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Purpose: The aim of this study is to present the results of screening examinations of refractive errors, taken on 1002 of school children ranging from 6 to 15 years of age., Material and Methods: As the result of Internet screening visual acuity and color perception tests named "I can see..." in 10,021 children from randomly chosen schools in Poland in the year 2002, the group of 1002 children was chosen. In this group, the subjective and objective refractive error examination was taken as well as the visual acuity test, color perception with the use of Ishihara tables and full ophthalmologic examination., Results: Average visual acuity was RE: 0.72 (SD +/- 0.31) and LE: 0.72 (SD +/- 0.31). The prevalence of emmetropia was 34%. In the examined group myopia in 17%, hyperopia in 20%, astigmatism in 5.5% of children was found, and in 24.5% of patients complex errors occur such as myopic and hyperopic astigmatism.

Aim: To investigate the prevalence and the causes of childhood blindness and visual impairment in Poland., Material and Methods: The records of 3000 visually impaired children from the archives of Polish Association of Blinds and from the centers and schools for visually handicapped children from the years 1979-1999 have been reviewed., Results: The number of the visually disabled children in Poland has increased by 70% in the recent 10 years. The main causes of blindness and serious visual loss in the years 1979-1999 are optic nerve atrophy (21.66%), retinopathy of prematurity (19.01%), cataracts (14.13%), high myopia (11.84%), congenital abnormalities (8.65%), retinal dystrophies (8.08%) and glaucoma (6.42%). Optic nerve atrophy occurred mainly in premature infants. There have been great changes in the epidemiology of blindness in the recent 20 years; the percentage of visually disabled children caused by ROP has increased from 8.1% to 54.5% and caused by optic nerve atrophy from 15.5% to 27.27%. The prevalence of other causes has decreased in the same time., Conclusion: The main activities required to control blindness in Poland are promotion of pregnancy and prematurity care and improvements in the early diagnosis and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity.

The studies wers carried out in ZZD Kolbacz on 14 sows. The experimental groups control and treated consisted of 7 sows each. The sows were treated with Dectomax - 1 ml/33 kg of body weight. The efficacy of sows treatment's was verified with the Wllis-Schlaaf and McMaster method. The studies indicate, that subclinical infection of intestinal nematodes could influence the swine production. The piglets from treated with Dectomax sows were infected in 8% only; when all piglets from non treated sows were infected with nematodes. From treated sows 0.8 more piglet were obtained and the weight gain of litter was after 6 weeks 24.4 kg higher comparing with the control group.

The article comprises new details of the life cycle of Myxobolus cerebralis, the parasite of the skeleton of salmonids. Although this species has been known since 1903, its complete life cycle has remained unknown till now or it has comprised mistaken details. Recently EL Matbouli et al. (1995) have described the life cycle of this parasite with numerous new data. M. cerebralis provokes in salmonids (especially in rainbow trouts) the whirling disease and heavy economical losses. Therefore the article may be useful for Polish ichthyopathologists. Besides the new description of the life cycle of M. cerebralis the authoress of the article gives her own considerations on some topics connected with this life cycle, which still remain insufficiently explained. The considerations concern the mechanism of the specificity of the invasive stages of the parasite to two species of its hosts (Tubifex tubifex and Oncorhynchus mykiss) and also to tissue specificity, the possibility of better and more effective control of whirling disease in breeding conditions through the knowledge of the complete life cycle of the parasite, the pathogenic activity of the parasite on fish central nervous system in spite of the lack of its lesions noted by EL Matbouli et al. (1995). The authoress pays attention to the necessity of future studies on the mitotic and meiotic cleavages of the developmental stages of the parasite. She considers also if the very complicated life cycle of M. cerebralis determined during the long evolution of this species may be recognized as favourable feature for it.

The author described the activity of the Italian ophthalmologist Tadini who, during his work in Warsaw in 1765, planned to implant a glass ball into an eye after cataract operation. However, Tadini did not perform this operation. This fact was described in his diaries by Giacomo Casanova. The first implantation of the glass lens was performed by Casaamata in Dresden in 1795.

The paper presents the incidence of retinopathy of prematurity, based on the examinations of 1009 preterm infants and children with intrauterine growth retardation. The disease developed in 5.8% of all examined children but in the infants with birth weight under 1000g it was observed in 25%. In children with birth weight above 2000g, retinopathy was almost absent. Bilateral blindness was observed in 0.9% of the examined and in 11.5% children with the birth weight under 1000g. 44% blind children have appeared too late for ophthalmological examination.

The aim of the paper was to study with the use of in vivo spectrophotometry of the eye the threshold values of the registered light above which one can observe clinically visible opacities of the lens. The performed experiments did not however show any major differences in the values of the registered light between persons with early cataract and control group because of considerable scattering of the results in both these groups. In order to explain the prognostic value of the in vivo spectrophotometry of the eye it is necessary to perform long-term observations of the further fate of persons with high values of the registered light.

The aim of the survey was a comparison of transparency of the lenses examined by means of in vivo spectrophotometry of the eye in metalurgists threatened by development of cataract--with the results obtained in persons not engaged in metalurgy and selected by chance from the population. The investigations showed that the transparency of the lenses was lower in the group of the metalurgists than in the control group in spite of the fact that the ophthalmological examination did not detect any lens changes. The results of this study show that the in vivo spectrophotometry may find some employment for detection of changes in the lens which may occur in persons threatened by development of cataract.