By expressing incident wave motion in JWKB form, but invoking the conventional volume source formulation for scattered wave motion, the inhomogeneous (variable refractive index) Helmholtz equation is solved to an accuracy comparable to that to which the Born approximation solves the Schrodinger and plasma wave equation. A straightforward algorithm recovers the refractive index from the far scattered field, given as a function of both scattering angle and wavelength. Iterative refinement is effected analogously to the inverse Born series.