On some of the forms of disease of the eye, constituting the condition commonly called amaurosis / by Ernest Hart.

  • Hart, Ernest, 1835-1898.
Date:
1864
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On some of the forms of disease of the eye, constituting the condition commonly called amaurosis / by Ernest Hart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    amaurosis of former days. The retina participates in the atrophic changes of the choroid, and be- comes infiltrated with pigment; the vitreous body- becomes fluid, either posteriorly or altogether; and haemorrhages from the choroid occur, with retinal perforation. From this source spring the opaque flaky substances which may be seen in such cases floating in the vitreous. The more fluid the vitreous, the more freely they float; the nearer the posterior part of the vitreous, the more they interfere with the vision, and the greater the chance that, by adhering to the retina, they may in their subsequent degeneration and contraction cause de- tachment of the retina. If the sclerotic be rigid and. will not yield to the increased intraocular secretion of fluid, the pressure will produce ex- cavation of the optic nerve and chronic glaucoma. Finally, the case may advance till the increasing secretion and unnatural distension of the eyeball produce true and total dropsy of the eye, with destruction of the sight, pain, and great de- formity. In this naked summary of the disease in question, I am sure that I am not at all over- stating the gravity of its consequences. I have my mind fixed upon cases, of which I will briefly refer to one or two typical ones illustrating all the facts; and their importance rests mainly in this,—that when the patients arrive at the later c 2