First International Symposium on Artificial Lensimplantation

In 1958, on the occasion of the centenary of the Koninklijk Nederlands Gasthuis voor Ooglijders at Utrecht, the Snellen medal was founded by the Board of the hospital in memory of PROF. DR. HERMAN SNELLEN SR. This medal should be presented each 5th year to a person of Dutch nationality, who had exceptionally distinguished himself in the field of ophthalmology . The Snellen committee, of which I had the honour to be a member, was unanimous in their choice of the laureate of this award; it should be Dr. C.D. BINKHORST for his outstanding and ingenious work on the intra- ocular implant lens. BINKHORST, an exceptionally gifted eye-surgeon, started lens implantation in 1955, after he had studied Ridley's method in London. 'He introduced several improvements, and in 1957 developed his iris clip lens, in which fixation of the implant lens was provided by the iris diaphragm. The iris clip lens was followed in 1965 by the iridocapsular lens, intended for extracapsular extractions, while the iris clip lens was suitable for both intra capsular and extracapsular extraction. BINKHORST has earn- ed a world reputation and ophthalmologists from all over the world come to the little towns of Terneuzen and Sluiskil in the province of Zeeland, to learn his technique.