The ophthalmoscope and lues / by Ole B. Bull.

  • Bull, Ole, 1810-1880.
Date:
1884
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ophthalmoscope and lues / by Ole B. Bull. 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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    that hitherto obscure chapter, the diseases of the membranes of the eye. Most of the cases, formerly explained as sufferings of the optic nerves, or even of the brain, were, by means of the ophthalmoscope, recognised as affections of the fundus oculi. A comparatively long time passed however, before the syphilitic affections of the fundus became commonly known. Considering how great a part syphilis plays in the etiology of the choroiditis and retinitis, this must be considered rather strange. The only author, within my knowledge, who, not more than 2 years after the invention of Helmholtz was intro- duced, records syphilis as a cause of retinitis, is Arlt. In his book, Die Krankheiten des Auges, edited in Prague, 1853, he reports, Vol III p. 128, a case of retinitis in which he made an ophthalmoscopical examination; and of this case he says, that. »wahrscheinlich Lues den Anstoss zum Exudations- processe in der Netzhaut gegeben hatte.« In the same work Vol II p. 211, he recognises Choroiditis syphilitica, and men- tions a case, relatively to which he, however, does not speak of any ophthalmoscopical examination. How far they were, even in 1857, from a correct apprehension of the intimate connexion existing between those affections and syphilis, may be seen from a treatise of Dupre entitled »Des affections sy- philitiques du globe oculaire.« In this memoir we find, p. 36, the following question put: — »Le venin morbide, — est il sus- ceptible de creer des desorders dans la substance de la retine, comme il en cree de si remarquable du sein de I'iris ?» On the page following, the author mentions, that de Grcefe, among 30 syphilitic amauroses had seen something abnormal jon the retina; «quelque chose d'insolite, dont il na pas pu encore preciser la nature«. The first I have found, who has more explicitly described the syphilitic intra-ocular affections, is C. Bader. In the years between 1856 and 1859, (Ophthalmic Hosp. Rep. Edited by Streatfield Vol. 1. p. 245—251), this author published several carefully observed cases by Wordsworth, Dixon, Poland and Streatfield. That hereditary syphilis at that time was, to the London ophthalmologists, a well known cause of these affec- tions, appears by a quotation from Wordsworth in the same publication. Wordsworth says, that, since 1856, he has had occasion to examine no fewer than 10 cases, in which he had