The crystalline lens system : its embryology, anatomy, physiological chemistry, physiology, pathology, diseases, treatment, operations and after-changes ; with a consideration of aphakia / by Louis Stricker.

  • Stricker, Louis, 1863-
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The crystalline lens system : its embryology, anatomy, physiological chemistry, physiology, pathology, diseases, treatment, operations and after-changes ; with a consideration of aphakia / by Louis Stricker. 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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    IS parency. As a result, there is a general diminution in the ability to see accurately, until finally only a quantitative difference can be distinguished on throwing light into the eye. This condition is recognized as cataract, and is the most generally recognized pathological condition of the lens. The various diseases and pathological conditions of the crystalline Lens system, the causation and clinical description of the same, the malformations associated with anomalies of the hyaloid artery or the vascular capsule of the lens, those due to nonsymmetrical development of the Zonula fibres (Ectopia Lentis); likewise the acquired anomalies of position not due to malforma- tions; (L'uxatio Lentis) also the independent malformations of the lens will be successively taken up, all of which, as will be seen, excepting the congen- ital, and the traumatic, are the result of nutritive disturbances. An altered chemical constitution of the nutritive supply is the initial step toward the formation of cataract. The formation of a nucleus is a perfectly physiological process, and no sharp line of demarcation, either histological or in point of development, exixst between the nucleus (Nucleus Lentis) and the cortex of the lens (Sub- stantia Corticalis). An interference with the regular sclerosis of the nu- cleus has been said to be the initial cause of the development of senile cat- aract. The chemically altered fltiid which fills the interspaces between lamellae gives rise to an abnormal interchange between this chemically altered fluid and contents of the lens fibres. This in its turn leads to an altered condition of the cortex, the expression of which is an altered refractive condition and loss of transparency which we designate as cataract. These changes once having set in, it is apparent how useless all at- tempts at restitution by therapeutic measures must be. The various methods of removing the interference with sight (cataract) will be successively discussed. It would be useless to consider in detail all the minute changes which the various operators have introduced; only such will be considered as have a general bearing on the subject, and which il- lustrate the fundamental principles on which the various methods are based. In no department of surgery does the personal ecpiation of the operator play so prominent a role as in the extraction of cataract. The eyeball being a globe, the moment it is incised the relative position of its various struc- tures is changed, and the intraocular pressure is altered. Further, since the successful extraction of a cataract in and of itself, docs not insure a suc- cessful-restoration of sight, the study of all those processes which take place during the period of healing, and subsequent thereto, likewise are of the very greatest importance. Hence, a definite understanding of all these conditions is essential to the proper management of the individual case. Finally the subject of aphakia will he considered.