The ophthalmoscope and lues / by Ole B. Bull.

  • Ole Bornemann Bull
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ophthalmoscope and lues / by Ole B. Bull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    optic disc; as is shown by Hulke1), Leon Urouin2), and others. That several authors make a too free use of the word Neuritis, is also apparent from the fact, that in several cases mentioned, functional disturbances are said to have been absent. No doubt therefore, many, if not most of the cases recorded as neuritis syphilitica, ought to be considered cases of hyperaemia of the optic disc only; and, if these cases were sifted, the number reported would be comparatively small. That optic neuritis arising from syphilis, in reality is rare, I do not mean to say. That, relatively, but few cases of this kind are mentioned, is I think explained by the fact, that the optic neuritis belongs to a late period of the disease, when generally all signs of the infection have disappeared4]. The affection of the visual organ is then, consequently, not re- cognised as a more or less direct result of the infection, which too often, is denied by the patient. This notwithstanding some authors: — as Ogles by b, Allbutt*) and Hutchinson''') state that syphilitic optic neuritis is frequent: Allbutt even says — that it is very common. I have myself treated several cases in which, most prob- ably, syphilis was, the real cause of the neuritis. Infection had been proved with certainly in the three cases following. 4. L. F., woman. 34 years old, treated at the Hospital for Chronic Diseases in 1870. (Lb.-No. 34). She had been l) Lond. Ophth. Hosp. Rep. Vol. VII P. II, p. 105 Cases of neuritis op- tica etc. *) Lesions syphilitiques des membranes de l'oeil. 1S75 P- '5 *) Syphilis of the eye, (Chapter III of a practical treatise on the surgical diseases of the genito-urinary organs, including syphilis; by W. B Buren and E. L, Keyts) p. 19. 4) That neuritis should appear within the first two years after the infection, must be considered rare. Farster, {Graft und Sic misch Augentheil- kunde Bd. VII P. 1, p. 149) records such a case. Another is men- tioned by Dr. R. Bergh ; (Beretning fra almindelig Hospitals 2den Af- deling for 1S79 P*g- 3°)' ^5 case resulted, within few days, in complete amav.: *) Edinburgh Med. Journ. January 1870 p. 624. ■ The Ophthalmoscope p. 109 and 250. ') Lond. Ophth. Hosp. Rep. Vol. IX, p. 115, where no fewer than 21 cases are recorded, in which syph: oroved. or most probably, was present.