On the pathogeny of squint / by Professor Donders ; translated from the German, with a preface, by E. Perceval Wright.

  • Donders, F. C. (Franciscus Cornelis), 1818-1889.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the pathogeny of squint / by Professor Donders ; translated from the German, with a preface, by E. Perceval Wright. 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.

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    some distant object, no effort will ever allow the two images to be dis- sociated, however obscure and unequal they may be. The necessity of a single sensation at least of the two images is much too imperious to admit of a dissociation of images once fused.' If, instead of placing the concave glasses before but one eye, the experimenter had placed them before both—and if, instead of trying the experiment on himself, he had tried it on very young people, with a great latitude of accommodation, and having also that flexibility of organization peculiar to youth—he would have found that they had a great tendency to see double; and some of them would have told him that they felt inclined to sacrifice double vision in order that they might see those objects better which they wished to examine. For the rest—the mode of development of converging stra- bismus, which for the most part is only shown at the momont of fixing for near objects, and especially that which follows after tenotomy—viz., a voluntary strabismus, tending to overcome the hypermetropia (Compte- rendu, p. 152)—leaves no doubt on my mind of the direct part that hyper- metropia plays on the production of converging strabismus. As to the other experiment of M. Giraud Teulon, which consists in placing before one of the eyes a prism with its base to the nose, it only proves what I assigned to it in my first work on prismatic glasses—that is to say, that we are unable to make the lines of vision diverge to any great degree. The observations of the learned ophthalmologist of Paris are not, then, of a nature to modify the ideas which I have brought forward on the production of converging strabismus. I wish, nevertheless, to take this opportunity of thanking him for the gracious manner in which he has spoken, and for the clear way that he has presented these very essen- tial views of the pathogeny of squint. In conclusion, I have only to state my conviction, that many eyes are irrecoverably lost, owing to the strange prejudice that exists against operating for squint in early life, the very time, of all others, when the sight is most susceptible of improvement. My best thanks are due to Professor Donders for his kindness in revising this translation, and for suggesting improvements in many parts. No. 10, Clare-street, Dublin.