Eyestrain (commonly called asthenopia) / by Ernest Clarke.

Ernest Clarke

Date:: 1892

Credit: Eyestrain (commonly called asthenopia) / by Ernest Clarke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$nomena, with Special Reference to Eyestrain,^ ridicules the idea that eyestrain can produce neuroses such as epi- lepsy and chorea, and he says that while eyestrain may be a source of nervous manifestation, it was a rare cause of nervous disease, and he classes it with other peripheral irritations. Many writers have observed that epilepsy may be relieved, and slight cases cured, by an operation. Pechdo relates a case where epilepsy was cured by the enucleation of an eye,^ and it has been suggested that those cases of epilepsy that have been cured by tenotomy of one of the eye muscles, owe this cure to the shock of the operation. It is not at all uncommon to come across children suffering from slight chorea, cured by glasses. The following is a good example, from my case-book :— D. L., age 8, a well nourished healthy-looking boy, suffers from most incessant blinking associated with choreiform movements of the facial muscles. He has also slight chronic conjunctivitis. ^ _ r R = latent convergence for distance ~ I L = ^7 = i m. a. Under atropine the examination shows compound myopic astigmatism, and the following glasses were ordered :— R. L. 30° 10° - I D sph. V j i / -1 D sph. -1 D cyl. \ i/ -2D cyl. The glasses gave him V = f c B. E., and were ordered for constant use. He returned six months later a different boy. The eyes were normal in appearance and V = | ^ j, the chorea had disappeared, and the Winking was only very occasional. It is not very difficult to find a real explanation for these cures when they take place. There is no doubt that up 1 Medical Record, Jan. 4, i8go. » Rec. d'Oph., 1887, p. 346.$

Eyestrain (commonly called asthenopia) / by Ernest Clarke.

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