Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-06-10

Even surgeons dislike to use the
knife on the human eye. and resort
to it only when no other treatment
will avail to restore lost vision o.
straighten cross eyes.
OF late the world is beginning TO
hear of strange doings in the operat-
ing rooms. A pigs eye has been sue
cessfully engrafted upon human
eyeball.
| It is comparatively a simple mat
ter to cut q contracted muscle SO
that an outward turning or inward
! turning eyeball may become straight.
But there is a still newer method OF
correcting crossed vision. Only the
very young can be cured by it, how
! ever.
In the office of Kansas City doc
tor, who specializes in diseases of the
/ eve, several little children are being
treated with the ambiyoscope, in the
almost certain hope that they will
| have straight eyes by the time they
are eight years of age, or, at most,
| ten, and so avoid the difficult opera
| ton and a possible loss of sight in
one eye.
The worst feature of the neglected
"squint" is that the recreant eye is
! apt to become partially blinded This
F., is almost certain to occur in severe
cases by the time the patient is
grown. Strain and nonuse combine to
destroy a vision that might have been
saved if treated in time with tho
amblyoscope and the proper correct
/ ing glasses.
"But | would rather tell you how
we avoid surgical operations for cross
eyes," said a highly successful OPP
orator. at is true that we do some
times-I may say acknowledgements
/ for strabismus, but we do not often
operate on children, for there is al
ways the hope that nature will over
come the defect, and too often the
sight Is permanently impaired by the
time the patient is of mature age.
| Il recall one case in which we
operated here in Kansas City that re.
suited most fortunately. The yount
woman was twenty-four years Of
age, fine looking and of more thar
ordinary brilliant mind. In spite o.
| her infirmity, she was an honor
graduate from a well known uni
versity As a child, she had ex
hibited only a slight degree of con
vergence in the right eye. This hat
increased, instead of lessening, unit
the contracted muscle held 1t as i
wise at an angle that threatened
total loss of sight in that eye. 1t Il
not necessary to explain the actua
cause of the contraction. 1t was on
of those cases that start from som'
minor cause and develop, through
nerve and muscle tension, into seri
Gus trouble. When she came to M
nothing short of an operation would
have had the slightest good effect.
I'm such an operation it Is highl.
important that the surgeon exercis
caution and Judgment. Too Otter
disaster has resulted where tn
operator has been more enthusiastic
than skillful. Too much cutting vii
permit the eye that has converge'
to diverge too acutely, producing
condition quite as bad as the other
Sometimes the contracted muscle l
above or below, drawing the ey
either upward or downward. I hav
seen this condition so bad that tn
iris entirely disappeared and the ey
presented only the white surface o
the eyeball. Such a case could no
! be cured without an operation, eve
in the very young.
: But the vast majority of case
. are comparatively mild in the begin
, ming, and most of them will yield t
= the treatment we use for the ex
! ercise of weak muscles, Our pre-
l cedure is the same in principle a
e that of the orthopedic surgeon. Fl
: resorts to the knife upon occasion
but he does far more with skillft
and forced exercise of the wea
muscles. He always wants to tres
the club-footed child before he is fiv
years of age to insure success in thi
sort of treatment, even when ha
his work is done with the knife an
: half with the forced exercise b.
D means of weights and massage.
at is SO with US. We must haV