NATIONAL COUNCIL TO COMBAT BLINDNESS, INC. Institution Boston City Hospital... New York Medical College, Flower and Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, the Eye Hospital, Oxford University, England. University of Pennsylvania........ Retina Foundation, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. University Hospitals, University of Iowa (continuation). New York University Post-Graduate Medical School. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.... University Hospitals, University of Iowa.. University of California Medical School. University of Pennsylvania (continuation). Government Hospital, Haifa, Israel.. Indiana University Medical School..... New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. New York Medical College, Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals (continuation). Retina Foundation, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (continuation). University Hospitals, University of Iowa (continuation). New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. New York Medical College, Flower and University of Louisville School of Medicine. New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. Yale University School of Medicine...... New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. Yale University School of Medicine.... Indiana University Medical Center.. Project title Study into electrical responses of retina and brain in patients with amblyopia ex anopsia and suppression. Regional light sensitivity of the retina-technique and theory. Quantitative measurements of ocular fluorescein fluorescence in normal and glaucomatous eyes. Investigation into the normal and abnormal structures of the vitreous humor by michrochemical and histochemical methods. Virus infections of ocular tissues grafted onto the choricallantoic membrane of the chick membrane. Acid mucopolysaccharides in the vitreous body; their role in the composition of the vitreous body and their relationship to the proteins in the vitreous gel. Electrical responses of retina and brain in patients with amblyopia ex anopsia and suppression. Attempts to grow the virus of inclusion conjunctivitus, follicular conjunctivitus, and folliculosis. Investigation into the role of focal infection in the etiology of nonspecific ocular inflammation. Investigation into the incidence and basic cause of cataract, hemorrhages, and degenerative changes in the retina and optic nerve of alloxan diabetic animals. Relationship of uveitis to bacterial allergy. Virus infections of ocular tissues grafted onto the choricallantoic membrane of the chick embryo. Investigation into factors affecting new vessel growth into the cornea. Study into the mechanism of development of contralateral granulomatous uveitis from the use of horse serum in rabbits. Retinopathy in diabetes.. Regional light sensivity of the retina-technique and theory. Electrical responses of retina and brain in patients with amblyopia ex anopsia and suppression. The possible role of hyperstrinism in the etiology of retrolental fibroplasia. Investigation of the intermediary reactions and the enzyme systems involved in the anaerobic glycosis of the lens. Detection of plane polarized light by the human eye. Amount $6,000 1,700 936 1,730 5,000 5,000 2,700 1,296 1,600 1, 200 1.200 2,500 2,500 1,500 750 466 5,000 2,500 3,750 2,625 2,500 2, 445 2, 125 200 500 Visual characteristics of macular and peripheral retina in amblyopia associated with convergent and divergent deviation. Role of estrogenic and androgenic substances on the retinal vascular pattern in alloxan diabetic rats. Investigations into the efficacy of certain therapies in the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa and other night blinding diseases. Study of application of ACTH in primary glau coma. Study into choroideremia...----- Grant-in-aid and fellowship awards for the fiscal year 1953-54 GRANTS-IN-AID Investigators 1. Goodwin, M. Breinin, M, D. 2. Hermann M. Burian, M. D. (continua- Department of Ophthalmoltion grant). ogy, University Hospitals, Iowa City, Iowa. 3. T. S. Danowski, M. D., and Lawrence University of Pittsburgh, 2,500 Project title Lay explanation Neotetrazolium studies in the eye (de- Study of the physiology of the eye to determine under 3,000 Continued studies in electroretino- 950 certain abnormal conditions problems relating to Study into length and size of the human eye. This This study is concerned with determining more A study concerned with the hereditary factors in 3,000 Tulane University Medical 400 Cerrahpasa Hospital, Istan- 2,000 Grant-in-aid and fellowship awards for the fiscal year 1953-54-Continued Study to improve the safety of X-ray treatment of the eye. Study into certain structures of the human eye, par- The blood serum reaction in patients with sarcoidosis 1 This fellow is being financed by the Michael Tenzer Memorial Fund of the National Council To Combat Blindness. The CHAIRMAN. We thank you. Dr. Gordon, I feel terribly embarrassed. Miss WEISENFELD. Dr. Gordon has asked me to include in the record his statement. The CHAIRMAN. It will be included in the record at this point. (The statement referred to is as follows:) STATEMENT OF DAN M. GORDON, M. D., NEW YORK QUALIFICATIONS Graduate of the School of Medicine, University of Michigan, 1932. Diplomate of the American College of Ophthalmology. Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology. Fellow of Pan-American Ophthalomological Society. Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery (Ophthalmology) Cornell. University Medical College. Assistant, attending staff, New York Hospital. Chairman of the medical board of the National Council to Combat Blindness. Member of the American Medical Association and New York State and New York County Medical Societies. Fellow of the American Medical Association. Consultant to the Council on Pharmacy, American Medical Association. A pioneer in the introduction of ACTH and cortisone into ophthalmology. Member of the National Advisory Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness Council. Author of various ophthalmological articles. Special consultant in ophthalmology to the Surgeon General United States Public Health Service. The organization of the average medical school eye department in this country has not been conducive to the conduction of a good eye research program, until recently. Since ophthalmology is primarily a clinical subject, most eye departments are headed by part-time clinicians, who (for the most part) are too busy with their private practices to devote much time to their departments or to research programs. Those who are and were desirous of carrying out intensive research projects on a large scale involving ophthalmologists, chemists, physicists and other allied technical skills were (and are) stymied by lack of funds. Most departments still lack adequate funds with which to carry out their necessary teaching programs; and depend upon part-time men who devote their time free. Postgraduate programs are virtually nonexistent in most medical school eye departments excepting for the training of their own immediate house staffs (interns and residents). During the last decade or so there has been a gradual change in the organizational policies of many medical schools in the direction of building up the socalled minor specialties (eye, ear, nose and throat, dermatology, neurology, etc.) into major departments. This has involved the gradual replacement (where funds could be found) of part time heads, etc., by full time men and the addition of other full time men; with the concommitant stimulation of subspecialization within the field of ophthalmology. This latter has meant that many well trained men are now devoting themselves to the study of various problems within the broad field of ophthalmology (such as diseases of one part of the eye, the various diseases involving the eye and the brain together, etc.) Since problems and fields tend to overlap this intense concentration on, what appear to be, very small areas within a broad field has actually meant that as one problem is solved, a key has automatically been furnished which may open the door to the solution of a related problem. As a matter of fact there has been an awakening consciousness of the fact that the eye is part of the whole body and is involved in the ilnesses of the latter. A good example of this is diabetes, a general disease which is high in the list of causes of blindness. One of your own Members of Congress is blind as a result of diabetes. Another example is that the hormones ACTH and cortisone which were brought out for the relief of arthritis have proved more valuable in the treatment of certain blinding eye diseases. It is to the eternal credit of Congress that the first funds which facilitated this great research program in all phases of medicine were appropriated by your body. It is no secret that the medical schools have been hamstrung by lack of funds; and that this dearth has inevitably handicapped the smaller departments more than the larger ones. Since the eye departments are usually the smaller ones (numerically) in each medical school, they have suffered bitterly on this score. In many medical schools the eye department is a part of surgery, and dependent upon that department for funds for its very life. Since the surgical department never has sufficient funds for its own ends, it follows that the eye department suffers the consequences of that poverty. Since practically all research in the field of blindness is done in medical schools, it follows that the flames of progress depend upon outside funds for fuel. The amount of such moneys has been virtually negligible until the creation of the Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness. The speaker has had the privilege of being on the first council of that institute. The impact of this institute on the eye profession has been a deep one. Many eye departments which formerly have gone begging for funds and which have had difficulty in holding their staffs together (for want of funds with which to pay salaries, etc.) have suddenly sprung into full bloom as a result of this aid. The Retina Foundation in Boston is one of these. Western Reserve is another which has been built up by such funds. The University of Indiana is another. In fact many of the top eye departments in this country owe their high positions and excellent research programs to the funds supplied by this country. If that aid was suddenly withdrawn the wheels of eye research in this country would come to an almost virtual standstill in many institutions. The bulk of the present day work on inflammatory eye diseases which has saved so many thousands from blindness has been done by men financed by the institute. The brilliant work and new advances in retinal detachment surgery has received much of its financial support from Government funds. The beautiful work done at Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in the elucidation of certain previously unknown facts about the retina was done on your funds; as was the equally brilliant work at Western Reserve University on the electrical responses of the eye. The only important work on a new diagnostic tool, the pupilography camera, is being carried out with institute funds at Columbia University. I could similarly point out example after example of invaluable discoveries made solely because a far-seeing Congress has made funds available-limited though these may have been. The investigation of eye disease is but a phase in a much broader problem. Once important discoveries have been made, these must become available to the afflicted public. It requires about 5 years for new treatments to percolate down through the masses. Methods of postgraduate education must be extended, provided, and stimulated. New teaching mechanisms must be devised for the more rapid dissemination of knowledge. Teachers must be trained in increasing numbers. The research director of one large institution has told me that I would be amazed at the number of men who still do not know how to use antibiotics (penicillin, etc.) properly. At the present time it does not pay a man to stay in a medical school as a teacher; the salary rarely is sufficient to feed and rear a family. If one takes into consideration the many thousands necessary to finance the rehabilitation of one blind person and multiplies that by the number of people saved from blindness only at those institutions which carried out their research programs on inflammatory eye diseases with Government funds-the amount of money saved this and future governments in welfare funds and income-tax exemptions would finance the institute for years to come. Gentlemen, this is a program which is beyond the scope and ability of any private agency in the field. Only an organization such as the institute could correlate the research programs of all of the medical schools and command their respect and support. Actually, most private agencies are, by necessity, limited almost entirely to educational and rehabilitative work. Only the Government is capable of financing, coordinating, and facilitating the broad research programs necessary to save many thousands of people from preventable blindness. It is one of the ironic tragedies of life that the more that medical science has done (and will do) to prolong life (at either end of the scale) the greater and more manifold become the other problems which arise out of that very longevity. The steps toward adding years have meant the addition of the problems of the aging eye to the other unsolved problems facing the eye man. Cataracts, glaucoma, diseases of the blood vessels and of the retina plague the population in |