[A short observation on the cause of myopia (author's transl)].

The increased excretion of acid mucopolysaccharides in the urine of patients with advanced myopia is indeed relevant for understanding the chemical processes in the sclera during this period, but it does not say anything concerning the genesis of myopia as such. This is due more to an infiltrative malformation of the eyeball and the optic nerve. The behaviour of the connective tissue can also be due to infiltration, or contrariwise induced from parenchyma at the appropriate time. Hence therapeutic possibilities can hardly be deduced from the chemistry of the sclera. Abnormally small corneas in people with high myopia point to a genetic connection between such eyes and "true" microphthalmos with orbital cyst.