Disc-full of drugs: compressed ophthalmic discs

摘要

Cover illustration courtesy of Mr Richard Keeler, curator of the museum of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, UK. Cover photo: Mark Thomas.Drug delivery to the eye has always been a matter of interest and innovation. One such endeavour is illustrated on the front cover, which shows a set of 24 circular boxes made in bone, with each box containing discs of different drug preparations in compressed form. These 3 and 5 mm discs were sometimes referred to as 'lamels'.The discs were made in the late 19th century, at the instigation of Dr Casey Wood,1 by a company based in Philadelphia, John Wyeth and Brother. The set of discs in the box illustrated belonged to Dr Maitland Ramsay (1859-1946) of the Glasgow Eye Infirmary UK. He was author of the outstanding Atlas of External Diseases of the Eye