The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The doctor at home and nurse's guidebook / edited by George Black. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    567/684 (page 519)
    as measles, scarlet-fever, whooping- cough, or convulsions. This may be merely a question of coincidence, as these diseases occur very fre- quently at about the age when : squint is developed ; or they may act as exciting causes, by reducing the strength of the patient, so that the eyes are less able to bear the 1 strain ; but the real cause is a de- 'fect in focus, due to the fact that the eye is not properly formed—is not “ according to measure.” When a iwant of harmony in the action of I the external muscles of the eye-ball I causes the image to fall on parts of !the retina which do not correspond, | double vision at once results. To ' avoid this annoyance, persons with : squint have to use only one eye ; I the image on the retina of the other I is said to be “ suppressed.” In consequence of the constant sup- pression, the vision of the squinting ! eye becomes greatly impaired, in fact, accurate vision is lost, though ! the eye remains perfectly healthy. i In the early or periodic stage, before it becomes constant, this kind of | squint may be cured by correcting ! the optical defect with proper glasses, which remove the cause by I taking away the strain. Of course ! there are obvious difficulties in the ij way of this treatment in the case of i very young children. It is worth ! some trouble, however, to remove so I great a deformity without an opera- 1 tion and at the same time to pre- serve the sight of both eyes, which is l rarely, if ever, done by even the ; most successful operation, after the ij defect has been for some time estab- I lished. After the squint has been ! cured by an operation, there is ! danger of its return unless glasses are worn. In high degrees of short ! sight, there is an excessive demand 1 made upon the muscles that move the eyes inwards (converge them) in the effort to keep them both fixed upon small objects held close to the face. Sometimes they prove unequal to this strain and give out, and one eye is turned outwards by the opposing muscle, forming an external squint. The constant strain involved in the effort to over- come this tendency to external squint is prominent among the causes that increase short-sight and, when it cannot be relieved by suit- able glasses, an operation is some- times necessary. This insufficiency, as it is called, of the muscles that move the eye-ball to do the work demanded of them, sometimes exists without short sight. These are the principal, but not the only causes of squint. A squint occur- ring suddenly, with double vision, is generally the result of paralysis of one of the external muscles of the eye-ball and is frequently the first symptoms of serious disease of the brain. Such a case should receive immediate medical attention. STAMMERING Stammering and stuttering, though commonly confused, are not identical. Stammering is due to one or both of two causes, spasm of the muscles of the lips and tongue or of those governing the supply of air needed for the emis- sion of sound, or imperfect co- operation of the muscles used in speech. Stammering is a spasmodic arrest of speech due to one of these causes, whilst stuttering is the spasmodic repetition of words or the first syllables of words. The latter is the less common impediment to speech, and is also the more difficult to cure. The first step in the treat- ment is to discover which part of the mechanism is at fault, and to endeavour by means of suitable