Book review: Anatomy of the Human Eye: A Coloring Atlas

Learning anatomy is rarely a favorite aspect of any healthcare course, yet it is an important part of our clinical understanding. As I regularly tell my students, understanding the underlying anatomy is often key to understanding why a patient is experiencing a particular set of symptoms, or why a disease leads to a specific pattern of clinical signs. As Lisa A. Ostrin explains in her opening sentence of her book Anatomy of the Human Eye: A Coloring Atlas, "one of the most effective ways to learn anatomy is to draw anatomy." But, let's be honest, who wants to do that? Coloring it in on the other hand … that's actually quite fun! The illustrations in this book range from a gross overview of the eye and adnexa, to the minute detail of the eyelid's internal structures, to the neuroanatomy of the cranial nerves and visual pathways. Some illustrations concentrate solely on one thing, for example, the structure of a retinal ganglion cell. Others are much more complex, such as the detail of the anterior chamber angle. Each illustration is accompanied by a description of what is being shown. This probably doesn't include all the information we would like our students to learn, but it highlights the key points well and is a good revision tool. The illustrations are quite clear and are ordered in a very logical, step-by-step way; I found this really helped in understanding individual components and then putting all the pieces together. I think there are a number of ways to use these illustrations. Dr. Ostrin suggests maintaining consistency throughout the book in the colors used for types of features (blood vessels, nerves, etc.), which I thought was a great suggestion. I found that highlighting one path was very useful when looking at the cells of the retina. For the brain, I found myself referring to other diagrams to fully understand the extent of a feature (where does the medulla stop and the spinal cord begin?). I confess that my primary goal was to ensure that my coloring was "correct," but looking at these features from different angles is a technique we emphasize to students to fully appreciate their three-dimensional structure. If the desire for an accurately colored diagram encourages this, then all the better! Of course, this is not a book aimed at a university lecturer, but rather the students themselves. When I was asked to review this book, I told my students about it and asked them to give me their opinions. All the feedback I received was very positive, and students told me how helpful they had found it. Overall, I found this a thoroughly enjoyable way to learn anatomy. It's not really something we can include in the university library (probably shouldn't encourage the coloring in of library books!) but at ~£20 it's relatively inexpensive and well worth the money. I'll definitely be encouraging students to invest in this one. Lindsay Rountree, PhD, MCOptomDepartment of Optometry University of Bradford Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom Lindsay graduated from Cardiff University in 2006 with a degree in Optometry and Vision Sciences. After working in independent practice for several years, she returned to Cardiff University and gained her PhD in 2018, receiving the 2018 Master's Medal from the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers for research conducted as part of this on visual field stimuli. She undertook a post-doc at Aston University, and is now an assistant professor in optometry at the University of Bradford, as well as a Training Co-Lead for Women in Vision UK. She is a module leader for the "Ocular Health Assessment 1" module, a first-year undergraduate module that teaches ocular anatomy and clinical assessment.