Neuro-ophthalmology, 36(2), 7172, 2012

Copyright 2012 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc.

ISSN: 0165-8107 print/1744-506X online
DOI: 10.3109/01658107.2011.654372

Book Review

Evolutions Witness: How Eyes Evolved

Ivan R. Schwab

Neuroophthalmology Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Dr. Walter Jay on 04/16/12

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New York, Oxford University Press, 2012, 306 pages, ISBN: 978-0-19536974-8 (hardback)

Evolutions Witness: How the Eyes Evolved is a remarkable book. It comes out shortly after the 200th anniversary of
Charles Darwins birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. In the Foreword
of Evolutions Witness, Russell Fernald quotes a passage by Darwin from On the Origin of Species concerning the
complexity of the eye:
To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting
different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by
natural selection, seems I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree

Proponents of intelligent design have taken this quote out of context to disparage Darwins theory of natural
selection. Yet, as pointed out by Russell Fernald in the foreword to this book, the intelligent design activist often
ignore the rest of the quote that states:
yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple,
each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist: if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the
variations be inherited, which is certainly the case: and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to
an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be
formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can be considered real.

In the Introduction to Evolutions Witness: How the Eyes Evolved, the author explains the intriguing title of his
text. He states:
Along the evolutionary trail, much of life on earth came and went with little record, because so many of these initial
details were lost and not preserved. Still, there is one enduring record: evolutions witness is photoreception. Following
photoreceptions thread will help us to understand evolution in general and the evolution of the eye in particular
because life evolved with light and its perception. That light stimulus would eventually lead to the eye.

Evolutions Witness transports the reader from the time of molecular genesis on earth in the Hadean Eon (4600
to 3750 million years ago), through the Cambrian explosion (543 to 490 million years ago) of animalian body
design, through the massive extinction of all but 5% of living species at the end of the Permian Period (299 to
251 million years ago), and up to the present. The overleaf and inside cover contains a colour-coded timeline,
and each page is edged in the colour that corresponds to the period being discussed.
Some of the material in Evolutions Witness first appeared as a monthly series of essays written by Ivan Schwab
for the British Journal of Ophthalmology. The book contains over 400 exquisite colour images of animals and the
microscopic appearance of many eyes. There is an extensive bibliography containing 23 pages of references.
There is also a seven-page glossary at the end of the book as well as eight appendices covering a variety of
topics, including the human eye, accommodation, photoreceptor cells, and the like. Of particular interest to
neuro-ophthalmologists is Appendix H that discusses Neurologic Evolution in Birds.
Neuro-ophthalmologists will also be keenly interested in a section of Chapter 3 entitled The Eye and the
Brain: Which Came First? In this section, the author writes:
Sensory input, particularly vision, became more sophisticated in coevolution with neurologic development because
the sensory input could be useful only if the organism had the necessary machinery to decode, translate, organize,
remember, and integrate that input. Conversely, no such machinery is needed for more pedestrian input. Hence,
sensory input, with our visual witness of photoreception leading the way, stimulated the formation of the necessary
neurologic machinery.

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72 Book Review
Evolutions Witness: How the Eyes Evolved is an outstanding book. It can be highly recommended. Every neuroophthalmologist should strongly consider adding this book to their library. It would also be valuable for ophthalmologists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons interested in the field of evolution.

Neuroophthalmology Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Dr. Walter Jay on 04/16/12

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Walter M. Jay, MD
Loyola University Medical Center,
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Neuro-ophthalmology