Eye Institute Given Independent Status

THE DARTMOUTH EYE INSTITUTE which has been directly affiliated with the College for the past 18 years, assumed the status of an independent institute on July 1 and is now conducting its research and clinical activities under a separate governing board of trustees. Announcement of the new arrangement was made by John Pearson '11, executive director, following agreement between the Dartmouth Trustees and Institute officials.

Incorporated as a non-profit organization under the laws of the State of New Hampshire, the Institute is now directed by a board of trustees of eight members, headed by Thomas P. Campbell '18 of Denver, Colo., former president of the Dartmouth Alumni Council and a business man of scientific training and interests. Mr. Pearson, with the new title of Managing Trustee, continues as executive head of the Institute, which will occupy its present college buildings until such time as new Hanover quarters can be established off the campus.

Through the steady growth of its research and clinical activities in the visual sciences, the Dartmouth Eye Institute has developed a program that is now far beyond the educational purposes and scope of an undergraduate, liberal arts college such as Dartmouth; and as a result of conferences between College officials and those interested in further development of the Institute's unique research and clinical possibilities, an independent status for the Dartmouth Eye Institute was agreed upon.

"The Dartmouth Eye Institute has added greatly to the distinction of the College in scientific research," President Dickey said, "and we are happy in the association which we shall still have with the Institute in name, proximity and possible cooperative endeavor. The independent status which the Institute now assumes, beyond the limits of the undergraduate college, should enable it to realize more fully the tremendous potentialities which exist in its program."

In addition to Mr. Campbell and Mr. Pearson, the new board of trustees for the Institute includes Mrs. E. K. Hall of Hanover, vice president; Laurence F. Whittemore of Boston, treasurer; Alvah W. Sulloway of Concord, N. H., secretary; Dr. Conrad Berens of New York City; President-Emeritus Ernest M. Hopkins '01, of Hanover; and John F. Wharton of New York City. David C. Rennie of Hanover is assistant treasurer.

The visual research of the Dartmouth Eye Institute originated 25 years ago with the investigations of Prof. Adelbert Ames Jr. into the characteristics of the images that form on the retina of the eye. Study by the staff of binocular vision and the functioning of the eyes led to the Institute's best known achievement: namely, clinical methods for the diagnosis and treatment of aniseikonia, a visual defect in which the images of the two eyes, as recorded by the brain, are of unequal size.

Following the validation of these disclosures, the medical sciences were integrated into the research program, clinical facilities for the examination of all types of eyestrain were added, and the Institute was established as a department of the Dartmouth Medical School in 1928. In its new form it will continue its clinical services in eye examinations and will further develop its research in binocular vision, aniseikonia, and related problems of the visual sciences. The Dartmouth Eye Institute now has a staff of thirty persons, including eleven professional members.