Chinese Eye Surgeon Mokes New
Discoveries In
NEW YORK CITY: An unemployed father of four, burned in one eye by mustard gas in World War II， has a chronic ulcerated cornea; A 14-year-old boy impaired his sight by ramming his right eye into a door; A 51-year-old woman has been almost blind since early childhood with a congenital corneal disease; A 40-year-old man inj ured one cornea in an industrial accident involving acid; An 18-year-old girl from the south, now working in a chic Fifth Ave., department store, has keratoconus, a corneal disease.
All are patients of an eye surgeon. Each is waiting for the day when the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration can grant a gift one-quarter of an inch wide. That's the diameter of a human cornea, the incredible slip of tissue that can be taken from one person after death to give a life of vision to another.
It could never be done if the structure of the cornea weren't unique in human physiology. It is the only tis-
Eye Structure
sue that the body will accept from another (except for kidneys between twins). "The cornea is surrounded by fluids not directly obtained from blood vessels. The normal cornea has no blood vessels, as any other tissue (except cartilage) does. Therefore there's no immunity reaction to the tissue of a strange donor," said Dr. Herbert M. Katzin, Eye Bank research director.
To Dr. C. C. Teng, senior research associate at the bank, the cornea is fascinating because its fractional thickness contains all three basic types of tissue, each derived from one of the elemental layers of the developing embryo. The whole affair is perfectly transparent, making the cornea the ideal place to study basic cell structure and pathology.
Teng left China just before the Red takeover to come to this country. He has made several important discoveries since he joined the Eye Bank in
Social Event of the Year
13th Annual
VANCOUVER CHINESE GOLF CLUB
NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER ■ DANCE
at the Fabulous
Bayshore Inn Grand Ballroom December 31st      9 p.m. till ？
Doug Parker and His Band
In charge of tickets~~Dave Eng MU 4-1377 or drop in at 212 Keefer St.
Sorry, table reservations sold out, (except for single couple tickets) All tickets MUST be picked up by Dec. 20th. (unclaimed tickets will
be sold to waiting list).
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
12
CHINATOWN NEWS, DEC. 18, 1963