Democritus,400BC,Ocular anatomy

Retinal imaging has evolved through many years. However, there are certain sentinel landmarks which have changed the way we view and understand the retina forever. The earliest of these occurred 400 years B.C. when Democritus first proposed the construction of the eye as a hollow tube connected to the brain .

Figure 1. Illustrations by Democritus (400 BC) on the left and Celsus on the right (from Duke-Elder, 1961).

Four hundred years later Celsus advanced the understanding of the ocular system to include a lens, the anterior chamber, and a vitreous .

http://www.ophthalmologyweb.com/FeaturedArticle.aspx?spid=23&aid=318

"Democntus explains sight by the visual image, which he describes in a peculiar way; the visual image does not arise directly in the pupil, but the air between the eye and the object of sight is contracted and stamped by the object seen and the seer; for from everything there is always a sort of effluence proceeding. So this air, which is solid and variously colored, appears in the eye, which is moist ; the eye does not admit the dense part, but the moist passes through." - http://www.aquinasonline.com/Magee/democritus.htm

"Vision works by the eye receiving "images" or "effluences" that are emanated by bodies." - http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Democritus