A contribution to the study of rheumatic iritis / by F.J. Poynton and Alexander Paine.

  • Poynton, F. J. (Frederic John), 1869-1943.
Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A contribution to the study of rheumatic iritis / by F.J. Poynton and Alexander Paine. 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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    statement which we would venture to suppoi’t with such experience as we have ourselves had. Further support of its rarity was supplied in January, 1903, by Macrae, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, who noted its occurrence only once in 270 cases of rheumatic fever. A good example of the condition was published in the British Medical Journal for March 7th, 1903, by Mr. F. C. Forster, of Lowestoft, and in addition Mr. Forster kindly sent us in a letter some further details, which we have his leave to quote. It may perhaps be remembered that it was the case of a girl, ast. 12^ years, who developed, after a definite chill, tonsil- litis and arthritis. Then followed chorea, and later iritis of the right eye and endocarditis. In his letter Mr. Forster writes as follows:—“ The iritis came on very suddenly when she was recovering from chorea. The right eye alone was affected; the pupil was altered in shape, and a naturally brown eye assumed a yellow tinge. . . . There was the usual marked congestion (especially circumcorneal), with great pain and photophobia ; the pain was both topical and supra-orbital. . . . The iritis relapsed twice, and I feared that some posterior synechiaa would eventually lead to diminution of vision. . . . Recovery was eventually good. Rheumatic iritis,” he adds, “ is, of course, not common in children, but I have met with few more typical tliau the one under discussion. Syphilis, gonorrhoea, and trauma may certainly be excluded as causes in this particular case.” This seems to us a clear example of acute rheumatic iritis of unusual severity. Such examples as we have seen have been very transient. Among those who are opposed to the acceptance of acute rheumatic iritis, much importance is attached to the gonor- rhoeal infection. Even if this may have occurred some years before, they attribute an iritis of a rheumatic type to that cause. In passing we would venture to point out the well- known fact that rheumatic symptoms are most liable to occur in those subjects of gonorrhoea who have suffered