NEWSLETTER OF THE OPTOMETRIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY Optometr; LibrarY Vertic'~ i", 18 (243 North Lindbergh Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri 63141, U.S.A.) Vol. 16 January 1985 Number l New O.H.S. Executive Board Member The waiting is over and the ballots have been tabulated. If you have ever doubted the saying "every vote counts," believe it! In an extremely close election Andrew F. Fischer was the winner and will serve a five-year term on the five-member Executive Board of the Optometric Historical Society. Listed below is the full Executive Board and expiration year of each member's term. The board members will elect officers for 1985 among themselves and the results will be announced in the next Newsletter. O.H.S. Meeting Maria Dablemont Jerome J. Abrams James P. Leeds Patricia Carlson Andrew F. Fischer 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Forty-five people attended the annual Optometric Historical Society meeting on December 8, 1984, in the Daniel Boone Room, Clarion Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri. The normal business portion of the meeting was postponed for the next day so as to give time to the two guest speakers. President Jim Leeds introduced Christopher Hoolihan, Rare Book Librarian at the Library of the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. Mr. Hoolihan lectured and presented slides on the Bernard Becker M.D. Collection in Ophthalmology. The second speaker, William Austin, O.D., presented a slide show which chronicled the establishment of the permanent exhibit of a turn of the century optometric examination room in the Heritage Center, Bismark, North Dakota. Our thanks to President Leeds for arranging these fascinating lectures. Immediately following the speakers five individuals (one posthumously) were honored as recipients of the O.H.S. Recognition Certificate. The recipients were M~urice E. Cox, James R. Gregg, Robert K. Graham, Israel Dvorine, and John R. Levene (posthumously). OHS members are urged to nominate others whose contributions to the knowledge of optometric history deserve recognition. Every nomination will be carefull.y considered by the Executive Board. An O.H.S. membership bonus: By this time every member of the Society sho1.Jld have received a copy of Dr. James R. Gregg's "Origin and Development of the Southern California College of Optometry 1904-1984." These are distributed with the compliments of Richard L. Hopping, O.D., President of the College. The book, a handsome volume of almost 600 pages, is a 1984 2 publication of the Col.lege, with the printing costs underwritten by S. Howard Bartley, the founder of Bartley Optical Sales, West Covina, California. The author is a member of the OHS and a former member of the Executive Board. Ophthalmoscopic controversy: Henry Knoll writes, "Boy did I get an aha! reaction when I read your last [October 1984] Newsletter. While reading on page 74 that 'a very famous colleague and surgeon once told me (Helmholtz) he would never use the instrument (ophthalmoscope)---' and then reading on page 78 about William Mackenzie I put these together and came to the con­ clusion that Helmholtz was referring to Mackenzie." Dr. Knoll has substantiated his deduction by several comments in A.M. Wright Thomson's biography of Mackenzie, page 102, in which Thomson declared that Mackenzie dismissed the use of the ophthalmoscope in a few sentences. In his own voluminous publication Mackenzie had referred to examination of the eye by means of the reflection of the beam of light from an ophthalmoscope as possibly confirming an unfavorable prognosis already suspected but "not likely to be satisfactory or safe in the early and curable stages oE the disease." Mackenzie was worried about the effect of light upon retinal inflam­ mation, to be used only on hopeless cases. However, he eventually did use the ophthalmoscope. Thomson wrote in a December 2, 1983, letter to Dr. Knoll that, "We still have his (Mackenzie's) ophthal­ moscope in the Infirmary and it looks well worn, although it might have been used by his successors." Russian optical apprentices circa 1900: Many months ago OHS member Louis H. Orzack, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, sent me a University of California Press brochure advertising several sociology books. The cover illustration showed apprentices in a St. Petersburg, Russia, optical shop, busily at work grinding and mounting spectacle lenses under supervision, sometime close to the end of the Tsarist regime. The illustration was from "Roots of Rebellion" by Victoria E. Bonnell, a book appearing very late in 1983. A scanning of Bonnell's book upon its arrival revealed that the picture is illustration number two and that it came from a volume by I.N. Bozherianov entitled "Nevskii prospekt 1703-1903," St. Petersburg, 1901-1903. I was then lucky to find a copy of the Bozherianov book in the Indiana University library, a volume so large as to necessitate stacking it in a corner of the library which has oversize book shelves. The book was published in several parts during 1901-1903, bound later by the library, and, of course, is entirely in Russian. It appears to have been published in commemo­ ration of the founding of St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) two hundred 3 years earlier. It includes many excellent photographs of landmarks and establishments in the St. Petersburg vicinity as well as advertise­ ments of numerous local firms. The reproduced photograph was one of four relating to optics, two each on plates numbered LXX and LXXI. For translation of the legend I enlisted the help of Professor Emeritus of Optometry Ingeborg Schmidt, M.D., who learned Russian while growing up in Estonia. The legend at the top of each plate indicates that these are selected scenes of the fabrication of optical products and instruments in the St. Petersburg mechanical optical firm of Ivan Jacob Urlaub, which was established in 1877. The first scene is identified as a general view of the spectacle assembly teaching area. Shown seated on stools around two work tables are six boys in the apparent age range of 10 to 18 years and two men in about their thirties, presumably instructors or supervisors. Each apprentice or employee is working with one or another spectacle component and small hand tools. The second scene is of the laboratory in which lens grinding, cutting, chipping, and edging were taught. Altogether 16 persons are discernible, four boys standing at work at edging stones, seven seated at a long table apparently chipping and cutting lenses, with an instructor leaning over one apprentice's shoulder to explain technique, and four facing away in the background, apparently doing lens surfacing. The boys' ages seem to range from perhaps as young as 8 or 10 years to the upper teens. This is the photograph reproduced in Bonnell's book and on the cover of the publisher's promotional brochure. The third scene is a general view of seven young workers in the area in which the mechanical mastery of precision optical assembly was taught. An older man appears to be an instructor. The seven younger ones, possibly between 18 and 21 years of age, may all be apprentices working at table-mounted pedal-driven lathes. Several unfinished telescopes are suspended from a centrally located rack. The fourth scene is of the department in which the grinding and polishing of precision optical components is taught. Included are ten persons, at least one and perhaps two of whom are instructors and the rest apprentices or employees of apparent ages ranging upwards from about 10 years. Most of them are seen working at shop tables with small pedal-driven polishing and grinding tools. In all of the photographs the workers appear warmly and comfortably dressed, healthy, with hair trimmed and combed, and attentively working, ostensibly unaware that a picture was being taken. Each room had large windows at the far wall, overhead ceiling fixture lamps, and various charts, ophthalmic product displays, and supply shelves on the walls. H. W H. 4 The lens edger's plague: Many an ol.der l iviny optometrist of today tends to think of the Harlequin spectacle frames of 1939 as the introduction to the continuing era of colorful, bizarre, and glamorous eyewear. Not exactly so. According to a news item on page 54 of the April 17, 1924, issue of The Optical Journal and Review of Optometry, the "latest fashion fad in London and Paris is that of jazz spectacles of colored tortoise shell rims to match Milady's dresses. Manu­ facturing opticians are now putting on the market glasses of extraordinary shapes, triangular, diamond and heart shape., with rims of brilliant colors." Shown is a photograph of "Miss Dale Winter wearing the first heart-shaped jazz spectacles to be seen in America," with lens shapes as pointed as the pips on a playing card. Collection in need of a home: Dr. James Leeds forwarded to us a clipping from the September 15, 1983 American Medical News with the headline "Home sought for antique instruments." Featured is a picture of Arthur Frank, O.D., a retired optometrist from Jersey in the Channel Islands of Great Britain. It shows him sitting at his desk surrounded by ceiling­ high display shelves of early scientific optical instruments. He has thousands in his collection. He started collecting in 1945 upon inheriting his father's accumulation of telescopes, microscopes, and other scientific instruments. His father made and sold scientific instruments in Glasgow. According to the article Dr~ Frank wants to place his collection in a museum. He would prefer a museum in England but, he reports, "Our museum curators are not very scientific-minded." He has therefore written to about 20 museums in the United States for possible interest. A president's glasses: A pair of "bifocal" eyeglasses that you may never have seen even in pictures is worn by U.S. President Andrew Jackson in a photocfraph taken ca. 1845. A full page portrait is reproduced in the October 1984 issue of USAIR, Vol. 6, No. 10, p. 49. The original was in an exhibition on "Photographing the American Presidency" at the George Eastman House at 900 East Avenue, Rochester, New York, October 30, 1984 - January 20, 1985. The exhibition will be at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, February 22 - April 21, 1985. All of the photographs in the show are from the Eastman House collection. 5 In President Jackson's spectacles the lenses for the near addition were mounted in separate wires and hinged at the endpieces to fold back parallel to the temples when not needed. To put them into use the wearer would have to remove his glasses and fold the extra lenses into positions parallel to and behind the distance lenses. Again for distance vision the glasses would have to be removed to fold back the near adds. Lubin saw with one eye only: The front page, in color, and pages 40 and 41 of the June 29, 1984, issue of Jewish Exponent, Vol. 175, No. 26, are totally given to "Siegmund 'Pop' Lubin: Movie Mogul." Included are illustrations of show placards, a post card picture of Siegmund and his wife Annie in 1905, a studio warehouse scene of cans of movie film, a theatre front scene, a fan magazine cover, and a 1904 motion picture camera, all related to optometrist Lubin's motion picture enterprise. The write-up, by Exponent staff member Michael Elkin, includes many details of Lubin's personality derived largely from press clippings. These painted him as "a colorful character and a good boss to his many employees" but that he "was not on everybody's guest list." "Lubin had only one eye," said museum curator Linda Kowall, "But he could see more with one eye than most people could with two." This clipping was submitted by OHS member Andrew Fischer and is being forwarded to ILAMO. Andy Fischer remembers Heather: Supplementing previously published reminiscences about the late W.J. Heather, O.D., is a recent letter from O.H.S member Andrew F. Fischer, O.D. He reports that it was while he was a student at the Pennsylvania State College of Optometry (PSCO) that he first met Heather in 1934, and that after graduation in 1937 he conferred with Dr. Heather regarding a position at the Northern Illinois College of Optometry. Instead, Dr. Fischer stayed at PSCO as Director of Public Relations until drafted for military service. "Through his famous colored blocks," reports Andy, "Jere sought to show O.D.'s of that era how to live by fees alone, not by mark-up profit on eyewear. His efforts did improve matters somewhat ... " "In connection with The American Plan," [a philosophy of professional fee charging outlined in 1940 by C.O. Cozzens of the American Optical Co.] adds Andy, "I recall the following: l. Lugging a typewriter from the college [PSCO] to my nearby apartment where, on the kitchen table, I worked with Jere on details of The American Plan. 2. Spending time in Southbridge [Massachusetts] doing further work on The American Plan with Jere." 6 In connection with American Optometric Association activity Andy recalls sessions with Heather and James A. Palmer, O.D., at the Congress in Rochester in 1.953 concerning the AOA Long Range Planning Committee chaired by PalmPr. At that t'im(• Fischer was tlw Adminis­ trative Director of the New Jersey Optome~ric Association. Heather, then Director of the Bureau of Professional Relations of the American Optical Co., hosted two three-day sessions in the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in July and August of 1953 at which the three of them formulated a long range plan that Palmer presented unsuccessfully, "practically hooted down!," at the 1954 AOA Congress in Seattle, Washington. However, adds Andy, "A log I kept shows that, in a number of succeeding years, every part of the plan was quietly--but alas--tardily implemented." Says Dr. Fischer, "Jere and I were very different persons. Although opposites in many respects and ten years apart in age, we were attracted to each other by common interests in optometric affairs. I enjoyed .•. a friendship [with him] that spanned half a century." Fitting a lion's eye: Headlined as "The first case on record of an artificial eye being fitted into a live lion" is a detailed account of the two attempts and final success in the July 1903 issue of Optical Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 112-113. The patient was one of the largest male lions in a menagerie of trained animals owned by Frank C. Bostock. It had lost one of its eyes in a ferocious fight with several other lions. The job was done by Mr. I. Mayer of the R. Hoehn Co., the firm that manufactured the Gumbert Human Artifical Eyes and the Full Back Reform Eye, sometimes called the Dr. Snellen Eye, and occasionally eyes for living horses and dogs. Mayer was assisted by Mr. Max Kohler, an eye artist. Ophthalmic optical reminiscences: Under the title "The winds of change in optics," in the May 26, 1984, issue of the Ophthalmic Optician Vol. 24, No. ll, pp. 402-403, J. B. Addenbrooke Phillips recalls some incidents dating back ~o the "Bad Old Days" when he entered the profession nearly 50 years ago. These included examples of unscrupulous advertising and the low esteem in which he and his colleagues were held. He identified July 5, 1948, as "a landmark in the annals of our profession," the day when the National Health Service of Great Britain began underwriting free spectacles for all. Another was the enactment of the Optician's Act in 1958, and a third was the later granting of university status to ophthalmic optical education. Each of these had very favorable impact on the ophthalmic optician's prestige. 7 He closes with reference to currently proposed legislation which would "allow non-opticians to undertake optical dispensing." It is this threat that prompted him to write the article. Vision care improving artistry: Mr. Kevin J. Ryan, President of Barnes-Hind Hydrocurve, Inc., has undertaken an unusual if not unique history-oriented advertising program. Eye care professionals are receiving a series of beautifully printed 22 x 29 em reproductions of paintings that will highlight the eye problems of selected famous artists of yesteryear and the resulting impact on their art. "Today," says Mr. Ryan, "the state of the art provided by the vision care professional minimizes the effects of such problems ... " The first mailing is a reproduction of "Young Mother, Daughter, and Son" rendered by Mary Cassat (1845-1926) in pastel on paper in 1913, about one year before cataracts stopped her work. Evolution of electric lightin~: "The history of the electric light fixture" was the keynote address at the Illuminating Engineering Society Annual Conference in St. Louis last year by Viggo Bech Rambusch. It was featured in the August 1984 issue of Lighting Design & Applications, Vol. 14, No. 8, pp. 20-26, with 27 illustrations, some in color. The lamp history is described in four phases: the great invention (1879), the tungsten filament (1907), the coiled filament (1914), and the quartz halogen lamp (1960). Details of the formation and growth of the industry's labor movement are cited as indicators of the evolution of the industry itself. The role of fixture style changes also is described. A different opinion: Librarian Roger Beckman called our attention to a very brief but highly critical review of George Gorin's "History of Ophthalmology" on page 229 of Documenta Ophthalmologica, Vol. 58, 1984, by H.E. Henker. The referee alleges "a host of serious errors, omissions, etc." He adds, "In a book on history this is unforgiveable. This book is certainly not to be recommended." Based of course on quite different criteria, this recommendation is precisely opposite the one on page 62 of the July 1984 issue of N.O.H.S., Vol. 15, No. 3. 8 Theory vs. attempt: OHS member Henry Knoll has suggested in the July-August 1983 issue of the Contact Lens Journal, Vol. ll, No. 4, p. 17, that 1988 may well be the centennial year for the clinical application of contact lenses by virtue of their first placement on human eyes having been separately described in the literature in 1888 by A. Eugen Fick, Eugene Kalt, and August MUller, all three from conti­ nental Europe. He reminds us, however, that Sir John Herschel, the English astronomer, described the optics of a lens in contact with the cornea in 1827, that the same monograph appeared in the 1830 and 1845 editions of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, and that William Mackenzie made reference to Herschel's suggestions in the 1835, 1840, and 1854 editions of his widely used pathology text, ~s did J. Nottingham in his 1854 book on conical corneas. Dr. Knoll asks, "Did anyone in Britain try Herschel's sug­ gestion before 1888? If not, why not?" "Jere's Building Blocks" and more: Donated to the Optometric Historical Society by Lois B. Bing, O.D. are the following items of Heatheriana, all originating from the late Dr. W. Jerome Heather: 1. Black display case with handle containing 25 colored blocks, known as "Jere's Building Blocks," used to support his talks on "Economics in Visual Eye Care," a facet of the American Plan. Case measures 43 x 61 x 15 em. Excellent condition, rare item [circa 1950]. 2. COLOR KEY. A cardboard display measuring 38 x 56 em. At left there are seven rectangles corresponding to the colors of the blocks, followed by large print titles of each subject repre­ sented by the color as follows: Cost of Ophthalmic Material Mark-up Subsequent Servicing Verifying and Fitting; Re-evaluating Consumption of Ophthalmic Materials Examining, Refracting, Prescribing Fee for Professional Services Rendered 3. Leaflet promoting the Professional Advancement Program. Four pages, illustrated. 4. LEGAL CHART of Optometry as a Profession by W. J. Heather. Reprint from The Southern Optometrist, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Nov. 1953.) With Dr. Bing's permission all of these are assigned to ILAMO, Inc., as the OHS does not maintain museum facilities. 9 Archive additions: Recently OHS member Lois Bing, O.D., donated two old photographs to ILAMO. One is a panoramic view of the banquet at the 1940 American Optometric Association Congress in Cincinnati, Ohio. The other is a photograph of the AOA display at the annual convention of the American Personnel and Guidance Association, April 1-4, 1960. Identified at the head table in the former are all except two. One of the two attendants in the latter is Frank Kitchell, O.D. Multimillionaire Milton L. Rock, O.D., Ph.D.: Of historical interest to optometry is the trend of career pursuits by graduates of its schools. In recent years we are finding increased diversification of careers of optometry school graduates away from conventional private and/or solo practice, with increasing numbers becoming involved in such areas as administration, academics, research, sales, and management. Only two or three decades ago hardly a member of a graduating class would even entertain a "job" opportunity other than in clinical practice. Nor did many school administrators encourage it. A startling exception is the career of Milton L. Rock, O.D., Ph.D., who, according to OHS member Andrew Fischer, is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State College of Optometry in the late '30's. He had matriculated as the winner of a PSCO scholarship. He has been listed regularly in the Blue Book of Optometrists through 1980 as a registered Pennsylvania optometrist in Cheltenham, but apparently never engaged in practice. Instead he elected to earn a Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology at the University of Rochester. In 1949 he was hired by Hay Associates, a management consulting firm, at a salary of $6,000 per year. In 1964 Rock gained 100 percent control of the firm, though presently he retains only 30% of the stock, the largest share of any of a "thundering herd of partners" A very lengthy write-up in the business section (D) of the Sunday, November 18, 1984, edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Rock now stands to realize $30 million in the sale of the Hay Group to Europe's largest advertising agency at a $100 million price. Dr. Rock plans to retire in the fall of 1986, when he will be 65. 10 Eyeglasses in 1327: In a scary detective story of seven bizarre murders in a wealthy Italian abbey in the year 1327 author Umberto Eco mentions eyeglasses several times and also Alhazen's De Aspectibus, Salvinus of the Armati, Salvatore, and Roger Bacon. The title of the English translation of the book from the Italian by William Weaver is "The Name of the Rose,"copyright 1983. O.H.S. member Earl Dablemont kindly sent us a paperback copy with pages 82, 97, 200, 230, 329, and 379 marked for quick and easy location of some of these inclusions. Described are lenses mounted in a "forked pin" to allow support by the nose, the difficulties of presbyopia, "oculi de vitro cum capsula," the cost of "glasses ab oculis ad legendum" in Bolognese crowns, the recency of their invention, their importance to scholars, effects of emerald colored lenses making "parchments to seem meadows," and the justification for considering eyeglasses tools of the devil or of God. Eyeglasses since 1300: The Optical Museum of the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung Jena (Carl Zeiss Foundation of Jena) has published a full color 24 page 30 x 21 em booklet entitled "Brillen" (eyeglasses). The coded date indicates that its printing was August 29, 1983. The front cover shows a page of a Latin incunabulum partly overlaid by a "Lesestein" (reading stone) so as to magnify a few of the words. The inside front cover commentary gives Alhazen credit for the concepts of magnification which gave rise to the cutting of spherical segments of glass that the Germans eventually called Lesesteine. Beautifully illustrated throughout the booklet are selected museum samples of early, mostly exotic, eyewear and artists' illustrations of early eyewear from many parts of the world. The publication appears to be intended as a conversation piece for reception rooms in public places, presumably underwritten by the East German Zeiss firm, as the back cover illustrates a display room of the spectacle factory in Dresden. With address, telephone number, and visiting hours, the museum invites the visitation of all interested persons. Optical history from East Germany: Two articles on optical history appear in the July/August issue of Augenoptik, Vol. 101, No. 4, an East German serial for optometrists, ophthalmologists and vocational hygienists (Arbeitshygieniker). The first, "Wechselwirkung zwischen , Glasentwicklung und Optikentwicklung bis 1800" (The reciprocal 11 development of glass and optics prior to 1800) by C. Hofmann, pages 106-109, begins with the discovery of glass and its optical traits as observed in antiquity. It chronologically reviews the subsequent inventions of lenses, eyeglasses, and optical instruments together with the related derivation of optical principles of refraction, chromatic dispersion, and optical design. The second article, "Johann Heinrich August Duncker und seine Bedeutung ftlr die Entstehung der Rathenower Optischen Industrie" (Johann Heinrich August Duncker and his importance to the establish­ ment of the optical industry of Rathenow), is by R. Scheibner, pages 110-115. Duncker (1767-1843), a clergyman, and Christoph Samuel Wagener, an army chaplain, are credited with the beginnings of an early capitalistic venture in 1801 which was the start of the Rathenow optical industry. Many of their technical contributions in the design of eyewear, optical magnifiers, and multiple lens grinding apparatus are illustrated in graphic detail and supported by documentation from catalogs and contemporary publications. Both articles are to be continued in future issues of Augenoptik, and both authors are from Jena, presumably affiliated with the Carl Zeiss firm there. Optical glass 1800-1884: "Wechselwirkung zwischen Glasindustrie und optischen Instrumentenbau zwischen 1800 und 1884" (Interrelationship of the glass industry and optical instrument making between 1800 and 1884) is the title of a well documented review by Christian Hofman in the September-October, 1984, issue of Augenoptik, Vol. 101, No. 5, pp. 131-138. Included are portraits of Peter Dolland (1730-1820), Pierre Louis Guinand (1748-1824), Joseph v. Utzschneider (1763-1849), Joseph v. Frauhofer (1787-1826), and Ernst Abbe (1840-1905), and four charts showing various optical properties of numerous commercially available types of glass during the 19th century. In the same issue, pages 138-141, is Part II of an article by R. Scheiber on the role of Johann Heinrich August Duncker in the establishment of the Rathenower optical industry between 1806 and his totally disabling mental illness at the age of 52 in 1819. The article provides many biographical details of Duncker's contributions to spectacle design including the fact that in 1815 he wrote a booklet of instructions concerning the nature, selection, and use of eyeglasses. 12 Optometric education under socialism: In the September-October 1984 issue of Augenoptik, Vol. 101, No. 5, p. 130, faculty members E. Kluger, K. Conrad, and W. Pfaffendorf of the Fachschule fOr Augenoptik "Hermann Pistor" (the Hermann Pistor School of Ophthalmic Optics) in Jena, East Germany, describe developments of the curriculum during the 35 years since the formation of the Deutschen Demokratischen Republik on October 7, 1949, under sponsorship of the U.S.S.R. During this period the curriculum was extended from one year to two years and provision was made for the students' direct clinical experience with patients. Further, the school has provided optometric and optotechnical training for more than 100 foreign students, with 44 foreign students enrolled in the presently attending classes. Strong emphasis is placed on the inculcation of the prevailing political idealism in terms of the Augenoptiker's role in society. Early optometric graduate study: In 1932 the American Academy of Optometry established a limited number of "Fellowships for Research" to graduates of accredited optometry schools who also had recognized baccalaureate degrees in arts or science and had enrolled for at least one year as graduate students in graduate schools of fully accredited universities in physiological optics, anatomy, physiology, physiological chemistry, pathology, psychology, or physics. The yearly stipends varied between $200.00 and $300.00 plus allowances for research equipment and attendance of the annual Academy meetings. In charge of the Fellow­ ship Committee as the Director of Research was Edwin Forbes Tait, Ph.D. In his report in the Report of the Transactions of the 12th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Optometry in December 1933, Vol. 8, pp. 144-146, Dr. Tait explained and described the objectives of the program and pointed out that he had discovered eligible candidates at the University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University, Syracuse University, University of Minnesota, University of Southern California, Clark University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Detroit University, The University of Michigan, and ~mple University. Early ophthalmic science: In concisely written but pleasantly readable style Walter Gassen reviews "The early history of ophthalmic science" in the Ophthalmic Optician. Part I appears in the September 15, 1984, issue, Vol. 24, No. 18, pp. 637-638 and 640, and Part II in the September 29 issue, l3 Vol. 24, No. 19, pp. 668, 670, and 674. He identifies the origins of the science with optical, visual, and medical observations, myths, folklore, and theories of antiquity derived from the Middle East, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and elsewhere, citing even the biblical account of a miraculous restoration of sight from Mark 8:22-25. OEP in Australia: "A Brief History of OEP Australia" is the ·title of an article by Chris Henderson of Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia, in the November 1984 issue of Curriculum II (Optometric Extension Program), Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 61-70. His history starts with class notes on the 21 point technique which he received as a final year optometry student at the University of New South Wales in 1964. In 1965 he joined Keith Woodland in practice. In 1969 he was invited to an OEP study group to ~eceive some OEP papers given to the group by E.B. Alexander during a visit to Australia. Later came visits by Homer Hendrickson, Jerry Getman, et al. Henderson is now the National Director of OEPA and edits a quarterly bulletin for around 120 members. Two reminiscent articles: The August 4, 1984, issue of the Ophthalmic Optician, Vol. 24, No. 16, includes two articles of nominal historical interest. On pages 570-580 editor Gerald Ward interviews Reginald Thomas Pine, OBE, on the eve of his retirement as the General Secretary of the Association of Optical Practitioners. Mr. Pine had served the profession for over 20 years, initially as assistant to the late George Giles. On page 582 Henri Obstfeld gives a thumbnail review of "60 years of Optometry in South Africa." Minimizing destructive lighting: The primary role of a museum is to preserve. Another important museum function is to display, which means exposure to light. The significance of such incompatibility was made evident at the annual meeting of the United States National Committee of the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage in Gaithersburg, Maryland, last October by the after-dinner speaker, Edwin K. Robinson, Lighting Engineer, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. The title of his illustrated lecture was "Minimizing the Destructive Effects of Light on Museum Objects." Funny fifty five years ago: ClOSE 801\i E"'ES A~O REA.O ME 1'HE. 'TOP LlfJE. 14 r,..~:::=.Ji!:::===-ioij HwzoPQQ5 HF'PL. M OF.EKI EIBt RC ~ :.::--· fM~;· This Paul Fung cartoon of June 27, 1930, was discovered in an old book on the ILAMO shelves. Levene scholarships announced: The John R. Levene Memorial Fund has been established at the Southern College of Optometry, Memphis, Tennessee, in memory of the school's late dean of the faculty to provide stipends to graduate optometrists awarded fellowships in geriatric and pathology areas. Optometrist authors Lions Club history: Weston A. Petty, O.D., of Lubbock, Texas has authored "The BIG STORY, A History of the Lubbock Lions Club, 1929-1982." It is published by Eakin Publications, Austin, Texas at $15.00 per copy, obtainable from the Lubbock Lions Club, 1304 Avenue 0, Lubbock, Texas 79401. 15 Recent academic history: A recently received "Fact Sheet" on Israel College of Optometry letterhead provides a bit of history relating to the establishment of the new school in Israel. The document is not dated, but it arrived prior to October 1984 and includes reference to the graduation of the school's first four-year class in 1983. The college was established in 1979, the only such institution in Israel, and is located in Tel Aviv. It has 95 students, 25 of whom are women and eight of whom are Arab students. It reports a cooperative arrangement with a "Center for Optical Studies" and ''Israel's associations of optometrists." A draft law for optometrists is reported to be under consideration by the Knesset. The present college address is P.O.B. 2826, Tel Aviv 61,027, Israel. Optometry in Rush County: The Rush County (Indiana, U.S.A.) Historical Society (Rushville) has published a history of the county. Chapter One, 1822-1982, The Medical Professions, edited by John N. Hughes, a Rushville attorney, includes a section on Optometry written by Steve R. Sickbert, O.D. He derived his information about early Rush county optometrists from various sources including the county clerk of courts records, old Blue Books of Optometry, various historical curators, and several interviews with older optometrists. To die for fame: In response to our item on George Nissel in the October NOHS Dr. Neal Bailey sent us a copy of a letter dated March 1972 from Mr. Nissel, on G. Nissel & Company Limited letterhead, London, under the salutation, "Dear Practitioner," as follows: In January 1972, we received a telephone message from Dr. J. Dallas, that he would like to discuss the supply of soft lenses with me. I duly visited him at Wimpole Street, London, W.l. in a building which is due for demolition within twelve months. I entered a waiting room-cum-office, which was the partitioned part of a room about 15' x 15'. I thought that I was a tough businessman, but the tears almost obscured my vision. 16 Since we parted company in 1946, I have seen Dallas very seldom. Last time we met was in June 1971 at the Contact Lens Congress of Ophthalmologists in London, where he did not read any papers or take part in any of the discussions. In fact, I cannot recollect any public appearance of his in the past 25 years, or for that matter, the past 35 years, and apart from an occasional article (the last one appeared in Germany last year) , we have hardly known that he was still active. He is very much active, working 7 days a week, not because he enjoys it, but because he has to. At the time when I left Hamblins in February 1946, I had ll technicians working with me, all of us making glass scleral lenses, both preformed and individually moulded. That number slowly dwindled by retirement, by passing away as well as the usual wastage problem. Corneal lenses came with a vengeance, and laboratories thrived. But not Dallas. He remained faithful to his glass scleral lenses. He was opposing corneal lenses even more than Frederick Ridley, F.R.C.S. (if that is at all possible). I assume it must have affected Hamblin's business, and eventually he left them and set up his own consulting room in 1964. I estimate that from 1937 until 1964, he must have fitted 6-7000 patients with glass scleral lenses. In 1962, his friends from Harley Street and his former co-workers, were invited by Mr. Paul Wingate to dinner and every visitor received a small memento. This is all the profession ever gave to Dallas. . . Joseph Dallas was born in Budapest, Hungary, in January 1905, and qualified as a doctor in 1928 in Budapest by obtaining the M.D. He did not specialise in ophthalmology, but became a member of the No.1. Eye Clinic even before he qualified, under Prof.Dr. Emil de Grosz. In 1928, there were only Zeiss contact lenses commercially available, in addition to the blown glass lenses of Muller of Wiesbaden. Dallas started to use both of these and by 1930 he proposed an improvement on the Zeiss lenses, by introducing a third surface, between the corneal and scleral radii, with the purpose of reducing the size of the water lens (not to be confused with Norman Bier's Transcurve, which came about 20 years afterwards) . Zeiss duly acknowledged the improve­ ment and took out a patent in both Dallas' and Zeiss' name. Dallas recognised that a heavy corneal touch cannot be tolerated, which was inevitable with myopes using plano Zeiss lenses and relying on the water lens for its correction, and started to play with impression taking. Between 1930 17 and 1933, he managed to develop a technique of impression­ taking with Negokoll which was a Swiss hydrokolloid, following some work by A. Paller, who did not use this material as far as I know on the eye. In those days there were no moulding shells, so Dallas filled a Muller shell half full with Negokoll and put it on the eye. The Negokoll was luke warm when placed on the eye. When solidified, the shell was removed and was filled with Hominit, which in turn was cast in plaster of Paris. Whereas the ophthalmic literature mentions a Hungarian M.D., Csapody, who in fact tried to take an impression of an eyeball before Dallas, he did not succeeed to make use of it for the purpose of producing a contact lens. Dallas's merit was not only the impression technique but also the develop- ment of a method of manufacture, with the help of opticians and dental technicians. The epoch-making article of the impression-taking was published in 1933 in the German 'Klinische Monatsbl~tter ftlr Augenheilkunde', and Dallas became famous overnight. In addition to the impression taking, Dallas expanded his theory of contact lens fitting over 19 printed pages, and most of it still holds good today. In the last 30 years, we have heard such a lot about the sanctity of the metabolism of the cornea, that I feel I have to reproduce in German, what Dallas has written nearly 40 years ago: "Das Kontaktglas ist optische Augenprothese, die den optisch in einem Refraktionsfehler sich manifestierenden anatomischen Fehler des Auges zu ersetzen hat, ohne dabei die tlbrigen Lebensfunktionen desselben zu st~ren . . . "* Dallas's fame spread and keratoconus patients from all over the world flocked to Budapest. Eventually, thanks to the soliciting of the London Agent of the Tokay Wine Merchants, a Mr. Paul Falush persuaded the late Mr. Gerald Henry Wingate (Hamblin) to send a deputation of ophthalmologists to Budapest. In due course a team did go to Budapest. If I remember correctly, they were: Ida Mann, Williamson-Noble, Rugg-Gunn and T.J. Phillips. As a result, Dallas and I came to London in 1937. *[The contact lens is an ophthalmic optical prosthesis which has replaced the optics of a refractive error due to an anatomical defect of the eye without disturbing the other vital functions thereof.) Ill Ironically, Dalles used the moulding method less and less and he started to rely on a collection of shapes, which he has accumulated throughout the years. He did give demonstrations of his now famous technique, but we very seldom made use of the impressions, but fell back on the 'shapes', fitting sets. In all fairness, he was a difficult man to work with. He had inhuman energy and expected the same from everybody else. His demands for technical precision could not be satisfied. He would humiliate me in front of the patient for making a mistake in a flurry of fury, but would offer forgiveness just as quickly. He does not know the meaning of time, and would go on working around the clock. He never cared about money, and he never made any. Judging by the consulting room of his, he is penniless, but I am equally sure that he does not owe anybody a penny . In 1938, he was appointed to the newly established contact lens department at Moorfields and he stayed there until Frederick Ridley took over. During the war he had also a session at St. Mary's and afterwards, I understand even today, he has a session at the Western Ophthalmic Eye Hospital. Recently he called us in again to ask us to repair a surfacing machine used in the manufacture of glass scleral contact lenses. The complete glass manufacturing plant is also in his consulting room, behind a curtain, which includes a small furnace, brass casting implements for the moulds, glass moulding machine and several surfacing machines. He has one young lady receptionist, an ex-civil servant who enjoys assisting in the technical work. To a question of mine, how long does it take to make a glass scleral lens; came the answer, about 20 hours. And when in God's name have you forty hours to make a pair of lenses; during the weekend Dalles replied . Since Dalles left Hamblins in 1964, he went on fitting glass scleral lenses for all those patients whom he con­ sidered would benefit most with such lenses. It must have been hundreds. And as he could not have his lenses made elsewhere, and possibly even if he could have bought them, he would not have liked them, he decided to make his own. So in one room he has his office, his consulting room and his laboratory, which is probably the one and only place today where a patient can still be fitted and provided with glass scleral contact lenses. 19 I feel, and hope many others will feel likewise, that the world of ophthalmology owes a great deal to Joseph Dallas, and I trust that nobody wil turn to him and say what the Director of the National Gallery said to my friend Nagy Karoly, a painter and sculptor from whom the Gallery in Budapest has just bought ten carvings: "why don't you go home Karoly and die, so that we can tell the world how famous you were ••.•. " Ophthalmic appraisers needed: An increasingly frequent need is the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of persons who qualify as competent and reliable appraisers of the value of old ophthalmic books, antique eyeglasses, early ophthalmic instruments, and other historical appurtenances and collectors' items of the ophthalmic field. If you know of someone who does-occasional appraising in one or more of these categories we will be pleased to receive and share this information with our readers. The requests come from collectors who wish appraisals for insurance purposes, from donors who wish to know tax deductible values acceptable to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and from buyers and sellers of such items. Except for small items whose market values are easily established from catalogs, recipient curators and librarians are rarely willing to make monetary appraisals in behalf of their own donors, though, when possible, they may suggest the names of persons who do appraising. Their unwillingness is a matter of professional ethics and often also of institutional policy. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, provides a very informative 10 page document entitled "Determining the Value of Donated Property," Publication 561, Revised November 1983, for donors and appraisers. It is pointed out therein that "Membership in professional appraisal or dealer organizations does not automatically establish the appraiser's competency. Nor does the lack of certificates, memberships, etc., automatically disprove the competency of the appraiser." Also, "An appraisal may be given critical scrutiny and little weight if the appraiser is associated with either the donor or the charitable organization. Such an appraisal' might be highly inflated." Unfortunately the demand for appraisal of the archival value of old optometrically related items is infrequent enough to make it virtually impossible for anyone to become truly expert through experience. The best we can hope for are individuals of recognized 20 integrity who are familiar with the degree of rarity of an item, the existence of potentially interested collectors, their financial resources, the significance of the item to optometric history, ar1 appreciation of its state of preservation, familiarity with Internal Revenue Service guidelines and pertinent insurance company policies, and willingness to describe the basis for each evaluation. A third legacy reported: Another OHS member has amended his will to provide for a $1,000 legacy to the Optometric Historical Society. He will receive free membership for life. Henry W Hofstetter Douglas K. Penisten, Editors 1985-16-01-001 1985-16-01-002 1985-16-01-003 1985-16-01-004 1985-16-01-005 1985-16-01-006 1985-16-01-007 1985-16-01-008 1985-16-01-009 1985-16-01-010 1985-16-01-011 1985-16-01-012 1985-16-01-013 1985-16-01-014 1985-16-01-015 1985-16-01-016 1985-16-01-017 1985-16-01-018 1985-16-01-019 1985-16-01-020