ABSTRACT
With perhaps the exception of the relatively rare incipient closed-angle glaucoma and retinal detachments, there are no urgent medical reasons why the common sight-threatening diseases of later life should be diagnosed in their earliest possible stages. They do not do damage beyond the eyes and sight loss is seldom sudden. But because the disabilities they lead to are often profound, and because so much can now be done to avert their sometimes slow, but usually inexorable, progress, it is most important that they are found before vision is lost.
