CXXXVI BOWMAN LECTURE. 



of essentially similar nature, we have now at least eight 

 pedigrees showing the disease in from two to four genera- 

 tions, quite half a dozen others of " familial " preval- 

 ence, and perhaps a dozen other single cases. 



In the pedigree and familial cases the sexes are about 

 equal, descent continuous with one exception, and from 

 either sex to the same or to the opposite sex. 



We shall no doubt have larger numbers to deal with 

 before long. 



Descriptions of the most extensive pedigrees (Holmes 

 Spicer, Freund,* Doyne and Stephenson, and Folker) are 

 given with Figs. 65 to 69 in Appendix VIII. 



(2) Several other affections of the cornea are known to 

 occur as family diseases from time to time. 



In February, 1905, Mr. Jessop wrote to me that he 

 had then lately seen conical cornea in a lady of about 50, 

 who stated that her mother had gone blind from conical 

 cornea. In June, 1906, I heard from Mr. Laws that he 

 had just seen the case of a young woman with conical 

 cornea, whose mother stated that the daughter's eyes had 

 been like they now were from birth, and that three more 

 of her children were affected in the same way ; she had 

 had eleven children, most of whom died in childhood ; 

 one was in an asylum; the parents were first cousins. 



Buphthalmos has been seen in several brothers and 

 sisters, and it is not unlikely that the case published by 

 Crompton in 1840 1 as congenital opacity of the cornea 

 in two siblings out of ten and the earlier one by Farar J 

 in 1790, in three siblings, were of that nature. 



* Freund's Case 2 (Bienert) has been brought up to date by the 

 author in courteous reply to inquiry (June, 1909), and is now correctly 

 shown by Fig. 67. 



f S. Crompton, London Medical Gazette, xxvii, 1840, p. 432. 



Samuel Farar, " An Account of a Very Uncommon Blindness in the 

 Eyes of Newly -born Children," Medical Communications of Society for 

 Promoting Medical Knowledge, ii, 1790, p. 463. 



