1458 



VISION. 



Wartmann* has related a case supposed 

 not to have been congenital; this, however, is 

 uncertain; the particulars are interesting, es- 

 pecially as valuable information, to which we 

 have referred, was obtained from this patient. 



M. Louis D was the eldest of seven 



brothers and four sisters, who were assorted 

 in a very singular category. The first set had 

 red hair, and their vision was perfect ; the 

 others had fair hair, and all were unable to 



distinguish colours. Louis D belonged 



to the latter, as regards external appearances, 

 but according to his own recollection, and the 

 evidence of his mother, he perceived colours 

 during his infanc} r , in the usual manner. At 

 the age of nine years his skull was fractured, 

 after which his perception of colours appears 

 to have become defective. The fact however 

 of his brothers, who resembled him in ap- 

 pearance, being similarly affected from birth, 

 weakens the chain of evidence on this point. 

 His infirmity was for some time unknown, 

 and his father endeavoured, by repeated cor- 

 poral punishment, to put a stop to what he 

 called a perverse pretence, and a severe cor- 

 rection was administered by his master, a 

 bookbinder, because he used red paper, in- 

 stead of green, for the covers of some books. 



Temporary Achromatopsy. This form ap- 

 pears to us not to have received the attention 

 it merits, having been passed over in silence, 

 or only cursorily alluded to, by the great 

 majority of writers. The exciting causes are 

 congestion, hepatic derangement, and dys- 

 pepsia, and it may exist in conjunction with 

 more or less amaurosis, or by itself, as a 

 simple derangement of vision. 



The first case we shall relate is highly in- 

 teresting from the marked manner in which 

 the insensibility to colours existed, its dura- 

 tion and satisfactory disappearance as restora- 

 tion to health proceeded. It occurred in the 

 practice of that very able physician, Dr. Hays.-{- 



Mary Bishop, aelat. twenty, was admitted 

 into the Wills Hospital, Feb. 9, 1639. She 

 was of short, robust stature, full habit, very 

 dark complexion, black hair, and hazel irides, 

 flushed face, colour of her cheeks at times 

 almost of a purplish hue ; catamenia sup- 

 pressed. In 1837 and 1838 she had suffered 

 from two attacks of cerebral disease ; after 

 the first attack, objects appeared double. The 

 second attack left her entirely blind, in which 

 condition she continued for four months. 

 After this her sight began to return, and at 

 the period of her admission into the hospital, 

 she could read large print. When she came 

 under the notice of Dr. Hays, in May, 1839, 

 she had been largely depleted, and had taken 

 remedies for the restoration of the catamenia, 

 under which treatment her sight had im- 

 proved. At this time it was discovered that 

 she was unable to distinguish colours, yellow 

 and blue being the only ones she could name 

 with certainty. Nearly all others she termed 

 brown, or hesitated to name, designating how- 



* Op. cit. 



t American Journ, of Medical Sciences, vol. xxvi. 

 p. 277. 



ever their shades, or intensity of colour accu- 

 rately. Thus she called a deep red, dark 

 brown ; a bright green,' light brown ; and 

 very pale pink, very light shade of brown. 

 The patient was not sensible at first that 

 she laboured under any particular defect in 

 distinguishing colours. She had noticed, that 

 grass and roses did not appear as formerly, and 

 she remembered that as her sight began to re- 

 turn, the first colour she perceived was yel- 

 low. The usual treatment for amenorrhea was 

 adopted, and on the 29th of May the catamenia 

 returned copiously, but continued only for a 

 single day. It was followed, however, by a 

 very marked improvement in vision. Roses 

 now appeared to her of their natural colour, 

 and she could distinguish the difference be- 

 tween the colour of the rose and that of the 

 leaves, which she had not previously been 

 able to do. By the middle of June she was 

 able to see the eye of a needle and the end of 

 a thread, but could not thread the needle from 

 inability to see both at the same time. At 

 this period she was again examined with the 

 prismatic spectrum, and distinguished pretty 

 accurately the yellow, blue, green, and red, 

 but was doubtful as to the orange. On the 

 30th of November it is stated that her si>;ht 

 was good, notwithstanding another attack of 

 congestion and suppression of the menses. 

 She distinguished all the primitive colours 

 readily, and named most of the secondary 

 ones as correctly as could be expected, with 

 the exception of violet, which she was at a loss 

 to name. 



A gentleman, aged 36, librarian to one of 

 our medical colleges, has communicated to me 

 the particulars of his own case in the follow- 

 in": words : " A few years ago I noticed that 

 on getting out of bed, and looking at a new 

 carpet which had been laid down but a short 

 time, I was unable to distinguish the colours, 

 though I could clearly make out the pattern, 

 which appeared simply black and white. I 

 felt rather alarmed, and asked my wife if it 

 was the same carpet. She assured me it was, 

 and inquired my reason for putting the ques- 

 tion. On telling her, she at once suspected 

 I had taken some bad wine at a public dinner 

 I had attended over-night. I may add that I 

 have invariably experienced the same effects 

 after dining out, more especially if I take more 

 than one kind of wine ; and of this I take but 

 little, in consequence of the severe illness I 

 experience on the following morning. If I 

 take grog or punch, the symptoms, including 

 the loss of power of seeing colours, are still 

 more severe." 



Simple congestion of the head and eyes, 

 especially when accompanied with fatigue, 

 is also an exciting cause of achromatopsy. 

 Ruete states, that a girl suddenly lost the 

 faculty of distinguishing colours as a conse- 

 quence of congestion ; and we have known 

 instances produced by exhaustion. 



A clergyman, 45 years of age, of full habit, 

 but enjoying good health, was performing Di- 

 vine service in the month of June, 1851, and 

 felt fatigued and oppressed by heat and the 



