On the meaning of the words 'nyctalopia' and 'hemeralopia' : as disclosed by an examination of the diseases described under these terms by the ancient and modern medical authors / by John Tweedy.

  • John Tweedy
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the meaning of the words 'nyctalopia' and 'hemeralopia' : as disclosed by an examination of the diseases described under these terms by the ancient and modern medical authors / by John Tweedy. 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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    Tliis hypothesis likewise furnishes a clue to the rationale of the alleged cure of nyctalopia by means of bullock’s or goat’s Liver, as related above. The fresh roasted liver, whether of a bullock, goat, sheep, black-cock, or other animal would act beneficially on the scorbutic condition of the body, and would in this way expedite the cure of the disordered vision. It is worthy of note, too, that many of the other remedies recommended in the Hippocratic collection for the cure of nyctalopia are also serviceable in scurvy, and that the favour- able prognostic signs are also those of scorbutus. (5). For the fuUer consideration of the fifth reason, namely, that there is good manuscript authority for the belief that the reading in the second book of the Prorrhetics should be that persons who do not see at night are called nyctalopes, I must, beyond what I have already inci- dentally remarked, refer the reader to Dr. GreenhUl’s letter and criticism, and especially to the valuable note on page 287. I may, however, observe that an omission of ov ox ovk from ancient manuscripts is by no means rare. Such an omission occurs in the Hippocratic treatise Be Internis Affec- tionibus, where persons who have ulcers on the legs vnth the skin black and thin, are said to be eager to walk about and to make exertion.^ This should obviously be read, “ are not dis- posed to walk about or to make exertion,” and is so read by Littre^ and Yander Linden,® both of whom supply the ov. The omission of the word ov is, in this instance, as in the second book of the Prorrhetics, obviously a fault of the copyist. The text in the latter instance, as Chamseru, Coray, Ermerins, and Dr. Creenhill believe, should be ol r^9 vvKTos OT'X opft)VT69. K.T.'k. Coiuy remarks^ that the inad- ' Eocsius, “ Hippoc.,” sec. v, p. 119; Linden, ii, 256. ^ Op. cit., t. vii, p. 280. ® Op. eit., vol. ii, p. 256. It is an odd circumstance that wliile Vander Linden inserted ov in the Greek text of his edition of Hippocrates, he did not correct the Latin translation, which is, “ Est autem ad deambulandum ac laborandum promptus.” '* “ Traite d’Hippocrate des Airs, des Eaux, et des Lieux: ” Paris, 1800 j vol. ii, p. 45.
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