Eyeworld

72 | EYEWORLD | AUGUST 2019 O UTSIDE THE OR Contact information Bullock: johndbullock@aol.com Harper: dgharper@earthlink.net Luu: Kgluu@ucdavis.edu Marmor: marmor@stanford.edu Newman: san7a@virginia.edu by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Senior Staff Writer "If you look at what works in prevention of myopia, it turns out virtually everything does," Dr. Harper said, mentioning atropine drops, orthokeratology, peripheral defocus modifying contact lenses, pirenzepine, progres- sive addition of spectacle lenses, and more. Speculation of mathematician Leonhard Euler's oculopathy Famed mathematician Leonhard Euler—a man who published 886 papers and books, has 96 eponymous math terms, and had more than 200 papers published after his death—progressive- ly lost his sight throughout his career. But to what? John Bullock, MD, Winchester, Mas- sachusetts, offered his speculation on a post- humous diagnosis based on portraiture and other sources of informa- tion. We know that Euler suffered headaches and several life-threaten- ing febrile illnesses. We also know that raw milk product consumption was common in Russia, where Euler lived in adulthood and a point that Dr. Bull- ock came back to later. There are only four known portraits of Euler. One showed normal appearance of his eyes. A second, completed after a second febrile illness and beginning loss of vision in the right eye, showed partial ptosis in the right eyelid with miosis and right hypertropia. Euler eventually developed cataract, deafness, and had more febrile illnesses. He underwent ECCE for what was described as a beeswax cataract, Dr. Bullock said. This was initially successful, but days later he was blind and in pain. By the early 1770s, he could only write large symbols on the chalkboard but was still producing one mathe- matical paper per week. The 32nd Cogan Ophthalmic History Society Annual Meeting took place March 15–17 in Washington, D.C. Topics ranged from the history of ophthalmic procedures to ocular disorders of famous historical individuals. Here is an overview of a few of the presentations from the meeting. The science and sociology of refractive errors The society's Annual Snyder Lecture was given by David Harper, MD, Ashland, Wisconsin. Dr. Harper focused his lecture on myopia, noting that its origin was with Aristotle in 350 BC. Pliny the Elder, he said, described big eyes as being "dimmer" and deep set ones were thought to see more clearly. Dr. Harper mentioned several historical texts where the perceived inattention of myopes was described as making them seem dull or stupid. He then discussed how children not only learn language with their ears but also with their eyes. He described the observation by others that societies with a lot of reading have more cases of my- opia than those without this emphasis. Jacob Raphaelson, OD, began researching school myopia in the 1930s as he, like oth- ers, noticed that children seemed to become nearsighted after entering school. If they were prescribed glasses, they became even more nearsighted. As such, Dr. Raphaelson advocated plus lenses for schoolwork and reading, think- ing it would prevent myopia. Ultimately, Dr. Harper said, research has shown that plus lenses for near work can reduce myopia progression. He mentioned a spectacle technology licensed to Carl Zeiss Meditec that is set to launch in Asia and said multifocal contact lenses can reduce or prevent axial elongation as well. Cogan Ophthalmic History Society Annual Meeting continued on page 74

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