Ophthalmoscopy, also called funduscopy, is a test that allows a health professional to see inside the fundus of the eye and other structures using an ophthalmoscope (or funduscope).

[citation needed] Mydriatic agents are primarily considered ophthalmologist or optometrist equipment, but is used by other specialists as well, including neurologists and internists.

However, he was unable to obtain an image with the instrument when showing it to ophthalmologist Thomas Wharton Jones, and thus became discouraged to proceed further.

At that time, Helmholtz was a young physiology professor and wanted to demonstrate to his students why the pupil was sometimes black and sometimes light.

He wrote about his ophthalmoscope in detail and demonstrated that it required three essential components (which remain true today):[2] Helmholtz called his instrument an Augenspiegel ('eye mirror').

This limitation was solved in 1852 by Helmholtz' machinist, Egbert Rekoss, who added two rotatable discs that each contained a few lenses.

[2] While training in France, Greek ophthalmologist Andreas Anagnostakis came up with the idea of making the instrument hand-held by adding a concave mirror.

Austin Barnett created a model for Anagnostakis, which he used in his practice and subsequently presented at the first Ophthalmological Conference in Brussels in 1857, which made the instrument very popular among ophthalmologists.

[citation needed] The invention of the incandescent light bulb further enabled the ophthalmoscope to be self-luminous instead of relying on an external and remote source of illumination.