Miners' nystagmus : and its relation to position at work and the manner of illumination / by Simeon Snell.

  • Simeon Snell
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Miners' nystagmus : and its relation to position at work and the manner of illumination / by Simeon Snell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    The constrained position of the miner in holing has already been mentioned. It is work common not only in this country but on the continent The French name expresses its cramped nature: Travail a col tordu!' A miner lying on his side engaged in holing, either whilst commencing the hole or whilst continuing to work under the coal, will of course fix his gaze at different parts according to where it is necessary to strike, for his eyes will follow his pick point, but the tendency will be for the gaze to be directed upwards*1 more or less obliquely. I have satisfied myself on this point times without number. The miner will lie on his side, sometimes the left, sometimes the right, as is most convenient; his legs will be crooked up, his head thrown back and flexed more or less on the shoulder beneath, and the eyes will have the direction as just mentioned. I say this because I think the oblique muscles play a greater part in occasioning the Nystagmus than Dransart's views originally seemed to show. The Nystagmus should otherwise be more vertical in character. The compositor's case, which has already been alluded to, in which the gaze had been directed more directly upwards, and in which the oscillations were vertical, supports my contention. The physiology of the ocular movements is also of interest and value on this point, because when we incline the head to one f side or the other, by turning it on its antero-posterior axis, rotation of the two eyes upon their antero-posterior axis takes place probably by the instrumentality of the oblique muscles. This is important to remember in connection with the holer's attitude In a recent paper, which has cften been alluded to, he says, speaking of myself, This author has sustained with reason that the external rectus muscle was interested in Nystagmus in the same degree as the internal rectus, and has put in relief the importance of the oblique gaze to the left or to the right. * Upwards, by this is always meant a direction towards the vertex, bring- ing into play the elevator muscles, t Carpenter's Physiology]''p. 896. 4