Author(s)

Tong Liu^1,2,3, Xinhai Wang^1,2,3, Min Zhai^1,2,3, Xiao Lin⁴, Chi-Chao Chan⁵, Dan-Ning Hu⁶, Weiyun Shi^1,2,3, Hua Gao^1,2,3*

¹Department of Ophthalmology, Eye Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China.
²State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Shandong Eye Institute, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, China.
³Shandong Ophthalmology Museum, Jinan, China.
⁴Department of Ophthalmology, Affiliated Eye Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China.
⁵National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA.
⁶New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.

John Glasgow Kerr was the second director of the First Western-Style Hospital in China, which was an eye hospital. Xi Yi Yan Ke (Ophthalmology in Western Medicine), which is translated and compiled by Dr. Kerr and first published in 1871 and reprinted in 1880, was the first western medical monograph on ophthalmology in China. The book consists of 53 sections, covering symptom inquiry, symptom examination, cataract surgery, ophthalmoscopy, conjunctival disease, eye trauma, corneal disease, scleral disease, retinal, and optic nerve diseases, glaucoma, and others. There are 23 (groups of) pictures, mainly about the anatomy of the eyeball, eye muscles, optic nerve, various instruments for ophthalmic surgery, etc. As a western medical book, Xi Yi Yan Ke attached great importance to eye disease surgeries, which promoted the treatment of eye diseases and the development of western medicine in China. However, it also had some limitations due to the limitations of western medicine at that time.

John Glasgow Kerr, Xi Yi Yan Ke (Ophthalmology in Western Medicine), Ophthalmology, Western Medicine, First Monograph, China

Liu, T. , Wang, X. , Zhai, M. , Lin, X. , Chan, C. , Hu, D. , Shi, W. and Gao, H. (2021) Backgrounds, Contents, and Influences of Xi Yi Yan Ke (Ophthalmology in Western Medicine), the First Western Medical Monograph on Ophthalmology in China. Advances in Historical Studies, 10, 165-175. doi: 10.4236/ahs.2021.103010.