Retinitis pigmentosa with an analysis of seventeen cases appearing in deaf-mutes : being an essay for which was awarded the Alvarenga Prize of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, July, 1908 / by William T. Shoemaker ; laboratory examinations of the blood and urine by John M. Swan.

  • Shoemaker, William T. (William Toy), 1869-1942.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Retinitis pigmentosa with an analysis of seventeen cases appearing in deaf-mutes : being an essay for which was awarded the Alvarenga Prize of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, July, 1908 / by William T. Shoemaker ; laboratory examinations of the blood and urine by John M. Swan. 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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    approaching a like diameter. The vessel walls are greatly thickened at the expense of the lumen. The smaller vessels and the terminals are no longer visible, many of them being completely obliterated. Thus there is a reduction in number of vessel units. It is not uncommon to see a portion of a vessel completely en- sheathed with pigment (as shown in Plate III). Some- times fine white lines accompany the vessels for a short distance from the disk, such as result from a moderate perivasculitis. The light streaks are diminished or lost in proportion to the increased thickness of the vessel wall and the narrowed lumen. Loring says he has often noticed changes in the light streaks early in the disease before other characteristic changes were marked. The pigmentation is characteristic of a sclerotic process as opposed to inflammation. It is of very slow and gradual deposition, and is not therefore seen in large or dense masses. Particles do coalesce to an extent, but the result is quite different from a post- inflammatory accumulation. The pigment wanders into and through the retina in minute particles, appear- ing first ophthalmoscopically near the equator. Stellate particles when in sufficient number have their processes approaching or in contact, and the gen- eral picture is well described as being bone corpuscle- like, or simulating the Haversian canals. Many feathery deposits are seen, as well as short lines which probably represent the position of vessels too small to