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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$this in very many cases (more especially if any error of refraction is present). Extreme susceptibility to confusion in vision is a well-marked symptom; thus people so affected cannot travel with their backs to the engine or horses, and he mentions a case of a highly neurasthenic gentleman, who could not look at anyone wearing clothes of a pronounced check pattern, without suffering from eyestrain, manifesting itself in headache and malaise.^ The eyes easily become inflamed, and ciliary spasm and blepharo-spasm often appear. The natural result of this hyper-sensitiveness is early fatigue, and ciliary strain is soon induced, and accompanying very often we find muscular and retinal asthenopia. After reading for a short time the words grow misty and disappear, and after a short rest the effects of the fatigue vanish, only to reappear when the accommodation is again used. Under the heading of Neurasthenia, MacFarlane says the dimness of vision may depend upon errors of refraction which in health could be oyercome by muscular effort, but which the exhaustion renders impossible.^ Weir Mitchell, referring to neurasthenics, says fatigue of vision for near work is a common condition, and is apt to persist long after all other troubles have vanished.^ W, J. Collins considers the failure of accommodation in neurasthenics is due to an actual cycloparesis. He says : The failure of accommodative power after diphtheria, in the puerperal state, or in association with miscarriage or disturbed menstruation, and also that to which I desire to draw particular attention—the asthenopia of neurasthenics— ' Oph. Rev., vol. iii., p. lo. ^ Insomnia, by A. W. MacFarlane, M.D., p. 105. 3 Fat and Blood and how to make Them, 1877, P- 86.$

Eyestrain (commonly called asthenopia) / by Ernest Clarke.

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