On retinitis pigmentosa and allied diseases / by E. Nettleship.

Edward Nettleship

Date:: [1903-1908]

Credit: On retinitis pigmentosa and allied diseases / by E. Nettleship. 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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genealogy or pedigree, i.c., all the persons who are known to be related to one another by blood. Naturally a large proportion of the notes include only two generations, and only two or three persons—parent or parents and child or children. Such incomplete records, though of little value in regard to heredity, are useful for statistics of sex and age, or sometimes as illustrating special features of individual cases.* The series now dealt with enables us to carry the subject somewhat further than the point reached by Herrlinger, who, in 1899, collected the facts of between six and seven hundred families. In preparing the data I have cast out all cases where syphilis, either acquired or inherited, seemed probable, and thus the nett numbers that I have accepted differ in a few instances from the various published totals; the alteration of the grand total thus caused, however, is but small. When an author gives only numbers, without details of his cases, his figures have, of course, been accepted. I hope to give some attention also to several other features of the disease in addition to heredity and consanguinity. Although retinitis pigmentosa is a somewhat hackneyed subject, a few words of introduction may not be out of place. The occurrence of permanent night-blindness and its liability to run in families have been known for a long time (Ovelgiin, 1741 ; Samuel l’ye ; Richter, 1828 ; Cunier, 1838; Sti4venart, 1847); and very soon after the intro- duction of the ophthalmoscope the cases were separated into those in which morbid changes could be seen at the fundus, and others (a minority) in which the appearances were normal and remained so. The cases in the former class continue to be known for the most part as retinitis pig- mentosa, the name which seems to have been originally given to the type by Donders; but later observations have • Tlie einct numbers are:—Retinitis pigmentosa, 976 families with 1,681 persons known to be affected; Retinitis punctata albescens, 11 families with 20 affected persons ; Atrophia gyrata, 4 families with 10 patients (but I know of several other families probably belonging to tbie category); Con- genital stationary night-blindness, 36 families with 260 affected members (not including Cunier’s celebrated case, still under investigation, with the aid of Professor True of Montpellier).

On retinitis pigmentosa and allied diseases / by E. Nettleship.

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