In its long series of annual reports, the Belgian Society of Ophthal- mology has a tradition of bringing into focus the recent advances in ophthalmology. But it seems surprising that one has to go back to 1940 to find a major report on the corneal diseases, when R. Rub- brecht wrote an "Aperr;u de la pathologie et de la therapeutique generale des maladies de la cornee". However, this omission is only apparent. In fact, many reports, since then, have contributed to our knowledge of the advances in corneal research. The corneal dimensions were documented in "La biometrie ocu- laire clinique (Y. Delmarcelle et aI., 1976)", the fine structure of the cornea in "L'ultrastructure de tissues oculaires (L. Missotten, 1964)", and many aspects of its metabolism in "Les verres de contact (P. Cochet et ai, 1967)" and "Les complications oculaires des erreurs congenitales du metabolism (J.P. Groux et O. Kallay, 1971)" . Bacterial keratitis was a main topic in "La therapeutique par les antibiotiques autres que la Penicillamine en Ophtalmologie (1. Michiels, 1952). Fungal corneal infections were described in detail in "Les mycoses oculaires" (J . Fran90is et M. Elewaut-Rysselaere, 1968)" and the toxic effects of drugs were dealt with in "Les effets nocifs des medications generales sur I'appareil visuel (J. Michiels et coil. 1972)".

Proceedings of the International Symposium at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, May 17-19, 1984