404 SIR WILLIAM BOWMAN. 



Physiology and of General and Morbid Anatomy. Their joint 

 published treatise on Physiology was for a long period the text- 

 book for instruction in that science. 



Even at this early age, Bowman's enthusiasm, accuracy, and 

 thoroughness had earned for him recognition as a leader in 

 scientific research; and in 1842 he was awarded the high dis- 

 tinction of the gold medal of the Royal Society for his discoveries 

 in science. 



The next year he read before the British Association at Oxford 

 a paper on " Some Points in the Anatomy of the Eye, chiefly in 

 reference to its Powers of Adjustment." This earliest and 

 supremely important contribution to our knowledge of the 

 anatomy and physiology of the ciliary muscle within the eye- 

 ball, which plays so essential a part in the focal adaptation of 

 the eye to various distances, constituting the function of accom- 

 modation, — and, together with his published "Researches on the 

 Structure and Functions of the Eye," added immensely to our 

 resources for the relief of disabilities of the organ of vision, — 

 through which we learn the major part of what goes to make up 

 the sum of human knowledge, and by the help of which we dis- 

 charge most of the duties, and enjoy a large part of the pleasures, 

 of human existence. 



In 1846 Bowman was appointed Assistant Surgeon, and in 

 1851 became Surgeon of the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital at Moor- 

 fields, London, and later its Consulting Surgeon. 



The invention of the ophthalmoscope by Helmholtz, in 1851, 

 opened a new era for ophthalmoscopy. The wonderful dis- 

 closures gained through the aid of this new instrument for 

 illuminating and exploring the interior of the eyeball — in 

 which we may now well say, " There is nothing hid which can- 

 not be revealed " — were early brought to Bowman's notice by 

 Professors Donders and Von Graefe, then on a visit to England; 

 and this trio of ardent devotees of ophthalmological science 

 enthusiastically shared in eager observations and researches as 

 to the normal conditions and morbid changes in the interior 

 structures of the human eye, now for the first time revealed to 

 human view. 



Another important sequel of this visit was the publication 

 soon afterwards at London, by the Sydenham Society, of Pro- 

 fessor Donders's elaborate, most accurate, and exhaustive treatise 

 "On the Refraction and Accommodation of the Eye," dedicated, 



