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.

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    and the like; who spend much of their time on their backs; who read in this unnatural position, and complain of pain and neuralgia whenever they use their eyes. In these cases, in the absence of any marked ametropia, I usually prescribe weak convex glasses combined with abductive prisms, and recommend graduated exercises after the plan first suggested by Dr. Dyer, of Pittsburgh, Pa. Gentlemen, I have already pointed out to you the great danger of mistaking a slight case of iritis for mere surface irritation,* and neglecting to dilate the pupil; the equally great, if not greater, danger of using atropine if the case should be inflammatory glaucoma, a dis- ease which you are apt to mistake for iritis. I have dwelt on Squint and Cataract, and pointed out those cases where the eyeball must be extirpated, and those where, in my opinion, optico-ciliary neurectomy may be advantageously substituted. Let me close this brief and necessarily imperfect sketch by calling your attention to two other errors which I find very frequently committed. Here is a boy who was sent to me by his surgeon to be treated for myopia, and in truth, on ordinary inspection, you might easily conclude that his imperfect sight was due to that cause; but if you dilate the pupil, or use the ophthalmoscope, you will see at once that he is suffering from congenital cataract. Bear in mind, therefore, that there may be con- siderable opacity of the lens which is not at all visible on ordinary inspection. Some years ago I was sent for to operate upon a lady, the wife of a military gentleman of considerable social importance. Two surgeons and a physician were already in attendance, and I was informed that the patient, although advanced in life * See Lecture V., on The Use and Abuse of Mydriatics. p. 68.
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