Over the past five years, in sharing patients with him, following his research, and benefitting from his teaching, I have come to marvel at Dr. Stephen Foster's mind, dedication, and productivity. No one has a richer or more challenging clinical practice, has approached his clinical care with more critical questioning, or has produced as much useful clinical and basic research in his field. Steve has kept meticulous clinical records with elegant photographic documentation, which serve as the basis for the creation of this treatise. He has been fortunate in his co-author, Dr. Sainz de la Maza, who initially inveigled Steve to participate in this project and then set herself the enormous task of repairing the lacuna occasioned by the nonavail­ ability of the classic text by Watson and Hazeiman, The Sclera and Systemic Disorders. Steve has taken great pride in the trainees who have passed through his fellowship program, and has methodically tried to select them from around the world in order to extend the influence of his clinical and research traditions. Dr. Sainz de la Maza, who practices academic ophthalmology in Barcelona, Spain, is a superb exemplar of the fruits of this strategy; the ophthalmic communities, both American and international, are in their debt for producing this textbook. I have read many of the chapters in this textbook, and they augment one's impressions of Steve's high standards of scholarship and originality.