Ernest Edmund Maddox (1863 – 4 November 1933) was a British surgeon and ophthalmologist. He was a specialist in abnormal binocular vision and phorias (heterophoria in particular).[1] He made advances in optical treatments and invented several devices to better investigate eye conditions, including Maddox rod, double prism Maddox, red glass Maddox, Maddox cross and Maddox wing. As a keen amateur astronomer he also invented the starfinder, a device to home in on stars and constellations.[2]
Maddox rod and pen torch used in Maddox rod testingThe Maddox Wing
Due to ill-health he headed for the warmer climates of the English coast and moved to Bournemouth to work at first the Royal Victoria Hospital with Dr Roberts-Thomson, then the Royal Boscombe and West Hants Hospital. He served as vice-president of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom and president of the ophthalmological section of the British Medical Association.
Clinical Use of Prisms and the Decentering of Lenses (1908)
Family
In 1893 he married Grace Rivers daughter of Alexander Monteath of Broich and Duchally in Perthshire, who bore him thirteen children.
His daughter Mary Maddox is generally recognised as the world's first orthoptist.[5]
