Reflex ocular symptoms in nasal affections / by E. Gruening.

  • Gruening, Emil.
Date:
[1896]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reflex ocular symptoms in nasal affections / by E. Gruening. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    3/8 (page 3)
    photophobia, and increased vascularity—may be evoked at will in all eyes by mechanical irritation of the nasal mucous membrane, may we not logically infer that the continuance of such ocular symptoms may be due to the continuance of a nasal irritation ? This is the a priori argument, and of conditional value in practical medicine. If, however, in a considerable number of pertinent cases, showing the ocular symptoms in bold relief, local and general treatment prove ineffective, and nasal treatment promptly effective, should we not then present the con- vincing a posteriori argument— sublata causa, tollitur effectus ? Of such cases I have observed a large [number in the past two years, and I shall cite only aTew of them as re- presentatives of this class. Case I.—H. S , aged forty-six. He says, My eyes have troubled me for twenty years ; when I rise in the morning I feel as if 1 had sand in them ; I cannot look at any object in ordinary light; when I converse with any one, I am obliged to put on my blue glasses in order to look at the person. Ordinary daylight and the slightest wind cause my eyes to water. My eyes are always red. I have been treated by every oculist of note in America and Europe. No one has benefited me. Case II.—H. S , aged thirty-four, says : When I awake in the morning my eyes pain me. They are red and feel dry. After I have bathed my face my eyes feel mueh better. The transition from the sleeping into the waking state is very trying to my eyes. There is more or less watering and smarting of my eyes all day long. This condition has lasted six years. I was treated the first year, but as the treatment did not relieve me, I discontinued it. Case III.—F. L , aged twenty-four, a clerk, relates his casein the following manner : In the morning my eyes are slightly glued, they feel very uncomfortable until I have washed them. They feel weak all day. I cannot bear ordinary daylight, but gaslight is still worse.