Bulletin of the Scientific Instruments Society, n° 163, December 2024, p, 35-38, 2024
During the second half of the 19th century, physicians trained in the young medical specialty of ... more During the second half of the 19th century, physicians trained in the young medical specialty of ophthalmology were gripped by a particular ambition: to succeed in producing the most possibly accurate images of the fundus oculi. The invention of the ophthalmoscope (1851), an instrument that made it possible to observe the interior of a living eye for the first time in history, led to an extraordinary increase in the knowledge of ocular anatomy and physiology. Among the ophthalmologists, awareness quickly grew of the usefulness – both for therapeutic and pedagogical purposes – of images detailing the fundus of the eye in normal and pathological states. The interest in ophthalmoscopic images led to the flourishing of the "atlases of ophthalmoscopy," voluminous publications entirely devoted to the study and analysis of pictures of different portions of the interior of the human eye. Obtaining photographic images of the fundus was considered particularly beneficial compared to hand-made drawing, which was the standard technique for this kind of anatomical imagery. By the 1880s, the search for technical means to achieve this goal had become the subject of discussions at international ophthalmology symposia and led to the production of an abundance of scientific literature. As the first endoscopic images ever produced, ophthalmoscopic images differed from previous anatomical depictions of the human eye in several respects, including their production technique, authors, purpose, and utilization. They were instrumental in leading ophthalmology to become a legitimate medical specialty.
This paper will reconstruct the development of ophthalmoscopic images from the late 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century. The study of the evolution of the techniques and instruments to produce pictures of the interior of a living eye will highlight the characteristics of ophthalmic iconography and the role of ophthalmoscopic imagery in the development of ophthalmology as a medical specialty.
This text is organized into two parts. The first section will review the history of anatomical images of the visual apparatus, highlighting the changes that occurred in the production and use of ophthalmic iconography following the invention of the ophthalmoscope; the second part will describe the characteristics of eye images produced from the second half of the 19th to the first decades of the 20th century, both in terms of their production and uses, and analyze how ophthalmoscopic images contributed to the growth of ophthalmology into a full-fledged medical specialty.
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Papers by Corinne Doria
This paper will reconstruct the development of ophthalmoscopic images from the late 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century. The study of the evolution of the techniques and instruments to produce pictures of the interior of a living eye will highlight the characteristics of ophthalmic iconography and the role of ophthalmoscopic imagery in the development of ophthalmology as a medical specialty.
This text is organized into two parts. The first section will review the history of anatomical images of the visual apparatus, highlighting the changes that occurred in the production and use of ophthalmic iconography following the invention of the ophthalmoscope; the second part will describe the characteristics of eye images produced from the second half of the 19th to the first decades of the 20th century, both in terms of their production and uses, and analyze how ophthalmoscopic images contributed to the growth of ophthalmology into a full-fledged medical specialty.
This paper will reconstruct the development of ophthalmoscopic images from the late 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century. The study of the evolution of the techniques and instruments to produce pictures of the interior of a living eye will highlight the characteristics of ophthalmic iconography and the role of ophthalmoscopic imagery in the development of ophthalmology as a medical specialty.
This text is organized into two parts. The first section will review the history of anatomical images of the visual apparatus, highlighting the changes that occurred in the production and use of ophthalmic iconography following the invention of the ophthalmoscope; the second part will describe the characteristics of eye images produced from the second half of the 19th to the first decades of the 20th century, both in terms of their production and uses, and analyze how ophthalmoscopic images contributed to the growth of ophthalmology into a full-fledged medical specialty.
The introduction of AI technology has sparked mixed reactions. While some welcome the potential for enhanced creativity and increased research impact, others express concerns about its implications. There is an ongoing debate in academia about how to harness AI tools to empower scholars and educators without diminishing the unique capabilities of the human mind. For educators, the challenge lies in increasing pedagogical effectiveness without compromising educational integrity.
A key issue is determining the extent to which AI should be accessible to students, particularly given that traditional Humanities and Social Sciences assignments can be easily outsourced to these tools. In historical research and education, leading scholars and institutions worldwide are raising awareness and issuing guidelines to prevent student misuse.
Despite a strong desire for dialogue, there is a lack of consensus among historians and educators in higher education lack consensus. Opinions range from advocating a complete ban to supporting the unsupervised use of AI in educational settings. This paper aims to provide an overview of the current debate, highlighting key issues and directions. It also proposes creating a platform for sharing best practices and offering suggestions to foster the responsible use of AI in teaching history at the higher education level.
This paper proposes an analysis of the degree of accessibility of a selection of leading scientific institutions in the European Union: the Deutsches Museum in Munich (Germany), The Museum of Arts and Crafts in Paris (France), and the National Museum of Science and Technology “Leonardo da Vinci” in Milan (Italy).
After presenting the current engagement of the EU in promoting accessibility to cultural institutions, I will detail the state of accessibility of the selected institutions, examining the strategies adopted (or not) to overcome any physical, sensory, and cognitive barriers that hinder inclusivity. The policies of virtual accessibility – generally expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic – will also be examined. Finally, I will assess the advantages and limits of the measures adopted by these institutions and of the overall EU strategy to foster inclusivity for Science and Technology museum-goers.
Nowadays, individuals are legally blind if they have a visual acuity of 20/200 (6/60) or less in the better eye with the best correction possible or if their visual field is less than 20 degrees. These criteria assess the capacity of an individual to use their vision for working and carrying on everyday life activities. In addition, they determine the right to access financial compensations or other forms of help. However, this way of assessing human vision began only in the 19th century, in correspondence with the development of modern ophthalmology and the need for a certain degree of visual capacities for industrial workers.
Before that time, blindness did not have a precise characterization. For instance, in medical treatises of the Early Modern Era, the term “blind” indicated very diverse conditions, from the lack of any visual perception (or even of the organ of visions) to weak or poor vision. In philosophical, theological, or narrative texts, the term “blind” had an even broader meaning, varying depending on its literal, metaphorical use and the authors’ understanding of this condition.
In the late 20th century, Disability Studies refocused on the social and cultural meaning of blindness rather than on its medical definition, revealing the existence of a great variety of ways of understanding visual disability and their impact in shaping collective and individual ideas and perceptions of visual impairment.
Blindness is not a straightforward concept. It can designate different types and levels of visual impairments, which do not imply the complete absence of any visual perception. Unfortunately, however, scholarly works on blindness seldom address this question, barely mentioning it in introductory paragraphs. Blindness is hence a concept that is taken for granted as having a self-evident meaning.
A comprehensive reflection on the different ways blindness has been understood throughout history still has to be done. However, this represents a necessary step for a disciplinary field like Blindness Studies, which is in the process of (re)defining itself for scholars working on visual impairment from a socio-cultural perspective to agree on the meaning of the primary essential item in their vocabulary.
This paper will present an overview of the different ways blindness has been defined in the past and of the way this condition is understood in the present and propose a few guidelines for discussing the relevance for scholars working in the field of Blindness Studies of having a shared understanding of blindness.
If this was due on one side to the advances in eye exploration techniques (the ophthalmoscope was invented in 1850, keratoscope in 1873, skiascope in 1886) and better anatomical and physiological knowledge of the visual apparatus, it also seems linked to new relation to the vision that was beginning to take hold in society. Widespread use of print media (newspapers, magazines), massive education, changes in the labor market, and artificial lighting in the streets as well as in private houses all meant that good vision was felt to be increasingly important to the quality of life.
By analyzing medical and scientific sources (books, articles, proceedings of scientific meetings), his paper proposes to reconstruct the process that led to the adoption of the first visual acuity standards in the second 19th century. It will place this process within the scientific and socio-economic context of the time in order to understand the factors that contributed to this adoption of vision standards. It also questions the social, economic and cultural consequences of the introduction of a standard of "good vision."
The paper draws on the social and cultural history of medicine (Jacques Léonard, Olivier Faure) and studies of normalization processes (Carl R. May, Tracy Finch).
Afin d'établir ces normes, les médecins se sont engagés dans de nombreux débats, principalement liés aux difficultés d'objectiver et d'exprimer en termes mathématiques un sens subjectif et changeant comme la vue.
Cette communication vise à interroger les enjeux épistémologiques des normes et standards en ophtalmologie et à engager une réflexion plus large sur la mesure, quantification et normalisation de la perception visuelle.
At the end of World War I, over 10 million maimed veterans returned to civil society. Governments and charities created rehabilitation centers where mutilated soldiers could learn a job and set professional reintegration programs. Many films and photographs thereby exist, showing the rehabilitation of disabled veterans, their apprenticeship of a job and their return to work. Commissioned by public authorities, these pictures present amputee or blind veterans plowing fields, making brushes and baskets, or working in factories. In France, these documents come mostly from the Service Cinématographique des Armées (SCA), a government agency created in 1915 to document war operations. Tools of propaganda demonstrating the efficiency of administrations and the solicitude of civil society for impaired veterans, these documents have a significant diffusion in the country, becoming one of the most important instruments for the representation of this category of workers, and thereby shaping the social consciousness.
This presentation aims at questioning the representation of disabled workers in the aftermath as it is shown by movies and photos produced in France between 1915 and 1930s. To analyze the various characteristics of these documents, I will adopt a cross-disciplinary approach, involving visual studies and social history. What kind of film language is chosen to represent disabled workers? What has been the circulation of these documents and how did they impact French society? If French sources are the core of this paper, German and British ones will also be taken into account to provide a comparative perspective.
en Europe un espace culturel commun, reconnu comme tel par ses citoyens. À l’heure actuelle où, à travers internet et les réseaux sociaux, l’espace public européen est en train de se reconfigurer, le moment est venu d’une réflexion globale – à la fois historique et méthodologique
– sur cet espace. Quand un espace public européen est-il apparu pour la première fois dans l’histoire ? Quels ont été les institutions, les événements, les évolutions qui à partir du Moyen Âge, ont permis de concevoir et de percevoir l’Europe comme un espace commun – un espace public ? Comment, et par qui, a été occupé l’espace public en Europe aux différents moments de l’histoire ? Dans quelle mesure les découvertes géographiques et la rencontre avec d’autres cultures ont-elles renforcé la perception de l’Europe en tant qu’espace commun et public ? Comment l’espace public européen va-t-il se configurer dans l’avenir ? Le présent ouvrage rassemble les contributions de spécialistes (historiens, philosophes, historiens du droit, sociologues) au Labex EHNE, Écrire une Histoire Nouvelle de l’Europe.
Over the last sixty years, Europe has been built as a political, legal and economic space. Nevertheless, this process has not been accompanied by the construction of a European public sphere, despite the will of its founders, who wanted to create a European cultural area, recognized as such by its citizens. Now that, through the internet and social networks, the European public space is in the process of reconfiguring, it is time for a comprehensive reflection – both historical and methodological – on this space. When did a European public space appear for the first time in history? What were the institutions, events, developments from the Middle Ages, helped design and perceive Europe as a common sphere
– a public space? How, and by whom, was occupied public space in Europe at different times in history? How geographical discoveries and encounters with other cultures have they strengthened the perception of Europe as a common and public? How the European public space will be set in the future? This book gathers essays from specialists (historians, philosophers, legal historians, sociologists) at Labex EHNE, Écrire une Histoire Nouvelle de l’Europe.
Dès 1789, les qualités morales des hommes politiques sortent donc des débats philosophiques et entrent directement dans l'arène publique pour ne plus en sortir. Matière de réflexion pour ministres et députés – comme le prouvent leurs Mémoires et Souvenirs – elles sont mises en avant et mobilisées comme outils de légitimité pendant les campagnes électorales. Elles sont exigées par les citoyens. Les défauts moraux des hommes politiques sont immanquablement stigmatisés par les journalistes et caricaturistes. Les changements qui, à partir de la Révolution, surviennent dans la sphère du politique fournissent matière à de nouveaux questionnements. La progressive professionnalisation de l'activité politique change, d'un point de vue moral, l'image de l'homme qui s'y consacre. Au milieu du XIXe siècle, apparaît ainsi la distinction entre l' « homme d'État », dont les qualités personnelles sont les meilleurs, et le « politicien », homme sans positions et sans qualités, faisant de la politique une source de revenus ou de pouvoir pour lui et ses associés. L'existence d'une morale proprement politique pose aussi la question des rapports entre celle-ci et les règles de la morale religieuse. Comment se comporter lorsque les devoirs envers l'État sont en conflit avec les obligations de la morale religieuse ? Est-il possible de concilier les deux morales? Ces questions, qui avaient tourmenté depuis des siècles les croyants qui décidaient de se consacrer au service de l'État, se proposent à nouveau, et traversent le siècle, dès la proclamation de la Constitution civile du clergé au Décret communard de 1871 de séparation de l'Église et de l'État.
Quelles sont donc les qualités morales d'un homme politique ? Comment sont-elles mobilisées dans la lutte politique ? Et quelles qualités morales le citoyen exige de ses représentants ? Comment changent, sous le profil de la morale, les représentations des hommes politiques pendant le XIXe siècle ? Le sujet est vaste et complexe car il touche plusieurs domaines (histoire politique, histoire des idées, histoire sociale, histoire des représentations). Cette ouvrage, issu de la journée d’étude « La morale de l’homme politique dans la France du XIXe siècle » (septembre 2012), réunit les contributions des spécialistes de plusieurs champs disciplinaires (historiens et philosophes) autour de la construction d'une morale de l'homme politique dans un arc chronologique compris entre la Révolution de 1789 et la Troisième République.
Caneva describes the set of abiding concerns that prompted Helmholtz's work, including his rejection of the idea of a work-performing vital force, and investigates Helmholtz's relationship to both an older generation of physicists and an emerging community of reformist physiologists. He analyzes Helmholtz's indebtedness to Johannes Müller and Justus Liebig and discusses Helmholtz's tense and ambivalent relationship to the work of Robert Mayer, who had earlier proposed the uncreatability, indestructibility, and transformability of force. Caneva examines Helmholtz's continued engagement with the subject, his role in the acceptance of the conservation of energy as the central principle of physics, and the eventual incorporation of the principle in textbooks as established science.
The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History (MIT Press, 2021), Omar W. Nasim considers these specialized chairs as both image and object, offering an original framework for linking visual and material cultures. Observing chairs, Nasim ingeniously argues, showcased and embodied forms of scientific labor, personae, and bodily practice that appealed to bourgeois sensibilities.
Viewing image and object as connected parts of moral, epistemic, and visual economies of empire, Nasim shows that nineteenth-century science was represented in terms of comfort and energy, and that "manly" postures of Western astronomers at work in specialized chairs were contrasted pointedly with images of "effete" and cross-legged "Oriental" astronomers. Extending his historical analysis into the twentieth century, Nasim reexamines what he argues to be a famous descendant of the astronomer's chair: Freud's psychoanalytic couch, which directed observations not outward toward the stars but inward toward the stratified universe of the psyche. But whether in conjunction with the mind or the heavens, the observing chair was a point of entry designed for specialists that also portrayed widely held assumptions about who merited epistemic access to these realms in the first place.