When the anterior approach for the removal of an intraocular steel foreign body proved futile after three attempts, it occurred to me that the posterior route might be rendered less hazardous by'use of the instrument which was so effective at Pearl Harbor in the hands of Moorhead,1 for whom it had been devised to locate pieces of magnetic metal. At the suggestion of Dr. Sergei Feitelberg, of the department of physics of Mount Sinai Hospital, Mr. Samuel Berman, the inventor, demonstrated his locator.2 Without being informed of the roentgenographic data of localization, he designated during the operation the exact spot on the sclera under which the foreign body lay.
The idea of utilizing the principles of magnetism to locate steel in the body is not new. Aveling,3 in 1851, determined the position of needles in the soft parts of the body by using a magnetized needle suspended