Wagemans M, van Bijsterveld O P
Koninklijk Nederlands Gasthuis voor Ooglijders, Utrecht.
Doc Ophthalmol. 1988 Jan-Feb;68(1-2):135-44. doi: 10.1007/BF00153596.
Almost all soldiers of the armies involved in the Egyptian campaign fell victim to what was later called the ophthalmia militaris which we now know to be caused by Haemophilus aegyptius, N. gonorrhoea and possibly to some extent by Chlamydia trachomatis but more likely by the adenoviruses. Because of the enormous incidence of ocular infection and the controversy generated by speculation on the nature of the disease--English surgeons considered this ophthalmia to be of a contagious nature, whereas the French surgeons violently opposed this view-, the interest in diseases of the eye increased, which eventually resulted in the acceptance of ophthalmology as a separate branch of medicine.
参与埃及战役的军队中，几乎所有士兵都患上了后来被称为“军人性眼炎”的疾病。我们现在知道，这种疾病是由埃及嗜血杆菌、淋病奈瑟菌引起的，在一定程度上可能还与沙眼衣原体有关，但更可能是由腺病毒引起的。由于眼部感染的发生率极高，且关于该疾病性质的猜测引发了争议——英国外科医生认为这种眼炎具有传染性，而法国外科医生则强烈反对这一观点——人们对眼部疾病的关注度提高了，最终导致眼科学被认可为医学的一个独立分支。
