WITH PHYSIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
63 
from the eye by means of Daviel’s spoon ; the pupillary aperture then appeared per- 
fectly clear and black. The patient was now turned with his back to the light, for 
the purpose of trying a few experiments as to his sight, but from these I was obliged 
to desist on account of the pain which the light produced in the organ. Both eyes 
were then closed with narrow strips of court-plaster, and the patient carried to bed. 
Venesection, local bleeding, fomentations with iced water, continued without inter- 
mission for about forty-eight hours, together with the scrupulous observance of the most 
severe regimen, barely succeeded in keeping down the inflammation, the effects of 
which in this case, where but one eye offered hope, were much to be dreaded, if it should 
surpass that degree which was necessary for the healing of the wound in the cornea. 
This process went on and terminated so favourably, that the cicatrix, situated close 
to the sclerotica, is now scarcely visible. The patient suffered from muscee volitantes 
and from a considerable intolerance of light, pain being produced by even a mild 
degree of light falling on the closed lids. The muscse volitantes were greatly miti- 
gated, and the intolerance of light ceased, after the lapse of a few weeks, by the 
use of proper pharmaceutical remedies, by local bleeding, change of air, &c., and the 
employment of the ophthalmic fountain of Professor Jungken, which I have fully de- 
scribed in the Medical Gazette, vol. xxvii. p. 444. To promote the development of 
the power of vision, the use of the fountain was continued twice daily, with Pyrmont- 
water and latterly with simple spring-water, for the space of three months, when it 
was discontinued, as it began to irritate the eye. 
Before I proceed further, I must again refer to the condition of sight previous to 
the operation. The right eye was completely amaurotic ; in the left the power of 
vision existed, but, on account of the mechanical defect in the visual apparatus, was 
very little developed for the perception of light, and not at all for the perception of 
objects. It appeared to me, therefore, of the greatest interest to observe attentively 
the progressive development of the sensibility of the retina as regarded direct, re- 
fracted, reflected, and coloured rays of light ; and also the progress of the visual per- 
ception in respect of the form, dimensions, and distance of objects. I was the more 
induced to undertake these physiological observations from having the opportunity 
of conducting them with an individual, who from his age, mental endowments, and 
education, offered peculiar advantages for such experiments. 
On opening the eye for the first time on the third day after the operation, I asked 
the patient what he could see ; he answered that he saw an extensi ve field of light, 
in which everything appeared dull, confused, and in motion. He could not distin- 
guish objects. The pain produced by the light forced him to close the eye immedi- 
ately. Two days afterwards, the eye, which had been kept closed by means of court- 
plaster, was again opened. He now described what he saw as a number of opake 
watery spheres, which moved with the movements of the eye, but, when the eye was 
at rest, remained stationary, and then partially covered each other. Two days 
after this the eye was again opened ; the same phenomena were again observed, but 
the spheres were less opake and somewhat transparent ; their movements more steady; 
