Distinguished Oblivion

Abstract

Wells was a medical man who proposed theories about how dew forms and how species differ, as well as adding to our understanding of heart disease. His intellectual heart, however, was firmly founded in natural philosophy. It is not clear why he started his experimental enquiries in vision. His medical dissertation from Leyden was concerned with cold. However, once his interests were stimulated by single vision with two eyes, he examined it with an experimental rigour that was novel. Nor were his experiments confined to binocular single vision, and his deliberations and observations were applied to accommodation, direction, vertigo, and visual persistence. His endeavours in these areas received little attention during his life, and less in the century after his death. His application of rigorous experiments to natural events has been acknowledged with respect to his experiments on dew (see Chapter 1), but not to those concerning natural selection (Chapter 1), vision (Chapter 4), or vertigo (Chapter 5). Some degree of retrospective respect is now emerging in historical studies of vision and vertigo, but these have lagged behind acknowledgement of his insightful studies in medicine.