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| Lelouch Lamperouge... |
 Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 4:02 am |
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[...]
Blindness: Its Cause and Cure
By W. H. Bates, M.D.
As ordinarily used the word "blindness" signifies a degree of
defective sight which unfits the patient for any occupation requiring
the use of the eyes. Scientifically it means a state in which there is
no perception of light. Speaking of this condition in his "Cause and
Prevention of Blindness" Fuchs tells us that except in extraordinarily
rare cases it is incurable, and this is the accepted opinion of
ophthalmology today.
The facts that have come to me during thirty-five years of
ophthalmological practice have convinced me that the above statement
should be reversed, and made to read: "Except in extraordinarily rare
cases blindness is curable." In fact, unless the eyeball has been
removed from the head, I should be unwilling to set any limits
whatever to the possibility of relieving this greatest of human ills,
for I have never seen a case of injury or disease of the eye which was
sufficient to prevent improvement of vision. In all cases of
blindness, whatever their cause, a mental strain has been
demonstrated, and when this strain has been relieved perception of
light has always been obtained.
Even when the eyeball has been so shrunken that the patient scarcely
seemed to have an eye sight has been restored. In one such case the
cornea of the left eye had shrunk to an eighth of an inch in diameter,
and only a suggestion of the sclera was visible, while the right eye
was reduced to a quarter of its normal size and showed only a hazy
cornea and a blurred piece of iris, with no pupil. The patient was ten
years old, and the condition of her right eye was congenital (present
at birth); that of the left was due to an inflammation which she
suffered when she was a year old. From that time she had had no
perception of light; but in fifteen minutes she became able to see the
furniture of the room indistinctly and to imagine that it was
swinging. In spite, however, of this remarkable demonstration of what
could be accomplished by relaxation her parents did not bring her
again.
Atrophy of the optic nerve is one of a considerable number of
diseases, like detachment of the retina, irido-cyclitis and absolute
glaucoma, which have been placed beyond the pale of hope by the
science of ophthalmology. Yet persons with atrophy of the optic nerve
sometimes have normal vision, and persons blind from this cause
sometimes recover spontaneously. At the New York Eye and Ear
Infirmary, thirty years ago, a patient was exhibited who had all the
symptoms of atrophy of the optic nerve, but who nevertheless possessed
perfect sight. The case was exhibited later at the Manhattan Eye and
Ear Hospital, the New York Ophthalmological Society, and the
Ophthalmological Section of the New York Academy of Medicine. Later I
saw several similar cases; but when a colored woman came to my clinic
a few years ago with atrophy of the optic nerve it did not occur to me
that it would be possible to help her. Not knowing what to do I asked
her to sit down while I attended to some other patients, and meanwhile
my assistant, Mrs. Lierman, who tells the rest of the story in a later
article, got hold of her and made her see. Later many similar cases
were relieved. A few obtained normal vision, but most of them did not
have the courage to continue the treatment long enough for this
purpose.
A few weeks ago a patient came to me completely blind in both eyes
from atrophy of the optic nerve. Before he left the office he had
become able, by the aid of the swing, to see the light with both eyes.
He went away greatly encouraged, and promised to come again as soon as
he returned from a neighboring city. Later he sent a statement, signed
by an oculist and witnessed by a notary public, to the effect that he
was completely and incurably blind from primary optic atrophy. I have
not seen him since.
The following remarkable story of a spontaneous cure was told me
recently by a patient: A commercial traveller, a friend of the man who
told me the story, was treated for two years in a Chicago Hospital for
total blindness from atrophy of the optic nerve. Although the doctors
told him that his case was quite hopeless, he refused to believe it.
He talked much of a grey cloud that he had seen before his eyes at the
time he became blind, and said that if he could only remember how it
looked he was sure it would help him. One day he had a perfect mental
picture of that grey cloud, and at once he found he could see. He is
now back in his old position, doing his usual amount of work,
attending to his correspondence, and reading as well as he ever did.
Doctors who have examined his eyes since say he still has atrophy of
the optic nerve and ought still to be blind.
Irido-cyclitis, a combined inflammation of the iris and ciliary body,
is a frequent cause of blindness. Often it results from an injury to
the adjoining eye, and in that case is known as sympathetic
ophthalmia. In severe cases it is believed to lead inevitably to
blindness, which is, of course, thought to be incurable. Yet in all
cases in which blindness has resulted from this disease I have seen
perception of light, and even normal vision, restored.
One day a young girl came to my clinic with one eye as soft as mush
from irido-cyclitis (the other having been removed four years before).
The iris and pupil was covered by a white scar, and she had no
perception of light. After palming, swinging and using her imagination
for about fifteen minutes, the scar cleared up sufficiently for me to
see the iris and pupil indistinctly, and two visiting doctors also saw
them, while the patient saw the light. Later she became able to see
people on the street, and to see the pavement and imagine that it was
swinging. At that point she ceased coming to the clinic.
A case of practical blindness from this cause was cured within a month
by the use of the imagination. When the patient looked at the large
letter at the top of the card at one foot and was told what it was, he
was able to imagine that he saw it, and thus he became able to see it
actually. Then he did the same thing at ten feet. Next he imagined
that he saw the first letter of the second line at ten feet, and
became able to recognize the second letter. The same method was used
with all the other lines, until he became able to imagine the first
letter of the bottom line, and then go on and read the other letters.
When his eye was examined with the ophthalmoscope the vitreous was so
opaque that one could not distinguish the optic nerve and retina. He
said that the light bothered him, and prevented him from imagining any
of the letters on the Snellen test card. With the retinoscope at six
feet, however, he stated that the light did not bother him so much,
and he was able to imagine, while it was being used, that he saw a
letter on the bottom line perfectly. The refraction was then normal,
and a clear red reflex (light reflected from the retina) was obtained,
indicating that the vitreous was now quite clear. When he failed to
imagine that he saw the letter, the reflex was much blurred,
indicating cloudiness of the vitreous. These are facts. I cannot offer
any explanation for them.
Of detachment of the retina Fuchs says: "It is generally possible in
recent and not too excessive cases of separation of the retina to
obtain an improvement of the sight by a partial attachment, and in
especially favorable cases even to cause the detachment to disappear
completely. Unfortunately it is only in the rarest cases that these
good results are lasting. As a rule, after some time, the separation
develops anew, and ultimately, in spite of all our therapeutic
endeavors, becomes total . . . In inveterate cases of total
detachment it is better to abstain from any treatment." Compare this
statement with the results obtained by central fixation, as told in
the following article. In many other such cases useful vision has
obtained.
The incurability of blindness resulting from glaucoma is taken so
completely for granted that Nettleship defines absolute glaucoma as
"glaucoma that has gone on to permanent blindness." Yet in the
December (1920) issue of "Better Eyesight", and again in this issue,
is reported a case in which light perception was restored in an eye
stone blind with glaucoma after a few minutes of palming. This was
witnessed by several visiting doctors. Later the patient became able
to read the twenty line at ten feet with this eye. As nearly half of
our blind population at the present time is believed to be over sixty
years of age, and a great part of the blindness of later life is
attributed to glaucoma, the curability of this condition is a fact of
immense importance.
Statistics indicate that in this country, at present time, external
injury is the most frequent cause of loss of vision between the ages
of twenty and thirty-four. I believe that a great part of this
blindness could be relieved, for, as I have already stated, I have
never seen an eye so badly injured that its vision could not be
improved. To cite only one of many similar cases, a patient injured in
an automobile accident became suddenly and completely blind, either
from hemorrhage into the orbit, or from injury to the optic nerve. By
palming and the use of his imagination he at once became able to count
his fingers.
Perhaps the most remarkable cures of blindness are those in which the
loss of vision is supposed to be due to general disease. These have
frequently been relieved, partially or completely, without relief of
the disease. Thirty years ago a man stone blind with what I diagnosed
to be albuminuric retinitis was led into my clinic at the New York Eye
and Ear Infirmary. This condition is so closely associated with
disease of the kidneys that its existence is considered sufficient
evidence of the existence of the latter. Yet the patient regained
normal vision and held it up to the time of his death without any
improvement in the condition of the kidneys. On the contrary the
disease of these organs became worse, and when he died a few years
later the physicians who performed the autopsy wondered how he had
been able to live so long. The evidence seems to me complete that the
blindness was not due to the kidney trouble but to strain.
Many diseases of the eye are attributed to syphilis. Yet in every case
these conditions have been relieved by rest, and often the sight has
become normal without any improvement in the syphilis.
In spite of the very prompt improvement which patients obtain in these
cases, they often, as the cases mentioned in the foregoing pages show,
fail to continue the treatment. The weight of public and professional
opinion is too much for them, and they are practically compelled to
take this course. Such dogmatism is both unwise and unscientific. The
causes of diseases are obscure and variable, and we do not know it
all. It does not seem to me that a doctor is justified in telling a
patient that he is incurable just because he has never seen a case
cured, or has forgotten, because it was contrary to rule, any case
that he has seen. This may cause the patient to accept as inevitable a
condition which might have been cured, and may even prevent Nature,
because of the depressing effects of discouragement from doing what
the doctor has failed to do. Still less is it justifiable for the
medical profession to assume, as it now seems to do, that we have
learned all there is to be known about blindness. Such an attitude
throttles research, and actually exposes to the suspicion of being a
quack any man who tries to help these unfortunates.
____
Blindness Number
Better Eyesight
A monthly magazine devoted to the prevention and cure of imperfect
sight without glasses
Copyright, 1921, by the Central Fixation Publishing Company
Editor—W. H. Bates, M.D.
Publisher—Central Fixation Publishing Co.
$2.00 per year, 20 cents per copy
300 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y.
Vol. IV - March 1921 - No. 3
____
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