ABSTRACT
A. INTRODUCTION In 1853 Hermann von Helmholtz described the mechanism of accommodation of the human eye. This was not the first description of how the human eye accommodates. Many descriptions of and much research on accommodation preceded the work of Helmholtz (1), yet the accommodative mechanism of the human eye is still generally referred to as the “classic Helmholtz accommodative mechanism.” Helmholtz succeeded where others had failed at providing a comprehensive and consistent explanation of how accommodation occurs. It was comprehensive in that he described the functions of all of the major elements of the accommodative apparatus, and it was consistent in that it required no significant modifications of what was known with certainty at the time regarding how accommodation occurs.
