An ophthalmic retrospect / F. Fergus.

  • Fergus, A. Freeland (Andrew Freeland), 1858-1932.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An ophthalmic retrospect / F. Fergus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    and a<^ain, after cataract extraction, I saw him compelled to perform the operation of iridotomy, hecanse the whole of the ])upil had become obliterated with a mass of plastic exudation. I’rofessor Snellen, oi Utrecht, M as perhaps the most dexterous handler of surgical instruments that 1 have ever seen. As rejjards the technique of his operations, the tiling M’as perfect; and 1 must .say that his results .seemed to me better than any 1 had previously behehl. Vet every now' and a<^ain a case M’ent wron^ in his hands, although I think that his percentage of succe.ssiul results M’as better than I had seen elseM’here. 1 am not prepared to say M’hat exactly M'as the diHerence, for I have not, except for the (Jla.s^OM’ M'ork, any access to reliable statistics; but these M'erc the impressions M’hich 1 formed frotn M’hat I .saM’. Landolt Mas perhaps the greatest physical clinician of the lot, so far as the application of physical .science to the practice of ophthalmoloj^y M’as concerned ; hut he M’as also no mean operator. Yet, if my memory serves me rij^ht, at one period of his career he made a cotnmunication to the effect that needling, either for a soft cataract or for secondary membrane, Mas, if possible, to be avoided, for that a consider- able percenta_i;e of such cases M ere lost, either from suppuration or from plastic iritis. Such M’as the state of my information M’hen I myself Mas compelled to begin the active Moj’k of an ophthalmic svirgeon, and, like my neighbours, I Mas by no means free of disaster. There is nothing more trying than M’hen a surgeon has con.scientiously taken every precaution that suggests itself to his mind, or M’hich the text-books enunciate, to Hnd a case going M’l’ong in his hands. If his M’ork has been con.scien- tiously gone about, and every po.ssible precaution taken of M’hich he is aM’are, then, under these trying circumstance.s, he is much to be sympathised M’ith, even by' the j)atient, for his distress of mind is perhaps c(iual to the acute di.sappoint- ment of his client. Whether I M’ere more or less fortunate in the.se early' day's than my’ colleagues, 1 knoM’ not. The statistics could easily enough be obtained, but I have no M’ish to rake them up. All I can say is, that evei’y' care of Mdiich r M’as at that period aM'are Mas duly' taken; ainl I have no doubt that the same remark is eijually’ true of the other members of the start' of the hospital M’ith M’hich I M'as con- nected. A comparison of that kind, being of the nature of a competition, is one of the compari.sons M’hich are odious, and, therefore, M’hich I have nevei’ made. Early’ in life, hoM’ever, I seemed to have gra.sped—1 believe, chiefly’ from Sir William iVlaceM'cn—the idea that all post-operative inrtnmmation M’as