Early History of ISGO

By Founder Elizabeth Cass before 1979 meeting.

1970 was the Canadian Territories’ Centennial year, and our congress was the Centennial project. I was told it was impossible. This is now an established international society and the only international society which has originated In the Northwest Territories.

The first congress had tremendous help and co-operation from the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, National Department of Health and Welfare and the local population. Airline gave free passes, banks, local societies, etc. gave donations.

Some of the most famous international ophthalmologists attended, all my friends – Weigelin of Bonn University, Sorsby of London, Korzweig and Wendall Hughes from New York, Holmes from Hawaii, Mann from Australia, Stein and Kelly from Toronto.

Participants came from Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Argentine, Canada, India, Australia; and from this group a permanent organization was formed.

We cannot prevent nor treat disease adequately without knowing the causes. The ecology of man must be studied, race, climate, work, nutrition, homogeneity and heterogeneity are all factors in the distribution of ocular diseases.

The constitution of the society has had many high aims-many of which we do not have the money to achieve, but we at least got some help to Cyprus when they were in dire need. See enclosed letters from Lapithis, Clemmeson and Cameron.

We meant to have a congress every two years, but in autumn of 1970 Professor Michaelson of Israel asked me if we would join with him in a meeting of the International Society for the Prevention of Blindness – 1971. It was hard work, but the Israeli local organization of Hadassah was excellent.

The next congress took place in Spain in 1973. The convener was Dr. Jaime Perez-Llorca. Cadiz was a good city to have a congress. The locals, including the mayor, welcomed us. The lunch at the Bodega was excellent. The sun of Spain shone down on us. The scientific program was interesting. The military horses were docile and tame, and Arcos a wonderful old city.

Dr. Bartholomew then organized our extremely good congress in Edinburgh. The weather was not so good to us, but the congress in conjunction with the International Metabolic Society was most enjoyable and we saw some excellent Scottish dancing and interesting historical buildings.

While I was in Jerusalem in 1971, I met Sir John Wilson, whom I had known for many years. He had come to Gibraltar in the forties when I had started a Society for the Prevention of Blindness and also a system of home visitors for the people who were bed-ridden. I later met him at London as he was then a member of the English Prevention of Blindness Society. Sir John himself is a terrific character who has expanded his activities to encompass the world. Blinded as he was when young, he adapted extremely well to this condition and wished to help others who were similarly affected. It was due to him, that the I.S.G.O. became a representative member of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. It was due to other members of ours, such as John Holmes, and Professor Luntz that we came under the patronage of the International Council of Ophthalmology and the International Society of Ophthalmology. We have been supported by many eminent people and we must show that we are worthy of it.

Honorary life members are:

Sir John Wilson, United Kingdom

Professor A. Sorsby, United Kingdom

Professor L. Michaelson, Israel

All of them are extremely great men of international reputation and integrity.

It was in Spain in 1973 when we had a meeting of the Executive that I put forward the proposal that we must be more democratic! That the election and also the choice of our executive must be accomplished by democratic methods, as well as the choice of place for the next congress. This was agreed upon. This was presented again to the Executive in 1975 and it was because of this that Dr. Kornzweig sent out the list of people who been proposed for the new members of the executive and a request for any other nominations.

It was also proposed that the new members of the Executive should be on the executive for four years only and then that they should be replaced by others. Every four years gave a certain overlap to the Executive as every two years new members could be proposed. It was also suggested at that meeting that we were rather top-heavy with local secretaries and where we had a member of the Executive, we do not usually have a local secretary unless the size of the country makes it difficult. The work of the local secretaries is:

To publish in their journals our meetings, etc.

To advertise our meetings in their own language.

To notify all local members (from membership list supplied to them) of any meetings, etc.

To promote new membership. In this way we hope to grow.

I resigned in 1975 as I was not feeling well and extremely tired, but was re-elected at the General Meeting, which was carried out by mail. It was also decided at the executive meeting in 1975 that the president was able to choose a local secretary-treasurer who would be available and in his country. I therefore chose Dr. Sinton as he was (in terms if distance in Canada) relatively near me, i.e. in the adjoining province of Alberta, although he was some thousand miles away.

As Japan was out of the question because they would not admit people from the Union of South Africa and were showing racial discrimination, we had to settle for Tunisia which was our second choice. Professor Mabrouk was working hard to give us a good meeting, but unfortunately Tunisia also decided to bar South Africa. Professor Luntz is an extremely helpful and active member of our Society and I do not approve of racial discrimination; I sent around a proforma and I am grateful to say that the majority of members joined me in saying that we should not have a congress in any country which is showing any racial discrimination whatsoever. After all, doctors should be above political disturbances. I therefore wired Bietti in Rome as well as several other members and it was suggested by both Bietti and another member that we should held our congress in Sarinia. Alas, that this great Professor died some months before our congress.

Both Rio and Miami were proposed as possible sites for the next congress. The voting has been decidedly in favour of Rio. I am hoping that with the aid of Sir John Wilson who hopes to be with us and has agreed that we could have a meeting of the representatives of the International Organization for the Prevention of Blindness in Brazil, that we shall have a successful congress. We shall hold it at the same time as the Brazilian Ophthalmological Society congress.

Brazil is a beautiful country which is up-and-coming; it has many interesting features and diseases which you will not often see in North America nor in Europe. I have seen the leper colonies in Brazil, the snake farm where you get the anti-snake venom, the gold mines and the conditions under which the miners work. It is a beautiful and diverse country and the jungle and scenery are amazing. I am sure we shall have a most interesting meeting there and that it will be of benefit to all of us and we will learn a lot. I hope we shall be well represented by the Brazilians and the people of the Argentine, as well as other South American countries. We can also interest them in our Society, because after all, our Society is really most ably represented by the people in far distance developing countries where they have many nationalities and many types of diseases which we in North America and Europe do not see.