CORRESPONDENCE 5S3

Bulletin de la Sociιtι Belge d'Ophtal­mologie, 1932, no. 65. Paper covers, 133 pages. Brussels, Imprimerie Médicale et Scientifique, 1932.

This volume contains 127 pages of scientific reports, several of them illus­trated by photographs and plates, to­gether with a list of active, associate, and honorary members of the Society. Twenty contributions were read before the Society at this meeting. Abstracts of most of them will appear in the ab­stract department of this Journal.

J. B. Thomas.

CORRESPONDENCE Epitaph on an "Oculist"

On a person, who, being unsuccessful as an Oculist, became a cheap Tallow-Chandler.

So many of the human kind Under his hands became stone-blind, That for such failings to atone, At last he left the trade alone, And ever after, in despite Of darkness, liv'd by giving light. But Death, who has Excisemens' pow'r To enter nouses any hour, Thinking his light grew rather sallow, Snuff'd out his wick, and seiz'd his tallow.

Mr. Wood, the genial and thoughtful Librarian of the Royal College of Sur­geons, London, who frequently sends to me "scraps" of interest on ophthal-mological lore, has sent this "epitaph" concerning an "Oculist" which he culled from "The Public Advertiser" for 1789.

The term "Oculist" was applied at that period of medical history, to those "quacks and charlatans" and other ir­regular practitioners who attended to ophthalmic cases. Indeed, the regular profession declined to treat those so afflicted, and it was not until after the establishment of the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, some time about 1810, that reputable surgeons would deem such cases worthy of their time and atten­tion. It was not until several years later that the profession in England ceased to despise those who had entered on such practice. Even Wardrop, whose "Essays on the morbid anatomy of the human eye," a little work describing

a number of diseases, which was the first book in English on the pathology of the eye, jeered at and villified those who had begun to "specialize" their practice and at whose efforts he showed his contempt.

In a perusal of the "Intercepted let­ters" in the early issues of "The Lan­cet," one can find ample records of the attitude manifested by those who will­ingly dismissed their patients into the hands of such an one as he, over whom the above were graven.

(Signed) Burton Chance

Comments on "Secondary infections in trachoma"

There are one or two points in the interesting editorial on "Secondary in­fections in trachoma" in the February number on which I beg to be allowed to comment.

The article on trachoma in the Sys­tem of Bacteriology of the Medical Re­search Council, Vol. VII, page 247, states that "tracoma does not supervene on a normal conjunctiva, but that some form of inflammatory reaction is nec­essary before the condition appears." This is contrary to my experience of twenty years in a trachomatous coun­try as regards a certain proportion of cases, for the disease may begin quite insidiously, without any inflammatory phenomena, and be discovered by acci­dent. However more usually, at any rate in hot climates, it is preceded by some conjunctival inflammation.

Trachoma is invariably a chronic dis­ease ; any acute signs are significant of a super-imposed infection.

One of the earliest signs of trachoma is the appearance of trachomatous pan-nus which can usually be detected at the same time that trachoma follicles are first seen, if the corneal microscope and slitlamp are used. It is generally believed that trachoma follicles appear on the conjunctiva of the upper tarsus, before the trachomatous infiltration of the superficial layers of the cornea, which we recognize as pannus, appears. I am very chary of making a diagnosis