BOOK NOTICES 1283

Academy. The former idea was contrib­uted by 'Dr. Wherry and the latter by Dr.Gradle, Both give promise of being ex­tremely valuable.

The Academy went on record as urgingCongress to appropriate the $2,750,000already authorized for construction ofanew Army Medical Museum and a Sur­geon Generals' Library to replace the oldbuildings. We increase our tie-up with theArmy Medical Museum each year. Theorganization under Colonel Ash is mostcooperative. On the average two eyes aday are sectioned and studied, as well asmuch ear, nose, and throat material. Thereare over 6,000 specimens in the eye pa­thology section alone.

The following officers were elected forthe coming year: Dr. George M. Coates,Philadelphia, president; Dr. Albert C.Snell, Rochester, New York, president­elect; Drs. William W. Pearson, DesMoines, Iowa, William J. Mellinger, San­ta Barbara, California, and Charles A.Bahn, New Orleans, vice presidents. Dr.William P. Wherry, Omaha, Nebraska,was again chosen executive secretary­treasurer, and Dr. Second H. Large,Cleveland, comptroller. Dr. Carl M. Mc­Caskey, Indianapolis, was elected a mem­ber of the council, and Dr. Grady E. Clay,Atlanta, to represent the Academy on theAmerican Board of Ophthalmology. Itwas decided to hold the 1939 meeting atChicago.

Thanks to our Washington hosts fortheir cordial cooperation and many cour­tesies.

Lawrence T. Post.

BOOK NOTICESDAS TRACHOM. Ergiinzungsband. By

Prof. Dr. A. Peters. 85 pages. Basel &Leipsig, S. Karger, 1938.

This is a monograph intended as a sup­plementary volume to a textbook of tra-

choma published by the author in 1935.The present publication is in the form ofa review of the literature pertaining totrachoma and covering the period fromNovember, 1934, to February, 1938. Forconvenience, the different reports areclassified under history, clinical aspects,optical aids in diagnosis, histology, thecausative agent and the inclusion body,transmissibility, prophylaxis and control,geographical distribution, therapy, andnonoperative management. Each topicsummarizes from 60 to 100 references,thus bringing together about 600 commu­nications.

While the supplement is obviously com­prehensive and complete, it performs es­sentially the function of a collective ab­stract unbenefited by analysis or critiqueon the part of the author. It is consequent­ly difficult to review this monograph. Asan index and abstract summarization ofthe literature on trachoma, published dur­ing the period mentioned, it is a valuablecompilation to the student of this disease.

L. A. Julianelle.

AUGENAERZTLICHE EINGRIFFE,eine kurzgefassteOperationslehre (Oph­thalmic surgery, a brief textbook ofoperations). Edited by Prof. Dr. J.Meller, Chief of the First UniversityEye Clinic in Vienna. Fourth revisedand enlarged edition, with contributionsby J. BOck, K. Kofler, A. Pillat, and L.Sallmann. Paper covers, 416 pages,with 261, partly colored, reproductionsin the text and on two plates. Vienna,Verlag von Julius Springer, 1938. PriceRM 36, bound RM 37.80.The appearance of this fourth edition

is an event of importance in medical litera­ture, even though the opportunity of read­ing the volume may be limited to teadersof German.

It had previously been the purpose ofthe author in chief to limit his descriptions

128~ BOOK NOTICES

to such operative procedures as were inuse in his own clinic. Hence some very im­portant omissions from the first threeGerman editions.

These defects (for such they must haveappeared to many ophthalmologists) havenow been remedied. While Meller himselfhas apparently never seen his way to re­sort to the use of iridencleisis, that opera­tion is here very adequately described anddiscussed by Pillat. It is noteworthy that,whereas some American workers considerit advantageous to instill homatropine be­fore performing the operation, Pillat stillresorts to several instillations of a I-per­cent solution of pilocarpine as a part ofthe patient's preparation upon the operat­ing table.

Pillat recommends what he regards asan important modification of HoIth's orig­inal technique of iridencleisis. After themeridional incision of the iris, the forcepsgrasping the iris are pulled toward thecorresponding angle of the scleral wound."If the scleral incision on the one handwas not too large and on the other handoblique enough, then the other part of theiris also is left lying in the scleral wound."Pillat's reason for this is that he has notinfrequently had the experience of findingin 24 hours that the incarcerated iris hadslipped back into the anterior chamber.He further urges that the forceps shall notopen more than two millimeters in grasp­ing the iris before its withdrawal, and thatthe meridional incision shall not extend tothe root of the iris.

When Meller's third edition appearedin 1931, the operative techniques for reti­nal detachment were still in course of de­velopment. Now that electrocoagulationhas manifestly conquered the field, a spe­cial chapter is devoted to the subject. Mel­ler's assistant Bock discusses localizationof the tear, and the operative techniquefor barrage of the tear by electrocoagu­lation; while Sallmann describes Lind­ner's undermining method.

Kofler adds a description of the tech­nique of endonasal dacryocystorhinos­tomy.

The mechanical details of the new edi­tion, both as to text and as to illustrations,are beyond criticism.

W. H. Crisp.

THE ETIOLOGY OF TRACHOMA.By Louis A. J ulianelle, Ph.D. Cloth­bound, 248 pages, 10 plates (3 in color).New York, The Commonwealth Fund;London, Humphrey Milford, OxfordUniversity Press, 1938. Price $3.25.

Having served seven years as directorof research on trachoma, conducted inthe Oscar Johnson Institute at Washing­ton University, under a liberal grant bythe Commonwealth Foundation, the au­thor is well qualified to write as an author­ity on this subject. He and his co-workershave made many notable contributions to­ward developing the now inescapableevidence that the etiologic agent of thisworld-wide scourge is a virus. In thismonograph the history of the age-oldsearch for the agent is traced, and theprogress towards the final conclusion isoutlined step by step.

The first chapter outlines briefly theclinical manifestation and usual course ofthe infection. Thereafter the diseaseswhich have a marked similarity-such as,inclusion blennorrhea, swimming-bathconjunctivitis, folliculosis, pemphigus,and vernal catarrh-are described anddifferentiated clinically. Biological mani­festations and histologic pictures of tra­choma are then described.

From the frequency of the finding ofinclusion bodies in the epithelium it islogical to believe that the source of infec­tion is from the surface of the conjunc­tiva.

In the author's laboratory extensive ex­periments on the nutrition of trachoma­tous individuals and the influence of mal-