Volume 1

Biographic clinics / by George M. Gould.

  • George M. Gould
Date:
1903-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Biographic clinics / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    day. At the age of 70 he was still active and vigor¬ ous, outwalking younger men. Another clear indication of the ultimate cause of De Quincey’s affliction is given by noticing the dates of the relapses into opium-addiction. The first two are prac¬ tically one, extending from 1813 to 1818, the second, 1824 to 1825, the third 1841 to 1844. Observant ophthalmologists know that in the life history of patients suffering from uncorrected eye-strain, or optical error, there tends to be three critical periods or crises. In girls and women these crises are of some¬ what different ordering. Here I speak only of boys and men, and in them the first is at or within a few years of puberty. The second is in early adult life, the third comprises the period of the failure of accommoda¬ tion extending normally from about 45 to 60, but vary¬ ing according to the amount and kind of ametropia. In hyperopic or “ far-sighted ” astigmatism it begins five or even ten years earlier. In De Quincey’s case the first crisis came at the logical age of 14, when he had to be taken from school because of the “ very alarming illness threatening his head.” Every oculist knows well enough about these ocular or ametropic head¬ aches. They more seldom occur in boys and men than in girls and women. The reflex of eye-strain in the latter is usually to the head, with more or less implica¬ tion of the digestional organs. In boys the tendency is to the eyes (styes, blepharitis, conjunctivitis, etc.),
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