Buphthalmos: early glaucoma history.

Glaucoma as understood today could not have been detected before the means to see the optic nerve and reliably measure the intraocular pressure were available after the mid-1850s. One form, however, manifested itself as a visible enlargement of the globe and was thus recognized since antiquity. This article traces the nomenclature, signs and symptoms, and treatment of buphthalmos from the ancient Greeks to the second half of the 19th century, when the present methods began.