A History of Ophthalmology in Lancaster County
A hisTory of ophThAlmology in lAncasTer CounTy Paul H. Ripple, M.D. and John H. Bowman, M.D. Ophthalmalogists (retired) OPTHALMOLOGY IN ANTIqUITY ectropion, entriopion), infections and inflammations, Historical references to Ophthalmology go back (chemosis, iritis, trachoma, chalazion, granulations, to ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and India. The Egyptians leucoma, staphyloma, and dacrocystitis), pterygium, were particularly advanced in the practice and art hyphaema, ophthalmoplegia, and of course cataracts.6 of treating eye disorders. In Babylonia, according to Herodotus the historian of ancient Greece, medicine THE CLASSICAL PERIOD AND THE MIDDLE AGES was practiced by priests and surgery by skilled hand- Through the subsequent millennia of the Greek workers or chirorgos, a Greek word that combines the and Arabian Periods, even though there was a better words for hand and work to mean surgeon. They prac- understanding of the anatomy and pathology of the ticed couching for resolution of a cataract (depression eye, and that opthalmia could be contagious, there of the cornea or even insertion of a sharp instrument were no great advances in the treatment or manage- to displace the lens into the vitreous, often with dis- ment of eye disorders. This is not to disparage the ruption of the lens capsule). Though this method was contributions of Galen, Vesalius, and others, but they perhaps first developed by the surgeons of India in the did not lead to practical clinical benefits until the oph- early 15th century BC,1 Babylonian skilled hand work- thalmoscope was developed by Helmholtz in 1850.7 ers were motivated to master couching by the Code of That invention resulted in revolutionary advances in Hammurabi, which allowed a handsome payment for the diagnosis and treatment of ophthalmological dis- a successful operation with the uneventful removal of orders such as glaucoma, infections, and inflammatory a cataract and restoration of vision.
[Show full text]