Lectures on diseases of the eye / by Charles Bell Taylor.

  • Bell Taylor
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on diseases of the eye / by Charles Bell Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    100/106 page 96
    and very nervous, would prove a good subject for operation, as the cataract was fully formed in each eye. On examination, however, I found that the case was one of simple glaucoma; there was no cataract at all; and the time for beneficial treat- ment had gone bye. Now, you will avoid this latter error by remembering that a dusky pupil is quite a natural phenomenon in aged persons, and that it is not at all safe to conclude that because this appearance is accompanied with failing vision, therefore the case is one of cataract. You must use the ophthalmoscope, or, failing that, trust to subjective symptoms. Of these the most important are limitation of the field and iridescent vision. You will find, if the case is one of glaucoma, that the patient cannot see to the inner or nasal side, or vision is very limited in that direction, and if he looks at a candle or artificial light it is surrounded by colours red and green. You will, see what I mean if you will breathe on the glass and look at the street lamp outside. This is an early and significant symptom of glaucoma, and if it does not disappear on rubbing, is not accompanied by evident opacity of the cornea, and does not disappear under the influence of eserine, you must be prepared to treat for glaucoma, or call in the aid of an ophthalmic surgeon. Gentlemen, when I was a student, I was taught to contemn Specialism, and my teacher was Mr. Syme. Now, I look upon the late Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edinburgh as probably the first surgeon of the century, and am therefore disposed to regard any opinion of his with exceptional reverence;—in this, however, I feel sure he was wrong. Life is so short; art is so long. It is so human to err: you require to see so many hundred patients before you know how to treat one. You require to perform the same
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image