Herophilus of Chalcedon was one of only two scientists (the other one being Erasistratus of Ceos) to perform systematic scientific dissections of human cadavers. The sensitive layer at the back of the eye seemed to him rather like a spider’s web. Hence he named it the amphiblestroides, the Latin translation of which is ‘retina’.
Though Galen noted structural similarities to the brain, he was unable to provide further understanding regarding its function.
For Galen, the crystalline lens was the ‘receptive organ’ of the eye, while the retina was an organ of nutrition and conveyors of visual spirits to and from the lens.
Galen emphasized the similarities between the retina and the brain and maintained that the retina and optic nerves were really displaced parts of the brain.
Apparently, William Briggs in 1685 first illustrated the fibrous nature of the retina. Briggs trained as a physicist and wrote several texts on the anatomy of the eye.
It was Johannes Kepler who first suggested that the retina served as the eye’s primary photoreceptor tissue. By using alcohol fixation, Treviranus in 1835 performed the first detailed microscopic retinal studies.
A better understanding of the structure of the retina came after 1840 the year in which Adolph Hannover began to use chromic acid to harden tissue, in order to slice thinner sections.
He then described the receptors as facing away from the vitreous chamber and identified and numbered the principle layers of the retina.
Only with the subsequent development of electron microscopy, trypsin digest, clinical fluorescein angiography, and optical coherence tomography have scientists been able to understand the retinal’s cellular connections, ultra-structure and retinal vasculature, as well as correlate anatomical and clinical findings.
Retinal anatomy
