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The History of Contact Lenses & The Invisible Revolution

The History of
Contact Lenses

A chain of experiments that solved four hard problems, from optics, fit, oxygen, and manufacturing.

Start in 1508 Jump to the timeline
Leonardo da Vinci manuscript sheet of notes and diagrams on the eye and vision, circa 1489 to 1490.

Five centuries,
of evolution.

Every real advance in this story solved 4 problems. Most of the famous names solved exactly one, and got credit for all four.

01

Bend light

Put a corrective surface in front of the pupil without the eye rejecting it.

02

Meet a living surface

The eye moves, blinks, and is never the same shape twice. Glass is not.

03

Let the cornea breathe

The cornea has no blood vessels. It draws oxygen from the air, and a lens sits in the way.

04

Make one into millions

A lens ground by hand for one patient is a curiosity. The same lens made cheaply is an industry.

1508

Before anyone could build one, they had to imagine it.

Leonardo’s notebook sheet from around 1508 is the first thing anyone points to, and it’s the most misread page in the whole story. He wasn’t sketching a contact lens. He was working out what happens to vision when the eye sits behind water, and he described putting your face in a bowl to find out.

That’s a note about optics, not a wearable object. The same goes for what came next. In 1637 Descartes described a water-filled tube pressed against the eye, which does move the refracting surface onto the cornea, but it sticks out several inches and you can’t close your eyelid over it.

In 1801 Thomas Young built something similar and used it to study accommodation, not to correct anyone’s sight. The first person to describe the real thing was John Herschel in 1845, who proposed taking an impression of the eye and filling a molded glass shell with animal jelly. He never built it. He just wrote down, correctly, what would need to happen.

So the first three hundred and thirty years of this history produced no lenses at all. What they produced was a clear description of the problem.

Hand-drawn optical diagram of the human eye by Thomas Young, showing rays refracting through the cornea and lens.
Thomas Young’s own diagram of the eye. Young used a contact-like optical system in 1801 to test accommodation, not to correct vision.
Wellcome Collection M0011676. CC BY 4.0
Painted portrait of Rene Descartes by Frans Hals.
Rene Descartes, who in 1637 described a water-filled tube held against the eye. Public domain.
Photographic portrait of Sir John Herschel by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867.
John Herschel described the method in 1845 and never built it. Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron. Public domain.
1888

Four people got there at almost the same time.

There’s no clean invention moment here, which is why the question “who invented contact lenses” has never had one honest answer.

Black and white portrait of the physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick.
Adolf Eugen Fick.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
1887

Friedrich Anton Müller

A glassblower produces a thin glass shell to protect a diseased eye that could not close. It corrects nothing. It’s the first time a shell is worn on an eye for a medical reason.

1888

Adolf Eugen Fick

Publishes the first systematic experiments fitting large glass corrective shells, working first on rabbits, then on himself, then on volunteers. He coins the term for them.

1888

Eugène Kalt

Independently fits glass shells in Paris for patients with keratoconus, a cone-shaped cornea. Treatment first, correction second.

1889

August Müller

A medical student with severe myopia commissions a powered glass scleral lens, wears it himself, and writes his dissertation on it. First real correction of a refractive error.

Protection, treatment, then correction. Three different goals in three years, from three people who mostly didn’t know about each other.

1948

Then somebody made it smaller.

Every glass lens until this point covered the whole visible eye. The single biggest change in five centuries is a change in diameter.

23 mm

Ground glass scleral lens. It rests on the white of the eye, not the cornea. Wearable for a few hours before the eye protests.

Both circles are drawn in true proportion to each other. The dashed circle is an average adult cornea at 11.7 mm.

Close-up photograph of a human eye wearing a modern soft contact lens, the lens edge visible over the iris.
A modern soft lens in place. The edge sits past the iris but well inside the eyelids, which is the whole difference from a 23 mm glass shell.
CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Kevin Tuohy was working in a Los Angeles lab in 1948 when a scleral lens broke and left only the small central portion. The story of exactly how deliberate this was gets told several ways, and the record doesn’t settle it. What isn’t in dispute is what he filed in 1950 and what it changed.

A corneal lens is small enough for the eyelid to slide across it, and it floats on the tear film instead of clamping onto the sclera. Tears move underneath it every time you blink. That’s what made all-day wear possible for the first time.

The same work was happening elsewhere. Kyoichi Tanaka developed a practical corneal lens in Japan around 1951 and commercialized it through what became Menicon. The corneal revolution wasn’t only American, and it wasn’t only one person.

The trade-off arrived with it. PMMA is a hard plastic that passes almost no oxygen at all. The lens had gotten small enough to wear. It hadn’t yet gotten breathable.

The first soft lenses were spun at home, on a rig built from a children’s construction set.

Otto Wichterle, Christmas 1961, after being removed from his own institute.

1954

The cornea has no blood vessels. It still needs oxygen.

Material science changed the question from whether a lens could correct vision to whether it could share the eye safely, all day, for years.

Antique optical diagram of the human eye showing the cornea, lens and retina with light rays.
The cornea is the outer surface light passes through first. It has no blood supply, so it takes oxygen directly from the air.
Wellcome Collection M0004570. CC BY 4.0
Portrait photograph of the Czech chemist Otto Wichterle.
Otto Wichterle.
CC BY-SA 3.0 cz, via Wikimedia Commons.

Make the material

Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lím developed a water-loving polymer called pHEMA in 1954 and published on hydrophilic gels in Nature in 1960. The material could hold water, stay soft, and sit against living tissue without the tissue rejecting it. That’s a chemistry result, not a lens.

Then make the method

Turning a gel into a repeatable optical surface took another seven years. Wichterle’s spin-casting rig, assembled from a Merkur construction set and a bicycle dynamo on his kitchen table, produced the first usable soft lenses. Method, not material, is what unlocked production.

Then solve oxygen properly

Soft hydrogels were comfortable but still limited how much oxygen reached the cornea. Two separate lines of work fixed it: rigid gas-permeable materials from Norman Gaylord’s silicone-acrylate patent in 1974, and silicone hydrogels reaching the market around 1999. Only then did safe extended wear become a reasonable claim.

1987

One lens becomes millions.

The last problem wasn’t optical. It was industrial. A lens ground by hand for one patient is a curiosity.

129

Years between Leonardo’s note on the eye in water and Descartes describing a tube placed against the cornea.

380

Years between that first note and the first lens worn to correct a refractive error, in 1888.

63

Years from the first glass shell on an eye to a practical corneal lens you could wear all day.

Modern corrective soft contact lenses with high oxygen permeability, shown in blister packaging.
The end state of the manufacture problem: identical lenses, sealed in saline, made by the million.
CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Denmark got there first. MIA, later Danalens, launched in 1983 as the first lens made and marketed as disposable. Four years later Acuvue arrived as a mass-market lens designed around scheduled replacement, and the economics of the whole category changed.

Then came the rules. The 2004 Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act and the FTC’s Contact Lens Rule gave patients the right to their own prescription, which is the reason you can buy lenses from someone other than the person who fitted them. Access is part of this history too.

2010

The lens begins to act.

For five centuries a contact lens was a passive optical surface. In the last fifteen years it started doing other jobs.

Antique anatomical diagram of the human eye in cross section.
Wellcome Collection L0033800. CC BY 4.0
2002A lens that reshapes the cornea overnight

Paragon CRT received U.S. approval for overnight corneal reshaping, or orthokeratology. You wear a rigid lens while you sleep, it flattens the cornea slightly, and you see without correction during the day. The effect wears off, so it has to be repeated nightly.

2016A lens that measures

The FDA permitted marketing of the Triggerfish sensor, a lens that records corneal changes related to eye pressure over a single 24-hour period. It’s a diagnostic recording device for one day of data, not a continuous glaucoma monitor, and the difference between those two descriptions is the whole claim.

2018A lens that responds to light

The FDA cleared a photochromic contact lens that changes how much light it absorbs in response to UV and visible light. The lens itself adapts. Nothing about the prescription changes.

2019A lens that slows a condition

MiSight 1 day received U.S. approval to slow the progression of myopia in children who are between 8 and 12 years old when first fitted. That age range is part of the approval, not a footnote to it. This is the first time a contact lens was approved to change the course of a condition rather than compensate for it.

2022A lens that delivers a drug

Theravision with Ketotifen became the first U.S.-approved drug-eluting contact lens, releasing an antihistamine for itch associated with allergic conjunctivitis while correcting vision at the same time. One object, two jobs.

All 40 milestones.

The chapters above tell the story. This is the underlying record, filterable by the problem each milestone solved.

Showing all 40 milestones

c. 1508
Leonardo da Vinci studies how immersing the eye in water changes vision. A note on optics, not a wearable object.
1637
René Descartes describes a water-filled tube placed against the eye. It moves the refracting surface to the cornea, but the eyelid can’t close over it.
1801
Thomas Young uses a lens, water and a wax collar in an experiment on accommodation. A contact-like optical system used for research, not correction.
1845
John Herschel proposes taking an impression of the eye and filling a molded glass shell with animal jelly. He describes the method correctly and never builds it.
1887
Friedrich Anton Müller produces a thin glass shell worn to protect a diseased eye. Protection, not correction.
1888
Adolf Eugen Fick publishes systematic experiments fitting large glass corrective shells, working on rabbits, then himself, then volunteers.
Black and white portrait of physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick.
Adolf Eugen Fick.
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
1888
Eugène Kalt independently fits glass shells in Paris for patients with keratoconus.
1889
August Müller commissions and wears a powered glass scleral lens for his own severe myopia, and writes his dissertation on it.
1890s-1920s
Ground-glass scleral lenses become commercially available, with stock lenses appearing by the 1920s. The first time a lens is something you buy rather than commission.
1930s
Adolf Müller-Welt patents a fluidless molded glass contact lens.
1930s
József Dallos refines eye impressions and adds channels that let tears circulate under the lens.
1936
William Feinbloom develops a combined glass-and-plastic scleral lens.
1938
Theodore Obrig pioneers acrylic plastic for scleral lenses. Lighter, safer to handle, easier to shape than glass.
1940s
Norman Bier develops a fenestrated lens, drilling holes to let tears and air reach the cornea. The first direct attempt at the oxygen problem.
1948
Experiments associated with Kevin Tuohy produce a small all-PMMA lens that rests on the cornea alone.
1950
Tuohy’s U.S. corneal-lens patent is filed, and later granted. The lens stops covering the whole visible eye.
1951 / 1953
Kyoichi Tanaka develops a practical corneal lens in Japan and commercializes it through what becomes Menicon. The corneal shift was international.
1954
Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lím develop the pHEMA hydrogel later used for soft lenses. A water-loving polymer the eye tolerates.
1960
Early patient work proceeds and Wichterle and Lím publish hydrophilic gels in Nature.
1961
Wichterle builds a spin-casting apparatus from a Merkur construction set and produces usable soft lenses at home.
1962-1963
Soft hydrogel lenses begin reaching European practitioners and markets. Sources differ on the exact year, so the range preserves both.
1971
Bausch + Lomb’s SofLens receives U.S. approval and becomes the first mass-produced American soft lens.
Historic Bausch and Lomb SofLens vial from the 1971 U.S. launch.
Bausch + Lomb SofLens vial, 1971.
1974
Norman Gaylord’s silicone-acrylate gas-permeable material patent is granted. Rigid lenses that let oxygen through.
1974
Permalens introduces an early extended-wear soft-lens proposition.
1979
Menicon releases Menicon O2, an early commercially significant rigid gas-permeable lens.
1981
U.S. approvals expand extended-wear soft lenses. Bausch + Lomb also introduces a soft toric lens for astigmatism.
1982
Bausch + Lomb introduces an early soft bifocal contact lens.
1983
MIA, later Danalens, launches in Denmark as the first lens manufactured and marketed as disposable.
1980s
Cosmetic colored soft lenses become a distinct consumer category.
1987
Acuvue launches as a mass-market disposable lens designed for scheduled replacement. The economics of the category change.
Black-and-white archival photograph showing Acuvue disposable contact lens launch materials.
Acuvue disposable-lens launch materials, 1987.
1995
Single-use daily disposable lenses move from regional launch to broader international availability.
1990s
Disposable multifocal soft lenses become available.
1998-1999
Silicone hydrogel lenses enter the world market. PureVision receives U.S. approval. Oxygen transmission improves by a large margin over earlier hydrogels.
Bausch and Lomb PureVision silicone hydrogel contact lens box.
Bausch + Lomb PureVision, approved in the U.S. in 1999.
2002
Paragon CRT receives U.S. approval for overnight corneal reshaping.
2004
The U.S. Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act and the FTC Contact Lens Rule establish a patient’s right to their own prescription.
2005
U.S. law places all contact lenses, including non-corrective decorative lenses, under medical device regulation.
2016
The FDA permits marketing of the Triggerfish contact-lens sensor for one-time 24-hour recording of corneal changes.
2018
The FDA clears a photochromic contact lens that changes light absorption in response to UV and visible light.
2019
MiSight 1 day receives U.S. approval to slow myopia progression in children aged 8 to 12 at first fitting.
2022
Theravision with Ketotifen becomes the first U.S.-approved drug-eluting contact lens.

Where the record is genuinely unsettled.

Histories of contact lenses disagree with each other more than you’d expect, and the disagreements are worth knowing about rather than hiding.

József Dallos’s exact chronology in the 1930s varies between sources. The Tuohy story is told as a lab accident in some accounts and as deliberate design in others. European soft-lens availability is dated to 1962 in one account and 1963 in another, depending on whether you mean available to practitioners or commercially on sale. Several of the 1880s milestones were simultaneous enough that priority claims depend on which definition of “contact lens” you accept.

We’ve kept product histories separate from independent scholarship throughout. A manufacturer’s account is good evidence for its own launch dates and poor evidence for settling a disputed global first. Where two credible sources give different years, this page shows the range instead of picking a winner.

None of this is fitting advice. A contact lens is a medical device, and what’s right for your eyes comes from an eye care professional who has examined them, not from a history page.

View our sources.

This page draws on 43 sources: primary papers, patents, regulator records, museum collections, peer-reviewed histories and manufacturer archives.

Among them: the British Optical Association Museum at the College of Optometrists, EyeWiki and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the National Museum of American History, Contact Lens Spectrum, Nature, PubMed Central, and the corporate history archives of Menicon and Bausch + Lomb.

Open the complete source register
  1. S01
    Contact Lens History

    Lens.com · Current page · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Baseline copy and structure audit.
    4
  2. S02
    The history of contact lenses

    College of Optometrists / British Optical Association Museum · Professional museum history · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Backbone for chronology and nuanced early attribution.
    2
  3. S03
    History of Contact Lenses

    Contact Lens Spectrum; Patrick J. Caroline and Craig Norman · Expert historical article · 2022-08

    1887–89 production, Fick, Müller, museum context.
    2
  4. S04
    US2510438A: Contact lens

    Kevin M. Tuohy / U.S. patent record · Patent · Filed 1948-02-28; granted 1950-06-06

    Tuohy filing/grant dates and patent design.
    1
  5. S05
    The 75th anniversary of the Tuohy corneal contact lens: A review

    Contact Lens & Anterior Eye · Peer-reviewed historical review · 2023

    1947 experiments, 1948 filing, 1950 grant, disputed antecedents.
    2
  6. S06
    Hydrophilic Gels for Biological Use

    Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lím, Nature · Original research paper · 1960

    Publication milestone and author credit.
    1
  7. S07
    History of the development of a soft contact lens

    PubMed-indexed historical article · Peer-reviewed history · 1999

    1954 hydrogel development and 1961 first soft lenses.
    2
  8. S08
    Otto Wichterle: scientist and inventor

    PubMed Central · Peer-reviewed historical profile · 2009

    Hydrogel development, patient work, 1961 spin casting.
    2
  9. S09
    Contact lenses collection/exhibit

    National Technical Museum, Prague · Museum collection page · Accessed 2026-08-18

    1961 machine, first lenses, and manufacturing plates.
    2
  10. S10
    History & Heritage

    Bausch + Lomb · Manufacturer history · Accessed 2026-08-18

    SofLens, toric, bifocal, and PureVision company milestones.
    3
  11. S11
    Soflens contact lenses, Aseptor patient unit

    Smithsonian Institution · Museum object record · 1971 object / accessed 2026-08-18

    March 1971 FDA approval and object context.
    2
  12. S12
    USRE31406: Oxygen-permeable contact lens composition

    Norman Gaylord / U.S. patent record · Patent · Priority 1972; original grant 1974

    Silicone-acrylate gas-permeable material milestone.
    1
  13. S13
    Menicon corporate history

    Menicon · Manufacturer history · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Tanaka dates and Menicon O2 release.
    3
  14. S15
    Key milestones in Johnson & Johnson history

    Johnson & Johnson · Manufacturer heritage timeline · Accessed 2026-08-18

    1987 Acuvue and 1993 1-Day Acuvue claims.
    3
  15. S16
    Thirtieth anniversary of daily disposable contact lenses

    Clinical and Experimental Optometry · Peer-reviewed historical analysis · 2024

    Explains regional-to-global rollout across 1993–95 and proposes 1994 as a defensible marker.
    2
  16. S17
    P980006: PureVision contact lens

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · PMA record · Decision 1999-02-05

    U.S. silicone-hydrogel approval milestone.
    1
  17. S18
    FTC issues final rule implementing the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act

    U.S. Federal Trade Commission · Regulatory release · 2004-06

    2003 act and 2004 prescription-release/verification rule.
    1
  18. S19
    Decorative, non-corrective contact lenses guidance

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · Regulatory guidance · Law effective 2005-11-09

    All U.S. contact lenses, including decorative, treated as medical devices.
    1
  19. S20
    P870024/S043: Paragon CRT

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · PMA supplement / approval documentation · 2002

    U.S. overnight orthokeratology approval milestone.
    1
  20. S21
    FDA permits marketing of device that senses optimal time to check eye pressure

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · Regulatory release · 2016-03-04

    Triggerfish indication and important limitation that it does not measure IOP directly.
    1
  21. S22
    K180299: Photochromic contact lens

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · 510(k) record · Decision 2018-04-10

    Photochromic clearance date and device scope.
    1
  22. S23
    P180035: MiSight 1 day

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · PMA record · Decision 2019-11-15

    Approved myopia-progression indication and age range.
    1
  23. S24
    Theravision with Ketotifen prescribing information

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · Drug/device label · Initial U.S. approval 2022

    First U.S.-approved drug-eluting contact lens, indication and limitations.
    1
  24. S25
    Contact lens materials: a materials science perspective

    Peer-reviewed open-access review · Technical review · 2019

    Glass, PMMA, RGP, hydrogel, silicone-hydrogel material tradeoffs.
    2
  25. S26
    Smart contact lenses: advances, challenges and future directions

    PubMed-indexed review · Future-technology review · 2025

    Evidence-calibrated future research rail.
    2
  26. S27
    About contact lenses

    U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · Public-health guidance · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Current device and safe-wear context; optional U.S. prevalence statistic with date.
    1
  27. S28
    Contact Lenses

    EyeWiki / American Academy of Ophthalmology community · Clinical reference · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Cross-check dates, types, physiology, and disputes.
    2
  28. S29
    Contact lens objects

    Science Museum Group Collection · Museum collection search · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Object and image shortlist across historical eras.
    2
  29. S30
    Smithsonian Open Access FAQ

    Smithsonian Institution · Rights policy · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Determine whether specific assets are marked CC0 and commercially reusable.
    1
  30. S31
    Corneal lenses / Tuohy object record

    National Museum of American History, Smithsonian · Museum object record · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Tuohy artifact and patent context.
    2
  31. S32
    The Contact Lens Museum

    Contact Lens Museum · Specialist museum · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Expert consultation and objects from a collection of more than 2,000 items.
    2
  32. S33
    British Optical Association Museum: what we do/contact

    College of Optometrists · Museum contact · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Historical inquiry, filming, object access, and curator outreach route.
    1
  33. S34
    Science Museum Group collections reuse / Creative Commons

    Science Museum Group · Rights policy · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Rights triage for museum collection images.
    1
  34. S35
    For journalists

    National Technical Museum, Prague · Press contact · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Outreach route for Wichterle machine and collection imagery.
    1
  35. S36
    The history of contact lenses

    ACUVUE · Competitor page · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Competitive experience/content audit only.
    4
  36. S37
    A brief history of contact lenses

    1-800 Contacts · Competitor page · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Competitive experience/content audit only.
    4
  37. S38
    When were contact lenses invented?

    All About Vision · Competitor page · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Competitive experience/content audit only.
    4
  38. S39
    How contact lenses work

    CooperVision · Competitor page · Accessed 2026-08-18

    Competitive experience/content audit only.
    4
  39. S41
    The first powered contact lens and August Müller’s dissertation

    Contact Lens & Anterior Eye / ScienceDirect · Peer-reviewed historical article · 2006

    August Müller, Karl Otto Himmler, 1889 dissertation, and approximately −14 D correction.
    2
  40. S42
    The Müller contact lens

    Survey of Ophthalmology / ScienceDirect · Peer-reviewed historical review · 1989

    August Müller’s brief tolerance, edema, tear flow, and edge observations.
    2
  41. S44
    In Contact: Chapter 1 history

    Contamac · Industry educational history · 2024

    Danalens, RGP, toric, manufacturing chronology, and 1962 Western European soft-lens availability cross-check.
    3
  42. S45
    Contact Lens Rule

    U.S. Federal Trade Commission · Current regulator rule page · Rechecked 2026-08-19

    Current prescription-release and seller-verification framework.
    1
  43. S46
    Decorative, Non-corrective Contact Lenses

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration · Current regulator guidance · Rechecked 2026-08-19

    Current U.S. device and prescription framework for decorative lenses.
    1

Five centuries later, you can order them online.

Everything on this page was a hand-ground curiosity within living memory of some of these dates. Today the lens Wichterle spun on a kitchen table is a next-day delivery.

Shop contact lenses More from eyeSTYLE

Want to know more?

Who invented contact lenses?

No single person. Adolf Eugen Fick published the first systematic fitting experiments in 1888, Eugène Kalt independently fitted shells for keratoconus the same year, and August Müller wore the first lens made to correct a refractive error in 1889. Leonardo and Descartes described the optics centuries earlier but never made a wearable lens.

When were soft contact lenses invented?

The pHEMA hydrogel material was developed by Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lím in 1954, and Wichterle produced the first usable soft lenses on a home-built spin-casting rig in 1961. Soft lenses reached European practitioners around 1962 to 1963, and Bausch + Lomb’s SofLens received U.S. approval in 1971.

What were the first contact lenses made of?

Blown and ground glass. The earliest wearable lenses from the late 1880s were large glass shells that rested on the white of the eye. Acrylic plastic arrived in 1938, all-plastic corneal lenses around 1948, and soft water-based hydrogels in the 1960s.

Why did early contact lenses cover the whole eye?

Glass could not be made thin and precise enough to balance on the cornea alone, so early lenses were around 23 mm across and rested on the sclera. Kevin Tuohy’s corneal lens patent, filed in 1950, brought that down to roughly 9.5 mm, small enough for the eyelid to pass over and for tears to circulate underneath.

When did daily disposable contact lenses appear?

MIA, later Danalens, launched in Denmark in 1983 as the first lens made and sold as disposable. Acuvue brought scheduled replacement to the mass market in 1987, and single-use daily disposables spread internationally through the mid 1990s.

Can a contact lens do anything besides correct vision?

Yes, and only recently. Approved examples include overnight corneal reshaping (2002), a 24-hour diagnostic sensor (2016), a photochromic lens that adapts to light (2018), a lens approved to slow myopia progression in children (2019), and a drug-eluting lens that releases an antihistamine (2022).

Archive images are reproduced from the Wellcome Collection and Wikimedia Commons under the licenses noted beside each figure, or are in the public domain. In production these should be downloaded and served from Lens.com with attribution preserved, rather than hotlinked.

Published by eyeSTYLE, the Lens.com journal. This article is history, not medical advice. Talk to an eye care professional about what’s right for your eyes.

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