The mechanisms of the various forms of glaucoma were unknown at the outset of the twentieth century. Late in the twentieth century, two nascent areas of research were beginning to provide glimpses of what the twenty-first century held in store for the future of glaucoma: the mechanisms of glaucomatous optic neuropathy and the molecular basis of the glaucomas. The authors review the most current knowledge available in the field and provide a basis in which researchers can effectively study the glaucomas. The intent of the book is not primarily to describe the clinical appearances of the glaucomas nor how to manage them. Rather, it is to provide basic scientists, who are working in the field of glaucoma, with a current understanding of the clinical aspects of glaucoma, and to provide clinician scientists with the basic knowledge, as they attempt to translate it into rational treatments for glaucoma. In this new book leaders in the various fields of glaucoma review our current u.