On diseases of the eye, as a guide in the study of pathology / by Arthur Jacob, M.D.

  • Jacob, Arthur.
Date:
[1841?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On diseases of the eye, as a guide in the study of pathology / by Arthur Jacob, M.D. 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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    operations to cases where they are not only useless but pernicious, it is high time to repudiate them, and to disclaim all participation in practices calculated to injure not merely the scientific, but the moral cha- racter of our profession. Mutilating the eyes of children, under pretence of curing what the in- ventor of this branch of medical practice calls muscular amaurosis, is not, perhaps, as dangerous to life as some other wanton human vivisections, but is equally discreditable to the art of surgery. Professing to cure cataract by external applications, in cases where the author of the imposition well knows that no cataract exists, is another instance of the same propensity to make the eye a subject for the exercise of ingenuity. But I am wandering from the object of this communication which is to prove that the treatment of diseases of the eye, so far from being the province of imperfectly-educated and partially-informed persons, is an object worthy of the attention of the most enlightened practitioners; and that not merely with a view to the removal of these diseases, bat as affording valuable illustrations and lessons for the investigation of disease in general. When I labour to prove that the study of diseases of the eye is eminently calculated to improve our knowledge of the nature of disease in other parts of the animal frame, and, therefore that it is a branch of medical education worthy of particular encourage- ment, I am liable to be looked upon as the in- terested advocate of a favourite opinion, and as one who attaches undue importance to a particular pur- suit, because it engrosses his attention. I think, however, that I shall be able to convince the most unconcerned observer that the view I take is just, and that the conclusion I have come to is a correct one. The eye is destined to perform an office in the animal economy totally different from that of any other organ. By it whatever is effected by light on mind or body is produced, and, therefore, the anatomical organization of many of its component structures must be of a peculiar nature. Those parts which are to transmit light must not only be perfectly trans- parent, but delicately correct in their refracting pro- perties and lenticular form. In no other part of the animal frame are there to be found similar materials, because in no other part are they required ; therefore it is only in this one situation that we can contemplate these particular forms of organization, or study the changes which take place in them from disease. In other parts of the body we can investigate the nature