The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-01-24
Mr.. Brown Receivers Sight After
Many Years of Almost Total
Blindness From Cataracts.
DR.. CAMFIELD OPERATES ON HIM
Success Crowns the Surgeons Efforts
and Light Once More Enters the Hid
den Chambers of the Eye.

Without exaggeration the most
ski11fu1 and wonderful operation ever
performed upon the human eye was
done in this city last month by DR.. B.
A. Cam6e1d, and the patient is over
ioyed at being able to see objects
about his home and his neighbors that
he has not been able to see for thirty
five years.
We often hear of people having their
sight restored after blindness of short
duration, and in many cases their Wis
ion is good enough to enable them to
go about unaided and some are able to
read with the aid of very strong mag
nifying glasses. It will be remem-
bered that Mrs. Henderson, who was
blind from the growth of cataracts and
who was operated upon last fall by DR..
Camfie1d, took up her bible and read a
page of the finest print the first time
she was allowed to put on glasses after
the operation.
This was considered an excellent re-
suit indeed, but to have the sight re-
stored to degree enabling the patient
to see well both far and near without
the aid of glasses after blindness had
existed so long as in Mr.. Browns case,
is an achievement never before accom-
p1ished by any surgeon since Davie1, a
French oCulist, first operated for cata-
ract over one hundred and fifty years
ago.
a II WI n Or a
Holder, ILL.,, had been he1p1essly blind
for many years SO that he had to be
lead about. The cause of his blind
ness was cataracts, disease of the
crystalline lens which is situated in
the center of the eye-ba11.
The operation for cataract is an ex-
treme1y difficult and dangerous one,
and in Mr.. Browns case was rendered
more so on account of the fact that
blindness had existed so long the cata-
racts became over ripe and the tough
coats of the, eye had become softened
from disease.
The eye-ba11 was incased and the
ski11fu1 manner as to leave a large,
clear pupil, through which the light
once more entered and the patient
could see the face of the surgeon who
he had known before only by the
sound of his voice, and he realized that
a great change had taken place in his
relation with the world of vision.
The operation was done without chic
reform, cocaine being used to deaden
the pain.
Immediately after the operation was
completed the eye was closed and kept
sealed with surgical dressings while
the wound healed. It is a practice
among eye surgeons to wait from two
to three months after cataract opera
tons before attempting to test the eye
for glasses, but before the allotted
time had passed Mr.. Browns sight de-
ve1oped so that he could see to go about
and could tell the time on his watch at
a distance of four feet and when finally
tested, he accepted a glass for reading
about the.sstrength that most people
select to read with at the age of forty
FIVE, and although he could see we'll at
a distance without glasses, his sight
was improved with the same glass that
he had once worn before cataracts de-
veloped.
Without glasses, the sight of persons
who have been operated upon success
fully for .cataracts, is just sufficient
for them to go about alone. Distinct
vision is possible only with the aid of
very powerful smagnifying glasses
since, by the removal of the lens, the
refraction of the eye becomes too small.
The eye is also incapable of altering it's
range and.Ccannot accommodate to
different distances. Accordingly an
eye operated upon for cataract needs
one glass for reading and another one
of different strength for distance.
The success attained in this case has
almost eliminated this necessity for
Mr.. Brown has a Hong range of vision
and can see sharply. an object such as
a windmill, at distance of one mile
glasses, although for long continued
reading and writing he uses weak
pair.
Many notifications of the original
method of operating for senile cataract
have been introduced by different ocu-
lists, and it'.wou1d be difficult to find
two operatorsawho proceed in exactly
the same manner.
The method used in Mr.. Browns
operation has for some time been in
use by Dr.sCamfe1d at the Chicago
Eye and Ear College and Infirmary,
where he lectures on diseases of the
eye and eye surgery.
In skil1fu1 hands it gives ideal re