A dictionary of practical surgery: containing a complete exhibition of the present state of the principles and practice of surgery, collected from the best and most original sources of information, and illustrated by critical remarks (Volume 1).
- Samuel Cooper
- Date:
- 1816
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of practical surgery: containing a complete exhibition of the present state of the principles and practice of surgery, collected from the best and most original sources of information, and illustrated by critical remarks (Volume 1). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![prnbe tnisceant et f. Solus, in conjunction with electricity. The lady, however, had been previously bled twice, had taken some nervous medicines, and had had a blister between the shoulders. The pa- tient was first set upon a stool with glass feet, and had sparks drawn from the eyes, rounding the orbits, e speci- al!} , where the superciliary, and infra orbitary bnnches of tie fifth pair of nerves spread themselves. After this ope- ration hud been, continued half an hour, she was made to receive, for an equal slight shocks through the affected parts. In a few days sight began to re- turn, and in less than three months it was quite restored.—In another case, one grain of calomel, and two of camphor., given every night, and the employment of electricity, effected a cure. The disease had come on gradually, without any pre- vious accident, or pains in the head. The patient a hoy nine years old. There are several other very interesting cases of amaurosis related by Mr. Hey, all of which make electricity appear a most efficacious remedy, though it is true, as Scarpa observes, that, in most of these in- stances, in'Lernalmedicines,werealso given, and bleeding occasionally practised. Mr. Hey attributes the benefit chiefly to the electricity, because, in two of his cases, no medicines were used, yet the progress of the amendment seemed to be as speedy in them, as in the rest, and in two instances, a deg'ree of sight was obtained by the first application of electricity. Mr. Hey makes particular mention of an obliquity of sight, as invariably attendant on amaurosis. It was most remarkable in those, who had totally lost the sight of either eye, for, in them, the most oblique rays of lig-ht seemed to make the first sen- sible impression upon the retina ; and in proportion as that nervous cot't regained its sensibili ty, the sight became more direct and natural. {Med. Obs. and Inq. Vol. 5.) Many of the causes of amaurosis are of such a nature, as to render the disease to- tally incurable. Bonetus, in his Sepal- chretum Anau>micum, lib. 1. sect. 18. has given us several such cases: after death, the blindness in one was found to be occa- sioned by an encysted tumour weighing fourteen drams, sitrteted in the substance of the cerebrum, and pressing on the optic nerves near their origin. In a second, the blindness wns produced by a cyst, contain- ing water, and lodged on the optic nerves, where they unite. In a third, it arose from a caries of the os frontis, and a consequent alteration in the figure of the optic fora- mina. In a fourth, the cause of the dis- ease was, a malformation of the optic nerves themselves. In some of the in- VOL. I. stances, in which no apparent alteration can be discovered in the optic nerve, Mr. Ware conjectures, whether a dilatation of the anterior portion of the circub: - i .evi- osus may not be a cause of the after «cn. The circuliis arteriosus is an; i-err 1 crcle, surrounding the sella tu ed by the carotid arteri(-.-; 1, branches passing from them to meet each oher before, and oih< r brandies passing back- wards, to meet branches from the basilary artet} behind. The anterior part of the circulus arteriosus lies directly over, crosses, and is in contact, with the optic nerves, just in the same way as the ante- rior branches lie over the optic nerves, the posterior ones lie over the nervi motores oculorum. Hence Mr. Ware attempts to refer the amaurosis itself, and the paralytic affection of the eye-lids, and muscles of the eye, sometimes attendant on the complaint, to a dilatation of the anterior and posterior branches of the circulus arteriosus. Dr. Baillie has noticed, in his Morbid Ana- tomy, the frequently diseased state of the trunk, or the small branches of the carotid arteries at the side of the sella turcica, and he says the same sort of diseased structure is also found in the basilary artery and its branches. [From an idea that the pressure of an inordinate secretion of the humours of the eye might occasion a paralysis of the retina, Dr. Physick has punctured the cornea, and evacuated the aqueous humour, in some cases of gutta serena, and with temporary advantage.—Mr. Ware has punctured the sclerotica in certain cases of amaurosis. (See Gutta Serena.) Blisters applied to the eye- lids, have also been found beneficial.] The most valuable information, concern- ing amaurosis, is to be met with in Ver- •nnschte Chirurgische Schriften -von J. Jj. Schmuvker, Band 2. Berlin Edit. 2. 1786. Remarks on Ophthalmy,&c by James Ware. Inquiry into the causes preventing success in the extraction of the Cataract, &c. by the same. Osservazioni suite JMalattie degli Occhi di A. Scarpa, Venez. 1802. Heifs Practical Observations in Surgery* Medi- cal Observations and Inquiries, Vol. 5. Schmuekerfs WaJirnehmungen. Jiichter's Anfangsgnmde der Wiuularzneykunst. Band 3. Warner's Description of the Human Eye, &c Chandler''s Treatise of the Dis- eases of the Eye, chap 24. Some scattered remarks in the posthumous -work on the dis- eases of the eye of the late J. C. Sannders,&c. Some observations connected with the subject of Amaurosis, will be found in the articles Cataract, Hemeralopia, Hemiopia, and JYyctalopia. AM BE. (ttu£rt, the edge of a rock, G](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21110669_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
