WHAT OCULISTS CAN DO.

Mataura Ensign, 24 May 1909, Page 4

WHAT OCULISTS CAN DO.

.\iui)j;i:.\ SCKCKIIY Only it lew years ago, beloic the days ol antiseptic singer.,. more than 3» per cent. til ali ojiei at lulls pel termed lor <iitin;K't ol thr cji' were uiiMicce.sslul, resulting in jnriuainiii and hopeless bliudncst, tor i Ik- patient. fliis wus because neither I lie in-tnuiicnts used nor ilm surgeon's hands were sterilised, ami microbes were thus ~n-aliled aliled to invade the Wound, bringing suppurative infection. At the present tune only about two operations ol this kind out of every hundred | it i|, and the occurrence of infection in any such ease would condemn tin- physician as a bungler. Cataract, o! course. is not as it is popularly sittipascd. a lilm that forms over the eye, but merely that the crystalline lens which lies direcly behind tile little round hole called the pupil becomes opaque. This neccssarily i 111 plies obscuration ol vision, anil the only way to get rid ol the niischiel is to remove the lens bodily. This is accomplished by thrusting a tliin-bladcd and exceedingly sharp knife downward into the eye from above, inserting the |«>int at the. edge of I lie cornea (which covers the front of the organ liln■' a watchglass), and making an arc-shaped sht. The capsule that holds the lens i:, a;:,o cut, permitting the latter by the help of gentln pressure to lie pushed out and removed. Ol course, the watery llnid escapes Iroiil the anterior chamber ol the eye, but ii is replaced by nature within a few days, and tile organ is soon as serviceable as ever, though glassf s have to lie worn to lake the place, ill an optical sense, of the lens that is gone.