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Untersuchungen über die Heredität des Strabismus concomitans
VOL. 64, NO. 6
BOOK REVIEWS
assistants. The prerequisite training is that of an Army Medical Corpsman, which re quires 10 weeks. The program then consists of an intensive three-week course of lectures and laboratory exercises in ophthalmology and E N T given at the Medical Field Service School, prepared and delivered by the Eye and E N T Services of Brooke General Hos pital. Following this the students are divided into small groups and sent to various mili tary hospitals for practical training in the Eye and E N T clinics for eight weeks. Each class will consist of approximately 40 stu dents. The present plan is to train 200 stu dents each year. It is hoped, as expressed in Dr. Passmore's letter, that many of these technicians can be incorporated into the civilian ophthalmic community following their mili tary service and thus help alleviate the great need for trained ophthalmic technicians. John R. Simmons Fort Sam Houston, Texas
BOOK REVIEWS UNTERSUCHUNGEN ÜBER DIE HEREDITÄT DES STRABISMUS CONCOMITANS. By
Doz.
Dr.
Med. Habil. Susanne Richter. Leipzig, George Thieme, Paperbound, 88 pages, 24 tables, 17 illustrations. It is not a startling new discovery that "strabismus runs in families." One will find reference to this fact in the writings of Hippocrates, as pointed out by the author in the introduction of this compact and wellwritten monograph. Dr. Richter, who is known for her writings on subjects related to strabismus, has undertaken the formida ble task of investigating the mode of inherit ance of comitant strabismus in a well-de signed and executed study. Such attempts have been made before ; indeed, publications on this subject are numerous. For the first time, however, the different and often unre lated factors contributing to the development of strabismus were studied and are statisti
1189
cally analyzed in 3,123 relatives of 697 strabismic children. Ammetropias, heterophorias, fusional amplitudes and sensorial anomalies, such as anomalous retinal corre spondence and amblyopia, were recorded in each proband. The data reveal that the pat tern of inheritance is neither autosomal recessive nor dominant (as previously as sumed), but determined by the additive ef fect of multifactorial genes. The phenotype is formed by different combinations of ge netically determined sensorial and motor dis turbances. Of particular interest to me are the find ings that sensorial anomalies without strabis mus, such as amblyopia with nonfoveal fixa tion and defective binocular functions, can be inherited independently in some families. These data present a challenge to conven tional views and indicate that sensorial anomalies may be primary in some strab ismic patients, and not necessarily always the result of secondary adaptation to a pri mary motor anomaly. Another useful piece of information de rived from this monograph are data that un mistakably de-emphasize the significance of exogenous factors in the etiology of comi tant strabismus. A detailed history of the pregnancy and complications during birth of their children was taken from mothers and revealed that such complications occurred ac tually less frequently than in a control group of mothers of nonstrabismic children. This monograph contains a wealth of other information that will be of interest to the geneticist. While its value is limited for the practising ophthalmologist without a spe cial interest in this field, its reading is a must for the "strabologists" among us who can overcome the language barrier. Gunter K. von Noorden
BOOK REVIEWS
assistants. The prerequisite training is that of an Army Medical Corpsman, which re quires 10 weeks. The program then consists of an intensive three-week course of lectures and laboratory exercises in ophthalmology and E N T given at the Medical Field Service School, prepared and delivered by the Eye and E N T Services of Brooke General Hos pital. Following this the students are divided into small groups and sent to various mili tary hospitals for practical training in the Eye and E N T clinics for eight weeks. Each class will consist of approximately 40 stu dents. The present plan is to train 200 stu dents each year. It is hoped, as expressed in Dr. Passmore's letter, that many of these technicians can be incorporated into the civilian ophthalmic community following their mili tary service and thus help alleviate the great need for trained ophthalmic technicians. John R. Simmons Fort Sam Houston, Texas
BOOK REVIEWS UNTERSUCHUNGEN ÜBER DIE HEREDITÄT DES STRABISMUS CONCOMITANS. By
Doz.
Dr.
Med. Habil. Susanne Richter. Leipzig, George Thieme, Paperbound, 88 pages, 24 tables, 17 illustrations. It is not a startling new discovery that "strabismus runs in families." One will find reference to this fact in the writings of Hippocrates, as pointed out by the author in the introduction of this compact and wellwritten monograph. Dr. Richter, who is known for her writings on subjects related to strabismus, has undertaken the formida ble task of investigating the mode of inherit ance of comitant strabismus in a well-de signed and executed study. Such attempts have been made before ; indeed, publications on this subject are numerous. For the first time, however, the different and often unre lated factors contributing to the development of strabismus were studied and are statisti
1189
cally analyzed in 3,123 relatives of 697 strabismic children. Ammetropias, heterophorias, fusional amplitudes and sensorial anomalies, such as anomalous retinal corre spondence and amblyopia, were recorded in each proband. The data reveal that the pat tern of inheritance is neither autosomal recessive nor dominant (as previously as sumed), but determined by the additive ef fect of multifactorial genes. The phenotype is formed by different combinations of ge netically determined sensorial and motor dis turbances. Of particular interest to me are the find ings that sensorial anomalies without strabis mus, such as amblyopia with nonfoveal fixa tion and defective binocular functions, can be inherited independently in some families. These data present a challenge to conven tional views and indicate that sensorial anomalies may be primary in some strab ismic patients, and not necessarily always the result of secondary adaptation to a pri mary motor anomaly. Another useful piece of information de rived from this monograph are data that un mistakably de-emphasize the significance of exogenous factors in the etiology of comi tant strabismus. A detailed history of the pregnancy and complications during birth of their children was taken from mothers and revealed that such complications occurred ac tually less frequently than in a control group of mothers of nonstrabismic children. This monograph contains a wealth of other information that will be of interest to the geneticist. While its value is limited for the practising ophthalmologist without a spe cial interest in this field, its reading is a must for the "strabologists" among us who can overcome the language barrier. Gunter K. von Noorden