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Van Dongen's “Old Clown” and His Ophthalmic Problems
962
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
NOVEMBER, 1975
—one can take a book, scramble the facts, and learn if the student can answer questions correctly. The disagreement comes in whether one can take similar facts and make them a test in problem solving, clinical skill, attitude, wisdom, or judgment. These are in teresting questions, and those concerned with the trends of medical education will find this report of the Committee on Goals and Priori ties of the National Board of Medical Ex aminers a worthwhile presentation of current medical developments. FRANK W. NEWELL
CORRESPONDENCE Letters to the Editor must be typed double-spaced on 8V2 X 11-inch bond paper; with lVi-inch margins on all four sides, and limited in length to two manu script pages. VAN DONGEN'S "OLD CLOWN" AND H I S OPHTHALMIC PROBLEMS
Editor: While visiting the Geneve Petit Palais ex position, "From Impressionism to Picasso," I was struck by the Van Dongen painting "The Old Clown." This painting is a psy chological study of an aging clown patheti cally trying to give the impression that he is still funny. The wrinkled, ravaged face and tired, drooping hands contrast sharply with his clown costume and bright red hair, strengthening even further the impression of old age. Van Dongen, who was quite young when he did this painting, intuitively ex presses all the deep human loneliness and tragedy accumulated in aging old men. The strong artistic impression this portrait made on me did not prevent my looking at it through professional eyes and noting the ophthalmological interest it presented. If we assume that the clown is looking to the left, then the left eye remains in the middle; the left palpebral phanta is a little wider and it may be that it was a Duane syndrome that Van Dongen observed. If our patient—the
Figure (Manor). Van Dongen's "Old Clown." old clown—is looking straight ahead with his left eye, which in my opinion seems more plausible, then he has a right strabismus convergens concomitans or a strabismus paralyticum due to right rectus externus palsy. In the latter case the old clown sees us double from his frame! R. S. MANOR,
M.D.
Petah Tikva, Israel BOOK R E V I E W S ADLER'S PHYSIOLOGY OF THE EYE, 6th
ed.
Edited by Robert A. Moses. St. Louis, C. V. Mosby, 1975. Clothbound, 702 pages, table of contents, index, 624 black and white figures. $27.50 CLINICAL APPLICATION,
In 1970 Dr. Moses presented the world of ophthalmology with the fifth edition of Adler's Textbook of Physiology. To succeed in the tradition and standards of Francis Heed Adler was no commonplace effort, Now the sixth edition has appeared, which promises to be as well received as its prece dent edition. In serving as editor, Dr. Moses himself has developed and written at least a half dozen chapters on several subjects ir visual physiology, and, in addition, solicited and received the help of a dozen authors whc have placed their specific expertise under hii editorship. Commendably, these experts hav<
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
NOVEMBER, 1975
—one can take a book, scramble the facts, and learn if the student can answer questions correctly. The disagreement comes in whether one can take similar facts and make them a test in problem solving, clinical skill, attitude, wisdom, or judgment. These are in teresting questions, and those concerned with the trends of medical education will find this report of the Committee on Goals and Priori ties of the National Board of Medical Ex aminers a worthwhile presentation of current medical developments. FRANK W. NEWELL
CORRESPONDENCE Letters to the Editor must be typed double-spaced on 8V2 X 11-inch bond paper; with lVi-inch margins on all four sides, and limited in length to two manu script pages. VAN DONGEN'S "OLD CLOWN" AND H I S OPHTHALMIC PROBLEMS
Editor: While visiting the Geneve Petit Palais ex position, "From Impressionism to Picasso," I was struck by the Van Dongen painting "The Old Clown." This painting is a psy chological study of an aging clown patheti cally trying to give the impression that he is still funny. The wrinkled, ravaged face and tired, drooping hands contrast sharply with his clown costume and bright red hair, strengthening even further the impression of old age. Van Dongen, who was quite young when he did this painting, intuitively ex presses all the deep human loneliness and tragedy accumulated in aging old men. The strong artistic impression this portrait made on me did not prevent my looking at it through professional eyes and noting the ophthalmological interest it presented. If we assume that the clown is looking to the left, then the left eye remains in the middle; the left palpebral phanta is a little wider and it may be that it was a Duane syndrome that Van Dongen observed. If our patient—the
Figure (Manor). Van Dongen's "Old Clown." old clown—is looking straight ahead with his left eye, which in my opinion seems more plausible, then he has a right strabismus convergens concomitans or a strabismus paralyticum due to right rectus externus palsy. In the latter case the old clown sees us double from his frame! R. S. MANOR,
M.D.
Petah Tikva, Israel BOOK R E V I E W S ADLER'S PHYSIOLOGY OF THE EYE, 6th
ed.
Edited by Robert A. Moses. St. Louis, C. V. Mosby, 1975. Clothbound, 702 pages, table of contents, index, 624 black and white figures. $27.50 CLINICAL APPLICATION,
In 1970 Dr. Moses presented the world of ophthalmology with the fifth edition of Adler's Textbook of Physiology. To succeed in the tradition and standards of Francis Heed Adler was no commonplace effort, Now the sixth edition has appeared, which promises to be as well received as its prece dent edition. In serving as editor, Dr. Moses himself has developed and written at least a half dozen chapters on several subjects ir visual physiology, and, in addition, solicited and received the help of a dozen authors whc have placed their specific expertise under hii editorship. Commendably, these experts hav<