Swiss Ophthalmologist Research Articles

75th annual session of the Swiss Ophthalmological Society; on its founding and its founders

The Swiss Ophthalmological Society (SOS) was founded in Bern on 26 April 1908. An important prelude to the foundation of the Society was the tenth international congress of ophthalmology in Lucerne in 1904, at which Marc Dufour presided. Among the 50 Swiss ophthalmologists who organized and attended this congress were the founders of the Swiss Ophthalmological Society. There are neither any minutes nor a list of participants of the first meeting in April 1908, at which August Siegrist acted as president and Jules Gonin as secretary. Some of the founders of the SOS are described in this paper. The first meetings were mainly concerned with administrative and professional problems. Intense scientific activity only started in 1916, mainly due to the efforts of Alfred Vogt in Aarau. The author concludes this paper by pointing out the importance of the "unknown ophthalmologist, whose quiet, unselfish day-to-day work in practice represents a contribution to culture in the sense of creative human activity.

Steiger on refraction: a reappraisal.

Seventy years ago Steiger, a Swiss ophthalmologist, found the distribution of corneal powers to follow a normal (binomial) curve. He noted a wide range of values among emmetropes, and he also knew that their axial lengths varied significantly. He expected that normal distributions would be found for other components of refraction and also for refraction as a whole, and in seeking a controlling mechanism he recalled the multifactorial pattern of inheritance of such characteristics as stature. The present study employs modern mathematical techniques to test the validity of 2 related hypotheses: that the components of refraction are correlated and that a polygenic mode of inheritance is responsible for determining the refractive power of the eye. In the light of this study and of other modern knowledge about refraction Steiger's work is reassessed. Most of his views are vindicated, although his assumption of a normal distribution for refraction as a whole could not be justified. His contribution to the understanding of refraction establishes him among the great names in ophthalmology.

Jules Gonin. Inventor of the surgical treatment for retinal detachment

Jules Gonin's former student presents a personal and historical biography of the Swiss ophthalmologist, who, between 1902 and 1921, explored and illustrated the many unknown aspects of retinal detachment, defined its pathogenesis, and developed the method of reattachment by ignipuncture and thermocautery.

Eye Symptoms in Brain Tumors

In dissemination of medical knowledge it is often useful and interesting, rather than to discuss disease entities from an etiological or pathological point of view, to consider instead a single symptom or sign, or a group of symptoms and signs, along with various problems they may provoke, much in manner an individual physician might approach a new patient. This method of presentation is one used by Alfred Huber, Swiss ophthalmologist, in his scholarly new monograph entitled Eye Symptoms in Brain Tumors. The author states, on basis of his experience in examining and following 1,600 cases of brain tumor in Clinic of Prof. H. Kravenbuhl in Zurich, that in about 60% of series, ocular abnormalities were among initial clinical findings. He further feels that the majority of eye signs in brain tumors actually are of diagnostic and even localizing significance. Emphasis is placed