1. Heinrich Müller (1820-1864) and the entoptic discovery of the site in the retina where vision is initiated
- Author
-
Lothar Spillmann, John S. Werner, and Iwona Gorczynska
- Subjects
Male ,Rhodopsin ,genetic structures ,Retina ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Optics ,History and Philosophy of Science ,Optical coherence tomography ,Germany ,medicine ,Psychophysics ,Humans ,Photopigment ,Physics ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,biology ,Entoptic phenomenon ,business.industry ,General Neuroscience ,History, 19th Century ,Retinal ,eye diseases ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Neurology ,chemistry ,biology.protein ,Retinal imaging ,sense organs ,Neurology (clinical) ,business ,Neuroglia - Abstract
Heinrich Muller was a nineteenth-century German retinal anatomist who, during his short career, was one of the discoverers of the rod photopigment rhodopsin and neuroglia in the retina, now known as Muller cells. He also described the ocular muscles and double foveae of some birds. An important, but largely neglected, insight by Muller was to combine careful psychophysical measurements and geometrical optics to find the location of the photosensitive layer of the retina in the living eye. Here, we provide translated passages from Muller's (1855) publication and compare his entoptic observations with retinal imaging using optical coherence tomography. Muller correctly deduced from his careful experiments that vision is initiated in the photoreceptors located in the back of the retina.
- Published
- 2021