NARROW-ANGLE GLAUCOMA

I am GREATLY honored in being given the opportunity of presenting the Schoenberg Memorial Lecture. Glaucoma was one of Dr. Schoenberg's chief interests throughout his career in ophthalmology. He made many contributions to the subject and was one of the pioneers in the public-health aspect of the prevention of blindness from glaucoma. The classification of primary glaucoma generally accepted until recent times is that of (1) acute glaucoma, congestive or noncongestive (compensated or uncompensated); (2) chronic congestive glaucoma (uncompensated), and (3) chronic simple glaucoma (compensated). Even today this classification is widely used and is still championed by as eminent a writer as Duke-Elder. 1 This classification does not take into account possible differences in the cause of the increased intraocular pressure in the various forms of primary glaucoma. In 1923 Raeder 2 suggested a classification based on the depth of the anterior chamber. Barkan, 3 in 1938, presented a classification