The fundus oculi, with an ophthalmoscopic atlas illustrating its physiological and pathological conditions.

  • Frost, W. Adams.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The fundus oculi, with an ophthalmoscopic atlas illustrating its physiological and pathological conditions. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    may be preceded by slight haziness of the disc margin, and hyperEemia, and, in exceptional cases, by typical papillitis. Nothing is definitely known as to the cause of the aflfection. The fact that males alone are affected, and that the onset of the symptoms coincides with the maturing of the sexual functions, may perhaps indicate that the latter stand in some causal relation to the disease. A history of sexual excesses can indeed sometimes be obtained. It is probable, however, that while any marked disturbance in the balance of the nervous system may determine the onset of the atrophy in cases where the hereditary pre- disposition exists, similar causes would be inoperative in a healthy individual. Hereditary optic atrophy was firat described by Leber,' and, more recently, Habershon^ has given an admirable resume of all that is known of the disease. The history of a family in which blindness appeared in six generations has been published by G. M. Gould.' The main facts are as follows :— The males alone were affected, but the unaffected females transmitted the tendency to their male offspring. A feature in the family history was the high infant mortality. For example, in the third generation there were two families descended from female members. The one consisted of 7 males, and 1 female (who transmitted the tendency). Of the males 4 died before the age of a year, the remaining 3 developed optic atrophy at the ages of 23, 28, and 33 respectively. The other family comprised 4 males; 1 died in infancy, the others developed atrophy at the ages of 34, 28, and 23 respectively. This infant mortality is also noticeable in the family of a case which was under the writer's care. I am indebted to Mr. Menteith Ogilvie ^ for the details of the family history. In neither instance could the infantile deaths or the miscarriages be attributed to inherited syphilis. 1 Archiv.f. Ophth., Leipzig, bd. xvii., 1871, p. 249. ^ Tram. Oplith. Soc, vol. viii., 1888, p. 190. Ann. Ophth. Otol., 1893. •* Read before the Ophthalmological Society, January 30, 1896.