Comparative ophthalmic pathology

JLhe comparative study of animal eyes has been a primary source of knowledge in understanding normal embryology, anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry of the human eye. The field of comparative pathology' 'has recently enjoyed a "renaissance" but has been exploited only to a limited extent by ophthalmologists and visual scientists. The comparative pathologist is in a special position to make significant contributions to the understanding of human eye disease. Historically, in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, great achievements in comparative pathology were made by Jenner, Pasteur, Calmette, Guerin, Osier, Rous, Shope, and others who made important contributions to human medicine through the study of animal diseases. Then followed a half century during which comparative pathology was ignored for a variety of reasons. However, in the past 15 years, there has been a renewal of interest and a rise in the quality of research and training in this field largely because government funds are available for basic research and training. For the field of visual science an important step forward has been the establishment of Veterinary Ophthalmologists. This has quantitatively influenced the interest in ocular diseases of animals reported by veterinarians. Two specialized journals which report studies of comparative disease are the Comparative Pathology Bulletin, published quarterly by the Registry of Comparative Pathology, and Comparative Pathology. Also useful to visual scientists are two registries of comparative pathology, one at the National Academy of Sciences and one at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. These have been established in recent years to record and disseminate information about potential animal models to be used in the study of human disease. "The Handbook of Animal Models" is published by the Registry of Comparative Pathology and describes 60 animal models. The aim of this publication is "to provide investigators with a readily accessible, critically prepared but succinct reference to animal disease, experimentally induced or occurring naturally, which could be used for comparison with human disease." Four fascicles of this excellent work are available and an examination of its contents reveals many diseases of interest to the ophthalmologist, including acute toxoplasmosis (monkey); Klinefelter's syndrome (cat); globoid cell leukodystrophy (dog); amyloidosis (mice); Lafora's disease (dog); kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (mink); Down's syndrome (chimpanzee); lupus erythematosus (dog); Waardenburg's syndrome (cat); GMI gangliosidosis (cat); GM2 gangliosidosis (dog); rheumatoid arthritis (rats and swine); malignant lymphoma (monkeys, cattle, sheep, horses, and pigs); hereditary fructose intolerance (rats); and gross congenital anomalies of a variety of species. In reviewing these cases it becomes evident that the study of the ocular aspect of most of these diseases is lacking. The study of induced experimental models with regard to glaucoma, cataract, retinal disease, herpetic and other forms of corneal disease, and many other entities forms a major portion of the research effort currently being undertaken in ophthalmol-