Tension of the eyeball, glaucoma, etc. : some account of the operations practised in the nineteenth century for their relief : (a paper read before the Midland Medical Society, February 3rd, 1863) / by James Vose Solomon.

  • Solomon, James Vose, 1817-1899.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tension of the eyeball, glaucoma, etc. : some account of the operations practised in the nineteenth century for their relief : (a paper read before the Midland Medical Society, February 3rd, 1863) / by James Vose Solomon. 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.

    18/90 (page 10)
    the iris, the attachment of the zonula to the lens, and the tissue of the choroid, are normal. Unhappily, acute glaucoma not unfrequently attacks eyes which have been for years undergoing a slow disorganising process. In such instances, grievous accidents commonly attend on iridectomy, let the operator be ever so skilful and expe- rienced. The operation, in the hands of able surgeons, has been followed by one or more of the following acci- dents : opacity of the lens; loss of vitreous humour; haemorrhage from the ciliary processes; escape of the lens some days after the operation; closure of the pupil; ophthalmitis; and even by sloughing of the cornea. Whatever may be the ultimate position assigned to iridectomy as a curative agent in glaucoma, there can be no doubt that the publication of von Grafe’s Memoirs on Iridectomy by the New Sydenham Society has produced a most beneficial influence on the English school of oph- thalmology, by causing greater exactness to be observed in the investigation of diseased processes and the effects of surgical treatment. Several theories have been suggested to explain the relief of glaucoma by iridectomy. In Dr. von Grafe’s Memoirs, we find relaxation of the ciliary muscle, dimi- nution of the secretory surface of the iris, a more perfect exosmosis through the cornea, put forth as in some mea- sure explaining the diminished tension. I shall be for- given if I remind the Society that, so far back as the spring of I860, I orally enunciated my belief that the division of the ciliary nerves, at the point where they pass from the ciliary muscle into the iris, formed an im- portant element in the operation; that thereby a more healthy action was induced in the ciliary ganglion.