« A historical and epistemological assessment of Thomas Young’s Bakerian Lecture 'On the Mechanism of the Eye' »

Publié le 18 août 2025 dans les Notes and Records of the Royal Society

Auteur : Olivier Morizot

Abstract : In his ‘Bakerian Lecture On the Mechanism of the Eye’ (1801), Thomas Young provided a most accurate and complete optical description of the eye, perfected an optometer capable of measuring the amplitude of accommodation of the eye more reliably and rapidly than ever, invented astigmatism, measured the chromatic dispersion of his own eye and made use of mathematics in order to demonstrate the role of the contraction of the crystalline lens in accommodation; a contraction he attributed to its muscular nature. For the intrisical interest of its content and for a consideration of its posterity, it was judged relevant to offer a historical and epistemological assessment of this Lecture.

Keywords : accommodation, eye, crystalline, Thomas Young, ophthalmology, physiological optics.

Cite Morizot Olivier, 2025, A historical and epistemological assessment of Thomas Young’s Bakerian Lecture ‘On the Mechanism of the Eye’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society http://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2025.0031

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