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With this issue we are completing the first 100 years of theArchives of Ophthalmology. The first issue of this independent ophthalmologic journal appeared in 1879 as volume 8. The first seven volumes had been the combined Archives of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology . The chief editors at that time were H. Knapp of New York and J. Hirschberg of Berlin. During the first years theArchiveswas published both in English and in German. The editorial board consisted of prominent ophthalmologists from the United States and from Germany, but there were also representatives from Canada, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland. Going over the articles published in the 1879 volume makes interesting reading. A good number of the articles were contributed by the chief editors. Hirschberg wrote also an annual review on the progress of ophthalmology during the preceding year. Sometimes one wonders how much progress we have made, especially when reading an

Of the proposed 11 volumes of Hirschberg's great history of ophthalmology, volumes 1, 3, and 4 have appeared and have been reviewed in theArchives. Volume 2, spanning the Middle Ages and the 16th and 17th centuries, has now been published. Two thirds of this work is concerned with Arabian ophthalmology. It is fitting that Professor Blodi adds the following to his title: director of medical education, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In his foreword, Dr Blodi acknowledges the help of Dr Mohammed Z. Wafai, an American ophthalmologist who was born and educated in Syria and who is an expert on the history of Arabian medicine in general and Arabian ophthalmology in particular. "A gap in this remarkable series has been filled." In the informative introductory chapters, the scene is set regarding the state of Arabian science in the Middle Ages, including the areas of mathematics and

Hirschberg's 11-volume The History of Ophthalmology was at last published in English beginning in 1982, with a smooth-reading translation by Frederick Blodi, MD. Each volume is richly illustrated and written with an eye toward detail. This volume deals with the rapid expansion of knowledge of techniques that occurred in the 18th century. The first half deals with ideas and methods such as the dispute over the nature of the cataract, cataract extraction procedures, and surgical procedures of the pupil. In the second half, the progress of ophthalmology is reviewed country by country. Perhaps the most stimulating part of this book to the modern-day ophthalmologist is the review of the surgical techniques of cataract extraction. Long, direct quotes from the then-leading surgeons make for historical accuracy and exciting reading. These are placed side by side with superb illustrations. Galen's teaching that an intraocular opacity lay anterior to the crystalline lens was

Professor Blodi's translation of Hirschberg's classicGeschichte der Augenheilkundehas now progressed to the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. This volume is outstanding. This results from several factors. The material covered is entirely understandable to the present-day ophthalmologist. More than that, it is relevant and valuable. One sees here the birth of modern ophthalmology and recognizes in lucid detail the formulation of many of our present practices in the surgical, medical, and refractive aspects of our science and art. The prose seems more spirited than in any of the previous volumes, and the topics have more cohesion and interrelation. One comes away from this book with the feeling of having read a series of historically significant stories, rather than a compilation of names, dates, and facts. Finally, the book is a visual delight, with plates and figures not found in the original Hirschberg

Julius Hirschberg's well-known History of Ophthalmology was written in German and appeared in 1918 in the Graefe-Saemisch Handbuch der Gesamten Augenheilkunde . For more than 60 years it has been the essential source of medicohistorical information in ophthalmology, but because it has long been out of print, a new edition is overdue. Professor Frederick C. Blodi, MD, head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Iowa and an experienced multilingual ophthalmologist, has now undertaken the monumental task of translating Hirschberg's comprehensive work into English. The first of the 11 volumes to be published has recently been issued. For anyone familiar with the German edition, browsing in the first volume of the translated work is a unique experience. It begins with ophthalmology in ancient Egypt and elucidates the fact that true insight into the medicine of ancient Egypt only dates back to the unfinished contributions of Georg Eber (Eber's Papyrus)

Professor Gorin's book provides a concise synopsis of ophthalmology's long saga from antiquity to the present. Inasmuch as ophthalmology's illustrious past has been meticulously researched and referenced in Julius Hirschberg's definitive ophthalmic history (also entitled History of Ophthalmology ), the brevity of Gorin's descriptions of historical events and personages will be disappointing to readers familiar with Hirschberg's original work. The strength of Gorin's text rests with its chronicle of ophthalmology's progress in the 20th century, that period where Hirschberg's narrative necessarily breaks off. This period of Gorin's account hits home repeatedly, with vivid descriptions of "contemporary" developments with which even younger members of our profession will be familiar. Many of the ophthalmologists mentioned in this history are still active and known to us all. We sense the ineluctable intermingling of past and present. This book should appeal to ophthalmologists interested in a brief historical overview of our specialty.

Axial lengths of 30 eyes (15 subjects), measured by ultrasonography, ranged from 20.6--26.3 mm. Using a fixed light source, each eye was photographed as monocular fixation was changed over an 8-deg range in 2-deg steps. Hirschberg ratios obtained from the photographs show a low correlation with axial length (0.07), and the mean value, 24 prism diopters per millimeter (S.D. = 7), further supports recent recommendations that the traditional ratio of 12 or 14/1 be replaced by a more correct ratio of 22/1.

In his standard medical history, An Introduction to the History of Medicine , Fielding H. Garrison described Julius Hirschberg's volumes The History of Ophthalmology (Geschichte der Augenheilkunde) as being the "most complete and scholarly history of his science which has ever been written." Most medical historians would maintain that it is the most complete and scholarly history that exists for any subspecialty in medicine. Indeed, all of the shorter subsequent histories of ophthalmology available in English, from Shastid's massive chapter in the American Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology , to Burton Chance's Clio Medica edition of Ophthalmology , through Duke Elder's vignettes on the history of ophthalmology in his Textbook and System , to Gorin's recent History of Ophthalmology , draw heavily on this work. Why then have ophthalmologists and students of the history of medicine had to wait nearly three quarters of a century for a translation of this work into English? The reason, I believe

This work is essentially an appendix to the great Hirschberg series and contains two distinct parts: "The History of Optical Instruments for the Examination of the Eye" by Thilo von Haugwitz, originally published in German in 1981 and now reprinted in English translation, and a magnificent portion entitled "The Eye, Vision and Ophthalmology on Postage Stamps" by Frederick C. Blodi that is published here for the first time. The first portion is a review of the basic instruments in ophthalmology. It covers 185 pages and includes 457 figures. The discussion begins with the ophthalmoscope and progresses to instruments of "optometry," devices to measure light sense, and instruments for measuring the anterior segment. This is followed by a discussion of devices for evaluating binocular vision, a section on magnets and other instruments concerned with intraocular foreign bodies, and devices for teaching and demonstration. Von "... we recommend that any serious collector should

In modern industry, in which instruments and tools of great power are in use, piercing lesions of the eyeball frequently occur. After the foreign body has passed through the wall of the eye in its anterior or anterolateral section, it still retains sufficient kinetic energy to enter the orbital cavity on its way through the vitreous and the posterior wall of the eyeball. In rare instances such a foreign body may perforate the osseous wall of the orbit and enter the brain. Perforating lesions of the eye or so-called double perforations of the eyeball (Hirschberg) differ considerably from the usual piercing injuries in their clinical evolution. There is, however, practically no classification of these lesions in common use. In the articles and descriptions dealing with individual cases the authors have given arbitrary explanations of these facts. Some have accepted the indications of Hirschberg and regard as perforating lesions only

To the Editor: —Julius Hirschberg was 70 years old, September 18. His friends, pupils and colleagues joined in celebrating the event by the publication of a selection from his medical writings from 1868 to 1912 in a stately volume of almost 900 pages, a volume splendidly arranged and most useful for reference and for study (Julius Hirschbergs ausgewahlte Abhandlungen (1868-1912) zu seinem 70. Geburtstage, Ihm ueberreicht im Namen seiner Schuler von Oscar Fehr und Wilhelm Muhsam, Veit & Co., Leipsig, 1913). On the evening of September 18 a banquet was arranged in Dr. Hirschberg's honor in Berlin, and on this occasion a medallion was presented to him. Among those who subscribed to this testimonial was the Section on Ophthalmology of the American Medical Association, of which Dr. Hirschberg has been an honorary member since 1905. The medallion (6 by 8 cm.) is a work of art and presents a striking

The following extract is from Erb's "Handbook of Electro-Therapeutics:" "Among diseases of the lens, cataract has been drawn recently into the field of electro-therapeutics. Neftel created no little excitement in the ophthalmological camp by a report of two cases of undoubted beginning cataract, in which all the symptoms of the cataract were relieved by methodical galvanic treatment, and visual power restored completely. After a sharp criticism of these statements by Hirschberg, Neftel acknowledged that the opacities of the lens, demonstrable with the ophthalmoscope, had not disappeared entirely, and explained the undoubted improvement of the eyesight to a removal of a molecular opacity, which was not recognizable upon ophthalmoscopic examination. He adds also that galvanic applications exert an influence, though not to any great extent, upon the opacities of ripe cataracts." This subject is, therefore, still in its infancy, but its importance justifies further careful experiments, mainly with reference to beginning

To present to you a resume of the progress of ophthalmology during the past year, if such resume should contemplate even a brief review of the numerous articles written, would occupy far more time than should properly be allotted to an introductory address. The omission of this formal duty by some of my predecessors has, I am sure, had the approval of the Section. An excellent review of this character by Dr. John Green, Jr., may be found in the Interstate Medical Journal for January, 1906, and a still more comprehensive analysis of the work of the year may be found in the excellent "Ophthalmic Year Book," edited by two of our most active workers, Drs. Jackson and de Schweinitz. A pleasing feature of our last meeting was the presence with us of Professor Hirschberg, of Berlin, who gave an interesting address and who participated in the discussions of the

Transparent globular bodies frequently constitute an interesting feature of after-cataract. A few of the many bodies of this nature observed by us, as seen with the slit lamp and the corneal microscope, are illustrated in figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Little has been written about this peculiar and frequently occurring phenomenon, although J. Hirschberg 1 remarked on "drops" which not only form a part of various cataracts but are found in after-cataract membranes. Elschnig 2 described them exactly and made microscopic examinations. He failed to mention Hirschberg. Koby 3 stated that transparent globules are found more frequently in the young than in the old and that he rarely met with globular cells after the fiftieth year. This has not been our experience. There seems to be no preference in regard to age. Of the four cases of after-cataract with formation of globules described by Vogt, 4

ONE OF the most exciting chapters in the history of ophthalmology pertains to the work on motor anomalies of the eye. The student repeatedly meets the same names, which are like giant guide posts indicating and directing in logical steps the accumulating knowledge in this field. When one considers the limited technological equipment available to these men, and then realizes that the newest of our techniques were basically described before the beginning of the century, an appreciaiton for their stature is obtained. Certainly, the names of Alfred Graefe, Hirschberg, Mauthner, Bielschowsky, and Hering give Germany its share of giants. In like manner, England has produced its Maddox, and France, its Javal and Landolt, with his genius for establishing method. No less do the early great names stand out in this country: Savage,1Stevens, Duane, Howe, J. C. White and, now, Lancaster. As the result of the teachings of these masters, many new names will appear, and to

The purpose of this paper is to describe a new surgical approach for the treatment of retinoblastoma (glioma of the retina). The results of enucleation of the eye in treatment of this tumor have been discouraging. An analysis of various series reported in the literature is shown in the accompanying rate table. The average survival rate even for short follow-up periods is only 18 per cent. If the reports of Hirschberg and Wintersteiner 1 are discounted as perhaps not in accord with the results of modern surgical technic, the statistics are somewhat less discouraging (a cure in 50 per cent of cases), although the most recent report of all is the least favorable (35 per cent of cures). What is widely recognized as true but often minimized in the discussion of retinoblastoma is the tendency of the tumor to invade the optic nerve early and to extend backward within the

Ophthalmic Surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital; Ophthalmologist to the Woman's Hospital and Foundlings' Home; etc. The employment of the magnet in ophthalmic practice dates back barely twenty years; though, as "there is nothing new under the sun," the magnet was probably known to the ancients; and, at least two thousand years ago, the Brahmins were well acquainted with its use in surgery, as we find it mentioned in this relation in their sacred writings. The first description of its use in connection with the eye was reported by Fabricius Hildanus in 1656. But Dr. McKeown, of Belfast, Ireland, has the honor of having been the first to effectively employ the magnet in an operation in the deep structures of the eye, extracting, by this means, in the year 1874, a chip of iron from the vitreous humor. In 1877, Hirschberg constructed his electro-magnet, which on account of the large size