December 3, 190S] 



NA TURE 



125 



described him to Tyndall, but, as Mr. Courtney said 

 in his impressive farewell address, " it must never be 

 forgotten that his one overmastering and dominant 

 purpose was practical, social, human." The cold 

 agnostic, all intellect and no heart, often felt himself 

 called upon " to suspend his work in order to try 

 to convert Christians to Christianitj'," as Dr. Duncan 

 well puts it. .As old age crept on apace, and he 

 was writing his last book, it was anxiety for the 

 welfare of his country that alone disturbed his 

 serenity as he pondered over " ultimate questions," 

 and wondered " Shall I ever again be awakened at 

 dawn bv the song of the thrush? " 



OCULAR PATHOLOGY. 

 The Pathology of the Eye. By J. Herbert Parsons. 

 4 vols. Vol. i., pp. xiii + 388; vol. ii., pp. viii + 

 389-770; vol. iii., pp. X + 771-1128; vol. iv., pp. ix 

 + 1129-1427. (London : H. Frowde and Hodder and 

 Stoughton, 1908.) 



THE recent completion of this work, of which the 

 first volume was published in 1904, marks an 

 epoch in the literature of the pathology of the eye. 

 In his preface the author states that "the 

 object of this treatise is to give as complete 

 an account of the pathology of the eye as is pos- 

 sible in the present state of our knowledge." 



How closely the author has kept this object in 

 view, and how nearly he has attained it, will be 

 obvious to readers who are familiar with ocular patho- 

 logy. In comprehensiveness, in fulness of detail, and 

 in wealth of illustration, this treatise exhibits a notable 

 superiority ov-er all previous monographs on the 

 subject. 

 , As curator of the museum at Moorfields Ej'e Hos- 

 i pital, the author has enjoyed opportunities for patho- 

 logical study and investigation which may be justly 

 termed exceptional. Much credit is due to him for 

 the excellent use he has made of these opportunities, 

 and also to the hospital authorities for their en- 

 lightened policy in maintaining a laboratory in which 

 such good and permanently valuable work can be 

 carried on. 



The need of a book such as Dr. Parsons has given 

 has often been felt by those engaged in the study 

 ophthalmology, and especially by those who are 

 unfamiliar with languages other than English. Much 

 good work has been done, and great advances have 

 '■'-en made in ocular pathology during the last ten 

 fifteen years, but the records of these accomplish- 

 nnts are widely scattered in scientific journals, hos- 

 l>ital reports, and elsewhere, and are often unobtain- 

 able by the student. No attempt has hitherto been 

 made, at all events successfully, to produce a work 

 dealing comprehensively with the pathology of the 

 eye. Hence the treatise now before us supplies a 

 real want, and will prove (indeed, has already proved) 

 of great assistance to those interested in this branch 

 of medical science. 



The author has wisely divided his work into four 

 parts, and has thereby given us volumes of convenient 

 NO. 2040, VOL. 79] 



and easily portable size. We doubt if he has been 

 as well advised in extending the publication of the 

 volumes over so long a period as four years. .As a 

 result of this, his work has to suffer the disadvantage, 

 common to all scientific books of protracted publica- 

 tion, that by the time the final volume is in print the 

 earlier portion of the work requires revision to bring 

 it up to date. 



The plan adopted by the author has been to devote 

 the first and second volumes to the " Pathological 

 Histology " of the ocular tissues, and the third and 

 fourth volumes to the " General Pathology " of the 

 eye, this latter title having a very wide and inclusive 

 character. This arrangement, although in many 

 respects admirable, and possibly the most service- 

 able, has led to a certain amount of repetition, neces- 

 sitated by the consideration of subjects under two 

 headings. For example, if the reader wishes to look 

 up the pathology of injuries, saj', of the cornea, he 

 will find the subject partly dealt with in the chapter 

 on the cornea in vol. i., and partly in the chapter 

 on injuries in vol. iv. 



In vols. i. and ii. the pathological histology of the 

 eye, eyelids, and orbit (cysts and tumours) is dealt 

 with, each component part of the eyeball, e.g. the 

 cornea, iris, lens, &c., being considered separately and 

 very fully. .As introductory to the description of the 

 morbid histologj' of each structure, there is a brief 

 but sufficient account of its normal histology. This 

 materially enhances the usefulness of the book to 

 those engaged in microscopic work, enabling them, 

 without loss of time, to refresh their memory of 

 the histology of healthy tissues, or to compare the 

 characters of their specimens with those accepted as 

 normal. 



The bacteriology of the ocular tissues, a subject 

 of great and increasing importance, is also included 

 in these volumes. A brief and serviceable account 

 is given of the established relations of micro-organisms 

 to disease of the various ocular tissues. More than 

 this could not reasonably be desired in a work not 

 dealing specially with bacteriology. 



The scope of vols. iii. and iv. is much wider than 

 that of the preceding volumes, and embraces more 

 than might naturally be expected from the title, 

 " General Pathology of the Eye." 



In addition to subjects legitimately included under 

 this heading, vol. iii. contains a lengthy account of 

 the normal circulation of the eye, the nutrition of the 

 e\-e, and the normal intra-ocular pressure. We are 

 unable to agree with the author's view that " it is 

 essential to give an exhaustive account of the normal 

 circulation and nutrition of the eye " in a work on 

 pathology. These three chapters, excellent in them- 

 selves, are much too elaborate as an introduction to 

 the consideration of morbid conditions, and might 

 with advantage be greatly curtailed in future editions. 



Vol. iv., in addition to chapters on injuries, or- 

 bital inflammations, sympathetic ophthalmitis, &c., 

 contains a very instructive chapter dealing with the 

 morbid changes in symptomatic diseases of the 

 eve, as, for example, the ocular lesions associated 



