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When the author brought out the first edition of this work in 1933, he wrote as follows: "No attempt has been made to trace the growth of ophthalmology as an organic whole, phase by phase. It was thought more expedient to trace separately the course of the main streams of development." This plan has been left undisturbed in the second edition and has been admirably carried out. In his introduction, he has traced the development of general ophthalmologic knowledge from the time of Hammurabi through the Greek, Arabian, Medieval and Modern Ages. He then discusses the development of the anatomic, physiologic and pathologic knowledge from earliest historical times to the present. Subsequent chapters deal with cataract, glaucoma, therapeutics, spectacles and the ophthalmoscope. The book closes with a chapter on ophthalmology in the British Isles.
It is difficult to review this somewhat condensed type of work, but certain statements can be