The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-01-30
PULPIT AND PLATFORM.
THE EYE AND VISION.

THE EYE AND VISION.
DR.. Spalding delivered an admirable lecture
on the above subject in the Mechanics course
to a large audience last evening. The doctor
spoke substantially as follows.
Light is usually regarded as the most ptecA
ious of all our special senses, but much night
be said of the advantage of hearing. Neither
of these senses is enough appreciated or cared
for, until it begins to leave us, and oftentimes
| from our own fault.
The eye is very delicate, yet exceedingly
strong; delicate in its nervous power. strong in
its structure and various coats. The knives
used 10 operations on the eye have to be sharp
er than those for any other part of the body.
1t We borrow our neighboi's eye for a look at
| Its structure, we zee in front, the whitsh coat
called the sclerotc, or hard coat, in front of
which is transparent surface, like watch.
| glass. This is called the cornea, aud lsts light
into what is called the front chamber, filed
with few drops Of fluid called the aqueous.
Floating as it were in the aqueous, is the IRIS,
or the coats which give the color to the eye.
! Wesay mas .eyes are blue or brown, as the
brown or black, the iris he's but one color, viz :,
brown; the variations being due to rradiations,
similar TO that observed on the neck feathers of
birds. In the centre, usually, of The iris is the
pupil, the round black hole, that enlarges or
contracts depending upon the amount of light.
In DARK ness the pupil is very large, in bright
sunny days of winter when the sunlight is re-
hecied from the dazzling snow, the pupil is
/ remarkably small.
! The derivation of the wcrd pupil is Of inter-
est, phitoloS cally. Ii we look into the pupil
( of any ones eye we see minute image of our
self, locking as it were out from the pupil In
very ancient times, people supposed that they
really did see some one in the black hole Of the
eye, looking out from it, and SO to the hole
they gave the name of whatever they saw look
ing from it. Sol in Persian we have the pupil
called little man, IN Greek maiden, in Arabic
boy, in Hebrew man, in Latin an orphan gil,
in Spanish little girl, in English pupil.
Az inflammation of the iris often Stimulates
that of the outer coats of the eye. But If We
apply The usual astringent washes we have not
done what was best, because the iris and pupil
are not acted upon by these remedies. When
the iris is ipfamed, infammatory products
shoot out arouLd the circumference of the
pupil, run across its field to those forming
opposite, and the pupil becomes blocked up. SO
that the sight is not only permanently injured
but deeptr seated diseases of the eye are almost
iDevits BILE, and may lead to the loss of the eye.
THIS warning is not held up as a scare-crow,
Tor il is too true that every ecalist meets with
such cases almost daily. Therefore if people
prefer TO treat themselves they should at least
try to notice whether or not the pupil is smaller
than that of the healthy eye.
lueT6 are EOm6 IASQlOlaDlo women IL Ll6
world who are so anxious to have large and
sparkling eyes, that they use solution OF
drug called belIadoDna, to enlarge the pupil
This is not only harmful practice to vision.
but it may lead to permanent enlargement Of
the pupil. 4 case was cited by the lecturer
where the accidental instlation into the eye
OF a drop of beladonns, caused the pupil to
enlarge, and Il is could never be reduced
during at least period of several years when
the Case was ubder observation. The patient
had to wear glasses for reading. and had TO
keep the book or work at certain distance
Before describing the deeper parts Of the eye,
mention was made Of the irritating employ
ment of eye stones, which served to remove
foreign bodies from the eye, by raising the lids
from the eye-ball, whereupon the increased
flow Of tears would wash out the foreign body
Here again case was cited where an eye
stone remained in the eye for &c hours, but did
not remove the bit Of sand, which was then
removed surgically in about Is seconds The
various methods for removing the foreign
bodies were then described in brief.
The eye has six muscles, four straight and
two obllque. They serve to roLate the eye.ball
in every direction, and by their coordinate
action 10 keep the two eyes parallel SO that we
see one image only of every object. Squint Is
when the eyes do not move together, aud two
i'm ages of the same object are seen, one of
which may be suppressed voluntarily, when
the sight IN the eye suppressing it's image be-
comes exceed ngly impaired squirt has
but there are numerous cases where it may be
removed by proper glasses.
After speaking of the tears, "the deadlest
enemy of he eyes," and the various methods
for relieving their overflow, DR.. Spaldlng DIS
cussed the various kinds of defective vision,
oversight, shOrt-sight, and old-sighs, compar-
ing for that purpose the structure of the eyes so
affected, with the normal eye Accommoda-
tiop, or that power by which we arrange the
eye go as 10 see near objects, was also men
O. hat iar 6ofa Of ha
called astig matism, which depends upon irreg-
ular curvature of the front of the eye (cornes),
or OF the crystalline lebs, and thus Causes
blurred image in the eye which has to be re-
lieved by especially arranged glasses
In concluding the usual portion of the lee
ture, the question of cataract operations was
taken up. Cataract is au opacity Of the lens,
aad is a dreadful word for people to hear. But
there are many diseases of the eye that are
much more ipcurabe. Although we do hear
OF men who have operated "hundreds of times
for catsracts," there is extreme doubt of the
truth of what they say, for the oculist who has
the second or third largest practice in the
world has never operated bat SIX hundred
times Many an Oculist of fame has never yet
operated O1e hundred times. A great many
operations, called neutrality-suspicious., were In
all human probability, nothing of the sort.
The lecture ended with brief account of the
history OF the treatment of the diseases of the
eye as speciality. The first mention that we
fnd of ocuists, IS in Egypt, where the dust
and said OF The desert caused many obstinate
determinations of the eye. Hence the people
were led TO investigate their cause aud treat
ment All oculists and physicians too, were
priests, and when one was needed, the patient
had TO send to temple, where on learning the
particular part OF the body needing treatment,
the chief priest would send physician who
was supposed to know more about that part
than anyone else. The local treatment was
generally simple, and the religious treatment
very ritualstIc.
From Egypt the oculists travelled into all
lands, aud in Greece set up their peculiar teach
inRs. In the time of H'ppocrates, about 400
BIC, the speciality of eye diseases had grown
very scientific, and Plato tells the people that
they shou i'd by DO means have anything to do
with oculists, except those who had been thor
ougbly educated and were honorable men.
Unfortunately for the profession, this high
standard declined from various unknown
causes, and with the transportation of Grecian
medicine 10 Roman soil, there came a terrible
fall. To be an oculIst in Rome, was to be
classed with BARRIERS aud hair-catters. and on
every side to be regarded as an ohicious, bus
terIug, deceptive, and despised fellow.
In the middle ages the trade sank stllslower,
and an ocullst was mere mountebank who
rode into towD, set up his booth, sold his
saivts aud his lotions, operated upon peoples
eyes in the sight Of all who wanted to look on,
took his fee and travelled along to the d. xt
town. He took no care of his cases, knew
nothing about the anatomy Of the eye, and
seemed so much the more to flourish for his
very ignorance But the 18th, and still more
the 18th CENTURIES saw reaction amongst geo.
ersl physicians, aad also among the monks,
who began to study the eye and its parts, and
to experiment in ootics SPIT ctaces too, were
discovered, and advances made in every direc-
ton.
With the 10Th century the advance became
simply phenomenal; oculists no longer travel
ed, but were made prof ssors at the great Ger
man Universities; unhealthy elements were
uproot-d; the chief ocuIists were men hunored,
respected and loved. Although in our days
the weeds Of quackery still flourish luxuriant-
ly, aud the trade in universal eye washes and
salves fills the pockets Of many charlatan,
the profession as whole stands far aloof from
such unworthy traffic.
UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT LIBRARY
The act introduced into the Legislature to
establish the United States Circuit Court
Library arises from tine gift by Mrs. Geo. F.
Shepey, of the law library Of her husband,
]ats Judge Shepey, to form the necleus of a
library for the use of the bar practicing 10 the
United States cOQrt under rules regulations