Cocaine in ophthalmic medicine and surgery / by Henry W. Williams.

  • Williams, Henry W. (Henry Willard), 1821-1895.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cocaine in ophthalmic medicine and surgery / by Henry W. Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    SIMPLE CATAKACT EXTRACTION. An important matter, in respect to which a strong revul- sion of opinion has taken place within a short time, is the question as to the most advantageous procedure in oper- ating for senile cataract. From the time when Von Grafe, in 1865, promulgated the linear peripheral scleral section, combined always with iridectomy, as being the most desirable method for extrac- tion of cataract, this plan continued to be accepted and fol- lowed, on his authority, until very recently almost unques- tioned by the great majority of operators. Some, however, including names of the highest distinction, — Sichel, Bow- man, Hasner, Desmarres, and others, — never adopted Von Grafe's idea; and, gradually, nearly all the most noted and experienced among his adherents adopted each his own modification of the method inculcated by him, either alter- ing the form or the extent of the incision, placing the sec- tion more or less in the cornea instead of wholly within the sclera, varying the amount of excision of the iris, etc., etc. Already, in 1879, Warlomont, in his Annates d' Oculis- tique, had predicted a return to the French method of ex- traction, as introduced by Daviel. There will soon be nothing remaining of the revolutionary linear method except the special form of the knife used in it; no more linear incisions; no more iridectomies. My own opinion was expressed in this work in 1882, p. 278. In November, 1882, Chavernac read a paper before the Societe de Chirur- gie de Paris, entitled Retour a la methode de Daviel pour Vextraction de la Cataracte, in which he gives an account of his experience, first, of four years with Daviel's process, then of eight years with Von Grafe's peripheral linear sec- tion with iridectomy, and, lastly, of another four years of practice, with much greater success, in resuming Daviel's plan. In February, 1883, Galezowski published, in the