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Medical Progress: 1956
156
BOOK REVIEWS
as the scientific literature, government con trols of commercial products, standardizing influence of professional groups, and influ ence of patents. The second volume deals with unsolved specific clinical problems in the biological perspective, which are chiefly metabolic con cepts, cancer, infertility, arteriosclerosis, hy pertension, connective tissue, tuberculosis, virus diseases, alcoholism, and the biology of schizophrenia. The main thesis for these two volumes is the significance of basic research for medical progress. Most of us are aware of the im portance of basic research, particularly as it pertains to our own many unsolved problems in ophthalmology, and more and more of us are becoming convinced of the need to tell the people of this need. Our task is greatly lightened by the information contained in this stupendous work. You will find, scattered here and there in each of these volumes, references to im portant research investigations by ophthal mologists and eye research centers, such as in retrolental fibroplasia, the congenital cat aract due to virus (rubella) in pregnancy, the physiology of the eye, the evolution of vision in the embryo, and the application of basic research to the solution of clinical prob lems of ophthalmology. Full justice to this work cannot possibly be given in a short book review. It is too im portant. Our purpose is to publish an edi torial later that will discuss in more detail the many provocative thoughts engendered by these studies. It is a pleasure to join in the swelling chorus of acclaim that is rising throughout the English-speaking medical world accorded to these volumes. All of us interested in medical research—and few of us aren't—should get these volumes and study them in the quiet of our libraries for the inspiration and important information they contain. We shall be the better for it. Derrick Vail.
By A. G. Ben nett. London, Association of Dispensing
OPTICS OF CONTACT LENSES.
Opticians, edition 2, 1956. Paperbound, 81 pages, 56 figures. Price: $1.80 postpaid. Herschel, in 1845, first suggested the idea of contact lenses and considered them the most direct means of treating astigmatism. The postwar period has witnessed many improvements and a marked expansion in their use. When astigmatism is corrected with spectacles, the retinal image is distorted, owing to differing magnifications in the two principal meridians. With contact glasses the intervening fluid can neutralize but 9/10 (336/376) of irregularities which affect only the front surface of the cornea. Even if the contact lens is correctly centered, a prismatic effect may be created by the sag of the lens upon the eye—base-down for positive power. Compared with orthodox spectacles, contact lenses for distance correc tion impose a greater accommodative effort on myopes, and a smaller effort on hypermetropes when used in near vision. The manu facture of good contact lenses demands ex treme precision, the tolerance of the optic radius being only 0.001 inch, yet plastic ma terial, owing to its springiness, is more diffi cult than glass to work optically. This com pact brochure presents the optical problems of contact glasses most adequately. James E. Lebensohn. MEDICAL PROGRESS :
1956. Edited by Morris Fishbein, M.D. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1956. Clothbound, 373 pages, and index. Price: $5.50. A short section in this annual publication relating to current medical advances is de voted to ophthalmology. Dr. Manuel L. Stillerman, who has again edited the chapter on ophthalmologic progress, has shown excel lent choice and sound editorial judgment. He discusses the present status of toxoplasmosis as a possible cause of uveitis and outlines the treatment. There is a brief dis cussion of acetazoleamide (Diamox), streptokinase and streptodornase, and hyaluronidase. Recent developments in retinal detach ment surgery, especially the scleral buckling operation advocated by Schepens, are de scribed. William A. Mann.
BOOK REVIEWS
as the scientific literature, government con trols of commercial products, standardizing influence of professional groups, and influ ence of patents. The second volume deals with unsolved specific clinical problems in the biological perspective, which are chiefly metabolic con cepts, cancer, infertility, arteriosclerosis, hy pertension, connective tissue, tuberculosis, virus diseases, alcoholism, and the biology of schizophrenia. The main thesis for these two volumes is the significance of basic research for medical progress. Most of us are aware of the im portance of basic research, particularly as it pertains to our own many unsolved problems in ophthalmology, and more and more of us are becoming convinced of the need to tell the people of this need. Our task is greatly lightened by the information contained in this stupendous work. You will find, scattered here and there in each of these volumes, references to im portant research investigations by ophthal mologists and eye research centers, such as in retrolental fibroplasia, the congenital cat aract due to virus (rubella) in pregnancy, the physiology of the eye, the evolution of vision in the embryo, and the application of basic research to the solution of clinical prob lems of ophthalmology. Full justice to this work cannot possibly be given in a short book review. It is too im portant. Our purpose is to publish an edi torial later that will discuss in more detail the many provocative thoughts engendered by these studies. It is a pleasure to join in the swelling chorus of acclaim that is rising throughout the English-speaking medical world accorded to these volumes. All of us interested in medical research—and few of us aren't—should get these volumes and study them in the quiet of our libraries for the inspiration and important information they contain. We shall be the better for it. Derrick Vail.
By A. G. Ben nett. London, Association of Dispensing
OPTICS OF CONTACT LENSES.
Opticians, edition 2, 1956. Paperbound, 81 pages, 56 figures. Price: $1.80 postpaid. Herschel, in 1845, first suggested the idea of contact lenses and considered them the most direct means of treating astigmatism. The postwar period has witnessed many improvements and a marked expansion in their use. When astigmatism is corrected with spectacles, the retinal image is distorted, owing to differing magnifications in the two principal meridians. With contact glasses the intervening fluid can neutralize but 9/10 (336/376) of irregularities which affect only the front surface of the cornea. Even if the contact lens is correctly centered, a prismatic effect may be created by the sag of the lens upon the eye—base-down for positive power. Compared with orthodox spectacles, contact lenses for distance correc tion impose a greater accommodative effort on myopes, and a smaller effort on hypermetropes when used in near vision. The manu facture of good contact lenses demands ex treme precision, the tolerance of the optic radius being only 0.001 inch, yet plastic ma terial, owing to its springiness, is more diffi cult than glass to work optically. This com pact brochure presents the optical problems of contact glasses most adequately. James E. Lebensohn. MEDICAL PROGRESS :
1956. Edited by Morris Fishbein, M.D. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1956. Clothbound, 373 pages, and index. Price: $5.50. A short section in this annual publication relating to current medical advances is de voted to ophthalmology. Dr. Manuel L. Stillerman, who has again edited the chapter on ophthalmologic progress, has shown excel lent choice and sound editorial judgment. He discusses the present status of toxoplasmosis as a possible cause of uveitis and outlines the treatment. There is a brief dis cussion of acetazoleamide (Diamox), streptokinase and streptodornase, and hyaluronidase. Recent developments in retinal detach ment surgery, especially the scleral buckling operation advocated by Schepens, are de scribed. William A. Mann.