In a foreword to Dr Ringland Anderson's book on Detachment of the Retina, I expressed the hope that others would follow his good example and provide other such monographs. It is a matter for congratulation that he himself has now written one on Hydrophthalmia, a disèase better known under the picturesque but otherwise unsatisfactory name Buphthalmia. The last monograph on this subject was published in 1897 by Dr Edmund L. Gros, under the title Étude sur l'Hydrophthalmie ou Glaucome infantile, and was an excellent résumé of our knowledge up to that date. The present is a much more extensive treatise and will long remain authoritative. In dealing with a disease of such obscure aetiology, in which, however, congenital malformations are a prominent factor, the scientific approach must be by way of pathology and comparative anatomy. In both of these respects the treatment here is exhaustive, and beautifully illustrated. Dr Anderson has taken advantage of his special opportunities to obtain specimens from Australian fauna—ornithorhyncus, echidna, pseudochirus, dasyurus— and to describe the condition of the angle of the anterior chamber in them and in tarsius. This is in itself a valuable contribution to comparative anatomy. The remarkable association of hydrophthalmia with neurofibromatosis, facial naevi and other angiomatous conditions is fully discussed.

To the practising ophthalmic surgeon the most important part of the book is the description of all the different methods of operative treatment which have been tried, with a thorough analysis of the results obtained by various surgeons. One cannot help regretting that the survey shows no signs of indicating in the treatment of hydrophthalmia any such hopeful improvements in operative technique as were beginning to bear fruit when Dr Anderson's book on Detachment of the Retina was published, and which have proved so successful.