DARK ADAPTATION

Abstract

Measurements of dark adaptation have been done by innumerable investigators using many different technics ever since the classic description of the phenomenon was made in 1865 by Aubert.¹ It has been only within recent years, however, that any progress has been made toward understanding the process. The intricate nature of the photoreceptor mechanism and the complexity of the retinal mosaic, where sensitivity to light varies throughout the structure, have provided pitfalls which were completely ignored by the early workers, with a resulting obscuration of the process of adaptation. Today, with the proper apparatus, measurement of dark adaptation is a simple procedure which is assuming greater importance in both research and clinical work. The theoretic development of dark adaptation and the working out of a practical technic have been reported in the physiologic rather than the ophthalmologic literature, with the result that the clinical application of the modern technic is