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Medical Ophthalmology
1616
EDITORIALS
On September 4, 1951, the president of the International Council of Ophthalmology, Sir Stewart DukeElder, presented the check for £574, the contribution made by American ophthalmologists toward the restoration fund of Saint James's Church, Piccadilly, to the Venerable C. E. Lambert, Archdeacon of Hampstead and Rector of Saint James's Church, Piccadilly, whose letter of gratitude appeared in the October, 1951, issue of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF'OPHTHALMOLOGY.
MEDICAL OPHTHALMOLOGY A study of the results of examinations conducted by the American Board of Oph thalmology affords an opportunity to deter mine where deficiencies exist in the training of young ophthalmologists. It has been the impression of many that the greatest number of failures in the writ ten qualifying test occurs in the subjects of biochemistry and visual physiology. A recent survey of the marks given during the past three years shows that this is not the case. The candidates are becoming fairly well grounded in these basic subjects, due prob ably to increased emphasis placed on them in the various postgraduate courses. The same is true of optics and neuro-ophthalmology which used to rank well up on the
failure list. The casualty rate in pathology is still rather high. What is most surprising, however, is the status of medical ophthal mology which enjoys the dubious distinction of holding first place in total number of conditions for each of the past three years! One might understand the failures in cer tain basic subjects. Important as they are, the average ophthalmologist tends to disre gard them in his busy life of taking care of patients. But the relation of the eye to gen eral disease is something he cannot afford to neglect. He is faced with it constantly and to be a good clinician he must give up the idea that he is just an eye specialist and real ize he is primarily a physician. It is possible that in our zeal to turn out well-rounded ophthalmologists with a firm
1617
CORRESPONDENCE
background of basic science, we may not have sufficiently emphasized the very simple fact that the eye is only a part of the body and, as such, is closely associated with many general diseases. All residencies and postgraduate courses should re-evaluate their teaching programs and make sure that proper weight is attached to medical ophthalmology. Edwin B. Dunphy. CORRESPONDENCE GEOMETRY OF VISUAL SPACE
Editor, American Journal of Ophthalmology: I am able to corroborate the remarkable effect produced by the designs described by Marion Stoll (Am. J. Ophth., 33: 1919, 1950), but there is no need to invoke the aid of higher mathematics or psychophysics to explain the phenomenon. The method of construction of the cards and the way they are viewed through red and green glasses so that the lines seen by each eye converge on a point directly below them suggest a much simpler explanation. Consider the card horizontally placed and the eyes viewing it as shown in the diagram (fig. 1). A projection of the lines, seen by each eye in turn, can be made from the cor responding eye onto various planes beyond the card. As the plane is rotated downward, the lines projected on it will show a decreasing amount of convergence from A-B until the plane is vertical, on which plane (ABCD) the projected lines would be parallel, beyond which (ABEF) the lines would diverge from A-B. Clearly fusion of the images seen by both eyes can only be obtained by mentally pro jecting them onto the vertical plane. The effectiveness of the result shows how strong is the desire for fusion. To avoid confusion in the diagram only a few projection lines are shown. An essen-
Fig. 1 (Primrose). Diagram showing placement of card.
tially similar explanation holds for the cards whereon the lines are drawn from a Vieth Muller circle except that fusion is obtained on the inside of a vertical cylinder or cone. The converse can be easily demonstrated by looking at vertical lines through a hori zontal glass plate and tracing on the glass the appearance of the lines as seen by each eye separately. The design traced on the glass will be found to correspond with the design of Stoll's cards. (Signed) John Primrose, Glasgow, Scotland.
RAISED TYPE FOR BLIND
Editor, American Journal of Ophthalmology: In my article, "Raised-type books for the blind: A brief review of their printing," which appeared in the July, 1951, number of the JOURNAL, the devout wish is expressed that uniformity of type might be accom plished. I have this encouraging statement to make. In order that embossed types for the blind might easily be read by all the nations sever ally, a convention of delegates from a num ber of southeastern nations, under the direc tion of UNESCO, was held at Beirut, for the purpose of agreeing on a simple form of Braille which would be adopted by all the na tions. This meeting was held in February, 1951.
EDITORIALS
On September 4, 1951, the president of the International Council of Ophthalmology, Sir Stewart DukeElder, presented the check for £574, the contribution made by American ophthalmologists toward the restoration fund of Saint James's Church, Piccadilly, to the Venerable C. E. Lambert, Archdeacon of Hampstead and Rector of Saint James's Church, Piccadilly, whose letter of gratitude appeared in the October, 1951, issue of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF'OPHTHALMOLOGY.
MEDICAL OPHTHALMOLOGY A study of the results of examinations conducted by the American Board of Oph thalmology affords an opportunity to deter mine where deficiencies exist in the training of young ophthalmologists. It has been the impression of many that the greatest number of failures in the writ ten qualifying test occurs in the subjects of biochemistry and visual physiology. A recent survey of the marks given during the past three years shows that this is not the case. The candidates are becoming fairly well grounded in these basic subjects, due prob ably to increased emphasis placed on them in the various postgraduate courses. The same is true of optics and neuro-ophthalmology which used to rank well up on the
failure list. The casualty rate in pathology is still rather high. What is most surprising, however, is the status of medical ophthal mology which enjoys the dubious distinction of holding first place in total number of conditions for each of the past three years! One might understand the failures in cer tain basic subjects. Important as they are, the average ophthalmologist tends to disre gard them in his busy life of taking care of patients. But the relation of the eye to gen eral disease is something he cannot afford to neglect. He is faced with it constantly and to be a good clinician he must give up the idea that he is just an eye specialist and real ize he is primarily a physician. It is possible that in our zeal to turn out well-rounded ophthalmologists with a firm
1617
CORRESPONDENCE
background of basic science, we may not have sufficiently emphasized the very simple fact that the eye is only a part of the body and, as such, is closely associated with many general diseases. All residencies and postgraduate courses should re-evaluate their teaching programs and make sure that proper weight is attached to medical ophthalmology. Edwin B. Dunphy. CORRESPONDENCE GEOMETRY OF VISUAL SPACE
Editor, American Journal of Ophthalmology: I am able to corroborate the remarkable effect produced by the designs described by Marion Stoll (Am. J. Ophth., 33: 1919, 1950), but there is no need to invoke the aid of higher mathematics or psychophysics to explain the phenomenon. The method of construction of the cards and the way they are viewed through red and green glasses so that the lines seen by each eye converge on a point directly below them suggest a much simpler explanation. Consider the card horizontally placed and the eyes viewing it as shown in the diagram (fig. 1). A projection of the lines, seen by each eye in turn, can be made from the cor responding eye onto various planes beyond the card. As the plane is rotated downward, the lines projected on it will show a decreasing amount of convergence from A-B until the plane is vertical, on which plane (ABCD) the projected lines would be parallel, beyond which (ABEF) the lines would diverge from A-B. Clearly fusion of the images seen by both eyes can only be obtained by mentally pro jecting them onto the vertical plane. The effectiveness of the result shows how strong is the desire for fusion. To avoid confusion in the diagram only a few projection lines are shown. An essen-
Fig. 1 (Primrose). Diagram showing placement of card.
tially similar explanation holds for the cards whereon the lines are drawn from a Vieth Muller circle except that fusion is obtained on the inside of a vertical cylinder or cone. The converse can be easily demonstrated by looking at vertical lines through a hori zontal glass plate and tracing on the glass the appearance of the lines as seen by each eye separately. The design traced on the glass will be found to correspond with the design of Stoll's cards. (Signed) John Primrose, Glasgow, Scotland.
RAISED TYPE FOR BLIND
Editor, American Journal of Ophthalmology: In my article, "Raised-type books for the blind: A brief review of their printing," which appeared in the July, 1951, number of the JOURNAL, the devout wish is expressed that uniformity of type might be accom plished. I have this encouraging statement to make. In order that embossed types for the blind might easily be read by all the nations sever ally, a convention of delegates from a num ber of southeastern nations, under the direc tion of UNESCO, was held at Beirut, for the purpose of agreeing on a simple form of Braille which would be adopted by all the na tions. This meeting was held in February, 1951.