Color in Business, Science and Industry, 3rd ed

This volume is the latest in a continuing series on contemporary ophthalmic subjects. Four chapters are concerned with retinoblastoma, the morphology of the corneal endothelium, the non-visual control of ocular movements, and the reaction of the retina to intensive light. The discussion on retinoblastoma by Bedford reviews current ideas on the natural history and management of these tumours, and the author concludes with a summary of his recommended therapeutic regime for different types of presentation. The remaining three articles are in German, one sadly without an English summary. Schierh6lter and Honegger present some of their work on corneal endothelium under physiological conditions and after mechanical damage, and the morphological changes occurring in regenerating endothelial cells are described in detail with excellent illustrations. The physiology of the non-visual control of eye movements is discussed by Komer with a presentation of experimental data on saccadic movements in human subjects and optokinetic responses in animals. Finally, Wallow and his co-workers describe the effects of intense light from argon and helium lasers and the xenon arc photocoagulator on the retinae of experimental animals. The ophthalmoscopic and histological threshold doses are correlated, and an attempt is made to relate tissue damage to loss of function. Using this information *certain safety thresholds are suggested for man for intense light in the visible spectrum. The four articles are fully representative of the high standards set by the editors in this series of volumes. But once again this policy of multilingual presentations that characterizes Advances in Ophthalmology must be criticized. The average English ophthalmologist does not have a working knowledge of technical German and therefore only one of the four articles in this volume will be informative, and at a cost of over £20 that is a high price to pay even in these inflationary times. T. J. FFYTCHE