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Textbook of the Fundus of the Eye.
BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEWS TEXTBOOK OF T H E F U N D U S OF T H E E Y E .
By A . J. Ballantyne and I. C. Michaelson. Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins Company, exclusive United States agents, 1962. 507 pages, 600 figures, many in color, refer ences, index. Price: $25.00. This is a handsomely printed book, on excellent paper. T h e illustrations are ob viously carefully chosen and are noteworthy. Many of them are by M r . G. Donald, artist to the Department of Ophthalmology, U n i versity of Glasgow, and by M r . Moshe Ivri, artist to the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School, Jersualem. Others may be recognized as old friends from other sources, notably Duke-Elder. T h e late Prof. A. J. Ballantyne (died, 1953), head of the Department of Ophthal mology at Glasgow, was an extraordinary "wee" man of great charm and intellect. Those of us who served in the A r m y in the United Kingdom during the late war, re member him with pleasure and affection. H e had this book in preparation for many years prior to the w a r and was eminently qualified to write it. H e is, perhaps, chiefly remem bered now for his great work on the study of microaneurysms in diabetic retinopathy. Before the war, too, Isaac Michaelson, professor of ophthalmology, Hadassah-He brew University Medical School, Jerusalem, then in Glasgow, was collaborating with Bal lantyne on this work. T h e war intervened and Ballantyne died. Prof. Michaelson, mov ing later to Israel, took over the work which, in its present form, is a sort of memorial to Ballantyne. It is a worthy one. This is a majestic effort to correlate ophthalmoscopic findings with histology. It is eminently successful, and whatever gaps are found are not due to the authors but simply because a surprising number of things that we see every day with the ophthalmoscope have not been studied histologically. There are 42 chapters which cover the subject from the methods of examination of the ocular fundus and the general features
485
of the normal fundus to detailed descriptions of vascular, exudative, pigmentary inflamma tions, injuries, degenerations and diseases of the retina, choroid and optic nerve to specific disease entities such as retrolental fibroplasia, diabetic retinopathy, detachments, tumors and congenital anomalies, particularly those of the optic nerve. Prof. Michaelson, in the revision of his colleague's work and bringing it up to date, has in truth himself written this book, and by adding and subtracting has presented us with a work of charm and value. Derrick Vail.
THE
VERTEBRATE E Y E AND I T S ADAPTIVE
RADIATION. By Gordon Lynn Walls. Orig inal issue 1942. New York and London, H a f n e r Publishing Company, 1963. 785 pages, 197 illustrations, index. Price: $15.00. Gordon Lynn Walls died in 1962 without ever revising this book published in 1942. The initial printing was quickly exhausted and for many years it has been a collector's item. Thus, with the appearance of this re print, an entire, new generation of compara tive ophthalmologists, physiologists, biolo gists and amateur naturalists will enjoy the brilliant analysis and daring speculation of this many-faceted teacher, writer and sci entist. Walls had a delightful style and an ac cumulation of remarkable bits of informa tion concerning the eye and the animal king dom, and the book can be recommended for entertainment as well as instruction. F o r example: " A very good question is: how is it that the lens, derived from the skin, lies inside the fibrous and uveal tunics—which, above, we homologized with the meningeal coats of the brain ? Did the retina acquire its opti cal partner before the central nervous system acquired its protective sheaths? Perhaps so— and, such theories as that of Tretjakoff make such an assumption necessary. But the lens
BOOK REVIEWS TEXTBOOK OF T H E F U N D U S OF T H E E Y E .
By A . J. Ballantyne and I. C. Michaelson. Baltimore, Williams & Wilkins Company, exclusive United States agents, 1962. 507 pages, 600 figures, many in color, refer ences, index. Price: $25.00. This is a handsomely printed book, on excellent paper. T h e illustrations are ob viously carefully chosen and are noteworthy. Many of them are by M r . G. Donald, artist to the Department of Ophthalmology, U n i versity of Glasgow, and by M r . Moshe Ivri, artist to the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School, Jersualem. Others may be recognized as old friends from other sources, notably Duke-Elder. T h e late Prof. A. J. Ballantyne (died, 1953), head of the Department of Ophthal mology at Glasgow, was an extraordinary "wee" man of great charm and intellect. Those of us who served in the A r m y in the United Kingdom during the late war, re member him with pleasure and affection. H e had this book in preparation for many years prior to the w a r and was eminently qualified to write it. H e is, perhaps, chiefly remem bered now for his great work on the study of microaneurysms in diabetic retinopathy. Before the war, too, Isaac Michaelson, professor of ophthalmology, Hadassah-He brew University Medical School, Jerusalem, then in Glasgow, was collaborating with Bal lantyne on this work. T h e war intervened and Ballantyne died. Prof. Michaelson, mov ing later to Israel, took over the work which, in its present form, is a sort of memorial to Ballantyne. It is a worthy one. This is a majestic effort to correlate ophthalmoscopic findings with histology. It is eminently successful, and whatever gaps are found are not due to the authors but simply because a surprising number of things that we see every day with the ophthalmoscope have not been studied histologically. There are 42 chapters which cover the subject from the methods of examination of the ocular fundus and the general features
485
of the normal fundus to detailed descriptions of vascular, exudative, pigmentary inflamma tions, injuries, degenerations and diseases of the retina, choroid and optic nerve to specific disease entities such as retrolental fibroplasia, diabetic retinopathy, detachments, tumors and congenital anomalies, particularly those of the optic nerve. Prof. Michaelson, in the revision of his colleague's work and bringing it up to date, has in truth himself written this book, and by adding and subtracting has presented us with a work of charm and value. Derrick Vail.
THE
VERTEBRATE E Y E AND I T S ADAPTIVE
RADIATION. By Gordon Lynn Walls. Orig inal issue 1942. New York and London, H a f n e r Publishing Company, 1963. 785 pages, 197 illustrations, index. Price: $15.00. Gordon Lynn Walls died in 1962 without ever revising this book published in 1942. The initial printing was quickly exhausted and for many years it has been a collector's item. Thus, with the appearance of this re print, an entire, new generation of compara tive ophthalmologists, physiologists, biolo gists and amateur naturalists will enjoy the brilliant analysis and daring speculation of this many-faceted teacher, writer and sci entist. Walls had a delightful style and an ac cumulation of remarkable bits of informa tion concerning the eye and the animal king dom, and the book can be recommended for entertainment as well as instruction. F o r example: " A very good question is: how is it that the lens, derived from the skin, lies inside the fibrous and uveal tunics—which, above, we homologized with the meningeal coats of the brain ? Did the retina acquire its opti cal partner before the central nervous system acquired its protective sheaths? Perhaps so— and, such theories as that of Tretjakoff make such an assumption necessary. But the lens