| Reference number | MS/697/1 |
| Previous numbers | MS/780 |
| Level | Series |
| Title | Original illustrations of the mammalian eye by George Lindsay Johnson and Arthur William Head |
| Creator | Johnson, George Lindsay (1853-1943); ophthalmologist |
| Head; Arthur William (1861-1930); artist |
| Date | 1901 |
| Description | Original watercolour illustrations for Johnson's papers on the comparative anatomy of the mammalian eye, with printed proof copies of some further plates including diagrams and tables.
The coloured illustrations are studies of the fundi (the part of the eye opposite the pupil, made up of the retina, macula, optic disc, fovea and blood vessels) drawn at about 16 x magnification. Made from observations using an ophthalmoscope by artist Arthur William Head, under the direction of George Lindsay Johnson who is also credited with creating some of the artwork personally.
Fifty of the coloured plates plus additional diagrams and tables were published in 'The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society' in 1901. A further fifty were published posthumously in 1968 under the aegis of Dr Jokl.
Each illustration has been mounted on paper, this paper has in turn been mounted on board. One to four illustrations appear on each sheet, most commonly four, with a heading for the order of mammals depicted and further captions identifying the species of each eye shown, with the scientific and common name (some of which are outdated). The layout and numbering does not correspond to the printed plates in Philosophical Transactions. They are grouped as follows:
1. Primates. (Plates 3-10, figures 9-37. Illustrations 1-8 missing, a list made at the time illustrations were copied as slides in 1968 identifies the subject of the missing images which are extant as slides, see MS/169/2).
2. Chiroptera. (Plate 11, figures 38-39)
3. Insectivora. (Plate 12, figures 40-43)
4. Carnivora. (Plates 13-25, figures numbered 44-86. One illustration is noted as missing in a hand-written annotation on plate 22 signed Dr Jokl who acquired and arranged the illustrations for publication after Lindsay Johnson's death. A blank space has been left on the plate before figure 74 but this missing figure has not been included in the numbering sequence and does not appear on the list of slides compiled in 1968, or either published paper).
5. Ungulata. (Plates 29-39, figures 90-110). Note sections 5 and 6 have had the plates and figures numbered out of sequence with those in section 5 following on from section 6 numbering.
6. Cetacea. (Plates 26-28, figures 87-89).
7. No order of mammals appears as number 7 in either the sequence of original illustrations or list of slides at MS/697/2.
8. Rodentia. (Plates 40-55, figures 111-142).
9. Edentata. (Plate 56, figures 143-145).
10. Marsupalia. (Plates 57-60, figures 146-159).
11. Monotremata. (Plate 61, figure 160).
Three additional tables showing the phylogenetic tree of the orders of mammals according to examination of the eyes as compared to existing classification by Dr Hans Gadow. Mounted on board.
A diagram showing the divergence of optical axes in mammals. Mounted on board.
Three mounted copies of greyscale printed plates from the 1901 Philosophical Transactions paper by Lindsay, possibly proofs as no plate number has yet been added. Mounted on board. The original artwork for the figures that make up these plates are not present. They are titled:
‘Types of appendages to the iris occurring in the ungulates illustrating the successive stages from the corpus nigrum of the Equidae to the functionally active umbraculum in the Hyrax’ (8 figures)
‘Primitive and retrograde forms of the pecten and other vestigial remains occurring in the Mammalia’ (26 figures)
‘Various types of the obliterated hyaloid artery in Man’ (4 figures)
|
| Extent | 1 box containing 68 plates |
| Format | Watercolour |
| Printed |
| Physical description | Loose papers mounted on board. |
| Dimensions | 302.5 x 352mm (plates and diagram)
338 x 215mm (tables) |
| Arrangement | The numbering on the original plates and figures does not correspond to the numbering used in the published papers but to a printed list compiled in 1968 when slides were made of all 160 original coloured illustrations (see MS/697/2). |
| Access status | Closed |
| Related material | DOI: /10.1098/rstb.1968.0016 |
| DOI: 10.1098/rstb.1901.0001 |
| DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1899.0125 |
| Related records in the catalogue | MS/697/2 |
| Copies | MS/697/2 includes 35mm slides of all illustrations. The original artwork for figures 1-8 is not present in the archive so the 35mm slides and offprints of the 1968 paper at MS/697/2 are the only representations of these in the collection. Figures/slides 1 (fair-haired European) and 5 (gorilla) were not published. |