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Ophthalmia Neonatorum
BOOK NOTICES
BOOK NOTICES OPHTHALMIA
NEONATORUM.
T H E PROBLEM AFTER THIRTY YEARS OF STATUTORY NOTIFICATION
AND SIXTY
Monograph No. 1 of the Institute of Ophthalmology. By Arnold Sorsby. Paper covers, 65 pages. 10 figures, 15 tables, index. London, published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1945. Price not given. Sir Allen Daley, Medical Officer of Health, County of London, in his foreword to this excellent monograph, compliments the author for "bringing up to date all the available knowledge, statistical and clinical," concerning the subject. His statement that "the monograph will be invaluable to ophthalmic surgeons, obstetricians, midwives and public health workers" is indeed not open to question. The author has succeeded in condensing within a relatively few pages a subject that is difficult to handle from a statistical viewpoint. Likewise, it is not easy to discuss succinctly the modern aspects of the prevention, prophylaxis, and treatment of ophthalmia neonatorum within a limited space. Those who are familiar with Sorsby's writings recognize his ability to compress much important information without losing continuity, and this monograph is no exception. YEARS OF CREDE PROPHYLAXIS.
One will find within its pages evidence that while the complications of ophthalmia neonatorum are being rapidly eradicated, the incidence of the disease itself, at least in Great Britain, is no less frequent today than it was possibly 40 years ago. The common organisms, as well as the gonococcus, causing the disease rapidly respond to modern chemo- and, more recently, penicillin therapy, often within a matter of a few hours in the latter event. The widespread beliefs that ophthalmia neonatorum is practically synonymous
749
with gonococcal ophthalmia and that reliance therefore can be placed on the disinfection of the newborn baby's conjunctival sac are, according to Sorsby, responsible for the fact that ophthalmia neonatorum is not less frequent now than before the newer agents of treatment were discovered. These fallacies should be uprooted. The disease in the mother during pregnancy has been neglected by obstetricians, and Crede's method of prophylaxis, valuable as it is, has been forced in the past, at any rate, to carry more of a burden than it is capable of doing. There remains much to be learned and much to do before this blinding disease is completely eradicated. If the monograph succeeds in causing us to stop and look and evaluate, it will have done its good work; and medical smugness over the value of the Crede method is due for a fall. It is hoped that monograph No. 1 is but the beginning of a long line of similarly excellent and noteworthy monographs that we have a right to expect from the newly founded British Institute of Ophthalmology. All ophthalmologists will wish it success and hasten to extend their sincere congratulations to the Institute for its bright future. Derrick Vail.
A
BIBLIOGRAPHY O F VISUAL LITERATURE, 1939-1944. Compiled by John F . Fulton, Phebe M. Hoff, and Henrietta T. Perkins. Clothbound, 117 pages. Springfield, Illinois, Charles C Thomas, 1945. Price $3.00. This work is a wartime project produced under the aegis of the Committee on Aviation Medicine, Division of Medical Sciences, National Research Council, acting for the Committee on Medical Re-
BOOK NOTICES OPHTHALMIA
NEONATORUM.
T H E PROBLEM AFTER THIRTY YEARS OF STATUTORY NOTIFICATION
AND SIXTY
Monograph No. 1 of the Institute of Ophthalmology. By Arnold Sorsby. Paper covers, 65 pages. 10 figures, 15 tables, index. London, published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd., 1945. Price not given. Sir Allen Daley, Medical Officer of Health, County of London, in his foreword to this excellent monograph, compliments the author for "bringing up to date all the available knowledge, statistical and clinical," concerning the subject. His statement that "the monograph will be invaluable to ophthalmic surgeons, obstetricians, midwives and public health workers" is indeed not open to question. The author has succeeded in condensing within a relatively few pages a subject that is difficult to handle from a statistical viewpoint. Likewise, it is not easy to discuss succinctly the modern aspects of the prevention, prophylaxis, and treatment of ophthalmia neonatorum within a limited space. Those who are familiar with Sorsby's writings recognize his ability to compress much important information without losing continuity, and this monograph is no exception. YEARS OF CREDE PROPHYLAXIS.
One will find within its pages evidence that while the complications of ophthalmia neonatorum are being rapidly eradicated, the incidence of the disease itself, at least in Great Britain, is no less frequent today than it was possibly 40 years ago. The common organisms, as well as the gonococcus, causing the disease rapidly respond to modern chemo- and, more recently, penicillin therapy, often within a matter of a few hours in the latter event. The widespread beliefs that ophthalmia neonatorum is practically synonymous
749
with gonococcal ophthalmia and that reliance therefore can be placed on the disinfection of the newborn baby's conjunctival sac are, according to Sorsby, responsible for the fact that ophthalmia neonatorum is not less frequent now than before the newer agents of treatment were discovered. These fallacies should be uprooted. The disease in the mother during pregnancy has been neglected by obstetricians, and Crede's method of prophylaxis, valuable as it is, has been forced in the past, at any rate, to carry more of a burden than it is capable of doing. There remains much to be learned and much to do before this blinding disease is completely eradicated. If the monograph succeeds in causing us to stop and look and evaluate, it will have done its good work; and medical smugness over the value of the Crede method is due for a fall. It is hoped that monograph No. 1 is but the beginning of a long line of similarly excellent and noteworthy monographs that we have a right to expect from the newly founded British Institute of Ophthalmology. All ophthalmologists will wish it success and hasten to extend their sincere congratulations to the Institute for its bright future. Derrick Vail.
A
BIBLIOGRAPHY O F VISUAL LITERATURE, 1939-1944. Compiled by John F . Fulton, Phebe M. Hoff, and Henrietta T. Perkins. Clothbound, 117 pages. Springfield, Illinois, Charles C Thomas, 1945. Price $3.00. This work is a wartime project produced under the aegis of the Committee on Aviation Medicine, Division of Medical Sciences, National Research Council, acting for the Committee on Medical Re-