The History of Glaucoma

The History of Glaucoma: Part I - Antiquity through 1849
How did the ancient Greek term glaukos become the modern disease glaucoma? Why was glaucoma once considered incurable, and how did physicians gradually unravel its true nature?
This first volume traces the evolution of glaucoma from antiquity through the mid-nineteenth century, drawing on ancient Greek, Roman, Arabic, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, French, and German sources. The authors revisit original manuscripts, rare books, and historical illustrations to explain how changing concepts of anatomy, optics, cataract surgery, hydrophthalmia, and intraocular pressure transformed the understanding of glaucoma over more than two thousand years.
Topics include glaucoma in the classical Mediterranean world, medieval Arabic medicine, Renaissance Europe, East Asia, buphthalmos, hydrophthalmia and anterior chamber paracentesis, the Enlightenment, and the work of pioneers such as Georg Joseph Beer.
Written for ophthalmologists, historians of medicine, and anyone interested in the history of science, this richly illustrated volume offers a fresh interpretation of one of ophthalmology's oldest and most misunderstood diseases.