Familial Glaucoma.

FAMILIAL primary glaucoma is a recognized entity. It has been reported in the literature quite regularly, though not frequently. Benedict (1842) was the first to recognize the familial inheritance of glaucoma, and other authors followed with large collections of such cases. Something like 18 per cent. of the total cases of glaucoma show an hereditary component (Havener, 1955). Duke-Elder (1940) stated that the inheritance was dominant and could be transmitted by each sex, the transmitting parent being usually affected. The trait being dominant, the succeeding generation shows anticipation (von Graefe, 1869). The onset of familial glaucoma occurs some 20 years earlier than other primary cases of glaucoma, and the offspring develops glaucoma some 10 years earlier than the parent. Recently we came across a family of a father and his three sons all suffering from primary glaucoma, which typifies the above statement in many details.