This book is a delight to read for anyone who likes the historic development of an idea. Integration is attempted of optics, anatomy, physiology, and psychology. Tribute is paid to William Porterfield, the inventor of the optometer and founder of ophthalmic and physiologic optics in Great Britain. Credit is given to C. E. Goodrich who in 1827 in the United States discovered and corrected his own astigmatism independent of G. B. Airy's description. The book contains the following four main sections: (1) simple ocular refractive errors from their detection to aspherical lenses; (2) adjustment and aberration of the eye's optic system, mechanism of accommodation to multifocal spectacles, including night myopia (here one might take exception to the implication of the Stiles-Crawford effect on p 193); (3) astigmatism; and (4) corneal contact lenses traced from Leonardo da Vinci to Wichterle. Few formulas or graphs of functional relationships are used. Fine line