Word: retina
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Prime Minister of Ireland Eamon de Valera, whose eyesight has been failing, flew to Utrecht for an operation by a Dutch specialist. His malady: glaucoma -a hardening of the eyeballs and deterioration of the retina...
...mysterious disease is retrolental fibroplasia (RLF), in which there is a fibrous thickening of tissue behind the lens in the eye. Nobody knows the cause. The effect is to becloud the retina, the screen on which the lens focuses its image of things seen. Often the retina itself is changed beyond recognition: doctors are far from agreement on the signs of the disease, and some wonder whether they are dealing with two or more diseases...
...lens in the normal eye is a jelly-filled capsule of a tough material resembling Cellophane. A cataract is a clouding of this normally transparent lens (see diagram); as the clouding gets denser, less & less light gets through to the retina. Sometimes the whole lens is removed, sometimes only a part, with the clouded jelly. In either case, external lenses (i.e., special glasses) with limited focusing range have been necessary...
When the light is reasonably bright, the eye sees by means of millions of microscopic "cones" of the retina. As the light dims, the cones go out of action. Tiny "rods," which are much more sensitive, take over their duties. Only one quantum* of light is needed to make a rod tell the brain that it is seeing something...
Three Forbes are on the list of emeritus professors. Alexander Forbes '04, professor of Physiology, emeritus, said he has "moved from the Med School to the Bio labs." He is at present doing research to find certain relationships between the retina and color vision. Forbes is also working at Pershing Hospital in Framingham on anesthesia and narcosis. He "appreciates very much the opportunity to keep on working here...