Emphatic denial of the common impression that glaucoma, or hardening of the eve-ball, is more common among Jews than among other peoples, is contained in a study on the subject by Dr. Aaron Brav, a well known authority on ophthalmology in this city, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Ophthalmology. In the past twenty-five years Dr. Brav has devoted the major portion of his time to study of those diseases which are alleged to be particularly characteristic of the Jewish people. He has also written extensively on medicine as described in early Jewish writings.
The idea that the Jewish race is singularly predisposed to glaucoma originated in the Vienna School of Ophthalmology, where a large number of Jewish cases were observed, Dr. Brav writes. It is true that in the Allgemeine Krankenhaus a large percentage of Jewish cases have been seen. The explanation, however, does not rest in the inherent racial predisposition, but rather in the social and economic environment of the patients that make up the constituency of that institution.
My own experience, Dr. Brav writes, convinces me that the incidence of glaucoma among Jews is about the same as among other peoples and that heredity is a negligible factor in the causation of this disease.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
