CORRESPONDENCE 629

of those having certificates from the Boards. The atmosphere created by the context led me to assume that this was among the dis­approved activities of the Boards. I have met others who received the same impres­sion.

Dr. Woods is certainly mistaken in sup­posing that I was accusing his internes of wasting time. Mere inspection of my ques­tion (Am. J. Ophth., 31:348 (Mar.) 1948— first paragraph, column 2) will indicate that I referred to systems rather than to persons. Oft-repeated performance of rou­tine duties inevitably involves waste of time so far as the education of the individual is concerned.

My remarks about the certificate of the American Academy did not criticize the Board of Otolaryngology but suggested a certain result in regard to the Academy's certificate of membership.

I am content to have my editorial read in conjunction with the presidential address itself and with Dr. Wood's present letter. My purpose was not to find fault but to analyze the situation.

(Signed) William H. Crisp, Denver, Colorado.

T H E SEROLOGY OF TRACHOMA

Editor, American Journal of Ophthalmology:

In 1944, I made sérologie investigations upon trachoma patients. The number of these investigations was small, but in the following years I did not have an opportunity to go on with the work. I am, therefore, re­porting the results already obtained in the hope that someone will be interested in con­tinuing these studies.

I shall explain briefly what has already been done and what I intended to do. The supposition is not an entirely new one. For some time the connection between trachoma and the lymphatic apparatus has been well known (Angelucci, Kuhnt, and so forth). In my opinion, trachoma does not rank as an

independent disease of the lymphatic system, but is rather only a symptom of one general lymphatic disease.

Both microscopically and clinically, tra­choma resembles other diseases of the lym­phatic system. The vascular picture in the conjunctiva is frequently strikingly similar to that in lymphatic leukemia. True acute trachoma is very like the "drüsenfieber" of Pfeiffer.

TABLE 1 RESULTS OF THE PAUL-BUNNEL TEST IN 32

CASES OF KNOWN TRACHOMA

No. of Patients Reading Percent 8 1:112 25 4 1:224 12.5 5 1:28 15 1 1:448 3

12 1:56 37.5 2 1:896 6

* It is generally stated and accepted that a read­ing up to 1:56 is normal; over 1:56 is positive.

TABLE 2 RESULTS OF THE PAUL-BUNNEL TEST IN 11 CASES

KNOWN TO BE FREE FROM TRACHOMA

No. of Patients 1 1 4 5

Reading 0:00 1:14 1:28 1:56

Percent 9 9

36 46

With these thoughts in mind, the Paul-Bunnel test was made in 32 cases of tra­choma. As controls, the same sérologie tests were made of 11 cases in which no trachoma was present but in which the following eye diseases had been diagnosed—3, serpent ul­cers; 1, acute glaucoma; 1, keratoconjuncti-vitis sicca; 1, keratitis lymphatica; 1, wound from BB-shot; 2, marginal ulcers; 1, hema-toma of the lids; 1, interstitial keratitis. The results are given in Tables 1 and 2.

Since many of my patients were young soldiers, some of them may have been arti­ficially infected with trachoma. It was in­tended, therefore, as the next step to make sérologie examinations of numerous pa­tients with trachomatous pannus, as well as

630 BOOK REVIEWS

of patients in whom trachoma had been posi­tively diagnosed (MacCallan).

It was further intended to do a number of animal experiments, using the Paul-Bunnel reaction. Someone who reads this may be interested in developing these ideas.

(Signed) Janos Majoros, M.D., VIII . Brody Sandor-u. 6., Budapest, Hungary.

LUMINOUS CROSS FOR FIXATION

Editor, American Journal of Ophthalmology :

I have not seen the following idea pub­lished, yet it has proved valuable in my prac­tice: It is difficult to do a fundus examina­tion on old persons with small pupils, who cannot fix the eyes on an object. With nothing to fixate on, they continue to move their eyes.

I bought a small bottle of luminous paint and a brush, then painted two pieces of ad­hesive tape. On the wall directly in front of a chair in the dark room, I pasted these two pieces of tape in the shape of a cross. The cross was then covered with Scotch tape to hold it in better position and to keep the surface clean.

(Signed) Sydney S. Deutch, Fall River, Massachusetts.

BOOK REVIEWS TABULAE BIOLOGICAE. Volume XXII

(Oculus). Pars I. Uitfeverij, Dr. W. Junk, Amsterdam, 1947. Of this monumental collection of biologic

data, a volume of 408 pages, the first part of four on the eye, has appeared. It is fittingly prefaced by an appreciation of the work and enthusiasm of Kurt Steindorf, without which this great undertaking could never have been launched. Three other parts are in preparation in which data on vegeta­tive physiology and physiologic optics will be presented. Like its predecessors the book

is intended for reference, and, as a reposi­tory of every imaginable fact that can be expressed in numbers, it could not be sur­passed.

This volume presents in tabular form all available data arranged in several chapters each of which has a most extensive list of references. In the first chapter, Hermann Kahmann deals with the eyes of invertebrate animals. Fifty pages of tables record such facts as the number and position of eyes, size and position of various ocular struc­tures, and extent of visual fields of innumer­able species of animals. The second chapter of more than a hundred pages by Stefanie Oppenheimer deals with metric and descrip­tive characteristics of the human and animal eye. The section which deals with the meas­urement of the bony orbit of primates is accompanied by 54 figures on 11 plates. The other part of the chapter deals with the lids and most extensively with the color of iris in relation to race, heredity, age, and pig­mentation of hair.

In the third brief chapter Dejean and Granel describe the eye of the vertebrate embryo ; 12 pages suffice for this. The fourth chapter by Steindorff presents the descrip­tive anatomy of the eye of vertebrates and man in 126 pages of tabulation and an ex­tensive bibliography. In the remaining pages Nordmann discusses the anatomy and phys­iology of the pupil in vertebrates, and Ascher discusses the intraocular pressure and intra-vascular pressure in the eyes.

The index also lists those contributions in Volumes I to XXI of Tabulae Biologicae which refer to the eye.

F. H. Haessler.

AN INTRODUCTION TO T H E PRE­SCRIBING AND FITTING O F CON­TACT LENSES. By Dickinson and Hall. London, England. Hammond and Hammond and Co. Ltd., 1946. 168 pages. Index and 97 illustrations, Price, one guinea.