Retinoscopy (or shadow test) in the determination of refraction at one meter of distance, with the plane mirror / by James Thorington.

  • Thorington, James, 1858-1944.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Retinoscopy (or shadow test) in the determination of refraction at one meter of distance, with the plane mirror / by James Thorington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and to do this, if an eye is not already sufficiendy myopic, it will be necessary to place in front of it such a lens, or series of lenses, as will bring the emergent rays of light to a focus at a certain definite distance (see Point of Reversal, chap. iv). Value of Retinoscopy.—Those who would criticize retinoscopy because we see nothing and think nothing of the condition of the fundus, base their cridcism apparendy on the name, rednoscopy, rather than from any great amount of pracdcal ex- perience with the method. While admitdno- that the ophthalmoscope in front of a well-trained eye can often make a close refractive esdmate, yet only to the few does such skill obtain, and even then there is that uncertainty which does not attach itself to the retinoscope in competent hands. The ophthalmolo- gist who knows how to use the mirror accurately has the advantage of his confreres who are ignorant of the test; it gives him a position decidedly inde- pendent of his padent, and puts him above the' common level of the traveling Great Doctor Eye and refracting optician, who are tied to the trial- lenses and the patient's uncertain answers. Further- more, when it is remembered that from fifty to eighty per cent, of the patients consulting the ophthalmolo- gist do so for an error of refraction, it is well that he be most capable in this important part of the subject. ^. The wonderful advantage of retinoscopy over other methods needs no argument to uphold it; the rapidly increasing number of retinoscopists testify to its merits.