Backgrounds, Contents, and Influences of Xi Yi Yan Ke (Ophthalmology in Western Medicine), the First Western Medical Monograph on Ophthalmology in China

John Glasgow Kerr was the second director of the First Western-Style Hospital in China, which was an eye hospital. Xi Yi Yan Ke (Ophthalmology in Western Medicine), which is translated and compiled by Dr. Kerr and first published in 1871 and reprinted in 1880, was the first western medical monograph on ophthalmology in China. The book consists of 53 sections, covering symptom inquiry, symptom examination, cataract surgery, ophthalmoscopy, conjunctival disease, eye trauma, corneal disease, scleral disease, retinal, and optic nerve diseases, glaucoma, and others. There are 23 (groups of) pictures, mainly about the anatomy of the eyeball, eye muscles, optic nerve, various instruments for ophthalmic surgery, etc. As a western medical book, Xi Yi Yan Ke attached great importance to eye disease surgeries, which promoted the treatment of eye diseases and the development of western medicine in China. However, it also had some limitations due to the limitations of western medicine at that time.