A note on chronic chromatopsia and toxic hysteria / by G. E. de Schweinitz.

  • De Schweinitz, G. E. (George Edmund), 1858-1938.
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A note on chronic chromatopsia and toxic hysteria / by G. E. de Schweinitz. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    area of a scotoma which was sharply outlined as follows: Outward, i8° ; upward, 90; inward, 30; downward, 40. The diagnosis of amblyopia due to tobacco acting as a poison on a man whose system was depressed by gastro-intestinal catarrh seemed clear enough, and the patient was advised to discontinue smoking absolutely and to take for a time iodide of potassium and bichloride of mercury and later strychine. The patient returned on the 21st of October, 1898, or nearly two months later, with the statement that he was considerably better. He confessed that occasionally he had lighted a cigar ;md taken a few whiffs, but maintained that this practice occurred only once or twice a week. The vision of the right eye was now 6/10 and moderate sized print could be read easily with a -J- 3 D.; that of the left eye remained unchanged. The yellow vision, although still present, had become very faint. No attempt was made to map the scotomas at this examination. The treatment was continued and the patient directed to abstain entirely from tobacco. He returned two weeks later with the statement that his vision had much improved, that the chromatopsia had practically disappeared and in its place there was only a slight shimmering in the atmosphere, as when waves of heat pass through the air. In the former scotoma-area of the right visual field there was restoration of the red-green sense, except at the culmination spot of the scotoma where red looked ''yellowish and green of a lighter color. Vision with -j- 0.50 D. was 6/6, and with proper presbyopic correction added, J. 1 was read at 33 cm. There was no change in the appearance or apparently in the vision of the left eye, with which the patient maintained he saw nothing but shadows. A careful series of tests was then made with the ordinary methods for detect- ing feigned monocular blindness and the patient promptly responded to each one of them. With Harlan's test it was readily demonstrated that he saw with his left eye just as well as he did with his right, reading exactly the same letters. !The ease with which this demonstration was made so astonished me that I repeated it over and over again, modifying it in various ways, always with the j same result. The left side of the face, certainly the left side of the forehead, while not labsolutely anesthetic, showed diminished sensation. Anesthesia of the entire half of the body, however, could not be demonstrated. There were no particu- lar changes in the knee-jerks, the station was not anomalous, nor were there noticeable fibrillary contractions. In this interesting case there appears to be an association between toxaemia and hysteria. It is well known that the so-called hysterical lead paralysis is common enough in lead factories, its subjects being affected with hemianesthesia, amblyopia on the same side, anosmia on the opposite side, dyschromatopsia and reversal in the color lines. Goinou, who has made a very good study of these cases, thinks that many other toxic agents can originate an hysterical condition, for example, alcohol, mercury, bisulphide of carbon and probably nitrobenzol,