BOOK REVIEWS 1469

the mistaken use of atropine for a miotic.

Like any other miotic D.F.P. may pro-duce certain untoward affects. It can cause ocular and brow pain due to power-ful ciliary spasm. Headache and photo-phobia have been complained of following its use. Systemic affects from absorption from the conjunctival sac have occurred in experimental animals; one drop of the full-strength solution in the eye of a rabbit has caused death within two to three minutes. Therefore, it is a drug to be treated with respect and not used indiscriminately. However, Leopold and Comroe have not found any systemic affects in man when employing it in 0.2-percent solution, an observation which agrees with this writer's experience.

Other series of cases must be studied before D.F.P. becomes available for gen-eral use. Time will tell whether or not it will prove as effective as preliminary re-ports make it appear to be.

Edwin B. Dunphy.

BOOK REVIEWS OPHTHALMOLOGY IN T H E WAR

YEARS. Vol. 1 (1940-1943). Edited by Meyer Wiener, M.D. Clothbound, 1,166 pages, references, subject index, and author's index. Chicago, 304 South Dearborn Street, Year Book Publishers, Inc., 1946. Price, $13.50 postpaid. Thirty-six contributors, most of whom

are widely known and all of whom are experts, combined under the able editor-ship of Dr. Wiener to produce a volume of great practical use and value to all English-reading ophthalmologists. The cruel war years, among other and less serious things, forced many ophthalmolo-gists either through isolation in military service or through the overburden of

routine office work, to give up the reading of current ophthalmic literature, which is the life blood of progress in our great specialty. To fill in this gap in our knowl-edge, the present volume and its subse-quent fellow were conceived.

The editor says in his preface that "it has been the purpose of the editorial staff to supply as complete a bibliography as possible and to give not merely an ab-stract but a running comment on articles which, in each editor's estimation, merited a review." These purposes have been amply fulfilled, to the great credit of the contributors and the staff. When one con-siders how busy these men and women were and are, what difficulties were en-countered in obtaining the articles, the restricted lists of foreign journals and ophthalmic literature in general, and other hardships in war-time, one can but marvel that such a splendid and complete piece of work could result.

Each contributor read, digested, re-viewed, and commented on anywhere from 50 to 800 published articles in his particular field. The expert judgment shown in discrimination makes each chap-ter an authority of the subject under dis-cussion, and emphasizes the peaks of progress in our specialty in the years January, 1940, through December, 1943.

All parts of ophthalmology are cov-ered, including, as well, comparative "ophthalmology, hygiene, sociology, educa-tion and history, methods of examination, and industrial ophthalmology.

One is indeed proud of this achievement in American ophthalmology, and grateful for the wealth of ophthalmic literature, collected under such trying conditions, that is made available in one volume to all of us. That it will be fruitful and productive of ideas, useful in the solu-tion of one's daily problems, and a ready source of reference and stimulation needs no comment. The editor, the contributors,

1470 BOOK REVIEWS

and the publishers are to be congratulated, commended, and thanked by ophthalmolo-gists everywhere.

Derrick Vail.

DISEASES OF T H E EYE. (Revised edition.) By Konstantin Pascheff. 495 pages, 288 illustrations, 12 plates. Sofia, University Publication, 1946. This is the second edition of the first

textbook on ophthalmology in the Bul-garian language, and it is supplemented by the ophthalmic advances made from 1929 to 1946. The author is a prolific contributor to ophthalmic literature, and he uses much of his published material in this book. The book is divided into 12 chapters, dealing . with diseases of the orbit, lids, lacrimal apparatus, motor sys-tem, sensory and sympathetic systems, conjunctiva, cornea-sclera, uvea, visual apparatus, the lens and vitreous, and the

globe including glaucoma and anomalies of refraction. The last chapter deals with surgery as it is being performed in the author's clinic at the University of Sofia. Each chapter covers briefly methods of examination, congenital anomalies, circu-latory disturbances, inflammation, degen-eration, injury, tumor, prophylaxis, and therapy. The profuse illustrations with drawings, photographs, and microphoto-graphs, and the condensed, although pre-cise and clear, descriptive material will widen the ophthalmic horizon of the medi-cal student without burdening him with much reading. The textbook is, neverthe-less, sufficiently complete to be of value to the general practitioner and to serve as an excellent guide to the student of oph-thalmology. Worthy of note are the plates of illustrations on trachoma and con-genital ectopia of the lens.

Ray K. Daily.