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Clinical Allergy
545
BOOK REVIEWS 1. It is not true that Fischer had any correspondence with me about the aqueous veins or that we discussed the question of their discovery when he and his family were my guests in 1946. Therefore, Fischer can not have written any letter containing the statement that he concluded anything about the discovery of the aqueous veins "after extensive correspondence with Goldmann" as Ascher pretends, or because Fischer stayed in my house. Fischer lived until 1949, but only after his death did Ascher try to prove his accusation by some citations out of a letter written by Fischer in 1946, now that Fischer himself is absolutely unable to give any personal statements. 2. After May 1940, Switzerland was en tirely surrounded by the axis powers and, after Pearl Harbor, American books and journals ceased to arrive at Berne (even now our set of American wartime journals is incomplete, despite all our efforts). There fore, only after my communication concern ing the outflow of the aqueous (Swiss Ophthalmological Society, June 10, 1945), did I learn of Ascher's work during the war and in the publication of my paper of the meeting I indicated clearly Ascher's priority. 3. In his letter, Ascher communicates a table which shows that he and I found the same properties of the aqueous veins, con cerning their size, stability, stratification, pulsation, and increase of clear fluid after compression of the eyeball. Ascher takes this as a proof thit I have copied him. But to recognize aqueous veins means to see their characteristic qualities. No observer has recognized aqueous veins who has not seen vessels with a stable stratified content, ves sels which pulsate and which broaden on pressure and so forth. But Ascher forgets that in my first communication—and only of that finding do I claim priority—I was the first to prove, by my fluorescein method, that it is aqueous that flows in these vessels. (Signed) Hans Goldmann, Berne, Switzerland.
BOOK REVIEWS GIFFORD'S TEXTBOOK OF OPHTHALMOLOGY.
By Francis Heed Adler. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Company, edition 5, 1953. 488 pages, 281 figures, 26 color plates, index. Price: $7.50. In the preface of this new edition of a well-known textbook, Dr. Adler says "the experience gained from five years of teach ing undergraduate students in ophthalmology using the fourth edition of this textbook has demonstrated numerous ways in which it might be improved." There were a number of valid criticisms of his fourth edition in so far as its purpose, namely a textbook for undergraduates, was concerned, and many students found it to be a difficult text, too advanced for them to grasp readily. In this edition, the author has wisely taken to heart this factor and has properly laid emphasis on the essential facts of ophthalmology as it pertains to general medical interest. The result is entirely satisfactory. Proper emphasis is placed on the general diseases, such as vascular hypertension, diabetes, and others that affect the eye. The chapter on ocular motility has been considerably short ened, and I think much improved thereby, and the various surgical techniques are omitted. In place of the latter, a chapter on orientation on surgical operations on the eye and adnexa has been substituted. This should be of value in explaining to the student and general practitioner the need for surgery in certain instances. This is a fine, modern, and well-written book, beautifully printed and illustrated. It deserves popularity. Derrick Vail. By French K. Hansel, M.D., M.S. St. Louis, C. V. Mosby Company, 1953. Cloth, 1005 pages, 86 illu strations, 3 color plates. Price: $17.50. This is a comprehensive text on allergy
CLINICAL ALLERGY.
546
BOOK REVIEWS
covering virtually all phases of the subject. The otorhinologic aspects are presented with convincing detail from the author's wide experience and the section on ophthalmology is adequate. However, when discussing other subjects such as asthma, dermatoses, or antihistamines the text becomes a compilation. Frequently a page or two of the text is de voted to the citing of a single paper and with some subjects, such as the antihistamines, a published monograph by other authors may form the major basis for a particular chap ter. The work thus becomes more encyclo pedic and compilatory than critical. In some aspects, the concepts advanced are highly individualistic and controversial. Among these may be mentioned the ex tremely minute doses used in desensitization, the preference for coseasonal treatment of hay fever, the use of sublingual pellets of antigens for desensitization, the enthusiastic recommendation of staphylococcus toxoid in urticaria, and the therapeutic administration of "a good composite house-dust mixture" in cases of severe asthma without bothering to determine the existence of dust sensitivity. When a rhinologist writes on asthma it is not too surprising that he classifies it into "chronic" and "paroxysmal," the latter to designate periodic as contrasted with con tinuous. It is not too surprising, but mis leading to the novice, when he puts cardiac asthma in quotation marks and suggests that "the condition is not true asthma" and that the term "asthma" should not be employed. All asthma is bronchial, the mechanics consisting of bronchospasm, mucosal edema, and the production of tenacious secretion. The stimulus starting off this mechanism may be an antigen-antibody reaction, bron chial infection, or pulmonary congestion left from heart failure, or perhaps even psycho somatic. The publisher has done a beautiful job in the format and in the printing. The book can be recommended as a good reference text for the experienced person but it will be confus
ing to the ophthalmologist or to any one not thoroughly experienced in allergy. S. M. Feinberg.
BULLETIN OF THE GREEK OPHTHALMOLOGI
Athens, Greece. Volume 18, Part 2, 1950. This is a commemorative number dedi cated to two renowned Greek ophthalmolo gists, Ananias Gabrielides and Alexius Trantas, on the occasion of their eightieth birthdays. A biographic sketch of each is given, and a 60 page resume, with bibliog raphy, of the scientific work of Trantas was contributed by his nephew, Dr. Nico Trantas. Gabrielides, who was the founder of the Greek Ophthalmological Society, inaugurated his scientific career with the discovery of the dilator muscle of the pupil in man, the ex istence of which had previously been in dispute. Throughout his life he was a pro found student of bacteriology and of the microscopic anatomy and embryology of the eye, and was the first to attempt the classifi cation of inflammations of the conjunctiva on a bacteriologic basis and to publish a manual of ophthalmic bacteriology. Trantas is, or at least should be, well known to ophthalmologists everywhere as the discoverer of the diagnostic techniques of gonioscopy and velanoskiascopy, and much of his scientific endeavor has been devoted to elaboration and promotion of these valuable methods of diagnosis. He has also made significant contributions to our knowledge of phlyctenular conjunctivitis, night blindness, vernal conjunctivitis, and fundus changes in leprosy. Prof. G. Cosmetatos classified secondary cataracts in three groups and describes his operation for each. Uncomplicated secondary cataracts may be removed with forceps; discission is advisable if posterior synechias are present; if the pupil is secluded, a vertical iridocapsulotomy is recommended. CAL SOCIETY.
BOOK REVIEWS 1. It is not true that Fischer had any correspondence with me about the aqueous veins or that we discussed the question of their discovery when he and his family were my guests in 1946. Therefore, Fischer can not have written any letter containing the statement that he concluded anything about the discovery of the aqueous veins "after extensive correspondence with Goldmann" as Ascher pretends, or because Fischer stayed in my house. Fischer lived until 1949, but only after his death did Ascher try to prove his accusation by some citations out of a letter written by Fischer in 1946, now that Fischer himself is absolutely unable to give any personal statements. 2. After May 1940, Switzerland was en tirely surrounded by the axis powers and, after Pearl Harbor, American books and journals ceased to arrive at Berne (even now our set of American wartime journals is incomplete, despite all our efforts). There fore, only after my communication concern ing the outflow of the aqueous (Swiss Ophthalmological Society, June 10, 1945), did I learn of Ascher's work during the war and in the publication of my paper of the meeting I indicated clearly Ascher's priority. 3. In his letter, Ascher communicates a table which shows that he and I found the same properties of the aqueous veins, con cerning their size, stability, stratification, pulsation, and increase of clear fluid after compression of the eyeball. Ascher takes this as a proof thit I have copied him. But to recognize aqueous veins means to see their characteristic qualities. No observer has recognized aqueous veins who has not seen vessels with a stable stratified content, ves sels which pulsate and which broaden on pressure and so forth. But Ascher forgets that in my first communication—and only of that finding do I claim priority—I was the first to prove, by my fluorescein method, that it is aqueous that flows in these vessels. (Signed) Hans Goldmann, Berne, Switzerland.
BOOK REVIEWS GIFFORD'S TEXTBOOK OF OPHTHALMOLOGY.
By Francis Heed Adler. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Company, edition 5, 1953. 488 pages, 281 figures, 26 color plates, index. Price: $7.50. In the preface of this new edition of a well-known textbook, Dr. Adler says "the experience gained from five years of teach ing undergraduate students in ophthalmology using the fourth edition of this textbook has demonstrated numerous ways in which it might be improved." There were a number of valid criticisms of his fourth edition in so far as its purpose, namely a textbook for undergraduates, was concerned, and many students found it to be a difficult text, too advanced for them to grasp readily. In this edition, the author has wisely taken to heart this factor and has properly laid emphasis on the essential facts of ophthalmology as it pertains to general medical interest. The result is entirely satisfactory. Proper emphasis is placed on the general diseases, such as vascular hypertension, diabetes, and others that affect the eye. The chapter on ocular motility has been considerably short ened, and I think much improved thereby, and the various surgical techniques are omitted. In place of the latter, a chapter on orientation on surgical operations on the eye and adnexa has been substituted. This should be of value in explaining to the student and general practitioner the need for surgery in certain instances. This is a fine, modern, and well-written book, beautifully printed and illustrated. It deserves popularity. Derrick Vail. By French K. Hansel, M.D., M.S. St. Louis, C. V. Mosby Company, 1953. Cloth, 1005 pages, 86 illu strations, 3 color plates. Price: $17.50. This is a comprehensive text on allergy
CLINICAL ALLERGY.
546
BOOK REVIEWS
covering virtually all phases of the subject. The otorhinologic aspects are presented with convincing detail from the author's wide experience and the section on ophthalmology is adequate. However, when discussing other subjects such as asthma, dermatoses, or antihistamines the text becomes a compilation. Frequently a page or two of the text is de voted to the citing of a single paper and with some subjects, such as the antihistamines, a published monograph by other authors may form the major basis for a particular chap ter. The work thus becomes more encyclo pedic and compilatory than critical. In some aspects, the concepts advanced are highly individualistic and controversial. Among these may be mentioned the ex tremely minute doses used in desensitization, the preference for coseasonal treatment of hay fever, the use of sublingual pellets of antigens for desensitization, the enthusiastic recommendation of staphylococcus toxoid in urticaria, and the therapeutic administration of "a good composite house-dust mixture" in cases of severe asthma without bothering to determine the existence of dust sensitivity. When a rhinologist writes on asthma it is not too surprising that he classifies it into "chronic" and "paroxysmal," the latter to designate periodic as contrasted with con tinuous. It is not too surprising, but mis leading to the novice, when he puts cardiac asthma in quotation marks and suggests that "the condition is not true asthma" and that the term "asthma" should not be employed. All asthma is bronchial, the mechanics consisting of bronchospasm, mucosal edema, and the production of tenacious secretion. The stimulus starting off this mechanism may be an antigen-antibody reaction, bron chial infection, or pulmonary congestion left from heart failure, or perhaps even psycho somatic. The publisher has done a beautiful job in the format and in the printing. The book can be recommended as a good reference text for the experienced person but it will be confus
ing to the ophthalmologist or to any one not thoroughly experienced in allergy. S. M. Feinberg.
BULLETIN OF THE GREEK OPHTHALMOLOGI
Athens, Greece. Volume 18, Part 2, 1950. This is a commemorative number dedi cated to two renowned Greek ophthalmolo gists, Ananias Gabrielides and Alexius Trantas, on the occasion of their eightieth birthdays. A biographic sketch of each is given, and a 60 page resume, with bibliog raphy, of the scientific work of Trantas was contributed by his nephew, Dr. Nico Trantas. Gabrielides, who was the founder of the Greek Ophthalmological Society, inaugurated his scientific career with the discovery of the dilator muscle of the pupil in man, the ex istence of which had previously been in dispute. Throughout his life he was a pro found student of bacteriology and of the microscopic anatomy and embryology of the eye, and was the first to attempt the classifi cation of inflammations of the conjunctiva on a bacteriologic basis and to publish a manual of ophthalmic bacteriology. Trantas is, or at least should be, well known to ophthalmologists everywhere as the discoverer of the diagnostic techniques of gonioscopy and velanoskiascopy, and much of his scientific endeavor has been devoted to elaboration and promotion of these valuable methods of diagnosis. He has also made significant contributions to our knowledge of phlyctenular conjunctivitis, night blindness, vernal conjunctivitis, and fundus changes in leprosy. Prof. G. Cosmetatos classified secondary cataracts in three groups and describes his operation for each. Uncomplicated secondary cataracts may be removed with forceps; discission is advisable if posterior synechias are present; if the pupil is secluded, a vertical iridocapsulotomy is recommended. CAL SOCIETY.