The education of ophthalmic surgeons / by Freeland Fergus.

  • Fergus, A. Freeland (Andrew Freeland), 1858-1932.
Date:
[1916?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The education of ophthalmic surgeons / by Freeland Fergus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    students, after it is explained to them, grasp the facts much more easily in that way than in any other. Peri¬ meter tracings, moreover, are an example of polar co¬ ordinates. I think it is desirable, although perhaps not necessary, that a student who is going to be a specialist in ophthalmology should know the elements of the differential calculus. The foregoing remarks apply only to preliminary education and not to professional. As regards professional education, I would see to it that it was very thoroughgoing. No man should be allowed to begin ophthalmic practice without a medical qualification. I imagine the majority of dentists begin their work without that, but ophthalmology is so intimately related to many pathological conditions which are systemic and not local that I would not allow a man to practice ophthalmology who had not obtained the ordinary M.B. degree or something equivalent. Further, an ophthalmic practitioner ought to know the technique of modern surgery. I would look on a special ophthalmic qualification as an extension of the medical curriculum, and in this respect it would be very much like a public health qualification; it must be equally thorough. To begin with, there are certain parts of anatomy which ought to be more fully studied than they are by the ordinary medical student. I would lay special stress on the anatomical arrangement of the contents of the orbit, the exact position of the several muscles, the various ligaments supporting the eyeball and also checking the action of the muscles, which ligaments are not mentioned, so far as I have observed, in the ordinary text-books of anatomy. Then the histology of the eyeball itself and the lymphatics draining it are of great importance. Very considerable new light has been thrown on that subject quite recently. It is unnecessary to say that the nerve arrangements to control the action of the external and internal muscles and giving the presence or absence of binocular vision are immensely important. The student, moreover, should have a fairly