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 Isaac Newton 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 England. King Charles I had In 1657, Wren had moved to the com- commandeered Oxford and set up a roy- parative safety of London and had be- alist coterie within the colleges. Among his come professor of astronomy at age 25 medical advisers were his physician Dr Wil- years at Gresham College. 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, physics, law, burgh (1614-1694). In time of war, good divinity, rhetoric, and music. doctors and surgeons were highly valued. On November 28, 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 Latin. 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- ARCH OPHTHALMOL / VOL 129 (NO. 10), OCT 2011 WWW.ARCHOPHTHALMOL.COM 1361 ©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 Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) and Robert Boyle (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 1670s, 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 moon’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 Telescopes, 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 Microscopes, 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 Samuel Pepys, 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 telescope 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, Robert Hooke 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- ARCH OPHTHALMOL / VOL 129 (NO. 10), OCT 2011 WWW.ARCHOPHTHALMOL.COM 1362 ©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 Godfrey Kneller. 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 Charles Darwin, 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. Benjamin Franklin, by Joseph Wright, Newton, 1671.