Observations on hemeralopia; or, Nocturnal blindness, with cases, and practical illustrations / by Andrew Simpson.

Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on hemeralopia; or, Nocturnal blindness, with cases, and practical illustrations / by Andrew Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    or ordinary share of vision, involved in videre, may occasionally continue to operate. The complicated and cacophonous appellations used by Hippocrates, denote no more than dim- ness of eyesight, from afxQXvg and ettip, “ visus hebetudo,” “ acies visus retusa,” kc. No servicea- ble information is therefore obtainable from these terms employed by the Greek physician. This affection, as formerly insinuated, consti- tutes the Nyctalopia of some authors, both ancient and modern ; of the former are ^gineta, Actua- rius, Trallianus, ifitius, &c., and of the latter several could be enumerated. Hippocrates seems to have a more correct notion of this appella- tion, when he says, “ ol bs ryg vvxrog oowreg ovg by vvKTcO^rag Kuliopw (quos Nyctalopas nuncupa- mus, qui noctu videntes).” This is the most genuine and literal translation of the phraseology. This nocturna caecitas was early remarked, and must have been a subject of observation even in former times, and without relation to a sea life, to which it is now more commonly referable. This last conclusion does not deny its existence among those inhabiting land, among whom it is frequently observable in various regions of the earth; but the Author in these remarks, has reference principally to his own observations. The Latins employed different terms to express various affections of the eyes, but the one which