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Home , Astley Cooper, Christopher Wren, Jesse Ramsden, William Charles Wells

SPECIAL ARTICLE Three Hundred Fifty Years of the Royal Society Fellows of Vision

C. Richard Keeler, FRCOphth(Hon)

he 350th anniversary of the Royal Society was celebrated in November 2010. This Brit- ish society is the oldest scientific institution in the world, with 8200 fellows, includ- ing foreign members, having been elected during this period. Sir is just one of the world’s great scientists who have served as officers of the Royal Society. To- Tday there are 69 Nobel Laureates among the membership of 1400.

BEGINNINGS math in an era of many polymaths and is most famous today as an architect and the In the middle of the 17th century, civil war creator of St Paul’s Cathedral (Figure 1). was raging in . King Charles I had In 1657, Wren had moved to the com- commandeered and set up a roy- parative safety of and had be- alist coterie within the colleges. Among his come professor of at age 25 medical advisers were his physician Dr Wil- years at . He was one of liam Harvey (1578-1657), Dr Thomas Wil- 7 professors, each specializing in a sub- lis (1621-1675), and Dr Charles Scar- ject: astronomy, geometry, , law, burgh (1614-1694). In time of war, good divinity, rhetoric, and music. doctors and surgeons were highly valued. On , 1660, after giving one In 1646, a sick 14-year-old boy named of his weekly lectures, 12 men who had Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was sent been attending the lecture met to discuss by his father to be under the care of Scar- the possibility of setting up a new insti- burgh at his home in Oxford. Soon, Wren tution, a society for promoting physico- became the technical assistant and infor- mathematical experimental learning. mal apprentice to Scarburgh. This was to become the Royal Society, Together they explored Harvey’s work which just celebrated its 350th anniver- on the functioning of the body as an or- sary. The new philosophy was to experi- gan. Every Thursday, Wren attended lec- ment, inquire, and interrogate nature by tures at Surgeons’ Hall. By the age of 16 observation, not by theory. Their inspira- years, he had become a builder of ma- tion came from Sir Francis Bacon, who chines and models, including one of the dreamed of science operating in the way human eye for his master. of a collaboration, or a fellowship, hence In 1649, he went to Wadham College, the adoption of the word fellow. one of the university colleges; he took his The founding members decided on the master’s degree 2 years later. It was during more informal European Academy and de- this time that he grew close to Willis, known bating type of organization rather than an today as the founder of neurology. It was institution for their new society. English later in 1663 that Wren, who was now an would be the primary language, not . accomplished draftsman, became involved On November 28, 1660, 40 prominent in making many of the meticulous draw- people were proposed. ings for Willis’s famous book, Cerebri Ana- Wren became a major influence in gain- tome. Wren was an extraordinary poly- ing royal approval when he showed Charles II (Figure 2) his greatly magnified image Author Affiliation: The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London, England. of a louse. The king was even more im-

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©2011 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/27/2021 fellows were doing. It was not until 1831 that peer review of the ar- ticles was instigated. In addition to Wren, Scarburgh, and Willis, the founding fellows in- cluded the Dutch astronomer, math- ematician, and optician (1629-1695) and (1627-1691), referred to by foreigners as “the English Philoso- pher.” This prolific experimenter had already established Boyle’s law. His list of 24 wishes that he hoped science would achieve in the future to make life better for people makes fascinating reading. Included in the Figure 1. Sir Christopher Wren, by Johann list are “the art of flying” and “the Closterman. Reprinted with permission from the making of parabolic and hyper- Royal Society. bolic glasses.” Figure 3. Title page of volume I of Philosophical Transactions, 1665. Reprinted with permission From its commencement, the from the Royal Society. Royal Society has been interna- tional in outlook, including having furnish [the Society] every day on a foreign secretary 100 years before which they met, with three or four the British government. Foreigners considerable experiments, and ex- became members of the Royal Soci- pecting no recompence till the so- ety, not fellows, and membership ciety should get a stock enabling was not always selected from the well them to give it.” born. For instance, in the , An- From the very beginning, the tonie van Leeuwenhoek (1623- Royal Society was considered a place 1723) was a simple Dutch shop- for experimentation. The weekly keeper turned microscopist who meeting, where members could bring went on to describe microorgan- their demonstrations to educate and isms for the first time. Of ophthal- entertain, was not entirely success- mic interest was his discovery of the ful as too many of the members just layer of rods of the retina, the fi- expected to be entertained. Hooke brous structure of the lens, and the was himself one of the most active ex- Figure 2. King Charles II, by Sir Peter Lely. fibroepithelial layer of the cornea. All Reprinted with permission from the Royal Society. perimenters, bringing to the Royal So- of his discoveries, reported in 200 ciety the first effective compound mi- articles in low Dutch between 1673 pressed by a lunar globe, which Wren croscope, the first iris diaphragm, and and 1724, were published in Philo- had created out of pasteboard, show- a range of new meteorological instru- sophical Transactions. ing the ’s surface in incredible ments. In his 1665 book Micro- detail. He presented a new version of graphia, Hooke stated SIR ISAAC NEWTON this as a gift to the king in person. By means of , there is noth- AND THE 18TH CENTURY The Royal Society was granted its ing so far distant but may be repre- first charter in July 1662, followed sented to our view; and by the help of The names of some notable people by the second in 1663. This second , there is nothing so small, elected fellows in the first 20-year pe- charter declared the king as the as to escape our enquiry; hence there is riod stand out, such as William Penn a new visible world discovered to the founder and patron and from hence- 1 and , but probably the forth the group could call them- understanding. greatest of all fellows in the Royal So- selves The Royal Society of London At the instigation of the first sec- ciety’s long history has been Sir Isaac for Improving Natural Knowledge, retary, Henry Oldenburg, in 1665 the Newton (1643-1727) (Figure 4). He to give it its full title. The coat of Philosophical Transactions Giving was elected a fellow in 1671 at the age arms had as its motto “Nullius in Some Account of the Present Under- of 28 years, having presented to the Verba”—take no man’s word for it. takings, Studies, and Labours of the In- Royal Society 2 years earlier a 6-inch- This new organization, under the genious in Many Considerable Parts long reflecting he had made patronage of the ruling monarch, has of the World, or simply Philosophi- with his own hands (Figure 5). In become the world’s oldest scien- cal Transactions (Figure 3), started 1687, after just 18 months from when tific society, with its continuous exis- to be published. It remains the he embarked on it, he completed what tence for more than 350 years. world’s longest such publication. many regard as the most important In 1662, was ap- Many letters were printed in it, and scientific work ever published, Phi- pointed curator. His brief was “to it was a way of communicating what losophiae Naturalis Principia Math-

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©2011 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/27/2021 Figure 4. Sir Isaac Newton. Engraving from a Figure 5. Reflecting telescope made by Isaac portrait by Sir . Newton, 1671. Reprinted with permission from the Royal Society.

ematica (Figure 6), known simply Figure 7. Manuscript of Sir Isaac Newton’s as Principia (Figure 7). Despite a Principia, 1685. Reprinted with permission from shortage of funds, the Royal Society the Royal Society. undertook its publication. Pepys was the president at the time and put his imprimatur on the title page, al- though he probably did not under- stand a word of the book’s contents. The Royal Society started a li- brary in 1661 with the understand- ing that fellows would donate a copy of any book they had published. Among the many writers over the de- cades was , who complied and presented a signed copy of his Origin of the Species. Today there are 50 antiquarian books on ophthalmology in the li- brary. As a result of the fame that Principia established for Newton, he became president of the Royal Soci- Figure 6. Title page of Principia by Sir Isaac Figure 8. , by Joseph Wright, Newton, 1671. Reprinted with permission from 1782. Reprinted with permission from the Royal ety in 1703, a position he held until the Royal Society. Society. his death in 1727. He attended nearly every meeting and the Royal Society thalmology. William Cheselden was came benefactor of Yale University, rose rapidly under his reputation. His elected a fellow in 1711. He was a and Benjamin Franklin (elected in industry was legendary, so much so brilliant surgeon and anatomist. His 1756), the well-known inventor of that the Marquis d’Hopital, a distin- claim to fame in ophthalmology was the bifocal lens for spectacle wear- guished mathematician himself, as the inventor of the artificial pu- ers (Figure 8). His work on elec- asked whether Newton ate, drank, or pil. The Dutch physician Hermann tricity by flying a kite in a thunder- slept like an ordinary man, “for I pic- Boerhaave, elected in 1730, was con- storm won him the in ture him to myself as a celestial ge- sidered by some to be the father of 1753 “on account of his curious ex- nius.”2 Newton was the first scien- practical ophthalmology in the 18th periment and observation on elec- tist to be knighted and became a hero century. The American physician tricity.” He became one of the Royal of science. A poem by Alexander William Charles Wells, elected in Society’s most famous natural phi- Pope sums this up: “nature and na- 1793, came to St Thomas’ Hospital losophers, and such was his range ture’s law lay hid in night; God said in London and made his name in the of talent that he helped in drafting ‘let Newton be’ and all was light.” physiology of vision. the Declaration of Independence in In the 18th century, one or two Two other Englishmen, in the America. His membership in the fellows’ names appear whose pro- case of the second a British subject, Royal Society remained in effect even fession was that of surgeon but who were also elected fellows. They were after his actions as a revolutionary were significantly involved in oph- Elihu Yale (elected in 1717), who be- in the American War of Indepen-

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©2011 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/27/2021 sociated with ophthalmology. These ventor of the ophthalmoscope in included Sir Astley Cooper (elected 1847.3 in 1802), Sir William Lawrence A revision of the Royal Society’s (elected in 1813), George Guthrie statutes was undertaken in 1847. The (elected in 1827), and Sir William number elected each year was to be Bowman (elected in 1841). reduced to 15 from unlimited. Six fel- One of the few Czech individu- lows had to propose new members, als to be elected a member of the and instead of a posted notice in the Royal Society was physiologist Jan meeting room for 10 weeks, a printed Evangelista Purkyne (1787-1869; list of candidates was prepared for elected in 1850) (Figure 9). By de- election by fellows to whom council licious irony, this was the same year recommended the names. Hermann von Helmholtz discov- The Victorian period was remark- ered his augen-spiegels, or ophthal- able for the level of amateur as- moscope as it came to be called, un- tronomy. The Herschel family made aware that Purkyne had described in a significant contribution to this. detail how he had visualized the (elected in 1813) fundi of animals and humans 27 fought for the presidency of the Figure 9. Jan Evangelista Purkyne, by Petr years earlier. He had published his Royal Society but narrowly lost. Maixner. opera omnia in Latin and it had re- The Victorian scientists special- mained largely unread. Helmholtz izing in and color were well dence, much the same as Max himself was made a member of the represented, with names such as Da- Planck, the German , was Royal Society in 1860 and won the vid Brewster (elected in 1814), Au- left in position as a member during prestigious Copley Medal in 1873. gustus Fresnel (elected in 1825), World War II. At the end of the century, 2 doc- George Airy (elected in 1836), In the latter half of the 18th cen- tors closely connected to ophthal- Charles Wheatstone (elected in tury, the Royal Society elected as fel- mology were elected as fellows. One 1836), and William Whewell lows more great names in optics and was the German individual Rudolf (elected in 1848). In 1840, Whewell medicine. These included John Dol- Virchow, who was most widely wrote, “We need very much a name lond (elected in 1761; inventor of the known for his cell theory. Two cen- to describe a cultivator of science in achromatic lens, which Newton had turies earlier, another fellow, Robert general. I should incline to call him stated was impossible), Joseph Hooke, described in his famous book a scientist.”4 This was the first time Priestley (elected in 1766), John and Micrographia—the first illustrated the natural philosopher was to be William Hunter (elected in 1767), book of microscopic observations— called a scientist. Whewell also in- Jesse Ramsden (elected in 1786), how a sliver of cork consisted of a vented the term astigmatism. William Wollaston (elected in 1793), “great many little boxes” or cells when and, lastly, one of the geniuses of his viewed through a . The THE 20TH CENTURY generation, Thomas Young (1773- other fellow was Sir William Gow- 1829; elected in 1794).Young’s con- ers, a British neurologist whose A Into the 20th century, 3 American tribution to ophthalmology was sig- Manual and Atlas of Medical Ophthal- individuals and 1 Canadian indi- nificant: he established that the seat moscopy was required reading by stu- vidual who contributed directly or of accommodation was in the lens, dents of ophthalmology and went into indirectly to ophthalmology stand and he did pioneering work on astig- many editions, including a German out. Silas Weir Mitchell (elected in matism and color. Being multilin- translation. 1908) did much to explain eye- gual, Young was an ideal choice as On Humphrey Davy’s succes- strain or asthenopia and empha- the Royal Society’s foreign secre- sion to the presidency in 1820, al- sized the need for proper glasses. Sir tary, a position he held for 26 years. though the majority of the 641 fel- Henry Wellcome (elected in 1932), After Newton’s death, Sir Joseph lows were practicing men of science, whose world-renowned Wellcome Banks took over as president, a po- a large number had little interest in Trust was established through his sition he held for 41 years until his the subject. Discontent in the func- will in 1936, the incomparable neu- death. Banks held a “conversation” tioning and composition of the Royal rosurgeon Harvey Cushing, and the every Sunday evening at his home, Society at this time was highlighted physician and teacher Sir William during which objects of scientific in- by several other books, among them Osler were all outstanding leaders in terest were exhibited by the host and one by mathematician Charles Bab- their professions. his guests. This is the origin of con- bage (elected in 1816) called Reflec- Five well-known ophthalmolo- versaziones held today. tions on the Decline of Science in En- gists, including “honorary ophthal- gland, and on Some of Its Causes mologist” Norman Ashton (elected THE 19TH CENTURY (1830). Babbage’s fame is based on in 1971), were elected as fellows in his work on the Difference Engine, the 20th century. Edward Nettle- The 19th century saw fellowships the so-called first computer, but for ship was elected in 1912, Sir John being conferred to numerous oph- ophthalmology his fame could so Herbert Parsons was elected in 1921, thalmologists and doctors closely as- easily have been immortal as the in- Sir Stewart Duke-Elder was elected

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©2011 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/27/2021 in 1960, and Sir Harold Ridley was Academy of Sciences. It is very much October 27, 2010; accepted Novem- elected in 1986. alive and in tune with international ber 7, 2010. Each year, 760 candidates are put scientific advances. It sponsors 350 Correspondence: C. Richard Keeler, forward by the 10 selection commit- research fellowships and gives grants FRCOphth(Hon), 1 Brookfield Park, tees to the council for election. Of to 3000 scientists. It awards numer- London NW5 1ES, England (rkeeler these, 45 are elected as fellows and ous medals and prizes each year. @blueyonder.co.uk). a further 8 are elected as foreign There are no fewer than 96 commit- Financial Disclosure: None re- members. Today there are 1400 fel- tees that meet regularly, and there ported. lows, of whom 69 are Nobel Laure- is a busy schedule of lectures and de- ates. In the 350-year history of the bates. The Royal Society publishes Royal Society, there have been 8200 a stream of articles in its 7 journals. fellows. In this total, there is only a The highlight of the summer is the REFERENCES small number of female fellows ow- annual scientific exhibition, open to ing to the fact that their election only the public, which shows the latest 1. Hooke R. Micrographia, or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnify- commenced in 1945. research by fellows. ing Glasses, With Observations and Inquiries The Royal Society, residing at 6-9 As one reviews the long history of Thereupon. London, England: Martyn & Allestry; Carlton House Terrace, is a remark- the Royal Society, the thrill of dis- 1665. able institution. Although it re- covery and the sharing of it by its fel- 2. Andrade EN da C. A Brief History of the Royal So- ceives an annual parliamentary grant lows permeates every phase of its exis- ciety, 1660-1960. London, England: Royal Soci- of £50 million, it is independent of tence and continues to do so today. ety; 1960:7. 3. Keeler CR. Babbage the unfortunate. Br J Ophthalmol. government, unlike its counter- 2004;88(6):730-732. parts the French Academy and the Submitted for Publication: Septem- 4. Whewell W. The Philosophy of the Inductive Sci- much larger American National ber 1, 2010; final revision received ences. Vol 2. London, England: Parker; 1840:560.

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