A first clue to an understanding of the sensitivity regulation mechanism in rods was given by the discovery by Boll in 1876 that the photopigment rhodopsin, situated in the outer segment of the rod receptors, was bleached by light and regenerated in the dark. He also showed that the bleaching effect of light depended on the wavelength used (Boll, 1878).

Influenced by this great discovery, Kühne, in an extensive research work, provided strong evidence in favour of the view that the sensitivity difference between rods and cones had a photochemical basis (Kühne, 1877a, b, 1877–1878, 1879). He investigated the bleaching and regeneration processes of rhodopsin in much more detail than Boll and made an important theoretical contribution with his influential ‘Optochemische’ hypothesis, where he presumed that the phototransduction in both rods and cones was photochemical in nature. Accordingly, he presumed that the apparent colourless cone receptors contained photochemical substances, and that these substances became involved in visual processing under daylight conditions. Indeed, in opposition to Schultze's (1866) duplicity theory, he presumed that even rods were activated by photochemical, colourless substances in daylight.

Furthermore, Kühne (1879) made an important distinction between the photochemical substances and their photoproducts, and argued that it was the photoproducts, not the photosensitive substances that generated the neural activity in the retina. Moreover, he discovered that rhodopsin may regenerate in two quite different ways: a rapid anagenese from photoproducts of rhodopsin and a slower neogenese from new substances formed after rhodopsin had been bleached.