Amblyopia from the abuse of tobacco and alcohol : a clinical paper based upon cases in the practice of C. R. Agnew and David Webster / by David Webster.

  • Webster, David, 1842-1923.
Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Amblyopia from the abuse of tobacco and alcohol : a clinical paper based upon cases in the practice of C. R. Agnew and David Webster / by David Webster. 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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    June, when it began to grow dim, without pain or other symptom, just as a twilight sets in. The failure of sight gradually increased until now. Eight eye, V. = fingers at fifteen feet, and left eye, V. = fin- gers at twelve feet. He chews and smokes tobacco freely, and takes two or three drinks of whiskey daily, occasionally more. Ophthalmoscopic examination, through dilated puj^ils, reveals a dirty-looking macular region and whitish optic disk in both eyes. January 28th.—The j^atient was put upon hypo- dermic injections of nitrate of strychnia, commenc- ing with gr. -4^jf and increasing to gr. The strych- nia was then stopi^ed for a few days, and the patient put ui^on iodide of potassium and bromide of am- monium. February 10th.—Urine examined by Dr. Edward Curtis, and pronounced normal. February 12th.—Patient examined by Dr. E. C. Seguin, who finds no evidence of intracranial or spinal disease. The strychnine injections were then renewed, and carried from gr. -.^i up to gr. tV, when the patient returned to his home, with only slight improvement of vision. June 11, 1875.—Vision f t} in each eye. Used no medicine but cod-liver oil after leaving New York, and took that only two months. He attributes his recovery of vision more to total abstinence from whiskey and tobacco than to any medication. His recovery was very slow, and he could see sufiiciently well to shoot last fall for the first. October 4, 1878.—He has had no further trouble with his eyes. Vision remains Case II.—^A. C. E, , aged fifty-four years ; Am- erican, bachelor; officer in U. S. Navy ; came under observation June 16, 1875. First noticed sight was beginning to fail about two months ago, while in Savannah, during an attack of bilious diarrhoea, which laid him up for three weeks. Had chills and fever when a boy. Has never been subject to headache ; never had venereal disease. No albumen in urine.