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In memoriam: I. C. Michaelson

Dr I. C. Michaelson, who passed away one year ago, was one of the outstanding ophthalmologists of his generation. Educated in Scotland, he studied ophthalmology with Dr Ballantyne, who inspired in him a long-lasting love for research and his profound interest in retinal diseases. From his early formative years Dr Michaelson showed that his main concern in ophthalmology was conceptual rather than technical. An example of this approach is his investigations in the field of vascular development in the retina that led to his classic monograph, Retinal Circulation in Man and Animals. This book was a landmark from which many of the modern views of vascular disease of the fundus of the eye have developed. In this work he succeeded in relating ontogenetic, philogenetic, and pathogenetic concepts of retinal vessel development and their possible relevance to vascular diseases. The interplay of ischaemia and neovascularisation of the retina was already postulated in this publication. His intimate collaboration with Dr Ballantyne led to the publication of the Textbook of the Fundus of the Eye, which remains a classic in this field. Dr Michaelson arrived in Israel in 1948 after serving with the British Army in Egypt during the second world war. He was appointed as chairman and professor of ophthalmology at the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem in 1954. A school in ophthalmology was almost entirely inspired by his personal drive. Most of his pupils are now the senior eye doctors in Israel. Dr Michaelson's humanistic approach explains his great concern for the development of ophthalmology in African countries, where he was instrumental in the organisation of eye departments and the training of medical and paramedical personnel. His work in Africa subsequently led to his interest in prevention of avoidable blindness, so common in developing countries. He organised the Congress on the Prevention of Blindness, held in Jerusalem in 1971, whence many new ideas in the field of preventive ophthalmology were exchanged among ophthalmologists of Western countries and developing countries. After his retirement as chief of ophthalmology at the Hadassah University Hospital he started a new chapter in Israeli ophthalmology with the creation of the Jerusalem Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1973. The Institute initiated studies aimed at implementing preventive measures for infectious and degenerative diseases in this area of the world. Dr Michaelson's numerous scientific papers, his books, and the institutions that he created and organised are a monument to his memory.