The optical manual, or Handbook of instructions for the guidance of surgeons in testing the range and quality of vision of recruits and others seeking employment in the military services of Great Britain, and in distinguishing and dealing with optical defects among the officers and men already engaged in them / by T. Longmore.

  • Longmore, T. (Thomas), Sir, 1816-1895.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The optical manual, or Handbook of instructions for the guidance of surgeons in testing the range and quality of vision of recruits and others seeking employment in the military services of Great Britain, and in distinguishing and dealing with optical defects among the officers and men already engaged in them / by T. Longmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/272
    EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. The circumstances under which I was originally led to put forth this Manual of Instructions for testing and dealing with the various conditions of vision liable to be met with in persons seeking em- ployment, or already engaged, in military service, have been ex- plained in the two previous editions of this work, which were pub- lished in the years 18G2 and 1874, and do not require repetition. Since the second edition of the Manual was published, so great have been the changes in some of the practical parts of optical manipulation, and such advances have been made in respect to length of range, and capacity for accurate fire, in the weapons with which soldiers now have to deal, that many passages of the Manual of that date have become obsolete, and the present edition has had to be less revised than re-written. When the increased and increasing importance attached to the expert use of firearms of all descriptions, both rifles and guns, at very long ranges is remembered, it may reasonably be expected that before long even greater attention will be given by all persons in this country who are engaged in military pursuits to questions of quality of eyesight, and that more information will be demanded on the subject from medical officers than has hitherto been required from them. In the army, the firearm with which the infantry soldier has to become familiar is his rifle, and this he can only use with thorough efficiency when he has visual power enough to enable him to see clearly the objects at which he is required to aim, and to judge accurately their distances, whatever the range over which a projectile fired from the rifle may have to travel in order to reach them. A great deal of attention has been given of late years to improving the modes of instruction in musketry practice,