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Textbook of Ophthalmology
BOOK NOTICES high. It is doubtful whether any work on ophthalmology has ever been issued more elegantly than Professor Arganaraz' practical manual. Its very numer ous illustrations, many of them in sev eral colors, are all beautifully repro duced. None is on a separate plate, but all are inserted in the text and, with amazing accuracy, in close proximity to the descriptions to which they relate. The volume has an intimate personal quality of directness and simplicity of statement, with emphasis upon details such as are most valuable in daily clini cal or private practice. As an example of the care with which the various chapters have been pre pared may be mentioned the six instruc tive diagrams on visual, sensory, and motor tracts and centers which are con tained in lesson twenty-two, on diag nosis of diseases of the nervous system and other organs by pupillary symp toms. The chapter on the crystalline lens carries excellent discriptions and illustrations of the technic of injec tion of novocaine in the parotid region and behind the eyeball, and of a variety of details in the modern technic of cataract extraction. In no way incon sistent with the practical purpose of the volume is the fact that recent methods for treatment of detachment of the ret ina are touched upon rather briefly, al though clearly; for in a volume of this kind it is manifestly impracticable to deal in great detail with the location of retinal tears, an extremely specialized specialty within a specialty. For those who read Spanish and for any teachers or students of opthalmology who desire to enrich their store of excellent illustrations of the subject, as well as for those who delight in fine specimens of the typographic art, this volume is most highly to be recom mended. W. H. Crisp. Textbook of Ophthalmology. By W. Stewart Duke-Elder, M.D., F.R.C.S. Surgeon, Royal London Oph thalmic Hospital. Cloth, Crown Quarto 1124 pages, 1022 illustra tions, 7 colored plates. Henry Kimpton, London, 1932.
1081
This volume shows the growth of ophthalmology. It is larger than the last edition of the book of deSchweinitz, or the textbook of Fuchs, as translated and edited by Duane; but this is only the first of three volumes that are to include the whole work. This opening volume includes: The Development, Form and Function of the Visual Apparatus. Vol ume II will take up the Deformities, In juries and Diseases of the Eyeball; while Volume III will discuss Ocular Adnexa, Refraction and Motor Anoma lies, Ophthalmological Aspects of Gen eral Medicine, Diseases of the Central Nervous System, Physical Therapy and Operative Ophthalmic Surgery. This volume gives eight sections: I, The Phylogeny of the Visual Appara tus, starts with phototropism, and car ries it to the cerebral eye of vertebrates. II, Anatomy and Comparative Anat omy, has chapters on the Anatomy of the Eye, Orbit, The Ocular Adnexa and the Central Nervous Mechanism of Vi sion. Section III has chapters on: Em bryology, The Ocular Pigment and He redity. Section IV includes The Vascu lar Circulation, The Metabolism of the Eye, The Intraocular Pressure, The In traocular Musculature and Movements of the Eyes, and the Protective Mech anism. Section V, Optics, has chapters on: Physical Optics, Geometrical Op tics, Physiological Optics, The Illum ination of the Eye, Entoptic Imagery and Biological Optics. Section VI, The Physico-chemistry of Vision deals with the Action of Visible Light on the Ret ina. Section V I I , The Physiology of Vision takes up The Stimulus, Visual Sensations, the Physiological Effects of Stimulation, Anomalies of the Visual Senses and Theories of Vision. Section V I I I , The Psychology of Vision has one Chapter, X X V I I , on Visual Percep tions. The striking thing about this book is the enormous amount of work that has been done upon it. A great number of new topics have been discussed in oph thalmic journals in the last few years, and many of them that have not been mentioned, much less adequately de scribed, in any textbook on ophthal mology, are given in this volume. We
1082
CORRESPONDENCE
are reminded of Sir John Parsons' won derful work "The Pathology of the Eye", by the great number of journal articles referred to in the text and in the bibliographies, which are appended to every topic in the chapters. Not only have original articles been searched out, and studied but there has been a selec tion of their most important points, which are briefly but clearly set down. Where there is controversy, each view has been set forth with the author's judgment; often when it was simply that neither view had been established. Almost as striking as the bibliog raphies, are the cross reference notes, at the foot of each page, which enable the reader to turn at once to the related ideas, set forth elsewhere, without waste of space by repetition. The work might be called encyclopedic, but its ar rangement in natural logical order, re moves it as far as possible from the brief, pigeonhole, patchwork plan, of an encyclopedia ; while the cross references render alphabetical arrangement of topics quite unnecessary for reference purposes. Still more exceptional in books on ophthalmology—almost un known, except in some published by a few American, or British firms, is the full index of 38 double column pages. This gives all the advantages for refer ence, that can be afforded by the alpha betic arrangement of an encyclopedia or dictionary. The book has been printed on highly finished paper. This is necessary for the best reproduction of the many halftone pictures it contains. But the regular re flection from its surface will compel the ophthalmologist to adopt the plan he often advises to patients; to arrange the position of book and source of light, so that such reflection will not be thrown in his eyes. Any inconvenience on this account will be compensated by the splendid photographic portraits of some of the great leaders in modern ophthal mic science: Bowman in the chapter on anatomy, Gregor Mendel and Edward Nettleship with that on heredity, Leber with metabolism, Donders with accom modation and movements of the eyes, and Helmholtz and Gullstrand with op tical imagery. In the chapter on embry
ology the reproductions from the recent book of Ida C. Mann, and the other at lases on the developments of the eye, must be counted to the credit of the plan of photographic reproductions. The price of a great book like this must be high; and to the publisher's three guineas, American readers must add the tariff, by which a paternal gov ernment penalizes the reader who in dulges a liking for world science. But for the ground it covers, this book has practically the value of a whole library. It should be found in every library that purports to contain books on ophthal mology. Edward Jackson. CORRESPONDENCE Notes on history of ophthalmology in Spain Apropos of Dr. Crisp's recent edi torial on Medical South America I wish to share with those who plan to attend the next International Congress at Madrid some notes gathered by me in preparation for my own visit. Spanish is not so widely read as French or German, and the history of Spain, medical and other, is not too well known. The contributions of Arabic, Jewish and Christian physicians of the Iberian Peninsula to medicine, their in fluence on the establishment of the School of Montpellier, during the middle ages and the Renaissance, is general medical history. Garcia del Real's Ilistoria de la Medicina en Espana deals meagerly with the history of ophthalmology. Ilirchberg's Geschichte der Augenheilkunde is more complete but not up to date. The history of Spanish ophthalmology goes back as far as the thirteenth century, when Petrus Hispanus, afterwards Pope John XXI, according to Walsh in "Popes and Science," wrote a treatise on "Diseases of the Eyes." Garcia del Real mentions a Jewish physician operating on King Juan of Aragon (fourteenth century) for a double cataract, and, during the Siglo de Oro (Golden Age) of Spanish civilization—the sixteenth and seven teenth centuries—a Historia del Ojo (a treatise on the eye) by Bartolome Hidalgo de Aguero, a De Sensibus Ex-
1081
This volume shows the growth of ophthalmology. It is larger than the last edition of the book of deSchweinitz, or the textbook of Fuchs, as translated and edited by Duane; but this is only the first of three volumes that are to include the whole work. This opening volume includes: The Development, Form and Function of the Visual Apparatus. Vol ume II will take up the Deformities, In juries and Diseases of the Eyeball; while Volume III will discuss Ocular Adnexa, Refraction and Motor Anoma lies, Ophthalmological Aspects of Gen eral Medicine, Diseases of the Central Nervous System, Physical Therapy and Operative Ophthalmic Surgery. This volume gives eight sections: I, The Phylogeny of the Visual Appara tus, starts with phototropism, and car ries it to the cerebral eye of vertebrates. II, Anatomy and Comparative Anat omy, has chapters on the Anatomy of the Eye, Orbit, The Ocular Adnexa and the Central Nervous Mechanism of Vi sion. Section III has chapters on: Em bryology, The Ocular Pigment and He redity. Section IV includes The Vascu lar Circulation, The Metabolism of the Eye, The Intraocular Pressure, The In traocular Musculature and Movements of the Eyes, and the Protective Mech anism. Section V, Optics, has chapters on: Physical Optics, Geometrical Op tics, Physiological Optics, The Illum ination of the Eye, Entoptic Imagery and Biological Optics. Section VI, The Physico-chemistry of Vision deals with the Action of Visible Light on the Ret ina. Section V I I , The Physiology of Vision takes up The Stimulus, Visual Sensations, the Physiological Effects of Stimulation, Anomalies of the Visual Senses and Theories of Vision. Section V I I I , The Psychology of Vision has one Chapter, X X V I I , on Visual Percep tions. The striking thing about this book is the enormous amount of work that has been done upon it. A great number of new topics have been discussed in oph thalmic journals in the last few years, and many of them that have not been mentioned, much less adequately de scribed, in any textbook on ophthal mology, are given in this volume. We
1082
CORRESPONDENCE
are reminded of Sir John Parsons' won derful work "The Pathology of the Eye", by the great number of journal articles referred to in the text and in the bibliographies, which are appended to every topic in the chapters. Not only have original articles been searched out, and studied but there has been a selec tion of their most important points, which are briefly but clearly set down. Where there is controversy, each view has been set forth with the author's judgment; often when it was simply that neither view had been established. Almost as striking as the bibliog raphies, are the cross reference notes, at the foot of each page, which enable the reader to turn at once to the related ideas, set forth elsewhere, without waste of space by repetition. The work might be called encyclopedic, but its ar rangement in natural logical order, re moves it as far as possible from the brief, pigeonhole, patchwork plan, of an encyclopedia ; while the cross references render alphabetical arrangement of topics quite unnecessary for reference purposes. Still more exceptional in books on ophthalmology—almost un known, except in some published by a few American, or British firms, is the full index of 38 double column pages. This gives all the advantages for refer ence, that can be afforded by the alpha betic arrangement of an encyclopedia or dictionary. The book has been printed on highly finished paper. This is necessary for the best reproduction of the many halftone pictures it contains. But the regular re flection from its surface will compel the ophthalmologist to adopt the plan he often advises to patients; to arrange the position of book and source of light, so that such reflection will not be thrown in his eyes. Any inconvenience on this account will be compensated by the splendid photographic portraits of some of the great leaders in modern ophthal mic science: Bowman in the chapter on anatomy, Gregor Mendel and Edward Nettleship with that on heredity, Leber with metabolism, Donders with accom modation and movements of the eyes, and Helmholtz and Gullstrand with op tical imagery. In the chapter on embry
ology the reproductions from the recent book of Ida C. Mann, and the other at lases on the developments of the eye, must be counted to the credit of the plan of photographic reproductions. The price of a great book like this must be high; and to the publisher's three guineas, American readers must add the tariff, by which a paternal gov ernment penalizes the reader who in dulges a liking for world science. But for the ground it covers, this book has practically the value of a whole library. It should be found in every library that purports to contain books on ophthal mology. Edward Jackson. CORRESPONDENCE Notes on history of ophthalmology in Spain Apropos of Dr. Crisp's recent edi torial on Medical South America I wish to share with those who plan to attend the next International Congress at Madrid some notes gathered by me in preparation for my own visit. Spanish is not so widely read as French or German, and the history of Spain, medical and other, is not too well known. The contributions of Arabic, Jewish and Christian physicians of the Iberian Peninsula to medicine, their in fluence on the establishment of the School of Montpellier, during the middle ages and the Renaissance, is general medical history. Garcia del Real's Ilistoria de la Medicina en Espana deals meagerly with the history of ophthalmology. Ilirchberg's Geschichte der Augenheilkunde is more complete but not up to date. The history of Spanish ophthalmology goes back as far as the thirteenth century, when Petrus Hispanus, afterwards Pope John XXI, according to Walsh in "Popes and Science," wrote a treatise on "Diseases of the Eyes." Garcia del Real mentions a Jewish physician operating on King Juan of Aragon (fourteenth century) for a double cataract, and, during the Siglo de Oro (Golden Age) of Spanish civilization—the sixteenth and seven teenth centuries—a Historia del Ojo (a treatise on the eye) by Bartolome Hidalgo de Aguero, a De Sensibus Ex-