Department Publications
Department History (1959—1968)
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Introduction 1858-1912 1913-1930 1931-1942 1943-1958 1959-1968 1969-1970 1971-1985 1986-2008 |
By 1958, when the Infirmary reached the age of 100, Peter Kronfeld had succeeded Hughes in his dual position as Head of Ophthalmology at Illinois and Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at the Infirmary. (Howard Wilder acted briefly as Head from September 1957 through March 1958.) Kronfeld had first joined the Illinois faculty in 1939. He had been "Acting Chief-of-Staff" at the Infirmary before Hughes' appointment in 1947, carrying on the programs begun there by Harry Gradle when illness forced Gradle to retire.
Between 1958 and 1969 it fell to Kronfeld to see the realization of many of Hughes' goals, notably the construction of a new, 124-bed Infirmary building with 140,000 square feet of space at 1855 West Taylor Street. Kronfeld's years also coincided with a new undergraduate curriculum which—"for the first time in the history of the University"—provided time for a "logical and coherent" development of the principles of ophthalmology. (In 1962-63, as Kronfeld joyously observed in his Annual Report, senior medical students oversubscribed a two-week clerkship offered in Ophthalmology. And, for the "first time in the history of this College of Medicine, and probably of all medical schools in the United States, ophthalmology items were included in comprehensive examinations for senior medical students.")
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Peter C. Kronfeld, Faculty, University of Illinois College of Medicine, 1939-1969, and Dean of Instruction in Ophthalmology at the Infirmary, 1939-1943; Professor and Head of Ophthalmology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, 1958-1968 |
Under Kronfeld's direction, Ophthalmology at Illinois systematically concentrated on several major projects, among them the healing of corneal and scleral wounds; electroretinography as a tool in the diagnosis and follow-up of eye disease; and the therapeutic value of photocoagulation of ocular tissues. As Kronfeld's glaucoma researches progressed, the Department frequently concerned itself with related investigations, such as determining the effects of l-epinephrine on the aqueous dynamics of the human eye. Between 1961 and 1964, the Department cooperated with the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness in a Glaucoma Detection Project which showed the feasibility of such screening for this insidious condition and demonstrated that it is best done as a part of the office routine of the general physician.
Because Kronfeld helped design the new Infirmary, dedicated in October 1965, he felt keen disappointment in its shortcomings, particularly for research. Although it provided the Department "more functional and comfortable surroundings," the new building was also more physically restricted than the old Infirmary, where (Kronfeld wistfully noted) one could always expand a bit into a basement or an attic. Within two years of moving in, Kronfeld discovered that high maintenance costs were delaying the "complete adaptation" of the new building to the needs of a University department. Space was especially short for research in ocular motility and electrophysiology.
The new building unquestionably made for better teaching and patient care. Its proximity to the other Research and Educational Hospitals proved to have all the advantages foreseen by President James and Public Welfare Director Thorne 45 years earlier, in 1919. During 1967-68 Ophthalmology vacated its space on 4 West of the Research and Educational Hospitals, bringing all inpatients within the Infirmary—but still in easy range of expert consultation with other departments.
The Taylor Street Infirmary quickly became a functional part of the campus, serving as a tour item for visitors and newcomers. The Edward L. Holmes Auditorium, noted for its excellent sound reproduction, served many University functions. As a sort of housewarming, the Chicago Ophthalmological Society, to which Illinois had furnished so many outstanding members, held its November 1965 meeting at the Infirmary, featuring tours, a supper in the Infirmary cafeteria, and an evening of papers about surgical results on the Infirmary's Eye Service.
In his last Annual Report (1967-68), Peter Kronfeld summarized his decade of Headship at Illinois. Like William Hughes before him, Kronfeld felt that he had failed in two major respects: in not having been able to steer more young people into investigative ophthalmology; and in not having relieved the ''main weakness of the Department" which—in his view as in Hughes'—was the absorption of almost all the energy of its senior faculty by routine teaching and the supervision of patient care. As we have seen, these two flaws were by no means exclusive to the Hughes and Kronfeld years—nor could either man have resolved the administrative snare which effectively reduced Ophthalmology to a service function at Illinois. Both flaws listed by Kronfeld were inevitable results of the University/ lnfirmary structure of that period. They were Ophthalmology's sad and enduring legacy from the past, when a Trustee sold out University interests for the sake of city-state machine politics.