Tonographic survey of the close relatives of patients with chronic simple glaucoma.

THAT glaucoma simplex may affect more than one member of a family is well known, but this would usually appear to occur in a sporadic fashion and have no hereditary significance. When true hereditary glaucoma occurs it is found in many members of the same family and is frequently traced over three or four generations. These families are, however, rare and have been well documented (Francois, 1961). Recently studies have been carried out on relatives of patients with glaucoma simplex in an effort to assess the hereditary element in the pathogenesis of the disease. The first reports by Biro (1951) and Kellerman and Posner (1955) were followed by tonographic surveys of the close relatives of glaucoma simplex patients, in particular by Becker, Kolker, and Roth (1960), Paterson (1961), and Miller (1961).