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Retinal Circulation in Man and Animals
BOOK REVIEWS entitled "A new approach to the pterygium operation" by Dr. Tutomu Sato. Dr. Sato quite ably describes a procedure which, in all essential parts, is the same as that pre sented by Elschnig in 1926 (Elschnig, H. H . : Operation for relapsing pterygium. Klin. Monatsbl. f. Augenh., 76:714 (Jan.June, 1926). This latter procedure was re viewed recently by me (Rosenthal, J. W . : A chronology of pterygium therapy, Am. J. Ophth., 36:1601 (Nov.) 1953). Dr. Sato's inadvertent repetition of an old procedure is only another incident in the history of pterygium procedures, whereby previously described operations have been presented as original. For instance, Numar's operation (1877) was redescribed and re named by Galezowski (1880), Bettman (1894), deWecker, Falce (1906), Wing (1911), Alexander (1918), and Rosen (1948). These examples point out the need for adequate perusal of the ophthalmic literature before submitting articles for publication. (Signed) J. William Rosenthal, New Orleans, Louisiana.
419
Though no effort is made to feature na tionality in the later eras, one may note that the Americans mentioned include Benjamin Franklin, John M. Gibson and William Gib son, Isaac Hays, William E. Horner, Cor nelius Agnew, J. Chisholm, Herman Knapp, Karl Koller, Edward Jackson, E. G. Loring, A. G. Heyl, Charles May, James Noyes and H. D. Noyes, C. A. Robertson, D. B. Roosa, G. T. Stevens, W. T. Thomson, M. U. Troncoso, and H. W. Williams. The chapters—which deal with time peri ods—begin with a brief presentation of illus trious names followed by a systematic dis cussion of the advances made. The signifi cant original papers are listed in a compre hensive bibliography that composes over one third of each volume. The bibliography should have included text references as the general index is very sketchy. The second volume with its span of only 50 years (18501900) indicates dramatically the steadily in creasing tempo of ophthalmic achievement. James E. Lebensohn.
RETINAL CIRCULATION I N M A N AND A N I
BOOK REVIEWS (History of Oph thalmology). By Giuseppe Ovio. Two vol umes, 1951, 1953. Vol. I. From Antiquity to'1850, 1316 pages, 97 figures. Vol. II. From 1850 to 1900, 1020 pages, 97 figures. Cuneo, Italy, Tipografia Ghibaudo. Clothbound. Price: Not listed. Ovio, in an opus that is a striking evidence of modern Italian scholarship, has composed the most noteworthy history of ophthalmol ogy since the monumental work of Julius Hirschberg. The growth of the specialty is traced from its original admixture with su perstition, magic, and charlatanism to its modern status as a highly developed art and science of utmost benefit to humanity. In appraising the ophthalmology of an tiquity Ovio highlights the contribution of the Hebrews to hygiene and sanitation. STORIA DELL'OCULISTICA
MALS. By I. C. Michaelson, Ph.D. (With a foreword by Jonas S. Friedenwald, M.D.), Springfield, Illinois. Charles C Thomas, 1954. 139 pages, 96 figures, ref erences, no index. Price: $6.75. The author, formerly surgeon and senior pathologist to the Glasgow Eye Infirmary and now advisor in ophthalmology to the government of Israel and chief of the De partment of Ophthalmology in the Govern ment Hospital at Haifa, has nicely reviewed the development and adult condition of the blood vessels of the inner eye, particularly the retina, of various vertebrates. These in clude the eel, roach, pigeon, frog, horse, rabbit, cat, rat, and man. The material which is well presented and informative, is particularly important to the ophthalmologist. Friedenwald points out the importance of the knowledge of the nor mal vascular arrangement of other species
420
BOOK REVIEWS
than man, in order to understand the sig nificance of pathologic retinal vascular pro liferation in the human. Derrick Vail.
A. ROTH (Roth's Visual Test Charts). Revised by Prof. P. A. Jaensch. Stuttgart, Germany, Georg Thiem Verlag, fifth edition, 1953. With explanatory pamphlet, 11 pages. Price: Cardboard, DM 15.-; Paper, DM 7.50. A constant change of visual test charts is desirable for patients under treatment who are subject to repeated visual tests for weeks or months. The Roth series provide ample variety. They include seven distance charts for use at five meters three in·, Roman let ters, three in numbers, and one illiterate. The letters, which are all serifed, follow ac curately the Snellen design. The near-vision chart provides standard gradations of num bers and of a passage in German printed in Roman letters. Because the historic and geographic references in the original text have lost their validity, a translation of Taci tus has been substituted to guarantee that no political implications can be ascribed to the choice of author or content. SEHPROBEN NACH
James E. Lebensohn. BULLETIN OF THE OPHTHALMOLOGICAL SO
CIETY OF EGYPT. Golden Jubilee Issue,
1954, two volumes. The Ophthalmological Society of Egypt commemorates the 50th anniversary of its founding with a two-volume Golden Jubilee Issue of its Bulletin. Volume 1 consists of 50 essays by Egyptian scholars which are grouped in categories resembling those of T H E JOURNAL abstract department. There is a separate group of papers on trachoma and it is the largest group, with eight essays. "Conjunctiva and lids," "Cornea," and "Retina-vitreous" each have seven essays, and then there are one, two, or three essays in each of the 10 other categories.
A second volume is devoted to a record of the Golden Jubilee ceremonies, and the ad dresses and the communications of the dis tinguished foreign guests who were invited help make memorable this festive celebra tion: Karl Lindner, Vienna; Phillips Thygeson, San Jose, California; Rudolph Thiel, Frankfurt, Germany; Holger Ehlers, Copen hagen; T. Keith Lyle, London; and David G. Cogan, Boston. These foreign guests not only contributed formal discussion on various ophthalmologic subjects but demonstrated surgical proce dures, conducted clinical conferences, and lead discussion groups. F. H. Haessler.
BULLETIN DE LA SOCIETE BELGE D'OPHTALMOLOGIE. Number 104: pp. 233-417. Bruxelles, Imprimerie Medicale et Scientifique (67, Rue de l'Orient), 1953. At this summer session of the Belgian Ophthalmological Society, R. Weekers, Y. Delmarcelle and E. Prijot discussed the pathogenesis and the treatment of increased ocular tension in uveitis. Their tonographic studies for which they used the fluorescein test demonstrated a resistance to the outflow of the aqueous in most cases of hypertensive uveitis. This increased resistance sometimes was compensated by a decreased formation of aqueous. Atropine, and especially corti sone, decreased the resistance to the passage of aqueous and therefore controlled the ten sion in most cases of secondary glaucoma. When medical therapy was found ineffective, retrociliary diathermy was the procedure of choice because it reduces the formation of aqueous and compensates for the irreversible resistance to its outflow. Defrenne, Dorzee, Appelmans, and Jansen described two cases of hypertrophic con junctivitis, caused by Rhinosporidium seeberi. The disease is practically unknown in France and Belgium. The patients were na tive children of the Belgian Congo. The treatment consisted in surgical extirpation,
419
Though no effort is made to feature na tionality in the later eras, one may note that the Americans mentioned include Benjamin Franklin, John M. Gibson and William Gib son, Isaac Hays, William E. Horner, Cor nelius Agnew, J. Chisholm, Herman Knapp, Karl Koller, Edward Jackson, E. G. Loring, A. G. Heyl, Charles May, James Noyes and H. D. Noyes, C. A. Robertson, D. B. Roosa, G. T. Stevens, W. T. Thomson, M. U. Troncoso, and H. W. Williams. The chapters—which deal with time peri ods—begin with a brief presentation of illus trious names followed by a systematic dis cussion of the advances made. The signifi cant original papers are listed in a compre hensive bibliography that composes over one third of each volume. The bibliography should have included text references as the general index is very sketchy. The second volume with its span of only 50 years (18501900) indicates dramatically the steadily in creasing tempo of ophthalmic achievement. James E. Lebensohn.
RETINAL CIRCULATION I N M A N AND A N I
BOOK REVIEWS (History of Oph thalmology). By Giuseppe Ovio. Two vol umes, 1951, 1953. Vol. I. From Antiquity to'1850, 1316 pages, 97 figures. Vol. II. From 1850 to 1900, 1020 pages, 97 figures. Cuneo, Italy, Tipografia Ghibaudo. Clothbound. Price: Not listed. Ovio, in an opus that is a striking evidence of modern Italian scholarship, has composed the most noteworthy history of ophthalmol ogy since the monumental work of Julius Hirschberg. The growth of the specialty is traced from its original admixture with su perstition, magic, and charlatanism to its modern status as a highly developed art and science of utmost benefit to humanity. In appraising the ophthalmology of an tiquity Ovio highlights the contribution of the Hebrews to hygiene and sanitation. STORIA DELL'OCULISTICA
MALS. By I. C. Michaelson, Ph.D. (With a foreword by Jonas S. Friedenwald, M.D.), Springfield, Illinois. Charles C Thomas, 1954. 139 pages, 96 figures, ref erences, no index. Price: $6.75. The author, formerly surgeon and senior pathologist to the Glasgow Eye Infirmary and now advisor in ophthalmology to the government of Israel and chief of the De partment of Ophthalmology in the Govern ment Hospital at Haifa, has nicely reviewed the development and adult condition of the blood vessels of the inner eye, particularly the retina, of various vertebrates. These in clude the eel, roach, pigeon, frog, horse, rabbit, cat, rat, and man. The material which is well presented and informative, is particularly important to the ophthalmologist. Friedenwald points out the importance of the knowledge of the nor mal vascular arrangement of other species
420
BOOK REVIEWS
than man, in order to understand the sig nificance of pathologic retinal vascular pro liferation in the human. Derrick Vail.
A. ROTH (Roth's Visual Test Charts). Revised by Prof. P. A. Jaensch. Stuttgart, Germany, Georg Thiem Verlag, fifth edition, 1953. With explanatory pamphlet, 11 pages. Price: Cardboard, DM 15.-; Paper, DM 7.50. A constant change of visual test charts is desirable for patients under treatment who are subject to repeated visual tests for weeks or months. The Roth series provide ample variety. They include seven distance charts for use at five meters three in·, Roman let ters, three in numbers, and one illiterate. The letters, which are all serifed, follow ac curately the Snellen design. The near-vision chart provides standard gradations of num bers and of a passage in German printed in Roman letters. Because the historic and geographic references in the original text have lost their validity, a translation of Taci tus has been substituted to guarantee that no political implications can be ascribed to the choice of author or content. SEHPROBEN NACH
James E. Lebensohn. BULLETIN OF THE OPHTHALMOLOGICAL SO
CIETY OF EGYPT. Golden Jubilee Issue,
1954, two volumes. The Ophthalmological Society of Egypt commemorates the 50th anniversary of its founding with a two-volume Golden Jubilee Issue of its Bulletin. Volume 1 consists of 50 essays by Egyptian scholars which are grouped in categories resembling those of T H E JOURNAL abstract department. There is a separate group of papers on trachoma and it is the largest group, with eight essays. "Conjunctiva and lids," "Cornea," and "Retina-vitreous" each have seven essays, and then there are one, two, or three essays in each of the 10 other categories.
A second volume is devoted to a record of the Golden Jubilee ceremonies, and the ad dresses and the communications of the dis tinguished foreign guests who were invited help make memorable this festive celebra tion: Karl Lindner, Vienna; Phillips Thygeson, San Jose, California; Rudolph Thiel, Frankfurt, Germany; Holger Ehlers, Copen hagen; T. Keith Lyle, London; and David G. Cogan, Boston. These foreign guests not only contributed formal discussion on various ophthalmologic subjects but demonstrated surgical proce dures, conducted clinical conferences, and lead discussion groups. F. H. Haessler.
BULLETIN DE LA SOCIETE BELGE D'OPHTALMOLOGIE. Number 104: pp. 233-417. Bruxelles, Imprimerie Medicale et Scientifique (67, Rue de l'Orient), 1953. At this summer session of the Belgian Ophthalmological Society, R. Weekers, Y. Delmarcelle and E. Prijot discussed the pathogenesis and the treatment of increased ocular tension in uveitis. Their tonographic studies for which they used the fluorescein test demonstrated a resistance to the outflow of the aqueous in most cases of hypertensive uveitis. This increased resistance sometimes was compensated by a decreased formation of aqueous. Atropine, and especially corti sone, decreased the resistance to the passage of aqueous and therefore controlled the ten sion in most cases of secondary glaucoma. When medical therapy was found ineffective, retrociliary diathermy was the procedure of choice because it reduces the formation of aqueous and compensates for the irreversible resistance to its outflow. Defrenne, Dorzee, Appelmans, and Jansen described two cases of hypertrophic con junctivitis, caused by Rhinosporidium seeberi. The disease is practically unknown in France and Belgium. The patients were na tive children of the Belgian Congo. The treatment consisted in surgical extirpation,