Ophthalmovascular choke / by George M. Gould.

  • Gould, George Milbrey, 1848-1922.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ophthalmovascular choke / by George M. Gould. 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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    [10SJ 1. We know nothing about what changes or modifications in the disease are wrought by presbyopia, which, as it lessens the intraocular pressure, switching plus astigmatic axes to 180, etc., may bring lessening of the choking. Massage ot the globes of the eyes does not seem of much avail. I am going to try the effect of long-continued instillations of weak eserin solutions. 2. Most patients require nothing more than abstention from reading, writing, etc., to secure comparative comfort and happiness. 3. The recognition of the inobviable commands of fate and limits of circumstances is infinitely better than the fright and horror of a fatality, whose nature is unknown, and beyond forecast of how, when, or where, it will strike. 4. On the part of the patient the recognition makes defi- nite and orderly the direction of the life, whereas at present how many thousands are wandering from doctor to doctor, from sanitarium to sanitarium, now filled with hope then in the misery of despair, never well and never dying. With this knowledge the plagued patient may learn the essence of all life-wisdom—to make a friend of fate, i. e., to learn the uses of his limitations, and to stop banging his head against the walls of destiny. 5. On the part of the profession it would be far better to know the real source of the suffering of so many patients, now dubbed by a dozen silly words, “ toxemia,” “ neurasthenia,” “ hysteria,” “ invalidism,” “ break-down,” “ neuropathic dia- thesis,” etc. Those physicians may be checked who are de- luding these victims throughout their pitiful lives, knowing medicine cannot cure, hut knowing as well that the patient [109] can pay well for the delusion that medicine will cure. On the part of the conscientious physician or oculist, it is better to know what is the cause of the nagging mystery, to know at least that it is not due to improper glasses, muscle imbalance, or the need of Mrs. Eddy. 6. The “ cures ” of Mrs. Eddy and the faithcurists, are often seemingly real, because the diseases cured are often due to eye-strain, and ophthalmovascular choke. When the cure is apparently real, it is because reading, writing, etc., are