NEUROLOGY of the OCULAR MUSCLES

by David G. Cogan '29. Springfield,Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1948. Pp. xi, 214 $6.00.

Clinical application of the rapidly increasing mass of laboratory data about the anatomical and functional relationships involved in the activity of the ocular muscles has been slow because there had been no clearly organized summary of these studies until this work was published. The earlier and bulkier books on neuro-opthalmology are more diffuse in their emphasis, and are less directly valuable for the practising opthalmologist.

There is nothing simple about the control of normal ocular movements, and the author does not pretend to make it clear to the uninitiated, but he gives enough of a review of the basic pharmacologic, physiologic, histologic, anatomic and kinaesthetic background to assure the reader of proper orientation and to eliminate the necessity of hunting up these data in other works.

After explaining the basic concept of the physiologic position of rest of the eyes, the author describes the nerves running to the extraocular muscles before he proceeds to the discussion of the supranuclear connections of the ocular motor system. The pupil, with its complicated innervation, is the subject of a separate chapter and the various types and aspects of nystagmus are considered last. For the student who is not overburdened by clinical demands, the lengthy bibliography should prove to be of great interest.

The only omission in the book is in the lack of any mention of the accommodative mechanism. Otherwise it is an admirable presentation of some very complex material; the more so because it is so thorough in its coverage, so lucid in its exposition and at the same time so concise.