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The Ophthalmic Assistant. Fundamentals and Clinical Practice
BOOK REVIEWS Edited by H. Stanley Thompson, M.D.
This volume will continue to be a delight to anyone w h o has an interest in or contact with ophthalmology; the criticisms outlined in this review should be considered minor cavils in an otherwise, superb and highly readable work.
The Ophthalmic Assistant. Fundamentals and Clinical Practice, ed. 5. By Harold A. Stein, Bernard J. Slatt, and Raymond M. Stein. St. Louis, C. V. Mosby Co., 1988. Softcover, 923 pages, index, illustrated. $43.95 Reviewed by CHARLES B. DEICHMAN
Cooperstown, New York The Basic Science section of this text, though brief, remains an excellent primer. Following chapters lead the reader through important aspects of clinical practice from front office efficiency, to history taking, preliminary examination, understanding and maintenance of ophthalmic equipment, and ocular disorders of all types. Chapters covering soft and hard contact lens fitting and advanced fitting techniques have been retained from the previous edition, and excellent new chapters on automated visual fields and automated refractors have been added. The section, "Assisting the Surgeon," covers aseptic techniques, the operative patient, and highlights of commonly performed ocular procedures, plus new chapters describing lasers in ophthalmology and ambulatory surgery. Sections covering low vision, ocular motility, ophthalmic photography, and reading problems in children are extremely worthwhile. Brief explanations of magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and computers are new in this edition, and a chapter has been added on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A number of appendices, a glossary, and a supplementary reading list complete the text. Most of the chapters are beautifully written with excellent philosophic observations. Each chapter concludes with review questions and a self-evaluation test. The quality of the references would be enhanced by appending selected reading lists at the end of each chapter. Some of the deficiencies in the fourth edition remain; specifically the black and white photographic atlas, which has not been updated or cross-referenced. The color photographs are, however, excellent. The laser section is basic, and no clinical correlations are offered. Ambulatory surgery is mentioned only briefly.
The World Through Blunted Sight. Revised edi tion. By Patrick Trevor-Roper. London, Penguin Press, 1988. Hardcover, 207 pages, index, illus trated. $24.95 Reviewed by FRANK W. NEWELL
Chicago, Illinois The author, the doyen of ophthalmic editors having edited the Transactions of the Ophthalmological Societies of the United Kingdom for 40 plus years, explores the way in which defective vision influences art and character. His curiosity lets him wander widely as he tells of the influence of refractive errors on personality, of colors in nature, eye dominance, and the effects of visual field abnormalities, and blindness. Thus, we learn that the Medicis were myopic and had a family history of gout (rheumatism?). Their myopia precluded soldiering and their enterprise found its outlet in banking. El Greco's elongated images reflected Venetian naturalism and not astigmatism of the artist. Trevor-Roper tells of the color preferences of the Satin Bower-Birds (blue) and of anthropoid apes (red). Colorblindness and color distortion in literature, and art particularly, merit a discussion. Many examples of strabismus, mainly of exodeviation, are illustrated. The artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino) was exceptional in having pronounced esotropia. Trevor-Roper's description of Paradise Lost, written after Milton became blind, reflects his flawless literary style, "All of those harmonies, stresses, caesuras, crowded syllables and pauses that lend the poem its peculiar majesty come from the isolation—perhaps liberation—of his 769
This volume will continue to be a delight to anyone w h o has an interest in or contact with ophthalmology; the criticisms outlined in this review should be considered minor cavils in an otherwise, superb and highly readable work.
The Ophthalmic Assistant. Fundamentals and Clinical Practice, ed. 5. By Harold A. Stein, Bernard J. Slatt, and Raymond M. Stein. St. Louis, C. V. Mosby Co., 1988. Softcover, 923 pages, index, illustrated. $43.95 Reviewed by CHARLES B. DEICHMAN
Cooperstown, New York The Basic Science section of this text, though brief, remains an excellent primer. Following chapters lead the reader through important aspects of clinical practice from front office efficiency, to history taking, preliminary examination, understanding and maintenance of ophthalmic equipment, and ocular disorders of all types. Chapters covering soft and hard contact lens fitting and advanced fitting techniques have been retained from the previous edition, and excellent new chapters on automated visual fields and automated refractors have been added. The section, "Assisting the Surgeon," covers aseptic techniques, the operative patient, and highlights of commonly performed ocular procedures, plus new chapters describing lasers in ophthalmology and ambulatory surgery. Sections covering low vision, ocular motility, ophthalmic photography, and reading problems in children are extremely worthwhile. Brief explanations of magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, and computers are new in this edition, and a chapter has been added on cardiopulmonary resuscitation. A number of appendices, a glossary, and a supplementary reading list complete the text. Most of the chapters are beautifully written with excellent philosophic observations. Each chapter concludes with review questions and a self-evaluation test. The quality of the references would be enhanced by appending selected reading lists at the end of each chapter. Some of the deficiencies in the fourth edition remain; specifically the black and white photographic atlas, which has not been updated or cross-referenced. The color photographs are, however, excellent. The laser section is basic, and no clinical correlations are offered. Ambulatory surgery is mentioned only briefly.
The World Through Blunted Sight. Revised edi tion. By Patrick Trevor-Roper. London, Penguin Press, 1988. Hardcover, 207 pages, index, illus trated. $24.95 Reviewed by FRANK W. NEWELL
Chicago, Illinois The author, the doyen of ophthalmic editors having edited the Transactions of the Ophthalmological Societies of the United Kingdom for 40 plus years, explores the way in which defective vision influences art and character. His curiosity lets him wander widely as he tells of the influence of refractive errors on personality, of colors in nature, eye dominance, and the effects of visual field abnormalities, and blindness. Thus, we learn that the Medicis were myopic and had a family history of gout (rheumatism?). Their myopia precluded soldiering and their enterprise found its outlet in banking. El Greco's elongated images reflected Venetian naturalism and not astigmatism of the artist. Trevor-Roper tells of the color preferences of the Satin Bower-Birds (blue) and of anthropoid apes (red). Colorblindness and color distortion in literature, and art particularly, merit a discussion. Many examples of strabismus, mainly of exodeviation, are illustrated. The artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino) was exceptional in having pronounced esotropia. Trevor-Roper's description of Paradise Lost, written after Milton became blind, reflects his flawless literary style, "All of those harmonies, stresses, caesuras, crowded syllables and pauses that lend the poem its peculiar majesty come from the isolation—perhaps liberation—of his 769