TITLE:
Backgrounds, Contents, and Influences of Xi Yi Yan Ke (Ophthalmology in Western Medicine), the First Western Medical Monograph on Ophthalmology in China
AUTHORS:
Tong Liu, Xinhai Wang, Min Zhai, Xiao Lin, Chi-Chao Chan, Dan-Ning Hu, Weiyun Shi, Hua Gao
KEYWORDS:
John Glasgow Kerr, Xi Yi Yan Ke (Ophthalmology in Western Medicine), Ophthalmology, Western Medicine, First Monograph, China
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Historical Studies,
Vol.10 No.3,
August
19,
2021
ABSTRACT: 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.