.

75th Anniversary of the Stiles-Crawford Effect(s): a celebratory special symposium, October 23, 2008; Rochester, New York.

There are rather few articles which, so-to-speak, serve to change the landscape in a scientific field. One of those was the discovery of the "directional sensitivity of the retina" by Walter Stanley Stiles and Brian Hewson Crawford (first reported in 1933). Subsequently, their findings were subdivided by Hansen into two logical components, "the Stiles-Crawford Effects of the First and Second Kinds, (SCE- 1 and SCE-2)." The former (SCE-1) dealt with aspects of their research which addressed alterations in perceived brightness of a visual stimulus; the second (SCE-2) was associated with the perceived hue and saturation of these visual stimuli. These discoveries arose out of a failed attempt by W.S. Stiles and B.H. Crawford to measure properly the areas of the entrance pupils of their experimental subjects as part of a research program which addressed problems of glare, e.g., disability glare, in illuminating engineering. Their research was conducted at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which is located in Teddington, Middlesex, England. These two fine scientists properly deduced the reason for the failure of their experimental design, and they effectively described and defined a new feature of the visual system which was largely ascribed to the retina. In time, it was realized that this phenomenon was associated in large measure with the waveguide/fiber-optics properties of photoreceptors, and that this was a feature shared by virtually all vertebrate species. This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, Enoch describes, as best he can, the culture and working conditions at NPL during 1959/60 when he served as a post-doctoral fellow with W.S. Stiles. And in the second part of this paper, the authors describe the findings of W.S. Stiles and B.H. Crawford at the time of their discovery. Today, we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of that research. The organizing committee for this program (alphabetically) is David Atchison, Jay M. Enoch, Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan, and Pieter Walraven. Our group of speakers today will follow with discussions of aspects of subsequent work which has evolved from the initial discoveries made by the late W.S. Stiles and B.H. Crawford.

Low vision care in India: a time for action! & Issues which need to be considered (plenary lecture, the 9th International Congress on Low Vision, July 10, 2008, 8:00 AM, Montreal, Canada).

With a national population now estimated at 1.1 billion people (and growing!), it is often stated that India accounts for 1/3 of all blind and visually impaired individuals in this World! If this statement is correct, this means that there are 5-6 million visually impaired and blind individuals in India! Although certainly real progress is being made, one can reasonably ask, is the existing organizational structure designed to serve the needs of so large a number of people, and are the necessary care-providers available to provide for visual rehabilitation requirements of this very substantial cohort of affected patients? Both continuing growth and aging of the Indian population tend to challenge the capacity of that Nation to meet demands for ophthalmic services, as well as their ability to meet the visual rehabilitation requirements of this populace. Modern optometry is, in many ways, a nascent profession in India. In behalf of the large cohort of visually impaired patients, I argue that a difference can be made through effective inter-professional cooperation between emerging modern optometry and more developed ophthalmology! I hope to see an increasing role for optometry in the provision of care for the visually impaired and blind in coming years. Here, I discuss a number of issues pertinent to needs of the blind and visually impaired population, as well as means for enhancing applicable rehabilitation services.

Hans Goldmann's golden year in St. Louis: daily research bench rounds with the master!

The late Prof. Dr. Hans Goldmann took a well-earned year of sabbatical leave, shortly after having stepped down as Rector Magnificus of the University of Berne, Switzerland and from his Chairmanship of the Department of Ophthalmology in the School of Medicine at the University of Berne, Switzerland. Hans spent that sabbatical year at the Department of Ophthalmology at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, MO. He and Bernard Becker (and many of us in the Department) were longtime associates and friends. And what a year it was! Those who were present still speak of it with awe and respect. What fun, what excitement - what work! Each of us had a variety of fascinating personal interactions with Hans. However, a single set of salient experiences stands out in all of our memories! Earlyon, he established a daily routine of going from laboratory to laboratory on the 10th and 11th floors of McMillan Hospital in order to conduct daily bench rounds with each of the individual faculty/investigators. Mornings, he would appear in a well pressed and fresh lab coat, greet us with a gleaming smile, and upon entry into your lab, he would ask, "Huh, Huh, so what's new today?" And it was expected that you would have new data, or experimental results to show to him! He would then ask penetrating questions about your work, techniques employed, the data presented, etc., as well as make suggestions for improvements. He also usually had some kind words of encouragement. If you did not have something new, he had something new and exciting to tell you of his own! Questions on the latter were almost always considerably more difficult to answer, than if you had something new to offer! As a result, the research faculty and staffs were literally driven to a creative frenzy in order to have something new to discuss or to demonstrate when the good Professor made his anticipated daily entry into the laboratory. The faculty operated in high gear. Every morning, the techs would lean out of our doors, and indicate to their investigator toiling away, "He is coming very soon; he is in the next lab now!" Oh, to finish in time!

History of mirrors dating back 8000 years.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to consider the ancient history and early development of mirrors, because mirrors played a key role in refraction and magnification for an extended period of time before the invention of spectacles, including broad use in Roman times. FINDINGS: The earliest known manufactured mirrors (approximately 8000 years old) have been found in Anatolia (south central modern-day Turkey). These were made from obsidian (volcanic glass), had a convex surface and remarkably good optical quality. Mirrors from more recent periods have been found both in Egypt and Mesopotamia and still later in China and in the New World. In each of these areas, mirrors were in use by approximately 2000 BC or 4000 years ago.

Evidence for transient forces/strains at the optic nerve head in myopia: repeated measurements of the Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE-I) over time.

Probable transient changes in photoreceptor alignments, inferred from the measurements of the Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE - I), were demonstrated in myopic eyes with elongated axial length (regardless of the magnitude of refractive error) at three retinal locations; the fovea (point of fixation), and 22 degrees and 27 degrees in the nasal retina. The changes were much bigger at 22 degrees and 27 degrees in the nasal retina (which are located beyond the optic nerve head) than at the fovea. These transient effects were revealed by repeatedly testing the same retinal locations over a period of time. Time intervals between the subsequent/repeated measurements ranged from less than an hour to several months. In some locations, the changes were recorded in less than an hour. Collectively, these were very meaningful changes. Generally bigger effects were recorded in the horizontal SCE - I than in the vertical SCE - I.

Early use of corrective lenses in Spanish colonies of the Americas including parts of the future United States: reference to Viceroy Luis de Velasco (the Son).

We discuss many aspects of a reproduction of a formal painting from the XVIth century. It is a portrait of Viceroy of New Spain Luis de Velasco, El Joven or Hijo (son-see text), found at the Museum of the Pecos National Monument (near Pecos and Santa Fe, New Mexico). A formal portrait of each Viceroy of New Spain was created, and this one was painted during de Velasco's first term as Viceroy (1590 to 1595 AD). In this depiction, he is seen wearing spectacles. To our knowledge, this is the first known reference suggesting the introduction of this form of visual correction in the Spanish Colonies in the Americas and in the future United States. There are three known portraits of Luis de Velasco (son): One painting, which included his father and significant others, hangs in the Colegiata (a small cathedral) de San Luis near Valladolid, Spain. In this portrayal, he was shown as a young man without a spectacle correction. And there are two viceregal portraits (Term 1, 1590 to 1595; Term 2, 1607 to 1611) in which he wears the same spectacle correction (these are located in Mexico City).

The relationship between the Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE-I) and myopia.

The Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE-I) was measured on both emmetropic and myopic subjects at six different retinal locations. The results revealed a number of significant discrepancies in receptor alignment between the groups of different refractive errors. In myopic subjects, the receptors in the nasal retina (i.e. between the fovea and the optic nerve head) were found to be aligned nasally towards the optic nerve head, whereas the receptors in the temporal retina were aligned towards the centre of the exit pupil. In emmetropic subjects, the receptors across the retina were finely tuned towards the centre of the exit pupil. The magnitude of the receptor displacement in myopic subjects was found to be directly associated with the length of the eyeball.

Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE-I) in post-photorefractive keratectomy and anisometropic subjects.

The Stiles-Crawford effect of the first kind (SCE-I) was measured on both post-photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and anisometropic subjects at six different locations of retina. The eye that underwent the PRK procedure showed results that were typical of myopic eyes, although the vision in that eye has been maintained at 6/5 (or 20/15) since the operation. The anisometropic subject had one eye that was emmetropic and the other eye was myopic with a refractive error of -3.00 DS. The emmetropic eye showed the normal well-centered SCE-I functions across the retina, whereas the myopic eye of the same subject showed the nasal tilting of receptors in the nasal retina, which has been the typical finding among myopic subjects.