Dear Cyndy,

Thank you for your letter. Rebekah is now in her
third year at Harvard. She is majoring in biology,
and is not interested in an academic career. This
past summer she took the organic chemistry course
which the medical schools consider prerequisite for
admission. She has mentioned the possibility of
applying to medical school. That's all I know.

Over the years, I have cared for many patients with
macular degeneration, some very severe, some very mild,
some stationary and some progressing. I've thought much
about it; whether my efforts have been of any benefit
to my patients, I don't know. As I grow older, I become
more and more dissatisfied with general opinions or advice,
although if there are issues you would like discussed,
I'll do my best.

So far as the dense cataract in my own left eye is
concerned, my tentative decision is to do nothing at
this time. I could compile a list of reasons, but
I'm not sure I could vouch for their cogency. After
my visit to Dr Shingleton's operating room on
October 12, I'm no longer confident that his work
is technically much superior to that of other
experienced surgeons, and I am sceptical of the
value of his assembly line orientation. Yet, I
know no one else to whom to refer my cataract
patients and for the time being I will continue
to send them to him.

Your question about balance becomes complex if
one tries to address it conscientiously. The threshold
question: how is balance to be defined? How is a
deficiency or absence of balance to be described?
At least three organ systems may be involved: 1) most
important the vestibular system, "the inner ear",
2) the proprioceptive stimuli which are conducted 
to the medulla in the posterior columns of the
spinal chord, and, as you mention,3) visual perception.
I suspect there is considerable overlapping of
functions, and for a patient whose vestibular
and proprioceptive systems are intact, loss of
vision would not be expected to cause loss of balance.

I have spent much of the last few days rewriting
the 7th chapter of my novel "Die Andere" in
English. If you care to, you can look at it
on the Internet. The URL is
http://home.earthlink.net/~ernstmeyer/andere/E07.html
I'm uncomfortable with the English version, but
I don't want to spend any more time revising it, 
at least not now. The German version seems to me
much more satisfactory. This is the one piece that
I have written which has received some small
recognition on the Internet, in that it has been
included in a multi-lingual catalogue of all sorts
of literature maintained by an Italian translating
service. As a claim to fame, it isn't much. Here's
the URL:
http://www.logoslibrary.eu/pls/wordtc/new_wordtheque.wcom_literature.literaturea_page?lang=DE&letter=M&source=author&page=6

Tomorrow, I'm going to begin by putting my rooms
in order; then I'll try to get started on 
Chapter 39. The least I can say is that my writing
keeps me out of trouble.

Stay well and give my regards to Ned.

Jochen