GONIN'S demonstration that retinal detachment is cured by sealing the retinal tears clarified and oriented the previously vague conceptions of the etiology, pathogenesis and therapy of this process. Fundamental concepts have been accepted as basic, even though some of these concepts have been modified during the past fifteen years as a result of the examination of a large number of patients with much greater care than was observed before the time of Gonin. All are aware that studies of the fundus used to involve the posterior pole of the eyeball with much less attention on the details of the periphery of the retina than is now given. Few oculists knew that tears are present in the great majority of cases; and in some cases of detachment the lesion was diagnosed as some other condition.
Detailed studies of the ocular fundus and histologic examinations of enucleated eyeballs have demonstrated that in