The Fundus Oculi of Birds, especially as viewed by the Ophthalmoscope: A Study in Comparative Anatomy and Physiology

Abstract

DR. CASEY WOOD is an ophthalmic surgeon with a large practice in one of the busiest cities in America. He is a voluminous writer on subjects connected directly with the science and art of his speciality, and he is the editor of an Encyclopaedia of Ophthalmology, of which several volumes have already appeared. It would seem that in this there was enough to provide labour for more than the ordinary day of any man, yet he has found time to devote himself to the exploration of what may almost be described as an untrodden field of science. It is true that in this country Dr. Lindsay Johnson has done work of a similar kind, but he mainly concerned himself with the ophthalmoscopic examination of the mammalian eye. Dr. Wood is the first to make a systematic examination of the fundus appearances in the eyes of birds, and the present volume, with its beautiful series of illustrations by Mr. A. W. Head, is a sufficient proof that it has been a labour of love. The present writer is not in a position to judge whether the ophthalmoscope will prove to be the valuable aid to the classification of birds and the identification of species that Dr. Wood seems to think, but a strong case has been made out for the use of the ophthalmoscope by the ornithologist. For his benefit two chapters are devoted to a description of the ophthalmoscope and its use; but an hour or two with a friendly oculist in the ophthalmic department of a large hospital would do far more than many pages of description to enable those interested in birds to gain a glimpse of this new field.