To the Editor:
In medicine, a healthy skepticism has always proven beneficial to the profession. The author of a recent editorial entitled "Cryosurgery in Ophthalmology" (Arch Ophthal 72:590, 1964) is therefore to be commended for that component of the editorial which can be considered healthy skepticism. I would like to add another voice advocating a healthy respect of any device or technique which exposes the eye to the temperature of liquid nitrogen. This liquid boils at approximately −196 C and has, in effect, the capability of freezing an entire eyeball.It is, however, unfair to compare a liquid nitrogen apparatus with an instrument designed especially for cataract extraction which limits the temperature drop to −35 C. By the same token, one does not condemn the use of the Hildreth Cautery for the purpose of conjunctival hemostasis simply because a source of intense heat such as a light coagulator cannot be