Some recent theories regarding the pathogeny of sympathetic ophthalmia, viewed from a macroscopic standpoint / by Samuel Theobald.

  • Samuel Theobald
Date:
[1884]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some recent theories regarding the pathogeny of sympathetic ophthalmia, viewed from a macroscopic standpoint / by Samuel Theobald. 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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    discrepance arises from the fact that he has taken account only of those cases (seven) which present histological changes.1 It is a bad rule, however, which does not work both ways, as the old proverb tells us, and so we can not help thinking, since he uses the percentages of changes in the ciliary nerves, and in the retina and optic nerve, for comparison, that it would have been better for him to fol- low the same plan in obtaining the former that he adopted in calculating the latter. This, however, has not been done, for the 79 per cent, of changes in the retina and optic nerve, which he gives, includes the many cases in which only gross changes (chiefly detachment) of the retina are described. Moreover, although no intimation is given of the fact, the i6f per cent, of changes in the ciliary nerves has reference to only the forty-three cases in which their histological condition is mentioned, while the 79 per cent, of retinal and optic-nerve changes refers to the whole series of one hundred and ten (as given by him) cases. Furthermore, he certainly does not mean what he says, when he speaks of 79 per cent, of the eyes exhibiting changes in the optic nerve and retina, 2 for a careful survey of the table shows that only 27, or 24.1 per cent, of the one hundred and twelve eyes, exhibit changes in both the retina and optic nerve. The condition of the retina itself is mentioned in eighty-one cases ; once it is spoken of as wanting, and in every other instance pathological changes, either histological or gross, are described, partial or complete detachment being named 63 times. That is to say, the retina is in an abnormal condi- tion in 100 per cent, of the cases in which its state is re- ferred to, or 72.3 per cent, of the whole number of eyes. The optic nerve is mentioned 32 times, or in 28.5 per cent, of the cases, pathological changes—including atrophy 14 times, and optic neuritis 6 times—being described in , each instance. In 76.7 per cent, of the cases (or upon his basis of 110 eyes in 78.1 per cent.) pathological changes affecting either the retina or optic nerve, or both, are found, and it is to this, probably, that the 79 per cent, of changes 1 As he slates on p. 472. a Op. cii, pp. 472 and 474. Italics my own.
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