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Ophthalmology: A Textbook for Diploma Students
BOOK REVIEWS
146
BOOK REVIEWS OPHTHALMOLOGY:
A
TEXTBOOK FOR
DI
By Patrick D. TrevorRoper. Chicago, The Year Book Publish ers, 195S. 637 pages, liberally illustrated, some pictures in color, index. Price: $15.00. PLOMA STUDENTS.
sclerosed tissue') and the exuberant (such as whole embryo extract—'one of the endo crines is sure to work') to the unvarnished but at any rate economic deception of injec tions of- sterile water." The subject matters include the entire field of ophthalmology, from anatomy to zygoma. All of the chapters are good and some (for example, Optics, the Lens, the Retina) I think are outstanding. As in any book, there are statements to which exceptions can be made, but it is good that it does not bring "all things to all men" for in this way thought is engendered. The book is strictly clinical in its approach. The author is obviously a good clinician of broad experience, who has removed rubbish that has accumulated and carried on from textbook to textbook in the past. In view of his position as curator in pathology, I would have liked to have seen more examples of histopathology tied in with the clinical descrip tions. However, what is there is first class and there is no limit to what can be put into a book of this sort. The illustrations, wisely chosen from many properly acknowledged sources, are well ex ecuted on glossy paper and show clearly what they are supposed to. The color plates, of which there are eight, are fine. The print ing job, done in England, is most pleasing. This new textbook is highly recommended, not for the undergraduate except as an ac cessory, but to the postgraduate and resident in ophthalmology. Derrick Vail.
The author is curator, Department of Pathology of the Institute of Ophthalmology, London. He has given us a delightful and modern textbook, beautifully printed and il lustrated. Although it is designed primarily as a book for the postgraduate student in ophthalmology who in Great Britain is pre paring to take the examinations for a diploma in ophthalmic medicine and surgery, it should have a wide appeal in this country as well. The practicing ophthalmologist will find it to be a useful review of his subject, the resi dents can study it as they run, and the can didates for examinations of the American Board of Ophthalmology are sure to profit by its study. The hopes of the author that it will "provide an adequate basis for the practice of the ophthalmologist" are likely to be fulfilled. In his acknowledgements, Trevor-Roper modestly says "my thanks are due first and in full measure to Sir Stewart Duke-Elder ; this book was conceived with his advice, it was nurtured on the authority of his Textbook, and in reading a large section of the book in proof to remove the inaccurate, the trivial, and the obscure, he has rendered a service far greater than the book itself deserved." Trevor-Roper writes very well indeed. You can see him fret over the necessity to be brief, austere, and didactic, but every once T H E VISUAL FIELDS : A Study of the Appli cations of Quantitative Perimetry to the in a while "cheerfulness was always breaking Anatomy and Pathology of the Visual in" particularly in some of the footnotes and Pathways. By Brodie Hughes. Springfield, small print. For example, in discussing the Illinois, Charles C Thomas, 1955. Price: medical treatment of cataract, "it is not sur $7.25. prising that spurious cataract-cures abound The author is Professor of Neurosurgery on which an array of charlatans thrive" he adds this footnote (page 475) "The retinue at the University of Birmingham, and hence of suggested medications tail off from the the book lays most emphasis on disorders of barely defensible (such as iodide—'removing the visual pathways and less on diseases of
146
BOOK REVIEWS OPHTHALMOLOGY:
A
TEXTBOOK FOR
DI
By Patrick D. TrevorRoper. Chicago, The Year Book Publish ers, 195S. 637 pages, liberally illustrated, some pictures in color, index. Price: $15.00. PLOMA STUDENTS.
sclerosed tissue') and the exuberant (such as whole embryo extract—'one of the endo crines is sure to work') to the unvarnished but at any rate economic deception of injec tions of- sterile water." The subject matters include the entire field of ophthalmology, from anatomy to zygoma. All of the chapters are good and some (for example, Optics, the Lens, the Retina) I think are outstanding. As in any book, there are statements to which exceptions can be made, but it is good that it does not bring "all things to all men" for in this way thought is engendered. The book is strictly clinical in its approach. The author is obviously a good clinician of broad experience, who has removed rubbish that has accumulated and carried on from textbook to textbook in the past. In view of his position as curator in pathology, I would have liked to have seen more examples of histopathology tied in with the clinical descrip tions. However, what is there is first class and there is no limit to what can be put into a book of this sort. The illustrations, wisely chosen from many properly acknowledged sources, are well ex ecuted on glossy paper and show clearly what they are supposed to. The color plates, of which there are eight, are fine. The print ing job, done in England, is most pleasing. This new textbook is highly recommended, not for the undergraduate except as an ac cessory, but to the postgraduate and resident in ophthalmology. Derrick Vail.
The author is curator, Department of Pathology of the Institute of Ophthalmology, London. He has given us a delightful and modern textbook, beautifully printed and il lustrated. Although it is designed primarily as a book for the postgraduate student in ophthalmology who in Great Britain is pre paring to take the examinations for a diploma in ophthalmic medicine and surgery, it should have a wide appeal in this country as well. The practicing ophthalmologist will find it to be a useful review of his subject, the resi dents can study it as they run, and the can didates for examinations of the American Board of Ophthalmology are sure to profit by its study. The hopes of the author that it will "provide an adequate basis for the practice of the ophthalmologist" are likely to be fulfilled. In his acknowledgements, Trevor-Roper modestly says "my thanks are due first and in full measure to Sir Stewart Duke-Elder ; this book was conceived with his advice, it was nurtured on the authority of his Textbook, and in reading a large section of the book in proof to remove the inaccurate, the trivial, and the obscure, he has rendered a service far greater than the book itself deserved." Trevor-Roper writes very well indeed. You can see him fret over the necessity to be brief, austere, and didactic, but every once T H E VISUAL FIELDS : A Study of the Appli cations of Quantitative Perimetry to the in a while "cheerfulness was always breaking Anatomy and Pathology of the Visual in" particularly in some of the footnotes and Pathways. By Brodie Hughes. Springfield, small print. For example, in discussing the Illinois, Charles C Thomas, 1955. Price: medical treatment of cataract, "it is not sur $7.25. prising that spurious cataract-cures abound The author is Professor of Neurosurgery on which an array of charlatans thrive" he adds this footnote (page 475) "The retinue at the University of Birmingham, and hence of suggested medications tail off from the the book lays most emphasis on disorders of barely defensible (such as iodide—'removing the visual pathways and less on diseases of