The causes and the prevention of blindness / by Ernst Fuchs ; translated by R.E. Dudgeon ; with a few notes by M. Roth.

  • Ernst Fuchs
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The causes and the prevention of blindness / by Ernst Fuchs ; translated by R.E. Dudgeon ; with a few notes by M. Roth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DEFINITION OF BLINDNESS. For our practical purpose we shall choose the term for the defect of vision according to the amount of hindrance to work- ing for his livelihood it inflicts upon the subject of it. We call a person blind whose visual power is so diminished in an irre- mediable manner that he is unable to follow any occupation re- quiring the use of the eyes. It is not of so much consequence what amount of vision still remains ; the important point is, that every individual who is blind in this sense, cannot support himself, but needs the aid of his fellow-man.—The above definition re- quires further elucidation, 1. The definition takes no notice of the fact that really blind persons may, by receiving appropriate instruction, or by their own practice and dexterity, get so far as to be able to exercise a calling, which, under ordinary circumstances, requires the use of the eyes. 2. The definition excludes all cases of bhndness of one eye only and all curable cases. A considerable number of curable cases is put down in the official statistics as blind ; they are sometimes even met with as pupils in institutions for the blind.* The best practical test of blindness is given by the capability of finding one's way about. According to this, any one must be * Some of these cases, indeed, occasionally possess pretty good powers of vision. I once operated on a boy, a pupil of the Vienna Institution for the Education of the Blind, for trichiasis. In consequence of this affection he had such extreme photophobia that he could not go about by himself, and was reckoned as blind. But with the exception of a shght dimness of the cornea, the eyeballs were normal. If for any reason such a case can- not be cured, it must be pronounced practically blind, even though the eyes may be capable of seeing.
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