Monday, June 25, 2007

Eye Studies Part 5: George Bridgman, "Constructive Anatomy"

I've read that you either love Bridgman or you hate him. I tend not to like him so much, because his drawings, even though they are intended to give anatomical instruction, are more like grotesque exaggerations of human anatomy. Peoples' bodies don't really look like they do in his drawings - they're more like comic book illustrations where every feature is blown out of proportion. Perhaps this is to draw the student's attention to certain features. In any case, I find it distracting.

The section "The Eye" in Bridgman's book "Constructive Anatomy" (available for download from Internet Archive) contains a brief description of the anatomy of the eye structure, followed by several pages of Bridgman's eye drawings ("The Eye Socket: Wedges, Planes and Their Angles", "The Eye: Angular Opening Between the Lids", and "The Eye"). I did appreciate Bridgman's text, which is reminiscent of John Vanderpoel's descriptions (both books date from the early part of the 20th century), not just in its wording but how the matter is approached.