Principles and Practice of Aviation Medicine

This recent addition to the Clio Medica series is very welcome for several reasons. It is almost unique, for the only other histories of ophthalmology in English are a very short essay by Sorsby and an article by Shastid in the American Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology. The brevity of Chance's history has excluded a separate bibliography, yet the author has managed to include mention in the text of a great many authors and their works, with emphasis on their availability in English translation. Chance has superimposed a topical arrangement of subject matter upon a chronological foundation, instead of making use of the biographical or purely chronological approach. The ancient ophthalmology is divided by epoch and by country: Babylonian, Graeco, Roman, Arabian, etc. Then come the ophthalmological advances in the 16th and 17th centuries, cataract extraction in the 18th, the invention of the ophthalmoscope and other scientific developments in the 19th century. In the contemporary era there are chapters on such various topics as refraction, color-blindness, eye movements, surgery, drugs, schools, hospitals, societies, journals, etc. This arrangement makes for readier reference to a specific subject, although it suffers somewhat from repetition. By and large, the book serves the purpose of such pocket-sized volumesit gets read, it gives a sensible outline of and approach to the subject, and it furnishes the information and the stimulation for further reading.