Two Cases of Destruction of 
Vision by Foreign Bodies ; 
Restoration of Sight in One out of Four 
Eyes by Operation. 
BY 
DAVID WEBSTER, M. D., 
Professor of Ophthalmology in the New York Polyclinic 
and in Dartmouth Medical College ; 
Surgeon to the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital. 
REPRINTED PROM THE 
Web) Ycrft fttrWral journal 
for October 20, 189ft. Reprinted from the New York Medical Journal 
for October 20, 189Jf. 
TWO CASES OF 
DESTRUCTION OF VISION BY FOREIGN BODIES; 
RESTORATION OF SIGHT IN ONE OUT OF FOUR EYES 
BY OPERATION. 
By DAVID WEBSTER, M. D., 
PROFESSOR OF OPHTHALMOLOGY IN THE NEW YORK POLYCLINIC 
AN IN DARTMOUTH MEDICAL COLLEGE ; 
SURGEON TO THE MANHATTAN EYE AND EAR HOSPITAL. 
The two following cases are of extraordinary interest, 
inasmuch as the father lost the sight of both eyes from in- 
jury with bird shot, the gun having been fired by his son, 
while the same son lost the sight of one eye permanently 
and of the other temporarily by a cannon explosion less 
than a year later. The acuteness of vision restored to one 
of the son’s injured eyes by the removal of the traumatic 
cataract is worthy of remark: 
Case I. Both Eyes of the Father Put Out by Bird Shot.— 
James O. P., aged forty-eight years, of Tariffville, Conn., was 
accidentally shot by his son in both eyes, a No. 10 shot in each, 
on August 13, 1869. Ilis son thus, describes the catastrophe: 
l‘We were hunting woodcock in the bushes. My father was 
about five rods from me when I shot. I did not see him. The 
bird was flying. My gun was elevated from where I stood as 
much as five rods over his head. There were only two shots 
struck him—one in each eye.” 
COPYRIGHT 1894, BY D. APPLETON AND COJfPAIlYtl K 2 
DESTRUCTION OF VISION BY FOREIGN BODIES. 
When Mr. P. came to consult Dr. 0. R. Agnew, on May 29, 
1874, nearly five years after the accident, the condition of his 
eyes was as follows: There was no perception of light in either 
eye by the usual tests, hut the patient said he could see the sun 
with both eyes. The crystalline lenses were mostly absorbed. 
There was total posterior synechia of both, and both irides were 
arched backward. A cicatrix at the center of each cornea 
showed where the shot had entered the eye. Dr. Agnew was 
of the opinion that no operation would restore any sight, and 
advised him to have nothing done for his eyes. 
Case II. Both Eyes Injured by a Cannon Explosion; One 
Lost; the Sight of the Other Restored by Operations.—J. C. P., 
aged twenty-three years, the son of the above patient, and the 
man who did the shooting, was brought to Dr. Agnew’s office 
at the same time with his father. 
On the 4th of July following the accident to his father—i. e., 
July 4, 1870—he had both eyes injured, one lost, by a gunpow- 
der explosion. He thus describes the accident: “ I went up to 
the mountain to fire the cannon. It was a very large one. We 
put eleven pounds of powder in it, and drove turf in with a 
sledge hammer, and the second time the fuse that we set it off 
with turned over and struck in the vent hole, and it was loaded 
so—drove in so hard—that it did not go off. It all blew backout 
of the vent hole right to the left of my head. I was within 
two feet of the vent hole. My foot was on the cannon. If 
my head had been four inches to the left it would have been 
blown off". The powder did not burn that went into my face. 
I was covered from my waist up, and it burned my clothes off.” 
Upon examining him we found that he had phthisis bulbi of 
the left eye. In the right eye there was traumatic cataract. 
There were adhesions of thq iris to the anterior capsule of the 
lens, and there were particles of powder and possibly of dirt in 
the substance of the lens. Still, he retained vision enough to 
enable him to get about alone. Dr. Agnew advised that the eyes 
be not operated upon unless the vision became worse. 
June 6, 1878.—The patient counts fingers at four inches when 
they are moved before his eye. He can no longer see sufficient- 
ly well to go about alone. DESTRUCTION OF VISION BY FOREIGN BODIES. 
3 
10th.—I administered ether, and Dr. Agnew enucleated the 
left atrophied eyeball at the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital. 
Several needle operations were done on the cataractous lens 
by Dr. Agnew at proper intervals of time, and the vision was 
considerably improved. He came to the hospital on July 17, 
1885, with a dense membrane in his pupil and with vision only 
with the best glass. Dr. Agnew being absent, I performed 
a discission on the same day. The result was vision while 
the pupil was dilated with atropine; but it was evident that the 
clearest part of the pupil would be covered by iris when the 
effects of the mydriatic should have passed off. 
On July 22d, five days after the discission, I made an in- 
cision with an iridectomy knife at the temporal side of the cor- 
nea, just over the border of the dilated pupil. I then passed in 
a small, sharp hook, and, engaging it in the membrane, withdrew 
the latter from the eye, leaving quite a large mass of opaque 
lens-matter in the supero-temporal portion of the anterior cham- 
ber in contact with the iris. I then dropped in atropine and 
bandaged the eye. There was very little immediate inflamma- 
tory reaction. Some days later the patient had considerable 
pain in the eye. Iced cloths, atropine, and eserine were applied 
locally; one or two hypodermic injections of morphine were 
administered. 
August 8th.—The eye is no longer painful, but still some- 
what red. Vision = with + £. 
15th.—The redness has passed off. Vision = f# with a con- 
vex glass. 
June 23, 1891/..—Vision = f§ with his glass. Vision = \f 
with + 10 D. s. 3 + 2'75 D. c. axis 50°. There is still, nine years 
after the last operation, a movable mass of organized lymph at- 
tached to the iris, supero-temporally, and waving about in the 
aqueous humor as he moves his eye. The New York Medical Journal. 
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