ISBN: 9789062998463

The history and development of vision and ocular medicine over time always occurred within a framework of many other cultural events. Thus, it is important to understand these factors bef… Mehr…

The history and development of vision and ocular medicine over time always occurred within a framework of many other cultural events. Thus, it is important to understand these factors before one can appreciate how vision and ocular medicine were viewed and practiced at a particular time and in a particular region, and how both slowly progressed over the centuries.Ocular medicine is, and always has been, a part of medicine, and is influenced by its theoretical and practical principles, as well as its diagnostic and therapeutic practices. If the ancient people thought that diseases were caused by divine causes, then this was first applied to the body, but later on transferred to the eye. If medications proved beneficial to the body they would in turn be used to treat ocular problems.The state of scientific knowledge affected how vision was thought to occur and how ocular medicine could help to maintain healthy vision and how to restore normal sight when it became impaired. Only knowledge of the nature of light and its properties of refraction by different transparent objects allowed scientists to understand the optical processes which occur in the eye. These recognitions led to the use of spectacles and ultimately to the latest surgical procedures like Lasik to improve vision. Advances in the natural sciences have slowly turned an empirical into a scientific medicine, with chemistry, physiology, molecular biology, microbiology, genetics and other specialties now prominently shaping medical thinking and practice, leading to more sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for the body and the eye.Sciences and medicine in turn have been influenced by many factors, such as religion and superstition, in particular in the early periods of human history. If religion forbade dissections of the human body, then knowledge about the basic structures of the body and the eye had to remain obscure. This lack of knowledge was not due to a lack of scientific curiosity by medical scholars, but dictated by religious doctrines. Similarly, superstition and the belief in supernatural forces, other than divinity, shaped markedly the practice of medicine, and physicians had to incorporate such thinking into medical theories and the treatment of their patients.Science and medicine are influenced by political events. Wars, revolutions and persecutions can affect science and medicine in many ways. During wars, scientific and medical research is usually halted and many universities, research laboratories, hospitals and libraries with their valuable texts may be destroyed. One could also assume that many promising young men and women die prematurely and so never rise to their full potentials. On the contrary, wounds and dismembered bodies allowed physicians, who were forbidden to dissect corpses, an insight into the anatomy and physiology of the human body, including the eye and its functioning.Culture, tradition and prior knowledge influences – sometimes Medicine Medicine eBook, Kugler Publications<