Microphthalmos and Anophthalmos With or Without Coincident Oligophrenia: A Clinical and Genetic-Statistical Study.

In Sweden the registration of disease is particularly complete in the case of blind and deaf-mute children whose education must take place in special schools. In a survey of this material the authors found 51 probands of microphthalmos or anophthalmos with oligophrenia (MO) and 79 probands of microphthalmos or anophthalmos without oligophrenia during the period 1879 through 1946. If the combination of microphthalmos and oligophrenia were strictly random, about 0.68 ± 0.1 per cent (incidence of oligophrenia in the general Swedish population) of the 160 patients with microphthalmos would be expected to have oligophrenia also. The actual figure is about 60 times this, demonstrating that the combination must be regarded as a homogenous form of the disease or the two must be linked strongly. Among the cases of microphthalmos or anophthalmos with oligophrenia there was also a high incidence of skeletal anomalies, i. e., flatfeet, clubfeet and kyphosis (64 per