CASE OF SECTOR-LIKE DEFECT OF FIELD OF VISION. By WM. THOMSON, M.D., Philadelphia. IN the Proceedings of the Society for 1871, 1 reported a case of cornplete hemiopia, the result of a severe gun-shot wound of the left p)arietal region, in which the line of blindness diverged to some extent at the point of fixation towards the blind side of the field. A similar case has now presented itself, and will be briefly detailed. S. L., aged 50, a carpenter, and in good health at present. Four years ago was overcome by a sudden vertipo, was insensible for a few moments, his hands were numb for several days. His sight was disturbed then, and has so remained without change until the present date. The eyes present no sign of disease on inspection. V. in each is j. There is no evidence of glaucoma. Each fiindus is free from change; in each nerve there is a large physiological excavatioin, perhaps a little too white. There is no lesion or change in vision beyond a partial loss of field in the upper and left quadrant. The insensitive portion of the retina was easily recognized on placing the patient at some distance from a light, and throwing its image on various parts of the retina, and learning from the patient where the light was seen or lost to view. The field was further examined by the blackboard and piece of chalk, the man being placed sixteen inches from it; Mariotte's spot in the R. was found to be about 2j inches in diameter, but in the L. it could not, of course, be determined, since it was sittuated in the lost portion of the field. From the sketch of each field it will be seen that the line of blindness is vertical above the poinlt of fixation, but that it diverges towards the blind side a short distance above it, describes a half circle, and returns to the vertical line below, from which it descends towards the left for fifteen inches, then rises to the horizontal line, and thence passes upwards, and to the left to the periphery of the field. In the case published in 1871, it seemed that at the region of the fovea, the elements from*each side of the brain might be intermingled, and that thus the full V. might be accouinted for in cases where severe lesions were known to have occurred in one hemisphere. An effort was made to test this idea in this case where the loss of a quadrant of each field was onily felt as
338 an inconvenience, and where there was the full acuity of vision at the point of fixation, and at the same time, to measure the dimensions
of the space where sharp sight yet remained. The man was a carpenter, accustomed to make careful observations, and I chose a tool with which he was familiar. An ordinary rule, with the foot-scale
clearly marked on it, was placed vertically on the blackboard, with its upper half in the lost part in the field; it was then pushed slowly
339 towards the perfect part of the field until its right edge was just visible, the remainder being in the blind part. The man then hinself remarked, that at or near the point of fixation, the enitire width of the rule was clearly seen; and this portion was found to measure from above downwards 21 inches. From the history of the case there is little doubt that four years ago there was an apoplectic attack which induced the partial hemiol)ia, and that it was caused by a lesion of the left side of the brain. All traces of paralysis had long since disappeared, and there had been no change since the first day in the condition of the eyes. The man was intelligent and a good observer, and great care was taken to verify the fact that at the fovea the blindness was not vertical, as it was both above and below. An autopsy is yet required to give the case value.
DR. RooSA offered the following resoluition, which was carriedX Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting, that the session of the Societv for 1877 slhould be lheld at Puit-In Bay.
DR. E. WILLIAMS offered this resolution: Resolved, That the sense of this Society is in favor of New York as the place for the meeting of the next Ilnternatioial Ophthalmological Congress. This was carried. DR. RoosA mioved that the Report of the Coinmittee be accepted, and that the offlicers therein named be re-elected. For President.-DR. C. R. AGNEW, New York. " Vice-President.-DR. G. I-IAY Boston. R?ecording Secretary and Treasurer.-DR. RICHARD H. DIERBY, New York Corresponding Secretary.-DR. H. ALTHOF, New York. " Publishing C(ommittee.-DR. H. D. NoYEs, and DR. E. G. LORING, New York. The Comimiittee's Report was accepted, and the above officers were unanimouisly re-elected. The followinig notice was presented by DRS. Dix and WILLIAMS, of Boston.
OBITUARY NOTICE. DR. EDWARD DELAFIELD, the first President of the American Ophthalmological Society, died at his residence, in New York, on 23
340
Saturday, the 13th of February, 1875, in the eighty-first year of his age.
Dr. Delafield was the son of John Delafield, who held for many years a high position in the mercantile community. He graduated at Yale College in 1812, and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1815. After serving in the New York Hospital he pursued his studies abroad, chiefly in London, as a pupil of Astley Cooper and Abernethy. On returning to his native country, he established, in 1820, in connection with the late Dr. John Kearney Rodgers, the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. Of this institution he was an attending surgeon for thirty years, and was afterwards elected consulting surgeon and vice-president. He manifested through life the warmiest interest in its prosperity, and much of its great success may be credited to his active labors and wise counsels. In 1834 he was appointed one of the attending physicians of the New York Hospital. In 1825, when comparatively a young man, he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Wonmen and Children in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and continued to fill that chair with signal ability until 1838, when his increasing practice obliged him to resign both his professorship and his position at the hospital. He was a founder and the first President of the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. In 1858 he was elected President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and became a miember of the Board of Governors of the Roosevelt Hospital. As President and Chairman of the Building Committee, his labors were unwearied in perfecting the organization of the hospital. As a teacher Dr. Delafield was quiet, clear, methodical in his views; terse, elegant, and distinct in his mode of expressing them. No man more completely held the attention of his class, as in his earnest, dignified, and effective manner he laid before them the truths of medicine, and the great responsibilities involved in the practice of their
noble calling. As a practitioner, Dr. Delafield possessed, in a high degree, the confidence of his patients. His medical sagacity and extensive acquirements secured him success in the management of disease, and the kindly interest and sympathizing care which he felt for those entrusted to his skill gained for him their affection and gratitude. Dr. Delafield took a prominent part in the organization of this Society in 1864. His unanimous election as its first president was a
341 fitting acknowledgment of what had been done by his example and efforts, during many years, to make Ophthalmology, as a department of medical practice, honorable in the estimation of the profession and useful to the public. During the four years that this Society had the privilege of retaining his name at the head of its list of officers, and until the close of his life, Dr. Delafield showed a warm interest in the prosperity of the Society as evidenced in the enlargement of its membership and the increasing value of its published proceedinigs. The death of such a man-energetic, skilftul, honorable, courteous, as he was-is a loss to the whole community in which he lived; but it must be especially felt by the profession, of which he was so eminent a member, and, above all, by this Society, of which he had been a founder and a constant friend.
338 an inconvenience, and where there was the full acuity of vision at the point of fixation, and at the same time, to measure the dimensions
of the space where sharp sight yet remained. The man was a carpenter, accustomed to make careful observations, and I chose a tool with which he was familiar. An ordinary rule, with the foot-scale
clearly marked on it, was placed vertically on the blackboard, with its upper half in the lost part in the field; it was then pushed slowly
339 towards the perfect part of the field until its right edge was just visible, the remainder being in the blind part. The man then hinself remarked, that at or near the point of fixation, the enitire width of the rule was clearly seen; and this portion was found to measure from above downwards 21 inches. From the history of the case there is little doubt that four years ago there was an apoplectic attack which induced the partial hemiol)ia, and that it was caused by a lesion of the left side of the brain. All traces of paralysis had long since disappeared, and there had been no change since the first day in the condition of the eyes. The man was intelligent and a good observer, and great care was taken to verify the fact that at the fovea the blindness was not vertical, as it was both above and below. An autopsy is yet required to give the case value.
DR. RooSA offered the following resoluition, which was carriedX Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting, that the session of the Societv for 1877 slhould be lheld at Puit-In Bay.
DR. E. WILLIAMS offered this resolution: Resolved, That the sense of this Society is in favor of New York as the place for the meeting of the next Ilnternatioial Ophthalmological Congress. This was carried. DR. RoosA mioved that the Report of the Coinmittee be accepted, and that the offlicers therein named be re-elected. For President.-DR. C. R. AGNEW, New York. " Vice-President.-DR. G. I-IAY Boston. R?ecording Secretary and Treasurer.-DR. RICHARD H. DIERBY, New York Corresponding Secretary.-DR. H. ALTHOF, New York. " Publishing C(ommittee.-DR. H. D. NoYEs, and DR. E. G. LORING, New York. The Comimiittee's Report was accepted, and the above officers were unanimouisly re-elected. The followinig notice was presented by DRS. Dix and WILLIAMS, of Boston.
OBITUARY NOTICE. DR. EDWARD DELAFIELD, the first President of the American Ophthalmological Society, died at his residence, in New York, on 23
340
Saturday, the 13th of February, 1875, in the eighty-first year of his age.
Dr. Delafield was the son of John Delafield, who held for many years a high position in the mercantile community. He graduated at Yale College in 1812, and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1815. After serving in the New York Hospital he pursued his studies abroad, chiefly in London, as a pupil of Astley Cooper and Abernethy. On returning to his native country, he established, in 1820, in connection with the late Dr. John Kearney Rodgers, the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. Of this institution he was an attending surgeon for thirty years, and was afterwards elected consulting surgeon and vice-president. He manifested through life the warmiest interest in its prosperity, and much of its great success may be credited to his active labors and wise counsels. In 1834 he was appointed one of the attending physicians of the New York Hospital. In 1825, when comparatively a young man, he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Wonmen and Children in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and continued to fill that chair with signal ability until 1838, when his increasing practice obliged him to resign both his professorship and his position at the hospital. He was a founder and the first President of the Society for the Relief of the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. In 1858 he was elected President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and became a miember of the Board of Governors of the Roosevelt Hospital. As President and Chairman of the Building Committee, his labors were unwearied in perfecting the organization of the hospital. As a teacher Dr. Delafield was quiet, clear, methodical in his views; terse, elegant, and distinct in his mode of expressing them. No man more completely held the attention of his class, as in his earnest, dignified, and effective manner he laid before them the truths of medicine, and the great responsibilities involved in the practice of their
noble calling. As a practitioner, Dr. Delafield possessed, in a high degree, the confidence of his patients. His medical sagacity and extensive acquirements secured him success in the management of disease, and the kindly interest and sympathizing care which he felt for those entrusted to his skill gained for him their affection and gratitude. Dr. Delafield took a prominent part in the organization of this Society in 1864. His unanimous election as its first president was a
341 fitting acknowledgment of what had been done by his example and efforts, during many years, to make Ophthalmology, as a department of medical practice, honorable in the estimation of the profession and useful to the public. During the four years that this Society had the privilege of retaining his name at the head of its list of officers, and until the close of his life, Dr. Delafield showed a warm interest in the prosperity of the Society as evidenced in the enlargement of its membership and the increasing value of its published proceedinigs. The death of such a man-energetic, skilftul, honorable, courteous, as he was-is a loss to the whole community in which he lived; but it must be especially felt by the profession, of which he was so eminent a member, and, above all, by this Society, of which he had been a founder and a constant friend.
