The present position of ophthalmic science and art / by D.B. St. John Roosa.

  • Roosa, D. B. St. John (Daniel Bennett St. John), 1838-1908.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The present position of ophthalmic science and art / by D.B. St. John Roosa. 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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    as I have intimated, led to a neglect of the study of a positive condition, strabismus, a deformity which leads not only to blunting of the vision of one of the eyes, as now may, I think, be safely said, but also produces a marked deformity, which gives rise to great mental trouble to many of those affected with it, and gives them a distressing appearance to the observer. But in our time this is being studied, and we are moving toward positive rules of action, although much diversity of sentiment exists as to the proper methods of operating. Javal and Panas in Paris, and their followers in this country, have done very much to rescue this subject from the field of mistaken conclusions in which it was left by Graefe, and which were increased a thousand-fold by mistaken zealots in this country. The study of so-called “latent squint,” and of con- cealed irregularities and deficiencies in the action of the ocular muscles, has delayed very much what is, I hope, before us for its relief, in Javal’s methods of obviating the necessity for operations in many cases, and Panas’s rational operations when neces- sary. We are now much more sure of what we can do, and that is to restore the normal position of the eyes, and. in rare cases, to secirre binocular single vision. The mistaken conclusions of Dieffenbach, who first proposed operative means for the relief of stra- bismus about fifty-five years ago, led to sanguine hopes which could not be realized, for the deformity was supposed to depend upon something morbid in the muscle. This, at the most, we now know to be a spastic condition, while the origin of strabismus, as Bonders endeavored to show, is found in fixed con- ditions of the eyeball. In senile cataract, we have made most satisfac- tory advance. Formerly operators, as distinguished and skilful as Graefe, Arlt, Desmarres, Agnew, and Williams, might perform ideal removals of the lens.