Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society, Eighth Annual Meeting, Newport, July, 1871.
- American Ophthalmological Society
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society, Eighth Annual Meeting, Newport, July, 1871. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![InasmiTcli as tlie views of pliysiologists as to tlie influence of tlie trigeminus in the nutrition of the cornea are so di- verse, it may be of interest to recapitulate the results of a few of the more prominent experimenters. Herbert Mayo ^ showed that section of the fifth nerve within tlie cranium produced in- sensibility of the eye. Charles Bell recognized the fact that the sensibility of the eyeball was due to’ the fifth nerve, and maintained “ that, when that sensibility is destroyed, although the motions of the eyelids remain, they are not made to close the eye, to wash and clear it, and, consequently, inflammation and destruction of that organ follow.” Magendie ® showed that section of the nerve in ralibits produced anaesthesia of the eye and inflammation and sloughing of the cornea. lie, and after him, Longet, found that section of the nerve ante- rior to the ganglion of Gasser was more likely to produce this effect than section posterior to it. The latter attributes the changes which take place in the eye to impaired nutrition, and argues that they co,nnot be due either to diminished se- cretion of tears or to the insensibility of the eye, because neither the more complete dryness of the ball, after extiiq^a- tion of the lachrymal gland, nor the prolonged contact of the air in paralysis of the facial nerve, produces the same effects. Graefe ^ experimented on rabbits, and found that intracranial section of the trigeminus caused insensibility of the ball, and complete ojoacity of the cornea, which in his experiments never went on to ]:>erforation. He maintained that the trigeminus is in part a trophic nerve, and that the destructive changes ensuing in the eye are not alone due to insensibility to exter- nal irritants, because extirpation of the tear-gland and cutting off both eyelids do not produce the same effect—the cornea remaining transparent. He also adduces pathological cases (in man) in which perforation of the cornea occurred. Snellen ® cut the trigeminus in rabbits, and found that, when he protected the eye, by sewing the yet sensitive ear ^ Anatomical and Physiological Commentaries, bond., 1822, ISTo. II., p. 5. ^ Nervous System of the Human Body, Loudon, 1830, p. 207. ® Journal de Physiologic experimentale, tome iv., pp. 176-183, 1824. Anatomic et Physiologic du SystemeNerveux, t. ii., p. 161, Paris, 184-2. Archiv. fiir Ophthalmologie, Baud I., Abth. I., S. 306-315. ® Yiivhow’s Archiv., 13 Bd., S. 107, 1858.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22449887_0144.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
