The Anatomy and Physiology of Capillaries.

Abstract

In 1910, Sir Arthur Pearson retired from business because of approaching blindness. When the war came he devoted his fortune to building an institution for the care and education of the war blind. This book records the work done at St. Dunstan's by Lawson, who had under his care 825 persons totally incapacitated by blindness. The book is divided into three parts: (1) traumatic blindness; (2) nontraumatic blindness; (3) pensions and reeducation of the blind. There were 407 traumatic cases: 72 caused by bullets passing through the orbits, 17 of fracture of the occipital portion of the skull, 12 of fracture of the skull other than occipital, 16 of concussion blindness without direct wound or penetration of the globe, and 289 miscellaneous cases of blindness from premature explosions of bombs, explosive bullets, aeroplane accidents and burns. There was a notable absence of sympathetic inflammation. There were 417 cases of nontraumatic blindness, a review of which led to some conclusions concerning enlistment. In the examination of men for military ser¬ vice, those who have had disease of the uveal tract of both eyes should be rejected. When only one eye is involved, as the result of traumatic uveal inflammation, the man should not be accepted. A careful ophthalmologic examina¬ tion should be made to rule out congenital disease, such as retinitis pigmentosa, or some chronic disease, such as chorioretinitis, thus saving the state much money in pensions. Interstitial keratitis and other varieties of inflammatory dis¬ ease were found in 138 cases, of which 47 were interstitial. There were 109 cases of primary optic nerve disease, of which 62 were positively the result of syphilis and 18 more were clinically so classified. Secondary optic nerve degeneration gave 44 cases due to syphilis, cerebral tumor and meningitis.Blindness due to detachment of the retina was found in 29 cases; family atrophy, in 17; glaucoma, in 11; cataract, in 7; traumatic neurasthenia, in 4; bilateral embolism of the central retinal artery, in 2, and pituitary disease in 3. There was one each of recurrent retinal hemorrhage, exophthalmic goiter, retinitis proliferans and meningitis. Syphilis as a cause of nontraumatic blindness in the war is well shown by this review. The third part deals with pensions and the reeduca¬ tion of the blind. The author well contends that men blinded by disease brought on by unfavorable conditions in the war should be pensioned. The question of syphilis and war blind¬ ness was finally settled so that men were given pensions who had loss of vision due to a syphilitic lesion, acquired or congenital, with or without a positive Wassermann reaction. That section of the book dealing with reeducation is brief, and gives an accurate picture of the difficulties and problems of this phase of the work among the war blind which ought to be known by every ophthalmologist. Trait\l=e'\pratique de cystoscopie et de cath\l=e'\t\l=e'\rismeur\l=e'\t\l=e'\ral. Par G. Marion, Professeur agr\l=e'\ge \l=a`\la Facult\l=e'\,Chirurgien de l'H\l=...