Glaucoma : its causes, symptoms, pathology, and treatment / by Priestley Smith.

Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Glaucoma : its causes, symptoms, pathology, and treatment / by Priestley Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    examination defines the presence of glaucoma. On the whole, I think we may assume that the percentage originally stated—viz., nearly one per cent.—is approximately correct. The prevalence of the disease differs somewhat, probably, in different localities ; (*) but, for this country at least, we have no statistics which give certain evidence of the fact. Secondary glaucoma is certainly met with among the working population of large towns in larger proportion than the primary disease. Its frequency among this class is due, in great part, to mechanical injuries, and to neglected iritis. It is, of necessity, so frequently registered under other names, that statistics are hardly to be obtained. Primary glaucoma exhibits no decided preference for either sex. It has been asserted that women are more liable to the disorder than men, but there is no satisfactory proof of the statement. The following list, from which I exclude the figures of Laqueur, which refer to both forms of the disease, is given by Schmidt, with full reference to the sources whence it is derived:— (2) Males. Females. H. Schmidt 154 137 Eydel 46 33 Vienna. Hospital, 1869 32 27 v. Wecker 50 42 Arlt 45 65 Donders 39 56 Forster... 39 54 Totals 405 414 Having regard to the not very large number of cases tabulated, and to the preponderance of females in the adult population, it cannot be allowed that these figures establish any marked difference in the liability of the sexes, 1 v. Wecker> Therapeutique Ocula:re, p. 374. 2 Handbuch d. g. A.,v. 1, 62.