History of Iridotomy / Knife-Needle vs. Scissors—Description of Author's V-Shaped Method

Transcriber’s notes :
The text of this e-book has mostly been preserved in its original form, including some archaic spellings. A composite illustration on page 25 showing surgical knives lined up vertically side by side has been split into its individual components in order to display the instruments in horizontal orientation along with their respective captions. Hyperlinks have been added to textual cross-references and to footnotes. Page numbers are shown in the right margin and footnotes are located at the end. Footnotes are listed at the end.
The cover image of the book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
S. LEWIS ZIEGLER, A.M., M.D., Sc.D.
Attending Surgeon, Wills Eye Hospital; Ophthalmic Surgeon, St. Joseph’s Hospital.
PHILADELPHIA.
HISTORY OF IRIDOTOMY.
S. LEWIS ZIEGLER, A.M., M.D., Sc.D.
Attending Surgeon, Wills Eye Hospital; Ophthalmic Surgeon, St. Joseph’s Hospital.
PHILADELPHIA.
To Cheselden has been conceded the honor of being the father and originator of iridotomy. Nearly two centuries have elapsed since he first published the report of his procedure in the Philosophical Transactions for 1728. Ever since that time, his signal success has been acknowledged by all except those who either failed to equal his dexterity, or who were prejudiced by their ambition to originate a new method.
A careful review of the medical literature of the century and a half following Cheselden’s announcement can not fail to impress the reader with the great interest attached to operations for the formation of an artificial pupil, which subject was considered second only in importance to that of cataract itself. Not only were a large number of monographs devoted wholly to this subject, but every work on general surgical topics set aside one or more chapters for the discussion of artificial pupil. This is in great contrast to the limited space which modern works on ophthalmology grudgingly yield to this still important subject.