On cataract, artificial pupil, and strabismus / by F.H. Brett.

Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On cataract, artificial pupil, and strabismus / by F.H. Brett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    14/106 page 6
    symptoms. The amaurotic, as well as the glaucomatous eye, sees better in a brilliant light; which, it has been stated, is not the case in cataract. In amaurosis, there may be little or no obscurity even when complicated with cataract, and yet the individual may be almost totally blind. In the advanced stages of amaurosis and glaucoma, the peculiar gait and stare of the patient cannot be mistaken; he seems anxious for the light; he advances with the head erect, and with a vacant look, as the amaurotic poet has so graphically described:— “ but thou Revisit’st not these orbs which roll in vain, To find thy piercing rays, but find no dawn.” In cataract, on the contrary, he seeks the shade, and gropes with a downward look and contracted brows. In the early stages of these affections, where there is any difficulty in the diagnosis, all doubt will generally be removed after the artificial dilatation of the pupil with the solution of atropine, and by an attentive examina- tion through a glass of strong magnifying power. If there is any reason to suspect the existence of amaurosis in the eye, in connection with cataract, whilst the other eye is sound, it is a judicious maxim to cover the sound eye during the examination, as the iris of the opposite amaurotic eye might otherwise be influenced by sympathy with the other. In cataract, we have a dead cloudy body not reflecting the rays of light which is usually convex, and always situated in the anterior part of the eye, whilst in glaucoma, we have, at first, a deeper seated obscurity which reflects the light. In cataract, the indis- tinctness of vision is in a direct ratio with the degree of opacity ; in glaucoma and amaurosis, the vision is con- siderably impaired, before any visible alteration in the transparency of the dioptric media can be detected. Cataracts of a green colour are not unfrequently met with, usually complicated with glaucoma; but even where there is no such complication, and where the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3