Reports of the Committee upon the Physiology of Vision. II. Dark Adaptation. (A Review of the Literature.)

Abstract

Those who enjoyed and profited by the study of Diathesis and Ocular Diseases will be glad to see that the author has written a second edition, much enlarged and rearranged, which now carries the title of Eye in General Medicine. While not an exhaustive treatise, it gives the results of personal clinical experience in certain chapters, which have particularly appealed to the author. The book stresses the constitutional factor in diseases of the eye and begins with disordered carbohydrate metabolism. Inability to deal with starch and sugar not only renders the patient vulnerable to every form of infection, but renders him liable to phlyctenular keratoconjunctivitis, and in adults to tobacco and alcohol amblyopia and diabetic changes in the eye. Under defective elimination, with renal inadequacy, the author dis¬ cusses certain diseases of: (1) the optic nerve and retina, (2) the con¬ junctiva and sclera and (3) the uvea. The role of the capillaries is mentioned in the chapter on acute glaucoma, in which the underlying cause is stagnation of the blood in the oVerdilated capillaries of the ciliary processes. Chapter V deals with the double innervation of the ciliary and iris muscles and shows the striking analogy of the nerve supply of the iris to that of the heart. A similarity is also shown in their reaction to drugs. The pain following physostigmine is the same as that produced by spasm of any unstriped muscle anywhere in the body. The medical aspects of eye strain, pneumococcal infection, toxic inflammation of the iris, with the importance of constitutional tendencies, and ocular manifestations of cardiovascular disease are also taken up. An important and instructive chapter is devoted to constitutional in addition to local treatment for diseases of the eye. This serves to bridge over the gap between narrow specialism and general medicine and emphasizes the importance of the broad that underlie all rational therapeutics. ophthalmologist must be first and foremost a medical man, familiar with general medical problems and principles is the author's final admonition. An appendix of prescriptions concludes this valuable volume, which carries an important message to every young ophthalmologist. . .