Trachoma through history.

History of 'ophthalmia' is as old as history itself; no race or community is immune to it. There were times when blinding trachoma took a form of disastrous epidemics. The historical and recent literature are reviewed in this paper.

Autosomally inherited recessive spastic ataxia, macular corneal dystrophy, congenital cataracts, myopia and vertically oval temporally tilted discs. Report of a Bedouin family--a new syndrome.

A Bedouin family is described with an unusual form of spinocerebellar degeneration. Spastic ataxia was found to be associated with congenital cataracts, macular corneal dystrophy and non-axial myopia, in the absence of retardation of somatic or mental maturation. Immunological abnormalities were common. Genetic analysis revealed that the pedigree is expressing the transmission and segregation of a single mutant autosomal recessive gene.