Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-14
SIGHT RESTORED
BY HARD FALL
RESULT, HOWEVER, Is NOT
SATISFACTORY
Methodist Minister Says Small Objects
Look as Large as Telegraph
PoIes-No Sense of
Distance
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald
BALTIMORE. Feb 1S.-Rev. Samuel
H. Cummings, Methodist minister.
whose sight after practically total
blindness for more than thirty years
was partially restored by fall on a
slippery pavement, is awaiting the re-
suit of thorough examination of his
eyes by DR.. Samuel Theobald.
Mr. Cummings is undergoing some
novel experiences, and at times he is
tempted to wish he were back in the
former darkness so terrible seem the
things of which he was entirely un-
conscious before
1.-THE street cars appear to be driv-
ing right at me-" he says. Awning
poles seem as big as telegraph poles,
and appear to be rushing to meet and
crush me. Men walking toward me
seem impossible to avoid. Light is
plentiful, and l can distinguish what
things are for the first time in years,
but I have no sense of distance or
proportion. / am inclined to believe
that things appear very much to me as
images In concave or convex mirrors
are described"
One of the touching incidents of Mr.
Cummings restoration to partial vision
was his ability to distinguish the fea-
lures of his son for the first time in
thirty-five years. The last time he
saw his son he was a boy of g. but last
Monday he was able to perceive the
outlines of the mans face of Al. He
was so affected that he could only say
in tones of deep emotion. MY boy!"
His condition Is exactly the same as
just after the fortunate accident. The
partial restoration of sight is retained,
and there is no sign of either a dim
r1oir1or Of tha IyicinYo nf foli-
cation, such as Inflammation, which
might have a serious result.
DR.. Theobald's preliminary eXamina-
tion developed some interesting fea-
lures. Mr.. Cummings left eye was
pierced by an arrow. shot by boy in
play fifty or more years ago. The sight
left that eye at once, and about four
teen years later the other eye became
affected sympathetically and a dark
curtain dropped further and further
over it until it became obscured to
such an extent that Mr.. Cummings
was unable, he says, to distinguish
between day and night. He could dis
tinguish bright light from shadow with
the other eye-that originally injured.
DR.. Theobald says that the fall of Il
week ago performed an operation SINH
lar to that performed by oculists up
to about twenty-five years ago, when
II WIS flC Nlld oilOoCo lIt
sympathetic action in the uninjured
eye as a cataract, and the cataract he
describes as follows: Behind the retina
there is a globe of jelly-like substance
known as the crystalline lens. This
lens is in the direct line of vision and
in the normal eye is purely transparent.
A cataract is formed by this lens be-
coming hardened and opaque. AS the
lens is movable, it was formerly Gus
tomary to insert a needle into the ball
of the eye and dislodge it from it's or
dinary place. causing it to fall to the
lower part of the eye, thus removing it
from the line of vision. The operation
was abandoned because a large pro-
portion of the patients developed in
flammation, which caused a worse con-
dition than the cataract. The fall per-
formed this operation dislodging the
cataract from Mr.. Cummings eye. DR..
Theobald believes that the danger of
Inflammation has passed.
1t seems assured at present that the
very least that can result is a per-
manent recovery of sight sufficient 70
distinguish things and, possibly even
to read to a limied extent. In a pre-
liminary test made with various pow
cred lenses Dr. Theobald enabled Mr.
Cummings to read with some little diff
ficulty, printed letters perhaps half an
inch high.