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Every year, the American public spends about $1 billion on sunglasses. Clearly, they perceive a relationship between the sun's radiation and eye damage. Happily, the ophthalmic profession started catching up to public opinion with the publication of Sidney Lerman's book Radiant Energy and the Eye in 1980. In 1983, a conference was held in Gaithersburg, Md, on the same subject. Every major authority in the field of light damage to the eye was present; this volume is a clearly organized synthesis of that meeting. The text also contains a very complete index of the pertinent publications on the subject up to that time.
There are many pearls throughout, but the opening chapter, which gives historical perspective to the book, written by David Cogan is itself worth the price of the book. For example, just look at how he opens the chapter:
When Galileo Galilei first looked at the sun through