Cataract, and its treatment, medical and surgical : a paper on the cause and cure of cataract, read before the Medical Society of London / by Jabez Hogg.

  • Hogg, Jabez, 1817-1899.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cataract, and its treatment, medical and surgical : a paper on the cause and cure of cataract, read before the Medical Society of London / by Jabez Hogg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    disease, as well as mark those alterations in the nutrition of the blood and tissues, in which originate inflammation, degene- ration, and morbid growth. Depraved nutrition and its results are, as yet, but imperfectly understood; nevertheless, I believe increased knowledge of physiology and pathology, more especially that gained by the help of the microscope and chemistry, must ultimately lead to some general principles by which the nature and constitution of disease may be recog- nized with as much precision as are the truths of natural philosophy. It has been truly said, that by the aid of the ophthalmoscope a new era has been inaugurated in ophthalmic medicine, and a more comprehensive and better-organized plan of ophthalmology and therapeutics has resulted. We have no longer to rely upon so imperfect a method in diagnosing cataract as the “ catoptrical test.” The slightest trace of opacity occurring in the crystalline body can be detected without difficulty or doubt; and the earliest indications of disease in tlie internal eye can be perceived with as much certainty as those of its more superficial or external coats. In the event of any abnormal changes of the capsule or lens having been brought about by an altered state of the specific gravity of the surrounding fluids, there is, happily, another discovery, in its way as important as that to which reference has already been made, by which doubts and difficulties may be cleared up, and on which implicit reliance may be placed. It has been proved that certain conditions observed in conjunction with opacity of the lens, depend partly upon changes, the result of simple physical forces; and this has furnished the practitioner with a “ Synthesis of Cataract,” which may be taken as a sure guide in the appliances of medical and surgical knowledge in the cure of lenticular disorder. It is not a matter of surprise, that, by no better help than what was afforded by the light which shed its feeble rays