System of Ophthalmology, Vol. 1: The Eye in Evolution by Sir Stewart Duke-Elder.

Duke-Elder, Sir Stewart (Ed.)

Publication Date: 1976

About this Item

London, Henry Kimpton, 1958 (Reprinted 1976), 8°, XVI, 843 pp., with 902 Illustrations and 15 coloured Plates and 350 Marginal Illustrations, orig. Cloth. "This first volume in the new series is an extension of the first twenty pages of Volume I of the old Textbook ; this I have written myself, largely because it is a subject in which I am particularly interested" Duke-Elder "The reception accorded to my Textbook of Ophthalmology has persuaded me that there is a need for its continuation in a second edition. The seven volumes of the Textbook took almost a quarter of a century to write, a period unfortunately longer than it might have been owing to the exigencies of war. The first four volumes have long been out of print-and intentionally so because they have long been out of date. It is to be remembered that the second volume was written before the sulphonamides were introduced ; the third before the antibiotics revolutionized the therapeutics of infective diseases ; both of them before the role of viruses in ocular disease was adequately appreciated ; the physiology of the eye of yesterday is unrecognizable when compared with that of today ; even the anatomy has been transformed by more elaborate optical and chemical methods of investigation and the advent of the electron microscope. The re-writing of the whole work if its comprehensive nature were to be retained would be an immense task occupying more time than I could reasonably expect to have at my disposal. Moreover, tomorrow will be different from today, and if a work such as this is to be of any lasting value it would seem to me desirable that a new edition be published at least every fifteen or twenty years ; fortunately, ophthalmology is no static science. It therefore seemed to me wise to share the task of re-writing the original Textbook with my colleagues at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London. I am grateful that they have accepted this burden. For this reason I have changed the name of the book to a "System of Ophthalmology " since it will necessarily be less personal. This first volume in the new series is an extension of the first twenty pages of Volume I of the old Textbook ; this I have written myself, largely because it is a subject in which I am particularly interested-and I wished to write it. The subject-matter has never been gathered together in a single book before and it is my hope that it will interest ophthalmologists in so far as it forms the basis of the science of vision ; and it may be that it will be of value also to those whose interest is biological rather than clinical, j The numerous marginal sketches are not usual in a book of this type. To the student of natural history they may seem superfluous, but to the ophthalmologist some of the animals may be unfamiliar and the drawings may perchance add meaning to the zoological nomenclature and thus give the text more life and interest. It is to be noted, however, that they are drawn not to scale, but approximately to a standard size to fit into a 1-inch margin." Preface, Stewart Duke-Elder. Institute of Ophthalmology, London Sir William Stewart Duke-Elder (22 April 1898 - 27 March 1978) Scottish ophthalmologist, was a dominant force in his field for more than a quarter of a century.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: System of Ophthalmology, Vol. 1: The Eye in Evolution by Sir Stewart Duke-Elder.
• Publication Date: 1976
• Binding: Hardcover
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